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WEDNESDAY
August 24, 2011
Downtown Port Coquitlam’s Seventh Annual Car Show drew everything from Mustangs to Auburn 890 Speedsters. Visit www.thenownews.com for a full photo gallery.
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Photo courtesy NDP
NDP leader Jack Layton died of cancer on Monday.
Tributes continue for Jack Layton John Kurucz jkurucz@thenownews.com Sadness is being tempered with terms like “optimism” and “enthusiasm” as local colleagues of Jack Layton react to the NDP leader’s death and reflect on his legacy. New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly characterized his former boss as both an “inspiring leader” and “amazing individual” in an interview Monday. “I got to know him quite well. We were able to take walks and meet people and businesses and organizations and go to events together enough that I got a sense of who Jack was and how passionate and driven he was,” Donnelly said. “It was pretty incredible. He was a magnet. You couldn’t go anywhere without people yelling, ‘Hey Jack!’” That same type of reverence was expressed by former New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Dawn Black. “The country has lost such a positive force — a man with such energy, such incredible optimism,” she said. “When I think about Jack, I think about his optimism. He would say to us in caucus, ‘Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done. It can be done.’” Layton died Monday morning after his second bout CONTINUED ON PAGE 3, see CONDOLENCE BOOKS.
r s? te om s b o Lo shr ied u Tr ed m f uf t s
Paul vanPeenen/NOW
Search Manager Al Hurley, of Coquitlam Search and Rescue, greets three hikers who were airlifted to safety after getting stranded in the DeBeck Creek drainage north of Coquitlam in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. The trio — Mark Coleman, left, Mark White and Cory Richardson — was on a five-day hike down the Fool’s Gold Trail from Squamish to Pitt Lake.
Helicopter scoops up hikers
Trio rescued from area where 35-year-old disappeared last year Jennifer McFee jmcfee@thenownews.com It was the best-case scenario for three hikers stranded in the upper Pitt Lake area when Coquitlam Search and Rescue successfully located them Tuesday afternoon. Three men in their 20s, believed to be from the Tri-Cities, started off Friday on the Fool’s Gold Trail from Squamish to Coquitlam. Mark Coleman, Mark White and Cory Richardson intended to finish the seven-day hike in five days, but didn’t make it. Monday morning, the group set off a personal location beacon, which sends a signal to a satellite. From there, an emergency co-ordination centre in Victoria was able to determine a GPS location. Coquitlam Search and Rescue (SAR) spokesperson Dwight Yochim said they knew something had gone wrong for the
hikers when Coquitlam RCMP informed them about the beacon. “It’s very difficult to set these off accidentally,” Yochim said. “It’s designed to force the user to go through a bunch of steps in order to trigger it.” They determined that the beacon was set off in a series of rock bands about 400 to 500 metres above the trail. Friends and family provided printouts of the maps the men took, along with information about their route. Yochim said the hikers were fit and experienced, but they hadn’t brought a tent with them. Coquitlam SAR attempted to reach the area by helicopter Monday night, but they were unsuccessful due to the weather. However, they managed to drop five volunteers at the base of a creek where they camped out over night. Tuesday morning, they began to hike in through rough terrain towards the stranded men, with the hopes of reaching them before nightfall.
Thanks to a break in cloud cover, they were also able to send in the helicopter on Tuesday. As soon as the hikers heard the helicopter, they set off a smoke flare. “It just stood out on the mountainside and we were able to fly straight to them,” said Yochim, adding that SAR volunteers from the North Shore and Ridge Meadows also helped out. The helicopter was unable to land in the rugged area, but rescuers could see that all three hikers were mobile and didn’t seem to be injured. They rigged up the helicopter with an external transportation system in which a rescuer hangs from a long line attached to the bottom of the helicopter. The rescuer dropped down and assessed the hikers for injury. Seeing no problems, he removed them one by one using a “screamer suit” — a harness that fits over individuals to lift CONTINUED ON PAGE 5, see TRIO AIRLIFTED.
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