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Local actors dazzle onstage at Jericho
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Byrne Creek runner places 10th at B.C.s PAGE 23
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Svend bio reveals man behind the image
I
t was April 2004, when Svend Robinson decided to stop by a jewelry auction on his way home from the Vancouver airport. Robinson had just passed the 25year mark in his extensive political career as a Burnaby MP, and he was considering proposing to his longtime partner, when he spied a large, glittering, $21,500 diamond ring on the display counter. ON MY BEAT While no one was Jennifer Moreau looking, Robinson slipped the ring into his pocket, glanced up into the security cameras, left the premises, and effectively killed his career. “And then I realized immediately, ‘Oh My God, what is this madness,’“ he told Graeme Truelove, author of Svend Robinson, A Life in Politics. Robinson had struggled with cyclothymia, a mild form of bi-polar disorder, characterized by manic highs and depressing lows, but the official diagnosis didn‘t come until after the theft. “For some time now, I have been suffering from severe stress and emotional pain,“ Robinson stated in a press conference, as outlined in the biography. “I pocketed a piece of expensive jewelry. I did this, despite knowing full well that the employees who were there would recognize me. … As you can imagine, this has been a nightmare. I cannot believe it
Broken:
In 1997, former Burnaby MP Svend Robinson took an 18-metre fall off a cliff while hiking on Galiano Island and was nearly left for dead. He spent two weeks in hospital, recovering from a shattered jaw. Contributed/ burnaby now
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Want to grow pot? You’ll have to deal with the city Stefania Seccia staff reporter
When it comes to producing medicinal marijuana, city council doesn’t want it happening in someone’s backyard. In response to new federal legislation this past summer regarding the production of medicinal marijuana on a larger scale by private entities, the city is using rezoning bylaws to allow for council and the public to have a say when it comes to any facility trying to call Burnaby home. At Monday night’s meeting, council
decided to make a bylaw change that would allow the production, finishing, packaging, warehousing or distribution of medicinal marijuana in a manufacturing or industrial zone. This means any medicinal marijuana facility trying to set up shop in the city would require rezoning and public consultation. “The proposed changes would ensure that this use is only permitted in industrial settings, based on specific approval, through rezoning, of a suitable plan of development,” Lou Pelletier, director of
planning and building, states in his report. On Sept. 30, council asked staff to review the new federal licensing system, which is still underway. In the meantime, staff have recommended an interim measure of preparing a bylaw that would “ensure full review by the city of any proposals for the establishment of these larger commercial facilities in Burnaby,” Pelletier states in his report. The new federal system fundamentally changes the nature of medicinal marijuana production across the country, according to Pelletier. Before, it was grown either by the
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government or by individuals growing for themselves and no more than two licensed customers. Now, private companies on a large scale will get to grow and sell to an unlimited number of authorized clientele. At the Nov. 4 meeting, councillors expressed their concerns over large production facilities potentially coming to Burnaby and how the city can better control it. “I hope at least in this city we get a handle on this because the reality is the federal
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