Vivian Laaning Ch. 42

Vivian duly laughed at that anecdote, and thus encouraged Rick asked:

"Are you by any chance interested or aware of hockey and the NHL? As you know hockey is THE SPORT in Canada whereas, as I had already indicated, its not so much in the US."

Vivian assured him:

"Oh yes I do indeed know the sport. I've actually gone to a couple of University of Wisconsin games, and I've occasionally seen the Chicago Black Hawks on television."

Rick then replied:

"I'm glad to hear that since I'm aware that hockey in the US ranks behind football, baseball, basketball and even behind NASCAR racing. At least it ranks ahead of soccer which strangely enough is viewed as the No 1 sport in the rest of the world."

Vivian laughed and responded: "Touché!"

Rick went on to comment:

"You know that when the NHL first expanded to locate a franchise in Los Angeles, the first owner, not the one that engineered the Gretzky trade, was gleeful in anticipation of booming success. As he pointed out that there were in excess of 500,000 expatriate Canadians living in the greater Los Angeles area. After ticket sales were not as robust as he had expected he was known to mutter: 'How was I to know that these 500,000 were the only Canadians who could not stand hockey'."

Vivian laughed again enjoying his sense of humor. Rick continued with a new anecdote:

"Talking about the Los Angeles hockey team of course brings me back to the subject of Wayne Gretzky. Are you aware Vivian that he is known amongst hockey aficionados as 'the great one'?"

"Oh yes! Although I'm not a huge sports fan. I'm certainly aware of his fame and I've always been struck by his humbleness whenever I've seen him interviewed."

Rick replied:

"Exactly! That's why he is so revered in Canada. My wife told me of a play Gretzky made during a game that she had witnessed. She still remembered that the game occurred in Nov of 1982, when her father took her to Edmonton to see a game against Vancouver. During one instance in the game, Gretzky was controlling the puck behind his net, a patent situation for him as he was preparing to formulate an offensive attack.

"Suddenly, Gretzky passed the puck to a team mate who was at the red center line having slipped past the defense. As a result of the perfect pass, the team mate had a clear breakaway opportunity against the opposing gold tender. Unfortunately he did not score but that did not lessen the grandeur of the play and the pass.

"As Laura pointed out, in just about every case when a hockey player receives a pass from a team mate located behind him, he is looking back to ensure that he captures or traps the puck on his stick. In this case, Gretzky's team mate was skating straight ahead at full speed to the other side. He never looked back as he placed his stick on the ice to receive the anticipated pass.The puck, like magic made contact with his stick right at the red line to prevent an offside call. The fact that Gretzky's team mate had such confidence of the Great One's ability to make such a perfect pass was mind blowing."

Vivian was sufficiently cognizant of the intricacies of ice hockey that she could fully appreciate this remarkable account. However what disturbed her about his telling, was the frequent references of his deceased wife. If he felt incumbent to mention his wife in every anecdote, Vivian surmised that he would soon become maudlin and all hopes of sex would possibly evaporate. So she was determined to steer the conversation to topics which would most likely preclude mention of the saintly Laura. So she responded:

"Wow that sure was a great story about the great one!"

Rick chuckled at the alliteration, but even if that was deliberate by Vivian, he sensed that she was not being sarcastic. She continued:

"However to change the subject, Rick, you said you grew up in Timmins a northern town in Ontario. Can you tell me where the hell is your town located? I think you can't be surprised that I've no clue as to where it is, just as certain am I that you have no idea as to where my hometown of Lydiaville is in Wisconsin."

"You're right about that Vivian. All I know is that Milwaukee and Green Bay are in Wisconsin. And I know that Madison is the capital of your state but I admit that I could not readily locate it on the map. I also confess that I did not know that the University of Wisconsin was located in Madison as I'm aware that a lot of such big state universities are not necessarily located in the capital city of their states. Since I can name three cities in Wisconsin can you in return name three cities in Ontario?"

"Well let's see. I've always known about Toronto, and I know that Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and that it's in Ontario. Although like you I can't be certain that I can locate it on the map. I believe it is east of Toronto. And since we are in Niagara Falls, Ontario ergo I can indeed name three cities in Ontario; so there!"

"Bravo Vivian. You certainly did name three cities in Ontario just like I named three cities in Wisconsin. Although I might quibble with your choice of Niagara Falls since you are here, but then again I admit that I know of Green Bay only because I'm a sports fan who is cognizant of the fact that an NFL team located in that city.

"As for Timmins, Ontario it is located as follows: if you drive straight north from Toronto you will arrive at the city of Sudbury, which is known for its mining industry and has even a university located there. You need to drive a further three hours due north from Sudbury to reach Timmins. Thus, Timmins is so far north that you don't have to go too much further north to reach the Canadian tundra where the ground is perma frost. What is even most remarkable about such fact is that Timmins is not only south of London, UK, but also south of the Canadian-US border between Lake of the Woods and the Pacific Ocean. Such are the vagaries of our planet's geography and climate.

"In the 1970s, the city of Timmins amalgamated large surrounding tracts of land that momentarily it became the largest city in Canada by area. That was highlighted by the fact that if you are traveling from Sudbury, when you hit the city limits you will notice a huge 'Welcome to Timmins' sign. As you travel a further one KM north from that sign you will come across a distance sign that reads Timmins 22. That signifies KMs of course since Canada had become metric."

Vivian giggled and laughed at Rick's observations. Happily she knew she was now in safe territory to have him concentrate on her as the very current and sole female in his presence. So she asked:

"Well I certainly can understand your desire and joy to escape to the cosmopolitan culture of a world class city such as Toronto. It must have been dreary to practice law in the boondocks of Canada just south of barren land."

Rick protested:

"Au contraire my beautiful young American girl!"

Vivian's heart swelled at such words that seemed to indicate a one night's stand was almost a foregone conclusion. Rick continued:

"Law applies in equal measure to inhabitants of small villages the same as metropolitan areas populated by millions of souls. Mind you in rural areas more unusual cases occur than what would never occur in the big cities. In fact I had two such cases when I was a lawyer in Timmins which I knew would never occur while in Toronto."

Vivian eagerly urged:

"Oh yah? Please pray tell!"

"Although I've intimated that Timmins is located so far north, virtually on the edge of the Canadian tundra, nonetheless there is still some farming going on. My client was a lady in her fifties who was to put it gently slightly daft. Despite such sentient infirmity she owned a farm by herself, and owned fifteen farm horses in consequence. It was her practice that in February of each year, she would take a month's vacation to Jamaica, to escape the brunt of the cold harsh winters of northern Ontario.

"She was not friendly with her neighbors. She minded her own business, and thus she was not in the habit of asking for their assistance. When she left for her vacation she invariably left fifteen bales of hay which was sufficient for the horses' needs to survive the month. And this routine prevailed for at least twenty years without incident.

"Now it just so happened that this particular winter was one of the coldest, if not the coldest, harshest and severest winter of all time. The feed she had left for the horses proved to be inadequate. The horses needed to eat more to combat the severe cold. As a result the horses ate up all the hay within two weeks, and subsequently all of them died a cruel death of starvation.

"Naturally, my client became a local pariah, and Laura, suffered severe rebuke from any one she came into contact, for merely the dastardly fact that she was the wife of the lawyer defending the community's Cruella de Vil."

Vivian groaned in her own mind since it seemed like no matter how hard she tried, she could not avoid the mention of the saintly Laura Sikorski. Gritting her teeth she opined:

"Yes I can understand what condemnation your late wife must have encountered in a small community where everyone knows each other's business. I suppose your client was charged with some kind of statutory offence of cruelty to animals, and so what was the outcome?"

"Yes indeed, my client was charged with a Criminal Code offence of cruelty to animals causing death to the said animals. The interesting point of this case was the legal argument that ensued. Now Vivian if you do not already know, you will certainly learn from your Criminal Law class at law school, that in order for any criminal defendant to be convicted of a crime the prosecutor must prove the presence of two elements of the crime.

"By the way in Canada, we refer to the prosecutor of a criminal trial as either the Crown prosecutor, or simply as the Crown. This nomenclature is due in consequence of the fact that the Queen of England is still also the Queen of Canada. Anyway, the Crown in order to secure a conviction must prove, (a) that the defendant had committed the crime charged which is legally identified as 'Actus Rea', and (b) the defendant had the intention of committing the said crime known as 'Mens Rea' or in layman's terms possessed a guilty mind.

"In our case the 'Actus Rea' was not an issue since it was obvious that my client had not provided an adequate supply of food for her horses to survive the severe winter in her absence. However did she really intend for her horses to die? That was of course a different kettle of fish.

"In order to assert the presence of 'Mens Rea' the Crown in his closing argument advanced the proposition that my client was absolutely negligent and foolhardy in not providing adequate food for the horses. She should have realized by the preceding January that the winter for that year was unusually severe and she should have realized that she should have provided more feed than usual. That she did not was tantamount to the deliberate intention of allowing her horses to die.

"Now it was obvious to me, and I daresay to the judge, and most certainly to the Crown prosecutor that such argument was very weak and not all legally persuasive. So the Crown reframed his argument in a different sort of way to prove his point, but demonstrably he was confronted with a similar lack of success. Undaunted the Crown tried a third tact of debate to convince the judge that there was the presence of 'Mens Rea' in this case. This effort got nowhere as well. Still like a dog not wanting to surrender its bone, the Crown tried one more time to advance his repetitious contention. Unfortunately for him, this time without thinking he started by uttering these words, which was a well known trite saying: 'Now I do not wish to flog a dead horse'...

"Upon hearing this, I bent my head down making contact with the top of the court desk surface, in order to contain and suppress the laughter that was engulfing me. I noticed that the judge to his credit had retained a stoic face, but the Crown turned beet red in his face. He immediately sat down, as he could no longer continue. My client was subsequently acquitted."