COUNCIL TO TALK ABOUT HYACK FIRING
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POLITICAL ADVICE FOR STUDENTS
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COLOURFUL PRIDE CELEBRATION
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WEDNESDAY
AUGUST 21 2013
The New Westminster Jr. Salmonbellies split their first two games at the Minto Cup being held at Queen’s Park Arena. Page A15
www.newwestnewsleader.com
Skugaid sails away Owner abides by court order to remove boat from cityowned dock Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Doug Setter, a sergeant with the Royal Westminster Regiment, will be part of a relay team swimming four miles across Bellingham Bay to honour soldiers who killed themselves because of post traumatic stress disorder.
Swimming for soldiers’ lives Mario Bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
Doug Setter trains soldiers for combat. He knows some of them may not return from their tour of duty alive. But he has a hard time accepting that some won’t survive their return to civilian life. So on Monday, Setter will join two colleagues, Linh Lai of Burnaby and Dave Iten from Coquitlam, at the Josh Fueston Memorial Swim to Live, a four-mile open water relay swim across Bellingham Bay in honour of American and Canadian
servicemen who lost their lives to post traumatic stress disorder. Setter, a fitness trainer and a sergeant with the Royal Westminster Regiment, has personally attended the funerals of three soldiers who took their own lives. He says the stress of military service, dodging bullets and bombs, is often compounded by the day-to-day demands of shifting policies and procedures, moving around, being away from family. “There is a different level of stress in the military,” says Setter, who
served as a peacekeeper in Croatia, and did tours with the airborne regiment and as a Morse code operator. The public’s perception of soldiers also exerts pressure, says Setter. “Every time you opened the paper, it was very negative.” To cope, Setter says he often worked himself “to exhaustion.” Debriefs were often ineffective, because counsellors don’t have battlefield experience. Instead, most soldiers decompress with colleagues, swapping stories in
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the mess hall. “There’s a place you can go and say what you want,” says Setter. “It means everything in the world that comrades are there to listen to you. It’s something you can’t replace.” Some seek solace in alcohol and drugs. Some can’t shake the military life and keep signing on for further tours. “Some guys come back a little hard, and they go back but it’s not for the right reasons,” says Setter. “They don’t know any other way of life.”
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The Chief Skugaid has sailed away, much to the relief of City of New Westminster officials. The 100-year-old vessel that had been docked illegally on city property headed upriver during the noon hour Friday to an unknown moorage, according to city bylaw enforcement manager Keith Coueffin. Skugaid owner David Cobb moved the boat after appearing in court Thursday on a contempt charge for not obeying a court order to remove the vessel from the city dock in front of the Fraser River Discovery Centre at the Westminster Quay. “We’re very pleased the trespass has been eliminated and the safety concerns and the liability concerns posed by that vessel have been eliminated,” said Coueffin. Cobb had moved the Skugaid several metres downstream to the spot in April after he faced eviction as the result of another civil suit from the private owners— Cathedral Ventures Please see OLD BOAT, A3