Restoration work Gabriolan hired for project on B.C.’s oldest yacht. PAGE 14 Cook fired up University student hopes for an edge at barbecue festival. PAGE 21 Twin bill Premier Pirates feature brothers with increasingly important roles. PAGE 3
Focus on forensics PAGE 7
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DR. ANITA LAU, Optometrist
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VOL. 24, NO. 30
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Riding boundary changes could create challenge BY TOBY GORMAN THE NEWS BULLETIN
City sued over fatal train crash BY CHRIS HAMLYN THE NEWS BULLETIN
The City of Nanaimo is one of several defendants named in lawsuits arising from an Oct. 14, 2009 crash between a Southern Railway of Vancouver Island Dayliner and a car turning from the southbound lane of Highway 19A onto Dorman Road. The 44-year-old driver, Roseane Perreault and her common-law partner Lyle Hall, 49, of Harewood, the front passenger, died at the scene. Their son, Andrew Hall, 14 at the time, was airlifted to B.C. Children’s Hospital with injuries to his spine,
head and abdomen. A Transportation Safety Board report, released in September 2010, found a substandard design of the railway crossing was partly to blame for the crash. The automated warning bells and lights were functioning properly at the time of the crash, but the lights and vehicle approaches to the crossing were below modern standards. Peter Hickli, head of the Transportation Safety Board investigation, said the warning lights should have been angled to be more visible to drivers turning off the highway. ◆ See ‘PROVINCE’ /6
TREAD LIGHTLY Even if geese could read, they would probably still ignore the sign on the fence intended to keep them and their droppings off the beaches at Westwood Lake Park. Several families of geese were basking under the sun that warmed their sandy relaxation area Wednesday morning. CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
The proposed creation of a new federal electoral district near Victoria will have major implications in Nanaimo. Due to population increases counted in the 2011 federal census, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia is proposing the new riding of South Cowichan-Juan de Fuca. If approved, the new riding would split NanaimoCowichan, currently held by NDP MP Jean Crowder, and push the riding northward to encompass virtually all of Nanaimo, as well as part of Ladysmith and Lake Cowichan. It would lose Duncan, Cobble Hill, Mill Bay and Chemainus to the new riding. The new northern boundary of Nanaimo-Cowichan would be the intersection of the Nanaimo Parkway and Island Highway North. Proposed boundaries for Nanaimo-Alberni, currently held by Conservative MP James Lunney, would include the Regional District of Alberni-Clayoquot, part of Courtenay, the Village of Cumberland, and a very small piece of Nanaimo that would include the neighbourhood around Brannen Lake west of the Nanaimo Parkway. Existing boundaries divide the ridings in Nanaimo at East Wellington Road to Townsite Road, along Boundary Avenue to Northfield Road and east to Highland Boulevard, along Departure Bay Road to its eastern limit at Fairview Channel. The city is split between the two ridings with about 45,000 people in both. The changes could create electoral challenges for both Crowder and Lunney. ◆ See ‘PROPOSAL’ /4
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I expected to be pushed north, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be quite this much.
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