Gateway March 2014

GATEWAY

Employment program Student found new career options he never could have imagined.

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Your community voice for the north!

WEDNESDAY March 19 2014

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NEWS AND EVENTS FOR PRINCE GEORGE AND CENTRAL INTERIOR

Former PG resident a contestant on Wheel of Fortune

CAREERS PAGE 12

Kajan Johnson featured in MMA reality show The former Prince George resident is one of the stars of The Ultimate Fighter Nations.

sports/ entertainment

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How to support a woman living with violence HEALTH PAGE 26

Carol Kaelson Photographer Š 2013 Califon Productions, Inc.

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GATEWAYnews

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Colleen Sparrow Publisher

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Neil Godbout managing Editor

Ex-P.G. resident got feel for iconic wheel Peter JAMES | Citizen staff pjames@pgcitizen.ca Erin Elmgreen thought she knew what to expect when she took part in a recent episode of Wheel of Fortune, broadcast last Friday.

The former Prince George resident is an experienced game show contestant, having made appearances in both The Prince is Right and Let’s Make a Deal. But qualifying for the iconic syndicated show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White, fulfilled a life-long dream.

Elmgreen made it all the way through two audition processes and then on to the stage for the televised event - but then she had to spin the wheel.

“It’s way heavier than I expected it to be,” she said.“It’s a lot of effort to be able to spin it.”

In the end, Elmgreen spun and solved her way to a payday of nearly US$11,000 and had a chance for even more in the bonus round but was unable to guess the final puzzle.

“It was amazing, it was actually a dream come true,” she said.“I’ve been watching it since I was little kid with my mom in Prince George and I always wanted to do it.”

When Elmgreen moved to California to work for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, her dream of competing on the show finally had the chance to become reality, but before she could get anywhere near the studio, she needed to get selected.That’s where Elmgreen’s lucky streak kicked in.

Dating back to her days in Prince George when she won a trip to see Celine Dion in concert in Vancouver, Elmgreen has always had a knack for winning prizes. Whether it was trips to Hawaii or Asia, concert tickets or cash, she always entered the contests and has won with a surprising degree of regularity.

“People call them the luckiest person they know,” she said.“I do feel very lucky and very blessed.”

So when she showed up at a contestant recruitment event in Jackson, Calif., about two hours away from her home, the first thing Elmgreen needed was to have her name picked out of a barrel so she could get on stage and strut her puzzle-solving ability.

Two days into the event that happened and from there she zoomed up the contestant list.

“I figured I had a pretty good shot at it because I’ve been on a couple of game shows before and I sort of know what they’re looking for,” she said.

At the first audition, Elmgreen was on stage with four other people solving a bunch of Wheel of Fortune style puzzles. She was then called back for a second audition, which featured more competitive puzzle solving and a written test.

Within a few weeks, Elmgreen was selected to appear on a show, which was taped in November. With six shows taped a day, Elmgreen had the chance to watch a few other episodes as a member of the studio audience before taking the stage herself.

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Former PG resident Erin Elmgreen, pictured on set with Pat Sajak, who was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune on Jan. 31. She won $10,850. Carol Kaelson Photographer © 2013 Califon Productions, Inc.

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GATEWAYnews Cont’d from page 3 At first she was a bit nervous since she was having trouble solving the tossups on the other shows, but when it came her turn to play she was the first to buzz in to solve “alpine adventure” for $1,000 and “A Tale of Two Cities” for $2,000.

“It helped me relax a lot at that point,” she said.“Because I really went into the show wanting to win more than the minimum $1,000 that they send you home with if you don’t win anything, so right away I’m off the bat at $3,000.”

Elmgreen added to her winnings by solving a Before and After puzzle “I slept like a baby boomer” for an additional $1,850, but found herself trailing heading into the final puzzle.

With only the E’s,T’s and R’s selected, Elmgreen had already solved “Bet your bottom dollar” in her head but needed to wait her turn to solve and had to be sure she could get enough money out of it to take the lead.

“I had a big smile on my face when I called the B because I knew in my head that it would give me $3,000 more which

t Feel for iconic wheel gave me a pot of $6,000 which in total gave me $10,850,” she said.

In the bonus round, Elmgreen had the chance to win another $30,000, but didn’t come up with “majority owner” despite guessing M,D,P and I to go along with the R,S,T,L,N and E on the board.

“I learned a lesson - always go with your gut instinct,” she said “I don’t know for sure if I would have had it, but I started to say ‘O.’ When I watch the episode I could see my mouth forming an ‘O’ and I choose ‘I’ instead.”

Elmgreen said her experience on the show was “exhilarating” and different from her past two game show appearances because she came out the winner. On the Price is Right about a decade ago she failed to make it off contestant’s row and on Let’s Make a Deal a few years ago she left with $100.

She said both White and Sajak were great to work with and White even stopped by the contestant’s lounge before the show to wish everyone good luck.

“They are both really genuinely wonderful people,” she said.

GATEWAYnews

Rent supplement part of domestic violence plan Citizen staff Domestic violence victims living in rural and remote communities will receive rental supplements under a provincial government plan for tackling the issue.

But whether Prince George will qualify appears in doubt.

According to the plan, released by Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux, victims seeking to move out of abusive

relationships are facing a squeeze on affordable housing,“especially in rural northern communities that get an influx of well-paid trades’ people seeking rental accommodation.

“The demand for rentals increase the cost of accommodation, leaving lower income families with children and those fleeing abuse in unsafe or inadequate shelter.”

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GATEWAYnews Cont’d from page 5 As a result, the ministry will provide rental supplements, but only “in communities where there is limited or no social housing.”

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation predicts the city’s vacancy rate will decline to 3.2 per cent over the coming year from 3.8 per cent in 2013.

CMHC also predicts monthly rent for a one-bedroom home will decline by $6 to $670, while rent for a two-bedroom will rise by $5 to $825.

However, Prince George is also home to the Phoenix Transition House, a 16bed emergency shelter for women and children. In 2012, more than 420 women and children spent at least one night at the facility.

In 2013, Prince George RCMP opened files on 228 domestic assaults.

Increased funding to cover the transportation costs of survivors and children to get to medical, income assistance and counselling appointments and to court appearances as well as to

t Domestic violence plan safety in another community are also included in the plan.

According to a ministry press release, $1.5 million will go to “direct supports to women and children for housing and transportation in rural and remote communities.”

Details for the initiatives set out in the three-year plan are still to be worked out.

“The first year of the provincial domestic violence plan is an organizational phase,” a ministry official said in an e-mail.

“In the coming months, the Provincial Office of Domestic Violence will be working with community and government partners to plan and work out the specific details of those initiatives, including the strategy to provide rental supplements for victims and survivors who live in rural and remote communities that have housing challenges.”

The plan also calls for “development of a framework for domestic violence courts,” as well as expanded family legal aid services and, on a test basis, expanded criminal duty counsel.

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GATEWAYnews

Endangered species plans delayed: court

Ministry strategies could have impacted Enbridge ruling Peter JAMES | Citizen staff Two federal ministers unlawfully delayed the release of recovery strategies for four endangered species that should have been part of the evidence in the Northern Gateway environmental review, a Federal Court judge ruled Feb. 14.

Justice Anne L. Mactavish found there were “egregious delays” in the release of the recovery strategies for the Nechako white sturgeon, southern mountain caribou, Pacific humpback whale and marbled murrelet and that both the minister of the environment and the minister of fisheries and oceans should have ensured they were completed sooner.

In a 47-page written decision, Mactavish ruled that the strategies would have been helpful to the Joint Review Panel examining the Northern Gateway pipeline.

In December that panel recommended conditional approval of a heavy oil pipeline from northern Alberta to Kitimat.

While the five environmental groups behind the lawsuit are happy the court ruled in their favour, Mactavish’s ruling doesn’t sanction the government in any way for delaying the reports, short of saying the ministers acted improperly.

“It’s a bit of a slap on the wrist, but that’s sort of the reality of this type of

court case,” Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon said.“Generally at best you get a public admonishment of the federal government.”

Ecojustice represented the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club BC,Wilderness Committee and Wildsight in the case.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s press secretary Amanda Gordon said the government is reviewing the court decision and remains committed to protecting endangered species.

“Environment Canada has significantly accelerated its progress in recent years and has published 85 strategies and plans in the last three years,” Gordon said.“It is also finalizing a posting plan to ensure transparency with respect to upcoming recovery documents and progress in reducing the number of overdue recovery documents over the next few years.”

Mactavish ruled the four overdue recovery strategies at the centre of the case are “just the tip of the iceberg” and that more than 160 other recovery strategies are delayed. Gordon acknowledged that 163 strategies are overdue and said a backlog was created when the Species at Risk Act first came into force.

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GATEWAYnews Cont’d from page 8 Wilderness Committee policy director Gwen Barlee said her group is happy with the result, but is tired of having to take the government to court to ensure it’s living up to its own laws. She’s hopeful Mactavish’s strong language around the unlawful actions of the ministers will push the government to act more quickly on other recovery strategies.

“I don’t think the federal government wants to thumb their nose at the court, it doesn’t look good,” she said.“Not only does it not look good to the court, it doesn’t look good to Canadians when the government is saying we’ve had many rulings from the court saying that we’re acting unlawfully with regards to our own Species at Risk Act and yet we continue to delay recovery strategies.”

The recovery strategies are important because they identify the critical habitats the species need to survive. Had the reports been ready in time for the Joint Review Panel, the panelists would have been forced to consider the impact the

t Endangered species proposed pipeline would have on the four species, which could have led the panel to reconsider its final decision or impose different conditions on the pipeline.

Five groups have filed submissions to ask both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal to review the Joint Review Panel report regarding the pipeline. Some of the groups are arguing the panel’s report is incomplete and Nixon said Friday’s ruling could have an impact on those judicial reviews.

“I think the court looking at that case about the Enbridge Northern Gateway project will be at least interested in what this court had to say about the federal government’s delays,” he said.

While all of the recovery strategies were delayed long enough not to be part of the Northern Gateway environmental review, the federal government did issue draft reports in the days leading up to the court case. Mactavish said the court will supervise the process to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in finalizing the draft documents.

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GATEWAYcareers

Employment program leads student to a career he never could have imagined

Brad Tronson found new career options with the help of OKIB and Okanagan College’s preemployment program.

GATEWAYcareers

to deciding on which career path to take – career options that were not on the horizon six months ago.

“I’m glad I found the program,” says Brad.“Teresa and Jennifer really helped me find a career I can get excited about. I like what I’m studying now and look forward seeing where it will take me.” www.newscanada.com

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rad Tronson knows the value of having support when you are trying to make decisions about your career. He had worked in construction for 10 years when an injury on the job changed everything. Forced out of the career he loved, Brad ended up working in security to pay the bills but his heart wasn’t in it. Fortunately, he bumped into an old friend who told him about a program that could help.

Even better, it was being offered right in his own community -- Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB).

As Brad discovered, OKIB’s pre-employment program helps community members take the first steps towards a life-long career. Designed and delivered in partnership between OKIB and Okanagan College, this training program caters to the specific needs of the community. With the support of funding provided by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) and the Province of British Columbia, the program was recently expanded to include essential skills training and Adult Basic Education.The program now includes a five-month curriculum that equips students with practical skills and industryspecific certification that will make them more employable.

Like many of the students in the program, Brad faced several barriers to finding longterm employment. He didn’t have a computer, Internet access or the skills to research career options and education requirements. Moreover, without a driver’s license, he couldn’t drive to classes or interviews outside the reserve.The preemployment program helped him assess his skills, learn how to explore the job market and even obtain his driver’s license.

By the end of the program, Brad was able to choose a career path that inspired him and he registered for the carpentry and joinery program at the Okanagan College Kelowna campus.“I’ve built houses for 10 years and I’m good at working with wood. I figured joinery is right up my alley and it’s less physically demanding.”

Brad recently won a bursary for Aboriginals in Trades and is on track to complete the college program in March and plans to pursue a Red Seal certificate in carpentry soon. However, another career change may be in store. He was recently approached by the Dean of Carpentry to help recruit Aboriginal youths to train for working in the trades. He will have to complete another college program to be eligible but looks forward

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A career he never could have imagined

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GATEWAYsports/entertainment

Johnson featured in MMA reality show Jason Peters | Prince George Citizen

He

has sparred with Georges St-Pierre, the most famous mixed martial arts fighter in

the world.

For any up-and-coming MMA athlete, that’s the stuff of dreams. But, these days, Kajan Johnson is all about reality.

Reality TV, that is.

Johnson, a former Prince George resident who started his MMA career here and now lives in Montreal, is one of the stars of The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia, which airs Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Sportsnet 360.

In the show, eight Canadians and eight Australians live and train together in Lachute, Que., 62 kilometres northwest of

Montreal. And, each week, two of them go head-to-head in the octagon, with national pride and bragging rights on the line.

There’s also cash up for grabs, including $25,000 for knockout of the season, submission of the season and fight of the season. More significantly, the eventual winner will land himself an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract because the show is the brainchild of UFC president Dana White.

Johnson, 29, is intent on being a UFC champion some day and knows the experience and exposure he gets on Ultimate Fighter Nations could help him reach his goal.

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GATEWAYsports/entertainment Cont’d from page 14 “This could do everything for me or absolutely nothing,” he told The Citizen from Montreal.“I could go on this show and end up not making it all the way, or losing, and end up in obscurity, or I could do everything I need to do on the show and just continue to blow my name up, continue to get fights and to do things like this -- do interviews -- and make sure that my name stays relevant and people still want to see me.”

With the exception of the season finale, the show has already been filmed and, obviously, Johnson knows what has happened to date. However, he has signed a $5 million non-disclosure agreement and isn’t about to let any forbidden details leak out.

“We can’t release any information about any upcoming episodes and, even episodes that have already aired, we can’t release any information from those episodes that wasn’t on television,” he said.“It’s different, for sure.”

Johnson attended tryouts for Ultimate Fighter Nations in late August or early September and, after thinking he had been passed over, was informed in October he had made the cut.

“I was coming off injuries -- I hadn’t fought in a couple years so I was worried that they were going to use that against me,” said Johnson, who had recently recovered from ligament damage in one of his knees and a rotator cuff tear.

“But that was one of the reasons they chose me, I think.They really liked that comeback story. I was ecstatic when I found out I got in. I was on a massage table getting my shoulder worked on when I got the call.”

Filming started in November and the first episode aired on Jan. 15. Johnson -- who has mastered boxing, wrestling, muay thai, jiu jitsu and taekwondo -- was Canada’s first fighter and used a rearnaked choke to beat fellow welterweight Brendan O’Reilly by submission.

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GATEWAYsports/entertainment Cont’d from page 15 “It was a long time that I hadn’t fought so it was cool to get in there and shake off a bit of the rust and also it was really cool to get a win for my team,” Johnson said.“MMA is a real solo sport, it’s not a team sport, but in this setting each win is going to really affect the rest of your team.”

The fifth installment of the show was televised on Wednesday of this week. So far, Canadians have won three of the five matches.

In total, there will be 12 episodes.

Winners will keep advancing and, ultimately, two will clash in a three-hour finale that will be broadcast live from Quebec City on April 16.

Johnson is still getting used to the idea of being a TV star.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said.“It’s just really fulfilling to finally get some acknowledgment for all the years of hard work. It’s been about 12 years now I’ve been at this. Hardcore MMA fans have known me for a while because I’ve been [fighting] in Canada for a long time but the general public had no idea who I was.”

Johnson is originally from Burns Lake and moved to Prince George in his teen years. He attended Prince George secondary school and was told by a school friend about a local group that was doing no-holds-barred fighting.

“I went and started training with these guys -- Travis Galbraith and Bill Mahood

and Karm Manhas, who actually still runs a gym in Prince George,” said Johnson, who graduated from PGSS in 2002.“I was super-young, super-skinny. I learned pretty quickly but these guys were all massive beasts.”

Johnson won his first-ever fight, in Lethbridge, when he knocked his opponent out in 24 seconds.

“I was just hooked and I never really looked back,” he said.“My early career was very up and down -- more down than up probably -- but eventually I decided to really take it seriously.”

Around 2005, Johnson packed up and went to Vancouver, where there were better training opportunities. He worked every job imaginable to support himself

and continued to develop his fighting skills. As time went by, he found he was outgrowing his surroundings and that prompted his move to Montreal in late 2011.

In Canada, Montreal is the centre of all things MMA. Johnson now trains at the renowned Tristar Gym, home to many of the elite MMA athletes in the world -including Rory MacDonald, John Makdessi and the legendary St-Pierre, who retained his UFC welterweight championship for the ninth consecutive time when he defeated top contender Johny Hendricks last Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. St-Pierre later announced he was vacating the title and taking a leave of absence.

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GATEWAYsports/entertainment Cont’d from page 16 Johnson is slightly smaller than StPierre but, in the past couple years, has sparred with him several times.

“He’s a really nice guy -- super easygoing and super-humble,” Johnson said.

“He’s never arrogant or standoffish, and to spar against, he’s one of my favourite sparring partners because I’m never worried about getting injured with him.

He’s very, very controlled, he has zero ego in the gym. Sometimes he’ll put himself in a bad position so he knows how to work out of it. He’s not always trying to win every sparring session.

A lot of times he’s just working on something new so he’s not that guy that’s trying to take your head off.”

Johnson, who took an overall record of 19-10-1 into Ultimate Fighter Nations and has gone 13-2-1 since 2005, has dedicated himself so completely to his sport that he doesn’t plan to stop until he reaches the top -- this despite the fact he has had his face fractured in nine different places over the years.

Johnson, a personal trainer when he’s not in front of the cameras or honing his own skills, said he doesn’t really have any long-term health concerns. At the same time, he’s aware of the risks and the fact that one day he may have to step away from the octagon sooner than he’d like.

“Obviously we do get punched in the head so I know that brain damage is a factor eventually,” he said.“I believe that I’ll be smart enough to get out when I need to get out.

“If my speech starts slurring, if I find that I’m not as mentally sharp as I used to be, if I’m taking a whole bunch of shots that I shouldn’t be taking, then I’ll leave the sport. I’ve got two arms, two legs, two of pretty much everything, but I’ve only got one brain and it’s got to run everything.

“I don’t want to end up like a stereotypical fighter with speech impediments and slurring problems,” he added.“I want to be able to live out the rest of my life in a healthy way.”

GATEWAYlife

Peter JAMES | Citizen staff

Midwifery in PG The five Prince George-based midwives are so busy that as many as a dozen women per month can’t receive their preferred method of childbirth care.

Sarah Hilbert-West hates having to turn away potential clients but it happens all the time.

“The thing that brought me to midwifery is the idea of informed choice and that we are able - through our compensation system - to take more time with women so that we’re giving them all the information to support their own decision making,” Hilbert-West said.

But with consistently full caseloads, Hilbert-West and other local midwives are unable to provide all women with that choice.To help attract more midwives to the region, Hilbert-West would like to take a page from the physician recruitment book and begin training the maternity specialists closer to home.

“I think the key is educating midwives locally,” she said.“I would hope looking long term that [UNBC] will be able to partner with UBC to provide a satellite midwifery program.”

Currently UBC’s four-year program is the only place in the province offering education in midwifery.

“I would love to be able to support midwives being taught in the north, trained in the north to stay in the north,” Hilbert-West said.The situation isn’t unique to Prince George.

Last month, the Midwives Association of British Columbia released a new vision for the profession, which calls for a large jump in the number of people becoming trained as midwives so that the number of midwife-supported births can increase from 17 per cent in the province to 35 per cent by 2020.

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GATEWAYlife Cont’d from page 19 The midwives association has identified a provincial gap in maternity care services, which it predicts will only grow as more physicians from the baby boomer generation retire and some family doctors decide not to offer maternity care.

“Midwifery is part of the solution, but like any other health profession, midwifery can’t solve it alone,” midwives association executive director Ganga Jolicoeur said.“If we’re going to address the maternity care gap in British Columbia, we have to do it in a collaborative and co-operative manner with all the related agencies.”

The association’s vision document points out that the medical outcomes for babies born under the care of midwife are very good and the cost to the medical system is lower because there are fewer C-sections and on average mothers stay in hospital less time then when under a physician’s care. Since midwives provide

six weeks worth of postpartum followup care, Jolicoeur said that also helps reduce the number of times a mother or baby needs to visit the hospital after a birth.

Midwives also provide families with the option of home births, which HilbertWest said helps reduce stress on the maternity ward at hospitals including UHNBC. “Sometimes we’ll call into the [maternity] unit to report we have a home birth in progress and they’ll say, ‘thanks, because we’re full,’“ she said.

“The home birth rate does take a lot of pressure off the maternity unit and if those women weren’t having deliveries at home, I think people would be delivering in the hall.”

In addition to educating more midwives, the association is urging the province to fund a program so that foreign-trained midwives can gain credentials to practice in B.C. Cont’d on page 22

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GATEWAYlife Cont’d from page 20 Jolicoeur also wants to reduce the barriers that exist to midwives setting up for the first time in rural communities.

Hilbert-West learned that first hand when she began to introduce the practice in her hometown of Quesnel.

She said it required educating a lot of people both in and out of the medical community about what a midwife does and what their scope of practice is all about.

In Prince George, the local midwives have developed excellent relationships with nurses, physicians and health administers. There is even an water birthing room midwives use at UHNBC, which Hilbert-West said is a rarity in the province.

“In Prince George it’s incredibly well integrated and the midwives that have been here for a while have worked very hard to do that integration,” she said.“It definitely goes through growing pains when its a newer profession.”

Many rural communities in the north don’t have any maternity care from either midwives or physicians, which mean women have to travel long distances and sometimes have to leave weeks before their due date. By attracting more midwives to those rural communities, the association hopes more women can get care close to home.

“The next step will be communities like Williams Lake and other communities as we spread out throughout the north,” Hilbert-West said.

In some rural communities, Jolicoeur said it could be beneficial to expand the scope of midwifery care so that they’re able to provide women’s health services outside of pregnancy.

“Not every community has the required infrastructure for maternity care to be brought back into the community, but many do,” Jolicoeur said.“We’re trying to focus our efforts on those communities that have the available supports in place to provide safe care.”

GATEWAYlife

Relay for Life gets set Citizen staff Registration is open for the Relay for Life, the biggest cancer fundraising event held annually in Prince George.

Set for Masich Place Stadium on May 10-11, the unique event raises funds for the Canadian Cancer Society and gives people chance to take part in the 24-hour relay.The event includes a victory lap for cancer survivors at 10 a.m. on May 10 and a remembrance ceremony at midnight the night of the event.

Last year’s event in Prince George brought in $548,986, the second-highest total in Canada.

“Relay For Life is an opportunity to participate in an exciting, inspiring event that reflects the commitment, passion and dedication of the community of

Prince George as we fundraise together to support the outstanding work of the Canadian Cancer Society,” Prince George relay team development chairwoman Jayne Stevens said.“Relay For Life teams celebrate hope, and honour all who have faced cancer as we join together in working towards the day when no one will fear cancer.”

Until March 1, the registration fee is $10, but that doubles beginning March 2.The final registration deadline is April 25.

Participants are encouraged to raise at least $100 or meet or exceed the national average contribution of $300.

More information and registration details are available at www.relaybc.ca or by visiting the Canadian Cancer Society office at 1100 Alward St. between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Feb. 25, March 11 or March 15.

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GATEWAYlife

Museum hooks hatchery partnership Citizen staff

Two cultural institutions on the Nechako River waterfront will soon be making beautiful fish together.

The Spruce City Wildlife Association and the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum have agreed to partner their physical operations.The museum will take control of day-to-day functions at the association’s property, a large log meeting cabin attached to a fish hatchery facility, while the association will continue to run its activities and programs from the same place.

Both sides see working together as a way to bring more people to their respective facilities and maximize their connected facilities.The fish hatchery facility is used only a fraction of how busy it used to be, while the museum is increasingly busy.

The first task will be to pull the mothballed hatchery out of its stasis.

Once a thriving education centre for salmon and trout rearing, it has been used sparingly in recent years and is more of a huge storage closet today than a laboratory.

“I’ve always loved this place and felt sorry that its public profile has gotten smaller over the years,” said museum executive director Ranjit Gill as she

toured the hatchery on Friday with wildlife association representative Sean Simmons, publisher of Angler’s Atlas and an avid fishing and outdoor recreating enthusiast.

“I’m really pleased that this room is going to be used again as a full-time hatchery,” he said.

“I’m so excited,” said Andrea Sterling of EDI Environmental Dynamics. She and colleague Jason Yarmish are joining the efforts to restore the hatchery operations.

They gave the building a once-over on Friday to determine the state of equipment, data records, and licensing agreements with federal authorities.

“We will have some fish coming in this spring,” said Simmons, talking about the small trout program that will bring the building back on-stream. After that, the hope is to rear a regular crop of Arctic char.

Gill has other plans as well.

“My idea right from the start was to run our little train from the museum all along the river, around the hatchery and back again,” she said.“It sure makes sense to me.”

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GATEWAYhealth

How to support a woman living with violence

GATEWAYhealth t A woman living with violence

A

recent Canadian Women’s Foundation study finds that two-thirds of Canadians know a woman who has experienced physical or sexual abuse. Every six days, another woman in Canada is murdered by her current or former partner. Every night, more than 3,300 women (along with 3,000 children) are forced to sleep in a women’s shelter or a transition house because it’s not safe for them at home.

If you know someone who is experiencing violence, here’s what you can do to help: Be supportive. Listen and offer nonjudgmental support.Tell her the violence is not her fault, that she deserves to be treated with respect, and that you don’t blame her (even if she decides to stay).

Learn more about relationship violence.

Recognize the warning signs of abuse and understand why many don’t press charges against their abusers.

Be aware of the risks. Be careful about how you communicate with the victim, since many abusers closely monitor their victims.

Ensure your own safety. Never confront an abuser or put yourself in danger.

Find resources. Before speaking to a victim, get phone numbers of local shelters, crisis lines,YWCA or agencies offering specialized services.

Choose the right time and place. Be thoughtful about where and when to discuss your concerns.

Choose a private place where you will not be overheard or interrupted.

Voice your concerns. Be sensitive. Don’t give details about what you have witnessed, as she may feel the need to give excuses or deny what happened. Explain why you want to support her and tell her you’re ready to listen whenever she is.

Put her in charge. Explore options with her and don’t try to take over or tell her what to do. If she isn’t sure, simply encourage her to talk and listen without judgement.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.You can help end violence against women.Throughout the month of April, the Canadian Women’s Foundation initiative called the Annual Campaign to End Violence Against Women is raising awareness – and is also raising funds to support local emergency shelters and other programs in your community.

Find out how you can help at www.canadianwomen.org. www.newscanada.com

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GATEWAYgrill

Fuel your day with a It

balanced breakfast

is widely agreed that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It kicks starts your metabolism, provides energy and sets the tone for all your activities.To get the most out of your morning meal try to include whole-grains, protein, fruit, fibre and calcium. If busy mornings mean you usually skip breakfast, try a healthy baked recipe that is easy to eat on the go.

“If you’re looking for an extra boost of flavour in the morning try adding 100 per cent fruit juice to your meal,” says Gail Rampersaud, a registered dietitian at the University of Florida.“Orange juice adds flavour to recipes and drinking a 250 ml glass is an excellent source of vitamin C.” As a flavour agent and source of essential nutrients, citrus can bring some extra sunshine to your morning.These chocolate muffins offer fibre and the fresh taste 100 per cent orange juice.

Cont’d on page 30

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GATEWAYgrill Cont’d from page 28

Orange Cocoa Nib Date Muffins

1 1/2 cups (375 ml) Florida orange juice 1 cup (250 ml) chopped pitted Medjool dates 1 cup (250 ml) all-purpose flour with added bran 1/2 cup (125 ml) natural unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 cup (125 ml) wheat bran 1 tsp (5 mL) each baking powder and baking soda 1/4 cup (60 ml) cocoa nibs 1/4 cup (60 ml) canola oil 2 eggs 1/4 cup (60 ml) packed light brown sugar 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract In a saucepan, combine Florida orange juice and dates over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

Cover and simmer for two minutes or until softened.

Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, bran, baking powder and baking soda and cocoa nibs; set aside.

Whisk, canola oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla into date mixture and pour over flour mixture until well moistened.

Line or lightly grease muffin tin and scoop batter into 10 muffin cups. Bake in centre of 375 F (190 C) oven for about 15 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Makes 10 muffins. www.newscanada.com

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