Harold Garland, FCGA
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Harry went to see T.H. Frankling, the secretary-treasurer of Toronto Branch (the precursor to CGA Ontario) at Frankling’s offices at 67 Yonge Street. He recalls a very formal man who wore a waistcoat with a fob and chain. “He was a sort of a gentlemanly, reserved guy. He wasn’t effusive. He wasn’t bombastic in the least. He was most sincere.”
Frankling’s dedication to the performance of the student was well-known among the CGAs, and perhaps something of a trial by fire that bonded the students together. “Frankling looked at survey and exam results,” Harry continues. “He was always interested in all the percentages and how people made out and didn’t. He was that kind of a guy, he was academic.”
Harold achieved success in the program, but an incident he recalls with some amusement illustrates the many sides of Frankling. “Around 1948 Frankling presented me with an accountants handbook, a big thing, as a prize for achieving the highest results in the intermediate examination. But later, my friend Vic Thompson was up to see Frankling after the results, and Frankling said, ‘Hey, your friend got the highest marks, but they’re not very good. They’re lower than what they are across Canada!’”
Still, he remembers those early days as ones of fellowship. “The students would meet for dinners about once a month after work in a dining room at Union Station. Jack Willis [CGA president, 1958-59] also worked at the tax office and he would take exam questions and provide an answer and explanation. Those dinners continued after we passed our exams. It became a periodic meeting of CGAs.”
Harry achieved his designation in 1951 and almost immediately became involved in the Association. After serving on a number of committees, he became the fourth president of CGA Ontario, in 1959-60. Harry recalls Leonard Brooks, the first Association president, as the driving force behind incorporation. He also recalls the early Sixties as a dark period in Association history.
The Public Accountancy Act was passed by the Government of Ontario in 1962. The Act gave effective control of licensing to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and established a monopoly that would last until the passing of the Public Accounting Act, 2004. “I remember leaving Queen’s Park on the day of the Legislature vote and feeling very downcast,” he recalls.
In 1966, Harry became the director of the tax office in Belleville, and in 1968 he was appointed the chief assessor in Toronto. In 1972, he accepted a position in the office of the director general, tax policy, where he worked together with the department of finance to revise the Income Tax Act, and aided in the introduction of the tax on capital gains. In 1975, he became the assistant deputy minister of policy and systems at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), a position he held until his retirement in 1982. “I had no idea that Harold Garland was a Great Escape survivor,” says D. Alan Jones, FCGA, who worked for Harry at the Canada Revenue Agency, “but I’ve always had great respect for him.”
Today, Harry lives with his wife, Phyllis, in Ottawa, and has accepted invitations to speak to children about the importance of Remembrance Day. “Once the kids realize you were part of ‘The Great Escape,’ you’ve got their attention right away.”
He also enjoys spending holidays with his three children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. “My son has a cottage near Westport, Ontario. He named it ‘The Great Escape.’ One summer I was leaning on the sign and a neighbour arrived and asked if I knew the name Vanderstock. He was a Dutch ex-POW, one of the three who made it back to England from our tunnel break. Our neighbour had found among his deceased father’s papers a copy of a 1966 letter written by Dr. Vanderstock. He had enclosed copies of the forged German ‘authorization to travel’ documents he used during his escape, explaining that he had carved the approval stamp from the rubber heel of a shoe. My neighbour was surprised to hear that I had lived in the same hut as Vanderstock at Stalag Luft III.”
In researching the history of CGA Ontario as part of our 50th anniversary celebration of A Half Century of Leadership, we were surprised as well when we learned of Harry’s wartime exploits—but the modesty of Harold Ernest Garland has always been part of the man that friends and acquaintances alike just call Harry.
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