THE ADVOCATE 433
VOL. 79 PART 3 MAY 2021
In 1967, Dale and his parents moved to West Vancouver, where he started
grade 11 at WVSS. There, he fell in with a circle of intellectually curious kids
who became his lifelong friends. Dale went on to UBC to study sociology
and then law, receiving his LL.B. in 1976. He articled the next year. Except
for one break of about 18 months, Dale practised law for the rest of his life,
about 43 years.
Dale articled at Campney & Murphy. It was about 35 lawyers, probably
the sixth or seventh largest firm in Vancouver. Their biggest client, Bank of
Montreal, was referred to as “the bank”. Dale became a real estate solicitor.
Campney & Murphy was a good place, full of people Dale liked and
admired. The leaders were Bill Mead, Don Tuck and Jack Watson. Other
memorable partners included Rod Smith, Sandra Sutherland, Dennis
Creighton, Alan Campney, Eric Cant, Ken Danderfer, Stuart Clyne, Don
McKinlay and Boon Siong Lee. Some of the Young Turks were Doug
Knowles, David Zacks, Dale Kermode, Eric Harris, Rob Hungerford and
Larry Goddard. Dale’s peers were Wendy Piggott, Henning Wiebach, Peter
Csiszar and Les Dellow. Brian Ciccozzi was the manager. There was a
woman everyone called “System 6”; she operated a sensational word processor
of that name. Those first three years forged Dale’s approach to practice.
Dale was a man of his generation. He was conservative in style, but some
of his friends were obviously hippies. He was attuned to popular culture
and social movements that grew out of the ’60s. The times bred ambivalence
about practising law. Dale was never cynical about our legal system,
but he knew lawyers are handmaidens to privilege. In 1979, Dale quit practising
law, saying he needed more time to practise guitar.
Playing guitar was not an idle pastime. In his teens and twenties, Dale
played lead guitar in a couple of bands. If you Google “Dale Banno Close
Quarters”, you’ll find an article about the second band written by their first
drummer, Tom Harrison.
Around this time, Dale and five or six friends from his WVSS social circle
pooled their money to buy land near Quesnel. In a nod to the Beatles, they
called it “Pepperland”. There was a log cabin with three or four bedrooms, a
woodshed, an outhouse, a big garden and some chickens. Another group
had bought a ranch just up the road from Pepperland. The core of that group
were draft dodgers who had met at Colorado State University. Their place
was called “Bobb Inn”. Unlike the Pepperlanders, the Bobb Inners were
farmers, growing hay and raising cattle. The two communes bonded.
When Dale left Campney & Murphy, three people were making Pepperland
their home. Dale may have thought he would try it. He made visits, but
he spent most of that year and a half in his place at First and Maple playing