N.B. election: Tory leader promises to help synagogues, churches increase security

VANCOUVER – Christine Sinclair has always wanted to leave soccer in a better place for future players.

The Canadian legend believes her latest role as part owner of Vancouver’s new professional women’s soccer team will do just that.

Vancouver Rise FC announced Monday that Sinclair is joining Greg Kerfoot in the club’s ownership group as the National Super League prepares to launch in April.

“The future of soccer in Canada depends on the Northern Super League, depends on clubs like Vancouver Rise,” Sinclair said on a video call. “And I’m honoured and privileged to be a part of it.”

Kids need to see women’s professional sports to know that they, too, can play for a living, the soccer star said.

“I think of myself as like a 10-year-old, if I had the opportunity to go watch women’s professional soccer every second weekend, how that would have impacted my life, how that would have changed my life,” Sinclair said.

“Because I was convinced I was going to be a major-league baseball player because that’s all I could see on TV. These young girls growing up will have a completely different reality.”

Hailing from Burnaby, B.C., Sinclair is one of Canada’s most revered athletes and ended her international career last year as the world’s top goal scorer with 190 goals.

She helped the women’s national team win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and bronze at both the 2016 Games in Rio and the 2012 Games in London.

Last month, the 41-year-old Sinclair announced that she will retire from professional soccer later this year after playing her 11th season with the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League.

The Thorns are set to play the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite team in a CONCACAF W Champions Cup match at B.C. Place in Vancouver on Oct. 15 before closing the regular season campaign on Nov. 1.

Being unable to play professional soccer for a Vancouver team is one regret that Sinclair said will linger as her playing days come to a close.

“That would have been a dream,” “That would have been a dream,” said Sinclair, who previously played semi-pro soccer with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W-League. “But when you know you’re done, you’re done. And I’m gladly hanging up the boots at the end of this season.”

Rise sporting director Stephanie Labbe admitted she hoped she would see her former national team teammate don a Vancouver jersey, but understood Sinclair’s decision.

“I know all too well that feeling of when you’re ready to retire, you’re ready to retire and move on to what’s next,” Labbe said. “So it was a quick change of direction from, ‘Well, if you’re not coming as a player, what else can you do? How else can we get you involved?’

“It’s a no-brainer for me to have Sinc involved in the club in some capacity.”

Launching a new league is nothing new for Sinclair. She was involved when the now-defunct Women’s Professional Soccer made its debut in 2009, and when the NWSL began in 2013.

Those experiences have shown what’s important for a new league, she said, from how much players are paid to how many teams are included.

“I think previous leagues started way too big and then weren’t able to sustain themselves,” Sinclair said. “I think what the Northern Super League is doing is starting at a realistic base.”

With six founding teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, the NSL is set to kick off its inaugural season in April. Each team is set to play a 25-game schedule next year.

Labbe said she expects Rise will announce the club’s first player signings and head coach in the next several weeks.

Sinclair declined to say what her ownership percentage will be, calling it instead “a small chunk” and saying her role will be to bring awareness to the club and help it grow.

“Whatever they need from me, I’ll be there to help support,” she said.

The appetite and support for women’s sports is growing, Sinclair said, so joining the NSL “makes perfect sense.”

“The time is now for women’s sports,” she said.

“If you go across Canada — obviously we did with the national team — people are begging to be able to watch professional sports here in Canada, women’s professional sports.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

VANCOUVER – Members of Vancouver’s Jewish community say they are meeting the anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered their ongoing war with profound sadness and ongoing unease.

Multiple police and at least one police dog were posted outside the Talmud Torah School on Oak Street as parents dropped off their children.

Allie Saks, who has two children at Talmud Torah, broke down in tears as she described Oct. 7 as a “day of grieving” saying it’s hard to drop off a child at school where they “have to see police in front.”

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt of the nearby Schara Tzedeck Synagogue says the Oct. 7 attack and the community’s reaction are “a little bit akin to the anniversary of 9/11,” referring to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001.

The synagogue was the scene of an arson attack in May that blackened the temple’s doors.

Rosenblatt says a silver lining has been the response of most Canadians in the last year, and that people are “rediscovering how important it is to feel close and in lock-step with the Jewish community.”

The Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people while about 250 more were taken hostage.

It triggered an Israeli counteroffensive in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip that the territory’s health ministry says has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead, and the hostilities have since spilled into nearby Lebanon.

About a hundred of the hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack have not been returned.

In a post on social media platform X, BC NDP Leader David Eby says the province’s residents still feel deeply “the pain and sorrow” from Oct. 7 and “stand firmly against violence and its glorification.”

Meanwhile, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad denounced the attack and the ongoing “celebrating the massacre of Jews and glorifying terrorist organizations” by some local protesters and calling for immediate action to crack down on those who “call for violence against minority communities, particularly Jews.”

Provincial Green Leader Sonia Furstenau also issued a written statement, saying that party members “are committed to the safety of all British Columbians and stand firmly against hate in all its forms.”

Vancouver Police have said they are stationing extra officers at faith-based schools today and places of worship.

Among the groups planning rallies and events on Monday is pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which is promoting its events on social media by referring to the Oct. 7 attacks as “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the Hamas code name for the operation.

Samidoun says the events will include a “teach-in” about the operation and a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday, as well as attending an Oct. 8 court appearance the group says will be made by Samidoun organizer Charlotte Kates.

Samidoun director Kates was arrested last year in a hate-crime investigation after praising the Oct. 7 attack as “heroic and brave” in a speech at a rally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – Police in Vancouver say a man has been arrested after setting fire to a van filled with containers of gasoline outside City Hall.

They say in a post to social media that Vancouver Fire Rescue extinguished the blaze Sunday night and found about 100 litres of unburned gasoline in canisters inside the car.

Fire department information officer Matthew Trudeau says several people reported the incident and firefighters were deployed around 5:15 p.m.

He says six fire trucks were sent to the fire — which was soon deemed incendiary — and crews remained on scene for about two hours.

Police closed West 12th Avenue between Cambie and Yukon for their arson investigation, but it had been reopened by Monday morning.

They say in Sunday night’s social media post that a man was arrested and no one was hurt.

It says the suspect appears to have acted alone and the incident is isolated but his motivation is currently unknown.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.