March 2019
• Jack Lawrence experienced a century of living, born on March 1, 1919 in his parents’ home in Hope. The only time he left for a while was when he went away to serve in the Canadian Army for a spell.
To honour both the momentous occasion, and the years of service Lawrence gave, the local Legion hosted a public party for his 100th birthday. He passed away later in the year, just three months shy of his 101st birthday.
READ MORE: Local veteran celebrates 100th birthday
• Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon MP Jati Sidhu chose to apologize in the House of Commons just hours after he told The Abbotsford News that the former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould wasn’t “a team player” and that her father may be “pulling the strings.”
Sidhu’s comments had drawn criticism from political opponents and observers from across the country, with both NDP and Conservative MPs calling them “misogynistic.”
Wilson-Raybould’s father is a hereditary chief who took a prominent role in constitutional talks with Pierre Trudeau in the 1980s.
• When a backcountry skier went missing at Zoa Peak just off Hwy. 5, Hope Search and Rescue went into high gear. The local team was soon joined by members from Chilliwack SAR, Nicola Valley SAR, Kent/Harrison SAR, and the Central Fraser Valley SAR, along with helicopter pilots from Valley Helicopters. After an eventful 15 hours, the HSAR team was happy to announce they’d achieved the “best outcome ever” when finally managing to rescue the skier.
• The Fraser-Cascade School District (SD 78) got some energy and safety upgrades this year thanks to funding announced by the British Columbia Ministry of Education in March. Rob Fleming, Minister of Education, announced $206 million will flow from the ministry to schools across the province, a $20.6 million increase from last year. For its share of the funding announced, SD 78 got nearly $1.2 million, used towards flooring upgrades and replacing rooftop air units at Hope Secondary School, as well as replacing the unit ventilators and air conditioning compressors at Boston Bar Elementary.
• The first annual Women of Distinction Awards was held by the Hope and Area Transition Society (HATS) in March. After putting forward a call for nomination, the society was inundated with dozens of names. However, five women were singled out as winners of the award.
This year’s awards went to Diane Ferguson, Pauline Svensrud, Jill Last, Katherine Freimark and Stephanie Hooker.
• Fred Robinson was honoured by the province of British Columbia for the 50 years he spent as a volunteer firefighter in different communities around the province, including Hope.
A heavy equipment operator by trade, Robinson says he got his start as a volunteer firefighter in Sayward, which is a small village about an hour north of Campbell River. “Then in Harrison, and Agassiz until I moved up here to Hope 20 years ago,” said the 82-year-old.
In addition to being a volunteer firefighter, Robinson was also one of the founding members of the Kent Search and Rescue (SAR) team.
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