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Group invites the neighbours to come grow with them PAGE 13
Teen swimmer shooting for the Olympics PAGE 27
Your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! >> www.burnabynow.com CIVIL LIBERTIES
Bond disputes numbers
The long walk for water
But nobody will say exactly how many names are in B.C. police database Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
B.C.’s solicitor general is disputing an estimate from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that as many as 85 per cent of British Columbians are listed in PRIME-BC, a police database used to track criminals. “It is wrong to suggest that 85 per cent of British Columbians’ names are entered into PRIME,” said Solicitor General Shirley Bond in a statement sent to The Vancouver Sun. “In fact, many are multiple calls involving the same people. Names are retained for a minimum of two years, and privacy is maintained through federal and provincial privacy legislation.” The B.C. Civil Liberties PRIME Page 8
THE YOUTH VOTE Is there one?
A closer look on pg.3
Photo contributed/burnaby now
Water for Life: Mark Angelo, chair of BCIT’s Rivers Institute, with a group of Karo people in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia. Last summer in Africa, Angelo walked alongside women who trekked for hours every day to the nearest water source. The experience inspired him to organize Water for Life, a benefit concert at the Michael J. Fox Theatre on April 7.
Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
M
ark Angelo will never look at water the same way after last summer in Ethiopia, Africa. The avid river conservationist was visiting Shivela, a village of about 100 Hamer people who live in woodframe huts with no electricity and no running water. Hamers are a long-isolated ethnic group from the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. They live in valley’s foothills, far from the river. Their land is called the “poisoned paradise” – beautiful but arid, and it’s a treacherous 15-kilometre trek to the nearest water source from Shivela.
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One day, Angelo rose around 6 a.m. to join the women on their walk for water. It took three hours. “We filled up our jerrycans and our calabash gourds. Everyone was carrying about 40 pounds each, and it took us four hours to get back. We didn’t get back till one in the afternoon, and it’s something they do every day,” Angelo says. “When I got back, I was pretty exhausted, yet that was just the beginning of their day.” Upon return, the women started the rest of the chores – looking after animals and preparing meals. But that journey marked Angelo. While water is a matter of life and death in the Omo Valley, it’s readily available at BCIT, where
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he works as chair of the Rivers Institute. “If I’m thirsty, I take my cup and walk across the hall, turn on a tap, and fill up my cup,” he says. “It’s something most North Americans don’t think about. It’s something we tend to take for granted, but we should never do that, because we are incredibly fortunate. Much of the world does not have that luxury.” In fact, close to one billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water. Lack of accessible water and sanitization is a contributing factor to an early death in Shivela, where one is considered lucky to live past 50. “It really makes you realize the importance Water Page 9
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