Wednesday, March 29, 1967

but it came from him anyway. Those words at that time. “Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

Some Member: Whose words?

Frank Myers: What’s his name? Sigsworth. I didn’t want to mention his name but the Premier forced it on me and what else could you do.

Walter R. Shaw: Give it to him.

Frank Myers: “Thou are weighed in the balance and found wanting.” I want you to remember those words as I go along and they are significant if they just had a little more meaning. But anyway this is what we are up against and no doubt I lose as much sleep over this as the Premier does, perhaps more. The reason may be that perhaps he doesn’t realize it but I am very much afraid in the not too distant ‘ future he will. (Laughter). Oh gosh, don’t laugh; this is bad you know.

There is one thing and I made a note of it here when the Premier was speak- ing. He mentioned about being dissatisfied about our jails here in this province. I back him one hundred percent on that. It is a serious situation in one way but your Committee visited the one in Summerside yesterday and it was very nice in- deed. In fact out here at Queens County jail it was wonderful, it was clean. every- thing perfect, immaculate you might call it with what they have to work with. Now I gave this quite a bit of consideration since listening to him and I know he was sin- cere while mentioning it when he said he was unhappy about the situation, but it all takes money. In 1955 I had an opportunity to visit a jail farm in British Colum- bia with 1240 patients, I was going to say patients, but prisoners there. Twelve hundred and forty inmates or prisoners and I was quite a “big shot” for a while that afternoon.- I met the Warden and he pressed a button somewhere on the side of the desk and in stepped this other fellow and stood to attention and he said, “Take this gentleman where he so desires." I spent the whole afternoon there driving around in a jeep and what an inspiration to see what had taken place there. Those prisoners were all in different gangs, one gang was looking after horses, another gang cows. pigs. and another gang working in a machine shop, and at that time they were turning out license plates for the cars in British Columbia. I thought that it pretty nice to see that and I talked to some of the boys there and they all seemed more or less to have an interest in what they were doing. That was interpretation, in fact I had another opportunity to visit Spry Hill Jail, an old jail, but I had the privilege and the opportunity to visit another new jail just twenty miles outside of Calgary and what a place that was. I don’t know how many prisoners were there at that time but it was a very huge institution with a farm connected with it, and those prisoners they know what they are supposed to do every day. To give you an idea what the Warden told me. He said, “We don’t force them to work. There was a big burly chap came in here just a few days ago and they were all lined up to go to the different oc'cupations for the day but this fellow refused to go. He didn’t want to have any display of dissatisfaction or dissent there so he just told him to please wait until after the rest had left. So he asked him what was wrong when he didn’t want to go out to work with the boys. He said he didn't come here to work, but to serve time.” Oh he said, “That is perfectly all right.” So they put him back in his cell and they didn’t allow him very many visitors, didn’t give him anything to read and in two weeks time he wanted out — wanted to meet the Warden — so he met the Warden and he said to the Warden, “I am fed up with this; I’ll go anywhere you want me to go, and I'll do what you want me to do.” Now that was the reaction of that one prisoner alone. He didn’t want to participate in any of the work there but he came to it because those boys don’t work hard. I was among them.

Frank Jardine: How long were you there?

Frank Myers: I spent the whole afternoon in each one and it was something I will never forget. In fact one prisoner was going out and I said to — it wasn’t the Warden — one of the other boys was showing me around. I said, “Where is that fellow going?” He'said, “That fellow looks after the pigs, and we are expecting a litter and he just goes and comes day or night it doesn’t make any difference." In fact out here the other day there was a chap out cutting ice at a gate and I went over — perhaps I shouldn’t have said it — but I thought I would like to try him

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