CHAPTER 3
OPERATION BIG SCOOP

The journey along the Red Road in which I had participated on Friday, August 20, 1993, could not have stood in starker relief to the events that unfolded at Matsqui the following Monday, August 23. Those events set in motion another correctional journey, which ended with thirteen prisoners being taken to the segregation unit. This operation -- code-named "Operation Big Scoop" -- took place under the imprimatur of the same warden who had authorized the escorted temporary passes for the Aboriginal prisoners, and was carried out under the authority of the same legal framework, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act . Friday's journey, although taking place along public roads, was a private one, the full significance and effects of which were known only to those who participated; by contrast, Operation Big Scoop, while taking place within the private world of the prison, was a public event, and its significance and effects within the prison community were far more pervasive.

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