by Diana Foxall

For a long time, Janice Parker was the only paramedic – or at the time, EMA 1 – stationed in Zeballos.

She began her career in 1979, starting out as an industrial first-aider alongside her then-husband in the remote Vancouver Island community while raising three young children, eventually taking over from Wayne Pollen to become the station’s second-ever unit chief.

“There wasn’t really a station,” Aggie Pringle, unit chief for Station 131 – Sayward, said. “They had an ambulance parked in the fire hall, and [Janice] had a hotline in her house because of the limitations with power and phone service in Zeballos at that time.”

The original ambulance was in fact an emergency transport vehicle owned by the local logging company, and it was used until the station officially became a BCAS station in 1987.

“She had to have somebody in her house to answer the hotline all hours of the day and night. I remember her being very excited when pagers came into existence and were able to be used out there and she was able to get some of her freedom back.”

The hotline remained in Janice’s home until the mid-1980s. One of her daughters recalled childhood memories of sick and injured people who would simply show up on their doorstep seeking help, and a physical station wasn’t built in Zeballos until 1993. Janice was instrumental in getting the station built, running as an alderman to ensure that the village’s healthcare needs were met.

In her role as paramedic and unit chief, Janice served the village of Zeballos itself, which had roughly 200 people, as well as the Ehattesaht First Nation and the Nuchatlaht Indian Band in Oclucje. While the small population size meant there were comparatively few calls, Aggie says the remoteness of their location meant that more serious events got stressful very quickly – and the limited staff pool to draw from sometimes meant that shifts lasted for weeks at a time to ensure adequate coverage.

“All the men worked in the bush, so basically it was all women [at the station],” she said. “Sometimes we’d have a couple of firefighters, but if you had a major incident occur, you’re calling in help from everywhere but it’s at least an hour and a half until anyone can get to you, whether it’s by air, land, or sea.” 

Not only was she Aggie’s first-ever unit chief when Aggie began her paramedic career in Zeballos, but Janice was the one who made Aggie realize that her career aspirations were possible.

“Growing up, I had always wanted to be either a paramedic or a firefighter, but I was told girls don’t do that, that’s not a job for girls. Even in the mid-80s when I first met Janice, I was still of the belief [that women] can’t do that career,” Aggie said. “Then I saw her in uniform one day and I’m going, ‘What – you’re a paramedic? What do the stripes on your shoulders mean?’ and she says ‘Well, this means I’m a unit chief, I’m a supervisor.’”

“I was just completely blown away by that and I started thinking well, maybe I can do this as a career.”

Janice was ahead of her time in many respects. Not only was she a strong female leader in an organization that was then largely male, but she recognized the importance of prioritizing mental health: she was a keen advocate for critical incident stress management, facilitating psychologists and counsellors to come in and talk to her staff after major calls.

As well, she was no stranger to holding her ground when it came to her patients’ wellbeing. Aggie recalls an instance where Janice had an argument over the phone with the dispatcher managing aircraft coordination.

“We had a 16-year-old that was in pre-term labour, and the provincial dispatcher was refusing to send an aircraft for her,” she said.

The closest hospital was Port McNeill, which was roughly 90 minutes away by ground. Dispatch pushed back on sending air resources, but Janice held firm, reiterating that the first-time mother was only 31 weeks along.

“The strength of the advocacy that she had – I heard the telephone conversation and I was just like ‘Wow’,” Aggie said.

After working together for a year and a half, Aggie was ready to spread her wings and join a busier station to continue developing her career, and Janice was her biggest ally in facilitating the move to Prince Rupert.

“At that time, the unit chief had a lot of say in who came into their station – there was no central hiring or anything like that – so her and her husband were both really instrumental with getting me in there,” Aggie said. “They realized that I wanted to make a career out of being a paramedic, but you couldn’t do it in Zeballos – we did about 250 calls a year at that point. I wanted to go somewhere on the coast and Prince Rupert really appealed to me, so they talked to the unit chief up there and got me hired on up there.”

Aggie is far from the only paramedic Janice mentored: numerous other paramedics who began their careers in Zeballos went on to practice elsewhere on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.

Janice’s commitment to her community extended well beyond the time she spent in uniform. When the local nurse was out of town, Janice would open the clinic and run it for her. She helped families with childcare and built relationships with the neighbouring Indigenous communities, including coordinating vaccinations for babies and bringing community members to the clinic if they were unable to get there themselves. She was known to many people as “Auntie” – particularly the younger folks.

Her advocacy for those around her extended to helping people escape situations involving domestic violence and addictions, and she played a critical role in bringing mental health support services and drug and alcohol counselling to the community. Janice did all of this while raising her three kids – including her daughter, Tara Westwood, who became one of the first female EMA 2s on Vancouver Island.

Janice retired from the service in the mid-1990s for health reasons and moved to northern B.C. Sadly, she died of cancer in December 1995 at the age of 47. Aggie says the death of the woman who was such a pillar of the community was devastating.

“I was an alcoholic, and she mentored me through finding the appropriate treatment centre and getting me to it,” Aggie said. “I wouldn’t be alive without her, I wouldn’t be a paramedic without her.”

“She saved my life, and the lives of so many people.”