APRIL

April 3

Municipal election financial disclosure statements showed that three of the top six highest spenders didn't win a seat on city council.

Top spending candidate Dick Harrington spent $18,143 but finished in ninth place. Winning candidates Ken Popove spent $11,322, Chuck Stam spent $9,233, Jason Lum spent $7,623, Ken Huttema spent $6,584, Sue Attrill spent $5,464 and Stewart McLean spent $5,331.

April 3

Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl called the federal budget an "action plan for long-term prosperity."

Strahl lauded the budget introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as supportive of jobs and fiscally sound, while sustaining important social programs.

April 5

Civilian workers at Army Support Unit (ASU) Chilliwack were told that all 18 jobs held by Union of National Defence Employees workers at the base had been eliminated.

The union was told that ASU Chilliwack would close as part of nationwide cuts to civilian workers in the Canadian Army.

April 5

The campaigns for the Chilliwack-Hope byelection got into high gear as Premier Christy Clark toured IMW's local natural gas equipment plant with Liberal candidate Laurie Throness and NDP leader Adrian Dix staged a photo-op in a mobile home park with a pensioner and two unemployed people.

April 10

A Ryder Lake man who killed his wife was found unfit to stand trial by a Supreme Court justice.

David Miller stabbed his wife, Susan Miller, to death on Boxing Day in 2009. He was due to stand trial in April but the ruling meant he will likely spend the rest of his life in a secure hospital.

April 10

Veterans, cadets, law enforcement personnel and onlookers gathered at All Sappers Memorial Park at 11 a.m. to mark the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

By the time the last post played in Chilliwack, however, ceremonies had already wrapped up 7,776 kilometres away in Vimy, France, where 11 Chilliwack middle school students paid tribute.

April 12

Nearly all of BC Conservative candidate John Martin's large election signs at major intersections in Chilliwack were destroyed by vandals.

But both the NDP and the Liberals say vandalism hit everyone.

"There was a very deliberate effort to completely remove any visibility of our campaign from the main thoroughfares, Martin said.

April 12

After two years of paying $200 each per year, Chilliwack students will ride the school bus for free again next year as the school board voted to cancel the controversial fees.

April 17

A hit-and-run claimed the life of a 37-year-old man.

Mounties said the man was walking along First Avenue when a vehicle fatally struck him from behind. A woman walking with the man was not injured and the driver fled the scene.

April 17

As byelection candidates made one final push before April 19, advanced poll numbers were up.

The advanced poll numbers saw 3,220 ballots cast, up 12 per cent from the 2,884 votes in the 2009 general election, according to Elections BC.

The reason was likely the prov-incewide attention in what many called a three-way race that might serve as a barometer on the BC Liberal government before the 2013 general election.

April 19

A 60-year-old Chilliwack man faced charges in connection with the hit-and-run that killed a pedestrian on First Avenue.

Thirty-seven-year-old Darcy Garnot died shortly after being struck from behind while walking on a sidewalk with his girlfriend.

Gary Allain was charged with criminal negligence causing death and failure to stop at the scene of a fatal accident. April 19

Workers at Gillwood Remanufacturing were set up outside the wood mill because they were locked out by the Surrey-based owner of the company.

The lockout came after many employees were laid off and the remaining workers asked to take 24 to 34 per cent wage reductions.

April 24

Even before Gwen O'Mahony and the NDP had officially won the provincial byelection in Chilliwack-Hope, the Conservatives were making excuses and the governing BC Liberals were handing out blame.

O'Mahony garnered 5,823 votes (41.55 per cent), with BC Liberal Laurie Throness coming in second with 4,501 votes (32.12 per cent), and BC Conservative John Martin finishing third with 3,548 votes (25.32 per cent).

Libertarian Lewis Clarke Dahlby received 141 votes.

April 24

School sports were under threat as Chilliwack teachers withdrew from all extracurricular activities as part of a provincewide action plan to oppose back-to-work legislation imposed in March.

Seventy-three per cent of B.C. teachers voted in favour of the plan.

April 26

Mounties identified a child-luring suspect by using an image taken from an online superhero sting video. In November 2011, a group of young men posted several videos in which they dressed as superheroes and confronted men supposedly looking to meet up for sex with underage girls.