Dewey 690
Form work is well under way on the new entrance of the Bob Harkins
addition to the north side of the library and a new circulation
Books about the construction of buildings can be found in the
Wright takes over at P.G. RCMP City sees drop
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
There is a new top cop in the city.
Insp. Shaun Wright was promoted to superintendent of the Prince George RCMP on Wednesday.
He has 23 years experience with the RCMP, and while the majority of it has been in the Lower Mainland, Wright has been the operations officer at the detachment since 2016.
He takes over from Supt. Warren Brown, who was transferred to the North District RCMP and is currently the Acting District Commander for Northern B.C.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity,” Wright said in a interview at his new office, one door down the hall from where he had been for the last two-and-a-half years.
In the time he and his wife have been here, “we’ve really taken to the community,” he said.
Wright described his job as “steering the ship, ensuring the broad strategies are put into practice by the frontline members on the road.”
For the time being at least, he said that means continuing on the course the detachment has
in
national crime severity index for 2018
been taking, which includes finding ways to work with the city’s community agencies on tackling issues related to the downtown core like mental illness and addictions.
“Those are issues that obviously affect the city and the livability of
the area and they’re not going to be solved through enforcement but we need to be part of that conversation and solution,” Wright said. That his old boss is now down the road at North District RCMP is a “significant benefit.”
“Both of us are really hitting the ground running because we’re both familiar with the situation already,” Wright said.
His promotion comes the same week that Statistics Canada released its crime severity index numbers for 2018.
Prince George scored 164.48 on the index, down from 174.68 in 2017, leading to a concurrent drop in the rankings to 17th from 11th highest among communities with over 10,000 people.
Warren Silver, an analyst at the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, attributed the decline to two fewer homicides in 2018 and a significant drop in number of reported break and enters, to 623 from 679.
Conversely, he noted incidents of trafficking in cocaine rose to 63 from 25.
Wright said the detachment is going to continue to focus on the prolific offenders responsible for many of the break and enters and made note of the arrest of Jamie Hammerstrom last week.
He also acknowledged city council’s decision to add extra officers to the detachment to form a downtown safety unit made up of one corporal and five constables while
easing the load on the general duty watches.
On the rise in trafficking in cocaine, Wright said it reflects targeted enforcement, particularly in the downtown.
To calculate the index, Statistics Canada takes the number of police-reported incidents for each offence and factors in the weight for that offence, based on the sentence typically handed out.
For example, the weighting for murder was about 1,000 times greater than for marijuana possession in 2018.
All weighted offences are then added together and divided by the corresponding population total. Finally, the index is standardized to 100 using 2006 as a base year, to make interpretation easier.
Wright’s first post with the RCMP was to the City of Surrey, where he gained experience in various units within the detachment, including frontline policing, the gang enforcement team and the general investigations section. He was then posted to Mission as the Operations Support NCO and then to the professional responsibility unit at B.C. RCMP headquarters before his transfer to Prince George.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Supt. Shaun Wright is the new officer in charge at the Prince George RCMP detachment.
Wheels in the sky
NEWS IN BRIEF
Dog, owner rescued
Prince George Fire Rescue were called out to LC Gunn Park on Wednesday night to rescue a person who became trapped on a ledge while in the process of trying to rescue a dog.
The dog had fallen over the edge of an embankment and had fractured its leg and the owner became trapped after sliding down the slope but did not sustain any injuries, PGFR said.
A total of seven firefighters from one hall were called to the scene shortly after 10 p.m. and deployed a technical rope rescue to bring the two to safety. The dog was then take to a veterinarian.
Cargo trailer stolen
Police are on the lookout for a cargo trailer stolen from a Griffiths Avenue construction site early Monday morning.
The trailer is described as a silver 2008 Wells Fargo enclosed trailer with two axles, rear and passenger side doors and “NAPP” decals on the sides.
The trailer was filled with equipment including scaffolding, vacuums, light stands and extension cords, RCMP said.
Surveillance images show two suspects making off with the trailer in a white F350 flatbed dually truck with a company logo and it’s believed the theft occurred at about 5:15 a.m.
An image was caught of one suspect, described as a man with a tattoo covering most of the back of his right hand and wearing a grey hoody with black sleeves and hood, sunglasses and a black ball
Tapestry Singers on the move
Citizen staff
After 12 years with School District 57, the Tapestry Singers will become a community choir based at Trinity Downtown, a centrally located church. The Tapestry Singers senior choir include students in Grades 7 to 12, who strive for choral excellence. They are members of the music community and perform in public at sporting events, with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and the K’hastan Drummers. The senior choir travels to musical festivals annually to compete and for workshops and the group has won many awards.
Senior choir members are expected to sing tunefully and commit to a busy choral season and to become a member the director holds parent/singer conversations to make sure Tapestry is a good fit for the family and the choir. The junior choir is for children in Grades 4 to 7 and is for everyone who wishes to sing and although they make appearances within the community, there is no travel scheduled. For those interested in joining the Tapestry Singers, visit their booth at the Active Living Mart on Sept. 7 and 8, or contact choral deirector Carolyn Duerksen at carolynduerksen@ hotmail.com
cap. The second is described as a male wearing a light-green jacket. Investigators are asking for the public’s help in locating the stolen trailer, the truck used in the theft, and in identifying the persons responsible for this theft.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only).
Thieves nab kayaks
Police believe the same suspects are behind thefts of eight kayaks over two robberies from a local big box store.
Two Pelican The Catch 130 fishing kayaks and two Pelican Summit 100 kayaks were stolen from the Canadian Tire’s outdoor compound on Wed., July 17 at about 3:30 a.m.
A week later, on Wed., July 24 at 3:15 a.m., one Pelican The Catch 120, two Pelican Escape 120 and one Pelican Maxim 100 were stolen.
“Investigators believe that the same two persons are responsible for both these thefts,” RCMP said. Anyone with information on the incidents is asked to call Prince George RCMP 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. If you provide information that leads to an arrest or recovery of stolen property, you could be eligible for a cash reward.
Liam Fraser, 13, does a ‘no foot’ on his bike Thursday monring at the Rotary Skate Park.
Fraudster sentenced to jail
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A 64-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to two years in jail for stealing more than $350,000 from her employer while working as an office manager in Prince George.
Defence counsel had been seeking a conditional sentence order for Debra Velma Penttila, which would have allowed her to serve the term at home.
But provincial court judge Michael Gray found her circumstances were no more exceptional than others who were sentenced to jail for committing the same crime.
However, he did reduce the term from the three years Crown prosecution had been seeking in acknowledgment of her health issues.
Between November 2004 and February 2011, she used her co-signing authority to alter 166 cheques adding up to $362,740 to make them payable to herself, then spent the money on gambling, the court has heard. The fraud lasted until year-end accounts had to be reconciled in early 2011 and Penttila realized she could no longer cover up the fraud.
Penttila’s counsel, Jason LeBlond, had submitted depression brought on by the stress of caring for a mother suffering from dementia and a husband unable to work due to his own health issues and the death of her father was the cause of her behaviour.
But Crown prosecutor John Neal had noted that in neither of the two psychiatric assessments conducted on her was it said
that Penttila was diagnosed with any such trouble.
On Wednesday, counsel for Penttila made a last-minute submission of medical reports regarding an overdose of Tylenol that forced a trip to the hospital.
Penttila had been found slumped over her desk in what turned out to be her last day on the job and after she wrote what would turn out to be her last cheque related to the fraud. Gray gave no weight to the submission and noted she was subsequently checked by a psychiatrist, who offered no diagnosis of mental health trouble and released her from hospital the next day.
Gray also noted that while Penttilla told the authors of the pre-sentence that she knew she was addicted to gambling, she nonetheless chose to continue in her ways
rather than seek help and confess her crime.
The judge also noted that while she eventually pleaded guilty to the crime on the eve of a trial and accepted that she is genuinely remorseful, she has made no effort since to pay back what she had stolen.
General deterrence – or sending a message to others thinking of committing a similar crime – played a role in Gray’s decision.
“The business community here and throughout British Columbia must have the confidence that the courts will punish breaches of trust in a stringent fashion and the public at large must know that a breach of trust will be dealt with severely,” Gray said.
Penttila was also issued a restitution order for the $362,740.
Murder suspect not a neo-Nazi, dad says
The Canadian Press
A murder suspect who allegedly sent photographs of a swastika armband and a Hitler Youth knife to an online friend was not a Nazi sympathizer, but he did think the memorabilia was “cool,” says his father.
RCMP are investigating the photographs, which also show Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, in military fatigues, holding an airsoft rifle and wearing a gas mask. The man is a suspect along with Kam McLeod, 19, in three murders in British Columbia.
Alan Schmegelsky said Thursday that his son took him to an army surplus store about eight months ago in his small Vancouver Island hometown of Port Alberni, where the teen was excited about the Nazi artifacts.
“I was disgusted and dragged him out,” Schmegelsky said. “My grandparents fled the Ukraine with three small children during the Second World War.”
The teens are charged with second-degree murder in the death of one man and are suspects in the fatal shootings of a young couple. On Thursday, the manhunt was focused on the thick and boggy forests of northeastern Manitoba.
Despite his son’s fascination with the collectibles, Schmegelsky said he didn’t believe his son identified as a neo-Nazi.
“He thought he was Russian. Germans are their enemies,” he said.
The father, who is estranged from the teen’s mother, explained that he didn’t see his son between the ages of eight and 16, and during that time the boy came under the mistaken belief that he had Russian heritage.
He enjoys watching Russian rap videos, where the artists “wear Adidas and drink vodka,”
Schmegelsky said, adding his son is a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donald Trump.
“I argued with him about that, in a friendly manner,” the father said. “He liked strong speakers.”
Schmegelsky said it was possible his son went back to the store later to buy the memorabilia, but it’s also possible he took a photo in
Cool offices fuel heated conflicts, report finds
The latest study from British Columbia’s Crown-owned power utility finds office air conditioners cool the workplace in summer but can also lead to heated arguments between colleagues.
A report from BC Hydro says an increased use of air conditioning in the office leads to worker discomfort, with 25 per cent of those asked saying office temperature has prompted disagreements between co-workers.
Hydro says the use of air conditioning in commercial buildings has increased by almost one-third since 2006, while its study says as many as two-thirds of the 500 people questioned report they can’t access the thermostat or lack permission to change the settings.
Of those, Hydro says 60 per cent – most of them women – find office temperatures are so low that they have trouble working, requiring them to regularly use a blanket or other layers to fend off the chill.
A BC Hydro spokeswoman says
its data supports other studies showing many office climatecontrol systems are based on an outdated thermal comfort formula designed to suit the metabolic rate of men.
The utility recommends offices be cooled to between 23 C and 26 C, that air conditioning be turned off when the office is unoccupied and that a heating and air conditioning professional be hired to identify energy efficient solutions.
Spokeswoman Susie Rieder says part of the problem is that many office ventilation and heating systems continue to use settings that were often designed for men in the 1960s, and research shows men have a higher metabolic rate than women.
“That could be contributing to women feeling colder in the office,” says Rieder.
“Another (study) that recently came out in the online research journal Plos One said women actually work better in warmer temperatures and men work better in colder temperatures,” she says.
Vaccination push continues
The Canadian Press
British Columbia’s health minister says the number of children fully immunized against measles rose by 37,525 between April and June as part of a catch-up program.
Adrian Dix says a requirement for parents to report students’ immunization records in September is expected to increase vaccination rates in a province that has seen 29 cases of the infectious disease this year.
Dix says up to 50,000 children begin kindergarten every year so the push for vaccination will continue as measles remains a public health issue, especially given that Washington state declared an emergency in January over a rising number of cases and rates of infection increased around the world.
the store or it’s staged.
The army surplus store, called Harreson’s Military Store, has since closed and the former owner didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alfred Bergkvist, owner of “A” Company Military Surplus in nearby Coombs, said he purchased all of Harreson’s merchandise, including some Nazi material, when it closed.
Bergkvist said he didn’t recognize the red Nazi armband in
the photograph but his store also stocked Hitler Youth knives identical to the one in the picture. He recalled that two boys came into his store about three weeks ago and bought one of the replica knives that are inscribed with the German words for “blood and honour.”
“They were really excited about it,” he said, adding he didn’t know whether the pair were Schmegelsky and McLeod and he doesn’t have security cameras.
Schmegelsky allegedly sent the photos to a user of the video-game network Steam. The two suspects most recently logged onto their accounts 13 days ago, about the time they told family they were leaving Port Alberni in search of work.
Schmegelsky’s account shows he frequently played a shooting game called Russia Battlegrounds, and both young men’s Facebook pages were connected to an account called Illusive Gameing, which has a modified Soviet flag as its icon.
Herb Loomba, owner of the Redford Motel in Port Alberni, said the elder Schmegelsky stayed there about once a month while visiting his son, and he last saw the teen with his dad on his graduation day, wearing a nice suit.
Loomba said the news has disturbed everyone in the small, close-knit community.
“Anything happens, it feels like it’s happening in your own home,” he said.
Officers from the western provinces and Ontario were in the Gillam area of northern Manitoba to search for the teenagers on Thursday.
RCMP Cpl. Julie Courchaine said there were two confirmed sightings of the teens before an SUV police believe they had used to
drive to Gillam was found burned out on Monday.
“There have been no stolen vehicles in that area,” she said. “At this point in the investigation, we believe they are still in the area.”
The terrain is unforgiving, Courchaine said.
“There’s lots of dense bush, forest, swampy area, so it is very challenging,” she said.
Courchaine said more than 80 tips had come in over the last 40 hours alone.
Police charged the two men Wednesday in the death of University of British Columbia lecturer Leonard Dyck, whose body was found July 19 near their burnedout truck in northwestern B.C.
The bodies of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese were found four days earlier along a highway more than 450 km from where Dyck was discovered.
Patrick Martone, a professor in UBC’s botany department, said in a statement that he was lucky to know Dyck, whose gruff exterior belied a natural curiosity and enthusiasm.
“His passion for learning about bizarre and beautiful organisms that few people ever get to see inspired our students to feel that same passion and awe,” he said. Dyck began working for the university as a sessional lecturer in 2003 and completed his PhD the next year. His behind-the-scenes efforts in the department, his field collections and his work with students in the classroom make him irreplaceable, said Matrone.
“Mostly, I will miss Len’s laugh, which often followed some wry comment. It makes me tear up thinking that I won’t get to hear that again,” he said.
CP PHOTO/UBC HANDOUT
Leonard Dyck is seen in March of 2017 in Clover Point Park in Victoria in this handout photo. The UBC lecturer’s body was found July 19 in northwestern B.C.
The Canadian Press
Coastal map highlights climate change
The Canadian Press
A federal government geoscientist has developed fresh maps of coastlines showing where flooding and erosion caused by climate change are likely to inflict maximum damage this century.
The mapping effort led by Gavin Manson has taken into account factors like the disappearance of sea ice, rising waves and the makeup of the shoreline.
The latest version of the CanCoast map has combined six key factors to create visual ratings of “coastal sensitivity” on the three oceans.
Manson said in an interview Wednesday that when you start to consider how wave height rises due to a lack of sea ice or the slope of the shore, it can make a major difference in erosion and flooding.
“It includes a whole lot more information on factors that affect the physical sensitivity of Canada’s coasts,” he said from the Geological Survey of Canada office at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax.
The expectation of rising sea levels has already been documented in the Changing Climate Report Ottawa released in April for large portions of Atlantic Canada, the Beaufort Sea, the Fraser River lowlands and northern British Columbia.
In parts of Atlantic Canada where coastal land is sinking as seas rise, the ocean is predicted to be an average of between 75 centimetres to one metre higher by the end of the century – increasing flood risk during storms.
However, Manson points out that quantifying coastal sensitivity takes the analysis further.
The nature of the shoreline –whether it’s beach, gravel or a hard rocky shore – is part of the mix of six variables the geological mapmakers have scored.
Another factor now included in the maps is how the melting of ice in the ground beneath permafrost leaves coasts susceptible to more erosion.
As the ground sinks, the oceans gain in energy, tearing away at the shore. “In the 2090s, there’s much less in the way of sea ice, and there’s more waves,” said Manson.
The researcher says the areas of highest sensitivity are on the northern coasts facing the Beaufort Sea, where bright red colours on the maps signal elevated risk.
“Things are getting much worse in that area... It’s one of the areas with the highest increase in sensitivity, and it extends further east into the Arctic archipelago than we would have expected.”
Factors such as melting ground ice and loose materials along the shore are key factors along the coast facing the Arctic Ocean, he adds.
Picture perfect
“Artnership”
RCMP apologize for poor investigation
The Canadian Press
The commanding officer of the RCMP in Alberta has apologized to the family of an Indigenous woman who disappeared nine years ago and whose killer has never been found.
Amber Tuccaro was 20 years old in August 2010 when she flew to Edmonton from her home in Fort McMurray, Alta., and booked into a hotel near the airport.
The woman from the Mikisew Cree Nation caught a ride into the city with a man the next day and was never seen alive again.
Her skull was found in a wooded area two years later.
An independent federal review released in 2018 found that the Leduc detachment’s investigation of her disappearance was deficient.
“I fully acknowledge that in the early days of our investigation into Amber’s disappearance
that it required a better sense of urgency and care,” Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki told Tuccaro’s family Thursday at RCMP headquarters in Edmonton.
“Our Leduc detachment’s missing person investigation was not our best work and was not in line with our established practices, procedures and guidelines.
“At the beginning of this investigation the RCMP was not the police service we strive to be.
On behalf of the RCMP, I am truly sorry.“
After his apology, Tuccaro’s family unveiled a new poster urging anyone with information on the case to contact police.
“Today I don’t know how I feel. I really don’t,” said Tuccaro’s mother, Tootsie Tuccaro. “I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’m just messed up.
“But ... like Amber always told me, ‘You got this, mama,’ and I do.”
Amber Tuccaro flew to Edmonton with her
14-month-old son and a female friend. The next day, police said, she left her hotel room to catch a ride into Edmonton and got into an unknown man’s vehicle.
In 2012, police released a cellphone recording between Tuccaro and the man who gave her a ride.
“You’d better not be taking me anywhere I don’t want to go,” Tuccaro can be heard telling the man. “I want to go into the city.”
In September 2012, a group of horseback riders discovered a skull in a wooded area in a field on a rural property near Leduc, Alta. It was identified through dental records as Tuccaro’s.
Her brother, Paul Tuccaro, testified at the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls during its hearings in Edmonton. Sounding baffled and hurt, he spent two hours describing a lackadaisical RCMP investigation.
More effort sought to recruit minorities, women to top court
The Canadian Press
More women, Indigenous and minority judges could find themselves on the Supreme Court if the government took a longer view of filling spots instead of scrambling to fill vacancies, says former prime minister Kim Campbell.
Campbell headed the advisory body that led to Quebec judge Nicholas Kasirer’s being nominated to succeed Justice Clement Gascon. Her group crafted a short list of Supreme Court for the government to consider.
She and Justice Minister David Lametti talked about the nomination process before Kasirer faced MPs and senators for formal questioning on Thursday.
Among the 12 applicants for the job opened by Gascon’s impending retirement, there was only one woman and none were Indigenous or self-identified as a minority, Campbell told the House of Commons justice committee Thursday.
Campbell suggested that rather than opening applications whenever a vacancy pops up, federal officials could have ongoing talks with the judiciary and the wider legal community about the needs of the Supreme Court to encourage more people to apply, particularly women and minorities.
“If this were an ongoing conversation as opposed to something that we scramble to do just in the face of an imminent departure from the court and the need to recruit a new candidate, I think this might be something that could broaden the scope of the candidates,” Canada’s first female
justice minister and only female prime minister so far said by video conference from B.C. Kasirer’s name was on the short list the advisory committee provided to the government. Ultimately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau selected Kasirer from the Quebec Court of Appeal at the end of the confidential nomination process. Anyone involved in the process signed confidentiality agreements to make sure names didn’t become public like they did earlier this year, Lametti told MPs. The Canadian Press and CTV reported in March that former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould recommended Glenn Joyal, chief justice of Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench, be appointed Supreme Court chief justice the last time there was a vacancy. That was caused by the retirement of chief justice Beverley McLachlin. Trudeau disagreed: he elevated Justice Richard Wagner, already on the court, to replace McLachlin, and named Justice Sheilah Martin from Alberta to fill Wagner’s spot. Colouring the leaks was Jody Wilson-Raybould’s public testimony that she felt improperly pressured last fall to stop the criminal prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, and her belief she was moved out of the justice portfolio for her refusal to do so.
“The disclosure of confidential information regarding candidates for judicial appointments is unacceptable and I want to stress that I took strict measures to ensure that confidentiality was respected,” Lametti said in his opening remarks to the committee.
Artist Tom Mowatt from Gitxsan Nation shows his art and writings Thursday at the
between the tourism office and the Community Arts Council has featured a
Jennifer Pighin will be displaying her art at Tourism Prince George.
Sahara heat wave roasting Europe
The Associated Press
Even ice cream, Italian gelato or Popsicles couldn’t help this time.
Temperature records that had stood for decades or even just hours fell minute by minute Thursday afternoon and Europeans and tourists alike jumped into fountains, lakes, rivers or the sea to escape a suffocating heat wave rising up from the Sahara.
On a day that no one on the continent will ever forget, two potential drug dealers in Belgium even called the police, begging to be rescued from the locked container they managed to get themselves trapped in.
It was nearly impossible to keep up with the falling records as temperatures climbed higher and higher under a brutal sun – in Paris and London, in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands – all places where air conditioning is not typically installed in homes, cafes or stores. Even office air conditioning systems strained under the hot, dry air that was trapped between two stormy weather systems.
Climate scientists warned these types of heat waves could become the new normal but they loom as a giant challenge for temperate Europe. As emissions keep warming the planet, scientists say there will be more and hotter heat waves, although it’s too early to know whether this specific hot spell is linked to man-made climate change.
“There is likely the DNA of climate change in the record-breaking heat that Europe and other parts of the world are experiencing. And it is unfortunately going to continue to worsen,” said Marshall Shepherd, professor of meteorology at University of Georgia.
Electric fans sold out across Paris – and traditional folding fans made a comeback on the city’s stuffy Metro. Trains were cancelled in Britain and France, with authorities in both nations urging travellers to stay home. Messages to “Hydrate yourselves!” blared from the radio and TV, and water bottles were handed out with abandon. Still, the atmosphere was buoyant, as people sought to stay cool yet embrace the moment.
Katy James, visiting Paris from Chicago, was one of the lucky ones with an air-conditioned room but she was still out in the streets, enjoying the atmosphere.
“We’ve had such a good time. The Parisians have been so accommodating. We’ve been getting water where ever we go. We got to play in the fountain. This was amazing,” James said.
France’s heat alert system went to its maximum level of red for the first time during last month’s heat wave, when France saw its highest-ever recorded temperature of 46
C. On Thursday, about one-fifth of French territory was under a red alert, stretching from the English Channel through the Paris region and down to Burgundy, affecting at least 20 million people.
French authorities have been particularly wary since a 2003 heat wave killed nearly 15,000 people, many of them elderly, stuck alone in stiflingly hot apartments.
“The science behind heat wave attribution is very robust – the first extreme weather event to be definitively linked to global warming was the 2003 European heat wave,” said NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel. “We know that as the climate warms, heat waves become more likely and more severe.”
So as tourists frolicked in fountains, authorities and volunteers in Paris and London fanned out to help the elderly, the sick and the homeless, opening cooling centres to let people rest, recover or shower.
“They are in the street all day, under the
UK PM seeks new Brexit deal
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on the European Union to “rethink” its refusal to renegotiate the Brexit deal, as he pledged to throw all his energy into making sure Britain leaves the bloc on time on Oct. 31.
Addressing a rowdy session of Parliament for the first time since becoming prime minister, Johnson pledged Thursday to take a new approach.
Rejecting the Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated by his fellow Conservative predecessor, Theresa May, he insisted that while he wanted a deal, the country was better prepared than
widely believed to leave the bloc without one.
“I hope that the EU will be equally ready and that they will rethink their current refusal to make any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement,” he said. “If they do not, we will, of course, have to leave – the U.K. – without an agreement.”
Johnson has less than 100 days to make good on his promise to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31 after what he called “three years of unfounded self-doubt” under May’s government.
Yet Britain will struggle to get the bloc’s full attention during August, a sleepy holiday period in much of Europe.
The EU is adamant that it will
U.S. gov’t to execute inmates for first time since 2003
The Associated Press
The Justice Department said Thursday the federal government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium even as the nation sees a broad shift away from capital punishment.
Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions starting in December for five men, all accused of murdering children. Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the federal level are rare.
“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law – and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said.
The move is likely to stir up fresh interest in an issue that has lain dormant in recent years, adding a new front to the culture battles that U.S. President Donald Trump already is waging on matters such as abortion and immigration in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
Most Democrats oppose capital punishment. By contrast, Trump has spoken often – and sometimes wistfully – about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as both an effective deterrent and appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.
“I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue,” Trump said last year after 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Trump was a vocal proponent of the death penalty for decades before taking office, most notably in 1989 when he took out full-page advertisements in New York City newspapers urging elected officials to “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY” following the rape of a jogger in Central Park. “If the punishment is strong,” he wrote then, “the attacks on innocent people will stop.” Five Harlem teenagers were convicted in the Central Park case but had their convictions vacated years later after another man confessed to the rape.
sun. No air conditioning, no way to protect oneself from the heat,” said Ruggero Gatti, an IT worker who joined other Red Cross volunteers handing out water bottles, soup and yogurt to the homeless in the Paris suburb of Boulogne.
Across the Channel, the heat damaged overhead electric wires between London’s St. Pancras train station and Luton Airport, blocking all train lines. East Midlands Trains posted a message to passengers on Twitter, saying simply “DO NOT TRAVEL.”
The sheer levels of heat on Thursday afternoon were nothing short of astonishing:
• The Paris area hit 42.6 C, beating the previous record of 40.4 C set in 1947.
• The Netherlands’ meteorological institute announced a record that beat the previous record set just a day ago: 40.7 C in the Gilze Rijen municipality near the Belgian border.
• Belgium hit all-time records twice in the day, rising to 40.7 C in the western town
not renegotiate the agreement struck with May on the terms of Britain’s departure and the framework of future relations. Without it, Britain faces a chaotic Brexit that economists warn would disrupt trade by imposing tariffs and customs checks between Britain and the bloc, send the value of the pound plummeting and plunge the U.K. into recession.
Nonetheless, Johnson is bulldozing his way forward to leave the EU at the end of October, “come what may.”
To accomplish that, he culled many members of May’s Cabinet within hours of taking office, replacing them with a group of loyal Brexit supporters.
of Beitem. “This is the highest recorded temperature for Belgium in history since the beginning of the measurements in 1833,” said Alex Dewalque of the country’s Royal Meteorological Institute.
• The northern German town of Lingen set a new national temperature record at least three times Thursday, finally hitting 42.6 C. Those repeated records came after the country had set a national record Wednesday of 40.5 C in Geilenkirchen near the Belgian border.
• London recorded its hottest day on record for July, with the mercury climbing to 36.9 C at Heathrow Airport. The previous July record was 36.7 C in 2015.
• In Britain overall, temperatures hit 38.1 C in southern England, which gave the country a record for the highest July temperature ever but did not beat the national record of 38.5 C set in August 2003. Britain’s Met Office said its temperature records go back to 1865.
AP PHOTO
People ride their horses during a hot summer day at the beach Thursday in De Haan, Belgium. Belgium experienced code red, extreme heat warning, on Thursday as temperatures soared during the second heat wave of the summer.
The Associated Press
Opinion
Facebook feels the privacy pinch
It’s easy to believe that Facebook is an unstoppable advertising force built on pervasive human surveillance and that meek regulatory or legislative efforts do nothing to stop it. Despite those concerns, the privacy reckoning for Facebook and the rest of the internet is denting the company’s ad machine.
Facebook spooked investors a bit on Wednesday during a conference call to discuss its second-quarter earnings. Executives said revenue growth would slow more than the company previously expected at the end of this year and into 2020, in part because of various restrictions or self-imposed limitations on Facebook’s data harvesting. Facebook didn’t spill all the details about the scope of this growth sag or the causes. Europe’s strict data privacy rules, imposed last year, require Facebook to obtain explicit permission from people for all sorts of data harvesting that is considered normal in the U.S., and executives have said that some Europeans are saying no. Facebook’s revenue growth in Europe is
slower than the pace in the U.S. and Canada and in the Asia-Pacific region. Facebook has also said the European data rules are having an impact outside of that continent, perhaps because of more attention on Facebook’s privacy practices. Companies such as Apple that control important online gateways are also trying to crack down on the types of broad data collection in which Facebook and others engage. And Facebook itself has imposed limits on types of sometimes-creepy information marketers had used to target ads and closed down some of Facebook’s own ad-targeting categories, including ones that should not have existed.
Facebook has also promised a longdelayed feature that would allow people to decouple their internet browsing history from their Facebook user profiles. The company has warned advertisers that this “clear history” feature will make Facebook’s ads less personalized. (It should be said that Facebook hasn’t done much to limit the kinds of data the company itself harvests on billions of people.)
The revenue warning shows that when Facebook and its advertising partners have handcuffs on how much they can do to assemble complex portraits of people as they roam around the web and the real world, the unstoppable growth machine sputters a bit. Facebook can’t pinpoint ever-more personalized ads, and people are less likely, perhaps, to respond to those pitches. Facebook makes a little less money.
Analysts have been looking for Facebook’s growth rate to come in under 25 per cent for the rest of this year. That is enviable for a company with more than $60 billion in yearly sales, but revenue rose 37 per cent last year. There are a host of reasons Facebook isn’t growing as fast, including a slow shift of people away from its lucrative core social network into slightly less lucrative Instagram. Still, the expected slowdown shows that privacy limits imposed by governments, internet gatekeepers and Facebook itself are having an impact.
It’s not clear whether Facebook’s revenue forecast anticipated possible effects related to the Federal Trade Commission,
YOUR LETTERS
Devil in the details
The news about WCOP’s planned project for P.G. is exciting, with $5.6 Billion injected into the P.G. economy for its construction and up to 1,000 new, skilled jobs.
Mayor Lyn Hall is right when he says it can be a game-changer for P.G. It would be a huge, permanent boost to the economy of P.G. and Northern B.C. It would help us diversify from the beleaguered forestry sector, which has supported us in the past.
WCOP stresses that the manufacturing process will reduce the production of greenhouse gases (GHG).
This may be true.
But the intent of the project is to manufacture ethylene (from natural gas components). Ethylene in turn is used to make polyethylene plastic. This is the same plastic that is polluting our oceans and landfills, and killing wildlife. Current ways of destroy-
ing polyethylene add GHG to the atmosphere. And if you simply let it degrade slowly, as in landfills or oceans, it also produces GHG, which are added to the atmosphere.
The whole project promises to become an exemplar of the economy-versus-environment debate, right here in P.G. I wish to see WCOP address the plastic pollution problem associated with this project. Are they investigating or developing environmentally safer ways to recycle the plastic? Or safer ways of not adding GHG to the environment when it is disposed of or destroyed? I think before jumping to approve the project we have to consider if WCOP is trying to mitigate this polyethylene pollution problem. If WCOP is unable to show how it is trying to mitigate this problem, perhaps we should, sorrowfully, reject this project.
John Macdonell
Prince George
Belle production
We had the pleasure of attending the Judy Russell Presents Beauty and the Beast at the Prince George Playhouse. Consistent with Judy Russell’s many previous productions, in our opinion the quality of the cast, the staging and overall presentation was outstanding. It is also important to note that the live music was provided by members of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra under the direction of PGSO’s Music Director Michael Hall. The quality of the music throughout was the best we have ever heard with a local production and in our view contributed to bringing the overall production to full professional theatre quality. We are fortunate to have the likes of Judy Russell and her team and Michael Hall and the PGSO as part of our community. Les and Carol Waldie Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. 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 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
which hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine on Wednesday for privacy-related violations and forced some structural changes on its handling of privacy matters. Facebook did tell investors that the FTC-imposed changes will require the company to spend a significant sum of money and will most likely slow the release of new products. It’s still possible that people will want many more concessions and actions from Facebook on user privacy. The entire internet economy, including Facebook and Google, has thrived by normalizing ever more aggressive data harvesting in ways that people don’t fully understand and can’t meaningfully consent to. One fix would be to allow more users to permit Facebook’s information collection only inside the walls of its social network and other apps – not just about everywhere online and in the real world. But even without that drastic step, it’s clear that years of reckoning have complicated Facebook’s path forward. Yes, privacy crackdowns matter.
— Shira Ovide, Bloomberg
Canadians oppose conversion therapy
When topics that are wholly or meekly related to health care are discussed in the middle of a federal election campaign, Canadian voters are usually exposed to a familiar refrain from political leaders. Some regulations, they argue, are a federal jurisdiction. Others are the sole responsibility of the provinces.
Earlier this year, the federal government was compelled to look into an issue that has affected Canada’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse, queer and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2+) community for a long time: the ill-named and widely-debunked “conversion therapy.”
The self-styled practice suggests that, through psychological or spiritual intervention, individuals who identify themselves as LGBTQ2+ can be “converted” into heterosexuals.
The techniques used in “conversion therapy” have been lambasted by several bodies, including the World Health Organization, the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.
In Canada, legislative action on “conversion therapy” has already arrived in three provinces and two municipalities. Manitoba effectively forbade health professionals from offering “conversion therapy” and Ontario and Nova Scotia banned its use on minors.
In Vancouver, city council voted in 2018 to prohibit businesses and religious groups from providing “conversion therapy.”
A similar ban was recently enacted in St. Albert, Alberta.
In British Columbia, a bill –introduced by the BC Green Party two months ago – seeks to establish a province-wide ban on “conversion therapy.”
At the federal level, a petition with more than 18,000 signatures was presented in the House of Commons earlier this year, calling for a nationwide ban on “conversion therapy.”
The federal government movingly referred to the practice as “immoral and painful” but – as is commonly the case when the worlds of policy and health care collide – Ottawa punted to the provinces. Research Co. asked Canadians about this matter, and the results show a public that is mostly skeptical about the justification for “conversion therapy” and welcoming of an outright prohibition.
Across the country, only 25 per cent of Canadians believe that it is
possible for individuals who identify themselves as LGBTQ2+ to be “converted” into heterosexuals through psychological or spiritual intervention.
Quebec has the highest proportion of residents who are inclined to declare “conversion therapy” as feasible (29 per cent).
When asked whether “conversion therapy” should be banned in Canada, almost three-in-five Canadians (58 per cent) believe that a prohibition is definitely or probably warranted.
This is a view espoused by 65 per cent of British Columbians, 62 per cent of women and 61 per cent of Canadians aged 18-to-34. In June, it was revealed that the federal government may seek to ban “conversion therapy,” not with ad-hoc legislation, but through a modification in the Criminal Code that would effectively block the practice.
If the Liberal Party decides to act on this matter before the federal election, it would not be risking a drawback with its base or other progressive voters.
Two thirds of Canadians who voted for the governing party in 2015 (65 per cent) and a similar proportion of those who cast a ballot for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in that election (63 per cent), agree with forbidding “conversion therapy.”
Conservative Party voters are more divided, with 43 per cent endorsing a ban on “conversion therapy,” 29 per cent disagreeing and 28 per cent having no opinion – a significantly high number when compared with the level of “undecideds” at the national level (19 per cent).
A separate question looked into the issue of establishing policies for the use of public bathrooms by transgender Canadians.
A majority of Canadians (52 per cent) believe transgender Canadians should be allowed to use the public bathroom of their choice, while one third (33 per cent) think they should use the public bathroom based on biological sex.
On this issue, Conservatives are once again more preoccupied, with 52 per cent calling for transgender Canadians to use public bathrooms based on biological sex.
In stark contrast, only 26 per cent of New Democrat and 23 per cent of Liberal voters share this view.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
BY THE NUMBERS
MARIO CANSECO
Meet the Master of Kung Fu
Chinese-Canadian actor tapped to star in Marvel’s Shang-Chi movie
The Canadian Press
Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu says he’s still “struggling to process” the news that he’ll play Marvel’s first big screen Asian-American superhero.
“It’s just been the craziest, craziest dream that I could possibly ever imagine happening in real life,” Liu said in an interview in his home city of Toronto this week, after a whirlwind weekend in which he was announced as the star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
“But I’m also learning to just go with the flow and enjoy the ride a little bit, because this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Liu practically willed his Shang-Chi journey into existence about a year and a half ago, when he tweeted to the Marvel account: “Are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi.”
“I didn’t seriously expect Marvel to call me back or anything,” the 30-year-old said with a laugh from the set of the CBC comedy series Kim’s Convenience, in which he plays the son of a Korean-Canadian couple who own a store.
“But I do think it’s a really interesting case study in the power of giving yourself permission to want things and to set goals.”
Then a few weeks ago Liu submitted a videotape audition for the role of the kung fu master. He “never thought in a million years” he would get to portray him but was excited about what the film meant for Asian representation onscreen.
“You have millions, maybe even let’s say over a billion people who have never been represented in that way, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or really any superhero cinematic universe,” said Liu, who immigrated to Canada from northern China at age five and grew up in Etobicoke and Mississauga, Ont.
“Having always been a fan, I could only appreciate it from a certain distance because I didn’t have anybody that I personally related to on a cultural level.”
Not even two weeks ago, Liu did a screen test for the role in New York. The ensuing hours were “excruciating,” he said, noting every time his phone buzzed his heart “literally skipped a beat.”
Two days later, he got a call from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige saying he got the part. Liu had to keep it a secret until last weekend (although he did tell some Kim’s co-stars, he confessed), when he walked onstage at San Diego Comic-Con to introduce
himself as the lead for the groundbreaking film that’s due in February 2021.
“I felt like Cinderella,” Liu said. “I felt like Kevin Feige was my fairy godmother and he had waved this magic wand and then all of a sudden I’m in this beautiful gown and I’m going to the ball.”
Breaking the news to his parents was monumental.
“I’ll never forget my mom said: ‘Maybe now I can think about retiring early,”’ Liu said, his voice cracking with emotion.
“My parents immigrated here to build a life for our family and they sacrificed so much and they worked so hard. To be able give back, even in a small way, it meant the world to me and I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to do that. I can’t say enough how much this whole thing has meant to me.”
Liu recently finished shooting his scenes for the upcoming season 4 of Kim’s, a show
he hopes to continue working on despite his Marvel commitment, and will undergo training for the role of Shang-Chi with director Destin Daniel Cretton in a couple of weeks in Los Angeles.
And to think, Liu didn’t even begin his career as an actor.
A graduate of the Ivey Business School at Western University, he first worked as an accountant in Toronto’s financial district, a job he said made him “quite miserable.”
Getting laid off in 2012 was the best thing that ever happened to him, he said, noting it inspired him to pursue his passion to be on a movie set. His first role was as an extra on Pacific Rim, a part he got through a Craigslist ad.
Where Liu was once “so ashamed, so embarrassed” to leave the financial world and defy his parents’ expectations, he’s now thriving in a career he loves and is incredibly proud of his heritage.
“I think the decision to lean into who I was culturally came from me doing the opposite thing when I was younger,” said Liu, who attended a Toronto screening of the Chinese family comedy-drama The Farewell with hundreds of fans on Tuesday, wearing a T-shirt that said “Phenomenally Asian.”
“For whatever reason I thought being Asian was something to be ashamed of. I thought it was something that made me different and something that made me looked down upon in some ways, in part because of the way that we were portrayed in media in the past and in part because just like on the playground, you’re bullied for anything that makes you different.
“So I spent a good part of my life trying to run away from my Asianness, and so a big part of what I do now is trying to get people to embrace it and to stand tall and to feel like they do belong – because they do. We do.”
New HBO shows grapple with faith
The Associated Press HBO’s forthcoming fantasy series His Dark Materials and its new televangelist comedy The Righteous Gemstones bring wildly different worlds to the screen, yet both grapple with the same central problem: how to take on religion without degrading and demeaning viewers’ beliefs.
His Dark Materials is based on the novel series from author Philip Pullman that has been embraced by atheists and condemned by believers for its villain, a powerful quasi-religious organization called the Magisterium.
But the show’s executive producer Jane Tranter told a TV critics’
meeting Wednesday that the show and the books are a critique of authoritarian organizations of all kinds, embrace spiritual themes and are “not an attack on religion.
“Philip Pullman talks about depression, the control of information and the falsification of information,” Tranter said. “There is no direct contrast with any contemporary religious organization.”
The show’s 14-year-old star Dafne Keen said to her the Magisterium is another version of Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984. She’s just now reading it for the first time, she said, after finishing the three Dark Materials books to prep for her role of Lyra, a girl who uncovers dark secrets through her
elders. The show also stars LinManuel Miranda and Ruth Wilson.
Asked whether he thought controversy would accompany the fall premiere of the show, HBO programming chief Casey Bloys said the makers were “very thoughtful” in their treatment of religion.
“It didn’t give me concern,” Bloys said.
The Righteous Gemstones, which premieres Aug. 18, portrays a sometimes sincere, sometimes sleazy family of televangelists, milking them and mocking them for laughs.
But creator and star Danny McBride said he sought to make a show his aunt, a minister in Atlanta, would find funny.
Margaret Trudeau takes the stage
The Washington Post
Margaret Trudeau, the ex-wife of one Canadian prime minister and the mother of another, has lived much of her life in a fishbowl. At one time, everything from her love life (purported flings with Ted Kennedy, Jack Nicholson and a Rolling Stone) to the hemline of her dresses (too short for the White House, apparently) was fodder for the tabloids and a Canada thirsty for celebrities.
Now 70, she’s inviting the attention that once tormented her. The mother of Canada’s current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the former wife of his late father, Pierre, she’s took her soul-baring, onewoman autobiographical show to Montreal on Thursday for its Canadian premiere. In Certain Woman of an Age, Trudeau discusses her marriages and divorces, personal tragedy – the 1998 death of son Michel –and her subsequent diagnosis with bipolar disorder and advocacy for mental health. But is it the right moment to tell all? The show debuts less than three months before Canada’s federal election, as her son, whose Liberal Party trails in some polls, fights for his political life.
Did she consider postponing, or toning the act down? She laughs.
“Are you kidding me?” she said in a phone interview from Montreal. “I’m so proud of Justin being the prime minister. But I’ve been there, done that. I don’t think anybody who is in his office would dare to call mama Margaret and tell her what she can or cannot do.” Justin Trudeau has seen the show, in Chicago, where it debuted in May.
“He thought her performance was great,” said Eleanore Catenaro, his spokeswoman.
Certain Woman of an Age has been well reviewed. The Chicago Tribune called it “gripping, charming and intensely courageous.” The conservative National Post, often critical of her son, praised Trudeau for “making moments of a lifetime of celebrity relatable to many in the crowd.” Maclean’s magazine noted that the audience “seemed to thoroughly enjoy” itself.
Now comes a brief run at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, where Trudeau now lives. She was approached about doing an autobiographical show a year and a half ago.
“While my life has looked so glamorous and fun, and I can name drop all kinds of people who have been on my path along the way, essentially, it’s a play about facing your own fears and overcoming the stigma of mental illness,” she said. “I’m kind of a bit of a dire warning.”
In Canada, to be the partner of the prime minister is to assume a staid and somewhat ambiguous role. Unlike first ladies in the United States, they do not have official titles, formal responsibilities or large staffs. Many fly under the radar.
“Maggie,” as the press liked to call her, was an exception. The daughter of a cabinet minister, she was 19 when she first met the debonair Pierre Elliott Trudeau – 29 years her senior – while vacationing in Tahiti with her parents.
She admired his “perfectly toned” legs, she wrote in Changing My Mind, her 2010 memoir, but her first thought was “that he was old, with old skin and old toes.”
“When I say we’re not taking aim at people’s faith, I’m being honest,” said McBride, the man behind previous HBO shows Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals. ”I’m not just saying it to try to shy away from controversy.
... Ultimately I’m not taking a swipe at her or what she believes in, I’m setting a story in a world she’s familiar with.“
McBride said the goal of the show is “not to be a takedown of anything.
“When Hollywood decides to take on religion, I think they make the deadly mistake of lampooning people for their beliefs, which is not something I’m interested in doing,” McBride said. “I would not
go and pass judgment on other people. For us it’s about lampooning a hypocrite, lampooning somebody who presents themselves one way and is not that way.”
The souls and spirituality of the characters in His Dark Materials”take the shape of animal companions that they talk to, known in their alternate universe as daemons.
Star James McAvoy said he dwelt on the spirit of his character’s wildcat companion in his portrayal of Lord Asriel.
“Wow, I’m a snow leopard. OK. You’ve got to look at yourself, and talk to yourself, that way,” McAvoy said, noting the series is based on his favourite books.
CP PHOTO
Actor Simu Liu of the Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience poses for a photograph on set Wednesday in Toronto.
All that can’t be unseen
Human cost paid by the people who shield you from the worst of the web
The Washington Post
MANILA, Philippines – A year after quitting his job reviewing some of the most gruesome content the internet has to offer, Lester prays every week that the images he saw can be erased from his mind.
First as a contractor for YouTube and then for Twitter, he worked on a high-up floor of a mall in this traffic-clogged Asian capital, where he spent up to nine hours each day weighing questions about the details in those images. He made decisions about whether a child’s genitals were being touched accidentally or on purpose, or whether a knife slashing someone’s neck depicted a real-life killing – and if such content should be allowed online.
He’s still haunted by what he saw. Today, entering a tall building triggers flashbacks to the suicides he reviewed, causing him to entertain the possibility of jumping. At night, he Googles footage of bestiality and incest – material he was never exposed to before but now is ashamed that he is drawn to. For the last year, he has visited a mall chapel every week, where he works with a church brother to ask God to “white out” those images from his memory.
“I know it’s not normal, but now everything is normalized,” said the 33-year-old, using only his first name because of a confidentiality agreement he signed when he took the job.
Workers such as Lester are on the front lines of the never-ending battle to keep the internet safe. But thousands of miles separate the Philippines and Silicon Valley, rendering these workers vulnerable to exploitation by some of the world’s tech giants.
In the last couple of years, social media companies have created tens of thousands of jobs around the world to vet and delete violent or offensive content, attempting to shore up their reputations after failing to adequately police content including live-streamed terrorist attacks and Russian disinformation spread during the U.S. presidential election. Yet the firms keep these workers at arm’s length, creating separation by employing them as contractors through giant outsourcing agencies.
Workers here say the companies do not provide adequate support to address the psychological consequences of the work. They said that they cannot confide in friends because the confidentiality agreements they signed prevent them from doing so, that it is tough to opt out of content that they see, and that daily accuracy targets create pressure not to take breaks. The tech industry has acknowledged the importance of allowing content moderators these freedoms – in 2015 signing on to a voluntary agreement to provide such options for workers who view child exploitation content, which most workers said they were exposed to.
The vulnerability of content moderators is most acute in the Philippines, one of the biggest and fastest-growing hubs of such work and an outgrowth of the country’s decades-old call centre industry. Unlike moderators in other major hubs, such as those in India or the United States, who mostly screen content that is shared by people in those countries, workers in offices around Manila evaluate images, videos and posts from all over the world. The work places enormous burdens on them to understand foreign cultures and to moderate content in up to 10 languages that they don’t speak, while making several hundred decisions a day about what can remain online.
In interviews with The Washington Post, 14 current and former
moderators in Manila described a workplace where nightmares, paranoia and obsessive ruminations were common consequences of the job. Several described seeing colleagues suffer mental breakdowns at their desks. One of them said he attempted suicide as a result of the trauma.
Several moderators call themselves silent heroes of the internet, protecting Americans from the ills of their own society, and say they’ve become so consumed by the responsibility of keeping the web safe that they look for harmful content in their free time to report it.
“At the end of a shift, my mind is so exhausted that I can’t even think,” said a Twitter moderator in Manila. He said he occasionally dreamed about being the victim of a suicide bombing or a car accident, his brain recycling images that he reviewed during his shift. “To do this job, you have to be a strong person and know yourself very well.”
The moderators worked for Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, Google-owned YouTube, Twitter and the Twitter-owned video-streaming platform Peri-
scope, as well as other such apps, all through intermediaries such as Accenture and Cognizant. Each spoke on the condition of anonymity or agreed to the use of their first name only because of the confidentiality agreements they were required by their employers and the tech companies to sign.
In interviews, tech company officials said they had created many of the new jobs in a hurry, and acknowledged that they were still grappling with how to offer appropriate psychological care and improve workplace conditions for moderators, while managing society’s outsize expectations that they quickly remove undesirable content. The companies pointed to a series of changes they’ve made over the past year or so to address the harms. A Facebook counselor acknowledged a form of PTSD known as vicarious trauma could be a consequence of the work, and company training addresses the potential for suicidal thinking. They acknowledged there were still disconnects between policies created in Silicon Valley and the implementation of those policies at moderation sites run by third parties around the world.
While American workers view the job as a steppingstone to a potential career in the tech industry, Filipino workers view the deadend job as one of the best they can get. They are also far more fearful of the consequences of breaking their confidentiality agreements.
The jobs have strong attractions for many recent college graduates here. They offer relatively good pay and provide a rare ticket to the middle class. And many workers say they walk away without any negative effects. Though tens of thousands of people around the world spend their days reviewing horrific content, there has been little formal study of the impact of content moderators’ routine exposure to such imagery. While many Filipino workers say they became content moderators because they thought it would be easier than customer service, the work is very different from other jobs because of “the stress of hours and hours of exposure to people getting hurt, to animals getting hurt, and all sorts of hurtful violent imagery,” said Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, dean of the College of Social Work and Community Development at
the University of the Philippines, who has counseled workers in the call-center industry. She said she worries about a generation of young people exposed to such disturbing material. “For people with underlying issues, it can set off a psychological crisis.” Lester said he had no control over what post he was going to see – whether the feed would show him an Islamic State murder or a child being forced into sex with an animal or an anti-Trump screed. He had no ability to blur or minimize the images, which are about the size of a postcard, or to toggle to a different screen for a mental breather, because the computer was not connected to the Internet.
“Too many to count,” he said, when asked to estimate the number of violent images he saw over the course of eight months of reviewing Twitter and YouTube content. One unforgettable video, of what he assumed was a gangrelated murder in Africa, showed a group of men dragging a man into a forest and repeatedly slashing his throat with a large knife until blood covered the camera lens.
Lester estimates that he reviewed roughly 10 murders a month. He reviewed at least 1,000 pieces of content related to suicide, he said, which included mostly photos and written posts of people crying for help or announcing their plans to kill themselves.
After a while, Lester noticed that his work was beginning to take a toll on his well-being. It was reigniting feelings of depression that he had struggled with in his 20s, and he started to think about suicide again.
He said he could not afford mental health treatment and didn’t seek it.
At the same time, he was ashamed and disturbed to discover that some of the new sexual imagery to which he was being exposed aroused him.
Lester, who now works in a call centre selling life insurance, says he has been pushing his former colleagues to quit moderation. Content moderation, he said, should be left to the robots. “People think, because we’re Filipinos, we are happy people. We can adapt,” he said. “But this stays in our heads forever... They should turn these jobs into machines.”
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
Lester, whose last name isn’t being used, sits on his bed, jotting down notes. He worked as a content moderator in the Philippines, which has caused emotional distress for him.
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO
The grandmother of Lester, whose last name isn’t being used, watches him as he prepares his breakfast before leaving for work.
Deep cut
De Grasse back in top form
The Canadian Press
Via Rail train 068 was pulling into Montreal Central Station late Wednesday night when the woman who’d been seated behind sprinter Andre De Grasse for the previous five hours poked her head up to wish him good luck.
“My son runs track,” she told him. “We’re all pulling for you Andre.”
It seemed for a while that few people were pulling for him. Some wrote him off altogether.
But the three-time Olympic medallist is running injury-free and faster than he has in a long time, finally rebounding from the back-to-back hamstring injuries that had people doubting if he’d ever be back – including himself.
“At the time when I got injured, I felt depressed, I felt like life was over,” De Grasse said. “The first (injury) I didn’t think like that, but then to get injured a second time.
“And you never hear about people coming back from hamstring injuries, I kept hearing ‘Once you tear your hamstring you’re done, you’re never the same.’ You have those thoughts, you hear people saying that, it takes a toll on you a little bit.”
The 24-year-old from Markham, Ont., will be gunning to regain his 100-metre title at the Canadian championships this week in Montreal, the same meet that saw him reinjure his hamstring last summer, prematurely ending his season. He first injured the hamstring days before the 2017 world championship and a much-anticipated rematch against Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.
But the ability to run fast doesn’t just disappear.
“If you hurt yourself, you’re not just done, you don’t suddenly wake up slow,” said Mikhile Jeremiah, the friend now famous for first urging De Grasse to try racing in a Toronto high school meet.
“Everyone thought ‘Double injury, De Grasse is done,”’ Jeremiah said. “I’m like yo, this track stuff comes in a wave... when you come down you acknowledge it, and then how far you shoot back up again is what makes you different from the others.”
De Grasse is aiming high after a solid start to the season that already shattered his goals.
“This year I just wanted to compete healthy and just get back on the track,” he said.
Now? “Let’s focus on the world championships, get back on the podium, compete for a medal. I think that’s possible,” he said. “This weekend will be a good test.”
Wearing a grey Puma hoodie pulled up over his head, De Grasse spent much of Wednesday’s train ride listening to music and scrolling through social media.
He chuckled at Kawhi Leonard’s introductory Clippers press conference where the one-and-done Raptors star thanked Toronto.
He peered at the Tokyo Olympic medals that were unveiled Wednesday, a year out from the opening of the Games.
He believes he can win one.
De Grasse’s turnaround comes
after some big changes in his life.
He and his girlfriend Nia Ali – an American hurdler who’s competing in the USA track and field championships this weekend – have a daughter who recently turned one.
Her first name Yuri means “light of God.” Her middle name Zen reflects peace. Spoken together, De Grasse pointed out, Yuri Zen sounds like “your reason.”
“Like our reason why,” he said. De Grasse also upended his training program, leaving Phoenix and coach Stuart McMillan to move to Jacksonville, Fla., to work with Rana Reider.
He’s had a fast start to his season, running 19.91 in the 200
metres, and dipping under the 10-second mark in the 100 metres for the first time since the 2016 Rio Games at the Diamond League stop in London last Saturday.
A big chunk of his road back was rebuilding his confidence.
“It took a while, I think it was me being scared as well, mentally,” he said. “(Reider) didn’t want to push me too much, so at the beginning we didn’t do much speed, we just did a lot of longer runs, endurance runs, slower tempo pace to build back muscle, build back stamina because I’d been off for so long.
“We just actually started doing some speed like two weeks ago. It’s been good, I just have to trust the process and not say ‘Why are we doing this?’ New coach, new situation, I just have to leave it all in his hands and do my part.”
Both the baby and his injuries have De Grasse appreciating the moment more.
“It’s crazy because even through all the injuries and everything, I’m still amazed, life is still good to me,” he said. “When you’re just running it’s all a blur. But when you take a second, when I got injured I took a second to just think of all the things I’d done, and appreciate it all, it was like ‘wow,’ no words.
“And now I have a kid who doesn’t care, just looks at me every day and smiles and laughs, it made me realize it’s not so bad at all.”
Jeremiah, one of a few close friends who travel with De Grasse periodically, recalled the day he convinced his friend to race in a high school meet.
The story has been retold numerous times: De Grasse raced to a time of 10.91 in baggy basketball shorts and from a standing start.
Jeremiah didn’t see the race. When he saw the times, he figured there’d been a mixup.
“I saw Andre’s name up there with some of the top guys in the region, and I was like ‘Hold on, we’ve got to redo this whole thing,”’ Jeremiah said with a laugh. “But he went on to the finals, and he ran the same 10.91 and I actually saw it.”
Part of his success, his friend believes, is his naivete. De Grasse wasn’t a track fan growing up. He came to the sport from basketball.
“What makes him so gifted is he got into it as a surprise, it makes him so unaware of how good he is,
and because he’s so unaware, he’s like ‘I’m just going to run. Why are you overthinking it, I’m just going to do it,”’ Jeremiah said. “Not really intimidated by anyone.” The landscape of sprinting has changed since De Grasse’s grinning showdown with Bolt at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Christian Coleman (9.81), 22-year-old rising star Noah Lyles (9.86) and Divine Oduduru of Nigeria (9.86) have the world’s three fastest times.
Lyles, Michael Norman, and Oduru, who won both the 100 and 200 at the NCAA championships, top the 200-metre list. De Grasse is seventh. Fourteen sprinters have run faster than him in the 100.
While De Grasse never got another chance to battle Bolt, he loosely followed the retired sprinter’s soccer exploits.
The eight-time Olympic champion played some pre-season matches for Australian team Central Coast Mariners.
Could De Grasse see a second pro sports stint?
“I was joking that maybe I’d go to a G League (the NBA’s development league) team and work my way up,” De Grasse laughed. “Just joking around. Maybe. My friends give me a lot of inspiration because they’re my height and they play in Europe so maybe G League.”
His friend Kassius Robertson played for the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
“Couple of other friends play in Europe. We’ll see,” De Grasse said, laughing again. “Long time for now. Hopefully I get two more Olympics.”
His recent fast times have him back in the spotlight again.
A television cameraman hopped on the Via Rail train one stop before Montreal to film footage of the sprinter.
At the station, autograph seekers thrust pens and glossy photos at him.
He happily obliged despite the late-night arrival.
De Grasse’s friend and rival Aaron Brown will be the one to beat in Friday’s 100 metres at Claude Robillard Centre.
Brown won the 100 at last summer’s Canadian championships, while De Grasse was third.
The meet will determine the team for the world championships in October in Doha, Qatar.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
PG Surg Med Knights player Kalin Gibb swings at a pitch against the JRJ Construction Orioles on Monday evening at Citizen Field in Prince George Seniors Men’s baseball action.
CP PHOTO
Three-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse rides the Via Rail train Wednesday to Montreal for the Canadian track and field championships.
TOKYO 2020
Women leading Canada into next Olympics
The Canadian Press
Canada’s swim star of the 2016 Summer Olympics sees Tokyo on the horizon.
Penny Oleksiak’s four swimming medals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made her the first Canadian to win that many at a single Summer Games.
The gold medallist in the 100-metre freestyle can’t help but think about the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics just a year away.
“Almost every day I’d say,” the Toronto teenager told The Canadian Press. “It just comes with what I do. As I get closer to the Olympics obviously it’s going to be on my mind more.”
She’s not alone.
The majority of Canada’s 2020 Olympic hopefuls are testing their mettle this summer in either their last world championship before Tokyo, or at the Pan American Games opening Friday in Lima, Peru.
The Tokyo Olympics open July 24 and close Aug. 9. The Paralympic Games follow from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6.
Canada’s 22 medals in 2016 equalled the most at a non-boycotted Summer Games after Atlanta in 1996, and ranked 10th among nations.
Canada’s quadruple gold in Rio was also the most since winning seven in 1992.
Gracenote predicts another record games for Canada.
The data analytics company projects 25 medals, including six gold, but ranks Canada 13th.
Own The Podium chief executive officer Anne Merklinger isn’t making any hard predictions for Tokyo until the world championship season has concluded.
There are obvious trends, however.
Women claimed 16 of Canada’s medals in Rio and they’re tracking to lead the medal charge again in Tokyo.
The powerhouse women’s swim team is currently raking in medals at the world championship in South Korea.
“Swimming is by far and away one of the strongest sports heading into the games,” Merklinger said. “Everyone knows we have a strong swim team, particularly our women are performing very, very well.”
OTP provides technical expertise to sport federations and makes funding recommendations to Sport Canada based on medal potential.
Just over $40 million was directed to summer sport for 2019-20 in targeted money to get athletes on the podium in Tokyo.
Oleksiak, world champions
Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Que., and
Maggie MacNeil of London, Ont., and Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, who won eight Commonwealth Games medals last year, give the women’s swim team multiple medal chances in individual races and women’s relays.
“When you’re with all these girls breaking world records, doing amazing things and dropping their times significantly, it’s just really awesome to see and just keeps you motivated,” Oleksiak said.
“All of us are trying to work towards being one of the best women’s team in the world if we can be. I would be very surprised if we weren’t one of the best next year.”
Women’s beach volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics, soccer and rugby sevens are fertile medal ground.
And when women’s sprint canoe makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo, Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Que., is the gold-
medal favourite with 11 career world championship wins.
“Right now, weirdly enough, I try to not overthink it,” VincenteLapointe said. “If I allow myself to think about it, I can get pretty stressed.
“What I like to do is allow myself to think about going there, but not go into details about how the race is going to be.”
There are 339 medals at stake in 33 sports in Tokyo, which is expected to draw 11,000 athletes and officials from 206 countries.
Swimming and track and field accounted for over half of Canada’s medals in Rio with six apiece.
The world track and field championship starting Sept. 27 in Doha, Qatar, will be an indicator if Canada can extend its success to Tokyo.
Hamstring injuries interrupted Toronto sprinter Andre De Grasse’s racing in both 2017 and 2018. But the triple-medallist in Rio is a medal threat again if he
can stay healthy.
Established sports introducing new events in Tokyo could be good for Canada’s medal bottom line, particularly women’s sprint canoe and rowing four, as well as mixed relays in swimming and triathlon.
“The landscape is a little bit different heading into Tokyo,” Merklinger said. “It could be the medal-potential opportunities are spread over a broader number of sports.”
In the new millennial-friendly sports of surfing, skateboarding and rock climbing, Vancouver’s Sean McColl is a contender in climbing. Canada was once under-represented in traditional team sports at Summer Games, but five teams qualifying for Rio matched the previous high from the boycotted Summer Games of 1984.
The women’s soccer and rugby sevens squads brought home bronze medals.
The men’s volleyball and women’s basketball teams reached the quarterfinals, while the men’s field hockey team fell short of the medal round. The return of women’s softball and men’s baseball to the Olympic program in 2020 means Canada could send the most teams ever to a Summer Games. Sport Canada told OTP in 2010 to set aside $6 million annually specifically for summer-sport teams, so they would have base funding regardless of medal potential.
“It continues to deliver in spades,” Merklinger said. “It’s been stable funding and that allows sports to plan, prepare and execute.”
Canada’s Paralympic team collected 29 medals, including eight gold, to place 14th in Rio.
Merklinger says the 2020 team will have strong medal potential in swimming, athletics and cycling in Tokyo.
Eight Canadians to watch next summer
With the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo a year away, here are eight Canadian athletes to keep an eye on.
Christine Sinclair
Expected to lead the women’s soccer team in a bid to medal at three straight Olympics after collecting bronze in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The 36-year-old will want to erase the disappointment of the round-of-16 exit at this year’s World Cup in France. With 182 goals in 286 appearances for Canada, Sinclair is chasing retired American forward Abby Wambach’s world record of 184 international goals.
Andre De Grasse
The 24-year-old from Markham, Ont., captured three sprint medals in an entertaining battle with Jamaican superstar Us-
ain Bolt. De Grasse was going to challenge Bolt for gold at the world championships a year later, but a hamstring injury before the meet forced him to withdraw. He re-injured the hamstring last summer and shelved his season. De Grasse has had a solid early season, running 9.99 seconds in the 100 metres and 19.91 in the 200. If he can stay healthy, he will be in the mix in Tokyo.
Brent Lakatos
Excelling in sprints and middle distances, the 39-year-old from Dorval, Que., is the reigning world champion in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres in the T53 classification. Lakatos collected four medals in Rio, including 100-metre gold. He holds world records in five distances.
Kylie Masse
Two-time world champion in the women’s 100-metre backstroke and world-
record setter since tying for bronze in Rio.
The 23-year-old from LaSalle, Ont., leads a powerhouse women’s swim team with multiple medal chances in individual races and relays. Canada’s last Olympic backstroke champion was Mark Tewksbury in 1992.
Laurence Vincent-Lapointe
When women’s sprint canoe sprint makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo, the 27-year-old from Trois-Rivieres, Que., is the gold-medal favourite with a combined 11 world titles in both single and double events. She’s gunning to be the first Olympic gold medallist in the C1 and in the C2 with Katie Vincent.
Sean McColl
Of the millennial-friendly sports of surfing, rock climbing and skateboarding making their Olympic debut in Tokyo, Vancouver’s McColl is a climbing contender having won multiple international lead climbing,
speed climbing, and bouldering events. The 31-year-old has appeared in the TV show American Ninja Warrior.
Rosie MacLennan
If she can bounce back from her broken ankle this year, the trampoline star from King City, Ont., can be the first Canadian to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in an individual event.
MacLennan, 30, has overcome challenges before en route to victory as she recoverd from a concussion to win in Rio.
Aurelie Rivard
Triple gold medallist in swimming and Canada’s closing ceremonies flagbearer at the 2016 Paralympics, Rivard broke her own record in the S10 400-metre freestyle last year. The 23-year-old from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., holds three other freestyle world records.
Germany, Bora-Hansgrohe, same time.
12. Thibaut Pinot, France, Groupama-FDJ, same time. 13. Geraint Thomas, Britain, Team Ineos, same time.
14. Julian Alaphilippe, France, Deceuninck-QuickStep, same time.
15. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, EF Education First, same time.
16. Mikel Landa, Spain, Movistar Team, same time.
17. Richie Porte, Australia, Trek-Segafredo, same time.
18. Warren Barguil, France, Arkea Samsic, 5:43.
Alejandro Valverde, Spain, Movistar Team, 6:16.
CP PHOTO
Penny Oleksiak swims the 200 metre race during the 2018 Team Canada finals in Edmonton last July.
The Canadian Press
Tight labour market boosting wages
Bloomberg Canadians are starting to see a pickup in their wages, a positive sign for the domestic economy amid growing global uncertainty.
Average weekly earnings for Canadian workers rose 3.4 per cent in May from a year earlier to $1,031, the fastest pace of growth since February 2018, Statistics Canada said Thursday in Ottawa. The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours also showed firms added 32,600 jobs on the month, the most since January. The broader recovery in earnings growth is one of the last pieces to fall into place for a labor market that’s seen decade-low unemployment rates and some of the fastest job gains on record. Statistics Canada’s more timely Labour Force Survey showed hourly wages growing
3.6 per cent in June, also the fastest pace in more than a year. After accounting for inflation, real wage increases are now one per cent or more by both survey measures.
The boost bodes well for the domestic economy, where higher interest rates, rising debtservicing costs and a slowing housing market damped consumption for most of 2018. Rising earnings, coupled with a recovery in house prices, should fortify household spending at a time when uncertainty and rising global trade tensions are poised to threaten Canada’s exports and business investment.
“Measures of wage growth in Canada are now more consistent with what we would expect from an economy basically at full employment,” said Dominique Lapointe at Laurentian Bank Securities in Montreal.
“If the current strength continues, it should support household consumption moving forward.”
Some of the improvement is being driven by a recovery in Canada’s energy sector, which pays more than most other industries. Workers in the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction businesses earned an average $2,298 a week in May, 13.5 per cent more than a year earlier. That’s the fastest growth for the sector since August 2014, just before a collapse in global oil prices flattened wage growth for nearly half a decade. Earnings in the finance and insurance sector rose 7.2 per cent on the year, the most since June 2018.
On an unadjusted basis, average earnings rose 3.7 per cent in May from a year earlier, the fastest growth in almost seven years.
Unpacking employee stock options
A scene from the classic British play, Robin Hood: Sheriff of Nottingham: [enters the castle singing]
He throws an angry tantrum if he cannot have his way
He calls for Mom and sucks his thumb and doesn’t want to play Too late to be known as John the First, he’s sure to be known as John the Worst! The Sniveling, Groveling, Measly, Weaseling.
Prince John: Enough!
Sheriff of Nottingham: But Sire, it’s a big hit. The whole village is singing it.
Prince John: Oh, they are, are they? Well, they’ll be singing a different tune. Double the taxes! Triple the taxes… Squeeze every last drop out of those insolent musical peasants!
The problem, good sir, is in the image you have of yourself as a sort of Canadian “Robin Hood.”
Let’s say you went for a stroll through the dimly-lit canopy of Sherwood Forest, or one of its Canadian versions, Cottonwood Park, here in Prince George, would you be happily looking for your old pals among the cranberries, or would you be warily clinging to your body guards? If you were born with your name engraved on treasure chest full of trust funds, chances are, you’re the prince, not the Prince of Thieves.
It’s unlikely you could find the right end of a Sherwood hockey stick, let alone the Sherwood Forest.
Employee Stock Options
Why would a corporation want to reward senior employees with stock options?
Is this purely about the rich getting richer? Why not just straight pay?
Almost no corporation of any significant size pays its senior management on a simple salary structure because the top company leaders have such a significant influence on the direction of the company, and shareholders (the owners), and all other employees.
Company boards are wise to tie long-term performance (which is usually reflected in share price growth) to senior staff pay in order to ensure that the managers don’t blow off a few years of short term success while sacrificing long-term viability.
Seen in this light, stock option pay is much more than a tax loophole to fill.
On the receiving end, employee stock options provides you (likely as a senior manager) with the right to acquire shares of your employer at a designated price.
The difference between the fair market value of the shares on the day the options are exercised and the amount that is paid for the shares is a taxable employment income benefit in the year you exercise the options.
You may be able to claim a stock option deduction, equal to 50 per cent of your stock option benefit.
This deduction results in the stock option benefit being effectively taxed at a capital gains tax rate, even though it is employment income.
It’s a perk, yes, but it’s tied to the welfare of tens of thousands of employees, so not a bad marketcrafted solution.
On June 17, the Department of Finance released proposed changes to the preferential taxation of employee stock options, after first touching on it in the 2019 federal budget.
Some of the details of the proposed changes include:
• A $200,000 annual limit will apply on employee stock option grants that can receive tax-preferred treatment under the current employee stock option tax rules. The $200,000 annual limit will be based on the fair market value of the underlying shares at the time the options are granted, applied to the options that vest in the particular year.
• Fortunately, stock options granted by Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) will not be subject to the new limit. Likewise, start-ups, emerging companies, or other non-CCPCs that meet certain prescribed conditions will also be exempt.
• Where an employee exercises employee stock options that are above the $200,000 limit, the employee will not be entitled to the stock option deduction on the exercise of those options.
Nobody will go hungry, but this is a big hit.
• In certain circumstances, if an employee donates publicly listed shares acquired under an employee stock option agreement, they are eligible for an additional deduction equal to one-half of the stock option benefit.
The proposed changes will eliminate this additional deduction for employee stock options that exceed the $200,000 limit. T his will hurt charities – some-
body will go hungry.
• The proposed changes will apply after January 1, 2020.
The policy proposal is clearly targeted at large corporations. I’m by no means a fan of excessive CEO compensation, but I think corporate governance (policing and disciplining back-room gentlemen’s deals) is quite different from filtering the procedure through a spendthrift government.
More money in the hands of a large government doesn’t warm my woodstove.
The government is providing a consultation period, seeking input on the characteristics of companies that should be exempt, requesting input by Sept. 16.
This is very likely to be an election issue, with each party trying to paint themselves as the representative of the little guy.
But at the end of the day, raising taxes, one way or another, is not a Robin Hood gesture.
It’s got Prince John written all over it.
Admittedly, there is one bit about the famous friendly foe that fits.
In this piece by 17th century English ballad writer Martin Parker, a couple of lines about Sir Robin which seem to work:
“In bounteous liberality He too much did excel.”
— Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Mark’s views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article.
See Mark’s website at: http://dir. rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan
index ended down 123.64 points, or 0.74 per cent, at 16,488.20 as energy and materials stocks weighed.
The resources sectors fell as some producers beat and others missed earnings expectations, while news that the European Central Bank signalled it was open to lowering interest rates raised concerns about the pace of global growth. The energy index closed down 2.9 per cent as major names like Husky Energy closed down 6.13 per cent and Enbridge Inc. was down four per cent. The materials index ended down 1.8 per cent as Cameco Corp. closed down 7.65 per cent.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 128.99 points at 27,140.98. The S&P 500 index ended down 15.89 points at 3,003.67, while the Nasdaq composite was down 82.96 points at 8,238.54.
Major names like Ford Motor Co., Tesla Inc., and American Airlines Inc. fell on earnings and revised guidances, though many companies have beat expectations.
Overall, the earnings picture is still looking positive, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser at HollisWealth.
“I think things look really good, a lot better than before. Now, one can argue that the bar was really low going into this earnings season, so maybe these companies are beating a lowered number from previous, but they’re beating none the less.”
He said that some companies including in the tech sector have seen strong gains so investors might be banking profits.
“I think you’re looking at a market that is at all-time highs and has had a bit of a run here, and I guess some investors took some off the table.”
The Canadian dollar averaged 76.07 cents US, down from an average of 76.12 Wednesday. The September crude contract closed up 14 cents at US$56.02 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was up 2.5 cents at US$2.23 per mmBTU.
BLOOMBERG PHOTO
A student works on a milling machine cutting metal at the vocational training centre in Montmagny, Quebec, in 2017.
TIDSBURY,LORI
December9,2018
Pleasejoinusinremembranceofoursparkling angel,LoriTidsbury.Acelebrationofherlifewillbe heldonSaturday,August3,2019,from2:30pm5:00pm,attheCourtyardMarriot,900Brunswick StreetintheGreatNorthernBallroom.
Adult & Youth Newspaper Carriers Needed in the Following areas:
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DAVID THOMAS GRIFFIN
July 22, 1945June 27, 2019
Born and raised in Prince George, moved to Terrace in 1965 and started his family with Irene Squires and raised 3 sons: David Jr., Mancel and Roderick and daughter, Lena. Predeceased by parents Jessie and Mancel, brothers Oliver and Jim. Relocated to Prince George in the 90’s. He passed unexpectedly in his sleep leaving to mourn his long time companion of 20 years, Nora Acayen and daughter Kayla, brother Tom and sisters Doris and Alice, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. All will cherish many memories of this gentle soul. Services to be announced at a later date.
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