River and was occupying the town. I’ll call this militia the Telephone Pole Army.
The first sign that a force had invaded the area were these guys scooting up and down the highway
and roads on these small military-style golf cart-size vehicles with signs attached to them that said
“BC Hydro Contractor.” I noticed that they seemed to be doing telephone pole maintenance of
some kind.
Then on Sunday, January 18 when I went out I saw one of those BC Hydro golf carts drive past me
and zip down the side of the highway and scoot down a road about a block away from where I live.
I wonder if that guy’s going to hit my house today? I thought with concern. There’s a pole on my
property next to my home and I definitely wanted to be around if they were going to be doing any
work in my yard. Nonetheless, I pushed my worry aside and went on my way.
But guess what? Some asshole DID hit my house while I was out! When I got home that day I
found that someone had breached my property line and had gone to my home and slashed a path to
the electricity pole next to my house and cleared the bushes around the pole. Whoever had done it
had waited till I was out before trespassing on my property. In my mind I saw a machete-wielding
Jason from Friday the 13th stalking through my yard searching for my pole that afternoon when I
was gone. Was it the guy I saw on the BC Hydro golf cart? Had he been spying on me? Sure as
hell looked that way. Yet another classic PR “gotcha” just like those other PR gotchas where all the
money got cleaned out of my bank accounts and ICBC started harassing me with phony lawsuits.
There’s a certain class of government employee in this town that conducts himself like a total
criminal and whoever went to my house that day was one of them. And it wasn’t even the first
loony thing to happen since the beginning of the New Year. A couple weeks previously I’d been
sitting in my living room when all of a sudden A WOMAN ON A HORSE nonchalantly rode past
my window in my yard! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! I’ve witnessed a lot of zany activity
over the past few years, but I’d never had a woman on horseback ride into my yard before! The
thing is, surreptitiously invading someone’s property without permission to clear part of their yard is
right down there at the same gutter-level with a mentally challenged bitch who thinks nothing of
taking a large, shit-excreting animal to someone’s home! IT’S ALL FUCKING CRAZY!!!
And yes, the telephone pole activity in my yard WAS totally illegal! Nobody, including BC Hydro
or Telus, has the right to undertake any endeavor on private property without the prior consent of
the owner. And just what the fuck were they doing there anyway? Spraying a poisonous herbicide
or pesticide in my yard? Installing surveillance equipment? Conducting a search? Who knows?
Nonetheless, it is exceedingly alarming to realize that the government is secretly dispatching people
to my private property to do things without notice when I’m not around. This incursion into my
property speaks to the shady values these people possess and their total lack of respect or empathy
for the privacy of others.
But getting back to the Telephone Pole Army invasion, the next thing I noticed was that an empty
yard near McCausland Road south of town had suddenly filled up with cable company vehicles and
gear. The vehicles had various company names on them, the most prominent and recognizable
name being Telus. And this was the second Telus compound in town I knew of -- they already have
one next to city hall! Other company names included Ledcor, Silverline and VistaCare. Many of
these non-Telus vehicles had Telus logos and banners attached to them in addition to their own
insignias, not to mention out-of-province license plates (including Nova Scotia!). And as well as
vehicles, the yard was filled with equipment which included what looked like thousands upon
thousands of miles of cable on these massive spools. A BIG installation job was clearly imminent in
Powell River.
"STUFF I'VE SEEN IN POWELL RIVER #30"
BY CALLUM HOUSTON
The Telus invasion of 2015!!! Let me start this article by saying
that before 2015 I didn’t have anything against Telus. I don’t use
their products (other than their pay phones which I find useful) so
I’m not able to pass judgment on their cell phones or their cable
and Internet services or anything else they sell. But the thing is,
I’m looking for things to write about so if you present things to
me like Telus did it’s simply impossible for me to resist talking
about them. Allow me to explain what I saw.
In January 2015 I noticed that an army had marched into Powell
Then the next thing that happened was I began seeing
Telus vehicles of various sizes (and the other vehicles
of this fleet which I’ll just lump under the Telus
heading) racing around everywhere I went, back and
forth on the roads. It got to the point where every
second or third vehicle I saw was a Telus vehicle. If I
was to take a shot of whiskey every time I saw a
Telus truck I’d be blotto drunk after a couple blocks.
When I went to a restaurant, there they were, circling
the restaurant on the streets like sharks or parked in
the parking lot, and usually there were Telus employees in the restaurant itself! When I went to the
mall or to a grocery store they were there too. In May I took a trip to Vancouver Island and traveled
through Comox, Courtenay and Cumberland and I think I might have seen one Telus vehicle during
my visit. Yet the very next day when I was back in PR I remember cycling down Joyce Avenue and
seeing a battalion of SIX Telus vehicles tearing down the street. I hadn’t seen this many company
vehicles zooming around town since the days when BC Hydro sent crews out to read electricity
meters every month.
And yes, the next thing that occurred was installations
began happening all over the place. Pow Town had
suddenly morphed into Telus Town! When I rode
into PR there were Telus roadblocks on my route,
sometimes more than one, with flaggers watching
everyone like hawks. Having eyes on me at these
checkpoints took a bit of getting used to; it was quite
a departure from the relatively private traveling to and
from town I’d enjoyed for years. Things being done
at the roadblocks included opening up manholes and
going down in the sewers, putting cable on telephone poles, servicing telephone poles and in some
cases even erecting new telephone poles. I also noted that Telus sometimes put up warning signs
and pylons on the side of the highway even when there wasn’t any work going on! Incidentally, BC
Hydro was taking part in this installation campaign too.
Additionally, I saw that several merchants had Telus
posters plastered in their store windows and there was
at least one BC Transit bus in town that had been
completely transformed into a Telus bus -- the entire
bus had been repainted as a Telus advertisement! To
tell you the truth, I’m not even sure if it actually was a
public bus. It looked like the bus you took when you
wanted to travel to Telusland!
Some of the signage I saw explained that the
operation they were undertaking was to install fibre optic cable lines in town. Cable??? Why would
they be installing cable in this era of Wi-Fi? From what I understand, wires and cables are an
outdated anachronism in this modern age --- it’s all about wireless signals now. Man, Telus sure
was putting on a helluva show regarding obsolete technology that’s on the way out.
The way I saw it, the Telus show wasn’t about fibre optics, it was just about OPTICS plain and
simple. I mean, boy did that company EVER want to be seen. Talk about a pathetically narcissistic
display of self-important vanity. There was no question, Powell River had been uniquely invaded by
Telus forces. Telus as a whole appeared to be distraught and having an adverse emotional reaction
to something, as though they felt they’d been left out of the party. Telus was looking jealous with
all this frenetic activity -- but jealous of what I didn’t know! You’ve heard of throttling the Internet?
Telus was throttling the town!
Anyway, after the campaign was launched in January, the next thing that happened was Telus
showed up at my property! It was 12:30 in the afternoon on Monday, January 26 and when I went
out I saw a Telus van parked at a telephone pole on the border of my property next to the highway.
I was immediately concerned that Telus might be planning on going to my home that afternoon to do
some work on that same telephone pole next to my house and, as I’ve said, I prefer to be present
when strangers are at my residence. I approached the van and saw that a Telus employee was doing
something with the metal box on the pole. So I decided to inquire if my pole was scheduled to have
work done to it that day.
First I made reference to the cable installation job I’d seen Telus commencing in town. However,
the employee flat-out denied that Telus had anything to do with the task, instead claiming it was
being done by an “offshore” operation. Offshore? This was interesting to hear considering that
Telus vehicles were part of the work fleet and many, if not all, of the non-Telus vehicles had those
Telus signs attached to them. But could this be true? Could it be that some foreign country like
Russia or China was installing equipment here under the guise of being Telus? Anything’s possible I
suppose. I didn’t challenge him on it.
He then told me that the installations would be going on for six months (!) and that at some point I
could expect a crew at my home who would attach a Telus line to my house.
So, according to this guy, it’s not Telus doing the installations. But a Telus line was going to be
strung to my home? Hmm, okay, that makes sense. What was even more bizarre about hearing that
they were going to be hooking a line to my house is the fact that I’m not a Telus customer. I then
mentioned to him that the telephone pole in my yard had recently been tampered with and I asked if
he was going to be doing any work at my home that day and he said no. When I asked him when I
could expect Telus to be connecting the line to my house he said it would happen sometime within
the next six months. Thanks for narrowing it down for me, buddy!
