Police restrain a man on a Vancouver street after the Vancouver Canucks lost to New York in the Stanley Cup final on June 14, 1994.Stuart Davies/ The Canadian Press
15 YEARS AGO… (Oct. 30 – Nov. 5, 1996)
Brain-injured rioter receives public funding for lawsuit
A man who received a one-year jail sentence for his role in the 1994 Stanley Cup riot is receiving public funds to cover the cost of a civil lawsuit against the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department.
The lawsuit claims that Ryan Berntt, now 21, suffered a brain injury when police fired a rubber bullet at his head during the riot.
Mr. Berntt's lawyer, Richard Brooks, confirmed during a pretrial conference this week that the cash-strapped Legal Services Society of B.C. has agreed cover the cost of experts who have been called to testify on his client's behalf.
Mr. Berntt, described by Crown lawyers as a "ringleader" of the riot, was convicted last June of participating in a riot and using a weapon while assaulting a police officer.
Liberal justice critic Geoff Plant called it "outrageous" that tax dollars are being used to fund Mr. Berntt's case. The Legal Services Society posted a $22-million deficit on expenses of $101-million in 1995.
Flash forward: In 1997, the courts ruled that the police were 25-per-cent liable for Mr. Berntt's injuries. That verdict was overturned in 2001 in a successful appeal by the city.
25 YEARS AGO… (Oct. 30 – Nov. 5, 1986)
McGeer loses seat to Marzari in final ballot count
Social Credit MLA Pat McGeer's long career in B.C. politics came to an end this week after a final count of the ballots showed that he lost his bid for re-election in Vancouver Point Grey by 40 votes.
Unofficial results indicated that Mr. McGeer, who represented the riding since 1962, had retained his seat in the Oct. 22 provincial election. A count of ballots from unregistered voters overturned the initial result and declared NDP candidate Darlene Marzari the winner instead.
Ms. Marzari will share the dual-seat riding with newly elected Socred MLA Kim Campbell. The NDP also gained a seat in Surrey-Guildford-Whalley, where Joan Smallwood was declared the winner over Socred Marvin Hunt after the final ballot count.
The two-seat swing gave the Socreds a 47-22 majority in B.C.'s 69-seat legislature.
Mr. McGeer, a former B.C. Liberal Party leader, ran against long-time Socred premier W.A.C. Bennett in the 1969 election and played a key role in merging the Liberals with the rebuilt Social Credit Party under Mr. Bennett's son, William R. Bennett, before to the 1975 election.
Flash forward: A renowned neuroscientist, Mr. McGeer, now 84, is a professor emeritus at UBC's Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research.
Special to The Globe and Mail