Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 21, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sunday Magazine focus it Frik May critics dont understand Youthful Zeal skateboarders my of passion Book birdwatching groups and hockey teams All serve a general purpose places for like minded folks to come together and share a As an avid Gardener once explained to you May not have anything else in common but you know a bit of what is inside another when you discover someone who likes or at least reads the same books As finding another person who has humiliated themselves by crying or laughing aloud in Public while Reading Roddy Doyle is there Are passions shared and understood by most of for some when people under 18 share a passion it is called a of there Are gangs that want to be known As a that is their particular passion or family or but what about other regular kids who happen to like skateboard ing i am a skater mom and my son is presently nursing a bruised foot from his most recent leap Over a stack of decks skateboards trying to accomplish a specific each jump has a an a a i know some of the i have never quite understood the hostility towards several years ago in old i escaped the government sponsored buskers to a less crowded spot where the skaters Hung i ate my hot dog and watched a group of Montreal boys put on a decidedly More exciting show than Pierre the Clown making weird balloon these boys ran the same Gamut with Eva Weidman Over and patterning a Down a ramp meant for up and Over the Low Marble benches and a final grind on the Granite some of them had been there for More than four hours doing this same most were willing to spend the Day and night perfecting that one the Odd tourist who came by paused for a minute or two to watch then went Back to i thought these Between 12 and were fair representatives of Montreal so i pulled out my notebook and camera and interviewed the the article was later published in a Funky Magazine of is now it did allow me to claim the expense for six Days on a greyhound and a Little Joie de the skaters loved being inter they told me everything about skating in about watching for the cops and scattering when a police car comes into about the Security guards who Are too fat to Chase them very mostly they talk about Why the place Vauquelin just North of place Jacques Cartier is such a Good place to they skate until Paus ing now and again to Wax their boards or watch someone else most have to be Home by or at 9 on a wednesday night at a Community i think about these Mon Treal boys and their ease talking to a Complete Anglo woman from the they were Nice like the boys in watching boys Between 10 and 15 waxing the Cement Edge of a Concrete ledge in front of the Community rolling past me and the they Are fixated on one thing and one thing the some enterprising Young christians have recognized this leaping passion and created the an old warehouse behind the concert Hall full of ramps and the Edge has nights for inline and after a couple of hours everyone takes a break for god my son is no big they just talk about they have even had a an avid then Tysom ething skater who talked about Faith and skating and his new life As a he shocked the group when he told them some Day they would love their wives More than incomprehensible to my imag Ine liking anything More than his at his sin Gle minded Devotion to a curved piece of Wood on four wheels is con fronted with a caretaker at the Community club tells the boys to go a woman at a bus Stop glares at them As they go the weird old Guy at the Corner store mumbles and curses Canadian press skateboarders Are a misunderstood the Mother of one has Why this is the question my son has asked i have no there is some attitude of rebellion that hangs Over their baggy pants and mysterious a resentment of their of their Devotion to a skill most of us have never tried the boys in Montreal said the Best skaters Are in the weather is compatible with skateboarding almost year the season May be Shorter in Winnipeg and but the passion be slice of life is a weekly column featuring Manitoba Eva Weidman is a Winnipeg author of Short letters to the the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email . Turenne tale a Complex Issue regarding the Monique Turenne Story of May 6 and 7 Given the complexity of this Story and the number of people i commend Dan Lett on presenting As objective and thorough a piece of journalism As i have read in a Long i think it should interest your readers to know that it was Monique Turenne who initially contacted Lett some six months and he has doggedly Pur sued this Story since there Are surprisingly few although there Are a few Dave was an not a if youre an air it Dave has three no Dave was not found lying face Down on the but on a Cobblestone path which accounts in part for the bruising and abrasions on the right Side of this As described in the autopsy Moniques statement was not read aloud to family members at Daves funeral at that time we were told Only of Ralph Crompton arrest no mention was made of his relationship to Moniques statement was read to us i at my mothers Home a Short time Dave had no inexplicable financial As the executor of Daves i have intimate knowledge of these he and Monique owned property in Adolphe for which he paid us per month in mortgage to the owner and can per year in their two vehicles had been Pur chased with Dave paid can a month in rent for his House Over and above his Shel Ter his chequebook duplicates and Cheque registers show regular payments to the phone Compa Utility to satellite com bottled water and pest All in his pay stubs show his pay and allowances and regular a source payments for a the childrens education fund and a life insurance All the items Ive noted exceed the size of his pay and i Haven even counted car and Dave and Monique lived Well above their Means and it caught up with there is no mystery Here the paper Trail is easy to follow if you choose to look for it rather than specs v i also have a couple of observations regarding the inconsistencies in some of the witnesses stories according to Ralph Cromp ton concocted an elaborate rented a lied to at least five and drove for eight and a half hours to have a sexual encounter for an hour or after which he would go out and sleep in the after knocking quietly on the Patio he received no he decided to leave Well enough Crompton turned to what reasonable person could believe anyone would go to All this trouble and leave after one quiet Knock and All that just for sex with Monique Turenne apparently the jury didst buy it according to Monique now claims the confession was coerced and that police forced her to sign a state ment they which is it either Monique under duress told them what she thought they wanted to or they presented her with a completed statement and forced her to sign there Are two different accounts Given in the same which one Are we supposed to believe in sure the citizens of Winnipeg would like to know which methods of coercion and Force Are in Vogue these Days at the Winnipeg police and a comment or if i to Marilyn Crompton As sorry As i am for you and your you can Call or visit Ralph Crompton As often As his incarceration and your intentions do you think we have closure because David is dead do you really think we Ever will to Ralph Crompton Alice Simard i also believe that Ralph Crompton is where he Howe i would never wish four years of incarceration on a Man who did Noth ing More than lie and cheat on his or even walk away from my unconscious to whom it May concern the Candy at the grave site is a Nice touch if the children put it Daves Mother and i feel the Little bouquet of dried Flowers we made looked just As Nice and there would have been room up picture Archive scene at the Turenne family Home in Panama where major David Turenne was found beaten to for the Candy Cane As Patrice Turenne Lac Dubonnet Story starts Down Road to truth wed like to thank Dan Lett for his Story on David there is Stich a Story to begin we feel Dan Lett has begun to pave the Road to the if the profession Al Law officials had performed their jobs As this Story would have had a different the truth of Davids tragic death will be told and when it Justice will finally be we Pray that David Turenne Fame Lys Vigil will end soon and the truth will our deepest sympathy on your Alice Simard Ralph Crompton family new Hampshire dont give up sense of Community in Reading the article on the destruction of the Canadian wheat it struck me that the ideals of Community Are no longer present in our in every individual self interest is valued More than Community the seemingly inevitable Prospect that the Canadian wheat Board will no longer exist is one of the Many signs that this is the evolution of Canadian the article said an estimated 30 per cent of individual Farmers wish to attempt to sell their product on the world they obviously feel that they can ride the ups and Downs of the Market without benefiting from giving to the wheat Board to ensure Protection in the Long though a different Many citizens feel that they would be better served if the individual participated in the Market in terms of education and health these individuals have a sense that one person can Benefit More than lose from privatization the states provision of All these ser vices restricts some people in Benefit ing but it also lessens the blow when people if previous Canadian generations had anything better then this present they had a sense of How to develop a Community so that the majority would with mini Mal loss and while i May Dis agree with Many of the aspects of it does build so my message to All who want privatization Over Public real ize this a minority will the majority will in the Canadian canadians while we Are specialists in Public we have Little experience in providing Public goods As private the Only firms in the world that do Are Ameri americans rely on the past for the feeling of while in reality there is a serious Lack of Community in the United the Only Benefit to Hying in Canada is the sense of beyond that there is Lincoln Winnipeg Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 com Mnew 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member the Manitoba Pren Council Rudy 8mallrudyredekop@freepress.mb.ca Nicholas Hirst Patrick Flynn Deputy editor ;