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A14
A10
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OCTOBER 1, 2015 | Volume 28 No. 118
Stepfather tells trial of final text
WILL HE GET JOB BACK? CAM FORTEMS
STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
The City of Kamloops and its employees’ union are at odds whether an employee fired for checking off a duty sheet for work he didn’t do will get his job back. Chief administrator Dave Trawin told reporters Tuesday that Joe Cupello will no longer be on the city’s payroll following the most recent decision by the B.C. Labour Relations Board. However, a lawyer acting for the union argued the city mishandled the incident and acted wrongly in its discipline — and may be required to keep Cupello on staff. Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 900 grieved the firing of Cupello, who had a previous record of four instances of misconduct on the job. The incident that led to his firing involved Cupello signing off on a worksheet that he had cleaned a number of parks when, in fact, he had not.
CAM FORTEMS
STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW
JUST PEACHY
Karter Siemen (left) doesn’t hide the excitement as his hamster Princess Peach, burns up the red lane en route to a win during the weekend’s hamster races at Petland.
See CITY, A7
FIREPLACE
CJ Fowler’s stepfather struggled with emotion on Tuesday as he recounted in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops one of the last messages from a girl he had known since she was two years old. “‘Dad, I have something to tell you — I’m pregnant,’” Glen Wilson testified of the text he received from Fowler only hours before she was found dead in 2012 near Guerin Creek in Kamloops, her airway crushed by a 56-pound concrete block. “I said, ‘I’m happy,’” Wilson recounted to the jury. “But, Damien had to find a job and CJ would have to start school or do something.” Wilson was testifying in the trial of Damien Taylor, charged with second-degree murder in connection to Fowler’s death on Dec. 5, 2012. Then 21 years old, Taylor moved into Wilson’s Terrace home to live with his girlfriend, 16-yearold CJ. Wilson testified that Fowler called him “dad” while Taylor referred to him as “poppa.” Wilson told the jury he agreed to let Taylor move in. “She wasn’t going to school,” he said of Fowler. “We tried getting her into school and tried to get Damien a job.” But, neither attempt was successful. The two were “inseparable,” Wilson said, spending all their time together. While he was worried the pair had too much time on their hands, trouble didn’t start until a friend of Fowler’s from Kamloops came to visit and stayed over in late November 2012. See DOG WALKERS, A7
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