Canucks stop in on Buck
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
APrince George boy in treatment at B.C. Children’s Hospital got some unusual visitors Monday.
Six members of the Vancouver Canucks dropped in to say hello to Brendan McKinnon, a popular local teen known as Buck to his friends and family.
Buck’s parents, Krystel McKinnon and Darren Lewis, also got to enjoy the moment with their son, who lives with severe cerebral palsy and an accompanying condition called dystonia.
“Buck has been in and out of B.C. Children’s Hospital fighting a severe resilient spinal infection post-scoliosis surgery two and a half years ago,” said McKinnon. “His most recent surgery was removal of the hardware.”
Recovering in the surgical ward, “Buck was so excited” to see the six players of the Vancouver Canucks came in to pay him a visit, gifting him with autographs and a plush souvenir of Canucks mascot Finn.
The players in the contingent were enough to form an entire line, including starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, along with Brandon Sutter, Markus Granlund, Elias Pettersson, Alex Edler and Tyler Motte.
For a moment in time it makes you forget you’re sick and brings happiness in a not so happy time.
— Krystel McKinnon
It’s not the first time Canucks players have dropped in on Buck at B.C. Children’s Hospital on his visits to the Vancouver facility.
“We got to share with them the time Finn gave Buck Daniel Seden’s game-winning overtime puck, that tied Markus Näslund
Vanderhoof Aquatic Centre set to open
Citizen staff
A long awaited goal will be realized on Saturday when the Vanderhoof Aquatic Centre opens its doors.
“This facility provides is a great new opportunity for the residents of Vanderhoof and the Nechako Valley,” Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen said.
“The hard work of many residents over a period of 25 years as well as the great financial support of government, neighbouring communities, businesses and individuals have made our pool a reality,” he added. “Our town has been given a new avenue of recreation which will be very positive in attracting and retaining residents to our valley.”
Constructed at a cost of $12 million, the facility has a six-lane 25-metre lap pool, a 1,500 squarefoot leisure pool and a 35-person hot tub, along with a sauna and aquatic climbing wall. All pools are equipped with ramp entry. Change rooms include a large universal change area with four family shower and change stalls, three dry change stalls and a fully accessible change room/washroom equipped with an overhead lift. There are also women’s and men’s change rooms, which were
for most goals ever by a Vancouver Canuck,” McKinnon said. The record-breaking Sedin was along for that adventure.
It’s not every day a celebrity wanders the B.C. Children’s Hospital hallways. A lot of stress and work on profound healing is the normal course of the day there. So when some NHL stars drop in, does it help the mood of the patients (and their loved ones)?
“It really does,” McKinnon said. “For a moment in time it makes you forget you’re sick and brings happiness in a not so happy time. It makes you feel important that such a famous group of men would take time out of their day just to say hello.”
designed with accessibility in mind.
The YMCA of Northern B.C. will manage the pool.
“I want to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the District of Vanderhoof, mayor and council, for building this amazing facility which I have no doubt will be a place for so many community members to get healthy and active,
learn safety in the water while having so much fun,” said YMCA-NBC
CEO Amanda Alexander. Greyback Construction was the general contractor on the project and the architectural designed was provided by Carscadden Architects. The federal government contributed $6 million to the project,
while a $3 million loan, $1.4 million in gas tax funds, $1 million from the Vanderhoof Community Forest and $600,000 raised by the community covers the rest.
The project won 77 per cent support when a referendum was held in February 2013.
An opening ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
City employees help track down stolen property
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Acity employee and three co-workers played a key role in apprehending a Dawson Creek man suspected of being behind the wheel of a stolen pickup truck carrying a stolen snowmobile.
Tyler Lee Calliou, 31, is in custody and faces six charges after the employee recognized the vehicle from a posting on social media, Prince George RCMP said Monday.
“Without this information, the suspect may not have been apprehended and the stolen property likely would not have been returned to the rightful owners,” Cpl. Craig Douglass said.
RCMP said the four city personnel worked together to provide police with the details that allowed police to track down the suspect.
Calliou was arrested on Thursday morning on West Williams Road, just south of Red Rock.
— see DRUGS, page 3
From left, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom, along with Brandon Sutter, Markus Granlund, Elias Pettersson, Alex Edler and Tyler Motte paid a visit to B.C. Children’s Hospital on Monday to see Prince George teen Brendan “Buck” McKinnon and his parents, Krystel McKinnon and Darren Lewis. Buck is in hospital due
plications from severe cerebral palsy and dystonia.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The interior of the new Vanderhoof Aquatic Centre.
Finishing touches
Heidi Martel from Settings Event Design and Decor sets the stage at the Civic Centre for 16th Annual BC Natural Resources Forum, happening today through Thursday. The forum offers an arena in which to discuss and learn first-hand the latest news, trends and opportunities linked to the resource sector in B.C.
Airport enjoys record-setting year
Citizen staff
A record-setting 506,486 passengers passed through the airport during 2018, according to the Prince George Airport Authority.
It was also the first time the airport has exceeded 500,000 passengers in its 77 years of operation at the current site, the PGAA noted. The mark was narrowly missed in 2017 when 499,125 passengers passed through its gates.
“Prince George Airport’s passenger growth is an indication of the economic strength and importance of our area.” said PGAA president and CEO John Gibson.
“We have been growing steadily and are continuing to rehabilitate and improve the airport to best serve the higher volume of passengers.”
Four airlines offer scheduled services between 12 destinations including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and, on a seasonal basis, Puerto Vallarta from the airport. In excess of 28 businesses with over 200 employees work from the airport, including charter and helicopter companies, aircraft maintenance providers, and government agencies.
The PGAA is an independent not-for-profit organization, governed by a board of directors appointed from the community.
COURT DOCKET
From Prince George provincial court, Jan. 14-18, 2019:
• Clinton Bruce Patterson (born 1976) was fined $1,500 plus a $225 victim surcharge for driving without a driver’s licence under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Glenn David Ryder (born 1971) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Cody James Titchmarsh (born 1986) was sentenced to 37 days in jail and his conditional sentence order suspended.
• Douglas Spencer Alec-Lolly (born 2000) was sentenced to zero days in jail for theft $5,000 or under.
• Montana Jacklynn Lowley (born 1998) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under, committed in Prince George, and possession of stolen property over $5,000, committed in Salmon Valley.
• Darcy Delaney Tomah (born 1981) was sentenced to 130 days in jail and two years probation for assault with a weapon. Tomah was in custody for 72 days following his arrest.
• Bradley Dale Barnard (born 1983) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 for driving while impaired.
• Crystal Dawn Bigstone (born 1993) was sentenced to one year probation and fined $500 for theft $5,000 or under.
• Jennifer Marie Cicero (born 1978) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage by another person.
• Kyle Thomas Howden (born 1984) was sentenced to 10 days in jail for breaching an undertaking or recognizance, committed in Prince George, and breaching probation, committed in Prince Rupert. Howden was in custody for 11 days prior to sentencing.
• Leonard John Junior Joseph (born 1981) was sentenced to one year probation for causing a disturbance. Joseph was in custody for eight days prior to sentencing.
• Michael Aaron Lerat (born 1991) was sentenced to one day in jail for breaching probation.
• Kynan Wayne Madam (born 1984) was sentenced to nine months probation for breaching probation, committed in Burnaby.
• Joshua Alexander Neumann (born 1990) was sentenced to seven days in jail for breaching probation. Neumann was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Jonah Savard (born 1996) was sentenced to 21 days in jail and one year probation for one count of breaching probation and to zero days in jail for two separate counts of breaching probation. Savard was in custody for 18 days prior to sentencing.
• Martin Will Suelzen (born 1972) was issued a six-month $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage by another person.
• Tanya Lee Abou (born 1977) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for assault with a weapon. Abou was in custody for two days following her arrest.
• Jessica Mae Antoine (born 1978) was sentenced to zero days in jail for breaching probation.
• Darrell Theodore Chew (born 1956) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for assault.
• Brendan Sean Elliott (born 1982) was sentenced to time served for breaching probation and to time served and one year probation for theft $5,000 or under. Elliott was in custody for 79 days prior to sentencing.
• Ryan David McGibbon (born 1988) sentenced to 90 days in jail for fleeing police, 30 days for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act and to seven days for breaching a recognizance or undertaking. McGibbon was also sentenced to time served for three separate counts of driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act and one count of willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. McGibbon was also prohibited from driving for three years and fined a total of $2,500. McGibbon was in custody for 49 days prior to sentencing.
• Jason Maxie William McKeever (born 1979) was sentenced to 18 months probation and ordered to provide a DNA sample for assaulting a peace officer, assault and uttering threats, all committed in Fort St. John. McKeever had been in custody for a total of 89 days prior to sentencing.
• Cody Allen Alexander Stovin (born 1984) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under and to zero days for breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Stovin was in custody for 31 days prior to sentencing.
Mirror image
Council supports liquor primary licence
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
City council voted unanimously in favour Monday night of supporting a downtown nightspot’s quest for a liquor primary licence.
The 1st Avenue Tavern, a 50-seat venue in the National Hotel at the corner of First and Dominion, currently operates under a food primary licence, which means food must be served with drinks.
Getting council support is one of the hurdles owner Bernie Schneider must clear to secure a liquor primary licence from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch.
The venue would be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to midnight the rest of the week.
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.”
• Council voted 4-3 in favour of staff’s recommendation to deny a homeowner’s request to further increase the size of a shop he wants to build on his property at 7731 Sabyam Rd.
In November, owner Glayne Guild secured a variance from council to expand the footprint of the build from 90 square metres – the maximum allowed for an accessory building under the zone for the property – to 207 square metres and to increase the height from six to seven metres.
On Monday, council considered a second request from Guild to further increase the allowable size to 265 square metres in the floor space and eight metres in height.
During a hearing, Guild told council he was back before council because he miscalculated the size he wanted when converting it from imperial to metric measurements. Letters from all three adjacent neighbours in support of the latest application were also provided to council. Guild’s request drew a mixed reaction from council. Coun. Terri McConnachie
Suspicious incident reported to police
Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP are on the lookout for a suspect after receiving a report of a stranger approaching a pre-teen boy near the corner of 17th Avenue and Victoria Street on Friday afternoon.
The man is described as Caucasian, 168 centimetres (fivefoot-six) tall with a heavy-set build and short hair and wearing sandals, jeans and a black hoody.
He was driving an older, red and rusty two-door pick-up, police were told.
RCMP were called to the scene at about 4 p.m.
“The boy ran to a safe place, however police were not immediately called,” RCMP said. “Patrols for the vehicle and driver were negative.”
Police would like to speak to the driver and anyone with information on who he may be is asked to contact the detachment at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only).
You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers.
Drugs, alcohol found in truck
— from page 1
Checks revealed the truck was stolen from Mackenzie, its licence plate was stolen from Beaverlodge, Alta., and the snowmobile was stolen from Dawson Creek, RCMP said. It’s believed Calliou was heading to Williams Lake. A small quantity of heroin, cannabis and open liquor were found in the pickup, police said. Calliou has been charged with two counts of possessing stolen property under $5,000, three counts of failing to comply with a recognizance and possessing a controlled substance.
RCMP are also asking snowmobile owners and those thinking of buying a secondhand one to take steps to avoid becoming a victim.
“This investigation demonstrates that stolen items such as snowmobiles can be easily transported through many communities in a short period of time, only to be resold on the black market,” said Douglass. “Please take the necessary steps to secure all property of value and exercise caution when purchasing secondhand items.”
Search serial numbers online at http://app.cpic-cipc.ca/English/ search.cfm
Fraser Lake nets project funding
Frank PEEBLES Citizen
staff
The rural local economy took a step forward Monday, when special funding was granted to a pair of projects to the west of Prince George.
The town of Fraser Lake and the adjacent Nadleh Whut’en First Nation each got money to cover key sustainability projects. It was a spot ravaged in recent times by mining and forestry curtailments and then the summer’s forest fires. These grants from the BC Rural Dividend program are intended to help the region two hours west to get back on its feet.
According to the provincial government, the two government bodies will receive a total of $153,168 to support economic diversification and create local employment opportunities under the special circumstances provision of the BC Rural Dividend.
“We’re aware that some rural communities are facing difficulties in the aftermath of wildfire season and other challenges in the forest industry,” said Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. “We’ve prioritized certain project applications to help First Nations and rural communities ensure they remain healthy and economically viable places to live and raise families.”
The Nadleh Whut’en will receive $89,168 for the Referrals Office Development Project in the subcommunity of Fort Fraser. This project will establish a staffed referrals office to assess, respond to and manage partnership, industry and economic development opportunities and projects in the Nadleh Whut’en communities. “We are happy to have the opportunity to train community personnel to staff the referrals office, build capacity with the nation and improve engagement with industry representatives,” said chief Larry Nooski.
confirmed the building will cover only 11 per cent of the property, still less than the 30 per cent allowed but Coun. Garth Frizzell noted council had already granted a variance to more than double the building’s size. Staff had contended the application inconsistent with surrounding land uses and the building would not be incidental to the principal use as a site for a singlefamily home.
Along with Frizzell, Mayor Lyn Hall and councillors Brian Skakun and Susan Scott voted to deny the request while McConnachie was joined by councillors Cori Ramsay and Kyle Sampson in supporting of the application.
Councillors Frank Everritt and Murry Krause were absent.
• Council also voted unanimously in favour of a road closure as part of a deal to sell city-owned land to a developer. The approval paved the way for the sale of 817 square metres 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 Corporation of the Village of Fraser Lake is getting $64,000 to complete topographic, geotechnical and environmental engineering reviews, and pre-design assessment documents for the installment of an additional cell at the Fraser Lake Wastewater Lagoon. The project will also support the development of a Water Stewardship Plan for the community.
“The Village of Fraser Lake would like to thank the province and the Rural Dividend fund for their very much appreciated support in awarding us this grant,” said the town’s mayor Sarrah Storey. “This funding will allow us to achieve our goal of improving our wastewater management practices. Our vision is one that involves three communities and includes working to ensure we have a safe and sustainable environment, while also making Fraser Lake the cleanest lake in B.C. for everyone, including future generations, to enjoy.”
The cutbanks, as seen from the boat launch, are reflected in the water of the Nechako River on Monday afternoon.
Man who killed RCMP officer gets partial parole
Laura KANE Citizen news service
ABBOTSFORD — A drunk driver who killed
RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in a crash has been granted limited day parole to attend alcohol abuse treatment, but a parole board member cautioned that the man still struggles with honesty.
Kenneth Fenton was handed a four-year prison sentence in July 2017 and he told a Parole Board of Canada panel on Monday that driving drunk was the “most devastating choice” he had ever made.
“I have caused more pain than I can imagine with my selfish and arrogant behaviour,” he said. “It does not seem fair that I am here while an innocent mother cannot go home to her children.”
The two-member panel decided to allow him to go to a treatment centre to complete a 70-day program. But the members turned down his request to move to a halfway house after treatment, instead requiring him to return to prison before they decide next steps.
Beckett, a 32-year-old mother of two boys, had recently returned from maternity leave when she was killed in the Victoria suburb of Langford in April 2016.
A trial heard that Fenton, 29 at the time, was speeding away from another police cruiser that had just turned on its lights to pull him over. His pickup truck was travelling up to 90 kilometres an hour when it rammed Beckett’s cruiser at an intersection, the court heard.
The parole board heard that he had alcohol, cocaine and marijuana in his system at the time of the crash. Fenton said he was grieving the death of a childhood friend who had committed suicide.
In May 2016, Fenton was involved in another drunken crash in which he and a female passenger were injured. He received an 18-month sentence last July to be served at the same time as his ongoing sentence. Dawson questioned why the “terrible” crash that killed Beckett was not “enough of a wake-up call” for him to stop drinking.
Fenton replied that he went “off the deep end” after the collision that killed the young mother and he started getting drunk every day.
“I just could not stop drinking. It was the only way I could get up in the morning,” he said.
Dawson said Fenton still struggles with being forthright. She noted that at the start of the hearing he said he was living with the mother of his child at the time of the fatal crash, but after being questioned, he admitted the two lived in separate homes.
“You have some work to do when it comes to telling the truth, being transparent and honest,” she said.
She also said she was concerned that he had an alcohol problem for 10 years before he recognized it. Fenton said he didn’t realize he was an alcoholic until the third session of a faith-based recovery program in prison.
The mother of his child repeatedly urged him to seek treatment, but he was in denial and hiding his drinking, Fenton said.
Overspending on trips cited as part of police probe of B.C. government
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA - The Speaker of the British Columbia legislature alleges in a report that the clerk and sergeant-at-arms engaged in flagrant overspending, questionable expenses and inappropriate payouts of cash “totalling in the millions of dollars.”
Darryl Plecas’s report was released Monday after it was reviewed by members of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee.
The report says that based on what he had seen and heard, Plecas believed there was a real possibility crimes may have been committed and he felt obligated to contact the RCMP.
“Regardless of what happens in the criminal context, as a workplace and as a public institution, the legislative assembly needs to review and consider these matters, and determine whether it is more likely than not that conduct has taken place that is inconsistent with the duties of those involved and the reasonable expectations of the legislative assembly,” Plecas says in his report.
Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz and clerk of the house Craig James were suspended and escorted out of the legislature in November without any explanation.
The RCMP later said it was investigating allegations against the men and that two special prosecutors had been appointed to assist in the investigation.
None of the allegations have been proven. Lenz and James said in a statement Monday they are shocked by the report and the committee’s decision to release it without contacting them for response.
“We are only now able to read the allegations for the first time and we are confident that time will show that they are completely false and untrue,” said the statement. “To be publicly accused of these things after months of secret investigation without being given any chance
to respond is contrary to all principles of fairness and decent treatment.”
The report alleges overspending on luxury trips overseas with questionable business rationales; expensing of personal purchases to the legislature in the tens of thousands of dollars; inappropriate payouts of cash in lieu of vacation in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and instances where thousands of dollars of alcohol and equipment may have been misappropriated from the legislative assembly.
“These matters are not simply bare allegations,” Plecas says in the report, adding they were based on his personal observations and interviews with others.
The report alleges James instructed legislature employees to load his pick up truck in 2013 with $10,000 worth of alcohol purchased by the legislature. Another allegation says a fire-wood splitting device purchased by the legislature ended up at James’s home where both he and Lenz used it to split wood, the report says.
The committee voted to release the report Monday and agreed to launch an audit of legislature financial issues, conduct a workplace review and submit that report to an auditor from outside of B.C. The committee also voted to give James and Lenz until Feb. 1 to respond to the report.
Plecas says in the report that British Columbia taxpayers deserve a legislative assembly that is accountable, transparent, efficient, fiscally responsible, and fair to its employees.
It says the concerns in releasing the information involve whether making the allegations public would be unfair to the employees or problematic for the police investigation.
Plecas said last December he would resign his position as Speaker if the public is not outraged over his findings at the legislature.
He later said he welcomed an audit
of the legislature’s books, adding if the results did not spark public outrage to the point people would want to “throw up,” he would quit along with his special adviser Alan Mullen.
Plecas hired Mullen, a former federal prison administrator and personal friend, in January 2017. He also hired Wally Oppal, a retired judge and former B.C. attorney general last December, to offer legal advice.
Lenz and James denied any wrongdoing at a news conference in Vancouver last November. They said they were humiliated after being placed on administrative leave and didn’t know what they’d done to provoke a police investigation but they want their jobs and their reputations back.
The Opposition Liberals had questioned the Speaker’s handling of the suspensions, but Premier John Horgan expressed confidence in the Speaker.
On Monday, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said he was shocked and saddened to read the report. Farnworth is one of four New Democrats on the eightmember committee.
“I think a lot of what I saw in it is just unacceptable,” said Farnworth of the report. “I think the general public would look at it and say, ‘That’s just wrong.’ ” Liberal House Leader Mary Polak, one of two Liberals on the committee, said she has been waiting since last year for Plecas to make his concerns public.
“We’re pleased to see the public finally has some information to look at,” she said. “It’s very concerning what we see in terms of the allegations around expenditures.”
Green party Leader Andrew Weaver said his caucus fully supports the committee’s Legislative motions.
“The report released today makes serious and shocking claims that have significant implications for public trust in our democratic institutions,” he said in a statement.
Stand.earth filed a motion with the board asking it to apply the same standard to the project as it did with the Energy East pipeline, before it submits its final report to the federal government on Feb. 22.
The group’s spokesman Sven Biggs says the board rejected the group’s attempts to put climate change on the agenda in 2014 and again last year but scientists have recently said its impacts are worse than expected so the issue is more pressing.
Biggs says the federal government has never done a proper climate review of the Trans Mountain project but there’s still a chance that could change. Stand.earth says the project would lead to more carbon dioxide in the air getting absorbed into the ocean, causing higher acidity levels that would impact endangered killer whales.
A spokesman for the board says the submission had not yet been reviewed on the project.
The Federal Court of Appeal quashed Ottawa’s approval of the project last August, saying Canada failed to meaningfully consult with First Nations and that the board decision failed to examine how the project would affect the ocean ecosystem.
CP PHOTO
House Speaker Darryl Plecas arrives at the Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting in the Douglas Fir room at the legislature in Victoria on Monday.
Winter storm slams Eastern Canada
Citizen news service
A powerful storm brought heavy snow and rain and bitter temperatures to much of Eastern and Central Canada, reminding Canadians of the many ways an unforgiving climate can disrupt their lives.
The widespread storm closed schools, flooded streets, knocked out power and forced school buses to stay off the roads in many areas Monday as temperatures began to plummet.
In Quebec and Ontario, extreme cold warnings remained in place with wind chills expected to drop to almost minus 40 in Toronto.
In some areas, though, it was warm temperatures that caused havoc.
In Saint John, N.B., some streets were knee-deep in water as a result of heavy rain that followed hours of snow and ice pellets, clogging catch basins.
“This time of the year the water has nowhere to go and if the drains are clogged, the water rises. That resulted in one apartment building being evacuated and a number of cars being abandoned,” said Geoffrey Downey, a spokesman for New Brunswick’s Emergency Measures Organization.
But with temperatures set to plummet, tow trucks were brought in to move stranded cars before they froze in place.
Many Canadian figure skaters remained stranded in Saint John Monday after the storm hit on the last day of the national skating championships. More than half of the flights out of the city’s airport were cancelled due to the weather.
The Canadian championships brought between 400 and 500 people – skaters, coaches, officials, and various staff members – to the event. Many were forced to extend their stay as they looked for rescheduled flights.
“We’ve got limited flights for
people to change to, and it’s still an unknown as to how many flights are going to get out and when,” said Terry Sheahan, the senior director of marketing and events for Skate Canada. Montreal and Ottawa were looking at daytime highs of just minus
Bitter cold leaves six dead in northeast U.S.
Falling temperatures replaced the weekend snow Monday as bitter cold and gusty winds swept across the eastern U.S.
The National Weather Service had forecast that temperatures would be more than 20 degrees below normal across the Northeast, with wind gusts up to 50 km/h and wind chills approaching -40 C in northern New York and Vermont.
Atop the Northeast’s highest mountain, the temperature fell to -31 Monday morning and dropped to -35 later in the afternoon, according to the Facebook page for Mount Washington Observatory, in New Hampshire. Wind chills were hovering around -62.
In New York, Coast Guard crews moved quickly to rescue a 21-year-old man left
stranded on an island in the Navensink River after his small boat broke down. The Coast Guard said crews arrived just over half an hour after the call came in Monday morning, and two members waded through icy water to bring the man to safety. The air temperature was -14 with 50 km/h wind.
“Cold water and below freezing temperatures can complicate rescues like this and turn a bad situation to worse very fast,” said Cmdr. Rich Sansone, search and rescue coordinator for Coast Guard Sector New York.
The weather contributed to multiple deaths over the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
In suburban Chicago, the temperature was about -10 Sunday when a 12-year-old girl died after a snow fort collapsed on her. Police in Arlington Heights, Ill., said Esther Jung had been playing with another
girl outside Rothem Church. Their families began looking for them about an hour later and found them under the snow. The younger girl survived.
In Connecticut, a utility company subcontractor died Sunday after being struck by a falling tree while working on a power line in Middleton. More than 10,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut remained without power Monday afternoon, down from a high of more than 25,000 outages Sunday.
In Kansas, a snowplow driver was killed when the plow drove onto the shoulder of a road and rolled over, throwing him under the vehicle. It wasn’t clear why the driver had moved to the shoulder from the roadway. And in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said a 59-year-old man and a 91-year-old man collapsed and died Sunday in separate inci-
15 to 17 with icy wind chills as low as minus 40 where exposed skin can suffer frostbite in just minutes.
In Oakville, it was so cold Monday morning, crossing guards were called off duty for much of the day.
In Montreal, they even cancelled a festival dedicated to snow. The city said Sunday it was suspending the Fete des Neiges due to the snowy, windy and cold weather as well as the dangerous conditions on Quebec’s roads.
The storm proved deadly for the 93-year-old mother of former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.
The coroner’s office is investigating after Helene Rowley Hotte was found in the snow outside a retirement home in east-end Montreal. She had been locked out after leaving the building because of a fire alarm.
Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the tracking of the system brought a variety of conditions across the Maritimes in terms of precipitation and temperatures.
“New Brunswick was the hardest hit in terms of snow, particularly northern New Brunswick,” he said.
Bas-Caraquet, in northeast New Brunswick recorded 41 cm of new snow, while parts of Nova Scotia got up to 15 centimetres snow followed by 30-60 mm of rain.
dents after removing snow.
A man in charge of transportation at a southwestern Michigan school district also died while shovelling snow. Portage district officials said Mike Westbrook died Saturday from a heart attack.
While FlightAware reported about 480 cancelled flights Monday, that was a fraction of the more than 1,600 that were cancelled the previous day. And after a few weather-related delays Sunday, Amtrak restored all scheduled service on Monday.
Another storm system is already developing over the Rockies that could blanket the same region with more snow by the end of the week. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for parts of Colorado for Monday night, and winter storm warnings for southeast Wyoming, western Nebraska and Utah.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
A tourist makes his way onto Parliament Hill Monday in Ottawa. Cold weather continued to affect the region with cold temperatures and windchill warnings in effect.
Uncertainty rules Indigenous affairs
The efforts of Canada’s Indigenous rights movement to flex political muscle are most acutely felt in British Columbia.
B.C.’s strategic location as the country’s only Pacific province gives it outsize influence over energy projects that require its unique geography, yet the province is also home to Canada’s most legally ambiguous claims of Indigenous territory. Enormous swatches of British Columbia were never officially surrendered by Indian treaties and in 1997 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Indigenous nations can still assert “title” to the land.
Symbolically, it has been easy for British Columbian politicians, academics, entertainers and “woke” individuals broadly to adjust to this new understanding by ostentatiously acknowledging the “unceded” nature of their province before any public act. As a practical matter, however, things are trickier.
If legal authority over most of British Columbia has never been granted to the governments that purport to rule it, then it follows that use of B.C. land must be carried out according to the wishes of its true owners. But who speaks for them?
Canadian governments tend to talk to the Indigenous governments recognized by the Indian Act, which, since 1876, has required any “body of Indians” holding claim or trust to organize themselves through elected councils. Though politicians claim to find the Victorian paternalism of the Indian Act distasteful, the notion that aboriginal governments should conduct themselves democratically seemed among its least contentious provisions. Yet a recent jurisdictional struggle highlights the degree to which even that assumption can no longer be taken for granted.
The council of the Wet’suwet’en Nation has authorized construction of a natural gas pipeline through their claimed territory but the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have not. Forces loyal to the chiefs set up blockades and earlier this month mobilized outrage among Indigenous Canadians and the Canadian left. The notion that elected aboriginal councils are colonial impositions at odds with “traditional governance structures” like hereditary monarchies has burst into the mainstream. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who theoretically backs natural resource development but also vows to make Aboriginal “reconciliation” the hallmark of his tenure, has conceded to Indigenous nations that “it’s not for the federal government to decide who speaks for you.”
Yet if the federal and provincial governments (to say nothing of private industry) are going to have any useful relationship with the true owners of British Columbia, at some point someone, somewhere, has to give the question of “who speaks for the Aboriginals” a definitive answer. In some corners, even framing the question elicits offense. Canada’s First Nations are collectivist and egalitarian, they say, meaning community consent may emerge slowly, through gradual consensus between leaders and people.
As a functional matter, of course, it will be bureaucrats, lawyers and judges who will sort out these complicated questions of Aboriginal decision-making. The fact exposes the shifting economic and class interests that define Canada’s new era of reconciliation.
When Canada’s modern Indian Affairs regime was set up by Ottawa in the 1970s, Canada’s leaders could take for granted a certain symbiosis between the interests of Indigenous Canadians and the strength of
the country’s natural-resource sector. Given the number of Aboriginal people living in rural communities close to oil wells, gas pipelines, mines and dams, it was rational to assume that a more cooperative management of traditional native territories was the most viable way of bringing long-term material benefit to First Nations. Negotiation was mostly a matter of divvying up royalties and jobs.
Such sentiments are still shared by many in the Indigenous community.
When the pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en territory was given final approval this past October, Karen OgenToews, a former elected Wet’suwet’en chief who now serves as leader of an alliance of pro-development aboriginal bands, praised the decision as something that would bring “real benefits to Indigenous Peoples and communities, long-term careers and reliable revenue to help First Nations close the economic gap between their members and other Canadians.”
However, recent decades have also seen a powerful faction of the Indigenous rights movement become more interwoven with the interests of urban professionals in Canada’s big cities. Priorities migrated from the pursuit of material gain for aboriginal individuals to big, existential questions of land ownership and political authority. Power, accordingly, shifted to the sorts of people and industries capable of contributing to such conversations, including lawyers, academics, civil servants and consultants of all kinds.
Many progressive, white-collar professionals have found their alliance with First Nations exhilarating. They have gained prestigious new clients who offer workplace opportunities to pursue ideological goals. This notably includes environmental activism, a cause now deeply intertwined with
Carbon clarifications
Forests fix and store huge amounts of carbon. Forestry is also B.C.’s biggest source of carbon emissions. Yet the province’s forest carbon strategy seems to be that our forests will all soon burn up, fall to beetles or blow down. We should quickly log much more, store carbon in long-lasting wood products and landfills, use logging debris for biofuel, and promptly reforest to take up more carbon. Here are seven forest carbon myths tied to this strategy.
1) Forestry is carbon neutral. It could be but usually isn’t. Logging and converting wild forests to managed forests releases large, unrecoverable amounts of CO2, even when off-site storage in wood products is factored in.
2) Young forests take up more carbon than they emit and are carbon sinks. Old forests take up less carbon than they emit and are carbon sources. Most old forests fix more carbon than they emit and store much more carbon than do young forests.
3) Forests are impermanent carbon banks doomed by wildfire and insects. B.C. forests will not disappear overnight. Currently stored carbon has much greater time value than uptake by juvenile forests or storage recouped over 75-plus post-logging years.
4) Warmer wetter, CO2-enriched conditions will enhance tree growth and forest productivity. Productiv-
ity constraints include increasing moisture stress, wildfire, pests, diseases, short-lived CO2 boost and reduced forest resilience.
5) Forestry slows global warming because logging shifts carbon to long-lasting products, and replacement forests rapidly absorb more carbon. Most forest carbon is lost as logging and processing residues. Wood production and storage result in increased net emissions, despite carbon uptake by young forests.
6) Intensive plantation forestry maximizes carbon storage by fixing lots of it and substituting wood products for fossil-fuel-intensive products. It takes a long time for reforestation to offset emissions. Short-rotation stands incur a permanent carbon debt. Presumed benefits of substituting wood for concrete/steel would exceed carbon storage of unlogged forest only after many decades, if ever.
7) Generating energy by burning woody biomass is both renewable and carbon neutral. Wood pellets help fight climate change. Largescale production of bioenergy from forests is not carbon neutral, sustainable, or environmentally friendly. Wood is renewable but trees grow slowly. Wood also has low energy density. For equal heat, you must burn more woody fuel than fossil fuels, giving off more CO2. Burning wood pellets will not help reduce atmospheric emissions by 2050.
Jim Pojar, Smithers
No ticket sympathy
I am very disturbed by the front page article featuring Mr. VanVeen’s obvious failure to follow our city’s bylaws. I have no sympathy for him, nor for the excuses he employs to justify his wrong. A wrong is a wrong.
I am even more distressed by the PG Citizen for placing this minor issue on the front page. That is unacceptable. It makes me wonder what the PG Citizen has against the city administration. Whatever it is, it belongs on the editorial page because it is an opinion. I am a very longtime supporter of The Citizen and my confidence in it has been damaged by this story. Barb Dean Prince George
Keep the name
This is a reply to the possibility of Kelly Road secondary school being renamed. Kelly Road had been around for over 50 years and it has been an amazing addition to the Hart community.
From the Kelly Road craft fair to the Kelly Road burger bash, Kelly Road has been a staple in many people’s lives.
I’ve asked many people their opinion on the topic of a name change for Kelly Road and they all say the same thing – “what, are you crazy?”
Even a 12-year-old boy did not
Mailing
Aboriginal assertions of land control. It has come at a price, however. As urban professionals equipped to manage Indigenous political disputes enjoy more visibility, those working in natural-resource industries in rural Canada might face a corresponding bust. Notably, this includes tens of thousands of Aboriginal workers. Natural Resources Canada estimates that more than 16,500 Indigenous Canadians work in mining, while the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers claims that 11,900 Indigenous employees work for the country’s oil and gas industry. Collectively, this makes Aboriginal Canadians “better represented in the resource sector than in any other sector of the economy outside of public administration,” according to the Conference Board of Canada. Episodes like the Wet’suwet’en affair, or the Trans Mountain pipeline debacle before it, demonstrate the modern Indigenous rights movement’s ability to make the creation of new resource projects that sustain jobs in the industry extraordinarily difficult – and, in time, probably not worth attempting. This has generated considerable populist outrage among affected workers and will be one of the reasons Trudeau’s party will likely perform terribly in western Canada during this fall’s general election. Yet even if Trudeau loses, it won’t matter much. The laws and policies that form the foundations of Canada’s modern Aboriginal affairs framework have been largely forged outside of Parliament, dictated by an unelected judiciary consistently biased in one direction.
In more ways than one, Canada’s Indigenous future looks likely to be divorced from the democratic assumptions that governed its past.
—
J.J.
McCullough is a writer based in Vancouver.
Letters welcome
The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers.
Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca
No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7.
Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week.
We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length.
Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes.
Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published.
The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour.
If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen.ca or 250-960-2759).
If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844877-1163 for additional information.
want the name to change because “my dad went to Kelly Road and I want to go to the same school that my dad did!”
Kelly Road is being rebuilt but it will still be the same school, the same friendly teachers and the same great students.
Kelly Road secondary school does not need a new name, we don’t want a new name and we especially don’t want it to be a random name some elementary school student picks.
When schools hear they have to play against Kelly Road in basketball or volleyball, it strikes fear in their hearts.
A name change would ruin the Kelly Road reputation. What about the iconic roadrunner? Many of Kelly Road’s teams have gotten new jerseys and they cost a lot of money. We would not want to rename the school and need all new equipment.
As a student from Kelly Road, I can assure you that we do not want a name change. Gloria Butcher Prince George
Snow removal anger
This is my take on snow removal in Prince George. To start with, I’m not complaining about snow removal on my street as me and my neighbours cleared our road with our own blowers free of charge.
After our last big snow driving or should i say humping around town, we found only two streets plowed – Ospika and 17th Avenue in the Millar Addition.
There was not a snowplow in sight during our outing and Fifth Avenue, 10th Avenue and 15th Avenue were untouched.
You don’t need a degree to figure out at least some of what’s happening . Now that the snow has stopped, I see trucks spreading sand three days in a row needlessly,and trucks stopping for long periods hiding and I have seen this many times on my street. Why is our budget for snow removal always running on empty?
Increasing taxes will not help poor management.
When there is no snow, find other jobs for these people to do and not run around wasting fuel and time doing nothing productive or cost effective.
I drove trucks in this town for 40 years when things were slow and we did all kinds of work.
I was appalled to hear Mayor Lyn Hall wants to raise taxes to cover for this.
The snow removal has never been as bad as it is in the last five to seven years and it’s always the same excuse – the budget. Does the budget not begin on Jan. 1?
Give me a break.
B. Rosin Prince George
Display advertising, digital advertising and website inquiries: 250-562-2441 ads@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca
Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca
Website: www.pgcitizen.ca
Website feedback: digital@glaciermedia.ca
Member of the National Newsmedia Council A division of Glacier Media
Pipelines will overshadow federal election
Oct. 19 is supposed to be federal election day. Give or take a few days, it is nine months from now.
The parties are starting to position themselves for their campaigns.
Each is staking out their ground. But it is going to be difficult for any party to lay clear claim to any political territory.
The number one issue will likely be pipelines.
The federal Liberals have entered into an agreement and purchased the TransMountain pipeline with a promise to get it built.
This is in Alberta’s best interests and, if the Alberta government’s advertising is to be believed, Canada’s best interests as well.
But the B.C. NDP are opposed to the pipeline – especially if it is going to terminate in the busy Vancouver harbor.
There is major opposition to having tankers befouling the waters of Burrard Inlet.
As I See It
Further, increasing freighter traffic through the Salish Sea will severely impact wildlife and threaten the southern orca population.
Then there are the First Nations along the route, which bring into play a whole other level of government.
There is a great deal of uncertainty for all pipelines across the province as companies are not sure who they are supposed to be negotiating with or how to get to consensus and a settlement.
For the federal Liberals, this leaves them in an awkward position.
They can assert domain over projects in the nation’s interest and build the pipeline, thereby appeasing Albertans but annoying British Columbians and potentially
ending up in litigation with First Nations.
Or they can shut down the pipe dream and disable the economies of the Western provinces, which means they will suffer the wrath of prairie folk and many northernwea. Either choice leaves someone unhappy.
The situation is not any better for the Conservatives nor the NDP.
In the case of the Conservatives, if they maintain their “probusiness” stance, they will anger the segment of B.C.’s population which is concerned about the environment.
Such a stance will reinforce the belief Conservative politicians are all in denial with respect to climate change is happening. But their stance will serve them well east of the Rockies.
For the federal NDP, if they adopt the provincial stance and oppose the pipelines, they will be hung with the moniker of being anti-business and anti-progress. All of the potentially good-paying union jobs related to construction
of the pipelines would vanish. Not something which will garner them support.
On the other hand, for the NDP to come out in support of the pipelines would put them in conflict with the strong environmental faction of the NDP party.
They would risk losing votes to Green Party candidates who can stand firm on the pipeline issue and economic progress be damned.
But it isn’t just pipelines across B.C. which are a source of contention.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault provided a wish list for the federal parties in the coming campaign.
While claiming not to want to support any party in particular, his list of demands include having no federal party advocate for an oil pipeline from Alberta through Quebec to Atlantic Canada or to Eastern Canada, period. In his view, the social license for such a project is simply not there. This, of course, puts him at odds with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer
who has already stated his support for reviving the defunct Energy East pipeline proposal.
As Quebec is likely to be a major battleground in the coming election and with 78 seats available, appeasing the population is good politics.The Liberals will need to increase the 41 seats they have if they are going to be losing seats in Alberta and/or British Columbia. Since they only took four seats in Alberta in the last federal election and are unlikely to make any inroads into the Conservative party’s stronghold, perhaps they don’t matter. As for B.C., the Liberals did well with 17 out of 42 seats but these are now at risk, depending upon pipeline politics.
The one disadvantage the Prime Minister has is that he must keep pushing the pipeline agenda. All of the other parties can sit back and watch as he squirms his way through the minefield. They don’t have to do anything other than criticize.
So there is no doubt the issue of pipelines will remain a hot topic for the foreseeable future.
TODD WHITCOMBE
Support for the boys
to 700
Blazers leave Cats licking their wounds
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
The Kamloops Blazers might have groaned a few months ago when they saw the WHL schedule was taking them to Prince George for two games in less than two days, right after a date in Kamloops with the Prince Albert Raiders.
The way the Blazers have dominated proceedings the past couple years at CN Centre, they needn’t have worried.
On Vegas Night Saturday they ran the table and left the Cougars flat broke – dealing out a 3-1 loss in front of 3,156 witnesses which marked the fourth time in four tries they’ve beaten the Cats this season. It was their ninth straight win at CN Centre dating back to March 2017.
Losers of six straight and 13 of their last 16 games, the Blazers ended their slide with a thorough beat-down of the Cougars. In a clash of WHL B.C. Division rivals that lacked flow but had plenty of emotion, they got the better of the Cats by simply outworking them.
“Our team has been pretty good here and we had a lot of energy and a lot of jump and that was big for us coming off six losses and tough defeats,” said Blazers captain Jermaine Loewen. “We’ve been pretty good
Kamloops comes back for Sunday OT win
The Kamloops Blazers used a third-period goal and another in overtime to beat the Prince George Cougars 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at CN Centre.
The Cougars entered the final frame with a 2-1 lead but Martin Lang got the equalizer at the 8:38 mark and then Zane Franklin netted the winner at 4:10 of the extra session. After a scoreless first period, Josh Maser and Matej Toman connected for the Cougars in the second. Their goals were sandwiched around one by Montana Onyebuchi of the Blazers.
against them here but I didn’t realize it was (nine consecutive wins), that’s crazy.
“You’re always engaged against them and there were a lot of skirmishes after every whistle,” he added. “It’s a battle and it’s fun. It’s every shift. The refs let us kind of get at it and there were some big hits.”
None were bigger than one Loewen took six minutes into the game when he met the business end of Mike Maclean’s shoulder and was sent sprawling to the ice.
The Blazers have struggled with their defensive-zone coverage the past couple months, which sent them into a tailspin and head coach Serge Lajoie hopes the improve-
Kamloops outshot Prince George 38-29. The Blazers didn’t have a power play in the game, while the Cougars went 0-for-1 with the man advantage. Dylan Ferguson was the winning goaltender and Taylor Gauthier took the loss. With the result, the Cougars (16-24-22) dropped to last place in the Western Conference, one point behind the Blazers (17-24-2-1).
The Cougars will face the Moose Jaw Warriors (24-11-6-2) tonight at CN Centre (7 p.m. start).
— Citizen staff
ment they showed Saturday taking away scoring chances and protecting their goalie will be the start of a trend.
“We’ve been preaching the last two or three weeks to bring a workman attitude to every game and it’s not always going to go our way but it really has to be entrenched in our game plan,” said Lajoie. “That requires guys sacrificing a bit of what they want to do and how they want to play for the benefit of what’s best and that’s putting pucks in areas where we can apply pressure and we can make it hard for the other team to come up the ice.”
The Blazers showed no signs of bus legs
after the six-hour trip to Prince George that started not long after they lost 4-1 to the league-leading Raiders. They scored first, taking advantage of a 2-on-1 break after Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg got caught pinching at the far blueline. Kobe Mohr fed the puck over to Kyrell Sopotyk and the 17-year-old from Aberdeen, Sask., buried it from just outside Taylor Gauthier’s doorstep with 8:21 gone. That came right after Cougars winger Vladislav Mikhalchuk came close on a partial breakaway. see ‘IT’S NOT, page 10
RIGHT: Close
people packed around Ernie Sam Memorial Arena for Sunday’s Winter Classic between the Cariboo Cougars and Vancouver Northeast Chiefs.
‘It’s not good enough’: Matvichuk
from page 9
“It wasn’t pretty but our guys were disciplined in playing the game plan,” said Lajoie. “We played with a lot of pace (against the Raiders) for a good 50 minutes and it took us a while to get going but once we did we seemed to have decent energy. For whatever reason, we seem to find the energy in this building.”
In a scrambly second period the Cougars couldn’t seem to do anything right, fumbling away the puck at just about every opportunity. Connor Zary made it a 2-0 game when he buried a rebound in front while falling backwards after Loewen rattled a shot off the goalpost.
As badly as the Cougars were playing, they got back into the game late in the second period with a power-play goal. Jackson Leppard forced Orrin Centazzo into a holding penalty while carrying the puck out from the side boards and it took just 27 seconds of the penalty for Josh Maser to cut the Kamloops lead to 2-1. He was in perfect position screening goalie Dylan Ferguson when Ryan Schoettler let go a shot from the point. Maser pounced on the loose puck, spun around and dumped it into the open cage for his team-leading 17th goal of the season.
In the third period, the Cougars continued to struggle on offence, given very little room to operate, and they drew a crowd of Blazers whenever they tried to break through into the Kamloops zone. The backbreaker came 8:54 into the period when Martin Lang stole the puck and took a sharp-angle shot from the right-wing wall that caught a sliver of net behind Gauthier, still down on his knees after he had to make two quick saves.
“It’s not good enough, we’ve lost four in a row to this team and eventually you have to show up and compete to the level it takes to win hockey games and tonight we didn’t do it again,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk, pointing the finger of blame directly at his older players.
“If our best guys aren’t leading the charge then this team ain’t going anywhere. They know who they are and they have to play better. Right from the drop of the puck we didn’t compete, we didn’t want it. I’m not sure if they thought it was going to be an easy night but if we’re not willing to work and be determined and sacrifice for each other we’re not going to win many hockey games.”
Cougars winger Reid Perepeluk played his first game since Dec. 16. He missed nine games and lost 25 pounds while he was
Gray goes from Yankees to Reds
NEW YORK (AP) — Adding Sonny Gray to a rotation already improved by the off-season acquisitions of Tanner Roark and Alex Wood has the Cincinnati Reds thinking about their first NL Central title since 2012.
“I think we have a group of guys that can hold their own with anybody in this division. I really do,” president of baseball operations Dick Williams said Monday after finalizing a trade with the New York Yankees for Gray.
“I know our guys feel a sense of confidence.”
Gray’s unsuccessful stretch in New York ended when the Yankees traded the pitcher after the 29-year-old right-hander agreed to a contract with the Reds that added $30.5 million from 2020-22 and includes a 2023 club option. New York received infield prospect Shed Long and a high pick in this year’s ama-
teur draft, then flipped Long to Seattle for 21-year-old outfielder Josh Stowers. The Yankees sent the Reds left-hander Reiver Sanmartin.
Derek Johnson, the new Reds pitching coach for manager David Bell, was Vanderbilt’s pitching coach when Gray played for the Commodores from 200912. Johnson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, Gray’s off-season home, and they keep in touch.
“It’s a guy who’s really talented and a guy who I think’s right in the middle of his prime and also a hungry guy,” Johnson said.
“I think that’s the thing that we’re all counting on. I know what kind of competitor Sonny is and I know that last year didn’t sit well with him at all and he’s going to be out to try to prove something not only to other people but obviously to himself, as well.”
sidelined with mononucleosis. Perepeluk brought surges of energy to the Cougars’ fourth line, playing with MacLean and Connor Bowie, and came close to scoring his first of the season during his second shift early in the game when he jumped on a loose puck in the slot after Ferguson kicked out the rebound of Bowie’s shot.
Like the rest of the Cougars, Perepeluk had a hard time explaining why his team came out so flat playing in their own barn against their closest WHL rivals. It was a far cry from the week before when they domi-
nated the Kelowna Rockets in two games at CN Centre.
“We were moving and making plays and just giving more of a 100 per cent effort (against Kelowna) than we were tonight,” said Perepeluk.
“There’s a lot of guys in the dressing room, including me, that could have given more. We just have to be ready to go. If we start focusing tonight on the opportunities and visualizing the game then I think definitely we’ll have a better shot. We’re a better team than these guys.”
Laing leads T-wolves past Bears
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Since he began his university basketball career Tyrell Laing has had to bide his time as the UNBC Timberwolves part-time point guard.
Saturday night at the Butterdome in Edmonton, home of the high-and-mighty Alberta Golden Bears, Laing’s role as the Twolves’ quarterback was upgraded from secondfiddle bench reserve to prime-time starter and he used the opportunity to steal the show.
The third-year Prince George Secondary School grad hit seven of his 11 attempts from threepoint territory while racking up a career-high 25 points in an 81-70 victory that ended the T-wolves’ four-game losing streak.
stay composed. You have to be tough and mentally tough down the stretch and the guys found a way to do that.”
UNBC (8-8) lost 76-68 to the Bears on Friday.
The T-wolves shot 41.7 per cent from the field (25-for-60) and hit 41.2 per cent (14-for-34) of their triples. James Agyeman had 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Vova Pluzhnikov hit for 14 points. Ivan Ikomi (14 points) and Brody Clarke (12 points, 10 rebounds) led the Bears. In the women’s game, the Alberta Pandas (14-2) won their 12th straight game, handing the T-wolves a 85-75 loss.
“Tyrell Laing was real good for them tonight – he gave them confidence to shoot the ball and they ran with it,” Bears head coach Barnaby Craddock told canadawest. org. “They did a great job. They made things difficult on us, and we didn’t have the confidence to knock shots down. We have to admit they were better than us tonight and try to learn from it.”
It was the first loss in more than two months for the Golden Bears (12-4), who had won nine straight and were ranked No. 6 in the U Sports national poll.
“I’m real proud of the guys,” said Timberwolves head coach Todd Jordan. “When you make threes, the three can be the X-factor in the game and making a bunch of those really helped us pull the momentum away.”
The teams were tied 39-39 at the half. In the third quarter, the T-wolves hit six triples for a 62-52 lead. In the fourth quarter they crept to within 68-65 but Laing ended the suspense when he hit another long shot.
“There was a stretch where we were really rattled,” said Jordan. “We found a way to
Emma Kary put up 29 points for Alberta and Jenna Harpe and Vanessa Wild each shot 16 points. For the T-wolves (9-7), Vasiliki Louka collected 23 points and nine rebounds, Madison Landry had 17 points and Maria Mongomo finished with 14.
Trailing most of the game, the T-wolves went on a 20-9 run to tie the Pandas 57-57 by the midway mark of the third quarter, but that’s as close as it got. Harpe and Wild each hit treys to close out the quarter to touch off a 9-0 run for a 66-59 lead.
“Their runs are hard to play against,” said T-wolves assistant coach Mark Johnson. “They’re so skilled top through bottom. If one girl has a quiet night, the next night she steps up and score.
“They have so many weapons; they can go on those runs because you focus your attention on their key players and someone else comes up big. Their depth is hard to prepare for.”
The Alberta women posted an 86-72 win over UNBC on Friday.
Both T-wolves teams are on the road again this weekend in Vancouver against the UBC Thunderbirds. They close out the regular season at home at the Northern Sport Centre Feb. 1-2 against Lethbridge.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Prince George Cougars defenceman Joel Lakusta cuts to the net while protecting the puck from Connor Zary of the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night at CN Centre.
Flames scorching thanks to power play
Citizen news service
CALGARY — A propellant in the Calgary Flames’ surge to the top of the NHL’s Western Conference is a power play with pop.
Calgary’s man advantage was not a strength last season, when the Flames finished tied for thirdlast in the NHL in that department.
It took a few weeks for Calgary’s power play to build steam under new coaches this season, but the Flames have scored a league-leading 12 goals with a man advantage so far in January.
Top-line centre Sean Monahan had potted three this month with Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Sam Bennett contributing two apiece.
With 42 goals from Calgary’s power-play units in 50 games this season, the Flames are one away from matching their entire output of 2017-18.
“In the last month, both units have provided offence and scored, so that’s been a big boost for us, and they’ve been timely goals also,” Flames head coach Bill Peters said.
“A little competition between those two units is always healthy too.”
Peters, in his first season behind Calgary’s bench, assigned power-play management to assistant Geoff Ward, who also arrived last summer from the New Jersey Devils.
“Once we knew we had Wardo coming in to run our power play, I don’t know if he spent any time looking at what was done here in the past,” Peters said. “We talked about those types of philosophies and what we believe in. He looked at the skill sets of everybody and came up with what we’re currently doing.”
Calgary’s power play ranked 13th in the NHL on Jan. 1 with a 21.1 per cent success rate. The Flames have since elevated that to 24.1 per cent, good for eighth in the league.
Monahan leads Calgary in power-play goals with 11, which puts him in a three-way tie for second in the NHL behind Boston’s David Pastrnak and Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point (13).
Gaudreau tops the Flames in power-play points with 22.
The Flames have averaged just under 3.5 powerplay chances per game this season compared to 3.2 last season.
“I think this year, we’re allowing ourselves to be on the power play more,” Monahan said. “We’re moving our feet more, which gives us more time on the power play by drawing penalties.
“When you’re drawing penalties and you’re getting yourself on the power play, you’ve got to get momentum from that. When you’re out there that much on special teams, you’ve got to make something happen.”
The Flames (32-13-5) are at home tonight to the Hurricanes (23-20-5) before the all-star break combined with a bye gives Calgary an eight-day hiatus.
Peters, who coached Carolina for four seasons before his arrival in Calgary, will face his former club for the first time.
“It’ll be fun, it’ll be good,” Peters said. “I think they’ll know what we’re trying to do and I’ll know what they’re trying to do to a certain degree.”
It’s also the first game between the two clubs since Flames GM Brad Treliving sent defenceman Dougie Hamilton, forward Michael Ferland and prospect Adam Fox to Raleigh to get Lindholm and defenceman Noah Hanifin in June.
After musing to reporters following Monday’s practice that he would probably go say hello to the Hurricanes he knew, Peters didn’t have to wait long to make contact
Rod Brind’Amour, who was promoted from assistant to head coach after Peters’ departure, waded through media to shake the Calgary’s coach’s hand.
After Carolina’s 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Brind’Amour threatened to come off the bench and out of retirement to play, which was a source of hilarity between him and Peters.
The former Hurricanes’ captain retired in 2010 after a 20-year career.
Past versus future in Super Bowl
Citizen news service
It began in 2002, back when the Rams were in St. Louis and the Patriots were a plucky underdog standing in the way of a potential dynasty.
So much has changed.
This hasn’t: Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
The duo, every bit as formidable now as when they won that first title, face the Rams, now back in Los Angeles, in a Super Bowl rematch of sorts that pits the NFL’s past against its future.
At 32, Sean McVay is the youngest Super Bowl coach. At 66, Bill Belichick has an NFL-record 30 playoff wins.
At 24, Jared Goff is the youngest quarterback to win the NFC championship. At 41, Brady will be the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl.
The Rams (15-3) are back in the Super Bowl for the first time since that meeting against the Patriots – and for the first time as the “Los Angeles Rams” since 1980, when they fell to the Steelers. The Patriots (13-5) are back for the third straight time – they lost to Philly last year – the fourth in five seasons and the ninth since Belichick got the New England dynasty on track in the 2002 win over St. Louis.
The Rams duo of McVay and Goff has spent the past two seasons heralding the coming of a new age of football – one in which McVay’s reimagined offence has dealt a blow to the old, increasingly dated adage that teams ultimately must win championships with defence. The Rams have cracked 30 points in 13 of their 18 games this season. A generation ago, that would’ve been novel; now, it’s normal.
But to officially usher the NFL into a new era, the Rams will have to get past New England, which is a one-point favourite for the game in Atlanta, set for
At 24, Jared Goff is the youngest quarterback to win the NFC championship. At 41, Brady will be the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl.
Feb. 3 – exactly 17 years to the date of the last Super Bowl showdown, and a bit more than three months since the Boston Red Sox topped the LA Dodgers for the World Series. (Who will Magic and Bird cheer for? Stay tuned.)
Is Brady up to it?
Well, on Sunday, he drove the Patriots down the field for three straight touchdowns – two in the fourth quarter and once in overtime – for a 37-31 victory over the Chiefs , the only team that gained more yards than Los Angeles this season. It put an end to the dream of a rematch between two teams of the future – Rams vs. Chiefs – who delivered a wildly entertaining, defence-optional touchdown-fest in a 54-51 Rams victory in November. Instead, we get a “rematch” of that 2002 Super Bowl, won by the Patriots 20-17.
The Rams came into that game as a franchise on the edge of a dynasty. They were one season removed from their first Super Bowl win, led by quarterback Kurt Warner and known as “The Greatest Show on Turf” for the fake grass they burned up at their seven-yearold home in St. Louis. They had amassed what was then unheard of – 500-plus points in three straight seasons – and were a two-touchdown favourite against Belichick and Brady, who was in his second year and best known as the sixthround draft pick Belichick stuck with after Drew Bledsoe got injured.
New England used ball control, defence and a last-second field goal to
topple Warner and the Rams. On the surface, the task figures to not be all that different this time around, though Brady is showing he’s perfectly capable of matching opponents touchdownfor-touchdown. Sunday’s win adds to a Week 6 victory over Kansas City by the score of 43-40. The Patriots ranked fifth in overall offence this season, only 28 yards a game behind LA. Theirs is an offence built around Brady, his mastery of diagnosing defences at the line of scrimmage and his ability to use interchangeable parts on his offence over the years. (Receiver Julian Edelman and tight end Rob Gronkowski have stood out most recently.)
And stability. Offensive co-ordinator Josh McDaniels has interviewed for jobs virtually every year since returning to Foxborough after short stints in Denver and St. Louis. He was out the door for Indy last year, but changed his mind and returned once again to call plays for Belichick.
As for the Rams, they improved from 10th last year in offence to second this season, as McVay and Goff found their footing. But maybe the most telling sign of their success is that McVay’s offensive assistants are, as a group, the most sought-after sideline talent in the league. Two left after last season. Two more, quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor and tight ends coach Shane Waldron, are drawing attention this season.
Now, the ultimate question: if they leave, will they do so with a Super Bowl ring?
Los Angeles Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman, left, and tight end Gerald Everett celebrate in the locker room after overtime of the NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in New Orleans. The Rams won 26-23.
Argo CIA officer mourned
Citizen news service
A former CIA technical operations officer who helped rescue six U.S. diplomats from Iran in 1980 and was portrayed by Ben Affleck in the film Argo, has died. He was 78. A family statement and his literary agent confirmed that Antonio “Tony” Mendez died Saturday at an assisted-living centre in Frederick, Maryland. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease, according to the statement.
Specializing in covert operations, Mendez helped devise the plan under which six diplomats who were in hiding were disguised as a Canadian film crew so they could board a flight and escape
the country amid the Iran hostage crisis.
The daring plot – for years a side note to the 52 people held hostage for 444 days – captured the public’s attention in Argo, which won the 2013 Oscar for best picture.
Mendez, who joined the CIA after getting recruited in 1965, spent his 25-year career working undercover in Cold War battlegrounds, including the Soviet Union.
Working as a “chief of disguise,” Mendez and his workers helped secret agents remain secret through creating false documents and disguises, according to a biography for his first book, The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA.
“Tony Mendez was a true American hero. He was a man of extraor-
dinary grace, decency, humility and kindness,” Affleck tweeted
Saturday. “He never sought the spotlight for his actions, he merely sought to serve his country. I’m so proud to have worked for him and to have told one of his stories.”
The Argo screenplay, based on another Mendez memoir and also an Oscar winner, was liberally embellished for the big screen.
The six Americans’ passage through the Tehran airport and onto a plane was uneventful, Mendez wrote.
But the movie portrayed a white-knuckle takeoff at the Tehran airport, with Iranian assault teams racing behind the jet down the runway.
Born in Nevada, Mendez moved to Colorado at age 14, attended the University of Colorado and worked for Martin Marietta on
the Titan intercontinental missile, according to the online biography. He was recruited for the CIA in Denver through a blind ad.
In less than two years, the biography says, he and his family had moved overseas while Mendez worked in South and Southeast Asia.
His wife, Jonna, is also a former chief of disguise in the CIA’s Office of Technical Service. The two wrote a book about their agency work in Moscow in the final days of the Cold War and their romance, which led to their marriage after he retired in 1990. Mendez was also an accomplished painter.
His family says he will be buried in a private ceremony at the family graveyard in Nevada.
Beyond The Melting Pot author remembered
Citizen news service
Nathan Glazer, a prominent sociologist and public intellectual who assisted on a classic study of conformity, The Lonely Crowd, and co-authored a groundbreaking document of non-conformity, Beyond the Melting Pot, has died at 95.
Glazer’s daughter, Sarah Glazer, confirmed her father died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Saturday morning. A longtime professor at Harvard University, Glazer, was among the last of the deeplyread thinkers who influenced culture and politics in the mid-20th century. Starting in the 1940s, Glazer was a writer and editor for Commentary and The New Republic. He was a co-editor of The Public Interest, and wrote or co-wrote numerous books. With peers such as Daniel Bell and Irving Howe, he had a wide range of interests, “a notion of universal competence,” from foreign policy to Modernist architecture, subject of one his latter books, From a Cause to a Style.
A radical in his youth, he was regarded as a founding “neo-conservative,” a label he resisted.
His most famous projects were the million-selling The Lonely Crowd, primarily written by David Riesman and a prescient 1950 release about consumerism and peer
pressure, and the landmark Beyond the Melting Pot, which countered the core American myth of assimilation.
Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan examined five racial and ethnic groups in New York City – blacks, Italian-Americans, Jews, Puerto Ricans and Irish-Americans –and concluded that even as languages and customs from the old world faded, new styles and traditions emerged that reflected distinct identities.
“It was reasonable to believe that a new American type would emerge, a new nationality in which it would be a matter of indifference whether a man was of Anglo-Saxon or German or Italian or Jewish origin,” the authors wrote. “The initial notion of an American melting pot did not, it seems, quite grasp what would happen in America.”
The book was published in 1963 to immediate and continuing debate over its refutation of a blended society, over the authors’ belief that blacks’ struggles could not be blamed on discrimination alone and that blacks would eventually achieve the kinds of advances enjoyed by immigrant populations.
Melting Pot has been widely taught, and remains a standard reference for urban and ethnic studies, whether the subject has been civil rights, education or city politics.
Glazer, a chronic re-assessor, questioned his assumptions in a 1970 reissue of the book and after. He had hoped for a post-ethnic, post-racial country, but in a 1997 release, We Are All Multiculturalists Now, Glazer resigned himself to multiculturalism, infuriating conservatives but bringing praise from others.
“Glazer is a gentleman, always ready to concede, at least rhetorically, the sincerity of his opponent’s feelings,” James Traub wrote in a review published in Slate.
Glazer was the last survivor of those featured in Arguing the World, a 1998 documentary about four former students at the City College of New York: Glazer, Howe, Bell and Irving Kristol. His many jobs included working in the editorial divisions of Random House and Anchor Books in the 1950s, serving during the Kennedy administration in what is now the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and teaching education and social structure at Harvard.
The son of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants, Glazer was born in New York and raised in working class neighbourhoods in the Bronx and East Harlem.
He followed a similar path to Kristol and other neo-conservatives - from socialism in his college years to liberalism as a young man to an increasing turn right.
He began attracting attention in his mid20s. Glazer’s work in Commentary was noticed by Riesman, a visiting Yale University professor who thought his “incisive critiques” would be useful for a planned book about social behaviour, The Lonely Crowd, which sold millions of copies and helped define fears that independence and individuality were being lost in the postWorld War II economic boom.
Glazer himself would prove unhappy with the new thinking of the 1960s. As a faculty member in 1964 at the University of California at Berkeley, he was appalled by the student Free Speech Movement and condemned its “enthusiastic and euphoric rejection of forms and norms.”
He and Kristol soon helped launch a seminal neo-conservative journal, The Public Interest, which Glazer edited from 1973 to 2002. A deep skeptic about the effectiveness of government, Glazer was a critic of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society domestic programs and especially opposed to affirmative action. His 1975 book, Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy, became a prime text for the “reverse discrimination” movement.
He would, characteristically, challenge his own conclusions.
Get tips to improve your bottom line, every Friday with business coach Dave Fuller
Top musicians send support to pipeline protesters
Citizen news service
More than 200 Canadian musicians and industry players are standing in solidarity with people from a northern B.C. First Nation as they protest the construction of a natural gas pipeline on traditional territories.
Members of Arcade Fire, July Talk and Arkells are among those who’ve signed an open letter to the Unist’ot’en camp and the Wet’suwet’en First Nation saying they watched “infuriated” as RCMP units dismantled a checkpoint and arrested 14 people earlier this month.
“We have heard your hereditary chiefs say ‘No’ to the Coastal GasLink development and we intend to amplify it,” says the open letter also signed by the Sadies, Peaches and Tanya Tagaq.
The removal of the blockade followed an injunction issued by the B.C. Supreme Court preventing anyone from impeding Coastal GasLink’s work until the defendants, including members of the Unist’ot’en camp, file a response.
Coastal GasLink says it has signed agreements with all 20 elected First Nations bands along the pipeline route to LNG Canada’s $40-billion export facility in Kitimat, B.C. But the five hereditary clan chiefs within the Wet’suwet’en say the project also requires their consent.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the RCMP’s actions to enforce the court injunction as “not ideal,” but said “the rule of law” and authority of Canadian courts must be respected.
Meanwhile, the actions have sparked protests Canada-wide.
“As musicians, we know a PR campaign when we see one: since 2015 Justin Trudeau has promoted a message of Truth and Reconciliation and professed the goal of building meaningful nation-to-nation relationships, but his government’s actions don’t align,” the letter said. “Meaningful nation-to-nation relationships are not made at gunpoint.”
MENDEZ
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign
provided by the Bank of
on Monday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
Brexit Plan B pitched
Citizen news service
British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday – and it looks a lot like Plan A.
May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure.
May’s opponents expressed incredulity: British lawmakers last week dealt the deal a resounding defeat, and EU leaders insist they won’t renegotiate it.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party accused May of being in “deep denial” about her doomed deal.
“This really does feel a bit like ‘Groundhog Day,”’ he said, referring to the 1993 film starring Bill Murray, in which a weatherman is fated to live out the same day over and over again.
The markets today
Canada’s main stock index has extended its winning streak to the longest in almost five years despite weekend comments took some of the shine off trade talks between U.S. and China.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 50.33 points to 15,354.16, for a 12-day streak that matched one set in February 2014. The market has gained 1,141.41 points or 8.9 per cent over the period this year, compared to just 719.52 points or 5.3 per cent five years ago.
On Monday, the TSX reached its highest level since early November as it was helped by higher crude oil prices and gains in the influential industrials and materials sectors. Technology and telecommunications fell the most on a quiet day with volume of just 92.6 million shares.
The bigger gainers on the day were Canadian National Railway Co., Suncor Energy Inc., Nutrien Ltd. and Barrick Gold Corp. The losers were led by Imperial Oil, Thomson Reuters Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc.
Last week’s optimism that drove markets higher turned a bit pessimistic Monday after officials from both the U.S. and China suggested little progress is being make on key issues, says Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital.
“The futures are pointing towards some pessimism here early on in the week and I think a lot of it is that optimism on the trade front from last week now translating into a little bit of doubt, so just really demonstrating the fragile state of the financial markets one day to the next,” she said.
On top of that, the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global economic growth this year to 3.5 per cent and Chinese data suggested economic growth in 2018 was the lowest in about 30 years.
“The important thing is that the economy is not falling off a cliff and we believe that policymakers are ultimately going to be successful in managing a soft landing for the Chinese economy through all of these measures to protect the economy as they undergo this transition.”
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.20 cents US compared with an average of 75.41 cents US on Friday.
The March crude contract was up 18 cents US in international trading at US$54.22 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was down 24.7 cents at US$3.23 per mmBTU.
The February gold contract was down US$3.00 at US$1,279.60 an ounce and the March copper contract was down 4.35 cents at US$2.68 a pound.
Outlining what she plans to do after her EU divorce deal was rejected by Parliament last week, May said that she had heeded lawmakers’ concerns over an insurance policy known as the “backstop” that is intended to guarantee there are no customs checks along the border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland after Brexit.
May told the House of Commons that she would be “talking further this week to colleagues... to consider how we might meet our obligations to the people of Northern Ireland and Ireland in a way that can command the greatest possible support in the House.
“And I will then take the conclusions of those discussions back to the EU.”
The bloc insists that it won’t renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.
“She is wasting time calling for a revision or clarification over the backstop,” saidGerman politician Udo Bullmann, head of the socialist group in the European Parliament.
While May stuck doggedly to her deal, she also acknowledged that control over Brexit wasn’t entirely in her hands.
She noted that lawmakers will be able to amend her plan when it comes to a vote in the House of Commons on Jan. 29, exactly two months before Britain is due to leave the EU.
Groups of “soft Brexit”-backing lawmakers – who want to keep close economic ties to the blocare planning to use amendments
to try to rule out a “no-deal” Brexit and make May ease her insistence that leaving the EU means quitting its single market and customs union. Britain and the EU sealed a divorce deal in November after months of tense negotiations. But the agreement has been rejected by both sides of Britain’s divide over Europe. Brexit-backing lawmakers say it will leave the U.K. tethered to the bloc’s rules and unable to forge an independent trade policy. Pro-Europeans argue it is inferior to the frictionless economic relationship Britain currently enjoys as an EU member.
After her deal was thrown out last week by a crushing 432-202 vote in Parliament, May said she would consult with lawmakers from all parties to find a new way forward.
But Corbyn called the crossparty meetings a “stunt,” and other opposition leaders said the prime minister didn’t seem to be listening.
On Monday, May rejected calls from pro-EU lawmakers to delay Britain’s departure from the bloc or to hold a second referendum on whether to leave.
In a nod to opposition parties’ concerns, she promised to consult lawmakers, trade unionists, business groups and civil society organizations “to try to find the broadest possible consensus” on future ties between Britain and
the EU, and said the government wouldn’t water down protections for the environment and workers’ rights after Brexit. May also said the government had decided to waive a 65 pound ($84) fee for EU citizens in Britain who want to stay permanently after Brexit.
Guy Verhofstadt, the head of the EU Parliament Brexit steering group, welcomed news that the fee was being dropped for 3 million EU nationals, saying it had been a “key demand” for the EU legislature.
May’s immediate goal is to win over pro-Brexit Conservatives and her party’s Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party. Both groups say they won’t back the deal unless the border backstop is removed.
The backstop proposes to keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU in order to avoid checks on the Irish border. It is meant as a temporary measure that would last until a permanent solution is found. But pro-Brexit U.K. lawmakers fear Britain could become trapped in it, indefinitely bound by EU trade rules.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz broke ranks with EU colleagues Monday by suggesting the problem could be solved by setting a five-year time limit on the backstop.
The idea got a cool reception. Irish Foreign Minister Simon
Coveney said that “putting a timelimit on an insurance mechanism, which is what the backstop is, effectively means that it’s not a backstop at all.”
Britain’s political impasse over Brexit is fueling concerns that the country may crash out of the EU on March 29 with no agreement in place to cushion the shock. That could see tariffs imposed on goods moving between Britain and the EU, sparking logjams at ports and shortages of essential supplies.
Carolyn Fairbairn, directorgeneral of the Confederation of British Industry, said Monday was “another bleak day for business.”
“Parliament remains in deadlock while the slope to a cliff edge steepens,” she said.
Several groups of lawmakers are trying to use parliamentary rules and amendments to May’s plan to block the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal.
One of those legislators, Labour’s Yvette Cooper, said May was shirking her responsibility to the country by refusing to take “no deal” off the table.
“I think she knows that she should rule out ‘no deal’ in the national interest because it would be so damaging,” Cooper told the BBC. “She’s refusing to do so, and I think she’s hoping that Parliament will do this for her. That is not leadership.”
Half of Canadians on financial brink, poll finds
Citizen news service
The number of Canadians who are $200 or less away from financial insolvency at monthend has jumped to 46 per cent, up from 40 per cent in the previous quarter, as interest rates rise according to a new poll.
A survey conducted for insolvency firm MNP Ltd. in December also found that 31 per cent of Canadians say they don’t make enough to cover their bills and debt payments, up seven percentage points from the September poll.
The results released Monday also indicated that 51 per cent of respondents say they are feeling the pinch of interest rate increases, up from 45 per cent a quarter ago.
“Many have so little wiggle room that any increase in living costs or interest payments can tip them over the edge,” said MNP’s president Grant Bazian in a statement. “That’s what we are seeing happen right now.”
As well, 45 per cent of those surveyed say they will need to go further into debt to pay their living and family expenses.
Canadians’ finances have come under increased pressure after the Bank of Canada introduced five rate hikes since mid-2017, in response to the stronger economy. Central bank governor Stephen Poloz kept his benchmark interest rate unchanged earlier this month at 1.75 per cent, but has signalled that more rate increases will still be necessary “over time.”
MNP’s latest survey also showed that half of Canadians surveyed said they believe they could be in financial trouble if rates continue to rise, up five percentage points from the previous poll.
“Higher interest rates combined with household expenses that outweigh income
mean that some are unable to make any kind of meaningful reduction in their debt and, in fact, continue to take on more especially if they encounter unexpected expenses,” Bazian said. Insolvency concerns rose across the country, with the exception of Atlantic Canadians, said MNP. Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents were the most likely to be near insolvency, at 56 per cent, up eight percentage points from the previous poll, MNP said. Alberta residents were second at 48 per cent, up eight points. Ontario and Quebec followed at 46 per cent
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Anti-Brexit protesters hold placards as they demonstrate opposite the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday.
TL’ETINQOXSOCIALWORKER
Tl’etinqoxGovernmentisseekingaRegisteredSocial Worker(MSW)whoworkswellinateamenvironment andhasextensiveexperiencewithadvancedand complexsocialworkcases.Underthedirectionofthe HealthandWellnessDirector,andinconsultationwith thehealthteamandrelatedgovernmentagencies,the individualwillmanagecomplexpsychosocialproblems, andperformavarietyofcaseworkandcounseling services.PreferencewillbegiventocandidateswithFirst Nationexperience.Foracompletejobdescription,email katrina.elliot@4cmc.ca.byJanuary25th,2019.
778-227-9493katrina.elliot@4cmc.ca
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.
Kenneth George Balch (January 14, 1943January 8, 2019)
It is with great sadness that the family of Kenneth George Balch announces his passing on January 8, 2019. Ken passed away peacefully in Mackenzie Hospital. He was the first child born to Arthur and Ethel Balch of Portage La Prairie, MB where he was raised on the family farm.
In later years, along with his family, he made his way to British Columbia and eventually ended up in Mackenzie in 1973. He was loved by many. He will be lovingly remembered for his kind and gentle soul and loyalty. Ken will be greatly missed by his family and friends. He is survived by his wife Maxine (Tanguay) Balch, daughter Deanna (Lyle), grandchildren Devon and Morgan, brother Calvin (Darlene), sisters Viola and Betsy (Rene) and many nieces and nephews.
He is predeceased by his parents Arthur and Ethel (Bugg) Balch and brother Don Balch. A Celebration of Life for Ken will be held in Mackenzie at the Legion on Saturday, June 1st at 11 am. Memorial donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Localconstructioncompanywithrentalportfolio requiresareliable,full-timeAdministrativeAssistant. Dutiestoincludereception,generalofficeduties,and maintainingtherentalportfolio.
Thesuccessfulcandidatemustbeabletomulti-task andhaveexcellentcommunicationskills,phone manners,andcomputerworkingknowledge.Must possessaccuratetypingskillswithattentiontodetail inallworkaspects.Propertymanagementexperience wouldbeanasset.
Pleasedeliverresumeandcoverletterto2255Quinn Street. 250-563-5291 mhusband@telus.net fortwoodhomes.com
HAPPYNEWYEARFROMTHEMANAGEMENTAND STAFFOFTL’ETINQOXGOVERNMENT. CURRENTLYRECRUITINGTHEFOLLOWINGFULL-TIME
POSITIONS:
JusticeProgramCoordinator,ReintegrationSupport Worker,SupportedChildDevelopmentWorker,Youth RecreationCoordinatorandCultureandLanguage Coordinator. Contactkatrina.elliot@4cmc.cafordetailedjob descriptionandtoapplybyJanuary25,2019.
