TRAGIC CRASH CLAIMS 3 RESIDENTS
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OFFICE TOWER OUR OLYMPIC VILLAGE?
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HOMECOMING UGLY, BUT A WIN
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WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 19 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com
New West’s Mark Jaccard has been named to the Clean50. See Page A24
Dispensary reaches out to residents Mario Bartel
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MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Emily Roberts-McCue flies across the floor as she prepares for the World Dance Championships in October in Frankfurt, Germany.
Dancing for her daddy Mario Bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
Emily Roberts-McCue will be one of 43 young dancers representing Canada at the 2012 World Dance Championships in October. But it’s an unseen presence the 17-year-old New Westminster ballerina hopes will charge her chassé, and propel her plié across the expansive stage in Frankfurt, Germany. Since Roberts-McCue first took up ballet at Kirkwood Academy when she was six years old, her father David McCue had been a
doting dance parent. He ensured she got to her lessons on time, drove her to and from competitions. Sometimes he tried to arrive before the end of her sessions so he could steal glimpses of her through the studio door. “He was always supportive,” says Emily. On Jan. 29, David died suddenly of a heart attack. Five days later, Emily danced in a competition, to honour his devotion to her passion, to soothe her grief. Through the rest of winter and well into spring she kept competing,
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locally, then regionally. And she kept winning, eventually earning private auditions that would lead to her selection to Canada’s national dance team. “It still hasn’t hit me that he’s gone,” says Emily of her late father, himself an accomplished musician who once played guitar with the 1960s country band Evan Kemp and the Trail Riders. “I’m still dancing for daddy.” Having survived the grueling process that whittled thousands of aspiring dancers down to the 43 who will perform in Frankfurt,
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Emily is now looking ahead to the competition, which she says is like the “Olympics of dance.” That means a lot of extra practice. In addition to her usual schedule of lessons, as well as preparing for her 10th season in Royal City Youth Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, Emily puts in six-hour days on weekends at the Tri-City Dance Centre in Coquitlam, working with six other dancers who will also be traveling to Germany. see ‘I WISH HE COULD BE THERE’, A3
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Like any small businessman Justin Cleveland is passionate about the product he sells. But when that product is illegal unless it’s being obtained by permission of the federal government and with a doctor’s prescription, Cleveland knows he has to tread carefully to ease the concerns of neighbouring businesses and residents. Cleveland is the president of the West Coast Green Light Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe, legal access to marijuana for medical needs. Since April he’s been in the process of opening the N.I.C.E. Dispensary at 907 12th St. to distribute cannabis to customers who need it to ease the symptoms of a variety of ailments, like nausea from cancer treatment, Multiple Sclerosis, arthritis, epilepsy and glaucoma. And while the front door is open to the spartan dispensary that consists of a row of chairs, two dispensing offices and a countertop, not a single leaf, bottle of tincture or cannabis capsule has yet to be sold. see ‘IT’S NOT’, A3