I had been granted thirty days leave which was scheduled to end about December
20. After being locked up for nearly four years, I treated the idea of returning to
barracks just before Christmas as a huge joke.
So, after the New Year, and things had quieted down a bit, I thought that I should
return and open the pages of the next chapter of my life.
Lo and behold! What happened when I reached Lauzon, was that I was placed
under open arrest and charged with being Absent Without Leave.!
Still thinking it was a joke, I laughingly presented myself to the orderly office to be
paraded for my crime. I sat wait in the outer office for my turn behind another
miscreant.
I listened to the whole procedure. He had been AWL for seventeen months. The
trial  went as follows: "How do you plead?"  "Guilty". "Do you accept my
punishment?"  "Yes".  "Seven days CB."
I was dumbfounded! Seven days CB! This man was a DESERTER! He should
have been given a stiff prison sentence and a dishonourable discharge!
My turn next. "How do you plead? "How do I plead! I was guilty as charged. So
I answered, "Guilty". "Do you accept my punishment?"  "Yes", believing that the
little colonel would laugh along with me. "Seven days CB."
Again I was dumbfounded!. Dumbfounded? I was appalled! Four years in a
Japanese prison camp and then be handed seven days CB for staying a few days
over my leave!
I made no comment, but left the little colonel's presence, went to the barracks
gate, hailed a cab, and spent my seven days CB in Quebec City. That was the last
I heard of it.
After getting most of the euphoria of being a free man out of my system, I began
to think about getting back to school.I for get the details of the process that finally
took me to the refresher course for veterans at Sir George Williams College, but I
do remember meeting several interviewers who tried to discourage me from
attempting to re-enter school.
Back to School
Some of the civil servants at the Department of Veterans Affairs were more than
rude and abrupt. They gave me the feeling that I was asking for favours that I
didn't  deserve!
What a difference today, when a veteran is treated like a gentleman, and given
every consideration to his requests.
So I braved the taunts and insults levelled at me by those minor officials. I bear
them no malice, but judging by the behaviour they displayed in dealing with me, I
doubt that any of them went very far in diplomatic circles.
I was finally authorized to use my re-establishment credits to further my education,
and was accepted at Sir George Williams. Having been away from school for
eight years, I hadn't the slightest idea of what to expect.
I had toyed with the idea of studying pharmacy, a seed that was probably planted
when I was dispensing potassium permanganate and sulphur lotion in the hospital
in prison camp.
I wisely chose the twelve-month refresher course, being pretty certain that it
would take all of a year to bring me up to par and entrance to McGill.
Our classrooms were on Claremont Avenue in Westmount, and our laboratories
were in the YMCA Building on Drummond Street in downtown Montreal.
The very first lesson was in high school physics, and the whole
experiment was based on converting a fraction to a decimal. I hadn't a
clue what to do!
I often wonder now what force kept my nose to the grindstone all those
twelve months, starting in April, 1946 and ending the following spring. I
am grateful now that I persisted, and didn't succumb to the temptation to
quit and use my credits in the same way that many  other veterans did.
I'll not bore the reader with the details of my erratic journey from Sir
George to McGill, to the University of New Brunswick, ending finally in a
Bachelor's degree and a Class I Teaching degree.
The path I took has given me much satisfaction.I have been supported at
every step by my wife, Edwina, who had faith in me and allowed me to
choose what I thought was the right way to go.
Without her sympathetic support, and her willingness to share the hardships
of living in need while raising a family, I could never have made it.
In July, 2009, we will be 62 years married. She still upholds me in all
important decisions, and comforts and encourages me when I feel low.  
Without her I could never have made it. God bless her.
Edwina