CITY 3
Trudeau pledges money
BUSINESS 11
SPORTS 32
Traction is a winning workplace
5
Giving back to the game
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY JUNE 17, 2016
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
SEE PAGE 15
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
PEDAL POWER
Entire city is their new beat By Jeremy Deutsch
jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
A group of Burnaby Mounties is going back to basics this summer, spending time on two wheels rather than four. From now until October, Burnaby RCMP’s bike patrol unit will be crisscrossing the city, fighting crime and building relationships with the public. It’s all part of a pilot project for the detachment. RCMP Cpl. Sharon Matharu is in charge of the six-member unit and explained the goal is not only to patrol the city but also engage the community and interact with the public. She said the bicycles can often go where the squad cars can’t, like trails, park areas and alleyways. “We’re a little more approachable on the bike versus some of the members on the cars,” Matharu told the NOW. “We can engage with the public a little bit more.” The group works closely with the detachment’s crime analysts to identify high crime and problem areas in the community to target during their patrols. So the unit could end up just about anywhere in the city.
THE TWO-WHEELER SQUAD: From left to right: Const. Mohammad Ismail, Const. Ben Oliver, Cpl. Sharon Matharu, Const. Samuel Toupin and Const. Tyler Hawkins. These Burnaby Mounties will be using two wheels to fight crime this summer as part of the detachment’s bike patrol unit. PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
“We’re going to be everywhere, there’s not going to be any areas we’re not in,” Matharu said, noting the bike patrol also plans to be at many of the large festivals in the city. The ultimate goal is for the bike patrol to become permanent. And based on the early response
– the team has been out on the streets for the last month – residents and businesses like the idea. “That interaction has been really good,” Matharu said. Const. Ben Oliver had been doing general duty in a car for eight years with the Burnaby RCMP and jumped at the chance to join
the bike patrol team. Not only is it a nice change for the veteran officer, but he said the response from both people and businesses has been positive. “Everybody takes a peek, all the business owners we talk to, they just love us,” Oliver said. Matharu is quick to point out
members on the bike patrol are regular police officers who will be dealing with events as they happen. Several other RCMP detachments around the Lower Mainland have their own bike patrol units.
SFU SEX ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
Students should have been warned
By Jeremy Deutsch
jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
As Simon Fraser University deals with allegations of sexual assault on the Burnaby campus, some faculty and at least one union are criticizing how the school handled the situation.
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, an SFU professor emeritus of political science and chair of the Women’s Studies Department, suggested the university knew for some time about the assault allegations, but didn’t send out a warning to students. Cohen, who said she was
familiar with one of the cases, said it was her understanding a police report was filed in February from one of the victims. She also noted faculty met with senior members of administration about the allegations in early April. “I think the university just
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does not have the kind of expertise it needs with regards to sexual assault and they need to have a clearer idea of what the problem is,” she said, adding at least one of the women involved has left the school. She further criticized the university, suggesting the
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administration doesn’t understand sexual assault cases or have a proper policy in place to deal with the problem, adding frontline workers have limited powers to help victims. On Tuesday, SFU officials and the Burnaby RCMP confirmed an investiga-
tion is underway into the allegations of sexual assault that were brought forward sometime during the spring semester. The university said it received three allegations of sexual assaults from female students at the Burnaby Continued on page 4
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