Thursday Dec. 27, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 104)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
Into the sunset: A bit of local history slips into the past as landmark waterfront business White Rock Mufflers wraps up operations. › see page 11
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
Three reports of cars being rammed in Cloverdale area
‘All I saw were headlights,’ driver says Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
A 22-year-old South Surrey woman says another driver deliberately rammed her car and forced her off the road last week. University student Ashley Larson said she was heading home on Highway 10 from Fleetwood where she was babysitting for a relative around 11:30 p.m.
when the collision happened. After babysitting, she took a side trip to Cloverdale to get gas and was driving on Highway 10 near the 176 Street intersection, when she noticed a car directly behind her had suddenly changed lanes. Then another vehicle came up behind her in the same lane and slammed into the back of her 2010 Hyundai Elantra several times, causing her to crash into
a concrete divider, Larson said. It was over in a matter of seconds. “All I saw were headlights,” Larson said. The lights were up high, which makes her think it was a much bigger vehicle. It was dark, but there was no significant rain or snow falling at the time, Larson said. She was taken by ambulance to Peace
Arch Hospital for precautionary reasons. Larson said a police officer told her there had been two other similar incidents not far from her crash that evening. Larson is being treated for neck and shoulder injuries. She is also experiencing some post-incident anxiety. › see page 4
Ashley Larson
Provincial politics
Dissidents drop suit Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
Tracy Holmes photo
Ryan Ashe – without his tarped-up belongings that were a common sight in White Rock – returns to the bus stop that he used to call home.
Ryan Ashe expresses ambivalence after being forced to accept care
Catching up after a life on the street Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Two months after authorities took Ryan Ashe off the streets and into hospital, White Rock’s best-known homeless man says he’s no better, no worse than he was before. “I went ahead and did what they told me. I got a bed and I got meals – better than nothing,” Ashe said earlier this month, from his perch at the Thrift Avenue bus stop he used to call home. “They gave me a bunker under an old house.” Ashe, who has been a familiar figure on White
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Rock’s uptown street corners for decades, was hospitalized in October, one week after a Peace Arch News letter-writer detailed her concerns with the “dirty and scary looking” figure. City officials told PAN in April that for safety and health reasons, Ashe would have to be moved from a bus stop he had overtaken in the 1400-block of Johnston Road. The request prompted Ashe to relocate across the street, to a bus shelter on Thrift Avenue. He remained there until police and paramedics picked him up one day in early October. The decision sparked a flurry of letters to the
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editor, some critical, some supportive. Ashe now says his time in hospital was the worst of the experience. He’s sure, after going 13 years without “a cold or a sniffle,” that it contributed to him developing pneumonia. But those who’ve kept an eye on Ashe over the years say he looks healthier now than he had in a long time. “He looks better from a perspective of looking at him, looks a bit more cleaner,” said Helen Fathers, a White Rock councillor who has known Ashe for more than 20 years. › see page 4
...from our house to yours!
A lawsuit by three ousted BC Conservative party dissidents against the party has been put on hold while the two sides try to resolve their differences out of court. Court records show the matter was adjourned generally following a Dec. 7 appearance in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. Under court rules, the lawsuit can be reinstated if no agreement is reached. On Sunday, one of three dissidents, Ariane Eckardt, former president of the Burnaby North constituency association, said they were close to a settlement with the party in early December, about the time the adjournment was made, but talks have since bogged down. “They keep sending us counterproposals,” Eckardt told Peace Arch News Sunday. “It’s ridiculous that it has taken this long.” Dr. Allison Patton, former president of the Surrey-White Rock consituency association, said Monday that it appears no further progress has been made in negotiations. “It seems, at this stage, it will ultimately be resolved by the courts,” Patton said. A Conservative party representative declined a request for comment Monday. When the lawsuit was filed last month, BC Conservative party president Al Siebring said he would not make a statement because the matter was before the courts.
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