DeaD poets society coming to town
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malls coulD be true city centres
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incinerator site search heats up
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friDay
april 12 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
lawyer David worthington, who made it his business to contribute to the community, died april 5. See page a8
SD40 goes under the knife Chris Bryan
editor@newwestnewsleader.com
MariO BarTEl/NEWSlEaDEr
Victoria Verhoven shows off some of the strings of purple lights the elizabeth fry society is selling to help raise awareness about domestic violence. purple light nights run from april 15-28 and kick off with a candlelight vigil at new westminster city hall on monday at 7 p.m.
Shining a light on domestic violence Purple Light Nights a chance for community to show solidarity Mario Bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
Sophia and her young family immigrated to Canada in 2007 to seek a better life, enjoy freedoms and opportunities unavailable to them in their homeland. Instead, Sophia’s home became a prison. Jealous and distrustful, her husband wouldn’t let her go out, screened her phone calls, checked
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receipts when she returned from shopping excursions. “He was very controlling,” says Sophia, which isn’t her real name. “We stayed home all the time.” Domestic violence doesn’t have to be physical. It can be mental, verbal, emotional, even financial. To escape it, women in an abusive relationship need to make a plan, says Jodi Sturge, the director of homeless initiatives with the Elizabeth Fry Society in New Westminster. That starts with recognizing they’re in trouble. Many women are afraid to reach
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out for help because of a perceived stigma, says Sturge. Family and friends may not have the patience to support them as they go through the cycle of denial, guilt and self-blame many women endure as they come to grips with their situation. Without ready access to resources and social agencies to smooth their exit from their situation, many women try to stick it out, hoping things will get better. Some fall into a high-risk lifestyle. “It’s got to be unconditional support, that’s what makes the biggest difference,” says Sturge. “It’s
about reaching out to let someone know you’re in need.” Once they’ve done that, abused women have to know they’ll be safe, their family protected, as they get their feet back under them. “They don’t realize how much it’s impacted them until they come out the other side,” says Sturge. To help ease their journey, social agencies and police have to work together to give abused women the tools they need to be able to formulate their plan to escape the violence. please see ‘i WaNT’, a3
School trustees bit the bullet on Tuesday night, trimming the school district’s $3.5-million deficit to just $33,000. It means trimming 58 positions in the district, including teachers, support staff and special education assistants (SEAs). Still, New West school trustees opted to defer payment of a $2.8-million deficit outstanding from last year. School board chair Michael Ewen said the board hopes to strike an agreement with the provincial government to renegotiate the payment of that sum, possibly spreading it over several years. Ewen said by deferring last year’s deficit, they were able to reduce the number of SEAs being cut from 35 to about 20. “We put most of that money back into SEA support,” Ewen said. “If we’re going to up class size a bit, we should ensure the support is there so those kids don’t become an additional burden to the class.” The school board is still looking at reducing its $2.2-million budget for supplies by at least $600,000. Ewen said the board hopes to cut that even further in the future.