A long-running legal battle between Prince George lumber manufacturer John Brink and BCR Properties Ltd. over the state of the site where he had planned to build a sawmill has come to an end. A consent dismissal order was filed Dec. 12 stating that the proceeding be dismissed without costs to any party and that the dismissal is “for all purposes of the same force and effect as if judgment had been pronounced after a hearing of this action on its merits.”
The order is signed by the lawyers representing Brink and BCR Properties.
The matter – a dispute over the condition of a property at 1077 Boundary Rd. in the BCR Industrial Site – had been set to go to trial this past Monday and was to last 44 days, according to a trial brief submitted by BCR Properties. Consent dismissal orders are typically issued when the plaintiff has decided there is no chance of getting a favourable judgment or the parties have reached an out of court settlement. Neither Brink nor BCR Properties returned phone calls from The Citizen for requests for comment.
However, a land title search shows the property was trans-
ferred to a new owner – a numbered company with the same River Road address where Brink Forest Products Ltd. is located – on Dec. 11, the day before the order was filed at the courthouse in Prince George. The market value was $1.5 million, according to a transfer document.
Brink had been leasing the site with an option to purchase.
In mid-2005, Brink had started construction of a new sawmill at the site. With the region’s forests awash in beetle-killed pine, time was of the essence and the aim was to have the operation up and running quickly.
Within six months, Brink had constructed the foundations and the mill’s superstructure and had installed a number of machines with the intent to start processing logs by the coming winter.
But then the worked stopped and in 2009 the first of a series of lawsuits was filed in a dispute over the property’s fair value.
Brink had claimed BCR Properties neglected to inform him the site included a 22-acre landfill containing a number of toxic substances. He alleged it effectively reduced the amount of land that could be used for the mill to 60 acres from the expected 100 and that it would cost $12.75 million to remediate the site.
BCR Properties had denied all the allegations.
Sentence upheld for molester
Citizen
staff
A man found guilty of molesting a young girl will have to serve his sentence in jail after the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed an application to have it served as a conditional sentence order.
The appeal by Michael Scott Horswill was dismissed Friday, about 1 1/2 months after the Supreme Court of Canada denied his application to have the verdict overturned.
In January 2016, following a five-day trial, Horswill was found guilty of molesting the four-yearold daughter of a family friend in July 2013 while they were staying overnight at a cabin near Prince George.
In the process of sentencing Horswill, the judge was asked to ignore the mandatory minimum of at least one year in jail.
In November 2016, an Ontario Superior Court Justice struck down the mandatory minimum for a man convicted of the same offence and sentenced
him to seven months in jail followed by two years probation.
But in December 2016, B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams rejected Horswill’s application and a month later sentenced him to 14 months in jail followed by 30 months probation.
His name was also added to the national sex offender registry for 20 years.
In the most recent decision, the Court of Appeal agreed with Horswill’s counsel’s argument that Williams erred in his conclusion that the mandatory minimum imposed by the Criminal Code was constitutional.
But the Court of Appeal nonetheless found he did not err in concluding on the facts of the case that a conditional sentence order was not appropriate.
Had Horswill won the appeal, he would have been able to serve the sentence in the community where he could continue to live at home and go to work but remain subject to various restrictions, including a curfew.
Police, Indigenous blockades going up,
work to begin again on
Citizen news service
SMITHERS — The RCMP lifted an exclusion zone Friday that cut off public access to a forest service road in northern British Columbia at the site of a confrontation this week between Mounties and opponents of a natural gas pipeline.
Police say the public and media can travel on the road in the Wet’suwet’en First Nation territory but the RCMP will be patrolling it to ensure everyone’s safety. Earlier Friday, a convoy of work trucks passed through the police roadblock heading to the Unist’ot’en healing camp to dismantle barriers that had blocked workers from starting construction on the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
On Thursday, hereditary chiefs struck a deal with the RCMP to abide with an interim court injunction by not blocking access to the work site.
In exchange, the chiefs said members of the First Nation would not be arrested and the Unist’ot’en camp would be allowed to remain intact.
Chief Na’Moks said they made the temporary agreement to protect Wet’suwet’en members, some of whom were already traumatized after another checkpoint was dismantled and 14 people were arrested on Monday.
The Unist’ot’en is a house group within the five clans that make up the Wet’suwet’en First Nation.
pipeline
The agreement applies to an interim court injunction, which is meant to prevent anyone from impeding the company’s work until the defendants, which include members of the Unist’ot’en camp, file a response.
Some members of the Wet’suwet’en say the company does not have authority to work on their territory without consent from the nation’s hereditary clan chiefs.
TransCanada Corp. says it has signed benefit sharing agreements with the elected councils of all 20 First Nations along the pipeline route. Its Coastal GasLink pipeline would run from northern B.C. though the Wet’suwet’en territory to LNG Canada’s $40 billion export terminal in Kitimat.
Coastal GasLink president Rick Gateman said the agreement lays the groundwork for the company to have free access to the area for pre-construction and construction work on the pipeline.
The RCMP said in a news release Thursday that police would continue “roving patrols” of the Morice West Forest Service Road.
The Mounties said they also set up a temporary RCMP detachment on the road that will be staffed by general duty police officers who “will undergo cultural awareness training on the Wet’suwet’en traditions and will have enhanced training in conflict resolution.”
A lawsuit by John Brink, president of Brink Forest Products Limited, against BCR Properties has been
Gene editing, designer babies up for discussion at Exploration Place
That’s the big issue during The Exploration Place’s Adult Speaker Series when UNBC chemistry professor Stephen Rader presents the topic of designer babies and gene editing Monday at 7 p.m.
“What I’m really trying to do with this talk is start a conversation because this is the first time in the history of life on Earth that an organism can change its own DNA,” Rader said.
“That gives humanity this incredible power that we really have no idea yet what to do with and this isn’t something that scientists should decide in the secrecy of their labs or some government agency should tell us what to think about it. This is something that everybody needs to talk about and be able to express their opinions about.”
Is this something that is too dangerous and should it be used at all?
“Or yes, this is something we should consider but only for diseases, or the sky’s the limit and let’s do whatever anybody wants and we can have our free market and designer children and who knows,” he said.
During the talk on Monday, Rader said he will spend a bit of time explaining the technology so people can understand what scientists are doing right now is pretty limited.
“Basically we can make one little edit at a time and a lot of things people would like to do like make super-genius babies or children who have X-ray vision – those sorts of things would require wholesale changes to our DNA which we’re nowhere near able to do,” he explained. “In some ways it’s a bit comforting that some things are totally out of range technologically and probably will be for decades or centuries so it’ll be somebody else’s problem to deal with but even today there are decisions to be made and people have to understand what the limitations are and also what the risks are.”
Scientists today are hoping that
the procedure will be very precise, making a change in only one place and that’s the only thing that happens.
“But there’s evidence that’s not always the case,” Rader said.
Rader will also talk about what he’s doing in his research at UNBC and what changes can be made to DNA that will be helpful, what the limitations are, and of course, the ethics and politics of the volatile subject matter.
In current news is the report of a Chinese scientist who claims to have gene edited babies as part of the in vitro process and Rader will use that information as talking points to start a discussion with the audience.
“It’s kind of incredible we’re at what could be an inflection point in the history of humanity that we now have access to this technology that is unlike anything that’s ever existed,” he said.
“And I’m hoping there will be an extended and engaging discussion about it Monday night.”
Doors open at The Exploration Place, 333 Becott Place, Monday at 6:45 p.m.
Gaming branch expanding support services for problem gamblers
Randy SHORE Vancouver Sun
Almost 2,400 people were referred to counselling by the province’s crisis line for problem gamblers last year, but only half actually attended.
The current crisis line service provider, 211 British Columbia Services Society, fields 3,243 calls a year, about 62 per week, and referred 2,373 people to a problem gambling counsellor.
According to the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch’s annual report, 1,269 people received those services. Early intervention services and clinical counselling were delivered to a total of 1,612 people.
According to the Ministry of the Attorney General, 77 per cent of counselling clients showed “signicant improvement.”
The branch is about to overhaul its crisis services for problem gamblers to include online chat support and mobile phone text support. Counselling is offered at no charge to anyone who calls for help.
Enhancements are to include a personal non-automated response to callers in less than 90 seconds with service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The branch also delivered 2,387 problem gambling prevention presentations to more than 86,000 people last year and organized a pilot program for early intervention counselling for at-risk gamblers.
But the most potent weapon in their tool box is a voluntary self-exclusion program in which people can register to be barred from casinos, bingo halls or B.C. Lottery Corporation’s Playnow. com gaming website for as little as six months and up to three years. Self-excluded gamblers were identified and removed from casinos more than 9,500 times last fiscal year.
People who self-exclude are escorted from gaming facilities if they are detected by security staff. About 10,000 people are registered for exclusion, about 7,000 from facilities and 3,000 from Playnow.com.
Everyone who registers is offered free counselling.
BCLC is investing in ID scan-
ners and uses licence plate readers to help identify people in the program. Lookout bulletins are issued if a participant tries repeatedly to enter casinos. While some people registered with the program have evaded security, they are ineligible to collect jackpots if they win. Nonetheless, problem gamblers can and do defeat the system, sometimes with terrible consequences.
Tyler Hatch claims to have lost $550,000 in disability payments on online lottery games and attempted to sue B.C. lottery officials for failing to intervene and help him.
Hatch received a lump-sum payout of $550,000 in disability benefits after being diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. He soon gambled away the entirety of his lump-sum payment and had incurred approximately $50,000 in consumer credit debt, according to court documents. The lawsuit was dropped a few weeks after it was filed.
Attorney General David Eby told media this week improvements to the program will be considered as part of a comprehensive review of the Gaming Control Act triggered by reports of widespread money laundering through B.C. casinos.
BCLC reported net income of $1.4 billion from casinos and lotteries in the 2017-18 fiscal year, based on record revenue of $3.3 billion. That’s nearly $90 million more than expected and the Crown corporation achieved a “player satisfaction” rate of 80 per cent in the process, according to a third-party survey.
Casino slot machines and table games showed the strongest growth. There were 18 casinos, 18 community gaming centres and five commercial bingo halls hosting BCLC games in operation last year.
The newly-approved Cascade Casino Delta is expected to open in 2020 on the site of the Delta Town and Country Inn at the junction of highways 99 and 17A. Additional casinos are in the early planning stages for Greater Victoria and the North Shore in Metro Vancouver, according to BCLC.
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Bio chemistry grad student Corbin Blank and professor Stephen Rader both UNBC researchers working on gene splicing in 2016. Rader will be giving a talk at Exploration Place Monday at 7 p.m. about designer babies and gene editing.
Canada grants asylum to Saudi woman fleeing abusive family
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada granted asylum on Friday to the Saudi woman who won the world’s attention on social media as she fled an abusive family after escaping to Thailand.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would accept 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun as a refugee, after she was stopped last Saturday at Bangkok airport by immigration police. Police denied her entry and seized her passport, while her brother and father travelled to Thailand to take her back to Saudi Arabia.
Trudeau brushed aside suggestions that the move might complicate already strained relations with Saudi Arabia, while the organization Human Rights Watch praised Canada for acting swiftly to provide sanctuary to a vulnerable young woman.
Alqunun barricaded herself in an airport hotel room and launched a Twitter campaign that drew global attention to her case. Canadian diplomats in the Thai capital were seized with her plight immediately, and though Alqunun originally said she wanted to reach Australia, it became clear in the past week that Canada represented her quickest path to freedom.
Trudeau announced during a press conference in Regina that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees asked Canada to take Alqunun as a refugee, and Canada agreed.
“That is something that we are pleased to do because Canada is a country that understands how im-
portant it is to stand up for human rights, to stand up for women’s rights around the world,” Trudeau said.
Alqunun’s case once again shone a spotlight on the state of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi women fleeing abuse by their families have been caught trying to seek asylum abroad in recent years and returned home.
“I’m the girl who ran away to Thailand. I’m now in real danger because the Saudi Embassy is trying to force me to return,” said an English translation of one of her first postings to Twitter. Alqunun also wrote that she was afraid and that her family would kill her if she were returned home.
The Twitter hashtag #SaveRahaf ensued, and a photo of her behind a door barricaded with a mattress was seen around the world.
The Trudeau government’s decision is sure to further strain Canada’s relations with Saudi Arabia. In August, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expelled Canada’s ambassador and withdrew his own envoy after Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland used Twitter to call for the release of women’s rights activists who had been arrested in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis also sold Canadian investments and recalled their students from universities in Canada.
Trudeau appeared unfazed
House fire linked to man’s disappearance
Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP have now deemed suspicious the disappearance of a local man after confirming that he owns a modular home where a fire broke out.
Police said Friday a black 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck owned by the man, Robert Poulin, 54, was also found when at 11 p.m. on Dec. 28, police and firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at 4416 Greenwood St.
First reported missing on Jan. 2, police had said he was last seen the night of the fire driving around in the Hart with his poodle inside.
Police are now asking for the public’s help regarding where
Poulin’s truck may have been in the days prior. Specifically, they are seeking any witnesses or vehicle dash
camera footage that was obtained on the following dates:
• Thurs., Dec. 27 from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. between Chetwynd and Fort St John. A white canopy was on the back of the truck at this time, RCMP said.
• Fri., Dec. 28, from midnight to 9 p.m. between Fort St John and Prince George. The canopy was no longer on the truck.
Poulin is described as Caucasian, six-foot-two and weighs 188 pounds with short brown hair and green eyes. He may also have been wearing a blue winter jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Cpl. Meghan Driscoll at 250-561-3300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
Weapon found, youth arrested at local high school
Citizen staff
A youth was taken into custody after a weapon was found at Kelly Road Secondary School on Friday morning.
Prince George RCMP were called to the scene shortly before 9 a.m. and a lockdown was imposed at the school.
There were no injuries and the lockdown was lifted about 20 minutes later. Specifics on the type of weapon were not provided.
“Incidents like this within our schools are taken very seriously by the police and the quick response by our officers ensured this matter was resolved safely,” said Prince George RCMP Cpl. Carmen Kiener.
School district superintendent Marilyn MarquisForster said police were called after a threat was reported to the school’s office. The school was back to regular operation by about 9:15 a.m.
“Everyone is safe,” she said and added the school’s principal is drafting a communication to parents that will also appear on the KRSS website.
Library hosting sensory workshops, story times
Citizen staff
For children on the autism spectrum, experiencing grief or loss, are shy or who have had adverse experiences the Prince George Library is offering two new programs.
The programs are a sensory workshop and sensory story times, which begin Sunday at the downtown branch.
During the sensory workshop, children and caregivers can make personalized tools to engage their senses like a glitter jar, which can stimulate or soothe assisting with focus, reading and learning.
“For sensory story time, we’ll remove any extra stimulation,” said Andra Nadeau from youth services, said. “We’ve limited registration to ensure a smaller group and we’re holding the program on Sundays when the library is
reporters on Wednesday and that Alqunun wouldn’t get any “special treatment” and was no different from any other similar case.
Dutton’s comments, coupled with the arrival of Alqunun’s father and brother in Bangkok, heightened the urgency to find a safe haven for her, Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said in an interview from Bangkok.
“There was the uncertain aspect of her father and her brother –the people she feared most – still being here, still being in Bangkok and still being present. There was a great deal of worry about that. That something might happen,” said Robertson. “That was actually one of the reasons why the original idea that she might be going to Australia was switched to go to Canada, because Canada was prepared to act much quicker and really make this happen.”
by the possibility of ill effects on Canada’s relations with the Saudi Arabia.
“Canada has been unequivocal,” he said. “We will always stand up for human rights and women’s rights around the world. This is part of a long tradition of Canada engaging constructively and positively in the world and working with our partners, allies and with the United Nations. And when the United Nations made a request of us that we grant Ms. Alqunun asylum, we accepted.”
Alqunun had previously said on Twitter that she wished to seek refuge in Australia.
But Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told
Robertson praised the swift action of Donica Pottie, Canada’s ambassador to Thailand, for her early involvement in the case and helping push the Thai government to allow the UNHCR to gain access to Alqunun, which is not something that usually happens in such cases in Thailand.
“They were on it from the getgo,” said Robertson.
“She was part of the coalition of people that were pushing very hard when we thought we were going to lose Rahaf.”
Pottie was not available for comment.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi welcomed Canada’s decision, given the hardening of attitudes in some countries towards the plight of refugees.
Death of innocent boy, 15, set off by plan to kill another man: police
The Canadian Press Vancouver police say they’ve pieced together the scene of a gang shooting where a 15-yearold youth was killed in the crossfire.
Alfred Wong was in a vehicle with his family driving down East Broadway on Jan. 13, 2018, when he was hit by a stray bullet, while 23-year-old Kevin Whiteside was shot and killed on the street.
Investigators have learned that Whiteside was waiting to kill another man who was in a nearby restaurant with a woman.
Police say in a news release that when the two people left the restaurant another person opened fire, killing both Wong and Whiteside.
Investigators have already said they believed the shooting was part of a gang dispute and the man who left the restaurant that night unhurt was murdered months later.
Police have seized a red Pontiac Montana connected to the shooting and would like to talk to those inside a dark pickup
Alfred Wong was in a vehicle with his family driving down East Broadway on Jan. 13, 2018, when he was hit by a stray bullet, while 23-yearold Kevin Whiteside was shot and killed on the street.
that was at the crime scene. Sgt. Mike Heard says they released the new details because they know there are people out there who have important information on the deaths and they’d like them to come forward.
“This reckless violence really shook our community and we have zero tolerance for it in our city,” Heard said Friday. “We have been in close contact with Alfred’s family over the past year and have been providing them with information and support.”
quieter. We’ll be using sensory materials and a lot of repetition to help children engage in the stories and activities.”
The youth services team has also assembled a sensory bin that families can borrow while at the Bob Harkins branch of the library.
The bin includes a pop-up tent, wiggle cushion, bean bag cushion, weighted lap pad, fidget objects, ear defenders and sunglasses. The sensory bin can also be used during a variety of programs.
Families can plan for their visit by reading the library’s Visual Story at https://bit.ly/2SSfWEY
Families can register for the sensory programs by calling 250-5639251 ext. 108 or by visiting the youth services desk. Registration is free but limited.
The sensory workshop takes place Sunday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. for those five-to-nine years
old with caregivers and sensory story time takes place Sunday, Jan. 20 and 27 from 1:30 to 2 p.m. for those zero to nine years old with caregivers.
POULIN
AP PHOTO
Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun walks in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. Alqunun, the 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family to seek asylum, has been granted refugee status in Canada.
Three killed, 23 injured as bus hits transit shelter
Jordan PRESS, Jim BRONSKILL Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Three people were killed and 23 injured when a double-decker city bus struck a transit shelter in Ottawa on Friday afternoon, badly damaging the vehicle’s upper deck where several people were trapped inside.
The driver of the bus was arrested at the scene, Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa police told an evening news conference at city hall. He wouldn’t say why she was detained rather than submitting to questions voluntarily.
“Something led us to having to arrest the individual and take them to the station,” Bordeleau said.
The crash took place west of downtown at 3:50 p.m., just as dusk was beginning to settle on the coldest day of the winter so far in the capital.
The bus was headed to Kanata, a more distant Ottawa suburb.
Mayor Jim Watson said two of the dead were riding the bus and one was on the platform at Westboro station, a major stop on the city’s busway.
The vehicle apparently jumped the curb as it approached the station and plowed along the platform, where the roof of a shelter carved deep into the vehicle’s second deck. The first seats on the upper level of the bus were crushed together.
During the emergency response, a dozen ambulances lined one side of the transit route, waiting to take injured people away.
One woman who could walk was helped off a bus by two first responders, one supporting each of her arms. Another was wheeled on a gurney in obvious distress, wailing loudly enough to be heard on an overpass above.
Neither Bordeleau nor Watson would speculate on why the bus had left the road. Despite mid-afternoon temperatures of about minus-15, it hadn’t snowed in Ottawa Friday and the busway is the top priority for the city’s snowplows, salters and sanders.
“We’re taking every necessary step to establish all of the facts and will co-operate fully with any investigation,” said John Manconi, the general manager of Ottawa’s transit service, OC Transpo.
Paramedics said a total of 25 people were taken to hospital, suggesting one of the victims could not be revived at the scene and the other two died after arriving. Of those transported, 14 were in critical condition and 11 were in serious condition, paramedic chief Myles Cassidy said in the news conference later.
“Most of the serious injuries were on the
upper-right side of the bus,” Bordeleau said.
“I want to express my sorrow and condolences of the Ottawa police service and other emergency services.”
He said the upper deck of the bus was badly damaged in the crash, trapping several people inside for some time.
The investigation will take a long time and likely would mean the closure of the busway and nearby roads for at least many hours, Bordeleau said.
Gabe Rivett-Carnac arrived at Westboro station on a double-decker bus himself about an hour before the crash. He was in his apartment across the street from the station when he started hearing sirens just after 4 p.m.
He went outside and came across a “chaotic” scene, with at least 30 emergency vehicles, including seven or eight fire trucks, and lots of police and bystanders, he said.
“You could see the entire front portion of the bus had been demolished or cut away,
and firefighters were on ladders cutting out the top floor windows,” he said. “I saw one person being lowered from the top floor in a seated position.”
He said he could tell there would be deaths given the devastation at the scene.
“Based on the way it looked, if there was anybody at the front of the bus at the top I can’t see how they would’ve been able to get away from that,” he said.
His partner usually gets off the bus at that station when coming home from work but she hadn’t gone in on Friday, he said, and they were checking in with family and friends who live in the area to see if they’re OK.
“You get a knot in the pit of your stomach. I felt like vomiting a couple of times. It’s not a comfortable thing to witness and I can’t imagine experiencing it.”
Politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, tweeted messages of support.
“To the people of Ottawa, know that the rest of Ontario shares in your sorrow tonight. We grieve with you, and we stand with you,” Ford wrote in a longer statement.
“Such devastating news. My thoughts and condolences are with the victims, their families and all those affected by this tragedy,” wrote Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who represents the area in Parliament.
In 2013, another Ottawa double-decker bus broke through a warning gate and collided with a Via Rail train in suburban Barrhaven, killing six people as the train sheared off the front of the vehicle. In that case, an investigation found that the cause was a combination of excessive speed, a difficult curve before the tracks and driver distraction from video monitors showing the upper deck.
— With files from David Reevely in Ottawa and Laura Kane in Vancouver.
CP PHOTO
Police and first responders work at the scene where a double-decker city bus struck a transit shelter in Ottawa on Friday.
Judge gives instructions to jury in murder trial
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Jurors will need to use their common sense in assessing the reliability of an alleged confession by a man accused of killing a 12-year-old girl, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge says.
In his instructions to the jury on Friday, Justice Austin Cullen said an undercover police officer posing as a crime boss provided financial and social inducements to Garry Handlen but the man was never threatened.
Handlen has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Monica Jack near her home in Merritt in May 1978.
Her remains were found 17 years later, on a nearby mountain where Handlen told the supposed crime boss in November 2014 that he sexually assaulted and killed her after abducting her from a pullout on a highway.
He said he threw Jack’s bike in Nicola Lake, forced her into the bathroom of his camper and drove his Chevy pickup up a steep hill, where he sexually assaulted her, killed her and burned her clothes and parts of her body.
“What I know for sure is I went up a dirt road off the highway, up a hill, somewhere in the Merritt area and I left her body up there,” he told the undercover officer in a hidden-camera video recording shown earlier in court.
The RCMP began a nine-month so-called Mr. Big sting in Minden, Ont., in February 2014.
Undercover operatives paid for his meals, drinks and hotel stays in cities including Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax and hired him for legal and illegal jobs such as loan sharking.
The trial heard that the final inducement came when the supposed crime boss falsely told Handlen police had DNA linking him to Jack’s murder and witnesses could place him at the crime scene but “things could be done to take care of it” if he told the truth. It’s up to jurors to decide the extent to which Handlen could have been influenced to admit to killing the girl, Cullen said.
He said Handlen’s claims that Jack was sexually assaulted, murdered and her clothes and parts of her body were burned could not be verified.
In the video, Handlen is told a former employee who is sick would take the blame for the murder but he must provide enough details to at least confuse investigators as the group works to get rid of the DNA.
As Handlen begins to talk about what he allegedly did, he repeats five times that he strangled Jack and later repeatedly expresses relief.
“It’s a weight off my shoulder now, I’ve told you. So I’m not the only one that knows now.”
The boss tells him he could repay his debt by doing more work for the group.
“I’m indebted for life now,” Handlen says. “That’s the way it goes. Yes, I appreciate it more than anything, more than I can even say. There’s just not enough words to say it other than saying thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Cullen pointed out several lies Handlen told undercover police, starting with saying he could water ski on one ski, but continuing with fibs even after being lectured by the crime group to stop. Even then, Handlen lied repeatedly, saying, for example, that he was once a member of the British army’s Special Air Service, that he’d ridden horses in Arizona and had eaten kangaroo meat in Australia.
Patrick Angly, Handlen’s defence lawyer, has urged the jury not to accept the alleged confession, saying it was coerced.
However, Crown counsel Gordon Matei said in closing arguments that Handlen was motivated by the belief he would escape prosecution and was relieved to divulge a secret he’d carried with him for 36 years.
Cullen has told jurors it’s up to the Crown to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Mr. Handlen doesn’t have to prove anything,” he said.
The trial began in October with 14 jurors to ensure enough people would be available to deliberate. Under the law, criminal trials require only 12 jurors to participate in deliberations, and in this case they will be chosen by drawing numbers.
Teen gets life for his part in swarming death
VANCOUVER — A man found guilty of seconddegree murder for his part in the swarming death of a teenager outside a Whistler convenience store has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.
Two other youths who were convicted of manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Luka Gordic of Burnaby were sentenced to 18 months in custody and another 18 months on probation.
The three men can’t be named because they were juveniles at the time of the death.
Prosecutors said at the trial that up to 15 people swarmed Gordic in a planned attack in May 2015.
A fourth man was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced in 2017 to seven years in prison, less time served.
Cheers erupted in the courtroom on Friday when the British Columbia Supreme Court judge read out the life sentence.
Health Canada upholds ruling on weed killers
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Health Canada scientists say there is no reason to believe the scientific evidence they used to approve the continued use of glyphosate in weed killers was tainted.
On Friday they rejected, again, arguments that the ingredient in herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup causes cancer if the substances are used as they’re supposed to be.
The department’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency is required to reassess herbicides every 15 years and after such a reassessment in 2017 it approved glyphosate for continued use in Canada with some additional labelling requirements. The review looked at more than 1,300 studies and concluded glyphosate products pose no risk to people or the environment as long as they are properly used and labelled.
Glyphosate is one of the most common herbicides used in the world, is in more than 130 products sold in Canada and has widespread use by farmers to keep weeds out of their crops.
After the decision, eight objections were filed, many of which said the evidence used to approve the product
was tainted because Monsanto had influenced the results.
Their accusations were largely based on documents filed in a U.S. lawsuit in which a former groundskeeper was awarded a multimillion-dollar settlement after jurors decided his cancer was linked to glyphosate.
The groups, including Ecojustice, Environmental Defence and Canadian Physicians for the Environment, wanted Health Minister Ginette Petipas Taylor to order an independent review of the Health Canada decision.
Instead Health Canada assigned 20 scientists not part of the original review to look at the matter. Connie Moase, a director in the health-effects division of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, said Friday the scientists “left no stone unturned” in the review.
“The objections raised did not create doubt or concern regarding the scientific basis for the 2017 re-evaluation decision for glyphosate,” said Moase.
She said the documents, known as the Monsanto Papers, were mainly reviews of studies, not studies themselves, and that Health Canada’s approval was based on the actual studies.
Moase added that no pest regulatory
management agency in the world says glyphosate causes cancer at current levels of exposure.
Trish Jordan, the public-and-industryaffairs director for Bayer Canada’s crop-science division, said the company supported the additional review Health Canada launched and is also pleased with the result.
Monsanto has previously denied any attempt to influence scientific studies on glyphosate.
“We have an unwavering commitment to sound science, transparency and to producing valuable tools that will help farmers continue to feed a growing population in a sustainable manner,” Jordan said.
Elaine MacDonald, head of healthy communities for Ecojustice, said the decision is a big disappointment.
“How can we trust the science if we can’t be sure that it’s independent?” she said.
Recent testing by Environmental Defence uncovered traces of glyphosate in a number of popular food products including doughnuts, cookies and cereals. However the amounts were well below the levels Health Canada says would be unsafe for human consumption.
The Canadian Press
Bottles of Roundup herbicide, a product of Monsanto, are displayed on a store shelf. Health Canada scientists say there is no reason to believe the scientific evidence they used to approve continued use of glysophate in weed killers was tainted.
Let the kids name the school
Everybody in Fort St. John is talking about the new elementary school under construction.
Why?
Because the school board has asked for suggestions from local residents on what it should be called.
While the working title of the school is Northeast elementary, School District 60 has received more than 70 submissions to name the two-storey, $31.1-million school set to open in the fall of 2020.
With the Fort St. John hospital right across the street, many of the suggested names recognize health care pioneers.
The top vote-getter so far, according to a story in The Citizen’s sister newspaper, The Alaska Highway News, is Anne Young, the first registered nurse in the North Peace, who arrived in the area from England in 1930.
She delivered more than 300 babies during her 25-year career, frequently making horseback house calls in bad weather to reach her patients.
Along with other historical names, there have been several Dane-zaa words suggested to recognize the area’s Indigenous
people and ancestry.
Special thanks to the witty morons who suggested Schooly McSchoolface.
That doesn’t reflect School District 60 naming protocol, which looks for names of geographic areas or individuals of historic, cultural, or social significance if they have been dead for at least five years.
Maybe people in the area are quite happy with keeping it Kelly Road but maybe they’d like to have a discussion about a new name for their new school.
If the newly elected School District 57 school board wants to generate more excitement about the replacement for Kelly Road Secondary School currently under construction and also slated for opening in fall 2020, maybe it should ask for local input on a new name for the Hart high school, with particular emphasis on the neighbourhood’s preference.
Maybe people in the area are quite happy with keeping it Kelly Road but maybe they’d like to have a discussion about a new name for their new school.
By way of background, John Kelly, a surveyor and owner of a watch and jewelry
shop in Prince George’s early days, would still have Kelly Road and Kelly Street off Fifth Avenue named after him, so no historic slight by taking his name off the school. This could be a great local history assignment for students at Kelly Road’s feeder elementary schools – Hart Highlands, Glenview, Nukko Lake, Springwood and Heather Park – to make a case to name the high school they will eventually attend.
Current Kelly Road students, particularly the ones studying history, could also take part.
There’s no shortage of individuals from Prince George’s history deserving of their name on Kelly Road high school, from Granny Seymour and Mary John to Bridget Morgan and Ted Williams.
At The Citizen, we’re partial to John Houston, the founder of Prince George’s first newspaper (although he has a whole town already named after him), or L.D. Taylor, the first editor of The Citizen, who was
YOUR LETTERS
Thanks for paying tribute to Mr. Rogers
I would like to express my appreciation to Gerry Chidiac for all of his wonderful columns. No matter how much the world grinds one down, his words always give me hope and raise my spirits.
Mr. Chidiac’s latest column (97/16, Jan. 10) was on Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. To my fellow Citizen readers, if you have not yet read the column, please do. No human being deserves to
be worshipped. However, Fred Rogers is worthy of our respect, admiration and love. Thank you for reaching out to everyone in such positive and healthy ways. Valerie Breathet Prince George
Refinery sale could result in closure
As I read the article in The Citizen about the possible sale of the Husky refinery, I am concerned. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement of the Brian Mulroney government, British
Columbia has lost four refineries. That’s right, folks, – we had four refineries in the Vancouver area, one here in Prince George and one in Taylor. Canada doesn’t have enough refinery capacity to meet its existing needs. If these refineries were still in operation, Canada wouldn’t have to import fuel. These refineries were closed because of down sizing not that the need wasn’t there. They were closed because of greed. I believe its time for Canadians to start investing in Canadian industry. If the Americans buy this refinery, they will shut it down.
Stan New, Prince George
Online commenters weigh in
Re: Snow happens, deal with it, letter, Jan. 10 Citizen
subscriber101: It’s not simply a matter of not enough equipment but good planning is severely lacking. Where were the city’s plows at 5 am Saturday morning when we received 23 cm of snow overnight? They did absolutely nothing until 8 a.m. and that is simply unacceptable. I know this because I had to take a family member to the airport for a 7 a.m. flight and not a single road was touched.
PG_Resident: Agreed. The City should just back
off from promises and service level agreements. They are just setting themselves up for failure.
ndale27: Nothing like a little cheap, ignorant sarcasm to settle matters. However, back in the real world, I have a hunch that the vast majority of those who complained about the lousy snow removal after the storm on Dec. 28 have no less experience with snow driving and the variations in the effectiveness of snow removal than Pearce does.
The volume and intensity of criticism was unusual because, plain and simple, the city screwed up. — see SNOW A HOT TOPIC IN CITY, page 7
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
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also elected mayor of Vancouver a record eight times.
Anyhow, school district trustees could look at a shortlist of history essays written by elementary students and current Kelly Road students before making the final choice.
Imagine the pride of the student who picks the winner.
The best way to keep history alive is to recognize deserving individuals when we name streets, parks and important civic buildings.
The best path to reconciliation with the Aboriginal community is to rename community places in their honour, to recognize the significant role they play in our past, present and future, like the City of Prince George did in naming Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park. Regardless of the final name chosen, the community wins. Ron Brent and D.P. Todd are the only two schools in Prince George named after an individual (the Centre for Learning Alternatives used to be named after John McInnis). Maybe it’s time to recognize someone else from this city’s rich and proud history.
How about it, School District 57? — Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Soup joint sandbagged by a rat in a bread bowl
Iam reminded of an old joke about the restaurant:
“Waiter, what’s this fly doing in my soup?”
“The backstroke, I believe.”
If you don’t find that funny – understandable if not –there is a local similar situation even less amusing.
There aren’t many bread bowls of chowder that come served with a rat, so we should have smelled one during Christmas week when one of those anonymized social media accounts ran one of those contrived videos with one of those seemingly shocked (but strangely subdued) customers scooping out a rodent in her serving at Vancouver’s Crab Park Chowdery.
The video was upon almost every media site and shared across social over the holiday season, the ideal ironic digital diversion at a time of year we eat more than we can digest. It spawned “journalism” continents away and occupied Twitter streams, Facebook posts and Instagram feeds. Television newscasts warned of the “disturbing” imagery viewers would see, in my experience the most effective way to keep people tuned.
tell, it couldn’t. First off, the rat was too big for the bread bowl to go unnoticed as it was prepared and served. To borrow a line we might wish to forget: if the rodent doesn’t fit, you must acquit. We have been susceptible to memorable hoaxes, doctored photos and manipulated videos over the decades. We will believe, not necessarily because of insufficient media literacy (although that helps) but because of confirmation bias (it aligns with our beliefs, in this case that restaurants might be a bit sketchy with hygiene) and the sociological strength of the wisdom of the crowd.
First off, the rat was too big for the bread bowl to go unnoticed as it was prepared and served. To borrow a line we might wish to forget: if the rodent doesn’t fit, you must acquit.
The compounding headache today is the anonymity with which people can launch mischief and malevolence. The damage arising from the decline of personal accountability, particularly on social platforms, is only deepening. It doesn’t help that many media long since forfeited the discipline of verification; the race to be first is not always the race to be best.
And because it happened over the holidays, the sluggish response was reminiscent of the Jonathan Swift quote: “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”
The overall episode was ridiculous, but because for more than a few moments we in media fell into the froth, it served as an object lesson on the reckless reality of today’s social platforms and the hazards for targeted businesses.
The Chowdery is an emerging, rustic Gastown joint that was sandbagged. Its soup kitchen was in the same building as Mamie Taylor’s, which was also sideswiped. The accuser got a refund at the restaurant, scooted and hasn’t surfaced since. My guess is that we won’t hear from her again. (I’m among dozens trying to get an answer.)
Thankfully, the grown-ups got in the room in due course. Vancouver Coastal Health Authority didn’t jump to any conclusion to precipitously descend on the supplier or the supplied, although it temporarily shuttered the kitchen.
But the restaurant owner jumped in and spent time and money to investigate how the heck something like this could plausibly play out. As far as common sense can
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Wearing my media hat, thinking of what it would be like to wear the restaurateur’s hat, I’m not sure it was wisest to at first apologize, even if that was the polite Canadian thing to do. Better to stand your ground and take on the outrage in the heat of the moment rather than take it on the chin and jeopardize your livelihood.
Yes, responsible media reasonably carried the restaurant’s eventual explanation of its processes and practices – and the vastly more believable conclusion that we’d been had. But I didn’t notice a proportionate antidote to the initial indignation on social.
I wandered by the Chowdery last week and business was bustling. The owner, in awfully good spirits considering he could have lost it all, invites everyone to pretty much sit in the kitchen and scrutinize the food prep. (Appreciate it, but no thanks.)
Seems he has the credibility to be believed and supported. In the oddest possible way, the worst possible publicity might have been good for business.
Kirk LaPointe is the editor-inchief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president of Glacier Media.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca
Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca Website: www.pgcitizen.ca Website feedback: digital@glaciermedia.ca
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KIRK LAPOINTE Glacier Media
Guest Column
Opinion Snow a hot topic in city
— from page 6
Situations that were not just an inconvenience but downright dangerous abounded and persisted far too long. Neither Lynn Hall’s front page guff nor Pearce’s facetiousness change that at all.
Mytwobits: The whole Canadian economy is underpinned by resource extraction, exploitation. Shut down our mining, forestry, oil and gas, hydroelectric and we are a “developing nation” the next day. Sure we have manufacturing in Ontario - which can be done by any country with a population base. What makes Canada rich, is the resources to exploit are here, so the wealth can be here. There isn’t a single resource project that some First Nation hasn’t objected to and litigated. Kinder Morgan was supported by the majority of FNs, but a minority got it stopped. So my question to the First Nations is there are 35 million of us in this country and we all need healthcare, schools, heat, food, clothing, so if we shut down all these activities so you can go out and hunt elk, and return to your traditional way of life, what do you want the other 33 million of us to do? Go back to where we came from?
PG_Resident: The band can’t even come to consensus within its own organizational structure and nobody can agree who has the authority to ‘approve’ anything. So in effect a very small number of people can hold up billions of dollars in infrastructure projects which are good for Canada and our weak-kneed government lets it happen. We have let hundreds of small localized groups of people have veto power, which is in no way practical, workable or sustainable. This is why investment is leaving the country.
Les_Vegas: Is investment leaving the country? Please provide evidence of this, with facts, not conjecture.
GPFL: Horgan is getting frustrated with building neverending consensus. In case you missed it, Neil, Horgan was quoted Wednesday in a live interview, as saying “If protesters are breaking the law, there are consequences for that and that’s why 14 people were arrested.” I took this direct quote from a Jan. 10. Vaughn Palmer Vancouver Sun article –LNG aside, clarification of consent with First Nations remains murky. “Murky” is a huge understatement by Palmer. Perhaps “pure mud” would better describe endless talking and attempts at building bridges with natives. Blocking existing real bridges with barb wire and using clubs to try and intimidate RCMP officers from removing that physical obstruction from a forest service roadway is illegal, as Premier Horgan points out.
Bill Thompson: So, based on what you have said, on one hand the hereditary chiefs hold final say and on others its the elected chiefs, band councils or reserve members or off reserve members or some combination of all the above who have the final say. This may work for FNs but its not working for other Canadians and our courts, which are not based on that system. Its needlessly cumbersome and expensive to have a different system of negotiations for each FN group across this country.
No wonder negotiations never seem to cease, businesses can’t expand, investment is choked, FN people don’t get proper housing or water and the Canadian taxpayer foots the bill for both sides, seemingly in perpetuity in addition to paying at least part or all the cost of any agreed-to settlement. No one seems to know exactly who they should be dealing with as evidenced by the LNG pipeline fiasco, leading to confrontation and hard feelings all around. There is no way the hereditary chiefs knew nothing about the agreement reached between the elected chiefs and the company behind the pipeline. So why only now, apparently, do they show up saying they haven’t given consent so the agreement is invalid? How does our court system agree to an injunction if they know the company doesn’t have a valid deal? Or does it? Time to sort out a workable, less complicated and far less costly system for the benefit of all concerned.
Re: Clearing the snow (and the air), editorial, Jan. 10
Iam Noone: Graders spent a day running around town with their blades up... pretty hard to move snow with the blade up, though I guess it would fit into the statement that they were out and and about.
Justin Fraser: The snow nonremoval was a joke as was the mayor/s response. My priority 3 street waited til the 9th day to be cleared, so much for 72 hrs. I have lived in PG for 60-plus years and generally the snow removal has been pretty well done overall, but the ball was truly dropped this time around and with the bitterness of ridiculous management overtime still in the air the level of incompetence displayed is truly disturbing.
Council, get your act together and govern, get rid of the overpaid management and get some people who will actually do their job and keep costs down, stop with the incessant tax and utilities increases. Prince George looks more and more like a great place to retire away from.
CindyME: Absolutely right!
Re: Fix democracy to avoid another PR vote, Todd Whitcombe column, Jan. 8
dizzy_d: Cool idea, let’s put it on a mailin ballot.
Chris Kyte: Fewer than 30 per cent of people living in B.C. support Pro Rep. FPTP works.
One hundred per cent of those elected take a seat in the legislature. The party with the most votes forms the government while the rest become the opposition. To think that the opposition does not play a constructive role is to not understand how our parliamentary system works. Opposition holds the government accountable and there is much work that goes on behind close doors.
Waverly: “Can we now have a conversation about our representative democracy and how it works?” We just did, and we voted on it, and the people have spoken with a clear and concise decision. That’s how democracy works.
NDPhack: A revolving continuous voting requirement would result in extreme voter fatigue and low voter turn out. The winner would be from a low election turnout that the PR minority would jump on as proof FPTP doesn’t work.
WayneSmith: You can’t fix democracy without a fair voting system, and that’s all that’s meant by “proportional representation.” Right now, political parties have all the power and voters have no way to hold them accountable because the outcome of the election doesn’t match the way we voted. Sooner or later we will figure this out.
PG_Resident: People have figured out they don’t want coalition governments.
The Dude: Any improvement in our democracy has to first come from within the political parties themselves. As long as they continue to be run as the fiefdom of a small group of political operators then we will see substandard obedient candidates on the ballot – from all parties and the system we use to elect them won’t matter much.
Mytwobits2017: If the goal is a more representative result, you have to hold two ballots. First ballot everyone’s name is on it, then second ballot, only the top 2 names. More work and cost, but it least we get to choose between the least of two evils if our first choice doesn’t make it.
artbetke: Continual elections? Continual campaigns? Constantly changing government? How would anything be accomplished? No thanks.
Re: B.C. minister under fire for visit to Coastal GasLink pipeline blockade, Jan. 8
Ian Simpson: Wow! Newbie minister just learning the ropes? Not how it’s done! The mea culpa’s better come fast and sincerely or the premier needs to act.
Slim: I don’t care which party a person supports, what political stripe they are, Mr. Donaldson needs lessons in integrity and rule of law.
GPFL: Mr. Donaldson seems to have forgotten that as a minister of the B.C. government, he has a responsibility to all of B.C.’s 4,500,000 people. The integrity of his office needs to show an unbiased approach to resource development. Meeting privately with protesters at a protest sight shows bias.
kitiara: So people protest to get the attention of politicians but politicians aren’t allowed to talk to them? Hmmmmm.
GPFL: Protesting is allowed, blocking roads, installing gates and obstruction is not allowed.
The minister’s presence at a blockade is the problem. The BC Supreme Court has ruled the blockade as illegal. Donaldson’s presence at an illegal blockade is the problem. As a minister of the BC government, Donaldson has to follow the rule of law. Donaldson is a sworn officer of the B.C. Government. Most news reports on this issue have failed to distinguish the right to protest vs. the illegal act of blockading access.
bb49: Not when the protesters are in violation of a supreme court order. Donaldson is showing total ignorance and disrespect of law.
canucks_rule: Their elected chief and council have signed on to the agreement. Same as we can’t change what our elected leaders do no matter if we have titles, the only way to change it is to elect someone else.
lunarcom: If more politicians got out of Victoria and actually saw how their actions affect real people things would be better all the way around!
Claymor: The Minister must resign. He actively supported an illegal blockade. He has also misrepresented the Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw decision and ought to know better. He is now hopelessly compromised and needs to stand down.
PG_Resident: The question is valid. Does Donaldson see himself as an activist or does he follow the rule of law? He put himself in conflict here.
peece: Agreed. Poor choice on Donaldson. I bet Horgan is pissed as it shows a divided caucus (He was apparently fuming with his agriculture minister over the fish farm file last year).
ABOVE: Poppie’s is a popular restaurant in Spitalfields, London.
chain, which is unusual. Most such eateries are independent. TOP LEFT: A plate
of mushy peas and tartar sauce, at Olley’s, a fish-and-chips restaurant in
BOTTOM LEFT: The office of the defunct
point of interest for tourists.
London calling Eat your way through the history – and future – of fish and chips
Will HAWKES Citizen news service
Frank Dobson Square is no place to linger, even on a warm October day. This brick-paved chunk of East London has seen better days, not least because its centerpiece, Dobson’s 1951 sculpture Woman With Fish, was vandalized beyond repair and removed in 2002. Those sitting on the benches around the square – who number three, including me, this Thursday morning – have only its former home, a forlorn metal plinth, to look at now.
I haven’t come to see the sculpture, though, or its plinth. I’m searching for something else, something that records this locale’s unique place in British history. This is where the world’s first fish and chip shop, Malin’s, was founded in the early 1860s; before the square arrived in 1963, this was the north end of Cleveland Way, and Malin’s opened at No. 78.
There are rival claimants, of course, but this appears the most likely origin of Britain’s iconic dish.
“I can’t find any alternative, really,” Panikos Panayi, author of Fish and Chips: A History, tells me from his office at De Montfort University in Leicester. “In one sense I can’t see any reason to disbelieve it; on the other hand, fish and chip shops don’t really take off until the beginning of the 20th century. I couldn’t find many fish and chip shops that existed between Malin’s and then.”
In the absence of certainty, I’m happy to accept the Malin’s claim. Frank Dobson Square does not, though, offer much encouragement. A group of skittish pigeons, a mini-supermarket, a digital billboard congratulating racing driver Lewis Hamilton on his latest triumph; it has all of these.
Anything about fish and chips? Nope.
Elsewhere in the city, things are different. Despite the arrival of Indian and Chinese takeaways, fried chicken shops, and the emergence of London as a bullishly self-confident “foodie” city, the British capital still has plenty of chippys. As a lifelong devotee, I’ve decided to go in search of the best – and, in between stodgy, salt-and-vinegar-laden bites, I’ll find out more about its history, ingredients and unique place in British culture.
First, history. Frank Dobson Square is a few minutes’ walk from the heart of London’s most fascinating neighbourhood, Whitechapel, which has been home to successive waves of immigrants over the past few centuries. It’s now the center of Britain’s largest Bangladeshi community but between the mid-19th century and the Second World War, this was Jewish London, a “shtetl” called Whitechapel. That’s why fish and chips emerged here – or at least the fish part, which was bequeathed to Britain by Jewish immigrants. (The origin of chips is more opaque, but France seems most probable.)
“Fried fish is indisputably Jewish,” Panayi says. “All the evidence points to that. When I was researching the book, I found loads of references to Jewish fish fryers, both men and women.”
Until the late 19th century, indeed, the smell of fried fish was a common anti-Semitic trope in Britain. Malin’s may be long gone, but there’s still good food in Whitechapel. Walking east from Cleveland Way along Mile End Road and Whitechapel Road offers plenty of temptation. Whitechapel Market, which runs for perhaps 500 metres between Cambridge Heath Road and Vallance Road, has among its offerings good-value boxes of mangoes, handfuls of coriander and fist-sized lumps of ginger. Then there’s a trio of sweet shops, all in a row, selling vibrantly coloured treats like jalebi (deep-fried batter soaked in syrup), gulab jamun (milk-based dumplings) and ras malai (a rich cheesecake). At Panshi, a Bangladeshi restaurant, samosas are piled enticingly in the window.
This is rich soil. Here, the Salvation Army was founded in 1865; here, the office of a former brewery, Mann, Crossman and Paulin, sits next to the Blind Beggar pub, where an infamous gangland murder was carried out in 1966 by East
End mobster Ronnie Kray. As I walk past, a gaggle of redblazered school kids are making sketches of it.
Religion, like food, is a constant. Outside Whitechapel Station, which is being redeveloped for the arrival of the new Elizabeth underground line, a preacher styling himself as the Open Air Mission is questioning passers-by.
“My Bible tells me that God put a living soul in you,” he tells one man. “Isn’t that right, sir? That God made you in his image?”
I turn left into Osborn Street, which leads into Brick Lane. It’s well past time for lunch. On the corner of Hanbury and Commercial streets, I find Poppie’s, one of the city’s newer chippys. I’m intrigued to try it because it’s part of a small chain, which is unusual; most British fish-and-chip shops are independent.
Inside, Poppie’s is a boisterous mixture of the traditional and harmlessly ersatz. A huge frying range dominates the main room; a shiny, steel staple of fish and chip shops, the range is where the food is cooked and sometimes stored. It’s common to see a tantalizing array of already cooked items, such as fish and battered sausages, sitting in a glass compartment at eye-level.
On the walls are pictures of the old East End, caricatures of famous personalities (including, naturally, Churchill), old advertisements, regimental badges, newspaper front pages and a thin strip running around the room containing translations of cockney rhyming slang. It’s deeply unreliable, however.
I order cod, the classic choice in the South of England. (Northerners prefer haddock; a friend from the northern fishing town of Grimsby told me that cod is a “bottom-feeder,” which is why they send it elsewhere.) It’s on the small side, but well-cooked – crisp, crunchy batter, moist and clearly fresh inside. And although the chips are a little pallid for my taste, a gentle buzz of happiness suggests other diners do not share my reservations.
Fish and chips being what it is, it’s a day before I have sufficient space for any more. That’s appropriate, since Friday is the day to eat fish and chips. At my sons’ primary school, for example, it’s always served for Friday lunch, while my local chippy, Brockley’s Rock, is bursting at the seams by 5 p.m. with customers waiting for their weekly treat.
Many of the best chip shops, like Brockley’s Rock, are based outside of the city centre; this is homey food, after all, not haute cuisine. None has a better reputation than Olley’s, which has just been named in the 10-strong national
shortlist for the annual National Fish & Chip Awards. It’s in Herne Hill, an increasingly well-to-do South London neighbourhood; I arrive hungry, just after 1 p.m.
It’s quickly clear that if the interior of Olley’s – with its rustic brick walls and wooden interior windows – is idiosyncratic in the extreme, then the food adheres to the best traditions. Harry Niazi, who opened Olley’s in 1987, is a stickler for quality. The chips are blanched and then fried, “which gives a crispy shell on the outside and makes them soft and fluffy on the inside,” he tells me. The fish is sustainable; it’s all fried in sunflower oil with a touch of rosemary essence, which, Niazi says, ensures that the batter – made simply, with flour and water – isn’t greasy.
Niazi, with his Turkish Cypriot background, is part of a grand tradition. Greek Cypriots are prominent in the trade in the South and Midlands, while Italians have long been associated with the dish in Scotland; Chinese-run shops are common, too. Immigrants not only created fish and chips, but they’ve done much to sustain its popularity, too. Few people, though, do it as well as Olley’s. The cod is moist and flaky, and the chips are cooked to a crisp, golden turn. Mushy peas – more commonly found on menus in the North – provide a soft, gently flavorsome accompaniment. Niazi, 55, buzzes around the room.
“When a customer comes through that door, I want them to feel relaxed,” he says. “I want to put a smile on their face. Once you relax, it’s like being on holiday.”
And like being on holiday, you end up eating too much. I take a 10-minute train ride into London Victoria station, aiming to work off my sizable lunch (there was treacle pudding with custard, too) with a long walk. I pass a handful of interesting fish-and-chip shops on the way – the Rock and Sole Plaice in Covent Garden, for example, or the Fryer’s Delight in Holborn, whose sparse 1960s interior is a charismatic classic of the genre. Plenty of pubs serve the dish, too, although that’s a modern thing. Historically, the pub was reserved for drinking.
I walk through Clerkenwell, where United Chip opened to much fanfare earlier this year, aiming “to shake up fish and chips.” Alas, it has fallen victim to a complaint as old as the dish itself. In the restaurant’s doorway is a sign announcing that “due to odour complaints from local residents, we have had to close the shop for the remainder of the summer.” It’s now fall and the restaurant remains closed.
I hurry on, as there’s another new shop that I’m particularly keen to try. Sutton and Sons, a small chain in East London, has just opened the capital’s first vegan-only chip shop in Hackney.
Hackney is, like many East London neighbourhoods, caught between a working-class tradition and the rapid onset of gentrification. It’s a place where you’ll find real estate agents offering two-bedroom flats for the equivalent of a million dollars cheek-by-jowl with workmen in the cafes. Vegan fish and chips, I guess, fits somewhere in between the two, but not everyone is convinced. As I approach, two middle-aged women come bowling out of Sutton and Sons, one apologizing to the other: “I saw the sign and I thought it would be ordinary fish and chips!”
I’m not put off. The number of customers in this hole-inthe-wall place and, more important, the smell, are encouraging. “Vegan fish” is offered in three forms here. I order battered banana blossom, which has been marinated in seaweed and the marine vegetable samphire, to take away. It’s a wonderful surprise; gently flavoursome, with a texture not unlike artichoke heart, and very good with a squeeze of lemon. Is it like fish? Not really. But it’s delicious. By the time I arrive at Hackney Central station to get my train home, it’s all gone. It’s heartening, I suppose, that fish and chips retains enough cultural cachet for a vegan version to be thought desirable, and even better that it’s so good.
The next step, I think, is for London to start celebrating this simple native dish – and I know exactly where to start.
There’s an empty plinth in Frank Dobson Square that could do with a nice new statue.
PHOTO BY WILL HAWKES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
The Fryer’s Delight, a fish-and-chip restaurant in London’s Holborn neighbourhood, features a sparse 1960s interior that is a charismatic classic of the genre.
PHOTOS BY WILL HAWKES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
One of the city’s newer chippies, it’s part of a small
of cod and chips, plus side portions
Herne Hill, South London, is sure to satisfy.
Mann, Crossman and Paulin brewery in Whitechapel in London’s East End is a
What’s new with the Cougars? Get the latest on trades, injuries, post-game analysis and more in The Citizen
Kings punish Capitals in rematch
Citizen staff
Revenge was sweet indeed for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
And it did not take long for the Kings to make amends for their 5-2 loss to the Cowichan Valley Capitals last weekend in Duncan.
They scored two power-play goals in the first period and added one at even strength, then let goalie Logan Neaton and their team defence do the rest in a 3-0 win in their first home game of 2019 in front of a crowd of 1,110 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Mike Vandekamp’s Capitals got into trouble early when they were handed a delayof-game bench penalty before the opening puck drop. Patrick Cozzi made them pay 1:21 into the penalty when he scored his seventh goal of the season.
Nick Poisson made it a 2-0 count, 9:31 into the game, when he hooked up with Dustin Manz and Nick Bochen. That came five seconds into a slashing penalty handed
to Caps’ winger Cole Broadhurst.
Ben Brar finished off the scoring at even strength, 4:28 into the second period. It was Brar’s team-leading 24th goal of the season and it came a day after the Kings announced the 20-year-old winger has come to terms on an NCAA scholarship agreement to attend Merrimack College. Neaton, a 20-year-old UMass-Lowell recruit, blocked 22 shots for his second shutout of the season. The Kings outshot Cowichan Valley 38-22.
Cougars fired up on home ice, rout Rockets
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
How’s that for a welcome back.
After nearly six weeks away from home at the end of their longest road trip of the season, the Prince George Cougars got reacquainted with familiar surroundings and friendly faces, then got down to business kicking the stuffing out of the Kelowna Rockets. They laid a 7-2 beating on their WHL B.C. Division rivals, serving notice they’re creeping up on them in the standings.
Friday’s win at CN Centre was the third in the past four games for Prince George and fifth in seven games head-to-head this season against Kelowna. It improved the Cougars’ season record to 15-221-2, leaving them just five points back of the Rockets (17-20-3-1), who hold down the third and final playoff spot in the division.
Josh Maser and Cole Moberg each had a two-goal game. Ethan Browne, Matej Toman and Jack Sander also scored for the guys in red and black. Browne drew two assists and his linemate Vladislav Mikhalchuk finished with three assists.
Leif Mattson and Nolan Foote scored for the Rockets.
“The (Christmas) break couldn’t have happened at a better time for us, since the break we’ve been really good,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “A couple games we probably deserved a better fate and didn’t get it but tonight the guys came out like gangbusters. We’ve got to find a way to bottle that first period and get ready for (tonight’s rematch).
“Tonight they had five shots in the first period and five shots in the second period – our guys are playing hard and they’re sacrificing, blocking shots. You can teach X’s and O’s but these guys are starting to figure it out and it’s fun to watch.”
Maser gave the home crowd of 2,577 a reason cheer 4:39 into the game when he popped in a rebound for his 14th of the season to open the scoring. Mikhalchuk picked up the puck and put it back for pointman Moberg and Maser got the bounce after goalie Roman Basran stopped Moberg’s shot.
Midway through the period, on a Cougars’ power play, Browne connected for his seventh goal of the season. He took a cross-ice feed from Mikhalchuk, waited for
Basran to drop to his knees and lifted a high wrister in over the goalie’s glove.
Toman, a 17-year-old import from Belarus, corralled a bouncing puck in the slot and wired a shot in past Basran to add to the count with his fourth career WHL goal. After allowing three goals on 11 shots in 12:34 of playing time, the 17-year-old Basran was called over to the bench and Rockets
Nordic Winter Festival set for Sunday
Citizen staff
Ever had the desire to try biathlon?
Maybe cross-country skiing or snowshoeing is more your cup of tea. Perhaps you’d like to learn how the experts wax their skis.
Then Otway Nordic Centre is the place to be this Sunday when
the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club hosts its Nordic Winter Festival. On that day, everybody who wants to try the trails can do so for free. The club is offering free ski passes all day under the tent in the stadium area in front of the Rotary Lodge. It all starts with an introductory classic ski lesson from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.,
at a cost of $5 per person. For the racing crowd the club is staging a chocolate race which starts at 11 a.m. in the area. The winners get chocolate bars as their reward. Cost to enter is $2, with registration upstairs in the old lodge (the building closest to the east parking lot) from 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
A snowshoe tour on the singletrack trails through the Otway for-
The win moved the Spruce Kings (26-112-2) back into sole possession of first overall in the B.C. Hockey League as they crept one point ahead of the Chilliwack Chiefs, who lost 4-3 Friday in Coquitlam. The Spruce Kings will meet the Chiefs in Chilliwack on Sunday (2 p.m. start). The Kings will board the bus for Chilliwack today and will meet up with newly-acquired forwards Lucas Vanroboys (traded Friday from Cowichan Valley) and Nick Wilson (added from the junior B Richmond Sockeyes).
head coach Adam Foote replaced him with James Porter.
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to dent Porter’s armour. Maser potted his second of the game on his team’s second power-play chance at the 15:17 mark. Browne took the shot from the face-off circle and the puck ricocheted in off the leg of Maser standing in front.
Leading 4-0 heading into the intermission, that marked the first time the Cats have scored four goals at home against the Rockets since Oct. 5, 2012.
After building a 17-5 shot advantage through 20 minutes the Cougars kept the pedal down. As good as they were offensively in the first period, the Cats were equally effective neutering the Kelowna attack, holding the Rockets to just five shots until the second period was 13:31 old.
Taylor Gauthier had very little work to do protecting the Cougars’ goal. Aside from a difficult standup save in the first period to deny Ethan Ernst on a 2-on-1 chance, Gauthier wasn’t severely tested. The Rockets were their own worst enemies, missing nets on the rare opportunities they generated good looks at the net, like when Connor Bruggen-Cate stole
est runs from 10:30 a.m. to noon
at a cost of $2 each. That will be followed by a family snowshoe nature tour from 12:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. The charge is $5 per family. Aspiring biathletes aged nine and older can try out shooting on the range from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and from 1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Cost is $10 per person.
Ski waxing demonstrations are
the puck from Rhett Rhinehart and broke in alone but put his shot high and wide.
The Rockets scored on their first power-play chance with 35 seconds left in the second period. Mike MacLean, the Cougars’ sixfoot-seven winger, was serving a questionable boarding call when Mattson pounced on a rebound and dumped it into the net, one of only five shots the Rockets had in the middle frame.
The teams traded goals in the third period. Sander scored his first of the season on a screened shot that beat Porter and Foote countered with his team-leading 21st for the Rockets. Moberg finished off his three-point night to cap the scoring when he got down on one knee to get his body weight into a slapper from the face-off circle on an accurate feed from Jackson Leppard. Cats’ captain Josh Curtis drew the second assist, his first point since Nov. 23. The seven goals were a season high for the Cougars.
LOOSE PUCKS: The same teams meet tonight (7 p.m. start) on Country Night and the Cougars will be wearing denim-look jerseys that will be available to fans after the game in a silent auction.
scheduled for 11:15 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
If you get hungry, go to the gravel pit area about a kilometre west of the lodge for hot dogs and hot chocolate by the fire pit. Food is free or by donation.
Registration (cash only) for all activities except the chocolate race will take place in the rental shop from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Prince George Spruce Kings forward Nolan Welsh fends off Spencer Hora of the Cowichan Valley Capitals while looking to make a play during Friday night’s BCHL game at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
MASER
Bisons top T-wolves
Citizen staff
The University of Manitoba Bisons held off the UNBC Timberwolves 76-69 in Friday night Canada West women’s basketball at the Northern Sport Centre.
The teams traded the lead multiple times in the fourth quarter but the Bisons came out on top, thanks largely to the efforts of point guard Taylor Randall, who hit a string of jump shots as time was ticking down.
“Getting wins on the road in this league is very important, and we’ll look to continue this (today),” said Randall, who finished with 20 points and seven assists. “We stayed true to our game plan on the night and shots seemed to fall for us throughout.”
UNBC’s Maria Mongomo led all shooters with 23 points and also hauled in nine rebounds. Vasiliki Louka of the T-wolves added 16 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.
The Bisons led 36-28 at the half and were up 5251 after three quarters.
“We came out flat, with low energy and didn’t play to our strengths,” said Madison Landry of the Timberwolves. “Although we lost, I think we can build on it and come out (today) with a different mindset.”
The loss was the first at home this season for the Timberwolves.
The teams will meet again today at the NSC.
Opening tip-off is at 5 p.m.
Later Friday night, the Manitoba men defeated the UNBC men 66-63. James Wagner paced the winners with 25 points. For the T-wolves, Jovan Leamy drained a game-high 28.
The Bisons were up 44-29 at halftime.
The rematch goes tonight at 7.
Raptors rip Nets
TORONTO (CP) — Kawhi Leonard had 20 points and 11 rebounds on Friday to lift the Toronto Raptors to their fourth consecutive win, a lopsided 122-105 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Eight Raptors scored in double figures. Pascal Siakam had 16 points, Serge Ibaka chipped in with 14 points and nine boards, OG Anunoby and Norman Powell had 13 points apiece, Delon Wright finished with 12, and Fred VanVleet and Greg Monroe each had 10 for the Raptors (32-12), whose seventh straight win at Scotiabank Arena tied their season high. D’Angelo Russell had 24 points to top the Nets (21-22).
Hot pursuit
Vanderhoof Bears player Taylor Siemens, left, chases down Knyla Evans of the Scotiabank Cougars during a Friday game at Kin 1. The Bears and Cougars are two of four teams competing in the Winmar Property Restoration Specialists peewee female hockey tournament, which runs through Sunday. The Cougars kicked off the event with a 4-2 win over the Bears. Sage Nohr led the Cougar cause with two goals. Evans had a goal and an assist and Sam Baldinger also scored. Greta Saharchuk and Abigail Koehmstedt were the Vanderhoof goal-scorers. Anna Stewart picked up the win in net for Prince George. The Cougars will be back on the ice to face Williams Lake today at 8:45 a.m., followed by a game against Grande Prairie at 4:30 p.m. Both are at Kin 1. Semifinals are set for Sunday at 7 a.m. (Kin 1) and 7:30 a.m. (Kin 2), with the final at 1:45 p.m. at CN Centre.
Free ski, snowshoe lessons for seniors
Citizen staff
Hey seniors, here’s an offer you can’t refuse, guaranteed to cure the winter doldrums and get you active.
The Caledonia Nordic Ski Club is offering free lessons in classic technique cross-country skiing and snowshoeing
on the next three Mondays in January at club headquarters at Otway Nordic Centre.
The tours will be taught by senior leaders in the club from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
After the lesson/tour, participants will be invited to gather in the lodge for tea or coffee and some sweet treats from
Watson’s trouble started with alcohol relapse
Citizen news service
Nashville Predators forward
Austin Watson says the arrest last year that led to his 18-game suspension came when he started drinking again after 23 months of sobriety.
Watson, who turns 27 on Sunday, said Friday in an Instagram post that he’s been dealing with anxiety, depression and alcoholism since the age of 18. Watson said he voluntarily entered the NHL’s substance abuse program after his June 16 arrest.
“I am currently sober and committed to living a healthy lifestyle so that I can be the father, partner, teammate and person I want to be,” Watson said.
Watson pleaded no contest July 24 to domestic assault and agreed to a judicial diversion program that enabled the misdemeanour charge to be dismissed if he served three months of probation and completed an in-patient treatment program and a batterer’s intervention program. He initially received a 27-game suspension from the NHL, but an arbitrator reduced it to 18 games. He was reinstated in mid-November and has six goals and two assists in 28 games this season.
2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Participants will receive half-price discounts on trail passes ($9) and classic ski rentals ($8) in the rental shop. Registration for these sessions is required. For more information call Kathi Hughes at 250-964-9408.
Austin Watson of the Nashville Predators, right, battles for the puck with T.J. Oshie of the Washington Capitals during a Dec. 31 game in Washington.
Watson was arrested in connection with a June 16 incident after a witness flagged down a police officer to a gas station in Franklin, Tenn. According to the incident re-
port, Watson told police he and his girlfriend were arguing and that he pushed her. Officers said they found red marks on her chest, and she said Watson caused them.
Watson’s girlfriend, Jenn Guardino, issued a statement in October taking blame for the incident and saying Watson would never hit or abuse her. In her
statement, Guardino said she had “struggled with alcoholism for many years.”
In his Instagram post, Watson said that he and his girlfriend were “engaged in a heated, nonphysical argument” that day. Watson said that both he and his girlfriend had relapsed in their battles with alcoholism during the month leading up to the incident.
“I did not cause marks on her chest or blood on her leg,” Watson said. “I did handle matters that day poorly and did not uphold the standards of an employee of the Nashville Predators or National Hockey League.
“I take full responsibility for my involvement in the argument and have learned from the situation and taken the necessary steps to ensure that nothing of this nature happens again.”
Watson added that he and his girlfriend are “healthy, happy and committed to our own individual sobriety as well as continuing to strengthen our relationship.”
“We have learned from our mistakes and are excited to move forward in our relationship,” Watson said. “We wish only to raise our daughter Olivia in the most healthy and loving atmosphere we can provide.”
Chiefs aim to rewrite playoff history
Citizen news service
Given the post-season history involving Indianapolis and Kansas City over the years, Andrew Luck and the Colts have every reason to feel confident heading to Arrowhead Stadium today.
The Chiefs have every reason to believe they’re due.
Four times the teams have met in the playoffs, twice in the wildcard round and twice with a spot in the AFC title game on the line. Each time the Colts emerged victorious. All but one were down-tothe-wire nail-biters, one a recordsetting shootout and another a defensive slugfest, and each left Colts fans feeling euphoric and Chiefs fans feeling cursed.
Asked whether he understood the magnitude of the next installment in the one-sided series, Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller replied quite simply: “Oh yeah.”
“Especially what they’ve been going through over the years and things like that,” he said. “We definitely see how fans feel, what they’re expecting and stuff like that.”
There was the 1996 wild-card matchup in which Chiefs kicker Lin Elliott missed three field goals and the Colts won 10-7. The divisional showdown in 2003, when the Colts won 38-31 in a game featuring no punts. The 23-8 whitewashing three years later and, most recently, the 45-44 shootout in which Luck led the Colts from a 38-10 second-half hole to beat Andy Reid’s first Chiefs team in 2013.
There are still more than a dozen players around who were involved in that game five years ago, yet each acknowledged this week that history has no bearing on what will transpire Saturday .
“Obviously they are a great team,” said Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, who has played in the past two playoff games against Kansas City. “They’ve won a lot of games. They’ve got a very explosive offence. They’ve got probably the best returner in the National Football League with (Tyreek) Hill.
“We are going to have to play our best game,” Vinatieri said, “to try to keep up with them.”
The Chiefs happen to believe the same thing.
Yes, they earned the No. 1 seed with their third consecutive AFC West title, and have arguably the game’s best young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. Hill joins Travis Kelce, a healthy Sammy Watkins
and running backs Spencer Ware and Damien Williams in giving him plenty of weapons , while a defence that’s been statistically poor also has more sacks than any other team.
Yet the Colts, the sixth and last seed in the playoffs, may be the hottest team playing . They rebounded from a 1-5 start to win nine of their last 10 games to reach the post-season, then dominated the Houston Texans last week with a bludgeoning ground game and stingy defence .
“The way this locker room has prepared,” Luck said, “it’s all about just getting better, getting better. It takes no heroes. You don’t need a hero, whether it’s a playoff game or a regular-season game. It’s just
everybody doing their jobs that get things done.”
Of course, having a little playoff karma never hurts. The Colts certainly have that when it comes to Kansas City, while the Chiefs believe they long ago hit their quota of misfortune.
“All of us feel like we are here now and focused on the present day,” Mahomes said, “and we feel like we have a different team, and that we can go out there and win a big football game.”
Speaking of Mahomes
Colts coach Frank Reich played 13 seasons in the NFL, and has spent most of the past decade working with quarterbacks. And
Rams, Cowboys seeking breakthroughs
Citizen news service
LOS ANGELES — As if the pressure of playing for the Los Angeles Rams’ first playoff victory in 14 years wasn’t enough, Todd Gurley carries an extra imperative into the Coliseum tonight.
“Basically, everybody I know hates the Cowboys,” the Rams’ All-Pro running back said. “They’ve been hitting me up all week, so I’ve got to try to take care of business for those guys.”
And then there’s Wade Phillips, the 71-yearold Los Angeles defensive co-ordinator who was fired as Dallas head coach in 2010 and replaced by his assistant, Jason Garrett. With a straight face, Phillips calls the divisional playoff showdown “a revenge game for me.”
The Cowboys (11-6) inspire strong feelings across the football world, but these Rams (13-3) are just joking around. Their ability to do so indicates they’re not feeling crushed by the extraordinary weight on both teams in this matchup under the Hollywood spotlight. A trip to the NFC championship game is more than enough motivation for two franchises that haven’t been that close to a Super Bowl
in many years.
“It’s a prime-time game in the playoffs,” Gurley said. “What better game would you want? Playoff game in LA versus America’s Team. It’s going to be a great matchup.”
Dallas has won three playoff games in 22 years, and it hasn’t won a road playoff game since January 1993. The Cowboys haven’t reached the NFC title game since the 1995 season, losing five straight times in the divisional round.
“Yeah, it would mean a lot,” Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott said. “And more than what it means for the past, but because of this group of guys that I’m going to do it with. Just simply how we’ve been able to persevere (through) all the adversity and everything that we’ve been through together, off the field, on the field. I just know we’ve got the right guys to do it.”
The Rams haven’t been in a conference championship game since the 2001-02 season, and they only ended a 12-year playoff drought last January with a home loss to Atlanta in the wild-card round. Coach Sean McVay’s incredible turnaround of his franchise has inspired a wave of copycat coaching hires across the NFL
this month, but McVay knows it doesn’t mean much without his first playoff victory.
The matchup also showcases two of the best young quarterback-running back combinations in the league. Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are the heart of a team that has won eight of its last nine games since trading for receiver Amari Cooper, capped by Dallas’ gritty victory over Seattle last week in the wild-card round.
Jared Goff and Gurley make it happen for the Rams, who rolled to an 11-1 record with a nearly unstoppable offence. Losses to the Bears and Eagles in December raised questions about their run defence and offensive line, but McVay’s team is rested and determined to make a Super Bowl run .
“I think there’s a confidence that’s been earned,” McVay said.
“We have a lot of respect for the Dallas Cowboys, but we expect to win this game. We know it’s going to take a great effort, but we’re going in with the mindset and mentality that we expect to win. I think that confidence is something that’s been earned every day by our players, and then we’ve got to go out and prove it.”
he had high praise for Mahomes, who shattered just about every Chiefs passing record this season. “I’ve heard people use the term ‘generational arm talent.’ I think that’s really true,” he said. “As a former quarterback, I don’t say that about too many people. I don’t throw that term out real easily. I think he’s a legit generational arm talent.”
Mack truck
Colts running back Marlon Mack ran for a franchise playoff record 148 yards in their 21-7 win over the Texans . Now, he gets to face a Chiefs rush defence that was last in the NFL in just about every statistical category. “I think that’s an indication of how our entire offence played,” Luck said. “It’s a combination of Marlon and the offensive line.”
Familiar faces
Much of the credit for the Colts’ turnaround belongs to general manager Chris Ballard, who worked in Kansas City’s front office before taking over in Indianapolis. It was Ballard that orchestrated two solid drafts and rebuilt the Colts defence. “I’m not surprised,” Reid said. “He’s got the energy to go get it. The energy and the eye to see it and go get it. That’s important.”
What a rush
Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had 15 1/2 sacks this season, while linebacker Dee Ford has 13 sacks and seven forced fumbles. But one of the most productive rush tandems in the NFL should have its hands full with an offensive line that allowed sacks on an league-low 2.7 per cent of pass plays. “We’re ready for the challenge,” Ford said.
Jays ship Martin to Dodgers
TORONTO (CP) — An offseason of change continued for the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday as the team dealt catcher Russell Martin to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a pair of minorleague prospects. The move came a month after the Blue Jays gave another high-priced veteran – shortstop Troy Tulowitzki – his release. Like the Tulowitzki decision, Toronto will be eating a lot of Martin’s salary. The Canadian is owed US$20 million this season, but the Blue Jays are sending $16.4 million to Dodgers, according to GM Ross Atkins. Joining the Blue Jays are right-hander Andrew Sopko and infielder Ronny Brito. The trade sends Martin back to the team that drafted him in 2002. The 35-year-old from Chelsea, Que., spent his first five big-league seasons with the Dodgers.
4:39.
Prince George, Browne 7 (Lakusta, Mikhalchuk) 10:31 (pp). 3. Prince George, Toman 4 (Lakusta) 12:34. 4. Prince George, Maser 15 (Browne, Schoettler) 15:17 (pp). Penalties - Korczak Kel (delay of game) 9:22; Higson Kel (slashing) 13:51; Korczak Kel (holding) 17:09. Second Period
5. Prince George, Moberg 8 (Browne, Maser) 15:31. 6. Kelowna, Mattson 18 (Topping, Foote) 19:26 (pp). Penalties - Foote Kel (tripping) 4:49; MacLean Pg (boarding) 18:29. Third Period
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid gestures during the first half of a Dec. 30 home game against the Oakland Raiders. The Chiefs face the Indianapolis Colts in a divisional playoff game today.
Award shows due for a makeover
Victoria AHEARN Citizen news service
TORONTO — Change is afoot for major film award shows on both sides of the border.
As Oscars organizers grapple with a hosting snafu, devising a new category and shortening the notoriously long show, the head of the Canadian Screen Awards is also tinkering with the format for the event this March.
“We’re looking at how we can shake up the traditional awards show format,” Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, teased in an interview this week.
In a digital age of fractured viewership and declining ratings, awards shows have been trying to find new ways to lure in viewers and appeal to younger audiences.
A host could be a big piece of that puzzle, but as Janson and others in the industry attest, it’s tough to fill the role.
And, as the Oscars recently found out, it’s an even tougher challenge in a politically charged era of old social media posts that could haunt contenders.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not named a replacement for Kevin Hart, who backed out of hosting the Feb. 24 show after anti-gay tweets and stand-up jokes he had made in the
past resurfaced.
Now Variety is reporting this year’s Oscars won’t have a host at all, which also happened in 1989.
“I don’t actually think the Oscars does need a host,” said Toronto producer J. Miles Dale, who won an Oscar last year for The Shape of Water.
“I think ABC might feel that they need a host, because part of being the host is hyping the show in advance – so all the promos that happen and everything else.”
Cameron Bailey, co-head and artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, also doesn’t feel a host is necessary.
“I watch the Oscars to find out
who’s winning and to see my favourite directors and actors onscreen,” Bailey said. “The host is a nice bonus but it’s not really all about the host, in my view.”
This year’s crop of potential nominees – including Black Panther, A Star is Born, Green Book and Vice – had big box-office appeal and could be all the lure the academy needs, said Los Angelesbased film critic Anne Thompson.
“I know they’re trying to use the host as a way to get better ratings, but that’s really not where the ratings come from – they come from the movies,” said Thompson, IndieWire editor-at-large.
The American academy wanted Hart “really badly” because he’s a movie star with a huge social media following and mainstream audience, said Thompson.
“It’s just the kind of people –younger, hipper, diverse – that they want to bring into the show,” Thompson said.
But Hart didn’t work out and it seems a near-impossible task to replace him.
A host needs to be smart and quick on their feet and have broad appeal, said Janson, as well as the ability to hold the attention of a room on a live show and ideally a theatre background.
With a heavy political lens put on awards shows these days, “there are so many things to think about before you put someone in that position,” said Janson, who last year hired two comedy stars to host the Canadian Screen Awards: Jonny Harris and Emma Hunter.
The host is a nice bonus but it’s not really all about the host, in my view.
Jackson allegations return with new film
— Cameron Bailey Citizen news service
Anyone who hosts has to have a “squeaky clean” image with no “hideous tweets to be embarrassed about,” added Thompson.
“It’s a very interesting, narrow needle that has to be threaded in order for this to work,” she said.
“The problem is that people are afraid. People like Seth MacFarlane got lambasted, (Jimmy) Kimmel took his lumps. Everybody has taken their lumps for hosting.
James Franco and Anne Hathaway got killed. It just seems like you cannot come out ahead, and why would a major movie star put themselves in that position?”
Toronto-born Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara says she’s heard from previous awards show hosts that “it is the hardest, most thankless job.”
“Probably four-fifths of your crowd are waiting to hear whether or not they won and then fourfifths just found out they lost. So it’s the worst audience.”
The academy plans to restructure and shorten this year’s Oscars to three hours, handing out some categories during commercial breaks. Edited moments from those wins will air later in the broadcast.
The academy is also looking to add a new category to future Oscars in an attempt to include blockbuster titles.
“It’s time for an overhaul,” said Toronto-born Travelers star Eric McCormack.
“It has to be shaken up, because every year we do the same thing – we put all of our eggs in one basket and all this focus on whoever’s hosting and every year, the next morning it’s, ‘Oh, it’s the lowestrated Oscars of all time’ and ‘Oh, everybody hates who won’ and ‘Oh, there were too many nominees in the film category’ and ‘Oh, it’s irrelevant.’
“It’s a crazy hamster wheel and there’s got to be a more exciting way to do it.”
LOS ANGELES — An attorney representing two Michael Jackson accusers who appear in an upcoming documentary says their sexual-abuse allegations have not been discredited as the Jackson estate says, and deserve to be heard.
Vince Finaldi, who represents Wade Robson and James Safechuck in lawsuits alleging Jackson molested them, said the suits were dismissed on technical grounds, not the credibility of the men’s claims, and they are now under appeal.
“There were never any rulings to the court as to their testimony,” Finaldi told The Associated Press. “We stand by our clients, and we believe them, and we fully expect them to be vindicated.”
The stories of Robson and Safechuck, who came forward as adults to say Jackson had sexually abused them for years when they were boys, will be heard again in the two-part, four-hour documentary Leaving Neverland, which will air on HBO and British public broadcaster Channel 4 in the spring. It premieres Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival, the channels announced Wednesday. The Jackson estate released a statement saying the documentary is “just another rehash of dated and discredited allegations.”
“Wade Robson and James Safechuck have both testified under oath that Michael never did anything inappropriate toward them,” the statement said, adding that both had filed lawsuits that have been dismissed.
Jackson in 2005 was acquitted of criminal molestation charges, which did not involve Robson or Safechuck.
Robson testified at that trial, saying he had slept in Jackson’s room many times, but Jackson had never molested him. Safechuck made similar statements to investigators as a boy. Then in 2013 Robson filed a lawsuit that said stress and trauma had forced him to face the truth that he was sexually abused by Jackson, who died in 2009. Safechuck filed a similar lawsuit the following year.
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Robson and Safechuck have done in multiple ways.
Leaving Neverland director and producer Dan Reed said in a statement that “It took great courage for these two men to tell their stories and I have no question about their validity.”
AP PHOTO
Kevin Hart is shown in Los Angeles in December 2017.
JACKSON
Intrepid cartoon reporter Tintin turns 90
Marine STRAUSS Citizen news service
As the world grapples with the consequences of fake news, a Belgian icon and timeless hero of many a journalist, Tintin, celebrated his 90th birthday Thursday.
It was on Jan. 10, 1929 when the first of the adventures of the intrepid international reporter were published in Le Petit Vingtieme newspaper supplement in Brussels. Created by Belgian artist Hergé, the adventures of the fictional character – with his customary blue sweater, rolled pants and flipped copper hair – took him and his faithful dog Snowy across the world, building an image of journalists as do-gooders.
The comic-book hero serves as reminder of an era when reporters were portrayed as seekers of the truth, holding those in power to account, instead of being depicted as the “enemy of the people,” as U.S. President Donald Trump has called them, accusing them of spreading fake news.
With more than 250 million copies of Tintin comics sold worldwide – in multiple languages – Moulinsart, the exclusive manager of Hergé’s estate, also known as the Hergé Foundation, has decided to mark the 90th birthday of the character with a year-long celebration, starting with the young journalist’s expedition in the former Belgian colony of Congo.
Moulinsart announced on Thursday that a digital edition of Tintin in the Congo re-masterised in colour will be released via the application Les Aventures de Tintin.
The comic is probably one of the most controversial works of Hergé, regularly attacked for racism – including in court – for its depiction of the natives of the Congo, and banned in the libraries of several countries. Coincidentally on Thursday, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced the first-ever win by an opposition presidential candidate.
For Moulinsart, it’s pure happenstance – like with the re-release of Tintin’s adventure in the former Soviet Union.
“We started in 2017 with the Soviets, strangely it was the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution; today is the election in Congo and in two years by chance we’ll have Tintin in America,” when Trump is up for reelection, Yves Fevrier, head of digital at Moulinsart, told reporters in Brussels.
Other celebration initiatives include the opening of the first official Tintin store in Shanghai in February, the launch of a collection of Tintin’s model cars in France and Belgium, a commemorative five-euro coin, a series of documentaries and podcasts and a potential sequel to Steven Spielberg’s 2011 3D movie. Incidentally, it took 25 years for Spielberg to convince Moulinsart to film the first one. Even without new material since 1976, Tintin continues to live on in the collective imagination, and Moulinsart plans to keep the journalist’s image alive, solely based on Hergé’s 24 scenarios.
Jennifer Hudson to star in Aretha Franklin biopic
Citizen news service
NEW YORK — The long-gestating Aretha Franklin biopic Respect is going ahead with stage director Liesel Tommy set to direct.
MGM announced Thursday that Tommy will helm the film, which is to star Jennifer Hudson. The Dreamgirls actress was cast as the late Queen of Soul in January 2018 after Franklin selected her for the role. At the time, Hudson performed a medley of Franklin’s songs at Clive Davis’ preGrammy bash.
Callie Khouri, who penned 1991’s Thelma & Louise, will write the script.
Tommy was nominated for a Tony Award for directing the 2016 Broadway production of Eclipsed starring Lupita Nyong’o. She is also set to direct a film adaption of Trevor Noah’s autobiography. Franklin died at the age of 76 in August from pancreatic cancer.
AP FILE PHOTO
A six-metre high depiction of Belgian cartoon hero Tintin and his dog Snowy is seen atop the Lombard Building in Brussels in 2011. The adventurous cartoon reporter turns 90 years old this year.
Lohan’s new reality show is deeply sad
Emily YAHR Citizen news service
When you hear “Lindsay Lohan” and “reality show” in the same sentence, another word that might come to mind is “disaster.” The troubled actress, known for her many legal entanglements and controversies, attempted a docuseries with Oprah Winfrey in 2014 – it did not go well. She’s also infamous for causing problems on sets; one director once likened it to being held hostage.
However, we can inform you: Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club, which debuted on MTV Tuesday night, is actually not a disaster. Centered on the launch of Lohan’s new club in Mykonos, Greece, it’s a fairly standard – and unremarkable – entry into the “underlings work for a celebrity boss” genre of reality TV (see: Vanderpump Rules).
Still, the show is a deeply sad viewing experience. Just not for the reasons you might expect.
The messaging surrounding the series could not be more direct. Lohan, extremely aware of her reputation, wants you to know: her troubles are behind her. She has reinvented herself as an entrepreneur with a brand to protect, and if you’re not as deadly serious as she is about her mission, well, you can see yourself out.
“Stop rehashing my past for no reason, because everything is different now,” Lohan recently snapped at a Variety reporter, in response to a question that wasn’t at all about her past.
In an interview last month with Paper, her publicist asked the writer to mention that Lohan arrived “on time” to the interview.
Lohan’s new chapter is the theme of the first episode, which kicked off with the actress triumphantly perched on a boat in the sparkling blue sea: “I want to be my own boss,” she announced.
So she and her business partner, Panos Spentzos, rounded up a group of American “VIP hosts” to work at Lohan Beach House, her third establishment in Greece. As these VIP hosts caused all sorts of unnecessary drama, the sadness seeped in when viewers learned what motivated Lohan to create the club; and also when it was made clear how damaged she is by her time in Hollywood.
In the opening segment, Lohan talked about why she loves Greece: “I’ve always loved the beauty and serenity I feel when I’m here,” she says. “Mykonos is the place to be... it’s beautiful, it’s open-minded, and most of all, it’s safe.”
If “safe” didn’t quite fit in with those other descriptors, it made sense later in the episode, when Lohan reminded Spentzos that he had known her since “I was hit on that beach.”
Spentzos turned serious as he told the camera about the violent incident in Mykonos that made headlines in 2016: “Three years ago, Lindsay was there on that beach with her ex-boyfriend. She got hit by him.”
“I was in a very tumultuous relationship. I was in a different place in my life,” Lohan explained. “Instead of crying or getting angry, I said, ‘I’m gonna own this beach one day.’ Because I always want everyone to feel safe.”
“She wanted to remember this beach as a very fun place. Not what happened to her,” Spentzos added. Lohan started to cry as she described bringing her mother to the beach club for the first time.
“I made it something that is meaningful to me,” she said. Lohan then segued into her disappointment in the club’s new “VIP hosts,” who got drunk the first night of filming. “I don’t want these kids to (mess) that up for my family and my future.”
As the show went on, Lohan took on the role of the strict boss who didn’t have time for drunken antics and wouldn’t hesitate to fire anyone. (“I want to build an empire here, this is not Girls Gone Wild.”) Still, cast members repeatedly gushed about how lucky they were to be working for Lohan, and that they didn’t want to disappoint her.
“I grew up watching Lindsay, and when I was a little girl, I used to be like, ‘I want to be like her,’” said May Yassine, a waitress from New York. “Now I’m working for her. I still think this is a dream. “
“I’m so nervous to see how Lindsay is as a boss,” said Jonitta Wallace, a VIP host from Los Angeles, noting Lohan worked “so hard” for this club.
“The paparazzi, they paint this picture of her as, like, this horrible person.”
This also came up again and again: Lohan has serious trust issues from years in the spotlight, particularly with people using her for their own gain. She moved to Dubai years ago, and during the episode’s after-show, she explained her reasoning: “I moved to Dubai because it’s illegal to take photos of people without their knowledge. That’s really important to me.”
In one scene, Lohan confronted the staff about their drunken pool party. Gabi Andrews, a bartender from Washington, admitted she was on the show for “selfish” reasons, and saw it as a stepping stone for her own career. Lohan wasn’t impressed.
“I don’t have time for people making their own intentions on working with me,” Lohan fumed, adding, “Being in the public eye, people all the time take from me. And it’s hard.”
As easy as it would be to write off Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club as yet another ridiculous show, when you consider everything that led the once-celebrated actress to this place, it actually just feels tragic.
MTV HANDOUT IMAGE
Lindsay Lohan in MTV’s new reality show, Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club, set in Mykonos, Greece.
Wheel still turning on The Price Is Right
“Every time you were home from school, it was on,” Young says. “It was on all the time.”
LOS ANGELES — Does Amie Yaniak know the price of a chili-red Mini Cooper? Oh, no, it appears she does not.
“I don’t know what I’m doing! I have no idea how much that car is worth!” says Yaniak, a music therapist/vocal coach/health and wellness coach/tableside guacamole maker. (Hey, it’s L.A.)
On this particular morning, standing next to imperturbable host Drew Carey, it matters not one bit, because the relentlessly ebullient Yaniak was plucked to be a contestant on The Price Is Right, America’s most popular and longest-running daytime game show, launched in 1956, relaunched on CBS in 1972 and dedicated to contestants guessing the price of almost everything without ever going a penny over.
The Price Is Right, after all, is one of the few game shows in which the audience pitches in suggesting prices – let’s be honest: yelling prices – and competition among contestants evaporates. In the sherbet-on-hallucinogens studio, stalled somewhere in the early 1970s, the audience howls competing prices so emphatically that Yaniak, 41, can’t figure out what price to suggest.
“What? Say, what?”
She is onstage at the Bob Barker Studio, named for the snowtressed former host of 35 years (who’s now 95), because she dreamed that this would happen, but also because she exhales exclamation marks, the ideal temperament for a contestant.
Who knew such joy could be derived from guessing the price of a can of Progresso chicken noodle soup? ($2.69) For more than five million daily viewers, The Price Is Right is their happy hour. The show’s success is anchored on delivering two American dreams simultaneously: face time on national television and scoring gobs of stuff for doing next to nothing. Whether it’s through episodes (often recorded for evening viewing) or online forums, in line for a taping or at the live touring show, ardent fans relish the fantasy that knowing the price of ordinary goods can deliver wealth and untold splendour.
“We are ingrained in the American culture,” says Rachel Reynolds, the doyenne of the show’s five models, celebrating her 16th year of sporting skimpy attire while gesturing toward cars and outdoor furniture sets. “It has gotten so many people through a rough time.”
Contestant Kyland Young, 27, a Los Angeles marketing manager, watches because his grandmother watches. It’s an heirloom program, passed down through generations.
It’s on all the time in plenty of places. Homegrown versions air in 42 countries and territories, including Morocco, Nigeria and Pakistan.
I know a non-profit director with two master’s degrees who watches it to unwind nightly. He loves the show because it’s predictable in its format (nine contestants, three acts) yet unpredictable in its outcome, because prizes can be massive, the largest payout being $213,876 during Big Money Week in 2016. (Contestants can accept the cash equivalent of all winnings, but pay taxes no matter what.)
Change is tectonic on The Price Is Right. Asked what’s different since she joined the show, Reynolds pauses.
“We used to give away grandfather clocks.”
Now, for an audience fluent in the Esperanto of designer flash, the show highlights Louboutins, Jimmy Choos and, during Dream Car Week, a Maserati.
Sure, there are 77 different games, special weeks and fresh models (the latest, former Ravens wide receiver Devin Goda, spends this episode largely shirtless in the freezing theatre). But so many other features are legacy: the theme song, sort of anodyne Herb Albert; the manila price-tag name stickers; the tagline “Come on down!” exhorted by dapper announcer George Gray, the show’s fourth.
“It’s the comfort food of television. It’s mashed potatoes,” director Adam Sandler says. (Not that one, although that Sandler memorably cast Barker in Happy Gilmore.) “No matter your walk of life, you know the price of things.”
Or, in Yaniak’s case, maybe not.
★★★
Oh my word, it’s the Wheel!
Right past the craps tables and slots at MGM National Harbor outside Washington, D.C., is a stovesize version of the show’s iconic Big Wheel (which weighs close to a ton and is a doozy to spin) and attracts far more attention than the cocktail waitresses in bodices sliced to their navels.
In 2004, the franchise spawned The Price Is Right Live! a wholly separate, touring road version offering 150 performances a year and, with a separate host, emcee and model, zero chance of meeting Carey.
Fans don’t care!
Know what?
The four November performances at National Harbor’s 3,000-seat theatre, with tickets from $40 to $167, basically sell out. When they roll out the Plinko board – a grid where contestants drop chips that land on printed dollar amounts that range from zip to holy moly – the audience reacts as though Lady Gaga has taken the stage.
Attendees have a slim chance of winning the lottery to become a contestant, although the VIP package includes meeting emcee Todd Newton and a chance to spin that smaller Wheel.
“For a lot of people, that’s like shaking the hand of Elvis,” Newton says.
Kristie and Mark Casey, with friends Teresa and Ryan Malisko, both of suburban Virginia, attend a show to celebrate their anniversaries.
“Anyone can win, and you can win a car. Even if you don’t get picked, you’re participating in the
game,” Teresa says. (Spoiler alert: They don’t get picked.)
“It’s so simple, everyone can do it,” Kristie says. “It’s not Jeopardy! And it’s so much better than Wheel of Fortune.”
At the television show, tickets are free, and all 300 audience members get interviewed as potential contestants. Many line up at dawn, almost six hours before taping at CBS Television City in L.A.’s Fairfax neighbourhood. In a covered porchlike area outside the studio with benches (and heat lamps for cool mornings) are hopefuls from across the nation and several countries, ranging in age from 18 to great-grandparent, including more people of colour than will be seen on other programs during an entire season.
If Jeopardy projects a studious mien, drawing contestants who aced standardized tests and dress for court appearances, The Price Is Right is its opposite. Contestants are extroverts, denizens of community theatre, folks who appear lit while sober. They’re attired in Price Is Right Casual – bedazzled T-shirts, jeans, sneakers. Every show is a late-summer barbecue. These people come to play.
★★★
The first time CBS brass asked Carey to replace Barker, he said no. His monster sitcom had ended after nine seasons. He was “kind of retired,” pursuing acting lessons, hoping for small movie roles. CBS asked again. “What’s your favourite thing to do?” an executive inquired. “I really like leaving big tips for people,” he said – $100 for a bottle of water, more for a pricey meal. On this show, the suit said, “you get to do that every day by giving away prizes.”
The thought occurred to Carey, “This is a chance to make soccerteam money.” As in buying-asoccer-team money. His initial salary, Variety reported, was high seven figures. That was 12 years of showcases ago. Carey, 60, is now a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders.
In many ways, Carey is an odd fit. A self-professed loner, he appears bewildered when hugged by contestants, which is all the time. He garnishes conversations with mentions of Freud’s Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Jung, his therapist and observations like, “It’s all one mass halluci-
nation we’re having.”
He’s not a suit guy, the tie seems like a vise, and the job requires him to play straight man, when he’s a recovering stand-up comedian. His humour is not always the audience’s humour. At a recent taping, he makes frequent jokes about contestants being high that are largely ignored.
But Carey’s also amiable and loose. He wears his Cleveland street cred on his sleeve, solidifying the show’s allure that any schmo can be a winner. He’s incredulous to learn that Paul McCartney is a fan. The former Beatle serenaded him at a concert last year, ad-libbing “Come on down!” in the middle of Back in the U.S.S.R. (The host bawled.) Carey likes sharing contestants’ “Cinderella moments,” making them happy. “Where else can you go in America, and be in a big crowd like this, and have a bunch of strangers rooting for another stranger to do well?”
Plus, he believes something bigger is at play.
“It’s a Joseph Campbell (hero’s) journey. It’s somebody plucked from obscurity – just working-class people, mostly – and they have to overcome a small obstacle,” Carey says. “Then they overcome a bigger obstacle. Then they have to have a little bit of chance and luck be on their side.”
Also, a swell gig: “My job is to show up in a good mood every day, and explain some games.”
★★★
There is one central mystery to The Price Is Right: How are contestants selected? The man responsible is co-producer Stan Blits, arguably the show’s most important employee. On staff for four decades, Blits is the musical director (yes, there is one), “car strategist” and, with an associate producer, the interviewer of an estimated 53,000 potential contestants every year. Many aspirants arrive in eyecatching T-shirts. (You Drew Me to You!) Nice touch. Doesn’t matter.
While the show tapes weeks in advance, it performs like live television. There are breaks, but contestants don’t get do-overs. Contestants need to be the life of the party, to bring a level of stage presence that matches or exceeds that of the audience.
Before each taping, outside the
studio, Blits lines up a group of 25 would-be contestants at a time, and then interviews each one for a minute or less, while perched in a director’s chair.
“Performing is the worst thing you can do for me,” he says. He asks a few questions, nothing taxing. Where are you from? What’s your favorite game? Plinko, so much Plinko. There are no wrong answers.
OK, this one: “I don’t watch the show.”
For each episode, nine will make it, reflecting a diversity of age, race and gender, but all human Roman candles, able to animate the show. What Blits fears, and “keeps me in knots during the whole taping of the show, the worst thing is to underreact to something spectacular, like the chance to win a car.”
After he finishes with questions, the interview isn’t over. Blits glances back at potential contestants to see if they “can sustain the excitement” when he moves down the line. He’s looking for someone like Yaniak, the tableside guacamole maker. She catches his attention immediately – and every time he looks back at her, she mimes mashing those avocados.
★★★
“Stop? Stop? Stop?” Yaniak asks 300 strangers where she should stop the gauge during the Range Game so that it lands within $150 of the list price.
“I’m praying and hoping that someone has a car dealership and tells me the price,” Yaniak says. “Here? Now?”
Well, it’s $23,250 – and she wins that chili-red Mini Cooper. Plus a 65-inch television and a Blu-ray player, which the show hands out like nachos.
But she’s not done. Yaniak advances to the showcase, where two contestants bid on separate prize packages. Hers includes five days in New York, Dior shoes, a necklace, a wallet, a pair of sunglasses, a clutch. Oh, and another car: A toothpaste-green Ford Fiesta. Again, Yaniak hasn’t a clue. “Thirty-seven thousand! No, $34,000!” the audience yells. She stands onstage squinting, straining, hoping to hear her mother’s suggestion. Finally, she hears her: “Thirty-three thousand!” Yaniak wins the $36,513 showcase. Her total haul for a few spirited minutes onstage: $62,263.14.
Karen HELLER Citizen news service
Amie Yaniak of Encino, Calif., reacts to getting one of two spots in the Showcase Showdown during a taping of The Price Is Right.
PHOTO FOR THE WASHINGTON POST BY JENNA SCHOENEFELD
Cue cards are checked during a taping of the show.
At Home
Just like us Robots at tech show give glimpse of future
Matt O’BRIEN, Joseph PISANI Citizen news service
Robots that walk, talk, pour beer and play ping-pong have taken over the CES gadget show in Las Vegas again. Just don’t expect to find one in your home any time soon.
Most home robot ventures have failed, in part because they’re so difficult and expensive to design to a level of intelligence that consumers will find useful, says Bilal Zuberi, a robotics-oriented venture capitalist at Lux Capital. But that doesn’t keep companies from trying.
“Roboticists, I guess, will never give up their dream to build Rosie,” says Zuberi, referring to the humanoid maid from The Jetsons.
But there’s some hope for others. Frank Gillett, a tech analyst at Forrester, says robots with more focused missions such as mowing the lawn or delivering cheeseburgers stand a better shot at finding a useful niche.
Robots that deliver
There are so many delivery robots at CES that it’s easy to imagine that we’ll all be stumbling over them on the sidewalk – or in the elevator – before long. Zuberi says it’s among the new robot trends with the most promise because the field is drawing on some of the same advances that power self-driving cars.
But it’s hard to tell which – if any – will still be around in a few years.
Segway Robotics, part of the same company that makes electric rental scooters for Lime, Jump and Bird, is the latest to get into the delivery game with a new machine it calls Loomo Delivery. The wheeled office
robot can avoid obstacles, board elevators and deliver documents to another floor.
A similar office courier called the Holabot was unveiled by Chinese startup Shenzhen Pudu Technology. CEO Felix Zhang says his company already has a track record selling robots in China, where its Pudubot robot –which looks like shelves on wheels – navigates busy restaurants as a kind of robotic waiter.
Nearly all of these robots use a technology called visual SLAM, short for simultaneous localization and mapping. Most are wheeled, though there are outliers – such as one from German automotive company Continental, which wants to deploy walking robotic dogs to carry packages from selfdriving delivery vans to residential front doors.
A delivery robot will need both sophisticated autonomy and a focused mission to stand out from the pack, says Saumil Nanavati, head of business development
for Robby Technology. His company’s namesake robot travels down sidewalks as a “store on wheels.” The company recently partnered with PepsiCo to deliver snacks around a California university campus.
Robots for dogs
Does man’s best friend need a robotic pal of its own? Some startups think so.
“There’s a big problem with separation anxiety, obesity and depression in pets,” says Bee-oh Kim, a marketing manager for robotics firm Varram.
The company’s $99 robot is essentially a moving treat dispenser that motivates pets to chase it around. A herd of the small, dumbbell-shaped robots zoomed around a pen at the show – though there were no canine or feline conference attendees to show how the machines really work.
Varram’s robot takes two hours to charge and can run for 10 hours – just enough time
to allow a pet’s guilt-ridden human companion to get home from work.
Robots on grandparent watch
Samsung is coming out with a robot that can keep its eye on grandparents. The rolling robot can talk and has two digital eyes on a black screen. It’s designed to track the medicines seniors take, measure blood pressure and call 911 if it detects a fall.
Samsung didn’t say when Samsung Bot Care would be available, but some startups are putting similar ideas in action. Israeli company Intuition Robotics used CES to announce the upcoming commercial launch of ElliQ, a robotic voice assistant that can sit on end tables and help older adults communicate with family members without having to fiddle with a computer.
Robot friends
Lovot is a simple robot with just one aim –to make its owner happy. It can’t carry on long conversations, but it’s still social – approaching people so they can interact, moving around a space to create a digital map, responding to being embraced.
Lovot’s horn-shaped antenna – featuring a 360-degree camera – recognizes its surroundings and detects the direction of sound and voices.
Lovot is the brainchild of Groove X CEO Kaname Hayashi, who previously worked on SoftBank’s Pepper, a humanoid robot that briefly appeared in a few U.S. shopping malls two years ago. Hayashi wanted to create a real connection between people and robots.
“This is just supporting your heart, our motivation,” he says.
For lovers of French wine, try these flavourful sippers
Citizen news service
This week’s recommendations are delicious wines from France.
Domaine Berthet-Rayne Chateauneufdu-Pape Blanc 2016-2017 Rhone Valley, France
Three stars
Châteauneuf-du-Pape usually means full-bodied, heady reds based on grenache. The whites are also robust and full-bodied, as is this beauty from winemaker Christian Berthet-Rayne. Scents of jasmine and beeswax, and the spice of ginger make this
wine entrancing. It’s a blend of organic clairette, bourboulenc, grenache blanc and roussanne. I tasted the 2016; the importer is now selling the 2017, though both vintages may still be available. Alcohol by volume: 14 per cent.
Domaine de la Denante Mâcon-Davayé 2017 Burgundy, France
Two and a half stars This delicious red is made from old-vines gamay, the grape of beaujolais. It is rather earthier and more rustic than its southern neighbour, a result of the limestone soils
there compared to granite in Beaujolais.
Don’t cellar this; it’s meant more as an everyday house wine. Enjoy it with braised meat dishes and cold weather. ABV: 13 per cent.
Domaine du Mont Epin Macon-Peronne 2016 Burgundy, France
Two and a half stars
Chardonnay shines in the Maconnais, and Domaine du Mont Épin doesn’t disappoint with this racy white that combines fruit, flowers and minerals in its flavour profile. ABV: 13 per cent.
Camille Cayran L’Elegante Cairanne 2016 Rhone Valley, France
Two and a half stars
Cairanne is a village in the Rhone Valley with its own appellation, giving the wines greater status than Côtes-du-Rhone. These tend to be somewhat brawny, with an appealing rusticity. This example by Camille Cayran, certified organic, lives up to its name with an attractive elegance and polish. It’s a blend of grenache, syrah, carignan and mourvedre. ABV: 14.5 per cent.
AP PHOTO
Kiki robots are displayed at the Zoetic AI booth at CES International on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
AP PHOTO AvatarMind has developed service robots like iPal –based on artificial intelligence, motion control, sensors and power management.
DAHLBERG Passed away on January 5, 2019. Memorial service to be held at a later date.
Allan Bryce Westad
Jan 14, 1952 to Jan 6, 2019
Passed away peacefully Jan 6. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. He will always be remembered as a loving generous kind man to all who knew him. He was predeceased by his father, mother and 3 brothers. Survived by his wife Christine, son, daughter, one brother, & 2 sisters. No service by request.
Leo Laurent Chartier
It’s with heavy hearts that our family announces the passing of our dear father, grandfather, brother and friend Leo. Leo Laurent Chartier was born Jan 24th 1941 to Jan 1st 2019 and is now re united with his wife Irene. He was predeceased by his brothers Urban, Eugene and sister Cecile. He is survived by his son Eric, daughter Gail and grandchildren Cyle and Morgan, siblings Laurent (Connie), Remi, Paulette (Gary), Jo-Anne (Gerry) and Marie-Anne (Roger). Private gathering to follow.
Rest in peace Dad... see you in the funny papers... in the colored section... because I’m fussy where I’m seen!
Victor Leonard Joseph Kieser
Passed away on the early morning of January 9th at Prince George Regional Hospital. He was 55 years old. He was a loving husband to wife of 36 years Jacqueline Kieser and together they had 5 children, daughter Michelle (Fred) son Leonard (Brooke) daughter Nicole (Stephen), daughter Lise & son Colin. 3 beautiful grandchildren Dante, Desmond & Dean. A unique soul, Vic was funny, and enjoyed spending time with his family. He will be greatly missed. Vic is survived by his wife, children, mother Rena (Frank) brother in law Florent. He will be joining his father Benedict and sister Susan. A special thanks to Victor’s work family Keith(Brenda) and Craig (Kristi). A memorial service organized and held at Assman’s Funeral Chapel on Tuesday January 15th 2019 @ 12:30pm. Memorial donations may be made in Vic’s name to any charity of your choice. Following the service there will be a luncheon for family and friends at the Columbus Community Centre 7201 Domano blvd PG. @ 1:30pm
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index’s rally continued for a sixth straight day Friday as it posted its best weekly performance in more than three years.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 35.69 points to 14,939.18. The market gained 512.56 points or 3.55 per cent for the week, its best run since October 2015.
The Toronto market enjoyed its first six-day positive streak since mid-June. U.S. markets snapped their stretch at five days, although they were up about two per cent for the week.
“It’s definitely been a week of relief trading,” said Ian Scott, an equity analyst at Manulife Asset Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.97 points at 23,995.95. The S&P 500 index was down 0.38 of a point at 2,596.26, while the Nasdaq composite was down 14.59 points at 6,971.48.
“It’s been kind of an absence of negative news we’ve been having over the past few weeks that has allowed us to kind of snap back,” he said in an interview.
After rising for several days, the S&P 500 has hit a level of technical resistance in not surpassing 2,600, said Scott.
He said U.S. markets are waiting for the earnings season to kick into gear next week with the reporting of several large banks, along with any news of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China to determine if they will resume their rallies or head lower. All sectors on the TSX gained Friday except industrials and utilities, which dipped slightly.
Canadian Natural Resources Inc., Barrick Gold Corp. and CIBC were the top performers on the composite index, while Suncor Energy Inc., Canadian National Railway Co. and CGI Group Inc. were at the bottom.
Health care led by gaining about three per cent on appreciation by several cannabis producers.
The tone was set with Tilray’s stock soaring more than 19 per cent on Nasdaq after top shareholder Privateer Holdings Inc. said it did not plan to sell its stock when the lock-up expires next week.
The energy sector was one of the weaker performers Friday, gaining slightly as the streak of higher crude oil prices ended at 10 days as prices rose by 7.6 per cent for the week.
The February crude contract was down $1 at US$51.59 per barrel Friday. The February gold contract was up US$2.10 at US$1,289.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was up 2.45 cents at US$2.66 a pound.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.42 cents US.
New view NHL testing puck and player tracking in regular-season games
Stephen WHYNO Citizen news service
LAS VEGAS — On one screen live video was showing how many feet per second Erik Karlsson was skating. On another was a video-game-like visualization of the game on the ice below between Vegas and San Jose. Nearby screens flashed prop bets – where would the next goal be scored from?; would Max Pacioretty skate three miles tonight? – as odds were updated by the second.
In a hallway high up in T-Mobile Arena, virtual reality headsets provided a view of the game from the perspective of anyone from Marc-Andre Fleury to Joe Thornton to a fan in section 214.
The NHL this week tested puck and player tracking for the first time in regular-season games, an exciting step with plans to have it placed across the league next season. The NHL will join and perhaps surpass the NFL with real-time tracking technology it hopes will have broad ramifications for teams, players and fans from Florida to Vancouver.
An overwhelming amount of data will soon be available for analytics, broadcasters and, yes, gamblers as expanded sports betting takes hold following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision clearing the way.
“It’s going to change the game in a big way,” said Dave Lehanski, NHL senior vice-president of business development. “We’re going to go from tracking or capturing maybe about 350 events per game now – shot, pass, hit, save – to 10,000. That alone at the end of the day, you’re going to have a massive amount of new data that no one has ever seen before.”
Microchips were added to player shoulder pads and fitted inside specially designed pucks for two Vegas Golden Knights home games this week, against the New York Rangers and the San Jose Sharks. Fourteen antennas in the rafters and four more at the suite level tracked movement through radio frequencies and relayed the data to Suite 46, where league and Players’ Association executives and representatives from 20 teams and various technology firms, betting companies and TV rights holders were watching along with a handful of reporters.
Tracking was tested at previous All-Star games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The latest tests refined the logistics of using the technology in meaningful games, and also showed how the real-time statistics can be used on broadcasts, in betting applications and in creating virtual reality and augmented reality simulations.
“Technology gives us a chance to bring our fans closer to the game, gives them a chance to look at the game from different perspectives,” commissioner Gary Bettman said as the Golden Knights battled the Sharks. “And the opportunity is unlimited in an era where technology is developing at a record pace.”
Fans will get their first real taste of the tracking system at All-Star Weekend on Jan. 25-26 in San Jose when NBC in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada will have access to the data to use on their broadcasts. If all goes according to
plan, the full range of puck and player tracking will be in place to begin next season.
The NHL and NHLPA have been discussing puck and player tracking for several years, and millions of dollars have been invested. Player concerns over tracking data being used against them have been quelled enough that they agreed to wear the microchips.
“I do think the potential positives far outweigh any negatives,” said Mathieu Schneider, a retired defenceman and special assistant to the NHLPA executive director. “It’s incumbent upon us to make sure we’re doing not only for the current guys what we can but for future guys. I think the timing’s right.”
The NHL owns the data but must share it with the union. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the sides are on the same page and will talk about it more for the next collective bargaining agreement. One of the conditions is that teams are not allowed to use player tracking data in salary arbitration.
“Who knows what’s going to happen with it?” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “I think people like to see different stats, and the NHL’s probably trying to give fans a little bit of something like that. Maybe it affects some guys, maybe it doesn’t. Hopefully it only enhances players and their skills and how they play the game.”
The NHL will join the NFL as the only major North American sports leagues with players wearing tracking technology. The NBA and Major League Baseball use sophisticated systems that can include radar and cameras.
Jogmo World Corp. and the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany developed this particular system in conjunction with the NHL over the past three years. It has taken that long just to get it right; the rubber used to make pucks originally didn’t work with the sensors. The system tracks a puck 2,000 times per second and players 200 times per second.
“Overall, hockey’s the most challenging sport that you can think of because the high-
est mechanics, the highest speed, the highest impact,” Jogmo founder and CEO Martin Bachmayer said. “We had to change the puck recipe, the puck mixture to make that work. That was super difficult.”
The NHL won’t say how much, but the new pucks are considerably more expensive than the frozen rubber varieties used over the past 100-plus years of hockey and any fans who went home with a puck from one of the games unknowingly got a piece of history and a valuable souvenir. How referees handle them and how equipment managers deal with the microchips on the shoulder pads were major elements of the testing this week, and adjustments will be made based on feedback from players and officials before next season.
Starting next season, broadcasters will be able to flash up-to-the-second data during games, and at some point fans will be able to customize puck and player tracking stats as they watch online. The goal is to try to attract new viewers and give hardcore fans more to sink their teeth into.
“The casuals will use it as a way to understand just how fast (hockey is),” NHL chief administrative officer Steve McArdle said. “All the things that they have heard about hockey will come to life through data right in real time. The avids, if they want to go super deep on the analytics that are going to be derived out of this thing, it’s a rabbit hole that you could go as deep as you want to go.”
It could also change the way the game itself is played. Teams already have their own proprietary data, and the influx of standardized numbers and information with pinpoint accuracy down to the inch will make analytics even more advanced.
“They want to have more information, so that really provides us with an opportunity to really make the clubs better and smarter,” NHL chief revenue officer Keith Wachtel said.
AP PHOTO
People watch real-time puck and player tracking technology on display during an NHL hockey game between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks in Las Vegas on Thursday.
AP PHOTO
A fan uses a tablet for tracking a game between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Religious-bias rule is new hazard for U.S. foster programs
Laura MECKLER Citizen news service
The Miracle Hill Ministries in Greenville, S.C., makes clear from the start that only Christian parents need apply for its foster-care program. On its forms, candidates are asked to offer personal testimony of their faith or salvation.
“Our existence and identity is tied to our faith in God and belief in Jesus Christ,” said Reid Lehman, Miracle Hill’s president and CEO. He said the ministry would drop out of the foster-care program rather than work with parents who aren’t Christian.
That policy, in place for 30 years, runs counter to an Obama-era regulation barring religious discrimination in the federally funded foster-care program. Now, with Miracle Hill’s funding threatened, the Trump administration is being asked by the governor of South Carolina to let Miracle Hill participate anyway.
It’s the latest clash in a long-running debate over religious freedom and government social services, as three successive administrations have considered how much religion is too much religion when agencies are collecting taxpayer funds. The Trump administration’s response in the South Carolina case will signal whether it will adhere to modest limits imposed by the Bush and Obama administrations or whether it will allow religious entities a freer hand.
It also represents a test of the Obama policy, put into place in the final days of that administration. The fact that the Trump administration has yet to give South Carolina an answer suggests that the question may be a difficult one even for some conservatives.
In October 2017, Jeff Sessions, attorney general at the time, signaled the Trump administration’s view on these issues when he released sweeping guidance on religious freedom, including an admonition that federal grants cannot require religious groups to alter their character.
The issue is playing out in the states as well. South Carolina has told Miracle Hill its license is in jeopardy, contending that it is violating state and federal policy. In other states, similar disputes are tied to policies regarding sexual orientation.
Philadelphia cut off Catholic Social Services from its foster-care program after learning that the agency would not license same-sex couples. Catholic Social Services is challenging the decision in court.
In Michigan, the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the state over its policy of contracting with child-placement agencies that use religious criteria to turn away gay and lesbian couples who wish to be foster or adoptive parents.
“States have an obligation to care for children in the public child-welfare system,” said Leslie Cooper, an ACLU attorney.
“When they hire agencies to care for
them... they should not be using religious criteria to deny children access to families that they desperately need.”
In South Carolina, Miracle Hill was expecting to have been given the OK by now. Trump administration officials have signaled that they are sympathetic to its cause, yet the decision has been pending for months.
Founded in 1937, Miracle Hill runs several social service programs, all infused with religion. It will hire only Christians, whether the job is programming, cutting the grass – or being a foster parent.
A spokeswoman for the state social services agency said there are 11 child-placement agencies in South Carolina with religious affiliations, but Miracle Hill is the only one that insists foster parents share its faith.
Lehman, the Miracle Hill president, said parents are expected to serve as role models for the children in their care. “The children will see what a life dedicated to proclaiming the love of God is about,” he said.
The group received nearly $600,000 in state and federal money in the last fiscal year to support foster-care families, about half of its total costs.
The group’s religious requirements appear to have come to the attention of the South Carolina Department of Social Servic-
es after Beth Lesser, who is Jewish, and her husband were turned away by Miracle Hill.
“I was the only Jewish person there,” Lesser told the Forward, a newspaper that covers issues of interest to American Jews.
“It was humiliating to be told essentially Christians over here, Jews over there.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services would say only that it acted after becoming aware that Miracle Hill required a signed statement of faith to participate in the program.
In January 2018, the department wrote to Miracle Hill, stating that its Christiansonly policy ran afoul of a federal regulation finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services in the closing days of the Obama administration. That regulation was spurred by complaints about discrimination against potential foster parents on the grounds of religion and, separately, sexual orientation, according to one person involved. The rules bar such discrimination in all HHS programs.
The South Carolina agency told Miracle Hill that its policy also runs counter to state rules that bar discrimination based on religion. In its letter, the department noted that Miracle Hill’s written policy says it will abide by these state and federal rules.
“The Department’s request is that Miracle
Hill comply with its own policy submitted for licensure,” a state official said in a January 2018 letter to the group. She said its license was being downgraded to temporary and warned the temporary license would be valid for no longer than six months. “Failure to address these concerns will result in the expiration of Miracle Hill’s license as a Child Placing Agency.”
But Miracle Hill’s cause was soon taken up by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, who asked the HHS for a waiver from the nondiscrimination rules. McMaster argued that the regulation was unlawful and violates the group’s constitutional rights. The regulation, he wrote, effectively requires child placement agencies such as Miracle Hill to “abandon their religious beliefs or forgo the available public licensure and funding.”
He also persuaded the Legislature to override the nondiscrimination provisions set by the Department of Social Services.
In March, Steve Wagner, who runs the HHS division that oversees foster care, wrote to a McMaster aide that he was “pushing this hard,” according to emails received by the ACLU through a records request. He suggested that final approval could come later that month.
Texas Republicans vote against ousting Muslim member
Citizen news service
FORT WORTH, Texas — Republicans in one of the most populous counties in Texas voted Thursday to keep a Muslim doctor as their party vice chairman following infighting over some members’ claims about his beliefs. The executive committee of the Tarrant County Republican Party voted 139-49 to reject the effort to purge Shahid Shafi, a surgeon and City Council member in suburban Fort Worth.
“This vote reaffirms the commitment by a majority of Tarrant County Republicans to our core values and moral compass, a demonstration of our allegiance to the Texas Republican Party Platform and the Constitutions of the United States and Texas, which strictly prohibit religious and racial discrimination of any kind,” Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Darl Easton said in a written statement.
“While tonight’s vote brings an end to this unfortunate episode, it also demonstrates we are a party
that respects the right of those who disagree on an issue to have a seat at the table and their voices heard,” according to the statement.
“Religious liberty won tonight and while that makes a great day for the Republican Party of Tarrant County, that victory also serves notice that we have much work to do unifying our party.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported at least one precinct chair, Arlington Republican Dale Attebery, was said have to tossed his ID at the lecturn after the vote. Easton said he accepted that as Attebery’s resignation.
Shafi told reporters that his faith in Tarrant County Republicans had been reaffirmed.
“As we struggled through the last few months, it would have been easy for me to quit. But I stayed on to fight,” he said. “We were fighting for religious freedom ... and today we have come out victorious.”
The Thursday vote result took a stand “against bigotry of all kinds,” he said. “Our union is a
little more perfect today.”
A party precinct chairwoman, Dorrie O’Brien, had led the call to oust Shafi on claims that he may be more loyal to Islamic law or connected to a terrorist group. Shafi denied both claims and other Republicans have called them bigoted.
“Religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a nation and state,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Wednesday, “and attacks on Dr. Shafi because of his faith are contrary to this guiding principle.”
Other top Republicans, such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Land Commissioner George P. Bush, also had condemned the effort to oust him.
Cruz tweeted at one point that discriminating against Shafi because of his religion was “wrong.”
The First Amendment protects religious liberty for every faith, Cruz said on Twitter.
Former Tarrant County GOP leader William Busby earlier told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that some large corporate donors “don’t want to be associated with a party that’s going in the direction of excluding people based upon their religious beliefs.”
Shafi is one of two party vice chairmen and has worked for the party for about 10 years, including as a delegate to the state party convention. He’s serving a
two-year term as vice chairman and his election in July drew one lone dissenting vote among the approximately 250 precinct chairmen who voted that day. That lone dissenter was O’Brien.
A handful of others have joined her in opposing Shafi. O’Brien did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press. Her call to reconsider Shafi’s appointment gained traction with some party members after Tarrant County turned blue in the U.S. Senate race in November.
The State Republican Executive Committee in Austin responded to the move by passing a resolution recently that stressed Republican members across Texas have the “freedom to practice all faiths.”
“I heard from a few people that if Shafi is removed they’ll resign,” said Brian Bledsoe, a Tarrant County GOP precinct chairman.
“I don’t know how serious they were about it, though. Regardless of the outcome, hopefully this Thursday will be the end of all of this.”
SHAFI
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
A copy of the Bible rests on a conference room table at Miracle Hill Ministries in Greenville, S.C.
