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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010
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Student dies – counsellors ready to help BY NIKI HOPE REPORTER
nhope@royalcityrecord.com
Larry Wright/THE RECORD
Tragedy: Investigators from the New Westminster Police Service study the scene of a fatal accident Monday morning involving an 11-year-old boy.
School counsellors from throughout the New Westminster school district were deployed to École Glenbrook Middle School Tuesday morning, after the tragic death of an 11-year-old student from the school. The district learned about the fatal accident on Monday, superintendent John Woudzia told The Record. By Tuesday morning, the district put into place a critical instance response, which includes offering grief counselling to students and staff at the school, he said. “I think we’ve got a very comprehensive level of support,” Woudzia said. Along with school counsellors, the New Westminster Police Service’s victim assistance unit and New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services staff were also on hand to help the school district deal with the tragedy. ◗Tragedy Page 4
City MP wants longer EI sick benefits BY JANAYA FULLER-EVANS REPORTER jfuller-evans@royalcityrecord.com
A private members bill to extend employment insurance sickness benefits from 15 to 52 weeks was introduced by the New Democrat MP for New WestminsterCoquitlam, Fin Donnelly, in Ottawa on Monday. Donnelly held a press conference, after announcing the bill, with the NDP critic for employment insurance Yvon Godin, MP for Acadie-Bathurst, and cancer survivors Natalie Thomas and Marie-Hélène Dubé. Dubé has collected more than 200,000
signatures on two separate petitions to extend EI sickness benefits. The bill would extend benefits for illness, injury and quarantine, he said in a followup phone interview. People who are battling cancer and other chronic or long-term diseases are often starting or in the middle of treatment at 15 weeks, Donnelly explained. He became aware of the issue when Thomas, a Coquitlam resident, came to speak with him soon after he was elected last November. She had to turn to friends and family when her benefits ran out as she was completing treatment, he said.
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Now that the bill has been introduced, it will have to go to second and third reading before it can be passed. The next step is raising awareness, Donnelly said. “We’re really highlighting this issue, that it is only there for 15 weeks.” Donnelly’s predecessor, Dawn Black, also introduced a private members bill regarding EI sickness benefits after meeting Thomas in July of 2006. Bill C-316 was introduced in March 2007, and reintroduced in October 2007, but did not make it to second reading. Thomas, who has lived in Coquitlam for 35 years, was diagnosed with breast
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cancer in January 2006, she said, and needed a mastectomy. She had a second surgery on July 5, and two days later received her last EI payment. Thomas had to rely on the kindness of friends, who would drop off groceries and mail her gift cards, to survive financially. “I went to Dawn’s office two weeks after I got out of the hospital,” Thomas said, “and told her, somehow we have to see this change.” Thomas worked with Black, writing letters to local newspapers, and collecting more than 1,000 signatures over nine
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