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The Similkameen
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Volume 65 Issue 41
Proudly serving the community since 1948 • www.similkameenspotlight.com
“Ruthless killer” gets 22 years minimum Dale Boyd Black Press
There were feelings of relief for the family of a Princeton murder victim after a “long, torturous haul.” John Ike Koopmans, 51, received two life sentences and will be ineligible for parole for 22 years after Justice Miriam Maisonville handed down Koopmans’ sentence on Oct. 6 in Penticton Supreme Court. “We’re ready to move forward,” said Cheri Franklin, sister of Robert Keith Wharton, 43, who was shot and killed on a rural Princeton property March 2013 alongside Rosemary Fox, 32. Koopmans was found guilty of two counts of second degree murder and the attempted murder of Bradley Martin, 51, by a jury in April. Franklin, who spoke on behalf of the Wharton family outside the courthouse after the sentence was handed down, said she is “unbelievably happy that it’s over.” “We can maybe go forward and feel good — I can’t believe the Crown did this, he did it for us and wow. I don’t even know what to say. Such relief, such anxiety just lifted off my shoulders,” Franklin said fighting back tears. “It’s amazing, it’s amazing.” “The justice system finally worked,”
Franklin said. “No possibility of parole for 22 years, he’s going to be an old man.” Koopmans who wore a brown, collared shirt and black pants at the hearing chose not to address the court when given the opportunity. He said nothing through the sentencing proceedings and showed no emotion. “I’ve known John for quite a long time and he’s never showed any kind of emotion through the whole thing. There’s not been one bit of emotion from him, so I had no expectations of him saying anything you know. He’s a ruthless killer, what can you say?” Franklin said. Facing two life sentences, the decision Justice Maisonville faced was one of parole eligibility. Koopmans’ defence suggested a 17-year period of ineligibility, while Crown put forward two consecutive periods of 15 years, totalling 30 years before he would be eligible for parole. Maisonville included relatively new legislation in her decision, Bill C-48, which amended the Criminal Code in 2011 aiming to enable judges to use parole ineligibility periods as instruments of denunciation. The new sections of the Criminal Code were first used in 2013 in the case of Travis Baumgartner. It also allows juries to make continued page 15
Robert Keith Wharton, 43 of Princeton, pictured here with his mother, was killed in March 2013 along with his girlfriend Rosemary Fox, 32. Last week John Ike Koopmans was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison for the murders and Wharton’s family said the sentence is a relief that will help them move on.
Residents urged to consider health care at polls Andrea DeMeer Spotlight Staff
While health care is important to all Canadians, its future is even more critical for people living in towns like Princeton, British Columbia, according to a local health care advocate. “Absolutely,” said Ed Staples, president of the town’s Support Our Health Care Society. “Health care is such a personal issue because it affects everybody and because people living in rural, remote areas seem to have the most difficulty accessing health care services. For people living in Princeton it’s a major issue.” Staples is also a member of the BC Healthcare Coalition, a non-partisan group
promoting health related policies. He said he urges local voters to consider federal parties’ plans for health care as they head to the polls. The coalition recently published a guide outlining the parties’ stands on five key health care issues. “The guide reflects what we’ve heard from our local candidates in meetings held with them over the past several weeks,” says Staples. “We met twice in person with Angelique Wood, the NDP candidate; twice with Karley Scott, running for the Liberals, once by telephone and once in person; and one telephone interview with Dan Albas for the Conservatives. We were unable to arrange a meeting with Robert Mellalieu with the Greens.”
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SOHC has been talking with voters in Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola over the summer and fall about the future of health care and encouraging them to pledge to vote for better public health care on October 19th. Top concerns voiced by local residents include lack of adequate support for seniors care, hard to get a family doctor, federal cuts to health care budgets, and the movement toward private for-profit health care along the lines of the American system. Despite a newly released Ekos poll that indicates health care is the number one priority with voters, Staples acknowledged it has flown under the radar for most of the election campaign. “I think this is a situation, frankly, where an
issue that is critically important to Canadians and especially to rural Canadians and to rural Canadians like people In Princeton that it hasn’t been discussed. When it does come up in debates it gets very, very little air time and that’s disappointing,” he said. “Certainly the promises that are being made by the various parties , if they can follow through on those promises will have a very profound effect on health care in our local community on everything from being able to access a family physician to reducing wait times to being able to access transportation.” The BC Healthcare Coalition’s election guide can be viewed at: http://www.votepublichealthbc.ca/election_evaluation.
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