Wednesday October 21, 2015 (Vol. 40 No. 84)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
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S O U T H
S U R R E Y
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Nourishing champions: Local Special Olympics BC athletes took to Safeway’s produce department last week to launch the chain’s annual fundraising campaign. i see page 12
Former mayor edges seat in conservative stronghold nail-biter, as rest of Surrey goes Liberal
‘I never have a Plan B,’ Watts says Tracy Holmes, Alex Browne & Melissa Smalley Staff Reporters
Boaz Joseph photo
Dianne Watts watches numbers.
In a race that was too close to call for several hours after polls closed, Conservative Dianne Watts was elected member of Parliament for South Surrey-White Rock Monday night. While Watts took an early lead as the first of 209 polling stations were announced shortly after 7 p.m., the gulf reduced to neck-and-neck for more than two hours, with at times just hundreds of votes separating Watts from Liberal contender Judy Higginbotham. Shortly before 10 p.m., Watts – with a 2.3 per cent lead and 90 per cent of the polls accounted for – declared victory before a crowd of about 100 supporters and media, who had gathered at Pasta Vino restaurant in Peninsula Village. In celebrating the win, the former Surrey mayor said
she will “represent this riding and I will take the issues of the people of this riding forward to Ottawa.” “I will be their voice,” she said, naming relocation of the waterfront rail line and public safety as priorities. Watts was the only non-Liberal to win a Surrey riding, in a vote that gives Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau a majority government over incumbent Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who resigned as leader. Watts held on to the traditionally right-wing riding – represented for the past 11 years by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert – with 24,934 votes (44 per cent) to Higginbotham’s 23,495 (41.5 per cent). Her seat was among five for the party throughout the Lower Mainland. Watts was to the point when asked if she’d had a backup plan in the event things had turned out differently Monday. i see page 8
South Surrey-White Rock
Turnout: 74.44% (56,631 of 76,078) • CONSERVATIVE Dianne Watts 24,934 • LIBERAL Judy Higginbotham 23,495 • NDP Pixie Hobby 5,895 • GREEN Larry Colero 1,938 • LIBERTARIAN Bonnie Hu 261 • PROG. CANADIAN Brian Marlatt 108
Newton-North Delta
Turnout: 68.56% (44,424 of 64,798) • LIBERAL Sukh Dhaliwal 24,869 • NDP Jinny Sims (incumbent) 11,604 • CONSERVATIVE Harpreet Singh 6,976 • GREEN Pamela Sangha 975 * Unofficial, turnout doesn’t include voting-day registrants
Melissa Smalley photo
More than 200 take part in a march on 152 Street Sunday, three months to the day 20-year-old Hudson Brooks was killed outside the South Surrey RCMP detachment without any explanation.
Hudson Brooks shot to death outside police detachment
Hundreds march after three months without answers Melissa Smalley Staff Reporter
Hundreds of family members, friends and strangers marched in honour of Hudson Brooks Sunday, three months to the day the South Surrey man was fatally shot outside a police detachment. Holding signs with Brooks’ photograph, and messages reading
“we want answers” and “your child could be next,” upwards of 200 people marched along 152 Street in South Surrey, past the RCMP detachment where the 20-year-old was killed in the early morning hours of July 18. “We will never give up. I will never stop until justice is served,” Jennifer Brooks, Hudson’s mom, told Peace
Arch News prior to the demonstration. “Nothing they will say can justify the murder of my son.” In the months since Brooks’ death, his loved ones have expressed frustration over the lack of information from the RCMP about what happened that night. According to police, officers were responding to reports of a man
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screaming in the 1800-block of 152 Street around 2:30 a.m. when a struggle ensued. Brooks was shot, and an officer suffered a non-lifethreatening gunshot wound. Investigators confirmed two days later that only police-issued firearms were found at the scene. Earlier this month, officials with the Independent Investigations
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Office acknowledged the slow speed of lab results, noting reports were not expected to be concluded “until minimally the new year.” Several marchers taking part Sunday said they couldn’t believe the family hasn’t been given more answers as to what unfolded the night Brooks was killed. i see page 2