odel soured by Asian

Friday, July 2,

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1993 - North Shore News - 3

erience

Canadian Embassy helps 14 Canadian women flee failed China fashion tour

WEST VANCOUVER
teenager Britt Bryan says
she has just endured a
model’s nightmare.

‘By Anna Marie D’Angelo
_News Reporter

The 19-year-old and 13 other
women were chosen to travel to
China in early June for what was
billed as a talent showcase.

The 35-day tour was to include. —

fashion show events in eight cities.

But' seven days after leaving for
China, Bryan, upset from her
ordeal, was glad to see her father
at Vancouver airport.

.“We had to phone the Cana-
dian embassy to help us get out.
That is how bad it got,’’ said
‘Bryan, a professional model who
works for the Look Models agen-
cy. ;
Bryan has modelled for three

years. She said the fashion shows

were conducted in Beijing drink-
ing lounges. -

“They were bars with drunk
men. It just wasn’t the at-
mosphere for a fashion show,’’
said Bryan.

The group of models appeared
in three shows in one night at dif-
ferent locales. :

. Bryan said they were fed once
that day. She said they had no
water.

“‘We refused to do any’ more
shows until they fed us properly,”
said Bryan, who is also a third-
year SFU psychology student.

... Tour organizer Helen Zheng
.acted as the translator for the

: group. Zheng, a landed im-
migrant, did not return to Canada
with the models.

“I don’t know what happened.

. If they had different motives or if
‘this was tctally innocent, But we
were getting scared because we
didn’t understand what was hap-
_ pening,*’ said Bryan.
Bryan ‘said the second fashion

an i ;
NEWS pheto Cindy Goodman

WEST VANCOUVER model Sritt Bryan was one of 14 models who abruptly ‘eft China after a fashion
show tour featuring Vancouver designers went awry.. The models completed three shows in one
night at locales in Beijing, China.

show took. place on a round stage
with no runway. She said a
Chinese master of ceremonies was
shouting into a microphone to
work the crowd.

“You weren’t stripping, but it
was like you were stripping. it was
a very bad hole,’’ she said.

“I know some men were mak-
ing comments as you were walking

.by them,”’ she said.

Bryan said she vaguely
remembers the third fashion show
because she was so tired.

“IT do remember our change

room was next to the’ people so”

every time the door opened, peo-
ple would peer in,” she said.

She said the show presented at
the first venue was attended by
photographers and people who
would likely take in .a fashion
show.

" Meanwhile Bryan’s agent, An-
drea Anne Vena, said she initially
rejected the proposal to par-
ticipate in the China tour because
the models weren’t going to be

lo Creek hoop court
o be completed as planned

Staff to consult with residents concerning noise

A CONTROVERSIAL basketball court project: in Mos-
quito Creek Park has bounced back after a North Van-
couver City Council decision Monday night to finish the

facility.

But council directed city staff
to meet with neighbors opposed
to. the court before proceeding
and attempt to address their
concerns about noise and neigh-
borhood disruption caused by
the facility. —

Engineering staff were also
directed to check with the feder-
al fisheries department to ensure
that the court, which is nearly
completed, would not disrupt the
salmon and other fish popula-
tions in Mosquitc Creek,

The fully-lighted court, to be
located north of Larson:Road on
the east side of Mosquito Creek,

-was the subject of lengthy input
from a polarized public at a May
17 council meeting.

Residents of multi-unit build-—

ings to the west of the park said
the large number of children and
teenagers in the: area needed
places to play.

“But other residents, living in
single-family homes immediately
surrounding the park, opposed
the court, saying it was further
north than the area they had
agreed upon during public
meetings dating back to 1988.

NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL

by Stephen Wisenthal

The matter came to a head in
March, when residents saw
where the court was being buil.

They convinced council to halt
construction.

On June 2], council met as
the parks committee and
recommended going ahead with
the court project.

During .debate, councillors
said the process for deciding
how to develop the park. had
gone badly wrong.

Coun. Bill Bell said the pro-
cess ‘‘stinks,’’ and that
neighbors had faced anxiety and
concern because of it.

He suggested starting again
with a new consultation process.

But Mayor Jack Loucks said:
“I’m not sure that going back
and going through the whole
process is going to change any-

- body’s mind.”’

Coun. Barbara’ Perrault said
she was in favor of going ahead

with the court despite the prob-
lems with the development pro-
cess.

“There are now 265 children
living in an area’ where: there
were once five single-family
homes,”’ she said.

Coun. John Braithwaite, the
parks committee chairman, said,
“Y really don’t feel that going
back to process would really
work. With the number of
children in the area, we can’t
wait for a year to come out with
the same decision.”

Coun. Bell: proposed an
amendment to: direct staff to
consult with the neighbors. The
motion passed with the amend-
ment. /

Before the councillors ratified
the parks committee decision on
Monday night, nearby resident
Karen Milne told them that the
court threatened the fish, in-
cluding spawning salmon, which
use Mosquito Creek.

She said ‘that the federal fish-
eries department would not have
permitted the court to go ahead
in a ‘‘groundwater basin,” if
they had been asked before con-
struction went ahead.

But city engineer Chuck Gale
said the fisheries department had
been consulted at every stage of
the project.

paid and the event appeared to be
poorly organized.

The models were to receive an
all-expenses-paid tour including
Sightseeing trips, but no cash
payment.

But Vena said she accepted the
offer when Brenda Wong, active
in the Vancouver fashion industry,
became the tour’s production
manager and coordinator.

Wong said there were people al-
teady working on the project
when she started her job, 1%

Vancouver

months before the tour began.

Wong was hired to work on the
Vancouver end to help select the
models and coordinate the shows.

Wong said she had no reason to
question the project and today
feels the problem occurred with
communications in China.

“} was the one who phoned the
embassy and told them what was
happening. They said to lock
ourselves in our room and go to
the embassy the next day,’ said
Wong.

Wong loaned money to the
models so the entire group could
leave China together.

“We acted in a cautious way
and [I'm glad we did. My recom-
mendation to anyone is to take all
your emergency numbers with
you, including the embassy
number, and tell people where you
are going,’’ said Wong.

She said the Canadian govern-
ment is investigating the incident.

Bryan was the only model from
the Look Models agency to take
part in the fashion tour.

Vena said the tour was pres-
ented to her as a Chinese invita-
tion to see locally-designed fash-
ions as part of a trade mission.

Models from six Vancouver
agencies were to show fashions by
designers including
Martha Sturdy, Bea: Lorimer of
Beazworx and Elaine Wall for
Bodeez.

The tour was to include eight
cities, but the models only stayed
in Beijing before deciding to come
home. The group left for China
on June 7 and returned June 14.
They were originally to tour until
July 12,

The all-expenses-paid tour end-
ed up costing Bryan approximate-
ly $1,500 for food, hotel accom-
modation and an air ticket home.

“It’s was just horrible. You
don’t want to be a model after .
this happens to you,”’ said Bryan.

But Bryan plans. to continue

pursuit of her modelling interests.

Friends and family
meet to celebrate life

of missing

woman

FAMILY AND friends of Lynn Duggan, who is missing
and presumed dead, gathered Wednesday at St. Stephen’s
Catholic Church in North Vancouver for what was billed a

‘celebration of life.”

Duggan, 34, disappeared some-
time between June 16 and 17.

Duggan was reported missing
June 17 after she failed to show
up for work at London Drugs.
Because a considerable amount of
blood was found in her 1400-
block St. Georges Ave. apartment,
and items including a shower cur-
tain went missing from the
apartment, police fear Duggan
was murdered.

North Vancouver RCMP Staff
Sgt. Ron Babcock said in-
vestigators are continuing to
follow up on tips received ‘about
Duggan. -‘‘We’re still plugging
away at it,’”? he said. ‘‘This could
be a long, drawn-out atfair.”’

Babcock ‘said there are still no

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& Editorial Page

By Chris Wong
Contributing Writer

suspects. He added that an ongo-
ing land and water search for
Duggan’s body and some of her
belongings has turned up nothing.

Forensic analysis of the blood
found in Duggan’s apartment has
yet to be completed, Babcock
said.

Meanwhile Chery! Duggan, the
twin sister of the missing North
Vancouver woman, told about 300
people attending. the ‘memorial
mass to be stroug in this time of

See RCMP page &

Weather.
Saturday, mostly cloudy. High 21°C, low 12°C.

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