The 11th-hour apology of Richard Wagamese
Richard Wagamese received an honorary doctor of letters degree from TRU in May. (Daily News photo)
I am somewhat troubled by the Richard Wagamese apology.
Wagamese, author, a.k.a. Richard Gilkinson, pleaded guilty Monday to several impaired driving charges and a couple of counts of failing to appear in court, in connection with incidents that began early in the year.
A Daily News story noted that Wagamese “has a criminal history with more than 50 convictions dating back to the 1970s, including three other alcohol-related driving convictions.”
He will be sentenced later.
In court, his lawyer Michelle Stanford pointed out that Wagamese had written a letter of apology to the community, which she said The Daily News had chosen not to publish.
It’s true that he wrote a letter of apology to the community. He sent it by email on Saturday, two days before his case came up in court, and after this newspaper’s deadline for Monday’s Opinion pages.
We published it Tuesday. The letter makes reference to the good work he is doing in the community, to his recent writing, and to “the major issue that gave rise to these charges.”
Wagamese has been in and out of the news for months both with respect to his writing and to his troubles with the law. He has had all of those months to apology to the community, to write that letter.
I simply wonder why it was not offered up until two days before he was scheduled to appear before a judge who will determine how he will make restitution for his actions.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Richard submitted it to Michelle Young and asked her to publish it when she thought appropriate. He wrote it prior to court of course as the sentencing was to be at 9:30 am Monday morning. He/we had no idea if he would be sent immediately to jail where it would be unlikely he’d be able to write an apology from there. How fortunate it would be to be able to wipe out mistakes made in life. He cannot of course but has tried his very best to move forward and make up for this terrible time in his and the general public’s life. There is no provision in BC for the consideration of mental health issues (ie. PTSD) within the criminal legislation. His actions as I’ve stated before are influenced by his illness. He is not an everyday “drunk” who repeatedly drinks and drives as most prolific drunk drivers do. These are clusters of events that happen when he is sick. I’ve seen it for almost 9 years, now of which he has been sober for 8 1/2 of them. He usually goes to live on the streets during these episodes. Unfortunately this time, because of his fame, he was allowed to purchase a vehicle with no down payment and with a poor credit report. The local Ford dealer proudly advertised the next day that a famous author had purchased a vehicle from them. During his illness where he was missing from our home for 3 months I reported him missing several times to the RCMP, told him of his illness, told them it was possible he would drink and drive and implored them to pick him up under the mental health act. They didn’t believe me. When he admitted himself voluntarily to the psych ward twice I implored the nurses, doctors and psychiatrists to keep him in there until stabilized. They let him out without even contacting our psychiatrist who had a four year history with him and in-depth knowledge of his PTSD. There is so much more in the story of a person’s life. Often journalists will attempt to find out more of these details when reporting in the media where it affects a well known person’s life. Richard is sincerely taking responsibility for his actions. His debt is great and is and will be paid for dearly with legal consequences, fines, loss of face and loss of opportunity. Hopefully at some point these payments will finally satisfy yourself and some of the general public’s thirst for “blood”. Other’s are able to look at the big picture and find some measure of compassion and forgiveness. Thankfully these people offer us encouragement to move beyond shame and regret to a better life. Jail unfortunately will not cure PTSD. An inordinate percentage of our jails are filled with first nations and others who suffer from this illness. Treatment and ongoing followup and a measure of compassion for Richard and others like him would make a difference. For our communities and ourselves. That’s the other side of the journalistic story.
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Debra,
I am humbled by the man…Richard Wagamese. I could never fully articulate my true intended feelings, nor could I comfort you enough for the wrongs that Richard and so many of his people were subjected too. In short, I was an Advanced Life Support Paramedic in Ontario, Canada who suffered , and continue to suffer from severe PTSD. A chance encounter in Bragg Creek Alberta, by my wife, as we meandered through an Indian trading post. My wife,an avid reader, had no idea of the enormity of events that she was about to set into motion. Curiously reaching for a book entitled One Native Life, she convinced me that we should buy this and while we were at it… One Story, One Song too . As of today, we currently own every publishing that we have been able to find from Richard. There aren’t enough words to describe the debt of gratitude that I owe to Richard for getting me through the most ungodly of hours. An absolute master of the pen and paper, taking me on a journey of hope and healing….truly saving my soul. I was gutted to find out of his death, and had hoped to shake the hand of the man who had such an enormous impact on my life. Please know that you need not defend your husbands wrongs as he was as human as the rest of us. Please do know that Richard’s writings have impacted the truly broken, beaten and the damned,,,breathing life back into so many forgotten and abandoned souls. The author of this article was using Richard’s notoriety to raise himself up on eagles wings, instead of bringing to attention, the plight of long term damage from centuries of unprecedented racism and hate towards the fore fathers of this great nation that we call Canada. Forgive him Debra…I am sure that Richard would have.
My sincerest respect, K Klym
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Debra, I so value your words. I just recently discovered Richard’s writings and have been listening on audiobook, walking and crying as I fully take in a little one so wounded and yet so determined to survive and to learn and to read and to create and to heal. I am a little mystified what draws me so strongly to his words, and although I am not indigenous, his rawness and eloquence speaks so specifically to my pain. When I first started listening I realized how much Richard reminds me of my dad. My dad also suffers from PTSD from early life and then his time in the military. My dad lives in Salmon Arm, and I began hatching up a plan to take my dad to Kamloops for us to be able to meet Richard. Then when I googled I discovered he had passed. More tears. I am awed by his life and send nothing but admiration and respect and compassion. I understand trauma driving behaviour, and I am saddened that our legal system and some
in the world don’t seem to have a space to embrace that reality. Blessings to you.
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It was intended to be published after his sentencing so it would not be construed as an attempt to influence the court in any way. How many persons who have entered guilty pleas and are accepting their guilt and consequences from this community have asked to apologize to the public via your paper and why do you insist on only finding ways to illustrate an obvious dislike for Richard personally who I don’t believe you’ve met.
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You are correct — I’ve never met him. Neither do I dislike him. I simply have opinions about his actions. If his letter was intended to be published after his sentencing, why was it worded the way it was, and why did his lawyer tell the judge The Daily News chose not to print it?
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