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5 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,F ebruary 7,2019 w aterloochronicle.ca 85 BRIDGEPORT RD. E. WATERLOO (Across from the Bridgeport Rd. Plaza) SINCE 1971 519-893-8118 MON., TUES., WED. 10 AM - 6 PM THURS., FRI. 10 AM - 8 PM SATURDAY 9 AM - 5 PM SUNDAY 12 PM - 4 PM FURNITURE & MATTRESSES SINCE 1971 ONDISCONTINUED MERCHANDISE AND SELECTED DISPLAY MODELS 60%UPTOSAVE JANUARY CLEAN SWEEP EVENT CLEAN SWEEP EVENT MIDWINTER Friendly Professional Team... where your total health is our goal!Friendly Professional Team... where your to • Free Blood Glucose Monitor & Teaching • Free Blood Pressure Che k • Compounding • Flu Vaccinations 373 Bridge St.Waterloo www.thpharmacy.com eck loo .com hours Mon.-Fri. 9am-7pm • Sat. 9am-4pm 519-747-0320 KITCHENER - An occa- sional teacher who created alter egos on the Snapchat messaging app and con- vinced multiple young girls to send him nude photos and videos should spend nine years in prison, a Crown prosecutor says. Victor Ly's crimes, which began in November 2016 and continued for more than a year, were not impulsive. "This was a continuous and calculated approach," prosecutor Dominique Kennedy said. Ly, 33, of Kitchener, pleaded guilty to 20 charg- es, including making child pornography, invitation to sexual touching, extortion and luring. At the time of the crimes, he worked as a sup- ply teacher with the Halton District School Board and had previously taught at private schools in this area. Ly is no longer a teacher. Police identified 171 girls he had contact with through Snapchat, many of whom sent him sexual pic- tures or videos of them- selves. Ly often told girls the sexual act they should film - creating "made-to-or- der child pornography," Kennedy said. Ly often pretended he was a teen boy on Snap- chat. He "groomed" and manipulated girls, pretend- ing he cared about them and developing "fictional relationships," Kennedy said. Later he would convince them - sometimes by threats - to send sexual photos or videos. He often sent them videos of him ejaculating. The girls ranged in age from seven to 15. Victims were in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. "This was a large num- ber of people," Kennedy said. "This was geographi- cally expansive, this was to- tally unrelenting." Ly spoke to one girl about meeting at a mall, but the meeting never took place. Victims said his crimes stole their innocence and left them feeling violated, isolated, ashamed and sad. Some spoke of loss of confi- dence and loss of trust. Ly told Justice Wayne Rabley he understands some of the victims are blaming themselves. He said he is the only one to blame. "I'm so ashamed of what I've done," Ly said. Kennedy said deter- rence and denunciation must take centre stage in the sentencing. Ly, who was accompa- nied in court by his wife, has no prior record. He will be sentenced on March 1. His defence lawyer is seek- ing three years in prison. FORMER SUPPLY TEACHER ADMITS TO CHILD PORN, LURING CHARGES GORDON PAUL gpaul@therecord.com LOCAL Waterloo dropped from 12th to 13th in Amazon's top-20 ranking of the most romantic cities in Canada for 2019. The 10th annual ranking which crowned Victoria, BC as Canada's Most Romantic City for the seventh straight years was compiled by com- paring sales data from Jan. 1, 2018 to Jan. 1, 2019 on a per capita basis in cities with more than 20,000 residents. The data looks at purchases of romance novels (both print and Kindle editions), romantic comedies, rela- tionship books, jewellery and sexual wellness prod- ucts. The province of British Columbia leads the list with seven cities in the top 20, but Alberta and Ontario are both a close second with six cities each. The tenth annual rank- ing This year, the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in Canada are: 1. Victoria, British Co- lumbia 2. LaSalle, Quebec 3. Fort McMurray, Alber- ta 4. North Vancouver, Brit- ish Columbia 5. Spruce Grove, Alberta 6. Whitehorse, Yukon 7. Kelowna, British Co- lumbia 8. Sherwood Park, Alber- ta 9. Courtenay, British Co- lumbia 10. Bowmanville, Ontario (new) 11. Grande Prairie, Alber- ta 12. Airdrie, Alberta 13. Waterloo, Ontario 14. Oakville, Ontario 15. Vancouver, British Columbia 16. Langley, British Co- lumbia 17. Burlington, Ontario 18. North Bay, Ontario 19. Aurora, Ontario (new) 20. Port Coquitlam, Brit- ish Columbia (new) Top romantic product highlights: • Canadians Keep Falling in Love with Julia Roberts: For the second year in a row Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Rob- erts, was the best-selling ro- mantic movie. • Page Turners, Tear Jerkers: The All Souls Trilo- gy by Deborah Harkness beat out Call Me by Your Name: A Novel by André Aciman to top the list of most sold romantic books. Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Be- come Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis topped the list for relation- ship books. WATERLOO NAMED CANADA'S 13TH MOST ROMANTIC CITY, ACCORDING TO AMAZON Waterloo dropped a spot, but still sits at number 13 in Amazon's top-20 list of Canada's Most Romantic Cities. Metro Creative CONTRIBUTED