City ready to repair sinkhole after getting to bottom of cause
Citizen staff
The mystery surrounding the recurring sinkhole at the corner of Winnipeg and Carney has been solved and workers are now in a position to carry out repairs, according to city hall. Enough water has been drained from the site to unveil a failure in a storm sewer pipe about three metres north of a manhole.
The city said the section in question is about six metres long and has partially collapsed
below groundwater.
“Holes of up to 10 inches in diameter have formed on the pipe and, during large rainfall events, water flows suck nearby material into the pipe and cause sinkholes,” the city said in a press release issued Monday afternoon.
The southbound lanes of Winnipeg Street will be closed starting today and will remain that way until further notice to allow workers to remove the damaged section and replace it with a concrete chamber which the city said
“will restore the integrity of the pipe and allow for easier maintenance of the storm system.”
The work is expected to last a few more weeks, the city said, and urged drivers to be patient and cautious and to follow signage when around road crews and to seek alternate routes. Earlier this year, a temporary dam was installed to allow enough water to be removed from around the sinkhole to get a better look at what was causing the trouble. The site has been the scene of ongoing trouble with sinkholes.
Area restriction for Hugh Allen Creek wildfire to be rescinded
Citizen staff
The B.C. Wildfire Service is rescinding an area restriction order for Crown land in the vicinity of the Hugh Allen Creek wildfire on the east side of Kinbasket Lake about 60 kilometres southeast of Valemount.
The move is being made in response to reduced fire activity and progress made by firefighting crews but the BCWS also said the wildfire is still active and that the public should remain cautious.
“Before entering any area that has been affected by wildfire, members of the public should be aware that significant safety hazards may be present,” the agency said.
“Trees that have been damaged by fire might be unstable and could fall down.
“Ash pits can be hard to detect and can remain hot long after the flames have died down.”
Even if an area restriction has been rescinded, officials still have the authority under the Wildfire Act and its regulations to order anyone to leave the area.
At one point the fire had reached 10,000
Before entering any area that has been affected by wildfire, members of the public should be aware that significant safety hazards may be present.
— B.C. Wildfire Service
square hectares but was no longer considered a wildfire of note as of Aug. 16.
On Monday morning, a BCWS area restriction order went into effect for the Shovel Lake fire just north of Fraser Lake while the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako partially rescinded an evacuation alert for the area from east of Sutherland River Park to west of Marie Forest Service Road.
The area remaining under evacuation alert now extends from the north shore of Fraser
Lake to the middle of Sutherland River Park and east of the center of Taltapin Lake to west of Dog Creek Forest Service Road.
The area restriction limits access to only people living or working in the area not under an evacuation order.
The Shovel Lake measured 91,253 hectares as of midday Monday.
On Sunday, an evacuation order was partially lifted for the Island Lake fire from 12244 Dahlgren Road east along the south shore of Francois Lake. It remained in place for the area south of Dahlgren Road.
And on Saturday, an evacuation alert was partially lifted for the Nadina Lake fire, southwest of Burns Lake, from east of Highway 35 to west of the Terser Lake FSR and south of the Seven Mile FSR to the north shore of Francois Lake.
However, on Friday night an evacuation alert was issued for Takla Lake from south of Mount Blanchet Park to north of Middle River.
As of Monday, the Island Lake fire stood at 20,409 hectares, Nadina Lake fire was 85,428 and the Tezzeron Lake north of Fort St. James was 10,000 hectares, according to BCWS.
Rain, cooler temperatures bring some wildfire relief
Citizen news service
PRINCE GEORGE — Rain fell and temperatures cooled in many parts of British Columbia over the weekend, reducing wildfire risk but not bringing as much relief as needed to crews battling hundreds of blazes in the province.
“It has definitely taken the edge off in some areas,” Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer for the BC Wildfire Service, said Monday.
“Having said that, in some areas where we needed this rain the most, unfortunately it just didn’t materialize.”
The regions that didn’t see rain include central B.C., where major wildfires included the 912-squarekilometre Shovel Lake fire, and the northwest, where the 1,180-square-kilometre Alkali Lake blaze has destroyed dozens of structures in Telegraph Creek, Skrepnek said. No significant rain is expected in those areas any time soon, he added.
“Every little bit will help, but there’s nothing on the horizon right now that’s going to be ending the fire season by any stretch,” he said.
The province has, however, turned a corner in terms of temperatures, Skrepnek said, with seasonal and belowseasonal temperatures as well as shorter days, longer nights and more humidity.
The Wildfire Service said in a news release on Monday that rain and cooler temperatures have reduced the risk of wildfires in the province’s northeast and campfires will be allowed in the Fort Nelson and Peace forest districts as of 12 p.m. today.
The weather is starting to look more favourable for the wildfire risk diminishing, said Armel Castellan, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada. There has been rainfall without lightning and temperatures in the single-digits in some areas, he said.
But he said the rain over the weekend still wasn’t enough.
“Four millimetres in Kelowna is something. It’s not just a drop in the bucket, nor is it going to fill the bucket,” he said. Rain is in the forecast for the central Interior on Wednesday and Thursday, and for the southern Interior on Friday, though large amounts are not expected with about five to 10 millimetres forecast, he said.
More precipitation could fall in northern B.C. around Dease Lake, not far from where the Alkali Lake fire is burning, Castellan said.
“The end is certainly coming,” he said. — see ‘YOU’RE NOT, page 3
Young artist making her mark
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
When Dani Paivarinta starts her first year of high school next week, she already knows what her favourite class is going to be. She can’t wait for Art at PGSS.
It’s a pursuit that has already made her into a professional. This past summer Paivarinta was the star of her own exhibition at Cafe Voltaire, sold a number of works right off the downtown coffeeshop gallery’s walls, got interviewed by CFIS Radio, and sparked new possibilities for herself heading into Grade 8.
“We were looking at the art on the walls in there one day, and my mom knew the artists, so we started thinking about my art, and just asking about how to be on the walls there,” said the young artist who graduated this summer from Polaris Montessori Elementary School. Teacher Jody Hoffman was a big influence on her art and artistic ambition, she said, as was noted local painter Maureen Faulkner from whom she takes additional art classes at the Two Rivers Gallery.
One of the works of art featured at the show was done with Faulkner, another was left over from elementary school, and the
rest were original creations specifically for the show. “I like acrylics most of all, because you can cover things up,” said Paivarinta, indicating the thick smearing and fast drying that acrylics are capable of. “Also I like watercolours because you
can blend the colours. When I’m bored I’ll just sit down and sketch away at things. Sometimes it’s just doodling with a sharpie, not even real drawings.”
The exhibition was real drawings. Her skills still retain a childlike quality to them, but the
advanced nature of the work is what spurred buyers to make purchases. Her sisters Maija and Emmi were also afforded a home life that encouraged art (both their mother Jaylene Pfeifer and father Markku Paivarinta have deep artistic pursuits in different creative
Prince George provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, August 20-24, 2018:
• Ryan Kenneth Edward McLane (born 1983) was sentenced to 12 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching an undertaking or recognizance. McLane was in custody for five days prior to sentencing.
• Mika Kristian Rahkola (born 1971) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.
• Orlando James Egnell (born 1988) was sentenced to 22 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation, committed in Fort Ware. Egnell was in custody for four days prior to sentencing.
• Christopher Benjamin Emmorey (born 1983) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Emmorey was in custody for six days prior to sentencing.
• Gordon Michael Hansen (born
1966) was sentenced to 27 days in jail, served on an intermittent basis, and to two years probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under. Hansen was in custody for 18 days prior to sentencing.
• Kevin Kelvin John Beauchamp (born 1987) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and breaching probation. Beauchamp was in custody for 55 days prior to sentencing.
• James Joseph Gibb (born 1970) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage by another person.
• Bradley Jason Harris (born 1970) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for assault and mischief to property over $5,000, committed in Cluculz Lake.
• Joseph Neil Johnny (born 1972) was sentenced to 28 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.
• Oakley James Pellan (born 1994) was sentenced to 31 days in jail and one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under. Pellan was in custody for five days prior to sentencing.
• Sheldon Robert Stewart (born 1981) was sentenced to six months in jail, issued a lifetime firearms prohibition and assessed $400 in victim surcharges for two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
• Giovanni Storti (born 1937) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for assault causing bodily harm.
• Eric Graham Daly (born 1983) was sentenced to 16 days in jail for breaching probation. Daly was
in custody for two days prior to sentencing.
• Christopher Joseph Garro (born 1985) was sentenced to 96 days in jail for possession of stolen property over $5,000, committed in McBride, and to 30 days in jail for breaching probation, committed in Prince George. Garro was in custody for 13 days prior to sentencing.
• Matthew Robert Humphreys (born 1991) was sentenced to time served for breaching probation, committed in Vernon. Humphreys was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.
• Robert Guy Kristian (born 1968) was sentenced to two years probation, issued a lifetime firearms prohibition and assessed a $200 victim surcharge for criminal harassment. Kristian was in custody for 129 days prior to sentencing.
• Dylon Antoine Felix John (born 1995) was sentenced to 12 days
genres), but it was Dani who most formalized the artistic spirit. She also understands that good art can also involve symbolic representation, and layers of meaning beyond the initial image. Her personal favourite work of art is entitled World One which depicts a map of the globe made with bits of water bottles, plastic bags and other shards of poly that distort the bodies of land and water beneath.
“I wanted to do one that talked about plastic in the ocean,” Paivarinta said, inspired by some reading she’d been doing about the oceanic watchdog group Mission Blue. She raided the household recycling bin and got cutting and colouring. “I covered the whole world in plastic.”
Now she is looking towards another material with close connections to mother earth.
“I really want to do something with wood,” she said. “I want to use it to paint on, use chunks of it all put together. I like trees and I like wood as well.” She and her sisters are involved in a number of creative disciplines – Highland dancing, sewing, sports – and getting a taste of art’s professional side has put a frame around Dani Paivarinta’s high school entry summer.
in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.
• Lucas Kenneth Richard Turner (born 1987) was sentenced to time served and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Turner was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Andrew Carl Pete (born 1992) was sentenced to 146 days in jail and two years probation for break and enter with intent to commit offence, committed in Prince George, to two years probation for theft $5,000 or under and breaching probation, committed in Prince George, and breaching probation, committed in Vancouver and assessed $600 in victim surcharges on the counts. Pete was in custody for 21 days prior to sentencing.
• Rory Calvin Emery (born 1960) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY FRANK PEEBLES
Dani Paivarinta earned her own solo art show, this summer, on the strength of paintings and mixedmedia artwork like this one entitled World One.
Scrabble Sundays more than just a game
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
All’s fair in love and Scrabble so if there’s a naughty word on your letter rack that’s just begging to be used it’s fair game, according to at least one version of the rules.
John Aitken, who recently moved back to Prince George after a 50-year absence, started Scrabble Sundays at Books & Co. in March and so far there’s only been up to four people playing but he’s always hoping for more.
Suzanne LeFebvre is his most loyal Scrabble buddy who attends most Sundays.
“And she’s polite enough to text me if she’s not going to make it,” John laughed.
John, who has played Scrabble most of his life, is the former director of the Vancouver Scrabble Club. John will be attending a three-day, 20-game tournament in Portland over the Labour Day weekend to test his wordsmith skills.
Knowing Scrabble is a social game, he wondered if there was already a club set up locally when he first moved to town.
“And Books & Co. is so fabulous as they support all sorts of community stuff,” John said.
here for 10 years. Valerie’s husband, Brad, works up north for long periods of time so it’s nice to be close to Reace.
Suzanne is delighted to have Valerie and Reace join in and quickly makes room for everyone to sit down.
Valerie said she’s been playing since she was a child and her mom was a real pro at the game.
“She’s now playing Scrabble in heaven,” Valerie smiled. Reace only came to spend time with his mom and only ever played the game once or twice before but fondly remembers his grandmother’s enthusiasm for it.
John has made a lot of great memories through the game of Scrabble as he used to travel around to tournaments.
“I’ve made lots of friends over the years and keep in touch with them to this day,” John said.
During his first visit to Books & Co., he asked about a group and Books & Co. staff said if he’d like to host it, they could provide the space.
“And bam!” John said. “That’s how it started.”
John said they don’t play a very competitive game and each game only has two sides in order to keep it simple. Everyone is gifted with their own cheat sheet that includes vowel dumps like the word zoea, i-dumps like inia, u-dumps like
pudu, an extensive list of two- and three-letter words, and a few more treats that people can check out online.
Suzanne plays online with her mom, Germaine, who lives in Alberta, and said she’s an impatient player.
“If I take too long my mom will call me to ask me to make a play,” she laughed.
As everyone is chatting, Valerie Rakoczy comes over to introduce herself and to ask if she and her son, Reace, could play Scrabble.
“This is such a great way to meet new people,” Valerie said as she gestures for Reace to come over and join the group. Valerie moved back to Prince George a couple of years ago to be closer to Reace and his young family, who have been
“This is an amazing game because it’s based on a combination of luck and skill and over time someone who knows more words and strategy is going to win, but on any given day luck can interfere and the bottom line is that it’s a game and every rack of letters is a puzzle that needs to be solved so ultimately, you’re also playing against yourself. That means people of different abilities can play quite harmoniously together.” Everyone is welcome to join Scrabble Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. at Books & Co., 1685 Third Ave.
Legal decision on Trans Mountain expansion due Thursday
Gordon HOEKSTRA Vancouver Sun
A long-awaited court decision coming Thursday will dictate the future of the controversial $9.3-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.
The outcome will provide either relatively smooth sailing, at least legally speaking; or more bumpy waters; or, potentially, the project’s death knell.
It’s the biggest legal decision yet of challenges by First Nations and other critics of the approval by Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal government and the National Energy Board.
The mega-project – supported by business groups in B.C., as well as some unions and First Nations –will triple capacity and is meant to open new markets for crude from the Alberta oilsands in energyhungry Asia.
The Federal Court of Appeals decision has ramifications for further delays of the expansion,
which the company has said has already been delayed by protest and permit challenges.
The court will decide whether several First Nations, including the Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish, were adequately consulted, as well as whether orcas have been properly protected.
Other challenges in B.C. Supreme Court have already been rejected, including by the Squamish Nation and the City of Burnaby.
“It’s an important decision. It’s very emotional,” said Will George, a Tsleil-Waututh First Nation member who has been involved in an Indigenous watch house on the pipeline right of way on Burnaby Mountain.
“For those who don’t want to see the project go ahead, they’ll be watching this very closely.”
George Hoberg, a professor at the University of B.C.’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, said Thursday’s decision is crucial.
“The City of Burnaby decision… that was small fry compared to this.”
‘You’re not out of the woods’
— from page 1
“It’s just that it’s been delayed,” he said, adding that fall weather has arrived earlier in previous years. “There’s been an extended summer in terms of lack of precipitation.”
Metro Vancouver cancelled an air quality advisory for the entire region and the Fraser Valley on Monday after clean air pushed the wildfire smoke out of the area. Most of the province remains
Delivery resumes to Fort St. James
Because the wildfire situation has improved in Fort St. James, newspaper delivery of the Prince George Citizen will resume as of today.
under a smoky skies bulletin issued by Environment Canada, but air quality has improved to low or moderate risk provincewide.
However, air quality is variable and is expected to fluctuate in some areas until there’s a significant change in the wildfire situation, Castellan said.
“You’re not out of the woods because there’s still tons of smoke and it will come back into those prone locations,” he said.
The Citizen made the decision to stop delivery during the worst of the wildfires to keep everyone safe, including those hard-working delivery drivers. The Citizen apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused to our loyal readers.
Hoberg anticipates three possible outcomes: the project gets the general blessing of the court, validating the review and consultation process; the review process is criticized but not invalidated; or approval is quashed.
In 2016, in a similar challenge of Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline, the federal court found inadequate First Nation consultation, which all but ended that project.
The Trudeau government, which came to power in 2015, defeating the Harper Conservatives, cancelled the Gateway project while approving two other oil pipeline projects, including Trans Mountain.
University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman said if the federal government correctly assessed changes needed for adequate consultation stemming from the Northern Gateway decision, they should be successful in this case.
However, if they are not suc-
cessful, their support of the Trans Mountain project means the most likely remedy would be to go back and do more consultation, said Newman, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous rights at the University of Saskatchewan.
“How it all plays out politically gets very complicated in light of the situation in British Columbia – including the protesters,” added Newman.
During the 10-month period the federal court was deliberating, Houston, Texas-based Kinder Morgan balked at continuing to build the project in the face of opposition in British Columbia, particularly from the NDP government that came to power in 2017.
As a result, the Trudeau government made a deal to buy the expansion project and the existing Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion, which is expected to close this fall.
Eugene Kung, a lawyer for West Coast Environmental Law, said anticipation is high of the most
significant legal decision to date. He said the ramifications of the decision are complicated, especially when put up against construction timelines and impacts on costs, as well as the Alberta and federal election in 2019.
Kung expects that regardless of the outcome, challenges will be launched at the Supreme Court of Canada, a view also held by Newman and Hoberg. Regardless of the outcome, the protest of the project, which has included arrest and warnings of more civil disobedience if construction continues, is likely to continue.
The concern extends not only to oil spills that could harm orcas and salmon, but climate change from increased carbon emissions from Alberta oilsands development, said Wilderness Committee national campaign director Joe Foy.
“There is a lot of angst... Canada is a rich country. If we are not leading the fight against climate change, what are we doing?”
CITIZEN PHOTO BY CHRISTINE HINZMANN
Valerie Rakoczy, John Aitken, Suzanne LeFebvre and Reace Rakoczy get ready to play Scrabble on Scrabble Sunday at Books & Co. on Sunday.
Wake up and smell the smoke
Vancouver is famous for its beautiful summers.
On a typical day, the North Shore Mountains gleam across Burrard Inlet as sailboats and kayaks ply its blue waters.
City dwellers brave months of rain and gloom for these few brilliant months.
Last year those mountains vanished. Air quality advisories hit a record on 19 days between July and September as blowing smoke from wildfires in the Interior and unusually hot weather stirred the coastal air into an opaque chemical soup.
Urban doctors’ offices and emergency rooms filled with patients complaining of sore throats, eye irritation and wheezing as we sampled what so many families in rural B.C. fear and endure each summer.
Today, hundreds of fires are burning across the province – and indeed the continent – as heat records are being smashed around the globe. And though their smoke has yet to mar our coastline this year, that time will surely come again.
As members of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, we are deeply concerned about the health consequences of increased forest fires due to climate change. And by turning a blind eye as our elected officials continue to prop up the fossil-fuel industry, Canadians are complicit in this.
Special to The Citizen
Wildfires in Western Canada, like the 2016 Fort McMurray blaze that displaced tens of thousands of Albertans as it depressed air quality as far away as New England, have reached numbers and intensities not seen in decades.
The year 2017 saw over 1.2 million hectares burned in B.C., the worst wildfire season in its recorded history. Along with staggering economic costs, the toll on human health is similarly dire. Thousands of Canadians die premature deaths from air pollution each year, which disproportionately affects our most vulnerable: the very young and elderly, those with low income, and people with lung and heart disease.
Faced with devastation of their homes and communities, fire survivors frequently develop mental health issues like posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, recently prompting the Canadian Mental Health Association to launch a dedicated phone line to support victims of last year’s forest fires.
Scientists estimate that over half of global warming can be blamed on fossil-fuel use; the world has warmed almost one degree
Celsius since the dawn of the industrial era, and 17 of the 18 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001. If we do not change course, conservative estimates have the average world temperature increasing by another degree by 2100, while others predict it will be four degrees hotter by then.
While no single forest fire can be attributed directly to climate change, shifting weather patterns and climate zones that parch wetlands and forests and expand the range of tree-killing pests, as well as increase the frequency of lightning strikes, are creating ideal conditions for ignition and fire spread.
Yet what are Canadians doing today to combat the climate change that is making our forests tinder dry?
On a provincial level, Alberta touts green energy projects while energetically promoting its oilsands. B.C. rails against a pipeline while it offers billions of dollars in tax breaks to its fracking industry. Ontario is dismantling its recent gains by ending its cap-and-trade program, and cancelling over 750 clean energy projects already in progress. Saskatchewan refuses to implement carbon pricing as it launches legal action – with new support from Ontario – against a Pan-Canadian framework on climate change.
Meanwhile, in April the federal government was lauded for allocating $35 million
have the right to be left alone
Awoman I know was 53 years old the last time she rejected a stranger’s advances, and it went badly. A man on the New York subway kept asking her out, complimenting her breasts and butt, though he didn’t use those words. When she told him she wasn’t interested, he pivoted to yelling, “I’m going to fuck you up, you fat bitch,” until she asked the other passengers to take out their cellphones and document what was happening. This was just a few days ago.
Another woman I know was 15 the first time she rejected a stranger’s advances, and the rejection went badly. This was several years ago. She was walking the family dog in a New England suburb when a man in a car pulled up and smiled. When she didn’t smile back, he started to follow her, slowly, down the street. After a block she cut through a random backyard and ran home, 10 minutes of panic while her happy dog thought the whole thing was an adventure. Last week, I kept reading essays about Mollie Tibbetts, the young woman killed in Iowa while out for a run. Her alleged attacker told police he started following her and that she got frightened by this and said she was going to call the police. That threat made him angry, he said, and then he blacked out and woke with her dead body in his car trunk.
I kept reading essays about what Tibbetts’ murder represents.
Some commentators say she represents the need to build a border wall, and some say she represents the threat of toxic masculinity, and I’ve been feeling too useless to say anything, because I imagine that to her family, what she represents is a person they loved who is never coming back.
But all this week I couldn’t stop thinking about the things that have happened to the women I know. And the times they have carefully weighed the consequences of asking to be left alone.
A woman I know was in a bar with friends when a man asked if he could buy her a drink. She declined, and he angrily called her a “bitch.” She was alarmed, but she was also confused. Was she rude for rejecting him? Had she done something wrong?
A woman I know in New York once ignored a passerby’s order for her to “smile,” so he reached out and grabbed her crotch – she was 12. It could have been worse. These women kept saying it could have been worse. Online, you see stories: Caroline Nosal, 24, shot and killed by a co-worker after he was suspended when she complained he was sexually harassing her. Lakeeya Walker, 22 and pregnant, whose attacker choked and kicked her because she hadn’t thanked him after he held open the door.
in its 2018 budget to transition coal-industry workers to a clean-growth economy.
Just one month later, it offered up $4.5 billion to buy Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, and now that the July 22 deadline for finding another private buyer has passed, Canadians have become de facto shareholders in a massive project that will increase fossil fuel extraction and export.
Recently, our government bowed to industry pressure and took the teeth out of its proposed carbon tax, shifting polluters’ obligations to pay for as little as 10 per cent of their emissions under benchmark instead of its original target of 30 per cent.
It’s time to wake up and smell the smoke.
As representatives of the physicians and scientists of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, we declare that climate change is a public health emergency. We must divert more resources to a just and rapid transition to renewable energy sources instead of enacting contradictory measures that ultimately increase our use of fossil fuels. The health of our forests, air, and people in big and small communities across this nation depends on it.
Dr. Melissa Lem is a board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Dr. Larry Barzelai is the chair of the BC Chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Both practise family medicine in Vancouver.
In search of political will
Last week, fellow columnist Gerry Chidiac mentioned “political will” as a reason to support proportional representation which got me thinking about what is political will?
It is one of those terms people use in a number of ways and on many occasions but is ill-defined.
“We can solve climate change if we only have the political will,” or “We can eliminate poverty if we have the political will,” or “We can get more money for our oil if we have the political will.”
Whose will? And how will it accomplish these or any other goal?
Is political will synonymous with the will of the masses? In a dictatorship, is it simple the whims of the leader? How do we reconcile these differences?
Political will has been defined by some authors as “the slipperiest concept in the policy lexicon.”
It is something defined more by its absence than presence. We know, for example, there is very little political will to legalize LSD or other hard drugs.
Nothing that bad has happened yet to a woman I know – at least not that they’ve talked about.
A woman I’m close with once got on the bus after midnight for her graveyard shift at work.
After a few stops, a man her age got on, too. The bus was mostly empty but he chose the seat next to her and tried to strike up a conversation.
When she didn’t reciprocate, he said, “Hey, are you ignoring me?”
When she still didn’t answer, he grabbed her leg. When she tried to stand up and move away, he yelled, “Hey, bitch, I’m talking to you,” and grabbed her again, this time violently.
She shook him loose, and the bus driver noticed what was happening, and made the bad man get off the bus.
She later told me she was “amazed” that in a decade of taking public transportation, this was the worst thing that had happened. She expected something like it might happen again; it seemed a part of life. And last week when we read about Mollie Tibbetts, a lot of us weren’t thinking about undocumented immigrants, or statistics or policy changes. We were just thinking about the times we have been approached by strangers in everyday places, wondering if we could reject them politely and move on with our day or if this time we would end up in the trunk of a car. Monica Hesse is a columnist writing about gender and its impact on society.
Mailing address:
But defining something by what it is not doesn’t really give us an operational definition of what it is.
Three political scientists – Lori Ann Post of Yale and Amber Raile and Eric Raile of North Dakota State University – took a crack at it in a 2010 paper entitled Defining Political Will. They contend political will requires a sufficient set of decision makers to support a particular initiative by being publicly committed to the outcome.
There must be enough people in a position of power to support the desired reform. It also needs to take into account the possible power of veto – people who are in a position to block a particular initiative or derail a reform.
What counts as a sufficient set of decision makers varies greatly depending on the issues and the political system in which they are presented. In a democracy we hold referenda to determine the collective view of the public, but does that translate into political will? Only if the decision makers in position to enact legislation follow through on the results of the referendum in a manner consistent with the intent of the referendum.
Democracies are complex and there are often a number of points where a veto might occur. The results must abide by existing laws and within the framework of the Constitution. The vote on any issue – while expressing the will of the people – might not stand up even with political will behind it. The decision makers may not have a choice.
In Defining Political Will, the au-
thors point out other requirements for the development or expression of political will. Perhaps the most important is the question of whether there is a common understanding of a particular problem or issue. This is perhaps the most difficult to judge and the most difficult to accomplish.
Consider climate change. There are many people who believe climate change is an issue and should be addressed. There are a significant number who want to deny its existence or that it is anthropogenic in origin or that it is something we can do anything about either from a pragmatic approach or without severely undermining our economic structure and affluent lifestyle. Many people on both sides of the issue think it is not one we can resolve.
How do we develop political will without a consensus on the nature of the problem and its consequences?
On the other hand, consider the depletion of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons. This was a very different type of problem with very visible consequence –increased levels of skin cancer. It was resolved because there was a very specific cause (CFCs) which could be phased out of production without severely impacting the economy. Indeed, replacing CFCs spawned economic opportunities. Developing the political will to address the issue was relatively straightforward resulting in the Montreal Protocol.
Establishing political will requires an understanding of the specific problem we are trying to solve and often there are a variety of opinions on what are the issues. How do we proceed when a consensus can’t be achieved?
For example, this past week saw the Conservative Party undergo something of an implosion due to substantial differences over policy issues.
Should we or should we not have supply management systems? How about immigration? Or abortion?
Political will is a slippery concept. It is hard to manufacture and difficult to maintain. It is often results in the majority dictating to the minority and sometimes the minority dictating to the majority. But as Margaret Meade put it: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”
MELISSA LEM AND LARRY BARZELAI Vancouver Sun
TODD WHITCOMBE
MONICA HESS Washington Post Guest Column
Humans responsible for 400+ wildfires
Amy SMART Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Campfires, cigarettes, flares and car accidents are some of the ways humans have likely started more than 400 wildfires in British Columbia this season.
As wildfires blaze across the province, the BC Wildfire Service says many of them have been avoidable. Despite efforts to spread the word about fire bans and other restrictions, fire information officer Ryan Turcot says many people still aren’t getting the message.
“It’s important to note that every time we run into a human-caused wildfire, that’s a wildfire that didn’t have to happen,” Turcot said.
“These human-caused wildfires during periods of heightened fire activity can in some cases divert critical resources away from the natural caused wildfires that we can’t prevent.”
On average, the Wildfire Service says 40 per cent of fires over the past 10 years, or 666 per year, have been caused by humans.
This season has seen an unusual amount of lightning activity, which has skewed that ratio, Turcot said.
Since April 1, humans have been responsible for starting more than 420 of about 1,950 wildfires in British Columbia, although the service said it’s too early to be more specific about the causes since many are still under investigation.
The Wildfire Service lumps human activities that spark fires into 10 broad categories, including smoking, electrical, and structure or vehicle fires that spread.
“If you were to really break it down, there are hundreds of different ways that wildfires start,” Turcot said.
About 23 per cent of fires started by humans fall under the broad umbrella of “incendiary devices,” which include
— Ryan Turcot, fire information officer
matches, lighters, flare guns and others.
About 22 per cent spread from campfires.
And about the same number begin with open fires, which are larger fires that include burn barrels, pile burning and large-scale industrial burning. Turcot said it’s important to educate yourself about fire bans and other restrictions before entering the backcountry.
In response to last year’s record-setting fire season, the Wildfire Service says on its website that extraordinary measures were taken to help prevent humancaused fires.
Off-road vehicle prohibitions were implemented in the Cariboo, Kamloops and southeast fire centres and full backcountry closures were implemented in two areas. Campfires were also banned across most areas of the province throughout the summer.
In April 2016, the province increased fines for a variety of wildfire-related violation tickets.
Fines include $1,150 for lighting a fire against regulations or restrictions, $575
Legal challenge launched against B.C. rules for public projects
VANCOUVER — The Independent Contractors and Business Association is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to strike down the provincial government’s new hiring model for taxpayer-funded construction projects. The association filed a petition Monday with the court alongside several other building and trade organizations, as well as the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and two unions it says are not affiliated with the building trades: the Christian Labour Association of Canada and Canada West Construction Union.
In a statement, association president Chris Gardner says the policy means only members of building trade unions will be hired for public construction jobs and that’s not fair to the 85 per cent of construction workers who don’t belong to the unions.
When the new framework was announced last month, Premier John Horgan said it would allow everyone to bid on the projects, but it would make hiring local workers a priority and provide good wages for people building roads, bridges, transit and hospitals.
The B.C. government said projects worth billions of dollars will now be built under a so-called community benefits agreement that sets out job training, who
can work on the projects and the wages to be paid.
It said the agreement is aimed at boosting apprenticeship opportunities and hiring more women, Indigenous people and other under-represented workers who will be organized under a new Crown corporation called BC Infrastructure Benefits Inc.
The provincial government couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
for failing to comply with a fire control order and $383 to $575 for failing to report a fire.
More than 1.2 million hectares of land burned in 2017, costing more than $568 million in fire suppression and displacing roughly 65,000 people.
An independent review of last year’s fire season recommended strengthening the public’s understanding of risks and personal responsibilities, and providing a summary of incentives to encourage public participation in preparing for emergencies.
“The most prominent communications theme referenced was the need to better communicate human-started fire considerations such as the direct impacts of negligence and fines for cigarettes in high-risk areas,” the report said in a summary of comments it received through open houses.
Comments also called for more public awareness campaigns and more education on FireSmart, a program that teaches prevention tactics.
In an email, Turcot said the province is working toward making FireSmart activities a common practice across British Columbia, including providing more courses to educate local governments, First Nations, community members and emergency staff. It already does paid advertising campaigns on radio, TV and online.
But changing human behaviour is challenge.
“There isn’t one silver bullet solution to reducing the number of humancaused fires, given that human-caused fires are attributable to a very wide array of activities and circumstances, so it is important for the BC Wildfire Service to continue educating the public about wildfire prevention as it relates to all human activities that can result in unnecessary wildfires,” Turcot said.
Citizen news service
KANANASKIS, Alta. — Conservation officers in southern Alberta say a bear attack in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary has left two people injured and resulted in a closure for a large area.
Officials say a Calgary woman and her adult son were hiking in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park on Saturday when the bear came out of the forest a few metres in front of them.
It’s unknown whether it was a black bear or a grizzly.
District conservation officer Arian Spiteri says the man suffered wounds to his face, head and arms, while the woman’s hand was bitten as she tried to set off her bear spray.
The bear hit the spray’s canister and it went off, forcing it to back off.
Officials say it was a defensive attack that happened as the bear was eating a moose carcass. Two
The Shovel Lake wildfire burns on a mountain above Fraser Lake near Fort Fraser on Thursday. The BC Wildfire Service says rainfall and cooler temperatures mean a return to more seasonal weather conditions, reducing the risk of wildfires in the province’s northeast.
Endangered whale still at risk, despite help efforts
Hina ALAM Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Scientists who are trying to treat an ailing killer whale in the Pacific Ocean off Washington state are looking at injecting the animal with a second dose of antibiotics and another drug.
For the past few weeks, the endangered female killer whale, called J50, has been at the centre of an international rescue effort. She was last spotted Friday.
A veterinarian was able to dart J50 with a broad-spectrum antibiotic on Aug. 9.
Michael Milstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States said biologists described the whale as skinny, underweight and emaciated.
“In the most obvious sense, she’s not getting enough to eat. She’s not getting enough nutrition. That’s the fundamental problem,” he said in a telephone interview Monday.
“But whether that’s caused by the fact that she’s weak and she’s not able to forage, or because perhaps she also has some type of infection or other condition that’s affecting her, we don’t know those specifics.”
Martin Haulena, a vet with Vancouver Aquarium who fired the antibiotic-filled dart at J50, said veterinarians usually rely on definitive methods for diagnosing an animal, such as blood work, ultrasounds and looking at the animal up close. But those methods are not possible with J50
Killer whale J50 is shown off the coast of Washington State in this Aug. 12 handout photo. The ailing orca was last sighted off Washington state on Saturday and biologists say she was still struggling.
so coming up with a definitive diagnosis is difficult.
In these kinds of cases, treatment is based on how the animal looks, samples collected from her blowhole, fecal samples, historical data and diseases that usually affect killer whales in that area.
“I think this animal has had something
going on with her that’s quite complicated and it’s just very, very hard to work without a diagnosis,” Haulena said. But scientists and vets do have a treatment plan in mind. Haulena said the priority for treatment would be to give J50 a second dose of antibiotics and a deworming drug.
Milstein said it is not uncommon for marine animals to have worms. In the case of J50, the question is whether they are affecting her differently because she is weak.
The plan this time, he said, is to use a collar needle, which is a type of dart that has a small ridge around the needle so it’s embedded in the animal long enough to deliver a full dose before it falls out.
One of the other treatment plans is to put medicine in Chinook salmon and deliver them to the pod. The method was tried once before but J50 didn’t eat the fish.
Haulena said capturing J50 and treating her before releasing her hasn’t be ruled out.
“Certainly, resources for something like that have been identified,” he said. “If she’s stranded on the beach, lagging way behind on the group for a long period of time or had a very serious decline, something like that would be talked about.”
In 2002 an orphaned northern resident killer whale known as Springer was captured and moved. The two-year-old was found in Puget Sound near Seattle, ailing and separated from her pod.
J50 is part of the endangered southern resident population, which has just 75 members remaining.
The silver lining to all the attention being paid to J50, Milstein said, is that people are becoming more aware of the problems whales face.
What’s new with the Cougars?
Get the latest on trades, injuries, post-game analysis and more in The Citizen
Ahac
has BCHL title on his mind
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Prince George Spruce Kings defenceman Layton Ahac is intent on ending a couple of droughts this season.
First are foremost, he wants his Spruce Kings to end the 2018-19 season with a victory, one that will bring them the first championship of their 23-year B.C. Hockey League existence. They fell three wins short of that goal when they lost the Fred Page Cup final in April to the Wenatchee Wild.
Also high on Ahac’s list of objectives is to get his name on the 2019 NHL draft list. That hasn’t happened for a Spruce King since 2012, when the Edmonton Oilers took forward Jujhar Khaira in the third round.
Considering what Ahac brings to the table in his second BCHL season, that’s a real possibility for the 17-year-old native of North Vancouver. He was a relatively unknown quantity when he joined the Spruce Kings last year after being recruited from the West Vancouver Academy Elite 15s.
But after helping the Kings to the league final, everybody in the league knows Ahac’s capabilities in keeping Prince George a Cup contender.
“This year we’re not going to be second place, we want to be first place, this year our goal’s to win it,” he said. “We’ve got a great team coming into this year and I’m really looking forward to it. I want to finish first, I’m not looking for anything else.”
Ahac’s heads-up ability to make the right play with or without the puck under pressure and an exceptional skating stride that rarely left him out of position earned him a spot on the BCHL All-Rookie team and he was a big part of the Spruce Kings’ playoff push to the league final.
He scored six goals and had 22 assists for 28 points in 57 games and was a key figure in all 24 playoff games, scoring one goal and five points. He was one of the most coveted BCHL players among NCAA teams wanting him to sign a college commitment. According to Ahac, “roughly half” of the 60 Division 1 schools wanted him. He and his family decided on the Ohio State Buckeyes, where he’s destined to play next season. see ‘EVERYBODY, page 8
Cougar rookie has done his homework
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Fort St. John will always be home for Connor Bowie but his hockey roots are now firmly planted in Prince George. At six-foot-two, he’s one of the tallest trees batting for breathing space in the Prince George Cougars’ training camp. The 17-year-old centre appears to be doing all the right things on the ice trying to lock up a permanent job on a young Cougar team on the rebound, coming off a WHL season without a postseason.
“Playing here is just like playing at home,” said Bowie. “I’ve been here so often throughout minor hockey, P.G. is like a second home. I love it. Hopefully I can impress some people out here.”
Bowie was acquired along with forward Ilijah Coilina in a deadline deal with Portland in January that sent 20-year-old defenceman Dennis Cholowski and the rights to junior A goalie Ty Taylor to the Winterhawks. The Cougars also received Portland’s first- and third-round bantam draft picks in 2020, second-round picks in 2018 and 2019, and a conditional sixth-round choice in 2019.
Bowie has been living with his Cougars billets in Prince George since July so he could take part in the on-ice skill development sessions taught by Nick Drazenovic, the Cougars’ director of player development. Drazenovic put the group of junior and major midget players through the paces throughout the summer at the Elksentre and they did three on-ice sessions and one off-ice workout each week leading up to training camp.
As a result, Bowie has honed his hockey skills and he says he’s never felt stronger on his skates. He now weighs 210 pounds, about 20 pounds more than he did at the end of last season.
In his first camp scrimmage Saturday afternoon, Bowie impressed the Cougar brass watching from high above, scoring one of the two goals in Team Chara’s 5-2 loss to Team Byfuglien. Bowie asked Czech import Matej Toman to take the draw and he got it back to
Bowie has honed his hockey skills and he says he’s never felt stronger on his skates.
Bowie, who unleashed a one-timer that got past goalie Isaiah DiLaura.
“It was great just to get that constant ice in the summer that I never got before,” said Bowie. “I remember coming here last year and how I felt and now I just feel so much more confident now that I have a little experience I can bring to the table.
“It was hard for me to gain weight back in the day, but now it seems to be piling on pretty quick. I took a couple tough hits (Saturday) and I found maybe last year I would have tumbled but I can actually push these guys back down and I’m happy about that.”
Bowie scored two goals and had one assist in 10 WHL games following the trade. He also scored a goal in a four-game stint after getting called up to the major midget Cariboo Cougars. He spent most of the season with his hometown Northeast Trackers double-A midget team and had 27 goals and 54 points in 27 games.
The Cougars will be one of the younger teams in the WHL and Bowie is part of that youth movement. He doesn’t turn 18 until next April. “One of the best things is this team is so young, and it’s so tight-knit, all the boys are so close in age and I just enjoy playing with guys who are 17, 18, 19, and hopefully I can get on the squad and make an impact,” said Bowie. “I want to put up a decent amount of points this year and get the attention of people around the league and see what happens.”
Leppard off to strong start in Cats’ camp
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Like dozens of draft-eligible prospects in the NHL draft that came and went in June, Jackson Leppard couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
His name was not among the 217 players selected. A mid-season slump in his sophomore season dropped the Prince George Cougar for-
ward’s ranking among North American skaters from 95th at midseason to 122nd leading into the draft and he didn’t get the call.
That didn’t mean the NHL wasn’t interested.
The Tampa Bay Lightning obviously liked what they saw and asked Leppard to come to their summer camp and decided he deserved a return trip to the Bolts’ rookie tournament,
which starts in a couple weeks in Fort Myers, Fla.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much because you never know what can happen in that draft, but I was fortunate enough to get an invite to Tampa and it was lots of fun there,” said Leppard, picked by the Cougars eighth overall in the 2015 WHL bantam draft. — see ‘I THOUGHT, page 8
CITIZEN
Chance Adrian of Team Connolly, left, and Tyler Maser of Team Chara battle for puck possession during a Prince George Cougars training camp session on Sunday afternoon at CN Centre.
BOWIE
‘Everybody in our lineup can play big minutes’
from page 7
But before he goes off to college, he’s got unfinished business to attend to in his last season of junior hockey with the Spruce Kings. The Kings have 14 returning players and are intent on winning the league this year, and with Ahac one of the anchors, the veteran-laden Prince George defence is among the best in the BCHL.
“He was a 16-year-old last year and physically he hadn’t fully matured but he’s obviously a very dedicated kid – he’s focused in the off-season on areas he wanted to improve in and putting on a bit of mass and muscle was one of those areas,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
“He was able to start off the year playing some big minutes and that carried through right to our last game. He’s a cerebral kid and he has the right mindset – he did all last year, regardless of his commitment to Ohio.
“Now he’s looking for some different recognition now that he’s draft-eligible for the NHL and that could be something that happens for him. He’s obviously put in the work in the off-season to give him a chance to have a good start to the year.”
Three of the returning defencemen including Ahac already have NCAA Division 1 scholarships lined up for next season. Dylan Anhorn, 19, is heading to Union, while 19-year-old Liam Watson-Brawn has signed with Colgate. Twenty-year-old Jay Keranen is a good bet to ink an NCAA deal if he picks up where he left off in the playoffs. Nick Bochen, 18, joined the Kings in the postseason from the Burnaby Winter Club and didn’t look out of place.
The Kings have also recruited local product Brennan Malgunas, 18, an allstar defenceman in the B.C. major midget league with the Cariboo Cougars, as well as 20-year-old Ontario native Max Coyle, who started last season with the Nanaimo Clippers before returning to the Greater Ontario League’s Listowel Cyclones. Local product Max Arnold, 17, who played last year for the Cariboo Cougars, survived the
‘I
first round of cuts from the weekend.
“It’s awesome, everybody in our lineup can play big minutes and be really effective out there,” Ahac said. “It’s a good feeling when you know your teammates have got your back. They’re great players too and everyone brings something to the table. I think that’ll be a strength for us this year.”
At six-foot-three and still growing, Ahac added 12 pounds to his lanky frame during the off-season and now weighs 194 pounds. He’s among the heaviest of the blueline crew.
“I wanted to put on size and strength, it’s a big and fast league so that will help me
with my D game and my all-around game,” he said. “It was definitely a great year and I hope I step into a bigger role. I’ve been through it already so for the rookies I can kind of show them the way.
“Obviously I do want to get drafted, but my mind’s on the team and finishing first, that’s what really matters. I’m excited for the season. I think we’re a lot deeper this year and everyone has bonded a lot better than last year. We’re a little more outgoing, a little less shy, and that will be good out of the gate.”
• The Spruce Kings haven’t had a NHLdrafted defenceman since 1999, when the Carolina Hurricanes picked Fort St. John
thought he was the best player on the ice’
from page 7
The six-foot-two, 200-pound Leppard met Lightning GM Steve Yzerman at the exit interviews and the 19-year-old North Vancouver native is looking forward to going back for a mini tournament against the Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators. He leaves for Florida on Sept. 5.
“There are no bad players there and the staff treat you like a pro,” he said. “I had a really good time and I’m going back there. You go into the rink and you’re dialed in and you come out and it’s like you’re on vacation again. It’s a real nice city.”
Leppard played the first half of last season on the Cats’ top scoring line with centre Jared Bethune and left winger Kody McDonald. In the first 22 games Leppard collected six goals and 14 points, then was held to just two goals in a 12-game stretch leading up to the Christmas break.
“For sure, that was hard,” he said. “I came in and had a good start and we had a good line going there, putting up points, and it’s hard to get out of a slump, that’s one of the tough parts of hockey.
“Being that one year older, coming in here as a third-year guy, I’ve got a lot more confidence,” he said. “You feel bigger and faster out there with a new year of younger guys coming and it definitely helps the confidence when you can dominate out there. My work ethic and my speed have improved
over the summer.”
Leppard is one of only a handful of Cougars at the older end of the junior age spectrum and will be looked upon as one of the leaders of one of the youngest teams in the WHL. In his first scrimmage at training camp Saturday afternoon, playing for Team Byfuglien, he scored two of his team’s five goals, hit the crossbar twice and drew an assist.
“I thought he was the best player on the ice (Saturday night),” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “It’s just his presence, he was doing the right things, he was physical, he was stopping on loose pucks and he was winning little battles.
“He worked out real hard over the summer and put some meat on his bones and he did the right things and is proving it here in camp. That’s why he got the invitation to go (to Tampa). I’m sure he has the fire in his
belly knowing that he didn’t get drafted and what he can do now is put the past behind him and get ready to go get drafted this year.”
Maser vs. Maser
Tyler Maser aced the fitness tests Sunday morning at Kin 2, then flexed his muscles on the ice at CN Centre taking on his identical twin brother Josh.
Tyler, who was born two minutes before his 19-year-old brother, is loving every minute of his first WHL camp vying for the chance to play for the Cougars when they open their 25th season in Prince George late next month.
Tyler scored his second goal in three tournament games for Team Chara in their 2-1 loss to Josh’s Team Connolly Sunday afternoon.
Not since their Cariboo major midget days in the 2015-16 season have the Maser boys from Houston played together and Tyler is stating his case to remain a Cat permanently after one full season in the BCHL with the Nanaimo Clippers.
“It’s good competition, I like playing against him, it makes me take one step above and compete that much harder,” said Tyler.
Tyler trained with his brother in Prince George throughout the summer with Nick Drazenovic, the Cougars’ director of player development, and Drazenovic invited him to camp. Both Masers play a physical style and like to muck it up along the boards. They both work in a lumber yard in the off season and are among the strongest players in camp. Josh is listed as six-foot-two, 207 pounds, while Tyler is the same height, tipping the scales at 212.
They both scored well in the off-ice fitness tests Sunday. Josh finished fourth overall, while Tyer was sixth-best. Not surprisingly, they finished 1-2 in the grip test, with Tyler slightly more crushing in his handshakes.
“We have the same strengths and whatever he does I just try to match up with him and do a little better,” said Tyler, who played on the Clippers’ fourth line and had one goal and six points in 48 games.
“I’d say we do bring out the best in each other on and off the ice. I try to model my game after him a little bit. I watch his games and watch what he does and try it in a game and see if it works for me.”
Josh is heading into his third year in the WHL, coming off a 28-goal, 49-point 201718 season. If Tyler makes the final cut, they would be the first twins ever to play for the Cougars. “It’s definitely cool, it would be super-exciting for Prince George and we’ll see what happens,” said Tyler.
Fittest of the fit
Jack Sander was the overall winner in the off-ice tests on the Kin 2 floor, which included a 20-metre sprint, horizontal and vertical jumps, a medicine ball toss and an agility shuttle run. Ryan Schoettler was second overall and Cole Beamin was third-best on the list. All of the top-three are defencemen.
Local content
Camp scrimmages continued Monday and resume this afternoon. Four Prince George minor hockey products are involved in the six-day camp. Forward Reid Perepeluk, 18, is back for his second season with the Cougars. He had two goals and an assist in 10 games with the Cats as a junior B call-up. He plays for Team Connolly along with
native Brad Fast, who began a three-year junior career with the Kings in 1996. The third-round pick left to play college hockey for Michigan State and went on to score a goal in his only career NHL game playing for the Hurricanes, April 4, 2004, against the Florida Panthers.
This year, seven BCHL players were taken in the NHL draft in June.
• The Kings pared down their camp roster from 38 to 25 players in anticipation of their first preseason test Wednesday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena against the Merritt Centennials. The Cents will host the Spruce Kings Friday in Merritt.
15-year-old forward prospect Carter Yarish. Fifteen-year-old forward Kellan Brienen is on Team Bourke and 17-year-old defenceman Mathew Magrath is suiting up for Team Chara.
Phare offers flexibilty Defenceman or forward, it doesn’t matter to Tyson Phare. He just wants to be a Prince George Cougar. Drafted in the first round as a forward by the Cougars in 2017, Phare was asked halfway through last season by his Yale Academy midget coach to fill in for an injured defenceman, and he stayed on the blueline the rest of the season.
Phare played a good chunk of his minor hockey career on defence and has always prided himself for his two-way abilities. That versatility and attention to detail in his own end could raise the 17-year-old’s stock as he fights for a full-time position in his second WHL camp.
“I played about half the season on defence and didn’t do too bad,” said the native of Maple Ridge, who had 20 goals and 39 points in 27 games with the Yale prep team.
“We had two defencemen who were injured and one was suspended and my coach heard I’d played defence for most of my hockey-playing career. Second-year peewee was my first year at forward and I just stuck with it for there.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me, it’s all about what the team needs me to do so we have a better chance to win. If they feel I can slot in there (on defence), then that’s where I’ll play.”
The six-foot-one Phare has been working out in the gym regularly and now weighs about 200 pounds, 13 pounds heavier than he was a year ago.
Billy Wilms, the Cougars Lower Mainland scout, is the Yale Academy program co-ordinator and was behind the bench coaching Phare’s Team Bourke in the first scrimmage Saturday.
Exclusive company
Mark Lamb is getting his first look at his players since taking over the general manager’s reins and he and head scout Bob Simmonds have limited the size of the training camp roster to just 63 players, about 40 fewer than last year. Aside from the 13 2003-born players, who as 15-year-olds are not eligible to play more than five games during the season, the remaining 50 are in the hunt for full-time positions.
“There’s spots available and that’s why this camp was set up the way it is,” said Matvichuk. “Knowing where we finished last year, it’s not good enough. We want to be in the playoffs and with the youth we have with these guys coming in and battling for these spots, it’s fun to watch.”
Each of the four training camp teams has five defencemen and nine forwards, with all two goalies except one team (Isaiah DiLaura is the only netminder on Team Byfuglien).
“I know some camps get into the 100-150 (range) and a lot of people think they get lost in the cracks, which I think they do,” said Lamb. “Here, they’re getting a lot of ice time and the camp’s going to be a bit longer and that means more opportunity.
“Some kids are too young to make the team but everyone else is here for a reason and that’s to try to make the hockey team.” The first cuts will be made following Wednesday’s intrasquad game.
CITIZEN
Brennan Malgunas of Team Red blasts a shot on net past Team Blue’s Matthew Marotta during the Prince George Spruce Kings intrasquad game on Sunday morning at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Henderson takes her game to a new level
SPENCER Citizen news service
Donna
CALGARY — Feeding off the energy of fans in the galleries, but not letting it overwhelm her, is now a skill in Brooke Henderson’s toolbox.
Labelled the face of Canadian golf at age 14 when she played in her first Women’s Open, Henderson had to learn how to manage her own intense desire to win on home turf, and the fervent, vocal wishes of home fans that she do so.
The 20-year-old from Smith Falls, Ont., solved that puzzle at Regina’s Wascana Country Club on Sunday where she became the first Canadian in 45 years to win the CP Women’s Open.
“I played my first CP Women’s Open seven years ago. I just felt like I was slowly getting better, getting used to the attention,” Henderson said Monday in Calgary.
“This year, something just sort of clicked. Just being able to feed off the energy of the crowd, that was the first time ever I was really able to manage that.”
Less than 24 hours after hoisting the trophy she superstitiously wouldn’t touch until she won it, Henderson was at Calgary’s Canyon Meadows Golf and Country club for a women’s golf clinic and panel discussion.
The course is hosting the men in the PGA Tour Champions Shaw Charity Classic starting Friday.
Henderson’s visit was a stopover en route to Portland, Ore., and the Cambia Portland Classic, which she won in both 2015 and 2016.
Seeing England’s Georgia Hall claim the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club in early August inspired Henderson as she headed to her own national championship.
But she was taken aback by the size of Wascana’s galleries when she stepped to the first tee box for her opening round.
Henderson still engaged with spectators, however. She smiled, waved and high-fived for three rounds until Sunday when her game mask was firmly on.
“Heading into Sunday, I just wanted to give it everything that I had and I wanted
to keep that focus from when I first teed off until the 18th hole,” Henderson explained.
“I definitely did show my appreciation, but I was much more serious and much more focused.
“I just figured it would all be worth it if I was able to hoist the trophy on the 18th green and celebrate with everybody then. So, I feel it was a smart decision.”
The mask slipped as she walked to the 18th green for a birdie putt and she let the moment in.
“It was the first time all day I could really take a deep breath and realize that I’d actually just won,” she explained.
“That feeling of being able to let go, because I’d been not stressed, but just wanting to win it so badly. This was probably
number one on the tournaments I wanted to win.”
What followed was whirlwind of media, autographs and fielding congratulatory messages on her phone, including one from Wayne Gretzky.
Henderson admitted not sleeping well after her four-stroke victory in part because she dreamed she hadn’t won and had to keep playing.
That only three other Canadian golfers since 1954 have won an Open at home is a testament to how difficult it is.
Henderson took her game management to a new level to achieve it. It is now in her skill set at just 20 years old.
She vaulted into world’s top 10 to No. 8 this week and sits second on the LPGA’s 2018
Top-seeded Halep done at U.S. Open
Citizen news service
NEW YORK
— Some players, like top-ranked Simona Halep, freely acknowledge they don’t deal well with the hustle-and-bustle of the U.S. Open and all it entails.
Others, like 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi, take to the Big Apple and its Grand Slam tournament.
Put those two types at opposite ends of a court at Flushing Meadows and watch what can happen: Halep made a quickas-can-be exit Monday, overwhelmed by the power-based game of Kanepi 6-2, 6-4 to become the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open in the half-century of the professional era.
On a Day 1 that featured the major tournament debut of 25-second serve clocks, Halep blamed opening-round jitters, a recurring theme throughout her career. The reigning French Open champion has now lost her first match at 12 of 34 career major appearances, a stunningly high rate for such an accomplished player.
“It’s always about the nerves,” said Halep, who was beaten in the first round in
New York by five-time major champion
Maria Sharapova in 2017.
“Even when you are there in the top, you feel the same nerves. You are human.”
She also offered up an explanation tied to this particular site.
“Maybe the noise in the crowd. The city is busy. So everything together,” said Halep, who was coming off consecutive runs to the final at hard-court tuneup tournaments at Cincinnati and Montreal.
“I’m a quiet person, so maybe I like the smaller places.”
Her departure means she can’t stand in the way of Serena Williams, who could have faced Halep in the fourth round.
Williams, the 23-time major champion who missed last year’s U.S. Open because she gave birth on Sept. 1, returned with a flourish, following singer Kelly Clarkson’s opening night performance in Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Magda Linette under the lights.
“The first set was tight. It was my first back here in New York, so that wasn’t the easiest,” Williams told the crowd.
“Once I got settled, I started doing what
I’m trying to do in practice.”
Williams, a six-time winner at Flushing Meadows, moved a step closer to a possible third-round matchup against her older sister, two-time winner Venus, who defeated 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Others making the second round included defending champion and No. 3 seed Sloane Stephens, two-time finalist Victoria Azarenka, and two-time major champ Garbine Muguruza.
Four seeded men lost, including No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov against three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka, who also beat him in the first round of Wimbledon, No. 16 Kyle Edmund and No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut.
Andy Murray, whose three major titles include the 2012 U.S. Open, played his first Grand Slam match in more than a year and won, eliminating James Duckworth 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.
At night, defending champion Rafael Nadal advanced when the man he beat in the 2013 French Open final, David Ferrer, stopped in the second set because of an injury, while 2009 champ Juan Martin del Potro had no trouble dismissing Donald Young 6-0, 6-3, 6-4.
money list. Henderson now targets a second career major Sept. 13-16 at the US$3.8 million Evian Championship in France.
She was just 18 when she won the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Having checked a Canadian win off her career bucket list, Henderson says she now feels less pressure in her game.
“There is definitely a lot more pressure playing here at home in Canada, but it’s amazing I know I have that much support and people are cheering for me so hard,” she said.
“I definitely was a little disappointed with the way I’d played previously, but I feel like it was all a stepping stone in the right direction leading to this win.”
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Arceneaux has torn ACL VANCOUVER (CP) — The B.C. Lions have lost veteran receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux to a torn knee ligament. The club announced Monday that the 30-year-old has been placed on the six-game injured list after he suffered a torn ACL in Saturday’s 24-21 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Arceneaux has played in all nine Lions games this year and leads the team in receptions with 32 catches for 553 yards and one touchdown.
Morales’ HR streak ends
BALTIMORE (AP) — Kendrys Morales had his home run streak snapped at seven games by the Baltimore Orioles, who ended an eight-game skid by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0 on Monday. Striving to tie the major league record of homering in eight straight games, Morales went 0-for-3 with a walk and did not hit the ball out of the infield. In his final chance, the Toronto slugger swung through a slider from Paul Fry to strike out in the eighth inning. Though he failed to match the mark shared by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr., Morales owns the big league record for successive games with a home run by a switch-hitter. He also owns the franchise record for consecutive games with a long ball.
CP PHOTO
Brooke Henderson kisses the trophy after winning the CP Women’s Open in Regina on Sunday.
Broadway’s master of comedy dies at 91
Mark KENNEDY
Citizen news service
NEW YORK — Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park and his Brighton Beach trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91. Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, a longtime friend and spokesman for Shubert Organization theatres. In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theatre’s most successful and prolific playwright, often chronicling middle class issues and fears. Starting with Come Blow Your Horn in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical. His list of credits is staggering.
The theatre world quickly mourned his death, including Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who tweeted that Simon “could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world’s problems.”
Matthew Broderick, who in 1983 made his Broadway debut in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and his movie debut in Simon’s Max Dugan Returns, added: “I owe him a career. The theatre has lost a brilliantly funny, unthinkably wonderful writer. And even after all this time, I feel I have lost a mentor, a father figure, a deep influence in my life and work.”
For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Sweet Charity, and The Star-Spangled Girl.
Even before he launched his theatre career, he made history as one of the famed stable of writers
for comedian Sid Caesar that also included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.
Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honours (1995), four Writers Guild of America Awards and an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement honour. In 1983, he had a Broadway theatre named after him when the Alvin was rechristened the Neil Simon Theatre.
In 2006, he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which honours work that draws from the American experience. The previous year had seen a popular revival of The Odd Couple, reuniting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick after their enormous success in The Producers several years earlier.
In a 1997 interview with The Washington Post, Simon reflected on his success: “I know that I have reached the pinnacle of rewards. There’s no more money anyone can pay me that I need. There are
no awards they can give me that I haven’t won. I have no reason to write another play except that I am alive and I like to do it,” he said.
The bespectacled, mild-looking Simon (described in a New York Times magazine profile as looking like an accountant or librarian who dressed “just this side of drab”) was a relentless writer –and rewriter.
“I am most alive and most fulfilled sitting alone in a room, hoping that those words forming on the paper in the Smith-Corona will be the first perfect play ever written in a single draft,” Simon wrote in the introduction to one of the many anthologies of his plays. He was a meticulous joke smith, peppering his plays, especially the early ones, with comic one-liners and humorous situations that critics said sometimes came at the expense of character and believability. No matter. For much of his career, audiences embraced his work, which often focused on middle-class, urban life, many of the plots drawn from his own personal experience.
“I don’t write social and political plays because I’ve always thought the family was the microcosm of what goes on in the world,” he told The Paris Review in 1992.
Simon received his first Tony Award in 1965 as best author – a category now discontinued – for The Odd Couple, although the comedy lost the best-play prize to Frank D. Gilroy’s The Subject Was Roses. He won a best-play Tony 20 years later for Biloxi Blues. In 1991, Lost in Yonkers received both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. And there was a special achievement Tony, too, in 1975.
Simon’s own life figured most prominently in what became known as his Brighton Beach trilogy – Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound – which many consider his finest works. In them, Simon’s alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, makes his way from childhood to the U.S. Army to finally, on the verge of adulthood, a budding career as a writer.
Simon was born Marvin Neil Simon in New York and was raised in the Bronx and Washington Heights. He was married five times, twice to the same woman. His first wife, Joan Baim, died of cancer in 1973, after 20 years of marriage. The playwright then married actress Marsha Mason and was married to his third wife, Diane Lander, twice – once in 1987-1988 and again in 19901998.
Dead Poets founder granted last wish
David SHARP Citizen news service
BRUNSWICK, Maine — The founder of the Dead Poets Society of America got what he wanted Monday: his remains were laid to rest under a special tombstone he commissioned before suffering a fatal heart attack. The family of Walter Skold read poetry, including some of his own works, during the ceremony in a historic cemetery in Brunswick. His remains were buried under a slate tombstone carved with a dancing skeleton at the top.
“The end does not discriminate, It gives; it takes; it heals and breaks,” Skold wrote in a poem from the 1990s read by one of his sons, Charles. “It beckons for all to enter the grave: The final bed of roses from which the flesh cannot evade.”
Afterward, family including five children and two grandchildren, gathered in a circle, danced and sang hymns. One of his poems read aloud was named, Grave Dance.
Known as the “dead poet guy,” Skold combined humour, history and the macabre in his travels to the final resting places of more than 600 poets. He launched the Dead Poets Society in 2008 in Maine, drawing inspiration for the name from the 1989 Robin Williams movie.
His ultimate goal, he said, was to draw attention to poetry and poets, especially those bards who were in danger of being forgotten by history.
He travelled in a colourful cargo van dubbed Dedgar the Poemobile with a stuffed panther named Raven and an Edgar Allan Poe bobblehead on the dashboard. He held graveyard poetry readings and sometimes toasted poets with a drink. More than once, he had to explain himself to police. That uniqueness came through in his tombstone, which he commissioned little more than a month before he was felled at age 57 in January by a heart attack.
Michael Updike, son of novelist John Updike, was enlisted to carve the tombstone featuring a scattershot of literary inspiration from Skold’s life and from graves he’d visited.
There was some gallows humour, of course. Carved on the bottom, hidden from view under the dirt, were these words: “This here rock’s a talking stone just like Walt, who’s turned to bone.”
The tombstone was supposed to be at a family plot in York, Penn. But it was rejected because it didn’t meet the cemetery’s requirements.
So the family decided to bury part of Skold’s ashes in Maine, where he lived when he created the Dead Poets Society of America and began documenting graves.
Tapper’s daughter getting published
NEW YORK — Jake Tapper isn’t the only author in his family. The CNN anchor’s daughter has a picture book coming in March, Penguin Young Readers announced. Alice Paul Tapper, who turned 11 on Monday, has collaborated with illustrator Marta Kissi on Raise Your Hand. The book originates from an idea Alice and fellow Girl Scouts developed after Alice noticed that on a school trip the boys spoke up and girls remained quiet. Tapper, whose father contributes “spot illustrations,” said she hoped her book would inspire girls “to be bold and brave.” Jake Tapper’s books include the bestselling thriller The Hellfire Club.
AP PHOTO Simon Skold, son of Walter Skold, drops dirt onto the buried urn of his father at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Me., on Monday.
Neil Simon succumbs to pneumonia complications
AP FILE PHOTO
In this April 2008 photo, Neil Simon is flanked by wife Elaine Joyce, left, and Lucie Arnaz at a reception in New York.
grow in pots at a medical marijuana cultivation facility in Massachusetts in July.
Mind-altering breast milk?
New pot study poses that question
Lindsey TANNER Citizen news service
Marijuana’s main mind-altering ingredient was detected in nursing mothers’ breast milk in a small study that comes amid evidence that more U.S. women are using pot during pregnancy and afterward.
Experts say the ingredient, THC, has chemical properties that could allow it to disrupt brain development and potentially cause harm, although solid evidence of that is lacking.
The new study involved 50 nursing mothers who were using pot and provided breast milk samples to researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Lab testing found small amounts of THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes marijuana’s “high,” in 34 of 54 samples up to six days after they were provided. Another form of THC and cannabidiol, a pot chemical touted by some as a health aid, were detected in five samples.
The study authors said “it is reasonable to speculate” that exposing infants to THC or cannabidiol “could influence normal brain development,” depending on dose and timing.
The results echo findings in case reports from years ago, when pot was less potent than what’s available today, said study coauthor Christina Chambers, a pediatrics professor. It’s not known if the amounts detected pose any risk, but she said her research team is studying children whose moms’ were involved to try to answer that question.
Two small studies from the 1980s had conflicting results on whether pot use affects breastfed infants. One found no evidence of growth delays; the other found
slight developmental delays in breastfed infants, but their mothers had used pot during pregnancy too.
Most pediatricians encourage breastfeeding and its health benefits for infants, but “they’re stuck with a dilemma” with infants whose mothers use pot, Chambers said.
A new American Academy of Pediatrics report recommending against pot use while pregnant or nursing acknowledges that challenge.
“We still support women breastfeeding even if using marijuana but would encourage them to cut down and quit,” said Dr. Seth Ammerman, a report co-author and Stanford University pediatrics professor.
“In counselling patients about this, it’s important to be non-judgmental but to educate patients about the potential risks and benefits,” Ammerman said, to ensure “a healthy outcome for themselves and their baby.”
The study and report were published Monday in the journal Pediatrics . The American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists has similar advice.
The academy report says its advice is based on theoretical risks to developing brains, but it acknowledges conflicting evidence and a dearth of research. Some studies have linked pot use during pregnancy with lower birth weights or pre-term birth, along with developmental delays and learning difficulties in older children. But additional factors including women’s use of other drugs during pregnancy complicated the results, the report says.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in nine states and Washington, D.C., and for medical use in 31 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
As more states legalize marijuana, its use is increasing along with the “false impression” that it is safe, the academy’s report says. Ammerman said caution makes sense, given the uncertainties.
According to U.S. government data, about one in 20 women report using marijuana during pregnancy. Estimates for use among
Most pediatricians encourage breastfeeding and its health benefits for infants, but “they’re stuck with a dilemma” with infants whose mothers use pot.
breastfeeding mothers vary, but a study in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal, put the number at almost 20 per cent among women in a government supplemental food program.
The report, study and a journal editorial all said more research is needed.
Last year, a federal advisory panel said lack of scientific information about marijuana poses a public health risk. Research has been hampered by federal government restrictions based on its view that marijuana is an illegal drug.
That has contributed to a stigma and shaded doctors’ views, said Keira Sumimoto, an Irvine, Calif., mother who used marijuana briefly for medical reasons while pregnant and breastfeeding. She said smoking a joint daily helped her gain weight when she was sick before learning she was pregnant, and eased childbirth-related pain, but that she quit because of backlash from marijuana opponents.
She said her daughter, now eight months old, is healthy and advanced for her age. Sumimoto runs @cannabisandmotherhood, an Instagram account she says aims to present truthful information about marijuana so women can make their own choices.
She said she agrees with advice to be cautious, but that the academy’s stance “is just a little too much.”
“The fear is taking over and the need and want to understand this plant is being ignored by the stigma,” Sumimoto said.
Judge declares Utah women, one of them dead, to be legally married
Citizen news service
SALT LAKE CITY — A 74-yearold woman cried tears of joy when a Utah state judge took the rare step of declaring her and her longtime lesbian partner legally married just months after her wife died.
Judge Patrick Corum last week declared Bonnie Foerster legally married to Beverly Grossaint, who died in May in Salt Lake City at age 82, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“I’m numb from happiness. I’m married,” Foerster said through
tears outside Corum’s courtroom after the ruling. “I’m a married woman. I’ve waited 50 years.”
Foerster met Grossaint in January 1968 in New York City under unhappy circumstances: Foerster was escaping an abusive husband.
When Grossaint first saw her, Foerster had broken ribs and was wearing dark glasses to hide black eyes.
“Two seconds (after we were introduced), she came back and told me to take the damn sunglasses off,” Foerster said. When she did, “(Beverly) said, ‘I can see your soul.’ And I fell in love.
I looked into her blue eyes, and I fell in love.”
The two moved in together shortly after that meeting.
Foerster said she and Grossaint, a veteran of the Women’s Army Corps, marched in the first gay pride parade in New York City in 1970.
“We had people throw garbage at us,” Foerster told the judge.
“We went home, took showers and got clean. Those people still have garbage in their hands.”
The couple moved to Utah in 1979 to be near Grossaint’s ailing mother.
Grossaint was Foerster’s caretaker for much of the past 30 years. She has had 29 back surgeries, survived breast and cervical cancer, and endured macular degeneration that has left her legally blind. Foerster also suffers from osteomyelitis, a rare bone infection, and, in April 2016, had to have both legs amputated above the knee.
Grossaint’s health problems –emphysema and chronic heart failure – meant “I was her caregiver for the last three years,” Foerster said. The only question Corum didn’t
settle was the date that Foerster could consider herself and Grossaint married. The petition, filed by Foerster’s lawyer, Roger Hoole, set a date for June 26, 2015 – the day the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Corum suggested the date could be set at Dec. 20, 2013, the day gay marriage became legal in Utah. Corum commented that the effective date could be pushed back to 1968, when Foerster and Grossaint began to live together, but “that makes it (legally) messier than it needs to be.”
Betty Ann Lussier (Hnatyshen)
Passed away July 7, 2018 at the age of 71 years survived by her loving husband of 51 years; Leon Lussier. Betty greatly loved both her son, Lee Lussier (Marie-Thérèse Gagnon) and her daughter, Laury Williams (James). Betty was a fun loving caring grandmother of five grandchildren; Kristofer, Maeghan (Danny), Keely, Julian and Simon. Betty spent hours crocheting, knitting, crafting and treating her family members as they were the only one that matters. Betty always found spare time for a game of crib with a grandchild or even just spending time with them. Betty will not only be remembered by her family but also the many friends and neighbours that she touched and has been touched by in her years with us all. Betty and her family would like to extend a world of thanks to the caring loving personnel of the Prince George Hospice Society whom provided great care and comfort at all times. A celebration of life is planned Saturday September 8, 2018 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Pineview Hall 6470 Bendixon Rd Prince George, BC In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Prince George Hospice Society.
MacMaster,AnnaJ. March13,1933-August24,2018
AnnaGrannyJean(Davidson)MacMaster,ofPrince GeorgeBC,Canada,bornonMarch13,1933in PrinceGeorgeBC,Canada,tothelateGretaDavidson andthelateCarlDavidson,passedawaypeacefully surroundedbyafewlovedonesatage85onAugust 24,2018inMcBrideBC,Canada.Annawasthe belovedwifeofthelateMurrayClarkMacMaster.She issurvivedbyhersons,LarryMacMaster,Terry MacMaster,AubreyMacMaster,GrantMacMaster, andStuartMacMaster;anddaughters,Tracy MacMasterandLanaJeck.Thosewhowishmay donateinAnna’snametoTheMcBrideHospital Auxilary.Wewillbehavingagravesideservicefor Grannyatalaterdateforfamilyandveryclose friends.Ateawillbehostedandwillbeopentoall whowishtoattend,thedetailsofthiseventwillbe postedatalaterdate.
EnrollinTaxAcademyandlearntoearnasanIncome TaxProfessional OVERVIEW:Seewhatittakestobecomeaproatincome taxesatH&RBlock’sTaxAcademy.Thealwaysindemandskillsandknowledgeyou’lllearncanopendoors torealjobopportunities.
CAREERBENEFITS: -Trainingfromindustryleaders -Theabilitytotackleanytaxsituation -Theopportunitytoworkasapart-timetaxprofessional atH&RBlock -Flexibilityandindependence There’sneverbeenabettertimetoenroll.Classesstart thisSeptember.
UbleisLoggingLtd.isseekingaButtNTopoperatorfor
HowtoApply: Emailresumestoadmin@ubelislogging.com Orfaxresumesto250-996-2217
Wethankallthecandidateswhoapply;however,only thoseselectedforaninterviewwillbecontacted.
Five things to consider FREE TRADE FUTURE
1. There’s room to give Trump a win on dairy Trump once again criticized Canada’s supply managed dairy industry on Monday. He said: “You know, they have tariffs of almost 300 per cent on some of our dairy products, so we can’t have that. We’re not going to stand for that.” He mentioned this in the same breath as dangling the possibility of auto tariffs to punish Canada. What he didn’t say is he wants an end to Canada’s supply management system. American negotiators know what Canada has already done on dairy in past trade deals: it gave the European countries greater access to the protected market in the Canada-EU trade deal, and it was willing to the do the same in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Now, the Americans want a similar overture from Canada. 2. U.S. Congress needs to be persuaded Several trade analysts points out that under the current U.S. Trade Promotion Authority provisions, Trump hasn’t been given the authority to negotiate a two-way deal with Mexico that excludes Canada. Eric Miller of the Washingtonbased Potomac Institute says many U.S. border states that have grown dependent on the regular trade flows over the 49th parallel simply won’t go for it. An aide to former Conservative trade minister Ed Fast argued that the only way Congress might approve such a deal is if Canada walked away from the negotiations, which the Trudeau government has consistently ruled out.
3. Cars will keep it together
The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association called the U.S.-Mexico deal a “major breakthrough” and that Canada would inevitably join NAFTA. It essentially branded the continent’s auto sector too big to fail, saying “it is time to close the book on the modernization of NAFTA, and to implement an agreement that continues to provide billions of dollars in benefits to all three member states.” Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole says it was a “colossal failure” that Canada stayed away from the bargaining table for the last few weeks.
4. Mexico’s president insists he isn’t throwing Canada under the bus
As Trump blithely repeated his threat to dump Canada, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto repeatedly stressed on their phone call that bringing Canada into the deal was the next move. “I really hope – and I desire, I wish – that the part with Canada will be materializing in a very concrete fashion, and we can have an agreement the way we proposed it from the initiation of this renegotiating process, a tripartite,” he said. 5. U.S. officials want a three-way deal.
When the reality show spectacle of Trump’s Oval Office phone call with Pena Nieto had subsided, senior U.S. officials briefed journalists on a conference call. While nothing can be taken for granted with Trump, they provided some insight into U.S. administration’s thinking moving forward.
One official said dealing with one country at a time was perfectly reasonable. The official said this was all “a normal, orderly way to arrive at an agreement with three people.”
Canada to rejoin NAFTA talks
U.S., Mexico agree to overhaul
Andy BLATCHFORD Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada will rejoin face-toface negotiations with the United States and Mexico on Tuesday after the two continental partners reached a bilateral deal that raised fresh concerns about the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that his administration and Mexico agreed on a trade framework with the potential for big implications for Canada.
He insisted the U.S.-Mexican progress created the foundation for an overhaul –or perhaps the termination – of the threecountry agreement.
Trump, a harsh critic of NAFTA, even mused about renaming the deal the “United States-Mexico trade agreement” to wash away the “bad connotations” linked to the 24-year-old pact.
He extended an invitation to Ottawa to join what he cast as American-Mexican negotiations that have stretched through the summer without Canadian officials at the table.
In doing so, he also hit Canada with a threat: if the country doesn’t become part of the new trade deal, he would enact devastating tariffs on automotive imports.
“We’ll start negotiating with Canada relatively soon, they want to negotiate very badly,” Trump said in the Oval Office, with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto joining by speaker phone.
“But one way or the other, we have a deal with Canada. It will either be a tariff on cars, or it will be a negotiated deal; and frankly a tariff on cars is a much easier way to go, but perhaps the other would be much better for Canada.”
Following Trump’s announcement, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland cancelled the rest of a planned week-long diplomatic trip to Europe so she could travel to Washington to re-enter high-level talks.
trade pact
labour and financial services.
The new deal would last 16 years with reviews every six years, a senior U.S. administration official said during a briefing. Canadian negotiators have been adamant that they will not agree to an earlier U.S. proposal that NAFTA be renegotiated every five years.
Trump hinted he was ready to start the process of terminating the trilateral trade pact with Canada and Mexico and replace it with what he got Monday from Mexico. He also called on Canada to negotiate fairly, especially when it comes to dairy products.
(Trump) also hit Canada with a threat: if the country doesn’t become part of the new trade deal, he would enact devastating tariffs on automotive imports.
The negotiations are important for Canada because NAFTA is a key partnership and doubts about its future have already created considerable economic uncertainty.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office issued a statement that said he had a “constructive conversation” late Monday with Trump on NAFTA, but it offered few details.
“The leaders welcomed the progress that has been made in discussions with Mexico and look forward to having their teams engage this week with a view to a successful conclusion of negotiations,” it said.
Canada has been away from the NAFTA bargaining table since in-person trilateral talks paused in May.
Observers have raised concerns that Canada’s absence from the talks could put Ottawa in a position where it might be pressured into accepting a less-appetizing deal reached between the U.S. and Mexico.
Trudeau has insisted his government will only sign a deal that’s good for Canada.
The U.S.-Mexican announcement
Monday clearly showed their summertime talks not only hashed out bilateral sticking points – such as automobile rules of origin – but also went deep into trilateral issues.
Canada had been expecting the U.S. and Mexico to focus mainly on their bilateral issues, but they agreed on matters including intellectual property, digital trade,
“We’re looking to help our neighbours,” he said. “If we can help our neighbours, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. So, we’ll start that negotiation imminently.”
Through an interpreter, Pena Nieto reminded Trump four times Monday that he hoped Canada would be part of an eventual trilateral agreement, saying it was the Mexican government’s wish that “Canada will also be able to be incorporated in all this.”
Following Trump’s announcement, Trudeau’s office issued a statement saying the prime minister spoke with Pena Nieto on Sunday about NAFTA’s renegotiation and the two leaders “shared their commitment to reaching a successful conclusion to this agreement for all three parties.”
The Opposition Conservatives criticized the federal Liberal government over Monday’s NAFTA developments.
Erin O’Toole, the Tories’ foreign affairs critic, said in a statement that it was critical for Ottawa to be at the negotiating table and the news “confirms that the Trudeau government has failed to advance Canada’s trade interests.”
Adam Taylor, a Ottawa-based trade expert, wrote in an email that because of American laws it’s difficult to envision a scenario where a bilateral U.S.-Mexico deal replaces NAFTA and leaves Canada out in the cold.
“The only way such a scenario is possible is if Canada walks away from the table and the Trump administration convinces Congress that trilateral talks failed, and this is the final outcome agreed to by all parties,” said Taylor, a principal for Export Action Global.
“The appearance of Canada as an irrelevant after-thought in NAFTA is a U.S. frame designed solely to wrestle concessions from the Canadian side.”
TORONTO
after
announced
U.S. and
a preliminary trade accord, prompting the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite to set new all-time highs. Investors took a collective sigh of relief that the prospective deal signalled that trade disagreements don’t have to end in aggressive protectionist actions, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. “If the market at certain periods over the past couple of months had been expecting these tariffs negotiations to result in an outright global trade war, this is at least some confirmation that some fruitful deals can potentially be reached,” he said in an interview.
Fehr said investors are probably leaping to the conclusion that a concrete deal is forthcoming despite hurdles that still need to be overcome.
“There’s a lot of mechanics that are going to have to take place before the market can declare victory that the trade war is over.”
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average advanced 259.29 points at 26,049.64.
The S&P 500 index gained 22.05 points to 2,896.74 after reaching a high of 2,898.25. The Nasdaq composite surpassed 8,000 for the first time, gaining 71.92 points to 8,017.89 after reaching 8,024.94 in earlier trading.
The S&P/TSX composite index rose 88.34 points to 16,444.39, after touching a high of 16,475.34 on 213.9 million shares trading. The increase reflects relief that perhaps an agreement won’t be categorically negative for Canada, specifically for the automotive sector, said Fehr.
“At the end of the day this probably signals that the expectations prior to today were more pessimistic than the read through from today’s U.S.-Mexico deal.”
The consumer discretionary sector was the second strongest sector. It closed up 1.45 per cent as shares in Canadian auto parts companies like Linamar Corp., Magna International Inc. and Martinrea International Inc. rose as much as 6.6 per cent on the day. All sectors but utilities closed up. Healthcare gained 3.1 per cent, led by continued share increases by cannabis companies Aphria Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. The Canadian dollar traded higher at 77.01 cents US
CP PHOTO
Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks in Richmond on Aug. 24.
TRUMP