News Editorial Letters Health & Fitness Drive Time Sports Classified
3 10 11 17 25 28 30
Parents want answers
Finding your voice
Five years after Bobby Atwal’s badly beaten body was found his parents are pleading once more for any information that may lead police to their son’s killer.
Mandana Rastan of the Inner
5
F
YOUR
SOURCE
FOR
LOCAL
R
I
SPORTS
D
,
Bottle Drives FREE Pickups
Peace Movement will teach a class focusing on how to be more in touch with, and draw strength from, your inner thoughts.
604-276-8270
24
A
,
Y
NEWS
,
J
A
N
U
W E AT H E R
A
R
AND
Y
7 ,
23
Bottle Depot (Full Refunds Paid) TV’s, Computers | Home & Auto AV Gear Sprap Metal & Waste Paper
01071303
Index
23
13300 Vulcan Way, Richmond
2 0 1 1
E N T E RTA I N M E N T
!
WWW
.RICHMOND-NEWS.COM GAMING
Cops probing ‘suspicious’ casino cash River Rock one of several premises on file BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
DEVELOPMENT
Plug pulled on Steveston high-rise plan
Onni scraps controversial waterfront rezoning bid, village loses out on green space BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
Steveston residents will not get a controversial high-rise development on their waterfront. Many villagers turned out in force at open houses last year to protest against having 10- and 12-storey buildings on the last piece of the former BC Packers land. However, the residents will now miss out on two acres of public green space and half a million dollars for their community centre, promised $
$ $
$
by developer Onni, who has pulled the plug on its plans for 200 homes on the Imperial Landing site at Bayview Street. The land and the cash donation was part of the deal agreed between Onni and the City of Richmond, in exchange for higher density in the rezoning application. The city announced Wednesday that Onni withdrew its application last month. However, the developer may still plow ahead with its original plan to build six lower buildings, with 52 homes and 60,000 square feet of commer-
cial maritime mixed use space — for which Onni has a valid development permit for and doesn’t require rezoning. It’s unclear whether moving forward with the older plan is now the company’s intention. No one from Onni was available for comment by press time. A statement released by the city this week stated that, in relation to the developer’s original plans, “Onni has until June 2011 to obtain a building permit or demonstrate a significant start to development.” Maritime mixed use
$ $
Beer, Wine, Pop, Juice, Water
It's worth
RICHMOND BOTTLE DEPOT
it.
=$
includes custom workshops, enclosed storage facilities, fish auction and off-loading, laundry and dry cleaning, light industrial offices and other services related to maritime uses. General retail uses are not permitted unless they fall under these categories. Many residents who attended open houses last fall protested about: losing their view of the water; the village losing more of its remaining charm; setting a precedent if the higher buildings were allowed on the waterfront; and more traffic from the 200 new homes.
8171 Westminster Hwy. (at Buswell, one block east of No. 3 Rd.) Walkway access also from Save-On Foods parking lot
Mon-Sat 8:45-6:30 Sun 10-5 (604) 780-4959
07283111
CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
A boat floats in the emerald green water near the Murchison store by the Britannia Heritage Shipyard at midday on Tuesday.
Richmond’s River Rock Casino is one of several in B.C. routinely failing to flag large cash transactions as suspicious, making the fight against money laundering more difficult, according to the head of the province’s Integrated Proceeds of Crime section. The River Rock, owned by Great Canadian, and Gateway’s Starlight in New Westminster had 90 large cash transactions totaling $8 million over a three-month period between them. Under Canadian law, any cash transaction larger than $10,000 — whether at a bank, currency exchange or casino — must be reported to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) using a large cash transaction report. But agencies are also required to send a suspicious transaction report whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe a transaction is related to money laundering or terrorist financing. Suspicious-transaction reports include more detailed information, such as a description of why the activity was suspicious, and are generally given higher priority by both Fintrac and police. RCMP Insp. Barry Baxter said his investigators began to notice a few months ago that dozens of casino transactions in B.C. that they believe should have been flagged as “suspicious” were actually only reported as “large.” “It’s still reported,” said Baxter. “(But) there’s the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.” see Police page 4