Barefoot runner takes to the road /A3
VICTORIANEWS VICTORIA Friday, September 21, 2012
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Keeping people housed
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Cops set off Sunday on 1,000kilometre journey against cancer Natalie North News staff
Roszan Holmen News staff
PLEASE SEE: Ending homelessness, Page A6
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Tour de Rock prepares to take Island by storm
Homeless numbers holding steady in Capital Region
Alberta may have the reputation as Canada’s most Conservative province, but it has the first and only provincial government in Canada to commit to ending homelessness. This commitment helped Calgary reverse its growing problem, said Tim Ritcher, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. “At the end of the day, provincial policy change will be the single most important factor in ending homelessness,” Ritcher, keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, said Tuesday. “They have the money.” Calgary, where Ritcher previously led a homeless foundation, was the first Canadian city to sign on to a 10-year plan to end homelessness. Since 2008, it has housed 4,000 people. Greater Victoria was the second region to sign on to the plan. Now four years into its strategy, the Coalition reports mixed results. In 2011-12, 639 people were housed, slightly higher than the average number housed annually since 2008. Also, 152 net new subsidized housing units came onstream in the region.
Offer Expires Oct. 5th, 2012
Don Descoteau/News staff
Art in bloom Photographic artist Janice Beiles sits at her kitchen table with some mounted floral photos she will show at this weekend’s James Bay Art Walk. Four artists will show their work at Beiles’ home, while another dozen will be scattered at sites around the neighbourhood. See story, page A20.
Composure is expected of Oak Bay cop Dorothy Junio, but it’s hard not to get a little misty-eyed walking into the Oak Bay High gymnasium when 1,500 kids are screaming for the Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock team. For her last two years in the role, the former school liaison officer was swept into the excitement with the Oak Bay teens as they went head-to-head in a fundraising face-off with Reynolds secondary – an annual challenge that has seen students at both schools band together to generate tens of thousands of dollars for the cause that fights childhood cancer. “That’s what drew me into this to begin with,” said Junio. “I cannot believe the passion and the emotions that go along with this. It’s contagious. The real purpose comes out when you see kids so dedicated to the Christine van Reeuwyk/News staff cause.” Husband and wife Jett So Junio, 50, along with her and Dorothy Junio are husband Jett Junio, a Saanich riding the Tour. police officer, became the first husband and wife duo to join the team of police officers on the 1,000-kilometre journey down Vancouver Island set to leave from Port Alice on Sunday. And while Junio was physically fit leading up to the Tour, the commitment meant adjusting to the extreme balancing act of managing three training sessions per week and attending fundraisers and community events with Cops for Cancer, on top of her work as a police officer, business owner and parent of two teens – who have had to “fend for themselves,” she said, while both parents have been tied up. PLEASE SEE: Individual riders, Page A5