The Ottawa Citizen du lieu suivant : Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 7

The Ottawa Citizen, Sunday, October 22, 1995 A7 DENIS COOLICAN Ottawa-Carleton's first regional chair governed with grace By Peter Hum Citizen municipal affairs reporter Denis Coolican, Ottawa-Carleton's first regional chairman and a leader in local politics from the 1950s to the 1970s, has died. The robust man, who colleagues say governed with patience and respect, died Friday night at the Ottawa General Hospital, surrounded by family. He had fallen a few days earlier and did not regain consciousness. He was 82. Born in Ottawa in 1913, Coolican throughout his life was an achiever with high standards, a leader in three levels of politics, a business executive and a war time commander.

"He was a great gentleman above all. They don't make them like that anymore," said Andrew Haydon, who succeeded Coolican as regional chair. Headlines almost 30 years ago often referred to Coolican as "super But, for all his achievements, he was not one for hyperbole or shows of force. "He was honest and said things to cessful." "Perhaps I haven't had a high profile, but I think I have got a few things done," Coolican said in a 1972 interview. Coolican grew up in Ottawa, the son of Peter Coolican, a former assistant deputy postmaster of Canada.

He graduated from Glebe Collegiate and received chemical engineering and science degrees from McGill University and the University of Ottawa. During the Second World Wat, Coolican served with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer reserve, commanding HMCS Ungava and retiring as a lieutenant commander. After the war, he joined the Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd. and rose to become its president. He resigned in 1965 to become a vicepresident with Brazilian Traction Light and Power Co.

Ltd. He had already become immersed in Ottawa politics. He was reeve of Rockcliffe from 1956 to 1966. In 1960, he became warden of Carleton County. CITYLIFE In 1968, the Ontario government appointed Coolican chairman of the newly created Region of Ottawa-Carleton.

"We sometimes called him Metro's golden mayor, after the film company," joked his son Murray. When Coolican began that job, the regional chairman made $30,000 a year and council's first meeting was held at the Laurier. He held the position until he retired at age 65, creating consensus between the disparities of rural and urban councillors. "He had a knack for bringing people together," said Murray Coolican. "That was the secret of his success." The Richmond Road building that houses the region's social services department is named for Coolican.

It is a tribute, Haydon said, to a "very passionate, caring person." Away from public life, Coolican was an outdoorsman who built his log cottage on the Rideau Lakes. An avid canoeist, he took lengthy trips in the north, recreating the expe- -Rod Maclvor, Citizen James Shepherd left behind his room at the Rideau Veterans Home, on left, for cheerier digs at the Perley and Rideau Veterans Centre on Russell Road on Saturday. complex Shepherd, as he surveyed his new digs. His private room has a large builtin closet and a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooks a baseball field. Little league teams will be invited to play there, said Rideau Veterans home spokeswoman Tamara Macpherson.

There's also a communal kitchen down the hall that Shepherd can book for family visits. His wife, who is also in ill lives with the couple's son in Ottawa. Making life easier The new complex has a spacious auditorium, a chapel, games and crafts rooms, a hair salon and even a pub, decorated with cozy dark green tables and chairs chosen by the residents. It's designed to make life easier for the many residents who need wheelchairs or have trouble walking. There are extra-large elevators, lots of ramps, wide hallways, and even garden plots raised to wheelchair level.

As for the old residence, no one at Saturday's move knew its fate and likely, no one cared. Veterans leave cramped quarters for Soldiers bid adieu to Rideau Vets Home after 50 years By Jacquie Miller Citizen staff writer After 50 years, the old soldiers at Rideau Veterans Home finally will be able to enjoy rooms of their own. For the 130 veterans who live at the home, Saturday was moving day. They were transported in a fleet of buses from their cramped, dreary huts on Smyth Road near the Ottawa General Hospital to a sprawling, new complex on Russell Road. The two-storey brick centre is comfortable, but hardly luxurious.

It looks like a college dorm, where everyone has his own compact room. But it's a palace compared to the old place. The huts on Smyth Road were thrown up as "temporary" buildings after the Second World War to house injured veterans. The men shared accommodation four, six and sometimes even eight to a room. OPINION Loranger acquittal answers nothing but public's suspicions about justice eerie voice rose above a crowd A that Lunited was by anger paralysed and by grief, disbelief.

"How can you look in the mirror in the morning and live with hope to God your son or daughter isn't killed by a drunk driver:" Nancy Peplinski was shouting at defence lawyer Michael Edelson, who had just emerged from courtroom eight. Minutes earlier, his client, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Serge Loranger, had been acquitted of charges of failing to stop at the scene of the accident that killed 16-year-old Shayne Norris. More than a year ago, Peplinski's son was killed by hit and run driver, who never faced trial and served only two months for failing to stop at the scene of an accident. Peplinski raged at what she saw as another injustice, Loranger's acquittal.

Members of the public outside the courtroom cheered her on. But this day, this acquittal, was expected by many who sat in the courtroom during Loranger's trial, listening to bizarre, startling and contradictory ditions of voyageurs. As a golfer, he shot in the 80s. In an era when anglophones who learned French were uncommon, Coolican was bilingual and insisted that his children be schooled in French for a year. A 1962 Ottawa Journal profile of Coolican reads: "Mr.

Coolican believes that it is essential to Canadian unity to be bilingual." In the mid-1980s, a tornado wiped out Coolican's cottage and most of the nearby trees. Coolican, then in his 70s, was determined to see it rebuilt. "He began to plant trees," his son recalled. "He spent a lot of time in the last few years, looking after the trees. This summer, he was doing it." Coolican is survived by his wife, four sons and 11 grandchildren.

His family is to receive visitors at the McEvoyShields funeral home on Kent Street on Monday afternoon and early evening. His funeral is to be held Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., at Blessed Sacrament Church on Fourth Avenue. Denis Coolican was a war veteran and political leader the point. that was his style," Haydon said Saturday. "In his quiet way, he got the job done.

He was extremely suc- Quarters were so cramped that the next bed was often only a few feet and a hospital curtain away. Long-time resident George Banning, 71, says he didn't mind roommates. "By and large, most of them were good Joes." But he missed his privacy. "Sometimes you have a cold, and you know during the night you get a tickle in your throat? You do everything to try not to cough, but it ends up you've got to cough. Then the next morning your friend goes by your bed and says, 'I see you haven't got rid of your cold Saturday, for the first time in 20 years, Banning could shut the door to his own room and be alone.

"Now, I can yell blue murder, knock the wall down, and nobody is going to say I'm making too much noise," he joked. $65-million complex The Rideau Veterans Home is the first of three institutions that will move into the $65-million complex on Russell Road. Next spring, 200 patients from the Perley Hospital and 50 from the National Defence Medical Centre will move in. Shelley Page evidence. There was never going to be any other outcome, because there simply wasn't enough evidence to prove Loranger knew he had struck a teenage boy instead of a deer.

The outcome of the trial was decided on the night of the tragedy. Obviously, Loranger was not forthcoming about his actions, but in the hours after the crash, evidence-gather ing was feeble, and that is one of the many troubling circumstances in this. case. Following the acquittal, Edelson himself was surprisingly frank in appraising how his client was handled Wine auction leaves bidders in high spirits By Daniel Drolet Citizen staff writer In all, the new centre will have 450 long term care beds. Saturday afternoon, Rideau Veterans resident James Shepherd, 76, was sitting in his wheelchair, briefcase in his lap, waiting for the bus to take him to Russell Road.

He lived at the Smyth Road residence for only 18 months, but that was long enough. His room, shared with three others, has drab wood paneling and a tiny closet. "It's bloody murder to tell you the truth," says Shepherd. "I'm damn glad to see the back of this place. After 50 years, they should have it turned into a cat's home.

But I don't think it would be fair to the cats." The washroom was down the hall, and shared with about 20 others. Some men would get up at 6 a.m. to grab space at a wash basin to shave. The "lounge" down the hall was a smoky, dingy room with a few old chairs and a television. By mid-afternoon Saturday, Shepherd was being wheeled through the doorway of the new complex.

"I think this is just fine. It's bloody terrific, as a matter of fact," said following the crash. "There are a lot of disturbing elements to this case," he said in an interview, referring in particular to the glaring contradictions in the testimony of two police officers on the scene that night, and the lack of questions asked of those involved. Said Edelson: "Once you make a determination that you have an accident involving something other than an inanimate object something other than a tree or a pole -I think the public has a right to expect some greater detail about the incident. After all, it is the stock and trade of police officers to ask questions." What did Loranger see before the collision? What made him think Norris was a deer? Where was Loranger's car on the road when the collision occurred? What did he do after the collision? Did he stop? Why didn't he call for assistance with his cellular phone? None of these questions were asked that night.

Loranger admitted to the investigating officer that he drank some beer. Why wasn't he asked how much, over Maybe, some days soon, they will uncork their prizes, and savor them as quietly and das intently as they bought them. But most of the wine connoisseurs who took part Saturday in the third annual Arts Court Wine Auction will probably be content to squirrel away their purchases, waiting patiently until they and their bottled treasures are ripe for the inevitably brief consummation of their relationship. The auction, at the Arts Court Theatre, was a fund raiser for the Arts Court Foundation and the Ottawa Art Gallery. It was an intimate affair, without bustle.

The crowd was small about 40 and serious in intent. They gathered before the auction to appraise 400 bottles divided into 233 bidding lots. You have to be serious if you plan to drop $500 for the fleeting pleasure of tasting a 1961 Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac, or $180 for a mystery bottle from the early 19th century, believed to contain port, madeira or chartreuse. A wine auction is not a place for anyone who blanches at the thought of paying more than, say, $10 or $15 for a bottle of wine. The range was not unusual.

A bottle of Graves 1983, for example, went for $75; a bottle of Alsacian Schlumberger Christine Gewurztraminer 1983 sold for $120. The highest bid for a single bottle, a 1975 Petrus Pomerol, was a wallet-wilting $525. The bidding was quiet and wellmannered, but the cognescenti had done their homework. "I've been doing a lot of reading," said Sheldon Lepinsky, a newcomer to the wine appreciation game, explaining that you had to know what year was good in what region. Ann De Witt, an active bidder with a small cellar at home, said she'd done wine tours in Europe and seen what the wines cost at the vineyards.

She came prepared to spend some money -for a good cause, of course. After expenses, the auction raised about $10,000 each for the Arts Court and the Ottawa Art Gallery. The wines on auction were donated, said Nico van Duyvenbode, chairman of the wine auction committee. And the drawing card was that many are not generally available in Canada. what period of time? When Loranger, who had claimed to have collided with a deer, admitted to drinking, why was he not immediately given a test to determine blood alcohol level? Loranger's friend, public servant Glen Seguin, was allowed to go home after the body was found, without questioning, even though the two had been drinking together and Seguin was a potential witness, having followed Loranger home in another car.

It may seem like Const. Mark Gatien, the investigating officer, was part of some grand conspiracy to aid Loranger, but the trial revealed something else: Gatien's confusion on how to deal with a fellow police officer, and difficulty with treating him as a suspect and not as a colleague. Gatien seemed to believe that as an officer, Loranger would aid an investigation. He was shocked, for example, that a fellow officer would give a fake name. Evident gathering was also hindered by the involvement of another officer, Loranger's friend Const.

Ray Lamarre, who found the body but did- n't help lead investigators to it, and who called Loranger's boss instead of police with his cellular. When a police officer is involved in the injury or death of a person, the province's Special Investigations Unit is called in. In this case, it was two hours before a body was located, delaying the involvement of the SIU. By that time, Loranger refused to speak to them, ensuring that what really happened that night would never be known. There must be specific, enforceable guidelines that take effect when one police officer investigates another.

It's just too difficult and in many ways unfair- for an officer to have to investigate another. Edelson himself said that Norris's family had the right to some answers. A coroner's inquest is desperately needed into the hours after the crash to find out exactly what could have been done to ensure that crucial questions were asked. As it is, this trial served to answer nothing but the public's suspicions that there are two systems of justice, whether by accident or design. (V.