NEWS
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Thursday, June 21, 2012 Nanaimo News Bulletin
7
Inbrief Mounties still investigate case city scene
Masonic visit a boon for city More than 400 delegates are in Nanaimo for a Masonic leadership conference this week. The Grand Lodge of B.C. and Yukon has chosen to hold its 141st annual communication Thursday to Saturday (June 21-23) at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Conference centre officials estimate the event will generate more than $500,000 in economic benefits for the city. The event includes ceremonies, banquets, meetings and a tour to Coombs for the ladies.
Fire crews busy with fire bug A suspected fire bug was at work in the Bowen Road and Harewood areas early Tuesday morning. Fire crews responded to four small fires in the area, starting with a burning traffic cone near Bowen Park at about 3 a.m. The second fire was a burning portable toilet about an hour later in the Third Street area. Rick Kwasnecha, fire investigator with Nanaimo Fire Rescue, said at this point, firefighters notified police that two arson fires had occurred. But the incidents didn’t stop there – at 4:30 a.m. crews put out a dumpster fire in an apartment complex on Sixth Street and at about 5 a.m., some rubbish was lit on fire on Howard Avenue. Kwasnecha said fire officials suspect it was the same person or group of people responsible for all four incidents.
◆ From /1 About 40 supporters attended last year’s vigil. Ten years have done little to sooth the agony of her daughter’s disappearance. “It was even quite a struggle to get into planning this because it is really hard emotionally,” Joanne said. Lisa Marie would be 31 this year. “There are people who know what happened,” Joanne manages to get out before choking up with emotion. There are plenty of ongoing missing persons cases in B.C., but locally there has always been a strong emphasis by the RCMP on the Lisa Marie Young file because police believe finding her will provide the missing pieces to the puzzle of an unsolved crime. “We believe she met foul play,” said Const. Gary O’Brien, RCMP spokesman. “That’s the bottom line. It’s a suspicious missing [case] and tragically we think she met with the hands of foul play.” Lisa Marie was last seen at about 3 a.m. June 30, 2002, leaving a house party in Nanaimo’s Cath-
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
A walk and candlelight vigil Saturday (June 23) will mark 10 years since Lisa Marie Young disappeared. Police believe the Nanaimo woman, who would be 31 this year, met with foul play.
ers Lake area with a man who drove an older model red Jaguar. The last anyone heard from her
was when she phoned a friend at 4:30 a.m. Police identified the car and the
man Young left the party with. He is part of a police list of persons of interest in the case, but in spite of following up every lead, producing Crime Stoppers TV reenactments and even conducting a full scale search with K-9 units based on information from a psychic, police have, so far, not been able to prove foul play or find the missing woman’s remains. “Based on the evidence gathered – and we have thousands of pieces of documentation, we have hundreds of tips, we have Crime Stoppers tips, we have the public calling, it’s brought to the public’s attention every year through the family’s vigilance with their walks and not letting her memory fade – our members continue to work this file and, hopefully, someday we’ll get a break and we’ll find out what happened,” O’Brien said. Anyone with infor mation about what happened to Lisa Marie Young is asked to contact Nanaimo RCMP at 250-754-2345 or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www. nanaimocrimestoppers.com. photos@nanaimobulletin.com
Federal budget leaves imbalance in coast guard services BY TOBY GORMAN THE NEWS BULLETIN
Nanaimo-Alberni Conservative MP James Lunney expanded on his recent concerns over Canadian Coast Guard cuts Monday, saying that Ottawa bureaucrats have overlooked West Coast geographical challenges by proposing to reduce marine communications and traffic services from five to just two. The cuts are part of Bill C-38, the federal budget, which has moved into the senate and is expected to pass into legislation this week. Kitsilano’s search and rescue base is also slated to be closed, which has caused widespread public concern. Last week, Lunney said he had asked for a hold to be put on the changes – which would see 10 of the country’s 22 MCTS stations close over the next three years – so that further review could take place.
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The proposal would leave two centres monitoring 27,000 kilometres of coast.
The five-term politician, who has backed coast guard services since first elected in 2000, said the new plan would leave an imbalance in coast guard services while leaving the West Coast prone to service gaps. “The MCTS proposal would leave just two centres monitoring 27,000 kilometres of B.C. coast from Sidney on Vancouver Island and Prince Rupert in the North Coast,” said Lunney in a press release. “By contrast, Atlantic Canada, even after reorganization,
will retain five MCTS centres covering 11,400 kilometres of coastline. Something all coastal communities B.C. residents understand but Ottawa seems prone to overlook is our offshore geological fault line; minor quakes happen regularly and geologists tell us a major one is a certainty.” Lunney pointed to a strong quake in 2004 that shook Seattle and closed down U.S. monitoring stations, with Canadian centres temporarily picking up the service. If a similar quake affected Canadian centres, especially Sidney, it would result in one centre being responsible for the entire coast. That centre would be MCTS Prince Rupert, which has its own challenges. Lunney, who has visited the site, said heavy rain, fog, and low cloud cover make many of the antennas inaccessible for weeks on end, making it inadequate to be the sole backup for Sidney. Because of the Asia Pacific
Gateway project, the area will also see increased shipping traffic, including oil supertanker traffic from Kitimat if the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is built. Under the new plan, MCTS Tofino, based in Ucluelet, will be closed, taking about 25 jobs out of the community of about 1,600 people. MCTS Tofino monitors vessels including container ships, tankers, military ships, tugs, barges, sail boats, yachts, cruise ships, commercial and recreational fishers approaching Juan de Fuca Strait, one of the busiest marine traffic lanes in North America. “There is an old adage: a threefold cord is not easily broken,” said Lunney. “MCTS Tofino should remain part of a future state-of-the-art coast guard service.” The proposed plan states that improved technology allows for the closures while maintaining current service levels. reporter2@nanaimobulletin.com
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