Sergey Ussoltsev from Kazakhstan crosses the finish line in the
Nordic Centre on Thursday. See more coverage of the
Convicted
pedophile moved next door to two young girls, sentencing hearing told
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A Crown prosecutor is raising as a central issue a convicted pedophile’s behaviour while out on bail when facing charges for molesting a young girl.
In February 2015, a jury found Paul Veeken guilty of sexually interfering with a person under 16 years old and he was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail followed by one year probation.
In the aftermath, Veeken, now 45, won a new trial, this time before a judge alone.
But in December, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lance Bernard effectively upheld the jury’s verdict, finding Veeken had inappropriately and deliberately touched a girl over the course of about two years starting when she was 10 years old, often under the guise of pulling her onto his lap and tickling her.
A sentencing hearing that began Thursday effectively turned into a trial on whether Veeken breached a condition of his bail while standing accused of the offence when, in summer 2014, he moved next door to a home where two young girls were living.
The girls’ father testified that while the relationship between Veeken and the family had been “pretty solid, friendly, neighbourly,” they never knew his last name until, about 1 1/2 years after he moved in, Veeken invited the parents to his home for dinner in December 2015.
When he turned on his computer to show them pictures of a cabin his family had worked on, Veeken’s last name appeared on the screen prompting a passing joke that the neighbours finally knew his last name.
The father said his suspicions were raised only after Veeken commented about his family and “how we wouldn’t like him or we wouldn’t like them.”
Concerned that it seemed to be an unusual comment, the father searched for Veeken’s name on the internet and found a story from The Citizen about the first time he was convicted.
From there, the father went to the RCMP to clarify whether Veeken was that same person and the girls were subsequently told to stay away from him.
Veeken, in turn, soon moved away.
While testifying on his own behalf, Veeken had maintained that while he never told the parents he was on bail and facing charges, he had made it clear during a visit about a year after he had moved in that he was facing “false allegations” and so did not want to be near children.
However, that contention did not fly with Bernard, who agreed with Crown counsel that Veeken had violated a condition of his bail to not be in the company of a minor except when in the “presence of an adult third party with knowledge of the condition.”
From there, prosecutor Marie Louise Ahrens argued Veeken’s behaviour fit a pattern similar to that which had led to the conviction for sexual interference, saying he had begun a new cycle of befriending, grooming and then abusing a young girl.
Veeken couldn’t help himself because he’s a pedophile, and the only thing that stopped him was “he got found out,” Ahrens submitted.
The hearing continues Friday at the Prince George courthouse.
Senior double-billed by city
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
First a local senior got a utility bill from city hall. That was normal and unremarkable. Then, another one came for exactly the same amount.
“I was so confused. I thought I had done something wrong, or city hall was doing something new and I owed more money,” said the local senior.
A call to city hall resulted in instructions the senior felt were wholly inadequate.
“Why didn’t they make a big deal out this, telling people about it?” the senior said. “People should have been made aware, really aware, and what I got told was ‘oh, it was on our website.’ Can you imagine? Do they think people spend their time checking the city’s website to see what might be there? A lot of seniors don’t even have a computer.”
City of Prince George spokesperson Michael Kellett said the two bills were not double-billing. Only one of those bills needed to be paid, the other destroyed.
“It is important to note that the com-
puter system, which tracks how much is owed, did not bill residents two times,” he explained. “The error occurred in the printing process. If somehow a resident did pay twice due to this issue, the city would reimburse them for the extra payment as their account would reflect an over-payment.” It is one thing to hear the money only needs to be paid once, said the elder, but the amount on this bill was almost $600 and “a lot of seniors may not realize what’s going on, they will pay twice and even if it gets applied as a credit or gets refunded somehow, that money is out of pocket for awhile, and a lot of seniors can’t afford to be out that amount for any length of time.”
Kellett said the root of the printing error was not yet known but the city was apologetic for any inconvenience this might have caused, and staff was working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“Some bills were accidentally printed twice – we don’t yet know exactly how many, but we do know it was not the majority. As it says on the website, residents only need to pay one of the notices as long as the account number on both bills is the same.”
B.C. considering vaccination registry, Dix says
Sheryl UBELACKER Citizen news service
TORONTO — The B.C. government is considering a mandatory vaccination registration program similar to that in Ontario in the wake of an outbreak of measles in Vancouver, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Thursday. Such a system would be aimed at boost-
ing the proportion of residents in the province who are vaccinated against the highly contagious disease, he said.
“While there are some people who are expressing opposition to immunization, and others who can’t be immunized for medical reasons, some people simply fall through the cracks of the system,” Dix said. — see ‘I’M NOT FORCING, page 3
Madeleine Roger bringing show to P.G.
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Growing in the Manitoba cottonwoods you’ll find the earthy strands of Madeleine Roger’s music.
She’ll bring those sounds to Prince George next week for a Tuesday night show at Nancy O’s.
The prairie singer-songwriter scrapes her fingers on the steel strings and layers her voice with harmonies that transport the listener across the mid-Canada landscape and back in time just a little when the most prominent songs were dispatches of information and emotion like a letter mailed with a stamp you had to lick.
Those songs then told small stories and painted big pictures in the hands of Shawn Colvin, Yael Wand, Stephen Fearing, Megan Metcalfe and those turners of phrase and hewers of melody.
Roger was cut from that thicker cloth and fashions her songs with the stronger seams of that handmade era.
“I draw, I sew, I’ve been making a lot of things out of wood lately like cribbage boards and I made a kayak paddle a week ago, I work with leather making mitts and moccasins and things, it’s a little out of hand,” said Roger, describing her bouquet of creative outlets.
“It’s a great way to spread your life way too thin. My mom is the influence where all the crafting comes from. She’s a painter, does a lot of work with pottery, she had a huge sewing area and she’d make me and my twin brother (Lucas, with whom she has a music duo they call Roger Roger) a lot of our clothes when we were growing up. We had a room in our house dedicated to crafting supplies and we were encouraged to do that a lot. We didn’t have a TV in the house or, really, a computer, until later, so what we did for fun and entertainment was crafting. And my dad was a recording engineer and musician, so I guess the apple didn’t fall terribly far from the tree.”
Music was not resisted by Roger early on, but it was not her passion. When her mind was still wrapped by a child she made other choices, and those pursuits lasted almost until she was standing on the cliff of adulthood. When she made that leap, it was music out of which she built her wings.
“Before I decided to be a songwriter I was pretty heavily involved in theatre,” she said. “Really from the age of Grade 2 I thought that that was what I was going to pursue for my life path. Then part way through my degree in theatre and film at the University of Winnipeg I started writing songs and picking up the guitar, and I just fell completely in love with songwriting as a vehicle for storytelling. And I love the ability to collaborate with people on a shorter time scale, because with theatre it’s like two or three months of rehearsal, then you put on a show for maybe the weekend, maybe it’s a week, maybe it’s a month-long
run, but after that it always ends and I felt this frustration for never having anything to hang onto after the show is done. But part of the huge appeal for me with music is that when the show is done you still have all of your songs, you still have the skills you’ve developed with your instrument and voice, and there is this community of people you can collaborate with really all the time. You can go into someone’s living room in the evening and have this collaboration unfold. To me it’s like all of the pieces that theatre was missing has been fulfilled with music and songwriting.”
Making music suddenly came out of her pores because it had been steeping there all along. Songwriting is a different craft, though, and she found it almost like a coin on the street. She and two cousins were in a vocal group together and Roger was disenchanted with the songs available for three-part harmony in the style they sang. Her answer was to write their own music. And it never stopped.
When you see Roger in concert now that she is one of Manitoba’s new rising stars, you won’t see an artist so formative or so in need of definition that she presents cover versions of other artists.
“Almost none,” she confirmed. “The thing is, I write so much, I’m more interested in
bringing in a new song into a performance or bringing back an old song.”
She also has that knack, like the comparative artists above, for packing density into the lyrics. Her songs are lovely background tunes, if you want them to be, but like those folk, country, thought-pop artists mentioned, she infuses the stanzas and choruses with meaningful content.
“I feel that recording has forced me to scrutinize my writing, because you’re capturing something forever and I really want that to be intentional, but also imaginative and playful,” she said.
She also feels the pressure of borrowing the talents of others who come into the studio to contribute instruments and voices to the recording mix.
They are usually friends, usually busy with their own projects and otherwise in demand, so her self-imposed obligation is that “it has to be built on the foundations of a really solid song.”
The solidity comes in part from the organic formation of the songs. She wrote this album mostly out in the Manitoba rural landscape at the family cabin where she can go kayaking and hiking and rugged biking to keep the mental juices flowing. It’s a scene right out of a Carly Dow album. Dow is another Manitoba ruralite singer-song-
writer who plies the same creative waters Roger speaks of.
When I mention this, there is a brief silence at the end of the line. Roger is a passenger in a car, as the conversation unfolded, cutting through a blizzard on the way to a gig in Montreal.
“Umm, Carly Dow? She’s sitting right next me, right now, here in the car,” said Roger. Dow grabbed the phone and gushed about her musical compatriot.
“You’re gonna love these guys, they are amazing,” said Dow, referring to Roger’s collaborator on this tour, Logan McKillop.
“Actually Madeleine is all over my new record, too, and Logan who she’s touring there with is also on my record.”
Dow has played a number of gigs around the Prince George region, but this is Roger’s first time.
“Maybe I should stay in the car. It’s been awhile since I’ve been up there,” Dow laughed.
Roger’s new album is called Cottonwood – a package she and her father co-produced and co-engineered together – and she is already looking forward to the Prince George date on her cross-Canada tour because she has heard tell of the faces carved into the cottonwood trees along the Nechako River, along the trails in Cottonwood Island Park.
HANDOUT PHOTO
Madeleine Roger will be performing at Nancy O’s on Tuesday.
Committee approves misconduct probe of legislature officials
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — Two suspended officials at British Columbia’s legislature now face an independent misconduct review as well as an ongoing RCMP investigation.
Members of the all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee voted unanimously Thursday to appoint a top legal official to determine whether clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz breached their administrative duties. Lenz and James have been suspended with pay since November after members of the legislature learned of an RCMP investigation and the appointment of two special prosecutors. A 76-page report last month by Speaker Darryl Plecas outlined allegations of spending abuses by James and Lenz that included lavish foreign trips, clothing perks and topped up retirement and vacation pay outs.
“I think we have a path forward,” said Plecas after the committee meeting. “I’m extremely happy of the decision to have a jurist who will do an independent review. I’m assuming that’s going to be a rather quick path and we’ll have to see where it all lands.”
James and Lenz have denied any wrongdoing and responded in writing earlier to the allegations.
The committee voted unanimously Thursday to publicly release a second report by Plecas that responds to James and Lenz.
“The responses from Mr. James and Mr. Lenz attempt to create a contest of evidence between me and them, but that is not what this is about,” says the second Plecas report. Plecas’s report says his reports are supported by the accounts of more than a dozen witnesses who worked with Lenz and James at the legislature for years.
“Why are these positions so lacking in accountability and oversight compared to the conduct of employees and officials working elsewhere in government?” says the report. “Why are these officers travelling all over the world like dignitaries, spending enormous amounts of money and justifying it all by their bare assurances that the events were useful?”
Plecas is chairman of the eight-member, all-party committee that oversees management at the legislature, which has a budget of $83 million.
The legislature’s three house leaders –
New Democrat Mike Farnworth, Liberal Mary Polak and Green Sonia Furstenau –attended a joint news conference at the end of the committee meeting.
“All three parties around that table take this issue very seriously,” said Farnworth.
“We take the institution very seriously and we worked together to come up with a way forward.”
The committee also voted to appoint auditor general Carol Bellringer to conduct a full audit of the legislature’s finances. The committee voted late last year to assign that work to an outsider auditor, bypassing Bellringer.
Last November, the members of the legislature voted unanimously to put Lenz and James on administrative leave after learning of an RCMP investigation.
The members also learned two special prosecutors were appointed last October to provide legal assistance and advice to the RCMP in relation to an “investigation being conducted into the activities of senior staff at the B.C. legislature.” Lenz and James were escorted from the
legislature by security officials.
Lenz and James provided written responses earlier this month to the Speaker’s first report that alleged spending abuses on trips, expenses and legislature items, including alcohol and a wood splitter and trailer.
The report also alleged inappropriate retirement and vacation pay outs.
“The report goes out of its way to smear my character,” James says in a 24-page response. “It contains opinions and innuendo which are neither accurate, nor fair. It attributes statements to me which I never made, and conduct in which I never engaged.”
Lenz says in his 62-page response the expenses he charged were legitimate and reasonable. He says every trip was for business purposes and he flew economy class and the legislature did not pay for his wife when she joined him.
“The trips that I took were not boondoggles,” Lenz says in the document. “They were for important business of the Legislative Assembly – part of an ongoing program to improve security and business continuity
‘I’m not forcing anybody to get vaccinated’
— from page 1
“We want to make it harder for that to happen,” Dix said. “So action is coming.”
Dix stopped short of saying a plan is in place or when it might be announced, but he noted that some of the groundwork has already been done: the idea of a vaccination records registry had been contemplated after an outbreak of 343 cases of measles in B.C.’s Fraser Valley region in 2014.
In the meantime, said Dix, “the message is for parents to immunize (their children).”
There have been nine confirmed cases of measles in Vancouver in recent weeks, including eight at two French-language schools in Vancouver, a cluster that began after an unvaccinated B.C. child contracted the disease during a family trip to Vietnam. The other case is unrelated.
Measles is nothing to sneeze at: complications include blindness, ear infections that can lead to deafness, pneumonia and encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. The disease can also be fatal. In 2017, there were 110,000 measles deaths, most among children under age five, the World Health Organization says.
Infection with the virus begins with a high fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by a blotchy rash that spreads from the face and neck to the rest of the body. The virus is spread through air-borne droplets after an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Public health officials say the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the most effective way to prevent infection.
However, some people – infants, those with certain underlying health conditions and patients undergoing chemotherapy – can-
not be vaccinated and must rely on high vaccination levels within their community in order to be protected from infection by socalled “herd immunity.”
Dix said Ontario’s system makes it more difficult for those eligible for vaccination to miss getting their shots – and he wants to see B.C. with a similar model.
In Ontario, vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella is required by law for all children attending school, although parents can seek an exemption on religious or conscientious grounds. The Immunization of School Pupils Act requires parents or guardians to provide proof of vaccination before their child can attend school.
Earlier this week, 33 children and staff at the two measlesaffected Vancouver schools were ordered to stay home until at least March 7 because they either hadn’t been vaccinated or weren’t able to provide proof of immunization.
Dix said provincial medical officers of health have the authority to exclude children and adults
without vaccination proof from schools.
Meanwhile Thursday, a petition calling on the B.C. government to make it mandatory for children attending public schools to be vaccinated – except for medical-based reasons – reached almost 35,500 signatures on the website change.
org. Katie Clunn of Maple Ridge, B.C., who started the online petition, said vaccination is not only about protecting one’s own children, but “others as well.”
The mother of two young kids, with a third on the way, said if parents choose not to have their children vaccinated, they can home-school or possibly enrol them in a private school.
“I’m not forcing anybody to get vaccinated if they don’t want to vaccinate,” she said in an interview. “But I think we really need to step back and realize for the greater good that we need it and their own children do too.”
— With files from Dirk Meissner in Victoria.
in face of threats like the shootings at Parliament in Ottawa... and natural disasters.” Plecas said his report is based on a lengthy investigation conducted by his office and includes his personal observations. Plecas, a criminologist, was named Speaker of the legislature after B.C.’s close-fought 2017 election that resulted in the minority New Democrat government. Plecas was elected as a Liberal, but was ejected from the party caucus after he accepted the Speaker’s post. He now sits as an Independent.
“British Columbia taxpayers deserve a legislative assembly that is accountable, transparent, efficient, fiscally responsible and fair to its employees,” says the Speaker’s first report. “A full inquiry needs to be conducted into these matters and changes need to be made. That is why I have brought these matters forward.”
The government said in this month’s throne speech it will “work with this assembly to implement reforms that restore trust in this core institution, so that our democracy is stronger going forward.”
Suspicious incident near elementary school reported
Citizen staff
Police are on the lookout for a man driving a pickup truck following a report of a suspicious incident at a local elementary school.
The suspect is further described as Caucasian, 20 to 30 years old, with short hair and a long beard and wearing a flat-brimmed baseball hat. The truck was a white Ford with four doors and a black tailgate.
The man is suspected of following a student while walking home from Heritage Elementary School for a lengthy period on Tuesday starting at about 2:30 p.m.
“The driver did not attempt to communicate with the student, however, followed the student for several blocks in his truck,” RCMP said. “It was last seen near the intersection of Corless Crescent and Tabor Boulevard.” The incident was reported to police the next day.
Police would like to speak to the person involved and to any witnesses to the incident.
The detachment can be contacted at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers. bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers.
CP FILE PHOTO
Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz and Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Craig James make a statement to media in Vancouver on Nov. 26, 2018.
Regulated heroin would reduce overdose deaths, group says
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — The BC Centre
on Substance Use is proposing a policy to sell legally regulated heroin as part of an urgent response to reduce opioid overdose deaths from a toxic drug supply that is profiting organized crime groups.
It is recommending the use of so-called heroin compassion clubs and buyers clubs, similar to those that emerged in the 1980s and 90s to allow access to medical cannabis in response to the AIDS epidemic.
“Then as now, compassion clubs functioned to provide a safe place for people to access medical cannabis and connect with a range of health services, while buyers clubs procured life-saving treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS when government inaction limited access to these medicines,” a report from the centre says.
It also highlights independent reports that say organized crime groups have used Vancouver-area casinos to launder billions of dollars in cash from their proceeds of crime, including fentanyl trafficking, which Attorney General David Eby has said is troubling and could lead to a public inquiry.
Dr. Evan Wood, executive director of the centre, said an innovative approach to the overdose crisis is needed during a public health emergency declared in British Columbia nearly three years ago and to wage “economic war” on organized criminals benefiting from drug prohibition.
The compassion clubs would involve a co-operative model
through which powdered heroin would be restricted to members who have been assessed by a health-care provider as having an opioid addiction, provided education about not using alone and connected to treatment as part of a program involving rigorous evaluation, Wood said.
“One of the big benefits of this model is that there’s just a massive chasm between where people buy their drugs and public health and treatment services and that’s the gap that so far in the opioid
response has been very, very difficult to bridge with people using at home alone and dying of fentanyl overdoses.”
Mental Health and Addictions
Minister Judy Darcy said she has had a briefing on the idea but has not yet read the report, adding she plans to “study it very carefully.”
“Our focus has been on safe prescription alternatives to the poisoned drug supply so this is a very new concept.”
The BC Coroners Service has said nearly 3,000 people fatally
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Searchers discovered the body of a missing snowshoer in avalanche debris on Vancouver’s North Shore on Wednesday, two days after he was swept away.
Peter Haigh of North Shore Rescue says searchers made the discovery on Runner Peak, north of Mount Seymour.
He says the BC Coroners Service will investigate the cause of death but the man appears to have suffered trauma when the avalanche hit.
The mother of the 39-year-old Surrey snowshoer has identified him as Remi Michalowski.
The man was hit by an avalanche on Monday that pushed his 30-year-old companion up against a tree but left him uninjured and able to call for help.
The younger man was airlifted out of the area late Monday, while darkness and a subsequent snowstorm forced suspension of
search efforts for almost 36 hours.
Searchers with specially trained dogs returned to the challenging area Wednesday morning to search through the debris pile left by the avalanche.
Haigh is urging hikers to be careful on the slopes.
“Avalanches, they’re so bloody dangerous and they’re so unpredictable. It’s very, very frustrating,” he says.
Avalanche Canada has upgraded the slide risk to “considerable” in the treeline of the south coast mountains where the man’s body was found.
A post on the Avalanche Canada website says “an unusual, weak layer makes steep and convex terrain features particularly dangerous.”
Heavy snow has fallen across southern B.C. over the last 10 days and Avalanche Canada says 30 to 50 centimetres of new snow on the south coast mountains is poorly bonded to the base, with the problem especially pronounced on the North Shore.
overdosed in the province in 2017 and 2018 alone, with illicit fentanyl detected in 85 per cent of the deaths last year.
The heroin compassion-club model would require the approval of Health Canada, which could either provide an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for research or public health reasons or through another regulation that has allowed B.C. to import injectable pharmaceuticalgrade heroin from Switzerland.
That heroin has been in use
since 2014 for a limited number of drug users being treated at Vancouver’s Crosstown Clinic, the only such facility in North America. Wood said the idea for the compassion clubs came from a small group of people who banded together to buy heroin from dealers and test it to determine if it had been contaminated with fentanyl.
“I’ve seen and talked to these individuals,” he said.
“I’ve had a patient who had a transformative experience with using heroin instead of fentanyl and so it’s led us to sit around a room and say, ‘OK, maybe we need to have this conversation on regulating the heroin market.’ ”
Providing users with a regulated and legal supply of heroin would also ensure they get other supports including public health experts, treatment and pharmacy services, Wood said.
A gram of heroin on the street costs between $140 to $200 and can last a couple of days, versus about $3.80 that users would pay for powdered heroin imported from Switzerland, he said.
“That’s the thing people don’t realize, that if you had the same gram of heroin from the street you’re looking at about $6,000 a month. But everybody has to steal or generate almost $50,000 of stolen property to get that $6,000.”
Erica Thomson, a peer support worker for Fraser Health who also contributed to the report, said she began using heroin at age 15 while sh was a competitive swimmer.
“I think this is another way that we’re starting to stay alive because we’re not getting anything practical that reflects our realities available to us,” she said.
WestJet loses appeal in sexual harassment suit
Laura KANE Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — WestJet has lost an appeal of a court decision that refused to throw out a proposed class-action lawsuit that accuses the airline of fostering a culture that tolerates harassment of female employees.
Former flight attendant Mandalena Lewis is suing over alleged gender-based discrimination.
She claims her former employer broke its promise to provide a harassment-free workplace for women.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge dismissed WestJet’s application to strike the legal action in 2017, rejecting the company’s argument that the dispute belongs before a human rights tribunal and workers’ compensation board.
The airline took its argument to the B.C. Court of Appeal and a three-judge panel ruled against it Thursday.
The panel said in a written decision that nothing in the relevant statutes removes the jurisdiction of the courts in this case.
None of the allegations contained in the lawsuit have been proven in court.
WestJet spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said in a statement that the company respects the decision of the Appeal Court and is in the process of reviewing the ruling with its counsel to determine next steps.
The lawsuit proposes to represent all of WestJet’s past and current female flight attendants whose employment contract included a so-called anti-harassment promise.
The case has yet to be approved by the court as a class-action proceeding.
The Appeal Court ruling rejected the airline’s argument that the plaintiff’s allegations fall within the mandate of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which enforces employee rights related to discrimination and harassment.
Appeal Court Justice David Harris said although the alleged facts of the lawsuit involve discrimination and harassment, the primary allegation is a breach of contract.
This is a win for women everywhere. This lawsuit is definitely already setting a precedent for how employees are dealing with sexual harassment complaints.
— Mandalena Lewis
“A contract is a recognized source of legal rights grounding remedies for breach in the courts,” he wrote on behalf of the panel. Lewis said she was elated by the court’s decision.
She described it as “history-making” because it recognizes the importance of employers’ contractual promises to employees, particularly those about keeping women safe from harassment and assault.
“This is a win for women everywhere,” she said.
“This lawsuit is definitely already setting a precedent for how employees are dealing with sexual harassment complaints.”
She said she hopes the class-action will be certified within the next year.
Her statement of claim against WestJet alleges she was sexually assaulted by a pilot while on a stopover in Hawaii in 2010. WestJet has rejected allegations that it failed to take appropriate action after she reported what happened.
The Calgary-based airline’s statement of defence said it immediately launched an internal investigation into Lewis’s complaint, but the company was ultimately unable to conclude the pilot had committed an assault.
Lewis, 33, said Thursday that she filed the lawsuit because she “couldn’t be quiet.”
“I had been through too much myself and I was trying to make a difference within the company.”
The search area on Runner Peak on Vancouver´s North Shore is shown in a handout photo from North Shore Rescue.
Dr. Evan Wood, executive director for B.C. Centre on Substance Use looks on as Erica Thompson, regional peer coordinator for Fraser Health Authority, speaks during a news conference in Vancouver on Thursday.
Pot edible rules flawed, critics say
Laura KANE Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Canada’s proposed edible pot regulations would result in tasteless products wrapped in wasteful packaging, shutting out medical patients and fuelling a continued black market, critics say.
The consultation period on the proposed rules ended Wednesday and Health Canada is now reviewing the responses. Jessika Villano, owner of Buddha Barn dispensary in Vancouver, says she hopes the government genuinely wants her opinion.
“I don’t feel like anybody’s been listening. I feel a little bit deflated, actually,” she said.
When Canada legalized weed last fall, it only allowed fresh or dried bud, oil, plants and seeds. Health Canada released its proposed regulations for edibles, extracts and topicals in December and asked for feedback.
The government plans to have regulations in place for those products no later than Oct. 17 this year.
Villano said she’s concerned about a number of elements of the proposed regulations. A single serving would be limited to 10 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, and each serving must be individually wrapped.
The rule is more strict than regulations in Colorado or Washington, where multiple servings are allowed per package, for example in a chocolate bar demarcated into squares that each contain 10 milligrams.
“I feel that Health Canada is
creating an environmental nightmare,” Villano said.
Long-time users who take cannabis to combat pain, stress or nausea use much higher doses, with some cancer patients using up to 650 milligrams per dose, she said. The regulations would outlaw higher-dose products and any substitute would be unattainably expensive, she said.
The regulations also say the products must not be appealing to youth and the packages can’t advertise dessert or confectionery flavours. Edibles must also not “encourage over-consumption” and be shelf-stable, so no refrigeration.
While there’s nothing in the rules that explicitly outlaws sweet ingredients, Villano said she’s worried the restrictions mean brownies, cookies and candies are off-limits.
“They’re proposing that we sell sand,” Villano said. “I think a lot of adults would like to have cannabis sugar in their tea.”
Health Canada confirmed the proposed regulations would allow a broad range of ingredients, including sugar and chocolate, in edible cannabis. However, it said products must not feature ingredients, shape, colour, flavours, packaging or labelling that would appeal to youth.
The proposed THC limit for edibles aims to address the key risks of accidental consumption and over-consumption by children and adults, it said, adding the proposed limit for cannabis extracts, such as capsules, is 1000 milligrams of THC per package.
Department spokeswoman
Tammy Jarbeau said the requirements for packaging would attempt to minimize appeal to kids and protect against accidental consumption.
“Health Canada welcomes licensed processors to use innovative and environmentally sound packaging approaches, provided the requirements in the regulations are satisfied,” she said in a statement.
Yannick Craigwell’s company, Treatsandtreats, sells sweet goodies containing up to 220 milligrams of THC to medical patients. His packaging isn’t colourful or bright – it’s simply a black bag with a clear window to show what’s inside and a muffin on the logo. But the proposed regulations would not allow a cut-out window nor the advertising of confectionery flavours.
Craigwell said he hopes Health Canada sets up an office where companies can send their package designs for approval or disapproval, because “there’s no way to know” what’s acceptable based on the proposed regulations.
He said he had no doubt the black market would persist if the proposed rules are finalized without changes.
“If there’s a need, people are going to fill that need. If there’s a financial reward for filling that need, that’s the whole premise of the black market,” Craigwell said.
Bruce Linton, CEO of Canopy Growth Corp., said the rules aren’t perfect, but they’re very good. His company is developing a caloriefree cannabis beverage and he doesn’t see an issue with the 10 milligram limit per serving for drinks.
U.S. metal tariffs could be gone soon
James McCARTEN Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — A longawaited end to Canada’s steeland-aluminum tariff nightmare could be just weeks away, says Ottawa’s ambassador to the United States – but David MacNaughton is playing coy about the source of his newfound optimism.
Along with Transport Minister Marc Garneau, MacNaughton was taking part in a panel discussion Thursday about the prospects of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement when he abruptly declared that an end to U.S. tariffs on metals imported from Canada, which have been in place for nearly nine months, could soon be at hand.
“I think we’re going to resolve it in a positive way in the next short while,” the ambassador said. “I don’t want to go into great detail, but I think we’re going to resolve this matter soon ... even governments end up doing the right thing eventually.”
When asked later to elaborate on his reasoning, MacNaughton clarified the possible timeline, but refused to explain beyond the suggestion that the anti-tariff narrative driving Canada’s ongoing “charm offensive” in Washington and elsewhere is finally starting to sink in.
“It is obviously difficult to predict accurately exactly what is going to happen here – there are many moving parts, there are other distractions – but I’m confident that we’re going to get there in the next few weeks,” he said.
“When you look at the number of people in the United States who are talking about why these tariffs have to go... this is hurting Americans, and I think there’s enough pressure building that we can find a resolution to this.”
On Tuesday, MacNaughton was in Ottawa when he indicated that he’s hearing complaints from some U.S. quarters about the ongoing impact of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs – “countermeasures” that have been targeting
some $16.6 billion in U.S. imports, largely from politically key states, since the summer. And Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland pressed for an end to the tariffs when she met last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the margins of the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
MacNaughton and Garneau were just two of the past and present lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico gathered in Washington to explore when Congress might get around to debating the merits of the USMCA. Both said Thursday they remain confident that U.S. lawmakers will eventually ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, although when remains an open question.
Donald Trump was, of course, top of mind for many. Former New York congressman Joe Crowley, who lost his nomination last year to rising Democrat star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, blamed the president for having “weaponized” the issue of trade, a tactic that he blamed for alienating two of America’s most important allies.
“How he treated Mexico, how he has treated our closest friend in the world, Canada, and how he has brought them to the table in the way in which he has, I think also has left a lot of people unsettled, especially Republicans,” Crowley said.
“I know that people know where Democrats are. I kind of want to know where Republicans are today, because the president has made the issue of trade – something that has been very associated with Republicans – a very toxic issue for some of them.”
Gordon Giffin and Jim Blanchard, two former U.S. ambassadors to Canada, shared a panel with former Canadian envoy Gary Doer, all three of whom called on the White House to lift its tariffs on steel and aluminum. They also agreed the new trade deal can’t be passed until those tariffs are removed.
CP
Jessika Villano, owner of Buddha Barn Craft Cannabis is seen in her Vancouver store on Oct. 2, 2018. Canada’s proposed edible pot regulations would result in tasteless products wrapped in wasteful packaging, shutting out medical patients and fuelling a continued black market, critics say.
Creativity, will needed on city spending
You can’t fault the guy for trying.
At least Coun. Brian Skakun is actively trying to find ways to save money at the City of Prince George and he’s willing to look at everything – even snow removal – to reduce the tax burden on local residents. Stacking up the snow on the city’s boulevards may not be the best idea (alright, let’s be honest – it’s dumb) but it begs the question of whether there are other better ideas out there to get the job done cheaper and more efficiently.
From there, one would hope that would start an ongoing discussion at city hall to constantly reevaluate all of the city’s operations for time and money savings, rather than sticking with “that’s the way we do it” and throw more money at the problem whenever something new comes up. That being said, Skakun should know by now, in his sixth term as a city councillor, that striking out alone and trying to solve the city’s problems by himself has never worked out for him before and it’s not going to work out this time, either.
Skakun should know by now, in his sixth term as a city councillor, that striking out alone and trying to solve the city’s problems by himself has never worked out for him before and it’s not going to work out this time, either.
Nor is it his job. He does have the authority, however, along with his colleagues on city council, to order the city manager to find savings, in any or all city operations, including snow removal. Leave it up to the well-compensated professionals on the city’s senior management team to present options to reduce spending and for mayor and council to decide which option makes the most sense. Speaking of options, were there options presented to city council by the management team on how to deal with the Employers Health Tax, yet the latest in a long and continuous downloading of costs from the provincial government onto municipalities? Instead of simply passing on that $1 million tab onto local residents through their property taxes, maybe Prince George
needs to start uploading costs back up to the province.
Take the Employers Health Tax, for example. If Victoria has no problem dumping a $1 million expense onto the City of Prince George, then surely they won’t mind if Prince George claws that money back by taxing provincial government operations here in Prince George. In other words, the city could raise property taxes on Northern Health, UNBC, CNC and School District 57. And keep going from there.
Municipal politicians have been passing resolutions for the past 20 years at the Union of B.C. Municipalities annual convention demanding the provincial government restore public library funding to 21 per cent, the rate it paid way back in 1986. That number has dropped over the years
YOUR LETTERS
Retiring the bins
AiMHi is moving forward with a new approach to the community collection bins. We place value on the feedback from the community and feel we are now a leader in a new, safer collection approach.
AiMHi has now opened an Attended Donation Station at 1000 First Ave. The public will be able to drop off their donations at the Attended Donation Station Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and be met by a trainer or a person in training.
AiMHi has now removed all large collection bins previously in the community and these will not be going back into service. We have started placing new inside donation cages in participating local businesses around the Prince George area. These smaller open cages are designed to assist the public with alternate places to donate their recycled goods. The Prince George community has been vocal about safer alternatives and needed change for the collection of products.
AiMHi feels these new collection methods will meet the expectations set by the community and are a viable alternative to outside collection bins. AiMHi is proud to be a leader and we feel the community recognizes the value in this sort of collection and ensuring items do not go to the landfill unnecessarily.
We value the donations that are provided by our community to support AiMHi in our fundraising efforts and partnership with Value Village. AiMHi is also very proud of the fact that while we provide this service we also
include this valuable resource as an opportunity to train people through this partnership. We have people who are paid, training on the truck during pickups and drop offs, as well as people in the office greeting the public while accepting donations and making calls to inform the public. Many of these people, upon completion of the training program, find employment within our community using the skills they have learned through this partnership program. We would like to ask for your support by placing one of these new wire bin systems inside your place of business. Please feel free to contact the Attended Donation Station at 250-564-9402 for further information.
AiMHi thanks the community for their ongoing support through this exciting new transition.
Sandi Beningfield Prince George
Carlin was right
When I heard Donald Trump saying he might use a military option to oust a socialist government in an economically ravaged, oil-dependent economy, I thought he was talking about Alberta. Turns out he’s presenting his own version of the Monroe Doctrine of U.S. domination of the Western Hemisphere and he’s talking about Venezuela, whose economy is in a staggering slump because of the fall of oil prices, just like Alberta which has a convoy in Ottawa demanding government intervention. Ironically just a few miles away from Venezuela is Haiti, the homeland of a former Canadian
Governor General, where there are anti-corruption riots and critical shortages of food and medical supplies. No mention of U.S. military intervention to calm things down there. Oh, I forgot, they have no oil. However, it’s been recently reported that billions of dollars of foreign aid, including $400 million from Canada, went to Haiti after the earthquake and disappeared. Why not meddle there and find out what the heck happened to our money? After all, the Americans claim that they know where the military and political leaders of Venezuela have their money stashed.
I was extremely disappointed in Justin Trudeau’s quick reaction to support Trump’s tactics in Venezuela. If we really wanted to help the people there, why not just buy their oil instead of Saudi Arabia’s where they just murdered a journalist, are involved in a massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen, have a terrible human rights record and are not a democracy?
Oh yeah, because a Canadian company has big arms deal with those guys.
Recently we found out that a major Canadian company, SNCLavalin, was involved in a bribery scandal with the infamous dictator Mohamar Kaddafi. How does our self-righteous PM deal with that? He throws a prominent and popular Indigenous female cabinet minister under the bus. This is not democracy, it’s hypocrisy. As the late great comedian George Carlin often said, “It’s all B.S. and it’s bad for ya.” Roy Olsen Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
and now sits at a paltry five per cent, with municipalities expected to pay the rest. The City of Prince George could either roll back their annual support to 80 per cent of their local library’s budget and/or hit provincial government operations in Prince George with a tax or fee to make up the difference.
On one hand, this is simply moving money around between levels of government but on the other, this would be Prince George telling Victoria (and Ottawa, if necessary) that costs kicked down to the local level will be clawed back somehow, some way. If the area MPs, MLAs and the local boards of those provincially-funded organizations don’t like it, too bad.
Skakun and the rest of city council have all sorts of power at their disposal to take control of the city’s finances, by demanding reduced spending by the bureaucrats they oversee and punting downloaded costs right back at Victoria or both.
It’d be nice to see more of that and less of them acting as if they have no choice but to pass the costs down to local property owners.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
No new taxes, sort of, for a while
There are no new tax measures that increase provincial government revenues in Budget 2019,” was the reassuring line in the document.
Because they’re too busy dealing with the fallout from the last batch, was the unwritten but assumed explanation.
To accept the premise, you have to overlook the carbon-tax increase in April that will bump up all fuel costs and create $200 million more a year in government revenue.
Easy to do, says the government. That was imposed in 2017 and was mandated by the federal government. So it’s not in Tuesday’s budget.
Technically.
But it was featured in the first post-budget debate Wednesday, as opposition B.C. Liberals teed off.
One of the NDP’s points of pride on the spending front was the $900 million earmarked for climate-change initiatives already outlined.
But the expanding carbon tax will bring in about $6 billion over the next three years, with much more to come. So most of it is going into general revenue, since the principle of revenue neutrality was abandoned last year.
There have been enough flipflops on both sides about the carbon tax that Wednesday’s debate looked like a gymnastics event.
Liberals, who invented it and then let it languish, were attacking its resurrection by the NDP.
They also highlighted a more recent shift in NDP thinking.
Finance Minister Carole James said after her first budget that people “don’t mind paying the carbon tax, if they know it’s going to go to green initiatives and climate action.”
She’ll have to stuff a lot more government spending under the “green initiatives” umbrella to use up $6 billion in new revenue.
Meanwhile, the NDP was proudly defending the escalator clause in a tax that it campaigned against at the outset.
As a former party leader, James led the “axe the tax” chants.
Now, she backs the tax to the hilt.
The rest of the budget is free of new tax increases, which is undeniably a good thing.
But the background provided by the last two NDP budgets, an update soon after they took office and a full budget a year ago, show they didn’t have much choice but to hold off.
Tax increases imposed or signalled then are bringing big swells of new revenue, and accompanying waves of concern
Mailing address: 201-1777 Third Ave.
Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7
Office hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday
General switchboard: 250-562-2441 info@pgcitizen.ca
About 1.6 million British Columbians are busy making the solemn “I am not a speculator” pledge to avoid huge property taxes aimed at the 32,000 people who are, most of whom are B.C. citizens.
Taking another run at property owners’ wallets in the midst of that chore would have been asking for trouble. Even people who aren’t facing the increase are annoyed to some degree at the confusion over that showcase tax and the inefficient collection system.
And owners of high-end homes are less than enchanted with the direct surtax on properties over $3 million.
That’s more than matched in the business world, where the employer health tax has kicked in with no escape, no matter how many forms you fill out.
It’s designed to fill the hole left by the eventual elimination of medical premiums on individuals. This year, that hole will be filled with cash to spare.
The budget expects to collect $1.8 billion this year from the tax, growing to $2 billion by 2021, for a total of $5.8 billion over three years. The kicker is that medical premiums will still be around for another year.
They’ve been cut in half for one transition year before they disappear.
So premiums, a big share of which are paid by employers, will bring in another billion dollars in the upcoming year, on top of the tax revenue.
That’s far more than what the previous government expected to collect from premiums after it cut them in half before the last election.
The year of paying double will take a while to digest, which is why it was a good idea to lay off on tax hikes this year. But most of the spending trend lines suggest it’s just a pause.
B.C. Liberal critic Tracy Redies said the government has “baked in” $13 billion in new spending since it took office.
That’s not counting the cost of $10-a-day child care and the $400-a-year renters’ rebate that have been put off, but are still apparently in the plan.
Revenues are expected to increase all around to keep up. But it’s going to take a sustained run of prosperity and a lot of breaks to maintain the balance without more hikes.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca
Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca
Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca
Website: www.pgcitizen.ca
Website feedback: digital@glaciermedia.ca
Member of the National Newsmedia Council A division of Glacier Media
IN THE FAST LEYNE
LES LEYNE
“
Wilson-Raybould wasn’t pressured, free to talk, top bureaucrat
Joan BRYDEN Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada’s top bureaucrat launched a vigorous defence Thursday of the government’s handling of the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, bluntly declaring allegations of political interference to be false and even defamatory.
Michael Wernick, clerk of the Privy Council, took opposition MPs to task for jumping on the anonymously-sourced allegations to accuse the government of obstructing justice.
He also challenged former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould’s assertion that solicitor-client privilege prevents her from responding to the allegations that she was improperly pressured by the Prime Minister’s Office to spare the Montreal engineering giant a criminal trial on charges of corruption and bribery related to government contracts in Libya.
Wernick was testifying during the first round of hearings by the House of Commons justice committee into the affair that has rocked the Liberal government, resulting in Wilson-Raybould’s resignation from cabinet last week and the departure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, earlier this week.
The allegations first surfaced in a Globe and Mail report two weeks ago, citing unnamed sources.
“I’m here to say to you that the Globe and Mail article contains errors, unfounded speculation and, in some cases, is simply defamatory,” Wernick told the committee.
From everything he knows, Wernick said the Prime Minister’s Office handled the matter with integrity. There was vigorous debate internally about whether WilsonRaybould should exercise a legal option to instruct the director of public prosecutions, Kathleen Roussel, to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. That agreement is a kind of plea bargain in which the company would pay restitution but not get a criminal conviction that could financially cripple the company by barring it from bidding on government contracts.
Wernick said those discussions were perfectly legal and didn’t cross the line into improper pressure on the attorney general, whom he noted was repeatedly assured by Trudeau that a final decision on the matter was hers alone. In essence, he said the controversy is much ado about nothing.
“We are discussing lawful advocacy that the minister take a lawful decision which in the end she did not take,” he told the committee, noting that the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin continues.
Wernick is not a lawyer. But he said based on his decades of experience as a senior bureaucrat under multiple Liberal and Conservative governments, he doesn’t believe solicitor-client privilege stops Wilson-Raybould from telling her side of the story. He said he doesn’t see where she was acting as a solicitor giving advice to either the cabinet, which never discussed the matter, or the prime minister.
“The prime minister said at every occa-
Avalanche warning issued for south coast
REVELSTOKE (CP) — An avalanche warning has been issued for backcountry users in B.C.’s south coast and Vancouver Island as unusual snow conditions could increase the possibility of triggering a slide on steeper terrain. Avalanche Canada says there is a weak layer in the snowpack that is about 50 centimetres deep, prompting a warning until Sunday. It says a storm forecast for today is expected to bring another 10 to 15 cm of snow and the remaining weak layer could trigger a deadly avalanche. The group urged people to carry essential rescue gear, including a transceiver, probe and shovel.
Cop who tackled knife-wielding man at B.C. school hailed a hero
Laura KANE Citizen news service
DELTA — An off-duty British Columbia police officer who was stabbed several times in the stomach while picking up his children outside an elementary school is being called a hero by his police chief.
“I want to acknowledge the quick thinking and the bravery of acting Sgt. (John) Jasmins,” Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord told a news conference Thursday.
He said Jasmins intervened in a domestic dispute by tackling a man who is also accused of stabbing his wife just as children were being released from school on Wednesday.
“John’s thought was this was an immediate circumstance that needed action and as a result he jumped in and did a barrel tackle of this gentleman while he was in the process of using the knife,” Dubord said.
He said Jasmins’ children saw their father in an altercation outside Immaculate Conception Elementary School and ran to tell adults who called 911 before police responded in just over a minute.
Dubord said 49-year-old Manoj George, whose marriage was dissolving, has been charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
says
sion verbally and in writing that she was the decider so she was not giving legal advice to the prime minister,” he said. “She was the decider, the full and final decider.”
Under opposition questioning, Wernick allowed that he might not be aware of every conversation in which Wilson-Raybould may have felt pressured. He also acknowledged that she may have interpreted something that was said, including by him, as undue pressure.
But if that was the case, he said there were “multiple, multiple, multiple” occasions on which Wilson-Raybould could have reported the matter to the federal ethics commissioner or to the prime minister, which she did not. Among other things, he said she could have raised the matter with the ethics commissioner in early January, when Trudeau informed her he was moving her to the veterans affairs portfolio – a move Wernick denied amounted to firing or demoting her.
“The fact is she was offered another seat at the table in cabinet, which is a privilege that one per cent of one per cent of one per cent of Canadians have,” Wernick said.
“Maybe she didn’t feel that way,” countered NDP justice critic Murray Rankin.
“Then she could have declined the offer of the seat,” Wernick shot back.
Wilson-Raybould is expected to testify before the committee on Tuesday. Wernick predicted she’ll express concerns about undue pressure in three meetings which occurred in September and December. He said in his view all three, two of which he described in some detail, were “entirely appropriate, lawful, legal” and on which he’s prepared to “submit to the judgment of the ethics commissioner,” who last week initiated an investigation into the allegations.
Wernick prefaced his testimony on the SNC-Lavalin affair with a remarkable speech in which he said he’s “deeply concerned” about the deteriorating tone of partisan discourse – including incitements to violence that he fears will lead to someone getting shot during this fall’s election campaign.
Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt called Wernick’s testimony “stunning” and proof inappropriate pressure was applied to Wilson-Raybould.
Both Raitt and Rankin pointed to the fact that Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of justice in early January, after the meetings described by Wernick.
“Everybody knows you can’t direct the attorney general but you can fire her and that’s what happened,” said Rankin.
Earlier at the committee, Justice Minister David Lametti also said it was entirely appropriate for the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss the SNC-Lavalin prosecution with Wilson-Raybould.
Speaking in Halifax Thursday, Trudeau said he remains puzzled by Wilson-Raybould’s resignation from cabinet despite her explanations this week behind closed doors to cabinet ministers and the Liberal caucus.
“This is not a decision that remains clear to me,” Trudeau said.
“Police knew of the circumstance but certainly had never seen any violence that had occurred,” Dubord said.
George’s 41-year-old wife, who was picking up one child at the school, remains in hospital in serious condition.
“Your heart does take a quick skip,” Dubord said of hearing about the officer’s situation while sitting in his office and wondering whether any kids were involved.
“We had another victim in this case and I certainly don’t want to minimize that,” he said.
Dubord said he visited Jasmins in hospital Wednesday evening and the officer wanted to thank staff and parents who leapt into action by calling 911, providing first aid to him and the injured woman and looking after students.
“I also want to express gratitude to the Surrey RCMP and my amazing wife and children who were so brave and had the awareness and composure to run to the nearest adult and direct them to call 911,” Jasmins said in the statement.
Jasmins underwent surgery on Wednesday night, and the chief said the officer is on the road to a full recovery.
The officer is in charge of community policing in Delta, south of Vancouver, and has been a police officer for over 13 years.
The school was closed Thursday and police will be there today with their trauma dog, Dubord said. The principal of the elementary school said counselling would also be made available for students today.
Some disabled vets to get less support under Liberal plan: PBO
Lee BERTHIAUME Citizen news service
OTTAWA — While most disabled veterans will see a small boost in financial support when the Trudeau government implements a new pension system in April, a new analysis shows some of the most severely injured will end up with less than under the current system.
And the financial benefits available for all under the Liberals’ pension plan will fall far short of those provided to veterans before the federal government replaced a long-standing disability pension with the current system in 2006.
Those are among the findings of a new study by Canada’s parliamentary budget officer, which comes about a month before the new Pension for Life is implemented and amid anger about the system within the veterans community.
The federal Liberals had promised during the last election to reinstate lifelong disability pensions after many veterans complained the lump-sum payment and other benefits that replaced it was far less generous.
While that was widely interpreted as bringing back the pre-2006 pension system, the Trudeau government instead introduced its own version, which will come into effect on April 1.
That version has been blasted by many veterans as a betrayal of the Liberals’ original commitment.
In his analysis released Thursday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux confirmed what many veterans have alleged: that the Liberals’ Pension for Life doesn’t offer the same level of support as the pre2006 Pension Act.
“From the perspective of the veteran, virtually all clients would be better off if they were to receive the benefits of the Pension Act,” reads the report released Thursday.
Giroux did find that most veterans will see a six-percent increase in financial support under the Pension for Life than the current system...
Exactly how big is the difference? The report says disabled veterans would have received on average 24 per cent more with the pre-2006 pension than the Liberals’ new plan.
Giroux did find that most veterans will see a six-per-cent increase in financial support under the Pension for Life than the current system, which was implemented with all-party support in 2006. But about five per cent of veterans who apply for benefits after April 1, when the new system comes into effect, will actually receive less under the new system – notably the most severely injured.
That is because the government did away with a monthly, lifelong benefit designed to compensate those veterans whose service-related injury or illness prevents them from being able to work.
The change only affects veterans who apply for benefits after April 1, when the new system comes into effect.
While the budget watchdog found that the current system and the Liberals’ Pension for Life are less generous for disabled veterans than the pre-2006 pension system, they are also far less expensive. The government would end up paying $40 billion to provide pre-2006 pensions for all current veterans, compared to $22 billion under the current system and $25 billion under the Pension for Life.
CP PHOTO
Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick waits to appear before the Justice Committee meeting in Ottawa on Thursday.
The rip heard around the world
Nike feels the pain of Zion’s freak injury
Joedy McCREARY Citizen news service
DURHAM, N.C. — Soon after Zion Williamson’s shoe ripped apart, Nike’s stock price took a hit.
The freak injury during one of the college basketball season’s marquee games immediately sparked debates about everything from the shoe manufacturer to insurance issues and whether the likely NBA lottery pick should risk his professional future by continuing to play for the top-ranked-for-now Blue Devils. Williamson is day to day with a mild right knee sprain and is progressing as expected, team spokesman Mike DeGeorge said Thursday night.
By Thursday morning, Nike, which manufactured the shoes Williamson was wearing, also was feeling the impact of the injury.
The company’s stock closed down 89 cents at $83.95 on Thursday as the sportswear manufacturer became the target of ridicule on social media. A spokesman said Nike has begun an investigation into what it called an “isolated” event.
“Shoes have failed before, but not as visibly,” said Matt Powell, a senior industry adviser for sports for the NPD Group, a market research firm.
Playing before a crowd littered with celebrities – from Spike Lee to former president Barack Obama – Williamson was hurt in the opening minute of the game as his Nike PG 2.5, from Oklahoma City Thunder star Paul George’s signature sneaker line, tore apart. Williamson wears that model frequently during games and hadn’t had any obvious problems.
The 280-pound Williamson is one of the most powerful players in the game, and he tried to plant with his left foot as his right foot was slipping. The blue rubber sole ripped loose from the white shoe and Williamson’s foot came all the way through the large gap. He ended up in an awkward-almostsplit, clutching the back of his right knee. He walked to the bench and a few minutes later headed to the locker room, leaving the wrecked shoe under his chair.
George said Thursday that he has talked with Nike to see what went wrong and what happened to the shoe.
“It hasn’t happened to me as long as I’ve been in this shoe,” George said. “We’ve made three generations, going on four now of my shoe, of being successful. So I didn’t necessarily feel any way about that part – the negative part of it. My only concern was for Zion, honestly.”
Since Duke is a Nike-sponsored school, Williamson has his choice of that company’s footwear.
“I’ve seen guys bust through shoes but not sprain their knee,” coach Mike Krzyzewski
said. “He’s gone down a couple times where he’s slipped and saved the ball. That’s what I thought happened. He goes so fast that maybe if there’s something slippery, that happened.”
The injury also set off a fresh round of debate about whether Williamson – the possible No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, should he leave Duke after his freshman season – would be wise to end his college season in an attempt to avoid an injury that could jeopardize his pro career. NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen made the case for it a month ago, saying on ESPN that “I would shut it down.”
Asked to respond on Feb. 5 to those comments, Williamson turned to his locker room sidekick, walk-on Mike Buckmire, and asked, “Buck, would you hate me if I shut down the season?
“I couldn’t do that to my teammates,” Williamson continued. “Again, thank you for, like, seeing the confidence in me and the type of player I can become. But I love college too much to stop playing. I wouldn’t give this up.”
Now that he’s actually hurt, it’s unknown if his feelings have changed.
It’s also unclear, if he decides to continue his college career, whether Williamson has an insurance policy to protect him in case of injury like many other elite college athletes have purchased.
DeGeorge on Thursday could not confirm a report by Action Network that Williamson had an $8 million loss of value policy written by Winston-Salem-based International Specialty Insurance that would pay out if he slipped past the 16th pick in this June’s draft. Officials at ISI did not return telephone and email messages Thursday.
Loss of value polices are not offered by the NCAA, but the governing body does offer disability insurance.
Spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the NCAA allows schools to purchase loss of value policies on a player’s behalf. She added that the NCAA also facilitates a disability insurance program for players in five sports, including men’s basketball, in which athletes can purchase policies with pre-approved financing to protect against future loss of earnings due to injuries suffered in college. Duke spokesman Jon Jackson said the university does provide the resource for athletes to purchase policies in limited cases but declined to comment on specific instances.
There are no NCAA restrictions on how much insurance a player can purchase, or if the player wants both types of policies, Osburn said.
A few years ago, former South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore took out a disability insurance policy.
He purchased a $1.8 million insurance policy through the NCAA program. Lattimore had a clause in his policy that it would pay out if he did not play four NFL games. Lattimore never played in an NFL game but only received about $270,000 from the policy, in part because he did get a signing bonus when he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round.
He purchased the policy prior to his sophomore season in 2011 then renewed it the following year. That season he dislocated his knee in a game suffered several torn ligaments when he was tackled. Lattimore currently works as the director of football player development at his alma mater.
There are times to turn off the business brain
Iwas sitting in the chair in front of Jose in his office one morning recently, and he stopped me and asked why I hadn’t brought up the business at hand when we had tickets to a ball game a couple nights before.
“I didn’t want to bother you with my problem in your off time,” I said. “I figured I would see you at our next appointment and then we could discuss your professional services.”
“That is just like my dad,” Jose said. “When I was a kid at home and I asked my dad about the retail store we had, he wouldn’t talk about it. He said to ask him at work the next day and he would explain. He had a great businesslife balance.”
It’s difficult enough to balance work life and home life when you work for someone else, but the reality is that when you own your own business, it’s so much more challenging. Throw in a home office, family members who are involved in the business, or financial challenges that squeeze family resources and the separation can become almost non-existent.
BUSINESS COACH
DAVE FULLER
When we know that we are being paid from nine to five or that someone is taking over our job for the night shift, we can rest easy. When it’s someone else’s business, we leave work at work and can come home and be with our family and friends. We can take holidays knowing that our job will be there when we get back. Owning a business is different. The work never seems to go away. There is nobody who takes care of the big picture when we are not focused. Our business problems are difficult to leave behind, especially when the business is tied to us personally, financially or emotionally. The weight of the business makes us feel that we are trapped in our own little world that no one else understands. I remember clearly that day in the late 1980s when I was involved in the startup of one
of my ventures. I had just put in a 12- or 14-hour day and was meeting some friends after for a drink at their house. I went in enthusiastically talking about the new business and all that was happening that I had found so exciting. I hadn’t been talking for more than a couple minutes when I remember looking in their eyes and noticing that they didn’t care. Their eyes were glazing over. They wanted to talk about their lives, their work, their challenges, not mine. More importantly, they didn’t comprehend what it took to make a business run successfully. It was as if I was speaking a different language. I fully realized, at that very moment, that I had to leave my business at the shop. I couldn’t bring it into my social life except at a superficial level. From that day on, I have tried hard not to talk about my business ventures unless someone specifically asks about them. This is the challenge of each and every business owner, and it creates a lonely space.
It isn’t surprising that you will find business owners meeting together, joining business groups,
or developing family friendships. They share a common bond that goes beyond their individual businesses. They know what it takes to own and run businesses, and the struggles, challenges and opportunities that entails. There is a common language and understanding. We need the social context to discuss business, however we also need to know that there are times when we need to leave business issues alone. Even our fellow business owners don’t always want to be talking shop. Creating balance in our lives makes us healthier, as Jose’s father wisely knew. If we can find ways to shut our business brains down and focus on other aspects of life, our businesses will be better, our relationships will be better and we will be happier.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an awardwinning certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Dave loves to hear about your business, day or night, by email at dave@profityourselfhealthy.com. However, he will only reply during certain hours away from family time.
slipped lower as the Bank of Canada governor gave mixed commentary on the economy. The general pullback in markets comes after a significant rise in recent weeks, said Allan Small, investment adviser at HollisWealth. “I think it’s just a bit of a pause. We’ve seen a pretty big run-up in the markets.”
He said that with a growing number of indicators suggesting a slow-down in the economy, investors are wondering what could lift markets that are already approaching the record highs of last year.
“Everyone’s starting to question whether or not with a slowing economy, corporate profits slowing down, the growth is slowing down, how sustainable is it that we could see this market gain significant momentum beyond the previous high.”
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 30.38 points at 16,000.86.
The moderate dip was spread widely across sectors. The energy index led declines with a 0.87 per cent fall as the April crude contract closed down 20 cents at US$56.96 per barrel.
Less cyclical sectors recorded small gains, including utilities and real estate.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 103.81 points at 25,850.63. The S&P 500 index was down 9.82 points at 2,774.88, while the Nasdaq composite was down 29.36 points at 7,459.71.
Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said Thursday that the road to higher interest rates is “highly uncertain” amid data that has been giving mixed messages. Poloz said the labour market remains “extremely strong,” but any future rate hikes will also have to factor in how housing markets adjust to higher borrowing costs and stricter mortgage guidelines, whether business investment picks up its pace and the “highly uncertain” global trade environment.
The comments overall didn’t suggest a rate hike coming any time soon, said Small.
“I just don’t think the bank of Canada wants to raise rates, ahead of the U.S. especially. A weaker dollar is a very good thing for us right now in our country.”
The Canadian dollar averaged 75.78 cents US, down 0.16 of a US cent from Wednesday.
The April gold contract ended down US$20.10 at US$1,327.80 an ounce and the March copper contract was down two cents at US$2.90 a pound.
AP PHOTO Duke University basketball player Zion Williamson sits on the floor after his Nike shoe blew out during a game and caused him to sprain a knee.
Sports
Golden again
Daviet remains the standing king, Arendz nails second silver
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Mark Arendz cranked out his best race so far in the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships and by his own high standards there wasn’t much the 2018 Paralympic champion could have done better.
The 28-year-old Canadian nailed all 20 targets on the shooting range and was fast on his skis from start to finish in Thursday’s men’s standing biathlon 15-kilometre race.
And still it wasn’t enough to beat Benjamin Daviet.
Daviet’s lone miss, on his third shooting bout, gave Arendz hope he might finally dethrone the flying Frenchman who has done nothing but win races this week at Otway Nordic Centre.
For Daviet, his fifth gold medal of the championships proved his most difficult, mentally and physically. He collapsed in exhaustion at the finish as Arendz came over to congratulate him and help him remove his skis.
“For sure that was the hardest race of the week, you know if you miss a bullet you have to ski harder after that (to make up the one-minute penalty) so even though I missed one I made it up on my skis and it was a nice race for me,” said Daviet, through an interpreter.
“I missed a bullet at the second shoot and the race was long after that. I didn’t have to excite myself on my skis and just be calm and confident to the end of the race and that’s what happened.”
Arendz got to the finish line well ahead of Daviet but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Daviet’s physical limitations prevent him from bending his left leg at the knee, resulting in a level of impairment listed as LW2. The product of his 93 per cent multiplier and his actual elapsed time made his adjusted time 42:22.2. Arendz, who lost his left arm just above the elbow in a farming accident, is listed as LW6 for a multiplier of 96 per cent and an adjusted time of 42:50.4.
“It’s exactly how I wanted it, maybe not the result in the end, but I just focused on what I could do, which was control the pace
on the skiing and shoot clean on the range,” said Arendz, a native of Hartsville, P.E.I. “Today I was able to hold it and it stayed there. I didn’t fade and had good pacing, so the body’s there. I think I had a great race, everything was as good as I would have hoped for, it’s just that Daviet had me at the end with a little more speed.”
Arendz has learned over the years how to control his breathing and slow his heart rate as he comes into the range after minutes of hard pounding on the trails, a remarkable skill that takes years to develop.
“Thousands and thousands of rounds definitely help and for me it’s getting to that little moment, that mindset, if I’m in it, and today I was definitely in it. It’s more like meditation,” he said. “It’s somewhere between conscious and sub-conscious and it’s a wonderful place to be but it’s tough to get there. For me, that’s the key to shooting, to be in that zone.”
Daviet’s run of success this week means not only a goldmedal haul but also a collection of five miniature stuffed Frasers, the city’s moose mascot, which he’ll be taking back home to his family in the village of Le GrandBornand (pop. 2,100) in the southeastern French Alps near Annecy.
In France, he’s not quite as big of a star as World Cup biathlon champion Martin Fourcade but Daviet is expecting a celebration when he gets home from Prince George.
“For sure, in my village we’ll make a huge party with all of my friends and all the village and it will be nice to come home,” said Daviet.
Thousands and thousands of rounds definitely help and for me it’s getting to that little moment, that mindset...
— Mark Arendz
Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine was the bronze medalist (44:26.1, 0+0+1+0).
In the women’s standing race, a 12.5 km event, Ukrainians swept the podium. Liudmyla Liashenko has done nothing but win the biathlon events and she was virtually flawless in Thursday’s individual event (41:09.2, 0+0+0+0), winning by 22.67 seconds over teammate Oleksandra Kononova (42:42.5, 0+1+1+0). Yuliia Batenkov-Bauman (45:46.2, 1+0+2+0) was the bronze medalist.
“I was calm in the shooting range today, my main task was to shoot clean and I did it good today so the result shows itself,” said Liashenko. “Of course it was cold but it was cold for everybody.
“It’s really awesome (to have three Ukrainians on the podium), everybody is really happy to represent our country. It’s difficult to say why we do so well, maybe because we train harder than others or maybe we take the sport more serious, nobody knows what is the secret.”
Brittany Hudak of Kelowna (46:42.6, 0+0+0+1) posted her second fourth-place biathlon
Losing has become a broken record in Cougarville
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
In the 25-year history of the Prince George Cougars there have been some lengthy winless droughts but never have they been spitting sand so long ever since they made that turn into the Sahara Desert of the Western Hockey League. This is uncharted territory and nobody seems to have a compass to lead them to their oasis.
They’ve gone a team-record 17 games without a win –unprecedented in their time since the team arrived in Prince George from Victoria in 1994. The Cougars have had some tough years, like the 1995-96 season, the year they moved into the building formerly known as the Prince George Multiplex. They lost 10 straight that fall and it cost head coach Doug Hobson his job. Cougar fans were showing up for games wearing paper bags over their heads and their team lost five more until Hobson’s replacement Dale Marquette finally found the win column.
finish of the championships and was feeling the effects of pushing her limits for 47 minutes, knowing throughout the race she was flirting with her first medal finish of the week.
“That one hurt,” Hudak said. “It got a bit colder overnight and the snow wasn’t as fast as (Wednesday) and going a bit longer today after three races the legs were feeling a bit tired by the third lap.
“This is more of a shooter’s race, for sure, and I was hoping for clean shooting and on the last bout I didn’t feel a lot of wind and thought I was lined up and just pulled a little too soon. I knew 19 out of 20 is still pretty good but unfortunately that miss is probably going to cost a podium spot but that’s sport and what can you do.”
Ukraine has dominated the championships and has an insurmountable lead in the medal standings with eight gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze for a total of 36 medals.
“As much as it’s tough to see them on the podium all the time, it’s still nice to know we have a competitive field and it helps make the sport stronger,” said Hudak. “You feel better when you podium with them but it didn’t happen today.”
The U.S. is second with 13 (five gold, six silver, two bronze) and France ranks third with seven total (five gold and two bronze). Germany is fourth with 13 medals (four gold, three silver six bronze). Arendz’s second silver of the championships gave seventhplace Canada a total of six medals for the championships (one gold, three silver, two bronze).
— More coverage, page 10
The Cougars duplicated that 15-game losing streak in 2010 with Dean Clark at the helm, a losing streak that started Feb. 12 and ended on March 12. Twice, in 1996 and 2011, the Cats went winless in 13 games and they even went through a 10-game stretch without a win in October 1996, the year they had Zdeno Chara and company on board for their first trip to the Western Conference final. But never has it been this bad. They haven’t won since Jan. 12, when they beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-0 at CN Centre and their slide cost Richard Matvichuk his job when he was fired Feb. 6. Tonight in Kamloops, the Cougars have a chance to end it, but they’ll be taking on a Blazers team they’ve yet to beat in six tries this season. All were regulation losses except a 3-2 overtime decision Jan. 20 in Prince George.
During their 17-game slump the Cougars have gained just four points, three from overtime losses an one from their 5-4 loss in a shootout to Victoria last Saturday.
After the Everett Silvertips handed them a 4-1 defeat Monday afternoon, the Cougars lost the rematch Tuesday night at CN Centre against the Tips by an identical score. But it was a much-improved performance for the Cougars in the eyes of interim head coach and general manager Mark Lamb.
“I thought we played so much better (Tuesday) than we did (Monday). I thought we took a step back (Monday) and a step forward (Tuesday), but it’s the same result,” Lamb said.
“We’re playing the young players in important situations where sometimes they have success and sometimes they don’t but it’s an experience they’ve got to go through, whether it’s positive or negative.”
Cougars goalie Taylor Gauthier had one of his better games Tuesday and was picked as the second star after he made 32 saves. The Cougars also had 20-year-old defenceman Joel Lakusta back in the lineup for the Everett series after he missed eight games with a concussion.
see CATS, page 10
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Canada’s Kyle Barber takes aim on the biathlon range during the Men’s Individual Standing Long Distance race.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Vasyl Kravchuk of Ukraine leans into a corner while competing in the men’s individual sitting biathlon long distance race at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships at Otway Nordic Centre on Thursday.
B.C. turning heads with play at Scotties
Gregory STRONG Citizen news service
SYDNEY, N.S. — Sarah Wark’s curling team from British Columbia isn’t used to cross-country travel, arena ice, top-flight competition or the national spotlight. You wouldn’t know it by Wark’s debut performance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
She has embraced the big stage this week and unexpectedly made the championship round to boot. “I love it, it’s nice to go in feeling the crowd, the emotions, being on camera and everything like that,” Wark said. “It drives me a little bit and it just brings out a nice level of competence that I don’t always have.”
B.C. made the eight-team cut at Centre 200 on Thursday morning with an 8-5 upset win over Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury in a tiebreaker game.
“We felt really good about the way that we played the game and felt like we deserved to win,” Wark said.
The numbers back that up. Wark led all players with a shooting percentage of 90 per cent, well ahead of Fleury at 66 per cent.
A pair of three-point steals sealed Fleury’s fate. Wark kept the pressure on throughout the game and made Fleury pay when she missed.
Wark advanced in Pool A with Alberta’s Chelsea Carey, Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville and Ontario’s Rachel Homan.
“That’s huge for us,” Wark said. “If you would have told us at the beginning of the week that we
skip Sarah
and third Kristen
on Thursday. B.C. won 8-5.
would be playing a tiebreaker for a spot in the championship round, we would have been thrilled.”
Fleury was expected to be in the playoff mix after topping a strong field in the Manitoba playdowns.
But she never seemed to get on track this week and made costly mistakes at the wrong time.
“We thought we would be a
hometown is Prince George – share a light
contender, but sometimes you just don’t have it,” Fleury said.
Team Wild Card’s Casey Scheidegger, Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle, Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt and Canada’s Jennifer Jones advanced in Pool B.
Wark opened the competition with three straight wins before losing one-point games to Alberta
and Northern Ontario. Her only other defeat in the preliminary round was an 8-6 decision against Ontario.
Pretty impressive stuff from the 24th-ranked team in the country.
“I think it says a lot about the fight we have in us,” Wark said.
Wark got a chance to play some higher-ranked teams at the Red
Rad not so bad at world championships
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Taras Rad was nearly perfect in completing his biathlon trifecta.
The 19-year-old Ukrainian won his third biathlon race of the championships for a clean sweep of the biathlon events, missing just one of 20 targets in four shooting rounds in Thursday’s 12.5-kilometre race. The cold weather returned to Otway Nordic Centre and although it was only -15 C at the start it felt much colder with a mild breeze out of the north. It didn’t affect Rad’s shooting but he felt it on the course sitting in his sled.
“It is very cold today, my legs are completely frozen,” said Rad, through his interpreter. “I didn’t expect to win gold today but I did my best and tried to make clean shooting and the result put me on the top. One key to my success today was my super-fast skis, my technicians did their job really well.”
For Rad, it was his fifth medal of the championships, including his bronze-medal finishes in the cross-country sprint and middistance events.
“I like biathlon the most, but as you can see I showed pretty good results in crosscountry as well,” said Rad. “It’s my fifth race now and I am really exhausted but I am still trying to show good results. I have a big team behind me and I don’t want to disappoint them.”
In the women’s sit-ski race, Kendall Gretsch (47:29.4, 0+0+0+0) finally dethroned her American teammate Oksana Masters, who won all four of the previous races this week. Masters (49:31.6, 0+2+0+1) missed three targets while Gretsch shot clean and that three-minute advantage made all the difference.
“It was definitely a good day shooting, es-
Taras Rad of Ukraine leads Great Britain’s Scott Meenagh around a corner during the men’s individual sitting biathlon long distance race at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships at Otway Nordic Centre on Thursday.
pecially for the individual (race), the shooting is so important and I just tried to focus on that today,” said Gretsch. “I’ve made a lot of improvements in my shooting this year and it’s exciting to put it all together for my last biathlon race here.”
Andrea Eskau of Germany (52:13.7 (0+0+1+0) shot 19-for-20 but she said she lacked the power needed to overcome the younger Americans who have so far domi-
Cats down to final 10 games
from page 9
Lamb likes what he’s seen lately from the Jackson Leppard-Tyson Upper-Josh Curtis line, which has been effective in both ends of the ice. While they’ve haven’t been scoring much, neither has the team, and that trio has generated plenty of quality chances the past few games.
“I think they’re a good example of how our team has to play and how we should be playing and a lot of our guys should
watch how that line plays and how they compete and if they use that as an example some positive things will happen,” said Lamb.
Kamloops (22-28-4-1) is just three points behind Seattle for the second wildcard playoff spot. The Cougars (16-35-42) are 13 points back of the T-birds and have just 10 games left.
The Cougars play Saturday night in Everett.
nated the women’s sit-ski class.
“I wasn’t happy with it because I could not power as much on the track, it wasn’t fast and I was a bit empty – empty arms,” said Eskau. “Normally I’m getting better race to race but today I was a little bit tired. (Gretsch and Masters) dominated the whole World Cup this year and they have been better than the races before so they are even more dominant here than they were in
Deer Curling Classic last fall and she won bonspiels in Abbotsford and Kamloops before taking the B.C. title. She has played with lead Jen Rusnell the last three years while third Kristen Pilote and second Carley Sandwith came on board this season.
Rusnell and Pilote are sisters from Prince George, and their father, Rick Fewster, is serving as B.C.’s coach. The team members all played a busier schedule and it has paid off.
“It’s exciting to watch this team grow from where we started,” Wark said. “We just keep improving and improving and improving.”
British Columbia downed Birt 9-8 in the championship round opener before falling 8-6 against Silvernagle in the evening draw to stand at 5-4.
“Growing up it’s always been my goal and I always expected to be here eventually,” said Wark, who turned 33 this week. “I worked really hard for it and I wasn’t surprised when I did get here. Process-wise, I have a lot to learn and build on.
“I’m taking this as just a huge learning experience. I’m trying to take in everything I can.” Pilote and Rusnell debuted at the Scotties in 2015 with Prince George skip Patti Knezevic. This is also the second career nationals appearance for Sandwith, who played with Kesa Van Osch in 2014.
“I don’t want this to be a onetime curling experience,” Wark said. “I want to make a curling career out of it. I need to learn lots now, take it all in and just continue it in the years to come.”
Ostersund (Sweden) or Finland.”
Eskau, at 47, is considerably older than Gretsch, who is 26 and Masters, who is 29.
“They almost could be my daughters so I’m not unsatisfied,” said Eskau.
Martin Fleig of Germany, the gold medalist in the cross-country mid-distance event, won his second silver medal at Otway, while Vasyl Kravchuk of Ukraine (54:05.6, 1+1+0+0) won bronze.
The cold conditions slowed down the course considerably and Fleig said he was feeling the effects of his fifth race in six days.
“I’m very happy with my race today, of course two misses at the shooting range is not good but its OK for me,” said the 29-year-old Fleig. “It was very hard on the track today because it was very cold and very slow. After the start I was warm for 200 metres and from that moment on I was cold and didn’t get any warmer.”
In the visually-impaired women’s race, Clara Klug of Germany and her guide Martin Hartl (43:44.1, 0+0+0+0) were repeat winners, after capturing Wednesday’s sprint. Klug’s margin of victory was just 5.65 seconds. Oksana Shyshkova and guide Vitaliy Kazakov of Ukraine were a close second (44:08.8, 1+0+0+0) while Germans Johanna Recktenwald and guide Simon Schmidt (50:58.3, 0+0+0+0) won bronze. Vitaliy Luk’yanenko and his guide Borys Babar (44:456.4, 0+0+0+0) celebrated their gold-medal win in the men’s visually-impaired class, 10 seconds ahead of the Belarusian team of Yury Holub and guide Dzmitry Budzilovich (44:56.4, (1+2+0+0). Bronze went to Iaroslav and guide Kostiantyn Yaremenko of Ukraine (45:50.1, 1+1+0+0).
Today is a day of training and for many of the skiers a rest day. There are two remaining events – the relays on Saturday and the long-distance cross-country races Sunday.
St. Rose 18th in Canada Games race
Citizen staff
Keenan St. Rose finished 18th and his Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating clubmate Craig Miller posted a 30th-place result Thursday in the Canada Winter Games
1,000-metre short track event in Red Deer.
In long-track speed skating, Blizzard club member Eric Orlowsky finished 10th in the mass start sprint Thursday. Kieran Hanson of Prince George did not finish the race.
In wheelchair hoops, Joel Ewert of Prince George helped B.C. to a 56-38 win over Manitoba in a placement game Thursday. Meanwhile, in men’s hockey Ontario and Quebec will meet for gold Saturday night. In Thursday’s semifinals, Quebec beat Saskatchewan 6-3 and Ontario shut out Alberta 6-0.
In a placement game Thursday, Manitoba beat New Brunswick 6-2. Defenceman Hudson Thornton, a pick of the P.G. Cougars in 2018, scored Manitoba’s first goal.
B.C.
Wark, left,
Pilote – whose
moment as they play Manitoba in tiebreaker action at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S.,
Calling Calgary
Next Ghostbusters movie to use southern Alberta city as backdrop
Lauren KRUGEL Citizen news service
CALGARY — Calgarians may soon be noticing something strange in their neighbourhoods.
The head of a union representing film and stage technicians says the next Ghostbusters movie is to be filmed in the city.
“I can confirm that Sony has let us know they are bringing the project here,” IATSE Local 212 president Damian Petti said in an email Thursday. Petti could not provide details on dates, budgets or how many jobs may result.
“Alberta’s screen industry is one of the best opportunities for job growth in the new economy,” he said.
“We are open for business and we welcome new projects, such as this one with open arms. With a looming provincial election, industry stakeholders are working to raise the awareness of this massive opportunity to grow our economy with all Albertans and politicians.”
A&E IN BRIEF
Sasha Sagan has book coming out
NEW YORK (AP) — Sasha Sagan, daughter of the late Carl Sagan, is working on a book her publisher is calling “part memoir, part guidebook and part social history.”
G.P. Putnam’s Sons announced Thursday that Sagan’s For Small Creatures Such As We: Finding Wonder and Meaning in Our Unlikely World, is coming out in October.
She will share memories of her father, the famed astronomer, and explore her beliefs in the prevalence of science and the natural world. She will also write about
Four-time Oscar nominee Jason Reitman, who was born in Montreal, is to direct the new installment in the Ghostbusters series set to come out in the summer of 2020.
His father, Ivan Reitman, directed and produced the original Ghostbusters flick, which came out in 1984, as well as its sequel in 1989. The studio says that the new Ghostbusters will go back to its roots and will present the next chapter in the original story.
The first two Ghostbusters movies starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson as parapsychologists in New York who investigate ghosts for a living.
Candace Schneider, a lover of all things Ghostbusters, has already reached out to an agent about being an extra in the new film.
She founded The Calgary Ghostbusters group about a year ago. Its 15 members don tan jumpsuits and proton packs and raise money for charity by making appearances at birthday parties and other events.
“It’s just a way to be nerds, but
how she and her husband created “new, secular rituals” when they became parents. Sasha Sagan is a writer, filmmaker and producer. Her book is drawn from a widely-read essay, Lessons of Immortality and Mortality From My Father, Carl Sagan, that she wrote for New York Magazine in 2014.
New R. Kelly accusers step forward
NEW YORK (AP) — Two women said Thursday that singer R. Kelly picked them out of a crowd at a Baltimore after-party in the mid1990s when they were underage and had sex with one of the teens although she was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol and could not consent.
actually do something good.”
As soon as word got out the movie would be filming in Calgary, people started tagging Schneider on Facebook.
“Oh my goodness – I was so excited,” said Schneider, 35.
“When I was a kid, I loved the Ghostbusters cartoons. I had all the toys. Egon was my first crush.”
A 2016 reboot directed by Paul Feig featured four women – played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones – who start a ghostbusting business.
Production Weekly, a Hollywood-based film and TV industry publication, tweeted this week that Ghostbusters is planning to shoot for 15 weeks in Calgary beginning in late June.
Jason Reitman tweeted a movie teaser last month featuring the Ghostbusters’ signature white hearse-like Ecto-1 vehicle. He wrote: “Everybody can relax, I found the car.”
Aykroyd, a fellow Canadian, responded on Twitter: “If you need a tune-up, you know who to call.”
The women, Latresa Scaff and Rochelle Washington, joined lawyer Gloria Allred at a New York City news conference to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Their accusations come six weeks after a Lifetime documentary series, Surviving R. Kelly, took another look at old sexual misconduct allegations against the R&B star.
Scaff said she was 16 and Washington was 15 when the pair attended a concert and after-party featuring Kelly and LL Cool J in Baltimore.
Scaff said Kelly singled the girls out at the after-party, had a member of his entourage ply them with drugs and alcohol and told them to meet him at his hotel suite.
“We both went to the hotel, thinking there was going to be another party there,” Scaff said.
Monkees bass player dies at 77
John ROGERS Citizen news service
Peter Tork, a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist whose musical skills were often overshadowed by his role as the goofy, lovable bass guitarist in the made-for-television rock band
The Monkees, has died at age 77.
Tork’s son Ivan Iannoli told The Associated Press his father died Thursday morning at the family home in Connecticut of complications from adinoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer of the salivary glands. He had battled the disease since 2009.
“Peter’s energy, intelligence, silliness, and curiosity were traits that for decades brought laughter and enjoyment to millions, including those of us closest to him,” his son said in a statement.
“Those traits also equipped him well to take on cancer, a condition he met like everything else in his life, with unwavering humour and courage.”
Tork, who was often hailed by the other Monkees as the band’s best musician, had studied music since childhood. He was accomplished on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, banjo and other instruments. Michael Nesmith, the Monkees’ lead guitarist, said Tork was the better of the two.
Tork said he played bass because none of the others wanted to.
He had been playing in small clubs in Los Angeles when a friend and fellow musician, Steven Stills, told him TV casting directors were looking for “four insane boys” to play members of a struggling rock band. Stills, a member of the legendary rock bands Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, reportedly told Tork he’d auditioned and was rejected because his teeth were ugly. He thought the handsome Tork might fare better. When the show debuted in September 1966 Tork and fellow band members Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and David Jones became instant teen idols. Tork begged off a Monkees reunion tour with Nesmith and Dolenz last year. Jones died in 2012.
HANDOUT PHOTO
Candace Schneider, front centre, poses with fellow members of The Calgary Ghostbusters group in this undated photo. The next Ghostbusters movie will filmed in the city.
TORK
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Michael Henry Sindia September 11, 1951February 12, 2019
Mike passed away at Surrey Memorial Hospital after a short but courageous battle with cancer, surrounded by family and friends. Mike is survived by his mother Jean Sindia and spouse Sandi Hill. Sons Rob (Tamara) and Shane Sindia, stepsons Jason (Paulette) and Bryon (Charitty) Hill. Sister, Sandra (Ken) Morgan and brother Dan (Judy) Sindia. 13 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews and many friends. He was predeceased by his father Bob Sindia and nephew Darrell Sindia. Mike’s smile, laugh, sense of humour and quick wit will be missed by all. A Funeral Service will be held at Lakewood Alliance Church on Saturday, February 23 at 1:00 pm. Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the Prince George Hospice House in his honour.
Plato
July 24th, 1967 - February 10th, 2019
It is with sad hearts the family announces Darryle passed away peacefully but unexpectedly at the Hospice House after a year long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed by his wife of 23 years Lisa, his daughters Paige and Jaycee, parents Vern and Dorothy Plato, brothers Rod(Nola) and Mike (Lorena)and cousin Vern(Kim), with whom he had a special friendship. He had many other extended family members and close friends who will miss him. Darryle was a loving husband, Dad, son, brother, uncle and friend. He loved to quad, fish, camp, and was happiest around a fire in his back yard listening to music, or on a beach in Mexico. He was always thinking of his family and worked hard to provide a good life for them. His greatest accomplishment in life was being a good Dad to his daughters, he was so very proud of them both.
Taken far too soon, loved by so many. A celebration of life will be held in May. In lieu of flowers, we kindly request donations be made to the Hospice Society of Prince George.
IRWIN, Terry W. It is with great sadness that the siblings of Terry announce his passing away peacefully on January 30, 2019. Terry was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 5, 1944 to Mabel and Allen Irwin. In 1951, he moved to Victoria with his family and settled in the community of View Royal. After graduating, Terry attended UBC where he completed his degree in Forestry. He settled in Prince George in 1981, working for the Forestry Department with the Provincial Government, retiring in 2004. He leaves behind his two brothers, his sister, a niece and several nephews. A private social gathering was held on February 7, 2019 at the Legion.
Peter George Vranjes
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Peter George Vranjes at the age of 63. Peter passed away on February 16th, 2019 surrounded by his wife Carmela and son Michael by his side. He was predeceased by his father Duro. Peter is survived by his wife Carmela, son Michael (Terri), grandchildren Evelyn, Natalie, Owen, mother Margaret, brother David, sisters Anica and Margaret, brother-in-laws Paolo, Rocco (Marilyn), Domenic (Karen), sister-in-law Mecolata (Allan) and numerous nieces and nephews. A celebration of Peter’s life will be held March 2nd, 2019 at 1:00 PM at Super 8 Inn (Formerly Esther’s Inn) 1151 Commercial Cres. Prince George BC. All family and friends are welcome.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Established
Lorna Lee Loreth née Kozak, born December 30th , 1966, passed away peacefully but unexpectedly Monday, February 18th, 2019. She is survived by her parents Lorne and MaryAnn Kozak, her brother Mike (Janice, Brady, Brooklyn) Kozak, and her two sons Mitchell and Jacob (Crystal) Loreth. Lorna was a well-respected nurse of over 31 years, she always put everyone else first. Whether it was through health care or baking, she made sure everyone was well looked after. She enjoyed spending her time at Fraser lake with her parents and her dog Micky. Lorna will be greatly missed by many friends and family. Please join us, Saturday, March 9th, 2019 at the Columbus Community Center for her celebration of life at 1:30pm. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Canadian Cancer Society in her honour.
It’s with great sadness and sorrow we announce the passing of Michael Sindia September 11, 1951 - February 12, 2019
Mike passed away peacefully with his loving wife Sandi and sister Sandra by his side, on February 12, 2019 at Surrey Memorial Hospital. He was predeceased by his father Bob Sindia and nephew Darrell Sindia. Mike is survived by his best friend, soulmate and loving wife Sandi, mother Jean, sister Sandra (Ken), brother Danny (Judy), sons Rob (Tamara), Shayne, Jason, and Bryon, as well as 13 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, as well as a countless number of friends. Mikes love for life and happy personality, along with his wonderful laugh, will be greatly missed but will live on in our hearts and memories. He was a wonderful and loving man whom it was an honour to know. The funeral service will be held at Lakewood Alliance Church (4001 5th Ave, Prince George, B.C.) February 23 at 1:00pm with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Mike Sindia’s name to the Prince George Hospice House. Thank you!
