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Times
Skyhawks Soar
The Langley
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Township debates exit from Metro Vancouver
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COOL IN THE POOL
MIRANDA GATHERCOLE Times Reporter
In 1988, Langley Township joined the Greater Vancouver Regional District to better supply residents with utility services, but now council is questioning this decision for the second time in 24 years. There are some concerns that the Township is not getting enough bang for its more than $19 million contribution to Metro in 2011, of which just over $12 million was sent to TransLink. At a council priorities committee meeting on Monday afternoon, council flagged several issues that it sees with Metro Vancouver, including: where the Regional Growth Strategy fits in with the Community Charter and how it affects growth in Langley, special study areas such as the University district, the dissolution of the labour bureau and transit services. “My concern is that the voices around our needs are not well listened to,” Councillor Kim Richter said during the meeting. continued, PAGE 12
Miranda GATHERCOLE /Langley Times
Siblings Kalyn Gustavson, 10, Bryce Gustavson, 8, and Kiandra Gustavson, 9, cool off from the hot weekend weather at Al Anderson Memorial Pool. The outdoor pool celebrated its official opening on Thursday and is holding several family-friendly swims this year, including a Loonie Swim every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For a complete schedule of events for the spring or summer, visit the pool at 4949 207 St. Schedules can also be downloaded from the City of Langley website www.city.langley.bc.ca.
Five and a half years for road rage death Brent Parent given prison term and 12 year driving ban for 2008 hit-and-run death of Silas O’Brien MONIQUE TAMMINGA Times Reporter
Brent Parent will spend the next five and a half years behind bars and will not be allowed to drive for 12 years for the hit-andrun death of 21-year-old Silas O’Brien. In front of a full courtroom in New Westminster Supreme Court on Thursday morning, Judge Terence Schultes sentenced Parent, 43, to four years and six months for criminal negligence causing death, nine
months for dangerous driving and three months for failing to stay at the scene of an accident. In his sentencing, Scholtes said vehicles must never be used as instruments of aggression. The judge found, through the evidence, that Parent did not intend to hit O’Brien, but his actions to swerve his truck towards the three young men on the side of that dark road were “fraught with risk.” Schultes said he wanted to strike a bal-
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ance between the Crown’s request to see Parent go away for eight years and the defense’s suggestion of three to four years. He also hoped that Parent would take advantage of anger management counselling that will be made available to him in jail. After he was sentenced, O’Brien’s father spoke to the media, saying the sentence was what he expected. Rodger O’Brien thanked the Crown and Integrated Homicide Investigation Team “for all the work they put into this.” O’Brien believes it’s unlikely Parent will appeal the sentence. “We would like to put this all behind us now,” he said of the court proceedings. He hopes the sentence sends a message to
Parent who will have a lot of time to think about it while in jail. O’Brien said his wife chose not to come to the sentencing. Sam Dooley and Luke Stephen, who were on their way to the airport with O’Brien that tragic night in March 2008, attended the sentencing. In the early morning hours of March 13, 2008, O’Brien, Dooley and Stephen were on their way to a Seattle airport, looking forward to their first vacation to Hawaii. Parent, who was driving a diesel Ford F350, became enraged when he thought that the Chevy Silverado O’Brien was riding in had deliberately flashed its high beams at continued, PAGE 7
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