February 2 -- The First Foray into the Community

The paperwork was processed for Gary's first escorted pass, an expedition involving a half-hour car ride into Victoria for a counselling session with a psychologist who had worked with Gary in the past and had supported his application for temporary passes.

February 2, 1999, marked the first occasion in ten years that Gary Weaver was outside of prison without being in handcuffs and leg irons. As Gary described it:

I'm looking out the car window, I'm seeing grass and trees and farms, I'm seeing everything -- it's so fine -- unbelievable. When we get to Victoria I'm looking in stores and at people. The cars look like spaceships, like you see in commercials. (Interview with Gary Weaver, March 19, 1999)

Three days later, another journey began, one that would plunge Gary back into the abyss of segregation. This journey would also chart how, four years after the Arbour Report and two years after the report of the Task Force on Segregation, segregation review at William Head Institution flagrantly failed to comply with the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. Far from illustrating the CSC's reintegration strategy, the events that followed provide a compelling case for independent adjudication to bring the Rule of Law into "Club Fed."

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