77 River Street
77 River Street in Toronto is the address of my old probation centre. I had bimonthly (twice a month) meetings there from age 16 to 18 back in the 1990s. The probation officer that was assigned to me after my second case (“PV”) had recommended to the Crown that I spend six months in closed custody. PV had a bachelor’s degree in criminology & psychology but held many misinformed views about me.
When the judge ruled to allow me to perform community service in lieu of jail time, PV felt affronted. When I was assigned a community service officer (CSO), both PV and the CSO (who was part of PV’s network) doubted my ability to complete the hours on time.
I “volunteered” at a Red Cross office. The manager (who did not know that I was doing my deed as part of probation) liked my work and provided highly positive feedback of me to the CSO. I finished my hours quickly.
PV did not show up for the last several meetings I was supposed to have with her. I had completed all the requirements of probation long before then, and each subsequent meeting made her eat the proverbial crow. In those last handful of scheduled meetings, I waited over an hour each time at the centre before the staff would apologise and tell me to go home.
When the 1990s closed out, I ended up graduating from the University of Toronto as part of the class of 1999 (9T9) and matriculated that same year at Princeton.
As a celebration of beating the odds, I wore the number 99 on my hockey jersey when I started playing beer league hockey in my mid-30s (and not because of any affinity for Wayne Gretzky or belief of my skills on the ice).
