Up front: Good Samaritans have woman riding a wave of kindness page A3 News: Pot crusader brings decriminalizing drive to Cowichan page A12 For all the news of the Cowichan region as it happens, plus stories from around British Columbia, go to our website www.cowichannewsleader.com Your news leader since 1905
Friday, December 7, 2012
Labour dispute snarls testing at Cowichan hospital Health sciences action: Affected local patients to be rescheduled as soon as possible Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
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Andrew Leong
Gavin Murray, 3, is the Ärst to hop aboard Champ a mechanical horse that has been entertaining Cowichan children for more than 50 years. Champ was recently restored to mint condition by Gavin’s dad Scott Murray, left, and grandpa Dave Cahoon, right. The horse will makes its second debut at Duncan Mall tomorrow.
Duncan children rejoice, the Champ rides again Maeve Maguire
News Leader Pictorial
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hen Dave Cahoon was a young boy, he used to ride a coin-operated horse named Champion in the old T.W. Eaton’s building in downtown Duncan. “I used to ride him every other Friday night. We’d come down off the mountain every two weeks to get our supplies. I would ride him while my parents shopped. That was when you could get everything in one place, including groceries.” In the late 1970s, the Champion was moved from Eaton’s (now the Merchants building), to a the Duncan Mall. It was then people nicknamed the horse the Champ, which has been his name every day since.
When Cahoon was employed as a security guard at Duncan Mall in 1990 he recognized his old playmate. “I spotted the Champ and thought, ‘Now I know where he went.’” Seeing him brought back childhood memories.” At the time, the Champ, who was built around 1960, wasn’t making much money. Cahoon suggested to the mall of¿ce that they move the horse from in front of Fields to centre court. There, Cahoon said, “he started producing nicely.” Cahoon inÀuenced that revenue growth by offering kids an occasional free ride so they would fall in love with the Champ too. “I can’t count the number of kids I got hooked on this thing. I would plunk in a quarter at least once per day to get them hooked. When it’s a kid’s ¿rst time ever, their faces lights up and
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they know how brilliant he is. That’s when I know I’ve got another one.” Cahoon tried to buy the Champ for himself, but he couldn’t agree on terms with the owner. Instead, the Merchants Association bought it with a plan to restore it. But the restoration project took a back seat to renovations in the mall. Champ’s condition deteriorated to the point the mall’s owner wanted it gone. Cahoon asked his son-in-law, Scott Murray — who works in the paint body shop at Peter Baljet’s car dealership — if he could restore it. “Peter Baljet said we could bring it into the shop. He allowed Scott to do the work outside work hours. Scott and I spent the ¿rst weekend grinding out all the cracks and re¿lling it. Scott reworked the whole thing. The Champ is absolutely gorgeous now.” more on A4
owichanians whose long-awaited CTscan dates are bumped by this week’s hospital labour strife will be re-booked quickly, health brass promised Thursday. “Those dates will be rescheduled as soon as possible; they won’t go back to the bottom of the list,” said Suzanne Germain of the Vancouver Island Health Authority. “If someone has not been called (by re-booking staff), come to where you were supposed to get the procedure,” she said of medical imaging that also includes X-rays, ultrasounds, and MRIs. She and other medical of¿cials indicated Cowichan District Hospital’s surgical and other services basically got off lightly, comPeter Fahey: a bit pared to some larger hospitals where operations were scrubbed more flexible as B.C.’s Health Sciences Association member unions staged job action yesterday and planned more for today. Thursday saw hospital pharmacists do legislated essential services — but no picketing — between 9 a.m. and midnight. Today involves a 24-hour slowing to weekend-service levels by medical-imaging workers. “Local sites are a bit more Àexible,” said CDH’s site manager Peter Fahey. “This is job action; it’s not business as usual,” added Germain regarding CDH’s nine pharmacy staff, plus 36 medical-diagnostic workers. HSA president Reid Johnson agreed, as veteran mediator Vince Ready was hired Tuesday to grease talks between the HSA and the province’s Health Employers’ Association. Johnson believed the HSA’s wage demand of a four-percent hike, across two years, was fair after his members’ contract expired on March 31. “It’s two and two, and no concessions on bene¿ts,” he told the News Leader Pictorial. “It’s like what other public sectors have gotten already.” Johnson hoped Ready’s raft of mediation smarts leads to a deal soon. more on A5
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