Two-wheel trickster
Cameron Fallowfield, 15, does a feeble grind
Survivor testifies at double murder trial
When the gunfire began, Bradley Knight thought something else was hitting the car.
The soul survivor of a targeted shooting, Knight told the court Thursday he had gone along for the ride when his friend, David Franks, had set out from his home during the early morning of Jan. 25, 2017, to sell some cocaine.
“I reluctantly went because I wasn’t feeling well and said I didn’t want to go,” Knight testified during a B.C. Supreme Court trial for Perry Andrew Charlie. “And he says, ‘oh, come on,’ and I went.”
Another friend of Franks, Thomas Reed, had volunteered to drive them to the meet up point, a pullout on Foothills Boulevard near North Nechako Road.
While Reed was behind the wheel and Franks in the front passenger seat, Knight said he was squished in the back seat among Reed’s work clothes and with Reed’s little white dog, Molly. When they reached the spot, Reed pulled in roughly alongside the driver’s side of a van, no more than three metres away, and with the headlights of both vehicles facing towards a ditch alongside Foothills.
“Dave sat there and I said to him, ‘if you’re going to do this, do it and let’s get out of here,’” Knight told the court. “He got out of the car and walked to the van and was immediately back from the van saying ‘go, go, go!’” Franks was crawling in through the door when Knight heard a “bang, bang, bang!”
“I thought it was a baseball bat, honestly,” he told the court.
But when he saw spots emerge all over the roof and heard glass breaking, Knight took cover. “I was down on the floor as fast as possible,” he testified.
He felt a searing burn in his hip that left him with a wound that
“aches always” and suffered a graze to the back of a shoulder that has left him without sensation in that spot.
Franks, Reed and Molly were not so fortunate.
“It turned out to be gunfire and it hit them more or less right away. They never got a chance to do anything,” Knight said and later said he heard “just gurgling” from Franks and Reed.
Molly was also found dead, the court has heard. Knight said the last he remembers of her is the dog running across his back.
When Knight heard the van leave, he called 911 and was taken to hospital.
Knight said he was unable to see the attackers.
“I have no idea to this day,” he said when asked if he had an idea
of how many there were. “All I think I heard when it was done was ‘let’s go,’ so I would assume it would be at least two people.”
Charlie is facing two counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder with a firearm.
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 and await sentencing.
Crown prosecution is theorizing that a hit had been ordered on Franks after he had offended someone in the local drug scene.
Tall, thin and frail, Knight is in his late 60s. Franks was 46 years old and Reed was 51 at the time of their deaths. In contrast, at the
time of their arrests, Charlie was 24, Miller was 21, Moore was 27 and West was 33.
Under cross examination, Knight, who has convictions for two counts of trafficking, agreed that drug dealing is a dangerous business and that most involved often carry weapons. But Knight said he never did, “and as far as I knew, Dave never did.”
Also on Thursday, the court heard from another eyewitness to the shooting. Steven Ray was sitting in the very back of the van when the gunfire broke out and testified that Moore had also remained inside and was sitting beside him.
Ray’s friend, Thomas Lee, owned the van and had been hired to drive the four around the city and Ray had gone along for the
ride. Ray said he knew Moore only because he introduced himself after getting into the van and did not know who any of the others were.
When they reached the spot, Ray said he was told to get in the back and to keep his head down. When the gunfire broke out, Ray said he peeked out briefly but could see only silhouettes but under cross examination said he was 90 per cent sure it was Moore who was sitting beside him.
Once the shooting had ended and they returned to the van, Ray said they sounded “anxious but almost happy” as they congratulated each other on carrying out the job.
Asked if Moore said anything, Ray replied that “he said that if he had a gun, he would’ve been there too.”
The trial continues today.
on his bike at Rotary Skate Park in Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park in the Hart on Thursday afternoon.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP investigators work the scene of a double homicide on Foothills Boulavard near North Nechako Road on the morning of Jan. 25, 2017.
City in bloom
City of Prince George gardeners spead a mixture of compost and bark mulch over a flower bed in Connaught Hill Park Thursday morning. The roses are in full bloom in the beds in the park making for a very colourful display.
Ottawa won’t rush into Trans Mountain pipeline sale
Bill GRAVELAND
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — Canada’s natural resources minister says the government is willing to consider bids from Indigenous groups for a stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline.
But Amarjeet Sohi also says Ottawa wouldn’t jump at the first offer on the table.
“We have seen from Indigenous communities that they are interested in having an equity... in this project,” Sohi said Thursday at a business luncheon in Calgary.
“It is a very important conversa-
tion to have because Indigenous communities should be benefiting from economic resource development. This will be an opportunity for us to work with them and explore that option.”
An Indigenous-led group called Project Reconciliation has announced it could be ready as early as next week to make a $6.9-billion bid for majority ownership of the pipeline.
The group says almost 340 Indigenous communities across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan could choose to share ownership in an expanded pipeline shipping crude oil from the Alberta
oilsands to the west coast and from there to overseas markets.
Sohi said the government is a long way from beginning to look at serious offers for the pipeline. It plans to hold discussions in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and Kamloops, B.C., later this month with Indigenous groups.
“We want to make sure there’s a capacity for all Indigenous communities to engage on this,” Sohi said after the luncheon.
“This is a project that’s going to take a couple of years to complete and conversations will continue to proceed.”
Sohi also said he expects there
will be another court challenge of the government’s approval last month of Trans Mountain for a second time.
The proposal to twin an existing pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., was first approved by cabinet in 2016, but resistance to it by the British Columbia government, environmentalists and some Indigenous groups grew. The federal government purchased the existing line last year from Texas-based Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion when the company threatened to walk away because of the uncertainty.
The Federal Court of Appeal rescinded the federal approval some months later. It said the impact on marine life needed to be considered and there had not been sufficient consultation with Indigenous people.
“We can demonstrate we have heard concerns from the Indigenous communities and that we actually responded to the concerns of the communities,” Sohi said Thursday.
“I’m very confident that the direction we followed from the Federal Court of Appeal and the way we have implemented that (puts us) in a very strong position.”
Abducted B.C. girl found in U.K.
The Canadian Press
A four-year-old girl from Vancouver Island has been found on a small island off the coast of England after allegedly being abducted by her mother more than three years ago, police said Thursday.
Police in Saanich said Lauren Etchells boarded a flight leaving Canada in 2016 with her young daughter Kaydance, her new partner Marco van der Merwe, and their newborn son, in violation of a court order.
Tasha Brown, Kaydance’s other mother, contacted police who say they learned that Etchells travelled with the children throughout Europe and the Middle East, and at some point broke off her relationship with van der Merwe.
Interpol published a red notice – an international flag that a person is wanted – and Saanich police received a call on Monday
advising that Etchells, her son, Kaydance, and Etchells’ parents had been picked up by police.
Police said the group was spotted landing a four-metre inflatable dinghy on the shore just south of St. Catherine in Jersey, a small island in the English Channel, and officers believed they were trying to avoid passport control on U.K. soil.
Etchells and her parents pleaded guilty to offences in Jersey and Etchells remained in custody as a result of a provisional arrest warrant for her extradition to Canada, Saanich police said in a news release.
Jersey police said in a statement that a 33-year-old woman had pleaded guilty to child neglect and immigration offences, and that a man and woman, both 67, had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting as well as immigration offences.
The two children have been placed in foster care and the process of bringing the girl
back to Canada has begun, police said.
“We are extremely pleased to report that four-year-old Kaydance has been located and is in the care of the appropriate authorities in Jersey. She is in good health, is happy and appears to have been well cared for,” said Sgt. Julie Fast of Saanich police said in the news release.
Etchells has previously denied abducting her daughter, telling the Victoria Times Colonist in 2016 that Brown is not legally a parent to Kaydance.
She said they conceived Kaydance through a sperm donor and Brown’s name was taken off the birth certificate when the two were planning a move to Qatar, where same-sex marriage is illegal.
The two married in 2012 and separated in 2015, and Etchells said she was given full custody but Brown was fighting for equal custody rights.
She said in 2016 she feared that if she
returned to Canada, Kaydance and her son would be put in foster care.
“I am a good mother who has done nothing but love and care for her children and it would not be in either of my children’s best interests for me to be separated from them,” she told the newspaper in 2016.
Van der Merwe also told the newspaper earlier that year that when he boarded the flight in 2016 he did not know Etchells and Kaydance were barred from leaving Canada.
Brown said in a statement released by Saanich police on Thursday that she is grateful to learn that Kaydance is in good health and good care.
“I am celebrating today,” Brown said, adding that she is meeting with her lawyer and other agencies to bring the child to Canada.
“But I can’t celebrate 100 per cent yet. Not until Kaydance is back in Canada.”
Painting by numbers
Shirley Babcock works on a painting of a raven mask Thursday morning in the Tourism Prince George headquarters on First Avenue. She also was selling her very popular paint by numbers set that allows non-artists to take home a drawing by Babcock and finish it with the paint and brushes supplied in the kit. An ‘Artnership’ between tourism and the Community Arts Council will see a different artist displaying their work every Thursday for the next five weeks.
The Canadian Press
Stressed-out Vancouver parents will get some relief knowing 2,300 child care spots will be available in about three years but the city currently has a shortfall of 17,000 spaces, the mayor says.
The British Columbia government is providing $33 million in funding for the licensed spots, which will include a mix of spaces for children under age five, as well as spots for school-age kids.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the “crisis” of child care is a topic that comes up at every council meeting because parents are having to make difficult choices as they wait for spots.
“I can’t emphasize how important this provincial investment is,” Stewart told a news conference Thursday at a child-care centre alongside Premier John Horgan and Katrina Chen, the province’s minister of state for child care.
“We’re hoping to get to all of (the spots) in three years but it’s finding the space and the partners to do it,” Stewart said of the new spaces as children ran between the politicians before being hustled out for lunch.
Horgan said his government is working to fulfil an election promise of providing $10-aday care that is currently being tested until
next March at 53 facilities across B.C., eight of them in Vancouver.
However, he said universal child care involving the federal government, with participation from all the provinces, is the ultimate answer to a significant need and the issue will be raised at next week’s meeting of Canada’s premiers in Saskatoon.
“Quebec has led the way here because of a funding arrangement with the federal government, primarily, and we believe that should be available to all provinces and we’re going to be talking about it there,” Horgan said.
“The mayor and I know full well that as we get into the season of federal voting I think families and citizens are going to be talking to the federal government, all parties, about getting in the game on this. We need to make sure that the whole country is focused on making sure that our children are getting the care they need.”
Horgan said the province will continue to advance $10-a-day care, adding the idea came from advocates wanting affordable care.
Rory Richards, who has 26-month-old twin daughters, said licensed care would have cost up to $5,000 a month in Vancouver so she and her husband opted for a nanny and are still paying twice as much as they do for housing.
“I’d like my children to be socialized with
other children and have that benefit that comes along with licensed care,” she said. “The girls are isolated from other children,” she said of Maya and Miriam.
“It’s incredibly stressful, it’s always lurking on our shoulders as something that could be catastrophic, if for whatever reason we lost the child care we have now,” said Richards, who is vice-president of a modular home company and called herself “an ardent supporter” of the $10-dollar-a-day child care program.
Sharon Gregson, spokeswoman for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, said two-thirds of the nearly 600,000 children up to age 12 in B.C. don’t have access to licensed care because only about 110,000 such facilities exist.
“The problem was that from 2001 until 2017, child care was just left to the marketplace,” Gregson said. “There was zero planning around the province. It was left to whatever private entity, whether it was an entrepreneur or a not-for-profit society that decided they could make a go of child care.”
“We call it chaos because for a family, after their parental leave, they don’t know where they’re going to turn. They put themselves on numerous waiting lists.”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Drugs, guns seized
Three people were arrested and more than a kilogram of drugs, as well as three shotguns, were seized last Friday morning, when RCMP executed search warrants on three Prince George homes. Quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin-fentanyl were seized during searches of homes on Carlisle Way, Mullett Crescent and Rainer Crescent. A significant amount of cash was also seized, police said.
A 33-year-old man, a 25-yearold man and a 30-year old woman were arrested in the process, according to RCMP.
Names of the three were not released because they have not yet been charged. But RCMP said the 33-year-old man is a “priority offender” and all three are known to police. All three have been released pending further investigation.
Probation for B&E
After nearly a year in custody, a man well-known to police is back on the streets.
Leif Birch Myltoft, 42, was sentenced Friday to 18 months probation for breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence and for mischief $5,000 or under. Myltoft was arrested on July 2, 2018 when RCMP responded to a call from a 300-block Carney Street home and had been in custody for 360 days.
As of the date of his arrest, police had nearly 100 contacts with Myltoft in 2018.
Quake felt on coast
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii archipelago region off the west coast Wednesday.
The United States Geological Survey says the earthquake hit around 9:30 p.m. local time. It reports the quake’s epicentre was 196 kilometres west southwest of Bella Bella and it occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres. Earthquake Canada says the tremor was “lightly felt” on northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland coast.
It says the earthquake was located 353 kilometres southwest of Kitimat and 581 kilometres west northwest of Vancouver.
There was no tsunami warning issued and officials are reporting no threat of landslides.
PM defends system for appointing judges
The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the federal system for appointing judges after revelations several in New Brunswick have personal connections to Liberal cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Media reports this week stated five of the last six federally appointed judges in New Brunswick have ties to LeBlanc, who is Trudeau’s minister of intergovernmental and northern affairs.
One is LeBlanc’s neighbour, according to the CBC, while a second is a relative by marriage and three helped him pay off debt he accumulated during his unsuccessful run for the Liberal party leadership in 2008.
A complaint has since been filed to the ethics commissioner by watchdog Democracy Watch, which is asking for the government to suspend further appointments until an investigation is concluded.
Trudeau didn’t specifically address the five judges in New Brunswick when asked about them during an event Thursday in Montreal, but instead defended the Liberal-installed system for appointing justices.
“We have a merit-based, transparent appointment system,” he said, adding: “We are pleased that we have nominated top-notch judges right across the country –and we will continue to.”
The Trudeau government last month named lawyers Arthur Doyle and Robert Dysart to the bench in New Brunswick, where Elections Canada records indicate both have been regular donors to the federal Liberals and contributed to LeBlanc’s failed leadership run.
Their appointments followed
that of fellow lawyer Charles LeBlond, who also donated to the Liberals and to LeBlanc, in March.
LeBlanc is also neighbours with the new chief justice of New Brunswick’s Court of Queen’s Bench, Justice Tracey DeWare, who was appointed to the position last month, according to the CBC.
And Moncton family lawyer
Marie-Claude Belanger-Richard, who was picked to fill a judicial vacancy last November, is reportedly married to LeBlanc’s brotherin-law.
In each case, the Liberals touted the appointments as having come through a new application process established in October 2016, which instituted various changes
to the 17 committees responsible for vetting prospective judges.
The government says the changes bolstered the independence and transparency of the process to ensure only the best candidates are recommended, though cabinet is ultimately responsible for signing off on each appointment.
“We are fully confident that the process, the transparent, meritbased process that we’ve put in place is the right one and we stand by it,” Trudeau said Thursday.
The appointments have sparked criticism and allegations of Liberal patronage from the opposition Conservatives and NDP as well as an official complaint Thursday to federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion from Democracy Watch.
In a letter to the commissioner, Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher asks for an investigation into what role LeBlanc played in the judges’ appointments and whether he violated the conflictof-interest law.
He also asks Dion to recuse himself from investigating because he was appointed by the Trudeau government and because of past comments in which Conacher says Dion showed “a bias toward weak and incorrect enforcement.”
Dion’s office confirmed it had received the complaint and that the commissioner would review it, but otherwise would not comment.
Citizen cartoonist feels caught in online backlash over firing
An editorial cartoonist says his character has been maligned and career prospects damaged after he was caught up in the online backlash resulting from a New Brunswick newspaper group cutting ties with another artist.
Greg Perry issued a statement to CBC News saying he has opted not to accept an offer from Brunswick News Inc. to replace Michael de Adder, who drew international support after his contract was terminated last week.
Perry did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Canadian Press.
De Adder learned his 17-year arrangement with the New Brunswick media powerhouse was being scrapped a day after he posted a cartoon online showing U.S. President Donald Trump playing golf next to the bodies of two migrants who drowned trying to cross into Texas.
De Adder says he was not given a reason
for the termination, but says he believes his prominent social media presence, which includes strong anti-Trump opinions, played a role.
Brunswick News has said it struck a deal to work with Perry weeks before de Adder was let go and noted that the decision had nothing to do with the Trump cartoon in question, which it was never offered for publication.
Perry told CBC the use of his name in connection with the entire saga led social media users to “destroy” both his character and cartoon work.
Brunswick News says it offers its full support to Perry, who it describes as a talented cartoonist who has been “unfairly maligned” by recent online commentary. De Adder has also expressed his support for Perry, issuing a tweet Tuesday that stressed that his fellow cartoonist found himself in a “situation that has nothing to do with him.” Perry told CBC he wouldn’t wish what had happened to him on anyone.
Powell River opens OD prevention site Nose biter jailed
The Canadian Press
The small city of Powell River has beThe small city of Powell River has been one of the hardest hit by British Columbia’s overdose crisis, prompting Vancouver Coastal Health to open its first overdose prevention site outside of Vancouver on Thursday.
Authority medical health officer Dr. Geoff McKee says the contaminated drug supply has been devastating for Powell River and they’ve found many who die of overdoses in B.C. have hidden their drug use, only to die alone. The new pilot site was supposed to open last month, but an authority spokeswoman says a break-in at the site delayed the launch while they
installed fortified locks and a security system.
The authority says there were 39 overdose deaths last year for the North Shore-Coast Garibaldi area that includes Powell River and there were 76 emergency calls for overdoses during the same period in the city.
Shannon Ollson, with the Powell River Community Action Team, says the site is badly needed because there are overdoses in the laundromat, at the park and in the washrooms of convenience stores.
Vancouver Coastal is providing clinical support and supplies, while the Powell River Community Action Team will manage the site and the City of Powell River is leasing the
property for free for the next year.
Kathryn Colby, the coordinator for the action team, says stigma and shame cause people to use alone, putting them at extreme risk of fentanyl poisoning and overdose.
“Middle-aged men, many with young families, are incredibly vulnerable to accidental overdose death, leaving a social toll on the community which we have yet to fully realize. This overdose prevention site pilot is a community-created project, designed to address these preventable tragedies.”
More than 1,500 people died from an illicit drug overdose last year in B.C. and 1,208 of them were male.
Vancouver has six overdose prevention sites.
The Canadian Press
A woman who bit the tip off another woman’s nose during a fight at a house party in northern Saskatchewan has been sentenced to one year in jail.
Joan McKenzie, who is 40, was sentenced Wednesday in Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench following her conviction in March on a charge of aggravated assault.
McKenzie’s trial heard that the assault happened in Stanley Mission in September 2017.
The Crown had been seeking a sentence of 18 to 24 months plus two years probation.The defence had asked for six months in jail and three years of probation.
Both prosecutor Aaron Martens and defence lawyer Crystal Eninew say they believe the sentence is fair.
Kendra Wesley, the woman who was bitten, was on hand for the sentencing and said outside court that McKenzie wanted to apologize after a short physical confrontation, but then lunged at
her face moments later.
“She wanted to hug it out and that’s what I assumed she wanted to do, but she had other intentions,” said Wesley, who is scheduled for a third and final operation this month to repair damage to her nose. She is also pursuing a degree in business administration.
“It was like counselling for me to go to school and just not hide in my room all the time. I’ve come a long way from where I was two years ago.”
McKenzie, who sobbed in the prisoner’s box during her sentencing, will be on probation for two years upon release and must abide by a number of conditions, including a curfew.
The trial judge noted that while the woman had a history of violence, she had not committed any criminal acts for 17 years and had sent a letter of apology to the victim. The judge also acknowledged her educational achievements, including a Bachelor of Education degree.
Martens said he does not expect to file an appeal.
CP FILE PHOTO
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc addresses the media in Saskatoon in 2018.
The Canadian Press
CP FILE PHOTO
Greg Perry has been getting some backlash on social media after Michael de Adder’s contract was cut by Brunswick News last week in the wake of this cartoon he circulated online that went viral.
Changes no fun and games
It’s called a newspaper because it is a printed product with news in it – stories about the community and the world outside of the community that local residents should know about.
A newspaper, of course, is more than that. It’s the other little things that matter to many readers.
For some, reading the news is the first cup of coffee of the day. The second cup of coffee, however, is devoted to the horoscopes, the comics and the puzzles.
This week, we made changes to that part of the paper and some of our longtime readers (thank you for supporting The Citizen and reading it for as many years as you all have) aren’t happy. Your criticisms haven’t fallen on deaf ears. Like The Citizen always has and always will, we hear you and we’ll make the changes we can. For the folks who miss Pickles and Dia-
mond Lil, they were (and are) great newspaper comics. We pulled them (and the others) because they came from an American provider that kept raising their rates and demanded to be paid in U.S. dollars. Our new lineup of comics comes from a single Canadian provider (TorStar, the syndication business operated by the Toronto Star newspaper), rather than the multiple American providers we previously had. Yes, most of the comics and puzzles, as well as the horoscopes comes from an American source, but TorStar holds the exclusive rights to them.
For those who have suggested that The Citizen pick up For Better Or Worse, Canadian Lynn Johnston’s classic newspaper comic, we’d love to... but her distributor is one of the American companies we let go and that company charged a premium for Johnston’s comic, which is why we weren’t
carrying it in the first place.
By switching to TorStar as our exclusive provider (and we did ask one of the American providers to tender a bid – they weren’t even close in cost), the annual savings will be in the thousands of dollars and TorStar sends it to us as one finished document of comics and puzzles, eliminating the need for multiple downloads, followed by timeconsuming assembly of those items onto the printed page.
Like every other business, if there’s a way we can save money and increase productivity at the same time, we’re on it.
But it shouldn’t come at the expense of customer satisfaction, of course.
Yes, the horoscopes this week have been too small. We’ve let TorStar know and it will be bigger next week.
We’ve also proposed some changes to the comics page that will decrease the size of
YOUR LETTERS
Climate theories
Todd Whitcombe has been a valuable contributor to the Citizen for many years.
I generally agree with his comments and appreciate his common sense. His column about climate change was valid if you accept CO2 as a meaningful GHG. He is correct – the solution is highly political.
Also that day, a comment was made about how the LNG exports that will lead to increased climate change.
To try bringing the issue into perspective, here are some basics that we might all understand and agree upon:
• Earth’s population has grown from 1 billion in 1900 to 7.5 billion today. Our personal needs have grown as well. How many people will Earth support?
• Infrastructure (roads, buildings, etc) have replaced vegetated areas. We all know that pavement and concrete converts solar energy to heat and retains that heat.
This effect is more concerning the closer you are to the tropics where the sun is more intense. Where is the majority of the world’s population located?
This is not included in the climate models.
• Prince George and my new home of Riverview have state-
of-the-art wastewater/sewage systems.
Many countries, including China and India, dispose of much of their sewage untreated into the ocean. Sewage is acidic – the pH of oceans has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 over the years.
No scientist has included sewage in their climate model.
• Soot (black carbon), although less obvious in Canada, was very apparent in Beijing during the Olympics.
Elementary science tells us that dark material will convert sunlight to heat so why do many climate scientists dispute that?
Didn’t your mom tell you to wear light-coloured clothing in the sun?
Canadians are encouraging industry to locate in countries with lower environmental standards than Canada.
If you look around you and observe, the science is not that complicated.
If you listen to the many people in the multi-billion dollar climate change business, it does becomes complicated.
With the increase in human population, the replacement of vegetation with infrastructure, the sewage and waste, and humans increased demand for “stuff” one would reasonably expect the atmosphere to warm.
It is important to have a discussion but modern scientists shun
anyone who would challenge their theory.
Some people would rather shut down the Canadian economy and send all production overseas than give in to a discussion.
For politicians, it is difficult to challenge because everyone knows the emperor wears clothes.
Gerry Lundquist Riverview, NB
Dull without Lil
I usually just let things ride, price goes up, paper gets smaller, etc.
I have been a subscriber to the P.G. Citizen for over 50 years. I usually read the whole paper. However, I do need something to cheer me up on a dull morning. I wasn’t planning to complain but mornings have been rather dead without the usual laughs.
Most I can part with because they were not really funny but a morning without Diamond Lil is a morning without a good wake up laugh.
Could you please let me know what paper in Canada publishes her cartoon so that I am able to change my subscription?
Thanks for keeping Zits and his dog walking fun. It somewhat makes up for the horrible changes.
Margaret Storey Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
the crossword, the cryptoquote puzzle and the Word Sleuth (yes, it’s not the familiar WonderWord but it’s what TorStar offers) to beef up the size of the Sudoku puzzle. We’re hopeful TorStar can make that fix in time for next week but we ask for your patience as they work ahead a week or more at a time.
For the crossword fans, we’re confident you’ll be impressed with the super-sized Canadian crossword that will debut this Saturday.
We’re also confident you’ll let us know what you think of it. We really do appreciate all of the phone calls and emails, both complaining and praising what we do. It means you care about your newspaper and what’s in it. We’re thankful every day for that level of engagement. —
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Climate change a global problem
It’s clear where Andrew Scheer’s climate plan is headed: nowhere good, read one headline. Nothing more than a sad joke, said another. The one that got my attention was: so what’s the plan in the rest of the world? What would the results be if Canada followed the Conservative Party’s vision of a climate action plan? A death sentence for Canadians as we are incinerated by wildfire? Drowned by floods? Starved by droughts? Or is this a sensible path forward in lock step with the rest of the world’s actions? And please note, I said actions, not commitments, as there is a substantial difference, albeit one that most politicians think are one and the same.
Not surprisingly, the current Liberal government, the Greens, and the NDP were quick to denounce Scheer’s plan to protect Canada’s environment. Canada’s first commitments to address climate change occurred in 1992 when Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Canada was the first G7 nation to do so. Mulroney was quoted: “I leave this conference believing we have a better chance of saving the world than we had when we came here.” As history has shown, what Mulroney committed Canada to was not achieved.
In December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol extended the 1992 UNFCCC but was not entered into force until February 2005. In 2002, Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien directed Parliament to sign off on this agreement, binding Canada to its targets. As history has shown, what Chretien committed Canada to was not achieved.
In 2009, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed the Copenhagen Accord, a nonbinding agreement agreeing to reduce emissions.
In 2011, Harper officially withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, citing two reasons. One, the world’s two largest emitters, China and the United states, had not signed and committed to reductions, and two, Canada would be required to pay an estimated $14 billion to the UN for not meeting our targets. As history has shown, what Harper committed Canada to was not achieved.
In 2017, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a new agreement at the Paris Climate Change Conference (Paris Agreement). Although the targets were non-binding and annual reporting is required, Trudeau committed Canada to donating $2.65 billion over the next five years to help developing countries battle climate change. As history is now showing, Trudeau will not meet his targets either.
Interestingly, France, the big push and “model” nation behind
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the Paris Agreement, isn’t meeting its targets either. If there is one common refrain throughout Canada’s venture into setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, it’s that no matter who proposed them, no one has yet to get them correct. They were also all wrong on the negative side, being that less is better. One common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and always expecting different results. Maybe, just maybe, Scheer and the federal Conservatives are closer to the mark with their new plan, rather than perpetuating insanity. My simplistic view of long-range plans for greenhouse gas reduction is that there are too many twists and turns to accurately determine numbers for something that occurs in 10 or 20 years. Yes, a plan needs objectives, but how one gets there is difficult to predict.
I look at this akin to my retirement plans. Back in the 1970s when I was in my 20s, I wished for retirement at 55. I didn’t know how much money would be required, whether I would have my own pension plan or where I would live. I did know that if I wished to retire, I needed to begin saving, so I did. For nearly 40 years, I saved part of most every pay cheque, except for one year when I took most of the year off from work.
Along the way, a divorce and a separation threw a couple of curve balls at my plan, but I kept on. Although I didn’t make 55, I did make 61. I didn’t know whether I had enough to retire on, but I thought if things changed, I would adapt, once again.
That is how I look at the Conservatives new climate plan. A work in progress, where we set new specific objectives and see what they achieve. Along the way, we refine if they require refinements. Adding new taxes to everything we do is not prudent, unless all other major countries do the same and the economic playing field stays relatively level. We should focus on our major emitters and see how they can be incentivized to reduce their emissions, rather than look at hairball schemes to shut them down. Looking to technologies can help, recognizing that governments have a role to facilitate this, both through regulation and funding.
I wholeheartedly agree that reducing emissions is a global issue, and if we don’t do similar things, then emissions reductions will not be achieved. As part of this, we, as Canadians, need to define our role within the larger world. — Evan Saugstad is a former mayor of Chetwynd and lives in Fort St. John.
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Rom Com Fest for fans who never stopped believing
Lisa BONOS The Washington Post
LOS ANGELES — If Miraya Berke’s life were a romantic comedy, it would begin with her 15-year-old self writing a letter to her high school crush, 17-year-old Matt DeMartini, proclaiming that he missed his chance to date her. They’d had a wonderful two years cementing a friendship, she’d write, sharing a closeness that she hoped would have blossomed into a relationship. They’d bonded while making balloon arches in the early mornings as part of their student government duties and while practicing with the mock-trial team in the afternoons. On good days, he would offer her a ride home from school. On the best days, they would share a kiss.
But DeMartini was often pining for someone else, so he and Berke never made it out of friend territory. If the camera had captured them at prom – every teenage rom-com has a prom! – viewers would have seen DeMartini and Berke in the same group of dancegoers but not on each other’s arms. He invited someone else who wasn’t all that into him and asked one of his friends to be Berke’s date. The audience would sigh over that universal pain of a first unrequited love.
Before DeMartini headed to his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley, Berke had to tell him how she felt. That letter, which she delivered in 2006, ended with a bold prediction: “Sometime you’ll finally realize what you missed out on and then maybe you will regret it.”
Thirteen years later, if that same camera were to catch up with a grown-up Berke, it would find the 29-year-old buzzing around the Downtown Independent theatre, wearing a red, flowy Kate Spade dress smattered with hearts, posing on the pink carpet at the first-ever Rom Com Fest. She created this weekend-long event to celebrate a movie genre that is often beloved for being relatable and uplifting while criticized for being cliched, far-fetched and retrograde. Berke and the hundreds of other wide-eyed Nora Ephron disciples here acknowledge that
the classics do not age well, but they adore these films anyway. Berke has long been a fan of rom-coms, and while devouring new ones on Netflix recently, she wondered: Why is this genre so rarely featured in film festivals?
A movie buff and event planner, Berke decided to curate her own dream version of Sundance.
Over a weekend in late June, hopeless romantics in their 20s to 40s pack anniversary screenings of 1999 favorites Never Been Kissed and 10 Things I Hate About You, amid several new independent films. I Heart You balloons sway in the wind just outside the theatre. Inside, there are sweets – mochi, Ring Pops, buckets of fruity, fizzy drinks promising zero calories. Even the restroom looks weddingshower-ready.
The seats are filled with women who dream of being the next Ali Wong or Candace Bushnell. Women who spent their teens chasing
after boys and are spending their 20s chasing after girls.
Watching these movies is akin to mainlining hope into your brain. They’re certainly not perfect when viewed in the #MeToo era. If a squirm had a sound, it would be an uncomfortable groan-laugh heard throughout the sold-out screening of Never Been Kissed. In the 1999 film, Drew Barrymore’s character Josie Geller is a journalist posing as a high school student to get a juicy story. She falls for her teacher, and he clearly likes her back.
In 2019, the movie is totally creepy, but fans still enjoy it.
After the credits roll, Rachel Bloom, the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator, begins a question-and-answer session by apologizing for picking Never Been Kissed to screen. She hadn’t seen the film in about a decade, she says, and she had forgotten about the hints of pedophilia. However, Bloom still loves this film
Number two is number one in Japan
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Japan’s culture of cute makes no exceptions for poop. It gets a pop twist at the Unko Museum in Yokohama near Tokyo.
Here, the poop is artificial, nothing like what would be in a toilet, and comes in twisty ice cream and cupcake shapes, in all colours and sizes.
“The poops are colourful and come out nicely in photos,” said Haruka Okubo, a student visiting part of the museum devoted to allimportant selfies.
“The shape is so round and cute.”
In Japan, little poop-shaped erasers with faces and other small items have long been popular items collected by children, and sometimes older folks.
As elsewhere, scatological jokes are popular and bodily func-
Laugh-in actor Johnson dies
The Associated
LOS ANGELES — Actor Arte Johnson, who won an Emmy for comedy sketch work on the television show Laugh-In, died in Los Angeles Wednesday of heart failure after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 90. Johnson became known for his catchphrase “Verrry interesting” on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The Michigan native won an Emmy in 1969 and was nominated two more times through his work on the hit show.
Johnson’s other television appearances included Bewitched, The Partridge Family, Lost in Space, Murder, She Wrote and The Donna Reed Show.
tions discussed openly: a recent morning variety show by public broadcaster NHK featured tips on how to deal with farts.
Visitors to the museum get a short video introduction and then are asked to sit on one of seven colourful, non-functional toilets lined up against the wall.
Music plays as a user pretends to poop, then a brightly coloured souvenir “poop” can be collected from inside the toilet bowl, to be taken home after the tour.
A ceiling-high poop sculpture in the main hall erupts every 30 minutes, spitting out little foam poops.
The “Unstagenic” area of Instagram-worthy installations includes pastel-hued flying poops and a neon sign with the word “poop” written in different languages.
In another room, players use a projection-mapping game like “whack-a-mole” to stamp on and
squash the most poops they can.
In another game, participants compete to make the biggest “poop” by shouting the word in Japanese, “unko,” as loudly as possible.
A soccer video game involves using a controller to “kick” a poop into a goal.
Toshifumi Okuya, a system engineer, was amused to see adults having fun.
“It’s funny because there are adults running around screaming ‘poop, poop,”’ he said.
At the end of the tour, visitors get a bag to carry home their souvenir poop.
If they want still more, the museum’s gift shop abounds with more poop-themed souvenirs.
The museum attracted more than 100,000 visitors in the first month after its opening in March. It will remain open until September.
own love story.
“We ended up going to the same college,” she adds, “and a few times he tried to make out with me. But I always shot him down, told him he had missed his chance.”
The audience whoops and cheers in support of their heroine. But she continues, noting that she and DeMartini stayed in touch over the years. One night, 11 years after she wrote that letter, things seemed flirtier than usual. They were out for a fancy dinner in Los Angeles when DeMartini asked Berke if she would like to answer the 36 questions to fall in love, which are designed to increase the intimacy between two people. When prompted to share a regret, Berke said: “One of my biggest regrets was that nothing had ever happened between us.”
This time, DeMartini was more mature, “healthy single” as he puts it, rather than “rebound single,” as he had often been.
DeMartini leaned in for a kiss. Berke kissed back.
for the attention it gives to teenage dorks. Like many of the women in the audience, Bloom connected with these films because they made her feel less alone.
“For so long, these types of movies were the only things being made for women,” Bloom continues.
“And I think that we’re now really questioning: What art have we kind of pushed aside in a different category that we can now elevate?”
Which is exactly what this festival is aiming for. Many of the weekend’s newer independent films show how the genre is changing. They include characters navigating queer, polyamorous relationships. They don’t always end with a ring or even a kiss. One of the festival favourites, In Reality, centres on a woman’s quest to get over a breakup and find happiness in herself – a time-tested rom-com theme, but this time without the man.
Which brings us back to Berke’s
He was living in Oakland at the time and Berke was living in New York. They met for weekends in New Orleans and Florida. A few months in, DeMartini asked a question that Berke had waited a long time to hear: “Are you my girlfriend?”
She was.
And as she told an abridged version of this story onstage, DeMartini recorded her performance, beaming from the sidelines. They’ve been together for three years and now live in Oakland. Berke says she has “been living in my own little rom-com as my high school crush came to real life.”
In the green room on the festival’s final day, DeMartini says many people have asked why he didn’t propose that weekend. He could have swooped in during Berke’s Mortified performance. If it were 1999, he might have. But DeMartini’s answer reflects a deep understanding of how romcoms, and actual relationships, are evolving. He’d thought about proposing. But it wasn’t the right time. “I don’t want to undermine her big event,” he said. “That should be about the two of us.”
Miraya Berke is the creator of Rom Com Fest, which is a three-day event to celebrate love through film screenings, panel discussions and a comedy show.
Press
JOHNSON
Jae C. HONG The Associated Press
Taking aim
Maik Gehloff eyes up the target on Sunday afternoon at the Prince George Rod and Gun Club. Gehloff was one of 46 competitors taking part in the smallbore division of the 2019 Canadian National Rifle Silhouette Championship which saw sharpshooters from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Washington State participate in the three-day event.
Lamb steps in as Cougars head coach
Citizen staff
There was speculation that Cougars general manager Mark Lamb might be headed away from Prince George for an NHL job this off-season.
Instead, the WHL team’s GM doubled down on this city. It was announced Thursday that he would strike the word interim from his bench title (he stepped in temporarily as coach at the Feb. 7 point of this past season) and
take on the role of head coach as well as retain his senior management duties. It is a dual role he has handled before at the WHL level.
In so doing, Lamb becomes the 13th head coach in the Prince George side of the franchise’s history (it dates further back to Victoria prior to 1994).
“There were several qualified candidates who expressed interest in the position,” said John Pateman, president of EDGEPRo Sports & Entertainment, the Cou-
gars ownership group. “At the end of the day, when looking at Mark’s experience, reputation and vision for this team, as well as positive feedback from players and agents, we knew he was the best fit going forward.”
The Cougars will be naming an associate coach and finalizing other members of the hockey operations department in the coming weeks, Pateman said.
“I look forward to having a hands-on approach in building
this team,” said Lamb. “This is about continuing with the same vision we’ve laid out in the past year. The future is bright with this group.”
Lamb has an extensive hockey resume, which includes a Stanley Cup, and spans over three decades as a player and coach.
After a 15-year playing career at the professional level, Lamb began his coaching career as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers in 2001-02.
He then moved on to the Dallas Stars and spent six seasons (2002-09) behind the bench as an assistant coach. He was named the general manager and head coach of the Swift Current Broncos in 2009, a position he held until 2016. Lamb then moved back into the professional ranks in 2016-17, as head coach of the Tucson Roadrunners, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes.
How bull riders get ready for eight seconds
The Canadian Press
Garrett Green found good advice for riding a bull in the book The Inner Game of Tennis.
Preparing to board a three-quarter ton mass of muscle, horn and unpredictability named Fidget Spinner or Mr. Sunshine tends to ruffle the mind.
Green applies knowledge gleaned from a mental-training book about a racket sport to bull riding, although a tennis ball won’t chase and gore you after a drop shot.
“There’s two of you going into battle,” explains the 27-year-old from Meeting Creek, Alta. “One of you is an anxious over-thinker and the other one is laid back and he goes and he does it.
“I’ve got to be the No. 2. You can’t let anxious guy get up in there and make you all scared.”
The hour before a bull riding event is an interesting one around the chutes. Athletes deal with what they’re about to do in different ways.
Routines that occupy – some might say distract – the mind are useful.
For some, conserving mental and physical energy is paramount for those eight seconds when the body floods with adrenaline and the mind suddenly has a lot to deal with.
“I find I have more success when I’m more relaxed,” said reigning Canadian bull riding champion Wacey Finkbeiner of Medicine Hat, Alta.
“The more worked up I get, the worse I perform. I just like hanging out with my buddies and joking around. The last thing on my mind before I crawl in the chute is riding bulls.”
Finkbeiner is among the bull riders invited to the Calgary Stampede rodeo opening Friday. One of the richest rodeos in the world offers a total of $2 million in prize money.
Winners of the July 14 finals in bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, saddle bronc, bareback and barrel racing each earn a cheque for $100,000 in addition to prize money they’ve collected during the 10-day rodeo.
Luck feels like an important ingredient in a volatile sport like bull riding, but it was difficult to find a superstitious rider at this
week’s Cody Snyder Charity Bullbustin event in southwest Calgary. Jordan Hansen, another Stampede invitee, knows of a few cases.
“There are some people who won’t eat chicken before they get on because they feel you are what you eat,” Hansen said. “I’m serious. That is one.
“People won’t put their hat on a bed. Someone started that and they say it’s bad luck.
“Another thing. Yellow. They don’t want to wear yellow in the arena. That one I think started back from Roman era times when the cowards got painted with yellow.” Hansen, from Okotoks, Alta., spends the hour before his ride getting treatment
on aches and pains in the sports medicine trailer and socializing with his bull-riding brethren.
If he’s never ridden the bull he’s drawn, Hansen might go size up the animal he hopes will bring a good payday.
“You don’t see it much up here, but you see guys in the States put their hand on the (bull’s) back and say a prayer,” he said.
Todd Chotowetz of Major, Sask., resists the urge to get scouting reports from fellow competitors or the stock contractor on the bull he’s drawn.
“In the back of your mind, you kind of want to know, but you know you shouldn’t want to know,” he said. “Don’t try and set a game plan for any bull. They don’t all have
a set pattern anyway. If you can turn your brain right off, it would be the best thing you could do. Too bad it doesn’t work like that all the time.”
Bantering with other riders behind the chutes helps keep Green’s mind clear.
“It helps you not think about it if you talk about something else,” he said. “I don’t mind talking about bull riding, but I don’t want to talk about the bull I’m about to get on or what he’s about to do.”
The moment of truth arrives quickly enough when Green lowers himself onto the bull’s back in the chute.
“You’re getting down on a big, scary animal,” Green said. “I take a big, deep breath.”
CITIZEN
Marcos Gloria, of Edmonton wins the 2018 bull riding event at the Calgary Stampede last July.
B.C. Olympic ski cross champ retires
The Canadian Press
Kelsey Serwa is ready for her life’s next chapter after a decorated career in ski cross racing.
The 29-year-old Olympic champion from Kelowna announced her retirement Thursday when she finally had time to do so.
Amid writing exams, planning a September wedding and preparing for a six-stage mountain bike race, Serwa took stock of a career that includes Olympic gold and silver medals, a world championship, and two X Games victories.
“I love racing. I love that feeling. But now for sure I’m like ‘OK, my time has come and I’m ready for the next stages of my life,”’ Serwa told The Canadian Press.
Ski cross features skiers racing head-to-head down a course of jumps and turns.
Serwa’s gold medal at last year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, was Canada’s third straight in women’s ski cross since the sport made its Winter Games debut in 2010. Serwa finished second to teammate and champion Marielle Thompson at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Canada went one-two again in Pyeongchang when Brit Phelan finished second behind Serwa.
Serwa was fifth in her Olympic debut in 2010 when Ashleigh McIvor won gold.
“Twenty-ten was a bit of a disappointment for me,” Serwa said. “I think that was a lot of my motivation and driving force to competing to Sochi.
“Finishing second in Sochi, that was kind of my decision-maker to go one more Olympics, one more quad. Looking back, it kind of perfectly jumped from one to the other. The Olympic gold medal is just the cherry on top of it all.” Her success demanded resilience. Multiple surgeries have contributed to an arthritic knee.
After taking the 2014-15 season off to give her body a break, a hard landing damaged Serwa’s knee in January, 2017, and sidelined her for the rest of the season.
“It’s never always happy rainbows and butterflies all the time,” Serwa said. “You butt heads with some people. You get along really well with others.
“Each has a role in shaping the athlete you become. The different people on the team during different Olympic cycles, each one played a particular role in challenging me or supporting me or
giving me the confidence I needed, in order to let me become my best.
“I think maybe throughout my career, whatever the team environment it was during each Olympic phase and quadrennial, I made it work for me in the best way that I could.”
In addition to her Olympic medals, Serwa says her most memorable accomplishment was winning a world title in 2011 a week after wrecking at the X Games.
“I won that race, but in the process of crashing through the finish line, I suffered two compression fractures in my spine and whiplashed my whole back, sprained my thumb, scraped up my face, twisted my tailbone,” she recalled. “Just a real mess. Then a week later competed in the world championships. I missed out on all the training leading up to the race day and ended up winning that race also. That is probably one of my most under-rated, but proud moments, in my sport competing throughout my career. Just to overcome that pain and be persistent.”
Serwa grew up skiing at Big White Resort, which was cofounded by her grandfather Cliff. There is a ski run named after her there.
Thompson believes having Serwa has a teammate made her a better racer.
“Always having the top people to train with every day makes you better as an athlete,” Thompson said.
“She pretty much ticked every box you can in the sport of ski cross. She’ll definitely be remembered as being friendly and welcoming to others on the tour and a leader in her own respect.
“Always there when you need her and as a teammate that’s always been helpful.”
Serwa has started a scholarship fund that gave a total of $10,000 to three high-school student-athletes this year. She’ll marry professional skier Stan Rey in September and is working towards a degree in physiotherapy.
“Of course I’d love to work with athletes because they’re a very motivated group of people,” Serwa said. “At the same time, I’m not closing the door on any opportunities. Before I say ‘yes’ to working with the national team or sports team, I want to make sure I have a really good skill set so I’m able to help these athletes be their best as well.”
Nadal withstands challenge from feisty foe
There is never a dull moment with Nick Kyrgios, whether he’s smacking a forehand directly at Rafael Nadal’s midsection – right at him, on purpose – and earning a staredown in return or arguing with the chair umpire or hitting a second-serve ace at 217 kmh or an underarm ace.
All of that and more – much, much more –was on display at Centre Court on Thursday, when Nadal emerged from the tumult to beat Kyrgios 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in a second-round Wimbledon match boasting all manner of dramatics, doses of animosity and delightful play.
“When he wants to compete well, he’s one of the toughest opponents you can face. Normally against me and the top guys he wants to try hard,” said Nadal, who was
ranked No. 1 when he lost to a 19-year-old Kyrgios at the All England Club in 2014.
“And when he’s that way, he’s very tough.”
They have been at odds more recently away from the court, with Nadal, his uncle and Kyrgios all trading barbs.
In the leadup to this meeting, Kyrgios joked that he didn’t think “me and Rafa could go down to the Dog & Fox and have a beer together,” referring to a nearby pub where the 24-year-old Australian was spotted Wednesday night.
The 33-year-old Nadal, meanwhile, observed that he was “too old for all this stuff.”
Kyrgios is capable of being as entertaining and befuddling a player as there is and showed why throughout this three-hourplus contest that overshadowed everything else going on around the grass-court Grand
at Washington, 4:05 p.m.
at Pittsburgh, 4:05 p.m. Cleveland at Cincinnati, 4:10 p.m. Miami at Atlanta, 4:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, 7:15 p.m. Philadelphia at N.Y. Mets, 7:15 p.m. St. Louis at San Francisco, 10:05 p.m. Colorado at Arizona, 10:10 p.m. San Diego at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. TENNIS
WIMBLEDON Men’s Singles Second Round Sam Querrey, United States, def. Andrey Rublev, Russia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. John Millman, Australia, def. Laslo Djere (31), Serbia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. Tennys Sandgren, United States, def. Gilles Simon (20), France, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 8-6. Fabio Fognini (12), Italy, def. Marton Fucsovics, Hungary, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3. Joao Sousa, Portugal, def. Marin Cilic (13), Croatia, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Daniel Evans, Britain, def. Nikoloz Basilashvili (18), Georgia, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (2). Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France, def. Ricardas Berankis, Lithuania, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3. Rafael Nadal (3), Spain, def. Nick Kyrgios, Australia, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3). Kei Nishikori (8), Japan, def. Cameron Norrie, Britain, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. Steve Johnson, United States, def. Alex de Minaur (25), Australia, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Jan-Lennard Struff (33), Germany, def. Taylor Fritz, United States, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (2). Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, def. John Isner (9), United States, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Matteo Berrettini (17), Italy, def. Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Diego Schwartzman (24), Argentina, def. Dominik
Slam tournament on Day 4.
The No. 2-seeded Nadal is seeking his third Wimbledon title but first since 2010. He is eyeing a 19th Grand Slam title overall, which would move him within one of Roger Federer’s record for men.
Kyrgios, ranked 43rd, hasn’t been past the quarterfinals at any major yet.
And yet, because of his talent, plenty of people agree with Nadal’s post-match assessment:
“Potentially,” Nadal said, “he’s a Grand Slam winner.”
Player fined after loss
Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic was fined his full prize money of 45,000 pounds ($56,500 US) at Wimbledon on Thursday for not meeting “the required pro-
Koepfer, Germany, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5. Lucas Pouille (27), France, def. Gregoire Barrere, France, 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-4. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, def. Jay Clarke, Britain, 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Women’s Singles Second Round Ashleigh Barty (1), Australia, def. Alison van Uytvanck, Belgium, 6-1, 6-3. Harriet Dart, Britain, def. Beatriz Haddad Maia, Brazil, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-1. Alison Riske, United States, def. Ivana Jorovic, Serbia, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 9-7. Belinda Bencic (13), Switzerland, def. Kaia Kanepi, Estonia, 6-3, 6-1. Serena Williams (11), United States, def. Kaja Juvan, Slovenia, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. Julia Goerges (18), Germany, def. Varvara Flink, Russia, 6-1, 6-4. Carla Suarez-Navarro (30), Spain, def. Pauline Parmentier, France, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4). Lauren Davis, United States, def. Angelique Kerber (5), Germany, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. Kiki Bertens (4), Netherlands, def. Taylor Townsend, United States, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Barbora Strycova, Czech Republic, def. Laura Siegemund, Germany, 6-3, 7-5. Elise Mertens (21), Belgium, def. Monica Niculescu, Romania, 7-5, 6-0. Qiang Wang (15), China, def. Tamara Zidansek, Slovenia, 6-1, 6-2. Sloane Stephens (9), United States, def. Yafan Wang, China, 6-0, 6-2. Johanna Konta (19), Britain, def. Katerina Siniakova, Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-4. Magda Linette, Poland, def. Amanda Anisimova (25), United States, 6-4, 7-5. Petra Kvitova (6), Czech Republic, def. Kristina Mladenovic, France, 7-5,
fessional standards” in his first-round loss.
Tomic, a quarterfinalist in 2011, lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday – a match that lasted only 58 minutes.
“It is the opinion of the Referee that the performance of Bernard Tomic in his first round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not meet the required professional standards,” the All England Club said in a statement.
Tomic can appeal the decision.
After the loss, Tomic was asked if he was happy with the effort he put in.
“Next question, please,” was his answer. Fines for a lack of effort are on the rise in tennis following the introduction of a performance rule in 2018 that aims to deter players who enter tournaments while injured from retiring during first-round matches.
CP FILE PHOTO
Gold medallist Kelsey Serwa celebrates following the women’s ski cross final at the Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February 2018.
The Associated Press
Faux fish next frontier in plant-based foods
Cassandra SZKLARSKI
Canadian Press
The
TORONTO — The arrival of plant-based meats at chains including A&W and Tim Hortons is just the first step towards mainstream sustainable eating for Blair Bullus.
The Vancouver flexitarian and businessman has his eye on the next frontier: fish and seafood alternatives that – like products made by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods – mimic the look and taste of the real thing for pescatarians not quite ready to give up sashimi.
It’s still a nascent movement, but Bullus points to faux experiments that have popped up in recent years, ranging from chickpeabased “tuna” to carefully carved smoked carrot “salmon.”
Bullus’ company Top Tier Foods Inc. actually sells quinoa, including an especially sticky variety designed to replace rice in vegan sushi rolls that otherwise don’t have the protein and omega-3 fatty acids of fish.
It’s available at the Quebec Citybased chain Yuzu Sushi where customers can pair it with faux ahi tuna – a coral-red facsimile carved out of Roma tomatoes. Known as Ahimi, it’s made by New York’s Ocean Hugger Foods.
Bullus doesn’t expect to fool sushi eaters with the combination, but he hopes it can at least assuage any nutritional and environmental concerns by those who ditch fish.
“It’s just becoming easier to make those decisions so you don’t necessarily have to give up sushi or you don’t have to necessarily give up your salmon and avocado roll,” Bullus says.
“You’re going to have an alternative that has the same mouth-feel as what you’re used to.”
Whether the average omnivore is ready to give up their salmon and shrimp has yet to really be tested.
Efforts to produce realistic sushigrade varieties are dwarfed by the research, funding and marketing push behind plant-based and labgrown beef, says Bruce Friedrich, co-founder and executive director of the Good Food Institute.
Nevertheless, he says seafood alternatives are just as necessary, describing the environmental impact of commercial fishing as
CP PHOTO BY OCEAN HUGGER MEDIA
Ahimi products are shown in a handout photo. Faux fish is the next frontier in plant-based alternatives for seafood lovers.
“at least as bad as cattle-ranching” and akin to “the strip-mining of our oceans.”
He also lambastes aquaculture for its use of antibiotics.
“If these were terrestrial farming practices, people would be horrified,” says Friedrich, whose Washington, D.C.-based institute has funded open-sourced research into plant-based projects at the University of Manitoba and University of Guelph, as well as research on lab-grown meat – also known as cell-based meat – at the University of Toronto.
“Obviously, you know the link between seafood and human slavery, the pathetically lax regulation of the seafood industry to the degree that you don’t even know what you’re getting, the amount of mercury and dioxin and lead and other forms of contamination. This is an industry that is ripe for transformation.”
Yuzu spokeswoman Julie Lamothe says the chain’s 68 stores in Quebec and three in New Brunswick added Ahimi in April after customers asked for more veggie varieties.
Photos on Yuzu’s website depict maki-style rolls punctuated by the bright hue of Ahimi, while a nigiristyle sushi shows that when excess moisture is removed, the tomato flesh sits atop mounds of rice just as tuna would.
Ocean Hugger’s website says it transforms the tomato through a “proprietary process” that includes seasoning with soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. The company also has an eggplant-based alternative to eel and is developing a carrotbased alternative to salmon.
Ahimi is a bit of a novelty, Lamothe allows, but she suggests that’s what many sushi fans like.
“You eat with your eyes so they are looking for the whole package.
(And) it was really important for our chefs to use products that are easy to use.”
In Toronto, acclaimed chef and restaurateur David Lee says he shies away from imitating meat or fish at his vegan restaurants, Planta, which include three eateries in Toronto and one in Miami.
Nevertheless, his menu includes a “ceviche” made with coconut instead of fish, mixed with onions, jalapenos, limes, coriander, chili peppers and sweet potato.
Then there’s Planta’s “ahi” watermelon, made with dehydrated watermelon infused with wakame and citrus, finished in soya sauce and topped with organic ginger.
“I’m not trying to say that you should eat this because it’s better than tuna, but it’s just an alternative,” says Lee, adding that it’s a hit.
“The ahi is the biggest seller, hands down.”
Still, Lee does see practical limits to spending an inordinate amount of time trying to innovate, even if it works.
He recalls their “carrot dog,” a faux hot dog that lasted two years on the menu, was a labour-intensive affair that involved a carrot that was brined, cooked, smoked and then seared.
While Lee insists that “at the beginning it was very successful,” he eventually “fell out of love” with it.
“The umami is very important and texture is very important and the depth of a dish is extremely important. How do we achieve that, how do we get that gold?” he says.
“I mean trust me, there’s been some hits, there’s been some misses and we learn from our mistakes.”
Montreal chef Ricardo Larrivee warns that calling something tuna
when it’s not could backfire if the goal is to convert anyone on the fence.
“If you make faux fish and it’s not super-good, then you can have the opposite reaction: ‘I tried it, I don’t like it, I’ll go back to fish,”’ Larrivee says.
He suggests our attachment to seafood is at least partly psychological, and that the key to success is the right texture in its replacement.
“In the occidental way of cooking, if there’s not the meat or the fish part, we always feel like we only had sides,” says Larrivee.
“It’s in our head, it’s the way we think.”
For Friedrich, education only goes so far. Despite undeniable health and eco-concerns, he doubts most meat and fish eaters would ever go vegetarian without affordable alternatives.
“We really just need to change the meat instead of changing human nature,” says Friedrich.
“That’s the focus of these alternatives: Let’s give people everything that they like about meat but let’s produce it in a far more efficient and less-damaging way.”
Much of the innovation in the faux-seafood sphere is occurring in the United States, where cellbased producers Finless Foods, Wild Type and Blue Nalu are experimenting with lab-grown salmon and tuna, and plant-based companies include Good Catch, Ocean Hugger, and New Wave Foods.
In Canada, Maple Leaf Foods said earlier this year it is investing heavily in plant-based products, although it’s not clear if any of that will involve faux fish. Gardein’s line of meatless foods include a breaded “fishless filet” and breaded “crabless cakes.”
The University of Guelph’s Dana McCauley credits New Wave with an impressive soy-and-seaweed based “shrimp” that she sampled at an innovation meeting.
“If there was a time to launch this kind of product, it’s definitely now and in the next few years,” says McCauley, associate director of new venture creation at the university’s Research Innovation Office.
Given the state of our oceans, Friedrich suggests the survival of the planet may depend on it.
“This is how we save the world, essentially.”
MAD magazine leaving newsstands
Rachel LERMAN The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — MAD, the longrunning satirical magazine that influenced everyone from Weird Al Yankovic to the writers of The Simpsons, will be leaving newsstands after its August issue.
Really.
The illustrated humour magazine –instantly recognizable by the gap-toothed smiling face of mascot Alfred E. Neuman – will still be available in comic shops and through mail to subscribers.
But after its fall issue it will just reprint previously published material.
The only new material will come in special editions at the end of the year.
DC, the division of Warner Brothers that publishes the magazine, said MAD will pull from nostalgic cartoons and parodies published over the magazine’s 67-year run.
As Neuman would say, “What, me worry?”
Worry not, for MAD has more than 550 issues packed full of political parodies and edgy humour to pull from.
The magazine set itself apart as a cultural beacon for decades with its unabashed tendency to make fun of anything and push conventional boundaries.
One of MAD’s best known comic series, Spy vs. Spy, featured two spies with beaklike faces and big eyes – costumes that are still regularly worn on Halloween.
It even seemingly parodied fellow popular magazine Playboy, with its Fold-In feature that appeared in nearly every issue. But instead of featuring scantily-clad models, the Fold-In printed – what else? –another joke.
DC will keep publishing MAD special collections and books.
Illustrators and comedians, including one-time guest editor Yankovic, mourned
the magazine’s effective closure.
“It’s pretty much the reason I turned out weird,” he wrote on Twitter.
Josh Weinstein, a writer and producer of The Simpsons – which has referenced MAD many times – thanked the magazine on Twitter for its inspiring effect on eras of comedy.
“There was a moment in so many of our childhoods where you were the greatest thing ever,” he wrote.
Comedian Harry Shearer, the voice of several characters on The Simpsons, cracked on Twitter: “An American institution has closed. And who wants to live in an institution?”
When President Donald Trump referred to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as Neuman, while insisting he wouldn’t be fit to serve as president, the 37-year-old candidate said he had to Google the reference.
“I guess it’s just a generational thing,” Buttigieg told Politico.
“I didn’t get the reference.”
Cartoonist Evan Dorkin, who worked for MAD, wrote on Twitter that the magazine was long a source of happiness and inspiration for him.
“I hope we provided some smiles to some readers of the past 12 yrs,” he wrote.
The magazine changed as its circumstances did, he wrote, including when the magazine began printing advertisements in 2001 and when it moved from New York City to Burbank, California, at the end of 2017.
That move warped MAD’s identity, Dorkin said.
MAD was long a venue for comic artists and cartoonists to grow artistically and shape national conversation. Well-known names such as Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman and Mort Drucker were associated with the magazine for decades.
will be cut.
“The TSX like a lot of the markets is in a bit of a holding pattern,” said Allan Small, senior investment adviser at HollisWealth, pointing to U.S. markets being closed in observance of the July 4 holiday.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 12.65 points to 16,588.85.
“So on a day where there’s really no news or no negative news, the markets seem to melt up,” he said in an interview.
Small said Friday’s employment report will be crucial, with a weak number below a solid 165,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls likely prompting markets to rise on anticipation the data will push the Federal Reserve to cut rates at its meeting later this month.
“Whereas if I see strong employment numbers that might call into question if the Fed goes within the next few weeks or holds on for a little longer,” he said.
Small said he believes the U.S. economy is strong enough despite an expected weak second-quarter earnings season for the central bank to hold off on any cuts.
“They can always cut later on. So I would hold off but the market is pricing in a cut at the next meeting.”
The energy sector led the 11 major sectors of the TSX as it gained 0.68 per cent even though crude prices dropped as U.S. stockpiles didn’t fall as much as anticipated.
The August crude contract was down 54 cents at US$56.80 per barrel in afternoon trading and the August natural gas contract was down 1.9 cents at US$2.27 per mmBTU.
Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd., Husky Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources gained on very low volumes because of the U.S. holiday. Materials was up slightly led by Eldorado Gold, Kinross Gold Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp. even though gold prices fell after reaching a more than sixyear high on Wednesday.
The August gold contract was
It is with heavy hearts and deepest sorrow that we announce the passing of my mother, Helene Rohn. After a long battle with cancer, she passed away on the beautiful, sunny morning of June 27 at the age of 70. She was not alone and was surrounded by her loving husband, Bryce, her son Richard, sisters-in-law, nieces, and dear friends. She is finally at rest. She was a strong, vibrant and creative woman who spent a life time learning, teaching and always excelling, with a thirst for knowledge and growth. From early on, she never let anyone or anything stop her from being who she wanted to be or what she wanted to do. She fought to earn her place and blazed the trail for those who followed her. She also never took anything or anyone for granted. From teaching kids to sew to planning events for thousands, she was always all-in and never faltered. Whether it was at the CNC, Older Worker program, Festival of the Arts or volunteering untold hours, she touched many co-workers and participants alike. She finished her long and well-earned career as a Purchaser with the Canada Winter Games in Prince George. She loved her nieces and nephews and all of their children - she loved nothing more than to feed and entertain and have a house full of hungry stomachs and noise. She loved her pets, rescuing dogs and cats (even the ones that weren’t up for adoption).
In Helene’s later years, Richard teamed up with Bryce to build her dream retirement home on the shores of Stuart Lake, Fort St. James. She spent her time gardening, riding her John Deere mower, sitting on the deck enjoying a coffee or glass of wine, in her living room with her friends or knitting, all the while appreciating the view of her favorite place on Earth. Ironically, for a woman who spent her time planning events and taking charge (our family affectionately referred to her as the “Clipboard Lady”), it was her and Bryce’s final wish not to have a formal service but instead, a small gathering of family and friends at a later date.
We can rest with the solace that she is at peace and on the other side with her clipboard in hand, getting a lay of the land and taking control. In closing, we wish to thank everyone who has reached out with well wishes and heartfelt condolences. In lieu of flowers, Mom would prefer donations to Canadian Cancer Society or your local SPCA.
Love you, Ma.
Thomas Donald Fairbairn March 25,1932, Sexsmith, AB June 7, 2019 Prince George, BC
Tom was predeceased by his wife Geri and grandsons Jeremy Statham and Brian Fairbairn. He will be missed by his family Gord (Susie), Mona (Glenn Statham), James (Wendy). His grandchildren and great grandchildren, Ainslie (Chris Ford, Grayson, Emersyn), Jason Statham (Martina, Felix and Jaxson), Thomas Fairbairn, Dorothy Fairbairn (Chris) and Amanda Fairbairn. His sister Anne (Pete Brady) and brother Bill Fairbairn (Sherry). Tom worked as an engineer for Canadian Pacific Airlines for 30 years. He played hockey into his seventies and for a number of years went on his annual duck hunting trips with a group of friends and the families got to enjoy? The ‘Annual Duck Dinner’. He had a love for old cars, especially Mustangs. Tom lived in Penticton for 20 years and shared many happy hours with friends at the Elks Club. How lucky we are to have had him in our lives and his memory will live on in the hearts of those he touched. For someone loved is never lost. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, July 13, 2019 from 1-4pm at the BX Pub (upstairs) 433 Carney Prince George. In lieu flowers, donations to the Canadian Diabetes Association would be appreciated.
JACK BATEMAN LITTLE
Born in Saskatoon. SK May 28th, 1932 Jack passed suddenly July 2nd, 2019 in Prince George, BC. A well-known and respected businessman, he founded and operated Dollar Saver Lumber until his retirement. Through stubborn tenacity he grew the business and survived the ‘80’s and two major fires to build a sustainable enterprise which continues to provide employment in Prince George. Survived by Louise, his wife of almost 65 years, sons Kenneth and Robert and daughter Deborah Cripps (Wayne). Grandchildren Ryan and Jessica Macdonald and Ryland and Nathan Cripps. Great grand children Khlan and Thorah McDonald. He is sorely missed by his many friends and family. His kindness and great sense of humor earned him much love and respect.
A celebration of his life will be held later in the summer. Please donate to the MS Society in lieu of flowers.
ROSS, Yvonne lost her battle with cancer Sunday June 30th at home surrounded by her loving family. Yvonne was born August 22, 1946 in Leask, Saskatchewan to George & Leona Lucier. Survived by her husband Tommy of 55 years, her sons Duane, Ken (Karen) and daughter Laurie (Zeke aka Philip) her grandchildren Kourtney Kragt, Justin, Josh & Jarron Fillion and her great grandchildren Henrik & Kaden Kragt. She also leaves behind her sister Rita Wettlaufer and many many Nieces, Nephews and Friends. Predeceased by her parents George & Leona Lucier, brother Albert Lucier and sisters Helen Bourasa, Emma Lucier, Noreen Ambridge and Blanche Hourie. Services will be held this Saturday July 6th at Sacred Heart Cathedral at 11am. Luncheon at Sacred Heart to follow after interment.
The family wishes to express their gratitude and thanks to Yvonne’s home care nurses Karen, Diane and Bonnie and her home care aids In lieu of flowers please donate to PG Minor Hockey or PG Youth Baseball. As she wanted kids to have the joy of playing hockey and baseball as her kids and grandkids did. Prince George Funeral Service in care of arrangements 250 564 - 3880.
SPIERS,Norma
November13,1931-June24,2019
Itiswithheavyheartsandmuchsadnessthatwe announcethepassingofNormaSpiersonJune24, 2019,attheageof87.Normawaspredeceasedby herhusband,Ken,in2016,andissurvivedbyher children,Greg(Anne)andDebbie(Cam);andher grandchildren,Jillian,Chris,andMatt;aswellas friendsandfamilyinEnglandandCanada. Normanee(Palframan)wasborninRotherham, England,onNovember13,1931.Asachild,Norma livedthroughWWIIandwasevacuatedwithher siblingstoWentworthintheYorkshirecountryside. Attheageof10,shemettheloveofherlife,Ken Spiers,andtheybegandatingseveralyearslater. TheyweremarriedonMarch22,1952,andwere togetherfor64years. NormaandKenemigratedtoToronto,Canada,in 1953,andenjoyedlivingthereforfiveyears.They returnedtoEnglandtohavechildrenandthen returnedtoCanadain1966toliveinKitimat,BC.In 1968,theyrelocatedtoPrinceGeorge,whereNorma workedformanyyearsasanORInstrumentAideat thePGRHhospital.Uponretirementin1993,Norma andKenmovedtoKamloops,BC. NormawasafeistyEnglishgirlwithaheartofgold whoenjoyedherteaandcookies!Overtheyears, NormaandKenenjoyednumeroustripstoEngland fortheirvacations.Normaalsoenjoyedgardening, reading,anddancingwithherspecialfellow. ManythankstoDr.Wynneandthecaringstaffat BerwickontheParkfortheirwonderfulcareof Norma.Shewillbedearlymissedbyallwhoknew herandwillremaininourheartsforever.
Joseph Frederick Allen July 1, 1930 - July 2, 2019
Joe is survived by his wife Ellen; sons Craig (Maureen), Kim (Linda), Colin (Cindy) and Randy; 7 grandchildren; 6 great grandchildren; brother Lorne (Merle); nieces and nephew.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 9, 2019 at 11:00 am at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1088 Gillette Street, Prince George, BC In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Prince George Hospice Society or a charity of your choice.
