I've always been someone who couldn't tolerate injustice. I was a popular kid and hung out with the tough kids as well as most of the other groups. Musicians, the sport kids, the smart kids, and one thing was for sure nobody got picked on when I was around nor was I ever picked on. It wasn't really intentional, I guess I just put off that vibe and never really saw it or had to deal with it. I genuinely liked people from all walks of life. I felt most people had an interesting perspectives, and stories to tell.
My first bouts with bullying came in my own experiences with the school system. My first year of high school my father took his fifth heart attack just before Christmas. He had had his first one at 35. Two wives later this one got him. My father lived in another city about 2 hrs away and my parents had been divorced since I was one. However we were close and I visited him on a regular schedule. My mother had remarried when I was 4. He died December 8, 1990 on a Saturday morning. He was 45, I was 15. The wake happened 2 days later and I was back to school on Thursday, when I was given 2 detentions for missed time. This was a huge kick in the gut. I was only allowed a day and a half for immediate family according to school policy and it seemed like they couldn't care less. Rules were rules.
Upon getting back from Christmas break the school insisted that I see the school counsellor to make sure I was alright. I liked her and when she suggested I see a psychologist outside from school to help deal with the grief I agreed. I was a popular kid in and out of school, and had a good sense of humour. Looking back I feel I was dealing with my father's death very well and also the fact that my parent's marriage was falling apart. I went to see the psychologist for a few months, who then thought I should see a psychiatrist. Things were getting worse at home, and I spent most of my time at my girlfriend's but medication wasn't going to fix that. I met this psychiatrist for a total of 15 to 20 mins who diagnosed me with the brand new ADD, as well as depression and put me on a heavy dose of whatever the pill was for that at the time. Whatever it was, on my second day taking them I was rushed to the hospital from school when my art class teacher noticed I had turned white, was sweating and shaking. I don't remember much of this other than being at the hospital. I immediately stoped taking them, and turned to cannabis for safe relaxation, and ever since. Shortly after the incident with the prescribed "medication", the school who had a strict 12 day absentee rule (one missed class equaled a day) told me I was being expelled for my absences. They were the ones who sent me to these appointments and now they were kicking me out because of them. My grades were still relatively good. I never found school difficult other than having to sit in classes I wasn't interested in. Despite the fact that I had excuse notes and regardless of the protest from my mother and I in numerous meetings. Never the less, I was given the cold shoulder and no mercy. To make things worse, my uncle, my mother's brother, was the Vice Principal and clearly more concerned about his job. Not one ounce of warmth there. After that I went back every semester, and they flat out told me I was blacklisted and found a reason to kick me out every time. After a few attempts I left for good. It didn't take a genius to figure out that all of this was bullshit. Over the next few years that high school went through a rash of suicides and became known as Suicide High because of their policies in my opinion. The Principal died a few years later of a brain tumour.
I didn't let any of this stop me in life. I took a trip across Canada with some friends which was an amazing experience. Later I came back with the intent to get an education. I got the rest of my high school credits from the community college. Once I had the right prerequisites I went to University to study psychology and philosophy. Out of the 23 or so credits I would have needed to graduate High School I had gathered 11 and had the 9 needed for my major to enter University as a mature student at 21. I essentially skipped High School and realized that University was nothing more than a business.
After my first year I went to work as a counsellor for a part-time job. I worked with schizophrenics, multiple personalities, and later children. I quickly realized that this psychology industry was largely full of shit, especially with my new experiences working in the system coupled with my own experiences of being a victim of it. I was just a baby sitter charged with giving these people, some of them, dozens of pills a day. Philosophy I loved however. My first tattoo was an Anarchy symbol I had drawn myself. I had realized it's true meaning and wanted to engraved this so to never forget my mind set at the time. Also, around this time I ran into George Carlin's stand up material, this is all before streaming video on the internet of course. Between my philosophy courses and George tearing down all the illusions I'd been tough my whole life, I began seeing the world with refreshing new eyes. Although, the truth of things was beyond disturbing. After making a film about Liberty where I interviewed strippers and tattoo artists, for my ethics class, a friend of mine who worked in the television industry convinced me that I was missing my calling. I had gotten an A+ on the film. I then enrolled for television and video production program in college and two years later had my diploma. My first year out I became a producer, director, cameraman, and editor at the local television station. That was a great place to cut my teeth because I got to do everything from variety, art shows, mobile productions, studio productions, documentary style shows, to news. My second year brought me on to my first Discovery Channel series called "Stones of Fate and Fortune" as an editor, and the rest is history. I thank the school system now for helping me become the man I am today and showing me how useless and harmful these systems are or at least have become. My conviction to stand for justice has only strengthened over the years and now I have the tools and abilities to make real change in the world through my work.
When streaming video on the internet became a thing. I dove head first into all documentary content I could find on my interests. I was always into the stranger things in the world. The unexplained was of particular interest. Ufo's, alternative ancient history, religion etc. I had been interested in all these subjects since I was a kid. I eventually ran into the Freeman on the Land Movement through videos by a now friend of mine Robert Menard, as well as the story of Rick Simpson and the cannabis oil at about the same time. Rob really did a lot to wake the world up to the nature of law and our place within that system, the person, and the difference of "legal" and "lawful". His work really helped pave the way for other activists such as Dean Clifford. The people were trying to understand the legal and lawful systems and attempting to gain their freedom through understanding them. Remedy was there for those who would seek it, or so we all thought.
Soon after, I met two brothers from the town of Sackville, about 40 mins away from me, who had been arrested for growing cannabis with the intention of healing a cancer one of them had. They were standing on their rights as Freemen on the Land. They were also the ones who introduced me to Rick Simpson shortly there after, the man who accidentally rediscovered the healing properties of cannabis oil for many illness' including cancer.
Over the next few years I saw corruption within the Canadian government and legal system that was so far beyond anything I could have imagined. Rick Simpson was put into exile as his house was raided again while he was in Amsterdam accepting his award for Freedom Fighter of the year at the Cannabis cup. 2 years later, I had become a father and was recuperating from the government haven gutted the television and film industry in my province over night and completely contrary to their promises towards the industry. I was lucky that I was able to survive it because I was getting work also from other provinces, however it was devastating for others.
Around 2012 about a year and a half after the cuts in the industry and work was slowly coming back due to a cultural card the industry here was able to play, I found out my step-father had cancer and reached out to one of the healers named Daren McCormick. Daren was awaiting trial but regardless he spent the whole night, with court the next morning, making a full 50 gram cannabis oil treatment for me free of charge. The raw material was provided by another great Canadian, Sam Malace. Sam at one point had made national news when he lite a joint in the parliament during a session. Upon getting the news that Daren had gotten 3 1/2 years in federal prison I immediately made a short film about him that went viral in response. I barely remember making it, I was so upset. A few days later the police dropped the charges against Rick after 2 years and he was able to come back home from Europe where he had been staying with another great cannabis activist, Jindrich Bayer. This was the first video to come out on the subject of Rick and the oil in 5 years.
The story of The Phoenix Tears members, which was the name that Rick Simpson and the people that surrounded and supported him gave to their organization and the oil, is far from done and I've been filming it since 2009. Later the name RSO or Rick Simpson Oil was coined by the late Jack Herer who was very helpful in getting Ricks information out to the public. Rick is now living in Croatia, disgusted with his country. Daren has since been released and now is facing another minimum 5 years because as soon as he was released he began healing people again, also he had pressed charges against all those who had put him in prison in the first place. Al died very shortly after the last short film I made with him and his brother upon their release after 2 months in prison in the general population without charges. His brother eventually did 6 months to add insult to injury, however they were only able to charge him with the first raid, because of the paper work he filed that took him out of the legal system and brought him under common law only. This was done with an instrument called "Letter of intent and claim of right". I will continue filming this story until I feel it's ready to be told. Most recently I traveled to Newfoundland to follow Daren after his latest release. He was put in prison without bail and without access to his law books which the judge had promised he would have. I see the system still attacking the original Phoenixtears even on the eve of legalization. I've seen them arrest wives and threaten to take away children unless they stopped standing on their rights. I've witnessed them going so far as to go after grand children of people who were pillars of the community before their involvement with the cannabis oil. People put in jail without charges till their cancer came back leading shortly after to their deaths. Over and over, anything to make their lives difficult or nearly impossible. One politician in this small town changed the by-laws to target one of the members who was a cab driver so that he couldn't work because of the criminal record he now had because of his involvement with the oil, and later the same politician had this cab driver's home torn down illegally and stuck him with the bill. In my opinion, the story of Rick Simpson, the cannabis oil, and the Phoenixtears is one of the most important stories in Canadian history, however I did have to walk away from it for a while when I was disillusioned by the amount of greed and corruption within the cannabis community itself.
It's worth mentioning that I became a healer myself, however the burden of dealing with people that are often at deaths door and the baggage that brings was too difficult for me, so I have a tremendous respect for those who are able. I also saw so much selfishness with the patience once they got what they wanted and needed, so my policy was to teach how to to make it when asked, and then the deal was that person would show one other, and so on. Teach a man to fish, kind of philosophy. I still do a treatment or two a year, and will still help those who are close to me who know. Recently this included my mother. Also making and putting my time and efforts into cannabis oil related content eventually costed me just about everything, and I learned some very hard lessons when I temporarily stopped a show on this subject a producer from Halifax and I were pitching to CBC and The Documentary Channel in order to put out a documentary that I felt I could put out quick for the web, which is the film about Rick Simpson I sent below, to at least get some updated information out, before continuing with the big production we were proposing to the broadcasters. I raised a bit of money through crowed funding but still I was stretched far to thin and many producers that I had long relationships with began to shy away from me because this was still a very controversial subject at the time and most people still saw this is some kind of internet hoax information. Since that time many things have changed in the view of this medicine and the facts that surrounds it. Of course I've been approached by producers regarding cannabis oil since then, however nothing has come to fruition.
In 2014 opened my own production company named "Cinetech Production Services Ltd" which has doubled in sales every year having worked on productions for broadcasters such as: EOne, The Documentary Channel, APTN, CBC, Radio Canada, Unis, ABC NY, TVO, The Foodnetwork and others. However my main goal is always to find a way out and to be able to concentrate on films that benefit humanity. Solutions in the this time of doom and gloom, war, debt, GMOs, poverty, the police state, big Pharma. There are many remedies that need to be put forth to end this decay of freedom and humanity itself. If the goal in life is to be healthy, wealthy and wise, then the powers that be sure are doing their best to make us sick, poor and dumb and I want to be part of the solution and evolution past these sick and archaic systems that are there to harm the majority and benefit the very few. Without awareness people just don't have access to the knowledge that could greatly improve their quality of life and humanities direction in general.
I'm also including Trippin with Leigh because it was because of my cannabis films and the work I did on season 10 of the Trailer Park Boys that I was chosen for this job. A week after working camera for season 10 of The Trailer Park Boys I was offered the job of filming and directing this spin off documentary in Peru. This is also when I had my first, DMT and Ayahuasca ceremonies, which completely changed my perspective on life. Unfortunately for me as an artist it was reduced for their audience to just the drugs and the journey was mostly cut out, however most still enjoy it. It's worth a watch just to watch my assistant rolling around and screaming at the sky during his Yopo experience miles from any civilization and the Ayahuasca ceremony by candle light. It also shows the evolution of the style I've developed to be able to conduct all roles of production myself.
This is radio show where I describe my ayahuasca experience in the Amazon:
XZONE RADIO with Rob McConnell-Guest Chris Harrigan
These are literally a no budget film I began making in 2009 and where I learned how to shoot and direct at the same time through necessity.
Healing Cancer with Cannabis (John and Al after the first raid)
Healing Cancer with Cannabis (Daren)
Healing Cancer with Cannabis (John and Al after the second raid)
Healing Cancer with Cannabis: The Rick Simpson Story
This is an independent film I made which a portion of was bought by Viceland for their first broadcast episode. This was actually shot in 2013 and I originally released the first half hour in the hopes of creating a web mini series. Between my upload and a couple of re-uploads that I approved, the film had around a million views. I finally had a bit of free time and was able to release the full film late last year.
Trippin with Leigh
This was a documentary I directed and filmed and helped produce in Peru along with my assistant who specialized in sound and our "Star" Leigh MacInnis who played the role of Don/Donna on the Trailer Park Boys season 8 through 10. Funded by the Trailer Park Boys and a crowed funding campaign, we traveled through Peru from Lima to the Sacred Valley and on to the jungle to explore the Shamanic medicines of the Amazon.
https://www.swearnet.com/shows/trippin-with-leigh/seasons/1/episodes/1