TIDAL WAVE - McKenzie Jones

“In Sydney, Australia early in 2002 (I believe) I saw a segment on the Australian TV
show "60 Minutes" with Ray Martin where he interviewed two Vancouver policemen who had
started a program to help the addicts living in the streets of Vancouver as well as
trying to educate the youth in schools and colleges as to the perils of illegal
substance abuse, via a documentary they had made. Samples of this documentary showing
sickening reality of the lives of these addicts, were shown during the interview and I
found it so powerful that shortly after I wrote and a song about what I had seen,
called "Tidal Wave", and recorded it with Jean Ann, my wife and music partner.

Later that year, while visiting Jean Ann's family in New Brunswick, I rang the
Vancouver Police Department to see if I could track down these two policemen as I
didn't recall their names. I was given their pager details and left a message.

A week later Al Arsenault phoned us and we were able to send a CD of the song to him
and his police partner Toby Hinton. A short time later we visited Vancouver and were
invited to perform at a function at the Odd Squad premises for the contributors and
benefactors of the program.

That night we also met, and performed "Tidal Wave" for some of the ex-addicts that the
program has helped to start new lives, two of whom were the actual ones I had written
this song about. That will always be to us, one of our most powerfully emotive and
treasured memories.

We admire all those involved in this program and feel privileged to be able to
contribute in this small way.”

--Steve McKenzie and Jean Ann Jones