LEAVING HOME Leaving their homes in Parkside, Sask., to board a train for North Battleford in 1942, four of the town’s young men who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force for the Second World War pose for one last photo together. From left, next to the trainman, are Ted Clarke, Leon Roberts, Jim Clarke and David Olsvik For the story of what happened to those three young men, see page 23.
project is the BC Oil and Gas Commission.
Prince George city council has received an update on two proposed West Coast Olefins projects within city boundaries.
While one project proposed by West Coast Olefins has been cancelled, another project remains on the table but is outside of the city’s jurisdiction.
Deanna Wasnik, director of planning and development, explained during city council’s Nov. 8 meeting that the company’s Ethylene Plant Project, which was to be located in the BCR site, has been cancelled and withdrawn from the regulatory process.
The company first announced the $5.6 billion Ethylene Plant Project in July 2019, which was intended to produce polyethene in plastic pellet form which could then be shipped to Asia using the CN Rail line to Prince Rupert.
The withdrawal of this project has been confirmed by the Government of British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office.
However, the company is moving forward with its proposed NGL Recovery project, which would be located on a 320-acre parcel of land on the eastern edge of the city in Pineview.
This project would be divided into four components including an extraction plant, access road, NGL pipeline, and separation plan.
Wasnik explained that although portions of the NGL Recovery Project are located within the city’s boundaries, the regulatory body at this stage of the
The Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) is the regulatory body for the portions of the project located in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George (RDFFG) since the lands in question are designated within the Agricultural Land Reserve.
“Should the ALC support the project components, an official community plan and zoning bylaw amendment would be required by the Regional District prior to the establishment of the extraction plant,” explained Wasnik.
Coun. Cori Ramsay also noted that because the portion of land within the city’s jurisdiction is already zoned appropriately the matter will not be coming back to Prince George city council.
“The land on the city side of the project is already zoned for this and it will not be coming back to council for our consideration, the only piece that is going to local government is the extraction plant on the Regional District side, which they will be discussing on Nov. 18,” added Coun. Kyle Sampson.
Mayor Hall said he’s received a tremendous amount of questions regarding the role of council in this project and highlighted the fact that the land is within the Regional District’s purview – although the Mayor and three city councillors sit on the RDFFG board of directors
“On that board we carry one individual vote,” said Hall, adding that over the last few months he’s heard misinformation that directors have more than one single vote. “We have no more than one single vote per director and I will also say that the mayor does not carry the day. I have one vote as do my board colleagues.”
Know before you go. Check the weather forecast regularly to dress or drive for conditions. Stay at home, if possible, in hazardous travel conditions.
Equip your vehicle with winter tires and measure the tread depth of tires. Further informationcan be found at gov.bc.ca/winterdriving.
Conditions change. Travel carefully, leave early, and slow down.Keep asafe distance from and do not pass snow plows and de-icing trucks.
The City of Prince George operates and contracts up to 63 snow and ice control equipment to clear and de-ice about 935 km of city streets and sidewalks, starting with Priority 1routes when asnow event occurs. Learn about City snow and ice control priority routes at princegeorge.ca/snow.
Keep informed of parking restrictions at princegeorge.ca/snow#parking, so crews have aclear path to plow roads and sidewalks.
Keep streets clear to allow snow clearing before garbage collection day. Sign up to be reminded of pick-up days at princegeorge.ca/garbage
Subscribeto‘roads’ updatesatprincegeorge.ca/snow. Follow @CityofPG on Facebook orTwitterfor updates.
NOTICE IS HEREBYGIVEN that pursuant to section 127 of the Community Charter,Prince George City Council hasestablished the date, time,and place of the regular Council meetings to be held in 2022. The 2022 meeting schedule is available for reviewonthe City’swebsite www.princegeorge.ca andonthe public notice bulletinboard located on the 1st Floor of City Hall, 1100 Patricia Boulevard, Prince George, BC, between the hoursof8:30 a.m. –5:00 p.m., Mondaythrough Friday, except statutory holidays.
Forfurther information, please contact the Legislative Services Division at (250)561-7655 or cityclerk@princegeorge.ca.
This is thefirstoftwo (2)postings of this public notice.
DATED the9th dayofNovember,2021
Maureen Connelly,Corporate Officer City of Prince George
realestate@princegeorge.ca. Proposals
B.C. Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN)
Regional Chief Terry Teegee is frustrated by the City of Prince George’s decision to appeal the BC Supreme Court ruling, which allows a tent city on Lower Patricia to remain in place.
The City will be sending an application to the BC Supreme Court to close the Lower Patricia encampment when evidence of suitable housing has been provided by B.C. Housing.
The City said it will also be appealing Chief Justice Hinkson’s ruling to the BC Court of Appeal, and will be seeking financial assistance on the cost of the appeal from the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) appeal fund and other local governments in B.C.
“I’m certainly disappointed that the city of Prince George has decided to file an appeal to destroy some of the homes that the encampments of the homeless people in Prince George,” said Teegee.
“I see it as a waste of resources and money. They should be helping and
A homeless camp, known as Moccasin Flats, located on Lower Patricia Boulevard, is seen in an file photo
assisting many of the homeless in Prince George rather than administering bylaw tickets or over-policing and this is really not solving the issue.”
In his ruling, Chief Justice Hinkson determined the Lower Patricia encampment, commonly known as Moccasin Flats, could remain in place until suitable
housing is available.
He found there was inadequate shelter space available that respondents could access and they would not be able to lawfully comply with the city’s injunction without being in breach of the city’s Safe Streets Byalw.
This bylaw allows for ticketing for
behaviours such as asking for money after dark or sleeping in doorways.
The city was allowed to dismantle the George Street encampment which had fewer occupants. Last week, 20 people were moved into supportive housing and the location was then fenced up.
The City said appealing the ruling will address what the city believes to be “errors within the law” withing the BC Supreme Court’s reason for judgement.
“With the bylaw and this court injunction and the appeal, it really demonstrates that municipalities such as the city of Prince George are ill-equipped to deal with the homelessness issue,” added Teegee. “This isn’t the way to resolve those issues.”
Teegee also stated that although the city is creating more housing opportunities, a number of those beds still have a lot of barriers.
“They have too many barriers and they’re also not dealing with the fundamental issues of why many people are homeless,” said Teegee, citing the mental health and addictions issues that many unhoused people face.”
It shouldn’tcome as asurprise to those of us who live in northern B.C. that this region is critical to theeconomic health of the province andthe country.
By being strategic in unlocking the opportunities Canadian tradeenables, northernB.C. generates profound economic activity related to the movement of goods.
According to the Northern BC Export Profile commissioned by the Prince Rupert Port Authority and the Northern Development Initiative Trust, exports of awide variety of products from the energy,forestry,mining, agriculture, and aquacultureindustries in northernB.C. wereworth over $19 billionin2019 alone. The valueadded by northernB.C. residents to those products generated thejobs, wages, supplies and servicesthat provide the foundation of our local economic communities, from Fort St. John to 100 Mile House to Kitimat.
What may surprisemany is the importance that the Port of Prince Rupert, and the transportation corridor that connects northernB.C. to the world, play in ensuring the global competitiveness of those export products. Importersand
exporters throughout North America and Asia recognize it though, and use northernB.C.’sspeed, reliability,and efficiency as avital ingredient for global business success.
The Port of Prince Rupert moved over $60 billion worthof goods to and from countries all over the world last year
The northernB.C. businesses involved in the transportation and handling of thosegoodsgenerated over $1.5 billion of economic activity in our local communities, directly employed morethan 3,700 people and generated over $360million of wages that circulatedthrough everyone of our northernB.C. cities andtowns.
Theworkforce that makes up northernB.C.’strade gateway is diverse and dynamic. Railroaders,longshore workers,tradespeople, truck drivers, mariners, biologists, technologists, and professional engineers arejust asmall sample of the broad variety of occupations that contribute to its success. On average, people workinginthoseroles earned salaries of approximately $95,000a year in 2020, according to astudy conducted on behalf of the Prince Rupert GatewayCouncil.
The next time you pass atrain, truck,orvessel,orsee a terminal in action, take amoment to appreciate the roles those workers play in connecting northernB.C. to adynamic global economy.Their skills and dedication arecontributing to the ever-growingreputationofthe Port of Prince Rupert and northernB.C. as the most innovative and competitive tradegateway in North America. Aworld classlabourforce, combined with investments in leading technologies, best practice environmental management, and the lowest carbon
emission intensityinNorth America havepositioned this region as Canada’sleading edgefor international trade.
As that reputation grows, and the volume of global trade continues to sustainably expand and diversify,wecan all reap the benefits this serviceindustryprovides.
-Shaun Stevenson,President &CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority
CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen staff
Editor’s note: This story contains strong language. “Smoking almost kills, apparently!” was the first comment from Melanie Porter when connecting with The Citizen after she reached out to say she had a close encounter with a bear.
“Bear licks hooman,” Porter quipped with a groan.
On the evening of Nov. 4 Porter went out to her dimly-lit porch at the front of her Quesnel home to have a smoke.
She was sitting in a deep, low chair, tucked in cozily to enjoy her smoke and look at her phone.
She saw something dark move in her front yard and she thought it was one of the many neighbourhood cats.
“I look up and it’s a bear and I freeze,” Porter explained. “I’m thinking ‘oh, what do I do? What do I do?’ I’m just going to stay still.”
That’s when it comes right up to her.
“And I’m thinking ‘oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, shit, shit,’ and it sniffs me and it licks. my. right. hand.” Porter said.
“And then I’m thinking ‘oh, what’s it going to do, what’s it going to do, what’s it going to do” and then it tries to lick my hand again and it kind of opened its mouth and then (deep breath here) I grabbed my arm back and he kind of backed up and
then it brought its paws up and it looked like it was going to stand up and I was like ohmygawdIamgoingtopickupmyphone and take a picture because who’s going to believe me? And if I die at least they’ll see who the culprit is.”
Through the entire experience Porter, who is a licensed practical nurse, never made a sound.
When the bear was far enough away, Porter retreated back into her house. She didn’t realize she’d left her door open a crack so when she tried to lean into it to open it she fell backwards into her home.
The only injury she sustained from her too-close-for-comfort bear encounter was a sore back from the fall.
After it happened Porter called her neighbour who lives across the street who checked her cameras.
“She said that bear was there longer than I would’ve like to have seen,” Porter said.
The bear was by her front-lawn tree, not 10 feet away from her, the entire time she was outside.
“It was so dark and he was so quiet and stealthy I didn’t see him,” Porter marvelled. “I was sitting 10 feet away from a bear the whole time.”
The takeaway from having such a terrifying experience with one of nature’s most powerful beasts?
Porter said she thinks it might be in the cards to quit smoking now.
The Cummings Road Regional transfer station in Pineview has been reopened.
It had been closed since June to make way for $2.04 mlllion worth of work that included improvements to traffic flow and more access points to increase safety for site users, haulers and staff.
“Previously, the transfer station infrastructure was outdated and no longer accommodated the demands residents put on the site.
“It had outgrown its design, resulting in traffic jams, safety concerns and
limited recycling opportunities,” the Fraser-Fort George Regional District said in a statement.
The FFGRD is in the process of defining the catchment area for the considered implementation of pass cards in 2022. Currently there is no charge to residents dropping off recycling items and this will continue when pass cards are implemented, officials said.
Funding for the work came from the Canada Community-Building Fund, which in turn is funded by the federal gas tax and administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
NIELSEN Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A Prince George man has been sentenced to a further two years and one month in jail for possessing a mixture of deadly opioids as well as cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
In all, Keith Christopher Lundy, 43, was sentenced to five years less credit of two years 11 months for time in custody prior to sentencing.
Defence counsel had been seeking two years less a day plus a term of probation while Crown had argued for seven years, both less credit for time served.
The outcome, issued by provincial court judge Susan Mengering, stems from a Feb. 14, 2019 arrest.
After a surveillance of a stash house that Lundy had frequented, police stopped a vehicle downtown in which he was a passenger and arrested him on suspicion of trafficking.
In his waistband and pants pocket, police found 21.82 grams of heroin-fentanyl-carfentil and 20.8 grams of cocaine, all prepackaged in baggies for street level sales, along with $80 in $5 bills and keys to a locked safe in a home.
Further searches of two homes in the 5900 block of Montgomery Crescent
and 4600 block of Freimuller Avenue uncovered another 28.38 grams of heroin-fentanyl-carfentil and 127.42 grams of cocaine, plus more packaging.
According to a pre-sentence report, Lundy grew up in a stable and supportive family in Ontario.
He was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at eight years old for which he was prescribed Ritalin and developed a dependence on the pain-killer Demerol at 16 years old when he suffered an injury playing hockey.
From there, he escalated to morphine, other pain medication and heroin. But whether Lundy was using heroin at the time of his arrest was unclear.
Mengering noted no paraphernalia associated with drug use was uncovered in the arrest and found Lundy was dealing for profit rather than strictly to support an addiction.
Menge ri ng named a handful of “grottos of misery” where Lundy admitted through his counsel during a sentencing hearing to dealing, adding that he “frequently went on walkabouts in the downtown area, apparently drumming up business among the disenfranchised.”
Lundy had gained release from custody to attend residential treatment centre but left after seven days because he did not like the conditions.
In October 2019, he was arrested on firearms charges and has remained in custody on a detention order since mid-April
2020.
Since being back in custody, Lundy has taken steps to turn his life around. He’s the rep in the “right-living unit” at Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, has taken courses on dealing with addictions and has expressed interest in “giving back to the community” by helping others get off the streets and off drugs.
However, Lundy’s lengthy criminal record, combined with the fact that he was found in possession of opioids well documented as sources of the ongoing overdosecrisisinB.C.workedagainsthim.
Lundy’s criminal record dates back to age 19 and his offending has been “virtually uninterrupted” with more than 50 convictions, including two previous convictions for possession for the purpose of trafficking.
During the month Lundy was arrested, carfentenil was detected in 24 overdose deaths in B.C., Mengering noted.
“Despite Mr. Lundy’s stated desire to remediate himself and live a pro-social life, the gravity of the offence and high degree of moral culpability coupled with the real and pressing need to denounce and deter this conduct in this community, a term of imprisonment of five years less time served must be imposed,” Mengering concluded.
What: PublicHearingregardingZoningBylawNo.2892,Amendment BylawNo.3135,2019
When and Where:
7:30pm,Thursday,November25,2021
Viatelephoneconferencecallandinpersonattendance
ThepublichearingwillbechairedbyadelegateoftheRegionalDistrict Board.
Owner: LesleyMatthews
Proposal: BylawNo.3135isproposedtorezonethesubjectpropertyto permittwoResidential-SingleFamilydwellings.Thepropertyislegally describedasLot18DistrictLot616CaribooDistrictPlan25070.The propertyislocatedat12710HooperRoad.
Anyonewhobelievesthattheirinterestinlandisaffectedbythe proposedbylawshallbeaffordedareasonableopportunitytobeheard atthepublichearingortopresentwrittencommentspriortooratthe publichearingregardingmatterscontainedinthebylaws.
Attendanceatpublichearingsmustfollowprovincialhealthorders. Telephoneattendanceisencouragedduetolimitedroomcapacity Masksarerequired.
Attend through telephone conference call: ContacttheRegional Districtat250-960-4400ordevelopmentservices@rdffg.bc.caforthe telephoneconferencenumberandinstructions
Attend in person: Membersofthepublicinterestedinparticipatingin thepublichearinginpersonmayattendthepublichearingat: Regional District BoardRoom 155 George Street, Prince George BC
Submit written comments: Writtencommentswillbeacceptedby theRegionalDistrictinadvanceofthepublichearinguntil9:00amon November25,2021by: Email: developmentservices@rdffg.bc.ca Hand/Mail: 155GeorgeStreet,PrinceGeorge,BCV2L1P8 Fax: 250-562-8676
Writtencommentsreceivedbefore9:00amonNovember25,2021(day ofthepublichearing)willbepostedtotheRegionalDistrict’swebsite.
Writtencommentswillbeacceptedafter9:00amonNovember25,2021 (dayofthepublichearing)anduntilthecloseofthepublichearingby email only: developmentservices@rdffg.bc.ca
Anymaterialreceivedbeforeoratthepublichearingwillbecomepublic information.
Need moreinfo? AcopyoftheproposedBylawandanyrelevant backgroundmaterialsareavailableforreviewbythepubliconthe RegionalDistrict’swebsiteat http://www.rdffg.bc.ca/services/ development/land-use-planning/current-applications/ oratthe RegionalDistrictoffice,byappointmentonly,MondaythroughFriday, 8:00a.m.to4:30p.m.,betweenNovember3andNovember25,2021. TheRegionalDistrictofficewillbeclosedNovember11,2021.Tomake anappointmentcontacttheRegionalDistrictat developmentservices@rdffg.bc.caorat250-960-4400.
Who can Ispeak to? DanielBurke,PlannerII,250-960-4400
MARK
NIELSEN
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The pedestrian struck and killed last week near the corner of First Avenue and Quebec Street is being remembered as a loving father and hard worker who was working to get his life back in order.
Danial William Warner, 63, was in Prince George looking for a fresh start. Despite facing a lot of mental health issues, he was never one to ask for help, says daughter Kristen Ormiston.
“He was very determined to do things on his own and he was fairly private about a lot of things,” Ormiston said in a telephone interview from her home in Peterborough, Ontario. “He was a very proud man...he didn’t want to be a burden on anybody.”
Ormiston couldn’t say for sure but believes Warner had been in Prince George since the start of this year.
After going through a divorce, Warner had moved to Kelowna from Peterborough about eight years ago to be closer to his parents. By then, his four children had grown up and were out of the house.
When his parents died, Warner headed north looking for work and a place to stay with a long-term goal of heading back to Ontario to be closer tohis five grandchildren.
Warner was a plumber by trade who, according to an obituary provided to the Citizen by his family, could fix anything, worked hard his whole life and owned his own business for a time.
Outside of work, Warner was an avid outdoor enthusiast who loved fishing, camping and canoeing and was known for how long he could hold his breath underwater and how quickly he could build a campfire.
When he was living in Kelowna, he volunteered much of his spare time to the Salvation Army and thrived on connecting with others.
“He always wanted to be a provider,” Ormiston said.
Warner kept in touch with his family. Ormiston said they would converse over Facetime at least once a week and he would call her over the phone occasionally.
“The week before it was my daughter’s birthday, he called to wish her a happy birthday,” Ormiston noted.
They had last talked during the last week of October when he called to say he could be out of touch for awhile
until he could find a way to recharge his phone.
As to what happened on Tuesday, Ormiston said she’s been given few details but is urging anyone who may have information to step forward.
Prince George RCMP are asking the driver of a white Ford 150 pickup truck seen at the scene to contact the detachment but have otherwise remained tight lipped about the circumstances.
Ormiston said she reached out to the Citizen because she wanted to put a face to the tragedy.
“He was a dad, a grandfather, an uncle, a brother, a son, he was a human,” Ormiston said. “He wasn’t always in the greatest circumstances but he still deserves to be recognized.”
officer’s recommendation that all large employers put similar policies in place.
On Tuesday the City of Prince George announced that all city staff and contractors will be required to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 20.
Staff were notified on Tuesday of the policy change, a statement issued by the city said.
“The city’s approach to theCOVID-19pandemichas always been with an abundance of caution and with the protection of staff and citizens the top priority,” city manager Walter Babicz said in a press release.
“Getting vaccinated is the most important step we can take to protect our families, our coworkers and our community and to alleviate the incredible burden our healthcare system is under,” Mayor Lyn Hall said in a press release. “I am pleased to say that every member of council has already taken steps to protect our community by becoming fully vaccinated.”
Getting vaccinated is the most important step we can take to protect our families, our coworkers and our community...
“This new administrative requirement ensures we are continuing to do the best we can to keep our staff and citizens safe.”
The move aligns the city with a provincial mandate for all B.C. public sector employees and the provincial health
Public areas of city hall, including city council chambers, will remain open to the public regardless of vaccination status, however mask requirements remain in effect. The city’s statement said it will accommodate employees who can’t be vaccinated “related to a prohibited ground of discrimination under the BC Human Rights Code.”
designer, said.
“But that target could move,” Anne Laughlin, MiracleTheatre’s producer, said.
On Golden Pond will be the latest show presented by Miracle Theatre for their sixth fundraising production, set for February 2022.
Prince George professional theatre enthusiasts will be happy to hear that familiar actors Billy Vickers and Linda Goranson will take the leads of Norman and Ethel Thayer in the well-known play by Ernest Thompson.
Funds raised will go to The Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society through a sustainable endowment fund managed by the Prince George Community Foundation.
The hope is to raise at least equal to Miracle Theatre’s last production’s efforts that was more than $106,000, which went to the Children of Prince George Fund.
“What’s remarkable about our community is how we do come together,” Donna Flood of the Hospice Society said. “We are very grateful to be working with Ted and Anne (of Miracle Theatre) and the Community Foundation.”
There are a couple of COVID-inspired variables and those include the dates and the venue of the production that sees more than 50 volunteers come together to help with the effort.
“We’re seeing the date to start the performances as a target - we are targeting Feb. 16 for the first public performance,” Ted Price, Miracle Theatre’s director/
“And we’re targeting March 13 as the final performance,” Price bantered back.
“But that target could move,” Laughlin replied.
Because it’s too early to tell what type of pandemic protocols will be in place in February, Price said the venue shall remain a mystery for the time being.
Of course, the preference is ArtSpace, the location of previous shows, as owner of the building Owen Lubbers offers the space to Miracle Theatre for free that maximizes fundraising efforts.
Social distancing and audience restrictions might not make ArtSpace a viable venue for the upcoming production and a final location will be announced closer to the date of performances.
Wherever it ends up, the theatre will be dark Mondays, with two shows presented on Sunday, including an afternoon matinee, with the regular performances in the evening all other days.
Tickets are $35, with gift tickets available for Christmas giving. For more information about those tickets contact anne. laughlin.pg@shaw.pg.
Tickets will go on sale on Jan. 3 at Books & Company.
Any business interested in being a sponsor of the production can call 250562-7772 and those individuals who wish to be patrons of the project can call 250-563-6937.
For many, Remembrance Day is intrinsically linked to the First and Second World War. Those massive, globe-spanning conflicts of the first half of the 20th century have overshadowed the all-too-many wars which have happened since – and that is a good thing
Canadian armed forces personnel have been involved in wars, including Korea, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, along with many other dangerous operations. For the soldiers serving in those conflicts, and the people living in those places, those wars were just as dangerous and horrific as the world wars.
But Canada and Canadians haven’t felt the scourge of war in the same way as those who lived through the First and Second World War did. Those of us born in the last 76 years have never experienced the rationing and hardship 92-year-old Prince George resident Doreen Denicola grew up with (see story, page 20).
The families of military personnel serving overseas in dangerous theatres of war have lived with the fear and uncertainty that comes with that But for Canadians living through the world wars that experience was nearly universal – pretty much every family had a son, father, husband, brother, uncle, nephew or cousin who was in the war
Even then, Canada was largely spared direct exposure to the wars.
For Canadians, the fighting was “over there” not in our country or cities or streets Not since the War of 1812 have Canadians seen invading soldiers marching past their homes.
But just because we’ve been lucky for the past 200 years doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen again
The world is in a time of transition. Global balances of power are shifting, and there are plenty of bad actors out there who wouldn’t blanche at using force to achieve their political ends
In addition, as the world’s climate changes and its population grows, competition for the finite and increasingly scarce resources of Earth will increase.
The Third World War, if it happens, won’t look like the First and Second World Wars. Instead of hiding from the enemy soldiers in our streets, we’ll be hiding from the missile-armed drones flying overhead (if we don’t get nuked).
This Remembrance Day we all should pause to remember what total, all-out war looks like and be grateful to those who lived and fought through it – and be thankful most of us never have.
– Acting editor Arthur Williams
The first time I heard about the “plastic island” in the northern Pacific gyre was about 20 years ago Since then much has been written about “plastic material” in our environment and it has come to the fore locally over the last year.
The growth in the consumption of organic polymers has followed an exponential curve such as we discussed last week. It is not doubling every year but it is certainly exponential growth.
The website, Our World in Data, has graphics illustrating this. From two million tonnes per year in 1950, by 2015 we were consuming 381 million tonnes per year or polymers and are likely over 400 million tonnes per year by now.
Cumulatively, we have produced over 8.3 billion tonnes of these materials with 55 per cent having been discarded and only a small fraction recycled. So you would think
AS I SEE IT TODD WHITCOMBE
“de-plasticizing” our economy would be a good thing to do.
But we also want to control greenhouse gas emissions.
That means switching much of our energy production to alternatives suchaswindturbines.Lastyear,3800 turbine blades were sent to landfills with each weighing between five and 13 tonnes, depending on the size of the rotor or the electricity generated.
These blades are made of carbon fibre reinforced polymers – they are predominantly plastic. So if we are going to “de-plasticize” our economy, we will need to stop building wind turbines.
And electric vehicles. And high gas
mileage cars. And smart phones. And computers. And the list goes on
All of which will result in more greenhouse gas emissions
At the heart of it, moving to a sustainable future will require us to consider the complexity of all of the problems we are trying to solve and how fixing one might lead to not being able to fix another
As an example, using pure methane to generate power yields almost twice as much energy per unit of carbon dioxide compared to coal Why would anyone argue against using methane to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while we transition to other sources of energy? And yet, people do.
The crux of the matter is that any environmental issue is a complex problem without simple singular solutions but driven by the exponential growth in population and consumption.
There is a Czech proverb that says, “You live a new life for every language you speak. If you only know one language, you only live once.”
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau got himself into hot water recently due to his inability to speak French.
As Rousseau responded to an angry francophone media scrum in Montreal after delivering an English only address, he dug a deeper hole for himself when he stated that he appreciated being able to live in Montreal for 14 years without knowing French.
Unlike Rousseau and the Air Canada executives who gave him his position, les Montréalaises et les Montéalais understand the value of speaking more than one language.
Rousseau’s comments reflect a common attitude one finds in the
GERRY CHIDIAC
anglophone world: everyone else is supposed to learn English.
Whilethisisunderstandableamong airline pilots and air traffic controllers, there are few other places that benefit from such monolingualism.
In fact, I cannot think of anyplace outside the anglophone world where a person could speak only one language and be considered educated.
The more cynical side of me would say that our insistence on others learning English is a remnant of our colonialist past and lingering linguistic imperialism
Our efforts to force Indigenous
people to speak only European languages had a devastating impact on our country.
It is only now that we are beginning to teach these languages in our schools, and it will be a long and difficult road back from the near forced extinction of these languages.
It may sound self-serving for a language teacher to say we need to study other languages, but perhaps I am simply more aware of this shortcoming in our culture because I have access to the non-anglophone world.
The truth is it is a joy to know another language.
Whole new worlds open up to us when we gain a new linguistic perspective.
New bodies of information become accessible, and millions more people are able to share with us what they know about life.
November is Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAM).
In 2015, IDAM was created by the BC Aboriginal Network Disability Society (BCANDS) and IDAM is now recognized in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, by the Assembly of First Nations, BC AFN Summit, Métis Nation of BC, Council of Yukon First Nations, the Town of Inuvik, and hundreds of other organizations Indigenous people in Canada experience a higher rate of disability than non-Indigenous Canadians and IDAM celebrates their achievements and honours their social, economic, and cultural contributions (see: www. bcands.bc.ca).
IDAM is important to me. I am an Indigenous mother and scholar of Métis ancestry who has been living with a progressive chronic condition (Multiple Sclerosis) for over 26 years. I am categorically “disabled” due to significant mobility impairment accumulation
To publicly communicate my limitations, I display a sign in my vehicle and use mobility aids to support my
ambulation. I constantly self-advocate for extraordinary considerations tonavigateourpredominantlyableist world. As a person that “moves” differently and intensely preplans for everything, my physical realities are exhausting.
However, this is only part of my burden. Overcoming assumptions, stigmas, discrimination, and stereotypes of being Indigenous AND disabled is profound.
Fear and isolation can be as crippling as the condition itself and for more than 20 years, I harboured my potentially disabling affliction a secret.
In public school, university, and some of my workplaces, I encountered judgments of disability as “bad.”
I avoided calling in sick to work and wouldn’t dare miss a parent-teacher meeting, or an important social or professional gathering. Risking the perception of being incapable, incompetent, a nuisance, or lazy, was not an option.
It is important to know that Indigenous people traditionally held different perspectives on persons
Regarding Ted Clarke’s 3/4 page comment on the Lloyd Drive intersection onto Highway 16 – I think he is nuts, along with John Morrison.
Having driven that stretch of road for over 50 years, I can honestly say that visibility is excellent in both directions for at least three kilometers.
I have never seen, or experienced a problem there ever. I know the area well and also know that there is a lot of
Participate in this week’s poll. Go to princegeorgecitizen.com, scroll down to the Community Poll, and vote!
RESULTS from last week’s polls:
Do you support the city’s move to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for city staff and contractors?
(See story on page A6)
● Yes, all large employers should require their employees to be vaccinated. 455 votes, 22.28%
living with disability. Indeed, in our contemporary world, “disability” is a constructed identity that lends to persons being able to access different medical or health services, and be protected under the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. However, within traditional Indigenous views of physical, sensory, psychiatric, cognitive, neurological, or intellectual impairments, differentiation from able-bodied individuals did not exist.
The attributes and gifts one brought to the world did not include a disability identity and one’s relational role in the community always prevailed.
Traditional Indigenous perspectives on disability are an understudied/under-researched area of scholarship, but occasions like IDAM are an important time to reflect on perspectives of difference and embrace acceptance and belonging.
Dr. Rheanna Robinson, PhD, is a faculty member in the Department of First Nations Studies at UNBC. She is a committed advocate and scholar for Indigenous education and disability awareness.
● Yes, people need to be able to access government services safely 175 votes, 8.57%
● No, I support vaccination, but nobody should lose their job over their vaccination status. 266 votes, 13.03%
● No, I don’t support the vaccination campaign. 1146 votes, 56.12%
● Yes, get rid of it next year 253 votes, 77.85%
● Yes, but only in coordination with other North American jurisdictions. 34 votes, 10.46%
● No, it isn’t a big deal and why change it now? 20 votes, 6.15%
● No, it still serves an important purpose. 18 votes, 5.54%
truck traffic; mostly chip trucks that are coming down the easy hill, or about to climb it, going into a passing lane. Those who are coming out of Lloyd Drive have a lot of visibility in both directions onto the highway and people from the highway turning onto Lloyd Drive have plenty of visibility also. All they need to do is open their eyes and possibly wait for a clear opportunity to turn. It is nothing short of stupidity to pull out in front of highway traffic, who clearly have the right of way.
David Dietrich
Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submission should be sent by e-mail to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-562-7453, or mailed to Box 5700, 150 Brunswick St., Prince George V2L 5K9. Maximum length is 400 words and writers are limited to one submission every three weeks. 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 letters will not be published.
: sports@pgcitizen.ca
Don’t feel bad if you’re unaware that Noah Lank is one of the most impressive, hardest-working teenaged athletes this city has ever produced.
In baseball, Lank was the pitching ace of the Prince George Knights bantam team that won the B.C. Minor provincial championship in 2019 on home turf at Nechako Field – the first rep team games Lank ever played during all his years of minor baseball in Prince George because there were no other double-A teams in the northern zone for him to play.
In football, Lank joined the Duchess Park Condors junior varsity team in 2018 and after two seasons of running roughshod over the league he was all set to move up to the Condors senior squad and seize the Friday Night Lights spotlight at Masich Place Stadium when the pandemic hit and totally wiped out the 2020 season.
But that was only a minor blip and Lank continued his development in relative obscurity. He worked doubleand triple-time in the gym, pushing his body on training runs just so he could be in tip-top shape when it was time to give his Condors something they will never forget.
That something was what he showed on the football field last Friday night at Masich in the Condors’ 35-12 win over the Prince George Polars in the PG Bowl final. see ‘HE’S JUST, page 11
Wondering what to do with your leftover turkey?
This lasagnaisanicedeparturefromendless turkey sandwiches
INGREDIENTS
•2 tablespoons oliveoil
•2 onions, diced
•2 celerystalks, diced
•2 carrots, diced
Startto finish:
2.5hours(35 minutesactive)
Servings: 10 to 12
•2 (156 millilitres)canstomato paste
•450 gramsleftoverturkey, finely chopped (you canuse ground turkey too)
•2 (796 millilitres)cansdiced tomatoes
•1 cupbeef broth
•1/2 cupsugar
•2 bayleaves
•2 teaspoons driedoregano
•2 teaspoons driedbasil
•16lasagnanoodles,cookedaccordingtopackageinstructions
•1 (475 grams) container ricotta
•1/2 cupparmesan, grated
•1 egg
•4 cups mozzarella,gratedand divided
•Saltand pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
1. In alarge pot,heatthe oliveoil and sautéthe onions,celery and carrots until soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Addone can of tomato pasteand stir.Add the turkey and cook forabout
5minutes, making surethe meatand vegetables are combined.Add the other canoftomato paste, diced tomatoes,beef broth,sugar,bay leaves, oreganoand basil Bring to aboil.
2. Lowerthe heatand simmer forabout an hour or until the saucehas thickened.Remove the bayleaves.
3. In abowl, combine the ricotta, egg and parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Preheatthe oven to 375 °F (190 °C). Coverthe bottom of a 13-by-9-inch baking sheet with aquarterofthe prepared sauceand topwith 4lasagna noodles.Sprinkle one cupof mozzarella over the lasagna noodles.Layer the following ingredientsinthis order: sauce, 4lasagna noodles,ricotta mixture, 4lasagna noodles,sauce, 4lasagna noodles.Cover with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle on the remaining 3 cups of mozzarella.
5. Coverwith aluminum foil and bakefor about 30 minutes. Remove the aluminumfoil and bakefor another 15 minutes or until the cheese on topisgolden brown. Letcool for10minutes beforeserving
Public notice is hereby given to the electorsofSchool District No. 57 (Prince George) that aLocal General By-Election will be held on Saturday,January 15, 2022 for the office of:
School Trustee–Mackenzie TrusteeElectoral Area –1person to be elected School Trustee– Prince George TrusteeElectoralArea– 1person to be elected
Nomination documents areavailable online at www.sd57.bc.caor in person, from November 9, 2021 to the close of the nomination period, as follows:
School District No. 57,2100 FerryAvenue, Prince George, BC Office Hours: Monday to Friday,8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
District of Mackenzie,1 MackenzieBlvd, Mackenzie, BC Office Hours: Monday to Friday,8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Nominations will be received by the Chief Election Officer or Deputy Chief Election Officeras follows:
From: 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 To:4:00 p.m. on Friday,December10, 2021
By Hand, Mail or Other Delivery Service SchoolBoardOffice 2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George, BC V2L 4R5 Office Hours: Monday to Friday,8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
By Fax: 250-561-6820
By Email:byelection@sd57.bc.ca
Note: Originals of faxed or emailed nomination documents must be received by the Chief Election Officer by 4:30 p.m. on Friday,December 17, 2021
‘He’s just a great player’
Continued from page 10
Lank was the Polars’ worst nightmare come true – a one-man wrecking crew eating up yardage virtually every time he took the handoff from Duchess quarter back Quinn Neukomm – and a monster on defence, where his speed and tackling strength at linebacker was kryptonite to Polar drives.
the gut of the Polars.
Right off the bat
we threw an interception and it was tough but we came right back and just didn’t let anything get us down...
“He’s just a great player overall and in this game you give the ball to your best players and allow them to be your best players, so we wanted to rely on Noah and have him carry the team on his back and he did that for us,” said Condors head coach Craig Briere.
For once, Lank was held out of the end zone, a small victory for a PGSS team that was hoping for another close game against their gridiron rivals.
Unfortunately for Polars and their hopes of lifting the Matt Pearce Memorial Trophy as BCSSFA North Division champions, there were plenty of other touchdown heroes sporting yellow Condor jerseys. Carson Briere was one on them. The Grade 12 receiver fought off an injury and emerged as Neukomm’s favourite target and his three TD catches were a shot to
Euan Murray was also a standout, not only for his accurate placekicks that converted all five Condor touchdowns but he also intercepted two passes thrown by Polars QB Jason Kragt, including a picksix early in the third quarter deep in Polar territory that put the Condors up 28-6.
“It feels pretty good, it’s been a long time since that tough loss in the last (junior varsity) P.G. Bowl two years ago,” said Lank.
“Right off the bat we threw an interception and it was tough but we came right back and just didn’t let anything get us down, we got leverage and just ran with it.”
The Condors earned a bye into the second round of the B.C. Secondary Schools Football Association playoffs and host the winner of Saturday’s PGSS-Vernon Secondary playoff in Vernon.
In the third-place game, the College Heights Cougars defeated the Kelly Road Shas Ti Grizzlies 51-8. Taeman Piddocke and Matt Norberg each scored two touchdowns.
Isaack Slavik and Brayden Adams also scored TDs. Troy Eikum scored the major for the Grizzlies.
Aperson is qualified to be nominated, elected, and to hold office as aSchool Trustee if they meet the following criteria:
•Canadian Citizen;
•18years of age or older on general voting day Saturday,January 15, 2022; •resident of British Columbia for at least 6monthsimmediately beforethe day nomination papers are filed; and •not disqualified under the School Act or any other enactment from being nominated for, being elected to or holding the office, or be otherwise disqualified by law
In accordance with the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, for the 2022 general local by-election, the following expense limits for candidates during the campaign period apply:
School Trustee –Mackenzie Trustee Electoral Area (2) $5,000.00
School Trustee –Prince George Trustee Electoral Area (1) $26,810.48
In accordance with the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, for the 2022 general local by-elections, the following thirdparty advertising limits apply:
School Trustee –Mackenzie Trustee Electoral Area (2) $750.00
School Trustee –Prince George Trustee Electoral Area (1) $1,340.52
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the School District No. 57 and the Role of Trustee,please contact:
Diane Nygaard(250)-561-6800 Ext 301 Email: dnygaard@sd57.bc.ca Website: www.sd57.bc.ca
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the nomination process,please contact: Darleen Patterson, Chief Election Officer 250-561-6800, Ext. 247 Sharon Cairns, Deputy Chief Election Officer 250-961-8806 Email: byelection@sd57.bc.ca
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the campaign period expense limits and third party advertising limits,please contact Elections BC: Toll-Free Phone: 1-855-952-0280 Email: lecf@elections.bc.ca Website: www.elections.bc.ca/lecf
D. Patterson, Chief Election Officer
TED CLARKE Citizen staff
If you were one of the hundreds of people who came to Studio Fair carrying donations for the St. Vincent de Paul food bank, take a bow.
You contributed to the one of the largest single-event donations to St. Vinny’s in Prince George history.
Volunteers from the Prince George and District Community Arts Council who organized the three-day artisan show at CN Centre that wrapped up Sunday loaded up 104 banana boxes of non-perishable food items and delivered them to the downtown drop-in centre where St. Vincent feeds hungry people every day.
“We were surprised, we didn’t even know it was taking place, it really was an early Christmas present,” said Bernie Goold, president of the local chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
“Last year (when the pandemic hit), the donations of food dropped right off, but in saying that, people were generous with monetary donations. It really is a gift and it ensures we can send out good quality food hampers for those who are going through challenges. Unfortunately, people challenged by poverty, it’s 365 days a year.”
Goold said some of the donations from Studio Fair will be used for the meal program at the Second Avenue drop-in centre,
which provides three meals daily on weekdays and two per day on weekends.
“We are in awe that we’ve been able to continue to serve 365 days a year and the vast majority of the donations and the
There was no admission charge for Studio Fair, but patrons were asked to make voluntary contributions to the Arts Council and bring food for the food bank. That message obviously resonated through the community.
“I’m absolutely thrilled, I can’t get the smile off my face,” said Lisa Redpath, the Community Arts Council program director.
“I think that coming out of COVID, the community spirit is re-lit.
“There are so many people in need out there who are really having hard time, everybody from somebody who doesn’t have a home to live in, to a single mother trying to raise children. Everybody who came to Studio Fair and contributed to that, it’s just amazing.”
St. Vincent’s sent a van to the arena to pick up the food and it had to make several trips.
Redpath said the Arts Council has set up food bank donation bins at Studio 2880 but never to the scale of the CN Centre setup at Studio Fair. She said that will be part of every future Studio Fair.
“We are going to try our best to break our record every year,” Redpath said.
monetary donations enables us to do that, and we are blessed to be able to do that,”
said Goold, who helped found the Prince George branch of St. Vincent’s nearly 40 years ago.
“I am extremely motivated by how generous the community is in their support for this year. The event went fine and everybody loved it, but the real value is to see that type of support for people in need.”
James(Jim)Hart/7idansuu,ahereditarychiefoftheHaidaNation,isoneoftheNorthwestCoast’s mostaccomplishedartists. Knownforhismasteryincarving,heapprenticedwithRobertDavidson andBill Reid.Harthas createdmanyimportant worksofart in cedar, bronze andgold whichare in collectionsacrossCanadaand abroad.Among themostfamousworks arethe monumental TheDanceScreen(TheScreamToo)inWhistler’sAudainArtMuseum,andtheReconciliationPole at TheUniversityofBritish Columbia.
TheAudainPrizefortheVisualArtsisoneofCanada’smostprestigioushonours.Thisannualprize worth$100,000 is awardedtoaseniorartistinrecognition of theiroutstanding contributions to thearts.Recipientsofthe Audain Prizeare highly acclaimed Canadian cultural icons.Since 2004, theAudain Prizehas been awardedto 18 of BritishColumbia’sleading visual artists, selected each year by an independentjuryofpeers andart professionals.
Booster shots will soon be available for everyone 12 yearsand older in BC, starting with those most at risk. To get abooster shot, you need to be registered with the Get Vaccinated System. Boostersare offered to priority populations first; people will be invited to book their appointment based on age and risk level, between 6and 8months after their second dose.
Youcan’treceive your booster shot until you have received your invitation. Don’tgotoaCOVID-19 vaccine clinic until you have received your invitation. The majority of people in BC will get their invitation in the NewYear.It’simportant to remember that booster doses are not urgent and it’sokayifyou don’tget an appointment for aweek or two or more after you receive your invitation to book. Forinformation about booster shots, visit: gov.bc.ca/booster
What’sthe difference between athird dose and abooster shot?
Individuals livinginlong-term care and those who are who are considered clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) were sentinvitations starting on September 13 to book theirthird doseofthe COVID-19 vaccine. Peoplewho are considered CEV can include those who have specific healthconditions that make them immunocompromised including organtransplantrecipients, variousforms of cancer,and those with severe respiratoryconditions. Forthese people, a third dose is an extension of their primary series of vaccinations becausetheymay have not mounted astrong enough immune response to fighting off COVID-19 after two doses.
A booster dose is an additional shot of vaccinefor the generalpopulation that helps you maintain your immunityagainst COVID-19. Boostersare offered to priority populations first; people will be invitedtobook their appointment based on age and risk level, between 6and 8months after their second dose.
Boosters will be delivered in health authority vaccine clinics and by participating pharmaciesaround the province. As with Dose 1and 2, peoplewho are registered with the Get Vaccinated System will receive an invitation to book their booster shot when it’stheir turn. Don’t go to aCOVID-19 vaccine clinic until you have received your invitation
This yearit’sespecially importantto get your flu shot to protect yourself and your community
Flu shotsare free for everyone in BC six months and older
Usethe Flu Finder page to locate apharmacy offering flu shots near you! immunizebc.ca/clinics/flu
to
10:30 am to 5:30 pm Prince George Conference &Civic Centre 808 Canada Games Way The NH Check-in app willbeavailable.
E.H. ‘Ernie’ Burden arrived in Fort George on March 16, 1910 as part of a 16-person survey party.
“We came by B.C. Express to Quesnel,” Burden said in an interview with the Prince George Echo in 1962. “We crossed the river at Quesnel and from there it took five days on the Blackwater Road to Fort George.”
Burden, who was born in Fredericton, N.B. in 1888, continued working as a surveyor in B.C. until 1914, when he enlisted with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in Victoria He and his unit shipped out to France on Sept. 22, 1915, before moving to the front in Belgium.
He was wounded near the village of Dickebusch (also spelled Dikkebus), near Ypres, on Oct. 7, 1915 – only four days after entering the lines in Belgium. He survived and returned to active duty, fighting in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The following is an excerpt from Burden’s diary from his time on the front in 1915:
Diary from date of leaving England, Sept. 22, 1915
Sept. 22. Left Canadian camp 5:30 p.m., marching to boat with 90 lbs. packs Very hot. Boat sails at 8:45 p.m., reaching Boulogne (Boulogne-sur-Mer, France) at 11 p.m. Marched two miles to St. Martins camp, where we slept in tents.
Oct. 1. March to Basil Seely’s farmhouse and have tea, then travel (illegible) in the tunnels up to the front line. #137 occupied by K.E.H. Germans nearly 300 yards in front. Only C.O. of ‘B’ Squadron present. NCOs, bomb throwers, signaller and scouts. Letters from K.B.S. and B.A. Oct. 2. On guard all night. Quite cold. 2 hours on, 2 hours off. Several bursts of machinegun fire, no shells. Not much doing in morning. Returned to billets in afternoon
Oct. 3. Slept late. No roll call. See Joe Mason and Billie Bush, both in the 16th (Battalion). Packs up at noon, whole regiment. (illegible). Long, hard march. Enter front trenches at Dickebusch about midnight.
Sept. 23. Spent day in camp, drawing rations, etc. Marched down to train at four o’clock. Arrived at Bailleul about midnight, and were billeted in old dance hall, formerly occupied by Germans.
Sept. 24. Spent most of day in billets. Nothing to do. Third day of eating biscuits and bully beef.
Sept. 25. Heavy artillery fire all night, until 8 a.m. Saw several ambulance loads of wounded today Mounted guard at 3 p.m. for 24 hours. Biscuit and bully beef. Most of squadron on fatigue from midnight until 5 a.m.
Sept. 26. Still in Bailleul. Nothing doing. Numbers of wounded passing.
Sept. 27. Got paid in morning. Met F.C. Swannell in street and have lunch with him, but have to pack up immediately. March six miles, in the dark, with ninety pound pack to farm (illegible) Chateau, one hour from firing line. Sleep in wine cellar. Write Kate and Margo, but believe letter not mailed.
Sept. 28. Have lunch at farmhouse. Omelette, coffee, bread, 1 Franc. Packs up at four p.m. and march two miles to billets in huts. Meet a number of the old 30th (Battalion).
Sept. 29. In huts. Very little to eat. Rain most of day. Talk of pulling out for trenches Send cards to F.P.A., Kate and Margo.
Oct. 4. Considerable firing all day. Oct. 5. Bill Woodward and I share a dugout. Cold and damp. Go to farm at night for sandbags, but none there.
Oct. 6. Down to farm again in afternoon Meet M.M. Balsam with Machine Gun Section, R.C.D. Sgt. Major Marshall takes us down, and when returning, a short distance behind us is shot by a sniper and dies instantly. First casualty in old B Squadron. Am back on (illegible) for four hours at night with D.T. (illegible). Quiet. Oct. 7. Slept until noon. Shell exploded overhead, hitting Bill Woodward and myself. 1:30. Stay in dugout until dark, and then are taken BGMR dressing station (La Brasserie) by Ready, Nash, Hutchinson, (illegible), Maitland, Sandy, Sullivan, Bond and (illegible) Very painful journey (illegible) Shipped immediately to another dressing station (St. Eloi) by motor ambulance, where are invalided. Poor old Bill dies during the night.
Oct. 8. Moved to Bailleul and wound dressed. Compound fracture of bone in right leg below knee. In afternoon taken to train and sent off to (illegible). Ms. Perry of Vancouver in charge.
Oct. 9. X-ray of leg taken. Operation in afternoon Feeling pretty rotten.
On Oct. 21, 1915 Burden was sent back to England, where he spent 18 months recovering from his injury. He returned to active duty in time to take part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.
Early in 1918 he joined the flying corps, the Echo reported in 1962.
“I came back to Prince George in 1920 and I’ve been here ever since,” Burden told the Echo. “I practised as a land surveyor until 1935. Times got pretty tough, so I became postmaster until 1953.”
One of his sons, Robert Burden, was killed in action during the Second World War on Aug. 15, 1944. His grandson, Ernest Kimberly ‘Kim’ Choquette lived in Prince George until his death on Jan. 2, 2020.
MARK NIELSEN
Local Journalism Intiative reporter
Ten years after it was revived in Prince George, the Rocky Mountain Rangers light infantry army reserve is still going strong – and so are Rob Pears and Eamon McArthur.
The two were among the nearly 40 recruits who made up the RMR’s B Company when it was resurrected in 2011 after a more-than 40-year hiatus in the city.
Both had previous stints in the military, and jumped at the opportunity to get back into a vocation for which they still had a passion while still holding down civilian day jobs. Pears is a firefighter and McArthur a conservation officer.
“We started doing drill in the back of the ICBC building, in their parking lot in the back there,” Pears remarked.
Within a year, the unit had been given the all-clear to move into the old Meadow elementary school on Dornbrier Crescent.
To use a military term, the building was then “kitted out” to meet the unit’s needs – from bunk rooms to offices to a laserbased indoor shooting range.
But it’s what members of the Rangers have been able to do outside the compound that have kept Pears and McArthur coming back.
“I like doing army stuff. I like sneaking around in the bush, I like pushing myself, I like the challenge,” Pears said. “When we go out in the bush, it’s not just camping.”
It’s not just about crawling around in the mud either. McArthur pointed to the camaraderie as part of the appeal.
“We’re a team on and off the battlefield,” he said.
Beingamembercanopendoorstoexperiences many probably otherwise would never have had, like going to France in 2019 to commemorate a First World War battle in which Canadian soldiers played a dominant role.
TheRangers,whoseAcompanyisbased in Kamloops, has seen members serve in Kuwait, Latvia, Iraq and Ukraine in the last year alone largely to help with training of troops in those countries.
Closertohome,theyhavealsobecomea routine presence for communities in need of help to deal with wildfires and floods.
Being a member can also be a great resume builder, particularly when it comes to developing leadership skills, and all on a paid-to-train basis with new recruits starting at $100 per day.
B Company in Prince George is currently at 60 members and would like to see it rise to 100.
The commitment starts with a boot camp and further training on a part-time basis spread over a year. From January to May, training occurs over two to three weekends a month while the infantry course is full-time during the summer.
After that, the commitment is a weekend once a month and training every Wednesday evening for three hours.
Not everyone makes it through the training but, by the same token, recruits are not set up to fail.
“It’s challenging but it’s designed to be achievable,” said Sgt. Adam Davey. Anyone interested in becoming a Rocky
Mountain Ranger is welcome to email Sgt. Kevin Gaiesky at Recruiting.RMRang@ forces.gc.ca.
This letter, written on Oct. 14, 1945 (just after the end of the Second World War), gives an account of Flying Officer DeVoe Woolf’s final flight. Lloyd ‘Curly’ Woolf met with Ken Mason, the sole survivor from his older brother’s seven-man Halifax bomber crew.
DeVoe Woolf’s bomber was shot down over Belgium on Dec. 26, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 to January 1945). According to CanadianFallen.ca, Woolf is interred at Hotton War Cemetery in Belgium.
Because the letter was written after the war, Lloyd Woolf was able to pass on Mason’s detailed account of DeVoe’s final mission without being censored.
The Woolfs were from Hillspring, Alta., but DeVoe and Curly’s niece, Arlene Dyer, now lives in Prince George Dear Dad, Verna and all, I sure wish you could have met Kenneth Mason, here like I did. What he said would have made you really proud!
When I was with Lynn I got the address of one of the boys of DeVoe’s (squadron) and asked him to get the addresses of all the boys in his crew. When Mable told me Ken Mason was the survivor I looked up his address. It was at Chippawa, Ontario. I havebeenaskingaboutitorhadbeenwith no results, but the other day when waiting at a bus station I heard it called out. So I looked it up and phoned. His mother was the one to answer the phone. She said Kenneth had married the day before and was in Toronto, and that she’d tell him I phoned and I gave her my address. He came up to see me and I was with him for about four hours.
He’s a swell kid, and when he speaks of DeVoe he just seems to be talking of his perfect ideal – and not without cause either I guess.
He said, “Once we were going (down) the Ruhr at about 23,000 (feet) and were attacked by two ‘squirt’ jobs. He said DeVoe was quite a big fellow, had grown a lot in England, said he kept in good shape playing ball and everything. He called him D.V. He said, “D.V. threw that Halifax around like it was a tiger, and in the middle of some steep turn a burst of flak hit near and turned us over and in a spin, going straight down.” He said DeVoe just braced and about broke the controls off, but it kept right on going down. At last D.V. said,
“Get ready to get out,” but he kept right on trying to recover, all the time going down at near 350 to 400 miles per hour. Every few seconds he’d say, “Get ready” and at last they suddenly heard “Okay, I’ve got it.” And they were below 1,700 ft. when he finally pulled out.
Another time he said they had 265 holes in the aircraft – no one hurt, but flak had knocked out the windshield right in front of D.V.’s face. He said DeVoe had never said a word – probably missed a chew on his gun – just right on like nothing had happened – didn’t even tell the crew.
then it was moderate, no matter who said anything else.
Ken said, “D.V. used to keep us in our places – made us daily inspect our guns, do link training and keep in shape
Kenneth said DeVoe was the “gen” man of the (squadron). He said they all, even the commanding officer, took his word as final.
If they were going on a raid, DeVoe “briefed” the whole (squadron) even if the C.O. was there. He’d tell them what to look for, (where) the target was, how to get through the defence area, etc. And when they had been out on a raid the C.O. would wait for D.V. to come in, then he’d rush to him, slap him on the back and get his story – and his story was the official story. If he said the “The flak was moderate,”
He said DeVoe had to do a belly landing or two too and had done perfect ones every time. Once he landed through a fog with no beam or any aids and made a perfect landing. His navigator was good too and the bomb aimer bet some big shots that he could hit more accurately by applying his own winds on (the) bomb-sight, and he went up and proved it. More than once they were the only crew to hit a hard target out of the whole squadron.
On his last flight, Dec. 26, they were suddenly hit on the nose of the aircraft. Three were killed outright. Ken ran up to the front of the aircraft to see if D.V. was OK. He wasn’t. He was hit very badly in the chest and body and could only live a few minutes at most, but wasn’t in pain at all – he was numb. Ken said, “I’ll hold it. You get out.” But DeVoe said as calm as anything, “No. I’m alright. You jump.“ Ken then went back and jumped and
DeVoe followed, but Ken said he knew DeVoe was dead the second he hit the chute, because he was near.
The Germans opened the flak guns on them as they came down and Ken thinks he was the only one to get down alive He says he knows DeVoe didn’t suffer and he knows he was dead when he landed, but he tried to find his body for four days –then he had to give up to search for food. He tried to get through the lines but was caught and taken prisoner.
He had pneumonia seven times, was beaten, and worked hard 16-18 (hours) a day. He’s a great kid.
He said DeVoe surely had a lot of admirers. (Women’s Auxilery Air Force members) used to try to get him to dance with them – with no success. So they used to say to the other boys of his crew “Say, get me a date with that captain of yours.” But DeVoe wasn’t interested in anything but “Ops” and getting ready to go again. He said the ground crew really worshipped him too.
I may go down to Niagara to see Ken again. He invited me down and it’s only 90-100 miles and I’ll have a 48 (hour leave) in two weeks
Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania – Sgt. Kelly Press is a long way from home. Again.
A graduate of Prince George Secondary School, and daughter of a member of the Royal Navy, Press always wanted to join the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
In 2008, she did just that, signing up as an Aircraft Structures Technician (ACS Tech) in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
After completing Basic Military Qualification Training – more familiarly known as Boot Camp – at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Borden, ON, then-Private Press remained at CFB Borden for the ten month ACS Tech course.
This multi-faceted trade has three main parts.
The core part is metal work, fabricating and refinishing aircraft
In recent years, the trade has acquired Life Saving Systems, which entails maintaining equipment critical to keeping aircrew safe, such as ejection seats, parachutes, and survival kits.
The third part is Aviation Life Support Equipment, which consists of maintaining equipment that is worn by aircrew, such as helmets, oxygen masks, and life preservers. As an ACS Tech in the CAF, Press has
Sgt. Kelly Press, who grew up in Prince George, is helping keep Canada’s fighter jets flying in Romania, as part of Operation REASSURANCE.
had many unique opportunities
Two that stand out in her mind are the
time she was selected to stand guard on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a month in 2012.
Press says it was both a great experience, and a great honour.
The second is her month in Japan as part of Operation DRIFTNET.
The operation’s aim is to aide in efforts to protect wild fish stocks world-wide from the threat of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Press found the work very rewarding, and being able to experience the culture of Japan was a life-long dream
Travel is something Sgt Press enjoys, and as a CAF member, she has been fortunate to travel all over the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii.
She has deployed to Curacao as part of Operation CARRIBE and to Kuwait as part of Operation IMPACT.
Currently, Press is deployed from 4 Wing Cold Lake to Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base as part of Air Task Force – Romania in support of Operation REASSURANCE.
This operation is Canada’s contribution to NATO assurance and deterrence measures, demonstrating Canada’s ability and willingness to react rapidly to international crises and to work side by side with its NATO allies to reinforce NATO’s collective security.
CHRISTINE HINZMANN Citizen staff
Painting her legs and using a marker to draw the seam up the back so it looked like she had nylons on, hunting for cigarette and gum wrappers made of tin foil and offering comfort when neighbours got the dreaded visit from the telegram man are all part of 92-year-old Doreen Denicola’s recollections of wartime efforts at home when she was a young lady growing up in small-town Manitoba during the Second World War.
Family has always been the priority for Mrs. Denicola whose address hasn’t changed since 1964 when she married decorated veteran Armand Denicola.
She was raised in a world where the strong family ties that bind were of the utmost importance.
“We’ve always been a very close-knit family and now I am the only one left of the original family and it’s lonely out there – lonely without my siblings – it’s a funny feeling to be left behind – especially when there was nine of you,” Denicola said.
She was a young girl when the Second World War started in 1939 and it was a difficult time.
“The thing we noticed quite suddenly was that our little town was empty of all the older boys, a lot of the fathers were gone, a lot of the other kids’ older brothers I went to school with were gone,” Denicola recalled. “And then all of a sudden my older siblings were gone, too.”
At that time there were about 1,200 people in Virden, a small prairie farming community, in southwest Manitoba.
“It left a big hole in all of our lives when all these young men left our town, especially the young fathers,” Denicola said.
“As you can imagine kids were distraught when their fathers had to go away. All those distraught mothers didn’t know where to turn. Luckily back in those days we helped each other to fill the gaps.”
Everyone would go out to the fields and help the farmers stook their fields. Grain would be harvested with machines that tied the grain into bundles.
“And then we’d follow the machine and stand the stooks up in groups of five or six so that they would dry,” Denicola said.
“The mothers and the kids went out and did that for the farmers because there
were no young boys to hire any more.”
This type of thing was another reminder their beloved young men had gone to war, she added.
“We had to take their place and I remember doing that many times at harvest time during the war,” Denicola said.
“That feeling is something I wish people could get again – doing something a man used to do to help keep life going, keep production going – because if those farmers wouldn’t have been able to harvest their crops how would the army ever eat? It was a funny circle of events.”
The most dreadful part that truly meant war to Denicola was when those terrible
telegrams would come.
“Those telegrams would say that somebody’s son had been killed or somebody’s father had been killed or somebody’s husband had been killed and everybody – everybody – lived in dread of having one of those telegrams come to their homes,” she said.
“Mother would take us girls and we would go to the family that had been affected and try to comfort them and offer help in any way we could. It was dreadful. That was the worst time of all of our lives – this waiting and hoping that the telegraph man wouldn’t come to our door. That’s what the war meant to me – those people were never going to see their loved
ones again and that, in a small town, was very significant because how you looked at it was more like family – everybody knows everybody – you’re all neighbours, you’re all the same. Life was so different for us than children today, we depended on each other.”
Denicola won’t ever forget the telegram that came to their door.
That terrible telegram came when older brother Richard was wounded in the war.
Her third older brother Richard was injured during the 1944 D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy. He was a transport driver and his vehicle filled with soldiers was bombed by German aircraft as the convoy tried to make it inland.
“These convoys were filled with drivers transporting equipment or men and that’s why they were targets of the German aircraft,” Denicola explained.
see GOD IS GOOD, page 21
Continued from page 20
As a result of the bombing, Richard’s entire left side was filled of schrapnel and metal with extensive injuries to his legs and feet. He remained stationed in London after being sent there to recover from his injuries. Richard continued to serve afterwards as a driver to officials.
“Even in his 70s Richard could still shave his face and out would come a piece of that metal,” she said.
Harry, her second older brother, was terribly injured during his training at Camp Shiloh in Manitoba.
During a training exercise, a Thunderflash, like a long stick of dynamite, was thrown by an officer which was meant to go off well past the men taking cover in the forest. It fell short landing in the midst of the young men who were in deep snow.
“When the officer gave the order to take cover the young men were sprawled about like a bunch of puppies,” Denicola said. “The explosive landed beside one man’s head, another man’s feet, another man’s chest, with them all scattered on the ground. It was February and there was deep snow. Harry was the only one that had not taken cover.”
Trying to kick it away from all the other boys was of no use so Harry picked up the Thunderflash, she added.
“Just as he got it up over his head to
throw it, it exploded and took his right hand off above the wrist,” Denicola said.
“So that ended his army career and made a drastic change in his entire life.
You know you have to be grateful and thank God that it wasn’t any worse than it was because he was blind for the first two weeks because of the powder burns to his eyes and he thought he was going to stay blind as well but you know God is good and Harry regained his eyesight.”
Harry always made the best of every situation, Mrs. Denicola was proud to say.
“He determined that the loss of his hand was never going to bother him,” Denicola said. “Harry became a very successful businessman and father and an incredible brother – it’s a strange feeling because I was 13 or 14 when that happened and I tell you it made an impact on me – it made me realize all about strength and courage and I have to say that I am very proud to have
had him as a brother.”
Her two older brothers went to war while her youngest brother, Charles, who was 11, joined the home protection force called the Manitoba Dragoons.
Denicola’s oldest brother Cyril was blind in one eye and Victor had hip issues that resulted in major surgery when he was a child, so neither of them could serve in combat overseas which really didn’t sit well with either one of them, she said.
Victor did serve during the war at the Quartermaster Stores in Winnipeg from which war time supplies were distributed all over the country.
Back home there was a lighter side to things during the war.
“As kids we all tried to do funny little things for the war effort,” Denicola said
“We were all put to work. We did everything. We searched for tin foil – can you imagine? It wasn’t very prevalent in those days... and we’d roll it all into a ball and when we had a big enough ball we’d send it away to be melted down into metal again. Isn’t that weird that we’d think that was important? But it was important –they were searching for metal everywhere to make ammunition for the war.”
Harold Adelbert Dean (April 7, 1894 to Jan. 9, 1984) was a Canadian volunteer serving as a driver with the Mechanical Transport Army Service Corps, 648 Company, during the First World War.
Dean was from New Westminister, B.C. and his grandson, Gary Dean, now lives in Prince George.
Dean left Vancouver on Jan. 15, 1916, and after a brief stay in England, shipped out to what was than the British protectorate of East Africa (now Kenya) and joined the campaign against German East Africa (present-day Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania).
During his time in Africa, Dean was hospitalized twice with malaria. He survived the war, and arrived back in Vancouver on April 2, 1919 – after more than three years away. In other letters preserved by the Dean family, he mentioned that he couldn’t comment on the military aspects of his duties – including coming under sniper fire, and an attack on their camp in July 1916, facts disclosed to his family after the war. On Aug. 22, 1916, he took time to write a letter home to his family in B.C.:
Dear Mother,
As I am having a day’s rest I take the opportunity to of answering a few letters I have received during the last ten days. The mail took a jump during this period and I received thirty-two (32) letters and about 8 or 9 bundles of papers also 1 box of cake, nut-bars, pills, etc. We have been so busy lately I had to carry the letters on my car unread for a couple of days and that is going some for me. I was shifted from the Daimler car to a 5 ton Packard and the mate the sergeant gave me went sick, so being short
I have seen lots of monkeys here as big as a man and the lions got such a bass tone to their voice they often disturb the slumberers of the camp at night. But these things are all right as long as they don’t get too close.
of drivers I had to drive alone for two weeks and it is a very hard job on a heavy car in this country as the roads are so sandy and heavy going.
However the Packard was of that same of quality and I knew I could get through anything or up any hill anyone else could and that helped a little.
When I say that I might add that we have hills here a Ford can not climb so you can imagine us fellows on a big car with a heavy load getting along. Everybody gets out to push and they bring up a car at a time so you see driving isn’t the only exercise we get.
Well, on looking over these letters I see 8 from you and 6 from Mary, also an enclosure from Roberta. In one you mentioned the difference in time between home and here. AlthoughIcannotsayexactlyitisnearlyfourhoursahead ofEngland,makingitaltogetherabouttwelvehoursahead of home, and the hottest weather is at Christmas instead of June. Of course it is summer the year round, that is as warm as Canadian summer.
The fact of all the boys joining up at home is the same all over Canada. I am living mostly with a boy from Perth, Ont. and another from near London, Ont. and they say that all of the boys are joining in that district. Also they tell me every letter they receive, some of the young girls are getting married and from home news. N.W. is in the swim in that line also. It sure surprised me to hear about Jamie and Roy. I didn’t think it possible they were that foolish although I know some funny things do happen.
blotted out, but when a person thinks of the number of men engaged and the method used in this war it is a wonder that so many have lived this long.
I got a letter from Wally in this big bunch of mail and he reports things favourably He mentioned some of the boys being wounded and killed, but said they came out all right in the scrap. He has been in good health all along and is still keeping it up.
Although I should cut this letter short and write one to Mary I think, as there only little news, it may as well all be in one envelope. But I must say here that it makes me feel proud of my sister for doing such a lot of splendid letter writing for my comfort Mary’s letters are good and long and well written and there is a good time coming to her for the work she has done. She told me she got a new outfit on the strength of my salary, but I feel she has earned it so don’t be afraid of letting her have the money.
The time will not be long before Mary is earning her own and I am sure she will there to help any of us that happen to need it.
There are in your and Mary’s letters I have just received inquiries as to the country, climate and such things as these. I think I have explained most of it in previous letters. But if I haven’t I will tell you all about it when I get closer home. This portion we are working now is perhaps one of the most barren and uncivilized tracts in the world. The large animals you read about are all over it, but they can’t bother us much except by their noise. I have seen lots of monkeys here as big as a man and the lions got such a bass tone to their voice they often disturb the slumberers of the camp at night. But these things are all right as long as they don’t get too close. There are plenty of animals dying about the country and the lions don’t have to look to a man to appease their appetite.
On the 11th hour of the 11thday of the 11th month… ’Remember’
I am glad to know my money matters are fixed up at last. That news was one of discussion all the time among us Canadian boys, and most of them got results sooner than I did. However, that is fixed now so it is all right.
I see by your letters and the papers that a good many of the boys at the front will be missing at the last roll call. It seems so sad after a fight of so many months to be
Well, Mother, I think I will close for now. I don’t expect to stay in this country very long now, as the campaign looks as if it were drawing near a close. If we should get back to England in the next month or two I will wire and let you know. Well, I think I will close for now with lots of love to all.
Your travelling son, Harold Dean would remain on duty in Africa until March 22, 1918 when he was put on medical leave during his second bout of malaria. He was transported by hospital ship to Cape Town, South Africa, before being sent back to England. It wouldn’t be until April 2, 1919 that he departed Liverpool aboard a ship headed back to Canada.
TED CLARKE Citizen staff
Editor’s note: This story was first published in the Citizen print edition in Nov. 10, 2001. I never knew my uncle Ted.
Like so many thousands of Canadians who enlisted in the Second World War, the man I was named after was killed in action, long before I was born.
Samuel Edward (Ted) Clarke was the third oldest in a family of eight kids growing up on a farm in Parkside, Sask., a rural community of about 150 people located 50 kilometres west of Prince Albert.
Not long after the war broke out in 1939, the oldest boy in the family, my dad Jim, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and Ted couldn’t wait to follow in his brother’s footsteps. He became an army cadet at age 17 and on Oct. 6, 1941, the day after his 18th birthday, he signed up for the air force
After about of year of training as a pilot in Claresholm, Alta., Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Ted finally got his wings, graduating with the highest marks in his class.
Unlike my dad, who badly wanted to fly overseas but was more urgently needed in Canada to train more pilots, Ted was sent to Europe in January 1942, where he would join his best buddies from Parkside – Leon Roberts and David Olsvik. All three had enlisted in the air force within months of each other as soon as they were old enough. Leon was a few months older than the other two and was sent to England first.
Ted was popular with his fellow airmen in Moose Squadron 419 and in June 1943 he was promoted to flight sergeant. He loved flying but realized with every bombing mission the risk of being shot down was always there. In one of his letters home, he wrote:
“Yesterday we had a horrible trip which lasted seven hours but the good old Wellington brought us home. Can you imagine flying 17 1/2 tons every day?
“I’m eagerly looking forward to the day when this is all over and people can live a normal happy life for another few years.”
Ted grew up in the depression years of the ‘30s when his family had very little money but, as cattle and grain farmers, always had plenty to eat. People arrived in Parkside on the train looking for work and Ted, with his gregarious and generous nature, had a knack for bringing home strangers whom his mother fed and boarded for the night. When they left, they’d always go carrying a loaf of freshbaked bread.
As a Boy Scout, Ted went out of his way to perform at least one good deed a day andhelefthisyoungersiblingsinaweover his patriotism when he’d snap to attention whenever ‘O Canada’ or ‘God Save the King’ was broadcast over the battery-powered radio He inherited his mother’s love for music and could sing any song. While overseas, he always sent home half his wages and specified some of the
money be used for a family holiday at Emerald Lake, the place where he’d met his girlfriend Rita Wodlinger. He always kept a photo of Rita in his left shirt pocket. Ted came home for the end of the Christmas holidays in 1942 and stayed until January, when he was sent off to England. The entire school in Parkside was there to see him off at the train station. It was the last time they would ever see him.
In his last letter home, Ted tells of the joy he received when he found 11 letters waiting for him at the base But his happiness soon gave way to tears:
one for Parkside. Bob Roberts had just returned from a wedding in Prince Albert when a station agent arrived at his door and handed him a telegram which said his son Leon’s plane had been shot down over Nettersheim, Germany on Oct. 22.
“Isn’t it funny how in the quiet of evening, especially, one becomes very sentimental. I will tell you this Mum because I know you will understand. I have just been crying like a baby for the first time since I left Canada. I don’t exactly know why, I think it was just to relieve myself. Don’t you think a good cry once in a while does a person a world of good? I assure you when I come home there will be more crying but of joy.
“We haven’t had much work lately due to rough weather. I become so depressed on the ground. It is a wonderful feeling to look out and see those four motors turning, the crew happy and confident and that every time we fly brings us that much closer to our folks.
“For Christmas the only thing I ask is I won’t have to spend my fourth one away from home. Besides that, I ask God that you will all be waiting for me when I come home.”
In one of his letters to my dad, Ted said he felt he was wasting the best years of his life and told Dad he should do whatever it takes to avoid seeing for himself the horrors of the war overseas.
A few weeks later, on Nov. 26, a telegram arrived at the Clarke farm two miles west of Parkside. Ted and his crew were missing in action and presumed dead following a bombing raid over Stuttgart, Germany. The telegram gave the date the plane went down. It was the night my grandmother heard Ted calling to her in her sleep.
The Olsvik family received their telegram which told of David’s death on Feb. 20, 1944, when he had only one or two missions left to fulfill his commitment to the war effort.
Three telegrams. Three lost 20-year-old sons. All killed within a few months of each other, and the small community of
Parkside was left with just their memories.
My grandmother always hated Bing Crosby’s White Christmas because it reminded her of one of the last letters she received from Ted. The song had just come out and he told her they were playing it a lot on the radio.
In a letter my Aunt Betty (Toop) wrote to the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix she told of her mother’s grief in the years that followed the war:
“My mother kept hoping he would be found. She couldn’t accept the fact he was dead. More letters from Ottawa confirmed the fact he wouldn’t be back. My mother was never the same after. She never let go of her grief
“Whenshedied,wefound(Ted’s)letters and those from the War Department tied with a blue ribbon. The paper on those letters was soft from years of unfolding and refolding. How many times she read them over we will never know. They were all she had left of her beloved son.”
Take time on November 11 to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
The fall/winter of 1943-44 was a tragic
Abel Peters, of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, was one of the many Indigenous people who answered the call of duty when the Second World War erupted.
Peters was present at the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord code-named ‘D-Day’, the allied invasion of northern France
His friend and colleague Mike Robertson, senior policy advisor with the Cheslatta Nation, knew Peters well for over 40 years and worked to archive records and interviews from Peters’ life when he passed away in 2012.
Peters was born in Sept. of 1922 at Cheslatta Lake and was one of 10 children of Thomas Peter and Rose Louie, who was the daughter of legendary Chief Louie.
He also attended residential school at Lejac until he ran away when he was 13 years old.
“He always had an amazing inspiration to go see places,” Robertson recollects, explaining that’s what inspired Peters to travel to Prince George and enlist.
He enlisted in the army in 1943 in the 102nd Northern British Columbians and became part of the Winnipeg Rifles.
After enlisting, he trained in Alberta for two months and then travelled to Nova Scotia for final training. He went overseas in September 1943 and landed on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944, D-Day.
“I remember sitting in the kitchen one day and he was talking to me about raising his rifle over his head and walking through that water,” said Robertson.
“He said, all he could hear was noise and bombs and bullets and he knew people were dying around him and just kept walking straight ahead and he didn’t know how he got to the beach without getting killed.”
Then on July 8, 1944, Peters was shot in theheadbyaGermansniperattheCannes Airfield. He received extensive head and arm injuries but miraculously survived.
“He said the next thing he remembers is he woke up in England and there he was in a hospital, and he’d always talk about how nice like nurses were and how they looked after him,” said Robertson.
Despitetheseverityofhisinjuries,Peters was eager to return to the battlefield.
“He was pretty badly wounded, but his
commander came to him and Able says ‘I’m ready to go back I want to go back,” and the guy says ‘No, your war is over Abel.’”
His left arm ended up being one inch shorter than his right arm because of his injuries and he had to have a steel plate put in his skull. He was in the battlefield for only 28 days before returning to Canada.
Peters ended up in Vancouver and stayed at a hospital for soldiers to recover from his injuries. He then went to Victoria to a convalescent facility and stayed for several months to regain use of his arm and strength in his legs.
blacked out a lot but when he did finally make it back to Cheslatta, he recalls greatlythewelcomethathegotback,especially, from his mother He really loved his mother,” remembers Robertson
Native veterans were not treated on par with the white people or the nonnative native people.
Once he was discharged, he found his way to Quesnel to work in a sawmill but a workplace injury to his hands forced him back to Vancouver for medical treatment.
When he finally recovered, he went back to Cheslatta Lake and bought a truck and started a sawmill
“He had a plate in his head, and he
“He didn’t receive a lot of the standard benefits that returning veterans got like offers of education funding or land and all those kinds of rights, but he always received a pension and with that money he bought a sawmill.”
In April 1952, he also served as the translator for the Cheslatta Carrier Nation when Alcan and the Department of Indian Affairs forced people to surrender their land.
“He was always very angry about how they treated the people and when we were researching the eviction and the relocation he was the prime witness we had.”
Ultimately he had to relocate his sawmill to Grassy Plains, where he spent the rest of his life.
He married May Jack and together they
raised 12 children. He later became chief of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation from 19621964 and a Band Councillor from1966-1968 and again from 1985-1990.
“He would always very proudly go to the November 11 ceremony and as he got older, he got more involved,” said Robertson
“Native veterans were not treated on par with the white people or the non-native native people. You know, we did some work here to get medals and recognition, but records were not well-kept for the Indigenous boys that fought There was a lot that we didn’t know.”
Robertson also wrote a poem for Peters called The Cycle inspired by a conversation they had in 2007 while flying from Prince George to Victoria.
As the pair were flying over the mountains, Peters remarked that it looked like the mountains were poking holes into the clouds.
“He was a really romantic kind of thinker and speaker,” said Robertson “He was always thinking and wondering.”
Abel Thomas Peters passed away from cancer peacefully on Aug. 15, 2012 just short of his 90th birthday.
CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen staff
The Royal Canadian Legion’s definition of a veteran is any person who is serving or who has honorably served in the Canadian Armed Forces, the Commonwealth or its wartime allies, or as a Regular Member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or as a Peace Officer in a Special Duty Area or on a Special Duty Operation, or who has served in the Merchant Navy or Ferry Command during wartime.
Nicolas Durand spent six years honorably serving in the Canadian Armed Forces and never went overseas or into combat and he still deserves to be recognized as a veteran.
He spent his years of service in training, doing administrative duties and facilitating battles against wildfires – a formidable foe that took a lot from British Columbians in recent years.
Durand joined the army when he was just 21 years old on Feb. 13, 2013 and his release date was Feb. 26, 2019.
“It was a job I felt I could do for the rest of my life,” Durand said.
“At the time I chose the army because I was feeling goal-less. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go in life, right? I felt if I could just put my eggs in that basket I wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of it – like where my next pay cheque is coming from.”
that is the jump company in the Third Battalion.
“That’s when I officially got my maroon beret and became a paratrooper. So any kind of exercise I was doing with Bravo we were doing jumps.”
In the military Durand had 40 jumps
“So I spent a year in Charlie company, a year in Bravo company, and it took a year to get to the unit,” Durand said.
“So that’s three years of my career right there.”
After that, he got posted to ‘Niner’ Tac, a combat support company where he worked directly for his commanding officer and regimental sergeant major. He was there for the rest of his Canadian Forces career.
“Basically I was a modern-day squire,” Durand said.
Everything to do with the logistics of any operation, Durand had to manage it, from transportation to communications and arranging for meals, he added.
What other kind of job gives you no notice and orders you to go to a forest fire?
That’s what I signed up for and 16 to 24 weeks of my life were at those forest fires two years in a row.
Like everyone, when Durand joined the army he went to basic training He went to Quebec for the 13-week course.
He then got sent to the PAT which is platoon awaiting training and spent a summer in Wainwright, AB.
“Then I got on my trades course, which in Infantry is battle school,” Durand explained. That was another 13-week course.
“That’s where you lose most of the people,” he added
“We started battle school with 50 people and we graduated 16.”
It was a winter battle school so it was really cold, Durand said.
“Once you got through battle school you are qualified in your trade,” he said.
“Then I got posted to Edmonton at the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.”
He was posted to Charlie Company and he was rifleman number two.
“I went on exercises to Wainwright, to Hawaii to train for an international exercise called RIMPAC,” Durand said.
“It was about the logistics of getting food to those 500 people, getting ammunition for those 500 people, where to put those 500 people that made tactical sense,” Durand said.
“So that’s what I did.”
During his service time he was deployed twice to B.C. wildfires, the first time to Williams Lake and the next time to Vernon.
In Williams Lake the school was home base.
“We were also assisting the RCMP with road blocks,” Durand said.
“It was a crazy time. What other kind of job gives you no notice and orders you to go to a forest fire? That’s what I signed up for and 16 to 24 weeks of my life were at those forest fires two years in a row.”
Durand wants people to know that service in the Canadian Forces doesn’t always mean combat.
“Some people when they hear I was in the military – the first question they ask is ‘have you ever killed anybody? Ever been to Afghanistan?’” he said.
“And it’s like if I haven’t done those things clearly my service doesn’t count for anything. If I haven’t done what they see in the movies it doesn’t count.”
He finds that attitude frustrating.
“I still risked my life in training, I saw my friend get shot in a training accident, I jumped out of airplanes as part of my job in the armed forces,” Durand said.
He’s now focusing on a future getting his education at the College of New Caledonia with the education benefit allotted to him through Veteran Affairs
On Remembrance Day, and everyday,we recognize the courage and sacrifice of thosewho served,and continuetoserve, so that we allmay have asafer future
“After Hawaii I came back and at some point I got posted to Bravo company
He’s going to be a plumber.
In 1944, Warrant Officer Ted Studney was a rear gunner in Lancaster bombers flying out of RAF Wickenby, England with the 626 Squadron. The 18-year-old farmboy from Saskatchewan recorded the events of each flight in his Flying Log Book, which has been preserved by his son Shannon Studney who now lives in Prince George.
The following is a selection of excerpts from his flying log.
Oct. 7, 1944: (Ops.) Emmerich (well pranged)
Hit by incendiaries over target, then hit by flak on the bombing run. All but one petrol tank holed. Both wings on fire. Returned to base. Skipper was awarded the immediate D.F.C. (Distinguished Flying Cross).
Oct. 19, 1944: (Ops.) Stuttgart
I was hit by flak before target. Just after bombing was attacked by a JU 188. Due to previousinjurytoleftshoulder,wasbarely able to return fire. (Then) was hit by cannon shrapnel in right thigh. Hits were scored on our A.C. both times. Crashed near base over shooting F.E. (flight engineer) was killed. Rest of the crew were badly injured.
After recovering, Studney began flying
again in February, 1945, as the rear gunner of a Lancaster bomber nicknamed the Vicious Virgin.
Feb. 28, 1945: (Ops.) Gardening in Oslo fiord.
March 2, 1945: (Ops). Cologne.
Well bombed. One Lanc crashed in bridge.
March 7, 1945: (Ops.) Dessau.
Heavy flak and search lights. Bombed from 27,000 ft.
March 12, 1945: (Ops.) Kassel.
Flak and searchlight with fighter activity.
March 25, 1945: (Ops) Henover (likely Hanover)
Was attacked by jet fighter ME 262. I fired 200 per gun and fighter was seen to explode in mid-air. One certain.
March 27, 1945: (Ops.) Paderborn
Well bombed.
April 5, 1945: (Ops). Walcheron Island
Strafed Jerries.
April 14, 1945: (Ops) Potsdam
Heavy flak.
April 21, 1945: (ops) Bremen
Fighter activity.
April 25, 1945: (ops) Bertesgaden (likely Berchtesgaden)
Hit barracks with rookie.
Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, making April 25 Studney’s last operational flight.
If Studney did indeed shoot down a German Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter on March 25, 1945 he joins the very elite ranks of Allied airmen, including Chuck Yeager, who can claim to have done so.
21. Shakespeare’s “King ____”
Nothing more than 23. Bring to trial
Forget
Unadorned
Religious faction
Slapstick prop
Juvenile
Collection of clothes
Rowboat necessity 31. Farm towers
Is allowed to
Comes before
Have a look-see
Fill
Each3x3 box is outlined with adarker line. You already have afew numbers to get you started. Remember: you must not repeat the numbers 1through 9inthe same line, column or 3x3 box.
Loves excessively
Copied
Game played on horseback
Likewise
“____ Done Him Wrong”
Impose atariff
19th letter
Calling 35. Catcher’s catcher
Sharp knock
Barnyard pen
Monday-Friday8:30am -3:00pm •Closed 12:00pm -1:00pm
In loving memory of our brother
Peter Campbell
September 7, 1951Nov 12, 2019
It’s been 2 years since you went away.
Loving memories never die
As years roll on and days pass by. In our hearts a memory is kept
Of the ones we love and will never forget.
God Bless We miss you!
Sandra, Shirley, Terry, Donny, Pat, Suzanne, Jaunita and Carol.
Elroy Joseph Sovic June 3, 1942 - November 13, 2020
My darling Elroy,
Of all the things I loved and miss about you, it is your beautiful, infectious laughter that I miss the most. To find a man who makes you laugh every day is a blessing and I was truly Blessed. I am grateful for every day we shared.
Loving you always, Barbara
In Loving Memory of LARRY PETER NORBECK
Jan. 24, 1945 - Nov. 16, 2018
Softly the leaves of memory fallever so gently we gather them all unseen, unheard, you are always nearno longer In our lives to share, But in our hearts you are always there.
Love, Joan, Dana, Andy, Koewen and Brendyn
I touch your hand - I see your faceand the beautiful geese are flying and callingyou are here - stillVery much a part of my life
Love and memories always, Joan
2x65.5 PGC002355
MCCONNACHIE,DianeLouise
March3,1946-October18,2021
ThefamilyofDianeLouiseMcConnachieannounceher passingfollowingalengthyillnesswithPHAattheageof 75.
Shewillbemissedbyherhusbandof57years,Colin; children,Kevin(Terri),Cathleen(Mike);grandchildren, Melissa(Martin),Michelle(Cole),Riley,Michael,Chris; great-grandchildren,Jason,Meeka;siblings,David,Linda (Roy),Lesley(Bob),Mike(Joanne);sister-in-law,Shirley, Maureen(Frank);numerousniecesandnephewsand friends.Shewaspredeceasedbyherparents,Phyllis (Tom)andbigbrother,Bob.
OurmotherwasborninStrathroy,Ontario,marriedin 1964andlivedinCambridgeGaltuntil1975whenwe movedasafamilytoPrinceGeorge.
Ourmotherworkedherentirelifeleavingherlastjobat LoxxAcademyin2012.Shewasmeticulousatsewing andknittingforhergrandchildrenandgreatgrandchildren.Shelovedherfamilyfiercelyandshewill bemissedbeyondwhatwordscanbewritten. Acelebrationoflifewillbeheldatalaterdate. MemorialdonationsmaybemadeinmemorytoDiane McConnachie,PHACANADA,917-750WestBroadway, Vancouver,BC,V5Z1H8.
2x47.1
PGC002349
LyleEdwardButlerpassedawaypeacefullyintheearly morninghoursofSeptember1,2021withfamilybyhis side.HeispredeceasedbyhisparentsWalterandElsie Butler,hissistersDorisJohnsonandDeannaCummings, andhiswifeSandy.Heisleavingbehindhisdaughter Tracy(Lance)andhissonTerry(Amanda)aswellashis granddaughtersFaith(Cody),Keely,andAshlyn.Lylewill bewellrememberedbyhisnumerousniecesand nephewsandmanycousins.Hewilllikewisebemissedby manyfriendsofthetruckingindustryandhockeyarenas, hisdoctorandthestaffofGatewayLodge. LylegrewupinSaskatchewanwherehelearnedtodrive at15yearsold.Heplayedhockeyandbaseball,raced cars,andfixedvehicleswithhisdad.HemovedtoBC withhiswifeSandyandyoungdaughterTracy.Acouple ofyearslater,hissonTerrywasborn.Lyleprovidedfor hisfamilybydrivingtruckinthevariousaspectsofthe truckingindustry.HealsolovedwatchingtheToronto BlueJaysandreadingwesternorcrimenovels. Lylerequestedasmallprivateservicebeforebeingplaced inthemausoleumwithhiswife.Inlieuofflowers,please makedonationstotheParkinsonSocietyBritishColumbia inLyle’sname.
John Hepwood Feb. 1939 - Oct. 2021
Dearest John passed away peacefully in Kelowna, BC on October 29, 2021. He will be sadly missed by friends and family and especially Mijjie.
Nancy L Bull
August 29, 1945 - November 3, 2021
Nancy L Bull passed away peacefully November 3, 2021. She is predeceased by her husband and best friend Ron. Nancy is survived by her daughter Patricia (Kevin) Headrick, son Ian Bull and her 4 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. There will be no service as per request.
“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and no one will take your joy away from you” John 16:22.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to the Prince George Hospice house.
Celebrate the lives of
with your stories, photographs and tributes
Sophie Evelyn Ogen (nee Isaac) Nagwa’on
Beloved Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Sister, Cousin, Leader, Matriarch
December 20, 1935 - October 9, 2021
With great sadness, we announce the unexpected passing of our beautiful matriarch Nagwa’on, Sophie Evelyn Ogen at the age of 85 years. Sophie is survived by her children Ruby Ogen (Dean), Marlene Ogen, Michael Ogen, Barry Ogen, Maureen Luggi, Karen Ogen (Brent), Reg Ogen (Susanne) and 18 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. She will be deeply missed by her siblings Rita George and family and Doreen Plante and family (Edson, AB) and numerous cousins, relatives, and friends. She was predeceased by her loving husband of 49 years, the Late Mitch Ogen (1931-2005), and son-in-law Robert F. Luggi Jr. (1966-2012)
Sophie is of Gitxsan, Wet’suwet’en and Stellat’en ancestry and held her Hereditary Chief name Nagwa’on from 1976 to 2021, a total of 45 years. Her leadership in the Bah’lats was very influential and Nagwa’on believed in being present for the people at funerals and bah’lats. She felt her role was important to honour and acknowledge people from other clans. She believed in being generous and thoughtful at all times in the feast hall, much like her late father Satsan, former Chief Paddy Isaac. She supported many people in receiving their Chief names in the feast hall and accepted her role of being hired, very graciously. Her main concern was to support families in grief and to show her love to them.
She grew up on the land with her parents - Satsan, Paddy Isaac and Noskalay/Nagwa’on Julie Isaac-Gladue - and with 12 other siblings. They participated in the Bah’lats, fishing, hunting, harvesting berries and medicines, and gardening. She was raised to be very strong in the Wet’suwet’en way of life and her favorite places to be were on the Yintah at Swan Lake, Day Lake, Forestdale, and Tse Zul aka China Knows within Wet’suwet’en territory.
She attended Lejac Residential School for a short period, as well as Rose Lake School and Topley School. She attended the Choices Program with her children & grandchildren in attendance and also attended Elijah House Prayer Counselling training from 1995-1996 in Burns Lake, which she learned more about healing, forgiveness and prayer. She loved to pray and was a very strong woman of faith.
Sophie was employed at Babine Forest Products, Immaculata School, and was a former tree planter. From 1967 to 1987 she was an elected Chief and Council member of Omenica Band and Broman Lake Band, now known as Wet’suwet’en First Nation. Sophie also participated as a Director for the Lakes District Council of Chiefs, which evolved into the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Society. She also participated as a shareholder/Trustee and Board member of the Burns Lake Native Development Corporation. She acted as Elder Advisor to her community from 1987 to the present. She took part as an Advisor with Carrier Sekani Family Services in the Addictions Recovery Program and Heal the Healers Program. The Wet’suwet’en language was her first language and Sophie participated in teaching the language, culture and traditions to the community. The development of the community of Wet’suwet’en First Nation is in large part due to her strong leadership and guidance.
Sophie enjoyed watching animal veterinary shows, the Price is Right, and Archie Bunker shows on TV. She played instruments and loved dancing. She was very creative and made up many Wet’suwet’en Bah’lats songs. She enjoyed the Lake Babine Nation Choir and the Louie Singers as well as playing cards and bingo and travelling with her late husband and children.
Many people remember Sophie through her generosity, her beautiful smile, her warm hugs and her kindness, especially to families in grief. She extended her love to many people who were downtrodden and gave to the many homeless who lived on the streets. Those who went to visit her home did not leave without many gifts being presented to them. She believed in helping people and always told the elected Chief and Council to help the people and “they will never become rich, just by helping them”.
Funeral services were held on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at Immaculata Parish, Burns Lake, BC with Father Ken Anderson officiating. Interment was at Paddy Isaac Memorial Cemetery, Ci’gg’iz, Severidge Road, Duncan Lake IR #2. Bah’lats was held at the Necigh Bey’igh Community Centre at Wet’suwet’en First Nation.
The Ogen family is very grateful for the outpouring of love, support and prayers, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. We extend our appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Michael Graetz and all the nursing staff of Lakes District Hospital. Further, we acknowledge the monetary support provided to the Bah’lats by numerous First Nations communities, Indigenous leaders, organizations and partners of Wet’suwet’en First Nation and their company Yinka Dene Economic Development LP.
August 16, 1936October 16, 2021
It is with deep sadness that the family of Naomi Giles announce her sudden passing on October 16th, at the age of 85.
Naomi was the second of five children born to Mary and Charles Giles. She was born and raised in Prince George.
If Naomi had written her own obituary it would probably have started something like this;
“It pains me to admit it, but apparently, I have passed away. Everyone told me it would happen one day but that’s simply not something I wanted to hear, much less experience. Once again I didn’t get things my way! Please don’t cry because I’m gone; instead be happy that I was here.”
(On second thought…. You can cry a little bit)
Naomi loved life, people and animals. She adored her demon cat “Angel” and it was affection for animals that led her to become a much sought after pet sitter, loved by all types of fur babies. Naomi did not have an easy life but she was head-strong and a fighter. She was hard working, a loving mother, generous to a fault, caring, compassionate and a ‘worrywart’ about everyone and everything she cared for.
Anyone who knew Naomi will attest that she took the old proverb “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” to a whole other level! She loved to fish and never failed to mention her favorite “fishing hole”, Nulki Lake.
Although not a “world traveler” she had wonderful vacations in Cuba and Cancun. Her favorite travel adventure was her road trip to Newfoundland. Naomi spoke fondly of the sights she witnessed and the people she met, especially the Newfies.
One of her hobbies, during her 25 years living in Fort Nelson, was the art of sewing and beading moccasins by hand. She was taught by her friend Mimi and became masterful at it. She got her driver’s license while living in Fort Nelson. She drove back and forth to Prince George so many times she said her car knew its own way. Later in life she took up knitting, crocheting and needlepoint. She created many beautiful and colorful Afghans. She also enjoyed country music, dancing, cooking and gardening. Gladiolus were her favorite flower.
Naomi left behind a hell of a lot of stuff to her two sons who have no idea what to do with it.
If you are looking for music on cassette tapes, an early 1900’s Singer sewing machine, VHS player & movies, a 2007 Malibu with 91,000 kms, an insane amount of pots and pans and enough wool to open your own store you are in luck! You should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch. Tomorrow would be fine (Just kidding.)
There are no buildings named after her; no monuments erected in her honor, but, she would be the first to tell you that she did have the chance to know and love each and every friend as well as all her family. How much more blessed can a person be? Naomi leaves behind a very dysfunctional family that she was proud of. They miss her very much and will cherish their memories of her.
Naomi was predeceased by her parents, Charles and Mary, and siblings; Elmer, Dan and John. She is survived by her children Les (Karen) Anderson, Lyle (Rea) Anderson, grandchildren Dustin, Ryan, Taryn, Daniel, Brandon, Tyler, Kian and great grandchild Yuki as well as her sister Shirley (Harvey), sister in law Janet (Giles), nieces Dana, Tana, Marilyn and Lynn, nephews Wayne and Chucky and her close friends Pat, Olga and Francis
No more pills. No more pain. Rest in peace Mom
A Celebration of Naomi’s Life will take place at a later date.
Margaret “Peggy” Vogan, passed away peacefully at the Rotary Hospice of Prince George on October 30, 2021.
Born and raised in Penticton, BC, Peggy was a long-time resident of Prince George since moving there with her family in 1969. She enjoyed spending time with her family, was an avid reader and travelled a great deal during her life. She loved live theatre, music, the summer sun and red wine.
Peggy was predeceased by her husband Bill, son Terry and granddaughter Lindsay Miller. She is survived by her brother Gerry (Sheila) Morrison; son Bill (Kelly) Vogan; daughter Ginny (Fred) Burnett and several grandchildren and great grandchildren. She will be missed by her special friends John Vincenzi, Willy Gloslee, Val Hart and many others.
As per her wishes, there will be no service.
Donations on her behalf may be made to the Prince George Hospice Society.
Condolences may be offered at www.LakewoodFH.com
August 14, 1938October 29, 2021
Sandor was born in 1938 in Budapest Hungary. He came to Canada with his brother Jeno in 1956 and they made their way to Prince George, BC. In 1962, he met Lillian and they got married and made Prince George their home. Supi and Lillian had two beautiful daughters – Laura and Lynda –and they were his pride and joy! He was a licensed heavy-duty mechanic and an owner/operator Logging Truck driver, retiring from work at the age of 72.
Supi was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. No matter where he and Lillian called home, he was always the cool dad. The kids would show up at the home to see if Mr. Peter could come out and play soccer, or baseball or ride bikes. Supi loved flowers, especially his rose bushes. In 1979, Supi and the family moved to the acreage in Beaverly so his daughters and Lil could have horses. He was always the first to help, whether it was hauling hay or horses, rebuilding equipment, fixing things, or helping at various events. For Supi, if his girls were happy, so was he!!
Supi passed away at 83 years or age. He is survived by his wife Lillian, his daughters Laura and Lynda, son in laws Fred and Scott, his grandchildren Matthew and Regina, Jaymes and Courtney, his great grandchildren Marshall, Delainey and Bryceson. Family was everything to Supi– the only thing that mattered – and he spent a lifetime creating an incredible home and family for Lillian and their family! The family is holding a private funeral service with a Celebration of Life to be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Alzheimers Society.
Mary Westlake departed this life on November 4, 2021 at the age of 102. Mary is survived by 2 sons, Ray (Lois), Prince George, BC and Doug (Jette), Victoria, BC and 8 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren and 3 great, great grandchildren. She is also survived by 1 brother, Alfred (Gerry) Ray, Vanderhoof, BC. Mary was predeceased by her husband, Ralph; her daughter, Lenore Bowman, son-in-law, Victor Bowman and 4 siblings, Stuart, Jim, Bob (Ray) and Doris Flegg.
Memorial Service will be at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Cancer Clinic or PG Hospice Society.
It is with great sadness and heavy hearts we announce the passing of our mother, grandmother, greatgrandmother, sister, aunt and friend, Mary Anne Speed. Amazing Grace piped beautifully through her home on Sunday, October 31, 2021 as she passed away peacefully with her loving family by her bedside
Mary Anne is survived and will be dearly missed by her two children, Debbie (Peter) and Dar yl (Korena); her five grandchildren, Stephanie (Adam), Emily (Linus), Randall, Amy and Ethan; her two greatgrandchildren, Ella and Addisyn; her two brothers, Kenneth (Heather) and John (Lois); in addition, her nieces, nephews and countless friends
Mary Anne was predeceased by her mother Winsome McLeod in 1984 and her father Ross McLeod in 1998.
Mary Anne described her life as rich and full; one in which she believed she got a second chance at 35 years ago when she made the courageous and conscious decision to enter a life of sobriety and recover y.
In her 35-year recover y journey, Mary Anne completed her Healing Touch Practitioner course, skills she later used in her volunteer work with Hospice; and completed a self-master y course in meditation. In her years of recover y, she learned the gift of listening and often said, “when one listens with an open hear t, one can respond with a loving hear t”. The words that best describe our mother are “welcoming, non-judgemental, loving, and accepting.”
Mom/Grams, even though you are not here physically, you are far from gone. Your presence will continue to light the way for everyone who has been fortunate enough to know you. Thank you for waking up each day and choosing to lead with love.
Our family wishes to extend heartfelt gratitude to Dr Heunis, the palliative team (Laura) and Dr Glanville
A Celebration of Life will be held on May 22, 2022 at Mary Anne’s residence. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice and the Cancer Society. In memor y of our mother, our family also encourages family and friends to offer an act of kindness or community ser vice.
Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.bowersfuneralservice.com
1943 - 2021 Celebrate the lives of loved ones with your stories, photographs and tributes on
Everyoneiswelcometo attendandlearnmoreabout theservicesIntersectYouth &FamiliesServicesdelivers annuallytothefamiliesof PrinceGeorge.
PleasejoinusonNovember 18,2021,from12:00-1:30 forour2020AnnualGeneral Meeting.Themeetingwillbe heldvirtuallyviazoom, pleasefindthelinkinthe eventssectionofour website-www.intersect.bc.ca oronourFacebookpage. 250-562-6639 executivedirector@intersect. bc.ca www.intersect.bc.ca
Connaught Youth Centre Society will hold it’s Annual General Meeting on Friday November19th, 2021 from 6-8pm. Interested in investing in Prince George’s youth? Community members of all ages are welcome to attend For more info call 250-561-1467 E-mail: connaughtyouth@gmail.com
with a drinking problem? Alcoholics Anonymous, www.bcyukonaa.org 250-564-7550
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Established Franchise Photography Business Serving Northern B.C for over 35 years
Gross Revenues of $150.000 plus annually from seasonal work
Lots of opportunity to expand the business. Transition support available to the right buyer
Serious Enquiries Only
Office 250-596-9199 Cell 250-981-1472
Established Franchise Tax Preparation Business Mackenzieservicing and McLeod Lake area for over 30 years.
Gross Revenues of $85,000 to $90,000
Annually and Potential to expand revenues in a growing economy.
Transition support available for the right buyer.
Serious Inquires Only
Office (250)997-9003
Home (250)997-5538
Cell (250)990-0152
Aboriginal Housing Society of PrinceGeorge
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
5:00 pm –Via Zoom
Formoreinformation youcan visit our website: ahspg.ca or call our officeat250-564-9794
Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81079321765
Meeting ID: 810 7932 1765 Passcode: 239126
Sudoku
PUZZLE ANSWERS ON SEPARATE PAGE
Annual General Virtual Meeting November 16, 2021 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm 1600 3rdAvenue Prince George Native FriendshipC entre
Membership forms arecurrently available at reception and also on our website at www.pgnfc.com
“Call for BoardMember Nominations” If you areinterested in serving as amember of the PGNFC BoardofDirectors and would like to be formally considered at the AGM, please forwardyour Application for Membership and aLetter of Interest no later than November 12th to Manon Desjarlais, Senior Executive Assistant at mdesjarlais@pgnfc.com. For moreinformation on the virtual AGM, please call (250) 564-3568.
1. Taxis
5. Mega energy unit (abbr.)
8. Single-strand break
11. Combinations of countries
13. Cutting tool
14. Small bay in Gulf of Maine
15. Actress Lathan
16. Chatter incessantly
17. Energy, style and enthusiasm
18. Simple shoe
20. Woman (French)
21. Abnormal rattling sound
22. Able to change
1. Dan Rather’s old network 2. Expression of sorrow or pity
__ fide (Latin) 4. Sign of healing
5. Warm-blooded vertebrate
Model 7. Of or relating to plants 8. Plant of the heath family
Where to weigh something
Internal structure 12. __ Paulo, city
25. Future butterfly
30. Used in cooking and medicine
31. A street for nightmares
32. French modernist painter
33. Dishonors
38. Integrated data processing
41. Frameworks
43. Apply new materials
45. Where merch is displayed
48. American figure skater Lipinski
49. Cycles per second
50. Oohed and __
Dollar Saver lumber operates a lumber re-manufacturing operation in Prince George We currently have an opportunity in our management group for a Sales Production coordinator.
This position is responsible to perform the following functions:
• Co-ordinate purchase of raw material to meet mill requirements
• Co-ordinate Shipments of finished products to existing customers.
• Work with Mill Management to ensure optimal inventories are maintained.
• Communicate with customers to ensure their needs are being met
Preference will be given for persons
• Good computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Excel.
The successful candidate will possess the following qualities
• The ability to deal with customer needs in a calm constructive manner
• The ability to adjust to rapidly changing conditions and developments
• The ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Good analytical skills
The position offers:
• A competitive salary and benefit package
• Opportunity to work in friendly non- bureaucratic environment
Please submit your resume to Frank Skerlak, General Sales Manager at fskerlak@lumber.ca or Bev at: gobbi1@telus.net Only those persons chosen for an interview will be contacted.
PT Clerical Person needed from Monday-Friday, $600.00 weekly. Computer skills customer service skills, some cash & items handling skills, To apply Email: candice75312@gmail.com
Dental Receptionist required for a busy Oral Surgery Practice. Parttime - full time hours. Dental Experience is required. Please forward Resume to:
glynis@ozcanomfs.com
Medicalofficebuilding seekingaprofessional cleanerfor1-2hours/day fromMondaytoFriday. Earlymorningsorevenings. $25perhour.References required.Toapply, interestedapplicantsshould emailtheirresumewith referencesto: medicalofficecleaner @gmail.com
The Prince George Citizen is looking for a freelance photographer. Interested candidates please email lsmith@glaciermedia.ca along with some samples of your best photos.
CLARKFREIGHTWAYS CLASS1DRIVERS-PRINCE GEORGE Class1Licensewithclean driver’sabstractwith6-12 mospreviousClass1 mountaindrivingexperience required.Previousreefer andwarehouseexperienceis anasset.$0.57permileplus $26.53/hr,plusbenefits. Fax604-472-2136oremail jobs@clarkfreightways.com
sale at $ 1150. Contact 250 565 7709 or post @ fpcinc@telus.net
(250) 612-1808 24/7 SUZUKI Bandit 1200, great shape, recent tune-up and brakes. (250)613-5981
HARLEY DAVIDSON
Writing an effective classified ad is easy when you use these time-tested principles.
• Use a keyword. Start your ad with the item for sale, ser vice offered or the job title.
• Use a keyword. Start your ad with the item for sale, ser vice offered or the job title.
• Be descriptive. Give customers a reason to respond. Advertisers have found that the more information you provide, the better the response.
• Be descriptive. Give customers a reason to respond. Advertisers have found that the more information you provide, the better the response.
• Limit abbreviations. Use only standard abbreviations to avoid confusion and misinterpretations.
• Limit abbreviations. Use only standard abbreviations to avoid confusion and misinterpretations.
• Include price. Always include price of the item for sale.
• Include price. Always include price of the item for sale.
• How to respond. Always include a phone number (with area code) and/or street and email address.
• How to respond. Always include a phone number (with area code) and/or street and email address.
REPAIRER’SLIEN LEGALNOTICEUNDER
THEREPAIRER’SLIEN ACT
AsJasonHolloway depositeda2015Ford EscapebearingVIN 1FMCU9GX0FUC51137 withNorthernTrans-AMaticonJanuary25, 2021,onbehalfof registeredownerBonita TheresaMonkand $6453.31foragreeduponrepairsremains dueandunpaid,wewill offerthevehicleforsale tothepublicbybidafter November26,2021. PleasecontactShaneat 250-562-1744inorder tovieworplaceabid.
Notice of Abandonment
This legal notice of intent is directed to Owen Pitcher & Margaret Pitcher (of 8710 Peterson Road, Prince George, BC, V2K 5L7).
ICBC registered owner of the: 1960 Ford F100 Truck VIN # F10J0R31940. I wish to notify you of my intention to transfer ownership into my name: Edward Smith of 5931 Leland Road, Prince George, BC, V2N 6J2 (250964-0431). If this vehicle is not removed from my property within 30 days of this publication Should you wish to retrieve this truck, which is abandoned on my property since January 1st of 1981, you will need to pay $5,000 for storage and notification costs. Contact me at the above phone number should you have any questions or objections concerning the transfer of ownership of this truck.
By virtue of the Warehouseman’s Lien Act
KINGSWAY BAILIFF SERVICE will dispose of:
1) 2006 SUZUKI M/C VIN# JS1GN7DA162103561
Debtor RO: AARON KNORR
Amount owed: $40,000.00
2) 2017 Toyota Tacoma VIN# 5TFDZ5BNXHX018778
Debtor RO: BRADELY JIMMIE
Amount owed: $20,000.00
3) 2011 Chevrolet Cruze VIN# 1G1PG5S90B7104168
Debtor RO: Bobby Lyndsey Margaret
Amount owed: $31,000.00
4) 2017 Toyota Tacoma VIN#1B3CB4HA4AD547232
Debtor RO: Gelsinger Randolph, Yes Plan Auto Finance Inc.
Amount owed: $17,000.00
5) 2015 Dodge Caravan VIN#2C4RDGBG3FR735584
Debtor RO: Burgemaster Danielle, IA Auto Finance Amount owed: $11,000.00
6) 2014 Jeep Compass VIN#1C4NJDAB8ED566174
Debtor RO: Jolenne Sam, Bank of Montreal
Amount owed: $12,000.00
Due to Covid-19, viewing will be by Appointment Only. Units can be viewed online at: https://kingswaybailiff.com/car-gallery/ All email written bids to Kingsway Bailiff Service by November 25, 2021 at: info@kingswaybailiff.com www.KingswayBailiff.com
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON FOR THE COUNTY OF WASCO IN THE UNITED STATES
In the Matter of: Kitty Neill, Trustee of the Frances A. Bardenhagen Revocable Living Trust and the Bardenhagen Family Trust , Plaintiff, vs. All Persons Unknown Claiming any Legal or Right, Title or Equitable Interest in the Real Property Described in the Complaint, Defendant.
Case No.: 21CV39220
SUMMONS FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION
Kitty Neill has filed a civil case asking the court to order Quiet Title regarding property particularly described as follows: Northwesterly 20’ of Lot 3, Block A, Van Vactor Terrace Addition, in County of Wasco State of Oregon
NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: READ CAREFULLY!
You must “appear” in this case or the other side will win automatically. To “appear,” you must file a legal response, Answer, or Motion Forms may be available through the court above or online at www.courts.oregon.gov/forms Talk to a lawyer for information about appearing by motion.
Your response must be filed with the court named above within 45 days of the date of first publication (noted below), along with the required filing fee (go to www.courts. oregon.gov for fee information.) It must be in proper form You must show that the other party’s lawyer (or the party if they do not have a lawyer) was formerly served with a copy of your response according to the service rules. Service rules are in the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure (ORCP) Rule 9. If you have questions, see a lawyer immediately If you need help finding a lawyer, you can call the Oregon State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service at 503-684-3763 or toll free in Oregon at 800-452-7636, or go to www.oregonstatebar.org.
Dated and first Published October 21, 2021 /s/ Kristen A Campbell, OSB #135998, Attorney for Plaintiff P.O. Box 2449, The Dalles, OR 97058; Phone: 541-371-5585; Email: kcampbell@campbellphillipslaw.com
Are you looking for ways to cut down on the amount of power you use at home? If so, here are some tips that will allow you to more efficiently light your home
Choose light colours for the walls. White reflects up to 80 per cent of the light in a room, while black only reflects 10 per cent. This means that lighter rooms need less lighting to illuminate them than darker ones
Another trick is to place your table and standing lamps in corners so that the light reflects off two walls at once.
Choose lightbulbs that are just powerful enough for the activities you plan to do in a given area. A needlessly powerful light will waste energy
Avoid linking more than one light to a single switch and install dimmers to control the intensity of each fixture. It’s also a good idea to equip outside lights with
motion detectors or timers Finally, turn off every light when going to bed, leaving a room or heading out.
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and light-emitting diodes (LED) use less energy than standard halogen lights (respectively 75 and 90 per cent less). They also last a lot longer.
When buying bulbs, make sure to look for the best lumen-to-watt ratio A better ratio means that the bulb will provide more light while using less energy
Outside, opt for solar-powered lamps The LED light bulbs on them will run for up to 100,000 hours, but once they burn out, they can’t be replaced
When selecting light fixtures, remember that transparent and light-coloured lampshades let more light through than dark ones. In addition, pivoting lamps
Many homeowners are surprised to learn how much energy their electronic devices use If you’re looking for ways to conserve energy and spend less on your utility bills, here are three habits that you should break immediately.
1. Watching television and movies on gaming consoles. Video game consoles use 30 to 45 per cent more power than televisions In addition, running one high-definition gaming console requires the equivalent amount of energy as running 10 BluRay devices You’re better off using your console for nothing but gaming
2. Leaving your electronics plugged in all the time. This is a common habit, but did you know that
many electronic devices use up to 40 per cent of the energy required for their functioning, even when they’re turned off?
Unplugging your toaster and coffee maker after breakfast and removing chargers from outlets once devices are charged will help you conserve energy
3. Not thinking through purchases. Laser printers use nearly twice as much power as inkjet versions Before buying one, ask yourself if the increase in energy consumption over traditional models is worth it Similarly, a 55-inch flat-screen TV uses twice as much energy as a 32-inch model Consider whether the upgrade in size is worth it
The bottom line is that you should evaluate your needs and make purchasing decisions accordingly In sum, to save energy at home you should evaluate what electronics you use and how you use them. Doing so will allow you to save on your utility bills and may even extend the lifespan of your devices.
Televisions, computers, printers and various other devices may sometimes come equipped with a sleep, power saving or standby feature. You can reduce power usage in your home by engaging this function when the item isn’t in use In addition, you can change some settings, such as screen brightness, to improve energy efficiency of the device.
allow you to effectively target the light cast
A buildup of dust and dirt can dull the intensity of your indoor lighting To ensure that the maximum amount of light possible gets emitted from each lamp, keep your fixtures, bulbs and shades clean.
If you follow these tips, you’ll more efficiently light your home and therefore save on your energy bill.
The most popular type of sauna is the Finnish sauna. And for the modest sum of $2000, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of this European tradition all year long in the comfort of your very own home.
Any home can incorporate a Finnish sauna. Once installed, it becomes the perfect place to soothe those sore joints and tired muscles. And by regulating the temperature and humidity according to your preferences, you’ll be able to sit, relax and sweat your stress away.
Traditional Finnish saunas consist of a wood cabin typically made from spruce, hemlock or pine. Inside, seating, stones
and a heater (either wood, gas or electric). Saunas are sold in pre-fabricated kits that you can install yourself. You can also have your sauna custom-built to meet your specific needs, but this option is more expensive. During installation, be sure to leave the electrical connections to a certified professional.
The basic goal of a sauna session is to perspire,soit’simportanttoplaceitsomewhere you’ll be able to rinse yourself off. Ideally, you’ll want to install your sauna near a lake or pond, or in your bathroom if you have enough space. When installing a sauna indoors, it’s important to leave at least 10 cm between the wall and the cabin to allow for good air circulation.
Leave your sauna door open when not in use. This will encourage good airflow, which will help dry the wood surfaces and prevent mould and mildew from accumulating. Clean the benches, walls, backrests and floor after each use to maintain you sauna in the best possible condition. Finally, regularly treat the wood surfaces with oil to protect your sauna from water stains, moisture damage and discolouration.
Your home’s windows are an accessible point of entry for would-be burglars. In most cases, it takes them little time and minimal effort to pick a low-end lock or simply force one open. Luckily, window manufacturers offer a range of burglar-proof windows that will discourage even the most ambitious of thieves from entering your home
These windows are made from either single- or double-glazed safety glass that’s been reinforced with several layers of durable transparent film. This process makes them very resistant, with the added bonus of soundproofing your home at the same time. They’ll help to delay and even debar an attempt to enter your home.
On average, the process of breaking into a home usually takes a burglar between two and four minutes. It can be even quicker if the thief enters through a window easily broken in under a minute. However, it takes more than five minutes to break a burglar-proof window, and that’s using special tools. This added security helps to discourage most burglars, who will likely leave your house untouched in favour of an easier target.
Contact your local window manufacturers and installers to obtain more infor-
A home decorator can be a valuable asset when it comes to decorating your home. However, undertaking a creative endeavour on your own can be extremely rewarding. Here are three common mistakes you should avoid when decorating your home by yourself.
Choosing the right backsplash for your kitchen or ceramic flooring for your bathroom can be difficult The motif you’ve selected looks good on its own, but not so much once it’s laid next to hundreds of identical tiles. A good way around this is to print several larger images of the design you’ve chosen from the manufacturer’s website Lay these copies down directly on your floor to get a better idea of how the overall finished product will look.
Don’t forget to choose your tiles according to their intended use; porcelain is more durable than ceramic, and there-
fore better suited for high traffic areas.
2. IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY
Price shouldn’t be the only determining factor when it comes to decorating your home. Equipping your bathroom with an inexpensive faucet is a good way to save money. However, brass faucets while more expensive will last a lot longer, regardless of the quality of your water. Similarly, big sales and low prices are enticing when buying furniture for your home. But making purchases without measuring first will cause you headaches down the road.
When it comes to decorating your home, keeping it simple is the way to go. An overabundance of small elements can leave a room feeling tacky and cluttered. Instead, have one focal point to draw the eye’s attention, and then complement it with a few light touches scattered throughout the room to add style and depth.
mation about these types of windows. They’ll be able to answer any questions you may have with regards to your current needs. And if you’re somewhat restricted by your budget, think about changing only the most accessible windows of your home,likethosein the basement or on the first floor.
After the hard work of tending to your vegetable garden all summer, you might just feel like letting the garden go. But if you’re willing to spend a day putting the garden to bed properly, your next year’s crop will get more nutrients and a better chance at gro-wing delicious vegetables.
1. CLEAN UP. Pull up all unproductive plants; burn or send to the landfill any infested or diseased ones. You can either leave the dead plants on the soil to be tilled under or place them in your compost heap.
2. ADD COMPOST Highly decomposed compost amends your soil with valuable nutrients. The organisms and insects in the compost will also improve the microstructure of your soil.
3. ADD LEAVES Run over your leaves a few times with the lawn mower to chop them up, and then spread in a thin layer across the garden. You can also use some wood chips or sawdust. The material will compost over winter and improve your soil.
4. TILL OR PLOW, IF POSSIBLE If the season
hasn’t been too rainy and if you have a chance before the ground freezes, till under the organic materials you’ve added to your soil. This will let you start working the garden sooner in the spring.
5. SOW A GROUND COVER. If you don’t mind tilling in the spring, sow a good ground cover that will sprout before the first hard frost. It will add nutrients to the soil and prevent winter and spring erosion on slopes.
Rose gold, also known as pink gold, has gone from being a distinctive element of jewellery to one of the most sought-after decorative metals in home design. The soft and warm atmosphere it creates makes it the perfect way to add a touch of class and elegance to your home. That’s why it’s one of the most alluring and often-used metallic shades when it comes to interior decorating.
INSPIRING DECOR
Rose gold soared in popularity thanks to its use in some of the biggest fashion shows in the world. This timeless hue is now being used to outfit an increasing array of decorative household objects: lamps, trays, vases and even garbage cans. Rose gold is also making its way into home furnishings and wall panelling. It pairs well with a variety of materials including wood, silver and copper. Its graceful and gentle colour can add a hint of luxury to any room.
Rose gold’s main virtue is that it complements any decor and suits any style. However, this metal should be used as a finishing touch; only a few light traces are needed to create a refined allure. Over-using its enticing lustre with too many accessories can have the opposite effect, making your room or decor appear somewhat tawdry and inelegant.
We’re rarely short on ideas when it comes to decorating our homes. But sometimes, knowing where to start can be a little daunting. Maybe you’re looking to update your new home with a look you’ll love, refresh the style of your current house or even stage it to help it sell faster. Regardless of your needs, an interior decorator will be able to provide you with sound advice while respecting your tastes and budget.
There are no defined standards when it comes to interior decorating. Designs and trends change over time, varying from person to person and home to home. Interior decorators are skilled when it comes to blending styles and colours, and are experts at finding those decorative items that make all the difference. They also have a wealth of knowledge about the different fabrics and materials that work well together. They’ll bring a unique and modern touch to your home while adhering to your own personal preferences and tastes.
AN
An interior decorator will be able to help you every step
of the way as you redesign your home. They’ll analyze the different options available to you and suggest the best possible choices for your current needs. Whether it’s establishing a budget, choosing colours and materials, or following up on orders, a decorator will oversee each step in the process to ensure you’re completely satisfied with the end result.
