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Victim looks for owner of vicious dog PAGE 5
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Olympic search held on city lake
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Your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! >> www.burnabynow.com ELECTION 2013
Shin stays despite comment Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
NDP candidate Jane Shin is once again raising eyebrows, this time with a comment she made online 11 years ago, saying she was fed up with the “chinkasauruses roaming about Vancouver.” According to the online Urban Dictionary, “chinkasaur” is a “semioffensive reference to an older/ elderly Asian person.” Shin, the NDP candidate for Burnaby-Lougheed, did not return a call and email from the Burnaby NOW, nor was her campaign manager available. ButaccordingtoTheVancouverSun, New Democrat Jenny Kwan defended Shin, whose family immigrated Shin Page 8
Jason Lang/burnaby now
BAG ‘O FISH: Gregory Hamilton prepares to release salmon chum into Eagle Creek. Hamilton was
on hand for the annual Eagle Creek Streamkeepers Society’s salmon release last Saturday at Charles Rummel Park in Burnaby.
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‘...THE SECRECY IN WHICH THE NOTICES WERE SENT OUT ISN’T ACCEPTABLE’ – JAMES SANYSHYN
Union prez says district issued 75 layoff notices Cayley Dobie staff reporter
The Burnaby school district sent out layoff notices to teachers in the district last week after only days before publicly approving a budget that didn’t include any actual staffing layoffs. According to Burnaby Teachers’ Association president James Sanyshyn, 75 full-time teachers were given layoff notices last week. While he understands the trustees have no choice but to balance the
budget – even if that requires layoffs – the secrecy in which the notices were sent out isn’t acceptable, he said. “Right after the board passed its budget, what that did was enacted about 75 layoff notices for teachers,” he said. “They would have approved that in an in-camera session prior to the public session.” The NOW reported last week that the Burnaby school district would be cutting about 3.5 staff allocations for both elementary and secondary levels, which was outlined in the district’s 2013/14 pre-
liminary budget and passed at the April 23 meeting. These cuts were part of 7.5 reductions in positions throughout the district. Reductions would come from the reorganization of positions within the following groups: custodial services, district vice-principals and secondary international enrolling staff allocations. Staffing allocations were reduced by slight increases to class sizes, according to the report. In an email to the NOW last week, Greg Frank, secretary-treasurer for the district, said the adjustments highlighted in the
budget wouldn’t result “in any direct layoffs as they will be achieved through very small reductions in our staffing allocation formulas across all schools.” But Sanyshyn said this isn’t what has happened. “To say there were no layoffs is disingenuous and it doesn’t foster good relationships between the union and the employer,” he said. “The board had a layoff meeting strangely enough – if you didn’t have any layoffs then why would you have a layoff Layoffs Page 8
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