October 14, 2011

Page 1

Friday, October 14, 2011

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Children perish in motor home fire

Great pumpkin drop

Green Legacy folds after 20 years of service

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FESTIVAL FAVOURITES RETURN Ann Vriend and Jason Burnstick team up for concert

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INSIDE

opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 6 mailbag . . . . . . . . . . . 7 community . . . . . . . . 9 entertainment . . . . . 15 classifieds . . . . . . . . 16

Golis

JESSICA PETERS / OBSERVER

Ken Green takes a break from operating the Hell’s Gate Air Tram to drop an 80-pound pumpkin out the window. Pumpkins made the 500-foot drop all day Monday, which was also the last day of the season at Hell’s Gate. The pumpkin, which was 100 pounds before gutting, was grown and donated by Steven Rice of Secret Gardens in Spences Bridge. This is the fourth year for the annual pumpkin drop. For video, visit www.ahobserver.com.

Treaty commission calls for political will Tom Fletcher BLACK PRESS

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Two young children have died after a fire consumed their grandparents' motor home Wednesday night. The brother and sister were sleeping when the fire broke out shortly before midnight, where the family was camping at a decommissioned airstrip just north of Lytton. The children's grandparents were camping at the airstrip as part of a road work crew that was set up in the area. Several people saw the fire and rushed to help, and the grandfather was able to remove the children from the fire. However, the boy, age four, and girl, five, died in a Kamloops hospital. BC Ambulance crews from Lytton, Lillooet and Boston Bar all responded to the scene, along with the Lytton RCMP and the Lytton Fire Department. The grandfather helped his wife out of the motor home after removing the children. Both adults were still in hospital care at press time. RCMP said the two family dogs, who perished in the fire, may have alerted the family to the situation. The scene is being investigated, including the 2006 35-foot motor home, to determine the cause of the fire. The children's parents live in the Vancouver area and Armstrong, RCMP said. While the family has been notified, no names have been released. news@ahobserver.com

The head of the B.C. Treaty Commission wants her mandate extended one more year to see if the federal-provincial effort to settle aboriginal land claims has a future after two decades. Chief Commissioner Sophie Pierre's three-year appointment is set to end next March. The former chief and administrator of the Ktunaxa-Kinbasket Tribal Council in southeastern B.C. has tried to speed

up progress since her appointment in 2009, a period that saw two treaties implemented and another signed. As the commission tabled its 19th annual report Wednesday in Victoria, Pierre turned up the heat. She said treaty talks have become "just another program of government" where Ottawa in particular is holding up progress. "We believe as a commission that with political will, with strong political direction, we could have seven treaties instead of two, right now, and

we could have nine comprehensive agreements instead of the one that we have," Pierre said. After implementation of the Tsawwassen First Nation treaty in Metro Vancouver and the Maa-Nulth treaty on southwestern Vancouver Island, the Yale treaty in the Fraser Canyon was ratified as the federal government launched an inquiry into the state of Fraser River salmon stocks. That put fish negotiations on hold for all remaining treaties until the inquiry determines what fish

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there are to divide up. Jerry Lampert, the federal appointee to the treaty commission, agreed with Pierre that federal negotiators have too narrow a mandate, and have to go back to Ottawa for approval of each area of agreement. Pierre said Ottawa needs to turn its experienced negotiators loose to do their work, and take things off the table that are not going to be negotiated. If that doesn't produce results, she said they should shut treaty negotiations down.


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October 14, 2011 by Agassiz Harrison Hope Observer - Issuu