INSIDE: New arts & cultural centre too pricey for some groups Pg. 3 July 6, 2010
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women’s club fit to be tied 10 FC 1985-
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LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER & ENTERTAINMENT chilliwacktimes.com
Summer is here . . . really! Weather about to take a turn for the better BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
Tyler Olsen/TIMES
Chilliwack Taxi driver Parminder Brar constantly watches unsavoury passengers to make sure he doesn’t become the latest victim of cabbie crime. BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
A fare to remember Local taxi drivers say every shift can bring fear and violence
another man joins his two friends in the back of the cab and Brar is off. The men are all drunk, but jubilant. When asked by this Times reporter how often they take a taxi, the cab erupts into a cacophony of voices. “This is an unusual circumstance,” one says, playing it cool. “As you can tell circumstances are odd,” adds his friend. The ques-
tion becomes lost in the din and, just minutes later, the cab pulls up to a non-descript home and the men depart: just another relatively uneventful taxi ride on another Friday evening. If only all clients could have so pure of motives. Already this year, at least three cab drivers have been assaulted and sev-
eral others have been robbed. Add to that the inherent danger that comes with driving throughout the night, when many motorists are impaired, and driving a taxi is certainly one of Chilliwack’s most dangerous ways to earn a buck. Vince Van Santen got a refresher in See TAXI, Page 6
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t’s just after 11 p.m. on a Friday night when Parminder Brar pulls his taxi in front of a darkened downtown business. Shapes stir inside and, within seconds, two young men emerge, one clutching a Budweiser, the other holding a cigarette. “You guys are here to give us a ride?” one of the men asks. The man, clearly drunk, follows the question with another question that cannot be printed in a family newspaper, and which could be construed as mildly offensive. Brar laughs cautiously, then asks, “But did you call for a taxi?” “Yes, sir,” the young man replies. “I’m [kidding] with you.” After 10 minutes of jostling,
Better late than never. To avoid feeling down, that will have to be the attitude in Chilliwack when it comes to long-awaited summer weather, since May and June were pretty cool, moist and grey. The year kicked off with the mildest January and February ever in Chilliwack and March started much the same way. Since then things have gone downhill. After five consecutive months of below-normal precipitation Chilliwack experienced its coolest May since 2002 and its coolest June in 11 years, according to Roger Pannett, Chilliwack’s volunteer weather observer for Environment Canada. While both months were wet, it wasn’t the volume of precipitation that hit as much as the consistency. May saw 106.6 millimetres (mm), a little higher than the 30-year average of 98.3 mm, but there was rain on 16 days, 33 per cent more than the average of 12. June had 93.5 mm of rain, up considerably from the 77.9 mm average. As May ended, cool moist conditions continued until June 11, amounting to 17 consecutive days of periodic rainfall. June’s temperatures fell to midOctober readings with a record low mean temperature of 11.3C on June 15, 4.4C below normal and breaking the previous low of 11.4C in 1955. While July has so far started much the way May and June kicked off, temperatures were forecast to shoot up this week with a high of 34C expected on Thursday.
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