#E19. Nanaimo. I, Murray, Was Illegally Gassed at Government House.

Nanaimo,
Victoria.

Nanaimo,
Victoria,
Vancouver Island,
Britishs Columbia,
Canada.

Nanaimo.
Victoria.

I, Murray, Was illegally Gassed At Government House.

This Report is about a gas and poison scene that did happen
to me when I worked for The Government in The Public Works 
Department in Victoria at Government House and The Law Courts
down town. I worked there for about 4 years continuously and this
was about the years around 1977. 

1. when I worked for The Public Works I was classed as a gardeners helper

2. generally I would work on the grounds of Government House helping gardeners do their work

3. at times though we would go into Government House on Rockland Avenue and move furniture

    about to help the people in The House get ready for banquets etc.

4. at other times we would go into the green houses at Government House and help the gardeners

    do their work in them

It is in these green houses that I got gassed several times.

5. sometimes, at times, the gardeners woould fumigate the green houses in order to get rid of the

    insects that would bother the plants

It was this type of fumigation that at times got way out of control. As a matter of fact the

surrounding community of Rockland Drive would complain about to much gas was being used

in these green houses and was spreading all over the local area. It was even thought at times that

this gassing the general public in this area was intentionally done and that it was a type of gas made

for gassing people with not for just killing bugs in the green houses with. It was thought that the

gassing of the local people was simply staged in the green houses on Government House Grounds.

This caused constant trouble in this local community.

6. the gardeners would use far to much fumigation and without properly ventilating the green

    houses would send me into them to work

7. sometimes we the gardeners helpers would get bloody runny noses from inhaling to much

    fumigation

8. sometimes we gardeners helpers would vomit quite a lot from inhaling to much fumigation

9. I do rremember that on more than one occassion we gardeners helpers would pass right out

    and fall down onto the cement floor of the green houses from inhaling to much fumigation

10. even at times when we gardeners helpers were outside of the green houses we would be

      affected by the fumigation gas from the green houses and stagger and feel sick all of the

      work day

Many people in this area did complain about being made sick from this green house drifting gas!

11. this also happened to me in a similar fashion when I was forced to eat and have my coffee

      breaks in the room located in the basement of The Law Courts Building where open pesticide

      was stored and mixed and where pesticide spray cannisters were opened up in preparation

      for cleaning

12. Also at times pesticide was mixed and put into spray cans in my lunch room location right in

      the lunch room houses provided by The Government at Government House. I do think that I

      was affected by pesticide by getting poisoned by it in these lunch room locations. This pesticide

      poisoning happened to me in lunch rooms and in trucks when I was travelling with a wayward

      gardener. At times the pesticide was mixed up in the truck and the cannisters opened up in the

      truck and partly cleaned in the truck. I do believe that I was at times poisoned by this improper

      work procedure.

When I worked for The Public Works quite a number of times I did report this improper work

procedure to the superintendants. There were quite a number of investigations over this issue

but because the workmen involved in using pesticide were intentionally careless and abusive

in many ways this pesticide abuse did not ever get corrected.

Remember readers it was said and believed that poison gas, not pesticide, was spread all over this

local area.The local people did say this. There were even local people who did say that they were

going to take Government House to court and charge them by law over the illegal gassing of the

local people.