fort york news · they have leadership qualities and they are highly skilled at what they do. “we...

Fort

York

New

s

Winter 2019

Col Michael Stevenson, Branch 165 Sunnybrook Volunteer

Newsletter Staff Writer/Publisher…………. Terry Sleightholm

Photography………………. Sgt Peter Moon,

Terry Sleightholm

Writers/Editors…………… Sgt Peter Moon

Capt Larry Rose

Ann Unger

Fort York News Winter 2019

March 21……………………. Lambton G.C. Luncheon

Doug Purdon speaker

April 23……………………… RCMI Dinner

May 23………………………. Rosedale G.C. dinner

June 6………………………. AGM/CofC Toronto Hunt

Fort York Legion Branch 165

1421 Yonge Street

P.O. Box 69009

Toronto, ON M4T 1Y7

Branch Websitte https://fortyorkbranch165.wildapricot.org/

If you require a name tag, please contact LCdr Donna Murakami and she will arrange to have one made for you. The cost is approximately

$5.00 . Indicate whether you prefer a magnet

or pin closure.

[email protected]

President……………………… Col Gil Taylor

1st Vice President…..……. Maj George Chabrol

Immediate Past President... Col Geordie Elms

Secretary……………………… Col Fred McCague

Treasurer……………………… Malcolm Hamilton

Membership Secretary…. Ann Unger

LW Joyce Lloyd

Chaplain……………………….. Maj Gillian Federico

District D, Zone 5 Rep…… LCdr Donna Murakami

F.Y. News……………………… Terry Sleightholm

Sergeant-at-Arms………… Malcolm Morrison

Public Relations……………. Sgt Peter Moon

Sunnybrook Liaison………. Col Jim Hubel

Remembrancer……………. Capt Rev. Greg Bailey

Branch Services Officer….Cdr Ed Sparling

RCMI Liaison………………… Susan Cook

Special Events Chair……... Maj George Chabrol

Special Events Team…….. Issey Abraha

Kathryn Boyden

Lt(N) Paul Costello

Kathryn Langley Hope

Tom Pam

Members-at-Large……….. P/O Bill Milne

Douglas Purdon

Fort York Branch Calendar 2019

Executive 2019

Name Tags

https://fortyorkbranch165.wildapricot.org/

Fort York News November, 2018

November 11, 2018

Sunnybrook

Ann Unger, Kathleen Wynn, Terry Sleightholm

Rev. Veronica Raynon

Col Jim Hubel and LCdr Donna Murakami


Naomi Olliphant whose late father, a veteran, was a

resident at Sunnybrook. Rene and Jim Hubel are to

the right.


Donna Somcher, FYB 165 Volunteer


Welcome to Our Newest Members

Rakesh Bhardwaj Member-at-Large, Branch 165 Executive,

Sunnybrook Volunteer

Rosette P. Joseph

David J. Neave

Marina Neave

Tom Prins

Nancy Siew Transfer from Branch 114

Donnna Somcher

Sunnybrook Volunteer

Barbara St. Hill-Skinner Sunnybrook Volunteer

Alan Thomas

Jane E. Westlake

We are most appreciative that you chose Fort York 165!


In Remembrance 2018 ̶ 2019

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

we will remember them...

Col Stephen F. Angus ̶ November 2018

HCol James Breithaupt ̶ August 2018

WO 1 Joe D'Angelo ̶ May 21, 2018

BGen Barry Howard ̶ June 2018

S/Lt Reginald Kowalchuk ̶ October 2018

Pte Mary Prescott ̶ January 2019

HCol Bruce Savage ̶ April 2018

SOLDIERS’ CRIES FOR HELP

ALL PART OF THE LEARNING PROCESS

By Peter Moon

The soldiers floating in the broken ice of Parry

Sound’s harbour were calling for help.

“Help me, I’m freezing,” shouted one. “I can’t feel my

hands. I’ve been here for ever. I won’t last much long-

er. Please, get me out of here. Hurry.”

The response from Steve Ruskay, an ice rescue expert

with Raven Rescue, was calm. “Keep it down, guys. I

don’t want people getting alarmed and calling the po-

lice.”

The soldiers’ shouts for help were all part of a series

of realistic ice rescue scenarios that saw them learn-

ing how to rescue themselves and others who had fall-

en through ice into frigid waters.

The 10 soldiers were from the 3rd Canadian Ranger

Patrol Group (3 CRPG) at Canadian Forces Base Bor-

den. Most were instructors who travel regularly to the

Far North of Ontario to train Canadian Rangers, who

are part-time army reservists, in the vast area’s re-

mote and isolated First Nations. There are 570 Rang-

ers in 25 First Nations in Northern Ontario. The area

has the highest number of Indigenous drowning

deaths in Canada with many related to falling through

ice.

The training in Parry Sound consisted of three days of

concentrated instruction in both a classroom setting

and engaging in practical rescue scenarios. The

“victims” were soldiers who took turns in being res-

cued and being the rescuers. They wore immersion

suits to protect them from the cold.

“We do it so that we will have in-depth knowledge of

the skills required, so that we can pass it on to the

Rangers in the North,” said Major Douglas Ferguson,

3 CRPG’s deputy commanding officer. “In turn, the

Rangers pass it on to others in their communities.”

The training was the first of its kind for Sergeant Eric

Scott, a new 3 CRPG instructor. “The training is

unique in that not a lot of either regular force or re

serve members of the army ever get an opportunity to

do it,” he said. “The training is eye opening. I’m defi-

nitely better prepared now for an ice rescue emergen-

cy when I go North.”

Mr. Ruskay provides various forms of rescue training

to a variety of students in Canada. But the way the

soldiers approached the demanding training im-

pressed him.

“They are different,” he said. “They can manage them-

selves in cold or inclement weather. They have a real-

ly unique sense of team work and camaraderie. They

follow instructions and they work extremely well to-

gether. They have leadership qualities and they are

highly skilled at what they do.

“We know through anecdotal evidence that the rates

of ice incidents are much higher in the North where

these soldiers go. Indigenous peoples are the ones

hunting and trapping on those frozen waterways up

there that are critical to their livelihoods. They go

through the ice.

“They do not have access to this kind of training,

which the Ranger instructors take with them and

teach up North. So I think the Ranger program is hav-

ing a huge impact right across the North.”

In 2011 an instructor from 3 CRPG who had taken ice

rescue training saved the life of a distraught woman

in Sandy Lake First Nation in Northern Ontario. He

was in the remote community when the woman, de-

termined to end her life, approached an area of the

river where fast moving currents made the ice ex-

tremely unstable. The local police lacked ice rescue

training and asked the local Rangers for help. The in-

structor, wearing a safety line, was able to tackle the

woman in the water and the police and Rangers

pulled them to safety.

In 2015 a civilian volunteer went with a Ranger

search party to help an elderly resident of Eabame-

toong First Nation who was stranded in a white-out

blizzard. The volunteer got separated from the Rang-

ers on the return trip to the community and drowned

when his snowmobile went through the ice on a creek.

(Sergeant Peter Moon is the public affairs ranger for

the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group.)

A rescuer, left, reaches a soldier "victim."

Soldiers haul a victim and his rescuer from broken ice.

Sergeant Eric Scott wears an immersion suit to combat the cold

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Parry Sound Harbour


National Club 1907

Speaker’s Lunch at the National Club

31 January 2019

Ph

oto

s by

Terry

Sleig

hth

olm

(L) Col Blake Goldring and Col Geordie Elms


The National Club

President, Col Gil Taylor


Speaker:...HCol Blake Goldring


Th

e Na

tion

al C

lub


Valentines Dinner at RCMI

Edward & Jocelyn Badovina and Kathryn Langley Hope

Ines thanks chef Suhall Sayed.

Ines Gorodnitzky was impressed with the dinner.


Valentines Dinner

fort york news · they have leadership qualities and they are highly skilled at what they do. “we...

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