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Putting Mojo into music
Are you my mother?
Fusion band Mojo Zydeco will bring their brand of Louisiana-rooted blues, R&B, funk and Cajun to the Gulf of Georgia Cannery this weekend.
Randy the Pomeranian pup, saved from death by vets and RAPS, will have a very interesting tale to tell his offspring when he grows up.
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A hard bill to swallow
FISHERIES
Sockeye inquiry is a farce: Cummins Panel stacked with DFO advisors BY NELSON BENNETT
nbennett@richmond-news.com
The public inquiry he lobbied so hard for has turned into a “farce,” says maverick Conservative MP John Cummins. The Cohen Inquiry into the Fraser River sockeye crisis got underway last week amid criticisms that funding is inadequate for the scope of the inquiry and that a panel of scientists is stacked with former Fisheries and Oceans advisors. “The Cohen Inquiry has turned into a farce with DFO insiders investigating themselves,” said Cummins, the Delta-Richmond East MP and Area E gillnet licence holder. Cummins claims most of the science advisors appointed by former B.C. judge Bruce Cohen have worked either directly for or under contract with DFO — the organization he blames most for the decline of Fraser River sockeye. Cummins said the work
of 13 scientists who have been hired by the commission will be vetted by a special science panel, which he says has been stacked. “Unfortunately neither Cohen nor his scientific panel see a conflict of interest when these same scientists, who made a career out of providing DFO with advice, are now placed in the position of evaluating their own work and recommendations,” Cummins said. According to a submission to the commission by Honolulu-based scientist Neil Frazer, the problem in Canada is not with DFO’s scientists, but with the way their research is used by bureaucrats and politicians. In a submission to the commission, Frazer cites a paper authored in 1997 by Jeffrey Hutchings, Carl Walters and Richard Haedrich, which concludes DFO’s very structure makes any science it does vulnerable to “bureaucratic and political interference.” see Cummins page 4
Cognac sells for $34,000 BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.
CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
No child labour laws broken here ... Pascal Remillard, 2, is eating his fair share of strawberries picked at Bob Featherstone’s Farm with mom, Jocelyn.
For most folks, a stroll through airport duty free en route home from vacation might mean spending your leftover travel money on a top shelf bottle of red wine or that expensive perfume you’ve had your eye on. Rarely, would you be contemplating emptying your bank account or blowing your life savings on a bottle of cognac. For the equivalent of a down payment on a high end Richmond city centre condo, that is exactly what one couple did at YVR last week before they boarded their flight home to China. The anonymous couple — who are thought to belong to a rare spirits collectors group — splashed out a cool $34,000 on a bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII see Couple page 4
Taser cops could yet face criminal charges Four former Richmond RCMP officers involved in the Tasering of Robert Dziekanski may yet face charges.
B.C. Attorney-General Mike de Jong Friday announced he will appoint a special prosecutor to review the case, based on the findings of the Braidwood Commission. “That appointment will be made immediately,” de Jong said.
He also announced the establishment of an independent civilian investigative body that will become responsible for investigating all future in-custody deaths and other serious allegations against municipal forces and the RCMP in B.C.
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He made the announcements immediately after Thomas Braidwood handed down his long-awaited final report, which excoriates the RCMP for “unprofessional” and “shameful” conduct, and criticizes see Braidwood page 4
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BY NELSON BENNETT
nbennett@richmond-news.com