Canadian ‘preppers’ stand ready for disaster
MONTREAL — Don’t talk to Bruce Beach about doomsday. He’s been preparing for impending disaster for a half-century and has seen apocalyptic agitation come and go, like so many fads.
So forgive him for not panicking over the end of the Mayan calendar on Dec. 21, this coming Friday.
The 78-year-old former high school teacher, who has a huge nuclear bunker in Ontario, built his first shelter for the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s.
He was prepared to go underground for the Y2K crisis, amid widespread concern that computer glitches might bring down airplanes in 2000. He received lots of calls from people seeking shelter during the 1982 Falklands War. But his busiest day was Sept. 11, 2001, when his website was bombarded with 85,000 hits within three hours.
People regularly drop in to seek refuge in the shelter he built in the 1980s, named the Ark Two, which comprises 42 buried school buses.
His most recent visit was three weeks ago.
The labyrinth, with its kitchens, showers and separate bunk rooms for children and adults, is about 90 kilometres northwest of Toronto, in Horning’s Mills, Ont.
“People have been in a panic because someone has prophesied the end of the world this particular week or whatever,” Beach said.
“They call us up just to make sure we have space in the shelter and I tell them, ‘For sure, come on down.”’
Beach’s main concern has always been the threat of nuclear attacks, which he fears are even closer than ever because of Middle East conflicts and Iran’s suspected weapons program.
As far as he’s concerned, the most troubling news as of late has come from the North Koreans.
“Everybody was all excited about the North Korean (rocket) launch because you see if they put a satellite in space, they can also put up a nuclear weapon,” Beach said.
One man living in the countryside near Montreal says it’s always a good time to get prepared for disaster. Dean, one of the spokespeople for the Canadian Preppers Network, doesn’t want his family name used for security reasons.
The network brings together people who focus on emergency preparedness, self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
“I think most Canadians are very unprepared for any type of emergency,” Dean said by phone from somewhere in the Laurentian mountains, north of Montreal.
The 42-year-old married father of six said the network has close to 700 participants in Canada, who describe themselves as “preppers.”
Dean admitted it’s hard to say exactly how many preppers there are because not everybody is ready to reveal their location.
“We’re normal people,” he said.
“The only difference is we take a few extra steps to be ready to take care of ourselves and our families should the unthinkable happen.”