Dying the storm
Maddy Watt, 14, looks over her piece
Arashi is the Japanese word for storm and the
arashi on July 29.
Man killed in standoff a ‘ticking time bomb’ inquest hears
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A sister of a man who was shot and killed in a standoff with police at a remote cabin south of Valemount described him as a “ticking time bomb” with a “history of violence,” a coroner’s inquest into his death heard Monday.
A recording of a phone call Theresa Hebert made to police was played to a seven-person jury appointed to hear evidence and make recommendations related to the Sept. 17, 2014 death of John Robert Buehler, 51.
Buehler and his then 21-yearold daughter, Shanna, had been found squatting in the cabin near Kinbasket Lake about 120 kilometres south of Valemount. By then, the two were known to the RCMP from a June 19, 2017 incident.
With six German shepherd dogs in tow, they had set up camp at a recreation area south of Valemount but, according to an agreed statement of facts entered during a court proceeding for his daughter, got into a conflict with some local people who were being prevented from using the nearby trails.
When RCMP showed up, Buehler used the dogs as a shield and refused to leave the property for several hours. Conversely, Shanna Buehler cooperated with police, yelling at her father to give himself up.
Ultimately, her father did give himself up and the dogs were seized, as were several firearms, an unlicensed handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
When Hebert heard the news she called the Valemount RCMP to warn police about what he was like.
“He is a risk to everyone,” a
frantic-sounding Hebert said in the recording.
“My brother, John, for his whole life has had a history of violence.”
While growing up in Alberta, Hebert said she and her siblings were all subjected to his violence and anger but the trouble really began to escalated when their father died in May 2009.
“It’s like something snapped in him and he’s like ‘I’m the patriarch, I’m the father of the family,’”
Hebert said. She said he managed to “swindle” about $40,000 out of his mother and left for parts unknown.
Among his last words to the family were that God had made him a preacher and that they were all devils and he needed to purge himself of them. By then, Buehler was divorced and had convinced his daughter to join him in moving to B.C., using the German shepherd puppies he was raising as leverage.
While the family had a hunch they had moved to the JasperValemount area, they hadn’t heard from them for three years. Following his arrest, Buehler was subsequently released on an undertaking and was to appear in court on Sept. 4, 2017.
But Hebert, who had called Valemount RCMP on July 23, 2017, predicted that was not going to happen.
“There is no way that I believe he is going to show up for that court date,” she said.
Buehler was indeed a no show and surfaced once again when the owner of the cabin showed up to find it had been occupied and the locks had been changed. By then Buehler had become a “prepper” and was stockpiling items for what he believed would soon be a reckoning by God.
Asked by the Valemount RCMP
officer she had been talking to if he ever received help for mental health issues, Hebert said his mother once had “forced the issue” and told him to get help. Buehler was subsequently diagnosed with manic depression, but he refused to take any of the medication prescribed to him.
Buehler was an avid hunter and expert marksman, Hebert also warned police.
“He’s like a ticking time bomb,” she said.
Earlier in the day, forensic pathologist James Stephen said Buehler was hit by six bullets during the confrontation with police, two of which pierced his heart while a handful of other vital organs were also struck.
Shanna Buehler was hit three times and one of the bullets went through her lung and struck her liver. But thanks to quick action by the RCMP, she survived, the court was told during the subsequent court hearing for her. Described as a victim of a violent and abusive father who dragged her into very difficult and tragic situation, she was issued a conditional discharge in November 2017.
And in October 2016, Crown counsel decided to not pursue criminal charges against members of the RCMP emergency response team involved in the standoff at the cabin after reviewing the findings provided by the Independent Investigations Office.
The inquest began Monday at the Prince George courthouse and is scheduled to last seven days and hear from 28 witnesses, most of them RCMP officers involved in either of the two standoffs.
Shanna Buehler is not on the witness list.
The jury will be asked to make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
Some of the nine cats found trapped inside plastic storage containers on a vacant property eat at the BC SPCA. The cats were trapped inside the storage bins for days without food or water.
Cats found abandoned in plastic storage bins
Citizen staff
The BC SPCA is caring for nine cats who were found trapped inside storage bins left outside on a vacant property in Prince George.
The SPCA’s North Cariboo and District animal centre services manager Alex Schare said they received a call from the property manager who heard the animals meowing from inside the bins and had taken them to the vet. The cats had been trapped in these containers for days without food or water while breathing through air holes punched in the lid. Several cats scored only one on the body condition scale of one to nine. There are two kittens and seven adult cats three years old and younger.
“These cats were starving, and matted with feces and urine. Some of the adult cats would not have lived much longer and will require a refeeding plan to slowly reintroduce their bodies to food,” said Schare. The cats were so badly matted that their fur had to be shaved.
“Despite everything they have been through, all of the cats are vocal and friendly,” he said.
As the property was vacant at the time and the cats were found outside it is not known who is responsible.
Anyone with information about these cats is asked to please call the BC SPCA’s toll-free hotline at 1-855-622-7722.
The total cost of caring for these cats is expected to reach $3,024. To help these cats, go to spca.bc.ca/medicalemergency.
Beauty & The Beast a beauty of a show
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
If you think you should see Beauty & The Beast at the P.G. Playhouse, you ‘guest’ right. So be their guest, be their guest, be their guest and don’t miss out on a production that’s really ringing this city’s Belle.
Let’s start there, shall we – with Belle. No production of Beauty & The Beast would be able to qualify without a talented frontwoman in the lead role. There are versions of Beauty & The Beast done all over the world every year, and every director in every location wishes they had Kelsey Jewesson to anchor their event. She’s all Prince George’s. The P.G. stage star can sing, dance, act, and command a spotlight. It’s beyond getting the job done, and gets into how I’m ever going to see Belle again and not wish it were Kelsey instead. She is the Belle every steeple wishes they could ring.
Some versions of Beauty & The Beast could stop there and still feel OK charging money for tickets, but director Judy Russell had much more to work with. There isn’t a weak link in this chain, not a sour berry in this buffet of sights and songs.
For the pivotal role of Lumiere (Disney got the quintessential Jerry Orbach to do it in the animated film version), Russell had two aces up her sleeve. Not only is Nigel McInnis a full theatre professional with well developed stage charisma, he also played the part once before when Excalibur Theatre Arts staged it 12 years ago. He may only look like a couple of
candles, but McInnis was dynamite. He ignited the sensational number Be Our Guest, but he also carried many a scene inside the enchanted castle.
Another couple of comedically gifted actors with strong timing and confident grasp of character were the hysterically funny Bradley Charles in the role of LeFou (his performance was dominant during the showstopping song Gaston) and Franco Celli as Cogsworth. These are sometimes the roles that go to actors more eager than studied, but in the hands of Charles and Celli, the show was instead a breakthrough.
Even what one might call
smaller roles were filled by actors who didn’t show a crack, even when the name was Chip. The little teacup was performed by alternating child actors Andrew Lee and Addison Liu and both are interchangeably cute and already showing their talent.
Kathy Pereira was hot as Mrs. Potts, Catherine Higgins was oooo la la as Babette, Andrew Russell was dark as Monsieur D’Arque, Gary Chappel was paternally evocative as Maurice, and Sharon MacDermott will blow your drawers off as Madame de la Grande Bouche.
No Beauty & The Beast would be complete without the two leading
men of the cast. Both are louts and insufferable, possessive, violent bullies at the beginning. One of them, Gaston, embraces this personality with beer-swilling gusto. Matt Russell is such a flexible actor he owns this part, and he definitely puts the flex in flexible. We have seen him many times before in local productions, and he is always an asset to any show. Making other choices, and changing with the input of new information and experiences, is The Beast.
Demonstrating the hope for male humanity is this ghastly creature inside we men that can, with the right guidance, come out
to shine and be an egalitarian ally of women, employees, the elderly – gosh, who else does he initially torment.
It’s a role that demands nuanced acting, not to mention a rich baritone singing voice. For that, the city gets the surprise of Jon Russell. This is the best singing in Prince George that Prince George has never heard before. He has been in many past productions, but this was an especially prominent role, and he unfurls a voice we in the audience have never been treated to until now. It is a diamond in this glittering showcase of local talent that would sell just as many tickets were they to uproot this show to any other city in Canada.
It’s worth noting that the sets are also a ballet of structure. The designers have triumphed in the way walls and staircases swing and unfold to reveal different facades depending on the scene.
There are also special effects to marvel at, like a silent film clip projected onto a wall, and most notably like the transformation scene that will leave you stunned and amazed as The Beast becomes The Prince in a tempest of shadows and light. In so-doing he bucks the Disney trend.
Instead of the princess coveting the handsome prince, here we have the ultra-male prince striving for the love of someone known especially for her individual and nonconformist traits.
Beauty & The Beast is on at the Prince George Playhouse until July 27. Tickets are being snapped up quickly from Central Interior Tickets outlets.
Prince George court docket
From Prince George provincial court, July 8-11, 2019:
• Michael Bradley Schulte (born 1983) was sentenced to 18 months probation, issued a five-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and uttering threats and to zero days for two counts of breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Schulte was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.
• Glenn Robert Kyle (born 1963) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Jessie Scott Ferris (born 1992) was sentenced to four months in jail and two years probation for five counts of committing an indecent act in a public place. Ferris was in custody for 22 days prior to sentencing.
• Georgina Anne West (born 1979) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for theft $5,000 or under and prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 for
driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08. West was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Kevin James Monk (born 1980) was sentenced to 50 days in jail for breaching his conditional sentence order and to zero days for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
• Jason Robert Jervis Clarke (born 1991) was fined $750 plus a $112.50 victim surcharge for displaying altered number plate under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Tamara Erika Courtoureille (born 1994) was sentenced to one year probation for breaching probation and breaching a recognizance, both committed in Dawson Creek.
• Christopher Marshall Long (born 1968) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Joseph Ray Alcock (born 1980) was sentenced to one year probation for possessing stolen property under $5,000 and to zero days for failing to appear in court. Alcock was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The cast of Judy Russel’s production of Beauty & The Beast runs until July 27 at the P.G. Playhouse.
Local entrepreneur providing commemorative balls for tourney
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
B.C.’s top 15U baseball players are about to have a ball in Prince George.
This city is the host of the 2019 BC Minor Baseball Association’s AA provincial tournament from Aug. 1-5 at the Nechako Park Fields (3303 North Nechako Road). The players are aged 14 and 15 (some variation depending on birthday), all able to play talented baseball and conscious of the surroundings when they visit a new place. It is an influx of some of the top teenaged baseball players in B.C. More than 70 players will square off for provincial gold, but the competitive nature of this tournament is offset by sportsmanship and camaraderie.
One of those elements is the keepsake each player will get to take home from Prince George when the tournament is finished, thanks to the local host committee. Each athlete will received a baseball with the letters MVP stitched into the leather, a handmade gift unavailable from any factory. Each one was personally made by a local entrepreneur who supplies these unique items to the whole continent.
Terry Collins said that she once saw commemorative baseballs given as gifts, but the custom lettering was a vinyl overlay. She grew up the daughter of a professional embroiderer and had inherited her late mother’s stitching machine. She knew she could do something better than a glorified sticker.
“I stole one of Lyle’s baseballs (her husband, Lyle Boutin, is a noted local player and coach) and took it apart to see how it was made, and how it might go back together again,” said Collins.
“It all worked. The machine can easily stitch through the leather, and it just means I have to hand-stitch the covers back on when I’m done.”
She started making them for her son Colton’s team. They were a hit – a conversation piece that took off. Someone suggested she look at selling this service on the Etsy website. Collins had never heard of it, so after some quick research she understood the possibilities.
Collins now gets orders from all over North America for small batches of commemorative custom embroidery on baseballs. Some have a player’s name, some
have topical words like Most Sportsmanlike or Best Coach. This set of 72 is the largest single order she’s ever done, and it was for her hometown youth baseball association.
She is also the volunteer uniform manager for PGYBA, baseball is close to her heart, but she hadn’t imagined doing anything for the 15U provincials beyond arranging the outfits for the Prince George Knights all-star team, as per usual.
When the organizing committee came to her asking if she was available to make
special keepsakes for all the players coming from across the province, she couldn’t say no. She has budgeted how many she must do per day to complete the order, and she is sticking to it with military commitment.
“This is just a hobby, really, and it helps pay my vacation fund,” she said. “I do it because I know people really like them and nobody else is doing it, and it keeps my hands busy when I can’t sit still.”
Collins’ business can be found on Etsy under her business name Wall Of Thread.
Warm weather may bring algae blooms
Citizen staff
Keep an eye out for blue-green algae if you’re at a lake this summer – it’s something you will want to avoid, according to Northern Health.
With the warming weather blooms of the algae may appear. It can look like scum, grass clippings, fuzz or globs on the surface of water and often smells musty or grassy. And it can take on a variety of hues – blue-green, greenishbrown, brown, or pinkish-red.
Coming into contact with the stuff, by either drinking the water or swimming in the lake, can have consequences, such as skin irritation, rash, sore throat, sore red eyes, swollen lips, fever, nausea and vomiting or diarrhea.
“Weather and wind conditions can cause algae blooms to move from one location in the lake to another,” Northern Health said.
“Given the shifting nature of algae blooms and the ever-changing potential for toxicity from day to day, testing for toxins is not always reliable.
“Instead, it is safest to assume
the blooms may contain toxins and adhere to the precautions.” Symptoms usually appear within one to three hours and resolve in one to two days and are often more pronounced in children. Here are some further tips from Northern Health:
• If contact occurs, wash with tap water as soon as possible.
• Do not drink or cook with untreated water directly from any lake at any time. Boiling lake water will not remove the toxins produced by blue-green algae.
• An alternate source of drinking water should also be provided for pets and livestock. Pet owners should be wary of allowing pets to walk off-leash where they may be able to drink lake water – illnesses are a common outcome.
Those who suspect a problem related to blue-green algae are welcome to contact the Ministry of Environment at EnvironmentalComplaints@gov.bc.ca. For further information on health concerns, call Environmental Health at 250565-2150. Additional information is also available at healthlinkbc.ca.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Sharing a sandwich
Brian Janecke and Margaret Griffiths share a pulled pork toscana from Betulla Burning’s booth on Sunday afternoon at the Canadian Western Bank Taste Pavilion as part of Downtown Summerfest.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Terry Collins with some of the 80 baseballs she customized for the U15 Provincials held in Prince George this week.
Leave chinooks for the orcas
This year, southern resident orcas returned to the Salish Sea later than ever recorded. All three pods arrived just nine days before World Orca Day, July 14, which in turn was just one day before the chinook fishery opened. Some pod members haven’t yet been spotted, raising concerns for their lives.
In July, southern resident sightings typically hit their annual high when the endangered whales return to their spring and summer feeding grounds in the Salish Sea. Their prolonged absence likely reflects a lack of sufficient food to support their population.
Late arrival means the orcas have only 10 days to feed with minimal interference – perhaps too little, too late. The chinook salmon fishing season re-opened on Monday, contributing to orca food scarcity and vessel noise disturbance.
A day before the orcas’ arrival, Fisheries and Oceans Canada released a study confirming that access to chinook salmon is the most critical aspect of killer whale recovery. These orcas need to eat about 1,000 chinook salmon a day, even more to recover the population.
Each human disturbance from fishing or whale watching that prevents an orca from catching chinook becomes a caloric deficit. Recovering orcas requires rebuilding threatened and endangered chinook populations.
Opening the fishery late to protect these stocks will benefit the orca. But allowing people to keep chinook they catch decreases the number available and increases fishing efforts, which makes waters noisier, interfering with the orcas’ ability to hunt.
Although a small portion of the orcas’ favourite feeding grounds remain closed to recreational fishing, most areas of the whales’ critical habitat are now open.
World Orca Day celebrated the special place these magnificent marine mammals hold in our culture and hearts, but it’s also a stark reminder of their difficulties.
It should be an incentive for people to voluntarily leave chinook for the orcas.
After all, it commemorates the successful release of an orca named Springer back in the wild after a successful save and recovery. In 2002, Springer was found, malnourished and alone, near Seattle.
Recognizing this World Orca Day is even more relevant, as only 76 endangered
southern resident whales remain.
If people truly care about the orcas’ fate, they should understand that the whales require protections beyond their species.
Orcas are apex predators at the top of their food chain, with sophisticated social structures, emotional behaviours, feeding strategies and unique languages.
A year ago, the news about a mother orca carrying her dead calf for more than a week caught international media attention. The public grieved with her, creating an outcry to support the southern residents.
Since then, the government has taken action in the orcas’ favour, but we need a multi-decade conservation approach to ensure their survival.
The southern resident orcas’ poor status is directly linked to the scarcity of Chinook salmon, their diet staple. Chinook returns to the Fraser River this spring are well below long-term historical averages with many populations threatened or endangered, leaving only a tiny surplus to support the fishery.
Although there have been periodic rebounds, B.C. Chinook salmon stocks have been declining since the late 1990s.
Climate change and unforeseeable acts of nature can also affect endangered stocks,
YOUR LETTERS
Not everyone is one of the guys
As one ages, the descent into curmudgeonry, can occur. Sometimes it is within the individual, to become a Clint Eastwood character, and demand that a person “Get off of my lawn!”
I think however that in many cases, we are driven to become disillusioned with society, and weep for the future, due to the erosion of simple manners, and the laziness towards how we speak, spell, and behave. Not too long ago, while dining in one of Prince George’s more popular restaurants, I witnessed an exchange that simply made me shake my head. In today’s social climate, what bothered me, will seem to many, the ramblings of an aging old sod, or resentment towards non-gender specific salutations; I simply find it lazy, and disrespectful. There seems to be a preponderance today, to use the term “guys” when addressing someone, regardless of to whom you are speaking.
My mother, at seventy-five, cannot stand being referred to, as a “guy”; my wife, feels the same. At this establishment, I watched a young server approach a table.
His T-shirt was at least three sizes too small, his dedication to weightlifting was overly apparent, and his smile was as blinding as his soon to be observed intelligence, was not. Half a dozen times, he referred to the tables occupants as “guys,” this was punctuated by his constant rubber-necking as every young, nubile female walked past. Once the server had taken the order, water, he left the table and struck-up conversation with a young lady.
The patrons that he had just interacted with, all got up, and left the restaurant. I may be wrong, but the two dozen “ladies” of the Red Hat Society, many whom are old enough to remember the war, the Second World War that is, had probably had enough of his lazy, contemporary and rude mannerisms – oblivious!
Perhaps it is social media, connectivity with texting (Don’t get me started on the spelling of there, their, your and you’re), Snapchat and Instagram? Maybe it is the lack of elocution, and the lost art of conversation, due to virtual communication? Whatever it is, these ladies come from a different time, a time when simple manners, and propriety were considered important.
Maybe the relevance of this is lost on many, but there are many, many ways, of addressing people with polite, non-gender specific nouns, that are far more courteous, and let’s face it, more professional.
Mike Maslen, Prince George
Thanks for making 100th birthday special
On Friday, July 12th, Teresa Fisher celebrated her 100th birthday, with friends, family and staff of UHNBC, The Auxiliary ( who by chance are also celebrating their 100th year of service to our hospital) were also in attendance to present Teresa with flowers. As a member of the Auxiliary and longtime resident of Prince George, I just want to thank the staff of the Family Medical Unit for their wonderful nursing and care of the patients who are patiently waiting for placement in care homes. The staff and Jackie from social services took it upon themselves to arrange this party for Teresa, with decorations and treats, outside of their regular duties. Thank you for taking the time and for being you!
Linda Hohn, Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
increasing the uncertainty of their survival, which makes the need to keep chinook in the water even more critical. Ocean acidification, invasive species and warmer waters reduce the ability of salmon to reach their spawning beds. The recent Big Bar landslide blocking a key salmon run is one unpredictable event that will affect the number of salmon able to reproduce. While the federal government is making efforts to help the salmon get upstream to spawning grounds, there just aren’t many rescue options in that remote location.
When the fishing season officially opens, people and whole communities should voluntarily keep chinook in the water to help the southern residents. Every fish that survives improves the orcas’ chances for survival and the existence of chinook for generations to come. At least 95 per cent of chinook salmon making their way to the Fraser need to stay in the water to meet DFO’s sustainability targets. For the sake of the orca and the future of the fishing communities, this summer, don’t hook a chinook. Jeffrey Young is a senior science and policy analyst at the David Suzuki Foundation.
Taxing single-use plastics may work better than bans
Rarely has a minor consumer product received more vilification than the plastic straw.
As a symbol of human wastefulness and our careless disregard for the environment, straws are the nearperfect villain. You use a plastic straw once and toss it, but it stays with us forever, sitting in a landfill, floating in the sea or harming wildlife.
That’s why some local governments have stopped allowing them, along with other single-use plastics. This seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, even though plastic straws comprise only a small part of the total volume of plastic disposed of each year.
But eliminating plastic straws offers a case study in how simple solutions can be devilishly tricky to implement – and sometimes even worse than the problems they were meant to solve. For that, we can largely thank ourselves and our behavioral quirks. Let’s look at just one example: some restaurants and bars have replaced their plastic straws with reusable metal variants. But there’s a hitch, as the New York Post recently reported: customers keep taking the metal straws home with them.
This leaves restaurants holding the short straw, so to speak. Metal straws are expensive – perhaps a dollar apiece (or more) versus a penny or two for the plastic version – and so replacement costs add up quickly.
This might not be so problematic if the metal straws that customers walk off with get reused frequently. But most probably go on display as novelties or sit forgotten in a utensil drawer. And this means the metal straws – which presumably required mining, plus large amounts of energy to convert into sheet metal and then fashion it into a cylindrical tube – don’t provide the intended environmental benefit.
I’m not aware of any research on the relative environmental costs of producing different types of straws. But the evidence on reusable grocery bags is not heartening. Reusable bags take much more energy than single-use paper or plastic bags to make. As a result they become an environmental plus only after a large number of uses – estimates suggest you need to use a reusable bag almost 40 times to break even in terms of environmental costs. Most reusable bags get lost, discarded or neglected in a closet before that milestone, undermining the case for them.
It would be surprising if the calculus for metal straws were any
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better. If metal straws get pilfered before they’ve been used enough, they may well be worse for the environment than their plastic peers. So what’s to be done? Economics offers a straightforward answer: instead of banning singleuse plastics, the right strategy is to tax them.
Taxes force people to pay – or in econ-speak, internalize – their own environmental costs. This tends to lead people to change their behaviour: with plastic taxes, everyone reduces usage on the margin, with those who get relatively lower value from single-use plastics reducing their usage more. Even small taxes can change behavior substantially: a seven-cent tax on all grocery bags in Chicago, for example, was associated with a 42 per cent drop in usage. We can calibrate taxes to match actual estimates of environmental harm. This helps make environmental concerns tangible, and in particular makes people aware of which types of plastic are most harmful. Moreover, we can use the plastic tax revenue to support environmental causes, as Chicago and other cities have.
Of course, with these sorts of user and consumption taxes we have to be careful about inequality: the effective tax burden tends to fall more on those with lower incomes and/or those who need to use more plastic products. But tax-based policy can be designed to account for individual circumstances. For example, the high-end plastic bags in upscale grocery stores are often taxed more highly than bags at lower-cost stores. Meanwhile, some people have disabilities that mean they need to use straws; they could be exempted from the straw tax. Exempting these individuals from plastic straw bans would not help nearly as much, since under bans many restaurants will stop stocking plastic straws entirely.
So while it’s true that reducing plastic straw usage might be an easy way to limit the harm we do to the environment, we need to make sure the limitations we place really are providing solutions. And that means taxes may be better than bans.
Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics.
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Gov’t considers options to help salmon past landslide
CLINTON (CP) — A system of pressurized tubes known as a “salmon cannon” is among the options the British Columbia and federal governments are considering to help fish trapped by a rock slide in the Fraser River. The slide in late June created a five-metre waterfall in a remote area near Big Bar, northwest of Kamloops, and it’s blocking the majority of some hundreds of thousands of chinook salmon from migrating upstream to spawn. Experts from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and provincial ministries have established an incident command post at the site and the governments released a list Monday of the various solutions they’re considering. The options include continuing to use acoustic monitoring and radio tags to track fish passage, moving rocks to create a natural fish access or installing a prefabricated temporary fish passageway or structure. They’re also considering installing a socalled “salmon cannon,” which uses flexible pressurized tubes to move fish from below an obstruction to above it, or trapping the fish and transporting them via truck or helicopter. The governments said each of the options come with potential benefits, risks and possible consequences.
Surrey man faces murder charge
SURREY (CP) — Homicide investigators in Surrey said a murder charge has been laid in connection with a slaying earlier this year. A statement from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team saids 26-yearold Pee Lee Pi of Surrey was arrested July 12 and charged with the second-degree murder of 68-year-old Tee Bor. Police have not commented on a motive, but at the time of the Feb. 17 attack RCMP said they did not believe it was linked to the Lower Mainland gang conflict. Bor was found in a housing complex in Surrey’s Whalley neighbourhood suffering from serious injuries and died a short time later in hospital. Investigators have never said how he was injured but in the latest statement they said the slaying was an isolated incident and there is no risk to the public.
Asylum figures show slower rate of irregular crossings
OTTAWA (CP) — Newly published government figures show fewer asylum-seekers crossing irregularly into Canada than last year, although June did see a small increase over other months this year. Last month, RCMP officers intercepted 371 more migrants trying to cross into Canada from the United States between official border checkpoints compared to May. June of this year also saw a small increase of over 300 irregular crossings compared to the same month of last year. But the overall totals show a downward trend this year versus last. Between January and June 2019, a total of 6,707 asylum seekers crossed irregularly into Canada, a 38-per-cent drop compared to the same period in 2018.
Crown seeks jail for man who took girl to U.S.
Trevor CRAWLEY The Canadian Press CRANBROOK — A special prosecutor is recommending up to two years in prison for a former polygamous leader in Bountiful, B.C., convicted of removing a child from Canada to marry a member of his fundamentalist sect in the United States.
Peter Wilson said that as an ex-bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, James Oler is culpable for facilitating the directives of church leader and prophet Warren Jeffs, who ordered him to bring the underage child to the U.S. to be married in 2004.
Wilson said aggravating sentencing factors against Oler included the girl’s age at the time, his position of trust and his position as a bishop and religious authority in the community.
“He occupied the highest priesthood office in the community of Bountiful because he was the bishop and that office made him directly answerable to Warren Jeffs,” said Wilson, in front of Justice Martha Devlin in Cranbrook Supreme Court.
During Oler’s trial, court heard that church records seized by American law enforcement indicated that Jeffs called Oler on June 23, 2004, and ordered him to bring the 15-yearold girl to the U.S. to be married.
A trial witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was also named by Jeffs in the directive to come to the U.S. and be married as a child bride.
The witness testified she travelled with two adults to the United States on June 24, 2004, crossing into Idaho at the Porthill crossing south of Creston and pulling into a rest area shortly after. She went into the woods to relieve herself, and when she returned, another van containing Oler and the 15-year-old girl
had arrived.
All but one piled into the newly arrived van and headed to Cedar City, Utah, and later to Mesquite, Nev.
Church records indicate 18 marriages took place on June 25, as the witness, the 15-yearold girl, and Oler himself were all married in separate ceremonies.
Wilson suggested that the judge could exercise her discretion to consider Oler’s conduct in the removal of the trial witness even though she wasn’t included in his indictment.
“It’s my submission that no unfairness to Mr. Oler will result in the event you choose to exercise your discretion to consider his role in the removal of (the witness) from Canada,” Wilson argued.
However, Devlin questioned whether she could be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt
that Oler was guilty of all the same elements of the child removal offence involving the trial witness, given that Oler may not have known she was under 16 at the time.
Oler does not have a lawyer. Joe Doyle, who is serving as a friend of the court to ensure a fair trial, suggested a sentencing range between six to 18 months in prison, drawing parallels to an earlier ruling against Brandon James Blackmore and Emily Ruth Gail Blackmore.
They were convicted and sentenced for the same child removal charge after being ordered to bring a 13-year-old girl to marry Jeffs. Brandon James Blackmore was sentenced to 12 months in jail, while Emily Ruth Gail Blackmore was given a seven-month jail term.
Oler, however, was acquitted because the presiding judge was unable to determine, based on the trial evidence, whether he did anything within Canada’s borders to arrange the girl’s transfer to the U.S.
The acquittal was successfully challenged by the Crown and a new trial was ordered by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Devlin found Oler guilty of the child removal charge in a new trial that was held in Cranbrook earlier this year.
The court has set Aug. 29 as a tentative date for sentencing.
The court heard that Oler is living in isolation in Alberta after being stripped of his bishop’s appointment and excommunicated from the Bountiful community nearly a decade ago for participating in legal proceedings examining the constitutionality of Canada’s polygamy laws.
He was also charged and convicted of polygamy alongside Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore and sentenced to three months house arrest in 2018.
U.S. tug firm to be sentenced for 2016 diesel spill
Camille BAINS The Canadian Press
BELLA BELLA — A Texas-based company is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a diesel spill from a tug boat that ran aground and sank in a First Nation’s fishing territory on British Columbia’s central coast.
The Nathan E. Stewart spilled 110,000 litres of diesel and heavy oils in October 2016 and the Transportation Safety Board ruled last year a crew member missed a planned course change because he fell asleep while alone on watch.
Court documents on the provincial court website show Kirby Corp. has pleaded guilty to three of nine counts while a civil case for damages filed by the Heiltsuk Nation is ongoing.
The guilty pleas are related to separate counts under the Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Pilotage Act for
the fuel spill that damaged both fish and birds, and for failing to have a pilot aboard the vessel.
Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk Nation said the hearing on Tuesday will include a sentencing circle of community members, chiefs, first responders and representatives for Kirby as part of the proceedings that will be held at a gym in Bella Bella to accommodate observers.
“It’s more customary to our way to sit in a circle rather than a western courtroom appearance,” she said.
Kirby spokesman Matt Woodruff was not available for comment.
Slett said her community has waited nearly three years to have a voice in connection with an incident that devastated the lives of so many people who fished in the area for sustenance and employment but have still not been able to return to that culturally significant practice.
“It’s part of our bread basket,” she said of
Gale Creek, the site of the spill.
“It’s a place where the community would harvest, at a minimum, 25 food species and these included black cod, clams, crab, halibut, kelp, rock cod and various species of salmon,” she added.
“We have one grocery store in our community so we rely heavily on our marine resources to be healthy, to live.”
Beaches were contaminated just when the community was preparing for a commercial clam fishery that would have supported 50 families and no traditional marine harvesting has since been done in the area, Slett said.
Kirby has yet to do an environmental impact assessment to determine the state of the spill site as the Heiltsuk continue to use their own resources to conduct research, she said, adding the village site used by five tribes that are part of the nation was previously “pristine.”
B.C. man dies of rare viral rabies infection
The Canadian Press
VICTORIA — A British Columbia man has died of a rare viral rabies infection, the first such case in the province since 2003.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the man was in contact with a bat in mid-May and developed symptoms compatible with rabies six weeks later.
She says in a news release that while the exposure in this case was on Vancouver Island, bats in all areas of B.C. are known to carry rabies.
The Health Ministry is not releasing further information about the man to ensure privacy for his family.
The news release says family members, close community contacts and health care workers who cared for the man are being assessed and given post-exposure rabies preventative measures if needed.
The release says overall in Canada, there have been only 24 known cases of viral rabies infections since the 1920s, and the most recent cases were in Ontario
Call 250-
in 2012 and Alberta in 2007.
“If anyone in B.C. comes in contact with a bat (even if there is no obvious bite or scratch), wash the area with soap and water. Then consult a health-care provider or local public health department immediately. They will assess the risk of rabies and may provide a vaccine to prevent infection,” the release says. It adds that bats are the only
known carriers of the rabies virus in the province and about 13 per cent of bats tested in B.C. are positive for rabies.
“This presents an ongoing risk for people and for companion animals, such as cats and dogs. It is important to ensure pets’ rabies vaccinations are up to date.
“If you believe your pet has had contact with a bat, consult your veterinarian.”
OLER
Australian model sentenced for flight disturbance
Andrew DALTON
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — An Australian model was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to community service and probation for slapping a flight attendant and going on an obscene tirade during a flight, with a federal judge saying he believed she was deeply remorseful and did not deserve fines or prison time.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced Adau Mornyang to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service.
Prosecutors had sought a month in jail for Mornyang. But Carney said he believed she was truly sorry after she tearfully read a statement in court saying she is now receiving treatment for anxiety and depression brought on by childhood trauma, instead of self-medicating like she did at the time of the flight.
“I’ve learned to deal with my emotions and trauma in a proper way,” Mornyang said as she stood crying with her arm around her lawyer, her usually long hair cropped to a short flattop.
The incident, she said, has “pushed me to have proper medical treatment.”
She talked about the humiliation of hearing the recording of herself during the trial.
“I’ll do what it takes to prove to the world that I am not that woman,” Mornyang said, and asked the court for “forgiveness, kindness and mercy.”
The 25-year-old, a native of South Sudan who migrated to Australia as a refugee at age 10, was convicted of felony interference with a flight crew and misdemeanour assault. She was acquitted of a third count of assaulting an air marshal.
Mornyang was nine hours into a
Jan. 21 flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles and had apparently been drinking wine excessively when she began “yelling obscenities and racial slurs and flailing her arms,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum.
Her fellow passengers complained to the crew. But she only lashed out more when flight attendants attempted to calm her, and she slapped one of them. Several
air marshals had to come out from undercover to help deal with her, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said in court Monday that Mornyang’s statement of remorse said little about the passengers and crew whose flight she made so difficult.
crime untenable.
Carney said he had often sentenced terrorists, murderers and drug dealers, and that “those people need to be in custody,” but not people like Mornyang.
“The trial process was punishment in and of itself,” Carney said. He added that her financial circumstances made the fine that would usually come with this
But Carney welcomed the statement, and he said before sentencing that “I do believe she’s remorseful and that she’s committed to getting treatment to make sure this never happens again.”
Mornyang is also required to submit to drug tests and receive mental health counselling throughout her three-year term. She appeared relieved as the hearing ended. She did not talk to reporters outside court.
“I want you to have a wonderful life,” the judge said after handing down his sentence.
“I hope I never see you again.”
AP PHOTO BY RICHARD VOGEL
Australian-South Sudanese model Adau Mornyang arrives at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Monday.
Bullets and bullseyes, shooting test ends biathlon camp
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Moira Green was not at all happy with her shooting performance.
It took her 15 rounds to knock down five targets while standing on the range Sunday afternoon at Otway Nordic Centre. That meant she reached her objective of finishing the test without running out of ammunition, with only 20 rounds allotted to each athlete. But it was a few too many misses as far as Green was concerned.
“That was not good, my legs were shaking,” said the 14-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club biathlon team member, after completing the national team test, the final event of a grueling nine-day Biathlon BC summer camp.
“It’s so stressful.”
Drawn by the biathlon facilities at Otway, Green moved to Prince George from Yelllowknife, N.W.T., a year ago in September with her parents Paul, who works as an engineer, and Miriam, a math teacher at Duchess Park Secondary School.
Paul is the older brother of Brendan Green, one of Canada’s most accomplished male biathletes, who retired from the World Cup team in February. Brendan, 32, is a three-time Olympian from Hay River, N.W.T., who anchored the Canadian men’s relay team to a bronze at the 2016 world championships, the first-ever medal finish in the relay for Canada. He also posted a fifth-place finish in a World Cup sprint in 2015 and placed ninth in the mass start race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Paul is a former national team biathlete who in 1991 became the first athlete from the Northwest Territories to ever win a Canada Winter Games medal. Miriam also has ski racing in her blood as a former junior national medalist in cross-country.
“I missed out on all the genes,” laughed Moira Green, who spent last winter in Prince George training at what rates as one of the province’s best nordic facilities. She’s
now training with the Caledonia club’s senior (15-and-older) biathletes and her dad is now the lead senior coach, replacing Tony Fiala, who will focus more on crosscountry coaching.
Moira said she doesn’t miss trying to battle the elements of winter in her former hometown, which made biathlon practice such an ordeal.
“I’m pretty sure I started when I was 10, but it was hard because it was so cold,” she said.
“A lot of it was dry-firing inside with air rifles, which is not the same. The range and the ski trails here are really nice and people here are really lucky. I was able to shoot more than once a week.”
The second annual camp at Otway drew 25 athletes from various parts of the province, most of whom are now in their third month of training for the upcoming winter biathlon season.
“It was tiring,” said Nicholas Veeken of Prince George, 15, who finished second overall last season on the BC Cup biathlon circuit.
When they weren’t on the shooting range they did weight training, ran up and down hills and went cruising on their roller skis on Willowcale Road, a long straight road with very little traffic through the Danson
industrial area.
“The camp goal was endurance training and technical shooting skill development,” said B.C. provincial team head coach Jessica Blenkarn of Whistler.
“These tests can be an indicator of how the athlete’s shooting development is coming, there’s nothing on the line for these athletes, it’s just practice. Almost every nation in biathlon uses this test as an indicator of performance. We had some good results and I’m pretty happy about that, the kids are focused. Some of them were a bit nervous but they all did a great job.”
Some of the shooting sessions that made up the test were timed and some weren’t. Blenkarn wanted the athletes to focus more on accuracy rather than shooting speed in the 20-20 test. There was a bit of rain to deal with last week but on the whole the weather was ideal for the camp.
“It’s a good time of year to train for shooting because it’s not cold, it’s not snowing and it’s not raining,” said Blenkarn.
Fifteen-year-old Quinn Friesen just finished his soccer season playing as a midfielder for the Prince George Impact under-15 boys team, which wrapped up the season last Sunday at Rotary Soccer Field with a fifth-place 2-2 finish at the provincial B championship. He won a couple B.C. Cup
biathlon races last season, competing in only prone shooting bouts. Now that he’s a senior, he has the added difficulty of trying to hit his targets while standing.
“It’s hard,” said Friesen.
“This is my third or fourth year of biathlon and it gets easier day-by-day. I just thought it would be cool to shoot a gun.” Kira Friesen of Kelowna (no relation) won three medals at the national championships in February and as a result is now on national under-20 team. The 16-year-old is among a group of biathletes which includes locals Veeken, Damian Georgyev and Brynn Witwicki, trying to qualify for the Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, Jan. 9-22. Friesen competes for the Telemark Ski Club in Kelowna, the home club of World Cup team member Julia Ransom.
“Julia has been really good for training and helping the club and she’s giving back a lot and I really want to step forward in her steps because she’s a Kelowna girl like I am,” said Friesen.
“I look up to her quite a bit. I’m really hoping to qualify for Youth Olympics but there’s going to be some stiff competition
“This camp has been really fun. You get to know the kids and I know everyone here pretty good. That makes the races more fun because you cheer each other on, on trail.” Blenkarn coached Caledonia club biathlete Emily Dickson of Burns Lake at the national championships in March. With Crawford and Megan Tandy of Prince George now retired from biathlon, Dickson will move up from the IBU Cup circuit to take a spot on Canada’s World Cup team this year, joining Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, now heading into her third World Cup season.
“Emily had an amazing season and now she’s on the senior team, so I’m really happy for her,” said Blenkarn. “I’m also really happy to see more B.C. athletes on the national team because that really inspires the younger athletes because they know it’s possible.”
CITIZEN PHOTOS BY JAMES DOYLE
Biathletes test their skills at the rifle range, above and below, at Otway Nordic Centre on Sunday morning during a biathlon summer camp.
Cougars alumni hospital charity golf scores big
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Nobody flipped a golf cart, not one windshield in the parking lot got hit by a wayward shot and there were no reports of wild Cougars lurking around the water hazards Saturday at Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
The eighth annual Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation/ Prince George Cougars Alumni Hospital Charity golf tournament went off without a hitch and organizers are confident the event will meet or exceed its fundraising total of $80,000.
“It was a great couple days, it really went well,” said Judy Neiser, the foundation’s chief executive officer.
“We don’t have the final fundraising total because the silent auction (had yet to be tallied) but we would have met our target for sure, I’m confident in saying we raised at least $80,000.”
The Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation is a charitable group which raises money for hospital equipment in northern B.C. through its three major city events – the alumni tournament, the Spirit Day radiothon in May and the pre-Christmas Festival of Lights tree display.
The tournament raised more than $500,000 over the past seven years and hundred of thousands more before that when it was known as the Hospital Charity ProAm golf tournament. Providing cardiac care equipment was the focus of the tournament the past four years and this year the money will pay for a Vivid O Ultrasound
Laboratory to be used by anesthesiologists at UHNBC.
About 60 volunteers rounded up by Spirit of the North committee and the Cougars helped organize the tournament, which was dedicated to the memory of
Gary Samis, the former corporate sales manager for the Cougars, who died May 13 of a heart attack. Samis took on the project as tournament director after the idea was raised by then-Cougars general manager Dallas Thomp-
son to involve the alumni players in a charitable cause which has universal appeal. The popularity of bringing back the city’s former junior hockey stars raises the profile of the event to help ensure its sold out every time and that’s
helped maintain a steady supply of volunteers willing to donate their time.
“The alumni is the reason we can gain so much momentum because it’s those guys the people want to see and play with,” said Neiser.
“It was really neat to see guys like Rob Voltera and Kyle Stanton, they played in the ’90s and some of them hadn’t been back for years. It’s so beautiful to hear them say, ‘Now, I’m not going to miss another one.’ They get together and it’s like a high school reunion for them.”
The Cougars, as their way of saying thanks to last season’s three graduating 20-year-old players –Mike MacLean, Joel Lakusta and Josh Curtis, paid for their first trip back to play in the alumni tournament.
“Some of them are licking their wounds if they didn’t get recruited (to play beyond junior hockey) so they’re on to a different life and then they come back and feel part of something big and wonderful in Prince George and they see guys they knew all those years and it really hits home with them,” said Neiser.
“It makes them feel a bigger part of Prince George. When they’re players, they’re doing a job, they’re playing, and they don’t realize the impact they’ve left on the city until they come back.”
The winning team – Mr. Quick Lube & Oil – was presented the Michael Fogolin Memorial Trophy and a No. 7 Fogolin Cougars jersey in honour of the 17-year-old Cougars defenceman who died in his sleep, May 26, 2004.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
The eighth annual PG Cougars Alumni Hospital Charity Golf Tournament took place on Saturday at Prince George Golf and Curling Club. Cougars alumni. Owner Dan Hamhuis makes a tee shot on the seventh hole.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Owner Dan Hamhuis makes a second shot on the seventh hole during the Cougars charity golf tournament on Saturday.
Devils prepare for a lacrosse Assault
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
The way Matt Rochon has it figured, if the Northland Nissan Assault can somehow pull the rug out from the feet of Westwood Pub Devils snipers Kyle McInstosh and Andrew Schwab, the Assault will do the unexpected and win the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association championship.
Failing that, the best-of-five final series which start tonight (8 p.m.) at Kin 1 might be a rough ride for Rochon and his teammates.
The 27-year-old Rochon was in the stands at Kin 1 last Thursday to watch McIntosh and Schwab finish off the RPR Mechanical/ JR Construction Bandits in the third and deciding game of their best-of-three semifinal series. Schwab scored four goals himself and McInstosh ended up with two goal and four points in a 10-6 victory.
“I think it’s going to be a good series,” said Rochon.
“We’re definitely the underdogs but I think if we bring a full team we’ll surprise a lot of people. It’s looking like we’re going to have a full bench. We just need our numbers and we should be fine.
“We went 3-1 with the Bandits this year so we figure if they can beat (the Devils) we should be able to get a couple games on them.”
Unlike the Bandits, who hung two losses on the Devils this season, the Assault has yet to figure out how to stop the Westwood boys, who have relied on full-roster turnouts for games and a season-long willingness to work out the bugs in practice to run roughshod over the rest of the league. Thursday’s playoff win improved the Devils record to 17-2 this season. The Assault struggled at times to get enough bodies and
finished the regular season 9-7, then swept Mackenzie in a two-game semifinal playoff series.
Led by Doug Porter’s 35-goal, 63-point contribution, the Assault scored 150 in 16 regular season games. Rochon was far off that pace, with 33 goals and 59 points in just 11 games. Dave Jenkins Jr. has lost some the speed that a decade ago got him to senior A in the Western Lacrosse Association but he still has the smarts to be a superb setup man and he can still fire ’em, totaling 22 goals 32 assists and 54 points in just nine regular
season games. His longtime counterpart Clarke Anderson was limited by a leg injury to just four games but responded with four goals and 14 points.
They’ll need to be firing on target to counter the arsenal the Devils have at their disposal with the likes of Andrew Schwab, the PGSLA scoring champion, Colton Poulin, Danton Nicholson and McIntosh, who lit it up with 10 goals and 15 points in three games leading up to the playoffs.
“Jake McIntosh and Andrew Schwab are the two biggest guys we have to worry about on the offensive side,” said Rochon.
Kyle Frederick and Russill Mills provide the Assault capable goaltending and could steal the spotlight from Patrick Bayliss, the Devils’ new starting ballstopper, who has Jamie Bellamy to back him in net.
The Devils have won the league the past two seasons and are heavy favourites to complete their threepeat.
They need three more wins over the Assault to accomplish that and represent the league in the senior C provincial championship, July 26-28 at Kin 1.
“They have great offence, they move the ball around really well and they have big guys on defence who like to hit hard and after that series we’re going to be sore so it’s going to be tough going into it,” said Schwab.
“It’s going to be a tough battle for sure. They don’t like to give the middle of the floor up too easily.
“But our D is, hands-down, the best in the league and I’m just glad I don’t have to play against them. Scotty Anderson is the train that never stops, he gives everything to his team. Any loose ball he’s got it, he’s the strongest guy out there.”
While they’ve added some significant new pickups like McIntosh, Bayliss and defenceman Jeff Moleski, the core of the Devils has remained together and according to Schwab that’s what makes them a good team.
“This is pretty much the same team we’ve had for three years on these championship runs,” said Schwab.
“Everyone relies on each other and trusts each other and you know where the other guy’s going to be out there.”
Game 2 will be played Thursday night at Kin 1. The series resumes next week with games Monday and, if necessary, Wednesday and Thursday.
Canada’s James Hinchcliffe places sixth in hometown Indy
Melissa COUTO The Canadian Press
TORONTO — James Hinchcliffe gained more ground than any other driver at the Honda Indy Toronto, but not enough to give him his first victory at his hometown race.
Starting from the No. 14 spot, the Arrow Schmidt Peterson driver from nearby Oakville, Ont., finished sixth on Sunday, snapping a string of three straight topfive results on the downtown Toronto track.
“If we had started higher up we probably could have kept that top-five streak alive,” said Hinchcliffe.
“But the effort the guys put forward with really no help with yellow (flags)... we just had to push our way to the front and capitalize on guys’ mistakes.
“All in all, not the end result you want but the effort that I put forth was impressive.”
The race featured only two caution laps – on the first and last of the 85-lap circuit –which hampered Hinchcliffe’s strategy on a hot day along Toronto’s waterfront.
His black and gold No. 5 Honda cruised into eighth place midway through the race and grabbed seventh after a mistake from 2014 Toronto winner Sebastien Bourdais on the 66th lap. Hinchcliffe moved into sixth one lap later after Takuma Sato’s car caught on fire.
That’s where he stayed the rest of the way.
“For a track that’s sort of notorious for having a lot of instances, I’m impressed with
CITIZEN SPORTS
TOUR DE FRANCE
Results Monday from the Stage 10 of the Tour de France, a 217.511-kilometre (135.1-mile) flat ride from Saint-Flour to Albi, with four climbs, all Category Three and Four: 1. Wout Van Aert, Belgium, Jumbo-Visma, four hours, 49 minutes, 39 seconds; 2. Elia Viviani, Italy, Deceuninck-QuickStep, same time; 3. Caleb Ewan, Australia, Lotto Soudal, s.t.; 4. Michael Matthews, Australia, Sunweb, s.t.; 5. Peter Sagan, Slovakia, Bora-Hansgrohe, s.t.; 6. Jasper Philipsen, Belgium, UAE Team Emirates, s.t.; 7. Sonny Colbrelli, Italy, Bahrain-Merida, s.t.; 8. Matteo Trentin, Italy, Mitchelton-Scott, s.t.; 9. Oliver Naesen, Belgium, AG2R La Mondiale, s.t.; 10. Greg Van Avermaet, Belgium, CCC, s.t. 11. Julian Alaphilippe, France, Deceuninck-QuickStep, s.t.; 12. Geraint Thomas, Britain, Ineos, s.t.; 13. Mads Wurtz, Denmark, Katusha Alpecin, s.t.; 14. Egan Bernal, Colombia, Ineos, s.t.; 15. Maximiliano Richeze, Argentina, Deceuninck-QuickStep, s.t.; 16. Patrick Konrad, Austria, Bora-Hansgrohe, s.t.; 17. Cees Bol, Netherlands, Sunweb, s.t.; 18. Steven Kruijswijk, Netherlands, Jumbo-Visma, s.t.; 19. Enric Mas, Spain, Deceuninck-QuickStep, s.t.; 20. Romain Bardet, France, AG2R La Mondiale, s.t. Also - 63. Ben King, United States, Dimension Data, 2:14 behind; 98. Joey Rosskopf, United States, CCC, 9:41; 101. Michael Woods, Ottawa, EF Education First, 9:41; 127. Chad Haga, United States, Sunweb, s.t.; 129. Hugo Houle, Sainte-Perpetue, Que., Astana, s.t. OVERALL RANKINGS (after 10th of 21 stages) 1. Julian Alaphilippe, France, Deceuninck-QuickStep, 43:27:15; 2. Geraint Thomas, Britain, Ineos, 1:12 behind leader; 3. Egan Bernal, Colombia, Ineos, 1:16; 4. Steven Kruijswijk, Netherlands, Jumbo-Visma, 1:27; 5. Emanuel Buchmann, Germany, Bora-Hansgrohe, 1:45; 6. Enric Mas, Spain, Deceuninck-QuickStep, 1:46; 7. Adam Yates, Britain, Mitchelton-Scott, 1:47; 8. Nairo Quintana, Colombia, Movistar, 2:04; 9. Daniel Martin, Ireland, UAE Team Emirates, 2:09; 10. Giulio Ciccone, Italy, Trek-Segafredo, 2:32. 11. Thibaut Pinot, France, Groupama-FDJ, 2:33; 12. Patrick Konrad, Austria, Bora-Hansgrohe, 2:46; 13. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, EF Education First, 3:18; 14. Alejandro Valverde, Spain, Movistar, s.t.; 15. Romain Bardet, France, Bauke Mollema, Netherlands, Trek-Segafredo, 2:45; 16. Jakob Fuglsang, Denmark, Astana, 3:22; 17. Warren Barguil, France, Arkea-Samsic, 3:26; 18. Roman Kreuziger, Czech Republic, Dimension Data, 3:28; 19.
the field,” Hinchcliffe said.
“One or two maybe would have helped us close the gap and maybe get another spot or two but race control made an active effort to keep it green as much as possible and the drivers are just doing a better job.”
Hinchcliffe, who’s never won in Toronto, was fourth here last year.
He has six top-10 finishes on the 2.89-ki-
Jiri Lehecka and Jonas Forejtek (1), both Czech Republic, def. Govind Nanda, United States and Liam Draxl (7), Newmarket, Ont. 7-5, 6-4. Girl’s Doubles - Championship Abigail Forbes and Savannah Broadus, both United States, def. Kamilla Bartone, Latvia, and Oksana Selekhmeteva, Russia, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. SATURDAY WOMEN Singles - Championship Simona Halep (7), Romania, def. Serena Williams (11), United States, 6-2, 6-2. MEN Doubles - Championship Jaun Sebastian Cabal, Columbia and Robert Farah, Columbia def. Nicola Mahut, France and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-3. JUNIORS Girl’s Singles - Championship Daria Snigur, Ukraine, def. (10) Alexa Noel, United States, 6-4, 6-4. Doubles - Semifinals Savannah Broadus and Abigail Forbes, both United States, def. Aubane Droguet and Selena Janicijevic, both France, 6-1 6-1. Kamilla Bartone, Latvia, and Oksana Selekhmeteva, Russia, def. Polina Kudermetova, Russia, and Giulia Morlet, France, 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. Boy’s Doubles - Semifinals Jonas Forejtek and Jiri Lehecka (1), Czech Republic def. Martin Damm and Toby Kodat (3), both United States, 6-2 3-6 6-3. Liam Draxl, Newmarket, Ont., and Govind Nanda, United States (7), def. Arthur Fery and Toby Samuel, both Britain, 6-4 6-3. SENIORS Men’s
lometre, 11-turn street course that winds around Exhibition Place, including third in 2016 and 2017.
The 32-year-old was among the middle of the pack during all three practice sessions Friday and Saturday, finishing 13th, 11th and ninth, respectively.
Hinchcliffe, who wore a suit adorned with fan signatures during the race, said he
wasn’t distracted by all the off-track duties that come with competing in your home town.
“Honestly I’ve had enough experience doing this race to know what’s too much and I’ve got a great team of people around me that kinda help manage my calendar and tell me when to say no to stuff, because I’m really bad at that,” he said.
“Am I kind of relieved that we survived and got through it and are moving on to next one? Yeah, certainly. But at the same time it’s always such a privilege to come home.
“The support is incredible. People wanting to talk to you, that’s a good problem to have. It’s always fun coming back and I think we manage it pretty well.”
Hinchcliffe has six career IndyCar Series victories, but has had trouble reaching the top of the podium in over a calendar year. His last victory came at the Iowa 300 on July 7, 2018.
Iowa is the next stop on the Series calendar, but some changes to the race – including switching the start time from afternoon to dusk – may make it more difficult to defend his title.
“Of course the race we were pretty killer at they had to go and change,” Hinchcliffe said with a laugh.
“I don’t think we can expect to just roll off the truck and dominate or anything but I think we can be strong,” he added.
“(We) just need to have a really clean weekend and keep chipping away at the points.”
James Hinchcliffe of Canada makes his way around the track during the 2019 Honda Indy Toronto race in Toronto on Sunday.
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Westwood Pub Devils player Patrick Bayliss gets a shot on goal while fighting off the check of a Northland Nissan Assault defender during a regular season game in June at Kin 1.
Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, France. A proposed high-speed rain line between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland would cut travel times and boost the regional economy, a new report says.
Vancouver to Seattle in under an hour
High-speed rail line would boost regional economy, report says
Laura KANE The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — A proposed high-speed rail link connecting Vancouver, Seattle and Portland would cut the travel time between each city to under an hour and dramatically boost the economy of the entire region, a new report concludes.
The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a 400-page business case for the transportation link, which is also supported by the governments of British Columbia and Oregon, as well as by Microsoft Corp.
“The ability to travel each segment between Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver in less than an hour will revolutionize the way we live, work, and play in the Pacific Northwest,” says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee in the report.
“Moreover, it helps us preserve the natural beauty and health of our region by enabling faster, cleaner, and greener trips between our region’s largest cities.”
The report prepared by engineering consulting firm WSP says it currently takes about two hours and 40 minutes to drive from Seattle to Vancouver, or more than four hours by bus or train.
The driving time from Portland to Seattle is about three hours, or about three and a half hours by bus or train, it says.
The new high-speed system would feature frequent trains running at speeds as high as 400 kilometres per hour and include stops in between the major cities with connections to other transportation, says the report.
It suggests intermediary stops in the Metro Vancouver city of Surrey as well as in the
Washington communities of Bellingham, Everett, Tacoma, Olympia and Kelso, among others, and says these stops would only result in “minor” time penalties.
It says the annual ridership is projected to exceed three million, with fare revenues estimated at more than US$250 million, which could result in one of the best performing rail services in North America.
The rail link is also expected to produce a stronger, more productive region as more businesses and jobs locate in the area due to dramatically improved access to housing, jobs, schools and other destinations.
A previous report estimated that as many as 160,000 permanent new jobs in the wider economy could be unlocked by the high-speed link, generating as much as US$355 billion in additional economic activity.
The system would result in a more affordable region, as residents benefit from easier access to housing and wider availability of higherpaying jobs and opportunities, the new report says.
The report adds that the link would contribute to a cleaner environment by shifting trips to more sustainable modes, reducing carbon emissions, protecting habitats and improving the resilience of the transportation network.
“The need for continued additional transportation infrastructure investment in the Cascadia megaregion is clear – crowded roads, congested airports and limited intercity rail service constrain the mobility of residents, businesses, and tourists,” the report says.
“Vancouver, Seattle and Portland have the fourth, sixth, and tenth-most congested roads in North America, respectively. Airport delays
are making air travel increasingly unreliable, and the travel time and frequency of intercity rail service are not competitive for most trips.”
Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., near Seattle, and its CEO Brad Smith is quoted in the report as saying in 2018 that the transportation link would strengthen the region.
“Our ability to compete in the world’s economy will be enhanced dramatically by having a region that is six million inhabitants strong versus two or three regions of three million each,” he says.
Inslee and B.C.’s then-premier Christy Clark signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016 to work together to create a new technology corridor, including a high-speed ground transportation system.
A feasibility study in 2017 estimated capital costs ranging from US$24 billion to US$42 billion.
The Washington legislature approved funding in 2018 to conduct a business case analysis, and it was joined by Oregon, B.C. and Microsoft as funding partners and oversight contributors.
B.C. committed $300,000 in 2018 to develop the business case and in February this year, committed an additional $300,000 to the next exploratory steps.
The province’s Jobs Minister Bruce Ralston said in a statement Monday that the transportation link could have huge economic benefits and draw new companies to the region.
“Improving the connectivity in the Pacific Northwest region presents enormous potential for job creation, economic growth and environmental benefits on both sides of the border.”
ID needs revamp, Desjardins CEO tells MPs
Christian PAAS-LANG The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The current system for identifying Canadians is inadequate for the digital age, the chief executive of Desjardins Group told MPs in an emergency parliamentary committee meeting Monday grappling with the fallout of a major data breach at his financial-services company.
The breach, revealed in June, saw the leak of names, addresses, birthdates, social-insurance numbers and other private information from roughly 2.7 million people and 173,000 businesses.
Desjardins, a Quebec-based co-operative, said a single employee, who has been fired since the breach was detected in December 2018, was responsible. A police investigation into the incident is ongoing.
CEO Guy Cormier said he was “ambivalent” about the committee meeting because he thought it was “premature” to discuss the situation while the investigation is still on. But he said his company is committed to being transparent and working with authorities on the issue.
“We must all learn from what Desjardins has undergone,” Cormier said in French.
Cormier told lawmakers on the House of Commons’ public-safety committee that although he could not recommend a particular new regime for identifying people in the digital age, “the status quo is not an option” when it comes to preventing identity theft and protecting private data.
He recommended the government convene a special working group made up of representatives from the government, the financial sector, telecommunications, legal experts and others to determine a new framework for data and privacy in Canada.
Though it bore some responsibility, Desjardins “is also a victim in this,” Alberta MP Glen Motz said.
early glimpse of the potential tone for the second quarter. Citigroup profits rose seven per cent, a slight beat on the back of a lower-than-expected tax rate.
“I think the market’s calling it a low-quality beat,” said Mike Archibald, Associate Portfolio Manager with AGF Investments Inc. Citigroup’s weaker trading revenues and slightly lower-than forecast margins put a little pressure on financials globally, including in Canada.
“I think the market’s sort of digesting that and trying to figure out what that means for the rest of the week,” he said. Several other large financial groups report in the coming days, including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, culminating in about 12 per cent of the S&P 500 reporting over the week. That will be followed by 30 per cent next week and another 30 per cent the following week. The S&P 500 is expected to decline about two per cent in the quarter from a year ago and then be flat in the third quarter.
“So we are getting into a bit of a soft patch here with respect to earnings growth and ...investors should be focusing their attention on stocks and sectors that have decent growth and that’s why you’re seeing information technology lead so aggressively today,” Archibald added in an interview. The sign of a slowing global economy was also seen in data from China that said its economic growth was limited to 6.2 per cent in June, the lowest level in at least 26 years.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 22.70 points to 16,510.82, after reaching an intraday high of 16,524.51. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 27.13 points at 27,359.16 after hitting a record 27,364.69 earlier in the session. The S&P 500 index closed up 0.53 of a point to 3,014.30 after setting a record at 3,017.80 while the Nasdaq composite was up 14.04 points at 8,258.19 and 8,264.78 as an intraday high. The Canadian dollar traded for an average of 76.69 cents US compared with an average of 76.70 cents US on Friday. Archibald sees the loonie likely appreciating over the next couple of months to the benefit of Canadian travellers.
A TGV high-speed train arrives at the
Seniors
A look back
Mrs. McGinley (Amy Newman) plays a penny whistle in Barkerville on Saturday afternoon at Barkerville in Wells.
ABOVE LEFT: Wearing matching hats, Arisa Steiger, 9, and Rylan Steiger, 12, both from Kamloops, try their hand at panning for gold on Saturday in Barkerville.
ABOVE RIGHT: A view of Barkerville from atop a Barnards’ Express stagecoach.
BELOW LEFT: George Wallace (Chris Cooley) sets type in the Cariboo Sentinel newspaper office.
BELOW RIGHT: A blacksmith hammers out a red-hot piece of iron at the Cameron and Ames Blacksmiths shop.
Group delivers baby dolls to Alzheimer’s patients
Cathy FREE Special to The Washington Post
Almost 15 years ago, Sandy Cambron noticed her mother-inlaw, Pearl Walker, had become withdrawn and quiet after she moved into a nursing home for Alzheimer’s patients in Shepherdsville, Ky.
“We tried everything – photo albums, old stories – but nothing worked,” she said.
“It was really hard on everyone to see how she had changed.”
Then one day while Cambron was in a toy store, she had an idea: Why not give Pearl a baby doll so she could feel as if she were caring for something again? While she was at it, why not give one to all the other care centre residents?
The plan worked. As soon as Cambron gave Pearl the doll, wrapped in a soft pink blanket, her mother-in-law’s face lighted up.
“She started talking again and she never went anywhere without that baby,” said Cambron.
“She took ‘baby’ to the dining room with her and slept with her in her arms every night. When she passed away a year later, we even buried her with that well-loved baby doll.”
In the following decade, Cambron and her husband, Wayne Cambron, continued to buy dozens of dolls in Pearl’s memory, dressing them in cute footie pajamas and handing them out to residents of care centres near
their home in Shepherdsville every Christmas, instead of giving gifts to each other.
Now Pearl’s Memory Babies is a nonprofit that has donated more than 300 dolls to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia at nursing homes throughout western Kentucky and southern Indiana since February 2018.
The Cambrons started the charity with help from Shannon Gray Blair, a co-worker at the optometry store and clinic where Sandy Cambron once worked.
“When Sandy offered to give a doll to my mom, who had Alzheimer’s, I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of,” said Blair, 47.
She knew it again last year after she posted Valentine’s Day photos on Facebook of seniors reacting to a batch of dolls she and Cambron delivered to a local nursing home.
The post went viral overnight with more than 210,000 shares.
“Just like that, we had a new hobby,” said Cambron, 71, whose home has been overtaken with baby dolls, infant clothing, fleece blankets and diapers, along with stuffed “therapy” animals for seniors who once owned pets and who might prefer to have a dog or cat.
With almost $15,000 donated to the cause through GoFundMe, Cambron, who is now retired, spends a lot of time shopping for dolls, onesies and baby caps.
“I had no idea that it would take off like this. It’s a simple idea, but
it works,” she said.
“Some people cry when you hand them their baby. Even though we don’t know exactly what they’re thinking, you can tell that the doll has helped bring back some kind of nice memory.”
When Alzheimer’s patients hold their dolls close, they receive therapy and comfort in a way that cannot be measured, said Elise Hinchman of Sayre Christian Village, a nonprofit retirement community in Lexington, Ky.
“It’s overwhelming to see how they naturally fall into a rhythm of swaying, rocking and cooing,” said Hinchman, the marketing and development director at Sayre Christian Village.
“The way they light up is like taking a step back in time. You can imagine them holding their own children.”
While dementia takes away
memories, it does not rob people of their ability to love, she said.
“They are still mom or dad inside,” Hinchman said.
“Some residents feel a real purpose in taking care of their babies because it is ‘important’ work. That nurturing instinct is so innate, and the doll babies bring back fond memories of long ago.”
Workers’ eyes filled with happy tears at the retirement community on June 19, when Cambron and Blair wheeled in several bright red wagons loaded with 41 dolls and stuffed animals.
“Delivery day was something I’ll never forget,” said Karen Venis, executive director at Sayre Christian Village, where 60 per cent of the residents are at or below the poverty level.
“After selecting the perfect baby for the resident, Sandy would quietly lean down and present each
doll baby,” said Venis.
“Those who witnessed it would swear the doll became real before our eyes.” Blair said she notes the transformation that happens every time she delivers a doll. She recalled one woman who received her baby doll while her daughter was visiting.
“She grabbed her new baby, looked at the doll and then her daughter and said, ‘This thing is cuter than my own,’” Blair recalled.
“Once a mom, always a mom. We all laughed at that.”
Helping Cambron with Pearl’s Memory Babies has made the grief from losing her mother to Alzheimer’s last year more bearable, said Blair.
“We deliver these babies, then we cry,” she said.
“It’s overwhelming, but it’s therapeutic.”
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO COURTESY OF SANDY CAMBRON
Pearl Walker with her son, Wayne Cambron, after she was given a baby doll in 2005 as Alzheimer’s therapy. Pearl’s Memory Babies is named after her.
Row,Mary January11,1933-July06,2019
BornontheOxlyRanchinStavely,Alberta,Mary passedawayattheRotaryHospiceHouseinPrince George,BC.
MarygrewuponafarminruralAlberta,near Vauxhall,withherparents,DavidandAganeta Riediger,andsevensiblings.
MarymetJohnRowin1952.Theymarriedin1955 andcelebrated64yearsofmarriageinMay2019. MaryandJohnhavefourchildren;Karen(Bob) Rutherford,Jack(deceased),CheryllJohnson,and Graham(Becky).Theyhavesevengrandchildrenand ninegreat-grandchildren.Predeceasedbytwin brother,Jake,brother,Dave,andsisters,Margaret andKaye.Survivedbysisters,LydiaandShirley, brother,Kornyandmanyniecesandnephews.
Marywasanavidknitterandseamstress.She plantedalargegardeneveryyear,freezingorcanning theproduce.JohnandMarycouldbefoundevery winter,for30years,inPalmDesert,golfingand visitingwithfriendsandfamily.
Marywillbesadlymissedbyfamilyandfriendsalike. Shewasonespeciallady.
AcelebrationofMary’slifewillbeheldonFriday, August9,2019,atPG&DistrictSeniorCitizen’s ActivityCenter,425BrunswickSt,PrinceGeorgeBC from1PM-4PM.Donationsinlieuofflowerstothe RotaryHospiceHouse.
Maria Inez Da Costa March 15, 1930 July 9, 2019
It is with much sadness that we announce the passing of Maria Da Costa after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and a rapid fight with Cancer. Maria was predeceased by her husband Jose, in 1994, and is survived by her children, Suzie (Norman Garfield), George (Tamila), Alvero (Lolly), her grandchildren Alysha (Matt Seed), Jordy, Megan, Ryan, Aaron, and great grandchild Zaylee. Maria was born in Sobral, Portugal, and immigrated to Canada in 1963. She was proud of her Portuguese ancestry but was always thankful to be a Canadian citizen. She lived in Fort Fraser, Fraser Lake, briefly in Hazelton, Terrace, and finally Prince George, where she could be with her daughter. Maria loved family gatherings, her green garden, puzzles, and of course her coffee (and jokingly her 49 sugars). All who knew her well remember she disliked leaves in the Fall as she swept them away with her broom, incidentally snow was a quick second after leaves. Her kindness and great sense of humor will be sorely missed by her family and friends.
The family wishes to express their gratitude to Dr. Javed, Dr. Moran, Sue Pancheck and the wonderful Care Aides at Northern Health, the nurses on the third floor SN. D. Pod at the UHNBC, and of course the exceptional care and dignity she received at the Prince George Hospice Society, prior to her passing. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Prince George Hospice Society in memory of Maria, www.hospiceprincegeorge.ca
A Catholic Mass will be held Friday July 19, 2019 at the Sacred Heart Parish in Terrace, B.C. at 11:00 am. Interment to follow at the Terrace Municipal Cemetery. Refreshments and snacks following the service in the JP Centre at the church.
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