BurnabyNOW FRIDAY June 8, 2018 3
Citynow
‘We’re not a club that judges other clubs’
Continued from page 1 “I wanted to do more for my community and I wanted to do more for the biker community, and I couldn’t do anything with that.You just pay your due and wear your patch,” Elmes said of the IAFF group. Rod MacDonald, a retired Vancouver fire battalion chief and longtime union president, was drawn to the Florian’s Knights for the same reasons. “The goal was for people to say, ‘Oh, there’s the Florian Knights.They do charity work for the kids.We were trying to brand ourselves – this is us, this is the Florian Knights, we’re the firefighters,” he said. The club had a big Bikers for Burns charity ride to Hope planned this August. Last year the same event raised about $7,000 for the B.C. Professional Firefighters’ Burn Fund, according to MacDonald. “That’s dead,” he said. “You can see how frustrating and saddening this is for us.We’re just a bunch of guys who wear three pieces of cotton on our backs, and somebody’s profiled us as being, by default, something other than what we are.” As for the Hells Angels, MacDonald said he had “zero” comment. “We’re not a club that judges other clubs.We’re a bunch of guys that ride,” he said.
Elmes said the Florian’s Knights have participated in two rides with the Hells Angels, but added they were public charity events. The photo of him with the three Hells Angels was taken by Stave Falls during one of those rides last month. “They did a poker run to raise money – from my understanding it was for the Special Olympic soccer team,” Elmes said.
We’re a bunch of guys that ride. One of the Hells Angels pictured, Kelowna chapter president Damiano Dipopolo, is a friend who lived a few blocks away from Elmes in East Vancouver when he was growing up, according to Elmes. The group had broken off from the ride in May to visit the falls, he said, and Dipopolo’s wife had snapped the photo and posted it on social media. “He’s my buddy from the neighbourhood that we have family ties with,” Elmes said. A source close to the Florian’s Knights, however, told the NOW Elmes – whatever the nature of his relationship with Dipopolo
COLOURS: Burnaby firefighter Nick Elmes, right, poses with members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. – had not been forthcoming about this connection to the Hells Angels, and the photo was a shock to some club members. But Elmes and MacDonald said they were being profiled even before the photo went public because their members wear a three-piece patch on the back of their leather vests, something that’s often associated with outlaw motorcycle clubs. That made no sense to Elmes since, he said, there
are many other clubs with firefighters, police officers and border guards etc. as members – including the IAFF Motorcycle Group – that wear a three-piece patch. In designing the Florian’s Knight’s patch, Elmes said he copied those groups and not the outlaw organizations. He did, however, inform the Hells Angels of his intention to use the patch as a matter of biker tradition protocol, he said.
“I informed them just so that no one got hurt or no one got in trouble. Last thing I want to do is pick a fight with one of them,” Elmes said. Since the Sun article, questions have also arisen around a $1.65 million clubhouse in North Burnaby Elmes and another Florian’s Knights member bought in January. Online comments question how Elmes, who also owns a second $1.76 mil-
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lion home nearby, could have afforded it on his firefighter’s salary. “God no,” said Elmes when asked whether the Hells Angels had anything to do with the purchase of the clubhouse. Elmes, who also owns a construction business, said he bought the first house in 2006 for $560,000 and was able to finance the purchase of the clubhouse with the equity that has accrued on that property since.
Burnaby Poll shares young people’s dire views on real estate adding new drop boxes for taxes The City of Burnaby is trying to take some of the headache out of paying property taxes. It is providing a satellite office at Bonsor Recreation Complex and several drop boxes around the city to help residents avoid standing in line at city hall. The drop boxes are set up at Cameron, Eileen Dailly and Edmonds community centres and in the parking lot at city hall (4949 Canada Way). Residents can still pay their taxes and claim their Home Owner Grants at the city hall office, online or by mail. More information on how to pay can be found on the City of Burnaby’s website.
Young people think owning a home is more of a dream than a reality, according to a new Insights West poll. In the online survey of a representative sample of 820 British Columbians, it is clear young people struggle to be better positioned for the future in a way that older residents do not. A majority of those 18 to 29 years of age (52 per cent) admit they are struggling financially, and not saving for the future, and 24 per cent are living paycheque to paycheque. By comparison, 41 per cent of British Columbians aged 30-plus find themselves
financially constrained, with only 16 per cent depending on their regular paycheque to cover their living expenses. When it comes to putting money aside for the future, younger British Columbians display distinctly different behaviours than their older counterparts; 22 per cent of 18-29 year olds are scrimping now and saving for the future, with only 18 per cent saying they are living well and saving.Those 30-plus are much more likely to be living well and saving (34 per cent), and fewer see the need to control their expenses now in
order to put money aside (just 14 per cent hold this view). Within this context, it is perhaps not too surprising that the vast majority of 18-29 year olds in British Columbia (85 per cent) assert it is virtually impossible for young people to buy a house today, including 57 per cent who hold this opinion strongly. Older British Columbians share the same degree of pessimism when it comes to home ownership for young people (86 per cent, 57 per cent strongly).Where they differ is in the impact of the high cost of owning a home.
Daycare chronically behind paying rent: church Continued from page 1 “There is no possible way that there is openings in a child-care centre in 30 days,” she said. Padmanabhan said he has called more than 10 local daycares. None have space, he said, and some have waiting lists as long as 18 months. Sir Andrew’s has a second location on Boundary Road that may be able to take eight of the full-time children, Marsh-Beauchemin said, but there’s no room for the rest. Padmanabhan said that he may enrol his son there as a last resort, but that would mean a 40-minute drive from his home in east Burnaby. The church’s lead pastor, Mark Lewis, con-
tested the version of events Marsh-Beauchemin and the daycare’s board chair, Karen McRobbie, told the NOW. He said the daycare has been chronically behind on rent and he started the legal process to end the relationship with Sir Andrew’s in February. “We’ve been in a relationship with these guys for a long time. It’s been a strained one for a long time,” he said. “There’s been a lot of months upon months where they haven’t paid any rent and where they’ve been difficult to deal with.” Marsh-Beauchemin said the relationship with the church has only changed since Lewis took
over a year ago. She admitted that Sir Andrew’s was behind on rent until recently but said previous pastors have allowed late payments to accommodate parents who are sometimes behind on payment. A historically cooperative relationship between the church and daycare has evaporated, she said. Marsh-Beauchemin said she accepts the relationship will not be salvaged, but she is requesting a 62-day extension to allow them to provide summer camps for families who have already signed up. “May you please have compassion and forgiveness for the families at the centre and allow until the end of the August,” she said.