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Delivery 604-942-3081 • Friday, January 23, 2015
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Reverend breaks the stereotype
Holy moms!
Reverend Tracy Fairfield and her partner Penny Bartel with their four-monthold baby, Dakota. The couple is featured on the February page of The Calendar Revs, a fundraising project that challenges stereotypes surrounding female reverends.
Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
Burnaby’s Tracy Fairfield has taken on a new image as “Miss February” to challenge stereotypes of what it means to be a female minister. The 37-year-old reverend at Deer Lake United Church took part in a calendar fundraiser featuring her female colleagues from across the country. “When people think of a minister, they think: heterosexual male,” says Fairfield, who is seated cross-legged on her living room couch, while her female partner soothes their new baby. “People forget we’re moms, we have a care-giving role. They expect us to be softies when we can be assertive.” All of the women featured in the calendar are members of the United Church of Canada, and all wanted to challenge the stereotypes facing female reverends. “We’re supposed to be prim and proper but don’t rock the boat,” Fairfield says. Fairfield, her partner and their new baby are featured on the February lovethemed page of the calendar, along with
Larry Wright/ burnaby now
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another lesbian reverend couple. Fairfield flips through the calendar, chock full of female ministers in their everyday, non-traditional lives. For example, Miss September is wearing camouflage and a grin, cradling her hunting rifle. Miss April, a reverend and scientist,
smiles cheerily from behind a microscope with her lab coat on, while Miss January (Fairfield’s favourite) is portrayed looking pious in a crowd of Occupy protesters. “We’re bold and we have a passion for social justice,” Fairfield says. Fairfield heard about The Calendar
Revs project through Facebook, after Ottawa’s Rev. Trisha Elliott had a perturbing experience with a photographer while having her portrait done for her church’s wall of ministerial fame. Calendar Page 8
RCMP investigate after body found in city ditch Cayley Dobie staff reporter
Mounties are investigating after a body was found in a ditch on Willard Street Wednesday morning. While the street was quiet when the NOW arrived around 3 p.m. Thursday, only an hour earlier the area had been
buzzing with police and crime-scene personnel, according to neighbours. The body of a man in his early 40s was found in the 7600 block of Willard Street around 9:30 a.m., according to Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Maj. John Buis. The deceased, whose body was found in the water-filled ditch, is described as Caucasian with grey shoulder-length hair,
according to a media release from the Burnaby RCMP. Investigators with both the RCMP and B.C. Coroners Service remained on scene collecting evidence and processing the scene until about 2 p.m. Gino D’Onofrio, who lives a few blocks away, was on his way home for lunch around 1 p.m. when he came across the
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scene. He said there were cops everywhere. Frank Messich, who lives on 12th Avenue, called the NOW after his partner saw the activity in the area. Messich said the discovery of the body comes only days after about 20 residents gathered at MLA Raj Chouhan’s office
Body Page 8
COFFEE WITH RICHARD! Saturday, January 31 9:00 - 10:30 am Caffe Artigiano 4359 Hastings, Burnaby
I hope to see you there!
Richard T. Lee MLA Burnaby North
604.775.0778
Richard.Lee.MLA@leg.bc.ca www.richardleemla.bc.ca