Prince George Citizen July 11, 2019

Fossil skull challenges history of modern humans

Changes to open burning regulations on the way

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

Revised measures to regulate open burning will come into effect in advance of the fall burning season, the provincial government said Wednesday.

The new rules, set to be in place on September 15, will replace a “one-size-fits-all” approach with a system of low, medium and high smoke sensitivity zones, according to details provided by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

In high sensitivity zones, burn periods will be reduced to 1-2 days from 3-4 and all debris will need to be “seasoned” or dried out.

For medium zones, the regulations will remain generally unchanged and for low zones, defined as large areas with low populations, they will be relaxed.

The amount of slash that can be burned in those zones won’t change, but industry will have more days in which they can burn their set amount.

There will also be larger setbacks from homes, businesses, schools and hospitals.

In general, they will be 500

metres from homes and businesses and a kilometre from school and hospitals, up from 100 and 500 metres respectively.

But burning within the old standards will be allowed if a set of best practices is followed.

These include limiting burn time to one day, seasoning all material, burning material smaller than 50 centimetres in diameter, and not burning stumps.

“People and communities deserve to have clean air,” Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman said in a press release.

“That’s why we are putting new rules in place that will lessen health impacts and allow everyone to breathe a little easier. We are also incentivizing the use of newer and cleaner technology with rules that give more flexibility if advanced burning technology is used to cut pollution.”

On that note, reduced setbacks and permission to burn in a wider range of weather conditions will be granted to those who use an air curtain incinerator – a steel box insulated with firebricks.

A blower blows a “curtain” of air over the top of the box that recirculates the smoke and reduces

emissions to 5-10 per cent of those from pile burning.

The director may vary requirements for special cases, which will allow new burning technologies to be tested and evaluated.

Open burning is the largest source of fine particulate matter pollution B.C., according to the provincial government, contributing as much as transportation, wood heating and the wood-processing industry combined.

“Poor air quality can take a terrible toll on people living with respiratory and underlying health issues,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said. “Given the difficult wildfire seasons our province has faced in recent years, initiatives like this to improve air quality are important, especially to seniors and children who are often the most at risk.”

Additionally, the new regulation allows communities more flexibility to conduct controlled burning to reduce fire hazards that could make them vulnerable to larger wildfires.

Guidance documents are being finalized and will be available online in advance of the fall burning season, along with more information on the regulation.

Chilcotin River receding, flood warning still in place

The Canadian Press

WILLIAMS LAKE — The B.C. River Forecast Centre says the Chilcotin River has peaked after it experienced a one-in-200-year flood event.

The centre says it expected river levels to start receding Wednesday and for the rest of the week after reaching a high Tuesday night thanks to 100 mil-

limetres of rainfall since Friday that swamped the region. A flood warning remains in place for the Chilcotin, while a high streamflow advisory is up for two of the river’s tributaries, the Chilko River and Big Creek.

Environment Canada says thunderstorms with rainfall of less than five millimetres were expected Wednesday.

— see RANCHERS, page 3

Flooding on the Chilcotin River damaged roads in the Cariboo region.

HANDOUT

B.C. performer

Beverley Elliott brings her original one-person musical play Sink or Swim to the Sunset Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

Elliott to Sink or Swim in Wells

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Sunsets are the colourful sinking of the sun, so the Sunset Theatre is a perfect place to contemplate sinking or swimming.

The picturesque theatre house in Wells is home this weekend to the live award-winning play Sink or Swim by one of British Columbia’s favourite character actors Beverley Elliott. She has had prominent roles in movies like Unforgiven and The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants and television shows like Once Upon A Time and Harper’s Island.

Elliott is also a noted stage performer based in Vancouver and her self-written one-hander play Sink or Swim won the Best Musical trophy at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City.

“Sink or Swim is Little House on the Prairie meets Lord of the

Flies,” said Elliott. Julia Mackey, the director of presentations at the Sunset Theatre, gave the show a space to perform it in this region for the first time.

“Set in rural Ontario, Elliott has enchanted audiences with this beautiful piece for the past three years,” said Mackey.

“In this poignant, playful, and achingly relatable show, Elliott navigates the uncharted waters, big adventures, betrayals and epiphanies that shape us all into the adults we become.”

Elliott performs the music as well as the dialogue. Her collaborator in the music component was pianist Bill Costin who accompanies her on stage for this production.

Sink or Swim is on stage in Wells on Friday and Saturday, both shows start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. For reservations call 250-994-3400.

Truck fire

Prince George Fire Rescue dealt with a truck fire on Highway 16 West just past Marleau Road Wednesday over the lunch hour. Westbound traffic was detoured for a short while they got the situation under control.

Royal Purple national president from Prince George

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

One of Canada’s youngest benevolent societies is also one of the oldest, and it celebrates two milestones in Prince George.

It also welcomes a new president and it is a hometown comingout for incoming national leader Jan Gammie.

The Canadian Royal Purple Society (CRPS) turns five years old this weekend at their annual general meeting. If that name sounds too familiar for such a new group, that is because they reinvented themselves after 100 years of prior philanthropy.

In 1914 the Royal Purple was the female auxiliary to the all-male Elks Club of Canada, complete with their own uniform and nearly religious adherence to rituals and formal rites of operation. When the public no longer accepted gender divisions in their community institutions, and developed an aversion to ceremonial protocols, a choice had to be made by the Royal Purple. Starting today,

Prince George is the site for the result of that decision. In 2014 the CRPS was born, when the old organization opted to turn themselves into an independent, all-genders, all-ages (membership starts at 14 years old), all-inclusive new charitable organization. Each chapter still enjoys a cordial relationship with the Elks Club, they still use purple as a theme colour, but they are free to raise money or volunteer hours for whichever causes matter most to their local membership.

That flexibility and sky-is-thelimit philosophy is what attracted Gammie into the organization.

“I joined Royal Purple in 2009, and in 2010 I was chosen to be on the finance committee and it sort of snowballed from there,” Gammie said. “I took an interest in the inner workings of Royal Purple. I was very impressed with the past presidents and what they had done and I wanted to try to do the same.”

One of those will soon be Kelly Christman, the outgoing president who hands over the chair to Gam-

Cafe opens in airport departure lounge

Citizen staff

Early-morning passengers can now buy their fresh-brewed coffee, breakfast sandwiches, pastries and wraps after clearing passenger screening at the Prince George Airport.

BG Urban Café opened its doors in the departure lounge on Wednesday morning. The café currently serves coffee, juices and grab and go meals, and is in the process of acquiring a liquor license.

“This is one more way the Prince George Airport is meeting our passengers’ needs and responding to the feedback we receive from our airport service quality surveys.”

Prince George Airport Authority CEO John Gibson said. The project got underway in

March with a reconfiguration of vending machines, making way for the restaurant construction.

A tenant lounge was converted into the café’s service area, while part of the departure lounge has now been converted to bar height counters with USB and electrical plugs for passengers’ convenience.

“We are excited to see this joint adventure with Prince George Airport. It has been a long time coming and we are looking forward to serving customers in the new cafe,” said Christina Antrobus, local manager for Compass Group Canada Ltd.

“As soon as we opened the doors, passengers were excited to come in for coffee and breakfast.”

The BG Urban Grill in the main area of the airport terminal remains open.

mie at this weekend’s AGM.

“I saw my role as bringing forward the information about the Canadian Royal Purple and how it is evolving. That’s still a story that needs to be told,” said Christman, who has 17 years of service with the Royal Purple. “We have a 100 year old foundation and for five years we have built a new version on top of that. We allowed ourselves to evolve and change. As volunteerism changes, so to must our organization. Volunteerism

looks and feels a lot different than 100 years ago, so if we want to remain viable and keep attracting volunteers, we have to keep evolving how we do our business. This is not about us, it is about the communities. It is more important to serve communities than serve old rituals.”

When the BC branch of the CRPS held its provincial AGM this past year in Williams Lake, Christman was in attendance, passing through Prince George in the process. She was awed by Aberdeen Glen Golf Course on that visit and looks forward to seeing it again, in amongst the official duties of this national set of meetings. She is driving here from her home in Bassano, Alberta in the rural middle between Calgary and Medicine Hat.

Christman’s residential location is proof, said Gammie, that the CRPS really is an organization for all. She feels no trepidation about taking on the national presidency, with all of the travel amenities Prince George has to offer.

“I know travel is a part of the

job, but Prince George is such a well connected place, with our airport and our highways going just about everywhere,” Gammie said.

“I think my main goal as president is to be a voice, not an echo. Lets get Royal Purple’s voice out into the public. Let’s let people knowing that we are here, we are modernized, and we are there to help the community – all communities. We are such a fun-loving, dynamic group of people that they’ll want to join and become part of us. We do have lots of fun, and we do a lot of great work.”

In addition to Bassano, past presidents of the CRPS have also come from Kamloops, Sault Ste. Marie, and Cut Knife, Saskatchewan. Now Prince George is added to that list. It was a coincidence that this city happened to win the bid to host the national AGM the same year Gammie was to be installed as president, so that adds a touch of nervousness, she said, but she is anxious to take on the job and spread the purple haze of charity and volunteerism across Canada.

Ranchers’ properties flooded

— from page 1 Cariboo Regional District spokeswoman Emily Epp says they’ve heard from at least 20 ranchers whose properties are flooded.

An advisory from the Transportation Ministry says half a dozen roads are closed as crews try to repair the flood damage: Witte Road, 65 kilometres south of Alexis Creek; Farwell Canyon Road at the 54-kilometre mark; Taseko Lake Road at Stone Reserve; Sky Ranch Road at Farwell

Canyon Road; Newton Whitewater at Siwash Bridge; Word Creek Road at Gaspard Bridge

The roads that are closed usually have low traffic volumes but they provide important access for isolated residents and camps, the ministry says.

Epp says the district expects to hear from more property owners, because the flood-stricken region covers hundreds of kilometres and includes the community of Big Creek, the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation and the Nemaiah Valley.

“It is such a large area we don’t quite have a sense yet of who, and how many people have been impacted,” she says.

An advisory from Interior Health says well- or river-water systems affected by flooding should not be used.

Epp says the regional district was delivering potable water to some ranches, but the emergency operations centre wants to hear from more people in order to assess needs. — with files from Frank Peebles

GAMMIE

Air pollution ages lungs, increases disease risk, study shows

Jean-Benoit LEGAULT The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Exposure to air pollution accelerates lung aging and increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, new research suggests.

Dr. Dany Doiron and his colleagues studied the exposure of more than 300,000 people in Europe to particulate matter, fine particles and nitrogen dioxide – substances that come mainly from emissions by cars and factories.

“We know that lung function normally declines as we age, but our study suggests that air pollution may contribute to the aging process and adds to the evidence that breathing in polluted air harms the lungs,” said Doiron, a researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. “We were surprised at the size of the association – so for each annual average exposure increase of five micrograms per cubic metre of fine particulates in the air that participants were exposed to at home, the associated reductions in lung functions were similar to the effect of two years of aging.”

Researchers considered a number of factors that could impact the health of their subjects’ lungs including age, sex, body mass index, income, education, employment, smoking and their exposure to second-hand smoke.

Such particulates are so thin that they can lodge deep in the lungs and contribute to chronic diseases. The World Health Organization recommends average annual concentrations of not more than 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air.

There was a 52 per cent increase in the odds of COPD for each five-microgramsper-cubic-metre increase of fine particulate exposure, Doiron said.

COPD is a long-term condition linked to reduced lung function that causes inflammation in the lungs and a narrowing of airways making it difficult to breathe. The study said it’s the third leading cause of death in the world and the numbers are

expected to rise over the next decade.

Those from less affluent backgrounds seemed particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution.

The study found the impact of pollution on lung function was twice as high among less fortunate participants, and their risk of COPD was three times greater.

“This is probably due to a number of factors, including a greater number of respiratory infections in children, poor housing and indoor air quality, and other condi-

tions,” Doiron said.

Those results are all the more concerning as the air quality was not measured in highly polluted cities like Delhi, Beijing or Jakarta.

“There have been significant reductions in lung function even at relatively low concentrations of... fine particles,” said Doiron.

“Our results underline the importance of taking more action to fight against air pollution in our cities.”

The study on European populations was

Twitter seeks to dismiss B.C. businessman’s lawsuit over alleged defamatory tweets

Laura KANE The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — Twitter Inc. is asking the British Columbia Supreme Court to dismiss or stay a defamation lawsuit filed by a local businessman and philanthropist because the court lacks jurisdiction.

The social media company has filed an application in response to a lawsuit by Frank Giustra, the founder of Lionsgate Entertainment and CEO of the Fiore Group of Companies.

He alleges in a statement of claim that Twitter published a number of “false and defamatory” tweets about him and has neglected or refused to remove many of the posts despite his repeated requests.

Giustra sits on the Clinton Foundation board, a non-profit organization founded by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, and says the tweets escalated during the 2016 United States election, accusing him of being involved in “pizzagate,” a debunked child sex trafficking conspiracy theory.

Twitter says in its application that the court should either dismiss or stay the action or decline jurisdiction in favour of the courts in California, where the company is headquartered.

The company says if Giustra wants to pursue the action, he should do so in California where most witnesses and documents are located and where any judgment granted in his favour could be enforced.

Twitter says in its application filed in June that it provides a “platform for expression” and none of the tweets at issue in Giustra’s claim were written or posted by the company.

It says it believes users should be safe in expressing their views and that it has a community of online safety experts who develop and enforce rules and poli-

GIUSTRA

cies to prohibit abusive and threatening behaviour.

“Given the volume of users and tweets, Twitter cannot proactively screen all content posted on the platform and relies, in part, on user reports in order to identify content that violates its rules and policies,” it says.

Giustra’s statement of claim filed in April says he faced a targeted attack on Twitter by a group who set out to vilify him for political purposes starting around February 2015.

“Those publications included tweets stating that the plaintiff is ‘corrupt,’ a ‘murderous thief,’ a ‘criminal,’ and is involved in ‘pizzagate,’ ” it says, referring to the unfounded conspiracy theory that claimed Democrats harbour child sex slaves at a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C.

His lawsuit alleges Twitter also published threatening posts, including suggestions that Giustra be killed with two “bullets to the back of his head.”

He says the tweets have damaged his

professional and personal reputation and caused “significant emotional distress and anxiety” for him and his family.

Giustra wants two mandatory permanent injunctions: one requiring Twitter to remove or prevent publication of the tweets, and another requiring Twitter to monitor for and prevent defamatory tweets in the future. He’s also seeking general damages and costs.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Giustra could not immediately be reached for comment.

The company says it took action in response to several letters and emails sent by Giustra from 2016 through 2019 requesting that it remove certain tweets.

Twitter explains that if a tweet violates a rule or policy, it requires users to remove it before they’re allowed to post again. The tweet is made publicly unavailable while the user removes it or appeals.

If the violation was “egregious” or the user continues the behaviour, the company may permanently suspend the account.

The application says Twitter won’t take action if the tweet doesn’t violate a rule or policy, and sometimes users delete offending tweets or deactivate their accounts before the company contacts them.

Twitter says it followed this process for the 98 tweets at issue in Giustra’s claim and as of late June, most have been removed and are unable to be viewed in Canada.

Of the 18 tweets that remain on the platform, eight are blocked in Canada but are accessible outside of the country, it says.

It says that Giustra has a “significant presence and reputation” in California, where he owns home in Beverly Hills.

one of the largest to date to examine the associations between air pollution exposure, lung function and COPD and gave researchers the statistical power to make the associations more precisely, Doiron said.

“It was over 10 times larger than previous studies in terms of numbers of individuals involved on European populations,” he added.

The findings of the study were published this week in the European Respiratory Journal.

Premiers call for exemption from Buy American policies

Stephanie TAYLOR, Bill GRAVELAND

The Canadian Press

SASKATOON — Canada’s premiers want the federal government to seek an exemption from the United States’ Buy American measures.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said trade was a big topic Wednesday on the first day of the annual premiers’ conference.

“We will be calling on our federal government to provide a stronger leadership role... in asking for an exemption with respect to the Buy American policy that is damaging many of our industries here in Canada,” Moe said.

The Buy American measures require 65 per cent local content on public transportation projects in the U.S. and that assembly be done south of the border.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the recent announcement by Bombardier of layoffs at its Thunder Bay, Ont., plant are a direct result.

“This Buy American policy down in the United States is absolutely killing us right now,” Ford said. “We need the federal government to continue to negotiate with the U.S. government.”

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Montreal-based Bombardier is an important company for both provinces.

“They had an important contract in the U.S. that is ending and they have (a) rough time getting more contracts in the United States because of the Buy America Act,” Legault said.

“That is why we all decided together that we need more leadership from the prime minister of Canada to negotiate an exemption.”

Several premiers said they made progress on internal trade issues.

“The progress has been glacial over the last number of years. I think that glacier is starting to melt,” said Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. He said internal trade barriers result in the equivalent of a seven per cent tariff on goods crossing provincial boundaries.

That is costing the national economy about $50 billion to $130 billion a year, said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

A bird flies past as smoke emits from the chimneys of Serbia’s main coal-fired power station near Kostolac, Serbia.

High B.C. gas prices not fully explainable, report says

Amy SMART The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Gasoline prices in British Columbia have risen in line with land costs and credit card processing fees but that doesn’t fully explain why they’re so much higher than in other parts of Western Canada, a new report says.

The report by Deetkten Group was posted online late Wednesday by the B.C. Utilities Commission, which is overseeing a public inquiry into sky-high gas prices in the province.

The consultant’s report says Vancouver’s gasoline retail margins, which are the difference between the wholesale price for fuel and the retail price less tax, “highly” correlates with local land values.

It also says credit card processing fees are applied as a percentage of a total transaction, meaning the fees will be higher in jurisdictions like Vancouver where prices at the pump are already high.

“Rising land costs and credit card processing fees may account for nearly the entire differential observed between Vancouver and comparable areas, at least up to the end of 2018,” the report says.

But even after those factors are taken into account for this year, 1.4 cents per litre in the retail margins remains unexplained.

The report also can’t fully explain why wholesale gas prices are much higher in B.C. cities compared with other jurisdictions.

The consultants compared wholesale

prices in Vancouver and Kamloops with Edmonton and Seattle, which are also sources of supply for B.C. Transportation and regulatory costs may account for higher wholesale gas prices in B.C., but even estimating those costs at their highest potential doesn’t explain the difference, it says.

“Even the highest estimates of transport and regulatory costs combined do not sufficiently account for the differential in wholesale prices between the Vancouver market and the Edmonton and Seattle markets, particularly in 2019,” the report says.

A differential of about five cents per litre between Vancouver and Edmonton this year is unaccounted for in the report.

Unlike gasoline prices, diesel prices have remained largely consistent with historical trends when compared with other parts of Western Canada.

“This may be in part due to different demand dynamics in the diesel market,” it says.

Premier John Horgan ordered the inquiry in mid-May as the price of a litre of regular gasoline climbed above $1.70.

In commissioning the probe, he said that gas and diesel price increases were “alarming, increasingly out of line with the rest of Canada, and people in B.C. deserve answers.”

Four days of oral submissions are to begin next week and the three-member panel can question industry representatives, including gas and diesel suppliers.

Many B.C. liquor branch contracts don’t comply with government standards: audit

Dirk MEISSNER The Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Staff at British Columbia’s liquor distribution branch should receive contract management training, says an audit that revealed contracts totalling millions of dollars were awarded without competition.

Auditor general Carol Bellringer said Wednesday several contracts awarded by the province’s liquor branch did not comply with procurement policies, including some that were awarded without an open bidding process.

The audit examined 74 directly awarded contracts valued at about $25 million and found more than half were directly awarded without the exceptional circumstances required to avoid the bidding process, she said.

“In 41, or 55 per cent, of the contract files we looked at, the reason for the direct award could not clearly demonstrate the existence of exceptional conditions,” Bellringer said at a telephone news conference. There are five exceptions listed in the government’s Core Policy and Procedures Manual for contract procurement: a contract with other government organizations, proof only one contractor is qualified, an unforeseeable emergency that restricts time for an open bid process, a likelihood that competition would interfere with ministry security and a threat that public competition could compromise government confidentiality.

Bellringer said the audit included an award without competition of an eight-year software and support services agreement originally listed as worth $8.5 million and increased to $14.2 million without competition.

“The change to the contract wasn’t competed, meaning the LDB didn’t consult

Canadian Sikh organization files defamation lawsuit against India

Mia RABSON The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canadian Sikh organizations fear the Indian government is trying to interfere in the upcoming federal election after a flurry of Indian media articles accusing Canadian Sikhs of inciting violence and militancy in Punjab and the Canadian government of supporting them.

Balpreet Singh, the lawyer for the World Sikh Organization in Canada, said a number of stories in Indian media in June and July have cited Indian government sources that Canadian Sikhs are behind terrorist activities targeting India. He believes the looming federal election is driving the stories because the Indian government wants to quiet the politically influential Sikh community in Canada.

“There are going to be a lot of Sikhs running for political office and it’s to ensure the Sikh community is seen through a paradigm of extremism, of suspicion, essentially to marginalize Sikhs in Canada,” he said.

There were 19 Sikh MPs elected in 2015, most of whom are seeking re-election. Singh said these articles undermine Sikhs within Canada.

Singh said there is simply no evidence of any extremism or terrorist elements in Canada’s Sikh community.

A government report last fall listed Sikh extremism as one of five major terrorist threats to Canada, though it acknowledged the number of actual incidents in Canada associated with it is extremely limited. After an outcry from groups that included the World Sikh Organization, Public Safety Canada revised the report to talk about extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India, instead of naming Sikhs as a community.

Many of the recent articles cite unnamed Indian government sources but some also directly quote Amarinder Singh, the chief minister of Punjab state, who has accused members of the Canadian cabinet of being Khalistani sympathizers.

In late June, Amarinder Singh accused the Canadian government of “overt and covert support” of the Khalistani movement, citing a 2010 Canadian report on the 1985 Air India bombing. Singh alleges that report proves Canada was complicit in not preventing the attack and suggested there should be United Nations sanctions against Canada to pressure the government here “to put an end to the use of its soil to unleash terror against India.”

In 2018, Singh met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his troubled state visit to India and gave Trudeau a list of alleged terror suspects in Canada to investigate. Singh said the fact nothing has happened to the people on the list is proof of Canada’s complicity in pro-Khalistan activities.

Another article in the Hindustan Times, on July 6, suggests Canada’s relationship with India will remain icy unless the Canadian government condemns any proKhalistan movements entirely. That article cites unnamed sources saying India’s new foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, issued that warning both to Canada’s high commissioner in India on June 19 and again to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland when the two met on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Japan on June 28.

Canadian officials describe the meeting only as an introduction between Freeland and Jaishankar, who was only appointed to the post in May. Freeland’s tweet about that meeting said “Canada and India are close partners with deep historical and people-to-people ties” and that it was “wonderful” to meet Jaishankar.

One Canadian organization is trying to fight back against the allegations in court. Sikhs for Justice, a Toronto-based human rights organization promoting the right of Sikhs to have their own independent state, filed a defamation suit in Ontario Superior Court July 8 alleging the Indian government was the source of at least three stories that falsely accuse Sikhs for Justice of colluding with the Pakistani intelligence agency to target Indian police officers and military personnel.

The Indian government has not yet responded to the $2.5-million libel suit, nor did a spokesman from the Indian High Commission respond to a request for comment from The Canadian Press.

“We want to show to the Canadian community that these are lies,” said Jatinder Singh Grewal, the international policy director for Sikhs for Justice.

In March 2018, Canada’s deputy ministers were warned about the risks the large Chinese and Indian communities in Canada are “vulnerable to foreign stateled campaigns that directly or indirectly work to influence diaspora communities across the country.”

The warning, in a report prepared for deputy ministers attending a retreat on national security, was obtained under the Access to Information Act.

the market to see who else could meet their needs,” she said. “As a result the LDB couldn’t demonstrate that the higher cost represented good value for money or that the supplier was the only source for the product.”

The audit also cited a $57,000 contract to deliver and provide promotion products for annual Public Service Week events, including employee appreciation, she said.

The contract was awarded without competition on the grounds supplies for the annual celebration could not be procured on time if the contract was put out to tender, Bellringer said.

“By the time the event organizers decided to do this, they didn’t have enough time to procure the items competitively,” Bellringer said. “The LDB justified the event award as an emergency to meet its deadline.”

Bellringer’s audit made five recommendations, including improved documentation for its direct award contracts and better staff contract management training.

In response, the liquor branch said it expects staff to complete part of the training recommended by the end of the year and other changes have also been made to provide greater oversight of how contracts are awarded.

It also said some of the audit’s findings were based on a lack of evidence in the files that were reviewed, but in many cases the branch did comply with the correct processes, such as conducting legal reviews.

Bellringer’s report says most of the contracts that were reviewed were for information technology services.

The audit would have reported evidence of illegal activities if it had found any, she said.

The report covered a time period from April 2016 to July 2018.

Killer and robber who escaped from Victoria-area prison now back in custody

The William Head institution overlooks the Salish Sea and several inmates have escaped by swimming around a razor wire-topped fence that extends into the water.

The mayor of Metchosin has called for more security if dangerous convicts continue to be held there.

say Armitage and Busch were taken into custody soon after they were spotted by an off-duty RCMP officer. Busch is serving an indeterminate sentence for second-degree murder and assault while Armitage is behind bars for robbery, aggravated assault and other offences.

CP FILE PHOTO

Motorists fuel up vehicles at a gas station in Vancouver on April 22, 2018.

Municipal councils need to be reined in

Afew months after the election, you’re not happy with the way your municipality is being run. The thought of waiting three and a half years for another election is more than you can take – what kind of trouble will these losers get into given all that time?

How much more national embarrassment can we stand?

So you organize a recall campaign, get a bunch of others to agree with you, force the jerks from office, and trigger another election. This time, with luck, you will get some councillors you can stand.

They will stay in office just long enough to find the washrooms at city hall. Then other people will campaign against them, force another recall and campaign, and there we go again.

Having the ability to fire local politicians, as proposed by the Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria, makes sense in theory. It could, however, have many unintended consequences, not the least of which would

be the nonstop disruption of council business and the relentless campaigning by those already in office.

We can understand why the watchdog group is upset with the way local councils – with Victoria at the top of the list – are being run. We can understand the frustration level, and the feeling that something needs to be done to make things right.

They do not hear a voice at the council table that represents their points of view.

and ideologies, not doing the job they were elected to do.

The Grumpies say Victoria council spends too much time dealing with issues out of its municipal jurisdiction.

“There are deep-seated issues at Victoria council that are not being addressed and what we’re seeing on a regular basis is distraction,” Bartlett said.

We agree with Stan Bartlett, head of the Grumpy Taxpayer$, when he said that people are angry.

“They’re dispirited with local government and the City of Victoria council in particular,” he said in his call for the province to introduce recall legislation for municipal councillors.

We would go even further. Many people have lost faith in the people they trusted with their votes. They do not hear a voice at the council table that represents their points of view. They are disengaged. They feel councillors are chasing their own agendas

Half a century ago, we had municipal elections every fall, with half the council elected each time.

That was changed to full council elections every two years, which meant that voters could toss the bums out relatively quickly if things went off the rails. But the election calendar was then shifted to three-year cycles, and since 2014, four-year terms.

One theory behind the move to four-year terms was that council members would spend less time campaigning and more time doing what they were elected to do.

In reality, the change just gave rise to a different problem: Instead of tackling the

HBO and Netflix: from Friends to foes

Netflix Inc. and the soon-to-come HBO Max app need a little of what each other has. In the meantime, consumers may be the ones who lose out.

If you’re like me, you’ve started to realize that despite a vast number of video-streaming apps, none on its own offers the ideal mix of content best suited to your tastes. And if you’re like me, paying for more than a couple of these subscriptions would feel excessive and expensive. But the media giants behind these products sure aren’t making it an easy choice.

AT&T Inc.’s freshly acquired WarnerMedia division announced on Tuesday that HBO Max, its Netflix copycat, will launch next spring and exclusively feature the hit show Friends, which it’s yanking from Netflix. The sitcom hasn’t had new episodes in 15 years, but it’s a large part of Netflix’s lifeblood. Subscribers spend more time watching Friends than any other program on the service except The Office, according to Nielsen data for 2018. (Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is taking The Office off Netflix, too, in 2021.) As services like HBO Max and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ hit the market, it’s crucial for Netflix to try to maintain its standing as the necessary “base” streaming package – the minimum that most people need. Without Friends, The Office and other popular licensed content, Netflix risks becoming an add-on service instead – nice to have but not a requirement. Sure, it’s building a strong franchise in Stranger Things, but

of Netflix’s top 20 programs last year by time watched, only six were Netflix originals, the Nielsen data show.

HBO Max’s new promotional video shouldn’t exactly wow people, though. Viewers have probably already seen most of the content. The 43-second teaser features clips from Game of Thrones and Friends twice, as well as Wonder Woman, A Star Is Born, and Sopranos, alongside some current shows that WarnerMedia owns, such as Big Little Lies and Impractical Jokers. On the one hand, WarnerMedia may just be seeking at this stage to remind people of the caliber and expansiveness of its portfolio of TV and movie productions. And the company did list a slate of HBO Max original series and movies featuring stars such as Kaley Cuoco, Anna Kendrick and Reese Witherspoon. Even so, it’s hardly the grand entrance HBO Max needs to make and demonstrates why more time is needed to fill out the offering, making this promo premature.

HBO Max is expected to cost a couple dollars more than HBO Now, the $15U.S.-a-month current direct-to-consumer version of the premium network. Based on what it’s teased so far, that’s not the best bang for a buck. Netflix’s monthly fee is $13U.S. The Disney+ service launching in November will be $7U.S. a month, or $70U.S. for a year upfront, for

access to content from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, National Geographic and other Disney brands, including originals that are in the works.

With Disney removing its content from Netflix and WarnerMedia now stripping Friends from the service, the traditional media companies are drawing lines of studio loyalty where none quite exists as far as consumers are concerned. What makes Netflix great is that it aggregates content from various places to create a dense and diverse library. It’s a good value because there’s always something to watch. That’s where HBO Max could fall short if it doesn’t have enough fresh material to hook subscribers used to bingeing on Netflix. But Netflix also needs to step up its quality if the studios that supply its best content are severing ties. It needs more Stranger Things.

A major reason consumers have been switching from cable packages to streaming apps is to save money. So for many, deciding which app to choose will come down to price.

The complexity of having to toggle between various apps and trying to remember what content lives where is also a turnoff. The introduction of HBO Max and Disney+ may only exacerbate that. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to just package all these services together in a single monthly subscription?

We could call it Cable Max.

Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., media and telecommunications. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.

tasks expected of any municipal government, some councillors have taken their elections as a four-year free pass to charge down whatever path they fancy without fear of being reined in. The Grumpy Taxpayer$ proposal will probably not win the support of the provincial government, and nor should it. We can’t have a system that allows the defeated to demand a rematch for every lost election. Like it or not, the municipal councillors we have today were elected fairly last fall. Besides, even if the province decided to enact a municipal recall provision, it would not be available to get us out of any messes before the next round of municipal elections in 2022.

But that doesn’t mean the current system works. In municipal politics, four years is too long to go without accountability to the voters. What can we do? Let our MLAs, the only ones who can fix this, know how we feel. Stay involved. Stay informed. Don’t become disengaged, even though those in power seem to want you to be.

Victoria Times Colonist

—

Conspiracy theorists taint the justice they seek

Announcing charges against Jeffrey Epstein at a Monday morning new conference, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman credited the help of reporters .

“We were assisted by some excellent investigative journalism,” he said.

William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York office, added, “We work with facts. When the facts presented themselves, as Mr. Berman hinted at, through investigative journalists’ work, we moved on it.”

They were likely referring to the Miami Herald’s three-part series “Perversion of Justice,” which sparked renewed scrutiny and public interest in the Epstein case by shedding light on a secret deal that allowed him to avoid serious punishment in 2008.

The investigative series identified about 80 women who say they were sexually abused by Epstein from 2001 to 2006 and quoted four of his alleged victims on the record for the first time. Brown, who received a George Polk Award for justice reporting for the series, said on Twitter that “the REAL HEROES HERE were the courageous victims that faced their fears and told their stories.”

But while the people who actually helped bring Epstein closer to justice were quick to credit others, another community baselessly claimed the credit.

Since Epstein has long been accused of serial abuse of minors, he has been featured in the online conspiracy theories Pizzagate and QAnon.

But when online conspiracy theorists aren’t rehashing old reporting about Epstein, they’re promoting some of the most absurd claims ever posted on social media.

QAnon followers of various stripes believe that military intelligence officials post coded messages on the imageboard 8chan, JFK Jr. faked his death in 1999, and Hillary Clinton has been secretly arrested.

It would be comforting to believe the warped, reality-defying worldview of online conspiracy theorists is so quarantined from mainstream political discourse that it’s unworthy of rebuke. But that’s not the case.

U.S. President Donald Trump has promoted several QAnon accounts on Twitter. Celebrities who have promoted QAnon include Roseanne Barr, Curt Schilling and Stacey Dash. Elected officials who have promoted QAnon include a city council member and a state lawmaker.

Matthew Lusk, a congressional candidate for Florida’s 5th District, is the first open QAnon follower to run for federal office .

The anonymous 8chan poster known as Q capitalized on the

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news of Epstein’s arrest by referencing it in several new posts.

Popular QAnon promoter Joe M felt vindicated: “The arrest and soon conviction of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein,” he said, “reflects all that Q observers have been howling about.” Tweeting to his nearly 100,000 Twitter followers, QAnon promoter Jordan Sather absurdly credited Epstein’s arrest to 4chan and 8chan.

“Some blue check marks,” he said in reference to verified users on Twitter, “are trying to take credit for Epstein’s arrest, but I think we all know where the real investigations are coming from... The chans are incredible!”

In reality, it should surprise no one to learn that none of the actual investigative reporting nor the indictment itself references “the chans.”

Somehow, the real investigations were successful without the help of anonymous users of primitive message boards.

Far from clarifying the serious allegations against Epstein and advocating for his alleged victims, the wild stories that online conspiracy theorists spin instead serve to distract from actual crimes.

For example, people in the QAnon community believe that Epstein’s private island contains secret tunnels where children were sacrificed in occult rituals.

There is obviously no evidence for this, and it seems like it would be a glaring omission from the indictment if it were true.

The story about children being abused in a secret underground is a callback to the “satanic panic” of the 1980s, in which preschools were baselessly accused of having secret labyrinthine tunnels.

Coupling serious allegations of child abuse with unserious fabulism about the occult helps no one. In Epstein’s case, the credible charges are outrageous enough without indulging in conspiratorial fantasies.

But attempting to weave his alleged actions into more fantastical narratives may make it easier to dismiss them.

Online conspiracy theorists also make innocent people vulnerable to harassment campaigns instead of actually helping the innocent.

Just as they poison our political discourse, online conspiracy theorists poison the pursuit of justice. Sadly, there’s little reason to hope they’ll ever care more about fidelity to the facts than the wild narratives that keep them at the center of the story.

View is a writer, conspiracy theory researcher and co-host of the podcast QAnon Anonymous.

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Crushin’ it

some air

Male performers dominate country music award nominations

David FRIEND The Canadian Press TORONTO — Fewer women are nominated in the key categories at this year’s Canadian Country Music Association Awards, but the organization’s head says it’s a case of bad timing, not a gender parity setback.

Tracy Martin, president of the CCMA, explained the absence of solo female artists both in the album and entertainer of the year categories as coincidence rather than an oversight.

Most of Canada’s biggest female stars, including Jess Moskaluke and Lindsay Ell, didn’t release new material in the qualifying period, which ended on April 30.

“We have our females in a little bit of an off-cycle this year,” Martin said in a phone interview.

“They haven’t released big albums.”

After a groundbreaking awards ceremony last year – which featured Shania Twain marching alongside a new generation of female stars, and Terri Clark being inducted into the hall of fame –the lower profile of women among the nominees announced on Wednesday was stark.

Leading the contenders with five nods each was Alberta sweetheart Brett Kissel who tied with Ontario bro-country act James Barker Band.

Kissel picked up nominations in categories that included male artist and entertainer of the year. James Barker Band is in the running for group or duo and single of the year. Both acts will compete against each

other in the songwriter category, as well as for interactive artist, which recognizes the country performer who best uses their online presence to interact with fans.

They also landed consideration for the fan choice award, alongside eight other contenders that include the Hunter Brothers, Tim Hicks and the Reklaws.

But a year after CCMA organizers advocated a new era for women, some of the key categories showed little or no female presence.

Nominees for the newly reintroduced entertainer of the year award, which was dusted off after 30 years on the shelf, are all male.

The prize goes to a solo artist, duo or group, who has shown “the greatest competence in all aspects of the field,” and the CCMA Awards call it their highest honour. Each nominee is selected by a panel of jurors after being narrrowed down based on radio play and sales.

This year’s contenders are Kissel, Paul Brandt, Dean Brody, Hicks and Dallas Smith.

Meanwhile, in the album of the year category, which is selected by a panel of jurors, the only woman is Jenna Walker, who performs alongside her brother Stuart in the Reklaws, a duo that’s up for Feels Like That.

The other nominees are Dallas Smith for The Fall, Paul Brant’s The Journey BNA Vol. 2, Tebey’s Love a Girl, Tim Hicks’ New Tattoo and the Hunter Brothers’ State of Mind.

Among the 10 nominees for the fan choice award two are women – Jenna

Walker and Quebecois performer

Guylaine Tanguay.

For single of the year, three women are among the five contenders. Ell’s Criminal, Tenille Townes’ Somebody’s Daughter and Meghan Patrick’s Walls Come Down are nominated alongside Gord Bamford’s Dive Bar and James Barker Band’s Good Together.

In the best male artist category, the nominees are Kissel, Paul Brandt, Brody, Tim Hicks and Dallas Smith.

Best female artist nominees are Ell, Moskaluke, Patrick, Tanguay and Townes.

Martin said she’s optimistic about the future for Canada’s latest crop of female country musicians.

Over the past 13 1/2 months, four women have reached the top spot on the country radio airplay chart that’s compiled by tracking company Nielsen. It’s the first time more than two Canadian female artists have reached No. 1 in 20 years.

“We’re starting to get some traction here,” Martin said.

“It’s been a hard road, but with the batch of females we have coming through... I’m extremely optimistic that we are going to see a great representation in our format (that’ll be) even bigger next year.”

The CCMA Awards take place Sept. 8 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, and will air live on Global TV.

Early performers announced for the show include Nashville act Old Dominion and as well as Alberta country singer Townes.

Amal Clooney faults ‘collective shrug’ over slain journalist

LONDON — Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney accused world leaders Wednesday of failing to protect journalists and faulted their “a collective shrug” over the slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. Clooney, the British government’s envoy on media freedom, said at a conference on press freedom that “journalists are under attack like never before,” not just while covering wars but for exposing crime and corruption.

“The vast majority of these murders go unpunished,” she said, adding that “world leaders responded with little more than a collective shrug” to Khashoggi’s killing by agents close to the Saudi crown prince.

The Washington Post columnist was killed inside Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul last year. According to the United Nations cultural body UNESCO, 99 media workers were killed worldwide in 2018. Clooney also took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump. She said “the country of James Madison” –one of America’s founding fathers and a champion of a free press – “has a leader today who vilifies the media.”

The London conference where she spoke was initiated by U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Politicians, officials, activists and journalists from more than 100 countries were taking part in the two-day meeting, but two Russian news outlets were banned.

The British government said Russian news agency Sputnik and state-owned TV network RT were excluded because of their alleged “active role in spreading disinformation.”

RT was censured last year by Britain’s broadcast regulator for breaking U.K. impartiality rules in its coverage of the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, said “it takes a particular brand of hypocrisy to advocate for freedom of press while banning inconvenient voices and slandering alternative media.”

Organizers did not release a full list of conference participants but said delegations were expected from nations with dire press freedom records, such as

Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Britain’s Hunt told the attendees Wednesday “media freedom is not a Western value but a universal value.”

He said repression of the press and corruption go hand in hand,

and “at its best, a free media both protects society from the abuse of power and helps release the full potential of a nation.”

“The strongest safeguard against the dark side of power is accountability and scrutiny,” he said.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Spitfire catches

on Sunday afternoon at PGARA Speedway during the Malicious Monster Trucks Insanity Tour.

CP FILE PHOTO

Brett Kissel performs at the Canadian Country Music Awards in Hamilton, Ont. in 2018. For this year’s nominations men are dominating most of the categories for solo performances.

Jill LAWLESS The Associated Press

Scientists get peek into how some fish change sex

Jeremy

REHM The Associated Press

NEW YORK — If in the beginning there was male and female, fish seem to have forgotten the memo.

For nearly 500 fish species, including the clownfish in Finding Nemo, the great divide between sexes is more like a murky line: if circumstances call for it, the fish can swap their sex, with females turning into males in some species and males turning into females in others.

People think of sex as being fixed, said biologist Erica Todd from the University of Otago in New Zealand, “but there are so many fish that can push it in the other direction.”

Scientists have known for decades about the sex trades, but they’ve had limited understanding of how the exchange happens.

In a study published Wednesday in Science Advances, Todd and her colleagues detail the molecular events behind this ability, as well as what keeps mammals stuck as one sex or another.

The researchers looked at the bluehead wrasse, a reef fish that swims in small groups of a dominant blue-headed male and a posse of smaller yellow females.

Normally the male and females stay as they are, feeding together and occasionally mating. But if a predator happens to snatch up the lead male, the dominant female in the group will become a male.

“The sex change in this species is remarkable because it’s so quick,” Todd said. It takes only minutes to a few hours for the female’s behaviour to become more territorial and aggressive like a male. In a few days, she courts other females. And after eight to 10 days, she’s fully transitioned to a male. Todd and her team removed the lead males from several wrasse groups in the Florida Keys. As the females changed sexes, the researchers took DNA from cells in the animal’s brains and genitals so they could follow what was happening at the genetic level.

They found that removing the males likely stressed females. The hormones released from that stress dial back the activity of the

gene that makes the female hormone estrogen, and eventually ovary cells start to die.

At the same time, those hormones increase activity in the genes that produce male hormones, and later testicles form.

At a certain point, the reproductive gland “is mostly dying female cells and proliferation of early male cells,” Todd said. But hormones weren’t the only thing switching around. The scientists also saw a complete rearrangement of chemical tags that attach to DNA. These tags turn genes on or off and have specific arrangements in males and females.

As female wrasse transitioned to a male,

these tags were removed and reorganized, almost as if the fish was being reprogrammed.

“They’re sort of poised and ready to go either direction” like a seesaw, she said. The hormones help push it to the male side.

Laura Casas, a biologist in Spain who was not involved in the study, called the results surprising. She expects the findings can apply to other sex-changing fish, including her study animal clownfish, which shift from male to female.

Matthew Grober, of Georgia State University, was more skeptical, especially of stress as the source that triggers the change.

He questioned how the fish avoid changing sex from day-to-day stress and suspects something else is at play.

All animals with a backbone, including humans, share these genes, raising the question of whether all of them have a deep-seated capability to switch sex.

That’s unlikely. Our reproductive systems are more complex and would be far more complicated to rewire, Todd said.

There’s also cell machinery that aggressively opposes the seesaw from swinging the other way.

“These fish are just able to go back and remove that suppression,” she said.

Fossil skull could be earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe

Joel ACHENBACH

The Washington Post

A skull fragment found in Greece has inspired a startling hypothesis about when our species first arrived in Europe and immediately generated excitement and skepticism among experts who study how and when Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa.

Researchers say the fossilized skull, found in the late 1970s in a cave in southeast Greece and stored since then in a museum, belonged to an individual with anatomically modern features who lived about 210,000 years ago. If true, that would be earliest example of Homo sapiens ever discovered outside the African continent. The date also precedes by a whopping 160,000 years the age of any Homo sapiens fossil previously found in Europe.

The bold claim, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, comes from a respected team of researchers, but it was met with caution from a number of other paleoanthropologists who were not involved in the research.

Disagreement is not unusual for this field, in which hypotheses and conjectures about human prehistory can emerge from a solitary jawbone or even a finger. Fossils are rare, difficult to date and usually fragmentary, and human prehistory is inherently a misty narrative.

The new study focuses on the damaged remains of two skulls –named Apidima 1 and Apidima 2 – found just inches apart in a crevice. Initially scientists assumed the skulls were of the same age because they were found together. But researchers recently used laboratory techniques that looked at the radioactive decay of trace amounts of uranium in the specimens, and concluded that the individuals came from different eras. The tests indicated that Apidima 1 is about 210,000 years old and Apidima 2 about 170,000 years old. Those dates contained a shocking twist to the consensus about early humans in Europe. The

This image provided by the University of Tuebingen in Germany

and

the

OF

fossil, right, with a piece of rock still attached. A digital reconstruction

middle.

a side

Apidima 1 cranium is a unique feature of modern humans and contrasts sharply with Neanderthals and their ancestors.

researchers used a variety of methods to model what the skulls would have looked like before being shattered and distorted across thousands of centuries. Apidima 2, the younger skull, looks clearly Neanderthal, which fits nicely with the understanding that Neanderthals – Homo neanderthalensis – were the dominant early humans in Europe in that period.

But the older skull, Apidima 1, doesn’t look like it belonged to a Neanderthal, the scientists found. It looks more like an early Homo sapiens, they report.

There’s not much to this skull – just part of the back of the cranium. But it has a rounded shape and other features that the researchers liken to early modern humans.

Such an early presence of early modern humans in Europe is not implausible. Last year a different team of researchers reported the discovery in a cave in Israel of what they say is a Homo sapiens jawbone and teeth from an individual that lived roughly 177,000 to 194,000 years ago. The new study proposes that the Levant and Turkey could have been migration routes for early modern humans to reach southeast Europe.

If this new interpretation is cor-

rect, the authors writer, Apidima 1 is “the earliest known presence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia, which indicates that early modern humans dispersed out of Africa starting much earlier, and reaching much further, than previously thought.”

This discovery also suggests that the early modern humans had contact with Neanderthals, who went extinct about 40,000 years ago, after a group of modern humans (often referred to as CroMagnons) had arrived in western Eurasia in force.

An extraordinary claim like this comes with inherent challenges. It’s essentially a single data point: one partial skull, damaged and distorted, with a “lack of archaeological context,” in the words of the new paper.

There’s nothing else: no stone tools, no burial signs, nothing to suggest modern human behavior. The claim would obviously benefit from a second Homo sapiens fossil of similar age somewhere in that part of the world.

“Of course it would be lovely to find more,” said lead author Katerina Harvati of Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, in Germany, in a conference call with reporters.

“We intend to try to look.”

Several paleontologists who read the paper came away skeptical. Rick Potts, director of the human origins program at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, said the new claim is a “one-off” with a date significantly different from what has been previously documented. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong, though.

“Of course there’s got to be a time when you find the first one. But we don’t know yet until we find multiple examples of this,” he said.

Melanie Lee Chang, a Portland State University evolutionary biologist who specializes in human evolution, echoed that sentiment: “Right now it is an outlier. It could be that there are whole lot of specimens in cabinets that people haven’t looked at in a while and will go back and reinterpret like this. But I’m not willing to sign on to all of their conclusions here.”

John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin paleoanthropologist, said genetic evidence has shown that Neanderthals had genes from African ancestors sometime before 200,000 years ago, and thus “finding a skull that might be that age that has clearly what seems like African modern human features

make a lot of sense.”

But he also sounded a cautionary note. It’s odd, he said, that two skulls of such different ages were found right next to one another. The researchers believed the fossils were washed into a crevice and then were embedded in sediments that hardened about 150,000 years ago. Said Hawks, “This is a weird scenario to have two human skulls that are next to each other that are so different in age, and it makes me want more evidence.”

One co-author of the Nature paper, Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum of London, acknowledged that this is a “challenging new find” for which skepticism is appropriate initially.

“We don’t have the frontal bone, browridge, face, teeth or chin region, any of which could have been less ‘modern’ in form,” he said in an email. But he said the team tested their reconstruction efforts in multiple ways and that the fossil “certainly shows the high and rounded back to the skull that is typical only of H. sapiens.” He said it would be helpful to find stone tools associated with Homo sapiens.

“If we have interpreted the Apidima evidence correctly, the handiwork of these early H. sapiens must be present elsewhere in the European record,” he said.

All people alive today appear to have descended from an ancestral group in Africa that lived roughly 70,000 years ago. “Both the fossil evidence and genomic evidence of modern day humans still suggest that the permanent success of Homo sapiens beyond the African continent is maybe 70,000 years old,” Potts said.

But the finer details of human prehistory, including the fate of groups that dispersed but apparently died out, have gotten more complicated with each new discovery. There was not a single, linear evolution of humans – which was the presumption among paleoanthropologists just half a century ago – but rather many hominid species that coexisted for millions of years before a single species replaced everyone else.

Alaska baking in historic heat wave

Ian LIVINGSTON Special To The Washington Post

A heat wave for the record books has roasted Alaska, sending temperatures into uncharted territory.

Over the weekend, boosted by historic heat in the southern part of the state, Alaska’s average temperature surged to its highest level ever recorded on back-to-back days.

“It is likely that Saturday, July 6, 2019, was the warmest day on record statewide (at least in the last 100 years),” tweeted Alaska climatologist Brian Brettschneider.”

But there’s more, he continued: “This distinction only lasted 1 day as Sunday was even warmer!” Southern Alaska has been the epicenter of the heat. Anchorage posted its hottest day on record Thursday,

hitting 90 F (32 C), and then twice matched its previous alltime highest temperature of 85 F (29.4 C) Sunday and Monday, notching its warmest week on record in the process. Through Monday, Anchorage had hit 80 F (26.6 C) or higher six days in row, doubling the previous longest streak of three.

Anchorage’s average temperature so far this month is 12.4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

Anchorage has logged eight days of 80 F (26.6 C) or higher this year, doubling the old record of four from 2015. Anchorage isn’t alone. It’s a similar story in Juneau, where there have also been eight days of 80 F (26.6 C) or higher in 2019. This ties 2009 for second most in a year, with the top spot held by 2004, when there were 12 such days.

KEVIN

A dominant male bluehead wrasse, upper left, defends its spawning territory and a group of yellow females off the coast of Florida. If the male dies, the dominant female in the group will become a male.

UNIVERSITY

TUEBINGEN IMAGE BY KATERINA HARVATI VIA AP

shows

Apidima 1 partial cranium

shows

view, left,

a posterior view,

The rounded shape of the

Sports

Bandits trying to shock lacrosse world

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

If the seed of doubt wasn’t already planted in the heads of the Westwood Pub Devils, that they are not infallible, the Bandits of the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association reminded them of that fact Wednesday night at Kin 1.

The RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits ruined the Devils’ bid for a perfect season back on June 19 when they hung a loss on them in their last regular season game and they did it again Wednesday with a 10-7 triumph to stave off playoff elimination and tie the best-of-three semifinal series 1-1.

Now it comes down to the third and deciding game tonight (8 p.m. at Kin 1) to decide who will advance to the best-of-five championship series against the Northland Nissan Assault.

The Bandits took a 4-0 lead into the dressing room in Game 2 after one period, obviously counting their blessings when the Devils rang the goalpost behind goalie Dalen Etter six times in the opening frame.

“It was a very intense game from start to finish and it was very physical and that’s fine,” said Bandits forward Drew Doig.

“We’ve played (the Devils) in the finals four years in a row and this was just an extension of that rivalry, just one round earlier. I don’t think it matters when it happens, it’s still pretty intense.”

Dalen Etter made 26 saves in the Bandits net. Steven Brizan started in goal for Westwood and was replaced by Patrick Bayliss after the eighth Bandit goal. They combined to make 19 saves.

“They have a lot of talent on that team and Dalen has been playing unreal,” said Doig.

“He plays unreal against this team, which is great. Our D –Taylor Attree, Ryan Waddington, Brock Paciejewski, Jesse Huffman and Lucas Rushton – played great.”

Etter made a penalty-shot save late in that June 19 game to send it into overtime and Doig scored the OT winner which put the lone blemish on the Devils’ 15-1 season. The Bandits finished fourth with a 7-9 record. As Doig pointed out, the Devils were missing some of their stars that night.

“That was not their full roster and (Tuesday) that was pretty close to their full roster,” Doig said.

Monty Jones of the Westwood Pub Devils eyes up the net while being checked by Ryan

of the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits in this photo of the PGSLA championship series in 2017. This year the Bandits will be trying to eliminate the first-place Devils from the playoffs tonight at Kin1. The teams are tied 1-1 in the best-of-three seminfinaal round.

“I don’t think anyone was giving us a shot, so we’ve got nothing to lose at this point. We’d love to shock the world.”

Doug Schonewille scored twice for the Bandits in the first period, Doig fired a pair in the second, while Jackson Parish and Trevor Clark each responded with goals in the second and third periods to keep the Bandits ahead. Patrick Griffiths had the other Bandits’ goal.

Unlike the two previous years when wildfires were burning out of control in the province, firefighters Clark and former league MVP Cole Paciejewski have been available to the Bandits for the playoffs.

Danton Nicholson led the Devils’ attack with two goals and two assists, Cameron Braun also scored twice, while Pierce Watson, David Lawrence and PGSLA scoring champion Andrew Schwab fired singles. The Devils played 10 minutes of the first period shorthanded when Dalton McEntyre was banished for trying, unsuccessfully, to pick a fight with Doig. By the time they returned to full strength the

Devils were four goals down.

“They scored a lot on the power play and we just started slow and I think we could have hustled more and we didn’t bury our chances,” said Moleski.

“I think we hit six posts right away and they had 10 minutes in a row of power-play time. It’s pretty hard to win when you’re short for half a period.

“Give them credit, they played well. We have a pretty good group of guys who can score. Last night was one of those nights where the ball just wouldn’t. We have to get better looks and get better quality chances and get to the dirty areas.”

The Devils won the first game of the series 12-5 a week ago.

Moleski, 37, played 12 years in the National Lacrosse League as a defenceman. He returned to the PGSLA this season to play on the Devils with his twin brother Adam and Scotty Anderson, a former NLL teammate with the Calgary Roughnecks who has helped him break into the minor lacrosse coaching ranks. Moleski played for the Bandits for several years before his pro career started in 2003.

“I haven’t played in the senior

league for 12 years and I think I only know a couple of them,” said Moleski.

“Scotty’s been trying to get me to play for a lot of years with him and my brother’s there and it’s fun.”

Moleski won’t play tonight. As head coach of the Prince George P:Posse peewee rep team he’ll be traveling to Delta, where the team will play this weekend in the A2 peewee provincial championship.

After Wednesday’s game, Doig expressed his anger at PGSLA commissioner Glen ‘Moose’ Scott for what he sees as preferential treatment offered by Scott to the Devils to help them recruit players, which Doig claims has gone on for years. He wants Scott to step down as league commissioner.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re playing more than just the team on the floor,” said Doig.

“Either way, they’re getting help. It’s been going on for decades, it was the elephant in the room, but no one said it. So I finally said it.

Everyone who knows what I’m talking about is going to know.”

Part of the bad blood stems from Scott’s approval of Devils forward Jake McIntosh as playoff-eligible.

Strikers strike gold at soccer provincials

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Sohanna Bains grew up playing soccer in Prince George and never in her career did her season end the way it did last Sunday in Burnaby.

Standing on the highest platform of the medal podium.

Bains and the Quesnel Strikers teamed up to win gold at the under-16 girls provincial B championship, defeating Kelowna United 3-1 in the final. Ruby Nicholas scored all three goals for the Strikers, including the winner about 10 minutes into the second half.

“That’s the first time in 30 years a Quesnel team has won a (provincial) title,” said Bains, the 15-year-old Strikers fullback. Brityn Hinsche went the distance in goal for the Strikers, a team of players from Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake and Terrace.

The Strikers opened Friday with a scoreless tie with Shuswap FC 0-0, then beat Vernon United FC Electricity 5-0 and wrapped up first place in their pool with a 7-0 win over Burnaby Girls Soccer Club Stealth.

Fourteen of the 17 Strikers players trained together indoors from September to June at the Northern Sport Centre, working three or four times per week on skill development in the UNBC Girls Academy program with Timberwolves women’s team head coach Neil Sedgwick.

“That was a big factor, it was something new for all of us and we all learned together,” said Bains.

“This is one of the factors as to why our team bonds together so well and why our players are very technically and tactically good.

“The quality of training that we get from Neil is something the north has never seen before. We have learned a different style of play that works for our team and is a huge factor of our success.”

Bains said having the ability to play in-

He joined the Devils in June after being released from the junior A Delta Islanders. The Devils signed him after league’s roster deadline and he played just three regular season games, two fewer than the minimum required for players to be eligible for the playoffs. Doig said he doesn’t mind having McIntosh in the playoffs but says it goes against a league deadline adopted earlier this year at the annual general meeting.

But Scott said there was agreement among the six-member league that McIntosh be allowed to play, even though he missed the deadline, and the same exception has been applied to Assault player Jake Nohr, who is eligible for the PGSLA playoffs despite having spent most of the season with his junior B team in the Lower Mainland.

“All I want to do is keep people playing lacrosse,” said Scott.

“Let’s keep the politics out of it. Are we that rigid in a senior C league in Prince George that we have to define everything and keep it to the letter? The bottom line is it doesn’t matter to me. It’s a simple matter of what’s best for the league.

“Jamie (Devils manager/goalie Bellamy) went out and worked at finding these guys and bringing them in and he wants to build a bit of a powerhouse and he’s doing it. To me, if I was an opposing general manager or coach, I’d be doing the same thing to go up to their calibre.”

• The Assault wrapped up their semifinal series Monday at Kin 1, where they topped the Mackenzie Conifex Power Lumberjacks 18-4 to complete a two-game sweep. The Assault beat the Lumberjacks 13-9 in Game 1 July 3rd in Mackenzie.

• The lineup for the Treasure Cove Casino Senior Invitational Lacrosse tournament and senior C championship July 26-28 at the Kin Centre is coming into focus. The Devils and Bandits are entered along with the Coquitlam Hitmen, Wsanac Arrows of Victoria, Port Moody Express, a combined Ladner-Coquitlam team and a team from the Okanagan are confirmed.

Club teams with no more than three pickup players are eligible to compete for the Fred Doig Memorial Cup in the senior C tournament. There is no such roster restriction on the number of pickups for teams in the invitational tournament.

“The quality of training that we get from Neil (Sedgwick, coach) is something the north has never seen before. We have learned a different style of play that works for our team and is a huge factor of our success.

— Sohanna Bains, Strikers fullback

Soccer Association products on the Strikers, along with Nancy Moore, Jordyn Williams, Claire Ramsey, Sydney

Olivia Wankling, Emma Axeworthy, Sarah Dereskavich and Margaret Caffery. The team also includes Quesnel players Nicholas, Reese Jacobson, Emma Blair, Olivia Martins and Olivia Momer. Hinche, the team captain, and Brooke Levens are from Williams Lake, while Quinn Kohlman is from Terrace.

Joanne Wankling, the T-wolves women’s team assistant coach, and Jim Nicholas of Quesnel, handled the Strikers’ coaching duties.

doors on the UNBC field turf is the only way they were able to compete with U-16 teams from the coast who have been playing on outdoor fields in leagues throughout the winter. That also gave the girls a few opportunities to work out with the T-wolves varsity

women’s team.

In the lead-up to the provincial tournament they had games against the Prince George U-17 and U-18 teams.

“We’re our only competition up here,” Bains said.

Bains is among nine Prince George Youth

• Home field advantage certainly worked in favour of the Prince George Impact U-18 boys at the Les Sinnott Memorial provincial B championship at Rotary Field. The Impact went undefeated in four games and capped the season with a 2-1 win Sunday over Guildford Athletic Club Dynamo in the bronze medal game. • In the U-13 boys division, the Prince George Impact went 2-1 in round-robin play to finish second in the pool, then lost 2-1 in a the bronze-medal game to ThompsonOkanagan. The Impact B team finished 0-3. The U-15 Impact went 1-2.

Waddington

Barlow,

HANDOUT PHOTO

The Quesnel Strikers are based in Quesnel but had a strong contingent of Prince George talent last weekend at the provincial B girls soccer championship in Burnaby. The Strikers defeated Kelowna United 2-1 in the gold-medal game on Sunday. Back row from left are: Jim Nicholas (coach), Ruby Nicholas, Sydney Barlow, Jordyn Williams, Nancy Moore, Quinn Kohlman, Reese Jacobson, Brooke Levens and Joanne Wankling (coach); front row: Emma Blair, Olivia Wankling, Brityn Hinsche (captain), Sohanna Bains and Emma Axeworthy. Missing from photo are: Olivia Martins, Claire Ramsey, Sarah Dereskavich, Olivia Momer and Margaret Caffery.

Cougars swinging for charity

Citizen staff

The swing for a slap shot is not all that much different from a golf swing. That’s why hockey players are often good golfers.

The proof will be on the course this weekend at Prince George Golf and Curling Club when a group of former Western Hockey League Cats get together for the Prince George Cougars Alumni Hospital Charity Golf Tournament.

The eighth annual fundraiser for the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation is once again a complete sellout and organizers are hopeful the event will continue its string of success raising money to purchase hospital equipment in northern B.C. The tournament has raised more than $500,000 over the past seven years. In the previous three years, the money was earmarked for cardiac care equipment. This year the goal is to raise at least $80,000 to buy a Vivid O Ultrasound Laboratory used by anesthesiologists at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.

Former Cougars Eric Brewer (1995-98), Nick Drazenovic (2002-07), Chase Witala (201116) Ronald Petrovicky (1994-97) and Ty Edmonds (2013-17) are entered, along with the three graduating players from last year’s

team – Josh Curtis (2015-19), Joel Lakusta (2015-19) and Mike MacLean (2018-19). They will join the rest of the

alumni gathering at CN Centre on Friday afternoon for an autograph

This year the goal is to raise at least $80,000 to buy a Vivid O Ultrasound Laboratory used by anesthesiologists at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.

session/media availability from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

A buffet dinner at the rink will follow. A live auction will allow bidders to choose which players or Cougars staff they want to have in their foursomes on the course for Saturday’s round. A catered dinner will follow at the Prince George Gold and Curling Club. Northland Auto Group is the tournament’s title sponsor, while Ken Goss (Remax Centre City Reality), Scotiabank and Pomeroy Lodging are Gold Sponsors and Preston Mobility is a Silver Sponsor. • Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg will attend the Chicago Blackhawks development camp next week in Chicago.

The 18-year-old from North Vancouver was selected by the ‘Hawks in the seventh-round, 194th overall, in the NHL Draft June 22.

Lions look to eliminate late mistakes in rematch with Eskimos

KARSTENS-SMITH

Gemma

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Lions know they’ll need to play a full four quarters in order to exact payback this week.

Details like missed tackles and dropped balls have hampered the team late in games so far this season, leading multiple opponents to come-from-behind wins.

That can’t happen when the Lions (1-3) host the Edmonton Eskimos on Thursday, said B.C. coach DeVone Claybrooks.

“The attention to detail just has to stay there and be there,” he said after practice on Wednesday.

“You don’t worry about the scoreboard, you worry about the details that contribute to the scoreboard. Every game always comes down to tackling, blocking and catching anyway, so you have to do those base fundamentals better than anyone else.”

Focus will be key to changing the pattern of fourth-quarter meltdowns, said receiver Bryan Burnham.

“You can’t get comfortable. I think a few of those games you’re up by double digits at the end of the game, you start to get a little comfortable,” he said.

“We’ve just got to maintain that focus until the games over and you see all zeros on the clock.”

The Eskimos already got the best of the Leos once this year, taking a 39-23 victory in Edmonton back on June 21.

But Burnham believes that B.C.’s taken lessons from a string of early-season losses and will be a different team on Thursday.

“In Week 2, there were just way too many little things that were just completely avoid-

able,” he said. “I think that’s one of the big things that we’ve been harping on. Just control what we can control. Don’t worry about trying to do anything supernatural or be a superhero. Just do your job. That’s all you’ve got to focus on.”

The Lions should have some renewed confidence after posting their first win of the season in Toronto last week. It wasn’t pretty, but B.C. squeaked out a 18-17 victory thanks to a last-minute rouge. Adding another W this week won’t be easy. Edmonton’s offence has racked up 92

free, 31.75

back, 6th, 1:11.55

breast, 6th, 1:20.98

fly, 25th, 1:15.84 PB 200 back, 2nd, 2:27.64 PB 200 IM, 12th, 2:37.31 400 free, 12th, 4:59.83 PB 400 IM, 8th, 5:34.22 PB Josiah Wilkinson (12) 100 back, 11th, 1:12.98

breast, 21st, 1:26.41

back, 9th, 2:33.74

breast, 15th, 2:57.68

200 IM, 15th, 2:38.39 PB 400 free, 15th, 5:09.09 PB 400 IM, 10th, 5:49.85 PB Masha Wood (12) 100 back, 14th, 1:14.16 PB 100 breast, 29th, 1:29.94 200 back, 11th, 2:36.07 PB 200 breast, 18th, 3:05.99 PB 200 IM, 24th, 2:42.38 PB 400 free, 20th, 5:10.08 PB 400 IM, 15th, 5:42.94 PB TOUR DE FRANCE

points so far, and quarterback Trevor Harris has already tossed for 1,086 yards in his first three games of the year. He has yet to throw a single interception.

The Lions will need to be calculated to make the 33-year-old QB uncomfortable, said defensive back Aaron Grymes.

“They say there’s no good coverage for a perfect throw and a perfect catch. And (the Eskimos) seem to have a lot of those,” he said.

“But if we can get them off their mark and mess their timing up, then the ball’s in our court, it favours us. So we’ve got to make sure we do that.”

Harris knows this week’s Lions won’t bear much resemblance to the team the Esks faced last month. But the path to a win hasn’t changed dramatically.

“We’ve just got to execute our game plan, make sure we’re on top of the keys to victory and doing the important things like trying to win the turnover battle and cutting down on penalties,” Harris said. Edmonton had 13 penalties for 139 yards in their last outing, a 28-21 loss to Winnipeg on June 27.

Discipline has been a constant message at the team’s meetings and practices over the last week, said Maas, adding that every player needs to be more “locked in” to help eliminate the errors.

“Ultimately, though, it can’t affect our play,” he said.

“Our play has to be what it is – it’s always fast, it’s always aggressive and physical.”

Edmonton Eskimos (2-1) at B.C. Lions (1-3)

Thursday, B.C. Place

Fresh face: Wide receiver DaVaris Daniels is expected to play his first game for the Eskimos on Thursday. The 26-year-old former Stampeder signed with Edmonton as a free agent during the off-season, but sat out the start of the season with an injury. Big catchers: Edmonton’s roster includes two of the league’s current top-five receivers. Greg Ellingson has 313 yards this season while Ricky Collins Jr. has tallied 293. Heading into Week 5, Hamilton’s Brandon Banks led the CFL in receiving yards with 420.

Point spread: The Lions have given up 125 points this season, more than any other team in the league. On the offensive side, B.C. has scored 96 points – fourth in the CFL behind Hamilton, Calgary and Saskatchewan.

WIMBLEDON

LONDON - Results Wednesday from The Wimbledon Championships grasscourt tournament, held at The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (seedings in parentheses): MEN Singles - Quarterfinals Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. David Goffin (21), Belgium, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, def. Kei Nishikori (8), Japan, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Rafael Nadal (3), Spain, def. Sam Querrey, United States, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2. Roberto Bautista Agut (23), Spain, def. Guido Pella (26), Argentina, 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Doubles - Quarterfinals Raven Klaasen, South Africa, and Michael Venus (3), New Zealand, def. Henri Kontinen, Finland, and John Peers (8), Australia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3. WOMEN Doubles - Third Round Danielle Collins and Bethanie Mattek-Sands , both United States, def. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, and Ash Barty (10), Australia (walkover). Quarterfinals Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (2), both Czech Republic, def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Germany, and Demi Schuurs (8), Netherlands, 6-2, 7-6 (1). Hsieh Su-wei, Chinese Tap 1/8 ei, and Barbora Strycova (3), Czech Republic, def. Elise Mertens, Belgium, and Aryna Sabalenka (6), Belarus, 6-4, 6-2. Gabriela Dabrowski, Ottawa, and Xu Yifan (4), China, def. Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Danielle Collins, both United States, 6-1, 6-3. MIXED DOUBLES Third Round Bruno Soares, Brazil, and Nicole Melichar (1), United States, def. Andy Murray, Britain, and Serena Williams, United States, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Artem Sitak, New Zealand, and Laura Siegemund, Germany, def. Mate Pavic, Croatia, and Gabriela Dabrowski (3), Ottawa, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 13-12 (5). Wesley Koolhof, Netherlands, and

Results Wednesday from the fifth stage of the Tour de France, a 176.651-kilometre (109.1-mile) hilly ride near the German border from Saint-Die-des-Vosges to Colmar, with a pair of Category Two climbs sandwiched by a pair of Category Threes: 1. Peter Sagan, Slovakia, Bora-Hansgrohe, four hours, two minutes, 33 seconds; 2. Wout Van Aert, Belgium, Jumbo-Visma, same time; 3. Matteo Trentin, Italy, Mitchelton-Scott, s.t.; 4. Sonny Colbrelli, Italy, Bahrain-Merida, s.t.; 5. Greg Van Avermaet, Belgium, CCC, s.t.; 6. Julien Simon, France, Cofidis, s.t.; 7. Michael Matthews, Australia, Sunweb, s.t.; 8. Nils Politt, Germany, Katusha Alpecin, s.t.; 9. Jasper Stuyven, Belgium, Trek-Segafredo, s.t.; 10. Julian Alaphilippe, France, Deceuninck-QuickStep, s.t. 11. Xandro Meurisse, Belgium, Wanty-Gobert, s.t.; 12. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norway, Dimension Data, s.t.; 13. Alberto Bettiol, Italy, EF Education First, s.t.; 14. Guillaume Martin, France, Wanty-Gobert, s.t.; 15. Alexey Lutsenko, Kazakhstan, Astana, s.t.; 16. Omar Fraile, Spain, Astana, s.t.; 17. Fabio Felline, Italy, TrekSegafredo, s.t.; 18. David Gaudu, France, GroupamaFDJ, s.t.; 19. Warren Barguil, France, Arkea-Samsic, s.t.; 20. Daryl Impey, South Africa, Mitchelton-Scott, s.t. Also - 30. Joey Rosskopf, United States, CCC, s.t.; 59. Michael Woods, Ottawa, EF Education First, s.t.; 64. Tejay van Garderen, United States, EF Education First, s.t.; 92. Ben King, United States, Dimension Data, 8:16 behind winner; 121. Hugo Houle, Sainte-Perpetue, Que., Astana, 14:48; 148. Chad Haga, United States, Sunweb, 16:58. OVERALL RANKINGS (after fifth of 21 stages) 1. Julian Alaphilippe, France, Deceuninck-QuickStep, 18:44:12; 2. Wout Van Aert, Belgium, Jumbo-Visma, 14 seconds behind leader; 3. Steven Kruijswijk, Netherlands, Jumbo-Visma, 0:25; 4. George Bennett, NewZealand,Jumbo-Visma,s.t.;5.MichaelMatthews, Australia, Sunweb, 0:40; 6. Egan Bernal, Colombia, Ineos, s.t.; 7. Geraint Thomas, Britain, Ineos, 0:45; 8. Enric Mas, Spain, Deceuninck-QuickStep, 0:46; 9. Peter Sagan, Slovakia, Bora-Hansgrohe, 0:50; 10. Greg Van Avermaet, Belgium, CCC, 0:51. 11. Michael Woods, Ottawa, EF Education First, s.t.; 12. Wilco Kelderman, Netherlands, Sunweb, s.t.; 13. Thibaut Pinot, France, Groupama-FDJ, 0:52; 14. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, EF Education First, 0:53; 15. Tejay Van Garderen, United States, EF Education First, s.t.; 16. Sonny Colbrelli, Italy, Bahrain-Merida, 0:56; 17. Matteo Trentin, Italy, Mitchelton-Scott, 0:57; 18. David Gaudu, France, Groupama-FDJ, s.t.; 19. Rudy Molard, France, Groupama-FDJ, s.t.; 20. Nicolas Roche, Ireland, Sunweb, 1:00. Also - 72. Joey Rosskopf, United States, CCC, 5:52; 103. Ben King, United States, Dimension Data, 23:25; 112. Hugo Houle, Sainte-Perpetue, Que., Astana, 24:44; 174. Chad Haga, United States, Sunweb, 39:51.

Prince George Cougars alumni Brogan O’Brien attempts a putt with a hockey stick while a teammate looks on during last year’s Prince George Cougars Alumni Hospital Charity golf tournament at Prince George Golf and Curling Club at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club.

CP FILE PHOTO

B.C. Lions quarterback Mike Reilly (13) is chased down by Edmonton Eskimos during CFL action in Edmonton on June 21.

As Beetle ends, iconic original thrives in Mexico

Michael KRUMHOLTZ

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The Beetle is dead. Long live the Beetle.

The modern edition of the iconic Volkswagen model is set to cease production Wednesday, but people in Cuautepec on the outskirts of Mexico City still rely on the original no-frills version, praising it for its affordability, reparability and, most of all, its dexterity at handling the district’s steep streets.

High above the capital, where the notorious smog turns the surrounding hills into hazy silhouettes, the old-model compacts are popularly used as informal taxis for a place that lacks public transportation. The sputtering, bulbous, back-engine cars popularly known as “vochos” are everpresent in Cuautepec, an obsession for some after production of the Type 1’s stopped in 2003 and the New Beetle failed to impress most locals.

“The new ones don’t get uphill, and the old ones can climb any incline without problem,” said taxi driver Adrian Martinez.

An exception is businessman David Alvarez, a resident of neighbouring Mexico State who drives a

2008 New Beetle with a roll-down top. Though he has owned older Beetles and admits his newer version isn’t as ideal for hilly terrain, he likes the attention it draws.

“It’s an attractive car with a lot of personality,” Alvarez said.

“It turns a lot of heads in the streets.”

For Mexico, the halt to Beetle production marks an end of an era. The VW factory in Puebla, southeast of the capital, had long been the only plant in the world still manufacturing classic Beetles and more recently became the only one left making modern ones.

Green-and-white painted Type 1’s used to be the norm for taxis in

US lawmakers on northern border want grain rules addressed

The Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — Republican senators along the northern U.S. border are asking officials to address grain in the trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

The Billings Gazette reported Wednesday that U.S. lawmakers from Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota sent a letter to the chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S. trade representative, calling for an agreement that creates a more level playing field for wheat producers.

Canada controls the value of its wheat by limiting the number of varieties it accepts.

Montana farmers do not grow varieties on Canada’s list, so wheat from the state has not moved freely across the border.

Montana Grain Growers Association Executive Director Lola Raska says the wheat price has been higher at times in Canada, giving U.S. farmers incentive to move their grain north.

Mexico City, but authorities ended cab licenses for the last of the “vochos” in 2012.

Taxi driver Francisco Trujillo said this technically means he and others who operate the older model in Cuautepec are doing so illegally. But local police rarely bother the drivers, he said, and the cars stay in high demand for residents who grew up when VW taxis were everywhere.

“This service still exists because the locals always know how to find us,” Trujillo said.

There are plenty of people in other parts of Mexico City who said good riddance when the “vocho” taxis disappeared.

The two-door vehicles, nearly always with the front passenger seat removed, earned notoriety as robbery traps. Muggers, sometimes in cahoots with cab drivers, would appear suddenly to demand the belongings of clients trapped in back seats with no way out.

Among aficionados in Cuautepec, there is some concern that Beetle-mania may come to an end as parts become increasingly hard to come by.

Mechanic Juan Jose Fragoso’s shop in the nearby Progreso Nacional neighbourhood has become known locally for its ability to fix older Beetles. He said he gets parts from a business partner who buys and strips broken or abandoned Type 1s.

“Right now they’re very scarce because they discontinued a lot of parts,” Fragoso said.

Some mechanics prefer to collect the cars for their own use.

Bernardo Garcia, another mechanic in Progreso Nacional, got his first Beetle when he was 13 and hasn’t stopped buying them since. Garcia said the now-relic will always be his favourite for its combination of value and efficiency.

His latest purchase: A fixerupper 1975 “vocho” that is older than him.

“I think the car has even more documents than I do,” he quipped.

Toronto to New York and London to Moscow

About three years after she lost a leg in a streetcar accident, Rhea Clyman’s father died. Now just eleven years old, she became a breadwinner for her mother and four young siblings, taking a job in a local factory. Whatever education she would get, she would have to claw for at night school.

Let’s digest this for a moment. This little girl was crippled, uneducated, poor, and now an immigrant child factory worker.

The robust economics of the roaring 1920’s never made it to their poor Toronto neighbourhood, but even if they had, she had a hill to hobble that would be unheard of today in Canada.

Plucky nonetheless, she made it through business school, obtained secretarial work in New York, and then went on to London to work as a reporter (learning French in her spare time). By 1928 she was 24 years old and longed to join the promising world of socialism in the Soviet Union. Women’s equality, worker’s rights, property-sharing, and reports of fresh blossoming prosperity for all had an undeniable appeal to a gal from Toronto’s immigrant ghetto.

And so, with no money, one leg, no job, and sketchy prospects, she made her way to Moscow, and spent the first night sleeping in an American reporter’s bathtub. She eventually lodged with a Russian host family and got work in the newspaper business, writing for the Toronto Evening Telegram, and the London Daily Express. Somewhere in her spare time she learned Russian, which enabled her to travel without a pesky Soviet escort.

As we noted in an earlier submission, her dream was crushed, and four years later she was kicked out of the USSR for reporting what she saw there.

Clyman had personally witnessed the Gulag, and the deadly impact of Stalin’s starvation policy. Yes, policy. Fearing the fierce independence of the farmers in the Ukraine region, Stalin ordered their farms collectivized, drove many of their men to the Gulag, seized all their produce, and many of their farm animals, and then closed the borders to keep them from seeking or trading for food.

He even made it illegal to own a map to restrict travel. Later he would order the falsification of census records to smooth over the engineered famine, but researchers estimate somewhere between four to six million died in a two-year span.

September 21, 1932

News of Rhea’s impending expulsion from the Soviet Union hits the Western press, but this woman had moxie.

I’m a guy with a bit of a missing gene – the one with natural fear of things that might kill me – but if I got in one of her pickles I would wet myself. Taking on Mother Russia like a boss, she snuck into a port town on the edge of the Gulag, bickered with officials there over access to her story, and then write about the brutal conditions in the Western press, the Soviets proceeded to burp her out, but not until she broke another major story. Not long after her Gulag experience, the

secret police caught up with her in another region, where she was covering the famine. They gave her two hours to leave the country, stuck a gun in her ribs, and told her they had the power to do with her as they pleased. Unbelievably, she refused. She stalled, offering one of them a cigarette, and then got her travelling companions to alert the British Embassy in Moscow, which provided her with a few days relief to gather her things before being extradited.

Prince George, BC, 1932

It’s the depression. A local banker sits in a restaurant reading the weekly Prince George Citizen, eating a lunch of beef stew and a cheese sandwich. The paper announces a “Hard Times” dance at a local community hall that night. The defunct Giscome lumber mill is being taken over by some local investors, after having failed under previous owners. Relief workers have just been hired to extend the Chief Lake Road. All of this is connected to the circumstances Rhea Clyman was publishing that week around the world. Even his bread might be cheaper, the lumber business more prosperous, the relief workers up in Chief Lake less needy.

Specifically,

• The U.S.S.R. was exporting the expropriated Ukrainian grain to finance their transition to an industrial economy, starving millions of once-prosperous farmers there, and flooding world markets with cheap wheat to finance their vision.

• Many thousands of those same farmers had been forcibly removed from the Ukraine to work in forced labour lumber camps. Russia’s northern forests were being harvested by Gulag’s slave workers, impacting world lumber markets in the process.

As Clyman was getting ready to leave the U.S.S.R., she stood in her bathroom, pondering, and later wrote:

“I could not believe that the tired, wan face... reflected in the mirror was mine. What had happened to the fiery young enthusiast who had come to Russia to worship at the shrine of the brotherhood of communism? One hundred and sixty million people sacrificed to the ideals of powerhungry maniacs cease to be an abstract social experiment when studied close at hand. The workers say they have less to eat now than before the revolution, and the peasants are starving. Socialist construction, bought at the price of horror, famine and bloodshed are no lasting benefit to humanity.”

Mark Ryan is an Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are his views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Ryan’s website at: http://dir.rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan

the U.S. Federal Reserve confirmed the central bank will cut interest rates because of a weakened economy and rising trade tensions. In

the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 76.71 points at

after peaking at 26,983.45. The S&P 500 index surpassed 3,000 points for the first time and closed up 13.44 points at 2,993.07, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.80 points at 8,202.53 after reaching 8,228.60. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 18.08 points at 16,563.29. It hit an intraday peak of 16,545.21, less than 31 points below April’s record high.

Canada’s main stock index was helped by the energy and materials sectors as the price of crude hit a seven-week high and gold gained ground. The August crude contract was up US$2.60 at US$60.43 per barrel and the August natural gas contract was up 1.9 cents at US$2.44 per mmBTU.

The August gold contract was up US$12 at US$1,412.50 an ounce and the September copper contract was up 6.9 cents at US$2.69 a pound.

The commodities were helped by a weaker U.S. dollar with the Canadian dollar trading for an average of 76.38 cents US compared with an average of 76.18 cents US on Tuesday.

The loonie was also helped by comments from the Bank of Canada that the Canadian economy would accelerate next year in contrast with the United States.

Crude prices were supported by a significant reduction in overall U.S. stockpiles and major oil producers evacuating rigs in the Gulf of Mexico before an expected storm.

The energy sector was led higher by a broad-based increase with Crescent Point Energy Corp. shares rising 9.3 per cent, followed by Encana Corp. at 3.1 per cent.

Kinross Gold Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp. were among the big gainers among miners. Health care lost the most ground with CannTrust Holdings Inc. dropping another 12.9 per cent after the Ontario Cannabis Store said it has removed certain CannTrust products from its online store and from distribution to physical outlets until Health Canada completes its investigation involving pot cultivation in unlicensed rooms.

AP PHOTO BY CRISTINA BAUSSAN

Drivers commute in their Volkswagen Beetles in a neighbourhood of Mexico City on Tuesday.

Nelson, Ann-Marie

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Ann-Marie Nelson of Fraser Lake, B.C. Born November 20, 1946, she passed peacefully surrounded by her family on July 8th, 2019. She will be missed by her beloved husband Kevin Nelson, her children Marlene Boreland, Wendy DuPuis (Rob) and Tim Boreland (Mellisa), many grandchildren, great grand children and many Foster Children all of which she loved dearly. Over the years she had many passions, her passion for nature while camping and fishing, her respect for bears and their abilities and her well-loved (spoiled rotten) family pets and the many hours spent drinking coffee and laughing with friends. She was the voice of guidance and strength for many of us over the years

Cremation has taken place and at Ann’s wishes a Celebration of Life will be held in Fort Fraser, British Columbia at the Fort Fraser Hall on Saturday July 13th, 2019 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Friends and Family are welcome to join us for celebration and sharing of kind memories.

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THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019

The two arts organizations have worked together before but Theatre Northwest and the UNBC Musical Theatre Club have now formalized a partnership.

The UNBC club was accustomed to working out rehearsal and performance spaces as a patchwork of facilities cobbled together as best the students could find at the time, including recent uses of TNW. Now, the guessing and negotiating has been removed. Both the rehearsal process and the performance space will be all under the TNW roof.

“Theatre Northwest is thrilled to be partnering with UNBC Musical Produc tions again this season,” said Marnie Hamagami, executive director of TNW.

“Having this group in our space makes so much sense for both organizations. They bring great energy to the building and we are able to offer mentorship to their members.”

“We are excited beyond words to be working again with the folks at Theatre Northwest,” said Rylee Spencer, president of UNBC Musical Productions. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last season would not have been nearly as successful without the guidance and support of Theatre Northwest. We suddenly found ourselves able to bring a much higher quality of production to the community, and we’re now able to take on more challenging theatre with productions like The Last Five Years. This is such a wonderful opportunity for us.”

The Last Five Years, said Spencer, follows the story of Cathy and Jamie over the course of a five-year relationship as the two fall in and out of love.

The intimate and emotionally charged show uses an unconventional plot structure: Cathy tells her story in reverse, while Jamie expresses his chronologically, with the two only meeting once at their wedding in the middle of the show.

“This production features a gorgeous score performed by a live band and two extremely talented performers, and the show will remain with you long after the final bow is taken,” Spencer said. “We are always looking for opportunities to grow our club and expand what we can offer. This season opens with The Last Five Years, and, come fall, we will be an-

nouncing our large 2020 production. We welcome new partnerships, club members, sponsors, and fans. If you haven’t had the chance to catch one our productions in the past, it’s never too late to try us for the first time. This is not one you’ll want to miss.”

The Last Five Years opens on Sept. 20 with shows on Sept. 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29th.

One of the important offerings TNW can give the student-run UNBC Musical Theatre Club operation is a solid point of purchase for tickets. Seats for The Last Five Years can be bought at the theatre, online at the TNW website, or charge-byphone at 250-614-0039. Prices for this production are $20 for the general public and $15 for students.

FRANK PEEBLES 97/16 staff

9716 photos by Brent Braaten

The UNBC Musical Productions Club and Theatre Northwest formally announced that they will be continuing their partnership. Solomon Goudsward sings a number from the Broadway hit The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown the musical the club is opening their season with.

9716 photos by Brent Braaten Alex Verge sings a number from the Broadway hit The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. The UNBC Musical Club will present the show at Theatre Northwest later this year.

GROCERY SHOPPING ON A TIGHT BUDGET

Summer can be a time of backyard barbeques, picnics and family gettogethers, which can mean larger portions to prepare and a bigger grocery bill. The list below includes tips on how to save money while shopping for healthy options.

1. Make a grocery list and stick to it. Meal planning can help you create a list of the items you need. Think through breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as any snacks you might want or special occasion meals you need to prepare that week. Make the list at home so you can check your cupboards, fridge and freezer for any items you’re unsure of having.

2. Check grocery store flyers while completing your grocery list. Seeing an “On Sale” or “Special” sticker on food packaging seems to trigger the consumer into automatically believing they’re getting a good deal, regardless of whether they actually are. Checking grocery store flyers at home allows you to easily check your kitchen for missing items. This also allows you to take your time in calculating whether the price is worth it.

3. Price compare online if possible. Several grocery stores in Prince George allow for online orders. This means you

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

KELSEY LECKOVIC

can see what different grocery stores are charging for the items you need that week, ensuring you’re getting a better price and leading to a more efficient shopping trip.

4. Order your groceries online. If you find it difficult to stick to a grocery list and are swayed by the aisles of the grocery store, consider ordering the items you need online. Both Save-On-Foods and Real Canadian Superstore accept online orders, with Save-On-Foods offering delivery. Ordering online is especially helpful when it comes to seeing how much you’re spending on produce, without having to weigh it in-store. Seeing your tallying climb as you add items to your cart can also help you stay on budget.

5. Compare the unit price for similar items. The unit price will tell you how much an item costs per “unit” or per 100

grams or 100 millilitres. You can usually find the unit price in small print under the main price. This price can help you compare whether a large or small size of an item is a better buy.

6. Compare your grocery bills from different stores. Keeping track of the regular prices of your commonly bought foods from different stores will help you to figure out which store offers the best value for your dollar and whether you’re getting a good deal on sale items at another store.

7. Bring a calculator. Whether you’re using a calculator, your phone or simply writing down your grocery bill as you shop, keeping a tally can help you stay on budget.

8. Avoid shopping when you’re hungry. This may likely be advice you’ve heard before, and for good reason. When you shop on an empty stomach, everything suddenly looks delicious! Shopping while hungry can lead you to buy foods you don’t need and/or less healthy choices.

9. Shop the international foods aisle. Consider shopping for staples such as dried herbs, spices, dried beans and rice in the international foods aisle of your

grocery store, where they’re often less expensive. Getting to know the layout of your grocery store can help you to find the best price on a product since the same items, such as herbs and spices, can be stocked on multiple aisles.

10. Shop the “reduced” section of the produce department. Fruits and vegetables that appear past-their-prime can still be nutritious; just consider how that fruit or vegetable can be used. If you buy brown bananas and never use them, you’re not saving any money. Less esthetically pleasing vegetables are good for soups and stews if you don’t want to eat them raw. Ripe fruit, such as bananas, pears and strawberries are good for making muffins and loaves. Day-old bread is still safe for eating as is, but makes good French toast or grilled sandwiches. Ripe melons can be diced and frozen, or puréed to make smoothies.

For more budget friendly tips go to www.unlockfood.ca and search “budget.”

— Kelsey Leckovic is a registered dietitian with Northern Health working in chronic disease management.

USE HERBS WITH ABUNDANCE AND ABANDON

MARTHA HOLMBERG

Special To The Washington Post

Fresh herbs are one of the most straightforward and effective ways of elevating simple home cooking into something notable, and I cook with them almost daily. A few snips of chives on scrambled eggs, a shower of torn basil on tomato salads, sprigs of rosemary in the sauté pan for a steak, and a pinch of chopped parsley for the anchovy butter to top it. And let’s not forget a fragrant peppermint stem, gently bruised to release its oils, as a garnish for my G&T.

I grow herbs on my deck, just a step from my kitchen door, so it’s easy to cook this way for much of the year. Rosemary and thyme stick with me throughout the calendar, and every spring I plant an assortment of those that don’t survive the winter. The lineup usually includes chives, tarragon, dill, marjoram, savory, some oreganos, mints, a few types of basil and boatloads of cilantro and parsley. When I encounter something unique, such as Cuban oregano, chervil or salad burnet, I give it a try, and if I end up using it throughout the season, it becomes one of the regulars, too. For just a few dollars and a couple hours of investment, I have a supply of vivacious herbs ready to snip at will.

But in the offseason – or if you don’t have your own garden – a desire to cook with fresh herbs can cause some supply-anddemand conflicts. Most of the time you’re buying a bunch but perhaps using only a

few sprigs. What do you do with the rest? Fortunately, solving the waste problem can bring joy and deliciousness. The key is to think of herbs - particularly the tender ones - not as accents used in mere tablespoons but rather as star players tossed in by fistfuls and cupfuls. Think of them as leafy greens and use them abundantly, and with abandon.

As opposed to the hardy, tough herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram and sage (which, in my opinion, are good when cooked with food, not eaten raw), the tender herbs are just that: leafy, tender, milder (though full of flavor and fragrance, which is why we adore them), easy and delicious to eat raw or cooked.

The most versatile include parsley, cilantro, mint, basil, dill, tarragon, chives, with less familiar members including chervil, lemon verbena and lovage, among others.

•Tend to your herbs to prolong their life

First, liberate your tender herbs from whatever bondage they arrive in from the store: Take them out of the horrible plastic clamshell and release any rubber bands or twist-ties, which cut into the stems and damage them, leading to deterioration and rot. Discard any obvious wilted or yellowed leaves or stems.

For storage longer than a few hours, some people swear by putting herbs in a glass with water as you would a bunch of flowers, but I don’t find that effective, and it requires counter space or, in hot weather, fridge space and the ability to keep the vase

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upright, which in my jumbled refrigerator can be a challenge.

Instead, I loosely wrap the bunch in a barely damp paper towel and seal that in a lidded plastic or glass storage box to create an environment humid enough to keep the herbs moist but not so damp to encourage rot. If you’re not going to use the herbs within two days, do periodic spot checks and remove any newly wilted or yellowed sprigs, and refresh the damp paper towel. To wash the herbs, separate the sprigs and put them into a salad spinner. Submerge in cold water, soak for a few minutes, and then drain, rinse again, drain again, and then spin them until dry. You don’t want to be chopping wet herbs, or you’ll end up with something resembling lawn clippings. If you don’t have a salad spinner, soak the herbs in a bowl, drain in a colander, and then gently pat dry with a clean dish towel or paper towels.

•Use the whole bunch

See how many places you can deploy the herbs over the next day or two. Once you get comfortable and committed to not wasting these important ingredients, you’ll find your own delicious destinations as well. As you consider the possibilities, remember: The stems, particularly of cilantro and parsley, are full of juicy flavor. When you chop their leaves, always include some stems, unless you can see that they are damaged or too fibrous. Take a nibble and then decide. In addition to my Any Tender Herb Rice Pilaf, here are a few ideas

for using those generous bunches to their utmost potential.

Go beyond basil pesto. Use nuts other than the pricey pine nuts. Parsley, dill, and walnuts are gorgeous together, perhaps with a few crumbles of feta thrown in. Cilantro and almonds are a natural pairing, as are basil and parsley with hazelnuts. Spread a thick layer onto fish filets and roast at high temperature. I love this with salmon, in particular.

Add finely chopped herbs to a basic crepe batter, spread some fresh cheese over the crepes and add a good twist of black pepper, then fold or roll. Step it up by adding a thin layer of gravlax or other cured fish. Make a frittata with tons of herbs, gently sautéed green onions and crumbles of feta. Serve at room temperature, plain or with a drizzle of pesto.

Make a smashed potato salad. Boil some new potatoes, drain and crush gently, dress with a combo of butter and extra-virgin olive oil, a juicy squeeze of lemon, and then fold in a big bunch of roughly chopped herbs. Serve at warm room temperature. Make a perfect herb salad, keeping the herbs in tender sprigs or whole leaves, and adding a bit of bulk with arugula leaves or thinly sliced endive for texture, if you like. Dress simply with lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve with lamb chops, the pesto-coated fish above or on top of a crispy chicken schnitzel.

WINNING THE CANADIAN WAY

The Battle of Vimy Ridge is often marked as the birth of Canada. Why is that?

Growing up in a pacifist community, the remembrance was outside our culture as we had no “respectable” relations that had gone to war, so we didn’t have those stories. But since I attended public school, I learned just enough to know that it was a significant event in shaping the Canadian identity.

Then, as an adult, I read Pierre Berton’s Vimy and found it a fascinating read. He wrote the book to discourage wars, which he felt were fought by unlucky young men duped by warmongering elites for the opportunity to go “home” in exchange for the significant risk of death or dismemberment.

I didn’t come away with a horror of the blood and gore and desperation he described. I came away with an admiration for Canadians and an appreciation for how our environment and our collective circumstances shape anyone living here into a distinct people.

Berton does write beautifully and accurately, at least according to what is easily available to the layman like me. Due to his writing skill, on my visits to Vimy Ridge, I could hear, smell, and see, the “creeping barrage” movement of Canadian troops amid the periods of heavy shelling. I could feel the tight living conditions in the tunnels and felt the oppression of days of waiting for the

TRUDY KLASSEN

final signal.

How did this battle come to define or display the strength, of Canadians? Less than 100,000 young Canadians won an important lookout that had already cost the French 100,000 casualties.

Berton writes that the Canadians brought characteristics the previous soldiers didn’t. The Canadians were mostly farm boys, used to handling a shovel, used to working in rain, mud, and cold, used to persevering because there was simply no other way to survive in the vast Canadian wilderness. They were used to doing the nearly impossible.

For leadership, we had Gen. Arthur Currie a failed Vancouver real estate agent, who finally found his calling in the military. Currie worked his way up the ranks to general, unlike the British practice of handing senior roles to the aristocratic class. He was a different kind of general. During debriefing sessions after the Battle of Verdun, he compared the accounts of the senior officers with the junior officers to get a more accurate perspective.

He developed battle tactics utilizing

Stress

artillery in a new way which would preserve men at the expense of shells, rather than the other way around. He faced significant pushback, but he persevered and was proven correct.

Also, unlike the British generals, Currie informed every soldier, down to the lowest rank, about the plan of battle in the last hours before it began, so that they would know what the objective was even if they were the only remaining soldier in their unit.

Perhaps it was these qualities, combined with the opportunity to show they could do the impossible, that drove our young men that day? To single-handedly charge fortified artillery positions? If they found themselves the last man standing in their unit, to find another unit to join and continue the battle? They won the ridge in pretty much the time and losses Currie predicted.

Is this respect for the lowest member in a group a quality of Canadian leadership? To inform, as well as affirm, the wisdom of the individuals in the crowd? To value the individual, without losing sight of the goal? Perhaps it is just good leadership, and not particular to Canadians, but either way it was a very successful strategy.

France was grateful and, as a token of their appreciation, they gave Canada a portion of the battlefield in perpetuity. The magnificent Vimy memorial to

those brave men stands on that battlefield. It is a breathtaking sight and the purity of the white stone reaching up to the heavens, even while Canada mourns, is testament to the individuals who gave everything that day.

After the war, holding only a high school diploma, Currie went on to become vice-chancellor of McGill University and is credited with its revival. His story, his perseverance, should inspire every middle-aged person who wonders if they have anything to contribute after a failed career.

Perhaps the inner qualities of the soldiers, and the leadership qualities of Currie, can again can help us to solve the problems of today. The battles may be different, but I would guess, and hope, that the same outside-the box solutions, respect for even the “lowest” individual, and imaginative thinking, that the young men and Currie displayed are still Canadian qualities.

We certainly have enough problems to address. From Reconciliation to land-locked natural resources, from climate change to challenges of our freedom of speech, to political interference in our courts and media. One person alone cannot tackle everything, but perhaps if each one took on one problem with the same imagination and vigour as those heroes did, we could fulfill a destiny worthy of their sacrifice.

ENDLESS SUMMER REQUIRES PLANNING

This shall forever be known as The Summer of Childcare Organization and shall henceforth require many favours from families and friends.

It is with great sadness that we lost our steady babysitter last summer. It coincided with time off last year so we did not have to do the mad rush of planning camps and begging favours from everyone we know in order to have our kids in some form of childcare in the summer.

This summer, alas, we had to plan the summer with the precision of a military offensive. My husband and I planned our holiday weeks based on when we needed to be off with the kids. We have mixed day camps with grandparents and teens without jobs in order to be covered.

A planned session would generally look something like this: the two of us sitting around the table with a beverage in hand flipping calendar pages and counting weeks.

Conversation would be something like:

“Can you get this day off?”

“No, I can’t but I can get this day off.”

“OK, I’ll ask mom if she’s available.”

“Right, we need week one, week three, week five and seven for camps and mom and dad said we use them for week two, six and eight but we don’t have anything for week four so it looks like we’re taking a holiday.”

Back and forth and signing up for camps that make you pay in advance and, upon discovering that precious little tidbit, realizing that you cannot afford to put your kids in camps the whole summer because you will go broke.

But was does happen in The Summer of Childcare Organization is that you end up reminded how grateful you are to live in a community where your family is here and is

able to stay with your kids at the lake while you and your husband have to go back to work.

When your kids come back from a week of sunshine, rain, playing, eating and swimming all day, they are tired but extraordinarily happy. They came into town mid-week to refuel and they called me.

I asked them if they wanted to come home and if they missed me.

After a brief pause, my son said, “A little yes and a little no. I am having fun so it’s hard to choose.”

My daughter was a hard “No mama.” She did wish we were there but she wasn’t willing to stop having fun and who blames her.

This is what summers were like for me growing up here.

Often in the summer, my mom would take my brother and I to the lake with friends of ours during the week. When my dad was off work, he would come in the evenings and the weekends because he had to work but we stayed and played.

Swimming all day, exploring, eating junk and sleeping harder than ever. What a wonderful release from a long school year for them being able to just play.

How grateful I am so live here with these people in my life.

My deepest thanks to the village helping raise our children.

‘NEVER AGAIN’ REQUIRES US TO ACT

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a concentration camp as “a place where large numbers of people are kept as prisoners in extremely bad conditions, especially for political reasons.”

While no mention of Nazi Germany is made in this definition, names like Dachau and Auschwitz come to mind when we hear this term.

How did the world respond when we learned the truth of the Holocaust? We vowed “Never Again.”

We proclaimed that the deaths of millions of innocent people would not be in vain. We stated that we would hear the voices of survivors and make a world where human rights would be respected, regardless of a person’s ethnicity.

Yet so often have we ignored the most horrendous crimes against humanity. And we are doing it again.

Today, thousands of Latin American refugees are being detained in squalid and inhumane conditions at the United States border with Mexico. It is easy to blame U.S. President Donald Trump for this humanitarian crisis, but the causes are far more profound and the responsibility to love one’s neighbour is not unique to the American president.

People are fleeing the tropical paradise of Central America for good reason.

Centuries of political and economic exploitation have resulted in rampant crime and corruption.

El Salvador experienced decades of civil war as both sides of the conflict were being armed by opposing superpowers. Guatemala experienced geno-

LESSONS IN LEARNING

GERRY CHIDIAC

cide. The entire region has experienced the long-term impact of foreign interference. Today, El Salvador has the highest murder rate in the world, while murder and sexual violence are also rampant in Honduras and Guatemala.

Historically, Latin American immigration has been good for the American economy. Today, farmers are so desperate for workers that they are engaging prison populations. This too has ethical ramifications, reminding us of days when people were incarcerated for petty crimes in order to provide slave labour for industry.

United States regarding Latin American asylum seekers, an act that has been challenged by Amnesty International and several other human rights organizations.

There is actually a great deal that Canada can do to alleviate the suffering of our neighbours. The United Nations is asking us to take in more refugees. Many of the victims of violence are women and members of the LGBTQ community. There are thousands of families who fear returning home with their children. Yet our government refuses to intervene and our population is eerily silent.

Canadians have responded in the past. In the 1980s, we accepted roughly 16,000 refugees from Central America. These people adapted well to life in Canada. They learned French and English with relative ease, and are productive, taxpaying citizens today. Why wouldn’t we respond again, especially when our country is facing a growing shortage of both skilled and unskilled labourers?

In the 1930s, the government of Mackenzie King refused to allow Jewish immigrants into Canada. How different things might have been had we been able to see beyond our prejudices and fears. Have we learned nothing from history?

We do not have to simply watch in horror as our neighbours are detained in what can rightly be called concentration camps. Unlike many people in the world, Canadians are free to discuss the issue, post stories on social media and join with groups appealing for justice. We can also easily contact our elected officials and demand that our country respond to UN appeals to take in refugees. We can and we need to make a difference.

“Never again” is right now.

— Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com.

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It is very easy for Canadians to look south of our own border with horror and arrogance while we do nothing. We claim that this is an American issue. The fact of the matter is that Canada is not innocent. Canada is also guilty of political and economic interference in the region. We even signed the Safe Third Country Agreement with the

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NORTHERN ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES SHOWS

97/16 staff

The Northern Orchestra is staging its most ambitious season of music to date. The region’s premier community development ensemble has a Mainstage Series, a “Coffee Series” and a Special Event Series.

These performances are shared between Prince George and Vanderhoof.

“Next season will be truly special, and we have planned terrific concerts and a very special event, a concert with yours truly as soloist with the orchestra,” said the group’s founder and music director Gordon Lucas. “I’ll be playing Mozart’s Concert No. 3 and, in recital after intermission, with Maureen Nielsen on the piano, playing a bunch of showpieces by Wieinawski, Gershwin-Heifetz, Bloch, Sarasate and Novacek.”

The special focus on Lucas is not a vanity project, but rather an opportunity to capitalize on the novelty of this rare personal appearance in order to gather some extra funding for a good Northern Orchestra cause.

“I’ve not played a public solo concert in 20 years, or with our orchestra as soloist ever, and this will be my last solo performance in public, period,” Lucas said. “This is a special event concert (I am currently calling it a suicide mission, LOL) with a special admission price of $30, because it will be a fundraiser for our tour the following year.”

The productions in the upcoming 201920 season start on Oct. 26 and 27 with a Mainstage show featuring the works of Mozart, Beethoven and more.

The first of the Coffee Concerts happen on Nov. 16 with the Autumn quarter of

TRYING

AVivaldi’s The Four Seasons as the lead composition.

The next of the Coffee Concerts also has the next of the Vivaldi pieces, when Winter is played on Nov. 23.

On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 the Northern Orchestra showcases its first special event concert of the set when highlights from Handel’s Messiah will be their featured work, along with Corelli’s Concerto Grosso In G Minor (commonly known as the Christmas Concerto), and a selection of other Christmas music.

The Coffee Concert format returns on Feb. 8 with the orchestra playing the Spring corner of the Vivaldi masterpiece.

The final Vivaldi installment, Summer, happens on Feb. 22 in the final Coffee Concert.

The Lucas solo showcase happens on April 18-19.

The Northern Orchestra season’s finale takes place May 9-10 with the works of Strauss, Haydn, Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner, Gli Uccelli (The Birds) by Respighi, and more.

“It will be a grand season and we’re the best entertainment value in the region, so I’ll hopefully see you in the audience next year,” said Lucas, alluding to the price of admission.

Special Event ticket prices will be $20 ($12.50 seniors, students) at the door

for the Messiah showcase and $30 for the Gordon Lucas solo concert ($20 for seniors, students) at the door.

However, these shows are also included in the package if you buy a season’s pass. Those are $40 for adults, $30 for students/seniors, or a family pass for $110 to include two adults plus their children for the whole set of Northern Orchestra shows.

All Prince George shows will be held at the First Baptist Church. Vanderhoof venues are still to be announced (Coffee Concerts are confirmed for the Vanderhoof Lutheran Church).

For ticket and concert information, email Lucas at moltogordo@runbox.com.

TO EMERGE FROM THE SHADOWS

young doctor I know who wants to work in addictions medicine because of his dad, recently said that overdose deaths were good as they were a form of natural selection.

This morning, I read on a Facebook forum for mothers whose children are addicted to drugs that a nurse told a mom she was happy when drug addicts died as this meant they would not infect other people. This mom then posted a photo of her son, an addict; one in which he was three years old, just an innocent child.

People jump on bandwagons like this. They say people like me, a loved, decent human being, well respected in my professional life, are nothing but demons, the scourge of the earth. Many hard working, contributing people like me live in the shadows – you’d be surprised. There is a group of people in Kamloops, who meet weekly to be accountable in their work (a referral is needed). This group is comprised of doctors, nurses, people in safety

ASK AN ADDICT

sensitive positions (jobs which impact us in our daily living), lawyers, police officers, pharmacists and judges. They attend either because they are mandated or because they wish to voluntarily come.

Sadly, it is a fact that those who have to account to a supervisory body do much better in recovery. These are the people who don’t (or can’t) hide with the disease, they may have come voluntarily forward or they might have been caught.

I truly believe that if more people came forward and shared openly who they were, the disease would hold less stigma. By not being open, we addicts become like the boogymen who live under your bed. All nasty things are attributed to us.

Two well known addicts in Kamloops recently died of overdoses, they did wonderful things for us, they contributed a lot in their very short lives. One was a very accomplished national author, the other a high profile community member who started many charitable, volunteer activities which benefited many.

People were shocked, even angered with their deaths. In one, I recall reading in a Vancouver-based paper (he was that high profile) a letter to the editor – a person wrote about how this evil person should never have been allowed to do the work that he did (he had never met the man in question, only had read the story about this man had died). I only hope the deceased young man’s children never read that hurtful post.

You might ask why I don’t reveal myself if I feel so strongly about being visible in life. I don’t hide in my personal life. Many who know me know I live with the addictive disease. This truly helps in keeping

me accountable. Unfortunately, due to comments like those that I receive when I write this column, I cannot be public. Even the anger expressed at me by anonymous people has been incredibly harsh, considering the fact that all I am doing here is trying to make living amends, trying to help other people by sharing my tale.

One day, I will reveal who I am. I eventually want to write a book based upon experiences in my life. I recently read an excellent novel called Blackout: Remembering The Thing I Drank To Forget by Sara Hepola. It is a New York Times bestseller. I am envious of her. Envy always points me to what I want in my life.

Her book starts with nine pages of raving reviews. it shows that many want to know what we live. Even though I am met with hatred at times, this is what keeps me alive and gives me some hope. It is dream of mine which doesn’t involve the consumption of drugs.

97/16 file photo

Gordon Lucas conducts the Northern Orchestra in their presentation of From the Golden Age at the Prince George Playhouse in November 2011.

FRANK PEEBLES

Even as a former lifeguard, I nearly missed it. With my toddler’s hand in mine, I watched my friend’s child as he bobbed up and down in the hot tub. At three years old, my friend’s son had already taken swimming lessons and was comfortable in the water. But something seemed off.

“Hey, buddy, are you okay?” I called out. “Buddy?”

The boy didn’t answer. Heart racing, I hoisted my toddler in one arm and ran toward the water. I crouched down and used my free arm to scoop him onto the pool deck. Wide-eyed, he took a deep breath. I did, too. I looked around for his dad, who had been nearby moments earlier. What went wrong here?

Though drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages one to four, many parents inadvertently put young children at risk around water. Nearly every child rescue I made during six summers as a lifeguard startled a bewildered caretaker. With summer in full swing, families are congregating at their pools, the beach and more. How do parents prevent the unthinkable from occurring?

Sarah Denny believes parents need to start by honestly acknowledging that drowning is a threat to their children. Denny is lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Prevention of Drowning policy statement. “If your child has swimming lessons, don’t assume that they’re drown-proof; assume they need supervision,” she said. “Parents must be aware of the risks and take proper

precautions.”

In 2017, nearly 1,000 children died of drowning. Children ages 1-4 have the greatest risk of drowning, followed by teens age 10-19. And the risk is higher for boys, children of color and those

with special medical conditions, the AAP statement noted.

When I unpack what happened with my friend’s son, my friend and I both made assumptions about the boy’s swimming ability that blurred our judgment. At the time, we weren’t aware his age and sex put him at greater risk. Although AAP Bright Futures encourages pediatricians to discuss water safety during well visits, neither of us heard that from our children’s doctors.

Another misconception about drowning is that it’s loud and active, said William Ramos, a member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council. In reality, it’s quick and quiet. “About 30 to 60 seconds is about all it takes,” Ramos said. “The body goes into shock and all actions are made to attempt to keep the head above water… We do not see a lot of waving and calling for help.” A drowning person will bob in the water, but make no forward progress, he added.

(Recently, country star Granger Smith and his wife announced that their son, River, age three, drowned in moments at their home.)

As important as it is to identify drowning, Denny said it’s critical to know it happens both when children are expected to be around water and when they’re not expected to be around water. In fact, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 69 per cent of children younger than 5 were not expected to be at or in the pool at the time of a drowning incident.

To prevent drowning, Ramos points to the organization’s “Circle of Drowning Prevention”:

- Fence pools and spas with barriers, including four-sided fencing.

- Children, inexperienced swimmers and all boaters should wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets.

- Learn swimming and water-safety survival skills.

- Provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water.

- Always swim in a guarded area.

Denny adds that parents should never leave their child alone near standing water in the home (e.g., bathtubs, toilets, buckets of water) and outside of it (e.g., wading pools or puddles), which pose the greatest drowning threat to children younger than 1.

Furthermore, if you own a pool or vacation someplace with a pool, barriers are paramount, Denny said. The AAP recommends four-sided fencing with a minimum height of four feet and selfclosing, self-latching gates. At non-swim times, doors facing water should be shut and locked. Ramos also suggests checking the pool’s water clarity and ensuring its drain is visible.

Swimming in guarded areas adds another layer of protection. However, “the supervising rules still apply when you’re in a guarded area,” Ramos noted. “Parents should see themselves as part of a safety team keeping their children safe.” Even in shallow water, close supervision is required. Jeff Ellis & Associates, a water safety consulting firm that, among other things, trains lifeguards, found that 75 percent of its lifeguards’ saves took place in shallow water (5 feet or less) for the past eight years.

When visiting open water like the beach, Ramos advises parents to be proactive and research challenges unique to that environment (e.g., riptides), and know what to do in the event of a drowning emergency.

Evidence shows kids between one and four can benefit from swim lessons, according to Denny. Conversely, “there’s some data that parents have a false sense of security,” she said. Be sure “in swimming lessons you’re getting feedback on what your child realistically is capable of.”

When preparing for a play date, Hughes suggests that in the same way parents ask other parents if kids are going to be around guns, they should also ask about water. “Water is a threat… We don’t treat it with respect,” Hughes said. “We have to change how we approach it.”

Washinghton Post photo Rowdy Gaines, three-time Olympic gold medal swimmer, teaches safe swimming to Kai Robinson, 7, as summer camp students look on at the Eatonville, Fla. Community Pool on June 10 as part of the ZAC Foundation watersafety initiative.

HOW TO HAVE THE WORST SUMMER VACATION EVER

NATALIE B. COMPTON

The Washington Post

If you do a quick web search for Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park, you’ll get endless results of a natural wonder. Empty pathways snake over emerald waters, surrounded by rambling foliage. The occasional photo shows a traveler or three lingering by the lakes, enjoying the place practically to themselves.

In 2010, I was not that traveler enjoying the place to myself. I was smashed in line with so many other tourists that it felt like a Croatian cattle call. We stayed on a packed tourist conveyor belt through the park, taking photos that attempted to crop out other people and signs with messages like “Do not touch the water.” Once my family reached the other side of the park, we wondered whether the experience had been worth it.

No one wants to spend their hardearned vacation stuck in a tourist assembly line, but there are many ways to end up there. One minute you’re excited to be visiting an iconic point of interest, and the next you’re stuck staring at the commemorative T-shirt on the tourist in front of you, wondering why you came at all.

It’s easy to have a terrible summer vacation. Here’s exactly how.

• Book a trip through the most hectic airports and show up late Summertime travel madness begins at the airport. Although airline travel is up because airlines are adding more seats, those extra seats aren’t necessarily leading to longer wait times at the airport, according to Michael Boyd, president and co-founder of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting and research firm. The main factor that may slow down the line at airport security is who is in the queue. The big difference around holiday travel and regular travel is that you’re dealing with different flying clientele.

“There are fewer business travelers and more leisure travelers,” Boyd says. “You get the, ‘What do you mean, I can’t bring my Swiss Army knife on the airplane?’ people. That gums things up.” Boyd notes that two U.S. airports in particular might be more congested than others during summer travel periods: Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) and Orlando, Florida’s (MCO). Atlanta’s gets clogged because of its layout, as well as the huge number of flights running through daily, while Orlando’s can be swarmed by Disney tourists.

“In Orlando, it’s kids. And it’s people who don’t travel a lot because they’re down there to see Mickey Mouse,” Boyd says. “That does slow things down.”

• Pick the most popular time of the year to experience Disney World So what about when you get out of the Orlando airport and head to Disney World? Is summer the worst time to go to the park?

“Late summer is generally better than early summer,” says Disney expert Laura Begley Bloom, chief content officer of FamilyTraveller.com. “There can be times in the summer when it is quieter. Early August is usually a good time.”

She suggests looking at hotel and plane ticket prices to determine when crowding will hit. To fill empty beds and seats in slower periods, companies will drop room and ticket fares to incentivize travelers to book at off-peak times. The lower the price, the fewer people jockeying for places in line at the Matterhorn.

Passengers wait to check in at Gatwick Airport near London on Dec. 21, 2018.

This year will be particularly busy, thanks to the arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, now open at Disneyland in California and opening at Walt Disney World, in Orlando, in August. Bloom’s move is to use FastPass+ strategically. Know that lines to enter the parks and lines for the rides will be the shortest in the early part of the day.

You can also break up your visit into shifts. “Another smart idea is to get there early, leave the parks during the middle of the day for a break back at your resort, then come back in the late afternoon or early evening,” Bloom says. “The only caveat is that if you are there during a time of extreme overcrowding, you might have a hard time getting back in until much later.”

Sometimes that extreme overcrowding can lead to the parks closing temporarily. Bloom says Disney has procedures to close the parks in phases when attendance gets near capacity.

“The Magic Kingdom is the most popular and typically the first to close,” Bloom says. “Once it does, the other parks are usually not far behind, though Epcot closes less frequently than Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney’s two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, have also been known to reach capacity.”

Don’t panic if this happens. The closings shouldn’t last all day. Bloom says that as guests leave the park, more are allowed to enter. To avoid a full-family freakout, buy a park-hopper ticket at Walt Disney World so you have the option of going to a less-crowded park should one (or more) temporarily close.

• Opt for obvious attractions in famous cities

Lines aren’t only a Disney problem. You’ll run into them if you head to Paris, too.

Paris is a popular travel destination year-round, but it truly sees a surge in tourism during the summer months. And while Parisians tend to leave town during this time for their own vacations, it doesn’t result in a perfect balance.

The Louvre - the world’s most popular museum - has become so overwhelmed that its employees went on strike.

“Waiting times and long lines are a nightmare and a real issue we - the tourism board, Paris City Hall and the cultural sites - want to avoid and to fight,” says Veronique Potelet, press and public relations manager at the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The city is working on promoting activities that are off the beaten path and developing hotels in outer arrondissements to guide visitors away from the center of the city. It’s an attempt to help travelers “discover a Paris less cliche and more authentic, the one that the Parisians have the chance to live in daily,” Potelet says.

New York is working with a similar goal. Like in Paris, more locals leave the city during the summer, offering room for tourists. That may help with subway traffic, but you’re still going to run into trouble if you’re headed to the Empire State Building.

Approach New York’s attractions in a different way, suggests Chris Heywood, executive vice president of NYC & Co. Hot spots this summer will be the High Line, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vessel at Hudson Yards. You don’t have to skip them - just plan accordingly. Heywood recommends getting to the High Line early or late in the day to avoid most of its visitors and to the Empire State Building very late at night (it’s open until 2 a.m.). He also recommends booking your ticket to Vessel well in advance. Try visiting the Met’s other sites, not only the museum on Fifth Avenue.

And after you hit up your standard must-see spots, get out of the city centre.

“Some people think of New York as Manhattan only, and that’s a shame,” Heywood says. His picks for alternative exploration include Little Italy in the Bronx, Chinatown in Flushing, Corona Park and Rockaway Beach, a surf spot 50 minutes from Manhattan by train.

To avoid the worst summer vacation, take advantage of appropriate loopholes. In most cases, flexibility with timing can alleviate a lot of the pressure and make all of the difference. Don’t show up to the Eiffel Tower or Tate Modern at noon on a Saturday. Book the afternoon slot at Machu Picchu. Save supervisited destinations for off-peak parts of the year altogether if your schedule allows it. And above all else, get to the airport ahead of schedule - if only for the peace of mind.

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AROUND TOWN

Beastly Beauty

July 11-27

Judy Russell Presents brings incredibly popular musical theatre show Beauty & The Beast to the Prince George Playhouse stage for 15 shows. See the best of the city’s homegrown stage talent and the storytelling power of Disney in a live summer blockbuster. Get tickets at all Central Interior Tickets platforms.

Jordan ‘n’ Wine

July 11

Prince George’s popular singer-songwriter Theresa Jordan is in the music spotlight at Northern Lights Estate Winery. Her free solo appearance runs 6-8 p.m.

DOA Alive

July 12

DOA is returning to Prince George. The iconic punk band, a natural treasure of Canadian counterculture, will be at The Legion along with local openers Children Of The Wave. Tickets are $15 in advance (at Handsome Cabin Boy Tattoo) or $20 at the door, while supplies last.

Goodwin Sings

July 12

Singer-songwriter Chris Goodwin is the featured artist at the Oakroom Grill for a free performance from 8-10 p.m.

CrossRoads Music

the

July 13 The Chris Buck Band is the headliner, with opening acts Bralorne, SubTotal at the July edition of the CrossRoads Street

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Festival Series. These fun and safe adultoriented evenings will feature local craft beer, street food, outdoor party games and live music. This is a ticketed event for those 19+. The daytime all-ages street recreation event goes 10-3 for free, with a focus on the themes of motorsports, motocross and jetboating. Contact CrossRoads for more info. It’s all at 5th and George.

Downtown Summerfest

July 14

Downtown Prince George’s signature event in the summertime is a celebration of food, entertainment and activities for the whole family. Live music, merchant booths, arts and culture displays and much more make this a day to circle on the calendar, headlined by the popular food pavilion. The extravaganza runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Canada Games Plaza.

Green Crafts

July 17

REAPS offers a set of courses for kids that shows how common household items and discarded things can be given new life through the fun art of green crafting. Their “Go For Green Crafts” workshop runs 1-4 p.m. for four days. Two crafts every day, all for free.

Writer’s Workshop

July 18

Internationally renowned Canadian writer George Elliott Clarke will teach the writing craft at Island Mountain Arts in Wells. He’s calling his seminar Rooting Deep And Branching Out: Seeding The Poetic Imagination. Class size is limited to 10 seats for the four days.

Storytime

July 18

Small children have a storytime all their own, outside at the public library.

The Knowledge Garden is the place for gathering around for a good yarn and a song or two. It runs for 30 minutes every summer Thursday from 10:15 a.m., free of charge. It is aimed at kids up to five or six years old. It is the companion to the indoor storytime at the downtown library every Tuesday at the same time.

Writers Stage

July 18

Books & Company is the site for an open mic for writers. Whether you are aspiring or established, if you have a story to share, come join the live readings and performances of literary works from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Free to participate, free to attend.

Electronic Fest

July 19-21

The Mountain Valley Music Festival holds its debut weekend, celebrating electronic music and art. It happens at Crescent Spur near McBride. Prices range from $30-$150. Two stages of deejays, producers, rappers and rockers, all with the amphitheatre of the Robson Valley’s sharp peaks to enhance the sounds and sights. Get tickets on the www.showpass. com website.

Huble For Kids

July 20

Huble Homestead Historic Site hosts their annual Kids’ Carnival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a pioneer blast of activities for children and all ages. Enjoy magic shows with William The Conjurer, take part in games and races, try your hand at crafts with Two Rivers Art Gallery, and play carnival games with guaranteed prizes. There is a treasure hunt, food, and all the sights and activities that always makes Huble a pleasant drive north of the city. Admission is by donation, with a recommended amount of $10 per family.

97/16 file photo Christine Zammic from the Prince George Public Library tells a story in the Knowledge Garden druing storytime in

garden in July 2016.

AROUND TOWN

Thousands of people made their way to Canada Games Plaza last July to take part in Downtown Summerfest 2018.

Sky Movie

July 20

Northern Lights Estate Winery will show a Movie Under The Stars (doors at 9, show at 10 p.m.). The film for the whole family is Grease. Admission is $17 ($15 for Wine Club members). Book Aug. 23 (Dirty Dancing) and Sept. 20 (Blair Witch Project) for other nighttime films at the city’s vintner. Seating is available, but feel free to bring the comfort of your own chairs or blankets. Concession, wine and beer are all available. Children are welcome.

Penny Days

July 20-21

For two days of railroad community fun, come celebrate the little town east of PG that emblemizes the rail and forest pioneering past of this region. The Railway & Forestry Museum is the host of this extravaganza, at the actual Penny Station that now sits on their grounds. Tour the Museum, hop onto the Cottonwood Mini-Train and learn about the onsite Heritage Gardens. Enjoy local artisan demonstrations such as blacksmithing, wood-turning and wool-spinning and visit Penny Market with local vendors. At scheduled times during the event, there will be speakers and musicians for entertainment. The R&F Museum’s oldfashioned concession will take care of your culinary well-being.

Live Stagg

July 24

Popular local painter Erin Stagg will set up her easel at Café Voltaire from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a live painting demonstration that is part instructive and part entertaining. “Come watch Erin bop to tunes and create a painting start to finish. It’s magical,” said organizers. “Erin Stagg is best known for her diverse range of colourful acrylic and oil paintings. Her style ranges from thoughtful, such as her Flora and Fauna collection to light-hearted and comical, like her Yoga animal collection.” Free to attend. Enjoy the food and browse the shelves at Books & Company.

Subtotal

July 26

At 8 p.m. hear the rock stylings of the band Subtotal. Strong local musicians Roman Kozlowski, Mike Howe and Brad Martin are excited to be back playing at the Oakroom Grill. Have dinner or enjoy a drink while they play some great cover and original tunes for you. No cover charge.

Sewing Up Theatre

Registration is now open for Sewing For Young Children and for Sewing CampsBeginners, a pair of fiber art summer programs for youngsters being offered by the costume department at Theatre

July 19 – October 6

Northwest. The Sewing For Young Children classes run July 2-5 with options for morning (9 a.m. start) or afternoon (1:30 p.m. start). This class is designed for young children with an interest in learning to sew, ideal ages 8-10 years old. The class consists of 3 hours per day for 4 days.

The Sewing Camps-Beginners program runs July 22-26 afternoons only starting each day at 1:30. The ideal ages are 1015 years (as young as 8 for experienced kids) with no experience necessary. It runs three hours per day, producing a project each day.

Sign up at the Theatre Northwest website.

Walking Tours

Tuesdays and Thursdays, take an interesting trip through the city’s core. Meet in the main lobby of the Bob Harkins Branch for a guided tour of Prince George’s fascinating historic sites. Done in partnership with The Heritage Commission and The Exploration Place.

Red Green

Sept. 26

He’s colourful in name and deed. Red Green is the bumbling but pleasantly practical TV fix-it man, the clown prince of duct tape, the sage of the man-shed. This Canadian comedy icon is coming to Vanier Hall on his Red Green-This Could

Be It Tour. His PG shows are always a sell-out. Get tickets at the TicketsNorth website/box office.

Patrick, Scott & Tessa

Oct. 12

During last year’s sold out Thank You Canada tour, it was clear to figure skating superstars, Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir and Patrick Chan, that they were far from done creating and developing a new style of skating entertainment. They and some special guest performers come back to CN Centre to show the Prince George fans what they’ve come up with next. Rock The Rink is the first edition of an annual tour that focuses on being more than a figure skating show. Combining the highest level of on-ice superstar talent with an ever-evolving touring production, Rock The Rink will produce the highest value of entertainment in the figure skating realm. This year – along with upgrades to lighting, video and interactive technology – live music will be introduced to the show, with featured special musical guest, Birds of Bellwoods.

Burton, Live

Oct. 18

Canada’s piano man, the Guess Who’s epic vocalist, the only artist inducted into the nation’s music Hall of Fame for both his band and his solo career, the incomparable Burton Cummings is coming to P.G. He was the power voice propelling American Woman, These Eyes, No Time, Clap For The Wolfman and many other hits of the groundbreaking band The Guess Who, but then when he went solo he continued the multi-platinum success with I Will Sing A Rhapsody, Stand Tall, My Own Way To Rock, Fine State Of Affairs, You Saved My Soul, Break It To Them Gently, and more besides.

Cummings will be solo at the piano at Vanier Hall. Tickets are on sale now through all TicketsNorth platforms.

World Curling

March 14 start

Don’t let the date fool you. The event may be in 2020 but the plans are underway now and the tickets are on sale for this Prince George groundbreaker. P.G. goes global as the host of the World Women’s Curling Championships starting. Get your tickets now, and spread the word to friends and family everywhere that this is the time to come spend some Prince George time, and get a close, personal view of the world-class action the rest of the winter sports community will only get to see on TV. Oh yeah, and there’s also the great social side of curling – there’ll be no bigger party in Canada. Contact Tickets North for tickets and info.

Opening Night · Thur · July 18 · 7:30pm

Opening Remarks | Lheidli T’enneh Men’s Drum Group Mike Schubert | Emily Dundas Oke – Performance

Opening Nights are free, all are welcome. Please join us.

Please be aware that some of the artworks in this exhibition may provoke emotional experiences. 725 Canada Games Way TwoRiversGallery.ca

What is a galaxy?

A galaxy is a group of stars held together by gravity.

Some stars in a galaxy have planets orbiting them. These are called solar systems

The earth is part of a solar system of planets that orbit our sun. Our solar system is in a galaxy called the Milky Way

Types of Galaxies

An Elliptical Galaxy is smooth and oval shaped. it look like a pinwheel. that isn’t spiral or oval. It has an irregular shape and looks like a blob.

Stories

Use the Kid Scoop Secret Decoder Ring to discover the name of this book by Fran Hodgkins and Mike Taylor, which is available at the library.

Way

Around the world, there are many legends about the Milky Way. Follow the maze to discover what some cultures saw in the Milky Way. A-maze-ing

We live in the galaxy called the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a spiral-shaped galaxy and is estimated to be made up of around 300 billion stars.

Cut out the sentence fragments below and paste them to another sheet of paper in the correct order to reveal an interesting fact about our galaxy.

Night sky photography by Mike Taylor and NASA images of the births and deaths of stars and galaxies help tell the story of the Milky Way along with details about stars, planets, nebulae, super novae and more.

The word galaxy comes from the Greek word for “milky.”

The closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda, which is around 2.6 million light years away from us.

To discover the name of this book, find the letter on the outer ring, then replace it with the letter below it on the inner ring.

Hold this page up to a mirror to learn a couple of amazing facts about our

The sun travels at over 600,000 miles per hour. It takes the sun 225 million years to go completely around the galaxy.

Shapes in the Newspaper

Triangle Look through the newspaper for the following shapes:

Find the words in the puzzle. How many of them can you find on this page?

D C T

K T O G T D

A P V P I N

Keeping a daily journal of what you do all summer is a good way to keep your writing skills sharp.

Here’s a great summer tip from Reading Rockets. List on a piece of paper some ideas for Summer Journal entries. The list could include ideas, memories, wishes or questions. Cut these out and place in a clean jar. Pull one out per day and use the heading to write a journal entry.

Write down your favorite summer jokes and riddles and tell them to your friends. Mail some jokes to a family member who lives far away.

© 2019 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 32

MAKE SOME CHOCOLATE PUDDING POPS

ELLIE KRIEGER Special

No matter how old I get, I will always have a childlike enchantment with summer and all its joys: jumping waves in the ocean, biking around town, biting into big wedges of watermelon, watching the fireflies come out at dusk.

One of those pleasures is the refreshment of a frosty popsicle on a hot afternoon. I remember my mom used to put orange juice into paper cup pop molds and freeze them for us, and I loved those. But it was the occasional splurge on the package of chocolate pops that really excited me.

This recipe taps that same summertime thrill in a way that is fairly healthful, as desserts go, since it is made with low-fat milk (or plant milk), minimal added sugar and dark chocolate. The chocolate mixture is essentially a simple pudding (albeit somewhat thinner than a typical pudding) that is poured into pop molds. Once frozen, they come out creamy, icy and refreshing, amply rich with the intensity of good dark chocolate, and clock in at just 100 calories apiece. Although enjoying one in the shade on a sweltering day brings me right back to my childhood, they taste so much better than the store-bought ones I remember, and they make me glad I’m all grown up.

CHOCOLATE PUDDING POPS

8 servings (makes 8 popsicles)

This is a sweet treat you can feel good about serving. Dairy milk is called for, but a plant-based milk can be substituted.

You will need eight 2-ounce popsicle molds or small paper cups and popsicle (craft) sticks.

Make Ahead: The pops need to set up in the freezer until solid, about 6 hours.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 cups cold, low-fat (1-percent) milk, or unsweetened plant-based milk such as coconut, almond or oat

2 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (about 60% cocoa solids), finely chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

STEPS

Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Set the saucepan over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is gently bubbling and thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low; continue to cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until it has melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the salt until well incorporated.

Distribute the mixture evenly among your popsicle molds or small paper cups and place in the freezer. If using paper cups, place a popsicle stick in the center when the mixture is frozen enough for the stick to stand up straight, about 1 hour. Allow to freeze completely, about 6 hours.

Nutrition | Per serving: 100 calories, 3 g protein, 15 g carbohydrates, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 12 g sugar

(From nutritionist and cookbook author Ellie Krieger.)

SET LIMITS ON IN-LAWS FOR VACATION TIME WITH THE GRANDKIDS

ELLIE KRIEGER

Special To The Washington Post

QMy

husband’s mother believes she is going to continue the tradition of taking our kids (five and seven) for several weeks every summer, as my husband did as a kid with his grandparents. But they lived in the country with nature to explore. My mother-in-law lives in a suburb and loves shopping, restaurants and movies. I know she loves her grandkids and I have no problem with visits, but I don’t see this idyllic summer-with-grandparents thing working out. I don’t want to hurt her, but there are a lot of better options and camps for my kids to do during the summer. My husband is very passive about talking to her about this.

AThe important themes here are kindness, love and tradition - so prioritize those as you establish new expectations. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for her to adjust. Express gratitude for her offer and for her desire to be part of their lives, and talk with your husband about possibilities for a special tradition that stops short of becoming Summer of the Mall. Maybe it’s just one week? Maybe they take a special vacation together at a different locale? Maybe you find some particular experiences near her that meet your needs: zoo, nature centre, museum or pool memberships? Then, suggest. “We’re excited to continue the special grandparent-grandkid bond that’s been so important in this family. Since schedules and circumstances are different this time around, here is what we had in mind for you and our kids. We know they’d have a blast with you.”

QMy35-year-old son has recently put on quite a bit of weight, and my husband and I are at odds about whether we should bring it up. He feels strongly that, because obesity and heart issues run in his family, we need to alert our son to the potential seriousness of this and help him get back on track. I feel like of course our son knows this, and it will only make him more ashamed and upset. He’s a grown man and our job is just to love him.

AI lean much more toward your side. Assuming he’s not totally in the dark about his specific genetic risks, I agree it’s doubtful there’s some special insight about weight or health that he doesn’t already know. That said, I don’t think total silence is necessary either. Significant weight gain could have not just troubling effects, but troubling causes too. Might he be depressed? Have a hormonal imbalance? Be sleeping poorly? There’s a sweet spot between the semi-critical nature of “You’ve put on weight and we’re concerned” and the vague dancing-around of “Is everything OK?” I won’t put those words in your mouth (for once!), but they will come to you when you establish a loving, listening conversation about how things are truly going in his life. Chances are, there’s something behind the weight gain. Be empathetic and loving as you try to figure out what it is.

— Andrea is a clinical psychologist who writes a weekly relationships advice column in The Washington Post