While reviewing documents connected with Reggie’s later incarceration and parole, I came across this RCMP summary of his previous criminal record.

I thought I had a reasonably good understanding of Reggie’s earlier encounters with the police. This document made me realize that there were parts of his history that I either never knew about or no longer remember.

Some of the entries also aren’t completely clear to me. Rather than speculate about what happened, I am including the record here and documenting what I currently understand.

What the Records Are Revealing

While reviewing the records connected with Reggie’s later incarceration and parole, I came across this RCMP summary of his previous criminal record.

I thought I had a reasonably good understanding of Reggie’s earlier encounters with the police, but a closer reading of this document raised several questions. Some of the entries I recognize, some I don’t remember at all, and at least one has now allowed me to connect information that was already elsewhere in Reggie’s writings.

August 24, 1991 — Trafficking in a Narcotic

The first entry records an offence dated August 24, 1991, in Charlottetown for trafficking in a narcotic.

I don’t remember ever hearing about this charge. I was living in Toronto at the time, so it is possible that my parents knew about it and I didn’t. It was also more than thirty years ago, so I don’t want to assume that simply because I don’t remember something today, I wasn’t told about it at the time.

This is one of the entries that I would like to investigate further.

February 26, 1992 — Failing to Stop at the Scene of an Accident

The next offence shown on the record occurred in Charlottetown on February 26, 1992. Reggie was charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident, and the record shows a sentence of 15 days.

When I first looked closely at this document, the sentence surprised me because I didn’t remember Reggie having served time at Sleepy Hollow before his later incarceration.

Then I realized that another piece of this story was already in the archive.

Years later, while writing his Jail Diary, Reggie referred to having previously spent 15 days at Sleepy Hollow as a result of this incident. When I originally prepared that material for the website, I did not have as clear a copy of this criminal record and apparently never made the connection between the two.

Putting the records together now appears to answer that particular question. This was an earlier period Reggie spent at Sleepy Hollow, years before the incarceration documented in his later Jail Diary.

The Halifax Entries

The Halifax entries are particularly interesting because I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding them.

Reggie had already been expelled from Saint Mary’s University in 1986, so these records from 1991 and 1992 cannot be part of the drug case from his university years.

By this period, Reggie was living in Charlottetown and was still involved with drugs. We also know from other parts of his story that he continued to receive drugs through his cousin in Montreal and that he had drug-dealer connections in Halifax.

Looking back at that period, one possibility occurs to me.

Reggie made many trips to Halifax over the years. It is possible that Charlottetown was effectively his home base and that some of the drugs coming to him from Montreal were subsequently being taken to Halifax for sale through his connections there. If that was happening, it could provide an explanation for why Halifax appears in these records.

But that is speculation on my part.

I have no record at present showing why Reggie was in Halifax on these particular occasions, who he was with, whether he was selling drugs there, or how these Halifax entries relate to the Charlottetown trafficking offence.

The March 24, 1992 entry is particularly intriguing because the RCMP record refers to possession of a narcotic for the purpose of trafficking and records the outcome as “Not Guilty.”

I don’t know the circumstances of that case or how Reggie was found not guilty. There may be court records that eventually provide an explanation.

For now, all I can say with confidence is that these Halifax entries occurred years after Reggie had left Saint Mary’s University and during a period when drugs were still very much a part of his life. Anything beyond that remains an unanswered part of his story.

These records also mark the beginning of another part of Reggie’s story—his increasingly complicated relationship with the criminal justice system.

Continue the story: Crime & Justice →