MEET IULIIA
SEEKING YOUR VOTE
A27
A4/A5
Her family fled war-torn Ukraine while she attends TRU
TODAY’S WEATHER Sunny and warm High 24 C Low 9 C
KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
Nomination deadline looms as candidates file their papers at city hall
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OCTOBER 9, 2014 | Volume 27 No. 120
MOON ROOF
Kelly Pape woke up really early yesterday (Oct. 8) — at 3:17 a.m. The local photographer recalled seeing in the news there was going to be a blood moon in the sky that would be at its peak at 3:27 a.m. “I went outside in my pyjamas and it was quite amazing and I thought, ‘Wow, I’ll take one shot.’ “I was out there two hours,” Pape said. The resulting photograph came from those two hours of aiming her Nikon D600 — using a 70-to200-millimetre lens and a doubler to take it to about 400 millimetres — into the sky, then using Photoshop to create the arcing moons.
CITY WOMAN AT CENTRE OF HUMANRIGHTS COMPLAINT CAM FORTEMS STAFF REPORTER cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
A Trinity Western University (TWU) student who grew up in Kamloops has filed a human-rights complaint against a Norwegian adventure company operating in B.C. based on a series of bizarre emails denying her the right to be considered for employment based on her religious beliefs. The complaint against Amaruk Wilderness Corp. was filed on Sept. 30 with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. In an interview with KTW yesterday (Oct. 8), Bethany Paquette said she applied in early September for an assistant-guide position for the company, which operates its Canadian office out of
BETHANY PAQUETTE SAYS ATTENDING TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY LED TO COMPANY REFUSING HER EMPLOYMENT Vancouver. Paquette graduated from the Langley-based Christian university with a biology degree in June and had worked three summers guiding with Hyak River Rafting “The first one [reply letter] was pretty bad and made me upset,” she said. In it, Olaf Amundsen, an Amaruk wilderness guide and instructor, first informs Paquette she isn’t qualified. He then states “unlike Trinity Western University, we embrace diversity, and the right of people to sleep with or marry whoever they want, and this is reflected
within some of our staff and management. “In addition, the Norse background of most of the guys at the management level means that we are not a Christian organization, and most of us actually see Christianity as having destroyed our culture, tradition and way of life.” Paquette replied with a lengthy letter defending the school’s policy of forbidding students from having sex outside of marriage. She also noted discrimination based on an individual’s religious beliefs is contrary to Canadian law.
TWU has also been in the news recently with resolutions by members of the B.C. Law Society asking it to oppose establishment of a law school based on the schools view’s on homosexuality. Amundsen and other Amaruk officials then slammed Christianity, the university and Paquette. Amundsen said Amaruk believes “everybody is entitled to their beliefs and opinions, and this works quite well in our company “However, you force other people to embrace your religious beliefs, by preventing them from doing as they wish with their own
life and body . . . People who did not agree with your church would be flayed, burnt, roasted, quartered, etc. So, you guys have a long history of intolerance.” The company responded to an email request from KTW for comment by saying it will not make any public statements. Amundsen closes his letter to Paquette by calling himself a “Viking with a PhD in Norse history” and calls God “some guy who was conceived by a whore, outside of marriage, and whom has been the very reason for the most horrendous abuses and human rights violations in the history of the human race. “If I was to meet the guy, I’d actually f----him.” See COMPANY, page A11
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