Thursday October 30, 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 87)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
White Rock otes: Candidates for White Rock’s civic election Nov. 15 – including two mayoral and 17 councillor hopefuls – submit their issues and platforms for your perusal. i see page 26-27
Eviction deadline looms for South Surrey couple who have lived in the woods for a decade
‘From homelessness to street people’ Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Roy Mercer
This weekend, for the first time in about 10 years, Roy Mercer and Darlene Fox may be more than just homeless. “We’re going from homelessness to street people again,” Mercer said Wednesday. “Having to sleep on top of each other to stay warm – we know all about it.” The couple, who call a forested patch
of private land in South Surrey home, learned late last month that they would have to move on. Told that the city had received a complaint, they were given until Nov. 1 – this Saturday – to leave. As of Peace Arch News’ press deadline Wednesday, it remained unclear if the order would be enforced. But Mercer said he and Fox were trying to prepare for it nonetheless –
Mercer even started a full-time job this month, working with heavy equipment in Richmond, but had to give it up after a week due to difficulties with depth perception. “Boy, was I mad,” he said, adding he will continue part-time work loading trucks. The couple say they would reject any offer of shelter beds.
This week, officials at Surrey’s Hyland House – a program of Options Community Services that offers emergency shelter and support to the homeless – promised to arrange for a bin “in the next few days” that they can use to clear the myriad items they’ve collected or built over the years. The balance is to be put in storage. i see page 10
One man listed critical
Two shot, grow-op discovered Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Contributed photos
Harriet Fowler spent three months in a coma, while parents Simon and Dawn Potts stayed by her side.
Head injury not final chapter for crash victim
Awakening from a bad dream Sarah Massah
W
Staff Reporter
hen Harriet Fowler woke up in a hospital bed in the winter of 2007, she felt as though she was still dreaming. Her muscles felt weak, her throat was parched and she was soon told she had lost months of her young life. “I thought I was in a spaceship,” Fowler told Peace Arch News. “I was confused at first. I couldn’t move, I had no muscle, I was basically a lump… I honestly thought I was having a bad dream and I was
going to wake up in my passenger seat. own bed and pyjamas.” “I hit my head on the It’s been seven years window, and the window since Fowler, now 25, was behind my mom had in a horrific car crash in closed up so much, it was New Westminster. right beside me,” Fowler The Elgin Park graduate, recalled. “I became nonwho is currently looking responsive with my eyes to publish her memoir, half-open, because I have You are my Sunshine: visual memory of it. Harriet Fowler The journey though my “My brother was in recovery of a traumatic shock and my mom’s brain injury, was driving with her head broke the glass. So she was brother and her mother when a stuck with her head embedded in dump truck T-boned their car. the glass of her window. Fowler was sitting in the rear i see page 4
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An early-morning shooting south of Cloverdale Tuesday is believed to have injured two men. Officers were dispatched to a home in 17900-block of 40 Avenue at about 5 a.m. Oct. 28, in response to a report of shots fired. At the scene, they discovered evidence of a marijuana grow-op and “evidence… that can be described as consistent with a shooting,” but no victims. About 20 minutes later, police learned that two people suffering from gunshot wounds were found in a parking lot across from Surrey Memorial Hospital. The pair – two men in their 30s – were taken to hospital; one, in critical condition. And while police have not arrested anyone in connection with the shootings (as of Peace Arch News’ press deadline Wednesday), officials say the public need not fear. “Based on the details we know, the circumstance of both incidents and the fact that both males with gunshot wounds are well-known to police, we’re very comfortable in saying the public is not at risk,” Surrey RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said. He said Wednesday that investigators believe the two incidents are linked, but “we still have several questions that are unanswered so far.”
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