1984

Above: Avalon Dairy Wagon. Everett Crowley, Avalon Dairy founder and Collingwood neighborhood activist, died in 1984.
[Image: avalondairy.com]

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You’ll note that these years include events listed under “Also in . . .” These are events for which we don’t have a specific date. If YOU know the specific date of an event shown there, please notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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February 3 Mayor Mike Harcourt declared this Dal Richards Day in Vancouver. Dal has been a musical fixture locally since the 1930s.

February 7 James Sinclair, federal cabinet minister, died in West Vancouver, aged 75. He was born May 26, 1908 in Banff, Scotland. “He was,” writes Constance Brissenden, “an outstanding athlete at UBC. He attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1928, later studied studying math and engineering at London University. He taught at West Vancouver High School, then studied at Princeton. In 1935 he was appointed assistant to education minister G.M. Weir, later became secretary to B.C. mines minister. At 31 Sinclair was elected a Liberal MP for Coast Capilano, later for Vancouver North (1940-58). During the Second World War he enlisted in the RCAF. On his return in 1945 he was re-elected. He was fisheries minister in the St. Laurent government from 1952 to 1957. His daughter Margaret married Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1970.”

A fisheries vessel is named after him, as is Sinclair Centre at Granville and Hastings in downtown Vancouver.

March 28 A seven-week strike began at The Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers.

March 31 Steve Fonyo, inspired by Terry Fox, began to run across Canada. Fonyo was a 19-year-old Vernon kid who’d lost his leg to cancer at age 12. He dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean at St. John’s, Newfoundland, then faced west. The journey would take him 14 months. It would end May 31, 1985 at the Pacific Ocean in Victoria. He completed 7,924 kilometres, crossed ten provinces and raised almost $9 million for cancer research, education and patient services, including $1 million pledged by the federal government. (More millions were to follow.) On the way he wore out six artificial legs and 17 pairs of running shoes.

Fonyo wasn’t as photogenic as Terry Fox, his personality wasn’t as attractive, his run wasn’t as well organized, and his post-run life was marked with trouble with the law. But he did two extraordinary things: disabled, he ran across the entire country, and he raised those pledges in the fight against cancer to more than $13 million.

Today, Fonyo lives at Cultus Lake and works as the head mechanic for a limousine company.

April 6 Bill Duthie, bookseller, died in Vancouver two days before his 64th birthday. He was born in Weston, Ontario April 8, 1920. Alan Twigg, of BC Bookworld, wrote a tribute to him in the June, 1984 issue of Quill & Quire. An excerpt: “Duthie graduated from the University of Toronto and served in Italy during World War II. He joined the book trade in 1947 as a sales rep for Macmillan of Canada in rural Ontario and Quebec. Duthie became the first full-time western book rep when in 1953 he offered his services first to Macmillan and then to McLelland and Stewart. Once in Vancouver, according to his wife Macie, he decided he wanted to sell books to people who wanted them, rather than to reluctant stores. He opened the first Duthie Books on Robson Street [at the northwest corner of Hornby] in August of 1957, taking care to locate his store near the Vancouver Public Library. He subsequently opened branches on West 10th, Seymour, Hastings, and in the Arbutus Village.”

Duthie’s big Paperback Cellar in the Robson Street location was an innovation, and his people—Binky Marks, Dave Kerfoot, Bill’s daughter Celia and many others—were treasures. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Bill Duthie raised the level of book selling in the city. It was great to go into a store where the staff know what the hell they were doing.

Duthie’s is at one location today, on West 4th.

An annual book prize, the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice, is awarded in his name, and the Bill Duthie Memorial Lecture is delivered annually at the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

April 27 Lorraine McAllister, singer and actress, died in Vancouver, aged 62. She was born April 15, 1922 in Saskatoon. She was a singing star of radio and TV in the 1950s, headlining CBC Toronto’s Holiday Ranch and Vancouver’s Burn’s Chuckwagon, Some of Those Days and Meet Lorraine. She was a headline performer at Theatre Under the Stars, and performed in Johnny Holmes’ orchestra with Oscar Peterson as pianist and Maynard Ferguson as lead trumpet player. The wife of bandleader Dal Richards, she sang with his orchestra at the Panorama Roof of the Hotel Vancouver from 1950 to 1965. “One of the glamorous performers whose warmth and charm make her a favorite.”

May 2 The Mandarin Hotel opened in downtown Vancouver, a $41 million structure owned by a Hong Kong chain. It’s now the Metropolitan Hotel.

May 25 A “Shame the Johns” operation began in Vancouver in an attempt to drive prostitutes’ clients from the West End. Most of the angered residents’ attention, however, was directed against the prostitutes themselves: picketing them, verbal harassment, etc. The women did leave, but simply moved to other neighborhoods: Mount Pleasant, Strathcona, Kensington-Cedar Cottage and Grandview-Woodlands.

Earlier, Concerned Residents of the West End (CROWE), led by Vancouver Centre MP Pat Carney, had formed to oust the streetwalkers. City council, led by mayor Mike Harcourt, had passed a street-activity bylaw a couple of years before, imposing fines up to $2,000. But like so many attempts to legally control prostitution, it failed to stick in the courts.

May 26 Mae Garnett, senior court reporter, died in West Vancouver, aged about 109. “She was born in London, Ont. about 1875,” Constance Brissenden writes. “She moved to Winnipeg in the early 1900s as CPR public relations officer, then switched to the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. One of the first female general news reporters in Western Canada, writing for the Albertan, Edmonton Bulletin and Vancouver News Herald and joining The Vancouver Sun in 1930. In 1962 she retired as senior court reporter covering the B.C. Supreme Court and county courts. She was one of the first women to get a mortgage from Central Mortgage and Housing. ‘Known for championing women’s rights at least two generations before the rise of the women’s movement.’”

June 16 John Turner succeeded Pierre Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister, beating Jean Chretien on the second ballot by about 500 votes.

June 28 Official opening of the Granville Island Brewery, Canada’s first microbrewery. Their first beer, Island Lager, is, they say, brewed in traditional Pilsner style, “according to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.” Their website is fun.

June Squire Barnes (born June 12, 1963 in Burnaby) emerged in the Vancouver sports media. In 1992 he will land at BCTV, and he’s been there ever since. He will top a Georgia Straight poll as best local sportscaster in 2004.

June Former BC premier Dave Barrett (born October 2, 1930) started a talk-show stint on CJOR. He would leave in January of 1987.

June 20 Christ Church Cathedral was occupied by 12 members of ASP, the Alliance for the Safety of Prostitutes. The attorney general had obtained a Supreme Court injunction prohibiting soliciting west of Granville Street, and this demonstration was in protest of that move. (Residents of the West End had complained of prostitutes patrolling the Georgia Street sidewalk adjacent to the Cathedral.)

An here Cathedral history picks up the story: “Tipped two days in advance [of the occupation], the Cathedral, aided by the Bishop Hambidge (the dean was out of town), was well prepared to handle the protest and resultant media attention. The women were asked to leave. When they refused, arrangements were made for their occupation. After an initial press conference (at which most of the women wore masks), the church was kept locked for the rest of Friday and Saturday—protesters inside, their supporters and the media outside. Several parishioners remained on duty inside the church, played Trivial Pursuit to pass the time, and occasionally engaged the ASP members in friendly conversation. On Sunday the church was open for services as usual. The protestors attended the 10:30 a.m. Eucharist, the following coffee hour, and spoke before about 70 members of the congregation in the afternoon. The sit-in continued until noon on Monday, when, after a Eucharist and another press conference, the protesters left peacefully, holding balloons.

“Although the dozen women were portrayed as ‘hookers in the House of the Lord’ (they did not discourage this characterization), only two were or had been prostitutes. The protesters had made their points (to little avail, it turned out—the injunction was later upheld). The Cathedral, while not condoning prostitution, presented itself as a place of refuge and concern. Before leaving, the group was asked by a reporter if it would return, and the reply was, ‘Only to pray.’”

June 24 Masajiro Miyazaki, doctor and community activist, died in Kamloops, aged 84. He was born November 24, 1899 in Minamiaoyanaji-Mura, Inukamigun (now Hikone City), Japan. Miyazaki arrived in Vancouver June 29, 1913. He took part in UBC’s Great Trek (Oct. 22, 1922). He practised osteopathic medicine in Vancouver until his 1942 internment in the Bridge River-Lillooet area, where he served as doctor for 1,000 internees. In 1945, the town of Lillooet petitioned for his release to replace its deceased doctor. The Miyazakis rented the main floor of the Casper Phair home for use as a clinic, but he was also called upon to serve the whole area “on horseback, by railway speeder, rowboat and on foot.” After Japanese residents were legally able to buy property, he bought the Phair house, later donated it to the town. He was awarded Scouting’s Medal of Merit in 1970 and became a member of the Order of Canada on April 20, 1977. In 1983, he donated the Phair house as a heritage site. His 1973 autobiography is My Sixty Years in Canada.

August The Pacific Post Partum Support Society was incorporated, but they had been around in other forms since 1971. See their website for more information. They say: “An estimated 1 out of every 6 women experiences troubling depression or anxiety after the birth or adoption of a child. This is referred to as postpartum depression and can be a tremendously stressful time for the family.”

Summer Vancouver-born (1948) Bruce Macdonald got the idea for his book Vancouver: A Visual History. After 10,000 hours of work, partially subsidized by the Vancouver Historical Society, he would produce the book in 1992. It comprised a series of maps showing the development in ten-year increments of Vancouver from the 1850s to the 1980s, with accompanying text. Other maps show ethnic heritage, religious affiliation, etc. It’s one of the best books ever done on the city, a wonderful resource.

September 4 Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservatives won the federal election. Mulroney became Prime Minister, as John Turner stepped down after fewer than 3 months in office.

September 18/19 Pope John Paul II visited British Columbia. This was the first visit to Canada by a Pope and the crowd at Abbotsford was immense: Some 200,000 people came to see and hear the Pope, and he responded by praising British Columbians’ struggle to achieve a “just society” between the mountains and the sea.

Later that evening, speaking to a capacity crowd at B.C. Place, the Pope, the Province reported, “hammered home the Catholic Church’s stand against abortion and artificial birth-control.” But, the paper continued, “They came to hear him speak, but they didn’t agree with all he said.”

“I try hard to follow the church,” a young mother pregnant with her second child told the paper, “but I don’t think I’ll be struck down by lightning for practising birth control.”

The photo shows the Pope kissing a woman while holding a Talking Stick in BC Place Stadium before a crowd of 65,000 on Sept. 18. The Pope was at the Celebration of Life ceremonies in which he met young and old people of different ethnic backgrounds.

September 29 Richmond’s Gateway Theatre was opened at 6500 Gilbert Road. The Gateway houses two theatres, an art gallery and a photo gallery. The Gateway Theatre society produces an annual season of professional productions and also attempts to actively present material geared towards a multicultural audience.

The City of Richmond owns and maintains the property.

October 3 Angelo Branca, judge, died in Vancouver, aged 81. Angelo Ernest Branco was born March 21, 1903 in Mount Sicker, BC (near Chemainus on Vancouver Island.) He was Canadian amateur middleweight boxing champion. Branca began practising law in Vancouver in 1926 as a leading defence attorney. He defended high profile cases, including more than 60 murderers. “I lost only two . . . to the hangman.” At 36, he was B.C.’s youngest ever crown prosecutor. A judge with the B.C. Supreme Court from 1963 to 1966 and the B.C. Court of Appeal from 1966 to 1978). He was a leader in the Italian community. A Christopher Columbus statue on Clark Drive was erected by the Italian community in his honor. “A dear friend of the little guy.” See Angelo Branca, Gladiator of the Courts, by Vincent Moore.

October 14 Aileen Campbell wrote October 19 in the Province of the new Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (the “Evangelical” was later dropped), on Kincaid Avenue in Burnaby, that it was a replica of an 800-year-old church in Denmark. “The pews,” Aileen wrote, “carry plaques donated by congregations in Denmark. A traditional ship’s model is suspended from the ceiling.” A large bell, donated by a congregation near Copenhagen, arrived later.

This was by no means the first Danish Lutheran Church in the city. Learn more on their very fine website. It has lots of interesting photographs, and a very detailed history.

October Evangelist Bill Graham spoke to 46,000 people at BC Place Stadium.

October Well known Vancouver entrepreneur Edgar Kaiser Jr. became the president and chief executive officer of the Bank of British Columbia, and the bank raised $153 million through a private placement and public offering of bank shares. But even so there were cloudy days ahead.

November 1 The Supreme Court of Canada rendered a historically significant decision in the Guerin or Musqueam case. For the first time the highest court in Canada held that the Federal Government, namely the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) and its agents, could be held legally responsible for any improprieties in their dealings with surrendered Indian lands when it is clearly demonstrated that they failed to act in the best interest of the Indian band, which amounted to an equitable fraud.

Chief Guerin and other members of the Musqueam Band of British Columbia successfully sued the Federal Government for $10 million in damages for the surrender and improper lease of 400 acres of reserve land to the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club.

The Supreme Court held that DIA and its agents had breached their “fiduciary obligation” and thereby committed an “equitable fraud” when they induced the Band to surrender its land and enter into a lease without fully disclosing the terms of the lease; by ignoring the Band’s understanding of the specific terms of the lease; and by entering into a lease agreement on terms which were not favorable to the Band.

The three preceding paragraphs are from a federal government website.

November 12 Red Robinson’s last day at CKWX. But the Redster still rocks Sundays on C-ISL.

November 14 BC Telecom—a reorganization of BC Tel—was incorporated under that name. The company will merge with Telus in 1999.

November 16 Michael Jackson and his brothers, an act called “The Jackson Five,” performed the first of three shows at B.C. Place. It was the most successful entertainment event in Vancouver’s history to that point, attracting more than 100,000 fans to B.C. Place, and grossing nearly $5 million, a new Vancouver entertainment record for a three-night stand. A big box on Page 1 of the Province read simply: He’s Here! Said Province reviewer Tom Harrison, in part, “the skinny little guy covered in sweat and glitter is the dynamo that makes it work.” But, in the end, Harrison found the show opulent but empty.

November 25 Everett Crowley, Avalon Dairy founder and Collingwood neighborhood activist, died in Vancouver, aged 75. Writes Constance Brissenden: “He was born June 3, 1909 in Vancouver, part of a family of 12 that had come from Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula in 1906. Their South Vancouver farm delivered milk by dog and wagon, and registered Avalon Dairy before 1915. Ev graduated from South Vancouver High School. After the 1929 crash, he was too poor to go to university so he returned to the dairy. During the Second World War, he opposed the poll tax on non-property owners, and served three days in jail. [Thanks largely to his efforts, the poll tax was later dropped.] He was elected a Vancouver alderman but after six weeks a recount gave opponent Arthur Phillips a 37-vote lead. He later served on the parks board (1961-67). He launched Collingwood Pioneers Reunion. Ev Crowley Park on S.E. Marine Drive is named for him (1985). Lee Crowley, his youngest son, now runs Avalon Dairy.”

November The Cambie Street Bridge was closed to traffic, while its new $50 million six-lane replacement—the third in that location—was being built. It would open December 9, 1985.

December 5 Bryan Adams won four Juno Awards. Adams had become an international superstar with his album Cuts Like a Knife.

December 19 The signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration mandating the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 began to cause a flow of Hong Kong capital into Vancouver.

Also in 1984

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, an independent, non-profit organization headquartered in Vancouver, was established. Its mandate is to enhance awareness and understanding among the peoples of Canada and the Asia Pacific region.

The Cloverdale Rodeo was voted the Number One Performance Rodeo in North America by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association.

Diane Farris opened her first art gallery in Gastown. In the here-today-gone-tomorrow world of the private art gallery, Diane Farris’ 22 years is astonishing. With an alert and discerning eye, she’s launched the careers of many West Coast artists, like Attila Richard Lukacs, Chris Woods, Angela Grossmann and Graham Gillmore, and represents such luminaries as Dale Chihuly, Phil Borges, Judith Currelly and Gu Xiong. Born September 1, 1942 to a prominent West Vancouver family, Farris realized she loved showing and promoting new artists to friends and corporations, opened her Gastown gallery this year. She will move into the 6,500-square-foot location on West 7th in 1987. The gallery captures more international sales for B.C. artists on her website. It gets 150,000 hits a month. (Former astronaut Roberta Bondar showed her desert photographs at the Farris Gallery from March 23 to April 15, 2006.)

Bank chair Trevor Pilley announced a new head office for the Bank of BC at the northeast corner of Georgia and Hornby. It will transform the downtown.

South Burnaby Credit Union, which until 1951 was named the Common Good Credit Union (which had started out as the Common Good Credit Unit), became the Pioneer Credit Union. Today it’s Burnaby Savings Credit Union. If only they’d decide!

Construction began on the Broadway SkyTrain station at Broadway and Commercial Drive. Architects were Allen Parker and Associates. The station will be finished in 1985. SkyTrain’s first run will be January 3, 1986.

1984 was worrisome for Expo 86 officials. Strikes delayed the pace of construction.

The Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) established the DERA Co-Op at 638 Alexander Street. Jim Green, who had been hired by DERA as an organizer in 1980, says the Co-Op was “an outstanding example of community development. This Co-Op, in which 50 per cent of members do not speak English and 50 per cent are over 65, has never had staff. It is run entirely by its members, a powerful example of the abilities of low-income peoples.” The Co-Op provided 56 completely wheelchair accessible units.

Bill Reid’s magnificent bronze killer whale was unveiled in the presence of Lt. Gov. Robert Rogers at the entrance to the Vancouver Aquarium.

Mythic Messengers, a bronze relief created by Bill Reid for Teleglobe Canada, was unveiled. It was inspired, says art writer Elizabeth Godley, by a Haida ritual, “exchange of tongues”, whereby power was transferred from one entity to another.

The Terry Fox Memorial was unveiled at the east end of Robson Street, at BC Place. The creator of the memorial was Idaho-born (1937) Franklin Allen. It must be said that most of the initial public reaction was very negative. For one thing, there was no representation of Fox. Architectural historian Harold Kalman called it a “curious caricature of a Roman triumphal arch.” The memorial is topped by four fibreglass lions, traditional symbols of strength and heroism. “Images etched onto reflective steel plates [created by Ian Bateson] were subsequently installed within the arch,” said Kalman, “and public outrage eventually subsided.”

Allen’s design was chosen by a nine-person jury that included architect Arthur Erickson.

The film Under the Volcano was released. Directed by John Huston, and starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, it was based on the 1947 novel of the same name, written by Malcolm Lowry, working in obscurity in a squatter’s shack in Dollarton, North Vancouver. The novel was later acclaimed one of the great books of modern literature. Finney was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, but the film was not a great financial success. Virtually everyone who has seen it rates it highly.

Michael Walsh commented on these locally-made 1984 films:

Iceman (director Fred Schepisi) Frozen for millennia in the high Arctic, an ancient Inuit (John Lone) is reawakened by cryobiologists (Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse) working in high tech labs built on Panorama Studios sound stages.

Runaway (director Michael Crichton) Urban futurecops (Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes) specialize in fighting the robot criminals devised by a 21st-century techno-terrorist (Gene Simmons).

Hookers On Davie (produced by Janice Cole and Holly Dale) A documentary in which Torontonians Cole and Dale record the stories told them by four prostitutes and three transsexuals in Vancouver’s West End.

The Neverending Story (director Wolfgang Petersen) Though the imaginary world of Fantasia exists only on a Bavarian Studios sound stage, pre-teen explorer Bastian (Barret Oliver) enters it from the “real” world of Vancouver’s Gastown.

Reno And The Doc (director Charles Dennis) Whistler is the scenic setting for this ski lodge comedy in which two forty-something buddies (Kenneth Welsh, Henry Raymer) establish a telepathic link.

[The IMDb reviewer was unkind: “If this movie were any more of a dog,” he wrote, “you’d have to rent it from a kennel.”]

Eureka (director Nicolas Roeg) Gene Hackman plays a misanthropic millionaire in this fictionalized look at the last days of Canadian mining tycoon Sir Harry Oakes, murdered in the Bahamas in July, 1943.

Binghamton, New York-born (1935) writer Audrey Thomas , a BC resident since 1959, was the first winner of the Ethel Wilson B.C. Fiction Prize, now awarded annually, for her novel Intertidal Life.

The novel Paula Lake, by Belfast-born (September 26, 1939) George McWhirter, appeared. It dealt with a kidnapping, was partially set in the Squamish Valley. McWhirter, who came to Canada in 1966, to Vancouver in 1968, has won an impressive array of awards for his writing (both poetry and fiction). See this website.

Exploring Vancouver’s past: an informal guide to researching local and family history in Vancouver was published by the History Resource Committee, Vancouver Centennial Commission.

The book The Automobile Saga of British Columbia 1864-1914 by G.W. Taylor appeared. Much of the focus is on Victoria, but there are interesting stories and statistics about this side of the water, too, and many funky photographs.

Belfast-born (1947) Brian Kelly, an enthusiast of transit history, published Farewell to Brill, the story of Vancouver’s trolley bus operations. Brill was a company that manufactured trolley buses.

The book Above Tide: Reflections on Roderick Haig-Brown, describing and assessing the range of Roderick Haig-Brown’s output, appeared. Its author was Vancouver reviewer Anthony Robertson. See his preface to the book here. An excerpt: “Roderick Haig-Brown is widely read and best-known as a fishing writer—one of the best in a long and distinguished tradition which begins with Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton in the seventeenth century. It is largely an English tradition, although there have been some Canadian practitioners. Haig-Brown is somewhat less widely read and known as a naturalist and a writer of the country life and country matters. As a novelist and historian, he is scarcely known at all, although he wrote two serious novels, five novels for young readers and three histories for young readers. In all he wrote twenty-eight books and contributed chapters to at least two others . . . His writerly intentions are complex and ambitious. Whatever else he did in life, he considered himself first a professional writer. He was not a fisherman who happened to write, but a writer who happened to fish. He wrote about the things he knew well—fishing was one of them.”

The UBC bookstore opened its doors this year, replacing a much smaller shop. It comprises 35,000 square feet of selling space, with 250 tons of books sold each year, or 4.5 million volumes. Course books make up about half of that number. Leisure and other reading material for both children and adults make up the other half. the Bookstore also sells a variety of other items; from computers to art supplies, from flashlights to bathing suits.

Named after Douglas T. Kenny, the 7th president of UBC (from 1975 to 1983), the Douglas Kenny Building opened this year on the UBC campus to house the Psychology Department, equipped with a variety of labs, offices and equipment. The Whaler’s Pole outside the front entrance is noteworthy (an explanation of the pole is on the plaque) for people interested in North West Coast indigenous cultures. The pole was made by the Nu-Cha-Nalth people and depicts a harpooner, assistant whaler, shaman, Puk-Up and Grey Whale.

This was an active year for new publications. They included:

Canada Stockwatch: Western Edition, a daily that covered news issued that day or week by every company listed on the Vancouver and Alberta stock exchanges.

Canadian Critical Care Nursing Journal, a quarterly published by Health Media Inc.

Cancer Research News A free semi-annual publication of the Canadian Cancer Society, B.C. and Yukon Division. It was a bulletin summarizing current research into all aspects of cancer: causation, detection, prevention, treatment, epidemiology and survival.

Counterplay Published six times a year, covering local chess games and news; included occasional theory, how-to-improve articles, and interviews.

Dance International A quarterly published by the Vancouver Ballet Society, it provided national and international dance coverage.

Encore (Arts Club Theatre) A monthly magazine covering activity at the Arts Club Theatre.

Karuna Society Newsletter Published three times a year by the Karuna Meditation Society, it provided articles related to meditation in daily life, the relationship between spiritual practice and social change and issues related to women and Buddhism

Maturity Magazine A bi-monthly publication of general interest for senior citizens, including finance, health, travel, and lifestyle

Monthly Stock Charts – Canadian Companies A quarterly charting the 12-year share price and volume for 1,000 Canadian resource and industrial companies

Sing Tao Jih Pao A Chinese-language daily, with news of Vancouver and from its parent newspaper in Hong Kong.

Truck World & Western Trucking News A monthly publication from Global Trade Publications of North Vancouver.

Karim Rai, a student at McNair High School in Richmond, became the Canadian National Debating Champion.

Woodwards became the first major Vancouver department store to open on Sundays.

There was a recession underway in western Canada. One of the results: the largest Surrey tax sale list on record. A total of 633 properties went up for sale for delinquent taxes.

A new, six-storey building opened for the Cancer Control Agency at 600 West 10th Ave. It’s now called the B.C. Cancer Agency.

At Lions Gate Hospital a new addition added 125 extended-care beds.

Royal Columbian Hospital and newly-opened Eagle Ridge Hospital amalgamated as the Fraser-Burrard Hospital Society.

Oakridge Shopping Centre, which had opened in 1959, was being left behind as new malls opened throughout the region and shoppers ranged farther and farther afield. To regain its customers, Oakridge was extensively renovated this year.

Beginning this year the annual value of building permits in Pitt Meadows began to rise 55 per cent per year on average, making it one of Greater Vancouver’s fastest growing regions.

The Vancouver Pretrial Services Centre opened. It was a remand centre providing facilities for security (maximum), medium and open (minimum) housing for 150 inmates, with special provisions for 204 spaces. The building plans included segregation, hostile and observation cells. The centre is the City of Vancouver’s only holding facility.

Some years earlier the diocese for Christ Church Cathedral at Georgia and Burrard Streets decided to demolish the cathedral and replace it with an office tower. A better solution was found in the transfer of unused density rights to the adjacent property to the north. That provided the diocese with cash for its social programs and maintenance of the building. So the cathedral, the oldest surviving church in Vancouver, was saved. And what went into the adjacent property? Park Place, at 666 Burrard, one of the more attractive office buildings in the city. Architects were the Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership. Park Place opened for business this year.

St. Nicholas-Demetrios Church was built on Boundary Road to serve the growing Greek Community in East Vancouver and Burnaby.

The Olympic Games this year (held in Sarajevo) were the first in which athletes based in Vancouver won gold in totally separate sports. Lori Fung, Vancouver’s first ever gold medalist, was the winner in rhythmic gymnastics (in the first time that competition was an Olympic event), and UBC medical student Hugh Pisher teamed with Quebecker Alwyn Morris to win the two-man, 1000-metres kayak final.

The CBC’s Rick Cluff talked to Lori Fung on August 12, 1984 and you can hear that radio interview here.

This was the last season for a while for soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps, and for its parent organization, the North American Soccer League. When the NASL folded, the Whitecaps—and other teams—also died. They would be revived in 1986 as the 86ers . . . and become the Whitecaps again in 2001.

Rick Hansen, while training for the Los Angeles Olympic demonstration wheelchair race, fell and injured his shoulder. That turned out to be a good thing. He was treated by physiotherapist Amanda Reid. They fell in love, and would marry in 1987.

The CRTC approved new specialty TV channels this year, including MuchMusic, The Sports Network (TSN) and CNN.

The Tymac No. 2, a water taxi built in 1938, which in the 1940s and ’50s ran passengers from the foot of Columbia Street to Britannia Mines and church camps and summer resorts around Howe Sound, became a False Creek ferry. It had a capacity of 24 passengers. Says maritime writer Rob Morris: “The teak (estimated to be 200 years old) used for the boat’s doors, windows and trim was from the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Japan.”

34-acre Victory Memorial Park cemetery, a landmark with its big white cross in the South Surrey-White Rock area since the late 1950s, was acquired by The Loewen Group of Burnaby, which would eventually become the second-largest publicly-owned funeral corporation in North America.

Landscape architect Don Vaughan—head of Don Vaughan & Associates—brought together a large team, made up of past associates and partners, as well as several others, to tackle the largest landscape project in Vancouver’s brief history: Expo 86. The team included three Americans—Jeff Philips, Ron Rule and Richard Pavelek—who already worked with Vaughan, Kim Perry, Jane Durante and others.