Rustad calls for replacement of forests minister
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Nechako-Lakes MLA John Rustad is calling on Premier John Horgan to replace Forests Minister Doug Donaldson rather than give him some help in the form of an NDP backbencher.
On Friday, Horgan appointed Delta North MLA Ravi Kahlon as a parliamentary secretary to assist Donaldson “in working with communities and stakeholders in the Interior as the forest industry faces significant challenges.”
In a statement issued the same day, Rustad, the B.C. Liberals’ critic for forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development, had some sharp words.
“John Horgan has assigned a former NDP political director to babysit his ineffective forestry minister just two weeks after demoting him by removing his responsibility for wildfire recovery,” said Rustad in reference to a July 11 Order in Council reassigning those duties and functions to the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
“That demotion didn’t go far enough, as Minister Donaldson has dragged his feet for two years, unable to help British Columbians that rely on the forestry sector. He has to go.” Rustad likened the move to Horgan’s decision to call on former B.C. Liberal MLA Blair Lekstrom to help Donaldson when the controversy over caribou recovery in the B.C. Peace blew up. The government has since put a proposed moratorium on hold while it seeks further public input.
In a response provided Monday, Kahlon accused the B.C. Liberals of “trying to play partisan politics on this file and called the move “despicable.”
“When they were in government they knew that mills would be closing and they did absolutely nothing to protect those workers,” he added.
“It’s also curious that MLA Rustad refers to adding a Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry as ‘babysitting’ because that was actually his role for a number of years and that’s not a very professional way to address his former minister.”
Kahlon went on to say he is looking forward to “working with the communities and workers to ensure that we are providing the right kind of support and effectively promoting this vitally important industry.”
The government has launched a public engagement process on the future of the forest industry in the Interior. It includes a series of meetings with stakeholders across the region as well as a chance for the public to have their say through an online portal.
Noting that process does not end until the fall, Rustad has said it will do little to help laid off sawmill workers in the interim and outlined measures in his party’s five-point plan to revive the industry.
“Forestry-dependent communities lost 6,600 direct jobs in 2018,” Rustad said Friday. “Appointing a Parliamentary Secretary to the file is the first job John Horgan has created in the forestry sector since coming to power two years ago.”
Couple, city at odds over flooding
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A conflict between a Blackburn-area couple and the city over the cause of flooding that struck their home has landed in court.
Shane Faulkner and Delonna Russell are claiming the city is at fault for the damage their 2002 McLaren Road West home suffered during a March 26, 2018 event and are seeking damages.
In a notice of claim, the couple say a failed water main was the cause and that on several occasions before the incident, they had alerted the city to abnormally high water flowing in a nearby drainage ditch.
They also say they told the city that they believed a leaking water main was the source but the city failed to investigate their reports and as a result, water from the ditch overflowed onto the property and damaged their home and its contents.
The city is denying the claim. In a response, it admits the couple raised their concerns with the city about a month before the incident “but specifically denies
that there was a broken or leaking water main.”
“The property is located in an area with a high water table, and there is a history of high ground and surface water in this area,” the city continues. “The area is prone to blocked culverts and standing water. Flooding regularly occurs in the area of the property in the spring.”
On the day in question, the city received a call for service from the couple and upon arrival workers unblocked the culverts in a timely manner, according to the city.
In the process, the workers also discovered that the water service connection to a home at 2116 McLaren Road was leaking and so, excavated and repaired that section.
“The flood was caused by blocked culverts and not by the break in the service connection line,” the city says.
Faulkner and Russell’s notice of claim was filed in September 2018 and the city’s response was filed earlier this month, both in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. None of the allegations have yet been tested in court.
NDP names Sapergia as local candidate
Citizen staff
A recently-retired health science professional will be the New Democratic Party’s candidate in Cariboo-Prince George in the next federal election.
“Northerners often tell me three things,” Heather Sapergia said in a statement issued Monday. “They want government to ease the cost burden on working and aging Canadians by establishing a universal pharmacare system. They want to see upgrades to vital infrastructure in small, remote, northern and First Nations communities and they want Ottawa to get real about supporting the creation of new sustainable jobs in resource-dependent communities.
“I want these things too.”
— see ‘WORKING PEOPLE, page 3
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Krystal Cameron competes in the stakes event at the Salmon Valley Gymkhana Club on Friday evening.
RUSTAD
DONALDSON
SAPERGIA
A splash of colour
Taseko seeks gold mine approval extension
Gordon HOEKSTRA
Vancouver Sun
Taseko Mines, which continues to push ahead with its proposed $1.1-billion gold mine opposed by First Nations, has launched a B.C. Supreme Court suit in an effort to get its provincial environmental approval certificate extended.
The project near Williams Lake received provincial approval and its environmental assessment certificate from the B.C. Ministry of Environment in 2010. The company had five years to substantially start work on the project and received a five-year extension in 2015 to do so. That extension ends Jan. 14, 2020, and the province has ruled another extension isn’t allowed.
If the deadline expires with no substantive work completed, the company would have to restart the B.C. environmental assessment process. That could prove challenging for the company as a new review – as well as taking time and money – would fall under a revamped environmental process that is being put in place by B.C.’s NDP government that won office in 2017 after 16 years of B.C. Liberal rule.
The company is also trying to amend the existing certificate – to include a new plan for the mine after an environmental assessment rejection that Taseko is also challenging – but that effort would become moot if the original certificate expired.
“My suspicion is this is kind of a Hail Mary to keep things alive,” observed Gavin Smith, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law.
In an email response , provincial officials noted that if the Environmental Assessment Office determined the project hadn’t substantially started by the January 2020 deadline and the company wished to continue to develop the project, they would have to apply for a new certificate and start at the beginning of the environmental assessment process.
Officials said the assessment office would then work with the company to determine what work already completed under the expired certificate is still relevant and could be carried over to a new environmental assessment.
In its court filing, Taseko argues the province’s position that there can be no extension longer than
five years is wrong. The company is seeking another five-year extension until 2025.
The company argues there are provisions in the Environmental Assessment Act that allow extensions even if a time limit has expired.
However, the Ministry of Environment’s court response argues those exceptions only apply to the steps within the environmental assessment process, not the extension of the time that substantive work must be carried out.
The company said in its filing: “Taseko has and will continue to act lawfully and in good faith under both federal and provincial statutes in pursuing a mine project on its tenures, but requires additional time to allow the legal process to run its course and to allow further steps to be taken. The regulatory delays to date in connection with the project necessitates an extension of the timeline for substantial start.”
A hearing on Taseko’s petition is supposed to take place this month.
Taseko, which operates the Gibraltar copper mine north of Williams Lake, couldn’t be reached for comment.
In a written statement, the Tsilhqot’in Nation, which opposes the project, said it believes the law is clear that the certificate can only be renewed once for a five-year period and that time has run out for Taseko.
“It is time for this certificate to expire, that’s what the law says,” said Jimmy Lulua, chief of the Xeni Gwet’in, a Tsilhqot’in First Nation. When the federal reviews rejected the Prosperity mine in 2010 and 2013, they cited damage to fish and fish habitat.
Even though Taseko increased spending by $300 million to preserve Fish Lake, the second federal review found the mine would still result in the loss of fish habitat and Fish Lake was at risk of contamination from mine-waste storage.
An exploratory drilling program approved by the province in 2017 is meant to prove the company’s water management plan and use of a mine-waste containment area would be safe for the environment, the firm has said. That would help the company move the project forward, Taseko has said, as the federal decision didn’t preclude additional planning or development in the proposed mine area.
Driving prohibition issued for striking pedestrian
Citizen staff
A former Prince George man who struck a pedestrian while drunk driving has been prohibited from driving for three years. Robert Donovan Edenshaw, 48, was also sentenced to twoand-a-half years probation and fined $1,000 plus a $300 victim surcharge during a hearing Thursday in Victoria provincial court. The outcome stems from an incident in Prince George on Canada Day in 2018 when, at about 11:30 p.m., RCMP were called to a report of a man being hit by the side mirror of a pickup truck that had veered onto the sidewalk where Ferry Avenue
and Queensway Street meet.
The truck kept going but with the help of witnesses, RCMP tracked the driver down.
The suspect gave two breath samples, both more than twice the legal limit, RCMP said in a statement issued at the time. The victim, meanwhile, was taken to hospital for treatment of what appeared to have been minor injuries.
Upon his arrest, Edenshaw was issued a 90-day driving prohibition and his vehicle was seized for evidence.
The term was issued on a count of impaired driving causing bodily harm while a count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident was stayed.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Ryan Driscoll works on water colour painting techniques during the Two Rivers Gallery Summer Creativity Camp on Monday morning. Children in the camp will learn ways of using this versatile medium from wispy watercolors to finger paint.
‘The
manhunt is on here’
YORK LANDING, Man. — Doors were locked, roads were empty and people were on edge, said a chief in northeastern Manitoba as armed police officers searched the area for two suspects in killings in British Columbia.
“The manhunt is on here,” York Factory Chief Leroy Constant said Monday.
“Until these suspects are caught or our area deemed safe that fear will still remain.”
RCMP received a tip Sunday just before 5 p.m. that two men matching the descriptions of Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, were spotted near a dump in York Landing, a small community along the Nelson River.
The duo are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck.
They are also suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, whose bodies were found on the Alaska Highway in northern B.C.
Members of the Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous-led neighbourhood watch group, reported the sighting to police, but said the two men took off into nearby woods when they were seen. Their identities have not been verified.
Despite extensive efforts, the tip could still not be substantiated by Monday afternoon, RCMP said in a tweet. But the search was continuing.
Constant said there are some 30 officers in the remote community of 500, along with a dog team, emergency response teams, helicopters and armed searchers on all-terrain vehicles.
The last confirmed sighting of the two suspects was a week ago in Gillam, another remote community roughly 90 kilometres northeast of York Landing.
Before that, the pair were also spotted in Split Lake, a community about 170 kilometres west of Gillam.
Nathan Neckoway, a councillor for
Tataskweyak Cree Nation at Split Lake, said the two men fuelled up at a local gas station. They also went through a checkstop and were questioned by band constables who did not know at that time the men were murder suspects.
The men had camping gear and maps in the back seat of their vehicle, Neckoway said in an online message.
“This is scary to hear how easily these guys were travelling from Western Canada and now in our territory.”
York Landing is only accessible by air or a two-hour ferry crossing in the summer. There’s also a rail line that runs 25 kilometres south of the community.
Constant said he would be surprised if the pair made it to his community on foot because the northern terrain is treacherous.
“You would have to go many miles to reach anything,” he said.
“One of the challenges is it’s heavily wooded and we are primarily surrounded by water there’s only limited areas they can access.”
A burned-out Toyota RAV4 investigators said the suspects were travelling in was found last week near Gillam.
Police said on the weekend that they
had received more than 200 tips over the course of five days, but none convinced investigators that the pair had left the bug-infested and bog-strewn landscape.
Cpl. Julie Courchaine said Monday that the York Landing tip was credible and that’s why resources have been focused on that area. Isolation, distance, difficult terrain and darkness have made the search difficult, she added.
“It’s northern Manitoba so it’s challenging terrain, lots of forest, lots of muskeg, waterways, everything like that,” she said.
“However, our number one priority again is to find these individuals.”
A Canadian Air Force CC-130H Hercules aircraft equipped with hightech thermal detection gear joined the search over the weekend. Police also used drones and tracking dogs while officers went door to door checking every home and abandoned building.
People in York Landing were encouraged to remain vigilant, stay indoors and keep their doors and windows locked, said Courchaine.
“We are still looking at every possibility in this investigation,” she said.
Production cuts at Taylor pulp mill extended
Alaska Highway News
Canfor is extending the curtailment at the Taylor pulp mill into September.
The company announced the extension in its second quarter results released Friday, citing ongoing market conditions. The curtailment extends five weeks to Sept. 9, cutting summer production of bleached chemi-thermo mechanical pulp by about 50,000 tonnes. The mill was originally scheduled to restart Aug. 5.
“Our pulp business... delivered solid results in the second quarter but in the latter part of the quarter, we began to see significant erosion of NBSK pulp and BCTMP prices, which in combination with the reduced fibre supply in B.C. due to the industry-wide sawmill curtailments, resulted in the decision to curtail operations in the third quarter,” Canfor president and CEO Don Kayne said.
“We expect to see a modest increase in pulp prices towards the end of 2019 and into 2020 as the global inventory levels come back into balance.”
Canfor Pulp Products Inc. reported a net income of $11 million for the second quarter, of 16 cents per share. Pulp shipments were up 11 per cent from the first quarter to 288,000 tonnes, but down 12 per cent from the second quarter of 2018.
Meanwhile, demand for bleached kraft paper is expected to fall through the balance of the year, the company reported. Paper production will be cut by 4,000 tonnes in September as its paper mill in Prince George undergoes planned maintenance.
Canfor Corp. as a whole reported a $49.7-million operating loss for its second quarter.
‘Working people... have weathered extremely challenging times’
— from page 1
“Working people and small businesses in B.C.’s Interior have weathered extremely challenging times the last few years and Ottawa must be made to acknowledge the difficulties faced by Canadians in this part of the country,” Sapergia said.
Sapergia’s resume includes being a medical technologist at Northern Health, a college instructor, a regional Health Sciences Association director and a University of Northern British Columbia graduate. She has also volunteered with RCMP victim services, the Prince George Cycling Club, the Prince George Rod and Gun Club and has helped organize summer camps and lunch programs for children.
She is married and the mother of two daughters, both of whom operate small businesses in the city.
Sapergia will be going up against Conservative incumbent Todd Doherty and Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros.
Court orders ‘Product of Israel’ labels off of West Bank wines
OTTAWA (CP) — A new Federal Court ruling calls it misleading and deceptive to characterize wines from the West Bank as “products of Israel.”
The decision, out today, marks the latest twist in a politically charged three-year-old battle over whether bottles from the Psagot Winery and Shiloh Winery in the West Bank should carry a “Product of Israel” label. The ruling requires the Canada Food Inspection Agency to decide how the wines should be labelled.
The agency initially stripped the wines of the label in July 2017 after a formal complaint, but then reversed course shortly afterward following an outcry from some Jewish groups. The ruling says none of the parties and interveners in the case consider the West Bank to be territory of the state of Israel.
Prince George provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, July 22-26, 2019:
• Cali Ronald Harold Peal-Barton (born 1994) was sentenced to 27 days in jail for two counts of breaching probation. Peal-Barton was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Corinna Louis Prince (born 1981) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,300 for driving while impaired.
• Dallas Cody Reynes (born 1997) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for mischief $5,000 or under, to no additional jail time for breaching an undertaking and prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Angle Rae Reno (born 1988) was sentenced to five days in jail for breaching probation. Reno was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.
• Perry Robert Wells Hogan (born 1990) was sentenced to seven days in jail and six months probation for breaching probation.
• Karl Duncan Joseph (born 1969) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08.
• Matthew Richard Steven Lozon (born 1994) was sentenced to 24 days in jail for breaching probation. Lozon was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Norman Keith Thomson (born 1979) was prohibited from driving for three years and fined $1,000
for driving while disqualified, dangerous driving and driving while impaired, all committed in Tete Jaune Cache. Thomson was in custody for 86 days prior to sentencing.
• Patrick Williams (born 1981) was sentenced to one year probation for assault with a weapon. Williams was in custody for 41 days following his arrest.
• Christopher Joseph Garro (born 1985) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under.
• Clayton Gus Joseph (born 1986) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for breaching probation, committed in Vanderhoof. And he was sentenced to no jail time for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace of-
ficer, committed in Prince George. Joseph was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Kevin Douglas Thompson (born 1986) was sentenced to no jail time for breaching an undertaking or recognizance.
• Mercedes Lynn Steeves (born 1994) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation of causing fear of injury or damage.
• Justin Kyle Aster (born 1986) was sentenced to 18 days in jail for breaching probation and willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Aster was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Irene Marie Johnny (born 1979) was sentenced to one year probation for two counts of theft $5,000 or under and two counts of breaching probation.
• Rory William McCullough (born 1986) was sentenced to no time in jail for breaching probation.
• Tyler Michael Elroy Alexis (born 1997) was sentenced to no additional jail time for breaching an undertaking.
Alexis was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Shane Daniel Coulas (born 1997) was sentenced to no time in jail for breaching probation.
• Star Marie Payou (born 1983) was sentenced to one year probation for assault, mischief $5,000 or under, breaching an undertaking and two counts of theft $5,000 or under, all committed in Fort St. John. Payou was in custody for 55 days prior to sentencing.
Kelly Geraldine MALONE
The Canadian Press
CP PHOTO
RCMP Cpl. Julie Courchaine speaks to media about the ongoing RCMP search in Northern Manitoba for the B.C. murder suspects in Winnipeg on Monday.
RCMP HANDOUT PHOTO
Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod are seen in this undated combination handout photo provided by the RCMP.
Chief electoral officer sticks with voting day on Jewish holiday
The Canadian Press
Jordan PRESS
OTTAWA — Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21 as originally planned after Canada’s chief electoral officer decided not to reschedule voting day even though it falls on a Jewish holiday.
Election day can be no later than Oct. 21 under federal law, which this year coincides with the holiday known as Shemini Atzeret, a day on which Orthodox Jews are not permitted to work, vote or campaign.
Elections Canada had been lobbied to change the date, but decided against it this close to an election, prompting a Federal Court challenge to the decision.
Last week, the court ordered chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault to take a second look at the decision and balance the infringement on the charter rights of affected voters against the objectives of the election law.
Perrault’s detailed decision, made public Monday, considered the impact on observant Jews and his mandate “to ensure accessible voting opportunities for all Canadians.” But he concluded it would not be in the public interest to reschedule.
Since no change is recommended, the federal cabinet is not required to sign off on Perrault’s decision. Under federal law, the chief electoral officer can only make a recommendation to cabinet and cannot take unilateral action.
“This is a difficult situation that directly touches upon the very core values of our democracy,” Perrault wrote in his decision.
“I nevertheless believe, when considering the entirety of my statutory mandate, and especially at this time in the electoral calendar, that it is not in the public interest for me to recommend a change to the date of the general election.
“This is not a decision that I make lightly, but with a view to providing the broadest possible range of accessible voting services to the population at large.”
Speaking in British Columbia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in French that it was important for Elections Canada decisions be free from political influence.
On Parliament Hill, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the date of the election itself
U.S.
gov’t
Mike BLANCHFIELD
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Canadians will likely enter a fall election with the new North American free trade deal hanging in the balance, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he’s not rushing to ratify the pact in the face of U.S. political differences.
The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives began its five-week summer break on Monday without introducing a ratification bill – a scenario Trump and his cabinet worked hard to avoid.
The Democrats want changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. They want to change provisions on labour, the environment, patent protection for drugs and enforcement, and have by all accounts been working hard with Trump’s trade czar Robert Lighthizer to move forward.
“We recognize that there is a difficult partisan context in Washington right now between the Democrats and the Republicans. We
should be in the hands of the chief electoral officer in order to ensure the most number of people possible can participate in a campaign and vote.
In early June, Conservative candidate
Chani Aryeh-Bain, who is running in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, and Ira Walfish, a voter in nearby York Centre, argued in Federal Court that the overlap of dates meant that Aryeh-Bain, in particular, wouldn’t be able to run a campaign on equal footing to her competitors.
The currently scheduled advance polling days are also problematic, they argued.
Three out of four advance voting days –which are held on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday the week before election day – fall on dates when observant Jews wouldn’t be able to vote.
Their concerns drew cross-party concerns, with Liberal incumbents Michael Levitt, who represents York Centre, and Marco Mendicino, who Aryeh-Bain is challenging, siding with the complainants.
Levitt said in a tweet that he was “disappointed” with the decision, while Mendicino separately called it “regrettable.” Both wrote they hoped Elections Canada will engage “meaningfully” with affected voters so they have ways to vote.
There was a recommendation that election day be moved to Oct. 28, but Perrault noted that would coincide with municipal elections in Nunavut.
He also wrote that 13 school boards hosting polling stations had agreed to make Oct. 21 a professional development day with no classes, and few were willing to make a
change to the following week. He said Elections Canada will continue to reach out to the Jewish community in affected ridings to find other ways to help them vote.
Orthodox Jews are primarily in 36 of 338 federal ridings, most of them in urban areas.
“There is no such thing as a perfect election day, especially in a country as diverse as Canada. There are always Canadians who are unable to vote on election day,” Perrault wrote.
“I recognize that maintaining October 21 as election day means that observant Jewish electors will have to vote in one of these alternative ways. They nevertheless have a genuine opportunity to participate in the electoral process.”
breaks without ratifying trade deal
have said from the very beginning that we would keep pace with the American process on ratification of the new NAFTA accords,” Trudeau said at an event in Vancouver.
“But we will do that in line with the American process when it picks up again this fall.”
Ever-ticking political clocks in both countries mean U.S. lawmakers – with one eye towards Trump’s 2020 re-election bid – won’t be in a position to take even the most tentative steps forward on the deal before the start of Canada’s federal election campaign, which is set to begin by mid-September at the latest. Canadians head to the polls on Oct. 21.
“I do not see that there will be a vote on the USMCA implementing bill by the U.S. Congress prior to the writ dropping for the Canadian election. The earliest that the USMCA implementing bill could be introduced is Sept. 9 and there likely will be committed hearings in both chambers of Congress on the matter,” said Dan Ujczo, the Ohio-based trade specialist with the firm Dickinson Wright. A delay isn’t necessarily a bad
thing, said Meredith Lilly, a Carleton University trade expert.
“The existing NAFTA, which remains in effect, is a better deal for Canada than the USMCA. So, the current situation is not a bad one for Canada, bearing in mind that ongoing uncertainty is generally negative for investment here.”
Trudeau reiterated his government’s position that the status quo is acceptable. “We of course benefit right now from the existing NAFTA that ensures that Canadians are well-served with good and reliable access to the North American market.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party shares key concerns of U.S. Democrats. Both parties want to strengthen labour enforcement provisions to ensure Mexico delivers on its promised reforms of workers’ rights, and they oppose the extension of patent protection for some new drugs from eight years to 10, which would delay the arrival of less costly generic products on the market.
“It doesn’t make sense to rush ahead with something where we know the Democrats in Congress are working to make it better,”
Singh said on Monday. Trade experts in Canada and the U.S. are divided on whether the delays may raise the odds of Trump invoking the six-month notice period to withdraw from NAFTA - a threat he repeatedly made during the tense renegotiation of the pact that he pushed on Canada and Mexico.
Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a Toronto-based international trade lawyer, said the Democrats are likely to want substantive changes that could leave the deal in limbo for many months. In the meantime, the Democrats will be sharpening their talking points on USMCA to use against Trump in the 2020 U.S. election.
And that could set Trump off, she said.
“He might say that Prime Minister Trudeau was not effective in getting Congress to pass the USMCA prior to now. And if they don’t come back until September, and if the Democrats want to use this as a talking point in connection with the U.S. election, he might lash out at the Trudeau government.”
Trudeau met Democratic House
The Canadian Press
MARKHAM, Ont. — A 23-yearold man is facing multiple murder charges in an alleged quadruple homicide north of Toronto, police said Monday.
York Regional Police revealed few details about the four people found dead inside a home in Markham, Ont., on Sunday afternoon, nor did they disclose any relationships between the
Leader Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill after his White House meeting with Trump last month. Trump, at the time, said he was pleased Trudeau would be talking to Democrats. Lawrence Herman, a Toronto international trade specialist, said it is unlikely Trump would pull the plug on the new NAFTA so close to his own election campaign because it would sow economic uncertainty that wouldn’t benefit him politically.
“As well, if as many experts believe, the U.S. is heading into a period of economic sluggishness, the threat of NAFTA withdrawal and the uncertainty that would unleash in the period leading up to the 2020 election would probably be a disincentive to Trump embarking on such a move.”
Ujczo said it is unlikely Trump would serve notice to withdraw, but even if he did, Congress or the courts could step in to delay that.
“The NAFTA will be in place through 2019. It is unlikely that companies will face a scenario where neither the NAFTA nor USMCA is in place during 2020,” he said.
victims or the accused. But Const.
Andy Pattenden said police are not seeking any additional suspects after arresting Markham resident Menhaz Zaman – who lived at the home – and charging him with four counts of first-degree murder.
“We do believe that the man we have in custody that’s now been charged is responsible for these murders,” Pattenden said outside the home on Monday morning.
Media reports said Monday that Zaman had posted details of his alleged crimes in a private message exchange with a fellow player of an online video game.
Perfect World Void, a private gaming server, said Zaman had been a player for the last two years. It said details of the alleged crimes were contained in messages Zaman shared with players through a third-party app.
“We were told that players received them privately,” it said in a statement.
Pattenden said police were called to the home shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday after receiving a 911 call reporting possible injuries.
He said Zaman opened the door to investigators and was taken into custody shortly afterwards, though Pattenden did not say whether Zaman was the one to phone in the report to police.
Officers soon found the bodies of three women and one man inside, Pattenden said, declining to reveal the cause of death.
Grilled cheese a choking hazard for elderly people, coroner says
MONTREAL — Health officials in Quebec confirmed Monday they are revisiting the place of the grilled cheese sandwich on menus in care facilities following the choking deaths of at least two elderly residents in recent years.
A coroner concluded earlier this year that the sandwich appears to pose a particular choking risk to the elderly after two residents of the same St-Jeansur-Richelieu, Que., care home died in similar circumstances, three years apart.
Coroner Andre-H. Dandavino recommended that both the local health authority and the provincial Health Department review the risks associated with grilled cheese sandwiches following the deaths of Clemence Thibodeau in 2015 and Monique Leboeuf in 2012.
“The grilled cheese sandwich seems to be problematic and risky for the elderly,” he wrote in his report.
Thibodeau, who was 78, died in hospital the day after getting part of a sandwich stuck in her throat at the care home where she lived, the report said.
The woman, who suffered from a long list of health problems including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, as well as heart, kidney and breathing problems, had been previously evaluated and deemed able to swallow textured foods and eat on her own as long as she was supervised and the meal was cut up.
Leboeuf, for her part, began coughing and choking after eating a grilled cheese sandwich in Dec. 2012 and later stopped breathing, even though the obstruction was cleared.
The grilled cheese sandwich seems to be problematic and risky for the elderly.
— Andre-H. Dandavino, Coroner
Dandavino ruled it was “a violent death by asphyxia from a foreign body.”
Martine Lesage, a spokeswoman for the regional health authority, said it has since removed grilled cheese from the menu for residents who are on a soft food diet, because “it can form a ball in the mouth that can be more difficult to swallow.”
She said the province’s health department is also finalizing a wider action plan to minimize choking risks that includes information about the risks of sandwiches, including grilled cheese, and more staff training on general food and choking safety and best practices.
But she said the residences also take people’s preferences into account, and will work with residents to make it safe for them to eat their favourite foods even if they aren’t on an approved list.
Lesage said she couldn’t provide numbers on how many choking deaths have occurred in the regional’s facilities in recent years, but said the last fatality was in 2016.
Nalini Sen, the research program director at the Alzheimer Society of Canada, said people experiencing dementia can be especially prone to choking as the
brain loses the ability to direct the body to chew and swallow.
She said that certain foods, including grilled or toasted breads, can be harder to swallow, but that simply banning certain foods isn’t the solution to mealtime challenges.
Rather, she advocates a more “personcentred approach” that includes paying attention to the mealtime environment, how food is prepared and presented and the person’s overall oral health.
“Do they have a dry mouth, do they have dentures that fit properly, are their teeth worn or missing?” she said in a phone interview. “These things can impact their ability to properly chew, swallow or consume their food.”
She said sometimes giving water, or cutting food into smaller pieces, can make it easier to chew and swallow, while keeping presentation simple and having a helpful but respectful attitude can reduce mealtime anxiety, which can be a factor in choking.
In an email, the Quebec Health Department confirmed it was heeding the coroner’s recommendations and is finishing a comprehensive review of the risks of choking on food in the province’s network of facilities.
But it said grilled cheese in particular wasn’t a target.
“Although Coroner Dandavino’s report targets the risk associated with the grilled cheese sandwich that is involved in this particular death, the (Health Department) is focusing its thinking more on the measures to be put in place to reduce the risk of choking in general,” Noemie Vanheuverzwijn wrote.
Tahltan buy stake in B.C. clean-energy projects
The Canadian Press
VICTORIA — An Indigenous nation in northwest British Columbia says an investment in clean-energy projects worth more than $2.5 billion represents a historic move towards its economic independence.
The Tahltan Nation announced Monday the purchase of a five per cent stake in three run-of-river hydro-electric projects located in its traditional territories, which include the communities of Iskut, Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek.
Tahltan Central Government President Chad Day said the deal marks a significant economic achievement for the nation as it will generate revenue and provide clean energy for decades.
The Tahltan purchased a portion of
Northwest British Columbia Hydro Electric Facilities for more than $124 million from Axium Infrastructure Canada and Manulife Financial Corporation, said Day in a telephone interview.
The power-generating facilities include run-of-the-river projects, Forrest Kerr, McLymont Creek and Volcano Creek, which produce electricity sold to BC Hydro, the province’s Crown-owned energy utility.
“All three projects have been up and running for multiple years.
“There’s a 60-year water licence on these projects with BC Hydro, so there’s about 57 years left,” said Day, who expected the licenses will be renewed once their terms expire. He said the projects, located on the Iskut River, use the natural flow of the water and cause
no environmental damage.
“These were projects that didn’t require a dam or any major destruction to the environment,” Day said.
The Tahltan Nation said in a statement its territory is home to three of B.C.’s 19 operating mines and represents about 25 per cent of current mining exploration activities in the province.
The nation said its participation in the run-of-river operations represents the largest clean-energy investment by a First Nation in B.C. history and one of the largest in Canada.
Statements released by Manulife Financial Corp., AltaGas Canada Inc., and Axium Infrastructure Canada Inc., said the companies look forward to a lengthy partnership with the Tahltan on clean energy.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Wildfire near Osoyoos growing
OSOYOOS (CP) — Wildfire crews in British Columbia hope to get the upper hand on a stubborn blaze that broke out last week in the southern Okanagan and has scorched just over four-square kilometres of timber and bush.
The BC Wildfire Service said the smouldering ground fire is showing a low level of activity and additional ground crews have arrived, reducing the need for helicopters to drop water.
The fire, located along Highway 3 between Cawston and Osoyoos, is still listed as active and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen is maintaining an evacuation alert for 10 properties in the Cawston area.
The wildfire service said the blaze was likely sparked by lightning and 100 firefighters, nine helicopters and an incident management team have been assigned to the fire.
Efforts are focused on construction of a guard along the north and east flanks of the blaze and a wildfire service update posted Monday said crews working in steep terrain are primarily coping with burning roots and ground cover.
An Environment Canada air quality advisory for the Similkameen region is posted, warning that smoky conditions have the potential to impact health, although the wildfire service said little smoke was being produced Monday.
Care aide acquitted of sexually abusing elderly patients
VICTORIA (CP) — A B.C. provincial court judge has found that collusion, whether intentional or not, was a factor in the acquittal of a care home aide accused of sexually abusing elderly, disabled patients at a facility in Victoria. Forty-year-old Saanich resident Amado Ceniza was accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a person with a disability. He had pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations made last July by three women being treated at Aberdeen Hospital’s extended care facility for elderly residents.
The court heard the women have mobility issues, two rely on wheelchairs and another uses a walker, and each testified she was groped, hugged and kissed without her consent.
Judge Dwight Stewart ruled there were concerns about possible inadvertent collusion between the women and he also found inconsistencies in testimony about the chronology of events and description of the alleged perpetrator. However, he said there was a probability that Ceniza tried to hug and kiss two of the women, and found his conduct to be highly unprofessional. Stewart praised the women for their bravery during the trial and said greater attention will be paid to these cases because of their advocacy.
‘Flying was in his blood,’ said sister of pilot killed in crash
VICTORIA (CP) — A grieving Vancouver Island politician said her brother was the pilot of a charter float plane that crashed on a remote island on B.C.’s central coast, killing himself and three others. Saanich Coun. Nathalie Chambers said her older brother, Al McBain, was the pilot of the Seair Seaplanes Cessna 208 that had nine people aboard on Friday when it crashed on Addenbroke Island. Chambers said her brother was a lifelong adventurer who loved nature, could fix any engine and had flying in his blood.
Chambers said she doesn’t know why the crash occurred but has learned the weather in the area was extremely poor.
Morgan LOWRIE The Canadian Press
Notes from a tragedy
No matter the outcome of the national manhunt for the two young Port Alberni men, charged with second-degree murder in the death of a UBC lecturer and wanted in connection with the deaths of two tourists for crimes committed in northern B.C., the whole affair is tragic. The friends and families of the victims are left to live their lives in a before/after world, where every occurrence is assessed as either before or after their loved one was taken from them. Their suffering cannot be ignored, nor should it.
Yet a conversation is still needed about these two teenagers. Some media commentators have complained about why they are being referred to as teens instead of men or adults but both labels are true, in the same way someone over the age of 65 can be referred to as a senior or an elder without diminishing their adulthood. The two wanted men have been charged as adults for murder but they are also teenagers. That doesn’t mean they should be treated differently when they are brought before the courts but their age is part of who they are.
For every parent with teenaged boys (present company included), the little glimpses of the personal and online lives of the two murder suspects are frightening because of how normal they and their upbringings sound. Broken homes and messed-up parents endlessly fighting? Who hasn’t lived through that? Boys retreating into an insular world of games (both online and in reality) where they are the heroes packing guns, annihilating opponents for pleasure and satisfaction? Doesn’t that sound like an entire generation of young men?
What happened to these two specifically to get them to this place?
So much we still don’t know and might never understand.
Most young men somehow find their way into adulthood and a meaningful, peaceful life, in spite of the challenges of childhood. Some make stupid mistakes throughout their teens and into their 20s that leave them with a criminal record for petty crime or assault until they get on track. Others descend into addiction to escape reality.
And, fortunately for all of us, only a very small few become killers.
There is a long history in crime of duos killing together, from Bonnie and Clyde to Paul and Karla Homolka to the Columbine shooters. How does an understanding of their crimes and what led to them shape our understanding and distort our perceptions of these two?
So much we still don’t know and might never understand.
If the Columbine massacre taught us one thing, it’s how little the imagination, intelligence and persistence of young men is appreciated. In the hours and early days of the Columbine aftermath, it was portrayed as the spontaneous act of bullied antisocial boys who listened to Marilyn Manson and wore trench coats.
Weeks and months later, long after the TV crews drove the satellite trucks away and the investigative reporters left for bigger stories, did the real story come out – the methodical and careful planning, from the acquisition of weapons and the practice using them, to the planting of bombs (which mercifully never went off or hundreds would have died that afternoon 20 years ago) by two popular, well-liked boys from stable, middle-class homes.
YOUR LETTERS
Information deficit
We live in the brave new world of fake news, double speak and historical revisionism. It’s hard to know what the heck is really going on. I rely on what is now called the “legacy media.” I read the Citizen, watch CKPG news at 5 p.m., Global National at 5:30 and Global BC at six.
I’m dismayed at the amount of gobble-de-goop I have to read or listen to before I can piece together the simplest matters of fact.
For example, the recent initiative to restrict commercial and recreational activities in our region to protect the mountain caribou. I read some stuff in The Citizen, watched the scenes of angry looking people in public meetings on TV, listened to the B.C. Liberals blame the NDP and vice-versa for several weeks. Only recently did I learn that the federal government was going to place restrictions on the entire province and the localized restriction was in response to this. In my opinion, this should have been made crystal clear at the outset and all the rhetoric, political posturing and sensationalism should’ve been left out.
Another current story is the supply, demand and price of gas in B.C. Again, we have the
B.C. Liberals blaming the NDP and vice-versa. We have angry consumers griping at the pumps. We have Albertans blaming B.C. for resisting the TransMountain pipeline. We have suppliers blaming retailers and free marketeers blaming government taxes. Recently, Nathan Giede wrote that the federal Liberals were to blame for land locking Alberta oil.
As a devout left winger of the old school and by that I mean working class democratic socialist, I earnestly believe that in today’s world a gas price below $1.30/litre is not news. I’m pretty sure it was the federal Conservative party that land locked Alberta’s oil (I should say Canada’s oil) when Brian Mulroney signed the original free trade agreement with the U.S. and sold off the government’s majority share in Petro Canada. As for competition in the retail market of gas, I think the margins are so thin that a one or two cent drop in price would have to bring a large increase in sales to make a difference and most retailers rely on some kind of loyalty reward system instead of price competition.
For another example, I recently read a lengthy article in the Citizen about the current crisis in the forest industry. Using five words per line and seven lines per inch I estimated that the article was
about 1,800 words. Most of it was the B.C. Liberals blaming the NDP and vice-versa plus the standard rhetoric and sensationalism but the bottom line is that we have known about this for at least ten years. Why is everyone shocked and dismayed?
The companies, the individuals and communities involved should’ve been preparing for this eventuality for a decade and not leaving it to the last minute, then demanding government and taxpayer assistance. All these folks who vote for free market governments and then demand the government (i.e., taxpayers) bail them out when the market fails them are hypocrites. Democracy, the legacy of two world wars and the cold war, is under threat. One of the key ingredients for a strong democracy is a well informed electorate. The current obfuscated news undermines our democracy. We tend to associate free market capitalism with democracy but clearly as we see in Russia and China that is a false assumption. The question going forward into this brave new world is whether people by democratic means will control global social and economic development or whether oligarchs, global capitalists and social media magnates will control the people.
Roy Olsen, Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. 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).
The early reporting of the two current murder suspects, when their status went from missing and possibly victims themselves to wanted men, made it sound like they were two idiots boys, their brains rotted out by video games and social media, about to be caught. Did the two accused sought today plan much or all of this out, even down to how to successfully elude police in multiple provinces?
So much we still don’t know and might never understand.
The fact they remain at large might be outrageous luck, sophisticated cunning, careful preparation, sloppy police work, missed opportunities or a combination of all of the above.
In the end, whenever that may be, whether it’s gunshots or a judge’s gavel, tragedy will remain, along with our confusion (how? why?) and our delusion of incomplete and incorrect facts, along with fear of the next time and the terror that it could be our misguided and lost son, nephew, friend, neighbour, classmate, instead of someone else’s.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Public input is so inconvenient
As I watched hotel workers last week tearfully present to a Vancouver city council committee on their disturbing job experiences –constant harassment, episodes of assault, indifferent employers – I had to put my head in my hands about another item on the city’s agenda.
First, though, let’s take a slight detour, an anecdote in stark contrast to the plights and presentations of those workers but in keeping with the same theme of public engagement.
It goes like this: Jean Charest, the former federal cabinet minister and Quebec premier, once led a public cross-country consultation on constitutional reform. In each town everyone who showed up was given five minutes to present. Tall order.
Charest recounted that those of a certain age often started presentations along the lines of: “I’m 83, I’ll be 84 in the fall,” or “I’m 76, I’ll be 77 in May,” or “I’m 91, I’ll be 92 in December.”
Sure, somewhat amusingly, they described themselves by the age they intended to be.
But they were there, Charest said.
They were there.
As were those women last week, as are thousands of people in our community every year.
What I wonder now is: do our elected officials care enough to listen?
The presenters certainly care enough to carve out time from their day and speak about their passions.
But it is clear in reading any proposed city bylaw that public input has been pronounced an inconvenience to hear.
Strangely, infuriatingly, there is a broad effort underway to curtail public presentations and corrode the covenant of public engagement.
If in elder years ahead I lapse into that pattern of opening my remarks with my age and ambition of age – I’m 61, I’ll be 62 in December – I would need to make my case in, gulp, 180 seconds.
The proposed amendments to bylaw 9756 kill the vibe of consultation.
Among its observations: too many people want to talk. Among its solutions: turn terse presentations into teensy ones.
Remarks would be limited to an anorexic three minutes, down from a skinny five, and questions from councillors to three minutes from five.
The TransLink Mayors’ Council coincidentally is doing the same three-and-three thing as a sixmonth test.
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The new bylaw would limit organizations to one presenter. It excludes public presentations on councillor motions.
It restricts criticism of politicians and staff in their presence.
It bolsters the city manager’s powers and the staff’s advantage in publishing reports at the last minute.
This isn’t just happening in Vancouver.
If we were flush with engagement techniques, some of this might be acceptable.
But that’s a big if and a bigger no. Our freedom of information laws would be funny if they weren’t so sad.
Our institutions don’t hold meetings as they should in neighbourhoods away from their chambers.
Our city council meetings are rife with amendments to amendments of amendments arising from amendments to motions interrupted by points of order and lavish plates of self-serving soliloquies.
Our city councillors love no voice like their own, so many of them already girding to be mayor.
Their indulgences have sent staff to study dozens of their eclectic theories and schemes in the months since the election.
Post-secondary institutions would do well to launch degreegranting programs in Political Pet Project Research.
The council disunity, even among those supposedly committed to caucus solidarity, has been manna for the entrenched bureaucracy, which has assumed control of the city in a matter of months.
As for engagement, Vancouver has embarked on a staff-driven, $18 million, multi-year exercise to recommend new processes for our city’s development.
This bloated, top-down consultation could have been conducted for a fraction of the price in a fraction of the time.
But this isn’t just happening in Vancouver.
Yes, yes, it’s the public that’s the problem here.
Too many want to talk too much.
We will be courted again next election time, promised a voice at city hall, valued for our input, then left at the curb. Yes, by all means, approve the bylaw, councillors. See you then.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca
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KIRK LAPOINTE
The three-million-dollar kid
Meet ‘Bugha,’ the 16-year-old Fortnite
The Washington Post
For a few days at least, Kyle Giersdorf isn’t going to be hassled for spending so much time playing video games.
The 16-year-old known as “Bugha” to gamers, came away with $3 million Sunday in the Fortnite World Cup solo competition, beating 99 other players culled from some 40 million who hoped to qualify for the event in Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Giersdorf, who lives in Pottsgrove, Pa., laughed and shook his head as his name was announced after his dominant performance in the finale. Like all champions in the home of tennis’s U.S. Open, he gleefully hoisted the giant trophy over his head and hugged members of his family. “All I want,” he said (via the BBC), “is a new desk and maybe a desk for my trophy.”
The rest he plans to save. In the final round, his championship was “pretty much sealed” after he found a safe spot to look for enemies and amassed a ton of money for ammunition. “Words can’t really explain it. I’m so happy,” he told CNN Business. “Everything I’ve done in the grind has all paid off and it’s just insane.” Harrison “Psalm” Chang, one of the oldest competitors Sunday at 24, won $1.8 million. “It’s great representing the old dudes: Experience and composure trump everything,” Chang, a former professional Heroes of the Storm player, said. “Fortnite is a young man’s game, though.”
He said he plans to either “gamble it all or invest” his money, but hasn’t decided yet.
World Cup solo champ
More than 30 nations were represented in the tournament, sponsored by Fortnite’s parent Epic Games. It awarded $30 million to players over the weekend, which also featured a Pro-Am and duos competition. In duos, teenagers Nyhrox and Aqua won $1.5 million each Saturday.
Aqua’s plan? Shopping for Gucci shoes.
In Fortnite, the multiplayer phenomenon that has 200 million registered users competing under often inscrutable names world-
wide, 100 players are dropped onto an island and must eliminate each other, seeking weapons and building structures along the way, until one is left.
Competitors in the game, which is free to download, can play alone, in a four- or 20-person team, with friends or with other players they don’t know.
The Battle Royale version of the game brought in around $2.4 billion in revenue for Epic in 2018, according to SuperData Research.
As with electronic devices of all
types, the game can be addictive, as Britain’s Prince Harry noted.
“That game shouldn’t be allowed. Where is the benefit of having it in your household?” he said in April.
He added, “It’s created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible.” Like it or not, there’s a ton of money moving in and out.
A 2018 Goldman Sachs report stated that esports have landed venture capital investment total-
ing $3.3 billion since 2013, and $1.4 billion as of the middle of last year.
“We (the esports industry) look like the NBA did in late ‘60s, early ‘70s,” Canaan Partners’ Maha Ibrahim, who has led the firm’s investment in Gen. G, said in April.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the 28-year-old who is one of the best-known Fortnite players in the world, described in an ABC interview the commitment required and estimated that he plays at least 10-12 hours a day.
“One hour is not enough,” he said, adding, “So many people underestimate and undervalue time in (the game). If you’re playing like an hour a day, you’re not gonna ever be at a level that you want to be at.”
To get good at the game takes two to five hours a day, according to Blevins, who also thinks it’s smart for parents to hire tutors to help their kids.
“There are people who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars at the age of 16, 18 playing that game,” he said. “Would you ever insult a parent or question a parent for hiring a coach? Like a specific coach to help them get better at soccer or football? No one’s gonna be like, ‘Why would you do that?’ It’s the same with Fortnite. There’s money in it.”
And Giersdorf’s haul puts him on another level.
“He’s such a good player, it’s impossible to not know who he is,” Perri Cox, a 17-year-old spectator, told CNN. “I don’t think casual players knew of him, but if you were following the competitive side of things, you definitely were aware of him.”
EPIC GAMES VIA AP PHOTO
Kyle Giersdorf reacts Sunday after he won the Fortnite World Cup solo finals in New York. Giersdorf, of Pottsgrove, Pa. won $3 million as the first Fortnite World Cup solo champion.
Outcry greets Juul store
The Canadian Press
E-cigarette maker Juul is opening its first retail store in Canada amid mounting concern about the brand’s role in the rise of teen vaping. The Juul store in Toronto’s west-end, which opens to customers Monday, marks the California-based company’s first brick-and-mortar location in North America.
Upon entering, Juul says all visitors will be asked to provide identification to prove they meet Ontario’s legal age of 19 to purchase vaping products before they can pass through the clouded glass doors concealing the offerings from public view.
Those who gain entry will find Juul’s devices and cartridges laid out on tables in the sleek showroom style of an Apple store. Patrons can interact with the devices, but not test them, because vaping is prohibited indoors.
At a media preview on Monday morning, Michael Nederhoff, general manager of Juul Labs in Canada, said the store was designed to be an “educational venue” for adult smokers looking to learn about vaping.
But as Juul has emerged as Canada’s leading vaping brand, critics say the company is at risk of creating a new generation of nicotine addicts in light of recent research suggesting that the prevalence of teenage vaping has nearly doubled.
In May 2018, Ottawa formally legalized vaping, opening the door for international vaping brands such as Juul to enter the Canadian market.
Since then, Juul has captured a 78 per cent share of Canada’s vape market, with its products available at more than 13,000 vape shops and convenience stores across the country, said Nederhoff.
Nick Kadysh, Juul’s director of government relations, said the company sees youth vaping as “completely unacceptable” and has taken steps to prevent its products from getting into the wrong hands.
He cited efforts such as using third-party age verification for online sales, and sending secret shoppers to check roughly 150 stores per month to make sure they’re carding customers and following Juul’s restrictions on bulk purchases. He said retailers who don’t comply may either be “blacklisted” or reported to Health Canada.
But David Hammond, a public health professor at the University of Waterloo, said Juul and other e-cigarette makers need to go further to stem the 74-per-cent surge in vaping by Canadian teens that his research suggests.
Hammond led a study published in the British Medical Journal in June based on online surveys of Canadians aged 16 to 19 in 2017 and 2018.
The researchers found that the number of Canadian teens who said they had vaped in the last month increased to 14.6 per cent in 2018 from 8.4 per cent in 2017.
Hammond said the 2018 surveys straddled the month before and after Juul hit stores in Canada, and within weeks of becoming available, the brand had surged to become the third most popular among Canadian teens.
He said the brand’s soaring sales in Canada are particularly alarming in light of trends in the U.S., where researchers found the increase in Juul use accounted for more than two-thirds of the overall rise in youth vaping.
Last week, Juul executives were called before U.S. Congress to field questions from lawmakers about whether the company tried to market its products to youth.
House members pointed to internal documents indicating that Juul planned to push its products on social media and offered funding to schools for anti-vaping education in a program that was quashed after the company learned that big tobacco had backed similar anti-smoking efforts decades earlier.
Juul executives in Canada said neither of those strategies were attempted in Canada, and the company has even advocated for Ottawa to ban social media marketing of vaping
products.
Earlier this year, Health Canada proposed new measures to ban the promotion of e-cigarettes in public places, stores and media where young people are likely to encounter them, including point-of-sale advertisements.
Kadysh said the restriction would hinder Juul’s ability to reach adult smokers when they’re buying cigarettes at their local convenience store and encourage them to switch to what is believed to be a less harmful alternative.
For Hammond, this reluctance speaks volumes about Juul’s commitment to preventing youth vaping.
“I think it is (disingenuous) at best for any company to suggest that those types of ads don’t reach kids when it is literally inches from the candy,” he said.
Hammond credits Juul’s popularity among youth in part to the technology the brand uses to deliver a high concentration of nicotine without irritating the mouth or throat.
Many competing e-cigarette brands have also adopted this technology, which he believes puts young people at greater risk of becoming addicted to nicotine. He said this may have contributed to the dramatic rise researchers found in rates of daily or weekly e-cigarette use by Canadian adolescents.
Another factor in Juul’s youth appeal may be the minimalist design of the devices, which resemble a flash drive and allow for discrete use without the telltale smell of conventional cigarettes, Hammond added.
Last month, San Francisco banned the sale of e-cigarettes in a bid to curb underage use. But Hammond said he doesn’t think prohibition would be feasible or desirable in Canada.
“We can actually control these products more by having them regulated than just trying to push them under the blanket,” he said.
“I think it would be a shame if we had to ban them outright because of their potential to help with adult smokers, but we need to find some way of reducing access to kids for sure.”
decision Wednesday afternoon and commentary about possible future rate action, says Allan Small, senior investment adviser at HollisWealth.
The U.S. central bank is expected to cut rates for the first time since the Great Recession with Chairman Jerome Powell providing commentary about his views of the economy. Small expects there will be just one cut because the U.S. economic data has been strong. The S&P/TSX composite index was down 38.87 points at 16,492.17 points, after being dragged down by technology as Shopify Inc. decreased 5.1 per cent and the key energy sector fell despite higher crude prices.
Vermilion Energy Inc. dropped 7.33 per cent after reporting decreased quarterly production in the second quarter. Husky Energy Inc. was down about four per cent and Cenovus Energy Inc. was off 3.7 per cent.
The September crude contract was up 67 cents at US$56.87 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was down 3.4 cents at US$2.12 per mmBTU.
Health care shares fell by one per cent with Cronos Group Inc, Canopy Growth Corp., Aphria Inc. and Aurora Cannabis Inc. all lower, while Hexo Corp. bucked the trend with a 9.2 per cent gain.
The August gold contract rose US$1.10 at US$1,420.40 an ounce and the September copper contract was up 3.25 cents at US$2.72 a pound.
AP FILE PHOTO
In this April 16, file photo, a woman exhales while vaping from a Juul pen e-cigarette in Vancouver, Wash.
Going for the gold
ABOVE: Northland Nissan Assault player Jackson Parrish looks to put a shot on goal against the PoCo Hitmen on Sunday afternoon at Kin 1 during the gold medal game of the 2019 B.C. Senior “C” provincial lacrosse championship and Glen Moose Scott Invitational lacrosse tournament.
LEFT: The PoCo Hitmen raise the Fred Doig Memorial Cup on Sunday afternoon at Kin 1 after defeating the Northland Nissan Assault 17-8.
Dale Hunter finally gets the call for world juniors
Joshua CLIPPERTON The Canadian Press
PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Alan May remembers a dedicated, physical specimen. Keith Jones recalls unmatched passion and a brilliant hockey mind. As a player, Dale Hunter had all those things.
And then there were the practical jokes.
“He put Garry Galley’s truck up on blocks at the old practice facility,” May said of Hunter, his teammate with the Washington Capitals. “Other times he’d take Garry’s car and move it to the strip mall a few blocks away.
“Dale was the last guy you wanted to pull a prank on because he’d get you back 10 times worse.”
Jones also once found himself in Hunter’s crosshairs.
“I realized there was a horrifically bad smell in my car,” Jones said with a laugh during a recent phone interview. “As I started to drive away I looked back, and out of the arena door was Dale Hunter’s head and Calle Johansson’s head peeking around the corner and laughing.
“They had taken this Swedish fish that is apparently a delicacy and stuck it under the seat. I drove with my head out the window to get to the car wash, and went back three straight days.”
Often a man of few words publicly, but a noted character behind the scenes with those that know him best, Hunter is finally getting a chance to coach Canada at the 2020 world junior hockey championship.
Set to turn 59 on Wednesday, Hunter has been a Canadian Hockey League force since buying the OHL’s London Knights with his brother, Mark, back in 2000.
The franchise has won two Memorial Cups (2005, 2016) and sent a number of pro-ready players to the NHL, including Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Corey Perry and Mitch Marner.
But apart from coaching Canada at the under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in 2013 – which he won – Hunter has been on the outside looking in with the national program.
“A long time coming,” said Stan Butler, head coach/GM of the OHL’s North Bay Battalion and a two-time world junior bench boss. “I don’t know if there’s anybody in junior hockey more deserving.” Hunter said he’s always had “other stuff
on and we had great coaches.”
“It’s awesome,” he added of the opportunity. “It’s an exciting time.” May and Jones, however, have a few ideas about why it’s taken so long for their former captain to get the nod.
“There’s a lot of petty jealously at the success he’s had,” said May, who now works on Capitals’ television broadcasts. “I’ve seen a lot coaches get that gig that don’t even hold a candle to Dale.”
“He doesn’t campaign for anything,” added Jones, an analyst for NBCSN and a colour commentator for the Philadelphia Flyers. “He’s not out to promote himself. He’s out to make his teams better, he’s out to win at all costs.”
Hockey Canada, not surprisingly, has a different perspective.
“We only have one spot for a head coach every year,” said Shawn Bullock, director of the men’s teams. “Dale was enthusiastic when he got the call. “We couldn’t be more excited.” Some of Hunter’s former players raised
eyebrows when told this would be the first time he’s getting the gig.
“It’s definitely surprising,” Marner said earlier this month. “But it doesn’t surprise me he’s getting the chance now.”
Hunter left the Knights to coach the Capitals in the 2011-12 season, leading Washington to an upset victory of the defending Stanley Cup-champion Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.
But instead of continuing in the NHL, he returned to London and his Knights.
Even when they were playing on the same line, Jones said there was never a doubt Hunter would find his way behind the bench.
“Dale had a really genuine way about getting his message across,” Jones said.
“You knew his intentions were for the team to be better, and it wasn’t about himself. There was no acting behind Dale Hunter.
“He wasn’t pretending to be the captain. He was the captain.”
So what can fans expect from a Hunter-
coached team on the national stage?
“An extremely competitive group that are never going to quit,” Jones said. “They might lose, but they’re going to go down swinging.”
Hunter is on the ice this week in suburban Detroit with 38 players for a series of practices and exhibition games against the U.S., Sweden and Finland at the World Junior Summer Showcase. It’s the first opportunity for Hockey Canada’s brain trust - including Mark Hunter - and coaching staff to get an up-close look at some of the teenagers hoping to represent their country at this year’s tournament, which begins Dec. 26 in the Czech Republic.
Canada has won the event two of the last five years, but also failed to medal the last three times it’s been played in Europe.
“It’s a big ice surface,” Dale Hunter said. “It’s a tough tournament.”
Hunter played 19 years and nearly 1,600 regular-season and playoff games in the NHL with Washington, Quebec and Colorado. He had 3,565 penalty minutessecond all-time - and never registered more than 28 goals or 79 points, but was a force every time he stepped on the ice.
“He could pass the puck, he could run a power play, he knew when to stir things up,” May said. “Such a polite, well-mannered person, but so highly competitive and laser-focused.”
His teammates said what stood out was Hunter’s ability to rise above the fray.
“Dale was one of the first guys that perfected simple,” May added.
“It’s a simple approach, but it’s not simple to be able to do that. You have to learn how to be that focused.”
There were moments he’d probably want back, like the dirty hit on New York Islanders star Pierre Turgeon in the 1993 playoffs that resulted in a 21-games suspension, but there was never any doubting his passion.
“This guy played for so long in the NHL, as a smaller player, not a graceful player, not a graceful skater,” May said. “But he was just so determined and focused. He was strong-minded and strong-willed. He doesn’t crave the media, he doesn’t crave the spotlight. He doesn’t want to be in front of a camera or behind a microphone.
“Dale’s just a guy that wants to win.” He’ll finally get that chance on junior hockey’s biggest stage.
Dale Hunter is seen during an NHL hockey practice at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., on Nov., 28, 2011. Hunter will be Canada’s head coach at the 2020 world junior hockey championship.
Biggio’s homer sends Blue Jays to win over Royals
Dave SKRETTA The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bo Bichette rapped a clean single in the first at-bat of his big league career, and then was greeted by his parents after the Toronto Blue Jays rolled to a 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
What did they say?
“I don’t even remember what my mom said,” the mop-haired 21-year-old shortstop said, chuckling with a rookie naivete. “My dad said, ‘Congratulations Bo. You’re a big leaguer.”’
That would be longtime major leaguer Dante Bichette, by the way.
The Blue Jays’ top prospect didn’t have the biggest impact on the game, though. That was another son of an ex-big leaguer, Cavan Biggio, who hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and added an RBI single in the ninth. The son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio finished with three hits.
“Cavan goes up to the plate, you know he’s going to put together a good at-bat,” said Bichette, who played alongside Biggio and another legacy player, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., throughout the minor leagues.
“It was awesome to come in here and look at the lineup and see those names on it,” added spot starter Thomas Pannone, who gave the Blue Jays six competitive innings before departing.
Tim Mayza (1-1) earned the victory with a scoreless inning of relief.
The Royals’ Brad Keller (7-10) let just three balls out of the infield until Teoscar Hernandez’s tying home run in the fifth inning. The right-hander went on to allow three homers in a game for the first time in his career, and four runs total in seven-plus innings.
“I felt in control the whole time. Even minus those three pitches, I felt pretty good.
Just mistakes got me,” Keller said. “It’s really frustrating, especially when it costs you the game.”
The Royals didn’t get a hit off Pannone until Cam Gallagher’s one-out double off
the top of the wall in left in the third. Whit Merrifield followed with a single to give Kansas City the lead. Keller, who fanned four of his first five batters, was cruising along until Hernandez came up in the fifth. He sent a mistake splashing into the fountains an estimated 450 feet from home plate.
Biggio then led off the sixth with a single,
and Randal Grichuk turned on a 2-1 pitch moments later, sending it over the left-field wall for his 17th homer. It was his second against Kansas City this season. Keller, who came into the game with the third-stingiest home run rate in the majors, breezed through the seventh and manager Ned Yost left him in to start the eighth.
That’s when Biggio followed a deep foul ball
with an even deeper fair one for a solo shot that gave the Blue Jays the lead again.
“A tie ballgame, but he still felt strong in that situation and I’m not bringing in a reliever if a guy gets on,” Yost said. “I wanted him to keep the ball in the park, which didn’t happen.”
Toronto tacked on three more runs in the ninth to put the game away.
Canadian weightlifter wins silver at Lima Pan Am Games
LIMA, Peru — Boady Santavy seemed to gain more confidence and swagger with each lift Monday at the Lima Pan Am Games.
The 22-year-old Canadian was the weightlifter to beat at the Mariscal Caceras Coliseum until he came up short with his final lift in the clean and jerk.
After nailing his first five attempts on the day, his sixth – this time at 215 kilograms – proved to be his undoing as he settled for silver in the men’s 96-kilo division. Santavy finished one kilo behind gold medallist Jhonatan Rivas Mosquera of Colombia.
“We weren’t too sure what (he) was going to do so we wanted to do a big lift,” Santavy said. “My knee was pretty sore and I think it got to my head.
“I think I’m physically good for it, but mentally I just lost it.” Santavy looked primed for gold after lifting 208 kilos with his
previous attempt.
He nodded his head after the effort, tapped his heart twice and extended an index finger in the air.
The competition had become a two-man race with Venezuela’s
Keydomar Vallenilla well back in third. Rivas Mosquera answered the Canadian with a 210-kilo lift to shift the pressure. The decision was made for Santavy to go for 215, but he only got the bar to his
waist before dropping it down.
A tweak in his right knee, something he called “nothing too major,” was a factor.
“I felt strong but when I feel a little bit of pain, it plays on my mind,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Oh man.’ Just the pain really gets to my head sometimes.”
The result meant Rivas Mosquera didn’t need to come out for his final lift and could start celebrating in the warmup area behind the stage.
Santavy, from Sarnia, Ont., led the nine-man field after the threelift snatch portion. He barely seemed to strain with his first lift of 166 kilos, tossing the bar down as if ready for more.
He tacked on five more kilos for his next lift and had the same result. Santavy yelled with joy after nailing his third lift of 176 kilos, pumped his fists and bearhugged his father at the side of the stage before lifting him up for good measure.
Santavy had the early momentum in the clean and jerk portion,
assuredly nodding his head as he brushed chalk on his hands before lifting 203 kilos.
The 208-kilo effort that followed proved to be his peak.
“Sometimes in this sport I find if you are satisfied with a number the next one is, ‘Forget it,”’ said coach Dalas Santavy. “I think maybe a little bit of his heart was satisfied with what he did. As a coach, I can see that.”
Santavy, who won silver in the 94-kilo division last year at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, made his Pan Am debut four years ago in Toronto.
“I was young and I got last place,” he said.
“So from last place to second place, I’m pretty excited with that. I wanted to go from last to first, but last to second is not so bad.
“It’s a good warmup for world championships too so it sets me up pretty nice.”
Maude Charron of Rimouski, Que., was fourth in the women’s 64-kilo event.
N.Y., Mississauga (OHL), 2019; Jared McIsaac, Truro, N.S., Halifax (QMJHL), Detroit (2018); Braden Schneider, Prince Albert, Sask., Brandon (WHL), 2020. Ty Smith, Lloydminster, Alta., Spokane (WHL), New Jersey (2018); Jonny Tychonick, Calgary, University of North Dakota (NCHC), Ottawa (2018); Jett Woo, Winnipeg, Calgary (WHL), Vancouver (2018). Forwards Luka Burzan, Surrey, B.C., Brandon (WHL), 2019; Dylan Cozens, Whitehorse, Y.T., Lethbridge (WHL), 2019; Kirby Dach, Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., Saskatoon (WHL), 2019; Riley Damiani, Mississauga, Ont., Kitchener (OHL), Dallas (2018); Ty Dellandrea, Port Perry, Ont., Flint (OHL), Dallas (2018); Aidan Dudas, Parry Sound, Ont., Owen Sound (OHL), Los Angeles (2018); Carson Focht, Regina, Calgary (WHL), 2019; Cole Fonstad, Estevan, Sask., Prince Albert (WHL), Montreal (2018); Nolan Foote, Kelowna, B.C., Kelowna (WHL), 2019; Gabriel Fortier, Lachine, Que., Baie-Comeau (QMJHL), Tampa Bay (2018). Liam Foudy, Toronto, London (OHL), Columbus (2018); Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Gatineau, Que., Halifax (QMJHL), Anaheim (2018); Barrett Hayton, Peterborough, Ont., Sault Ste. Marie (OHL), Arizona (2018); Peyton Krebs, Okotoks, Alta., Kootenay (WHL), 2019; Mathias Laferriere, Outremont, Que., Cape Breton (QMJHL), St.Louis (2018); Alexis Lafreniere, Saint-Eustache, Que., Rimouski (QMJHL), 2020; Raphael Lavoie, Chambly, Que., Halifax (QMJHL), 2019: Jack McBain, Toronto, Boston College (Hockey East), Minnesota (2018); Allan McShane, Collingwood, Ont., Oshawa (OHL), Montreal (2018); Alex Newhook, St. John’s, N.L., Victoria (BCHL), 2019. Serron Noel, Nepean, Ont., Oshawa (OHL), Florida (2018); Ryan Suzuki, London, Ont., Barrie (OHL), 2019; Akil Thomas, Toronto, Niagara (OHL), Los Angeles (2018); Philip Tomasino, Mississauga, Ont., Niagara (OHL), 2019; Joe Veleno, Kirkland, Que., Drummondville (QMJHL),
N.Y. Islanders (2018); Thomas Harley,
AP PHOTO
Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Randal Grichuk (15) celebrates his two-run home run with teammate Cavan Biggio, back, during the sixth inning of a game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday.
Gregory STRONG
The Canadian Press
AP PHOTO
Boady Santavy competes in the clean and jerk men’s 96 kg event at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru on Monday.
Paul Ingvar Paulson
It is with great sadness our family announces the passing of Paul Ingvar Paulson at the age of 93. Paul was
TIDSBURY,LORI
December9,2018
Pleasejoinusinremembranceofoursparkling angel,LoriTidsbury.Acelebrationofherlifewillbe heldonSaturday,August3,2019,from2:30pm5:00pm,attheCourtyardMarriot,900Brunswick StreetintheGreatNorthernBallroom.
The strongest and bravest man we have been so lucky to have in our family is finally at peace surrounded by the ones he loved and cherished the most in his life. He will finally join his beloved wife Barbara. Left to carry on his legacy, strength and bravery are his children, grandchildren, great grand children and nephew. Our family will be forever grateful to Lynne for the love and support you have given him throughout the years , you remain so special to us all. Dr Larson and the Home support Nurse Erica we can not thank you enough for everything much love to both of you. No service by request.
PETER PAUL TURYK
JULY 11TH, 1942JULY 6TH, 2019
It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden and unexpected passing of Pete Turyk (aka; Gramps, “Popsicle Pete!”). He is survived by Judy, his wife of 50 years, his children: Jason, Matt and Anne Turyk, his grandchildren: Brady, Kaitlynn, and Maddison Turyk, Elise and Thomas Ouellette, Cameron Shaw and great grandchild, Amelia Turyk. Pete is also survived by his Mother, Helen Turyk (102 years), sisters: Olive and Terri, and brother Dennis, who he all dearly loved.
Prince George was home to Pete since the late 1960’s. In his younger years, he was known as ‘Coach Holler’, spending many proud years coaching Minor Hockey and Lacrosse. Once he became ‘Gramps’, he rarely missed a hockey game for his grandson, Thomas, often volunteering to take him to his early morning practices in an attempt to liven up the sleep filled change rooms.
At 53, Pete retired from BC Tel, excelled in First Aid and eventually progressed to driving part time for BC Ambulance Services.
Some of Pete’s most cherished times were spent outdoors camping, hunting and fishing the rivers, lakes and oceans. Pete loved spending time with friends and family, spoiling his grandchildren, cooking, (famously smoking salmon and jerky), telling MANY jokes and sharing stories of his life, music and movies that captivated his heart. He will be missed but the memories of his personality and the passion for the things he loved will always be present with us.
Be at peace, Pete. Enjoy catching all those fish up there and leave some for the rest of us! Until we meet again, Gramps.
If you knew Pete, please join his Celebration of Life at Assmans Funeral Home; August 3rd at 3PM. In lieu of Flowers, a donation to Aimhi Prince George. (Jack) John Clifford Joynson December 12, 1938July 24, 2019
It is with deepest sadness that we announce the death of our beautiful soul, Sheila Marian Ponsford. A loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Sheila is survived by her loving husband, Len Fraser, and her beautiful children: Jasmine Tunnicliffe (Bryan), Vanessa Reeves, Yvonne Reeves (Max LaPierre), Zale Reeves (Meg Grant) and grandchildren: Claire, Paul, Todd and Elliott. Sheila is predeceased by her sister, Marjorie, her parents Hilda and Raymond. There will be a public viewing from 7 to 8pm, July 31st, at Assman’s Funeral Chapel. The celebration of Sheila’s life will be held at St Michael and All Angels, 1505 5th Ave, Prince George, at 2:00pm August 1st, 2019 with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers please donate to Literacy Prince George.
Cowart,
Domano, Guelph, St Lawrence, Hartford, Harvard, Imperial, Jean De Brefeuf Cres, Loyola, Latrobe, Leicester Pl, Malaspina, Princeton, Newcastle, Prince Edward, Melbourne, Guerrier, Loedel, Sarah, Lancaster, Lemoyne, Leyden,St Anne, St Bernadette Pl, Southridge, Bernard Rd, St Clare, Creekside, Stillwater, Avison, Davis, Capella, Speca, Starlane, Bona Dea, Charella, Davis, Polaris, Starlane, Vega.
• • Needed for Aug 1, 2019
• • Moncton, Queens, Peidmont, Rochester, Renison, McMaster, Osgood, Marionopolis.
• Quinson Area
• Lyon, Moffat, Ogilvie, Patterson, Kelly, Hammond, Ruggles, Nicholson
for
or rss@pgcitizen.ca
