Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
As It Happens

Feud flattens the only public phone in the tiny community of Coalmont, BC

A long-standing feud has left Coalmont, BC without an emergency public phone and residents wants another one. The mountain town has no cell phone service. Last month the only phone booth in the community was destroyed when one resident named Roland Giroux allegedly drove his car into it while former resident Warren Spence was trying to make a call.
CBC News ·
Roland Giroux runs a makeshift shelter for lambs and goats. He is charged with attempted murder in the phone booth incident. (Jennifer Thuncher)
As It Happens6:05Coalmont BC loses its only phone boot in allegedly homicidal feud.

A long-standing feud has left Coalmont, BC without an emergency public phone and residents want another one. The mountain town has no cell phone service. Last month the only phone booth in the community was destroyed when one resident, Roland Giroux, allegedly drove his car into into while another resident, Warren Spence, who was making a call.

Coalmont's public phone booth was destroyed in March after this vehicle crashed into it as part of what police claim was an ongoing feud. (Ole Juul)

"It was actually an attempted murder," says Bob Sterne, the owner and operator of Coalmont's Mozey-On-Inn, about what the police call a feud. He did not witness the incident first hand.

"We talked to the guy who was in the phone booth. He says that Mr. Giroux lined his car up with the phone booth and gunned it. The guy that was in the booth tried to dive out of the way but didn't completely clear the car so he got hit. His leg was dislocated.The phone booth was basically completely destroyed, ripped off of its foundation, and the car ended up on top of one the neighbours wells."

"If he hadn't gotten out of the phone booth, absolutely, he could have been killed."

Telus initially said it wouldn't replace the demolished phone booth, but has since changed its mind. (Ole Juul)

"Subsequently to that Mr. Giroux tried to get the car restarted, and couldn't, jumped out and started chasing Mr. Spence around with his walking stick. Mr. Spence got back to his truck and grabbed a shovel. They had a standoff. Then Mr. Giroux walked back home, and that's where the police picked him up."

Asked why Giroux was trying to restart his car, Sterne says, "the story is, to finish him off." 

Spence is now recovering from his injuries and Giroux is facing attempted murder charges.

Sterne and his neighbours are left with another problem though. With their only public emergency phone destroyed and no cell phone service, the only other pay phone is in the Coalmont Hotel, which is frequently closed.  Sterne has asked Telus to replace the phone but he says Telus has told the Better Business Bureau that it has no plans to do so.

Sterne says the phone could be a matter of life or death. He recalls a man who was injured last summer on the nearby Trans Canada Trail. "I guess he flipped his quad (all-terrain vehicle). He was quite badly injured. He basically stumbled over the phone booth, covered in blood, and managed to get through to the ambulance. They airlifted him out by helicopter. I think he probably would have died. Or, at least, I think he probably figures the phone booth saved his life."

More from this episode