INSIDE: ‘Litter’ stabbing act of self defence Pg. 6 T H U R S D A Y January 30, 2014
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Things will get physical if contract not signed Five local farmers will block Spectra Energy in effort to protect their soil BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
R
ight around the time corn farmer Ian Sparkes was getting ready to plant his iconic Chilliwack crop three years ago, natural gas giant Spectra Energy came on the land, dug up the soil in the rain and stayed for 35 days.
Because of the long-term damage that 2011 work caused, and the company’s refusal to sign a contract to protect against future damage, property owner Gord Mitchell said he and five other farmers along Spectra’s pipeline will physically block the company from doing planned construction this spring. “If the National Energy Board (NEB) isn’t going to protect our soil, then we have to protect our soil,” Mitchell told the Times Tuesday. “We will stop them from going on the land, physically stop them.” After the 2011 incident, Mitchell and other neighbouring farmers including Tom Baumann and Alf Kloot, formed the Fraser Valley Association of Pipeline Landowners (FVAPL) to stand up to Spectra. Spectra’s pipeline carries 60 per cent of the nat-
Submitted photo
Spectra Energy equipment and pipes in rainy weather on Gord Mitchell’s property, staging from Luckakuck in 2011.
ural gas produced in British Columbia, according to Spectra’s vice-president of external relations Gary Weilinger. To meet safety standards, the company has been ordered by the NEB to replace three kilometres of its 30-inch pipeline through Chilliwack. A second, 36-inch pipe, that runs parallel will not be replaced because it was installed in 1972 and already meets the new standards. Both pipes run beneath approximately 20 private residential and farm properties as well as the parking lots of Superstore, Cottonwood Mall, Chilliwack Mall and Redline Water Sports. On Wednesday evening, Spectra representatives held an open house to talk about phase two of that pipeline replacement, the 600 metres
See SPECTRA, Page 28
Nothing to hide Local teacher Malcolm James feels putting the burden on those with similar gender and birth dates as sex offenders to get fingerprinted is both costly and a violation of civil and human rights
I
f longtime Chilliwack teacher Malcolm James wants to keep his job, he’s going to have to go down to the Chilliwack RCMP detachment and get his fingerprints taken. He’ll have to line up between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on a school day, and at the end of it all, he’ll have to shell out $80 of his own money. What’s his crime? He shares a birthdate and gender with a pardoned sex offender. He’s not alone. Since the RCMP changed its policy on
criminal record checks in July 2010 to weed out pardoned sex offenders who might have changed their names, everyone who works with children, the elderly or the disabled has been subject to a fingerprinting requirement if they share a birthdate and gender with a pardoned sex offender. Up until three weeks, however, B.C. teachers seemed to have been largely exempt. The sudden change, implemented by the province’s Criminal Records Review Program in November, has taken them by surprise. See FINGERPRINTS, Page 23
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BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
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