When Barney’s Dad died, his mother had a difficult time coping with the loss of her husband. Barney, his brother and his two sisters were all “sent away” to different private schools. At  eight years old, still trying to recover from the absence of his father, a move into the harsh discipline of British style boarding school was not easy.

“It might as well have been reform school. In 1958 they were pretty rough with the kids. I had a teacher who beat me with a cane in front of the other students. They wanted to scare us. It was effective,” explained Barney.

“It’s not an excuse, and I ultimately blame myself, but most of the anger I had in later life and my motivation for getting into so many fights came from the violence I was introduced to in private school.”

The bottom photo is from the City of Vancouver archives, taken by Jack Lindsay. It shows a cell similar to the ones Barney would see later in life.

(Private school photo by ell brown)