A New Kind of Monster (17 page)

Meanwhile, he was quickly getting to know not only the principal players at 8 Wing but also many of the civilians who had dealings with the base, in particular another man named Williams—Quinte West mayor John Williams, first elected in
2006. The 8 Wing base has for decades been integral to Trenton, now part of the City of Quinte West. Its five thousand or so military members and dependents are spread across the city and adjoining Belleville, and issues of mutual interest constantly arise, from fundraisers and celebrations to jobs programs and traffic. The bond is strong, seen everywhere on billboards and ubiquitous “Support Our Troops” bumper stickers, and in recent years the emotive repatriation ceremonies for soldiers slain in Afghanistan have made it stronger still. When a flag-draped casket begins its journey from 8 Wing to Toronto, hundreds of Trentonians routinely gather outside the fence and line the road to watch and pay their respects.

“There's always been a good relationship between 8 Wing and us. It's a big part of the community, and whenever there's a change of command it always includes the mayor's office,” John Williams said later. “So I would talk to [Russ Williams] maybe a number of times a week, at an event or over the phone. There were a lot of events that both of us would be at—Christmas at the base, museum events. He was fairly quiet and difficult to get close to, not one to kibitz. It was difficult to carry on a conversation. He was not a warm person, just, ‘Here's my job.' I've found other wing commanders to be very outgoing, but he was not. He was very correct and military, very well respected by those who worked with him, and obviously they thought he was going to the top. You don't get to be a colonel and be in charge of a major base without that kind of reputation.”

Midway through September, in an episode whose timing would later leave Mayor Williams stunned, the new wing commander issued an invitation. He was heading to the Arctic for a couple of days to have a look at operations up there. Would Mayor Williams like to come along for the ride? The mayor said he would, and packed a small bag.

In one of the soon-to-be-replaced Hercules CC-130s, which usually hauled freight, they flew to Canadian Forces Station Alert, on the tip of Ellesmere Island in the territory of Nunavut—the most northerly permanently inhabited place in the world. Administered by 8 Wing, the small, remote base is what is termed a signals intelligence intercept facility, a combination weather station/science station/listening post, home to a rotating group of about sixty military personnel and civilians attached to the defense and environment departments, chiefly scientists.

The trip required a twelve-hour flight each way, and Mayor Williams recalls it well. The group left on September 14 and returned two days later. Colonel Williams was not at the controls of the aircraft and seemed preoccupied, sitting at the back of the plane by himself, where it was chilly because a heater had malfunctioned. There's not a lot to see at CFS Alert, which dates back to the 1960s and the Cold War era: an airstrip, a handful of equipment-filled buildings and a beautiful, dramatically empty Arctic landscape. But the mayor nonetheless found the experience interesting, and on returning to Trenton at around seven in the evening on the 16th, he thanked his host and went home.

So too did Colonel Williams. He headed up Highway 37 toward his cottage in Tweed. He had a big night ahead.

The young Russ Sovka, as Williams was known then, as a student at Birchmount Park Collegiate in Scarborough.
(photo credit i.1)

Yearbook photo from Upper Canada College in 1982. Sovka, as he was still known, was a talented trumpet player in his teenage years.
(photo credit i.2)

During his first year at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, Williams grew a beard and reverted to the use of his birth name. His interest in the trumpet was soon to disappear, and he rarely mentioned it in later life.
(photo credit i.3)

The 8 Wing/CFB Trenton headquarters, where Williams's office was on the top floor. He was base commander from July 2009 until his arrest in February 2010.

The National Air Force Museum of Canada at 8 Wing, home to the largest number of stationary military aircraft in the country. Thousands of memorial stones bearing the names of honored air force members line the walkway, including that of Corporal Marie-France Comeau.

Williams on the day of his swearing-in as the new base commander of 8 Wing/ CFB Trenton, in July 2009, attended by both his father and his mother, who sat separately. The photo was taken by an Ottawa neighbor—but no one from Tweed was invited.
(photo credit i.4)

Victoria Street, the main street that cuts through the center of the village of Tweed.

The cottage at 62 Cosy Cove Lane, which Williams and his wife Mary Elizabeth Harriman purchased in 2004.

The house on Wilkie Drive in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans, where Williams and Harriman lived for fourteen years, the longest he lived anywhere in his life.