Every Friday we feature Valley history taken from our back issues.
Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A Courtenay-based charity started a new campaign in honour of World AIDS Day. 2Wheels 1World raises money and awareness for humanitarian causes around the globe through bicycle touring, founder Ryan Parton said. Its inaugural campaign, Ride Africa, was a 3,500-kilometre ride through the heart of southern Africa.
Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
‘Six bucks sucks…six bucks sucks,’ about 50 teenagers chanted during a lunch time rally outside MLA Stan Hagen’s office.
The teens, mainly Vanier and Highland students, protested a new $6-per-hour training wage that became law Nov. 15. The $6 wage could be paid for the first 50 hours of work for first-time employees, after which it jumped to the $8 minimum.
Hagen said the law was designed to encourage employers to hire young people rather than experienced workers, but protesters said there was nothing in the law preventing layoffs after 499 hours, after which another first-timer could be hired.
Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Pennies for Presents sponsored by The Record was going so well that volunteers did not have enough time to count incoming coins. Staff hoped to create an avalanche of aid for less fortunate families over Christmas.
Common cents donations continued to arrive at the office and other locales.
“The wonderful thing is that this is a campaign everyone can contribute to,” Salvation Army business manager Bob Cole said.
Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A controversial golf course pitched for Lake Trail Road was sunk at the first hole by the B.C. Supreme Court.
Miffed by a bylaw ruling out golf courses on rural land, Cougar Run Golf and Resort Ltd. led an alliance of companies that took the regional district to court. Lawyer Richard Swift argued the Agricultural Land Commission had given the course the green light by the time the project was halted.
The board made exceptions for other courses, but ruled against Cougar Run, he said, adding developers had invested about $275,000. But Justice Hutchinson upheld an argument by lawyer Grant Anderson, who said money and time invested did not fill the legal requirement for work on the land.
Twenty five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
IWA workers went back to work after the longest and costliest strike in the province’s history. Union members in the Comox Valley, Campbell River and Kelsey Bay voted 60 per cent to accept the contract. By contrast, returns from other locals showed a solid majority accepting a new contract that put a freeze on contracting out, the most serious issue in the 20-week dispute.
