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Temple tantrum
A survey shows strong support for the proposed expansion of the Lingyen Buddhist temple. But a critic of the expansion questions the survey’s findings.
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Jeffrey Laing hits the stage at the Shark Club in Vancouver Nov. 13. Laing has just released a debut self-titled CD of original songs.
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Table scraps may soon heat homes BY NELSON BENNETT
nbennett@richmond-news.com
PUBLIC HEALTH
Disease expert’s excuse is ‘hogwash’ Lyme sufferers accuse disease control centre of covering up real figures BY A LAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
“It’s total hogwash.” That was Shannon Goertzen’s reaction to the explanation given by B.C.’s top disease expert, Dr. Bonnie Henry, for an alleged cover-up and massive discrepancy between the BC Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) official Lyme disease figures and the number of cases diagnosed by the province’s doctors. In 2007, the BCCDC reported $
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just 13 cases of Lyme — a potentially life-altering tick-borne disease that can ravage both body and mind if not diagnosed early — while a survey of B.C. physicians by that same organization discovered that 221 cases of Lyme had been diagnosed in the same year. Moreover, the doctors’ survey answers were only handed over to a member of a Lyme support group, Canlyme, after 18 months of repeated inquiries and, eventually, the filing of a freedom of
information (FOI) request. Henry — director of Public Health Emergency Services at the BCCDC and assistant professor, School of Population and Public Health at UBC — claimed that the survey results were “not kept quiet in any way” and that the results have been presented “at a number of meetings and conferences” and are undergoing scientific review and validation. That in itself is a “very public process,” she added, via an e-mail interview.
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Goertzen, a Richmond mother of three, said Henry’s response is entirely indicative of her family’s experience of how the disease is still being ignored in B.C. The News highlighted Goertzen in May, along with her two sons, as having their lives turned upside down by Lyme and spending their life savings paying for medical help from U.S. doctors. “It’s the standard party line and I’ve heard it all before,” see Cover-up? page 4
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CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
A time for reflection ... Fishing boats cast a mirror image in the water at East Steveston Harbour during some fall sunshine.
A new energy-from-waste project in East Richmond will benefit the environment on two fronts. The project will not only divert food and yard waste from landfills, it will also convert the organics to gas that can be burned to create the equivalent of one megawatt of energy — enough to power 1,000 homes. “This demonstration project is a first for Canada,” federal Minister of Natural Resources Christian Paradis said at a press conference Tuesday at the Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre composting facility at the Fraser Port complex in East Richmond. “It could potentially be used elsewhere across Canada, diverting thousands of tonnes of food and yard waste from landfills to produce renewable energy.” Harvest Energy Canada — a Canadian arm of the Massachusetts-based company — is getting $4 million from Ottawa to build a $12-million digester based at the Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre composting facility. The funding comes from the Government of Canada’s $795-million Clean Energy Fund, which is intended to promote renewable and clean energy initiatives. “Actions like these will help us to meet our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020,” Paradis said. Food waste that used to go into the landfill now goes to East Richmond for composting. Earlier this year, Richmond implemented a curbside collection program for food and yard waste. It is one of several municipalities now diverting about 27,000 tonnes of food and yard waste from landfills each year. see Aujla page 6