Tuesday, May 30 - Searchers. Rescuers. People.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 | ☀️ High 19C | Forecast

Good morning!

I have this problem where, upon seeing someone do anything particularly cool or interesting, I have to try it. I’ve heard it referred to as the “how-hard-could-it-be?” gene. I blame it for my brief experiment with spoken-word poetry in high school. It’s not all tragic results: it led me to take up snowboarding, and I built a pretty nice bookshelf last summer. But disaster awaits on the horizon. I saw a stand-up comedy show in Vancouver last weekend. It was funny, but not so much so that a tiny part of me wasn’t whispering “how hard could it be?”

Thanks to Fraser Valley Current Insider members Harriet, Angie, and John! Find out how to become a member here.

NEWS

Volunteer superheroes

Adam Laurie texted his wife that she wouldn’t be able to reach him.

For how long? He couldn’t say. But he would contact her when he was safe. Someone was lost north of Agassiz and authorities had called for the help of Laurie and his colleagues with the Chilliwack Search and Rescue team.

“It was a very memorable call,” he recalled recently. “It was one of those calls where you got to use all your technical skills that you’ve trained for.”

The weather was terrible and the search would last for days. But the group in danger was eventually located in the Chehalis River canyon.

The rescue would require the use of a helicopter and what Laurie called a “hover exit” out of the aircraft into the steep canyon. The extraction of the first person was simple. The second was not. That person had fallen into a steep gully.

“I had to climb up to get to where she was, and then wait there with her until we can get some more equipment flown all the way in… to extricate her out and raft her down a canyon and then put her in the helicopter.”

It wasn’t entirely a happy ending. A third rescue was for the recovery of a body.

• Today, Joti writes about one of the province’s busiest and most skilled search and rescue teams and how its volunteers manage their mental health after traumatic moments.

Need to know

🚚 A semi-truck struck an overpass, burst into flames and shut down Highway 1 for hours between Abbotsford and Chilliwack [CTV]

🏇 The Thunderbird Show Park in Langley will host an international horsemanship tournament for the sixth year [Langley Advance Times]

📻️ An Aldergrove woman won a $60,000 prize from a radio contest [Aldergrove Star]

🏃 1,300 runners raced in Abbotsford’s Run for Water on Sumas Mountain last weekend [Abbotsford News]

🚧 Rock scaling work will close the Campbell hiking trail in the Harrison area [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉️ The annual battle has begun for Chilliwack’s ugliest lawn, a contest the city runs to promote water conservation [City of Chilliwack]

🚓 Instead of ranting on Facebook, Cultus Lake-area residents should call the cops when they see illegally parked cars this summer, their FVRD representative said [Chilliwack Progress]

🛶 Several adventurers were rescued on Harrison Lake on May Long Weekend [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🛍️ M&M Food Market is undertaking an aggressive coast-to-coast expansion, wanting you to grow alongside with them. Learn more about opening a franchise in Abbotsford or Mission.*

*Sponsored Listing

SPONSORED BY FORT LANGLEY JAZZ FESTIVAL

Jazz legends open Fort Langley Jazz Fest

Kick off the 2023 Odlum Brown Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival with a concert you won’t forget, featuring Phil Dwyer’s Connections Quartet.

Phil Dwyer’s Connections Quartet brings together premier musicians in a one-of-a-kind concert including JUNO-award winner, saxophonist and pianist, Phil Dwyer; Juno-award winner Brad Turner on trumpet and piano; renowned international drummer Alan Jones; and Phil’s son, Ben Dwyer on bass.

The quartet will perform new and other works from over 40 years of playing in various configurations together. This illustrious group of artists will perform as two trios and a quartet, all in one with Phil and Brad taking turns at the piano with their alter egos performing on saxophone and trumpet.

Thursday, Jul. 20 7-10pm at Chief Sepass Theatre! Get your tickets here.

The Agenda

Hope supports Pride banner at town hall

Hope council agreed Monday that a rainbow Pride banner could be displayed at the town hall, and that any other district-owned property could display a flag and hang a banner. The clarification surrounding the district’s consideration of the colourful emblem came after the council voted against raising the pride flag two months ago.

Tenants in district-owned properties were explicitly allowed to fly Pride flags after the council’s last vote on the subject on May 23. The town hall could display a banner.

The distinction between a flag and a banner comes down to available space. Councillors objected to removing a federal, municipal, or provincial flag and replacing it with a pride flag for the month of June. The town hall has four flagpoles—two with district insignia, one with the provincial crest, and the other with a federal one. Council deemed that a banner tied to the side of the building, or hanging from the roof or a railing, would be acceptable.

Other district-owned buildings, including the tourism centre, fire hall, art gallery, and health centre could choose to fly flags or hang banners. AdvantageHope, the town’s tourism agency, and the art gallery have already expressed interest in doing so.

Hope doesn’t have rules about what flags fly where. The closest the small town has to an official flag policy is its rules surrounding proclamations: simply, it doesn’t do them. Proclamations are a way that a city or town council honours a group or individual. Hope stopped performing them in 2006 amid concerns that it could accidentally violate human rights.

This policy was cited in the council’s March decision not to fly the Pride flag at city hall. Councillors cited concerns for fairness and equality with other groups—and the legal concern that could arise from not honouring everyone equally.

Coun. Scott Medlock wasn’t at the meeting in March, and he was disappointed by the council’s last decision—and glad it was back on the table this week.

The town’s value statements, he said, which are “about being bold and inclusive and courageous. All things I want to be a part of.”

He also took issue with the council giving direction to AdvantageHope, an independent tourism agency operating in district-owned space, on the matter.

“While that is a district property, they are independent, an arms-length organization first by design,” Medlock said. “I was disappointed that the mayor told them specifically, ‘No you can’t do that.’”

Mayor Victor Smith said that he had understood the original motion to mean a pride flag would be flown at all district properties, not at any district properties, and apologized for the confusion.

Things to do

🥍 Lacrosse game: The Langley Thunder host the New Westminster Salmonbellies in Western Lacrosse Association action at the Langley Events Centre on Wednesday evening. Tickets online.

🧑‍🎨 Arts and culture: The Chilliwack Arts & Cultural Society celebrates its 2023-24 season Tuesday (this evening) with entertainment, information booths, and a featured arts exhibition. More details online.

🏕️ Music festival: Forest Echoes Music Festival will feature 15 musical acts in in Cultus Lake starting this Friday. On-site camping is available. Tickets and more info online.

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