April 28, 19

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WEEKEN
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@ Special feature
Just for kids:

Hi Read any good
books lately?:

fi Crossword.

BN. Shore Alert__......10

BE Sports... eens WZ
46

BTV Listings............22

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

Real or imitation?

‘Weather

Saturday: Cloudy with showers,
Highs 1 &C, lows 6'C.

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Accused takes
stand to testify

A MAN accused of beating his girl-
friend to death near Lynn Creek in
North Vancouver 14 years ago
claims he injected cocaine into his
veins hours before her death.

By Brent Mudry
Contributing Writer

Jean Victor Beaulac, a small-time career,
criminal, explained the effects of the drug to
a B.C. Supreme Court jury.

“LT become very paranoid —1 think the
police ure everywhere ... then everything
feels just great?” Beaulac told the court
Uirough a Quebecois translator. “I think it
affects people that way because it’s just too
much for the brain and it affects the nervous
system

Beaulac stands charged with murder in

the death of Mary Costin, Her battered body
was found near Lynn Creek on Feb. 18,
198). Costin’s skull was fractured in numer-
ous places. Beaulac is alleged to have beat-

WEST VANCOUVER Police Const. Pau! Skelton holds a real gun in his right
hand. The rest are pellet guns. The constable said police respond to atl gun
calls as the real thing. Three local teens were recently apprehended by the
police in an Esquimait Avenue underground parking lot where they were play-

@ WY go-cart racer
finishes first: 36

Mf Lincoin Continentai
switches to V8: 34

~ The News looks at the
three North Shore fire
departments.

Cy

| Pian Your Autopian

NEW LOCATION
Park Royal North
Outside between

Canada Trust & The Bay
See page 35

iwith Us!

BCAA Insurance Agenc GO

268-5650

| ing with pellet guns.

See Murder page 5

uite conversions countere

Legislation aimed at fractional-interest sales

AMENDMENTS INTRODUCED in
Victoria on Wednesday will be the
final nai! in the coffin for controver-
sial fractional-interest property con-
versions, said North Wancouver-
Lonsdale MLA David Schreck.

By lan Noble
News Reporter

But the amendments likely came too late
to prevent owners from selling shares in a
North Vancouver District apartment complex,
where worried tenants have hotly contested
the sale of their homes.

Under a fractional-interest conversion,
buyers purchase a share of the property as a
whole rather than an individual unit.

Unlike conversions to condominiums,
fractional-interest conversions do not have to
meet current building standards or receive
municipal approval.

But amendments to the Real Estate Act
introduced by Finance Minister Elizabeth
Cull will force owners to seck municipal
approval before sales of fractional interests
are allowed.

“Which essentially means it is not going to
happen,” Schreck said. “{ think the loophole
has been closed.”

Cull said the amendments will also protect
potential buyers of fractional-interest proper-
ties by requiring sellers to distribute disclo-
sure statements.

Schreck said the legislation has a retroac-
tive date of April 26.

Ifa building makes a sale before that date,
the legislation will. not stop sales of the
remaining shares in the building.

For residents of the [El4-unit: Seymour
Village Garden Apartments, that’s a key con-
sideration because owners have already sold

1} shares in the building, said Remax Really

representative Shaffin Sundesji.
Remax: notified tenants the building was
going on the market April 18.

Sunderji said tenants can stay until at least
December [996.

Gyoung Jordsvar, a tenant in the building
and a leader in the fight against the conver-
sion, welcomed the legislation and questioned
statements that shares in the building had
been sold. :

“It don't believe it is too jate for us, not
yet,” Jordsvar said.

Seymour tenants will try to determine how
the new legislation affects them during a
meeting with housing minister Joan
Smatiwood today.

While Seymour tenants must wait, the
amendments will relieve anxiety for residents
of four North Vancouver City buildings.

Owners have registered the buildings as
fractional interests with Vancouver's Land
‘Title Office, but reports from tenants say own-
ers have not yet announced plans to sell the
apartments. :

In a letter .to- tenants in the buildings,
Schreck said: “{ hope the amendments will
quickly pass through the legislature, but even

See Rental page §