Wednesday - March 27, 2024 - Rebel in sweat pants

🌧 High 9C

Good morning!

It’s been a while since I did a culture recommendation intro so let’s do a Tyler Reviews Things lightning round.

• Strange Dogs: Loved it!

• Ted Lasso: Like it a bunch, just started third season

• Manhunt: Interesting and entertaining so far

• Killers of the Flower Moon: Good

• Holdovers: Very good

• American Fiction: Great!

• Oppenheimer: Good, though not as good as the incredible biography it’s based on

• Watching Vancouver Canucks games once again: I’m shocked at my relative optimism; I still am not “optimistic” that all will turn out happy.

Bit of housekeeping: We’re going to move our Now Hiring section to our Monday newsletter for a bit more weekly balance.

– Tyler

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Why to let kids pick their own grades

An “undercover rebel in jeans, glasses, and a big mug of coffee.”

That’s Bill Henderson, according to an FVC reader who told us about Henderson when we asked for stories of teachers who made a difference in kid’s lives.

You can find stories on two dozen such teachers here and here.

Henderson was a longtime woodworking and tech teacher at Robert Bateman Secondary School in Abbotsford. He won a national teaching award, was consulted by provincial officials on curriculum development, and helped nurture a legion of students who would advance to high-paying gigs at major companies. (One reader and former Bateman student remembers seeing a line of expensive sports cars parked outside the school; they were all owned by past students who had advanced to high paying careers.)

But Henderson also made a difference at a smaller, more personal level.

Another reader, Katherine, wrote that Henderson was known for teaching life skills and making school a fun place to go. He had a policy where all his students “graded themselves”—but then had to justify those grades. And he also was known for creating safe spaces for gay students and for pushing back against homophobic jokes.

• Henderson is now retired and living on an acreage in Alberta, but we recently called him up to hear more about bucking trends, connecting with students, working in—and around—an inflexible school system, and the joys of teaching shop class.

Need to Know

🚑 An inmate was assaulted by multiple attackers at Kent Institution [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

⭕ The Trans Mountain Pipeline is nearly complete but the company is still trying to resolve an ‘obstruction’ between Chilliwack and Hope [CP/CityNews]

🚨 The parents of a young Langley man killed in a crash following a police incident said they want to know what happened [CTV]

⚛ Chilliwack high school students won gold medals at a provincial science competition [Chilliwack Progress]

🩺 Family doctors are hard to come by because physicians are turning to other specialties [CBC]

⚖ A witness testified that a Langley man was killed by a crossbow after being told to leave another man’s camp [Langley Advance Times]

👏 Two Abbotsford News reporters are finalists for community newspaper awards [Abbotsford News]

🔊 Better cross-border communication could better protect abused children, a judge says [CBC]

🍝 Vote for your favourite restaurants in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Langley in the Georgia Straight’s 2024 Golden Plates! Vote for your city-specific favourites here.

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The Agenda

MEI expansion greenlit by ALC

Mennonite Educational Institute in Abbotsford will be allowed to expand its secondary and elementary schools, the Agricultural Land Commission has ruled.

MEI wants to build a three-storey addition for its high school and a smaller extension for its elementary school to create a preschool area. It would also add parking and a new bus loop. The school is located on Downes Road, just north of the city’s urban core and because it was created on farmland (with the permission of the Agricultural Land Commission 45 years ago), it needs the ALC’s sign-off for any expansion.

A previous expansion in the ’90s received such permission, and now the ALC has again given its thumbs-up to growing the school. The ALC approved the expansion because, it says, the proposed additions occur on land already developed by the school—mostly parking lots—and which have little prospect for future farm use. Building on the affected areas “will not significantly impact the property,” the commission said.

Pickleball facility bound for Landing site

Yesterday we reported on Chilliwack’s plans for a 10-court $4 million indoor pickleball facility. Request-for-qualification documents didn’t include the location for the new complex, but the city told The Current yesterday that the new facility will be built at the Landing. With space increasingly at a premium at the site, that likely means a parking lot will be replaced by the new court complex. Previous plans had a court facility being built immediately next to the Landing Leisure Centre.

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📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Think you know where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form.

🗓 Things to do

Dr. Strangelove: The Hope Film Club hosts a showing of Dr. Strangelove March 27 at the New Hope Cinema. Tickets online.

Rockin’ for Ukraine: Abbotsford classic rock band New Variant plays a concert to raise money for Hope for the Nations Romania and its work in Ukraine April 5 at the Abbotsford Arts Centre Addition. Tickets online.

David Gogo: Canadian bluesman David Gogo plays two shows at Bozzini’s in Chilliwack March 30. The early show is sold out but a few tickets remain for the second gig. Details online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

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