Prince George Citizen February 27, 2019

Sun on the ice

Skaters enjoy the sunshine

Morrow honoured for local history work

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

A three-time winner of a Jeanne Clarke Local History Award is now a four-time winner, and the latest trophy was for his entire body of work.

When the 34th annual Jeanne Clarke Local History Awards were handed out by the Prince George Public Library this week, the highlight of the night was their service award going to Trelle Morrow, a retired architect and tenacious documentarian of the region’s history.

“Morrow’s architectural career spanned 40 years and he designed such notable buildings as the former Prince George Citizen building on Brunswick Street and Sacred Heart Cathedral. He is an active member of the City of Prince George’s Heritage Commission,” said Amy Dhanjal, the library’s communications coordinator.

Dhanjal also listed the past accolades Morrow has earned from that organization.

“He won (a Jeanne Clarke Award) in 2016 for Living Legacies: 100 Years of Prince George Architecture, in 2012 for The Grand Trunk Pacific and Other Fort George Stuff, and in 2010 for Aviation North: Flying Frontiers in Northern British Columbia. Among his other publications are Silent Passage: Life with Reaction Ferries; The Big Smoke: Social Reflections on Wood Burners; and Cataline: Packer Extraordinaire.”

Valerie Giles, herself a two-time winner of the publication award, introduced Morrow and noted that “the citizens of Prince George know more about the city’s history because of his work.”

The library board of directors chose three

authors for the publication category this year.

• Helen Raptis accepted a Publication Award (Regional) on behalf of herself and members of the Tsimshian Nation for What We Learned: Two Generations Reflect On Tsimshian Education And The Day Schools.

“The book explores the influence of day schools on the lives of a group of Tsimshian people who originally lived near Prince Rupert. Raptis travelled from Victoria to attend the event,” Dhanjal said.

• Aaron Williams won a Publication Award (Regional) for Chasing Smoke: A Wildfire Memoir. Dhanjal said, “The memoir details the author’s time and experience as a professional wildfire firefighter in Northern British Columbia with a specific focus on the 2014 forest fire season. Williams was unable to attend, but provided an acceptance speech via video.”

• A Publication Award (Local) was granted to Gwen and John Reimer for Ness Lake Bible Camp: A Statement Of Faith.

“The book documents the foundation and expansion of the camp and its contributions to the local history and community of Prince George,” Dhanjal said.

The Jeanne Clarke Awards are presented annually “to individuals or groups for outstanding contributions in the preservation and promotion of local and regional history.”

The award was established by the library board in 1985 in memory of former library board chair Jeanne Clarke. She was a founding member of the library’s local history committee, “and played a key role in establishing the library’s local history collection.”

Province working with First Nations on alternatives to Site C lawsuit

Citizen news service

The province announced Tuesday that it has entered into confidential talks with BC Hydro and the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations to find alternatives to a lawsuit against the Site C dam.

The two nations filed civil claims in early 2018, alleging the $10.7-billion project infringed their rights under Treaty 8.

“The parties will continue trial preparations as discussions proceed on alternatives to litigation,” the province announced in an information bulletin issued on Feb. 26. “The parties appeared in court on Feb. 26, 2019, and proposed a case plan for a 120-day trial commencing in 2022.”

The two First Nations went to B.C. Supreme Court last year seeking an injunction halting work on all, or some portions of the project until their claims were heard. The court rejected the request, saying it would throw the project into “disarray.” However, it ordered that a trial to determine whether the project infringed their treaty rights be held by mid-2023, before the dam’s reservoir is filled.

Site C is the third dam being built on the Peace River and has been under construction since July 2015.

The First Nations have argued they continue to live with the impacts of the Bennett and Peace Canyon dams upstream of Site C, and that the cumulative impacts of all three would continue to disrupt and displace hunters, trappers, and fishers, and interfere with their way of life by destroying habitat home to plants and animals relied on for spiritual, medicinal, and food purposes.

Courts have previously dismissed lawsuits by First Nations and landowners seeking a judicial review of the dam.

However, courts haven’t ruled on whether the dam infringes Treaty 8, with one provincial Supreme Court justice noting in a 2015 ruling that the question would need to be answered in a civil trial.

Several project agreements have also been signed with a number of First Nations in the region over the project. There were 3,100 workers employed in some capacity on Site C at the end of 2018. Site C was first approved by the BC Liberal government in 2014. NDP Premier John Horgan announced in 2017 that construction would continue after his government inherited the project and launched a four-month economic review.

West Moberly and Prophet River had warned Horgan his approval to continue would prompt a billion-dollar lawsuit.

Second suspicious incident reported

Citizen staff

For the second time in five days, a suspicious incident involving a Heritage Elementary School student has been reported.

On Monday, a man in a white pickup truck asked a student to “get in,” school principal Linda Picton said in a letter to parents, adding the incident occurred in front of D.P. Todd Secondary School at about 2:45 p.m.

The suspect is described as a lightskinned male, with short hair and a beard.

The matter was reported to police, Picton said.

“This report has prompted our staff to again reinforce safety protocol with all of our students,” she said. “Teachers have reminded students to walk in groups or with a friend and go to a safe place if feeling threatened and to let their parents know immediately.”

A similar incident last Thursday, also involving a white pickup truck and a Heritage student, was reported to RCMP. The suspect in that case was 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 also described as a Ford with four doors and a black tailgate.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY MATT PREPOST West Moberly First Nation Chief Roland Willson speaks to a joint review panel at the Pomeroy Hotel in Fort St. John on Monday.

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

Trelle Morrow is a four-time winner Jeanne Clarke Local History Award.

Student housing slated for downtown

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

A plan to build student housing next to the Courtyard by Marriott is in the works.

An application to rezone 0.34 hectares to the south of the hotel and along Patricia Boulevard was advanced to the public hearing stage during Monday night’s city council meeting.

Faction Projects Inc. has submitted the application on behalf of River City Ventures Inc., the same group that backed the Marriott project, as well as a numbered company.

And the proponents are seeking to rezone the site to a tailor-made designation – called Patricia Residential – created specifically for the project.

It also appears the number of units that will be allowed on the site is under negotiation – no figure is provided in a staff report to council although it does say the totals allowed on properties to the north and east stand at 280 per hectare.

The six-storey Marriott contains 174 rooms.

In regard to size and height, the building “will be constructed closer to the east property line, and away from any lower profile commercial uses along the west property line,” staff noted in the report.

Two other rezoning applications were advanced to the public hearing stage:

• To rezone 2.5 hectares at 1755 Foothills Blvd. to make way for apartment housing was advanced to the public hearing stage. If passed, the rezoning would increase the maximum density per hectare to 125 dwellings from the current 60, and increase the number of stories to four from three but still with a maximum site coverage of 55 per cent.

• To rezone a portion of 5567 Chief Lake Rd. to make way for a 28-lot single-family home subdivision.

Council approved application to vary three requirements related to the development following an informal hearing on Monday. The variances include replacing curb and gutter with open channel drainage for the road system, replacing cement sidewalk with trail-grade pathways, and replacing a storm runoff collection system with an open channel drainage system.

Expense allowance increased

Council approved a $2,000 increase to their expense allowance on Monday night. The boost increases the allow-

ance to $8,000 and is in answer to the rising cost of attending the annual conferences for the North Central Local Government Association, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities. Attending all three is projected to cost a council member $7,775 according to a staff report.

“It’s not a holiday, it’s not a raise, it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of our work, as we all know, takes place outside of here as well as inside council chambers,” Coun. Brian Skakun said during a discussion on the item.

Esso Cup supported

Council agreed to provide up to $38,000 in support of a bid to host

the 2021 Esso Cup national girls midget hockey championship.

The tournament is considered the equivalent of the Telus Cup national boys midget hockey championship for which council provided $58,000 of in-kind support when it was held in Prince George in 2017.

The Telus Cup generated about $1.82 million in economic impact and the Esso Cupis expected to give a $1.17-million boost, according to a staff report.

Westgate pot store given final reading

The application to rezone the old RBC branch at the Westgate Shopping Centre to make way for

a BC Cannabis store was given final reading. A change to the city’s secondhand dealers and pawnbrokers bylaw exempting previously-owned trading and collectible cards from the 30-day holding period was also given final reading.

Commercial kitchen gets go-ahead

A temporary use permit lasting 18 months was granted to establish a commercial kitchen and catering service at the Aboriginal Housing Society of Prince George’s headquarters at 1919-17th Avenue (at Winnipeg Street). The Canadian Mental Health Association will run the kitchen.

The empty lot beside the Courtyard Marriott may be developed for student housing.

Family Day move hits B.C. ski resort business hard

Glen KORSTROM

Citizen news service

The B.C. government’s decision to push Family Day back a week, to the third weekend in February, dealt a blow to business at the province’s ski resorts, with a substantial drop in visits during the second weekend of the month.

The third weekend of the month was hectic for resorts, but that long weekend is ordinarily the season’s busiest long weekend, because Ontario and Alberta are marking Family Day and the U.S. is celebrating Presidents’ Day.

Executives at three of the province’s busiest resorts – Whistler Blackcomb, Big White and Sun Peaks – each told Business in Vancouver that their resorts are normally nearing capacity during the third weekend in February, which means they are approaching the upper threshold of potential revenue they can take in.

Spacing out the traffic over two separate long weekends, they said, also makes for a better experience for B.C. guests.

Premier John Horgan campaigned before the 2017 election on changing the date for Family Day.

The Canada West Ski Areas Association then unsuccessfully lobbied his government to keep B.C.’s February statutory holiday on the second weekend in February.

The Horgan government, instead, was swayed by critics who wanted the province’s Family Day holiday synchronized with other jurisdictions’ holidays to ensure that B.C. workers who have to interact with counterparts in other jurisdictions could be assured of a

From an experience perspective, it is better to space out the two weekends. What you have during peak time is that it is busier for hotels, busier in the restaurants and busier in our lift lines.

— Whistler Blackcomb spokesman Marc Riddell

common day off.

“It’s an incremental opportunity that is now lost,” said CWSAA CEO Christopher Nicolson. “We have gone from two long weekends, in the tourism industry, to one.”

Nicolson said his organization is no longer lobbying the government to move the holiday back to the previous date because he does not believe that the political will is there to make the change.

Instead, his organization is encouraging British Columbians who cannot find accommodations at a major B.C. ski resort to try some of the province’s lesser-known 37 ski areas, such as Harper Mountain or Salmo Ski Hill, which cater predominantly to local skiers.

Big White’s senior vice-president, Michael Ballingall, said not having two consecutive long weekends, “from a business point of view… was a considerable cost.”

On previous B.C. Family Day

weekends, he said, Big White was

extremely busy, in part because on the Mondays it offered a 50 per cent discount on lift tickets to anyone who could show identification with a B.C. address.

Ballingall said Big White could not offer that promotion this year because it would not go over well with the large number of skiers from outside the province.

His statistics showed that 54 per cent of the resort’s accommodations were taken by U.S. residents and that only 27 per cent of the guests were from B.C.

That disparity likely happened because out-of-province visitors are used to booking a long-weekend vacation on the third weekend in February and booked far ahead.

“We’re 52 per cent full for next year already,” Ballingall said.

Sun Peaks’ chief marketing officer, Aidan Kelly, said a similar scenario is playing out at his resort: business down over a two-week period in mid-February, yearover-year, despite a phenomenally busy third weekend in February in which hotels were at or near capacity, and strong bookings for next year.

“From an experience perspective, it is better to space out the two weekends,” said Whistler Blackcomb spokesman Marc Riddell.

“What you have during peak time is that it is busier for hotels, busier in the restaurants and busier in our lift lines.”

Kelly and Ballingall said their resorts are tracking last year’s record pace for skier visits. Riddell said his resort’s traffic has been “comparable” to last year, since December.

Trio of folk music home concerts coming

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff

fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Folk music is safe at home in Prince George this coming week. Three shows by franco-Canadian folkie Justin Lacroix are happening in P.G., all of them held at someone’s home.

“Please join us for a great evening of food, drink, and song,” said Jim and Lucy Beck, who are hosting one of the shows. These are arranged by the HomeRoutes house concert agency that works to place Canada’s touring troubadours into these intimate environs across the country.

“From Winnipeg’s French community emerges bilingual folk-rock poet, Justin Lacroix. A gentle yet fiery soul with a unique pen and a feel for a good groove, this accomplished guitar player and dynamic singer offers up a fresh new sound,” said a Home Routes statement.

“Since his introduction to the music scene in 2003, Lacroix has been sharing his original ‘Funky FolkRock’ (in French and English) with audiences from coast to coast, becoming increasingly well known for his heartfelt songs, his engaging live concerts and his raw talent.” These concerts are at the invitation of private homeowners like the Becks, so getting in requires that you know the hosts in order to buy tickets directly, or go to the Home Routes website and fill out the online purchase form for the date you prefer.

Lacroix has dates on the Home Routes menu for Prince George on Saturday, as well as March 8 and 16 (listed as Miworth), Vanderhoof (March 15), Fraser Lake (March 9), Burns Lake (March 14), Mackenzie (March 7), and other locations around the northern B.C. region.

Prices are typically about $20 to attend, sometimes food is provided and sometimes the hosts ask for a contribution to the kitchen. All the money raised goes to the performer.

Home Routes helps schedule a number of artists into this area, so check out their online schedule for other musicians you might enjoy.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Grants given to plan evacuation routes

Each of five north-central

B.C. communities will receive $25,000 to develop evacuation route plans in the wake of the massive wildfires over the last two summer.

Mackenzie, Quesnel, McBride, Wells, Williams Lake and Granisle are included in the 60 communities across B.C. who will receive a share of $1.5 million in funding, the provincial government said Tuesday.

“The programs and projects announced today will help make our cities and towns more resilient,” Jennifer Rice, parliamentary secretary for emergency preparedness, said in a release.

“On the heels of two of the worst flood and wildfire seasons in our province’s history, we need to work together to help our communities prepare for emergencies so they are better positioned to respond and recover.”

The money comes out of the community emergency preparedness fund.

On Monday, Prince George city council gave staff the go ahead to apply for a $25,000 grant through the fund’s emergency operations centres and training stream to pay for a series of evacuation tabletop exercises. — Citizen staff

Building permits total $4.5M in January

Permits for $4.5 million worth of construction were taken out in January, according to a city staff report.

The number is down from $6.5 million over the same month last year, but up from $1.8 million reached over January 2017. The difference centres largely on permits for new single-family homes. Four permits for $2.3 million were issued in that category last month, compared to eight for $4.3 million in January 2018 and two for $515,735 in January 2017.

As well, a permit was issued for a three-unit multiple-family project worth $694,000, while

eight were issued for commercial alterations adding up to $819,894. One was also issued for an industrial alteration worth $165,600 and one for an institutional alteration, worth $50,000. — Citizen staff

Two men, one youth, charged following home invasion

A man arrested following a home invasion on Monday faces five weapons-related charges. Kaleb Daniel Anthony Gilbertson, 27, has been charged with possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, careless use or storage of a firearm, possessing a prohibited weapon and two counts of possessing a firearm without a registration or licence. Gilbertson also faces one count each of possessing stolen property under $5,000, willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and breaching an undertaking or recognizance.

Thomas Joshua Toman, 19, faces one count each of possessing stolen property under $5,000 and willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

As well, a 17-year-old youth, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been charged with possessing stolen property.

The three were arrested after RCMP were called to a report of a home invasion at a West Austin Road home on Monday morning.

Both adults remain in custody while the youth was to appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing.

Missing snowboarder found safe

VANCOUVER (CP) — A snowboarder was cold but unhurt as he was rescued Monday night after going out of bounds at the Cypress Mountain Resort in West Vancouver. The 37-year-old was found on the treacherous north side of the mountain beyond the resort boundary. That is an area where unwary skiers and boarders can be lured into steep, inescapable and avalanche-prone gullies. Officials with North Shore Rescue say the call came in late Monday afternoon.

PHOTO

A skier is seen on Whistler Mountain in Whistler.

Singh eyes chance to ramp up pressure on Trudeau

Kristy KIRKUP Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Jagmeet Singh celebrated his byelection win the same way he rang in winning the NDP leadership race: on a dance floor.

“We danced the night away,” Singh said Tuesday morning in an interview as his party breathed a collective sigh of relief following a win in the federal riding of Burnaby South.

Preliminary results from Elections Canada show he was able to clinch the riding with 39 per cent of the vote.

For Singh, the win means he can finally go toe-to-toe in the House of Commons with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – something he hasn’t been able to do since taking over the reins of the NDP from Tom Mulcair in October 2017.

Singh is now calling on New Democrats to make the most of months leading up to the October election, knowing full well he has a limited amount of time to shine in the Commons with Parliament to rise in June.

The earliest Singh can take his new seat in the House of Commons will be March 18, but he will be in Ottawa Wednesday to lead the party’s weekly caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

“It allows me to ramp up the pressure on Mr. Trudeau, on the Liberal government and allows me to really put into focus the question ‘Is this Liberal government more interested in helping their well-connected, powerful friends like SNC-Lavalin,” he said.

There is no time for Singh to waste, said Mulcair’s former principal secretary Karl Belanger, noting the election is just around the corner.

“Now (Singh) has an opportunity to be seen and heard on the same stage as the other main party leaders and it will be up to him to perform and do well and connect with Canadians with a narrative that speaks to their priorities.”

The Liberals and Conservatives were also celebrating byelection wins this week.

Conservative Scot Davidson easily won in York-Simcoe in southern Ontario, replacing Peter Van Loan, who held the seat since 2004 before announcing his retirement.

Liberal Rachel Bendayan was the winner in the Montreal seat of Outremont, much to

the delight of Liberal cabinet ministers who are declaring the NDP’s “orange wave” in Quebec dead.

“It’s finished,” said Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. “Just look at the results.”

The early Elections Canada data suggests Bendayan won with 40 per cent of the vote followed by the NDP’s candidate Julia Sanchez, who had 26 per cent of the vote.

The Green party had a third place finish, the Bloc Quebecois were fourth and the Conservatives were fifth.

Outremont was the seat won by Mulcair in a 2007 byelection, a victory that helped the party build support in Quebec and led to the NDP’s Quebec breakthrough during

Career advice on offer at UNBC on Thursday

Citizen staff

Advice on how to get a career off on the right foot will be provided Thursday when an event in advance of the NorthWorks career fair is held at the University of Northern British Columbia.

To be held at the Canfor Theatre, 10 a.m. start, it is meant to give those about to enter the workforce a sense of what is expected and accepted.

Six speakers are scheduled:

• Matt Hutcheon, founder of Taxwerx and director of Conterra Financial, will speak about the value of networking.

• Diane Bourret, founder of 3 Green Lights, will provide insights on making the first few weeks on the job easier.

• Jeff Postnikoff, Occupational Safety Office with WorksafeBC, will inform the

students on some basic occupational health and safety concepts.

• Kimberly Pavao, a lawyer with Heather Sadler Jenkins, will discuss some basics from the Employment Standards Act.

• Megan Noble, co-operative education lead at UNBC, will present insights into resume and cover letter design.

• Steven Prins, healthcare recruiter from Northern Health, will provide insights into job interviews.

The Prince George Chamber of Commerce, the College of New Caledonia and UNBC are hosting the event.

The annual NorthWorks career fair is schedule for March 6 at UNBC, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. followed by a networking event for UNBC and CNC students on March 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Bentley Centre at UNBC.

Officials get meeting with Canadians detained in China

Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada says it has had a second meeting in as many days with Canadians detained in China.

In a written statement, the department says consular officials in China visited with entrepreneur Michael Spavor on Tuesday for the fourth time since his arrest.

On Monday, the department said it had a fourth consular visit with Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave from the foreign service. Both men were detained by China in December on allegations they violated national security.

Global Affairs Canada says it can’t release any more specific information about the meetings due to privacy laws.

The department says consular visits generally involve assessing the well-being of a Canadian citizen, getting them medical attention where required, and being a communications bridge between the Canadian and their loved ones.

The statement says the government remains concerned by China’s “arbitrary detention” of Spavor and Kovrig and continue to call for their immediate release. Kovrig and Spavor haven’t been formally charged with anything.

the 2011 election. The NDP formed official opposition for the first time that year before falling back to third-party status in 2015.

Singh said it was not a surprise that Outremont was a challenge but he disputed the idea that the orange wave has crested.

“The base that we built in Quebec is alive and well,” he said, adding that he’s planning a visit to the province next week.

Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice said asserting the NDP is dead in Quebec is “classic Liberal arrogance.”

He said the NDP is very proud of Singh’s victory, noting he is the first racialized federal leader to sit in the House of Commons.

Quebec Conservative MP Gerard Deltell also insisted the NDP is not dead in his

province while he stressed no one should be drawing conclusions based on byelection results.

Maxime Bernier, who left the Conservative fold to launch the People’s Party of Canada last fall, tweeted on Tuesday to give his assessment of the byelection results, which was the first test for his fledgling political party. He said he expected his party to fare better in the ridings of York-Simcoe and Outremont, where the candidates earned about two per cent of the vote but adding there were “great results” in Burnaby South with nearly 11 per cent of the vote. The progress is “overall encouraging” after five months as a party, Bernier added.

Joan BRYDEN, Mia RABSON Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Jody Wilson-Raybould is warning that she won’t be able to speak freely about everything concerning the SNC-Lavalin affair when she finally gives her side of the story Wednesday, breaking almost three weeks of silence that has fuelled the anonymously-sourced controversy and shaken the Trudeau government to its core.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an order-in-council Monday that waived the solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality provisions that Wilson-Raybould has repeatedly cited to refuse comment on the controversy.

But in a letter Tuesday to the House of Commons justice committee, Wilson-Raybould said the waiver covers only her time as justice minister and attorney general. It does not release her to talk about any communications she had after she was moved to the veterans affairs post in early January, her subsequent resignation from cabinet or the presentation she was allowed to give to cabinet last week after resigning a week earlier, she wrote.

“I mention this simply to alert the committee to the fact that the order-in-council leaves in place whatever restraints there are on my ability to speak freely about matters that occurred after I left the post of attorney general,” she wrote.

Nevertheless, Wilson-Raybould accepted the committee’s invitation to testify Wednesday afternoon about allegations the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured her last fall to drop a criminal prosecution against Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Since the allegation involves inappropriate pressure on her as attorney general, it was not clear why she would need to discuss anything that was said or done after she left the job. In response to WilsonRaybould’s letter, committee members wrote back saying they believe the waiver is sufficient for the former minister to testify fully.

However, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said it’s clear from Wilson-Raybould’s letter that “she has more to say and the prime minister isn’t letting her say it.”

“Justin Trudeau is trying to trick Canadians into believing that he is letting Ms. Wilson-Raybould speak freely. In reality, however, he is still hiding information he doesn’t want Canadians to know,” Scheer said in a statement.

Trudeau, who has denied any wrongdoing, said Tuesday that he’s looking forward to the former minister’s testimony.

“It is important that people get an opportunity to testify or share their point of view with the committee,” he said.

“As we said, waiving privilege, waiving cabinet confidentiality is something that we had to take very seriously, but I’m pleased that Ms. Wilson-Raybould is going to be able to share her perspective.”

The committee will allow Wilson-Raybould to make a 30-minute opening state-

ment, as she requested, to be followed by at least an hour of questions from committee members. In her letter, she says the halfhour opening statement “will certainly not provide sufficient time for me to provide a full, complete version of events” but will allow “at least a reasonably detailed summary of them.”

It has been nearly three weeks since the allegation first surfaced that Trudeau’s office pressured Wilson-Raybould last fall to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, rather than pursue a criminal prosecution for corruption and bribery related to government contracts in Libya. Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of the prestigious justice portfolio to veterans affairs in early January, which some allege was punishment for her refusal to drop the criminal proceedings.

Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet several days after the Globe and Mail first reported the allegation. Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, resigned a week later, but insisted neither he nor anyone else in the PMO had unduly pressured Wilson-Raybould.

Some of her former cabinet colleagues seemed relieved Tuesday that whatever complaint Wilson-Raybould may have about the way the SNC-Lavalin matter was handled, it will finally be out in the open after weeks of shadow boxing with anonymous sources.

“It’s absolutely necessary for her to tell the truth,” said Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, whose relationship with Wilson-Raybould was reportedly strained.

“It’s just important that she speak and that all the mystery goes (away).” Wilson-Raybould was last week allowed to speak to her former cabinet colleagues to give her side of the story. Given what he heard then and subsequent assurances from the country’s top public servant that there was no undue pressure, Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said he’s not expecting anything surprising or dramatic.

“I think that what was done was entirely appropriate in this case and I think that this story is one that’s been created a little bit by the Ottawa bubble,” he said.

CP PHOTO

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh celebrates his Burnaby South byelection win in Burnaby on Monday.

NEWS IN BRIEF

B.C. crabs adapting to climate change

VICTORIA (CP) — Crabs that have a normal diet of a type of plankton have been seen munching on methane-filled bacteria off British Columbia’s coast in what experts say could be their way of adapting to climate change.

Researchers with Oceans Networks Canada, an initiative of the University of Victoria and Oregon State University, discovered the snow crabs using other food sources because their main meal may be disappearing with a warmer climate. The crabs were previously thought to exclusively eat phytoplankton and researchers say this is the first evidence that a commercial species is finding some of its nutrition from other food sources.

Senior scientist at Oceans Networks Canada and the study’s co-author Fabio De Leo said by collecting these specimens, researchers can learn how a variety of sea-dwelling species are adapting to ongoing changes linked to climate change.

Warning issued about deadly mushroom

VANCOUVER (CP) — A critical care doctor is warning British Columbians about a “sinister” deadly mushroom and the importance of health-care providers recognizing signs of poisoning from a variety that is spreading across the Pacific coast of North America.

Dr. Omar Ahmad, head of critical care and emergency medicine for Island Health, said the death cap mushroom can easily be mistaken for edible varieties and is responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s mushroom-related fatalities.

A three-year boy died in 2016 after consuming a mushroom foraged from a residential street in Victoria, a woman recovered in hospital in Vancouver in 2008 and a man received treatment in Victoria in 2008.

People who eat death caps can experience abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea within six to 12 hours, but a false recovery phase follows up to three days later and can prevent people from seeking medical help. However, Ahmad said liver damage progresses in the background before convulsions can occur, leading to coma and death from the mushroom, which also grows in Atlantic Canada.

He said one mushroom cap is enough to kill an adult and the health authority has been educating doctors on what to look for in patients who may think they merely had the flu after their condition begins improving but is actually deteriorating.

Affordable housing crunch hurting B.C.

VICTORIA (CP) — Premier John Horgan said British Columbia boasts Canada’s strongest economy but growth is threatened by a shortage of affordable housing for workers and their families.

He said if a community can’t provide housing for workers then those workers can’t build much needed affordable housing or sustain local economies.

Horgan told business leaders at the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce that it’s a puzzle his government is trying to solve with the recent family-focused budget and last year’s $7 billion investment in a decade-long affordable housing strategy.

Horgan said the City of Victoria recently put an affordable housing project on hold because it can’t find the skilled workers to build the initiative.

Poverty at lowest level in a decade: StatsCan

Jordan PRESS Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Fewer Canadians are living under the official poverty line than at any time in the last decade, Statistics Canada reported

Tuesday

The agency laid the credit for the drop on a combination of a buoyant economy and the Liberals signature child benefit.

The national statistics office says that in 2017, the most recent year available, 3.4 million Canadians, or 9.5 per cent of the population, lived below the poverty line the government officially adopted late last year –including 622,000 children – which is the lowest the agency reported going back to 2006.

The drops since the Liberals took office in 2015 were also noted in the agency’s release: 278,000 fewer children living below the poverty line in 2017 – the first full year of the benefit – compared to 2015 when the Liberals took office.

Statistics Canada said an increase in the value of child benefits, coupled with gains in market income, put more money into the pockets of families in 2017 – which Liberals touted Tuesday as a political and policy victory.

“It certainly shows a program that is simple for the government to manage, simple for

families to receive, and fair for everyone ... is a good thing when it comes to making more Canadians able to make ends meet,” Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in an interview.

The Liberals introduced the income-tested Canada Child Benefit midway through 2016, replacing a previous system of tax credits and the Conservatives’ universal child care benefit.

The agency calculates that between 2016 and 2017, a couple with children saw their median benefit rise by $1,200, while lone parents received an extra $1,300.

Duclos suggested numbers will drop further, particularly once the Canada Workers Benefit launches next month and expands a wage subsidy introduced under former prime minister Stephen Harper to boost the incomes of the country’s working poor.

Duclos was less clear about whether the Liberals would boost the base value of the child benefit or ensure immigration status doesn’t affect eligibility as some anti-poverty activists have requested.

The Liberals promised in the 2015 election that the child benefit would lift 300,000 children out of poverty compared to 2013 figures, but based on a different measure of poverty than was previously used.

Parsing out the numbers, the Liberals met their projections: a drop of 315,000 in children in poverty in 2017 compared to 2013. Last year, the Liberals pegged the value of the benefit to inflation – two years before they planned to do so – and promised by 2020 to cut poverty rates by 20 per cent of 2015 figures. What Statistics Canada reported Tuesday is that there were 826,000 fewer people living in poverty in 2017 compared to 2015 – or just shy of the 20 per cent target.

An expert panel the Liberals turned to for help crafting the poverty plan originally recommended a 25 per cent target for 2020. The Liberals chose 20 per cent, leading some experts to suggest the goal was likely a given based on the measures the government had introduced.

The next part of the plan proposes a drop to 50 per cent of 2015 levels by 2030, which will require thought about how to “make more of a dent in those who are living in and with extreme poverty,” Lindsay Tedds, scientific director of fiscal and economic policy at the University of Calgary’s school of public policy, said on Twitter.

A bill to set the poverty plan into law has yet to pass the House of Commons, but it doesn’t propose any additional spending than what is already promised.

High winds pose risk for anchored ships in Prince Rupert, study says

Citizen news service

PRINCE RUPERT — A new report raises concerns about the alarming increase of anchor-dragging by ships at the Port of Prince Rupert, saying there’s a risk of disastrous consequences to British Columbia’s north coast.

The Anchor Safe Prince Rupert Report was released Monday by the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation.

Over the past two decades, the foundation says the number of anchor-dragging incidents has jumped from an annual average of less than one in 2000 to 11 in 2017.

It says vessel size in the increasingly busy harbour is of particular concern because of the difficulties high winds pose to larger ships anchored in and around the port.

The report says Prince Rupert anchor incidents are about 2,300 per cent higher than in the Port of Vancouver.

The foundation says the hazard needs to be addressed before approval of projects such as the proposed Vopak Pacific Canada diesel storage and export terminal on Ridley Island, just south of the

city of Prince Rupert.

The Vopak terminal is expected to attract some of the largest ships to the area and also increase the total number of vessels using the harbour to more than 600 from the current 460, the foundation says in a news release.

Study authors point to a 1992 Institute of Ocean Sciences report that found ships frequently dragged anchor because in the harbour because there’s a thin layer of mud on top of smooth rock.

The coast guard and port authority both monitor anchorage. The authority says pilots will help a vessel reset its anchor if

the ship begins to move, but adds that it’s always looking for ways to improve safety.

The foundation says it has asked the authority and Transport Canada to consider and implementing solutions.

“Over the years, the number of vessels in the Rupert area has stayed a relatively steady number while the size of the vessels has increased,” the foundation says in a release.

“The alarming rise in the number of incidents appears to be related to the difficulties faced in high winds by large vessels anchored in and around the Port.”

Transport Canada said in a

statement that ships in Canadian waters must adhere to safety and security rules and procedures at all times.

“Transport Canada has enforcement jurisdiction under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, and our inspectors follow up on all marine safety and security incidents reported to the department,” it said in a statement.

The $36-billion Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas project was slated for construction on Lelu Island, in the Skeena estuary south of the port, but it was cancelled last year amid tumbling LNG prices and a First Nations challenge over lack of consultation.

A homeless person sleeps on a vent grate in Vancouver on Jan. 8, as demonstrators march in support of members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation protesting against a pipeline in northwestern British Columbia. Poverty in Canada hit the lowest level in a decade in 2017, according to a report released on Tuesday by Statistics Canada.

Day of reckoning?

For political junkies, today is mustsee TV.

First up this morning, U.S.

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will publicly testify before a congressional committee. What kind of juicy, tawdry tales does he have to tell about being Trump’s fixer and does he have emails, texts, recordings of phone calls, etc. to prove it?

Based on the smear campaign launched by Team Trump ever since Cohen turned on Trump in an effort to reduce his prison term for lying to Congress in 2017, there’s plenty of anxiety about what Cohen might have. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders stuck to the theme Tuesday, referring to Cohen as a “convicted liar.”

For everyone in Trump World, from The Donald on down, the single question has always been: why lie if you’ve done nothing wrong? Donald Trump Jr. can insist all he likes that these aren’t “actual crimes” but Cohen, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and more Trump associates are going to “actual” jail because lying to the FBI, lying to Congress and lying to a special prosecutor are “actual crimes.”

And that’s just today’s warmup act.

This afternoon, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s former federal justice minister, will give her perspective on the SNC-Lavalin controversy before the House of Commons justice committee, starting with a 30-minute opening statement before questions.

The Vancouver MP will be able to speak her mind after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lifted the gag order on solicitorclient privilege and cabinet confidentiality on Monday. This will be her first public statement since stories early this month suggested she was pressured to tap the

brakes on prosecuting SNC-Lavalin, a major Quebec engineering firm.

Trudeau said Tuesday’s he’s looking forward to hearing “Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s perspective,” a noticeable improvement in tone from when Trudeau simply referred to her as “Jody” while bumbling his way through a variety of non-responses about the whole mess.

There are obvious differences between these two affairs.

Cohen was once one of Trump’s most trusted henchmen, sent in to work out confidentiality deals with women who accused Trump of improper behaviour and threaten to sue everyone else. Now the president’s supporters see him as simply a traitor ped-

dling garbage to discredit Trump.

Either way, he’s off to jail and Trump himself could be in the legal crosshairs.

Wilson-Raybould, however, remains a Liberal MP in good standing, as does the prime minister. The illegal conduct was committed by SNC-Lavalin, through bribes and fraud over a period of years to gain business in Libya.

Even if Trudeau directly or indirectly pressured Wilson-Raybould to cut a side deal and avoid an embarrassing criminal prosecution that would all but destroy the company, that abuse of power is nowhere near as filthy and greasy as the Cohen/ Trump soap opera.

It’s the similarities between the two,

YOUR LETTERS

Clerk partisan in SNC-Lavalin affair

Until hearing about the testimony Michael Wernick, Clerk of the Privy Council, gave before the Commons Justice Committee last Thursday, I was unaware that omnipresence (being everywhere at the same time, like God) was one of his attributes. But it must be so, as he was able to unequivocally state that the Trudeau cabal never pressured ex-Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould on the SNC Lavalin file. He would surely have had to have that extrasensory capabilities to know that, quite aside from the cabinet meetings –which he does attend and where one would hardly expect illicit pressures to be openly spoken of – nothing was said in any other face-to-face meeting or phone call with the likes of mover-andshaker Butts.

Of course, if by any chance, Wernick does not have that ability, we’d have to conclude that his testimony was partisan special-

pleading, the words of a sycophant who doesn’t like it at all when unruly media and everyday citizens, the unwashed hoi polloi, dare to suggest that his bosses are up to no good.

If that is the case, by the way, it’s not the first time that Wernick has got ugly when esteemed groups he’s part of, come under attack. In 2015, as a member of Carleton University’s Board of Governors, Wernick referred publicly to student protests against tuition hikes that disrupted a board meeting, as having “no place in a lawful democratic society – (the) tactics of Brownshirts and Maoists.”

Ah, the wonderful, dare I say, sunny view from such high places.

Norman Dale Prince George

City spending more than it can afford

Hello, taxpayers! I am appalled at the city seeking $32.2 million for upgrades

to 11 city projects. Where are we getting the money for the new pool?

Is it over and above this?

Maybe the city should forego building a new pool. The money for that could refurbish all these 11 projects.

We shouldn’t be holding any games until we can afford to host them. They may benefit a few entrepreneurs. We don’t have jobs for any who would think of moving here to increase our population.

Why do we have to spend so much money on vehicles?

Perhaps just replacing a few each year would be better. I am driving a 15-year-old vehicle as I can’t afford a new one.

Haven’t we spent enough money on Masich Place, only to have controversy on hours of use? We the taxpayers paid for the track. I run my household on what I can afford, not on what I want. I expect the city to overhaul their books and spend accordingly to what we can afford.

Sue Bliskis 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. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published.

however, that have political wags salivating with anticipation.

Along with the prospect of coverups and backroom deals to protect the rich and powerful, the personal and political dirt Cohen and Wilson-Raybould could have on Trump and Trudeau, as well as the people around them, may figure in the Canadian federal election this fall and the American campaign next fall.

Some have called it a day of reckoning for both national leaders, but neither man really has anything to worry about.

While there are numerous differences between Trump and Trudeau, they both wield an arrogance in their intelligence and political acumen that far exceeds reality and have built a mechanism to support the narrative that their respective countries couldn’t be great without their steady hand at the wheel.

Whatever Cohen’s revelations are today would have politically crippled a previous president, but it won’t loosen the stranglehold Trump has on the Republican party and Republicans in Congress one bit. Whatever Wilson-Raybould’s revelations are today might embarrass Trudeau and will almost certainly incite the leaders of the Conservatives and the NDP to call for a full inquiry or the prime minister’s resignation but he will continue unscathed, his grip on the federal Liberals firmly in place.

There is only one true day of reckoning ahead for Trump. It’s on Nov. 3, 2020. There is only one true day of reckoning ahead for Trudeau. It’s on Oct. 21 of this year.

The voters will decide on those days.

Everything before then is just noisy details but it still makes for riveting, popcornmunching entertainment.

—

Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout

Trudeau should resign

Lent will begin in seven days, meaning that for over six weeks no political comment will be found in my regular space. Thus, what follows are my final thoughts on L’Affair du Lavalin that has engulfed Ottawa for a month. I plead truth as my defence while discussing this tragicomedy.

It bears reiteration that we now know the former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, was contacted by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, former principal secretary Gerald Butts and the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, regarding the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

These three men maintain that what they did does not constitute “undue pressure” on the attorney general. Yet it is also known that even after her clear refusal to intervene in the case, the topic kept being brought up. Within three months, Wilson-Raybould was no longer attorney general.

Wernick spilled the beans before the House Justice Committee. In his own words, his conscience was clear about actions he, the prime minister, and Butts took, yet from Wilson-Raybould’s point of view, it might have seemed excessive; but don’t worry because, “the shields held.”

There are no polite words to describe the anger that has grown to an inferno in my soul over what this statement reveals. I have done my best until now to be more fair and balanced in 2019 – but I must admit that in this moment, that vow feels like “pearls before swine.”

Prima facie, this scandal is unprecedented, for if the facts as we know them now play out to their logical conclusion, “obstruction of justice” was attempted by the highest officials of our federal government, both political and bureaucratic. Even if that turns out not to be the case, the fact that this scenario got within mere spitting distance of such a sordid event demonstrates an incomprehensible lack of good judgment. There are no words of condemnation strong enough. I invite rebuttals and comparisons – it’s about time some real history got learned around here instead of baseless self-flagellation. But it’s already certain none of these will stick, proof being

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current newsmakers are reciting legalistic jargon instead of litanies of past political sins.

Indeed, I see no other proper penance than the resignation of the prime minister himself if he hopes to save his party. The Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Commonwealth Federation no longer exist, both reformed into new political vehicles. The Liberal Party of Canada has never rebranded, despite baggage spanning from the customs scandal to adscam, a fact that has befuddled Tories and Dippers for decades. One can only pray this is the final reckoning.

All of this might seem an exercise in hubris on my part. Obviously, we haven’t heard from Wilson-Raybould, due to testify today at the same House Justice Committee as Wernick did last week. Maybe, as many claim, her words will clear up this mess and exonerate everyone.

Perhaps, but I wouldn’t bother taking bets on this because the former attorney general’s hands are tied: she already has to answer for her late resignation, her public silence with private discussions in cabinet and caucus, as well as her delayed testimony, which requires 30 minutes for an opening statement. If Wilson-Raybould does anything but state categorically that she felt pressured, a riot will be started by the committee members, both government and opposition.

Lastly, in the event that the prime minister wiggles out of this one, the Grits refuse to say they are sorry and this entire affair becomes old news, there is still one trial that none of these people can escape: the federal election, which will take place Oct. 21. It is not my place to tell you how to vote. But I will tell you that people do not learn from being rewarded for their contemptible behaviour.

Whatever your politics, I encourage you to show your displeasure for our current overlords at the ballot box. It’s not like they listen to us otherwise.

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RIGHT OF CENTRE NATHAN GIEDE

COHEN

WILSON-RAYBOULD

Fake steak seen as food solution

NES ZIONA, Israel — Several Israeli startups have joined a handful of companies around the globe trying to develop lab-grown meat, something they see as a solution to the needs of the world’s ever-growing population and burgeoning demand for food.

The product has been known under different names, including cultured meat, in-vitro or artificial and “clean meat” – a term advocates say underscores its environment-friendly nature. It’s basically made of animal muscle cells grown in a culture in a lab, a technology similar to stem cells.

And while “synthetic steaks” are perhaps not a candidate for everyone’s favourite dish, they could someday compete with conventional chicken or beef, an affordable price tag permitting.

“Producing meat is very inefficient,” said Yaakov Nahmias, a bioengineering professor at Hebrew University and founder of Future Meat Technologies. Cultured meat, by comparison, consumes “10 times less water, less land, less energy than the current meat production.”

Advocates say lab-grown meat is flavourful and better for the environment than conventional meat. They say it consumes less water, energy and land, produces less greenhouse gases and reduces animal suffering.

Agriculture is estimated to generate around 13 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock alone responsible for two-thirds of those emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

For Israel, the advances are a far cry from the country’s early decades, when meat was rationed.

In fact, Israel is quickly becoming “the leader in the space, or (is) side-by-side with Silicon Valley” in cultured meat technologies, said Alex Shirazi, co-founder of the Cultured Meat and Future Food podcast and a founder of the Cultured Meat Symposium, an industry gathering in San Francisco in November.

Israel has a thriving high-tech scene, so the pursuit of lab-grown meat was a natural avenue for its entrepreneurs, experts say. The

Advocates say lab-grown meat is flavourful and better for the environment than conventional meat.

government’s Innovation Authority has also sought to stimulate food-technology companies through grants and the financing of a $25 million food-tech incubator.

Israel currently imports much of its meat and the government is invested in creating food security.

For observant Jews, several prominent Orthodox rabbis have already expressed approval for lab-grown meat being kosher. Because it doesn’t come from a slaughtered animal, some rabbis have even said cultured meat could be consumed as a cheeseburger – a combination of meat and milk otherwise forbidden in Jewish tradition.

In February, the Good Food Institute, a Washington-based non-profit promoting the development of meat alternatives, announced a series of research grants “for the benefit of the entire scientific community and good food industry.”

One of the six $250,000 grants for “clean meat” researchers went to Israel, and a second Israeli researcher received funds for “plantbased” meat alternatives.

“Israel is a fertile ground for tech in general and specifically for what we call alternative protein,” said Beni Nofech, a board member at the institute. “Israel is such an innovationdriven economy and infrastructure, both governmental and private, is already in place to actually catalyze innovation and research.”

The industry still faces some significant hurdles, including astronomical cost, developmental challenges, regulatory issues and questions about whether people are ready to eat lab-grown meat.

Until now, most companies involved in the effort have only managed to produce fleshy granules.

Future Meat Technologies, a company based out of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, and SuperMeat are among those combining

Kraft Heinz takes financial hit

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kraft Heinz disclosed an investigation by federal regulators and said it will slash the value of its Oscar Mayer and Kraft brands by $15.4 billion, major setbacks for a company trying to revitalize its stable of household-name brands.

A wave of bad news, which also included a dividend cut and a weak outlook for the year, sent shares plunging 26 per cent at the opening bell Friday, their largest decline in a single day.

Before noon, the company had lost $16 billion of its market value.

Kraft Heinz cited the impairment charge for a stunning $12.6 billion fourth-quarter loss.

Kraft Heinz said the investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is related to its accounting practices in the division that handles interactions with suppliers. The SEC declined to comment.

The steep write-down and loss in the quar-

animal cells and plant proteins as a potential alternative to processed meats.

Aleph Farms, an Israeli start-up launched in 2017, announced in December it succeeded in producing a lab-grown “minute steak” made from bovine cells that closely resembles the texture and flavour of its cow-borne counterpart. For now, the tiny steaks are just three millimetres wide – roughly the size of a very thin strip of roast beef.

Each Israeli player has raised several million dollars in early investment, including from major food manufactures such as U.S. giant Tyson Foods, Germany’s PHW Group, and Israel’s Strauss Group.

The first lab-grown burger was made by a Dutch company in 2013 at a cost of over $300,000. Production costs have fallen in the years since. Last year, U.S.-based Memphis Meats’ ground beef alternative was reported to cost about $2,400 per pound. Each slice of Aleph Farms’ “steak” costs about $50 to produce.

Before it can hit the shelves, lab-grown meat will face regulatory obstacles. The U.S. government’s FDA and USDA announced in November they would “jointly oversee the production of cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry.”

Cultured meat has already faced resistance from the U.S. meat industry and will probably face a label battle once it comes on the market.

Even if the industry can overcome these obstacles, the technology necessary to make these synthetic sirloins commercially viable remains years away.

Max Elder, a food researcher at the San Francisco-based Institute for the Future, says the biggest challenge may be convincing consumers to eat a steak essentially grown in a petri dish.

Nonetheless, researchers and environmentalists agree the need for sustainable, labgrown alternatives to industrial farming is essential.

“If we want to make sure that our kids eat the same thing that we eat today, then we need to dramatically change the way we manufacture it,” said Nahmias, the Hebrew University professor.

ter is a devastating recognition that efforts to change the trajectory of the company have not been as successful as once thought.

Kraft Heinz and other food makers that dominated grocery shelves for much of the postSecond World War era have been whipsawed by a seismic shift in what consumers want. Families have pivoted away from familiar packaged foods amid a proliferation of products marketed as being more wholesome.

U.S. Federal Reserve chairman failed to ignite much trading reaction. Crystal Maloney of CIBC Asset Management says Jerome Powell didn’t unveil anything new during the first of two days of testimony, repeating that he expects solid but slower growth in 2019 and remains patient on raising interest rates.

A key market driver is U.S.-China trade talks. Sentiment improved on U.S. President Donald Trump’s weekend comments that he would delay tariff increases on Chinese goods.

“People are waiting to see,” she said in an interview. “The key debate is figuring out how much of this U.S.-China trade tensions are priced into the markets.” However, several Canadian forest products producers saw their share prices fall as the United States reported that housing starts fell 11.2 per cent in December to the lowest level in more than two years.

Canfor Corp. shares lost 9.4 per cent, Norbord Inc. was down 6.9 per cent and Interfor Corp. off 7.6 per cent.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 10.88 points to 16,067.91 after hitting an intraday high of 16,115.83. Health care rose 3.8 per cent as several cannabis names, including Cronos Group Inc., Aurora Cannabis Inc and Canopy Growth Corp., saw mid-single-digit gains as some new brokerage initiations drove increased interest in the sector, said Maloney. Consumer staples rose 0.78 per cent, while technology fell 0.68 per cent, followed by materials and industrials.

The April gold contract was down US$1 at US$1,328.50 an ounce.

“We have seen a bit of a pullback in gold and silver since the yearto-date highs we saw last week but the current levels appear to be well supported from a technical standpoint,” she added.

The April crude contract was up two cents at US$55.50 per barrel and the April natural gas contract was down 1.9 cents at US$2.80 per mmBTU.

The financial sector was down slightly as the Bank of Nova Scotia fell on weaker results while the Bank of Montreal rose after its quarterly results beat expectations. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 33.97

Citizen news service

AP PHOTO

Chef Amir Ilan prepares a lab-grown steak during a presentation by the Israeli company Aleph Farms in Jaffa, Israel, last month

Once again, McKeever on top of the world

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

Brian McKeever likes going the distance.

The 20-kilometre cross-country race is his favourite event at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships. Not only is he good at it, he owns it.

The 39-year-old Paralympic legend from Canmore showed no signs he’s slowing down with age Sunday afternoon at Otway Nordic Centre where he and his 35-yearold guide, Graham Nishikawa, cruised to his ninth consecutive world title in the visually-impaired long-distance race and 20th career world championship medal.

“The 20K is one of our better events, at least the one that we enjoy the most. We like skiing this together and today was fun, we were in sync and when everything comes together like that it’s a pleasure racing,” said McKeever.

“Graham did such a great job guiding me and we had a great team race today. The (wax) techs in the room nailed the skis so well. It makes our jobs so much easier. It’s long climbs out there so you can’t go full-gas, you need to have some pacing in there and feel it out and I think Graham nailed that today.

“On the first climb I knew he was on it. We talked a little bit of technique in warm-up and how we should be skiing on this terrain and we put it together to a really nice rhythm and a really good pace.”

The Canadians covered the 20km course in 54:47, winning by 3:23 over silver medalists Eirik Bye and guide Arvid Nelson of Norway (58:10.2). Zebastian Modin and guide Emil Joensson of Sweden (58:03.2) won bronze. Nishikawa, a former able-bodied

national team member, says it’s always difficult keeping up to McKeever but he felt great in the race and their lead was never threatened. “Today was pretty special for us, we were both on fire and we had crazy skis,” said Nishikawa. “It was fun to ski today.”

McKeever has never lost the five km cross-country world event but it took him a few years to learn how to pace himself and win over a 20km distance.

“Part of it is age now, we’re more experienced, more miles under us, and we have the endurance and the ability to stick a good pace,” said McKeever. “It was a learn-

ing experience but now we’re very comfortable with it and very happy doing it.”

Sunday was Canada’s best day in seven days of racing at Otway with three medals, including Natalie Wilkie’s silver in the women’s standing race and Mark Arendz clinching silver in the men’s standing event.

All the medals Sunday were awarded in the Otway stadium and it was a proud moment for McKeever and Nishikawa to join a throng of Canadian supporters singing O Canada on the snow while wearing their gold mapleleaf shaped medals.

“You don’t get to do it at home very often,” McKeever said. “World championships at home, Paralympics at home, we’ve experienced both now and it’s a good feeling. It’s nice to be back in Prince George, the organizers and volunteers have been fantastic and it’s been a wonderful world championship for the whole team.”

Jesse Bachinsky of Kenora, Ont., and his guide Simon Lamarche of Victoria were 10th in McKeever’s race. Lamarche and Bachinsky lost their audio contact during the race which meant they had to rely on voice commands, but they worked it out.

The 20-year-old Bachinsky had his first big races at Otway four years ago at the Canada Winter Games and he’s in Red Deer this week for the his second crack at Canada Games medals.

“It’s really fast out there today and the downhills are wicked, the uphills are really technical and really good,” said Bachinsky. “It’s my favourite race course and I’m just happy to be here. It’s amazing.” Bachinsky is part of the NextGen team of national team racers who look up to McKeever as their mentor and coach. The Canadian team did exceptionally well, winning 10 medals in Prince George (two gold, six silver, two bronze) and McKeever says seeing his younger teammates exceeding their own personal bests and climbing the world rankings will keep him racing at least until the 2020 Paralympics in Beijing.

“The big motivation is our young team that we have,” said McKeever. “You’ve got (two-time silver medalist) Natalie Wilkie and Collin (Cameron), who’s not super-young but new to the team and him winning a gold medal in the sprint off his sick bed is fun for us to watch and inspires us to keep going.”

In the women’s visually-impaired race Sunday, Caria Edlinger and guide Florian Rupert Seiwald raced to gold (54:46.6). Oksana Shyshkova and guide Vitaliy Kazakov of Ukraine won silver (59:41.8), and bronze went to Yadviha Skorabahtaya and guide Mikalai Shablouski of Belarus (1:10:22.6). Ukraine topped the team standings with 41 medals (nine gold, 16 silver, 16 bronze) followed by the United States with 15 (six gold, seven silver, two bronze) and third-place Germany with 15 (five gold, three silver, seven bronze).

Wilkie, Arendz find silver lining in distance race

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Taiki Kawayoke didn’t need poles to fly up the hills. The wings he had on his skis did the job just fine. The Japanese roadrunner left a cloud of snow dust at his feet in Sunday’s World Para Nordic Skiing Championships men’s standing 20-kilometre cross-county race to claim gold for Japan for the first time at Otway Nordic Centre.

Canada’s Mark Arendz did all he could to try to make up enough time on Kawayoke but came up one position short of his first world championships victory. Kawayoke, 18, melted the classic technique course, finishing in 54 minutes 1.9 seconds, 21 seconds ahead of Arendz (54:21.4). Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine (55:36.0) claimed bronze.

“I knew I had a 28-second lead over Mark but when I went down the hill it shrunk to 17 seconds, so it was pretty close,” said Kawayoke, through an interpreter. “I knew I was beating him on the upslope so I just gave it my best shot all the way.

“I’m just happy, I don’t know what other

I’m just happy, I don’t know what other words to say. My legs are really

Taiki Kawayoke

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Canada’s Brian McKeever, right, and guide Graham Nishikawa skiied to gold in the men’s crosscountry 20-kilometre race for the visually impaired at the Para Nordic Skiing World Championships on Sunday at Otway Nordic Centre.

Condors eyeing provincial success after zone win

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

The Prince George Polars did what they could to try hang a loss on the Duchess Park Condors.

Playing in their home gym at PGSS, knowing they needed to beat the Condors in back-to-back games to earn the right to represent the north central zone at the triple-A boys provincial basketball championship next month in Langley, the Polars kept it close for two quarters.

Nursing a six-point lead at the half in Saturday’s final at the five-team double-knockout tournament, the Condors tuned their radar in the third quarter and starting hitting their shots with regularity. Eventually, they walked off the court with a 72-42 victory.

Jackson Kuc put up three triples and a field goal, Dan Zimmerman had a five-point quarter and all of a sudden the Condors were looking a lot more like the team that won its fifth-straight city championship a couple weeks ago.

“It was more of a battle than (in Friday’s 88-63 win over the Polars in the semifinal), we didn’t bring it to start the game and it was back and forth all the way until the second half,” said Zimmerman, a senior guard for the Condors.

“The start of the third we really brought it defensively, which is how we get going.”

Grade 12 guard Soren Erricson was named tournament MVP. Held to just two points in the final, he certainly had his share of buckets in the previous two games in the tournament. Condors coach Jordan Yu designated Erricson for defensive duty Saturday shadowing the ever-dangerous Ameer Dhillon, while Connor Lewis was

assigned to watch Jordan Foster. Dhillon finished with nine points and Foster had five. None of the Polars reached double digits. A.J. Bassi and Aman Bassi each scored nine.

“Soren is an awesome player for us – he’s a great leader and a great guy, on the court and off the court,” said Zimmerman. “He gets everybody involved and if he’s not scoring then somebody else is scoring – he’s making somebody else score.”

Erricson’s ability to control the game has been key to the Condors’ success all season. This is his fourth year playing at the

senior level and the team revolves around his experience and ability to make the right play under pressure.

“He’s one of those team guys, even though he’s our most skilled guy and probably one of our best scorers, he will do anything that it takes,” said Yu.

“He has to guard the best guy every single night and that’s what makes the difference for our team. Ameer didn’t really have a big scoring weekend and I think a big part of that was just Soren on him. We got a lot of selfless play from our players, no one was looking to be the man scoring, we just

wanted to do it on the defensive end and everyone stepped up.”

Yu admitted having the morning off while the Polars were on the court gave his team’s fresher legs for the final and the Condors were able to take advantage of their bench strength to wear PGSS down.

“That’s why in these doubleknockout tournaments, getting that No. 1 seed is very important,” said Yu. “All the credit to PGSS, they battled for 40 minutes and we were just able to wear on them with our depth and I think that was the difference in the game. Actually, I think our bench

outscored our starters, we just had balanced scoring throughout the whole game.”

Kuc led the way for the Condors with 18 points. Zimmerman and Emir Zejnulahovic each collected seven points and Graydon Wolitski and Tanner Cruz both finished with six.

The Condors topped the Polars 88-63 in the first semifinal Friday. That was a 11-point game until the late stages of the third quarter when Condors stretched the lead to 26.

“We match up well with those guys but they just have more depth and they just put pressure on us,” said Polars head coach Joe Luong, whose team beat Lake City of Williams Lake 82-40 in a semifinal Saturday morning. “Every third quarter they get us right after the half. They space the floor really well and they’re all good shooters. They very confident in each other and they trust each other taking the shot and crashing the boards.”

In their opener at the zone tournament the Condors shredded the Correlieu Clan of Quesnel 134-26. Ranked fourth in B.C. heading into the weekend, the Condors claimed the lone berth in the provincial tournament which starts March 6 in Langley. The Condor boys haven’t won a provincial title since 2006 when they were a double-A team.

“I think we have a really good shot at winning it, I think we’re right up there with the top three teams,” said Zimmerman. “We’re all really close, really tight-knit and I think that’s the main thing. We’ve got lots of guys who can really shoot and it starts for us on the defensive end, so we can all lock in defensively and we just get it going from there. We have big tall guards.”

Backlund, Andersson lead Flames to win over N.Y.

Vin A. CHERWOO Citizen news service

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Calgary Flames used another strong third period to keep their winning streak going.

Mikael Backlund and Rasmus Andersson scored nearly three minutes apart early in the third and the Flames clamped down on New York’s late push, beating the Islanders 3-1 on Tuesday night for their season-high sixth straight win.

“We didn’t really give them anything in the third period,” Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk said. “We were going in tied 1-1 on the road, and that was a perfect period in my mind.”

Tkachuk also scored and Elias Lindholm had two assists for the Western Conferenceleading Flames, who won both matchups between the first-place teams in a seven-day

stretch. Mike Smith finished with 26 saves to improve to 5-0-1 in his last six starts, including a 4-2 win over the Islanders at home last Wednesday.

The Flames lead the league in goals in the third period, outscoring opponents 93-49.

“We’re finding ways to win close hockey games, but we’re doing it the right way,” Smith said.

“We’ve played real solid defensively... we’re getting rewarded because of it.”

Josh Bailey scored for New York, and Robin Lehner stopped 24 shots. The Islanders, 1-2-1 in their last four, began the day two points ahead of Washington atop the Metropolitan Division. The Capitals beat Ottawa 7-2 Tuesday night, but the Islanders held onto first place because they have played two fewer games than Washington.

“Their big line made a difference,” Island-

ers coach Barry Trotz said of the Flames.

“They’re a very good hockey team. There’s a reason they’re leading the Western Conference.”

Backlund put the Flames ahead 2-1 at 3:15 of the third, beating Lehner on the blocker side for his 17th of the season.

Andersson beat Lehner through the fivehole for just his second of the season to give Calgary a two-goal lead at 6:12.

“Our guys came in after 40 (minutes), got refocused in a 1-1 game on the road,” Flames coach Bill Peters said. “We found a way. ... Penalty kill did a good job and Smitty was solid.”

The Islanders had the puck in the offensive zone plenty of times in the third period, but the Flames limited the bulk of New York’s shots on the perimeter. Smith denied Anders Lee’s tip try midway through the

‘It feels amazing, I need a nap now’

— from page 9

“It’s been fantastic, I’m extremely happy,” he said. “I think it shows a lot of consistency. It would have been nice to get that one next step in a couple of these races but I’m happy. This is a great place to be a year after the (Paralympic) Games and I’m looking forward to three years from now (at the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing).”

Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm saved her best race for the last day, winning silver in the women’s standing 15km race – her first individual event world championship medal.

Vilde Nilsen of Norway (50:36.7) won her third gold of the week, 36.2 seconds ahead of Wilkie (51:10.0). Bronze went to Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine (51:56.5). Emily Young of North Vancouver was fifth (54:02.3) and Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., was sixth (54:03.7).

“It feels amazing, I need a nap now,” said Wilkie, who combined with Arendz, Young and Collin Cameron to win silver in the mixed relay Saturday.

“It’s awesome, my family’s here cheer-

ing me on and they were literally at every corner yelling at me. My race family was yelling too and everybody was cheering, just ‘Go Canada.’ It was pretty amazing.”

The 18-year-old high school student closed the gap considerably on Nilsen in the last two laps of the classic technique race but ran out of time.

“I knew I was hovering around third or fourth place for the first two laps and I was sort of holding back because I wasn’t sure what to expect because I haven’t done that many 15-kilometre races,” said Wilkie. “The third lap I knew I was a long way off Vilde and then every lap after that I went a bit harder, making up more time and I’m really happy with my race.

“The conditions were great, we had awesome wax out there, the wax techs are amazing.”

In the women’s sit-ski race, a 12km event, Oksana Masters won her fifth gold medal of the championships and her American teammate Kendall Gretsch claimed her fourth silver medal. Masters (41:17.7) was the early race leader and held her position

throughout the race. Gretsch (42:32.1) overtook bronze medalist Birgit Skarstein of Norway (43:21.7) on the third of four laps.

For Skarstein, the cross-country World Cup points leader and defending Crystal Globe season champion, it was her second bronze of the championships.

“It didn’t know if I was going to start this race because it’s been really cold this week and my lungs haven’t been handling it very well,” Skarstein said. “The plan was to just see if I could actually finish or not, and ending up with a bronze is amazing.”

Despite the cold that never seemed to leave all week Skarstein loved the surroundings of the Otway course and raved about the reception the athletes received in their time in Prince George.

“I’m really impressed with the nature here and really impressed with the volunteers,” she said. “It’s been an amazing experience here and everyone’s working so hard, always smiling even at 6:30 in the morning and it’s minus 25 degrees freezing.”

The start of the first race of the day, the men’s sit-ski 15km event, was delayed an

period, and stopped Cizikas from between the circles with 2:47 remaining.

New York pulled Lehner with just under two minutes left, but was initially slow to get an extra attacker on the ice and then was whistled for too many men.

Smith had to make an acrobatic sprawling save on Adam Pelech’s rebound attempt of Cal Clutterbuck’s shot with less than 1 1/2 minutes to go.

“The guy walks in, dead angle and then off my pad and back out front,” the 37-yearold goalie said. “At that point you’re just selling out and trying to get something in the way and I managed to get a glove on it.”

Tkachuk got the Flames on the scoreboard first, sliding the puck back between his legs and lifting it into the top left corner on a power play for his 25th at 2:57 of the second. It was his first goal in 15 games.

hour to allow the sun to pull the mercury out of a -29 C overnight plunge. It was -15 C when they left the gate. Martin Fleig of Germany won gold (47:53.8), Taras Rad of Ukraine took silver (49:06.1) and bronze went to Dzmitry Loban of Belarus (49:42.6). Derek Zapotlinsky of Smoky Lake, Alta., finished fifth (50:21.2).

“I had a decent game-plan, I just tried to stick with people as they came by me and it seemed to work,” he said.

“I got a little tired on the fourth lap but I was able to dig in on the fifth lap and made some time up. My arms are pretty dead right now, I gave it all I had on that one because it was the last race of the competition.”

Ethan Hess of Pemberton was 15th.

“It was super-hard, it’s a difficult race because you’re pulling the whole way but I love the longer distance and the mental toughness side,” said Hess, who won bronze for B.C. in the 2015 Canada Winter Games at Otway and is representing his province again this week at the Canada Games in Red Deer.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Soren Erricson of the Duchess Park Condors drives to the basket, past PGSS Polars defenders Ameer Dhillon, centre, and Jordan Foster on Saturday afternoon at PGSS. The Condors beat the Polars 72-42 and booked a spot in the triple-A provincial championship tournament.

Canadian basking in glow of Oscar win

TORONTO — Canadian animator Domee Shi returned to work at Pixar on Tuesday an Oscar-winner, armed with tales of partying with Elton John and wielding a nearly four-kilogram statuette.

“Everyone’s super jazzed,” Shi said when reached at the California studio where she passed the trophy around to co-workers for photos and selfies.

“Lots of people have never held an Oscar before. I’ve only held Pete Docter’s, like once, when he brought it in to work randomly,” she said of the writer/director of the Oscar-winning films Up and Inside Out.

The Toronto-bred artist recounts fielding congratulations from Lady Gaga and Regina King at Sunday’s Oscar gala, when she claimed the trophy for best animated short for her Toronto-set film, Bao, along with producer Becky NeimanCobb.

She gushed over getting to view the glitzy gala firsthand, marvelling over how quickly the sets change, the army of camera people amid the audience, and the many backstage rooms where winners can call loved ones and address hundreds of waiting journalists.

Then there are all the celebrities.

A&E IN BRIEF

Janet Jackson to launch Vegas residency

Once you have this Oscar thing it’s like all of a sudden you’re like the cool kid in school...

— Domee Shi

“Once you have this Oscar thing it’s like all of a sudden you’re like the cool kid in school and celebrities who kind of looked over you before are like, ‘Oh cool, congratulations!’ And you’re like, ‘Whoah!” says Shi, recounting exchanges with the Gaga and King, the best supporting actress winner.

“And then we were able to get into the Vanity Fair after-party which is nuts. You just walk in and, ‘Oh, there’s Elton John,’ and ‘Oh, there’s the Queer Eye guys.’ It’s amazing and they’re all just normal people walking around, having drinks or partying.”

Afterwards, she admits to trying to crash the A-list-only party hosted by Jay-Z and Beyonce.

“We found the address and we tried to get in but they were like, ‘Oh sorry, we’re at capacity,”’ she sighs.

Now back at work, Shi says she’s focused on developing her first feature-length film for Pixar, but she was mum on details.

NEW YORK (AP) — Janet Jackson is heading to Las Vegas.

The pop icon announced Tuesday that she’s launching a residency in Sin City later this year. Jackson will have 15 shows in May, July and August at the Park Theater at Park MGM resort.

Tickets for the residency, called Metamorphosis, go on sale Saturday. Jackson, 52, joins a long list of singers who have had residencies in Vegas, including Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, the Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey.

Clark Gable III dies in Dallas

DALLAS (AP) — Clark James Gable III, host of the reality TV show Cheaters and grandson of late Academy Award-winning actor Clark Gable, has died in Texas.

The Dallas County Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science says the 30-year-old Gable died Friday at a Dallas hospital. The medical examiner’s office didn’t immediately indicate the cause and manner of death, but it was not considered suspicious. Bobby Goldstein, president and CEO of Bobby

The Sheridan College graduate is the first female director to helm a Pixar short but says she’s proud to now be among several at the studio – including fellow Canadian animator Kristen Lester, who just released her short film Purl through the company’s experimental shorts program.

“I definitely have witnessed a shift within the industry but also within Pixar over the last couple of years,” says Shi, who has been at the Disney-owned studio for about eight years.

“Feature film is still pretty maledominated but we’re slowly starting to see that change. Shorts are a great kind of training ground for future directors. I know for me, I definitely don’t think I would have been ready or had the experience needed to direct a feature had I not been given the chance to direct and make Bao.”

Being part of the change is one small way she hopes to keep pushing the industry further. Shi says nearly all of the top leadership positions in her first feature film are female.

“And that’s just something that naturally kind of happens. Once you staff up a project with female and diverse leadership, the casting kind of naturally reflects that afterwards, too.

“It’s just proof that it’s just so important to get more representation in leadership.”

Goldstein Productions, said Tuesday that Gable, who lived in Dallas, hosted Cheaters since 2012. The show features confrontations with people suspected of being unfaithful.

Gable and his fiancee have an infant daughter. Clark Gable, star of Gone With the Wind and winner of the best actor Oscar for the 1934 film, It Happened One Night, died in 1960 in Los Angeles.

Sequel to Andromeda Strain due out in fall

NEW YORK (AP) — The late Michael Crichton’s literary archive and production company has authorized a sequel to his breakthrough novel The Andromeda Strain.

HarperCollins Publishers announced Tuesday that The Andromeda Evolution will come out Nov. 12. The book will be a collaboration between science fiction author Daniel H. Wilson and CrichtonSun LLC., for which the author’s widow, Sherri Crichton, serves as CEO. Its publication marks the 50th anniversary of The Andromeda Strain, Crichton’s techno-thriller about scientists fighting a lethal extraterrestrial microorganism. Released when Crichton was just 27, it was later adapted into a feature film and television miniseries, with Ridley Scott among the producers. Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, is also known for such blockbusters as Jurassic Park and The Terminal Man.

Sawchuk film traces triumphs and tragedy of hockey great

Citizen news service

In tracing the triumphant but ultimately tragic life of goalie great Terry Sawchuk, screenwriter-director Adriana Maggs had plenty of clippings and statistics to help her depict his stellar on-ice record.

Harder to parse was the inner turmoil of the taciturn Winnipegger, whose remarkable run with the National Hockey League included a career record of 103 regular-season shutouts but also left him physically and emotionally shattered.

Sawchuk’s off-ice exploits were punctuated by bouts of rage, depression and heavy drinking, and Maggs says she wanted to make sure Goalie captured his personal struggles with honesty.

For that, she turned to the poems of her father, Randall Maggs, whose 2007 book Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems portrayed the hockey hero in very human terms.

“I started to understand hockey in a different way after I read his book, because there was the hero and then there was the human being. All of a sudden you realize, ‘OK, this goalie, he was a goaltender and he was alone,”’ says Maggs. “Everyone else was scoring and had the luxury of getting lost in the frenzy and he was just at the other end of the

ice waiting to either make the save or to fail. It’s just a horrific way of looking at it. ... If he made the save he was a hero and if he didn’t then the fans would turn on him. I think that he suffered a lot because of that.”

Goalie also leans heavily on David Dupuis’s 1998 biography Sawchuk: The Troubles and Triumphs of the World’s Greatest Goalie in depicting a tumultuous NHL run for the young phenom, who begins an injury-plagued career in Detroit in 1950, and later moves on to Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York, where he died in 1970.

Newfoundland-born actor Mark O’Brien stars as Sawchuk, and despite being a lifelong hockey fan and player, he says he was stunned to learn how brutal and unforgiving the sport was before hockey masks shielded players from 100-kilometre-perhour pucks.

Even star athletes were under intense pressure to play entire seasons with broken bones, fearing they would be either traded or shunted to the minors, he noted.

“It’s not just a sports movie, it’s not just a biopic, it’s not just about a guy who battled alcoholism,” says O’Brien. “It’s about a life under so much pressure.” Goalie opens in Toronto and Vancouver on March 1 before heading to other cities.

Cassandra SZKLARSKI Citizen news service

Domee Shi, director of the Pixar short film Bao, poses for a photo at the Shangri La Hotel in Toronto in June 2018.

IVAN BRATTON

January 29, 1951 - February 21, 2019

It is with heartbreaking sadness we have to announce we lost our beloved brother and uncle to cancer on February 21, 2019. Ivan was predeceased by his father, Frank, mother Florence, brothers Walter and Glen, sister Lorraine, and nephew Leland. He is survived by brothers Elbert (Red), Harley, and sister Fay (Larry). Ivan is also survived by many nieces, nephews, and friends who all loved him.

There will be no service as per Ivan’s request.

Martha Cook, aged 97 years, passed away peacefully at Simon Fraser Lodge, 23 February 2019. Predeceased by her husband, Edward; brothers, Ben and Alex and sister, Liska. Marty is survived by her sons, Russell (Rosemarie) and Neal (Julia) of Prince George. Haven (Janice); grandsons, Matthew (Rebecca) and Phillip; great grandchildren, Edward, Molly, and Lucy Rose, all of Australia. Three brothers and two sisters, many other relatives and special friends, Dorothy Lamb and Elsie Olesik, as well as many other friends. Many families were fed from her garden. Marty was a volunteer with the hospital auxiliary for 45 years. No one could cut rags like Marty. She was also a longtime member of the Quilters Guild. She donated many wall hangings and quilts to Ducks Unlimited for their fundraising efforts. She was also a member of the Elder Citizens Recreation Association. A Celebration of Life will be held at ECRA, the date and time to be announced later. Thank you to Dr. Joss and staff at SFL for their kindness and care. Memorial donations to the Auxiliary of University Hospital of Northern BC or a charity of your choice are greatly appreciated.

“Feisty to the very end!”

John (Jack) Carman Ross 1947-2019

On Feb. 15, 2019 our beloved brother Jack passed away in his sleep. Jack was born in Vancouver, B.C. He spent his first 10 years at Copper Mountain, near Princeton, before the family moved back to Vancouver. Jack attended Vancouver College and graduated from Prince of Wales High School in Vancouver. He travelled to Europe out of High School. He moved to Sudbury ON, where he owned and drove his own Taxi. He moved to Prince George in the 1970’s and drove Taxi for Prince George Cabs. In his earlier days, in Prince George, he was involved in various community activities. Jack took his Auctioneering training in Billings Montana, and then opened an auction business in Prince George. He was a resident of Prince George for over 40 years. He was a true entrepreneur and owned The Weiner King Hot Dog stands and J.C. Ross Auctioneers. Jack gave back to the community in many ways. He would hold charitable auctions to assist individuals/families and for raising funds for other community events. He is survived by his brother Gordon and wife Karyn (Westbank), sisters Dodi (Chilliwack), Judy and husband Patrick (Moab UT), former companion Lorraine (AB) and many friends. Jack was a kind and caring man who lived each day to its’ fullest. He always helped out others before he would help himself. Jack had a wonderful sense of humor and his practical jokes will be deeply missed by all those that knew him.

We will all miss your warmth and humor

Cade Timothy Belanger

It is with heavy hearts and great sadness that the family of Cade Timothy Belanger, announce his passing. Cade was born in Prince George BC in 1966 and passed unexpectedly in Victoria, BC, 2019. Cade is survived by his parents Allen and Rita, his two sisters Alana and Celynne, his niece Kailah and nephew Lucas. Cade is fondly remembered by many friends and relatives who will deeply miss his infectious smile and kind heart.

A limb has fallen from the family tree. I keep hearing a voice, “Grieve not for me”. Remember the best times, the laughter, the song. The good life I lived while I was strong. Continue my heritage, I’m counting on you Keep smiling and surely the light will shine through. My mind is at ease, my soul is at rest. Remembering all, I truly was blessed. Continue traditions, no matter how small. Go on with your life, don’t worry at all. I will miss you all dearly, so keep up your chin. Until the day comes when we’re together again.

OPPORTUNITY

There will be no funeral as requested by Jack. A Celebration of Life will be scheduled late spring/early summer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.