NANAIMO REGION
Cellphone flasher is a concern for police
Twice now in the city young women have found a phone with naked photos of a man possibly also nearby. A3
NANAIMO REGION
Ukraine bound
New bylaw levies fine for dogs in hot vehicles
Canadian troops are set to begin training in the war-torn rn nation as tension heats up
Pet owners negligent about leaving canines in vehicles may face a $500 fine under a new bylaw. B3
Nation & World, A7
The newspaper of record for Nanaimo and region since 1874 || Wednesday, June 24, 2015 CITY
Signs not allowed: Mayor McKay Residents displaying messages like ‘professional trough feeders’ and ‘stop the madness’ SPENCER ANDERSON DAILY NEWS
Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay said he will not allow signs to be held up at council meetings because they have proved disruptive and “intimidating” to council and audience members. Monday’s committee of the whole meeting ground to a halt for more than 30 minutes after McKay called a recess and had staff members call security in response to two men in the audience holding up signs with slogans like ‘professional trough feeders’ and ‘stop the madness.’ The two residents — Tim McGrath and Randy Stearman —
Tim McGrath and Randy Stearman hold signs at Monday night’s meeting. [SPENCER ANDERSON/DAILY NEWS]
were sitting next to each other in the front row of the auditorium and began holding up the signs at the start of a presentation by culture and heritage commission
chairwoman Diana Johnstone on cultural grant funding. McKay stopped the presentation and repeatedly asked McGrath and Stearman to put down their signs. The two men refused, and McKay asked staff to call security. Stearman eventually left during the recess. McGrath left too, but later returned to council chambers without his signs. McKay once again asked him to leave. However, McGrath refused, even after a conference centre security guard arrived for the second time. Two RCMP officers later arrived at the auditorium.
McGrath then voluntarily got out of his seat and walked to meet and talk with police. He did not return to the meeting. RCMP spokesman Const. Gary O’Brien said no further police action was needed. “We simply went there, the individual complied, sometimes that’s all it takes,” O’Brien said. Before he left with police, McGrath said he had returned to speak as a delegation later in the meeting. McGrath said: “We’ve been here and doing this for well over two years. We’ve never been accused of disrupting council meetings before.”
McGrath said McKay had been supportive of signs at meetings in the past, a claim McKay denies. The mayor said he had privately told council members last May — McKay was a councillor then — that he did not think signs should be allowed in council chambers. “When you’ve got very intimidating messages that are being posted in the direction of council, they obstruct the view of others,” he said. Spencer.Anderson @nanaimodailynews.com 250-729-4255
» Wildlife Nanaimo racewalker off to Pan Am Games Katelynn Ramage will make up half the country’s 20,000-metre race walk team competing at the Pan Am Games in Toronto next month. » Sports, B2
Confederate flag harder to find after shooting The flag and other tributes remain a constant reminder of the nation’s perpetual struggle with race, and of some Southerners’ defiance of civil rights. » Nation & World, A8
U.S. tries to hold down tensions with China Using well-worn exhortations to China, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden urged it to be a “responsible stakeholder” in the global system. » Nation & World, A11
» Use your smartphone to jump to our website for updates on these stories or the latest breaking news.
Afternoon light rain High 21, Low 14 Details A2
Officers put down cougar that killed Lantzville family’s small pet DARRELL BELLAART DAILY NEWS
W
ildlife officers destroyed a cougar that attacked and killed a family pet and showed no fear of humans. It happened on Phantom Road, in a semi-rural area of Lantzville Saturday morning. Carol Dendys was frightened when she found herself facing the predator. And she was upset with the loss of Chula, a five-year-old Pomeranian-chihuahua cross. It was a sunny morning when she was chatting with Brenda Robinson, a neighbour in her yard. Dendys’ eight-year-old grandson, Philip, was playing nearby. Suddenly they heard what Dendys describes as a “loud, high-pitched sound” coming from the bush on her treed acreage. Chula went to investigate. Dendys noticed something brown in the brush, which she thought was a deer. “Then I heard her yelp. I thought she got kicked by a deer.” With only flip-flops on her feet, she followed the dog, unaware she’d just met up with a young adult male cougar. When she saw movement Dendys thought it was Chula, “and I thought she must have been hurt. I said: ‘Chula, are you OK?’ “And then the cat turned around and looked at me.” She now knew it was a cougar. “For a split second, I thought: ‘Do I charge it?’ Then common
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Carol and Collin Dendys hoist air horns, their new weapons in the battle against dangerous wildlife. A cougar that killed their family dog Saturday had to be destroyed. [DARRELL BELLAART/DAILY NEWS]
sense kicked in: ‘Chula’s dead, that’s it’s dinner, let’s get out of here.’” As her footwear fell off, thoughts of her young grandson raced through her mind. She called to her friend, about 15 metres away, to help guide her from the predator. “I said, ‘Just keep talking to me so I can know which way to go to get out of here.’” It took about five minutes, and “it felt like a really long time.” When the conservation officer
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arrived, he wanted to know how the animal behaved. It wasn’t the first cougar sighting in the area. “It wasn’t afraid of me,” Dendys said. “It just stared at me. It had no fear of people.” When cougars attack pets or livestock, “they are destroyed, which is unfortunate,” said conservation officer Troy Sterling. “It was really comfortable with humans. “If relocated, we’d just be moving the problem.”
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Dendys was still recovering on Tuesday. “The fog is just starting to lift,” she said. That day, she and Collin went to Canadian Tire to follow up on a suggestion from the officer: To get some air horns to frighten off marauding cougars. “Just be aware of your surroundings,” Dendys said. Darrell.Bellaart @nanaimodailynews.com 250-729-4235
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