Prince George Citizen July 3, 2019

Double murder trial opens

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

Identity will be a central issue as a B.C. Supreme Court trial began Tuesday for a “fourth man” implicated in a drug-related double killing.

Perry Andrew Charlie faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Thomas Burt Reed of Burns Lake and David Laurin Franks of Prince George and a count of attempted murder with a firearm in relation to Bradley Knight, the soul survivor of the Jan. 25, 2017, targeted shooting.

Co-accused Seaver Tye Miller and Joshua Steven West have each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and Aaron Ryan Moore to two counts of criminal negligence causing death. They all await sentencing. In opening remarks, prosecutor Marie-Louise Ahrens said it is the Crown’s theory that Franks had offended someone in the local

drug culture and a hit had been ordered on him. Franks was lured to a pullout on Foothills Boulevard about 400 metres south of North Nechako Road on the pretext of selling some cocaine to a known customer.

Unfortunately for Reed, he had offered to drive Franks to the spot in his car, a Chevrolet Malibu, and Knight was along for the ride. Ahrens said the court will hear that they pulled in beside a van owned by a man who gave rides for hire.

Franks got out of the car to make the deal, “but apparently sensed that things were going sideways. He jumped back into the Malibu, yelling to the effect of ‘go, go, go!’ And then a hail of gunfire hit the car and its occupants.”

Knight, who was in the back seat, called 911 at about 2:35 a.m. to say he had been seriously wounded and that it appeared Franks and Reed were dead. A

The Canadian Press

A Cariboo First Nation says its members intend to peacefully take action to protect two lakes with cultural and spiritual significance from drilling by a mining company.

small white dog was also found dead.

By 3 a.m., RCMP had found and impounded the van and had arrested Moore and West while Charlie was apprehended the next day. Following a flood of tips, Miller was arrested a week later.

According to an admission of facts, police found three pumpaction shotguns in Miller’s home on Diamond Drive in the Hart and police determined that the shells found at the scene of the shooting were fired from one or all of the guns.

Other key pieces of evidence include a pair of size 11 1/2 Nike Shock running shoes seized from Charlie’s home in the Caledonia Trailer Park off North Nechako Road with a tread pattern alleged to match that found at the scene of the shooting. Tire tracks found at the scene also matched those from the van, the court was told.

According to a release from the Tsilhqot’in Nation in Williams Lake, Taseko Mines sent a notice on June 27 indicating it would begin using heavy equipment, such as logging and road-clearing equipment, starting on Tuesday, July 2.

The company says the activities are an attempt to prove the lakes will not be harmed by its proposed open-pit copper and gold mine west of Williams Lake.

The mine was approved by B.C. in 2010 but rejected twice by the federal government on the grounds it would cause adverse environmental effects.

A camouflage jacket, a pair of camouflage overalls, a black hankerchief and drawings of the word “Unique” were also found in Charlie’s home and the accused has the same word tattooed to a forearm, the court was told.

The van’s driver, Thomas Lee, was the first of the dozen witnesses slated for the trial to testify.

Lee said he owned a burgundy Chevrolet Venture van with sliding doors on either side, had worked for Miller in the past and had been in Charlie’s home once or twice.

He said Miller had contacted him through social media to arrange for a ride. Lee said he and a friend showed up at Miller’s home, a doublewide mobile home near the corner of Diamond Drive and Nordic Road, shortly after midnight to pick up him and two others.

From there, they drove on to Charlie’s home where the trio went inside and came back out

A decision by B.C.’s Supreme Court last August allowed Taseko to proceed with work around the site of the proposed mine and the court refused to hear the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s appeal of that decision last month.

Tsilhqot’in Nation leaders say Taseko Mines does not have consent to undertake the work and that B.C.’s approval of it is a rejection of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

with Charlie as well as a couple of zipped up duffel bags.

Lee said he recognized Charlie and heard the others refer to him as Unique.

On Miller’s orders, they drove to the corner of Central and 15th where they parked in front of a local store. Lee said Miller then “went around the corner” and came back about 20 minutes later. They then drove to a gas station on Range Road where Miller asked Lee to fill up a jerry can he kept in the back of the van for emergencies. Lee refused but his friend volunteered.

Lee then drove the group to a fast food restaurant at 15th and Central where Miller could get some free wifi. He then borrowed Lee’s cellphone to “call this guy” and buy $260 worth of cocaine. They then drove to the pullover on Foothills with Lee conducting a U-turn to get to the spot. The trial continues today.

“This is not a green light to get this mine approved. The results of this (drilling) project are not going to overturn the two federal environmental appeal processes. This is a dead-end project and you’re going into an area that – repeatedly we continue to point out – is our sacred area,” Chief Joe Alphonse of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which represents six Tsilhqot’in communities in the area, said.

Paving the way

Contracted crews to the City of Prince George pave Gorse Street (1.480 lane kilometres) Tuesday. Other projects are Fir Street from Patricia Boulevard to 17th Avenue (0.680 lane kilometres), Dogwood Street from 15th Avenue to 17th Avenue (0.386 lane kilometres, Henderson Street from Moffat Street to Hammond Avenue (0.400 lane kilometres), Moffat Street from Fifth Avenue to its end (1.460 lane kilometres), Patterson Street from Dezell Drive to Fifth Avenue (1.280 lane kilometres). All of these projects are anticipated to be completed by the end of next week, depending upon the weather.

Plans made for species at risk in B.C. park reserve

The Canadian Press

OSOYOOS — A next step in preserving one of Canada’s most ecologically diverse regions has been reached between two British Columbia First Nations and the federal and provincial governments.

The parties have signed a memorandum of understanding on a working boundary for a national park reserve in the south Okanagan-Similkameen.

The proposed reserve is 273 square kilometres of mountains, lakes and grasslands and is home to 11 per cent of Canada’s species at risk, including American badgers, western rattle snakes, northern leopard frogs and burrowing owls.

The agreement was signed Tuesday by federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman, Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louis and Chief Keith Crow of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band.

McKenna says the region is an ecological wonder, a haven for wildlife and species at risk and a natural legacy to preserve for our children and grandchildren.

Charlotte Dawe with the environment advocacy group Wilderness Committee says many people have worked for the reserve since 2003.

The group says the region is one of the four most endangered ecosystems in Canada and is home to 76 per cent of B.C.’s species at risk.

Efforts like preserving the area are essential if wildlife are to be given a chance at survival, Dawe said.

“Habitat protection is the single most important thing for saving species at risk.” Provincial parks are critically important for protecting species and ecosystems not found elsewhere in the world, added Heyman.

Crow said his people have always protected the land and this process is a way to work with partners to implement culturally informed management practices.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Man drowns in West Lake

West Lake was the scene of a drowning on Monday.

Just before 4 p.m., Prince George RCMP received a report that a man had gone under and was unresponsive when pulled from the water. Despite efforts by a bystander, RCMP and paramedics, he could not be revived. The man was a non-swimmer and foul play is not suspected, RCMP said. Support services are in place for witnesses, friends and family of the victim, whose name was not released.

The Prince George RCMP’s Victim Services section is available for support and can be reached at 250-561-3329. The Crisis Prevention, Intervention and Information Centre is available 24 hours a day at 1-888-562-1214. Both services are free of charge.

Two killed on highway

Two people were killed Sunday afternoon when their vehicle collided with a commercial transport truck about 10 kilometres north of Bear Lake. The victims were the driver and one passenger while another passenger was taken to hospital. The truck driver was not injured.

“At the time of the collision, the road and weather conditions were excellent,” said Prince George RCMP, who were were called to the scene at 4:20 p.m. Names of the victims were not released.

Anyone with information regarding this collision, including any dash camera video, is asked to call Prince George Regional Traffic Services at 250-6494004 and quote file 2019-400.

B.C. residents high pot users

To the surprise of no one, B.C. loves cannabis – and now it has the numbers to prove it. British Columbians consume significantly more cannabis than any other province, according to the recently-released 2019 United Nations World Drug Report. The report’s findings, which also found cannabis to be the most popular drug in the world, indicate that residents of the West Coast province are by far country’s biggest pot enthusiasts. Nearly 25 per cent of B.C. residents over the age of 15 reported using the drug in 2017, according to the UN report. In comparison, that number was 14 per cent in Ontario, 11 per cent in Quebec, and 15 per cent in Alberta. The closest runnersup were Nova Scotia, where nearly 19 per cent of residents over 15 reported having consumed cannabis that year.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Globe-trotting local returns for UNBC dream job

Postmedia

Uniting tiny, remote communities in the frigid western Arctic and the sultry tropics of Queensland is climate change and how human populations are coping with it.

Tristan Pearce has traversed both extremes and points between to better understand what those people are experiencing and how they’re responding. He can thank a former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, he says, for getting the journey started.

“The moment I go back to, I was at UNBC as a young 18-year-old kind of figuring out what I wanted to study and I remember very clearly being infuriated at this proposal for developing offshore oil off the B.C. coast,” he said. “I rode down on my bike to a Chamber of Commerce meeting and there was a speaker, a guy named Brian Peckford.”

Peckford had been instrumental in developing the Hibernia oil field 300 kilometres off Newfoundland and was now chairing meetings on doing the same off the West Coast.

“He was very charismatic. I put my hand up at that meeting and asked him the question we see in the media today: ‘What if? If there’s an accident, what’s going to happen to everything else?’ He goes, ‘Who are you?’

I said I’m a student, and he said, ‘The day you start paying taxes is when you can start

having an opinion.’

“That motivated me, that gave me that push to dig deeper into these issues, I told myself I’m going to get the credibility and the experience so I can address them with a more balanced, educated, informed opinion.”

Leap ahead to this July 1 and the 39-yearold Pearce begins a new job as Canada research chair and associate professor

of cumulative impacts of environmental change at the University of Northern British Columbia.

It brings him home from global sojourns in Australia (sustainability research centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast) and the University of Guelph in Ontario (master’s and doctorate degrees in geography) to Prince George, where he grew up and attained his bachelor’s degree in international studies.

The research chair, awarded to exceptional emerging researchers who are acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead their field, is worth $500,000 over five years.

“Growing up in Prince George was really the stimuli that started my interest in human relationships with the environment, in conservation, in resource management,” Pearce said over the phone from Queensland, where he’s packing for the return home.

“You can’t wake up in the morning and not be faced with either a resource-development issue or some sort of decision or intersection between two differing groups with two visions for the environment.”

Pearce has worked with Aboriginals in Queensland and has 16 years experience with the Inuvialuit in the western Arctic. He gets excited talking about “long knowledge,” the cumulative, ancient body of environmental wisdom passed down over

thousands of years. His goal in Prince George is to come up with more sustainable environmental and social policies that better meet the needs of remote communities in the north and around the globe.

UNBC has a student population of about 3,500 and is well-respected for its research and strong graduate and undergrad programs for a university that size.

“It’s a phenomenal, phenomenal institution for Canada, for British Columbia and for northern B.C.,” Pearce said. “And what’s really, really great about the University of Northern B.C. is you have a university that was well thought out.

“I remember when it was being built (in the early 1990s), I remember my parents being part of the $5 campaign… I say it’s well thought out because here’s a university built on pillars unique to the region.” Environmental science. Northern medical. Sustainability studies. Forest management. Fungi and lichen.

“All these different niches and as a result it’s positioned extraordinarily well geographically to make a huge impact on important issues,” he said.

“I’m so lucky to be in a position to think about these issues and come up with solutions. It’s a dream, just a real thrill to come home and work with people from where I’m from and contribute to issues that are there.”

Be our guest, oui, our guest

Bill Russell works on the set at the Playhouse for Judy Russell’s production of Disney’s Beauty & The Beast. The show opens July 11 and runs to July 27. Tickets are available at Central Interior Tickets.

Expect Coquihalla delays, drivers warned

Postmedia

Heading out on the Coquihalla this summer? Better prepare for delays. Lane closures will be in effect this summer on Highway 5, just north of Hope, to allow room for road crews to upgrade the aging Carolin Bridge. The span will undergo concrete repairs, bearing replacement and deck resurfacing.

As a result, a section of the Coquihalla, beginning about 25 kilometres north of Hope, will see the number of lanes reduced in both directions, as well as lanes narrowed at certain times to allow for a counterflow lane.

• From Sundays at 8 p.m. to Fridays at 8 a.m., traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction.

• From Fridays at 8 a.m. to Sundays at 8 p.m., there will be a

third lane, serving as a counterflow lane.

• On Fridays and Saturdays, the counterflow lane will allow northbound traffic.

• On Sundays, the counterflow lane will allow southbound traffic.

To accommodate the counterflow lane, lanes will be reduced from five metres in width to 3.8 metres.

Drivers should expect delays of

up to 30 minutes.

Drivers are also advised to avoid the affected stretch during peak times:

• Southbound peak hours are Friday from 2 to 4 p.m., Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m. and holiday Mondays from noon to 6 p.m.

• Northbound peak hours are Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. or on long weekends from 2 to 8 p.m.

The lane closures are in effect today through the end of October.

The Canadian Press

RCMP say a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that alleged a former spokesman for the force in British Columbia sexually harassed a civilian employee.

The lawsuit against former inspector Tim Shields had been scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday but court documents show the parties agreed to dismiss the action without costs in May.

RCMP Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says the terms of the settlement are confidential.

A lawyer for the woman who filed the lawsuit and an attorney for Shields did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The woman filed the notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court in 2013 alleging Shields made unwanted sexual advances toward her on numerous occasions.

The civil claim also named the provincial justice minister and Canadian attorney general, alleging a top-down culture of harassment within the force.

Shields, the justice minister and the attorney general denied the allegations in statements of defence and none of the allegations were proven in court.

A different harassment lawsuit against Shields was also settled in February 2017 and a B.C. Provincial Court judge found him not guilty of one count of sexual assault in a separate criminal case that December.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Chief holding hunger strike

The Canadain Press

An Algonquin grand chief is on a hunger strike, protesting her community’s unequal role in the development of a major Indigenous centre in Ottawa.

Steps away from Parliament Hill, Verna Polson is lying in a wigwam under a heavy summer sun. She’s not eating food. She’s not drinking water.

Polson, head of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, began her hunger strike late Monday night. Throughout Tuesday, volunteers helping at the site tried to cool her wigwam with a fan and air conditioning. The temperature in Ottawa reached a high over 30 C Tuesday afternoon and the forecast calls for the hottest stretch of the year in the rest of the week.

“She’s obviously tired, she’s weak in terms of physical strength,” said Frankie Cote, a band council member for the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg, an Algonquin community north of the capital in Quebec, who is working with Polson.

“But mentally, she’s still strong,” he said.

Cote said while he and the others gathered at the Wellington Street building support Polson’s action and goals, they were “very concerned” about her health.

“It’s literally putting her life on the line,” he said, adding he and others have been trying to convince her to at least drink water.

Polson’s refusal to eat or drink is in protest of the fact the Algonquin Nation is not an equal partner in the development of the building in the former U.S. Embassy directly across from the Peace Tower, which is meant to become a centre known as the Indigenous Peoples Space.

In June 2017, the federal government pledged the use of the embassy building to a group of Indigenous organizations, made up of the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis Nation Council.

The building, used for not much since American diplomats moved to a new larger building 20 years ago, was hung with banners representing the three large Indigenous

A supporter walks past a wigwam

Tribal Council, is hunger

ing due to a lack of consultations regarding the former U.S. Embassy building, which was dedicated to Indigenous people.

groups and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to work with them to transform the property.

He held a large public event outside, calling the project a step to “ensure that the dialogue we have started is sustained and deepened as we move forward together.”

But Polson and Cote maintain the Algonquin deserve equal standing because the building is on unceded, traditional Algonquin land.

“This is our land, our territory. We want to be here and we want to host our brothers and sisters from across the country,” Cote said.

Cote said the Algonquin Nation is in active talks with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, seeking a solution where the government recognizes them on par with the national organizations. But so far, he said, the government’s position is that this issue should be resolved through conversations among the Indigenous groups themselves.

Polson, Cote, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde and others met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday, but Cote said the Indigenous leaders left the meeting “discouraged.”

The band councillor said the

Meet the fox that walked from Norway to Canada

An arctic fox walked more than 4,415 kilometres (2,737 miles) to go from northern Norway to Canada’s far north in four months, Norwegian researchers said.

The Norwegian Polar Institute reported the young female fox left her birth place on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on March 1, 2018 and reached Canada’s Ellesmere Island by way of Greenland on July 1, 2018.

The ground the small fox cumulatively covered over those four months was among the most ever recorded for an arctic fox seeking a place to settle down and breed, the institute said in a research article subtitled “One female’s long run across sea ice.”

Institute scientists monitored the fox’s movements with a satellite tracking device they fitted her with in July 2017 near her native habitat by a glacier on Norway’s Spitsbergen island. She stayed close to home then gradually ventured out until she

left the island on March 26, 2018.

During the walk to Canada, the roughly two-year-old fox moved at an average rate of 46.3 kilometres per day (28.7 miles per day), the Norwegian scientists said.

“The short span of time spent covering such a distance highlights the exceptional movement capacity of this small-sized carnivore species,” they said.

The distance between the fox’s natal den and where she settled on Ellesmere Island was 1,789 kilometres (1,109 miles) if travelled in a straight line, according to the institute.

The sea ice allows Norway’s arctic foxes to reach Greenland and then North America, though it’s not known why they leave their birth places in search of places to breed, the researchers said.

The animals, which have thick fur to survive cold environments and live to about age four, subsist on fish, marine birds and lemmings.

Canadian government is making a mistake in treating national Indigenous organizations as if they were governments, arguing that true reconciliation means a relationship with Indigenous people, not the umbrella advocacy groups.

“We’re distinct. We’re not an organization. We’re a nation,” he said.

Still, Cote said discussions are moving forward and he hopes all sides can come to an arrangement that might be brought to Polson to convince her to end her hunger strike. An arrangement that gives greater influence to the Algonquin Nation would require the co-op-

eration of the national Indigenous organizations currently in charge of the project, and a meeting last week with the groups representing Inuit and Metis peoples also “didn’t go well,” Cote said.

The ITK and the MNC have opposed giving the Algonquin Nation equal standing in the development process, and the two parties haven’t met since last week, Cote said.

The Assembly of First Nations, meanwhile, said it strongly supports Polson’s position and is hoping to work toward a solution that would end the hunger strike and strengthen the role of the Algonquin Nation.

CP PHOTO

where Verna Polson, grand chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation

strik-

The Associated Press

A polar fox is fitted with a satellite tracking collar in Krossfjorden, Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic archipelago, on July 29, 2017, as part of research conducted by the Norwegian Polar Institute. The young female arctic fox shown in this photo has been tracked walking from northern Norway to Canada’s far north.

Books for the beach

Let’s start, dear reader, with clarifying terminology. To my mind, “beach read” does not signify a light or inconsequential read whose main purpose is to expedite the passage of time.

Some beach reads have so much to offer that they can be best appreciated only in these glorious days when North Americans have the luxury of light, warmth and time. Beach reads are replete with wit and rife with content so deeply gripping it never leaves us. Beach reads leave us curiously altered, expand our world view and may cause us to take action.

As a Canadian literature scholar and teacher long ago transplanted from southwestern Ontario to the British Columbia Interior, I want to share some ideas for summer reads connected with B.C.

• Damage Done by the Storm by Jack Hodgins, a book of short stories largely set on Vancouver Island, explores recurrent Hodgins’ themes like the inescapability of home and the insularity of the islands. His take on British Columbia occasionally veers into the sometimes comic B.C. propensity for myth-making and self-reinvention.

Damage Done by the Storm should enlighten you about life at a geographical edge; it might also stimulate reflection on the precarity of individual consciousness.

• A global city, Vancouver proves an ideal setting to scrutinize contemporary issues like environmental devastation and late

capitalism as writers like Douglas Coupland, Zsuzsi Gartner and Timothy Taylor have done. Taylor details Vancouver so much in The Rule of Stephens that it functions as a character. The Rule of Stephens is about a biotech start-up CEO, Catherine Bach, who confronts both the machinations of the high-tech world and inner turmoil arising from being one of the few survivors of a tragic airplane crash. This novel may move readers to shake up their sense of personal and universal order.

• A witty suspense story, The White Angel by John Gray set in 1920s Vancouver, probes the death of Janet Smith, a young Scottish maid. Infused with Gray’s characteristic incisive eye for the ironic, it is equally a portrait of a loose-at-the seams Vancouver and a dissection of the historic crime. A commentary on vice and class disparity, The White Angel has considerable contemporary relevance. This novel may trigger our critical faculties to analyze current urban woes.

• Let’s move to the B.C. Interior and shift genres – to the play script. Kevin Loring’s Where the Blood Mixes is worth revisiting. Loring, the Nlaka’pamux playwright and inaugural artistic director of Indigenous theatre at the National Arts Centre, won a Governor-General’s-Award for this play. The play provides both a disturbing look at the intergenerational effects of residential schools and a fascinating overview of Nlaka’pamux culture. Set in Lytton, Loring’s play evokes laughter because of dialogue

to which everyone can relate. I recommend this play as a beach read because it is usually helpful to read a script before one sees the play and Where the Blood Mixes will be staged this fall in Ottawa.

Another play scheduled on the national stage this fall is The Unnatural and Accidental Women by Vancouver’s Marie Clements. Both these plays are models of how harrowing stories can be even more compelling when augmented by humour.

• Breth/ th treez uv lunaria, Bill bissett’s collection of poetry is playful, laugh-outloud funny and a scathing indictment of Western political, cultural and social systems. Bissett’s poetry has caused several generations of English students to rethink the conventions of poetry, and with this selection from over six decades, he is, as the Toronto Star reporter Mike Doherty writes, “still cownturculchural, still compelling.”

Bissett’s connection to the west coast is substantial: he lived in Vancouver and the Cariboo region for several decades. Sample some works in Breth as you soak up rays, and you are very likely to find yourself questioning the conventions of spelling and language – and the forces which govern us. You may find yourself transported to another planet – the lunaria of the subtitle.

• More magic beckons us on B.C.’s north coast. The second novel in the Trickster trilogy of Eden Robinson, Trickster Drift is on my summer list. Like its predecessor, Son of a Trickster, it features protagonist Jared is

Taking tradition ends our identity

Recently I was crossexamined about my loyalties “to the unenlightened people and policies that make up conservatism.” As we’ve finally come past “Anything But Canada” day, our annual Jour de la White Guilt, and that month long plagiarism of the Almighty’s multicoloured promise to never flood the earth again, focusing on the family, civil society, and tradition appears to be a welcome reprieve. What follows are reflections on the malaise surrounding these issues.

The irreducible human unit is the family, not the individual, as we cannot perpetuate and improve mankind without parents and children. This fundamental truth was a source of strength for the old left, particularly when agitating for better wages to lift people out of abject poverty.

But the family has been abandoned by radicals, who dismiss the imperatives of monogamy and procreation, while advocating that all familial duties become state issues.

Thus sapped of its strength and purpose, the family has fractured for the marginalized thanks to incentivizing single parenthood, or become disadvantageous to the middle and upper classes thanks to liberalized divorce laws. Fatherlessness and broken homes are the leading causes of every physical and psychological malady in their respective offspring, yet the silence from progressives on this issue precluding addiction, literacy, prison reform,

etc. is deafening.

Families once made up civil society with church and secular groups on all sides of the social, cultural, religious and political spectrum. Such organizations supported everything from schools to hospitals, poverty relief to work placements, as well as the arts and all levels of sport.

In British Columbia, gambling was legalized on the condition that all profits would benefit civil society groups – even churches once hosted gaming events for fundraisers. Now, gambling is entirely outsourced to private businesses. There are still gaming grants for nonprofits, but nearly two thirds of taxation on gambling goes into “consolidated revenue,” in order to help the government fund services that used to be conducted exclusively by charitable organizations. This costs more and renders worse results. But be grateful, as now we have big state agencies with members working tirelessly to expand their empire of mediocrity with your taxes.

Attitudes towards tradition offer another stark contrast. In our supposedly pragmatic age, the great irony is nothing more practical than tradition exists. The tried and true, by definition, are those methods that work

given man and nature’s limitations. Yet these are constantly denigrated by progressives who assert the old ways must be discarded and brave new worlds created at breakneck speed with malice aforethought, regardless of the carnage wrought on “peoplekind.”

All of this comes down to a question of potential: radicals proclaim that each of us can be giants, the stars easily within reach if only we follow a particular program; the traditionalist warns that the true giants are the glorious dead – we stand on their shoulders and owe them everything.

The proof is in the educational pudding. Since the 1980s, curricula have changed more than in the previous two millennia, replacing classics with hyphenated studies and rote learning in math, logic and science with discoverybased systems. The radicalism on campus speaks to the former as the ever dwindling test scores of all but the brightest attest to the latter. Luckily, those in charge are removing all standardized rubrics – soon there will be no goal posts to miss. These are just a few of the bleak realities obvious to “conservatives.” It bears repeating that historically, the family, civil society and tradition were bipartisan issues with strong voices of support on the tight and left. The reestablishment of this consensus is crucial to preserving a humane existence. Otherwise, a cruel world of corporate or statist oligarchy is all but inevitable.

a wild blend of the supernatural, tragedy, humour and nail-biting tension. How will Jared handle the move from familiar Kitimat to alien Vancouver? Here is more inducement to take Robinson’s novels to the beach: CBC is adapting Robinson’s fiction with an Indigenous film making group, the first time CBC has worked with an Indigenous author in this way, for a (2020) television series. The Trickster series will startle you out of any summer complacency. Should the impetus of the summer reads carry you into autumn, try another play script: the indomitable Kim Senklip Harvey’s Kamloopa (slated for an October release) traces the magical journey of a powerful trio of Indigenous matriarchs from Vancouver to the Kamloops’ powpow.

The Vancouver production of Kamloopa has garnered eight Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations Kim Senklip Harvey (Harvey is Syilx, Tsilhqot’in, Ktunaxa and Dakelh) lives up to her self-designated moniker of Fire Creator and even in autumn, Kamloopa is guaranteed to fuel inner blazes. Dear reader, I wish you light, warmth and leisure enough to enjoy these Left Coast beach books – and many more from across Canada. Summer is a superlative time for personal growth. What better way to evolve than through a gripping read?

— Ginny Ratsoy is an associate professor of Canadian literature at Thompson Rivers University. This article first appeared in The Conversation.

Of climate change and a change in climate

Canadians are concerned about climate change. About this, there is no question.

The majority of Canadians worry about the implications of a changing climate on their lives, their children’s lives and for the planet. Some Canadians believe there is nothing to worry about or it won’t affect us. Others just outright deny the possibility of a changing climate.

Regardless of where you stand in this ongoing debate (which really isn’t a debate) what to do about climate change will be a big component of the upcoming federal election. Each of the parties is going to have to take a stand on the issue.

Whether it is the Conservatives Real Plan to Protect Our Environment or the Liberal’s carbon tax or the Green Party’s reason for being, a stance on climate change will be critical but little of substance will likely be presented.

Take the carbon tax introduced by the federal government. Is it the evil money grab from the middle class as portrayed repeatedly by Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives? No. Particularly as the funds will either be returned to low income earners in the form of rebates or utilized to develop a more sustainable economy.

But will it save the planet as promised by Justin Trudeau and the Liberals? No. While carbon taxes can drive down gasoline consumption by moderate amounts, the size of the tax would need to be much, much larger for it to be truly effective. People will adjust to the few pennies per litre the tax costs and life will go on.

Does this mean a carbon tax is a good thing? No. Research has shown such interventions create a false sense of accomplishment and tend to make people feel they are already doing their part rather than getting on with the hard work which needs to be done.

If you really wanted to change people’s driving habits and drive down carbon emissions, the best approach would be to ban new car sales of any vehicle which doesn’t get at least 12 kilometres per litre (8.3 litres per 100 km). This would vastly reduce the number, size and types of vehicles on the road and would achieve much larger reductions in carbon dioxide emissions than a carbon tax.

But many pundits would argue you can’t do this. After all, it is meddling in the free market (which is neither free nor a market). It would eliminate some of our personal freedoms. And it would put us at odds with our biggest trading partners.

Mailing address: 505 Fourth Ave. Prince George, B.C. V2L 3H2 Office hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday

It would, they argue, wreck the economy. This is the rallying cry for those opposed to doing anything to mitigate the effects of climate change. Why should we give up what we have so that hypothetical future generations can live on Earth? You can’t destroy the economy to save the environment. Of course, this is a false dichotomy. It is not the environment or the economy – it is the environment and the economy. This is where we need to go. It is where our leaders should be heading. It is not a question of one or the other but finding a way to do both. And it will require change. Take the earlier suggestion of banning new car sales unless they exceed a minimum threshold for gas mileage. Sure it would put some people out of work but it would also open up opportunities in the auto industry. Production of the small subset of vehicles which qualify would need to be rapidly ramped up, requiring auto workers with experience.

It would also stimulate research to find alternative ways to get more power from an engine while respecting emission standards. The point is such strategies will help to save the environment for now and for future generations while changing the way our economy operates. I realize the above is a simplistic example but there are so many ways where we can do what is right to mitigate climate change and at the same time enhance our economy. It is not one or the other. It is both. We just have to find a way. ***

I have been writing these columns for 13 years and it has been my pleasure to engage in discussion of political matters as I see them. However, after 25 years at UNBC, I am taking a year-long sabbatical and will be spending much of my time working with Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. I will be taking a break from writing these columns, although Neil Godbout has assured me I can still send the occasional column his way during the upcoming election campaign. To all the readers of this column, I say thank you, especially to those who disagree with me. The whole point of opinion pieces is to develop debate about topics and hopefully some of what I have had to say has done that.

Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca

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RIGHT OF CENTRE NATHAN GIEDE

What’s next for Taylor Swift?

FEKADU

Mesfin

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Taylor Swift’s feuds can captivate the public almost as much as her music, and her latest emotional salvo against one of music’s top managers not only made headlines but got key players in the industry riled up, with the likes of Justin Bieber, Halsey and Demi Lovato publicly choosing sides as accusations and insults were posted furiously on social media.

But days after the storm, experts say Swift and Scooter Braun, who manages Bieber and Ariana Grande and now owns Swift’s masters, will have to find a way to work together – both to preserve Swift’s rich musical legacy but also make money and do good business.

“Whether anyone likes it or not, Scooter Braun just became one of Taylor Swift’s most important business partners (and) these are people that need to work with each other now,” said Bill Werde, former editorial director of Billboard and director of the Bandier program for recorded and entertainment industries at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

“(Scooter) wants her to continue to be the biggest star in the world for as long as possible because that’s how he’s going to get the best return on his investment,” Werde continued.

“I think that in the not too distant future you’re going to see... things get better. You know, you’re going to see some olive branches.”

On Sunday, Braun’s Ithaca Holdings announced that it acquired Big Machine Label Group, the label led by Scott Borchetta and home to Swift’s first six albums, including the Grammy winners for album of the year, 2008’s Fearless and 2014’s 1989. Swift said in November she signed with Universal Music Group instead of staying at Big Machine because she knew that re-signing with the label would only result in her not owning her future work.

Once the news broke, Swift penned a scathing Tumblr note, saying she was sad and grossed out that her music catalogue now

Academy welcomes 842 new members

NEW YORK — The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Monday invited 842 members from 59 countries to the Oscars organization and, for the first time, reached gender parity in its new class of inductees.

Half of the new invitees to the film academy are women. In 10 of the 17 branches – including the directing, writing and producing branches – more women than men were invited.

This year’s class of new members also includes 29 per cent people of colour.

That’s a notable turnaround for an organization that has sought to diversity its ranks following criticism for all-white acting nominees in 2015 and 2016.

Since 2015, the group’s overall female membership has grown from 25 per cent to 32 per cent, the academy said.

Overall membership of people of colour has doubled, from eight per cent to 16 per cent.

To aid in the swift overhaul of the academy, the group last year invited a record 928 members. While smaller, this year’s class still ranks as one of the academy’s largest in its 92-year history.

New invitees include Lady Gaga, Sterling K. Brown, Claire Foy, Letitia Wright, Tom Holland and Adele.

Newly invited directors include Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon Chu, The Babadook director Jennifer Kent and the filmmaking duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

If most accept their invites, the film academy will number more than 9,000 members.

Next year’s Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 9, several weeks earlier than usual.

belongs to Braun.

“When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter,” she said her post.

“Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”

“When Taylor decided to make a deal for future records someplace else, she... certainly knew that Big Machine would be sold probably sooner than later,” said Larry Miller, the director of the music business program at New York University’s Steinhardt school.

“It’s unfortunate that she feels the way that she does about the place that her catalogue is now going to live.”

But what seemed to first be about music ownership and artists’ rights turned into dramatic theatre, as Swift also wrote about her clashes with Kim Kardashian and West, and claimed she didn’t know about the sale of her catalogue until the news was announced Sunday. The social media showdown played out throughout the day, with Borchetta providing details of the text he says he sent to Swift about the deal the night before it was announced. He even shared screenshots of a contract between the two of them discussing a possible new deal that would also allow her to own all her masters.

Braun’s wife and his clients including Lovato and Bieber showed him support, while Halsey,

Todrick Hall, model-actress Cara Delevingne and music video director Joseph Khan were #TeamTaylor. Even country singer Kacey Musgraves jumped in the ring by liking the Instagram post by Braun’s wife.

It marked another saga in the drama of Swift, who has had a number of public feuds, from former boyfriend Calvin Harris to Katy Perry (who made up with Swift and recently appeared in her latest video, You Need to Calm Down).

“I think Taylor, who has led many discussions about what is good for artists in the music business, had an opportunity to lead another one here about control and ownership of your own songs as an artist. But I think she kind of muddled matters by combining this with what felt like a personal vendetta,” Werde said.

“Now we’re all talking about which pop star took whose side.” Swift will release a new album called Lover on Aug. 23. Miller said he expects things to work out in the future regarding her catalogue.

“About four years ago maybe there was a big Taylor Swift dust up around the launch of Apple Music, right?... and I’m pretty sure they found a way to work together,” Miller said, referencing Swift’s 2015 public letter explaining why she was pulling her songs over Apple Music over payments to artists; Apple agreed with Swift’s stance and they’ve worked together ever since.

“Big Machine under its new ownership with Ithaca Holdings, and Taylor and her team... will find to do what’s right for her and for her... will find to do what’s right for her and for her catalogue.”

This combination photo shows Taylor Swift at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 1 and

Scooter Braun at the 2019 MOCA benefit in Los Angeles on May 18.

Jake COYLE The Associated Press

AP PHOTO This combination photo shows, top row from left, Sterling K. Brown, Letitia Wright, Lady Gaga, and bottom row from left, Claire Foy, Tom Holland and singer Adele, who are among 842 people invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Monday.

Veterans left on hold

The Canadian Press

Veterans Affairs Canada has struggled to quickly answer calls from current and former service members seeking information and assistance, newly released documents show, leading many to hang up before they are answered.

Obtained through the access-toinformation law, the documents show the government has made little progress in recent years in cutting down on the amount of time veterans are forced to wait on hold when they phone federal call centres.

In fact, it appears the problem with the toll-free number – which is separate from the crisis line set up for veterans or family members dealing with mental trauma and physical injuries – has gotten markedly worse despite years of public criticisms.

Veterans have previously called the delays frustrating, stressful and an obstacle to accessing needed benefits and services, particularly for those suffering from psychological trauma or physical injuries.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a veteran who is sick, calls (Veterans Affairs Canada) and is not able to get an answer,” said Sylvain Chartrand, director of Canadian Veterans’ Advocacy.

“What’s going to happen to this guy? Is he going to call back? Have we lost him? Probably some.”

Veterans usually call the tollfree number to apply for – or get information about – the various benefits and services offered to former military personnel. They can also get an update on their applications.

The calls, which number in the tens of thousands each month, are often the first contact veterans

have with the department and are routed to one of four centres in Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg and Kirkland Lake, Ont. Yet while Veterans Affairs aims to answer 80 per cent of calls within two minutes, only 40 per cent of the more than 359,000 calls answered between April 2018 and February 2019 were fielded within that target.

Another 84,000 – or about one in five of all calls - were categorized as “abandoned,” meaning the caller hung up before officials

could answer.

The figures were noticeably worse last year than over the previous two years, when only about one in 10 calls were abandoned and around 65 per cent of calls that were answered were within the two-minute target.

While the documents did not provide a reason for the sharp decline in service, they did show that last year officials contemplated extending the target for answering calls to five minutes.

That proposal was ultimately

quashed by then-veterans affairs minister Seamus O’Regan.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Josh Bueckert said the department has hired more employees so that call centres “are now at full capacity and have routinely been answering calls well within the standard time of two minutes.”

Officials are also developing a plan “to address a few key areas as quickly as possible,” he added while noting that veterans can also access services online and by visiting a Veterans Affairs Canada

Ukraine president visits Canada

The Canadian Press

Ukraine’s weak judicial system is hurting the country’s prospects for reform, which is the only way it will ultimately overcome Russia’s ongoing aggression, says the Trump administration’s point man on the embattled country.

“You have a judiciary that has been subject to political influences from various directions for a long time,” said Kurt Volker, the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations and former ambassador to NATO. He offered that assessment on the margins of a major international conference on the Eastern European country’s future that began in Toronto on Tuesday.

The meeting marked the North American

debut of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who projected bonhomie before and after his meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Zelenskiy, a popular actor and comedian with no previous political experience, easily won this spring’s presidential election, unseating Petro Poroshenko. His appearance in Toronto is partly about allaying concern over whether someone who played the Ukrainian president in a TV drama was cut out for the actual job. Representatives from more than three dozen countries and international finance organizations want to see continued momentum on Poroshenko’s five years of reforms.

Zelenskiy also met David Lipton, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, which has in the past

frozen billions in reconstruction money for Ukraine because of concerns over corruption.

Volker said Lipton expressed concerns about the lack of “legal certainty” in Ukraine – the rules-based stability that gives potential investors confidence they need to enter the market.

“Investors do not have that confidence right now,” said Volker. “Some terrible things are holding the Ukrainian economy back because it keeps foreign investment away.”

That being said, the United States is confident that Zelenskiy is up to the task of speeding up reform in Ukraine.

Trudeau was certainly upbeat about Ukraine’s future, touting Canada’s free-

office in person.

Chartrand, who previously served in Cyprus and Bosnia, said he has nonetheless heard many complaints from the veterans’ community, and noted that he has personally had to wait 15 minutes or more for an answer.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” he said of the figures, “but they don’t show what impact there is on a veteran who’s not going to be able to get (a service or benefit) or is discouraged and doesn’t go ahead.”

trade deal with the country.

“One of the things we’ve seen over the past years and the election of President Zelenskiy is a fresh impetus and strong determination to continue on the path to reform. We recognize there continue to be tremendous challenges,” said Trudeau.

“We recognize that many of those challenges are also external, with Russia determined to interfere with the progress towards full freedoms and reforms that Canada and our friends around the world all want to see for Ukraine.”

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in the worst breach of Europe’s borders since the Second World War, an act Canada and its Western allies view as illegal.

LNG boom undermining climate change efforts

The Canadian Press

The Global Energy Monitor says an international boom in liquefied natural gas exports is undermining global efforts to stop climate change and Canada is one of the industry’s biggest players.

The report, released on Canada Day, says there are projects in development globally that by 2030 would increase natural gas supply to 806 million tonnes above what they are now.

Thirty-five per cent, is in Canada. Only the United States, at 39 per cent, has more new natural gas exports in the works, the report says.

The Global Energy Monitor is an international non-governmental organization that catalogues fossil-fuel infrastructure.

The report says the increase in natural gas is driven largely by the North American fracking boom, which changed the industry about 11 years ago.

But it also says the investments are “on a collision course” with the goals of the Paris climate change accord.

That accord, signed by every country in the world, commits to trying to keep global warming to as close to 1.5 C as possible compared to pre-industrial levels.

As of 2016, the world was close to hitting the 1 C warming mark, and

last year, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the world will blow past 1.5 C by 2040 without drastic action to cut global greenhouse gas emissions.

A 1.5 C goal would require a global cut in natural gas of 15 per cent by 2030 and 43 per cent by 2050. If all the current proposed projects are built, natural gas supply will instead triple by 2030, the Global Energy Monitor says. Ontario, which phased out its coal-fired generators as of 2014, did so by adding new gas generators as well as nuclear and renewable sources. Several plants in Alberta are being converted to natural gas over the next three years.

The federal Liberals are moving to discourage the construction of new natural gas plants, issuing regulations last week to increase the carbon tax on any new plants added after 2021. But the government is heavily supportive of exporting natural gas to Asia. Natural Resources Canada says 18 LNG projects are proposed in Canada, 13 in British Columbia, two in Quebec and three in Nova Scotia. The federal government just announced a $220 million contribution to the LNG Canada project in Kitimat to help fund energy-efficient gas turbines as part of the $40 billion project.

A sign is placed on a truck windshield as members of the advocacy group Banished Veterans protest outside the Veterans Affairs office in Halifax on June 16.

TOP: The Falcon Contracting Little Chiefs took on the Secwepemc Saints on Saturday morning at the minor boy’s field in a round-robin game at the 50th annual Canada Day Fastpitch tournament.

ABOVE LEFT: Custom Edge Sports player Nic Potskin takes a swing at a Canoe Lake Cree 45 pitch on Saturday morning at Spruce Ctiy Stadium as the two teams met in a round-robin game.

ABOVE RIGHT: Custom

player Josh Anderson winds up for a pitch aganst the Canoe Lake Cree 45 on Saturday morning

Golden Hawks soar at fastball tourney

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

The Regina Golden Hawks ruled the roost at the 50th annual Canada Day Fastpitch Tournament.

In an all-Saskatchewan final Sunday night at Spruce City Stadium, the Hawks blanked the Prince Albert Thunderbirds 7-0.

Ron Cote hit a three-run home run in the third inning for a 4-0 lead and all-star shortstop Terrell Walker went three-for-four and drove in three runs.

Bo Thomas pitched the shutout. Dustin Keshane, voted the top pitcher in the 13-team tournament, took the loss for the T-birds.

The Hawks lost 3-2 to Prince Albert Sunday afternoon in a semifinal battle of the unbeatens. That dropped the Golden Hawks into the B final against Custom Edge, which Regina won 2-1 in seven innings.

Josh Montana’s base hit scored Terrell Walker with the winning run in the fourth inning, after Custom Edge leadoff hitter Nicholas Potskin opening the scoring in the first inning.

Custom Edge advanced to the B final with an 11-4 win over the Big Guy Lake Kings of Prince George. In the final of the women’s final, the Secwepemc Saints of Kamloops scored a 9-2 decision over Driftpile of Alberta.

Golden Hawks pitcher Jeff Thomas had 66 strikeouts in the three-day tournament and was named the most valuable player. Potskin, the Custom Edge Sports shortstop, won the Golden Globe award.

Ethan Lans of Custom Edge Sports was the top hitter, posting a .522 batting average.

Joining Walker on the al-star team were: first base – Ryan Baptiste, Prince Albert; second base – Dan Watson, Prince Albert; third base – Chris Bear, Prince Albert; catcher – RJ Cyr, Prince Albert; right fielder – Matthew Strongeagle, Regina; centre fielder – Ron Cote, Regina; left fielder – Montana, Regina. Al McNab of Regina was chosen as the top coach. Body text goes here.

ABOVE LEFT: Big Guy Lake Kings player Randy Potskin swings at a Driftpile LTA Cree pitch on Saturday afternoon at Spruce City Stadium as the two teams met in a round-robin game at the 50th annual Canada Day Fastpitch tournament.

ABOVE RIGHT: Big Guy Lake Kings player Eli Jules sends the ball into the outfield against Driftpile LTA Cree on Saturday afternoon.

LEFT: Big Guy Lake Kings player Craig Pidcock winds up for a pitch against Driftpile LTA Cree on Saturday afternoon.

Edge Sports

at Spruce City Stadium.

U.S. downs England at World Cup

The Associated Press

Alex Morgan celebrated her go-ahead goal with a cheeky teasipping motion and Alyssa Naeher stopped a late penalty kick to send the United States into the final at the Women’s World Cup with a 2-1 victory over England on Tuesday night.

The top-ranked United States will face the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between the Netherlands and Sweden in the Americans’ third straight appearance in the World Cup title match. Christen Press, who started in place of Megan Rapinoe, put the United States up early in the match but Ellen White’s goal tied it before 20 minutes had passed. Morgan’s sixth goal of the tournament came before the break – and on her 30th birthday. She hadn’t had a goal since she scored five in the team’s 13-0 rout of Thailand to open the tournament.

It was also White’s sixth goal but Morgan has the edge for the tournament’s Golden Boot with three assists. White appeared to score her seventh in the 69th minute but video review determined she was offside – and the Americans in the crowd of 53,512 at Stade de Lyon roared.

“I can’t even express how proud I am,” U.S. coach Jill Ellis said. “It was just such a great effort from everybody.”

A video review went against the United States late in the game when it determined Becky Sauerbrunn had fouled White in the penalty area. England captain Steph Houghton’s penalty shot was smothered by a diving Naeher in the 84th minute.

It was the first penalty kick saved by a U.S. goalkeeper in regular time at the World Cup. At the final whistle, the team mobbed Naeher in front of the goal in celebration.

Rapinoe, who had scored two goals in each of the last two games, did not play. U.S. Soccer did not give a reason for her absence.

The top-ranked Americans have been to the semifinals of all eight World Cups, and they’ve won the trophy three times, more than any nation. The U.S. team’s lone loss in a World Cup title match came to Japan in 2011.

Third-ranked England went through to the semifinals in 2015 but fell to Japan before beating Germany in the third-place match for the Lionesses’ best finish in the tournament.

The United States has won 11 straight World Cup matches and is undefeated in its last 16. With the quarterfinal victory in France, the

Americans tied Norway’s record winning streak set over the 1995 and 1999 tournaments.

The Americans have exuded confidence since arriving in France. After pouncing on Thailand 13-0 in the opener and celebrating each goal in the rout, they beat nemesis Sweden, the team that ousted the United States in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Olympics. And Rapinoe stuck a victorious pose in a 2-1 quarterfinal victory over France on Friday night in Paris.

England started Carly Telford in goal instead of Karen Bardsley,

Blues coach brings Stanley Cup to northern Alberta hometown

The Canadian Press

The tiny Alberta hamlet of Calahoo, population 85, ballooned to more than 2,000 Tuesday when their favourite son, St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube, brought the Stanley Cup in for a visit.

Fans lined up for hours inside and outside the Calahoo arena, north of Edmonton, and cheered when Berube walked in to the sounds of the Blues’ victory song Gloria and hoisted the Cup over his head.

With the arena’s ice removed for the season, Berube stood on a podium on the concrete playing surface and posed for hours with fans as they had their photos taken with the NHL’s top trophy.

Many wore St. Louis Blues jerseys and Tshirts, but there was a healthy smattering of orange Edmonton Oiler sweaters as well.

“When you’re playing as a player and when you’re coaching you’re always thinking about if you win what would you do with your day with the Cup,” Berube told reporters.

“I’ve always dreamt of bringing it back here and letting people enjoy it, my family and friends – and that’s exactly what happened.

“Everybody I grew up with lives here. My

family’s here still. They did everything for me as a kid to get me where I am today.”

Berube took over as interim coach of the struggling Blues last November and led them to a Stanley Cup victory last month, the first ever in franchise history.

He has since been rewarded with a threeyear contract.

Berube’s parents, Roger and Ramona, were on hand for the festivities and remember Craig as a rink rat from the get-go.

“Him and his friends would always come down at night after everyone had finished hockey - and they skated,” said Ramona.

Ramona said they were home watching on TV as Berube’s Blues beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7. They could have won it in St. Louis in Game 6, but were trounced 5-1.

“I mean that sixth game, that was just terrible. I thought that was it for them, but that seventh game was just unreal,” said Ramona.

Fans began lining up at the Calahoo arena around 6:30 a.m., three hours before the photo session began with the Cup, and afterward lined the main street of Calahoo as Berube and the Cup, in the back of a blue pickup, inched past ahead of a fire truck in an impromptu parade.

at Cincinnati, 2:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh, 4:05 p.m. St. Louis at Seattle, 4:10 p.m. Philadelphia at Atlanta, 7:20 p.m. San Diego at L.A. Dodgers, 9:10 p.m. TENNIS

WIMBLEDON

who was out with a hamstring injury. Bardsley had shutouts in both of the team’s knockout round matches. Telford started in the team’s group stage match against Argentina.

England had shut out its last four opponents but the United States attacked early as expected –the Americans have scored within the first 15 minutes of all of their games in France. Press delivered first, scoring on a header off a long cross from Kelley O’Hara that sailed over Telford’s outstretched arm. It was Press’ first goal in France, and her

second World Cup goal overall. Shortly thereafter, Beth Mead served the ball to White, who got between the U.S. centre backs for the finish to pull England even. White raised her hands to her face for her customary “glasses” celebration.

The United States pulled ahead when Lindsey Horan found Morgan in front of the net for the header. It was Morgan’s 107th international goal, moving her into a tie for fifth on the U.S. career list with Michelle Akers.

The United States leads the tournament field with 24 total goals.

Men’s Singles First Round Sam Querrey, United States, def. Dominic Thiem (5), Austria, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-0. Andrey Rublev, Russia, def. Cristian Garin, Chile, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4. John Millman, Australia, def. Hugo Dellien, Bolivia, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. Laslo Djere (31), Serbia, def. Guido Andreozzi, Argentina, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-3. Gilles Simon (20), France, def. Salvatore Caruso, Italy, 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-2. Tennys Sandgren, United States, def. Yasutaka Uchiyama, Japan, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. Marton Fucsovics, Hungary, def. Dennis Novak, Austria, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-2. Fabio Fognini (12), Italy, def. Frances Tiafoe, United States, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Marin Cilic (13), Croatia, def. Adrian Mannarino, France, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3. Joao Sousa, Portugal, def. Paul Jubb, Britain, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 6-1. Daniel Evans, Britain, def. Federico Delbonis, Argentina, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Nikoloz Basilashvili (18), Georgia, def. James Ward, Britain, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 8-6. Ricardas Berankis, Lithuania, def. Denis Shapovalov (29), Canada, 7-6 (0), 6-4, 6-3. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France, def. Bernard Tomic, Australia, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Nick Kyrgios, Australia, def. Jordan Thompson, Australia, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (10), 0-6, 6-1. Rafael Nadal (3), Spain, def. Yuichi Sugita, Japan, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. Kei Nishikori (8), Japan, def. Thiago Moura Monteiro, Brazil, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-4. Cameron Norrie, Britain, def. Denis Istomin, Uzbekistan, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. Steve Johnson, United States, def. Albert RamosVinolas, Spain, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Alex de Minaur (25), Australia, def. Marco Cecchinato, Italy, 6-0, 6-4, 7-6 (5). Jan-Lennard Struff (33), Germany, def. Radu Albot, Moldova, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Taylor Fritz, United States, def. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, def. Pablo Andujar, Spain, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. John Isner (9), United States, def. Casper Ruud, Norway, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (9). Matteo Berrettini (17), Italy, def. Aljaz Bedene, Slovenia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3). Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, def. Brayden Schnur, Canada, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. Dominik Koepfer, Germany, def. Filip Krajinovic, Serbia, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (9), 6-1. Diego Schwartzman (24), Argentina, def. Matthew Ebden, Australia, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Lucas Pouille (27), France, def. Richard Gasquet, France, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Gregoire Barrere, France, def. Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Jay Clarke, Britain, def. Noah Rubin, United States, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, def. Lloyd Harris, South Africa, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Women’s Singles First Round Ashleigh Barty (1), Australia, def. Saisai Zheng, China, 6-4, 6-2. Alison van Uytvanck, Belgium, def. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Harriet Dart, Britain, def. Christina McHale, United States, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Beatriz Haddad Maia, Brazil, def. Garbine Muguruza (26), Spain, 6-4, 6-4. Alison Riske, United States, def. Donna Vekic (22), Croatia, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Ivana Jorovic, Serbia, def. Lesley Kerkhove, Netherlands, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Kaia Kanepi, Estonia, def. Stefanie Voegele, Switzerland, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4. Belinda Bencic (13), Switzerland, def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, 6-2, 6-3. Serena Williams (11), United States, def. Giulia GattoMonticone, Italy, 6-2, 7-5. Kaja Juvan, Slovenia, def. Kristyna Pliskova, Czech Republic, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Varvara Flink, Russia, def. Paula Badosa Gibert, Spain, 6-4, 6-2. Julia Goerges (18), Germany, def. Elena-Gabriela Ruse, Romania, 7-5, 6-1. Carla Suarez-Navarro (30), Spain, def. Samantha Stosur, Australia, 6-2, 7-5. Pauline Parmentier, France, def. Maria Sharapova, Russia, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 5-0, ret. Lauren Davis, United States, def. Kateryna Kozlova, Ukraine, 6-3, 6-2. Angelique Kerber (5), Germany, def. Tatjana Maria, Germany, 6-4, 6-3. Kiki Bertens (4), Netherlands, def. Mandy Minella, Luxembourg, 6-3, 6-2. Taylor Townsend, United States, def. Arina Rodionova, Australia, 6-2, 6-3. Laura Siegemund, Germany, def. Katie Swan, Britain, 6-2, 6-4. Barbora Strycova, Czech Republic, def. Lesia Tsurenko (32), Ukraine, 6-3, 6-2. Elise Mertens (21), Belgium, def. Fiona Ferro, France, 6-2, 6-0. Monica Niculescu, Romania, def. Andrea Petkovic, Germany, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. Tamara Zidansek, Slovenia, def. Eugenie Bouchard, Canada, 6-3, 5-7, 8-6. Qiang Wang (15), China, def. Vera Lapko, Belarus, 6-2, 6-2. Sloane Stephens (9), United States, def. Timea Bacsinszky, Switzerland, 6-2, 6-4. Yafan Wang, China, def. Tereza Martincova, Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-5. Katerina Siniakova, Czech Republic, def. Ekaterina Alexandrova, Russia, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. Johanna Konta (19), Britain, def. Ana Bogdan, Romania, 7-5, 6-2. Amanda Anisimova (25), United States, def. Sorana Cirstea, Romania, 6-3, 6-3. Magda Linette, Poland, def. Anna Kalinskaya, Russia, 6-0, 7-6

AP PHOTO

England’s Rachel Daly, left, challenges for the ball with United States’ Rose Lavelle during the Women’s World Cup semifinal soccer match between England and the United States, at the Stade de Lyon, outside Lyon, France, Tuesday.

CP PHOTO

St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube hoists the Stanley Cup with a local hockey team in Calahoo, Alta., on Tuesday.

MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Tuesday. Quotations in Canadian funds.

Corporations step up for LGBTQ rights

David CRARY The Associated Press

NEW YORK — More than 200 corporations, including many of America’ best-known companies, have signed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal civil rights law bans job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The brief, announced Tuesday by a coalition of five LGBTQ rights groups, is being submitted to the Supreme Court this week ahead of oral arguments before the justices on Oct. 8 on three cases that may determine whether gays, lesbians and transgender people are protected from discrimination by existing federal civil rights laws.

Among the 206 corporations endorsing the brief were Amazon, American Airlines, Bank of America, Ben & Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, Domino’s Pizza, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Starbucks, Viacom, the Walt Disney Co. and Xerox. Two major league baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Tampa Bay Rays, were among the group.

In their brief, the companies argued that a uniform federal rule is needed to protect LGBTQ employees equally in all 50 states.

Federal appeals courts in Chicago and New York have ruled recently that gay and lesbian employees are entitled to protection from discrimination; the federal appeals court in Cincinnati has extended similar protections for transgender people.

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index closed higher Tuesday despite a big fall in oil prices, a day after a U.S. market hit a record high on weekend China trade movements. The S&P/TSX composite index gained 89.09 points to 16,471.29 in trading after the Canada Day holiday. That’s just one per cent short of the alltime high set in April.

“I think it probably is a bit of a catch up from yesterday,” says Michael Currie, vice-president and investment adviser at TD Wealth. U.S. stock markets rose Monday with the S&P 500 hitting an intraday record high in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreeing at a G20 meeting not to impose new tariffs as trade talks resume. American markets closed slightly higher on Tuesday as the positive reaction to Chinese trade advances gave way to negative reaction concerning US$4 billion of tariffs being threatened by Trump on European goods.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 69.25 points at 26,786.68. The S&P 500 index rose 8.68 points at 2,973.01 - a record high closing price - while the Nasdaq composite was up 17.93 points at 8,109,09.

“One day everyone’s happy because he’s (Trump) cut the tariffs on China, the next day everyone’s upset because he’s putting tariffs on Europe. So I guess the party’s only lasted one day,” said Currie. The Canadian dollar traded for an average of 76.25 cents US compared with an average of 76.41 cents US on Friday. Canadian manufacturing activity contracted for a third consecutive month and is at a 3.5-year low.

Seven of the 11 major sectors on the TSX closed higher, led by technology as Shopify Inc. was up almost four per cent. Telecommunications and industrials closed higher as BRP Inc., CAE Inc. and Air Canada were each up more than two per cent. Heavyweight financials was up almost one percentage point with Home Capital Group Inc. rising 4.3 per cent while several banks and insurance companies also climbed.

Materials rose slightly as the August gold contract was up US$18.70 at US$1,408.00 an ounce and the September copper contract was down 2.4 cents at US$2.66 a pound.

“Even where companies voluntarily implement policies to prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination, such policies are not a substitute for the force of law,” the brief argued. “Nor is the patchwork of incomplete state or local laws sufficient protection – for example, they cannot account for the crossstate mobility requirements of the modern workforce.”

The question now is whether the Supreme Court will follow suit, given its conservative majority strengthened by President Donald Trump’s appointments of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The three cases are the court’s first on LGBTQ rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored landmark gay rights opinions.

The Obama administration had supported treating LGBTQ discrimination claims as sex discrimination, but the Trump administration has changed course. The Trump Justice Department has argued that the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not intended to provide protections to

gay or transgender workers.

The companies signing the brief represent more than 7 million employees and $5 trillion in annual revenue, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest of the LGBTQ rights groups organizing the initiative. Other organizers included Lambda Legal, Out Leadership, Out and Equal, and Freedom for All Americans.

“At this critical moment in the fight for LGBTQ equality, these leading businesses are sending a clear message to the Supreme Court that LGBTQ people should, like their fellow Americans, continue to be protected from discrimination,” said Jay Brown, a Human Rights Campaign vice-president.

“These employers know firsthand that protecting the LGBTQ community is both good for business and the right thing to do.”

In one of the cases heading to the Supreme Court, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favour of a gay

Commission names new boss

Geir MOULSON The Associated Press

BERLIN — Ursula von der Leyen, a surprise choice to become the next head of the European Commission, is a strong supporter of closer European co-operation who has been Germany’s defence minister since 2013 and a fixture in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet over the longtime leader’s nearly 14 years in power.

Von der Leyen, 60, was born in Brussels and spent her early years in the Belgian capital. She speaks fluent English and French, having studied at the London School of Economics in the 1970s and lived in Stanford, California, from 1992 to 1996.

She was long viewed as a potential successor to Merkel, but has had a tough tenure at the head of the notoriously difficult defence ministry and had long since faded out of contention by the time Merkel stepped down last year as leader of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union party.

Still, von der Leyen – a medical doctor and mother of seven – played a significant role in modernizing the image of her party during the Merkel years, over which it dominated the political middle ground. As minister for families in Merkel’s first Cabinet from 2005 to 2009, she introduced benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children.

Von der Leyen then served as labour minister until 2013, when she became Germany’s first female defence minister. In that job, she championed greater European co-operation.

“Europe won’t get ahead in the game of global powers if some discreetly hold back when military deployments come up and others rush ahead without consulting,”

she said shortly after taking over the defence ministry. She followed that up by declaring that “it’s important that Germany takes more responsibility within our alliances – within the European alliance and within NATO.”

Shortly after Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, she said that Brexit offered the bloc an opportunity to press ahead with greater military co-operation.

“Britain consistently blocked everything that had Europe written on it,” von der Leyen said. She argued that closer military ties between member states could help ease the frustration many voters feel about the EU’s inability to tackle major issues.

In a defence policy review issued at the same time, the government said citizens of other EU countries could be allowed to serve in the German army.

In an interview with news magazine Der Spiegel in 2011, as the eurozone debt crisis rumbled, von der Leyen declared a loftier goal for Europe.

“My aim is the United States of

Europe – on the model of federal states such as Switzerland, Germany or the U.S.”

She said that Europe could use its “size advantage” on financial, taxation and economic questions.

Von der Leyen has presided recently over increased German military spending, though it still falls well short of the two per cent of gross domestic product that the United States wants to see from its NATO partners. Members of the alliance agreed in 2014 to “aim to move toward” increasing defence spending to two per cent of GDP by 2024, though Germany has said it doesn’t expect to meet that goal.

Merkel said Tuesday that von der Leyen “enjoys great confidence” among European leaders, pointing to her involvement in a NATO force in the Aegean Sea during the migrant influx, Germany’s help in patrolling the airspace of Baltic countries and her commitment to Europe.

Von der Leyen comes from a political family and is the daughter of a former governor of her home state of Lower Saxony, Ernst

skydiving instructor who claimed he was fired because of his sexual orientation. The appeals court ruled that “sexual orientation discrimination is motivated, at least in part, by sex and is thus a subset of sex discrimination.”

The ruling was a victory for the relatives of Donald Zarda, now deceased, who was fired in 2010 from a skydiving job that required him to strap himself tightly to clients so they could jump in tandem from an airplane.

He tried to put a woman with whom he was jumping at ease by explaining that he was gay.

The school fired Zarda after the woman’s boyfriend called to complain.

A second case comes from Michigan, where a funeral home fired a transgender woman. The appeals court in Cincinnati ruled that the firing constituted sex discrimination under federal law.

The funeral home argues that Congress was not considering transgender people when it included sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of “race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.”

The third case is from Georgia, where the federal appeals court ruled against a gay employee of Clayton County, in the Atlanta suburbs. Gerald Bostock claimed he was fired in 2013 because he is gay. The county argues that Bostock was let go because of the results of a financial audit.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Bostock’s claim in an opinion noting the court was bound by a 1979 decision that held “discharge for homosexuality is not prohibited by Title VII.”

Albrecht, who before that was a senior European civil servant. She has been a deputy leader of Merkel’s CDU since 2010. Over the years, she was often talked about as a potential successor to Merkel, though she herself publicly dismissed such talk.

“In every generation, there is one chancellor,” she said in 2013.

“In my generation, that is Angela Merkel.”

In her time as defence minister, von der Leyen faded out of speculation about the succession. Inheriting a military in the midst of a massive change from conscription to a professional force, she increasingly had to deal with negative headlines of her own and others’ making.

The poor state of the German military’s equipment has been a regular issue. Other problems included questions over the appointment of external experts to the military and the ballooning costs of the renovation of a military sailing ship.

Von der Leyen herself irked soldiers in 2017 by declaring that the military had a “problem with its stance” and “leadership weakness at various levels,” criticism that followed the arrest of a soldier alleged to have passed himself off as a Syrian refugee and planned to attack prominent political figures then pin the blame on migrants.

Merkel’s junior coalition partners in Berlin, the centre-left Social Democrats, weren’t impressed with the nomination of von der Leyen or the overall package put together Tuesday by EU leaders. Merkel said she abstained in EU leaders’ otherwise-unanimous nomination of von der Leyen because of the lack of unity at home.

A former Social Democrat leader, ex-European Parliament president Martin Schulz, tweeted that she “is the weakest minister here.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is shown in 2018 at sunset in Washington.

AP FILE PHOTO

German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen speaks in Athens in March.

TUCKER,Ralph

August21,1932-July3,2018

Hardtobelieveit’sbeenoneyear sincewe’veheardyourvoice. Ourheartsstillacheinsadness, Andsecrettearsstillflow, Whatitmeanttoloseyou, Noonewilleverknow. Howluckywearetohavesomething thatmakessayinggoodbyesohard. WithlovetoyouandMom, LauraandHubert,DanielandKayleen, RachelandScott,MeganandOwen, JordanandKrysta,BradleyandKimberly, andJeremy,pluseightgreat-grandchildren.

IRMA KREUZER passed away peacefully in hospital on June 25, 2019 at the age of 93 years. Irma was born in Vienna Austria May 6, 1926. She came to Canada and lived her life in Prince George where she made many friends. She will be missed. A funeral service for Irma will be held on Friday July 5, 2019 at 10:00 am at Assman’s Funeral Chapel. Interment will follow in Prince George Memorial Park Cemetery.

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