You can pick your friends, but you can’t always pick your neighbours — especially the ones who make life on the block a waking nightmare. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird struck a blow for exasperated neighbours everywhere when he sent David Tkachuk to jail for 30 days for being what Baird called “a jerk.”
Tkachuk has been making life a misery for residents of Harriet Road since he moved in with his father in 2007. Police have been called to the home more than 200 times.
The yard is full of junk and tents; unsavoury characters scream and fight; Tkachuk saws metal at 3 a.m., which must be the worst of his tortures.
After he repeatedly ignored Saanich’s noise and garbage bylaws, the district got an injunction on April 2 ordering him to obey the bylaws.
He has been arrested five times for violating that injunction.
So finally, the judge had had enough and threw him in jail for a month.
Baird said: “I am unable to come to any conclusion other than you just don’t give a damn about anybody except yourself. You will not be deterred except by the most emphatic of gestures. The time is long past when I’m interested in letting you out to show that you can be a good boy.
“You’re a nuisance and a curse to this neighbourhood. They’ve had enough and I don’t blame them, and they are to be left in peace forever more.”
The people of Harriet Road can breathe easy, at least for 30 days.
Most of us have endured a neighbour with a yard full of junk or incessant parties or late-night auto repairs — assaults that make it hard to enjoy our own homes.
Home is supposed to be a refuge from the frustrations of the wider world.
The David Tkachuks of the world rob us of the little bit of peace we long for.
Even run-of-the-mill disagreements with neighbours can leave many people feeling uncomfortable in their homes.
How much worse is a person who not only fouls his yard and makes a racket, but refuses to heed entreaties from neighbours and warnings from police?
The courts bent over backwards to give Tkachuk opportunity after opportunity to be considerate of the people who live around him. Nothing worked.
Baird made it clear that this jail term is only the beginning if Tkachuk doesn’t mend his ways.
“The next time, 30 days is the basement. That’s where it starts. It will be 30. It will be 60, it will be 90, 120.
“If you want to spend the rest of your adult life in jail, because you can’t restrain the impulse to be a jerk, be my guest.
“I’ll be happy to assist you in that connection.”
The residents of Harriet Road have a protector in Justice Baird, and he has given them a reason to throw a party. A very quiet party.
