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Delivery 604-942-3081 • Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Inaugural run attracts a healthy crowd
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‘Inspiring the uninspired’ B
ack in 2002, retired Burnaby teacher Mike Jones was sitting in his office in the first week of classes at Alpha Secondary, when he first heard of Desi Collinson. “I remember a young boy come running in and saying, ‘Mr. Jones, you have to see this guy playing in the gym,’” said Jones. That guy was Collinson, a First Nations student transfer to the North Burnaby school from what was then called the Queen Charlotte Islands before the Reconciliation Act of 2010 renamed the North Coast ON MY BEAT archipelago “Islands of the Tom Berridge Haida People.” Matt Rachar, who was an up-and-coming junior post on the Alpha senior boys’ team, also remembers the first day Collinson walked over to Confederation Park and singularly took over a game of pickup basketball. “(Collinson) dominated the games,” said Rachar, who went on to set a B.C. high school record with Alpha for most field goals in a provincial tournament before embarking on a successful five-year hoop career at the University of B.C. and later turning pro in Austria. “We were ecstatic to hear that he was moving to Burnaby and would be attending Alpha. That was a huge turning point.” Alpha head coach Wayne Best remembers Collinson and his buddy Duane Alsop, who followed his friend to Alpha in 2003, as “tough and passionate.” “He’s always looking for the positive. … I’m just beaming with pride,” Best said of his commitment to the youth. Collinson, a first team Lower Mainland all-star, helped Alpha to its first AAA provincial tournament and a top-eight finish in 2003, averaging more than 18 points per game and placing fourth in overall free throw percentage, potting 21-of-24 in four games. After graduation, Collinson attended Langara College but returned home before finishing his studies. “Basketball and sport in general, is just a Basketball Page 3
PARTY MEMBER QUESTIONED
RCMP probe touches on Lib donations Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
File photo/burnaby now
‘Tough and passionate’: Alpha Secondary grad Desi Collinson (No. 10, in file photo) will be behind the bench of Queen Charlotte at the B.C. AAAA basketball championships starting today in Langley.
The RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit is asking questions about former MLA Harry Bloy and the Liberal leadership race, the Burnaby NOW has learned. Two RCMP officers recently questioned Coquitlam resident Sanjay Sharma about his Liberal party membership renewal and whether he received a PIN number and instructions to vote in the party’s 2011 leadership race. Sharma was told he was a witness in what “may or may not be something.” “The first question out of their mouths was, ‘Are you affiliated with any party?’” Sharma told the NOW. “And I said, ‘I believe I signed up for a Liberal (party) membership when Christy Clark was running.’” The officers were questioning Sharma about an event he attended, in which he renewed his Liberal party membership with Bloy, who was then the MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed. Sharma paid cash to renew, then later received instructions in the mail on how to vote online for one of four candidates vying for leadership of the B.C. Liberals – Kevin Falcon, Christy Clark, George Abbott and Mike de Jong. The RCMP officers asked Sharma if he remembered how much he paid and whether he remembered voting online, which he did. It’s not clear what exactly the investigation is focused on, because RCMP can’t comment. However, last fall, B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch appointed a special prosecutor to help police with an ongoing investigation into contraventions of the provincial Election Act. The RCMP were investigating issues connected to the review of the draft Probe Page 9
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