After 84 years, a miracle return. p5Hated sales tax

Fight HST group happy with ruling. p3

A Pitt Meadows man who had seven pet Pekinese dogs die in a span of two years has been charged with animal cruelty.

David Chun Hei Chan was arrested by Ridge Meadows RCMP Thursday following an

investigation by the B.C. SPCA. He surrendered Taffy, his latest Peke pup, to animal protection officers.

He has since been charged with one count each of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal as well as animal cruelty.

His bail conditions prohibit him from owning, possessing or being alone with any animal.

“I was cuffed, photographed and detained until I could speak with a lawyer,” said Chan.

“It happened a day after my birthday.”

The 60-year-old added that Taffy, who was shipped to him from Texas on May 28, was quiet, well-treated and had no signs of abuse.

“During that time, I was very nice to her,” said Chan.

“She had lots of toys.”Between April 2008 and Febru-

ary, four Pekinese dogs died in Chan’s care, while another three were euthanized as a result of in-juries.

Dolly, a fl uffy tan-coloured Peke, was seized by animal pro-tection offi cers from a townhouse on McMyn Road on Feb. 16 after the SPCA received complaints that Chan was abusing her.

Chan petitioned the courts to get her back but said he aban-doned the court case after be-ing told it was futile to fi ght the SPCA.

He calls himself a “Pekinese lov-er” and adds he has fond memo-ries of growing up with the dogs.

Owner of Pekinese dogs says he’s being harassed

THE NEWS

SPCA lays cruelty charges

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Street artMaple Ridge artists Alex Rousey and Kris Kupskay, along with Nasimo, at back, create a 20-metre mural on a fence surrounding Valley Auto Supply on 240th Street in Maple Ridge, just south of Dewdney Trunk Road. Valley Auto Supply donated the fence for the three artists to use as a canvas.

Darnell Pratt back in jail

The man who dragged a Maple Ridge gas station attendant to his death fi ve years ago is going back to prison.

Darnell Darcy Pratt had his statutory re-lease revoked Tuesday follow-ing a hearing in front of the National Parole Board at Mats-qui Institution in Abbotsford where he is be-ing held.

“It is evident that you lack insight and did not use the skills that you were given,” said parole board mem-ber Sam Reimer.

“That makes it impossible to man-age your risk [to the community].”

Pratt was granted statutory re-lease June 16 and ordered to live in a Kamloops halfway house.

See Driver, p10

See Dogs, p3

Opinion 6

Tom Fletcher 6

Looking Back 22

Community Calendar 23

Arts&life 24

Sports 33

Classifi eds 56

Index

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢www.mapleridgenews.com

Breastfest

Concert to raise funds to fi ght cancerp23

Pratt

At wheel in horrifi c dragging death of Grant De Patie

Ex-owner fined, barred from

pet ownership. Trooper’s fine.

See story, p4

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

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

Chan claims he has learned from his past mistakes.

“I am not a bad guy. I had too many dogs at one time,” he said. “The SPCA likes to harass people. I am now labelled as a dog abuser.”

In an affi davit fi led in New West-minster Supreme Court earlier this year, Chan explains how the Pekin-ese he owned met their demise in a span of 23 months.

Teddy had a bulging cornea and hemorrhages in both his eyes. As a result, Chan wrote, he requested that Teddy be put down.

Sugar, euthanized after sustaining a fracture to her spine, Chan believed was hit by a car.

Another Pekinese named Taffy was already dead when Chan took her to the vet. Chan wrote in the affi davit: “Taffy fell outside and there is noth-ing I can say about that.”

Cecil, who was described as lethar-gic and anorexic in a vet report, died in her sleep. Chan told the SPCA he believed she choked to death.

Chan claims Sunny was hit by the cover of a fl ush tank after a train rumbling past shook it out of place.

Bosco was euthanized in February after being was taken to the vet with a fractured hip and knee.

The same month, Bo also passed away. “I am still to this day unclear as to how Bo died,” Chan said in the affi davit.

“The fact is Bo died and I cannot explain it.”

Besides numerous documented visits to veterinarians, the B.C. SPCA also received three different com-plaints about Chan and abuse.

In March 2008, the Coast Meridian Animal Hospital contacted the SPCA after Chan admitted to beating and punching his fi ve-month-old Pekin-ese pup because he urinated in the house.

In July 2009, the SPCA received an-other complaint after Chan was seen throwing and choking a dog in his car.

In February this year, a third com-plaint was received after Chan again told someone he punched his dog when it misbehaved, according to a document fi led in court by the SPCA.

Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. SPCA, would not comment on the criminal charges.

Fight HST group calls for free vote

A guard is recovering from in-juries after being assaulted by an inmate at Maple Ridge men’s prison in early August.

The guard was attacked from be-hind on Aug. 10 in a common area of a living unit inside the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre on 256th Street.

He suffered a broken wrist and injured his shoulder.

Dean Purdy, chairperson of the corrections and sheriffs services component of the B.C. Govern-ment and Service Employees’ Union, blames the assault on over-crowding.

“It could have been prevented by reducing the severe overcrowding

inside the correctional centre,” said Purdy.

“It is the number one factor of why we are suffering so many assaults on staff right now.” The union claims there is one guard for every 40 inmates at Fraser Re-gional, far above the recommend-ed guard-to-prisoner ratio of 1:18.

“We have a crisis of overcrowd-ing,” said Purdy.

“I think it should be a concern for the community.”

B.C. Corrections confi rmed that the inmate involved in the assault has been institutionally charged and that RCMP are still investigat-

ing the incident for possible crimi-nal charges. But spokesperson Marnie Mayhew said the assault can’t be blamed on overcrowding.

“It is an incident we don’t take lightly,” she added.

“But in this case, it happened in an enhanced supervision unit where two guards were present.”

The Fraser Regional Correction-al Centre, built to house just 253 men, is currently holding almost 700 inmates – 492 are serving pris-on sentences while 200 are Tamil refugees on immigration holds.

Contributed

Taffy is now in care of SPCA, as owner faces cruelty to dog charges.

Local organizers are calling a recent decision by the B.C. Su-preme Court to allow their peti-tion to repeal the Harmonized Sales Tax to proceed to the leg-islature a victory.

“We’re all very happy about the decision,” said Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows petition organizer Corisa Bell.

“It’s encouraging that every-thing is falling into line.”

The B.C. Supreme Court ruled on Friday the petition could proceed after a group representing some of the larg-est industries in the province sought to have it quashed.

The Council of Forest Indus-tries, Mining Association of B.C., Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, Western Convenience Stores Association, Coast Forest Prod-ucts Association, and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce all took part in an application to stop acting Chief Electoral Offi cer Craig James from passing the proposed HST Extinguishment Act on to the select standing committee of the legislature.

At the core of the group’s claim was that the HST is a federal matter, and no longer under the jurisdiction of the provincial legislature.

However, Chief Justice Rob-ert Bauman found the petition to be lawful, and noted the bill

could easily be amended by the legislature if there are con-cerns about its language.

“The draft bill, after a suc-cessful initiative petition, goes to the Legislature ... There it may be passed, amended and passed, or defeated,” Bauman stated in his written decision.

“I would respectfully ask the chief electoral offi cer to per-form his remaining duties.”

With the decision, the peti-tion becomes the fi rst suc-cessful citizen initiative in the 20-year history of B.C.’s Recall and Initiative Act, gathering support of at least 10 per cent of registered voters in each of B.C.’s 85 constituencies.

Bell says the court case shows how far the Liberal party will go kill the bill.

Combined, the six groups involved have donated close to $160,000 to the B.C. Liberal Party in the past fi ve years, and not a penny to the NDP, accord-ing to data from Elections B.C.

Bell believes the groups were acting on the Liberals behalf to prevent the petition from reaching the legislature.

“I feel like this is an eye-opener,” said Bell. “The public needs to be aware that some-thing wrong is going on.”

However, Bell bristles at the notion Fight HST are affi liated with the provincial NDP, de-spite the fact many NDP MLAs, including Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows MLA Michael Sather, have volunteered their time to help collect signatures.

“This a non-partisan move-ment,” said Bell. “I think what people are saying is that Gor-

don Campbell and the Liberals have to go. But I don’t believe we’d be any better off with the NDP.

“What we need is a third op-tion.”

The bill to overturn the HST will now proceed to the legis-lature’s standing committee, which can either forward it to the legislature for a vote, or call for a province-wide non-bind-ing referendum on the matter.

Vander Zalm called on the B.C. Liberal Party to hold a free vote in the legislature, rather than the referendum

“It is estimated to cost $30-$50 million to conduct such a non-binding vote,” said Vander Zalm in a statement Monday.

“During a time of economic hardship for so many, and mas-sive defi cits by the government, that is money that could be bet-ter spent on health care or edu-cation or other services.”

Meanwhile, the Fight HST campaign is proceeding with its plans to recall Liberal MLAs across the province, includ-ing Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Marc Dalton. While he is not on the groups 24-MLA-strong hit list, he soon will be vows Bell.

Fraser Regional inmate assaults jail guard

Seven dogs dead in two years

Court ruling encourages anti-Liberal group

Union says attack latest result of overcrowding, up to 700 prisoners now at Maple Ridge institute

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

“We have a crisis of overcrowding. I think it should be a concern for the community.” Dean Purdy,union spokesman

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

Dogs from Front

“It’s encouraging that everything is falling into line.” Corisa Bellpetitioner

A man who dropped off his skeletal dog at the Maple Ridge SPCA earlier this year will not be allowed to own animals for the next de-cade.

Michael Schneider, 26, pleaded guilty in Port Coquitlam Provin-cial Court on Monday to causing an animal to continue to be in dis-tress.

Beside the 10-year-long ban, he was or-dered to pay a $2,000 fi ne and $404.52 in resti-tution to the SPCA.

Criminal charges of animal cruelty and causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal were stayed.

Schneider took his

golden retriever called Buddy to the Jackson Road shelter Feb. 28 claiming he had found the dog near the inter-section of 237th Street and Dewdney Trunk Road.

Described as a “walk-

ing skeleton” by SPCA staff, the dog weighed just 11 kilograms – less than half its ideal weight.

His fur was matted and covered in dirt, mud and feces.

The dog also had sev-

eral sores on his body and wasn’t expected to survive.

Against all odds, the dog responded to care and was renamed “Trooper” by SPCA staff.

Eileen Drever, a se-nior animal protection offi cer who has worked for the SPCA for 30 years, called Trooper’s condition the worst case of neglect she had ever seen.

It took more than two months for Trooper to recover and reach a healthy weight of 24 kg.

He has been adopted by Brad and Athena Hayward of Pitt Mead-ows, who were among 250 animal lovers eager to offer Trooper a new home.

He has since starred in TV ads with star Jason Priestly to fund-raise for the British Co-lumbia SPCA.

No pets for 10 years for dog ownerTrooper fi ne, SPCA wants jail time

NEWS FILES

Trooper, formerly known as Buddy, was rescued by SPCA in February. Manager Mark Vosper cared for dog.

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

See SPCA, p8

Eighty-four years after the construc-tion of the Alouette Dam blocked sockeye

salmon in Alouette Lake from the Pacific Ocean, the fish are returning in sufficient numbers to prove a run is back.

“I think we can say we’ve started a run,” Alouette River Manage-ment Society spokes-man Geoff Clayton said Monday..

After its construction

in 1926, the B.C. Hydro dam has long prevent-ed ocean-going sockeye from completing their life cycle.

Instead, the fi sh re-mained in the Alouette and became known as kokanee, a smaller va-riety of sockeye, that exists in land-locked areas.

Sockeye’s miracle return to AlouetteRiver group says run re-established after 84 years

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Abby Cruickshank,with Alouett River Management Society and a guard with Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, process one of 100 sockeye on their way to Alouette Lake, decades after run was blocked by dam. Corrections helps run the hatchery.

b y A n d r e w B u c h o l t zcontributor

See Sockeye, p11

THE NEWS/opinion

VICTORIA – Fans of Bill Vander Zalm’s harmonized sales tax “extinguishment” petition were quick to gloat when the B.C. Supreme Court ruled Friday that the petition can proceed to the next step.

“I hear there’s a special today on crow pie,” a Vernon reader said in one of the more polite e-mails I received.

The same reader scoffed at my argu-ment of last week that scrapping the HST would result in a “nightmare of service cuts” in B.C.

“If reversing the HST would be a mess, lay the blame where it belongs – at Gor-don Campbell’s feet.”

I guess if blame is all that’s important to you, this is suffi cient.

But it’s our grandchildren who might be eating crow pie and dandelion greens if my generation of baby boom voters continues to gobble up more and more expensive services while paying less and less income tax in a world that’s quite happy to take away our industrial base.

And make no mistake, scrapping the HST would be a mess, and a costly one.

Vander Zalm’s petition calls on the government to reimburse “all British Co-lumbians on a per-capita basis” for any

HST paid beyond what would have been charged by the provincial sales tax.

I asked Finance Minister Colin Hansen what that might cost.

He declined to speculate, except to say that it would be “administratively very diffi cult.”

I’ll say.And the huge cost would, of course, be

on top of repaying the $1.6-billion federal transition fund.

Then there are the rebates.If you are in the lower income range

and were receiving quarterly GST rebate cheques from the federal government, you will now start receiving larger HST rebates. Vander Zalm’s petition neglects to consider those, just as it forgets about the hotel room tax that made way for the HST.

If the HST is scrapped, the government could try to claw back all those low-income rebates.

But since that would also be adminis-tratively diffi cult, not to mention politi-cally suicidal, the government of the day would probably just let the provincial defi cit grow some more.

Our grandchildren can pay it back, if they can fi nd jobs in B.C.’s uncompetitive tax structure. But hey, we sure would teach the federal and provincial govern-ments a lesson.

Contrary to the wishes of some HST haters, Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the B.C. Supreme Court did not endorse Vander Zalm’s petition, or determine

whether any workable outcome can result from it.

Bauman narrowed his ruling to get this political hot potato off his desk, and that of the much-maligned chief electoral offi cer.

He declined to consider whether Vander Zalm’s proposed legislation is constitutional, noting that it “may never be enacted in that initial form,” given that it could be amended or defeated in the legislature.

Even if it passes more or less as is, the proposed legislation only calls for B.C. to withdraw from its fi ve-year HST agree-ment with Ottawa.

The federal legislation to collect the tax would remain.

“Whether that will lead to … the extin-guishment of the HST in British Colum-bia remains to be seen,” Bauman wrote.

The petition was formally sent to the legislature on Monday and the stand-ing committee must convene its fi rst meeting in September. It will have until December to debate the draft legislation that was included in the petition.

Look for the B.C. Liberal majority on the committee to push through amend-ments, such as raising taxes to repay the $1.6-billion federal fund. Then we might fi nd out where the NDP actually stands on this thing.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocal-news.com. tfl etcher@blackpress.ca

Sorry, the HST isn’t going anywhere

RCMP apology a good start

Ingrid 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 editor@mapleridgenews.com

This week’s question: Have you become accustomed to the HST, implemented July 1?

B.C. Views Tom Fletcher

An apology is a good start at changeBecause change is needed in the way the lockup

is run at Ridge Meadows RCMP.The conclusion of the inquest into the death

of Maple Ridge resident Ian Young wraps up a tragic story for the family.

After suffering a head injury after leaving a Hammond pub in October 2008, Young fell unconscious on to the street.

Paramedics attended, wanted to treat Young but he refused them, but then didn’t take him to the hospital, because they didn’t want to wait around for him to sober up.

Police showed up and bundled the semi-conscious Young into a cop car, then dragged into an RCMP cell like a sack of potatoes, to “sleep it off.”

During that night, while fl uid oozed from his brain, Young wasn’t checked, despite policies that require that. Two days later, he died.

While the inquest makes several recommendations, Young’s wife is rightfully skeptical. The policies requiring regular checks of prisoners wasn’t followed in Young’s case. If it had, he would be alive now, she points out.

The inquest though offers a new safety measure – saying people in such condition should be taken to the hospital, or possibly a new concept, “sobering centres.”

Ridge Meadows RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh has taken a good step by responding and apologizing, promising to make changes.

That, along with internal discipline, are a start at ensuring basic accountability that police must have to the public they serve.

Given several incidents in B.C., where that accountability has been lacking, it could be a milestone on the way to a remade RCMP.

– The News

Tell us what you think @ www.mapleridgenews.com

Jim Coulter, publisherpublisher@mapleridgenews.com

Michael Hall, editoreditor@mapleridgenews.com

Carly Ferguson, advertising, creative services manageradmanager@mapleridgenews.com

Kathy Blore, circulation managercirculation@mapleridgenews.com

Editorial

Reporters: Phil Melnychuk, Monisha Martins,Robert Mangelsdorf

Photographer: Colleen Flanagan

Advertising

Sales representatives: Karen Derosia, Glenda Dressler,Rina Varley, Michelle Baniulis

Ad control: Mel OnodiCreative services: Kristine Pierlot,

Annette WaterBeek, Chris HusseyClassifi ed: Vicki Milne

22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C.,

V2X 2Z3Offi ce: 604-467-1122

Fax: 604-463-4741Delivery: 604-466-6397

Website: www.mapleridgenews.comEmail: newsroom@mapleridgenews.com

The News is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province's newspaper industry. The coun-cil considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.

CCAB audited circulation: (as of September 2009): Wednesday - 30,221; Friday – 30,197.

Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978

THE NEWS

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 editor@mapleridgenews.com.

Letters welcome

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: The Pickton Murders, The News, Aug. 13.Don’t look away is right. Never shall I look away at any

human tragedy.The legacy of the pig farm is: the “pig palace” where

politicians were seen whooping it up with the Picktons, the adjacent residential developments where remains of some of the victims rest beneath the foundations, and the exclusion of justice for 20 families who won’t have their day in court with Robert Pickton.

Now what? Though I’m not aware of any legal basis for doing so,

I want to see what’s left of the farm expropriated and turned into a memorial park for all the women whose lives ended there.

Travel the world and see all the monuments to suffer-ing through war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and socio-pathic acts of serial killing. Governments had the ability to do it elsewhere, so why not the pig farm?

MARK O’NEILL

MAPLE RIDGE

EDITOR, THE NEWS:I believe the citizens of Pitt Meadows need to know that

Mayor Don MacLean is a great supporter of the HST. In fact, he will tell anybody within earshot that this tax

is needed and it will benefi t us greatly because business will be able to lower their costs and thereby lower their prices. This is a bunch of Liberal rhetoric Mr. MacLean.

I would suggest you keep your Liberal agenda to your-self and focus on municipal matters.

The sneaky and deceptive way the Liberal government introduced this new tax shortly after being re-elected is despicable.

I don’t forgive that easily and I guarantee you I will never vote Liberal again and I also won’t be voting for Mr. MacLean again either.

Any elected official who believes business will pass along any ben-efits from the HST to consumers has got their head in the sand.

MICHELLE DANIELSON

PITT MEADOWS

Dedicate Pickton farm as a park

Why all the cracks in Golden Ears Bridge deck?

Mayor off base on HST

Who’s a conspiracy theorist?

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Is the Golden Ears Bridge falling apart?Anyone who has travelled over the Golden Ears

bridge lately cannot help but notice the thousands of cracks in the bridge surface.

Only the middle part of the bridge is unscathed. Both the north and south sections are simply riddled with fractures, thousands of them.

What might be the cause? Is the bridge settling? Is the concrete not thick enough?

Perhaps the concrete is not properly reinforced? Perhaps all of the aforementioned. Whatever the

reason, this new bridge is going to need major repairs very soon.

On time and on budget, indeed!One more Gordon Campbell success story.Cheers.

GEORGE CLARKE

MAPLE RIDGE

Editor’s Note: Bridge deck is being repaired at ex-pense of the contractor, cracks result from pouring in hot weather and not unusual, according to Trans-Link.

We cherish sockeye, not enough “W

e have seen

the enemy, and he is us.” Walt Kelly, cartoonist, 1948.

Kelly’s wise possum, Pogo, modeled idealism. His counterpart, Albert Alligator, represented greed, and ineptitude. Together, they were us.

In 100 submis-sions to the Cohen Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye since April, the general opinion is clear: we cherish salmon, but we have not changed.

Greed and ignorance infect our culture. For decades, humans have found ways to damage the “resource” and threaten the reslience – ability to bounce back – of salmon.

So say natives, environmentalists, fi shermen, anyone whose identity depends on B.C. salmon. Our submis-sions all urge the Inquiry – the last hope of salmon and of democracy in this country – to ensure a salmon come-back.

No one pleads the case for sockeye with greater empathy than Celia Brauer of Horsefl y, B.C.

“I am a sockeye,” she begins. “We travelled up countless small and large tributaries … of the mighty Fraser.” In the place now called Vancouver “more than 50 streams were choked with salmon spawners every fall.”

The same is true of Maple Ridge, where creeks renamed T1 or T2 are now ditches.

Dave Smith, a volunteer for the Kanaka Education and Environmen-tal Protection Society in Maple Ridge is outraged. “I’m on record as saying the community is using our streams as toilets.”

Others, like Dave along the Fraser, wish their streams could support salmon again. Without them we wouldn’t have any fi sh at all.

“These animals are amazing. They will take advantage of any help we give them, almost immediately,” says Darin McLain, manager of KEEPS’s

Bell-Irving fi sh hatchery. Celia’s people, the salmon, met the Sto:lo, people of the river, a millennium ago.

“They welcomed us into their lives. And so, we sacrifi ced some of our kin for their sustenance … they respected us. We sustained them, they sustained us.”

Other submissions say that mu-nicipal sewage fl ows into salmon streams and pes-ticides increase pre-spawning mortality. That’s a problem in the Alouette River.

The provin-cial government shirks responsibility for monitoring pesiticide use by farmers, or meter-ing water extracted from streams by cranberry farmers.

It declines to offer the stewardship baton to community organizations like Alouette River Management Soci-ety and the Alouette Valley Associa-tion. Greater community oversight and control is suggested in letters to Cohen.

The letters say urban development

policies negate salmon resilience.Run-off from impervious surfaces

– roads, parking lots – adds toxic chemicals to streams that nurture juvenile fi sh. Towns could mandate low-impact development practices, but those are expensive. Developers might go elsewhere. The Cohen Com-mission could encourage towns to re-evaluate priorities.

Several letters address DFO failure to investigate violations of the Fisher-ies Act – such as dredging in river beds (Canoe Creek), dumping of coal, and gravel extraction in the Fraser. One suggests that private citizens prosecute violators. The public has lost faith in the DFO to enforce the Act. My submission recounts DFO failure to respond to reports of dig-ging in the North Alouette River days before a fi sh kill.

More than 60 submissions point to fi sh farming for sockeye mortality. The DFO, in the role of Al Alligator, quotes scientists who dispute the link. In one submission these folks are referred to as “corporate scientists who misinform.”

Researcher, Jeffrey Hutchins agrees.

In “Is scientifi c inquiry incompat-ible with government information control?” he maintains, “government-administered science… and political interference merits examination in

the wake of biologi-cal and socioeco-nomic catastroph-ies associated with recent fi shery collapses.”

The problem, says Hutchins, began when the

politically indepen-dent Fisheries Research Board was replaced by the DFO in 1979.

Putting fi sheries within a political body can allow research to be tainted by government interference, “legiti-mizing government policy and depart-ment objectives,” he says.

This happened, says Hutchins, in 1987 when DFO declared East Coast cod stocks “abundant” when they were in serious decline.

THE NEWS/letters

Commentary Jack Emberly

NEWS FILES

Sockeye on Fraser River strong this year.

See Fish, p8

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Fletcher wrong again, Letters, Aug. 20.Wayne Clark writes, “Tom Fletcher is the biggest con-

spiracy theorist around.”He goes on to pepper his letter with words and phrases

such as, “ultra-right wing government, minority right- wing loons, right -wing hack politicians, lie, steal, right wing agendas, stolen power, etc.

Mr. Clark has wrested the crown from Mr. Fletcher and is now the new “biggest, conspiracy theorist around.”

CHERRYL KATNICH

MAPLE RIDGE

NEWS FILES

Memorial should be created out of site.

News files

TransLink says cracks in concrete are routine.

“The province … declines to offer the stewardship baton to community organizations like ARMS …”

West Coast salmon suffered political inter-ference in 1987 when Alcan built a dam that reduced water fl ow in the Nechacko River.

According to Hutchins, the DFO abandoned fl ows “preferred” for salmon resilance when the ministry argued for re-duced discharge rates.

“Recent declines in sockeye reveal a systemic failure of the current manage-ment system and the need for radically new management policies,” writes Professor Mi-

chael Healey, of UBC. Healey points to “a

century of centralized, command and control management focused on yield and economic effi ciency … without the ability to do the job.”

He recommends new policies based on “an approach that integrates harvest management, habitat management, and enhancement …

That’s best achieved, “ by giving fi shing and aboriginal communi-ties greater responsi-bility to manage the fi shery...”

Greater local control will be resisted.

Maple Ridge has no review committee to advise council on development’s impact on stream and fi sh habitat.

Staff asks for advice when it wants it.

Dave Smith believes a stakeholder’s group would provide a fi sh-friendly perspective, but fears lobbyists see one as “bitching sessions” to slow down projects.

“We have fi ve pro-development council-lors who think the only way to enhance our community is through development rather protecting our

resources.” But, “failure to put

the environment fi rst is responsible for the decline in sockeye re-silience,” says Healey.

“A healthy salmon population is associated with a healthy produc-tive environment.”

If salmon are to remain a part of our identity, and sustain us we must all, as Celia Brauer urges, show the fi sh the respect they deserve.

We must become less like Albert Aligator, and more like the wise and idealistic Pogo.

If not, we will always be the problem.

De-centralize fi sh management

SPCA happy with sentence

Fish from p7

Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the SPCA, is glad Trooper fi nally got some jus-tice.

“It defi nitely sends out a message that this type of neglect is not toler-ated,” said Moriarty.

“We, of course, would have liked to have seen some jail time but we ap-preciate the 10-year ban and $2,000 fi ne is not just a slap on the wrist.”

Earlier this year, Trooper’s former owner admitted he neglected the dog but maintained it wasn’t cruelty.

“As far as I’m concerned, the word cruelty is doing something on pur-pose to hurt somebody and neglect is not knowing enough and making a mistake,” Schneider said, at the time.

“I brought the dog in. I could have just let it die, but I cared more about it than that to let it die.”

SPCA from p4

Trooper now thriving in new home in Pitt Meadows.

The 21-year-old re-ported to the residence and met his 8 p.m. cur-few, but failed to return the next day.

RCMP found Pratt on June 19, walking along a Kamloops street.

The parole board heard Pratt went to a pub twice while on the lam and was found with a powdery substance, believed to be heroin, when arrested.

Dressed in dark blue prison-issued jeans and a white t-shirt with shortly cropped hair and earrings in his left ear, Pratt told the board that being out of prison was a “big shock.”

He was just 16 in March 2005 when he struck gas attendant Grant De Patie in a stolen car while fl ee-ing an Esso station on Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge without paying for gas. Pratt dragged the 24-year-old under the car for 7.5 km. He’s been in prison since.

“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anybody in Kamloops,” Pratt told the board.

“I didn’t have my family. I took off because I wanted to see my family.”

Pratt admitted he drank on the fi rst night but said he didn’t consume any alcohol on his second visit to the pub.

He claimed he was given the drugs but de-nied he used them.

“I just needed to let go of my stresses,” he said.

If he could turn back the clock, Pratt indicat-ed he would ask to be close to his family.

“I needed a structured place, well supervised,” he added.

He said he appeared before the parole board because he wanted to have his say “in some respect.”

There was no one from Pratt’s family at Tuesday’s hearing.

Doug De Patie, Grant’s father, believes Pratt got what he deserved: another stint back in-side prison.

“My hopes for Darnell were that he turn over a new leaf and come out and comply with his condi-tions,” said De Patie.

Originally charged with s e c o n d - d e -gree murder,

Pratt pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced in May 2006 as an adult to nine years minus time served, for a total of seven years and three months in prison.

In April 2007, the B.C. Court of Appeal reduced the nine-year sentence to seven years, making the sen-tence, after credit for time served, fi ve years and 10 months.

He’ll be eligible for re-lease November 2011.

Pratt release date Nov. ‘11

De Patie

Driver from Front

Clayton said each wa-tershed has different effects on the salmon that live there, and the isolation created by the dam caused the larger ocean-going sockeye to die out and the smaller kokanee to thrive.

“They develop indi-vidual characteristics with how they adapt to that watershed,” he said. “A mature ko-kanee may be 10 inch-es, a mature sockeye may be two feet.”

Clayton said provin-cial authorities were aware of the effects on the Alouette Lake sock-eye when the dam was constructed in 1926, but decided providing additional power to the Lower Mainland was worth the environmen-tal trade-offs.

“When the dam was constructed in the 1920s, it was a well-known conclusion that the sockeye would be extinct within one sys-tem,” he said. “A sys-

tem can be about four to six years.”

The society has long been interested in re-connecting the portion of the river below the dam to the lake above it, but they were ini-tially focused on coho salmon rather than sockeye. In 2005, the dam’s spillway was opened to see if coho could survive the 16-metre trip down. Clayton said those results were very en-couraging.

“We did get complete survival,” he said.

It was an unexpect-ed occurrence that prompted the interest in sockeye, though. When the spillway was opened to allow the coho passage, a few thousand kokanee fol-lowed them down. The society was monitor-ing the coho’s passage with fi sh traps near the bottom, so they got an unexpected surprise.

“When we opened the trap, to our amaze-

ment, we found ko-kanee,” Clayton said.

At the time, there was a prevailing sentiment that the lake-raised ko-kanee wouldn’t be able to adapt to the salinity content of the ocean, but Clayton said that proved false. The ko-kanee made it to the ocean and many re-turned down the road, but with distinct differ-ences.

“Two years later, we had found they had morphed back into sockeye,” Clayton said.

That led to the re-turnees being dubbed “sockanee”, although Clayton said sockeye is a more accurate char-acterization given the physical characteris-tics of the returning fi sh.

The society has worked with B.C. Hydro to develop planned spillway openings each year in late spring, which have been from April 15 - June 1 in re-cent years. The society

has tracked an average of 5,000 to 7,000 fi sh leaving the lake each spring, but this year the numbers rose to 14,000.

“This was a very good year,” Clayton said.

They hope to see a one per cent return rate, and have usually achieved that.

Last year was excep-tionally poor overall for sockeye, though, and only 42 had re-turned by the end of September.

Clayton said this year has been much more promising.

“We’ve just broke 100,” he said. “That’s pretty signifi cant.”

Clayton said the rare opening of the com-mercial sockeye fi sh-ery this year may sug-gest that even more fi sh have returned, but have been caught by commercial fi shermen.

“There’s no question they must be catching some of our fi sh,” he said.

ARMS still waiting for fi sh ladder See Sockeye, p5

A Pitt Meadows man helped police catch a thief Saturday eve-ning.

The incident began around 6 p.m. on Som-

erset Drive when the man spotted his neigh-bour’s bike being sto-len.

The man called the neighbour and gave

him a description of the thief.

The bike was found soon after near by the neighbour, near his home.

Insp. Derren Lench said the neighbour then located the thief outside the Real Ca-nadian Superstore and called RCMP.

While arresting the man, officers also found merchandise the man had just sto-len from Superstore.

The 33-year-old was also in violation of conditions that were imposed by the courts a week ago.

Crazy coyoteAn encounter with

a coyote on Saturday has left a Maple Ridge woman shaken up.

The woman spotted the animal around 8:40 p.m. while walking to her home on 227th Street near Holyrood Avenue.

Police said she at-tempted to scare the coyote off but it contin-ued to threaten her.

The woman made it home safely, but Lench said she was quite shaken by the experience.

Ridge Meadows RCMP were called, but patrols of the area failed to locate the coyote.

Lench said if you come across a coy-ote or any aggressive wildlife, try to stay as calm as possible. If the animal does not

run off, try to get to a safe refuge such as a house and call police.

Lench said police will attend these types of calls to ensure ev-eryone’s safety.

Careless driversTwo men face charg-

es for driving without due care following two separate accidents Sat-urday in Maple Ridge.

The first happened at 4:15 p.m. when a van struck an older car on Lougheed Highway near 207th Street in Maple Ridge.

The van then con-tinued into the back of a pickup truck, that hit another pickup in front of it.

Paramedics took two drivers and one passenger to hospital with non-life threaten-ing injuries.

The driver of the van is being charged with driving with-out due care and at-tention.

Later that night, a driver struck a pedes-trian sending the man to hospital with a pos-sible head injury.

The man was hit

around 10:20 p.m. while crossing 248th Street at Dewdney Trunk Road.

A 20-year-old man in a pickup truck was mak-ing a left turn off of Dew-dney Trunk Rd. and did not see the pedestrian.

The pedestrian was taken to hospital by an air ambulance but police said his injuries are not life threaten-ing.

The driver was charged with driving without reasonable consideration for oth-ers using the road.

Truck theftPolice arrested a man

in Maple Ridge Friday after fi nding a pickup truck that was stolen from Abbotsford.

The 26-year-old was taken into custody on Lougheed Highway near 216th Street an hour after offi cers found the Chevrolet in a parking lot of a down-town business.

The investigation revealed the man had been trying to sell the pickup truck earlier in the day. The man was held in custody for court on Monday.

Neighbour helps nab bicycle thief, coyote follows woman

If the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District wants to liquidate its unused properties, it may take a while.

The district has identifi ed three properties it is prepared to part with should it need to fi nd funding in a hur-ry: the site of the former Arthur Peake Centre next to Golden Ears Elementa-ry; an unused maintenance yard next to Eric Langton Elementary School; and a vacant lot on Bonson Road in Pitt Meadows.

Secretary Treasurer Wayne Jeffer-son said the properties are “worth mil-lions,” and could be sold off to make up any budget shortfall if enrollment is lower than expected for the upcoming school year.

However, should the district will have to get permission from the pro-vincial Ministry of Education fi rst to do so. Per ministry policy, before any district-owned facility can be sold, it must fi rst be offered up for any other provincial, municipal, or community uses. Only if there are no takers can the facility then be put on the market.

A Ministry of Education spokes-person said there are currently 25 requests to sell school property by districts around the province. How-ever, the spokesperson could not give

a time-line for how long that approval process is likely to take.

“Schools are valuable public assets that should be retained for public use,” said education minister Margaret MacDiarmid in a prepared statement to The News. “The province wants to make sure that schools and school lands are available going forward to support the emerging Neighbourhood Learning Centres, the expansion of full day Kindergarten for fi ve-year olds, and expanding learning opportunities for three- and four-year olds.”

School District No.42 has already be-gun selling off close to 30 of its unused portables, the fi rst of which was re-moved from behind the District Educa-tion Offi ce on Brown Avenue, netting the district $5,000.

The portables were no longer neces-sary after the closure of Riverside and Mount Crescent elementary schools.

“The portables were all in pretty bad shape, so its a good thing they’re go-ing,” said Jefferson.

The former Mount Crescent El-ementary School, now called the Ma-ple Ridge Secondary School Annex, will be the new home for B.C. School Sports and will likely become the new home for many of the school Grade 8 and 9 students.

Riverside Elementary now houses the district’s continuing education and international education programs, as well as Ridge Meadows College.

Selling off schools not so easyb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

The 2010 wildfi re season won’t be over for weeks, but it has already charred more than 300,000 hectares of B.C. forest, an area larger than Metro Van-couver.

That’s more forest burned than any year since 1998, including the 2003 season that saw 33,000 people evac-uated in the Okanagan and Thompson regions and 238 homes dam-aged or destroyed.

Some of the fi res currently burning are twice as large as the

2003 Okanagan Moun-tain Park fi re, and parts of the B.C. Interior have been so obscured by smoke that the size and number of fi res can only be estimated.

The smoke from B.C. fi res has spread east-ward as far as Manito-ba, another indication of the swath of destruc-tion that has swept across mainly remote areas of B.C. this sum-mer.

While most of the ma-jor fi res have been in the Cariboo and North-west regions, a fi re was discovered, and extin-guished, on the week-end near Stave Lake.

B.C.’s forests burning

Contributed

This year is worse than 2003 for area blackened.

b y To m F l e t c h e rBlack Press

Government road builders have paved over far more farmland than private developers in the Surrey-Delta-Langley area over the past decade, according to a new study.

More than 70 per cent of the 264 hectares of land removed from farm use over the past 10 years were for pro-vincial government transportation projects, concluded author Na-than Pachal, co-founder of the transit advocacy group South Fraser On Trax.

The South Fraser Pe-rimeter Road, which is eating up 90 hectares in Surrey and Delta, is the single biggest reduc-tion in farmland in the

South of Fraser area over the past 10 years.

Others include the ex-pansion of Highways 10 and 15 in Surrey and the Deltaport expansion.

Almost two-thirds of the farmland removals were in Delta.

The statistics include

formal exclusions of land from the Agricul-tural Land Reserve as well as other dedica-tion of farmland.

The South of Fraser area accounts for three quarters of all ALR land in Metro Vancouver, with the

primary crops includ-ing vegetables, ber-ries, greenhouse pro-duce and ornamental plants.

The City of Pitt Meadows has applied to remove land from the ALR for the North Lougheed Connector.

Road projects big cause of ALR loss

Girl’s alcohol poisoning leads to charge

Report looks at land south of Fraser

NEWS FILES

Study says municipal road plans a major cause of farmland loss.

A 19-year-old Maple Ridge man has been charged with supplying booze to an underage girl.

Ridge Meadows RCMP said the charges stem from a party May

15 that took place in the 12300-block of 205th Street.

A 17-year-old girl had to be taken to hospital with alcohol poisoning by paramedics with the

B.C. Ambulance Service during the festivities.

Insp. Derren Lench said an investigation into the incident was completed by Ridge Meadows RCMP,

which has resulted in the charges being ap-proved.

The accused will make his fi rst court ap-pearance in early Sep-tember.

The E. H. Heaps & Company building at

Ruskin, shown on this 1909 photograph, was massive.

Three storeys high it stood, south of the CP railway tracks across from the sawmill at the confl uence of the Stave and Fraser rivers.

Signs on the build-ing showed that it housed the mill offi ce, a general store (with the post offi ce) and the Ruskin Hotel mostly used to accommodate the mill managers and staff. A man called Thomas Moore and his

wife Carrie took care of it all. Old-timers would have been surprised to learn that Mr. Moore was a full brother of Edward H. Heaps, the founder and president of the company, or that Thomas Moore (Heaps) was an uncle of Edward Moore Heaps, Edward H. Heaps’s oldest son, manager of the Ruskin operation.

Sept. 1, 1909, the date shown on the photo, is when Governor Gener-al Earl Grey travelled from Vancouver to Ruskin with a special train to visit the power plant under construc-tion at Stave Falls.

CPR put a small sta-tion building in front of the Heaps building for the occasion.

From that little tem-porary station horse-drawn carriages took His Excellency and his entourage to the dam.

In honour of the Governor General, the Heaps people were fl ying Union Jacks from high masts.

One of the dignitaries travelling with the Governor General from Vancouver was Edward H. Heaps in his capac-ity as past-president of the Vancouver Board of Trade.

Heaps, a versatile and progressive entre-preneur, was one of a few prominent lumber manufacturers in Brit-ish Columbia.

Aside from the mill at Ruskin his companies owned a substantial wood manufacturing and lumber plant on the Vancouver water-

front and steam- and railway-logging operations in Ruskin and Rivers Inlet.

In the last few years, however, his business had been hit by unexpected misfortunes.

The mill at Ruskin

burned down in the winter of 1904/1905, and hardly had it been reconstructed when the Cedar Cove mill in Vancouver was de-stroyed by fi re in 1906.

New capital was need-ed, but interest in the shares of E. H. Heaps & Co. Ltd., incorporated in 1907, was disappointing.

In 1910, fire de-stroyed the mill at Ruskin again.

Three-storey Ruskin Hotel, long gone

Looking BackFred Braches

See Building, p19

In 1912, promising to rebuild the mill on an even larger scale, Edward H. Heaps left for eastern Canada and England to pro-mote the company’s business.

Reconstruction of the Ruskin mill had started, but an ever-

worsening market turned into a reces-sion and the company, struggling to find new capital and buyers for its products, lost to the competition of newcomers: Stoltze’s mill at the Stave River and in particular Ab-ernethy and Lougheed at Port Haney.

The end of Heaps’s

operations in Ruskin came in 1915, when the holders of a mortgage Heaps had signed in 1911 were al-lowed by the Supreme Court of B.C. to secure repayment from the property and assets of E. H. Heaps and Co. Ltd.

Years of litigation followed.

Meanwhile, the large new sawmill stood empty. Hardly used, it burned out, its hulk a Ruskin landmark for decades. On the south side of the tracks, in the years after the First World War, the vacant E.H. Heaps building also faded away, eventually be-ing dismantled.

Building faded away over the years

Contributed

The E. H. Heaps building, once dominated Ruskin area at 287th Street and Lougheed Highway.

Building from p18

The B.C. government is contributing $275,000 and the federal govern-

ment $225,000 toward the total cost of $500,000 to resurface the stretch

of Highway 7 between Chester (near Silver-dale) and Nelson road.

That will be done by March 31.

The federal contribu-tion comes from the In-frastructure Stimulus Fund.

A portion of Hwy. 7 to the east of Nelson is being widened to four lanes.

Hwy. 7 from Mission will be smoother

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Summer gamesAlex Reid, 6, plays Walk The Plank during Pathfinder Youth Centre Society’s free kids’ carnival Sunday at Memorial Peace Park. The carnival was put on by Working Together, a program that helps youth learn employment and life skills. They hold a car wash on Sept.12 at Kirmac Collision on Dewdney Trunk and 228th Street.

Chad Williams has the word “Save Tits” on his shirt.The words are brash, sometimes draw chuckles,

turn heads and start conversations.“It’s really in your face,” he says. “We want people to think

about it and remember it.”Williams and his team of creative 20-somethings from the

United Circle of Arts Society know its a great way to peddle a message, a relief from the numerous bottle-drives and head-shaves used to fundraise to fi nd a cure for breast cancer.

“We like to be bold. It does get the point across,” Williams says.

Just like the unique t-shirts, the United Circle of Arts is be-hind Breastfest 2010, a rocking free concert set to take over Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge on Saturday.

Originally imagined as a backyard fundraiser, Breastfest took on a life of its own in 2008, morphing into seven hours of entertainment with music on two stages, dances, contortion-ists and games.

Two years and two Breastfests later, Williams says he’s overwhelmed by the support from bands and the community.

“Unfortunately, everyone has been affected by cancer in one

way or another,” says Williams, whose grandfather passed away from the disease.

Breastfest is one small way to make a difference. This year’s event features buzz band TV Heart Attack and

local acts including The Bone Daddies, The Wrecktals, Ruskin, Alice B. Army, The Patience Product, Bugsy Jive as well as a 60s, 70s and 80s cover band called Contraband.

There’ll be air brush tattoos, arts, games, a barbeque at Kazy’s Kafé and Starbucks will be roaming the park handing out coffee.

“I think when people see someone in the community doing something, they want to help as well,” Williams adds.

• Breastfest rocks Memorial Peace Park on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. It is a free, all-ages show but donations are ap-preciated. All proceeds will be going directly to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Breastfest is continuously looking for volunteers, booths in-cluding crafted merchandise and ideas. If you want to partici-pate, email breastfest08@gmail.com.

Contributed

TV Heart Attack headlines Breastfest this year.

On stage3 p.m. - Contraband3:45 p.m. - Bugsy Jive4:30 p.m. - Patience Product5:15 p.m. - Alice B. Army6 p.m. - Ruskin6:45 p.m. - Wrecktals

7:30 p.m. - Bone Daddies8:15 p.m. - TV Heart

Breastfest received grants from The Maple Ridge- Pitt Meadows Festivals Offi ce, the Maple Ridge/-Pitt Meadows Arts Council and the Rotary Club’s Wine Festival

THE NEWS/arts&lifeSection coordinator:Monisha Martins 604-467-1122 ext. 217newsroom@mapleridgenews.com

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Chad Williams and Rory Speirs helped organize the third annual Breastfest, a music festival raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society, set to rock Maple Ridge on Saturday.

Rocking out to fi ght cancerb y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter

Breast Fest rocks Memorial Peace Parkin Maple Ridge to raise awareness

“We like to be bold. It does get the point across.” Chad Williams,organizer, Breastfest

Fifteen B.C. community groups, including one in Maple Ridge will receive grants of up to $25,000 each to promote multicultural-ism and anti-racism through art.

“Tapping people’s creativity is a way to break down barriers and change thinking,” said Min-ister of Citizens’ Services Mary McNeil said last week. “These projects will use art to engage youth and adults on topics of multiculturalism and racism.”

The combined federal and pro-

vincial funding is being provided through EmbraceBC, a program that works to inspire residents, community members and sector leaders to welcome, accept and embrace difference within their communities.

The projects chosen for fund-ing include a youth-generated photo blog that will focus on multicultural awareness; a community choir that empha-sizes inclusion and self-expres-sion; and a school-twinning program that will see urban students use written words, along with arts and crafts, to connect with students from a rural First Nations school.

Family Education and Support Centre in Maple Ridge will use $25,000 to get people to design postcards that talk about multi-cultural experience and history and share these as part of an art exhibition.

“These arts engagement proj-ects are really about fi nding creative ways to make our com-munities more welcoming and inclusive,” said Dave S. Hayer, parliamentary secretary for multiculturalism. “When we em-brace difference, we embrace those around us.”

Each project will receive up to $25,000, and all projects will be completed by March 31, 2011.

Arts&Life

Projects will support multiculturalismTapping into people’s creativity to break down barriers

Fundraising reaches new heights

The Maple Ridge Music So-ciety took to the mountains to raise money for its new concert season.

Program director Josine Eikelenboom trudged up the Grouse Grind in order to raise the extra funds.

“Like many arts groups, the Maple Ridge Music Society has to turn over every penny to

continue presenting the world-class concerts,” says Eikelen-boom.

The society has been present-ing their renowned “Candle-light” series since 1983.

She scaled the Grind on one of the hottest days of the sum-mer, although the shady trees, and a soothing sea breeze kept it enjoyable.

The new concert sea-son will bring a vari-ety of musicians to town.The opening concert on Oct.

16 will feature Russian pianist Sergei Saratowski. Other mu-sicians in the series will be cellist Elizabeth Dolin, singer Susan Platts, the Penderecki String Quartet and the Coral Wind trio with piano, cello and clarinet. In collaboration with the ACT, there will be a piano recital by Jane Coop in the ACT Studio in February.

• To learn about the Maple Ridge Music Society, visit www. mapleridgemusicsociety.com.

Music society director scales Grouse Grind

See an artistic and unique selection of hand-hooked rugs by the Gone Hooking Rug group at the Maple Ridge Art Gal-lery next month.

Local artisan Freda Jackson brought the group together some seven years ago so that those devoted to the craft throughout the Lower Mainland could have a central place to meet up and share tech-niques, knowledge and inspiration.

The technique this group uses is called ‘tra-ditional’ rug hooking.

“Hooked rugs are rag rugs,” says Tanya Gra-ham, a member of the Gone Hooking group.

The craft began two centuries ago in northern Europe and was brought to the eastern seaboard of North America by the early settlers.

The early materials used comprised a bur-lap feed sack as back-

ing, a simple hook made from the tine of a fork in a wooden handle, and homespun cloth and used clothing torn in narrow strips to make the looped pile.

“We are still using this method and these materials to make our rugs; but now the old folk art has enjoyed a huge revival and be-come a textile art with designers and teachers, both rural and urban, male and female,” Gra-ham explains.

The humble hooked rug is now included in the permanent collec-tions of public art galler-ies in Canada, Britain, and the U.S.A.

While the technique in-volved in creating these rugs may be traditional, the range of rugs created by the group’s members often tells another story.

“Maple Ridge is one of the few places left with an active agricultural economy.

“So, if we do hook im-ages of the family farm, that story can still be told,” explains Freda Jackson.

“Those of us from an urban background are more likely to explore in-terior images, both men-tal and physical.”

Some of the rugs are entirely original while

others honour the more traditional patterns as-sociated with rug hook-ing’s heritage.

However, even where a pattern is involved, each rug is created from a unique combination of materials – some found, some hand-dyed – so each work is a one-of-a-kind.

Most of the Gone Hook-ing group’s members have been involved in fi -bre arts for many years, and an enjoyment of colour, texture and form is evident in all of these rugs.

Some of the rugs will be shown in the context of a domestic setting to be created within the gallery; others will sim-ply be displayed on the gallery walls, to be en-joyed as an art form in their own right.

Arts&Life

Rags to Riches on display at galleryGone Hooking group keeps a centuries-old craft alive

Contributed

Black Bear in Squamish is designed and hooked by Tanya Graham.

Hooked artRags to Riches is on display from Sept. 4 to Sept. 25 at Maple

Ridge Art Gallery, 11944 Haney Place.An opening reception takes place on Saturday, Sept. 11 from

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and members will be present to demonstrate their technique and answer questions.

Other demonstrations will take place at the gallery on Sept. 4, 5 and 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Community Calendar

Community Calendar lists events in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. No-tices 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 newsroom@mapleridgenews.com 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 clas-sifi ed department at 604-467-1122 about non-profi t rates.

Thursday, Aug. 26• Gilbert and Sullivan’s world famous

comic operetta drops anchor for a dress rehearsal at the Spirit Square in Pitt Mead-ows at 7 p.m. Free to attend.

Friday, Aug. 27• Gilbert and Sullivan’s world famous

comic operetta drops anchor at the Clarke Theatre in Mission at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10, children 10 and under are free. Advance tickets available at the Bergthorson Acad-emy of Musical Arts and Hair Expressions 604-467- 6613.

Saturday, Aug. 28• Gilbert and Sullivan’s world famous

comic operetta drops anchor at the Clarke Theatre in Mission at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tick-ets are $10, children 10 and under are free. Advance tickets available at the Bergthorson Academy of Musical Arts and Hair Expres-sions 604-467- 6613.

• Doggie Days comes to the Haney Farmers’ Market. The fun starts at 10:30 a.m. in the grassy area beside the Market. Bring your tallest, shortest, best dressed dog. Aurelius Band will entertain

the shoppers. There will be hot buttered corn, popcorn, cookies and more to snack on while you enjoy the morning. www.haneyfarmersmarket.org

• The Maple Ridge Better Breathers Club is holding its annual yard sale at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Legion on 224th and Brown Street. There will be board games, video games hundreds of VCR movies, toys, household do-dads and hundreds of other good things. Many boxes of donations have not been opened so our surprise will be your surprise.

• The Maple Ridge Royal Canadian Le-gion Ladies’ Auxiliary is holding a garage sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the legion on 224th Street. Tables available for $15. Please call 604-463-5101 to book a table.

Wednesday, Sept. 1• The Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

will be holding auditions for their produc-tion of Butterfl ies Are Free from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Fraser Room (upstairs) at Maple Ridge Library, 130-22470 Dewdney Trunk Road. Please call Sharon Malone at 604-476-1984 for more information or to book an audition time, or email emeraldpig@theatrebc.org

Thursday, Sept. 2• The Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

will be holding auditions for their produc-tion of Butterfl ies Are Free from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Fraser Room (upstairs) at Maple Ridge Library, 130-22470 Dewdney Trunk Road. Please call Sharon Malone at 604-476-1984 for more information or to book an audition time, or email emeraldpig@theatrebc.org

Tuesday, Sept. 7• Join the retired teachers of School

DIstrict No. 42 who will be celebrating the fi rst day of school at the Hell With The Bell buff et breakfast at the Maple Ridge Seniors’ Activity Centre, 12150 224th Street, at 10 a.m. Cost is $10. Newly retired teachers can attend for free. Please RSVP to Don Sears at 604 464-3886 or donsears@telus.net.

• Maple Ridge Choral Society begins a new season of song. Registratrion is 6 to 7 p.m. at Haney Presbyterian Church, 11858 216th Street, Maple Ridge, with a practice to follow from 7 to 9:30 p.m. All voices welcome. Contact Dennis at 604-465-8038 or Jerry at 604-463-0760 for more information.

Saturday, Sept. 11• Join the Family Education and Sup-

port Centre and the Affi liation of Mul-ticultural Societies and Service Agencies at the Diversity Health Fair at the Ridge Meadows Seniors’ Centre, 12150 224th Street from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors can learn about healthy cooking and lifestyles, take part in fi tness classes, tap their foot to ethnic music, watch cultural dancers, speak with health care professionals, or sample ethnic foods. To learn more, call Angie at 604-476-2447 or email angie@hipstrategic.com.

Wednesday, Sept. 15 • Westview Secondary School is hold-

ing a dinner for potential sports volunteers at 6:30 p.m. The school is looking for dedicated parents and volunteers to help expand the school’s sports programs this coming school year. No experience neces-sary. Call 604-465-7468 for more informa-tion, or email wsspac@yahoo.com.

THE NEWS/sportsSection coordinator:Robert Mangelsdorf 604-467-1122 ext. 216newsroom@mapleridgenews.com

Lucas Douglas of the Ridge Meadows Flames (on right) manoeuvres past a player from the Grandview Steelers Monday night at the Burnaby Winter Club. The Flames lost the game 4-2.

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Junior B Flames roster takes shape

The Ridge Meadows Flames ros-ter is beginning to take shape as the Pacifi c International Junior Hockey League preseason enters its second week.

Perhaps the best news for the ju-nior B hockey club is the return of goaltender Eric Klassen.

Klassen, who is entering his third year in the PIJHL, appeared in 17 games last season for the Flames behind starter Eric Williams, amass-ing a 2.98 goals against average.

Having a veteran presence be-tween the pipes is a big relief for

coach Tavis Eaton.“It’s excellent news,” said Eaton.

“He was a big piece to our team last year.”

The 19-year-old Maple Ridge na-tive will likely step into the start-ing slot at goal with Williams’ departure to the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders. However, who will back Klassen up is a question that has not yet been answered. With one posi-tion up for grabs, Spencer Marro and Brendan Vogt appear to be the front-runners for the back-up spot, says Eaton.

“They are both hard workers,” he said. “But it’s up to them who makes this team.”

The Flames are 1-2 in preseason play so far, however Eaton doesn’t see that record as being indicative of his team’s ability

“It’s preseason, so we’ve been dressing the whole team and giving everybody lots of ice time, switch-ing up the lines, trying to fi nd some chemistry,” he said. “We are feeling pretty good about things. Looking for-ward, our fi rst goal is to win the division again, and go a lot further in the play-offs than we did last year.

“I think we have enough experience on this team to do that.”

Returnees Shane Harle, Danny Brandys, CJ Legassic, Matt Bevilacqua, Dustin Cervo, Matt Genovese, and Bayne Ryshak will be joined by PIJHL veterans Sean Kavanagh, Ryan Stewart, Matt Keller, and Tristano Falbo.

“Our veteran players all play big roles,” said Eaton, not only on the ice, but off it as well. “They’re great in the dressing room, and they help

the young guys get better.”So far fi ve players - Bryan Son, Paul Piluso, Dean

Gilmore, Alex Smith and Jason Smith - are currently away try-ing out for Junior A clubs.The Flames will

be drawing heavily on the Ridge Meadows

Minor Hockey Associa-tion’s Midget A1 Rustlers

team, with Piluso, Gilmore, Alex Smith, Jake Howardson, Reece Rivard, Taylor Hartley, and Joey Weilmeier all currently signed to the Flames.

“[Rustlers coach Spencer Le-

van] and his group have done a great job with those guys,” said Eaton. “They are all hard work-ers and we’re happy to have them here.”

Although the league allows for a 25-player roster, Eaton said he’ll only be carrying 23 players this season. That means two skaters will be cut before the start of the regular season.

Who that will be, however, is up to the players themselves, Eaton notes.

“It’s been a very competitive camp,” he said. “But the players will determine who makes this team and who doesn’t.”

• The Flames make their home debut with an exhibition game against the Grandview Steelers this Friday at Planet Ice. Game time is at 7 p.m.

Strong local contingent from RMMHA midget A1 Rustlers

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

The Ridge Meadows Royals pee-wee AAA baseball team were the bronze medal winners at Base-ball Canada’s 2010 Peewee Boys’ Western Championships in Bran-don Manitoba last weekend.

The team went 4-2 at the tour-nament, out-scoring their opposi-tion 53-38.

The Royals opened the round

robin portion of the tournament on Thursday, winning 12-6 over Mid-West Manitoba. The Royals started Friday with another win, a 14-6 victory over Regina, before falling in their second game of the day against hosts Brandon, 5-3. An 11-7 win over Spruce Grove on Saturday put the Royals in the semi fi nal against Abbotsford, the team they beat 12-7 in the fi nal of the B.C. provincial championship two weeks previous.

That game saw the Royals take

an 11-0 lead at the top of the fi rst inning, allowing them to cruise to an easy victory.

However, Abbotsford would not go quietly Sunday morning, as they scrapped out a 5-2 victory over the Royals, relegating them to the consolation game.

There the Royals out-scored the Saskatoon Braves 11-9 to win the tournament’s bronze medal.

Abbotsford, for their part, edged Brandon 13-11 in front of their home-town fans in the gold medal

fi nal to take the Western Cana-dian championship.

The bronze medal is the latest piece of hardware for the young Royals squad. In addition to tak-ing the provincial championship earlier this season, the team won silver at provincials last year in peewee AA, and won the mos-quito AAA provincial title before that.

Team members include Ry-ley Leoppky, Matt Cameron, Brendan Halstrom, Zachery

Comeault, Josh Speiss, Domenic Baptista, Devon Bird, Nick Evans, Kole Benard, Garett Maydaniuk, Kyle Ross, and Clayton Skipper. The team also picked up Kevin Smith (White Rock), Kevin Seng-ara (Vancouver), Nick Lafl amme (Cloverdale), Nick Carusi (Burn-aby), Kyle Starinieri (Langley), and Aaron Wiegert (White Rock) for the tournament. The team is coached by Rey Comeault, Shel-don Benard, Dave Bird, and Brian Evans.

Peewee Royals take bronze at Western Canadian championshipsb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

Sports

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

SandblastingKirk Hertzog gets out of the sand trap at Golden Eagle Golf Club during a day-long golf-a-thon with fellow golfers, Scott Emo, Liam Dougall and Kevin Gibson, to raise money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease Wednesday. The provincewide event has raised close to $400,000 for ALS research in five years.

One of my favorite fish to pursue is the

desert trout. Though not prolific in numbers, like the rainbows in our high catch lakes, I find these fish to be well worth the time and study it takes to master them.

This partic-ular strain of rainbow trout, reside in streams that run through the hot-test spot in the nation. Summer days in this region can reach 50 Celsius or more, mak-ing these fish recluse during daylight hours and aggressive from dusk to dawn. The insects that survive this harsh climate are large and aggressive like the trout that feed on them. The challenge for the fly fisherman is matching the hatch when adult stoneflies can reach as much as 7 centime-ters in length.

The days are hot, the rocks are slick, and the fish are selective; but for this angler who looks to a retirement in Arizona, there is nothing like challenge of desert trout.

The report

Our Lower Mainland lake fishing (trout and kokanee) is slow. For better success concen-trate on early morn-ings and evenings: Big Black, Nation’s Black, Baggy Shrimp, Coach-man, Cased Caddis, Halfback, Dragon Nymph, Carey Special, Zulu, or Doc Spratley. For dry fly fishing try: Tom Thumb, Ren-egade, Black Gnat, Foam Ant, Griffith Gnat, Royal Coach-man, or Elk Hair Caddis. For kokanee try: Red Abbis, Red Spratley, Bloodworm, Royal Coachman, San Juan Worm, or red Micro Leach.

Local bass and crap-

pie fishing is good. For bass try: Wooly Bugger, Big Black,

Blood Leach, Matuka, Popin Bugs, Chernobyl Ants, Cray-fish, Clous-er’s Deep Minnow, Ep-oxy Minnow, Deceiver, Muddler Min-now, Dolly Whacker, Turk’s Tarantula, Bucktail, Hair Frog, Irresist-

ible, or Tom Thumb. For crappie try: Black Gnat, Lady McCon-nel, Coachman, Royal Coachman, Ant, char-treuse Boobie, Wooly Bugger, Trico, Griffith Gnat, or Irresistible.

Fishing on our interior lakes is fair. For wet fly fishing try: Chironomid, Pumpkin-head, 52 Buick, Wooly Bugger, Micro Leach,

olive Matuka, Butler’s Bug, Halfback, Baggy Shrimp, Sooboo, Six-pack, or Green Sprat-ley. For dry fly fishing try: Lady McConnel, Irresistible, Big Ugly, Double Hackled Peacock, Tom Thumb, Royal Wulff, Goddard Sedge, Sofa Pillow, or Elk Hair Caddis.

The Fraser River is very good for sock-eye; spring, dolly varden, cutthroat, and rainbow. For sock-eye try: (chartreuse) Dean River lan-terns, Bunny Leach, Bucktail, Nitnook, Besure, Green Slime, or Caboose. For spring try: Kauf-mann Stone, Eggo, Popsicle, Squamish Poacher, GP, Big Black or Flat Black. For cutthroat and rainbow try: Rolled Muddler, Mickey Finn, Tied Down Minnow, Eggo, Professor, Lioness, Kaufmann

Stone, Coachman, Zulu, Chez Nymph, Black Gnat, Sooboo, Irresistible, Elk Hair Caddis, or Stimulator. For dolly varden try: large Rolled Muddler, Zonker, Clouser’s Deep Minnow, Dolly Whacker, black Pop-sicle, or Big Black.

The Vedder River is good for spring and rainbow.

The Stave River is good for cutthroat and rainbow.

The Harrison River is good for cutthroat, Rainbow, and sockeye.

The Thompson River is good for sockeye and spring.

The Nicola River is good for rainbow. Try Kaufmann Stone, Chez Nymph, Hairs Ear Nymph, Roller Muddler, Tom Thumb (standard or red bod-ied), Grass Hopper, Stimulator, Chernobyl Ant, Irresistible, or Elk Hair Caddis.

Sports

Desert trout a challenge, but worth the eff ort

Tight Lines Jeff Weltz

Get your sports results in

THE NEWSsports@mapleridgenews.com