Dark clouds roll across the basin. Spilling rain on the folks gathered round the corner at the firehall. Ink runs like mascara down a sign saying “Bring Philip Home.”
The bay doors open and a hundred people shuffle out of the rain and chat round the fire trucks. Haven’t seen you in a while. Well look who’s here. Glad you made it.
Words these people would love to say to Philip Halliday. Words he hasn’t heard, faces he hasn’t seen in almost two years.
Sheree, Philip’s wife, is hugging everyone who walks up. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much.
“Sheree,” and someone points at their watch.
“Come on people, let’s do this,” she yells and takes her place at the front of the parade. The crowd whoops and hollers and begins to chant “Bring Philip home, bring Philip home”.
Two hundred people anyway. Marching, waving signs and shouting, until they fill the little lawn in front of Digby Centre. Sheree and her boys, the family dog Tex, and a line of speakers take the stage behind.
Teri Faessler speaks first.
“684 days. Just think about everything that has happened in your life in the past 684 days: the birth of a new family member, a child’s graduation, Christmases, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, summer vacations, fishing, boating, canoe trips, BBQ’s with family and friends, watching a glorious sunset or the wrath of a nor’easter, a leisurely walk with your partner, and most of all, that kiss good night.”
These, she explains, are the moments Philip Halliday has missed since he was arrested in Dec. 2009. Actually since he left home Nov. 16, 2009 to deliver the Destiny Empress from Trinidad to new buyers in Spain.
Just off the coast of Spain police boarded the boat and found 1.5 tonnes of cocaine worth over $600 million. Halliday says he had no idea it was there. In February 2010 Spanish authorities charged him with drug trafficking.
Since then, he has been awaiting trial. To make things worse, Halliday has been gravely ill during the whole of his incarceration. Finally last March, “after 18 months of excruciating pain” says Faessler, he had an operation to remove gallstones. Now he has liver and kidney disease and needs his gallbladder removed.
“The worst of it was,” Faessler told the rally. “Philip went through all of this alone, no family and no friends to help him, and no one on the medical staff who spoke English.”
Spanish authorities have yet to even set a trial date, almost two full years after Hallidays’ arrest. The law in Spain allows an accused to be held for four years without a trial.
“Slow justice is no justice,” said Junior Theriault both in the Nova Scotia Legislature and at the rally in Digby. “Stephen Harper, stand up and give Philip some help.”
Theriault, the Digby-Annapolis MLA, fished alongside Hallliday for years. He hopes the Digby rally does two things:
“I hope we send [Philip] hope when he sees we’re all behind him here. The next thing I hope is the government in Ottawa hears this message loud and clear. They have a Canadian over there in Spanish prison and he could possibly die there.”
Faessler understands the Canadian government cannot interfere with another country’s judicial process.
“But there is no law preventing our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, from picking up the phone and raising Philip’s case with his Spanish counterpart.”
Digby Mayor Ben Cleveland told the Halliday family that looking out on the crowd at the rally, they need have no doubt about the community’s support.
“Tragically this community has lost many fishermen to the sea,” said the mayor with the harbour behind him. “Here we have the chance to bring one home. I urge you to continue to press for help from our government, even from the MP you don’t hear from.”
Local Conservative MP Greg Kerr was at Music Week festivities in Yarmouth Friday announcing $30,000 in ACAO funding for Music Nova Scotia.
Liberal MP Geoff Regan of Halifax West has raised the issue several times in the House of Commons.
He also spoke at the rally saying the Canadian government should stand up for Canadians in prison abroad.
“It’s time to tell Spain to give this man a chance to clear his name or send him home.”
After the speeches, a line up forms to sign a poster for Philip. Another line to hug Sheree. Her eyes are bright.
“I saw a field full of supporters; I saw tears, smiles and a lot of people nodding their heads to what was being said. I think it will do exactly what we hoped it would. It will provide Philip with some hope and get Ottawa’s attention.”
Dark clouds roll again across the Basin. Rain falls on the crowd headed home. But hope shines now in their faces and on the wave tops.
jriley@digbycourier.ca
