97/16 - Prince George's Weekly News

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SARA SHAAK COMING HOME FOR FANCON FRANK PEEBLES 97/16 staff

First, Hollywood came to Sara Shaak, then Sara Shaak went to Hollywood, and now Sara Shaak is coming back to explain how it works.

The latest announcement from Northern FanCon is an all local one. One of the special guests anchoring the Creative Corner aspect of the convention was born and raised in Prince George and some say it was Shaak who pushed over the first dominoes that got a film industry underway in this region. Shaak was the city’s inaugural film commissioner and scored the three largest film projects that to this day have ever come to the city to film: Reindeer Games, Dreamcatcher and Double Jeopardy.

Following Prince George, she took on the role of film commissioner in the Okanagan, with more success attracting the outside screen arts industry into that part of the B.C. interior.

Shaak used that experience to launch a career in film production. She has been involved with a number of companies - Trilight Entertainment, Arrowleaf Entertainment Properties, Anamorphic Media Inc. – that specialize in the business side of the screen arts industry.

Her recent credits are numerous and high profile, like the robotic dog comedy ARCHIE and its sequel starring Michael J. Fox voicing the title dog character, Robin Dunne, Farrah Aviva, and more; Welcome To Nowhere with talent like Sara Canning and Chantal Kreviazuk; Cold Brook with its critically acclaimed cast of William Fichtner, Kim Coates, Harold Perrineau and Robin Weigert; the innovative satire series Gamer’s Paradise; the highly anticipated action movie Doorman starring Ruby Rose (Katie Holmes was attached to the project but had to withdraw) and Jean Reno, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura; and the MMA-themed fight flick Cagefighter starring Gina Gershon, Michael Jai White, Michelle Ryan and others.

“The focus of what I’ll bring to FanCon will be on the business side of the film industry,” she said. “The creative elements are covered by a lot of other people, but no project gets to go ahead without financing, and you won’t get a second shot at financing unless your project has a viable business plan and that plan is executed. Business fundamentals in the film and television industry is really what I’ll be there to talk about.”

She could be an aspiring filmmaker’s cold reality check or explosion of inspiration, depending on how practically prepared they are with their hopes and dreams. It is fine to fantasize about being a star, she said, but actually achieving it requires plans and more plans written down and costed out.

“A lot of people have good intentions but don’t have the

97/16 file photo

Sara Shaak poses with the area film guide when she was the Northern B.C. Film Commissioner in 2001.

She’s returning for Northern FanCon in Prince George this May to talk about her career in the film business. solid business model,” she said. “It’s very much a relationship-driven business but you have to be legit, you have to be resilient, and you have to have the plans in place that make sense to investors. Have a very realistic idea of what a budget is going to be. If you don’t have the rich uncle or a golden credit card, can you secure in-kind or cash-equivalent contributions to your project? Can you talk to actors and tradespeople you know about taking part at lower rates for your independent project? And most importantly of all, what’s your plan for distribution? You have to find a mentor to help you cross that gap. And you have to open those conversations with more than just ‘I have a good story’ or ‘I have a good idea for a project.’ It’s a hard road, but like any industry, if you want to get past a certain point you have to think with innovation, you have to work at standing out, and you have to do a lot of homework before you go asking for money.”

The projects to which she is associated have reached across the globe in the “making of” process. Cold Brook did a lot of its filming in Buffalo with some work in Los Angeles.

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Doorman is filming in Romania. Cagefighter is shooting in England. Her office is in Calgary, but her projects could have pins anywhere in the global map.

She even attempted to use Prince George with a recent project. She made a pitch to city hall for some support to have a TV series come here for some filming in 2015 but the officials turned her down.

She was not at liberty then to disclose what the project was but now she can say that it was Between, the teen sci-fi drama starring iCarly celebrity Jennette McCurdy and Jesse Carere from the teen dramas Skins and Finding Carter.

A town in Ontario agreed to the request and the two miniseasons of Between were filmed there instead.

Prince George has another element beginning to boil within its arts community, Shaak said, and that is why she is all too happy to come back to her beloved home town for Northern FanCon. The success of The Doctor’s Case feature film and Geoff & The Ninja television series are the first Continued on page 4

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THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 | 3

KAMERLINGH STILL BLAZING HIS OWN TRAIL SENIORS’ SCENE KATHY NADALIN

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Walter Kamerlingh and a four-legged friend spend time together at his Prince George home. could not believe that there was no one open for business on a Sunday. To me that was strange because in Montreal businesses were open and busy every day of the week.

“I worked five days a week in a lumber yard piling everything as needed. At the

97/16 IS A WEEKLY PRODUCT OF THE PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN

Parents Legal Centre

time they were sawing trees from Brazil.

The wood was heavy and so hard that it took all day to saw it up so that they could sell it by the pound. The main market for this kind of wood was the shipbuilders; they used it as bearings on the propeller shaft. It was said that this

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French Canadian Walter Kamerlingh was born in 1929, in Sainte-Justine, Que., an area about 100 km south east of Quebec City. One of nine children, he was born and raised on a dairy farm.

Walter said, “I was born the same year that the stock market crashed. I always say that it happened that way so that I could show how much trouble I created.

All my life, I was determined to change the way of the world. I feel that I did just that in my own way and I am still doing it. All of that is complicated and I could write a book about my life – but I won’t.

“My father battled cancer for three years and during that time my mother took over as the head of the family. She was a strong woman and supported the family through all of this. She was the first one up in the morning tending to all the chores and household duties and she was the last one to go to bed at night.

Most times she was still up at midnight.

I believed that she was a happy woman because she was singing all the time. I respected her 100 per cent.

“I left home at the age of 15 to work in a very remote – and I mean a remote – logging camp. I was at the camp for six months and we had nothing when it came to conveniences. I returned to the farm and one year later I tried another logging camp in Ontario. I returned to the farm again and later left for Montreal in search of something I could not identify. This is hard to explain – I don’t really know what I was searching for but I spent a good amount of time reading various Bibles, the Koran and the Talmud – the primary source of Jewish religious law which serves as the guide for the daily life of the Jewish people.

“I did not like Montreal so a couple of buddies and I went as far west as Alberta.

We found work with a thrashing crew.

That was going okay until the end of September when we got 18 inches of snow and that ended the threshing season so we moved on and went to Vancouver.

“I arrived in Vancouver in 1950 at the age of 20. I liked the beauty of downtown Vancouver and especially Stanley Park and the ocean. I spent many hours in the Granville and Robson Street area and I

particular ship bearing cut down on the noise and that it was self-lubricating.

“I worked in the lumber yard for nearly two years and I started wandering. I quit the job and I took dance lessons from the Arthur Murray Dance Studio.

“I applied for a job at the Canadian Pacific Railway in the telegraph department. I took the Morse Code training course and passed with 50 words per minute on the key and 100 words per minute on the bug key which is a semiautomatic mechanical keyer; all of this is now obsolete.

“They hired me and sent me to Trail and later sent me to Spences Bridge as the assistant agent. My job was to make up trains from the cars that arrived from Kamloops. Once I made up the trains the steam engine would arrive and pick up the train.

“I missed Vancouver so I quit the job and started wandering again. I joined a gym and spent one day after the other in the gym. I took boxing training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, basketball on Tuesday, lessons on how to shot a revolver on the gun range on Thursday and fencing on Saturday.

“I skied Grouse Mountain all day long (I only stopped long enough to eat lunch) and went dancing all night and all the while I was popular with the girls.”

Walter worked as a landscaper in Vancouver and then moved to Prince George in 1967. He worked for the Common Wealth mobile home company as a service man and made $150 a month. He said he had to work long days so he quit the job and went to the Okanagan to pick apples.

He moved back to Prince George and started Eagle Mobile Home Service and specialized in heating and air conditioning. His was the only company in Prince George that carried the parts that were needed for the work he did on mobile homes and motorhomes. After five years, he sold the company because of all the pressure involved with the business.

He was self-employed and worked on the air conditioning system for Ron Newsom in his building on the corner of Second and Victoria. He also worked for the Novak Brothers as needed.

Walter said, “For the next two years I just lived off the money from the sale of the business. I spent most of my time in the gym at the Inn of the North. Now I just go dancing as much as possible.”

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NOW WE’RE PAYING THE PERILS OF FOR THAT VANILLA SPRING DRIVING CIVIC ELECTION HOME AGAIN MEGAN KUKLIS

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The snow on my driveway has nearly melted and, as is traditional, I have backed into the snowbank and gotten stuck more than once.

I manage to avoid getting stuck in the snow for the entire winter but once spring hits, I stop paying attention and things happen. At least one side of my van is clean(er) than the other because of various close encounters with the snowbank beside my driveway. This was particularly evident on our trip to Vancouver.

In a city that does not have much of a snowfall, melting slushy dirty snow is not much of a problem. They get a lot of rain and all of the cars look shiny and new. They are all clean. Like, really clean.

Some might say, abnormally clean.

Our van was/is not clean.

We washed the van, as do most people, at the beginning of a trip. By the time we hit the old Art Knapps outside of town, it was already filthy and it stayed that way for our Lower Mainland vacation.

The untidy state could have been em-

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barrassing if not for a few facts: 1. We could always find the van in a parking lot because we would be the only grime-covered, silver Caravan rather than the other thousand, clean silver Caravans.

2. We are saving water by not washing the van which is environmentally friendly.

3. The dirt hides the dent that appeared when I opened the passenger door into a rather large rock.

Other than the dent, we escaped our vacation relatively cleanly and had fun playing in the sand and admiring the spring crocuses and hyacinths. Because we drive around so much when we are down there, we were in a hurry to get home and out of the filthy van which may explain the speeding ticket that we received just outside of McLeese Lake (my husband was driving).

At the time of the ticket, my husband actually was not speeding. He had been speeding earlier in the day so it not worth driving to Williams Lake to contest the ticket and we will call it karma. I respect and value our police officers, yet it is hard to take a 20-year old swaggering, puffed-up young man, drunk on power, seriously.

I may have just kept knitting and not shown the appropriate amount of deference as he was peacocking around letting us know that he can give us a ticket based on what he assumed has happened (i.e. we caught up to the car behind him therefore we were speeding). Obviously it is important to not speed, however I have yet to meet one person who does not, on occasion, zip around on the highway when the roads are dry, the sun is shining and no one is around.

For the rest of the drive home, I may have ranted about the injustice of it all and how Highway 97 was turning into a police state.

I wish everyone a safe spring break and remember to slow down – there is a section of highway around McLeese Lake that has turned into the Minority Report and the Thought Police are patrolling.

Officer Swaggerpants is on the case.

If you are even thinking about speeding, don’t.

NOTICE OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given that the 2019 AGM of the Prince George Downtown Business Improvement Association will be held as follows: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 The Hubspace 1299 3rd Avenue Prince George, British Columbia Doors Open: 5:00pm - Meeting Begins: 5:30pm

Downtown Property and Business Owners are responsible for ensuring that membership information is completed by April 15, 2019 in order to vote.

Nominations for the Board of Directors are encouraged.

All forms are available at the DPG office or on our website.

1406 2nd Avenue, Prince George, BC V2L 3B6 250-614-1330 www.downtownpg.com

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The meeting is to be conducted in accordance with the Province of British Columbia Societies Act.

THINKING ALOUD TRUDY KLASSEN

A mere five months after our civic election and already residents are up in arms about an issue that didn’t even come up during the campaign or even during the recent budget approval process. City hall has made the decision to borrow an additional $32 million for repairs, which comes with a very possible 10 per cent tax increase.

Why do the good citizens of Prince George, so quickly after an election, have to pursue options to bring accountability to the management of the city? Can’t the citizenry expect that the budget process will actually include known expenses like repairs to various buildings and roads?

Just who is guarding the interests of the residents already being taxed at rates among the highest in similar jurisdictions? Isn’t that what our elected officials are elected to do? When they don’t do this, shouldn’t they be held accountable?

So why wasn’t borrowing $32 million for repairs an election issue?

To the casual observer, there were no real issues facing the city. Everything seemed roses. The only interesting thing that came up was a last-minute candidate for mayor. Other than that, the whole thing was pretty vanilla.

I think the voter was cheated.

Cheated, in part, because too many candidates endorsed each other. We lost the essential purpose of a campaign, which is the discussion and actual debate of issues of concern. Instead the campaign was too frequently a rather boring display of “vote for me because I Love PG the most-est… but so does incumbent councillor… so vote for both of us” and “I am endorsed by Councillor Fred… and you like Fred so we will all sing kumbaya together!”

We were cheated because when candidates endorse each other nobody pursues issues that may expose flaws.

“If I say something that might make Fred look bad, his people may not vote for me” or “Sophia will be embarrassed if I mention what the city has been doing wrong over the last four years, so I won’t address it.”

The most common concern I heard during the campaign was voters knew very little about the candidates. They didn’t know what one candidate would do differently from another. They felt the election was pretty much a popularity contest, sort of like electing a high school student president.

I realize we have to work and live together, and respectful dialogue is right, but this lack of real accountability and introspection is embarrassing.

Voter apathy comes not just from lazy voters. It also comes from lazy candidates who endorse each other thereby avoiding the nasty issue of accountability for the past or future. And that is not the fault of the voter.

SARA SHAAK AT FANCON Continued from page 1

examples of national and even international eyes tuning in to watch entertainment projects made by P.G. people in their home region using local resources.

When Hollywood projects first came to Canada in significant numbers, it was just to use this country’s favourable tax structures and lower currency rate to make their shows more cheaply. Over time, the investments of money, studio facilities, and human resources grew to the point there was allCanadian capacity to make all-Canadian films like never before (Canada has always had a domestic film and television industry, but it was very do-it-yourself and had many practical limitations).

Prince George is now developing an inhouse screen arts industry in much the same manner.

“I know the guys behind those projects, and they are champions. That’s how the industry gets started, and those initiatives are trailblazers,” she said. “I have a huge soft spot for Prince George, I have a lot of reasons for helping promote the industry there, and I am seeing people expanding to that next level building from within and that is exciting, and it has to have that grassroots effort coming from within the community.”

She noted that in her junior high school, Lakewood (now Ecole Lac Des Bois), she went to class with well known actor Demitri

Goritsas and producer Nolan Pielak of Electric Entertainment, all three of them still in touch today because of their involvement in the international film industry. If one neighbourhood school in Prince George in the pre-2000s could stimulate that much screen arts involvement, she said, imagine what could happen when an event like Northern FanCon does its part to deliberately initiate hands-on knowledge about how movies and TV gets made.

Her main message of advice for aspiring filmmakers, and she will go into it in much more detail at the event May 3-5 at CN Centre, is know where its going before you attempt to go there.

“Your project is not complete unless someone wants to buy it, so who is that going to be? People think too much about the ‘getting it made’ part and don’t complete the thought about ‘who’s going to watch it?’,” she said. “Canada is producing great material. The infrastructure in Canada on the public sector financing side is favourable to made-in-Canada material, and there are a lot of grants available out there, but don’t fall into the Catch-22 trap of aiming your project’s content at satisfying the grants’ criteria if it compromises the project’s ability to actually make money out in the world of the audiences. You have to really think through the business elements, including the distribution plan.”

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THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 | 5

EVALUATION CAN HELP SENIORS WITH CANCER 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

Before she could start breast cancer treatment, Nancy Simpson had to walk in a straight line, count backward from 20 and repeat a silly phrase.

It was all part of a special kind of medical fitness test for older patients that’s starting to catch on among cancer doctors. Instead of assuming that elderly patients are too frail for treatment or recommending harsh drugs tested only in younger patients, they are taking a broader look.

Specialists call these tests geriatric assessments, and they require doctors to take the time to evaluate physical and mental fitness, along with emotional and social well-being. They also take into account the patient’s desires for lifeprolonging treatment regardless of how much time might be left.

An avid walker with a strong network of nearby family and friends, Simpson, now 80, says she “wanted to do the maximum I could handle” to fight her disease. She scored high enough in her 2017 evaluation to proceed with recommended surgery and chemotherapy.

“It gave me encouragement. Then I felt like I am OK and I can get through this and will get through this,” said Simpson, who lives in Fairport, New York, near Rochester.

These tests are sometimes done with other illnesses but only recently have been recommended for cancer. In new guidelines , the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends the evaluations for patients aged 65 and up, particularly before making decisions about chemotherapy. The idea is to find ways to help patients tolerate treatment, not rule it out.

For example, if walking tests show balance problems that chemotherapy might worsen, patients might be offered physical therapy first. Relatives or friends might be called on to help cook for seniors who live alone and would become too weak to prepare meals during chemo. And for those who want to avoid the hospital no matter what, treatment that could put them there would be avoided.

Almost one million U.S. adults aged 65 and older will be diagnosed with cancer this year, the American Cancer Society estimates. Nearly two-thirds of all cancer patients are in that age group. And yet, most cancer treatments stem from studies on younger, often healthier patients.

That leaves doctors with limited information on how treatments will affect elderly patients. Geriatric assessments can help bridge that gap, said Dr. Supriya Mohile,

97/16 news service photo

Dr. Allison Magnuson speaks with patient Nancy Simpson at the Pluta Cancer Center in Rochester, N.Y. a specialist in geriatric cancer at the Unithe treatment by several weeks.

Beverly Canin, 84, of Rhinebeck, New versity of Rochester Medical Center.

The evaluation showed “I wasn’t in as York, became an advocate after declining chemotherapy following surgery for These tests may require 15 to 30 that bad of shape as my age would indicate,” Simpson said. early breast cancer 20 years ago. She minutes or more and recent research Her walking buddy and four attentive didn’t have an assessment, and says her has shown they can accurately predict children gave her strong social support, doctor dismissed her concerns about how patients will fare during and after and she lived independently, doing her harsh side effects and refused to consider cancer treatment, Mohile said. Older own cooking and cleaning. other options. patients who get chemo and have other Treatment left Simpson with hair loss, A 2015 medical report Canin cohealth problems are more vulnerable to fatigue and excruciating mouth sores. authored told of a patient who had the falls and delirium and at risk for losing She knew about the risks but has no opposite experience. The 92-year-old independence. regrets. man with rectal cancer entered hospice “We hear all the time about ‘decision Cancer “gave me a different perspeccare after he declined surgery, the only regret,”’ she said, meaning patients who treatment his primary care doctor recgot harsh treatment but weren’t unaware tive on what is important in life and ommended. The doctor determined the what isn’t and I’m still adjusting to that,” of risks and other options and who say, man would not tolerate rigorous cheSimpson said.

“I wish someone had told me this could motherapy and radiation because of his Dr. Hyman Muss, a geriatrics specialhappen.” ist at the University of North Carolina’s advanced age. A specialist approved the Mohile co-authored a recent study Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Centreatments after the man had a geriatric that found just one in four U.S. cancer ter says there’s no question the evaluaevaluation and declared he wanted care specialists did the assessments. She said tions are important but insurance coverthat would control his symptoms and doctors say it takes too long and that prolong his life. patients don’t want it. But she hears from age is sometimes a problem. Medicare will pay for yearly physical exams but not The patient managed well and was patients and caregivers: “I’m so happy geriatric assessments, he said. Doctors cancer-free two years later. Canin said you’re asking me about these things. can sometimes squeeze the tests into his stress and treatment delay could have Nobody ever asked me.”’ other office visits, but there is no billing been avoided if a geriatric evaluation One of Mohile’s colleagues did Simpson’s evaluation, which showed she was code for the exams, he said. had been done first. strong enough to endure a standard, Advocates note that the evaluations “The risks with older adults traditionally are overtreatment and undertreataggressive three-drug chemotherapy can include questionnaires that patients combo for breast cancer. She chose a can fill out at home to shorten time in the ment. What we need is more precision treatment,” she said. variation that was gentler but extended doctor’s office.

Breakfast with Rex Murphy May 7, 2019 | Prince George, BC | 7:00 AM - 8:45 AM Join us for an informative discussion with the incomparable, insightful, and hilarious Rex Murphy, a CBC and National Post commentator and stalwart supporter of construction and responsible resource development.

Register at icba.ca/rex-in-pg

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FREEDOM STARTS WITH FORGIVENESS After losing most of her family in the Rwandan Genocide, Immaculee Ilibagiza met the man who had killed her mother and brother. When this disheveled man was dragged out of his prison cell and brought before her all that she could say was “I forgive you.” What purpose would hatred and vengeance serve her? They would not bring back her family, they would only prevent her from fully living her own life.

Filmmaker Tyler Perry stated in an interview how difficult it was for him to forgive his abusive father. When he did so, however, his struggling career as an actor and playwright turned a page. It was as if a cloud lifted and he was finally able to live the life he dreamed of and reach millions of people with his art.

Forgiveness, however, is very countercultural. We have a justice system designed to extract an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is not to say that a government is not obliged to protect its citizens from unscrupulous corporations and individuals. Laws are necessary and some people are dangerous and need to be kept away from the rest of society, at least for a time. This does not mean they cannot be forgiven, however.

What Mandela, Gandhi, Ilibagiza and Perry realized is that those who hurt others live in their own bondage of fear and guilt. Supporters of apartheid in South Africa, for example, lived behind fences; they literally created their own prisons in their efforts to oppress the rest of the population.

We have all been hurt. We often carry resentments and even hatred for others.

LESSONS IN LEARNING GERRY CHIDIAC

I have to admit I am only beginning to understand the concept of forgiveness.

It is noticeable, however, that it is a common thread in the lives of the people whom I most deeply admire.

I can imagine Nelson Mandela sitting in his tiny prison cell fighting an internal battle to keep from losing hope.

Somehow, he came to the realization that hate was futile, that he had to see supporters of apartheid as struggling human beings. He came to the realization that he could understand them and love them if he chose to do so, and he was thus able to forgive them. After these ideas permeated his spirit, prison walls were no longer able to hold him.

Mohandas Gandhi also understood that forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, of compromising or being conquered by another. Forgiveness actually releases us from the bondage of cruelty imposed upon us. Forgiveness allowed the people of India to say to their British colonizers, “we are not like you, we refuse to embrace hatred and anger, we choose to forgive, and thus we are free of your control.”

Of course, Mandela and Gandhi had their faults, as did their followers.

Perfect humans do not exist, but great humans model ideals which are within the reach of all of us.

APRIL SPECIALS

Tyler Perry arrives at the 2019 Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Perry says being able to forgive his abusive father helped him succeed in his career.

Ultimately, however, we need to ask good ideas? What if we could even look ourselves if this attitude is serving us. upon ourselves with the same compasWhat would our homes be like if we sion? could look upon our family members Forgiveness is not easy, but it does as the frail human beings they are? set us free and allow us to live to our What would our workplaces be like if true potential. Great people are great we could see our bosses and coworkers because they model what we can all as people with worries and fears? What achieve and forgiveness is a common would our societies be like if we saw cordenominator among them.

Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social poratists as individuals living in terror enlightenment, inspiring others to find their of losing their material wealth? What greatness in making the world a better place. would our governments be like if we For more of his writings, go to www.gersaw those with different political views as people who may actually have some rychidiac.com NortherN Medical Society PreSeNtS

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POLE-VAULTING SENIOR SMASHING RECORDS 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

97/16 news service photo

Florence “Flo” Filion Meiler, an 84-year-old record-setting pole vaulter, poses while training at the University of Vermont indoor track in Burlington, Vt. She’s in Poland this week at the indoor world championships. when a friend encouraged her to try the long jump because competitors were needed.

“That was the beginning of my track career,” she said, standing in a room of her home, surrounded by hundreds of hanging medals. She took up pole vaulting at 65.

Athletics has helped her though some hard times, she said. She and her husband adopted three children after losing two premature biological babies and a three-year-old. Two years ago, their son died at age 51.

And she desperately misses her training partner, a woman who started having health problems about five years ago and can no longer train. It’s tough to train alone, she said, and she hopes to find a new partner.

“She’s incredibly serious about what she does,” said Meiler’s coach, Emma-

line Berg. “She comes in early to make sure she’s warmed up enough. She goes home and stretches a lot. So she pretty much structures her entire life around being a fantastic athlete, which is remarkable at any age, let alone hers.”

And it has paid off, said Berg, an assistant track coach at Vermont.

Berg herself first started following Meiler 10 years ago while she was a student at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, watching her at the annual Dartmouth Relays.

“She was like a local celebrity,” she said.

Setting a record at age 80 with a 1.8-metre pole vault at the USA Track and Field Adirondack Championships in Albany, New York, while her husband watched, Meiler said, was one of her happiest days.

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“I was screaming, I was so happy,” she said.

The overall world record for women’s pole vaulting is 5.6 metres, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Meiler turns 85 in June, when she’ll head to the National Senior Games in New Mexico.

That will put her in a new age group, in which she hopes to set even more records.

Meiler’s athletic achievements are remarkable and something to be celebrated, said Dr. Michael LaMantia, director of the University of Vermont Center on Aging.

Pole vaulting clearly isn’t for everyone of her age, but in general, activity should be, LaMantia said.

“She can serve as a role model for other seniors,” he said.

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An 84-year-old pole vaulter isn’t putting her pole down anytime soon.

Flo Filion Meiler is in Poland for the World Masters Athletics Championship Indoor, where she’ll compete in events including the long jump, 60-meter hurdles, 800-metre run, pentathlon and pole vault, for which she’s the shoo-in.

The petite, energetic woman from Shelburne, Vermont, said she feels more like 70 than nearly 85.

“But you know, I do train five days a week. And when I found out I was going to compete at the worlds, I’ve been training six days a week because I knew I would really get my body in shape,” she said last week, after track and field training at the University of Vermont.

But she literally won’t have any competition in the pole vault in the championships, which runs through Sunday in Torun, Poland. She is the only one registered in her age group, 80-84, for the sport, for which she set a world record at age 80. In the men’s pole vault, nine men are listed as competing in that age group.

Meiler said she the events she likes the best are the hurdles and the pole vault — one of the more daring track and field events, in which competitors run while carrying a fiberglass or composite pole, brace it against the ground to launch themselves over a high bar, and land on a mat.

“You really have to work at that,” she said. “You have to have the upper core and you have to have timing, and I just love it because it’s challenging.”

Meiler is used to hard work. She grew up on a dairy farm, where she helped her father with the chores, feeding the cattle and raking hay. In school, she did well at basketball, took tap and ballroom dancing, and, living near Lake Champlain, she water skied.

Meiler, who worked for 30 years as a sales representative for Herbalife nutritional supplements, and her husband, Eugene, who was a military pilot and then became a financial analyst, together competed in water skiing.

“Many times when I did water ski competition I was the only gal in my age group,” she said.

She’s a relative newcomer to pole vaulting and track and field, overall. At age 60, she was competing in doubles tennis with her husband in a qualifying year at the Vermont Senior Games

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Page 4 of the April 2, 1919, edition of The Citizen featured Northern Hardware’s first ad, middle right.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 | 9

HOLMES HELPING WITH HURT BRONCO’S RENO 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

One of Canada’s most recognizable home renovators has acted as a fly on the wall during renovations to the family home of an injured Humboldt Broncos player.

Mike Holmes is known for his TV shows in which he rescues property owners from house makeovers gone wrong.

He has been overseeing remodelling at the home of Ryan Straschnitzki in Airdrie, Alta., just north of Calgary, where Holmes met the family and did a tour of the work last Friday.

“He’s been involved since about two weeks after the accident. He didn’t want any attention,” said the 19-year-old’s father, Tom Straschnitzki.

“He said, ‘I’m just here to help you guys.”’

Ryan Straschnitzki was one of two junior hockey players paralyzed in the crash last April that killed 16 people on the team’s bus. Eleven other players were also injured.

The team had been on the way to a playoff game when a semi truck blew through a stop sign and into the path of the bus at an intersection in rural Saskatchewan. News of the crash made headlines around the world.

“My team was contacted after the tragic accident by a close friend of the Straschnitzki family. We just knew we had to help,” Holmes said in an email in the days before his visit.

“This is not about publicity and media.

This is about doing what’s right for the

family. We were fortunate that so many trades and product suppliers stepped up and contributed products and their services.”

The renovation is months behind schedule, largely due to a number of structural problems in the original home.

The garage floor sunk 50 centimetres and had to be repoured. There have been problems with wiring. The hardwood floors, which were glued down, had to be ripped up.

“With every construction job, there are bound to be some delays,” Holmes said.

“This isn’t your typical renovation. This job requires extensive changes.”

The biggest parts of the renovation include installing a separate heating unit for Straschnitzki’s bedroom - he’s unable to sense when his body is too hot or too cold - and building an elevator from the garage to what will be his basement apartment.

“Everything is going to be accessible to me,” said Straschnitzki, who added he is looking forward to having some independence.

As for Holmes’s shows?

“I haven’t watched, but I’ve heard noth971/16 news service photo ing but good things. I hear he’s a good Ryan Straschnitzki, right, and his father Tom, top right, meet guy.”

Michelle Straschnitzki said she was Mike Holmes following remodelling at their home in Airdrie, Alta., last Friday. surprised when Holmes’s representatives contacted them shortly after the crash.

“My inspector in the area will be “We were absolutely stunned and ap“We know everything is done right.” inspecting the house,” said Holmes.

Holmes won’t be back for a final preciative and grateful that they decided inspection once the renos are completed. to help out. Even though everything “That’s just an extra set of eyes for the The family has been staying at hotels and peace of mind for the Straschnitzki hasn’t gone as smoothly as we hoped, is planning to move in next month. that’s not on them,” she said. family.”

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WARBLERS MIGHTIEST OF THE MIGRATORS 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

On a mid-September day, scientists Chris Rimmer and Bill DeLuca drive to the top of the highest mountain in Vermont. They sling bags over their shoulders, lower themselves down a steep rocky path and hike through a balsam fir forest until they find a good spot. Then they pull out nets and old ski racing poles.

They untangle the nets and string them from pole to pole, stopping to point out a falcon gliding overhead. They work on the east slope of the mountain. The wind blows from the west.

As kids, DeLuca and Rimmer loved being outside. They grew up to become wildlife biologists. Rimmer is the executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and DeLuca is an ecologist at the University of Massachusetts. They have dedicated themselves to saving a bird - a special songbird called the blackpoll warbler.

The blackpoll warbler is a fist-size bird with an unusually high-pitched song.

The male has white cheeks and a black mark on its head like a snow hat; the female is mostly gray with darker cheeks and no head marking. But what makes the bird special is the remarkable way it flies south for the winter.

In the fall, millions of these songbirds travel from their mountaintop summer homes in Canada, Alaska and New

97/16 news service photo

A blackpoll warbler is examined by Chris Rimmer in Mount Mansfield, Vt. England to the northeast coast of the United States to prepare for a dangerous journey. For weeks, they eat. They fill their bellies with caterpillars, spiders and beetles until their bodies can hold no more.

And one fall day, when the sky is clear and the wind is calm, they begin to fly.

They fly east to catch the tail winds, then swoop south. The most athletic of the blackpolls fly for three days without

stopping.

As they fly, their fat converts to energy.

They follow stars in the night sky and light patterns in the day sky. Most migrating birds land often to eat and rest; the blackpoll keeps flying.

Recently, DeLuca and a team of scientists strapped dime-size backpacks called geolocators onto some of the birds to track their flight path. The birds, they learned, had flown from the U.S. East

Coast all the way to Venezuela or Colombia. They had traveled as far as 4,000 km without stopping - more than 20,000 km round trip. It was one of the most incredible migrations on the planet.

Sadly, the blackpolls are in danger.

Each year, there are fewer birds, and the scientists want to know why. It could be worsening storms, or tropical forests shrinking as trees are cut down, or other animals competing for the blackpolls’ food as the climate warms.

DeLuca and Rimmer work until dark placing nets and then sleep on the floor of a nearby hut. They return before sunrise and find birds in the nets: a Lincoln’s sparrow, a Tennessee warbler and dozens of blackpolls.

In a small forest clearing, Rimmer holds one of the blackpolls, cradling the bird’s head between his pointer and middle fingers. He gently blows the feathers aside, measures its wingspan and tail and weighs it. Then delicately, using pliers, he closes a tiny aluminum band around its leg. Each band has a nine-digit number for tracking. They need to understand what’s hurting them to protect them. Maybe they’ll meet the bird in Vermont next fall.

When Rimmer is done, he opens his hand, and the songbird flies farther up the mountain and lands on a branch, facing south.

Clouds are gathering; rain is coming.

This blackpoll’s long journey will begin soon but not today.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

In the spotlight Darren Neufeld of Blake Productions sets up a projector for the B.C. Natural Resources Forum, which starts tonight at the Civic Centre. The forum, which will bring industry leaders and high-level political figures like federal minister of natural resources James Carr to the city, runs through Thursday.

Key witness testifies at murder trial Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

A

key witness in a trial for three men accused of a drug-related murder recounted what she saw and heard during the fatal shooting of a Prince George man two years ago.

Darren Sundman, Kurtis Sundman, who are brothers, and Sebastian Martin each face a count of first-degree murder in the Jan. 16, 2015 death of Jordan Tayor McLeod, who was 24 years old at the time.

Recounting events in the hour or so leading up to the shooting, Stacey Stevenson said she was in the back of a friend’s mobile home in Vanderhoof when Darren Sundman entered the room and told her to grab her belongings.

Stevenson complied, the court heard, and went out to the kitchen where she saw McLeod sitting on a bar stool in the middle of the room. Darren Sundman tried to convince McLeod to unlock his phone but he refused and Sundman grabbed the phone away from him, Stevenson said.

From there, they filed out of the home and into a pickup truck where Kurtis Sundman got into the driver’s seat while McLeod got into the passenger side. Stevenson sat in the middle back with Darren Sundman sit-

She said they took off and made their ting behind McLeod and Martin behind the driver, resting a shotgun between his knees. way onto a logging road where they dumped the body – it was found off the With Kurtis Sundman “driving crazy” Kaykay Forest Service Road northwest of and “going quite fast” they headed to the city, the court has heard. In the hours Prince George and, after driving through that followed, they also retrieved McLeod’s the city, travelled east on Highway 16. car from Vanderhoof and abandoned it Stevenson said Darren Sundman began north of Williams Lake after hitting McLeod with the butt of a handgun and then, just As she bent over, rolling it down a gully and setting it on fire. as they passed Prince George The Sundmans and StevenRegional Correctional Centre, placing her head son were arrested a matter of McLeod was told he would between her hours later in Quesnel after have to jump out of the truck knees, Stevenson they tried to steal an all-terwhile it was still moving “or rain vehicle and then failed to he knew what was going to said she heard evade police. happen to him.” a shot and then Under questioning from They turned onto Upper Crown prosecutor Joseph Fraser Road and soon afMartin say “I got Temple, Stevenson spent ter, McLeod did jump out. him boss.” much of Monday setting the Kurtis Sundman pulled the scene. She and Darren Sundtruck over and the three men man had been living together jumped out. Stevenson got as girlfriend and boyfriend in Vanderhoof into the front because Martin had accidenwhere he had been working at a pellet plant tally set off a can of bear spray. in the community.

As she bent over, placing her head He had been selling cocaine on the side, between her knees, Stevenson said she heard a shot and then Martin say “I got him with Stevenson keeping track of debts owed boss.” Stevenson, who turned tearful as she to him. But in late summer 2014, Sundman quit his job and they began using methamtestified, said she then heard a second shot and, when she looked up saw all three make phetamine heavily while selling cocaine to cover their bills. their way across a ditch and into the bush

By December, Stevenson said she broke where they pulled McLeod’s body from the up with Sundman because she “just had trees and put it into the back of the pickup.

enough of everything” and was planning to move out. At about that time, Sundman was introduced to McLeod as a supplier.

Stevenson said she began communicating with McLeod via text messages and phone calls behind Sundman’s back and when he and his brother left for Merritt, she stayed behind.

Stevenson packed her bags while the Sundmans were away but when she convinced McLeod to pick her up and drive her to Prince George for New Years Eve she left them behind. While in Prince George, Stevenson stayed with some friends and then, for a brief time, with McLeod.

While with him, McLeod asked Stevenson to text Darren Sundman and ask if he had the money he owed McLeod. “Yes, I have his f---g money,” Sundman tersely replied.

She said McLeod had been friendly to Sundman in previous conversations but also a “little bit rude,” because he wanted Sundman to pay up. McLeod had “no real reaction” to Sundman’s text, Stevenson said.

McLeod asked Stevenson for some photos of her and, in response, she sent him some portrait shots. McLeod drove her back to Vanderhoof and instructed Stevenson to “pretend like nothing happened,” because he wanted his money from Sundman.

Stevenson’s testimony continues today at the courthouse.

Watts makes P.G. stop on Liberal campaign tour Arthur WILLIAMS Citizen staff awilliams@pgcitizen.ca Liberal leadership candidate Dianne Watts says it’s time to reboot the B.C. Liberal Party and she’s the one to do it.

The former mayor of Surrey and MP for South Surrey – White Rock was in Prince George on Monday, promoting her bid for the job of leadership of the opposition. The B.C. Liberals will elect a new leader on Feb. 3.

“I offer the B.C. Liberals a fresh start,” Watts said.

While good work was done by the former Liberal government, she said, “there was a level of frustration” by the voting public which resulted in the loss of 11 seats in the 2016 election.

She said her experience building coalitions and leading a government in Surrey would help her to unify the Liberals and present a united front in the next provincial election.

Her experience in local government has taught her that one-size-fits-all solutions don’t work for B.C., she said.

“Every community is unique, and every community has unique issues,” Watts said. “As a former mayor... we deal with things on the front line. We deal with homelessness,

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we deal with crime, we deal with first responders.”

Supporting local leaders and communities to develop local solutions to local programs is key, she said.

B.C. municipalities have limited options when it comes to raising funds, she said, and it may be time to consider giving municipalities more tools to allow them to meet their needs.

However some of the common threads she has heard while travelling B.C. are concerns about health care and affordability.

While the Liberal party in B.C. is the party of business and entrepreneurship, she said, it’s also important to focus on social programs to meet the needs of British Columbians.

In order to achieve that, the province will require a strong, stable government – something that is unlikely under a proportional representation system. The NDP have pledged to hold a mail-in-ballot referendum this year on changing the province’s electoral system.

Watts said the NDP are jumping the gun and should first ask voters if they want the province’s electoral system changed. Then, with a mandate of the people, gather public input and present voters with a number of options.

“It should be decided by the people.”

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Atwood speaks up on #MeToo A&E PAGE 13

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Dianne Watts stopped by The Citizen on Monday during a tour of the north.

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97/16 IS A WEEKLY PRODUCT OF THE PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN

Asking for help is a tremendous first step.

For me, I didn’t know I had a problem until I tried to stop. I did not know addiction was a chronic, relapsing, remitting disease. I also mistakenly believed that just stopping was the only thing I needed to do. How incredibly wrong that thinking was.

Recovery is more than just not using. My whole life needed to change. I had to challenge and become aware of my thinking. I thought about my thoughts.

This can sound overwhelming, so I suggest doing only what is in front of you right now. Recovery is possible; it is amazing and you will be blown away by what can happen for you. Take small baby steps, one action, one thought, one day at a time.

Stopping is a major first step. Too many live in denial. I thought I could do it alone and even worse, believed I didn’t have a problem. In active addiction, I often blamed others – you, the world, my upbringing or parents – you name it, I blame it. Even when not using, if I find myself in resentment, anger, self pity or remorse, I know my addiction is talking to me.

Addiction is cunning, baffling and powerful. It outsmarts the smartest. It lies and deceives. Addiction changes neurochemistry. It creates new neuronal pathways

which strengthen with use. My thinking, my perception of the world becomes distorted. Addiction requires explanations, excuses and justifications to stay alive. It needs me, to lie to myself.

I am constantly aware of my thinking, of how my disease is trying to trick me back into use. It’s like a snake is inside my brain, pretending to be asleep, but it’s eyes are wide open, constantly seeking, searching for something, anything it can use as an excuse, to go back into hell.

Asking for help, being honest, open minded and willing are the three main components of getting well. This is the how of recovery. Honesty requires telling the truth – to someone. Find someone you can trust. Someone who loves you. Someone who will help navigate the way. Then call someone less involved with you and your life, an outsider who has gone the same path but further along.

If I want to learn welding, I do not ask my mother to teach me, nor my spouse or my friend. I seek an expert. This means someone who knows something about welding. Not a taxi driver. Too often we go to a doctor, who despite all best intentions, does not “really” know what to do when an addict is asking which way to go.

Go to a meeting, be brave, put up your hand, say your name, own your life, claim your right to recovery. You are not a bad person wanting to get better, only a sick person trying to get well.

You will be amazed before you are halfway through.

Send your questions to letters@pgcitizen.ca.

We’ll forward them to “Ann” and keep your identity anonymous.

97/16

Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 11

Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

12 | T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 2 8 , 2 0 1 9

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The Northern Hardware A unique shopping experience

by Valerie

Giles

Just walk through the doors and you know you’re in a special place.

It’s where our city’s history and contemporary modern living comfortably accommodate past and present.

Knowing that this business has grown along with the city from its earliest years makes it even more intriguing and familiar. It feels like it’s always been there…and, indeed, for 79 of the company’s 100 years in business the building has anchored the corner of Third Avenue and Brunswick Street.

Another reason the store feels famil-

iar is the staff, many of whom have worked there for decades. They know the stock, how to use the products and tools sold and genuinely help by taking customers right to the item being sought. Longstanding customers appreciate that they’re greeted by name and they, in turn, know the

names of most employees.

Although affiliated with a national hardware chain – Home Hardware – The Northern stands apart from the other outlets because it continues to carry products which people have purchased there for decades. Customers new to Prince George can find

Longstanding customers appreciate that they’re greeted by name and they, in turn, know the names of most employees.

those items mixed in with modernday products throughout the store.

People looking to buy something new can have the item’s use explained. Those hoping to make repairs frequently can find out exactly how to go about doing that.

Any tool or small appliance you might ever need is in the store. There is never any high-pressure pitch to buy anything. Likely, the opposite will happen where the staff will inquire about how you intend to use that item and sometimes recommend a less expensive model which can do the job. This approach might appear counterintuitive as a sales strategy

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in a retail environment. But, it’s one of the reasons customers trust The Northern and appreciate that they’re given good, useful advice.

The upstairs furniture department reflects the same level of careful attention to customers.

Through the years, only top quality furniture ever got sourced for sale in this store. It’s the kind of furniture which is made to last a lifetime and then be passed on to children and grandchildren.

Many pieces can be custom upholstered to suit one’s home décor and taste. Traditional and modern styles are attractively displayed throughout the entire top floor and knowledgeable staff can advise on care and availability. There’s a large area devoted to special ergonomic Stressless brand chairs from Norway.

If you’re out shopping for the day with your children or your dog, know that The Northern staff are always delighted that you come in with them. A highlight for children is a chance to ride the mechanical horse named Champion, located on the mezzanine on steps to the basement level. Champion was installed in the store by founder A.B. Moffat in the 1950s. He got it from Isabel Electric, not for cash but by bartering. He traded a 16 foot long aluminum boat, trailer and 40 horsepower motor for it. People who rode Champion as children bring in their children and grandchildren to relive the fun. It still costs 10 cents a ride! Dogs love to visit the pet department at the back of the store…right

Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

next to the horse and farm supplies.

Whenever looking for a unique and useful gift, the giftware on display in and around the kitchenware area is a good place to start. There are present possibilities there which aren’t sold anywhere else. The store’s buyers choose to bring in only a few of each item, so presents found there are sure to be different.

Displays change quickly to replace merchandise as it gets sold.

Should you be coping with a plumbing or electrical issue and want to try fixing it yourself – the required parts are in that department along

with nails, screws and fasteners. The knowledgeable staff can even sell you the right tools to accomplish the job.

Be prepared to get talked out of a tool purchase if someone is hesitant about your ability to use it safely!

Planning to do some painting? If you find you can’t remember whether latex can go over oil paint or whether oil paint can go over latex (it’s the first!) staff specially trained in paint technology will always know. Also, if you describe your project, the right paint can be recommended which takes all the guesswork out of it and eliminates the possibility of making a mistake.

At one time, every department store had a bargain basement. The

At one time, every department store had a bargain basement. The fun of finding a special treasure there still awaits you in one corner.

T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 13

fun of finding a special treasure there still awaits you in one corner. That’s where items from regular stock overlooked on the upper sales floors will be taken for markdown and sale. The rest of the floor is the area which houses furnishings and décor for patios and lawn furniture. Gardeners will find bulkier equipment like wheelbarrows, composters and spreaders for grass seed and lawn fertilizers. .

One of the indicators that you really are a Prince Georgian is having an account at The Northern. The founder’s insistence that customers should be able to make monthly payments on items they need and want still applies with the 90-day interest free credit. A.B. Moffat established that as a good customer relations policy. Bills are mailed out to account holders every month, always with a little blue pre-addressed envelope to return payment by mail. But, many customers find it much more enjoyable to come up to the office to make their payments. That way, they get to see what’s new in the furniture department and say hello to the sales staff.

Any time customers come in to The Northern, they sense and know the comfort of the familiar. Something interesting awaits inspection on all three floors. It is almost impossible to visit there without finding out something about new products, reacquainting with a friend you haven’t seen in a while or discovering that perfect thing which you didn’t realize you need!

After all, isn’t that the whole point of going shopping?

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Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

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Fondly Remembering

The Moffat Legacy

by Valerie

Giles

The Moffat sons were raised to be highly principled, devoted to community service and imbued with a strong work ethic. Those values were passed by example from father to son through the generations.

The patriarch, Harry Henry Moffat, settled in this region in 1876.

He operated a transportation service running a horse-drawn stage coach between Quesnel and Ashcroft. Later on in his business life, he expanded into the freighting business, carrying goods to markets. There was a family farm to maintain, and the farm chores were handled in his absence by his wife and their nine children.

One of the sons, Alexander Bohannon Moffat, had ambition to achieve

a high school education. Not many people went that far in school during the yearly years of the 20th Century.

He had to move away to attend high school travelling first on horseback (to save money) to Ashcroft and then by train to Vancouver. There, he balked at having to learn algebra, French, Greek and Latin. Deciding it would be more practical to attend the business college he enrolled there instead. He studied arithmetic, bookkeeping, correspondence, English, rapid calculation, telegraphy and typewriting.

That proved to be the right decision because his future was in business.

Eventually he formed a partnership with Frank D. Whitmore and together they started The Northern Hardware.

As soon as his children got old enough to work, he brought each one to the

Photo Left: Ted Moffat outside Northern Hardware’s current location on 3rd Avenue. Citizen file photo.

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store and introduced them to every job.

Through the years of the Depression, money was scarce in most households. A.B. Moffat proved an empathetic businessman. He allowed his customers to make monthly payments.

They were given a 90-day interest free period and could take up to a year to pay for purchases made at the store.

For those with no cash, he allowed people to buck up wood and deliver it to an adjacent lot in exchange for the goods they needed.

In addition to his business leadership, A.B. Moffat also focussed on community service. He served as a school trustee in 1922 and 1923. He was elected as an alderman for the years 1926 through to1929 and then again from 1940 to 1943. In 1943, son Harold was elected as a school trustee for the first time. A.B. Moffat took an active role in the Chamber of Commerce and in Rotary, becoming president for 1944-45.

Harold Alexander Moffat was born September 24, 1915, just six months after Prince George became a city.

He grew up working in the store as needed and spending summers on his grandfather’s farm. Knowing his future was secure in the family hardware business, he commenced working there full time in 1934 when he was 19. He became company president of the Northern Hardware when his father retired in 1955. Following in the family tradition to serve the community, Harold served nearly a quarter century as an elected school trustee in addition to taking leadership roles in local business.

In 1967, forward-thinking Harold Moffat decided that a study should be made concerning development of the downtown core. On behalf of the Downtown Businessmen’s Association, he raised $30,000 in one afternoon from downtown merchants to fund the study and commission architectural drawings. Called the Centrum Plan, it contained futuristic ideas: high rise parkades close to shopping streets, roofs over Third Avenue, Quebec and George streets, downtown apartment blocks and a monorail – similar to that built in Seattle for the 1962 World’s Fair.

Harold was elected mayor in 1970. At that time, and during the next decade continued championing downtown development. He encouraged extending canopies down Third Avenue from the ones already in place at Third and Victoria. In front of his own store, he had the canopies built from steel.

They were structurally strong enough to support a second story, a bridge across the street or to become a monorail platform. The Centrum Plan got abandoned with the deci-

Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary sion to develop the Pine Centre Mall.

Following his mayoral service, Harold continued managing The Northern until transferring that job to his son, Ted, on February 1, 1993. Harold continued working at the store every day until well past 80 years of age.

When Edward Alexander Moffat became president it signalled a shift towards modern retail management systems. Ted adopted computerized inventory software and accounting/ cash control systems. He renovated the appliance centre at First Avenue and Queensway installing gleaming ultra-modern high-tech appliances in a live kitchen. The main store got new carpeting and gondolas along with other display equipment. It literally got a facelift when Ted contracted local architect Trelle Morrow to redesign the entrance. More display space was created by moving the front windows forward.

Ted Moffat could always be found at the store because that’s where he worked, held all his business meetings (on couches in the furniture department) and socialized with friends and customers. He was quick to support many good causes with donations for fundraisers. In this city, he was sought out as a board member for the Downtown Business Association, Child Development Centre, the Golf & Curling Club, Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Old Time Fiddlers, the Railway and Forestry Museum and Theatre North West.

Beyond Prince George, Ted served on the boards for BC Rail, the BC Forest Alliance and engaged with the Home Hardware network across Canada.

Nothing animated Ted Moffat more than spirited discussions about civic, provincial or national political issues.

He enjoyed that as much as his work.

For many, a trip to the Northern Hardware to get something was just an excuse to engage with Ted! It is fair to say that the line of descent from Harry to Alex to Harold to Ted formed a direct transfer of solid values and character formation. The Moffats were true to the values with which they were raised. Always forthright in their opinions, they became business and community leaders with particular dedication to community service. The Northern Hardware’s success as a business has become an important legacy. The Northern Hardware is closely bound to the image and identity of the City of Prince George.

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Hilliard Clare’s Northern Devotion

by FRANK

PEEBLES

Only four people in 100 years have been the boss at The Northern, and Hilliard Clare has worked for them all.

The winds of change never stopped blowing during his decades at the business, making Mr. Clare as much an asset in operational planning as he is in the accounting chair he has occupied since the days of dirt streets outside.

There aren’t many business trends or entrepreneurial innovations he hasn’t overseen in his role of Secretary-Treasurer of The Northern.

It all started back in the warm days of spring in 1945. Mr. Clare was 15 years old and like almost everyone in Prince George, his family did regular business with The Northern.

“One day Harold [Moffat, then the incoming second generation manager of the store] said to my dad, ‘hey, what’s that young buck of yours doing?’ because he had a job that needed to be done.

He put me to work repairing bicycles after I was done at school,” Mr. Clare remembers. “A job was a good thing to have back then, so I was happy to be here.”

The feeling lasted. He was such a good fit with the Moffat clan that he was promoted to the business office

I really think the era of the ‘big box’ store is going to come to an end someday. I think they have grown too large for people to enjoy the shopping experience.

– Hilliard Clare in 1948 before he was even 20 years old. “I worked with some great people over the years, and some are still very good friends of mine,” he said.

“Went through four presidents of the company. Alex was more of a relaxed man, and Harold was an entirely different man. Harold had an opinion all his own and if you couldn’t somehow convince him otherwise, well that was it. Then Ted, he was different again.

He was sociable and easy to get along with but he didn’t deviate from the principles of running a business.”

Mr. Clare paused and a fatherly smile broke across his face. “Now, Kelly, I’ve watched her grow up since she was in diapers. Kelly has her own personality, of course, and her own views on how things should be done, but she knows how to treat people and treat a business.”

Somehow, through 100 years of hard work and innovation, a few simple values were passed down to Kelly, and it is no secret around the store that Mr.

Clare is one of the main reasons. He was a bridge through those times, and has a nurturing personality to convey those values. Just remembering out loud how things used to be can pass on lessons about integrating with community, responding to people’s needs as they change over time, and putting in effort.

“We used to have to burn firewood in the furnaces. In early fall you’d have to starting piling it in. The whole back lot was just about full,” he said. “We used to have to supply oil to people, but it only came in bulk drums, 45-gallon barrels. We would have to pour it into individual containers and label them ourselves. We used to sell dynamite.

That was really important for land clearing and construction. We had 400 sawmills in this area at one time and they all needed products and services that we provided.”

Despite the vastly different economic profile of the region, Northern Hardware trimmed the sails each time the

wind changed direction. Mr. Clare was the living example that the only thing that ever stays the same is change, so if you keep your focus on solid human values and respect the challenges the customers bring through the doors, you will thrive over time. Not every business, he said, is built for agility.

When he was young, there were major lumber yards in downtown Prince George, but both are now gone or drastically different. McInnis Lighting, for example, is one of those.

“I really think the era of the ‘big box’

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Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

store is going to come to an end someday,” he said. “I think they have grown too large for people to enjoy the shopping experience. People expect good service from a knowledgeable staff. That is missing at the big boxes.”

They also lack decades of mentorship, experience and personality all under the same hat. The Northern had that irreplaceable quality in Hilliard Clare.

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Since 1919… If you can’t find it, The Northern will have it

by Valerie

Giles

Strolling through the aisles of The Northern is an interesting adventure. Products familiar to people who are now grandparents or even greatgrandparents can still be found on the shelves.

Here are some examples, with explanations for contemporary customers whose memories may not extend back quite that far: Oil cloth – This is tightly woven linen fabric which has been treated with a coating of linseed oil to make it waterproof. It was used to cover many a kitchen table.

Horse tack – The gear needed to ride a horse. Examples are saddles, stirrups, bits, reins and halters.

Horseshoes – If you know your horse’s hoof size, you can pick up a set. They’re near the back counter on the main floor.

Clock parts – All the pieces needed to build or repair a clock. There are very few clockmakers left and most old clocks get tossed aside when they no longer work. Many can be restored with the right parts.

Oil lamps – Before electricity was available in homes, the only way to read at night was by the light of an oil lamp.

Wash boards – These are primitive contraptions to modern eyes, but once were the way clothes got cleaned. They come in a range of sizes and, of course, still work! Today, these items are more likely to be used as wall decorations in a laundry room.

Bag balm – Meant to keep a cow’s teats and udder from becoming chapped or chafed in the cold, this product is actually bought by many customers to use on human hands and feet! The emollients protect the skin around fingernails from cracking and keep skin smooth over the dry winter months.

Egg incubators – Just in case you have a need to hatch a batch of chicks!

Cabbage cutters – Lovers of sauerkraut and coleslaw know that this is an important tool if those are foods regularly made.

Crocks – Once common in any kitchen, the old crocks ranged in size by gallon capacity.

They’re used for fermenting (like in making batches of root beer) or for storing and foodstuff meant to be kept cool or in the dark.

Huckleberry pickers – The labour of picking one tiny berry at a time would make it almost impossible to harvest enough for a pie or batch of jam. These contraptions are designed as a rake-like collector which takes away the drudgery.

Anthracite coal – Once a common furnace fuel in homes, anthracite is sold by the bag at The Northern. It is used in heating systems with boilers and in blacksmiths’ forges.

Of course, there are many more unusual but useful items –like horse linaments and life jackets . Part of the fun is coming across them yourself. Be sure to ask a staff member what any unfamiliar things are and what they do. It can turn a shopping trip into a learning experience.

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The Northern’s Four Locations

by Valerie

Giles

An existing company, the Northern Mercantile and Lumber Co. was purchased by A.B. Moffat and Frank Whitmore in January 1919. The business partners took out an ad in the March 19th, 1919 edition of the Prince George Citizen entitled “To the Buying Public.” It read:

We wish to announce that we have purchased the hardware business of the Northern Lumber and Mercantile Co. Ltd. Of this city. We carry a full line of Stoves, Ranges, Automobile Accessories, Builders’, Trappers’, and Prospectors’ Supplies, etc. and beg to take this opportunity of soliciting your patronage.

Yours in anticipation, The Northern Hardware Co. A.B. Moffat F.W. Whitmore

The Northern Hardware ‘s first location was the building which had been owned by the Northern Mercantile and Lumber Co. on George Street. At the beginning, the business concentrated on hardware, furniture and ap-

pliances. Within a year, business had grown so much that a warehouse space was required. They had contrac-

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tor A.P. Anderson build a 20 foot by 70 foot building on Third Avenue East.

The core customers were the prospectors, loggers and farmers of the region. In 1921, The Northern became regional agent for John Deere farm implements.

By 1928, the business responded to a growing demand for furniture.

That year, the business became The Northern Hardware & Furniture Co. Ltd. The second location was at 345 George Street at Third Avenue – then considered the centre of town. The company leased a building at the north-west corner of Third Avenue and George Street. After renovations were completed, the store moved in to that location in the fall of 1934. A continent-wide economic depression had settled in and that had an impact on the operation of the business.

Management salaries were cut in half and the store extended credit to its customers. As needed, The Northern operated on a barter system trading goods like farm produce or firewood for the supplies their customers needed. It was during the early Depression years that A.B. Moffat’s oldest son, Harold, began working for the store full time at that location.

Harold Moffat started working in the store as a child of twelve in 1927. He began working for the business fulltime in 1933 and continued well into his eighties.

The third location was at 1303 Third Avenue (at Quebec Street).

Large ads in the Prince George Citizen announced the official opening held October 30, 1937. There was a main floor with long display tables for

Northern Hardware 100th Anniversary

hardware and building supplies. It was there where customers could also find large appliances, bicycles and sporting goods. Smaller electrical appliances and radios were displayed on the mezzanine level. The building had a full basement underneath for storage. At that location, Norm Radley was store manager and Harold Moffat and Frank Milburn served as the sales staff.

It was common during the 1930s that The Northern Hardware stayed open late on Saturday nights until the last customer left. This was to accommodate those who had come from out of town.

The move to the present location at 1386 Third Avenue (at Brunswick) came in the spring of 1940 on May 9th. The Northern occupied only part of the building at the start. The upstairs was rented apartments and the main floor level also had a post office and a customs office. Renovations were completed within five years to put the furniture department upstairs and to expand the appliances and giftware into the space which had formerly been used by the other offices. Plate glass windows installed in the walls facing Third Avenue and Brunswick opened up the store and provided attractive display space.

A large addition to the premises of 40 feet by 110 feet was added

by J.N. Dezell and Son contractors was planned in 1947. After it was completed, there was space to accommodate all the stock from the leased premises down the street. Altogether, it took a week to move the goods up the street. Consolidation of the two locations was completed in the last week of July 1948.

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All in the family

by Valerie

Champ rides

10¢

still only

Giles

Four generations of the Moffat family have run The Northern. That, in itself, is a remarkable phenomenon. Very few family businesses can claim that. The statistics are stacked against that possibility. In North America, extensive research has been conducted on succession in family businesses.

Researchers Beckhard and Dyer published their results in the mid-1980s. They found that only 30% of family firms survive the transition to the second generation and only ten percent make it to the third generation. The Moffats had the magic!

The reason that the business ever came about was the result of government cutbacks. The founder, Alexander Bohannon Moffat, was personally affected by the outcome of the 1916 provincial election.

His job as a timekeeper for the Department of Public Works was eliminated by the new government. After that, he obtained a pre-emption on a quarter section of land at Fraser Lake and used that as collateral to borrow $500.00. That money represented the cash he needed to establish his business venture with partner Frank Whitmore.

They purchased the Northern Mercantile and Lumber Co. in January of 1919.

The business grew steadily and managed to expand even during the Depression of the 1930s. In 1933, the partners opened a store in Quesnel and Frank Whitmore went

to manage that location. He continued working there for 27 years and then decided he wanted to move to California. The Quesnel store was sold and on April 8th, 1946 A.B. Moffat paid out Frank Whitmore as his partner and became the sole owner.

At that time, he had his son, Harold Moffat, made a shareholder. Later that year, on October 1, 1946, ownership of the store was shared among A.B. Moffat, Harold Moffat and the company’s secretary-treasurer, Thompson Ogg. Ownership was further shared in 1949 when the Moffat sons (Donn, Earl, Gilbert (Corky), John and Keith) were all brought into the business. A few months later, long-time employee, Hilliard Clare, also became a shareholder and business partner.

In 1951, A.B. Moffat brought his daughters into the business. Betty, Alice and Joyce were made equal partners.

A.B. Moffat decided to retire four years later in 1955. That decision put his oldest son, Harold, in position as C.E.O. of the company. Within five years Harold’s son, Ted, began working full time in the store’s office in 1960. For the decade of the 1970s, Harold also served as the Mayor of Prince George. The job was not then a fulltime position, so he spent mornings at the store and afternoons at city hall.

Harold’s own decision to retire came in the early 1990s. He made his son, Ted, President on February 1, 1993. At that

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time, Ted and his two cousins (Blair Moffat and Ian Moffat) bought out the five brothers of the previous generation (Keith, Donn, the estate of Earl, John and Gilbert (Corky). They also purchased the shares of the sisters (Joyce, Betty and Alice).

That meant Ted Moffat, Blair Moffat and Ian Moffat were the remaining partners. At the same time, the Moffat Family Trust was established for all of Harold’s grandchildren as the fourth owner. Those changes were dramatic. With the retirement of the previous generation, their collective expertise went with them. It became necessary to choose a computerized system to manage point-of-sale transactions and track inventory. The system developed and marketed by ProfitMaster was installed and linked to the store, the warehouse and appliance centre and the AMCO wholesale outlet.

Ted Moffat became ill in 2012 but was optimistic about his treatment and, of course, hoped he could recover. He hadn’t planned on leaving. But, as his health went into decline, he had to face the fact that someone else would need to carry on.

There was uncertainty until it became known that his daughter, Kelly Green,

was learning what she would need to know in taking over. Having grown up with the business, she was better prepared than anyone else ever could be. But, having to ask the questions

There will always be the need to maintain in-person customer contact and to deliver that famous Northern Hardware service

which needed to be asked must have been painful and difficult. The unspoken finish to every question she needed to ask her father was “when you aren’t here.”

Kelly Green became President and C.E.O. in the month before her father died. She has remained in that position since and is proud to be part of the fourth generation of the family to carry on. She inherited a wellmanaged business and has the benefit of an outstanding and exceptionally

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loyal staff working with her.

Focussing on the future involves embracing the technology available to modern retailers – particularly engaging with social media and developing inventory for online shopping. The demand for that convenience keeps growing exponentially. Despite that, there will always be the need to maintain in-person customer contact and to deliver that famous Northern Hardware service!

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NEWS

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97/16 news service photo

A premature baby on Calmer is shown in a handout photo.

DEVICE HELPS NEWBORNS COPE WITH PAIN 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

B.C. researchers have designed a “robot” that helps reduce pain for premature babies by simulating skin-toskin contact with a parent who may not be available during around-the-clock procedures in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Lead inventor and occupational therapist Liisa Holsti said the Calmer device is a rectangular platform that replaces a mattress inside an incubator and is programmed with information on a parent’s heartbeat and breathing motion.

The robotic part of Calmer is that the platform rises up and down to mimic breathing, and a heartbeat sound is audible through a microphone outside the device, said Holsti, adding a pad on top resembles a skin-like surface.

The aim is to help babies cope with pain through touch instead of medication as much as possible while they’re exposed to multiple procedures, such as the drawing of blood, which can be done multiple times a day over several months.

A randomized clinical trial involving 49 infants born prematurely between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre concluded Calmer provides similar benefits to human touch in reducing pain when the babies had their blood drawn.

The findings of the study, completed between October 2014 and February 2018, were published this week in the journal Pain Reports.

A parent’s or caregiver’s touch is the most healing and the Calmer isn’t intended to replace that, said Holsti, the Canada research chair in neonatal health and development. She worked with four other researchers on the project that involved a prototype built by engineering students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

“We purposely did not design it to look anything like a human being,” she said, adding her work since 1985 in

neonatal intensive care units, where she taught parents how to support their babies at home after leaving the hospital, sparked an interest in assessing infant pain and trying to relieve it.

“We have about 30,000 babies born prematurely in Canada alone every year so my hope would be that we would be helping all of those babies with Calmer.”

Holsti said nurses often provide socalled hand hugging by placing their hands around an infant’s head, arms and legs in a curled position during blood collection, but the study suggests the device would save almost half a million dollars in staffing costs every year at just the neonatal intensive care unit where the study was done.

Lauren Mathany, whose twin daughters Hazel and Isla were born 24 weeks into her pregnancy last April and weighed less than two pounds each, said that while the Calmer research had been completed by then, it would have been a reassuring tool for her and her spouse when they went home to sleep or take a shower after doing plenty of hand hugging and skin-to-skin touching.

“The NICU is the most difficult place to be. It challenges you in every single way,” she said.

Methany’s children spent over four months at the hospital and were medically fragile when they were bought home but are now thriving at almost a year old.

Dr. Ran Goldman, who has been a pain researcher at the B.C. Children’s Hospital Research Institute for 20 years but wasn’t involved with the Calmer study, said the device shows promise because there’s a greater understanding that healing is delayed when pain is part of an infant’s treatment.

Scientists in the late 1960s believed babies didn’t feel pain but there’s now an increasing understanding that they’re more sensitive to it than older children or adults because their paininhibiting mechanisms haven’t fully

developed, said Goldman, who is also an emergency room physician at BC Children’s Hospital.

“Research has shown that babies who

suffered pain as neonates do keep this memory later on and respond differently when they get pain experiences later in life,” he said.

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BOOK CHRONICLES ISRAEL’S EARLY SPIES 97/16 WIRE SERVICE

Shortly after the creation of Israel in May 1948, a small band of Jewish spies set up shop in Beirut - literally a kiosk - as part of the country’s first intelligence station in an Arab nation.

To Lebanese citizens, the men inside the refreshment stand by the Three Moons elementary school couldn’t have looked suspicious. Every morning, they hawked pencils, candy and sandwiches. Equally as crucial, if not more so, the Jewish shopkeepers/spies looked and sounded just like their customers, many of whom were connected to the government or the army. These Jews hailed from the Arab world - Syria or Yemen - and, as Israeli agents, had studied the Islamic and Christian worlds so they could blend in, obtain intelligence and relay it back to headquarters.

“The spies were not... navigating candlesticks and crystal at dinner parties, or insinuating themselves into the corridors of power,” writes Matti Friedman in his new book, Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel. “Their position was like that of Russian agents tasked with gleaning intelligence not from Capitol Hill or Wall Street but from the sidewalk outside a public school in Queens.”

But the spies hated labeling themselves with such a sinister term. They preferred the Hebrew word “mista’arvim,” which, translated into English, means: “ones who become like Arabs.”

Like most anything written about Israel and Palestine, Spies of No Country will either repel or attract you, depending on your political perspective. If you’re proIsrael, Friedman’s book offers a cast of humble, hardworking and brave characters who overcame prejudices in their old and new homelands for the greater cause of Judaism. But if you think of Israel less as a victim and more of a victimizer, then Friedman’s book might feel like hagiography, yet another work that idealizes the history of the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus.

It’s also impossible to read Spies of No Country without taking into account the background of its author. Friedman, a former Associated Press journalist who lives in Jerusalem, caused a dustup five years ago when he publicly blamed the “global mania about Israeli actions” on the media, including his former employer, needling the press for its aggressive coverage of the Israeli military and for portraying Palestinians as “passive victims.” (Friedman’s articles caused such an uproar that the AP issued a lengthy statement blasting his arguments for their “distortions, half-truths and inaccuracies.”)

But in his newest book, Friedman, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, focuses just as much on Israel’s earliest conflicts with Muslims as on Israel’s problems with itself. Spies of No Country is the story of four men who fled their Arab homelands to join a new country whose Jews initially hailed mostly from Europe and, more often than not, looked down on Jews from the Islamic world. Friedman’s four spies are Gamliel Cohen and Isaac Shoshan, both born in Syria; Havakuk Cohen, from Yemen; and Yakuba Cohen, a native of British Palestine. (The Cohens aren’t related.)

Yes, we learn about the quartet’s dar-

97/16 news service handout image

Matti Friedman tells the story of the Arab Jews who spied for the new state of Israel in his new book Spies of No Country. ing exploits, such as the time Shoshan and others in the Jewish military tried assassinating a popular sheikh in the port city of Haifa, or another time when some of them helped a fifth comrade, Eliyahu Rika, blow up a 120-metre yacht that once belonged to Adolf Hitler off Beirut in late 1948. But, admirably, Friedman seems to be telling this story for larger purposes. He wants to shine a light on a band of Arab-born operatives often overlooked in the stories of Israel’s founding as a Holocaust refuge led by Europeans in the Zionist movement.

More broadly, though, Friedman also wants to help Westerners understand that Israel’s demographics have massively shifted over time. He writes that about half of the Jewish population has “roots in the Islamic world.” In his telling, Israel’s early leaders didn’t see or appreciate the rising tide of men like the spies featured in this tale.

Although many may not realize it, Jews had lived for centuries, and quite peacefully, in the Islamic world, from North Africa to Iraq. But when Israel was established, Jews in those countries were threatened, their bank assets frozen or, worse, their lives taken. So they fled en masse to Israel, often, as Friedman notes, with the help of “covert immigration agents” shepherding them onto ships or planes. In the Israeli immigration camps, the sounds of Arabic drowned out the Yiddish of other Jews. The Arab Jews helped build the country and now significantly influence Israeli culture. Mainstream musicians in Israel, Friedman points out, “are now singing in Arabic, Persian and Ladino.”

The Jews who founded Israel tend to be mythologized as those who hailed from Europe and worked as pioneers on kibbutzes. As Friedman tells it, the country’s earliest founders largely ignored or dismissed contributions from Jews of the Arab world. “People trying to forge a Jewish state in the Middle East should have seen that Jews from the Middle East could be helpful,” he writes. “The newcomers might have been invited to serve as equal partners in the creation of this new society, but they weren’t.”

ARTS

HOW WIMPS SHOULD WATCH HORROR MOVIES

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THe SuperconSciouS experience

end The Leg es u Contin

April 13 7:30 pm

VAnier HAll TickeTsnorTH.cA

ELAHE IZADI 97/16 wire service

My anxiety began eight days before the advanced screening of Us, Jordan Peele’s latest horror movie.

Willingly sitting in a dark movie theatre so that horrifying surprises can mentally and emotionally terrorize me?

Not my idea of a relaxing time! While it’s very cool that I get to watch movies as part of my job, when that involves watching scary ones - well, I think I deserve some hazard pay, is what I’m saying.

Avoiding the horror genre has become increasingly difficult for anyone into movies and pop culture. In recent years, several films classified as horror have topped critics’ lists and won Oscars, sparking talk of it as the new prestige genre. The films have inspired ubiquitous memes, turned into think-piece fodder and received the Saturday Night Live treatment.

Between Get Out, A Quiet Place, Hereditary, Bird Box and the forthcoming Midsommar, Ma and now Us, horror has once again gone mainstream.

“As a horror fan and creator, all of us are singing in the streets,” says author and university lecturer Tananarive Due. Meanwhile, us wusses are cowering under our sheets.

“Why am I creating more anxiety when I have enough just getting in my car and driving to work?” wonders Aisha DeBerry, 39. “And then to pay for that? It doesn’t make sense.”

Amen. Have you even looked at Twitter today? (It doesn’t matter which day you’re reading this.)

“The world is kind of a trash fire,” says Kelsey Cooper, 26, a John Krasinski and Emily Blunt fan who can’t bring herself to watch A Quiet Place.

“I personally struggle a lot with anxiety,” she says. “My brain is constantly telling me to be scared, so seeing a movie where people are dying in horrible ways? My brain is already doing that to me.”

“There’s plenty of scary things in the world,” says Lev Rickards, 37. “Black people get shot by the cops, climate change - why deliberately go out and seek it?”

People have sought out these thrills for decades, and the genre has had a star turn before, with celebrated films such as 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby and 1980’s The Shining. But this time around, the intensity and rapidity of the discussion has been amplified because of the internet, says James Kendrick, a Baylor University professor who teaches a class on horror.

The conversation also includes how to classify these movies. When Get Out earned Golden Globe nominations under the comedy category, Peele subversively declared that the movie was actually a documentary. “Us is a horror movie,” Peele tweeted Sunday, a message that star Lupita Nyong’o reiterated.

“There’s become an effort to redefine horror films that are actually critically acclaimed,” Kendrick says. “(As though) if they’re that good or well-made or thematically prescient they can’t be horror,

97/16 news service photo

Evan Alex, Lupita Nyong’o and Shahadi Wright Joseph in a scene from Jordan Peele’s new horror movie, Us. But some of us are roller coaster ity and nature of the horror within a they must be something else.” people, and some of us (myself includparticular film without giving anything Horror is more than gore and slasher ed) are not. away. films, says Due, who executive-proAnd it’s great that filmmakers are The setting is key, too. Some insist duced the documentary Horror Noire excited about their craft and igniting that the movie theatre, far from home and teaches a course on “the Sunken deeper cultural conversations through and among a crowd, feels like the best Place” (from Get Out) at the University horror movies. But it can be a little frusplace to watch a movie. Others say your of California at Los Angeles. “This is a living room, where you can walk out or genre that can really help us as a society trating for us wimps. “People are saying really interesting and important things - hit pause or blast the lights, is the ideal confront anxieties, fears, transitions, maybe making important social comsetting for cowards. obstacles.” mentary - that’s hard to watch because Due has her own tips: Constantly tell Due loved horror as a child, when I’m a wuss,” Rickards says. yourself, “It’s only a movie,” employ watching it was a fun way to be scared Many self-described scaredy-cats the “tried-and-true trick of covering within a safe context; with age, it will face their fears, particularly with your eyes at key moments” and binge became a therapeutic method to deal Peele’s films, because of the critical buzz on scary, real-life news on the day of with heavier anxieties. It’s a lesson she and the cultural importance of a black viewing. gleaned from her mother, the late civil filmmaker creating horror movies starI gave it a go: Driving to see Us, I rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, ring black people and tackling weighty listened to NPR stories about Venezuwho was a horror fan; the genre served elan sanctions and economists’ efforts issues. as an outlet for the racial trauma she to place a statistical value on a human “I have this conflict because I want endured. life. During the movie’s many frights, to support Jordan, but I’m completely “Headlines scare me. True crime stoI looked away, covered my face with a scared of this genre,” says DeBerry, ries scare me... Real, human monstrosscarf as needed and burrowed my face ity is not fun for me to watch,” Due says. who has been nervous about Us for into my co-worker’s shoulder (sorry!).

“When those people are supernatural or three months but plans to go on opening night with her girlfriends anyway.

Two hours later, my nerves slowly when there’s a fantasy element, when “Even though I don’t know the industry settled as I got back into my car. I didn’t there’s a monster, now I’m ready to well, I want to send the message that we have to warn anyone about the creepy watch because the monster in a horappreciate you, and that you’re breaking doppelgangers and scissor-wielding ror movie can be a stand-in for real-life barriers and blazing a trail in your own weirdos in Us because there were none monstrosity that lets me engage with it right.” around. This is real life and that was just from a distance, but also leech out that Plus, “so many of my friends are a movie. trauma and expel it in a way that can talking about it, and because we’re all I turned the car back on and the radio feel fun.” followers of him, I feel like I’m going to played headlines about a cyclone’s Fun, you know, like how a roller be left out if I don’t see it.” death toll and an obscenely expensive coaster is supposed to be fun. “You’re That’s one way to get through it. sports deal. putting yourself in a situation where Another popular strategy among those The feeling of dread I had while your mind and body feels it is in conwith delicate constitutions: reading the watching Us returned, but now it was stant danger,” Kendrick says. “You’re out of control and you’re at the mercy of entire plot on Wikipedia before stepping about the world — the actual one where this machine that you strapped yourself foot into a theatre. Some of us don’t I have to live. Are we those blinkered into... For those who like it, it’s the relief want any spoilers, though —º Hopper dummies, who don’t see the monsters at the end that you got through it.” wants a website that warns of the severuntil it’s too late?

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INSIDE THE TWEET THAT RUINED ROSEANNE GEOFF EDGERS 97/16 wire service

Two questions into Roseanne Barr’s packed appearance at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in late January, it happens. A reporter goes right for the Valerie Jarrett.

Last May, Roseanne tweeted 11 words that managed to reference the Obama adviser, the science-fiction film Planet of the Apes and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Within hours, ABC killed the most popular show of 2018. And Barr went from beloved sitcom star to spreader of hate.

“You are a sorry excuse for a human being,” actress Rita Moreno tweeted at the time.

“Roseanne made a choice. A racist one,” added Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes.

“There is not any room in our society for racism or bigotry,” tweeted civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis.

Now, from the third row of the auditorium, Sagi Bin Nun of the news website Walla takes his own shot.

“Israel is the place where people ask to be forgiven by God,” he says. “Would you like to take this opportunity to apologize for your racist tweet?”

Boos rain down on Bin Nun, and some guy yells, “You’re a jerk.” For two days, Barr has been telling anybody in Israel with a camera that she’s a “Jewy Jew,” a warrior for their homeland and disgusted with “repulsive” Natalie Portman and other so-called Hollywood hypocrites.

During her two-week excursion to the Holy Land, she will pray at the Western Wall, tour the West Bank, huddle with government officials, serve on a panel

with spoon-bending illusionist Uri Geller and, when she’s worn out, crash back at her suite at the Inbal Hotel.

But right now, she can’t let Bin Nun go.

“You’re a mean person who just wants to insult people for no reason whatsoever,” Barr says in front of everyone. “I pray to God to raise the sparks in you so that you’ll become a decent person.”

What to make of this?

It’s uncomfortable and entertaining and weird, particularly with Barr sitting between an Orthodox rabbi and the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset. Last March, Barr was on the cusp of one of the great comebacks in television history. Twenty years after wrapping her groundbreaking sitcom Roseanne, Barr, 66, had signed to return with the entire cast. The reboot premiere reached more than 27 million viewers. Three days later, ABC renewed the revived Roseanne for another season.

There was a problem, though: Barr had Twitter and she wasn’t afraid to use it.

Just after Christmas 2017, a few months before the reboot’s premiere, she tweeted: “i won’t be censored or silence chided or corrected and continue to work. I retire right now. I’ve had enough. bye!”

The tweet did not slip by network brass.

“Sorry to bother you with this at the holiday, but wondering if you know what spurred this tweet from Roseanne,” Channing Dungey, then ABC Entertainment Group president, wrote in an email to the show’s executive producer, Tom Werner, on Dec. 29.

Thus began an unusual, behind-thescenes battle, as ABC and Barr’s producers tried to protect their TV property, and

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97/16 news service photo

Actress, comedian, writer, and television producer Roseanne Barr took a twoweek trip to Israel in January. Barr had big aspirations for the Roseanne reboot until an explosive tweet ended it all.

Barr continued to speak out on Twitter, her preferred medium for pushing tales of Pizzagate and George Soros as well as profane blasts at TV personalities such as Stephen Colbert and Rachel Maddow.

The network didn’t propose a no-tweet clause in Barr’s contract. Instead, they spent months nudging her to stop while also trying not to offend her.

“It was always this back and forth of ABC not wanting to appear they were censoring Roseanne but also not quite pulling out the big guns,” says James Moore, Barr’s longtime publicist.

Despite repeated warnings — and even after her youngest son briefly hid her Twitter password — Barr stayed online.

“I admit it,” she says, in her hotel room.

“I’m a troll.”

By all counts, Barr, whose 1990s network go-round had been surrounded by chaos - whether it was firings on the set, the Star Spangled Banner debacle or that whole Tom Arnold thing — was a model citizen during the reboot, hugging audience members after tapings, hustling to news conferences and baking chocolate chip cookies for a get-to-know-you-again lunch with Disney Chairman Bob Iger.

Online, though, she remained as polarizing as ever.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Comedy is full of misfits and oddballs obsessed with disruption. They roam stages, television sets and the Internet, teetering between the sort of shock that sparks deep reflection and that other kind, which leads to groans, backlash or, at worst, a public retraction.

Wasn’t that President Donald Trump’s bloody, rubber head that Kathy Griffin offered to the masses? Didn’t Samantha Bee call Ivanka a “feckless” four-letter word that rhymes with bunt? And why did Trevor Noah make that joke about Aboriginal women? Of course, they apologized — or, in Griffin’s case, apologized and then retracted the apology — and

were forgiven.

Barr and her family contend there’s a simple reason she has been treated differently: her support of Trump.

“I’m not saying any of the others should be fired,” says Jake Pentland, Barr’s 40-year-old son who runs her studio and voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016. “I’m a free speech absolutist. But you can pretty much say whatever you want as long as you supported Hillary Clinton. Soon as Mom donned that MAGA hat, she was an enemy.”

As a comic, Barr has always ignored the typical standards of subversion. Her freewheeling attacks seem almost designed to score her enemies in high places. It’s as if she’s not just playing for laughs, she’s trying to blow up the entire system — even if that means blowing up herself.

After the Jarrett tweet, daughter Jenny Pentland’s first words to her mother were to accuse her of self-sabotage.

“You did this on purpose,” she told her.

In 2012, she tweeted the home address of George Zimmerman’s parents after the Trayvon Martin shooting. The Zimmermans sued, but the case was dismissed.

As the 2016 election heated up, and she completed her shift from lefty agitator to Trump booster, Barr was distributing deep-state conspiracy theories like a UPS driver on Christmas Eve. Sara Gilbert, who was 13 when she starred in the first Roseanne and was a driving force with Werner in reviving the series, felt reassured about the reboot after talking with Barr. “I knew that Roseanne, the person, was unpredictable at times, but she told me this was her redemption,” says Gilbert, now 44. “I chose to believe her.”

It didn’t take long for Barr’s tweets to create tension within the show’s production team. In August 2017, Barr tweeted to defend Trump’s handling of the violent Continued on page 27

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TWEETS WERE A PROBLEM BEFORE THE REBOOT Continued from page 26

conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attack the Antifa movement. Gilbert and Werner called Moore to set up a conference call. “I don’t want to talk about it — it will be gone,” Barr emailed Moore, before deleting the tweet.

A month later, Barr questioned whether the Parkland, Florida, shooting survivors were actors. Co-showrunner and executive producer Bruce Helford texted Barr, suggesting she take her tweets down before ABC saw them.

“I’m really sorry to ever ask you to hold your voice,” he wrote, “but I think there are even more powerful ways to put ideas out there through the show itself, which I hope we have the opportunity to do many, many more episodes of together.”

Barr had high hopes for the reboot when she signed on in early 2017. Her politics had shifted hard to Trump. But the country was deeply divided. The reboot would show that American families, like her own, could disagree politically without hating each other.

“She really wanted to bring people together and get them talking about it,” Goodman says.

The first episode, which premiered March 27, found Roseanne, a Trump supporter, re-connecting with Jackie, who wore a pink pussy hat and “Nasty Woman” T-shirt to dinner.

It also tackled racial issues. Roseanne had a black granddaughter, and there was the Muslim couple moving onto the street. At first, Roseanne snickered that they were “a sleeper cell getting ready to blow up our neighborhood” — until she met them and realized that she had been unfair.

Off screen, Barr’s politics were harder to resolve.

For Barr, already a conspiracy theorist, the message was clear. Everybody was in on it: ABC, the producers, even the press.

They couldn’t sit idly as a Trump crazy took over their television sets.

She felt betrayed in May when the ABC entertainment president, Dungey, in a conference call with reporters, said the next season of Roseanne would move away from politics.

Who told her that? Barr had been planning to cast Luenell Campbell, a comedian and a good friend, and dig deeper into race.

Helford, the co-showrunner and executive producer, was as baffled as Barr when Dungey talked about the show’s new direction. During Roseanne’s first run, Barr had considerable clout, forcing

97/16 news service photo

Roseanne Barr visits Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. out the show’s co-creator, Matt Williams, only 13 episodes in. This time, she began to feel powerless. When she learned the writers were starting work on the reboot’s second season without her involvement, she thought, “Oh, they took my show.”

Barr and ABC cut a deal — neither party will say for how much — so the network could launch a spinoff. When the network announced The Conners on June 21, the release made sure to note that Barr would have “no financial or creative involvement.”

That deal now infuriates Barr. She says she hoped she would be redeemed for having saved so many jobs. She had even hoped to perhaps return to the show.

Instead, The Conners”killed off Roseanne with an opioid overdose in the first episode.

She also can’t forgive Gilbert. On May 29, 27 minutes before ABC announced the cancellation, Gilbert tweeted that Barr’s comments were “abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show.”

“She destroyed the show and my life

with that tweet,” Barr says. “She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti.”

Gilbert said that “while I’m extremely

disappointed and heartbroken over the dissolution of the original show, she will always be family, and I will always love Roseanne.”

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© 2019 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 16

Is it a dog or a cat?

Fastest Fox

Race against a parent to see who can get their fox to the mouse first. Winner gets to decide what’s for dinner tonight!

Look at the fox. Do you think it is part of the dog family or the cat family? Write your guess here.

How does the fox look like a cat?

How does it look like a dog?

Where do foxes live?

Foxes are found all over the world except in Antarctica.

Even in deserts and in the Arctic! They also adapt well to human environments such as farms, suburban areas, and even large communities.

The fennec fox is the smallest of the foxes. It has enormous ears, measuring 6 inches (15 cm). They live in desert zones of North Africa and the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.

How many foxes?

Add up the numbers next to the foxes that look exactly alike to discover how many different kind of foxes there are in the world.

ANSWER:

6

8

The red fox can be found in North and Central America, Northern Africa, Asia and Australia. It is at home in the wild and in urban areas.

3

The Arctic fox is found in Canada, Alaska, Russia, Greenland, and Scandinavia. The Arctic fox is the only native land mammal found in Iceland.

Gray foxes live in forests and woodland areas of North and Central America. Gray foxes are the only members of the dog family that can climb trees.

A Fox by Another Name Do the math to fill in the blanks.

A female fox is called a _____________ .

(5 + 5 + 5)

A male fox is called a _____________ .

(7 + 6 + 5)

A fox’s home is called a _____________.

(8 + 6 + 5)

A baby fox is called a _________ or a __________.

9

2

7

(7 + 7)

19 = DEN 15 = VIXEN 1 7 = SKULK CUB 18 = DOG 14 =

Amazing Hearing

ANSWER: There are 21 different kinds of foxes in the world.

Clever as a Fox

Foxes are very smart and crafty in finding food, surviving in extreme weather, outsmarting predators, protecting their young and more. They’re smarter than most, but not all, dog breeds. How many foxes can you find on this page?

A fox can hear a mouse squeak 300 feet away. That’s as far as a football field!

Member of the Dog Family

While a fox is a member of the dog family, it has some traits that are very cat-like. Foxes are nocturnal (active at night). Fox eyes are like a cat with vertical pupils that allow it to see in dim light. And like the cat, the fox has sensitive whiskers and spines on its tongue. It has retractable claws, just like a cat. It walks on its toes in a graceful, cat-like tread. The gray fox can climb trees and has, on occasion, taken naps in owl and hawk nests!

What do foxes eat? Circle all the things you think a fox eats as part of its natural diet.

(12 + 8)

A group of foxes is called a _____________.

PREDATORS SURVIVING FENNEC ARCTIC TRAITS SPINES NATIVE ACTIVE ADAPT CLIMB URBAN FOXES GRAY RED

(11 + 6)

20 = KIT

Fox’s Good Life

Look through the newspaper for pictures and words that would make a fox’s life a good life. Make a collage with your selections.

Standards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate information.

Find the words in the puzzle.

How many of them can you find on this page?

N A B R U G C U S P

C I T C R A F T E R E B F A N E D R N E

V M Y O N N D A I D I

I

I N X N G I

Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.

P A

T L E O F E F T S T

A C T I V E S S O O

N A R D N U T X E R S G N I V I V R U S

Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recongized identical words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.

My Favorite Vegetable

Use at least three of your five senses to describe your favorite vegetable.

R0021655366

ANSWER: If you circled all of these things, you are right! The fox eats a wide variety of foods. It is an omnivore and its diet includes fruits, berries and grasses. It also eats birds and small mammals like squirrels, rabbits and mice.

A large part of the fox's diet is made up of invertebrates like crickets, caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles and crayfish.

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SEE SOLUTION ON PAGE 30 97/16 IS A WEEKLY PRODUCT OF THE PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN

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MYSTERY OF PRINCE REMAINS Music came so easily to Prince, one of the most difficult things in his purple life was convincing others that he was real.

From the start, too. Go back and read a clip from 1977, when a scribe from Minnesota Daily was sent to investigate the local 18-year-old wunderkind, and you can practically hear the reporter sigh with relief when Prince pulls a prank at a restaurant - proof-positive that this super-freaky prodigy was “a real live kid, packed with talent, but basically normal and mischievous.”

Nearly four decades later, in the pages of Rolling Stone, an eyewitness describes how bizarre it was to see a deity performing the mundane tasks that fill most everyday lives: “Prince being Prince, it’s fascinating to watch him do just about anything. The more ordinary the activity - clicking a mouse, say - the weirder it feels.”

Prince was human, though. We confirmed it in the worst way on April 21, 2016 when he was found dead inside an elevator at Paisley Park, the suburban Minnesota recording studio that he treated as a laboratory, a bunker and a vault. Since then, we’ve been bombarded with books about the reclusive virtuoso by journalists, by critics, by anecdote-collectors, by his ex-wife - all of which seem to prove how unknowable he ultimately was.

For those hoping to not-know him a little better, there’s Prince: The Last Interview and Other Conversations, a new compilation of profiles and Q&As

previously published in a delightfully disparate array of outlets, including Minnesota Daily, Rolling Stone, Vegetarian Times, Yahoo! Internet Life and Prince’s high school newspaper.

In the book’s introduction, the poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib hypothesizes that, despite his enigmatic ways, Prince came to each of these conversations hoping that his inquisitors might “understand him beyond his superhuman capabilities.” For fans, that’s always been hard. And for mourners, it’ll always be.

How do you grieve a sphinx? Can we assemble the meaning of Prince’s life based on all of the things he didn’t say?

It feels like there must be some elusive truth waiting for us in the negative space, lest all of that lavender-scented mystique have been for naught.

Unsurprisingly, these 10 interviews uphold Prince’s reputation for being tight-lipped with his interrogators - not always down to play ball, but occasionally playful. When Ben Greenman asks him about “cybersex” in 1997, Prince winks back with six words: “Ain’t nothin’ like the real thang.” But he also knew how to deflate a discussion. In a 1985 interview with MTV, when asked whether he could have ever foreseen the success of Purple Rain, he flatly replies, “I don’t know.”

The only thing more vexing than the questions that go unanswered are the questions that go unasked. Prince cites The Matrix in interviews with the New Yorker and Rolling Stone. Did he ever read Jean Baudrillard? During the book’s titular 2015 interview - an awkward

Pets Remembered

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97/16 WIRE SERVICE

group-chat at Paisley Park in 2015 with the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis and other European journalists - Prince explains how the internet has forced his critics to be more honest, and concludes that “it gets embarrassing to say something untrue, because you put it online and everyone knows about it, so it’s better to tell the truth.” So what did a pop utopian of his stature make of all the trolling and disinformation that had begun to foment on social media around that time?

And when the New Yorker’s Claire Hoffman asks him about his stance on gay rights and abortion in 2008, Prince taps his fingers on a nearby Bible and replies, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’” Prince had become a Jehovah’s Witness by this point, but his position still baffles. How could a writer of visionary songs about radical acceptance believe anything even close to that?

To be fair to the journalists, Prince didn’t dig follow-up questions. He didn’t really like answering questions at all.

Starting in the ‘90s, he famously asked that his interviewers no longer use recording devices or notebooks - and according to a 1994 profile in Q Magazine, his handlers added a third demand: “that no questions be asked.”

By most accounts, he was difficult and defiant with the press. But Prince probably didn’t spend all of those decades being evasive for the mere fun of it - at least not entirely. Maybe the commitment to

97/16 news service handout image

A diverse collection of interviews in Prince: The Last Interview comes no closer to revealing either the man or the artist. his mystique was just Prince’s way of protecting our idea of him. To be known is to become static, stiff, frozen in time.

To be unknown is to remain flexible and free. Now, even though he’s gone, our understanding of him can still change shape.

SOLUTION: “…AND SSSSSSSSTAY OUT!”

Email your tribute to cls@pgcitizen.ca or drop off to #201-1777 3rd Avenue.

Find us on Facebook by going online to: https://bit.ly/2SdAmek

97/16

T H U R S D A Y , M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 31

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