IS A TWO-WEEK SPRING BREAK GOOD?
page
4
STAGE SET fOR B.C. SENATE ElECTION
page
6
lOCAl BEST BUY SHUTS ITS DOORS
page
8
WEDNESDAY
February 6 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
New West Hyacks battled langley at Queen’s Park on the weekend See page a10
Keg property owner ‘figures they’re done’ Believes restaurant will try to get out of lease Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader. com
MarIO barTeL/NeWSLeaDer
Demolition work has begun on the Trapp and Holbrook blocks on Columbia Street to make way for a new condo tower. The historic facade of the Trapp block will be dismantled, preserved and rebuilt into the new building.
Dix to fix ‘discriminatory action’ if elected NDP leader promises to allow survivors of Woodlands’ early years to apply for compensation Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
All Woodlands survivors will be allowed to apply for compensation for the abuse they suffered if the New Democrats are elected in the provincial election in May, NDP leader Adrian Dix announced on the grounds of the former school in New Westminster on Monday.
The provincial government and the courts have established a cutoff date that excluded survivors released before Aug. 1, 1974 from applying for compensation. “Ending this discriminatory action is going to be one of the first acts my cabinet will complete within its first seven days of office,” said Dix in a press release. “Providing some of the most marginalized British Columbians a sense of closure and justice for the systemic abuse they suffered is a priority not just for me, but for the people of our province.
chocolate love affair Pamper your hands and feet with a chocolate scrub followed by a relaxing massage
HANDS: • Chocolate scrub • Hand and arm massage • White chocolate paraffin FEET: • Chocolate scrub • Hot stone foot massage SOLO $55 | COUPLE $100
263 - 800 Carnarvon Street | www.liminaspa.com | 604.525.0805
Despite repeated opportunities to do the right thing, the moral thing, the Liberal cabinet has systematically resisted treating Woodlands survivors with fairness and compassion.” It was welcome news for New Westminster resident Bill McArthur, who left Woodlands in late July 1974, about 10 days before the arbitrary date. “The fact that he’s made a commitment proves to me beyond a shadow of a doubt this province has had the ability to compensate all along, and has just chosen not to do
so,” said McArthur. “That’s a form of abuse itself.” McArthur was put into Woodlands because he was too much for his parents to handle. He said he was raped by a staff member when he was five or six, held underwater in a bathtub full of ice water to the point of drowning, had “the living pudding beat out of me” when he was eight by a staff member while being held down by two others, and sexually abused by a known serial abuser when he was 14. Please see ‘IT May be’, a3
The structural issues that caused The Keg Restaurants to close its iconic New Westminster location last month were there 10 years ago and should have been fixed by the company by now, according to one of the property’s owners. The former CPR railway station site on Columbia Street at Eighth Street is owned by the Westminster Station Brewing Company, which bought it in the late 1990s. When the original 30-year lease expired in 2002 a new one was negotiated. It was to include an additional space at the west end of the historical building to what The Keg was using. Co-owner Brock Rodgers said in 2002 substantial upgrades were needed to the building, so they negotiated a below-market rate for 10 years, with The Keg responsible for repairs and maintenance. see cOMpaNy, a3