KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK TUESDAY
LOCAL NEWS
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JULY 19, 2016 | Volume 29 No. 86
ON THE BRINK OF A TITLE
VIRTUAL REALITY TODAY’S WEATHER
Showers High 26 C Low 13 C
North Kamloops company taking the next step
Venom need one more win
A17
A23
Pipeline panel in Kamloops today, tomorrow
It was one month ago today that 18-year-old Jessie Simpson (right) was beaten in a Brocklehurst neighbourhood. He remains on life support. Thirty-nine-year-old Kristopher Teichrieb (left) remains in custody and is attending a bail hearing this week in the Kamloops Law Courts.
CAM FORTEMS STAFF REPORTER cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
A new federal panel appointed to take another look at the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline will hear submissions in Kamloops today and tomorrow. The TMX Ministerial Panel was appointed in spring by the federal Liberal government. Its three members will hear submissions from First Nations, local government, business and non-profit groups at Thompson Rivers University’s Ike Barber Centre. The National Energy Board approved the project in May, attaching 157 conditions before it can proceed. The project is intended to twin the existing Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to its terminus on the West Coast in Burnaby. It has drawn fierce opposition on the Coast, including from municipalities of Burnaby and Vancouver, but has largely been welcomed by Interior municipalities. Proponent Kinder Morgan has signed benefit agreements with some First Nations and municipalities near the route and Thompson Rivers University. “Certainly, there hasn’t been the opposition you’ve seen in other cities,” said Mayor Peter Milobar, who expects input from municipalities to be “on technical terms rather than ideology.” Ron Ignace, chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band, said the band has not been properly consulted about the project. He has concerns about a plan to reroute the existing line beside the historic Ajax mine pit and Jacko Lake. The Skeetchestn and Tk’emlups bands together have filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court, claiming title to the private property around the mine as well as within the City of Kamloops. “They’re looking at moving the pipeline,” Ignace said. “That’s of concern to us.” The roundtable meetings at TRU’s Irving K. Barber Centre today include government from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and First Nations from 12:30 to 4:30. Tomorrow, local government is scheduled to present from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., non-governmental organizations from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and business from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Members of the public can make submissions during the panel sessions or online.
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Teichrieb’s bail hearing begins CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER; JESSIE SIMPSON STILL IN COMA TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
A father of three facing a charge of attempted murder in connection to the baseball-bat beating of an 18-yearold high school student walked into a Kamloops courtroom with a big smile on his face yesterday, waving at a group of friends and family seated in the gallery. Kristopher Teichrieb has been in custody since he was arrested in the earlymorning hours of June 19 after Jessie Simpson was beaten into a coma near Teichrieb’s Brocklehurst home. Teichrieb’s bail hearing is expected to wrap up later this week. The evidence presented at the hearing is protected by a court-ordered ban on publication. The 39-year-old wore a red jail-issue sweatsuit at the hearing, through which he sat silently, leaned forward and looked at the ground in the prisoner’s box with his elbows resting on his knees.
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Teichrieb had eight supporters in the courtroom gallery. Three of them had to be excused from the hearing after Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison made an order excluding any potential witnesses at trial. Teichrieb is accused of beating Simpson with a baseball bat after finding the teen near or on his property. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was celebrating high-school graduation with friends on June 18 and may have been trying to find a group of friends when he was beaten. Simpson has been on life support since the incident. Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen has suggested the charge against Teichrieb could be upgraded to murder if Simpson succumbs to his injuries. Teichrieb was arrested just after 5 a.m. on Father’s Day after police were called to a reported altercation in the area of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue.
Simpson’s friends and family have said he was beaten with a baseball bat after being chased down. Police initially said Teichrieb had confronted someone in the driveway of his Clifford Avenue home. At a candlelight vigil on June 26, Simpson’s aunt described his condition as “grave” and said it had not changed since he was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital. Police have said Simpson has not been able to verbalize anything to investigators. It is unclear if Mounties know why Simpson was on Teichrieb’s property, if he indeed was. The altercation took place on Holt Street. Teichrieb’s home is on nearby Clifford Avenue. Teichrieb is a father of three with no criminal record and the owner of at least two construction firms. Simpson lives in Savona and was graduating from South Kamloops secondary this year.
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