Emergency landing
A Central Mountain Air aircraft was
landed without incident and the
Stolen Virgin Mary statue recovered
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Divine intervention has faithfully grounded the briefly gnomeadic life of Mary.
Museum staff are devoutly investigating what happened, hoping to find out who preyed on the effigy of the beloved religious figure. The historically-significant statue of the young Virgin Mary was housed in the equally significant old church located on the Shelley Reserve of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation. Someone stole it and started placing the statue around the area’s outdoors, with photos popping up on social media much like “travelling gnome” pranks.
This was no garden kitch, said The Exploration Place CEO Tracy Calogheros. Whether you are a devout Christian or a history buff, there would be few who would support the vandalism this icon endured. Mary’s position should never have been altered in the first place, Calogheros said angrily.
“It’s terrifying for a museum person, to be quite honest,” she said.
The statue, aged at more than 100 years, had sustained trauma to the head so recently that some fragments were found in the snow where it was wedged in a drift when museum staff were alerted to its whereabouts.
“The statue is hollow,” explained The Exploration Place curator Alyssa Tobin.
“Snow was jammed all up inside, and the base of the statue had gotten so wet that the plaster was mooshy from moisture, so
there is a drying process it has to go through.
“That will take about a month.
Then we can look at what other repairs we might be able to do.” — see ‘WE WILL, page 3
City brings in 311 service
Citizen staff
Getting in contact with city hall is now a matter of pressing just three digits.
A 311 service is now up and running, allowing callers to reach the city’s service centre via an easy-to-remember number.
In July, council gave staff the go-ahead to pursue the feature. Steps taken since then included applying to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for approval and reaching agreements with phone service providers on routing the calls.
Next steps include getting the number listed on phone book blue pages and online directories, business cards and email signatures, letterhead and other print templates, the city website and mobile app, social media channels and brochures.
A campaign to raise awareness of the service is also in store. It will include posters and displays in civic facilities including city hall, social media posts and banner images on the city website.
The city’s regular 10-digit main number, 250-561-7600, remains in place.
The Exploration Place curator Alyssa Tobin looks over a statue of the young Virgin Mary which was recovered, after being stolen from the Saint Pius X Catholic Church. The church was built in 1913 at the Shelley Reserve.
Robbie Burns Dinner celebrates Scottish culture
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Don’t let old acquaintance be forgot. The second annual Robbie Burns Dinner will be brought to mind only days from now, to celebrate the Scottish bard and the Prince George Symphony Orchestra at the same time.
The splendid event got off to a roaring launch last year, on Burns’ birthday. It was, in its inaugural year, a hit with lads and lassies of all ages and cultures. This year is the second coming.
“The table is set and awaiting,” said Teresa Saunders, general manager of the PGSO for whom this fun-formal event is a fundraiser.
“The Coast Inn of the North chef promises a delicious three course plated meal of pork tenderloin with pink peppercorn demi, truffle essence, accompanied by crisp vegetables and tatties (mashed potatoes) starting with baby mesclun greens with the Shogun’s famous sesame ginger dressing and fresh rolls. A delicious trifle dessert and hand-made ‘kilt’ cookies round out the meal. Of course, the traditional haggis will be offered to all who enjoy it or would like to try it.”
Robbie Burns Night is an occasion held in cities all across Canada and around the world, not just in Burns’ native Scotland where he is a folk hero as much as a poet and songwriter. Several entertainment elements are built into each one, befitting the social soirees Burns himself would host in his day.
The evening’s master of ceremonies will be Todd Corrigall, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, who will lead the audience through
by a brief address
Burns and then the comedic toast to the lassies and the sassy reply to the laddies featuring Roy Stewart and Marie Louise Ahrens.
“The PGSO string duo of Jose Delgado-Guevara and Flora Camuzet will provide musical accompaniment as guests arrive and Shoshanna Godber will provide Celtic Harp background music during the dinner,” said Saunders.
“Rounding out the entertainment will be a few Scottish dances featuring the Excalibur Highland Dancers and some lively and haunting Celtic tunes sung by Nove Voce. To end the evening, for those who’d like to trip the light fantastic, music will play well into the wee hours.”
Up for auction are bottles of fine Scotch, donated by several prominent business people in the community, an opportunity to “become the maestro” (the winning bidder gets to conduct the PGSO in concert), the honour of holding the Ritual Robbie Burns plate for one year, a lovely piece of furniture in the shape of a cello full of fine wine, and many other desired services and items at the silent auction table.
The PGSO and their team of volunteers, supporters and sponsors have combined to present a unique evening of fun, food and entertainment. Come out to celebrate the “Scot in us all” as Saunders put it, “and help the PGSO at the same time.”
Tickets are $90 per person, available through Central Interior Tickets. Buy online at www.centralinteriortickets.com, charge-by-phone at 250-5960020, or visit the ticket centre at 3540 Opie Cres.
You’ll be plaid you did.
Student Ranger program accepting applications
Citizen staff
Young adults interested in learning a diverse range of job skills while working outdoors this summer can now apply for the B.C. Parks Student Ranger program. Now in its second year, it provides training and employment opportunities in B.C.’s parks and protected areas. There are 48 openings for people ages 18 to 30 years old with a 30-per-cent Indigenous hiring target.
For the 2019 season, four crews of a dozen people will work in regions throughout the province on such efforts
as ecosystem restoration, invasive species control, trail building and maintenance, and outdoor education.
Locations include Prince George, Fort St. John, Terrace, Bella Coola, Williams Lake, Manning Park, Cranbrook, Kamloops, Victoria (Goldstream Provincial Park), Black Creek (Miracle Beach Provincial Park), North Vancouver (Mount Seymour Provincial Park) and Sechelt (Porpoise Bay Provincial Park).
Crew lead positions begin May 13 and crew members begin May 26, wrapping up at the end of August.
Candidates must have been enrolled
in full-time studies in the past academic year with the intention of returning to full-time studies in the fall. Applications will be accepted until Feb. 24 and are available at www.env. gov.bc.ca/bcparks/employment/studentranger/. The Student Ranger Program was the first program established with proceeds from the sales of BC Parks specialty licence plates. So far, nearly 130,000 licence plates have been sold, generating $4.14 million towards protecting and preserving provincial parks.
the Robbie Burns traditions of having the haggis piped in by piper
Randy Carnegie, then addressed and speared by Bob Cochrane,
followed
(toast) to the immortal memory of Robbie
Rick Krehbiel cuts the haggis during a Robbie Burns diner in 2012.
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT HANDOUT PHOTO
Two students get wet counting tadpoles as part of the Student Ranger program.
‘We will house it here and do our best to repair the statue’
— from page 1
Calogheros said she has reached out to Lheidli T’enneh elders and officials for advice on what to do next with the statue.
The museum has an existing protocol with the area’s resident Aboriginal foundation culture for storing their cultural artifacts.
Some, like stained glass windows and nine other statues from a nativity scene, are also germane to the old church.
“We will house it here and do our best to repair the statue in the interim, but this
artifact rightly belongs to the Lheidli people and we will do with it exactly as they instruct,” she said.
The statue was found in a gravel pit, after several moves on its social media misadventure. The icon stands 145 centimetres tall and requires some effort for a single adult to lift.
A police file has been opened on this incident, so anyone with information on the theft of the statue is asked to call the Prince George RCMP, or pass it on to museum staff.
Counterfeit charges stayed
Citizen staff
A man no longer faces counterfeiting charges from two allegations in Prince George.
Bruce Albert Patrick had been facing seven counts – later reduced to five – in relation to alleged incidents on Dec. 27, Dec. 28 and Feb. 14 in Prince George and stemming from a March 2018 police raid on a Monahan Crescent home.
Stays of proceedings are issued whenever it’s determined there is not enough evidence to achieve a conviction.
Although most matters that have been stayed are not reopened, Crown counsel can, within certain limits, restart the proceedings. The time limit is six months for summary matters and a year for indictable matters. The stays were issued in September when Patrick’s case had reached the arraignment stage.
Penalty
handed to family
of embezzler
cut in half by B.C.’s high court
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — The B.C. Court of Ap-
peal has ruled a North Vancouver man does not have to pay back nearly a quarter million dollars stolen by his wife from her employer before she died, but the widower is still liable for more than $100,000.
The case began after the 2012 death of Wanda Moscipan when the Vancouver Coastal Health authority attempted to recover nearly $600,000 it found she had embezzled during her eight years as a financial administrator.
The health authority launched legal action against both Moscipan’s estate and her husband, and a lower court ruled the widower must have known his wife was receiving funds through fraudulent means.
That decision ordered Miroslaw Moscipan to repay $246,073.23., finding that amounted to the portion of stolen funds used to cover family expenses.
At the time, Justice Leonard Marchand wrote restitution on the part of her husband “is adequate to send a message to others that they do not stand to benefit from the misdeeds of others when they know or ought to know of ill-gotten gains.”
Moscipan appealed to B.C.’s highest court, fighting the repayment order and a further ruling that set aside his wife’s death-bed transfer of her portion of the family home. Moscipan argued Vancouver Coastal Health failed to prove that he knew his wife was embezzling money.
But in a unanimous judgement issued Wednesday, Justice Richard Goepel disagrees, saying when the man questioned his wife about the money he was put off by an answer that wouldn’t have “satisfied a reasonable person.”
While he agreed with the lower court that Moscipan had “constructive knowledge” of his wife’s illegal activities, he found the trial judge incorrectly calculated how much of the cash was traceable solely to Moscipan.
The court cut the husband’s liability to $130,295.75, the amount it calculates Wanda Moscipan paid toward her husband’s credit card bills.
The high court has also revised the order that declared the joint tenancy transfer of the family’s North Vancouver home from wife to husband was a “fraudulent conveyance.” Goepel supports the finding that the transfer “was done for the purpose of delaying and hindering the creditors of the appellant’s late wife,” but says the lower court was wrong to reject the handover.
“Mr. Moscipan remains the registered owner of the property,” says Goepel. “He, however, holds the property subject to whatever claims which might be forthcoming from Ms. Moscipan’s creditors.”
UBC has also filed legal action against the estate of Wanda Moscipan, her husband and son, alleging she stole nearly $700,000 from the institution while working there. Those claims have not been proven in court.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
An archive photo from the Prince George Citizen shows when a statue of the young Virgin Mary was stolen from the Saint Pius X Catholic Church and later recovered.
Liquor, road closures on council agenda
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A hearing will be held Monday night’s city council meeting for an application to grant the 1st Avenue Tavern a liquor primary licence.
Owner Bernie Schneider currently holds a food primary licence for the 50-seat venue, located next door to the Alibis show lounge in the National Hotel, which means food must be served with drinks.
In a letter to the city, Schneider says the intent is to provide liquor service, full-menu food service, pool, televised sports, cable music channels and, from time to time, live music.
“It is my intent to offer a clean, safe environment for customers,” he says.
“A place to come for a good meal, have a reasonably priced drink, play some pool, socialize and have a great time.”
City staff is recommending council support approval of an application by the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch. Hearings start at 7 p.m. Also on the agenda:
• A homeowner is seeking council’s permission to further increase the size of a shop building he wants to construct on his property but is running into opposition from staff.
In November, council approved a variance to increase the floor space for the building at 7731 Sabyam Rd. from 90 square metres – the maximum allowed under the zone for the property – to 207 square metres and to increase the height from six to seven metres.
Now the owner, Glayne Guild, is back seeking a further increase to 265 square metres in the floor space and to bring the height up to eight metres. Staff is recommending council deny the request, noting a previously treed area on the property has been cleared, eliminating a natural buffer between adjacent properties and contending the structure will surpass the existing scale, form and character of the neighbourhood and is not considered incidental to the principal use – single detached housing.
As well, staff says the proposed 225 square-metre accessory building will
increase the site coverage to about 11 per cent. The subject property is permitted up to 30 per cent site coverage and the increased height may have negative impacts such as shadowing on adjacent lots.
Three neighbours have sent letters to council in support of the increase.
A hearing on the matter will start at 7 p.m.
• Public hearings will also be held for two road closures:
One is related to a proposal to sell 817 square metres of city-owned land at the west end of Gannett Road and Logan Crescent, and southwest of the intersection of Tyner and Ospika Boulevard to Mile Land Corp. for $1 million to allow for development of a subdivision in the area. The other is to close a 113 squaremetre strip of land at the end of Gogolin Road and sell it to the adjacent property owner for $8,000.
• A representative of Fortis BC will attend the meeting to provide an update on the company’s initiatives and projects in the city and surrounding region.
LNG Canada execs coming to city
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
LNG Canada is in a pair of spotlights this coming week in Prince George.
The leading proponent in the liquified natural gas (LNG) sector will give two high-profile insights into the first of the long hoped for LNG projects that stand to boost the northern economy in unprecedented ways.
First, the company’s external affairs director Susannah Pierce will be the luncheon keynote speaker at the TrueNorth Business Development Forum (TNBDF) on Tuesday, then company CEO Andy Calitz will be the banquet keynote speaker the same day for the opening of the BC Natural Resources Forum (BCNRF).
The TNBDF is hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and acts as the locally focused opening act each year for the broader BCNRF. They are separate, but complementary.
Pierce will be here for the fourth year in a row for this two-phase conversation. She called the trip to Prince George one of the best public discussions in the province for delving into the details of the natural resource sector, in all its branches.
“I think it’s really an opportunity for people with a keen interest in natural resources to meet with each other, learn from each other about these opportunities, and I think even more so today than ever,” she said.
The room to which she will be speaking is decidedly centred on how these projects of provincial and national scope can be viewed from a local perspective. Pierce will talk about how this city is located in the middle of the whole LNG Canada plan to extract natural gas in the northeast and ship it to global markets in the northwest.
“For Prince George it has a lot to do with the companies who would have an opportunity to compete for and work on the project, as contracted companies or as individual tradespeople who can work on-site in the various different trades,” Pierce said. “Finally, it’s about the businesses that have the spinoff benefits of more people working, whether that’s your hospitality industry like hotels and restaurants, your various recreational activities, and how those spinoffs produce the full-on, knock-on, multiplier effects of the direct investing, the direct contracting, and the direct employment into the various businesses that benefit from all that.”
LNG Canada is grateful for conversations like these interconnected forums, said Pierce, so projects like theirs can have a public airing. It has been difficult to watch the news, Pierce said, as protesters rally around members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nations who oppose their plans over-speak those who have worked with them to arrive at a consent agreement for their pipeline to go through their territory under carefully stated conditions.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
The B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch has submitted an application to the city to rezone a spot at 120-6565 Southridge Avenue for a B.C. Cannabis Store. The matter will go before city council on Monday. The location, in the Westgate Shopping Centre, was previously a bank branch.
Steelhead LNG planning pipeline from Chetwynd to Vancouver Island
Man arrested after churches hit by arson
KAMLOOPS — A Merritt man is set to appear in a Kamloops courtroom to face four counts of arson.
Kamloops RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore said the 37-year-old man was arrested Thursday. Suspicious fires were set in four churches in the Merritt area earlier this month.
One of the fires destroyed the nearly 150-yearold Murray United Church in the Nicola Valley. That church was described on its website as the oldest building in the valley and the only one still standing made with local Nicola Valley lumber. The other three buildings were not as seriously damaged and no one was injured in any of the fires.
Austin COZICAR Citizen news service
Vancouver-based energy company
Steelhead LNG says they are in the early stages of investigating a pipeline route from Chetwynd area to their planned Kwispaa LNG facility on Vancouver Island.
The planned Kwispaa LNG facility – a separate project from the pipeline that will be regulated separately – is co-managed by Steelhead LNG and Huu-ay-aht First Nations. In October 2018, they submitted a project description to initiate the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office process.
The proposed route for the pipeline begins in the Chetwynd area, parallels existing multi-utility corridors near Williams Lake, branches off towards south coast, with options through the Coast Mountains, and with a subsea crossing to Vancouver Island to end at Kwispaa LNG, which is on the west coast of the island.
“We understand the importance of engaging communities at the earliest stage in the route exploration,” says Corey Goulet, vice president, pipelines.
“We’re committed to building mutually beneficial relationships with communities, and developing projects in an environmentally responsible manner.”
It will include about 1,000 km of 48-inch diameter pipeline, and is slated to transport approximately two billion cubic feet per day in its first phase, expandable to approximately four bcf/d at full build-out. The project also plans to include metering facilities, and two compressor stations at the initial phase, with three or more additional stations constructed and operated at full build-out.
One of the initial compressor stations will be located where the pipeline starts, near Chetwynd. Steelhead says their team is looking at the option of electrifying some of
the compressor stations.
In an anticipated timeline, Steelhead LNG plans to select a preferred route corridor and enter the British Columbia EAO in the first quarter of this year, before submitting environmental assessment applications for both projects, and a final investment decision in 2020. The construction phase would take approximately four years – 2024 would see both projects functional.
At the January 10 Peace River Regional District board meeting in Dawson Creek, delegates from the company presented to the board.
Board directors noted concerns with the cumulative impacts of the various projects in the region.
“The people living on the land there are impacted severely, and the private landowners are starting to feel like their land isn’t worth anything, other than for extraction of natural resources,” said Area D director Leonard Hiebert.
“Each and every landowner that will be touched, would have an individual relationship or discussion with us as well,” said Goulet. “We have a plan to spend time with each and every person affected by the project, and provide them with the information and the opportunity for input.”
Goulet also noted that not all production of gas for the pipeline may be new, but rather a chance for existing production to go west, instead of east through Alberta.
“All of the gas may not be incrementally new gas, some of it may be existing production that is just going to a different market that has a higher netback. That’s actually one of the biggest advantages that gas suppliers we’re talking to see in a pipeline like this – to increase what they can get for their gas.”
Area E director Dan Rose noted that he felt the timeline presented by Steelhead LNG “is really optimistic.”
Are expanded drunk-driving laws needed?
Last fall, amidst much publicity, the federal government legalized possession of marijuana. But less attention has been given to followup legislation that dramatically expanded police powers, and not just with respect to cannabis.
The new act started from the reasonable position that if marijuana is now legal, the police should be authorized to arrest motorists under its influence. Three new offences were created, and limits were set for the amount of the drug that can legally be present in a driver’s blood.
There remains some controversy over where that limit should be set. The medical community is divided on this matter. But some way had to be found of dealing with this form of impairment.
However, the changes didn’t stop there. The statute went on to deal with suspected alcohol impairment as well.
And controversially, it gave law-enforcement officers new powers to perform mandatory alcohol tests on drivers without the requirement of reasonable suspicion.
There is some history here. Police checkpoints over holiday periods have been with us for some time. They are considered
lawful by the courts because there is reliable evidence of increased alcohol consumption on these occasions.
Beyond that, however, the authority to pull over drivers was limited, in the past, to specific circumstances. If police officers wished to stop a motorist on suspicion of impairment, they required a basis for that suspicion, such as erratic driving. That condition has been done away with. It is now legal for police to carry out random stops anywhere, any time, with no grounds to suggest the driver is impaired.
islation is probably unconstitutional. They fear random roadside stops might invite profiling, in which members of visible minorities are disproportionately selected.
But there are also reasons for concern. Critics, including the national Criminal Lawyers’ Association, have warned the legislation is probably unconstitutional.
The change was supported by groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, on the grounds that anything that reduces alcohol-related road accidents is worthwhile. And certainly that is a desirable outcome, even if some inconvenience is caused to law-abiding motorists. But there are also reasons for concern. Critics, including the national Criminal Lawyers’ Association, have warned the leg-
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association also weighed in against these changes. In a brief to parliamentarians, the association noted there is slim evidence at best that random stops reduce alcohol-related fatalities. Numerous studies in several countries were cited to support this conclusion. There are also questions about the need for new police powers. The number of road deaths in Canada has been falling steadily for three decades.
In 1979, the number of vehicle-related fatalities stood at 4,327, countrywide. By 2016, the total had fallen to 1,717, despite a 50 per cent increase in population.
In B.C., the road-accident deaths in which alcohol or drugs played a role numbered 165 in 2007. In 2014, the total was just 61, another significant reduction.
Cloudy issue
In the late 1990s, Canada was one of the first countries to implement legislation aimed at curbing the use of tobacco. The guidelines established by the Tobacco Act, passed by the Liberal government headed by Jean Chrétien, have since been adjusted by other administrations of all political stripes. In its essence, the Tobacco Act sought to regulate the way Canadians could acquire tobacco products. It also established rules on two important aspects that had not been dealt with extensively before: how tobacco products should be labelled and how they should be advertised. Other jurisdictions around the world were evidently inspired by Canada’s decrees.
Two decades later, the Tobacco Act – and the changes that came after it – can be declared a success. Acquiring cigarettes in Canada has become more expensive, efforts to reduce the attraction of smoking to children have worked (although the effect of vaping and marijuana legalization is yet to be measured), and the places where people can smoke have become scarcer. Few in the 18-to34 age group will recall the days when magazines were loaded with cigarette ads, and sporting and entertainment events were heavily – if not completely – sponsored by tobacco companies.
In a span of two decades, the outline of a cigarette box has been dramatically altered. The pervasive “smoking can kill you” warning label used to occupy about an eighth of the total package area. Now, sternly worded cautions with pictures and detailed explanations about
the harms of tobacco use occupy three quarters of a cigarette box.
Other regulations have been in place in specific provinces for years, in some form or another, and are extremely popular. In our survey, 89 per cent of Canadians agree with banning smoking in indoor public spaces, public transit facilities and workplaces. Three in four (76 per cent) agree with banning smoking in private vehicles occupied by children. Still, one area of legislation has always provided controversy: how to deal with people who smoke in a multi-family building. On the one hand, the dwellers of an apartment say they have the right to light up a cigarette (or a joint) in the comfort of their home at the time of their choosing. On the other, people who live in nearby units complain about second-hand smoke and are concerned about detrimental effects to their health and the health of their family members.
Langley resident Naomi Baker, who lives in a multi-family building, has tried unsuccessfully to prohibit smoking at the strata level. Baker started an online petition aimed at banning smoking in condos and apartment complexes in British Columbia. At the time of this writing, more than 14,000 people have signed on.
Politicians are paying attention. B.C. Liberal Opposition House Leader Mary Polak, who represents the riding of Langley in the legislature, has signalled an intention to take Baker’s petition
to the floor, perhaps as a private member’s bill later this year. When Canadians are asked about implementing a ban on smoking in multi-family buildings, they are overwhelmingly sympathetic to Baker’s plight. Across the country, 72 per cent of respondents support the idea and only 25 per cent voice opposition to it. In British Columbia, support for Baker’s proposed ban stands at 74 per cent, the same level of agreement expressed by women and residents aged 55 and over across the country.
As we enter a year that may bring a new provincial election in British Columbia, this will be one of the discussions to watch at the legislative level. Statistics Canada has shown that British Columbia has the lowest incidence of smokers in Canada, at just over 10 per cent. The province consistently outranks all others on health issues, so taking action on groundbreaking legislation that would assist those affected by secondhand smoke in multi-family dwellings seems a worthy effort –and one that should be endorsed by lawmakers of the three main political parties. As is always the case with any regulation that challenges the status quo, there will be resistance from those who smoke and those who sell the products smokers enjoy. There will be talk of rights, choices, freedoms and property. As the discussions proceed, it is important to remember that the first complaints about the effect of second-hand smoke in the 1980s were met with derision and ridicule. Decades later, nobody is laughing.
— Mario Canseco is president of Research Co
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
These figures have to be read carefully. Despite the long-term downward movement, there are always yearly fluctuations that might buck the trend. And no doubt a variety of factors played a part. Campaigns alerting drivers to the dangers of impaired driving certainly helped. Higher fines also had a role.
But where in this decades-long decline in road deaths is there a basis for widening police powers?
There was a better way of proceeding. The federal government could have asked the Supreme Court of Canada to rule in advance whether these changes are constitutional. That would have avoided legal challenges working their way through the lower courts. Instead, the matter has been dumped untested on the provinces, virtually guaranteeing years of litigation and costs in the millions. If we were in the midst of a long-term trend toward growing impairment on the roads, no sensible person would deny lawenforcement officers additional powers. But lacking such evidence, the justification for such intrusive measures becomes less persuasive.
— Victoria Times Colonist
NDP stock on way down
If we were to apply business lingo to politics, and if the NDP were a stock, today you would be shorting it.
Let’s discuss. The next few months are almost certainly bad business for the party. The quarterly results are likely to miss their estimates, the dividends will degrade and the analysts would be urging you to move your investment elsewhere.
The basic market guidance: the bottom may not fall out to make it a penny stock, but it is difficult to believe the NDP will be in a stronger place by the end of fiscal 2019. Let’s start with the asset value of the party leader, Jagmeet Singh. Since his headline-stealing initial public offering more than a year ago, when he ascended to the leadership of the firm without learning the business and working his way up through the ranks, he has been in a freefall – offering no new product line, fumbling on the execution of his vague strategy and demonstrating inexperience in a complex market. His performance has rattled investors and emboldened his competitors. He has so devalued the operation that his predecessor believes it is necessary for him to earn a vote of confidence on Feb. 25 in Burnaby South to avert a boardroom insurrection to install a new chief. Even an imminent victory might only delay the inevitable ouster if the dire results pour in this fall as expected. There is a widespread sense that Singh has not created organic growth due to insufficient investment and a lack of underlying assets. The oncebullish climate, in which the NDP market cap grew rapidly and not long ago threatened to be dominant, has gone bear.
The NDP portfolio includes its Alberta holdings and there is near certainty of a hostile takeover by rivals this May. Rachel Notley took command four years ago and has guided her enterprise through its most bitter devaluation in memory. Through no great fault of her own, market conditions have conspired to depress the net worth of her operation. She cannot get her best product to its optimal market, in part because her sister establishment to the west has done everything in its power to deny her its truest value. So much for inter-corporate cooperation. Her successor is almost assuredly Jason Kenney, an experienced
national hand who traded out for a regional role and immediately consolidated two operations to build momentum. Kenney is a shrewd operator, bound to shed expenses and slash his costs for the customer to earn back his venerable brand’s squandered popularity. Notley’s only saving grace could be a regulatory ruling to bring the valuable resource to the rich Asian market, but even a spring surprise on this front might be too little, too late, to save her upstart. Which brings our market outlook to British Columbia. We have good reason to think this NDP stock has peaked. Its balance sheet has benefited from the rosy financial conditions cultivated by its predecessor and influenced by world markets. Rather than continue to ease the pressure on its customers and continue its investor-friendly theme, it has restructured the business and imposed overheads that will start to punish in the weeks and months to come. It seems destined for a costly, generous labour settlement. It, like its national counterpart, has little room to tack if international economic headwinds hit as expected, due in part to substantial capital commitments to large projects that are long on goodwill and short on tangible dividends.
It has been largely a rogue, isolated operation in the current business climate, finding few friends on the national frontier to be partners in growth. It has clearly miscalculated and demonstrated uncertainty in recent days concerning the fiduciary requirements of respectful relationships with First Nations and appears to be moving forward with support of a megaproject under newly anxious market conditions that could antagonize its customer base. Its costly global ambitions on sustainability are running into new roadblocks almost daily, near and far, rendering its market less competitive.
It is, in my estimation, a market dog-in-waiting.
— Kirk LaPointe is editor-inchief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media
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KIRK LAPOINTE Business in Vancouver
Guest Column
MARIO CANSECO
Guest Column
‘Major announcement’ coming from Trump
Jill COLVIN, Lisa MASCARO, Zeke MILLER, Catherine LUCEY Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said he’ll be making a “major announcement” on the government shutdown and the southern border this afternoon as the standstill over his border wall continues into its fifth week.
The White House declined to provide details late Friday about what the president would be announcing. But Trump was not expected to sign the national emergency declaration he’s been threatening as an option to circumvent Congress, according to two people familiar with the planning.
Instead, Trump was expected to propose the outlines of a new deal that the administration believes could potentially pave the way to an end to the shutdown, according to one of the people. They were not authorized to discuss the announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move – on Day 28 of a shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of U.S. federal workers without paychecks –represents the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border wall. The president and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding. Democrats have panned the number and said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said only that Trump was “going to continue fighting for border security” and “going to continue looking for the solution” to end what the administration had repeatedly referred to as a “humanitarian and national security crisis at the border.”
While few would argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the demand for entry by migrants and the Trump administration’s hardline response overwhelm border resources, critics say Trump has dramatically exaggerated the security risks and argue that a wall would do little to solve existing problems.
Trump will be speaking from the Diplomatic Room at 3 p.m. Eastern time.
Trump’s Friday evening tweeted announcement came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday cancelled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip. The White House said there was no such leak.
It was the latest turn – and potentially the most dangerous – in the high-stakes brinkmanship between Trump and Pelosi that has been playing out against the stalled negotiations over how to end the partial government shutdown.
And it showed once again the willingness of the former hard-charging businessman to hit hard when challenged, as he was earlier this week when Pelosi suggested postponing his State of the Union address until after the shutdown.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said the back-and-forth “gives new meaning” to tensions between the executive and legislative branches.
“There are public back and forths,” he said, citing relations between past presidents and House speakers. “But this kind of tensions, preventing the speaker from visiting the troops and the speaker suggesting the White House leaked information about a crucial flight, this is one more example of where Trumpism brings us into new territory.”
The political stakes are high as the shutdown moves into a fifth week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and no outward signs of resolution.
Sanders on Friday stressed the importance of a looming Tuesday deadline to process paychecks, when the government will need to decide if workers get another round of zeros on Friday’s payday.
“One of the key reasons that the president did not want Speaker Pelosi to leave the country is because, if she did, it would all but guarantee the fact that the negotiations couldn’t take place over the weekend,” Sanders told reporters.
It was an unusually combative week between the executive and legislative branches.
Tensions flared when Pelosi suggested Trump postpone the annual State of the Union address, a grand Washington tradition – and a platform for his border wall fight with Democrats – that was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29.
Trump never responded directly. Instead, he abruptly cancelled Pelosi’s military flight on Thursday, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops.
Trump belittled the trip as a “public relations event” – even though he had just made a similar stop in a conflict zone during the shutdown – and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.
“Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative,” wrote Trump.
Pelosi, undeterred, quietly began making her own preparations for the overseas trip.
But on Friday, Pelosi said her plan to travel by commercial plane had been “leaked” by the White House.
“The administration leaked that we were travelling commercially,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. She said it was “very irresponsible on the part of the president.”
She said the State Department told her “the president outing” the original trip made the scene on the ground in Afghanistan “more dangerous because it’s a signal to the bad actors that we’re coming.”
The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.
Trump’s trip to Iraq after Christmas was not disclosed in advance for security reasons.
Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker – let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice-president, travelling to a combat region – is very rare.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California slammed Trump for revealing the closely held travel plan, calling it “completely and utterly irresponsible in every way.”
Some Republicans expressed frustration. Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, “One sophomoric response does not deserve another.” He called Pelosi’s State of the Union move “very irresponsible and blatantly political” but said Trump’s reaction was “also inappropriate.”
TRUMP
Dog day on Kauai
Highlight of trip to Hawaiian island
Steve MACNAULL
Kelowna Daily Courier
Tail a waggin’, Simba leads the way like he knows where he’s going. It’s the first time this ChihuahuaTerrier cross has been on the Koloa Heritage Trail, but that doesn’t dampen his ears-perked, tonguehanging-out canine enthusiasm.
My wife, Kerry, and I happily follow, hardly believing we’re hiking oceanside on the Hawaiian island of Kauai with a dog we just met five minutes ago.
Three-and-a-half-year-old Simba is from the Kauai Humane Society, where he’s staying until he finds his forever home.
In the meantime, this friendly and athletic pooch is available for half-day field trips to hang out with locals and tourists.
We discovered this opportunity while staying at the luxurious Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort.
The resort’s Enrich programs allow guests to volunteer by potting plants at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, de-littering a beach or borrowing a dog from the humane society.
A doggie day sounds way more fun than picking up garbage or horticulture.
So, the humane society representative drops Simba off, outlines the rules and hands over his backpack full of treats, water, dish, beach towel and poop bags.
In no time, we’ve bonded into a pack of three, following the clifftop trail, stopping to admire views over the Pacific and playing on the beach.
Everyone we encounter wants to pat Simba and inquire about his ‘Adopt Me’ vest.
So, we share what the humane society’s development officer Laura Lee told us.
The goals of the Enrich field trip program are myriad: lend the dogs out for exercise, potential adoption by a local or tourist, convince tourists to fly a dog to the U.S. for adoption from a shelter there and free up volunteers back at the humane society to complete other tasks.
We end up back at the Grand Hyatt for a quick nap on a poolside lounger before Simba is picked up.
There are hugs and kisses as we say good-bye and wish Simba the best of luck.
We’re sure this adorable dog will find a loving forever home soon.
Kauai is the western-andnorthern-most island in the chain and boasts an undeveloped vibe as the Hawaii you imagined it to be before the hordes of tourists, nightclubs and designer shops arrived.
Air Canada has made Kauai part of its amped up Hawaii program this season with the airline’s firstever non-stops from Vancouver to the island’s capital of Lihue.
Air Canada is flying the route with comfortable, new Boeing 737 Max jets, which are 20 per cent more fuel efficient and 40 per cent quieter than older models.
Air Canada also flies from Vancouver to Maui, Honolulu on Oahu and Kona on the Big Island; Calgary to Maui; and Toronto to Honolulu.
To view Kauai’s untouched splendor from the air, we board a Safari Helicopter tour over Manawaiopuna Falls, aka Jurassic Falls because parts of the Jurassic Park movie were shot there, and Waimea Canyon, nicknamed the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.
We also copter over the many cliffs and beaches of the Napali Coast and spy the gathering clouds
and impending showers at Mount Waialeale in the middle of the island, the wettest place on Earth with an average of 410 inches of rainfall a year.
Luckily, the coastline is much drier so we can enjoy more hiking, beach-and-pool time and bike rides while at the Grand Hyatt.
We also stay at one of the island’s other top hotels, the Kauai Marriott Resort.
From there we hike out to the lighthouse standing sentinel at the end of Nini Point on Kalapaki Bay and splash in the resort’s pool, the largest on the island and shaped like an exotic hibiscus flower.
For a bit of an adrenaline hit we sign up for mountain tubing with Kauai Backcountry Adventures.
Hopping into inner tubes, we traverse two miles of abandoned irrigation flumes and tunnels at the former Lihue Sugar Plantation. Kauai has become an ocean-andfarm-to-fork culinary destination. For us that means steak and lobster at beachside Kukui’s restaurant at the Kauai Marriott; macademia nut-crushed mahi mahi fish at the torch-lit, thatchedroof pavilions over koi ponds at Tidepools at the Grand Hyatt; wok-charred ahi tuna caught by fisherman Kevin Yamase at Merriman’s Fish House; and Umani crab fries, Hawaii’s version of poutine, at Aqua Resort’s Naupaka Terrace. Check out GoHawaii.com/Kauai and AirCanada.com.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY STEVE MACNAULL
The hike taken by travel writer Steve MacNaull and wife, Kerry, shown here, goes from the Marriott Kauai Resort on Kalapaki Bay to Nini Point.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY KERRY MACNAULL
Travel writer Steve MacNaull and Simba, a dog up for adoption, hiked the cliff-top Koloa Heritage Trail on Kuaui and hung out at the beach.
TRIPS TO SUPER BOWL UP FOR GRABS
Page 11
Northern exposure
Cougars, Chiefs set to hit outdoor ice in Fort St. James
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Trevor Sprague predicts bodies will be crashing into each other on the ice with great frequency when the Cariboo Cougars and Vancouver Northeast Chiefs clash in an outdoor hockey game in Sunday’s Winter Classic in Fort St. James.
That’s a virtual certainty considering the rink dimensions of the outdoor ice surface at Ernie Sam Memorial Arena are 31 feet shorter and 12 feet narrower than most rinks in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League.
Forum had to be upgraded in the wake of the ammonia leak at Fernie Memorial Arena on Oct. 17, 2017 which killed three workers and those necessary upgrades to the ice plant weren’t approved until last Friday. Flooding of the outdoor rink had to be delayed until after the Plexiglas was installed Jan. 4.
“We’re building two ice surfaces at the same time, so that’s what’s made it really hard,” Sprague said.
“But at the same time it’s brought both communities together really well, it’s like it’s one community. It’s pretty cool to see from my perspective as an outsider.
“It’ll be a lot more physical, one-on-one battles, moving the puck quicker, but it’s the same for both teams – you don’t tell people (how small the rink is) until they have ice in there and they approve it,” laughed Sprague, the Cougars’ general manager.
The tiny outdoor rink will be even more of an adjustment for the Cougars. While an NHL-sized rink is 200 feet by 85 feet, the Cougars play on an Olympic-sized sheet at Kin 1 which is 200 feet long and 100 feet wide. The Ernie Sam rink overlooks Stuart Lake at the south entrance to the town on the Nak’azdli Whut’en First Nation reserve.
Conditions are expected to be close to ideal for the 2 p.m. game. There’s no snow in the forecast and the high temperature is expected to reach 1 C under cloudy skies after a low of minus 4 C. The Ernie Sam rink is covered with a roof but the temporary spectator stands which will provide seating for about 1,000 are in an open area.
The first-ever modern-era outdoor major midget game in Canada is creating a noticeable buzz in the town of about 1,600 people located 160 kilometres northwest of Prince George. Sprague has been there since Monday working along with a hardy group of volunteers and town workers who have gone without much sleep helping build the ice in the two rinks – Ernie Sam Memorial and the indoor Fort Forum, where the Cougars and Chiefs will play today at 5 p.m. Until this week there was no hockey ice in Fort St. James. Fort
“Chief Alex McKinnon and the council invested in putting in glass and making sure it’s a fully-functioning hockey rink and Hockey Canada and Hockey BC approved it. It was a little adversity not having the arena up and going yet, so it was a lot of work for the city crews giving us a hand just to do the paint in the dots.”
As of late Friday afternoon, the outdoor rink needed about another half-inch of ice before it was safe to turn the teams loose in practices today. During the day Friday, Cougar coaches Tyler Brough and Hayden James Berra, along with Cougar players Grady Thomas, Max Arnold, Brendan Pigeon, and Curtis Hammond, Lane Goodwin and alumni goalie Marcus Allen visited the city’s two elementary schools – David Hoy and Nak’al Bun – and engaged the students in hockey questionand-answer sessions. The coaches and players also conducted a practice for the Fort St. James bantam team and spent time on the ice with the some of the town’s younger players.
“The day has been pretty awesome, we’ve seen it on social media and to actually come in here and see the work they’ve put in is pretty exciting,” said Brough. “We’ve prepared for the smaller dimensions, it’s going to be pretty congested on the outdoor rink but that’s what both teams are dealt. It’s going to be pretty fun, some fast hockey and it’s going to seem even smaller once the big guys get out there.”
For players on both teams, especially the Chiefs, who are all from the Vancouver area, this will be the first time they’ve ever played a real game of hockey outside. Some
days of work,
the Cariboo Cougars and Vancouver Northeast Chiefs.
of the Cougars are from Prince George, Fort St. John, Whitehorse and Yellowknife, where it’s not that unusual to skate outdoors.
“There’s a good chance it will be their first and maybe last,” said Brough, a former WHL Prince George Cougar who grew up in Grande Prairie, Alta. “I never had the privilege of playing in an outdoor game and I played the game for a long time. This is something they’re excited to do but at the same time there will be some nerves there because it’s a different atmosphere.”
The two weekend games have serious implications in the standings. The Cougars (16-5-3-0) are third in the league, three points behind the second-place Chiefs (17-5-2-2) who have played two more games than Cariboo. A pair of wins for the Cougars would move them into second place behind the league-leading Fraser Valley Thunderbirds (20-4-1-1).
Sprague struck upon the idea of playing the outdoor game last year when the Cougars and Chiefs
This is something they’re excited to do but at the same time there will be some nerves there because it’s a different atmosphere.
— Cougars head coach Tyler Brough
played two indoor games at Fort Forum. He saw the outdoor rink that was built 10 years ago and the idea was born. Sprague says he wants to make it an annual event.
“This isn’t something we want to do just one year, we’ve got 11 teams in the league and we want to do it for the next 10 years and have a different team each year,” said Sprague. “This puts the north on the map, that we’re able to do
Spruce Kings fall to Vees in shootout
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Safe to say the Prince George Spruce Kings are no fans of the shootout. They’re 0-for-5 in B.C. Hockey League shootouts and the Penticton Vees made the Kings their latest victims, taking advantage of the skills-contest tiebreaker format the league adopted this season to hand Prince George a 3-2 loss Friday in Penticton. Eric Linell scored the only shootout goal, beating Kings goalie Logan Neaton with a high wrist shot over his trapper. Penticton goalie Jack LaFontaine stopped all three Kings’ shooters he faced
The Vees moved three points ahead of the Spruce Kings in the overall standings.
– Ben Poisson, Ben Brar and Nick Poisson – to lift the Vees to their fifth straight victory. Their eighth win in their last nine games came in front of a crowd of 3,256 at South Okanagan Events Centre. The Interior Division-leading
Vees (29-12-1-2) moved three points ahead of the Spruce Kings (26-11-1-5) in the overall standings. The Kings remained second in the Mainland Division, now five points behind the first-overall Chilliwack Chiefs, 5-2 winners Friday in Surrey.
The Kings overcame a 2-0 firstperiod deficit. Patrick Cozzi kickstarted the offence when he scored on LaFontaine with a forehandbackhand deke with one second left in the second period, while the Kings were on their third power play of the period. The Kings dominated play in the period and
something like this that nobody else can do in our province. It’s going to be great.”
Sprague says the game should give Fort St. James minor hockey a needed shot in the arm.
“Hockey has been dwindling here in this community,” said Sprague. “You see a lot of the parents and the kids are having to go to Prince George or the (hockey) academies and we’re hoping the school stuff we’ve been doing with the younger-aged kids will get them back into it.
“This can be a legacy for these two communities (Nak’azdli Whut’en and Fort St. James), something that’s great for all ages. It will get kids more excited about the game of hockey. My coaches and our players love the game and they play it because they love it. It gives them good structure and accountability in their lives.”
A fan bus donated by Northern Spirit Transportation will leave from Kin 1 for Fort St. James Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
outshot the Vees 18-7. In the third period, Chong MinLee tied it 3:27 in when he banged in a loose puck after Ben Poisson shot from a sharp angle. For Lee, that was his fifth of the season. Neither team scored in the five-minute overtime session. Neaton came up with a sharp pad save in the final minute of OT after Lukas Sillinger dragged the puck into the middle of the ice and let go the shot. The shots ended up 35-29 in favour of the Spruce Kings, who went 0-for-5 on the power play. The Vees failed to cash in their one power-play chance.
After
the ice at Ernie Sam Memorial Arena on Nak’azdli Whut’en territory in Fort St. James is almost ready for Sunday’s B.C. Hockey Major Midget League regular-season game between
Figure skating a slam-dunk for Friess
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Kaitlyn Friess’s cousin, Jordan Yu, tried to recruit her for basketball.
Considering her family bloodlines as a close relative of the Yu family that produced local high school hoops legends Jordan, Lee-Wei, Nathan and Reena Yu, and that Friess stands five-foot-10 without wearing shoes, she probably could develop a knack for the game if she gave it a try.
But Friess doesn’t have time for basketball. She’s too busy being a figure skater.
If she’s not practicing her own jumps, spins and step sequences trying to climb the recreational ladder as a STAR 5 skater she’s likely to be at the Kin Centre rinks volunteering her time as a coach helping her Prince George Figure Skating Club develop the next generation of ice-capaders.
“My cousin Jordan owns Northern Bounce Basketball Academy and that whole side of the family wants me to play basketball but I’m no good, I don’t have hand-eye coordination,” said a smiling Friess. “I’m the tallest skater in my club by a lot and that’s challenging in group photos because I’m always just there. But I find it benefits me (in skating) because I have more power going through all my elements.”
Friess, who turns 16 on Jan. 28, is among a large group of local figure skaters from the Prince George club and the Northern B.C. Centre for Skating competing at this weekend’s Cariboo North Central regional championships in Quesnel.
“I’m just hoping I can do my best and can skate – instead of aiming for a medal I just want to get a personal best,” said Friess, entered in the STAR 5 13-and-older category.
“If I get a medal it’s just an added bonus.
“I’m not really a showy person so it really stresses me out to show what I can do. But when I get to a competition that’s the one thing I need to do is show off so I really try to put myself out of my comfort range and get my program going. I want to see my artistic side pop out more. I really hope I can push myself more than what I’m used to.”
Now in her eighth season as a figure skater, she’s close to making the jump to the
STAR 6 level and wants to advance as far as she can in the recreational division before her adult life takes over and school or work commitments end her competitive career.
In March, she plans to compete in the STARSkate Super Series event in Kelowna.
“There’s been a lot of on-and-off in my skating but this year and last year I’ve been working on my confidence going into a competition instead of focusing where I’ll
place on the podium,” Friess said. “So I’ve gained my confidence back after years of me breaking down in competitions.”
Not only is she mentally stronger, her body is better conditioned for the physical demands of skating as a result of her work in the gym with personal trainer Janna Coleman at The Movement Fitness Mecca in College Heights.
“All my jumps are coming along finally, so
High-speed pursuit
Colton Thon of the Cariboo Cougars races Kaden Matsuo of the Greater Vancouver Canadians to a loose puck at Kin 1 on Friday night. The teams were playing the first of a three-game weekend series in the B.C. Hockey Minor Midget League. They meet again tonight at 7:30 and at 11:15 a.m. on Sunday. Friday’s game went to overtime and ended 4-3 in favour of the Canadians.
Cats hosting Kamloops in key games
Citizen staff
The Prince George Cougars will have two shots at beating their closest geographic rivals in the Western Hockey League on home ice this weekend. The Kamloops Blazers are in town for a two-game set at CN Centre tonight at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 2. The Blazers (15-24-2-1) are 3-0
against the Cougars so far this season, most recently beating the Cats 2-1 Dec. 30 in Kamloops. The Blazers lost 4-1 Friday on home ice to the first-overall Prince Albert Raiders.
The Cougars (16-23-1-2) are coming off a 6-2 loss to the Raiders Wednesday night.
The Cats remain in a playoff position, holding the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference two points ahead of the Blazers.
Each team has 26 games left in the 68-game season.
The Cougars are 5-5-0-0 in their past games, while the Blazers are on a 2-8-0-0 slide.
She discovered about a year ago she has curvature of the spine (scoliosis) in two places, which adds to the difficulty of aligning her body movements on the ice.
I can do all my doubles pretty much,” Friess said. “All my jumps are pretty much good and my spins are my better half of skating.”
Friess had four years of ballet behind her by the time she started skating at age eight and that early dance training refined her balance mechanisms and gave her muscle tone that helps her generate speed and stability in her skating stride. She discovered about a year ago she has curvature of the spine (scoliosis) in two places, which adds to the difficulty of aligning her body movements on the ice.
“Throughout my skating years, trying to do weird back contortion moves I always complained to my coaches that my back hurts,” Friess said. “Last year my physio said I had scoliosis and everything kind of clicked into pace why I was hurting so much after practices. I just go to the gym a lot now and work on aligning everything.”
Friess, an honour roll Grade 10 student at College Heights secondary school, skates pretty much year-round, missing only the month of June, when there is no arena ice available in the city. She aspires to be a physiotherapist and plans to step up her coaching commitments once she’s done with her own competitions. She helps out now with the club coaches in the CanSkate program for three- and four-year-old beginners.
“What makes Kaitlyn special this season is that she’s probably the most prepared she’s ever been heading into a competition,” said PGFSC coach Jennifer Auston. “Her level of readiness is about as good as it can get for her. She’s confident, her skills are there to back her up and she’s going to skate well for herself.
“(Her scoliosis) affects how we train her and affects her own ability to do things, so we have to adapt, but her determination is there to make it work.”
U of A basketball teams topple Timberwolves
Citizen staff
For the first time all season the UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team has fallen below the .500 mark.
The T-wolves lost 76-68 Friday in Edmonton to the Alberta Golden Bears, who cruised to their ninth-straight U Sports Canada West conference victory.
Brody Clarke led the Bears’ attack with 28 points, also hauling in seven rebounds, while rookie guard Brandon Meiklejohn put up 11 points to hand the T-wolves their fourth straight loss.
Jovan Leamy scored 18 points for UNBC. James Agyeman had an 11-point effort, while Austin Chandler and Anthony Hokanson each shot 10 points for UNBC.
With the win, third-place Alberta (12-3) clinched a playoff spot. UNBC (7-8) dropped to ninth place in the 17-team conference. The same teams meet again tonight in Edmonton. Game time is 6 p.m. Pacific.
Earlier Friday in the women’s game, the Alberta Pandas cranked out their 11th straight win, an 86-72 triumph over
UNBC. Vanessa Wild finished with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds and Emma Kary delivered a 16-point, six-rebound effort. T-wolves guard Maria Mongomo shot a game-high 23 points and had 12 rebounds. Madison Landry totalled 22 points and Vasiliki Louka finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Pandas (13-2) have also clinched a postseason berth and sit second in the Canada West standings. UNBC (9-6) remained seventh with five games left in the season, including tonight’s rematch with the Pandas.
The T-wolves were without starting point guard Emily Holmes, who was away because of a death in the family.
Popovich ties Riley for road wins
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — LaMarcus Aldridge scored 25 points, Rudy Gay added 22 and the San Antonio Spurs held on to give coach Gregg Popovich another milestone victory in a 116-113 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.
The win was the 520th on the
road in Popovich’s career, tying him with Pat Riley for the most in NBA history. It also continued San Antonio’s mastery of Minnesota. The Spurs have won 16 of the past 18 games between the teams. Marco Belinelli added 19 points off the bench for San Antonio.
CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO
Kaitlyn Friess, a member of the Prince George Figure Skating Club, is in Quesnel this weekend for the regional championships.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Canucks lean on Demko in win
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Goalie Thatcher Demko led his Vancouver Canucks to a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night, stopping 36 of 39 shots in his second-ever NHL appearance.
Alex Edler, Sven Baertschi, Brock Boeser and Loui Eriksson all scored for Vancouver (22-21-6).
The Sabres (24-18-6) got goals from Evan Rodrigues, Kyle Okposo and Sam Reinhart. Linus Ullmark had 19 saves.
Demko – who played a single game for Vancouver last season – was called up from the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets on Jan. 4 after the club traded backup netminder Anders Nilsson to the Ottawa Senators.
The 23-year-old goalie was tested early and often on Friday, and put up a performance that had the crowd chanting “Dem-Ko!” in appreciation for some highlight-reel-worthy stops.
Buffalo’s Rodrigues beat the young goaltender to get the scoring started 8:48 in after Rasmus Ristolainen got a pass to the left-winger down low and Rodrigues chipped it up over Demko’s pad.
Vancouver had yet to register a single shot.
Edler got the Canucks on the board three-and-ahalf minutes later, taking a massive slap shot from the blueline. The puck snuck through traffic and in
past Ullmark down low.
Vancouver went up by one 15:31 into the first after defenceman Derrick Pouliot sliced a pass through the Buffalo crease to Baertschi, who collected it on his tape and popped the puck into a wide-open net.
The Swiss left-winger suffered a concussion in October that kept him out of the lineup for 30 games. He has six points since he returned late last month.
Early in the second frame, both Pouliot and fellow defenceman Erik Gudbranson got caught behind the Vancouver net, leaving Okposo wide open at the hash marks. The right-winger got the puck and flipped a back-handed shot past Demko to even the score.
Vancouver pulled ahead once again eight minutes into the second period. Bo Horvat stripped Buffalo’s Lawrence Pilut of the puck and made a beautiful pass to Boeser in front of the Sabres net. The right-winger tipped it in for his 16th goal of the season.
Horvat’s assist was his 200th NHL point.
But the lead didn’t last long. Almost three minutes later, Conor Sheary made a quick pass to Reinhart in front of the Vancouver crease and the B.C. native put a no-look back-handed shot top shelf.
Nearly six minutes into the third period, Canucks left-winger Josh Leivo dug the puck out from behind Buffalo’s net and dished it to Eriksson.
Eriksson put a one-timer past Ullmark for his fourth point in three games.
Like-minded coaches will square off in NFC title game
Citizen news service
NEW ORLEANS — One way or another, the NFC Championship between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints will be won by a coach named Sean –with an Irish surname – who designs and calls plays for one of the most innovative and productive offences in the NFL.
The ties between the Saints’ Sean Payton and the Rams’ Sean McVay go well beyond a shared name.
“We both cut our teeth in this league under Jon Gruden,” Payton said. “That (Rams) staff – there’s a ton of guys that we’re friendly with and that we know on that staff. Guys who we have worked with, and Sean and I have a real good relationship. He is an engaging guy, a fun guy to be around.”
Super Bowl-winning squad. Players on both teams praise their coach’s intangible feel for how a game is developing.
Saints Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead extoled Payton’s “fearlessness” in his play calling and said the coach has “so much believe and confidence in us and the system that we can go out and make a play no matter the down and distance.”
Gruden, the current Oakland Raiders coach, was the offensive co-ordinator with the Eagles in 1997 when Payton was hired as quarterbacks. In 2008, Gruden was the head coach in Tampa Bay when he hired McVay as a receivers coach.
During the past two seasons Payton and McVay have each led their teams to the playoffs with one of the best offences in football, thanks in part to elite quarterbacks – Drew Brees with New Orleans (14-3) and Jared Goff of Los Angeles (14-3).
Both coaches have acknowledged they watch each other’s offensive film nearly every week –not just because of the possibility of playing against one another; they’re looking for good ideas. And then there are some connections on the roster and coaching staff. One of the Rams’ top receivers, Brandin Cooks, was Payton’s first-round draft choice in 2014. Los Angeles’ running game coordinator is Aaron Kromer, a former running backs and offensive line coach under Payton, including on the 2009
Chiefs’ bandwagon rolling into mighty Patriots
Citizen news service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It seems football fans everywhere are suddenly on the Kansas City Chiefs’ bandwagon, enthralled by their record-setting young quarterback and exciting playmakers and hopeful their amiable old coach can finally win the big one. Then again, maybe they’re just fans of anybody facing New England.
The Patriots have dominated the AFC for nearly two decades, and the coachquarterback combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady will be playing in an eighth consecutive conference title game Sunday night when New England visits the Chiefs at frigid, hostile Arrowhead Stadium. But whereas Brady & Co. once instilled awe in their opponents, the Chiefs view their showdown as an opportunity for
Patrick Mahomes to take the baton as the league’s best quarterback and for Kansas City, seeking its first Super Bowl appearance in 49 years, to surpass the Patriots as the NFL’s “it” team.
“It’ll be huge,” Mahomes said. “When I got here, the goal was to win the AFC championship and get to the Super Bowl, and win that. To do that early in my career, it would be a huge thing.”
There aren’t two more dichotomous teams than the Patriots and Chiefs.
New England has won five Super Bowls during the Belichick-Brady era, setting all kinds of records along the way. The cruel efficiency with which they’ve sliced up the AFC has made them the bane of fans everywhere but New England and given them the kind of unbeatable aura that accompanied the New York Yankees teams of Derek Jeter
and the Chicago Bulls teams of Michael Jordan.
It’s not just petty jealousy, though. Many fans have been turned off by Deflategate, Spygate and other instances over the years that have saddled the Patriots with a rather unsavoury reputation.
Brady has mostly shrugged it off. So has Belichick, who almost seems to embrace the villain role.
“I don’t think about it too much, what people might say or think,” said Brady, whose team is a rare playoff underdog Sunday. “I know we’re playing against a very good football team. They’re the first seed for a reason. They’ve had a great season and we’re going to have to go into a really tough environment and play our best football, and it’s a great opportunity for us.”
On the flip side are the Chiefs, a team that
Goff mentioned how McVay sends in plays “with confidence and having a good feel for everything.”
“There’s certain moments in games where being a good play caller – you can’t teach it – but there’s certain moments where you have to go for that dagger or you have to pull back a little bit,” Goff continued. “There’s just different ebbs and flows in games. I think he’s got a great feel for that.”
The main thing that separates the two is age and experience. The 55-year-old Payton got his first head coaching job 13 years ago, is coaching in his third NFC title game and trying win his second Super Bowl. In his second season as a head coach, McVay, 32, is preparing for his first NFC title game.
The same goes for their QBs: the record-setting Brees turned 40 on Tuesday and Goff is 24.
“He’s been doing it at really high level for a lot longer than I have,” McVay said of Payton.
“He’s an outstanding coach –clearly referenced by the way that his team is playing this year, how they’ve played over the course of his career when he’s been leading the Saints. So, I don’t think we’re in that category yet. We’ve got to do things for a lot longer to be able to be mentioned in that same breath.”
Getting to a Super Bowl by winning Sunday would be a good start for McVay and the Rams, whose first loss this season came when they last visited the Superdome on Nov. 4 and fell 45-35.
dominated the AFC throughout the 1990s but reached only one conference title game. They were the league’s worst franchise six years ago, when Andy Reid came aboard, but have become a perennial playoff team that was always missing that certain something.
They found it when they drafted Mahomes nearly two years ago. The quarterback shattered just about every franchise passing record in his first season as a starter, and his down-home style has made him a fan favourite. Kids dressed up like him for Halloween, his curly Mohawk has become the trend at local barbershops, and the aw-shucks way Mahomes has embraced his stunning success has only made him more endearing.
“I think he’s a great player on a great team that’s very well-coached,” Belichick said.
Vladimir Sobotka of the Buffalo Sabres battles with Vancouver Canucks defenceman Erik Gudbranson in front of goaltender Thatcher Demko during Friday night’s game in Vancouver.
Artists fight for resale cut for their art
Adina BRESGE Citizen news service
Inuk artist Marc Tungilik spent almost every day hacking away at soapstone and the bones of the animals he hunted, reincarnating arctic life with his carvings of musk ox, owls, bears and the people who reside in what’s now known as Nunavut.
He sold his wares for as little as one dollar to afford the gas that kept his seven children warm, his daughter recalls. More than three decades after the carver’s death, many of his works now fetch thousands of dollars on the auction block, but Theresie Tungilik said she hasn’t seen a dime.
That’s because Canada doesn’t entitle visual artists and their estates to a share of the profits when their works are resold, but advocates like Tungilik are hoping that will change as Ottawa conducts a mandatory review of the Copyright Act, set to wrap up in early 2019.
“I really feel like this is the missing link. If the artist resale rights became law in Canada, it would be a full circle,” said Tungilik, an advisor to the Nunavut government on the arts and traditional economy. “All of Canada would profit more, because it’s not just Inuit. It’s all about Canadian artists.”
Creators in many fields, such as musicians and authors, collect royalties every time their works are used or purchased. But for commercial exchanges of artwork, the only money artists make is from the initial sale, although they can receive license fees if their creations are exhibited or reproduced.
Groups like Canadian Artists’ Representation, or CARFAC, contend the current system allows every party involved in a resale – such as art dealers, galleries, auction houses and sellers – except the artist to profit from a work’s appreciating value.
After a similar proposal fizzled out in 2013, CARFAC is urging federal officials to mandate that artists receive a five per cent royalty for works resold for more than $1,000 on the market. The cost would be split between the art dealer and the seller, and a government-approved collective
would administer the funds.
Critics of the proposal argue that resale royalties would be bad for Canadian art businesses while only an elite cadre of artists and their estates would see significant financial gain.
The House of Commons heritage committee heard testimony in May from a department official who said the government has looked into the issue, but there is little data about the impact a resale royalty could have on Canada’s creative economy, according to a transcript of the meeting. The heritage committee is studying artist renumeration models in relation to the review of the Copyright Act.
But CARFAC executive director April Britski said even a $50 royalty on a $1,000 work could mean a lot for a struggling artist.
In other cases, she said the royalty would ensure that artists reap the rewards of their slow-burning success.
As an example, she points to Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, a proponent of artist resale rights before her death in 2013, whose print Enchanted Owl was first sold for $24 in 1960, according to advocates, and hammered down at auction in November for $216,000.
Had CARFAC’s proposal been in place, $10,800 would have gone to her estate.
These royalties would allow visual artists to profit not only from resales within Canada’s borders, said Britski, but through reciprocal agreements with many of the more than 90 countries she said recognize resale rights.
Some of the world’s largest art markets, including the U.S. and China, have not adopted artist resale royalties, while the U.K. and Australia did so in 2006 and 2010 respectively. According to a report presented in 2017 to the United Nations copyright agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization, 38 per cent of resale royalties in Australia have gone to Indigenous artists, amounting to approximately 1.4 million Australian dollars between 2010 and 2015.
In Canada, Britski said Indigenous artists would be among the greatest beneficiaries of a resale royalties regime.
This could have particular consequence for Inuit artists, who comprise roughly a quarter of the Inuit adult population and contributed more than $64 million to the economy in 2015, according to Statistics Canada.
But Mark London, director of the Art Dealers Association of Canada, said artist resale royalties would hurt the very people they’re intended to help – artists.
London, who owns Montreal’s Galerie Elca London specializing in Indigenous art, said galleries and auction houses would have to shoulder substantial costs to administer a resale fee, which in most cases he said would be so small as to barely benefit artists except for a privileged few and their estates.
Not all works increase in value over time, he said, so dealers would be paying royalties on works worth less than their initial sale.
The regime proposed by CARFAC would be “disastrous” for Inuit art, London argues. Multiple resales through Inuitrun co-ops and dealers are often required to bring Inuit art to market, he said, so galleries would have to pay royalties before a work is even seen by their customers, in addition to the hefty fees associated with shipping pieces south.
Overall, London said these costs could discourage collectors from using dealers and instead conduct person-to-person exchanges, which would not be subject to the proposed royalty.
Eventually, he cautions, more galleries and auction houses would shutter, leaving artists with fewer venues to exhibit their work.
For Tungilik, who is an artist like her father, resale royalties are not just about the money, but recognizing that art has value.
“I think my dad is very deserving of this reward,” she said. “It would be an honour, as family members, to be able to see that.”
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO PROVIDED BY DORSET FINE ARTS
Enchanted Owl by Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, shown here, was sold for $24 in 1960, according to advocates, and was sold at auction in November for $216,000.
Glass has no after-credits scene for fans
Travis M. ANDREWS Citizen news service
Before we begin, here’s the answer you came for: No. Once Glass ends, it ends. There’s no post-credits scene. That’s it. Donezo. Caput. Finished. That might be disappointing to you, a fan who probably Googled this exact topic to learn whether you should sit around as the credits roll. At an early screening of the movie, an entire theatre in Washington, D.C., sat in excitement for the after-credits scene.
That makes sense. After all, Split, the second movie in this M. Night Shyamalan trilogy, included a shocking, pivotal bonus scene – one hinting that the movie took place in the greater Unbreakable universe.
Disappointed as you might be, it’s worth sitting through the credits to read this article – which, if we may say so ourselves, offers a lovely (read: brief) history of post-credits scenes.
They have become so common that they’re almost expected, particularly following superhero movies, a genre that Glass attempts to upend. Generally used to tease the next installment of a series, the scenes work well in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which stretches across 20 movies. They’re so popular that YouTube is packed with growing compilations of them.
At the end of Black Panther, for example, the audience learns the whereabouts of Bucky – who hadn’t been seen since the end of Captain America: Civil War.
But these kind of finales existed long before superhero movies were bankable. Many, including the aptly named website What’s After the Credits?, point to the 1966 Dean Martin-starring James Bond spoof The Silencers as having the first post-credits scene. It shows Martin’s Matt Helm lounging in bed with several lingerie-sporting women. Text appears on the screen: Coming up next: Matt Helm meets Lovey Kravezit in Murderer’s Row, after which Helm shouts “Oh, my God” and buries his head in his palms.
Some credit the original, 1960 version of Ocean’s 11, because the credits roll over footage of the be-suited heist men walking along the street, but it doesn’t actually include any new information or jokes.
The most important early post-credits scene arguably came in 1979 with The Muppet Movie. The credits roll over footage of the Muppets hanging out and happily partying. When they finish, Animal, left in center frame, opens his eyes and yells: “Go home! Go home!”
A trend was born.
Post-credits scenes became particularly popular in comedies during the 1980s. The one in Airplane! finds a man who was left sitting in a cab at the beginning of the film still waiting for his driver to return. “I will give him another 20 minutes, but that’s it!” he exclaims, as the meter shows he owes more than $100.
Then there’s the famous scene at the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, in which Matthew Broderick’s Bueller walks out of a room and looks out at the audience.
“You’re still here?” he asks. “It’s over. Go home!”
These types of post-credits scenes remained prominent throughout the 90s, but then others began foreshadowing sequels. The first few attempts failed – characters in 1987’s Masters of the Universe and 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes promise to return in different ways, only to never be seen on screen again. Soon after that, the teaser post-credit scene became almost commonplace, appearing in everything from such children’s movies as Shrek and Spy Kids to blockbusters like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and several films in the Fast and Furious franchise.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is what really taught audiences that remaining in the theatre was a worthwhile way to spend their time. And it was an intentional move by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
“I always liked (post-credit scenes), whether it’s Ferris Bueller or Masters of the Universe,” he told Slash Film in 2017. “As a film nerd, I never wanted it to end... So I would always sit through all the credits and you’re about two-thirds of the way through and it’s like, oh should I go? Well maybe there’s, I mean, that one time there was something in that movie. Maybe there’ll be something on this movie. And there never was. Almost never was. So when I started making movies, I’d be like, ‘That’d be fun to do.’”
With such history behind the post-credits scene, it’s surprising Glass doesn’t conclude with one. Shyamalan’s film spends most of its running time attempting to tear superhero convention apart, only to put it back together again. Perhaps leaving out a post-credits scene was part of his commentary – or perhaps he had nothing left to say.
Either way, rest assured that The Avengers: Endgame is coming later this year, and it’s sure to whet any fans left with unsatiated appetites for a postcredits doozy.
JESSICA KOURKOUNIS, UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Samuel L. Jackson in Glass.
DC has new comics about teen heroes
David BETANCOURT Citizen news service
Few creators in comics work their magic with youth movements quite like Brian Michael Bendis.
During his almost two decades as one of the top writers at Marvel Comics, Bendis ushered in the biracial Spider-Man Miles Morales (co-created by artist Sara Pichelli). But before that, he had to kill off the teenage Peter Parker/Spider-Man he’d written for Marvel’s Ultimate Comics line.
The news was devastating to pre-Miles fans. Making Spider-Man into a Spider-Kid had been a big hit once before.
Could he pull off the same success twice?
The answer was a resounding yes.
So when Bendis started having top-secret meetings with DC Comics co-publisher Dan Didio in Los Angeles to discuss one of the biggest free agent splashes in a comic-book generation, the question of DC’s teen heroes came up.
“(DC didn’t) have a line that focuses on the teen heroes. Just that moment where they are deciding who they are and how the world works,” Bendis says.
Didio decided in that moment that Bendis was the guy to bring back Young Justice – a junior Justice League with a roster of teen DC favorites that includes Robin the Boy Wonder (the Tim Drake version), teen Superman clone Superboy (the ’90s version), super-speedster Impulse and Wonder Woman protege Wonder Girl.
The plan was to create a new youthful imprint, called Wonder Comics, built around a new Young Justice series, which originally debuted at DC in 1998.
Two years ago, after Bendis announced his arrival at DC, he was flooded with social media pings from fans asking to not only bring back Young Justice, but also Conner Kent, the Superboy spawning from the now-classic Death of Superman and Reign of the Superman story lines of the early ’90s.
The Wonder Comics imprint debuted last week with the first issue of Young Justice, written by Bendis and illustrated by Patrick Gleason. And the return of the 90s Superboy is the biggest moment of the launch so far.
Bendis realizes much of the initial attention of Wonder Comics will be geared toward the return of the cocky clone Conner Kent/Superboy, a character with many fans despite being away from DC continuity for some time.
Young Justice will explore where Superboy has been.
He says fans should know the character is in good hands with Gleason on art duties.
“Every time I looked at anybody involving (Superboy) they just looked at me (and said) don’t mess it up,” he says. “Patrick, who is as deeply rooted in the modern DC Comics as any artist, is coming with me to make sure this is all being done with the proper love and care.”
Bendis will also oversee the retro-nostalgia fueled Wonder Twins (written by Mark Russell and art by Stephen Byrne), Dial H for Hero (written by Sam Humphries and art by Joe Quinones) and a new heroine Naomi (written by Bendis and David F. Walker and art by Jamal Campbell).
Wonder Comics is intended for new readers, but Bendis recognizes that adults who grew up loving characters like Superboy, Impulse and Robin in the ’90s will likely be interested in these adventures. He says readers new and old should be satisfied. But don’t let the nostalgically-designed superhero suits fool you: These stories take place in the here and now.
“These characters are back in continuity and telling a future forward story that really matters to the DC Universe right this second,” he says. “That is the absolute best way to introduce them to a new audience.”
Balancing out the return of so many fan-favorite characters with Wonder Comics is the creation of a new one: Naomi, a young girl of color in a PacificNorthwest neighborhood where nothing ever happens, yet she is somehow connected to the one time something (involving superheroes) actually did happen in her town.
Being allowed to freely create new characters at DC reminds Bendis of the time late comic book legend Jack Kirby came to DC in 1970 after years at Marvel and created the Fourth World, which resulted in the making of the New Gods and one of DC’s greatest villains ever, Darkseid.
“This is not the Fourth World and I would never compare myself,” Bendis says. “But you can’t help but (say) you’ve been given the exact same freedom to do something with it. So David and I and Jamal have been working very hard to build something brand new. The story starts very intimate and small, and it opens into an enormous thing that literally will be added to the DC universe and any writer can play with.”
As for the eventual Naomi/Miles Morales comparisons, and whether Bendis can strike creativelightning twice bringing a new character of color to a major publisher, he says: Stay tuned.
“People are going to see a connection,” he says.
“But other than the authenticity which we’re bringing her, people are going to see this is a completely different thing and how exciting that is.”
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY DC ENTERTAINMENT
Clockwise from top left, Robin, Wonder Girl, Jenny Hex, Impulse and Teen Lantern team up in the first issue of “Young Justice.”
GM workers call on Trudeau for support
Lia LEVESQUE
MONTREAL — Unifor’s Quebec director
Renaud Gagne is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow in Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s footsteps by pledging support for General Motors workers faced with a looming plant closure.
“Mr. Ford, the premier of Ontario, joined Unifor this week to say he will support our move to save Oshawa. I would like to hear the prime minister of Canada say the same thing, that he will join the efforts, that he will ask Canadians to put pressure on GM to make sure they change their minds,” Gagne said. Some 300 Unifor members, including about
60 retirees from the now-demolished GM plant in Sainte-Therese, Que., showed their support for Oshawa GM workers on Friday, taking advantage of the Montreal Auto Show now underway.
Demonstrators were visible throughout the exhibition. Many wore blue T-shirts with the slogan, “GM to sell here, build here,” and chanted the slogan, “Say-say-say-save GM,” both in French.
The General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont., is slated to shut down at the end of 2019, resulting in an expected 2,600 job losses at the factory.
Gagne cited a union-commissioned study that forecasts that by 2025, the closure will
Appeal court upholds ruling in case against CN Rail
Citizen news service
MONTREAL — The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that found the courts have jurisdiction to determine the damages Canadian National Railway Co. must pay after breaching its service obligations to a Prairie grain shipping company during a bumper crop five years ago.
The case goes back to a complaint filed by Calgary-based Louis Dreyfus Commodities Canada Ltd. to the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Dreyfus said CN failed to provide enough rail cars to some of its grain elevators in Alberta and Saskatchewan to ship the record
2013-2014 grain crop.
The agency ruled in favour of Dreyfus and CN filed an appeal, arguing unsuccessfully that the transportation regulator did not take into account the exceptional size of the crop, the effect extreme cold weather had on the rail system or demands from other grain companies.
CN also argued before the Federal Court that it lacked jurisdiction to consider damages based on the railway’s confidential contract with Dreyfus.
The decision Thursday by the appeal court rejected that argument. The tribunal did not disclose any damages to be paid by CN.
WestJet fire caused by e-cigarette batteries
OTTAWA (CP) — The Transportation Safety Board says an onboard fire that forced a WestJet plane to return to the Calgary International Airport soon after takeoff last June was caused by spare e-cigarette lithium-ion batteries that a passenger failed to declare in his checked baggage.
The agency says in a report that a backpack caught fire and caused minor thermal damage to the cargo compartment’s fire-
resistant liner near the bag.
An investigation could not determine if the damage occurred before the batteries arrived at the airport or during baggage handling.
The unidentified frequent business flyer was aware of airline policies requiring that e-cigarettes and lithium-ion batteries only be carried in the cabin and be removed from devices but inadvertently left two spare batteries in his checked bag.
Gov’t says it won’t bow to Chinese pressure
Rob GILLIES Citizen news service
TORONTO — Canada’s public safety minister said Friday that the country won’t be deterred by Chinese pressure after China threatened reprisals if Huawei was banned from supplying equipment for 5G networks, highlighting the growing rift between America’s neighbour and the emerging superpower. There are accusations that the telecom giant is controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party or is required to facilitate Chinese spying. The U.S., Australia, Japan and other governments have imposed curbs on use of its technology.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Canada has been abundantly clear it will not compromise national security.
“It’s a difficult challenge but we’ll not be deterred by what we believe to be right and what we believe to be in the interests of Canada,” Goodale said.
have prompted 14,000 job losses in Ontario and 10,000 in the rest of Canada.
Gagne noted that some 10,000 people work in the auto parts sector in Quebec.
“We saved that company $10.3 billion in 2008-09. Then to thank us, they close the doors and go to Mexico to make everyone work at $2 an hour. This is unacceptable,” Gagne said, shouting.
He called on Canadians to sign an online petition, but added there is no plan to ask them to boycott the auto maker.
“We are not at this stage. But I think that if we want to go all the way, it may be a solution that we will eventually have to consider,” Gagne said.
Call centre rehires nearly 500 people
Citizen news service
SYDNEY, N.S. — A Cape Breton call centre that abruptly shut down last month, tossing hundreds of people out of work, has hired back more than 90 per cent of its workforce, offering enhanced benefits and increasing entry-level wages.
The Sydney Call Centre Inc. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to thank the community and celebrate its official reboot – and the new company’s first payday.
Owner Anthony Marlowe said about 480 workers have returned to the operation after being laid off by the previous owner of the facility, and there are plans to further expand the call centre.
lowe Companies Inc. – the parent company of the call centre and several other related businesses.
Tanya Wilneff, director of people support at the call centre, said the company has received a “solid flow of resumes” – a stack which now sits at around 400.
“We’ve seen so much loyalty and we have a lot of potential for growth,” she said. “The sky is the limit for us.”
Owner Anthony Marlowe said about 480 workers have returned to the operation after being laid off by the previous owner of the facility...
“This quite possibly could be the world’s greatest telemarketing centre,” said the Iowa-based businessman, adding that it may add training capacity to accelerate the addition of new workers.
Marlowe said he was met with applause Friday after workers cashed their first pay cheques in several weeks.
He said the company now provides workers with free medical and dental benefits as well as life insurance, which he calls a small investment in the health and well-being of the loyal and dedicated workforce.
“We take care of our workers,” said Marlowe, the head of Mar-
Marlowe said the call centre retained all of its major clients despite the bankruptcy proceedings, and plans to add 50 full-time equivalent positions by spring.
Shauna Graham, director of operations for the call centre, said the shocking layoffs weeks before Christmas made the workforce even stronger.
“At the worst of times, when it would have been so easy for everyone to throw in the towel and scatter, instead our work family of several hundred people rallied together and supported one another and helped lift one another up, even on the worst of days,” she said.
Graham said she’s heard numerous stories of employees helping other employees with groceries, home heating oil – even bringing diapers and formula to moms in need.
“It would have been very easy to give up but instead everybody remained very positive and stayed strong,” she said.
Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to Canada, warned Thursday of repercussions if Canada bars the firm from its new 5G network.
“One of the things that is of concern in this situation is the blending of Chinese commercial interests with Chinese political positioning and consequences. That’s something that I think should be of concern to Canadians and people around the world,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Canada and its security agencies are studying whether to use equipment from Huawei as phone carriers prepare to roll out fifthgeneration technology.
5G is designed to support a vast expansion of networks to facilitate medical devices, self-driving cars and other technology. That increases the risk of potential security failures and has prompted governments to treat telecom communications networks as strategic assets. But the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States has created a growing diplomatic rift between China and Canada. Meng is the chief financial officer of Huawei and the daughter of its founder.
The U.S. wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.
China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor 10 days after Meng’s arrest on allegations that they were “engaging in activities that endanger the national security” of China in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her. China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, to death Monday in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case.
John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China, said the path that China is on is not in their interest.
“It’s not in the interests of corporate China if when they run into trouble internationally the Chinese government arrests people to use as bargaining chips,” McCallum said. “That is the perception of much of the world and that is not good for the reputation of Chinese business people.”
On Thursday, Lu warned Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland not to use next week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to press for support against China. He also said Canada’s arrest of Meng was an act of “backstabbing” by Canada and called it “politically motivated.” Freeland has said the detention of two Canadians will be at the top of her agenda in Davos and didn’t back down from her position after hearing about the ambassador’s remark.
Citizen news service
The Oshawa General Motors car assembly plant is seen in Oshawa, Ont., in Nov. 2018.
At Home
To add warmth, bring more of the great outdoors indoors
LERNER Citizen news service
Michele
WASHINGTON — When Jim and Jennifer Sergent bought their home in suburban Arlington, Va., two years ago, they appreciated its modern look – the exposed wood beams and the nature trail that passes in front of it. But the master bathroom left a lot to be desired.
“This is a 1990s Deck House, so it’s got an open post-and-beam structure that feels like an atrium, and that feeling extends right into our bedroom,” said Jim, a graphics editor at USA Today. “But when you opened the door to the master bathroom, it just felt different. The design aesthetic just stopped at the bathroom door.”
The mostly white bathroom looked cold and had the added discomfort of a small shower. Jim, who’s 6-foot-4, either bumped his head or stubbed his toe nearly every day.
“We wanted our bathroom to respond to the rest of the house, not only the wood but also the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace in the family room,” said Jennifer, a freelance design writer. “It was Jim’s idea to build a shower with a natural stone wall that echoes the fireplace. We know design fashions come and go, but stone and wood will never go away.”
The Sergents’ instinct to bring natural elements into their bathroom is reflected in a growing trend among homeowners to incorporate more wood and stone into their interior spaces, sometimes in unexpected places.
“It makes people feel good when we bring in natural elements,” said Leigh Spicher, director of design studios for Ashton Woods, an Atlanta-based builder with communities in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. “Using wood on walls or the ceiling of a bathroom fits in with the trend toward using wood for trim and entire walls in all kinds of homes, from modern to traditional styles.”
Wood and stone can be necessary to warm up a space, particularly in a modern house, said Jessica Parker, an interior designer and senior project manager with GTM Architects in suburban Bethesda, Md.
“In a modern house, you can add a stone wall around the fireplace or rustic wood beams to the ceiling to add warmth and texture,” Parker said. “We use stone and wood consistently, especially in homes with an all-white kitchen or high ceilings. In a more traditional home, we install polished wood beams for a more refined look.”
The Sergents’ desire to use natural wood and stone in their bathroom was twofold.
“We wanted to match the rest of the house, and we wanted to match what’s happening outside,” Jim said. “We can see trees through the arched window in our bathroom.” Although hardwood is the most popular material for floors in homes today, and stone is common around a fireplace, homeowners and designers are introducing these materials in other places.
“The Sergents’ Deck House has tons of great windows and skylights, so it was a natural choice to bring in nature,” said Nadia Subaran, co-owner of Aidan Design in suburban Silver Spring, Md., who designed the couple’s kitchen and bathroom. A Deck House is a brand name of plans built with post-and-beam construction, usually with open rooms and lots of exposed wood. “You always end up with a lot of hard surfaces in a bathroom, like porcelain and tile, so it’s becoming popular to bring in wood to soften the space.”
The Sergents’ bathroom has a sloped wood ceiling with an exposed beam, a natural wood vanity and a wood storage cabinet.
“Jim was very passionate about using natural stone for the oversize shower, and the natural wood cabinets pick up some of the colour in the stones in the shower,” Subaran said.
The Sergents’ bathroom, which Jennifer said cost about $60,000, includes a porcelain floor that resembles slate, a sloping, trough-style sink with two faucets and a mirror above each faucet. The Sergents added a modern touch with a black metal bar that holds shampoo bottles and looks like a piece of sculpture. Jim found wood hooks on Etsy that are pieces of a tree.
“We screwed them into a wall, so they
look like an art installation, but they’re also practical to drape your clothes, so they’re not on the floor when you shower,” Jim said.
“We’ve used reclaimed wood in other bathrooms, including around an oversize mirror in a bathroom that was otherwise very sleek,” Subaran said. “Reclaimed wood has a lot of texture.”
In her own home, Subaran created a backsplash from reclaimed parquet flooring for a bar area in her dining room.
Wood and stone can be used to add texture and definition to an open floor plan, said Jim Rill, owner of Rill Architects in Bethesda.
In one client’s home, “we used a wood ceiling and wood trim on a hallway to define the space and accentuate where you walk, versus where you gather, dine and cook,” said Rill.
“The wood ceiling extends to the breakfast room and outdoor porches. You can feel like you’re inside when you’re outside, and you can feel like you’re outside when you’re inside.”
Natural stone has been used to create a “grotto effect” in lower-level spa bathrooms that seem almost to be carved out of a cellar and make the house seem as though it has always been there, Rill said. Stone walls can
be expanded around a fireplace to include arched niches for books and display space, he said.
“Dark wood trim was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but people want to do this again in contemporary homes,” Spicher said. “For instance, in a contemporary home in Austin, the homeowners added wood trim in the family room and painted it green for an unexpected look.”
Shiplap is popular for powder room walls and as accent walls in bedrooms and family rooms in a wide range of stains and paint colors, she said.
“Wood trim is a great way to personalize a space, to give it character and texture,” Spicher said. “We’ve seen it used on one wall or a section of several walls in the dining room to add a natural element to that more formal space.”
In one master bedroom that Parker designed, she added a feature wall with a large wood-enclosed fireplace with a wood mantel.
“The room had very high ceilings and needed some warmth, so we went with this dramatic feature instead of a more traditional small fireplace,” she said.
The adjacent master bathroom, a sleek space with glass and porcelain tile, is warmed up with an oversized shower with two walls of natural stone.
Although some homeowners use wood and stone indoors to highlight the nature found outside their home’s walls, others use these natural materials in contrast with their surroundings.
“In an urban environment, it’s almost more necessary to bring in wood and stone, so it’s not a cold interior regardless of the setting,” Parker said.
At a contemporary-style home in Washington, Parker added a large, four-foot-wide wood front door.
“The house has stone on the exterior, and inside it’s very crisp and contemporary, with high ceilings,” Parker said. “The wood door adds a lot of warmth and is welcoming when you make the transition from the stone exterior to the contemporary interior.”
Similarly, Parker added a beamed ceiling and natural oak floors to a sleek all-white kitchen in a new home in Arlington to add texture and colour to the space. The adjacent family room has a natural stone fireplace and a beamed ceiling that contrasts with other parts of the house, which have plain white ceilings.
The fact that natural stone is used for home exteriors and patios signals that it’s durable for indoor use, as well. But it’s best to avoid it in kitchen areas, where it could be susceptible to stains, Parker said.
“Stone can be heavier and costlier to install because of the added weight, but people are often willing to spend the money because they love it,” Spicher said. Wood and stone can cost more than some other materials. Adding a wood ceiling to a room can cost $5,000 to $10,000, Rill said, and installing stone instead of drywall can cost an extra $25 or more per square foot.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY JAMIE COBEL/RILL ARCHITECTS
Jim Rill, owner of Rill Architects in Bethesda, Md., said he used dark wood and lighter trim to define spaces in this open-spaced room for a client.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY JAMIE COBEL/RILL ARCHITECTS
Rill Architects designed this family room for a client using wood generously in the ceiling and floor.
MUNTAU, Friedrich (Fred) passed away December 22, 2018 at his home in Prince George, BC. Fred was born in Dresden, Germany on May 10, 1940 and came to Canada in 1962. Fred is predeceased by his parents Friedrich and Elisabeth as well as his sister Brigitte and his wife Monika. Fred is survived by his son Friedrich (Shelley) and their children Hannah & Julien; his daughter Michelle (Stuart) Lee and their children James, Jonah & Emersyn. Fred is also survived by his nieces in Germany, Elke (Thorwald) and Birgit (Janny) and his cousin Sigrid.
As a resident of Prince George for nearly 50 years, he was an avid outdoorsman; enjoying hunting, fishing as well as gardening and leaves behind a close community of relatives, friends, coworkers and his precious (and spoiled) cats Charlie & Georgie.
A celebration of a life lived will be held at 7 p.m., January 24, 2019 at the PG Elks Community Hall, 663 Douglas Street. The family would like to extend a special thanks to Dad’s friends Randy & Dennis and his neighbour Dave for their care and assistance in the recent months.
In lieu of flowers please make a donation in Fred’s name to the Kidney Foundation.
It is with heavy hearts that our family announces the passing of our amazing husband, father, son, brother, friend and teacher, Vince Truant on January 9th at the age of 51. Vince was a loving and wonderful husband, son, brother, father, friend and teacher and is survived by his loving wife Margaret, together for 27 years, daughters, Airah and Brooklyn, parents Ray and Diane, sister, Dawn (Dave), in-laws Roger (Marlene), Lynda (Paul), sisters-in-law Cheryll (Bart), Jenny and brothers-in-law Wayne (Vanessa), and Bill as well as numerous aunts & uncles, nieces & nephews. Predeceased by his Grandparents on both sides, Uncle Richie and Aunt June and brother-in-law Noel.
Vince was an avid outdoors man, who enjoyed snowmobiling, fishing, biking, camping, hiking, and playing hockey. Spending time with family and relaxing at the cabin was always Vince’s favorite past times. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Columbus Community Centre on Domano Blvd, on Sunday, January 20th at 2:00 PM, followed by refreshments. Please bring your humorous stories to share with us. In lieu of flowers, Memorial Donations may be made in Vince’s name to the Vince Truant Memorial Scholarship. A GoFundMe Page is set up as Vince Truant Memorial Scholarship. Https://gofundme.com/vince-truant-memorial-scholarship-fund
Syl Meise
October 16, 1935January 10, 2019
With great sadness we announce the sudden passing at home of Syl Meise, a loving family man and generous friend to all, who struggled with congestive heart failure and COPD for several years. He is survived by his heartbroken family, wife of 51 years Linda Christine, son Scott, daughter Leah, granddaughter Donna, step-grandson Trevor, great grandchildren Ariya, Kayleen and Logan, brother Dave (Marie), sister Beverlie Flegel (John), sisters-in-law Barbara and Pat and many cousins, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents Franz & Helena, brothers John, Henry, Lud, Ernie, Bill, Pete, Fred & George and sisters Frieda, Josephine and Isabel.
Syl was an unforgettable man with a big heart, a positive attitude, an endless supply of stories and jokes and a desire to make everyone smile. To his family he was loving and full of fun, to his friends and community he was selfless and generous, as a professional driver during his work years he was skilled and conscientious. He loved life and never hesitated to try something new whether it was skiing, golfing, acting, curling, loggers sports, racing & training horses, coaching and playing baseball & bowling just to name a few. He will be missed by so many. A celebration of life will be held at First Baptist Church 483 Gillette Street at 11:00 am Saturday, January 19 with a tea to follow at Pineview Hall. In lieu of flowers donations could be made to the Prince George Hospice House.
Pauline Rice
June 13, 1942 - January 14, 2019
It is with the heaviest of hearts that our family announces the passing of Pauline after a 14 year battle with ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Survived by her husband Robert, son Todd Green (Shelly), stepson Joseph Rice (Jacqueline), grandchildren: Danielle, Carter, Kaitlyn, Andra and Robert. Special thanks to Dr. Key, Dr. Textor, the Health Care Nurses and the angels at Rotary Hospice House. No service by request. Donations can be made to the SPCA.
We, the children of Mary Rachel Bidner (Irwin), sadly announce her passing, on January 8, 2019. Mom was born August 19, 1941 in Ainsworth Nebraska, USA. She met & married our dad, John Bidner (he was from Romania) in 1963, and then they moved to Canada, and gave birth to us here. Mom enjoyed the simple pleasures in life most of all, just like we do. To her, family was always the most important thing. She is predeceased by our dear dad, and by parents Mark and Rachel Irwin, and siblings Ethelyn, Paul, Evelyn, Lyle, Bonnie, and Myrna. Left to lovingly remember her are us: John Bidner (Laura), David Bidner (Szilvia), and Michelle Smith (Clayton). Also grandchildren Brittany (Sam) and Ryan Ross (Cathy), Zoe (Mat) and Alex Bidner, and Colleen and Stefania Bidner. And two great-grandchildren, Kori and Noah Hewkin.
We love you Mom; we will see you in Heaven. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Salvation Army or the charity of your choice.
HaroldBrentGrimsrud October18,1950-January1,2019
Brentpassedoverpeacefullyafterashortbattlewith smallcelllungcancer.Brentwaspredeceasedbyhis fatherandmother,HaroldOlavandKathryn Elizabeth.Hewillbesadlymissedbyhissons, RobertandMichael;formerwife,Loraleigh;brothers, LawrenceandMicheal;sisters,JanetandJo-Anne; grandchildren,Amelia,Victoria,andMilo;many nieces;nephews;closefamily;andfriends.Brent spokeoftenofhisadventuresworkingasaradar electronicstechnicianacrosstheArcticandfondlyof histimeservingthecommunity.AtBrent’srequest, therewillbenoservice.Acelebrationoflifewillbe heldthissummer.Donationsmadeinhishonour requestedtoDoctorsWithoutBorders.
SIKORSKI, EDWARD MICHAEL (SR.)
Aug 5, 1948 - Jan 9, 2019. Passed away after a battle with cancer, leaving behind his 3 children; Eddy (grandchildren Lauren, Ryan, & Ross), Lolly Jr. (Al), Mike, 2 great granddaughters, Emma and Taylor, and two soul companions, his dogs. Pre-deceased by Lolly, the love of his life and wife of 48 years. He is survived by his 2 brothers; Larry (Pat), Ron (Linda), many nieces, nephews, and pre-deceased brother Gerry (Bev). Ed’s passion for trains stemmed from years of service with BCR, he went on to serve the community as an owner of Tabor’s Bavarian Deli and an employee for Hart Drugs. During his retirement, Ed was known for his exceptional dedication, kindness, generosity, laughter, and regular afternoon coffee gatherings. Loved catching up on news, family, yard work, and of course, his beloved PG Spruce Kings. His cunning and cheeky sense of humor did not go unnoticed by many. You are deeply loved, sadly missed, and will never be forgotten. Special thanks to: Farah (BCCA), Dr. Hillhouse, Dr. Marcotte & team, Dr. Higgins, and the entire staff at Rotary Hospice House. No service upon request. Donations can be made to Prince George Hospice Society or the BC Cancer Foundation.
Tl’etinqoxGovernmentisseekingaRegisteredSocial Worker(MSW)whoworkswellinateamenvironment andhasextensiveexperiencewithadvancedand complexsocialworkcases.Underthedirectionofthe HealthandWellnessDirector,andinconsultationwith thehealthteamandrelatedgovernmentagencies,the individualwillmanagecomplexpsychosocialproblems,
Thesuccessfulcandidatemustbeabletomulti-task andhaveexcellentcommunicationskills,phone manners,andcomputerworkingknowledge.Must possessaccuratetypingskillswithattentiontodetail inallworkaspects.Propertymanagementexperience wouldbeanasset.
Pleasedeliverresumeandcoverletterto2255Quinn Street. 250-563-5291 mhusband@telus.net fortwoodhomes.com
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) —
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index rallied Friday to end a second strong week on growing signals of a potential resolution in the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
North American markets reacted positively Friday to reports that China has offered to eliminate the annual U.S. trade deficit by 2024 by gradually increasing U.S. imports. That came a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly floated the idea of easing tariffs on Chinese goods during trade negotiations.
“Markets are definitely bullish on this whole trade resolution,” said Noman Ali, a senior portfolio manager with Manulife Asset Management.
In addition to potentially eliminating the threat of another 25 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, a trade deal between the U.S. and China would remove a threat to global economic growth.
“We don’t know the authenticity of that (offer) and whether it’s real or not but it’s moving the market,” he said.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up for an 11th straight day, gaining 92.61 points to 15,303.83. The Toronto market rose by 2.4 per cent in the past week, after increasing by 3.55 per cent the prior week. Since losing ground during a difficult autumn, the TSX has added 981 points or 6.8 per cent so far this year.
In addition to trade optimism, the market’s recovery has demonstrated that it was oversold late last year, he added. Cyclical sectors of the Canadian market gained the most Friday, led by technology, health care, financials, energy and industrials. Materials and real estate were down.
The influential energy sector gained 0.75 per cent with the price of crude rising about three per cent to hit a near two-month high. Prices rose on hope that a trade deal will bolster demand and an OPEC report that provided more details about its productioncutting efforts.
“The concern was on the demand side and now with trade issues getting resolved that demand fear is probably getting mitigated,” said Ali.
The March crude contract was up US$1.68 at US$54.04 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up 6.9 cents at US$3.48 per mmBTU.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.41 cents US compared with an average of 75.22 cents US on Thursday.
B.C. minister fears money laundering involves billions of dollars, cites reports
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — Documents that say money laundering in British Columbia now reaches into the billions of dollars are startling to the province’s attorney general who says the figures have finally drawn the attention of the federal government.
David Eby said he’s shocked and frustrated because the higher dollar estimates appear to have been known by the federal government and the RCMP, but weren’t provided to the B.C. government.
He said he recently spoke to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale about information gaps concerning cash being laundered in B.C. and he’ll be meeting next week with Minister of Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair.
“I’ve been startled initially by the lack of response nationally to what appeared to me to be a very profound issue in B.C. that was of national concern,” said Eby in an interview.
Last June, former Mountie Peter German estimated money laundering in B.C. amounted to more than $100 million in his governmentcommissioned Dirty Money report into activities at provincial casinos.
Eby said that number now appears low, especially after the release of an international report that pegs money laundering in B.C. at more than $1 billion annually, although a time period wasn’t mentioned in the report. A second report by the RCMP estimates $1 billion worth of property transactions in Vancouver were tied to the proceeds of crime, the attorney general said.
The government had estimated that it was a $200-million a year operation, instead the federal Ministry of Finance has provided estimates that pegs the problem at $1 billion annually, Eby said.
The provincial government only learned about the reports through media leaks or their public release and it wasn’t consulted about the reports, Eby said.
“The question I ask myself is why am I reading about this in an international report instead of receiving the information government to government,” he said.
“It’s those information gaps that organized crime thrives in and we need to do a better job between our governments.”
A report issued last July by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, a body of G7 member countries fighting money laundering, terrorist financing and threats to the international financial system, highlighted B.C. money laundering activities.
Eby said the report includes details about
Surveillance identified links to 40 different organizations, including organized groups in Asia that dealt with cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. — Financial Action Task Force report
a clandestine banking operation laundering money in B.C. that was not fully known by the provincial government.
“It is estimated that they laundered over $1 billion (Canadian) per year through an underground banking network, involving legal and illegal casinos, money value transfer services and asset procurement,” stated the report. “One portion of the money laundering network’s illegal activities was the use of drug money, illegal gambling money and money derived from extortion to supply cash to Chinese gamblers in Canada.”
The report stated the gamblers would call contacts who would make cash deliveries in casino parking lots and use the money to buy casino chips, cash them in and deposit the proceeds into a Canadian bank.
“Some of these funds were used for real estate purchases,” the report stated.
“Surveillance identified links to 40 different organizations, including organized groups in Asia that dealt with cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.”
Eby said the G7 task force report included information the province didn’t have about money laundering in B.C. from the federal government via the RCMP.
He said the B.C. government also confirmed the RCMP compiled an intelligence report about proceeds of crime connections to luxury real estate property sales in Vancouver, but his ministry doesn’t have the report.
“We still don’t have a copy of it,” Eby said.
Blair could not be reached for comment but in a statement said the federal government takes the threat posed by money laundering and organized crime seriously and is collaborating with the B.C. government and German.
“We are taking action to combat this by enhancing the RCMP’s investigative and intelligence capabilities both in Canada and abroad, and our Financial Intelligence Unit further helps protect Canadians and our financial system,” said the statement.
German’s report to the provincial govern-
ment last June concluded B.C.’s gaming industry was not prepared for the onslaught of illegal cash at the casinos and estimated more than $100 million was funnelled through the casinos.
He was appointed last fall to conduct a second review identifying the scale and scope of illegal activity in the real estate market and whether money laundering is linked to horse racing and the sale of luxury vehicles.
“We’re having some difficulty getting the information we need for Dr. German to make a true assessment of the extent of the problem facing B.C.,” said Eby.
Maureen Maloney, a former B.C. deputy attorney general, was also appointed last fall to lead an expert panel on money laundering in real estate and report to the government in March.
“We do realize there is a lot of anecdotal evidence on the extent of money laundering in real estate, but we really don’t have a good handle on that,” said Maloney.
“We’re looking at whether or not we can produce some good evidence of that. We’re looking at do we have that data available in B.C. or indeed Canada.”
Confidential provincial government documents dated April 2017 and released through Freedom of Information requests show the government was tracking suspicious currency transactions at B.C. casinos, especially in $20 bills, for years. The high-point of these transactions was more than $176 million in 20142015.
Documents dated August 2016, show the government’s Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch observed so-called “high roller” patrons at a Metro Vancouver casino for a year starting in January 2015 and concluded people connected to real estate were the top buy-in gamblers at $53.1 million.
A spokesman for B.C.’s gaming industry said reports from the gaming operators about cash transactions flagged concerns of money laundering.
Peter Goudron, B.C. Gaming Industry Association executive director, said casinos implemented measures to combat potential money laundering, including placing cash restrictions on players in 2015.
“This had the effect of reducing the value of suspicious transactions by more than 60 per cent over the next two years,” he said.
“More recently, operators implemented Dr. Peter German’s interim recommendation requiring additional scrutiny of large cash buyins in January 2018 and this has further driven down the number of suspicious transactions.”
“Many
B.C. Attorney General David Eby gestures while showing a video of bundles of cash brought to a casino by a person during a news conference in Vancouver on June 27. Eby said money laundering in B.C. hsa reached the billions of dollars.
Why don’t Catholic leaders who fall short say they’re sorry?
Mike GOGGIN Citizen news service
Recent days have seen calls for greater accountability from top-ranked U.S. Catholic clerics. First, a former priest revealed that Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocse fo Warshingon has been untruthful about what he knew of sexual misconduct allegations against his predecessor as archbishop, Theodore McCarrick.
Then there were new calls for McCarrick himself to publicly repent for alleged abuse of youths and adults.
These past few days have prompted a basic question: Why can’t these clerics just say they’re sorry?
It’s a particular conundrum for those of us who are Catholic. The sacrament of reconciliation provides us with the opportunity to confess our sins to a priest, apologize for them, make amends and resolve to do better.
When many of us prepared to practice the sacrament for the first time as children just reaching the age of reason, we were taught that lying was a sin. As we moved into adolescence, we learned that any sexual activity outside of marriage was likewise a sin. So why are our confessors finding it so hard to apologize for these very same basic sins?
Having worked for the Catholic Church for the past 25 years, I think it may have something to do with the dramatic change in the status of religious leaders in my lifetime.
Growing up in the Boston of the 1970s and early 1980s, where neighbourhoods were still divided along the parish boundary lines despite a growing presence of nonCatholic immigrants from around the world, great respect and even reverence were directed toward the parish priest and his assistant clergymen. These men could do no wrong. They were arbiters of grace, and their Sunday evening visits for family dinners demanded the use of the best china. The church itself taught that the mem-
bers of the clergy are in their very being different because of their ordination (in the church we use the term “ontological”). While they look like any layperson, there is a fundamental difference in their being. The church still teaches this today.
I remember the shock I felt when, as a teenager, I first encountered a priest who swore, or told an off-colour joke, or smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol. In the end, it really was not that hard to find all of these peccadilloes in the priests I encountered in my parish or my Jesuit high school, but the result was a certain diminishment of the clergy in my eyes. The image of a superman was tarnished. As we now know, there were many much more serious sins and crimes being committed by Catholic clergy in that same place and time, but I had no personal experience of that.
Fast-forward to 2019, and one would be hard-pressed to find a
lay Catholic who puts his or her priest on such a pedestal. We have been jaded by the scandals of the church in Boston, and now we are experiencing a crisis of leadership locally.
Keep in mind that McCarrick was ordained to the priesthood in 1958 and Wuerl in 1966, and so their respective climbs to become princes of the church took place in the Father Knows Best milieu of an earlier time in this country.
Sure, institutional fear of costly litigation enters in, and perhaps that is really what is preventing Wuerl from being as candid as he might like.
But it is also true that we might be asking both Wuerl and McCarrick to do something that priests and bishops of their time were never expected to do.
If Father was always right, an apology was never needed –especially not if you wielded the additional power and authority of a bishop.
Bishops will tell you that their power and authority come to them through the Scriptures and the tradition of the church. None of us will ever be in a position to know or judge the private prayer lives of these men, the sins they themselves confess as they do penance nor the things they discuss with their spiritual directors and companions.
We are left to hope that Wuerl, in receiving the sacrament of reconciliation himself from a brother priest, did not leave his knowledge of McCarrick’s actions completely unvoiced. Should his confessor have suggested public disclosure of the same? Well, Scripture does tell us that the truth will set you free.
Time and again, we have seen examples of Americans being willing to forgive people who have let them down.
This week, a spokesman for the Catholic community Opus Dei made an unusually frank – for a
faith group – admission of guilt and shame after it was forced to publicly confirm it paid nearly $1 million in a sex misconduct suit for celeb-priest C. John McCloskey and covered it up – leaving him in the same District of Columbia assignment for a year after the victim came forward before removing him quietly.
“The reality is he was around for a year after we were informed,” spokesman Brian Finnerty said. “That’s the reality. It’s not good. But we may as well own it... It’s an argument that is no longer tenable – this ‘let’s quiet things over so priests can continue to do good.’”
Within the past few years, some Catholic institutions, most affiliated with the Jesuit religious order but not exclusively so, have looked at their own sad involvement in the slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries and have apologized publicly for their complicity.
My alma mater, Georgetown University, in 2017 stripped the names of two Jesuit leaders who traded in slaves in 1838 off some of the newest buildings on campus and renamed them for the first slave named on the university’s bill of sale (Isaac Hawkins) and a black educator who founded a girls’ school in the Georgetown neighbourhood in that era (Anne Marie Becraft).
The university also invited more than 100 of the slaves’ descendants to the renaming ceremony and offered them scholarship opportunities to study at the school.
At the ceremony, the Rev. Timothy Kesicki spoke directly to these men and women as resident of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States: “Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned. We pray with you today because we are profoundly sorry.”
Simple words spoken with great conviction – not a burdensome expectation, really.
Dueling women’s march events in New York City
Deepti HAJELA Citizen news service
NEW YORK — Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism will mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington are faced with competing demonstrations this weekend in New York City.
One procession, around the edge of Central Park and down Sixth Avenue, is being organized by the Women’s March Alliance, a non-profit group whose leaders are putting on their version of the demonstration for the third straight year.
Another event, a downtown rally held at roughly the same time Saturday, is being organized by the New York City chapter of Women’s March Inc., the group formed to help organize the 2017 demonstration in Washington, D.C., the day after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Talks between organizers aimed at linking the groups in New York didn’t go anywhere, the reasons varying between overstepping and indifference depending on who’s asked. And hanging overhead that has been a controversy playing out nationwide of concerns related to race and religion.
Women’s March Inc. co-leader Tamika Mallory, who is black, has come under her fire from Jewish groups for her support of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who is known partly for his anti-Semitic rhetoric and condemnations of homosexuality.
The criticism dates back months but got additional attention after Mallory appeared Monday on ABC’s The View and, while disavowing Farrakhan’s language, wouldn’t condemn him when confronted by hosts Meghan McCain and Sunny Hostin.
pened next. Siemionko said Sarsour was insistent that Okeyo’s group needed to be involved in planning the city’s march. Siemionko described the national group as “bullies.”
“If you wanted to be a coalition, you would never host a counter-event,” Siemionko said. “Why would you do that?” Sarsour denied that account.
“I am not a threatening person. I came in as a mediator,” she said. Sarsour said Siemionko told them she’d check with her board, but then never got back to her, with the end result that both events are moving forward separately.
“They have allowed anti-Semitism, antiLBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,” she wrote.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Sarsour acknowledged “valid criticism” that the organization had been “delayed in our unequivocal response in denouncing anti-Semitism.” But she said it was part of the growth process in building a movement comprised of many different groups of people. “We believe in this movement.”
Some Jewish groups have pulled support for Women’s March Inc. A Washington state chapter disbanded in protest. In November, Teresa Shook, the Hawaiian woman whose viral Facebook post is credited with launching the original Women’s March, called on Mallory and her co-chairwomen Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez and Bob Bland to resign.
Katherine Siemionko, the white, former Goldman Sachs vice-president who leads the Women’s March Alliance, told the AP that the charges of anti-Semitism were “just an additional on top of all the behaviour, on top of the ego” while not the main issue dividing the women’s march events in New York.
Friction between Siemionko’s organization and the national group began last year, when a New York chapter of the national Women’s March group, led by Agunda Okeyo, a writer and activist born in Nairobi, began to plan events around the 2019 march anniversary.
Sarsour said she reached out to Siemionko to see if her group and Okeyo’s group could work together. Sarsour said she wanted to make sure the concerns of immigrant and minority women were heard in New York City protest efforts.
The two women differ on what hap-
The leaders of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform Judaism congregation in Manhattan, urged its members to take part in the uptown march, affiliated with Siemionko’s group. Rabbi Samantha Natov said she still has problems with the Women’s March Inc.’s reaction to allegations of anti-Semitism.
“The leadership has not assuaged our most serious concerns,” she said.
But Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said her group would be out with some other Jewish organizations at the downtown rally organized by Okeyo’s group, Women’s March NYC.
Women’s March Inc. leaders have “apologized for the harm that they have caused and we are taking those apologies and the actions they have taken to include Jews... seriously,” Vilkomerson said.
There is also a third event in the city at 2 p.m. today, the Non-March for Disabled Women at Grand Central Terminal. That event is being put together by Rise and Resist, with co-sponsorship by Okeyo’s Women’s March group.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY RICKY CARIOTI
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., during an interview with The Washington Post about his career in March.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO
On March 8, 2017civil rights leader and activist Linda Sarsour, left, is seen during the International Women’s Day rally and sit-down protest outside Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle, in New York. Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington will have competing demonstrations Saturday in New York City.