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Chilliwack man unfit to stand trial for wife’s murder
■ C OMMEMORATING V IMY R IDGE
School report card confusion continues Katie Bartel
Robert Freeman
The Progress
The Progress A Ryder Lake man may never serve time in jail for stabbing his wife to death. But David Miller, 53, is already serving a life sentence as Huntington’s Dementia ravages his mind and body, and he will likely spend the rest of his life in a forensic hospital, a Supreme Court Justice said Thursday. Justice Brian Joyce made the remark after finding Miller unfit to stand trial that was scheduled to start on April 23. Last September, Joyce found Miller was fit to stand trial for the second-degree murder of his 46-year-old wife Susan, but said defense counsel could still bring evidence that his client’s “cognitive capacity” had reached such a low that the fitness ruling could change. Crown Counsel did not contest a neurological report introduced in court last week that suggested Miller had reached the point where he could no longer communicate with his lawyer, and therefore could not take part in courtroom proceedings in any meaningful way. Miller was arrested on Boxing Day, 2009 at his Ryder Lake home where he waited for police to arrive after he had killed his wife. According to a court document, Miller had left a hospital where he was being treated for Huntington’s Dementia earlier that day. When he arrived home, at some point he took a knife from the kitchen and went to his wife’s bedroom where he stabbed her to death. “He told his daughter what he had done, and told her to call the police,” the document stated. “Mr. Miller then sat on the deck outside the house and waited for the police to arrive.” Crown counsel Henry Waldock was limited to what he could say outside the courtroom at the end of the trial because Miller’s fitness will be reviewed in two years. But there is little likelihood the ruling will be reversed because there is no cure for Huntington’s, a degenerative genetic disorder that drastically reduces life expectancy. “It’s an all-around tragedy for everyone,” Waldock said. rfreeman@theprogress.com twitter.com/paperboy2
Capt. Jim Bemister of the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps. places a wreath by the cenotaph at Sappers’ Memorial Park in Vedder commemorating the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge on Monday morning. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
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Teacher job action may be done, but the waters are still muddy as to what teachers should or should not be doing. Chilliwack teachers received a letter of expectation from the school district’s superintendent last week requiring them to write report cards, which is a responsibility as outlined in the school act. However, the issue lies with the expectation of elementary school teachers having to write term-two report cards, which would have come out mid March – around the same time teachers were still engaged in job action. (Middle and secondar y school teachers only have to write term-three and final report cards as per the letter of expectation.) “The union is looking at the expectation of the school district and determining whether any of the requests are something we would consider to be struck work and not necessary, particularly at the elementary level,” said Chilliwack Teachers’ Association president Katharin Midzain. “The issue with the union is whether sending that information ... is contrary to our job action.” When interviewed by The Progress, Midzain would not publicly take a stand either way. She would not state whether the CTA believed the request to be reasonable, or whether it was in fact directing elementary teachers not to write report cards. Continued: REPORT/ p4
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