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MAY 13, 2013
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Vol. 61, Issue 92
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City signs on to refugee protection Cranbrook is first to write a declaration protecting refugees, with the EK Friends of Burma and the Canadian Council of Refugees K A I T Y B R OW N Townsman Staff
On Thursday, May 9, Mayor Wayne Stetski of the city of Cranbrook met with locals who are passionate about the rights of refugees and presented an official declaration that Cranbrook is proud to protect refugees.The city is the first to take this step. For about 15 years, the East Kootenay Friends of Burma has been helping people escape persecution in their countries of origin. On Thursday, Shauna Jimenez, an assocation director, praised the way City Hall has responded. “The Kimberley and Cranbrook mayors were
the first in Canada to proclaim that the municipalities each are proud to protect refugees, which is part of the Canadian Council for Refugees’ national campaign,” Jimenez said. “Wayne was actually, I think, the first Mayor out of everymunicipally to proclaim that. “The Canadian Council for Refugees is really proud of Wayne, and the East Kootenay Friends of Burma, who have been sponsoring refugees to this community for about 30 years, is also really proud of Wayne,” she said.
See REFUGEES , Page 3
KAITY BROWN PHOTO
The City of Cranbrook on Thursday presented an official declaration that Cranbrook is proud to protect refugees. Left to right: Pweh Say (from Burma), Tessa McGregor, Htae Win (Burma), Genevieve Gillett, Joy Poch, Barb Ryeburn, Mayor Wayne Stetski, Aung Kyaw Phein (“Bobby,” from Burma), Shauna Jimenez and Adem Salim (Eritrea).
City sending delegates Former jail tough seeks intermittent sentence to China and Korea A R N E P E TRYSHEN Townsman Staff
Cranbrook will be represented in China and Korea next month as two members of council join a delegation to those countries. The delegation is to build on the relationship with two cities in
particular, Wonju, Korea and Taicang, China that began as part of the provincial government’s Asia Pacific Initiative. The province put forward $50,000 regionally for the initiative with the expectation that Cranbrook take a regional
lead in the matter. The initiative sets out to boost B.C.’s economic prosperity by “increasing trade, investment and knowledge collaboration with the economic drivers of the 21st century.”
See CITY , Page 4
“Origins of this incident were a gang dispute in the city of Cranbrook” C AM FORTEMS Kamloops Daily News
A former high school boxer who led a vicious beat down of another prisoner at KRCC should be able to serve three months of jail time on weekends, his lawyer argued Thursday. Kyle Walsh, 24, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm
for an incident that occurred on Dec. 10, 2010. Crown lawyer Iain Currie said the attack on Kevin Winters was planned and executed among inmates within minutes after he was put into the same cell as a man he’d shot months earlier. “Origins of this incident were a gang dispute in the city of Cran-
brook,” Currie told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop. Video provided by the jail showed Walsh conversing with the Cranbrook shooting victim Chad Munroe and other inmates shortly after Winters was placed in the jail unit.
BETTER OFF WITH BILL!
VOTE 9 am to 9 pm - College of the Rockies - Eagles Hall - Prestige Hotel
TUESDAY RE-ELECT BILL BENNETT AUTHORIZED BY BILL BROCK, FINANCIAL AGENT FOR BILL BENNETT 250-426-3404
See ATTACKER , Page 4