Steveston scramble is here to stay 3 / No prison for ump in fraud case 9
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richmondreview.com Wednesday, January 23, 2013
48 PAGEs
Transit Police lost training 'bomb' on plane Wasn't reported until two days after sniffer dog exercise by Jeff Nagel Black Press
Martin van den Hemel photo Local dignitaries marked the start of construction of the new campus of Trinity Western University during a groundbreaking ceremony in downtown Richmond.
New Trinity Western campus to open in the fall of 2014 New Richmond facility will strengthen city’s reputation as a centre for learning by Martin van den Hemel Staff Reporter Local dignitaries joined Trinity Western University president Jonathan Raymond in a groundbreaking ceremony as construction begins on the new multi-million dollar campus in the heart of downtown Richmond.
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2014, the 22,000-square-foot facility will sit alongside a new community centre for the fastgrowing heart of Richmond Centre. “We’re here to celebrate a vision coming into reality since 2008 when we first began to think about this opportunity,” Raymond said. “This will be a premier centre of higher education for Richmond and Metro Vancouver.” The new state-of-the-art campus will be an ideal venue for both academic and business gatherings, Raymond said, with a “centre for global engagement, which will facilitate international business, education
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and cross-cultural initiatives.” In anticipation of the campus’ opening, Trinity Western is already serving the community by providing a bachelor of leadership degree as part of its adult degree completion program. “We’re delivering courses right now, right here, right across the street.” The new campus will be funded courtesy the developers at Quintet—the multi-tower residential complex to which the new facility will be attached—along with a $4 million investment in programming and technology by Trinity Western.
A Transit Police officer forgot explosive material on board an Air Canada jet after a sniffer dog training exercise in 2011 and failed to report it missing for two days, prompting an extensive search by authorities. The incident, detailed in documents “Why on earth were obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Transit Police—reFederation through sponsible for SkyTrain Freedom of Information, happened Jan. lines—planting explo12, 2011 on board a sives on a commercial Boeing 767 at Van- airplane as a dog traincouver International ing exercise?” Airport. The mock bomb – Jordan Bateman is described in the released documents as a training sample that was inert because it had no blasting cap to detonate it. The Transit Police dog handler realized two days later the bottle-shaped item was missing from his training kit. Air Canada grounded the plane in Toronto and searched it 14 times but the device was never found and Transit Police concluded it must have been thrown in the garbage at YVR and burned at Metro Vancouver's Burnaby incinerator. Jordan Bateman, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's B.C. director, says public safety was jeopardized and tens of thousands of dollars wasted by multiple agencies in the search. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has repeatedly criticized the Transit Police and Bateman called it another example of the force trying to stretch beyond its expertise and jurisdiction, with bad results. "Why on earth were Transit Police—responsible for SkyTrain lines—planting explosives on a commercial airplane as a dog training exercise?" he asked. See Page 8
TONY LING
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