Jack the bat

Here follows an excerpt from council candidate Tyler Ducharme’s campaign website. It offers an intimate glimpse at the behavioural patterns associated with Jack Athwal, a local landlord. The battles between Athwal, the public and District of Maple Ridge are well documented and show up frequently in the local press. He has been sued (successfully) by the District and is in a running battle with District over a wreck of property on Fraser Street known as Northumberland Court. Northumberland Court has no equal when it comes demonstrating almost ever social ill that befalls Maple Ridge. In short, it is a microcosm of social malaise. Athwal controls this hell hole and refuses to either knock it down, sell it, improve or do anything that will vaguely improve not only the lives of the residents, but the businesses and residents who are affected in the neighourhood.

The piece written by Tyler Ducharme below points to a more serious side of Athwal’s persona. One does not have to read between the lines to recognize that in Athwal the community is up against a psychotic with deep anti-social issues. It is as well that Mr Ducharme reported Jack Athwal’s threats to the local constabulary on November 9, 2008. I am certain that they, and the residents of Northumberland Court will consider Jack the bat flagged for being a very, very naughty man.

“I want to start by thanking everyone for their kind comments today regarding my participation at the all candidates forum at the senior's center. It is quite heartening to hear that as a candidate people appreciated actual answers to questions. While working the downtown area today for votes I spoke with three different people who were at the meeting and all had polite and encouraging things to say.

Someone who did not have a nice thing to say to me today was Maple Ridge's most notorious slum lord, Jack Athwal. His exact words, as I reported them to the RCMP were: "I have a bat … I'm going to hit you". Now I don't know if he actually had a bat in his truck, but he was reaching for something. Suffice to say I've dealt with tough guys like him before and most are way too cowardly to actually do anything. Seems that Jack doesn't care for being called out on what he is, and if that is the case he is going to like it even less when the public pressure campaign against him and city kicks into full gear.

As it stands there is one more all candidates meeting for those of us running for council. I should be able to get in one more full day of campaigning and ideally get in about 8 more hours of campaigning on top of that. Will it be enough? Hard to say at this point, but the electoral voters do seem ready for change. I understand the advance polls were double what they were last election and generally a bigger turn out means that change is on the way. We are losing our medical clinic in Haney and this is entirely the fault of Jack Athwal and a council that will not enforce the bylaws to hold him accountable for his actions in attempting to destroy our community. I don't' think that bodes well for Jack or any of his ilk. The time for abusing an entire community is coming to an end. Not because the prior council did anything to end it, but because the people in Haney, and I think the rest of Maple Ridge, are tired of this abuse going on and the embarrassment it causes.”