comox valley echo - november 11, 2014

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For the latest Comox Valley Weather visit: www.comoxvalleyecho.com

Comox Valley Weather

Tuesday

A mix of sun and cloud. Low 2°C. High 5°C.

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Thursday

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By Drew A. PennerEcho Staff

November is Financial Literacy Month in Cana-da and it appears local bu-reaucrats may have gotten the memo.

The Comox-Strathco-na Regional Hospital Dis-

trict expects it will spend $22 million less paying off debt used to finance the North Island Hospi-tals Project, thanks to low interest rates, an interim borrowing strategy and tax revenues already set aside to cover costs.

“That’s what I wanted

to stress,” said Beth Dun-lop, the corporate finan-cial officer for the Comox Valley Regional District. “It really is a substantial savings.”

In a climate where long-term lending rates have dipped below four per cent and with interim rates hov-

ering at the 1.7 per cent mark, debt payments are more likely to cost $12.9 million a year instead of the $13.6 million project-ed in 2009, staff told the hospital board Nov. 6.

The hospital district is required to cover $240.7 million (40 per cent) of the $606.2 million price tag for two hospitals under construction in Courtenay and Campbell River.

In 2009 res idents started chipping for ex-penditures and building up a reserve through a tax requisition (costing about $242 per year for an aver-age property owner), and $60 million of this total has already been covered.

That allowed adminis-trators to reduce the pro-jected payback period by 20 years, down to just 10.

The hospital district is allowed to borrow at an in-terim rate while construc-tion is taking place but must shift to long-term debt in 2018.

Debra Oakman, the CVRD’s CAO, applauded the work of her staffers who fleshed out the mil-lions of dollars in possible savings.

“It’s pretty exciting,” she said. “I just wanted to pause and share that with the board.

“It’s a really big deal.”The two-hosp i ta l s

model was approved in 2009, spurring the cre-ation of the initial finan-cial scheme. At the time staff believed the hospital district could collect $68 million for the reserve fund and would have to pay back a loan at a 6 per cent rate.

At this point the same administrators think re-serve contributions and funding will actually hit $136.5 million and call a 4 per cent interest rate a “conservative” estimate.

In order to revise pro-jections staff had to wait until the financial details of the hospital project were set in stone earlier this year.

They considered three options. First they looked

at entering into debenture debt for the total amount up front. Second they eval-uated interim financing as required and entering into debenture debt annually in the fall for that year’s cash requirements.

Finally they examined interim financing as re-quired during the project and entering into deben-ture debt once at the end of the project in 2018. By their calculations this op-tion made the most sense for taxpayers. They rec-ommended the option which the board accepted unanimously.

During the Nov. 6 meet-ing the hospital district also voted to increase its capital expenditures by-law by $700,000.

Hospital District expects to save millions with new borrowing plan

POLICE OFFICERS NEEDLED: Five members of the Comox Valley RCMP help Is-land Health launch its annual Influenza Vaccine Campaign. Inspector Tim Walton, Cpl. Tori Cliffe, Cst. Ryan Archr, Cst. D. George and Cst. M. Scofstra got their shots at the Comox Valley Public Health Nursing office on England Avenue. For more informa-tion about where to get a flu shot and flu clinic schedule, visit the Island Health’s web-site: http://www.viha.ca/flu/

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www.comoxvalleyecho.comTUESDAY.NOVEMBER 11, 2014 3

BY DREW A. PENNEREcho Staff

A Comox couple in their late 60s sit on the couch in the safety of their livin-groom as the rain pours down on the lush vegeta-tion outside. Avril and Richard Revel are physi-cally a world away from the chaos and confusion that trapped them in Hi-malayan Mountains of Ne-pal during the worst trek-king disaster ever recorded on the Annapurna Circuit, though they haven’t totally left it behind yet.

They’ve had bleeding noses, cold and flu symp-toms and Avril is battling a lung infection. She also lost her voice somewhere along the route back.

Listening to the peppy and downright optimistic way the Revels relate the specific challenges they faced you might miss out

on just how near to disas-ter they had crept.

On Oct. 14 a snowstorm and a number of avalanch-es hit the Manang and Mustang Districts, result-ing in the deaths of at least 43 people, 21 of which were hikers on the Annapurna Circuit.

A day before the disas-ter happened the Revels listened to a woman from BC give a useful talk on al-titude sickness.

“My husband and I were doing fine,” Avril said, not-ing their limits would soon be tested. “We were subject to some extreme trekking that we didn’t plan on. You do your best to deal with it.”

When the snow ar-rived their guide thought it would just cause a light dusting, since that’s what usually happens this time of year.

“I think we had two me-

ters of snow,” she said. “It was just ridiculous.”

The group walked and walked, looking for shel-ter.

“You could hear the av-alanches on the other side of the valley from us,” she said. “we couldn’t find a place to stay. We had to walk for, oh my goodness, three-quarters-of-an-hour to get to this teahouse on the hill. We didn’t antici-pate that there would be snow and that it would last.”

The mountain pass closed in the wake of the severe weather condi-tions and information was scarce. They realized the promised rescue was not showing up any time soon. “We just decided we had to try to come out,” she said. “That was probably the most dangerous part of it.”

(Continued on page 4)

Island rail freight has been suspended from Duncan to Parksville over track safety con-cerns - and there’s no word on how long it will take Southern Rail of Vancouver Island to re-sume the service.

“After completion of a detailed risk assess-ment, it was determined

that the safest course of action was to tempo-rarily discontinue the freight service,” said a statement posted on the Island Corridor Founda-tion website.

Passenger service was suspended in March 2011, after rail condi-tions were deemed un-safe. Freight, which can move more slowly, con-tinued to travel between Duncan and Parksville until earlier this week.

SVI, the operator, and railway owner Is-land Corridor Founda-tion worked to secure $20.9 million in fund-ing commitments from three levels of govern-ment to restart passen-ger service.

Courtenay goes hightech to analyze roads

If you happened to notice a white van with strange looking boxes and receivers driving through Courtenay last month, don’t worry; it wasn’t Ghostbusters.

The City of Courtenay engaged the Cambridge, Ontario-based firm IMS Infrastructure Manage-

ment Services to com-plete a detailed inventory and condition rating of all roadways owned by the City. The data will be col-lected and analyzed to de-velop long-term rehabili-tation plans and budgets. The field surveys work was completed in two phases using specialized survey-ing equipment.

The first phase involved collecting data using a de-

vice known as a Laser Road Surface Tester, or RST. This device mea-sures pavement rough-ness, rutting, cracking and other surface distresses. It also collected digital vid-eo and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) informa-tion for cataloging right-of-way assets.

The RST is a one-ton Ford van with 4 inside mounted cameras and

GPS receivers and a mod-ified front bumper. Oper-ated by three field techni-cians, the RST surveyed each roadway at least once.

The second phase es-tablished the load-carry-ing capacity of the arteri-al and collector roadways using a Falling Weight De-flectometer (FWD).


Comox couple returns fromNepal storm trek safe and sound

They were trapped in chaos, confusionin the Himalayans after weather disaster

Island railfreighthalted

Safe a home. Avril and Richard Revel are recuperating from their almost disastrous Himalayan trek in Nepal..

ADVENTURE

PUBLIC WORKS

Our young porter did slip. Our guide quickly turned around and grabbed him. Most of our route wasn’t on ava-lanche treks, but there are risky sections of it.”

RICHARD REVELComox trekker

My husband and I were doing fi ne. We were sub-ject to some extreme trekking that we didn’t plan on. You do your best to deal with it.”

AVRIL REVELComox trekker

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(Continued from page 3)

Their guide kept them informed of the various hazards they might face along the journey back down, while their porter trudged along with their gear.

“You get the sun in the day and then it gets very cold so you’re really sus-ceptible to avalanches and you also get a lot of land-slides,” she said, noting they were on little ledges with a drops hundreds of feet deep below. “At times we had a few rocks fly past our faces.”

Suddenly, a near calam-ity.

“Our young porter did slip,” Richard said. “Our guide quickly turned around and grabbed him.”

In order to make it back to their flight on time they had to cover twice the ground they normally would in a day.

“We did unplanned ex-treme trekking,” he said. “Most of our route wasn’t

on avalanche treks, butthere are risky sections ofit.”

They made it to Kat-mandu, flew to China andmade it back to Canada intime for Halloween.

Their daughter Andreacan’t wait to see her par-ents when she comes toComox for her yearly visitat Christmas.

“Emotionally and men-tally they’re doing real-ly well,” she said, notingit was amazing to get thenews that they were final-ly on home soil. “I know Ineeded to hear their voic-es to know that they wereokay with everything thathappened.”

She calls her folks “go-getters” who follow astrong Anglican belief sys-tem.

“Their faith helps to getthem through a lot,” shesaid, adding humour wasanother important toolthat carried them alongtheir journey. “They had tolaugh because, what elseare you going to do?”

(Continued from page 3) This device uses non-

destructive testing tech-niques to establish the structural characteristics of the pavement and sub grade layers of a roadway. This information is use-ful in predicting the pave-ment’s remaining life.

Now that the data has been collected, it will be combined, linked to the City’s GIS mapping soft-ware, and used to develop

a series of reports that will allow the city to cost-effec-tively budget the long-term maintenance of roadways.

The project is just one part of the City’s ongo-ing overall efforts on asset management - formally an-alyzing the life cycle of the Courtenay’s various forms of infrastructure.

Preliminary data from the project should be avail-able to the City later this month.

Return from Nepal

High tech roadways

BY IAN LIDSTERSpecial to the Echo

When we think of drug abuse in Canada we are naturally inclined too look in the direction of so-called “street drugs” like heroin, crack-cocaine, crystal meth and others of that ilk, but we rarely look towards the friendly family physician or the neighbor-hood pharmacy.

It’s not to suggest that the traditionally abused drugs aren’t out there in their plenitude or that re-sponsible physicians and druggists are ‘dealers’, but only to say the reality is that, and not to put too fine a point on it, there is a Ca-nadian drug crisis pertain-ing to the overprescription of opiate drugs.

In that regard on Nov. 18 the Community Drug Strategy Committee and the Comox Valley Division of Family Practice are of-fering a public presentation designed to explore the fac-ets and risks involved with widely-prescribed pain re-lief medications, and espe-cially opioids.

Stated simply, opioids are medications designed to relieve pain. In it’s es-sence this is not a bad thing since the scourge of chron-ic pain saps the quality of life from many Canadians, especially older people and

victims of accidents. How-ever, and this is a huge ca-veat, these painkillers are also highly addictive since many of them are opium derivatives.

Opioids are medications that relieve pain. They re-duce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain and impact the brain ar-eas that control emotion which diminishes the ef-fects of a painful stimulus. The medications that fall into this class include hy-drocodone (Vicodin), oxy-codone (OxyContin, Per-cocet), morphine (Kadian, Avinza) codeine and relat-ed drugs.

Hydrocodone prod-ucts are most commonly prescribed for a variety of painful conditions includ-ing dental and injury relat-ed pain. Morphine is often used before and after sur-geries to alleviate severe pain. Codeine, on the oth-er hand is often prescribed for mild pain.

While opioids have dis-tinct and obvious clinical benefits in terms of pain relief they also pose risks that cannot be discount-ed. According to a report from clinical pharmacol-ogist, Dr. David Juurlink in a report for the CBC, OxyContin and other opi-oids are tied to one in eight deaths in young adults in Canada and other find-

Prescriptiondrugs majorconcernPublice presentation aboutthe dangers of opioids

DRUG EDUCATION

ings include “marked in-ter-provincial variation” in dispensing high-dose opi-oids in Canada.

Among the risks from such drugs, Juurlink’s re-port cites the role of opi-oids in such risks as: motor vehicle accidents, frac-tures, confusion, addic-tion and death. More than 1,000 Canadians die each year from abuse of these drugs, he says.

Bearing this reality in mind the Community Drug Strategy Committee of the Comox Valley in collabora-tion with the Comox Valley Division of Family Practice are presenting for the pub-

lic on Nov. 18 from 7 to 9 pm in the Stan Hagen The-atre at North Island Col-lege an evening devoted to dealing with the realities of opioid use and abuse in society. The presentation is designed as the com-mittee’s annual offering for National Addictions Awareness Week.

Included among the events of the presentation will be:

- Overdose prevention vid-eo: The session will begin with an 11-minute YouTube video concerning the well-being of those who are ei-ther taking opioids or who will be taking them in the

future. The video provides background information on such drugs as OxyCon-tin, Percocet and Tylenol 3 with codeine. It further ex-plores such issues as why they are used, what they are and their history of use in our society.

- Valley physician speak-ing on the opioid issue: Phy-sician lead of the Comox Valley Division Safe Opi-oid Prescribing Practices Working Group and fam-ily physician Dr. Charuka Maheswaran will speak on such topics as the current problems of opioids and the new acknowledgment of this, a brief background on why we are where we are and what we as a physician community are doing to re-dress this. She will also link in with this information the dangers in mixing medica-tions and especially ben-zodiazepines with alcohol, which poses an inherent

danger and is a common cause of accidental over-dose.

- Overdose Prevention: Sar-ah Sullivan of AIDS Van-couver Island in Courte-nay will present a video on overdose prevention and information on the topic. The video demonstrates how to respond medically to someone who has over-dosed. She will also go over the Naxolone kit. Naxolo-ne injectors are used to ar-rest the effects of an opioid overdose.

- Dealing with pain by other means than Opioids: Regis-tered Nurse Brenda Bout-tell from the Comox Valley Nursing Centre Pain Clin-ic will explore other means for controlling pain.

- Considering commercials about proper disposal of medica-tions: Basically how to keep children from getting into substances that could take their lives if ingested.

General Manager Rod McLean,is pleased to announce

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BY JOHN DOEStaff Writer

Listening to the THUD, THUD, THUD of chum salmon slamming against the small metal barrier on the side of the bridge before splashing into Rhys Creek below you might think Nick Strussi wasn’t very good at tossing fish. As gross as it might seem to an outsider, allowing the blood and guts to coat the physical land-scape here upstream of the Puntledge River and even Comox Lake is a technique to boost the health of the ecosystem – and this proj-ect coordinator knows it.

“Bears will come and eat some of that and they’ll crap in the woods,” he said, explaining how nutrients from the dead brood stock are distributed throughout the forest upon release. “There was no fish here for years and years after they put the dam in.”

That dam, on the Pun-tledge River, generates millions of dollars for BC Hydro every year and pro-vides a solid chunk of elec-tricity that residents con-sider essential to modern life.

Wellington Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. complet

ed the Comox Dam and the Puntledge Diversion Dam in 1912. It provided Cum-berland coal mines with the power they needed to operate.

But Comox Dam didn’t have a useable fishway for a full 10 years until the fed-eral government and Dun-smuir were able to work out a deal to construct an upstream passage struc-ture.

Of f i c ia l s or ig ina l -ly pegged the principal spawning area as 3 km up-stream of the dam, but not-ed it likely included tribu-taries to Comox Lake, too.

At the end of the 20th century BC Hydro ran through a series of experi-ments that ultimately led to boosting the survival rate for Chinook, Coho, sock-eye and steelhead smolts

to 90 per cent.Now BC Hydro kicks

in $2,000 every year so Strussi and a crew of guys and girls from the Pun-tledge River Hatchery, the Courtenay Fish and Game Club and the Steelhead So-ciety of BC can rent a truck to haul dead chum up the river system for dumping.

Cheryl Burroughs, a fish culture assistant at the Puntledge River Hatchery, says the yearly depositing of brood stock chum into tributaries upstream of Co-mox Lake plays a vital role in rejuvenating the ecosys-tem.

“We dump off the car-casses which decay,” she said. “It’s just lots of nu-trients.” The idea is to en-courage a natural bloom throughout the entire food chain.

“Lots of fish don’t get up here,” she said, noting things have been improv-ing in recent years. Part of this has to do with the re-lease of young salmon with-in the river. These fish are added to the waterways in the spring in hopes that in future years they will travel this far up into the moun-tains when they come back to spawn.Continued on page 9

FISHERY

Volunteers and hatchery work to improve local fish habitatDumping dead chum salmon may be stinky but it helps revitalize the riverways

Bears will come and eat some of that and they’ll crap in the woods ... there was no fi sh here for years and years after they put the dam in”

NICK STRUSSIChum toss founder

Throwing fish around. Nick Strussi, right in full fish fish toss mode

Rhys Creek feeds into Comox Lake, which in turn feeds into the Pun-tledge River.

The BC Hydro donation allowed the crew to rent this truck.


F I E S TA -W O R L D CRAFT BAZAAR is again a two day global experience, Nov. 22nd and 23rd. Both floors of the Filberg Centre will be transformed into an inter-national bazaar.

You will be able to wan-der from Asia, to Central and South America and on to Africa and still have time for a delicious eth-nic lunch. We have new vendors and all our old favourites, with over 120 tables.

It takes many volun-teers to make FIESTA the success it has become.

Would you please con-sider volunteering a fewhours of your time?

Please contact Coor-dinator Dave Talbot byemail at [email protected] at 250 339-4975 and bepart of the feel good fun ofFIESTA.

Canada’s largest FairTrade Global Craft Fairwill run Nov. 22nd from10 a.m. to 4p.m. and Sun-day Nov. 23th from 10am.to 3pm. Handmade giftsmade just for you!

Left, last year Ba Cisseselling his shea but-ter products to KathrynMackinnon.

Can you helpput on FIESTA?

ELECT DON DAVIS

FOR COMOX COUNCILProven & Reliable

Vote for Change with Experience on November 15th, Vote for Don Davis.

Has stayed current on issues by regularly attending Council meetings.

• Maintain Infrastructure• Keep Taxes Affordable• Affordable Housing• More and Better Public Involvement

Any issues or questions PLEASE PHONE (H) 250-339-0505 or (C) 250-702-2876 or [email protected]

PLATFORM

“I have had the honour to serve the Town of Comox as Mayor for the last 6 years (and as Councillor for the previous 6 years). I am asking the residents of Comox for the privilege to continue serving as Mayor of Comox in the upcoming election. ”

For more information on important issues that have an effect on the future of Comox please visit my website or call 250-897-2557 with any questions you might have or if you need a ride to the polls courtesy Ambassador Shuttle Service .

F O R P R O G R E S S I V E , D E D I C AT E D, V I B R A N T L E A D E R S H I P

@paulrodneyives

Authorized by Garry Murdock, Financial Agent • Ph: 250-338-0105 • email: [email protected]

Make your vote Count for Comox November 15, 2014


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(Continued from page 5) “We put Coho fry in the rivers,” she said.

“We’ll raise them at the hatchery.“In May and June we release them.”Frank Leigh, a volunteer who joined for

the salmon dump, explained times have changed with industry and environmen-tal officials.

“I love the smell of fish,” he said, joking-ly when asked why he wanted to give his time for the endeavour. “Oh, I don’t know it seemed like a good I idea.”

Leigh looked up the hill to where a log-ging company was actively falling trees then looked back at Rhys Creek.

The bridge he was standing on, for ex-ample can easily be removed if the logging company ever doesn’t need it anymore.

“It’s just two pieces of concrete,” he

said. “They could take this bridge out and use it somewhere else on a road in.”

It’s these kinds of actions on the part of industry, coupled with the volunteers work performed by members of the Cour-tenay Fish and Game and the Steelhead Society that has improved quality of life for animals in the area, he said.

BC Hydro spokesperson Stephen Wat-son couldn’t agree more that local citizens are making a difference.

“BC Hydro is pleased to provide a do-nation to an initiative that is communi-ty driven and supports fish productivity across the watershed,” he said. “The Pun-tledge River Fish Hatchery staff and the volunteers from the Steelhead Society of BC and the Courtenay Fish and Game Club are taking a leadership role in envi-ronmental stewardship.”

Helping the riverways along

BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staf

Maple Pool was a ma-jor issue at the previous election and this year, it’s still a major issue.

It’s an unfinished leg-acy of the previous City of Courtenay council and mayor that new candi-dates are using as an inte-gral part of their elections campaign. Some criticized former members of coun-cil for lack of transpar-ency for keeping the Ma-ple Pool business hidden from the public, dealing with it mostly in-camera. Dan Doerksen was one of them.

“Maple Pool has got to go away,” Doerksen said in his introductory remark. “It’s an embarrassment. I recall being in Edmon-ton and watching it on the national news. It just shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Forgive me council but that’s the way I feel.”

Doerksen also pointed out that, although at times they are necessary, in-cam-era meetings were held far too often.

“The public should know what we’re doing,” said Doerksen, who is a for-mer RCMP officer. “When I was in law enforcement, they had a saying that’s been around for a long time, ‘justice must not on-ly be done, it must be seen to be done.’ That’s the same with council.”

Mayoral candidate Jon Ambler said they follow the guidelines set in the com-munity charter when hold-ing in-camera meetings.

“These people who have never been elected all say we won’t go in-camera; it’s the law,” Ambler told citi-zens who asked him about this issue. “We don’t make it up as we go along. Before we go in-camera, we actual-ly read out a section of law that explains why we’re do-

ing it. It’s not a whim. It’s the law.”

Only three from the pre-vious council mentioned Maple Pool in their intro-ductory speech — incum-bent mayor Larry Jangula and incumbent councillors Starr Winchester and Man-no Theos, who all made a commitment to end the city’s legal battle and work with the owners of the campsite as well as its sup-porters.

The city has an ongoing lawsuit against Maple Pool owners Jin and Dali Lin for non-compliance with land use bylaws. If successful,

more than 50 residents there will be rendered homeless. As well, it has already cost taxpayers over $120,000 in legal fees.

Incumbent councillor Doug Hillian said it’s easy for people to form opinions from the outside and deter-mine that there’s a black and white answer to com-plex problems.

“Complex problems are tough to resolve,” Hill-ian said. “We all know that from our own lives. People look out our families and our communities from the outside and pass judge-

Maple Pool a hot topic once again in this year’s city election

COURTENAY POLITICS

We don’t make it up as we go along. Before we go in-camera, we actu-ally read out a section of law that explains why we’re doing it. It’s not a whim. It’s the law.”

JON AMBLERMayoralty candidate

ment without knowing the inside story. I encourage everybody who really cares about community and the issues that we face, to take the time to get engaged, to talk to your councillor can-didates and to come to an understanding of the is-sues that we face.”

Homelessness, afford-able housing, and the slow processing of development permits were the other hot topics at the unusual all-candidates forum that fol-lowed a speed dating for-mat where each candidate spent seven minutes at one table to talk to people be-fore moving to the next ta-ble.

It was held at the Best Western The Westerly Ho-tel and Convention Centre and organized by Comox Valley Chamber of Com-merce in conjunction with the Creative Employment Access Society.

Council hopeful Rebecca Lennox acknowledges that Maple Pool is a major issue but for her personally, she feels it is overshadowing much bigger issues like af-fordable housing. She also said that they should find ways to create sustainable jobs so citizens can work here and stay here with their families instead of go-ing off to the oil patches in Alberta.

Complex problems are tough to resolve. We all know that from our own lives.”DOUG HILLIANCourtenay councillor

Speed campaigning. Mayor Larry Jangular, left, chats with interested voters

It has been a privilege to serve you since 2009. If re-elected, I will continue to offer a reasonable and progressive approach to the issues we face while remaining responsive and accessible to all citizens.

For more information please visit DougHillian.ca

RE-ELECT DOUG HILLIAN

BUILDING COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Your candidate for Courtenay City Council

Authorized by Pam Munroe: [email protected]


Green Party leader Eliz-abeth May has a new book, “Who We Are.”

She will be launching it at the Courtenay Public Library on Nov. 14 at around 7 p.m.

In this highly-praised memoir and manifesto, May reflects on her extraordinary life to date, providing per-sonal perspectives on her approach to politics, policy, and what it means to be Ca-nadian.

Inspired by activist par-ents, May gravitated to poli-tics early in life. Who We Are follows her path to a politi-cal career: from waitress and cook on Cape Breton Island to law student and lawyer, en-vironmentalist, and finally to leader of the Green Party and first elected Canadian Green Member of Parliament.

May strongly believes that Canadians must rescue our threatened democracy, de-velop a sustainable economy, and take immediate and deci-

sive action to address the cli-mate crisis.

Her dedication to her ideals illuminate the pages where she documents cam-paigns won and lost, always with the underlying convic-tion that politicians must steer a course to benefit the many, not primarily to ad-vantage the few.

We are asked to answer Who We Are: as Canadians, as stewards of the planet, and as individuals with the ability and responsibility to initiate change.

This is both a fascinat-ing portrait of a remarkable woman and an urgent call to action.

“Elizabeth May is a born storyteller in the grand tradi-tion. It may well be that she will achieve her greatest suc-cesses in defense of life up-on this outraged planet as a writer whose clarity, honesty, and conviction brook no de-nials.” - Farley Mowat

Green Party leader visitsValley with her new book

FEDERAL POLITICS

Courtenay resident and long-time Friends of Maple Pool advocate Dick Clancy is pleased to announce that a date for the Office of the Informa-tion and Privacy Com-mission Inquiry has now been confirmed.

At issue is the release of the much awaited vot-ing record of Courtenay’s mayor and six councillors on how they individually voted at in camera meet-ings with regard to the Maple Pool lawsuit.

The OIPC requires that all the “in camera” material must be submit-ted before November 12th and submissions from Mr. Clancy’s legal counsel as well as the City of Courte-nay are due no later than November 19th. The final hearing will be conducted on December 5th.

Clancy further notes that the responsibility to withhold the information from becoming public, al-so referred to as “the bur-den of proof”, rests solely with the City. He states

that task may be very dif-ficult to achieve.

Evidence will be pro-vided to the Privacy Commissioner that sev-eral Courtenay council-lors have pierced the veil of secrecy by discussing the matter outside the confines of the in cam-era meetings and there-fore the City’s argument to further withhold the information is without foundation.

Clancy maintains that some elected officials ac-tually campaigned for election in 2011 stating that they would terminate the lawsuit but have then gone behind closed doors and voted to pursue this unpopular action.

“I believe that this shakes the very core of our democratic system”, said Clancy.

“I am not seeking the substance of the in cam-era deliberations but sim-ply the voting records of the individual elected of-ficials. It is regrettable that we will not get the in-formation we are seeking prior to the pending civic election”.

Date selected to release in-camera voting recordson Maple Pool lawsuit

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FREE TRAVEL CLINIC NOV. 13

If you have a trip planned now is the time to try traveling with just a carry-on size bag. Yes, ease your mind, save some money and focus on your destination, not your luggage; Packables Travel Solutions will show you how. With the new checked bag fees a family of 4 will pay an additional $200 round trip to fl y anywhere!This fun, lively 90 minute workshop covers everything from trip preparation and documentation to security, money tips, scams and of course packing. Have everything you need packed neatly & effi ciently into a carry-on size bag and travel savvier and smarter.Next Travel Clinics are Thursday, November 13th, 27th and December 11, all at 12:30. Seating is limited so reservations are required, please call 250-703-2141 to book your seat. The workshop takes place in Packables Travel Solutions at 301 5th St., downtown Courtenay, lots of parking at the back.

YOUTH CRAFTERSWANTED FOR FAIRLooking to make some extra holiday spending money? Are you crafty and between the ages of 10-19 years? Then The Gnarly Little Christmas Craft Fair sounds perfect for you! Each year Courtenay Recreation hosts this unique, youth craft fair, especially designed for local youth to sell their wares and show off their crafting talent just in time for Christmas.“I continue to be blown away by the quality of crafts and baking I see each year,” explains Kristine Klupsas, Youth Services Coordinator, “I usually end up buying my stocking stuff ers at this craft fair, and it feels good to support local youth” she continues.The 6th Annual Gnarly Little Christmas Craft Fair will be taking place at The Lewis Centre December 6th, 11-3pm, and it is only $10 to register a table.To book a table please call The Lewis Center at 250-338-5371. For more information please call Kristine Klupsas at 250-334-8138 ext. 223.

MS GROUP TO HEAR FOURNIER

Mike Fournier, the Co-ordinator for Comox Valley Emergency Preparedness, will be explaining how to prepare to be on our own for 72 hours after a disaster and also special instructions for people with disabilities. The Multiple Sclerosis self-help group meeting will be held at the Whitespot meeting room, Thursday Nov. 13 from 11:30am to 1pm. Please contact Jan Elman 250-339-3053 or Cherie Kamenz

MYELOMA GROUPMEETING NOV. 18

The North Island Myeloma Support Group is having its monthly meeting on Nov 18, in the dining room at the Best Western Westerly Hotel, 1590 Cliff e Avenue, Courtenay. Come for lunch at 12:15 (optional, buy your own lunch), meeting starts at 1:30. Keep up to date on the latest info on myeloma and enjoy socializing with others aff ected by the disease. Please contact Sandy at: [email protected] or 250-757-9248 if you plan to attend or for more info.

250-8903439 if you are able to attend.

Enjoy a Comox Valley tradition, help Gardens

CHRISTMAS HOUSE TOUR

On November 22 and 23, tour six extraordinary homes in the Comox Valley stunningly

decorated for the Christmas season. It’s your chance to peek inside

these beautiful homes and gather lots of great ideas to enhance your own holiday decorating and enter-taining.

Homes are open from 10am to 4pm each day. Bring your friends and family and make it a day by planning a stop for a bite to eat us-ing one of the coupons provided by seven local restaurants, or stop for a wine tasting at 40 Knots Vineyard and Estate Winery.

You have a chance to win a door prize at every home, so remember to try your hand at picking the win-ning ticket.

Each of the beautiful homes is uniquely decorated by a local inte-

rior designer whose creativity and many ideas will be sure to inspire.

Designers for this year’s Tour include Leanne Anglin (Tab Im-ports), Norma Cronmiller, Shelley Gartside, Stephanie Happach, and Tamara Penna (Purely Flower Bou-tique). Many of the ornaments and décor items the designers include in the individual homes are provided by local retail shops and businesses.

So, if you spot items that are par-ticularly fantastic and you just have to have them, the Tour hosts will be able to direct you to the retail-ers that supplied them, including Art Knapp, A Step Above - Quality Foods, Canadian Tire, Duduza Bed and Bath, Lazy Boy Furniture Gal-lery, Merit Home Furniture, Purely Flower Boutique, TAB Imports, and Target.

Purchase your Christmas Home

Tour tickets ($25 each) in advance in Comox at Duduza Bed & Bath, in Black Creek at Heart & Home Gifts, in Cumberland at Seeds Natural Food Market, and in Courtenay at Art Knapp, Home & Garden Gate, Purely Flower Boutique, and TAB Imports. For more information, visit gardensonanderton.org

The Gardens on Anderton Christmas Home Tour is the major fundraiser of the Anderton Thera-peutic Gardens Society, which oper-ates The Gardens on Anderton.

The Gardens, open May through September, promote health and well-being and benefit many Co-mox Valley residents who enjoy The Gardens’ wheelchair accessibility, the opportunity to be in a beautiful outdoor space, learning about gar-dening, and socializing with other members and visitors.

" I wish to takea leading roleto engage citizensto create a Visionfor the Old FieldSawmill Site -LET THE RIVERRUN FREE "

CITY OF COURTENAY COUNCILLOR

November 15 - ReElect Starr!Authorized by Starr Winchester, FinancialAgent.ph250-334-2664:[email protected]


An independently owned and operated

newspaper published by Echo Publications at

407-E Fifth Street, Courtenay, B.C. V9N 1J7

Phone 250-334-4722

Fax 250-334-3172

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E-mail: [email protected]

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COMOX VALLEY ECHO

OPINIONSEC

HO

I am writing this letter as I have concerns on the way our society is treating Remembrance Day.

I walk around town and witness businesses deco-rating their stores with Christmas decorations be-fore we have even had Re-membrance Day.

Should we not be able to celebrate Remembrance Day before being over-whelmed with Christmas?

As a proud Canadian, I find this annual trend dis-turbing and disrespectful. I believe there are two very important days every cal-endar year that need to be respected and celebrated.

These days are Canada Day and Remembrance Day, when we should take a moment and appreciate all the freedom we have as a result of countless brave and selfless men and wom-en and all the sacrifices they have made over the years, for all Canadians to live in this great country.

The other day I heard a person say, “Once the last surviving soldier from WWII passes away, Re-membrance Day will no longer happen or be need-ed”. I was totally shocked and upset at such a state-ment. I did not hear the en-tire conversation and what I heard could have been misinterpreted, but I find

this very disturbing.Is the history of what

this country has done be-ing forgotten? How is it possible that Remem-brance Day is not a Na-tional Holiday across the whole country?

I for one will “Never Forget”, and to the people that maybe have, please remember and take a mo-ment to reflect on what our country is, because of all the great citizens that have ever been, “Canadian”.

To all those people that have forgotten, or do not believe it to be such a “big thing”, shame on you.

To every Canadian that has gone away for conflicts, (to protect our country and citizens), and paid the ulti-mate sacrifice for our coun-try, “Thank-you”.

To all the Canadians that have gone away for these conflicts and were able to come back home alive, “Thank-you”.

To all the Canadian citi-zens that have done “what-ever it takes” to support Canada during these cri-sis’, “Thank-you”.

To all the Canadian people who take up the cause today protecting our country and everything this country means to all, “Thank-you”.

Murray BaileyComox

A disturbingtrend

Hydro didn’t cause fl oodingI would like to respond

to some comments over the years, and most re-cently in paid advertise-ments in October, from people aligned with the Maple Pool campground that inaccurately claim BC Hydro played a role in the localised flooding in Cour-tenay in 2009 and 2010. It is time to say those com-ments are incorrect. We played a beneficial role in limiting the flooding. But first, some background.

Water ultimately enter-ing the Courtenay River includes water flows from the Puntledge, Browns and Tsolum rivers. There are also streams like Sup-ply Creek, Morrison Creek and Arden Creek. Other than BC Hydro’s Comox Dam that can regulate re-leases down the Puntledge River, all of these rivers and creeks are naturally flowing. At the 5th Street Bridge, and often backwa-tering to the Tsolum River and the campground area, localised flooding can be-gin at about 400 cubic me-tres per second (m3/s) of river flow along with high ocean tides.

Unfortunately, high ocean tides called King

Tides occur in the fall/winter season. Very high tides, coupled with ocean storm surges from high winds that are often hand-in-hand with a large storm system, push water inland up the river estuary.

Pineapple Express storm systems originate from tropical zones and carry with them warmer temperatures and heavy rain. More recent weather terms call these systems atmospheric rivers. This is a double-whammy of heavy rain (100 mm per day) on top of snow melt. One such system in itself

can cause flooding, but back-to-back systems are ill-fated for flood risk man-agement - it’s simply too much water.

BC Hydro has meteo-rologists, hydrologists, senior engineers, biolo-gists, facilities, shift engi-neers and community rela-tions staff that coordinate and plan our operations 24/7. Our operations are well-planned for what we know at the time, based on stream flows and forecast-ed weather. Our focus in storm events is dam safe-ty and flood risk manage-ment. Water released from

the Comox Dam takesabout two hours to arriveat the Courtenay River,and we adjust discharg-es where possible up anddown in consideration ofocean tides. In potentialflood situations we workclosely with Comox Valleyemergency responders,and particularly the City ofCourtenay. Before, duringand following those floodevents we had one-twocalls per day with themuntil the risk had ended.There was good communi-cation and understanding.

When looking at themost recent flood event inJanuary 2010, three stormshit in rapid succession overfive days. Thankfully thethird storm had freezinglevels drop and most of theprecipitation fell as snow.BC Hydro spilled waterin advance of the stormsand of course during andafter the events. To throwsome numbers at you thepeak inflow into ComoxLake, during the secondstorm, hit over 1000 m3/s- remember flooding in theCourtenay River can takeplace at 400 m3/s.


BC Hydro’s Comox Dam located at the outlet of the Comox Lake Reservoir



A 1000 m3/s flow rate can fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 2.5 sec-onds.

During the entire series of storms, BC Hydro re-leased downstream a range of 50 m3/s (high tide) to over 300 m3/s (low tide). Far more water was com-ing into the reservoir than going out. The reservoir rose a remarkable 2 me-tres in about 36 hours as we held water back. For a reservoir analogy, the bath-tub became full. The reser-voir level peaked about one metre above the overflow spillway, and much of our operational flexibility was

gone. The Tsolum River hit about 250 m3/s twice in less than 24 hours and the Browns River reached 120 m3/s before the gauge was washed out by the flood flows. These natural-ly flowing

rivers and streams, along with high oceans tides and storm surge, on their own can cause flood-ing as water moves out of the river banks.

While there is flood-ing focus downstream of the dam, there are also properties along the Co-mox Lake Reservoir that can sustain some damage from the storm. Everyone can be impacted by these large events.

Why has there been no significant flooding since January 2010? The reason is the weather, and while we had some significant storms we were all able to manage through, particu-larly in late 2010, we have not been presented with very large events like Janu-ary 2010.

In addition, we went through a record dry period last fall and winter where there wasn’t one storm of any significance.

BC Hydro will do what we can to manage the Pun-tledge River system and we are spending millions of dollars starting in 2015 to improve numerous wa-ter gauges placed through-

out the watershed that measure flow rates. This will give us an even better understanding of the real time flow conditions and how we can consider them in our planned decisions. However, should the stars align where conditions out-lined above take place with large storm systems, there will be localised down-stream flooding. BC Hydro can limit the flood impacts but we are unable to pre-vent flooding. BC Hydro will continue to operate during flood risk manage-ment situations within the full rights of our water li-cence.

Stephen WatsonBC Hydro

BC Hydro can’t prevent fl ooding

BY SUSAN LAZARUKThe Province

A Comox Valley man is outraged that a teen who while driving drunk smashed into his daughter and left her to die was given a driver’s licence in the first place.

Ralph and Molly Burton have written a letter to the province’s superintendent of motor vehicles demand-ing the law be changed to better screen and deny, if necessary, a learner’s li-cence to young people who have a long list of driving infractions, like this youth did.

“He’s absolutely proven he should never be allowed to drive,” said Molly, 26, who was rescued from the September 2013 crash and undergoes physio three times a week to learn to walk again, but still spends 80 per cent of her time in a

wheelchair.“He’s shown complete

disrespect for the safety of others,” she said in a call from her Comox home.

Supt. Sam MacLeod hasn’t yet answered the family’s letter, but said in an email statement that the province’s graduated-

licensing program, which slowly introduces new drivers with descending restrictions, is designed to help new drivers become safe drivers.

“Individuals who com-mit driving infractions be-fore they begin the GLP are not prevented from be-ginning the program,” he said. “It’s not the expecta-tion that they enter the pro-gram with those [safe-driv-ing] habits fully formed.”

But Ralph said the youth’s long list of driving infractions from age 10 to 16 while driving dirt bikes and ATVs on the family farm, which came out dur-ing his sentencing hearing, should have prevented him from getting his licence.

Those 18 violations, including for driving on roads without insurance and without a helmet, re-sulted in a six-month driv-ing ban for the youth, who

can’t be named because he was 16 at the time.

“He was banned from driving six months before he even got this licence,” said Molly.

He got his learner’s per-mit after the ban expired and six months later, drove his car into Molly on a dark Comox road.

He was charged with drunk driving (court heard he had earlier shotgunned beers) and dangerous driv-ing, and evidence showed he was speeding at more than twice the 50 km/h limit.

He was also driving alone, after dark, and us-ing his cellphone, all pro-hibited for “L” drivers.

“He told police he was reaching for his cellphone before the crash,” Ralph Burton said.

“This is a person who isn’t responsible enough to have a driver’s licence,” he said by phone from Co-mox.

“There should at least be a cursory check to find out if new drivers have any [Motor Vehicle Act] viola-tions. He had several and he was just 16. Is this the type of guy we want on the road?”

The crash sent Molly flying 15 metres. She land-ed in blackberry brambles in a muddy, intertidal ditch with the tide coming in.

The teen drove away (he told court he thought he hit a deer), leaving Molly screaming in the cold and the dark for five hours un-til Good Samaritan Brody Fullerton, 21, of Comox found her after an hour-long search.

Molly suffered serious injuries, including a man-gled and fractured arm

JUSTICE

Family of hit-and-run victim Molly Burton seeks licence crackdownYouth had been banned from driving six months before he got his learner’s permit

Molly Burton.

By John Longenbaugh

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BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staff

Paula Granger has em-barked on a venture

that she feels will become a shoe-in at her current Home Medical Shop.

The Courtenay busi-nesses owner recently opened Pavia Shoe Com-pany that will exclusive-ly sell handcrafted shoes made in Spain.

Not only are they fash-ionable, stylish and pleas-ant to look at, but they’re also a health relief for your feet.

That’s the Portofino Shoes, an Italian brand name. They’re being sold here in the Comox Valley inside the Home Medi-cal Shop located on 1070 Cliffe Avenue in Courte-nay. They are special or-thopedic shoes, which are designed to be not only medically functionable but also fashionable.

Granger said she has been searching for these types of orthopedic shoes for three years. It was at a recent shoe show in Van-couver where she discov-ered Portofino Shoes, cre-ated by a retired former

Kenneth Cole designer, who Granger said took the “ugly” out of orthopedic shoes.

“Women want to wear orthopedic shoes but they don’t want them to be ug-ly,” quipped Granger, who is an orthopedic fitter. “Be-ing in business for many years — 29 to be exact — and one, who loves shoes, I saw a missing link. Women want to put in orthotics in a nice pair of good looking shoes.”

Orthopedic shoes are specially designed foot-wear to provide support and relief for people suf-fering with some type of pain in the legs, ankles or feet such as bunions, ham-


A shoe-in for success at Home Medical

mertoes or fallen arches. They are different from ba-sic shoes.

Granger added Pavia Shoe Company inside her shop as a separate entity. It is only one of three places on Vancouver Island that have exclusive rights to sell Portofino Shoes. The other two are located in Nanaimo and Victoria.

The name Pavia inci-dentally came about when Granger’s future son-in-law

mispelled her name Paula, replacing the letter U with a V and the L with an I. It’s a name that stuck in the family Granger said. They then decided to use it for the new business venture.

To determine whether it will be a suitable business name, Granger’s graphics artist researched Pavia and discovered that it is actu-ally a province in Italy and incidentally borders Por-tofino, the place where the

family who owns the Por-tofino Shoes company is from.

“How coincidental is that?” said Granger. “We were a bit blown away by that and so we went for it.”

Granger said the Por-tofino Shoes are hand-made in Spain and are specifically designed to be inserted with orthotics. The shoes have a rounded toe for this purpose.

“When you put in orthot-ics in a shoe that doesn’t have a rounded toe, often they have to be trimmed or much has to be changed,” Granger explained. “But when it costs around $400 they don’t want to change or cut them. It’s impor-tant the shoe is totally de-signed for orthotics. No-body would think they are orthotic shoes. As soon as I saw them, I loved them to begin with.”

The shoes, which come in different colours, styles and shapes from high heels to boots, use flexible leath-er that is user-friendly es-pecially for those suffering from bunions. The heels are also made of rubber. If you don’t have orthotics,

the foot bed, Granger said is “ergonomically correct.”

The price range of the shoes goes from $180 to $300.

Granger said that peo-ple with extended health care options can get cov-erage for the shoes with a doctor’s prescription.

Adding a shoe store to the shop is Granger’s way of diversifying her busi-ness especially at a time when the health care sys-tem, along with new inno-vations and approaches, is changing rapidly.

“We have to roll with the times,” said Granger. “We have to learn to provide new services to our com-munity.”

Paula Granger shows off one of the Portofi no Shoes that is specially designed for orthotics. They are now on sale at Pavia Shoe Company located inside the Home Medical Shop on 1070 Cliff e Avenue.

Women want to wear orthopedic shoes but they don’t want them to be ugly. I saw a missing link. Women want to put in orthot-ics in a nice pair of good loooking shoes.”

PAULA GRANGERHome Medical Shop

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BY JUDY HAGENEcho History Writer

On November 7th 1921, three years after the end of the “War to End all Wars”, the farmers of the Comox Valley began a unique pro-cession to the Dingwall farm which met the Island high-way at Sandwick corner.

This journey of love was to provide the material for the Memorial Cairn, a project of the newly formed Great War Veteran’s Association.

The veterans wanted to provide a fitting tribute to their fallen comrades who had not returned to the val-ley they loved

It was decided that the cairn should be made from the “land” which the soldiers had left when they served their country overseas. So every family who had sent a man overseas was asked to provide stones for the me-morial.

The Cairn was so unusual that it was newsworthy out-side the valley.

On June 10 1922, the Van-couver Province noted:

“The low cost ($500) is explained by the fact that the labour has been performed voluntarily by the commu-nity as a whole.

“Last November when the foundation stone was laid, dozens of farmers rose at dawn to load stones tak-en from their farms to help erect the cairn...while some wagons were hauling rocks others were at the river load-

ing sand to make concrete with which the stones were cemented together and the whole district turned out to unload the wagons and pile up the stones.”

The Cornerstone was laid by Mayor Charles Simms and Mrs. Alex Beaton whose three sons had enlisted. Mal-colm and John died over-seas, Angus came home an amputee.

The site donated by Mrs. Dingwall, was chosen be-cause it was so visible to anyone traveling the Island Highway.

The Province article not-ed that “the view is of the great glacier of the Beaufort Range which broods over Courtenay, of the pleas-ant pastureland where the greensward is dotted with Jersey herds, of the blue wa-ters of Comox Bay.”

Through the spring of 1922, the Cairn was con-structed by volunteer labour under the direction of Mr. Sutherland of the Depart-ment of Roads.

When the Veterans of the Great War Association asked for names to be submitted for the memorial plaque, one name was refused, that of George Gage, because his mother thought a cairn should be built in Comox.

She didn’t want a son of Comox on the Courtenay Memorial.

So his name was unfor-tunately omitted from the Honour Roll which was un-veiled at the Armistice Day ceremonies in 1922.

A journey of love to buildlocal remembrance cairn

Farmers brought stones from throughout the district

The Sandwick Cairn. The stones came from farms throughout the district. (Photo courtesy Courtenay & District Museum, P90-99)

REMEMBRANCE DAY The aff ection that everyone had for the Cairn was expressed in verse many years later by, Ernest J. Costain, who in the 1930’s was the principal of

Courtenay High School.

THE CAIRN

“No blood!” you say,“A stone can have no blood!”And were you here the dayThey brought us?Do you remember well, the wayThey sought us?The lips tight-pressed? The salty fl oodOf brimming hearts? The tender hands?

From every fi eld in these near landsThey came and wrought usTo stand symbolic of the menWho died-stout hearts alive againIn stone, in granite, sand and lime -A pulse of freedom in the void of time!



The Cumberland Me-morial to honour the men who had died in the Great War was unveiled as part

of the Empire Day Cele-brations in 1921. The Me-morial which was placed in front of the new Veterans Memorial Hall was an arch designed Mr. W A. Owen, the Construction Engi-

Cumberland Memorial Hall and Arch. (Photo from Cum-berland Museum and Archives, #C30-21)

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Memorial Arch built in CumberlandTudor-style portal designed by Collieries engineer unveiled during 1921 Empire Day

Anderson, JohnArmstrong, C.T.Cameron S.Campbell WilliamConnor SDempsey JamesGarrick, ThomasGillespie, John McLane Glover, John*Halcrow, William*Haywood AbrahamJackson, E.W.*Matsumura, TorakiMilligan, John

McInulty, John McIntosh, JNorman, R*Pickard, Albert DaySlaughter, ASpears, JUrquhart, HarryWaldon, DWard, AlbertWhyte, JWilliamson, BarnetWright, William*Yamada, Masaji

*Listed on the Vimy Memorial

THE ROLL OF HONOUR FOR THOSE MEN FROM CUMBERLAND WHO FELL IN ACTION

DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914-18

neer for the Canadian Col-lieries. The Arch, reminis-cent of 15th century Tudor portals, had an opening ten feet wide and 11 feet high at the apex. Each column had a recess for the bronze tab-lets listing the 28 names of the dead. The permanent tablets which were being made by Henry Birks and Sons of Montreal did not arrive in time for the offi-cial opening.

The Cumberland Is-lander wrote a splendid ac-count of the day’s events with a headline:

UNVEILING MEMO-RIAL ARCH WITNESSED BY THOUSANDS

“Very impressive cer-emony took place Empire Day when Memorial Arch Unveiled.

“As befitting the great festal day of the British Empire on Tuesday last the memorial Arch erected to the memory of those in the district who paid the supreme sacrifice in the Great War of the Great

Empire which we are so proud to belong was un-veiled with the ceremony due such an event” - 28 May 1921

The dedication was the

first event for the Empire Day programme; a parade had formed at City Hall and then proceeded down Dunsmuir Avenue to the Great War Veterans Hall

where two immense Union Jacks were draped over the Arch.

The dignitaries includ-ed His worship, Mayor MacDonald of Cumber-land, Rev. Thomas Men-zies, MLA, Capt. C. Brown, Rev. Leversedge, and Rev. James Hall. The parade had included returned veterans, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and the Cumberland Pa-triotic Society.

In his opening remarks the Mayor said “If the great sacrifice which these men have made will only lead us to see that if we pre-serve peace throughout the world they will not have died in vain.”

Then as the Last Post was played the two flags were withdrawn by Mary and Harriet McInulty, daughters of one of the men named on the Memo-rial Arch.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the parade con-tinued to the park for the Empire Day events.

We Proudly Support the

SOLDIER ON FUND, The mission of the fund is to provide resources

and opportunities for serving and retired Canadian Forces personnel with a permanent or chronic illness or injury to actively participate in

physical, recreational or sporting activities.



In November 1914 the Courtenay Re-view was focused on

news about the war. With the capture in Comox of spies’ intent on relaying messages sent through the wireless station at Lazo, a detail of men had

been sent up from Victo-ria to guard the wireless station. Now in November they were being replaced because the original eight had volunteered for the front.

When Grove Carter, the principal of Minto School left for the front his friends held a party wishing him God speed and singing patriotic songs. Bursts of

camaraderie were repeat-ed often when others left the area. Friends would gather at the train station cheering and singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”.

Capt. Bates, who had been in the forefront of or-ganizing the community at the time the war was de-clared, was authorized by the government to raise a squadron of mounted

troops from this district.J.C Kidd auctioned off

his farm and all his pos-sessions so that he could rejoin his regiment. There were a number of men who had settled in the valley af-ter their years of service in British regiments. Many had been in the South Af-rican Conflict of 1897-1901

One such volunteer was Charles Grundy who had served during the Boer War. He came to the valley about 1910 and lived for a

time with his friend George Bates until he found prop-erty between the Casanave and Evans farms on the lower Prairie Road.

Charles, born in Prest-wick, England on Febru-ary 2 1879, graduated from New College Oxford in 1897 then joined the Ox-ford University Reserve Volunteers serving in the South African Campaign from 1897-1900. On his re-turn to England he joined his father’s office as a So-

licitor’s clerk.Although Charles on-

ly lived in the valley for a short time, he made his mark as a “crack shot”, re-puted to be the best shot in the valley and later his pals thought he must have been the best shot in the whole allied army!

“They barred him from shooting at the local tur-key shoots, so he’d go to the Riverside Hotel and get primed, and even then he wouldn’t miss.

Charles Grundy graduated from Oxford,served in the Boer War, farmed in the Valley, volunteered to serve in WWI

The Menin Gate. Charles Grundy has no known grave; his name is inscribed here.

First Valley man killed in WWI was ‘a great drunkand crack shot’

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“He would lean over backwards and shoot up-side down.” (Les Marshall in 1978 interview by Ruth Masters for her book “Lest We Forget”.)

Grundy was not the on-ly one barred from the tur-key shoots. Bob Childs and Jabe Day were two others who were not allowed to enter what was a strange contest where individual live turkeys were place in a box with only their heads poking out of a hole. The idea was to shoot their heads off.

It is believed that Grun-dy was a Remittance man because he never worked. He was a great friend of Bates and the men were of-ten seen riding their horses throughout the valley..

Tom Menzies recalled that he was a “single man, a terrific horseman and great drunk and he used to gallop his horse up the Lower Road. One time he got drunk at the Courtenay Hotel, and they painted a skull on his bald head.” (In-terview with Ruth Masters 1977).

When the war started, Grundy was not going to miss out on this great ad-venture!

He was among the first to go to Victoria where on November 9th he enlisted

IN FLANDERS FIELDSIn Flanders Fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved, and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch, be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields

- Col. John McCrae, 1915

with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. He embarked for Britain on 20 January 1915, and was sent to France on 11 March 1915.

“The Patricia’s had been in the Ypres salient since early April and moved into the line at Polygon Wood on April 9th. In the spring of 1915, woods were still well-treed. Bellewaerde Ridge to the rear was on-ly about 20 feet above the undulating plain.”(Official history of the Regiment).

The great battle of Fr-ezenberg (2nd Battle of Ypres), considered the most celebrated of the all the battle honours born by the Patricia Regimental Battle colours, would not begin until May 8th.

Private Charles Grundy would not live long enough to experience that great

adventure. He was killed in action on 11 April.

He was the first of the Courtenay men to be killed “at the front”

The Courtenay Review 22 April 1915:”Among those killed and wounded in the recent charge where the Canadian forces won undying fame were many well known to the people of Courtenay. The only soldier killed among those sent from here was Pte. Charles Grundy who lived here for the past three or so years and was well known to us all. He was an excep-tionally well educated man, who could converse intelli-gently on almost any sub-ject. He was an ardent Im-perialist and when the war broke out assisted Capt. Bates in forming the Le-gion of Frontiersmen and when the time to enlist came he insisted upon go-ing although the doctor only granted him a provi-sional certificate. Howev-er, after going to Victoria he improved and proved himself a splendid marks-man and was among those

chosen to reinforce the first contingent. He was a genial whole-souled fellow and would share his last shilling with less fortunate fellows”.

In early May a funeral service to remember all the soldiers who had been killed in recent fighting was held at St. John’s Anglican Church. It was noted that the only local man to have lost his life was Charles Grundy who had been a member of that congrega-tion.

His friends had intended to have a silver tablet suit-ably engraved and placed in an oak base to be sent to Charles’ widowed mother, Mary Grundy of Church Lane Georges Terrace, Prestwick England.

Charles Grundy is re-membered on the Sand-wick Cairn and the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial. He is listed in Ruth Mas-ters’ book “Lest We For-get” which is on display in the Courtenay and Dis-trict Museum. (A photo of Charles Grundy has not been located.)

Grundy ‘was a genial whole-souled fellow’

He was a single man, a terrifi c horseman and great drunk and he used to gallop his horse up the Lower Road. One time he got drunk at the Courtenay Hotel, and they painted a skull on his bald head.”

TOM MENZIES1977 interview with Ruth Masters

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Throughout history, at home and overseas, our military has put their love for Canada above all else. On Remembrance Day, we proudly honour these brave men and women for their courage, commitment and resourcefulness.

To all who have sacrificed so much, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

HONOURING OUR MILITARY

BLAKE SIMPSONBranch Manager

RBC Dominion Securities 777A Fitzgerald AvenueCourtenay, BC250-334-5600

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BRIAN BALFE, B.COMM.Investment Advisor & Portfolio Manager

Investment integrity

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over 30 years.


Barbara Price and John Price - World War II VeteranBaBaBaBaBaBaB rbrbrbrbrbrbarararararara aa aaaa PPrPrPrPrPP icicicicicceeeeee anananananana dddddd JoJoJoJoJoJohnhnhnhnhnhn PPPPPPPriririririicececececece -- WWWWWWWoroorororo ldldldldldd WWWWWWWarararararaa IIIIIII I III VeVeVeVeVeVeteteteteteterarararararaannnnnnBarbara Price and John Price - World War II Veteran


February 1916, Edwin G. Everett of Cour-tenay enlisted in the

102nd Battalion which was stationed at “the Spit” in Comox. He was assigned to the Hospital staff.

In May he was trans-ferred to the 13th Field Ambulance Corps at West Point Barracks, Victoria. A month later he left for Eng-land receiving additional training before being sent in to France in August.

Private Everett kept a diary during his years at the front. The following are excerpts which describe how difficult it was to work with the casualties:

“We went to take over a dressing station which was about 4 to 5 miles from the firing line and about half ways between Ypres and St.Eloi. Both places have seen very heavy fighting and at each place the Ca-nadians have made a good name for themselves.

“From this dressing sta-tion we had 3 other dress-ing stations to collect from where our boys were sta-tioned. These three were bad places to get to as they

A Courtenay medic in WW1 describes the horrors

We always got our wounded through. Some of them were very bad cases. One man had 28 pieces of shrapnel in his back and some had very remarkable escapes from death. How cheer-ful the boys were with it all.”EDWIN G. EVERETT13th Field Ambulance Corps

were under fire of the en-emy and we were only al-lowed to go and get to the wounded from these places at night.

I had do the trip one night and I was rather hot, shells were firing over and all around but we did not get hit, these snipers were very bad at the first two places and some were hard to locate. When they were found it was all over with them.

Even some of the Bel-gians were caught snip-ing and one accounted for 6 men in one night before he was brought low, but we always got our wound-ed through. Some of them

were very bad cases. One man had 28 pieces of shrapnel in his back and some had very remarkable escapes from death, while others were of minor cases. How cheerful the boys were with it all. We had 80 men pass through our hands on one night, but other nights it might be from 20 to 30.”

The medical corps was always on the move. In

early October Pvt. Edwin was near Albert during the Battle of the Somme.

“About 6pm we got or-ders to go to the lines, so 100 of us had to pack up and move another 4 miles with full pack and all of a rush. When we got to the dressing station we were all in, but we left our kit there and started off on our er-rand of mercy.

“It was not a bad night for the moon wad unfairly good, and it was all lit up with stray shells. Here we had 1 1/2 miles to pack the wounded, we packed all the night and next day until 2pm, when it quieted down a little. We got nothing to eat until Monday noon and only a little water.

“Truly war is Hell, for what we had to go through

that night; it is a wonder that we were not all killed. We were being shelled all the time and there was sev-eral snipers but we were very lucky for all 3 of the boys got hit, the effect of shell fire, but not very se-riously the other sights were terrible - dead men lying in all directions and the ground covered with holes made by shells, but we ducked as often as we could from the shells, but with a poor fellow on your shoulder, we could not drop much.”

The most heinous mo-ment of the war was

the attack by gas. In March 1917 Everett was treating those wounded after a gas attack. He would for years after the war have reoc-curring bouts from having been “gassed”:

“We all got sent in, we were expecting a big rush as we were going to put over gas, and the boys were going over after. At 12pm it was put off for 24 hours but we got little sleep during the day, and were up next night.

“Then still put off, then another and little sleep during then up a night and

over went the gas about 3 am March 1st and another wave at 4 am and the boys went at 5am.

“Before this time we had quite a number of fel-lows brought back in hav-ing had a dose of gas for the wind had changed a little and made it bad for our boys.

“It was not long before they started to come back and then we were busy for there was a very large number of wounded and the 54th Batt., which I was at, had about the worst of it.

“They lost a large num-ber including their Col. And there was a bunch of poor fellows who died at the Aid Post after having been dressed and we were packing out the wounded

all that day and night. It was noon of the 2nd be-fore the last man was tak-en out.”

On April 4th after the gas attack, Everett

was sent to C.C.W. No 6. at Barlin:

“It was here that I saw some of the real horrors, as the first day I was put in the Operation Room. Here I saw poor fellows who were shot in all kinds of places and many an arm and leg came off in there.One day 34 legs and 15 arms were cut off, and the Doctors worked day and night on cases.

“After the first day I was put in Ward 2 with two oth-er orderlies.


399 Clubhouse Drive, Courtenay, BC V9N 9G3

Thank You to all Veterans

Never ForgetNov 11 2014


A big thank you to the 35 hardworking volunteers from the community who helped out on Saturday, November 1. Following a Candlelight Tribute Ceremo-ny, 30 veterans’ graves were cleaned up at St. Andrews cemetery in preparation for Remembrance Day. Let us make this a tradition here in the Valley to honor our fallen soldiers buried in that cem-etery. (In photo: Rob Austin, one of the volunteers clean-ing up the veterans’graves)

Let’s make this a tradition

(Cont. from page 20)

Here we had 40 stretcher beds and it was in this ward that all the cases came that had to go the Op-erating Room.”

Although he was not at Vimy Ridge, he made these obser-

vations:“The 4th Can.Div.has been

very highly praised for the splen-did work they did in taking Vimy Ridge on April 9th and the 13th Can .Fld. Amb. got mentioned in dispatches for the way they han-dled the walking cases on that great day. For from 10:00 am until

midnight a little over 3,000 cases passed through their hands and each one had their dressings seen to and had a meal, and a clean pair of socks put on. Up to midnight of the 12 over 11,000 walking cases went through that one hospital and the Pimple which is on the north side of Vimy Ridge as taken on the morning of the 12th by Ca-nadians.”

He concludes his diary in 1918 writing:

“We can sleep if we don’t get a convoy in but each time we have had to get up during the night to help with the wounded and we

had to carry on next day as usu-al. Now things went on fine until May 19th when about 10:30 pm we had a very great surprise as the Huns were over in force, with their bombing and planes and dropped a lot of bombs in various camps I think the Life Guards got the most as they had over 400 killed and wounded, but they also dropped a lot on the hospitals. 27 bombs on or around our hospital killed 2 of our staff and 10 patients and wounded 8 others of the staff and over 30 patients. 6 of the staff died of wounds and 2 patients while others lost limbs and our kitchen was badly smashed”.

A Courtenay medic writes of war

MIDLAND TOOLS2230 Cliffe AvenueCourtenay, [email protected]


A tale as old as time: A Comoxwoman gets to know her fatherJune Gillrie was born a yearbefore he was killed in WWI

REMEMBRANCE DAY

There was never a lot said about my father. It’s lucky I came across them (medals) and got looking into them,”

JUNE GILLRIEDaughter of WWI soldier

Since that time, Gill-rie had not thought much about her father. All she knew was, he died duringthe war. Her mother, beingbusy working and raising two other children from a previous marriage, hardly talked about Leslie, Gillrie recalled. “There was never a lot said about my father,” said Gillrie. “I never reallyknew much about my fatherbecause he wasn’t there.”

T h a t s i g n i f i c a n t l y changed just a few years ago.Gillrie stumbled upon an oldchest that used to belong toher mother. She has had thechest since she moved to Comox in 1977 from West Vancouver. But she had nev-er bothered with it until oneday when she opened it shefound military medals be-longing to her father along with letters he wrote to hermother, citations, photos, and correspondence fromdifferent military officersand departments. She didn’tknow her mother kept allof these because they were never displayed or shown toher. “It’s lucky I came acrossthem and got looking into them,” said Gillrie.


BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staff

A tale as old as timeIt’s hard growing up not

knowing who your father was. But better late than never is June Gillrie’s story.

It took her close to a century to learn about her father, Sergeant William Kinnear Leslie.

Gillrie, who is 98-years old, didn’t really know who Leslie was. She never met him. She grew up without him and never experienced a deep father-daughter rela-tionship.

It was 100 years ago in

1914 when Leslie enlisted to serve with the 72nd Infantry Battalion known as the Sea-forth Highlanders of Cana-da. It was during the First World War.

Gillrie wasn’t even born yet.

In 1915, Leslie wanted to go to Europe to fight but the 72nd Battalion, at the time,

Sgt. William Kinnear Leslie. He was killed in action shortly after June Gillrie was born

was not being deployed for combat yet. He decided to enlist with the 67th Battalion — the Western Scots — that was stationed in Victoria. The troops were shipped to Britain first then were sent to France. They were at the front lines at both locations, fighting, digging trenches, laying wires and helping

build railways.Meanwhile, thousands of

miles away from the trench-es, on June 23, 1916 Gillrie was born in Vancouver. Her father wasn’t there. Her mother Maud sent Leslie a telegram to inform him he had just became the father of a baby girl.

Leslie wrote back ex-pressing happiness. He said he wasn’t surprised because he was expecting it but in-dicated he couldn’t contain his smile when he read the news. He shared the news with his colleagues who teased him about it. In his touching letter, Leslie brief-ly addressed his newborn baby.

“I feel sorry for you dear girl and would like to come home but it can’t be done,” Leslie wrote.

That was the only corre-spondence Gillrie ever had from her father. On June 5, 1917, just a couple of days before Gillrie’s first birth-day, Leslie was sadly killed in action. He was 31-years old. His body was never brought back home to Can-ada and was buried among the thousands of Canadian war heroes at Villers Station Cemetery in France.

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Gillrie took the medals and had someone from Victoria research their significance. She found out her father served in the 102nd Co-mox-Atlin Battalion that was sta-tioned in Comox. Leslie joined this regiment when the 67th Bat-talion was disbanded on May 1917 because it suffered heavy casual-ties. The remaining members, that included Leslie, were re-allocated to the 102nd Battalion. On June 5, 1917, Leslie was killed in France.

Based on the letters written about her father by military per-sonnel, Gillrie said she got a good impression and knowledge of what her father was like.

“All the write-ups when he was in the service, all the write-ups from the officers, just say what a wonderful man he was,” said Gill-rie. “All I can say is, I’m just very proud of what my father did.”

Since discovering what her fa-

ther had achieved as soldier, every year Gillrie has honoured him by putting a remembrance piece in the local paper with a picture of him.

“When you haven’t had a father, you just don’t know,” said Gillrie. “What you find out about him af-terwards, it’s wonderful to know, he was such a brave man. It’s pretty hard to express when you haven’t had a father. I am proud of what he did.”

Also, to immortalize her father’s heroic deed and contributions, Gillrie has donated all of Leslie’s medals, commendations, letters, and photos to The Alberni Project museum in Comox, which is add-ing artifacts from World War I.

“We are using the display of Sergeant Leslie as the core of the display that we’re putting togeth-er,” said curator Lewis Bartholom-ew.

(Continued on page 24) June Gillrie looks at special display in The Alberni Museum about her father

A father she never knew

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“This particular one is a poignant one for our World War I exhibit be-cause of that letter where he is so excited about the birth of his daughter. You can almost hear the ex-citement.

“And when you actu-ally read his handwriting, it’s not a text and it’s not something that’s printed out, it’s something that actually came from his own hand. That in itself is more important than showing his medals for bravery and gallantry. It’s a letter of a father who

is on the frontlines then soon loses his life.”

Bartholomew, in ap-preciation for Gillrie’s contribution to the Al-berni Project, had asked a former student of his who was traveling to France with her husband, who is a soldier in the US army, to take a photo of Leslie’s grave at Villers Station Cemetery.

Gillrie received photo collage of the place where Leslie now rests.

At the base of his gravestone, it reads “he died that we may live in peace and has gone to his glorious reward.”

Doughboys: Sally Ann to offer WWI doughnuts

REMEMBRANCE DAY - SALVATION ARMY

BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staf

During World War I, Salvation Army workers brought cheer and smiles to thousands of combat-weary soldiers at the trenches in France nearly a hundred years ago by feeding them doughnuts.

The simple dough confection-ery became comfort food to many soldiers at the front lines as rations were scant and lacking.

The Comox Valley Salvation Army is celebrating the historic doughnut, giving recognition by cooking doughnuts on Remem-brance Day using the original WW1 recipe and sharing them with the community.

“It’s a pretty neat story,” said Brent Hobden, Communities Min-istries Director.

(Continued on page 25) Grain Bakery’s Michael Pitcher and baker Franki Gajda, along with Salvation Army’s Brent Hobden prepares the dough made from the original doughnut recipe.

June Gillrie reads her father’s letter, sent from France to acknowledge he’d received news of her birth.

Thank you for your courage, so we may enjoy peace at home.

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Thank you to all those who serve and have served in the past.

We remember.

Take time this Remembrance Day

to pay tribute to those brave men and women who fought

for the freedoms we enjoy every day.

Don McRae, M.L.A. (Comox Valley)

437 5th Street, Courtenay BCtel: 250.703.2422

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“It goes back all the way to the First World War. The Salvation Army used this inexpensive recipe and they would make them out there at the battlefields. They deep fried them and hand-ed them out to the troops in the trenches with a cup of tea or coffee.”

It was in 1917 when young Helen Purviance, an ensign in the Salvation Army working with the American First Division in

France put her Hoosier in-genuity to work. She and a fellow officer, Ensign Mar-garet Sheldon, patted the first dough into shape by hand and later used an or-dinary wine bottle as a roll-ing pin. They used a knife to cut the dough into strips and then twisted them into crullers.

The doughnut was a big hit among the thousands of soldiers, who lined up for them along the front-line trenches. The simple doughnut went on to be-

Sally Ann reproducing WWI doughnut to mark Valley anniversary

Doughnuts given out dur-ing the First World War to be given out on veterans’ day seem to be a nice fi t to help remember what our veterans went through. ”

BRENT HOBDENSalvation Army

come a symbol of all that the Salvation Army was do-ing to ease the hardships of

the frontline fighting man.With this year being the

Comox Valley Salvation Ar-my’s 50th anniversary, and also the centennial year of First World War, Hobden said reproducing the origi-nal doughnut is going to be perfect for Remembrance Day celebrations.

“Doughnuts given out during the First World War to be given out on veterans’ day seem to be a nice fit to help remember what our veterans went through and the sacrifice they made for

us,” said Hobden.The local Sally Ann

will put up a booth on the corner of Fourth Street and Cliffe Avenue near the Courtenay cenotaph on Tuesday. Once the Re-membrance Day service is over, Sally Ann staff and volunteers will be out there handing out doughnuts and coffee for free.

Grains Bakery in Cour-tenay will be producing the dough for the traditional doughnuts. Owner Michael Pitcher has been a staunch

supporter of the local Sal-vation Army and consid-ers the doughnuts a great idea.

“The first thing you do is say yes and we figure it out how to do it,” said Pitcher “It’s such a natural fit for us.” It’s also a way for their business to give back to the community and also to recognize the thousands of veterans and heroes who fought for our freedom.

Hobden said they will be frying around 30 dozen doughnuts on Nov. 11.

Courtenay: 2937 Kilpatrick Ave. • 250.871.6074www.la-z-boyvi.com

Always RememberPLEASE REMEMBERAll Quality Foods StoresWill Be Closed

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comox valley echo - november 11, 2014

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