Thursday Sept. 13, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. o. 74))
V O I C E
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Home-field advantage: Every member of the White Rock-South Surrey Titans played on home turf Sunday, as the minor football association hosted its annual Titans Day. see page A51
Stop-work order issued after cutting extends into city park and through neighbours’ properties
Outrage over extensive clearcutting Kevin Diakiw Black Press
Giant logs litter a development site in Newton where an approved tree cut allegedly went well beyond city permits and into protected areas and other private lands. A housing development at 5904 144 St. approved by council last June required the removal of 39 significant trees. The city
issued permits for the cut, and on Aug. 12, those trees were removed. However, according to City of Surrey General Manager of Planning and Development Jean Lamontagne, the cutting went much further. The tree felling proceeded through a riparian area designated as a city park and continued onto private properties.
The developer also cut into the setback of a tributary of Hyland Creek, which is a fishbearing stream, Lamontagne said. Neighbours quickly called the City of Surrey, which slapped a stop-work order on the development, but not before the damage had been done. Several investigations have been launched to discover what went wrong.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is conducting a separate probe. Starla Dejong lives next door to the clearcut and said she was told to leave her suite because the tree cutter felt a large maple tree was going to fall on the house. The size and scope of the clearcut infuriated the neighbours, she said. see page A4
Gord Goble photos
First responders remember 9-11 Bob Rietveld leads the colour guard in Tuesday’s ceremony at the Peace Arch, held to mark the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Hundreds of first responders from both sides of the border gathered to remember the tragedy.
Victim testifies he tried to protect himself against a hammer and pipe wrench with bare hands
‘My husband’s killing someone,’ court hears Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Sheri-Lynn Brown remembers that the words her husband spoke to her three years ago left her uneasy. “He said, ‘no matter what you hear, no matter what you see, do not come out of the trailer,’” Brown told Justice R. Crawford Monday. “It’s not a statement you make every day. Something in my stomach said something isn’t right.”
Not long after, she was pleading for a neighbour’s help. She told him, “my husband’s killing someone,” she said. Brown was testifying in the Supreme Court trial of Darryl Gordon Brown, who at the start of proceedings pleaded not guilty to three charges – aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and robbery – in connection with an Aug. 1, 2009, incident in South Surrey
that seriously injured White Rock businessman Fred Edrissi. Darryl Brown was ordered in December 2010 to stand trial on the charges, following a preliminary hearing in Surrey Provincial Court. The bulk of Edrissi’s evidence was heard Tuesday, when he told Crawford how he went to a property in the 16500-block of 32 Avenue – where Darryl Brown was living – on the night in question
demeanour – he was nervous and agitated, he said. Edrissi said he followed instructions from Brown to move his minivan to the back of the trailer, then headed into a workshop nearby to try and fix a grinder that Brown had been struggling with. He was at a workbench with his back to the door when, “bang, bang, bang on my head.” see page A5
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to have mechanical work done on his minivan. Brown was renting a trailer from a friend of Edrissi’s who lived in a house on the same property. Edrissi had attended the site twice earlier in the day, but Brown kept sending him away, first to pick up parts, and then because Brown said he wanted some quiet time with his wife, he said. Edrissi said on his last return, he noticed a change in Brown’s
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