CITY 3
Life sentence in Gordic death
THURSDAY JANUARY 17, 2019
COMMUNITY 11
Storied history of chestnuts
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
EVENTS 15
Your top 5 for the weekend
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
Suspicious fire engulfs building Police and fire officials are investigating a suspicious fire that destroyed an abandoned house in Burnaby Monday night. Fire crews were called to the building, located in the 5300 block of Byrne Road, just after 9 p.m. By the time they arrived, however, the house was already fully engulfed, according to assistant fire Chief GregYoung. “The structure was falling apart when they got there, so they weren’t able to go inside,” he told the NOW. “They just basically extinguished it from the exterior.” The building had been boarded up with plywood for years, according to Young, but he said it’s possible someone may have broken in and been living there. So far, the fire department isn’t aware of anyone having been trapped inside during the blaze, he said. “You can’t really go in and disturb the place until the investigation is done,” he said. – Cornelia Naylor
NOT MUCH LEFT Burnaby RCMP and fire investigators on the scene Tuesday of a suspicious fire on Byrne Road. PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
Robinsonannounceshe’stakingonTerryBeech
Kelvin Gawley
kgawley@burnabynow.com
A quarter-century in Parliament followed by more than a decade of international aid work would leave most 66-year-olds eager to settle into a relaxing retirement. So why is Svend Robinson mounting a comeback? “I still have lots of energy and lots of passion to fight to make a difference, and that’s why I’m back,” he says. The former NDP MP announced Tuesday he will be running in Burnaby North–
Seymour in the Oct. 21, 2019 federal election. He will be trying to unseat incumbent Liberal Terry Beech. Robinson spoke with the NOW in an exclusive oneon-one interview about his campaign plans. He’s been door-knocking in the riding for months, sussing out a potential campaign, and he says the people he’s met remember the name and face of the prominent and longserving parliamentarian. “Many people remembered – and across party lines – remembered my work as the representative
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for this community and the quot Sound onVancouver incredibly hard work that I Island. He supported ALS did on behalf of my constitpatient Sue Rodriguez in uents,” he says. her fight for phyRobinson sat sician-assisted suiin the House of cide, and he broke Commons from his jaw and ankle 1979 to 2004, in a hiking accident making him one of on Galiano Island the country’s lon– along with being gest serving MPs. constant presence In that time, he at local community did far more than events. warm a seat in the And then there opposition bench- Svend Robinson was the ring. NDP candidate es. He came out In 2004, Robas Canada’s first inson pulled out openly gay parliamentarian. of the election after admitHe spent 14 days in jail for ting to stealing a diamond protesting logging at Clayoring from an auction house
in Richmond.Two years later, he attempted a political comeback in an unsuccessful run inVancouver Centre. He lost to Liberal Hedy Fry. On Tuesday, Robinson said that, in hindsight, his 2006 run had come too soon. But now he’s confident people have forgiven him for the ring theft and says society at large now has a better understanding of mental illness – the reason he’s given for the incident. Since then, he has spent most of his time based in Geneva, Switzerland working for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculo-
sis and malaria. Following mandatory retirement in 2017, he sat on an advisory panel, helping craft Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apology to gay and lesbian civil servants and military personnel. But now he’s back in Burnaby and fired up. He says he’s ready to fight the prime minister on issues that matter to people in Burnaby and NorthVancouver, particularly housing and climate change. And he’s confident voters will tap him to take that fight to Ottawa. Continued on page 3
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