Corinna break with Wortman over his abuse of children ?

did her famous loyalty finally reach its limits ?

Gabe Wortman could pick a fight with a fence post.

But twice, it was almost as if he BUILT the fence post specifically, so he could pick a fight with it !

Some small kids, whose parents move about an awful lot, experience the loss of precious toys, through being given away or misplaced, as a vital stab to their innermost core.

As adults, they are almost obsessive about “their” property when others come around : okay, they are obsessive, totally obsessive.

Given Gabe’s ”irregular” childhood before age six, and then his adult behaviour regarding his property, I’d say he was a classic case.

But sometimes he deliberately put himself in such stressful situations.

Twice he chose to buy a home in downtown Dartmouth with “zero setback” from the public sidewalk.

Check out his homes at 26 Pine Street and 191 Portland on Google Maps : where his doorstep ends, the public sidewalk begins.

I have walked by both houses many times over the years and it is impossible not to walk by his door, without being “too close” —- at least inside his addled mind.

No reports - as yet - that GW ever beat up or chased off adults who were “too close” to his “his” toys (aka his front door) but plenty regarding children he beat up or chased off.

Usually he later tried to bribe the child or their families to keep it out of the courts.

In at least one case, that failed - but Gabe still skated, avoided a criminal conviction, so police couldn't later get the search warrants that might have prevented 23 people dying, etc.

But I digress : I do digress, don’t I ?

I guess my point is the age old one, summed up by the equally old saying, “for the want of a nail, a kingdom was lost”.

Our ancient elders weren’t idiots were they ? They weren’t HRM & RCM police were they ?

In Gabriel Wortman repeatedly beating up children for being “too close” to his toys, we have a pattern of repeated massively disproportional violence for the most minor of imagined slights, the classic “tell” of the type of “injustice collector” who later go on to becomes a mass killer.

Neighbours noticed the pattern, told friends about the pattern , probably told friends who were police about the pattern.

(I have lived in old downtown Dartmouth and in my experience, it is pretty rare to be a long time homeowner  there without knowing at least one policeman personally : they are everywhere, at church, at Guide camps, at the daycare, at the hockey game. Old Dartmouth is still a small town, believe you me !)

It was an “open secret” in the neighbourhood and if we still had police who regularly patrolled the same neighbourhood, it would be “known to the police” as well.

But the police have “progressed” far beyond that and let me tell you, Progress Sucks !

Today, Dartmouth cops patrol from an HQ a universe or two away and they only retain complaint records for a few years due to our blessed “Privacy Laws”.

Yes Covid-19 is bad, very bad : but the mis-use of Privacy Laws is much much worse.

As a result a professional who is repeater child-abusing offender, who does not progress beyond the complaint level, can move freely from community to community abusing away.

In each case when caught out, these abuses are explained away by being done by a “hitherto responsible professional who lapsed” but is a “first time offender” who “won’t do it again”.

Priests, coaches, teachers : they have all successfully pulled this stunt, over and over : maybe GW too.

Would have Wortman got only a $50 fine for beating up a child on Portland Street for being “too close”, if the police and prosecutors had known about his earlier assaults on children, a few hundred metres further up the hill on Pine ?

Laurie Cuvelier, the constable who laid the initial “criminal assault” charge after a two month long investigation was clearly of this frame of mind.

 He grew up in Dartmouth and if his name rings a bell (and you’re not a criminal !) its because you’re a sports fan. Laurie’s dad Jim survived the Halifax Explosion and WWII to enter the NS Sports Hall of Fame as a baseball great. Laurie himself was a 1978 NHL pick.

 Everybody in Old Dartmouth knows Laurie and Laurie knows everybody in Old Dartmouth. Almost like an old time beat cop.

(The alternative argument is that they did know, and that while some police & prosecutors saw red over a adult repeatedly beating up children, others only saw PINK. Big shout out to Ronnie J for skating GW down to a $50 fine.)

But there is one individual who definitely did know about Gabriel’s penchant for guarding his “toys” from others obsessively & violently, who did know he regularly chased away and beat up children for being too close to his front door : his first wife Corinna Kincaid.

She has now remarried and returned to her native South Shore, where she teaches in the NSCC system while her husband Mark Lowe is an all-around entrepreneur.

Other than her time in court for destroying the environment/stonewalling the court system and her time in the public spotlight for her part in the massive Digby Neck basalt quarry story, she has laid low.

Recently I discovered an old feature article in WALRUS MAGAZINE, December 2007’s “ROCK BOTTOM” , written by well known journalist Noah Richler.

It makes me seriously question whether she had any real role in either incident, other than as the very loyal, very public, patsy for her new husband’s actions.

Reading that Walrus story after reading the public inquiry into the Bilcon Quarry, with Bilcon bitterly complaining that Corinna’s earlier plans to export beach sand (a crime worst than child molesting in Nova Scotia) ruined their chances to get Digby Neck to support their quarry, is startling.

It makes you wonder then about the Judge’s acid description of Corinna in the seven year long illegal in-filling case.

By the entire omission of her name in Noah Richler’s article, Corinna comes across as a very loyal spouse indeed ! Noah is himself a local summer resident of Digby Neck and he clearly thinks the quarry was entirely Mark’s doings.

But even loyal wives reach their limits : I wonder if Corinna’s marriage to Gabe broke up over his repeated abuse of children - did she complain to neighbours, the police or child protection authorities - and then move on when it still didn’t stop ?

I doubt we will ever know....