Jon Sigurdson:
CLASS OF 1981
Gloucester High SchoolClass of 1981
Gloucester, ON
Jon's Story
After finally managing to graduate grade 13 for the 1st time -- I subsequently did grade 13/part 2, the Science'n'Mathematics version at Rideau HS the next year -- (and I bet phenom-teachers Messrs. Steve Yates, Mike Jordan, Bob Edwards, and Larry Kry were more-than-glad to get rid of me and my run-on motor-mouth) -- I did a stint at Carleton U. (in, u guessed it, more Sci-Math) Winter of 1982, before finagling my way into the Honours Co-operative Chemistry programme at UW in Kitchener-Waterloo. (the Physics Department would have nothing to do with me! to my great chagrin!!! ;-(
My giddy experience in academia at "Fast Times at Gloucester's Super-Sized High," :-) plus brief forays in tryin' to git me-scholastic act-together at Rideau HS, Carleton U. and the Co-op Wing-Ding Thing at UW -- and even getting hitched-up with an Ottawa-Valley girl from Metcalfe attending Uuu-of-Guu (a Guelph Gryphon, btw :-) in Nutritional Sciences in 1986 -- ultimately coalesced into a 3-yr BSc. in General Science from, you got it, the ole UW, Spring of 1987.
At least I got some work-study experience before being kicked-out of Co-op in 1984; this included work at Apotex Pharmaceutical Mfg's "Quality Control Labs", Health Canada's 'Non-Prescription Drug Review' regulatory office as well as it's 'Radiation Protection' lab monitoring air'n'water samples (which included Uranium Oxide uptake testing in rabbit bones, for God's sake :-(.
I got my own "work-study" job :-) in UW's "Chemistry Stores" for the academic year 1984-85 maintaining the Chlorinated Solvents stored in a massive walk-in fridge plus supplying research lab equipment & reagents for the Chemistry, Environmental Sciences and Physics Departments. This included "Lab Demonstrator" work in 1st & 2nd year Chemistry & Chemical Engineering labs.
Initially got into water-treatment sales ("Clap for the 'Water' Man"), but then soon got into Industrial and Automotive paint ('chemical coatings', as I recall) in July 1987. This included big name-recognized companies like C-I-L Inc.'s "Paint Research Labs" and BASF's "Commercialization Labs" in the Greater Toronto Area, GTA.
After being fired, yet again, from a goodly paying job, in 1992, I discovered - upon the birth of my 1st son James - that life was not "All Work And No Play"..... in the form of the Christian Reformed Church (Dutch tradition of Calvinism), and then, at long last, the Baha'i Faith ("Unity in Diversity").
Regrettably, getting fired -- being a recurring theme and motif in my life going as far back as Kinder-Garten, by Gumn! in that I seem perpetually to have to "redo", "retake", "re-submit" everything skilled-based -- eventually led to a complete physical and emotional collapse the 2nd week of November, 1992: the 'Centenary of the Passing of Baha'u'llah' (the "Glory of the Return of His Holiness Jesus the Christ').
This Holy Year :-) served me, in the long-view of life, as an important means to "reset" my priorities in life. These 'new' priorities did not include 'The All-Mighty Buck'!!! at all costs!!!!
Of course, even though my 'Valley-Girl' wife -- ostensibly a Baha'i, too, btw -- would give me a 2nd son - Thomas, later diagnosed with Asperger's Autism - in April 1992, she would not, ultimately, appreciate my new-found frugality and thoughtfulness for the Environment or, for that matter, for our young, growing family.
She left, suddenly, 1 month after becoming a certified full-time teacher in the Durham Board of Education, just east of T'ronna, May 1995. My "Environs Waste Management" entrepreneurial business collapsed the next month; we had been running it since 1993, after my last stint teaching "Environmental Chemistry" at Durham College, Oshawa.
After working seasonally at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's, AECL's, "Low-level Radioactive Waste Management Office" in 1995, and then subsequently appointed to the "Port Hope Area Initiative", PHAI, from 1996-97 as a 'voluntary' committee member faithfully playing the role of concerned, local citizen, I went back to -- you guessed it --- back to school, yet once again, by Gumn!!! :-)
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As an aside, El Dorado Mining and Refining Limited was the first uranium-rich processing plant in the world, located in Port Hope beginning in the early 1940's to support the Manhattan Project centred in the Los Alamos Laboratory, directed by Robert Oppenheimer.
The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) represents the Government of Canada’s commitment to clean-up and safely manage historic low-level radioactive waste currently located in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington in Ontario.
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As I had just stipulated, I went back to scholastic pursuits in 1997-2000 at Durham College's "Computer Science" programme in Oshawa, Trent University's "Double Honours Math'n'Computer-Science" in Peterborough, but only finally completing a 1-yr "Programming Analyst" diploma from CDI College in Ottawa. Did I tell you I do everything "twice," By Gumn!!!??? :-)
During all this time (1995-2004) I had to -- patiently, but persistently -- engage the Courts in Oshawa, and then later in 2004-07 up in Timmins in North-Eastern Ontario, where she and her 2nd-husband had moved. Finally, after 12 years, in 2007, a kindly, caring, grand-fatherly judge threw the book at her for years of child-access abuse. I was glad for the victory, but my two boys -- and me and both of my divorced parents, too, btw -- never really recovered to all of the familial trauma, even to this day. The last time I spoke with my oldest boy, in the Spring of 2018, he was telling me that his mother was now describing me as "mentally ill!!!??? :-(
The horrors of divorce, legal-wrangling over the well-being of our two boys, refusal to allow me access to my two beloved boys, their beloved father, as well as their paternal-grand-father, led to my Mom's early passing at the age of 73 years in April 2009.
The maternal and grand-maternal aggressions wore me completely out, yet once more, and so I had to, with an incredibly heavy-heart, leave the North-Eastern Ontario region - and my children - for Thunder Bay -- my 2nd time there, btw -- at the Head of Lake Superior, in 2010.
Going back to 2002, working as a computer "Help Desk" jockey in Belleville, and being totally frustrated by my ex- and the 'Out-Laws', I left Southern Ontario for Northern Ontario, initially to Thunder Bay -- for the 1st time -- then to Kenora in Ontario's North-Western region, teaching computer technology to First Nations students, on, and off, reserve lands.
I spent 9 1/2 years teaching-on-and-off First Nations reserves through-out Northern Ontario. During that time, I was finally diagnosed with "Asperger's Autism, presenting ADHD" by Dr. Flannagan, FRCPC, who was doing "Locums" in Timmins, in 2006. In 2010, I finally got diagnosed with "Chronic and Persistent LYME Disease" in Winnipeg, MB. I had contracted the parasitic bacterial infection during the Summer of 1971 in Halifax, NS. I started naturopathic treatment for LYME just this month, Fevrier 2021.
After an initial 5-week naturopathic treatment for LYME in Winnipeg, in 2010, I felt strong and healthy enough to venture up to Inuvik, NWT, in November 2011, to teach the Sciences, Mathematics & Physical Fitness at the brand-new Samuel Hearne Secondary School. Incredibly, I had to leave, yet once again, in early January 2012 due to overwhelming fatigue and constant respiratory infections. Same symptoms that had mowed me down way back in November of 1992.
My naturopathic physician, Dr. Saeid Mushtagh, ND, in Yellowknife, NWT, urged me to stay away from my increasingly aggressive-agitated Dad, and particularly my emotionally antagonistic ex-wife; he agreed and supported my decision to go to Victoria, BC, to seek out medical treatment, and to "convalesce" in an amenable climatic environment. West Coast Rain Forest! here I come/came! :-)
After my 1st year here, I lost $50,000, representing the cost of a trailer, car, associated costs, plus health food costs here on the South Vancouver Island. By January 2013, I was on Welfare. Fortunately, I had Baha'i friends help me out in renting a room at the Shelter allowance of $375/month. :-)
Regrettably, I found myself on the street yet once again in 2014, shortly after finally getting accepted as a "Person with Disability, PWD" -- after the BC Ombuds-Person publicly denounced the Ministry of Social Development administering Income and Disability Assistance for their unreasonable delays and denial of service.
My last professional job, as Director of Quality Control at ANI-VET Pharmaceutical Mfg. in Sooke, South Vancouver Island, was only 12 days long, way back in May 2012. The owner didn't bother to pay me. He shut down the next year.
Since then, I've been in and out of supportive and "so-called" affordable housing Greater Victoria Metropolitan Area, GVMA, (with a stint out in Port Renfrew on Vancouver Islands "West Coast", and then in East Sooke, and finally in the Juan de Fuca Electoral area just west of Sooke.
Phwew!!!! I should be dead, already. :-) That, or slightly warped, at any rate. :-)
I've been in "real" affordable housing (i.e., 30% of Gross Income) since November of last year (2020) here Langford, in Westshore just west of Victoria-proper. Wish you all very well. I have finally begun naturopathic treatment with Dr. M.P. Boorman, ND, and hope to get back to work here GVMA by this Fall, 2020. Wish me luck, mes anciens amis de lycée.
:-) - Jono ("yawn-o" in Icelandic) ["JonoBahai" at "ProtonMail" dot "com"]
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