Our favourite stories of 2013
The assignment was simple: Tell readers about your most memorable story this year. The results? They are as varied as the reporters who work at the Times Colonist. Some of our writers chose the stories that had the most impact, or that affected them most. Others described articles that generated reader response or sparked a change in policy.
Amy Smart | Sept. 15
Challenging journey for transgender child
The moment I met Harriette Cunningham at her Comox family home, I knew she was different than other 10-year-old girls: She was more confident, self-assured and articulate.
Harriette is also one of a rising number of children identifying as transgender, meaning her gender identity differs from the one assigned to her at birth. Her family’s journey has been a bumpy one, and it only promises to become more difficult. But they were generous with their story, and I enjoyed telling it, because of the way their personal experience provided a window into a shift in understanding surrounding gender identity underway in our culture.
Readers shared the story widely, and the response was overwhelmingly supportive of Harriette and her family. Harriette and her grandmother continue to fight for changes to gender-identification policy in B.C.
Read the stories HERE
Jeff Bell | Nov. 8
Burial ground brings communities together
Choosing a favourite story from a year of reporting is never an easy task, especially since stories can stand out in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons.
But one that made a real impression on me for its positive turn on a serious, ongoing issue was about a November decision at Victoria City Hall to back the creation of a First Nations burial ground in Beacon Hill Park — on the park’s eponymous slope. The site would be dedicated to the reinterment of remains unearthed during construction projects and other such activities.
Representatives from the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations spoke to Victoria councillors about how vital such a spot would be. They offered praise for the respectful relationship that has evolved between them and the city.
Songhees Chief Ron Sam said his people realize that remains will sometimes be unearthed during day-to-day activities, and having a dedicated place to put them would mean a lot for First Nations culture and tradition.
Read the story HERE
Bill Cleverley | Nov. 23
There’s no free lunch on Victoria council
After this story ran, former Victoria councillor Philippe Lucas sent me an email calling it both “the funniest and the saddest story” about Victoria council I had ever written.
Another reader questioned not only why the story was written in the first place but the editor’s (lack of) judgment in running it on the front page.
This was just a snapshot of Victoria council trying to make a decision. The decision in question wasn’t about some weighty issue, such as the provision of bike lanes or whether a development proposal should go to public hearing. This was about whether to order lunch. One would think this would not be difficult.
But remember, this was Victoria council making the decision, and sadly, or perhaps funnily, the debate pretty much captured how most decisions have been made, or not been made, at city hall this term.
Which raises the question: If they can’t order lunch how would you expect them to run a city?
Read the story HERE
Cindy E. Harnett | Dec. 1
Dying single mom fights for her children
On the happy occasion of my daughter’s fifth birthday I got an email from a man who said he was trying to help a single mom, dying of cancer and living in poverty, collect more than $350,000 owed to her children in family support.
It was a slap of reality about how some parents struggle just to feed their children coupled with an opportunity to expose what B.C. children’s advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says is a sad truth that “when someone goes onto income assistance, quite often it’s a single mom who can’t get the child support.”
Tjally Heino, 42, is unable to work because she has an incurable cancer; she was forced onto disability and income assistance. The child support of $6,800 a month — reflective of her husband John Timothy Jackson’s wage at the time — would have paid the bills but Jackson didn’t pay.
Turpel-Lafond called on the family maintenance offices in B.C. and Ontario to pull out the stops for this family and the children’s advocate called on government, particularly B.C.’s premier, to develop a child poverty plan.
It’s been disappointing not to be able to find or talk to Jackson since the story appeared earlier this month — accounts from his family can’t be confirmed — but it has been a privilege to tell this courageous family’s story and to see the community’s concern for their well-being.
Anyone wanting to donate to a trust fund for the children — age seven and 15 — can do so at any branch of TD Canada Trust in the Heino family name, trust account number 9919-6348976.
Read the stories HERE
Carla Wilson | May 30
Food-truck offerings give downtown variety
My favourite story this year was about food trucks multiplying on Victoria’s streets, upping the capital city’s hipness factor.
They’re trendy and they’re fun. Cities across North America are seeing more food trucks cropping up. Television shows feature their offerings.
Victoria has tried for decades to attract more people downtown and get more life on its streets. Food trucks are one step in that direction.
They are colourful, whimsical and mobile. They serve great food and create gathering places for people.
Our mild winters allow food trucks to keep operating, giving operators a long season. The city has 26 licensed vendors, selling everything from burgers and hot dogs to fish tacos, Japanese food and perogies.
Times Colonist coverage included the opportunity for online readers to check our website to find a map of local mobile food vendors.
Some of the food-truck customers are among the 7,000-plus downtown Victoria residents who are settling into new condominiums. Many condos have lower prices, modest dimensions and no parking.
Not only is construction pumping millions of dollars into our economy, but people living downtown are shopping, eating and using services in the core.
Read the story HERE
Michael D. Reid, June 21, Nov. 19
Former CHEK co-host a hit in the Big Apple
It’s always rewarding being able to chronicle the escalating success of homegrown talent.
The opportunity presented itself again when Michaela Pereira, who got her start as a TV personality with pizzazz when she co-hosted CHEK Around Here in the mid-1990s with Gordie Tupper, began her New Day with CNN last June. It didn’t take long for the whip-smart Saskatoon-born broadcaster, who had already achieved success co-hosting KTLA’s morning news for nine years, to ease into her role as news anchor opposite co-hosts Kate Bolduan and Chris Cuomo on CNN’s slick new morning show.
Six months after we chatted, just hours after Pereira wrapped her first New Day, I caught up with Team CNN’s newest player again at Time Warner Center in New York. She had become a bona fide New Yorker by then, warmly embraced by fellow Turner teammates like Piers Morgan and John King, yet full of fond memories for Vancouver Island.
Pereira, the youngest of five daughters adopted by Ainslie and Doug Thomson, her Cowichan-based parents, also reiterated how reaching the holy grail of broadcast journalism took years of hard work, sacrifice and determination.
Read the story HERE
Rob Shaw | May 19
Clark, B.C. Liberals defied political odds
One of the greatest comebacks in B.C. political history is definitely the story of the year on the political beat.
Premier Christy Clark rallied her B.C. Liberal party to overtake the B.C. New Democrats, who were supposed to be the front-runners in public opinion and on an easy track to victory. The rise of the Liberals to a fourth majority term in office, and the collapse of the New Democrats, has had sweeping ramifications for the province. Clark is steaming ahead with her plan to build a liquefied natural gas industry, and Adrian Dix will step down as leader in the fall of 2014 as the NDP struggles to figure out its future.
Since the election, it has become fashionable for many to pretend they could see the Liberal victory coming and knew it all along. But in reality, it was one of the most surprising stories of 2013.
Read story HERE
Katie DeRosa | Oct. 19
Refugee just wants to hold his daughter
It was from behind bars, where he has been for the last three years since he came to Canada, that Kunarobinson Christhurajah told me: “I’m a refugee, not a criminal.”
Christhurajah is one of the 492 Tamil migrants who arrived on the Island’s west coast in August 2010 on the MV Sun Sea. The 33-year-old is facing human-smuggling charges amid allegations he owns the ship and had a major role in organizing the nine-week voyage from Thailand.
But the constitutionality of those human-smuggling laws is being challenged in the B.C. Court of Appeal, which means Christhurajah could be a free man. He’s eager to hold his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, whom he can now only see from behind the thick glass of the visiting room at the Fraser Regional Corrections Centre.
He said he wants to work and provide for his wife, Mary Petrecia, who is living in Vancouver.
Rarely do refugees speak out, for fear of reprisals from the Canadian government or the government in the country from which they fled, in this case, Sri Lanka, which has an atrocious human-rights record. But Christhurajah is desperate, convinced he’s being held as a result of the Harper government’s tougher stance on asylum seekers who come by boat, being made an example of for the sake of politics.
This is why I believe telling his story was so important.
Read the story HERE
Mario Annicchiarico | May 29
Ball clubs teamed up to help ailing player
It’s always interesting when rival clubs the Victoria Eagles and Victoria Mariners meet head-to-head in B.C. Premier Baseball League play.
But it was that much more dramatic when the two organizations came together for one major-league cause.
That was the storyline on a cool May 28 evening in a benefit game at Royal Athletic Park that warmed the hearts of 862 fans, not to mention the two teams involved. They united to aid then-17-year-old Mariners’ pitcher/third baseman Zack Downey with his battle against non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
A total of $5,454.17 was raised on a special night in which the result that mattered most was not the tally emblazoned on the scoreboard, but the funds raised to assist Downey and his family with the costs needed to travel to and from Vancouver for his treatments.
On this night, the pitches came from the heart.
Read the story HERE
Richard Watts | April 2
War veteran honoured for role in battle
Saanich man Tom McCulloch, and his small role in the maritime Battle of the North Cape during the Second World War, were special.
McCulloch, 88 when I interviewed him, was an 18-year-old cadet aboard the merchant vessel Ocean Viceroy, bound for Murmansk, Russia, around Christmas, 1943, part of Convoy JW55B.
What McCulloch and every other seaman in the convoy didn’t realize was the Royal Navy was using them as bait to lure the Nazi battle cruiser Scharnhorst into attacking.
The Scharnhorst bit. She was sunk on Dec. 26, 1943, after a brief battle.
Decades later, on Sept. 30, 2012, by order of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, McCulloch was awarded the Ushakov Medal for his role.
Perhaps because my own father was in the Royal Navy and my Granddad was a merchant sailor, the story resonated with me.
It was an honour to interview McCulloch and relive those moments in 1943.
Read the story HERE
Sharie Epp | Nov. 7
Basketball star shows grit in face of challenge
A high school star growing up in Seattle, University of Victoria Vikes point guard Marcus Tibbs was a shoe-in for an elite NCAA Division I basketball scholarship, but life intervened. The grandfather who raised him died, and Tibbs lost his way.
After two years as a dock worker, he returned to the hardwood and enrolled in college, only to have his jaw broken during a game. Recruited by the Vikes this year, Tibbs had a terrific start, before breaking his hand in practice right after being interviewed for this story.
These last few weeks, Tibbs has cheered on his teammates from the bench. The determination and perseverance Tibbs has shown through tough times is why this is my favourite story. No matter what shots he takes, in life or on the basketball court, Tibbs will be a winner.
Read the story HERE
Pedro Arrais | June 12
The cat came back to the Queen Alexandra
A story about The Cat in the Hat, a children’s book about a colourful cat who found his way home, captured readers’ fancy when they learned the book also managed to find its way home after being missing for 20 years.
The 1957 first edition, autographed by the author, Dr. Seuss, was originally donated to the Queen Alexandra Solarium, where no doubt many children handled and manhandled the book before it went missing.
It turned up at auction, where a kind-hearted doctor purchased the book for $550 and promptly returned it to the Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health, successor to Queen Alexandra Solarium.
After hearing the doctor wanted to return the book to its original home, the auction house and an expert who verified Dr. Seuss’s signature both waived their fees.
The book is on display in a glass case — at children’s height — in the centre’s main entrance.
Read the story HERE
Sandra McCulloch | Dec. 1
Right place, right time for stolen-ferry story
Every journalist loves to be in the right place and the right time to get the scoop. Having the right contacts helps, too.
On Dec. 1, a Seattle man stole the Victoria Clipper IV, driving the passenger ferry in circles around Elliott Bay.
Watching the ferry leave was an aghast Darrell Bryan, president of Clipper Navigation. He called the coast guard to alert them to the theft.
Police officials intercepted the ferry and made the arrest.
I got to work to hear Twitter buzz of the event.
Bryan had given me his home and cell numbers so he could be reached for stories like this.
I called and Bryan gave me a great interview, which we had on our web page by noon. A Seattle newspaper quoted my story and credited the Times Colonist.
A scoop like that easily makes it a favourite story.
Read the story HERE
Mike Devlin | May 9
Guitar virtuoso was generous in interview
Interviewing a well-known artist isn’t a stressful proposition. But on occasion, certain ones have the ability to get inside your head well in advance; for me, that was Leo Kottke, a Minnesota-based guitar player and songwriter whose canon inspires awe amongst nearly every guitar player I know.
Conscious of the fact he rarely does interviews, and is famously irascible, I was anxious heading into our interview. The expectation was that we would talk about his upcoming Alix Goolden Performance Hall concert, but it became obvious, within minutes, that our chat would touch on so much more.
He did away with formalities off the jump, and regaled me with tales too many to mention. His songwriting skill and virtuosity with a guitar are well-documented. But as he grows older, Kottke is becoming increasingly known for his in-concert monologues. By the end of our 30-minute chat, I knew him to be something else: A master conversationalist.
Read the story HERE
Sarah Petrescu | Nov. 29
Youth in care inspire others with openness
Writing about youth in care struck a personal chord for me, as I grew up with foster kids as siblings and friends. The young men at Threshold Society’s Mitchell House were candid, humble and occasionally apologetic as they reflected on their time in care and hopes for the future.
Some spent most of their lives bouncing between homes and social workers, with no safety net or family history thread to fall back on or refer to.
It’s a group we rarely hear from, as foster kids are protected under privacy laws while in care until they turn 18. I was touched by the young men’s openness and loyalty to the group home as well as the generosity of readers who donated equipment to one budding photographer, struggling for a break.
Read the story HERE
Lindsay Kines | June 1
School volunteer is one for the books
She gets to work early, stays late and takes part of the job home with her.
All of this Judie Ker has been doing for 15 years without drawing a salary or expecting anything in return beyond the occasional hug from a grateful child.
A volunteer at Craigflower Elementary, Ker works five days a week reading one-on-one with students. On evenings and weekends, the grandmother and retired bank employee scours thrift stores for books to give the children. For some, it’s the first book they’ve ever owned.
It’s an amazing story of passion and commitment, and one that is making a real difference in the lives of students — most of whom are aboriginal and live on nearby reserves.
School officials say student reading scores have risen in recent years in part because of the work of Ker and a team of volunteers like her.
That’s why the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils honoured Ker with its Arkell Award for selfless dedication to students, and why writing about her was my favourite assignment of 2013.
Read the story HERE
Cleve Dheensaw | Sept. 8
Talented Islanders hone sights on 2020
On the day the host city is announced for the Summer Olympics seven years hence, I always predict which of the emerging young Island athletes are favoured to be participating.
In September, the IOC awarded the 2020 Summer Games to Tokyo over Istanbul and Madrid.
There is never a shortage of potential picks to sift through on sports-mad Vancouver Island. But it’s a perilous game because some who show early promise never live up to expectations, while late-bloomers will emerge out of seemingly nowhere.
We picked 20 Islanders to watch in 2020. So who will come off the Island to grab the torch and do at Tokyo what the likes of Simon Whitfield, Silken Laumann, Derek Porter and Alison Sydor did at previous Olympics?
Will it be Pat Kay in rugby sevens, Adam Keenan in the hammer, Maddie Secco in field hockey, Shanice Marcelle in volleyball or Allie DeLarge in rowing?
Or will hindsight be, well, 2020?
Read the story HERE
Louise Dickson | June 26
A racing pigeon with a yen to travel
His homing instincts were strictly for the birds.
On May 10, a Japanese racing pigeon was released in a race south of Sapporo and expected to make the return flight to his loft. But 27 days later, the one-year-old bird was found thousands of kilometres away at Canadian Forces Base Comox.
The tough young bird was tired, infested with parasites and so thin after his journey across the Pacific that he couldn’t fly. That allowed him to be captured and nursed back to health at the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society.
Nobody knows how he landed on our shores. That information is tucked away in his little bird brain.
What we can guess is that he had to contend with wind and weather and that he probably hitched a few rides on passing freighters and cargo ships.
The racing pigeon was identified through a band on his leg with a number and the word Nippon on it. The racing band on his other leg had a phone number and some Japanese writing.
Although the society contacted the owner, he wasn’t interested in bringing the racing pigeon home because he thought the stress of the journey would be too much for him.
In the end, the pigeon was given to a member of the Mid-Island Racing Pigeon Society.
Now he’s flying high. A little bird told me he’s billing and cooing with another Japanese racing pigeon who also crossed the Pacific Ocean. Pigeon fanciers are lined up for the offspring of these marathon birds.
Read the story HERE
Andrew A. Duffy | Aug. 30
A chance to highlight one of the good guys
Normally it’s a bit of scandal, or a dip into the dark side of the business world that makes my favourite-story-of-the-year list, but not in 2013. This year it was a feature on Victoria developer Gordon Denford that stuck with me.
It was the story of Denford handing over the reins of his company, Berwick Retirement Communities, to son Christopher. It was a chance to shine a light on a man who has helped shape the physical structure of the city as well as its sensibilities by volunteering his time, expertise and insight to causes too numerous to mention.
Since 1953 Denford has been building both the city and the community he called home and has done so with an eye on always trying to improve the patch of ground he stood on.
Sometimes it’s the stories that highlight the good guys that stick with you.
Read the story HERE
Adrian Chamberlain | April 7
A journey from Sheila to James
Earlier this year, the Puget Sound Radio website carried a short bulletin. It said Victoria radio broadcaster Sheila Gardner was undergoing a radical transformation.
Sheila — or James as he’s now known — was in the process of making a gender switch.
On the website, Gardner wrote: “For me, it’s the conclusion of a long and sometimes painful journey to a future of happiness I have never felt before.”
James let me interview him at length about his experiences. He described a complex and fascinating journey — both physical and mental. What struck me was how open and brave he is.
The biggest bonus was learning something about people who follow this path. While empathetic to transgender people before, I became even more so.
This month, James provided me with this update: “My transition is progressing well and I am very happy with the results. I am now being recognized as male and that feels really good.”
Read the story HERE