Australian transplant Amy Jones says she was never much of a sports fan when she lived Down Under, but since moving to Vancouver has unexpectedly found a new love in her adopted country’s national sport.

“My friends back home laugh at my dedication to hockey,” said Jones, 26. “Not being a sports fan in general, it took a lot of explaining for me to fully understand the rules, but now I know the game pretty well and consider myself a fan.”

Jones is one of many non-Canadians who have converted into hockey fans by virtue of living in Canucks-crazed Vancouver.

“It’s unavoidable,” she said. “If you want to see your Canadian friends during hockey season then you must learn to love hockey.”

She has even adopted her friends’ superstitions.

“If a game starts well and turns bad, we make everyone return to their original positions from when the game started.”

British transplant Dave Shaw, 27, spent a year watching hockey before he began to enjoy it, but now he’s the proud owner of a Canucks jersey.

“I needed a sport to replace soccer, which is on too early to watch regularly,” Shaw said. “After pestering (everyone) about (the rules), I began to get it and now enjoy it properly.”

VANCOUVER - EuroMax Resources Ltd. (TSXV:EOX) adjourned its annual meeting before any business could be dealt with in order to seek court guidance on the validity of the proxy votes cast against its director nominees.

Robert Power, chairman of the junior Vancouver-based mineral company, suddenly adjourned the meeting Tuesday to resolve allegations that the integrity of the vote had been compromised.

The meeting will resume Sept. 3 unless EuroMax management seeks directions from the British Columbia Supreme Court and the British Columbia Securities Commission by Sept. 1.

A proxy tabulation determined that 72 per cent of the votes cast, including 10 million votes deemed invalid, were for a slate of director nominees proposed by "concerned" shareholders.

EuroMax's slate received about 26 million votes, compared to 69 million for the dissidents, the opposition shareholders said in a news release.

However, a series of allegations were levelled over moves made prior to the meeting by the concerned shareholders.

Among them was an accusation that shareholders weren't informed that Anthony Patriarco had obtained a stake in EuroMax that exceeded 20 per cent.

EuroMax has sued its former director for insider trading. It has alleged that Patriarco profited from a series of "illegal sales of shares of EuroMax" that drove the company's share price down by 33 per cent.

EuroMax said one of the dissident nominees also allegedly solicited shareholder support before the dissidents' circular was delivered. And the former company CEO solicited proxies from some shareholders without providing information to all shareholders.

The dissident shareholders said they were disappointed that the meeting was adjourned and will "will endeavour to see the fundamental right of all shareholders to vote honoured and the dissident slate elected."

EuroMax was formed in February 2009 following a friendly merger with Silk Road Resources.

With Earth Day coming up on Thursday, events and celebrations are being held around the Lower Mainland from today until Sunday in recognition of the 40th annual day celebrating the environment.

Here are some highlights:

Monday Mission: Take A Hike On The Wild Side, a fundraiser and tree-planting expedition for at-risk youth. The event runs every day until Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday Richmond: Electronics recycling and donations round up. Donate your used electronics at Richmond Centre. 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday West Vancouver: Eco-friendly product swap at Whole Foods Market at Park Royal, 3 p.m to 5 p.m.

Share This

VANCOUVER - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (TSX: CP) says it has signed two new deals with West Coast terminal operators to improve cargo shipments through Canada's Western ports.

Canada's second-largest railway operator said Wednesday the agreements will streamline the handling of cargo shipments with the two terminal operators that occupy Port Metro Vancouver, Canada's busiest port for international trade.

"Both parties have committed to even closer co-operation going forward with the goal of moving even more shipments through the port of Vancouver," said Canadian Pacific spokesman Mike LoVecchio.

"The more throughput we can move the better it is for our partners in the supply chain and for us."

The port trades $75 billion in goods annually.

One agreement is with TSI Terminal Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Global Container Terminals, which says it handles more than 70 per cent of the containers that move through the Vancouver gateway.

The company is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, one of Canada's biggest pension fund managers.

The other deal is with marine terminal operator DP World Vancouver, a unit of Dubai-based DP World, one of the world's largest port companies.

CP president and CEO Fred Green says its collaboration with terminal operators between 2001 and 2008 has led to a 229 per cent increase in loaded import containers through the terminals in Vancouver.

CP is a major shipper of grain, chemicals, fertilizer, lumber, coal and other resources to West Coast ports destined for China, Japan and other Asian countries. That traffic has grown rapidly in recent years as Canadian trade with Asia expands.

Michael Moore, president and CEO of Global Container Terminals, says the agreement moves the companies toward an efficient and reliable supply chain.

The agreements cover exports and imports of intermodal containers, through multiple modes of transportation without any handling of the freight, which increases security, but takes longer than normal truck delivery.

The companies will co-ordinate working groups to identify ways to improve productivity and streamline port processes. They will measure performance changes and share best practices, as well as improve information systems that track customer demand.

Shares of Canadian Pacific fell 44 cents to $60.02 in Wednesday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The Philadelphia Flyers have not only earned the right to be in the final, they look poised to put up more of a fight against Chicago than any other team the Blackhawks have faced so far this spring.

The 22nd annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival reels out an extraordinary array of flicks that seek to inform and fascinate.

The first 100 per cent electric trucks licensed in Canada were unveiled Thursday in Vancouver.

The two Novex Courier trucks are carbon-neutral, zero emission vehicles and made their first delivery to deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston.

Johnston, who filled in for Mayor Gregor Robertson, said the trucks are an environmental step in the right direction for the city. “This will help in making Vancouver the greenest city on the planet.”

Iain Black, minister of small business, was also on hand to congratulate Novex on their environmental leadership.

“This is remarkably important and significant, because emissions from transportation actually account for 36 per cent of all our greenhouse gas emissions.”

To hammer that point home, a 13-kilogram garbage bag was brought to show how much CO2 is pushed into the air with each delivery (using the old diesel trucks). Novex has made a commitment to reduce its own carbon footprint by 70 per cent by 2015.

The entire Arab-Israeli conflict is boiled down to an interfaith crime drama in Ajami.

Vancouver-raised filmmaker Reginald Harkema reduces the Sharon Tate murder and subsequent trial to a stylized theatre piece, implicating the surrounding society for a climate that encouraged crazy excess in all directions.

VANCOUVER - A 43-year-old Vancouver man finds out in July if he will spend the rest of his life behind bars in California.

A federal court judge in Los Angeles has convicted Henry Anekwu of 16 counts of fraud linked to a lottery scheme that bilked elderly Americans out of more than $600,000.

He expects to be sentenced July 12 and U.S. officials say the father of two faces a maximum penalty of 160 years in prison.

RCMP arrested Anekwu in Vancouver in 2005, launching a four-year fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada before he was ordered extradited to California last year.

At his trial in Los Angeles, court was told Anekwu headed a Vancouver-based telemarketing scheme that contacted elderly U.S. victims and asked for payments to cover processing fees for fake lottery winnings.

Victims wrote cheques ranging from $475 to $60,000 and many were contacted repeatedly and urged to send additional money to collect winnings that never arrived.

Stock markets are up today, driven by a rise in the price of oil.   Deputy Managing Editor Paul Bucci discusses this and other stories that editors and reporters at The Vancouver Sun are posting online at vancouversun.com today.

 

The harmonized sales tax will be disastrous for small businesses in B.C. and should be scrapped immediately, B.C. New Democrats argued yesterday.

NDP leader Carole James was among those who joined Lower Mainland small business owners in a rally against the new tax at 47th Avenue and Fraser Street.

“There’s no reason why (the provincial and the federal governments) can’t go back and undo this agreement by July 1,” said James.

“The HST will place a very heavy burden on all of us,” said Peter Chiu, Director of the Lower Mainland Grocers Association, who added that it was hard to say whether some enterprises would be able to stay in business.

However, not everyone is convinced that the harmonized tax will be a bane to small business.

“One of the greatest benefits of the HST is that it will be easier to administer; there will be fewer exceptions (and less paperwork) for small businesses,” said Candace Nancke, a certified general accountant.

While she acknowledges that small businesses may face increased expenses in the short term, Nancke says the elimination of “cost-layering” from the PST will eventually reduce prices for both small businesses and their customers.

GOLDEN, B.C. - A rock slide about five kilometres east of Golden, B.C., has shut down part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Ministry of Transportation spokesman Dave Crebo says the slide happened around noon Sunday.

About 1,000 cubic metres of rock came down, but officials don't yet know what triggered the fall.

No injuries were reported.

Transportation officials are hoping the stretch of road will reopen late Sunday night.

A detour has been set up on Highway 95 south to Highway 93.

Former Vancouver Mayor Jack Volrich has died and we will be posting his obituary online.  Managing Editor Kirk LaPointe discusses this and other stories that reporters and editors are posting online at vancouversun.com today.