SAANICH NEWS - Friday, June 7, 2013
www.vicnews.com • A3
Library loses a familiar face Witneses testify in ex-teacher’s trial Longtime branch head retires during a changing, but popular time
Kyle Slavin News staff
Natalie North News staff
It’s been many years since Neil McAllister has ordered books relating to cats, cars or the Kennedys. While it’s unclear if any underlying penchant for the three changed during the newly retired librarian’s 14 years with the Greater Victoria Public Library – his dapper navy sport coat and khakis could well have been pulled straight from the closet of America’s royal family – his ordering patterns certainly did. One of the handful of changes the former Oak Bay branch head has seen since he began his library career at the Fraser Valley Regional Library in 1995, is the loss of choice over which books a branch brings in through the centralization of ordering of literary materials. McAllister, who retired from the Oak Bay branch after eight years at the post on May 31, isn’t negative about the switch, as it’s just one facet to a digital content evolution – one which includes the largely uncharted landscape of electronic licensing for a growing collection of e-books. “It’s been a real challenge for us, between the publishers and the libraries and the software,” said McAllister, cozied up to a fireplace in a wingback chair at the branch. “It’s really changing quickly.” McAllister, a budding writer himself, studied English and worked in publishing, before later returning to the University of British Columbia for a master’s in library science. He was then poised to enter the system at a pivotal moment in worldwide informationsharing: the advent of the Internet. “When I started, the Internet was just in its infancy and I think it cost about $20 a minute to search,” he said. “The impact of that was that a library like this can bring in a world of information, far more information than they ever could in the past.” Offering online help and computer basics, from resumé writing to email troubleshooting,
Natalie North/News staff
Librarian Neil McAllister takes some time at the beginning of his last shift before retirement to read from one of his favourite books, Seabiscuit, in a cozy corner of the Oak Bay branch. To a degree one of our other now accounts for about half of all challenges is just keeping up with work done at the Oak Bay branch. demand.” McAllister proudly explains Patricia Eaton, GVPL manager of that the library – adjacent to the public services, wished McAllister Monterey Recreation Centre, well on his retirement after working which was expanded into the with the 55-year-old in several neighbouring Tonkin heritage capacities over the years. His active home, hence the gas fireplaces – presence in the GVPL and the has consistently ranked among municipality of Oak Bay and will be the busiest libraries per capita in Canada. More than 60,000 items are missed, she said. “The response from both staff circulated in an average month and and public to the about 1,500 people “The rumour of pride he takes in the walk through the doors on a typical libraries dwindling away quality of service that he provides is busy day. just isn’t true.” really glowing,” she The numbers - Neil McAllister said, soon praising reflect a crossMcAllister’s humour section of the and affable nature. “He’s well liked community, from Victoria families by staff and well respected by the in Fairfield and Fernwood who public. People felt comfortable and may be intimidated by the welcomed in that branch.” downtown branch, to seniors McAllister plans to spend his whose only social contact for the retirement with his wife, Ruth, also day is at the library. McAllister’s a retired librarian, and his 10-yearfavourite aspect of the job, he old son, Jack. On his to-do list: says with a glint in his eye, is restoring a classic BMW, learning exchanging recommendations to play the ukulele and returning with some of those faces. His top to the Oak Bay library for the long recommendation: the equine epic, list of book recommendations Seabiscuit. the public has given him over the “The rumour of libraries years. dwindling away just isn’t true. We nnorth@saanichnews.com seem to be getting more popular.
The one-time roommate of a former Vic High schoolteacher accused of criminal harassment says allegations against Frank Canacari are true. He knows them to be true because Canacari openly talked about breaking into two women’s apartments, taking items and sending harassing phone calls and emails, Terry Bogue testified on Tuesday in Victoria provincial court. Canacari faces two counts of criminal harassment and two counts of unlawfully being in a dwelling house related to a woman in Esquimalt and a woman in Saanich. Bogue said despite not having lived together more than a few weeks in March 2010, Canacari would share with him the ongoing details while stalking two women he dated. Bogue told the court that Canacari said he got one woman’s address by going into her purse and getting her driver’s licence. He went over to her house when it was vacant, entered through an open door and took photos inside her home. He then came home and showed Bogue the photos. “Why would Mr. Canacari show you this?” asked Crown prosecutor Chandra Fisher. “Because he’s upset because she’d never tell him where she lived. This was his way of getting back (at her),” Bogue replied. He told Judge Lorna-Jeanne Harvey that Canacari also told him he paid a sex trade worker $10 to call the woman in the middle of the night “to horrify her.” The second victim, Erin Meyer, testified earlier Tuesday. Bogue told the court in May 2010 Canacari was upset that his brief relationship with Meyer was crumbling, and believed it to be because she had reconnected with an ex-boyfriend. Around May 15, Canacari staked out West Bay Marina, believing Meyer to be there with her ex for the night, Bogue said. Overnight, Canacari used a house key in Meyer’s gym bag to go into her apartment. Bogue said an upset Canacari told him he took a pack of cigarettes from her place, and used her computer to send an anonymous email to Meyer denigrating her ex-boyfriend. Bogue contacted Meyer on May 20, after the incident, and they went to Victoria police together. When asked why he didn’t go to police sooner about the stalking, Bogue told the court that he had threatened to previously, and Canacari said, “It’s none of their businesses, it’s my business. … I’m smarter than them, what are they going to do?” Canacari was arrested in June 2010 at Vic High while he was teaching. He has not been back in a classroom since. On Wednesday, officers from the Victoria and Saanich police departments testified. Chris Gillen, owner of Dial-A-Geek computer services, also testified in court Wednesday that Canacari contacted his company, asking to remove “illegal material or incriminating material” from his computer. Gillen said Canacari claimed the material to be linked to his roommate. Meyer spoke to CTV News outside of the Victoria Law Courts Tuesday, saying she still worries for her safety. “I still look behind me and I still take note of everybody that is behind me. Yes, I was very, very afraid, very fearful, and it just really messes with your whole sense of well being and security.” The trial against Canacari is expected to last through the end of the week. kslavin@saanichnews.com
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