Hometown of Canadian Teenage Murder Suspects Grapples With Infamy

There needs to be an inquiry into this. There was no disclosure of what Prof. Leonard Dyck's cause of death was. The teens were only charged with that. How does anyone know (if it wasn't gunshot for Dyck) that the teens didn't have a scuffle with him and inadervertantly kill him stealing his car. We don't know if one just did it and the other followed along because at that point he was terrified. Next thing you know the RCMP is telling the media that they are dangerous. They could have said these teens may be dangerous so please report them to us. Then the RCMP should have made media, paper, TV, radio public plea for them to turn themselves in. Instead the go roaring out in paramilitary outfits, AR15 firearms looking like they are trying to take down a drug lord cartel. This was plastered all over the media. What chance did anyone at that point have to find out what actually happened? The teens would definitely be terrified by then. Then there is the couple that is shot - how did these boys get firearms? If they were taken in alive we would know if they did or didn't and if both or just one shot them or if this couple was murderer by someone else. It isn't as if there hasn't been a lot of murders in remote areas in the wilderness in Canada. These teens were likely eaten to death by sandflies, exposure and dysentry from bad water. Justice would have been served by bringing them in alive. Now there are no sure answers. this cries for an inquiry for better ways.

Your reporter really needs to know that whatever it might be coming from a pulp and paper plant, it is not smoke, more likely to be steam. Port Alberni’s previous claim to fame was the tsunami of 1964, caused by the Alaska Earthquake https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/50-years-ago-today-1964-port-alberni-tsunami-videos

People from Port Alberni are in denial. This is a town that promotes ignorance, racism, violence. It's the Appalachia of BC: evil outnumbes any shred of goodness.

I refuse to judge a town by the actions of two young men who happened to grow up there. My heart goes out to the citizens who are grappling with the news that these men killed several people and then themselves. The men obviously had some issues with mental health. Please allow the families and locals to grieve and get on with their lives.

I am sick and tired of people saying: "I never thought it could happened here. Evil is everywhere.

They thought they would he "going out in a blaze of glory"? That's so pathetically false.

This story brings out the essential case in fact that every story has its own particular circumstances. Rigid rules and buzzwords overlook this truism and the fact that every person is seeking happiness and trying to avoid pain. The reference to video gaming, an outgrowth of the media obsession with violence and murder, is a pointer to the poison constantly being thrown at the public.

Blaming Port Alberni for two tragically sick kids is like blaming New York City for the tragic Donald Trump. In "real life" there are always aberrations.

Indeed, it is unfair to define Port Alberni with the crime of two of its residents. But the profile from Mr Bilefsky does point to the neglect of civic infrastructure during an era of general wealth inequality seen across localities in the US and evidently in Canada. That mental health access is not available to Port Alberni students in spite of the 2 alleged murderers being from "middle class" families strikes me as a significant symptom of despair and neglect of our domestic infrastructure and economic health. This symptom of deteriorating middle class life is not limited to Port Alberni but is endemic in towns and cities large and small on both sides of the Canadian/US border.

These types of pieces require a necessary suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader...that a reporter or broadcaster can flit in, interview the usual suspects (mayor, local booster, immediate neighbors, diners at a breakfast joint or two) and emerge with anything approaching the "heart of town X" after a few hours or days on the ground. These formulaic set pieces are taught in J School. Even the year-later pieces are all but self-writing. A slow journalism approach might be to embed a writer in the area for a year* and see what emerges. Thanks FB, Twitter, et al for destroying newspapers revenue streams and hence resources. We click-bait addled "readers" share in the blame, *Saw a fascinating piece on PBS about healthcare services in rural New Mexico. The doctors who stay on though they could make more elsewhere; a clinic operator, himself the son of a dying alcoholic father, who worked with school kids to encourage them to pursue health care and stay local; the struggle to secure funding to offer rehab clinics, home visits by doctors. As I recall there was a good bit of corporate funding to produce this wonderful piece.

This article is not worthy of the NYT: generic melodrama, it reads like trash gossip. When I read articles like this I wonder how the reporter could get such a distorted view of Port Alberni. The people of Port Alberni are polite & hard-working country folk, who like many working class communities who provide the raw materials that end up making city slickers rich, got the short end of the stick when it came to internationalization of capital. The drive through the wilds of Vancouver Island to get there is enthralling. anyone who wants to know the real Port Alberni should just go there and enjoy the hospitality of a wilderness and ocean experience.

How can anyone blame the community when it doesn't seem like there were any warning signs from these teenagers? I don't blame or think badly about Port Alberni anymore then I blame or think badly of Green County Ohio where the Dayton Ohio shooter came from. Perhaps it's time to ask the experts what to look for and start educating parents and teachers of the warning signs.

These men grew up in this town of 18,000 and in all those years, did anyone interven?

Perhaps one or both had an organic psychosis. Maybe neither had an identity, other than the male animal. For whatever reason, there was not enough societal infrastructure embedded in the superego to preclude grossly inappropriate and illegal behavior. I would look at how much grounding they had from the cornerstones of society. What was their relationship to education, the school? What was their relationship to the church? Atheists make scoff at that as irrelevant. And church parables are irrelevant if taken literally. But what a church does is help to inculcate things that legal scholars call "malum en se," an act that is wrong or evil in itself. Moses did not go up a mountain per se. He went deep inside human consciousness to deliver a list of things unconscionable to humankind. If these young man came from churchy families would this tragedy have been avoided? No. However, the probability of it occurring would be lower because they would have had more exposure to the idea that killing is verboten.

Steam. The clouds of STEAM can be seen from anywhere in town. Granted there are some exhaust gasses in said STEAM but there are no clouds of smoke. Unlike the United States, Canada has a fairly robust environmental protection program. Clouds of smoke is inaccurate and would also be illegal. If you are trying to besmirch Port Alberni at least educate yourself on what you think you are looking at. I recognize that this has little to do with the headline, but a reporter should attempt to state facts. If you cannot get the basics down it reflects poorly on your ability to relate the facts of your main story. Editor’s note: This comment has been anonymized in accordance with applicable law(s).

The rural areas of Southwest British Columbia, especially Vancouver Island, bear little resemblance to Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Different countries, cultures and values. To anyone trying to draw comparisons, please keep your urban/rural, flyover state vs coastal elite projections in the US...they have little relevance in Southwest BC.

Everyone in port alberni has been affected by this issue, this town is going down hill enough as it is. Such a tragic story :(

Why can't this paper add a map. To any article. Like the nuc accident and this one. I have a HUGH map of Vancouver Island from Space on the wall next to me. Also I am relatively familiar with the area. Why are maps considered obsolete?

The father of one of the teens who has been accused of these crimes has been quoted as praising the teens for not getting caught while during their murder spree. ”Kudos, boys, kudos.” It seems to me that some civic soul-searching might be in order.

Port Alberni isn't going to recover its reputation if people keep putting forward ridiculous conspiracy theories that suggest that one of these "boys" victims was the actual murderer. These young men killed three people. They fit a very recognizable pattern, common to lots of young (usually white) men in North America. It's unfortunate, but I think this only becomes a mark against Port Alberni if its people become denialists and if some of them insist on besmirching the memory of a murdered man.

Well, I never heard of the place until this article. So that's on you, NY Times.

They keep classifying these murderers as 'teenage boys' when in fact they were young men. This is another example of the 'white washing' of white male mass murders.

One of the disadvantages of living in a small town in country in which belonging to a community is such a big part of one's identity. Somehow people feel responsible for what others do instead of just seeing bad actors as people who violated the social contract and set themselves against everyone else.

Articles like this do nothing to quiet the gossip and rumors. Maybe if we all got over the belief that "it can't happen here" we'd all be better prepared, and less shocked, when something does happen. The truth is, anything can happen anywhere and when it does the cause of it (barring a natural disaster) is people, not the place.

Growing up in Vancouver and working in the paper industry for 25 years, your description of the paper mill bellowing smoke and thousands laid off due to automation and competition from China were certainly incorrect. Unfortunately, this will definitely question the accuracy of your reporting in the future.

Those young men could have come from any town or city in North America, Port Alberni bears no responsibility for their actions. Ridiculous to even advance the notion.

“It has also brought a sense of dread to Port Alberni, where people fear that the town will now be forever remembered for one thing: murder.“ Come on. A little melodramatic, don’t you think? This is a good town and I’m proud to raise my children here. If we are a little tight lipped and defensive it’s probably because we’re concerned about hatchet pieces like this taking cheap shots at our community. Does the Son of Sam define New York? Donald Trump?

Port Alberni is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t think of these two when I think of Port Alberni.

I expect something like this to happen in a small, sleepy town- the Midwest of America in particular is one vast emptiness, and the people that live there are filled with nothingness. Same thing here in BC. I suppose that the conspiracy theorists will claim that these two men did nothing, that the three people they murdered committed suicide, or some such ridiculous nonsense, or that aliens from Mars killed them. The Canadian Mounted gets their man in the end, though, hmmm?

This is ridiculous. No one thinks the town is responsible. It's articles like these that look for an angle where there is none.

Thanks David, I agree that this is not the Port Alberni we know. Locals from this central island area go there to shop and to swim at Sprout Lake. They have the best donut shop on the island. Personally, I have never seen anyone shooting up drugs or even drunk on my visits. Needles can be found anywhere on the west coast, if you are looking. We are all feeling the sadness created by these events and don't need to be vilified by outside reporters.

PA has had more than its share of misfortune. As Bilefsky notes, the decline of logging has played havoc with the town's economy, while the dramatic fall off of Salmon has also hit hard. As a result,PA has endured high unemployment, drug problems and, above all, the struggle to retain its younger inhabitants. Despite all its problems, it has a strong sense of community and this unfortunate event will not cause long term damage .

This is all silly. Towns don't commit crimes. Port Alberni didn't kill anyone, any more than Dallas killed JFK. Just as silly is the denial fantasy that "our boys" could not have possibly been the killers.

The motive ain’t that much of a mystery: one of the boys had Nazi stuff all over his room. The fact that his father says it was just because he thought it looked cool doesn’t wash. And his neighbors’ “wall of silence” doesn’t instill confidence either. The sad fact is that rural areas in the Pacific Northwest have long played home to white supremacists, as well as the meth industry that many white supremacist gangs rely on for money. And the communities themselves are too busy being mad at environmentalists and spotted owls to do anything about it.

It would be interesting to know what weapons they used My understanding is that small firearms and assault style weapons are harder to get than long rifles and shotguns that would be used for hunting. Hunting weapons are legal to own and use. It would never occur to me to blame Port Alberni, or the young men's parents for the behavior of their sons. Disaffected, potentially violent people exist everywhere. Indeed, I sympathize with the parents, lost their sons in a most horrible way imaginable. Condolences to those families.

Canada's "sensible" gun laws are greatly undermined by the not-so-sensible gun laws of its neighbour to the south. Given that 80% of Canadians live along the US border, stopping the vast supply American guns from flowing into Canada is nearly impossible. (Just look at the number of shootings this year in Toronto). The RCMP has not released information about the origins of the firearms used in this crime spree, but it would not surprise me if the weapon was American.