TORONTO - The father of a cyclist killed during an altercation on the streets of Toronto joined aboriginal leaders in smoking a peace pipe during a traditional ceremony to commemorate his son.
About 50 people gathered in a hall at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto on Monday afternoon to pay respects to 33-year-old Darcy Allan Sheppard.
Sheppard died after he was seen hanging onto the side of a convertible sports car following an altercation with the driver last Monday night.
Witnesses said Sheppard slammed into a mail box before falling off the vehicle.
Former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant is charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death. He is due in court next month, but insists he is innocent in the charges he faces.
Members of Toronto's aboriginal community beat a drum, sang traditional songs, lit sage and tobacco and passed around a peace pipe in a ceremony to mark Sheppard's passage to the spiritual world.
Sheppard's girlfriend, Misty Bailey, swayed in time with the rhythm of the drums and mouthed the words of traditional songs.
She said that she has been depressed since learning of her boyfriend's death just after he left her house.
Bailey has said police had refused to take Sheppard home earlier that night when he showed up drunk at her door, but police say the cyclist showed no signs of intoxication.
"I'm not just gonna sit at home and be isolated, the depression sets in, but you know," she said.
Sheppard, who is of Cree, Metis and Ojibwa heritage, was remembered as a friendly, car-hating, troubled and generous character with a lust for life.
Ryan Walsh, who was Sheppard's case worker at Aboriginal Legal Services, was the first of three speakers who reflected on their warm, but sometimes wild loved one.
He spoke of obstacles Sheppard overcame in his life, including his troubled youth and criminal history.
"He was always willing to work on himself, always willing to try," Walsh said.
Brian Harris, a fellow bike courier recalled how Sheppard hated how people drove cars and would stop to fix someone's tail light on a whim.
"Allan is more of a free spirit (now) than he ever has been," he said of his colleague.
Sheppard's aunt, Sylvia Segal, read a message from the cyclist's father, Allan Sheppard Sr., who flew from Alberta to collect his son's body and return it to Edmonton, where his son was raised.
The father's message acknowledged his son's tumultuous past, speaking of his son's teen years spent in a secure treatment facility, his time as a squeegee guy in Toronto, and the time he asked his father for money, only to give it to a friend sleeping on the street and dying of AIDS.
"My son probably wanted the money I gave him to feed his demon of the moment, but he was still willing to share it with someone whose need was greater than his.," said Sheppard.
He said his son was a proud courier who wanted to make a difference in the community by advocating membership in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers for bicycle messengers.
"He knew firsthand the conditions under which bicycle messengers work, and he wanted to do something to make those conditions better."
Sheppard said he visited Toronto twice a year for the past six years, and the time spent with his son "always depended on the state of relations between him and whatever demon he was confronting at the time."
Sheppard also urged his son's friends and supporters to "accept with grace whatever outcome emerges," in Bryant's trial.
Outside, a sacred fire wafted scents of cedar onto the busy downtown streets, while about 10 police officers with bicycles waited in a nearby alley.
Robert Melnyk, who has been a courier since 1984 and has known Sheppard since he began as a courier about eight years ago, said Sheppard was living on the street when they first met, then got a bicycle and into the job.
Melnyk said Sheppard's death has not helped to make the streets safer for cyclists, but instead has escalated tensions with motorists.
He said he's heard car drivers shout "you're next," as he tries to navigate the downtown streets.
