Mack Laing, about a year before his death, July 1981, at home in Shakesides — archive photo
Comox Mayor no longer interested in Mack Laing talks
At this week’s Comox Town Council meeting, a friend of the late Hamilton Mack Laing will present a business plan to restore the famous naturalist’s home, called Shakesides. He’s going to talk about how the town and the Mack Laing Heritage Society can work together to avoid big legal bills and obtain heritage status for the house as a pathway to grant funding.
He’s going to suggest that the town and the society, pitted as adversaries for several years, move forward one step at a time toward resolution.
And he believes the Shakesides restoration business plan provides a foundation from which to build a partnership.
The plan includes support from 18 individual Comox Valley construction companies willing to share expertise, labor and, in some cases, materials for the restoration of Shakesides. A real community service project, according to Olsen.
Olsen says the plan offers proof that “Shakesides can be converted at reasonable cost into a Nature House with a low environmental footprint and with modest operating budget.”
The business plan is part of a mountain of documents that the Mack Laing Heritage Society will enter into evidence, should the town continue to pursue its BC Supreme Court petition to demolish the house. The society hopes the town will abandon this costly legal action and negotiate directly with them to resolve the issue.
The previous Town Council voted to petition the court to alter the terms of the Mack Laing Trust to demolish Shakesides and replace it with a viewing platform. The MLHS believes that would constitute a breach of trust, one of several they say the town has committed since Laing died in 1982.
The society also distributed a 13-page summary of annotated documents to councillors that attempts to summarize the convoluted ways the town has mishandled its trust agreement with Mack Laing.
Mayor no longer onside
A negotiation to settle the case out of court seemed likely after last fall’s municipal elections when a majority of new councillors expressed interest in talking directly with the Mack Laing society. And that included, according to Kris Nielsen, president of the MLHS, a handshake deal with new Mayor Russ Arnott to not let the matter go back to court.
But Nielsen says Arnott has now reneged on that agreement.
At a coffee meeting on Friday, Jan. 11, Nielsen said the mayor told him that unless the MLHS would agree to Shakesides’ demolition and replacement with a viewing platform — in other words capitulating to the town’s position — he wasn’t interested in talking.
Arnott did not respond to Decafnation’s invitation to confirm or deny Nielsen’s version of events.
So unless a majority of Comox councillors vote to engage the MLHS in meaningful discussions toward a solution, it appears the town’s taxpayers will continue to fund an expensive legal process that is speculated to have topped $100,000 to date.
“The Supreme Court gave us the opportunity to speak for Mack Laing’s intent and to demonstrate how past Councils reneged on the terms of the trust from the start and continued doing so for decades,” Nielsen said in a press release from the society. “The charitable purpose of any trust has to be taken seriously. That Comox taxpayers are paying large legal fees … I find (that) particularly disturbing.”
What will council do
In one of its first meetings after the municipal elections, the new Town Council discussed three possible paths forward:
— Continue with the court action
— Negotiate with the Mack Laing Heritage Society
— Suspend the petition entirely
The council voted to delay any decision until February, although Nielsen says the mayor has already decided to press forward with its two-year old court case.
The town spent most of last year and three separate BC Supreme Court appearances trying to prevent the Mack Laing society from participating as an intervenor in the court case. But justices in all three hearings attempted to steer the town and the BC Attorney General’s office in that direction, and the town resisted.
“What evidence do you not want the court to hear,” Justice Thompson asked the town’s lawyer at one point.
Finally, Justice Thompson ordered the town to consent to intervenor status at an Oct. 16, 2018 hearing.
There is no court date scheduled to hear the case, as an out-of-court settlement was preferred.
Breaches of trust
In a package of documents distributed to councillors late last year, the Mack Laing Heritage Society pulled 13 documents from the more than 400 submitted as affidavits that they hope will clarify their case.
Here are some the highlights of the annotated documents.
The first document, from March 17, 1982, shows the Town Council chose to ignore the trust agreement by renting it as housing within 32 days of Laing’s death. And by August of that year had started spending Laing’s money inappropriately.
It wasn’t until Feb. 5, 2003 that the town’s relatively new finance director, Don Jacquest, discovered a possible breach of trust in failing to reinvestLaing’s trust fund earnings, or rental income.
Jacquest reported this discovery to Mayor Paul Ives, CAO Richard Kanigan and council. But the council of the day did nothing to correct the trust fund abuses prior to 2001.
In March of 2015, town staff recommended demolishing Shakesides and Laing’s former home, called Baybrook. Council had previously discussed removing Baybrook, but not Shakesides. In its court filings, the town has not offered any legal opinion at the time regarding their right to tear down Shakesides. The society says this is another breach of trust.
But In June 2015, the society sought a legal opinion from an independent and experienced jurist, William Pearce QC on whether the town had the authority to demolish Shakesides and Baybrook. Peace advised the town to seek court direction before any demolition occured.
“The face that the terms of the trust were breached (financially) does not detract from the fact that the home (Shakesdies) is still subject to the trust and to demolish the home those officials who approved of same could be held to account for damages caused to the home,” Pearce wrote.
He continued, “In addition I note that s122 of the Criminal code makes it an offence for an official … to commit a breach of trust. I offer no opinion whether such officials could be prosecuted for their actions but one would hope the councilors (sic) and the mayor would take legal advice before proceeding with the demolition.”
Peace also noted that if the town felt Shakesides was beyond repair, a legal doctrine known as “cy pres” — meaning a purpose which is as near as possible to the original purpose — would apply to use Laing’s first home, Baybrook, as a substitute.
But town staff did not share Pearce’s legal opinion with council — which should have known about their individual criminal accountability — until its Oct. 7, 2015 meeting — nearly three-and-a-half months later.
By then, the town had already torn down Baybrook on Aug. 6, 2015.
WHO WAS HAMILTON
MACK LAING?
Hamilton Mack Laing was an important Canadian naturalist, photographer and writer. He moved to Comox in 1922, cleared his land and built his home from a “Stanhope” Aladdin Ready-Cut kit. In 1927, he married Ethel Hart of Portland and they established a successful and commercial orchard which included walnut, pecan, filbert, hazelnut, apple and plum trees. They also grew mushrooms and vegetables.
After his wife, Ethel, died in 1944, he sold his original home, Baybrook, and built a new home, Shakesides, on the adjoining lot. He bequeathed the waterfront property to the Town of Comox and it became Mack Laing Nature Park — excerpted from content on the Mack Laing Heritage Society‘s website.
IMPORTANT LINKS
MackLaingSociety.ca
Comox Town Council
Russ Arnott, Mayor: rarnott@comox.ca
Alex Bissinger:
abissinger@comox.ca
Nicole Minions:
nminions@comox.ca
Patrick McKenna:
pmckenna@comox.ca
Ken Grant:
kgrant@comox.ca
Maureen Swift:
mswift@comox.ca
Stephanie McGowan:
smcgowan@comox.ca
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Just curious… any of you who have commented so harshly on the mishandling of the trust by the town… are you willing to step up and volunteer your time to the potential museum? Who will pay for it when the trust money runs out? What if the MLHS dissolves? Then what?
Wasn’t HML a teacher? What if the carefully disassembled house became an outdoor classroom shelter/pavilion made of salvaged materials from the current building? Maybe members of MLHS could be seconded by the Comox Museum (lot’s of Mack Laing stuff there, by the way!) to give guided tours of the nature park and give talks about Mack Laing? It would be a symbiotic relationship – win-win! Is an outdoor classroom an “apple”? Other community groups could use it, too! For free!!!
Considering the latest fiasco with the Apartments flooding and Comox putting the tenants out on the street without any real help. This is just the way it goes in Comox.
Don’t blame the council. they just do what the city staff tell them.
Pass that can of Bear spray over please.
I whole heartedly support Ken McDonald’s well written comments. Mack Laing represents the very best of Comox and the manner in which his legacy has been treated is utterly egregious. Period.
A message to Russ Arnot and town council: Stop wasting our hard earned taxes on litigating a position against the good will of Mack Laing – APOLOGISE – and do the right thing once and for all by honouring and celebrating Mack Laing’s magnificent legacy!
Every time I pass the “VISION LIMITED” signs on Hawkins and Lazo Roads I’m reminded of the “limited vision” of the Town of Comox in managing the legacy of Mack Laing.
I recently read a small booklet called The Pioneer Birdmen of Comox by Elizabeth Brooks. It provides a brief biography of four Comox naturalists and ornithologists, Allan Brooks, Ronald Stewart, Theed Pearse and Mack Laing. Like most of us, they were drawn to Comox by its moderate climate and natural abundance. Of the four, Brooks and Laing made the most significant contributions to the natural history of our Province. They were prolific writers and artists and contributed a vast number of specimens to museums in Canada and the United States. Both have species named after them.
It is revealing to compare the legacy of Allan Brooks with that of Mack Laing.
Brooks spent his summers at his home in Okanagan Landing near Vernon and his winters in Comox. He dedicated his life to ornithology and is widely recognized for his bird illustrations and paintings. Robert Bateman, renowned Canadian wildlife artist, credits Brooks’ work for inspiring him during his formative years as an artist. Brooks died in Comox Hospital in 1946. Brooks and Laing were life-long friends. In fact, Laing authored Brooks’ biography, Allan Brooks: Artist Naturalist, which was published in 1977.
Although Brooks spent a considerable portion of his life in Comox, it was the people of Vernon who proudly chose to honour his exceptional contribution to our natural history. In 1994, a group of Vernon residents established the Allan Brooks Nature Centre Society. The work of Allan Brooks became the focus of their vision to create the Allan Brooks Nature Centre. If you take a quick visit the Allan Brooks Nature Centre website (https://abnc.ca) you will discover one of Vernon’s treasures. The Centre is committed to promoting the enjoyment of nature and increasing awareness of habitat conservation through environmental education and nature-related activities in the Okanagan region.
Now consider how Comox has valued our own Mack Laing.
Mack Laing was an adventurer, teacher, artist, photographer, writer, farmer and naturalist. He spent most of his life in Comox from 1922 to 1982. Over his lifetime, Laing published over seven hundred articles, twenty-two of which are in peer-reviewed scientific publications of his day. Laing accompanied ten important expeditions for the National Museum of Canada and three expeditions funded by Canada and the U.S, as a “collector- naturalist”. Laing collected over 10,000 vertebrate specimens in his lifetime, the majority for the National Museum. He is credited with discovering two species of mouse. Laing bequeathed his property to the Town of Comox in 1973 and lived in the house until his death in 1982. In his will Laing’s states:
“It is my wish that my home be retained for use in connection with the Nature Park… which I transferred to the Town of Comox on the 19th day of September 1973, it being my said desire… that my home remain on the property… and that the present living area could be developed for use as a public meeting place or natural history museum.”
Laing was devastated by the loss of his wife Ethel in 1944. They never had children. Based on the stories I’ve been told by the old-timers that knew Mack, he loved sharing his knowledge of the natural world with the children that he encountered. He was, after all, a teacher! It is my belief that Mack hoped that his property would serve as a small natural history museum to teach and inspire children.
If you take a stroll in Mack Laing Park, you might come across a stone cairn with a small plaque commemorating Mack Laing. Nearby you will find the home that Mack built with his own hands in a state of disrepair. At least the Town has had the decency to clean it up somewhat after it was vandalized with graffiti last year. The Town has completely ignored Laing’s will. The house was rented out just after Mack’s death to 2014. Over the years, the Town failed to maintain the house until it deteriorated to the point where it could no longer be rented. Since the last tenant moved out, the property has remained vacant with little or no upkeep. On top of that, the Town has misspent the money left by Laing’s estate. It gets even worse! The Town now is now attempting to alter the terms of the will in order to bulldoze Mack’s house.
What I find most tragic about this story is what might have been. Had the Town invested even a modicum of imagination and effort, the “Mack Laing Nature Centre” would be in operation today helping to educate our young people about the natural environment that all of us cherish.
So, who is the “Town of Comox” or the “Town” that has behaved so shamefully? There have been many mayors and councilors since Mack’s passing that must shoulder some of the blame. The Town’s administrator, Richard Kanigan, who is responsible for managing and maintaining the Town’s assets including Mack Laing’s property, certainly bears much of the responsibility for this tragedy. Ultimately, the “Town of Comox” is all of us, the residents. While the people of Vernon take pride in their Allan Brooks Nature Centre, we the people of Comox must collectively hang our heads in shame of failing to honour the dying wish of one of our local heroes to create a place for our children to discover the wonders of our natural world.
My hope is that the new members of council will open their eyes to the possibility of a Mack Laing Nature Centre and that in the future when I drive down Lazo and Hawkins, “VISION LIMITED” will simply refer to the road.
Good work George, thanx for keeping the all the feet to the fire.
And, I might watch too much baseball, but Mark I really think you got excellent wood on this one, actually belted it waaay into the bleachers!
PS, the coffee meeting with Russ, was on the monday before the Municipal Election.
I probably watch too much CNN but one advertisement they run I find to be enlightening. They show an apple and then they show a banana. Then they ask if the banana is an apple. Of course it isn’t.
The house is the apple. A platform is the banana. How could anyone think otherwise?
A trust is an agreement between two parties (contract). The town needs to finally accept the fact that they have broken the trust and work on ways to provide a modern equivalent.
Nature house, museum, interpretive centre are all apples. Platforms, patios and decks are all bananas.
Excellent report, but quite disappointing and disturbing our new mayor would undertake such statements in a coffee meeting outside of council chambers. Did he discuss this position with council privately prior to doing so? The new council members certainly impressed me in their approach to hearing this as spending such ridiculous amounts of civic dollars on challenging this trust isnt in the towns best interests.
I fully support moving forward with restoring the home and a nature house or visitors centre is an excellent idea. Everyone I have encountered on walks down there admires it and the story. Let’s retain and honour the spirit and intent of this history and gift.
Thanks Laila. The new council will have its chance to speak on this issue at tomorrow’s council meeting (Wednesday, Jan. 23). We’ll see then where their moral compass points.