Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Three of 22 conditions put on the Kensington development by the Comox Strathcona Regional District came under fire from yet another level of government that said their toes were being stepped on. Caveats about water, road standards and the fire department riled the Union Bay Improvement District, which asked the Minister of Community Service to clarify jurisdiction between them and the district.
"Is this legal?" UBID chair Dave Godfrey said. "Is this allowed under the government act? Morally and legally, is this right?"
Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A CFB Comox helicopter plucked four Washington men from the deck of a Polish trawler after their sailboat capsized off Tofino. The 31-foot trimaran 3D was in the Van Isle 360 race and was southbound about 90 miles north-northwest of Tofino when it overturned. The crew was thrown overboard but not injured. They managed to salvage signal flares and survival gear from inside the vessel. They scrambled onto the hulls to wait for help.
An Aurora aircraft eventually spotted the craft.
Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
"The weak need the strong to heal and the strong need the weak to discover their humanity," Jean Vanier told about 600 people at G.P. Vanier Secondary.
Canadian and international humanitarian Vanier was greeted with a standing ovation. He is the son of former governor general of Canada George P. Vanier, after whom the Courtenay school is named.
Jean Vanier is the founder of the worldwide network of L'Arche communities, Christian-based homes for people with physical and mental disabilities and those who assist them.
Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Fighting words were flying over fluoridation at Courtenay council. But in the end, alderman Bill McConochie's attempt to reverse council's opposition was shot down in flames.
"Who are you, or anybody else, to tell me or force me to drink water you're putting stuff in?" alderman Jim Odo said after listening to McConochie's testimonials and fervour for the benefits of fluoridation. "I say we go to referendum and let the people decide."
McConochie was the only member at the meeting in favour of continuing to fluoridate the water supply and against a regional referendum.
Twenty five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Former mine workers, politicians and visitors gathered in Cumberland on the first Workers' Memorial Day in B.C.
The Village was home to hundreds of miners who for more than 100 long years toiled in Lord Dunsmuir's mines, among the most dangerous in Canada. When the mines closed in 1964, 295 miners had died, including 64 in an underground explosion in 1901.
To honour the dead, a cairn was unveiled at the entrance at the No. 6 Mine site.
A cairn was also dedicated at the Chinese and Japanese cemetery and at the Cumberland memorial cemetery.
A wreath was laid at the foot of the grave of Ginger Goodwin, the mine organizer and labour martyr who was shot to death by a Dominion police officer in Cumberland in 1918.
