Harper visit talk of the town Prime minister visits North Island ahead of October’s federal election. P3
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CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR
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Mayor denies claims he wants homeless to starve MIKE DAVIES CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR
GLENN SVENSSON/SPECIAL TO THE MIRROR
A pleasure boat burns briskly along the shore of McIvor Lake as spectators and other boaters look on in the background Sunday afternoon.
Fire engulfs family’s new boat J.R. RARDON CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR
A family out for the maiden voyage of its new boat avoided injury but lost the craft Sunday afternoon when it went up in flames off the shore of McIvor Lake.
The small pleasure craft, outfitted with an inboard-outboard motor combination, burst into flames as the owner attempted to start it just after putting it in the water at the public boat launch around 12:45 p.m. “He went to start it, and you see
flames right away,” said Glenn Svensson, who was waiting in queue to put his own boat into the lake. “He slams down the hatch and jumps out, and the next thing, he’s standing in the water trying to push it out from shore.” Continued on Pg.2
Contrary to the rumour circulating on social media sites recently, the mayor of Campbell River does not, in fact, want the homeless people of our community to starve. A recent Facebook post spreading amongst Campbell River social media users – accusing Mayor Andy Adams of trying to shut down a local initiative to feed the city’s homeless population – is unfounded, he said at a recent rally to support Grassroots Kind Hearts. Grassroots Kind Hearts is an initiative started by Campbell River’s Krissandra Rufus to provide food to the homeless in the downtown core. It’s not an organization, but it is becoming a movement. The initiative’s volunteers provide supper to any in need behind Radiant Life Church on Cypress Street every weekday. It started when Rufus’ nephew messaged her, saying he was homeless and hungry. “So I came down to bring him some food, and he had all these friends down here, and I thought, ‘Well, I can’t just feed him, I have to feed everybody,’” she said at the rally Thursday, which featured a bluegrass band, petitions to the City, and boxes of donations flowing in to help. “I was homeless before, too, about
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25 years ago,” she said, so she understands the difficulty faced by those members of our community. “I can’t see them not eat.” She started the initiative by setting up a table near the Visitor’s Centre, at Tyee Plaza, but they were shuffled along, she said, and set up at Robert Ostler Park. After being “harassed” by the police, Rufus said, they found a temporary home behind Radiant Life Church, with the blessing of pastor Art Van Holst. “He gave us a trial period of two weeks, and we’ve been here three months now,” Rufus says. “He’s never asked us to leave.” Recently, however, the group says they have been feeling the pressure to shut the initiative down – some saying by order of the mayor. “The RCMP have been there telling us they were told by the mayor to ‘clean up the town,’ and that includes the homeless people,” says Sue Taylor, who volunteers with the initiative. “We don’t know for sure that it came from the mayor, but we’ve been told it did.” Taylor, who says she has a background in the social service sector, having “worked with Income Assistance in the past,” said what they’re doing is helping address a wider problem within the community, and they should be feeling support from those in power – rather than harassment and pressure to stop. Continued on Pg.2
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