29 YEARS AGO (1991): The threat of a total schools closure here increased, as both sides in the teachers’ contract dispute rattled some sabres. About 400 teachers met here to discuss the board’s final contract offer. Following their bargaining committee’s recommendation, teachers voted to reject the offer and then approved a plan of escalating job action, including half-day study sessions and one-day rotating walkouts. In response, the school district issued a 72-hour lockout notice. “Right now it’s just formality,” said Fred Harkies, the school district’s secretary-treasurer.
25 YEARS AGO (1995): Representatives from the B.C. treaty Commission toured the Cariboo to consult with residents on the treaty issues and open up lines of communication prior to starting negotiations with First Nations. “The First Nations who are participating in the process have not advanced their coverage very far, so we have an opportunity to get in front of the treaty process and start a consultation and communications program,” said provincial negotiations, Gordon Douglas. One of the mission’s objectives was to address the misconception about the effect the claims will have on communities.
22 YEARS AGO (1998): Half the doctors who serve the 100 Mile House hospital planned to resign from the emergency room on-call schedule on March 15. Five of the nine doctors who provided emergency coverage decided to withdraw their services to draw government attention to problems of burnout facing rural doctors. Their job action joins service withdrawal by doctors in the Burns Lake area. Doctors in the Elk Valley also planned to withdraw services on March 15 from both the emergency and in in-patient care.
18 YEARS AGO (2002): A group of nearly 200 people braved the cold over the weekend to take part in the ArmaGORDON Prevention Committee rally. Participants met at the lower parking lot of the 100 Mile and District Hospital for a march to the South Cariboo Visitors Centre on Highway 97. Many carried signs critical of the government’s cuts to services and jobs since it came to power last year. Once rally participants had gathered, several speakers addressed the audience to express their views on the cuts, and to urge Gordon Campbell and his cabinet to take a closer look at the impacts on their cuts.
10 YEARS AGO (2010): The Watoto Children’s Choir from East Africa was set to come to 100 Mile House. Touring the globe since 1994 to raise funds and awareness for the Watoto Children’s Homes in Uganda, the choir was working its way across Canada and was set to perform at the 100 Mile Baptist Church on March 5. A previous visit from the choir yielded an audience of 300 people wanting to hear the melodious children. Watoto was founded by Canadians Gary and Marilyn Skinner in 1994 to address Uganda’s orphan and AIDS crisis.
