2009 Year in Review: Top 10 news stories

North Shore Outlook

2009 Year in Review: Top 10 news stories

By Staff Reporter - North Shore Outlook

Another year has come and gone, and the North Shore Outlook has dedicated its final issue of 2009 to remember the events and people in the communities of North and West Vancouver.

Look back at 10 major news stories The Outlook either broke or covered. Read a bit more about some people who affected change in their community this year.

In sports, 2009 was a year many athletes from the North Shore scored big championships while others accomplished their individual goals in sport.

Over on the visual side, The Outlook presents its top 10 photos and top 10 videos with links online to view them.

Of course, the North Shore wouldn’t be what it is without its vibrant arts community, and The Outlook showcases 10 artists in the visual and performing arts who were featured in our paper this year.

We hope you enjoy this look back at 2009, and wish you all the best as you welcome in 2010.

The year in news

1.DNV purchases Van Insberghe home

This past March, nearly four years after a landslide killed her neighbour and seriously devalued her home, Nancy Van Insberghe was finally able to close the door on the past.

Back in 2005, after a slide along the Blueridge Escarpment shook the neighbourhood, the municipality and province announced that the nine mudslide-affected homes would be purchased.

But after settlements had been reached with eight other homeowners, Van Insberghe was left waiting by the phone. “Issues of insurability” hindered a deal, according to the district.

Van Insberge stayed with a friend and nervously watched her home value sink from $639,400 in 2007 to $82,000 in 2008.

Then, in March 2009 came the announcement that DNV had purchased her home for $1,074,200.

“I am absolutely delighted this is finally resolved,” Van Insberghe told The Outlook at the time. “It’s been a long four years, a difficult four years.”

2. Kash Heed: resignation, court dates and cabinet position

In February, Kash Heed unexpectedly resigned as chief constable of the West Vancouver Police Department after less than two years on the job.

Not long afterwards, the former top cop jumped into provincial politics, winning for the B.C. Liberals in the Vancouver-Fraserview riding.

Now Heed is serving as the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, unofficially the “top cop” of the province.

He also faces two lawsuits from former senior officers from the WVDP.

Heed wasn’t the only person who made a major political move this year on the North Shore. Six months after winning her second term to the school board, chair Jane Thornthwaite ran and won the North Vancouver-Seymour riding for the B.C. Liberals.

Her victory meant a byelection for the North Vancouver school district later in the year.

3. Capilano Reserve shooting

The Squamish First Nation and West Vancouver community were shocked this summer after a brazen shooting outside the annual Squamish Nation PowWow injured three people. The daytime attack took place just before an anti-abuse and anti-violence rally. Cpl. Fred Harding of the West Van Police said of the shooting, “That powwow has been such a particularly peaceful and spiritual event for twenty-something years it was such an indignity to the people there.” Then in September, a second shooting took place not far away in a quiet West Vancouver neighbourhood by Keith Road and Third Steet. Two men suffered non-life-threatening injuries in what police described as a “hunting” mission. Over in North Vancouver, 28-year-old Brandon Hughes was killed during a night-time shooting near Carson Graham secondary. Police still haven’t made any arrests in the three shootings.

4. Gillan sentenced, disciplinary hearing pending

In January 2009, three off-duty police officers were involved in a drunken beating and robbery of a newspaper delivery man.

West Vancouver Const. Griffin Gillan and New Westminster Const. Jeffrey Klassen were charged with assaulting and robbing Firoz Khan while a third officer from the Delta Police Department was not charged.

Gillan eventually pleaded guilty to the assault and was handed a three-week conditional sentence and six-months probation. Only 13 months into his career with the WVPD when the incident occurred, Gillan now faces a disciplinary proceeding.

5. Crone, fall from grace

When former RBC Dominion Securities VP Jack Crone collected 1,200 child sexual abuse images, he didn’t realize that RCMP investigators could track his file sharing through LimeWire.

After a raid of his Vancouver office and his British properties home, Crone pleaded guilty to possessing child porn. In August 2009, he told the court he didn’t realize others could access his collection through the software and that, initially, he thought his habit of collecting child porn was a “victimless crime.”

In the North Van courthouse before Crone’s sentencing, The Outlook was there when the 68-year-old introduced some members of his family to the RCMP investigators who helped to catch him. Crone was sentenced to four months in jail.

6. The Naomi effect

It was an impressive year for rookie politician Naomi Yamamoto.

While serving as president of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Yamamoto toppled two political heavyweights, Don Bell and Jennifer Clarke, for the B.C. Liberal party’s nomination for North Vancouver-Lonsdale.

Then on election night, Yamamoto defeated longtime District of North Vancouver politician Janice Harris, who ran under the NDP banner. On that May night, Yamamoto also became B.C.’s first Japanese-Canadian MLA.

After being sworn in, Yamamoto was then tapped to join the cabinet as Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations.

7. City mutiny

City of North Vancouver council saw a shift in power as the year drew to a end. Over two meetings four councillors banded together to vote out Mayor Darrell Mussatto and Coun. Craig Keating from two regional boards.

Despite legal advice from Metro Vancouver rejecting the move, the councillors, Bob Fearnley, Rod Clark, Guy Heywood and Pam Bookham, opted to maintain their stance having Mussatto hold a position on the Metro Vancouver Greater Vancouver Regional District Board while Fearnley and Clark hold positions on the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District and Water District boards.

Mussatto, Keating and Coun. Mary Trentadue stood on the losing side.

Post vote, the new power team alluded to more changes in the new year.

“No one is attempting to rob the mayor of the directorship of the GVRD, but I would suggest that may be debated down the road should the GVRD not acquiesce to some of our suggestions,” Clark said. “This is a packaged deal.”

8. School board struggles with budget

It was news that surprised schools around the province and still has them spinning to meet budgets.

By the time the Ministry of Education announced it was not awarding the annual facility grants this year, West Vancouver School District had spent $864,000 on facility repairs while North Vancouver School District’s bill rang in at $1 million.

In the end, the cut — representing $1.2 million to West Van and $3.1 to North Van — forced West Van to use its $864,000 contingency fund, while North Van faces a $3.2-million deficit.

The ministry stated many schools had unspent facility grant dollars from previous years. As of March 2009, those moneys equalled more than $98 million.

“For this year, we have asked all school districts to use that money for their school maintenance projects so that the dollars the government provides can go directly into the classroom,” Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid wrote the school district.

This coming year those districts have their fingers crossed the grant will be reinstated.

9. “It was just so easy”

North Van’s Bryan Tickell, former case manager for the Public Guardian and Trustee, told investigators he just couldn’t help himself from ripping off his elderly and mentally unfit clients. He liked the “psychological challenge” of lying, stealing and cheating in plain sight, a court assessment found.

After a $1-million forensic investigation the PGT said Tickell defrauded 12 clients between 2006 and 2007, signing over one woman’s $1-million property to his name for “$1.0 plus love and affection” and making himself the beneficiary of a dying man’s $1.3-million estate to the tune of 20 per cent.

Tickell faced criminal charges of forgery, breach of trust and fraud in North Van provincial court in the spring of 2009. The judge found Tickell’s modus operandi was “heaping deceit upon deceit,” sentencing the fraudster to six years in jail.

The PGT said it has since revamped its hiring practices and internal checks.

10. Reducing fire risk

In 2009 the City of North Vancouver set out to solve a major fire hazard in the community: what to do with its nearly 400 older, low-rise wood buildings? The issue came to light over the last few years when several devastating apartment fires claimed the lives of numerous residents. The city pinpointed several options from improved fire alarms to a costly retrofitting of all older buildings with sprinkler systems. In October, CNV council voted to look into how the city could have monitored fire alarms installed in the buildings. According to Cheryl Kathler, community planner with the city, staff are looking at how to implement the new fire prevention initiatives. “Staff for now are doing some background work . . . on the first step which is what is the legal mechanism which we do this?” Kathler said.