GATEWAY TO THE NORTH JAN 2017

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Your community voice for the north!

WEDNESDAY January 18, 2017

NEWS AND EVENTS FOR PRINCE GEORGE AND CENTRAL INTERIOR

Fort St. James actor returns in Letterkenny Frank Peebles Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

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irty dangles, sweet snipes and sick cellies, boys, Letterkenny is back with some of the finest chirping you’ll ever receive.

The hit program Letterkenny ran its six-episode course on CraveTV with no public indication that it would live beyond those half-dozen nuggets.

The call for more was so loud and the ratings so strong that Crave’s owners, Bell Media, got the message. They mailed one right back to Canadians in the form of a television Christmas card. The next six-episode suite of Letterkenny shows arrived on Dec. 25 just to show fans how strong the relationship is.

The region has a special family connection to the show. Actor Dylan Playfair played hockey and formed a creative mentality in his hometown of Fort St. James. He learned to skate in show-biz with

Screen capture image

Dylan Playfair is seen as Reilly the hockey player in a scene from Letterkenny. an award-winning performance in the kids’ show Some Assembly Required, then playing Marty Howe in the movie Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story, and an-

other award-winning turn in the darkly dramatic short-film Never Steady, Never Still. He is also a regular cast member in Letterkenny, playing one of the slacker

hockey player buddies alongside Andrew Herr. Together they are the inseparable dummy duo of Reilly and Jonesy.

He called The Citizen from his

family’s winter home in Phoenix (his father is a coach with the NHL’s Coyotes) to say happy holidays and don’t forget to get your ‘kenny cravings met on Christmas Day. And, as an extra gift, he announced that he, Herr and the entire cast would be heading right back to the set in Sudbury to film yet another set of Letterkenny episodes.

The reason for Bell’s (and the audience’s) confidence was the writing, he said. He’s never had such a good time and never had to work so hard to convey the scripts handed to him by the show’s star and creative founder Jared Keeso (co-written by Jacob Tierney).

“It’s quick, fast-paced, quippy dialogue,” said Playfiar, but it is streaked with adult verbiage so it can’t be done justice in a family newspaper. It translates perfectly, though, in the on-demand television universe and YouTube where Letterkenny was first tested on audiences.

— see ‘THE JOKES, page 4

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North welcomes New Year’s babies Citizen staff

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er name means nourishment and her mother thinks the New Year’s Day baby’s birthday might offer meaning as Alma ages.

“I think it’s neat. It’s the start of a new season, a new year. I think that could be important for her and significant, just new life,” said Stephanie Baerg.

Alma Elvira Baerg was born at 1:55 a.m. at University Hospital of Northern B.C., making her Prince George’s first baby, and the first infant born in the north.

Stephanie and husband Joel Baerg first learned of the name Alma from friends and thought “the one who brings nourishment” could be a way of life for their daughter.

“She could hopefully be someone who brings life to those around her and hope and encouragement. That’s why we chose it,” said Stephanie, adding her middle name Elvira is in honour of Joel’s grandmother.

Though she’s a big 10 lbs, 8 ounces, mother Stephanie Baerg said the waterbirth was a good experience. She’d tried to do it with her first daughter, but when the baby’s heart rate started dropping

Citizen Photo by James Doyle

The Baerg family – Joel, Evelyn, 2, Stephanie, Alma Elvira and Atticus, 4 – welcomed Alma, Prince George’s New Year’s baby. Alma was born on Jan. 1, at 1:55 a.m. they couldn’t continue.

“I think it was good for my body and being able to relax. It felt a little bit different but I think it was easier on my body. I think because it was more relaxed,” said Stephanie, who remembered being in the

bathtub, telling the midwife she felt like pushing, and it all flowing fairly easily from that moment.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better experience...”

Stephanie was induced New Years Eve morning so she wasn’t

sure Alma would be in the running for the first Prince George baby – let alone the northern title.

“I was happy because I didn’t want to have a Christmas baby,” said Stephanie with a laugh.

Already the two-day-old baby’s

earned more attention than the family has been used to.

But it’s been nice to see the interest from the community and complete strangers over her birth – more so than the typical excitement new parents receive over the wrinkled newcomers.

“It’s neat that people are excited for us. I felt really, really special.”

In February, the couple will head back to Chengdu in central south west China.

The Baergs have made their home in China for the last three years. They’ve both been studying Mandarin – Joel going to school and she with a tutor – and also building relationships with locals she said.

But it felt right to come back home to Prince George for Alma’s birth where both their families still live.

Though UHNBC was under an advisory because of a gastrointestinal illness outbreak, it didn’t affect the family because they’d already had the illness and recovered from it a few weeks before.

“We were all healthy,” she says.

It’s still too early to pick out much personality, but Stephanie said Alma is settling in with the family and her four-year-old brother and two-year-old sister.

— see OTHER, page 6

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‘The jokes are so fast’ — from page 1 The words rattle from the mouths of the characters like machine gun nests trading bursts of fire. It is sarcastic, rapier, raw and underneath it all a gleaming reflection of the small-town Canadian experience.

“Jared is the only one I’ve ever seen who writes standing up. He has a stand-up work desk, and he paces a lot while he writes. I asked him about it and he said you had to think on your feet,” to achieve this torrential kind of dialogue, Playfair said.

“It’s cool to see a lot of reviews from the past year have come out in praise of the dialogue. I think it’s important that that gets recognized. We are only as funny as the writers allow us to be. We each have our own flare, our own energy, that we bring to the characters but you’re saying the words the writers have made for you so if those are funny, it gives you a lot more real estate to work with.”

But you can’t forget a line or only deliver the gist of it. The script is stacked like jets circling O’Hare and Keeso is the air traffic controller. If you mess up one little word, the whole thing turns into a crash. Lines fall like dominoes.

“Andrew and I will, on average, rehearse a scene from four to six hours,” Playfair said. “It’s probably the most dialogue rehearsal I’ve ever done, because the jokes are so fast and the scenes are so dialoguedependent. In most other worlds you have the freedom to flub a line or two, or to get the point of the scene across with a little bit of improvisation, but on this show, you can’t do that.”

The two-season free agent re-signing of Letterkenny by the Bell Media team at CraveTV means that Keeso and Tierney could afford to bring in another seasoned comedy writer.

— see PLAYFAIR, page 5

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Playfair in Disney’s Descendants 2 — from page 4 They got one of the scribes from Trailer Park Boys to join the creative team, since that show also had a strong Canuck personality and a mature colour to the scripts.

Playfair sees it as a perfect fit to take some pressure off the two principals.

The extension of the Letterkenny life means the show is officially becoming a franchise. What could be coming next? A dictionary of Letterkenny terms?

Letterkenny official apparel like overalls, plaid shirts, short-shorts, hockey jerseys and sunglasses?

Since the plot all unfolds in a few tight spaces (the camera is largely stationary at a roadside produce stand, a bar, a church hall, a nightclub, a barn, etc.) it even lends itself to a potential theatrical production.

The more the viewers meet these extreme examples of prototypical small-town Canadians, the greater the future possibilities,

and those discussions are already underway.

There is a wide open future also on Playfair’s personal horizon. He is involved in a number of projects not yet on the public market yet (a zombie film called It Stains The Sands Red starring Brittany Allen and Juan Riedinger, the TV movie Gorgeous Morons, the thriller Still/Born with notables like Sheila McCarthy and Michael Ironside).

The one coming quickest to global screens is the Disney movie project Descendants 2 that is already sparking fan excitement. It’s aimed at a youth audience and looks into the offspring of iconic Disney characters who, a generation later, have to deal with new drama together that sometimes relates back to the epic stories in which their forebearers were entwined. Playfair has a significant role as the son of Gaston from Beauty & The Beast.

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Other New Year’s babies from the North —from page 3 Other New Year’s babies from across northern B.C. include:

Prince Rupert Name: Dallin (last name not released).

Date: Jan. 1 at 11:06 a.m.

Weight: 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

The baby boy is the second child for parents Shayne Ward and Tyler Morrison.

Dawson Creek Name: Jianne Grace Jibin.

Date: Jan. 1 at 4:00 p.m.

Weight: 9 pounds, four ounces.

The baby girl is the first child for Anumol Aloysius and Jibin Chako.

Vanderhoof Name: (Unnamed baby boy) Weber.

Date: Jan. 1 at 7:23 p.m.

Weight: 6 pounds, 15 ounces.

The baby boy, who has yet to be named, was welcomed by big sister Emma and parents Kayla and Jordaine Weber of Fraser Lake.

Quesnel Name: Ava Bethany Boyd.

Time: Jan. 1 at 11:40 p.m.

Weight: 8 pounds, three ounces.

Baby girl Ava makes eight kids for parents Michelle and Jonathan Boyd.

Smithers Name: William Norman Anthony Maier.

Time: Jan. 1 at 7:15 a.m.

Weight: 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

Smithers parents Genevieve Michiel and Kris Maier welcomed their first child early New Years Day morning.

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McBride by-election coming in March Citizen staff

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ominations will open next week for McBride councillor hopefuls trying to fill three seats left vacant after a trio of same-day resignations last November.

A by-election is scheduled for March 4 for the village of 600. Nominations opened yesterday and are open until Jan. 27.

The notice was posted in December after the province appointed an advisor to work with the village and its two remaining council members.

Isabell Hadford, a former municipal chief administrative officer with 25 years’ experience in small, rural communities was brought in to “stabilize short-term munici-

pal operations and help support long-term confidence in the municipality,” a ministry statement said. She was also selected as the deputy elections officer to support Karla Jensen, the chief elections officer.

The resignations on Nov. 18 were the culmination of ongoing arguments between the five first-time council members, which meant it had stopped functioning as a body even before the three departures. That was compounded by ongoing upheaval at the small office with four employee departures in March 2015 and Mayor Loranne Martin’s recent assertion that staff opened complaints with both the BC Human Rights Tribunal and WorkSafeBC against two unnamed councillors.

— see McBRIDE, page 9

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McBride council restricted — from page 8 Martin was also at the centre of a 2015 wrongful dismissal ruling of a former public works supervisor who claimed he was fired

by Martin the day after he attended a meeting about unionizing.

BCHRT said it would only release complaint files if listed on its 90 day schedule.

Neither McBride nor any of the councillors names appeared on the Jan. 2 list.

By late November community minister Peter Fassbender signed a ministerial order allowing Martin and Coun. Rick Thompson to create a quorum for the depleted council.

But he also ordered the two refrain from making any financial, legal or long-term decisions. The four month halt in village business – like budget and strategic planning – has an “astronomical impact” on the community, Martin said.

“We will be very restricted in the work that we can do as a quorum of two until

there’s a new by-election,” said Martin in a December interview before Hadford was brought on board. Martin could not be reached for comment.

The new councillors’ term will end in October 2018, to replace Sharon Reichert, Ralph Bezanson and Edith Tracy, who resigned without publicly stating their reasons. The resignation letters, released to The Citizen, are two simple sentences repeated word-for-word on all copies.

“For the best of our community, I (councillor name) can not continue to participate any further on council effective Nov. 18, 2016. I have been proud to serve our community for the last two years and with great sorrow, I must resign from my position on council.”

Nominations can be sent in by mail, dropped up with the deputy chief elections officer in person by appointment or by email to kjensen@rdffg.bc.ca.

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Snowmobilers face major fines in mountain caribou habitat Citizen staff

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nowmobilers who venture into areas set aside for mountain caribou this winter risk stiff fines.

As much as $50,000 can be levied against anyone found inside a closure and conservation officers will be patrolling those areas by both ground and air, B.C. Conservation Officer Service deputy chief Chris Doyle said.

“The high country of B.C.’s interior wetbelt provides good habitat which is ideal for mountain caribou. It’s also attractive to snowmobilers and other backcountry users,” Doyle said during a teleconference with provincial media last week.

In response to the presence of snowmobilers, Doyle said the animals may move to less suitable and more dangerous areas in terms of foraging and avalanche hazard. Predators will use the snowmobile trails to help them hunt the animals, Doyle added.

“So many areas of the province have been closed to snowmobilers to use, to support recovery of the mountain caribou, particularly in the Thompson, Kootenay, Cariboo, Omineca and Peace regions,” Doyle said.

The closures are part of a strategy to help the mountain caribou’s population recover. Maps showing the no-go zones can be found at www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/ wildlife/snowmobile-closures/.

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Scene PG Magazine photo

Darlene Shaw poses for Scene PG Magazine in an undated handout photo.

ER nurse uses modelling to help recover from stroke Frank Peebles Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

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he clicking of the camera tapped out a message of recovery for a Prince George woman recovering from a stroke.

Darlene Shaw is not a fashion model by trade, but stepping into the spotlight was a key part of her bounce-back even though stepping anywhere required a cane or very careful body positions.

Shaw had never done any modelling

before her medical incident.

It would have been outside her comfort zone at the best of times to answer the call for a fashion photo-shoot, but her injuries drove her pick up the phone when Scene PG Magazine advertised for women to pose for their fall edition.

“One leg is really shaky. I have no sensation down the back, on the side or into my foot, and there has been a lot of muscle atrophy. My balance is sketchy to say the least, I can’t make any quick movements, and I fall easily,” Shaw described.

— see ‘SINCE THE, page 12

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‘Since the stroke I am having esteem issues’ — from page 11 “I’ve never been self-conscious about my body ever in my life, but since the stroke I am having esteem issues and worries. What better way to get over that than just getting out around people and in a situation where there’s a limelight on you?”

Shaw did so well she was cast in two of the Scene PG shoots, one outdoors near some railroad tracks and one indoors at an auto

shop. Both presented stability problems and both gave her different kinds of confidence after she got through them cleanly.

“She told us right up front about her stroke and what it did to her, but we told her that was no problem, absolutely we wanted her in the shoots, we would do whatever she needed to make that happen,” said Scene PG’s Norm Coyne.

Shaw’s problems are deepest away from the camera. Before

her stroke she was an emergency room nurse at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. When she was wheeled into that department as a patient, her friends and colleagues were confronted with treating one of their own. That treatment was outstanding, she said, as long as she was admitted to the hospital.

Her life was saved in the ER, her life was sustained through critical days in the ICU when the

pain was so searing she needed to be sedated and restrained at the same time, and then she began the excruciating recovery process in the hands of physio and occupational therapists – as long as she was admitted.

However, once the immediate threat to life was past, she was discharged. At that point, outpatient services dropped off.

“I’ve been on a wait-list since I got out of the hospital in June

for physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology which is connected to memory development.

For two of those, the list isn’t even moving because there is nobody in those positions, so me and everybody else on the list just sits there,” she said.

Very little outside therapy was available, even with her healthcare connections.

— see ‘THE COSTS, page 13

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‘The costs are huge’ — from page 12 She had to cobble together non-strokespecific physiotherapy, massage, yoga, acupuncture and other treatments largely on her own.

The city’s Brain Injury Group was a big help, she said, but they also faced limitations and frustrations. Those who stepped in to help her damaged body and injured brain did their best, she said, but stroke victims have specific medical needs that are in short supply in Prince George.

She also has to contend with the collapse in her finances. While much of her initial medical aid was covered by our Canadian healthcare system, the bulk of it was not covered once she became an outpatient.

The medical bills began to pile up.

Furthermore, she was no longer able to work, so her income ceased.

“Even I had no idea,” said Shaw of the narrow borders of coverage a patient in

Canada receives.

“We think things are free. It’s crazy what isn’t free at all. And the costs are huge for some things. The bills get really big, really fast, and it’s not like you have a choice.”

Her family has been a help, but their resources are also limited.

Thankfully, her mom and dad live in the Prince George area and have become quasi-parents to Shaw’s elementary-aged daughter.

Her daughter was the person who saved Shaw’s life when the stroke first happened.

It was May 2. Shaw and her little girl went for a hike on the UNBC Greenway trails with their dog. Tired and happy, they went to the grocery store on the way home, then settled into a normal evening of mundane family activities. Shaw remembers putting the groceries away, but nothing after that.

— see ‘MY DAUGHTER, page 14

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‘My daughter found me on the floor’ — from page 13 “If you look at my phone, I was sending text messages, all of them perfectly normal, up until 10:23 that night. The last one said ‘I’m going to bed now.’ At 7:30 the next morning, May 3, my daughter found me on the floor of my bathroom when she got up for school. She told me she knew right away that I hadn’t been to bed because she was asleep in my bed. I always move her to her own bed when she’s there. She could see me on the floor of the bathroom, but she couldn’t get the door open because I was blocking it. She was terrified, but she knew to dial 911. She goes to Cedars Christian school and they had gone to a lot of lengths to prepare the kids for emergency events like

that, and it worked for us.”

Shaw was active, healthy, and only 35 years old – not the standard candidate for suffering a stroke.

“Although usually associated with the elderly, strokes can happen at any age,” said neurologist Dr. Rick Swartz of the University of Toronto Stroke Program and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “About four of every 100 strokes happen in people ages 18 to 45.”

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, a number of health issues (diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, etc.) can be factors in a junior’s stroke, “about one third of the time the cause of stroke among 18- to 45-year-olds is unknown,” and

Although usually associated with the elderly, strokes can happen at any age.

— Dr. Rick Swartz that is the case for Shaw.

The reasons are not entirely irrelevant, but the vast majority of her mental energy is being invested in getting better. She doubts she will ever be an ER nurse again, but she deeply wishes to work in her chosen profession in some capacity.

Even on her own initiative, the improvements have been unmis-

takable. She shed the wheelchair she was initially bound to, then she graduated past crutches, then dismissed the cane, recently surpassed her constant “drop foot” condition, and now moves with only a limp and a need to step carefully. Her hands and arms are regaining their strength and mobility. Her back isn’t in such constant pain.

“Young adults will be living with the aftereffects of stroke for a very long period of time and urgently need help to make the best possible recovery,” said Dr. Dale Corbett, Scientific Director and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery.

Shaw finally got some good news last week from the medical

community. She was accepted into the Intensive Rehabilitation Day Program located at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver. It is a six-week program of stroke-specific recovery measures.

It won’t cost Shaw any money to obtain the treatment, but it will be another massive punch to the finances to relocate for that length of time. To help offset the giant financial burdens Shaw has borne, a crowd-sourcing account has been set up in her name. To contribute any amount of money, log onto the Go Fund Me website and type the name Darlene Shaw into the search box. The title of her campaign is Darlene’s Long Road To Recovery.

You can donate in any amount, either named or anonymously.

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