UPDATES ON THE B.C. FERRIES TRiALsssescncnenenenenenenenend

Navigation officer Karl Lilgert is charged with criminal negligence causing the death of two passengers aboard the Queen of the North ferry, which sailed into Gil Island on March 22, 2006

Cellular phones turn 40

Landlines aren’t extinct yet but cellphones ~ and especially smarphones ~ have surged in popularity

By KAYLA ISOMURA

cellphone call was made.

Before 1973, people lived without wireless access to friends and family and only had access to landlines.

Landlines have not yet gone extinct but “overall landline use has been moderately declining over time,” said Telus media coordinator Shawn Hall.

Despite the use of wireless phones skyrocketing, Hall said landline access “really gives customers more choice in how they use telecommu- nication services.”

Telus currently has 7.7 million customers using cellphones nation- ally compared to 3.4 million land- lines being used, according to Hall.

Use of the company’s phone lines went down 5 per cent in 2012 and wireless subscriptions increased by 4.5 per cent since 2011.

Students living on their own typically only use a wireless service, he said, although later in life are likely to use both services.

“They might just have a wireless phone [for] a few years,” he said. “They buy a house, they get mar- ried, they have kids and often times pick up a wired phone at that point because they want to have the ability to have everyone on the phone at once.”

Hall said smartphones are reigning in popularity over basic cellphones, which Langara College students seem to depend on as well.

Photography student Ben Proka- petz frequently depends on his iPhone for email and “mostly for school.” For him a landline is out of the question. “My apartment doesn’t even have a phone jack,” he said, “But I wouldn’t pay for a landline. I'm never home,” he said.

Krista Marshall, another Langara student said she isn’t too dependent on her cellphone.

Despite using it often, “I leave it at home sometimes,” she said.

Like Prokapetz, Marshall opts for one phone due to cost and her living situation. “I live in an apartment and I don’t want to pay for two phones,” she said.

Hall said the cost of a landline typically runs from $25 a month to

Fes: years ago yesterday, the first

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GARIN

FAHLMAN photo

Sgt. Jennifer Pound speaks about Wendy Ladner-Beaudry’s case at a press conference April 3.

Ladner-Beaudry's killer still a mystery

Four years ago 53-year-old was murdered while trail-running, investigators still empty-handed

HOW T0

jog smart

By GARIN FAHLMAN

fter four years of investigation, there have still been no arrests made regarding the murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry.

In 2009, Ladner-Beaudry was attacked while jogging through Pacific Spirit Park, and was left to die on the trail. The 53-year-old left behind her two children and husband Michel Beaudry.

Jennifer Pound, a spokeswoman for the Integrated Homicide Investi- gation Team (IHIT) told reporters at a press conference held near the site of Ladner-Beaudry’s death yester- day that they are still looking for the killer.

“We still don’t know a motive,” Pound said. “It’s extremely frustrat- ing. Four years is a long time.”

Pound confirmed that over 200

people have been identified as suspects, but no arrests have yet been made. “In some cases when a person of interest has been identi- fied, it can take months to figure out whether they are a suspect.”

Pound said adding to the difficul- ties is that Ladner-Beaudry’s murder is not similar to any other crime, which makes finding a lead difficult.

Also at the conference was Ladner-Beaudry’s brother Peter Ladner, a former Vancouver city councillor, and sister Nancy Ed- monds. Her husband Michel was not present.

Ladner spoke about his concern that until his sister’s killer is found, women will feel unsafe walking the parks in a city he doesn’t think anyone should be afraid of.

See MYSTERY KILLER, page 3

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2 3

4

Be familiar with the area and tell someone where you are.

Wear bright clothes and reflective gear.

Don't run alone at night. It's always safer in numbers.

Bring identification with you and trust your instincts.

If a location or person makes you uncomfortable, run the other way.

Source: Running.about.com

Temporary

workers paid $1.25-million

Latin American workers paid for work on Canada Line after long legal battle

By BRENNA BROOKS

eign workers from Latin America and SNC Lavalin along with SELI Canada is now over.

Five years after winning a multi-mil- lion dollar B.C. Human Rights Tribunal award, the 40 temporary foreign work- ers from Costa Rica have finally been paid $1.25 million owed for their work on the Canada Line rapid transit link between Vancouver and the Vancouver International Airport.

Videos of the workers receiving their cheques in Costa Rica as well as details of the settlement were dis- cussed yesterday at a conference at the BC Teachers Federation Building.

The amount awarded was signifi- cantly lower than originally dictated by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

Charles Gordon, legal council for the Labourers’ Union Local 1611 on the tri- bunal case said that, “The negotiation process takes into account what the risks of the continued litigation are, the delay ... we were into two or three years of continued litigation at least, and taking account all of those things and then of course conditional upon the acceptance by the workers, we thought given all those parameters that the offer was a reasonable offer and clearly the workers agreed, they voted unanimously.”

The Latin American workers were brought on temporary visas because they had just finished working on the same job in Costa Rica.

The Latin American workers were being paid significantly less than their European colleagues. The biggest is- sue addressed, in terms of their wages was not the difference between Cana- dian and Costa Rican wage rates but the fact that it was illegal to pay them that little regardless of standard rates.

Mark Olsen, business manager for the Construction & Specialized Work- ers’ Union said: “Fairly quickly, a few weeks into the job, when the workers get a day off and try and spend what they make, they realize ‘hold on a sec- ond here, I’m being exploited,’ and they [were], it was illegal to pay them that little amount of money.”

Ignacio Sanchez, one of the workers still living in Canada, said that he didn’t notice that he was being treated differ- ently than other workers.

“When we worked in Costa Rica for the same company before, once the contract was finished, they offered us to come to Canada and we didn’t even have an idea of how the line would work. But they offer us $1200 US a month, for us in Costa Rica, that’s a lot. So for us it was a big opportunity,” said Sanchez.

Te: battle between temporary for-