Dagon
Cameron strikes gold for Canada
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Hours before he won silver in biathlon to start the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, Collin Cameron was feeling the effects of a head cold coming on.
The 30-year-old sit-skier from Sudbury, Ont., didn’t need a doctor’s advice. He knew he had no choice but to skip his race Sunday and stayed in bed, sipping ginger tea and honey, and that paved the way for a golden opportunity the following day.
Cameron returned to the chilly slopes of Otway Nordic Centre for Monday’s sprints and turned himself into a world champion, driving his sled to Canada’s first gold medal of the championships.
“It’s incredible, it’s a dream come true,” said Cameron. “I’ve been thinking about this since I got fourth at the sprint race at (the 2018 Paralympic) Games.
“I’ve had a really good start this year and I just wanted this real bad. It’s my first world championship gold medal and it feels amazing.”
Hundreds of spectators lined the sprint course, braving the coolest race conditions yet in the nine-day event. The start temperature Monday morning was -19.4 C, just above the -20 cutoff. Cameron was the fastest qualifier and won his semifinal race as well. He knew his family from Ontario was tuned into the live webcast, cheering him on for added inspiration, and he dug in his poles to reel in the sweetest win of his career.
“It’s extra special, you get all the crowd, the volunteers and the locals out on the course and it gives you that extra push you need to cross that line,” he said. “The plan was just ski hard and stay in front, and if I had to pass someone in the heats, just look for my spot and pass
Collin Cameron won the first gold medal for Canada in the World Para Nordic
them and try not to get in the way and keep racing clean and just go for it as hard as I could and just see if I had three of those in me.”
Daniel Cnossen of the United States won silver and Taras Rad of Ukraine
captured bronze. In the women’s sit-ski sprint, Oksana Masters of the U.S. won her third gold medal in a close race with silver medalist Andrea Eskau of Germany and American Kendall Gretsch. — see ‘TO BECOME, page 2
Citizen staff
The Prince George RCMP are asking for the public’s help in locating a man from Prince George wanted on a Canada-wide warrant. On Feb. 2 a Canada-wide warrant for being unlawfully at large was issued for 31-year-old Tal Kalum LaRiviere.
The warrant was issued after LaRiviere failed to meet the conditions of his release by missing curfew at his designated residence in Prince George. He is described as Metis, six-foot-two, 194 pounds, brown hair and eyes.
LaRiviere has connections in Vernon and Grimshaw, Alberta and may be traveling to those areas. He is believed to be driving a blue 1994 GMC 1500 pick-up bearing B.C. licence plate MY9880. If LaRiviere or his truck are located contact the RCMP or call 911. Do not confront LaRiviere as he is considered violent.
Anyone with information about LaRiviere should call the Prince George RCMP at 250-5613300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or go online at www. pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca.
Skiing Championships on Monday.
‘To become a world champion in Canada, I’m not going to get this opportunity ever again’
—from page 1
“I felt super-confident in the qualification, I think Robin (coach McKeever) said I qualified 10 seconds ahead or something like that and that some good boost for confidence and my skis were wickedfast,” said Cameron. “I felt really good and everyone around me believed in me today and I believe in myself and made it happen.
“To become a world champion in Canada, I’m not going to get this opportunity ever again in my career. It’s something totally special and I’ll remember it forever.”
Cameron won three bronze medal at last year at the Paralympics in Pyeongchang and showed with his second-place finish in Saturday’s mid-distance biathlon he was closing in on a victory.
“Collin came in here prepared to race, obviously, it was an amazing biathlon the other day and this is just a little icing on the cake, this is what he came here for,” said McKeever. “I’m impressed because he’s fighting through a cold, it’s impressive he’s able to keep his head together and do that.”
Zebastian Modin of Sweden and his guide Emil Joensson captured gold in the men’s visually-impaired race. Yuri Holub and guide Dzmitry Budzilovich of Ukraine finished with silver and Dmytro
Suiarko and guide Vasyl Potapenko of Ukraine were the bronze medalists.
Carina Edlinger of Austria was the golden girl in the women’s visually-impaired sprint, teaming up with guide Florian Rupert Seiwald. Oksana Shyshkova and guide Vitaliy Kazakov won silver and bronze went to Kara Klug and guide Martin Hartyl of Germany.
In the men’s standing sprint, Benjamin Daviet of France won his third race of the championships by a comfortable margin, while Grygoril Vovchynsky of Ukraine collected silver. The battle for bronze went right to the wire and Taiki Kawayoye of Japan made a last-second kick to get his ski tip across the line just ahead of Hakon Olsrud of Norway.
Vilde Nilsen of Norway beat Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine for gold in the women’s standing sprint, while Oleksandra Konokova of Ukraine won bronze. Nilsen also won Saturday’s mid-distance cross-country event.
Two Canadian women – Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm and Emily Young of Kelowna – were among the six qualifiers in the standing final. Wilkie finished fourth and Young was sixth. Wilkie was also fourth in Saturday’s mid-distance cross-country race.
“She’s just coming off a cold, too,” said McKeever.
“These are no excuses but it does take a lot out of you and she’s doing well. She’s young (18), she’s probably the youngest competitor here in that girls field and she has a real positive future ahead of her in the sport.
Heading into a day of training today, the Canadian team now has one gold medal, two silver and a bronze to show for their world championship efforts.
“I’m really excited about how the whole staff and the program’s working together,” said McKeever.
“We have a strong tight bond within the team and that’s what makes it fun, we’re big family.”
Ukraine sits atop the medal standings with three gold, eight silver and eight bronze. The U.S. is second with three gold, four silver and a bronze, while France ranks third with three gold and two bronze.
Racing resumes Wednesday at 10 a.m. with the biathlon sprints, followed on Thursday by the biathlon individual event. Friday is a training day. The cross-country open and mixed relays arte on Saturday and the completion ends Sunday with the cross-country distance races.
— see more coverage, page 9
Minister touts child care before budget
Dirk
MEISSNER Citizen new service
VICTORIA — British Columbia Finance Minister Carole James spent Family Day highlighting the family focus of the budget she will present today. The minority New Democrat government’s budget centres on supporting families and building the economy through continued enhancements for child care and housing programs, James said Monday.
“Let’s remember both child care and housing are economic tools,” she said. “It’s a very clear economic strategy as well. We’ll be looking at how we expand the opportunities for families.”
The balanced budget will include funding details on the government’s plans to reduce poverty and fight climate change, James said.
The government passed legislation last year to cut B.C.’s overall poverty rate by 25 per cent and chop the child poverty rate in half in the first five years of the plan.
The government’s Clean BC climate plan, introduced in December, pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050. Also by 2040, all new cars and trucks sold in B.C. will be zero emission and new buildings will be 80 per cent more efficient than they are now.
James took advantage of free admission at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria on the provincial Family Day holiday Monday to spend time with her children and grandchildren and talk to the media about her budget.
The document will outline the government’s goals to improve affordability for people in B.C. while building a solid economy, she said.
The minister said that the former B.C. Liberal government focused on a strong economy and told everyone else in need to wait.
“Our approach is you need to invest in people because they help build the strong economy. You can and you should have both and that’s really the focus we’re taking into budget 2019.”
B.C.’s poverty-reduction strategy will work across ministries looking at investments and supports that can be implemented to help people get ahead, she said.
The long-standing tradition of finance ministers wearing new shoes on budget day will continue.
However, James was still deciding which of the two pairs she bought at a two-for-one sale that she’ll wear Tuesday, she said with a laugh.
Hiker missing following avalanche
VANCOUVER (CP) — A search and rescue manager says a missing hiker has not been spotted by rescuers who have flown above an area where an avalanche struck north of Vancouver. Allan McMordie of North Shore Search and Rescue says it’s too dangerous for them to get near Runner Peak, where the avalanche hit Monday morning, possibly burying the man.
The rescuers were able to rescue the missing man’s friend, who activated his emergency beacon and called for help on his cellphone after the avalanche struck. McMordie says they reached the man with a long line around 4:30 p.m. Monday and he was with crews at the search and rescue station. He says a team dropped explosives from a helicopter to try to ease the danger of further avalanches.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Sergey Ussoltsev from Kazakhstan takes off from the start line of the Men’s Biathlon 12.5 km Sitting on Saturday afternoon at Otway Nordic Centre during the first day of competition at the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.
JAMES
Quadriga meltdown: ‘It’s kinda devastating’
MacDONALD Citizen news service
Michael
HALIFAX — Software engineer Tong Zou lost his life savings – more than $500,000 –in the QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency meltdown.
The mild-mannered 30-year-old Vancouver resident wasn’t making any clandestine, high-stakes trades when the online platform was shut down on Jan. 28 amid a storm of controversy and conspiracy rumours.
Instead, Zou was simply looking for an easy way to transfer U.S. funds into Canada for a down payment on a local property.
“It’s kinda devastating when you do lose that kind of money,” Zou said in an interview, adding that he still believes the future remains bright for cryptocurrency markets.
“But this is a bad mark on the Canadian crypto industry.”
The QuadrigaCX collapse has shone a spotlight on a dark corner of an unregulated industry that tends to attract people who are suspicious of traditional banks and prefer the anonymous, decentralized nature of the murky crypto-coin world.
But it has also revealed that some crypto users were burned while conducting the most mundane of tasks.
Zou says he and some of his friends racked up some healthy profits in 2017 when cryptocurrency markets were red hot.
“But we lost it all in 2018 because of the crypto crash,” he says matter-of-factly.
“I know a few people who got out at the right time, but that wasn’t me.”
As for Vancouver-based QuadrigaCX, Zou admits he chose to move his money through the virtual company in September 2018 because it offered a 10-per-cent premium.
“If there’s any lesson I learned, it’s to not to be too greedy,” he says.
“And that’s what caused me to be in this situation. I saw the 10-per-cent premium. I got tempted by it.”
By cryptocurrency standards, QuadrigaCX was a relatively well-known exchange, mainly because it was one of the first in Canada. Co-founded by Canadian Gerald Cotten in 2013, the exchange appeared to be a safe bet.
By last fall, however, QuadrigaCX users were complaining that it was taking longer than usual to withdraw funds. Zou was aware of the time lag, but that red flag wasn’t big enough.
Then the bottom fell out – though not all at once.
Cotten, the company’s 30-year-old CEO and sole director, was travelling in Jaipur, India, on Dec. 9 when he died from complications caused by Crohn’s disease, a chronic ailment that causes inflammation of the bowels.
When his death was publicly announced more than a month later, court documents revealed Cotten was the only QuadrigaCX employee who knew the encrypted pass codes required to gain access to so-called cold wallets holding $190 million in Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.
As well, the company confirmed 115,000 users were owed another $70 million in cash, much of which remains tied up in bank drafts held by third-party payment processors.
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court granted QuadrigaCX temporary protection from its creditors on Feb. 5. A court-appointed monitor is searching for the missing money. The company could be sold.
“Yes, it’s unregulated and you’re taking a risk, but... I thought it was reasonably trustworthy at the time,” says Zou. “It turned out
to be the worst time to do it.”
Zou says he’s been in touch with other QuadrigaCX customers by using the Reddit and Telegram social media sites, and he is following the insolvency process playing out in a courtroom in Halifax, where Cotten lived.
The wild rumours and innuendo that have dominated online discussions has led Zou to conclude: “It’s all kind of really suspicious.”
Meanwhile, he and many others owed money have been conducting their own online sleuthing to figure out where their money went.
There’s no shortage of theories about QuadrigaCX’s downfall.
Giuseppe Burtini, a cryptocurrency expert from Kelowna, B.C., filed an affidavit with the court last week, saying he represents an unnamed company that sold crypto-coins on the QuadrigaCX platform and is owed a “multimillion-dollar” balance.
Burtini said the company had been trying to retrieve money from QuadrigaCX since February 2018, but received only a partial payment.
“The... company will be unable to access its significant fiat currency balance for an indeterminate period of time and I am concerned that it may not ever receive that balance in full,” his statement says.
Court documents show that in January 2018, CIBC froze the accounts for a thirdparty payment processor known as Costodian, preventing QuadrigaCX from getting at more than $25 million. That matter has yet to be resolved.
Burtini’s affidavit says he wants to be appointed to a court-appointed users steering committee, which will advise lawyers pursuing the case. A computer expert with a master’s degree in science from the University of British Columbia, Burtini said he has the skills and tools to help find the missing currency.
Ryan Kneer, a Calgary-based QuadrigaCX user, filed an affidavit saying he had used the platform almost daily for the past two years.
Like Burtini, he did not reveal how much he is owed, saying privacy is something cherished by cryptocurrency traders.
“Among other reasons for protecting their
privacy, individuals who own large quantities of cryptocurrencies have been targeted for theft, phishing and even assault,” the statement says.
Kneer describes himself as a professional market maker involved in the cryptocurrency scene since 2013, having developed automated trading software.
“I believe that, philosophically, many affected users are skeptical of traditional institutions. Many people choose to use cryptocurrencies because of dissatisfaction with the existing financial system.”
As for Zou’s next steps, he says he will recover from his losses – though it could take a long time.
“I was angry and depressed when it first happened, but over time I was talking to my friends and family to get some sense of comfort and support,” he says.
“The way I got over it is by thinking about what’s important in my life – what makes me happy. Having enough money to make me comfortable – that’s all good. But having friends, family and being around the people that you care about, I think that’s more important than money.”
Merman calendar raises thousands for charity
Citizen news service
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — What started as a dare for a burly Newfoundland man to pose in mermaid flippers has turned into a globally known effort to combat gender stereotypes – and raised more than a half million dollars for charity.
This past weekend, the Newfoundland and Labrador Beard and Moustache Club gave a cheque for more than $202,000 to Violence Prevention NL.
That’s the proceeds from the 2019 Merb’ys calendar, which draws its name from ‘mermaid’ and the Newfoundland moniker for ‘buddy.’
The calendar features photos of husky, bearded Newfoundland men posed on the province’s rugged shoreline – wearing just their merman fins and their smiles.
Hasan Hai, the leader of the club, said it all started with a dare in 2017.
“A friend of mine on Facebook had shared a picture of a big bearded fellow dressed as a mermaid. I was kind of known in my
friends’ circle as a guy who didn’t shy away from dares or doing fun things that would further community projects and goals,” he said.
“Initially the idea was to maybe get a bunch of people together and maybe take a bunch of pictures poking holes at traditional
gender stereotypes and what a ‘real man’ was supposed to look like.” A month later, they had the
2018 version of the calendar and a demand from around the world that raised more than $300,000 for a local mental health organization.
Hai said they decided to do it again for 2019 and put the call out to charitable organizations, and about 40 applied.
He said they decided to go with Violence Prevention Newfoundland and Labrador because its mandate is much the same as the club in fighting gender stereotypes and “toxic masculinity,” and showing men there’s a healthier way to live their life moving forward.
“Their project was deconstructing masculinity and engaging men in violence prevention, and it kind of checked all the boxes for us. It’s not criticizing men for being men, but breaking down those harmful bits of it and building up the positive ones,” he said.
Hai said Violence Prevention NL will develop programming in communities and also get it translated into the various Indigenous languages found across the province.
Tong Zou is shown in a handout photo. The software engineer from Vancouver is owed more than $500,000 from the cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga.
ROTH AND RAMBERG PHOTOGRAPHY HANDOUT PHOTO
Men from the Newfoundland and Labrador Beard and Moustache Club pose as mermaids at Port Rexton Brewery in this undated handout photo.
Trudeau’s secretary resigns amid SNC-Lavalin furor
Joan BRYDEN Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government was rocked Monday by the resignation of his principal secretary, Gerald Butts, amid allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office interfered to prevent a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
The departure of the prime minister’s most trusted aide comes just eight months before a federal election. Butts was expected to play as big a role in the Liberals’ bid for a second mandate as he did in getting them their first.
In a statement, Butts unequivocally denied the accusation that he or anyone else in the office improperly pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help the Montreal engineering giant avoid a criminal case on corruption charges related to government contracts in Libya.
Nevertheless, Butts said the allegation is distracting from the “vital work” Trudeau is doing, so it’s in the best interests of the Prime Minister’s Office for him to step aside.
“I categorically deny the accusation that I or anyone else in his office pressured Ms. Wilson-Raybould ... At all times, I and those around me acted with integrity and singular focus on the best interests of all Canadians,” he said.
“Any accusation that I or the staff put pressure on the attorney general is simply not true... But the fact is that this accusation exists. It cannot and should not take one moment away from the vital work the prime minister and his office is doing for all Canadians. “My reputation is my responsibility and that is for me to defend. It is in the best interests of the office and its important work for me to step away.”
Wilson-Raybould, who was demoted from justice to the veterans affairs post in January, resigned from Trudeau’s cabinet last week. She has not explained why she quit and she has cited solicitor-client privilege to refuse comment on the allegation, levelled by anonymous sources in a Globe and Mail story 10 days ago, that she was improperly pressured to help SNC-Lavalin. She has hired a former Supreme Court justice to advise her on what she may legally say.
Trudeau has denied anyone pressured Wilson-Raybould to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, a kind of plea bargain in which a company pays restitution but avoids criminal prosecution that could bankrupt it.
But Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Butts’ departure “is the clearest indication yet that there is much more” to the affair than Trudeau has admitted.
“The events of the last several days and
the ensuing chaos that has engulfed the government are signs that the prime minister is desperate to keep the truth hidden,” Scheer said in a statement. “Justin Trudeau must stop hiding behind other people and end the coverup he and his office have engineered since these allegations surfaced.”
Both Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Trudeau to waive solicitorclient privilege to allow Wilson-Raybould to tell her side of the story.
The departure of Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister and the embodiment of Trudeau’s commitment to reconciliation with First Nations, was a big blow to the Liberals. But Butts’ exit is arguably an even bigger one.
He has been close friends with Trudeau since their student days at McGill University in Montreal. He was instrumental in organizing Trudeau’s successful leadership bid in 2013 and was one of two key architects - along with Katie Telford, now Trudeau’s chief of staff - of the Liberals’ stunning come-from-behind election victory in 2015.
Since 2015, Butts has been Trudeau’s closest and most trusted adviser. Opposition critics have painted Butts as a Svengali-like puppet master and even some Liberal backbenchers have privately resented the power and influence he wielded.
Butts is one of several Trudeau aides the opposition parties had wanted to call before the House of Commons justice committee to testify on what happened in the SNCLavalin affair. Liberal MPs on the committee used their majority last week to limit the scope of the committee’s inquiry to three witnesses – not including Wilson-Raybould, Butts or any other of Trudeau’s staffers –and to the legal principles underpinning the controversy.
Those principles include the recently added Criminal Code provision, which made it legal to negotiate remediation agreements in cases of corporate corruption, and the so-called Shawcross doctrine, which spells out the degree to which an attorney general may consult with cabinet colleagues about a prosecution. The committee is to meet be-
hind closed doors today to discuss, among other things, possible additional witnesses.
Singh announced Monday that the NDP will propose a motion in the House of Commons calling for an independent inquiry led by a former judge, which will be put to MPs for a vote on Wednesday. Motions are not binding on the government, however.
Butts has been chief among those whom opposition parties suspect were behind the alleged pressure on Wilson-Raybould. He has confirmed that Wilson-Raybould briefly raised the SNC-Lavalin matter during a meeting in early December. Butts has said that he advised her to speak with the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick. In a statement, Butts spoke positively of his relationship with Wilson-Raybould.
“I encouraged her to run for the Liberal Party of Canada and worked hard to support her as a candidate and then cabinet minister. From my perspective, our relationship has always been defined by mutual respect, candour and an honest desire to work together.”
Pro-pipeline convoy arrives in Ottawa
Stephen
COOK, Mia RABSON
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — A convoy of angry Albertans and other westerners rolls into Ottawa today for a mass protest against federal energy and environmental policies that has also become a magnet for extremist, antiimmigrant elements.
A couple of hundred vehicles are expected on Parliament Hill as part of the United We Roll convoy, which began in Red Deer, Alta., on Valentine’s Day and made its way east over four days with stops for rallies along the way.
“The core message is we need immediate action for our pipelines to get in the ground, to get to tidewater and to the rest of Canada,” said lead organizer Glen Carritt, the owner of an oilfield fire and safety company in Innisfail, Alta.
The protesters want the Liberal government to scrap the carbon tax and two bills that overhaul environmental assessments of energy projects and ban oil tankers from the northern coast of British Columbia. Carritt said participants also are unhappy about the government’s recently signing a non-binding UN compact on global migration.
Carritt said Canada’s borders “need to be controlled” by Canada and its citizens, not the United Nations.
Another convoy was originally created by a group that called itself Canada Action, which cancelled the plan and refunded thousands of dollars in donations after that effort became associated with extremist elements in the Yellow Vests Canada movement.
Carritt originally referred to his convoy
as a “yellow vest convoy” but renamed it United We Roll after it too was linked to people spewing hateful rhetoric against Muslims and immigrants.
“After much consideration we have decided to make this convoy about being inclusive and supporting Canadians first and foremost,” Carritt wrote on the protest’s GoFundMe page in late January. “Our new name is United We Roll! Convoy For Canada!”
Some trucks in the convoy display the signature yellow vest garment on their front grilles but Carritt stresses the rally is open to anyone fed up with the federal government as long as they aren’t violent.
“Everybody’s involved,” said Carritt. “Everybody that’s peaceful is welcome.”
Jason Corbeil, another organizer, renounced any association with a Sault. Ste. Marie, Ont., yellow vest group that had claimed online to be part of the convoy. The blog of one of those organizers includes calls for specific politicians to be executed, refers to immigrants as “sub-human” and argues women don’t belong in politics.
Corbeil said the convoy does not condone hate and is about uniting people.
Evan Balgord, the executive director the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, however, is warning that the convoy is giving a platform for hate.
“This convoy is a Yellow Vests Canada convoy and any well-meaning pro-pipeline individuals involved are in fact legitimizing and breathing oxygen into the broader Yellow Vests Canada movement, which spreads hate, conspiracy theories, and death threats targeting Muslims, politicians, and other Canadians,” he said.
Body found after explosion
Citizen news service
Calgary police say a body has been recovered from the site of an apparent house explosion in the city’s southeast. Sgt. Dwayne Lepchuk declined to say whose remains were found.
Fire department spokeswoman Carol Henke says fire and police investigators were able to enter the destroyed home late Sunday. She says heavy equipment had to be brought in to slowly and carefully remove debris. Henke said the owner of the destroyed home was out of the country and that a tenant had not been accounted for.
Gerald Butts, principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, looks on during the federal Liberal national convention in Halifax on April 20, 2018. Butts has resigned amid allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office interfered to prevent a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
Trump sees ‘new day’ for Latin America at Miami rally
Zeke MILLER Citizen news service
MIAMI — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that “a new day is coming in Latin America,” as he sought to rally support among the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. for opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Speaking at Florida International University in Miami before large American and Venezuelan flags, Trump said the U.S. stands behind Guaido, whom the U.S. recognizes as the country’s rightful president, and condemns President Nicolas Maduro’s government and its socialist policies.
As the monthslong political crisis stretched on, Trump delivered a public plea to Venezuela’s military to support Guaido’s government. The Venezuelan military could play a decisive role in the stalemate but has largely remained loyal to Maduro.
Trump issued a dire warning to Venezuela’s military that if they continue to stand with Maduro, “you will find no safe harbour, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything.”
Trump added: “We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open.”
The military has blocked the U.S. from moving tons of humanitarian aid airlifted in recent days to the Colombian border with Venezuela. The aid shipments have been meant in part to dramatize the hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine that are gripping Venezuela. Trump said of Maduro, “He would rather see his people starve than give them aid.”
Critics say Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent, making his second term illegal.
Venezuela’s power struggle is headed to a potentially violent showdown Saturday, when Guaido will try to run caravans of U.S. humanitarian aid across the Venezuelan border with Colombia. Maduro denies a humanitarian crisis exists, blaming the Trump administration for mounting a coup against him.
Venezuela is ready to make an economic rebound once Trump removes his “infected hand” from the country that sits atop the
“This will never happen to us.”
“Socialism promises prosperity, but it delivers poverty,” he said. Trump was introduced by first lady Melania Trump and joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who have all been outspoken in their criticism of Maduro’s government. Trump also spoke of the socialist governments in Cuba and Nicaragua, which have large expatriate communities in the Miami area.
“Socialism is dying and liberty, prosperity and democracy are being reborn” throughout the hemisphere, Trump said, expressing hope that soon, “This will become the first free hemisphere in all of human history.”
Shortly after Trump ended his speech, he tweeted, “I ask every member of the Maduro regime: End this nightmare of poverty, hunger and death. LET YOUR PEOPLE GO. Set your country free! Now is the time for all Venezuelan Patriots to act together, as one united people. Nothing could be better for the future of Venezuela!” Guaido addressed the crowd in a pre-recorded video released by the White House and thanked Trump and the state of Florida for their support.
“Now there is a debate between the democracy and dictatorship – one between life and death,” Guaido said in Spanish. “Today this fight is existential.”
Trump said the U.S. is “profoundly grateful” to dissidents and exiles who have protested and raised alarms about the actions of the Maduro government. But his administration has also come under criticism for not doing enough to grant asylum to those fleeing the country.
world’s largest petroleum reserves, Maduro said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. Trump urged the Venezuelan military to accept Guaido’s offer of amnesty and refrain from violence against those opposing Maduro’s government. And he praised the Venezuelan opposition, saying of the people of Venezuela, “They are turning the page on dictatorship and there will be no going back.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said earlier Monday that the U.S. “knows where military officials and their families have money hidden throughout the world.”
South Florida is home to more than 100,000 Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans, the largest concentration in the country.
Speaking in the presidential battleground state, Trump also sought to draw a contrast with the policies of progressive Democrats, which he brands as “socialist,” as he gears up for re-election. Trump said that “Socialism has so completely ravaged” Venezuela “that even the world’s largest reserves of oil are not enough to keep the lights on.” He added:
“President Trump is two-faced on the Venezuela issue,” said Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo. “He talks about fighting the Maduro regime, but his administration keeps deporting and detaining Venezuelans fleeing repression from the Maduro regime.”
Trump had been spending the holiday weekend at his private club in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Honda to shut UK plant, imperiling 3,500 jobs, report says
Jill LAWLESS Citizen news service
LONDON — Honda will close a car factory in western England with the potential loss of 3,500 jobs, British media and a local lawmaker said Monday, in another blow to a British economy made jittery by Brexit.
Sky News said the Japanese carmaker is to announce today that the Swindon plant will close in 2022.
Honda makes its popular Civic model at the factory, 115 kms west of London.
Local lawmaker Justin Tomlinson confirmed the news in a series of tweets. He said he had spoken to Honda, and the company said the decision “is based on global trends and not Brexit as all European market production will consolidate in Japan in 2021.”
He said no job losses at the plant were expected until 2021.
Honda said it could not comment “at this stage.”
“We take our responsibilities to our associates very seriously and will always communicate any significant news with them first,” the firm said in a statement.
The Unite trade union, which represents workers at the plant, said it was looking into the reports. Des Quinn, the union’s automotive-sector national officer, said the plant’s closure “would be a shattering body blow at the heart of U.K. manufacturing.”
The news comes as British businesses are issuing increasingly urgent warnings about the damage being done by the uncertainty around Britain’s looming exit from the European Union.
The U.K. is set to leave the bloc on March 29 but has yet to seal a
Weinstein’s sexual
Citizen news service
YORK — Harvey Wein-
sexual assault trial in New
deal laying out the divorce terms and establishing what trade rules will apply after Brexit.
Many businesses fear economic chaos if there isn’t an agreement on the rules and conditions that will replace the 45 years of frictionless trade that came with being an EU member.
The uncertainty has already led many firms to shift some operations abroad, stockpile goods or defer investment decisions.
Earlier this month, Japan’s Nissan announced that it would not build a new SUV at its plant in Sunderland, England, as previously planned.
Nissan said it had made the decision “for business reasons,” but added that “the continued uncertainty around the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future.”
Last week Ford said that if Britain left the EU without a deal on smooth future relations, it would be “catastrophic for the U.K. auto industry and Ford’s manufacturing operations in the country.”
Christian Stadler, professor of strategic management at Warwick Business School, said automakers were being hit by several factors, including a cooling global economy and a European crackdown on diesel engines.
“Add the fact that the supply chain for most British-made cars crosses the Channel several times as parts are shipped back and forth, so any delays at the border after Brexit could severely disrupt the industry’s ‘just in time’ production method, and the U.K. starts to look like a less attractive place for international companies to build cars,” he said.
assault trial delayed
City is being delayed until June 3. Court spokesman Lucian Chalfen confirmed the delay on Monday. The fallen film mogul is still expected to appear at a pretrial hearing March 8. Weinstein’s trial had been slated for May 6, but that date was agreed on before he shook up his defence team with four new lawyers.
Weinstein lawyers Jose Baez and Ronald Sullivan are starting a trial in Brooklyn on Tuesday that’s expected to take up to 10 weeks.
In December, Weinstein lost a hard-fought bid to get the case thrown out.
The 66-year-old producer is charged with raping an unidentified acquaintance in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006.
He denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
car transporter
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY LUIS M. ALVAREZ
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to a Venezuelan American community at Florida International University in Miami on Monday.
STEVE PARSONS
A
leaves the Honda car plant in Swindon, western England Monday. The Japanese carmaker Honda will close a car factory in western England with the potential loss of some 3,500 jobs, according to media reports Monday and confirmed by local lawmaker Justin Tomlinson.
First class baggage
One thing among the many we have learned from the spending scandal is that the people who run the legislature are so out of touch they think it makes sense to buy luggage in Hong Kong.
When house clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz provided their defence to the allegations from Speaker Darryl Plecas, one of James’s arguments was that he picked up a $1,100 suitcase in Hong Kong because MLAs needed a pool of luggage for business trips.
Most British Columbians have never owned a $1,100 suitcase or seen the need for one, so they are understandably perplexed by this patrician response to allegations of extravagant spending on the public dime.
Some very nice suitcases can be purchased much closer to home that would hold clothes and do all the other things one expects of a piece of luggage. And at much more reasonable prices.
The luggage, the $1,000 suit and the
mother-of-pearl cufflinks, regardless of the tortured logic used to justify them, proclaim a careless attitude to public money.
It’s irrelevant who made the purchase, who expensed it and who signed off on it. Whichever person or party created the sense of entitlement does not matter. It is clear that those who feel entitled have to get out of their ivory tower and walk Government and Douglas streets.
They would discover places to buy luggage, cufflinks, suits and more.
— Victoria Times Colonist
B.C. Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin delivers the Speech from the Throne in the
Hands on, then hands off, over and over IN THE FAST LEYNE LES LEYNE
Loads of economic analyses were delivered this week about B.C. Hydro’s plight to support the NDP government’s contention it has to act to avert disaster.
But this storyline has played out so often over the years, you have to wonder if there is some deep-seated psychological reason why taxpayers have to keep reliving the same crisis over and over again.
Then a new group takes over and condemns the old bunch for political interference that has brought us all to the brink of ruin.
Then, eventually, the new bunch succumbs to the same temptation. When it comes time to change sides again, the cycle repeats.
It’s a complicated affliction. The billion-dollar bailout committed this week just eases one of the symptoms; it doesn’t cure it.
The cycle renewed when the NDP government unleashed a blizzard of condemnation, some of it ordered up from consultants, about how the previous B.C. Liberal government ran B.C. Hydro.
There are pages of analysis showing every energy decision of the past 16 years was wrong and it’s all the Liberals’ fault.
“Step one in fixing this problem is to take the politics out of decisions around B.C. Hydro,” said Energy Minister Michelle Mungall – before delivering a political diatribe against the Liberals.
So there will be a big push to restore full oversight of B.C. Hydro to the independent B.C.
Utilities Commission. The Liberals exempted an absurd number of energy initiatives from BCUC authority over the years.
The list includes all the deferral accounts used to push costs into the future, the Site C dam, the reliance on independent power producers, all its long-range-planning assumptions and key factors in its overall budget.
Those issues and more will be handed back to the independent commission, which is going to have to be bulked up considerably to handle all that new work.
A variation on this theme is playing out at ICBC. It has been steadily running out of money for the past few years, to the point that Attorney General David Eby declared it a dumpster fire after the NDP took over in 2017.
It was mostly because the Liberals refused to allow the rate increases needed to cover the jump in crashes. They bypassed the BCUC because they were putting families first.
Eby rewrote the entire insurance regime in response to that crisis. He didn’t ignore the BCUC, he just gave it a fraction of the time needed to approve the changes.
Further back in time, the Liberals were so appalled by NDP med-
dling in the ferry system during the 1990s they divorced it from government completely.
But eventually, they succumbed and started dictating rate and route decisions.
Back at B.C. Hydro, the old game will resume in a new context. The BCUC will have much more authority. But the government wants to keep rate hikes to eight per cent over the next five years. The billion-dollar writeoff eases some pressure on rates, but more savings are needed. So there will be yet another review of operations.
All the while, it will need a lot more approval from the utilities commission than it once did. If it goes to plan, rate increases will be moderate. If it doesn’t, the politicians will once again face the irresistible compulsion to intervene, to avoid dealing with angry electricity customers.
There’s not much record on either side of withstanding that challenge, at Hydro or anywhere else.
Just So You Know: The handsoff NDP has already given itself an out. There’s a loophole to step in again if the mood strikes.
There’s a list of issues on which cabinet has already dictated policy, regardless of B.C. Hydro or the BCUC.
Plus: “Government anticipates that, on occasion, it will be required to provide direction to the BCUC to guide decision-making in proceedings that have implications for government policy.”
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
Learning from the ‘Alberta Advantage’
In a speech from the throne on August 31, 1993, the Alberta government proclaimed the “Alberta Advantage.”
“Unlike some others, my government will not try to buy prosperity through higher taxes. Instead, it will build on Alberta’s existing advantage of low taxes and its free enterprise spirit to develop the most competitive economy in North America. The government will strengthen the Alberta Advantage and sell it aggressively around the globe.”
Rousing words with a clear economic vision but how did it do?
For the better part of a decade, Alberta outperformed the rest of the Canadian economy. From 1990 to 2003, its economy grew by 57 per cent compared to 43 per cent for all of Canada (B.C. was slightly ahead of the nation).
By all accounts, this would seem to indicate the Alberta government’s vision and strategy was the right one.
Except it was based on a oneindustry approach. At the early 1990s, oil accounted for around 35 per cent of Alberta’s GDP declining to 25 per cent by 2013.
This was not a consequence of a decrease in production. Alberta has been diversifying their economy as fast as possible. But the oil industry still provides the base. It is the source of the Alberta Advantage.
So it is perhaps not too surprising the advantage disappeared when starting in 2014 the worldwide inventory of oil hit record highs. The oil glut drove the price of a barrel of crude oil down with West Texas Intermediate, which had been selling at $125 per barrel in 2012, dropping to $26.55 by 2016. And Alberta’s benchmark oil – Western Canadian Select –dropped to $14.10 per barrel making it the cheapest oil in the world.
The Alberta economy responded in exactly the way you would expect. It tanked.
Government revenues collapsed. Oil-based businesses struggled.
It is estimated close to 100,000 Albertans lost their jobs. The unemployment rate hit a high of 8.1 per cent and has only recovered slightly to 6.6 per cent this year (compared to 4.7 per cent in B.C. and 5.8 per cent in Canada as a whole).
Which leads to the question – what exactly was the Alberta Advantage?
I raise this issue for two reasons.
The first is our good neighbours to the east are heading into a provincial election. The United Conservative Party – formed in 2017 by a merger of the Conservative and Wildrose parties – is running on a campaign of restoring the Alberta Advantage.
It is a promise to get back to the way things used to be – when
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Alberta was a “have province” with money to throw around and some of the lowest tax rates in the country.
None of this progressive nonsense. None of these restrictions on oil production. And, of course, leader Jason Kenney will see a pipeline built to tidewater. Except Alberta doesn’t control its own fate. As a country, we are price takers. In a world where commodity prices are set by large economies such as the United States and China, we function off of their good graces. Add in a restrictive free trade agreement and there is very little Alberta can actually do to alter its present circumstances.
A pipeline sounds good but the more oil Alberta sell overseas, the more it must sell south of the border at substantially reduced prices. In the explanatory notes for our agreement with the U.S. it says “For example, if Canada in the future decides to implement measures to limit the consumption of oil, it can reduce exports to the United States proportional to the total supply of oil available in Canada.”
And vice versa.
Any increase in production to satisfy a foreign market requires a similar increase in the amount of oil being shipped south. They are guaranteed a constant percentage of whatever we produce. As a consequence, for Alberta to start making money as it did in the old days, it would need to sell into the world market at prices far in excess of currently world prices to compensate for the losses on sales south of the border.
But is anyone going to actually see this?
Or is the promise of a return to the good old days going to win out and the United Conservative Party going to rise to power?
The second reason I raise this is Alberta is an example we should learn from. It put its eggs in one basket and when the basket fell apart, its economy followed suit.
In 2018, 18 per cent of British Columbia’s GDP was tied up in Real Estate and Leasing far surpassing the Construction and Manufacturing sectors at 8.9 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively, and tending to a “one-industry” economy.
At some point, the bubble will burst and our real estate sector will tank. The consequences will be pretty much the same. Any economy built dominated by a single industry is not healthy. It is time to develop a plan to diversify our economic base.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca
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Member of the National Newsmedia Council A division of Glacier Media
B.C. Legislature in Victoria on Feb. 12.
New Orleans shootings occur as city ramps up for Mardi Gras
NEW ORLEANS — Five people waiting at a downtown New Orleans bus stop were wounded by gunfire during a police shootout with an armed robbery suspect, authorities said, in a city weekend marred with multiple shootings.
The shootout that injured the five bystanders happened Sunday night, and officials said the robbery suspect was killed during an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and officers with the New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police that stretched over two city blocks.
The weekend’s violence comes as the city is ramping up its Mardi Gras festivities and readying for an influx of crowds. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tried to ease concerns Monday.
“I want to assure all of our residents and our guests that we are well-co-ordinated, well-trained and ready for Carnival, and that we will not allow this ugliness to mar our celebration or to endanger our people,” the mayor said in a statement.
In the downtown shootout, the New Orleans Police Department said officers investigating two armed robberies that happened last week confronted a man deemed a person of interest in the crimes, according to local news reports. Police said the man, whom they haven’t identified, fired a gun at officers as they approached.
New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said at a press briefing it was too early to tell who fired the bullets that hit the bystanders at the bus stop.
Of the five wounded, three had been released from the hospital by Monday afternoon, while two others remained hospitalized, according to NOPD spokesman Andy Cunningham. He said none of the injuries were considered life-threatening. Officials haven’t released the victims’ names. A New Orleans police officer also suffered injuries when his vehicle flipped as he attempted to reach the scene.
Ferguson and State Police Superintendent Col. Kevin Reeves expressed remorse for the injured bystanders. But Ferguson defended officers’ actions, saying they were fired on first and shot back to defend themselves, their colleagues, and members of the public. In addition to internal investigators and state troopers, the FBI and New Orleans’ independent police monitor will review Sunday’s gun battle, Ferguson said. Cantrell said her office remained in contact with the victims’ families and an investigation into the shootings was ongoing. Her statement also defended the law enforcement response.
“It is important that we acknowledge and understand the work our New Orleans Po-
lice Department is doing to keep our people safe. Far from being ‘the Wild West,’ our city sleeps under the protection of an interconnected web of law enforcement agencies whose effectiveness is on display every day,” Cantrell said.
Ten shootings were reported across the New Orleans region over the weekend, according to NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune.
Among the bloodshed, two teenagers were injured Friday in a shooting while they were on a home’s porch. Also that day, a 25-year-old man was shot in New Orleans and drove himself home to Covington before seeking help at a hospital two days later.
On Saturday, police said a 22-year-old man was killed in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner after a bar fight led to a drive-by shooting. The suspected shooter was arrested. Later that day, New Orleans police found a man shot to death under an interstate overpass and another man shot and killed inside his pickup truck in different incidents.
Law enforcement responding to a crash on Interstate 10 just west of New Orleans on Sunday morning found a man shot to death in a car riddled with bullet holes.
In a separate shooting Sunday afternoon, police said one man was killed and another injured in New Orleans’ Central City neighbourhood.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY MICHAEL BELL
Excavators work at the site of a train derailment ten-kilometres south of St. Lazare, Man. on Saturday. Canadian National Railway sais in a statement that 37 cars carrying crude left the tracks early Saturday morning near St-Lazare, just east of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary.
CN says sorry to Manitoba rancher
Citizen news service
ST-LAZARE, Man. — A top CN executive telephoned a Manitoba rancher on Monday to apologize after one of the company’s trains derailed and spilled oil on his land.
“CN executive vice-president Sean Finn spoke directly with Mr. Jayme Corr... to discuss how best to remedy any damages stemming from the derailment and to reassure him that we will be working closely with him and his family in the coming days,” said company spokesman Jonathan Abecassis. Corr, who had initially complained the company ignored him for two days after Saturday’s 37-car derailment, said the call went well.
“He was sorry that they didn’t get in contact with me sooner,” he said. “(It) should have happened a couple days ago, but I’m feeling a little more confident in the cleanup.”
CN was still unable to release any information on how many of the derailed cars were leaking or how much oil was released.
A government spokesman said Monday there was no danger of the oil entering the
nearby Assiniboine River.
Corr, who has 250 cattle on almost 1,000 hectares of land, said that depends on the cleanup. He said the spill occurred on an oxbow of the river which still holds water.
“There’s oil sitting on top of the ice,” he said. “They’ve got to get it scraped off there.
“As soon as it runs off, (the river) is where this is going to end up.”
He said he uses the oxbow to water his cattle in the summer.
Corr, whose home is about a kilometre from the wreck site, said he was told when the spill occurred that he may have to leave.
A firefighter told him on the weekend it looked as if seven rail cars had split open, he said.
“There’s a lot of oil on that oxbow,” he said – enough for Corr to catch the smell from his own yard.
“I’m feeling a little better now,” he said. “I just wish that face-to-face had happened a little sooner.”
Cleanup crews from CN and investigators from the Transportation Safety Board were at the spill site.
CITIZEN
Participants toss beads and trinkets during the Krewe of Thoth Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans in 2018. As the city gets ready for this year’s celebration multiple shootings occurred over the weekend.
Hung up on bowl culture
Kristen HARTKE Citizen news service
I love bowls. I own a lot of them – from pinch bowls that hold little more than a soupcon of salt to a glazed terra-cotta behemoth that my neighbour held on her lap on a plane all the way from Italy. One of my best friends owns a wooden bowl the size of a small Volkswagen that she hauls out every Halloween to hold 2,000 pieces of candy she gives to trick-or-treaters. Those kids’ faces light up when they see the size of that bowl, until they find out they get only one piece each. Because let’s face it: A big plate piled with candy just isn’t appealing. A bowl has a bottomless quality, and the bigger the bowl, the better. Americans like big things, so bowls have become the vessel of choice. It’s getting so you can’t throw a Mason jar of overnight oats without hitting a bowl full of quinoa smothered in raw kale, dried cranberries and good intentions gone wrong. We even had to give it a name: “Bowl food.” Bowls represent comfort in their rotundity. Our earliest memories include eating Fruit Loops or mac-and-cheese out of bowls emblazoned with images of Peter Rabbit. Whether filled with matzoh ball soup to feed a cold, or Chunky Monkey ice cream to soothe a broken heart, bowls are what we have turned to in times of crisis
Sometimes you just need a plate.
for generations. Acai bowls, poke bowls, Buddha bowls. Nearly every fast-casual concept is built around a Rubenesque bowl made of paper or plastic: Line it with a grain, stabilize it with a protein, top it with a colourful array of customized vegetables or fruit. As America continues to struggle with its obesity epidemic, the bowl concept has flourished: Plates signify the meat-and-three mentality of yesteryear, while bowls seem to say, “I’m huggable and healthy!”
Because a bowl from KFC filled with
potatoes, fried chicken, gravy and three kinds of cheese has to be good for you.
Right?
I worry about plates. What will engaged couples register for if not for a dozen delicate porcelain plates that they will only use once a year, at most, for the rest of their married lives? What will furniture makers design instead of plate racks?
There’s a place for plates, though, and I would hate to see it lost altogether. It’s hard to use a fork and knife in a bowl, but it’s a piece of cake with a plate. Plates can hold
a piece of lasagna, plus salad and garlic bread, all at the same time. Bowls cannot, and should not.
I blame ramen for the demise of plates. Or maybe it’s the Internet, or the global economy, or cheap airfare to the other side of the world, where Americans found out that ramen wasn’t just something you cooked in chipped coffee mugs in a microwave in a drunken state at 3 a.m.
And then we had to turn everything into a bowl of ramen, even though we’re too selfconscious to eat ramen properly by hunching over and slurping from the bowl. We made David Chang angry with our Pinterest-perfect ramen bowls, and even when he declared that ramen was dead, we didn’t listen. We instead started putting smoothies in bowls instead of cups, even though that defies the whole point of a smoothie. Then Prince Harry married an American, and they served bowl food to Queen Elizabeth at their wedding reception in a royal palace. And that, in a nutshell – which is, after all, just a tiny nut-shaped bowl – is why the rest of the world hates America. We can’t leave well enough alone. Italians have served caffe lattes in bowls for decades, which means that here in the United States, frappuccino bowls can’t be too far behind. Until then, pass me a plate, please.
mashed
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY TOM MCCORKLE
Sports
Cameron claims Canada’s first medal at Para Nordic
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After three misses on the biathlon range, Collin Cameron knew he had to put the hammer down to crank out a podium finish on Day 1 of the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.
As he made his way around the men’s 12.5-kilometre sit-ski course Saturday at Otway Nordic Centre, driving all his might into his poles to conquer the climbs and gut out the downhill corners, Cameron’s 30-year-old engine did not let him down.
He didn’t have quite enough kick at the end to knock Taras Rad of the Ukraine out of gold-medal position but a silver-medal start to begin Cameron’s second world championships was more than enough to make his day.
“This is my best result in this race, my first-ever silver so it’s pretty nice to add to my collection,” said Cameron, who had throngs of his hometown fans in Bracebridge, Ont., glued to their computer screens watching the live webcast of his race.
“The conditions were really nice today and competing at home (in Canada) is amazing. Last year when we the World Cup in Canmore I wasn’t feeling great and I think the altitude was bugging me a bit so I’m super-stoked to come here and do my best in front of a home crowd.
“It’s definitely different than going over to Europe. You’re at
home, everyone is rooting for you, whether it’s locals from P.G. or everyone back home in Bracebridge or Sudbury.”
Rad covered the course in 43 minutes 15 seconds, followed by Cameron (44:55.9). Euihyum Shin of Korea won bronze (45:02.7). Derek Zoplotinsky of Smokey Lake, Alta., was ninth (50:22.7).
He missed four of 20 targets.
Cameron’s third shooting round was his only clean round. He had one miss in each of the other three bouts on the range.
“I made up time on the snow,” he said. “The team gave me some wicked-fast skis today – everyone giving me splits said I had really good skis and I just tried to lay it down out there and keep it together.”
Cameron started ski racing just three years ago and won three bronze medals at the 2018 Paralympics in Pyeongchang, finishing third in the 15 km and 7.5 km biathlon and third in the crosscountry open relay. He won his first gold medal at the 2017 world championships in Germany.
Cameron was born with arthrogryposis, which causes a shortening of the lower limbs, and under-development of leg muscles and tendons. He’s unable to bend at the knees. Before he took up skiing, Cameron was a prolific goalscorer in sledge hockey for the Northern Sliders club team in Sudbury.
On what turned out an exceptional day for the Ukrainian team,
Rad was perfect on the range Saturday, hitting all 20 targets in the four rounds and avoided the 100-metre penalty loops which add time.
“This is my first-ever gold medal at the world championship because last time I got a silver medal and of course I’m happy to be the winner at the first-ever (men’s) race here in Prince George,” said Rad, through an interpreter.
“I just followed the instructions of my coach and tried to do everything clean and perfect on the range. Thank God I could do that, because it’s not very easy in the cold weather. My skis were perfectly (waxed) but the weather is really cold here and it’s difficult conditions for all of us.”
The start temperature was around -12 C under light flurries, but a light breeze dropped the wind chill factor close to -20 C. The wind started whipping up right around the time the first women sit-skiers pulled into the range for their fourth and final round and it threw world points leader Kendall Gretsch of Chicago, Ill., off her game.
She cleaned the first three shooting rounds but missed four of five in her final round and that knocked off the top rung of the podium. Her American teammate, Oksana Masters, missed two targets in the last round but hung on to claim the first gold medal of the championships, winning the 10 km race in 41:35.7.
“The last stage, the shots felt
great but the wind picked up more so than I thought and I missed my first two and, honestly, I backed off because I know Kendall never misses a shot,” said Masters.
“My focus is cross-country skiing and I just thought maybe I won’t hammer it, but in biathlon (with staggered start times) you never know where you are and what someone else is doing or what’s happening in other shooting stages. I came across our coach (Gary Colliander) and he said, ‘Kendall missed four, you’re still in it.’ But I knew she skis fast and I just tried to ski good and smooth and not fall. It came down to a shooting game in the end.”
Gretsch clocked 42:23.9 while bronze medalist Andrea Eskau of Germany finished in 45:07.8.
“The last stage the wind picked up and I just didn’t adjust enough for it,” said Gretsch. “It was a bit of bummer at the end. Until the last stage we were about 10 seconds apart, it was tight between us which makes it fun when you’re racing. We have a smaller field here, there’s only four people (in the women’s biathlon sit-ski class) and it’s nice when you can still have a close race. It’s nice to have someone you’re close with be competitive with.”
Masters, 29, spent the first seven years of her life in an orphanage in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine. She was born with birth defects caused by radiation which left her with webbed fingers without thumbs and without shinbones in either
leg. Eventually she had both legs amputated above the knee. She came to the States when she was adopted by a single mother and grew up in Louisville, Ky. Masters took up rowing as a young teen and became the first American to win a medal in the sport at the 2012 Paralympics in London. In Pyeongchang last year she won five medals, despite a fall during the long biathlon race and injured her elbow. Masters now lives in Illinois with her boyfriend, sit-skier Aaron Pike, who was fifth in the men’s race Saturday. Masters was cheering on Pike and fellow American Daniel Cnossen, the current World Cup points leader, but also was happy to see Rad, a fellow Ukrainian, win his race.
“Some of their coaches are cheering me on, which is so cool, but I don’t think they will be giving me their secrets in biathlon,” she said. “I want them to succeed as well.
“I lost my language (Russian) when I came (to the U.S.) and no one else spoke it around me. My goal is to learn it.”
Gretsch, 26, was born with spina bifida and grew up as a swimmer. She competes in triathlon and qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics but triathlon was a demonstration sport in Rio her classification was not among the recognized medal sports. It will be a medal sport in Tokyo in 2020 and she plans to be there flying her country’s stars and stripes.
McDonald, Royals deliver loss to Cougars
Kody McDonald, Cougar-killer. In the last regular-season game of his junior career against his former team, the Prince George Cougars, in the place where it all began for him in the Western Hockey League five years ago, the 20-year-old Victoria Royals winger was pure poison. McDonald scored two goals, including the tying goal with less than three minutes left in regulation time, then delivered the final heartbreaking stab, firing the shootout winner that sealed 5-4 victory over the Cougars Saturday night at CN Centre. Just when it appeared the Cats might put to rest their five-week losing streak, McDonald came back to haunt them, extending their run of misery to 15 games.
Royals’ Igor Martynov and Cougars’ Vladislav Mikhalchuk, both natives of Belarus, scored earlier in the shootout
before McDonald took his turn, and with the chance to win it he made his move on Taylor Gauthier, slowing down as he approached the net before depositing the puck in between the Cougar goalie’s legs.
It was McDonald’s first game against the Cougars since the Royals acquired him at the trade deadline from the league-leading Prince Albert Raiders.
“Coming in it would be my last time playing here and it was a good way to finish the game,” said McDonald, a native of Lethbridge picked by the Cougars 24th overall in the 2013 WHL bantam draft.
“I got that 10-minute misconduct in the second period, didn’t want that, and I guess I got a little rest and came out in the third and had a good period.”
Did he ever. His first goal of the game on a Royals’ power play to start the third period gave Victoria a 3-2 lead, but it didn’t last.
Mikhalchuk put in a rebound and Tyson Upper scored again five minutes later to put the Cats ahead 4-3 with seven minutes left.
But with time ticking down and less than three minutes to play, McDonald was left unguarded and blasted Martynov’s pass high into the net to tie the game 4-4.
“I found myself some empty space there and gave Igor the call and he made the heads-up play and put it right on my tape,” said McDonald, who admitted his time with the Cougars until he got traded to Prince Albert at the deadline last year helped him get the better of Gauthier in the shootout.
“I scored on him a couple times in practice doing that. I just slowed up so he backs into the net and go backhand-forehand and he leaves the five-hole a little bit open and I snuck it in there.”
This game had a bit of everything – plen-
ty of offence, hard hits, a couple of fights, three lead changes, good goaltending at both ends and a wild overtime period dominated by the Royals. If not for Gauthier, who came up with showstopping saves in overtime on Tanner Sidaway and Martynov, who had got two good shots away, McDonald’s shootout clincher would not have been necessary. Carson Miller scored the first two goals for Victoria.
Josh Maser had a two-goal night for the Cougars, who lost 4-1 to Victoria Friday night.
The Royals (29-23-1-2) moved 10 points ahead of third-place Kelowna in the B.C. Division standings.
Prince George (16-33-4-3) dropped 13 points behind Seattle for the second wildcard playoff spot in the Western Conference, with just 12 games left.
— see ‘THIS IS A TOUGH, page 11
Collin Cameron takes off from the start line of the Men’s Biathlon 12.5km Sitting on Saturday
2019 World Paranordic Skiing Championships.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
‘This is a tough one to swallow’
— from page 9
“I thought we played pretty decent throughout the game and got up in the third and kind of had everything going and the next thing you know, back-door (play) ends up in the back of our net,” said Cougars captain Josh Curtis, who fed Leppard the puck he cranked off the post that lled to Upper’s goal.
“This is a tough one to swallow. We’re getting close, we’re really close, it’s coming and we just have to stick with it and try to stay as positive as we can. It was just a couple breakdowns that turned into goals and we can’t have those. But for the most part we played a pretty good game and there’s a lot we can take out of it.”
The Royals’ second goal, 2:13 into the second period, was a misadventure for Gauthier.
Scott Walford shot from the point and the puck dropped at the goalie’s feet and was loose in the crease when D-Jay Jerome tried to bat it in. Instead, it trickled out to the corner and Miller scored with a backhander from a sharp angle.
Maser’s 22nd of the season on a 5-on-3 power play, tied it up 2-2.
Cole Moberg made a held in a clearing attempt from goalie Griffen Outhouse and sent the puck into the corner for Ethan Browne, who aimed a shot-pass that hit Maser stick while he was standing in front of the net.
Just like they did Friday’s loss to the Royals, the Cougars had the balance of play in the opening period but were hurt by their lack of finish. The Cats have had trouble scoring all season as the lowestscoring team in the league with just 118 goals in their first 55 games (a 2.1 average) and that’s been killing them in their losing streak.
Despite all that, the Cats grabbed an early lead. Jack Sander blocked a shot in the Cougars’ end and sprung Mikhalchuk. Maser then took off down the left side and ripped
it for his 21st of the season.
The Cougars had a 6-0 shot advantage by the time Miller took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone and wired a wicked shot bar-down in over Gauthier’s glove to tie the game, 7:16 in.
The Cougars outshot the Royals 11-4 in the opening period.
On Monday the Cats dropped a 4-1 decision to the U.S. Division-leading Everett Silvertips. The teams will play again today at 7 p.m.
The Cougars are 0-4-0-1 since GM Mark Lamb took over behind the bench as interim head coach when Richard Matvichuk was fired.
Chiefs wrap up BCHL regular season title
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
The Kings came close to ruling the B.C. Hockey League roost, but the Chiefs have spoken.
Despite getting outshot 35-13, the Chilliwack Chiefs hung on to beat the visiting Prince George Spruce Kings 2-1 Sunday in Chilliwack to claim the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy as regularseason champions.
Daniel Chenard made 34 saves to allow the Chiefs to clinch first-overall in the 17-team league. Chilliwack (42-131-0) hold a seven-point edge over the Spruce Kings and with just three games left the Kings are too far back to catch the Chiefs.
Matt Holmes scored the first Chilliwack goal in the first period, on a setup from Prince George minor hockey product Colton Kitchen, and Rhett Rylands made it a 2-0 count 14:46 into the second period.
Prince George got to within a goal when Dustin Manz scored his 30th of the
Now sitting with a 3715-0-1 record, with two games left in their 58game schedule, that’s one win more than the 2004-05 Spruce Kings, who went 36-18-1-5 in a 60-game season.
season on a wraparound that went in off Chenard.
The Kings got goalie Logan Neaton to the bench for an extra skater with about two minutes left but were unable to muster any dangerous scoring chances on Chenard.
While the Chiefs now have home ice advantage throughout the BCHL playoffs, as well as the league regular season and Mainland Division banners to hang, the Spruce Kings still have much to play for in their remaining games. With 78 points, the Kings are three ahead of the
Interior Division-leading Penticton Vees for second place overall.
The Nanaimo Clippers did the Spruce Kings a favour Saturday night in Chilliwack when beat the Chiefs 2-1. Goalie Landon Pavlisin made 41 saves in the Nanaimo nets.
The Spruce Kings beat the last-place Surrey Eagles 4-2 Monday afternoon to set a new team record for wins in a season with 37.
Patrick Cozzi and Dustin Manz each finished with a goal and two assists, while Ben Brar and Chong Min Lee also scored.
Brandon Santa Juana and Caige Sterger (while shorthanded) were the Surrey goalscorers.
Logan Neaton made 21 saves for the victory, adding to his team-record which now sits at 31.
The Kings fired 37 shots at Surrey goalie Clayden Bailey
Now sitting with a 37-15-0-1 record, with two games left in their 58-game schedule, that’s one win more than the 2004-05 Spruce Kings, who went 36-181-5 in a 60-game season.
Shots on goal by Victoria 4 12 11 4 -32 Prince George 11 11 8 1 -31 Goal – Victoria, Outhouse (W,23-15-1-1); Prince George, Gauthier (L,12-23-3-2). Power plays – Vic: 1-3; PG: 1-6. Referees – Trevor Nolan, Troy Paterson; Linesmen: Nick Albinati, Nick Bilko. Attendance – 2,559. Scratches
Victoria: D Ralph Jarratt (lower
LW Tyus Gent (lower
indefinite), LW Sean Gulka (lower body, week-to-week), F Alex Bolshakov (healthy); Prince George: C Ilijah Colina (returned home, indefinite), D Joel Lakusta (concussion, day-to-day). BCHL All
“It’s been a bit of a fresh start for some guys,” said Curtis. “I know Mark has changed a few things in terms of our systems and what’s going on and I think we’ve done well adapting to it. It’s not going to happen overnight but I think we’ve done a lot of good things. We just have to get rid of those mistakes.”
Carey beats Wark at Scotties
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
In a battle of the unbeatens Monday afternoon at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Alberta skip Chelsea Carey of Calgary made a last-shot hit-and-stick count for the decisive point in the 11th end to defeat Sarah Wark of Chilliwack 9-8. The win left Alberta tied with Ontario, each with 4-0 records, while the B.C. rink, which includes Prince George sisters – third Kristen Pilote and lead Jen Rusnell – dropped to 3-1. Wark scored two in the 10th to force an extra end.
The B.C. team also includes second Carley Sandwith of Victoria, alternate Michelle Dunn of Chilliwack and coach Rick Fewster of Prince George.
Wark will be back on the ice in Sydney, N.S., today at 5:30 a.m. PT to play Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario (2-2). Then at 3:30 p.m. PT, Team B.C. faces Quebec skip Gabrielle Lavoie (0-4 after Monday’s games).
B.C. will play its last round-robin game Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. PT against three-time champions Rachel Homan of Ottawa.
B.C. opened Saturday with a 7-6 win over Nova Scotia, then beat Manitoba 7-5, followed by a 10-1 victory over Nunavut. Playoffs start Thursday with tiebreakers, if necessary. The final will be played at Sunday starting at 10 a.m. PT.
Prince George Cougars forward Jackson Leppard gains position in the battle for the loose puck against Everett Silvertips defender Robbie Holmes on Monday afternoon at CN Centre. The Silvertips won 4-1.
Taking notes from the orchestra
Anne MIDGETTE Citizen news service
So, you want to get to know a piece of classical music better. Let’s say you pick Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto, called the Emperor Concerto. You’ve heard that it’s one of the biggest and best in the standard repertory. You want to get ready for the Beethoven 250th anniversary year in 2020, and you also see that it’s done a lot – twice at the Kennedy Center in two weeks this month, and another with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra scheduled for May. Where do you go from there?
Conventional wisdom might lead you to the text in the concert program, which will provide a few details about the history of the piece, along with some of its musical features. “The year 1809 was a prolific one for Beethoven,” it might begin. It might mention Beethoven’s growing deafness –this was the only one of his five piano concertos he didn’t play himself at its premiere, because he couldn’t. And it might tell you that the concerto’s nickname, Emperor, was assigned not by the staunchly republican Beethoven, but by his publisher. According to one, perhaps apocryphal, story, this was because of the cries of “Emperor!” with which the first-night crowd greeted this masterpiece.
But ask a conductor about the concerto, and you’ll probably learn something quite different.
“The rhythmic life of the first movement is super-square,” says James Ross, music director of the Alexandria Symphony and erstwhile head of the conducting program at the University of Maryland. “For me, the first movement goes on longer than the material warrants.”
As for the second movement, the striking thing for Ross is the key signature: It’s in B major, which, he says, “orchestras just hardly ever do.” He assumes the persona of the orchestra: “We’re in B major, why move anywhere? Let’s just live on this exotic island and watch the waves roll onto our
beaches for a few decades.”
Which perspective makes you want to hear the piece more?
There’s a big gap between the way classical music is introduced to lay listeners and the way musicians experience it. We tend to offer classical music to audiences like a history lesson, in explanations studded with names and dates that are useful enough as context but that don’t really get to the heart of what you hear. Musicians, however, experience it differently. So I went in search of a new view of the Emperor Concerto by talking to some of the artists who have played it recently, and although I’ve heard it dozens of times, I learned more than I ever dreamed I was missing. And there’s no one “right” way to approach it.
For Lachezar Kostov, the associate principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony, “Beethoven was the biggest revolutionary when it came to orchestral cello writing.” Rather than relegating the lower
instruments to mere bass-line accompaniment, the composer gave a lot of thematic material to cellos and violas, Kostov says. “It gave completely different possibilities for orchestral colour.”
Daniel Foster, principal violist of the National Symphony Orchestra, says there’s no Beethoven piece that he doesn’t look forward to playing. But, Foster observes, “oftentimes his stuff doesn’t lie particularly well instrumentally, in the way that Mozart always seems to lie fantastically, idiomatically.” With Beethoven, he adds, “there can be awkward jumps, or it’s harder to find a fingering that really works.”
A horn player, by contrast, is in clover.
‘The horn parts in the Emperor get more bang for their buck, with less nervous tension, than nearly any other piece of Beethoven’s,” says Ross, who began his career as a horn player and the first American in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus orchestra. “E-flat is always a horn
player’s homiest key.” And in this piece, he says, “everything we play sounds good.”
For Jauvon Gilliam, the NSO’s principal timpanist, one of the challenges is the timpani cadenza, with the piano soloist, that closes out the final movement. Gilliam is no stranger to the part; this season, he’s already played it with three orchestras. “Every soloist wants it different,” he says.
Gilliam’s favorite part of the piece comes at the end of the second movement, when the whole orchestra suddenly shifts down a half-step, from the unusual B major to B-flat, before rocketing off into the final movement.
“There’s not even a chord to transition,” he says. “It just sort of drops. In (Beethoven’s) time, that was brand-new. It’s one of those moments where you know it’s coming, you take a deep breath, close your eyes, and let it sink in, each night.” Gilliam can do that, because in the second movement, he doesn’t have to play.
For orchestra players, a concerto, even one as long and demanding as the Emperor, can represent a bit of a reprieve. “It’s not as intense an experience as doing one of the symphonies,” says Foster, the violist. The focus is on the soloist, who has to deliver some 40 minutes of high-wire playing, at the upper and lower extremes of the instrument, with all ears upon him.
“You think, ‘Oh, gosh, I might not be able to make it,” says pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who played the piece with the Concertgebouw at the Kennedy Center a couple weeks ago. Aimard is well known for contemporary music and has played some of the thorniest works by Boulez, Stockhausen and Ligeti. But of the fifth concerto, he says, “every time it’s an impressive challenge. Not only because it’s so long, but because the form is so strong, and every gesture, every moment should be so fully nourished somewhere. You think, ‘I hope this time it will work.’”
Audiences may focus more on melodic lines; musicians focus on key signatures – that odd B major in the second movement – and structure. For Gianandrea Noseda, music director of the NSO, this big, generous piece shows that “even in a very orthodox way of composing, Beethoven couldn’t be orthodox.”
Noseda points to the unusual opening, in which the orchestra strikes three basic chords – “any student of composition can do that” – followed by three piano cadenzas, moments of free-flowing, exposed playing from the soloist. Only then does the orchestra come in with the main theme. “You are already one minute and a half into the concerto,” Noseda says, “and you start the concerto from scratch.”
“It creates twice a surprise,” Aimard says. “You have three piano cadenzas at the start, and then when the piano is supposed to come in” after the orchestra’s opening theme, “instead of coming in in a glorious way, the piano comes in in a discreet way and sings the main theme in a very intimate way, so it’s a second surprise.”
“Then,” he continues, “at the end of the piece, you get another cadenza, but it’s a timpani cadenza with piano accompaniment” – a quiet moment, furthermore, when you might expect bombast. “The whole thing is upside down.” Every work of orchestral music is a mosaic of myriad considerations, thoughts, phrasings and experiences in performance. This concerto used to be perceived as monumental (listen to the George Szell recording with Leon Fleisher from 1961), but today, as Kostov points out, it’s the style of many conductors to lead Classical-era pieces – the music of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven – “much lighter and much happier, so it’s not as intense.” (Noseda has demonstrated this approach with the NSO.) Yet Aimard ultimately sees the piece in light of its own history, written at a time when Napoleon’s forces were besieging Vienna.
“It is anything but monumental, anything but beautiful and aesthetic,” he says. “It is a shout for freedom.”
“When it comes to musicians,” Kostov says, “the performance is just one per cent of what happens underneath.”
Mulvey pushing musical boundaries
Citizen news service
Peter Mulvey, There Is Another World (Righteous Babe) Midway through Peter Mulvey’s new album, he sings about the ravages of time on the tune Nickel and Dime. It lasts 15 seconds. Mulvey always brings to his work whimsy and a willingness to push folk boundaries, and that’s the case on There Is Another World.
The Wisconsin songwriter-guitarist quotes Yeats, Rilke and Greg Brown, and that’s just in the liner notes. There’s also a literary bent to the lyrics, which can be cryptic or opaque but benefit from imagery that’s vivid and sometimes beautiful. On the love song “Owl,” he describes two birds who “both dropped into the air.”
Mulvey pairs his words with inventive arrangements anchored by his fingerpicking and by producer Todd Sickafoose’s standup bass, with further colour provided by violin, pedal steel, accordion, clarinet and wine glass rims. Unusual chord progressions lend further unpredictability to the proceedings. The 13-song, 34-minute set goes quickly, and not just because of Nickel and Dime.
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
Pierre-Laurent Aimard recently played the Emperor Concerto with the Concertgebouw at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Market closed for Family Day. Quotations in Canadian funds.
U.S. accuses China of being cyber threat
Joe MCDONALD Citizen news service
BEIJING — China’s government on Monday accused the United States of trying to block the country’s industrial development by alleging that Chinese mobile network gear poses a cybersecurity threat to countries rolling out new internet systems. And in a potential blow to the U.S.’s effort to rally its allies on the issue, British media reported that U.K. intelligence agencies found it’s possible to limit the security risks of using Chinese equipment in so-called 5G networks.
The U.S. argues that Beijing might use Chinese tech companies to gather intelligence about foreign countries. The Trump administration has pressured allies to shun networks supplied by Huawei Technologies, threatening the company’s access to markets for next-generation wireless gear.
Huawei, the biggest global maker of switching gear for phone and internet companies, denies accusations it facilitates Chinese spying and said it would reject any government demands to disclose confidential information about foreign customers.
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.
Pence said Huawei and other Chinese telecom equipment makers provide Beijing with “access to any data that touches their network or equipment.”
The U.S. government is trying to “fabricate an excuse for suppressing the legitimate development” of Chinese enterprises, said the spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Geng Shuang. He accused the United States of using “political means” to interfere in economic activity, “which is hypocritical, immoral and unfair bullying.”
U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, speaking last weekend in Germany, urged European allies to take seriously “the threat” he said was posed by Huawei as they look for partners to build the new 5G mobile networks.
The 5G technology is meant to vastly expand the reach of networks to support internet-linked medical equipment, factory machines, self-driving cars and other devices. That makes it more politically sensitive and raises the potential cost of security failures.
He appealed to European governments to “reject any enterprise that would compromise the integrity of our communications technology or our national security systems.”
In what could amount to a turning point for the U.S. effort to isolate Huawei, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre has found that the risk of using its networks is manageable, according to the Financial Times and several other British media outlets.
The reports cited anonymous sources as saying that there are ways to limit cybersecurity risks, and that the U.K.’s decision would carry weight with European allies who are also evaluating the safety of their networks.
The British government is to finish a review of its policies on the safety of 5G in March or April.
The office of British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that
“no decisions have been taken.”
If eventually confirmed, “such a decision by the U.K. would be a strong message and could be influential in the medium term,” said Lukasz Olejnik, a research associate at Oxford University’s Center for Technology and Global Affairs.
The British review “could inevitably serve as an input or a reference point in other countries’ risk assessments,” he added. European officials, including a vice-president of the European Union, have expressed concern about Chinese regulations issued last year that require companies to co-operate with intelligence agencies. No country in Europe, however, has issued a blanket veto on using Huawei technology in the way the U.S. has urged.
The U.S. Justice Department last month unsealed charges against Huawei, its chief financial officer – who had been arrested in Canada – and several of the companies’ subsidiaries, alleging not only violation of trade sanctions but also the theft of trade secrets.
The United States has not,
however, released evidence to support its accusations that Huawei and other Chinese tech companies allow the Chinese government to spy through their systems. That has prompted some industry analysts to suggest Washington is trying to use security concerns to handicap Chinese competitors.
“China has not and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide foreign countries’ information for the Chinese government by installing backdoors or other actions that violate local laws,” said Geng.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre acknowledged last summer that it had concerns about the engineering and security of Huawei’s networks. While not commenting Monday on the media reports, it added: “We have set out the improvements we expect the company to make.” Huawei said in a statement Monday that it’s open to dialogue and that “cybersecurity is an issue which needs to be addressed across the whole industry.”
Muskrat Falls cost overruns obvious, audit says
Citizen news service
HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY,
N.L. – An audit has found executives overseeing the Muskrat Falls megaproject should have been aware that it would be almost impossible to meet cost and schedule targets.
The forensic audit into Muskrat Falls construction was presented to the inquiry into cost overruns Monday by accounting firm Grant Thornton.
The cost of the Muskrat Falls dam has essentially doubled to more than $12.7 billion since it was sanctioned in 2012, with first power expected later this year.
The report found that Nalcor Energy, the provincial Crown corporation overseeing the project, should have known months after Muskrat Falls was sanctioned –when there was still time to back out – that work was six months behind schedule and project contingency was already exhausted. At the same time, bids for construction contracts were exceeding Nalcor’s estimate, with bids ranging from 60 per cent to 160 per cent more expensive than Nalcor’s estimates. Grant Thornton auditor Scott Shaffer testified the findings from this period in 2013 raised significant red flags, and Nalcor executives appear to have ignored the increasingly dire writing on the wall.
They appear to have been briefed on these trends but there was no evidence that Nalcor adjusted contingency figures or cost estimates before the government of Newfoundland and Labrador finalized the federal loan guarantee in late November 2013. That deal with Ottawa effectively locked the province into completing the Labrador
The construction site of the hydroelectric facility at Muskrat Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador is seen in 2015. An audit says overseers knew it would go over budget early on.
project no matter how high costs became.
“You knew by April that contingency was basically exhausted, and you had another seven months from April until November to do something about it. You also knew as more bids were coming in there (were) also problems in terms of the bids exceeding the budget amount,” Shaffer said. “I looked at it and said, well, there’s an issue here.”
The audit also looked at Nalcor’s contract management, finding that Astaldi, the Italian company hired to do much of the construction, was selected largely because it had one of the lowestcost contract bids.
The audit attributes $1.2 billion in cost overruns to Astaldi, mainly due to performance issues with speed and work standards that did not align with its initial bid.
An email from a high-ranking Nalcor risk assessment officer
cited in the report shows a hesitancy among Nalcor’s own staff to award Astaldi the contract.
Rob Hull’s email suggests he considered Astaldi the lesser of two risky options that were mostly being considered for their proposed cost-effectiveness.
“While I am not overly enthusiastic about the outlook for Italy... and hence exposure to an Italian firm for such a substantial contract, I understand there are commercial reasons as to why these two players comprise the short-list,” Rob Hull wrote in August 2013.
“Astaldi is better (less risk) but risks above should be communicated to the decision makers.”
Grant Thornton found Nalcor’s lacklustre oversight of Astaldi’s work contributed to the overruns.
The report found Nalcor was aware for two years that Astaldi was not hitting its performance targets but did not look into
replacing the contract until 2016, when it was advised to be a poor financial move.
Experts quoted in the audit said Astaldi’s unusual expenditures should have been more heavily scrutinized, like the firm’s proposal to enclose work in the winter to make it easier.
“An enclosure strategy is not uncommon in cold climates, however attempting to enclose an area as large as the dam structure combined with an overhead crane, material movement system is not common and warranted detailed scrutiny,” the audit read.
The audit cited instances when Nalcor executives knew costs had risen months before its board of directors approved a budget increase.
The audit also found that Nalcor executives were made aware in spring 2013 of a report by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin assessing Muskrat Falls project risks – but executives chose not to look at it, and emails indicate one official asked for the report to be kept in draft form.
The former CEO of SNC-Lavalin told auditors that he discussed the risk report with former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin, but Martin said he had no recollection of the conversation.
SNC’s assessment added a possible $2.4 billion price tag to Nalcor’s risk calculations.
Full power from Muskrat Falls is expected late next year. The dam on the lower Churchill River will send power to Newfoundland and later Nova Scotia through subsea cables.
The second phase of the inquiry’s hearings into Muskrat Falls’ construction period will continue this week in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
CITIZEN NEWS FILE PHOTO
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang speaks during a daily briefing last month at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing. The U.S. has brought charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies and one of its top executives in a case that has shaken China’s relations with the U.S. and Canada.
Anti-inflammatory diet helps tame what ails a body
Casey SEIDENBERG Citizen news service
An estimated 23.5 million Americans, including my husband, suffer from an autoimmune condition – and their numbers are growing, though researchers don’t know why.
You’ve likely heard of the most common autoimmune diseases –including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, celiac disease, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease – but you might be unaware that there are more than 80 named but lesser-known types. Through working as a nutritionist and living with my husband, I’ve learned the importance of diet in battling these disorders.
A healthy immune system can plainly distinguish between a foreign invader and its own body. When something inhibits the immune system’s ability to decipher what is safe and what is dangerous to the body, the immune system can attack its own healthy cells and tissues believing that they are threatening. This self-attack is an autoimmune condition.
What causes an immune system to attack its own healthy cells is still largely unknown but according to the National Institutes of Health, “There is a growing consensus that autoimmune diseases likely result from interactions between genetic and environmental factors.”
There are studies that show that certain genes can predispose a person to certain autoimmune diseases, and this is why many autoimmune diseases show up in one family, as they do in my husband’s family where vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia all reside.
Yet simply having the gene doesn’t guarantee someone will get the disease. The gene is like fire kindling; there must also be a spark – or an environmental trigger – for there to be a blaze.
Known triggers are infections, exposure to environmental toxins, hidden allergens, or stress and lack of sleep. Autoimmune conditions are like embers of a fire that never fully burns out.
After the initial blaze, they can flare up again and again. We try to keep my husband’s condition tamped down through diet and exercise.
Studies suggest that a healthy lifestyle can help keep the immune system balanced while less healthy situations can trigger the immune system to overreact.
For instance, low vitamin D levels have been shown to be a risk factor for multiple sclerosis.
Obesity has been linked to many autoimmune diseases, including MS, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
Stress and anxiety have been shown to cause all kinds of auto-
immune flares. On the other hand, anti-inflammatory dietary choices can lessen rheumatoid arthritis. Getting the right nutrients, maintaining a healthy weight, managing stress and sleeping regularly can help prevent an autoimmune flare.
“It is current knowledge that nutrition, the intestinal microbiota, the gut mucosal immune system, and autoimmune pathology are deeply intertwined,” reads a 2014 study, entitled Role of ‘Western Diet’ in Inflammatory Autoimmune Diseases and published in the journal Current Allergy and Asthma Reports. In other words, what we eat and the health of our digestive tract are directly connected to our autoimmune system. Other studies suggest that autoimmune issues can be managed by healing a damaged gut.
Think of the gut as the front line of defense in an army. It is the first location that foreign and potentially dangerous substances deeply interact with our bodies. This is likely why almost 70 percent of our immune system lies in and around our gut so that it can react when poisonous, dangerous, allergic or toxic things enter our systems. Since the gut is so directly tied to the immune system and healing a damaged gut can potentially manage an autoimmune condition, it seems important to keep yours healthy.
You can do this by cutting out foods that inflame the gut, limiting unnecessary medications that can alter the bacteria balance in the gut and consuming prebiotics (such as artichokes and asparagus), probiotics (such as kimchi and miso) and bone broth to build
a healthy mix of bacteria.
The following foods have been shown to cause inflammation so should be avoided if trying to balance the immune system and keep inflammation under control:
• Sugar • Refined carbohydrates
• Trans-fats
• Omega 6 fatty acids
• Processed foods and meat
• Alcohol
• Caffeine
• Artificial sweeteners
• Food dyes
The following foods have been shown to reduce inflammation:
• Leafy greens
• Fruits such as blueberries, strawberries and blackberries
• Fatty fish, high in omega 3 fatty acids
• Olive oil
• Avocados
• Nuts and seeds (if not allergic)
• Herbs and spices such as turmeric, cumin and garlic
• Vitamin D has been shown to help prevent inflammation and autoimmunity
When my husband was diagnosed, his doctors checked for underlying infections and allergies. When they didn’t find a specific trigger, he went on a strict anti-inflammatory diet for eight weeks. He took fish oil, vitamin D, vitamin C and zinc, and he did yoga, exercised regularly and got a lot more sleep than he usually did. These actions helped his body heal and not long afterward he was back throwing a baseball with our boys feeling like his energetic self.
He’s only had one flare-up since, and it followed a few weeks of travel that affected his sleep patterns and stress levels. We will never know what sparked the wildfire, but we are forever thankful to know what tames it.
Seidenberg is co-founder of Nourish Schools, a D.C.-based nutrition education company, and co-author of Super Food Cards, a collection of healthful recipes and advice.
Report urges action to curb inappropriate medical testing
Cassandra SZKLARSKI Citizen news service
TORONTO — A new report urges several measures to curb inappropriate lab tests that it says strain the health-care system and hinder patient care.
The report from the C.D. Howe Institute says over-used tests may lead to inaccurate diagnosis and potentially inappropriate treatments that can cause adverse sideeffects.
The authors say the problem varies by test, but cites one 2013 study that estimates 16 per cent to 56 per cent are inappropriate.
The think tank says the issue varies across the country, citing data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information that suggests hospital tests in New Brunswick and Newfoundland – including general radiography, mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging – was more than twice the rate seen in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Canadians receive an average of 14 to 20 laboratory tests per year, with about 70 per cent of medical decisions based on the results. The authors say that works out to roughly $5.9 billion spent annually on lab work, or four per cent of health-care budgets.
The report, titled What the Doctor Ordered: Improving the Use and Value of Laboratory Testing, adds that under-used tests are also a problem, noting that when a necessary test is not ordered, it delays diagnosis and treatment and can worsen a patient’s condition. However, that issue is harder to track, the authors note.
The study suggests doctors be given regular feedback on how their testing habits compare to peers, that they be paid per patient rather than per service, and that testing be restricted to patients that fall within minimum guidelines.
“Inappropriate use of laboratory diagnostics serves no medical value and results in costs to patients, physicians and the
health-care system overall,” says the study, co-authored by C.D. Howe analyst Rosalie Wyonch and Christopher Naugler, department head and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Calgary.
Tests are considered appropriate if they aid diagnosis, treatment or subsequent monitoring of a patient’s condition. They are inappropriate if they don’t fall within clinical guidelines or are reordered before results are likely to change.
The study knits together several findings that document the dangers of over-testing, including a national education campaign by Choosing Wisely Canada that listed more than 150 commonly used tests, treatments and procedures as unsupported by evidence.
Meanwhile, a 2017 investigation by the Canadian Institute for Health Information found up to 30 per cent of tests, procedures and treatments associated with eight tests were potentially unnecessary.
The issue has not gone unnoticed – a 2015 survey of public perceptions suggested about one-quarter of Canadians felt they were recommended an unnecessary test or treatment.
The think tank says the current fee-forservice model encourages doctors to perform as many services as possible.
Instead, they argue for remuneration based on the expected needs of individual patients, with doctors paid more for patients that likely require more medical care.
“In this model, physicians are paid to deliver a basket of services and are paid per patient, not per service.”
They also call for more comprehensive electronic medical records to avoid inappropriate test reordering, and requisition forms that restrict tests to patients who fall within the practice guidelines.
“If physicians are obliged to provide the reason for ordering a particular test, they are much less likely to inappropriately order it.”
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY JAMIE STREET
Strawberries, blueberries and other berries are known to have anti-inflammatory properties that can help diminish symptoms of autoimmune disease.
Blazing reporting trail as a black woman journalist
Nneka MCGUIRE Citizen news service
Dorothy Butler Gilliam has witnessed an awful lot of human ugliness. In this, she is unexceptional: Gilliam was born black in the South in 1936. Here’s where she’s singular: In September 1961, Gilliam became the first black woman to land a reporter’s job at The Washington Post. Her memoir, Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America, unspools what came before and after.
A preacher’s kid, Gilliam offers sweet recollections of her parents, depicting her childhood as faith-filled, pleasant and secure, despite periods of poverty and anguish. At age 14, she was riding in a car with her father when he had a fatal heart attack at age 51.
In her teenage years, Gilliam was taken by the idea of becoming a lawyer for children. But journalism was always a part of her life. Her father was an avid reader of the daily papers. As a youngster, Gilliam delivered a black weekly, the Louisville Defender, after school to earn spending money. And as a college freshman, she worked at the paper as a part-time secretary. When the society editor fell ill, she found herself – with no prior experience – writing stories to help out.
“A teenager living in the projects, I now had access to the Derby parties of the black elite,” Gilliam writes. “I saw Negroes who set their tables with fine china and lead crystal, serving the grandest meals and liquors, entertaining the way I had seen white people do in the movies or read about in books. Those experiences showed me that journalism was a key that could open a door to new worlds, and I wanted to enter them.”
She was hooked. She transferred to a college where she could major in journalism and went on to fill reporter posts at black weekly newspapers before graduating from the journalism program at Columbia University.
Gilliam is queen of the long game. At first Columbia rejected her, citing a lack of liberal arts credits. After earning the extra hours, she reapplied and was accepted. She showed similar resolve throughout her career. When she initially interviewed at The Post, she was passed over. An editor told her that the paper was interested in her but that she didn’t have enough daily experience. She demonstrated her chops by filing freelance articles to The Post from Africa during a summer work-project program that took her to several countries. On her return to the states, The Post hired her as a general-assignment reporter. Years into her tenure – again applying her determination – she asked to write a column for The Post, and after some patience and persistence she got it.
Breaking barriers can be bruising. Gilliam enumerates the indignities and injustices that black journalists – and blacks in general – faced in the newsroom and the world at large. As a reporter moving around the city, she found that cabs wouldn’t stop for her. Once she was assigned to write about the 100th birthday of a white woman living in an upscale highrise.
“A black doorman in full uniform, including a plumed hat, looked at me coldly,” she writes. “‘The maid’s entrance is around the back,’ he said.
“‘I’m not a maid,’ I answered icily. ‘I’m a
reporter for The Washington Post.’”
She explained why she was there and showed her Post ID. She eventually got in and wrote the story.
“The elderly lady liked the story I produced,” she writes, “and graciously called The Washington Post to thank me the next day.”
Beyond her journalistic slights and successes, Gilliam charts watershed civil rights moments, such as the bloody strife over school integration, Freedom Rides, sit-ins and legal efforts to fight discrimination in the workplace. She unravels many details – sometimes so many that they are hard to track. Still, as a chronicle of black history and advancement, Trailblazer is potent. As a memoir, less so. Gilliam seems reluctant to unshroud her intimate memories and emotions. Perhaps this is a function of her trade. Journalists are trained to report a story, rather than inhabit it, and to focus on facts, not feelings. Perhaps, as an industry veteran, Gilliam is conditioned to resist excavating her interior life in her storytelling. In the chapter on her 20-year marriage to artist Sam Gilliam, we only scratch the surface of their troubled relationship; it never feels as though we’ve struck through to the core.
Gilliam also was apparently shy about revealing too much to her family.
“I had a husband who at times would be my greatest support, at others would require tremendous support from me, at times would be a person I could barely recognize, and at times be my greatest detractor. It is hard to describe the isolation that I felt,” she writes about the strain in her marriage. “I could not discuss the details with my mother. I was so close to her, and yet I had entered a new world that was so distant from her own experience.”
he also noted that she didn’t readily divulge her personal problems to anyone else.
“While we had close artist friends,” she writes, “there too I felt that I needed to save face.”
As a journalism role model, Gilliam has helped carve a path for many who followed her. During her stint as a style editor at The Post, she recruited black writers and nurtured their talent. She co-founded the Institute for Journalism Education, which trained men and women of colour and sought to change the depiction of minorities in the pages of newspapers. She served as president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 1993 to 1995, and later started a development program at The Post to help teenagers tell their stories and succeed in the media.
In 1962, Gilliam covered the integration of the University of Mississippi. Decades after James Meredith became the first black student to attend the university, she visited the campus again and asked a black student if he knew who Meredith was.
“No, I’ve never heard of him,” the student told her. When she described Meredith’s “heroic battle to gain entrance for himself and future black students,” Gilliam writes, the young man “respectfully turned the bill of his baseball cap around to the front and said, ‘I appreciate what he did.’” I admit that as a black woman I didn’t know the name of Dorothy Butler Gilliam when I began working at The Post. Now that I do, I’m grateful – and damn lucky she came before me to blaze a trail.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY JUANA ARIAS
Dorothy Butler Gilliam with high school journalism students in the District in 1999.
Bessie Stockall
March 21, 1931 – February 5, 2019
Catharina (Rini) passed away at home, in the arms of her husband Dirk. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She had a smile and laugh that filled the room with sunshine.
Rini was born in the Netherlands, a daughter of Albertus and Geesje Witvoet. She was predeceased by her brother Harry Witvoet and grand daughter, Shannon Parsons.
In January, 1953, Rini sailed from Rotterdam, Netherlands to Halifax with only a trunk full of belongings and entered Canada through Pier 21 leaving her family behind. She bravely boarded the train and travelled across Canada to Edmonton sitting up the whole way. There she met up with her fiancé, Dirk Blok and they were married the next day, January 30th. They just celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary. Together with her husband, Dirk, they built a life from next to nothing, providing their children with support and opportunities.
Rini and Dirk established their home in Prince George where they raised four children: Richard Blok (Lynn), Gerda Blok-Wilson (Galt), Maria James (Brian Shaw), and Maureen Parsons (Grant). She (Oma) loved her grandchildren: Nathan and Blake Blok; Claire, Andrea and Stephanie Wilson; David, Liah and Corey Parsons and her 12 great grandchildren.
Rini’s many passions included music, gardening, philanthropy, reading, wildlife observation, church life and faith in God, celebrations and good food. She shared these enthusiastically with all she met. Rini was a founding member of the Prince George Cantata Singers and supported the development of the performing arts in the city. Her beautiful contralto voice warmed the hearts of Prince George audiences for years and her vegetable and flower gardens were the envy of many professional gardeners. Her gardening skills transferred to reforestation and she worked for TAWA Enterprises through Western Canada during the 1980s along with Dirk.
Rini’s family is grateful to everyone who contributed to her care. Dirk, her soulmate since 14 years of age, provided round the clock care for the last three years. She often commented that she had won the million dollar lottery when she met him. Rini lived truthfully and expressed her love unconditionally. She embraced and was so grateful for her good fortune and new life in Canada. She will be missed greatly but the memories will live on.
In loving memory of Bessie Stockall Born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan in 1931, Bessie and her family moved to Prince George in 1951. She passed away peacefully surrounded by family on the 15th of February 2019 at the Jubilee Lodge. Bessie was predeceased by her husband Don and survived by her sons Michael (Lisa-Marie) and Patrick (Dianne)McCallum, and her grandchildren, Deanna (Ray), Amanda, Tara (Landon), Shaileen (Lance), Travis (Ashley), as well as her great grandchildren Tyler, Kassy, Adley-Anne and Lawson. Bessie is also survived by her brothers Bob, Bud and Gordon, and sister Luella also. She was predeceased by her brother Jack. Bessie enjoyed spending time with family (the Dondales, McCallums and Doyles), playing cards, listening to music and going dancing. A funeral will be held at St. Mary’s on Wednesday, February 20th at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, cash donations will be accepted to raise money for a new fireplace for the Jubilee Lodge.
A celebration of life will be held Friday, February 22, 2pm St Giles Presbyterian Church, 1500 Edmonton St. Rini and Dirk helped to provide clean water to 15 communities across Southern Ethiopia. The number one killer in the world is contaminated water and in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to HOPE International Development Agency for similar development: www.hope-international.com Adult & Youth Newspaper Carriers Needed
Catharina Blok (nee Witvoet)
