I wrote this song several years after my friend, Brian Fitzpatrick died. Press play in the above Youtube video.

For my friend, Brian Fitzpatrick ( Fitz) by Mike Pearson

Brian's son, Sam Fitzpatrick was killed on a Kiewit corporation project in the steep mountains of Toba Inlet in 2009. Fitz and I went into battle against the giant American corporation when they refused to take any responsibility for Sam's death. Fitz fought heroically, and with dogged determination.

The battles with the WorksafeBC system...The very flawed WCAT appeal process all took a toll.All the challenges were met with intelligence, good humour and the belief that we were on the right side.

After years of bureaucratic struggle, Fitz finally persuaded the RCMP to lay charges against the company and two supervisors, Tim Rule and Jerry Karjala. This was a game changer...nothing like this had ever happened with a workplace death in BC.

Sam Cooper's 2012 article in the Province Newspaper....this story got the cover plus 4 pages inside.

https://pressreader.com/article/281655367103737

Tom Sandborn story about the RCMP laying criminal charges against the Kiewit Corporation and supervisors, Jerry Karjala and Tim Rule

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/09/02/Death-On-Job-Criminal-Trial-Contractor/

Jennifer Thuncher [ Squamish Chief newspaper ] article about Sam Fitzpatrick

https://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/opinion-dont-forget-sam-squamish-3350899

Bethany Lindsay [ at CBC at this point ]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-sam-fitzpatrick-death-kiewit-eleventh-anniversary-1.5469468

https://usw.ca/united-steelworkers-welcomes-criminal-charges-against-kiewit-construction-in-death-of-sam-fitzpatrick/

Laila Yuile

https://lailayuile.com/2014/12/19/kiewit-general-comitted-willful-and-serious-safety-violations-in-washington-state-accident-fined-150000/

And....the absolute tragedy of it all....after years of fighting and struggle, the BC Prosecutor's Office dropped the charges against Kiewit and the two managers. Essentially, they chickened out, went limp against the threat of doing legal battle against the American behemoth corporation and their lawyers...especially super lawyer, Bill Smart. Let's not forget that David Eby was the Attorney General of BC at this point and was 100% hands off this important case.

https://canada.constructconnect.com/joc/news/ohs/2021/08/breaking-criminal-charges-dropped-against-kiewit-managers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/prosecution-trial-stay-proceedings-kiewit-fitzpatrick-1.6160252

https://canada.constructconnect.com/joc/news/ohs/2021/11/fitzpatrick-advocates-take-case-to-top-b-c-government-ministers

I asked Kiewit to apologize

https://rabble.ca/columnists/apologize-to-arlen/

Sam's mother, Christine Tamburri died of cancer in late 2019. Brian Fitzpatrick was a true ass kicking, name taking warrior in the pursuit of justice for his son, Sam. Sam's brother, Arlen is the only surviving member of the family. Fitz was born in Ontario, Canada. Orphaned at a young age when his parents were killed in a car crash. Raised by an aunt and uncle after that. The uncle was an aircraft pilot and mining prospector. Brian learned to fly with lessons from the uncle. He soloed at around 15 years old. Always looking for adventure, Fitz made his way to British Columbia to getaway from working in an Ontario steel mill. Via the gift of gab, he hired on to be a logger in the wilds of what was then called the Queen Charlotte Islands. Switching back and forth from tree faller to welder of broken logging gear, he made his way in the frontier land of British Columbia. in the late 60's / early 1970...Fitz was detained by U.S. authorities for trying to fly a questionable cargo across the U.S. / Canadian border. Brian was a guest of the American penal system while the misunderstanding was sorted out Fitz refused to do the required manual labour that the warden had assigned to him. As a compromise, Fitz was given the very real job of " jail house lawyer" ( Many excellent stories about that career) You can see where this is going, can't you? Moving on...Brian Fitzpatrick was released when his long appeal process finally succeeded. Fitz was one of the original guys to clear Whistler mountain for the ski hill and resort. He had two FMC track skidders, one had a backhoe attachment, the other packed a water tank for fire protection and to haul water up to the resort. [ images below ] Fitz spent a bit of time as a commercial diver...mainly to recover lost logging gear from under the deep blue. Brian Fitzpatrick was a pilot and aircraft aficionado. a tree faller of the biggest timber on the planet a faller of danger trees during forest fires. ( I have a photo of him falling a tree that's on fire) truck driver Cat operator stock market speculator ( mostly losing/ always hopeful ) sawmill operator History buff An Irishman that despised the monarchy Claimed he saw a sasquatch in Pemberton BC excellent road trip partner survivor of many industrial and personal accidents that took a toll on his body that was already affected by childhood polio. I took him to Mexico in the winter of 2017. We toured the lower Baja and Fitz fell in love with the Mexican people and their friendly ways. It was a great trip. So rewarding to see Brian adapt to the way of life down there. On the beach near Tortuga Bay, Fitz asked me to promise to keep up the legal fight against Kiewit to the last man standing. He didn't need to ask, but I'm glad he did. Just for the sake of clarity. Brian Fitzpatrick died in late July of 2017 during a routine surgery at Lions Gate hospital. A little bit of the light went with him.

A Journal of Commerce podcast talking about Sam's death on the Kiewit project and the long legal fight

The man himself, Brian Fitzpatrick on the David Berner show

I wrote the lyrics while at work in the drilling and blasting business. I stood behind the rock drill where there was a certain hum that had a definite beat and cycle to it.

The words just kinda fell into place. Just by luck, I read about a female bagpipes player from Powell River in a local newspaper. I can't recall how I managed to contact her...but I did, Ann Snow is her name. I asked her if she could conjure up a fresh bagpipes tune....still respecting the tradition, but with a fresh twist. She came up with a [ first ever for me] bagpipes demo tune.

I worked with musician , Tom Landa [ The Paperboys band ] to create the musical background for the words. Tom recruited bagpipes player, Erik Musseau to add the magic Celtic pipes sound. [ I always had a hankering to write a bagpipes song, something like Paul McCartney's " Mull of Kintyre"...a beautiful song if ever there was one.

Drummer Hamish Thomson came in to bring the Celtic drums alive for the back half of the tune...this takes me back to listening to Scottish march songs when I was a teenager. My parents old combo stereo/record player/TV set in blonde colored wood.

Tom Landa brought in fiddle player, Serena Eades to add a great texture to my song. Tom also magically had vocalist Sophie Williams renting a space from him....we tested her out and found that her voice was absolutely amazing for what I had in mind.

Early demo tune with Tom Landa singing.

Image is Brian Fitzpatrick checking out a " Standard " biplane and pilot that was offering rides. Arlington Airshow 2013

Here's some great feedback on the song after I submitted it to a callout for new Celtic sounding songs by the Los Angeles A&R company " Taxi"

Mike Pearson badartist812@gmail.com

Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 6:03 PM

to Tom, Sophie, Scott, Chris

I answered two requests for Celtic music from the Taxi people.

This is the latest reply ( cut and paste) I just received.

Very positive feedback...missed the criteria for request

Feedback for "I'll Not Be Back This Way Again"

S220710AC

Share Your Feedback

What I like most about this song

Big fan of the fiddle, acoustic and overall melodic vocal delivery.

I think you could improve this song by

Unfortunately this is leaning to heavy on the vintage folk/world folk tip and is missing the high bar indie acoustic feel consistent with the refs.

I returned or forwarded this song because

This is a very strong song headed in a stellar direction however is outside the ballpark with the requirements of this listing.

Images....Brian Fitzpatrick at Todos Santos in January 2017

Brian on the beach at San Jose Del Cabo

Brian at the airplane hangar in Langley with his homebuilt plane

Me [ Mike Pearson ] and Brian having lunch in San Jose Del Cabo

Brian Fitzpatrick looking lost and lonely at the Tailhunter bar in La Paz Mexico. On the bus trip, Brian's great quote about the desert was..." it looks like Hell after the fire went out"

Last image in this set, a young and adventurous Brian when he was a temporary guest of the American penal system [ he was released on a successful appeal ]

Brian Fitzpatrick at the 2013 Arlington Airshow.....Video

Important acknowledgements about the legal fight

#1 Brian Fitzpatrick was exactly the right guy to lead this fight, determined ,intelligent, naturally rebellious, a great sense of humour in the middle of tragic circumstances. Without him, absolutely nothing would have happened and Sam's death would have been swept under the carpet.

#2 Tom Sandborn. Journalist and full time professional shit disturber.

Early on, Tom wrote about the Sam Fitzpatrick story while he was working at The Tyee news outlet.

Tom became friends with both Brian and I over time. essentially we quickly folded into a tight brotherhood in the fight against the Kiewit Corporation.

Tom wrote thousands upon thousands of words to describe what was going on, what had happened, and what was coming up.

When Fitz died in July of 2017, Tom Sandborn was one of the first people I called when I stepped outside of Lion's Gate Hospital. I asked for Tom's help to continue the legal fight, and he immediately agreed to give whatever support was humanly possible. I consider Tom Sandborn to be an absolute hero, and brother of mine by choice.

Steve Hunt and the United Steel Workers Union.

Brian Fitzpatrick and Steve Hunt of the USW hooked up to create bigger more serious leverage against the Kiewit Corporation. Steve is a tireless crusader for the use of the Westray Law to prosecute work place deaths.

Steve Hunt, the perfect workers rights bare fist fighter, teamed up with the relentlessly optimistic and determined, Brian Fitzpatrick to build heavy duty pushback against the American Mega corporation.

Steve Hunt was the other guy I called after leaving Brian's bedside in the hospital. Same thing...through tears and anger mixed with disbelief....I asked Steve for continued assistance with the legal fight. Of course, Steve Hunt stepped up, without hesitation to fight against huge odds and a muli year battle.

Steve Hunt and Tom Sandborn stayed in the fight right up until the very end. They never ran out of energy and enthusiasm. They were always ready to push Brian Fitzpatrick's fight forward.

It was...it is...an honour to have fought beside them.

The RCMP and the BC Prosecutor's Office.

Brian reached out to the RCMP at one point during the struggles with WorkSafeBC and Kiewit's appeal of their fine. I was cynical about getting the attention of the police for Sam's workplace death, but Fitz, bless him was a believer.

Unbelievably, after a bit of back and forth, the RCMP agreed to take on the criminal investigation of Sam's death....I believe that was around 2013/2014....many years after the incident.

As it turns out, the RCMP were not well equipped to investigate a workplace death. They weren't sure what a boulder was, or a 345 Cat excavator....and they were shocked when the Kiewit corporation started to play games instead of rolling over for them.

They did the best they could. They allowed Brian and I to interact and communicate with them to give a bit of direction and background info.

Unfortunately, There was a side story about one of Kiewit's lawyers moving and losing important physical evidence...the RCMP took a stab at it, but didn't make any headway despite the abundance of evidence. [ I'll write more about this later ]

The RCMP treated Brian and I with respect. There were a few tears when I phoned the lead investigator to tell him that Brian Fitzpatrick had died. Fitz made an impression on everyone involved.

The BC Prosecutor's Office...what a struggle. Lots of changes of people...having to rebuild relationships when one person moves on and hands the case to a new person. Years...Years of waiting for something to happen. Waiting for them to move was the worst part of the whole adventure. The day they announced that they were going to stay the charges was as bad or worse than hearing about Sammy's death at Toba Inlet.

However...They again allowed us to interact with them. They answered our phone calls and emails.

In the end. they were woefully unprepared to do battle against the Kiewit Corporation. They lacked leadership and drive to see this case through. David Eby...I'm looking right at you.

Images from the 2009 Toba Inlet Kiewit project / Site of Sam Fitzpatrick fatality