RYDER LAKE’S FAMOUS ROAD TOAD WARRIORS SOON TO BE ON SCREEN Documentary will follow efforts to save endangered species
times
No Tweed Too Tight makes comedy fashion statement
Chilliwack
Â
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2016
chilliwacktimes.com
{ Page A3 }
{ Page A1 7 }
/chilliwacktimes
@chilliwacktimes
Buyers eyeing up old UFV
Killer won’t be labelled dangerous offender
North campus could be home to Christian school and residential development
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
A
BC Supreme Court justice declined to hand a dangerous offender designation last Thursday to a deaf man with an extensive violent criminal past, which culminated in the killing of a transgendered person in Chilliwack five years ago. Steven Frederickson was, however, handed a long-term offender designation of the maximum length of 10 years in addition to a 10-year prison sentence for the 2010 manslaughter conviction of his then roommate, Robert-Jan Planje. In October 2013, EB IRST Frederickson was First reported on acquitted of the chilliwacktimes.com s e c o n d - d e g re e murder of Planje at the Ashwell Road mobile home the two men shared. The night before Planje’s death, Frederickson said the two spent the evening drinking wine, with Planje smoking marijuana while he smoked crack cocaine. Frederickson said he woke up the next day in his underwear in Planje’s bed, and he claimed he had been sexually assaulted. At trial, Grist found the defence unbelievable since Frederickson is a large man and the 64-year-old Planje was a thin, five-foot-two-inch transgendered individual with female genitalia. A neighbour witnessed Frederickson later drag what looked to be a wrapped body out to Planje’s car.
‘I want my voice heard’
W F
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
C
The teen victim of a violent sexual assault finds the courage to speak to reporter Paul J. Henderson about the aftermath Bar on the Fraser River in Chilliwack, she wants to tell her story. “I want my voice heard,” she said. “I think it’s important for people to understand that it can happen to anyone.” K.W. has struggled with suicidal thoughts, depression and night terrors. She’s been on anti-psychotic medication and still needs sleeping pills. And the court process added only further trauma as she was cross-examined by Leger’s lawyer in a way that made her feel blamed. Still, she bravely agreed to testify in open court during the trial, and read her own victim impact state-
“Exhausting.” That’s how a local teenage rape victim described her feeling after dozens of court appearances over more than four years leading up to her assailant’s sentencing. “It’s just been exhausting,” K.W. said immediately outside the BC Supreme Court room in Chilliwack last Friday after the sentencing of 47-year-old Gilles Leger. But despite the torment that nearly tore her family apart, suicidal thoughts, lack of sleep, estrangement from her friends, even bullying at school, the victim of the Oct. 1, 2011 rape that took place on the back of an ATV at Gill
{ See VICTIM, page A13 }
{ See UFV, page A4 }
7422712
{ See PLANJE, page A7 }
ment to the court at sentencing. “I read it, and as hard as it was, it was very empowering,” she said. K.W. wants other victims of sexual assault and rape to come forward and be brave in the face of a system that seems stacked against them. She said she plans to pursue a career in counselling or victim services. “My door is open and I can’t turn a blind eye because I know what it’s like. I don’t think that it gets better but you can get better.” (Incidentally, K.W. wanted not only to have her story told, but to
hange is afoot on the long-vacant University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) north campus in Chilliwack. Money still needs to be raised and some rezoning is in order but two buyers have eyed up two different portions of the 27-acre property, one for a residential development and the other a Christian school. The buildings at the former Yale Road university property are not completely vacant as one still houses the UFV theatre, and space is rented out to the Chilliwack School of Performing Arts and the Sto:lo culinary arts program. But most UFV staff, students and faculty moved into the new building at Canada Education Park in September 2012 and the north-side property has been for sale ever since. “UFV has been actively marketing the Chilliwack north property over the last few years,” campus planning and resource development director Craig Toews said. “The economy hasn’t been the greatest but the university has been hearing and meeting with
604.792.5151
Plumbing Showroom Warehouse Shopping Full Service Department Complete Renovation Centre
“Serving Chilliwack for over 33 Years”
SHOP OUR ENTIRE PREOWNED INVENTORY ONLINE
7422751
8645 Young Rd. Chilliwack www.jadamandsons.com
• • • •
Price 60¢