On this Oct 16... 1895 - #536 Constable William Higinbotham galloped out from Lethbridge Alberta, with twelve men to fight a large prairie fire. After the fire that cut a path 30 miles long was finally extinguished, Cst. Higinbotham conducted and investigation and arrested and charged Robert Farrar for starting the fire by being careless with a campfire. The accused was fined $100. 1944 - RCMP vessel St. Roch arrives back in Vancouver. 1953 - The Roman Catholic Church in Canada issues a report discouraging teenagers from forming steady romantic attachments. Meanwhile RCMP members still have to have five years service and have money in the bank before they can apply for permission to get married. 1970 - The FLQ October Crisis heats up when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sends the Canadian Army into Montreal at the request of the Quebec government. At 9:00 pm the day before then Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa rejects the FLQ’s conditions for freeing hostages James Cross and Pierre Laporte. At 4:00 am this day Prime Minister Trudeau proclaims the War Measures Act, giving police sweeping powers to arrest and detain without warrant anyone suspected of involvement with the FLQ. 1971 - While checking a vehicle operated by Mr. Robert B. Rempel near Fort McMurray Alberta, #27916 Cst. James Gordon Fyfe was nearly hit, when a passing car swerved towards him. As the vehicle passed it made an immediate U turn and stopped on the opposite side of the road facing him. When Cst. Fyfe approached the suspect vehicle, the driver, stepped out of his car with .308 rifle, and started shooting at him. Fyfe was hit in the left arm, but he managed to draw his revolver and shoot back, at the gunman, wounding him. Though wounded, the gunman fired again hitting the policeman in the right shoulder and knocking him to the ground. When the assailant came over to the wounded policeman Mr. Rempel struck the suspect from behind, knocking him to the ground, he then grabbed the rifle and hit him with it. Rempel then held the man down until help arrived. Had it not been for the bravery of Robert Rempel, Constable Fyfe would have been killed. Instead he recovered from his gunshot wounds and retired as a Sgt. in 1997. 1974 - #20663 Kenneth W. Pitt, received a Commanding Officers Commendation for bravery after he rescued a woman from a domestic dispute in Powell River, BC. While he was attempting to get the victim out of her suite he common-law husband, Thomas Light, was reloading his pistol. Before Constable Pitt could get back inside, the gunman, committed suicide. 1987 - Corporal J.J. Euale was awarded a cheque for $1500.00 along with the Treasury Board Merit Award for his self-initiated research that showed that sightless people possess 13% better greater hearing abilities than sighted people. His research led to the hiring of blind personnel to work as transcribers for intelligence transcription duties. This was only the third time in the history of the RCMP that this award has been given to a member of the Force. 1982 - Honour Roll Number170. #36327 Constable Douglas Ambrose Mark Butler age 21 was killed in a police motor vehicle accident, near Oxbow, Sask. At 2:00 am, #34610 Cst. David Devine was traveling in an unmarked police car on Highway #18 near Oxbow, Saskatchewan, when he saw a late model Trans-Am speeding towards him. When he turned his police car and sped after the violator with his emergency lights on, the sports car accelerated. Giving chase, Constable Devine radioed to Cst Butler who was then entering Oxbow from the opposite direction. Shortly thereafter Constable Devine discovered that the suspect vehicle had collided with Constable Butler’s vehicle that had been placed across the road, in an attempt to stop the fleeing vehicle. The force of the impact had demolished the police car and flipped it onto its roof. Constable Butler along with two of the three occupants of the Trans-Am was killed on impact. Constable Douglas Ambrose Mark Butler had joined the RCMP on September 30th, 1980 and was engaged to be married to his fiancé back in Newfoundland. His remains were transported back to his home in Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland, where he was buried in the local cemetery. 1987 - #29814 / O.1782 Corporal Daniel Fudge was awarded the United States Secretary of Defense Medal for the arrest of Charles McVey at Teslin Lake. McVey was on the US most wanted list after he was charged with selling classified computer technology to Soviet Union. He fled from the United States and found his way to Teslin Lake on the BC / Yukon border. Corporal Fudge the Detachment Commander at Atlin, B.C. recognized McVey from a FBI Wanted Bulletin. 1992 - Marine Section members #28354 Douglas Scattergood, #32171 Stuart McLea and #43298 Cst A.R. Wilson received commendations after they rescued two people from a grounded fishing boat in a gale at Masset harbour, on the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:23:01 +0000
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