Vancouver Courier November 5 2014

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WEDNESDAY

November 5 2014

Vol. 105 No. 89

NEWS 6

Renfrew vs. park board OPINION 10

Kelly votes for love ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Festival of zines

Voter’s Guide There’s more online at INSIDE vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Robertson on the record Third in a three-part series with mayoral candidates

Mayor Gregor Robertson is seeking a third term at city hall. To achieve his goal, the Vision Vancouver mayor has to beat a cast of challengers, including the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe and COPE’s Meena Wong. Last Thursday, Robertson joined the Courier for one hour in a livestream broadcast at Creekside Community Centre, where he answered questions about his reelection bid. The full interview can be viewed at vancourier.com. Here is a condensed and edited transcript of our conversation.

BARED SHIRTLESS Vancouver College Fighting Irish fans show their colours at the 58th annual Archbishops’ Cup, an annual football game between Catholic schools Vancouver College and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish extended their winning streak to 11 with a 46-7 win at Burnaby Lake Park Oct. 31. See story page 37. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Kits woman recalls bombings, danger and adventures of Second World War ‘Sassy Canadian soldier’ Doris Gregory pens book about her wartime experiences

REMEMBRANCE DAY Karen Segal

karensegal@hotmail.com

Doris Gregory was stopped and interrogated 21 times as she and a friend made their way on bicycles from Dublin to Belfast during the Second World War. Having snuck into the Irish Republic on a nine-day leave from the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC), the pair

was extremely relieved by the time they finally made it back to Northern Ireland. “They were afraid of spies,” said Gregory, now 93 and living in Kitsilano, of the British who had declared the Irish Republic off limits to all but immediate relatives due to its neutral stance. “We were cycling in the dark. We sounded like parrots [during the interrogations]. ‘My name is Jean White and I’m in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.’ It was very stressful. Then we got lost in the mountains so we ended up sneaking across twice. When we finally got to Belfast we had no place to stay. We stopped a Canadian Naval officer who sent us to the Grand Central Hotel. We were exhausted.”

But Gregory was also exhilarated. “We weren’t in combat. We were young and adventurous.” Gregory joined CWAC in 1942, after leaving the University of British Columbia where she had been studying psychology. A reporter at the university’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey, she had led a minor revolt against the male-only segregation of a mandatory second-year English course. “[The professor] felt that there were certain things in English literature that couldn’t be discussed in mixed company,” Gregory said. Ultimately, she and 20 other young women marched into the class and were just as quickly marched out. Continued on page 14

Courier: Why are you seeking a third term? Gregor Robertson: Things definitely don’t happen overnight in government, and it’s really important to have a steady experienced team able to work on a body of work for a consistent period of time. We had several one-term mayors prior to myself and the Vision team coming in. Not a lot got accomplished and we ended up having to clean up a lot of messes in our first couple of years. I see real potential in continuing the work for this next term, on affordable housing in particular. We’re just starting to move the needle, getting rental housing built and making progress on homelessness. It’s very difficult dealing with affordability and challenges like homelessness in the Downtown Eastside. But we have to stay very much focused on those and completing the work to get going on the Broadway subway. I want to go back to 2008 when you first ran for mayor. In several mayoral debates, you mentioned that you wanted to become mayor of this city to improve lives for people in this city. After six years the question is: “Whose lives have been improved under a Vision Vancouver administration? Is it the poor? Is it the middle class? Is it the rich? The goal is, that across the board it’s a better city for all people, and that we achieve more equity and more opportunity regardless of your income, your background. And that’s really, I think, at the core of Vancouver’s values. Continued on page 12

DYSLEXIA DIDN’T STOP ALBERT. We don’t let dyslexia or language-related learning disabilities affect our students, either. They learn differently, and we offer them an education in a setting where they can thrive. See for yourself at the Fraser Academy Open House: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 9:30-11:15 am. For more info or to RSVP, visit www.fraseracademy.ca or call 604 736 5575. © Estate of Yousuf Karsh


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