Prince George Citizen February 16, 2019

Team Canada members watch the fireworks – part of the

Prince George welcomes the world

tions are world class.”

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

With the throb of hand drums, the thunder of fireworks, and the warmth of open arms, the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships were officially declared underway. The Prince George Conference and Civic Centre was getting a dusting of snow as the ribbon was cut, to overlay the first time a

world sporting event has ever been hosted on Lheidli T’enneh territory.

The Khast’an Drummers, led by Ann Bozoki, performed a thousand-year-old song about a canoe that metaphorically brings people together after times away, then a modern Aboriginal song about how water is used in the movement of people. The beat of the drums gave a primal connection to the ultra-modern advent of para-sports.

The founding chair of the International Paralympic Committee, Robert Steadward, a Canadian and visionary sport diplomat, was on hand in Prince George to celebrate the event opening, and this coming together

of people on water – frozen water.

On stage, Steadward said that some of the athletes, coaches, judges and other officials in the room would remember past Paralympic events, and if they were there for the Vancouver Games in 2010, they were in for a similar splendid experience in the welcoming hands of a British Columbia host city.

He also told Prince George that they, too, were in for a treat.

“A whole new generation of fans will witness para-sports for the first time,” and how, in 10 days time, it would forever change their view of human capabilities. He also declared “the facilities and snow condi-

Barkerville opening its gates for winter fun

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff

It doesn’t happen often, but for one day, the main street of Barkerville will be open for wintertime fun.

A whole menu of activities and events will warm the wintery jewel of the Cariboo. The National Historic Site is typically only open from spring through fall, but this long weekend is an exception.

“This Family Day, Barkerville’s historic Main Street will come alive for one day only,” said a statement from the historic town’s operators. “Come out for the weekend. The Barkerville Cafe and Gift Store

Cafe, Barkerville’s Shamrock Tube Run, and select museum exhibits will be open Saturday and Sunday too. Join us Sunday evening for Night Tubing on the Shamrock Tube Run until 7 p.m.” On Monday the big fun really snowballs. The day includes many of Barkerville’s best known characters, heritage games, museum exhibitions, live interpretations, and a free hot dog roast.

In fact, the whole park is free to visit and the tube run has cut its lift passes to half cost. What’s open on Monday (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

• Miss Wendle is back. Stop into the Williams Creek School for a visit.

• Mr. Hankin is back in the Cameron & Ames Blacksmith Shop. See him at work.

• Order hot drinks and home-cooked meals from the Barkerville Cafe.

• Slide down the Shamrock Tube Run with 50 per cent off lift passes.

• Grab a free hot dog from the Barkerville Cafe and roast it on the bonfire.

• The Nicol Hotel, Barkerville Hotel, and Lee Chong Co., exhibits will be open for viewing.

Special performances

• 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.: Justice Brew

A skier from the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, Sage Bialuski, got a moment on stage as well. It was explained by master of ceremonies Randy Ferguson (a veteran host and broadcaster of several Olympic and Paralympic events) that she suffered severe injuries when a car struck her while training, and it took her three years to rehabilitate. Bialuski, 20, is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. She sang her original song, Know My Name, the official theme song of the Prince George championships, as a message of perseverance and inspiration.

— see ‘WE ARE SO PROUD, page 3

hosts an Early Justice Interpretation in the Methodist Church.

• 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Mr. Bowron hosts Heritage Games in The Clearing.

• 1:30 p.m. to 2:10 p.m.: Mr. Grimsby hosts Amazing Tales from the Goldrush Trail in the Barkerville Schoolhouse.

• 2 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.: Miss Wilson hosts a Town Tour (meeting at the Pavilion).

• 3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.: Mrs. Kibbee hosts a Chinatown Tour (meeting at the Lung Duck Tong).

• 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Mr. Grimsby hosts Amazing Tales from the Goldrush Trail in the Barkerville Schoolhouse.

opening ceremony of the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships – from Canada Games Plaza on Friday night.

Para Nordic championships kick off with opening ceremony

RCMP make drug arrests

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Arrests were made and fentanyl prevented from getting to the street, thanks to Prince George RCMP.

The bust was part of an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the city. The police took action starting with a male and female, both adults, getting arrested on Thursday by members of the city’s Street Crew Unit. The two were taken into custody near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Dominion Street.

It was the first but not the only part of the police intervention plan.

“Following the arrests, officers executed Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrants at residences located on the 5900 block of Montgomery Crescent and 4600 block of Freimuller Avenue in Prince George,” said Prince George RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Craig Douglass. “Officers seized what they believe to be fentanyl and cocaine from the residences, along with drug trafficking paraphernalia.”

Three more people were arrested in the process.

No charges were laid at the time, but the investigation is still underway and prosecution action will be applied to the appropriate suspects once more information is gathered. Douglass urged the public to help police start new investigations like this one. He said if anyone had “any information about illegal drug trafficking in the Prince George area,” please contact the Prince George RCMP at (250)561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1(800)222-8477 or online at www. pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca

You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest or seizure of drugs, you could be eligible for a cash reward.

Thanks, Jimmy

Businessman and philanthropist Jim Pattison speaks Friday in Vancouver

honoured were Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

Arts survey wants ‘to hear from you’

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff

Artists and those who appreciate the arts are asked to take a local survey about this area’s culture scene.

“The survey is available at princegeorge culture.com and has been designed to gather information from individuals, businesses and organizations about the arts and cultural ac-

tivities they are providing or pursuing,” said Sean Farrell, executive director of the Community Arts Council, the agency gathering the information. “The survey is for everyone ranging from arts professionals, through to arts administrators, digital creators, students of art or music or dance, architects, writers, food and culinary creatives, and many more. If you participate in a creative process, we

want to hear from you.” Farrell added that if you have already filled out the online information sheet, please forward the link to those in your circle of influence. The more people who fill the survey out, the deeper the data for the CAC to use for making future plans and designing future programs to service the city’s arts sector. — see SURVEY, page 3

during a Canada’s Walk of Fame ceremony honouring him. Others

‘We

— from page 1

are so proud to host you’

Another local singer, Kelsey (Wheatley) Jewesson, wowed the crowd with her ringing rendition of O! Canada. The award-winning vocalist and star of such Judy Russell productions as Les Miserable and Nunsense delivered the anthem in gold-medal fashion.

Athlete Emily Young, official Jim Burbee and coach Robin McKeever pledged on behalf of their elements of sport to compete for each of those gold medals up for grabs in a spirit of fair and honest sportsmanship.

Mayor Lyn Hall said from the stage that he was “excited this evening to welcome the world to Prince George. This is our first world championship and we are so proud to host you.”

Perhaps the man with greatest star power in the room Friday night was Kevin Pettersen, head of the Prince George organizing committee that won the bid and created the template for the Otway Nordic Centre to be ready to take in the 18 visiting countries plus Canada’s contingent. The room was electric with heartfelt applause for his leadership in attracting these international cross-country skiing and biathlon championships.

Program helping reduce dog bite incidents

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff

A nearby town is showing signs of success for a pet education program, and it is chewing a hole in hospital visits.

“We knew it would be our opportunity to create magic in Prince George on the world stage,” Pettersen told the crowd. “We want you to experience the territory... have an amazing time in Prince George.”

That territory has, for at least 9,000 years, been the domain of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, and it is still their unceded land base.

We knew it would be our opportunity to create magic in Prince George on the world stage.

— Kevin Pettersen

Chief Dominic Frederick personally welcomed each nation’s contingent as they made their way through the official procession. He then addressed the throng of nations as they all took their place in the foreground of the Civic Centre. He drew attention to the stones each nation was asked to bring for donation to the host committee, a practice started for the provinces and territories coming to the 2015 Canada Winter Games.

“It is our way of bringing a piece of your home to ours,” Frederick explained. “Now that you’ve brought it here, it becomes a part of this place. This is now your home. Welcome home. We welcome you to our traditional territory... make good memories of your time here.”

Robbery and kidnap victim found safe

KAMLOOPS (CP) — The Mounties say a woman was found unharmed after she was kidnapped following a robbery in Kamloops on Thursday.

Police say the woman and two men were robbed by two men carrying firearms before the alleged kidnapping.

They say the woman was found unharmed on Friday in a vehicle that was taken from one of the robbery victims as it travelled from Kelowna to Kamloops.

A male and a female were arrested after the vehicle was stopped by police, who also took one of the robbery suspects into custody in Kelowna. The RCMP say they are trying to find the second man they believe was involved in the robbery.

Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says police were not able to release information about the case as it unfolded because of concerns for the safety of the woman they believe was taken against her will.

“First and foremost, our concern was for the woman who had been kidnapped,” she said in a news release. “The danger that she was in cannot be overemphasized. Officers knew that the suspects were armed. It was unknown what their intent was regarding her life.”

The RCMP said they will forward information to the British Columbia Prosecution Service.

“It is clear this was a targeted crime and involved participants in the Kamloops drug trade,” police said.

The Lakes Animal Friendship Society (LAFS) announced on Friday that they had studied the numbers from Northern Health and they were thrilled to see a big drop in one key area of their concern.

Northern Health “went through all the emergency room records to verify the numbers of dog bites” at the Burns Lake & District Hospital said society cofounder Valerie Ingram.

“After we started our animal care, compassion, and dog bite safety programs, as well as spaying and neutering and pet food programs, there have been about 23 dog bites per year at the emergency room,” Ingram explained. “Before our programs, there were 36 dog bites per year – 58 per cent more dog bites.” Ingram added that the emergency room visits were, according to Northern Health, the “tip of the iceberg,” so to speak. The estimation of actual dog bite incidents, extrapolated from the reported visits to the hospital, was in the neighbourhood of 130 actual bites. Reducing that amount by 58 per cent would be a significant improvement over and above the verified victims.

“A dog bite traumatizes the victim and their family, and often leads to the dog being killed,” Ingram said. “The average hospital visit for a dog bite costs taxpayers $4,000 to $5,000. Please join us in celebrating this big change, and thank you for your support as we try to bring the dog bite number down to zero.”

In addition to direct intervention programs like the spay-neuter campaign, fostering and adoption efforts, the LAFS is also the conveyer of classroom visits to teach children directly about responsible dog and cat ownership, public information initiatives to reduce the numbers of feral dogs and cats in the Lakes District, a community movement to build animal shelters for pets in need, and most famously for the popular children’s books Out of the Cold, Nobody’s Cats, and My Happy Dog-My Happy Cat all written by Ingram and LAFS co-founder Alistair Schroff.

Survey deadline approaching

from page 2

“To help, you could post the survey link in your social media profiles, have a poster in your facility –simply let us know how many posters you need – or include the survey in your communications such as website, newsletter, email signature, etcetera. If you have not yet taken the survey, we kindly ask that you do so. You can either take the survey as an individual, as a representative of your organization, or both.”

The survey can be found at the princegeorgeculture. com website, or find the link at the CAC website. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the CAC at arts@studio2880.com.

The deadline to fill out the survey is March 1.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

The Khast’an Drummers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.

Test of presidential power

Trump declares emergency at border

Jonathan LEMIRE, Colleen LONG, Alan FRAM Citizen news service

WASHINGTON — Defiant in the wake of a stinging budget defeat, President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, moving to secure more money for his long-promised wall by exercising a broad interpretation of his presidential powers that is certain to draw stiff legal challenges.

In his emergency proclamation, Trump painted a dark picture of the border as “a major entry point for criminals, gang members, and illicit narcotics” and one that threatens “core national security interests.” Overall, though, illegal border crossings are down from a high of 1.6 million in 2000.

His declaration instantly transformed a contentious policy fight into a foundational dispute over the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, spurring talk of a congressional vote to block Trump and ensuring that the president and Democrats will continue fighting over the border wall in Congress, the courts and on the campaign trail.

It triggered outrage from Democrats, unease among some Repub-

licans and flew in the face of years of GOP complaints that President Barack Obama had over-reached in his use of executive authority.

Trump signed the declaration to justify diverting billions of federal dollars from military construction and other purposes after Congress approved only a fraction of the money he had demanded. The standoff over border funding had led to the longest government shutdown in history. To avoid

another shutdown, Trump reluctantly signed a funding bill Friday that included just $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion he had demanded for the wall.

Trump announced the declaration in a free-wheeling, 50-minute Rose Garden news conference that included a long preamble about his administration’s accomplishments. He jousted with reporters and delivered a sing-song prediction about the fate of the order as

it winds its way through the legal system before potentially ending up at the Supreme Court.

“Sadly, we’ll be sued and sadly it will go through a process and happily we’ll win, I think,” said Trump.

Within hours of Trump’s statement, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would file suit challenging his emergency powers declaration.

“By the president’s very own admission in the Rose Garden, there is no national emergency. He just grew impatient and frustrated with Congress, and decided to move along his promise for a border wall ‘faster,”’ said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero. Some Democratic state attorneys general have also threatened to go to court over the decision.

The text of Trump’s proclamation cited an increase in families coming across the border and an inability to detain families during deportation proceedings – not drugs or violence as the president outlined in his press conference.

The top two Democrats in Congress said they’d use “every remedy available” to oppose what they cast as an unlawful measure.

“The President’s actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said in a joint statement.

Trump defended his use of an emergency declaration, saying other presidents had done the same. Other presidents have used emergency powers, but not to pay for projects that Congress wouldn’t support.

And Trump himself sent mixed messages as to its necessity. He wrote in the official proclamation that “Because of the gravity of the current emergency situation, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to provide additional support to address the crisis.”

But he seemed to tip his hand at a political motive when he said during the news conference, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster,” an admission certain to be cited during legal challenges.

Republicans had opposed Trump declaring a national emergency, repeatedly warning that it would set a bad precedent and divide the party when Democrats put it up for a vote. While many in the GOP on Friday fell in line behind Trump’s decision, others remain opposed.

“I don’t believe a national emergency declaration is the solution,” Sen Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in a statement. “It wouldn’t provide enough funding to adequately secure our borders, it would likely get tied up in litigation, and most concerning is that it would create a new precedent that a left-wing president would undoubtedly utilize to implement their radical policy agenda while bypassing the authority of Congress.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called for a hearing on the “serious constitutional and statutory issues” the declaration raises, Congressional votes in coming weeks on a resolution blocking the emergency declaration were highly likely, but the timing was uncertain. Once a resolution is introduced, leaders by law cannot prevent votes on such a measure, which would need a simple majority to pass each chamber. A resolution would all but certainly pass the Democraticcontrolled House and may also pass the Republican-run Senate, if a few GOP senators break with Trump. Congress seemed unlikely to muster the two-thirds majorities needed in each chamber to override a certain Trump veto. But forcing him to cast his first veto on the issue would underscore internal divisions GOP leaders would rather avoid highlighting.

The money in the spending bill Trump signed would finance just a quarter of the more than 322 kilometres of barrier he wanted this year.

To bridge the gap, Trump announced that he will be spending roughly $8 billion on border barriers – combining the money approved by Congress with funding he plans to repurpose through executive actions, including the national emergency. Money for hundreds of military construction projects around the country was potentially targeted.

AP PHOTO

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to Marine One at the White House in Washington on Friday for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, and from there to their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the long weekend.

StatsCan has insight into adults living with parents

Stephen COOK Citizen news service

OTTAWA — A Statistics Canada report is digging deeper into what kind of adults live with their parents at a time when more are doing so than ever before.

Close to 1.9 million Canadians aged 25 to 64 lived with at least one parent in 2017, more than double the 900,000 recorded 20 years ago, the agency said Friday.

In 1995, Canadians at home made up only five per cent of the adult population aged 25 to 64; now it’s up to nine.

But experts say it would be wrong to view them as the couch potatoes of the popular imagination.

“The image of these lazy twenty-somethings sitting in the basement playing video games is not borne out in the data,” said Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family.

While students made up a significant

share of adults living with parents, most had paid employment: 74 per cent, only slightly fewer than the 80 per cent of those not living with parents. They were less likely to have worked full-time permanent jobs in the prior year, though: 72 per cent had worked 41 to 52 weeks, compared to 82 per cent of those living apart from their parents.

Seventy per cent reported being single, meaning they were unmarried and had no common-law partners.

Spinks said financial concerns usually keep adult children at home with their

parents because it’s difficult to maintain a household on a single income, even if only one person lives in the home.

She said benefits and job security are scarce for young adults, making living with parents easier, more economical or the only remaining choice.

Close to three-quarters of adults living with parents have never lived apart from their parents, Statistics Canada said.

“This finding held true regardless of age group,” reads the report, adding that 60 per cent of those aged 55 to 64 and living with a parent had always done so.

Police: Woman hid mom’s body using blankets

The reason is usually the result of either a disability or culture, said Spinks.

Twenty-one per cent of people identifying themselves as South Asian – including people of Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan descent – and 19 per cent of people of Chinese descent aged 25 to 64 lived with parents, more than double the nine per cent of the total Canadian population.

Statistics Canada said these groups “may have cultures which value intergenerational living arrangements.”

But it’s unclear whether adult children are returning after leaving the nest, or if parents are moving in with them.

Spinks said the figures released Friday provide demographers and experts a starting point to get more answers.

“We got a lot of (the) what – we don’t have a lot of why,” said Spinks. “Now we try to figure out... what does this mean for policy and programming and communities and households.”

Democrats have opening to press Nielsen

When U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday morning, he justified the move with multiple lies. He downplayed the idea that most drugs enter through ports of entry (they do). He dismissed the notion that illegal border crossings are at historic lows (they are). He suggested a wall would keep out asylum-seeking migrants (most of whom are turning themselves in at the border).

At one point during Trump’s press conference, he was quizzed on where he gets the numbers that form the basis for his claims. He replied: “I get my numbers from a lot of sources, like Homeland Security primarily.”

As luck would have it, the person who is in charge of Homeland Security is coming to Capitol Hill very soon. Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is scheduled to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on March 6, at a hearing entitled, The Way Forward on Border Security.

This gives Democrats a major opening to press DHS secretary Nielsen on many of the claims that Trump has been making about the border. And this has new relevance, now that those claims are the basis for Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, which he’s using to appropriate the power to build large portions of his wall without Congressional authorization.

If handled properly, questioning from Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee will put Nielsen in an exquisitely difficult position. That’s because Nielsen will have to choose between falsifying widely available facts, on the one hand, and undercutting Trump’s case for a national emergency, on the other.

“Members will be able to present Secretary Nielsen with clear facts and see whether she – under oath – will help to undermine his case for circumventing Congress, or if she will herself lie to cover up his lies,” Tom Jawetz, an immigration analyst at the Center for American Progress, told me.

Nielsen will have a very tough time propping up Trump’s lies, if she decides that’s what she wants to do. Take, for instance, Trump’s claims about drugs and the border. As Philip Bump points out, many members of Trump’s own administration – including some at the Department of Homeland Security – have themselves confirmed that most drugs cross through official ports of entry.

Is Nielsen really going to contradict that? If so, Democrats can simply quote those very same officials telling the truth, making Nielsen’s efforts to prop up Trump’s falsehoods look even more buffoonishly absurd.

Democrats say that Trump’s justifications for his national emergency will be one focus at the upcoming hearing. “When the Secretary comes before the Committee next month, she will need to defend and explain

the Administration’s border security policies – as well as the president’s emergency declaration,” Adam Comis, a spokesman for Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chair of the committee, told me.

Surely the hearing will be focused on many other matters, such as Trump’s family separations, migrant child deaths at the border, detention policies, and a lot more. But if Democrats can carve out a bit of time to focus on Trump’s emergency justifications, that could prove important.

The text of Trump’s national emergency declaration itself cites “criminals, gang members, and illicit narcotics” to make the case that the border situation “threatens core national security interests and constitutes a national emergency.” In trying to support the idea that illegal crossings have gotten worse, it cites asylum-seeking families.

Democrats can hopefully get Nielsen to admit to multiple truths undermining Trump’s case, including the facts that most drugs cross through ports of entry; that research undermines Trump’s frequent claim that undocumented immigrants bring disproportionate crime; that illegal crossings are at historic lows; and that those asylum-seeking families are (again) mostly turning themselves in.

If Democrats can draw blood at the hearing, it could matter. For instance, if House Democrats move to pass a resolution terminating Trump’s national emergency, that

Reality check

It has been a year now since I wrote a letter where I explained Alberta’s problems were of their own doing. They’ve allowed Big Oil to call the shots for decades. Why would they want to invest in upgraders that would enable the crude to be pumpable, if they can get it sold with less upgrading?

So now Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is waking up to the reality that nobody but Texas wants their crude loaded with acidic chemicals.

They’ve now realized that they have to put up the money to Big Oil to now build the upgraders that they had so many years to make Big Oil construct the upgraders and refineries. Right now there are two best times to start building refineries and upgraders and that is 30 years ago or right now. Kudos to Alberta now for getting the construction going on this. It’s going to take a lot more loans to Big Oil companies to catch up though. There is no reason for the Trans Mountain pipeline to be pumping bitumen

This is great news for Prince George as another oil giant will buy out Husky’s B.C. holdings.

when it can be upgraded to a crude pumpable that has a known cleanup response attached to it.

With Husky Oil putting the word out that their service stations and our hometown Husky mini refinery will be sold to consolidate their businesses to the Alberta and Saskatchewan regions.

This is great news for Prince George as another oil giant will buy out Husky’s B.C. holdings. With an unlimited supply of oils coming from the Pine River and Dawson Creek areas it makes business sense to any Big Oil company to buy. The Husky refinery would be kept operating but there will be a separate giant refinery with upgraders complete with numerous diameter tanks constructed on site.

The wheels are already turning

on this future project. Within a year Husky’s assets in B.C. will be sold. Then within the following year there will be an announcement of a $25-billion refinery that will be built at their location.

Miles Thomas Prince George

Hydro numbers don’t add up

This has been a topic of conversation over coffee for some time. Back in August of 2017, our Basic Residential Rate (BRR) was $85.80/MWh (megawatt hour). Today, our BRR is $88.40/MWh (plus three per cent).

The rate does jump up to $132.60/MWh after you use 1.287 /MWhs.

From a 2016 BC Hydro publication, the base price paid for energy purchased from the independent power producers was between $102 to $111/MWh.

I don’t know why this has taken so long to come to light. Here we go again… Neil Van Caeseele Prince George

LETTERS WELCOME: The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published.

Subscribe to The Citizen and get the best in local news, sports, arts and more delivered to your door five days a week Call 250-562-3301 to subscribe today

will set in motion a process that will force Senate Republicans to vote on it in the near future. Depending on timing, if the Nielsen hearing does blow up some of Trump’s lies in a very public fashion, that could conceivably put a bit more pressure on Senate Republicans.

On top of that, with lawsuits getting teed up against Trump’s national emergency, Jawetz points out that revealing Nielsen moments could “strengthen the case for the onslaught of litigation ahead.”

To be clear, it’s hard to say how much legal significance it will have if those justifications are effectively debunked at the hearing. As I noted earlier, it’s possible that it simply may not have legal relevance if Trump’s national emergency is basically premised on fiction. At the same time, if it is decisively unmasked as such, it just might end up mattering.

Beyond all this, if Democrats can use this hearing and other future oversight hearings to debunk Trump’s border falsehoods, it could further undermine Trump’s public and political case for his national emergency. Trump obviously believes that declaring a national emergency makes him look like he’s taking decisive action on behalf of his wall in the eyes of his base. But outside that bubble, this whole mess could very well get a lot worse for him.

— Greg Sargent

Cab-driving dad makes it awkward

The NDP government’s preoccupation with studying and restudying the idea of ride-hailing in B.C. has left one of its MLAs exposed.

North Delta MLA Ravi Kahlon sat on the legislature committee that held numerous hearings on ride-hailing last year and wrote a lengthy recommendation about how to handle it.

He stayed on the committee after the government backed up and did the same thing all over again. It referred still more questions to the committee even after a bill was introduced last November to bring ride-hailing to B.C.

All that exposure to the issue finally revealed a fact that the opposition B.C. Liberals brought to the legislature Monday – Kahlon’s father has a taxi licence in Victoria and is just wrapping up a long career as a cab driver.

So the MLA is sitting on a committee making recommendations on a change that is widely expected to have a major impact on a sector that his father works in.

Grilled by reporters after the opposition’s questions about the propriety of all that in the legislature, Kahlon said some other MLAs knew about the family connection. It seems to have become known casually. He would have been much better off formally disclosing the connection at the outset, because it looks embarrassing to have it come out at this late date.

There’s no hard and fast rule about sitting on committees when personal interests come into play. But the general conflict-of-interest law doesn’t make any distinction between real and apparent conflicts. Kahlon’s continued membership on the committee looks problematic.

Ride-hailing has become an intensely political issue over the years that the B.C. Liberals and now the NDP have been kicking it around. It’s a wonder that didn’t move anyone to double-check potential problems when they were rounding up MLAs to tackle the issue.

The only saving grace is that the committee is being used as a timewasting stall by the government to put all the headaches associated with ride-hailing off as long as possible. So even if Kahlon is compromised as a member by his father’s occupation, it wouldn’t have a direct impact. Because the committee is just spinning its wheels.

It was handed ride-hailing the first time around in November

Classifieds advertising: 250-562-6666 cls@pgcitizen.ca

2017, as a move to appease Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, who was agitating for faster action.

It heard a few dozen witnesses in short order and wrapped up hearings in January 2018. It came out with a report later that concluded ride-hailing firms should be permitted to operate in B.C., “within a provincial regulatory regime.”

It stressed the need to modernize the taxi business at the same time, to allow for equitable treatment of the two competing sectors.

MLAs wrestled with the idea of capping the number of vehicles and setting boundaries on areas that could be served. If ride-hailing firms could operate without boundaries, the thought was that taxis should be allowed operate outside their jurisdictions in some circumstances.

One of the key recommendations was that ride-hailing drivers could use a Class 5 standard licence, rather than a more stringent requirement.

But when Transportation Minister Claire Trevena introduced the framework legislation in November, it ignored that and required a Class 4 licence.

The rest of the bill deconstructs most previous law on taxis and lumps taxis and ride-hailing firms together as passenger-directed vehicles in the eyes of the government.

It also removed a lot of authority from local jurisdictions and vested it in the provincial passenger transportation board.

To ease any worries about moving too quickly to give people what they want, Trevena gave herself a year to bring it all into effect. But not before – you guessed it –another study.

So the bill was shipped back to the committee that had already exhaustively reviewed the issue. This time around, there are just a few details in the terms of reference. One of them is the Class 4/Class 5 licence issue. Trevena wants the committee to reconsider something she’s already ignored the first time it looked at it. However Kahlon’s issue plays out, it won’t work toward a quicker arrival of ride-hailing. It’s on the slow road, and could be getting slower.

Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca

Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca

Website: www.pgcitizen.ca

Website feedback: digital@glaciermedia.ca Member of

The Washington Post

IN THE FAST LEYNE LES LEYNE

Fourteen Sechelt homes ordered evacuated due to sinkholes News

Amy SMART Citizen news service

Greg and Gerry Latham spent Friday morning scrambling to pack up family heirlooms as a series of sinkholes threatened to destroy their dream retirement home on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast.

The Lathams are among 14 families in an upscale seaside neighbourhood in Sechelt preparing to obey an evacuation order and they said they didn’t know if they would be allowed to return.

“I’m standing in my beautiful home that has absolutely no furniture in it, looking out at the view, the eagles flying by,” Gerry Latham said through tears. “I’m just trying to figure out what to leave behind.”

Although the sinkhole risk was documented before most of the homes were built, the Lathams said they weren’t told about the problem before buying. The situation has sparked lawsuits from several residents.

ment before presss time.

After buying the property in 2004, Concordia submitted a geotechnical report before development began, then gave letters of assurance signed by several engineers certifying proper construction of the roads, water and sewer lines, the district said.

It said Concordia’s geotechnical engineer issued a report in 2006 documenting sinkholes that had developed and setting out how the infrastructure should be designed.

The company was required to register a restrictive covenant against title to all of the subdivided lots, the district said.

Sinkholes throughout the Seawatch subdivision prompted the District of Sechelt to order the evacuation. The Lathams said they’ve been told RCMP would begin enforcing the order at 1 p.m. on Friday.

The homes, with views overlooking Sechelt Inlet, are similar to others in a nearby subdivision valued at over $1 million, although the BC Assessment Authority values most of the buildings in the Seawatch subdivision at zero.

An engineering report issued to the district Feb. 7 says future sinkholes or landslides within the subdivision could damage infrastructure or buildings, and injury or death are possible consequences.

A statement issued by the district says Concordia Seawatch Ltd. built and sold the subdivision despite engineering reports as early as 2006 describing the development of sinkholes.

“The Seawatch subdivision was designed, built, marketed, and sold by a private company. The District of Sechelt cannot accept the argument that when a private sector venture falters, the cost should be borne by the Sechelt taxpayers,” the statement said.

Concordia could not be reached for com-

“This means each property owner should have been aware of the geotechnical attributes of the land,” it said.

The first major sinkhole to appear after residents moved in was in June 2012.

In February 2015, another large sinkhole damaged a home, forcing the owners had to move out.

The Lathams said their street began deteriorating early last year, leading to a road closure.

In September 2018, another sinkhole appeared on an undeveloped property. The most recent large sinkhole appeared on Christmas Day.

“There is a very high probability of at least one sinkhole collapse each year based on the recent history of the site,” an engineering report to the district says.

Several homeowners have launched lawsuits against the district, Concordia, its contractor, engineering firms, the home warranty provider and real estate agents. Some have been dropped but two owners have ongoing litigation, the district said. A trial is set for March 23, 2020.

The district’s statement says the most comprehensive solution to the problem would involve drilling wells, continuous pumping to remove groundwater, partial infrastructure replacement and repairing roads. But that would cost $10 million based on a 2015 estimate and the district cannot afford it without a referendum to raise property taxes immediately by 8.5 per cent.

The provincial government will not offer assistance because the situation does not qualify under the emergency response pro-

gram, the statement says.

Despite early reports about the sinkhole risk, the Lathams said it was never disclosed to them by real estate agents, the developer, the district or the lawyer who conducted a title search for them.

The couple said they can’t afford to enter the lawsuit, which has cost their neighbours $400,000 over four years.

The Lathams said they fear they’ve lost the $1 million plus $250,000 in improvements they sank into what they thought would be their retirement home. They’re now preparing to move into a 1,000-squarefoot rental.

“There’s been a lot of comments coming

back to us saying, ‘Well you should have done your due diligence, you should have known better.’ People who live on the Sunshine Coast, who have lived here their entire lives, say, ‘Well we could have told you that,’” Gerry Latham said. None of the residents of the subdivision lived on the coast until they moved there, she said. They moved from Vancouver and she said they went through the same process as any other home they’ve purchased in their lives.

“Where we erred, in my mind, was we trusted. We trusted the developer and the district that they were selling us a piece of property that had no issues,” she said.

GREG AND GERRY LATHAM

Cowboy country

Alex PULASKI Citizen news service

About a century ago, dentist turned author Zane Grey first laid eyes on Oak Creek Canyon. The red-rock hallway north of Sedona packs such startling scenery into its 20 kilometres that it often draws comparisons to its famous Arizona cousin, the Grand Canyon.

In those days, Grey’s love of the outdoors had already propelled him to renown as the “most popular of living authors,” as one reviewer concluded. His purple prose popularized the Arizona desert, and after Hollywood came calling in the 1920s and beyond, the landscape around Sedona –about a two-hour drive north of Phoenix –emerged as the cowboy ideal of the American West.

The resulting novel from Grey’s visit, The Call of the Canyon, is so rife with sentimentality, jingoism and sexism that it’s barely readable today, with one notable exception – the searing passages about the land itself.

Trying to describe five sunny fall days there with my wife – much of it aboard mountain bikes – I reach for words that seem drab and monochrome, deflating Sedona’s beauty. Instead I end up rereading the passage in which Grey’s heroine first arrives in the canyon:

“The great cliffs turned gold, the creek changed to glancing silver, the green of trees vividly freshened, and in the clefts rays of sunlight burned into the blue shadows. Carley had never gazed upon a scene like this.”

In a 1924 book review in The New York Times, L.H. Robbins described the West’s attraction as an escape from the daily grind, and how Grey had bottled the area’s siren song in The Call of the Canyon.

“Here scenery does more than fill space,” Robbins wrote. “Potent in its influence upon the people of the story, it is a character in itself... The wild, lonely, fearfully beautiful Arizona desert has never been better done.”

Somehow, then and now, Sedona’s red rocks call us. Time to saddle up.

For as long as I can remember, Moab, Utah, has sat atop the pinnacle of the West’s mountain biking destinations. But Sedona, with more than 320 km of varied singletrack biking trail snaking in and around the city (pop. 10,300), is both a premier cycling destination and a place to discover art and food, even to replenish your soul.

Since the 1980s, after a psychic divined that the area was home to spiritual energy vortexes, seekers have descended on Sedona with healing on their minds. I was skeptical, at best, about the area’s transformative powers.

First, Joanna Yates, a guide with Hermosa Tours, met us at Over the Edge bike shop, where we had rented some high-end, fattire mountain bikes with nifty gadgets such as full suspension for a smoother ride and something I hadn’t seen before – a dropper seatpost. With the push of a button the rider can adjust seat height, something that comes in handy when you want the seat out of the way for quick downhill turns.

It must be noted that my wife and I are not accomplished cyclists. To be clear, I do own a mountain bike. But I also own a set of golf clubs and a trampoline, and claim no particular skill with them.

So Yates’s first challenge was helping a 50-something couple overcome a natural uneasiness about unknown terrain, unfamiliar bikes and unforgiving rocks.

On the drive to West Sedona she pointed out the striking red-rock formations including Thunder Mountain, Lizard Head and Chimney Rock. Shaped by millions of years of sediment deposits and erosion, the rocks owe their red hues to a thin coating of iron oxide. Rust never sleeps.

“The terrain here is very different from what people expect,” Yates told us. “Look around: It is rock. On Hiline and some of the other double black diamond trails, there’s a lot of exposure. Make a wrong move and you or your bike could go down the mountain.”

Perhaps sensing our rising panic, she assured us there would be no “exposure” on this ride. She noted that Sedona-area trails pack enough twists, climbs, downhills and surprises to challenge beginners, but as we mounted up to tackle the Cockscomb, Dawa and Arizona Cypress trails, she injected a final booster shot of confidence.

“Trust these bikes,” she said. “They can go over so much. It’s the riders we have to convince.”

Ninety minutes and nearly eight kilometres later we were winded but unscathed, ready for lunch, some city exploration and another ride – or two, as it turned out – the next day.

In the morning we mounted up oldschool – on horseback – for nearly two hours of desert trail riding through Verde Valley wine country near Cornville, about a half-hour drive from Sedona. The ups and

In Sedona, tourists can explore the iconic Arizona landscape that inspired Zane Grey

downs take their toll on the hips and knees, as I discovered in a wobbly dismount.

“Now you know why John Wayne walked the way he did,” said Max Wilson, a guide with Horsin’ Around Adventures.

After a light, energizing lunch at the ultrafresh, relaxing ChocolaTree restaurant (it bills itself as an “organic oasis”) we saddled up again with Yates for more mountain biking – this time starting on pavement in the thick of town.

We quickly got onto rock and dirt and followed Soldier Pass Trail to the Seven Sacred Pools (pretty, but not as impressive as the Maui version), then a long haul over the Adobe Jack Trail back to civilization.

Along the ups and downs, Yates continually shouted encouragement (“You can do this!” or “Go, girl, trust the bike!”) and though we did on occasion walk the bikes for short stretches, we began to find confidence and occasionally even courage.

Which was a good thing, considering that for the next two days we planned to tackle the trails on our own. Enormously helpful were both a detailed trail map and some helpful phone advice from both Over the Edge and another shop we rented from, Absolute Bikes. They were like friendly captains helping us sail strange seas.

On those unaccompanied days, as I rocketed down a steep stretch of the Templeton Trail or tackled slick rock around Cathedral Rock’s base, I heard the echoes of Yates’s steady encouragement ringing in my ears, just as loud, seemingly, as my adrenalinefired “woohoo” at the bottom of the hill.

“You can do this. Trust the bike.”

★★★ Make no mistake: Sedona holds much to do and see that doesn’t involve twowheeled adventure. But we were glad of the exercise to help work off calories from some spectacular dinners, notably at the elegant

Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill, the romantic Cress on Oak Creek and the family-style Gerardo’s Italian Kitchen.

The accommodations run the gamut from the charmingly retro Red Agave Adventure Resort (where stunning vistas and trails wait right outside your door) to the comfortable Amara Resort and Spa to the luxurious L’Auberge de Sedona.

We frequented galleries and shops at the sycamore-shaded Tlaquepaque arts and crafts village. One afternoon we even created our own works of art (a couple of candy dishes) at the Melting Point glassblowing hot shop, thanks to some patient, good-humored help from wizards Austin Littenberg and Jordan Ford.

We traced the area’s history – particularly as a Western movie location – through a visit to the Sedona Heritage Museum. The Call of the Canyon, filmed in 1923, was the first movie shot in Sedona, but later some of Hollywood’s biggest names – the Duke, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck – starred here.

“The movies became the area’s industry,” said Janeen Trevillyan, the museum’s historian. “Then a lot of people started to see the beauty of the place in the movies. When America hit the road in the 1950s, Route 66 was right up the road through Flagstaff.

“Most of us have come here from somewhere else; they visit, fall in love with the place and by the end of the day have bought a house. And lots and lots of people come here and say, ‘Can you feel this?’”

“This,” of course, is that undefinable allure of the red rocks, whether attributable to vortexes, New Age mysticism or simply natural beauty.

My wife and I did a little soul searching of our own, hiking Teacup Trail one afternoon with Paul Sequoia Rauch. He’s a guide with Sedona Soul Adventures, which combines

Sedona’s outdoor beauty (and perceived healing powers) with Socratic-like attention from a spiritual guide or healer. Each customized retreat is different, with the focus predetermined by the participants. We walked in stretches, then sat and talked, identifying old wounds and resolving communication barriers.

I’d been afraid we’d start channeling or chanting or whatever it is that vortex-seekers do. Instead, he helped us expose some very old scars. And as we sat and stood and faced one another, it felt very much as if a healing had begun.

I don’t know yet if we were transformed, but we definitely ended that walk feeling as if something had shifted inside.

We weren’t the only ones. Over the course of our visit, we met no fewer than a dozen people who spoke in hushed tones of how Sedona’s red rocks had soothed their souls to varying degrees. Much as Grey’s wardamaged hero of The Call of the Canyon wrote home to his New York fiancee about the healing powers of vast spaces and sweet silence.

“I never understood anything of the meaning of nature,” he penned, “until I lived under these looming stone walls and whispering pines.”

As a rental-car shuttle bus ferried us to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport for the flight home, some passengers near us bandied superlatives about their Sedona experiences: the splendid art, the incredible food, the incomparable views.

One man, though, described how his search for a vortex ended in disappointment for lack of a parking spot.

I guess some of us fail to encounter what we seek in Sedona. Maybe it’s just a question of slowing down, mounting up and finding yourself comfortable and confident in the saddle.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS BY ALEX PULASK

ABOVE: Visitors take a two-hour guided trail ride near Sedona, Arizona, with Horsin’ Around Adventures. BELOW: The extensive trail system in and surrounding Sedona offers more than 320 kilometres of varied single-track biking.

DINOS DUMP TIMBERWOLVES IN PLAYOFF GAME

Page 10

Cougars’ losing streak hits 14 games

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

Griffen Outhouse doesn’t get to play hockey close to home very often but when he does, he becomes exceptionally stingy.

That’s a quality every Western Hockey League goalie strives for and his miserly ways worked especially well for the Victoria Royals in their game Friday at CN Centre against the win-starved Prince George Cougars.

Outhouse allowed just one goal on 34 shots to backstop his team to a 4-1 victory on Alumni Night, which extended the Cougars’ losing streak to 14 games.

The 20-year-old Outhouse, now in his fourth WHL season, came into the game sporting a .956 save percentage and 1.47 goalsagainst average in nine games of his WHL career in Prince George. The native of Likely, southeast of Quesnel, had a good chunk of his loyal fanbase in attendance Friday and played like he didn’t want to disappoint them, posting his 22nd win in 40 games this season.

Outhouse’s stellar outing and Tanner Sidaway’s two-goal effort allowed the Royals (28-23-1-2) to improve their hold on second place in the B.C. Division. The Cougars (16-33-4-2) haven’t won a game since Jan. 12 – a five-week run of misery.

“The effort was there, there’s no doubt about that. We threw a lot of pucks at the net but it’s the critical mistakes, we don’t stick with it,” said Cougars GM and interim head coach Mark Lamb, who took over behind the bench a week ago from the fired Richard Matvichuk.

“We don’t have patience in important parts of the game to stick with it and play the right way. I’m really noticing there’s a lot of try, a lot of care, and a lot of frustration. When you have a lot of try, we like that. When you have a lot of care, we really like that, but frustration is killing us and you have to be able to play through frustration.

“It’s one of the biggest things, not only in hockey, but it’s in life,

adversity, and we’ve got a lot right now. One goal goes in and we’re making mistakes and frustration just takes over and that’s the result you get. That’s something we have to fix.”

The Royals drew first blood, scoring 3:50 into the game. Sidaway took a pass off the boards and with Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg in close proximity he let go a shot from a wide angle that appeared to tick off Moberg’s stick and change direction as it sailed into the far-side corner of the net.

The Cougars had plenty of chances the rest of the period but couldn’t beat Outhouse, who had a busy period stopping 15 shots. Josh Maser had a crack at an open goal

late in the period with Outhouse out of position but missed the net. Sidaway caught the Cougars napping and gave Victoria a 2-0 lead when he scored just seven seconds into the second period with his team killing a penalty. Off the face-off at centre ice, Dino Kambeitz chipped the puck ahead and Sidaway caught up to it ahead of Vladislav Mikhalchuk and from the left corner let go a sharp-angle shot that fooled goalie Taylor Gauthier as he dropped to his knees. It was the eighth shorthanded goal of the season for Victoria.

The Cougars responded about three minutes later, giving their fans in a crowd of 2,683 a reason to cheer. Tyson Upper shovelled a breakaway pass to captain Josh

Sit-skier Eskau digs Otway course

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

The red, black and gold colours of Germany joined a row of flags billowing in the face of a biting winter breeze chilling the trails at Otway Nordic Centre and Andrea Eskau had a smile on her face.

The 47-year-old sit-skier had just finished her practice session on the biathlon course in preparation for her first race today in the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships and she gave the hilly course a thumbs-up passing grade.

“The courses are really good, especially for a sit-skier – in my opinion they are really fair, there are no dangerous parts,” Eskau said. “It’s challenging but not dangerous. The downhill parts are not too heavy for the high-handicapped ones.”

Eskau sits in a sled using only her arms and poles to propel her. Abundant snowfall and cold weather allowed groomers at Otway to build a hard and deep classic track which Eskau and the rest of the sit-skiers will follow throughout their races.

“The track is better for us because we need a good track, that’s very important,” said Eskau. “We need a deep track. If it’s just on the surface it’s not strong enough we get out of it and that’s not good.

“I crash sometimes but not that often. If you fall downwards it’s hard to get up.”

Eskau grew up as a competitive able-bodied road cyclist in

Germany until she was 27, when a cycling accident while riding to school resulted in career-ending spinal injuries. Five years after her

accident, in 2003, she was back racing again as a hand-cyclist and in 2009 she joined the ranks of the para nordic world, immersing

Curtis and he rifled a high shot in over the glove of Outhouse to cut the gap to 2-1.

The Royals padded their lead late in the period, scoring a bit of a fluky one. Former Cougars winger Kody McDonald started the play, dragging the puck from behind the net and back out to the blueline as he spun a pass to Phillip Schultz, whose quick shot from the top of the circle hit the shoulder of Kaid Oliver as he skated through the crease and deflected in.

Three goals on 10 shots – not exactly what Gauthier had envisioned on his 18th birthday. The Cougars took a 23-10 shot advantage into the second intermission.

The Cats continued to shoot themselves in the foot. Austin

herself in training to become a cross-country skier and biathlete.

“I’m from close to Oberhof and we have a lot of snow and I was unlucky because I couldn’t run through the snow with a wheelchair, so this was a nice new experience with the sledge and I loved it,” said Eskau.

Eskau is among a rare breed of athletes who have ascended the medal podium in the summer and winter Paralympic Games. In 2016 she went to the summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and came home with a gold medal in the hand-cycling women’s road race.

Eskau went to her first Paralympic competition in 2010 in Vancouver-Whistler and won biathlon silver and bronze.

“That was really nice, I’d only done it for a month,” she said. “But that time the level was lower than now.”

She upped the ante in Sochi in 2014, winning two gold medals in biathlon, and Pyeongchang in 2018 was even better. She captured six medals – two gold in biathlon, three silver in crosscountry and a bronze in the crosscountry relay.

The progression of Paralympic sports since the first Games in Lillihammer, Norway, in 1994 has been steady, and the level of competition in the sit-skiing classes has grown exponentially.

“Now there are much more athletes and much more countries competing,” Eskau said. “When I

Crossley fired off a hard pass to defence partner Cole Beamin standing in front of the Cougar net and the puck skipped off Beamin’s skate right onto the stick of Logan Doust, who flicked his wrists and scored the Royals’ fourth goal, 6:46 into the third period.

The Seattle Thunderbirds beat Red Deer 6-4 Friday to move 12 points ahead of the Cougars for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Cougars will try to end their skid tonight (7 p.m.) when the same teams meet in the rematch at CN Centre. The Cats will host the U.S. Division-leading Everett Silvertips in back-to-back games Monday afternoon (2 p.m.) and Tuesday night (7 p.m.).

started there were a lot of Russians and lot of Ukrainians, but now you have Kazhakstan, Iran, Korea and Mongolia. The last winter Paralympics were amazing because we had so many countries and it was more like the Olympics. Pyeongchang had the most countries ever.”

Eskau was a multiple-medalist at the 2017 World Para Nordic Skiing Championship in Finsterau, Germany, an event watched by an internet audience estimated at two million. All the races in Prince George will be webcast live and Eskau’s girlfriend in Germany will be among the viewers all over Europe and the rest of the world watching her perform.

“This is impressive – the TV coverage is much more than in the past and there are a lot of people who are interested in us now. It has increased so much the last few years,” Eskau said.

She knows the competition over the next week is going to be intense. Eskau ranks third in the world rankings in biathlon and cross-country. Americans Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters are 1-2 in biathlon, while Masters tops the sit-skier cross-country rankings ahead of Birgit Skarstein of Norway and Eskau.

“Oksana Masters is the best skier in our field and Kendall Gretsch is the favorite in biathlon,” said Eskau. “Sometimes my shooting is pretty good.”

see ESKAU, page 10

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Prince George Cougars forward Matej Toman battles for a loose puck with D-Jay Jerome of the Victoria Royals on Friday night at CN Centre.

CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

Andrea Eskau of Germany is one of the most successful Paralympians in the world.

Brar No. 1 with Kings fans, Manz wins MVP award

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Prince George Spruce Kings fans obviously like what Ben Brar’s done for their team.

So much so, in fact, Brar topped the list as winner of the team’s fan favourite award this season.

The 20-year-old winger was presented two awards Friday night at the Kings’ awards banquet at the Ramada Hotel, a day after he notched the first career hat trick of his B.C. Hockey League career in Thursday’s 5-2 win over the West Kelowna Warriors.

He and Kings captain Ben Poisson shared in the most inspirational player award and Brar could still catch linemate Dustin Manz for the leading scorer award, yet to be determined.

With four games left in the regular season, Brar leads the team with 32 goals and has 25 assists for 57 points.

With four games left in the regular season, Brar leads the team with 32 goals and has 25 assists for 57 points. Heading into Friday’s games, he was 13th in BCHL scoring, seven shy of Manz, the league’s fourth-most productive scorer with 64 points, including 29 goals.

Manz, a second-year King heading to Lake Superior State University next season, was voted the team’s most valuable player and shared the off-ice fitness award with defenceman Jay Keranen.

Keranen, who shed a monkey off his back Thursday when he scored his first-ever BCHL regular-season goal, won the award for outstanding community service.

Layton Ahac shared the top defenceman award with Liam Watson-Brawn and was on the list of four scholastic player-of-the-year award winners with Nick Poisson, Jason Chu and Nick Bochen.

Bochen, a 17-year-old Burnaby Winter Club product, was voted the Kings’ top rookie. In his first BCHL season he ranks fifth in team scoring with eight goals and 37 points and has signed a scholarship agreement to play for the University of Michigan Wolverines starting in 2020.

Defenceman Max Coyle and winger Nick Poisson shared in the most improved player award. Goalie Logan Neaton and defenceman Dylan Anhorn were the most dedicated players, while wingers Patrick Cozzi and Nolan Welsh were each chosen for the Seventh Player award.

The Kings fan appreciation award went to Ben and James Fandrick.

The leading scorer and top plus/ minus award winners will be decided after the Kings’ final regularseason game next Saturday when they host the Chilliwack Chiefs to wrap up a two-game weekend set. The team will also pick a playoff MVP after the postseason.

The Spruce Kings will play this Sunday afternoon in Surrey, then travel to Chilliwack to play the first-overall Chiefs for a Monday matinee on Family Day. The Kings are five points behind the Chiefs and each team has four games left.

Dinos run away from Timberwolves in Canada West playoff opener

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

The UNBC Timberwolves ordered the upset special but the Calgary Dinos weren’t offering anything quite that tasty on the dinner menu Friday night in Calgary. They served up an 81-58 decision that left the T-wolves facing elimination in the U Sports Canada West women’s basketball bestof-three quarterfinal series.

Erin McIntosh was the big gun for the Dinos, collecting a game-high 22 points, while Bobbi Jo Colburn also brought out the dagger, sinking 16 points. Courtney Donaldson provided a spark for the home team, hitting four of her nine triple attempts for a 12-point game. Michaela Nieuwenhuizen also hit double figures with 10 points.

“We knew they were going to press, but

we weren’t helping each other enough,” said UNBC point guard Emily Holmes. “It is one thing to watch it and whole other thing to play against it. We have to learn from it and do a better job tomorrow.”

Vasiliki Louka picked up 16 points and had 12 rebounds for UNBC. Louka also had two assists and led the T-wolves defensively with one block and three steals. Maria Mongomo, who had 29 points in UNBC’s 80-78 win last week against Trinity Western, was held to 14 points. Madison Landry, with 12 points, and Alina Shakirova, with 10, also reached double figures.

The T-wolves were at their best in the second and third quarters. After falling behind 20-10 in the first quarter they were outscored 22-20 and 18-15 the next two quarters. UNBC cut the deficit to seven, trailing 50-43 with 3:16 left. Consecutive threes from Donaldson near the end of the quarter gave Calgary a 60-45 lead.

“We were taking better care of the ball, and being more patient on offence,” said Holmes. “We were getting good looks, but they were hitting those shots. Give them credit, we would play defence for 20 seconds and the last few seconds they would get a look and score it.”

Calgary maintained a seven-point edge over UNBC in the final quarter. The Dinos took advantage of their longrange shooting to get the better of their opponents. They shot 12-for-28 from three-point range. The T-wolves were limited to just 11 attempts and sunk three of them. Neither team was very successful from the foul line. UNBC shot 61.9 per cent (13-for21), while the Dinos hit 44 per cent (9-for-20) of their free throws.

The teams are back on the court for Game 2 today at 5 p.m. PT. If a third game is needed it would be played Sunday at noon PT.

P.G.’s Pilote, Rusnell and coach Fewster on ice at Scotties

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Today’s the day for the Fewster sisters from Prince George. Now known by their married names, Kristen Pilote and Jen Rusnell, they’ve taken their curling game to the highest level, representing B.C. at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts which starts today in Sydney, N.S.

Two weeks after celebrating their provincial championship win at the Scotties B.C. women’s championship in Quesnel, third Pilote and lead Rusnell will join skip Sarah Wark of Chilliwack and second Carley Sand-

Citizen news service

with of Victoria on the ice in Sydney for their first game today at 10:30 a.m. (PT) against Jill Brothers of Nova Scotia.

The B.C. team also includes alternate Michelle Dunn of Chilliwack and coach Rick Fewster of Prince George. This will be the second national championship appearance for Pilote and Rusnell, who were part of Patti Knezevic’s B.C. provincial-champion rink in 2015.

B.C. has a bye for today’s late (4:30 p.m. PT) draw and will return Sunday (5:30 a.m. PT) to play Manitoba champion Tracy Fleury, followed by a 5 p.m. PT encounter with Team Nunavut (Janine Bodnar).

Hurricanes blow past Oilers

RALEIGH, N.C. — Nino Niederreiter scored two goals, Curtis McElhinney stopped the final 40 shots he faced, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Friday night.

Lucas Wallmark also scored and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes, who have won 15 of 21

On Monday, B.C.’s lone draw is at 10:30 a.m. PT against Alberta skip Chelsea Carey. Wark plays two games on Tuesday, first at 5:30 a.m. PT against perennial Northern Ontario champion Krista McCarville, then at 3:30 against Gabrielle Lavoie of Quebec. Wark’s final round-robin game is on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. against Rachel Homan of Ontario. Playoffs start Thursday with tiebreakers, if necessary. The final starts the following Sunday at 2 p.m. PT. Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg is the defending champion and will play as Team Canada.

More Scotties coverage on page 11

since Dec. 31 for the best record in the NHL in that span. Carolina moved a point behind idle Pittsburgh for the final wild-card playoff spot in the East.

Leon Draisaitl scored his team-leading 34th goal on the Oilers’ first shot, and Mikko Koskinen stopped 24 shots while losing his sixth straight decision. Edmonton is 1-72 in its last 10. McElhinney improved to 7-0-0 against Edmonton – his best career record against any opponent.

Eskau powered to five medals in recent World Cup races

— from page 9

The host Caledonia Nordic Ski Club purchased air rifles used by the standing and sitting biathletes to shoot at targets 10-metres away. The club also invested in a sonic target sighting system for visually-impaired biathletes and both systems will become a legacy for northern B.C. to be used at other clubs in the region.

Trained as a psychologist, Eskau is a former director of sports for the impaired at the Federal Institute of Sport Science in Cologne, Germany. Her level of impairment – LW 11.0 – is right in the middle of the five sit-skier levels which range from 10 (most impaired – paralyzed from the breast down, no hip control) to 12 (least impaired – single- or double leg amputees). Skiers in her classification have a leg impairment and fair trunk control, with enough core muscle control to balance themselves around corners.

Eskau has been training hard for her second Para Nordic World Championship and she’s prepared for whatever challenges the courses provide. She’s coming off a fivemedal performance a month ago at the Para World Cup in Ostersund, Sweden.

“In this kind of environment it’s so much fun for me, and you get back so much, you don’t think about your arms,” she said. “The glide is much better now than the last days when it was really good.”

Eskau has been training hard for her second Para Nordic World Championship and she’s prepared for whatever challenges the courses provide.

In the men’s sit-skiing class, in biathlon and cross-country, Daniel Cnossen of the U.S. is the one to beat. He leads the world standings in both disciplines. Aaron Pike of the U.S. is ranked fourth in cross-country and sixth in biathlon.

The four-athlete American team arrived Wednesday. Wax technician Paige Elliott, of Durango, Colo., spoke to Gretsch after her practice run Thursday and Gretsch was impressed with the course.

“She was just beaming,” said Elliott. Biathletes will begin the competition today, with the women’s sit-ski 10-kilometre race starting at 10 a.m., followed by the men’s race at 10:55 a.m. The women’s standing race starts at 12:30 p.m., with the men getting underway at 12:50, followed by the visually-impaired races at 2:20 and 2:40.

Cross-country takes the stage on Sunday, starting at 10 a.m., and Monday will be dedicated to the cross-country sprints, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday is a day of training and racing resumes Wednesday with the biathlon sprints.

Vasiliki Louka of the UNBC Timberwolves draws the attention of two University of Calgary Dinos defenders during Friday’s Canada West playoff game in Calgary.

Busy schedule working well for Homan

Gregory STRONG Citizen news service

SYDNEY, N.S. — A packed schedule this season has worked quite nicely for Rachel Homan. Her life will be getting even busier later this year.

Homan, who is pregnant and due in mid-June, has managed to juggle a full-time curling schedule – guiding her team to the top of the rankings along the way – while continuing her education program studies at the University of Alberta.

“It’s definitely a challenge,” Homan said. “You go from go-gogo while you’re on the road and then you get back and you’ve got lots of work to do. I’m doing my placement right now, so I’m teaching in a school. You’re right back at it as soon as you get home.”

Homan, who represented Canada at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, is a headliner at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Preliminary round-robin play begins today at Centre 200. Homan has three Grand Slam victories and a World Cup win this season. The Ontario skip has achieved those results despite very little downtime.

“Sometimes you’d like to take a couple days recovery from the week and from your travel,” Homan said Friday after the team’s practice session. “It just

takes a little bit longer to recover but I think everyone kind of goes through that, whether you’re working or you’ve got a busy life outside of curling.

“It’s always a challenge to try and juggle.”

There have been some distractions this season too.

A number of curlers in the recent Ontario championship, upset that Homan’s team was eligible despite two players primarily living out of province, voted for her to win a sportsmanship award in an apparent mock gesture.

Without revealing specifics, Homan later issued a statement

on Twitter that included the post: “Let’s be better than yesterday. Stand up and speak out #antibullying.”

At the time, Homan said many curlers apologized but others had not.

“We’ve moved past that situation and are just focusing on na-

Scheidegger wins Scotties wild-card game

Citizen news service

SYDNEY, N.S. — Casey Scheidegger

scored a single point in the 10th end for a 7-6 win over Kerri Einarson in the wild-card game Friday night at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Scheidegger drew to the four-foot ring with her final throw for the victory. Einarson struggled mightily with her draw weight throughout the game and it proved costly.

Scheidegger will be known as Team Wild Card for the rest of the competition while Einarson is going home.

Einarson, who made it to the final of last year’s national championship after winning the play-in game, threw at a 56-per cent clip.

She was forced into a single in the opening end as both teams tried to get a read on the ice at Centre 200.

In the second, Einarson rubbed a guard to set up Scheidegger with a draw for two. However, the Lethbridge, Alta., skip was light with her throw and settled for a single.

Einarson was heavy with her draw for two in the third end and took the one point for a 2-1 lead. She stole a single in

the fourth but Scheidegger pulled even with a hit and stick for two in the fifth end.

Draw weight was an issue for Einarson again in the sixth as her light throw gave Scheidegger a steal of one and a 4-3 lead.

In the seventh, Scheidegger stole a pair when Einarson was heavy with her final stone.

Scheidegger came through with a freeze in the eighth end to prevent Einarson from throwing for five. Instead she had a draw for three and settled for two on a measure.

Einarson made a brilliant freeze in the ninth and Scheidegger went for an aggressive in-off that didn’t work out. The steal pulled Einarson even at 6-6. This is the second year that the wild-card game has been used. The matchup features the two highestranked teams that did not qualify out of the provincial or territorial championships.

Einarson, from Gimli, Man., holds the second spot in the national rankings, four positions higher than Scheidegger.

Einarson’s new lineup of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard

Thomas, Scott have share of lead

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Justin Thomas put together enough birdies in a cold rain at Riviera to reach 10-under par and share the lead with Adam Scott when the second round of the Genesis Open was halted by darkness.

Thomas, who opened with a 66 earlier Friday morning, went eight consecutive holes without a par – six birdies, two bogeys – when he ended his day with a two-putt par on his 12th hole of the round at No. 3.

and lead Briane Meilleur won their first four competitions of the season. They trail only Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the national rankings.

Scheidegger, third Cary-Anne McTaggart, second Jessie Haughian and lead Kristie Moore opened the season with a title but have barely managed to stay above the .500 mark since.

Preliminary-round play begins today.

The top four teams from each division will advance to a championship pool starting Thursday.

The top four teams from that pool will advance to the playoffs starting Feb. 23. The semifinal and final will be played Feb. 24.

If Einarson had won, there would have been three Manitoba teams in the field. Jennifer Jones is skipping Team Canada and Tracy Fleury is wearing the provincial colours.

Instead there will be two teams from Alberta as Scheidegger joins provincial champion Chelsea Carey.

The Scotties winner will represent Canada at the March 16-24 world championship in Silkeborg, Denmark, and earn a berth in the 2020 national championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.

He was five under on the day. Scott, who won at Riviera in 2005 when rain shortened it to 36 holes, also was five under on his round.

Tiger Woods was one under after playing 30 holes.

tionals,” she said. “We’re excited to be here and are just really proud to represent our province.”

Edmonton-based second Joanne Courtney is the team’s so-called “import” player. Homan goes to school in Edmonton, her husband lives in St. Paul, Alta., and she maintains a residence in her native Ottawa.

The three-time Scotties champion is able to curl at the Ontario playdowns thanks to an exemption for full-time post-secondary on-campus students.

Courtney, meanwhile, is also pregnant – she’s due in July. The pregnancies will likely force the team, which includes third Emma Miskew and lead Lisa Weagle, to tinker with their schedule later this season.

The rink has two more Grand Slams coming up in April and has also locked up a berth at the Curling World Cup grand final in Beijing in May.

“We’re just taking it day by day and feeling good right now,” Homan said. “We’re just fortunate that we’re both feeling really good going into nationals and are excited to play this week.”

Curling Canada is expected to tinker with its residency rules later this year. That could be good news for Homan if she continues to live in Alberta and puts her studies on hold after the baby arrives.

The Scotties playoffs begin Feb. 23 and the final is set for Feb. 24.

World junior curling also on Nova Scotia ice

LIVERPOOL, N.S. (CP) — The Scotties Tournament of Hearts isn’t the only big curling event in Nova Scotia for the next week.

The Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool, N.S., will be hosting the world junior championships, while the national women’s championship takes place at the same time in Sydney, N.S.

Canada is looking to defend gold in both the women’s and men’s divisions at the world juniors.

Alberta skip Selena Sturmay looks to guide Canada to the podium for the sixth consecutive year. The Edmonton-based rink also features third Abby Marks, second Kate Goodhelpsen and lead Paige Papley. Alternate Karlee Burgess helped Kaitlyn Jones’s Nova Scotia rink win wold junior gold last year in Aberdeen, Scotland.

B.C.’s Tyler Tardi, meanwhile, is back to represent Canada for the third year in a row after capturing the world junior men’s title last season. Canada is aiming for a 20th world junior men’s crown.

Tardi has a new lineup that includes his longtime teammate Sterling Middleton at third, and a new front end of second Matt Hall, who relocated this season from Ontario, and lead Alex Horvath. Tardi opens play in the first draw tonight against Andrew Stopera of the United States, who won silver in 2017 and finished fourth in 2018.

The Canadian women open Sunday morning against Scotland’s Lisa Davie.

Top contenders on the women’s side include South Korea’s Min Ji Kim, who won gold in the third leg of the Curling World Cup earlier this month in Sweden, as well as Norway’s Maia Ramsfjell, who lost the 2018 world junior bronze-medal game to China. On the men’s side, 2018 silver medallist Ross Whyte of Scotland returns. The top four teams in each 10-team division advance to the playoffs.

Rachel Homan throws a stone during a game against China at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea.

Regina King on white lies, directing and 227

Mesfin FEKADU Citizen news service

NEW YORK — Regina King –who is nominated for her first-ever Academy Award for her work in If Beale Street Could Talk – discusses sitting in the director’s chair and following up on the promise she made to female filmmakers during her Golden Globes speech in outtakes from a recent interview with The Associated Press. Read the interview here .

Little white lies

When R&B singer Jaheim asked Regina King to be the leading lady in a music video in 2010, she flexed her neat negotiating skills: If I’m in it, let me direct it!

There was just one problem –King had never written a video treatment before.

“(Jaheim) put me on the phone with the people from Atlantic (Records), so they were like, ‘Have you ever written a treatment before?’ And the tone in which they asked the question just said to me, if I have not, they’re not going to be OK with this. So I was like, ‘Sure,”’ King recalled. “And I hate liars and I was being one in that moment, but I knew that I needed this and so I guess I won’t say lie, I was acting like I could. I was act-

ing like I did.”

She immediately called her friends in the industry like director Tim Story and writer-producer Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, who sent her treatments she could work off of.

The video for Finding My Way Back helped the song achieve success on radio and reached No. 12 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. The song, co-written by fellow R&B star Miguel (then unknown), earned two Grammy nominations.

King went on to direct another music video – Kelly Price’s Grammy-nominated Not My Daddy – giving her enough experience to then move on to TV. Her directing credits include episodes of This Is Us, Insecure, The Good Doctor, Shameless, Scandal and more.

“When we were in Palm Springs (Spike Lee) was like, ‘How many hours of TV have you directed?’ I stopped and thought about it and kind of counted and told him and he was like, ‘Oh you are ready for your film now,”’ King said.

Golden words

Regina King, who pledged that anything she produces in the next two years will be made by 50 per cent women during her Golden Globes speech last month, has a

few words for the naysayers.

“I even read some Bloomberg article after I’d challenged myself with that saying how ridiculous it was for me to say that or impossible.

“For those of us that are hustlers and like challenges, that’s all we need. ‘Oh you think it’s impossible? Watch me work,”’ she said. “It feels like it’s going to be difficult, but it’s never felt impossible because I had examples right there with John Ridley and Damon Lindelof putting women in positions of power on their productions. And Ava DuVernay and what she did with Queen Sugar.”

King was praised for using her speech to draw attention to the alltoo-often back seats women take in Hollywood and beyond.

“Even though it wasn’t quite planned... I knew I was going to say something. But the spirit was just like, ‘Say it!’ You hear my voice, I was like, ‘Oh God, I’m saying it. It’s happening,”’ she said.

Looking to the past

Regina King said she doesn’t watch old episodes of 227, the show that gave her a breakthrough when it ran for five seasons from 1985 to 1990 on NBC.

But she appreciates how playing the role of Brenda Jenkins launched her acting career.

“227 was priceless for me. It was my foundation. I would not be here without it,” she said. “Just being with Marla Gibbs, Hal Williams, Alaina Reed, Jackee – it was school.”

Looking to the future

Though Beale Street marks Regina King’s return to the big screen, she is heading back to TV to star in HBO’s Watchmen, debuting sometime this year.

But King has two other roles she’d love to play or produce in the future.

“I want to be a part of a story that is an original story – it’s not the black version of – that is multigenerational. So many of us – I’m just going to speak as a woman –just my mother, my grandmother,

myself and our relationship and how beautiful it is and how many other relationships I’ve seen that are multigeneration – they’ve had crazy challenges that they overcame them and were estranged, and they came back together. We get to see that in stories in white families, but we don’t see that for our own.” King, 48, also said she’d love to

act in a love story with the backdrop being Second World War or another historic event.

“This age is really great because you’re young enough that people still look at you as sexy, but you are mature enough that you’ve gotten enough wisdom to express and make a performance more layered and go deeper,” she said.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY VICTORIA WILL

Actress Regina King, nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk, recently posed for a portrait at Sofitel in New York.

Lorena Bobbitt, seen here on trial, is the subject of Amazon’s Lorena, a four-hour documentary.

Lorena doc reveals how lurid responses to Bobbitt case obscured reality

Hank STUEVER Citizen news service

There’s a race on to reinterpret recent history, particularly sensational crime cases, trials and other tabloid tragedies, to see how they look in a more modern context. In both television and film, you can achieve this through dramatization or documentary or some combination of the two. The results are often remarkable and unexpectedly cathartic.

After a 2016 FX drama series about the O.J. Simpson trial of 1995, American culture took a moment to revisit its feelings about Marcia Clark, and more or less concluded that we had her all wrong the first time – she was not the blundering termagant, but a hard-working prosecutor coping with sexist media coverage along with incompetence and racism in her witness stand.

Redeemed on the movie screen, Tonya Harding suffered a range of abuse from a coldhearted mother and a hotheaded husband – seems we had her all wrong. Sometimes these projects get shelved before shooting even begins, fast-forwarding instead to newfound empathies: Monica Lewinsky, a briefly reckless young woman, was made to suffer for an indiscretion far longer than Bill Clinton ever did – we had her all wrong. Princess Diana, devoted single mother who was desperate for a little normalcy – we had her all wrong. Patty Hearst, pardoned domestic terrorist, is now understood first as a rape victim – we had her all wrong. Which brings us to Lorena Bobbitt, subject of a naturally fascinating but slightly overindulged and unevenly paced documentary series that premiered Friday on Amazon Prime, in which the following should come as no surprise: we had her all wrong. Probably.

Lorena, directed by Joshua Rofé (co-produced by Jordan Peele, among others), is a thorough, fourhour look back at the early morning of June 23, 1993, when Bobbitt, then 22, in what a jury would agree was a moment of temporary insanity (“irresistible impulse” under Virginia law), took a knife from the kitchen of her Manassas apartment and cut off the penis of her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, then 26, while he slept in their bedroom.

Fleeing the scene, Lorena tossed the severed appendage out the window of her car, into the tall grass across the street from a 7-Eleven. She put the knife in a trash can near the nail salon where she worked as a manicurist.

Details, details, details: some of you may think the wall-to-wall coverage of the Bobbitt saga was only yesterday, but it really has been 25 long years. Most of the documentary’s audience probably won’t know the facts at the granular and admittedly mesmerizing degree to which Rofé researches and presents them. And anyhow, we could all stand to start this story fresh, with facts taking precedence over the hoots and hollers that dominated media coverage at the time. The first hour is mostly taken up with recollections of the immediate aftermath: John’s bloody trip to the hospital; the discovery by still-blushing law officers of his penis in the grass; the surgical expertise that restored it to full function; a nation reeling from infinite grimaces (men) and attagirls (women).

Forgotten in the chaos was a quiet but steady chorus of women’s rights advocates who immediately saw in Lorena the telltale signs of a battered wife: traumatized, desperate, pushed to an extreme and all but doomed to serve prison time on a mutilation charge. Following a dream to study and live in the United States, Lorena was 17 when she came to Virginia from Venezuela (she was born in Ecuador) in 1988. She met a true-blue American who was literally named John Wayne, a lance corporal preparing to leave the Marines, and married him 10 months later. By 1993, their marriage had soured. He was chronically unemployed and temperamental. She testified to several instances of marital rape and frequent physical and psychological abuse; police had responded to prior domestic violence calls at their home – some of those calls were from him. (He still denies abusing or raping her.)

Before Lorena’s trial in early 1994, John was quickly tried and acquitted on a rape charge and immediately availed himself of a prolonged victory lap through the celebrity sphere; he was lionized by the likes of Howard Stern (who never passed up an opportunity to bad-mouth Lorena) and eventually he (and his penis) accepted a role in a porn movie.

Her trial was longer and more complex, but her allies were many and resolute.

The jury acquitted Lorena, but first she had to spend 45 days in the state’s psychiatric hospital. John went on to face more allegations of abusing women, eventually doing time (for violating probation in a theft conviction) in the same Nevada prison that would later house O.J. Simpson.

Where are they now? Here, the doc speeds too quickly past its richest and freshest material. John is living in Las Vegas, decked out in the conspicuous signifiers of a proud, 21st-century deplorable. Lorena, it appears, persisted – staying in Virginia, earning a college degree, marrying happily and devoting herself to domestic violence awareness. Shockingly, she still gets lots of unwanted letters and cards from John. She doesn’t seem bothered or afraid, just confused about why he won’t move on. She’s over it. Which brings us to the central question of the series: are we over it?

Actor finds new sitcom home

LOS ANGELES — Tichina Arnold knew as a tot she was meant to perform.

“I told my mom at the age of 3, ‘I want to sing.’ And of course my mom being a mother, she said, ‘Well, my baby wants to sing.’ So they put me up on a chair,” Arnold recalled.

She’s been honing her talent since, but credits more than that for a career that’s paired her with comedy stars Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and in her latest project Cedric the Entertainer for CBS’ The Neighborhood (airing 8 p.m. EST Monday).

Listen to the comedic actress explain and it’s apparent she could moonlight as a life counsellor.

“Acting is beyond acting. You have to be able to deal with people,” Arnold said, something she learned from her father, a police officer, and her mom. “Actors don’t realize a lot of time you don’t get hired because you did the best job – you got hired because you were nice. You got hired because you came in with a great attitude.”

Arnold started her professional career at age 11, appearing first at the Public Theater in New York City, then in regional productions and, in her first movie role, in 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors. She played Crystal, a member of the combo Greek chorus-backup trio that included Michelle Weeks and Tisha Campbell. During a year of filming in London, during which she turned 16, she and Campbell made a splash off the set.

“Tisha and I would go to Hyde Park and make up dance routines, kind of pretending we were in Central Park. A crowd would gather around, and we brought a little bit of New York to London,” Arnold said.

She’s worked in film – she has three indie movies awaiting release, including The Last Black Man in San Francisco – and more steadily on TV, moving from daytime serials Ryan’s Hope and All My Children to prime-time series including Martin with Lawrence; One on One; the Chris Rock-produced Everybody Hates Chris, with Crews and Tequan Richmond; and Survivor’s Remorse.

The cast of Martin made work fun, Arnold said.

“If you listen to the laugh track, you can hear us laughing at each other because we would watch each other’s scenes all the time,” she said.

In the freshman comedy The Neighborhood, Arnold plays Tina, the wife and foil to Cedric the Entertainer’s Calvin, who is appalled by the prospect of gentrification when a white family (Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, young actor Hank Greenspan) moves into his African-American neighbourhood. Sheaun McKinney and Marcel Spears co-star.

His TV wife makes her character authentic and funny, said Cedric the Entertainer. “She just brings that perfect balance to The Neighborhood. You believe it,” he said.

Arnold, 49, born in Queens, N.Y., said she drew on her own mom’s example in creating the warm but forthright Tina.

Diane Arnold is “no-nonsense, with a different way of mothering,” the actress said. She recalled taking part in a mediocre play at age 16, with most parents heaping excited, debut-night praise on their kids. Her mother’s reaction: “We’ve got to get you out of this show.”

The Neighborhood was created by executive producer Jim Reynolds (The Big Bang Theory) and is loosely based on his own experience as a white oddman-out. The series is one example of how CBS, after prolonged criticism about a lack of ethnic diversity, is broadening its lineup.

Good for them, said Arnold.

“It’s never too late to change, never too late to go in another direction,” she said, adding that such growth has to be reflected on-screen and among writers, directors and others involved in a production, both as a matter of equal opportunity and authenticity.

As a black woman, she looks to black writers and directors to be “an extension of my voice,” Arnold said, and she’s found that on The Neighborhood. If a script strikes the wrong note, she said Reynolds is responsive. The result, she said, is a show that deserves to be seen.

“It’s about humanity and how we all can figure out some way to respect each other, learn to love each other, and always find the funny in everything. It makes things easier,” Arnold said.

Lynn ELBER Citizen new service

CITIZEN NEWS SERIVCE PHOTO BY WILLY SANJUAN

Tichina Arnold participates in a show panel for the The Neighborhood during the CBS presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour at The Langham Huntington held last month in Pasadena, Calif.

Amazon’s exit could scare off tech companies from New York

NEW YORK — Amazon jilted New York City on Valentine’s Day, scrapping plans to build a massive headquarters campus in Queens amid fierce opposition from politicians angry about nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and the company’s anti-union stance.

With millions of jobs and a bustling economy, New York can withstand the blow, but experts say the decision by the e-commerce giant to walk away and take with it 25,000 promised jobs could scare off other companies considering moving to or expanding in the city, which wants to be seen as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.

“One of the real risks here is the message we send to companies that want to come to New York and expand to New York,” said Julie Samuels, the executive director of industry group Tech: NYC. “We’re really playing with fire right now.”

In November, Amazon selected New York City and Crystal City, Virginia, as the winners of a secretive, yearlong process in which

more than 230 North American cities bid to become the home of the Seattle-based company’s second headquarters.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo heralded the city’s selection at the time as the biggest boon yet to its burgeoning tech economy and underscored that the deal would generate billions of dollars for improving transit, schools and housing.

Opposition came swiftly though, as details started to emerge.

Critics complained about public subsidies that were offered to Amazon and chafed at some of the conditions of the deal, such as the company’s demand for access to a helipad. Some pleaded for the deal to be renegotiated or scrapped altogether.

“We knew this was going south from the moment it was announced,” said Thomas Stringer, a site selection adviser for big companies. “If this was done right, all the elected officials would have been out there touting how great it was. When you didn’t see that happen, you knew something was wrong.”

Stringer, a managing director of

the consulting firm BDO USA LLP, said city and state officials need to rethink the secrecy with which they approached the negotiations. Community leaders and potential critics were kept in the dark, only to be blindsided when details became public.

“It’s time to hit the reset button and say, ‘What did we do wrong?”’ Stringer said. “This is fumbling at the 1-yard line.”

Amazon said in a statement Thursday that its commitment to New York City required “positive, collaborative relationships” with state and local officials and that a number of them had “made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward.”

Not that Amazon is blameless, experts say.

Joe Parilla, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said the company’s high-profile bidding process may have stoked the backlash. Companies usually search for new locations quietly, in part to avoid the kind of opposition Amazon received.

“They had this huge competi-

tion, and the media covered it really aggressively, and a bunch of cities responded,” Parilla said.

“What did you expect? It gave the opposition a much bigger platform.”

Richard Florida, an urban studies professor and critic of Amazon’s initial search process, said the company should have expected to feel the heat when it selected New York, a city known for its neighbourhood activism.

“At the end of the day, this is going to hurt Amazon,” said Florida, head of the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute. “This is going to embolden people who don’t like corporate welfare across the country.”

Other tech companies have been keeping New York City’s tech economy churning without making much of a fuss.

Google is spending $2.4 billion to build up its Manhattan campus. Cloud-computing company Salesforce has plastered its name on Verizon’s former headquarters in midtown, and music streaming service Spotify is gobbling up space at the World Trade Center complex.

Despite higher costs, New York

City remains attractive to tech companies because of its vast, diverse talent pool, world-class educational and cultural institutions and access to other industries, such as Wall Street capital and Madison Avenue ad dollars.

No other metropolitan area in the U.S. has as many computerrelated jobs as New York City, which has 225,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington, Boston, Atlanta and Dallas each have a greater concentration of their workers in tech.

In the New York area, the average computer-related job pays roughly $104,000 a year, about $15,000 above the national average. Still, that’s about $20,000 less than in San Francisco.

Even after cancelling its headquarters project, Amazon still has 5,000 employees in New York City, not counting Whole Foods. “New York has actually done a really great job of growing and supporting its tech ecosystem, and I’m confident that will continue,” Samuels said. “Today we took a step back, but I would not but the nail in the coffin of tech in New York City.”

Canada Goose to open new factory

TORONTO — Canada Goose Holdings Inc. will expand its network of eight Canadian manufacturing facilities with a new factory in Quebec – its second in the province.

The Toronto-based luxury apparel company said Thursday that the Montreal factory will create 300 jobs and accommodate about 650 workers when it is running at full capacity by the end of 2020.

“Montreal’s Chabanel district was once a central part of apparel manufacturing in Canada, but this has been eroded by the shift offshore in pursuit of margins.

Some brands only have their headquarters in the city and they are missing the great history and potential this area has,” Canada Goose chief executive Dani Reiss said.

The factory announcement came as Canada Goose reported a betterthan-expected profit for its latest quarter and raised its financial guidance for the year.

The company said it earned $103.4 million or 93 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from a profit of $63 million or 56 cents per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $399.3 million, up from $265.9 million.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 81 cents per share for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Reiss attributed some of the increases to the strength of the company’s e-commerce offerings, including its presence on the popular Tmall platform operated by Chinese company Alibaba Group.

Reiss said despite not offering any promotions

Canada Goose ranked within the top 10 brands in its space on the platform on Singles Day – a Nov. 11 holiday in China that was started in the nineties by Nanjing Uni-

versity students rebelling against Valentine’s Day and has since been declared the biggest shopping day of the year internationally.

In recent years, Canada Goose has zeroed in on the Asian market to spur growth, opening stores in Beijing and Hong Kong and a regional office in Shangai.

The Beijing store opening came as antiCanadian sentiment was reportedly growing in China, following the arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver. In the two weeks following her arrest, Canada Goose’s stock dropped by about 20 per cent.

But Reiss insisted the company’s Chinese expansion has gone well and the brand’s reputation is still in tact overseas.

“We remain really bullish and excited about China... We know we have a tremendous amount of demand in that marketplace,” Reiss said, referencing long line-ups outside the Chinese stores. With that strength in the Chinese market in mind, Canada Goose raised its guidance for revenue and profit for its 2019 financial year. It now expects revenue growth in the mid-tohigh 30s on a percentage basis.

Michael R. SISAK and Josh BOAK Citizen news service

This is a view of an area of Long Island City, Queens, N.Y., along the East River on Thursday, Feb. 14. The area was the proposed site for a new Amazon headquarters until the company announced Thursday it would abandon the project.

At Home

Get tips to improve your bottom line, every Friday with business coach Dave Fuller

When you love the location but not the house

Scott SOWERS Citizen news service

WASHINGTON — In 2010, Gordon Bernhardt bought a fivelevel townhouse but never really liked it.

“It was more space than I needed. I was never there and never fell in love with the place. I spent more time in the office,” he said. Bernhardt was resigned to selling the townhouse and moving to a condominium. He wanted to to be close to his financial services company, Bernhardt Wealth Management in suburban McLean, Virginia, but wasn’t satisfied with what the market was offering.

He often drove by the Pimmit Hills neighbourhood in nearby Falls Church.

“I saw these old homes, and occasionally saw a place being torn down,” said Bernhardt, 59, who wanted single-floor living, easy maintenance, quality construction and a place that actually felt like a home.

Bernhardt stumbled on the property he eventually bought while he was in the neighbourhood looking at another prospect. A “for sale by owner” sign was stuck in the ground in the front yard of a distressed rancher. The son of the original owner, who had died, had possession of the house, which was mostly vacant.

Bernhardt called Francisca Alonso, a builder and architect he knew socially, to have a look. Alonso approved of the path of the sun across the lot and confirmed that she could get one-floor living on a lot that’s less than a quarter of an acre. Bernhardt bought the place as-is for $450,000. He had no need for walk-throughs, appraisals or inspections, and he never stepped inside the property until the settlement.

“It was a prime location for teardown,” Bernhardt said. “I never considered buying a house that I could put an addition onto and make it my house. The teardown seemed like the only way to go.” Alonso, 52, co-founder and chief executive of McLean-based AV Architects + Builders, said working with a teardown is often more beneficial than buying a pristine plot.

“Typically, land on its own is hard to develop or overpriced,” Alonso said. “When no house has ever been there before, there’s no utilities. There’s several fees you have to pay: tap fees, connection fees. When there’s already a house there, those fees have been prepaid by somebody else.”

Neighborhood opposition to teardowns can complicate things, but Alonso takes the static in stride. “There’s always going to be

somebody who’s going to complain,” she said. “That’s the nature of humankind.”

To minimize the impact of the demolition, the design team used Second Chance, a home deconstruction company based in Baltimore, to break down the house and recycle what could be

salvaged.

“We took three weeks, as it was deconstructed, piece by piece, which gives the homeowner a tax write-off opportunity,” Alonso said. “Second Chance put it all in a giant trailer – there was very little left after that. Instead of using five dumpsters, we used one.”

While the house was being deconstructed, Alonso and Bernhardt started an unconventional design process.

“I’m a simple guy from Nebraska,” Bernhardt said. “Francisca would have three pieces of tile that she would want me to look at.

I’d say, ‘These all look nice to me

– what would you do? I don’t feel qualified to have an opinion. What would you recommend?’ “ Alonso teased out Bernhardt’s love for the look of Italian villas. To keep maintenance to a minimum, brick was used as exterior cladding, along with a steel roof. The gutters and downspouts are aluminum. He wanted an office, kitchen, dining area, master suite and laundry on the first floor. She got all that in and still had space for a powder room.

The front door opens into a foyer. The office, complete with custom built-in shelves and cabinetry, is off to the left, laundry and mudroom to the right. The stairs to the second story are on the way to the open-plan kitchen, dining room and great room. The floors are wide panel oak, stained dark. The kitchen is separated from the dining area by a bank of base cabinets. All the cabinets are custom and made from maple. The perimeter cabinets are gray, and finished with a glaze; the cabinets under the island are a shade of dark espresso.

The upper cabinets are full height to the ceiling, with clear glass fronts on the top row. All the appliances, including the glass cooktop on the island, are KitchenAide, and the countertops are neutral-coloured quartz by Cambria. Pendant lighting and countertop brackets on the island’s seating area help carry the Mediterranean theme through the house.

The great room features a fireplace with a stacked stone surround and a TV above, which is hidden by a piece of art. Twin sets of casement windows flank the fireplace, and full-light doors lead to a stone-and-tile-clad deck with an outdoor grill.

The master suite is off the great room and includes a walk-in closet, bedroom and bath. The master bath features a soaking tub, a dual-sink vanity with custom cabinetry rendered in darkstained maple and an oversize curbless shower. The tile is a mix of porcelain and ceramic.

The project took about 16 months. Bernhardt was not in a hurry to move; he stayed in his townhouse until the new house was finished.

He estimates he invested more than $1 million in the new space and has no plans to flip.

He recently completed a 600mile walk in about 30 days on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a spiritual journey that affected his approach to life.

“The house helped me get the quality of life that I was looking to enhance my personal well-being,” he said. “Not all those things are dollars-and-cents decisions.”

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY SARAH L. VOISIN

Gordon Bernhardt’s new home in Falls Church, Va., shown Feb. 1, 2019. One drawback to teardowns is that they don’t necessarily match the rest of the neighbourhood.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS BY SARAH L. VOISIN

ABOVE: The kitchen is separated from the dining area by a bank of base cabinets. BELOW: The backyard is a designated entertaining space with a brick-encased grill at the home in Falls Church, Va., which is shown Feb. 1, 2019.

On Sunday, February 10, Patricia Jean Sims passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones in the gentle care of Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice, in Kamloops, B.C. A celebration of life gathering will be held in the spring. Pat was born in Prince George in 1932, the oldest of five girls to Lorne and Lois Minty. She married Douglas Sims shortly after her 18th birthday, a union of sixty years at the time of his passing in 2010. She missed him every day they have been apart. Mother to five children, Tom (Glenna), Mickey (Heather), Ed (Judy), Brian (Janet) and Sandra. Grandmother of 16 and great grandmother of 19, family was the center of her life. She leaves sisters Jackie and Judy, an expansive, extended family, each one cherished deeply. She was a working mom in a variety of office and administrative positions, a shop owner and real estate agent. Predeceased by her parents, husband Doug, sisters Joan and Iris, and grandson Scott. Arrangements entrusted to Kamloops Funeral Home Condolences may be sent to the family from www.kamloopsfuneralhome.com

DUPUIS,JosephGilesErnest August17,1936-February4,2019

Itiswithheavyheartsthatweannouncethepassing ofourbelovedfather,JosephGilesErnestDupuis (Gil).Heissurvivedbyhischildren,RichardCassell (MaryElizabeth),SherylAnnRosborough,and MichelleDupuis(Trevor).Hewasalongterm memberoftheLegion,bothinthePrinceGeorgeand Cloverdalebranches,andwasinhis36thyearof membership.Healsoleavesbehindtomournhis sister,CarmelDickson;hislovinggrandchildren;and great-grandchildren;aswellascountlessfriendsand neighbors.Gilwaspredeceasedbytheloveofhis life,PatriciaCassell,in2014.Acelebrationofhislife willbeheldinLangleyatalaterdate.Pleasejoinus inrememberingourfather,grandfather,brother,and friend.

McIlwaine, Shirley (nee Dennison)

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Shirley Vernette McIlwaine, at the age of 63. After a courageous battle with cancer, Shirley passed away at home surrounded by her family, on February 12, 2019. Shirley was born in Calgary, Alberta on August 12, 1955. She was predeceased by her father John. Shirley is survived by her husband Tom of 15 years, who was her best friend and the love of her life, her two sons Dustin and Jason, her mother Joan (John), her sisters Carleen and Wendy (Monty), her three grandchildren, 4 nephews and 2 nieces.

Shirley’s infectious smile and love of life will be missed by all those who knew her. A celebration of Shirley’s life will be held on Wednesday February 20, 2019 at 1:30, at the Comox Legion. Memorial donations in memory of Shirley may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Darren F. Drezet April 28, 1971December 3, 2018

The Drezet Family sadly announces the passing of their Son, Brother and Uncle on December 3, 2018. Darren is survived by his Mom Ann, Dad Rick, Step-Mom Verla, Brother Dan, Sister-in-Law Kim, Nieces Jordan and Hali, numerous Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Second Cousins and many good friends throughout BC and Alberta.

A Service to Celebrate Darren’s Life will be held on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 2 - 6 pm at the Hart Community Centre, 4900 West Austin Road, Prince George, BC. All friends and family welcome.

Your life was a blessing. Your memory a treasure. You are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure.

Patricia Jean Sims ( nee Minty ) Sept 21, 1932 - Feb 10, 2019

will be contacted by phone. All Resumes will be kept on file for future jobs.

Right now, five million Canadians are living with diabetes and six million more are at risk of developing it soon.

Diabetes is an epidemic.

Diabetes 360° is a national strategy that could prevent millions of Canadians from being diagnosed with diabetes and save billions of dollars in healthcare.

Urge

MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Quotations in Canadian funds.

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index posted a triple-digit gain Friday after oil hit a threemonth high to extend the market’s winning streak to six weeks. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 142.26 points to 15,838.24, after hitting an intraday peak of 15,866.60. That’s the highest level since Oct.5.

The Toronto market is just 4.4 per cent off the all-time high set last July and up 10.6 per cent so far this year.

Allan Small, senior investment adviser at HollisWealth, foresees the positive momentum continuing as long as geopolitical issues, especially the trade dispute between the U.S. and China, remain positive.

“Yes the year-to-date numbers look really strong in such a short period of time but we’re just getting back to where we were trading at the end of the summer and early fall,” he said in an interview.

“Let’s get back from the highs... and that’s where things start to get a little bit more dicey, you may see the market start to trade sideways for a little bit until we get some sort of clarity on future and I think that’s where we kind of stall out.”

North American markets increased by as much as 1.7 per cent on continuing optimism about a trade deal with China after U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he might extend the March 2 deadline for the imposition of tariffs, said Small.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 443.86 points at 25,883.25. The S&P 500 index was up 29.87 points at 2,775.60, while the Nasdaq composite was up 45.46 points at 7,472.41. In Toronto, the key energy sector gained 3.2 per cent as Frontera Energy Corp. increased eight per cent, followed by Encana Corp., Canadian Natural Resources and Suncor Energy Inc.

The April crude contract was up $1.19 at US$55.98 per barrel, the highest level since mid-November on a weaker U.S. dollar and support from production curtailments by OPEC.

The March natural gas contract was up 5.2 cents at US$2.62 per mmBTU. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.38 cents US, compared with an average of 75.20 cents US on Thursday.

The April gold contract was up US$8.20 at US$1,322.10 an ounce and the March copper contract was 2.4 cents at US$2.80 a pound. The Toronto market had widespread gains as industrials and financials rose.

“All the stuff that’s great for investors and adding to this positive feel for the market,” he added.

Air Canada CEO sees clear skies ahead despite trade tensions and fuel volatility

Christopher REYNOLDS Citizen

news service

MONTREAL — The head of Canada’s largest airline brushed off concerns about a slowing global economy after business passengers helped the airline top analysts’ earnings expectations last quarter even though fuel prices and currency rates drove it into the red.

“Despite all of the backdrop of the noise that we hear about fears of a recession and the trade wars and the rest of it, we do see a fairly strong and bullish market,”

Air Canada chief executive Calin Rovinescu told investors Friday. Management also dismissed Brexit as a threat in the wake of an air deal signed by Canada and the U.K. in December.

Chief commercial officer Lucie Guillemette said capacity has been cut between Canada and China “due to geopolitical issues as well as ongoing competitive pressures” and reallocated to the Atlantic.

Business cabin travellers generated $92 million more revenues in the fourth quarter than in the same period in 2017, a 12.5 per cent bump.

Their numbers swelled by more than nine per cent, Air Canada

said, boosting overall passenger revenues 11 per cent year over year to a new record of $3.8 billion in the quarter despite increased competition.

“We continue to observe increased competition pressure and capacity from domestic ultra-lowcost carriers in the market and more specifically Alberta regional routes where we have a relatively small presence,” Guillemette said, in a veiled reference to chief domestic rival WestJet Airlines Ltd.

A freshly expanded Flair Airlines, soon-to-launch Canada Jetlines Ltd., and WestJet’s eightmonth-old, ultra-low-cost Swoop are all crowding the budget airspace that Air Canada’s low-cost Rouge set out to occupy in 2012.

WestJet also aims to challenge Air Canada’s transatlantic dominance. Three of the Calgarybased company’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft are poised to embark on non-stop service from Calgary to Dublin, Paris and London’s Gatwick Airport this spring.

“They’re going to be taking a run at Air Canada on key routes. And it’s not just leisure travel; they also want a slice of business traffic and Europe,” said Robert Kokonis, president of Torontobased consulting firm AirTrav Inc.

Rovinescu reiterated his wor-

ries over federal legislation that tacks on tarmac time limits and penalties for airlines as part of a sweeping overhaul of transportation regulations.

“I think that one of the consequences could indeed be the passing on of some of these expenses, because an unintended consequence of this Bill C-49 is that it will drive fares up,” Rovinescu said.

Meanwhile, the company announced it will seek a green light from shareholders later this month to increase its foreign ownership threshold to 49 per cent from 25 per cent, in line with recent changes to the Canadian Transportation Act.

Oil volatility remains an ongoing concern. Air Canada spent $244 million or 29 per cent more year over year on fuel last quarter due to higher prices and a weaker Canadian dollar.

The result was a loss of $231 million or 85 cents per diluted share for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a net profit of $8 million or two cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The airline’s adjusted net income, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, was $54 million or 20 cents per

share, down from $60 million of 22 cents per share a year earlier. Total revenue was $4.24 billion, up from $3.82 billion a year earlier.

Analysts had estimated 15 cents per share of adjusted net income and $4.2 billion of revenue, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Analyst Doug Taylor of Canaccord Genuity Group called the results a “strong finish,” citing numbers that came in “slightly ahead on all headline metrics given strong traffic growth.” For the full year, Air Canada earned $167 million, down from $2.03 billion in 2017, as jet fuel cost jumped 36 per cent to $3.97 million.

On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share fell 40 per cent year over year to $2.45 or $677 million, from $4.11 per share of $1.14 billion a year ago.

Revenues rose 11 per cent to $18.07 billion as ancillary revenues grew 13 per cent, outpacing passenger revenue. Baggage fees and paid upgrades led the way, followed by seat selection and preferred seat privileges. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Air Canada’s shares rose $1.17 or 3.7 per cent at $33.15 in afternoon trading.

Cineplex Q4 profit falls as theatre attendance declines

Tara DESCHAMPS

Citizen news service

TORONTO — Cineplex Inc. saw a dip in theatre attendance and net income in its latest quarter, even as it began screening a handful of Academy Award contenders.

The Toronto-based entertainment giant said its fourth quarter – the start of the annual awards season – brought $27.2 million in net income, down from $28.8 million a year earlier.

That profit for the period ended Dec. 31 amounted to 43 cents per share, down from 45 cents per diluted share the year before and from the 46 cents per share that analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Despite the debut of buzzed about films, including A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book and Vice, Cineplex

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” — Mark Twain Call 250-562-2441

said attendance was down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Cineplex’s president and chief executive officer Ellis Jacob attributed the dip to the unusual strength of last year’s fourth quarter film slate.

“Last year you had Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle that was incredible for business,” Jacob said.

“On a year-to-date basis, we are slightly below because of the comparative to last year, but today we open Alita:Battle Angel, next week we open How to Train Your Dragon 3 and I think Captain Marvel, which opens (in March), is going to be the biggest movie of the quarter.”

Despite the drop in attendance and net income, the quarter did deliver some bright spots.

Revenue was up less than a

percentage point year over year, at $428.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and $426.3 million in the comparable period of 2017.

Box office revenue per patron was up to $10.73 from $10.54 the year before and concession revenue per patron also climbed to $6.53 from $6.29. Because of its inability to control the film slate, Cineplex has focused heavily in recent years on concession stand offerings. It partnered with Uber Eats to begin delivering snacks including popcorn, hot dogs, candy, nachos and soft drinks to customers in 60 communities throughout Ontario, Alberta, B.C. and Quebec in 2018.

Last February, Jacob told the Canadian Press the company was toying with letting moviegoers order snacks from their mobile phones before heading to

theatres.

The offering has yet to be rolled out for customers beyond VIP, but Jacob said “it will eventually get to everybody.”

It has also signed a partnership with CJ 4DPLEX to bring 4DXfull motion seating with effects including water, rain, fog and scents – to up to 13 theatres and another to pilot ScreenX technology, which offers a 270-degree, panoramic movie-watching experience.

Looking ahead, Jacob said the year will bring the opening of four Rec Rooms and two Playdiums, doubling the size of the company’s restaurant and gaming facility business.

On screen, he said he was looking forward to Avengers: Endgame, Disney’s Aladdin reboot, Elton John film Rocketman, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 and Star Wars: Episode IX.

Cardinal expects ‘significant progress’ at sex abuse summit

Jeff KAROUB, Nicole WINFIELD Citizen news service

DETROIT — The U.S. archbishop help-

ing to organize next week’s summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican on sexual abuse by clergy said he expects to make “significant progress” in responding to the scandal that’s riven the church, and that lay Catholics will help to hold the hierarchy accountable.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the Feb. 21-24 prevention summit, convened by Pope Francis, is necessary for all global Catholic church leaders to understand they must act and be accountable to the victims for the abuse cases stretching back decades. He spoke of the urgency while acknowledging that victims and their advocates consider such a gathering long overdue.

“I think there is understandable frustration on that level,” said Cupich, handpicked by Francis to help organize the summit. “All I can say now is I believe we’re going to make significant progress here. And we should also realize that we always have to keep learning – we can’t get to a place that we think we have this nailed down. If we do that we’re going to get it wrong.

“This meeting will be a significant moment, I think, to put us on a fresh trajectory – in a whole new direction,” he added. The summit comes at a crisis moment for the U.S. church, following a Pennsylvania grand jury report that found hundreds of abusive priests in the state, and the scandal over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of abusing minors and seminarians. In December, Cupich expressed regret for “our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse” in a statement responding to a report by the Illinois attorney general that said the church failed to disclose the names of at least 500 clergy accused of sexually abusing children.

Zach Hiner, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in an email to the AP that church officials have repeatedly shown “they are incapable of accurately determining the credibility of accusations, being transparent with the public, and understanding the pain that survivors go through.” The organization previously said Cupich should be removed from his summit-planning role.

“We remain cautiously optimistic that there will be real change as a result of this meeting, but regardless of what Vatican officials do, we are placing our faith in attorneys general and prosecuting attorneys around the country instead,” Hiner said.

U.S. bishops, who last month held a prayer retreat outside Chicago as a prelude to the summit, had planned to adopt accountability measures at their November

meeting that would have created a code of conduct for bishops and established an independent lay-led commission to investigate allegations against them. The Vatican blocked the vote on the grounds that the proposals were legally problematic and had only been given to the Vatican for review four days before the meeting began. The Vatican told the U.S. bishops to wait until after next week’s meetings and work with the Holy See to develop proposals together. Cupich then proposed instead a model using the metropolitan bishop – a senior bishop responsible for several dioceses – to handle allegations against bishops under his jurisdiction. In the interview, Cupich suggested the “metropolitan model” had gained favour at the Holy See, saying he expected the overall framework Francis would propose would use this existing church structure along with lay participation to ensure their expertise is included and transparency in the process.

“Whatever framework is going to be put together for us... there has to be in the involvement of lay experts to make sure that there’s full visibility by the people of God,” he said. “And then it has to be done in a col-

We remain cautiously optimistic that there will be real change as a result of this meeting...

— Zach Hiner

legial manner” using the existing structure of what the church already has in place.

Cupich said victims also will be part of the summit, both in their presence and through video testimony. But he also was the lead signatory on a recent letter that urged attendees to meet with victims “to learn firsthand the suffering they have endured.”

“My experience in 20 years of being a bishop – and I’ve met with scores of victims – is that it’s those personal encounters that are transformative, not in a group session,” he said.

Francis has sought to lower expectations for the summit, saying last month that the “problem of abuse will continue” because “it’s a human problem.” He said he wanted

Pope signs off on miracle needed for sainthood

Citizen news service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has approved a miracle needed to make Cardinal John Henry Newman, a prominent Anglican convert, a saint, the Vatican announced this week.

Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, beatified Newman during a visit to Britain

in 2010. In the Catholic church’s saintmaking process, one miracle is necessary for beatification, and a second miracle, occurring after the beatification ceremony, must be certified by Vatican experts for sainthood to be conferred.

The Vatican didn’t give details in announcing Francis’ approval of this second miracle. But Catholic media last year

Test of hard seasons

One year ago today I was lying in UHNBC awaiting surgery to repair a broken leg.

The day before I was skiing with my daughter and just took one bad turn that ended in a fall, and a snap. Our medical professionals treated me very well and with a couple of screws in the right place I was on my way home and heading down my road to recovery.

COMMENT

Now if I could turn back the clock, I would have packed it in one run earlier and avoided the pain, but I can’t. I would have loved to be able to be patched up and be fine and not have had to endure weeks of not being able to walk, or have to go to physio for all those weeks, but I can’t. The hard truth is I found myself in a hard place and hard season of life and had to navigate through it.

I have been spending some time working through the Old Testament book of Daniel. It is a wonderful part of the Bible and many are familiar with the dramatic ways

reported that a pregnant woman’s recovery, with no scientific explanation, from a life-threatening illness, had been confirmed by church officials and attributed to Newman’s intercession.

The London-born Newman, who died in England in 1890, had been hailed by Benedict as a model for ecumenism. Newman renounced an illustrious academic career

God breaks into the lives of those involved. This is where we have the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall, and lion’s den. Throughout the book we see God working in amazing ways and showing us that He is in control no matter the circumstances of life we face. What I have found particularly challenging, however, is the example of character we see in Daniel and his companions throughout the book. We see Daniel as a man of exemplary character no matter the circumstances. In Daniel 6, the chapter about the lion’s den, we see Daniel, who by this point was in his 70s or 80s, being so trusted by the king that he is promoted

to sensitize church leaders around the globe to the pain of victims, instruct them how to investigate cases and develop general protocols for the entire hierarchy to use.

Francis in September summoned the presidents of bishops’ conferences for the summit after realizing that church leaders in some parts of the world still didn’t “get it.” In fact, more than 30 years after the scandal first erupted in Ireland and Australia and 20 years after it hit the U.S., bishops in many parts of Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia either deny the problem exists in their regions or downplay it.

Cupich, considered a moderate who was Francis’ first major U.S. appointment, said it’s inevitable that some will see the outcome of the summit as a referendum on Francis that correspondingly places a burden on the cardinal’s shoulders. The letter he signed also included a warning that a failure to deal with abuse now will jeopardize the church’s mission globally.

“We’ve got to be detached from that personal credit or blame because the real issue is what’s at stake for the church,” he said. “I really do want to put the emphasis on the victims and not our reputation.”

at Oxford University to convert to Catholicism in 1845, convinced that the truth he sought could no longer be found in the Church of England.

Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 when the English monarch Henry VIII was denied a marriage annulment. No date was immediately announced for a sainthood ceremony.

over the other high officials. This resulted in a level of jealously that led to a conspiracy against Daniel. The problem was, they could find no grounds for complaint or any fault (6:4) in his life. Daniel had to go through some pretty difficult things in his life. He had been taken from his home a child and re-educated in a foreign land where he was then compelled into government service. His life was not one of an easy road and yet from the snapshots we have of his life it is one he lived with faithfulness and integrity. Those who conspired against Daniel came to the conclusion that if they were to find fault it would have to be in

relation to his God.

For us who place our faith in God and in His work on the cross, Daniel should challenge us. Do we live our lives in a such a way that the only grounds for complaint against us is our faithfulness to God? Not to say we have to live perfect lives (we’re all works in progress) but when one looks back on our lives will it be a life of integrity and faithfulness? Will our character look any different in the hard seasons than the good?

Looking at the life of Daniel we see that he found himself in a difficult place not of his choosing and yet was known for his faithfulness and integrity. Will we?

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO

In this April 23, 2015 photo, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich processes from Holy Name Cathedral following the funeral mass of Cardinal Francis George in Chicago.