Home-related updates on a pair of personal stories

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/12/2015 (3595 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOMEWORK… There’s a common theme about Ross Eadie and Calli Vanderaa. What’s the common element? One word: home.

*  *  *

HOME ALONE, AGAIN… It was early one morning last week when I reached Ross Eadie at his home.

I needed to ask him a question.

One only loosely connected to the controversy that’s been dogging the city councillor since last month when police deposited the blind police board member at the Main Street Project.

I was wondering if Eadie ever carried through with his offer to the homeless man who guided him as he was leaving the drunk tank after the sun finally came up that Saturday morning. When I interviewed Eadie in the days following the embarrassing incident, he said he had invited the homeless man to live with him, as long as the landlord approved of it. Eadie lives alone.

But before I could get to the question, Eadie began sharing the lingering emotional effects of the incident.

“I wake up and think about it every morning,” he said over the phone.

He didn’t want to get into the “why” what happened was still haunting him, but a large part — the part he didn’t want to get into — seemed obvious. The incident has jeopardized his position on the police board.

Which board chairman Scott Gillingham indicated later that day when I asked about Eadie’s status.

“He was given leave for private reasons at the last meeting,” Gillingham said.

The last police board meeting was Dec. 4, and what “leave” sounded like was a suspension. Temporary for now.

But Gillingham didn’t elaborate, and neither did Eadie.

There were reports that in his intoxicated state, Eadie had been abusive with the cops sent to help him that night.

“My mistake was talking to the media,” Eadie said on reflection. “Because I don’t actually remember what happened.”

Eadie said he did, however, speak with a management person at the Main Street Project.

“She said that I was respectful… to her staff.”

Which brings us back to the question about the homeless man who befriended Eadie that morning. Did he ever move in with Eadie?

Yes he did.

For a little while. Eadie said he was trying to help the guy.

“But things didn’t work out… I may reach out to him again.”

In the meantime, for what it’s worth, I hope he is kept on the police board. He cares deeply about the Winnipeg Police Service, and even more deeply for his constituents in the North End where he grew up. I just wish Ross Eadie cared more about helping himself, as he does about helping others.

*  *  *

HOME AGAIN… Calli Vanderaa, the 16-year-old high school girl who was shot with a stolen RCMP handgun in October, is out of hospital and home again, even though she’s still battling a post-surgical infection.

Her dad, Corey, says Calli is doing homework on the Dell computer that was graciously gifted to her, but she’s still not ready to go back to school.

Meanwhile, there is some good news. An anonymous donor contacted me with a $5,000 cheque for the dad and daughter, which Corey received as if he had won the lottery.

He hasn’t worked since the shooting, so that money came along at just the right time.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca