It is the summer break, and I am out on the land finding new stuff for you on the back roads.
I am often asked about my favourite stories. Having thought about that question at length, I came up with several, but today we look at the story of a canoe, the Satan's Choice motorcycle gang and an epic drug bust at an isolated lodge on Oba Lake.
The Oba drug bust story resonates for many reasons. It has the past and the present, hesitation, and uniqueness for its topic and the characters within, and the canoe. I have also updated it for today's column.
The story - starting in the mid-1970s
It is a diminishing legend for some and revolves around, to this day, the largest sting and drug bust in Canadian history, well beyond the back roads.
Because of some trepidation, it has taken more than a dozen years to write this piece. An important reason there was a personal threat(s) and there was some fear of following through.
The story begins in the mid-1970s. It is a non-fiction story with setting, characters and a plot with sidebars including the lake, the canoe, and the biker.
The biker is Alan George Templain, once the president of the Oshawa chapter of Satan's Choice and earned to wear the patch. He is the designer of the Wolverine Canoe and was the owner of the Oba Lake Lodge, where it all went down. I have spoken to him several times during the long time composition of this story.
The Oba Lake drug bust was part of a storyline for several episodes of television shows, including the Devil You Don't Know (theme of phone taps) of the Outlaw Bikers television series, season four, episode five, which aired Oct 26, 2010.
The lake - remote, idyllic scene of the sting
Oba Lake is an idyllic, remote lake where the destination has only two reasons: “huntin’ and fishin’.” Described in the Angler’s Atlas: "There are backroads that go within a couple of kilometres of the lake, but no direct roads. Beautiful, remote Oba Lake is one of the lakes we feature that has fly-in or train-in access only. While it may take some planning to get here, the fishing pressure is much lower than at other, more accessible lakes.” It is located north of Wawa and Hawk Junction on the Algoma Central Railway (ACR) line (not now in operation).
The remote enough lake would be the location where PCP (Phencyclidine) was manufactured behind the façade of a tourist lodge. Known as 'angel dust,' it is an illegal street drug that usually comes as a white powder (capsules), which can be dissolved in alcohol or water.
I came to know of the drug bust, Oba Lake, and the Wolverine canoe while doing some consulting work for Wawa tourism, and the backroad story, no different than any other time, began with some research.
Back in early May of 2009, when the Algoma Central Railway was still running passenger trains, I visited Oba Lake. I boarded the train in Sault Ste. Marie on its way to Hearst. At Mileage 212, I got off the train and rented a boat from Spazier’s Woods Cabins. I thought I should get the feel of the sting part of the drug bust, the setting being Oba Lake; the destination was once a national story headline.
Plot summary
One of the first pieces I found written about it is a MacLean’s Magazine article Born to Raise Hell (Schenk, John; Kessel, John ) of August 22, 1977. It highlights the power of bike gangs within the drug world and some of the characters in this story.
There is an excerpt that helps with the setting and plot. “…A 1975 raid by U.S. and Canadian police at Oba Lake in northern Ontario uncovered a bikers’ drug factory and a haul of chemical drugs (made in laboratories, as opposed to 'organic' drugs such as marijuana, heroin or cocaine) valued at up to $60 million. (A phenomenal amount that today would be astronomical, approximately 325 million.)
“In their escalating war against outlaw biker gangs, the police had their biggest success with the 1975 Oba Lake bust. The RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and several municipal departments teamed up to crack a drug ring operating out of a remote hunting lodge, accessible only by air, 150 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie.
"Police staked out the operation from a duck blind for several days. Then, on August 6, posing as sportsmen on an early morning fishing trip, they moved in with small boats. They found nine pounds of completed PCP (a dangerous horse tranquillizer widely used as a 'downer'), another 236 pounds one step away from completion and more than a ton of ingredients. The drug network operating out of the factory was traced to buyers as far away as Florida and Georgia, and estimates of the street worth of the material seized ranged up to $60 million. At the heart of the ring was Alan Templain, a Satan’s Choice member in St. Catharines until 1973, owner of the $60,000 lodge and a seaplane. At his right hand was Bernie Guindon, 34, the Satan’s Choice founder and national president…
There was a series of headlines in The Sault Star following the secretive bust on August 3, 1975: Arrest 6 in Air Raid on Oba, and many more during the subsequent trials leading to convictions.
These included Mafia Link Cited, Oba Lake May Hide More Drugs, Airplane Drug Drop Described to Jury, Letters Reveal Fear of Agent’s Testimony, and Drug Trial Jury Sees Hidden Camera Photos.
Wolverine Canoe - the 'space-age' version of a trapper canoe
The canoe is important to the storyline, and it must be identified as almost a character, even though it is an inanimate object. The Wolverine Canoe is a better design than most and now has great heritage value.
One of Northern Ontario’s best canoe builders and a repairer of high-quality handcrafted canoes, the late Bill Schorse, was known for his knowledge of how a canoe really works in the water. He was the owner of North Bay Canoe and Kayak.
“There are no cutting corners to put out a product that I would not be proud to own,” he said.
In a past interview, he commented on the Wolverine model.
“It is a phenomenal little boat, the pinnacle of canoes.” He said, “You’ll never find a more stable, well-built canoe.” The canoe is based on the historic Chestnut Canoe Company’s Olgilvy model. It is known for its stability and durability.
Here is a testimonial about the Wolverine from canoeist, Hugh McKechnie. “…One of the lads had a trapper-style canoe. It had a wider beam, exaggerated tumblehome, and despite being the heaviest, it slipped through the water with the least effort.
"It was extremely buoyant, sitting high, sailing over a sandbar that other hulls would rub… I was struck dumb by the most beautiful canoe I had ever seen. It was the Wolverine, made of fibreglass, with white ash gunwales, beam and seat frames, with woven mesh of the translucent strands of moose hide, known as babiche, a specialty of the Ojibwe and Cree First Nations.
"It was a space-age version of the traditional trapper, sixteen feet, with a generous bulge of tumblehome, and an absolutely flat tummy. It was urgent. We had to get one.”
Jason Bain is the Managing Editor of Ontario Out of Doors magazine, who purchased a well-worn Wolverine canoe and had it refinished. In his September 13, 2021, blog, he says: “The vintage flat-bottomed craft glided effortlessly over thick aquatic vegetation that would slow our other fibreglass canoe to a stop, providing access to nooks and crannies we’d never wet lines in before on this home water.
“It was a timely revelation – our late 2020 restoration of the canoe prompted my quest to learn more about its creator (Alan Templain). It didn’t take long for me to realize details about Wolverine are as elusive as the solitary animal itself."
Bain quotes me in this article: “Backroads Bill Steer, a northern Ontario journalist who has also been researching Wolverine, believes our canoe is at best, one of the first 100, and at worst, one of the first 300, made in Welland before the builder moved to Wawa.”
The Wolverine canoe factory in Wawa became the front for the drug manufacturing location on remote Oba Lake, created and owned by biker Alan Templain.
Templain eventually sold the canoe factory to local interests. Shawn Sadler’s father, Terry, came to Wawa from Brockville to manage the Wolverine canoe factory.
“I built with my dad in North Bay from 1997 to 2005. Then there was a move to the Temiskaming Shores area.
“We then built canoes at his place in Belle Vallee until he passed away (2019).
"In 2012-2014, I did a test run with Mid Canada (Scott Canoes New Liskeard factory, now closed), building some hulls for me.
“My Dad gave them (moulds) to me to continue building or sell the company.”
In an August 29, 2008, commercial post (boatdesign.net), Shawn tried to sell the moulds.
“I am tired of fibreglass and I am getting out of the business. I have 9 Canoe moulds for sale. These moulds are what's left of the Wolverine Canoe Company. The canoes are based on the Chesnut Olgivy Henry model... basically a nice flat-bottom canoe with a ton of tumblehome. The canoe is bomber stable and looks great. Great for families, Boy Scouts and fishing.”
He did not sell the moulds.
In correspondence with Jason Bain, Ontario Out of Doors, Shawn said, “I know a lot about Wolverine canoes... as I still own the moulds and the rights to the name. I really need to change that post (above) ...12 years... that’s a while ago.
“My dad was the Wolverine GM/Production manager in Wawa in the 70's and he resurrected the company in the late 80's, I have produced a few dozen over the years, always threatening to go into production...lol.”
The biker - setting the record straight
Over the years, on several occasions, I have talked to Alan Templain. We have learned he is the biker, front and centre of the Oba Lake-Wawa drug bust. He is also the creator of the Wolverine Canoe model. How is this possible?
He first called me in March of 2011 and wanted to talk about what had happened and to set the record straight.
He pleaded guilty to the charges laid in 1975 and started his 12-year sentence almost immediately.
Police intercepted phone calls between the suspects on 260 tapes, with more than four and a half hours of conversation. During the bust, police found “… hidden caches of chemicals and lab equipment, including nine pounds of pure PCP and two garbage cans filled with a white powdery substance weighing a total of 236 pounds, “(Sault Star, May 15, 1976).
On May 7, 2021, he went to jail at the age of 35, he told me. Some of the sentence was spent in the infamous Kingston penitentiary for assessment, and then he was eventually sent to Joyceville Institution – medium security, then on to the Beaver Creek, farm camp near Gravenhurst. After approximately seven years, he was released.
In prison, he made a canoe from conversations he had with Kirk Whipper, of Camp Kandalore fame and founder of the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough and the boat is now located there.
He told me how the original Wolverine canoe mould was created.
In the mid-1960s, he fixed a used Canadian Tire canoe that had dropped off a trailer and then patched it up,
“It was too heavy.”
He recalls taking that canoe, going on a trip with a girlfriend and having a “eureka moment, there was a need for a lightweight and durable canoe not made from the traditional cedar strip or cedar-canvas combination.”
At the time, he was making ski boats and knew a great deal about chemicals and fibreglass. Barrels of acetone and epoxy arrived from Shell and DuPont to his house in Welland. He popped out his first Wolverine from a split (two pieces) mould in 1965, built in his “refurbished backyard chicken coop. Within the design, he retained the classic tumblehome design line of the famed Chestnut Canoe.
“I sold one of my first boats to John Craig Eaton II of the T.E. Eaton family (once a national department store chain). Templain had attended Brock University and had put all his money into creating canoe moulds. He chose the Wolverine as its logo, “as it is the toughest animal in the bush.”
Taking about thirty canoes with him, he eventually moved the operation to Blind River, but for a very short time. He presented his canoe at a NOTO (Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association) convention in Sudbury. For demonstration purposes of the Wolverine’s durability, he showed onlookers how a sledgehammer bounced off the composite hull.
He then secured a government-sponsored economic development loan and moved to Wawa. He took the moulds with him, and the Wolverine had a makeover with a “more natural-looking birchbark type of paint finish.” The big change in the Wolverine was the change from epoxy to polyester, henceforth a strength and a lighter weight.
He eventually sold the canoe factory to Nestor Erechook and another partner, “Ely” White.
Another chapter of the Wolverine was about to begin with the hiring of Terry Sadler (father of Shawn), within the Wolverine part of this story, as previously cited.
But in the background was the lead-up to the Oba Lake drug bust and the dichotomy of Alan Templain.
Templain does not deny any of the goings on during the 1970s and the relationship with Bernie Guindon, known as the enforcer and national founder of the Satan’s Choice Motorcycle Club. He is good with: “ ______ up, did my time and moved on.”
Wawa knows but doesn't like to talk about it
During the 1970s, residents in Wawa thought they knew what might be going on at the canoe factory located just out of town on Highway 17 in sight of the famous goose.
Buck Buck, the second-generation owner of Buck’s Marina in nearby Michipicoten on Lake Superior said when he was a teenager that Alan would tell everyone the barrels were full of bug dope. And that the illegal drugs might be hidden in the bow and stern stems of the canoe.
“There are many people in Wawa who know stories about Alan Templain and the Canoe Factory, and there are some who won’t tell because they were involved directly or indirectly or just embarrassed because it happened in Wawa, and want the whole time forgotten.”
At the time, there was some fear of reprisal as this was Satan’s Choice bike gang.
Long-time resident and genealogy researcher Steve Haney, in an email, told me, “I remember that incident and the kingpin of that drug operation. He started the Canoe Factory, and many of the locals worked there. He was always with strange people and built and lived with his girlfriend in an A-frame house down on Wawa Lake. He drove around in a Jeep and flew a small float plane. He obviously had lots of money and many of the young disenfranchised local kids working for him. He looked like a hippy, and many of the local hippies hung around him.”
From a May 3, 2021, email from Toni (Ronnie) Rutland, she provided this account. “I have two anecdotes: A Couple of weeks before the big operation bust, I stopped by the Big Bird Hotel after a long day teaching and coaching at high school. Al Templain (I did not know him, except we all knew everyone as small towns go) was there alone and started a conversation with me. Mostly bragging about his fitness and how many setups a day he did.
“Then two, obviously out-of-towners and plainclothed men showed ID to him and said they were there to charge him for nonpayment of student loans.
“Even then, I found that odd since there were many in that category in town. A short time later, when things went down, I realized the two had been undercover narcs.
“The second story had to do with a good friend of mine who lived opposite Templain and came home one night to find his house locked. He was a teenager, his mother was a widow, and their house had never ever been locked. She told him there had been partying at the other house, and several shots were fired. Including shots to his boat! That upset him so much that the next day, he demanded an apology and money to fix his boat.
“But the raid happened within a few days, he never got his money, and realized how crazy and foolishly brave he had been to confront these drug lords.”
George Karasek, was a railway foreman who lived in Oba. The railway community was a bustling place in the 1970s. It is the unique east-west junction of CN-Via Rail and the north-south Algoma Central Railway. He remembers the drug bust.
“This guy shows up in Oba one day, trying to rent a boat to Oba Lake, dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase, completely out of sorts. He said he was a prospector. Another stranger who looked like he was dressed right out of Cabela’s outdoor clothing catalogue said he was going fishing on Oba Lake, and he wanted to rent a boat.
"You can’t drive to Oba Lake or go by boat from Oba. Four days later, as the helicopters circled, we learned of the OPP, RCMP, and United States Drug Enforcement Agency operation. We learned the police hid on the lake before the sting occurred.
"Oba became a busy place; there was an army of officers. We thought there was a pharmacist there making pills. Later, there was the local thought of stashed drugs and money in barrels somewhere on the lake; it became a legend.”
The biker today - stone mason, family man
I eventually found Alan Templain.
“I would like to tell you the other side of the story,” he said. My interest was piqued, and I was nervous. Here was the biker himself, one of the main characters and a criminal. It is not on any day that this happens.
I talked to Alan (he calls me Bill) recently during the evening of May 4 (2023); we talked about several topics. I wanted to share some of my Wolverine research with him.
He is the grandfather of two, and lives in Port Colborne; his brother Ross was also charged as part of the Oba incident and now lives close by. Alan remains a stone mason, a trade he returned to after serving time. He is also the inventor of the masonry heater called Temp-Cast.
He said, “Temp-Cast can heat a well-insulated home for 12 to 24 hours on one firing of wood. Compared to a traditional fireplace or a wood stove, you will reduce your wood usage tremendously and burn in a more environmentally friendly manner.”
We then talked about his health. He works out every day through a karate routine, something he has done throughout his life. He said he does “feel like 35 because of the research of Dr. Grundy and lectins.” He recommends the YouTube video The Ultimate Yes and No Diet of Dr. Grundy.
He explained, “Plants produce toxic lectins to survive in nature, as they protect the plant against insects, fungi, moulds, and diseases. In our bodies, lectins allow molecules to stick together, which can influence cell-to-cell interaction. When they enter our body unbound, they can’t be digested (similar to fibre), allowing them to cross into our bloodstream. In small amounts, lectins are important to our bodies, as they’re involved in our immune functioning, cell growth, cell death, and much more. However, large amounts can create problems.” He is a believer.
He will be 84 this year and still rides his Harley Electra Glide Highway King, which weighs approximately 900 pounds. “I am going to take it out of storage tomorrow, start ‘er up and decide if I am going to ride another year.” I have sent Wolverine photos that I have collected.
There are no photos of Alan on the Internet. He wryly says the RCMP has one. I say we need to take a photo of him beside a Wolverine canoe for posterity purposes; he invites me to stop by and do so.
He knows Bernie Guindon is still alive in Oshawa. Guindon’s biography came to life in the book Hard Road: Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club by Peter Edwards, a crime reporter with The Toronto Star. The Oba incident and their relationship are included. Alan does not keep up any connections with the past.
People atone for past mistakes. “We all get what we deserve, justice is served as it goes; at least for some of us it does, anyway,” he said.
Epilogue
Many of the cast of characters have passed away.
Alan remains very forthcoming with details about Oba Lake, the canoe and Wawa and always substantiates what happened from his perspective.
The mathematical sentence is a legendary one, but not so logical to solve.
So, in summary, Alan Templain is a very active and fit senior; on the phone, his voice sounds like the biker that he is, with an edge; he is well-read. Alan served his (-x) penance and went on with life; he (+x) is “very proud of the Wolverine Canoe design.”
In Wawa (=), the “A” frame where he lived on the lake remains, as does wawa-news.com, and Brenda remains as the Editor. The second iconic Wawa goose would have been there at the time of the drug bust. The infamous canoe factory building is now an automotive centre on Highway 17. Alan remembers pouring its concrete floor on a cold day in the late fall on land the municipality had given him.
Long-time residents still do not like to talk about the canoe factory.
A limited number of new carbon composite material canoes with the Wolverine brand are now being made again in Sudbury by Shawn Sadler. You can still find an original well well-used Wolverine on Kijiji, but the price has gone up; it is no longer one of those 'beaters' found at a garage sale. Alan does not have a Wolverine in his possession and would like to see one of the new models.
Oba Lake (+) remains a remote fishing destination, but you can’t get there on the ACR train; the lodge, once owned by Alan, still operates (Tatnall Camp; Float plane service is available from Hawk Junction or Wawa. Alan recalls, “The last time I was at Oba Lake, they put me in handcuffs and took me away in a plane.”
The community of Oba has a recorded five people in the 2021 census, a 66.7 per cent decrease from 2016; two out of the 21 dwellings are occupied. You can now drive there on logging roads via Hearst.
People have long stopped looking for money or capsules thought to be stowed away in barrels somewhere on the lake, a leftover legend from the largest drug bust (y) story in Canadian history. Writing remains my avocation and this story was perplexing.
I think this back road story is finally done…enough.
Update
That was the 2023 story.
This spring, I stopped by the Canoe Factory just outside of Wawa, first road on your right on Highway 17 on the way to White River, before you climb the hill. The main building remains as a storage facility; apparently, some canoe moulds remain. Just up the highway (683D) at the automotive body shop – Body Lines by Crack - I met Ted Turnell, who worked at the factory for twenty years and knew both Terry Sadler and Alan Templain.
“Terry lost a lot of money in the canoe factory when the drug bust occurred,” Turnell said.
He said they would churn out about two canoes per week, fully trimmed, from start to finish. He pointed me down the hill to the original factory. The surrounding forest is encroaching on it. I looked hard for a Wolverine logo, which would have been a find. Ted is going to see who owns the building - he still would like to see any Wolverine memorabilia.
Son Shawn Sadler still holds the moulds of the infamous Wolverine Canoe. He now works in Nunavut. He sent along some pics of the factory in its early days. He told me they trimmed out one boat last year, new pics to see of the new Wolverine.
Canoe enthusiasts can learn more about the classic lines of the Wolverine canoe through this Ontario Out-Of-Doors article.
If you speak to anyone who has lived in Wawa for a while, they will know of the Canoe Factory and the Oba drug bust.
People still look for vintage Wolverine canoes - the word vintage has to be in the search. They have become collector’s items.
Google: Alan Templain Satan’s Choice biker. Much information comes up. He is alive and well at 86.
You can’t take the train to Oba Lake yet, but it is anticipated that limited rail service to Oba Lake may return through the Bear Train.
I put this story all together in a Back Roads Bill podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Have a listen. It is a northern Ontario story through and through.
I keep finding northern Ontario stories – from the back roads.