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Can city council bear all budget requests? Page A3
THURSDAY
Thursday, February 6, 2014 X Volume 27 No. 14
Kamloops, B.C., Canada X 30 cents at Newsstands
THIS WEEK
The B.C. Lottery Corporation’s interim head comes to town Page A2 Thompson River Publications Partnership Ltd.
Driver who killed pedestrian awaits his fate By Tim Petruk
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
The fate of a Kamloops man accused of driving into and killing a woman in a downtown crosswalk in 2012 is now in the hands of a judge. Donald Charles Isadore stood trial this week in Kamloops provincial court on two Motor Vehicle Act charges and one criminal count of driving while disqualified. The 63-year-old was charged after Valerie Brook was struck and killed in the crosswalk at Sixth Avenue and Victoria Street on Nov. 21, 2012. Brook, 66, was walking across Victoria Street on a green light while Isadore was turning left from Sixth Avenue toward Hotel 540. RCMP Cpl. Jason Reader, a forensic collision re-constructionist, told court Brook was thrown between 6.9 metres and 9.5 metres (22.5 to 31 feet) after she was struck. He said that distance means the truck that struck her was travelling somewhere between 23 km/h and 40 km/h.
Reader told court he found no sign of braking prior to the area of impact. Taking the stand in his own defence, Isadore said he didn’t see Brook until it was too late to brake, blaming the dark and rainy conditions. Isadore has a lengthy history of driving offences — particularly driving while prohibited. On Nov. 2, 2012, less than three weeks before Brook was killed, Isadore was handed a 30-day jail sentence and fined $500 for a separate driving-whileprohibited conviction, which also saw him placed on a two-year driving ban. In 2011, he was jailed for 14 days for another driving-while-prohibited conviction. He is also facing two counts each of driving while prohibited and operating a motor vehicle while disqualified dating back to separate incidents a short time after Brooks’ death — on Jan. 4, 2013, and Jan. 9, 2013. Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame has reserved her decision. Lawyers are slated to return to court on Feb. 13 to set a date for sentencing.
Sixty-six-year-old Valerie Brook was in this crosswalk at Victoria Street and Sixth Avenue on Nov. 21, 2012, when she was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by Donald Charles Isadore. The 63-year-old man was jailed for driving while prohibited before Brook’s death and was charged twice with driving while prohibited after the fatal incident. KTW file photo
7-Eleven pleads guilty to selling tobacco to minors By Tim Petruk
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
For the first time in the convenience store’s history in B.C., 7-Eleven has been convicted of selling tobacco to a minor — the result of three undercover operations by the Interior Health Authority at the same Kamloops location. A corporate lawyer representing 7-Eleven Canada was in Kamloops provincial court on Tuesday, Feb. 4, to plead guilty to one count of selling tobacco
to a minor. Court heard the 7-Eleven store on Seymour Street in downtown Kamloops was targeted in early 2013 by the health authority’s tobaccoenforcement division. Underage purchasers — between 16 and 17 years of age, court heard — were sent into the store to buy flavoured tobacco products. The store was the subject of undercover buys by minors three times — once in January and twice in June.
Staff at the 7-Eleven store in downtown Kamloops sold tobacco products to minors, resuting in a fine. Dave Eagles/KTW
Court heard there were no “clean checks” — instances in which IHA minors were turned down — during that same time frame. Interior Health Authority tobaccoenforcement officer
Stan Thiessen said 7-Eleven agreed to plead guilty on a number of conditions, including a promise by authorities the chain’s tobacco licence would not be revoked. The fine was also
reduced to $100 from $575, with the remaining $475 going to the Kamloops-Thompson school district to create a tobacco-education kit, court was told. Lauren Cook, 7-Eleven’s lawyer, said the incidents involved cashier error. “We’re all human,” she said. “I can only assume that the sales associates are making honest mistakes.
“Some of these are just human elements that are coming into play.” Cook said the regional manager and store manager responsible for the Seymour Street location were reprimanded by the company. She also said the store has increased its training for staff. The guilty plea is just the second time a Canadian 7-Eleven store has been found guilty of a tobacco-related offence, court heard, with the other instance taking place more
than a decade ago in Saskatchewan. Thiessen said the reason for that is the chain’s “big brother” — corporate lawyers who quash charges in court. Cook said 7-Eleven has been to court about 80 times in Canada for tobacco offences. Based in Surrey, 7-Eleven Canada operates nearly 500 stores across the country. All 7-Eleven locations in Canada are corporateowned. There are more than 50,000 7-Eleven locations worldwide.
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