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Matchstick art
Impressive start
Third ranked McRoberts Strikers opened the provincial rugby championships Monday night with an easy home field win over Nelson’s LV Rogers.
Artist Hema Upadhyay creates massive chandeliers out of match sticks which symbolized fire and destruction as well as warmth and hope.
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HOUSING
Fire makes single mom, cancer victim homeless
Community unites around family BY A LAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
Masumi Sekimoto doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Ten days ago, the single mom-of-two lost the roof over her head and almost every family possession after a fire tore through three townhomes in the Cambie neighbourhood. When asked by the News what she has left, Sekimoto chuckled as she told how she had just bought a new mattress, which was lost in the blaze. But as she pondered where she might sleep that night, her laughter subsided as she relived the moment she witnessed the life of her family — Daniel, 13, and Erika, 9 — being turned upside down. “I’m getting flashbacks right now,” an upset Sekimoto said. “All I can remember is my son shouting ‘mom, we have to get out, you have to call 911’,” she said. “I thought he was joking. Then I looked out and saw the big flames on the fence. I still thought it was a joke, even then. I have no idea where I might stay tonight. There is a lady from my church that I haven’t even met. She has offered her basement suite.” The Sekimotos were one of three low-income families affected by the fire on Sunday, May 23 around 10 p.m. in the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation complex. Thanks to the quick thinking of her son and many neighbours, no one was badly injured in the Cambie Road blaze. But Sekimoto, who is recovering from breast cancer and works part time as a cleaner while looking after her kids, could not afford insurance and has been left destitute. see Mom page 4
CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
Masumi Sekimoto’s was one of three families who lost everything in a townhouse complex fire. In front of Sekimoto’s burned home is Masumi and daughter, Erika, 9 (foreground) with neighbours Nancy Le Breton and son, Jeremiah Larry, 10, who are trying to help the family. Sekimoto’s son, Daniel, 13, is staying with his baseball coach.
GARDEN CITY LANDS
Council defied staff recommendations: Musqueam Richmond city council breached an agreement with the Musqueam First Nation on the Garden City lands when it refused to listen to the advice of senior city staff, according to a statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court May 11. The Musqueam agreed to sell its interests in the land to the city for $60 million, then turned around and filed a civil suit
against the city for breaking the agreement in April. The details of the Musqueam’s case are now spelled out in a 16-page statement of claim, which asks the court to rule that a Memorandum of Understanding on sharing the land that the city signed is still in force, despite the fact the band accepted the city’s $60-million offer. The city has not yet filed its rebuttal statement. Jim Wright, a member of the Garden City Lands Coalition, has studied the
Garden City lands deal in detail. He doesn’t think the Musqueam have much of a case. “If the city is well represented, I don’t see how that is going to win,” he said. After the Agricultural Land Commission heard an application to have the 55-hectare parcel of land removed from the ALR for a second time, Mayor Malcolm Brodie and city staff met privately with ALC staff to discuss how the city could enhance its argument in favour of releasing the land. At a council meeting in November 2008,
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Joe Erceg, general manager of planning and development, put forward a recommendation to council that included extending a purchase agreement that was about to expire by another six months, and approving a detailed plan for improving agriculture in Richmond. Those recommendations would have had wide-ranging implications for ALR property owners in Richmond, especially in the McLennan area. see ALR page 5
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BY NELSON BENNETT
nbennett@richmond-news.com