FEATURE: Retiring Revelstoke RCMP Staff-Sgt. Jacquie Olsen career retrospective – 10
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Weds., April 10, 2013 www.revelstoketimesreview.com Vol. 116, No. 15
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Boxing bout sells out – 11
Falling through the cracks
For the last six months, Jeffrey Moncrieff has been living in Revelstoke. He is moving back to Vancouver as he attempts to get living support as an individual with cerebral palsy. Alex Cooper
reporter@revelstoketimesreview.com
A man tries to fix up his 1969 snowmobile during the vintage ride on Boulder Mountain on Saturday.
Carl BR Johnson/Special to the Revelstoke Times Review
Old meets new on Boulder Mountain CARL BR JOHNSON
Special to the Revelstoke Times Review
Few times in a guy’s life where he can say that he severely underestimated something and then lived to tell the tale about it afterwards. I am speaking of course, about the vintage snowmobile event that occurred in Revelstoke on Saturday, which also coincided with Yamafest – a yearly event put on by Yamaha Motor Canada. With many vintage snowmobiles came many high performance machines too, which I was told, range anywhere from $12,000 to $32,000 and possess as much as an uncanny 350 horsepower for a few select models. These events were to take place up at Boulder Cabin, so I had to find a way up there as I did not have a snowmobile. And here I was thinking that it would be a simple ride up the mountain on a Revelstoke Snowmobile Club member’s machine and that would be that. I couldn’t have underestimated
the journey more. Before we start up the mountain, I meet Ron Berthelette, a member of the Kelowna Snowmobiler’s Club who was taking part in the vintage snowmobile ride and I catch sight of his 1980 John Deere Spitfire snowmobile. “We couldn’t get up the trail to Boulder Cabin on that machine,” says Berthelette, sighting its vintage state and lack of horsepower as a reason. “We had to give up and come back down so I’m gonna go find a more powerful machine.” This collection of trails on Boulder Mountain are specifically built for the more ‘expert’ type of rider and this is no walk in the park with a run-of-the-mill machine. “I love that! We got a reporter here who’s never snowmobiled before and he wants to come up with us on an expert trail!” exclaims my ride up the mountain, Don “Carbonie” Carleton. His cocky words create mounting trepidation within me as I jump on the back of his Ski-Doo Summit Millenium Edition snowmobile and
we start our journey up the mountain to the Boulder Cabin from the parking lot. At first our trip seems impossible as we are surrounded by nothing but mounds of snow that appear to pile up without end. As our metal chariot grinds away at the impossibly deep snow on the path to the cabin. I wonder if I will make it up alive. Just hanging on to Carleton, I become weary very early on and to my absolute relief we stop every few kilometres to rest. Things are not encouraging because Carleton informs me halfway up that he has an arm brace due to a previous injury and hanging on to his snowmobile for the weight of both of us is straining that injury. “It’s [his braced arm] giving me trouble but we’ll be alright,” he says. As we continue, several straightaways become available and that’s when Carleton guns the throttle as if our tail was on fire and we were racing from the devil himself.
Snowmobiling, page 16
This week, Jeffrey Moncrieff will be moving to Vancouver from Revelstoke. For the last six months he has been living here with his brother Andrew in the Big Eddy. It’s been tough getting out with the snow limiting his mobility. He had to leave his wheelchair in Vancouver, and even if he did have it, it wouldn’t have been much use to him here. Moncrieff has cerebral palsy and also believes he has some form of autism, though he has not officially been diagnosed with it. He walks with a shuffle and his hand movements are slow and deliberate. He is difficult to understand. He needs help with many day-today activities most people take for granted – cleaning, shaving, cooking, doing laundry, even tying his shoes. I met him at the Big Eddy Market last week, where we had coffee and he told me his story. “Why can I not get help with cerebral palsy?” he asked at one point during the interview. *** Moncrieff, 29, was born in Ottawa. He had support there but slowly ran into trouble. His mother died, as did his grandfather. His uncle, who also helped care for him had his own medical issues. He had other family, but he said it was his brother Andrew he was closest with. He works as a computer programmer, including with Free Geeks in Vancouver and with the Canadian Avalanche Centre, but he has struggled to get support from the government for his living
needs. He left because of the wintery climate. One day he got stuck in the snow on the way to the bank and decided it was time to leave. “I was in a wheelchair, stuck, and I couldn’t even see it was snowing so bad,” he said. He left for Vancouver, where he met Kimberley Yanko, an activist for people with disabilities. “If Jeffrey was given the chance, I know he would thrive. He is so good with computers,” she told me. She went over the various hurdles they went through trying to get him help. First, they were told he needed to be a resident of B.C. for three months before qualifying for services. That meant he couldn’t get a new wheelchair and he couldn’t get glasses to address the loss of sight in one of his eyes. They went to BC Housing to try to get him into subsidized housing but were told there was a long waiting list and to try a shelter instead. “I spent many hours trying to help Jeffery and I could not get him the help that he needs, Yanko said. “Everywhere we turned he was denied. He can’t get into housing, he can’t help through CLBC. They’ll just kick him to a shelter. They just don’t care.” Eventually he was offered a place at the Ted Kuhn Towers in Surrey, a place notorious for its bed bugs. “He has a low immune system,” she said. “I told them – either he gets sick from bed bugs or he gets sick from living on the street.
Moncrieff, page 8
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