Baker's Dozen

Foreword

FOREWORD

There is one road that leads into and out of the Town of Swanton Harbour. It of course, ends at the lake, or starts there, depending on your perspective and intersects with the main highway. There is a large, attractive, roadside sign at the edge of Town, it reads; Welcome to the Town of Swanton Harbour. It continues with The Town’s catch phrase; “The Gem of a Town, that will exceed your expectations!” There are many who live here, who think that something like; “All that glitters, is not gold!” or “All that looks peaceful and serene isn’t always a little piece of Heaven.” Or even “All dark clouds don’t have a silver lining.” might be more appropriate.

The town, founded in 1909 by Steve Swanton and family, when they opened a feed mill, general store and post office, down near the lakeshore, which, served the local farming community. It grew from those humble beginnings to a Police Village, then achieving Town status, in 1961. For all intents and purposes, it is a nice place. It was, a small, peaceful, town in the late fifties and early sixties, nestled between the lake and the rich farmland that produced crops of corn, potatoes, onions and provided good grazing for cattle for both beef and dairy products.

It was also appealing to the horsy crowd and was home to many sprawling ranches with large fancy homes along with barns and stables that could often rival the houses, as to habitability. With 30 miles of shoreline on a fair-sized lake, the Town offered excellent fishing, boating, swimming and other water sports so it was also a great tourist destination. The rugged, hilly terrain that was plentiful; also supported many winter activities offering excellent skiing, and snowmobiling.

They had two Motels, one four-star hotel, two three stars hotels, two laundromats, two Bowling allies, three Movie theatres, a large Community Centre, and fair grounds, plus two Arenas, and seven baseball Diamonds. There was an IGA store, an A&P, a Dominion Store, a Steinburg’s, and Loblaws, was rumoured to be looking to open here as well. They had a Canadian Tire, and a United Co-op, and were considered to be one of the fastest growing Towns in the Province!

There was a High School, Public, Elementary school, a Catholic School, and a Private School. All the major churches were represented as well; Baptist, United, Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witness, were all here, if you needed to save your soul, or to make you feel blessed!

It was also home to; Gino’s pizza and Chinese take out, Ruby’s Diner, Chuck’s Burger and a Kentucky Fried Chicken Outlet, Grumpy Bob’s Garage and tire service, who also ran a fleet of two Tow Trucks and Nick’s Full-service Gas Station, and Convenience Store. It was a growing Community alright! It was close enough to the nearby city of Toronto to be considered convenient, but far enough away and rooted in farm Country to still be thought of as Rural.

This was an ideal spot to raise a family and promised good wholesome living. You might expect that the Murder of a Police Officer, Police Corruption, Motorcycle gangs, Political Scandal, Organized Crime, s*x scandals, bribery, gambling syndicates and the like, to be big city crimes, certainly, not the fare for nice, quiet, peaceful, little bedroom communities like Swanton Harbour. You would be wrong!

You may think, in a small Town such as this, Police corruption and such, if it existed at all, would be on a somewhat, lesser scale. However, the size of the Town, doesn’t necessarily dictate the size crime it can attract, or impact it can have! Corruption and crime know no borders or boundaries, the insidious seeds, no matter how small and innocuous, they may seem, are cast indiscriminately and can be germinated, take root and thrive anywhere! The impact can be just as damaging and devastating, to the victims, no matter where it rears its ugly head!

The murder of a Police Officer is still, the murder of a Police Officer, no matter where it occurs, and raises the bar substantially, on the scale, of how much media attention it receives, how seriously the Police take it and how extensive the investigation is! Plus, in a small tight-knit community such as Swanton Harbour, where the rumour mill works over-time, and gossiping, speculation, and second guessing is a favourite pastime, and to have truth, compete with conjecture and rumours, can be a daunting task in itself!

Parents, however well intentioned, often, mistakenly, move to these small communities, in hopes of escaping and sheltering their children, from the evils and temptations of the “Big City”, only to find that those evils and temptations, have already beaten them here. They find that their kids have readily imported all of the “Big City” stuff so they, could escape the seclusion and boredom of life in the burbs and beyond and not be labelled as hicks!

Some, made an escape from the mundane, by other means! They formed, or joined into groups of those who share similar interests be it music, sports, stamp collecting or whatever. One of these groups, turned to their passion and love of a sport, that was actually, more about love and respect for each other, combined with the love of motorcycles, the motorcycle culture, and lifestyle. They created and modified a lifestyle and a community of their own, that to them, was real, distinctive and tangible and, to them, more acceptable.

However, much of Society, didn’t understand, or care to understand, the attraction that some felt towards motorcycles or the motorcycle culture. Those, who adopted that culture, and all that went with it, got to be branded as outcasts, misfits! They were harassed and were bullied and maligned by those who were supposed to protect the rights of all citizens, not just the one’s that they (By the authority that they felt the badge entitled them to.) felt were worthy of the rights of citizenship. They did so, with the blessings and full support of the rest of society, who were conditioned to this type of behavior by p********a by police agencies and main stream media who were more interested in juicy headlines than truths.

That was OK by them, these were Bikers! Or rather, in this case, they were a baseball team, a bunch of kids, who became Bikers and also came to play a prominent roll in the Murder and the investigation.