THE WEDNESDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
The past on wheels
25 years of quilting
SEE LIFE, PAGE 18
SEE ARTS, PAGE 26
By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
COLLEEN FLANAGAN/BLACK PRESS
Gaya Konikov (middle right) hugs her friend Shelby Ash (middle left) during a memorial Monday afternoon for Coquitlam student Amanda Todd at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge. Young people lit candles in memory of Todd, who took her own life last week, during the gathering.
Exploitation must stop, says Sowden
INSIDE
Tom Fletcher/10 Letters/11 A Good Read/20 Sports/30
Coquitlam will be reviewing sedimentation control requirements for Burke Mountain developments in the wake of unusually heavy rains on the weekend that sent mud, water and debris from construction sites pouring down Coast Meridian Road and into ditches and creeks. For the most part, erosion control measures put in by developers worked well considering the high volume of rain, said Verne Kucy, the city’s acting environmental services manager. But a few couldn’t keep up with the flow and, in one case, a contractor didn’t have proper sediment-control measures in place. The mayor has said
Good weather for fish in local creeks: page 9 that developer has been shut down — a tougher penalty than a fine — and won’t be permitted to start construction again until the problem is fixed. “You can imagine, we simply won’t tolerate this,” Richard Stewart said. Kucy said the city will be looking at its requirements for erosion control during construction and will be working with contractors to ensure proper measures are in place for the next rainfall, expected later this week. see STREAM OF MUD, page 9
Guard beaten at school site Injuries ‘extensive’ after early morning attack
By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
see KIDS 11 & 12, page 3
www.tricitynews.com
Rains push dirt down from Burke
Amanda Todd remembered
The executive director of Coquitlam-based Children of the Street Society is calling on Premier Christy Clark to set up a provincial program that would stop children from being sexually exploited online. Diane Sowden, who is also a Coquitlam school trustee, acknowledged that she met with Amanda Todd’s mother before the girl’s death about how to deal with a cyberstalker. The teen, who spiralled into depression and despair after an online predator allegedly distributed an inappropriate image of her, has inspired numerous anti-bullying campaigns. But Sowden, who said she doesn’t want to exploit Todd further by making an example of her, said sexual exploitation is at the heart of the tragedy and more should be done to protect children.
OCT. 17, 2012
By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS
REMEMBERING A local woman is planning a vigil in memory of Amanda Todd on Friday in Coquitlam. See page 3
RESOURCES A variety of resources — over the phone and online — is available for young people. See page 3
A LETTER ‘She will be loved more than you haters can hate,’ a friend of the Todd family writes. See page 11
An elderly security guard from Surrey is recovering in hospital after being viciously assaulted Sunday at a Port Coquitlam construction site where he was working. Hoshiar Singh Bajwa sustained more than 50 stitches as well as head injuries after he was beaten by three men at the Pitt River middle school construction site. The 65-year-old was
able to phone 911 but Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung said given his condition, he was unable to provide police with much information. “His injuries are pretty extensive,” Chung said. “He received many stitches. A weapon may have been used but, at this point, we don’t know.” What police do know is that three men approached the security guard at around 3:30 a.m. One of the men is described as a white male, 5’7” tall who was wearing a hoodie with a white stripe on it. see NOTHING TAKEN, page 8