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Written by Alex J.Walling
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Wednesday, 10 January 2007 |
By Alex J.Walling
 “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty “Hi Yo Silver!” the Lone Ranger rides again.
That was part of the intro to one of the most famous radio (40’s) and TV (50’s) cowboy shows of yesteryear where out of the blue, the masked man would show up to make things right. And of course leaves his calling card, a silver bullet.
The Lone Ranger rides again in David Gamble.
Gamble is the photographer who happened to be around when Ernie Fage and his government leased car, (that means paid by we the taxpayer) rear-ended another car driven by George Myrer, a sports editor with the Chronicle Herald, shortly after midnight on November 24th, at a Halifax intersection.
Gamble with his cell phone took photos of the accident scene, including a photo of Fage in his car and then followed Fage in his Jetta to a parking garage of a nearby apartment building. Now Ernie Fage, a provincial government minister, didn’t get out of his car to check on the people in the car he crashed into and then sped off without providing his name or insurance information.
In other words, and I’m not a lawyer, but a seemingly pure case of ‘hit and run’. Or, hit and hide.
While Fage was running so was photo man Gamble who followed Page to the parking garage and asked him questions. In fact the video has taken by Gamble shows a man bearing the Fage likeness fumbling his keys to get into a room.
The David Gamble photos/video shows Fage behind the wheel of a car that Gamble and two others witnesses say fled the scene after rear-ending a vehicle. The video shows Fage (or his likeness) leaving a parking garage and entering an elevator. In the video the photographer repeatedly asks, ‘Why did you leave the scene?” There is no reply.
Gamble says he smelled alcohol on the man the photographed.
Needless to say this has been a political nightmare/scandal for the McDonald government.
My first comment, other than I hope the cops nail Fage for ‘leaving the scene of an accident’, is congratulations to David Gamble and what he did. It took guts to do what he did.
I understand some people are not to pleased with what he did citing ‘private and personal issues’.
You can’t have it both ways.
We as a society are urging people to ‘get involved’. To ‘stand up and do what is right’. The RCMP and HRM police are now offering money and lots of it (up to $50,000) for citizen’s help to solve crimes. We are told to get involved.
David Gamble got involved big time. This guy is a pro photographer which is great that he had a tool to take those photos (camera phone) but he is not a journalist but certainly acted like one and in fact did more than many in my profession would do.
Talk about chasing a story. This Gamble fellow was a combination of police detective, crime dog owner and reporter. He followed Fage in his car, to the garage and recorded as much as he can.
Without that camera phone it would be his word against Fage and I regrettably think the minister or ex minister would have won but isn’t technology grand? The proof is not in the pudding as the expression goes but it is in the cell phone images.
As a result of this piece of investigative journalism we have a major story that we would not had otherwise.
We have a person who by all reports was drinking, whether he was over the legal limit, we will never know because Fage ran away. Gee, I wonder why he would run away if he wasn’t drunk or over the limit.
Had David Gamble not been around with his trusty tool (camera phone) it is very conceivable that one Ernie Fage, the Potato Rage, would still be in the front benches at the legislature today?
I think the man should get one of those Journalism awards. Well done, sir.
Alex J. Walling could be reached via email at:
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