Statue of George Vancouver vandalized outside city hall
A statue of George Vancouver outside Vancouver City Hall was vandalized overnight Wednesday with blue paint, as protesters in the U.S. target historic monuments after George Floyd’s death.
The incident comes as thousands of people around the world gather in the streets to protest police brutality and racism.
In the U.S., statues of Christopher Columbus were toppled, destroyed and disfigured in St. Paul, Minn., Boston and Richmond, Va., on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post, which noted that most of the violence has been aimed at Confederate memorials in cities across the U.S. South, including Richmond, Birmingham, Ala., Charleston, S.C., and Raleigh, N.C.
Vancouver city staff were cleaning the statue of George Vancouver on Thursday morning.
A city spokeswoman, Ashton Patis, said the statue was covered in blue and grey paint overnight, and the paint has since been removed.
Patis said the city recognizes the extensive public dialogue regarding historic monuments happening in Vancouver and across Canada and the U.S., and consideration of monuments will be part of the planned review of the city’s commemoration policy.
“Next week, we will share information about how we hope to start our work with the community to develop actions to address racism in Vancouver,” Patis said Thursday.
Sgt. Aaron Roed, a spokesman for the VPD, said police are aware of the vandalism to the statue. He said police have been contacted by the city and there are officers conducting “an investigation into this mischief.”
“It is very unfortunate that incidents like this have happened, we do have officers who are looking into this incident and will also look into anything similar to it. If anyone does have information regarding the statue being vandalized, please contact the VPD with any information,” Roed said in an email Thursday.
Kim Bolan, a longtime investigative reporter with Postmedia, has been awarded the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The CJF’s award ceremony took place online Thursday, due to COVID-19 bans on travel and gatherings, and was hosted by Rick Mercer, with awards presented by CTV anchor Lisa LaFlamme.
The CJF’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes those who have made outstanding lifetime contributions to journalism in Canada.
“I feel really lucky to have been able to do this job for 36 years. I consider myself a local reporter, even though the stories I have covered sometimes have national or international significance,” said Bolan upon accepting the recognition Thursday. “As journalists, we try to look at the root of problems, which inevitably begin in communities, and they’re covered by local journalists. That’s why it’s so tragic that so many local journalists have lost their jobs in recent years.”
In April, Bolan was named as the 2020 recipient of the CJF’s honour, for having dedicated her career to chasing truth in the face of threats and intimidation.
“Her career reads like a fastpaced crime novel, filled with murders, massive drug busts, international terrorists and death threats to a dogged, unstoppable heroine,” said Lou Clancy, visiting scholar of journalism outreach at University of Toronto’s Massey College and a member of the jury that selected Bolan.
Bolan’s career at The Vancouver Sun spans 36 years and has seen her cover some of the biggest criminal cases in Canadian history, including the 1985 Air India bombing. She was also placed under police protection while covering the airline bombing and again for threats received from criminal biker gangs.
“The Vancouver newsroom joins with our journalism colleagues across Canada today in celebrating Kim’s lifetime achievement award,” said Sun and Province editor in chief Harold Munro. “It’s a fitting tribute to her fearless pursuit of the truth over the last four decades, a career that continues to inspire everyone in the profession.”
Bolan often offers behindthe-scenes insights of how her stories come together on her crime blog The Real Scoop.
“While I never set out to be a crime reporter, per se, so many of the ‘Well, that’s just not right’ stories are about injustices related to terrible crimes,” noted Bolan in her acceptance speech.
Bolan’s work has taken her to wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central America and to northern India to expose the roots of the extremism that led to the Air India bombing. She is the author of the award-winning book Loss of Faith: How the Air India Bombers Got Away with Murder. She also teaches media and the law, and investigative reporting at Vancouver’s Langara College.
Bolan has won or been shortlisted for more than 35 provincial, national and international journalism honours, according to the CJF.
COVID-19 may have been the impetus for many people to take up a new pastime, but for one Merritt teenager, the activity he chose seemed unlikely, even impossible.
Darius Sam, 19, who had never entered a 10K run, raced a bicycle or swam much at all, decided to run an Ironman Triathlon.
The coronavirus lockdown had cancelled all formal competitions — made up of a five-km swim, 180-km bike ride, followed by a full 42-km marathon. So Sam ran his own, on his own.
“I did a self-made Ironman,” said Sam, whose two friends witnessed the race, considered one of the world’s toughest one-day competitions.
“I just wanted to test my mental and physical limits. I’ve always been fit. But there was no training. I didn’t run, I didn’t bike, I didn’t swim,” he said. “I had just bought a bike a month before.”
He is now ready for another challenge.
“I was looking for something else, crazier, harder.”
He decided on a 100-mile ultra-marathon and to raise money for charity.
Outside the Nicola Valley food bank, he saw a senior in the long lineup on her scooter.
“I asked her how she was. She said she was hungry. I knew right there and then (which charity to fund).”
He picked June 13 to run from the Nicola Lake rest point to Spences Bridge and back again and expects to complete it in under 24 hours.
A GoFundMe page goal of $1,000 has since been upped to $5,000, and by the middle of last week had reached $4,500. He researched 100-mile runs online, for tips on hydrating and eating, what to bring (extra socks) and what to expect (“You could get a pulmonary edema, or collapse, or get a knee inflammation.”)
“It’s not natural. I don’t think humans are supposed to be running 100 miles in under 24 hours,” said Sam. “People think I’m crazy. They think I’m absolutely nuts.”
His friend will be driving behind him. The road doesn’t have any cell service and if they need medical help, they will drive to the nearest hospital.
Sam has received advice from Merritt personal trainer and nutritionist Mark Nendick,
who said, “I heard about what he was doing for the food bank and I thought it was awesome.”
He has offered to pace Sam for the last 30 miles because the 70-mile mark “is when people start falling apart.”
“Eighty per cent of running a 100-miler is mental,” he said. “He has been doing a lot of physical training, and I think he’s mentally able to do it.”
“I don’t have any quit,” said Sam. “As long as I can run, nothing will stop me.”
The five-foot-10, 170-lb. teen was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and grew up in a foster home.
“I was a bad kid in high school,” he said. “I got in lots of trouble … Not making the right choices. Man, I was just a bad kid.”
As a young offender, he was caught driving without insurance and having stolen licence plates and car validation tags.
After graduating, he worked in the Alberta oilpatch, played some organized hockey, and “I was smoking weed, drinking and always out partying. I hated myself.”
Five months ago, he quit. “I just decided to change my life. It’s cool to be sober, cool to have goals, cool not to be a loser. I want to set a new tone for my life and I want to set the tone for other young Indigenous youth.”