Comedy at Max
Canadian Lorne Elliott is bringing his music and comedy to share with Powell River audiences.
Elliott is a humorist, storyteller, musician and playwright. He is known for a wacky and unique performance including songs and monologues. He has performed in Newfoundland, New York City and various other places around the world.
Elliott started out in 1974 performing in Eastern Canada. His shows make observations about trends in today’s world. He has appeared on numerous talk shows and has won a few awards. His play The Night the Raccoons went Berserk won best new play at the Quebec Drama Festival in 1983.
His one-man show has made regular appearances at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Elliott is currently touring for his one-man concert The Collected Mistakes.
Elliott will perform at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 27, at Max Cameron Theatre. Tickets are available at the theatre box office for $26 for adults, $24 for seniors and $12 for youth. For more information, interested readers can call 604.483.3900.
Tanning bed ban
BC’s government plans to restrict access to tanning beds for young people under the age of 18. Health Minister Michael de Jong made the announcement on Tuesday, March 20.
The proposed regulation under the Public Health Act will ban the use of commercial indoor tanning beds by youth under the age of 18, unless they have a medical prescription. The government anticipates the regulation will be in effect by the fall 2012.
Kathleen Barnard, the founder of Save Your Skin Foundation, grew up in Powell River. She said she welcomes the government announcement. “As a stage four melanoma survivor, I am living proof of the dangers of tanning as a young person,” she said. “Anything we can do to prevent skin cancer later in life is good news for the patients who go through treatment and the hundreds of families that are ripped apart by this potentially deadly disease.”
In Canada, the incidence rates of melanoma are rising annually. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in Canada and yet it is also one of the most preventable.
Studies have shown that indoor tanning before the age of 35 raises the risk of melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, by 75 per cent. BC Cancer Agency estimates that in 2012, 966 British Columbians will be diagnosed with melanoma and 150 will die of it. One in 69 females and one in 56 males are expected to develop melanoma during their lifetime. One in 413 females and one in 284 males are expected to die of melanoma.
Teachers to vote
Teachers around the province will be voting in April on an action plan proposed by the BCTF (BC Teachers’ Federation) to fight Bill 22.
The plan, recommended by delegates at BCTF’s annual convention, includes the possibility of a future vote on a full withdrawal of services and a province-wide withdrawal of all voluntary extracurricular activities.
BCTF will be mounting a legal challenge against Bill 22, the Education Improvement Act, which was passed last week. The legislation ends limited job action that started in the fall and brings in a mediator. It also sets out daily fines for strike action, ranging from $475 for individual teachers to $1.3 million for the union.
BC’s 41,000 teachers will vote on the action plan on April 17 and 18. Meanwhile, teachers say they’ll continue to teach and prepare year-end report cards. None have been issued since school began in September.
BCTF said teachers are concerned about the negative impact of Bill 22 on class size and class composition. The legislation removes any effective limits on class sizes from grades four to 12 and eliminates caps on the number of students with special needs assigned to any particular class, according to BCTF.
