Keewatin’s ‘One-Armed Bandits’ Together Again

By Shirley Sandrel

From the Kenora Enterprise Dec. 10^th, 2000

“There’s a funny story about when I lost my arm,” newly-sworn-in councillor Ted Szajewski told me after Monday’s inaugural meeting of Kenora Council.

It seems that Szajewski’s doctors were concerned that the full impact of losing a limb hadn’t hit him. You see he hadn’t cried.

So, one day the doctor asked, “Are you going to keep curling?” Szajewski said he thought he would. The doctor replied, “That’s good. After all Colin Wasacase (who also has only one arm) curls too.”

“And that’s what made me break down and cry,” confessed Szajewski, “I didn’t want to curl like Colin.”

Yes, Szajewski and Wasacase are together again. The pair first developed their reputation for providing a little levity during the often-dry business of running a municipality while serving two terms together on Keewatin Council. Szajewski also served on the short-term Kenora Council while Wasacase sat out following a failed bid for the mayor’s chair. “For the last year I felt like I lost my right arm,” said Szajewski. And Wasacase, without missing a beat, added, “We have found the left.”

In case you’re not aware, these two councilors have a great deal in common.

First, they’ve gained enough respect from residents to earn seats on councils, not once but several times. Second, they deliver a similar sense of humour. And third, both have lost an arm. In Szajewski’s case, he lost his right arm at work 12 years ago. Wasacase lost his left arm in childhood after a broken arm was tied too tightly and developed gangrene.

Now, in our society, the polite thing to do when one encounters a person with a so-called disability is ignore it. But that’s tough to do with these two and they wouldn’t let you if you tried. And no less a personage than Prime Minister Jean Chretien found that out when he visited Kenora.

Chretien, as you may remember, came to town before the federal election to deliver a speech at the Lakeside Inn. He found himself sitting between Szajewski and Wasacase and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Szajewski and Wasacase tag-teamed telling the story with the signature Chretien accent. “This is the first time I’ve been in one place with two guys with one arm. It’s the first time it happened to me.”

The PM insisted on having a picture taken and, according to Szajewski, got a bit flustered trying to make sure it was set up properly. “Someone said to me that it must have been pretty exciting getting a picture taken with Chretien,” says Szajewski, “And I said, yeah, he was pretty excited.”

Now this isn’t to say that the duo don’t take their work on council seriously. They do of course. It’s just that occasionally they like to lighten things up. And that’s an aspect of their personalities that has been welcome in the past. Just ask Ingrid Parkes.

Parkes who was also re-elected for a three-year term and served as the last mayor of Keewatin says, “We were serious, but with what council has to go through, a little entertainment goes a long way.”

And actually, the boys are usually quite well-behaved around the council table. But when they’re asked to emcee an event, well, anything can happen. Just ask anyone who attended last year’s Town of Keewatin Christmas party where the duo performed their very own unique verion of the “Macarena”. I assure you, it was unforgettable.

And although Szajewski and Wasacase’s style may be new to many of the City’s residents, their reputation has preceded them among their fellow councillors. Rory McMillan has the seat next to the two, “to keep them in line,” according to Mayor Dave Canfield. So I asked McMillan if he though he’d end up as the straight man in the act. “Probably,” he answered.