BEARS ONLINE: Tri-City residents looking for information on local bear sightings now have a new tool to find out where potential problems are. Bear Aware has installed a new mapping tool on its website that tracks complaints by date and location. The idea is to find out what is attracting bears to certain neighbourhoods so people clean up their garbage and other attractants to avoid problems. Other wildlife issues are listed in the map as well. To view it, visit www.bearaware.bc.ca and click on Bear Sightings. For some info on hungry local bears, see page 14.
THE WEDNESDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Riverview Stories
A Newfie kitchen party
SEE LIFE, PAGE 16
SEE ARTS, PAGE 26
OCT. 3, 2012 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Tom Fletcher/10 Letters/11 A Good Read/20 Sports/30
Hate is wrapped in bacon Leader invites vandal to talk By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS
BOAZ JOSEPH/BLACK PRESS
Port Moody’s Melissa Viktora stretches with friend Katie Hjort-Olsen of Maple Ridge prior to racing at the inaugural Surrey International World Music Marathon on Sunday. A Coquitlam runner, Jeremy Waters, with a time of two hours, 47 minutes, 26 seconds, placed second overall behind Surrey’s Drew Nicholson (2:36:19) and ahead of White Rock’s Chris Barth (2:50:26). For more sports, please see page 30.
Porter PAC opposes land sale By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Parents of students attending Porter Street elementary school in Coquitlam are mounting a campaign to stop a proposal to sell school property for housing. Wendy Oloman, who is on the school’s parent ad-
visory council, said Porter parents are concerned about the proposed sale and the impact that nine new houses on Grover Avenue would have on traffic and school access; as well, they don’t believe the land is“surplus,”as defined by School District 43. “We use that land
every day. The kids play on it for soccer. It’s a major access point... we think they’ve made an error in deeming it surplus,” said Oloman, a PAC spokesperson. The PAC is setting up a committee to look further into the matter and plans to present its concerns to the board of
education on Oct. 23. Just over three weeks ago, Coquitlam school board approved a process for gathering public input for selling land at Porter Street and Parkland elementary schools, both in Coquitlam. see OPEN HOUSE, page 3
Keeping kids safe online. See page 4
Attention predators: undercover officers are online.
Faced with hate, some people respond with anger, even a clenched fist. Faced with hate — in the form of cured pork — a local Muslim leader is responding with an open door. Coquitlam RCMP issued a press release Tuesday asking for the public’s help in identifying the person who placed slices of bacon on the exterior walls and around the entrance of the Masjid Al-Hidayah and Islamic Cultural Centre, the Muslim mosque on Kingsway Avenue in Port Coquitlam. The meat was discovered last Wednesday at around 9 p.m. at the conclusion of the mosque’s late evening prayers. Consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam and police are treating the act of vandalism, the second in the last two years, as a hate crime. Saad Bahr, the president of the Islamic Society of BC, which operates the mosque, said he believes those responsible for the vandalism do not understand Islam
“We welcome you to come and learn through us by asking questions.” Saad Bahr, Islamic leader, to the vandal who spread bacon at the PoCo mosque and what the centre does for the community. “They don’t know us,” he told The Tri-City News yesterday. His message to the vandal: “We welcome you to come and learn through us by asking questions, instead of having it from a third party where you might be getting distorted information. I hope this message will reach those people.” see VANDALS HIT, page 9