sept. 22, maple ridge-pitt meadows news

No charges yet in Pitt rave rape. p3Looking Back

Looking at Sheila Nickols. p18

Forget about being named one of the top 25 MLAs targeted by Fight HST.

MLA Marc Dalton never got on that list, but he’s part of a group that could be more dead-ly to his political career. Dalton

is among 18 Liberal MLAs tar-geted in Fight HST’s Survivor-type strategy of recalling pro-vincial reps.

Fight HST leader Bill Vander Zalm announced the strategy this week in what he calls the “MLA Survivor Recall – Vote them off the Island” campaign.

Starting Nov. 15, and tack-ling one riding a month, Fight

HST hopes to recall the Liberal MLAs and force byelections in those ridings. The campaign is in response to Premier Gordon Campbell’s recent announce-ment of a Sept. 24, 2011 referen-dum on the HST. The Fight HST group says that vote will not be binding on the government.

Anti-HST organizer in Maple Ridge, Corisa Bell is confi dent

she and her team can recall Dalton, who won Maple Ridge-Mission by only 68 votes (over NDP candidate Mike Bocking) in the 2009 election.

“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but we have a real strong team and we’re very dedicated and I know we will be success-ful,” said Bell.

THE NEWS

Dalton on MLA recall list

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Fox-y ladyCandice Owen, 16, a volunteer with the Terry Fox Run in Maple Ridge, marks the 30 anniversary of the event with a washable tattoo on her cheek. For more about the local Terry Fox Run, see p16.

Man shot riding bike was targetedstaff repor ter

A man with a lengthy criminal past was gunned down while riding a bike on a quiet residential street in Maple Ridge early Monday.

Ridge Meadows RCMP responded to a call of gunshots fi red at the corner of 233rd Street and 124th Avenue at around 7:45 a.m.

The man was shot multiple times in front of a house on 124th Street. Witnesses reported seeing a vehicle fl ee the scene shortly after the gunshots were heard. However, police are unable to give a description of the vehicle.

Insp. Derren Lench said the Maple Ridge resident was well known to police, and has a “lengthy criminal past.

“It appears this was a targeted shooting,” he said.Paramedics performed CPR on the man, who was lat-

er rushed to hospital by air ambulance.As of Tuesday afternoon, he remained on life support.

Lench added, “the prognosis is not good.”The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has tak-

en over the investigation.Police cordoned off a section of 124th Avenue to con-

duct their investigation, cutting off residents living in the 50 homes east of 233rd Street.

@ For video, visit www.mapleridgenews.com

See MLA, p13

Opinion 6

Tom Fletcher 6

Looking Back 18

Community Calendar 31

Arts&life 35

Sports 39

Classifi eds 43

Index

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢www.mapleridgenews.com

Arts&life

Tales of transformation unfold at gallery.p36


Corisa Nicole Bell, regional anti-HST campaign orga-nizer, with her regional captain, Ron Sward.

b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter

Robert Mangelsdorf/THE NEWS

RCMP closed off a portion of 124th Avenue during their investigation. The man shot was flown to hospital.

Support for a 16-year-old girl who police say was gang-raped at a party in Pitt Meadows continues to grow on Facebook.

As of Tuesday, a group created on the social networking site had drawn more than 10,000 supporters.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to the victim and her family,” wrote Col-leen Kelly.

“Sadly, there are people - apparently, even on this site, that don’t get it - rape is rape and you don’t need to be a rocket

scientist to know that crimes were com-mitted against this teen.”

Police said the teenage girl was gang-raped in fi eld by fi ve to seven men – some adults and other teens – at “An-other Night in Bangkok,” a party held on a farm at 12993 Harris Road, Sept. 10.

An 18-year-old boy was arrested Thursday for his alleged participation in the rape.

Police also arrested a 16-year-old boy for distributing what police call child porn.

He allegedly took photographs of the rape on his cell phone and distributed them to friends, who then posted them

to Facebook.While people rally around the victim

online, others have created a Facebook page called “Reasonable Doubt in Pitt Meadows” that defends the men and boys accused of the rape

It has 116 members, as of Tuesday.The group is described as one “for

the people who have yet to jump on the bandwagon headed out to lynch the men/boys involved in the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl from Pitt Meadows.”

It goes on to add: “The police believe they have physical and medical evi-dence, but there is a difference between evidence used to arrest and evidence used to convict and the judicial process will determine what evidence there is and what it means.”

Police have yet to lay charges against an 18-year-old man arrested Thursday in connection with the gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl at a Pitt Meadows rave.

It was the second arrest made by po-lice last week.

Police are recommending he be charged with sexual assault.

“Our investigators are being ex-tremely thorough in this investiga-tion,” said RCMP Insp. Derren Lench on Friday.

“We have interviewed a number of people who were at the party, but there are still many police need to speak with, and we still want these people to come forward. We have made this second arrest, but there is still much follow-up we must do be-fore that charge will proceed.”

Police said the teenage girl was gang-raped in fi eld by fi ve to seven men – some adults and other teens – at “Another Night in Bangkok,” a party held on a farm at 12993 Harris Road, Sept.10.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested four days later for distributing child porn.

He allegedly took photographs of the rape on his cell phone and distrib-uted them to friends, who then posted them to Facebook.

Police have fi led a report to Crown for charges against him, which have yet to be laid.

At a media conference Friday, Lench refused to comment on whether the 18-year-old arrested was in any of the photos.

The photos do, however, show the offense of rape, he added.

“It does show the private parts of

this female.”Police are looking at making other

arrests and said there could be a number of charges, including admin-istering a noxious substance, as well as aiding and abetting. Currently, though, sexual assault is the only charge being recommended,.

Lench said it is “clear” that the 16-year-old girl did not willing take a drug, which investigators believe is most likely GHB (gamma-hydroxybu-tyrate).

He said she did not consent to sex with any of young men involved.

“Absolutely not.”That is clear from the evidence, her

physical injuries and her account of the events, he said.

Lench added that it may have ap-peared the girl understood what was happening, but “she couldn’t consent to anything,” because she was im-paired by the drugs.

“There was no consent at all.”A previous party called “One night

in Bangkok” had been hosted at a barn on the same property a week before.

Police said the people who live in the home had allowed two young men to use the property for a party, for which they charged $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Jared Deptuck, one of the organiz-ers, has been kicked out of his house for his part in the event.

“I’m never going to do this again,” said the 18-year-old, who is now sleep-ing on friend’s couches.

The man arrested in connection with the alleged rape is Deptuck’s friend.

“He’s just out of it,” Deptuck said of his friend after the arrest. “He was just staring into space.”

Deptuck is co-operating with police and said he is trying to get evidence to prove his friend’s innocence.

“There are two sides to the story,” he added.

No charges yet in Pitt rave rape


The rave occurred at this rental house on Harris Road, north of Lougheed Highway, on Sept. 10.

Facebook groups weigh in on rave rape

Photos do show off ense of rape: RCMP

About GHB• Street Name: G, liquid ecstasy, liquid x, grievous bodily harm• What it is: GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) is produced naturally in the human body in very small amounts. When taken as a recreational drug, and especially when taken in combination with alcohol or other drugs, GHB can be extremely dangerous.GHB is a central nervous system depressant. That means it makes you sleepy, and slows down your breathing and heart rate. GHB was fi rst made in a laboratory in 1960. It has been used experimentally as an anesthetic, and as a treatment for sleep disorders and alcohol withdrawal.• What GHB looks like: In its liquid form, GHB looks like water. It has no smell, and is tasteless or has a slightly salty or solvent taste that can be easily masked. It is usually sold as a liquid in small vials. GHB is also available as a white powder or capsule.• Who uses GHB: In recent years, GHB has gained popularity as a “club drug” among young people for its euphoric and sedative eff ects. Some bodybuilders continue to use it, believ-ing it stimulates growth hormones.• How GHB makes you feel: The way you feel when you take GHB is similar to the way some people feel when they drink alcohol. At a low dose, users usu-ally feel more sociable, less inhibited and lightheaded. A slightly higher dose intensifi es these eff ects or makes you drowsy and dizzy. A little more may cause nausea and vomiting, and a higher dose can make you slip into a deep coma-like sleep. An overdose can result in diffi culty breath-ing, a lowered heart rate, convulsions and even death. With GHB there is only a slight diff erence between a dose that produces the desired eff ects, and a dose that puts the user at risk. If you have a little too much GHB, the consequences can be fatal.

– Courtesy Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter


Group to support teen and one to defend alleged rapists

Contributed

A support site on Facebook has more than 10,000 members.

The Maple Ridge-Pitt Mead-ows School District and Ridge Meadows RCMP are work-ing together to try to stop the spread of graphic images of an alleged sexual assault that took place at a rave party in Pitt Meadows, attended by high school students.

Police and district staff visited high schools across the district on Friday to talk to students about the incident.

Although senior staff declined to be interviewed, the district did put out a press release on Friday, stating it was working with the RCMP to help impress upon students the need to stop sharing graphic images of the assault that have been circulat-ing on the internet and via cell phones.

“Without exception the vast majority of our students are equally disturbed by what has taken place and have stepped forward with empathy and

thoughtfulness on behalf of all those impacted,” school district superintendent Jan Unwin stat-ed in the press release.

Topics such as date rape, sub-stance abuse, and cyber bully-ing are all discussed with stu-dents by teachers, counselors and administrators throughout the school year, according to the district’s statement.

“As educators, we continue to seek out teachable moments and revisit many of the issues that come to the forefront when this sort of thing happens,” stated Unwin.

Unwin did not return requests for interview.

School board chair Ken Clark-son said the incident was trou-bling for educators for a num-ber reasons, particularly the role technology, such as text messaging and social media websites like Facebook, has played in the distribution of the graphic images of the alleged rape.

“In the last fi ve years, there have been so many changes, and the kids are way ahead of the adults,” said Clarkson. “And that includes teachers.”

Clarkson said he would like see more discussion in school with students about the pos-sible negative effects of tech-

nology.“The guidance needs to start

in the home,” said Clarkson. “But there is role for teachers to play as well.”

Clarkson said he thinks young people today have more social responsibility than previous generations. But when it comes to sex, they are desensitized.

“The world of sex is so avail-able to kids these days. Even the programs on regular TV are so explicit,” he said.

It’s a situation that is compli-cated by the rapid evolution of social media.

“They see these things on Fa-cebook and I don’t think they realize that it is real,” he said. “They need to think about the implications.”

SD42 tries to stop spread of rape photosRole of social media needs to be examined, says board chair

b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

“They see these things on Facebook, and I don’t think they realize that it is real. They need to think about the implications .” Ken Clarkson,School board chair

Get your community news fi rst @ www.mapleridgenews.com

A 23-year-old man was arrested Sunday after he crashed a truck police say was stolen from Langley.

Justin Lenzing re-mains in custody on charges of possessing stolen property and failing to comply with a probation order.

Insp. Derren Lench said police were called around 6 a.m. by the fa-ther of the man whose truck was stolen.

The truck was taken from a property in Langley and the father followed it onto Harris Road in Pitt Meadows.

Two Ridge Mead-ows RCMP members

then followed the sto-len truck west on the Lougheed Highway and watched it travel over a police spike belt.

Lench said the driver could not maintain con-trol of the truck and crashed it into a me-dian and traffi c sign in Port Coquitlam, where he was arrested.

Pot bustPolice seized more

than 800 marijuana plants and guns from two Maple Ridge homes Friday while executing two separate search warrants.

The fi rst bust took

place at a property in the 9500-block of 285th Street.

A 26-year-old man was arrested and po-lice seized 719 mari-juana plants, as well as a loaded gun.

Shortly after com-pleting the search, po-lice executed a second warrant on a nearby property and arrested a 54-year-old man.

Police seized 170 mar-ijuana plants, as well as two illegally stored fi rearms.

Both men were re-leased from police cus-tody after the searches but will have to appear in court at a later date.

Man crashes stolen truck

For the record

The story Drama Over Missing Shipping Container, which ap-peared in the Wednesday, Sept. 8 edition of The News, stated Richard Appleyard asked for a cheque to be made out in his own name as pay-ment for a shipping container that was to be delivered to Maple Ridge

Christian School. However, he made no such re-

quest, and the cheque was, in fact, made out to the name of Apple-yard’s company, RSI Containers and Logistics.

The News regrets the error and any confusion it may have caused.

THE NEWS/opinion

VICTORIA – Even with a year to sell the harmonized sales tax to a disgruntled public, a wounded B.C. Liberal government looks to be going a bridge too far with its plan to put the tax to a referendum.

Premier Gordon Campbell’s surprise decision to accept a simple majority vote in B.C.’s first-ever citizen initiative referendum makes it almost an impossible mission. What-ever the turnout, the notion that more than 50 per cent of voters will take the trouble to tick a box in favour of pay-ing more taxes simply defies logic and history.

A recent Angus Reid public opinion poll painted a grim picture of the cur-rent mood. It found that 68 per cent of people believed their personal budget was “moderately” or “severely” af-fected by the introduction of the HST on July 1.

Mind you, 76 per cent of those respon-dents thought taxes on basic groceries had gone up, 63 per cent thought their cellphone bills had gone up and 61 per cent believed adult clothing costs were up.

The HST affects none of those things. It’s the information age. Nobody knows anything any more.

Political polling numbers reflect the same misinformed anger. Every legally

available government record has been scoured for evidence that Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen secretly planned the HST before last year’s election. None has been found. Their post-election decision to grab for the HST transition fund in a crumbling economy was hasty and clumsy, but on the actual evidence, it wasn’t a lie.

Some readers continue to heap scorn on me for pointing this out. I wish they could have seen Bill Vander Zalm’s lat-est performance, when he stomped out of the legislature committee meeting that chose the referendum route last week.

Ranting for the TV cameras, Vander Zalm denounced the B.C. Liberal com-mittee members as liars too. What were their lies, one reporter asked. Vander Zalm could only sputter that Surrey-Tynehead MLA Dave Hayer had said he supported going to referendum because it’s a democratic choice.

As for the NDP, it’s now even clearer that they’re just posturing against the HST the way they did against the carbon tax. Their latest suggestion that Campbell should go cap in hand to the federal government, asking it to bail out B.C. by reversing the HST and for-giving the $1.6-billion transition fund, is a childish fantasy.

NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston made another embarrassing admission last week. He and his colleagues col-lected signatures in support of Vander Zalm’s “HST Extinguishment Act,” without giving much thought to its demand that the tax be scrapped and every person in B.C. be paid back for

their incremental sales tax costs.Ralston now admits it would be all

but impossible to calculate, much less pay everyone’s refund. He suggested the refunds could be estimated for vari-ous income levels, and Ottawa could be asked to pitch in for that too. Sure, they can just print some more money and ship it out west.

Reporters tried to pin Hansen down last week on the issue of paying HST refunds if the tax is abandoned. He stopped short of ruling it out entirely, but after Campbell’s bold gamble to lower the bar for the referendum to 50 per cent, it’s clear there can be no refunds, estimated or otherwise.

To commit to refunds now would be to send a clear message to voters ahead of the referendum on Sept. 24, 2011: get out and vote “No” to the HST and the B.C. government will send you a nice cheque.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press

and BCLocalnews.com(tfl [email protected]).

HST vote is mission impossible

A safe ride homeIngrid RiceNews Views

Published and printed by Black Press at 22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C., V2X 2Z3

@ Online poll: cast your vote at www.mapleridgenews.com, or e-mail your vote and comments to [email protected]

This week’s question: Do you use company-issued mobile devices when not at work?

B.C. Views Tom Fletcher

Cash? Check. Keys? Check. Cellphone? Check.A safe ride home?Now more than ever, people heading out for a

night on the town or a dinner engagement with friends will need to plan for transportation if they intend to imbibe.

The government’s tougher drinking driving laws, which kicked in Monday, not only put the boots to drivers with blood alcohol readings over .08 but also take aim at those in the .05 to .08 range, who can lose their car for three days and face a $200 fi ne.

These tougher laws are needed. Something has to be done to prevent the needless deaths of people like four-year-old Alexa Middelaer, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2008.

But are they enough? Will they work?And will they only affect the people who were

likely to follow the old rules more than the scoff-laws?

Certainly, these rules will stop law-abiding citizens from having a second glass of wine at dinner. Many will just stay home to avoid the embarrassment of having their car impounded for blood-alcohol readings that are less than the legal limit. Who wants to take the chance? These individuals are likely to curtail their socializing rather than go out because taking the bus at night is a hassle in the suburbs and cab fare is costly.

More people staying at home is not necessarily a bad thing if it cuts down on needless deaths. But there are some who question whether these tougher laws will stop hard-core drunk drivers who have nothing to lose. These are the crazy people who already have multiple offences stacked up against them.

Will there be enough police around to en-force these laws or will the deterrence effect be enough?

B.C. Attorney General Mike De Jong will have to keep us in the loop as to whether these new laws are working.

In the meantime, socializing over a drink is about to go the way of the dinosaur because the work involved in getting home makes dinner out the fun equivalent of a visit to the dentist.

– Black Press

Tell us what you think @ www.mapleridgenews.com

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Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978

THE NEWS

“Ralston now admits it would be all but impossible to calculate, much less pay everyone’s refund.”

Letters to the editor should be exclusive to The News and address topics of interest to residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Include full name and address, as well as daytime phone number for verification. Keep letters to 500 words or less. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

@ E-mail letters to [email protected].

Letters welcome

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Homes for Wynnyk Farm? (The

News, Sept. 15).Why is there even an ongoing dis-

cussion between Genstar and council to change the setback rules on this development?

The 30-metre setback was put in place for the simple fact that it pro-tects our watercourses and the habi-tat surrounding them.

The provincial government gave our municipal government the power to

protect and enforce this. Just last week MP Chuck Strahl an-

nounced $500,000 in federal funding to start protecting B.C.’s biodiversity. If the federal government recognizes this issue, so too should our munici-pal council, without hesitation.

Rick Cook, consultant for Genstar is quoted as saying “following a 30-me-tre setback would require expensive re-grading of the terrain.”

So what? Genstar must have known this when it fi rst walked onto the prop-

erty. Genstar has been around since 1950. Genstar, I’m confi dent, has the means fi nancially to deal with this.

The cost of protection may have to be passed on to the folks who choose, of their own will, to buy homes in such delicate locations.

Does council have the conscience and backbone to enforce these protec-tion rules?

Let’s wait and see.LESLEY SHIELDS

MAPLE RIDGE

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Time for premier to resign (Letters, Sept. 17).According to all accounts and by my limited lights,

the Liberals, headed by Gordon Campbell, lied.What a shock.Let’s discuss our alternatives. It’s dimly (if at all

by some) recalled when the official opposition was in power, that, yes, there were lies, scandals and fiscal mismanagement.

What we need is a third, viable party with honest pol-iticians. But wait, after a time, some will become cor-rupted by power. Where is a Jimmy Stewart type from Mr. Smith goes to Washington when you need him?

Democracy is not static, but an evolving process that is subject to fallible people, who sometimes succumb to power and greed.

The democratic process is working due to grass roots efforts and the freedom we have to debate, criticize and censure our elected officials.

Also, the freedom we letter writers have to debate this issue is democracy in action.

Try it in Iran. CHERRYL KATNICH

MAPLE RIDGE

EDITOR, THE NEWS:As a taxpayer in Maple Ridge, I got vandalized Friday

night. My truck windows were smashed – the driver’s door side (they also bent the window frame), the win-dow behind the door, and one of the rear windows.

I don’t like it, but I can understand people stealing stuff. But to just ruin some ones possessions, what kind of lunacy is that?

I don’t very often use my truck, but I do still use it. Now I don’t see how I can drive it in this condition.

I hope the person that did this would have the decen-cy, when he has a lucid moment, to come and pay for the damage, which is considerable.

C.A. STONE

MAPLE RIDGE

Where is Mr. Smith when you need him?

Setbacks in place for a reason

Senseless vandalism

Bengal tigers can chew through cable wiresThe morning

games were entering

the fourth quarter when the simple touch of a button solved an hours-long mystery.

The dilemma had our friend out of breath, frustrated and contorting himself over couches and between tables as he worked as feverishly as the most dedicated cable-vision repairman.

It seems everybody has horror stories when it comes to behemoth companies that have a monopoly or dominate a market.

Sometimes, though, the best horror stories are the ones that can at least entertain you.

A visit to the Coast on the weekend led to a few hours on Sunday at a friend’s house, where chili to eat, beer to drink and a smorgasbord of football to watch was advertised on the mes-sage board of our 10-year-old online keeper fantasy football pool.

Those who arrived found nothing to eat, cold coffee to drink and blank TV screens to watch.

Our friend had just purchased NFL Game Ticket, a $160 investment that promised unfettered access to every NFL game, via the tube.

Of course, that promise — like that of chili and beer — was broken right as the fi rst games of the season kicked off at 10 a.m.

Two TVs were set up in the liv-ing room, but the NFL Game Ticket matches graced a screen as black as the Raiders’ home jerseys.

No problem, thought our friend.He would call the cable company and

have the problem fi xed remotely.One hour and 40 minutes later, as

his beloved Steelers were playing somewhere behind that dark TV screen, his call was connected from the on-hold queue.

Our friend explained the problem, described his setup and asked for help.

He was asked to disconnect a splitter cable over there. He was asked to rejig a cable over there.

Before long, he was stretched out be-hind the TVs, his cellphone squeezed between his ear and shoulder as he unfastened a cable, beads of sweat forming on his chin.

He was then grunting as he stretched over the couch to reach the Internet connection, in the process perfecting Dan Aykroyd’s Saturday Night Live refrigerator repairman-pants fashion.

He did this. He did that. He tried this. He tried that.

He was told he needed a high-defi ni-tion television to receive the games.

He was then told he didn’t need high-defi nition television to receive the games.

It was at about this time we sus-pected our pal had walked into an outsourcing nightmare.

The cable-company techie was running out of ideas and, apparently, tossing out anything that came to mind.

Our friend was told the rainstorm could be affecting the signal.

“Lightning?” we heard him ask as he peered outside. “I don’t see any lightning.”

The techie was obviously now reach-ing for something, anything.

“Sun spots?” our friend asked. “But there’s a monsoon outside. El Nino? Really?”

When it was suggested Bengal tigers have been known to chew through cable wires, we kind of suspected the techie with the perfect Surrey accent was actually sitting in an offi ce some-where in Bangalore, tossing darts at an excuse board and probably watch-ing a riveting game of cricket.

It was now past noon when our friend, having done more physical la-bour this day than in recent memory, wiped his brow as he stood before the darkened portal to the NFL.

One of us couch-dwellers, stomach grumbling and coffee cup empty, then pointed to a little button in the corner of the cable box: “Hey. Maybe you gotta reset it or something.”

Our friend, who stood before the TVs looking like those Kenyan mara-thoners after fi nishing 42 kilometres — albeit with a bit more heft — re-layed that bit of information to our techie in Bangalore.

He nodded, reached down and pressed the button.

Voila. The NFL in colour. And we could even catch the fi nal two minutes of the games.

Technology is a wonderful thing.

Chris Foulds is editor of Kamloops This Week, a Black Press affi liate.

John Wynnyk walks through a field where his family is proposing to build houses, but the de-veloper wants a setback requirement changed first.

THE NEWS/files

THE NEWS/letters

Commentary Chris Foulds

[email protected]

Build new museumFrom: mrcitizen, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Tourism Mecca (News Views, Sept. 15).I have a great idea. Let’s build a visitor’s centre kiosk just north of Haney House in Port Haney and build a new museum around it. That way, visitors can learn all about the community, its history and its natural environment while they pick up their brochures. Just a thought ...

Build new museumFrom: clausandrup, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Tourism Mecca (News Views, Sept. 15).What a great idea. Innovative, creative, common sense. Might be a stretch for Maple Ridge. The museum has far wider a role to play than simply a home for our archives, but remains a tough sell.

21st Century schizoid manFrom: RubenTimes, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Ingrid Rice (Sept. 17).Good one Ingrid, with Harper it’s always do as I say not do as I do; 21st Century schizoid man!

Neither of two Maple Ridge councillors at oppo-site ends of the spectrum like Metro Vancouver’s 30-year growth plan.

So maybe the regional government is on the right track.

Metro Vancouver’s planning chair Derek Corrigan made the point Monday as council had one of its last looks at the thumb-worn document before it goes to public hearing.

“This is never meant to be a controlling mecha-nism,” Corrigan, also mayor of Burnaby, told council.

And he doesn’t want Metro Vancouver to be considered the higher court, where residents can appeal if they dis-agree with local deci-sions.

Instead, he wants the regional growth strategy, titled Metro Vancouver 2040, to be an agreement between municipalities.

But Coun. Craig Speirs and Al Hogarth said they’d both vote against it. Hogarth wondered how the district would meet the plans for Maple Ridge of accommodating 60,000 more people over the next decade.

And he challenged the rural land classifi cation, which replaces the green zone of the former plan.

Rural land, areas out-side the urban boundary, have a more diffi cult time having services such as water and sewer extend-ed to them. But Hogarth said such a designation will “sterilize” land.

Speirs said the plan has been loosened too much in favour of the 22 mem-ber municipalities.

The former plan, known as the Livable Region Strategic Plan, passed in 1996, “did save us from further sprawl.”

Under the old plan, any city that wanted to expand its urban bound-ary required unanimous consent of the Metro Val-ley board. Now, that only requires a two-thirds ma-jority.

That process and how it applies to the Pelton lands nursery, which has applied to take 152 acres out of the Agricultural Land Reserve at 203rd Street and Golden Ears Way, concerned Coun. Judy Dueck.

She wanted to ensure the district wouldn’t have to seek the consent of Metro Vancouver, as it did with Jackson Farm, which initially refused to let the land come out of the green zone.

“We don’t know that it’s going to be industrial,” Dueck said of the Pelton land.

However, developing the land, if it’s removed from the ALR, will re-quire Metro Vancouver’s

approval because the land is outside the urban boundary.

Changing that bound-ary would be considered a major amendment and require two-thirds of the vote of the board, Mayor Ernie Daykin said later.

Dueck was also con-cerned about delays in providing Metro Van-couver water and sewer service to the Thornhill urban reserve, the area east of 248th Street.

But Metro Vancouver CAO Johnny Carline said once Maple Ridge hit its trigger points (such as hitting a population of 100,000) for expansion into Thornhill, nothing would stall Metro Van-couver’s OK of the exten-sion of water and sewer.

Coun. Linda King said she’ll vote for the plan, but had an issue with transportation. “We are madly building roads – where everywhere else in North America is building transit.

“We’re building roads everywhere and our transit dollars are at a standstill.”

And Maple Ridge dis-trict had lots of work to do in order to comply with the plan, added Coun. Mike Morden, pointing out that developing in Sil-ver Valley isn’t consistent with the new plan.

“We’re cutting into wa-tershed. We are doing things that don’t make sense. We are building in

areas where there is no infrastructure,” he said of the Silver Valley suburb.

He said Maple Ridge needs to make changes in order to be consistent with the new plan, and that could include re-viewing OCP.

The district has until Oct. 15 to get in its com-ments as the plan could be fi nalized by the new year.

Corrigan told council when the fi rst regional plan was passed, it was a “high water mark,” for regional planning and became known around the world.

That was an “outstand-ing and shining example” to get 20 cities to agree on how to guide develop-ment.

By contrast, he pointed out that cities like Cal-gary continue to expand outwards. “Keep building ring roads, keep building ring roads.”

Corrigan also champi-oned his city’s conserva-tion during its growth. The most important thing to learn was how to say no to development proposals that didn’t meet city goals. Eventu-ally, proposal come to the city on its terms.

And over the last 25 years, Burnaby has pro-tected its streams and acquired all of the river-front.

“It really has enhanced the beauty of our munici-pality.”

Last time to tweak regional planb y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter

A Ridge Meadows Mountie was hit by pickup truck while di-recting traffi c Sunday night at house fi re in Maple Ridge.

The pickup truck was travelling north on 240th Street when it struck a Terasen Gas near 104th Avenue truck around 11 p.m.

The truck then slammed into the marked police cruiser, which was blocking the intersection and had its emergency equipment activated.

Const. Curtis Genes and the 23-year-old man driving the pickup were taken to hospital. Both have since been released.

Police are investigat-

ing whether the driver was impaired and are considering charges for failing to supply a sample of his blood for analysis.

The crash happened an hour before new tougher penalties for impaired driving and excessive speeding took effect across B.C.

“We’re happy that neither our offi cer, nor the driver of the pickup truck were seriously injured.” said Insp. Der-ren Lench. “The inves-tigation into this crash is still under investiga-tion, and I urge anyone who has not already spoken to police, and has personal knowledge of this incident, to come forward. This is some-what ironic in that the new anti-drinking and driving laws were about to be implemented after

midnight. This incident clearly shows that we need these new tougher laws, which are aimed at deterring, and trying to reduce the frequency of impaired driving.”

Under the new rules, police now have the op-tion of imposing an im-mediate penalty on any-one who fails a roadside breath test.

Instead of issuing a 24-hour suspension, po-lice will have the option to impose a 90-day driv-ing ban, a $500 fi ne and impound the vehicle for 30 days.

The fee for reinstating a suspended licence will be increased from $100 to $250, and drivers will also be billed $700 for towing and 30 days of vehicle impoundment.

Failing a roadside test will also mean manda-tory participation in

B.C.’s “responsible driv-er program” at a cost of $1,420.

Drivers caught ex-ceeding the speed limit by 40 km/h, street rac-ing, excessively tailgat-ing, or doing reckless tricks such as motorcy-cle “wheelies” will also face increased penal-ties. Vehicles can be impounded for seven days after one offence, 30 days for a second of-fence within two years and 60 days for a third offence.

Police offi cer hit by truck by 240thMounties looking for witnesses

Curtis Kreklau/Special to THE NEWS

RCMP Const. Cutis Genes and his car were hit by a pickup truck while directing traffic early Sunday at a house fire in Maple Ridge

Ridge Meadows RCMP are looking for a U-Haul trailer that was stolen from the parking lot at a pro-duce store last week.

The trailer was parked in the lot on

Dewdney Trunk Road at 228th Street.

It stolen sometime between 7:15 p.m. Wednesday and 11 p.m. Thursday.

The trailer has Washington State li-

cence plates 3095US on it at the time of the theft.

• Anyone with any information is asked to call RCMP at 604-463-6251 or Crimestop-pers at 1-800-222-8477.

Cops looking for U-Haul trailer

“We’re going to work our hearts out.”

Bell worked on the Ma-ple Ridge campaign this spring to scrap the HST.

With that as back-ground, she’ll be asking for the voting list from the 2009 election and for the anti-HST petition sent into Elections B.C. this summer.

Currently, she has a team of 20 volunteers who’ve already met, but she’s expecting more to sign on.

People are still angry about the new tax.

“I fi rmly believe this is a way to make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. I do not believe people are getting used to it.” Bell, who helps run a family software business, said the HST is eating into businesses profi ts.

“There are seniors starving right now be-cause of this HST.”

According to the Fight HST website, even though Premier Gordon

Campbell promised to abide by the results of a referendum on the HST next September, he still can be overruled by the legislature, which could vote to keep the tax.

That also leaves anti-HST campaigners skep-tical.

Bell is not part of any political party. “I just be-lieve in this. I do not be-lieve in getting bullied by the government.”

However, recall peti-tioners will have a tough-er job than they did get-ting signatures from 10 per cent of registered voters for the initiative petition to scrap the HST.

To recall an MLA and force a byelection, can-vassers will have only 60 days to collect signatures from 40 per cent of the people on the 2009 vot-ers’ list.

Dalton, though, thinks the Survival strategy is making a mockery out of the recall process.

“It’s a serious thing. I don’t think recall was

ever intended to be used in a trivial manner.”

And with the govern-ment following through on a referendum Sept. 24, 2011 on the HST, “I re-ally question what is the purpose of the recall.

“I believe this is a pro-gram to ride to get the NDP back into power or to win this seat.”

He said the govern-ment is making it even easier to defeat the HST by lowering the require-ment to just 50 per cent plus one of those vot-ing against. That will be enough to kill the tax.

“We’re saying we will make it binding on us. That’s our commitment to the public. We have really made it so that people’s votes count.”

He’s optimistic, though, the public may change its mind by next September, after more than a year of HST.

“I think there’s a good possibility.”

He pointed to the single transferable vote in 2005, which received support

of 58 per cent of voters.But in 2009, people

changed their minds and only 39 per cent support-ed STV.

Cancelling the HST raises questions about the rebate cheques now given every three months to low-income residents and whether B.C. will have to pay back the $1.6 billion transfer from Ottawa that’s part of the deal.

Bocking said he’d con-sider running if the re-call goes through, but pointed out that recalling an MLA is a tough task.

“If there was an elec-tion down the road, I would give it very seri-ous thought.”

The HST has come to symbolize other Liberal promises, such as the sale of B.C. Rail, he said.

Ron Sward, who’s worked on previous NDP campaigns, said he’d welcome Bocking as a candidate.

“He barely lost last time.”

– with Black Press fi les

Only 60 days to collect signaturesMLA from front

August’s announce-ment of gaming grants is hitting two charities where it hurts – in the pocket book.

“We got a huge re-duction this year and I’m just trying to find out why,” said Faye Luxemburg-Hyam, ex-ecutive-director with the Family Education and Support Centre.

In 2006, the centre got about $115,000 for the half dozen pro-grams it runs.

Last year, it got $72,000 from provin-cial gaming grants, and this year (for fis-cal year 2010-2011) re-ceived $19,560.

That’s a reduction of 72 per cent.

That means the cen-tre on Lougheed High-way will have pare a bit from each of the programs funded by the grant.

“We did get money for these programs, but they’re slashed down to a pittance.

We’re not going to be able to do what we did last year.”

The money is divided among programs such as the community par-enting and personal growth, which allows someone from the cen-tre to teach the sex education component in each Maple Ridge secondary school.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to do the sex edu-cation in the schools. There just isn’t the money there.”

Other programs trimmed will be health and safety, which teaches parents CPR and first aid; build-ing community solu-tions, a subsidy pro-gram for parents who can’t afford parenting courses, a volunteer coordination program and another program which partners with Eric Langton elemen-tary to offer communi-ty solutions from that school.

L u xe m b u r g - H ya m said she’s going to write to the Gaming Policy and Enforce-ment Branch to ask why the cut was so drastic.

“The only thing I can

figure out, and this is speculation on my part, is we’ve been re-categorized from social services to edu-cation.

“We have an educa-tional bent and educa-tion is in our name.”

She checked with two directors of social service agencies and was told that both re-ceived grants similar to previous years.

Teresa Green at Cythera Transition House Society says her group had a $25,000 cut from a pre-vious $100,000. But the reason for the reduc-tion is the government will only fund 75 per cent of a program and wants a group to raise a quarter of a pro-gram’s needs either in cash or donated ser-vices.

The reduction means the society will rely more on proceeds from the Cythera Thrift Store. That store is staffed by 90 per cent volunteers. “It’s worth the effort of work because it’s seen us through the tough times.”

Profits from that be-long to the society and

can be spent any way it sees fit.

“I don’t believe we got hit anywhere near some other agencies,” Green said.

But the cut means a reduction in the group counselling program the society offers bat-tered women who are on waiting lists for in-dividual counselling, which keeps the lists for the latter to a rea-sonable time.

The society’s total budget is about $1.2 million and the case load is about 180 wom-en.

“The grant seems small potatoes, but it’s definitely a critical area.”

The Alouette River Management Society received $40,000 this year, but it’s what hap-pens next year that has acting executive-director Abby Cruick-shank worried.

This the last of a three-year program which gave ARMS $40,000 a year. Com-bined with a $20,000 grant from the District of Maple Ridge, the money is the core fund-ing for the society.

Charities, non-profits take grant hitPrograms will now have to be trimmed

b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter

See Grants, p15

Revenues at Haney Bingo Plex down

Grants awardedMaple Ridge Arts & Culture Gaming Grant total, $78,700:• White Spot Pipe Band Society, $12,500;• Polonez Polish Dance Society, $10,000;• District 5050 Pipe Band Society, $1,200;• Maple Ridge Historical Society, $15,000;• Alouette River Management Society, $40,000. Maple Ridge Human & Social Services Gaming Grant total, $637,610:• Family Education and Support Centre, $19,560;• Knights of Columbus No. 5566, $10,800;• Rotary Club of Haney, $13,500;• Maple Ridge Lions Club, $16,500;• Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, $16,500;

• North Fraser Therapeutic Riding Association, $30,000;• Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows Community Services, $31,535;• Ridge Meadows Hospice Society, $42,000;• Ridge Meadows Seniors Society, $65,000;• Ridge Meadows Child Development Centre, $75,000;• Auxiliary to Ridge Meadows Hospital and Health Care Centre, $80,000;• Meadow Montessori School Society, $2,625;• Ceed Center Society, $15,000;• Kiwanis Club of Golden Ears – Maple Ridge, $18,000;• Amateur Athletic Association, $20,000;• Royal Canadian Legion No. 88 – Maple Ridge, $25,000;• Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living, $35,500;• One Way Club, $55,000;• Cythera Transition House Society, $75,000.

“This year will be our last year of getting that. It’s a huge chunk of our budget. It’s our sustain-ing grant.”

Groups now have to apply yearly and if the grant isn’t reinstated next year, the society could lose its full-time executive director or turn that position into a part-time one.

“We’re really kind of hoping they’ll re-instate the environmental grants and we’ll be able to re-apply again.”

Maple Ridge Coun. Craig Speirs said he wants council to discuss the cuts. “I think we should

say something to the senior governments.”This year, the province combined two gaming

grant programs (bingo affiliation and direct ac-cess) into the Community Gaming Grant pro-gram.

In total, according to a government release, the province is spending $120 million for gaming grants in 2010-2011 – $7.4 million more than last year, but down from $156 million two years ago.

Part of that money comes from Haney Bingo Plex, which in 2009/10 earned $6.9 million in rev-enue. That’s a drop from $8.5 million five years ago.

Grants from p14

A 45-year-old man was arrested by police early Thursday after he tried to fl ee from offi cers while driving a pickup truck.

David Grant faces one count each of failing to stop for police, danger-ous driving, refusing to provide a breath sample and obstructing a peace offi cer.

The charges stem from an incident that began around 3 a.m. when Ridge Meadows RCMP tried to pull over a pick-up truck with Mexico

licence plates, on Dew-dney Trunk Road near 232nd Street.

Insp. Derren Lench said the driver refused to pull over and acceler-ated away, going east.

Police did not en-gage in a pursuit, but deployed a spike belt, which fl attened the tires on the truck, forcing it to a stop.

Grant tried to run but was caught by offi cers near the truck on 269th Street.

He was held in custody

over the weekend with a bail hearing set for Tues-day.

Weapons seizedGuns, machetes, mari-

juana and cash were found in a Maple Ridge house Sept. 14 after RCMP executed a search warrant at the property.

Ridge Meadows RC-MP’s Street Enforce-ment Unit and Marijua-na Enforcement Team entered the house in the 25000-block of Ferguson

Avenue around 3 p.m. Two men from Pitt

Meadows, aged 25 and 22, and a 25-year-old Maple Ridge man were arrested as they tried to escape.

A total of 1,280 mari-juana plants in varying stages of growth were found inside the home, as well as fi rearms and machetes. Police also seized a quantity of money they allege is proceeds from the sale and distribution of the illegal drugs.

Spike belt stops fleeing driver, truck

Terry Fox runners undeterred by rain


Kimberley Marty-Brasleret (left) and Sabrina Jay, students at Kanaka Creek elementary, warm up before the Maple Ridge Terry Fox Run on Sunday.

Torrential rain couldn’t keep participants away from the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Run on Sunday.

More than 700 runners took part in the annual fundrais-ing event to support cancer research. Between donations and pledges, the Maple Ridge run raised more than $21,000, said organizer Fran Kemp.

Kemp said while previous years had seen more partici-pants take part in the run, the overall money raised was the one of the highest totals re-corded for the event.

The Terry Fox Run typically raises between $17,000 and $20,000 in Maple Ridge. The re-

cord was set in 2005 – the 25th anniversary of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope – when $25,000 was raised locally.

Participation was up from last year, however, when more than 550 people took part in the run, raising $19,800 for cancer research.

Kemp said part of the success this year was due to the Terry Fox Foundation’s new online pledging system, which made it easier for people to make do-nations.

“It’s also the 30th anniver-sary of Terry’s run, so I think people took notice of the mile-stone,” she said.

Many of the runners didn’t show up until just before the 10 a.m. start at the Hammond Community Centre to avoid the rain. That had many of the

more than 45 volunteers won-dering if the run would be a bust.

That was far from the case as hundreds braved the down-pour.

“They couldn’t get any wet-ter, but they took it all in stride,” said Kemp.

Former school board trustee Kathy Marshall, who was in charge of registration at the event, said she was surprised the run did as well as it did, considering the rain.

“The weather didn’t deter do-nations at all,” she said. “We even had one person make a $1,000 donation.”

b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

• For more information about the Terry Fox Foundation, or to donate to cancer research, visit www.terryfox.org.


Participants begin the 30th annual Terry Fox Run at the entrance to Hammond Stadium.

Looking BackSheila Nickols cutting the cake at the first Heritage Tea in 1993.

Maple Ridge Museum

Since 1987, Sheila Nickols has written “Looking Back,” initially as a

monthly column, then weekly, and in latter years every two weeks.

Now that job is being shared between Sheila and two other members of the Maple Ridge Historical Society.

It’s my turn this week, and what better subject to write about than Sheila herself?

Long associated with Maple Ridge history and with the museum, and the recipient of many awards for her work, Sheila epitomizes the story of the community for the past 40 years.

Her interest in the past was piqued when she took history courses at UBC, where she and her future husband were enrolled.

In those days, not much local history was taught in high schools – most of us of that era were more familiar with the lineage of the Royal Family, or the price of wheat in China,

than what went on in our own home towns years ago.

The Maple Ridge University Women’s Club decided to do something about that: a book must be written.

And so was born “Maple Ridge – History of Settlement,” published fi rst in 1972 and on through 1989, and now seen in most local book stores and at heritage events.

Sheila edited the entire volume, as well as wrote the sections on Haney and Ham-mond.

In those days, the Maple Ridge museum was housed in a corner of the old library. When the existing curator left in 1982, Sheila took over the job.

Her earlier career had been as a Maple Ridge high school teacher, 1957-1960, after which she took time off to raise two daughters, born in 1960 and 1962. When Sheila’s husband became ill in the early 1990s, she gave up the curator-ship, which, incidentally, was supported on slender pay by donations. It wasn’t until our current director, Val Patenaude took over, that the

Maple Ridge council came up with funds for a properly salaried position.

Through those years, Sheila was already writing her “Looking Back” column for The News. Topics that she had encountered in research-ing the book, for example ‘early settlers’, presented themselves as interesting for today’s townspeople. Others were brought to her by fami-lies who wanted their early history here portrayed. There was, for instance, the fam-ily reunion, on the museum grounds, of descendants of early Japanese-Canadian set-tlers here.

The Maple Ridge cemetery, well-maintained by the historical society, and the one in Whonnock, also provided great opportunities for stories from the past.

Other local historical tradi-tions have given Sheila further chances to volunteer her time.

The annual heritage tea, started by Jeanine Franklin 20 years ago in St. Andrew’s Church on Dewdney Trunk Road, and now held at the seniors’ centre, has been run

by the historical society under Sheila’s chairmanship for a number of years.

“Music on the Wharf,” our popular summer series, was initially conceived by Bernice Gehring, and is now spon-sored by the historical society through another committee chaired by Sheila. She is happy that these well-loved concerts, which unite local talent with enthusiastic local audiences, have gone 14 years with only one or two rain-outs.

All this hard work has been recognized as Sheila received, among others: the 1996 Maple Ridge Foundation Citizen of the Year award; in 2002, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Heritage Society of B.C.; and in 2005, an induction to the Maple Ridge Hall of Fame.

We wish Sheila all the best as she begins the newest phase of her life – being mar-ried to fellow long-time resi-dent of Maple Ridge, and old family friend, Dick Middleton.

Carla Reed is a director of the Maple Ridge

Historical Society.

Sheila Nickols epitomizes communityL o o k i n g B a c k b yCarla Reed

Winning free tickets to Eat! Fraser Valley

from The News, I invited three friends to join me at the Tradex Centre in Abbotsford on Saturday for the third annual food and cooking festival that showcases local busi-nesses and products.

Being a teacher, Satur-days are usually spent preparing lessons, but the focus this day was

on one thing -– food.Before we even got in

the door we were hand-ed a sack of goodies. I have no idea what goji berries or acai fruit are, but covered in chocolate, they sure are tasty.

Our intention was to browse the booths and sample a few things be-fore making our way to the cooking stage for the demonstration, but we noticed the chairs were

rapidly fi lling up even though show-time was 20 minutes away. Chefs from the Food Network have become true celeb-rities and it was clear there were many of their fans in attendance.

First up was Chef Rob Feenie, Canada’s only Iron Chef and Concept Engineer for Cactus Club Restaurants in Vancouver. He enter-tained the crowd with

stories of his two-year-old son nicknamed ‘Tur-bo’ and tackled more serious subjects, such as sustainable fi shing and buying locally.

The ravioli he made looked delicious but when he prepared the sauce I was surprised at the amount of butter that went into the pan. This recipe was not for anyone watching their cholesterol. Mushrooms

fi nished off the dish and people scrambled to line up for a sample.

While taking questions Chef Feenie was asked about his pasta maker. He explained how rolling the dough through it successive times made it thinner.

Leaving the cooking demonstration area, we made our way through the crowds and lined up for samples. Everything from grilled shrimp to energy drinks was on hand. Freybe’s meats were popular with the crowd. Slices of spicy tur-key sausage and chunks of fl avored pepperoni were heaped on platters and everyone was urged to try some.

Endive, a vegetable that few people know what to do with, was being showcased at one booth. Chopped and

tossed in a salad with an Asian dress-ing, it tasted like cabbage. However, the leaves did look cute lined up on a platter stuffed with red pepper salsa.

Vegetables are a hard sell when com-pared with

other booths handing out taco chips and gua-camole.

Lunch time gave us a choice of appetizer-sized plates sold by the par-ticipating restaurants. Milestone’s was very popular with their mini hamburgers called slid-ers. This was not to be confused with the kan-garoo sliders being sold at the exotic meat booth.

My friends and I set-tled for salmon chowder and pulled pork.

Next: the wine and beer tasting area. For just the cost of a couple

of tickets, you could sip a 10-year-old rum or try a glass from the Mount Lehman Winery.

For those who wanted to learn about the vari-ous wines and beers, there were seminars held every hour. Wheth-er it was learning how to pair beer with chocolate or which wines to serve with food, experts were on hand to guide you through it.

We fi nished the show with some serious shop-ping. Anna Mae’s Smoky Sweet Sauce from Sun-set Gourmet was coming home with me to top my salmon steak and I fi lled a bag with Mrs. May’s Almond Crunch Snacks. A cook book called Van-couver Cooks 2, signed by two of the contribut-ing chefs, Ned Bell and Quang Dang, completed my purchases.

Tired and full, we went to leave. But wait, mint and espresso honey? Maybe just one more sample.

Marsha Lemon teach-es art and photography

at Mission secondary, and is published writer.

Have a plan to taste your way through Eat! Fraser Valley

Commentary Marsha Lemon

Shop talk John Lim, land devel-opment associate for Smart!Centres, talks

to local resident Lynda DeBruyn at an open house

for the development at Golden Ears Winter Club

on Sunday. DeBruyn said she usually travels to

either Mission, Langley or Coquitlam to shop

and feels that her money would be best kept in her

own area.


A controversial panel of scientific ad-visers will no longer guide the Cohen Com-mission as it begins detailed hearings this fall into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon.

Critics including Conservative MP John Cummins (Richmond-Delta East) had lam-basted the six-member panel as stacked with experts closely tied to the federal fisheries department.

He said they were inappropriately po-sitioned to exert in-fluence on the com-mission from the sidelines, when they should be called to testify about their own roles in helping manage the fishery.

The commission, headed by retired Justice Bruce Cohen, has now scrapped the panel and instead con-tracted researchers to prepare a series of 12 scientific reports that will be subject to a process of peer re-view.

Commission counsel Brian Wallace said the panel is no longer re-quired even though its members “performed their advisory role in a completely inde-pendent, professional manner in the best in-terest of the commis-sion.”

The projects include research into the ef-fects of: disease and parasites; predators; climate change; con-taminants from pulp mills, sewage and other sources; salmon farms; changes in ma-

rine ecology; and hu-man impacts on habi-tat in the lower Fraser and Strait of Georgia.

Researchers were picked based on their professional and aca-demic credentials and their experience and expertise with Fraser sockeye or ecosys-tems, Wallace said.

Their findings will be presented at in-quiry hearings this winter, where they can be questioned. Fi-nal reports are due by Jan. 31.

Cummins, however, is not satisfied with the change, noting some researchers cho-sen are again proving to be ones with ex-tensive links to DFO that may not be best at ferreting out the truth, particularly if it makes the department look bad.

He points to the hir-ing of Bert Ionson, a former DFO me-dia spokesman and aboriginal fisheries manager, to examine DFO’s science and management activi-ties related to Fraser sockeye.

Cummins questions the choice because of Ionson’s long working relationship with the department.

“It is akin to giving the fox a contract to explain the manage-ment and disappear-ance of the chickens,” he said.

“I don’t under-stand what it is about conflict that Cohen doesn’t get.”

Cummins also accus-es the commission of deviating too far from its terms of reference by organizing a “sci-entific show-and-tell by DFO toadies” when

it is supposed to focus more on the depart-ment’s management.

Asked whether the federal Conservative government bears some blame for the commission’s perfor-mance, Cummins said the prime minister was courageous to or-der the independent judicial inquiry and risk riling the bureau-crats in one of his own departments.

But now that it is es-tablished, he added, it would be inappro-priate for the govern-

ment to intervene in its operations.

The commission is continuing its probe into the collapse of sockeye over the pre-vious two years, de-spite this year’s im-mense rebound.

It’s conducting pub-lic forums across B.C. this month, with a stop slated for Monday Sept. 20 in New West-minster at 6:30 p.m. at the Inn of the Quay.

Evidentiary hearings begin Oct. 25 at the federal courthouse in Vancouver.

Cohen sockeye inquiry drops advisorsResearchers picked instead, but questions linger about links to DFO

b y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press

NDP health critic Adrian Dix is accus-ing health minister Kevin Falcon of using a “slush fund” to hold back money for certain medical procedures and then ride to the rescue with restored funding to relieve long wait lists after they’ve built up.

Dix points to an in-ternal health ministry document that shows Victoria is prepar-ing to unveil a surge of funding to provide 4,450 more MRI scans in Fraser Health in the balance of this year.

That would be an in-crease of 20 per cent from the 21,200 MRIs planned for Fraser Health this year and would ease wait lists that recently bal-looned to between 12 and 18 months at most hospitals in the health region.

A similar 10 per cent

lift is eyed for MRIs in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

Dix claims it’s a continued pattern of Victoria withholding funding from health authorities, placing it in an innovation fund and then redistribut-ing it back later with much fanfare – instead of delivering more con-sistent, stable funding.

“The minister taketh away, giveth back and expects you to see it as a gift,” Dix said. “They call it an inno-vation fund. But this is no way to manage a health care system.”

Falcon confi rmed more money for MRI scans is on the way as well as extra money to deliver a surge in elec-tive surgery, intended to catch up delayed procedures after oper-ating room time was cut back more than usual over the sum-mer.

He said setting aside a separate pot of mon-ey for innovation is the crux of B.C.’s pay-for-performance strategy.

“B.C. is leading the country,” he said. “On-tario is now saying they’re going to follow

B.C.’s lead. I’m very excited about it.”

By 2015, he said, 20 per cent of B.C. health care budgets will be based on patient-fo-cused funding, where health a u t h o r i t i e s and hospitals get more mon-ey if they fi nd better, more effi cient ways of operating.

“If they do a great job of getting patients in, through and out with their sur-gical procedures, then they will be rewarded fi nancially and that is a benefi t to patients,” Falcon said.

He denied the gov-ernment is juggling health dollars for po-litical reasons and said only cynical New Dem-ocrats using “pretzel-like logic” would make such claims.

“The NDP is abso-lutely consistent in opposing any change in the health care sys-tem,” Falcon said.

Falcon predicted MRI wait times in Fraser will come down, as well as waits for elective

surgery as the bump in procedures kicks in later this year.

He said MRI scans in Fraser are up 350 per cent since 2001, but “there’s still this in-credibly huge demand.”

Work is also under-way to reas-sess whether MRIs are s o m e t i m e s

being inappropriately ordered, Falcon said, adding physicians tell him many patients con-sult “Doctor Google” and then press for scans after doing their own Internet research.

“The public needs to know that in the Cana-dian system there will always be wait times, because that’s how we ration care,” he said.

“The evidence is overwhelming that unless Canadians and their governments start bringing inno-vation to the table to make sure our sys-tem is sustainable, it will not be there for our children and our grandchildren.”

NDP cries foul as scans, surgeries reboundB.C. is innovating, not playing money games: Falcon

Falcon


Fraser Health will spend nine per cent more on administra-tion and other corporate costs this year despite continued long wait lists in the region’s acute care hospitals.

The corporate budget of $222 million is up $18 million, ac-cording to the health author-ity’s new service plan released Monday.

In contrast, the acute care budget is up just 1.3 per cent to $1.44 billion.

The disparity doesn’t fully refl ect the government’s plan to inject more money into the authority for surgery and di-agnostics through its innova-tion fund and patient-focused funding strategy, according to authority spokesman David Plug.

The amount of extra money hasn’t yet been announced.

He noted the jump in corpo-rate costs includes some infl a-tion and the end of one-time savings achieved through a hiring freeze and various other restraint measures last year.

Fraser Health last year cut two vice-presidents as part of a broader cost-cutting campaign that ended grants to various community partner groups, postponed elective surgeries and capped MRI scans.

Plug said corporate costs also include a wide range of expenditures, from building maintenance and utility costs to housekeeping and informa-tion management.

But NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the numbers still show misplaced priorities.

“It’s a good day for head of-fi ce, but a bad day for the pa-tient,” he said.

Particularly troubling, Dix said, is the allocation of only $5 million more for mental health and addictions in the combined budgets of the two Lower Main-land health authorities.

“It’s something everybody agrees is a growing crisis and

they are providing almost nothing this year to deal with it,” he said. “They’re saying it will continue to be dealt with by jails and emergency depart-ments.”

Fraser Health’s service plan calls for spending of $2.59 bil-lion this year, as a result of a 5.1 per cent increase in base funding from the province.

It also budgets capital spend-ing of $250 million this year, as work continues on major proj-ects, such as the $239-million Surrey Outpatient Hospital and $525-million ER expansion and critical care tower at Sur-rey Memorial Hospital.

The plan shows Fraser Health is still falling far short of its targets for reducing how long patients wait for major procedures.

By now, 10 per cent or fewer patients were to wait longer than 16 weeks for cataract sur-gery or 26 weeks for a knee re-placement or hip replacement.

The actual rates remain sig-nifi cantly higher – 35 per cent, 26 per cent and 15 per cent re-spectively.

Those are among the few performance measures that still remain in the health au-thority plans.

Last year, Fraser stopped publishing in the plan indica-tors gauging how many pa-tients face unacceptable waits to get a bed after being admit-ted through emergency – a key measure of the severity of hos-pital congestion and the phe-nomenon of hallway medicine.

Also eliminated were stats on rates of hospital-acquired bacteria infections, aboriginal suicide and follow-up treat-ment of the mentally ill.

Critics then accused the gov-ernment of whitewashing em-barrassing statistics.

More indicators are dropped from this year’s plan, includ-ing a target for regular testing of diabetics that the region was failing to achieve and a mea-sure of wait times for cardiac surgery.

The health authority service plan now contains just eight performance measures, down from 77 three years ago.

Government offi cials main-tain the changes are meant to standardize performance reporting across all health au-thorities.

Administrative costs up at Fraser HealthPlan quietly drops more performance indicators


Next September’s ref-erendum on the Harmo-nized Sales Tax means another year of uncer-tainty for home builders and renovators.

Some new home buy-ers and owners planning major renovations won’t risk paying more now and will instead put off spending in hopes the HST is defeated, Greater Vancouver Home Build-ers’ Association CEO Pe-ter Simpson predicts.

“I’m hearing from builders that this is the slap on the other side of the face,” Simpson said. “Waiting a year I don’t think was the appropri-ate course of action.”

HST doesn’t apply on the purchase price of re-sale homes, but buyers will pay HST on the por-tion of new homes worth more than $525,000. The merged tax also adds seven per cent to pre-viously PST-exempt services like legal fees,

appraisals and home in-spections.

Simpson noted new home buyers who de-lay risk a change in the housing market and the potential for sharply higher interest rates.

But he agreed sub-stantial numbers of B.C. residents already angry with the HST may well wait.

“People’s behaviours will change because of this,” he said. “There are still an awful lot of homes priced above the $525,000 threshold where people are going to have to pay a heavy toll.”

Any buying slowdown may be more prevalent in the Lower Mainland, where home prices are higher than elsewhere in B.C., and could trigger job losses in the home construction sector as well as related manu-facturing industries, he said.

Finance minister Colin Hansen has indicated it’s unlikely government could issue rebates for HST paid if the merged 12 per cent tax is defeat-ed in the Sept. 24, 2011 referendum.

“I can understand that on a hamburger, but not on a new home,” Simp-

son said, adding the province could easily commit to rebate HST on new home purchases and avoid instability in the industry.

Premier Gordon Camp-bell has pledged to re-peal the HST if a simple majority vote against it, a lower bar than set out in the legislation govern-ing initiative votes.

If Victoria refuses to rebate HST paid on new homes, Simpson sug-gests it could instead provide some tempo-rary relief up until the referendum by relaxing Property Transfer Tax rates.

Simpson said the im-pact of the one-year wait for the referendum could be even more dra-matic in the renovation business.

“If people are thinking about adding a room or redoing their kitchen or bathroom, those deci-sions might be put on hold.”

Legitimate contractors also fear the HST is driv-ing more business to the cash-only underground economy.

The home builders as-sociation has warned paying black-market operators to save HST

brings signifi cant risks, including higher liabil-ity, lack of legal protec-tion and potentially un-safe, uninspected work.

Central 1 Credit Union chief economist Helmut

Pastrick said it’s too ear-ly to tell how much big-ticket spending could be delayed by residents waiting to see if the HST survives.

“It may create a small

amount of uncertainty or a large amount – that remains to be seen,” Pastrick said.

He cautioned today’s low mortgage rates – below four per cent in some cases – will not last much longer.

Real estate indus-try stats show buying surged in June and

dropped off in July – suggesting some deals scooted in ahead of the HST – but began to pick up again in August.

Pastrick said the HST should be positive for the B.C. economy, business profi ts and investment over the long term, but it’s too early to gauge short-term impacts.

HST vote another ‘slap’ to home buildersYear-long wait may push back some spending


There are several tell-tale signs that summer is winding down: school begins anew, the leaves on the trees begin to change colours, and autumn vegetables ripen in gardens.

And this year, as last year, the Golden Harvest, A Taste of Maple Ridge and Beyond, will celebrate this beautiful season.

The Maple Ridge Agricultural Advisory Committee, in part-nership with the Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Agricultural As-

sociation and the Haney Farm-ers Market, will present their second annual appetizer party – focussing on local agricultural produce – Friday, Oct. 15 at The ACT in Maple Ridge.

“Maple Ridge has an abun-dance of local foods and farms,” said Candace Gordon, chair of the Maple Ridge Agricultural Advisory Committee.

“The festival is a great chance to showcase the bounty of our re-gion, and we invite everyone in

the community to attend.”One of the festival’s goals is to

increase the public’s awareness of the food at their doorsteps – or backyards, as the case may be.

Local chefs and restaurateurs are collaborating with local farmers to create a myriad of ap-petizers that will excite even the pickiest of palates; the Golden Harvest, A Taste of Maple Ridge and Beyond, welcomes visitors of all ages.

Fresh fruits, vegetables, sea-

food and meats will make an ap-pearance, with fresh herbs to top off the taste.

Culinary arts students from MRSS, Garibaldi, and Thomas Haney secondary schools will be involved in the event too, un-der the guidance of the schools’ chefs.

“Their inclusion in the event only broadens its overall im-pact,” Gordon said, “the students learn more about food and their community, which provides them

with valuable experience for the future.”

But that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who will learn from the festival. Anyone who attends is sure to find out some-thing about their community and what grows in it that they didn’t know before.

“Join us for A Taste of Maple Ridge and Beyond,” Gordon said.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. and run until 8 p.m. • The 300 available tickets will sell for $15 each and are available from members of the agricultural association, at the Haney Farmers Market and The ACT, contact The ACT box offi ce 604-476-2787.

Local produce celebrated at Golden Harvest

Community Calendar lists events in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Notices are

free to local non-profi t groups courtesy of The News. Drop off details to 22328 119 Ave., fax to 604-463-4741 or e-mail [email protected] at least a week before the event. Include a contact name and number. (No submissions by phone.) Listings appear as space permits. For guaranteed publication, ask our classifi ed department at 604-467-1122 about non-profi t rates.

Thursday, Sept. 23• Willow Manor is holding

a Casino Night from 7 to 9 p.m. $10 entry fee includes 10,000 chips to be used at the profes-sionally run tables. All proceeds go to the Friends in Need Food Bank. Bring a non-perishable food item and receive a free beverage. Call to 604-466-8602 to RSVP.

Friday, Sept. 24• The HOMINUM Fraser

Valley Chapter is a support and discussion group to help gay, bi-sexual and question-ing men with the challenges of being married, separated or single. Its next meeting is at 7:30 p.m. For information and location, please call Art at 604-462-9813 or Don at 604-329-9760.

Saturday, Sept. 25• The 2010 Community

Information and Safety Fair takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Haney Place Mall. The event features booths from more than 30 diff erent agencies, businesses, and local service groups. Many local service providers and com-munity organizations will be available to share information or answer your questions as well as provide entertainment for fair visitors of all ages. If you are new to the community or in need of information, join friends and neighbours for this fun, family event. The event is put on by the Community Net-work, Maple Ridge Community Policing, Ridge Meadows Fall Prevention and the Downtown Business Improvement As-sociation. For more informa-tion, contact Nichole Wismer at 604-616-6934.

• Discover what Down-town Maple Ridge has to off er at the last Downtown Maple Ridge Summer Market for 2010 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street next to the Haney Farmers’ Market. Enjoy entertainment, kids’ activities and local vendors in a fun street market atmosphere. Call the DMRBIA at 604-467-2420 or visit downtownmapleridge.ca for more information, or if you’d like to be a vendor.

• Every year the Haney Farmers’ Market dedicates

a market day to the Friends in Need Food Bank and this year is no exception. Come by their booth and make a donation for the coming winter. Jeff Huggins performs. Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street in downtown Maple Ridge. www.haneyfarmersmarket.org

• Canada Culture Day comes to the ACT in Maple Ridge. There will be gallery tours, hands-on art dem-onstrations, live music, fi lm screenings and much more. The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. at 11944 Haney Place, Maple Ridge. Organized by the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Arts Coun-cil. www.theactmapleridge.org

Sunday, Sept. 26• The Kanaka Educa-

tion and Environmental Partnership Society will be hosting a Rivers Day event on from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kanaka Creek Regional Park riverfront, on River Road east of Lougheed Highway and Haney Bypass. Canoe tours and interpretive walks will be part of this family event. Admission is free. For more information,

call Ross at 604-970-8404 or visit www.keeps.orgMonday Sept. 27

• The Fraser Valley Rhodo Club’s monthly meeting will be held at St. Andrew’s Heritage Hall, 22279 116th Ave, just off the Haney Bypass in Maple Ridge. Ron Knight will be speaking on the develop-ment of Caron Gardens on the Sunshine Coast. All are wel-come to attend this interesting evening.

Tuesday, Sept. 28 • Downtown Maple Ridge

Business Improvement Association is presenting a free business to business event, hosted by Maple Ridge Lighting, at 11947 227th Street from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Topics to be discussed are: Fall promotion, suggestions for Christmas events, possible Winter/Christmas Market and any topics brought up by members concerning Downtown. All BIA members and interested guests are welcome to this informal meet and greet. Refreshments are provided. Please call 604-467-2420 or inquiries@

downtownmapleridge.ca and RSVP today.

• Support group meet-ing for parents and family members who have a child with autism. This group meets the last Tuesday of the month from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the downstairs boardroom at the Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living, 11641 224th street, entrance off Callaghan Street. This month’s speaker is Stephanie Kwasnica, an ECE educator and music enthusiast who will be show-ing how music can be used to enhance the lives of our children. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Tracy Hewgill at 604-467-8700.

Wednesday, Sept. 29• The Maple Ridge Public

Library is hosting its third annual Chocolate Festival from 4 to 5 p.m. Bring your sweet tooth and enjoy an hour of fun fi lled chocolate activities and games. Kids Grades 5 and up welcome. Please register at the second fl oor information desk, or call the Maple Ridge Public Library for more information.

Community Calendar

Community Calendar

Ongoing• The Maple Ridge Legion

euchre club is looking for players. The club meets Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at the legion, corner of Brown Avenue and 224th Street. Call Irene at 604-465-1956 for more information.

• The Boys and Girls club at Southgate Church is taking registration for the next year. Cost is $40 Grades 2 to 5. Contact Tamara Hull at 604-532-7769 for more information, or email [email protected]

• Happy Wanderers singles walking group for people aged 45 and up meets every Saturday at 9:15 a.m. at the Pitt Meadows Heritage Hall, Harris Road and Lougheed Highway. Walks take place in various areas on both sides of the Fraser River. For more information call 604-463-8874.

• The Ridge Meadows Hospice Thrift Store re-quires volunteers to help sort new donations, steam press items, tidy shelves and racks. If you have time to volunteer, even as little as four hours a week, please call Rhonda at 604-463-7711.

• Overeaters Anonymous meets every Tuesday at the Maple Ridge Library, Alouette Room at 1:15 p.m. Drop in or

call 604-878-4575 for more information. No dues or fees. Newcomers welcome.

• The Maple Ridge Public Library will be running an-other session of the Reading Buddies program from Oct. 5 to Nov. 24. The Reading Bud-dies program puts elementary school children in Grades 1-3 together with high school students for a half hour of reading practice each week. Partners meet on Tuesdays or Wednesdays after school. Register at the second fl oor information desk. For more information, please call the Maple Ridge Public Library at 604-467-7417.

• The newly formed Blue Heron Toastmasters club meets every Thursday in the Meadows room at Pitt Meadows City Hall. Meetings take place between 7:30 p.m. and run till 9:30 p.m. sharp. Arrive 15 minutes early. For more information visit blue-heron.freetoasthost.org or call Andrew at 604-460-0339.

• The Maple Ridge Public Library off ers fun and excit-ing storytimes with You, Me and the Li-bra-ry on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:15 to 10:45 a.m., and fi nishing on Dec. 3. Puppets, books, rhymes and songs will enchant you and your child. All ages are welcome.

Contributed

One Her Day is a story about Clair, a successful biochemist, who accidentally created a virus that could potentially kill people in the hundreds of thousands. It’s ignored for three years, only to find itself the centre of attention at Clair’s wedding reception.

THE NEWS/arts&lifeSection coordinator:Monisha Martins 604-467-1122 ext. [email protected]

Linger in lobby After Hours at ACTTickle your funny bone at a hilarious eve-

ning of comedy at the ACT next week. Hosted by Maple Ridge funny man Russ

Brummer, the event will feature musician-ac-tor Jonathan Chambers, improviser Graham Myers and comedian Jodi Mason performing stand-up routines, song parodies and a hilari-ous skit about being married.

Brummer has been performing comedy for 10 years with the likes of Table23, Vancouver Theatre Sports, Comedy Events and the Com-edy Factory.

The comedy night is part of the ACT’s free After Hours Lobby Events.

• Comedy Night at the ACT plays Tuesday, Sept. 28 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. . The laughs re-turn to the lobby on Oct. 26, Nov. 23. Jan. 25, Feb. 22, Mar. 22 and April 26. The event is free but donations for a local charity will be ac-cepted.

After hour events• Art Experience with Kjaer PedersenTuesdays: Oct. 5, Nov. 2, Dec. 7, Feb. 1, Mar. 1, April 5Get your creativity on! Artist-in-residence Kjaer will guide you through the wonderful world

of arts. This is fun-fi lled hands-on evening for all ages and skill levels; beginner to professional. Supplies are available for a $2 donation or you can bring you own. Visit the ACT website for each evening’s theme.

• Celtic Jam with Nigel TuckerTuesdays : Sept. 14, Oct. 12, Nov. 9, Dec. 14, Jan. 11, Feb. 8, March 8, April 12Come join Nigel and his band of merry musicians in the spirit of Celtic muse. Bring your instru-

ments, voice or even just your ears. No experience necessary, only a love of music required. • Open Mic Night with United Circle of Arts SocietyTuesdays: Oct. 19, Nov. 16, Dec. 21, Jan. 18, Feb. 15, March 15, April 19Whether you are a soloist or a band; a child or a grandparent; a musician or a music enthusiast,

this evening will inspire the musician in all of us. Bring your talent, instruments and encourage-ment in support of aspiring artists. Performances on a fi rst come fi rst perform basis. Contributed

Russ Brummer hosts Comedy Night at the ACT on Tuesday.

Roll credits

Ever dreamed of seeing your name fl ash on screen in a fi lm’s rolling credits? Fancy

yourself a “co-producer”?Perhaps now is the time to carpe

diem and shell out a little cash to gain those acco-lades.

“I’ve created prices that won’t hurt anybody,” says Jaime Rauch, a Maple Ridge fi lmmaker who is of-fering anyone and everyone a chance to contribute to his thriller On Her Day.

For $1,000, you could be share producing duties and make a 10 per cent profi t, if the movie makes it big.

If you rather shirk the spotlight, perhaps you could spon-sor a prop – the wedding wine, cake, dress, the band, even the bridge groom’s tux, all are up for grabs.

Fed up of seeing his script tossed around for the past two years by could-be and would-be fi nanciers, Rauch decided to raise the dough to fi lm On Her Day himself.

It is a story about Clair, a success-ful biochemist who accidentally cre-ated a virus that could potentially kill people in the hundreds of thou-sands.

Only three people know about the virus.

It’s ignored for three years, only to fi nd itself the centre of attention at Clair’s wedding reception, with the best man seeking the formula and her husband-to-be’s life on the line.

Rauch so far has signed Daniel Balwin and South African actor Scott Cooper to play leads in On Her Day.

Erica Durance (Smallville, But-

terfl y Effect 2) and Sendhil Rama-murthy (Heroes) are perusing the script.

He isn’t the fi rst independent fi lm-maker to try fund his movie in a unique way.

A group of Ohio fi lmmakers used the old barter technique to get their project off the ground, another Ca-nadian fi lmmaker is selling frames of his romantic comedy for $10 a piece.

It’s an ambitious task. Rauch in-tends to muster $200,000 by January – a meagre budget that was whittled

down from an original $2.9 million.

“I’m tired of waiting for other people,” he says.

“Most of the budget is go-ing towards insurance and food. You can’t feed them macaroni and hot dogs.”

Filming frugally, though, is Rauch’s forte.

He has been producing and directing independent-ly since 1994 and owned his fi rst production company in Creston, B.C. at age 14.

By 17, Rauch was fi lming commer-cials and TV spots for companies across the Kootenays.

After selling the company to his partner, he trained in acting and writing.

Since then, he has fi lmed music videos and several shorts, including Eired (Scottish Gaelic for Rise Up), a 12th century period piece, all spoken in Gaelic, that’s set to hit the festival circuit soon.

Originally budgeted at $60,000, Rauch fi lmed Eired for $5,000.

In the meantime, he also published a book called The Art of Filmmak-ing: How to Make a Movie For Little or No Money.

“I wish I had the book around when I started,” he said.

With just four month to go before the January fundraising deadline, Rauch isn’t sweating.

“I believe in it,” he says. • To be a part of On Her Day, visit

onherday.weebly.com.

Maple Ridge fi lmmaker gets creative to fund fi rst feature fi lm On Her Day


Rauch

Explore the myths and magic of the North-west Coast in a new exhibition by First Nations artists at the Maple Ridge Art

Gallery.Transformation Tales – Stories related

through the Art of the Northwest Coast features the work of Robert Davidson, Susan Point, Jay Simeon, Tim Paul, Ken Mowatt, Glenn Tallio, Keith Wolf Smarch, Norman Tait and Dempsey Bob, whose work is made available on a non-commercial basis through the efforts of Spirit Wrestler Gallery.

Local artists featured include carver and painter Quentin Harris, textile artist Tracey Littlewood and Métis artist Lisa Shepherd.

Co-curated by Barbara Duncan of the Maple Ridge Art Gallery and Gary Wyatt of the Spirit Wrestler Gallery, the exhibition’s theme of transformation will be explored on several lev-els:

• the ongoing process of change within the Aboriginal cosmos as humans, animals, mythic beings and forces of nature transfer from one state of being to another;

• the transformative nature of successive gen-erations of First Nations art as new materials and preoccupations come to light, and;

• the seasonal exchange that takes place as liv-ing materials such as plants are respectfully col-lected and transformed into baskets, textiles and objects of other objects of utility.

The exhibition Transformation Tales is on dis-play from Oct. 2 to Nov. 13 at Maple Ridge Art Gallery, 11944 Haney Place. An opening reception takes place on Saturday Oct. 2 from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

On StageIn keeping with October’s First Nations theme,

the arts council presents Raven Stole the Sun, a production by Toronto-based Red Sky Perfor-mance.

Raven is a fabulous and magical creature of impulse and invention who stars in this compel-ling theatre dance piece for family members of all ages. Curiosity leads the Raven to hatch a bril-liant scheme for stealing the stars, the moon and the sun, and ends up bringing light to the people of the world.

• Raven Stole The Sun plays the ACT Oct. 24.

Arts&Life

Tales of transformation unfold in gallery exhibitStories related through art of the Canada’s Northwest Coast

Contributed

A red and yellow cedar Thunder Spirit Mask by Glenn Tallio, a Nuxalk artist. Many of his pieces are commissioned for ceremonial purposes.

Contributed

Tlingit Moon by Wayne Alfred, a member of the Namgis First Nation, located in Alert Bay, B.C.

See a short fi lm, get a backstage tour of the ACT or your hands dirty at Canada‘s Cul-ture Day on Saturday.

Culture Days is a free annual event designed to invite the public to celebrate and explore arts and culture in ev-ery province and ter-ritory in Canada.

The three-day cele-bration represents the largest-ever collective public participation campaign undertaken by the arts and cul-tural community in Canada.

“It’s a culture free for all,” said Antoni

Cimolino, chair of Cul-ture Days’ national steering committee and general director of Stratford Shake-speare Festival.

“We are thrilled with the level of enthusi-asm that Culture Days has already begun to garner across Canada. Thousands of artists, organizations, asso-ciations and public and private funders across the country are excited to support and voluntarily partici-pate in this collective invitation to welcome the public into our cultural homes and

become more familiar with what we do.”

Anything is possible during Culture Days – anything that brings cre-ators and the public closer together.

Examples of activi-ties include a museum opening its restora-

tion workshop to the public, a local the-

a t r e

inviting visitors to a dress rehearsal, an ar-chitect and a historian

organizing a guided tour of a neighbour-hood, or choreogra-

phers offering a dance class.

• To learn more about Culture Days or events in other communi-ties, visit www.

culturedays.ca

Arts&Life

Get creative on Canada’s Culture DaysMaple Ridge and Pitt Meadows join the fi rst country-wide celebration of arts

Culture Day @ The ACTCulture Day runs Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.• See a Canadian short fi lm. Family fi lms play at 12:30 p.m.

and 1:30 p.m. Films for ages 16 and over play at 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

• Participate in a Family Art Jam• Tour the art gallery and backstage• Enjoy entertainment in the ACT Lobby by August, Celtic

Music Jam and others

THE NEWS/sportsSection coordinator:Robert Mangelsdorf 604-467-1122 ext. [email protected]


Seung Jun Woo of Maple Ridge placed third in the boys’ 17-19 division of the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour event at Swan-e-Set Bay Resort in Pitt Meadows Sunday afternoon.

Golfers at the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s event last weekend at the Swan-e-set Bay Resort course in Pitt Meadows faced not only a chal-lenging 7,000-yard course lay-out, but all bluster and might Mother Nature could throw at them.

The second round of the tourna-ment was cut short on Sunday af-

ter a torrential downpour drenched the competitors.

The course’s greens were able to drain quickly enough to allow for nine holes to be played, however the back nine was abandoned as the rain continued.

Maple Ridge’s Tae-In Lee, a mem-ber at Swan-e-set, ran away with the boys’ 17-19 title with scores of 74-40.

“The course was wet and soggy, but in great condition, and I feel great, winning on my home course,” he said. Lee, 17, said he plans to study for his SAT tests in the off-season in the hopes of scoring a

university scholarship, much like fellow local golfers Charlie Hughes and Justin Shin.

Tied for second place in the divi-sion was Belmont Golf Club’s Jesse Reichelt, 17, of Langley (86-35), and another Swan-e-set junior, Seung Jun Woo, 18, of Maple Ridge (82-39).

Oscar Baek, 15, of Coquitlam and a junior member at Swan-e-set, fi red 73-38 to win low overall and take the boys’ 14-16 title in style.

“This is my home course and as always, it was in great condition, however it was very wet,” he said.

A close race in the girls’ division

saw Alix Kong, 14, of West Vancou-ver, fi re 78-37 to win by one stroke. Valentina Trillo, 16, of Port Moody, came second after carding 78-38, while young Lily He, 11, of Pitt Meadows, placed third (79-38).

Swan-e-set junior members con-tinued to dominate with Henry Lee, 12, of Coquitlam, winning the boys’ U-14 title after fi ring 77-39.

The fi nal Maple Leaf Junior Tour tournament in B.C. this season is the MJT One Day Fall Series at Uni-versity Golf Club in Vancouver on Oct. 16. For more information or to register, please visit www.maplejt.com or call 1-877-859-4653.

A little trust can go a long way. Just ask Ridge Meadows Flames coach Tavis Eaton, whose junior B hockey team won its third straight game on Sunday after dropping the fi rst two of the sea-son.

“It all came down to trust,” he said of the team’s recent turn around. “When guys start trusting each oth-er, stop worrying about what the other guy has to do, and focus on what they have to do, good things happen.”

Though only fi ve games into their 2010/11 Pacifi c International Junior Hockey cam-paign, the Ridge Mead-ows Flames now fi nd themselves atop the Harold Brittain Confer-ence standings with six points. With 16 players new to the team this season, Eaton admits there has been a learn-ing curve as the players adjust to a new system, and new linemates.

“I’ve really been im-pressed with all of our new guys,” said Eaton. “They’ve picked things up very quickly ... and they understand how hard they need to work in order to win at this level”

So far the team has showed considerable depth up front, as 12 of the team’s 15 forwards have found the back of the net after just fi ve games. Yet only one player, Dustin Cervo, has scored more than twice. One player Eaton says he has been par-ticularly impressed by is forward Ryan Stew-art. The former Mission Icebreaker came to the Flames in a deal for brothers Matt and Sean Pesut, and has quickly carved himself a niche as one of the team’s top forwards, scoring four points in fi ve games.

“He’s skilled and he’s gritty, and that’s why I picked him up,” said Eaton. “He fi ts in really well with the team, so it’s been a nice surprise to see him contributing this early.”

Rain cuts Pitt golf tourney short

S t a f f R e p o r t e rMaple Ridge News

Tae-In Lee of Maple Ridge takes fi rst despite downpour

The Pitt Meadows Marauders notched their fi rst win of the season Friday afternoon, taking down the West Vancouver Highlanders 28-7 in varsity exhibition football action.

The Marauders fl oated the High-landers a seven-point lead in the fi rst quarter after fumbling the ball on a punt return. The Highlanders took ad-vantage of the excellent fi eld position and marched in for the major score.

“We didn’t show up for the fi rst quarter,” said Marauders coach Dave

Holleran. “We weren’t all there, so gave them seven points.”

The touchdown woke up Pitt Mead-ows, who proceeded to score 28 un-answered points against the AAA Highlanders squad.

Quarterback Danny Childress threw for more than 200 yards, con-necting for a number of large gains. Matt Newlove ran the ball in for a touchdown, while Malcolm Wil-liams and Doug McNally both made touchdown receptions. Childress also scored a touchdown of his own, running the ball in from the two-yard line.

However, there still room for im-

provement, Holleran notes, as the regular season approaches.

“There were a few key fi rst downs that we didn’t get,” he said. “I think were 70 per cent of where we need to be executing.”

Childress threw close to 25 passes on Friday, and Holleran says the team plans t put a greater emphasis on the air attack. While the Marauders’ of-fense has been dominated in the past by running backs Cody Holleran and Malcolm Williams, the powerful arm

of Childress and a wealth of talented receivers have prompted Holleran to

change his game plan.“The last couple of

years we’ve pounded it out on the ground for 200 yards a game,” he said. “But this is a much higher calibre

of football.”The team has a tough road

ahead of them. The AA Main-land Conference the Maraud-

ers play in features four of the top fi ve ranked AA varsity teams

in the province.

Pitt Meadows Marauders trounce West Van Highlandersb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

See Pitt, p41

Flames win 3rd straightb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

See Flames, p41

Sports

The Samuel Robertson Techni-cal Titans made their AA junior varsity debut last Wednesday, pulling off a 22-14 victory over Hugh Boyd secondary on the road.

For more than half the Titans squad, the win was the fi rst time they had seen game action.

“We defi nitely have plenty of issues to work on, but we are incredibly proud of how far this group of young men have come in the four weeks we have been together as a team,” said head coach Tom Levesque.

Hugh Boyd started the game off with a 70-yard drive ending with the fi rst touchdown of the game. Despite some early jitters, the Titans were able to fi nd their rhythm in the game and settle

into a hard hitting game, said Levesque, who made his high school coaching debut, along with assistant coaches Steve Halfnights, James White, Mark Ogloff and Glenn Wiggins.

“We showed some real offen-sive fi repower, de-spite losing posses-sion fi ve times on fumbles,” he said.

Running back Rashaun Simo-nise led the way for the offence, rushing for a team-high 196 yards and a touchdown. Despite their lack of experience, rookie quarterbacks Tanner Hartley and Robert Mun-nich were able to deal with the challenges of throwing in wet conditions.

Running back Colton Davies ended the day with a 24-yard run and a touchdown. Hartley scored the third Titans’ touchdown him-self, rolling out of the pocket, and running the ball in from 25 yards out.

The defence didn’t make things easy on themselves, with four fum-bled snaps and 60 yards in penal-ties. Linebacker Kyle Cameron led

the team with seven tackles, while Matt Chichka and Conner Henry both picked

up a sack each. Newcomer Jaycee Wissman showed blazing speed with fi ve tackles to his credit.

Grade 10s Cameron, Chichka, Hart-

ly, Simonise, D o n o v a n McNee, and

Josh Penner showed early

ve t e r a n - styl e leadership on the Titan team, said Levesque, while the play of Grade 8s Tyrel Ogloff and Nathan Taylor bodes well for the future of the program.

The Titans make their home debut this afternoon [Wednes-day] at 3 p.m. against the Langley Saints at SRT’s Rotary Field, and face cross-town AA junior varsity rivals, the Pitt Meadows Maraud-ers, on Tuesday Sept. 28, also at home.

SRT Titans pass first test

S t a f f R e p o r t e rMaple Ridge-Pitt Meadow News

Win over Richmond’s Hugh Boyd fi rst for fl edgling football program

Officials neededWith hoops season just a couple of months away, the Fraser Valley Bas-ketball Officials Association (FVBOA) is searching for new members.

The FVBOA officiates all basketball games played between Langley and Hope, and from Maple Ridge to Agassiz on the north side of the Fraser River. The association is running education and training meetings at 7

p.m. on Monday evenings at Abbots-ford Collegiate, beginning Oct. 4 and running through the end of November. For more information, contact Paul Nivins at [email protected], or call 604-613-6391.

The Flames kept their win streak alive Friday night with a hard-fought 4-3 win over the Abbots-ford Pilots on the road.

Flames Goalie Spencer Marro got the win, shut-ting the door in the third period to ensure victory for his side.

“It was a good test for him,” said Eaton. “Ab-botsford is a very good, very well-coached team. I thought it would be a good chal-lenge for him, and he

played very well.”Former Flame Daniel

Amesbury, who was traded to the Abbotsford Pilots in the off-season, was ejected from the game and faces suspen-sion after throwing his stick into the crowd in protest of a slashing call against him.

“I know Danny, and he’s a good, tough kid with a lot of charac-ter,” said Eaton. “His emotions got the best of him, but that’s not his style, that’s not like

him at all.”The Flames notched

their third win of the season in Squamish Sat-urday night, topping the Wolf Pack 6-4.

The Flames carried a 4-0 lead late into the second period, but let Squamish back into the game with a lacklustre fi nal frame.

“We were half asleep in the third period,” said Eaton. “We talked about it after the game, the guys know they have to be better than that.

The Flames will face a tough challenge this weekend as they take on the Delta Ice Hawks and North Delta Devils. Both teams are off to strong starts this season and feature a cadre of skilled players. Liam Harding of the Ice Hawks leads the league in scoring with 10 points in four games, while Michael Nardi of the Devils is third, with nine points.

“Delta beat us all four games last season,” said Eaton. “I expect them

to be just as good, if not better, than they were last season.”

Sports

The Meadow Ridge Knights community football program made their home debut Satur-day at Samuel Robert-son Technical Second-ary School’s artifi cial turf fi eld, with four of the six teams coming away with a victory

The action began with an inter-club battle between the Meadow

Ridge atom Blue and Gold Knights. Brayden Hamilton scored once behind strong block-ing by Eric Clarke and Evan Vasharley to lead the Blue Knights to a 12-6 Victory.

Tyler Spencer of the Gold Knights scored their only touchdown with a 40-yard fumble recovery. The Gold Knights were lead by excellent defensive ef-forts from Darius Jo-seph, Cody Hogarth

and Kurtis Heron.The peewee Knights

were lead by Drake Kindred and Lucas Chapdelaine on offence and Mackenzie Baust, Eric Ross and Bran-don Hunt on defence as they posted a 38-0 win over North Lang-ley to keep them atop the Valley Commu-nity Football League’s peewee division after three games.

The junior bantam Knights posted their

fi rst victory of the sea-son as they hung on for an 18-14 win over the North Langely Bears.

The bantam Knights played a spirited con-test with North Lan-gley, shutting out the Bears 30-0. Scoring for the Knights was Dami-on Hartman, Kyle Cam-eron, Kurtis Blaine and Rashaun Simonise, who took an intercep-tion back for a touch-down.

The midget Knights

had to battle some ear-ly special teams issues which resulted in poor fi eld position, while un-timely penalties wiped out several good gains as they fell 22-7 to the Mission Niners. Mar-tin Duckhorn blocked a fi eld goal attempt while Garrett Thon, Josh Guvi and Thomas Kravjanski made key plays for the Knights, who are next in action this Sunday when they travel to Cloverdale.

Meadow Ridge Knights make home debutb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

Marro shuts the door in 3rd period vs. Pilots

Pitt faces a tough ear-ly test this Friday on the road against Hand-sworth Royals of North Vancouver.

The conference-open-er will be the fi rst road game of the season for the Marauders. While

road games have given Pitt trouble in the past, Holleran says he has a plan to keep his players focused on the task at hand.

“No talking, no cell-phones. You’ll be able to hear a pin drop on that bus,” says Holleran.

“I want them thinking about what they have to do for that 45-minute ride out there.”

If anyone talks, they won’t be starting, he added.

The tough love treat-ment is part of Holle-ran’s plan to mentally

prepare his players for what he hopes to be a long season.

“We’re not going to win because of our size or depth,” he says. “It will be our ability to execute plays, our men-tal [preparedness], and our discipline.”

Pitt faces Handsworth in conference opener

Flames from p39

Pitt from p39

sept. 22, maple ridge-pitt meadows news

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