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April 4, 2013 ❖ www.CloverdaleReporter.com ❖ 604-575-2405
A soldier’s road home
Veteran John Lowe is cycling for awareness of Operational Stress Injuries By Jennifer Lang It’s a good thing retired Cpl. John Lowe is used to training his butt off, because he’s got less than two months to prepare for his upcoming mission – a 500-km bike ride over six days. Lowe is also keeping a blog called Two Feet and a Heartbeat, where he’s chronicling his efforts to get in shape for the Big Battlefield Bike Ride 2013. As the only rider from B.C., Lowe and his five Canadian comrades will join more than 300 British, American and European combat veterans on a ride across France and England. They set out from the Eiffel Tower in Paris on May 27 and wind up in London on June 2. Along the way, they’ll pass through some of the most significant battlefields of the First and Second World Wars. The longest day will span 130 kms and he wants to be ready. Lowe, who started training in earnest last month, admits he’s not quite there yet. The first 40 kms might have given him second thoughts: two hungry-looking Rottweilers chased him through the streets of Abbotsford. Fortunately, his bike, a whisper-light Cervelo S2, is really fast. Lowe is looking for sponsors to help raise $4,000 – money that will cover his trip, but also go towards raising awareness and support
for those who return home suffering from Operational Stress Injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He’s being sponsored by Wounded Warriors, a non-profit organization that helps Canadian Forces members and reservists who have been injured or wounded in their service, with a focus on mental health. Lowe, 26, served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry’s 1st battalion in Afghanistan from Oct. 12, 2009 to April 18, 2010, a six-month tour. Despite returning to a loving family and a wide network of church colleagues and friends, Lowe was surprised to realize he suffered lasting war wounds in the form of an Operational Stress Injury and was having difficulty coping. “I don’t think any soldier can come back and say they do not feel changed. I think, right away, people knew I was different.” Not all injuries are physical, yet they can be just as devastating if left untreated. He always wanted to become a soldier, growing up listening to the tales of his grandfather, a Second World War veteran and dam buster who helped destroy infrastructure in the fight against the Nazis. As a kid in his hometown of Cloverdale, Lowe played hockey and took Judo lessons,
JENNIFER LANG PHOTO
Retired Cpl. John Lowe is bringing awareness to the plight of soldiers coping with Operational Stress Injuries and PTSD by riding through the battlefields of Western Europe this spring.
See COMPANY / Page 10
Admitting pot use may get you banned in U.S. By Jeff Nagel Pot-smoking B.C. residents are increasingly being banned from entering the U.S. as American border guards try to stem the flow of Canadian marijuana tourists in the wake of Washington State’s weed legalization vote late last year. Blaine lawyer Len Saunders said he’s seeing more cases of B.C. residents being permanently denied entry after trying to carry pot across the border, thinking it’s no longer an issue. Because marijuana is now legal to possess under state law, Canadians caught bringing less than an ounce across aren’t charged, as they were in the past.
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“I’m seeing no prosecutions – zero since November,” Saunders said. “But there’s more confusion.” What happens now, he said, is pot-packing Canucks have their stash confiscated and are then interrogated under oath about their drug-using habits. Admit that you’ve ever smoked or used marijuana in your life, he said, and you’re deemed inadmissable to the U.S. because you’ve confessed to a crime of moral turpitude. “The key is to not admit that you’ve ever used it,” Saunders said, stressing he isn’t counselling anyone to lie under oath. He noted anyone could be questioned about past marijua-
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