Frank Mills’s Duncan concert ‘just me and a piano’ Gobeil guides Cowichan Capitals to four points
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Kinsol security in question as vandals strike LEXI BAINAS CITIZEN
A white rose is placed with 14 red roses during the vigil Friday in Duncan to remember the Montreal massacre. The red roses are for the 14 women killed, the white rose for all others affected by gender violence. [ANDREA RONDEAU/CITIZEN]
Much still to do on 25th anniversary ANDREA RONDEAU CITIZEN
Since 1989, when 14 women were massacred at École Polytechnique in Quebec, there has been progress made to stop gender violence in Canada, but there’s a lot more that still needs to be done, speakers agreed at a Friday vigil to remember that dark day 25 years ago. “In our country we have violence that is directed against women
and girls simply because of their gender,” said Jane Sterk, the first speaker at the ceremony held at the Vancouver Island University campus in Duncan. Dec. 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in memory of the massacre. Speakers recalled that day in 1989 when a man walked into an engineering class at the post-secondary institution armed with a semi-automatic
rifle. After separating the men from the women, he stated that he hated feminists and starting shooting the women in the class. He killed 14 of them, and injured nine others and four men. He then killed himself. “I remember watching the news of École Polytechnique,” said Kendra Thomas of Cowichan Women Against Violence Society. See SOMETIMES, Page 4
A man showing off the Kinsol Trestle to a friend made a surprising discovery Thursday, Dec. 4. Richard Mortimer found some vandalism at the famous reconstructed bridge and, on reporting it to the Cowichan Valley Regional District, discovered that the security camera there is not working. A call by the Citizen to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure — which is responsible for the camera — elicited the reply Tuesday that they have known for months the camera is not working and are doubtful that it will ever work successfully in such a remote area. Mortimer was showing the trestle to a friend when they noticed the vandalism. “Someone had taken an axe or a machete to the rail on one side of the trestle. There were woodchips on the surface of the trestle itself so it was very recent. “Anyway I got home and I thought, I’m going to report this to the CVRD parks department to see if they’ve picked it up on the camera. There is a security camera right down there and although it was a few hundred
feet away, it was pointing right at that spot.” Mortimer got on the phone. “I talked to the parks guy, Ryan Dias, and he tells me the camera doesn’t work and it’s not been working for a year now and they’ve been talking to the province trying to get it working. I guess it’s the province’s responsibility by the sound of it.” The Ministry said it was aware the camera has not been operational since approximately March 2014 because at that time “Telus undertook some network upgrades to their system which resulted in the camera losing its cellular signal and the ability to broadcast images.” Mortimer was upset that the senseless vandalism had spoiled what many consider to be a wonder of the world. “I’ve never noticed any vandalism there before. But, then, on the day you decide to go down there and show someone, there’s this vandalism there. It wasn’t that extensive but it was enough to be disappointing and hopefully will not happen again,” he said. “We didn’t see any other walkers in the area when we were there. See CAMERA MAY, Page 4
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