The first issue of The Outlook hit North Shore doorsteps 10 years ago. We look back at 10 top stories that made headlines over the past decade.

1.Coffee With Lee Aaron , Nov. 12, 1999

What would Canadian metal queen Lee Aaron listen to if she was stranded on a desert island and could only take two albums?

“They’d be Led Zeppelin II and Nina Simone’s Little Girl Blue,” Aaron revealed to then-Outlook editor Andrew McCredie in the paper’s debut of Coffee With on Nov. 12, 1999.

The inaugural Coffee With feature in The Outlook became an instant hit with North Shore readers. It offered, intimate, backstage pass-type access to North Shore personalities and newsmakers. Coffee With, in a conversational tone, provided the backstory – and often some candid revelations.

Aaron admitted she wasn’t fond of the Metal Queen moniker but admitted that she’d agreed to don her old spandex getup that summer with some 1980s band because the money was good.

Since the Aaron interview, The Outlook has had coffee with 500-plus North Shore personalities – from rock icons (Mike Reno) and politicians (Ernie Crist) to tow truck drivers and street nurses.

Be sure to check out this week’s Coffee With as celebrated naturalist David Allen Sibley talks tree and leaf at the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre.

2. Par for the Course, Nov. 14, 2002

Reporter Don Fiorvento’s dogged reporting on the Northlands Golf Course fraud scandal early on in The Outlook’s history earned the fledgling newspaper its first British Columbia-Yukon Newspaper Association hard news writing award in 2003.

“This was the first time we were able to enter the awards and considering legendary North Shore News publisher Peter Speck had said around the time of The Outlook’s launch that like all of the other competition his paper had faced before, we would not be around for very long, it was extremely satisfying,” recalled Fiorvento.

Said then-editor Andrew McCredie: “This kind of ongoing investigative story is just the type we set out to do when we launched The Outlook . . . it’s nice to see that vision acknowledged.”

The Outlook also earned a top 10 spot in the general excellence category at the BCYNA’s in 2003, finishing eighth in the 27-member 25,000-plus category.

3. Hillside disaster, Jan. 20, 2005

In the early morning on a rain-soaked Wednesday in January 2005 a violent landslide along the Blueridge escarpment demolished two homes and left behind a trail of devastation.

Initial reports indicated one man had been sent to the hospital in critical condition, while search crews desperately combed the area for a missing woman, believed to be his wife. Three hundred residents in the area were evacuated.

North Vancouver Mayor Janice Harris, who rushed to the municipality’s emergency war room at around 4 a.m., declared a state of emergency shortly after.

As emergency crews descended to Riverside Drive, The Outlook’s editorial staff gathered inside the newsroom. It was a deadline morning, so the last page of the paper had to be sent to the press by noon. A quick decision was made to extend the paper’s printing by several hours and bring in extra editorial staff in order to create a special “B section” that provided several pages of in-depth mudslide coverage. Sadly, later that morning it was confirmed that one of the slide victims, Eliza Kuttner, had been found dead approximately 100 feet from her home.

Premier Gordon Campbell, who was on-scene around noon, told reporters about the destruction.

“It’s basically a bare slope. Trees are destroyed, there are remains of clothes and mattresses. It’s a sad sight up there.”

After the devastating event, Outlook reporters began a series of in-depth stories investigating potential causes of the horrific landslide and following the plight of displaced homeowners.

4. Diving into Danger, July 27, 2006

When the heat rises, the cliff jumpers come out to Lynn Canyon Park.

From 1985 to 2006, 21 people died trying the daring activity despite clear, graphic signs warning of the dangers.

It’s also never been banned by the District of North Vancouver. Park officials and rescuers say it would be more dangerous chasing renegade jumpers through the park trails to enforce the ban.

Jumpers themselves claim local knowledge keeps them alive. They know the water levels and where the rocks and eddies are located. They’ll keep jumping despite the deaths and dramatic rescues, they say.

“People die because they don’t know the water whereas we do. Their judgement’s off,” said Jeff McLean. “It’s adrenaline like any sport and it’s right in our backyard.”

When The Outlook set out to cover the cliff divers they sent a photographer and reporter out to Lynn Canyon Park on one of the hottest days of 2006.

As they arrived at the packed park, they could already hear a helicopter buzzing overhead.

They crossed the suspension bridge just as two RCMP officers arrived.

Daniel Pi and Jennifer Maloney were the first reporters on scene witnessing the rescue and eventual body recovery by emergency workers. Although the front cover of the paper featured a cliff diver jumping down an 80-foot waterfall, it was a photo accompanying the story — of a man mourning under the sun while rescuers worked in the shadow by the creek — that garnered The Outlook a first place award in the B.C. and Yukon Community Newspaper Association Spot News Photo category. In 2006 the story also earned second place honors in the news category at the Canadian Community Newspaper Association awards.

5. Living Rough, Aug. 25, 2006

The North Shore may boast the most affluent postal code in Canada, but in 2006, the North Shore Outlook turned the spotlight on its most vulnerable residents, its homeless.

The story followed a day in the life of Chris Longley, a 39-year-old living in the woods near MacKay Road, surviving off the money he earned cashing in empties.

A self described “park ranger” Longley also claimed to take care of the woods he called home, and his neighbours — all of whom choose not to seek shelter at the nearby Lookout Emergency Aid Society. “Out here it’s freedom, in there it’s politics,” one homeless man told The Outlook.

Longley, a father of three, admitted to being a “productive” alcoholic. His life spiralled out of control after he cut a tendon in his arm cleaning a fishing boat. He could no longer work, nearly died from a bacterial infection from the wound, and ended up splitting with the mother of his children.

“This place is like a toilet bowl. There’s nowhere to go,” he said. “When you get into a rut, it’s hard to get out.”

With the North Shore homeless count doubling from 44 in 2000 to 85 in 2005, local residents’ patience for associated vandalism and disorderly conduct was reaching a high point. Meanwhile outreach workers and RCMP continued with their search for a solution, from offering referral services to dismantling camps.

But Longley and his friends just wanted to be left alone to find their own answers.

It took nearly two weeks of sustained meetings with Longley and other homeless for an Outlook reporter and photographer to begin to earn their trust.

Outlook staff Daniel Pi and Lara Gerrits always worked in tandem during forays into the woods to conduct interviews.

In the end only Longley consented to be interviewed, giving his name for the story.

The story about Longley and the homeless on the North Shore earned second place honours in the Best Feature category at the 2006 Suburban Newspapers of America awards.

6. Carts of Darkness, June 14, 2007

In 2005, when local filmmaker Murray Siple approached a couple of bottle collectors in a parking lot at Save-On-Foods, he began a chain of events that would see him streaking down Highland Boulevard at nearly 40 kilometres an hour – in a shopping cart.

On film, that moment became the ending to his smash hit NFB documentary, Carts of Darkness, a gritty but sensitive portrait of some homeless men on the North Shore. It premiered in 2008.

Siple’s original approach to making the flick came in his dynamic portrayal of cart racing – an adventure sport that saw some of those men hurtling down North Shore roads on the backs of shopping carts with nothing but their smoking sneakers to slow them down. But the drama and the intimacy of the film also seeped through Siple’s profiles of the men as they wrestled addictions and lived rough in North Shore hideaways.

There was another element to the film. Formerly an adrenaline junkie and snowboarding filmmaker, Siple suffered an accident that left him a quadriplegic.

“They (the cart racers) know I’m an outsider,” Siple told The Outlook in 2007. “I’m disabled, they’re homeless. I think they accepted me as one of them in a way.”

An immediate hit, the film took to the festival circuit and screened across the globe. Carts also took honors from the Leo awards for best nature/adventure documentary (2009). This year it also garnered a Gemini nomination for picture editing.

Siple says he still hears from people across the world asking him about the film.

“I think in general people like to know about the lives of people that are homeless,” says Siple. “A lot of the comments (from fans) are, they (homeless people) really are like us.”

Siple is currently at work on two short films.

Alyssa Noel’s June 2007 story, “Carts of Darkness,” won a Ma Murray award for best arts and culture writing in 2008.

7. Murder Appeal, July 19, 2007

Newspaper crime reporting often ends after a conviction and sentencing - but in this case the narrative began behind bars.

What happens to a high-profile convicted triple-murderer once he enters the general population of one of Washington State’s most notorious penitentiaries?

That was the question Outlook reporter Sam Cooper set out to answer when he used public access to information to obtain prison records for Glen Sebastian Burns.

The Outlook began covering the murder case of Burns and Atif Rafay, the former West Vancouver students charged with the 1994 baseball-bat deaths of Rafay’s family, in 2001 after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the pair couldn’t be extradited to Washington State without a guarantee they wouldn’t face the death penalty.

In October 2004, after a six-month trial, 12 jurors convicted the pair of the triple homicide and each was sentenced to three consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Burns was sent to Walla Walla County State Penitentiary, known as Concrete Mamma to the 2,000-plus inmates who bunk there.

From a savage assault at the hands of a fellow inmate in the chow hall to Burns’ preoccupation with appealing minor jailhouse infractions and his penchant for reading literary masters, Cooper managed to provide a rare and disquieting glimpse into Burns’ day-to-day life inside a maximum security prison. Murder Appeal won silver in the best feature story category in the 2008 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards.

8. Government Grabber, Sept. 4, 2008

“It was just so easy.”

North Vancouver’s Bryan Tickell, former case manager for the Public Guardian and Trustee, told investigators he just couldn’t help himself from ripping off his elderly and mentally unfit clients. He liked the “psychological challenge” of lying, stealing and cheating in plain sight, a court assessment found.

In a 10-month contract position that spanned 2006 and 2007, Tickell signed over West Van PGT client Phyllis Lowdell’s $1-million property to his name for “$1.0 plus love and affection” and he made himself the beneficiary of dying client Boris Derlago’s $1.3-million estate to the tune of 20 per cent.

After a $1-million forensic investigation the PGT said Tickell defrauded 12 clients, in one case signing over a client’s PT Cruiser and in another taking American Express Travelers cheques.

In 2008 The Outlook broke this story, piecing together court documents and interviews with PGT employees that told even more. Tickell had lied his way into a job with the PGT, forging a Masters in Social Work and inventing a reference using a wallet stolen from an Alberta forklift operator. One PGT worker told how, when Tickell declined a contract extension in July 2007, he gave out parting gifts around the office – photos of himself.

After a civil suit filed by the PGT, Tickell faced criminal charges of forgery, breach of trust and fraud in North Van provincial court in the spring of 2009. The judge found Tickell’s modus operandi was “heaping deceit upon deceit” and in his remarks about Tickell’s psychological assessments and personal references, found it was hard to know much about Tickell’s background as he was so “profoundly manipulative.”

The court sentenced Tickell to six years in jail.

The PGT said it has since revamped its hiring practices and internal checks so that opportunists like Tickell won’t have the chance to get through the door to have a crack at the 32,000 clients under the organization’s care.

9. DNV buys Van Insberghe property, March 14, 2009

In March 2009, nearly four

years after a devastating landslide killed her neighbour, Nancy Van Insberghe finally signed a settlement agreement for her slide-devalued home. In 2005, after the Blueridge Escarpment slide, the DNV announced that it would purchase the nine homes impacted by the mudslide. However, because of what the municipality called “issues of insurability” Van Insberge was the only homeowner who didn’t receive an immediate settlement package. After the other eight settled, she was forced into a prolonged battle to be compensated for her property. With no place to call home, the beleaguered North Van resident lived in a friend’s spare bedroom for several years.

The District purchased Van Insberghe’s home for $1,074,200. The BC Assessment roll valued her home at $639,400 in 2007 and $82,000 in 2008. The Outlook regularly reported on Van Insberghe’s plight. Said letter-writer Don Smith: “May I commend the North Shore Outlook for your excellent coverage of the plight of landslide victim, Nancy Van Insberghe, over the past four years. You have demonstrated how important the media can be in ensuring that our elected representatives and public officials are held accountable for their decisions and their promises.

“The two North Shore Outlook journalists who have covered this story from the outset, Justin Beddall and Sam Cooper, have written with professionalism, insight and compassion. You have demonstrated to me and many others who have supported Ms. Van Insberghe through this ordeal that a good community newspaper is much more than a conduit for advertising and that it serves as an essential check and balance when government is dysfunctional. Keep up the great work!”

10. Squamish Words series, March 19, 2009

In the stories, a giant, kid-eating cannibal woman prowls the North Shore mountains. Her name is Kalkalilh. The salmon people, called Schayilhn, can swim so far out to sea they reach a spirit world and their name means “to give of oneself for food.” Spakwos means eagle and Takaya means wolf.

In a six-part series called Squamish Words, local students and teachers shared words and stories from the Squamish Nation. Today only 15 people speak the language fluently, but with over half of the 3,500-strong First Nation under 25 years old and with hundreds of young people learning the words and stories, that will change, say educators.

“It’s crucial for Squamish kids to learn how to apply traditional knowledge – language, stories, traditions – in modern contexts,” Squamish Nation hereditary chief Ian Campbell told The Outlook in February 2009. Campbell and a team of dedicated leaders and educators are reaching out to a swelling cohort of young people within the local First Nation, poised for what Campbell and other leaders say is an exciting era of cultural renaissance and economic growth.

“I see us as relay runners,” Campbell said, “Ultimately we have to pass on the baton or eagle feather to our future descendants.”

The interviews stretched from December 2008 to April 2009, when the Squamish Nation and the North Vancouver school district invited The Outlook into local classrooms to see band educators working with students in unique language programs. The resulting series by Kelly McManus recently won recognition from the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education.