Thursday October 11, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 82)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
On faith: Sid Bentley – who’s spent his life teaching about world religions – reflects on his rewarding life, as he spends his final days in palliative care at Peace Arch Hospital. › see page A11
Constituency presidents exchange calls to quit with Cummins
BC Conservatives spar with leader Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
As many as 24 BC Conservative constituency association boards were threatening mass resignation to press for reform, before party leader John Cummins this week issued a public get-in-line-or-quit warning to dissidents. Allison Patton, president and potential candidate of the Surrey-White Rock BC Conservative constituency
association, told Peace Arch News the associations were unhappy with the way certain Cummins aides were running the party, but that they weren’t, at first, seeking the leader’s removal. Patton said the different association executives were considering resigning one after another – either daily or weekly – over a period of several weeks to generate as much pressure as possible to get the aides removed. Patton said the associations decided
to call for Cummins to quit after he told dissidents they had until noon Wednesday to get on side or resign. In response, Patton, together with Burnaby North BC Conservative constituency association president Ariane Eckardt, sent a letter to Cummins and party president Al Siebring calling on Cummins himself to resign. The letter – made public Tuesday – complains Cummins and his aides have been trying to force out execu-
tives of constituency associations. “Individual (associations) operating on their own began to get the feeling that you were disinterested in their concerns and, in many cases, that in fact it was your intent to replace them,” the Patton-Eckardt letter said. “This has been reinforced by your minions by email. This feeling was intensified by middlemen reported to speak on your behalf. › see page A4
Dan Ferguson photo
Allison Patton.
Gord Goble photo
The joint is jumping
The lure of the line brought dozens of fishing enthusiasts out to the waters of the Nicomekl and Serpentine rivers last weekend, where salmon were seen jumping every few seconds.
City, RCMP defer comment to Fraser Health
White Rock’s man on the street moved by authorities Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Ryan Ashe homeless
White Rock’s most visible longtime street person was removed from a bus stop by police and paramedics last weekend, but it’s not known why and for how long. City officials deferred questions regarding Ryan Ashe’s removal to Fraser Health. Police would also not comment, other than to confirm they were involved. Citing confidentiality, Fraser Health spokesman Roy Thorpe-Dorward said he could not confirm if Ashe was taken to hospital under the Mental Health Act. At least one resident is wondering whether a recent
letter to the editor to Peace Arch News, criticizing the relocation of “the White Rock hobo… half a block at a time,” had anything to do with his removal. “It’s uncanny timing if it’s just coincidental,” said Lance Spurr. “Nothing happened for what, three decades, and the letter comes out and bam – they swooped down and got him. They never ever took him for vagrancy… never did anything to Ryan.” Susan Pichette had written PAN with concerns the homeless man was ruining her neighbourhood by taking over various areas around Hillcrest Plaza with his belongings and that he was defecating in public.
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She described him as “dirty and scary looking” and suggested few of those who feel sorry for him would like him in their neighbourhood. “So why does he get to live in White Rock and make our area look ‘slummy’?” Pichette wrote in a letter published Sept. 27. In the days that followed, PAN received letters indicating disagreement with Pichette. A week after her letter was printed, police and paramedics removed Ashe from his latest ‘camp’ at a bus stop on Thrift Avenue just west of Johnston Road. › see page A4
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