Jan. 10-16, 1995
Assisted suicide probe targets B.C. MP
The B.C. Attorney-General's Ministry named prominent Victoria lawyer Bob Johnston as a special prosecutor to determine if Burnaby-Kingsway MP Svend Robinson will face charges in the suicide of Sue Rodriguez.
Ms. Rodriguez died last February, less than five months after losing a prolonged court battle for the legal right to an assisted suicide.
Mr. Robinson, who became Ms. Rodriguez's advocate and friend, admitted he was in the room on Feb. 12, 1994, when she committed suicide with the help of an unidentified doctor.
Mr. Robinson later told police he acted as an observer while the doctor, whom he refused to name, administered a lethal cocktail of drugs. An autopsy found that Ms. Rodriguez, 43, died of an overdose of morphine and Seconal.
At the time of her death, Ms. Rodriguez was in the advanced stages of Lou Gehrig's disease, and was physically incapable of taking her own life.
Mr. Robinson could be charged under a section of the Criminal Code that prohibits anyone from advising, encouraging or helping a person commit suicide.
Flash forward: Mr. Johnston's report, released in June, 1995, concluded there was insufficient evidence to support charges against Mr. Robinson.
Jan. 10-16, 1985
Mac-Blo lease expired, protesters' lawyer says
A lawyer representing opponents of MacMillan Bloedel's plans to log Meares Island told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing this week that the company's right to harvest timber on the island expired six decades ago.
Lawyer Richard Gathercole, representing protesters who blocked logging crews from landing on Meares Island in November, acknowledged that in 1905 the Sutton Lumber and Trading Co. secured a 21-year lease to log the area.
But he said the company failed to renew the lease when it expired in 1926 and was therefore "null and void" when MacMillan Bloedel purchased Sutton Lumber.
Paul Rosenberg, lawyer for the Clayoquot and Ahousat Indian bands, said logging on Meares Island would be a violation of the "aboriginal title" held by local first nations that have occupied the land continuously for "thousands of years." Earlier, lawyers for MacMillan Bloedel warned the court that a prohibition on logging Meares Island could spark similar lawsuits across the province and lead to significant job losses.
Flash forward: On Jan. 25, the court granted an injunction barring protesters from interfering with timber harvesting activities, as aboriginal leaders from across B.C. pledged their support for the ongoing battle to save the island from logging.