INSIDE: You’ll never walk alone thanks to new trail technology Pg. 4 T H U R S D A Y
July 21, 2011
15
Huskers get taste of live action
N E W S , S P O R T S , W E A T H E R & E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Angling to close open-net fish farms
solidarity in
surviving
BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
“Everywhere we go-ooo. People want to kno-ooow.Who we are. So we tell them.We are the Burn Camp. The mighty mighty Burn Camp.”
S
ixty-five young burn survivors sang that old camp song (with a twist) at top volume Tuesday as they walked through the Cultus Lake Water Park and headed back to their camp buses after a day at the waterslides. At any other time of year, many of these campers, all of whom have burn scars of one kind or another, wouldn’t be comfortable wearing shorts and tank tops in public let alone drawing attention to themselves by singing. But this is Burn Camp week, and there is strength in numbers. “We’re like one big gang,” said local burn survivor 16-year-old Austin Kreller, who is in his fourth
year at the camp. “We stick up for each other. We’ve got each others’ backs.” That kind of solidarity is empowering, and empowerment is what Burn Camp is all about. “It helps kids come out of that shell of not wanting to socialize and helps them socialize,” said Chilliwack firefighter Andy Brown, one of the counsellors at the camp this year. Now in its 18th year, Burn Camp is an annual event designed to help young burn survivors overcome the psychological trauma of their injuries. “Most of them have healed their physical scars; this camp helps heal the emotional scars,” said Brown. For kids adjusting to the lifetime of pain and disfigurement that often comes with their injuries, one week of campfire singalongs, kayaking, horseback riding and team building in a
See SOLIDARITY, Page 22
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
T
Cornelia Naylor/TIMES
Local burn survivor Austin Kreller, 16, takes in a day at the Cultus Lake Water Park with the annual B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Burn Camp Tuesday.
he ongoing practices of the aquaculture industry in the Pacific Ocean are damaging the food supply for many First Nations, according to Eddie Gardner, an elder with the Skwah band located in Chilliwack. Gardner and band leaders want to see open-net fish farms out of British Columbia and held a rally at the old band office Tuesday evening. “The aquaculture industry is aggressively pursuing expansion and getting more licences,” Gardner told the Times in an interview Wednesday. “There is no consultation with the Fraser River EB IRST aboriginal peo- First reported on ple and its Fra- chilliwacktimes.com ser River sockeye smolts that have to swim by [those fish farms], and that’s been the mainstay of our diet since time immemorial.” Gardner said the records of the Cohen Commission that show the aquaculture industry blaming climate change and First Nations fisheries for the collapse of wild salmon stocks is “ridiculous.” Because of scientific uncertainty and studies that have shown the damage from sea lice and other aquaculture practices, Gardner would like the government to adopt the precautionary principle and move to closed containment fish farming. At the same time Gardner and
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See FISH, Page 6
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