Burnaby Now October 20 2022

Mission of mercy to Ukraine Weekend events Chighlights

election sends warning

RCMP officer slain

Burnaby Const. ShaelynYang, 31,fatally stabbed in the line of duty

CorneliaNaylor cnaylor@burnabynow com

A 31 year old Burn aby Mountie was stabbed to death in the line of duty Tuesday morning during a call at a local park.

At about 11:05 a m , Const. ShaelynYang ac companied a City of Burn aby parks employee re sponding to a complaint in the area of Broadway Park near the intersection of CanadaWay and Curle Avenue, according to po lice.

At the scene,Yang got into an altercation with a man and was fatally stabbed

The man was shot and taken to hospital with seri ous but non life threaten ing injuries

Photos of the scene

Continued on page 16

BurnabyCitizensAssociationaddstocouncilmajority

The Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA) is cel ebrating after regaining a stronghold on city coun cil.

With all four incumbent councillors re elected and

two BCA newcomers cel ebrating a council victory, the NDP affiliated party now holds six of eight council seats.

“The future is bright,” said incumbent BCA Coun Sav Dhaliwal at an election watch party on Oct 15

BCA incumbent Coun. Alison Gu, just 26, is looking at a second land slide victory with the highest number of votes in the unofficial results at 17,340 4,316 more than the candidate follow ing in second place, BCA incumbent Coun James

Wang. She won 8.08 per cent of the vote

“I’m really honoured that there’s been so much trust placed in me,” Gu told the NOW

“The message I’ve al ways put forward is that housing and climate need to be tackled together,

and we need to be doing it at a pace that is urgent And I hope that’s what resonates with people ”

The two spots left open by the retirement of long time councillors Dan Johnston and Colleen Jor dan opened the door for

Continued

THURSDAY,

2022 LOCAL NEWS LOCAL MATTERS. There’s more at Burnabynow.com

ALL SMILES: Incumbent Burnaby Citizens Association Coun. Alison Gu celebrates her victory in the 2022 municipal election. PHOTO CORNELIANAYLOR

LaurenVanderdeen lvanderdeen@burnabynow.com

There’smoreonlineat

now

Voterselectcity’sfirstPhilippines-borncouncillor

Immigration consultant and community organizer Maita Santiago is elected as part of BCA slate

LaurenVanderdeen lvanderdeen@burnabynow com

For the first time in Burnaby’s history, the city has elected a Philip pines born councillor

Maita Santiago, a Burn aby immigration consul tant and community or ganizer, was elected on Saturday with 11,347 votes

Burnaby was her first home in Canada when she moved from the Phil ippines in 1977

“If you had told this new immigrant kid that she was going to be a city councillor? I would not have believed it,” coun cillor elect Santiago said moments after her elec tion victory

Santiago won as part of the NDP affiliated Burn aby Citizens Association slate which saw six of its eight candidates win a council seat on election night

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

This wasn’t Santiago’s

first political campaign

She said she was the first Philippines born per son to run for elected of fice in B C when she ran forVancouver city coun cil in 1993 with the Coa lition of Progressive Elec tors (COPE).

“It’s almost 30 years later, and it’s only tonight (Oct 15) that we’ve fi nally broken through and gotten a Filipino elected to a city council seat across the Lower Main land,” Santiago said “I’m still wrapping my

head around it, to be hon est,” she said. “But it’s very emotional ” Santiago said running in the 1993 election, along with her studies in po litical science at Simon Fraser University, con tributed to her interest in

community organizing “I met with some women who are organiz ing caregivers, Filipino women and young Fili pino Canadian youth, and that was it, that was my start, in terms of commu nity organizing, and be

lieving that when people come together around a shared value that it’s important.”

For more than a de cade, Santiago worked as a constituency assistant for the BC NDP’s Mable Elmore, B C ’s first MLA of Filipino descent, and formerly ran a family day care in Burnaby

She’s the chairperson of Mabuhay House Soci ety, a non profit dedicated to developing intercultural spaces highlighting Fili pino contributions in B.C. Santiago said her prior ity when she gets to coun cil is, without hesitation, housing.

“Housing was the num ber 1 issue that came out (while campaign ing), across homeowners, across tenants it’s an is sue that my own family feels.”

She said housing an chors individuals and families. “It’s integral if we’re going to have a Burnaby that works for families,” she said

Burnaby elects first Indigenous politician in its 130-year history

ByCorneliaNaylor cnaylor@burnabynow com

For the first time in its 130 year history, the mu nicipality of Burnaby will have an Indigenous politi cian serving in elected of fice.

Trustee elect Mikelle Sasakamoose, a member of the NDP aligned Burn aby Citizens Association, won a seat on the Burnaby school board Saturday, garnering 14,972 votes in the provincewide munici pal elections

“Through this cam paign, I really stuck to my values and beliefs,” Sasa kamoose told the NOW at the BCA’s election night

headquarters Saturday, “and to be elected tells me that the majority of peo ple in Burnaby have those same values and same be liefs, and to me that is re ally inspiring.”

Sasakamoose, a 10 year UniverCity resident, was part of a BCA sweep of the school board, which saw the re election of all five BCA incumbent candidates (GaryWong, Larry Hayes, Jen Me zei, Bill Brassington and Peter Cech) and the elec tion of two newcomers (Sasakamoose and Kristin Schnider)

A mother of three, with two daughters at Burnaby schools, Sasakamoose has

worked as a federal pub lic servant since 2009 and is currently a senior pol icy advisor to the director of Indigenous relations on reconciliation atTransport Canada.

Sasakamoose is Cree, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc and Syilx and was born and raised on a reserve outside of Kamloops

She said her family’s history with schools in cluding close relatives who spent time at residential schools in Saskatchewan and Kamloops was an important part of her de cision to run for school board.

“As a First Nations per son, my family has a long

history that’s not a good history with public educa tion,” Sasakamoose told the NOW in a March in terview

While this was her first run at elected office, Sasa kamoose is no stranger to politics

Growing up just a few steps away from her great grandfather’s house on a ranch outside of Kam loops, she remembers many of her family mem bers engaging with pol iticians, building rela tionships and lobbying government.

Her cousin, the late sen ator Len Marchand, was the first Status Indian to be elected to Parliament

She said she hopes to be the same kind of role model for her daughters and others in the commu nity

“We talk about these things,” she said of her family. “We talk a lot about our identity and our community and our cul ture These are the kind of things that were modeled to me when I was growing up by people in my fam ily and in my community, and I’m just trying to do the same for them ”

Sasakamoose said rac ism and negativity she ex perienced during the cam paign took an emotional toll, and there were times she considered quitting, but she persevered with vi tal support from her hus band Cassidy Olivier, her fellow candidates and the BCA campaign staff

NEWGROUND:MaitaSantiagoisthefirstpersonfromthePhilippinestobecomeaBurnabycouncillor

PHOTOLAURENVANDERDEEN

Congrats: Trustee elect Mikelle

Sasakamoose hugs a supporter at Burnaby Citizens Association election headquarters

Saturday PHOTO CORNELIA

City

Citynow

BCAsweepsschoolboard

Veteran Burnaby Citizens Association trustee says that doesn’t mean there won’t be diversity

CorneliaNaylor cnaylor@burnabynow com

The Burnaby Citi zens Association regained a monopoly on school board after sweeping all seven seats in Saturday’s municipal election

The NDP affiliated civic party returned all five of its incumbent candi dates and two rookies

Veteran trustee Gary Wong topped the polls with 18,616 votes, win ning a fifth term on the board

Jen Mezei, who had served as chair for two years before the election, garnered 17,389 votes to earn a second term Bill Brassington and Peter Cech also won sec ond terms with 17,140 votes and 16,055 votes re spectively

And longtime trustee Larry Hayes held onto his seat for a seventh term with 14,105 votes, beating out Burnaby Green Party candidate Harinder Par mar to capture the final seat on the board

The BCA’s rookie can

didates Kristin Snider and Mikelle Sasakamoose cap tured 17,230 votes and 14,972 votes respectively

For the past four years, Burnaby Green Party trustee Christine Cun ningham has represented the only opposition to the BCA on school board, but Cunningham decided not to run for a second term

And Green trustee hopefuls Parmar and Jeff Courson fell short of re gaining any seats for the Greens

Before Cunningham’s

election in 2018, the BCA had held a monopoly on school board for 10 years Wong said he wasn’t sure not having any op position will make all that much difference to how the board has operated over the last four years with

“Everyone that partici pated in the decision mak ing process brought their own perspective, and that continues on,” he told the NOW “I think there is a diversity of voices at the table.”

Greens’JoeKeithleyre-elected

AbhinayaNatesh anatesh@burnabynow com

Burnaby councillor and punk rock legend Joe Keithley has been re elected for four more years on city council.

While the NDP af filiated Burnaby Citi zens Association party won a council majority and swept school board, the incumbent Burn aby Green Party coun cillor and DOA front man retained his seat on city council with 11,383 votes

In 2018, he was elected to the eighth and final council seat with 215

votes to spare, but his showing was stronger this time around as he came fifth

“I’m glad to have gained the confidence of Burnaby people,”

Keithley said to the NOW, adding he hopes to work with the newly elected council to get work done

The three other Green candidates did not fare as well as Keithley

Carrie McLaren re ceived 8,276 votes, fewer than the 10,019 votes she received in 2018

New Green candidates

Tara Shushtarian and Jas mine Nicholsfigueiredo garnered 6,215 votes and 6,723 votes respectively.

On the school board, Harinder Parmar put up a close fight with 12,428 votes, but failed to secure a seat

Happy returns: Burnaby Coun Joe Keithley PHOTO CONRIBUTED

Board gain: From left, Burnaby Citizens Association trustees elect Bill Brassington, Peter Cech, Larry Hayes, Gary Wong, Kristin Schnider, Mikelle Sasakamoose and Jen Mezei PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR

Opinionnow

Topic: BCA sweeps school board

MY VIEW KEITH BALDREY

Civic election sends warning signal

If presumptive new BC NDP leader David Eby is thinking of calling an early election next spring, he would be wise to take a deep dive into last Saturday’s mu nicipal election results.

He would see a political landscape rattled by wide spread voter caused earth quakes that should give poli ticians of all stripes pause for concern

More than three dozen mayors were booted from their positions, whole coun cils were replaced and many incumbent councillors were tossed aside

The carnage was felt ev erywhere, from large cities like Vancouver and Surrey to small towns like Sechelt and Fernie and everything in between.

This was not the case of the left beating the right, or vice versa The only pattern that has emerged is that in so many places voters wanted the incumbent gone

In Vancouver, for exam ple, the centre right ABC party’s seven candidates were elected to council, plus it captured the mayor’s office.

But in Langford, outside of Victoria on Vancouver Island, the voters kicked out the entire pro development council and its long serving mayor and replaced them with candidates who made the environment and social conditions their priorities

In some municipal con tests, issues like crime and housing affordability were surely top of mind for many

voters But that doesn’t seem to explain the widespread rising up against so many mayors

Instead, I think as we come out of a historic pan demic that turned society upside down, a restless elec torate is feeling less reliant on government and more desirous of change at so many levels.

Judging by the defeat of many mayors and council ors who liked to engage in infighting and petty squab bling in their political jobs, people also seem fed up with that kind of behavior

If Eby (or whoever is premier) were to call a snap election amid this kind of widespread “throw the bums out” mentality, it could end in disaster.

I am sure many of the mayors who lost were shocked at their ouster The unthinkable can easily hap pen when people are angry and fed up

In retrospect, the BC NDP must be thanking their lucky stars they called an unneeded election back in 2020, before the public mood shifted to one of frustration and wanting change

Back then, the voters gave the NDP a massive and his toric majority and the ability to govern until 2024.

As tempting as it may be, asking those same voters to deliver the same outcome in the near future could be akin to walking into a political buzz saw

Keith Baldrey is chief po litical reporter for Global BC.

LastWeek

Do you think government run cannabis stores are a good option for Burnaby?

ThisWeek

Are you happy with the results of Burnaby’s municipal election?

“Good! No ParentsVoice or the extreme right.”

“Sad this direction with no accountability or debate will hurt children ”

Iris Lisseth Marroquin Romero via Facebook

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Lara Graham REGIONAL PUBLISHER lgraham@burnabynow.com

Mark Falkenberg EDITOR mwfalkenberg@burnabynow.com

Vicki Magnison REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR vimagnison@glaciermedia.ca

No excuse for low voter turnout in Burnaby

Editor: I wanted

voice

Burnaby has 163,076

That’s a percentage

This

During

utterly

There

those who

The process

takes 10 minutes (if that much) and we have several opportunities, from mail in ballots, and advanced voting to voting on the election day So many of us have come from countries where there is no democratic process or the process is skewed because of an authoritarian style process or leader

Remember, If you didn’t bother to vote, please keep your opinions to yourself You gave up the right to vocalize dissent when you chose to skip your civic duty

Sincerely, Jeffrey Seaver

Road design ties traffic in rush-hour granny knot

Civic

Editor: The road design of Canada Way and Highway 1 is totally bizarre. Cars from both directions on Canada Way merge to the two lane ramp toward eastbound of Highway 1 A high volume of cars interlock at the merge point and block cars from going to Kensing ton Ave It can be resolved but drivers are punished with 30 minutes plus stuck every weekday between 4 p m and 6 p m on the one kilometre Canada Way Hilarious!

Arthur Chui

WorkSafe BC

Provincia WCB Networks,

MSDPR

accepted

under

College of Speech

Professionals

ogheh naby North Raymond Belmonte RHIP/Burnaby Metrotown

nexgenhearing com

SFU

AbhinayaNatesh anatesh@burnabynow com

director Rob McTavish

Standing among the ru ins of people’s homes, Rob McTavish felt a heavi ness in his heart Only six or seven months before, he reflected, families lived happily, kids played and birthdays and anniversa ries were celebrated

McTavish felt like a tres passer as he stepped into one wrecked house after another “You’re in some body’s house,” he said, “and they aren’t.”

Photographs were still on walls, belongings were still there, but McTav ish couldn’t help wonder, “Why are they not here?

Where are they now?”

McTavish, program di rector in Simon Fraser University’s centre for ed ucational excellence and a former peacekeeper and soldier, went to Ukraine via Poland in August to transport five suitcases’ worth of donated medical supplies and equipment to hospitals in the war torn country.

Much like rest of the world, McTavish and his family witnessed the Rus sian invasion of Ukraine on television The dev astation and the shell ing of civilian targets left him thinking about the cruel injustice of war But it wasn’t until he and his partner, Cher Hill, wel

comed Ukrainian refugees sixteen year old Max and his grandmother, that the war became personal for the family

JOURNEYTO UKRAINE

The family answered a community request and opened its doors to the ref ugees in June

McTavish was asked to help take medical sup plies to Ukraine because of his military background He was introduced to the Humanitarian Emer gency Response Opera tions (HERO) organiza tion, which provides direct humanitarian aid to coun tries in need

With the help of his so cial connections and the guarantee that he would deliver the supplies per sonally, he said he was able to secure crucial do

nations, including com bat first aid and orthope dic medical equipment worth almost half a million dollars

“Getting them into the right hands is important,” he said of the trust the do nors had in him

As a gesture of thanks to the donors, McTavish brought home a Ukrainian flag signed by the medi cal professionals in the war zone that received it

McTavish crossed bor ders, navigating check points and curfews from Kiev to Dnipro As he trav elled, he filmed the ruins from shelling that caused more than 7 6 million in habitants to flee Ukraine, according to UN Human Refugee agency website data

He went to the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine

to meet with soldiers on the front, and delivered bottled water to troops be fore heading to Zapor izhzhia to meet Max’s par ents. He was happy to be able to tell them that their only child was safe and sound in Canada.

He distributed the med ical supplies in Dnipro before heading north to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s sec ond largest city, where he continued his mission and filmed the excitement of doctors receiving the do nations “It was like little kids opening Christmas presents,” he said.

During his journey, he was approached by an other parent, who asked him to take his teenage son to Canada

“‘You’ll save our family’s DNA,’” the father said.

The request, and the

supplies in the war torn country

father’s underlying as sumption that his family would not survive the con flict, moved him “This is the injustice and unfair ness of war,” he said

The teenager, Danny, will be arriving in Octo ber to join the McTavish household in hopes of a brighter future

Since McTavish re turned from Ukraine in August, he has been col lecting donations for a re turn trip in January “More donations have come pouring in since the story has come out,” he said More surgical equipment from hospitals has come in, and he is fundrais ing for battlefield aid like drone batteries and body armour to help out the sol diers on the front line

McTavish said the trip was rewarding, “It gave me a sense of accomplish ment, a sense of doing something to do to help in this,” he said

Although it was his face that was associated with the donation mission, it was a team effort, and his

family was the backbone behind it He hopes that his story will inspire people to lend a hand “You don’t have to do a lot to help out,” he said “We have no ties to Ukraine,” he added “My wife isn’t Ukrainian, I’m not Ukrainian But, for us, it started with open ing our doors to this fam ily that needed a place to stay We’re fortunate that we have the space and are able to do that.We recog nize that not everybody has that luxury, but as a family, I’ve got three of my own kids We met and dis cussed it, but you don’t have to do what we’re do ing taking a family in your house, but there’s so many little things that can be done.

“Like we’ve got people doing sock drives, we’ve got people knitting blan kets, we have people do driving, to drive to medi cal appointments, chop ping off vegetables from their garden So that’s the one thing that if we can get that out is that you can do everything from knit a pair of socks, or next time you’re at Costco pick up an extra pair of socks to donate They really add up You don’t have to take a family in or go to the Ukraine with medical sup plies You can do just these little things ”

Mission of mercy: At home and overseas, SFU program director and former soldier Rob McTavish has been helping families displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Don’t miss these weekend events & activities!

Find more events online:

events

Please send your information for inclusion to editorial@burnabynow.com

FRIDAY, OCT. 21

WHEN:

WHERE:

COST:

HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE

A bone chilling evening awaits you with mon ster fighting, arrow slinging and treasure hunting at Empty Chest Adventure’s Haunted Halloween village at Warner Loat Park Guests are transported into a live ac tion role play filled with “haunted quests” in a choose your own adventure game with Vikings, orcs, archery and more! Wear a costume to complete the experience

WHEN: Oct 21 31 (Timeslots between 5 10 p m )

WHERE: Warner Loat Park (4252 Piper Ave )

COST: $75 for a ticket, four person package for $250 Tickets available at https://www theempty chest com/buy tickets

TAYLOR SWIFT DANCE NIGHT

Get ready for midnight, Swifties! Celebrate the arrival of Taylor Swift’s newest album, Midnights, with a dance party at the Rec Room at Brentwood The pop queen wrote on her Instagram the new music is based on “the stories of 13 sleepless nights.” Dance your heart out to the pop queen’s new songs and past jams The event is for the 19+ crowd, and no, Taylor won’t be there

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 21 (9 p.m. to 12:45 a.m.)

WHERE: The Rec Room at Brentwood (1920 Will ingdon Ave Unit 2106)

COST: $25 advance, $30 day of, tickets available at https://tinyurl.com/TaylorSwiftNightRecRoom

SATURDAY, OCT. 22

EERIE ILLUSIONS AT BURNABY VILLAGE MUSEUM

This super spooky family event will lead you through a “magical world bathed in breathtaking colour,” with costumed staff, live performances and hidden sur prises It’s a self guided Halloween experience with state of the art lighting, projections, soundscapes and special effects.

Munch on snacks from food trucks including Green

Fright night: Halloween season is in full swing in Burnaby with Eerie Illusions at Burnaby Village Museum, hosting spooky sets, incredi ble light shows and live performances for all ages PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER/NOW FILES

Coast Coffee, Reel Mac and Cheese and Cravings Kettle Corn Costumes encouraged!

WHEN: Oct 20 30 (5:30 10:30 p m , closed Oct 24)

WHERE: Burnaby Village Museum (6501 Deer Lake Ave )

COST: Free

SUNDAY, OCT. 23

LAST SPLASH AT C.G. BROWN POOL

Say goodbye to C G Brown Pool! The 60 year old

pool will shut down on Oct. 31 to make way for a new facility with an Olympic size pool This farewell bash will have outdoor activities, and all swims between Oct 23 and 31 will be $1.

WHEN: Oct 23 (noon to 3:30 p m )

WHERE: C G Brown Memorial Pool (3702 Kensing ton Ave )

COST: $1 swim admission, outdoor activities are free

Compiled by Lauren Vanderdeen

A toonie skate is offered Fri day at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

PHOTO CITY OF BURN ABY

SCAN

MORE INFO

Firedisplacesdozensofresidents Citynow

CorneliaNaylor cnaylor@burnabynow.com

Some of the “most vul nerable” tenants dis placed by a fire at a North Burnaby apartment building last week are still homeless and relying on support from emergency support services

At about 9 a m on Oct 13, Nader Pourvazyar, the building manager at the Regal Manor apartments (355 Holdom Ave.) was getting dressed to go out when someone banged on his door, telling him a fire had broken out in an apartment on the second floor

He ran to the suite.

“As I opened the door, I couldn’t see There was lots of smoke,” Pourvaz yar told the NOW

He said he was worried when he couldn’t see the apartment’s tenant but

had to retreat when hit by a wall of black smoke

He said he soon found the tenant sitting outside the building’s main en trance and was relieved but didn’t have time to find out what had hap pened before calling 911

A fire truck was on scene in less than three minutes because firefight ers from Station 4 hap pened to be at a nearby Safeway store getting gro ceries when the call came in, according to assistant fire Chief Darcy Robin son

“They could see the plume of smoke as soon as they came out,” Robin son said of the crew

At the scene, firefight ers found flames and smoke coming from the west side of the older, five storey lowrise, he said

Crews evacuated the

building and extinguished the blaze, which “totally gutted” the suite where the fire started and the one above it, according to Robinson

At least four people were transported to hos pital, according to B C Emergency Health Ser vices.

All of the tenants living in the 44 unit building were displaced, including Pourvazyar

The City of Burnaby said it’s doing all it can to help.

A neighbour has also launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the dis placed tenants

Angel Sukkau, who lives a few blocks away, said a GoFundMe page at https://tinyurl com/ HoldomFire is aimed at collecting donations of cash and household items

JUDY

NOWSELLING

Discover a community close to it all

LOUGHEEDHWY

Mountie’sdeath‘senselessandtragic’ Citynow

showed a single tent set up in the park, and Burn aby RCMP Chief Supt Graham de la Gorgendi ere said at a news confer enceTuesday that reports of the incident involving a “homeless encampment” were inaccurate

‘A KIND AND COMPASSIONATE PERSON’

A Richmond resident, Yang was posted to the Burnaby detachment after finishing her RCMP train ing in December 2019.

She was a member of Burnaby RCMP’s mental health and homelessness outreach team.

“Those she worked with before joining the RCMP and her police colleagues describe Const Yang as a kind and compassion ate person, which makes her death all the more dif ficult to accept,” said BC RCMP Deputy Commis

sioner Dwayne McDonald at the news conference

De la Gorgendiere, the officer in charge of the Burnaby RCMP detach ment, describedYang’s death while on duty and in service to her community as “senseless and tragic ”

“We’re all struggling to come to terms with this tragic loss,” he said

The incident is being investigated by both the Integrated Homicide In

vestigationTeam and the Independent Investiga tions Office (IIO), which investigates incidents of death or serious harm that may have been caused by the actions or inactions of a police officer

MURDER CHARGE Police saidWednes day that a 37 old man had been charged with first degree murder in connection withYang’s

death

Charges were laid in Vancouver provincial court against Jongwon Ham

OnWednesday, IIO chief civilian director Ron MacDonald confirmed the altercation between Yang and the suspect had been caught on CCTV video at a nearby business

He confirmedYang had shot the suspect at least once but was unable to confirm whether she had shot him before or after she was stabbed

MacDonald said the man had been inside a tent at the park before the altercation, and the person who had come withYang to the park had stayed at the scene

“We’re not certain of the number of shots that were fired, it’s our infor mation that she fired a shot at least at that indi vidual who was involved,” MacDonald said

IHIT identifies victims of homicide

Two Coquitlam resi dents have been identified as homicide victims after their bodies were discov ered in a vehicle parked near Burnaby’s Alpha Secondary School.

The bodies of Kiesha Garie, 24, and Umair Kasim, 30, were discov ered around 1:45 p m on Monday afternoon, ac

cording to an update from the Integrated Homi cide InvestigationTeam (IHIT)

IHIT spokesperson Sgt Timothy Pierotti said Garie and Kasim had both been reported miss ing before their bodies were found.

IHIT said it was re leasing their names in the

hopes of moving the in vestigation forward

Investigators are trying to piece together a time line of events

“There are people out there who have seen Ms. Garie and Mr Kasim over the past week, and we are urging them to come for ward immediately,” Piero tti said in the news release

Mourned: Burnaby RCMP Const Shaelyn Yang was killed in the line of duty Tuesday morning PHOTO RCMP

Investigation: Kiesha Garie (left) and Umair Kasim, both Coquitlam residents, were identified as the victims of a homicide PHOTO IHIT

Continued

Voter turnout in Burnaby falls below 20 per cent

newly elected Maita San tiago and DanielTetrault

Voter turnout came in at a paltry 19 78 per cent with 32,249 Burn aby residents voting out of 163,076 registered vot ers lower than the 32 per cent seen in 2018, the 27.3 per cent in 2014 or the 24 6 per cent in 2011 Incumbent Burnaby Green Party council lor and punk legend Joe Keithley kept a firm hold of his council spot with 11,383 votes, the fifth most votes

In 2018, he was elected to the eighth and final council spot, squeaking in with 215 votes more than the next candidate

Keithley’s election was the first crack in the ar mour of BCA’s strong hold on Burnaby poli tics. It was followed by the election of Mike Hillman in the 2021 byelection Incumbent One Burn aby Coun Mike Hill man eked out a council seat then by just 124 votes over another BCA council hopeful

He’s lost his council spot this go round to fel low One Burnaby run ning mate RichardT Lee, a former four term MLA for Burnaby North.

“I’m honoured to be elected to represent and serve the people of Burn aby and disappointed that I won’t be joined on coun cil by more of my One Burnaby teammates,” said RichardT Lee in a state ment to the NOW

“I’ll look forward to finding areas of agreement and consensus with my new colleagues on coun cil ”

The new centre right One Burnaby party failed to significantly challenge the dominant BCA, but it performed better than previous right leaning party Burnaby First Coa lition (BFC) In 2018, the best performing BFC can didate came in 14th out of 23 candidates

Hillman finished three spots out of a council seat,

with 9,710 votes

The Green Party, aside from Keithley, was also not able to crack another spot on council.

Carrie McLaren won fewer votes this year than in 2018, with 8,276 to 2018’s 10,019

New Green candidates Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo andTara Shushtarian gar nered 6,723 and 6,215 votes

Seven of the nine in dependent candidates finished with the lowest

number of votes, with un der 2 35 per cent of the vote

Independent Ken Ar nold received the most votes of any independent, at 6,912

The BCA see Oct 15 as a victory

Incumbent BCA coun cillors JamesWang, Pietro Calendino and Sav Dhali wal won handily in 2018, and tonight was no differ ent, with the councillors receiving 13,024, 12,494 and 12,335 votes respec tively.

For Gu, she said she’s been focused on electing the team.

“One person is always just one vote, and it’s lim ited in terms of what one person can achieve. But with a team of people that are on the same page, you can get things done.”

She said creating the Burnaby housing au thority, which would be able to use city owned land and waive municipal fees, is her next priority, echoed by Santiago and Tetrault

The last meeting of the

sitting council will be on Monday, Oct 24

The newly elected

councillors and school trustees will be sworn in alongside acclaimed

Mayor Mike Hurley in a ceremony onWednesday, Nov 2

One

is always

vote

but

that

columbia.

Affordable Cremation And Burial Society, 2801 Shaughnessy St, Port Coquitlam

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We will be hosting In-person and Virtual Services in the following languages:

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