January
SFU announces its new president (and its second-ever woman president). Dr. Joy Johnson, a health researcher and former nurse who got her start at the onset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, was announced to take over the top spot, replacing 10-year president Andrew Petter.
***
Local business owner and Australian expat Hollie Fraser, whose family is affected by the wildfires that devastated areas of her home country, starts a fundraiser through her massively successful bakery, Punk Rock Pastries.
A group of Burnaby Mountain Secondary School textile students craft dozens of surrogate pouches for marsupials orphaned by the fires.
***
Burnaby RCMP investigate two homicides, including a “brazen” shooting that killed 28-year-old Julian Johnson at a Burnaby gas station in the early evening. Police believe the shooting is linked to the ongoing Lower Mainland gang conflict.
Fifty-one-year-old Joseph Morrissey is found dead near Robert Burnaby Park. This homicide is believed to be targeted but no link to the Lower Mainland gang conflict is found at the time.
***
The City of Burnaby is certified as a living wage employer, with all city staff paid a living wage by Oct. 1, 2019 and all contractors and subcontractors paid a living wage by Jan. 1, 2020.
***
Directors of small, volunteer-run organizations get a stark warning, as a Burnaby housing co-op president is sentenced for a $2-million fraud scheme.
Lillian Cameron had been president of the 90-unit Halston Hills Housing Co-op for 17 years, but over time the co-op fell into disrepair while she funnelled more than $2 million into personal accounts.
Cameron had walked into the Burnaby RCMP detachment in November 2016 and turned herself in for the fraud.
February
Burnaby residents opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion express “deep disappointment” after a Feb. 2 ruling from the Federal Court of Appeals shot down Indigenous opposition to the project. The appeals court found four Indigenous communities challenging the pipeline had failed to make their case that the federal government's consultation process was still inadequate following an earlier ruling in their favour.
***
The City of Burnaby sets lofty goals for itself in phase 1 of its new transportation plan, including zero traffic-related deaths or serious injuries. Senior planner Renee de St. Croix tells council those goals could be accomplished through a handful of different ways working in concert, including prioritizing vulnerable users, transforming infrastructure to support those users and reducing overall speeds for all modes of transportation.
***
Three Burnaby city councillors, Colleen Jordan, Paul McDonell and Dan Johnston, resign from the dominant Burnaby Citizens Association on Feb. 5 over disagreements with their longtime party colleagues. Johnston says the rift followed several motions on social housing that Jordan had made and that were shot down by the rest of council.
***
Two men are convicted on Feb. 6 of driving without due care and attention in connection with the crash that killed 14-year-old Brazilian exchange student Fernanda Girotto at a Cariboo Road crosswalk two years earlier. On a dark, rainy morning, Girotto had first been struck by a pickup truck driven by Paul Oliver Wong and then by a car driven by Kai Man Cheu after he passed Wong's stopped truck. The two men had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
***
Burnaby Hospital Foundation launches its most ambitious fundraising campaign ever to help pay for the new hospital. The Proud History, Bright Future campaign sets out to raise $30 million within the next four years. The launch of the campaign includes the announcement of an $8 million donation by the Beedie family.
***
The neon “Swinging Girl” on Hastings Street in Burnaby’s Heights neighbourhood is returned to her proper place after a $10,000 facelift and tune-up. The vintage mechanical sign had stopped swinging in the fall and was taken down for a thorough once-over, including repairs to its motor and a new paint job.
***
City council unanimously approves the creation of an operating climate action reserve, where the city will store funding for its climate initiatives. Finance committee chair Coun. Sav Dhaliwal calls it a “modest” first step toward the city fulfilling its climate crisis declaration in which the city committed to reducing carbon emissions by 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and 75% by 2040, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
***
B.C. Emergency Health Services tells ambulance crews they are being moved from Station 258 on Douglas Road near Boundary Road to a new station, Station 240, built last year at 5901 Delesalle St. in the Royal Oak area. The union that represents ambulance workers warns the planned closure of the lone ambulance station in North Burnaby, on Douglas Road, will mean slower response times for patients.
March
City council officially passes two landmark rental policies: the rental-use zoning policy, intended to guarantee rentals in multi-family projects throughout most of the city; and the tenant-assistance policy, extending rights of tenants who are demovicted for new developments.
Councillors hail the policies as the “best in Canada,” but some housing activists say they are convoluted and confusing.
***
The province and the City of Burnaby announce nearly $20 million in funding to help pay for the Burnaby school district’s homegrown plan to add child-care spaces at local schools. The province agrees to chip in $13.7 million and the city $6.2 million. All told, the money will help create 601 new spaces at eight different school district sites.
***
The Burnaby school district cancels all international school trips on March 5 and promises to keep an eye on domestic field trips and other school events because of growing coronavirus concerns. Three trips to New York City, three trips to Washington State and one trip to Germany, Italy and Switzerland are cancelled because of the “rapidly evolving situation” in countries around the world.
***
Burnaby South Secondary School’s senior boys basketball team caps the 2019-20 high school basketball season by clipping the Kelowna Owls 70-58 in the 4-A provincial championship final before a near-capacity and boisterous crowd at the Langley Events Centre. It is the school's fourth B.C. title - and their second one in three years. Grade 11 guard Justin Sunga is named tournament MVP.
***
Local students find out in the middle of their spring break that in-class instruction at their schools has been suspended indefinitely as part of a provincial effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Education Minister Rob Fleming says the province-wide measure is being taken under the direction of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and supported by “all of the education partners, teachers and stakeholders in the system.”
***
The City of Burnaby closes all city-owned facilities on March 18, including community centres, arenas, libraries, arts and cultural facilities, golf courses and restaurants in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. The city also works to beef up its work-from-home policy for city employees, which, until that point, had stopped short of encouraging employees to work from home.
***
Burnaby resident Saeid Ebrahimi finds out he’s $5-million richer after checking his Lotto 6/49 ticket at the Brentwood mall on March 13. The life-changing lottery win comes at a time when Ebrahimi is worried about his family in Iran, one of the early focal points of the COVID-19 pandemic.
***
Burnaby city council unanimously approves a proposed amendment to its procedural bylaw to allow councillors to hold regular meetings entirely online during the COVID-19 pandemic – and other states of emergency, provincial health emergencies and pandemic situations. Lawyers had told council there was a roadblock to online meetings in the Community Charter. According to the provincial legislation, councillors can only participate in meetings online if the city’s procedural bylaw allows it.
***
The Burnaby Fire Department announces its firefighters will respond to medical calls wearing coveralls and the same breathing apparatus they would in a smoked-out building for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fire department says it decided to take the step to protect firefighters and the public from coronavirus especially in light of shortages of regular N95 medical masks.
***
The Burnaby Heights Merchants Association cancels Hats Off Day 2020 to protect the public and do their social duty to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 infections. “Hosting a festival for 50,000 people would be foolish and irresponsible," says merchants association executive director Isabel Kolic.
April
The City of Burnaby lays off more than 1,500 employees as the pandemic continues to drive the country into its sharpest economic decline since the Great Depression. The layoffs consist entirely of union staff, with no one in management affected.
The city defends the move, saying managers were required to keep the city afloat and to prepare it for when it brings its employees back to work.
***
The city gets its first rent bank, as the provincial rent bank invests heavily in expanding services to more communities. The move comes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that leaves many people – often middle- or low-income – without jobs and unable to pay their bills.
***
School restarts after an extended spring break due to the coronavirus. The province had suspended in-class learning but later directed school districts to put learning opportunities in place no later than mid-April.
In Burnaby, the school district takes a phased approach to implementing online learning, with most instruction taking place through technology. To facilitate this, the district hands out 840 laptops to students who need them, while Telus pitches in hundreds of codes for free internet.
***
A former Burnaby teacher is among nearly two dozen people gunned down in one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history. Lisa McCully moved to Nova Scotia 20 years ago and is described by a former Burnaby colleague in B.C. as “incredibly warm, very charismatic.” McCully is one of 22 people killed, as the shooter rampages in his community with the guise of a fake police car and sets fire to more than a dozen buildings.
***
City council receives a damning report regarding the city’s fire department. A comprehensive review finds the Burnaby Fire Department’s ability to do its job properly is “at risk” due to a lack of resources, technology and strategy. The issues mostly come from a lack of funding from the city to tackle operational deficiencies the department had already identified over the prior years.
May
A City of Burnaby waterworks employee complains of lacking protections against COVID-19. Richard Lopez tells the NOW he no longer goes home after work, instead returning to an RV. Lopez says staff continue to do inessential work in enclosed spaces and pile two or three staff to a vehicle. Mayor Mike Hurley says he’s concerned about Lopez’ complaints and the city is working to address them.
***
City council passes an $801-million budget for 2020, including a 1.75% property tax hike. That’s half the 3.5% increase planned earlier in the year, as council intends to offer relief to businesses and homeowners affected by the pandemic. The move is estimated to cost the city $3 million but saves commercial properties $490. Sales of goods and services are expected to drop by $1 million, with other revenues estimated to decrease by $17 million.
***
B.C.’s highest court upholds a $1.14-million ruling against the city and tenants renting a city-owned property where Alla Abdi was seriously burned in a 2014 backyard fire. Paul Bottomley poured used motor oil onto a fire in a fire pit, causing an explosion and covering the young woman in flames. The B.C. Appeals Court finds the city was negligent for failing to keep its property in a safe condition and routinely inspect the property, while the Bottomleys were negligent in building an unsafe fire pit and pouring the flammable oil onto the fire.
***
The B.C. government provides a one-time $750,000 grant to the Deaf Children’s Society of B.C., keeping its Burnaby preschool afloat for another year. The grant comes as the organization claims funding cuts beginning in 2015 threaten to shut the preschool down within a couple of months. Officials with the society say they need to double their budget to bring the preschool up to international standards.
***
The city unveils a five-step reopening plan for its public facilities, including community centres and libraries. The five steps follow the B.C. government’s five-stage system that classifies which measures must be taken to control the spread of COVID and when.
***
The city records a 3.3% increase in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2019 compared to 2018. Emissions from the city, including its fleet and buildings, totalled more than 10,800 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), which was offset by a reduction of close to 2,300 tCO2e through its organic waste program.
***
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is given final approval from the Canada Energy Regulator. The CER determines the project is in the public interest, giving the project a pass after it was beset by lawsuits over its environmental impact and Indigenous land rights.
June
City council approves staff recommendations that will allow local businesses to expand their patios. The move is designed to help businesses make up for lost capacity created by social distancing rules. Local officials estimate anti-COVID-19 guidelines had reduced capacity by 50%. The city also approves plans for lane closures along six local roads to improve physical distancing efforts in high-traffic areas.
***
The Burnaby Fire Department recognizes an 11-year-old boy for saving his grandmother from a house fire two years earlier. Josh Johnson and his grandmother had fallen asleep watching a movie on the night of June 2, 2018 when fire broke out at their Royal Oak Avenue home. Johnson woke up, helped his grandmother out of the house and alerted neighbours. On the second anniversary of the fire, the fire department presents him with a bravery award during a ceremony at Fire Hall 1.
***
After a two-and-a-half month COVID-19 hiatus, about a quarter of the Burnaby school district’s students return to school under a strict pandemic regime on June 4. Socially distanced students are screened for symptoms before being allowed into the school and directed straight to a handwashing station. Class sizes are limited, and students only attend school two days a week if they’re in kindergarten to Grade 5 and one day a week if they’re in grades 6 through 12.
***
Burnaby city councillors vote to direct 5% of their annual pay to help deliver frozen meals to housebound seniors. Council had approved a six-month 10% pay cut in April to show solidarity with the city’s 1,523 employees laid off due to COVID-19-related revenue losses. In June, staff recommended allocating the $37,000 in savings to the city’s citizen support services, which, among other services, includes grocery deliveries for housebound seniors.
***
The city appoints a new fire chief while questions remain about the departure of its last one. Former fire Chief Joe Robertson had served with the fire department for 32 years when his departure was announced with no explanation in March. Citing privacy issues, city staff declined to comment on whether he had retired, resigned or been terminated. Then-deputy fire Chief Chris Bowcock is named his successor.
***
A longtime city councillor Nick Volkow loses a years-long battle against brain cancer on June 20. Volkow, a former truck driver, moved with his young family to Burnaby 1983 and joined the city’s parks and recreation commission and advisory planning commission shortly after. He was first elected to council in 1996 and left an “indelible mark” on the city, especially in the areas of music and parks, Mayor Mike Hurley said.
***
Burnaby’s Class of 2020 tries to make the best of a bizarre situation, celebrating high school graduation amid a global pandemic. Instead of big crowds and full grad classes walking the stage at Bill Copeland Arena, grads participate in smaller, socially distanced events at their own schools. On June 22, video of virtual grad ceremonies for schools across the district goes live, complete with speeches from school officials, recognition for each grad, musical presentations and valedictorians’ addresses.
***
Financial adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic inspires Burnaby-born developer Ryan Beedie to award 23 extra $40,000 scholarships through his Beedie Luminaries foundation in 2020. Beedie said his foundation had gotten an “overwhelming number” of great applications from deserving students facing financial hardship, so he increased the number of awards from 105 to 128. Graduating students from Burnaby scooped up 20 of the scholarships.
July
Police investigate reports of shots fired outside a North Burnaby hookah lounge in the early morning hours of Canada Day. Witnesses say a fight broke out just after 2:30 a.m., and multiple shots were fired at a vehicle.
The shooting is just the latest in a series of concerns neighbours have with the lounge where the shooting took place.
***
City council approves a $500,000 investment into a new wildland firefighting vehicle, expected to be operational in 2021. The vehicle will allow the Burnaby Fire Department to respond quickly to wildland areas with off-road access.
***
A Burnaby doctor applies for a court injunction accusing the provincial government of endangering the health of the public and front-line workers by failing to make masks mandatory in public spaces. Dr. Wei Li claims the province “willingly and knowingly caused the rate of transmission to increase” through its lack of a mask mandate.
***
Carbon emissions in Burnaby will only increase if the city takes no action, according to a draft of the city’s proposed climate action framework, which notes reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 is unattainable with the tools and technology currently available. The greatest challenge will likely be buildings, with the city expected to see significant developments in the years to come, but net-zero building emissions requirements are expected to mitigate that.
***
BC Housing proposes to build a temporary 45-bed shelter in the parking lot of the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. The proposal is intended to bridge the gap in homelessness services after the July 1 closing of the city’s warming centres. Opening the shelter is expected to take just over two weeks after approval, but that approval is delayed by several months.
***
Coun. Paul McDonell dies on July 13 of an infection following a knee injury. McDonell had been halfway through his fourth term on council at the time of his death. McDonell is the second councillor to die in just a few weeks, requiring byelections to fill two seats.
***
Employment of several high-ranking City of Burnaby IT staff, including the chief technology officer, is terminated suddenly without explanation, amid a “departmental reorganization.” The city declines to comment on the sudden departures, and former CIO Shari Wallace is unable to comment due to the terms of her release. In total, seven staffers leave the city.
***
School liaison officers remain in Burnaby schools for the time being as the school board commits to developing an anti-racism plan. The conversation is sparked by a Black student who wants police out of Burnaby schools. School board officials laud the student for the effort, which comes amid an international reckoning over police relationships with marginalized communities, including Black and Indigenous people.
***
The City of Burnaby quickly backtracks after new trail maps are put up on Burnaby Mountain indicating most mountain biking trails would be decommissioned. The move came with no warning to mountain bikers, and the city says the maps were put up in error.
***
A tip on stolen rice leads Burnaby RCMP to a Langley warehouse, which contains $75,000 worth of stolen goods – including 3,200 pounds of rice. Police are told a shipping container full of rice worth $20,000 had been stolen from a South Burnaby business.
August
Police are called to two shootings within two hours – both near local hookah lounges – on Aug. 17. Mounties found a 21-year-old Vancouver man who’d been shot several times outside the PMC Hookah Lounge on North Road. Two hours later, shots rang out across town at Living Room Lounge on Canada Way. Police suspect the incidents are linked to an escalating Lower Mainland gang conflict.
***
Coquitlam school vice-principal and anti-racism educator Beth Applewhite becomes the Burnaby school district's new vice-principal for equity, diversity and inclusion as part of its work towards an anti-racism action plan. The work was undertaken amid international protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. in May.
***
SFU public health professor Dr. Tim Takaro spends 10 days hanging between two trees along the Brunette River on the Burnaby-New Westminster border in August to protest the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. He hands over his place in the trees on Aug. 12 to YouTuber Kurtis Baute, whose videos focus on climate change and other science-related topics.
***
An interim report by the Vancity Foundation indicates homelessness in Burnaby has increased by 80% since 2017. A total of 124 people were identified in the March homeless count in 2020, according to the report. It is the first such count in the city since 2017, when a total of 69 people were found, according to a Metro Vancouver report from that count.
***
A spike in demand for COVID-19 testing prompts Fraser Health to put extra resources in place at Burnaby’s drive-thru testing site at Central Park. The health authority hired more greeters, extended operating hours and promised at an Aug. 17 press conference to open two more drive-thru lanes.
***
An early morning fire on Aug. 28 displaces residents from eight suites at a Maywood Street apartment building. Firefighters were called for a shrub fire, but found at least six vehicles under an open-air parking structure at the back of the lowrise building fully engulfed in flames. The blaze shattered windows, melted vinyl soffits and window frames on the apartment building, and claimed two hydro poles and a hydro line.
***
More than 2,100 people tune in to an online back-to-school briefing on Aug. 31 to hear about the Burnaby school district's plans for keeping students and staff safe as they head back to class during the ongoing global pandemic. Superintendent Gina Niccoli-Moen said, based on results from a survey the district expected most students to return to schools in September.
***
Fraser Health declares a second, deadly COVID-19 outbreak at New Vista Care Home over on Aug 31. New Vista had successfully fought off an outbreak that started in April only to have a staff member test positive on Aug. 8. According to an update sent to families toward the end of August, there were 22 positive cases at that time – 14 residents and eight staff members – and three residents had died.
***
Reports of a fight involving a gun and baseball bats spark a six-hour police standoff at a house on Balmoral Street on Aug 30. Witnesses told police a man had pointed a gun at two people who had come to the home with baseball bats. The stand-off ensued when a man inside the house refused to come out. The emergency response team eventually entered and arrested him.
September
Twice as many elementary school parents say they’ll be keeping their kids at home as school ramps up than high school parents. School kicks off again this month with a survey of parents’ intentions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
***
For the first time ever, green waste surpasses garbage as the largest portion of Burnaby’s waste program, according to a city council report. Yard trimmings and food scraps made up 41% of all waste processed by the city in 2019, compared to the 40% made up of garbage.
***
A man serving a life sentence for fatally stabbing a 19-year-old Burnaby man in a swarming attack in Whistler intends to apply to Canada’s highest court to appeal his sentence. Louay Zouhairy was two weeks away from his 18th birthday when he stabbed Luka Gordic in the heart in 2015. Because of the seriousness of the crime, he was sentenced as an adult.
Applying to be heard by the SCC is a “demanding test,” according to a Crown prosecutor.
***
A BC Cannabis Store planned for Metrotown is given tentative approval by city council following a contentious public hearing. A B.C. union representing BCCS employees says the hearing is full of “misinformation,” but a second store is still shot down by council in response to the public backlash. The approved store will be Burnaby’s first-ever pot shop.
***
Two men seen on video chasing a Yorkshire terrier and taking off with her are not, despite appearances, dognappers. After questioning, police determine the two were concerned the dog would run into traffic. The dog later gets away from them and is found by police.
***
A proposed smoking bylaw targets smoking cannabis and hookah in enclosed public spaces. The proposed bylaw, which faces pushback from hookah lounge owners, intends to extend provincial smoking laws beyond simply banning tobacco smoking and vaping.
***
Joy Johnson takes the helm at SFU as its second-ever woman president. Johnson speaks to the NOW about her multitude of qualifications, the challenges ahead during the pandemic and beyond, and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry as a role model for women in leadership.
***
Families of residents at the George Derby Centre complain to the NOW that they are being left in the dark by administration at the long-term care home. After an outbreak was declared, administrators failed to mention in weekly updates when new cases were declared, as well as failing to mention that a resident had died.
***
A helicopter is called in to help battle a wildfire on the north side of Burnaby Mountain. Local crews manage to put it out before wildland firefighters need to be deployed, with the Burnaby Fire Department saying it’s fortunate the fire didn’t light up the trees around it. Instead, the blaze is contained to the ground below a now-destroyed tree fort.
October
Burnaby RCMP respond to multiple reports of arsons in the area of Beresford Street and Dow Avenue on the morning of Oct. 4. Two vehicles and a tent with two people inside were set on fire, according to police. A Good Samaritan saved the occupants of the burning tent, alerting them to the fire, helping them out and extinguishing the blaze.
***
Burnaby RCMP asks for the public’s help finding three people who allegedly yelled racist remarks at a man near a Burnaby SkyTrain station and then watched as one of them poured coffee over his head on Aug 3. The victim told police two men and a woman had shouted racist remarks such as “Go back to your country!” at him.
***
On Oct. 5, city council unanimously rejects a proposed connector between McBride Boulevard in New Westminster and Highway 1 in Burnaby. A transit advocate had suggested the proposal be added to the city’s transportation plan to deal with potential traffic increases related to the Pattullo Bridge replacement, but city staff recommended against it, saying it would be costly and its function would not be entirely local.
***
Hookah lounge owners protest proposed anti-smoking regulations that would ban the use of hookahs inside local businesses. On Oct. 5, Pascal Serro, appeared before council on behalf of the Living Room Lounge on Canada Way. Oula Hamadeh, of the Kayan Shisha Cafe on Kingsway, appeared on Oct. 26. Both say the regulations would put them out of business.
***
A 20-seat bus swathed in a bright green wrap and emblazoned with pictures of smiling seniors and the words “The Florentine Seniors Residence” is recovered in Burnaby at about 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 after being stolen from a seniors home in Merritt at about 2:30 a.m. that same day.
***
A firearms complaint at a Burnaby apartment on Oct. 12 leads police to a stash of fraudulent identification – including a dozen People's Republic of China passports. Burnaby RCMP got a report someone at a Brentwood Drive apartment was pointing a gun at another person. Police cleared the home and spotted the passports and a number of credit cards “in plain view.” Two women were arrested and released at the scene. No gun was found.
***
A man pulled from a two-alarm apartment fire in North Burnaby Oct. 20 dies of his injuries. The fire broke out in a ground floor apartment at 281 Holdom Ave. Firefighters were able to rescue the man from the apartment, but he was unresponsive and died at the scene. Residents had tried to slow the blaze with garden hoses before firefighters arrived.
***
The BC NDP wins its first majority in the provincial legislature since the 1990s in the Oct. 24 election. After an unusual campaign shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Democrats won 57 seats, including retaining all four Burnaby ridings. An unprecedented number of mail-in ballots were ordered in the city (32,171), but only about 30% of registered voters cast a ballot in person.
November
A suspected arson in a wing of Burnaby Hospital causes extensive damage, prompting the evacuation of that area of the hospital. The fire started on the Cascade building’s second floor, which houses the mental health in-patient ward. Staff are forced to house patients in other areas of the hospital, which is believed to have made the hospital’s COVID-19 outbreak worse.
The Burnaby Hospital Foundation, currently seeking to raise $30 million for a redevelopment of the hospital, is also displaced by the fire.
***
A survey finds vast regional support for a gondola between the Millennium Line and SFU up on Burnaby Mountain. The gondola is intended to improve transit access to the school and the UniverCity development atop the mountain and is particularly popular among those survey respondents. However, Forest Grove residents are strongly opposed.
***
A 12-foot concrete vent stack connected to a now-destroyed 106-year-old reservoir makes strides in becoming the first “industrial artifact” on Burnaby’s heritage register. The Alta Vista reservoir was demolished earlier in the year to make way for a playground. The vent will be repaired and reinstalled in its original place.
***
Burnaby city manager Lambert Chu announces his retirement to staff, capping off three decades working at the city. Chu’s retirement takes effect in February 2021 after a career that started in engineering before rising through the ranks to senior administration and, ultimately, to the top spot.
***
Two men are charged in connection with an illegal gaming house that allegedly operated in the Heights neighbourhood before being raided this summer. The pair are among four men facing charges linked to an investigation into Big Shots Cafe at 3980 Hastings St. Francisco Batista Pires and Andrew David MacFarlane face charges of keeping a common gaming house or common betting house.
***
A famous fitness centre in Burnaby announces its imminent closure due to COVID-19. Fortius Sport and Health’s sports training centre, which offers elite-level training to athletes and non-athletes alike, fills a unique space that will be tough to replace, according to Mayor Mike Hurley.
***
A fire scorches a South Burnaby Sikh gurdwara and destroys a parade float used in the annual Nagar Kirtan parade. It’s the second time a float used in the parade has been destroyed in a suspicious fire, following another in 2009. The Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha gurdwara is not significantly damaged by the fire.
***
The City of Burnaby officially endeavours to rework its bylaws around keeping chickens in residential backyards. Council orders staff to look into developing bylaws several months after multiple chicken owners and friends send letters to council seeking their support for backyard chickens. Chickens are currently not allowed in backyards.
December
Seniors at North Burnaby’s Seton Villa isolated by COVID-19 get some holiday cheer, thanks to kids at Gilmore Community School and carollers from Burnaby Family Life. Residents of the seniors home watch from their windows on Dec. 1 as the carollers sing and Gilmore staff and students (in cohorts and following safety protocols) parade past dressed in festive gear for their annual Jingle Bell Walk.
***
Federal regulators find “systemic non-compliances” with COVID-19 mask rules at Trans Mountain worksites in Burnaby and the Lower Mainland. Four workers are sent home following compliance inspections by Canada Energy Regulator staff on Dec. 1, 2 and 3 that found 37 violations of three COVID protocols set out by Trans Mountain’s COVID-19 response plan.
***
A man in his 30s caught driving in Metrotown with Christmas lights duct-taped to his Tesla on Dec. 1 is slapped with an $81 fine and given three days to get rid of the distracting decorations. A Burnaby RCMP Twitter post about the incident draws both praise and criticism online, with some saying the driver should have been let off with a warning and others calling the traffic officer a Grinch.
***
Longtime Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan becomes the first South Asian Speaker of the B.C. legislature on Dec. 7. He also becomes the first Punjabi person from India to be elected to the position in any legislature in North America, according to the BC NDP. The Speaker of the legislature oversees debates to ensure rules of conduct and procedures are followed.
***
The family of 22-year-old Jemal Reta, a former Byrne Creek Community School student and running star, make a public appeal for information on the anniversary of his disappearance on Dec. 9, 2019. He was last seen in the 1900 block of Edinburgh Street in New Westminster getting into a minivan, according to homicide investigators who’ve taken over the case.
***
Tree-clearing work between the CN railroad and Highway 1 just west of North Road becomes the latest battle line between Trans Mountain and anti-pipeline activists. On Dec. 10, seniors Yvon Raoul and Earle Peach lock themselves to a tree as a couple dozen supporters watch, sing and cheer. The men are eventually led off by CN police and issued a $150 fines for trespassing on CN property.
***
Criminal charges are approved against a Black SFU alumnus who was pepper-sprayed and Tasered by police during a controversial arrest at the university’s Burnaby Mountain campus on Dec. 11. Campus security called in the RCMP after 30-year-old Kayode Fatoba refused to leave a campus dining room. A scuffle ensued while the lone responding officer tried to arrest him. The incident unleashed a flood of criticism when a video of the incident was posted online, with people accusing SFU security and the police of racial profiling.
***
The City of Burnaby announces on Dec. 15 that it has signed a purchase and sale agreement with the Fortius Foundation to acquire the Fortius Sport and Health facilities on Kensington Avenue by Burnaby Lake, including the 5.16-acre property and the 146,000-plus-square-foot Fortius building, in a $26.6-million deal. The sale is expected to close on Feb. 1, 2021.
***
Burnaby RCMP sets up a dedicated witness phone line and email to gather leads after revealing a fire at Burnaby Hospital on Nov. 15 was deliberately set. The fire started in the hospital’s Cascade Building, causing serious damage and contributing to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Police fire investigators determined it was an act of arson.
***
An early morning apartment fire on Pender Street on the last day of the year sees five people checked out by paramedics, including an unresponsive woman carried from the burning building by a firefighter and a woman who jumped off a balcony. Firefighters had found the unresponsive woman in a hallway overcome by smoke. They were able to revive her with CPR outside. Three people were taken to hospital.
