FRIDAY
July 17 2015 Vol. 106 No. 56
NEWS 7
Pooches, patios and petitions OPINION 10
TransLink firings futile SWEET SPOT 16
Blueberry thrills There’s more online at
vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
Park board accused of contempt
Bob Mackin
bob@bobmackin.ca
ROAD RASH Eamon Lucas with iRT Racing holds his ribs and avoids the peloton after crashing on a turn in the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix July 15. For the first time since 1984, three Canadian men reached the podium of the historic criterium. See story page 21. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
Homicide shuts down city works yards Mike Howell
mhowell@vancourier.com
The Canadian flag at city hall was flying at half-mast Thursday and police scaled back its presence at city buildings after a City of Vancouver sanitation manager was murdered Wednesday outside his home in Burnaby. Officials would not confirm the employee’s name but the victim’s house at 7988 Wickham Pl. has a phone number registered to Hanif Jessa, who is listed in a city staff directory as a night shift superintendent of street cleaning. In a statement issued Thursday morning, Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was shocked and saddened to learn of the man’s death and extended his condolences to family and friends of the victim. “This is obviously a very disturbing event $
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for city staff, particularly those who knew and worked with our colleague,” he said, noting counselling and support services were being offered to employees. After the man was shot Wednesday afternoon near Canada Way, the Vancouver Police Department quickly mobilized its officers, some carrying high-powered rifles, to stand guard outside city hall, the works yard in south Vancouver and other city buildings. Sgt. Randy Fincham, a VPD media relations officer, said the police presence was necessary because the department was worried about the safety of “multiple employees based on something that happened in another jurisdiction.” “Police attended those job sites and made sure that Vancouver city employees were safe,” Fincham told the Courier Thursday. “As last night progressed, some
of those job sites closed down. So there was an ongoing risk assessment into the night as to whether police were required at all those buildings, or not. Today, we do believe that risk or that threat to Vancouver employees has been drastically reduced.” Fincham wouldn’t elaborate on why the threat was reduced and referred the Courier to the Integrated Homicide Investigations Team, which had not returned calls before the paper’s print deadline. As of Thursday morning, none of the agencies had released any information on whether a suspect had been arrested. Rena Kendall-Craden, director of the city’s communications department, said the investigation was in the hands of the police and declined to comment further on details tying the homicide to the City of Vancouver. Continued on page 6
Thinking oƒ SELLING your Vancouver home? THINK OF PAUL.
Five community centre associations are accusing Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation of contempt of court over the new cloud-based program registration system. Hastings, Kensington, Kerrisdale, Killarney and Sunset are resisting the introduction of the new ActiveNet registration system. Their lawyer, Dean Davison, says the rollout of the system violates the Jan. 17, 2014 court order by Justice Gregory Bowden, which prevented the park board from evicting the associations over their refusal to accept the OneCard pass. Davison filed an application July 10 to be heard July 23 in B.C. Supreme Court to stop ActiveNet. The associations claim the park board did not allow them to review or approve the contract with ActiveNet. The board, it claims, is breaching the court order “by increasing maintenance and transaction fees paid by the [community centre associations] and taking control of the CCAs revenues through the forced implementation of a new software program.” The associations claim they would face higher fees and relinquish control of money they generate from programs and services and they may not be able to offer the same level of service to the community. Community centres paid $1,500 a year, plus one to two per cent of online sales and controlled their own funds under the Safari registration system. Under its successor, ActiveNet, they would pay up to $23,000 a year. If ActiveNet is allowed, the documents say, “the applicants will have lost a great degree of independence they have had for many years, they face delays in being able to pay their bills and staff due to the park board holding their funds.” Park board general manager Malcolm Bromley said, via email, “[The park board] is comfortable that the implementation of ActiveNet is both necessary and urgent to sustain operations across the network of community centres in our city and not in contempt of Justice Bowden’s order.” Continued on page 5 $
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