Monday, December 10, 2007

Roofers face WCB fines over deficiencies

Roofers face WCB fines over deficiencies
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 26, 2003

A Lower Mainland roofing company with a history of failing to meet Workers' Compensation Board safety requirements has been hit with its second $30,000 fine because of an investigation surrounding a home roof repair job in Burnaby last year.
Bernard Roofing and Tiling Ltd., which is not listed in the Vancouver area telephone book, received the fine after it was found to be in "repeat noncompliance with high-risk fall protection obligations" as the result of its work on a home in south Burnaby.
"We take fall protection issues very seriously," said Al Johnston, Burnaby area manager for the WCB. "On that particular day at that particular location, there were multiple workers on the edge of a roof exposed to a fall without any fall protection in place or available."
The Burnaby infraction, which took place on July 25 last year, was the second time in a year that the company was fined $30,000 for the exact same infraction. On Feb. 12, 2002, the company received an identical fine because of similar infractions at a job site in the 600 block of East 50th Avenue in Vancouver.
Johnston said the huge fines are intended to send a message to a company that had repeated warnings, yet failed to take action to protect its workers.
"What this fine does is take into account two things - that there was a high risk for serious injury or death to the workers, and the fact that there have been previous penalties imposed on this company, but they've not been significant enough to get the employer to take this regulation seriously."
Two other companies that were active in Burnaby was also fined for repeat violation of fall protection requirements.
Busy Boys Roofing Ltd., which is also not listed in the telephone book, was fined $3,900 for infractions that took place in the 8000 block of Gilley Avenue last July 12.
V.V. Roofing Co. Ltd. was handed three separate fines totalling $4,500 for repeat violations of the guidelines. The fines were for violations while working at a job site at the corner of Fourth Street and Rosewood, and another site in the 7100 block of 11th Avenue.

Campus radio station hits the air

Campus radio station on the air
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 23, 2003

Testing, testing. One, two three.
There's a new radio station broadcasting from the top of Burnaby Mountain this week - and it's got something for every eclectic taste.
Last Thursday afternoon, for the first time its 37-year history, CJSF, the campus radio station for Simon Fraser University, started sending its signal out on the public airwaves.
Located at 90.1 on the FM dial, the radio station is mandated to provide an alternative to commercial radio and reflect the community both at SFU and the surrounding neighbourhood.
"We have quite a diverse range of programming," says station manager Magnus Chyvold. "We have underground music, hip hop, folk, indie rock, jazz and blues, spoken word shows and political activist shows.
"We have almost everything. It would depend on what time you listen in."
Chyvold, who arrived at CJSF three years ago after holding a similar post at the University of Victoria radio station, said there have been many attempts to put the campus radio station on the public airwaves over the years, but those tries were always stymied by the fact that there were so many other commercial radio stations already on the dial.
The station, which started as a campus radio club when SFU first opened in 1965, has previously been heard on a very low wattage AM frequency broadcast only to the Burnaby Mountain campus. People who hook their radio receiver to their cablevision lines have been able to pick up the SFU station at cable frequency 93.9 FM since 1985.
The latest attempt to broadcast over the FM radio waves was actually started five years ago, said Chyvold.
"The problem getting on the air came mainly from the fact that there is frequency congestion with all the other stations in Vancouver, Seattle and on Vancouver Island," he said. "If there's a problem of overlap, you have to find a different spot on the dial."
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to going live on air was trying to prove to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecom-
munications Commission (CRTC) that their proposed frequency would not interfere with other radio signals.
During the course of the application, CJSF tested three different radio frequencies, at an average cost of $6,000 per test, to see if they meet both the station's and the broadcast regulator's requirements.
Last fall Chyvold and the estimated 120 volunteers who keep the radio station on the air received the good news that their latest proposal had been accepted and they would finally be allowed to broadcast over the air waves.
Last week, when the switch was thrown to begin operating the transmitter on top of the W.A.C. Bennett Library, the offices of the campus radio station went wild.
"It was pretty exciting," says Chyvold. "We had cake and champagne and a whole lot of hopping, hollering and cheering for the inauguration of the station."
Like many of the people who dedicate their time to CJSF, Chyvold had his start in the radio business as a volunteer disc jockey, spinning discs and playing CDs for a one-hour 'alternative rock' show on the UVic station.
"Being able to do a show with the music I love the most was great," he says.
And, as is the case with campus radio stations around the world, CJSF has some truly cutting-edge and controversial shows, such as the syndicated U.S. show Counterspin, which provides a critique of the mainstream news every Tuesday morning at 11 a.m.
Some of Chyvold's favourite shows now running on CJSF include Singing with Barbara, a Tuesday night feature described as 'thrift store entertainment,' and Sons Lusitanos, the Lower Mainland's only Portuguese-language radio show.
Another fave is Hi Sci Fi, a Friday dinner hour program that features Irma Arkkus and Andrew Yang. "They bring a lot of information, real good rapport and they have a lot of fun with it," Chyvold said, describing the keys to any good radio show.
The station operates on a budget of about $140,000 per year, which pays for all the operating equipment, regulatory fees, plus Chyvold's position and three other part-time staff people.
While CJSf currently only broadcasts from about 10 a.m. until midnight daily, there are plans to go live 24 hours a day, if they can find enough volunteers.
For a complete program listing, visit the radio station's Web site at www.cjsf.bc.ca.

Central Park Manor to close

Central Park Manor to close
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 23, 2003

The Fraser Health Authority has announced plans to close the 97- bed Central Park Manor seniors' care facility in west Burnaby as part of its long-term plan to modernize continuing care facilities in the region.
"I am writing to advise you that Central Park Manor's history as a publicly funded care facility will be coming to an end in slightly more than 12 months' time," FHA residential care services chief operating officer Betty Ann Busse said in a letter delivered Thursday to residents and staff of the facility.
The 33-year-old facility is being closed under terms of a Ministry of Health policy approved last spring and ratified by the health authority in the fall, said Colleen Hart, FHA director of residential partnerships.
More bed closures are expected to be announced later this year, she added.
"What has been said for the year 2003 is that we will be closing a minimum of 210 beds within this fiscal year in the Fraser North subregion," Hart said. "The beds are obsolete."
Hart said that each of the 89 residents living at Central Park Manor should be able to find new accommodations at care homes in Burnaby, which recently saw new beds opened at the Dania Home and Nikkei Place.
The closure comes as a result of a decision to ensure that only those seniors who require "complex care" will be admitted into care homes, Hart said.
The closure, which was not completely unexpected, was still a surprise for many people at the care home.
"We're sad about it, but we also understand why it's being done," said Pat May, executive director of the home. "Our facility is old and needs a lot of expensive renovations to meet the needs of people now being admitted. That's one of the reasons, really the major reason, why we're being closed."
May said a nurse has already begun meeting with residents and their families to ensure the transition process is a smooth one. "The authority has committed to giving individual attention to each resident to find the most appropriate facility to meet their needs," she said.
The property, which is owned by the Foursquare Madge Meadwell Foundation, has been for sale for the past year.
But while health officials seem to agree that the decision to close the facility is grounded on solid planning principles, at least one neighbour to Central Park Manor is not convinced by the arguments.
"I'm 74 years old and I'm a bit concerned that these facilities are being shut down," said Joyce Burke, who frequently visits friends who live in the care home across the street from her residence.
"I know they have long waiting lists of people wanting to get into these places, so I just feel that it's another indication of where seniors are being neglected," Burke said.
When told that the beds no longer meet the ministry of health requirements, Burke said: "That's their opinion. I think they were just looking for an excuse to close it. I think they just don't want to pay for the staff. That's my opinion."
But Hart insisted that other alternatives are in place. She said the health authority recently issued a request for proposals for private contractors to build another 200 unit senior care facility in the region, and the FHA is obligated to open another 1,100 assisted living units by the year 2006.
"Where it's appropriate, people will have assisted living or more home support," Hart said. "Part of this redesign is having more options and saving residential care for when it's really needed.
"And there are enough beds in Burnaby."
The closure announcement was posted on the FHA Web site just four hours after Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota issued a press release applauding the provincial government for recent consultations with long-term care providers.
In the press release, Sahota said that changes such as more flexibility in how facilities operate are encouraging to operators.
"They are encouraging us to do more," Sahota said. "They have asked for more input in the planning process that affects how well they can deliver services to seniors. They asked us to work toward providing more options for assisted living that allow greater independence while ensuring that the level of care remains the same."

Voicing his vision

Voicing his vision
Mayor presents optimistic ‘state of the city’ address
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 23, 2003

The creation of a task force to develop a 'contemporary economic development strategy' was announced by Mayor Derek Corrigan during his first state of the city address made Wednesday to the Burnaby Board of Trade luncheon.
"I have a vision for this city," Corrigan said to a crowd of about 170 business people at the Executive Inn Hotel. "A community where there are housing choices, transportation options, employment opportunities, investment possibilities, shopping, and parks and recreation facilities."
In his half-hour speech accompanied by a high-tech PowerPoint presentation, Corrigan said he intends to build on the financial footing that has been guided by the city's economic development strategy committee, which he chaired in 1990.
"Now, as mayor, I have the chance to build on that strategy and, with the help of the business community, to take Burnaby to the highest level of sustainable urban development."
He said the new economic strategy is needed because the city is facing many new challenges.
"These are difficult and uncertain times for many facets of the economy and we need to pull together in order to build the financial base for our children and our children's children," he said. "As a city, we are facing unprecedented downloading from the provincial government in many, many areas, and we are struggling to maintain our outstanding financial record under extreme pressure."
Corrigan received his greatest applause when he put aside his prepared notes and described the city's response to the provincial government decision to close the Burnaby provincial courthouse.
Although the courthouse closure has cost the city about $500,000 per year in rental fees from the province, and added an estimated $400,000 to the police travel budget for officers to attend court in Vancouver, city hall is now renting out the facility to the movie industry. "In the first month, we made more money from the film industry than we did when we rented it out to the provincial government," he said to a rousing chorus of hand-clapping.
And he pointed to a long list of what he considers the most positive aspects of the city.
He said the Millennium SkyTrain line, which opened last year, has already started to spur redevelopment along its route, including $10 million worth of new development in the Lougheed Town Centre, and work on the Madison Centre project which will eventually include four towers, 408 apartment and townhouse units.
City hall is now developing a plan to spur similar development around the Holdom Station, and has recently revised its zoning categories to allow greater density around the Lake City Station, which should open early next year.
Overall, the city has 5.5 million square feet of office space, making it the second largest submarket in the region after downtown Vancouver.
Corrigan said Metrotown, the second largest retail shopping complex in Canada, is poised for substantial growth in the next decade. With proposals to build three new office towers comprising 900,000 sq.ft. proposed, the region has the potential to grow from 6.3 million sq. ft. of retail and office space and 24,000 employees to a new total of 9.5 million sq.ft. of space and up to 40,000 employees.
"We are not so much a developing city as a redeveloping city," he said, as he rattled off a long list of companies that have made Burnaby their corporate headquarters including Ballard Power Systems, Creo, Electronic Arts Canada, Nokia, Telus, BC Hydro, McDonald's Western Canada, BCAA, Super Pages, the United Way and Best Buy.
Corrigan said city hall has cultivated the conditions needed to bring "knowledge-based and environmentally friendly" industry to the city, including a conducive social climate, a positive regulatory and taxation environment, infrastructure such as one of the most comprehensive fibre optic networks in North America plus global marketing and recognition.
"We have prestigious business parks that offer world class amenities, and of course, a quality of life that is rivaled by none," he said, adding that housing starts rose 28 per cent last year and are expected to do well again this year.
Corrigan lauded the city parks system, noting that 25 per cent of city land is now green or open space, and that 45 acres of new land was added to the protected park inventory last year.
Although the mayor made no mention of the province's Olympic bid, he did state that Burnaby has the inside track on hosting the 2009 World Police and Fire Games, which could attract 12,000 athletes to the city and generate between $35 and $50 million in economic benefits. "It's ours to lose," he said.
"At the end of the day it's all about a better Burnaby for our citizens, for our families and for our business," he said. "We're headed in the right direction, and with your help we will stay the course. The concept is very simple ... Burnaby for business and business for Burnaby."

Burnaby's own curling champs

Burnaby’s own curling champs
Here and Now column by Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 19, 2003

Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Cal Fister is typically at his best when he puts local criminals on ice.
But this week, the head of the Hastings Brentwood community police office is cooling off on some ice of is own, as he joins his B.C. champion daughters at the Scott Tournament of Hearts Canadian Women's Curling Championships taking place this week in Kitchener, Ontario.
Fister, who serves as a sort of chief of police in the northwest side of the city, is also the coach of the remarkable young team that defeated the defending Olympic bronze medallist Kelley Law rink at the B.C. championships late last month.
Team Fister, as they're known, consists of skip Toni Fister, who works for GreyLine Tours; third Teri Fister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada; second Denise Byers, who works with the Fraser Health Authority; and lead Angela Strachan, a senior program coordinator at Science World.
The team hails from the Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge, and said they had to rely on a good old-fashioned work ethic and a whole lot of fun to claim their first-ever provincial crown.
"We were stunned, it was just deer in the headlights," skip Teri told the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times.
While the team was sporting a less than stellar 1-4 record after their first weekend of play at the Scott Tournament of Hearts, the Fister rink has certainly shown they have the tenacity to battle back.
Last month, they won the B.C. championship after finishing in a four-way tie during the round robin portion of the provincials. The Fister sisters won despite a 7-4 loss to the Law rink in the round robin, despite facing a three-point deficit after seven ends in the semifinal game, and then they still had to rally for three points in the ninth end to win their final game at the provincials.
Good luck, and let's hope the rest of the week has more positive results for the Fisters.

Fine cooking

We always knew they were one of best, now the folks at the Pear Tree Restaurant in the Heights have another accolade to put on their menu.
Ryan Stone, a 21-year-old apprentice chef at the delightful north Burnaby restaurant, is off to the Canadian Federation of Chefs and Cooks Knorr Junior Team Culinary Competition being held this week in Toronto.
Stone is a student in Vancouver Community College's culinary arts training program, the largest of its kind in the country, where he studies under award-winning coach Harold Bonowski.
"I'm looking forward to the sense of performance and being in front of an audience," said the youthful chef-in-training.
At the championships, Stone and teammate Tobias Grignon will have four-and-a-half hours to create a four-course meal that consists of an appetizer, soup, entree and dessert. They also have to include Arctic char, prawns, chicken, pork tenderloin and a mystery ingredient in their creations.
To judge his abilities for yourself, check out the Pear Tree restaurant at 4120 E. Hastings, near Gilmore.

Colour them musical

Local songwriter-guitarist Bernard Boulanger and his band The Colorifics will be hosting a CD release party this Friday night at the Silvertone Tavern on Commercial Drive.
Where There's Smoke is the second CD for the dressed-up pop band that first made its name on the local music scene in the mid-1990s when they were regulars at the infamous Blue Lizard Lounge.

A fine accounting

Kudos to Burnaby's own Donald R. Willoughby, who was honoured with a fellowship by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia last week.
The FCA designation was bestowed because of Willoughby's very long list of community service contributions, which include serving on the board of directors for the Vancouver Friends for Life Society and work with the Residences for Independent Living Society.
Willoughby is the managing partner for HLB Cinnamon Jang Willoughby & Co., which specializes in forensic auditing, business valuation and management consulting.
He is also very active on a long list of professional committees and subgroups and is the current chair of the ICABC professional conduct enquiry committee.

Filipino dance form was once a warrior's form of fighting

Filipino dance form was once a warrior’s form of fighting
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 16, 2003

The hidden culture of the Philippines will be on stage at the Massey Theatre this month when Awakening the Identity brings martial artists, dancers and musicians on stage for the Feb. 20 performance.
"A lot of Filipino people are Canadian-born and don't know what their roots and culture are," said Oneal Mendoza, a third-degree arnis expert of the Filipino martial art. "What I want to do is awaken that identity through the martial arts, which were preserved many centuries ago by our Filipino brothers."
According to Mendoza, the story behind the preservation of the centuries-old martial art of arnis is as fascinating as it is hidden. When the first European explorers came to conquer the sprawling southeast Asian country in the 15th century, they outlawed the use of the arnis - small fighting swords that had been used to defend the islands for centuries.
Forced underground, the martial artists hid their swords and converted their fighting moves into dance steps, which they were then able to teach their children.
Under the guise of a dance, the martial art was kept alive and today is making a resurgence in Filipino communities around the world.
Arnis is best known in North America as the style of fighting used by the character Michelangelo in the children's action show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fact, Mendoza's teacher, Burnaby native Shishir Inocalla, is the world champion at arnis and the actor who played Michelangelo in one of the TMNT movies and the TV series.
Inocalla is currently travelling in the United States, but may return in time to perform at the show, said Mendoza.
"Arnis has always been known as a combative art - that is what it has been referred to through history. But we want to make it more of a formal art, with dance, because that was how it was preserved," Mendoza said.
Awakening the Identity is 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Massey Theatre. It will present a mix of dance and martial arts, along with traditional Filipino music and other art. Tickets are $15, with children under age seven free. Tickets can be reserved through the Massey box office at 604-517-5900 or through Nina Mendoza at 604- 451-3373.

Layoffs hit rest home

Layoffs hit rest home
Funding shortfall forces Normanna to layoff 38 employees
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 16, 2003

A total of 38 full- and part-time dietary and housekeeping workers were given layoff notices by the Normanna Rest Home this week, setting the stage for what the Hospital Employees Union believes could be the next round of contracting out of health-care services in the Lower Mainland.
Margaret Douglas-Matthews, executive director of the 100-bed seniors' care facility in south Burnaby, said the decision to contract out the non-nursing work effective April 1 was spurred by a looming 30 per cent funding shortfall - about $400,000 - and the society's inability to pay union contract pay increases.
"Even though we restructured last year and introduced chargeable extras, we can't afford this," Douglas-Matthews said Thursday.
"Residential care is something we won't compromise. It is a very difficult decision and the board of directors has ratified that. We have chosen to provide quality care and balance the budget."
Margie Blamey, spokesperson for the Hospital Employees Union, said the layoffs appear to be part of a province-wide strategy to cut wages for ancillary service staff, some of whom who have worked at Normanna or other long-term care facilities for up to 20 years.
"This is simply not fair to the workers and it's not fair to the residents," said Blamey, who repeated her contention that HEU members do far more than simple cleaning and cooking inside health- care facilities. "The part that is really key to long-term care is that these employees have social and professional relationships with these patients and their families. It's not just the direct care workers who do this, it's everybody in the facility. This is a real blow to both the residents and the families."
Blamey said employees of long-term care facilities often have a special bond with their patients, and that was shown when the Dogwood Lodge was closed down four years ago and both staff and patients were moved into the newly rebuilt Normanna.
This week, many of those relocated staff people were among the 38 staffers handed layoff notices, Blamey said. Similar layoffs were also announced this week at the Pleasantview Care Home in Mission, plus another long-term care facility in the Point Grey area of Vancouver. Blamey said she is expecting similar layoff announcements at other long-term care facilities in the city, such as the Dania Home and Swedish Canadian rest home, both of which use unionized housekeeping and cooking staff. She said the decision to contract out the work will result in a lower quality of care at Normanna, and a greater risk of infections and other problems at any facility that lays off its unionized staff.
"It's a devaluation of work," she said. "I can't speak to what their motives are, but it's certainly not for resident care."
Blamey also took aim at those sections of the recent Romanow report on health care that opened the doors to the privatization of non-medical work in health-care facilities.
"Other jurisdictions can testify to the fact that there is no cost saving or efficiency when you bring in a private work force," she said. "In fact, especially in housekeeping and infection control, standards are key to maintaining the safety of seniors' residences."
While the union has known about pending budget cuts for well over a year, Douglas-Matthew's statement that Normanna is facing a $400,000 shortfall marks the first time that a long-term care provider has put an actual dollar figure on the cutback, Blamey said.
David Plug, a spokesperson for the FHA, said Normanna's budget for next year has not been finalized, but the facility will likely receive the same funding as last year - approximately $4.5 million.
When asked where the $400,000 funding shortfall comes from, Plug said: "That's an inflationary cost pressure which the health authority and all service providers are facing."
Last year, in an attempt to keep up with the rising costs of providing care, Normanna raised the costs on a long list of what used to be free services to its patients, such as in-room cablevision, walker rentals, laundry marking, trust account maintenance fees and a new monthly activity fee. Meanwhile, Douglas- Matthews also confirmed that similar layoffs may be announced next week by Dania Home in central Burnaby - another long-term care facility that has its own board of directors but shares its senior staff with Normanna.

MLA denies knowing man charged in GST case

MLA denies knowing man charged in GST case
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 16, 2003

Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota says she has no idea how a man now charged in one of the largest GST refunds scams in Canadian history came to be her chief fundraiser in the last provincial election.
According to news reports published by canada.com, Abbotsford businessman Sikander Singh Bath was one of two men charged this week with defrauding the federal government of an estimated $22 million by claiming tax rebates on nonexistent sales of lumber and other wood products.
Bath was listed as the chief fundraiser for Sahota's provincial election campaign and, according to documents filed at Elections B.C., he was also Sahota's largest single contributor, giving $7,300 of services in kind to the campaign coffers himself.
On Thursday, Sahota said she never knew Bath before the campaign and has had chilly relations with him ever since.
"I can't comment on what he's been charged with, for obvious reasons, but in terms of the people who volunteer - you take people at face value," Sahota said. "You know from being around politics that that's how it works."
When asked of she knew him prior to the campaign, Sahota responded: "No, I met him in 2000."
When asked if they knew each other from the forest industry, where Sahota worked as a consultant prior to her election as an MLA, she replied: "No, no, no, no."
Last spring, relations between Bath and the Sahota campaign turned sour when Jas Bath, the wife of Sikander, first contacted the Burnaby NOW to complain that the Burnaby Edmonds constituency was not issuing tax receipts for donations made at a Feb. 25, 2002 fundraising dinner, and that as much as $5,000 in donations were unaccounted for.
Similar allegations against Sahota were repeated last fall by Sikander Bath.
Meanwhile, Sahota said she was not worried about the having her name associated with the criminal allegations against Bath.
"I haven't done anything wrong, and the charges Mr. Bath faces are before the courts and he will have his day in court," she said.

City shows its heart all this month

City shows its heart all this month
Here and Now column by Dan Hilborn
Published Feb. 12, 2003

Burnaby is a city with a whole lot of heart.
At least that's the impression we're getting this week, as the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. is sending out special kudos to at least three groups who have been helping to raise funds for this very worthwhile cause.
On Valentine's Day, there will be a whole lot of jumping going on at Forest Grove elementary school as students participate in their 10th annual Jump Rope for Heart event.
Over those years, students at the little school tucked onto the side of Burnaby Mountain have raised a whopping $39,950.72 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
When the kids enter the gymnasium on Friday, they will be the recipients of a very large thank-you banner.
Another special presentation took place on Tuesday, when employees from the U.S.-based Alderwoods Group, formerly the Burnaby- owned Loewen Group, were honoured for their participation in the foundation's Jeans Day promotion.
Last year, the employee-sponsored fundraiser brought in a healthy $17,412.56 for the foundation.
"There are many local companies who let their employees wear jeans once a week or once every two weeks, but with a fee," said H&SF area manager Anna Evans. "Now, if they all did the same like Alderwood employees, we would be closer to our vision."
Another fascinating fundraiser will take place next week, when Russ Aunger and Rob Rushmer of the Scotiabank near Kingsway and Willingdon have their heads shaved to raise funds for the foundation.
The shearing, to be performed by local stylists from Great Clips For Hair, will take place at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 18 in the lobby of the bank at 4299 Kingsway.
More medal winners
The list of recipients of the Commemorative Medals of the Queen's Jubilee continues to grow. Another presentation ceremony took place last Thursday at the local Radisson Hotel when Burnaby-Willingdon MLA John Nuraney granted the medals to seven people with strong ties to the city.
The recipients are:
Ruth Loland, a retiree who helped set up the rather elaborate system of English as a Second Language classes at Royal Oak Community Church which have been offered to hundreds of newcomers to our city over the years.
Shiraj Haji, a local tennis instructor who goes out of his way to make sure everyone has the opportunity to learn the game, regardless of their financial situation.
Akbar Kassam, a philanthropist who has provided employment to hundreds of people since he moved to Canada. "Always ready with an open hand, he has enriched the lives of so many in our community," said Nuraney.
Dick Kouwenhoven, of Hemlock Printers, who is among the city's best known philanthropists, making donations to charities of all kinds, especially those that assist young people.
George McLean, a freeman of the City of Burnaby who received eight medals for his service with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Still active as a volunteer at Burnaby Hospital, McLean is a past recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow award from the Rotary Club.
Sev Morin, now the chair of the Burnaby 2010 legacies committee, Morin is an SFU senator and director of a long list of local non- profits groups including the Theatre at Burnaby South, St. Michael's Hospice Foundation and the Coast Foundation Society.
Ted William, general manager of Metropolis at Metrotown, Williams serves as chair of the southwest district community policing committee, and an avid organizer of fundraising events for many charitable groups and community organizations.
Kudos to all.
The Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society has elected its new directors for the coming year. They are: Roger Zahar, president; Shirley Mortimer, vice-president; Nancy Gobis, secretary; and Don Ward, treasurer.
The society does incredibly good work with elderly people in our community, helping to coordinate information events and organizing the senior's peer counseling programs through the Heights Resource Centre.
For more information on helping out the elderly in our city, contact the society at 604-291-2458.
The folks at the Vancouver Resource Society have nothing but good things to say about the Burnaby-based Independent Contractors and Business Association.
The society, which provides housing and care to approximately 150 adults and children with significant disabilities in Burnaby and Vancouver, says it relies heavily on the hard work and fundraising efforts of ICBA staff and members.
"Annually, over the past five years, ICBA has raised thousands of dollars from their membership to improve the safety and comfort of our client's homes," said VRS spokesperson Murray Hamilton. "They have rebuilt decks, renovated kitchen and even put in an air conditioning system to make life more comfortable for the kids in our children's program."
Noted for special mention were ICBC president Joe Lindgren, vice- president Phil Hochstein, and executive director Ken Fraser.

Mixed reviews on health plan

Mixed reviews on health plan
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 12, 2003

More money is a good thing, but it still won't cure all the problems with the Canadian health care system.
That was the general consensus this past week after Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the 10 provincial premiers reached an agreement to increase health care funding across the nation by $17.3 billion over the next three years, and by $34.8 billion over five years.
"I think this is good news for health care and Canadians," said Herb Dhaliwal, the minister of national resources and MP for Vancouver South - Burnaby. "Health care is the most important social program for Canadians and this puts it on a solid footing.
"It also ensure reform, accountability and transparency."
Dhaliwal said he is particularly pleased by the creation of a new Canada Health Council which will oversee spending of the new money and provide for 'consequences' if the provinces do not adhere to the five principles of health care.
But while Dhaliwal said the proposal will safeguard the public, newly appointed NDP health care critic Svend Robinson is not convinced the agreement will stop the trend towards privatization in the health care system.
"The fact is, the first ministers totally ignored one of the greatest threats to the medicare system and public health, and that is the growth of the private, for-profit health care corporations and the impact of privatization on health care," said the Burnaby- Douglas MP.
"We know that (BC Premier) Gordon Campbell will want to put more money in to support his corporate buddies in health care," Robinson said. "But there are still not enough funds after Paul Martin's budget cuts. Everyone forgets it was Paul Martin who slashed funding for health care. Jean Chretien is putting some of it back, but it's not enough, and there is no assurance it will be used to expand public health care."
Robinson was also critical of the fact that the agreement was not signed by the country's three territorial leaders.
"I met with the three (territorial) premiers this morning, and they all pointed out they have the highest infant mortality rates, tuberculosis is 17 times the Canadian average, and they have the lowest life expectancy," Robinson said. "They live in third world- life conditions in many part of the north and the prime minister ignored the recommendations in the Romanow report that requested he put more money on the table for the north."
According to documents posted on the federal government's Web site, the new health care accord will provide for an additional $17.3 billion in targeted health care spending over the next three years, and plus the creation of a new Canada Health Transfer program to allow the public to track how the money is spent.
"Together, we are taking a big step forward to strengthen our health care system to better serve the needs of Canadians," Chretien said in a press release.
In Victoria, Burnaby-Willingdon MLA John Nuraney said he has not fully reviewed the agreement, but his initial reaction is positive.
"I think in principle it's a good thing," Nuraney said. "As you know, the contribution from the federal government has been diminishing over the years, and now that want to beef it up - that is an excellent idea.
Nuraney also downplayed Robinson's concerns about privatization and said the new agreement will abide by the recommendations contained in the recent Health Care Commission report tabled by former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow.
"Romanow made that point very clear that under no circumstances should the universality or accessibility of the health care system be affected, and that is one of the bottom lines," he said. "It is the private services that are subsidiary to health care that are being looked at (for privatization).
"What the public really wants at this point is something to to happen to make health care more efficient. the waiting lists are intolerable, and that is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue."
Nuraney's comments run contrary to the point of view of Hospital Employee's Union president Chris Allnutt, who believes the new health care funding could slow down the move towards privatization.
"I hope this can be some sort of new beginning to rejuvenate the public health care system," Allnutt said Thursday. "But obviously, it also needs to be tied a change in direction from the provincial government too.
"When there is extreme pressure on the bottom line there is always a move to exclude people from the decision making process. but now with the additional funds I think there is a need and a necessity for involving people ini the decision making process.
Allnutt is also concerned about recent comments from the Health Employers Association of B.C. that disciplinary action could be taken against employees from Royal Columbian Hospital who participated in a day of protest Tuesday in Vancouver.
Workers at Royal Columbian Hospital have been setting up information pickets outside the region's largest health care facility ever since the middle of last month.

Coin toss upsets car wash owner

Coin toss upsets car wash owner: Bank assures public it was a mistake
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 9, 2003

The manager of one of Burnaby's best known landmarks was shaking his head last week after his local bank refused to let him deposit a new 50-cent Canadian coin.
"I couldn't believe it," said Ted Larose, manager of the 51-year- old Oasis Car Wash on Kingsway. "A coin is a coin is a coin. I thought this was Canada."
The coin in question was the specially designed 2002 commemorative edition of the half dollar, minted for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. Unlike other Canadian coins, all the coins minted for the jubilee year have only a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on one side and all the writing, including the date, on the other side.
The coin was rejected on Jan. 15 by a teller at the HSBC branch at the corner of Kingsway and Royal Oak as Larose was making the nightly deposit of cash from the car wash operations.
According to Larose, the teller initially said that HSBC did not accept 50-cent coins as a matter of policy. But Larose asked her to check, so the teller went behind the counter and returned a few minutes later with the same response - they would not deposit the coin. The rest of the deposit was accepted.
"Why wouldn't they accept it?" asked the incredulous Larose. "I don't care if they don't have a drawer to put it in, or not. I think the mint should be made aware that the coins they are making for our country are not being accepting in our country.
"This is a most unusual thing. It blew me away."
But Ernest Yee, senior director of public affairs for HSBC Canada, said it appears the teller and whoever she spoke to behind the counter made a simple mistake.
"We accept all Canadian coins, and we apologize to the customer if one of our employees made a mistake regarding the new 50-cent coin," Yee said Thursday afternoon. "Of course we accept the 50- cent coins, and we do apologize to the customer."
Yee also said he had "no idea" how the teller came to believe the coin had to be rejected as a matter of policy.
Larose said Oasis has been using the HSBC branch ever since it opened. Oasis operates one of the few automated conveyor belt- driven car washes in the city.

Owner has vicious chow-chow put down

Owner has vicious chow-chow put down
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 9, 2003

An elderly gentleman is feeling a whole lot better about the world this week after the vicious dog that left his pet schnauzer Chelsea with 48 stitches on Jan. 17 was put down.
"The lady who owned the dog came over on Saturday night and apologized. She said she was sorry and told me the dog had been put down," said 79-year-old Dave Simpson.
"I felt sad the dog was put down, but I also asked her if the dog had done this before, and she said yes. I'm sorry for her, and I told her that, but this is not the first time it's happened."
Simpson is the elderly man who was afraid to identify himself in the Feb. 2 edition of the Burnaby NOW as he described the vicious dog attack.
Since the story was published, Simpson has been overwhelmed by the positive response from his neighbours, who offered financial assistance to pay his $935 veterinarian bill, and aid in locating the attacking dog - a 27-kilogram chow-chow/labrador cross.
Almost immediately after the publication of that story, the owner of the dog had the chow-chow put down, and then knocked on Simpson's door to apologize.
As it turns out, the dog's owner, who lives just a few doors away from Simpson, never even knew about the attack until the story was published in the newspaper. That's because the chow-chow was being walked by a friend at the time of the incident.
Simpson was grateful for the prompt response.
"I think she agreed that that kind of dog doesn't belong in a neighbourhood like this where we have children who play on the street," he said.
"With so much crime going on, I understand people are trying to protect themselves.
"But when they take those dogs out for some exercise, that shouldn't come ahead of protecting the elderly, children or people who can't handle a large dog."
Simpson also said that he is concerned by the lax enforcement of animal control bylaws in Burnaby and hopes that city hall will take more action to patrol the city to check for infractions.
"We need to have more (animal control) people out there," he said. "I'd rather have a pothole in my lane and somebody out there protecting people from dogs running around without a leash."
Simpson would like to see a minimum $100 fine for anyone who lets their dog run off-leash, and having the animal destroyed if it is caught off-leash a second time. "That's the only way we can control this sort of thing," he said.
Simpson also said he holds no animosity against the dog's owner, who apparently just moved to Burnaby two years ago from a rural area.

Water battles won says Corrigan

Water battles won, says Corrigan
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 9, 2003

With his greatest challenge already a year behind him, the new chair of the GVRD water committee is looking forward to improving the quality of drinking water in the Lower Mainland.
"I'm glad that we've moved out of the privatization mode and we're now going on to a more traditional public operation mode," Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said after he was appointed to the post late last month.
"Our policy is to make sure we have the best water quality we can maintain," he said. "I don't think there's anybody in the GVRD against that goal. There was some disagreement over how we would achieve that before, but we're all singing off the same song sheet now."
Last year, Corrigan was one of the key opponents of plans to allow a public-private partnership to build and operate the new multimillion-dollar Seymour water filtration plant that will start construction on the North Shore next year.
Corrigan lobbied hard for the appointment, and he replaces former water committee chair Marvin Hunt, who moved into the position of overall GVRD chair.
While Corrigan criticized Hunt's earlier work at the water committee, he said the Surrey city councillor has so far done an admirable job at the head of the regional district.
"I think Marvin has done a good job on the committees and he was fair," Corrigan said, noting that he agrees with Hunt's move to reduce the size and number of the GVRD committees.
Besides his appointment as chair of the water committee, Corrigan will also serve on the GVRD solid waste committee and the influential intergovernmental committee. Burnaby city councillor Doug Evans will sit as a member of the GVRD parks committee and sewage and drainage district.

Cockfight ring alleged in charges

Cockfight ring alleged in charges
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 2, 2003

A trial is underway in Vancouver this week for three people charged with 'keeping a cockpit' as the result of a joint RCMP and SPCA raid in the Big Bend region of Burnaby in August 2001.
Rodente Callusin, Esther Callusin and Gerson Frias each face up to six months in jail and fines up to $2,000 after an alleged cockfight ring was discovered while police were investigating a nearby murder.
The SPCA was called in and 41 of the alleged fighting birds were seized and destroyed under terms of federal law. Also seized were slasher knives and leather straps used to attach the blades to the birds.
Cockfighting is a popular but illegal betting sport that involves fights to the death between specially bred birds, which often have spectacularly colourful plumage.
Rodente Callusin was previously found guilty of a charge of keeping a cockpit when the SPCA and RCMP uncovered a similar enterprise on the Thorne Avenue property in February 1998.
That case was also uncovered when police were in the neighbourhood responding to an unrelated call.
If found guilty of these new charges, the three suspects may face up to six months in jail and fines of up to $2,000.
At the time of the raid, SPCA official Shawn Eccles told the Burnaby NOW that there was no evidence of any fighting on the site, just the facility to do so.
"It's not illegal to breed or keep the birds," Eccles said. "It's the keeping of the cockpit where the problem lies. We found a facility which could be used for fighting, and we'll leave it up to a judge to determine if it is indeed a cockpit."
At the time of the most recent raid, Burnaby RCMP also discovered three separate marijuana grow operations in the immediate neighbourhood.

Fire hall lives on in other structures

Fire hall lives on in other structures
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 2, 2003

What goes up, must come down. And if you're really lucky, it'll just keep going around and around and around, too.
Demolition crews tore down the old Fire Hall No. 2 on Edmonds Street last week, but instead of simply throwing most of the old building into the garbage bin, the majority of scrap material will be recycled.
Steve Tremblay, operator foreman for 3R Demolition, said all of the wood, steel and concrete from the 52-year-old building will be resold to recycling firms around the Lower Mainland for later reuse around the world.
"Out of this whole job, maybe three truckloads will go to the landfill and the rest is recycled," Tremblay said. "I'd say 90 per cent of the job was recycled in one form or another."
Tremblay, who has worked in the demolition industry for 22 years, says customers can't wait to get their hands on some of the high quality older building materials, like the old-growth timber that was used to build the old fire hall.
"You should see the material they used on this. We've pulled out two-by-10s and three-by-18s - that's wood you just don't see anymore," he said. "We even have some three-by-six tongue-in- groove."
"There's people all over the Lower Mainland looking for this. We've even heard from people in the United States and Japan looking for it. So there is a market for it."
Tremblay said 3R Demolition calls upon a long list of past customers when they have old materials to sell. Other times, passersby stop and ask for dibs on the wood, or else the firm occasionally runs ads in newspapers to sell some of the less marketable materials.
All the metal in the building, such as the old stove, metal flashing and rebar from inside the concrete, will be resold to a foundry.
Even the old concrete foundation, which did poor service keeping water out of the building for the past few decades, will be ground up to be reused as gravel.
But not everybody is big on the recycling business. Tremblay says some people who purchase the denser old growth wood are not happy with their purchase. "Apparently some of that old wood is too hard to drive a nail into.”

Buble croons at the Super Bowl

Buble croons at the Super Bowl
Here and Now column by Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 29, 2003

Burnaby's favourite crooner is getting ready to hit the big time in a very big way.
After performing in San Diego last weekend for the huge Super Bowl Tailgate Party, Michael Buble is now setting his sights on the Valentine's Day release of his new, self-titled CD, produced by B.C.'s own David Foster.
Buble, a 25-year-old with a voice that has been compared to Frank Sinatra, also garnered a mention in the New York Post newspaper when gossip columnist Cindy Adams told the tale of his landing influential media rep Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's former publicist, to help hype the recording.
Buble's tale is as well-known to Burnaby NOW readers as it is inspirational.
The young kid got his start singing old swing standards on his grandfather's lap, and at the age of 17 recorded a CD for his friends and families and won a national talent contest.
The contest propelled Buble into the national limelight, and Buble was soon invited to sing at the wedding of former prime minister Brian Mulroney's daughter. That's where he was introduced to his future producer David Foster.
Life has been hectic for the young Burnaby native who once worked on his father's fishing boat. Today, he's living in Los Angeles, waiting anxiously for the Feb. 14 release date of his much- anticipated recording.
THE NEW MISS TEEN CANADA
Kudos to Lorenza Sammarelli for her recent elevation to the post of Miss Teen Canada.
Sammarelli is the young woman who graced the front pages of the Burnaby NOW over a year ago while she was helping paint the community mural on the side of the Dolphin Theatre. She is a Vancouver resident who teaches aerobics and skating at the Canlan Ice Sports 8-Rinks facility and she has a very proud grandmother who lives in Burnaby.
QUEEN'S MEDAL RECIPIENTS
We promised to bring you more names of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Commemorative Medal winners, and we've got them.
Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota held her presentation ceremony in the solarium at Edmonds community centre, where she handed out the medals to the following:
Norman Amundsen, a leading seaman in the Naval Reserves, and volunteer in the junior ranks mess committee;
Andrew Chatwood, of the Canadian Pension Commission and Veterans' Review and Appeal Board, the George Derby board, and the Burnaby Multicultural Society;
Asha Lohia, past president of the Burnaby Multicultural Society and founder of the Pandit Jasraj School of Music Foundation; and
James Morrison who helped merge UFCW workers into Local 40, helped establish the union paper The Mixer, and is a member of the British Columbia Regiment, the Duke of Connaught's Own.
Vancouver South-Burnaby MP Herb Dhaliwal handed out another 27 medals in a ceremony at the Langara Golf Course Clubhouse over a week ago. Among the recipients were the following people with noted Burnaby connections:
Alan Emmott, the former Burnaby mayor and reeve, and now a city freeman who recently had a community centre named in his honour; trooper Jose Blanco of the Canadian Forces Reserves and a student in the BCIT structural engineering program;
Francis Earl Blatherwick, who was the longest serving warrant officer in the history of the Royal Canadian Armed forces, a volunteer with Burnaby Meals on Wheels, and original recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation medal, which was handed out in 1952;
Ronald J. Joyce of the Naval reserve, Burnaby community policing programs and the Burnaby Judo Club; and
Jason Vargas of the Canadian Army Reserves, Fair Haven Homes, and South Burnaby Metro Club.
Dhaliwal also handed out medals to the following: chief warrant officer Mark Arden; Alex Wang Tat Chen, of St. John Ambulance; Dr. Hsin Kan Chen; Sgt. Baltej Singh Dhillon; master corporal Alan S. Dunlop; Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Gagne; Avtar Gosal of the Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple; Herman H.C. Ho of St. John Ambulance; former reservist and UN peacekeeper Thomas Houghton; Vancouver Police Inspector Keith Hutchinson; Indian Cultural Centre of Canada founding member Bakshish Singh Johal; Pritam Kaur Johl of the Khalsa Diwan Society; trooper Ron Ranvir Kang of the B.C. Regiment Duke of Connaught's Own; Mukhia Sardarni Sahiba Guru Raj Kaur Khalsa of the Khalsa Credit Union; Corp. Helen Lam of the Canadian Forces Reserve; Lt.-Col. Howe Yet Lee, a founding member of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum; Amar Singh Mattu, of the Khalsa Diwan Society; Satwant Ginder Sangha of International Punjabi Society; naval veteran Douglas Haig Sturch; warrant officer Kevin Walker; and warrant officer Robert G. Wishnicki.
Scouts Canada also offer up 51 medals in a ceremony at the Ismaili Jamatkhana Centre presided over by former Lieutenant- Governor Garde Gardom and B.C. Senator Mobina Jaffer, QC. The Burnaby recipients were Verna Adamson; Richard Barr; Robert Gourley; Keith Martin; Kenneth McAteer; Alamin Pirani; Natalie Rosecky; and Jaffer Valiani.
Phew....

Scottish activist warns against privatization

Scottish activist warns against privatization
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 29, 2003

The proof against privatization is in the pudding, according to a Scottish trade union leader who was in British Columbia last week to protest the contracting out of health-care services.
"The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that privatization, contrary to the arguments made, does not lead to increased efficiency, lower costs or improvements to the quality of service," said Carolyn Leckie, branch secretary of Unison, the largest trade union in the United Kingdom.
"In fact, it does the reverse. It leads to more bureaucracy, more expense, and the quality of service is reduced," she said. "Scotland and England have already been through the experience, and we've learned some very difficult lessons in terms of its effects on patients and staff."
Leckie, a midwife by trade, was invited to B.C. by the Hospital Employees Union after her union successfully argued against the contracting out of services to multinational corporations that are now interested in working in British Columbia.
Last summer, Unison went on strike and organized a successful anti-privatization drive that resulted in the French-based multinational Sodexho losing contracts to provide cleaning services at several of Scotland's largest hospitals.
Leckie said the problems with privatization are well known. "Typically, things that happen are the number and hours of people in the workforce to do cleaning is reduced, their wages are cut and their pensions are cut, and then you get a high turnover.
"Without proper training, the health and safety of employees and patients is compromised, and they even find it difficult to get basic equipment such as mops."
One of the most serious problems experienced by Sodexho came last winter when a salmonella outbreak at Glasgow Royal Infirmary killed three patients at the same time 283 staff and patients caught 'a stomach bug.' A subsequent union investigation resulted in the discovery of cockroaches, and allegations from cleaning employees that they were told to serve meals to patients after they finished washing the toilets.
When private companies take over public health services, they begin to cut corners any way they can, Leckie said.
"The health authority doesn't save money, but the companies get to extract profits. That's the problem," she said. "Their only motivation is profit, so there are very big incentives to cut costs, and wrong decisions are made."
Among the other problems found in the privatized Scottish hospitals was the use of inadequate filters on cleaning equipment used in the chemotherapy wards, the discovery of blood-soaked linens in patient areas, and rodent and insect infestations.
During a five-day strike last summer, which ended with the cancellation of the private contracts, the union discovered that patients were forced to sleep on plastic sheets and were served only sandwiches for lunch. She also alleges that at least one company was operating with as many as 200 fewer employees than they were obligated to under the terms of their contract.
"All of these things became apparent during the strike, that's why we were successful," Leckie said.
The strike escalated into violence when Sodexho brought replacement workers into the hospitals.
Since the private contracts were cancelled, newly re-unionized workers have won back many of the concessions that were made, including improved regular, sick pay and overtime rates.
While Sodexho still has the contract at the Glasgow hospital, the company is facing weekly fines for not living up to the terms of its contract, and it has been ordered to pay improved terms and conditions to its employees, Leckie said.
Leckie also dismisses claims that union labour always costs more.
"I think you need to pay for skilled, experienced people. That is how you get good quality service," she said. "If you allow these companies to pay what they are proposing, then there is absolutely no way to retain the skills and quality that is necessary. That has already been shown.
"I think it's shocking that politicians (in B.C.) are using the same arguments that were used by Margaret Thatcher and the Tories almost 20 years ago to justify these measures when it's been shown time and time again that it's detrimental to the quality of service.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Robinson happy with new NDP leader Layton

Robinson happy with new NDP leader Layton
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 29, 2003

"A breath of fresh air on the Canadian political scene," is the way Burnaby-Douglas MP Svend Robinson is describing the federal NDP's new leader after former Toronto city councillor Jack Layton won a stunning first ballot victory last weekend.
"The more Canadians and British Columbians get to know him, the more impressed they're going to be for his vision of the country," said Robinson, who stood beside Layton on the podium as he accepted his victory over a field of five candidates.
Layton, an admitted outsider from the tight-knit NDP federal caucus, had only two of the 14 MPs endorse his campaign - Robinson and his B.C. colleague Libby Davies - but he garnered fully 54 per cent of the votes cast in the first Internet vote cast by the NDP.
While a majority of the NDP caucus and most of the convention's labour delegates supported MP Bill Blaikie for the leadership, Layton had the overwhelming support of grassroots, including Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent.
Layton, who is also a past president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, is married to another Toronto city councillor, Hong Kong-born Olivia Chow.
While Robinson admits that the new party leader is seen as having style over substance, he said Layton will prove himself to have "an outstanding track record" on issues such as housing, child care and the environment.
"I'm very hopeful for the future," said Robinson, who ran for the NDP leadership in 1995 and conceded victory to Alexa McDonough before a potentially acrimonious split could develop.
"I think we're poised to make a major breakthrough," he said. "With the collapse of the Canadian Alliance and the right-wing turn of the Liberal party under Paul Martin, there's a huge opening for a progressive and exciting voice on the national scene.
"I think people can expect to see a much more visible and dynamic party that speaks in a much clearer language to their concerns," he said, adding the short-term priorities are voting on the Romanow report on health care, voting on Kyoto and speaking against a war in Iraq.
Robinson said Layton will not likely seek a seat in Parliament until the prime minister calls byelections.
"One of the things I'm concerned about is that this party is too obsessed with question period and parliamentary committees and not getting out to listen to Canadians," he said.

That's one nasty flu

That’s one nasty flu
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 29, 2003

When that queasy feeling begins in your stomach and slowly works its way up to your head, you know it's coming.
January is in the middle of stomach flu season in British Columbia, but this year, more than any other, local health authorities are warning the public to be aware of a particularly nasty strain of the same old disease.
But the sudden surge in cases of what is called Norwalk-like virus, or norovirus, is really nothing unusual, except for the name, Dr. Robert Parker, deputy medical health officer for the Fraser Health Authority, said this week.
The disease that has spread through local long-term care homes and visiting cruise ships is the same ailment most people remember simply as the stomach flu, or what some of the English so charmingly refer to as 'winter vomiting disease.'
"I think it's always been around," Parker said. "Even 60 years ago, doctors saw people with stomach flu, and in a lot of those cases, this is what they'd be talking about."
So why is the disease gaining such a horrific reputation?
For starters, there is more of it around, Parker said. Secondly, health officials are getting far better at recognizing the disease.
According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, there was only one confirmed outbreak of Norwalk in the province in 1993. That same year, there were fewer than 10 total outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease.
But by the mid-'90s, the incidence of gastrointestinal disease began to rise steadily, going from 15 outbreaks in 1996 to about 45 outbreaks in 2000.
At the same time, the reported rate of Norwalk virus stayed fairly steady at fewer than 10 outbreaks per year.
But in the past two years, the incidence of gastrointestinal disease jumped dramatically, reaching about 70 instances, including 10 confirmed Norwalk outbreaks, across B.C. in 2001.
It rose to almost 160 outbreaks, including more than 80 confirmed Norwalk outbreaks, across the province last year.
Fully 33 per cent of all norovirus outbreaks in B.C. last year were in the Fraser Health Authority, the health region that stretches from Boundary Road to Boston Bar.
The symptoms are well known. Usually it starts with a queasy feeling in the stomach, then comes the vomiting and then, after one or two days, the afflicted person will develop a severe case of diarrhea.
The best defence is simple hand-washing, Parker said, and that's because the virus is very hardy and can float through the air, landing on surfaces such as countertops, walls and floors, where it remains active for a long time.
"It's very infectious, and probably the best way to avoid it is good hand-washing," the health officer said. "If someone in your house comes starts vomiting or has watery diarrhea, make sure they do lots of hand-washing, and someone disinfects all the surfaces in the house.
"It's also not a bad idea for the afflicted person to self- restrict their activities for a couple of days to get over it."
The Norwalk virus is usually not fatal on its own, but it could be a contributing factor in the death of a person who is already sick with a pre-existing heart condition or other disorder, such as cancer.
"In rare times, a person dies with this as a contributing factor," Parker said. "Usually, Norwalk is not as severe as the upper respiratory tract influenza, which comes around every year."
For people who are typically healthy, catching the Norwalk virus means a few days of extreme discomfort and dehydration. The best advice is to stay home, drink plenty of fluids and do lots of hand- washing and counter-cleaning.
Parker also said that health officials are hoping that the disease has reached the peak of a 10-year cycle, and there may be fewer cases this year. However, nobody knows for sure.
"There are three things going on with this disease, he said. "Number 1, we have better surveillance and Norwalk is being reported more often. The second is increased lab testing and, thirdly, we may be in a long-term cycle where we were on the upswing for Norwalk and that may start to decline. However, whether it's truly peaked or not, it's hard to tell."

PC debate attracts 200

Gun club recalls bygone days
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Jan. 22, 2003

The federal gun registration program has triggered a furious national debate. Assistant editor Dan Hilborn interviewed Burnaby gun collectors and politicians to find out where they stand on long guns and handguns.
- - -
Ron and Jan Tyson always sit at the first booth inside the main doors of the monthly gun club shows in Burnaby.
Their table is stacked tall with an impressive collection of empty shotgun shell boxes from around the world, old photographs of the couple's favourite guns, cap guns and other collectibles which Jan refers to as "Pioneeria" - North American memorabilia such as a powder horn that was originally carved in the early 1800s.
Collecting guns and all things associated with firearms has been a lifelong obsession for the couple, who are founding members of the Historical Arms Collectors Society of B.C.
"My cousin started me out when I was three or four years old," says Ron, a tall and lanky senior citizen with crew cut hair and a straight back. "My cousin was a hunter guide, and he'd give me all his old shotgun shells and boxes.
"I collected cartridges because I was too young to own a gun."
But when he turned six years old, that restriction on owning a gun was lifted in a family ritual that was common across Canada during the first half of the last century. Ron remembers it like it was yesterday. His first gun was a Model 27 Hamilton, .22-calibre rifle.
"My dad used to take me hunting when I was so small, he had to carry me home," he says. "But I also knew what a gun was capable of doing. There was no doubt in my mind you had to be careful with one."
When Ron met Jan, his lifelong love of guns turned into a family affair. By 1970, the couple were founding members of the historical arms society, which was primarily founded as a social club for hundreds of local gun enthusiasts.
"Today, the club is more of a social thing, but when we started it was all about collecting, meeting people and trading. Trading is a big part of collecting," Ron said.
Some club members travel across the continent, or even around the world, visiting similar gun collector shows.
"The people you meet are the salt of the earth," Ron said. "I remember being in Saskatoon one time, and our van was robbed. We lost pretty heavily. Somebody at the show came up and said 'I've got $1,000 in my pocket, and it's yours if you want it.'"
In Burnaby, the shows run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month, except in April, August and December, at the Operating Engineers Hall on Ledger Avenue.
One collector who occasionally attends the Burnaby shows is an Okanagan resident with a collection of Canadian military arms used during the Riel rebellion. Another has a collection of French weaponry that was used in the Franco-American wars.
Jan has her own specialty - something she calls 'trench art,' which is any memorabilia or items that would have been found on a battlefield around the era of the First World War.
The Tysons have travelled as far afield as Toronto, Ontario and Russellville, Ark. for gun shows.
Some of the things they see would shock the weak of heart. One of those surprises is Tony Cowling, a Richmond resident who wrote the book My Life with the Samurai, chronicling the torture he underwent as a prisoner of war. Other booths offer collections of knives and bayonets, military history books, empty mortar shells, American Civil War memorabilia and even swastika-bearing items from Nazi Germany.
Ron notes that some of the most famous people in the world such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Walt Disney and Col. Saunders, were all gun collectors.
"You're not going to meet a better class of people," adds his wife Jan.
But Ron admits the world has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, and he also believes that guns and gun owners have unfairly been given a bad reputation.
Like most people in the gun fraternity, Ron believes in the need for strong guns laws, but he's not happy with the proposals contained in Bill C-68, the federal Firearms Act.
"I think the misuse of a firearm in any way - especially in the commission of a crime - should carry a heavy sentence," he said. "One thing I agree with in the present law is that all gun owners should be licensed, they must pass a test and they should have their background checked.
"I think that's a good thing, and I don't think anybody in the gun fraternity has an argument against that.
"But the whole thing is wrong. The gun registry act is 450 pages long."
Tyson says gun collectors are law abiding citizens who do not want to run afoul of the government.
But he and other gun enthusiasts are adamantly against the need to register every long gun or rifle in the country. Ron believes that as long as the rifle owner has a firearms license, and the firearm is not a high-powered tactical weapon, nor easily concealed, there is little need to have it registered.
He does, however, agree with the need to register handguns, which are more easily concealed, and are the weapon of choice for armed robbers.
But the high costs off the registry - federal auditor general Sheila Fraser recently revealed the registry is about $1 billion over budget - and the seemingly endless amounts of red tape needed to register weapons, is driving many lawful gun owners to simply give up their collections and destroy their old guns.
Ron said he gave up his old collection of 300 guns several years ago, partly out of lack of storage space, and partly because of the onerous registration process.
Ron also knows of Lower Mainland families who have destroyed valuable heirlooms - 200 year-old guns - rather than go through the registration process.
And he believes the gun fraternity has been abandoned by its own friends, such as federal environment minister David Anderson, a one-time gun collector who once attended gun shows.
Ron believes the registry is a violation of his right to private ownership.
"A lot of these weapons are works of art, and art is in the eye of the beholder," he said. "Not everyone sees beauty in a Van Gogh painting, but lots of people see beauty and art in guns."

Gun club recalls bygone days

Gun club recalls bygone days
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Jan. 22, 2003

The federal gun registration program has triggered a furious national debate. Assistant editor Dan Hilborn interviewed Burnaby gun collectors and politicians to find out where they stand on long guns and handguns.
- - -
Ron and Jan Tyson always sit at the first booth inside the main doors of the monthly gun club shows in Burnaby.
Their table is stacked tall with an impressive collection of empty shotgun shell boxes from around the world, old photographs of the couple's favourite guns, cap guns and other collectibles which Jan refers to as "Pioneeria" - North American memorabilia such as a powder horn that was originally carved in the early 1800s.
Collecting guns and all things associated with firearms has been a lifelong obsession for the couple, who are founding members of the Historical Arms Collectors Society of B.C.
"My cousin started me out when I was three or four years old," says Ron, a tall and lanky senior citizen with crew cut hair and a straight back. "My cousin was a hunter guide, and he'd give me all his old shotgun shells and boxes.
"I collected cartridges because I was too young to own a gun."
But when he turned six years old, that restriction on owning a gun was lifted in a family ritual that was common across Canada during the first half of the last century. Ron remembers it like it was yesterday. His first gun was a Model 27 Hamilton, .22-calibre rifle.
"My dad used to take me hunting when I was so small, he had to carry me home," he says. "But I also knew what a gun was capable of doing. There was no doubt in my mind you had to be careful with one."
When Ron met Jan, his lifelong love of guns turned into a family affair. By 1970, the couple were founding members of the historical arms society, which was primarily founded as a social club for hundreds of local gun enthusiasts.
"Today, the club is more of a social thing, but when we started it was all about collecting, meeting people and trading. Trading is a big part of collecting," Ron said.
Some club members travel across the continent, or even around the world, visiting similar gun collector shows.
"The people you meet are the salt of the earth," Ron said. "I remember being in Saskatoon one time, and our van was robbed. We lost pretty heavily. Somebody at the show came up and said 'I've got $1,000 in my pocket, and it's yours if you want it.'"
In Burnaby, the shows run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month, except in April, August and December, at the Operating Engineers Hall on Ledger Avenue.
One collector who occasionally attends the Burnaby shows is an Okanagan resident with a collection of Canadian military arms used during the Riel rebellion. Another has a collection of French weaponry that was used in the Franco-American wars.
Jan has her own specialty - something she calls 'trench art,' which is any memorabilia or items that would have been found on a battlefield around the era of the First World War.
The Tysons have travelled as far afield as Toronto, Ontario and Russellville, Ark. for gun shows.
Some of the things they see would shock the weak of heart. One of those surprises is Tony Cowling, a Richmond resident who wrote the book My Life with the Samurai, chronicling the torture he underwent as a prisoner of war. Other booths offer collections of knives and bayonets, military history books, empty mortar shells, American Civil War memorabilia and even swastika-bearing items from Nazi Germany.
Ron notes that some of the most famous people in the world such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Walt Disney and Col. Saunders, were all gun collectors.
"You're not going to meet a better class of people," adds his wife Jan.
But Ron admits the world has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, and he also believes that guns and gun owners have unfairly been given a bad reputation.
Like most people in the gun fraternity, Ron believes in the need for strong guns laws, but he's not happy with the proposals contained in Bill C-68, the federal Firearms Act.
"I think the misuse of a firearm in any way - especially in the commission of a crime - should carry a heavy sentence," he said. "One thing I agree with in the present law is that all gun owners should be licensed, they must pass a test and they should have their background checked.
"I think that's a good thing, and I don't think anybody in the gun fraternity has an argument against that.
"But the whole thing is wrong. The gun registry act is 450 pages long."
Tyson says gun collectors are law abiding citizens who do not want to run afoul of the government.
But he and other gun enthusiasts are adamantly against the need to register every long gun or rifle in the country. Ron believes that as long as the rifle owner has a firearms license, and the firearm is not a high-powered tactical weapon, nor easily concealed, there is little need to have it registered.
He does, however, agree with the need to register handguns, which are more easily concealed, and are the weapon of choice for armed robbers.
But the high costs off the registry - federal auditor general Sheila Fraser recently revealed the registry is about $1 billion over budget - and the seemingly endless amounts of red tape needed to register weapons, is driving many lawful gun owners to simply give up their collections and destroy their old guns.
Ron said he gave up his old collection of 300 guns several years ago, partly out of lack of storage space, and partly because of the onerous registration process.
Ron also knows of Lower Mainland families who have destroyed valuable heirlooms - 200 year-old guns - rather than go through the registration process.
And he believes the gun fraternity has been abandoned by its own friends, such as federal environment minister David Anderson, a one-time gun collector who once attended gun shows.
Ron believes the registry is a violation of his right to private ownership.
"A lot of these weapons are works of art, and art is in the eye of the beholder," he said. "Not everyone sees beauty in a Van Gogh painting, but lots of people see beauty and art in guns."

Politicos differ on gun registry

Politicos differ on gun registry
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 26, 2003

While many Canadians are becoming increasingly worried by the growing costs of the federal gun registry, Western Canada's longest serving member of Parliament believes it is an idea that should not be forsaken.
Svend Robinson, the NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, says his position on gun control has been consistent since he first entered parliament more than 23 years ago - he supports a strong, effective and low- cost registry of all firearms in Canada.
"The real tragedy around gun control is the incompetence of the Liberals in implementing Bill C-68," Robinson told the Burnaby NOW. "They've made the task of those who support the principles of effective gun control much more difficult.
"They've bungled it totally and handled it in an incompetent and fiscally irresponsible manner, and I think that people are confusing the Liberals' bungling with the principles."
When the facts are made clear, Robinson believes a majority of Canadians will still support the need to register weapons.
Robinson said local RCMP officers have told him that they need to know if guns are present when they respond to calls inside residences. And local women's shelter workers have also expressed concern about the ease with which some people can hide weapons.
"I've looked at the statistics, and in countries where there are effective gun control laws the number of deaths from firearms is dramatically lower than in the United States, where there's a constitutional right for high school students to bring guns into schools.
"I think it's not unreasonable to ask people to pay a modest sum to ensure these lethal weapons are registered so law enforcement authorities are aware of who has them."
A politician with a slightly different take on the gun registry is former NDP member Lee Rankin, who was a candidate for the federal Liberal party in the 2000 election and is now a TEAM member of Burnaby city council.
Rankin believes the registry just might stop spending so much money if it focused exclusively on restricted weapons and handguns instead of having long guns and rifles to deal with.
"I think the registering of all weapons, including hunting rifles and sport rifles, is of dubious benefit in terms of criminal justice issues," said Rankin, who split from the NDP in 1999 during a dispute over the civic politics.
Rankin said Canada already has strong laws to restrict the use of high-powered and concealed weapons. "We need better interdiction at the border, and more prosecuting of people who break the laws. That's the real problem," he said.

Olympic drive kicks off in city

Olympic drive kicks off in city
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Jan. 22, 2003

What kind of legacy could the 2010 Olympic Games leave Burnaby?
The benefits might include a new national training centre for young female hockey players, or maybe even a boost to the already world-famous sports medicine program at Simon Fraser University, says the new chair of the Burnaby 2010 committee.
"Why do I support the Olympics? Because I want to support our youth and the upcoming generation," said Sev Morin, who is just beginning the work to determine what kind of legacy our city wants in the event the Winter Olympic Games come to this province.
"It's always a gamble, but you never achieve anything worthwhile unless you're willing to reach for the stars."
Morin, best known as the former owner of Sev's nightclub on Kingsway, was appointed to chair the Burnaby 2010 committee this week as the campaign to support the Vancouver-Whistler bid kicked into high gear.
Morin admitted his new role will involve a whole lot of cheerleading, but he's also setting the groundwork to ensure the Olympics leave behind something more substantial.
Already just one day into his new role, Morin has found ample evidence that the Olympics could trigger all kinds of good things.
For instance, when Burnaby hosted the 1972 Canada Summer Games, the city received government support to build what was once a world- class rowing facility. And when the 1997 B.C. Summer Games came to town, that provided city hall the impetus for developing the Burnaby Lake sports field complex.
Morin said Burnaby already has an excellent tradition and legacy based solely on the performance of city athletes who have gone on to perform at the Olympics. He specifically pointed to Canadian hockey hero 'Burnaby' Joe Sakic, 1988 Olympic bronze medal decathlete Dave Steen and 1984 Olympic bronze medal boxer Dale Walters.
One of his first orders of business will be attending a series of meetings with local community leaders this week to find out what they want to come out of the Olympics.
During one of his first meetings, Morin met Nancy Drolet, a Burnaby resident and a long-time member of the Canadian national women's hockey team.
"Nancy wants to set up a school for young women in hockey, and I told her that I'd be willing to talk to other Burnaby people who I know that are from Burnaby and involved in hockey, such as Richard Brodeur and Jack McIlhargey."
"We've got a gold mine of people in Burnaby."

Plumping the website polls

Plumping the website polls
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 22, 2003

Boy, did we ever hit a nerve - or, at the very least, a political machine.
A record amount of traffic has been recorded on the Burnaby NOW's Web site ever since we posted an online poll about the premier's drinking and driving debacle.
As of Monday morning, a total of 319 people had responded to our online questionnaire at the Web site burnabynow.com. That's almost four times more than the average response to our polls.
The question, 'Do yo- accept Premier Gordon Campbell's apology after he was charged with impaired driving in Hawaii?' had elicited 213 'yes' answers and 106 'no' responses by Monday morning.
The question is scheduled to remain posted until some time tomorrow, Jan. 23.
Typically no more than 75 readers respond to our average online poll, said Chris Johnson, Web master for Lower Mainland Publishing Ltd., a division of CanWest Global and the parent company of the Burnaby NOW.
"It appears that people are exercising their political will," Johnson said Monday morning. "Typically, any time yo- get more than 100 responses, that is a large number for any newspaper. Even the Vancouver Courier gets average results of 50 to 70 responses on a question.
"So what this does is show you can drive traffic to your Web site with a good question."
Johnson also noted the poll results are completely unscientific and can easily be skewed by a few determined computer users.
"All you have to do is get a bunch of friends online and pound it out," Johnson said.
"There are also other ways to fudge the polls, but I'd prefer not to get into that."
Johnson said the main purpose of the online polls is to allow people to express an opinion and to provide some "interactivity" with the Web site users.
Region-wide, the poll results, as of Monday morning, were as follows:
- The Chilliwack Times asked 'Should Premier Gordon Campbell resign?' and received 35 'yes' responses and 109 saying 'no.'
- The Abbotsford Times asked 'Do you wish the whole issue of the premier's drunk-driving arrest would just go away?' and received 107 'yes' to 32 'no'.
- The Langley Advance-News asked, 'Under the circumstances, if you were Gordon Campbell, would you resign as premier?' and got 53 'yes' responses and 107 'no.'
- The NOW Community newspaper in Surrey asked 'Do yo- think Gordon Campbell should step down as premier?' and got 51 'yes' answers to 102 'no'.
But at least two other Van Net Web sites had substantially different results.
- The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times asked 'Should Premier Gordon Campbell resign?' and had a near split with 232 'yes' responses and 251 'no.'
- The Royal City Record newspaper in New Westminster asked 'Are you satisfied with Premier Gordon Campbell's apology after he was charged with drunk driving while on vacation in Hawaii?' and received exactly 200 'yes' and 182 'no' responses.
Chris Campbell, editor of the Maple Ridge newspaper, said the pro-premier side was leading substantially prior to Monday morning, when 220 yes votes were recorded in a few hours.
"I'm not even going to publish those," said Campbell (no relation to the premier), who typically publishes the results of the online poll in the subsequent hard copy edition of the newspaper.
"What I'm going to do instead is outline what happened and say how suspicious this is.
"Up until now the results have been slowly trickling in, but this is just absurd."
Johnson said he was able to trace much of the activity on the eight affected LMPL Web sites to "a couple of users" on the Shaw@home and telus.net servers.
For those keeping track, the final results of all eight Web polls combined showed 1089 (61 per cent) readers voting in support of the premier, with 691 (38 per cent) opposed.

Firefighters enjoy camping out

Firefighters enjoy camping out
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 19, 2003

They jokingly call themselves the trailer park boys, but, for the next 18 months, the firefighters who work out of the old #2 Fire Hall on Edmonds Street are in fact going to be more like campers in the middle of a city.
Last November, the 48-year-old single-storey fire hall was closed forever, and the two seven-person crews that served the southeast side of the city were moved into temporary quarters.
In place of the dank and mouldy old fire hall, the crews are now temporarily housed in a clean, new portable trailer, while their two trucks - a ladder truck and engine - are housed underneath a giant, steel-supported tent.
"Sure, it's a bit of an inconvenience, having to walk outside to the trucks whenever there's a call, but we still have a good job," said Captain Brian Davis, head of the crew that was on shift Wednesday afternoon. "It'll be really nice when we get the new hall."
Replacing the old Hall #2 is the third phase of the long-term fire department improvement program that started almost a decade ago under the leadership of former Burnaby mayor and one-time assistant fire chief Bill Copeland.
At the time, firefighters were complaining about cramped quarters and unsafe working conditions in a variety of the city's old fire halls, most of which were built in the early 50s and many of which needed thousands of dollars of renovations in order to meet current earthquake and post-disaster readiness standards.
The first fire hall to be replaced was the city's busiest, Hall #3 in the Metrotown area, and that's when the idea of using temporary quarters was first tested.
During the construction phase of the new #3 Hall, which opened in 1996, fire crews and trucks were relocated into a pair of the giant tents on Kingsborough Street, the site of the new Hilton Hotel Metrotown.
The next time Burnaby rebuilt an old fire hall ws just two years ago, when the #5 Hall at Hastings and Willingdon was torn down and replaced by a new facility just two blocks up the road. (Because the new hall was being built in a separate location, temporary quarters were not necessary.)
In fact, when the old #5 Hall came down, many firefighters felt a sense of nostalgia for north Burnaby's venerated old fire hall. But not so for the Edmonds hall.
The small fire hall on the southeast side of the city was notorious mainly for its rank smell. Apparently the basement of the old hall was constantly flooded and the water filled up almost to the floorboard on a regular basis.
The hall's main deficiency was the fact it failed to meet 'post- disaster standards' and it would have been of questionable use to the city in the event of a major earthquake.
The old hall also was also too small and was renovated several time in the past two decades to fit the new larger, and taller fire trucks now used by the city.
The hall also had only one washroom - a no-no in today's world where female firefighters share quarters with their male counterparts - and the added aggravation of insufficient space for the workout facilities. (It was impossible to use the exercise space anytime the fire trucks were being used, because the vehicle exhaust was vented right into the workout area.)
But when the design plans for the new #2 fire hall are made public later this month, Burnaby fire chief Bob Cook says all those problems will be solved.
The new fire hall will be substantially larger , too. It will have three truck bays, including one that will be used as storage space until the city's population grows large enough to require another truck.
Cook, the fire chief responsible for the project, expects the new Edmonds fire hall to cost about the same as the new, $2.7 million #5 hall on Hastings Street.
Another change that will take effect when the new Edmonds fire hall opens its doors in the latter half of 2004, will be the closure of 19th Avenue, and the cul de sacing of what is currently the hall's rear lane way access.
"Right now, were just in the middle of the panning stage for the new hall, but the finished designs should be ready soon," Cook said. "Hopefully, we'll award the contract in march and begin work either that month or in April. the plan is to open the new hall 12 months after that."
Cook also said that city hall continues to review its fire hall replacement program, and plans are in the works to either rebuild the 1950-era #4 fire hall on Duthie Street, or else build a completely new fire hall in whichever area of the city sees the most substantial growth in the next few years.
"What we do next all depends on the growth of the city," Cook said. "right now there are new homes being built over the south sloe, up at SFU and around Burnaby Mountain. What happens there dictates to us what we do next."

Song inspired by missing women

Song inspired by missing women
Here and Now column by Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 19, 2003

As local media coverage around Vancouver's missing women files now focuses on the trial taking place in Port Coquitlam, it's probably not a bad time to mention that at least some good may come out of these horrific crimes.
Some of Canada's most prominent musicians have lent their names and voices to a project to help build a four-bed women's detox centre and transition house in East Vancouver, dedicated to the memory of the missing women.
A very soulful song, The Streets Where You Live, written by Vancouver-area musicians Wyckham Porteous, Gary Durban and John Ellis, is being used to raise funds for the Via Nova Transition Society.
The project proved to be so inspiring that more than 50 of Canada's most famous musicians, including Gordon Downie of the Tragically Hip, Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, Bif Naked, David Usher, Colin James, Barney Bentall and Sarah Harmer, have all lent their voices to the cause.
"Last February, when the police started searching the farm, Wyckham and Gary met to talk about how disgusting it was and how sad it was that people were now associating these women with the pig farm," said project organizer Anna Lily.
Within days of writing the music, the trio talked local songstress Bif Naked into adding her voice to the soundtrack, and then the musicians travelled to Toronto where they spent a weekend seeking out the biggest names in Canadian music to add their voices, too.
The result is a tune that is reminiscent of the international bestseller We Are the World and is now for sale at all A&B Sound stores as a limited edition CD single (price $5.99) released by the Buried Heart Society.
The song is also part of the Women & Songs 6 compilation CD released by Warner Music just prior to the holidays, and will receive partial proceeds from that recording which is expected to sell between 100,000 and 150,000 copies.
The Buried Heart Society is now hoping to promote a fundraiser or concert to continue raising funds for the transition house fund. We'll keep you posted on their progress. In the meantime, check out their Web site at www.buriedheart.com.

More Jubilee Medals

Another long list of Burnaby residents and local personalities has received the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, according to a raft of press releases sent out from a variety of sources in the past few weeks.
Burnaby North MLA Richard T. Lee held a ceremony at the Shadbolt Centre just prior to Christmas where he handed out the medals to six prominent city residents.
Lee presented the medals to Dr. Peter Borwein, lawyer Celso Boscariol, baker Jack Kuyer, Arthur John Lee, auto dealer Gary Morrey and Tong Yuet.
The Vancouver Branch of the War Amputations of Canada Society held a similar occasion at the Holiday Inn Metrotown, where medals were presented to six people active in their national organization.
The War Amp medals were presented to: national president B. Alan Russell; national council member Donald J. Latter; national director Gordon R. Peck; Vancouver branch president E. W. Plumtree; Mary Agnew, the widow of Jack P. Agnew; and Hilda Mayo, the widow of Warren Mayo.
But the longest list of local inductees were those who were invited to a special ceremony in Victoria Wednesday, presided over by B.C. Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo and premier Gordon Campbell.
Local honourees were Greg Aasen, founder of PMC Sierra; Ray and Roxy Abernathy, who are active in community service and sports; Moira Colbourne of the national field hockey program; Tony Knowles of BCIT; and Dr. David R. MacLean.
Other prominent names with some kind of Burnaby connection among the 211 people who received medals at the sober occasion were: Burnaby South graduate and Georgia Strait columnist Terry Glavin; soccer star Bob Lenarduzzi, former national basketball team coach Jay Triano; SFU wrestling coach Dave MacKay; former BCIT chair Wynne Powell; and NHL star 'Burnaby' Joe Sakic.
And the medal notices will keep on coming.
Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota will hand our more medals in a ceremony next Thursday at the solarium at Edmonds Community Centre, while Burnaby-Willingdon MLA expects to see several RCMP members in red serge at his medal presentation ceremony Feb. 6 at the Radisson Hotel.

Standing by their man

Standing by their man
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Jan. 15, 2003

Local Liberal MLAs are standing in support of embattled premier Gordon Campbell, who is facing widespread criticism after he spent last Friday night in an Hawaiian jail on charges of drunk driving.
"Everyone is human," said Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy, echoing thoughts expressed by the four of five Burnaby and New Westminster area MLAs interviewed for this story. "The premier admitted he made a huge mistake, and he's not contesting it.
"It was a serious offence, period, and it was totally wrong. But he's also taken total responsibility for it, and he's asked for forgiveness, and I am prepared to work with him."
"I accept his apology," said Joyce Murray, the New Westminster MLA and B.C. environment minister. "He has acknowledged it was the wrong thing to do. But I also think the premier has a responsibility to the people of B.C. to carry through with the programs that he's initiated.
"I think the responsible thing for the premier to do is to continue to carry out that agenda. That, to me, is serving the public interest in a far more difficult or valuable way than he would be by resigning at this point."
"It certainly is a matter of bad judgment and the fact that he has the courage to admit it publicly and take responsibility to face the consequences, I think is a very courageous thing on his part," said John Nuraney, Burnaby-Willingdon MLA. "I certainly feel that the matter is not demanding of his resignation particularly because of the vision and the direction that he has offered British Columbians for the past several months.
"We need his leadership to take us to a fruitful conclusion."
"This is his moment of darkness and he needs to know there is an army of supporters who will work tirelessly to make sure he carries on and remains as premier," said Patty Sahota, Burnaby-Edmonds MLA.
But those kind words were a far cry from the opinion of Graeme Bowbrick, the former B.C. NDP attorney general who once called on his own party's premier, Glen Clark, to step aside while he was under investigation for the North Burnaby Inn casino affair.
"For Gordon Campbell to try and make this distinction that this is a personal matter and doesn't impact on his duties in office is wrong," said Bowbrick, a practising lawyer. "He is the leader, he appoints the attorney general and he is the senior lawmaker in the province.
"If you ask whether he has to resign from a legal or constitutional basis, the answer is probably not, but on a moral basis I guess that's up to Gordon Campbell's morality. Certainly the moral standard he's imposed on everybody else for almost a decade has been much higher than the standard he is himself living up to.
"Campbell has done more than anyone else to create an environment where very high demands are made on politicians who make any kind of mistake," Bowbrick said. "Now he has to live up to his own standards.
"There's a huge issue of hypocrisy here," Bowbrick said. "I'm not aware of any other premier who was guilty of a crime while in office. And we've seen premiers in B.C. who have resigned for much less. Mike Harcourt resigned not for anything he was personally accused of, but because of criticism towards his own political party."
Bowbrick also believes that Campbell exhibited a lack of sincerity when he made his public apology on television Sunday afternoon.
"He (Campbell) doesn't want to utter the words 'I committed a crime' because he doesn't want it thrown back at him, but it's all sophistry and spin. His remarks were carefully crafted by the spin doctors. They were not the remarks of a man who was personally devastated. Yes, I accept he feels badly. But someone who is truly devastated when asked if he committed a crime would just say 'yes.'"
Bowbrick also said that Campbell should resign because he personally kicked former Vancouver Island MLA Paul Reitsma out of the Liberal caucus when he was caught writing phony letters to the editor, and Surrey MLA Tony Bhullar was ejected because of a criminal matter that is still before the courts.
"I think that level of hypocrisy will hurt him more than anything else," said Bowbrick. "On another level this is saddening and sickening because it debases politicians in British Columbia, and I don't say that in a partisan way.
"I don't think this is going to go away anytime soon. I think Campbell is making a mistake and it's going to damage his party and that's a very selfish thing to do. I've seen this before.
"But the real test will be what the opinion polls say in about three months' time," said the former NDP cabinet minister. "Already his personal approval ratings are quite low, and they'll go down now to about the 20s and it's likely he'll pull his party down with him. If I was a Liberal MLA I'd be worried."
But the Liberal MLAs are confident that, given time, the whole affair will blow over.
"I don't share Graeme's opinion," said Murray, who defeated Bowbrick in the last provincial election.
"I want to turn this into a positive," added Bloy. "It's a wake- up call to thousands of British Columbians and I hope he (Campbell) gets together with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to become a spokesperson and possibly with ICBC or insurance groups,too."
When asked if Campbell would have called for the resignation of any political foe who spent the night in jail, Bloy said: "I can't answer that question. There could be so many other circumstances. We're lucky that nobody was hurt. He asked for forgiveness, and I'm prepared to give that to him."
The 71-member B.C. Liberal caucus is scheduled to meet Thursday morning to discuss the issue.