Tag: news

‘I choose my path’: Affordable, inclusive homes give residents independence

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on June 4, 2021

For Andrew Wiseman, affordable, inclusive housing is more than catchphrase for cities trying to achieve greater diversity.

It’s more than an amenity developers try to leverage for the approval of increased density.

It’s his life.

In January, Wiseman, 37, received the keys and electronic entry fob to a gleaming new one-bedroom condo in George, a 179-unit development on St. George Street in Port Moody.

He carries them proudly wherever he goes, hanging from the end of a lanyard around his neck — visiting his parents in Coquitlam, to his job at a McDonald’s restaurant in Burquitlam, to the electronics store to check out the latest games for his video game system.

The condo Wiseman calls home is one of six such units in George that was achieved through a partnership between Kinsight — a social services agency that works with families of children, youth and adults with developmental delays — and the Langley-based developer Marcon, along with support from the city of Port Moody and BC Housing.

The units provide independent living for up to nine residents, with flexible spaces to accommodate their support needs, and even some furnishings provided by IKEA Coquitlam, La-Z-Boy and the Port Moody Foundation.

Kinsight’s CEO Christine Scott said the intention of such partnerships “is to create an environment where people have meaningful opportunities for social inclusion and a real sense of belonging.”

For Wiseman, moving into his own apartment at George is a big step in his journey to independence.

After spending the first 30 years of his life in the protective embrace of his family’s home, he moved into a shared apartment at Kinsight’s former fourplex just down the street.

But in 2017, Marcon approached Kinsight with an opportunity to provide new homes for residents of the aging structure that was in serious need of repairs and no longer met the standards to house residents who required supports.

The company’s amenity package it offered to the city in return for increased density also included daylighting a stretch of Dallas Creek and a 3,360 sq. m. public park that includes a greenway trail and open play area.

“Our motto, ‘Building for Life,’ means building for all,” said Marcon’s vice president of development, Nic Paolella, in a news release.

Scott said her organization receives many overtures from developers, but turning them into reality requires a shared vision.

“We have to make sure there’s truly opportunities for all,” she said, adding Kinsight is also working with Marcon on another six units in a new tower the company is building in Coquitlam, as well as two additional projects in Port Moody with other developers.

Scott said not only are the partnerships providing new homes for Kinsight’s clients, they’re changing the conversation around affordability in Metro Vancouver’s hyper-expensive housing market.

“When I hear councillors use the language of inclusive housing, I know we’re well underway,” she said, adding the rent that residents pay to live in the units is low enough that they’re able to put income they earn toward their quality of life.

Since moving into his new home, Wiseman said he’s been able to meet some of his neighbours. He’s also improved many of his life skills, like managing his finances and broadening his cooking repertoire beyond Kraft Dinner.

Wiseman said he enjoys having his own space. His younger brother comes over to hang out. His relationship with his former roommate has blossomed into a friendship. In fact, he’s feeling so good about things, he’s thinking of going back to school for cashier’s training.

“My mom didn’t think I could live on my own,” he said. “Now, I have the respect of my parents. I choose my path.”

That’s music to the ears of Tina Matysiak, Wiseman’s support worker.

“He’s just grown as a human being.”

Scott said while KInsight’s growing number of partnerships with developers are a success story, they’re but a dent in the demand for affordable, inclusive housing.

According to a 2020 report by Community Living BC and the Inclusion BC inclusive housing task force, there’s a need for about 5,000 such units across the province to accommodate individuals with developmental disabilities who are ready and able to live on their own, with supports at hand, in the next five years.

“We’ve made great strides,” Scott said. “But there’s an enormous amount of work to do yet.”

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A Coquitlam hockey player is about to take his career in an unexpected direction

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on March, 8, 2023

Mark Ledlin has spent a lifetime getting ready for the biggest opportunity to advance his musical aspirations by banging and crashing opponents on the ice.

The 25-year-old graduate of Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam just wrapped his eighth season of playing professional hockey in Germany — the past two with the Rostock Piranhas in the second division German Oberliga.

But without a contract for next season, Ledlin is focusing his attention on developing a music career that received a big boost three years ago when he appeared on the German version of the reality show, The Voice.

And he could be poised for a breakout with the release of his first EP this summer and an opportunity to compete as one of eight semi-finalists in SiriusXM radio’s fifth annual Top of the Country competition.

On March 30, Ledlin will head into a studio to record an acoustic version of an original song he’s written and composed.

The songs and videos of all eight semi-finalists from across Canada are then posted online for fans to vote for their favourite.

The winner receives $25,000, as well as industry mentorship and a song writing trip to Nashville.

Ledlin said playing hockey in front of thousands of fans has steeled him for the pressure of being on top of his singing game in the recording studio.

It’s also given him the confidence and self-awareness to find his voice.

“I’ve had moments on the ice where I’ve screwed up and there’s 4,000 people watching,” Ledlin said. “I can be myself on the ice and on stage, but nobody tries to fight you on stage.”

ROSTOCK PIRANHAS
Mark Ledlin, of the Rostock Piranhas, pursues an opponent in a recent game against EG Diez-Limburg in the second division German Oberliga.

Ledlin said music has always been a part of his life: His dad, Fred, who also played pro hockey for 13 seasons in Germany, is an accomplished guitarist himself.

Mark Ledlin said he learned to play watching YouTube videos then started posting videos of his own music from his apartment during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as he awaited hockey to resume.

That led to Ledlin’s appearance on The Voice. And while he didn’t advance, he impressed the judges enough to earn an invitation to the show’s “Comeback Stage.”

Ledlin said until now, music has mostly been a way to fill the time between practices and games. As the end of his hockey career comes within sight, he’s drawing from his experiences as a professional athlete to fuel his creativity.

Ledlin said his blue-collar existence toiling year to year for contracts in hockey’s outskirts, far from the bright lights and big arenas of the NHL or even the German first division, brought him to country music’s soulful sounds.

“I’ve had to learn how to do everything myself since I was 17,” he said. “I put that into the music. Every song I write comes from the heart.”

Ledlin said his teammates have been supportive of his musical journey.

“Some of my biggest fans are the guys I play with,” he said. “They’re always asking me to play songs for them.”

But as Ledlin prepares to pull off his skates and elbow pads and put on a flannel shirt and cowboy boots, he’s feeling like an underdog all over again.

And that’s not necessarily a bad place for an athlete to be.

“I’ve been a pro since I was 17,” he said. “I’m going to make some noise in the music world. That’s my destiny, that’s my drive. If it’s hockey or music, I find a way to get to the end.”

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Massive Anmore development proposal put on hold at the last minute

A proposed development that would almost triple Anmore’s population has been put on hold.

Less than 15 minutes prior to Monday’s scheduled public hearing into an application by Icona Properties to amend the village’s official community plan so its proposal could proceed, Greg Moore, the company’s CEO, announced on social media it’s taking a break.

“We’ve made the decision to withdraw our current application for Anmore South,” said Moore on Facebook. “This break will allow us to explore a path forward that brings more unity than discord.”

cona was seeking approval to construct 1,750 new townhouses, low-rise apartments and single-family homes on 150 acres of property the company owns near the corner of 1st Avenue and Sunnyside Road.

On June 10, Anmore council voted 5-1 to send the proposal to a public hearing that was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., Monday, June 23.

The development plan has drawn consternation from residents of the bucolic village of 2,200 residents, as well as the neighbouring communities of Port Moody and Belcarra.

A group called the Anmore Neighbours Community Association (ANCA) said Icona’s plan poses “significant financial risks” to the village.

ANCA’s Rod Rempel and Harriette Chang said a consulting company’s estimate it would cost the developer $30 million to construct services like water, sewer and storm drainage could end up leaving Anmore taxpayers on the hook.

Residents also expressed concerns about increased traffic, higher costs for policing and fire services, as well as public safety because the two access roads into and out of the village could become blocked or overwhelmed in an emergency like a wildfire.

Port Moody and Belcarra shared similar trepidation.

In a letter sent to Anmore council in May, Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said neither the village nor developer had yet to initiative discussions about utility upgrades, most of which would be routed through its urban neighbour.

“If the village is interested in partnering on this infrastructure, time is of the essence,” she said.

Belcarra Mayor Jamie Ross said traffic and construction activity during the development’s 25-year built-out would also be a hardship on his village.

Anmore councillor Doug Richardson, who cast the only dissenting vote to move Icona’s proposal forward, said the project “is not needed.”

But supporters on council countered the village needs to do its part to address Metro Vancouver’s housing crisis by providing “more affordable” options.

Anmore Mayor John McEwen said development of the property is inevitable.

“Change is happening and we want to have a say in how it gets developed.”

In his statement, Moore acknowledged the division his company’s plan has incited.

“This was never our intent,” he said. “In fact, it’s the opposite of what we set out to do.”

Moore said Icona wants to create “a people-first community” that’s “more connected and more compassionate.”

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Life and death of the photo essay

The diminishment and demise of newspapers has all but killed the photo essay, and the role of its design in storytelling.

Getting the annual guide to the Best in Newspaper Design used to be a red-letter day at the office.

Once the editor digested its content to glean potential ideas, the rest of us would secret it to our desks to bask in the glow of creative page designs and photo layouts put together by some of the best newspaper graphic designers in the world.

We were inspired by their use of fonts, colour and graphic elements to complement and support the stories being told by the journalists in words or photos.

We marvelled at the way photos were chosen and displayed together to lead us through the story, take us to its very heart.

Reading a newspaper is like taking a journey; each page promises a new destination that can ignite our imagination or just fuel us up to get us to the next page.

A well-designed and thoughtfully-constructed destination page, like section fronts or double-trucks inside, invite the reader to linger, invest the time to read the story then move on to further pages to see what other goodies might be in store.

When I broke into the business in the mid-1980s, USA Today was regarded as the pinnacle of newspaper design.

Editors loved its multitude of stories launching off the front page, giving readers several entry points into the rest of the paper.

Its liberal use of boxes, colour washes, graphics, bullet points and explainers made it feel vibrant, fun and accessible.

Of course limited resources at the lower end of the newspaper industry meant our efforts to emulate the USA Today look were usually half-baked — it was the thought that counted.

Laying out a photo page or section front was one of the many things I missed when it was decided the Tri-City News should go digital-only.

When I was shooting a story with good photo possibilities, I did so with an eye to pitching it to the editor to run as a spread; that meant I needed a variety of photos to help drive the narrative — wide-angle establishing shots to set the scene, tight detail shots, close-ups, reactions, maybe a silhouette, and a strong vertical or two to help with the layout.

A photo package I shot, edited and designed in 2023 about a group of high school students learning the ropes of a potential career as firefighters.

Editing a take of 15 or 20 photos down to five or six that best captured the essence of the story could be an anguishing process, as was deciding which photo to run largest, and whether to put captions under each individual photo or grouped together.

Sometimes those decisions meant a favourite photo, or one that took a lot of work or forethought to get, wouldn’t make the cut.

A story, told in words and photos, about a local men’s group that offers support to other men through building and fixing things.

If a photo didn’t serve the story, or work with the other photos, maybe it wasn’t that great to begin with.

But, just as newspaper executives deemed photojournalists expendable once they realized everyone with a smartphone could shoot a photo of a car accident, house fire, or ribbon cutting, page designers also became an expensive luxury. Templated designs and centralized production protect profits.

Digital-first then digital-only further sap the creative presentation of news. Content management systems for web upload demand uniformity.

For the most part, online photo galleries favour quantity over quality. Their design is linear, with readers clicking through from one photo to the next until their fingers wear out or their interest wanes; their only narrative usually doesn’t get beyond “the photographer showed up.”

Some publications have made an effort to transfer the design of storytelling to the digital realm.

The New York Times and Washington Post do interesting things on their websites from time-to-time, and I’m sure there are others with the staffing, expertise and resources.

A decade ago, the Toronto Star invested heavily in its Star Touch app for tablets. Its early iterations had some wonderfully ingenious and playful presentations that took advantage of the technology to help drive stories — like an explanation of a lunar eclipse set against an image of a full moon that slowly went into eclipse as you scrolled through the text.

I loved it so much, I stayed up until 11 p.m. PST every night so I could read the next day’s edition on my iPad when it dropped at 2 a.m. EST.

“This is the future for our industry,” I thought.

But the cost for such innovation proved too high.

Within months of Star Touch‘s launch the clever animations started to dwindle as staff and contractors were cut. Soon it became little more than just another website, and within two years of its genesis, it was gone.

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Could Port Moody’s biggest-ever development project get even bigger?

The company building Port Moody’s largest-ever development project wants to make it even bigger.

Dean Johnson, the vice-president of development for Vancouver-based Wesgroup Properties, told council’s city initiatives and planning committee Tuesday, May 20, that it will need to add a seventh residential tower to the six already approved as part of its expansive 14.8-acre Inlet District project in the former Coronation Park neighbourhood.

Johnson said the additional density is required to offset recent changes to rules about development cost charges (DCCs) levied by Metro Vancouver that help pay for regional infrastructure like water, sewers and drainage.

He said those changes will cost the company an additional $30 million for its Inlet District development that currently comprises more than 2,500 new homes in six residential towers up to 31 storeys along with three low-rise buildings, a four-storey office building, as well as a grocery store and daycare facility, all built around a 2.5-acre central park.

“This cost is something we have to deal with in this project,” Johnson said, adding it was unforeseen last July, when Wesgroup achieved final approval from council for the zoning amendments required for the development’s first phase to proceed.

Johnson said if the company can’t build an additional tower, it may have to cut back on some of the project’s amenities to help offset its increased costs. Those include:

  • $6 million towards construction of a new pedestrian overpass across Ioco Road to the Inlet Centre SkyTrain station
  • a 186 sq. m. civic facility for community use
  • $4.8 million of public art
  • more than $8 million in community amenity contributions

Johnson said the seventh tower would be part of a future phase of the project’s construction, which is already underway and is expected to take about 25 years to complete.

Johnson’s preliminary pitch rankled at least one Port Moody councillor.

Haven Lurbiecki said it’s “irresponsible” and accused the developer of “moving the goalposts now.”

At one point during the project’s protracted journey through council’s approval process that commenced when Wesgroup finished acquiring the last of 59 mid-century single-family homes that formerly occupied the site in 2019, the company had hurled a similar charge.

In 2022, Wesgroup’s senior development manager, Evan French, expressed frustration at Port Moody’s implementation of a new inclusionary zoning policy that requires at least 15 per cent of units in dense new developments be affordable rentals shortly after it had received approvals for changes to the city’s official community plan so the project could proceed and just as it was preparing to apply for necessary zoning amendments.

And while those zoning amendments were ultimately passed by council in Dec., 2023, without a requirement for affordable housing units, Wesgroup did provide a letter of intent that it would continue working to secure such a component.

Tuesday, Johnson said those efforts have borne some fruit.

He said a program through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that provides low-cost financing for the construction of affordable apartments could mean all 288 units in the project’s second tower could become rental apartments, with 20 per cent of them available at below-market rates.

Johnson said Wesgroup had previously tapped into the program for projects it built in other communities like Burnaby and New Westminster.

“We are very familiar with this framework and we’re really excited about bringing this to Port Moody.”

But, Johnson added, time is running short and an endorsement letter from the city would speed the process, a request councillors readily granted.

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Popular Port Moody concert series gets a financial boost

A popular series of live music concerts at Port Moody’s Inlet Theatre will receive a $5,000 boost from the city.

The art, culture and heritage grant allows promoters Bill Sample and Darlene Cooper to continue booking top touring and local musicians like Shari Ulrich, Roy Forbes and The Paperboys while maintaining affordable ticket prices.

It’s one of $40,000 worth of grants approved by council’s finance committee Tuesday, May 20, for distribution to several local organizations.

Cooper said the concerts have put the city “on the map as a bit of a cultural hub.”

She and Sample, who are both accomplished musicians themselves, launched the series in 2022 after moving to Port Moody from Vancouver and finding the local live music scene somewhat lacking, especially after the demise of Bistro Gallery that burned down in 2019.

Sample said the little bistro on Clarke Street had become a popular performance venue for local and guest musicians, poets, writers and visual artists. But with no place to play, many were bypassing Port Moody while on tour.

“We need music in our lives,” Sample said, of the series that presents up to eight concerts during the fall, winter and spring months in the venue that can seat as many as 208 patrons.

In March, 2024, Port Moody council voted to extend an agreement with Sample and Cooper to waive rental fees at the theatre for two more years to help keep concert costs down.

Devin Jain, who was then the city’s manager of cultural services but recently retired, said the promoters have “brought a consistent and professional music series to the community” which has “filled a gap within the cultural landscape of Port Moody.”

Other organizations awarded grants include:

  • Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland and Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver will each receive $2,608 community grants to enhance their mentoring and youth leadership programs
  • Crossroads Hospice Society will get a $3,000 community grant to bolster its activities that enhance the quality of care for it patients
  • PoCoMo Meals on Wheels Society will get $3,000 to help keep the price of meals affordable
  • SHARE Family and Community Services also gets a $3,000 community grant to offset the cost of emergency hampers for vulnerable community members
  • The Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre also gets $3,000 to boost its operational support for mental health care
  • Port Moody Men’s Shed society’s $1,404 community grant will help its members build community bird houses
  • Port Moody Heritage Society will receive a $5,000 arts, culture and heritage grant to help fund a new exhibit
  • POMO Players will use its $4,500 arts, culture and heritage grant to fund booking of a venue, creative costs and insurance for its production of “A Christmas Carol”
  • The Port Moody Art Association will get $3,000 for room rental, permits and insurance costs
  • Arts Connect gets a $2,500 grant to help it attract top musical acts to Port Moody

As well, five artists will share a total of $4,717 in grants to help them put on exhibitions, open a studio, produce a short film or acquire materials and equipment. They are:

  • Crystal Koskinen
  • Amy Narky
  • Ramin Mohseni
  • Husein Kamrudin
  • Samira Messchian Moghadam

Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said she was pleased by the quality of the recipients.

“They all look like very good applicants,” she said.

According to a staff report, Port Moody received 47 applications for its three grant programs. Each was evaluated by staff and the city’s citizens advisory group based on criteria like:

  • the extent to which the grant will help address a need in the community
  • how the grant will promote the well-being and quality of life of Port Moody residents
  • how much of the money will be spent in the city and benefit the community as a whole
  • the needs of the organization or group requesting the funding
  • how the funds will be directed to support equity, diversity, inclusions and reconciliation initiatives
  • the involvement of volunteers and promotion of community spirit
  • accessibility
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Moray Street traffic calming gets changes, more expensive

The plastic lane delineators creating chicanes to slow traffic on Port Moody’s Moray Street could soon be gone.

In their place, new curb bulges will be built at Pinda Drive and Brookmount Avenue, along with new lane markings and crosswalks. But a planned bike lane on the east side of Moray Street will have to wait.

Tuesday, May 20, Port Moody council’s initiatives and planning committee will consider spending an additional $353,000 to construct the new, permanent elements. That’s on top of the previous budget of $795,000 that had been approved in 2022.

Since then, though, construction costs have risen, additional design work was required and $187,000 will be allocated to a new multi-use path on the west side of Moray, resulting in a total budget of $1.248 million, said a staff report; $100,000 of that will be covered by the city’s street lighting relocation program, and another $155,000 will come from a TransLink grant.

A pilot project to slow traffic using Moray Street that was implemented in the summer of 2022 resulted in a 5-6 km/h reduction of speeds on the busy connector route to Coquitlam, according to the report.

But some residents said the temporary measures, that included the plastic lane delineators, new markings on the pavement to configure curb bulges at intersections and a temporary sidewalk on Moray’s west side, actually made the situation worse.

“It may have calmed traffic on the east side, but they’re going faster on the west side,” said one resident prior to a meeting last June when council decided the traffic calming measures should be made permanent.

Subsequent feedback from residents following a public information session earlier this year revealed further concerns like the loss of several on-street parking spots, worries about pedestrian safety from cyclists speeding down a northbound bike lane and turns lanes at the St. Johns Street intersection too short to accommodate the volume of vehicles.

As a result, said the report, further refinements have been made to the permanent calming plan, including:

  • the addition of eight new on-street parking spots on the east side of Moray, between Brookmount Avenue and Portview Place
  • the removal of the northbound cycling lane on the east side of Moray; instead, cyclists heading down the hill will be directed to use Brookmount Avenue and Clearview Drive while staff consider further options
  • additional curb bulges to be built at the intersection of Moray and Brookmount, as well as a new marked crosswalk on the north leg
  • adjustments to the lane geometry at Moray and St. Johns to extend the turning lanes so they can accommodate more vehicles

The report said the permanent changes should be in place by the end of the year.

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He’s one of the greatest villains in Canadian sports history. But this Coquitlam historian has a new take

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on April 2, 2023

A Coquitlam historian is shining a new light on one of the greatest villains in Canadian sports lore.

Cedric Bolz, who graduated from Centennial Secondary School and is now the head of the history department at Douglas College, has published an alternate view of the famous 1972 Canada–Russia hockey Summit Series as it was seen through the eyes of Josef Kompalla, one of its referees.

Kompalla and fellow West German Franz Baader were among eight officials that also included four Americans, a Swede and a Czech, who were assigned to work the historic eight-game showdown between hockey’s two greatest superpowers at the time.

But Canadians old enough to remember the grainy live TV pictures from Moscow’s Luzhniki Ice Palace beamed into their living rooms and even classrooms that September 51 years ago likely recall Kompalla as Public Enemy No. 1.

Even those who’ve only experienced the series second hand through subsequent memoirs and documentary films have come to vilify Kompalla, said Bolz.

Authors and filmmakers have perpetuated the narrative that the amateur referee was out of his depth arbitrating games between hockey’s greatest professional players and the mighty Soviets.

Or worse, they surmised, he was a complicit East German.

Until now.

Historical oversight

Bolz’s book, The September He Remembers, flips Kompalla’s story and his role in the Summit Series on its head.

It is, Bolz said, “the first step in correcting a major historical oversight and adding a new chapter in the Summit Series’ growing, mutable legacy.”

Bolz said he first heard of Kompalla through his stepfather, who’d played professional hockey in Germany for several years before moving his family to Canada.

The veteran referee officiated more than 2,000 games including several world championships.

He was revered in Europe and even earned a place in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) Hall of Fame.

But in Canadian hockey lore, Kompalla is a reviled figure who seemed determined to derail the NHLers from affirming their superiority on the ice over the Soviet Union.

J.P. Parise physically attacked him after he’d been assessed a penalty.

He bore the wrath of a frustrated Alan Eagleson who threatened to pull the Canadian players from Game 8 when Kompalla drew the refereeing assignment for the decisive match and then threw chairs on the ice after Parise was penalized.

He was chased down hallways by players and team officials incensed by some of the calls he’d made.

Even after the series was decided, Kompalla was harassed by Canadian players on a flight to Prague for an exhibition game against the Czech national team.

A quiet life of retirement

When Bolz heard Kompalla was still alive and living a quiet life of retirement in Krefeld, Germany, he reached out, determined to reconcile the conflicting images of a pivotal character in hockey’s greatest drama who seemed to have been left behind by its history.

“I’m a historian,” Bolz said. “My job is to document voices and this was a voice.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO Douglas Collage history instructor Cedric Bolz (right) visits with German referee Josef Kompalla while working on a book about his role in the 1972 Summit Series. Behind them is a photo of Kompalla being attacked by Canada’s J.P. Parise after he was called for a penalty.

Over the course of three years of phone interviews and personal visits, Bolz constructed a picture of a modest man who still loves hockey but can’t understand how he’d become one of the sport’s most notorious characters.

“It was always baffling to him,” Bolz said.

Road blocks

Along the way, Bolz ran into road block after road block in his efforts to gain an understanding of how Kompalla had become so despised.

Players still alive like Red Berenson and Wayne Cashman wouldn’t talk to him.

Even Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender renowned for his thoughtful ruminations about the sport and the author of two memoirs about the series, wouldn’t return his calls.

“A narrative had been crafted,” Bolz said. “Legend continues to trump the way things actually were.”

Bolz believes Kompalla was collateral damage, a convenient foil, in a hockey drama that was supposed to be a friendly cultural exchange in the spirit of detente that had started to warm the Cold War in the early 1970s, but quickly devolved into an athletic expression of the great divide that still existed between East and West when the Canadian NHLers realized their opponents wouldn’t be the pushovers as some observers had billed them.

Time is running out

Kompalla is now 87 and Bolz is all too aware time is running out to set the record straight and reform the referee’s legacy.

He hopes his book, academically annotated and cross-referenced through multiple sources, will help facilitate that.

Some who’ve helped shape the story of the Super Series over the past 51 years have taken notice and made overtures to correct the historical record, like the popular misconception that Kompalla was from East Germany when in fact he’d fled communist rule in Poland and settled in Germany’s democratic West.

As for the aging referee who continues to travel the German countryside to attend hockey games as a spectator, Bolz said he still holds out hope his contribution to the series will be recognized in a more positive light.

“He’s always wondered why he’s never been invited to any of the series’ anniversaries,” Bolz said of Kompalla. “It’s important to see him get some sort of closure.”

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Union says B.C. premier can help end the ‘crapification’ of local news

A union that represents journalists at several British Columbia media outlets says the provincial government needs to do more to prevent the spreading of news deserts as publications are closed.

Lana Payne, the national president of Unifor, and its western regional director, Gavin McGarrigle, said in a letter to B.C. Premier David Eby that great swaths of the country are being left without a local news source, hurting democracy.

They’re urging Eby to help reverse that trend by committing a portion of the provincial government’s advertising budget to support local news.

Last summer, Ontario Premier Doug Ford directed crown corporations like the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to spend at least 25 per cent of their advertising budgets at news outlets based in that province.

Since 2021, New York City has required its agencies to direct 50 per cent of their advertising budgets to community and multicultural media outlets, including print, digital, radio and television.

Losing ‘scarce’ ad dollars

In their letter, Payne and McGarrigle said a similar directive by the provincial government “would immediately get badly needed revenue to news businesses who are losing scarce ad dollars to American and Chinese Big Tech firms” without spending additional taxpayer dollars.

In February, 2024, Eby called out “corporate vampires” for overseeing “the crapification of local news by laying off journalists” during an announcement in Coquitlam hours after Bell Media announced job cuts and the cancellation of several local newscasts.

Eby said media companies have a “corporate responsibility” to “ensure people get accurate, reliable information in this age of social media craziness.”

On April 17, Glacier Media — now called Lodestar Media — closed the Tri-City News, Burnaby Now and New Westminster Record, leaving more than 600,000 people without a robust, trustworthy source of local news.

Publisher Lara Graham said the publications, that had informed their communities for more than 40 years, were no longer sustainable due to “the industry’s ongoing financial challenges.”

The closures came 20 months after all three publications ceased their weekly print editions to exist only online.

Two days earlier, Port Moody council approved an expenditure of $50,000 this year and an $85,000 budget item next year to bolster its communications resources to help fill the growing “information gap” in the community and counter disinformation spread on social media channels.

Cross-Canada closures

According to the Public Policy Forum, more than 340 communities across Canada have lost local news providers since 2008.

An annual injection of $100 million for each of the next five years from online search engine Google as a result of Canada’s Online News Act that was passed in June, 2023, by the federal Liberal government with support from the NDP hasn’t done much to prevent closures either.

Two weeks after Glacier Media’s closed its three publications, the Canadian Journalism Collective that is responsible for disbursing the funds announced the company had received an instalment of almost $400,000 based upon the number of staff dedicated to the production of news it had on its payroll in 2023. Metroland Media Group in Ontario received more than $1.9 million despite filing for bankruptcy protection in Sept., 2023, and ceasing production of all 70 of its weekly community newspapers to move them exclusively online; 605 employees lost their jobs.

During a visit to Port Moody campaigning for April’s federal election, former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh conceded the Online News Act could use further refinement.

The legislation “did not have the teeth” to prevent more media closures, said Singh. “I want to see more protections in place against web giants that are taking up all the space.”

Unifor, which represents workers at Glacier’s recently shuttered publications, said B.C.’s Extended Producer Responsibility fees that make producers of plastics and packaging pay for their recycling also stacks the deck against local news outlets.

“The only catch is that newspapers are not packaging,” said Payne and McGarrigle in their letter to Eby. “They are the product — an important product that is already the most widely and most successful recycling material.”

The union said B.C. should follow the lead of Ontario, which exempted newspapers from the fee in 2022.

“The extra burden of this program on newspaper publishers will only create costs that cannot be afforded by an industry already stretched and facing so many obstacles,” said Payne and McGarrigle.

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How this white van delivers health care to homeless populations in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby and New West

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on March 15, 2024

A nondescript white panel van is delivering relief to homeless populations in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby, New Westminster and Maple Ridge.

Sometimes it even helps save a life.

During a recent visit to the 3030 Gordon shelter in Coquitlam, medical professionals from the Integrated Homelessness Action Response Team (IHART) mobilized when a man overdosed on the sidewalk.

As his worried street buddies gathered round and coaxed the man to wake up, registered and practical nurses administered naloxone and notified emergency services. After several tense moments he was responsive and sitting up. Minutes later he walked away, getting on with his day as if nothing unusual had occurred.

While the IHART program has been operating since 2022, it’s been bringing its suite of health care, mental health and outreach services to the streets in a van since January.

Lower barriers

The program’s co-ordinator, Paolo Palomar, said the idea is to lower barriers to obtaining health care for a population that would otherwise have none.

The mobile team that functions five days a week is comprised of nurses, clinicians, as well as peer support, outreach and social workers.

“We’re able to give wrap-around support,” Palomar said.

Sometimes that means distributing requisitions for blood work.

Sometimes it requires cleaning and dressing infections or providing counselling. Sometimes it’s just handing out a cup of warm coffee.

“We try not to say ‘no’ to anyone who needs help,” Palomar said.

The IHART team travels to homeless encampments, shelters and church parking lots across the northern communities of the Fraser Health district while a second team helps out in eastern communities like Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack, Agassiz and Hope. The service is also being extended to Surrey.

Relationship of trust

The vans follow a regular schedule so clients can anticipate their visits, Palomar said.

It also helps them build a relationship of trust, he added.

Twice a month the team offers special foot care clinics as homeless populations often have to deal with a condition called “street feet” because their shoes and socks are wet from the rain and snow.

The frontline care can help alleviate the chronic nature of health disparities the homeless population experience, said Fraser Health clinical operations director Sherif Amara.

“The vans provide an additional tool to bring care further into these remote, often secluded, settings.”

Palomar said it can also be the stepping stone to more comprehensive care and possibly even the start of a journey off the streets.

“We’re trying to bridge the gap,” he said.

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