Terry Fox run Annual cancer fundraiser adds outdoor movie night. Page A3
COMMUNITY: ALS walk helps heal family /A5 ARTS: Film week features Latin flair /A25 SPORTS: Victoria’s first XTerra race Sunday /A31
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SAANICHNEWS Friday, September 14, 2012
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Rotating strikes hit UVic Security, admin staff walk off the job
Fruits of her labour
Kyle Slavin
Diane Whitehead harvests raspberries in her garden plot in the Agnes Street Community Garden. The popular garden produces veggies year-round. Gardeners are currently planting their winter crops with vegetable seedlings started in July or August.
News staff
No propane cannons have gone off at the Blenkinsop Valley farm since 2010, and Hopkins credits that to the predation management plan. Cannons are used as a last-ditch effort when visual deterrents and other audible devices don’t work. But neighbours aren’t content that there’s a chance the cannons could go off again, at any time, in the event of a new flock of birds swarms onto the nearby crops. Saanich councillors Susan Brice and Nichola Wade brought forward a motion at Monday’s council meeting asking staff to look at options regarding cannons to mitigate friction between neighbours and the farm.
Picketing ramped up at the University of Victoria this week, as striking CUPE workers walked the line both Tuesday and Wednesday. On the first day of picketing, campus security workers with CUPE 917 set up strikes around the campus security building. On Wednesday, staff picketed outside multiple UVic buildings throughout the day, including the Administrative Services Building, the Saunders Annex and a continuation of the strike at the campus security building. Workers from both 917 and CUPE 951 took part. “We see it as sort of upping the ante a little bit. It’s starting to have a direct cost to the employer,” said Rob Park, president of CUPE 917. This week’s job action hit departments linked with accounting, pensions, purchasing, printing and distribution services. “We, again, are trying to move things along without impacting the students,” Park said. “We’re starting to run out of alternatives, but we’re still using the ones we’ve got.” Doug Sprenger, president of CUPE 951 told the News last week the unions don’t intend to directly impact students until Sept. 17, unless both sides return to the bargaining table.
PLEASE SEE: Cannons, Page A6
PLEASE SEE: UVic, Page A6
Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Saanich pressured to ban bird cannons Rarely used, but propane noisemakers help save crops, says farmer Kyle Slavin News staff
When Canada geese were continually attacking blueberry crops at Beckwith Farm in 2010, the farm launched its bird predation plan – which includes a noise cannon. “The predator kites and other visual deterrents had no effect on the Canada geese,” said Wayne Hopkins, president of Beckwith Farm. “These geese were landing and eating the leaves. They killed somewhere around
12,000 plants in a matter of a few days. It all happened very quickly, so we had to employ noise devices very quickly.” One such device was a propane cannon, which, when fired, creates a 130 decibel bang to scare birds away. The birds aren’t too fond of the noise, and neighbours near the farm aren’t either. “It defies common sense to use propane cannons as a bird deterrent 200m from urban homes in long established Saanich neighbourhoods,” reads a brochure from the Concerned Neighbours of Beckwith Farm organization. “The noise generated by propane cannons firing 200m from urban homes is debilitating to a large number of residents ... causing significant impacts to health, livelihood and happiness.”
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