I n s u r a n c e L i t i g at i o n F o r u m 2 0 0 7
Demystifying fuses
and circuit breakers
By Richard van Leeuwen
is an electrical fault in a device, the fuse or
circuit breaker usually opens and removes
the power from the circuit. It may protect
the wiring to the device, but it’s too late to
protect the device itself.
If fuses and circuit breakers don’t protect
electrical devices, why use them at all? I
have answered this question for lawyers
several times. The answer has three parts:
to prevent human injury; to prevent further damage to the failed device and other
equipment such as the wiring to the failed
equipment; and to limit the extent of the
service interruption, usually by isolating
only one circuit of the system.
If a device fails, and the fuse or circuit
breaker opens, there is no injury or further
damage. If any one of the three situations
mentioned above has not occurred, the
I
t is a very common misconception that
fuses and circuit breakers (and some
variations of them) protect electrical
devices.
Fuses are electrical devices in which a
filament of metal melts (fuses) when too
much electrical current passes through it.
The metal filament has a small amount of
resistance which causes it to heat up with
the current in accordance with Ohm’s
law. Above a certain amount of electrical
current or “overload,” the temperature
of the filament will rise, then it will melt,
open the circuit and stop the current.
Time is required to melt the filament,
Water gets into the area and starts forming an electrical path or arc across the insulation.
but the greater the overload current, the
faster it will open. In low temperature
environments it will operate more slowly,
or perhaps not at all.
Once the fuse has opened or “blown,”
it is usually replaced with another one to
re-activate the circuit.
Circuit breakers are similar to fuses in
that they open (trip) the circuit when too
much electrical current passes through it.
But unlike fuses, they operate with a bimetal
strip that heats with the current. When the
bimetal strip bends with the heat, it opens
a pair of contacts to interrupt the current.
Often the opening of the contacts is assisted
by a magnetic element which speeds the
opening if there is a severe current overload.
This type of operation means that the circuit
breaker can be reset, saving money and the
nuisance of replacement.
So why do fuses and circuit breakers
not protect electrical devices? It is because
usually the device fails first and then causes
the fuse or circuit breaker to open. If there
www.insurancewest.ca
November 2007 Insurancewest 41
I n s u r a n c e L i t i g at i o n F o r u m 2 0 0 7
fuse or circuit breaker has not done its
intended job.
There are many cases where the fuse or
circuit breaker fails to operate as intended.
An indication of this can be an injury,
excessive electrical damage, damage to the
wiring, or perhaps a fire.
Occasionally the damage occurs at the
fuse or circuit breaker itself. There are a
variety of possible fuse or circuit breaker
failures: water gets into the area and starts
forming an electrical path or arc across the
insulation; the fuse or circuit breaker has an
ampere trip rating that is either too low or
too high; the voltage rating of the fuse or
circuit breaker has been exceeded; the interrupting rating of the fuse or circuit breaker
has been exceeded; or something else that I
haven’t thought of or experienced yet.
Most of these situations are self-explanatory. But the interrupting rating is often
overlooked, even by engineers who design
electrical systems. If the electrical capacity
of the supply exceeds the circuit breaker’s
ability to open, an arc will form that does
not extinguish. Within seconds or less, the
arc does considerable damage and is usually more serious than the original fault.
There are many cases where the fuse or circuit breaker fails to operate as intended.
Now the protection is lost just when it was
needed, and one is dependent on the next
protective device upstream in the electrical system which, hopefully, does not have
the same problem. The primary indicator
of this type of problem is a fuse or circuit
Harper Grey's litigation practice was founded
upon our experience as insurance counsel.
We know the twists and turns.
breaker that exhibits massive damage.
If this happens, cross your fingers – and
hope the designer is well insured. IW
F F F
Richard van Leeuwen is an engineer and forensic investigator specializing in electrical failures.
Today we serve clients in every insurance
market and assist in managing all
commonly-insured risks.
We are the editor of the Quicklaw
Insurance Netletter. We provide these
summaries to our clients in our own
free monthly email service. To sign up
please contact the Chair of our
Insurance Law Group, Peter Willcock,
at pwillcock@harpergrey.com.
www.harpergrey.com
42 Insurancewest November 2007
www.insurancewest.ca
Electrical
fire?
Always ask how
Don’t play the
waiting game.
By Sam Khashan
E
quipment failure is often cited as the
reason for a fire, and certainly some
TVs, toasters, baseboard heaters etc.
can fail and can cause electrical fires.
Get the right answers when you need them.
But some don’t.
4RANSPORTATIONs)NJURYs0RODUCTs0ROPERTYAND0REMISESs!VIATION
In most cases the equipment accused
of instigating the fire is destroyed. And if
the equipment is destroyed, the evidence
proving its guilt is destroyed.
British Columbia: 604.277.3040 800.565.3040
Without the alleged culprit, it is difOntario: 905.507.1844 866.507.1844
ficult, if not impossible, to determine for
www.meaforensic.com
Let the evidence speak®
certain how the equipment caused the
fire – the mechanism of the failure in the
equipment.
10/19/07 6:23:33 AM
Investigators often suspect electricalMEA Ad_1_3pg_BC_bw.indd 1
equipment caused a fire. But writing a report
that says the electrical equipment probably
caused the fire is merely a hypothesis. The
cause should be scientifically determined.
When a scene examination leads one to
suspect that a particular piece of electrical equipment initiated a fire, and when
that equipment has been damaged to an
extent that investigators can’t determine the
mechanism of the equipment failure, they
should examine an exemplar – an identical,
but undamaged piece of equipment.
This exemplar can help investigators
determine the probable mechanism failure
and answer the question everyone wants
answered: How did the fire start?
Blaming a fire on a piece of equipment
without scientifically identifying the probable mechanism failure can have serious
consequences. Not only might the conclusion be inaccurate, it might also suggest that
the problem has been solved.
This can be a costly, even tragic
mistake. IW
F F F
Syrian-born, Czechoslovakia-educated electrical
engineer Sam Khashan has been a fire investigator for more than three decades. He has lectured
extensively on the subject and testified on the
cause of fires in B.C. courts.
www.insurancewest.ca
November 2007 Insurancewest 43
I n s u r a n c e L i t i g at i o n F o r u m 2 0 0 7
Rule changes create dilemma
for insurance defence counsel
By Neil MacLean and Kevin Gourlay
C
hanges to Rules 26 and 27 of the
B.C. Rules of Court, effective July
1, 2007 and intended to promote
earlier resolution of actions through
disclosure of insurance information, create potential conflict problems for counsel
retained by insurers to defend insureds
against liability claims.
Rule 26 now imposes a broad obligation
on parties to disclose any insurance policy
under which an insurer may be liable to satisfy the whole or any part of a judgment in
the matter at hand. This includes disclosure
44 Insurancewest November 2007
of the declarations page, the policy wording
and any endorsements, but does not include
the insurance application.
Rule 27 now requires a party being discovered to answer any question regarding
the existence and contents of any relevant
insurance policy, including the amount
available under the policy and any communications from an insurer denying or limiting coverage under the policy. Although
the change is silent on the discoverability
of the factual basis for a denial or limitation on coverage, the potential for conflict
arises even if the insured is only required
to identify the basis for such a denial or
limitation.
In circumstances where there may
ultimately be no indemnity or only partial indemnity under the policy, insurers
may defend a claim but reserve rights
to subsequently deny or limit coverage.
There is also a duty imposed on insurers,
where conflicts of interest arise, to instruct
counsel to treat the interests of the insured
equally with its own. The manner in which
defence counsel defends a claim can affect
whether indemnity is ultimately granted,
so the conduct of the insurer and defence
counsel can come under close scrutiny.
Both insurers and defence counsel are at
risk of liability for that conduct.
To avoid bad-faith claims, insurers
have generally developed a practice of not
disclosing coverage issues to counsel. The
changes to Rule 27 threaten the protection
offered by this practice of non-disclosure:
defence counsel will now be present when
coverage limitations are disclosed by the
insured during an examination for discovery.
As a result, defence counsel may choose
to withdraw while coverage questions are
www.insurancewest.ca
I n s u r a n c e L i t i g at i o n F o r u m 2 0 0 7
explored to avoid future accusations of
s. 24(1) of the Insurance Act for unsatisbiased conduct in favour of the insurer.
fied judgments because plaintiffs will
Also, an insured may be entitled to object
know policy details;
• Rule 26 only concerns the disclosure of
to defence counsel being present during
the “coverage” portion of the discovery. In
policy information and does not impose
each instance the parties must answer this
a duty to disclose any documents respectquestion: who will represent the insured?
ing coverage;
• at discovery the plaintiff ’s
Regardless of the outcome,
it will require an analysis of
counsel may ask coverage
the tripartite relationship
questions first and tailor
between insurer, insured
subsequent questions to
and defence counsel. It will
avoid eliciting any further
likely take a decision of the
evidence that may void
B.C. courts to answer that
coverage, and;
• when issuing non-waivers
question.
Here are some other com- The conduct of the insurer
or reservation-of-rights
and defence counsel can
ments about the changes to
letters it may be wise to
come under close scrutiny.
Rule 26 and Rule 27:
avoid including unnec• there may be an increase
essary and potentially
damaging information in any commuin settlement demands for policy limits
by plaintiffs using an awareness of limits
nications with an insured. IW
to impose pressure on insurers;
F F F
• lawsuits commenced under Rule 68
Neil MacLean practises general insurance
(expedited litigation) are not necessarily
defence litigation with a specialty in professional
subject to the rule changes. Rule 68(15)
liability defence, coverage analysis and contract
states: “Rule 26 does not apply to an
review for Guild, Yule and Company LLP. Kevin
expedited action”;
Gourlay, a recent graduate of the University of B.C.
• there may be an increase in actions under
law school, is an articled student with the firm.
michael O’meara
& company
Barristers
Experienced Counsel
Serving the Insurance Industry
– Specializing in the Vancouver Island Region –
• Motor Vehicle Litigation
• Personal Injury Claims
• Product Liability
• Property Damage Claims
• Coverage Opinions
• Occupiers’ Liability Claims
• Subrogated Claims
• Mediation and Arbitration
202 - 45 Bastion Square, Victoria, BC V8W 1J1
Telephone: 250-475-6529 • Facsimile: 250-475-6528
Toll Free: 1-877-246-6529
Email: michael@omearalaw.net
www.insurancewest.ca
November 2007 Insurancewest 45
PROFILE
Alfie’s
story
46 Insurancewest November 2007
Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941,
23,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast,
more than half of them born in Canada, were deemed enemy
aliens, stripped of their possessions and interned in remote
camps. Alfie Kamitakahara, founder of the Vancouver brokerage
Kami Insurance, was one of them. By Don McLellan
T
he unremarkable street-level entrance to Vancouver’s Kami Insurance,
bookended as it is between a vacant retail property and a Dollar Store,
belies the remarkable individual who founded the business almost half
a century ago, Alfie Kamitakahara.
The commonplace entrance also says nothing of what awaits a visitor on the second floor: an open, high-ceilinged marriage of natural light, glass and
exposed beam punctuated by – from the agency’s balcony – a commanding view of
the North Shore mountains.
Though the business has been run by his son John for the past decade, Kamitakahara,
now 78, still visits the office daily. He assigns himself sundry tasks like stamping the
mail and visiting the bank, a duty slowed of late by the need for a walking stick.
“My biggest decision of the day,” he says, “is what to have for lunch.”
At home, when he has the energy, Kamitakahara likes to sing karaoke – enka,
or Japanese folk songs. He’s also a voracious reader, methodically working his way
through four newspapers a day and five magazines a week.
He was born in a small Japanese fishing community on Sea Island, the present
site of the Vancouver International Airport, in 1929. He had four brothers and three
sisters. His parents, originally from Kagoshima, the southernmost prefecture of Japan,
had been early pioneers on Sea Island. The senior Kamitakahara was a community
leader who worked as a fish buyer. Young Alfie often accompanied him on business
trips around Vancouver.
“Before he was married my father worked as a bellhop at the Hotel Macdonald
in Edmonton. His English was good, so he acted as an interpreter in the Japanese
community.”
Despite employment and other restrictions for Japanese, it was, he says, a good life,
although Kamitakahara acknowledges that not everyone in the Japanese community felt
likewise. After Dec. 7, 1941, however, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, conditions
drastically changed for the 23,000 Japanese living in the province’s Lower Mainland and
on Vancouver Island, more than 60 per cent of whom were born in Canada.
Events unfolded rapidly. Canada declared war on Japan. All Japanese on the West
Coast were declared “enemy aliens” and “security risks.” Japanese schools and newspapers were closed. As the Japanese were heavily involved in the fishing industry, boats
were impounded.
“We were taken to Hastings Park (in East Vancouver, the site of the Pacific National
Exhibition, then primarily an annual agricultural fair), where we lived for about four
months in buildings designed for animals.”
That fall, Alfie just 13, the family was shipped east to Slocan in the B.C. Kootenays.
Each person was permitted to keep one suitcase of possessions. Everything else was
sold at auction.
“Nobody resisted. People followed instructions; they were resigned to the fact.”
They stayed four years. The first winter the Kamitakaharas lived in a tent, eating
communally and out of tins, army-style. They later lived in a tarpaper shack. Residents
planted vegetable gardens and cleared trees.
“I remember ladies teaching others how to bake bread,” Kamitakahara said. “We
entertained ourselves with stage shows and singalongs.”
A full year after the war ended, the Japanese remained interned. They were given a
choice: repatriate back to Japan, a country many had never seen, or move east of the
Rockies. The Kamitakaharas relocated to a sugar beet farm outside Lethbridge, Alta.
“That was a terrible part of my life. We were like sharecroppers. It was hell.”
After four years the family moved into Lethbridge. Kamitakahara worked in a
www.insurancewest.ca
furniture store. Taking classes when he
could fit them in, it took him three years
to complete Grade 12.
He next worked in the office of a Ford
dealership. He also became president of the
southern Alberta chapter of a human rights
organization called the Japanese Canadian
Citizenship Association (JCCA), formed in
1947. He led the Vancouver chapter after
moving west in 1956 to work at a Ford
dealership in Steveston, another former
Japanese fishing settlement
not far from his childhood
home.
In 1958 he married Rosie,
“an absolutely fantastic cook.
In a period of 60 days, we
Nash
never have the same dish
twice.”
A few years later their first of two children
was born. Alisa is a clinic coordinator at
the B.C. Cancer Research Centre, which is
near the brokerage.
When the Ford dealership in Steveston
closed down, people he had met in the Junior Chamber of Commerce recommended
Kamitakahara try his hand at insurance.
Lack of experience did not dissuade him
from hanging a shingle near the Vancouver
traffic court at Pender and Main, in the
heart of the city’s Chinatown and a few
blocks south of what was widely referred to
as Japantown. When Japanese were caught
up in legal disputes, the police sometimes
asked him to interpret.
Insurers that have offered encouragement over the years, Kamitakahara says,
include Axa Pacific, Aviva, CNS and Continental – or their earlier incarnations.
“When I first started out my clientele
was 100 per cent Oriental. The Japanese
had begun to trickle back to the coast. In
my 48 years in insurance, I’ve never once
knocked on a door. I was afraid people
would slam it in my face. The agency grew
because of referrals.”
A younger brother also went into insurance. When he retired, Nobbi Kamitakahara
was president of the Western Union Insurance Company, now part of ING.
“Alfie’s down to earth, yet very worldly at
the same time,” noted Robert Adams, an investment advisor with Berkshire Securities
and part-owner of Vancouver’s F. Adams &
Associates Insurance Services. “He’s goodhumoured, social, polished – and very loyal
to his family. He also appears to be a very
good businessman.”
Don Nash, a stockbroker with National
Bank Financial Services, has known Kamitakahara for 35 years. He said he’s never
known anyone with more concern for his
clients.
“Money doesn’t come into it. People will
www.insurancewest.ca
travel for miles to see Alfie. I don’t know if
it’s charisma or what, but he’s just one of
those people whom everybody likes.”
In 1988 the National Association of
Japanese Canadians, the heir organization
of the JCCA, convinced Brian Mulroney’s
Conservative government to apologize
and offer redress to victims of the wartime discrimination. As a Canadian-born
survivor of the injustice, Kamitakahara
received $21,000.
“Although I made a speech against redress, I decided I’d rather be a hypocrite
than a fool for not accepting the money. I
was also very proud of the young people
who negotiated it. But I don’t think we
should be a cry baby. Canada is a different place now; there are no restrictions.
We Japanese have bounced back, we’ve
done well. In some countries, we would
be dead. I think we should appreciate what
we have.”
Indeed, life has since been good to the Kamitakaharas. The brokerage thrives; so, too,
have Alfie’s siblings and their families. It’s
a beautiful summer day on the West Coast
and the North Shore mountains shimmer in
the distance. Rosie and daughter Alisa are
waiting for the interview to end. It’s time
for lunch, you see. Alfie Kamitakahara has
a big decision to make. IW
r' s
o
t
c
a
r
Cont bilit y
Lia
Professional
Liability/E&O
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Agricultural Risks
- Greenhouses
- Farm Packages &
Participation
Amusement Parks
Arenas
Association Business
Aviation
- Airport Premises Liability
- Aviation Products Liability
- Hull & Liability coverage
for Private & Commercial
Aircraft
- Hangars
Builders’ Risk - C.O.C.
(Residential & Commercial)
Boiler & Machinery
Churches &
Religious Institutions
Cargo / Transportation
Commercial & Mercantile
Packages
Contractors’ Equipment
& Liability
Contractors’ Equipment
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
& Liability
Convenience Store
Packages
Director’s & Officer’s
Liability
E&O - Including
Manufacturers’ Design
Entertainment
- Pubs
- Night Clubs
- Hotels & Motels
Environmental Liability
- First & Third Party
Film/Motion Picture
Furs/Furrier
Glass Contracts
Hazardous Materials
High Hazard
Property / Crime
Hole-In-One
Homeowners, Tenants
& Condo Packages
Host Liquor Liability
(incl. Forcible Ejection)
Jewellers’ Block
l
Commerctiya
Proper
Call Special Risk for all
your wholesale needs.
Tel 604-541-9799
or 1-800-663-9066
Fax 604-541-9769
Visit our website at
www.srib.ca
Special Risk
I N S U R A N C E B R O K E R S LT D
15573 Marine Drive,
White Rock, B.C. V4B 1C9
E-mail: specialrisk@yahoo.com
To receive a package containing applications
& products available, please call!
Lloyd’s, London, Correspondents
“For Fast, Friendly Service”
Yachts &
Pleasurecraft
T
he next time you need a fresh quotation for your client’s sailboat or
power yacht, give Pacific Marine a call. Or if it’s a dayboat, sportboat or
runabout, trailerable or tied up, we’ll surprise you on these too.
We’re independent, service-oriented and tuned in to broker needs because
we are broker-owned — have been for more than 30 years. And with stable
rates, great claims service and flexible underwriting rules, we could just
become the marine market you might get used to!
Pacific Marine writes other risks too:
Marine liability • Cargo • Commercial marine
Yacht clubs, Marinas • Boatbuilders • Repair yards
For a fast quote please call underwriters Dan Kim in Vancouver, B.C., or
Laura Beth Maracle in Midland, ON… or online quotes
available at www.pacificmarine.ca
Vancouver: 310 - 2800 E.1st Ave. V5M 4P3
Tel 604-251-7447 or toll-free 1-877-433-2628
Fax 604-251-7449
Email: dkim@pacificmarine.ca
Midland: Unit 3 - 349 King St. L4R 3M7
Tel 416-607-7087 or toll-free 1-866-619-1605
Fax 705-528-1148
Email: lbmaracle@pacificmarine.ca
Underwritten by Pacific Marine; secured by CNA, Canada’s largest marine insurer.
November 2007 Insurancewest 47
yourstorefront
Please e-mail Storefront suggestions to editor@insurancewest.ca in Vancouver or to our Prairies editor at rshorvoyce@insurancewest.ca
The brokerage recently
moved into this
4,000-squarefoot office on
Grimshaw’s
main drag.
Last winter
the snow was
piled so high
you couldn’t
see across the
street.
D
in the blood
anielle McKenzie and her husband Ken are relatively new to the business of owning an insurance brokerage.
They purchased Grimshaw Agencies only three years ago.
But Danielle has been a broker for 12 years.
The McKenzies’ agency is located in Grimshaw, Alta., about 510
kilometres northwest of Edmonton, in an area known as the Peace
River region. It’s farm and cattle country, with forestry, oil and gas
also contributing to the local economy.
With a population of 2,600, the town is named after Dr. M.E.
Grimshaw, a native of Kingston, Ont., who established a medical
practice in the area in 1914. Grimshaw’s location was chosen by the
Central Canada Railway in 1917. The hamlet became
a village in 1930 and a town in 1953.
“It’s a very friendly, close-knit community,” Danielle McKenzie says. “We have a very active chamber
of commerce and a lot of recreational clubs. Hockey
is big here: there’s minor hockey, old-timers hockey
Danielle
and women’s hockey.”
McKenzie
The area has always had a reputation for unpredictable weather, with early frosts, lots of snow and
chilling temperatures in the winter.
“Last year the snow was piled up so high you
couldn’t see across the street,” says Danielle, who grew
up in Grimshaw and graduated high school there.
The McKenzies bought the brokerage from Danielle’s mother and father, Annette and Nels Nelson, in
September 2004. The Nelsons had been running the
agency, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary
Ken
next spring, since 1989.
McKenzie
Last December the McKenzies moved the business
out of a 900-square-foot facility into a 4,000-square-foot office on
Grimshaw’s main street.
Insurance was not Danielle’s first choice for a career. She wanted
to become a teacher, and had been studying towards that goal when
her father asked her to replace a departing employee in 1994.
“It was supposed to be a temporary thing. I was supposed to
take a year off. But that’s when I got sucked in and ended up
48 Insurancewest November 2007
staying. At first I wasn’t attracted to the business at all. But once
I got into it, I started to enjoy it, and now it’s just part of me. It’s
in your blood.”
Before the couple bought the agency, Ken McKenzie was working
at the local pulp mill and farming at nearby Brownvale, a village
of 300, where he grew up and where he and Danielle have their
home – a log house on a large lot. They have two boys – Joshua,
13, and Cory, 9.
Ken worked part time for the agency for a couple of years before
the McKenzies purchased the business, so he got to know a bit
about insurance before becoming an owner.
Grimshaw Agencies has a staff of five, including Ken and Danielle.
Except for the receptionist, all are licensed.
“We have a fabulous and loyal staff,” Danielle says. “We work
well as a team.”
The agency is a full-service brokerage with personal lines accounting for the majority of business. It offers farm, oil and gas,
commercial, home and auto coverage.
The McKenzies are pleased with their lifestyle and with everything
that Grimshaw has to offer. But the town could be in for a big change
if a Calgary-based company, Energy Alberta, has its way.
It wants to build a nuclear power plant in the area and has filed
an application for a site preparation licence with the Canadian
Nuclear Safety Commission. Energy Alberta hopes to start building in 2017, at a cost of more than $6 billion.
The company says it selected the Peace River region as its preferred site because of “demonstrated” community support as well
as the existence of infrastructure, support services and technical
feasibility.
“Right now there’s a lot of hoopla over it,” says Ken. “The word
is the company intends to use water for the plant from a nearby
lake, eight miles from town. The power would be used for the oil
sands at Fort McMurray.”
The project still has to go through a lot of stages in the approval
process and may never get off the ground.
“I haven’t made up my mind on it,” Ken says. “I’m sitting right
on the fence. There are lots of issues to sort out.” IW
www.insurancewest.ca
streetTalk
Continued from page 9
auction bids, more than 460 were sold
through the fundraiser this year.
“The net proceeds of this event support projects here at our cancer clinics,”
MacKenzie says. “That’s something that
touched my heart because I was only 14
when my mom was diagnosed. She died
when I was 16. I know how confusing and
scary it is for kids.”
Canadian Northern Shield Insurance
stepped up with a $500 donation and a
number of industry suppliers chipped in.
“One of our local adjusters bought a
table for the auction.”
The Quilt auctions, which have been running for a decade, have allowed the group
to donate over $890,000 to the Canadian
Cancer Society. The art is sent on a travelling
road show from Halifax to Vancouver and
displayed in La-Z-Boy Furniture stores in
advance of each auction.
To participate with an online bid, visit
www.thequilt.com.
CRAWFORD CASH FOR WICC
Crawford Cares, the community relations program of Crawford & Company
Canada, raised $10,000 in
September for the Women
in Insurance Cancer Crusade
(WICC) at the adjuster’s 13th
annual charity golf tournament held at Toronto’s Royal
Anderson Ontario Golf Club.
“We’re very proud to be affiliated with an organization such as WICC,”
said Stephen Anderson, Crawford’s senior
VP, corporate markets and administration.
“It’s a sad fact of life that cancer has affected
nearly all of us. We all have co-workers,
friends or family members who have battled this disease.”
To date, Crawford Canada employees
have raised more than $155,000 for WICC
and have donated hundreds of volunteer
hours on behalf of the charity.
ICBC APPOINTMENTS
The Insurance Corporation of B.C. recently appointed Paul Haggis and T.
Michael Porter to its board
of directors.
Haggis, the former presiHaggis
dent and CEO
of Ontario’s Municipal Employees Retirement System,
has 28 years’ experience in
the financial, insurance and
real estate industries. Porter
Porter
has 38 years’ experience in
www.insurancewest.ca
the insurance and credit
union sectors. He was most
recently president, CEO and
a board member with The
Cumis Group.
Withenshaw From 1973 to
1985 Porter
held several management
positions at ICBC.
Elsewhere at the corp, Mark
Withenshaw
Brown
Carle
has been appointed VP driver services,
Sue Carle has been named
VP claims servicing and
Cindy Brown is ICBC’s new
VP communications.
RANGER ACQUIRES FLANDERS
Ranger Insurance of Winnipeg has
purchased the Prairie city’s century-old
Flanders Insurance Services, making it one
of the three or four leading independent
brokerages in Manitoba.
Nick Leitch, president and CEO of
Flanders, which had considerable risk
management expertise, has
taken a shareholder position
in Ranger and has been appointed first VP.
“The insurance industry
continues to evolve and
Leitch
change and we had to look at
how we service our clients,”he
said.“To service our clients better, it becomes
obvious that you’ve got to get bigger.”
With the acquisition, Ranger now has a
staff of about 75.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Canada’s new foreign affairs minister has
an insurance background.
Maxime Bernier is a former
VP corporate affairs and
communications exec for
Standard Life of Canada. He
assumed the prestigious government posting when Peter
Bernier
MacKay moved to defence.
Named the Best Dressed MP this year
by Ottawa’s The Hill Times, the 44-year-old
Bernier represents the rural Quebec riding of
Beauce, where he was born, a riding once held
by his politician father, Gilles Bernier.
THE PROFESSOR
Highly regarded B.C. broker and educator David Gairns passed away
recently from pancreatic
cancer.
“He was still looking after
some major accounts for us,”
said former employer Garry
Gairns
Robinson , himself semi-
retired from Schill Robinson Insurance
Brokers in Coquitlam, east of Vancouver.
Gairns was known throughout the West
Coast insurance industry as “the professor” because of his many lectures and
seminars.
“He was a fountain of knowledge, particularly in the field of liability law,” recalled
Peter Wright of the Insurance Dispute
Resolution Services of B.C. “I don’t think
many people knew more about the subject.
I had great admiration for him.”
Gairns’ daughter Monique said, “He was
a very caring parent and teacher, and I’m
sure he will be missed by many of his former
students. Being one of those students, as well
as his daughter, I can attest to his belief in
‘know what you’re doing, or know who to
ask.’ It was his way at home, too.”
Besides daughter Monique and her
spouse Brett, immediate survivors include
wife Shirley, son Lloyd (Sue) and four
grandchildren.
Professor Gairns was 68.
BACK TO WORK
Brian Tascona has joined Horizon In-
surance of Winnipeg, one of Manitoba’s
largest brokerages, as managing director,
commercial insurance operations. He has more than
30 years’ experience in insurance management and sales
leadership.
Commercial lines make
up about a quarter of the
Tascona
agency’s business.
“Of the 100 people who work for Horizon, about 20 are in the commercial
area.”
Prior to his appointment, Tascona, 54,
worked with Aon for 30 years, in Ottawa
and Winnipeg, before retiring recently from
that company.
“I had an opportunity for a second career
and I’m absolutely delighted to be part of
Horizon.”
CHANGES AT AVIVA
Change continues to be the theme at
Aviva Canada following the spring announcement that Robin Spencer, formerly
the insurer’s CFO and executive VP, would
succeed president Igal Mayer, now the
top executive at Aviva plc’s
Norwich Union General
Insurance in the U.K.
More recent appointments include the naming
of Jim Falle as Aviva Canada’s CFO and executive VP.
Falle
Formerly filling the same
roles at Aegon Canada and Zurich Canada,
Falle will oversee the finance, actuarial,
November 2007 Insurancewest 49
50 Insurancewest November 2007
www.insurancewest.ca