Tuesday October 16, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 83)
V O I C E
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Paws for effect: Husky-cross Lola is among canines making a difference in the lives of Peace Arch Hospital’s longterm residents like Doug Smith, whose health benefits from the visits. › see page A11
All-candidates forums not scheduled before White Rock votes Nov. 3
No hosts for city’s byelection hopefuls Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
With 2½ weeks to go before White Rock’s byelection, it’s looking like candidates are on their own to get their platforms out to voters. As of Monday, there were no all-candidates meetings scheduled prior to byelection day, Nov. 3 – and none in the works. (Peace Arch News has posed a series of questions to candidates and will be running
their responses in an upcoming edition.) Officials with both the White Rock Business Improvement Association and the South Surrey White Rock Chamber of Commerce confirmed their respective organizations will not be hosting meetings. “Traditionally, the BIA is a non-partisan organization, so we don’t get involved in politics,” executive director Sherri Wilson Morissette said Monday.
While the BIA did host an all-candidates meeting for the 2011 election, Wilson Morissette explained an exception was made last year after scheduled meetings by the chamber had been cancelled due to financial struggles. It is unclear if finances played a role in this year’s decision. Chamber executive director Cliff Annable was not available to comment before Peace Arch News deadline Monday. In the lead-up to the last byelection in 2009
– held to fill the seat left vacant following James Coleridge’s removal from office by the B.C. Supreme Court – at least two all-candidates meetings were held to help voters get to know more about who was on the ballot. This time, nine candidates are in the running, vying for the council seat formerly held by longtime city councillor Mary-Wade Anderson, following her death June 26. Advance voting is set for Oct. 24 and 30.
Homeless man found
Big brother located in hospital Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Evan Seal photo
Visitors and staff outside the BC Cancer Agency’s Fraser Valley Centre are not put off by warning signs and unenforced City of Surrey bylaws.
Cigarette smoke irritates South Surrey man undergoing treatment
Cancer patients struggle with gauntlet Kevin Diakiw Black Press
David Thiele patient
David Thiele is tired and sick after getting radiation treatments for his brain tumour at the BC Cancer Agency’s Fraser Valley Centre in North Surrey. The South Surrey man is also nauseated by the clouds of blue tobacco smoke he must walk through when leaving a treatment session. The smokers aren’t allowed to be there. Under both provincial and municipal
laws, they must be 7.5 metres from any door, vent or window. What’s more, under the rules of the cancer agency, smoking is not allowed anywhere on the property. Yet every day, as many as eight people huddle around the door of the building and puff away. Friday afternoon, there was a steady flow of smokers. Two of them were cancer centre staff. One of them, whose name tag identified him as Ken, said
he’s seen the signs but chooses to ignore them like everyone else. “It’s not enforced,” Ken said. Asked if that makes smoking there OK, he said, “Yeah, it does.” Cancer centre officials say they are sensitive to the problem and doubled their signage out front. And when that didn’t work, staff put out sandwich boards near the parking lot imploring people not to smoke at the entrance. › see page A4
It took a week and a trip to Peace Arch Hospital, but the sister of White Rock’s much-discussed homeless man finally knows where her older brother is. But Orphee Martin said she still doesn’t know what will happen to Ryan Ashe once doctors have completed a psychiatric assessment of Ryan Ashe him. homeless “I actually traced him down to Peace Arch Hospital, and he can have visitors,” Martin said Monday. “He’s there and he seems to be fine. “It’s just a question of what happens after that?” Authorities removed Ashe and his belongings from his ‘camp’ at a Thrift Avenue bus stop on Oct. 5. The 56-year-old – who has been a fixture in White Rock for decades – had been there since late April, following a request from city officials to vacate a bus stop on Johnston Road at Thrift. › see page A4
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