Darcy David Cole, 29, died early Saturday when the car he was driving collided with a light standard at Blanshard Street and Cloverdale Avenue about 2:30 a.m. About 30 seconds earlier, a Victoria police officer had spotted the car speeding at the intersection of Quadra Street and Hillside Avenue and tried to pull it over, according to a report given to the Independent Investigations Office, which looks into deaths and injuries that might be police-related.

“I talked to him Friday night. He was at home and in good spirits,” said his mother, Patricia Cole, in tears at her home on Tuesday. “It was the last time he said, ‘I love you.’ ”

Cole didn’t find out about her son’s death until Sunday morning when she got a visit from two officers from the Independent Investigations Office. She, her daughter and grandson had been stuck in traffic near the crash scene Saturday afternoon but had no idea Darcy had died there hours earlier. He was not carrying identification and was later identified by fingerprints, Cole said.

While Darcy had brushes with the law in the past, he had recently become determined to make a fresh start, his mother said. He moved in with his father and started his own window-cleaning business. Previous reports that he was wanted by police at the time of his death were incorrect.

“He had his demons but he was human just like anybody else,” Cole said. “He was an awesome kid.”

She lit up when she described how she took Darcy to the Inner Harbour causeway as a baby in a stroller to watch the jugglers.

“He was totally mesmerized,” she said. One of the performers he loved to watch, known as Red the Juggler, became Darcy’s mentor when he was 12 years old and taught him how to juggle and perform.

Darcy was a familiar face in the Inner Harbour for much of his life and an early entrepreneur. When he was 10, he caught crabs with a trap off Fisherman’s Wharf and sold them to tourists. As a teen, he worked the 24-hour concession stand in the Inner Harbour, sometimes on the night shift. He’d wear a sharp button-up shirt for his juggling shows, which always drew a crowd.

“Everyone knew him down there. Darcy was pretty much raised by the busker community,” said Dan, an acquaintance who didn’t want his last name used. He described Darcy as mischievous, charismatic and gregarious, “a natural performer who reminded me of a young W.C. Fields.”

Friend Katrina Kennedy said she knew Darcy as a “good guy with a big heart.” She met him through his girlfriend a few months ago, and remembers watching him juggle when she was a kid. When she saw him recently at a gathering on Willows Beach, he was happy and teaching friends magic tricks, she said.

Messages of condolence and memories were posted Tuesday to the Facebook page Rest in Peace Darcy Cole, with photos of him juggling, as a child and holding his infant nephew.

As family members dealt with conflicting emotions of grief, anger and disappointment in how Darcy was portrayed in the media, they planned his memorial.

His sister took photos and posters to the intersection where Darcy was killed. His mother worked on the funeral, hoping to have it at the Church of Latter Day Saints, in their Mormon tradition. And his father scoured Darcy’s things to find his last gift to his son — a treasured black Adidas track suit. They hoped to have him cremated in it.

“I still can’t believe this is happening. I keep expecting him to walk in or call,” Patricia Cole said. “He just wanted to have a normal life and now he won’t get that chance.”

The investigation into the crash is ongoing. Once the Independent Investigations Office completes its probe, the findings will be forwarded to the chief civilian director. If the report determines an offence occurred, it will be forwarded to Crown counsel to pursue charges. This is the watchdog’s first investigation in Greater Victoria since being formed last year.

spetrescu@timescolonist.com

Last year was the first year a majority of Greater Victorians surveyed reported they did not water their lawn, ]]> Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:56:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:41:35 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325312.1371618689!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-sprinkler-9551-jpg.jpg 240 181 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325312.1371618689!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-sprinkler-9551-jpg.jpg 1114 839 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325312.1371618689!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-sprinkler-9551-jpg.jpg 124 83 Victorians’ summer love affair with lush, green lawns is on the wane.

Last year was the first year a majority of Greater Victorians surveyed reported they did not water their lawn, according to a report going to the Capital Regional District water commission today.

Among those who do water their lawns, nine out of 10 do so at the frequency permitted by the watering bylaw or less, according to the annual survey.

It’s a far cry from 2001, when the notion of lawn- watering restrictions was so foreign to Victorians that the CRD hired half a dozen students to look for scofflaws and remind them of the strict conservation measures that were brought on by a drought.

“I really think you’ve got a generation that has taken this to heart,” said Mervyn Lougher-Goodey, a Sidney councillor who chairs the CRD water commission.

“They know the grass is going to come back. They’re putting in drought-tolerant plants. They’ve bought in.”

Lougher-Goodey said he waters his lawn using an irrigation system timed to kick in according to the restrictions.

“But I’ll bet you I’m the only guy watering my lawn on my street. Everybody else has just got brown lawns and there’s a real cross-section of population here — a lot of working folks who don’t have the time or interest and a lot of younger folks who can control their water bills [by reducing water use].”

Saanich Coun. Dean Murdock, the commission’s vice-chairman, said he’s not surprised at the shift.

“Last summer, I saw brown lawns all over the place. You see them in our parks. You see them on our boulevards,” Murdock said. “I think there’s been a considerable shift in the way people think.”

The CRD has been conducting its residential water survey since the 1990s, annually interviewing about 500 residents by telephone on their attitudes and practices regarding water use.

Among the findings for 2012:

• Residents are satisfied with the quality of drinking water. The number of residents drinking tap water has increased from 35 per cent and 40 per cent in 2004 and 2008 respectively, to 50 per cent in 2012.

• A majority (85 per cent) support the water-conservation bylaw. The proportion of residents who use outdoor water-efficiency practices is increasing.

• There is an upward trend in households with low-flow toilets, and water-efficient dishwashers and laundry machines.

Lougher-Goodey said he’s “flabbergasted” that only 50 per cent of those surveyed said they drink tap water. “I thought it would be more like 90 per cent,” he said.

Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen, who was water commission chairman in 2001, said he’s not surprised residents have adopted the conservation ethic, but it might have happened more quickly than he expected. “We’re a city of gardens but not necessarily a city of lawns.”

The CRD has maintained that conservation measures are necessary, even in years with a good water supply, to ingrain water-saving habits that are essential in drought years. Restricting use also means there’s less need for an expensive expansion of the water system.

Ironically, because less water was being sold, revenue dropped. That led to higher water bills in order to pay for the cost of running the water system.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

After the bridge ]]> Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:29:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:38:59 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325067.1371594633!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/wamve101-617-2013-064443-high-jpg.jpg 240 153 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325067.1371594633!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/wamve101-617-2013-064443-high-jpg.jpg 1114 711 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325067.1371594633!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/wamve101-617-2013-064443-high-jpg.jpg 124 83 MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - A temporary bridge over the Skagit River will reopen today, restoring Interstate 5 traffic less than a month after the old bridge collapsed.

After the bridge collapsed on May 23, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee set a goal of restoring it by mid-June. He went to Mount Vernon on Tuesday to inspect the span and praised workers for completing in days what normally would have taken months.

The temporary span will carry 99 per cent of I-5 traffic, said Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. Oversized and overweight loads will still be detoured.

At 24-feet wide, the 160-foot temporary section is narrower than the old bridge and traffic will have to slow to 40 mph.

Still, staying on I-5 should be a relief to drivers who have lined up to detour through Mount Vernon and Burlington on the main highway for trade and tourism between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. That section of freeway is used by 71,000 vehicles a day.

The temporary bridge pieces were supplied by Acrow Bridge through an emergency contract the Transportation Department signed with Atkinson Construction.

The temporary span and a permanent replacement due this fall will cost nearly $18 million. The federal Transportation Department is paying for all but about $1 million of the work.

The Max Kuney construction company of Spokane was selected Tuesday for the permanent replacement, Peterson said.

The 58-year-old bridge is being restored not replaced. It will still be rated as "functionally obsolete" because it was not designed to handle today's traffic volume and big trucks. It's also "Fracture critical," meaning that if a single, vital component is compromised, the bridge can crumple again.

The driver of the oversized truck felt crowded by another southbound semi-truck on the bridge and the load struck a girder, causing one section of the bridge to fall, a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report said. A final NTSB report on the cause of the bridge failure is likely months away.

A car and pickup truck went into the water and three people were rescued.

]]> Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:27:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:41:56 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325393.1371619830!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-microscope-2737-jpg.jpg 240 160 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325393.1371619830!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-microscope-2737-jpg.jpg 1114 743 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.325393.1371619830!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-microscope-2737-jpg.jpg 124 83 The University of Victoria’s one-of-a-kind microscope is winning global interest from academics and businesses keen to find out what secrets the high-resolution device can reveal.

Workshops to train scientists studying everything from medicine to engineering on how to use the ultra-sensitive microscope are expected to start this fall.

“We have bragging rights. We have the highest resolution in the world,” Elaine Humphrey, manager of UVic’s Advance Microscope Facility, said Tuesday.

UVic scientists are learning how to use the new Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope, or STEHM.

The seven-tonne, 4.5-metre-tall microscope, with a footprint of six square metres, exposes subatomic objects at a magnification of up to 20 million times larger than what a human eye can see.

It uses an electron beam and holography techniques to study surfaces and the insides of materials. Gold atoms have already been viewed at a resolution of 35 picometres — a pictometre is one trillionth of a metre — and Humphrey said the microscope will be able to reach higher resolutions.

The microscope is in a $1.2-million specially designed basement room in the Bob Wright Centre Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences on campus. The temperature-controlled room protects the microscope from electromagnetic waves and vibration.

It was built in Japan by Hitachi and moved to Germany for further work before arriving in parts at UVic a year ago. It has been assembled and tested.

Workshops for users could start in the fall, Humphrey said. The cost to attend a workshop has not yet been determined. This microscope has attracted international attention.

Academics will be the main users, she said. Departments that will be interested include chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering, bio-chemistry, biology and physics. The easiest way for students to get access to the microscope is to work in a lab with a professor, she said.

Businesses interested include Redlen Technologies, a Victoria firm manufacturing high-resolution radiation detectors used in applications such as nuclear cardiology and baggage scanning. Another UVic scientist is working on fuel cell research with Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems, Mercedes-Benz and the National Research Council.

“It has all kinds of new technologies in it,” Humphrey said. For example, when examining electrons, the better the vacuum, the better the resolution. The STEHM’s vacuum is between that of the moon and of space.

A typical transmission electron microscope has 20 electro-magnetic lenses to make the beam round. This one has 65, Humphrey said. Resolution improves with the roundness of a beam.

Its electron vortex beam allows researchers to move atoms around like a pair of tweezers.

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation, B.C. Knowledge Development Fund and UVic contributed $9.2 million. Hitachi contributed in-kind support.

Rodney Herring, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of UVic’s Advanced Microscopy Facility, spearheaded the move to acquire the microscope, starting his efforts in 2002.

“The STEHM will be used by local, regional, national and international scientists and engineers for a plethora of research projects relevant to the advancement of mankind,” said Herring, who has been testing the microscope.

“This enables us to see the unseen world.”

UVic is showcasing the microscope at the Microscopical Society of Canada conference running to Thursday. A public information session will be held Thursday from 4:30 to 5 p.m. at UVic’s Bob Wright Centre in Flury Hall.

On the Web: stehm.uvic.ca

Begun in October at a cost of $75,000, the “service delivery and organizational review” was conducted by Maximus Canada. It was supposed to be finished months ago in time for council’s budget deliberations.

After delays — primarily because the consultant was said to be having difficulty in finding accurate comparable costs with other municipalities — council expects to have the review within the next two weeks.

Councillors are reluctant to speculate on whether the review could lead to layoffs, though they are expecting to receive the report in-camera because of potential staffing implications.

Layoffs are “absolutely” a concern, said John Burrows, president of CUPE Local 50, which represents about 700 city workers.

“My view of core reviews is that they’re designed to not have public-sector workers delivering public-sector services,” Burrows said.

Similar reviews undertaken throughout the province seem to focus on the delivery of recreation services, he said.

“I don’t know how you can deliver the services we do any cheaper in the private sector than we already do in the public sector — certainly not delivering the quality of it.”

But Burrows says there has been a lot of talk about the condition of geriatric city-owned sports facilities such as Crystal Pool and Royal Athletic Park, where changes or closure could affect hundreds of CUPE workers.

The organizational review comes as Victoria struggles to limit property tax increases to 3.25 per cent a year until 2015. That target was set in 2012 and required about $6 million in budget cuts.

Council has approved a budget for 2013 and is considering a variety of options ranging from partial automation of parkades to limiting police increases over the next two years.

Victoria Coun. Lisa Helps said she wasn’t sure budget efficiencies could be found without layoffs. But, she said, the city is not in the business of employing people.

“We’re in the business of delivering quality services to our residents and we need to find the best ways to deliver those,” Helps said. “The current way we deliver services and the number of services we deliver isn’t sustainable.”

Coun. Shellie Gudgeon said any recommendations in the report won’t necessarily mean layoffs.

“In any organization of our size, efficiencies can be found,” Gudgeon said.

“I think our staff work very hard. But I think we can empower them and I think there are duplications taking place, as in any organization.”

At Helps’s urging, council last April unanimously approved moving to a three-year budget cycle. While the 2013 budget has been set, budget discussions for the coming two years were put on hold pending the organizational review.

Now that it’s complete, Helps said, she is “hell-bent and determined” to finish budgeting through 2015 by the end of September.

“Great, we’ve got the review. Let’s finish the budget. Let’s finish the budget for 2014 and 2015 as we committed to doing,” she said.

“And then, come January, we won’t, yet again, do this budget dance. We’ll actually be focusing on getting some things delivered.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

The mayor of Toronto can’t shake lurid stories of gangsters and crack.

But here in Bureaucracy-By-The-Sea?

]]> Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:17:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:42:27 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.27710.1355473803!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/jack-knox.jpg 240 160 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.27710.1355473803!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/jack-knox.jpg 1114 742 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.27710.1355473803!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/jack-knox.jpg 124 83 The mayor of Montreal just got busted for corruption.

The mayor of Toronto can’t shake lurid stories of gangsters and crack.

But here in Bureaucracy-By-The-Sea?

Not a sniff (or a snort) of malfeasance. Jeez, with 13 mayors you would think at least one of them could do something entertainingly scandalous.

These are not good days for the profession of politics. U.S. President Barack Obama has to explain why the IRS is targeting conservatives and, depending on your paranoia threshold, why the NSA is spying on everyone else. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Senate smells like a hog farm. Premier Christy Clark comes back to work for a day and immediately showers favoured insiders with taxpayers’ money.

That last one is what sent a Times Colonist reader into an uncharacteristic rage. One day after reading of the raises and jobs being handed out by the Liberals, she got a telephone call from a fundraiser thanking her for voting for Clark and asking for a $200 donation to the party. Remember, the caller told her, you’ll get a $125 income tax credit.

The 88-year-old reader, who doesn’t have an extra $200 to throw away on anything, let alone a party whose first act after re-election is to take care of itself, slammed down the phone, then called me.

She’s not alone in being angry about the way the Liberals rewarded insiders with taxpayers’ money. Funny, then, that relatively few people get worked up about the ongoing, indirect way in which all parties look after their friends at taxpayer expense, subsidizing donors in a way that makes charities green with envy: That $125 tax credit for a $200 political donation is $85 more than you would get for giving the same amount to a non-profit.

The figures vary from province to province, but the story is the same across Canada — people who give to political parties get a much bigger tax break than those who give to the United Way, or their church, or cancer research.

“Only a politician would think his party’s service is more valuable to society than a charity’s,” says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Jordan Bateman. “Basically, it’s an indirect subsidy of the political parties by the taxpayer.”

The parties are not shy about advertising the benefits to their friends. Go to a political fundraising function and a wall chart often explains the math: British Columbians get tax credits of up to $500 for donations to provincial parties. It works on a sliding scale: a $200 donation earns a tax break of $125, while a $500 gift brings a $275 credit.

Ottawa is even more generous, granting tax credits of up to $650 for donations to federal parties. A $200 donation earns a $150 tax credit, while a $500 contribution brings a $350 break.

Give that same $200 to charity, you’ll get a $40 tax credit. For a $500 donation, it’s just $171.

Attempts to reform political subsidies invariably benefit the party making the reforms. “None of them go the proper direction, which is to ratchet down the tax credit,” Bateman says. (Note that municipal politics survives with no tax credits at all.)

In the recent provincial election campaign, Adrian Dix promised a New Democrat government would ban donations from both (Liberal-friendly) business and (NDP-friendly) labour, something that sounded even-handed but would, Bateman contends, have hurt the Liberals more because of the form in which support is given. “Unions now give more in time than they do in money.”

In 2003, one of Liberal Jean Chrétien’s last acts as prime minister was to replace corporate and union donations with a $2 per vote subsidy. Once Harper won a majority in 2011, he quickly moved to phase out that scheme (no surprise, since the Conservatives are less dependent on the per vote money than are their rivals), which will be gone by the 2015 election.

If Harper were serious, he would get rid of another huge honey pot: Elections Canada refunds half the election expenses of federal parties and 60 per cent of the expenses of candidates — a total of roughly $56 million for the 2011 campaign. (There is no equivalent publicly funded campaign pool for provincial politicians.) How can a party that feels the need to cut the benefits of public servants, including Mounties, keep feeding itself out of this pork barrel?

That’s without even getting into the real question: Why should taxpayers subsidize political parties at all?

Information sheets, put together by Cetus ]]> Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:04:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:42:44 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.319678.1371067386!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/humpback-4-jpg.jpg 240 160 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.319678.1371067386!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/humpback-4-jpg.jpg 1114 743 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.319678.1371067386!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/humpback-4-jpg.jpg 124 83 Posters are going up at Vancouver Island marinas in areas where humpbacks have been spotted in an effort to avoid whale-boat collisions.

Information sheets, put together by Cetus Research and Conservation, the Northern Island Marine Mammal Stewardship Association and the Marine Education and Research Society, warn boaters to look out for signs that humpbacks are in the area.

Among the tips:

• Be on the lookout for blows at all times.

• Use caution when travelling at high speed.

• Ask marinas where humpbacks have been seen and reduce speed in those areas.

• If other boats are flying a flag depicting a whale tail, it means whales are nearby.

Humpbacks, which are moving back into Vancouver Island waters after being hunted almost to extinction, can surface unpredictably after dives of more than 15 minutes and often seem unaware of boats.

However, their blows can be two metres high and seen from a distance.

Last month, a Campbell River man was left with facial injuries and bumps and bruises after his boat collided with a humpback.

Humpbacks, which are listed as threatened, started returning to the area in 2004 and are now appearing regularly in Juan de Fuca Strait and farther north.

Any collisions should immediately be reported to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada marine mammal incident reporting line at 1-800-465-4336.

]]> Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:04:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:18:28 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324414.1371531006!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/arlington-wash-map-showing-where-xavier-pelletier-was-killed.jpg 240 135 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324414.1371531006!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/arlington-wash-map-showing-where-xavier-pelletier-was-killed.jpg 1114 628 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324414.1371531006!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/arlington-wash-map-showing-where-xavier-pelletier-was-killed.jpg 124 83 Donations to cancer research poured in Tuesday in the name of Xavier Pelletier, the Saanich teenager who died after being struck by a car during a charity bike ride on the weekend.

Xavier, 16, clipped another rider and fell into the path of an oncoming vehicle near Arlington, Wash., 65 kilometres south of Vancouver, according to police.

The Grade 10 student was riding the two-day, 200-kilometre Ride to Conquer Cancer from Vancouver to Seattle with his mother, Annette Halsted, and uncle, Trevor Halsted, 45, who has battled brain cancer.

Since Sunday’s accident, donations to Xavier’s personal page on the Ride to Conquer Cancer website have risen from $750 to more than $4,100.

“And people are cycling in his honour next year,” Annette Halsted said.

Halsted, a 48-year-old nurse, said she expected the family would retreat this week and heal with the support of family and close friends. She had thought some casseroles or flowers might be left at the door.

“I never expected this,” Halsted said of the generosity and support.

“I am overwhelmed.”

On Tuesday evening, the family was preparing the yard for a candlelight vigil organized by Xavier’s schoolmates from Pacific Christian School.

Meanwhile, family and friends are busy cooking, expecting as many as 1,000 people might attend Xavier’s funeral service on Saturday, 11 a.m. at Glad Tidings Church.

“A lot of good has come out of a horrible thing,” Halsted said.

The last time Halsted saw her son, Xavier was pedalling by her with a perfect flow and rhythm.

“He came up over that hill and he was on a natural high,” Halsted said.

The happiness on his face told her he’d be taking part in many more charity rides in years to come, she said.

The crash happened just moments later. Xavier’s uncle Trevor witnessed the accident.

Paramedics tried to revive Xavier for 40 minutes, police said, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

charnett@timescolonist.com

Investigators believe he may have been in Sooke June 12.

“Police have contacted all known associates of Dallon, as well as his family members, and nobody has seen or heard from him,” Eassie said.

“Based on the lack of contact, there is concern for Dallon’s well-being.”

Johnstone is white, six feet tall and 175 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes, and tattoos on his right and left arms.

Saanich police ask anyone with information on Johnstone’s whereabouts to contact Det. Const. Marco Berton at 250-475-4356. ]]> 1.325385 http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/langford-waives-300-000-in-taxes-fees-for-m-akola-housing-society-1.325385 Langford will waive more than $300,000 in taxes and fees facing the M’Akola Housing Society.

The society had planned to build 44 units of non-profit affordable rental housing at 554 ]]> Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:22:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:24:33 -0400 Langford will waive more than $300,000 in taxes and fees facing the M’Akola Housing Society.

The society had planned to build 44 units of non-profit affordable rental housing at 554 Goldstream Ave., which would have qualified for 100 per cent reduction of Development Cost Charges and amenity contributions.

But an exemption was needed after the society decided to relocate its offices to the site and build 36 residential units along with ground floor office space.

Waiving taxes and fees for office use is unusual, said Coun. Denise Blackwell, who chairs Langford’s planning, zoning and affordable housing committee.

“I don’t think we’ve ever forgiven the taxes for an office space before,” Blackwell said.

“But M’Akola has a couple of housing developments in Langford and they are a really good organization providing a good service to people without a lot of income. So we like to support them.”

In all, Langford decided to waive $42,047 in permit fees and amenity contributions as well as provide a grant tax holiday for 10 years on both the residential and commercial portions of the property, which is worth about $265,988.

The tax break is subject to the residential units staying affordable rentals and the office space remaining occupied by the M’Akola society.

Originally established in 1984 as a non-profit society, the M’Akola Housing Society’s goal is to provide affordable and appropriate houses, primarily for aboriginal people on Vancouver Island.

It currently manages about 372 units in Greater Victoria, the Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo and Port Alberni.

“It was a miracle he was here, so we were blessed with the 16 years we had him,” said Annette Halsted, 48, at her Saanich home.

Xavier Pelletier died in Arlington, Wash., 65 kilometres south of Vancouver, when he clipped another rider and fell into the path of an oncoming vehicle, according to police reports. The Grade 10 student was riding the 200-kilometre, two-day Ride to Conquer Cancer trek in honour of his uncle, Trevor Halsted, 45, who has battled brain cancer.

“He was only there for me,” Trevor Halsted said. “I saw it happen, it was horrendous.

“He should have come home with us last night. There’s no way to rationalize it. We were all just riding together having a wonderful day.”

Annette Halsted was farther behind in the pack and didn’t see the crash — a tragic accident for which no one, including the 50-year-old female driver of the car, can be blamed, she said.

Paramedics tried to revive Xavier for 40 minutes, police said, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The night prior to the accident, his mother said, “we laughed, we had dinner together.” Until the crash “it was just a wonderful day.”

The day Xavier was born — June 9, 1997 — in Campbell River Hospital, “it was touch and go,” Halsted said. The infant’s broad shoulders were stuck and there were only seconds to spare when he was delivered.

“They plunked him on my chest and he just started nursing right away,” Halsted said. “It was like he’d been there before.”

A photo of a robust Xavier, just four days old and sitting in his sister Jennifer’s arms, rested on the dining-room table as the family gathered Monday. Xavier’s father, Richard Pelletier, with whom Xavier snowmobiled during yearly visits, was on his way to Victoria from his home in Quebec.

The teen’s family described him as funny, loving, adventurous, athletic, fearless and mechanically-inclined.

Emergency crews at the scene Sunday mistakenly reported Xavier to be about 30 years old, said Trevor Halsted. “I said, ‘He’s only 16.’ ”

If Xavier, with his six-foot-one-inch frame and athletic build, looked older than his years, he also acted that way.

Annette Halsted raised her two children while working as a nurse at Mount St. Mary Hospital, and said Xavier never complained that his mom worked weekends and holidays — including Christmas.

At the age of two, his family recalled, Xavier told his mother to let the rain do her crying. And to his sister, he’d say “anger is a waste of time.”

When a Grade 8 boy at Pacific Christian School confided in Xavier he had no one to play with, Xavier committed to play basketball with him for 20 minutes every day.

Pacific Christian administration, staff and students were in mourning Monday. Exams were made optional. The principal could barely address the students for his tears, said Xavier’s sister.

“He was a well-liked and engaging young man,” says the school’s website. “His presence here at Pacific Christian School as a student and a young athlete competing in sailing, volleyball, rugby and most recently our TinMan Triathlon will be remembered for years to come. His legacy of generosity and faithfulness will inspire us all to serve better and love more deeply.”

Annette Halsted said her faith has grown amid an outpouring of support from the Pacific Christian community.

She sent her children there for its caring environment, she said. She told her children she would pay for a good education, sports and good food — for the rest, they’d “have to make do.”

It was those words that Xavier gave back to his mom as they prepared for their charity bike tour, beginning in Vancouver, during which they would have to camp in a tent. Annette Halsted was packing her pillow when Xavier told her she’d have to “make do” and roll up a towel to rest her head.

She said there’s consolation in knowing her son died doing something he loved and that he was having the time of his life on Sunday.

Xavier was riding a road bike, while his mother had borrowed her brother Nigel’s mountain bike. Xavier told his mother that next year, the two would swap bikes for the charity trek, so that “you’ll be up to speed with us.”

It’s a promise she aims to keep.

“Next year, I’ll ride his bike.”

ceharnett@timescolonist.com

The infinite variety of “striking and unusual pornography” available has a tremendous effect on people’s perception of sexuality, said organizer Doris Vincent, a semi-retired Victoria psychologist and sex therapist whose practice is now exclusively devoted to sex addiction.

“Too much means that the neurochemistry of the brain gets reset,” Vincent said. “And as with any drug, you need that drug to feel normal. And [eventually] you need more and more of it and it needs to be more and more extreme.”

Professional expertise is not keeping pace with the infinite variety of digital options fuelled by “the three A’s: anonymity, accessibility and affordability,” Vincent said in a statement.

Speakers include Gabor Maté, a B.C.-based addiction specialist; Robert Weiss, a frequent contributor on CNN; Cara Tripodi, who operates a U.S. treatment program for partners of sex addicts; and Harville Hendrix, author of Getting the Love You Want. ]]> 1.325355 http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/malahat-upgrades-continue-into-july-1.325355 The construction on the Malahat section of the Trans-Canada Highway will continue longer than expected.

The original completion date for the $8-million contract was set for June 30 ]]> Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:55:00 -0400 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:13:06 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.115793.1371618739!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-malahat-2301-jpg.jpg 240 173 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.115793.1371618739!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-malahat-2301-jpg.jpg 1114 804 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.115793.1371618739!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-malahat-2301-jpg.jpg 124 83 The construction on the Malahat section of the Trans-Canada Highway will continue longer than expected.

The original completion date for the $8-million contract was set for June 30 but has been pushed back three weeks to July 20.

Rock removal in the Shawnigan Lake Road area has been more challenging than expected, leading to delays, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said Tuesday in a statement. There have also been delays relocating utility lines.

The busiest time to travel north on the Malahat is Friday afternoon. Heading south, it’s Sunday afternoons. Traffic leading to and through the construction areas slows to a crawl at these times.

The improvements include widening sections of the Malahat to accommodate medians, a safety measure meant to reduce the number of head-on collisions.

In October, three Nanaimo women died in a crash on the 20-kilometre length of the Malahat. There have been 14 fatal crashes on the highway over the past 12 years.

The additional seven aircraft bring the total purchased by Vityaz to 11. The base price of a Twin Otter is about $6.5 million. Financial terms of the Vityaz deal were not disclosed.

Viking said the deal is its largest non-military order. The largest military order was from the Peruvian Air Force, which in 2011 bought 12 Twin Otters.

“We believe the Series 400 Twin Otter aircraft is ideally suited for the harsh operating environments in Russia, and we have been working with Vityaz since 2010 to develop the Russian market potential,” said Viking chief executive David Curtis, who announced the deal today at the Western Canada Reception during the Paris International Air Show. “We are pleased to see with this new order that the demand for the aircraft is strong and proving that our initial business case was valid.”

The aircraft are scheduled for delivery through 2015, and will be used to support remote communities in northern Russia.

The first Twin Otter will be delivered in time for the MAKS International Air Show in Moscow in August.

In an earlier interview, Curtis said the Paris International Air Show is a key moment on the calendar.

“It’s a world stage and you need to be there if you are in the product,” he said. “It tends to be more government-customer driven rather than commercial, but it is one of the top four shows.”

Curtis used the show to announce the company had completed its contract with the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Demonstration Team by delivering a third Twin Otter. That contract had been signed in 2008 prior to Viking restarting production in 2009.

Those aircraft are configured with equipment specific to parachute-jumping requirements, including a roll-up door, external jump step and handholds, wall-mounted bench seating and a crew relief station.

The aircraft operate out of a base in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Viking also announced flight training is nearing completion for the first contingent of Vietnam Navy pilot delegates as part of the Viking Guardian 400 multi-aircraft purchase contract announced in May 2010.

The pilot trainees travelled from Vietnam to Canada to receive English-language, flight and technical training over the past 20 months, and will graduate in early July.

“This program has been specially tailored to the requirements of the Vietnam Navy, and is quite unlike any other training program in the world,” said Michael Coughlin, CEO at Pacific Sky Aviation.

“A significant amount of the Twin Otter training focused on seaplane operations, with the students completing over 2,100 landings on lakes and the rugged coastline of British Columbia. This will be instrumental to their success in operating the aircraft for maritime patrol operations in Vietnam.”

Vietnam bought six Twin Otter aircraft, the first of which was delivered last fall, to be used for transport, resupply, maritime surveillance and search and rescue in Vietnam’s coastal regions.

Viking is producing aircraft at a rate of about one every 10 days.

The twin-engine propeller plane has 19 seats when configured for commuter use.

The company has delivered more than 30 aircraft to 16 countries since it brought an updated version of the Twin Otter back into production in 2009. The de Havilland aircraft first hit the skies in 1965 and production was discontinued in 1988.

Demand for Viking’s version of the aircraft has been strong and orders are backlogged to the middle of 2015.

aduffy@timescolonist.com

“It was nice somebody asked,” joked Coun. Denise Blackwell. In 2011, pranksters dyed the water in the fountain neon green.

The Canadian Breast Council Foundation plans to “pink up” Langford to promote the Run for the Cure — which raises funds for breast cancer research, education and awareness programs.

The fountain will be coloured with a non-toxic, environmentally friendly pink dye. ]]> 1.324187 http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/victim-of-fatal-car-crash-was-on-capital-region-s-most-wanted-list-1.324187 The man who died in a single-vehicle crash on Saturday morning has been identified as Darcy David Cole of Victoria.

Cole, 29, was named by Greater Victoria Crimestoppers as one of ]]> Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:46:00 -0400 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:20:48 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324782.1371619750!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka0205-juggler-1-jpg.jpg 240 143 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324782.1371619750!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka0205-juggler-1-jpg.jpg 1114 662 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324782.1371619750!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka0205-juggler-1-jpg.jpg 124 83 The man who died in a single-vehicle crash on Saturday morning has been identified as Darcy David Cole of Victoria.

Cole, 29, was named by Greater Victoria Crimestoppers as one of the region’s most wanted criminals. He is believed to have stolen the car that collided with a light standard near the intersection of Blanshard and Cloverdale shortly after 2:30 a.m.

A Victoria police officer had spotted the vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed on Quadra Street minutes before it crashed.

The incident is being investigated by the B.C. Coroner’s Service and the Independent Investigations Office, whose mandate is to investigate deaths or serious injuries that are potentially police-related.

A B.C. Supreme Court jury can expect to hear disturbing details this week of sexual offences against two boys by their Boy Scout leader,]]> Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:45:00 -0400 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:31:54 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.40166.1370575697!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-courts-7448-jpg.jpg 240 160 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.40166.1370575697!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-courts-7448-jpg.jpg 1114 744 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.40166.1370575697!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-courts-7448-jpg.jpg 124 83 Warning: This story contains graphic content.

A B.C. Supreme Court jury can expect to hear disturbing details this week of sexual offences against two boys by their Boy Scout leader, who allegedly used a contraption with ropes, pulleys and a broom handle, Crown prosecutor Tim Stokes said Monday.

John Viszlai, 55, who was a Victoria Scout leader from 1973 to 2001, is charged with confining, sexually assaulting and touching a young boy for a sexual purpose, between Dec. 23, 1991, and Dec. 22, 1994. Viszlai is also charged with sexually assaulting and, while in a position of trust, touching for a sexual purpose a second boy between Jan. 1, 1989, and Dec. 31, 1992.

Viszlai, a short, stocky man with dark receding hair and a moustache, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In his opening remarks, Stokes told the seven-woman, five-man jury they will see photographs and documents and hear evidence from the two complainants, now ages 32 and 37. The two, who were 12 and 15 at the time of the alleged offences, were Scouts under Viszlai’s leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, said Stokes. The boys were not in Scouts together and did not know each other.

“I expect you will hear from both of them that they were very active, going hiking and camping with Mr. Viszlai,” said Stokes.

The jury can expect to hear that Viszlai was a very knowledgeable, experienced and skilled Scout leader and that both boys held him in high regard. “He was a role model to both of them during their time in Scouts,” said Stokes.

The jury will also hear that the relationship went beyond Scouting. Both boys developed a social relationship with Viszlai, visiting his home, eating meals there and working in the yard. The jury will also hear of the darker side of the relationship between Viszlai and the boys, said Stokes.

The first alleged victim, whose name is protected by a court order, is expected to testify that he was given special treatment and extra privileges by Viszlai. He will describe how Viszlai talked about mystical and psychic abilities, said Stokes.

He is expected to describe how the Scout leader would ask him to engage in an activity, telling the boy it would develop his psychic ability. That activity involved ropes, pulleys and anal penetration of the boy with an object while he was naked, tied up and blindfolded.

The complainant is expected to testify that he confronted Viszlai years later about what happened and Viszlai admitted he did this, said Stokes.

The jury will also hear a police interview from 2007 where Viszlai refers to the contraption as a Judas chair, said Stokes.

The second complainant is expected to testify that Viszlai had him pose for nude photos, said Stokes.

“You will hear of an occasion in Viszlai’s basement where Mr. Viszlai encouraged him to squat down, while he was scantily clad and submit to being penetrated by an object by Mr. Viszlai,” said Stokes.

The witness will describe how he was troubled for a long time and got in trouble with the law.

“It took him a long time to disclose these things and it is still very difficult for him to disclose these things now,” said Stokes.

The jury will see photographs of Viszlai’s house, Scouting records and hand-drawn diagrams, “a couple of which may be disturbing,” said Stokes.

The Crown’s case is expected to finish late this week or early next week. Justice Brian Mackenzie told the jury to keep an open mind and be cautious in drawing conclusions.

ldickson@timescolonist.com

“I’d say 99 per cent are against it,” said Lyall Street resident Ron Merk, assessing the dozens of people who showed up in the first half-hour of the capital region’s open house on potential sites.

The toilet loomed over teeny houses and stores representing the Viewfield Road neighbourhood, where residents fear the plant is a foregone conclusion, given that the region has already purchased the site. If it’s approved, Esquimalt would be home to both the sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point and the biosolids plant.

Local residents made their own signs to post near the region’s displays, noting there are 28 schools and parks and 10 small businesses near the Viewfield Road site.

The CRD’s initial choice was the Hartland dump site, where the sludge would be piped 18 kilometres from McLoughlin Point. That distance, and the need for four pumping stations, made the region look for alternatives for more than two years before the Viewfield Road site was purchased earlier this year.

Denise Blackwell, chairwoman of the Capital Regional District's Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee, said she’s determined to keep an open mind about where the biosolids energy centre will go. It’s “absolutely” the most stressful issue she’s dealt with in her long career as a local politician, she said. “We’re likely hearing from people who don’t want sewage treatment at all, or people in Esquimalt.”

Monday’s event was only the first of eight open houses to be held this week. Another is scheduled for tonight from 4-8 p.m. at the Greek Community Hall at 4648 Elk Lake Dr. in Saanich.

The site decision is expected no later than the end of August, and may come earlier.

Building the biosolids plant at Hartland would mean $99.3 million in capital costs and $5.5 million per year to operate, according to CRD figures. At Viewfield, the cost to build would be $106.6 million and $5.4 million to operate.

The CRD chart that seemed to provoke the most negative reaction was based on Kelowna’s biosolids plant, which is in the midst of a neighbourhood built mostly after its plant was constructed in the early 1980s. John Farquaharson of Victoria showed an aerial view of the sparsely developed neighbourhood in 1977, noting most residents chose to locate there after the plant was established — as opposed to a long-established neighbourhood having a biosolids plant placed in its midst.

Warren Walsh of Vic West, who lives 200 metres from the proposed new sludge plant, said he visited the Kelowna biosolids plant in 2010 and found it smelly and noisy. Plus, the Kelowna site is nine hectares — much more than Viewfield’s 1.7 hectares — and services only 100,000 people rather than 300,000 in the CRD.

“It’s just trying to illustrate [a biosolids plant] within a local community,” responded CRD engineer Tony Brcic, deputy director of the wastewater program. Not many cities have introduced a biosolids plant after a neighbourhood is established, but even so, people are still buying homes in that part of Kelowna, he added.

Mary Ann Bodenberg, who lives a few blocks from the proposed plant, is “very unhappy” with the idea of losing the Wilson Foods grocery store now on the site, which would have to close. “It’s a residential neighbourhood — it’s just insanity,” Bodenberg said.

kdedyna@timescolonist

Open house dates:

Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 4–8 p.m., Greek Community Hall, Main Hall, 4648 Elk Lake Dr., Saanich
Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 4–8 p.m., Royal Canadian Esquimalt Legion, 622 Admirals Rd., Esquimalt
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 4–8 p.m., Willis Point Community Hall,  6933 Willis Point Rd., Saanich
Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 4–8 p.m. Oak Bay Windsor Pavilion, Sports Room, 2451 Windsor Rd., Oak Bay
Wednesday, June 26, 2013, 4–8 p.m. Juan de Fuca Rec Centre, Lookout Lounge, 1767 Island Highway, Westshore
Thursday, June 27, 2013, 5 –8 p.m., Da Vinci Centre, Upper Hall, 195 Bay St.

The 66-year-old commissionaire sustained non-life-threatening injuries and ]]> Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:21:00 -0400 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:14:01 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324269.1371569473!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-generic-police-0110-jpg.jpg 240 118 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324269.1371569473!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-generic-police-0110-jpg.jpg 1114 546 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324269.1371569473!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-generic-police-0110-jpg.jpg 124 83 A commissionaire on a scooter ran a red light and struck a pickup truck in Victoria on Monday afternoon.

The 66-year-old commissionaire sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital.

The pickup was travelling south on Douglas Street when the scooter, heading east on Chatham Street, struck the pickup.

The driver of the pickup was not injured. Victoria police are investigating and say it’s too early to say if the commissionaire will be charged.

Both the Swan Lake and the Brett Road trestles are]]> Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:57:00 -0400 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:07:45 -0400 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324418.1371569517!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/vka-parks-014-jpg.jpg 240 138 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324418.1371569517!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1114/vka-parks-014-jpg.jpg 1114 642 http://www.timescolonist.com/polopoly_fs/1.324418.1371569517!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_124_83/vka-parks-014-jpg.jpg 124 83 More than $800,000 in structural repairs will have to be made to two trestles on the Lochside Trail over the next five to 15 years.

Both the Swan Lake and the Brett Road trestles are considered safe, since they’re only being used by pedestrians, cyclists and the occasional small maintenance vehicle, but several of their large timbers are “severely deteriorated,” says a recently completed assessment.

Age is the main factor contributing to the deterioration of the piles and other large timbers of the original 1916 structures. Some of the deterioration is due to how the wood decking was attached in 1995, when the trestles were modified for regional trail use, says a report to the Capital Regional District parks committee this week.

“It does seem like a lot of money, but it’s a project where you have these trestles and you either maintain them and keep them safe and keep them so they can be utilized by the largest segment of the population — or not,” said Susan Brice, chairwoman of the CRD parks committee.

The Lochside Trail is extremely popular both for recreation and as a cycling commuter route, Brice said.

“All of these trails, when they first came onto the scene 20 or 25 years ago, may have been viewed as a recreational opportunity, but now have become a really important part of the transportation infrastructure as well,” Brice said.

“So if you want to make sure it has that other level of use, then these investments have to be made. Certainly the Lochside Trail is hugely, hugely popular,” she said.

Surface improvements to asphalt the trestles are also planned for next year at an additional cost of $30,000 to $55,000.

The trestles have been fixtures in the community since 1916, when a railway operated in Greater Victoria, including the Saanich Peninsula. Both trestles are listed as heritage structures on the register of historic places, says the report.

CRD staff are recommending about $50,000 worth of structural repair work over the next year for the Swan Lake trestle and an estimated $30,000 in work to the Brett Road trestle.

Staff estimate that over the next five to fifteen years, $120,000 will be needed for additional structural repairs to the Brett Road trestle and an additional $700,000 for the Swan Lake trestle.

The 29-kilometre Lochside Trail stretches from Swartz Bay to Victoria and intersects with the 55-kilometre Galloping Goose Regional Trail that runs from Victoria to Sooke.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com