NEWS 3
NEWS 3
Stabbing suspect nabbed
Whole Foods sneak preview OF
Lobsters on the lam
BUSINESS 11
2016
VOTE ONLINE NOW at burnabynow.com
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27 2016
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
THE HEARINGS
Protesters arrested at ‘sit-in’ By Jennifer Moreau
jmoreau@burnabynow.com
While hundreds rallied outside the NEB hearings in Burnaby this Saturday, police arrested three people staging an impromptu sit-in protesting lack of access to the pipeline hearing. Burnaby resident Mia Nissen was one of three women arrested, chanting “let us in” as police handcuffed them. “What we tried to do was go into the hearing, because it is a public hearing supposedly, and one of the facilitators grabbed me saying we weren’t allowed to go in, we weren’t on the list,” Nissen told the NOW. “I just explained I was one of the people who applied to participate in the hearing and I was denied along with 400 other people.” Nissen took issue with the fact the hearings are public yet the general public is not allowed to attend. During the sit-in, other protesters entered the building, chanting, drumming and singing in support of the three.They also ordered yam fries, Continued on page 5
MAKING A STATEMENT Police arrest three protesters during a sit-in at the NEB’s Kinder Morgan pipeline hearings on Saturday. Burnaby RCMP are recommending charges of mischief against all three. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
HarperCat art piece angers Burnaby readers jmaclellan@burnabynow.com
As far as artist Ron Simmer is concerned, any political commentary about former prime minister Stephen Harper is “water under the bridge.” Clearly, however, some folks who’ve come across his HarperCat aren’t quite so ready to let things lie. A front-page photo on the Burnaby NOW’s Jan.
22 edition showed artists Simmer and Louise Solecki Weir with their work at the Moved by Portraits exhibition that opened at the Deer Lake Gallery on Jan. 16. Solecki Weir’s was a terracotta bust of the former prime minister; Simmer’s the above-mentioned HarperCat, with Harper’s face grafted on to a jaguar’s body, drooling blood. It was the latter that got some readers riled.
“Let’s Get Ahead Together” Roveen Kandola & Associates
Real Estate Transaction Specialists
604-644-7653 (SOLD) 2014
www.roverrealestate.com
“Are you sure you are supporting art when putting the ‘Harper’ cat on your front page? This is sick! Would you dare to depict Mohammed in such a manner?” asked Ziggy Eckardt, commenting on the Burnaby NOW’s website. “I know we have freedom of speech and expression, but you don’t have to print this disgusting stuff,” added Allan MacLeod in a letter to the editor.
... you don’t have to print this disgusting stuff They were two among several irate correspondents who clearly felt Simmer’s art – and the NOW’s decision to print the photo on the front page – had crossed the line.
Simmer is matter-of-fact about the controversy. “It’s sort of a leftover political artifact,” he says, noting it was first created last spring, before the Harper government fell and while many people were concerned about the direction he was steering the nation. “A lot of people thought it was anti-Canadian, what he’d done.” Or, as Simmer says in an artist’s statement about
on your bill of $30 or more.
Call KABANI today 778-773-4646
Valid until Feb. 15, 2016 for Take-out only. No cash value.
RE/MAX Central
Burnaby, BC V5H 4C2
Maximum discount of $5. Not to be combined with any other promotional offer. Limit one discount per visit at Burnaby and New Westminster White Spot Restaurants only.
the piece: “The HarperCat was my personal statement on the practices of the past Conservative government in crushing the law, culture and traditions that make Canada a great place to live.” Simmer found the base for the sculpture, a fibreglass cat, at a going-out-ofbusiness sale at a Burnaby movie prop house. He engaged Solecki Weir and Continued on page 8
Free Home Evaluation
ENJOY $5 OFF TAKE-OUT #
By Julie MacLellan
| Since 1985 | #1-5050 Kingsway,
778-773-4646 AL KABANI
alkabani@remax.net