Managment review set for release WEST Vancouver Council will release the Cuff Report Corporate Review on Sept. 21, the first management and organizational review of the municipality in 25 years. The goal of the three-month review is to ensure that the munici- Pality functions with efficiency. George Cuff will present his feport to the West Vancouver Council at 7:45 p.m. on Monday. The public meeting is in the council chambers at the municipal hall. Couneil is addressing the recom- mendations in the 1eport prepared by George B. Cuff and Associates Ltd., and working with senior staff to identify and implement organiza- tional! changes. The report wiil be available to the public on Sept. 22 at the West Vancouver clerk's office and the West Vancouver Public Library. Copies may be purchased for $25 ar West Vancouver municipal hall. NS hat’s ifa public meeting on the redevelopment ed by North Vancouver District Council doesn’t erate significant public opposition. The new owners of the hotel at the eastern gateway: . . to the North Shore are planning to close the 100-room land- mark located by the Second Narrows bridgehead in two ‘ : weeks. A major rebuild could result in a $20 million, six- ey, 162-room Holiday Inn. The new hotel would rovide significantly less drinking space and substantial- ly more accommodation and convention facilities. _ovBut only if council chooses to process a develop- ment permit that requests substantial allowances for height and parking. Zoning use of the site is nor changed, so Knightsbridge Properties _ Led, the owners of the Coach House since the beginning of the year, are hoping for a permit that will increase the height of the two-storey hotel by 36: fet (11 m) to almost twice the existing height. - Also at issue is the rezoning of a portion of the site to allow a cold . beer and wine store to move closer to Old Lillooet Road. rmit and a request to waive the public hearing for _ The development the beer store relocation came before council Monday. ’ ‘The majority of council indicated support for the concept and praised Knightsbridge for closing down the beer-parlour/stripper operation. Purloined painting 4 to get $20m ove ing. _ described WEST Vancouver Sketch Club member Peggy Smith holds one of her paintings which is sim- ilar to the one that went missing on Sept. 16 from a display at Park Royal Shopping Centre’s north mall. Anyone with information is asked to call the West Van Police at $25-7300. ize te . Vancouver’s Coach “Compared to what we have now it's Shangri-La,” said Coun. Lisa Muri. But she and several councillors were at pains to “point out the importance of public process in the dis- - - trict. Coun. Pat Munroe suggested it would have - made more sense to bring the entire project forward for its own Comprehensive Development (CD) zon- eedgemont Village resident Corrie Kost had already ripped into a staff report that recommended what he as spot rezoning. “To ask for a building height about 100% more than the 40-foot maximum allowed in a C4 zone makes a mockery of the term ‘variance,’ ” said Kost. “I believe we deserve a public hearing on such a domi- q Rant proposal.” \ “Compared to what we have now it’s Shangri-La”, says District Coun. Lisa Muri Council discussion initially cenwed on a public hearing until councillors finally understood that the hearing in question did not address the entire redevel- opment, but only the beer and wine store. Mayor Don Bell’s proposal to defer consideration of the development permit until after council hosts an advertised public information mecting was unaniznous- ly adopted. ; But Knightstridge vice president Zack Bhatia told the News that any further delays would ki!l the project’s financing agreement. He pointed out that a majority of area residents supported the project and that the beer and wine store was being moved at their request. “The District of North Vancouver has had several development permit applications for the site that have died for lack of financing,” said Bhatia. “If it collapses at the end of October we'll have no choice but to stick with what we’ve got.” Bhatia said the Coach House has been in receivership twice since 1985. The districe’s public meeting on the issue will take place Oct. 6 at District Hall, 355 West Queens Rd., at 7 p.m. Citizenship conviction overturned the trial. The judge concluded that Ashrafiria’s Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter dangelo@nsnews.com A Supreme Court judge has overturned the Canadian citizenship fraud convic- tion of a former North Vancouver resi- dent. Siamak Ashrafinia, 47, was convicted of conceal- ‘ing, his 1975 deportation from Canada when he applied to be a Canadian citizen in 1993. Ashrafisia became a Canadian citizen in 1994 while he was under investigation for forging pass- ports in North Vancouver. Ashrafinia was later convicted of forging two Canadian passports. He was sentenced to three months of house arrest (electronic monitoring) in March 1996. Passport forgery carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail In overturning the citizenship fraud conviction, B.C. Supreme Court Mr. Jusice Grant Burnyeat stated, “I am satisfied that the conduct of ‘govern- ment authorities’ so violates the fundamental princi- ples that underlie the community’s sense of decency and fair play that, in the particular facts of this case, a stay of proceedings should have been ordered on the basis of destruction of documents.” Ashrafinia's 1975 deportation file was destroyed by federal government employees. Incredibly, the deportation file was in existence for about seven months after Ashrafinia was charged in 1994, The file was destroyed in July or August 1995, according to a Citizenship and Immigration Canada letter given to the court. Burnyeat pointed out that Ashrafinia’s deporta- tion file was destroyed after the Crown made two requests for information about it and after a defence request was filed under the Privacy Act. Stated urnyear, “... a stay of proceedings is appropriate only in the clearest of cascs where the prejudice to the accused's right to make full answer and defence cannot be otherwise remedied ... coun- sel for the appellant says that ... the destruction is uncorrectable and that a stay of proceedings is the only remedy appropriate.” Burnyeat looked at the length it took to complete Charter right to be tried within a reasonable time had been violated. The judge said the conviction should be quashed for that reason as well. Ashrafinia was charged on Dec. 21, 1994. The trial took about nine days over a period of 24 years. It ended on July 9, 1997. North Vancouver provin- cial court Judge Bill Rodgers found Ashrafinia guilty and sentenced him to three months of house arrest (electronic monitoring). The cour processings required three deaf inter- reters. Ashrafinia and his wife, Zahra, are both deaf. The couple had a business address in the 1500-block of Lonsdale this year. Ashrafinia arrived in Canada in 1975 and was deported the same year. The Iranian refugee returned to Canada in 1990. His deportation was noi discovered by immigration and citizenship of - cials. Ashrafinia was cleared to become a Canadian citizen in 1994. The News was unable to reach Ashrafinia, who lives in Coquitlam, defence lawyer Henry Vlug, or Crown lawyer Jay Straith for comment to press Gime. WV train crashes raise concern Robert Galster News Reporter robert@nsnews.com ADEL Feidala didn’t see the train coming that crashed into his Cadillac on Aug. 13. More than a month after the accident, he ts still undergoing rena- biliration for neck and shoulder injuries he sustained in the crash. He was also given an $86 ticket for not stopping for the train at the 15th Street. rail cressing in West Vancouver. Feidala and a growing number. of : West Vancouverites believe the various unprotected rail crossings are nor only dangerous but a disaster in the making. “I don’t know how many acci- dents or deaths they need before © they take action,” said Feidala. According to West ‘ancouver’. Police spokesman Spt. Jim Almas, there have been 10 accidents along the various crossings since April 1997. Nine involved vehicles and - onc involved a pedestrian. : '-“The West Vancouver police have approached BC Rail anid will be approaching West Vancouver