Silver Donald Cameron (1937–2020)

In June 2013, three upstanding citizens of a small Cape Breton town cold-bloodedly murdered their neighbour, Phillip Boudreau, at sea. While out checking their lobster traps, two Landry cousins and skipper Dwayne Samson saw Boudreau in his boat about to vandalize their lobster traps, as he'd often done before.

Boudreau was a small-time criminal who had terrorized and entertained Petit de Grat for two decades. He had been in prison for nearly half his adult life. He was funny and frightening, loathed, loved, and feared. One neighbour says he would "steal the beads off Christ's moccasins"--then give the booty away to someone in need. He would taunt his victims, and threaten them with arson if they reported him. He was accused of one attempted rape. Meanwhile the police and the Fisheries officers were frustrated, cowed, and hobbled by shrinking budgets. Boudreau seemed invincible, willing and able to plague the village forever.

The author argues that the killing was a direct reaction to credible and dire threats that the authorities were powerless to neutralize. In addition to being a good courtroom drama, this book raises larger themes of power and law, security and self-respect. It raises a disturbing question: Are there times when taking the law into your own hands is not only understandable but justifiable?… (mehr)

An alternative title could well have been The Flight of the Snowbird!

Called “Silver” Donald (to differentiate him from other celebrated Cape Breton Cameron’s), the author, a favored Columnist and Broadcaster in Canada, was an experienced sailor before this 3000 mile trip down the ICW and East Coast of America. His previous writing cover some of those previous cruises, along and into the challenging coasts and lives of his fellow Maritime countrymen. This time with his wife, and their dog, they undertake to motor-sail a classic Norwegian double-ender he christens Magnus away from the Canadian vicious winter to the sun of Florida and the Bahamas.

This descriptive travelogue is typical of his observant and very witty thoughts and comments on the peoples and histories he encounters, evident in his books, columns and broadcasts. Through a sometimes troublesome cruise of breakdowns and groundings – he blames some Scandinavian Trolls that live in the bilge and caper about in the type of jolly mischief so beloved in other Celtic ‘small people’- the Cameron’s find this to be a pleasurable voyage of discovery.

Of course, being from Cape Breton wherever they go – particularly in the Bahamas - there are other ‘Acadians’ with the resulting whiskey, wind and music, with the Trolls joining in of course.

A delightful read, a sailing-cruise romp, and a truly useful guide to the Inter-Coastal Waterways stops and cities.… (mehr)