January 01, 2005
GLENCOE 2019Ewen Campbell had returned to the "site of the crime" so to speak, to Glencoe. His release from prison the previous day filled him with the need to review the circumstances of his past life before he could feel free to deal with the future. A twenty five year life sentence for first degree murder had been reduced to fifteen years for good behavior thanks to Canadas friendly laws. While Ewen never denied the crime, he did not, at any time, feel that what he had done was wrong. In Ewens mind murder was acceptable under certain circumstance. The murder of the person whom Ewen held responsible for what he found in Glencoe, on his release from prison, only served to confirms, in his mind, that he had done the right thing by putting an end to Mister Jack OBrien, former Superintendent of the board of education.
The murder , as he thought back, was necessary because all else had failed in his attempt to save Glencoe District High School from being closed by the Board of Education. Ewen had found a rebuilding clause in the insurance policy for the school which led him to burn down the school so that the school would have to be rebuilt. The board would surely not close a brand new school. The new school opened in September 2004.
The official opening was cause for great celebration among the locals and among the officialdom of the Board of Education. Ewen and the members of his committee to save the high school played a major role in the organization of the ceremonies. Speeches were given by politicians and the board administration. Ewen gained particularly great satisfaction from hearing Jack OBrien, the person who was most determined to close the school, say what a great victory it was for the community to have this new school.
The grand opening ceremonies were held on a Thursday evening in late November. It was cold outside and all in attendance were glad to be indoors in the new gym of the new school. While "Ewens Victory" was being celebrated Jack OBrien had already organized the final chapter in the history of Glencoe District High School.
While the village slept soundly in the knowledge that the future of the community had just become much more secure with the opening that they had attended the evening before, the fire sirens sounded very loud in the crisp early morning air. If anyone had been listening they would have heard them heading in the direction of the newly opened high school.
The new high school was on fire, in fact by the time firemen arrived there was little they could do except keep the flames from spreading as the building was destroyed. As word slowly spread at the early hour of four oclock in the morning, people started to assemble to watch yet another high school burn to the ground. Ewens phone had continued to ring after the first call, but he was not there to hear for he was standing, as with the previous fire, with fellow community members helplessly watching the blaze. But it was different this time because he had not set this fire, nor did he know who had.
The Fire Marshalls investigation pointed to an electrical problem in the furnace room of the new school. The exact cause of the blaze was never to be established, but when the Board of Education announced that Glencoe District High School would not be rebuilt a second time Ewen felt defeated and suspicious.
The insurance policy for the new school did not include a rebuilding clause. The money paid out by the insurance company would not have to be used to build a new school in Glencoe. A new school could, and would be built elsewhere announced Superintendent OBrien.
Ewens frustration could not be contained. His obsession with keeping the high school open had him prepared to do anything. Ewen was very sure that Jack OBrien had achieved his goal the same way that Ewen had tried to achieve his own. But Jack had won, or so he thought. Ewen was determine that Jack would not enjoy a victory that ,in Ewens mind, would turn Glencoe into a ghost town. Ewens grandfather had been a provincial police office many years before, and his service revolver had passed into his grandsons hands. That it was illegal to possess such a weapon in the modern era was far from Ewens mind as he inspected and cleaned the hand gun. There was a clip of ammunition in the bottom of the box in which the gun had been stored.
With loaded weapon in hand Ewen set out to deal with OBrien. No thought was given to the consequences of his planned course of action for it was right and just, and something only Ewen could accomplish. He knew OBrien had a meeting at the Board office that evening and he was going to be there to confront Jack when he left his meeting. Ewen arrived precisely at eight thirty and sat in his car in the parking lot waiting for Mister Jack OBrien to appear. He felt no need to practice with the weapon that he had never fired in his while life because he knew that he would be very close to his target, and that even he could not miss.
He did not miss, nor did he try to escape from the area. He patiently waited until the police arrived, explained the situation, as he saw it, and was arrested on suspicion of murder.
While Ewen pleaded not guilty because he deemed his deed a public service, and while his court appointed lawyer had wanted him to plead temporary insanity, he was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to twenty five years in jail, with no possibility of parole for fifteen years.
He was a model prisoner. By the time Ewen was released on probation he had earned a business degree from a prominent university so that upon his release the possibility of finding gainful employment seemed great.
He had to return to Glencoe, although he had no intention of staying for long. His former life was gone. His wife had divorced him while he was in prison and had long-since remarried.
Most of his close family members were dead, several having died while he was in prison, so he had no reason to stay, but he had to see what had happened.
The sign on the edge of town was the first clue that things had changed greatly in his absence. It no longer said "Population 2500". It now said " Population 300". It was worse than even Ewen had predicted. The town was almost non-existent. The car-parts factories on the edge of town were both gone. They had both been replace by huge pig barns. Many of the houses were boarded-up or were gone completely. The downtown now consisted of a of a single enterprise, a combination grocery store, hardware store, post office, service station , clothing store and restaurant. The store had a big sign out front that said COMPCO, which Ewen learned stood for Commercial Pig Company. COMPCO owned the pig farms that had replaced the factories, along with everything else in town, including the only enterprise that had existed fifteen years before, namely the Funeral Home. It was also owned by COMPCO. The three churches that had marked the corner of Concession and Main street for over a century were gone.The spaces now occupied COMPCO farm buildings, including a corporate office. When Ewen arrived at the site of the former high school, he was well prepared, although still shocked to find another huge COMPCO pig barn on this site. Every where Ewen turned there was evidence of COMPCOs influence. The only people around worked for COMPCO. Since the company owned all the property in and around the town, if you didn,t work for COMPCO you had neither living space nor a job, therefore you were forced to leaved town.
Ewen found one person that he had known fifteen years before. Jim MacDonald had been a local farmer fifteen years ago. He said he sold his farming operation when the high school closed because everyone said that property values would be going down a lot with the closure of the high school. Jim had no pension and therefore he figure that when he was approached by a real estate agent, on behalf of an anonymous client ,with a good offer, after some consideration he felt obliged to sell. Apparently many of his neighbours, as well as many of the people in town were approached with similar offers. The closure of the high school had everyone nervous enough not to discuss their offers with their neighbours and friends. They had been led to believe they alone had received such an offer. Those that chose not to sell, within a year found that most of the land was owned by one owner, a company they had never heard of called COMPCO. They were faced with owning land or houses that they could sell to no one other than COMPCO because COMPCO had announced that it was in the pig farming business and that it intended to used the property purchased to start a very large pig operation.
And sell they did. COMPCO was the only buyer, at punitive prices . Within two years of the closing of the high school Glencoe ,as a community, ceased to exist. Jack OBrien paid with his life, and Ewen paid with the loss of his battle, of his family and of fifteen years of his life to say nothing of his community. The World, Canada and Ontario lost Glencoe. . "Big Loss!" said some. But......Pig Farm?
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