6 - North Shore News —- Wednesday, August 16, 2000 YSLINK is doing its best to keep commuters in their cars. The recent singie zone hike in fares from $1.50 to $1.75 is but one example. For another, North Shore residents need look no further than their SeaBus terminal, where the popu- larity of the harbour ferry service is overwhelming its carrying capacity. According to an Aug. 11 News story, some SeaBus passengers are now being Ieft behind on some sailings because the vessels are full. Since it was launched in 1977, the SeaBus system has become one of the great success stories of the Lower Mainland transit system. It boasts ever-increasing ridership. By the time it hit its 20th anniversary the system had carried .over 76 miilion passen- gers. That’s 76 million commuters who didn’t use the North Shore’s mai iibox - Bad Dear Editor: West Vancouver is playin Russian Roulette with our lives "at its Caulfeild intersection hat boasts of having a three-way Stop at a four-wav road. What urban: planner devised a crossroad that, has three ' stopped vehicles playing second fiddle to a johnny-coine- } lately that is speeding, and doesn’t give a “hoot-honk” - about slowing down in the intersection? Dave Gosse North Vancouver "Please allow me to saya a great big appreciative thank you . veral people. They very kindly stopped to help me on a recent Friday morning after having iripped on an uneven sidewalk on-Lonsdale. planning at - Caulfeild junction View PoINT— crowded and inadequate bridges. Yet it remains a two-vessel opera- tion. Current usage demands at least three. A faster, more frequent SeaBus service would draw more commuters from both sides of the inlet out of their cars and away from the North Shore’s bridges. And three SeaBuses would give the service one more option were one or both of the 23-year-old vessels to run into mechanical difficulties. After decades of debate, the North Shore was given no relief from its three-lane First Narrows heritage bridge; it received little more than cos- metic additions in the recent round of transit improvement plans. Expanded SeaBus service has been pushed since the late 1980s as a way to increase tran- sit ridership and reduce the demand on Burrard Inlet bridges. It makes too much sense to continue to ignore. ear pie ile — ! 2 ee] ae ee Watch for national ON a hot August afternoon just five years ago, 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers was rid- ing his bicycle on Adam Street in Montreal’s east-end Hochelaga district. As he pedalled past a curbside Jeep, a bomb inside the car exploded. Shrapnel ripped through his little body leaving him in a coma until his death four days later. He became the first innocent victim in the violent drug war in Quebec between the Hells Angels and the claimed Rock Machine which, to date, hy over 150 lives. While the war for control of Quebee’s lucrative drug trade has been going on since 1994, there is growing evidence that the Rock Machine are upping the stakes and the violence is moving westward. Ontario. The president of the Nomads is Maurice “Mom” Boucher, thought to be one of the most powerful gangsters in the county. The patch-over of the Outlaws in Ontario orig- inated with a meeting held earlier in the spring, in Chicago, benveen Quebec Nomads and senior people with the Oudaws. The Hells angels warned the Outlaws to stay away trom the Rock Machine lest they get sucked i into” the war as well. . : The older Outlaws, who well remem- ber the decade-long war with the Hells Leo Knight crime and | punishment agreed to the concept. The nine Outlaws in Ontario, too young to remember the - bloodshed of the early ’80s, rejected the idea of being told what to do and joined with the Rock Machine, renouncing the’ skull and crossed pistons of the Oudaw Angels, which spread throughout the U.S., To Leah: Barrotte: who ‘called. the ambulance, Tom McElley and Bill Bowers who stayed with me and my grand- daughter until help arrived and took over, to Greg Andrews who gave up his towel for my head and had medical know!- edge. The lady in the laundromat for the cold cloth for my facial ‘cuts ‘and abrasions and to those of whom I have no knowledge. There are * good People around. ‘Aldene Imlah, « . ‘North Vancouver Earlier this summer, on June 10, the Rock Machine opened two new chapters _ in Ontario, which included the patch-over of nine members of the Outlaws, one of the so-called “Big Four” outlaw motorcy- cle gangs in the world. While the Angels have some limited control in the huge Ontario market, with associations with the Vagabonds and Para-Dice Riders, they- : have been unable to establish a chapter : there. -Two of the original founding members colours in favour of the red and gold ” eagle. | A year ago, in this space, I told you of the change in status of the Rock Machine to that of a support club for the Texas- ” based Bandidos motorcycle gang. In that column, I warned of the possibility the drug war could spread to Vancouver streets. The Bandidos sport red and gold colours and giving the support status to the Rock Machine allowed them to wear - the red and gold of the Bandits; albeit i in’: BO You HAVE A STORY ADEA?. “Sharon Cocomite - -> Edltosial Assistant -- 985-2131, local 120° = 985-2104. ; ‘ : seocamile@nénews. com Contributions must include your name, full address & phone number, . North Shore Hews, funded in 1969 as an independent - suburban newspaper and quatitieg unger Schedule. 111, Paragiagh 111 of the Excise Tax Act. i published , seach ; Wednestay, iday and Sunday by’ HON Publications Company ‘and distributed 6 every ‘deor . “on. the North Snore. Canada Post Canadian | * Pubsications Mail. Sates“ Product Agreement Wo. 87238. Mailing tates available on request. Entire ontents © 2000 HCN Public 5 Company. All rights , reserved. Average circulation for Wednesday, Fidy an and Sunday is 63; 502. vo Dee Dhaliwal Pe HR/Promotions Manager |: 985-2131 (218) ‘ ddhatwargnsnens.com Michael Becker Newsroom Editor S85-2131 (116) “of the Quebee “Nomads” chapter of the Hells Angels, Wolodumir “Nugget” Stadnick and Donald “Pup” Stockford live -in Hamilton and have been working dili- gendy to get a chapter set up in the Golden Horseshoe of Southwestern: iq CENA BETTER = APWSPAPIRS « Ooug Foot, - General Manz jer 985-2131 (133) dlootgnsnews.cont David Whitman Display Advertising 380-0515 (377) mbeckenbasnews om Testy Peters - Editorial Manager 985-2134 (160) tpelers aasnews.com reverse. Since that time, intelligence reports indicate the Bandidos told the Rock: Machine that they would not get. “patched-over” until such time as they - were a “national” club. Police sources s tell, os TAKING THAT STARVING ARTIST THING A LITTLE FAR, ER? me that the Rock Machine devised plans. to get three new chapters, two in Ontario ; and one in Vancouver. > -: : ; After the June 10 patch-over, members . of the Rock Machine are now wearing a’. bottom rocker on their colours that says “Canada” as opposed to the city where the? chapter is located. This is especially signifi-: if *- cant because the Hells Angels consider. Canada their territory. : . _ Meanwhile, there are signs that the. Angels in Quebec are not as feared as they.; once were. In April, Angel Normand .\_- “Biff” Hamel, a full patch | member and close associate of Boucher, was executed in * a north Montreal parking lot. On Sune 24 “. Louis “Melou” Roy, a Nomads member and former president of the Trois Rivieres chapter went missing, and is presumed dead. : + On July 7, ina brazen track ji ina fam ly restaurant, ‘Robert Savard was gunned down while having breakfast with; : Norinand Descoteaux: Both men are { sharks-and close associates of “Mom”. ‘Boucher. Savard died of his wounds and Descoteaux is recovering in hospital In. that shooting,’a waitress got cau~* "nthe gunfire and was seriously" suaded, anoth-; er innocent victim of organized crime. These attacks are seen as direct chai » lenges to the authority of Boucher. As soon as the Vancouver chapter of: .the Rock Machine is established, it see “likely the Bandidos will patch hi club. The war back east will spre the continent and possibly even to. Europe where the Bandidos and the Hells _ have had an uneasy truce for the past thre : «years following a violent .war which includ- ed bombs and missile launchers. LETTERS 10 THE EDITOR rust include your ~ “ name, full address and ‘telephone. number. ° Submit via’ e-smail to: mbecker@nsnews.com 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vane iver After: Hours News Tips: 985-2131. (press Timothy Renshaw Executive Editor . 985-2131 (786) trenshaw grsnews.com Valerie Stephenson Classilied Manager” 986-6222 (202) ” Py 985-2131 (127) -. _ nfancherensnews com Distribution Manager". ‘$88-1337 (124) ‘demo