Boater loses city contract

After seeking reward in body find

By Sun staff

It has been a turbulent week for Edmonton boater Alan Flynn.

The man who found the body of math whiz Robert Barrington Leigh in the river last week – and then publicly wondered whether he was eligible for the $5,000 reward posted by the family – has lost his city contract, at least temporarily.

Flynn, a 54-year-old contractor hired by the city to inspect drainage pipes along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, said the city told him this week that “operations have been suspended” and his services weren’t needed.

City spokesman Robert Moyles confirmed that this past week’s drainage-pipe inspections were cancelled out of sensitivity to the Barrington Leigh family.

“If the concern around the reward is still unresolved by (Sept. 11, when the next round of inspections is slated) we’ll expect to make other arrangements so that that inspection will go ahead,” Moyles said, adding Flynn isn’t out of a job. “It’s only temporary.”

Flynn told the Sun on Monday that he had hoped he was entitled to the reward, which he planned to donate to the cancer society.

After the story was published in Tuesday’s Sun, Flynn said he was inundated with about a dozen angry callers who accused him of being “cold-hearted” and “a thief.”

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Flynn, who believes the Barrington Leigh family should honour the $5,000 reward they posted for information leading to the missing 20-year-old University of Toronto scholar during an extensive nine-day search.

It’s believed Barrington Leigh committed suicide.