Pedder Bay Trial - mediation

A Covey of Quail and the Badger!

(Photo - art studio at Pedder Bay)

At times I am surprised with the answers that come back when I pose a question to the universe. The question was “I wonder what the court system would be like if it made decisions by consensus.” The very next day Justice Bracken called counsel into his chambers and one day of mediation in front of Justice Leask was put in place. This is about as close to a consensus process that is currently possible within the Canadian Justice System. The opportunity to mediate a settlement is rarely offered and it is even rarer to offer such a process in the middle of a trial. I thank both of these individuals for their willingness to be creative and think outside of the box. Unfortunately, like consensus, for a mediation process to succeed all participants must enter the process with good will and a desire to resolve the situation. It didn’t happen. We are back in front of Justice Bracken at 10:00 am this morning and the trial continues.

          What happened? Well, good etiquette leaves the details of mediation in confidence. Instead, let me tell you a story…

          Once upon a time an old, mean, miserable, miserly badger decided that he must bargain his way into heaven. He wanted people to think well of him so he came up with a guise. If the guise worked he was sure he could convince himself that he had lived with good will towards others and would get into heaven. He stuffed an ancient deity on one side of the dirt pile at the entrance to his home and gave a money bush to an institute for higher learning. The papers were called, the photos were taken and he told the world that he had changed his ways. Then he went off down his badger hole to live his miserable miserly life. He left the management of his affairs in the hands of a droopy dog, a few stray mongrels and a couple of retained wharf rats.

          His affairs included rousting out a covey of quails that for many years had made their homes at the edge of the bushes near one of the badger’s oldest holes. The quails had provided him nutritional bits in exchange for his arrangement with them for years. The quails had seen the badger through many a lean year but, in a most miserable moment, he told droopy dog “get rid of them!”

The quail having no place to go went to seek counsel with the nimble otter. The otter called on the badger’s wharf rats and everyone went before the wise owl. He also asked a beautiful sleek female otter to join him in helping the quail tell their story to the wise owl. The wise owl listened for many days to the quail’s stories about losing their homes, and the promises that had been made. Then droopy dog had to explain why the quails were being asked to leave. Droopy dog said “the badger wants to have pheasants. You see pheasants are a better, more elite class of bird. They won’t be coming if there are these lowly quail around.” No one believed him because pheasants are unpredictable, die easy, eat more and give less – besides a bird is a bird and pheasants usually can’t tell the difference between themselves and quails. They just think of quails as small pheasants. But it was droopy dog’s turn to tell the badge’s story so the quail politely listened.

Afterwards, the wise owl surprised everyone including the quail and said “I have heard enough.”  

“You quail and you droopy-dog-on-behalf-the-badger both have a lot to lose.” In wise clarity he decided “I am calling in my brother owl tomorrow to see if he can’t resolve this before we go any further.”  

  Only the brother owl, the covey of quail, the two wharf rats, the two otters and droopy dog know what happened on that day. The badger never came. He stayed in his miserable hole in the ground. But it is fair to say that the old mean, miserable, miserly badger was smoked out of his hole twice that day by the wharf rats and droopy dog to offer him a chance to get into heaven through good will and fine deeds. The badger snarled, spit and hissed but failed – in his usual mean, miserable, miserly behaviour– to change his ways. Bless the badger for his consistency. Shall he find his way to heaven? Well, that would be another story. In the meantime, the covey of quail keep an invitation open to the mean, miserable, miserly badger – ever hopeful that the badger will see the error of his way.  

If you have comments, I would love to hear from you! Please email me at tawelch@shaw.ca or reply to this Blog entry.

All the best!

Terrill Welch
Spokes person and resident

on behalf of Pedder Bay Residents

Donations can be made by paypal at www.pedderbay.ca

Or by cheque or money order to the Pedder Bay Residents Society.

Our community address is:

Pedder Bay Residents Society
#1 - 925 Pedder Bay Drive
Victoria, BC, Canada
V9C 4H1