A 32-year-old Vancouver man is in the hospital after being stabbed by a youth on Commercial Drive Tuesday night.

The victim and the 15-year-old started fighting on a B.C. Transit bus around 9 p.m., and continued fighting after they left the bus near Venables Street.

Police say the youth allegedly stabbed the man before a bystander was able to intervene and take hold of the attacker.

Other witnesses in the area called the police and provided first aid to the victim until paramedics arrived.

The victim remains in hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.

The youth remains in police custody.

Police are asking anyone with information about this assault to call the VPD’s Major Crime Section at 604-717-2541 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

The trial for three men charged with the 2011 murder of Red Scorpion gangster Jonathan Bacon has been delayed by two weeks.

Accused killers Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride were supposed to go to trial May 1.

But because Khun-Khun has suffered some medical issues, the trial has now been postponed until May 15.

Khun-Khun survived targeted shootings in 2011 and 2013, but has some permanent injuries as a result.  

Jujhar Khun-Khun

The trial will now begin with a defence application to throw out the charges because of the length of time the case has taken to get to trial, Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin said.

Khun-Khun, Jones and McBride were charged in February 2013 with first-degree murder for allegedly gunning down Bacon in Kelowna in August 2011. They were also charged with the attempted murder of Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach and two women who were all in the Porsche Cayenne with Bacon when it was sprayed by gunfire near a popular resort and casino.  

At the time of the Kelowna shooting, Bacon, Amero, Riach and some of their gang associates had formed a loose coalition they dubbed the Wolf Pack to carry on their criminal business.

Amero is now in jail in Montreal awaiting trial in a major undercover drug investigation. Riach is believed to be out of the country.

A number of cases have been thrown out in recent months because of delays getting to trial.

A Supreme Court of Canada decision last summer, known as Jordan, set time limits for the completion of trials at both the Supreme Court and Provincial Court levels. The ruling said that unless exceptional circumstances exist, a case in B.C. Supreme Court is supposed to conclude within 30 months, while a case at the lower court level should conclude within 18 months.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Jonathan Bacon was shot dead outside the Delta Grand Hotel Sunday August 14, 2011, in Kelowna, B.C.

Salt Spring Island residents will vote for the second time in 15 years on whether to incorporate as a city, a referendum that is splitting the idyllic island between those who believe it is time for the community to have more say in its governance and those who fear not only their island but all the Gulf Islands will become vulnerable to eventual development.

More than two-thirds of the residents voted down the chance to have their own mayor and council in 2002. They will vote again on Sept. 9.

The competing sides are lining up over how best to govern the island between the B.C. mainland and Vancouver Island that is home to many artists, musicians and artisans, and accessible only by ferry. Its population tops 10,000, a number that doubles in the summer, the largest community in B.C. that isn’t a municipality.

Yes Empowers Salt Spring Island — YESS! — are urging voters to allow islanders to determine how best to spend the $12 million they pay in taxes for delivery of services and to make decisions about land use.

“There are lots of emerging land use and service delivery questions and we need local decision-making as opposed to off-island decision making,” said John Mcpherson, who is retired and has lived on Salt Spring since 1999. He is voting Yes.

“We don’t have a single authority,” he said. “We have a fragmented system. It takes years and years to get anything done.”

Camping near the ocean in Ruckle Provincial Park on B.C.’s Salt Spring Island.

If Yes wins, voters in their first election will choose a mayor and council, who will replace the one elected representative to the Capital Regional District that governs some of the island’s services, and two trustees on the Islands Trust, which determines land use issues.

But No side supporter Peter Lamb, retired and a 28-year resident of the island, said separation of services and land-use questions helps protect the island as was intended when the unique governance model for the main 13 Gulf Islands was set up more than 40 years ago.

“I like the island the way it is and I don’t want to risk it being changed by a concentration of authority,” he said. “It’s a friendly community, an active arts community, with great parks to hike in, and people come to the islands to enjoy that. I don’t want to jeopardize that by becoming an urban municipality.”

In the 1960s, a developer created a 1,200-lot subdivision around Magic Lake on Northern Pender Island — the largest subdivision in Canada at the time — which prompted the province in 1974 to pass the Islands Trust Act.

“It’s what stopped the development,” said Lamb. He said that since 1974, the population of Metro Vancouver has more than doubled and B.C.’s has quadrupled, while “the Trust area has absorbed just 15,000 new residents. The reason we have the island we have now is thanks to the Islands Trust.”

“There are probably 20 reasons why I’m voting against (incorporation),” said Jean Gelwicks. “But the main reason is the Islands Trust. When I first arrived here, I said, finally, here is a vision of how communities can govern themselves and still protect the environment.”

Lamb also said he worries about taxes going up because a new municipality would be responsible for the island’s roads.

“There’s a huge cost, a staggering cost,” he said.

Mcpherson and YESS! website organizer Suzanne Little, who voted No in 2002 but now is spearheading the Yes vote, said there has been a “misrepresentation” of the facts around incorporation and that the fear of rampant development is “misplaced,” because taxpayers won’t elect pro-development candidates.

A 2013 governance study found by a margin of two-to-one that residents wanted more information about incorporation to address concerns about the current model, according to the YESS! website.

Mcpherson says the 2013 study that “compares apples to apples” found there would be a tax hike of $25 per year for homeowners and about $200 a year for the island’s 200 farms. The No side hasn’t yet provided a detailed breakdown of how taxes will go up but are working on a website, said Lamb.

And he said the $33 million for roads would work out to only $65 to $200 a year in new taxes if spread out over 15 to 30 years.

Mcpherson said some costs, for instance for policing, will go up, but as a municipality, Salt Spring would be eligible for transition funding and have access to funds for infrastructure upgrades it doesn’t have under the current system. And taxpayers will no longer pay $540,000 a year to the Islands Trust.

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B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark retaliated against the United States on Wednesday for its penalties on Canadian softwood lumber by proposing a ban on U.S. thermal coal from B.C.’s ports.

Clark, acting as premier during the middle of an election, wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to encourage the ban. B.C.’s ports fall under federal responsibility, so it would ultimately be Ottawa’s decision, though Liberal officials insisted the province could enact some type of unspecified levy on coal shipments as well.

Clark said she’d been considering the move for some time, but didn’t want to propose it during softwood lumber negotiations because it might antagonize the Americans.

“We had an obligation to be good trading partners with our trading partners in the United States,” she told reporters at a Catalyst Paper mill in Surrey.

“They are no longer good trading partners with Canada. So that means we’re free to ban filthy thermal coal from B.C. ports, and I hope the federal government will support us in doing that.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration levied the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber on Tuesday, sparking worries that it would decimate B.C.’s forest industry and forest-dependent communities.

“We’ve been working on the softwood deal for four years and working really hard on it,” said Clark.

“I didn’t want to upset the negotiating table by introducing something that would make the Americans unhappy. But now that negotiations have reached a stalemate and there’s no further talks planned at the moment, the Americans have slapped a 20 per cent duty, the (U.S.) President is calling Canada a disgrace, they want to pull out of NAFTA — we are free to do this.

“And, for most people, it’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office issued a brief statement that did not tip its hand on the issue.

“We consider carefully and seriously any request from a premier,” said press secretary Cameron Ahmad.

Related

• For full election coverage, go to vancouversun.com/bcelection.

Clark said the American thermal coal is shipped through B.C. ports on its way to customers in Asia, and that by banning it there would be a net benefit to the environment because it would not be burned for energy and lead to less air pollution. She also claimed it would free up port capacity for cleaner B.C. metallurgical coal, and potentially create jobs, though it was not immediately clear if that would occur.

Shipments from B.C.’s key ports declined last year, in part because of a drop in thermal coal exports from the U.S. through sites like the Port of Vancouver.

However, Clark’s letter to Trudeau argued that for years exports of thermal coal through B.C. have been increasing over the long term due to a shortage of U.S. port capacity. In 2016, 6.2 million tonnes of U.S. thermal coal was exported through the Port of Vancouver, she wrote. Clark argued a ban is “in line with the values of Canada and the Cascadia region,” including U.S. states like Oregon, Washington and California, which have also moved away from thermal coal.

Clark said she did not think the move would affect expansion plans at any B.C. ports.

B.C. mines do produce different types of coal, but as of 2016 there were no active sites producing thermal coal in the province.

Coal is B.C.’s largest single export commodity, but the vast majority of it – 70 to 90 per cent – is metallurgical coal used to make steel, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. 

“Because British Columbia has no coal-fired electrical plants, and produces mainly metallurgical coal for export, it is not markedly affected by changes in the domestic thermal coal market,” according to a recent industry overview by the ministry.

In 2016, the value of coal production for B.C. was forecast at $3.32 billion, up nine per cent from 2015, the report said.

Conveyors load coal at Westshore Terminals coal site on Roberts Bank.

Delta-Based Westshore Terminals is Canada’s largest coal export terminal. A company spokesperson was not available for comment Wednesday. 

The move could have federal electoral consequences, as well as consequences in the B.C. election. The B.C. Liberals and NDP are in a close fight for Delta North, and the riding of Delta South is up for grabs with the retirement of independent incumbent Vicki Huntington.

A permit for a new coal terminal near Bellingham, Washington, was rejected by the U.S. government last May out of concern it would negatively impact the Lummi Nation’s fishing rights. 

A spokeswoman for the Coal Association of Canada said the association was reserving comment until after the federal government had a chance to respond to Clark’s letter.

Clark’s announcement comes in the middle of the B.C. election campaign, set for May 9.

B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver said he supports the move but noted he tried to amend the government’s throne speech three years ago to include language about stopping the expansion of thermal coal ports and it was voted down by the NDP and Liberals.

“I’m glad to hear the premier is finally calling for a halt to the expansion of thermal coal exports,” said Weaver in a statement. “This move is long overdue.”

Weaver also said he hoped it was not political posturing during the election, and that Clark had carefully coordinated the move with Ottawa.

NDP Leader John Horgan reiterated to reporters Wednesday morning he’d visit Washington D.C. within 30 days of an election victory to try to broker a deal on softwood.

“I will consider every tool at our disposal, including raw logs, energy and U.S. thermal coal in these negotiations,” he said. “And within 30 days of being elected, I’ll go to Washington to stand up for the thousands of British Columbians who depend on these jobs.”

rshaw@postmedia.com

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With a file from Nick Eagland

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A new digital device could dramatically improve the lives of people with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease by increasing empathy in caregivers.

The device records muscle movement in one person and transmits the data wirelessly in real time to another person nearby. The result is that the non-patient ends up experiencing the same kind of involuntary muscle movement as the patient.

It’s called a SymPulse Tele-Empathy Device. Developed by Toronto’s Klick Labs, the device has already had an impact on Jim Smerdon, a Vancouver man who has been living with Parkinson’s for more than a decade.

Smerdon said he believes the Tele-Empathy Device could increase the amount of empathy in caregivers, families and friends, which will lead to greater understanding and better care.

“For caregivers, I think it will be revolutionary,” Smerdon said in an interview.

Smerdon has seen two people close to him experience his tremors: his wife Deana Grinnell and his identical twin brother Pat, who doesn’t have Parkinson’s.

The first person Smerdon saw displaying his tremors was his wife. He was surprised by her reaction.

“It was very uncomfortable for me to see that because she’s my caregiver,” Smerdon said.

For Grinnell, experiencing her husband’s tremors was “quite phenomenal.”

“My hand started to tremor and twist involuntary and in a pattern that I recognized because I know Jim’s tremor so well,” she said. “I was like: ‘That’s Jim’s tremor! In my arm!’”

While wearing the armband prototype, they put her through a series of basic movements that included writing with a pen and sticking a straw into a drink box. Grinnell said her initial reaction was in part coloured by the distracting experience of feeling an electrical current in her arm, which she compared to sticking your finger in a light socket.

In the following weeks, she found her empathy growing as she saw her husband struggle with everyday tasks such as making dinner and buttoning a shirt.

“I have a different appreciation now for what he is going through,” she said. “When you understand that, you certainly do have more empathy. I think I’m patient, but you grow another level of patience.”

Smerdon said seeing his brother Pat wear the Tele-Empathy Device and display his tremors was much different than seeing his wife with his tremors.

“For my brother, it was more fascinating: He can take care of himself,” Jim Smerdon said. “It was more unsettling for me to see (my wife) with my tremors than to see my brother with my tremors.”

(On May 28, Smerdon is organizing a fundraiser for Parkinson Society B.C. Full Throttle is a motorcycle ride and car rally from Vancouver to Whistler.)

The Tele-Empathy Device records the electrical activity of muscles in the form of an electromyogram of the patient and transmits it via Bluetooth. The data is received in a custom-engineered armband worn by the non-patient.

The SymPulse Tele-Empathy Device developed by Toronto’s Klick Labs.

Yan Fossat, vice-president of Klick Labs, said from Toronto that the device creates a feeling of empathy in another person.

“Typically, empathy is a personality trait. It’s sort of like learning a language — it is a lot of work. Some people are good at it, some people aren’t,” he said. “This device kind of injects it in you and suddenly you feel what the patient feels, without having to do much effort. It helps transmitting empathy.”

The intended audience is physicians, nurses and caregivers, but there could be other uses for the device such as teaching dance.

“I’ve taken dance classes and I’m in a category of people who will never get it,” Fossat said. “If I could wear a device on my legs and do the moves that the teacher is doing, maybe I would get it.”

Other potential uses include transmission of symptoms for diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Tele-Empathy Device is at what is called the “proof of concept” phase with a working prototype.

Klick Labs is designing a scientific study to test the device on a group of physicians to see how much it increases empathy. The device’s therapeutic benefit would be a side-effect of increasing empathy in physicians.

Fossat wouldn’t say how much it cost to develop the Tele-Empathy Device as the company is private and doesn’t release financial information.

Klick Labs describes itself as a digital innovation lab that helps science organizations advance health care by applying new concepts and technologies.

kevingriffin@postmedia.com

B.C.’s two main political parties have promised billions for transit projects, bridges and roads and have committed to cutting tolls, but they have no overall regional vision for transportation, says an expert in urban sustainability.

“It does strike me as odd, given the public interest, that their transportation strategies, at best, are unformulated,” said Gordon Price, a fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue and director of the school’s City Program.

“There really is no overall vision that fits into either the ideology of the party or the importance of transportation in the public mind.”

Transportation is one of the major talking points this election, in part because there are some big transit projects in the works under the TransLink Mayors’ Council’s 10-year plan for transit in Metro Vancouver.

The first phase of the plan, which involves a number of service upgrades, is already under way. The second phase has not yet been approved. It includes new rail lines, a new Pattullo Bridge, more rail cars and station upgrades on the existing SkyTrain system, expanded bus and HandyDART service, and improvements to the walking, cycling and road network.

In March, the federal budget contained $2.2 billion in capital funding for the plan over 11 years that will mostly go toward projects such as a light-rail line in Surrey and the Broadway subway in Vancouver.

The Liberals have promised to match that $2.2 billion, but that was months after the NDP said it would pay for 40 per cent of capital costs associated with the whole mayors’ plan. The cost of  the whole mayors’ plan has not been determined. The Liberals had previously committed to 33 per cent of capital projects, and the former minister responsible for TransLink said he had to wait for the federal money before the province could decide whether to kick in more.

The Green party pledged to match all federal funding, which includes the $2.2 billion, plus any other money the feds commit going forward.

“It’s almost begrudging,” Price said of the Liberal promise.

The Liberals have also said they will negotiate with the feds and TransLink on project specifics, which is something they have been saying for months. The Surrey light-rail and Broadway subway lines are specific priorities for the Liberals.

NDP Leader John Horgan said replacing the Pattullo Bridge is a priority for him.

He pledged to immediately fund 40 per cent of a new bridge, instead of waiting for the second phase of the mayors’ plan to be approved. The Liberals had previously committed to one-third of the bridge cost.

The NDP has also indicated that it will work with municipalities to develop “a new TransLink governance model,” which includes getting rid of the requirement to have a referendum when TransLink needs a new funding source, which may be needed to pay the regional portion of the 10-year plan’s costs.

Related

• Vaughn Palmer: Clark's Massey mega-bridge bashed by rivals' tunnel-vision
• B.C. Election 2017: Horgan says replacing Pattullo Bridge is a top priority
• B.C. election 2017: Clark, Horgan get personal in scrappy leaders debate

Neither the Liberals or the NDP have been specific about regional funding sources for transportation, but Green party leader Andrew Weaver said he would use carbon tax revenues and mobility pricing to pay for transit improvements and reduce congestion. Mobility pricing refers to charges associated with using transportation services and includes road usage charges, transit fares and parking fees.

Price said it is helpful to have one party discussing revenue generating options, particularly mobility pricing. He said the details of implementation, however, would be critical and contentious.

He said the most significant policy shift is using carbon tax revenues for funding.

On the transportation infrastructure front, the Liberals want to cap bridge tolls at $500 per year, and build a bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel between Delta and Richmond. The NDP’s plan doesn’t include a Massey Bridge (instead, Horgan has talked about widening the tunnel), but the party does call for eliminating bridge tolls.

Both tolling plans, Price said, are at odds with the parties’ commitments to transit, particularly because tolling is supposed to pay for half of the new Pattullo Bridge and removing tolls will not encourage people to abandon their cars. He said the move could put the region behind for unnecessary reasons.

“You can tell this is blatant vote buying. And having been a politician, I have no problem with that. I get you have to do that,” Price said. “It’s vote buying because you have these ridings on either side of the bridge and you make a single issue, a single appeal without context, without understanding what the implications of this are.”

Contrary to the other parties, the Greens have not promised to get rid of tolls, instead saying they will implement a “rational” tolling system to amortize the Port Mann and Golden Ears and finance the region’s share of the mayors’ plan.

The party would also suspend work on the planned bridge replacement for the George Massey Tunnel and review alternatives.

“The B.C. Greens are not running to give you sound bites and take-home one-liners. We’re running on the platform of good public policy,” said Weaver.

The Mayors’ Council, which put out its own platform aimed at curing congestion in the region, has found all of the parties’ platforms lacking in details. The council has also expressed concern about the possible elimination of tolls and how it could affect planning. The council intends to seek clarification from all of the parties on their commitments to transit.

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A Nanaimo woman who was the sole survivor of a high-speed, head-on collision has been awarded a precedent-setting $100,000 for surrogacy as part of a $4-million settlement from the Insurance Corp. of B.C.

Mikaela Wilhelmson, 27, was permanently and severely injured in the crash on Highway 10 in Surrey on the early morning of Aug. 13, 2011. Her boyfriend, Jarrett Swackhamer, 21, and his friend, Jovan Salapura, 52, were both killed when the driver of the other vehicle, Jason Dumma, slammed into them. Dumma, 37, was driving at more than 150 kilometres per hour on the wrong side of the divided highway. He also died at the scene.

Wilhelmson was airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. She was kept in a medically induced coma for four weeks and spent 39 days in the acute-care unit, undergoing 10 surgeries. The crash left her with severe internal injuries. She is able to get pregnant, but unable to safely carry a child.

During the civil trial last fall, her family physician compared Wilhelmson to “a shattered vase that was able to be glued back together after being dropped. Even if all the pieces were fitted together with the finest techniques available and the vase could still fulfil many of the functions it did before being shattered, it would never be the same.”

On April 13, after a six-year battle for compensation, Justice Neena Sharma awarded Wilhelmson $882,066 for the cost of her future care, including $100,000 for surrogacy fees for two pregnancies.

Sharma also awarded Wilhelmson the maximum of $367,000 for pain and suffering and $2.4 million for loss of capacity to earn income.

“I’m happy that I will have the opportunity to have a child and I just hope this does help other women in my position. It doesn’t bring Jarrett or Jovan back, but at least something positive has come from something so tragic,” Wilhelmson said Tuesday.

Wilhelmson’s lawyer, Conrad Margolis, said the award is unique and the first of its kind in Canada.

“It’s entirely appropriate in the circumstances,” Margolis said.

“If anyone reads the judgment carefully, it will become apparent how bad the internal damage is for Mikaela and there was very clear expert evidence that for Mikaela to have biological children, the only realistic option for her is to hire a surrogate.”

In Canada, it’s illegal for women to be paid to carry another woman’s eggs and act as a surrogate. However, many Canadian women receive the service in the U.S.

During the trial, Margolis asked for a specific award to cover surrogacy fees, which ICBC lawyers contested.

“The judge agreed with our position that because it is legal for a Canadian citizen to go to the U.S. and hire a surrogate, compensating for that is not illegal,” Margolis said. “It’s the right option for Ms. Wilhelmson.”

Forty witnesses testified at the seven-week civil trial, including 20 experts and 20 family members and friends.

Sharma’s 84-page judgment describes the courage, grit and determination of Wilhelmson, who has pushed herself to get better. After the collision, she had to relearn how to eat, breathe and walk.

“I find her to be, quite simply, an extraordinary young woman — her resilience is remarkable,” Sharma said.

The collision robbed Wilhelmson of the “joys, excitement and formative experiences that people in their 20s enjoy as they discover the adults they will become and the life they will pursue. Ms. Wilhelmson’s life will be nothing like what she or anyone else envisioned it would be before the accident,” said the judge.

The collision killed the love of the young woman’s life just as they were beginning to plan a life together, said Sharma.

In 2015, Wilhelmson started a new relationship and she became pregnant in early 2016. But doctors advised her to terminate the pregnancy because her injuries made carrying a child too dangerous.

“It is difficult to imagine a more agonizing situation facing a young woman who wants to have a family,” Sharma wrote.

ldickson@timescolonist.com

Read more Island stories on the Victoria Times Colonist

Geniuses, innovators, sports heroes, and entertainers descend on Vancouver this week for the ultra-exclusive TED2017 conference.

TED, an acronym for Technology Entertainment and Design, is built on a philosophy of emboldening ideas has attracted 90 speakers and performers, including tech titan Elon Musk, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and tennis legend Serena Williams, to the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Serena revealed pregnancy to world by accident 

In her Tuesday night interview on the Ted2017 stage, Williams, who recently revealed she was two weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January, told journalist Gayle King that she revealing her pregnancy via Snapchat was an accident.

The photo of the tennis superstar in a one piece bathing suit was captioned “20 weeks.”

“I was on vacation, taking time for myself, and I have this thing where I’ve been checking my status and taking a picture every week,” she said. “I’ve been just saving it, but you know how social media is — you press the wrong button and…”

“My phone doesn’t ring that much, and thirty minutes later, I’d missed four calls. So I picked it up and realized, ‘Oh no.’”

Gayle King interviews Serena Williams at TED2017 in Vancouver.

Williams, 35, said she intends to return to tennis after she becomes a mother.

“I definitely plan on coming back — I’m not done yet,” says Williams. “My story isn’t over.”

“I’m really inspired by my sister, who’s a year older than me. If she’s still playing, then I know I can play,” says Williams. “This is just a new part of my life. My baby is going to be in the stands, hopefully cheering for me and not crying too much.”

In a video, His Holiness Pope Francis delivers a hopeful speach at TED2017 – The Future You in Vancouver.

POPE PIPES IN 

Almost as big as Serena’s pregnancy news, was Pope Francis’s appearance at the conference last night. (Kidding)

His Holiness recorded a video message that was played on the big screen at Ted2017.

According to the Ted Blog, Pope Francis delivered a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don’t, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail.

“Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the ‘other’ is not a statistic, or a number,” he says. “We all need each other.”

Postmedia reporter Gord McIntyre wrote that it took more than a year for TED organizers to iron out the details of the Pope’s 18-minute video appearance.

The video was recorded by a Vatican Television Centre camera crew at the Domus Sanctae Marthae (the guest house in which Francis lives in Vatican City), and marked the first time he has addressed an international conference.

… “How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.”

Famous names gather for Vancouver’s TED Talks

Attendees paid thousands of dollars, but all the talks are being streamed in participating theatres.

Not all the celebrities are on stage giving talks. Many A-listers come to the annual TED event in Vancouver just to listen and mingle. Last year’s event attracted a diverse set of celebs that included Harrison Ford, MC Hammer and Jaden Smith.

Ford and Hammer actually were spotted carousing the town together.

 Monica Lewinsky, who last year gave a powerful talk on shaming and online bullying, has returned to Vancouver to be a part of TED.  She posed for a photo with U.S. civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. (An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Lewinsky was here as part of the TED Fellows program.)

KING KHAN HITS VANCOUVER

The biggest star on the TED2017 lineup this year might be Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, who is known as the King of Bollywood and the most famous man in India.

Khan is part of a TED2017 session called Tales of Tomorrow. Khan also runs the nonprofit Meer Foundation that focuses on supporting victims of acid attacks with medical treatment, legal aid, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

Paparazzi staked out Mumbai airport to capture Khan’s departure to Vancouver.

COMPUTERS ARE OK

In his talk on Monday, the 54-year-old Kasparov, regarded by many as the greatest chess player in history, spoke about humanity’s anxiety with our growing reliance on electronics.

On the TED Blog, reporter Daryl Chen wrote that Kasparov, who famously faced off against IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997, told the crowd if machines replace us at tasks they can do better and faster, it gives us the opportunity to focus on what makes us human.

“Machines have calculations; humans have understanding. Machines have instructions; we have purpose. Machines have objectivity; we have passion …We will need intelligent machines to help us turn our grandest dreams into reality,” he said.

, “If we fail, it will not be because our machines were too intelligent or not intelligent enough. If we fail, it’s because we grew complacent and limited our ambition. There’s one thing only humans can do, and that’s dream — so let us dream big

n 1997, Garry Kasparov was the greatest chess player in the world — but he lost a match to an IBM supercomputer. Now, he muses on our fears of growing computer intelligence. Kasparov speaks at TED2017 Vancouver.

OK GO’S IMAGINATION SEMINAR

Rock band OK Go, whose elaborate music videos have garnered them more attention than their music (which is also pretty good), talked about imagination and how they come up with the ideas for their videos which include a zero-gravity production number, a synchronized treadmill dancing, and a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg Machine.

Lead singer Damian Kulash told the TED Talks crowd that the band is often asked how it comes up with its ideas.

“It doesn’t feel like we thought of an idea; we found them,” he said.

Damian Kulash of OK Go sings at TED2017“ in Vancouver.

SPOTTED AT TED

Somehow Richard Branson pulled enough cash together to afford a ticket. The approachable Virgin billionaire posed for photos inside TED.

Adam Savage, one half of TV’s Mythbusters, always seems to have fun at TED. Yesterday, he played around with Spotmini, a robotic dog from Boston Dynamics.

MORE TO COME

The Vancouver Aquarium is hoping to rally support with an argument that a proposed park-board ban on captive cetaceans puts marine mammals in peril.

The park board voted unanimously March 9 to prepare a bylaw that would ban the import and display of live cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — in city parks, including Stanley Park, where the aquarium logged a record 1.2 million visitors last year. The ban could be in effect as early as May 15, when the board will meet to review the draft bylaw.

At a news conference Thursday, Randy Pratt, incoming chairman of the board at the aquarium, said the ban will specifically hurt its Marine Mammal Rescue Program, which saves roughly 100 distressed animals each year.

Pratt said the aquarium’s attempts to share expert research with the park board have “fallen on deaf ears” and said leaving the program’s fate up to its commissioners will have “dire consequences” for rescue animals.

“The proposed ban jeopardizes Canada’s only Marine Mammal Rescue Program and eliminates our ability to save the most-vulnerable of animals — those that cannot care for themselves,” he said.

Postmedia News has requested comment from the park board. A spokeswoman said the board will be holding a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Randy Pratt, incoming Chair Of the Vancouver Aquarium’s Board of Directors, speaks to the media at the aquarium Thursday, April 27, 2017.

Aquarium CEO Dr. John Nightingale called the proposed ban “deeply troubling.” Nightingale said Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) would have to consider alternatives such as euthanasia for sick and injured marine mammals if the rescue program became unavailable. The DFO’s Dr. John Ford confirmed this claim last month with Global News and CBC.

“The park board’s actions to date have been short-sighted, rushed and will ultimately undermine the very thing we seek to protect: The welfare of whales, dolphins and porpoises,” Nightingale said.

Dr. Martin Haulena said that of the roughly 100 mammals the program rescues each year, only one or two are cetaceans, such as a false killer whale and harbour porpoise currently in its care.

The aquarium is now calling on the public — including its paying members, who were sent emails Thursday — to send the park board letters on the aquarium’s behalf expressing support for the marine-mammal rescue program.

Nightingale reiterated that the ban also puts the aquarium’s expansion plans in jeopardy. The aquarium is currently in the midst of a $100-million project that includes new buildings and larger whale tanks, approved by an earlier park board in 2006.

Trainers work with dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium Thursday, April 27, 2017.

In February, the aquarium announced it had updated the plan to include building a bigger beluga tank and bringing back five belugas — currently on loan to U.S. breeding programs — in 2019. Captive whales would be phased out by 2029, according to that plan. Nightingale said he wasn’t certain what their fate would be if the ban passes.

The aquarium has been prohibited by the park board from catching cetaceans for display since 1996.

Last November, the aquarium’s only whales, Aurora, 30, and her calf, Qila, 21, died nine days apart. Aquarium officials recently said a five-month investigation revealed both belugas had been killed by a mysterious toxic substance, passed to them by food, water or human interference. The belugas’ deaths led to a public outcry from conservationists and activists, who have since voiced support for the park board’s proposed ban.

Peter Hamilton, founder of Lifeforce, which has been fighting against the captivity of cetaceans for decades, described the aquarium’s latest announcement as public-relations “spin.”

“The aquarium PR always makes it seem like they’re the only ones doing (rescues),” he said. “That is misinformation.”

Hamilton said established protocols for cetacean-rescue operations, many of them carried out by non-profit groups and government organizations, are based on keeping the animals in the wild. He cited the case of Springer, an emaciated orca rescued by the Vancouver Aquarium in co-operation with Canada and U.S. governments in 2002 after she became separated from her pod in Washington state.

Related

• Vancouver Aquarium belugas died from mystery toxin, investigation finds
• Park board fast-tracks Vancouver Aquarium whale ban

Springer was rehabilitated in two sea pens before being released in B.C.’s Dong Chong Bay, near Johnson Strait, where she reintegrated with members of her pod.

“If they want to do cetaceans, they can use a sea pen,” Hamilton said. “There are ways to save them that aren’t in a noisy, public tourist attraction.”

Annelise Sorg of aquarium watchdog No Whales in Captivity said her group also supports the use of sea pens for cetacean rescues.

She believes the aquarium was being deceitful in its argument that the ban will impact its ability to rescue marine mammals. Sorg said that with the majority of the aquarium’s 100 animal rescues each year being seals at its Marine Mammal Rescue Centre — which is at the north foot of Main Street and not on park-board land — the board’s proposed bylaw would have little impact on its infrequent rescues of cetaceans.

“This is just another way that the Vancouver Aquarium is trying to continue making money off cetaceans being kept in show tanks,” she said. “They know that this is the end and they should really just back-off spinning this story and trying to make the public believe that the seal-rescue centre will actually suffer because they can’t rescue cetaceans.”

The B.C. SPCA also supports ending the captivity of marine mammals, last year posting an e-petition on the issue sponsored by Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May.

“The B.C. SPCA recognizes the complex needs of cetaceans, and their highly sentient and social nature,” SPCA science officer Dr. Sara Dubois said in a media release. “It is time to phase-out these displays.”

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-With files from Randy Shore and Glen Schaefer

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A 97-year-old North Thompson woman took the witness stand in a Kamloops courtroom on Wednesday, describing a “disgusting” incident last year in which an acquaintance is accused of violently groping her.

Brian Byung Koo Lee is standing trial in Kamloops provincial court on one count of sexual assault. The incident is alleged to have happened in August 2016.

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, told court she met Lee a few days before the alleged incident took place.

“There was this couple that were new in town and we thought they should be made to feel comfortable, so we invited them over for supper,” she said, noting Lee showed up for the meal with his wife. “There were two or three of our friends who came also.”

The complainant lives in Barriere with her son and his wife and child. A few days after the dinner, the woman said, she answered her door to find Lee standing outside. She said she welcomed him into her home, assuming he was there to talk to her son about a vehicle that needed repair work.

Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo then asked the complainant to tell Kamloops provincial court Judge Chris Cleaveley what happened next.

“It’s shameful, sir,” she said to the judge, before describing how she was fondled on various parts of her body and how she was forced to touch the accused.

“At this point, I said to him, ‘You know my son is downstairs and he could be coming up any moment. Obviously, it didn’t bother him too much.”

The complainant also said Lee aggressively kissed her.

“This whole situation was disgusting,” she said. “I didn’t quite know what to do. I sort of froze. I was afraid that my son would have come up and there would have been terrible trouble.”

Court heard the complainant didn’t tell anyone about the incident until the next day, eventually confiding in her daughter-in-law after she returned home from a trip to Ontario.

Court also heard the complainant, a mother of seven, suffered bruising to her breasts and redness around her mouth as a result of the incident.

Defence lawyer Matt Ford said the complainant had actually had a conversation with Lee about how she missed living on her own.

“I’m suggesting to you that you were asking for assistance,” Ford said.

“Good heavens,” the complainant replied.

“Assistance for what? Where the deuce he got that from I don’t know — certainly not from me.”

“I’m going to suggest to you that you had this conversation and then, shortly after that, he left your residence,” Ford said.

“I wish he had,” the complainant replied. “This whole situation is revolting.”

Throughout her testimony, the complainant was supported in court by about eight relatives.

A family member also helped the elderly woman to and from the witness box.

The trial is expected to conclude on Friday.

Vancouver will host an exhibition of Chinese bronze-ware — rarely seen outside China — dating back 600 years, officials announced this week.

The collection consists of 50 pieces of Ming and Qing Dynasty censers (containers in which incense is burned) that haven’t previously left China before the Vancouver dates.

The exhibit will be hosted at the Poly Art Gallery at 905 W. Pender St. from May 1 through Aug. 8.

Officials said bronze censers were chosen due to the fact that the artifacts have now become one of the most sought-after items among art collectors.

The gallery will also host events, such as lectures by scholars and curators, during the exhibit’s duration. This is Poly’s third major exhibit locally after the gallery opened last year.

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Sue Hurn thinks about her daughter Amy every day. “That will never change,” she said.

But what helps console Hurn, her husband Jerry and her daughter Briony is that when her eldest daughter died four days after being hit by a car on her bicycle in 2012, Amy’s organs saved the lives of five other people and her corneas helped improve the eyesight of others.

“It provides solace, what solace there is,” Sue Hurn said.

She and Jerry were in Nepal when they got the news. They’d left their car with Amy, hoping she’d drive it at least once in a while, but Amy was an avid and adamant cyclist.

By late March, it’s no longer dark at 7:30 a.m., but it had rained the morning of the 27th in 2012. Taking her usual route to her job as a popular teacher and head of the science department at Vancouver Technical Secondary, Amy was crossing 12th Avenue at Windsor, a cyclist- and pedestrian-controlled intersection, when an eastbound car struck her.

“There were witnesses, it was deemed an accident,” Hurn said. “There was misjudgment on one part. Whose part, we’ll never know.”

Amy was kept alive for four days before being taken off life-support. Of the five people whose lives her organs saved, one received her lungs, two people received a kidney, one person her liver and one her pancreatic stem.

Hurn heard from one of them, the  recipient of the lungs, a year after the accident. The letter of gratitude affected her so deeply that she had to put it away, then bring it out and put it away, time after time.

“It took a year to respond to him,” Hurn said. “I found it so moving, I reread and reread it.”

If you aren’t sure whether you’re a donor (or even if you are sure), it’s simple to go to the B.C. Transplant website to register or verify whether you already are. All you need is your B.C. personal health number. 

It’s National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week and the numbers are sobering. There are more than 600 people currently on organ waiting lists in B.C., according to B.C. Transplant. Nationwide, the number exceeds 4,600. 

“Sadly, each year more than 250 Canadians who need a transplant die before receiving one,” Kimberly Young, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) director of donation and transplantation, said.

You are five to six times more likely to need an organ transplant than to become a deceased organ donor, according to CBS studies. And while 90 per cent of Canadians support organ donation, only about 50 per cent have taken the two minutes to register.

“So many people say they’re on-board,” Sue Hurn said. “But the actual number of signed-up people is a small fraction of that.”

Hurn appears before doctors’ boards at hospitals and works B.C. Transplant booths at public events, getting the word out, encouraging people to sign up as a donor if they haven’t already.

“It’s never something you want to say to parents, are your kids registered? But that is just as equally needed. You never know. No one wants to think it can happen, it just happens to other people, but we all are those other people. Accidents happen: that’s what an accident is — something that happens.”

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VANCOUVER — The mother of a missing Ecuadorian man studying in Vancouver has issued an emotional plea for information that could help find her son.

Lupe Carrera travelled to Vancouver from Ecuador and spoke at a news conference at the University of British Columbia.

Louis Gonick was last seen on the evening of April 16, getting out of a cab in Stanley Park, near the Lions Gate Bridge.

The 21-year-old was studying on a scholarship at UBC, and friends reported him missing the next day.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Annie Linteau says there is no evidence of foul play, but that his phone, bank and social media accounts have been inactive since he disappeared.

Speaking in Spanish, Carrera said her son is the greatest gift and his family and friends are waiting for his return.

Linteau said the search for Gonick is continuing and anyone who may have seen him before 7:30 p.m. on April 16 is urged to call police.

“There has been an extensive search of the area in and around Stanley Park, as well as some of the water area around the Lions Gate Bridge. Certainly we are looking for any information that would give the family some much needed answers.”

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Louis Gonick was last seen on the evening of April 16, getting out of a cab in Stanley Park, near the Lions Gate Bridge.

An ex-United Nations gangster paid $300,000 to testify against his former brothers said Thursday that if he could go back in time, he would never have cooperated with police.

The man, who can only be identified as D due to a sweeping publication ban, rejected a suggestion from a lawyer for accused killer Cory Vallee that he was only testifying for the cash.

“Sir if I suggested to you that money is all you really care about and it’s the primary reason you are here today, would you agree or disagree?” Eric Gottardi asked in B.C. Supreme Court.

“I disagree. Money is not the primary reason I am here today,” D said.

“And I will say sir that I would happily, if possible, pay back multiple times the money I was paid if I could go back in time and change my mind and not do this. Because I wholeheartedly 100 per cent regret it and would not recommend it to anybody.”

D has spent nine days so far testifying before Justice Janice Dillon at the trial of Vallee, who is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and 2009. Vallee is also charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in February 2009.

Kevin LeClair was shot outside the IGA in Langley’s Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

D told Gottardi that testifying has been “a very, very difficult, very stressful process” that has brought him “a considerable amount of pain.”

“It’s not fun,” he said as Vallee listened attentively from the prisoner’s box.

Gottardi read several emails and briefing notes from 2010 and 2011 highlighting D’s negotiations with police for compensation.

“As part of the negotiations, you wanted the police to cover drug debts that were owed to you,” Gottardi said.

D’s police handler was warning him in some of the emails not to ask for too much money or he might end up with nothing.

Related

• Witness in murder trial accused of trying to double cross UN gang affiliate
• Former UN gangster admits in court to lying to police 'many times'

D agreed that he was asking for more than police were offering at the time.

“I recall having a conversation with him at this point. I had huge concerns about what they were asking me to do,” he said.

The RCMP eventually provided D with Vancouver lawyer Len Doust, who helped to negotiate the $300,000 deal, D testified.

He also said that his agreement was only to testify at the trial of the original UN gang members and associates charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons. All have since pleaded guilty.

Cory Vallee

Testifying years later against Vallee was not part of the original agreement with police and he did ask for additional compensation, D said.

“I saw this was over and above the original agreement for the UN 8, that it was having a detrimental effect on my current life. At any point, they could ask me to come over here and be a witness. And as you can see from my immunity deal, I can’t refuse to do that,” D said.

Gottardi also suggested that D turned against the UN because he felt passed over for a leadership position after gang founder Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. in May 2008.

“I am going to suggest that another thing that motivated you to come forward in 2009 is that you were upset at your fellow gang members for shutting you out of a leadership position,” Gottardi said.

D said he “absolutely” disagreed.

“I have never wanted to play any kind of leadership role because leadership or leaders are the ones who are often targeted by police investigations and rival gangs among others. I have no interest in that. My interest is to do business.”

D is expected to complete his cross-examination Monday.

The trial continues.

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In just four years, the B.C. Greens have emerged from relative obscurity and nagging criticism as a one-issue party to become a legitimate political force with a comprehensive election platform.

They have the party’s smart, likable and hard-working leader (Andrew Weaver, MLA for Victoria-Gordon Head) to thank for that, as evidenced by his credible performance in Wednesday’s televised leaders’ debate. He scored second in an instant poll, behind the NDP’s John Horgan and just ahead of Liberal Christy Clark.

The Greens are brashly putting themselves forward as a party to govern, adopting the slogan “Change you can count on” — a virtual knockoff of Barack Obama’s “Change we can believe in”, which was used successfully during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Political observers suggest the Green party should set its sights on a modest increase in legislative seats.

Norman Ruff, associate professor emeritus of political science at the University of Victoria, says that the Greens have grown from a “grassroots ecological movement toward a more fully fledged political party with all its trappings of a leadership-driven organization with a broad provincial policy agenda.

“This is very much Andrew Weaver’s Green party.”

But Ruff sees little indication that B.C. is ready for a “critical re-alignment of voters toward a third alternative” despite all the “potential vulnerabilities of the governing B.C. Liberals and the public’s alarm about affordability in their everyday lives.” A widespread sense that voting won’t change things that much could make efforts to get out the vote all the more important this time around, he noted.

Ruff also predicts that if the Greens “locate and focus their energies on communities where they are demonstrably seen as local contenders,” such as southern Vancouver Island, they might add a seat or two, or even achieve official party status with four MLAs.

A Mainstreet/Postmedia poll released April 25 found that despite general voter migration to the NDP, the Greens are “just barely hanging on to a lead on Vancouver Island where they are now essentially tied.”

British Columbia Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, front left, walks to a news conference after unveiling his new election campaign bus in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday April 6, 2017. A provincial election will be held on May 9.

Weaver argues the Greens are capable of drawing from both established parties, as well as “from our key demographic: the non-voter.” He won the only Green seat in the 2013 provincial election, when the party took 8.15 per cent of the popular vote, compared with 44.13 per cent for Liberals and 39.72 per cent for the NDP.

Weaver observes that his own riding had been held by a Liberal for 17 years, a reference to his victory over former Saanich councillor and Liberal MLA Ida Chong.

“I don’t believe parties own votes. People own votes,” he said in an interview. “The lion’s share of people are just looking for someone to vote for instead of against, and that’s the opportunity we offer them.”

This election campaign, the Greens are fielding candidates in 83 of 87 electoral ridings.

Some have made the news for all the wrong reasons.

Don Barthel, the candidate in Port Moody-Coquitlam, did a lot of backpedalling after telling a friend on Facebook that he was “just a ‘paper candidate'” and “not expected to actively campaign.” The software consultant lives in Vancouver.

The Green candidate in Richmond South Centre is Greg Powell, a United Church minister from Castlegar. Weaver said in his defence that Powell “wanted to be part of our team,” but the only slots available were Richmond or Peace River North. “He’s a very credible person. He’s not a paper candidate.”

Weaver argued that Liberal leader Christy Clark lives in Vancouver but represents Kelowna, and the NDP candidate in his own riding (Bryce Casavant, a former conservation officer suspended for saving two cubs on the north island) is from Port McNeill.

B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver is joined by several candidates and special guest David Suzuki as they share a moment during a rally at the Victoria Conference Centre in Victoria, B.C., on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.

Clark was defeated by the NDP’s David Eby in the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey in the 2013 provincial election that her party won. Later that year, she ran successfully in a byelection in Westside-Kelowna.

Casavant, who is currently renting a condo in Victoria, argues that he turned down a request to run for the Greens because he figured the NDP was the only realistic option for defeating the Liberals.

Weaver also noted that Green candidate Jacquie Miller is running in Delta North, where “she spent her whole life,” although she currently lives in Vancouver. Chris Maxwell is a cancer researcher at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, but is running in the NDP riding of Victoria-Swan Lake. He was born, raised, and educated in Victoria.

Weaver argues the Greens have fielded a broad-based and capable team of candidates.

“We have six PhD scientists, three CEOs of tech companies, I don’t know how many teachers … I’ve lost count. It’s quite a diverse range.” The party’s youth movement is reflected in 18-year-old beekeeper Samson Boyer, running in Columbia-Revelstoke.

Based on the 2013 provincial election results, one of the Greens’ best hopes for another seat this time is Saanich North and the Islands. (Green MP Elizabeth May was first elected in Saanich-Gulf Islands in 2011.)

The NDP’s Gary Holman scored 33.27 per cent of the vote, compared with 32.76 per cent for Liberal Stephen Roberts and 32.07 per cent for the Green’s Adam Olsen. All are running again this time around.

In 2013, the Greens also did well in Victoria-Beacon Hill — a riding that includes the B.C. legislature — when then-party leader Jane Sterk placed second with 33.82 per cent, behind NDP veteran and former leader Carole James at 48.82 per cent. (The NDP easily defeated the Greens in Victoria in the 2015 federal election.)

This time around, the Green candidate is the lower-profile Kalen Harris, a University of Victoria political science graduate and owner of the Shatterbox Coffee Bar on Pandora Ave.

Further up the island, the Greens’ Sonia Furstenau, a director of the Cowichan Valley Region District, could make it a close race in the Cowichan Valley riding, where NDP incumbent Bill Routley is not seeking re-election.

In the Interior, the Greens are putting up a brave fight in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, where the party scored barely five per cent of the vote in 2013. Excessive logging is a key political issue.

Related

• For full election coverage, go to vancouversun.com/bcelection.

Rita Giesbrecht says she has walked the sprawling clearcuts, and witnessed the tragic decline in moose populations. She has heard from the residents, be they ranchers, trappers, or ecotourism operators, and they are all saying enough is enough.

“We’re done,” asserts Giesbrecht, a 105 Mile resident. “It has galvanized the community.”

She argues that B.C. has suffered from excessive logging in the name of the pine beetle, increased exports of raw logs, the closing of mills, and greater timber industry oversight of its own affairs — all at the expense of local communities.

“What I’ve seen happen in my lifetime out there is nothing short of criminal,” she says of Liberal policies. “They come in and do what they want. They throw us a few token jobs and then they leave with the mess to clean up.”

As for the NDP: “They’ve been missing in action on this topic for the last 20 years. There has been a thundering silence from that side of the legislature on this topic.”

Giesbrecht has a long history of community participation based on 27 years residency in the region, including in areas of tourism, sustainable agriculture and food security, anti-poverty, family social services, tourism, and the arts.

The answer is not to demonize loggers or logging. Far from it, she said. What is needed is a wholesale rethink of the way logging takes place, with a closer look at impacts on the ecosystem and greater benefits for local communities.

The Greens are on record supporting everything from increased small-scale forest tenures, including for First Nations, an investigation into stumpage rates to ensure fair market value, and encouraging value-added second-growing processing operations, and support for sustainably certified wood products.

“Currently, (Liberal) policy has to do with the health of the corporations,” Giesbrecht concludes. “The health of the forest and the social contract with the community to have the wealth stay in the community seems to not be part of the discussion at all.”

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Police in New Westminster are warning the public about a repeat offender who is living in a local transition house.

The New Westminster Police Department issued the warning Thursday about Jared Edward Harris, who they say is a high risk to re-offend.

Harris, who has an extensive criminal record, is staying at a New West halfway house on a peace bond for “causing fear of a sexual offence to a person under 14 years old,” according to NWPD spokesman Sgt. Jeff Scott.

He also has convictions for break-and-enter, assault with a weapon, forcible entry, indecent act, invitation to sexual touching and multiple breaches of court orders.

In March 2013, Harris was convicted of invitation to sexual touching against two young kids after walking into an open garage in Delta. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail.

“We’re concerned that Mr. Harris is a high risk to re-offend,” said Scott. “Because of the severity of his offences and history of breaching his conditions, we want the public to be well aware of our concern and to be reassured that we are doing everything we can to ensure public safety.”

NWPD officers are working with Harris’s parole officer to closely monitor him, and ensure he abides by a lengthy list of conditions that includes not carrying weapons, consuming drugs or alcohol, staying out of the company of anyone under 16 years of age and staying away from public parks or community centres where children are likely to be.

Anyone who sees Harris in violation of his parole conditions is asked to call NWPD at 604-525-5411 or 911.

Related

• Repeat offender on the lam from his Vancouver halfway house

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Some came with a specific purpose and laser focus, while others were content to aimlessly stroll the aisles.

A steady stream of people visited Able Auctions in Surrey on Thursday for a preview of the hundreds of items that will be up for grabs at this year’s Vancouver police recovered goods auction.

“I was just more or less curious,” said Yvonne Gertken, who came from North Delta. “There’s lots of stuff that’s really nice if you have the money.”

The biggest draw at the police auction, which has been taking place for about 30 years, is usually the bicycles. This year, there are around 250 mountain, road and cruiser bikes. Many are worth thousands of dollars and will be sold for a quarter of what they are worth.

“These are the ones that are the higher-end ones, the really premium models,” said Vancouver Police Department property and evidence control section supervisor Justin Hull.

Musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, small appliances and electronics are also common at the police auction. Jewelry is a big-ticket item, including a $7,500 watch and a collection of high-quality gold bracelets.

What’s notable this year, Hull said, is the spike in everyday items that are being auctioned. For instance, clear plastic bags full of brand-new clothing, perfume, toothbrushes and toothpaste, razor blades, batteries and office supplies. Hull attributed the increase to a crackdown on street vending in the Downtown Eastside.

“It’s really hard to find a pack of batteries and figure out where it came from, so it ends up here,” Hull said.

Theresa Herfst visited the auction to scope out bikes for her husband, but ended up browsing the tables of tools, appliances, toys and “totally random” grab bags.

“The toothbrushes and toothpaste up there would be helpful, actually,” she said, laughing. “We have four children and someone would find a toothbrush they like.”

Phil Genereux saw ads for the auction on television and brought Rose DuBois with him to look at tools and browse.

“It’s crazy,” DuBois said of the everyday items. “I was telling my friend it would be the perfect place for the hoarding personality.”

Hull said there are dedicated officers and staff who try to reunite people with their property, but the volume is so high they aren’t always successful.

“This is a bittersweet type of event because it represents a lot of items that we were unable to get back to their owners,” said Hull.

However, if someone goes to the preview and sees something that was stolen from them, they can point it out to an officer on site and it will be removed from the auction. If they can prove it’s theirs, they will get it back.

In past years, the auction has brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars, which goes into the city’s general revenue.

Long-time auctioneer Rob Kavanagh said the Vancouver police auction is one of the best that Able Auctions does, and he expects it will draw 500 to 700 people on Saturday.

“There’s everything here, really,” said Kavanagh. “You name it, it’s probably here.”

• The auction takes place on Saturday at Able Auctions (13557 77th Ave., Surrey) and starts with bikes at 9 a.m. sharp. Other auction items will follow. Registration is $10. A second free preview will be held from 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Friday.

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Liberal leader Christy Clark’s allegation this week that the NDP’s John Horgan never raised concerns in the legislature about the softwood lumber industry may have won her some much-needed support in the Interior and the North, Postmedia’s pollster says.

An analysis of polls conducted before and after Wednesday night’s televised leaders debate shows Clark’s support and favourability ratings are up slightly outside Metro Vancouver, in areas where the forestry and lumber industries — under attack by the U.S. government — employ many people.

“Horgan’s numbers are lower in the north. Clark was very good at getting to Horgan on that issue,” said David Valentin, vice-president of Mainstream Research, which conducted an instant poll for Postmedia late Wednesday after the debate.

Clark suggested during the 90-minute debate that Horgan didn’t care enough about the softwood industry or its workers to raise the issue in the legislature. (Canada’s trade deal with the U.S. expired in 2015, and this week the Trump administration announced steep tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the United States.)

For the record, the NDP on Thursday pointed out that Horgan had discussed softwood in the legislature in October 2015, and noted five other times when opposition critics raised the issue.

Still, despite this skirmish and Clark’s slight bump in sawmill country, more than halfway through the campaign, the race remains too close to call.

April 26 post-debate poll from Mainstreet Research.

Indeed, the post-debate poll showed the 1,074 respondents surveyed thought Horgan won the debate by a slim margin, but predicted Clark would win on election day by a larger margin.

“One of the general rules of the debate polls is that the general population starts trending to the debate audience when it comes to voter intentions. I suspect the Green party should gain a few more points,” Valentin said.

“The interesting question is: Are the Liberals going to make any more gains? This is a very volatile situation.”

Polling firm Insights West’s Mario Canseco agreed that the election outcome is impossible to forecast at this point. Based on the last three provincial elections, the NDP and Liberals have fairly set support bases, making the campaign “ultimately a fight for a very small piece of real estate.”

It boils down to about a dozen ridings in play, many of them in the Lower Mainland in cities such as Surrey and Delta, he said.  

While there were no knock-out punches during Wednesday’s debate, the poll afterwards revealed there was some movement since the weekend that showed the NDP 10 percentage points ahead of the Liberals.

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• For full election coverage, go to vancouversun.com/bcelection.

In the areas of B.C. outside Metro and Vancouver Island, 44 per cent of the debate watchers surveyed said they would vote Liberal, compared to just 30 per cent in the earlier poll from the weekend. Conversely, Horgan’s post-debate support in the Interior and the North dropped to 24 per cent, compared to 30 per cent earlier in the week.

After the debate, Clark’s favourability level in the North and Interior rose to 41 per cent, compared to 32 per cent earlier in the week. Horgan’s numbers remained unchanged. (The error margins for both polls were under three per cent.)

However, only the Greens’ Andrew Weaver had positive favourability ratings (meaning more people like him than not), which makes him the dark horse in the race who appears to be stealing support from both the other parties

“The Green party is doing more damage to the Liberals in Metro Vancouver than anywhere else,” Valentin said.

The main challenge for the Greens, Canseco said, will be to sustain that momentum and keep their supporters from gravitating at the last minute to the other parties.

The Greens hold about 20-per-cent support, which under a different voting system, such as proportional representation, would result in far more seats than the party’s current one. Under B.C.’s first-past-the-post system, the Greens increasing their seat total will depend on that support being concentrated in a handful of ridings where they can outpace the other parties, Canseco said.

What influences how people vote today may be different than during the last election in 2013, when the economy (a strength area for the Liberals) was top of mind. This time around, the economy is playing third fiddle to housing and health care. Millennial voters don’t like how the Liberals have handled the over-priced housing crisis, and voters over 55 are generally not happy with medical wait lists, he said.

“Part of the situation for the NDP is can you connect on the economic file,” Canseco added. “The opposition leader needs to be seen as a good economic manager” to win the election.

lculbert@postmedia.com

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Workers and their advocates gathered at ceremonies across B.C. on Friday to remember those who have died on the job or from occupational disease. 

Work-related deaths in the province are down 35 per cent since 1996, but still hit a whopping 144 in 2016, according to organizers of the day of mourning.

Here’s a look at the day and the issue through some of the numbers that matter:

4/28

The annual day of mourning for those who died from work-related accidents or exposure.

85

Of the 144 work-related deaths last year, 85 were from occupational disease — mainly from exposure to asbestos. 

59

The number of workers who died in 2016 from traumatic injury — many of them from motor-vehicle incidents.

30

Most work-related deaths were in the construction industry. Thirty people died in this sector last year.

25

The manufacturing and transportation industries were tied as the second-most deadly sectors. Each saw 25 deaths in 2016.

19

Public-administration jobs took 19 lives last year. 

14

Workers who died in the primary resource sector.

32

At least 32 ceremonies were held across the province, from Fort St. John to Victoria and Terrace to Sparwood, and communities in-between Friday.

3

Leaders from B.C.’s three major political parties all weighed in with their thoughts in time for the ceremony.

Green party Leader Andrew Weaver said no resident “should be forced to work in unsafe, hazardous conditions,” and he applauded advocates and labour unions for helping to make sure workers were safe.

Christy Clark, leader of the B.C. Liberal party, said workplace tragedies touch entire families and communities. 

“Every single one was loved by someone, who waited for them to come home safe, only to receive the worst possible news,” she said.

John Horgan, leader of the B.C. NDP, said the province needs stronger health and safety standards. 

“To the families of the workers we’ve lost: We share your grief. We will remember. We will act,” he said.

mrobinson@postmedia.com

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Some doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are abandoning an Island Health computer system in defiance of the health authority.

The doctors say the IHealth system could cause dangerous drug dosage errors. They reverted to ordering medicine and lab work using pens and paper on Thursday, after using the IHealth system for more than a year.

One doctor has been suspended and another is facing disciplinary action, said Dr. David Forrest, president of the Nanaimo Medical Staff Association.

“Physicians have taken action to prevent patient harm. And their careers are jeopardized for it.”

About 15 internal medicine doctors are at the hospital, almost all of whom have expressed an interest in suspending the system until problems are fixed, Forrest said.

The IHealth system, introduced in March 2016, aims to digitize and centralize patient records. One component involves ordering medicine and tests such as X-rays and blood work.

The doctors support the use of an electronic health system, but want a safer one, says an April 24 letter from the hospital’s internal medicine representative to Island Health’s chief medical officer, Dr. Jeremy Etherington.

The order-entry system’s cumbersome nature affects patient safety by reducing access to care, the letter says.

“We cannot ethically and in good conscience continue to use a system that poses these risks for Internal Medicine patients,” J. P. Wallach wrote.

Responding to complaints, Island Health had announced that it would suspend use of IHealth while it makes improvements.

But it reversed that decision last month, saying the system must continue to be used.

Island Health said that it found that the order entry component is entrenched in other parts of the electronic health records system, and can’t be shelved. The system offers safety benefits, such as warning about allergy problems when medications are prescribed, it said.

Dr. Ben Williams, who has helped lead Island Health’s transition to IHealth as medical director for Oceanside Health Centre, said patients continue to get the care they need.

“Some physicians are writing paper orders. We cannot support paper orders, but for the orders that have been received on paper, other physicians have entered those in the electronic health record,” Williams said.

It’s a process that cannot be replicated, if many more doctors revert to paper orders in the hospital, he said.

He could not comment on the suspension, he said.

“Island Health can’t and will not discuss personnel matters. Island Health expects all members of the medical staff to follow Island Health policies and rules,” he said.

The IHealth system got off to a rocky start after it was unveiled in March 2016. Nine weeks later, doctors in the intensive care and emergency departments voiced concerns about patient safety and reverted to pen and paper orders.

In July, Health Minister Terry Lake ordered a review of the system by Dr. Doug Cochrane, the province’s patient safety and quality officer.

He found potential for errors and said Island Health should have spent more time tailoring the software to the needs of front-line workers before introducing it.

Cochrane said the system needs to be modified and cannot be rolled out to hospitals in Greater Victoria and the rest of the Island before it’s fully functional.

In February, Island Health agreed to suspend the order-entry system, after 75 per cent of Nanaimo Medical Staff Association members voted to suspend it until fixes were made.

It reversed the decision in March.

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