2 THE DAILY VOICE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014

EDITOR JESSE LAM

Cws

ASH KELLY photo

Star witness “Person Y” testified against the accused murderers at the Surrey Six trial in B.C.’s supreme court on Tuesday, April 1.

Star witness at Surrey Six

Ex-Red Scorpion gang member “Person Y” testifies on killings

By ASH KELLY

star witness in the Surrey Six

trial testified Tuesday that he

believed accused killer Cody

aevischer and Matt Johnson

and Person X planned to strangle drug trafficker Corey Lal.

Haevischer and Johnson are both charged with first-degree murder in the high-profile killing of six people in a Surrey apartment on Oct. 19, 2007. Two innocent bystanders, repairman Ed Scellenberg and neighbour Chris Mo- han were among the dead.

The witness, who can only be identi- fied as Person Y, said he didn’t know the accused were going to shoot six people when he agreed to lend his gun to an- other gang member identified as Person X.

“Tt will haunt me for as long as I keep

going over it, I don’t know how I was as stupid to give him my gun,” said Person Y.

Y said he was surprised when X asked him for his gun because he as- sumed X would have had access to his own gun and he thought it was common sense not to fire a weapon in an apart- ment building.

Haevischer’s lawyer Simon Buck grilled Person Y with questions about his past as a gang member in the United States and Canada, including his time in the Red Scorpion gang with Jamie Ba- con.

Buck asked Y to recount his criminal activity from his arrival in Canada in 2002, which included several premedi- tated murders.

“T want to know the man who is giv- ing me evidence,” Buck said to Person Y, explaining why he was having Y re-

call events not related to the case at hand.

Buck asked Y repeatedly if he held a bias against Haevischer. “You're bi- ased?” he asked Y, pointing at the plexi- glass boxes Haevischer and Johnson sat in.

“T have bias for them, sure,” said Y “I have total disrespect against someone who can rip someone out of the hallway and kill them, kill innocent people and kill five more.”

Y is serving a life sentence for two murders not related to the Oct. 19 2007 incident.

“T don’t kill innocent people, and I haven’t killed innocent people. I didn’t target some innocent person — some kid going to play basketball,” Y said “That’s what I took offence to and that’s why I’m here.”

Trial resumes today at 10 a.m.

66

Ihave total disrespect against someone who can rip some- one out of the hall- way and kill them

PERSON Y

BCNU gets new start

Gayle Duteil replaces Debra McPherson as presi- dent of BC Nurses’ Union

By LAUREN COLLINS

McPherson as president of the BC Nurses’ Union, the union an- nounced Monday afternoon.

The 42,000 union members voted for new leadership, but Duteil won’t take McPherson’s place until September. The BCNU’s employees include regis- tered nurses, licensed graduate nurses and employed stu- dent nurses.

The nurses’ union is meant to negotiate wages, benefits and work- ing conditions, while also helping to protect mem-

Gi: Duteil will be replacing Debra

bers’ contract GAYLE DUTEIL rights. President of BC.

A bulletin onthe Nurses’ Union union’s website

lists Duteil as president, Sorensen as vice-president, Will Offley and Deb Ducharme as executive councillors and Mabel Tung as treasurer.

Duteil graduated from the Vancou- ver General Hospital School of Nursing and has been active with the BCNU since 1989 when she worked as a stew- ard. For sixteen years, she worked as the executive director of operations for the union and in 2010 Duteil returned to work as a registered nurse in acute care and emergency at a small hospi- tal.

McPherson has been with the nurs- es’ union since 1981, serving as stew- ard, committee member, regional trea- surer and in regional chair roles. She was president from 1990 to 1994 and again in 2000 until 2014, and acting- president from 1999 to 2000.

McPherson recently spoke out about the problems with nurses leaving hos- pitals because of patient overcrowding. Many nurses have been quitting or leaving emergency rooms because of the problem.

“T certainly think the union will be stronger, as we move forward,” said BCNU vice-president Christine So- rensen.

Sorensen said the BCNU is still com- mitted to giving good-quality, safe pa- tient care and health care, along with “provided excellent staffing.”

Vancouver General Hospital de- clined to comment.

As for changes in Metro Vancouver, Sorensen said she doesn’t think there will be “any significant changes for just one area of the province.”

Emergency response time must come faster

Change in provincial emergency response rules may put patients at risk

By ALI CRANE

ancouver ambulance response Yin have grown drastically lon-

ger after a change in provincial emergency response rules, the fire de- partment and city council allege.

Without any consultation, the provin- cial government changed 74 emergency call codes from “emergency” to “rou- tine” last October, said city councillor Geoff Meggs.

“This means that arrival times of am- bulances have deteriorated from seven to eight minutes to 30 minutes in the city of Vancouver, and it’s worse else-

where,” said Meggs.

When an emergency call comes in it is assigned a code based on the nature of the incident. The code determines how emergency personnel respond.

It’s technically optional for fire crews to respond to routine calls, however in practice they typically do.

Fire chief John McKearney reported to city council numerous cases in which firefighters responded to calls only to wait for the calls to be upgraded to “emergency” in order to get a faster re- sponse from ambulance services.

Meggs said, “Firefighters stand there with an average of half an hour on the scene waiting for an ambulance, and in 10 per cent of the cases the calls are coded wrong and are not even routine.”

“Firefighters are going and stabiliz- ing people but they can’t administer

medication, they can’t transfer them to the hospital, and they don’t have access to a physician.”

McKearney alleged the changed sys- tem has become less efficient and puts patient safety at risk.

Dr. William Dick has been working with the fire department to analyze data from recent emergency calls.

“What Dr. Dick has said is that their analysis shows that there is no need for a first responders [firefighters] to go to any of these calls because an ambulance will get there eventually, but what we’re trying to understand from the ambu- lance service is what does eventually really mean?” said McKearney.

The council has asked staff to provide a report with suggestions for resolving the issue and provide more effective pa- tient centered-service in one month.

ALI CRANE photo Paramedics must wait for calls to be upgraded from “routine” to “emergency” for faster response time.