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PROVINCE TO SELL ASSETS PAGE 5
CENTS & VEES IN A THRILLA PAGE 21
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2012 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Merritt woman stabbed in random act of violence By Jade Swartzberg
later transferred to Kamloops Royal Inland Hospital for surgery. Within an hour of the stabbing, police located an 18-year-old Merritt area resident who fit the description and arrested him. “There was some indication of alcohol, but whether or not there were drugs, I don’t know,” said Dunsmore. The young man is expected to appear before a judge in Kamloops court today. Dunsmore said she assumes when the young man goes to court there will be some kind of psychological assessment. “Over the years I’ve had some incidents where people have kind of gone berserk,” she said. “This is not normal behaviour, even for someone who is under the influence of alcohol.” Initial reports indicated the victim’s wounds were lifethreatening and in an email to the Herald on Wednesday morning, Betty Johnson, the victim’s mother, said her daughter was hooked up to multiple tubes and being monitored all the time. Later that day, Betty said there was no official update yet.
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President of the Nicola Valley Teachers Union Loch Eddy and Nicola-Similkameen School District 58 staff picketed and marched throughout Merritt on Monday to protest limited government funding for education. Phillip Woolgar/Herald
Merritt teachers join ‘day of action’ By Phillip Woolgar THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Merritt teachers gathered in subfreezing temperatures on Monday to slam what they called mismanagement of education in B.C. The protest came just one day before the B.C. Labour Relations Board approved a strike request, but limited it to three consecutive days and then one day each week. Teachers are also required to give two days notice to parents prior to walking off. “Today, teachers and citizens across the province are standing together to show our resolve in the face of endless attacks on public education, on
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students and teachers, and on all who have been affected by the government’s disastrous cuts to our public services in British Columbia,” said Loch Eddy, Nicola Valley Teachers’ Union president, to the group of approximately 30 protesters who gathered in front of the Coldwater Hotel. “Our fight is to have full funding reinstated to all of these public services that provide for the well-being of our citizens.” The Merritt teachers protested along with educators throughout the province in a “provincewide day of action.” Eddy outlined what would happen if teachers adopted a “net-zero” policy, meaning teachers would only work
the hours for which they are paid. He claimed teachers would need to eliminate nearly all teacher meetings, field trips, extra help at lunch and after school, lesson preparation, report cards and adaptation of work for children with special needs. Sports, clubs, science fairs, music performances and theatre would cease. He went on to say teachers also supply many students with materials, paying on average $500 per year for the expenses. The protesters walked up Voght Street to Nicola Avenue and then to the Nicola-Similkameen School Board Office on Chapman Street, hold-
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A Merritt woman is in serious but stable condition after she was stabbed multiple times on her doorstep in what police are describing as a random act of violence Monday night. Forty-year-old Tracey Johnson heard a knock on the front door of her home on Quilchena Avenue at around 8:30 p.m. When she opened the door, a young native male who she did not know asked her for a ride and she refused. “The male then, without provocation, attacked the woman with a knife and stabbed her multiple times in the chest, back and arms,” said Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore. The attacker fled the scene and a neighbour, who had heard Johnson’s screams, called 911. Dunsmore said when the RCMP arrived at her home, Johnson was conscious and was able to give a description of her attacker, though she was suffering from the multiple stab wounds. Johnson was taken immediately to the Nicola Valley Health Center and
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