GIRL STAYS WITH DRUG-FIGHTING DAD

Guardianship In Doubt After House Ransacked

When seven-year-old Tawni was born she was so tiny and so precious her
father nicknamed her Beacon. His guiding light.

It was for Beacon's safety, and the rest of the kids on needle-strewn Speed
Avenue, that Rick Boudreau and a few neighbours got together Sunday night
and took the law into their own hands.

They got rid of a house of so-called pushers and pimps but as a result of
that action, Boudreau came close Tuesday to losing guardianship of his only
daughter to the Ministry of Children and Family Development. After an early
evening meeting with a social worker, a ministry official confirmed the
child won't be taken away. For now, both sides are just going to keep talking.

Boudreau is relieved. "They understand I did it out of love for my child."

When Tawni was born at just 41/2 pounds, Boudreau held her in the palm of
his hand.

"After she was born, I looked at her and thought, 'Wow, she is tiny. That's
my beacon, my guiding light. That's the reason I'm going to get up for work
every morning, that's the reason for the rest of my life."

In a form of street justice to shut down an alleged crack house which
attracted junkies, hookers and petty thieves, about four neighbours entered
the garbage-strewn party house on Speed Avenue on Sunday and showed the
tenants the door.

"This is your moving day," proclaimed Boudreau. "Got, get, don't come back."

Windows were smashed, doors torn off their hinges, water pipes were
ruptured. To make sure that no one returned, they demolished just about
everything.

It was all the small neighbourhood -- off Douglas Street across from
Mayfair mall -- could think of doing after numerous calls to the City of
Victoria, police and the homeowner proved futile.

Boudreau and Kathleen Crocker were charged with break and enter and
mischief over $5,000 and return to court Aug. 12.

"Not a single soul got hurt," said Boudreau.

But the demolition brought with it scrutiny of Boudreau's role as a parent.

Although the case is confidential, Marisa Adair, of the Ministry of
Children and Family Development, said meetings with parents are a matter of
procedure when the ministry has concerns a child's welfare may be at risk.

Only as a last resort is a child removed from the home, she said. If the
ministry has less than very serious concerns, it will first look at giving
the family additional support, or, for example, placing the child with
extended family.

Boudreau, who works for Rockridge Demolition, admits he hasn't got it easy.
He shares joint custody of his only daughter with his ex-wife.

Although he has lived in a rental unit on Speed Avenue for three years, for
the last month he's lived in a small trailer snuggled in Crocker's driveway.

Crocker lives in a two-bedroom home, where Canadian flags cover the windows
and a tarp covers the roof. Tawni stays there while her father is at work.

Boudreau is saving his money to move with Tawni into an apartment in James
Bay, where his ex-wife lives and daughter goes to school. It's not an ideal
life, but it's a loving relationship, he said.

And despite the outrage he demonstrated in attacking the party house,
Boudreau said there's no connection between that incident and the way he
handles his child.

"I'm a really excellent father. I have never to this day spanked my child.
If she does something wrong, I don't even have to raise my voice," he said.
"This (incident) is a totally different thing."

Boudreau said he chased away the alleged drug traffickers to protect his
daughter.

There was no pivotal incident that provoked the attack, it was just a slow
boil, another Monday approaching during which he'd have to wonder if his
child would step on a needle or be attacked by a criminal.

"There's times at work I'm walking on planks 40 feet in the air. How do I
concentrate when I'm not sure my child is safe," he said. He has no
regrets. "They're not coming back. That was the point."

For her part, Tawni thinks her dad probably went too far "because he made a
flood" by smashing pipes but is glad the "he scared away the junkies."

"I think it was a good idea but he did it the wrong way," she said. "He's a
good dad."

Paul Panteleyev defended his neighbour. "It was a bit extreme but I think
it had to be done," said Panteleyev.

"As far as something being legal or something being right, I'd rather have
something be right. And I think that was right."

Panteleyev has lived beside the house, home to more than 10 tenants, for
about three months. Especially in the last month, there has been a constant
stream of people coming in and out, he said. The discarded needles were
disgusting and scary. "You didn't want to go out of the house," he said.

A Victoria police spokesman said officers were called to the residence
about 10 times in the past year, but there's no proof that it was a drug house.

On Tuesday, the windows and doors at 615 Speed Ave. were boarded with
plywood -- with the exception of one window where a tenant is believed to
have broken into the basement to retrieve belongings.

Faxes came into Boudreau's workplace Tuesday, with supporters of his style
of justice offering to help pay his legal bills.