Spruce Kings shut out Brooks Bandits in Doyle Cup playoff opener
Fire Hall construction
Construction has started on the
building.
B.C. entrepreneur refloats
Kitimat oil refinery proposal
Derrick PENNER Vancouver Sun
Victoria businessman David Black is pondering whether political winds might be blowing back in favour of his independent proposal to build an oil refinery near Kitimat, as opposed to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion to Burnaby.
Federally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been cold to the idea, Black said, and Premier John Horgan hasn’t been able to extend support.
However, with Alberta premierelect Jason Kenney preparing to take office and odds wavering over the possibility of a turnover in government at Ottawa after October’s election, Black is reflecting on the supportive comments he has heard from conservative camps.
“There’s no question they’ll be supportive,” Black said Thursday. Black, whose regular job is owner of Black Press, first proposed his plan in 2012.
Last summer, Black met with Kenney, as Alberta United Conservative Party leader, and federal Conservative party Leader Andrew Scheer, to lobby for his proposal after sensing a cooling of interest from the federal Liberal government. Black said both leaders expressed interest.
“I got the impression they were
Black’s Kitimat Clean proposal would be a $22-billion project to turn bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands into solid pellets for shipment...
very keen,” Black said of his meetings with Scheer.
Kenney, whom he last met last August over dinner in Calgary, told Black that it “seems like it’s a really good idea (if we can) move our oil safely and cheaply out to the coast.”
And with sky-high Metro Vancouver gasoline prices sharing space at the top of the political agenda, Black has reconnected with B.C. and Alberta political leaders urging them to focus more on co-operation than their divisions over the Trans Mountain project.
Horgan, while discussing provincial concerns about skyrocketing gas prices, has repeatedly lamented that a lack of domestic refining capacity has contributed to the industry’s problems.
Black’s Kitimat Clean proposal would be a $22-billion project
to turn bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands into solid pellets for shipment by train to a refinery north of Kitimat. Refined gas, diesel and other petroleum products –not diluted bitumen – would be loaded onto tankers for shipment to markets around the world.
Black is betting First Nations and other traditional oilsands opponents will be more supportive if it eliminates the risk of a pipeline rupture and trades the risk of a catastrophic tanker spill of diluted bitumen with less-damaging gas or diesel.
Officials from Kenney and Scheer’s offices didn’t respond to Postmedia requests for comment.
Horgan, speaking at a transportation-related announcement in Langley on Thursday, said he has asked his deputy minister to look for ways that B.C., as a subnational jurisdiction, might be able to encourage gas-price reductions in the short-term or an increase in refining capacity in the longerterm.
Horgan acknowledged Black’s proposal as one option and said, “I look forward to him entering the regulatory process to see if he has the wherewithal, in terms of capital, in terms of expertise, to pull that off.” – with files from Jennifer Saltman, Vancouver Sun
Wetland clean-up happening Sunday
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
When the snow melts, the garbage and mess is revealed. One of the city’s most ecologically sensitive and diverse preserves, the Hudson’s Bay Wetland, gets an annual spruceup each spring, depending on the weather. The spring freshet has cleared the way for this year’s cleanup
so the Prince George Naturalists’ Club has put out the call to join them on Sunday for the important tidying event.
“The Prince George Naturalists Club has adopted the Hudson’s Bay Wetland again for this year’s citywide spring cleaning event,”said Anne Hogan. “Come and help us beautify our city by volunteering to clean up refuse.” — see WETLANDS, page 3
City employees Brent Collison and Keith Stibrany use a boat to set out an aerator pump in Hudson’s Bay Wetland in 2015.
Poll takers divided if Kenney win is good or bad news
Citizen staff
Online pollsters were on opposite ends when The Citizen asked “do you think Jason Kenney’s election as premier of Alberta is good or bad news?”
Taking top spot with 39 per cent and 474 votes was “good news – he’s going to work to make sure Justin Trudeau loses the fall election” while the flipside with 35 per cent and 432 votes said “bad news – he’s Doug Ford of the west.” Trailing with 12 per cent and 142 votes was “good news – he’s going to turn off the oil taps to B.C.” followed by seven per cent and 86 votes “good news – he’s Doug Ford of the west.”
Next with five per cent and 64 votes was “bad news – he’s going to turn off the oil taps to B.C.” and finally trickling in with two per cent and 30 votes was “bad news – he’s going to work to make sure Justin Trudeau loses the fall election.”
There was a total of 1,228 votes. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
Next question we’re going to have a little fun asking readers to weigh in on this compelling survey as The Citizen asks “did you snowblow your front lawn this spring?”
To make your snowblowing vote count, visit www.pgcitizen.ca.
MAKING
IT RIGHT
The bill for municipal property tax will rise by $91 to $2,207 for the owner of an average home, valued at $300,681. An incorrect calculation was provided in Thursday’s Citizen.
The Citizen archives online: https://bit.ly/2RsjvA0
Heavy Metal Rocks
Northern Regional Construction Association and School District 57 held the 16th year of Heavy Metal Rocks. Gary Gordy, right, Twin Rivers safety coordinator, oversees Kaiya Greenfield, a Grade 10 student at Prince George Secondary School on an excavator. Heavy Metal Rocks, coordinated by the skills, trades and careers department of School District 57, gives high school students practical experience operating pieces of heavy machinery and connects them with potential employers. Safety training began on Wednesday, at the College of New Caledonia. Participants also toured the CNC trades facilities and got a look at the new Kelly Road Secondary School construction site. Following the initial training, students and professional operators were on the Heavy Metal Rocks work site – the Pitman Asphalt gravel pit off Foothills Boulevard – Thursday and Friday. The program wraps up with a half day at the site today.
CNC board approves $72.2M budget
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
The College of New Caledonia Board of Governors passed a balanced $72.2-million budget for the 2019-20 school year on Friday.
The total represents a $4.8-million increase over last year’s figure and it was the fourth year CNC has not faced cuts.
Revenue from tuition fees is projected to rise by $4.2 million while grants from the Ministry of Advanced Education are to go up $1.4 million, offset by a $116,943 decline from the Industry Training Authority. Revenue from other sources is to rise by $644,934.
Enrollment is expected to rise by 130 students when the fall term starts.
In November, a two-per-cent increase in
tuition fees was approved pushing the average a CNC student pays to $2,776. In doing so, the board committed to investing those gains directly into student development and support.
That includes extended hours for a number of service-oriented departments, the addition of an aboriginal community navigator, creation of study abroad subsidies and new entrance scholarships.
The budget also provides the CNC Students’ Union with a $50,000 grant to support the creation of student recreation, mentorship, and ambassador programs.
“Student life is an essential element of the post-secondary experience,” said Chad Thompson, CNC vice president academic.
“The CNCSU is enthusiastic about fostering more student life on campus, and we’re very pleased to support this.”
As well, almost $800,000 is will go toward maintaining new full-time faculty positions added last year to keep up with student enrolment. The budget also provides funding for rotational trades programming in Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Burns Lake, and Mackenzie, as well as ongoing regular programs in Quesnel and Prince George.
And a multi-year project to improve classroom technology and furniture will also begin with this budget.
“Improving classroom technology and furniture at CNC benefits both the learning experience of students and teaching experience of instructors,” said Tara Szerencsi, CNC vice president, finance and corporate services. “This budget is reflective of CNC’s commitment to bringing people and potential together.”
Madison Smith coming to FanCon
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The mountain is as high for an acting career as it is for an athlete.
With training and dedication working with innate talent, reaching the professional ranks of stage and screen is an attainable goal for any aspiring Prince George actor. There are plenty of past examples to look to: Demitri Goritsas, Linda Carson, Izaak Smith, Grace Dove, Steven Cree Molison, Donna Starnes-Feore, Sonya Salomaa, Kim Selody, Robert Seeliger, Chad Willett, Nicholas Harrison, and many others.
The latest name to be seen in lights is Madison Smith, and the young screen star will be back in his hometown this coming week to meet the public, talk a bit about how he earned his way into film and television casts, and how others can follow a similar path.
He is one of the VIPs coming to Northern FanCon.
He isn’t coming on stale-dated credits, either. Smith has been a hot commodity as a co-star in two series, NarcoLeap and Salvation, that are both getting rave reactions in the public.
He was also in a 2019 episode of Supergirl, guested on Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and on Valley Of The Boom, plus he was in the recently released TV movie Valentine In The Vineyard.
Oh, and, he was just named one of this year’s nominees for the coveted Leo Award (Best Performance Male-Web Series for his work in NarcoLeap).
“It’s insane to be nominated for a Leo award,” he told The Citizen.
“It’s one of the goals every B.C. performer strives for so to get that recognition for an amazing project like NarcoLeap is an amazing honour. I knew when we were on set that this project was something special. Our team could feel it too. We had an amazing director in Kate Green, our writer David Schmidt, and our other lead cast members like Chelsey Reist, Austin Eckert, Alecks Paunovic and Nicole Oliver. I really hope that NarcoLeap is a show that gets to be made for a major audience like it deserves to be.”
This is the second time Smith has been a featured face of FanCon. Back in Year 1 of
SMITH
the pop-culture convention, he was spotlighted as a rising star in the B.C. industry, which happens to be one of the global hotbeds for the screen arts.
All his successes in the five years since then go to show the value of his hometown fan fair. He said it was important to him to come back having lived up to that early profile.
“My career has had some amazing highs and a few lows,” he said.
“But I’m so happy with where things have taken me. Last year is a testament to being patient and putting in the work. I started the year off with NarcoLeap and clearly that was an amazing opportunity for me, earning me my Leo nomination and then came my series regular role as Nate Ryland on CBS’ hit series Salvation. I don’t know what’s next but I know that even greater things are still to come.”
Another step will come soon. Smith is in the cast of the psychological thriller movie Don’t Look There directed by Richard Zelniker and starring a youthful buzz-list of rising Hollywood names like Natalie Alyn Lind, Keesha Sharp, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kenny Johnson and Kirk Acevedo in this thick ensemble cast.
Northern FanCon runs May 3-5 at CN Centre. Tickets are on sale now at the arena box office or the Tickets North website.
‘Wetlands... are magnets for learning about nature’
— from page 1
There is no bad time to clean up discarded trash, but to enjoy the coordination and fellowship of the naturalist club, meet up with their group anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Hudson’s Bay Wetland parking lot located at 2232 Queensway.
“Participants are encouraged to bring their own work gloves and sturdy footwear,” said Hogan. “Garbage bags and disposable gloves are provided. Refreshments will be available at 10 a.m. for those who want get a jump on cleaning. We hope to see you there.”
The Hudson’s Bay Wetland is an urban nature park extending from a bay on the shore of the Fraser River not far from Exploration Place Museum & Science Centre. This well-visited riverside feature is fed by a wide network of ponds and slow-moving streams extending all the way to the Citizen Field baseball stadium on Massey Drive. The main public relationship with the park, however, is in the estuary running from the east side of Norwood Street, across Queensway, and on to the Fraser River. Much work has been done in recent years to establish a formal trail system around that area with strategically placed observation decks and interpretive signage, and it is now a popular loop to jog or go for a walk.
According to the naturalist club and its partner groups (Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Club, Exploration Place, City of Prince George), the place has become a “showcase environment for bird, fish, plant and animal life, surrounded by an interpretive trail with numerous learning opportunities and features,” thanks to thousands of volunteer hours, municipal help, and donated cash and materials. Much more work is on the agenda for Hudson’s Bay Slough as it evolves into a premier tourist attraction and favourite destination for locals.
“Wetlands do not simply have a vital role in providing habitat for native flora and fauna, but are magnets for learning about nature,” said the partnership in a joint statement. “The natural world is important for the healthy emotional and intellectual
Million recyclable bottles ‘lost’
every day in B.C., group says
The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — An environmental organization based in Vancouver says one million recyclable bottles and cans “go missing” every day in British Columbia and it’s calling for higher deposits to discourage consumers from littering or throwing them away.
Chloe Dubois, of the Ocean Legacy Foundation, says her organization analysed data from the Brewers Recycled Container Collection Council and Encorp Pacific, the corporation in charge of container management, to compare bottles and cans sold with the number that are returned.
The foundation says about 387 million beverage containers, including items like plastic drink bottles and beer cans, didn’t make it back into the province’s regulated deposit refund system in 2017.
The group is recommending the province increase the deposit rate, add containers like milk cartons to the deposit refund system and enforce those targets in a meaningful way, like requiring producers to pay to clean up ocean plastics equal to the amount they fail to recycle.
It says an addition 2.3 million beverage container caps go missing every day and it recommends that producers also be required to collect and report on bottle-cap recycling.
In a statement, the B.C. Ministry of En-
vironment says it is reviewing the report, adding the recommendations are generally in keeping with the province’s goal of reducing the use of plastics and other single-use items.
The ministry says more than one billion containers are recycled under the Encorp program alone each year.
Stewardship plans at both Encorp and the Brewers council’s are due for renewal this year and the ministry says it’s encouraging the public to give feedback during consultations over the next few months.
Dubois says she and other members of the foundation regularly volunteer to clean beaches in British Columbia and they’re shocked by the amount of recyclable litter they find.
“We need this to change. We can’t keep going out on the shorelines collecting thousands of bottles and caps.”
Dubois says that although B.C. was the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt a regulated beverage container refund system, it’s time for revitalization.
B.C. has a five-cent minimum deposit return rate. Dubois says other countries and provinces have achieved better recycling and return rates in line with higher deposit rates. Alberta and Saskatchewan both have a minimum regulated deposit of 10 cents per bottle and saw 86 per cent and 82 per cent of their bottles returned, respectively. Encorp’s bottle-return rate in 2017 was 76 per cent.
development of our children, and wetlands are natural teaching classrooms. Experience shows that they can become a treasured focal point for green activities and families.”
P.G.’s Spring Clean-Up Day happening Sunday
“Spring cleaning is occurring in homes and yards throughout Prince George – why not participate in Spring Clean-Up?,” said City of Prince George spokesperson Michael Kellett. “It’s been a Prince George tradition since the early 1990s. Spring Clean-Up Day is an annual event and partnership between the City of Prince George and the Recycling and Environmental Action Planning Society (REAPS). Each year, thousands of residents participate in the event, which occurs on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Participants can lead a team or sign up individually. Individuals or groups can select a designated area they would like to clean up.
“Registered individuals or groups receive free pitch-in bags and gloves,” said Kellett.
“So far, about 2000 bags have been distributed to nearly 2000 registered volunteers.”
Volunteers are still needed to clean up the following areas:
• Foothills Boulevard north of First Avenue
• Westwood Drive along the golf course (Pine Centre Mall to Range Road)
• Highway 16 from Mr. PG to Superstore
• Peden Hill (Vance Road to Domano Boulevard)
• Range Road
• Ospika Boulevard (Massey Drive to Fifth Avenue)
• 15th and 20th Avenues
• Around the base of Connaught Hill
• Queensway
Ten temporary, free garbage and litter bins will be set-up on the Spring Clean-Up Day. Go to the City of Prince George’s website and follow the Spring Clean-Up links to find where these one-day-only drop-off spots are located.
Victoria aims to eliminate public transit fares
Amy SMART The Canadian Press
Victoria wants to eliminate public transit fares for everyone in the region to encourage more ridership and reduce the impacts of climate change.
Mayor Lisa Helps will bring a motion to the regional transit commission Monday, asking it to embrace a policy of phasing out user fees and expanding bus service to meet an anticipated increase in demand.
Coun. Ben Isitt, who introduced the motion that was passed Thursday by council, said it would begin with the elimination of fares for youth under 19 next year and the broader community would be phased in.
Isitt said there’s almost no more space in the city for expanding roads or parking.
“Driving is only going to get more challenging so I think as we make transit more convenient and cheaper that provides a further incentive for people to leave their cars at home.”
The transit system currently depends on
$40 million in annual revenue from fares but is primarily funded through taxation in the form of provincial subsidies, gas taxes and property taxes. Isitt said the proposal would see the fare revenue loss replaced with an expansion of the existing tax formula.
Similar policies have been adopted in jurisdictions like Luxembourg and Estonia’s capital city Tallinn.
Other places offer free fare for certain demographics or in geographic areas, like Madison, Wis., where fare is free in the city’s core.
In Toronto, children under 12 ride for free, and in Kingston, Ont., high schoolers can too. The City of Kingston said the objective of the program launched in 2012 was to expose students to the transit system, building habits they may continue after graduation.
Jeff Casello, a transportation professor at the University of Waterloo, said eliminating fares can encourage ridership, including for
those who avoid public transit because they don’t know how the fee structure works.
“The idea of free public transport has been talked about in many cities,” he said.
“What many public transport systems are trying to do is increase people’s accessibility.”
It can be an unpopular policy for municipalities that expect to recover operating costs.
Aside from some exceptions like megacities in Asia, Casello said few public transit systems actually break even so every dollar counts.
In North America, user fares typically support between 40 and 60 per cent of the operating budget, he said.
Fare incentives also aren’t enough to make many people change their habits.
Those who already depend on transit will continue to use it and high-income earners who don’t use transit won’t be incentivized by a fare change from something like $2 to zero, he said.
There is a larger group in the middle that has some price sensitivity and can shift habits depending on fare, but price isn’t typically the most important factor, Casello said in an interview on Friday.
“It’s often the quality and the calibre of the public transport system. So in a city where I can drive and it will take me 10 minutes and I have hourly transit service that takes 30 minutes, reducing their fare is not going to change people’s habits, at least not those discretionary users,” Casello said.
But if transit is competitive and people are considering the option, then making it free can shift behaviours where it will generate new riders, he said.
In Victoria, Isitt said an important part of the proposal involves both electrifying the fleet and expanding bus routes and service to meet the anticipated demand.
That would include more frequent buses, better routes and dedicated bus lanes to allow transit to move as efficiently as possible through gridlock, he said.
B.C. increasing energy rebate programs
The Canadian Press LANGFORD — British Columbia’s government has announced it’s boosting incentives to help homeowners and businesses save energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Better Buildings program offers thousands of dollars in rebates and incentives to entice the switch to high-efficiency heating equipment and improve building envelopes, which include walls, windows, roofs and foundations.
Premier John Horgan says helping people keep their homes cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter makes sense, and the efficiency they’re investing in will help B.C. reduce climate pollution.
Incentives include a $3,000 rebate for those who switch to high-efficiency electric heat pumps, up to $2,000 in rebates for upgrades on doors and
windows and up to $20,000 for energy studies to help identify improvements in commercial buildings. The plan allows for $14,100 for a home and $220,000 for a business to make the energy-saving changes.
The CleanBC program announced last year was part of the agreement Horgan’s NDP signed with the B.C. Green party in order to form a minority government in 2017.
“This program will help us get to our CleanBC goal of reducing climate pollution, making B.C. cleaner and creating good jobs that support families and sustain our communities,” Energy Minister Michelle Mungall said.
The incentives aim to help replace fossil fuel heating systems with electric air-source heat pumps, improve insulation, encourage upgrades to high-efficiency natural gas furnaces and install more windows and doors that minimize heat loss.
VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST PHOTO
Riders board a transit bus on Douglas Street in Victoria. Mayor Lisa Helps will seek approval for a proposal to make transit fares free in the city on Monday.
Flooding prompts state of emergency in four provinces
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Two of Canada’s biggest cities have declared a state of emergency and three provinces have asked for federal help to fight rising flood waters as Mother Nature’s wet wrath of spring marches across central Canada and the Atlantic.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon saying the city had felt it had matters under control – until a rainstorm dumping as much as 60 mm of rain on already flooded regions meant the response had to be stepped up.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency for similar reasons Thursday, prompting the federal government to send 400 soldiers to help sandbag and aid in relief efforts to small rural communities on the west edge of Ottawa.
Another 1,000 soldiers were deployed to parts of Quebec earlier this week and 310 in New Brunswick. Municipalities are calling for volunteers to help if they can.
Officials are also warning people to heed orders for evacuations and road closures, and not take risks.
Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the response to all the flooding “is an all-handson-deck, whole-of-government approach,” including from everyday Canadians.
“Emergency situations like these tend to bring out our better angels,” he said at a news conference in Regina. “The instincts of Canadians are to help each other. That’s who we are and that’s what we do.”
Ontario
Water regulators estimate the Ottawa River’s level will rise nearly a metre within the next few days, well above its peak in a 2017 flood that was thought to have been a once-in-a-century event.
The most serious flooding so far is in villages along the Ottawa River outside the downtown core, but a riverbank path behind Parliament is already underwater.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford visited Friday morning to meet
NEWS IN BRIEF
affected homeowners and help fill some sandbags. He said the government is on “high alert” and has told Watson the province will help with whatever is needed.
“This is absolutely heart-wrenching,” Ford said. “It’s one thing to see it on the cameras, it’s another thing when you talk to the people face-to-face – and it just rips your heart out.”
Pete Davies is trying to save his bungalow in the rural Ottawa community of Woodlawn after rebuilding following the 2017 flood, which forced his family out of their home for more than two months.
“We thought we’d never see it again,” Davies said Friday.
Davies said he is using hip waders to get out of his house to get to work and he and his wife had to use a boat to get groceries home.
They’re hoping to stay in their house as long as possible this year with the help of a sump pump and generator, but Davies knows they could be forced to evacuate.
Several military trucks arrived in Woodlawn on Friday morning with soldiers and supplies, and public-health officials and fire-
Second pile of rotting crabs found in northwestern B.C.
TERRACE (CP) — A pile of rotting, illegallydumped crabs has been found in northwestern British Columbia and officials believe it is linked to a similar, smelly discovery in the same region earlier this month. Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokeswoman Leri Davies says a public tip led officials last week to the pile of about 200 Dungeness crabs not far from the Skeena River, west of Hazelton. Given their state of decay, Davies says investigators are confident the decomposing crustaceans are related to about 250 crabs dumped east of the village on April 2. Investigators are appealing for public information that could help identify the person who got rid of the usually prized catch. Fisheries officers suspect the crabs were caught in the Prince Rupert area and say the first dump is likely linked to ongoing illegal fish sales on the north coast.
Newborn found in shoebox
LAVAL, Que. (CP) — Police north of Montreal say a newborn baby left in a shoebox earlier this week was in stable condition Friday and her mother could face charges stemming from the discovery. Laval police received a 911 call around noon Wednesday from a woman who said someone left the baby girl in a box on her balcony. Const. Stephanie Beshara says not long after, an area hospital informed them of an 18-year-old who was seeking treatment following childbirth but had no baby with her. Police allege the woman gave birth alone in an apartment and left it on her neighbour’s balcony in the city’s Chomedey district. They estimate the baby spent between 90 minutes and two hours outside while temperatures hovered around seven degrees. Beshara says the woman has been placed under arrest, but investigators haven’t spoken to her because she has been receiving medical treatment. She could face a charge of failing to provide the necessities of life, but Beshara said it will be up to the Crown to decide.
Hydro crew save eagle nest
CHASE (CP) — When a grass fire in British Columbia’s Shuswap region damaged six wooden transmission poles, BC Hydro faced a much more complicated task than simply replacing the charred poles. A bald eagle pair had made the unusual choice of building a nest at the top of one of the poles and utility workers confirmed the nest contained a single egg. Technicians and environmental field staff completed the delicate task of collecting the egg and storing it in a straw-filled pail while the top of the pole was cut away. A crane was used to lower the pole top and the large nest to the ground where workers were able to detach the nest and return it to the top of the repaired tower. One of the adult eagles showed interest in the replaced nest almost immediately and it was back with the egg the following morning.
Tuesday. But because snow melt from the north has not yet reached the area, he said water levels could remain very high for two weeks. Pedneaud-Jobin said more than 700 people have registered so far as flood victims, but that 4,000 people and 1,600 homes are affected overall. While flood waters are expected to be higher than in 2017, he said the city is better prepared this time so the number of people forced to evacuate may not be higher.
New Brunswick
Flooding along the Saint John River was receding in Fredericton, where parts of the downtown core were under water this week, but the weekend rainfall is going to reverse that.
fighters used an inflatable rescue boat to go door-to-door to check on residents.
The municipality of ClarenceRockland just east of Ottawa, as well as the towns of Bracebridge and Huntsville in the Muskoka region north of Toronto, have also declared states of emergency.
Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith asked cottage owners not to go to their properties to check for damage this weekend because there are a lot of roads closed. He is worried people will put themselves in harm’s way.
“Don’t try and be a hero,” he said.
Quebec
Several regions in the province are affected by flooding, including Gatineau and other communities along the Ottawa River, parts of Montreal and the Beauce region south of Quebec City.
Officials in Rigaud, Que., about 70 km west of Montreal, ordered evacuations in all flood-affected areas Friday morning.
Provincial officials said 3,150 homes had already been flooded
and 1,111 people forced to leave.
Another 2,300 homes had been isolated by flooding.
At least thirteen municipalities have declared states of emergency, including Montreal. Some of the 1,000 soldiers helping in Quebec were dispatched to help reinforce a dike just west of Montreal that was threatening to give way and force 1,000 people from their homes.
Officials in Quebec are also keeping a close eye on a hydroelectric dam, on a tributary of the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Montreal, that’s at risk of failing.
The Chute-Bell dam has reached “millennial” water levels, meaning a flood that happens once every 1,000 years, but Hydro-Quebec said it’s confident the structure is solid.
The Surete du Quebec said Friday 75 people who live downriver from the dam had been evacuated since they’d have less than an hour to get out if the dam should give way.
Gatineau mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin said Friday morning that he expects river levels in his region to peak by Monday or
Goodale said 140 roads have been closed due to flooding including the Trans-Canada Highway between Oromocto and River Glade. The Red Cross had registered 940 evacuees from 330 households in New Brunswick by Friday afternoon.
Manitoba
The rising Red River in southern Manitoba has forced some road closures and a small number of evacuations near the community of St. Jean Baptiste. Earlier predictions for major flooding between the U.S. border and Winnipeg haven’t come to pass because of less snowfall than expected in April and a slower than expected spring melt.
Many of the people in the flood zones in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, are feeling a sense of deja vu. The Ottawa River is flooding for the second time in just three years and the Saint John River is over its banks for the second year in a row. Red Cross officials in New Brunswick said Friday 70 per cent of the people asking for flood assistance this year, also asked last year.
The repeated flooding has politicians of all stripes pointing the finger at climate change and warning things are going to have change, and people may have to move permanently.
CP PHOTO
France Bellemare paddles her canoe away from her flooded house along the St. Lawrence River in Yamachiche , Que. on Friday.
Are we what we watch on TV?
Afascinating (but flawed) study was published this week, linking the political views of Americans to the TV shows they watch. Before there were hundreds of specialty channels, streaming services and YouTube, back in the Stone Age when TV was watched on nearly square low-definition screens from a signal that came in through an antenna on the roof, everyone – both in the U.S. and Canada –watched the same shows, regardless of their politics or where they lived.
The study, Are You What You Watch?, shows those days are long over (with a few notable exceptions) as millions have retreated to political and cultural silos that better reflect their worldview.
The researchers surveyed 3,096 Americans on 37 economic and social issues. Based on their answers, the respondents were placed in one of three buckets that – in Canadian language – would be called conservative, liberal and independent. The liberals were those strongest in favour of abortion, immigration, environmental protections, religious freedom, same-sex marriage and so on. The conservatives were those strongest in favour of gun ownership, traditional views on marriage and gender, the police and the military. Independents held both conservative and liberal views –devoutly religious environmental and racial equality activists, for example.
The study found that the independents
watched the most TV, followed by the liberals, with the conservatives consuming much less television than the others. When they did watch TV, however, conservatives leaned heavily towards crime dramas like NCIS, Blue Bloods, CSI and Law & Order, along with light, wholesome fare on networks like Hallmark. Liberals, meanwhile, lean towards more comedy, favouring the late-night shows, Modern Family and Family Guy.
Independents are all over the TV viewing map, enjoying Duck Dynasty, Dancing With The Stars and other reality-based programming as much as more adventurous adult shows like American Horror Story, Orange Is The New Black and The Walking Dead. They are also the most likely to seek out foreign shows. There was some overlap, of course, but not much. Just two shows – The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory – are enjoyed by more than half of the respondents in all three groups. Conservatives love Game of Thrones as much as liberals and independents do but far fewer conservatives watch Game of Thrones compared to the other two groups.
Criminal Minds, Bones, Mythbusters and America’s Funniest Home Videos, are enjoyed by members of all of the groups in roughly equal proportion.
The Tonight Show was an interesting outlier. When Jay Leno was the host, conservatives were the most frequent viewers but
when Jimmy Fallon took over as host, the show fell out of favour with conservatives but shot up in popularity among liberal watchers.
There are significant issues with surveys, however, from this study to opinion polls to interviews with business leaders like the City of Prince George’s Business Insights Report. The most important thing to remember is that what people do (or don’t) and what people say they do (or don’t) are often different, as the easily accessible data on Google Trends shows. What people tell researchers they’re interested in and what they type into search engines are often completely different.
Take gay pornography, for example.
Residents in conservative states are just as likely to ask Google for links to gay pornography as states that vote for more liberal politicians.
On the flip side, take gun laws.
Residents in liberal states are just as likely to ask Google for links to information about gun laws as states that vote for more conservative politicians.
It’s results like these that suggest linking personal politics to TV viewing shouldn’t be taken as gospel truth. Liberals and conservatives alike will have their guilty pleasures, both in terms of their favourite shows, and in what they tell Google in the privacy of their home.
The independents, who made up 18 per cent of the study, seem to be the most hon-
Polite people classically Canadian
Over the past few weeks, Research Co. has taken a look at etiquette in Canada.
We learned that Canadians are hearing colourful language in public, and sometimes using it, more often than before.
A theme that has led to some commentary and debate is the state of Canadian politeness in our day-to-day lives. This is a complex issue to delve into.
When asked directly, more than half of Canadians (52 per cent) think people have become less polite than they were five years ago. Women (58 per cent) and Canadians aged 55 and over (62 per cent) are significantly more likely to argue that civility is on the decline, as are Atlantic Canadians (58 per cent), Ontarians (54 per cent) and Albertans (also 54 per cent).
The past five years have been unique, bringing nasty political campaigns at the federal and provincial levels, as well as the explosion of social media as a platform where dissent can turn into abuse in a matter of seconds. It is not shocking to see that only eight per cent of Canadians believe the country is actually more polite now than in 2014, a proportion that jumps to 16 per cent among those ahead 18 to 34.
The long-standing notion –merited or not – that Canadians say “please” and “thank you” more often than residents of other countries was also put to the test. Most Canadians (51 per cent) believe we are still uttering these words at the same rate as we did five years ago. Still, one
BY THE NUMBERS
MARIO CANSECO
third of residents (33 per cent) believe we are not saying “please” and “thank you” as much as we used to, including 40 per cent of those aged 55 and over and 43 per cent of Albertans.
These findings would suggest that many Canadians yearn for a time when most of our dealings with other human beings included some pleasantries. When it comes to people who are directly rude or impolite, fewer than one in five Canadians say they encounter unfortunate situations “a few times a week” when shopping at a store (16 per cent), at the workplace (15 per cent), walking on the street (14 per cent) or using public transit (13 per cent). While these numbers may seem low, the repetition of these experiences can be enough to make residents more dejected about their interactions and focus on negative traits.
There are two issues where the incidence of bad manners is worrisomely higher. One in four Canadians (25 per cent) say they face rudeness a few times a week when driving a car or riding in a car. Women are more likely to experience these incidents than men (28 per cent to 22 per cent).
However, while Canadians aged 18 to 34 are the least likely to say that civility is declining, they are the most likely to say that they face impoliteness when they are inside a moving vehicle
(30 per cent).
The other issue is not particularly shocking. Three in 10 Canadians (31 per cent) deal with someone being rude and/ or impolite using social media, including 37 per cent of women and 46 per cent of those aged 18 to 34. Practically half of Canada’s youngest adults have started to get used to insults when on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
As we can see, Canadians have little trouble reporting what has gone wrong. When asked what is definitely” or “probably” responsible for the current state of civility in Canada, sizable proportions of respondents point the finger at teachers and schools failing to teach students proper behaviour (59 per cent), people being too busy with their lives (66 per cent) and politicians engaging in personal attacks (69 per cent).
Still, the largest share of blame is reserved for three culprits: the famous (or infamous), technology and parents.
Practically three in four Canadians think civility is in the shape it’s in because of poor examples from celebrities, athletes and other public figures (74 per cent).
Across the country, 77 per cent blame both the influence of television and movies and technology that enables people to talk faceto-face less often.
But still, the key culprit for the situation that some Canadians regret is upbringing. A staggering 84 per cent of respondents to the survey think parents failing to teach their children proper behaviour is “definitely” or “probably” responsible for the current state of affairs.
est in describing their TV likes and dislikes. Not only do they not care about how their choices may look, they’re proud of that diversity.
Why can’t both Uncle Si and Trevor Noah be funny?
And maybe what we watch says less about us as individuals and political groups and more about what we want when we sit down to watch TV. Our jobs and our home lives might dictate our TV viewing habits as much or more than our politics.
People with stressful jobs and long hours who come home to face financial and health issues may lean towards what they would freely admit is mindless, escapist entertainment.
Conversely, those who enjoy financial and job security, along with a stable home life, may like nothing more than to think deeply while watching hard-hitting news documentaries and weep uncontrollably during depressing medical dramas. And then there are those who will watch both, depending on their mood that moment.
Perhaps the most interesting finding of the study is that people, whether it’s their politics, their TV viewing preferences or both, can’t easily be labelled because contradictions are rampant. In other words, we’re all far more interesting than what we watch or how we vote.
Now there’s some refreshing news.
—
Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Closing the B.C. Alberta chasm
David Black is taking John Horgan and Jason Kenney at their word. The two premiers say they want to work together to close the chasm dividing Alberta and B.C.?
Super.
The Victoria businessman says he has just the idea, one that will benefit the economies of both provinces while helping ease global warming.
It’s called Kitimat Clean, the $22-billion north coast refinery he has been trying to get built for years.
One big problem: Black doesn’t say it, but there’s not enough room for both Kitimat Clean and the contentious Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project – and Justin Trudeau is all in on the pipeline, so committed that he bought it with $4.5 billion of our money. Also, Kenney just got himself elected by promising to horsewhip every British Columbian who gets in the pipeline’s way (well, no, but you get the point). Good luck getting them off that track.
Here’s Black’s pitch: He wants to build a refinery 13 kilometres north of Kitimat, one that he says would be the greenest in the world. Refining Alberta bitumen there would be far cleaner than shipping it to more harmful refineries abroad.
“We will develop a very clean plant the rest of the world can copy as they continue to build refineries. If we ignore this opportunity, we deliberately worsen global warming.”
That logic might not wash with those who would rather the oil not be refined at all, who argue it would be better to stop burning fossil fuels altogether, but Black argues that transition can’t be made as fast as people want.
“Since we will not be able to move quickly away from fossil fuels, to reduce global warming we must reduce emissions while the fuels are still in use.”
His plan would not involve a pipeline from Alberta (which is good, because the feds already vetoed the proposed Northern Gateway across northern B.C.)
Rather, his vision includes turning diluted bitumen into pellets at a plant in Alberta, then shipping the pellets by train to the refinery on the coast. (Why the coast? Because to be economical, refinery components would have to be built in a high-tech, low-wage Asian country, then shipped to this side of the Pacific for assembly.)
His plan would also address
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B.C.’s major argument against the Trans Mountain expansion, the potential for an Exxon Valdez-type crack-up on the West Coast.
The idea is that any spill of refined products – gasoline, diesel, jet fuel – would be much less damaging than one of tar-like dilbit.
The economics make sense, Black argues: “Transport savings for oil producers will amount to $10 to $15 per barrel when compared to shipments to the current markets of Houston and Los Angeles. The province of Alberta alone will earn up to an extra $1 billion per year if it has 200,000 barrels of its own royalty bitumen to send to Kitimat every day.
“Shipping 400,000 barrels of pure bitumen per day by train is equivalent to shipping 560,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen by pipeline, but it saves the large cost of buying and moving the diluent. And it saves the capital cost of building the pipeline.
“Also Edmonton is far closer to Kitimat than it is to its current dilbit markets, and Kitimat is far closer to future overseas Asian markets than Houston is, so movement costs will be much lower.”
Black has had enough meetings with First Nations and other northern residents to convince him they would be on side.
“A top Canadian bank has said that it will be able to raise all the required funding.”
He figures two years for the approval process, then six years for construction. Easy-peasey, right?
Maybe not. Maybe foreign markets just want our dilbit, not our refined products. Maybe investors don’t want to risk long-term capital in an industry with an uncertain future. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
All we know for sure is that, so far, the big players in Ottawa and Calgary have embraced Black’s plan with all the enthusiasm of Horgan and Kenney hugging it out at the First Ministers’ Barbecue.
But here’s the deal: amid all the warring and snarling over the pipelines, Black is proposing a solution. He has been doing so for years, without a well-articulated response from government and industry.
If they have a detailed explanation of why Kitimat Clean won’t work, let’s hear it.
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of
New app turns insect splats into a game
Andrea SACHS
The Washington Post
For this summer’s road trips, skip the license plate game and 100th viewing of National Lampoon’s Vacation and try a new diversion we’ll call Name That Splat. All you need is a windshield, some unlucky bugs and the app created by University of Florida professor
Mark Hostetler and his son, Bryce, a college student. Last fall, the pair released That Gunk on Your Car, a free IOS app that helps amateur etymologists identify the road kill on their windshields.
The app contains several features, including an illustrated guide to identifying bug splats, a glossary and car games, such as My Side/Your Side (each player claims a section of windshield and accumulates “points”) and Insect Art ( plastic wrap required).
We recently spoke with the inventors about the app, collecting bugs and the largest splat. Here is an edited version of the conversation.
Q: What was the inspiration for the app?
Mark: It came from a book I wrote years ago about how to identify insect splats on windshields. It was a way to hook people into reading about insects. The book was done in 1996 and is currently out of print. But I was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Q: How does the app work?
Bryce: The idea was to make it as easy as possible to use if you suddenly came across a splat and to give you a quick idea of what (the insect) could be. You are presented with various splats and a thumbnail for each one.
You can search them by different characteristics. Content from the book is interspersed throughout the app.
Mark: You can select the shape, the size and the color, and it will limit the broad category.
Q: How many bugs do you list?
Bryce: We have 24 broad categories.
Q: How did you compile the information?
Mark: I collected the data years ago by hanging out at Greyhound bus stations. When the buses came in, the splats were flat and straight, so I could look at them and see a part of the insect.
They were pretty amused that I was asking permission to clean the insects off their windshields. With a (smaller) vehicle, the insects ricochet up over the top. I put a net over my car and drove crosscountry. Whenever I had a splat, I would pull over to the side of the road and look in my net to see what it was.
A new app, That Gunk on Your Car, with illustrations by Rebekah
McClean, allows users to quiz themselves on how well they can match a bug to its splat.
The net was quite the conversation piece at the gas stations.
Q: How did you choose the bugs featured in the app?
Mark: I picked the ones that were most numerous.
Bryce: We have general categories of bugs that you will find across all the different states and are not specific to one state.
Mark: Lovebugs are only in the southeast; you won’t find them up north. Lovebugs are attracted to roads and vehicles during the day. The females are looking for a place
to lay their eggs. There was a study that showed that UV light that goes through automobile exhaust releases compounds that mimic decaying organic matter, and that’s where lovebugs lay their eggs.
Q: Are splats consistent or do they vary by the car’s speed or windshield shape?
Mark: Butterflies and moths have a typical colour and can be strung out. Flies tend to be like little dots. Even though there is a lot of variability among each
splat, you can narrow it down to a couple of different options. You can also look at distribution and time of the year to get a better idea of what it probably was.
Q: What is the peak season for splats?
Mark: The warm months, spring and summer, and at night.
Q: Do you typically see one kind of bug splat or a potpourri?
Mark: If it is love bug season, then you tend to get a lot of the same kind. But you will typically get mosquitoes and flies, some
butterflies and moths, and beetles and dragonflies. You get quite a mixture.
Q: What if the app user is stumped? Can he or she send you an image of the splat?
Mark: We just got one yesterday. Someone found a moth.
Q: Do you have plans to expand the app?
Mark: In the future, we might add a database of different images from each user. So if you are stumped by the illustrations, you can try to look at other people’s splats. And we are working on adding another game. The general idea is that you are a little car at the bottom of the screen driving along and you’re trying to avoid the insect.
If you hit one, the game ends. But if you can correctly identify the insect, you can keep going.
Q: Insect populations are declining. Should we try to avoid hitting them, if that’s even possible?
Mark: I have been getting a lot of emails from people saying they don’t get as much gunk on their cars as they used to when they were younger. The cars aren’t really having an impact. It’s habitat and pesticides.
Bryce: Don’t go swerving around them.
Q: What’s the best way to remove bug gunk?
Mark: You gotta clean them off before they dry. Sometimes I put a product on the windshield like Rain-X. But soap, water and a mesh sponge work. Don’t wait till they get baked on.
Q: What elevates a splat from a smudge to science?
Mark: Each splat has all of these little unique properties. For example, if you have a bit of red in the splat, it’s an insect that just fed on a mammal or bird – typically a horsefly or mosquito. With most species, save a few, the female bites because she needs the blood for the eggs to mature and develop. So if you are getting mosquito splats and one has a touch of red in it, you know that it’s a female mosquito.
Bryce: In the app, if you turn the colour picker to red, you’ll get blackflies, house and deer flies, mosquitoes and muscid flies, which are insects that feed on blood.
Mark: Lightening bugs actually glow when they splat.
Q: What is the largest splat you have ever encountered?
Mark: A large female moth full of eggs. Because the moth has wings, when it hits the windshield, it gets dragged up, which is kind of gross but at the same time interesting to see this quite large splat on your windshield.
Want a calm night in Sin City? Yes, it’s possible
Alex PULASKI
Special To The Washington Post
For a more refreshing Las Vegas experience, seek out these two oases, one near-new and part of the city’s constant evolution, another two decades old but always changing with the seasons.
In a drastic departure from the traditional Vegas approach of cramming city visitors into indoor gambling venues, MGM Resorts International has invested $100 million into an urban outdoor venue right off the Strip.
Known simply as the Park, it is anchored by a double water wall at one end and an oversize (40-foottall) stainless steel mesh sculpture of a dancing woman at the other. It provides a welcome space for visitors to escape the noisy throngs for a tree-lined stroll, or a beer and a bite, or bench-sitting and peoplewatching.
If the Park concept appeals, you can stay next door at the newly transformed Park MGM (formerly Monte Carlo), including the elegant rooms and suites of the top floors of the NoMad Las Vegas. You won’t go hungry: The latest outpost of Eataly, the glori-
Conservatory & Botanical Gardens in Las
ous Italian food emporium, just opened at the Park MGM’s casino entryway.
HANDOUT PHOTO
celebrates Japan with a vibrant spring
Another green respite from the Strip is the two-decade-old Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical
Garden. Located in the hotel of the same name, it houses one of the best floral displays you will see
Another green respite from the Strip is the two-decade old Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden.
anywhere – and it’s free, though sometimes packed with appreciative visitors.
The display changes seasonally: In December, it featured a 42-foottall white fir Christmas tree and toy soldiers standing guard before a rose-wrapped castle bridge; this spring (through June 15), it’s the pink and white blossoms of a Japanese garden.
You can nibble on strawberry tall cake or the incredibly oversized triple-decker sandwich at the newly opened Sadelle’s, with views of the conservatory.
Location: Along Park Avenue between New York-New York Hotel & Casino and the new Park MGM; theparkvegas.com/en.html; inside Bellagio Hotel & Casino, 3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd.; bellagio. com/en/entertainment/conservatory-botanical-garden.html
Bellagio’s
Vegas
display through June 15.
Sports
Neaton nullifies Bandits
Spruce Kings shut out Brooks in Doyle Cup opener
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The Brooks Bandits played 75 games, 60 in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs, and not once were they shut out.
Leave it to the Prince George Spruce Kings to spoil it for them.
Backed by a 30-save effort from Logan Neaton, they stung the Bandits 2-0 Friday night in Game 1 of the Doyle Cup championship in Brooks, Alta.
Ben Poisson and Max Coyle provided all the offence the Kings needed to take the opener in the best-of-seven series to decide the Pacific regional junior A hockey champion.
The Kings wasted no time grabbing the lead. Poisson scored his 14th of the playoffs just 59 seconds into the game. His linemate Chong Min Lee took the puck from Nick Poisson and unleashed a backhand shot from the side of the net that was stopped by Pierce Charleson. Lee got the rebound and from behind the goal line fed the puck into the slot for Ben Poisson, and the Kings captain buried his shot with a quick release.
After a scoreless second period, Kings defenceman Coyle collected his fourth of the playoffs, an unassisted effort 13:18 into the third period. He carried the puck into the Brooks zone and while facing three Bandits defenders dragged the puck into the middle to let go a low wrist shot that got through a screen and caught the bottom of Charleson’s glove as it traveled into the net.
“I had a pretty good shot in the first period on a 1-on-3 when they were screening the goalie and I didn’t capitalize there so it was nice to get another shot,” said Coyle, 21, a University of Alabama-Huntsville recruit. “I cut to the middle and kind of got lucky
and snuck one by him.”
The Spruce Kings’ well-established work habits defending their own zone proved the difference. Forwards and defencemen blocked shots, cleared up rebounds and were physical when they had to be to keep their opponents off the scoreboard. The Bandits were their own were enemies at times, fanning on one-timers while facing open looks or missing with their shots.
Neaton, as he has been all season, was sharp, especially in the second period and late in the game when the Bandits mounted many of their most dangerous opportunities. With the goalie out for the final two minutes Neaton was kept busy but did not flinch. He robbed Jakob Lee on a pointblank shot to the far side in the dying seconds with a flick of the wrist Coyle called the nicest glove save he’s seen his goalie make all season.
“Everyone knows about Logan, he’s the Number 1 goalie in our league and after you watch that game or any one of our last 30 games you’ll know why he’s Number 1-rated because he comes up with big plays,” said Coyle.
“If they score with ten of 15 seconds left, that’s a 2-1 game and it’s different hockey game right there. He never takes a night off, which is exactly what we need to win a championship.”
Neaton lowered his goalsagainst average to 1.50 while posting his third shutout of the playoffs. The 21-year-old from Brighton, Mich., is giving the Kings the kind of goaltending they will need when they join the Bandits in the six-team national championship in Brooks, May 11-19.
“It’s always nice to get the first one out of the way, especially when you start on the road, that
was the most important thing for us heading into the series and now we can just refocus on tomorrow,” said Neaton.
“Honestly I kind of owed that one to my team, they were great in front of me all night and made my life pretty easy back there. That shutout goes to my d-corps, they were pretty phenomenal. I didn’t have to do too much work out there.”
Charleson made 20 saves as the games second star and his best stop came eight minutes into the third period when Dustin Manz set up Sean Donaldson with a backhand pass just in front of the crease. Donaldson got all his might into the shot but the Brooks goalie shot across in time to get his glove in the way. The Kings had been outshot 8-1 in the period up until that point.
Another bright spot for the Spruce Kings was their penalty killing, taking on a power play that was percolating at a 21 per cent success rate through 15 Alberta Junior Hockey League playoff games. The Kings took three minors in the opening period and in two of them held Brooks without a shot. They frustrated the Bandits with smart stick placement that deflected passes and rarely allowed any shots to get through the middle of the ice, allowing Neaton good views of the puck.
“I thought we battled some adversity tonight within the game,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. “The start was good and we had a bit of lapse in the second and I felt we were good in the third. We had two minutes of 6-on-5 and that made it a little tougher. Killing three penalties in the first wasn’t ideal.”
Neaton was the obvious first star and Maglio was impressed with his rebound control.
“He did a good job making some saves through traffic, which aren’t easy,” said Maglio. “Besides a couple odd-man rushes we did a pretty good job at limiting any inside shots and inside chances. They’re an offensive team and we’ve got to clean up a few things (Saturday) and be a bit sharper for 60 minutes.”
With that win the Kings have won 15 straight games in the playoffs to improve their postseason record to 17-1. They’ve come out on the winning end of 26 of their last 28 games. Coyle could not overstate the importance of drawing first blood in the series.
“We weren’t really sure what we were up against, we could have spanked them 8-0 or the other way around, they could have spanked
us 8-0, and obviously a huge part of the series us getting that first game under our belt,” said Coyle. Game 2 of the series is tonight in Brooks (6 p.m. PT). If the Kings win the series will be coming back to Prince George right away for the rest of the series. Game 3 would be played Tuesday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, with Game 4 to follow Wednesday night. Games 5, 6 and 7, if necessary, would then follow next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If the Bandits win tonight, the teams will play a third game in Brooks Sunday night. The series would then resume in Prince George with Game 4 on Wednesday, with the remaining games scheduled for the following Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Girls-only freestyle ski team producing results
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The snow piles are rapidly melting at their home base at Hart Highlands Ski Hill but ski season is not over yet for three girls from the Northern B.C. Freestyle Club.
Twelve-year-olds Ella Vonah and Autumn Knudsen, and 11-year-old Carla Van Zyl are on the snow at Whistler this weekend learning the tricks of slopestyle and moguls from Olympians Jenn Heil, Kristi Richards, Yuki Tsubota and Kalissa Lolos.
They’re part of Freestyle BC’s inaugural Girlstylerz skill development camp, a three-day event for girls only. The national team guest coaches are joining forces with Freestyle BC junior coaches to offer onsnow instruction on the moguls course and terrain park as well as airbag and trampoline training and yoga.
“They’re going to work on everything freestyle related,” said Northern BC Freestyle Club girls team coach Jess Hudson. “It’s taken awhile for the coaching to kind of realize girls learn differently than guys do. We have different bodies and we have to train differently. This is the next generation of athletes who are there, these Olympians, who have had the ability to be trained as a girl and now they’re passing it on to these girls at the camp.
“For the three I have at this camp, these are girls they’re watching on TV. When they’re studying videos this is who they’re looking at so it’s a huge celebrity moment for them as well.”
Hudson, the Hart Highlands Winter Club general manager, started a girls team at the club four years ago to try to keep young female skiers interested in slopestyle and moguls.
“We were losing the girls at about 12 years old and it kind of seemed it was the
aggression of the boys pushing them out with the tricks the boys were willing to do,” said Hudson. “The girls-only team has helped us retain girls within the club and now we’re starting to see results as we move into becoming a (competition/development) team.”
Vonah, Knudsen and Van Zyl, all of Prince George, trained throughout the season at Hart Highlands and Troll Mountain near Quesnel and put their skills to the test March 13-15 at the Kootenay Freestyle Classic at Panorama near Invermere. Vonah was a double-medalist, winning gold slopestyle and silver in moguls, while Knudsen won the silver medal in the U-14 slopestyle event
and Van Zyl captured slopestyle silver in the U-12 age category.
“Ellah has a ton of potential for moguls, she did really good in slopestyle too,” said Hudson.
“Autumn and Carla both were the only girls in their age category to hit the big line, and that was quite an accomplishment because the other girls they were competing against were only going down the learner line.
“I give much of the credit to the Hart Ski Hill, which increased their park and brought in a lot of features. The girls are able to make tons of laps in the terrain park so when they see features in other hills in (slopestyle) competition they’re not scared
of them, they’re pretty familiar with them.” In other club results, Aidan Hartford won silver in the U-16 boys slopestyle and moguls events.
The girls team had seven athletes this year, including three from Quesnel, and Hudson expects the team will add at least three more members for the 2019-20 season. The girls from the Northern BC Freestyle Club are starting to get the attention of provincial team coaches and Hudson says that could be the start of resurgence of future national team talent being produced in Prince George, retracing the tracks laid down by former national freestyle team members Jay Nachbaur (aerials), Scot Bellavance (moguls) and Chris Wong (moguls), Bellavance, in 2002, and Wong, in 2006, both competed in the Winter Olympics. Now with 50 members, Hudson says growth of the club is stretching the capacity of the coaches and she’s trying to coax Bellavance to return to the club as a coach now that his eight-year-old daughter is showing an interest in freestyle.
“I work on him every day,” laughed Hudson. “I’m hoping next year Scott’s back. He’s kept all his coaching (certifications) up. He would be a huge asset to have.”
The Hart Ski Hill installed snowmaking last year and work will continue this summer to add another pipeline for the snow jets and create more runs and features as soon as the temperature dips below freezing in the fall.
“We’re hoping to move towards more summer activities and perhaps get an airbag and look at the options of a water ramp so lots of these teams can continue to train all year,” said Hudson. “There are lots of teams in the north but we’re all stuck as to where to go. Our closest competition was in Panorama, a nine-hour drive.”
HANDOUT PHOTO
Northern BC Freestyle Club members, from left, Ella Vonah, Autumn Knudsen and
Carla Van Zyl are in Whistler this weekend to take part in the Girlstylerz Spring Camp, learning from the likes of Olympians Jennifer Heil, Kristi Richards and Yuki Tsubota.
NEATON
PHOTO
Sharks win 5-2 over Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche’s Erik Johnson (6) battles for the puck against San Hose Sharks; Logan Couture (39) in the first period of Game 1 of an NGHL hockey second-round playoff series at teh SAP centre in San Jose, Calif., on Friday.
Staal lifts Hurricanes past Islanders 1-0 in OT
Vin A. CHERWOO
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Jordan Staal scored 4:04 into overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes to 1-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Friday night in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Nino Niederreiter sent a shot that caromed off the end boards and came out to the right side, where Staal quickly put it in off Robin Lehner’s left skate.
Petr Mrazek stopped 31 shots for his fifth career post-season shutout as the Hurricanes won in New York just 48 hours after beating Washington on the road in two overtimes in Game 7 of the first-round series.
Lehner also finished with 31 saves for New York. Back in Brooklyn at Barclays Center after opening the playoffs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, the Islanders were playing for the first time in 10 days after finishing off their first-round sweep of Pittsburgh.
Both teams had their chances and each goalie made plenty of
nice saves throughout the game, the first Carolina’s playoff history to go to overtime tied 0-0.
Cal Clutterbuck stole the puck and fired a short-handed shot from the right circle that Mrazek
gloved with 9:09 left in the third.
Lehner made several saves on the Hurricanes’ power play, including on a tip by Justin Williams with 8:05 left, to keep it scoreless
Ryan Pulock fired a slap shot from beyond the left circle that landed in the netting just outside the left goalpost with 4 1/2 minutes remaining in regulation. The arena goal horn sounded and fans started cheering, but the officials immediately waved it off and announced it was no goal.
Jordan Eberle, who scored in each of the four games against Pittsburgh was denied by Mrazek on an odd-man rush less than two minutes into the second period. Lehner had a sensational save on Greg McKegg near the midpoint of the period as he did the split and slid to his left to stop the attempt with his left pad.
Mathew Barzal appeared to give the Islanders the lead with 2:53 left in the middle period, but the goal was immediately waved off and a penalty called on Anders Lee for goalie interference because he fell into Mrazek.
This was the Islanders’ first time back at Barclays Center in more than two months. They split regular-season games between the Brooklyn arena, where they have played since 2015, and the Coliseum, their home the previous 43 years. The Islanders last played at Barclays on Feb. 16 and their two home games in the first round were also on Long Island with any subsequent games they host this post-season to be in Brooklyn.
The crowd roaring from the pregame warmups and when the Islanders returned to the ice to start the game. Lehner, a finalist
for the Vezina Trophy, received the loudest cheers when the lineup was announced. The Hurricanes had the first four shots on goal over the first 5:48 before Mrazek had to make a pair of nice saves about 45 seconds apart. The Islanders’ best chance of the first came when Josh Bailey had a breakaway and skated in and tried a forehand-backhand deke but his backhander was gloved by Mrazek with about 6 minutes remaining. Bailey was also stopped on a backhand try a little more than two minutes earlier.
Brock McGinn, who scored the series winner against Washington, had Carolina’s best chance with 29 seconds left in the first. He skated in on Lehner, who stopped his backhand try and then smothered the loose puck in front.
AP PHOTO Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal, center left, reacts after scoring an overtime goal on New York Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner (40), during Game 1 of a secondround playoff series on Friday in New York.
CREDIT
Jays take Athletics 4-2 during Guerrero’s debut
Gregory STRONG
The Canadian Press
TORONTO — Brandon Drury hit a two-run walkoff homer to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 4-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night in the big-league debut of top-ranked prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero started the rally with a double down the right-field line for his first career base hit. Alen Hanson came on as a pinch-runner and moved to third on Billy McKinney’s sacrifice bunt.
After a Teoscar Hernandez lineout, Drury belted a pitch off Yusmeiro Petit (0-1) over the wall for his third homer of the season. Toronto (12-14), which ended a two-game mini-skid, has won eight of its last 12 games. The Athletics (14-14) fell back to the .500 mark by dropping the opener of the three-game series.
Toronto starter Marcus Stroman allowed one hit over seven innings but didn’t factor in the decision after Joe Biagini gave up a tworun homer to Oakland pinch-hitter Robbie Grossman in the eighth. Stroman struck out seven batters and issued two walks over his 97-pitch outing, lowering his earned-run average to a sparkling 1.43. Guerrero, who was given a standing ovation when he came to bat in the second inning, was 1-for-4 on the night. He batted fifth in the lineup and played third base.
Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) dives for single from Oakland Athletics center fielder Ramon Laureano during the eighth inning at a game in Toronto on Friday.
Gates opened early at Rogers Centre so fans could take in batting practice. With his father – Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. – watching behind the cage and loads of media on hand, the 20-year-old Guerrero belted a ball off a 300-level window above the
fence in left field.
Eric Sogard’s first career leadoff homer gave Toronto a 1-0 lead but Oakland starter Mike Fiers retired the next three batters in order to set Guerrero up to lead off in the second.
With the 28,688 fans in atten-
dance hanging on every pitch, Guerrero worked a 2-2 count before grounding out to first base.
The Blue Jays added a run in the third inning as Danny Jansen scored on a Randal Grichuk twoout single.
Stroman, meanwhile, cruised
through the first three innings before giving up a leadoff single to Marcus Semien in the fourth. Guerrero’s first defensive play came later in the frame and it was a beauty.
He short-hopped a ball on the run and made a crisp throw to first base to retire Stephen Piscotty for the second out. Stroman followed up by striking out Khris Davis. Fans rose from their seats again when Guerrero led off in the bottom half of the frame.
The Montreal native put a charge into the building by belting a 3-1 pitch to deep left field but Chad Pinder made a nice leaping catch against the wall. Guerrero flew out to deep right-centre field in the sixth.
Pinder hit a two-out double in the ninth inning off Ken Giles (1-1) but the Toronto closer responded by striking out Jurickson Profar.
Fiers allowed six hits and two earned runs over seven innings. Toronto outhit Oakland 8-5. The game took two hours 50 minutes to play.
Notes: Davis struck out swinging four times for the golden sombrero... McKinney jumped into the first row of seats in an unsuccessful attempt to catch a foul ball in the first inning... Toronto right-hander Aaron Sanchez (2-1, 2.77 ERA) is scheduled to start Saturday afternoon against southpaw Brett Anderson (3-1, 3.04)... Pro wrestler Gail Kim of Impact Wrestling threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Toronto, Philly gear up for another big sporting battle
The Canadian Press
TORONTO — Philadelphia may be known as The City of Brotherly Love, but it also is part of many fierce sporting rivalries. Philly fans are widely regarded as some of the most passionate in sports, something Toronto teams and athletes have become familiar with over the years in several different venues.
The two cities lock horns again starting Saturday when the Toronto Raptors host the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their secondround NBA playoff series. Here’s a look at some memorable Toronto-Philadelphia clashes: Maple Leafs vs. Flyers
The NHL teams have squared off six times in the playoffs, with Philadelphia winning five of the series. The 1976 series stands out for
many longtime hockey fans.
Three Flyers players were handed a variety of charges by police, including assault and possession of an offensive weapon – a hockey stick – after Game 3 at Maple Leafs Gardens. All were eventually acquitted.
In Game 6, Darryl Sittler tied a playoff record with five goals to lead the Leafs to victory. But the Flyers prevailed 7-3 on home ice in Game 7.
The most recent Leafs-Flyers playoff series was in 2004. Philly’s Jeremy Roenick scored in overtime in Game 6 at the then-Air Canada Centre to end the series.
Blue Jays vs. Phillies
The 1993 World Series produced the most iconic moment in Blue Jays history as Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run against Phillies closer Mitch Williams in Game
6 at the then-SkyDome to give Toronto its second championship in a row.
The late Tom Cheek called the game on the Blue Jays’ radio network and his words are equally memorable – “Touch ’em all, Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!”
The series turned in Game 4 in Philadelphia. The Blue Jays scored six runs in the eighth inning to erase a 14-9 deficit, leading to a wild 15-14 win that put Toronto up 3-1 in the series.
Raptors vs. 76ers
This year marks the second time Toronto and Philadelphia meet in the second round of the playoffs.
The other time came in 2001, Toronto’s first second-round appearance in franchise history.
Despite winning a rare Game 1, the Raptors lost the series in Game
7 in Philadelphia. Vince Carter’s buzzer-beater rimmed out, giving the Sixers an 88-87 win.
There was controversy earlier in the day as Carter got permission to attend his graduation ceremony at the University of North Carolina before making his way to Philadelphia. The series featured two 50-pluspoint games by Sixers star Allen Iverson and one 50-point outing for Carter.
Rock vs. Wings While the National Lacrosse League isn’t as popular as the NHL, MLB or the NBA, Toronto and Philadelphia teams delivered a memorable 2001 season finale.
Before an NLL record crowd of 19,409 at the then-ACC, the visiting Wings upset the two-time reigning champion Rock 9-8 in the league’s championship game.
Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk of Vancouver was named championship MVP.
George Chuvalos vs. Smokin’ Joe Frazier
In a heavyweight bout at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1967, Philly’s Frazier landed a devastating blow on Chuvalo that fractured the Toronto boxer’s orbital bone. It was a fourth-round TKO because of an eye cut.
Less than a year after the brutal injury, however, Chuvalo returned to the ring. He kept fighting for another 10 years.
Chuvalo fought 93 times as a pro, never getting knocked off his feet.
Frazier, who died in 2011, was the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973 and beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century in 1971.
Canadians beat Russia to advance to world mixed doubles curling semis
The Canadian Press
STAVANGER, Norway — Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant are off to the semifinals at the world mixed doubles curling championship.
Winnipeg’s Peterman and Gallant, of St. John’s, N.L., beat Russia’s Anastasia Moskaleva and Alexander Eremin 7-3 in quarterfinal action on Friday.
Canada will face Americans John Shuster and Cory Christensen in a semifinal on Saturday. Australia faces Sweden in the other semi. The winners clash in the final later Saturday.
Canada rallied from a 2-0 deficit after two against Russia. Back-to-back steals of two in the fourth and fifth ends gave Canada a 5-2 lead.
“We controlled most of the ends,” Gallant
said. “Jocelyn set her first one up really, really good today and then we were in good shape from then on.”
Earlier in the day, Canada beat Finland’s Elina Virtaala and Tomi Rantamaeki 7-2 in the opening round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, Canadian men’s and women’s rinks also will play in semifinals on Saturday in the world senior championships at the same venue.
Bryan Cochrane’s Ontario rink beat Australia’s Hugh Millikin 7-2 in a men’s quarterfinal on Friday. Canada faces Denmark in a semifinal on Saturday.
Sherry Anderson’s Saskatchewan rink earned a direct bye to Saturday’s semifinal. The defending champs will face Scotland in the semis. The senior finals also will take place on Saturday.
Important Harvey Weinstein hearing being held in secret
Michael R. SISAK
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — An important pretrial hearing in Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault case played out in secret after a judge ruled Friday that the movie mogul’s right to a fair trial outweighed news organizations’ arguments for keeping the courtroom open.
Both the prosecution and defence asked that the hearing be held behind closed doors because it focuses on sensitive matters – a prosecution bid to have jurors hear from many other women who say Weinstein violated them.
Judge James Burke in Manhattan said closing the courtroom to the news media and public was “the only means available to avoid the tainting of the jury pool.”
He also rejected the news organizations’ request to unseal documents related to the hearing.
The hearing, Burke said, dealt with material that “is prejudicial to the defendant and is highly inflammatory.”
He said news coverage would serve no other purpose than to stir negative public sentiment toward Weinstein.
Burke also denied the media organizations’ request to delay the hearing so they would have time to appeal. An appellate judge denied a request by the media outlets to immediately halt the proceeding.
The judge said he would reopen the courtroom to discuss procedural matters once the closed-door session was over.
Burke issued his ruling after prosecutors said it was necessary to close the courtroom, both to protect Weinstein’s right to a fair trial and to shield the identities of accusers whose names and allegations were expected to come up during the hearing.
“We believe it is prudent” to close the court, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan IlluzziOrbon said.
Weinstein lawyer Marianne Ber-
tuna argued that news coverage could influence potential jurors and that “the court cannot be complicit with the press in denying the defendant’s right to a fair trial.”
Lawyers for the news organizations, including The Associated Press, said the prosecution and defence arguments didn’t meet the high legal standard for banning the media and the public.
Weinstein’s case is “a matter of immense and legitimate public interest,” and the allegations against him are already widely known, said Robert Balin, a lawyer representing the news organizations.
The sides asking for the courtroom to be closed were suggesting that “somehow it is improper for the press and the public to be sitting here and report news in real time,” even though that right is guaranteed by the Constitution, Balin argued.
Balin argued that the allegations against Weinstein from more than 80 women have already been widely reported and that many of them, such as actresses Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd, have agreed to be identified publicly. But not all have, Illuzzi-Orbon said.
A lawyer for Court TV and a reporter from New York magazine also argued in favour of keeping the courtroom open.
Everyone who spoke was forced to compete with the sound of a jackhammer that rattled on and off 15 stories below the open
courtroom windows.
Weinstein himself was mum as he arrived at court. Asked how he was doing, he just nodded. He is charged with raping an unidentified female acquaintance in his Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. Weinstein, 67, has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. He pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bail. His trial is scheduled to begin June 3.
Prosecutors are seeking to call as trial witnesses some of the dozens of women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct but whose allegations haven’t led to criminal charges. They want to show that Weinstein has had a history of assaulting women. Prosecutors used that strategy a year ago in convicting Bill Cosby at his sexual assault retrial outside Philadelphia. Hearings pertaining to such witnesses in the comedian’s case were not closed to the media or public.
Perhaps expecting an onslaught of accusers taking the stand, Weinstein lawyer Jose Baez sent a letter this week to the lawyer for one of them, asking for emails he says show the woman acknowledged she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein.
The AP does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly.
Taylor Swift debuts cat No. 3
The Associated Press
All those Swiftie sleuths got it right: Cat mama Taylor Swift debuted her feline No. 3, a sweetfaced baby boy, after his surprise reveal in the music video for her new song ME!
The pop star’s famous Scottish Folds, Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey, have a brown-eyed, browneared sibling who snuggled with Swift on Instagram above her comment: “And then there were three...”
She later shared a snippet of selfie video on Instagram carrying the adorableness in her arms, saying: “I’ve never personally encountered a cat that preferred to be carried as if they’re a human baby.”
Fans suspected she might be adding to her cat family after Swift visited a Nashville butterfly mural she commissioned hours before her music video dropped Friday. The artwork featured three cats. The new whiskered face was featured in the video’s story as her on-screen lover, Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie, tries to woo her back after a spat – in French – by handing her the four-legged bundle. The pet did the trick. Swift has yet to announce the new addition’s name or breed.
AP PHOTO Harvey Weinstein leaves State Supreme Court in New York on Friday.
The importance of connection
Marc FREEDMAN Special to the Washington Post
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life
By
David Brooks,
Random House. 346 pp. $28
The publication of David Brooks’ new book, The Second Mountain, happens to coincide with the national release of the documentary Amazing Grace, Aretha Franklin’s long-lost gospel performance in a Watts church in 1972. Its title song, a paean to the deeply held American belief in redemption, could be the soundtrack for Brooks’ new volume. He charts his path from the valley of despair to the heights of understanding. In the words of Amazing Grace, “I once was lost, but now am found / Was blind, but now I see.”
Brooks, one of the most influential columnists of our time, tells a compelling redemption story. He takes us on his journey up the first mountain of outward success and professional achievement, down to the valley of midlife divorce and doubt, then on to a second mountaintop, this one characterized by commitment and community, love and connection.
For those who have followed Brooks over the decades, this latest installment continues the intellectual and personal exploration of his previous bestsellers. He wrote Bobos in Paradise as an ascendant 30-something, chronicling the self-centeredness of bourgeois bohemians at the intersection of “60s values and 90s money.” In The Road to Character 15 years later, he was a quietly despairing 50-something, struggling to locate meaning and desperate “to save my own soul.”
The Second Mountain finds an older and wiser Brooks on the road to something beyond individual character improvement. Climbing the first mountain, he was in search of résumé virtues: “the skills you bring to the marketplace.” On the second mountain, it’s time to secure eulogy virtues: “the ones that are talked about at your funeral.” But now there’s a bigger story to tell and a bigger problem looming.
The personal transformation leading to the second mountain, Brooks observes, connects in essential and timely ways with our predicament as a nation.
“The foundational layer of American society – the network of relationships and commitments and trust that the state and the market and everything else relies upon – is failing,” he writes. “And the results are as bloody as any war.”
The consequences of our rampant individualism –tribalism and social isolation reflected in an epidemic of suicide, addiction and despair – have reached crisis proportions, he writes. But personal renewal, second-mountain-style, can do more than save our souls. It can rescue us from societal collapse.
Here Brooks joins another long-standing American tradition, critiquing the excesses of “hyper-individualism” while urging salvation through purpose beyond the self. Extending back to Alexis de Tocqueville, this line of thinking has been reflected over the past generation in books like Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism, Robert Bellah’s Habits of the Heart and, more recently, Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone. Bellah wrote in 1985 that individualism had grown “cancerous” and was destroying the social fabric, “threatening the survival of freedom itself.” Brooks would agree. But he isn’t waiting for a charismatic politician to deliver us. He pins his hopes instead on a growing band of innovators he believes hold the potential to create a new culture, revamp our civic institutions and seed the ground for broader reforms. For Brooks, social transformation follows personal transformation.
He finds these paragons of “deep relationality” –what Father Gregory Boyle calls “radical kinship” – in every community. These activists, often with their own second-mountain stories, are making it easier for others to live lives of deeper connection, engagement and joy. Indeed, Brooks recounts how spending time with these trailblazers has made him a more committed, more caring person. He tells the story of David Simpson and Kathy Fletcher and their Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, AOK (All Our Kids). Simpson and Fletcher have taken in dozens of teenagers facing adverse circumstances and formed a community. Brooks eats dinner with them on Thursday nights, observing how the communal table – the listening, supportive words and sense of belonging – changes lives.
In Baltimore, social entrepreneur Sarah Hemminger has created Thread, an initiative that, Brooks explains, “weaves a web of volunteers around Baltimore’s most academically underperforming teenagers.” The program connects community members, often across generations, in ways that promote understanding and strengthen the social fabric. Thread’s participants support one another, making it impossible to distinguish between giving and receiving.
Inspired by Simpson and Fletcher, Hemminger, and other paragons of purpose, Brooks has himself moved from observer to activist. Last year, he launched a new initiative at the Aspen Institute to tell the story of “weavers” like Simpson, Fletcher and Hemminger and strengthen the grass-roots movement they represent.
The Second Mountain is an ambitious volume, part sermon, part self-help guide and part sociological treatise, replete with quotes and stories from Tolstoy, Moses, Orwell and others. The book ends with a list of more than 60 numbered prescriptions. At times it can feel overwhelming, even overstuffed. Yet the book is deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive. It is hopeful in the best sense. Brooks shows us that there is a powerful pattern emerging. The ferment he describes is not a collection of outliers but an incipient cultural revolution, reminiscent of the Progressive Era, with the potential to save our souls and our society. Not a moment too soon.
Researchers show that there is a U-bend of happiness in life – on average, we’re upbeat early on, then hit the skids in midlife before growing far happier later. In The Happiness Curve, Jonathan Rauch explains the midlife valley’s cause: We can see the deficiencies of the first half of life but haven’t yet figured out the second half’s imperatives. Once we do, things look much brighter. Just ask Brooks.
Equally important, research from Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen explains that as we realize there are fewer years ahead than behind, we are driven toward precisely the deep connections that Brooks places front and center. What’s more, relationship skills, including emotional regulation and empathy, blossom in later life.
The robot revolution is coming: Any room left for us?
Ron CHARLES The Washington Post
Machines Like Me
Half a century ago, Philip K. Dick asked, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and now Ian McEwan is sure those androids are pulling the wool over our eyes. His new novel, Machines Like Me, takes place in England in the 1980s, but it’s an uncanny variation of the past we remember. Just the slightest fluctuations have altered the vectors of history. England lost the Falklands War. Unemployment is at Depressionera levels. Perhaps most significantly, in McEwan’s retelling, Alan Turing didn’t commit suicide after the British government convicted him of gross indecency. Instead, the brilliant mathematician rejected the offer of chemical castration and went to prison, where, in blissful solitude, he laid down the theoretical principles that have enabled the creation of remarkably humanlike robots.
“It was religious yearning granted hope, it was the holy grail of science,” the novel begins. “Our ambitions ran high and low – for a creation myth made real, for a monstrous act of self-love. As soon as it was feasible, we had no choice but to follow our desires and hang the consequences.”
That narrator is Charlie Friend, a lazy day-trader in London who vacillates between bouts of grandiosity and worthlessness. The ultimate early adopter, Charlie uses a recent inheritance to buy “the first truly viable manufactured human with plausible intelligence and looks, believable motion and shifts of expression.”
The robot’s name is Adam, which suggests what the creators must think of themselves. He – it? – is one of 25 androids sold around the world in a variety of ethnicities, 12 male and 13 female versions. Adam’s affect may be slightly odd (he doesn’t blink quite right), but to the casual observer, he’s a handsome, muscular man – “fairly well endowed,” Charlie admits while hastening to add, “Adam was not a sex toy.”
But sex is certainly central to this carefully constructed comedy of terrors. As the novel opens, Charlie is wooing Miranda, a somewhat unresponsive younger woman who lives in his apartment building. He hopes that they can program Adam’s personality together, as a kind of bonding experience.
“He would be like our child,” Charlie says. “What we were separately would be merged in him. Miranda would be drawn into the adventure. We would be partners, and Adam would be our joint concern, our creation. We would be a family. There was nothing underhand in my plan. I was sure to see more of her. We’d have fun.”
Charlie is a well-educated guy, but he seems not to have read enough science fiction to know that “fun” is the last thing he’s going to have. He gets an inkling of the complications ahead, though, when he spends an evening listening to Adam loudly making love to Miranda in the upstairs apartment. It’s grim satisfaction to realize he’s the “first to be cuckolded by an artefact.” What man could compete with that stamina, those hydraulics? Charlie should have known: resistance is futile. Crawling into Miranda’s bed several days later, he imagines he can still detect “the scent of warm electronics on her sheets.”
McEwan, who won the 1998 Booker Prize for Amsterdam, is a master at cerebral silliness. His previous novel, Nutshell, was a modern-day retelling of Hamlet from the point of view of an indecisive fetus. In that book and in this new one, McEwan knows just how to explore the most complex issues in the confines of the most ridiculous situations.
Trapped in an apartment-size version of Westworld, Charlie and Adam debate the essential nature of consciousness while vying for Miranda’s affections. Charlie is sure that his android cares for Miranda only “as a dishwasher cares for its dishes,” but Adam, who has perfect command of the world’s religious and philosophical writings, claims, “I’ve a very powerful sense of self and I’m certain that it’s real.” He’s earnest and lovesick – his romantic haiku would make Lt. Cmdr. Data blush – but he’s charged by a crystal-clear sense of righteousness that may not integrate well with the ethical morass of human experience.
How exactly would you dismantle Adam’s claim to consciousness? Try clinging to the primacy of biology and you’ll slip on the comedy of Terry Bisson’s “thinking meat.” As countless fiction and nonfiction writers have pointed out, we have little understanding of what our own consciousness is; we’re in no position to deny it to a perfect simulacrum.
McEwan is not only one of the most elegant writers alive, he is one of the most astute at crafting moral dilemmas within the drama of everyday life. True, contending with an attractive synthetic rival is a problem most of us won’t have to deal with anytime soon (sorry, Alexa), but figuring out how to treat each other, how to do some good in the world, how to create a sense of value in our lives, these are problems no robot will ever solve for us.
WASHINGTON POST IMAGE
This is the cover of Machines Like Me, the latest novel from Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan.
Twice as many U.S. seniors working than in 1985
Suzanne WOOLLEY Bloomberg
Just as single-income families began to vanish in the last century, many of America’s elderly are now forgoing retirement for the same reason: they don’t have enough money. Rickety social safety nets, inadequate retirement savings plans and sky high health-care costs are all conspiring to make the concept of leaving the workforce something to be more feared than desired. For the first time in 57 years, the participation rate in the U.S. labour force of retirement-age workers has cracked the 20 per cent mark, according to a new report from money manager United Income.
As of February, the ranks of people age 65 or older who are working or seeking paid work doubled from a low of 10 per cent back in early 1985. The biggest spike in employment has gone to college-educated older workers; the share of all employees age 65 or older with at least an undergraduate degree is now 53 per cent, up from 25 per cent in 1985.
This rise of college-educated older workers has pushed the demographic’s inflation-adjusted income up to an average of $78,000, 63 per cent higher than the $48,000 older folks brought home in 1985. By comparison, American workers below the age of 65 saw their average income rise by only 38 per cent over the same period, to an average of $55,000. United Income’s calculations draw on recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
There’s a mismatch between older workers who need the income the most and those who are able to work and working, said Elizabeth Kelly, senior vice president of operations for United Income and a former special assistant to the president at the White House National Economic Council during the Obama administration.
“These are the more educated, wealthier individuals in better health who are continuing to work, but it’s probably their lesseducated, working-class counterparts who need to work the most,” Kelly said.
The BLS expects the big wave of aging baby boomers to represent the strongest growth in the labour force participation rate through at least 2024.
“And some of them are expected to continue working even after they qualify for Social Security benefits.”
The retirement math is ugly, even for those who are seemingly well-off. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School for Social Research, has estimated that Social Security replaces about 40 per cent to 50 per cent of one’s preretirement income. The general thinking is that people need around 80 per cent of pre-
“By 2024, baby boomers will have reached ages 60 to 78,” a BLS report noted.
retirement income to get by after they stop working. (Online retirement calculators can give a rough sense for what you need to save, and earn on savings, to get there.)
The typical worker in the bottom 50 per cent of the income distribution, earning less than $40,000 a year, has no retirement savings. Those in the middle 40 per cent of income distribution, earning from $40,000 to $115,000, have a median amount of $60,000 saved, according to Ghilarducci’s research. Workers in the top 10 per cent of income distribution making more than $115,000, meanwhile, have a median amount of $200,000 saved. They, too, are woefully under-saved, although it’s worth noting that these calculations don’t include real estate and other tangible assets, or the chance of an inheritance.
Ghilarducci’s rough estimate of what a typical college-educated professional must amass to retire fairly comfortably?
“Over $1 million or two.”
Scandinavian Airlines strike affects 72,000 travellers
Jan M. OLSEN The Associated Press
COPENHAGEN — Pilots for Scandinavian Airlines on Friday launched an open-ended strike following the collapse of pay negotiations, forcing the company to cancel virtually all its flights – 673 of them, affecting 72,000 passengers.
The Stockholm-based carrier said talks on a new collective bargaining agreement with the SAS Pilot Group, which represents 95 per cent of the company’s pilots in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, collapsed early Friday. SAS flies both short- and long-haul routes, including to busy regions like North America. In airports throughout Scandinavia, SAS staffers in yellow vests were helping stranded passengers to rebook or obtain refunds.
Mina Kvam Tveteraas and her friend Bettina Svendsen were stranded at Stavanger Airport in Norway after their flight to Copenhagen was cancelled.
“We have booked a hotel for three nights and the rooms are not refunded,” Kvam Tveteraas told Norway’s TV2 channel.
“I have no idea what to do and I’m mad.”
“I regret this deeply,” SAS CEO Rickard Gustafson said.
“We will do everything in our power to end the conflict as soon as possible.”
The pilots’ negotiations that started in March mainly centred on salary increases and working hours.
Details have not been released but the pan-Scandinavian union says it wants
salaries to be in line with the market rate, while SAS negotiators have called the
requests “unreasonable and extreme.” SAS spokeswoman Karin Nyman said the pilots’ demands “would have very negative consequences for the company.”
Wilhelm Tersmeden, chairman of the Swedish pilots association, said SAS employees are facing “deteriorated working conditions, unpredictability in planning work hours and insecurity for their own job.”
“Almost one in four SAS flights is flown by subcontractors and we want to know what our future looks like,” he told Sweden’s TT news agency. Jacob Pedersen, an analyst with Denmark’s Sydbank, estimated the strike in average would cost between 60 million and 80 million Swedish kronor ($6.3-8.4 million) a day.
The strike “makes it clear that SAS is more vulnerable than we previously expected,” he said. “Competition is tough, and with a European economy moving at a slower pace, SAS may also fight harder for profits this year.”
Swedish media cited SAS as saying the airline would cancel “a large number of flights” on Saturday, affecting another 34,000 passengers.
The company said the strike doesn’t include flights operated by SAS partner airlines, making up approximately 30 per cent of its departures, and is not expected to affect other airlines’ departures and arrivals.
Wealthy Northern American males have highest rate of BSers, study finds
Christopher INGRAHAM
The Washington Post
Researchers embarked on a novel study intent on measuring what a Princeton philosophy professor contends is one of the most salient features of our culture – the ability to play the expert without being one. Or, as the social scientists put it, to BS.
Research by John Jerram and Nikki Shure of the University College of London, and Phil Parker of Australian Catholic University attempted to measure the pervasiveness of this trait in society and identify its most ardent practitioners.
Study participants were asked to assess their knowledge of 16 math topics on a five-point scale ranging
from “never heard of it” to “know it well, understand the concept.”
Crucially, three of those topics were complete fabrications: “proper numbers,” “subjunctive scaling” and “declarative fractions.”
Those who said they were knowledgeable about the fictitious topics were categorized as BSers.
Using a data set spanning nine predominantly English-speaking countries, researchers delineated a number of key findings. First, men are much more likely than women to master the art of hyperbole, as are the wealthy relative to the poor or middle class. North Americans, meanwhile, tend to slip into this behaviour more readily than English speakers in other parts of the globe. And if there were a world championship, as a true devotee might appreciate, the title would go to Canada, data show.
The study drew from the Program for International Student Assessment, which is administered to tens of thousands of 15-yearolds worldwide. The test included a background questionnaire that captures demographic information, along with students’ attitudes toward the subjects they study in school. That section of the test included the questions about math knowledge.
The data revealed that boys across all nine countries were significantly more likely than girls to pretend expertise, with the difference between the two working out to nearly half a standard deviation in some countries – a big gap, statistically speaking. Interestingly, the gender gap for this trait in the United States is the smallest among the countries studied, about half the size of the gap in England. Americans are, perhaps, more egalitarian in our exaggerations than our peers across the Atlantic. There’s also a significant classbased difference, with respondents from the wealthiest households showing a greater proclivity toward overstatement than those from the poorest. As with gender, however, the gap in the United States is the smallest among the countries surveyed.
Finally, a between-country comparison finds that young people in Canada and the United States are the most likely to over-sell themselves overall, with those in Europe being much less likely to engage in such behaviour. Taken as a whole, the results appear to suggest that the countries with the greatest propensity toward bombast also have the
smallest variances between groups living within them. In the U.S. and Canada, for instance, there may simply be so much BS going around that everyone ends up partaking in it.
In Europe, the trait is less widespread but more confined to males and the wealthy. That may result in less pressure on women and the non-rich to enhance their social standing through pretense.
The study also found that the true practitioners are more likely to “display overconfidence in their academic prowess and problemsolving skills.”
The individuals most likely to claim to be math whizzes, in other words, are also the most likely to claim expertise in subject areas that don’t exist. That finding suggests that people who are particularly boastful of their abilities should be treated with some skepticism.
Nevertheless, the study gives reason to believe there’s a useful life skill to be had here, such as the ability to bluff your way to success.
“Being able to bullshit convincingly may be useful in certain situations (e.g. job interviews, negotiations, grant applications),” the study authors write. That would be a plausible explanation
for why kids from wealthy families are more likely to adopt this behaviour: they’re taking cues from their successful parents.
The study also suggests that men’s higher propensity toward this behavior “could help them earn higher wages and explain some of the gender wage gap,” said study co-author Nikki Shure.
“This has important implications for thinking about tasks in job interviews and how to evaluate performance.”
One caveat to consider is that the study subjects were adolescents. Though it seems a good bet to assume that personality traits developed as teens will carry over into adulthood, this study isn’t proof of that. “These 15-year-olds are most likely already thinking about applying to university or entering the labor market, both of which are points during which bullshitting may serve as an advantage,” Shure said.
The authors also point out that their study was narrowly defined and restricted to the realm of mathematics.
“Ideally,” they wrote, “future research should try to include a greater number of fake constructs in order to maximize precision of the bullshit scale.”
AP FILE PHOTO
Greeter Diane Robinson welcomes customers at a Walmart in Florence, S.C. More than 20 per cent of Americans aged 65 and older are working or seeking work, up from 10 per cent in 1985, according to a report by United Income.
AP PHOTO
Scandinavian Airlines planes are grounded at Oslo Gardermoen airport during a pilots’ strike on Friday.
At home
Laminate counters take on a new look
Special To The Washington Post
The phrase “laminate countertop” usually elicits a look of distaste. A wrinkled nose, maybe a brief sigh and then the phrase, “Too bad it’s not real stone.”
For people in their mid-30s to 50s, it brings back memories of speckled off-white or squiggly Saved by the Bell-style counters from childhood homes.
Even people who wouldn’t describe themselves as design-savvy see laminate, like wallpaper at a certain point, as outdated. But that could be changing.
Homeowners, designers and even celebrities are warming to the idea of laminate surfaces thanks to new technology that mimics the look and feel of real stone and wood.
The pendulum started swinging back toward less-expensive surfaces around 2005, when birch plywood, reclaimed wood and concrete started being used in a more modern way.
Designers realized that if they kept the lines clean and added quality accessories, they could use inexpensive materials to create a chic space, says Los Angeles interior designer Amy Sklar. (She estimates that laminate can be about a quarter of the price of stone.)
“Now you’re also getting more exposure to design through social media, so trends cycle quickly. Cheaper surfaces like laminate become a not terribly expensive way to do something bold and exciting, but it’s not the end of the world to replace.”
The term “laminate” covers a variety of materials (even plywood is considered a laminate), but generally it’s a decorative veneer that must be applied to a material such as plywood or particle board, called a substrate.
A “high-pressure decorative laminate” is used for countertops.
Westinghouse first made it into a sheet material around the start of the 20th century and was awarded the patent, but its inventor, Daniel O’Conor, saw more potential in laminate sheeting and left Westinghouse to co-found Formica.
Companies started using the material on tabletop sewing machines because it’s slippery, letting fabric move over it quickly.
It started appearing in tabletops in the ’20s and bars in the ’30s, but it didn’t really hit the consumer market until after the Second World War when there was a push because of the housing boom.
To ’50s home buyers, laminate was considered a luxury material.
But a growing sensitivity to synthetic materials in the ’70s started the aversion to laminate that still exists today.
The dramatic patterns of its ’80s resurgence – with linear, streaky textures from printing limitations – didn’t help its reputation, says Grace Jeffers, a New York City design historian and materials expert for laminate manufacturer Wilsonart.
But now, thanks to the cyclical nature of design, younger millennials are poised to become laminate’s ideal consumers – because they’re too young to remember the crazy patterns of the ’80s. The stigma is gone.
A few years ago, after pinpointing millennials as a major demographic, Wilsonart started conducting trend research. It discovered that these buyers didn’t want retro-looking laminate; they wanted surfaces that mimicked natural surfaces that were too pricey.
“It’s interesting because they didn’t even really know what laminate was. It was a brand-new
surface to them,” said Natalia Smith, a Dallas design manager for Wilsonart.
So now companies like Wilsonart and Formica, which mostly have the North American market cornered, are catering to this demand by using technology to change the look and feel of laminate. (Smaller companies sprout up now and then, but it’s hard to compete with companies that have been manufacturing and selling the material for a hundred years.)
Newer laminate patterns benefit from advanced printing technology. Designers today are able to scan a piece of stone slab from different angles to create a large digital file.
A printer can then lay it down four times, building layers with translucent inks that can mix colours to create a realistic final product, Smith said.
“In the last three years we’ve been able to play with texture, too,” Smith said.
“Matte, a soft silk finish, and even embossing that might have little fissures or pits that you’d see in an actual stone. We’re always thinking about how to capture it so that when you touch and look at it, your mind (connects) it to nature.”
Today’s laminate looks like the real thing. Is that enough? There are disadvantages to using a material with a substrate. Elle H-Millard, industry relations manager at the National Kitchen & Bath Association, explains that although finishes have evolved to resist small scratches, an accidental gouge can chip the surface, revealing the material underneath. Depending on the quality of your laminate, heat can damage the surface as well, clouding the colour or warping the finish. Some finishes can resist heat up to 400 degrees, but if heat resistance is
a concern in your kitchen, another material might be a smarter choice.
Seams, which show up in stone countertops as well, are also more noticeable than with a solid surface, especially on the edges. There are still edges that show the transition of colour between the surface and substrate.
“It’s like slicing a carrot versus slicing a radish. Stone is one colour throughout, like a carrot. Laminate just has that top layer of colour or pattern like a radish,” says Boston interior designer Taniya Nayak. “It limits your design options, too,” she adds. “You have to use drop-in sinks; you can’t do an undermount because the substrate will swell if it’s exposed to water.”
Resale value is another concern. Nayak has been using laminate countertops since the early 2000s, when she was on the HGTV show Designed to Sell and recently installed them in a condo-apartment development.
“For the rental units they didn’t want to put in as much money. So we did real stone in the condos, and in the rentals we used a gorgeous laminate that looks like concrete. Everyone that goes in there can’t tell that it’s not real concrete,” Nayak said.
Still, she explains, “laminate is an impostor version, and even if they look exactly the same, you know the difference.”
And when it comes time to sell, buyers will find out. “I always advise going for the best you can afford and what you feel is right for your home. If you can swing it, get the stone... It’s the same thing as leather versus vinyl.”
Budget-conscious buyers may decide it’s worth it. The average cost of laminate countertops at national home improvement stores, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, is
$12 to $28 per square foot without installation, and an average of $26 to $38 per square foot with installation.
A stone such as granite would be $36 to $98 per square foot for just the materials, jumping to $40 to $100 per square foot with installation. Laminate tends to be more DIY-friendly, too; it’s easier to cut and comes in prefabricated sections as long as 10 feet for under $200.
With a life span of at least 20 years, if you care for it properly (avoiding heat or chipping) laminate lasts as well. It’s a wipe-clean surface that doesn’t require special cleaners or maintenance.
Home improvement gurus Erin and Ben Napier of Laurel, Mississippi, have used laminate on their popular HGTV show Home Town to help keep their renovations budget-friendly.
The couple recently worked with a 23-year-old client to buy and renovate her starter home with a budget of $75,000. Installing Calacatta marble-lookalike countertops in the kitchen let them spend more on the rest of the design.
“When you save money there, then you put more money toward beautiful appliances or a hood vent or a cool backsplash, which can elevate the entire space,” Erin Napier said.
For homeowners thinking of using laminate, most designers and manufacturers recommend going to a showroom to really look at all of your options.
Then get samples to try out for a bit. Some finishes will be more forgiving than others, and some will show fingerprints more than others, Sklar says.
“You want to touch it, you want to feel it, you want to put a cup of coffee down on it, you want to do all the things you would do to road-test any other material.”
Caylin HARRIS
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILSONART
Thanks to improved design and printing techniques, laminate countertops can feature matte finishes and other veneers that more closely resemble natural materials.
Bortolon, Rose
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Rose Clara Bortolon, on April 22, 2019 at the age of 72. She passed away peacefully at UHNBC hospital. She is predeceased by her loving husband and partner in crime Angelo Bortolon on September 25, 2018. Rose will be forever remembered by her loving children Shawn (Brent), Angela (Corey), Gina (Mitch), Jenine (John). She was extremely proud of her grandchildren Conner, Camryn, Ronan & Cuinn. Rose is now reunited with her mother Alice Cunningham Collins, her father Francis Cunningham, her sisters Barbara Willier and Edith Cunningham and her beloved Auntie Rose Ouellete. She is survived by her sisters Gloria (Ron) Tisserand, Ruth (Bo) Cunningham, Angeline Cunningham, and Janie (Phillip) Calliou. She is also survived by many cousins, nieces, nephews and many friends. Rose grew up in Faust, Alberta and at the age 18 moved to Prince George where she met Angelo and started their life together. She was a strong, determined and loving woman who was proud of her Metis culture. Rose was the most caring woman and she was someone you could always lean on for help or just have a good conversation over a cup of coffee. She taught her daughters to be feisty, hardworking, proud and to love fiercely. Rose and Angelo with their love for life and each other is so inspirational, it is evident by the many friends and family they have gathered over the years. Rose was a leader and a role model in our community as she spent many hours volunteering for many organizations.
Rose’s favorite loves of life was her husband Angelo, her daughters, her grandchildren, all of her family, her grand puppies, Kris Kristofferson, traveling with Angelo in the “mafia” motor home, music, food and last but not least she loved her Bingo. We are ever so grateful to the nurses and doctors, especially Dr. Khan. Visitation for Rose will be Thursday May 2nd from 7pm to 9pm at Assman’s Funeral Chapel at 1908 Queensway Street. Mass to be held at Sacred Heart Church at 887 Patricia Blvd. on Friday May 3rd at 10am with the burial to follow at Prince George Cemetery followed with a celebration of life at Pineview Hall 6470 Bendixon road from 1pm to 4pm. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Kidney Foundation or the Heart and Stroke Foundation will be greatly appreciated.
LAWTON
Helen (“Bobbie”)
Dorothea (nee Huber) May 3, 1949 March 29, 2019
It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that the family of Helen Lawton shares the news of her sudden passing at the family home in Prince George. Helen is lovingly remembered by her children Nick, Sam and Taya (Darren), her sisters Bonnie (Rob) and Hannah, nephews Matt, Cam, Ben, Tim and Toby, as well as extended family and friends in Prince George, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Alberta. Helen was predeceased by her beloved husband, Ray Lawton and parents, Ernst and Dorothea Huber.
Born and raised in Mud River just west of Prince George, Helen met and fell in love with Ray in Zurich, Switzerland. They married in Victoria, BC, and later relocated to Prince George to raise a family in the same home where she had grown up.
Helen had many passions in life including art, music, television, sports, reading, cooking and baking, in addition to taking care of the family dogs. She loved people, and enjoyed the giving of her handmade cards using beautiful items she found in nature. Tending to her gardens and observing the birds that flocked to her feeders, Helen especially loved Mud River, her “soul place” and home for most of her life.
We will always cherish Helen’s independent, feisty spirit, her courage, and her determination to always be herself. This spirit and the love we shared as a family will help us move forward after her loss.
A celebration of Helen’s life will be held on Saturday, May 4th from 2pm to 5pm at the Lawton family home on Upper Mud River Road, directly across from Huber Equipment. In lieu of flowers or gifts, please make a donation to the BC SPCA - North Cariboo District Branch, for which we would be grateful.
Larry Elwood VoldengLarry passed away peacefully with his family by his side on April 25, 2019, in Prince George, BC. Larry was born June 8, 1940 in Naicum, Saskatchewan to Richard and Alice Voldeng. Larry enjoyed fishing, golfing and wintering in Cabo San Lucas and Yuma, Arizona. He leaves behind to celebrate his life: Shirley, his loving wife of 55 years, daughter Laura Jacobs (Darren), son Dale Voldeng (Angela), grandchildren Shawna Porteous (James), Alicia Giroday (Jonathan), Miranda Voldeng and Jeremy Voldeng, as well as seven greatgrandchildren: Kaleb, Jordan, Ryder, Parker, Jacob, Gemma and Jase. In October 2018, Larry & Shirley moved back to Prince George after spending 16 years in Ladysmith. He enjoyed this time with his family. He is predeceased by his father Richard, mother Alice, and brother Merlin. A luncheon will be held Friday, May 3, at 11am, followed by a celebration of life, at Sintich Trailer Park Hall, 7817 Highway 97 South. A special thank you to Drs. Inban Reddy and Andrea Larson for their help in carrying out Larry’s final wishes. To all the nurses and support workers who cared for Grampa in his final days, the family is deeply grateful. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name to the Prince George Hospice Society would be appreciated.
Schurer,Bjorg(Burgy)
February10,1934-April22,2019
ItiswithgreatsadnessthatthefamilyofBurgy announceherpeacefulpassingsurroundedbyher lovingfamilyatLionsGateHospitalinNorth Vancouver,BC.Burgywaspredeceasedbyher husband,Klaus(2006);andson,Bruce(2014);and issurvivedbyson,Kurt(MaryAnne);daughter, Monica(Kevin);andfivegrandchildren. Herbiggestenjoymentswereherfamily,over50 yearsinvolvementwithSonsofNorway,andher shops,NorthCountryArts&CraftsandPottery Galore&MoreinPrinceGeorge. ACelebrationofLifewillbeheldinVancouverduring thesummerof2019.Inlieuofflowers,donationsto theAlzheimerSocietyofBCortheLionsGate HospitalFoundationwouldbeappreciated. CondolencescanbesenttoBurgy1934@gmail.com.
Heather Isabel Corbett
October 1, 1933 April 22, 2019
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our Mother and Grandmother Heather Isabel Corbett. She is survived by her three sons Lawrence (Edna), John, and Ron (Lurana), and by her two beloved granddaughters Christina and Madison. Heather is predeceased by her husband “Bill” William John Corbett, sister Peggy Howlett, and her parents Reginald and Isabel Johnson. A funeral service will be held on Friday May 3, 2019 at 2:00pm at Assman’s Funeral Chapel, 1908 Queensway St, Prince George, BC. Open house to follow at Ron and Lurana’s.
Heather is in the comfort of the Lord, sitting and holding hands with her husband Bill Corbett
WALFORD, Alma:
Peacefully passed away April 18, 2019 at the age of 85. Dear Mum, you will be greatly missed. Widow of John, survived by loving daughters Christine (David) and Claire (Barry); nephew Christopher, and nieces Katie, Becca and Helen. Alma was born and grew up in England. Emigrated to Canada in 1966 and came to Prince George in 1972. Enjoyed gardening, movies, books and travelling. Was very fond of animals, particularly cats. Funeral service Thursday, April 25 at 3:30 PM, Lakewood Funeral Home, 1055 South Ospika Boulevard, Prince George. In lieu of flowers, please donate to SPCA, 4011 Lansdowne Road, Prince George, BC, V2N 2S6; (250) 561-5511; https://spca.bc.ca/locations/north-cariboo/ scroll down and click on red ‘Donate to this Location’ button.
Errol&Wynnewillbe celebratingtheir40th weddinganniversaryon April29th.Thanks,Dad andMom,foryour ongoingexampleoflove anddevotion. Withlove,theACETeam, J,K,andAbe.
Obituaries
Obituaries
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One in five Canadians will experience some form of mental illness during their lifetime.
Your legacy... a growing community need.
Planned giving, donations in tribute, gifts through wills & estates are gratefully accepted - tax receipts issued “Promoting the Mental Health of all People in Prince George & Northern B.C.”
1152 3rd Avenue, Prince George
OTTAWA (CP) —
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index moved higher to end a week that saw it falter a little after hitting an all-time high. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 37.36 points at 16,613.46, ending a two-day slide. The market rose as gains in the materials sector offset an energy pullback prompted by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the TSX hit a record closing price of 16,669.40. The market should gradually rise to surpass that threshold, although gains for the rest of the year won’t match the near 16 per cent gain so far this year, said Kevin Headland, senior investment Strategist at Manulife Investments.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed the highs reached already both on the TSX and in the U.S. I think there’s enough support for an upward trajectory,” he said. Eight of the 11 major sectors rose on the day with materials gaining 1.95 per cent, followed by health care. Several precious metal miners saw their shares rise by up to 4.8 per cent, while Sherritt International lost nearly 29 per cent after the company reported disappointing earnings blamed on low cobalt prices and complications in Cuba.
The June gold contract was up US$9.10 at US$1,288.80 an ounce and the July copper contract was up 2.65 cents at US$2.89 a pound.
The energy sector was off by 1.8 per cent as Encana Corp. was down 2.9 per cent, followed by Frontera Energy Corp. and Crescent Point Energy Corp.
Part of the decline was due to lower oil prices, which fell after Trump said he told OPEC to take action to reduce fuel costs.
“It’s interesting how the markets are moving just based on his comments and not any actual news,” said Headland.
The June crude contract was down US$1.91 at US$63.30 per barrel and the June natural gas contract up 3.2 cents at US$2.58 per mmBTU.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.29 cents US compared with an average of 74.11 cents US on Thursday.
U.S. markets also rose Friday despite mixed earnings reports. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 81.25 points at 26,543.33. The S&P 500 index was up 13.71 points at 2,939.88, while the Nasdaq composite was up 27.72 points at 8,146.40.
Don’t make election about immigration, corporate advocate tells
Andy BLATCHFORD The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Big business leaders worried about Canada’s aging demographics have been urging political parties to avoid inflaming the immigration debate ahead of this fall’s federal election.
The head of the lobby group representing chief executives of Canada’s largest corporations said he’s already raised the issue with political leaders who are shifting into campaign mode for the October vote.
With signs of public concern about immigration, Business Council of Canada president and CEO Goldy Hyder said he’s promoted the economic case in favour of opening the country’s doors to more people.
“We are 10 years away from a true demographic pressure point,” Hyder said during a meeting with reporters Thursday in Ottawa.
“What I’ve said to the leaders of the political parties on this issue is, ‘Please, please do all you can to resist making this election about immigration.’ That’s as bluntly as I can say it to them.”
The message from corporate Canada comes at a time when public and political debate has focused on immigration, refugees and border security, to the point it could emerge as a key election issue, tempting parties fighting hard for votes.
A poll released this month by Ekos Research Associates suggested that the share of people who think there are too many visible minorities in Canada is up “significantly,” even though overall opposition to immigration has been
politicians
largely unchanged in recent years and remains lower than it was in the 1990s. Canada has been ratcheting up its immigration numbers and it plans to welcome more. The Immigration Department set targets of bringing in nearly 331,000 newcomers this year, 341,000 in 2020 and 350,000 in 2021, according to its 2018 report to Parliament.
As the baby-boomer generation ages, experts say Canada – like other Western countries –will need a steady influx of workers to fill jobs and to fund social programs, like public health care, through taxes.
Thanks to the stronger economy, Canadian companies have already been dealing with labour shortages. Healthy employment growth has tightened job markets, making it more difficult for firms to find workers.
“Every job that sits empty is a person not paying taxes... We have job shortages across the country and they’re just not at the high end,” said Hyder, who added his members are well aware that immigration has become a tricky political issue.
“We’re worried about that in the sense that the public can very easily go to a xenophobic place.”
Hyder also brought up Quebec Premier Francois Legault’s election promise last year to cut annual immigration levels in his province by 20 per cent. Legault won the election after making the vow, even though Quebec faces significant demographic challenges.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Canada noted the economic importance of immigration in its monetary policy report. Carolyn Wilkins, the
central bank’s senior deputy governor, said without immigration, Canada’s labour force would cease adding workers within five years.
“The fact we’ve got people that are buying things, that are using services, that are going to stores, that need houses – well, that creates a little bit of a boost to the economy,” Wilkins told a news conference in Ottawa when asked about the subject.
“Certainly, immigration is a big part of the story in terms of potential growth, which will feed itself into actual growth.”
Hyder said he’s personally part of a group called the Century Initiative, which would like to see Canada, a country of about 37 million, grow to 100 million people by 2100.
The group was co-founded by Hyder and several others, including two members of the Trudeau government’s influential economic advisory council – Dominic Barton, global managing director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., and Mark Wiseman, a senior managing director for investment management giant BlackRock Inc. Hyder was a business consultant before joining the business council and was once a top aide to federal Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark.
The Century Initiative wants Canada to responsibly expand its population as a way to help drive its economic potential.
“Demographics are not going to be relying on just making babies, we’re going to need immigration,” Hyder said.
“We have to be able to communicate that from an economic perspective, but cognizant of the social concerns that people have.”
U.S. economy grew at 3.2 per cent in first quarter
Martin CRUTSINGER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.2 per cent annual rate in the first three months of the year, a far better outcome than expected, overcoming a host of headwinds including global weakness, rising trade tensions and a partial government shutdown.
The advance in the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, marks an acceleration from a 2.2 per cent gain in the previous October-December period, the Commerce Department reported Friday. However, about half the gain reflected two factors not expected to last – a big jump in stockpiling by businesses and a sharp contraction in the trade deficit.
Still, the GDP gain surpassed the three per cent bar set by U.S. President Donald Trump as evidence his economic program is working. Trump is counting on a strong economy as he campaigns
for re-election.
In a tweet, Trump called the 3.2 per cent growth “far above expectations.”
Speaking to reporters before leaving Washington for a speech to the National Rifle Association, Trump termed the GDP figure an “incredible number” and said, “Our economy is doing great. Number One in the world.”
It was the strongest first quarter growth rate since 2015. In recent years, GDP has been exceptionally weak in the first quarter. There had been fears growth could dip below one per cent this year due to a variety of adverse factors such as the December stock market
nosedive, rising weakness in key economies overseas, the U.S. trade war with China and a 35-day partial government shutdown that ended in January.
But the economy shrugged off those concerns, helped by an announcement in early January from the Federal Reserve that after raising rates four times last year, it was declaring a pause on further rate hikes. That spurred a stock market rebound by easing concerns that the central bank might overdo its credit tightening and send the country into a recession.
In the first quarter, inventory rebuilding added 0.7 percentage point to growth, while a falling
trade deficit boosted growth by a full percentage point. Analysts think both of those factors will reverse in the current quarter. Analysts at Macroeconomic Advisers said they expect the U.S. GDP will slow to a 1.8 per cent rate in the second quarter.
“The drivers of growth in the first quarter are unlikely to persist,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC.
Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 per cent of economic activity, slowed to growth at a rate of just 1.2 per cent in the first quarter.Spending on durable goods fell at a rate of 5.3 per cent, the biggest decline in a decade.
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, speaks at the Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council meeting on Feb. 27 in Hong Kong. Hyder urged politicians to avoid making the upcoming election about immigration issues.
Repairing Notre Dame is important
Protecting clergy abuse victims is even more important
Josh SHAPIRO
Special To The Washington Post
The images were heart-rending. Flames roaring through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, its Gothic spire collapsing into the inferno. A gash into the heart of Catholicism, one observer wrote.
As breathtaking as the fire was the response, from Catholics in France, Rome and around the world, united by their resolve to take swift action. French business leaders pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for repairs. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that Notre Dame will be rebuilt within five years. Other countries promised financial aid. Pope Francis himself reached out to Macron to express his “solidarity with the French people.”
The rapid response is appropriate and affirming, as the followers and leaders of one of the world’s great religions come together, united by their humanity to save a monumental symbol of their faith.
But where is the unity and common purpose to protect the human embodiment of that great faith?
Where is the sense of urgency and acceptance of responsibility to support the victims and survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy?
In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where I am attorney general, a statewide grand jury working with my office led the way last year when it published a groundbreaking report that identified 301 predator priests, more than a thousand victims of sexual abuse and an institutional coverup that stretched all the way to the Vatican.
And yet, after the grand jury released its report, along with a
set of recommendations to protect victims and ensure this kind of abuse and coverup never happens again, the response from the church and its leaders was far less affirming and swift than the response to the Notre Dame fire.
Church leaders – including bishops in the Pennsylvania dioceses where the abuse happened – said most of the abuse occurred in the past. Yet some of the church officials who covered up the abuse are still in leadership positions, and law enforcement authorities at many levels, in many jurisdictions, are investigating new claims of abuse. Further, it must be said that child abuse is child abuse –whether it happened 20 years ago or today.
The same church officials who claim to have turned a page, treating the grand jury report as a historical document, are now actively blocking the crucial legislative reforms recommended by the grand jurors.
The reforms would, in part, extend both the criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims. Significantly, the reform would also open a civil window to allow victims to sue their abusers and the institutions that covered it up.
While the supporters of rebuilding Notre Dame pledged $900 million within days, the most significant spending in Pennsylvania has been the millions of dollars spent by the church’s lobbying arms and
the insurance industry to block the reforms from becoming law.
The church’s reluctance to unite behind the victims of clergy abuse is not specific to Pennsylvania, and sadly, it is not new.
For decades, the victims and survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and clergy throughout the country and around the world have faced denials, stonewalling and evasions as they sought justice. In the Vatican a couple of months ago, a papal summit to address the worldwide crisis of clergy sexual abuse produced little if anything in the way of concrete reforms.
Despite the church’s inaction, a reckoning is happening. Since Pennsylvania’s grand jury report
was released, at least 16 states have opened similar investigations of clergy abuse. The Justice Department has begun a probe, and I have urged Attorney General William Barr and other department senior officials to make the investigation a priority. More than 1,000 predator priests have been identified in various states, and more than 1,700 people have called a clergy abuse hotline in my state.
As a prosecutor who investigated child abuse in Pennsylvania and who has seen abuse and coverup in other institutions –colleges, prisons, government – I would recommend the Catholic Church take five actions now to protect children:
• Listen to victims and survivors.
• Follow the patterns. Predator priests and enabling bishops employed the same methods in every part of Pennsylvania.
• Turn over the secret archives. If the church is ready for full transparency, officials should immediately give any records regarding abuse and coverup to law enforcement authorities.
• Talk to law enforcement. As the church decides how to proceed, involve law enforcement in those conversations. We know how to respond to child abuse.
• Institute a zero-tolerance policy. Any clergy member who abuses a child or covers it up must be removed immediately.
Repairing a religious and cultural symbol such as Notre Dame Cathedral is important. But protecting the many victims and survivors of clergy abuse is, if anything, even more important. All over the country and all over the world, they wait and hope for a similarly urgent response.
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
Workers stand in an elevated cherry picker last week as they inspect the fire-damaged facade of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
People gather near Notre Dame on the day after the massive fire destroyed parts of the Cathedral.