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Crown wants jail time for ‘cat burglar’ JANE SEYD jseyd@nsnews.com
A Crown prosecutor has asked a North Vancouver provincial court judge to send an unusual cat burglar to jail for a year.
KING OF THE SHORE Ashby Waugh plays at the shoreline at John Lawson Park Wednesday morning. Accompanied by twin brother Ansel and his dad, the youngster came to see the king tide. King tides are extreme high tides that happen when the moon is closest to the earth. In early December, the district placed a “tiger dam” around nearby Silk Purse Arts Centre to protect it from potential flooding. No flooding was reported this week. PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
Crown counsel Violet Allard asked that 37-year-old Travis William Aschert of Surrey be sent to prison for 12 months after Aschert was caught red-handed by police stealing a catalytic converter from a Toyota 4Runner in North Vancouver. A subsequent investigation showed prior to being caught, Aschert had sold 66 catalytic converters to a Surrey scrap metal yard over a four-month period. Police first began investigating after a rash of 39 catalytic converter thefts were reported in North Vancouver
See Burglar page 4
EDUCATION: CANADA’S HIGHEST COURT TO HEAR UNION’S APPEAL OVER CLASS SIZE, COMPOSITION LEGISLATION
Teachers greet Supreme Court case BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
The 14-year dispute between the BC Teachers’ Federation and province will be settled once and for all by the Supreme Court of Canada.
The top court announced Thursday morning it would hear the teachers’ case. At issue is whether it was a violation of the teachers’ right to freedom of association under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when the province stripped out provisions in their negotiated contract for class size and composition. The teachers sued and won at a lower court in 2012. The province appealed the decision and the teachers’ case was quashed in 2015, with the BCTF promising they
would request their case be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. Rob Millard, president of the West Vancouver Teachers’ Association, greeted the news warmly. “I had high hopes. My expectations were tempered. You don’t want to get overly optimistic. Anything can happen but I’m obviously really pleased the Supreme Court has chosen to hear our case.” Education Minister Mike Bernier responded with a statement soon after the news broke. “We’ve always said that the BCTF’s application to have their case heard in the Supreme Court of Canada is part of the democratic process. We are confident in our legal position and appreciate any further guidance the court may provide,” it stated.
Should the teachers be successful, it will come with significantly higher costs for B.C. residents, the province has warned in the past – somewhere in the ballpark of $500 million in retroactive liabilities. “If we got our class size language back that was stripped back in 2002 when Christy Clark was the minister of education, they would have to hire more teachers. That would be good for students,” Millard said. “We’d have more specialist teachers. We’d have more classroom teachers. Obviously, that would increase services to students, which is what it’s all about.” Bernier said since inking a strike-ending agreement with the teachers in 2014, the relationship has “never been
See Teachers page 7
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