NEWS

September 18, 2004
We have just revamped the website a little bit to make it easier to access and to provide more information about the Daflos family's struggle for justice. We're working on getting all of the information together regarding the move of the house and everything else that has happened since last spring, so check back to see as the Case History is updated.

April 1, 2003

Since the School Board and Municipal Council refuse to let the Daflos family address them, Peter took out an ad in today's Maple Ridge Times to tell the Board and Council what he would have told them had he been allowed to speak to them. Due to spatial constrictions, the full letter is available here. Special thanks to the Times for giving us a good deal and helping us run the series of letters. This is the first one, with the next appearing in April 4ths issue.

March 29, 2003

Today the familiy was very surprised to find an article on the case in the Maple Ridge News. After refusing the family's request to run a story on the case on March 11th, the News published a story today without asking the family any questions as counterpoint to the School District's position. Additionally, the family was shocked to find that Board Chair Cheryl Ashlie said the Board was allowing the family to take the house. This is a blatant lie, because not only was the family never "offered" this option in the letter of March 27th, but the house has never been Board property, as the expropriation agreement signed in 1995 clearly stated that the house would remain the Daflos' possession and could be removed from the property; please contact Penny if you're interested in seeing scans of these documents. The lies from the School Board have still not stopped.

March 28, 2003

A big thanks goes out to Joey Thompson for publishing a follow-up article on the case in today's Province.

The Maple Ridge Times also published a partial article on the events of the 25th today. They pasted over it with a notice, obscuring part of the story.

March 27, 2003

The family finally received the letter/offer the Board had promised would be ready on Friday, then Wednesday. Despite their statements to the media, the Board didn't even offer the family rent, and simply said they'd met their legal obligations and, as per their lawyer's suggestion, weren't prepared to do anything further; contact Penny if you wish to see a scan of this document.

March 25, 2003

The family attended another School Board meeting tonight with some supporters. Since they were not allowed to make a presentation, they went to ask the trustees some tough questions. Penny repeatedly tried making reference to the meeting on the 19th, but the Chair repeatedly interrupted her whenever she made a reference to it and tried to keep her from asking questions. Other questions were discouraged by the Chair, and all of a sudden she started saying that she's never seen any evidence that we were offered $200 000 in 1991. Eva told her to look in the minutes of the Expropriation Compensation Board hearing, since former Secretary Treasurer Adam Andruschak was questioned on just that point. The Chair said she would "look into it." A special thanks go out to Marti Begg, Greg Stewart, Mike Reid Sr., Ryan Larocque and Mark Booth for braving the wrath of the board and showing their support.

March 21, 2003

Today the Maple Ridge Times published some really excellent letters to the editor. A special thanks to Marcia Anderson and Mike Reid for writing such excellent letters of support.

We also received a phone call from the Chair telling us our meeting was cancelled as she no longer believed some of the things we'd told her two days ago. She made it clear she was no longer sympathetic to our case and did not want to make any moves to resolving the situation. She said we'd have a letter in a couple hours with their offer/position. Two hours later the Secretary Treasurer called and said the letter wouldn't be ready till Wednesday morning, after the trustees had decided on what to do on Tuesday.

March 19, 2003

We were very interested to see that the Maple Ridge News had decided to run a story on us today. We first contacted them over a week ago and they said they weren't interested in doing a story as the School Board wasn't willing to talk and they didn't want to run a one-sided story. Instead, they interviewed Peter for 3 whole minutes yesterday (since they called just a few hours before their deadline and had only a few minutes to talk to him). We're very disappointed that their story contained so little input from us, but are glad they ran something. View it here.

Today Penny and Peter also met with the School Board Chair, the Secretary Treasurer and the Superintendent to discuss the matter. We seem to have made some progress with this meeting, though Peter got particularly angry when he offered to settle with the School Board if they gave him the front strip of land the house sits on, which consists mostly of landscaping and the Secretary Treasurer responded that there was no way the District would give the land over because it's "worth a lot of money" and that we'd have to buy it from them. Interesting how when it was our property it had little value, but now it's worth a lot of money. Peter told them that if they had any offer to make us to put it in writing and we all agreed to meet on Friday for another meeting. We were also finally handed over our first two appraisals which they had with-held until this very day. The appraisal amount in 1991 was for $380 000. They offered us $200 000. When asked why we were offered half the appraisal amount when an expropriating authority is legally obligated to offer at least the appraisal amount the Chair couldn't give us an answer.

Later today, Peter also had a meeting with the Mayor. She refused to make any public comments, put anything in writing, or lend any practical support in the matter. She said she could not acknowledge the conspiratorial actions of the municipality as she didn't want to open them up to liability.

March 18, 2003

Another article appeared in today's Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times. You can see that School Board Chair Cheryl Ashlie is trying to distance herself from any actual decision making process, stating rather that she won't comment on decisions of previous boards or anything that happened in "closed meetings". In addition, the Times also included a letter to the editor in support of our case by a friend of Nick's. A big thanks goes out to Jason Braun.

We also had a letter to the editor in the Province by a Ms. Beth Van Gaalen from Coquitlam. Thanks for your words of support, Beth!

The SD42 News Release and Penny's response are available in full here.

March 17, 2003

Shaw "News 4" (channel 4) reporter Michelle Simick came and interviewed Peter and Penny today. The story airs tonight (Monday, March 17th) at 6:30 on Shaw's local channel 4.

March 16, 2003

The Daflos family was interviewed this afternoon by BC CTV. The story air on the 6:00 and 11:30 news tonight (Sunday, March 16, 2003) on channel 9. Additionally, it was picked up by CTV's national news channel, CTV NewsNet on Channel 8 and was seen every hour at about quarter past on an 8 hour rotation. Way to go Shannon! Great story.

March 14, 2003

Article in the BC Province, Friday March 14, 2003

There is also a follow-up article in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times, available for viewing on their website.

Peter has been denied the right to address either the Maple Ridge Municipal Council or the Board of Trustees in their public forums. He does, however, have a meeting scheduled with Mayor Kathy Morse for next Wednesday. School District 42's Chair, Cheryl Ashlie, also contacted Peter personally this afternoon to request a meeting for the same day.

Additionally, we have received a phone call from BC CTV News, expressing an interest in our plight, and the desire to air our story.

March 13, 2003

We had a photographer come from the Province to take pictures of Penny and Peter, as editor Joey Thompson is very enthusiastic about putting us in the paper for Friday (14th). Links to the article will be available shortly.

March 12, 2003

So we had an eviction hearing today, where the School District's attorney did her best to get us off of the property for March 31st. We asked the arbitrator for a delay in the proceedings to allow for our presentation to the School Board, so that they could consider a more amicable solution to the situation. Our only hope is that the board doesn't delay the meeting till after the new arbitration date of April 4th.

March 11, 2003

Article in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times, Tuesday March 11, 2003

March 10, 2003

Peter Daflos addressed the Board of School Trustees today and asked them a number of questions, none of which they would answer without consulting with their legal counsel. They say we'll have an answer to these questions by friday, but no one is holding their breaths. Among the questions was whether or not the whole board voted on the eviction notice being sent out, or whether one or two individuals made the decisions on their own. If the board made a group decision, they did so without knowing the full situation, as they've only been in office for a short time, so the chair replied that she wasn't at liberty to discuss what happens in a closed meeting. We'll see whether or not they give us an answer to the rest.

We also requested to make a presentation to the board with our case and request that they negotiate with us after hearing the evidence. We were told they would allow us to make a presentation at the next meeting if time allows. Details on support for the meeting are forthcoming, depending on when we'll be able to get on the agenda.