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Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

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Page 1: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2
Page 2: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

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Page 3: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

Onto Boundsl\(£agazine--------~

Out of Bounds i a quarterly publication of thc thoughts, feelings Iand distinct perspecti 'es of prisoners, visitor and inspired readers. Itis produced and distributed by the prisoners at William Head Institutionfor the prisoners, their fanlilies, friends, and the general reading public.We believe that for too long popular media has gone without challengein its portrayal ofcrime and prisons and the lives ofthe prisoners who feelcaught up in the vicious cycle. Therefore, it is the aim of the Out ofBounds to provide you, the reader, \-vith a vie, heretofore unseen by mostof the general public; iffor no other reason t.han to provide you with in­formation on v hieh to make more informed choices and dcci ion ""ithrespect to what the governm~nt should do about crime and punishmentwe offer you the Out of Bounds.

The views expressed in the articles appearing in the Out of Boundsare those of t.he authors. Editorial decisions on matter of content arcmade b. the magazine' editors and in no way should bcdeemed to meanthe Correctional Service ofCanada or any affiliated branch ofthe Crimi­nal Justice System are in support. Further. publieationofadvertisementsshall be deemed to mean the Out ofBounds neith r opposes nor endorsesthe advertised products.

All articles appearing in the Out of Bounds rna. be re-printed orcopied electronically without permission where credit to the author andmagazine is given.

Out ofBounds welcomes all letters and submissions. Ifyou like vihatwe are doing and would like to become a partofit, please fecI free to wri te,Out of Bounds, William Head Institution. P.O. Box 4000, Station 'A',Victoria, B.C. V8X -Y8.

Subscriptions to the Out of Bounds are $10.00 per year. You cansend your cheque or money order to the above office and address.Enquiries about advertising rates should be directed to the Editors.

While we cannot guarantee the publication of all letters or submis­sions, we can and will guarantee equal and fair consid ration .

... Nud NOT REMiNd you ThAT MERE EXpREssioN is TO AN

ARisT TItE SUpREME ANd ONly ModE of lifE. IT is byVTrERANCE WE liVE. Of TItE MANY, MAN)' ThiNGS FOR wltidt

IItAVE TO ThANk TItE GOVERNOR TItERE is NONE fOR whick

I AM MORE GRAT.dul TitAN FOR Itis pERMissiON TO WRiTE fullyANd ,AT AS GREAT A lENGm AS I dESiRE. It

()sClIr Wilde, 1897

Volume 10Number 2Fall 1993

September Print

Editors:

Stephen L. FootePatrick W. Rafferty

Contributors:

Gerry McGrawJackie MaxfieldPatrick Rafferty. Paul Descary

Steve FooteRick Gagnon

William BurnettTrevor QuiltyMark Barton

OUT OF BOUNDS

Page 4: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

WM. HEAD ON STAGE

J1

~ m Griffin's

ext Door"Directed by Bob MacDonald-Calestagne

Shows every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening at William Head Institution.

G,te open from 6pm until7pm. No admittance after 7pm.

Opens October 14th to November 6th.

Tickets available at the gate or:

Tony's Trick & Joke 'hop Triumph Trophies532 B."Oughton St. 310 Goldstream385-6807 478-0821

MayfaJr Mall WHOS Ticket Booth on Oct. 30 & 31

('~t your ticket! early. It's nre to be a crowd pleaser.For reservations and information phone 363-4642 (Ioc.al 503).

2 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

Page 5: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

TlcE FislciNq's FiNE.•.TkE Golf is GREAT••.TkE DuplEXES ARE DEliqkyful...

le ters to th di rTh hi to Vote:

APrisoners Perspedive

~•hen did yeu say your r I ue date was?

~ou might VJant to think aoollt that again.

oell etter to t e~omlllissioner

Experiences as aJohn Howard Prison Visitor.

Natives of Nortn Anlerica:CULTlIRE AT ACROSSROADS

I.

E T ER idE

~. /

OUT OF BOUNDS 3

Page 6: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

evel'\ thOl-\9h this is ol'\ly -the secol'\d issl-\e of the Ol-\t of BOl-\l'\ds sil'\ce its

retw'l'\l we're gl-\ite pleased with Ol-\r progress. This issl-\e ffers a wide

variety of xcelle~"tadi lesl sho~·t storiesl al'\d poetry.

WeI the editOlA 5 ai the Ol-\t of Bol-\I'\d 51 el'\joy -the opportl-\I'\ity to participate

il'\ the pl-\blicatiOl'\ of a literary magazil'\e. We like to writel so we like Ol-\r job.

W take OL~r work seriol-\slYI a f ct hopefl-\lIy evidel'\t il'\ the fil'\al p ,..ad l-\ct.

JI'\ order to prosperI the Ol-\t of BOl-\l'\ds I'\eeds a cOl'\stal'\t flow of

sl-\bmissiol'\s. To help master the art of writil'\gl ol'\e 0l-\9ht °to get his/her

maferial"ol-\t" where it cal'\ be ~·ead. That is the pY'imary fl-\I'\c+iol'\ of the Ol-\t

of BOl-\l'\ds: to give eveY'Y0l'\c CpriSOl'\erSI their familiesl th iY' fY'iel'\dsl al'\d all

il'\terested padics) cha~'\ce -to pl-\blish al'\d iheY'eby j ''Y\P rove theiY' work. ;At

the sal'ne iil'Y\el we expect the Ol-\t of BOl-\l'\dSI as is the il'\tel'\t of most

l'Y\agazil'\esl to becol".' a social force il'\ its OWI'\ Y'ight.

JI'\ the fl-\tl-\Y'e l we hope to spol'\sor wY'iteY's' wOY'kshops. JI'\ the meal'\ti''Y\el

we el'\COl-\ragel al'\d will try to helpl Ol-\Y' Y'eadeY's to wY'ite. ;Al'\ythil'\g. PoetY'YI

fictio""l ""on-fietio""l 0 .... eve"" jl-\st a lette .... to the editoY'. We ""eed yoV\r

assista.'\ce io I')'\ake this ''Y\agazil'\e a Sl-\ccess.

'\\,\\ ~ ~~ rough another tlimeAfio4 ." \~\\\\\,,\\ \\0 only of sight antiSOUIlt! "

\\\\ \\\ ""\\~~ Q\ourney into Q wontirlJus\\\\\~ ~"ase boundaries are ,IIul

~\ \\~ 'maglnation. Next stop,Out of Bounds.

of FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

Page 7: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

~, C 0

(U)r~DlllillCD)IYlt:-, .._ ..

TIlE FisltiNG's FiNE .TItE Golf is GREAT .TItE DuplEXES ARE DEliGItTfuL..

ditorlal ..... ,";- h

k

So e e' eef'l~ n prison, it almost seems that~ the better _ou have it the more

you complatn. William Hcad is apretty nice joint. Eighty-five acresofprime real estate most of it re­maining as nature intended. Wecan fish. We can golf. We canalmost live as though we were "ontheoutside·'. Yet, we complain. Alot.

Some experts maintain thatchronic complaining is one identi­fiable aspect of the "criminal per­sonality". To reiterate the latestbuzz word, maybe it is one of the"criminogenic factors" we needto address. When you get rightdown to it, there are really only tworeasons why people complain. Thefirst is when an injustice in fact hasoccurred. 111e second is when onemistakenly thinks an injustice hasoccurred. When you combine thenumb 'r of times i~justices in factoccur with the number oftimes wethink injustices have occurred, youend up with a lot of complaining..

Now, in a situation like thisproblems arise. Because there areso many complaints prison admin­istrations, in my opinion, tend tocharacterize all of them as frivo­lous and vexatious. They oftenignore the verbal complaints and

deny the official written complaints.That would be okay if the Correc­tional Servic was flawless. Butit's not. No system is perfect. Andany agency, in this case the Correc­tional Service, will only go forwardand improve its effectiveness if itlistens to complaints, each and everyone of them, and typifies the validones as constnJctive criticism.

After all, the Correctional Serviceof Canada, as the name implies, isin place to provide a service. Ideally,that service involves rehabilitation.The CSC's mandate is meant toprovide us, the prison populationwith the opportunity to becomerehabilitated. Contrary to popularbelief, a prisoner can not be re­habilitated. But he can becomerehabilitated. Rehabilitation withrespect to the provider (CSC), shouldconsist of a presentation of newideas, concepts, programmes, anddisciplines. In order to become ef­fectively rehabilitated the recipient(prisoner) ought to accept and in­ternalize the aspects of the presen­tation that relate to the particularproblems that lead to his involve­ment in crime.

A prisoner's genuine involve­ment in tbe rehabilitative process,whether it be in the development

and presentation of programmesand activities, or the provision ofinput, often criticism, necessary toimprove the programmes and ac­tivities, will precipitate acceptanceand facilitate rehabilitation. If aprisoner thinks that everything isbeing done to him rather than forhim, ifhe is not allowed to criticizeand therefore custom.ize the designof his 0''''11 rehabilitation, the re­sentment he feels will impede thatrehabilitation.

We are stuck at an impasse.The administration gets stubbornbecause as far as they are concer­ned we complain too much. Theprison population gets frustratedbecause as far as they are concer­ned nobody listens to them. Thepublic gets pissed-off because asfar as tbey are concerned a lot oftime and money is being wasted.And all this due to the lack ofpropcr communication. If a validconccrn is appropriately transmit­ted to the right person and that per­SOll receives the message withoutprejudice or bias, then, and onlythen, has effective communicationoccurred and a positive outcomemade possible.

Tkt~MOUT OF BOUNDS 5

! ..

. ,/,

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itoreer

Prison Program is nof aPriority

Congratulations on your firstissue. Although the closure oftheuniversity is an important topic itwould have been nice to see morevariety in your choice ofarticles. Iparticularly like to read fictionalshort stories relating to prison. Ilook forward to your next issue.and I hope it contains a betterassortment of articles.

A discriminating reader

(Editor's Note: Thanks for theletter. Your criticism is welltaken. This issue should be moreto your liking.)

(Editor's Note: The followingarticle was t.aken from the NewsGazette.)

Recently inmates at WilliamHead Institution expressed their'outrage" at the cancellation of

the SFU program. They want torally public support and have theprogram reinstated.

Corrections Canada has beenforced to cut their budget for the1993/94 and decided to cancel theuniversity program because of itslow priority. Extensive educa­tional programs are still availableat William Head - substance abusecourses, trades (carpentry, electri­cal, etc.), crafts. correspondencecourses and elementary education.The institution also h~s an exten­sive library for use by inmates.

6 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

S are yourviews with otherOut of Boundsreaders. Your

name is requiredby us but can bewithheld if you '.wish. length

should be kept toaproximately 150

words.

We all know William Headinmates are very well-treated,probably the best in Canada. Theinmates should not consider univ­crsit), education a "right" but rathera privilege that can be discontin­ued in tough economic times.

Hugh BryceColwood councillor

I'm writing in response to theletter written by Colwood council­lor, Hugh Bryce, regarding thecancellation of the Simon FraserUniversity program here at Wil­liam Head Institution.

The Correction Service ofCanada cut the SFU UniversityProgranl in the Pacific Region atthe end of June. Approximately

155 students were affected includ­ing 45 students here at WiHiamHead Institution. To quote JohnRama, Assistant Commissioner"Without detracting in any wi;from the University Program,: Ibelieve that we can obtain bettervalue for money by funding pro­grams that are designed to changebehaviour that is criminogenic innature such as violent behaviourthat places society at risk after anoffender is released. The PacificRegion had little alternative but toredirect resources to funding highpriority areas." Violent offenderprograms arc necessary and ofvaluebut to suggest that this area is moreimportant than education cannotbe justified. The statistics clearlyindicate the value of education re­lative to recidivism. And, in the,vords of the Correctional Serviceitself, "In a post-release study (offormer inmate-unive~sity

students) ... the risk of recidivismfor persons who participated inthat progranl was only one-quarterthe risk for those who participatedin oth.er programs. A recent CSCstudy has shown that persons whospent at least two semesters in theSFU 'Humanities Program' hadonly sixteen percent chance ofcoming back to prison as opposedto a six-ty four percent return ratefor the rest of the population. Surely,reduced recidivism should be thethe primary goal of CSc.

The University Progranl hasbeen in place in William Head fortwenty years. The program haschanged many people's lives forthe better. Many inmates have ob-

:

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L.......-- --"-__---'L __

:1

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

J

Volume 1

Out ofBounds isnow acceptingsubmissions for theDecember / Winter'tssue.

Anyone who hasmaterial theywould like to haveconsidered for publication please see SteveFoote A4 or Patrick Rafferty in C8.Anonymous material can be slipped underthe office door.

Material for consideration must besubmitted, via the above, by Wednesday,Novem,ber 10, '93.

Remelnber, guys, Out ofBounds is yourvehicle ofexpression. It's limited only byyour lack of submissions.

Deadline

r. -- ---

IMOVING?

I If address is incorrect, please update in space provided.

I ADDRESS CHANGEI

0I Name/address printed wrongly

I 0 Mailing label is a duplicatc - please delete from listII 0 Change postal codeII D Name at bottom should replace that shown on labelII D Discontinue scnding all publications

I PLEASE PRINTI RETURN TO:I

The EditorI NAME

I Out of Bounds Magazine

I STREET Box 4000 Station 'A'

I CITYVictoria, B.C.

I V8X 5Y8

I PROVTNCE POSTAL CODE

Ex-con/Author

tained d grees and have gone outinto the public to lead exemplarylives. Corrections Service Ca­nada ,·..ill save about 150.000 ayear to cut this program at WilliamHead. It costs more than $60,000a year to keep a person in prison. Itis vcry short sighted to cut aprogram that helps rehabilitateprisoners and turn them into pro­ductive Jaw abiding citizen . Itwould certainly be more cost ef­fective, in the long ternl, to main­tain thi University Program whenit has proven it s value over andover again with the success storiesofprisoners who have either gradu­ated with degr~s here or havegone on to university on the out­side to obtain degrees and havenever come back to prison.

Education encourages peopleto think critically and look at bothsides of the issue before acting.Education goes hand in hand withesc programs such as cogrtitivcskills substance abuse, violentoffender progran1s and sex offenderprograms. The bottom line is thatthis University Program saves tbetax payers money and reduces crime.

The big question in our mindsis why the ese would cut a pro­gram that definitely saves the taxpayers money and makes societysafer.

Mark BartonPresident Student Council

.."NOWAdAyS iT is. NOT SO. Muck TkAT I. fiNd CRiME REP~GNANT

~S .T,kAT I AM MORE

iNTERESTEd iN OTkER

ThiNGS."

OUT OF BOUNDS 7

Page 10: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

!1 a recent decision, the Su­preme Coun of Canada has

once again taken awn)' a prisoner'sright to vote. In Canada. the rightto vote, or franchise as it is knownin official circles, has not always

, been nor is it now truly universal.. All Canadian citizens 18 years of,age and older arc eligible to vote,except those barred by the provi­sions of the Canada Elections Act.Section 5I (e) of that act disquali­fies as a voter ., every persoll un­dergoing punishment as an inmatein any penal institution for theconmlission ofany offence... Thisprovision was declared invalid bva Federal Court on the grouncfs .that it is contrary to the Chalter ofRights and Freedoms. The Crownwon leave to appeal that decision, ~ the Supreme Court of Canadaaitd the Supreme Court struck itdown. By providing a briefhistoryofvoting rights in Canada while atthe same time elucidating somepersonal thoughts and feelings con­cerning that right, thi article mnygi c a much needed voice to thelarge number of people affected.

The first elective assembly inwhat is now Canada met on 2 Oct.1158, in Halifax. Our parlianlen­tary system, initially borrO\ved fromthe British. has evolved noticeablysince that first meeting. One i~­portant c!lange concerns the ex­pansion of the categories of eli­gible voters. During the colonial

x FALLISEPTE\¥IBEB- '93

period. the right to vote was lim­ited to male property holders. Asthe various provinces and their re­spcctive representative legislatureswere brought into being through aseries of acts or statutes:

Quebec Act I774Constitutional Act I 791Act of Union 1840BNA Act 1867Manitoba Act 1870NW Territories Act 1886,

the need for a unifornl system forthe whole country was apparent.During the 1870s, the first na­tional election provisions wereenacted.

The Canadian federal electionsystem is governed by the CanadaElection Act. This act is amendedfrom timc to time. Without doubt,the most controversial amendmentwas the franchise legislation adoptedby parliament during w\Vl TheWartime Elections Act and theMilitary Voters Act of 1917 en­franchised female relatives ofmenscrving with the Canadian or Bri­tish armed forces as well as allservicemen (including minors andIndians): at the same time, it tooka\vay the right to vote (disfran­chised) consci ntious objectors andBritish subjects naturalized after1902 who were born in an enemycountry or who habitually spokean encmy language. Although

women werc cventually granted theright to vote in federal elections in1918, it took until 1940 for them togain that right in all provincial elec­tjOIlS, Qucbec being the last provinceto grant it. In 1948, th~ franchisewas e. tended to Japanese Canadi­ans. Prior to this date, a statutorydisfranchisement of Asians \vas inplace. Finally, the federal franchisewas extended to the Inuit in 1950and to status Indians in 1960. In1970, the minimum age for voterswas lowercd from 2 I, where it hadbecn since 1920, to 18. where itremains to this day.

The right to vote is the corner­stone of any and all democraticstructures. In a civilized society, itIS a fundamental human right. Tohave that right taken away is tanta­mount to being stripped of yourcitizenship, to being made a non­person, to being declared a totaloutcast, unfit to pa.rticipate in thegoverning of your o\\>n country.More importantly with respcct tothe topic under discussion: a pri­soner's right to vote, it goes againstconventional wisdom and evencommon sense to deny someone,anyone, that right. Modern theorieson rehabilitation and the re-integra­tion of offenders to society stressthe need for the establishment and!or maintena.nce of positive links tothe "outside world" while incar­cerated. Denied the right to vote, aprisoner is politically eclipsed fromthe rest of society.

Retaining the right· to partici­pate in government, the premieractivityofthis country, could fosterpro-social feelings and attitudes inthe hearts and minds ofmany ofCa­nada's incarcerated citizens. In­stead of taking away something topunish, it may be more effective toincorporate it as a rchabilitativeinstnunent. With the right to voteintact. prisoners might come to thee rtremely important realization that

Page 11: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

they have a stake in their own aswell as in their country's future. Astrong sense of self-determinationcombined with its concomitant in­crease in self-esteem (two ingredi­ents essential for rehabilitation tooccur) brought about by partici­pating in important societal activi­ties such as voting, may go a long\Wy to increase a prisoner's chancesofsuccessfully re-intcgrating withsociety as a law-abiding citizen.

There appears to be few validreasons for the disfranchisementofprisoners. An uninformed pub­lic might proclaim: they're not smartenough to vote: they're not politi­cally aware enough to vote; they'renot responsible enough to vote.The first two above mentionedreasons are so absurd they do notdeserve further discussion. Thethird, "not responsible enough",warrants special attention.

In this day and age, in Canadaanyway, a person is presumablysentenced to prison as punishmentnot for punishment. If you breakthe law you are subsequentlydeemed irresponsible. That's agiven. But, surely society cannothope to encourage offenders tobecome more responsible in thefuture by taking away their re­sponsibilities in the present. Thatin a nutshell is why prisons don'twork. By the mere act ofremovingall important responsibilities, pri­sons encourage the incarcerated tobecome more irresponsible.

Some politicians advocated es­tablishing a cut-offpoint wherebythe length ofsentence would deter­mine ifa prisoner should retain theright to vote. One such suggestionproposed that anyone convicted ofan offence that brings a sentence often-or-rnore years has in effect bro­ken the "social contract" andshould therefore forfeit the fran­chise while serving sentence. Thereis a very serious glaring flaw to

this "measurement of irresponsi­bility" concept. For instance, howcan a person who has spent a life­time breaking into people's homes,for which a succession of shortprison sentences result, be consid­ered more responsible than a per­son who, after spending most ofhis life as a model citizen, forwhatever reason, commits a seri­ous offence on one occasion and issentenced to ten years in jail?Establishing criteria to be met inorder to retain the right to votewhile incarcerated may ultimatelyresult in that sortofdiscriminatorypractice being allowed to creepback into society in general. Even­tua��y taking us back to the dayswhen the franchise was limited tomale property holders.

The only arguable reason todisfranchise prisoners appears toemanate from fear. Fear that inconstituencies where one or morelarge prisons are located the pri­soners may in fact become a pow­erful special interest group, withthe ability to sway elections. Toprevent that from happening, aswas done for the October referen­dum (in which prisoners were al­lowed to vote), each prisoner's voteis tallied in the riding where theyresided prior to their arrest. Thisprocedure should effectively re­move the probability offraudulentelection activities such as gerry­mandering, malapportionment, and"padding" the voters list, occur-

ring. Unfortunately, the threat of•'treating" , or bribery as it is morecommonly knO\\-n, remains. In the1940s, women were given nylonsas incentive to vote for particularcandidates. But, fortunately, I don'tthink that would be a possible threatin our case. Somehow, Ijust can'tseem to picture Canada's maleprison population walking aroundwith brand-new nylons on.

Prior to and during the 1992October referendum, I was work­ing in a prison library. A library'smandate is to collect, store, andprovide access to, infonnation. Wetried to make available, from asmany different sources as possible,as much information on the Char­lottetown Accord as was avail­able. That way the inmates whodid vote could make an informedchoice. I have always been politi­cally aware. On occasion, I ampolitically active. While incarcer­ated, and subsequently disfran­chised, I become politically stag­nant. Regaining the right to vote inthe referendum rekindled my inter­est in my country's and my ownfuture. Taking away my right tovote will stymie that interest. Itappears Canada's incarcerated ci­tizenry have once again been bar­red from the political arena. Thevery placewhere most ofthe majordecisions that affect their futuresare made.

Patrick Rafferty

OUT OF BOUNDS 9

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.• r·

fit i·';Ii·

-7

When did you say your release date was?Vo~ might want to think about that again.

According to ex-prison psy­'chologist, Robert Hare, author ofthe .. Hare'" test. a psychological(jc"ice that may be coming to aprison ncar you, you could be oneof many Psychopaths running

:, al'ound in the prison YOll're in.In fact. says Hare. p ychopaths

make up about 20 percent of con­'victed criminals. All else being

I equal, that translates into about 40"in William Head alone.

Hare, who worked at the Bri­tish Columbia Penitentiary. aysl.ie had, the scare of his life from apsychopath who was doing timthere

After having his car recondi­tioned at the prison's auto shopwhere prisoners were employed.he noticed his car acting up \vhiledriving down the highway with hiswife and baby daughtcr. "The"1otor was running a bit rough .. ,The radiator boiled over, And thebrakes failed:' he says.

It was later discovered bv acommunity mechanic that ball bear­ings had been placed in the carbu­reator float chamber. the radiatorhose tampered with, and a small,hole put in the brake line whichcaused a slow leak.

\

"We're lucky we ",;eren'tkilled." says Hare of the experi­ence. ''I'll never ,f-orget the guy'seyes.

Whether it was the eyes or not.Hare has pent the past two dec­ade at t:1e University of BritishColumbia studYlIlg the criminalmind and now believes he can pin-

10 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

point a psychopath and predictwho will and will not re-commit aviolent crime.

It's a test that assesses 20 keypersonality and behavioural traitsand an inmate's criminal and per­sonal history.

It involves an interview and areview ofthe inmate's past. The 20traits and behaviours a sessed in­clude superficial cham1. glibness.pathologicall)~ng, impulsivity ju­venile delinquency and promiscuity.

. 'When the results arc talliedup," says Hare. "the psychopathsare easy to spot: their scores arefour to five times higher then non­criminals and about 50 percenthigher then the average inmate."'

"What the test does is describea syndrome," says Hare. "A clus­tcring of personality traits that havedirect implications for the justicesystem. High scores should set thealam1 bells ringing. ,.

The test. which has been widelyused for research in Canada's B.C.and Ontario pri ons. the U.S. andEurope, has gained a lot of atten­tion from th merican Psychia­tric Association and is no\\' beingused at the Ata cadaro State Hos­pital in California where the ad­ministrators usc it to weed out fakepatients.

And it may oon be used by theCorrectional Service ofCanada ona regular basi in their attempt tokno\\' and underst.a.nd prison popu­lation profiles.

In a rudy of 169 dangerousoffenders in Ontario, 77 percent of

the identified psychopaths com­mitted violent offences - includingmurder and rape - after release.

In a similar study of 231 B. C,prisoners who were released early,they found the psychopaths weretwice as likely to violate parole asnon-psychopaths. TI1e psychopaths\\ cre also three times more likely tocommit violent crime than the non­psychopath group.

If what Tknow of the federalsystem i accurate, having been init no\\' for t\\'eke years, it's proba­bly safe to assumc the gating bill,C-67. \vill get a lot more usc.

Mor0 and more prisoners willbe detained past their StatutoryRelease date, and [or no other reasonthan mere supposition based ontest results that do not reflect theprisoners emotional state at thet.ime of testing.

Regardless of the test's short­comings. "It's a vcry useful tool,"says Frank Proporino. ofrescarchand statistics at Correctional Serviccof Canada who would like to seethe test used by all psychologistsworking with offenders.

"I think we could do a muchbetter job if wc took this instru­ment more seriously... says MamieRice, a psychologist who hasworked extensively with the test inOntario. "We could be more scien­tific and make fewer mistakes."'

So it shouldn't be surprising toht;ar that the tcst is gradually bcingintroduced into the Canadian cor-

continued on page 12

Page 13: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

APORTRAITGlib and Superficial: Psychopaths are often

slick, smooth characters who profess knowledge ofjust about everything. They are entertaining, cleverconversationalists who tell unlikely but convincingstories. People who will profess to hold university de­grees when they have not even finished high school.

Egocentric and Grandiose: Psychopathsusually see themselves as superior beings who deserveto live by their own rules. They love power and controland seem unable to believe that other people's opinionsmay be valid. Nor are they embarrassed by legal, fi­nancial or personal problems, seeing them as tem­porary set-backs caused by outside influences.

Lack of Remorse or Guilt: No matter howdevastating their actions, psychopaths have virtuallyno guilt or shame. They also have remarkable abilityto rationalize their behaviour and shrug off responsi­bility. Psychopathic killers like to claim their victimsdie painlessly.

Lack of Empathy: Psychopaths couldn't careless about the devastating effects oftheir actions whichcan include bleeding others of possessions and sav­ings, neglecting their families and continuously engag­ing in trivial sexual relationships. Hare recalls onesubject who was more concerned when her car was im­pounded for traffie violations than when social servicesapprehended her five-year old daughter.

Deceitful and Manipulative: Lying, deceitand manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths,who seem unfazed by the thought of being caught.Hare has come across psychopaths who rented thesame apartment to several different people beforeskipping town with their deposits and others who im­personated police officers.

.Shallow Emotions: Psychopaths have whatHare calls "emotional poverty. " They don't experi­ence the deeper emotions such as grief, pride, joy,despair or love. Love is equated with sexual arousal,sadness with frustration and anger with irritability.

Impulsive: Jobs are quit, relationships rans­acked, people hurt, often for what appears little morethan a whim. They have little sustained interest in .formal education and are as likely to fake a medicallicence as to actually make it through medical school.Hare knows ofcases where fake doctors actually per­formed surgery.

Poor Behaviour Controls: Psychopaths areshort-tempered and tend to respond to even the mosttrivial frustrations, failures and criticisms with suddenviolence, threats or verbal abuse. The extreme out­bursts are usually short-lived. Minutes later, thepsychopath will act as if nothing extraordinary hashappened.

Need for Excitemen~: Psychopaths like to livein the fast lane. They may tum to drugs in search ofanew buzz and often move and change jobs for the sakeof something new and exciting. They're easily boredand not likely to be engaged injobs or activities that aredull, repetitive or require a lot of concentration.

Irresponsibility: Psychopaths frequently skipwork, misuse company resources and break dates andsocial obligations. They typically leave their childrenwith unreliable sitters. One of Hare's subjects per­suadedher parents to put up their house for her bail andthen skipped town.

Early Behaviour Problems: A 12-year-oldpsychopath has been described as the kind ofkid whowouldn't think twice about stealing a Boy Scout uni­form in order to hitchhike. Their typical behaviourincludes lying, cheating, stealing, setting fires, abusingdrugs and alcohol, torturing animals. He or she is alsoa bully, has a history of running away and is oftensexually active.

Adult Anti-Social Behaviour: Psychopathsoften have long and variedcriminal histories. They aremore likely than non-psychopaths to victimize strangers.They also commonly engage in phoney stock promo­tions, questionable business practises and spouse orchild abuse.

OUT OF BOUNDS 11

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r\,;ctional and justice systems withthe aim ofdetemlining who shouldor shouldn't be released on parole.

I t would make the whole sys­tem more efficient bel ieves MamieRice: "We could let the samenumber of people out but keepmore of the dangerous offenders10.

According to Porporino, it woo'tbe a magic bullet: "It is not goingto solve all our problems, but ithould help identify people at high

risk of re-committing crime androute them into more effective in­tervention progranls.

Which, according to Hare wouldbe a true \\ aste oftime and money.

,. Social and (;;nVI ronlllcntalforces help shape and mold theirpersonality. I believe there isom..:thing fundamentally difTeremabout psychopaths that is set downat the moment of conception. Thera\\ material required to moldsomeone into a caring hLUnan beingis absent in ps ·chopaths.... andtherapy is like finishing school. Itteaches them better ways ofmanipu­lating people."

David Plate. \\ ho has workedwith violent psychopaths at theAtascadaro State Hospital in Cali­fornia. says there is not a shred ofevidence that psychological ther­ap~ or intervention can change apsychopaths' cold and callous ways.

The only thing they seem torespond to is a structured environ­ment. I think we should identifythem early and ship them off to ahumane ranch-like farm where wecould minimize the cost. We needto shift more towards public pro­tection. Towards keeping thesecharacters off the streets."

While there is disagreementabout Hare's genetic theories, therei agreement on the affect psycho­paths have on the community.

According to Hare, Psychopadlsare far more numerous than mostpeople realize. They arc not onlyin prison. In fact. he e timates thatthey make up about I percent ofthe population of orth America:and when translated, it means as

,many as three million are nmningaround.

And they're not necessarily se­rial killers.

"For every psychopath \\ho isa erial killertherecould be "'0,000to 40,000 who arc not " says Hare.

Thev bilk widow of their for­tunes, they set lip shop as doctors,lawyers and businessmen. Theymasquerade as TV evangelist andextract millions from their view­ers. They' re 011 the stock exchangespeddling phonoy stocks and bonds.They're in government and mayeven be in the corrections and jus­ticc departments. TIle)' often abuse

their wives and children and causeuntold heartache among family andfriends. "

P ychopaths appear nornUll anplike Ted Bundy, are often hand­some, charming and smart. Butthev arc also cold and callous andcan lie, cheat. rob, and kill with noremorse.

They are found in all cultures,professions, and come from allsocial classes, says Hare. How­ever, a p yehopath from a richfanlily is less likely to end up injail. '"Psychopaths from wealthyfamilies tend to know how to workthe ystem bctter....And their fami­lies are more likely to bail themout.

While Hare won't speculatewhich prominent newsmakers fitthe profile, he says there is plentyof evidence of there being lots ofpsychopaths running around: Theestimated $IO-billion a year ininternal theft from Canadian busi­nesses, banks and non-profit agen­cies: the soaring rate ofpetty-theft· .the growing number ofyoung drugdealers and other delinquents allpoint to the fact.

So the next time you are think­ing about your release date andwhat your plans are for that day,keep in mind that they may be onlygrandiose thinking.

Steve Foote

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12 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

Page 15: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

Open Letter to the CommissionerCommissioner John EdwardsCSC National Headquarters340 Laurier Avenue WestOttawa. Ontario

Dear Sir:

The recl;l1t cut of the Simon Fraser University program has left prisoners in the Pacific Region at a severedisadvantage to better themselves. Several prisoners have received letters from Assistant Commissioner JohnRama stating that post secondary education is a low priority and the funds for prison education are being re­allocated to programs CSC considers more important. CSC says that they will continue to offer GED (whichno universit~ or college will recognize or accept as a prcrequisite for thcir courses). and they state that they willcontinue to offer desk top publishing and small business courses. however. no such courses are available atWilliam Head and with the proposed dismantling of the eomputers none can be offered.

We request that CSC remove the $2,000 limit on computer hardware and software. and that there be nomonetary limit on educational computer software such as computer assisted design software. animation andmodeling programs, word processing. spreadsheet programs. artistic or design presentation software, desktoppublishing software. sophisticated math programs. statistics programs. and accounting programs. We askpernlission to purchase this kind ofsoftware at any time in our sentence either from our current, savings accountor from money sent into our accounts from family or friends. Ifthere are any restrictions on this type ofsoftwarewe would ask that you review and waive them sothat we can educateoursclves in light of thc Univcrsity Programcut. Wc request that ifany softVv'are program is restrictcd for sccurity reasons that your office give us the exactreason in \\fiting why the specific program is prohibitcd to the inmate committees

Some people may only require a computcr for word processing but there are many prisoners who want tolearn and educate thcmselves in these varied fields of interest and who are able to purchase these programs andbetter computers thcmselves or with the help of family and friends \vho are willing to invest in their future. Weask that we be given the opportunity to better educate ourselves with better access to specialized educationalsoftware and to be given the opportunity to purchase computers of our own choice.

We request that CSC removes the monetary limit on computer hardware and educational software. This willallow the motivated student to learn marketable skills (beyond the level ofGED) and word processing, both ofwhich will put himlher at a greater advantage whcn he/she returns to society.

William Head Institution is the model for the rest of the world with its design in living accommodation. Weask that you make William Head, and the other institutions in Canada. the model environments for learningwhere people can truly better themselves in all aspects through post secondary educational pursuits.

Yours sincerely,

William Head Inmate Committee Chairman /.fi(~ 1J/:#htuiJ7

OUT OF BOUNDS 13

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Experiences as aJohn Howard Prison Visitor

(le

I had a marvellous but­ton given to me once. ItsaicL ~'.Prisoner's are PeopleTool>' Someone stole it atWilliam Head.

I am, in the prison vernacular,a ' straight john' . By not break­ing rules not. entering prison po­litics, by keeping confidential ityupper most in importance, trustingmy intuWon, using the awarenesslcamed through many years ofexperience, I have earned somemeasure of credibility. I don'tbelieve you can be a viable volun­tccr if you are not t.rusted by theprisoners, if you are disliked byprison staff or if you are barredfrom prison.

I first entered William Head inApril 1978. I went as a favour toa friend. In those days, securityinsisted that all groups had to haveat least one more volunteer thanprisoners. Fifteen years later, withsome surprise, I find m. self stillthere.

lama "people" person. Ihavcbeen blessed with an open rnind, aquick sense of humour and thesimple, altruistic desire to helpothers - a sincere inter t in myfellow man.

I often remind m. elf that whileI don't always share the men svalues or there view of the world,they arc still worthwhile hwnanbeings who need to know thatsomeone cares.

1would not like to give 'ou thc

14 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

Ieimpression that I always go intothe prison cheerful and bright. Ihave arrived in a rotten mood andsometimes left in worse. Arrivedand left depressed, sometimes intears. More than once I have left,wondering what on earth I am doingthere. What I am doing is holler­ing, hjtting, hugging - ahvayshugging. I am sharing me - andbeing eared about in tum.

Life is not always fair or won­derful and I have shared extremelife experiences with the men.

When my best friend died, wehared the sorrow. When my old­

est son acquired a serious drug andalcohol problem, ,\'e shared myfear and frustration. When mysecond son's hcalth deteriorated,resulting in severe disabilities, weshared the anxiety. When myyoungest son was diagnosed withcancer, we shared the terror, andwhen h' died, we shared the hor­ror.

The men were always there forme - unconditionally.

I have a blend of two defini­tions of"Blccding Hearts" -oftengentle people who can love theunlovable, havc compassion fOf

the \vayward, give hope to thehopeless - forgive the unforgiv­able. The are dle friends of thedown trodd n, champions of thedefeated and finders of the lost.

Our Jolm Howard literaturesays, and I believe, that the pri­soner as a human being is not abreed of person different from odlercommunity members. He still haswliversal needs for frit,;ndship

acceptance and the assurance thatsomeone cares about him as aperson. He may be considered tobe a criminal, but firstly he is ahuman being.

rbelievc that - passionately.There arc some questions 1am

asked rep~atcdly:

Am I, or have I ever been afraid?TIlcanswer is twice. Once I had anunfortunate ~-perience with a ,:vood­carving knife once \\~th a baseballbat. Both incidents were not di­rected at me personally, but bol­stered by drugs andlor home brew,frustrated and angry, the guys were"letting off steam" .

I believe the volunteers arc thesafest people in prison - but wasastute enough to teach my childrenwhat to do if I never came home.

What did your husband saywhen you as~ed him if you couldvisit prison? I didn't ask him.Surptisinglv, that is asked moreoften by prisoners than commu­nity members.

Am I looking for a man? Or avariance - you must be looking fora man. No - I have onc.

Am I looking for a " ay to fillmy empty nest? Again-No. Ihaveraised three boys, more or lesssuccessfull. > and have nl;;ither theinclination nor the stamina to takeon that challenge. For a number ofyears, the men have told me I remindthem of their Moms - but recentlyI was told by one, I reminded himof his Grannie. Traumatized mefor a week!

What has surprised me most?The incredible wealth of talent.Artistic, musical, intellectual.

The saddest question? Afterspending the day at WiIIianl Head,my eight year old asked me if themen had lids on the cages.

The most gratifying question?A non-question. Not once has myfanlil . or my friends ever askedwhat a man'5 offence" as. The

Page 17: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

men were just acccpted, liked ordisliked on their 0\\<11 merits.

I believe prison arc de truc­tive environments. and that peopledo not learn many positive thingsfrom incarceration - bur I alsobelieve that human experienccshows, people frcquentl~ do learnfrom example.

Our second son, now 23, whcd­chair bound. visually impaired,speech impaired and medicallyfragile, has volunteered for severalyears with me. The mcn hm'ewatched him skydive, hang glide,ski, kayak, struggle with cards andboard games and I believe thatsome of the men have learned thatyou have options. When life handsyou lemons -- make lemonade.

In 1979, I started taking menhome from William Head. Myreasoning was, and still is. thatevery man residing at William Headwill eventually return to the com­munity. I believe that throughacceptance comes grO\.\1h. but -­when r stepped into their world, Istepped alone. When I let themstep into my world r im'olved myhusband, our children and ourfriends.

Ou I' oldest son. knowing that Ido not consider it to be any of mybusiness and of little interest as tohow a man finds himself incarcer­ated, once told me that I would takeJack-the-Ripper home for dinnerand probably already had.

We have had many highs - somelows. Touching, hurtful, hilariousand scary moments. rd like toshare a fev,,' with you.

Two men provided mc the mosthilarious incidents in my volunt ercareer.

One had stayed with ufoI'several months and one night. verylate, we were called to thc hospital.He had been stabbed, had no fa­mily and was not expected to livc.My husband and 1 stayed in intcn­sive care with him and while caring

for him, we inadvcrtently saw atattoo where I certainly would neverhave imagined a tattoo could havebeen. He flXO ered and the tattoowas never mentioned. Years laterour paths crossed again. I hadforgotten about the tattoo but havingentered a somewhat spirited dis­cussion about mv dislike oftattoosin general. that one in particular-­1looked up to see a look ofstunncdanlazement on his face. He had noidea I evcn knew it existed andcertainly couldn't imagine how Icould have scen it.

Another had talkcd non-stopfor months about his 1946 HarleyDavidson. Upon release. one ofhis first priorities was to ride overand show the boys. We heard himcoming. down the road, up thedriveway. along the sidewalk. thruthe open door. dO\\1l the hall intothe living room. The boys and Ihad moved one block 0 er the daybefore.

We learned that several hundreddollar worth of telephone callscan be rung up by omcone,lonel.,in the middle of the night - wcsolved that by sleeping with thcphone.

I have had the unsettling ex­perience of knowing well, both aconvicted murderer and his victim- truly an exercise in being non­judgemental.

Our house has been placro underRCMP surveillance. and r once.being in the \ rong place at pre­cisely the wrong time nearly gotshot.

\Vl1en a parolee tried to killhimself in our bathtub. whcn ourson 'schemo therapy drugs and myear werc stolen, we learned that noone could care enough. or giveenough to change thc reality thatdrugs are the absolute master ofsome men.

rha e stood as witness while aman married his sweetheart.

I telt myself incredibly privi-

leged to be present at thc birth ofone ofthe men' s sons. Seven yearslater, that little boy still bringsmuch joy into our lives. and in thcrcalm of what goes round, comesround, I was truly blessed whenthat sanlC man sraycd every singleweek, for months, with my tenni­nail)' 111 son. That enablcd me tocontinue volunteering.

We have had as a funily, manyhappy hours \vith our William Headfriends.

Watching as the men stuffed aturke~' at 4 a.m. in the morning.helped prepare dinner, wrappedpre ents - and watching our boysstuff stockings for their guests.and knowing that in nearly cveryinstance. the men had fcw, or nomemories ofa happy family Christ­mas Sharing days with the men'sfan1ilies Sporting events, ballgamcs. disabled sports meets. houserepairs, houscwork. house moves,family reunions. renewing wed­ding vows. \Ve eall it makingmemories - it is simply caring andsharing..

With pern1.ission from GaryJackson I would like to tell you astory.

In 1981, Imct Gary, and tookan immediatc dislike to him, rarefor me, but hc secmed to work atbeing obJcctionable. Surly - with adon't comc near, don't touch meattitude. Disgusting tattoos! Lotsofdisgusting tattoos! M childrentook an immediate liking to him.The tattoos J couldn't stand, thekids thought were totally cool. Itwasn't long before the boys wantedto bring him home. r resisted,telling them all my reasons - he\\'a a jerk etc. - etc. -

One day while shopping in amall, the boys spied Gary wander­ing about, with an escort. Theywere delighted, rushed over ec­statically calling his name, hug­ging him. Gary was embarrassedby the attention, but pleased to see

OUT OF BOUNDS 15

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them. I wasn't all that thrilledEventually the boys prevaikd andwe began having him home onpasses, escorted, then unescorted.Gary married, then separated. mybo\·s health deteriorated - but thebond between them strengthenedand grew Jason signed himselfout of the hospital 2 wecks beforehe died to spend a day with Gary.Arion named hi dog after him ­wanted to call him Gary. but be­cause my hu band is at sea halfofevery year. we convinced him tocall him Jackson - I figured the

. neighbours would laugh if at 3am. [ was calling "Gary" in.

In April this ycar. I 3sked Garyto speak at our volunteer recogni­tion dinner. I wanted him to tell thevolunteers what dfect they had inhis lifc, lie told them the ston'about the mall - that was the firsttime in his life anyonc had calkdhis name, just because they wereglad to sec him.

He told them of his friendshipwith the boys, shared some memo­ries of Jason's death.

He began to weep. My volun­teers began to wcep. I began towccp. Then he told them that itwas okay - it was somdhing he hadleamcd from our family and theJohn Howard volunteers. It wasokay to cry when someone youlove, and who loves you dies. Inone sentence he had validated ev­ery minute of my volunteer years.

I would like to leave you with aquote from Rosamunde Pilcher:

"Preconceived prejudices are"vrong. People are people. Somegood, some bad, some black. somewhite, but whatever the color ofour skin, or the di fference in creedsand traditions, we all have someth­ing to give each other, and we allhave something to sh3re. even if itis only life itself"

./ackie Maxfield

I (, FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

The JOHN HOWARD SOCIETYrecognizes thc need for the COllUl1Wlity to help allevi­atc the prisoncrs' feelings of isolation and to empha­sil.e fcelings of positi\'e self worth. Thc Socictysponsors a wcckly visitation program to WilliamHcad Institution. 111C purposes of the program arc to:

I) Provide friendship amI cummunicationexchange between prisoner amI commu­nity members within the prison.

2) Prm'ide an opportunity to broaden thecommunity's exposure to prison life.

3) Provide for the offender a heightelledsellse ofcommunity awareness for mu­tual{r beneficial social interaction.

-I) Share ami expand upon the communitymemher's and the offenders education,sociaL and recreational backgroundthrough the use ofcommunity speakers,films, discussion groups, workshops, or­ganized sport!!J', and leisure activities.

Outside Friends

Outsidc Friends in thc Visitors Program comcfrom all walks oflifc. Although Outside Friends havevaried backgrounds. they all havc in cOlllmon thebelicf that fricndship and cOllummication in a non­judgcmcntal way may help to brcak down feelings ofalicnation which are experienced by many peoplewithin the prison. IF YOU:

I) Fee/you can care enough to spend alewhours once a week to take aml sharegroup activities with prisoners and othercommunity members;

2) are non-judgemental aml honest;3) are mature, stahle, and responsible;-I) are 2/ years ofage or older;

thcll thc John Howard Visitors Program may bc theVolunteer Program for ~ 011.

For more information contact:Jackie MaxfieldThe John Howard Societ~'

2675 Bridge Street,Victoria, B.c. V8T ~Y-t

Tel: 386-3-t2R

Page 19: Out of Bounds - Vol 10 No 2

'Iou ah\a~'s hear interesting anecdotes about pri­J soncrs who seck to break the monotony of doing

tlmc by coming up with nO\cl ideas to supplantboredom. Quite some time ago. a coterie of cons atWilliam Head federal pcnitentiary devised a plan topass the time that \\ould cventually attain mythicalstatus.

The idea had its bcginnings in an extensioncourse offered bv the Univcr it\· of Victoria. UVic- .\\as under contract by the Correctional St:rvice ofCanada ro provide post- econdary education to in­t~rest d members of the prison population at \Vil­liam Head. Theatre 299 was not the kind of courseyou might imagine would attract much attentionfrom a bunch of treet-\\ ise criminals But it did.And the fifteen men \\ho signed up in January of1981 for the first emester wcn.: so enthralled by thewhole "theatre thing" that they decided to createsomethmg that would last a lot longer than theirthree-month course.

The final assignment for the course in olved theproduction of a short play. The prisoners. ahvayseager to go one step fu rther. formed a theatre society.They wanted something pennanent. Somethinglasting. Something future tudents ofthe prison edu­cation programme could benefit from. In the sclf­centred, extremely transitory world of the incarcer­ated, the thought of doing something to benefiteveryone, both in the present and in the future. wasrare indeed. They called their soci ty WHAT. Wil­liam Head Amateur Theatre.

r. o\\ed much to Phillip Wagner for itsJ ucccssful inauguration. Mr. Wagner.

drama teacher for Theatre 299, di­rected several of the society's initial productions.From the very beginning, he was struck by the imme­diately appan:nt professionalism ofthe participants.The first play the~ produced. Harold Pinter' s "TheBirthday Party". receivcd such ovcrwhclmmg pub­lic response that two additional perfomlances wereadded to the three scheduled ones. The production in

the context of its amateur tart-up status far exceedlXiexpectation.

Public re ponse') The idea had already blossomed tothe point where it now encompassed the public. Theneoph)te thespians somehow got penllission from theadministration of the prison to usc the chapel as a make-hift theatre and invite the publi to participate as paying

customers Although the esc and UVie provided somcfunds to get the theatre group started. WHAT from its\'ery inception knew that it would eventually have tobecome financially self-supporting. ot only to ensurecontinuity but also artistic freedom.

Freedom. That's \\hat it \\as all about. They hadstarted something that wa different from any otherprison progranlme. And the difference was that it wasn'ta prison programme. It was the prisoners' production.Their brain-child. Thcy established and wanted tomaintain complete ownership of the project. Theirproject. At the same time, they were and still arc gratefulto the prison administrations both past and present thatallowed them to nurture their ideas to fruition. But theprisoners had and maintain the freedom to choose whatplays they will produce, when they will open how longthey \\;11 nm. what co tUl11es to usc. how elaborate thestage set-up should be, and who will be involved. All theplaning and decisions were made by WHAT. AndWHAT decided to mak ' a contribution back to society.They wanted to make the public privy to thc whole grandscheme oftrungs.

The scheme entailed changing the public's oftennegative perception of people in prison. By givingsomething back to society instead of usually taking, byhaving their nanles printed on the entertainment page ofthe daily newspaper instead of the crime sheet. by in­viting the public into their "home" to sec what prisonwas really like. by pro iding fir 't-class entertainment tointerested audiences and thus enriching the local theatrescene. the participants hoped to show that they were. 'Iike" everyone else. except they had made mistakes inlife. And they were paying for their mistakes. Theatmosphl:re they hoped the theatrt: might create "'ould bean atmosphere of mutual respect.

o T OF BOU DS 17

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The theatre project sao;'spa\\ned all sons of hidden bene­fits for the prisoners. and for thepublic since mo t pn oners ewn­tually return to public life. Themost significant 3..'ipcct ofthc wholeproject was the learning c.\.pcri­encc it providoo. As well as kamingabout drama, the con<A.:pts the coursctaught, thc prisoners learned a lotmore. E:\.lremciy important things.

Things about life.fhings like team-work, co­operation. overcoming dif­;"'ercnces and sometimesdislikes in orda to \\orktogether to accompli h aconunon goal. 111ey learnedto persevcre when facingadversity. 'They learned thateyeryon invoh ed cnjoysthe opportunity for self­discovery through the per­:orming arts.

lore importantly. the":'I~,oners wen; able to1.10/ le:1tarily break out ofiIi black and ,\hite \yorldofcaptivity. cvcryti ing inpris n is predeteIT:1ined.Y(',! do this but vou on't(10 that. You get permis­:,i(ln or ,'Oll can't do it.You're guilty or you 'r not'./ilty, But in the production of it

vl::l~ I othing is cl ar-cut. Lljaii.;,lJ~rson rarely gets to express hisr:moti os. With a theatrical si u­at ion, the~ can let go and c, presstheir feelings through the charac­[ers Iso. thc vicanous expcri­~nce ofthe stage becomes a reality.n it elf, a gem of "meaning" in :-.'1oilltless litany ofdays. Illsteadofcounting thc time left in their sen­tCl.lXS, the participant begin collnt­lilt; the days left w1til opening night.

Then: was 311 importantlcs onto be leamed by the prison admin­istration ') . well. When prisoners3re allowed to do something th;1L11K.lJ1S something to thcm. when

i X FALLISEPTEMBEI '93

t.l'~ ::'l\.'se f-motivatcdraiherth~lJl

coerced, when they arc grantedO\\'I1CrShlp oftk programmes they3re involved in. \\ hen they are al­lowed to d something on their0\\11. they will dive \\hole-heartcdinto the project. And. to the surpr­ise ofmany, th 'ywill become moreresponsible.

Ev n on the "outside", org n­izi.lg and running a th':1tre troupe

'J;; be "'1)' diTfeu!t al times. lJ.priWI~ t;:c prcb.c;ns <..~e qu:'.drupl d.ror many I..'f the J;'is0r.crs cumdctors this is t:l"lr first exposl re to~hv stage.. M0fC than once, thep,',xiuc[i II team litis had to rl" ~fuit

:1:1 ud~" : .iL.· (~ ... fitl2 t,le lu.st f~\V

WC "'s o~ 1',;;1 2 f srls bceaus,-, til\.'!ca('i1'3 ("i;,.r;>ct~ , after b.:r~n·.i:lg

COa-ti leL ::' C01:'-:~;-~...b:e ~l his p~rt.

1.1·lke.; p~. ole C, ~Cd 1hro\,l1 in ti1 '"hoL" for di c: linary rea:;OTls.

n o,,;c o'Jcasict:, \\hen hi parolelIcari:12, was held eulier than ex·pected. th:- karJ:ng man dccid d to. ta\' se\ ral d, ys after h's official. .

.-d,;:-. 'e date gr~'ltC::l b,' (1. ' parolehard In order to fin' ~h th' rJn of

the current play. Problems canalwa\'s be overcome when dedica­tion is that sincere.

Gcttll1g some oftile props neededfor certain productions can createproblcmsfi I' everyonc involved.One play... Vait Until Dark".necessitated the acquisition ofspecial props. a switchblade knifeand two gUllS. For every imag­inable rea<;on. prison authorities

aren't keen that any oftheir charges cnd up withrea onable facsimiles ofthc tools of a terrorist intheir lXlsscssion. Besides,switchblade are illegalin Canada. So. getting areal one was out of thequestion Keeping to theirwell documented reputa­tion as innovators, theprisoner fashioned aa_sable likeness of a

'i\\'itehblade knifc from aswitchblade comb pro-

ided by the m:lke-upartist from the outsidewho was donating his timeand e. 'pertise to the pro­duction. The adminis­tration allowed two toygUlls to be brought intohe prison for the play

Y. :th the stipulation that Securityrnaintain possession of the threeersatz wcapons at a\l times exceptwhn they were absolllt,,,ly neces­sary on stage. And when thcy wereneeded on stage, a guard had to bepresent to ensure they didn't mys­teriously disappear.

During the production of.. Dracu la", olle enterprisingmember of the prison populationattached flotation devices to thecoffin llsed as a prop and sailedaway to fr edom. He was arrestedsomc time later. The coffin, oddlynough, retumed to the stage when

it was used in a local high schoolprcduetioll of .< Dracula".

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The theatre group at WilhamHead has realized some majoraccomplishments. One pla~', "111e.Knight of the Burning Pestle",participated in the South IslandZone ofTheatre B.C Festlval'X2.The judges had to come to theprison to scrutinize that particularentry in the festival. The playreecived three awards: Be t Actor,Best Visual Production. and anHonourable Mention for the direc­tor. "One Flew Ovcr the Cuckoo'sNest" was so well done that thetroupe was allowed to take theproduction to the McPherson Play­house in Victoria \\here they playedto a sold-out audience. At onepoint, they were able to stage aworld pr micre. "The PaperCage". writtcn by University ofVictoria professor Robin Skelton,dealing with delieate issues suchas the foundations and justifica­tions of war freedom v deter­minism, and thc power each indi­vidual has 0 er his O\\TI hfe, \\asreceived with mixed re iews.However, any criticism the pro­ductions do receive is usually dI­rected at the content of the play.The effort put in bJ the actors andsupporting cre\ is seldom panned.

Controversial content is onething the group doe not shy awayfrom. With its foundations builtsolidly on a university courseexpounding the basic function andtrue virtue of theatre, the grouptries to tactfully deal with issues ofsocial importance. Competing \\1mTV and film isn't eas_. At thesame time, theatre ought not be­come lik~ TV and film in order tocompete with it. The group in theirchoice ofplays tries to ask the kindofquestions that were once the soledomain of the theatre. Qucstionsabout social uphca\'al, the brcak­dowG of the family increased crime.alienation and Ion liness unem­ployment, alcoholism and its re-

lated ills, and pornography. 111eytry to tackle such issues withoutbeing didactic. for that is not thepurpose of theatre. They try topose questions the audience cananswer by its O\\TI examination.Ever\' effort is made to shake theaudience out of its convcntionalcomplaccncy. To surprise it out ofits expectations.

i--....'j-~ came into, llI"'t~ being whenWHAT. as a

theatre society, had pretty well runits course. Most of the originalmcmbers, released on parole orhaving finished their sentences, weregone. 11,e university contract hadchanged hands. Simon FraserUniversity was now the on site,post-secondary edueation contrac­tor, and they dido't offer drama aan option. Supplementary fundingno longer existed. and the society' scoffers were almost empty. Toprevent the society's collapse, themembers decided to change thename, draw up a new constitution,and tak\; the enterprise in a slightlydifferent direction.

William Head On Stage, thenew group, wanted to expand thepublic's involvement, both as anaudience and as participants.Enhanced involvement in commu­nity oriented activities. on the partofthe inmates, would increase thechance those inmates might morecffcetively re-integrate back to thecommunity. Augmented partici­pation, on the part of the public,would height n their awareness ofprison life. Also. an increa e inpublic involvement vis-a-vis ticketsales meant increased re enue, aprerequisite for longevity as far asthe society's existence was con­cerned.

WHOS launched a major cam­paign to increase their revcnue.They signed on corporate spon-

sor . They sold memberships. 'Thcydevised and practised rcliablcbookkeeping procedures in orderto gain and maintain thc tmst ofbusinessmen on the "outsidc"whom thcy dealt with. On a tightbudgct. publicity often gets shortshri ft in favour ofdramatic essen­tials like sets, scripts, costumesand complimentary passes. Thismakes for great theatre but smallaudiences. so WHOS allots a cer­tain perccntage of their budget forpublicity. And, more importantly,thc\' decided to make a consciouscffort (0 producc plays that pro­vide artistic yet commercially vi­able entertainment.

It hasn' t been all winc and roscsfor thc thcatre group. The requiredfreedom to stage a play conflictingwith the restrictions of a mediumsecurity prison ery often createsituations that arc amusing, ironic,

interesting and frustrating. Butthe men work together on a com­mon goal independcnt of the pri­son, overcome differences that mightprc\iously have meant trouble, andlearn to rely on each other. Livingunder du ress, the prisoners need torelcase pent-up emotions. In theproduction and stagiJlg ofthc play,thcy are allowcd to. And they canempathize with the play's charac­ters while building character \>vithinthemselves.

Considering the situation thegroup must perform under, it'spretty incredible that they havesuch a high calibre of originalperfonnances over its lifetime. Withthe handing down of informationand skills from gcneration to gen­eration ofprison actors, the grouphas taken on a folkloresque qual­ity. \\'HOS has the distinction ofbeing the only theatre troupe be­hind bars in Canada that opens itsdoors to the general public. A trulycaptivating distinction.

OUT OF BOUNDS 19

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atives of North America:

This article will attempt to de cribe the ex­tremely interesting but sometimes tragic history ofthe native people of orth America. It will be abrief overview dealing with only a few of the manydiverse tribes and their colourful cultures thatinhabited1his continent prior to European contact.The changes that occurred with respect to theaboriginal people's lifestyle after Columbus landedon their shores will be di cu sed, and those changes(often for the worse) hould be kept in mind while

I contemplating the fact that today's natives are ear­In<stly "'ying to re-< ••blish their dght to self­government.

FIRST ARRIVALSIt is generally thought that the first people to arrive

on the contin Ilt of orth America came from Asia bywa~ of a land bndge that j lJ1ed ibena to Alaskaduring the tastgreat icc-age (Plci t cene Epoch). Thisland bridge emerged for an extended period oftimc dueto thl,; fact that a large portjon ofthe Earth' s water was111 the fom1 of ice. Con equcntly, the overall sea level\\as considerably lower. Whcn the ice melted the landbridge disappeared. o\ered by water. Estimates ofthe date when th first arrivals made their initialJourney across the land bridge range from 20.000 to50,0 )0 year. ago Also. It is believed that this wa n'tju t a one-tll11e Illlgrati n. Many different groups ofpeople from variou part of Asia probably used theland bridge ovcr the cour c of hundred of year.

ome returned to their place of ongin, but othersta~ed.

There a rc two main theorie regard ing the ~ prcad oflhe first arnvals. One propo s that the first inhabi­tant immcdlatcl moved south to \\amler climate.then over the cour e of time gradually pread back. tothe north. The other theory maintains that the ne\\,­eoma slowly spread south leaving pock 't or clus­ter of p~ople in theIr \\ak. The e c1u tcrs grewmcre~ ingly larger. eventually developing into theman: tribes that occupied all of North and outh

20 F LLiSEPTEMBER '93

nlcrica b\· the time Columbu arri\ed.Archae I gical e\ idcnce 'uggesls that the people

who fir t made this continent their home broughteveral "eonveniences" from the Old World with

them Somc of thesc conveniences include: the usc offire. the domcsticated dog, ston impkments, weapons(spear thrower. harpoon, slmpk bo\\). skills (bas­ketry. netting. ordage), and vanous rites healingbelld·, and practices. omc of thc things they I 'ftbeh1l1d upon leaving tht: Old World include: ariollssigl1lficant domesticated plant and animals. artifactsuch a th' \\ hl-'CI, the pIO\\, Iron, and stringed instru­ment. Why some ofthe e item w rc not carried overto the ew orld i till a mystery

PRE-COLUMBIAN NATIVESThe physical t~ p s of the c\\ World natives dis­

playa considerable variation Once again. there aretwo thcones on the possible reason for the e differ­eoct: One theory explains the varlations as a re lilt ofadjustments to the different envIronments that theyinhabited. The other theory rdates the many obviolldifferences to the idea (as pr vlously stated) that thefirst arrivals included a variety of physical types. Insome case they mixed. rcsulting in somewhat unifom1physical charactenstics; in other cases certain groupremained i olated. producing the various distinctivelook still evident today.

The pre-Columbian natives' languages were asvaried as the number of dJffi rent groupings or tribesthat existed at that time. Some linguists (people \ hostudy languages) e timate that there were 60 languagefamIlies and over 500 languages involved in earlynatl\C communication One interesting fact no\ undercnJtiny IS that no orth American native language on

record ha any dircct relatIOnshIp to any languagcgroup in the Old World. This may be duc to the factthe first com rs arri cd so long ago that any similari­tic \\0re lost through th' slow process of linguisticchange. Howcver. a relation hip b tween the lan­guag s of the Inuit and the iberian Eskimos hasrecentl~ been sho\\n to exi 1. Thi relationshIp could

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be the result ofthe fact thatthe Inuit were the last groupof natives to arrive in North America.

By the time Columbus arrived, the natives ofNorthAmerica had developed well-defined and often elabo­rate cultures. There were two distinct traditions at thistime: Paleo-Indian hunting cultures and Desert cul­ture. The Paleo-Indian hunting cultures consisted ofgroups ofnomadic people who moved about in searchof ganlc. The animals they killed provided clothing.made from the hides. and food. Anthropologistsbelieve this was the culture that first de eloped lance­shaped projectile points, lIsed for hunting. The Desertculture evolvcd as a distinctive cultural adaptation tothe dry, relatively barren environment in which it waslocated. There was not much game to be utilized forfood and clothing, 0 the Desert Indian relied more onvegetation to provide subsistence. They -:stablishcdmany unique and quite effective methods of' 'living offtJ1C land . in a land, that at first glance. appeared to beoid of anything living. They invented grinding tools

and other related devices to aid in the preparation andstorage OftJ1C many different kinds ofseeds and berricsthat helped supplement their diet.

Although all early native orth American culturesrelied to a certain cxtent on hunting and gatheringsome gradually came to depend morc on horticulture.The three main types of vegetables that were planted,maize, beans. and squash, were knO\\TI to the natives as.' the thrce sisters" .

The two basic cultures (Palco-Indian and Dc ert)can be further divided into several smaller groupings,essentially defined by the regions in which they lived.A list follows: Woodland Indians of the Northeast:Indians of the SoutJ1\vcst: Indians of tl1e Plains: Indi­ans oftl1e Basin Plateau and Pacific Coast: Indians ofthe Northwe t Pacific Coast: Subarctic Indians: andArctic Indians

It is difficult to estimate the tOk'11 population of thepre-Columbian natives. Estimates vary due to inaccu­racies in the record keeping done by the first explorers,traders, and missionaries. Also, by the time countswere taken many tribes had already been decinlated byEuropean diseases and/or battl . Some estimate putthe number of natives living in orth America (northof Mexico) at the time of Columbus's contact atL L50 000. The actual number is probably muchhigher. It appears that the grcatest concentration wasin ilie southeastern United States and in California.The mild climate of iliese two regions created anabunrlance of wildlife and edible egetation that actedas a food supply sufficient to support large popula­tions.

POST-COLUMBIAN NATIVES

This article will concentrate mainly on events af­fecting natives hing in Canada The Spaniards' initialinvolvement in ilic Ne\\ World centered around SOUtJ1and Central Am~rica, as well as the southern-mostportion of North America. Their story can best bedescribed as "the quest for gold". In contrast, thenortheastern part ofNorth America, what is now part ofCanada, went through a period of conquest duringwhich England and Franee emerged as tJ1e main con­tenders in the fight for control of the fur trade. In boilicases native people were caught in ilie middle. Theywere used for the purpose of realizing other people' sambitions.

By J497 John Cabot had landed on Cape BretonIsland and the European settlement of Canada was infull swing. Basque fishernlen had already establishedpermanent settlements on Newfoundland for ilie pur­pose of curing their eatches in preparation for the longjourney back to European markets. French shipssailing up and down ilie North American coast tradingwith the Indians soon discovered iliat it was moreprofitable to set up trading posts. This evcntually led tomore ettl ment as to\\11$ gre\\ up around the tradingposts. Dutch merchants soon followed as iliey toowanted to capitalize on tJlis new-found source ofweaJth.

TIle first problem that ilie natives encountered oc­curred whcn iliey were forccd furilier inland to makeroom for ilic new settlers. This creatcd conflict betweenthe natives who had to move and iliose whose territorythey moved into. The re ult was that nativ s were nowbattling natives for land \\ here previously they had beenableto live apart, in relative peace. The second problemiliat arose, one tJlat had a devas~'1ting effect on ilie nativepopulation, invol\"cs the fact tJlat the French and Englishgot involved, and actually took sides, in ilie nativesbattles. Also, ilie Dutch supplied the natives wiili gunsand gunpowder. The result was that the death rate dur­ing battles involving opposing tribes in early Canada in­creased dramatically.

The main two warring tribes were ilie Iroquois andthe Algonquins. The English allied with ilie Iroquois,while the French sided wiili the Algonquins. Somehistorians believe iliat ilie English's decision to side\....ith the Iroquois may be the reason North America isnow basically English. The Iroquois were experts atpolitical and military organization. Combined \ iilitheir warlike traditions. iliis gave iliem an advantage inconflicts with native rivals. Thus, when France andEngland eventually fought for control of Canada, ilieIroquois alliance may have been the difference iliat

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tipped tht.: balance in favor of theEnglish.

To gain an advantage in theirtruggk against their enemies, the

IroquOIs formed a confederation.The French knew this confedera­tion a the "'Long House". whileto the English it was known as the"' Five ations". It consisted of:Moha\\ k. Onondaga. thl: Scneca.the Oneida, and the Cayuga. Thisconfederation was a ul1lque cx­periment among orth AmericanIndians. It even mfluenced thesettlers' democratic toml ofgo\'cm­ment that gradually evolved.Another important influence thenativ had on th settl'rs con­cern thclr method of fighting.The Indian's strategy involved scat­tertng their own force . emphasiz­ing concealmcnt, and makmg themost ofsurprise and ambush. Thecolonists had to eventually adoptIndian fighting methods in order todefeat them in battle. These methodswerc later employed by the" Sonsof Liberty" aga.inst the Brin h \\11Cl1

the 13 colonic' broke a\\ ay fromCanada to form the Unjted Statesof Am rica.

CVllUREBy defmition. culture means

.he ci vi Iization ofa gl en peopIe ornation at a given time: its customs,arts, conveniences, principles andpractices. Prior to Columbu 'slaniling, and the sub cqucnt coloni­zation of the Americas, native cul­ture was w II established. vcr"di tinct., widely varied, in most casesextremely elaborate, and in all casesquite colourful. The settlers. whocarne from a completely differentbackground, brought to the ew\VorJd a completely different cul­ture. It was the cia h of these t\\Ocultures. the transplanted Europeanculture and the "home grO\\11"nativc culture. that had the greatc tdfect on the onginal inhabitants of

22 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

this land.TIle initial clash ofcultures oc­

cured when the first European toarrive decided to convert the na­tives to Christianity. The Indian'sreligion, or native spirtuality wasver\, different from the mi sionar­ies' concept of God. heaven andhell. and the many other intricaciesinvolved in a uring yourself of a"life everlasting". The spiritual­ity the natives had developed wasentirely practical and designed tohelp them. not in the future. but inthe immedIate present. Bl.:causethe nati e belicved in PlOt. bothgood and bad. and made offeringsto them. th' missionarics lab ledthem Dcvil "or hipcr . They thenwcnt about trying to force theirown beliefs on ,·the poor lost souls"in order to "save" them.

Another major clash of cul­tures. one that led to more ill feelingsand bloodshed than any other,involves the two cultures' differ­ent concepts of land owner rup.Inru"idual owner hip of land wasunheard of in native societies. Tribese tabli hed boundaries that definedtheir land. The land within theboundaries belonged to the wholetribe. Even though at times certainfamilies or individuals ","ere as­Signed plots to farm. or to growgardens in, or run traplines on,nobody ever 0\\1100 the land.Theoretically, it was impossiblefor any chief. member ofa family.or s ction of the tribe to scll or signaway any part of the land withinthe tribal boundaries_ Consequently,any treaties or transfer of rightsthat did occur had no significanceto the early Indians. The idea thatthe chief could legally make deci­sions for th whole tribe was intro­duced by the colonists in order tomakc it easier to do bu iness. Inthis ca e, busine s meant cheatingthe Indian out of their land.

Anothcr important clash that

took place relates to family truc­ture The family unit within thenative culture can best be describedas an extended family, ,-"hile theEuropean family unit is ba edalmo t exclusively on parentalauthority. Also, native tribal or­gaJuzation was based on the prin­ciple of kinship \\hich furthcrcnhanced the obligation of mutualassistance and protection that thee:\.'lended family already provided.These, as well as m~U1Y other,bencficial aspect ofnativc culturewere 10\\"ly eroded by the influ­ence of the invadll1g Europcanculturc.

THE CROSSROADSIt is beyond the scope and pur­

posc ofthis pre l.:l1tation to list anddescribe the countless number ofatrocities that haye~n perpetratedagainst native pl:opll.: throughoutthe cours\: of orth American his­tory. It will suffi c to say thatmany of these atrocities were bru­taJ in nature. Most were unneces­sary. TIlese cruel acts symbolizethe greed and elfishness in oIvedwhen empire building proceeds byway of exploitation.

In literature and music, the ex­pression "cro sroads" simplymeans a point where the choicebetwccen going in several differentdircctions has to be made. ativcsof orth America, in fact. allaboriginal people world-v.ide, oughtto be commended for putting upwith so much abuse yet still main­taining. on a whole, a strong senseof pride and dignity. They havereached the crossroads. They havecome full circle. They started outas people living in harmony withnaturc. in charge of taking care ofthe land they call ··the Mother".Then they had that responsibility.along \\;th most of their land. takenaway from them. They were op­pre ed and abust.:d. Now. in a

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\\orld wrad.ed by pollution andenvironmental mismanagement na­tive people have the opportunity toonce again come to the for . Thitime in an ad i ory capacity: tohclp heal "the Mother".

At this point in time. natives inCanada arc on the vcrge of re-cs­tablishing their right to self-govern­ment. That is an important cross­roads that they must tra erse. Oneroad the)' can take is apathy. not doanything, leave things as they arc.Another direction leads to violentconfrontation. The third road. theone that has been \\ell travelled sofar, is one of mutual re pect, pa­tience. and under tanding.

EPILOQUEOne of the problems enCOUll­

tered when investigating native his­tory, customs. and/or practices isthe unfortunate fact that most ofthe books, articles, es ays. etc.,are written from a non-nati e per­s!Jective. That is to say. they werewritten by Caucasian and oftencontain an European bias. Whatfollows are some excerpts that mayhelp explain things from a nativeperspective.

"This is how things began. TIlewoman in Skyland dreamed thatthe great sk tree mu. t bv up­rooted. Shewa expecting a Ijhild.and her dream was strong. So herhusband, the Skyland chief, hadthe tree uprooted The womanlooked through the hole left by itsroots and saw the earth far below­unlike the earth of today, for therewas no land, only \vater. A shelooked in wonder. she slipped. Shec1uthched at a tree branch that laynear the hole but only strippedaway a handful of seeds .... andfell.

Animals and birds ofthe \\aterlookrd up and saw the \\oman fal­ling. "Someone comes'" the~ said."We must help her.··

The geese fle\\ up and caughther between their wings. The otherbirds and a.nimals. seeing she nooicda place to stand. dived dO\m tobring up earth from the bottom.All failed till the muskrat tried.The Great Turtle offered its backas a place to spread the earth themuskrat brought up. The womanfrom the sky stepped onto this newmoist earth and dropped the seedsfrom the sky tree into her foot­prints. From these seeds grew thefirst plants. And when her ehild\','as born - first on the new earth ­that child was a girl, a girl whowould marry th west \\ ind ..... · Astold by Rakarota a Mohawk mas­ter storyteller

. 'The earth is our mother, andher body should not be disturbedbythehoeortheplow. Men shouldsubsist by the spontaneous pro­ductions of Nature. The sover­eignt)" of the earth cannot be soldor given away. ,. Toohululsote - aNez Perce

. 'The V'ise One above kno\\better than all other creatures: longago he left the Earth and retired tothe sky. In smoking ceremoniethe first offering of the pipe isalways to hin,. II Cheyenne ritual

"Yonder in the north there isinging on the lake. Cloud maidensdance on the shore. TIlere we takeour being. Yonder in the northcloud beings rise. They ascendonto cloud blossoms. There wetake our being." YO:1der in thenorth rain stands over theland ....Yonder in the north standsforth at twilight the arc of a rain­bow. TIlere we have our being."Tewa version ofth ir origin

"The President in Washingtonsends word that h wishes to bu\'our land. But how can you buy or

sell the sky'! The land':' The idea isstrange to us. Ifwe do not own thefreshness ofthe air and the sparkleof the water. how can you buythem')

E cry part ofthe earth is sacredto my people. Every shining pineneedle, every' sandy shore, everymist in the dark woods, everymlAldow, every humming insect.All arc holy in the memory and ex­perience of my people.

We know the sap \\hich coursesthrough the trees as we know theblood that courses through our veins.We arc part of the earth and it ispart of us. The perfumed flowersare our sisters. The bear, the deer,the great eagle, these are our broth­ers. The rocky crests, the juices inthe meadow, the body heat of thepony, and the man, all belong to thesame family.

The shining water that movesin the streams and rivers is not justwater, but the blood of our anc­estors. Ifwe sell you our land, youmust remember that it is sacred.Each ghostly reflection in the clearwatljrs of the lakes tells of eventsand memories in the life of mypeople. The \ ater's murmur is thevoice of my father's father.

TIle rivers arc our brothers.TIley quench our thirst. They carryour canoes and feed our children.So _ou must give to the rivers thekindness you "'..ould give anybrother.

Ifwe sell you ou r land, remem­ber that the air is precious to us,that the air shares its spirit with allthe life it supports. The wind thatgavc our grandfather his first breathalso receives his last sigh. Thewind also gives our children thespirit ofJife. So ifwe sell you ourland, you must kcep it apart andsacred. as a place where man cango to taste the wind that is swoctcnOOby the meado\\ flowers.

Will you teach your children

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\\ hat \\'c have taught our children?That the earth is our moth r? \l,J'hatbefalls the earth befalls all the sonsof the earth.

This we know: the earth docsn t belong to man, man bclongs tothe earth. All things are connectedlike the blood that unite us all.Man did not \\cave the \\'cb of lifehe is merely a strand in it. What­ever he does to the web, he docs tohimself.

One thing we kno'.>v: our god isal 0 your god. The earth is pre­cious to him and to harm the earthis to heap contempt on its creator.

Your destiny is a my tery to u .What will happen when the buf­falo are all slaughtered? The \\'ildhorses tamed') What \\ III happen\\ hen th' s\Xret comers of the forestare heavy with the seent of manymen and the view ofthe ripe hills I

blotted by talking wires') Where\\ III the thicket be? Gone l Wherewill th cagle be? Gone! And whatIS it to say goodbye to the swiftpony and the hunt? The end 0

living and the beginning of sur­vival.

When the last Red Man hasvanished ",.'ith his wilderness andhi memory is the shadow of acloud moving across the prairie,\ ill these shores and forests still behere? Will there be any ofthe spiritof my people left?

We love this earth as a newbornloves its mother's heartbeat. So. ifwc sell you our land. love it as wehave loved it. Care for It as wehave cared for it. Hold in yourmind the ml,;mory ofthc land as iti when you receive it. Preservethe land for all children and love it,as God loves us all.

As we are part of the land youtoo are part ofthe land. This earthi precious to LIS. It is also preciousto you. One thing wc know: thereis only one God. No man, be heRed Man or \Vhit· Man. can be

24 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

apart. We are brothers after all."Lettcr from Chicf Scattle, 1852

. ashoba. This my fathcrtaught mc howto sing: Wolf, I longfor you - you know how to hidcyour scra\\n. hide behind the dark­est "ind.·· Jim I3arnes. Choctaw

. 'The animal in me crouches.poised immobile, eyes trained onthe distanc . waiting for motionagain. The sky is wide: blue isdcpthlcss: and the animal and Iwait for breaks in the horizon"Simon J. Ortiz. Acoma Pueblo

-' .. there are 110 clocks to meas­ure timc but thc beatll1g of oursinging h~arts" Harold Llttlebird,Santo Domingo Laguna Pueblo

"\ e ha\' stories a old as thegreat seas breaking through thechest Dying out the mouth, noisytongues that once were silcncl,;d.all thc oceans we contain comingto light.·· Linda Hogan. Chick­asa\\

"I want the sea. That is mycountry." Ozette chief Tse-Kaw­Wootl at the 1855 treat· ncgotia­tions

"We may havc been hapP. ,,'iththe land that was originally re­served to us. But continually overthe years more and more of ourland has been stolen from us by theCanadian and . govemm nts.In the 19th Century. our land wastolen from us for economic rca­

sons because the land was lush andfertile and abounded \\ ith food.WI,; \\cre left \\ ith what white soci­cty thought was \\orthle s land ....

Today. what was once cqlled\\orhtless land uddenly bccomcvaluable as the tcchnology of whitcsociety ad ance. Whltc societywould now like to push us off our

reservations because bcneath thebarren land lie valuable mineraland oil resource It is not a nc\\odcy lopment for white society tosteal from nom\hitc peoples. Whenwhite society lIcceed ifs calledcoloniali m. When white soci­ety' efforts to colonize people aremet with resi lance it's called war.But \\hen the colonized Indians of

orth America meet to stand andresi t \\e arc called criminals.'­Leonard Pelticr American IndianMovement (AIM)

FOR YOURCONTINUINCj

INQUIRYHistory. a a field of study. is

notJu t a description of past hUITl..1.nactions. It ek to spccialize infinding explanations ofthem. Be­call e th rc is a vcI) trong linkbef\.\cen history and present daypolic). a dceper under tanding ofthat pch y can be achieved throughthe study of hi tory, Historiansmake interpretations from thc avail­able evidcnce. History studentscan, indeed hould, develop a senscof--hi toric~1 reasoning" and makctheir own interpretations.

nlCre arc many books avail­able in most libraries on the v,'ide­ranging topic of Native Studies.Rather than make a long list oftitles. the area on the helves wherethcse books can be found follo\ s:

970.004 to 980.3323.01Qr394.2301.15323.1398.230-.8973-+2.71811.54306.098346.71104xl8

Patrick Rafferty

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Shackled and curred. Jimmy Jor­dan stood in Cront of the highest

and longest prison wat! he'd eyerhad the misfortune of seeing. Andbeing an ex-con, a three-time loser,a"rowlder' ,ifyou will Jirnmyhndseen a Cew. But this one was strik­ingly different. It stretched northand south for as far as the eye couldfollow. And it wos tallcr than theTower of Babel. "Agoodeompnri­son," thought Jimmy. But he didn'tlaugh at his private joke. He wasn'treally in a laughing mood.

The gate through which Jinuuywas destined to pass had the fanuliarblack KSK painted on itin large, in­timidating block leHers. "TIle Kor­rectional Serviee of Kanada, musedJimmy "what a farce!" AJthoughhe despcratet desired to mercilesslycling to tllC negative vibes he had ac­cUOlulated over the years of doingtime, and when necessary. to usethose ibes to feed his anger a com­mon defensc-mechanism utilized b.most prisoners in most prisons, hehesitated before going through theusual pattern of listing, in his mindall the incidents that ever occasionedto piss him off. He had been told tocast aside all his past aggressivcactions and bad attillldes re: thes 'stem. because this time it wasgoing to be ditIerent This time thesystem had changed.

Jimmy had heard nuublings aboutsome radical new idea in prison re­fonu but he hadn't paid much atten­tion to them. Why bother. TIlingsncver change. Espceiall prisons.'Now wait a minute, lllaCs not en­

tirely true," corrected Jimmy,"they're alwa 's building newerlarger high-tech jails each one alittle bit different and usually a littlebit better than the one it replaced.It's the people who run the jails thatnever change. ,. With that, he glanced

over at the rather large, redneck­looking guard who had escorted himto this ncw, experimental facility.TIle unctuous pri'1lege of being thefirst Korrectional Officer to send aconvicted felon to the other side hadfallen to KO Perry Porcine.

As with most Kor­rections employees,Perry had embarkedupon his custodial

career full of altruisticideals and good inten­

tions which werequickly eroded by thestark reality of bureau­cratic bondage and thehelplessn~s it fosters.

Pcrry had been with the servicefor a long time now. Too long, as faras he was coneerned. He had seencons likeJordan come and go all toooften, on1yto return to tJlejoint againand again, each time filled withmorcbitterness and hate. The revolvingdoor, they called it. As Witll mostKorrections employees, Perry hadembarked upon his custodial careerfull of altruistic ideals and good in­tentions which were quickly erodedby the stark reality of bureaucraticbondage and tJle hclplessness it fos­ters. He soon learned that prisonsweren t about rehabilitation. Pri­sons, QUite simply, were about ptmisb­men!. And punishment as a businesswas wlfotunately, more efficientwhen you punished as many peopleas possible while spending as littlemoney as possiblc. That allowed forthe continuation of the existing rid­iculously high salaries paid by thegovenmlent to the upper-echelon bu­reaucrats.

Upper-echelon bureaucrats. in­deed. Perry thought back to 111atfateful day when he had been sum­moned to Kottawa, to the nationalheadquarters, to talk to the headcheese, to actualt, speak to the KKK(Kommissioner Korrections Ka­nada), after he had requested an in­terview with one of the service'sfrontline troops. Someone who hadbeen around for a wlule. Someonewho knew the ropes. And how totwist thcm when asked to do so.Somcone hc could trust. Someonelike Perry. A rare breed in today'sworld of back-stabbing blabber­moullls. He, anted to explain thenew s.'stcm to him and see, hat hethought about it. See iChe thought itwould work.

Pcrry still remembers with dis­gust the slick public relations manhired to promote the new system.Actually, there hadn't been muchpromotion. In fact, everything waskept pretty hush-hush. 001 a fewoflllC upper-echelon kne, what wasreally about to transpire. As theshister lawyercurn PR-man acrimo­niously put it "It·s not so much thatjustiee need be done, but rather thatit seem to be done. ' 111e taxpayerswanted to belicve that their hard­earned monc. , as being put to goodusc. But over the years, the publichad finally come to the inevitableconclusion that the old system justwasn t working. The criminal jus­tice system, within, hieh Korrec­tions was a main player, kept spend­ing morc and more tax doUars. Atthc sanlC time, the incidence ofcrime,especially violent crime, increaseddramatically. Subsequently, thepri­son population grew larger and larger,while the citizens got more angrywilll each new increase in taxes andeach obvious decrease in operationalefficiency of the old, backward sys­tem. Something had to be done.

Miles Magnussen the newlv ap­pointed KKK, had emigrated to Ka­nada Crom a country noted for its re­lative success \ ith innovative ideasin prison reform. Aftcr years of in-

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Patrick Raffer~1'

smack-dab in the mIddle ofthecoun­try')" Nobody seemed to know any­thing about this ne\\ concept in pe­nology,lea tofallJinmlY. Well,he\\ a ready for an) hard hips the)might thro\\ his way and this lime he\\ a going to persevere tIllS time he\\ as going (0 be rehabilitated. AfterthiS, he \\ould ne\'er again havc togo to the other side.

TI1C leel door creeched intomollon KG Porcine remo\ cdJmUll) 's sha kle :llld uJls and ledhim through, the portal to Ihe oth r

,sidc. TI1e di.rI;.- moming sun mom­cntaril) blinded Jimm) "he eouldn'tsec an~ guard to\\ers. he couldn'tc ~ an e"ercise ) ard, he eouIdn .t see

a dome, hc couldn't e\ en see themam admmistration buildjng \\-herehe would be taken first. to go Ihroughthe rigmarole of being processed.\\Th nhi eyes final I) adjusted to thebnght pratrle sunshine, Jimmy wasastonished by the fact Ulat \\ hat hc\\ a looking at \\ a an expan e ofrolling landscape, interspersed withsmall tomlS and the occasional largeelly, sundar to the countryside thathe had Just turned his back on whenh walked lhrough the gate.

Then il hit hjm. Hit him like alead pipc. The new ystern \Va ascam Break the law on one side ofthe wall and Lhey senlence you to dotime on the other SIde. But the otheride is ju. t that: the othcr side of the

country. You're nol really 111 jail) on' rc ju t on the oth r side of U1C\\-all. But the t,l:\pa) ers, the foolish.cn:r-trusting, easily exploited citizensof Kanada don't know that, so they'rehapp~;. The~ don't know that theirhard-earned moncy i being squan­dcred. And wIllie ~ ou ' re on theolher ide, rehabilitation is the fur­Ihe. t thing from ~ our mind. You cansimpl~ keep on doing whatever it isthat got yOll in trouble in the firstplace

"JI1 t likc ~lC old ) '!cm," Jimmygnnned, "thmg neyer change."

ten i\ e research and careful obser­vation, that country's lop criminolo­gist concluded. :I S) slem thatpUl1lshed its 1:]\\ breakcrs b) ISO­lating them from the eonullWlIl).puttlllg them into an unreal. artifi-ia I. self-

he had duly stated. "Might as wellgi\'c it a try. Can't be an)- worsethan the old. ystelll." I ow, a hepreparcd to ,end Jimmy Jordan tothe other Ide, the first to do 0, he\\ondered If he darc harbour the

a system thdt punished slightest bit ofgo\'emmg, ncga- hopc for thistive and often its law breakers by iso- ncw \cnture.

\Jolent em Iron- la ting them from the com- J I 111 my,ment where all meanwhile, wastht:ir dcei Ions munily, putting them into feeling kind of'

\\ere mad for an unreal, artificial, self- weird. small

th m, and all governing, negative and par:k'ofapPfe-their day-to-day h~n~ ion \\ as

often violent environmentresponsibilities smoldering ina sUllled b~ oth- where all thci r decisions his gut a he

ers, \\a d mod were made for them, and alml~ toodto fail. It dIdn't \\ aiting for thetake a genIus to aII thci r day-to-day respon- huge, elcctTi-

figure that out sibilities assumed by oth- eally-dri \ en

And t\liles. \\ell. ers, wa doomed to fail. steel doortoul-he \\ a a long L-- -J timatdy begin\\a~ from being a geniu. But. he Its pam ta\..lI1gl~ 10\\. minouscould bulls.hlt with the bcst of them. journe~ along its rust~ brackets Ee-.. nd. a \\e all knO\~, that' \\hat ril). tll . ituatlon om ho\\ rcllllnded1110 t burcau' racie arc built n - hUll of the \'cry fir t tunc that he hadhull Illt C\'cr 5t ppcd through the gates of a

It hadn't becn entirely cas) con- federal penitentiary He had been\ ineing the poIJtiClaJ1S t adopt the 'entcnccd to four) car for conspi-ncw . y tem. It \\ a. n't cas) to con- rac~ to traffic in narcotic. At that\ ince those narrow-nunded, strarght- time, he swore he \\ould benefit aslaced consen ative dinosaws to adopt much as po. sible fr~m his incar-anythll1g that wa ncw and/or dlner- crallon and ney I' return to jail.cnt. But once Mile explained thc That \\as three "bits" ago. 0\\,

ubtle nuance ofdeception ~l(lt made lor some unexplainable reason.(he sy tem 0 radical. and e tremely Jim11l: fanned thaI mall park ofcost elTeetjyc. tlle~ literall~ fell oyer apprehens·lon. hoping It might flareeach other lr) ing to _ign the \\Tlt that mto;} burning flam" ofhopc. 1a 'be,\\ould uper edeall thelegalramlfi- for a change, in this new system hccation invoh cd in the implelllenta- \\ as about to enler. he \\ ould get ation of the ne\\ system. , s long as real chance 10 do something worth-(be voters w re happy, tllat' s all that while for himself. Maybe, for amattcred. And a long a the \'oters change, he could sei/e the opportu-thought thel r tax dollar \\ ere being nity and pas lbty belter himself. Aller'pcnt wisely, the) \\ould be happy. all. hecould Ieama tmde or upgradeThat would allow Inge and hi ilk (0 his education. lllat nught go a longperpetrate their profitable charade. \\ a) to ensure that he \\ould never

.KG PorclIle had done mllch 10 again have to re art to criminal ac-I hoI ter KKK Magnussen's re ol\e. liylt~, 111 order 10 un i\c on the out-'. He had been a ked to pro\ Ide IIlput side, from a \\orking mall' point-of-vie\\, "What \\a.· on Ihe other siJe of

and that' s e"aetl~ what he did (n this monstrous \\ all:' Jimm~ \\on-. I)IS simple matter-or-fact manner, dered, , 'and \\ h) did thO) build iti"

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rI~~deiIuJ

e~t6d,e~

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J ust for the hell of it, let's assume for a second thatyou 've successfully overthrown the government of

Iran and taken over that country's scat ofpo\\'er. Ofcourse, this assumption takes for granted that you,being good and kind, must have had a good reason foroverthrO\ving that govemment so we'llsay that Iran posoo some minor threatto some American holdings overseas.We'll go a little further in our as­sumption and say that Clinton gotlaid a few more times than usual thatday and didn't feel like kicking for­eign ass so the American governmentinstead loaned you a few experimen­tal prototype weapons in return for acountIy to be namoo later and saddledyou with the job. You, ofcourse, ex­perience little difficulty slapping outa few uptight Iranians and overthrowing their govern­ment. So there you are with you itmer eircle ofc1ose­knit friends on the Iranian seat ofpower surrounded byenemies. You being an American ally, are an infidelin the eyes of the people of Iran; to them, you arc theenemy. What do you do to get them on your side'?

Ifthis was your situation. you woulcin .t buy Tide toget the whites whiter; you would do what the Americangovernment does with its O\\TI people; you would dowhat the Correctional Services ofCanada does with itsunfortunate prisoners: you, 0 Leader, would indoctri­nate your enemies into seeing things the way you wantthem to. With this accomplished, the end result wouldbe a fragmented people too busy fighting each other toconcentrate on the real enemy, you. How would youaccomplish this? This, 0 Great One, is the fun part.

Most of the world's governments have had to facetwo basic choices: either suppress any potential rebel­lions with military might or indoctrinate the populacenon-violently through the intelligent use of the media.Since you have overthrown the government of Iranwith the help ofthe United States, 'your" country cannow be an official US client state. This entitles you tocertain rights. In return for those rights, however, it isincumbent upon you to establish a fornl of Americandemocracy in Iran. You can go the Nicaragua route

and force democracy down the throats of the Iraniansthrough the usc of death squad terror preferably withthe help ofthe Iranian army or you can manipulate theIranian press to suit your desires. Of course, you canterrorize and suppress the people as well as control the

press but you run the risk of havingthe people hate you that way. If youcarefully weigh the pros and cons ofthe decision you have to make, you,o Leader, will realize that sooner orlater the people of Iran will fight tothe death to overcome anyone theyfeel is an infidel. They are notori­ously stubborn. Thanks to the Ayatol­lah, many of them feel that it is theirlifelong destiny to be at war with theinfidels of this world; therefore, thedanger is there that they might not

believe in either you or their o\\'n press for a while.Control of the press, however, is still your best choicebecause these people are human and their wills can bebroken non-violently. Anyhuman being exposed to thesame stimuli at regularly monotonous intervals willsooner or latcr come to believe in its reality whetherthey want to or not (Wanna go to Taco Bell, Louise?).These people have been at war or have been ready forwar for so long that they are ready for a new reality.Your reality, Great One.

As many governments around the world alreadyknow, gctting peoplc to believe in what you want themto believe is as easy as you can imagine. It's as easyas imagining what you want them to believe and thenmaking thcm believc it through the magic oftelevision,newspapers, and magazines. It's as easy as making thepress more entertaining, more accessible. After yourgreat victory, 0 Leader, the time will be ripe for therelease ofthe inaugural issue of" Ayatollah Comics"in which the former great leader comes back to undeadlife to fight evil on an intemational scale with his newsuper-powerful, bullet-stopping, artificially intelligent,lice infested beard and his smelly old poison-tippedslippers (if the people don't like that, then it's time tobring in the army). It will betimc for the "Iranian FreePress" to introduce itself to the general public with

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I

Hustling (drugs, services, goods, etc.): Good abilityto selL keen marketing sense: not easily disappointed:can talk , ....ith pcople ofdifferent ages. background , andeducational le\·c/s: know hO\ to close a sale.

Murder/Manslaughter/A sault: Strong confidenceIc\'e!; not afraid to speak up or asI.. questIOns; sclf­motivated; not easily int.imidated, not bothered b stress:good sense of time management: excellent physicalcondition: can be counted on to get the job done.

Emhezzlement: Excellent accounting skills' patient:\\ell-organized: detail-oriented: profc sional demeanor;hands-on computer experience: goal setter: resou rceful:\\ork \\ ell \\ith little supervision

Prostitution: Work well independently or in a teamsituation: follow direction; not afraid of hard \\ ork:creative: proven sales abi.lity; outgoing personality; skilledin customer service.

Taken from "Doing Time for Murder or Rob­bery? You May Have Just the Skills an Employer IsLooking For!," by Errol Sull, in the March '93 issueofPrison Life, a new bimonthly magazine published in

ew York City.The magazine is targeted at inmates, their families,

and prison guards. ull, a former inmate, is presidentof Aardvark Resumes & Career Counselling, a sel'Vlcefor inmates.

r -----------------------'eye-opening articles on "free so- \cietics, ., the many accomplishments I Iofthe Ayatollah in thcfrcestofso- I JAILHOUSE Icieties. cellulite build-up bet\\cen I ' Ithe thighs of the non-believers. the RESUME BUILDERS Iup and coming Iranian soccer temn. Ithe newly proposed pay scale for Is wer workers, the gay rights. and ~ne of the first things. you' re ~?ld when doing time is Ithe new government. Imagine, Great V to "put the past behll1d you. to "forget about what ILeader, an article on how your got you here and work on turning your life around." Igovernment finnly belie es the While YOU do. indeed. ha\'e ome areas in nc0d of erious Iaverage hard-working man \\ ill impro;'cment. don'l forget your crime - it could be one of Imake the "new" Iran Ihe top 11a- the keys to getting hired after your rclca c. Ition in the world next to a heart- Below is a list of unacceptable activities and the Iwarming tory of a gay amputee posItive traits they typically require. These are skills t.hatwhose dream is to play on the they can redirect into the Job market.occer team. Imagine, if you will.

Greal One, hov, the Iranians \\ illreact to Harold Robbin's tean1Ynew novel of the Iranian folk herowho manages to get into a goodfight every thirty-five pages or so,gets laid eve!) ten, plays theAmerican tock market and makeso much money that. he becomes

Emperor of the World. Imagine ILinda Ronstadt's new album, "Iran,My New Home" ung in bastard­ized Persian. Imagine Slayer'snew album, "1 Wanna Stick Pinsin Your Eyes" becoming a num­ber one hit with tone-deaf 1ramanteenagers in spite of the languageh:urier. Imagi.ne the telcvi ioncomm rcials tantalizing coffeeaddict.s with· 'the rich coffce beanflavour of Ayatollah' ChoIce"The possibilities Great One. arelimitless. You can hold up amirrorto your face and say to it, "I am theGreat One of Iran'" All you haveto do is make a deal with the S.

ho up at Clinton's office with acouple ofgood-looking Caucasiangirls and sec ifyou can't work outsome kind of a deal. Do it nowbefore some slick whitc-rollar crimi­na! like Jim Bakker get.s out andbeats you to it.

Paul Descary~ J

28 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

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I

Gernini ( May 21 - June 20)Member of same sex takes a

second look. Be sure to act accor­dingly. Pcrhaps some flowers. Stayawa\" from drugs and gambling.Best to stick to work and sports.An important visitor has someth­ing to say. Leo may be close

personal identity. Travel andromance are \...-ithin reach. Don'tbe fooled by your house-mate.

Cancer ( June 21 - Jul. 22)Seek out answers. Don'tbeput

off. Time to set priorities. A moveis in the works. Make sure you areprepared. One who was against

Aquarius (Jan. 20 - feb. 19) ,ou will retire soon.You have taken on new tasks.

Your leadership ,\-ill be recognized.You are entering a new phase. Besure to dot your i's and cross your1's to ensurc you get what you\ ant.

.Capricorn (Dec. 22 • Jan. 19)You receive news you have been

waiting for.' Make sure you fill outproper forms. A short trip willinvolve study and new friends. Bestto watch finances. Aries repre­sented.

leo (J ulV 23 - Aug. 22)Someone is investigating you.

You are being watched. Keep alow profile and don't let them grindyOU down. Your pay won't go asfar this week. Be vigilant aboutfinances. A visit by a neighbour,...-ill prove disastrous. The paek­age you have been waiting for willnever arrive. He who is respon­sible will laugh behind your back.

Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22)Confirm i.nformation. Some

would have you think they arcworking harder than the\" arc. Don'tsign away that which couId releaseou from your currcnt situation.

Friends can be important at thistime. Be sure ofnew house-mates.

libra (Sept. 23 . Oct. 22)Overweight people keep you

down. You feel a need to appeal toa higher power. If you havegrievances follow up on them.Don't take no for an answer. Apackage may be on the way. Becareful around your house.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 • Nov. 2t)You have the ability to sting

those close to you. One in chargemay not agrce. Stick to your guns.Don't stand back. Besurctocheckdates and papers. This may be thetime to get what you descrve.

Sagittarius ( Nov. 22 - Dec. 21)Try to ignore thosc in uniform.

They may try to impress. but youwon'l befooled. Don't be lulled bysurroundings. It is important tomaintain a sense ofself-worth and

Pisces (Feb. 19 - Mar 20)Embrace each day with happi­

ness. YOli have fclt hunger before,but not now. One in authorityknows how you fecI. Familymember wants to be closc to you.

Aries (Mar. 21 - Apr. 19)You feel frustrated. Those

around you don"t give a damn.Time to pinch pClmies and wait forsunnier days. Best to stay in bedfor a few days.

Taurus ( Apr. 20 - MaV 20)One close to ·ou gets in touch.

Others will sense your insincerityand bailout on you. Sense offreedom. New superficial rela­tionships on thc horizon. Financesfail. You lose omething cher­ished.

With this, the second edition ofOut of Bounds, comes the chal­lenge ofsecuring enough materialand ideas to produce a magazinefor you our readers. It is our hopeto produce the Out of Boundsevery three months. We welcomeall material and ideas you mighthavc.

If, after reading this issue, youwould like to see something changedor added for the next: issue, you cangive your ideas and suggestions tothe editors: Patrick Rafferty andSte c Foote. If you cannot reachus at the office located below "G"Dorm, you can see us at our houses:Patrick at C8 and Steve at A4.

For our "Letter's to the Editor"section, anyone with a question orsimply something to say can sub­mit it to us or slide it under the Outof Bounds office door. We \ iJlprint as many as room will allow.

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\

Reflection InThe Pond

II,II

II

II

ConditionalIf the world would stop the suffocationOf their skeletons rattling with fearOf reprimand and quarantineSeeing the horror as a reflectionOf our own taboos

Granted~ classification is allBut not to adhere to labelsLike an unsuspecting fly travellingI nto the web of Doom

The spider awaitsTo devour the poor soul

~truggling free'fhe fly escapesRipping off websOf man's coined termsFreedom at lastOnly to enter battle againAs other webs ofBasic human sufferingAwait. ..

Let us love aU without biasAnd crush into smithereensThose who deny usSuch freedom

With thisIs love conditional?

Rick Gagnon, July '93

Hurdling the boundless limitationsReleasing the flowIts purencssFreshness

What is the meaning?This tingle, runningFIO\vingThroughout my oul

I have fearedConqueringOpening up the ancient gatesGrowing

Spine and heart flowingFlutteringWith joy

Two beautiful bcingsBlending

Attracted by a mirror rcflectionOf vast, separate expansionsUniversal love and compassion

Could the reflection10 the clear, cool pondKissing the stainless moonBc my soul matc'?

.';1 / FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

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A connoisseur of bitter angerwas once my claim to fame.But the more I experience the turmoils of lifethe more I feel feelings of shame.

I've come to realize that my feelings of angerare quite often feelings of hurt.And that growing up in a dysfunctional worldhas caused me to feel like dirt.

This realisation has made me strongerand has made it easier to seethat how can [ respect the people around mewhen I don °t even like me.

Sometimes [ tend to disregardmy legitimate feelings of pain.And I try to hide my vulnerabilitiesby acting a bit insane.

But deep dovm inside I know who rambut my feelings are never shared.Cause I find it so hard to let people knowthat I am really quite scared.

William R. BurnettMarch 18, 1993

/

JUST A REFLECTioN

Past encounters,several realms,other plains of exist~nce.

TIle journey not evena grandfather clock could comprehend.The irrelevancy of time.

I have killed.I have been killed.I have been reborn.

Karmic imprintsare not to be feared.The Warrior moves on,grappling, fightingwith love­Compassion,

surmounting the obscurationsof our owncultivated defilements.

The path of the Truthto oneselfis the answer...and the beginningof the Journeythrough Spaceand beyond Time.

Rick Gagnon, July '93

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They're at your side when you have moneybut when you're busted, they think it's (unnyThey'll talk about the good times you and he hadbut they'll mostly talk about how you've been bad

A TRUE FRIEND(6'l- 4-tJ. t6~)

Friends like these nobody needsbut they're all around you and sprouting like seedsBe careful of the friends you chooseb cause in the end they'll make you loose

Submitted by Trevor Quil(V

Good friends are rareso called friends don't careThey put up a good frontbecause something you got they want

J've experienced these types lots beforebut now l'm wiser and won't worry any moreFor so called friends there are curesso if they approach you, just say "UP YOUR ."

Sitting in a celllived a life of hellThe gut weighs a tonbut what's done is done

32 FALL/SEPTEMBER '93

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