Unsolved Wendy Ladner-Beaudry murder moves to RCMP Major Crime Section

Pacific Spirit Park at the corner of SW Marine Drive and Camosun St., a few hours before the press conference on April 3, 2014.

This week marked five years since local resident Wendy Ladner-Beaudry, 53, was found murdered in Pacific Spirit Park. In spite of five years of investigation, the IHIT team have so far found no suspect, and no motive, said IHIT spokeswoman Jennifer Pound, as the RCMP and the family conducted their annual press conference last Wednesday.

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Full house at Kerrisdale Women’s Safety Workshop

Three weeks and no charges have been laid in the case of Julie Paskall, the hockey mom who was beaten to death at a community centre in Surrey. The soon five-year-old murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry in Pacific Spirit Park as well as the mysterious sexual assault series at the UBC campus are equally unsolved.

Not a good idea: focussing on your smart phone in a back alley. Photo: Katja De Bock

Even though crimes nationwide are generally decreasing, sexual assaults and other violence against women tend to stay steady.

The Vancouver Courier looks at Dunbar-Southlands

People lining up at the Dunbar Theatre. Photo: Katja De Bock

The Vancouver Courier issue of Friday, August 30 featured Dunbar-Southlands as part of their Vancouver Special neighbourhood series. According to census data, roughly 21,745 people reside here.

Faces of BC Film – Braden Haggerty, underwater cinematographer

Braden Haggerty. Photo: Herb DeWaal

Braden Haggerty, 46, specialized in underwater cinematography as one of three specialists in Metro Vancouver. The married mother of two teenage sons lives in Vancouver’s Dunbar area. She invested years in training to become a respected underwater cinematographer, a position not obvious for women, she says.

Haggerty is passionate about her job. “Suspension of disbelief is pretty strong in the water,” she says, for example when you see film characters fall into seemingly arctic water and still perform their tasks. In real life, they would have been in cold shock immediately, whereas on set, they can swim in a water tank heated up to 32 C.

Vancouver-Quilchena’s final results confirm BC Liberal victory

***Update – On June 7, 2013, Christy Clark announced the new Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services minister will be Andrew Wilkinson, the Vancouver-Quilchena MLA.***

With the final count concluded this afternoon, the results for Vancouver-Quilchena in the BC provincial elections 2013 are as follows:

-Andrew Wilkinson / BC Liberals: 14,496 votes, 64.32%
-Nicholas Scapillati / BC NDP: 5,705 votes, 25.31%
-Damian Kettlewell / BC Green Party: 1,667 votes, 7.40%
-Bill Clarke / BC Conservatives: 671 votes, 2.98%

22,539 people out of 37,501 registered voters went to the polls in Quilchena, which corresponds to a turnout of 60.1 %.
The turnout in B.C. is estimated to be 57.8 %.

Bill Clarke meets Franz Kafka: Vancouver campaign chair

Bill Clarke. Photo: courtesy of BC Conservative Party

*** updated with Elections BC reply***

As the BC provincial elections are only a day away, one of Quilchena’s candidates will go to bed tonight with a form of not-so-mild chagrin.

Dear readers, I am currently traveling in Europe, but I received an email in my inbox I wanted to share with you. I already mentioned in my profile of BC Conservative candidate Bill Clarke that he and his team were planning legal actions against Elections BC, as a clerical error resulted in Clarke’s name to appear on the ballot.

It looks like their fight was tilting at windmills. Don Main, communications manager of Elections BC, confirmed:
“The BC Conservative party did not include Bill Clarke’s name on the List of Candidate Endorsements submitted to Elections BC by the close of nominations.  His name will be on the ballot with no party affiliation.”

Below is a reproduction of the letter by Rick Peterson, campaign manager, about his view on the situation.

Meanwhile, I wish all Quilchena residents and candidates a fair and well-attended election day.

Katja De Bock 

Meet Andrew Wilkinson, BC Liberals candidate in Vancouver-Quilchena

Andrew Wilkinson. Photo: BC Liberal Party

Meeting Andrew Wilkinson can be intimidating. The BC Liberals candidate for Vancouver-Quilchena is a tall man in his early fifties, looking like a self-confident leader in spite of his boyish freckles. Moreover, Wilkinson is a political heavyweight, a former deputy minister and party president. Oh, and did I mention he is also a medical doctor and a lawyer?

On the podium, Wilkinson is a polite gentleman and eloquent speaker. And he is competitive.

“Can we turn up the lights?” is the first thing Wilkinson says when