8041
8041 Doug Haunts
DOUGLAS R. HAUNTS
a.k.a. “ ATTILLA THE HAUNTS”
Born in Kingston, Ontario
RMC – 1965-1969
Diploma in Public Administration – Carleton University – 1972
LLB – Queen’s University – 1978
Sole practitioner Lawyer – 1980-2022 – Criminal – Family and Civil Litigation
1st posting – Rockcliffe, Ottawa – boss Lt-CMDR who solely investigated UFO’s reported in Canada
Member – Ski Patrol at Edelweiss Valley – Quebec
V.P Rockcliffe Toast Master Club.
D.P.A. – Carleton – night courses
2nd Posting – Shilo Manitoba
Assisted German Troops Training with armoured and artillery
Private Licence Pilot – Brandon ,Manitoba
3rd Posting – United Nations – 1974 – Cairo and Damascus.
1st Officer at the site of crashed Canadian “Buffalo” August 1974- in Charge of Austrian Parachute Platoon to secure site.
Met future first wife “and only” Nina in Beirut, Lebanon.
4th Posting – Petawawa – assigned most dangerous position in Canadian Army – “ Range Safety Officer”. ( Thank God I am still alive)
Sole Practitioner Lawyer
First 15 years – Criminal Law (99% of clients are innocents), and Civil Litigation
Second 27 years – Family Law doing separation and divorces ( more lucrative) CAS work
Retired from Law 2022 – in order to enjoy the “ golden years”
Children: 3 ( that I know of)
a. Chantale – Nurse Practitioner in Kingston
b. Kirk – Family Physician in Cobourg, Ontario
c. Mireille – Cst. RCMP – Prince George – B.C. National Advisory Council – Youth crime prevention – sextortion and bullying, internet related issues
NOTE: Pictures attached show the fun of being young
Note: CDT Haunts broke all known records for “circles” in first 2 x months of recruit term.
Please call if you are in Kingston - 613-547-5465 or 343-363-8720.
I will always agree to your generous offer to take me to lunch or supper.
Photos:
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Current photo of Haunts as his Viking ancestry.
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1. Haunts being pulled over wall in obstacle course
2. Haunts as a pilot of modified spit –fire -1973
3. Haunts in Law office
4. Haunts is lost in Golan Heights and must consult map ( No GPS)
5.
DOUGLAS
R. HAUNTS
SINCE
GRADUATION 1969
I was
pleased to read in recent notes from my fellow graduates of your memories of
meeting with kings, queens, presidents and assorted dictators and potentates. Very
impressive.
I did not have the pleasure of meeting anyone so important. I did not even meet my career manager for six years after graduation.
I do remember being posted to Rockliffe. All I did there was obtain my DPA from Carleton University ; runner up for the 1972 Ski Patrol Award ( a tall blond won that year due to overwhelming support from the male patrollers); and vice president of the Rockliffe Toast Master Club, which at that time prepared me for my future career.
Also, during the War-Measure Act of 1971, I was honoured to meet my grad friends of George Maday, Ron Dickinson, and John Johnson, who were ordered to proceed to Hull Quebec to round up dissidents on behalf of the R.C. R.
I had yearly requested to be posted to Germany, since many of you had told me this was party city in LAHR.
However, since I spoke “ ein bisshen” German, I was posted to Shilo in 1972 due to the German Army training there. I worked with a German Captain and now we correspond since he now lives in Munchen. He has since retired as a Colonel in the German Army.
One other friend from the military career died of a heart problem and one other has had a stroke in recent years and cannot speak.
Shilo is nowhere near civilization, therefore I took my licence at the Brandon flying club. I flew state of the art “pipers”. It was completely safe since you could land in farmer’s wheat field and there were no trees to hit for 1000 miles.
At the start of 1974 war in the Middle East I was posted to the UN peace keepers in Cairo as a logistics officer, I found myself sleeping in a tent near the Cairo Airport surrounded not by enemy but by scorpions. (By the way the pyramids are still there if any of you wish to vacation in Cairo).
Then I was posted to Damascus in the UN headquarters. This was during the disengagement of the two warring sides.
This was interesting since it was the only time I’ve ever been shot at but to no effect. It was at a “disengagement tent in the Golan Heights”. The Swedish security guards dealt with some Syrian soldiers who were not informed that they should be disengaged.
My job as a logistic office was to liaise with the Canadian Contingent in Israel and the Austrian Contingent in Syria. I did not fear for my safety since I received daily reports on where the
land-mines
were located and on which roads. O a day after I travelled to Mount Hermon to
supply an Austrian observation post, an Austrian jeep did hit a mine on that
road and several soldiers were killed.
In mid-August 1974, I was the only officer at the UN HQ in Damascus. A Canadian Buffalo aircraft with the UN markings which flew daily from Beirut to Damascus with Canadian Replacement, mail, and yes booze; was shot down in the mountains near Damascus. 17 soldiers and air crew were killed. I attended with a platoon of Austrian paratroopers at the crash scene and took pictures etc. I was in charge of keeping the crash scene protected with my Austrian platoon until Canadian investigators could attend. That night I was ordered by the Canadian Colonel in Damascus to leave the scene since a large contingent of Syrian soldiers arrived to forcibly remove me. That night the Syrian Defence Minister arrived and we had Turkish coffee and Syrian donuts at midnight. We knew each other since I had lunch with him a week before at his villa in Damascus, since my Syrian Liaison Officer was his nephew.
I was the next day ordered to take three weeks holiday, I decided to travel to Beirut, which was the Paris of the Middle East at that time.
That was a turning point in my life. By chance met a beautiful Phoenician girl and I married her.
I lost my security clearance due to this inter-racial marriage. The Canadian Armed Forces was not pleased with this marriage. However since my great grandmother was Mohawk from Deseronto, Ontario there was inter-racial liaison in my family for several generations. My great grandfather was French and my great grandmother was indigenous.
I won’t tell you the age of my wife when we married since it still may be against the law in Canada.
I was then posted to Petawawa as a training officer. No one told me what to train the soldiers but I soon found out. I was the range safety officer. Nowhere in the Canadian Forces is there a more dangerous job, i.e. twelve newfies lined up to fire magazine after magazine with the sterling 9 mm sub-machine gun.
In late 1974 I was accepted as a first year law student at Queen’s University. I retired from the Canadian Armed Forces as a Captain with no pension. This turned out to be the best decision in my life. With the constant help, encouragement and advice from my wife, I started a solo law practice in 1980 to January 2022. I am now officially retired after an interesting and lucrative career in Family Law and divorces.
During this time I was also busy in the 1980– president of the R.M. C. Club of Kingston and president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Kingston.
I could tell you some great stories of my trials in Court but you will need a whole night at a Mess dinner so I have enough time.
Our plan for retirement has fallen through. I told my three children that we would spend three months with each of them and spend three months in the winter in the Caribbean.
However
our three children had other plans for our retirement.
If any of you have a better idea for retirement let me know.
All the best to all of you , sincerely
Douglas Haunts
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