midweek edition WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 Vol. 101 No. 54 • Established 1908 • East
30
Arty party
Board meeting
5
Give assault suspects Pride Parade punishment: strata
Two brothers arrested for June 12 attack Mike Howell Staff writer
Peter Regier (left) and his partner David Holtzman entered the Downtown Community Court Monday accompanied by friends and family. photo Dan Toulgoet
The strata council president of the building outside of where a gay couple was beaten in June recommends the suspects’ sentence include picking up garbage during the Pride Parade. Fern Jeffries said in a letter delivered Monday to Crown counsel in Downtown Community Court that a sentence could also include the suspects cleaning the Europa on Keefer Street. “Our community and our strata corporation are deeply troubled by the offending behaviour of the [suspects],” wrote Jeffries, who is also co-chair of the False Creek Residents Association. “Our building was urinated on and the main access card to the building was stolen during
the attack. We were all put at risk by this behaviour.” David Holtzman and his partner Peter Regier were attacked and beaten by two men on the evening of June 12 outside their townhouse at the Europa. According to Holtzman, the attack occurred after he questioned one of the men for urinating on the building. Holtzman and Regier, who were treated for cuts, bruises and said they suffered concussions, had just returned from a concert at about 10:45 p.m. The Vancouver Police Department arrested two brothers June 30 in Richmond in connection with the attack. Police are treating the case as a hate crime after the victims said the attackers yelled homophobic slurs at them during the beating. See VICTIMS on page 4
Terrorism, oil sands responsible for increased oil tanker traffic All crude oil exports through Port Metro Vancouver since 2004 have been for U.S. customers Mike Howell Staff writer
The United States is driving the sharp increase in oil tanker traffic that saw up to 70 tankers navigate Burrard Inlet in 2009, city council heard Monday. Chris Badger, chief operating officer of Port Metro Vancouver,
said the United States looked to Canada for its oil after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in America. “Following the 9/11 attacks, it led the United States to re-examine its dependence on oil source from the Middle East,” Badger told council at a special meeting to discuss oil tanker traffic
to Vancouver. “For this reason, and along with the rising oil sand production in Alberta, Canada became the top supplier of crude oil to the U.S. in 2004.” Accordingly, he said, all crude oil exports through Port Metro Vancouver since 2004 have been for U.S. customers. California is usually the destination for the
tankers because there is no pipeline from Canada. Oil is first funneled from Alberta via the trans-mountain pipeline to tank farms in Burnaby operated by Kinder Morgan. The Vancouver port is the only West Coast gateway for Alberta oil producers. Last year, five facilities in Burrard Inlet handled 8.3 million
tonnes of petroleum products, including crude oil, fuel for vehicles and airline fuel. The closure of three of the four Lower Mainland refineries in the 1990s, and increasingly stringent rules on sulfur content in fuels, led to an increase in imports, mainly from the U.S. See EXPERT on page 4
YOUR SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT! WWW.VANCOURIER.COM