KidsArt Dayz at Canada Day Plaza
Michelle Hersey, right, Ta-Da Lady from The Nylon Zoo, leads children on
art making galore with dozens of hands-on stations for children
Murder trial presented with Facebook evidence
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Steps were taken Friday during a B.C. Supreme Court trial to draw a link between a man accused of participating in a double murder and an alleged nickname.
On the banner of Perry Andrew Charlie’s Facebook page is a stylized drawing of the word “Unique,” the court heard from two RCMP officers who testified separately. Charlie is facing two counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder with a firearm in the deaths of Thomas Reed of Burns Lake and David Franks of Prince George. He is also charged with 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 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.
On Friday, Prince George RCMP Staff Sgt. Kent MacNeill testified he came across the Facebook posting in the hours after the shooting when RCMP had pulled over a van carrying two of the four. Charlie was later apprehended at the Caledonia Trailer Park. Then the plain clothes commander of the
detachment’s serious crimes unit, MacNeill indicated going on social media was among the first steps he had taken in the effort to track down Charlie.
Evidence from the social media platform also showed Charlie was Facebook friends with the other three.
Following MacNeill, RCMP Cpl. Jeff Bingley took the witness stand.
Now in Kamloops, Bingley told the court he was stationed in Takla Landing north of Fort St. James for two years, ending in the fall of 2014, and knew both Charlie and Miller, both in the course of his work and in passing.
He said Charlie was in the community about half the time he was there and Miller less so.
Bingley recalled a moment when he and
a friend were going through Facebook on a computer and noticed Charlie’s Facebook page. Like MacNeill, he noted a banner with the drawing.
It was “one of those things that sticks in your mind and pops out umpteen years later,” Bingley said. In earlier testimony, Timothy Lee, who had been driving the van that had allegedly carried the four to the scene of the shooting, referred to someone named “Unique” sitting behind him. Bingley also testified that it appeared Charlie and Miller were friends.
He noted a time when he saw them in the Takla Landing potlatch house sitting beside each other and talking. The trial continues Monday.
City bracing for summer closures at pulp mills
Postmedia
Businesses across Prince George are bracing for spillover effects from the temporary closure of two key employers as the woes of B.C.’s forestry sector deepen.
A weeks’ worth of production cuts at Canfor’s sawmills in the region, due to shrinking timber supplies and poor markets, have robbed the pulp facilities of the residual wood chips that are their raw material.
So Canfor Corp. last week announced the temporarily suspension of operations at its Northwood and Intercontinental pulp mills, two of three pulp-and-paper
facilities it operates here, in phases that will cost some 760 employees three weeks’ to a month’s work over the summer.
“Whether or not it’s a month, eight weeks, or whatever it might be, those are lost wages for those folks,” said Mayor Lyn Hall, “and that will impact them and their families.”
And the impact will be felt across swaths of the city’s business sector from suppliers to the big mills to shopping malls that cater to workers and their families, said city economic development manager Melissa Barcellos.
Canfor spokeswoman Michelle Ward said the curtailment will
begin next Friday with the suspension of operations at its Intercontinental mill, which will remain closed until Aug. 12, and affect some 241 workers.
Its bigger Northwood mill, with 518 workers, will shut down Aug. 15 and remain closed for three weeks until Sept. 9. In total, the closures will reduce Canfor’s output of pulp for paper production by 75,000 tonnes out of its 1.1-million-tonne-per-year capacity.
“The company intends to resume full production at Intercontinental and Northwood in September,” said Ward, Canfor’s director of corporate communications.
Ward said employees have the option to use banked time off during the curtailment or be laid off to seek employment insurance claims.
Ward had no additional news about further curtailments but Hall said the community, where forestry is still a significant presence, is trying to look farther into the future.
“The piece for us is what’s next,” said Hall. “We know the curtailments are short-term, but what’s next after the short term?”
The 760 workers affected by the summer mill closures represent a noticeable chunk of the estimated 9,000 direct and indirect jobs in
Prince George’s workforce of some 53,200 — about 18 per cent of overall employment.
Forestry consulting firm Wood Markets Group, in a report released in May, estimated that up to 12 Interior B.C. sawmills will have to close over the next decade due to the reduction of timber in provincial forests owing to the decade-long mountain pine beetle infestation and successive years of damage because of wildfires. Since then, Tolko Industries announced the closure of a sawmill in Quesnel, with the loss of 150 jobs, and elimination of a shift at its Kelowna mill at the cost of another 90 jobs.
Salmon stock restoration efforts launched
The Canadian Press
A project to transform aging dikes in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland to make them more salmon-friendly is among 23 proposals selected by the federal and provincial governments to restore wild fish stocks.
Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham announced the recipients Friday of the first round of funding under the B.C. Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund.
The fund was launched in May and aims to restore the province’s imperilled wild salmon through innovation, infrastructure and science projects. Once agreements are finalized, the proponents could receive about $13 million in total funding in the first year of the program.
“Wild salmon are a part of who we are as British Columbians and are foundational to B.C.’s ecosystem, history and economy,” Popham said at a news conference.
“For many Indigenous and coastal communities, salmon are a way of life. Salmon are a reminder that we are all connected. But for many years, we have seen severe declines in wild salmon stocks.”
Wilkinson said not all stocks are in decline, but 12 of 13 Fraser chinook runs are endangered and there have also been downturns in sockeye. The reasons include habitat loss and climate change, as salmon are a cold water species and rivers are warming, he said.
“It further underlines why we need to take action on climate change to stop the further warming of this planet, because we are fundamentally changing ecosystems and making it very difficult for species like salmon to thrive and even survive in the long-term.”
One of the projects is called Connected Waters, led by Tides Canada and Watershed Watch Salmon Society, which will spend the next year identifying dikes across the Lower Fraser River and its tributaries that are blocking the passage of juvenile salmon.
Lina Azeez, a campaign manager with Watershed Watch, said there are about 1,500 kilometres of waterways in the Lower Mainland behind dikes that are historically salmon overwintering and rearing habitat.
Fish passage was not considered when the dikes were originally installed, she said, and the important juvenile phase of salmon life is sometimes overlooked.
“I always like to use the analogy of our children,” she said. “We always want to give them a good, strong start to life, so they
become good, strong adults who are able to survive.
Azeez said the groups aim to come up with green-infrastructure solutions that are site-specific. Options include “living dikes” that are made of natural materials, floodgates that open and close more naturally with the tide, and setback dikes, which are located inland away from riverbanks and riparian habitats.
Other groups that received funding on Friday include the University of British Columbia, which will conduct research on
the sustainability of capture-and-release recreational fisheries, and the Sport Fishing Institute for a mobile app that helps monitor catches.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District and Cowichan Tribes will explore building new water storage infrastructure in Cowichan Lake to provide flows required to sustain salmon, while the Scw’exmx Tribal Council will assess and rehabilitate degraded habitats in the Coldwater River and Guichon Creek watersheds in the Thompson, Nicola region.
Multiple tremors felt off B.C. coast
The Canadian Press
A series of earthquakes off British Columbia’s coast on Friday may be linked to a stronger quake in the same area earlier in the week, experts say.
Alison Bird, a seismologist with the Pacific Geoscience Centre near Victoria, said they are working to determine if the latest tremors are aftershocks from Wednesday’s 6.2 magnitude quake in the same region.
“I’m starting to wonder if this might be more of a swarm sequence than a main shock, aftershock sequence,” she said.
A swarm sequence is a outbreak of seismic activity, which Bird said is common off the B.C. coast.
“It often has a sudden flurry of activity where you get 100 earthquakes within a week-and-a-half period,” she said. “They’re a bit of a nuisance.”
The quakes occurred under the Pacific Ocean between Haida Gwaii and the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
Bird said she had calculated two larger tremors, one occurring at 5:58 a.m. Pacific time Friday, with
MAKING IT RIGHT
a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 and a second four minutes later measuring 4.7.
None set off a tsunami and no damage or injuries were reported.
Seismologist John Cassidy, who’s also with the Pacific Geoscience Centre, said another tremor also occurred at 5:51 a.m.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially set the magnitude of the most significant tremor at 5.6, but Bird said different interpretations are common in the first hours after a quake as seismologists work to hone the information.
Three plates of the earth’s crust meet off the west coast of Vancouver Island, creating an extremely active seismic region as the Juan de Fuca and Pacific plates slip under the North American plate. Data showed the latest quakes were all centred near the northern tip of the Juan de Fuca plate where it meets the other two plates, and were shallow, ranging from five to 10 kilometres below the surface.
There have been dozens of tremors in the same general region since the Wednesday evening earthquake, said Bird.
Retraction and apology to Kodi Sillje
We published incorrect information about Kodi Sillje in our May 14, 2019 edition. We have since learned the information we
published was inaccurate and we therefore retract it.
We apologize to Kodi Sillje for our error.
B.C. Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham speaks during a news conference Friday in Vancouver regarding the approval of 23 project proposals focused on restoring wild salmon populations in the province.
Vehicle thefts down, stats show
Citizen staff
Thefts from vehicles dropped by nearly a third over the latter of June, but this is no time for complacency, police are warning.
From June 16 to 29, there were 51 reports of such incidents in the city, compared to 75 over the two weeks prior, RCMP said Friday.
But Mounties are expecting the count to rise once again because people known to
commit these crimes will soon be released.
“Every week many property offenders are arrested, others are convicted, while others complete their sentence and are released from custody,” said Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass. “There is never a good time to leave items in your vehicles and never a good time to leave your vehicle doors unlocked.”
Items stolen include electronic devices, loose change, wallets, purses, drivers licenc-
es, sunglasses, gift cards, clothing and tools.
In a recent case, the door to one vehicle was pried open to steal loose change in the ash tray, RCMP said.
Police also encourage the public to report suspicious persons, vehicles and activities when they see it. A delay in reporting can often decrease the chance of an arrest and possible conviction.
Prince George RCMP can be reached at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact
Crime Stoppers at 1(800)222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest or recovery of stolen property, you could be eligible for a cash reward. For tips on theft prevention, go to the safety tips section of the detachment’s website at www.princegeorge.rcmp.ca
Assembly line
health and
officer,
manager with the City of Prince George, unveil the muster point sign at Van Bien school on Friday. The school district has begun installing the signs at 18 schools throughout Prince George to indicate their designation as official assembly points in the event of an emergency event requiring an evacuation.
Library’s summer reading programs underway
Citizen staff
The Prince George Public Library is kicking off its summer reading program this weekend –and adults are welcome too.
The adult summer challenge begins today and includes a number of reading prompts and tasks. Participants can complete as many or as few of the challenges as they’d like over six weeks, and will earn a draw entry for each challenge completed.
Prizes include a $150 gift certificate to Books and Company, a $150 gift certificate to The London, and a $150 local food and drink prize package.
Sex shop robbery
A local man is in custody and facing charges after allegedly breaking into a local sex shop twice in the same week.
RCMP were first called to Dr. Love on Patricia Boulevard near Victoria Street at about 1:45 a.m. on Thurs., June 27. Police found a smashed window but no suspect. But just before 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a witness called RCMP to say the store was being robbed. Clayton Tyle Moll, 38, was found nearby and, through evidence gathered on both occasions, police believe he is responsible for both incidents. In March, Moll was sentenced to 122 days in jail and two years probation for breaking into the same store in late January. Conditions of his probation included staying away from the business, RCMP said.
Theft suspect charged
Charges have been approved against a man allegedly behind
Participants can pick up challenge booklets at a kick-off event on Saturday between 2 and 3 p.m.at Bob Harkins Branch and thereafter at both the Bob Harkins and Nechako branches.
The children’s summer reading program, for ages 5-9, begins on Tuesday at Bob Harkins branch and on Wednesday at Nechako Branch, both 10:15-11:15 a.m. The weekly program will include activities, stories and special events to encourage children to keep reading during their summer break from school.
This year, a “Quiet Corner” will be set up at all summer reading program events for children with sensory sensitivities and those who need a few moments to themselves.
the steering wheel of a stolen vehicle.
Leonard Earl Prince, 41, faces one count each of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, resisting arrest and possessing stolen property under $5,000.
Prince George RCMP said Prince was arrested late Thursday morning after the detachment’s street crew spotted a vehicle reported stolen two days before going through an alleyway near the 4300 block of 1st Avenue.
“Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, however the driver made attempts to exit the alley, but was quickly surrounded by police,” RCMP said.
“The driver exited the vehicle and attempted to flee on foot, but was apprehended a short distance away.”
The vehicle had gone missing from a spot near the corner of 14th Avenue and Irwin Street shortly before 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“A window was left down and the keys were left in it,” RCMP said.
A Tens to Teens Challenge for 10-18 years old will have double digits and teens reading books, graphic novels and manga, and completing a number of challenges. Up for grabs are small weekly prizes, and three experiencebased grand prize packages.
Both branches will welcome the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre next week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission. The presentation and hands-on workshop will engage children 5-12 yrs. in activities focused on the challenges of space travel and living on the moon.
It’s set for Tuesday at Bob Harkins and Wednesday at Nechako, both from 1:30-3 p.m.
Film help needed
Citizen staff
The feature film Portraits From A Fire is underway and the production team is calling for some young Aboriginal help.
“We are seeking Indigenous youth from the Alexis Creek and surrounding areas (ages 18-30) for a unique filmmaking mentorship program in participation with the upcoming feature film,” said a statement issued by project spokesperson Erin Maguire and co-producers Trevor Mack, Kate Kroll, and Rylan Friday.
Aboriginal youth from the area are invited to apply for paid mentorships in one of the key creative professions these filmmakers have categorized. Those selected will learn the skills and context of the director, producer, director of photography, production design, hair and makeup artist, and others. Those eligible are self-identifying Aboriginal youth between the ages of 18 and 30. Participants must be available at Alexis Creek between Aug. 5-23. Deadline to apply is July 15. Find the link to the application form at the Portraits From A Fire page on Facebook.
From left, Mayor Lyn Hall, Cindy Heitman, assistant superintendent of School District 57, Nadine Neil, school district
saftey
and Adam Davey, emergency program
Mom gets eight years for son’s death
The Canadian Press
A mother in Manitoba has been sentenced to eight years in prison for throwing her baby boy to the ground and causing his death.
“This was not a child being shaken, but a child being thrown to the floor and struck in the head multiple times,” Justice Scott Abel told Jessica Melissa Brandon, 39, during a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Draze Brandon-Catcheway was from the Waywayseecappo First Nation.
He was 28-months old when he was found unresponsive at his home in January 2015.
He never regained consciousness.
An autopsy found the child died from an acute blunt-force head injury.
Brandon pleaded guilty to manslaughter in September 2018.
The Crown asked for a 10-year sentence, while the defence wanted seven years.
“It’s been a very difficult process for her and her family and now she knows what she needs to do in order to get her life back on track,” her lawyer, Norm Sims, said on Friday.
Court heard how Brandon, a mother of eight, had struggled with alcohol for most of her life. She had been sober for about two months when a child-welfare agency returned the children to her care.
“The accused says she realized she was not ready for her children to return home all at once,” the judge said.
Court was told that Brandon was struggling with the transition and, on the night of the boy’s death, had taken five shots of hard liquor, an anti-anxiety drug and a sleep aid before passing out.
She woke up to find Draze jumping around and refusing to listen to her. She grabbed the boy and threw him to the floor.
Court heard Brandon doesn’t remember much about what happened next, but she
concedes she struck the child multiple times in the head.
An officer with the Dakota Ojibwa Police Service was called to the family’s home about 2:30 a.m. and found Draze on the couch. The child was limp, unresponsive and gurgling sounds were coming from his throat.
He was brought to hospital but died the same day.
Brandon at first told police that her son rolled off the couch while she was changing his diaper. She later said Draze was jumping on the bed and hit his head.
A medical examiner found that neither story was consistent with the child’s injuries.
The child-welfare agency involved with the family did not submit information for her pre-sentence report. But Brandon said she made numerous requests for a respite worker to help her with the children.
The judge said he had to consider in his
sentence the impact of the agency’s involvement – or lack thereof.
Sims said the agency’s refusal to co-operate or disclose information meant the court was unable to see the full picture. The lawyer said he would be talking with his client about writing a letter to Families Minister Heather Stefanson about the situation. Brandon’s other children were taken back into care after Draze’s death. A victim impact statement submitted in court from his foster mother explained how the boy’s siblings are struggling with their brother’s death.
While Brandon has expressed she wants to be a good mother and will get help, she has shown limited remorse, Abel said.
“The accused threw Draze onto the floor such that Draze immediately became unresponsive,” the judge said. “Add to that conduct that the accused struck Draze multiple times in the head area.”
killer whale and her calf are shown in a recent handout photo from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Pacific Twitter
The Canadian Press
Researchers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are cheering after spotting all three pods that make up the endangered southern resident killer whale population.
The department said in a tweet on Friday that they’re happy to report that researchers encountered members of J, K and L pod off the west coast of Vancouver Island last week.
It said they also saw a new calf swimming with its mother, J31.
The endangered whales had disappeared for much of June from their usual summer location off the southern end of Vancouver Island and around the U.S. San Juan Islands. The residents are listed as a species at risk in Canada with just 75 remaining.
The Canadian government has taken a series of steps to support the whales including limiting how close vessels can travel near them and cutting chinook salmon fisheries in an effort to increase the supply of the whales’ favourite food.
Jail guard faced toxic work environment, tribunal finds
The Canadian Press
But adjudicator Diana Juricevic ruled Francis was subjected to racism that only got worse after he made the rights complaint when he was called a “rat” who had a “target on his back.”
No settlement or award was issued, but the chair said she would retain jurisdiction
A former jail guard has won his discrimination complaint against the British Columbia government for being forced to work in what the human rights tribunal concluded was a “poisoned work environment.” Levan Francis, who is black, filed a complaint to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in 2012, alleging colleagues and supervisors at the North Fraser Pre-trial Centre in Port Coquitlam used racial slurs and stereotyped him. During a 12-day hearing the government claimed that Francis used accusations of racism as a shield when his performance was criticized and fabricated allegations for his human rights complaint.
of the dispute to complete that process.
Francis left his job nine months after making the human rights complaint, and Juricevic says in her ruling there seemed to be no other option for him but to leave.
“Taken together, my findings of discrimination and retaliation lead to the inescapable conclusion that Francis was subject to a poisoned work environment by July 2013,” she says.
No one from the Public Safety Ministry was available to comment on the ruling.
Juricevic says in her ruling the work environment at the pre-trial centre was not characterized by teamwork and mutual respect, contrary to the evidence of a number of witnesses at the hearing.
There was an “almost alarming” lack of respect between fellow employees at the high-security remand centre for men, she says. The remand centre manages accused who have been ordered detained by the court while they await trial.
Federal funding targets workplace harassment
The Canadian Press
A project aimed at reducing workplace harassment and promoting accountable work environments will receive almost $2.8 million in federal funding, the government announced Friday.
The money will go to fund Roadmap to Future Workplaces, a project that will provide training on legal rights and help create plans to reform company policies that enable workplace sexual harassment.
Employment Minister Patty Hajdu made the announcement in Toronto, where she joined by Canadian actor Mia Kirshner, co-founder of AfterMeToo, an anti-sexual harassment group and Canadian author Margaret Atwood.
The Canadian Women’s Foundation, AfterMeToo and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network will collaborate on the program, which will be hosted on an online platform called Rosa, founded by Kirshner. By centralizing information and reporting tools for federally regulated industries, Rosa will make it easier to access support quickly and online, she said. The project aims to fix what Kirshner said is currently a scattered, difficult system for finding resources around sexual harassment.
“This is the last thing you need to do, this macabre scavenger hunt online,” she said. Rosa, Kirshner said, will be “one place in Canada, where you go to find everything you need to know about work-
place sexual violence, period.” The project is slated to launch next year, with Kirshner hopeful it could get off the ground in January. The federal financing for the project comes from the government’s Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Fund. Kirshner said she said was all too familiar with the forces in the entertainment industry that make reporting sexual harassment a career risk.
But she said these power imbalances extend well beyond the world of celebrity. It’s a problem that pervades all industries, particularly those that rely on contractors, such as mining and oil and gas, she said.
That’s why Kirshner said it’s so important that Rosa be accessible to the most vulnerable members of the workforce, such as immigrants and people with disabilities. Atwood, who was one of the program’s first funders, said Rosa would help even beyond the actual information it will provide.
“It adds a layer of ‘don’t do it buddy,”’ Atwood said in an interview. “It has a preventative function. As people realize this exists, ‘don’t do it buddy’ may kick in. A lot of people do things if they think they can get away with it.” Rosa will be available in English and French at launch, but will expand to five languages after that, Kirshner said. Hajdu said the project would further the “democratization of information” that would help women secure their right to live free of violence and harassment.
A
Wetlands the answer to wildfires
As unlikely as it may sound, a new approach for fighting the destruction of wildfires in Canada’s boreal region may lie in unassuming wetlands packed with soaking wet layers of peat and topped with living moss.
These same humble wetlands can also play a heroic part in curbing the effects of global climate change, but only if we protect those that remain and bring back the ones we humans have already damaged and destroyed.
Certainly, the more glamorous belt of boreal forest that rings the top of the northern hemisphere is vital to the planet’s ecology and it plays a significant part in storing carbon. But between tracts of forest, there is a far bigger, if less familiar repository of carbon stored directly underfoot in large and small tracts of peatlands.
Natural, healthy peatlands hold decaying moss, lots of water and support a living carpet of a special fire-resistant moss called sphagnum. In this way, the peatland can act as a fire break to restrict the fire from spreading and limit the amount of carbon emitted to the atmosphere as it burns. But the opposite is true for a dried or degraded peatland, which can accelerate, magnify and prolong the threat of fire. A peat fire can survive unseen even through the winter, only to surface again and take
down neighbouring forests in the spring and summer.
Dried peat burns readily, releasing carbon that was previously locked away for centuries to millennia, generates thick and potentially deadly smoke and resists being extinguished. In Russia, the smoke from out-of-control peat fires contributed to the deaths of thousands of people in Moscow in 2010.
Northern peatlands cover 3.5 million square kilometres globally and store an estimated 500 billion tonnes of carbon, which is the equivalent of about 60 years’ worth of global carbon emissions from fossil fuels. The world needs our northern peatlands but they can only help us if they are healthy and wet, and keeping them that way has not been a high priority. Instead, human activity and the unchecked growth of trees in a warming and drying boreal forest is increasingly leaving our peat vulnerable.
In other words, a healthy, wet peatland is a boon. A dried or degraded peatland is a threat.
Sometimes the difference is hard to appreciate. The seemingly simple act of building a road across a peatland can, unintentionally and invisibly, turn a beneficial fire break into a menace.
Road beds can choke off underground water flow, silently transforming healthy, saturated peatlands into hazardous reposi-
tories of the worst kind of fuel. Deliberately draining peatlands for agriculture, development or resource extraction can have the same or worse effect often perched at the edge of where people live, work and play.
We saw and later studied a problematic peatland in Fort McMurray in 2016.
The only highway in and out of town, Highway 63, had been built through a drained peatland, which became caught up in the Horse River Creek wildfire, the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
We were able to compare the combustibility of the drained and undrained sections of that peatland, and the differences in burn severity and carbon loss were stark, as those who evacuated the terrifying fire as they tried to navigate that highway can attest.
Through this research, we determined that the unchecked growth of spruce trees in drained peat can actually further harm a peatland’s ability to resist fire.
When such trees are allowed to grow tall and wide, they shade out the protective cover of fire-resistant sphagnum “super mosses.”
At the same time, they suck up water like giant drinking straws, turning the forest and peat alike into burn-ready fuel.
As climate change continues to warm and dry the boreal region, the threat of mega peat fires and carbon loss will continue to grow.
YOUR LETTERS
The North matters
I have been reading the various articles and columns about our climate and natural resource industries.
It surprises me how frequently we forget that our environmental protection laws are among the best.
How our rule of law, our freedoms and equality, while not perfect, are again among the best in the world.
It boggles my mind that we would not be doing whatever we can to increase the export of our products rather than buy products produced in countries where all these laws are inferior to our own.
I think it is shortsighted when Canadians protest the development of our economy, (the economy which produces our standard of living, our healthcare, our education,) and simply watch while we lose market share to other countries that are busy developing theirs.
Too frequently it is forgotten that if it wasn’t for resource extraction, there would be very little work in the north.
Tourism is a wonderful thing but unless we want to become a nation of low-paid tourism workers, we need to begin fighting against this tide of misinformation.
Daily, we hear of protests against the industries that support our families.
Daily, it is implied that those working in the resource industry should be ashamed of their work.
We need to begin to stand up for each other, to bridge the false divide between resource development and environmental stewardship.
I have often wondered when the average person who knows we need good work and is not ashamed of what we do, would begin fighting back, so I was very excited when I heard one fellow stopped just complaining about it.
His name is Dave Johnston, an electrician from Kitimat, and he is conducting a Prince George Community Engagement on July 12 at 7 p.m. to see if there is interest in forming a group to begin organizing an effort to bring dignity back to the north.
The event is listed on EventBrite under The North Matters and you can register there,or send me an email at itklassen@ hotmail.ca.
There is very limited seating. It is time to stand up.
Trudy Klassen
Prince George
Coaching mistake
So at the end of last season, as general manager Mark Lamb had a dismal coaching record with the Prince George Cougars, he said he was definitely going to hire a coach and he would not do both jobs. Now he is the new coach. Looks to me like this could be a money issue as it’s one less salary. Combined with the new prices for seat selections, the team is hoping to bring the fans back.
I for one was happy with Richard Matvichuk and he only had so much talent to work with.
I am disappointed a new coach was not hired and really don’t think Mark is the guy but wish him best of luck.
Roland Hill
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 fortunate truth is that peatlands, even years after being dried out, can be dragged back to the other side of the wildfire and carbon ledger – from a source of fuel and carbon to a fire break and carbon sink – by strategic re-wetting, selective spruce tree removal and replanting with fire-resistant super mosses. In fact, the most effective technology for restoring peatlands is a made-in-Canada success story. The restoration technology is expensive, but can save untold costs in terms of wildfire risk protection, air quality and climate mitigation.
With over 20 million hectares of degraded northern peatlands in Europe alone and with the threat of climate change mediated peatland drying and degradation expected to impact millions and millions more, we call for planting mosses and peatland restoration to become as common place as planting trees as a means to fight climate change.
Canada is home to one-third of the world’s northern peatlands and those peatlands, unlike those in other parts of the world, are currently primarily intact. That is heartening, of course, but it also means we have the responsibility of more to protect.
— Mike Waddington is a geography professor and Sophie Wilkinson is a PhD candidate at McMaster University. This article first appeared in The Conversation.
Television and microwave essential eating devices
Over the past few months at Research Co., we have taken a look at certain habits of British Columbians when it comes to food. We learned about their views on calorie counts and website visits in restaurants, as well as how many of them are growing food in their homes.
As the summer progresses, we’ll be looking into other issues related to what we eat and how, starting with our dinner habits at home.
For this survey, we sought to compare British Columbia to the rest of the country on three themes related to nourishment at home: how long it takes us to cook dinner every night, how often we rely on prepared provisions we take out of the freezer, and – on a decidedly more sociological note – how often we consume what we cook in front of a television set.
Across Canada, a majority of residents (60 per cent) say it takes them anywhere from 31 to 60 minutes on an average weekday to make dinner for themselves and others in their household.
Three in 10 Canadians (30 per cent) are quicker, getting their meals done in 30 minutes or less.
For one in 10 Canadians (10 per cent), the average weekday dinner entails a preparation time of more than an hour.
There is a gender gap on speed, with more than a third of men (36 per cent) saying they make dinner in less than 30 minutes, compared to just one in four women (24 per cent). This is also an area where British Columbians appear to be less rushed than residents of other provinces.
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 38 per cent of residents report taking less than half an hour to prepare the average weekday dinner. Second on the list of fast cooks is Alberta (33 per cent), followed by Atlantic Canada (31 per cent) and Ontario (30 per cent).
Quebec and British Columba are at the bottom of the list (26 per cent and 25 per cent respectively).
Quebecers are significantly more likely to devote a long time to dinner, with 20 per cent of the province’s residents saying the average weeknight preparation usually takes more than 60 minutes.
British Columbia is second on this question at 14 per cent, with no other region of Canada reaching double digits.
At a time when two-income households have become the norm across Canada, the urge to place something in the oven or microwave after a busy workday is intense.
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Sizable majorities of Canadians say they have had frozen entrees cooked in the oven (71 per cent) or cooked in the microwave (60 per cent) for dinner over the course of the past month.
Once again, the regional differences are clear. Frozen entrees in the oven are decidedly more sought after in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (78 per cent), Ontario (77 per cent) and Alberta (76 per cent) than in British Columbia (65 per cent), Atlantic Canada (64 per cent ) and Quebec (63 cent).
A similar situation ensues for using the microwave to prepare frozen foods for dinner at home. Once again, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (68 per cent), Ontario (65 per cent) and Alberta (64 per cent) lead the way, with Atlantic Canada (59 per cent), British Columbia (53 per cent) and Quebec (48 per cent) further back.
In our final question, respondents to the survey were asked how often they have dinner at home in each of two different scenarios: at the dining room, with no television; or at a different part of the home, with the television on.
The country’s dinner time is evenly split between the dining room (51 per cent) and an area of the home equipped with a television set (49 per cent).
Quebecers, who had already established themselves as the most enthusiastic cooks and the biggest shunners of frozen entrees, are also the most likely to consume their food at the dinner table (60 per cent).
Atlantic Canadians come close to Quebec on occupying the dining room on most nights (58 per cent), but the proportion drops to 51 per cent in Ontario, 45 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 44 per cent in Alberta and a Canada low of 42 per cent in British Columbia.
So British Columbians continue to be enigmatic. We are closest to Quebec’s gourmands when it comes to spending time in the kitchen preparing a meal. We are also more likely to avoid an overreliance on frozen foods.
Yet we lead the entire country at consuming our food in front of a television set.
Advertisers and broadcasters may be thrilled to find that out.
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BY THE NUMBERS
MARIO CANSECO
Lee Iacocca was master of the deal, not Trump
Micheline MAYNARD
Special To The Washington Post
A brash, outsize personality and best-selling autobiography. Private jets and multiple wives. Frequent subject of Time magazine covers. A taste for the lavish lifestyle. A celebrity transcending his industry and an ability to sell anything to anyone. Sound familiar?
This reads like a description of Donald Trump, but it is also true of Lee Iacocca, the automobile executive who died Tuesday at 94. In his heyday, Iacocca was not just the face of Detroit but, to everyday Americans, the face of American business. He was also, in critical ways, the archetype of the persona Trump has long projected but seldom embodied. Lift the curtain on Trump and the chimera is revealed: a name chiseled onto a building facade, stitched into a golf-course towel, stamped onto a wine label. Lift the curtain on Iacocca, and even if you can see the hucksterism there, it’s backed by powerful machines parked in millions of American driveways and tens of thousands of American jobs. Iacocca kept his name for himself, but his products were so closely associated with him that he might as well have branded them with it: the Mustang, the K-car, the minivan.
While Trump was the businessman to gain the presidency and Iacocca only flirted with a run for the White House, Iacocca was the true master of the art of the deal –the king of CEOs to Trump’s naked emperor. And he was popular in a way that Trump’s vivid imagination could appreciate – at one point only the pope and Ronald Reagan were more respected by Americans.
Even the Fourth of July offers a point of comparison at which Iacocca casts a shadow that eclipses Trump. The president gets his military Salute to America on
Thursday, with tanks parked nearby, jets flying overhead, fireworks and a stage at the Lincoln Memorial. Iacocca had Liberty Weekend, the 1986 extravaganza celebrating the centennial restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Iacocca chaired the commission that oversaw the restoration, culminating in a four-day event that included battleships assembled in New York Harbor, a flotilla of tall ships, a blimp race, the presidents of the United States and France, an army of celebrities, a laserlighting of the Liberty torch and a monstrous fireworks display. Also, a naturalization ceremony featured the chief justice of the
United States swearing in a group of immigrants.
Trump’s ghost writer, Tony Schwartz, has said he cobbled together The Art of the Deal from his subject’s often rambling thoughts to create the image of a dynamic New York developer. Iacocca’s ghost writer, William Novak, had plenty of life story and business accomplishments to work with in Iacocca: An Autobiography, which dominated the non-fiction bestseller list in 1984 and 1985 and became a true global publishing phenomenon.
Unlike Trump, who has told twisted tales about his family origins, here was the son of Italian
immigrants, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, who leveraged an education at Lehigh University into a job at Ford, where his marketing flair and ambition got him all the way to the executive suites in the Glass House, as Ford’s Detroit headquarters is called, and eventually to Chrysler, where I interviewed him in the mid-1980s for the first of a half-dozen times. By then, he overshadowed every other business leader in the city, even Roger Smith, then at General Motors, eclipsing his former boss, the patrician Henry Ford II, as an instantly recognizable business personality.
Iacocca was more like a European titan of industry than a bland American manager. He was also like Trump in his admiration for excess, which he may have learned from his boss, Ford, who eventually fired him.
Years before Trump bought Mara-Lago and built Trump Tower with its gilded escalator, Iacocca was using the Ford plane to run errands for Henry II, once bringing back an antique fireplace for him from London, he wrote in his autobiography. One day Iacocca decided to find out why Ford was only satisfied with hamburgers prepared for him in the company dining room.
He asked the chef to show him how he made one.
“He went over to the fridge, took out an inch-thick New York strip steak and dropped it into the grinder,” Iacocca wrote in his autobiography. Trump might have appreciated this kingly quirk as much as Iacocca did, although the president is known to love a fastfood hamburger.
Like Trump, whose real estate company sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times, Iacocca also stumbled in business. In 1987, Chrysler decided to buy American Motors Corporation, the smallest U.S. automaker, and the complexity of the merger almost sank Chrysler once more. But un-
like Trump, who has threatened lawsuits and blamed regulators for his woes, Iacocca always focused on how he could fix things. He was a man who outlined strategies and then executed them, whether it was convincing consumers to take a chance on his failing car company by offering them rebates, persuading Congress to approve a bailout plan for Chrysler (and paying off the $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee ahead of time) or marketing vehicles like the Ford Mustang and the Chrysler K-car and minivan to the baby boomers who still dominate American auto sales.
Trump, by contrast, lied about his finances and walked away from failures and debts as he leveraged his empire for personal gain.
While Trump has repeatedly declared, “I’m the only one that matters,” Iacocca was the one that mattered, so much that he became Chrysler’s feisty spokesman in years of TV commercials. Chrysler even brought him back in 2006 for one last round with Snoop Dogg. Iacocca expressed a few thoughts about Trump in a 1991 interview with Playboy magazine. “I know Trump fairly well,” he said. “Now that’s an ego that’s gone screw-loose, gone haywire. What the business establishment of this country has to do is get away from this new financialtransaction mentality. It used to be that Wall Street, the financial markets and the banks were there to promote and fund the companies that produced goods and created jobs. Now they’ve taken on a life of their own: ‘What’s the play? Where can we make a fast buck?’ What we really need to do in this country is get back to the factory floors. Whether it’s Chrysler or McDonald’s or whatever, you’ve got to stand for making good stuff or you’re not going to win.” Maynard is an author and journalist who was Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times.
Lessons learned from plants that died of neglect
Sarah A. BREGEL
Special To The Washington Post
Last year for Christmas, I told my mother I wanted one thing: some big plants. My house was feeling a little sparse. I had recently gotten separated, and there were empty spaces where my husband’s record player, stacks of records and liquor cabinet used to be. Some of Mother Nature’s essence seemed like the perfect fix. Even though I’ve never had much of a green thumb, I told myself I would be committed. After all, I wanted to put my energy into taking good care of my home now that it was all mine and mine alone.
So a few days after Christmas, I put a big green plant with pointed leaves that my mother had given me under a window in my dining room. I poured two big cups of water in with the highest of hopes. Two weeks later, the plant was dead. I drenched the soil for a few days, hoping to bring it back to life, but there were no signs of revival. It’s been sitting in the same spot under the window for five months now, brown as burned toast, a reminder of my failure. It’s a reminder, too, that I should never try owning plants again. Because over the years, it always goes like this. Every time I take a trip to Home Depot or some trendy new flower shop, excited to pick out the perfect plants, put them in colourful pots and sprinkle them all over my home in just the right nooks, I manage to kill them in what must be record time.
I’m not completely unskilled at caring for
things. I have two children who are fed and clothed and (usually) bathed. I walk the dog and do the dishes and meet deadlines. But I can’t keep up with greenery, despite my good intentions.
I wanted to figure out why I’m so bad at something that seems like it shouldn’t be so complicated. I know people who are, even by their own standards, messier, more scattered than me, yet their plants thrive.
I wondered if it’s my ADHD, my Type B personality or some fundamental gene I happen to lack. The plant gene.
I spoke with Art Markman, a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texaswho also serves on the scientific advisory boards for the Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz shows. He has written extensively about motivation and decision-making. He didn’t think my brown thumb had all that much to do with personality.
While it’s possible those inclined to take good care of their plants may be more conscientious individuals, he said, there’s a big reason maintaining flora can pose a challenge: “One of the things that we find difficult to do is tasks that need to be performed infrequently that don’t provide reminders to perform them.”
For example, if you don’t do your laundry, you will run out of clothes and be forced to wash them. (My nine-year-old daughter is somehow proving that false at the moment, as she keeps managing to find shirts to wear in spite of her refusal to bring her massive pile of dirty clothes downstairs.) With plants, there’s no reminder that you’ve forgotten to water them until the leaves turn
brown – by which point, as I’ve learned, it’s too late.
Maybe the way to change my behaviour would be to create reminders for myself. Markman said putting something as simple as “water plants” on my calendar might be necessary until it becomes a habit.
Maybe the problem wasn’t that I forgot about the plants but that I didn’t understand how they worked in the first place. I decided I needed to learn some more plant basics. I emailed Liz Vayda, who has a master’s in environmental science from Johns Hopkins University and owns two popular flower shops in Baltimore, where I live. She told me that plant care is about practice and observation.
“I always compare tending to houseplants to cooking,” she wrote.
“It’s all about learning and paying attention to them. The more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more prone you are to making educated guesses about cause and effect.”
I hadn’t thought of houseplants as something I needed to spend a lot of time observing and learning from. Given that I’d always
managed to kill them instantaneously, I never really got to the “a little of this, a little of that” part. Blaming my genes or looking to psychology, I realized, was a cop-out. I had been expecting my plants to take what I gave them, rather than viewing them as living things that relied on me for absolutely everything. I haven’t run out to fill my old pots just yet. But this year for Mother’s Day, my fouryear-old son brought home from preschool a two-inch pot of dirt with a seed buried in it. The plant isn’t dead yet. It sits on the window sill over my kitchen sink. Soon, I’ll have to move it because it’s getting too big. I haven’t even needed reminders to water it - but then again, I have a big reason to keep this tiny plant going. It’s not my joy at green things that’s motivating me, but my kid’s, who loves the fact that something he gave me is taking on a new shape every week. It’s forced me to dig a bit deeper for the seed of my green thumb. I want to get a lot out of it. I want to simply enjoy it. Here’s hoping that practice, and some childlike wonder sprinkled in, is enough to help it grow.
Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca spoke in 2007 at the 70th Luncheon of the Metro-Detroit Book and Author Society in Livonia, Mich.
Choosing glass or metal could be a baking game changer
The Washington Post
Anna Gass, author of Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories From The Tables of Immigrant Women, recently joined The Washington Post Food section staff in answering questions about all things edible. Here are edited excerpts from that chat.
Q: Is there a baking time rule for using glass baking dishes vs. metal ones? I find that things seem to get done more quickly with glass. Should I lower the temperature or shorten the bake time?
A: You are right about glass. It can bake things faster and hotter, so definitely try knocking back the temperature 25 degrees or so.
- Becky Krystal
Q: I’ve recently acquired a microplane zester and rasp for citrus and nutmeg, respectively. What other uses migh they have?
A: I use mine to grate frozen ginger, and you can also use it to grate garlic so it’s nice and pulpy. It will also give you really lovely fluffy piles of chocolate or Parm for garnishes.
- B.K.
A: Hard cheeses, like Parm and Pecorino. You also get nice fluffy piles, and they melt on contact with anything warm. So perfect for pasta.
- Joe Yonan
Q: I want to make infused olive oils for grilling vegetables. How to proceed? Should I use EVOO or is plain good enough? And which fresh herbs do you suggest?
A: Infused olive oils couldn’t be simpler. Take about two cups of olive oil (high quality) and a few springs of your favourite herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary, skies the limit). Then, heat until the olive oil just starts to bubble, maybe two to three minutes. Strain the herbs and place it into a olive oil glass container. Done. Also, I love to do this with garlic and red chili flakes. Just simmer the two cups of oil with the garlic and flakes for 30 minutes then strain. It’s a hot oil I put on pizza and chicken.
- Anna Gass
Q: I bought strawberries that turned out not to be sweet. I guess they were picked too soon. If I take them out in the sun for a while, will they get sweeter? Or what do
you suggest? I’d rather not really cook them. Sprinkling with Stevia is also an option.
A: Hate to break it to you, but strawberries don’t keep ripening after they’re picked, so that flavour isn’t going to change. This is one reason why I never buy strawberries at the farmers market without sampling. If they don’t let me taste (a very rare thing), I move on. Now, they will taste a little sweeter if they’re at room temp than if they’re cold. Otherwise, you’ll want to add something to them if you want them sweeter, yes.
- J.Y.
Q: I’ve found that the key to some of the best immigrant recipes is finding non-traditional ingredients that the author grew up with and took for granted versus subbing out an American alternative (although if that’s all
you have, then go for it). I’m lucky to live in Washington and have access to good ethnic grocery stores, and many ingredients have migrated to mainstream stores, but even then, they still don’t have everything. Do you have any tips on finding “harder to find” ethnic ingredients? Sorry to make the question vague, but given the vast number of immigrants cultures to choose from, the question applies to all sorts of different things.
A: I came across this so much during my time in these amazing immigrant kitchens. When many of these women immigrated, they were unable to find the key ingredient needed. For example, Nikki from Haiti needed sour oranges for her Cashew Chicken. At the time, there weren’t as many Caribbean markets to go to as there are now so she played with
orange and limes to strike the right balance. Now, with Whole Foods, Amazon and so many ethnic ingredients in the local grocery store, there isn’t such a need to substitute. I was able to get almost every ingredient needed at my local grocer. However, I found www. snukfood.com to carry loads of international ingredients to cook with and I love trying new items from them. I also love looking for the local ethnic delis when I travel to new places. They always have imported items. Happy cooking!
- A.G.
Q: I recently learned that I must watch my sodium intake. I visited the websites of restaurants and casual places and am shocked at the amount of sodium in dishes. Why can’t the restaurant industry make a concerted effort to cut down on sodium? Why must there be so
much sodium in bread?
A: Yes, it’s a problem – and with so many processed foods, too. Honestly, if you’re trying to watch your sodium intake, the best thing you can do is cook as much of your own food from scratch as possible.
- J.Y.
Q: I was given some farmers market duck eggs by a friend who wouldn’t take “no thank you” for an answer (she snuck them in my fridge before leaving). Can they be frozen (either in shell or out) for the next time I have an overnight guest who might want them for breakfast, or is giving them away while they are still fresh the way to go?
A: You can freeze them. Crack them out of the shells, whisk to blend, and freeze – tightly sealed and labeled with the date and the number of eggs.
WASHINGTON POST PHOTO BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG
During a question and answer session with culinary experts, the issue of baking with glass or metal is addressed.
Aggressive play
Prince George Impact Demian Dron tries to play the ball surronded by Langley United players during their U18 game Friday morning at Masich Place. The teams played to a 2-2 tie. The Prince George Youth Soccer Association is hosting the Les Sinnott Memorial Boys BC Provincial Cup. Forty-eight teams from across the province, with 800 youth ranging from 12-18 years old, are in Prince George to compete for the Provincial B Cup title. Games will continue through Sunday at Masich Place stadium and Rotary fields.
Lions, Argos battle of the winless
The Canadian Press
He’s had roughly two days to prepare, but that’s more than enough for McLeod BethelThompson.
Bethel-Thompson makes his first start of the season Saturday night when Toronto (0-2) hosts the B.C. Lions (0-3) at BMO Field. The Argos are coming off a 32-7 road loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Monday, a game that saw starter James Franklin suffer hamstring injury that’s landed him on the sixgame injured list.
Bethel-Thompson has appeared in both of Toronto’s games this season, completing 12of-22 passes for 125 yards with a touchdown and interception. He was 3-of-6 passing for 26 yards versus Saskatchewan following Franklin’s injury.
Despite the tight timelines, Bethel-Thompson is raring to go.
“I’m very prepared,” he said Friday. “I prepare every week like I’m the starter, that’s the job of a backup and I’ve been doing this for a little bit now.
“I was prepared last week and I was prepared two weeks ago. Now, it’s just a few more reps Saturday, a little bit more time to see how prepared I am.”
Toronto has been outscored by a whopping 96-21 margin in its two losses. Offensively, the Argos are last in the CFL in scoring, net offence (300.5 yards per game) and second-last in sacks allowed (eight) and turnovers made (six).
“I’ve rarely, if ever, got beat that badly,” Bethel-Thompson said of Toronto’s early struggles. “But those scores were not indicative of how far away we are, we’re a lot closer than people think.
“Football is such an ebb-and-flow game . . . feast or famine in a lot of ways. It’s such a big field and once you kind of pry open those inches, then it becomes yards and then big plays. As bad as the scores were, we were really close, a couple of plays here or there early in the game and (then) it’s a different story.”
The six-foot-four, 230-pound Bethel-Thompson started eight games last season for Toronto. The Argos won Bethel-Thompson’s opening two starts -including a 24-23 decision over B.C. on Aug. 18, 2018 - before dropping the next six, after which he was replaced by Franklin as the starter.
Bethel-Thompson was 1-1 versus B.C. last season. He threw four interceptions in a 26-23 Lions victory Oct. 6.
“One of his best attributes as a quarterback is his level of anticipation,” Argos head coach Corey Chamblin said of his starter. “He has played in enough of those systems, especially the West Coast system, where the ball needs to be out and he does a good job of getting the ball out.
“He just has to make sure he plays with an even-keel mindset. He can become fiery at times but that’s also a good quality because I think those guys will rally around him and get going.”
It’s been a tough start for Chamblin, who’s also Toronto’s defensive co-ordinator. The Argos’ defence is ranked last in points allowed and remains the only unit yet to register a sack.
But like Bethel-Thompson, Chamblin remains undeterred.
“This is a part of it, adversity reveals character and who you are right now,” he said. “If their spirits are broken after this then they’re not tough.
“I still see guys coming to work, I still see guys pushing to get this thing turned around. We’re headed in a winning direction and sooner or later I know we’re going to that victory.”
Much was expected of the Lions this season after the hiring of head coach DeVone Claybrooks and free-agent signing of veteran quarterback Mike Reilly. But B.C. has struggled mounting any consistency thus far and enters action this week having surrendered a leaguehigh 10 sacks.
B.C. seemed poised to register its first win last week, taking a 22-10 lead into the fourth quarter against Calgary. But the defending Grey Cup champions rallied for the stunning 36-32 victory.
“As sucky as it sounds, you’ve definitely got to learn from those experiences,” said Claybrooks, who was Calgary’s defensive coordinator for three seasons before joining the Lions. “I really feel bad for my guys because they’re working hard and putting in the time and they’re believing.”
Claybrooks said Bethel-Thompson brings a different element to Toronto’s offence.
“Franklin’s a little bit more mobile while Bethel-Thompson is a good pocket passer, he sees it,” Claybrooks said. “So you really got to play them straight up because they can both make any throw.
“We understand who the quarterback is but the system’s going to be the system. Jacques (Argos offensive co-ordinator Jacques Chapdelaine) trusts and believes in the system. The plays are going to be the same, the reads are going to be the same so it’s really about understanding the concept, where they like to read and go with the ball.”
Rival coaches
It’s been a rough start for the head coaches. Claybrooks is 0-3 in his first CFL head-coaching tenure after a successful run as Calgary’s defensive co-ordinator. Chamblin is 0-2 in his first season with Toronto but won a Grey Cup with Saskatchewan as the head coach in 2013.
Reilly milestone
Reilly will become the 26th player in CFL history to start 100 regular-season games at quarterback since 1950. Reilly sports a 54-45 career record but is just 3-6 versus Toronto.
Brotherly love
Twins Jordan and Justin Herdman-Reed will be on opposite ends of the field. Jordan is a linebacker with the Lions while Justin is a linebacker with the Argos. The two were teammates at Simon Fraser before being drafted by their respective teams in 2017.
Kings to play series in Kitimat
Citizen staff
Junior hockey in northern B.C. will soon be cooking with gas – liquefied natural gas.
The BC Hockey League announced Thursday that their league would be piped into a neutral site arena for a special weekend of action in a community that doesn’t get to regularly watch hockey at the BCHL level, all thanks to a partnership with LNG Canada.
The new LNG Canada Road Show has the Prince George Spruce Kings front and centre of the action.
“This year’s LNG Canada BCHL Road Show will feature the defending Fred Page Cup Champion Prince George Spruce Kings and their Mainland Division rivals the Langley Rivermen playing a pair of games in the community of Kitimat,” said BCHL commissioner Chris Hebb.
The games will be held Feb. 15 and 16 at Kitimat’s Tamitik Arena.
Kitimat is the site of LNG Canada’s state of the art shipping facility for liquefied natural gas.
As part of the event, in conjunction with the Vancouver Canucks Alumni, the BCHL will also conduct a one-day youth hockey clinic for the Kitimat community that will involve on-ice activities as well as an autograph session with BCHL and Canucks alumni players.
“We are extremely excited to bring BCHL hockey to the community of Kitimat,” said Hebb. “This event is a great way for us to showcase our BCHL talent outside of our 17 local markets and reach hockey fans that might not be able to attend our games.”
The partnership with LNG Canada drills deeper than the Road Show weekend.
The two organizations also announced Thursday that the natural gas company, currently engaged in the largest private sector infrastructure investment in Canadian history, would also sign on as a BCHL Founding Partner.
Part of that includes a $2,500 scholarship each for the postsecondary education of 10 minor and BCHL players, again in partnership with the Canucks Alumni organization as well.
“We are pleased to support an initiative that brings communities together and encourages young people to be active,” said Susannah Pierce, director of corporate affairs with LNG Canada. “And because we believe that communities thrive when citizens volunteer their time, LNG Canada will also present the Volunteer of the Month Award, which we will award to a team or league volunteer that demonstrates dedication to their team, the league or the sport.”
PIERCE
Cycling’s new generation rides into Tour de France
Samuel PETREQUIN
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS — No matter who wins, this year’s Tour de France will see a changing of the guard.
And if the names of Wout Van Aert, Kasper Asgreen, Enric Mas or Caleb Ewan don’t ring a bell now, they might soon be on everybody’s lips.
In the absence of many stalwart riders who have stamped their mark on cycling’s marquee event in recent years, new faces will emerge this summer.
There is a long list of top riders missing the Tour, which starts on Saturday from Brussels with a 194.5 kilometre (120.8-mile) stage through Flanders and back to the Belgian capital, and that number includes:
• Four-time champion Chris Froome, who is missing out for the first time since 2011.
• 2018 runner-up Tom Dumoulin.
• Primoz Roglic, a fourth-place finisher last year.
• Former world champion Philippe Gilbert.
• Ace sprinters Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel and Fernando Gaviria.
The generational change is likely to be the most visible in the fight for the race leader’s yellow jersey, as 22-year-old Egan Bernal seems ready to take over from his leader at team Ineos, defending champion Geraint Thomas.
In the wake of an already successful season during which he won the Paris-Nice and Tour de Suisse weeklong races, Bernal has been elevated to a co-leader status after Froome, who also rides for Ineos, was ruled out because of a horrific crash last month.
Despite his lack of experience
– he will start his second Grand Tour – Bernal is showing an impressive maturity.
“I think you have a physical age and a mental age, but when you’re ready, you’re ready,” Ineos team boss Dave Brailsford said on Friday.
“He’s ready.”
Many former Tour winners including Eddy Merckx and Alberto Contador have picked Bernal as their favourite to win a race that features several grueling mountainous stages this year. They expect the diminutive Colombian
climber to grab the spotlight when the Tour reaches the high-altitude summits in the last 10 days of racing.
Before that, there will be many opportunities for the 33 riders making their first Tour appearance to show off their skills and challenge the supremacy of their elders – starting Saturday.
“We will see riders who dare to attack, who try their luck, riders who race in an old-fashioned way,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said.
The opening stage features two short climbs usually taken during the one-day classic Ronde van Vlaanderen and a stretch of cobblestones and also passes through Merckx’s childhood home. The day’s main difficulties come too early to have a real impact on the final result, though, and the stage is likely to end in a bunch sprint that could award the first yellow jersey to a Tour debutant.
“It is a stage that I can win and I know the team and I really want to win the first stage,” said Ewan, Australia’s new sprint sensation.
The 24-year-old Ewan, who rides for Belgian outfit Lotto-Soudal, is among an exciting group of competitors that will try to derail three-time world champion Peter Sagan’s ambition to claim a record seventh green jersey, which is awarded to the best sprinter.
A colourful character with a spectacular style of racing, Sagan has been the fastest man in the Tour peloton in recent years. Since 2012, he has failed to win the green jersey just once, when he was disqualified following a crash with Cavendish two years ago.
But Sagan has been struggling with form this season, boosting the hopes of younger rivals including Ewan, who already posted stage wins at the Giro and Spanish Vuelta.
“It’s a massive motivation for me that it’s in Brussels,” Ewan said.
“Obviously it’s never going to start in Australia so the next best thing would be to start in the home country of your team, and it’s pretty special my first stage is this one. If there was any stage I would pick to win this year, it would be this one, because it means the yellow jersey too.”
Among others riders ready to surge to the fore, Van Aert is certainly the most promising. A threetime cyclo-cross world champion, the 24-year-old from Belgium is riding his first Grand Tour this summer after claiming two stage wins – a sprint and a time trial – at the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine in June.
“Wout Van Aert is part of a terrific generation,” Prudhomme said.
“He won back-to-back stages at the Dauphine. He was formidable. I don’t know who will be wearing the yellow jersey on July 19, but I have an idea about the favourite of
the individual time trial scheduled that day.”
Van Aert’s versatility and physical skills make him dangerous on all grounds except the high mountains, although his lack of experience should limit his ambitions to a second-fiddle role in support of Jumbo-Visma team leader Dylan Groenewegen. The 26-year-old Dutch rider is another who has a good chance of being covered in yellow after Saturday’s opening stage. He claimed two stage wins last year and has 10 victories to his name in 2019. The Deceuninck-Quick-Step team is also bringing a pair of 24-year-old newcomers to the Tour – Mas and Asgreen. In his first full professional season, Asgreen won the time trial at the Danish championships and finished runner-up at the Ronde van Vlaanderen. He will ride in a domestique role for Mas, the runner-up at last year’s Vuelta.
Canadian rider Mike Woods excited for first crack at Tour de France
Neil DAVIDSON The Canadian Press
Canadian Mike Woods remembers grow ing up watching the Tour de France. Now the 32-year-old from Ottawa wants to give viewers back home something to cheer about.
Woods, in his first Tour de France, is aiming for a stage win.
“When I was watching the Tour back home, I’d get super-excited when I’d see a Canadian in the field,” Woods said Friday.
“I know that if I’m attacking and if I’m on camera in the front, I’m just going to get that much greater exposure to cycling in Canada, get more people excited about Canadians racing in the WorldTour.”
On the eve of Saturday’s start, Woods says the feedback from back home has been
“overwhelming.”
“We don’t have many Canadians in the (UCI) WorldTour but people still in Canada follow the Tour de France and when you have a Canadian in the field, they really gravitate towards that rider and want that rider to have success,” Woods said.
“I’m really feeling that love and that support. For me it’s something I’m really enjoying and cherishing. I don’t see it as a source of pressure but more just something to be grateful for.”
This is the fifth Grand Tour event for Woods, who has competed twice in both the Giro D’Italia and Spanish Vuelta.
The 106th edition of the Tour de France opens in Brussels to honour the 50th anniversary of the legendary Eddy Merckx’s first of five Tour victories.
Woods is riding for the American team
EF Education First, a strong outfit whose Tour roster also includes Colombian Rigoberto Uran and American Tejay van Garderen.
Uran, 32, was second in the 2017 Tour and has been runner-up at the Giro twice. He also won silver in the road race at the 2012 Olympics. Van Garderen, 30, has twice finished fifth at the Tour.
Uran already has 16 Grand Tour events under his belt, compared to 12 for van Garderen.
“With Rigoberto and Tejay, two superexperienced general classification riders of the Tour, it takes a lot of pressure off of me,” said Woods.
“I’m here to learn a bit from them but also try and help them out as we get to the later stages of the race.
“However, I’m also aiming to achieve some personal goals as well – one of those is to try and win a stage, particularly later on in the race.”
Woods is joined by fellow Canadian Hugo Houle, who rides for Kazakhstan’s Astana Pro Team. The 28-year-old from SaintePerpetue, Que., who won the individual time trial at the 2015 Pan American Games, is also competing in his first Tour de France after two runs in the Giro and one in the Vuelta.
Woods recalled one of his first races was against Houle at the now-defunct OBC Grand Prix in Ottawa.
“We’ve done the Olympics together. He’s been very helpful for me, a good resource, and I hope I’ve been able to help him out a bit as well. He crashed at my place in Girona (Spain) at the start of the season.
“We’re just good buddies. And it’s going to be really fun doing our first Tour together – obviously on different teams but we’ll certainly, when things are calm, find the time to chat at the back of the peleton.”
In 2018, Woods won a stage in the Vuelta, was the first Canadian to climb the podium at the historic Liege-Bastogne-Liege oneday classic and finished third at the world championship road race.
The milestone Vuelta stage win, after a gruelling climb, was emotional – coming a few months after unborn son Hunter died suddenly at 37 weeks old.
When it comes to racing, Woods thrives under the most difficult of circumstances.
“I always say I’m really good at slow speeds,” he explained.
“Like whenever the average speed of the race is diminished, I’m always good – not because we’re riding easy but because the terrain is just so hard that we’re going over these lumpy steep climbs that really kill our speed.”
A former elite distance runner at the University of Michigan, Woods switched to cycling due to a recurrent stress fracture in his foot. His last track comeback ended with another break in 2011. He spent three years as a pro on the North American circuit before earning a WorldTour contract following a breakthrough secondplace finish at the 2015 Tour of Utah. Like most riders, he has endured his share of injuries and ailments.
Last month, he was doing well at the Criterium du Dauphine but eventually had to withdraw after coming down with a gastrointestinal problem. In 2016, he crashed at Liege-BastogneLiege, breaking his hand in three places and injuring his back. He still competed in the Olympic road race in Rio, finishing 55th despite throwing up in mid-competition. An early-season bout of rotavirus – he thinks it was a buffet in Dubai at the Tour of Abu Dhabi – sent Woods to hospital in early 2018. The Tour de France covers 3,460 kilometres and wraps up July 28 in Paris.
Third-place winner Michael Woods from Canada gives a thumbs up after last September’s men’s road race at the Road Cycling World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. Woods, in his first Tour, is aiming for a stage win.
AP PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHE ENA
Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang, foreground, rides with teammates during a training session in Brussels on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s start of the race.
Raonic lone Canadian left in singles Wimbledon
Stephanie MYLES
The Canadian Press
WIMBLEDON, England — As Friday dawned on the All-England Club, the odds Canada could have two men in the singles roundof-16 for the first time ever, and take part in the legendary Manic Monday at Wimbledon, seemed very good indeed.
Fifteenth seed Milos Raonic held up his end with an impressive 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-1 win over a taller, younger version of himself, sixfoot-11 American Reilly Opelka. But Felix Auger-Aliassime couldn’t seize the day against Ugo Humbert of France.
The 18-year-old fell 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and 10 minutes Friday evening against a player just two years older, who also was making his Wimbledon main draw debut this year.
After the match, a disconsolate Auger-Aliassime termed his performance “embarrassing.”
“I feel like the whole match was just tough. Maybe the first few games I started OK, but I just felt pretty bad out there,” Auger-Aliassime said.
“It’s weird to describe. But the pressure got to me,” he added. “He did what he had to do. He was just solid. But from my end it was pretty embarrassing.”
This is a new phase of AugerAliassime’s career, where he no longer comes in as the hunter, but has become the hunted.
He was the 19th seed at his first Wimbledon, despite never having won a singles match at a Grand Slam tournament so far in his
career. And he was playing his first professional season on grass.
But Auger-Aliassime was favoured against countryman Vasek Pospisil in the first round, and he pulled through. He was the heavy favourite against French qualifier Corentin Moutet in the second round, and he got through that one as well.
But against Humbert, a wiry lefty he has practised with before, he came onto the new, expanded No. 1 Court with his nerves on the fine edge of frayed. And even though he served for the second set, the nerves never settled down.
“A lot of things went wrong
today. I didn’t have the right state of mind. I felt a little empty - not physically. But I couldn’t find solutions. I didn’t know what to play. It was all very complicated. You don’t know where to go, what to do. It was one of those days.”
So Humbert, not Auger-Aliassime, will have a date on “Manic Monday” with No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, on famed Centre Court.
For Raonic, a decade older, making the second week of Wimbledon is very much a comfort zone. He has done it five of the last six years; the only exception was when he was ousted by an in-form Nick Kyrgios in the third
round in 2015. As it happens, had Raonic won that match, that Wimbledon milestone would have been reached that year as Pospisil ended up reaching the quarterfinals.
Also in 2015, 17-year-old Opelka won the junior boys’ singles title.
But it took him four more years to make his main-draw singles debut. The American is sponsored by the same clothing manufacturer as Raonic; the Canadian knows him well and has followed his progress.
“He can make anybody uncomfortable because he can take the
racket out of their hand. So obviously, for him, consistency is going to be the most important thing. And obviously health,” Raonic said. Both players served over 135 miles per hour regularly. The difference was that while Opelka could barely get a look at the return on Raonic’s first serve, the Canadian had much more success on Opelka’s big delivery.
Raonic returned to the practice court after the match to hit for 10 minutes with coach Fabrice Santoro – just to get a little rhythm back in his groundstrokes after the battle of big servers.
While Auger-Aliassime heads home after what was, overall, a highly successful debut season on the grass, Raonic will face No. 26 seed Guido Pella on Monday.
The 29-year-old left-hander from Argentina is having his bestever Wimbledon in only his fourth career trip.
Pella upset 2018 semifinalist and No. 4 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Monday. So he’ll come in having had recent experience against another very powerful server.
In women’s doubles secondround play, the fourth-seeded team of Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and China’s Yifan Xu beat Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine and Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-2, 6-1.
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil and Australia’s Matthew Ebden were beaten 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (3) by Joe Salisbury of Great Britain and Rajeev Ram of the U.S. in their second-round men’s doubles match.
- With files from The Associated Press.
Ball boys and ball girls keep play flowing at Wimbledon
Chris LEHOURITES The Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England — Like a blue streak, they scamper across the green grass of Wimbledon as fast as they can, gobbling up tennis balls one after another.
They also stand at attention, hands behind their backs, in the corners of the court, patiently waiting for a player to beckon for a towel.
The “they” are the ball boys and ball girls at the All England Club, the ones in the blue Ralph Lauren shirts and shorts (and hats) who keep Wimbledon matches flowing by chasing down all those fluorescent yellow Slazengers so the players can get back to work as quickly as possible.
“You’re constantly running for the whole hour,” said Michal Saladziak, a 15-year-old ball boy from London working at Wimbledon for the second year in a row.
“It can get quite difficult.”
The ball kids, about 250 of them separated into 42 teams of six at this year’s tournament, go through a grueling process for selection – first at their schools and later by the club. And then there’s the training, making sure they are fit enough to take onehour turns on a court.
The hope, of course, is that they won’t make any mistakes.
“We’re very much in the background,” said Sarah Goldson, the director of the ball boys and ball girls at Wimbledon.
They certainly are noticeable, though. Almost every bad serve sends one of them scurrying somewhere. Almost every change of service sees them rolling those feltcovered orbs from one end of the court to the other. And almost every stoppage sees
one reaching for a towel to hand over to a sweaty player. It’s work, but lots of kids wish they could get, even if there are some small drawbacks.
“Some of my friends didn’t make it,” said Ben Couzens, a 15-year-old ball boy from Surrey, England, who is new to the tournament this year.
“We’re not allowed to talk (on court), which was the hardest part for me. Can’t let your concentration down.”
Besides training for fitness, the kids who make the cut – approximately half of them
(4). Milos Raonic (15), Thornhill, Ont., def. Reilly Opelka, United States, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-1. Roberto Bautista-Agut (23), Spain, def. Karen Khachanov (10), Russia, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Benoit Paire (28), France, def. Jiri Vesely, Czech Republic, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (2). Fernando Verdasco, Spain, def. Thomas Fabbiano, Italy, 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-4. Singles - Third Round Elina Svitolina (8), Ukraine, def. Maria Sakkari (31), Greece, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2. Petra Martic (24), Croatia, def. Danielle Rose Collins,
are girls – also have to pass a test of tennis knowledge. Knowing that players get two serves per point, or more if one hits the net and still lands in, is important because the ball kids need to be ready to toss over replacements.
They also need to know what to do when things go awry.
“We’ve been told to take initiative,” Saladziak said. “If something unexpected happens, you just have to react to it.”
The average age for the ball boys and ball girls is 15, and they are tennis fans, too, so
United States, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Karolina Muchova, Czech Republic, def. Anett Kontaveit (20), Estonia, 7-6 (7), 6-3. Karolina Pliskova (3), Czech Republic, def. Su-Wei Hsieh (28), Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Simona Halep (7), Romania, def. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 6-3, 6-1. Shuai Zhang, China, def. Caroline Wozniacki (14), Denmark, 6-4, 6-2. Cori Gauff, United States, def. Polona Hercog, Slovenia, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5. Dayana Yastremska, Ukraine, def. Viktorija Golubic, Switzerland, 7-5, 6-3. Doubles - First Round Ivan Dodig, Croatia and Filip Polasek, Slovakia, def. Jamie Murray, Britain and Neal Skupski (10), Britain, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Second Round Lukasz Kubot, Poland and Marcelo Melo (1), Brazil, def. Matt Reid, Australia and Alex de Minaur, Australia, 6-7 (11), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (10). Nicolas Mahut, France and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (11), France, def. Leonardo Mayer, Argentina and Joao Sousa, Portugal, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. Aisam Qureshi, Pakistan and Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico, def. Bruno Soares, Brazil and Mate Pavic (4), Croatia, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4. Henri Kontinen, Finland and John Peers (8), Australia, def. Robert Lindstedt, Sweden and Tim Puetz, Germany, 4-6, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (9), 6-3, 6-4. Rajeev Ram, United States and Joe Salisbury (12), Britain, def. Matthew Ebden, Australia and Vasek Pospisil, Vernon, B.C., 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (3). Frederik Nielsen, Denmark and Robin Haase (16), Netherlands, def. Ken Skupski, Britain and JohnPatrick Smith, Australia, 7-6 (14), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2). Michael Venus, New Zealand and Raven Klaasen (3), South Africa, def. Lleyton Hewitt, Australia and Jordan Thompson, Australia, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Horia Tecau, Romania and Jean-Julien Rojer (5), Netherlands, def. Fabrice Martin, France and Hugo Nys, France, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Robert Farah, Colombia and Juan Sebastian Cabal (2), Colombia, def. Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan and Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. Marcelo Demoliner, Brazil and Divij Sharan, India, def. Sander Gille, Belgium and Joran Vliegen, Belgium, 7-6 (1), 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Doubles - Second Round Abigail Spears, United States and Nadiia Kichenok, Ukraine, def. Kirsten Flipkens, Belgium and Johanna Larsson (12), Sweden, 6-3, 6-3. Kveta Peschke, Czech Republic and Nicole Melichar (7), United States, def. Desirae Krawczyk, United States and Giuliana Olmos, Mexico, 6-4, 6-4. Latisha Chan, Chinese Taipei and Hao-Ching Chan (9), Chinese Taipei, def. Alison van Uytvanck, Belgium and Greet Minnen, Belgium, 6-2, 6-1. Elise Mertens, Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka (6), Belarus, def. Aleksandra Krunic, Serbia and Shuko Aoyama, Japan, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4. Saisai Zheng, China and Ying-Ying Duan (13), China, def. Renata Voracova, Czech Republic and Makoto Ninomiya, Japan, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
seeing their favourite players up close is definitely one of the highlights.
Katie Compton, a 15-year-old ball girl from London, is eagerly anticipating the moment when she encounters eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.
“I’m still waiting to get a glimpse,” said Compton, who is back at Wimbledon for the second time.
“I haven’t seen him yet, but hopefully.” Federer surely knows what she is going through. He was a ball boy as a kid growing up in Switzerland at the Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel.
“I remember being in their shoes and me walking out (for the trophy ceremony) with my friends at the time. I did it for two years,” Federer said.
“Then I give them all a medal, thank them for their efforts. I feel like I’m looking at myself in some ways.”
The ball kids at Wimbledon who spoke to The Associated Press didn’t have any horror stories about rude players. Or maybe they were just too shy to mention anything.
“Some people are nicer,” Couzens said, “depending on whether they’re winning or losing.”
Not all the ball kids at Wimbledon get the opportunity to toil on the soil of the biggest courts, however. Goldson said there are six teams that work Centre Court and No. 1 Court, the two biggest stadiums on the grounds. And all the ball boys and ball girls are assessed constantly throughout the fortnight.
The dream, though, is obvious.
“The ultimate goal,” Saladziak said, before Couzens finished his sentence, “is to do the final.”
Yifan Xu, China and Gabriela Dabrowski (4), Ottawa, def. Arina Rodionova, Australia and Kateryna Kozlova, Ukraine, 6-2, 6-1. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Germany and Demi Schuurs (8), Netherlands, def. Alicja Rosolska, Poland and Astra Sharma, Australia, 6-3, 6-0. Barbora Krejcikova, Czech Republic and Katerina Siniakova (2), Czech Republic, def. Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine and Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Belarus, 4-1, ret. Mixed Doubles First Round Denys Molchanov, Ukraine and Galina Voskoboeva, Kazakhstan, def. Jurgen Melzer, Austria and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, 7-6 (6), 1-6, 6-4. Matwe Middelkoop, Netherlands and Zhaoxuan Yang, China, def. Naomi Broady, Britain and Jonny O Mara, Britain, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Marcus Daniell, New Zealand and Jennifer Brady, United States, def. Nick Kyrgios, Australia and Desirae Krawczyk, United States, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-5. Henri Kontinen, Finland and Heather Watson, Britain, def. Marcelo Demoliner, Brazil and Abigail Spears, United States, 6-3, 6-2. Venus Williams, United States and Frances Tiafoe, United States, def. Scott Clayton, Britain and Sarah Beth Grey, Britain, 6-2, 6-3. Shuko Aoyama, Japan and Christopher Rungkat, Indonesia, def. Nicolas Mahut, France and Alize Cornet, France, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. Philipp Oswald, Austria and Monique Adamczak, Australia, def. Kevin Krawietz, Germany and Sabrina Santamaria, United States, 7-5, 6-2. Artem Sitak, New Zealand and Laura Siegemund, Germany, def. Ken Skupski, Britain and Darija Jurak, Croatia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, United States and Jamie Murray, Britain, def. Katy Dunne, Britain and Joe Salisbury, Britain, 7-5, 7-6 (8). Su-Wei Hsieh, Chinese Taipei and Cheng-Peng Hsieh, Chinese Taipei, def. Miyu Kato, Japan and Ben Mclachlan, Japan, 6-4, 6-4. Asia Muhammad, United States and Luke Bambridge, Britain, def. Rajeev Ram, United States and Alison Riske, United States, 6-3, 6-4. Eden Silva, Britain and Evan Hoyt, Britain, def. Leander Paes, India and Samantha Stosur, Australia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Saisai
CP PHOTO BY KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH
Canada’s Milos Raonic returns to Netherland’s Robin Haase in a men’s singles match during day three of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Wednesday.
AP PHOTO BY BEN CURTIS
A ball boy and ball girl collect the new balls in a Men’s singles match between South Africa’s Kevin Anderson and Argentina’s Guido Pella during day five of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Friday.
Serial murderer careful to a fault
The Washington Post
The serial killer’s Achilles’ heel is the very thing that makes him so fascinating: his urge to repeat himself. He either stages his murders as rituals, thus providing clues to why he is enraged with the world, or he falls into patterns, because devising a new modus operandi for each killing calls for unsustainable levels of creativity and flexibility.
But what if a serial killer has enough wits and self-control to fashion an amorphous M.O.? What if he reads and learns from FBI profiles of fiends like himself and from fiction such as The Silence of the Lambs? What if the very serialism of his “work” escapes notice? And what if he defies the stereotype of serial killers as sullen loners by being a family man?
All these exceptions were true of Israel Keyes, the subject of Maureen Callahan’s riveting book. Keyes had something else going for him: he barely left a trace. “No property records,” Callahan writes. “No documentation of parents or siblings. No address history, no gun licenses, no academic transcripts... He had left nearly no digital footprints, no paper trail – and this was a guy with an unusual name.” Keyes had never even applied for a Social Security card, though he had done military service. Callahan, an investigative journalist, begins her narrative with the murder that spelled the beginning of the end for Keyes. In February 2012, a high school senior named Samantha Koenig went missing from the kiosk where she worked as a barista in Anchorage. A security-camera video showed her leaving with an unknown adult male. But the transaction looked so ordinary that at first the cops wondered whether the girl hadn’t “staged [her own] abduction, and the man in the video was her accomplice.” The man had shown so little of himself to the camera that “tall and athletic” was as much of a description as could be gleaned. (Koenig’s sang-froid may have been an act she put on to keep her abductor calm.) The first break in the case came when someone began using Koenig’s ATM card to make cash withdrawals in Texas. Then an alert small-town Texas cop reported seeing a car parked near an ATM at 2:23 a.m. Callahan hones in on the nerve-racking moment when a highway patrolman spotted the same make and color of car only to realize he lacked probable cause to pull it over. “Find a reason,” the cop’s superior insisted over the radio. He did: the driver barely exceeded the speed limit but that was enough. At the wheel of the stopped car was Israel Keyes. Kidnapping is a federal crime and the FBI had been directing the case from Anchorage. Taken there, Keyes admitted to killing Koenig and to having done this sort of thing before, though how often and who his victims were he wouldn’t say. He was able to take charge of his own interrogation, largely because of what Callahan sees as the ineptitude of a lawyer from the U.S. attorney’s office in Anchorage who insisted on being the alpha questioner only to commit one blunder after another. Most damagingly, the bumbling lawyer failed to give the right impression: make the suspect think you already know far more about him and his actions than you actually do. Nonetheless, the other interrogators pieced together how Keyes got away with so many murders. He wasn’t picky. With the exception of young children, whom Keyes claimed to have left alone, he would just as soon target a portly middle-aged couple as he would a young woman such as Koenig. This randomness, along with Keyes’ vanishingly low profile, enabled him to kill undetected for years. Nor was Keyes trying to make a point about his victims’ pasts or sexuality or any other personal characteristic, Callahan deduces after listening to tapes of his interrogation. He was after power and sick thrills. “When Keyes took people,” she writes, “he was acutely attuned to their animal response: the acid flush of adrenaline flooding the brain, colour draining from the faces, pupils dilating in fear. He could smell it in their sweat. He liked to extend that response as long as possible.” He also got kicks from watching TV news clips about his murders and commenting on them (anonymously) online. He gloried in his superiority to the police. Keyes had been raised in a fundamentalist sect, home-schooled and surrounded by guns. As a child, he exhibited the behavior that seems to be a common denominator among adult serial killers: a lust for torturing animals. So how did the grown-up Keyes get caught? Callahan suggests that it was only because he wanted to be, that he made the rookie mistake of repeatedly using Koenig’s ATM card because it was time for his brilliance to be recognized. But we’ll never really know: Keyes committed suicide while in police custody awaiting trial for Koenig’s murder. American Predator is a fine book – exhaustively researched and candid without being prurient – that should be as illuminating to law-enforcement as it is fascinating to the general reader. If only there were some way to keep it from being read by would-be serial killers.
WASHINGTON POST/HANDOUT IMAGE
Maureen Callahan studies Israel Keyes in her new book, American Predator.
An unruly family in constant crisis
Jane SMILEY Special to The Washington Post
The first thing that struck me when I was reading Claire Lombardo’s novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had was that when the parents of the family, Marilyn and David Sorenson, first get together, they are living on Davenport Street, in Iowa City, right about the time when I was living up the hill, on Washington. I might have passed them downtown, on Clinton Street, or sat across from them at the Mill Restaurant, where my boyfriend worked as a bartender and a singer. That is how straightforward and realistic Lombardo’s depiction of her characters is – you could eavesdrop on them or look into their windows, and this is, in many ways, Lombardo’s singular achievement in her debut novel. Her depiction of how her characters talk, how they relate, how they form their family is so precise that you must believe in them, and you must also be interested in them (which is a good thing, because 532 pages is a lot to get through).
In 2016, Marilyn and David have four daughters, all grown, and two grandsons. Not everything is perfect, but daily events seem normal and manageable. And then there is the sudden appearance of a secret child, Jonah, age 15, the son of the Marilyn and David’s apparently well-behaved second daughter, Violet, who is happily married to Matt, has two young boys and is dedicated to organizing their childhoods perfectly. The only person other than Violet who knows of Jonah’s existence is the eldest daughter, Wendy, who was present at his birth. Jonah had been put up for adoption, but his adoptive parents died in a car crash when the boy was four, and he has since moved from foster home to foster home. It is up to the Sorensons to take him in, and not all of them are in favor of doing so (if they were my neighbours in Lake Forest, outside of Chicago, I would now be shaking my head in disbelief).
Lombardo jumps around from character to character, which can be a little confusing. Her favourite is Wendy, a onetime rebel who still addresses all of her relatives sarcastically, who still is isolated, who still is irritable, but who has an underlying impulse toward kindness. The most appealing character is Jonah himself, who is amusing and observant but also a believable teen who can’t avoid trouble. David Sorenson is a doctor. Marilyn is a stay-at-home mother, the girl who was in college and got pregnant by mistake, who sometimes regrets that she gave up the education she had intended to get.
Lombardo is intent upon exploring as much as she can about the Sorensons’ lives – the chapters alternate between present and past. Various dramas play out over the year (the sections are titled Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter); others are explored retrospectively, beginning in 1975.
The upside of this is that Lombardo’s sense of drama is evocative and riveting. When she means to shock or frighten the reader, she does. One of her techniques is almost continuous dialogue, and the Sorensons aren’t typical reticent Midwesterners. Perhaps the daughters, as millennials, simply assume that constant use of the work “f---” is standard, and perhaps the family shares an edgy sense of humour that others read as hostility. But the downside of one crisis after another is that the reader might recoil from the onslaught – there never seems to be a time, over 40 years or so, when life just moves along in an ordinary way. Even Marilyn and David’s apparent, steady love for one another isn’t peaceful. If we had been neighbours, I would have been sincerely afraid of one of my children marrying into this family.
A novel has to have a plot and a few mysteries the narrative must build toward. Lombardo’s are mysteries of character – what did it feel like for Violet to have that child, and for Wendy to be the one to hold it and then give it up? Why is Wendy living by herself? Who was that colleague that David found himself attracted to, and what was the nature of the attraction? How will Liza, the third daughter, deal with her depressed husband and her pregnancy? Will Marilyn and David find out Gracie’s secret (Gracie is the youngest of the four girls by half a generation, observant and somewhat spoiled), and when will her mother stop calling her “Goose”?
The mystery is not whether the members of this family will finally connect, but how. Perhaps the clue is that at one point, Jonah reflects: “If this family had taught him anything it was that people could get mad at each other and then make up again.”
The Most Fun We Ever Had is an ambitious and brilliantly written first novel, sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, but its unrelenting nature and lack of context is off-putting. The Sorensons seem to live in Iowa City and Lake Forest without being aware of their surroundings. If they were my neighbours, I would suggest they get out of the house and take a walk around the neighbourhood. If they saw the bigger picture, they might be able to relax. — Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer in 1992.
WASHINGTON POST HANDOUT IMAGE
The Most Fun We Ever Had is Claire Lombardo’s debut novel.
Country museum unveils Musgraves exhibit
The Associated Press
Kacey Musgraves’ career has been moving and changing fast over the last couple of years, leaving little time for reflection until she saw her life chronicled behind museum glass.
Musgraves is the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum that opens Tuesday and runs through June 2020.
The exhibit follows the critically acclaimed Golden Hour in 2018 that earned Musgraves four Grammys this year including country album of the year and album of the year, beating fellow nominees Drake, Cardi B and Brandi Carlile.
“I think a lot of people that night were like, ‘Who is this girl?”’ Musgraves said. “Which is a funny conundrum to be winning album of the year, and to have people saying, ‘Who are you?’ But in a way, I kind of love that.”
The exhibit called Kacey Musgraves: All of the Colors comes as the 30-year-old Texas singer has blossomed into a cross-genre star whose emotional and clever lyrics and inventive style, blending country with electronic, disco and spacey pop sounds has earned her plenty of new fans.
“Too often I can just speed onto the next thing without really soaking in what just happened,” Musgraves told The Associated Press after seeing her memorabilia on display for the first time Monday evening. “It really did hit me in an emotional way and I didn’t think it would.”
The exhibit starts with photos of Musgraves as a child performer singing and yodeling classic Western songs and dressed in jeans and cowboy hats, through her early years in Nashville as a songwriter penning songs with Miranda Lambert and to her Grammy-winning major-label debut album in 2013, Same Trailer, Different Park.
Early in her career, Musgraves established herself as a unique artist willing to challenge radio programmers with songs like Merry Go ‘Round – which won a Grammy award for best country song in 2014 – and Follow Your Arrow, song of the year winner at the 2014 Country Music Association Awards.
Musgraves has also become one of modern country music’s new
style icons, mixing country and Western embellishments into her red carpet outfits, stage wear and music videos.
The exhibit features a rhinestone studded dress designed by Enrique Urbina for the 2014 Grammys and a Western-inspired black pantsuit designed by Atelier Versace that she wore at the 2018 CMA Awards.
The exhibit has her Moschino Barbie-inspired pink leather outfit complete with a blonde wig from the 2019 Met Gala that Jeremy Scott helped design.
“I didn’t grow up with anything designer ever, not once. Nothing luxurious like that of any kind,” Musgraves said. “There’s also this
other side of me that is like really enthralled with all of that.”
Musgraves’ stylist Erica Cloud said the singer’s style is a mix of nostalgia and playfulness.
“Kacey’s style is unique because she stays grounded in her roots and is classic but we add playful, elevated elements to keep it current,” Cloud said in a statement.
“She’s nostalgia with a modern twist. She’s relatable meets aspirational.”
Lyrics that she wrote with Lambert, Shane McAnally, Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian are interspersed between the awards and outfits, alongside a letter she wrote to one of her songwriting heroes, John Prine.
“I love that you can pretty much dress anyway you want, but if you strip it away and there are real songs there, that’s what matters to me,” Musgraves said.
Even though Golden Hour won album of the year at both the CMAs and the ACM Awards, country radio programmers haven’t been spinning her songs much, though she’s been getting more airtime on Americana and adult contemporary radio. Musgraves said she’s not measuring her success by any one format.
“I am very grateful for radio kicking off my career and giving Merry Go Round a chance when a lot of people said it wouldn’t work,” Musgraves said. “And
beyond that, you know, all I can do is make the music that I love, put it out there. And the fans are amazing with spreading it, giving it wings.”
She recently bought a house with husband and fellow singer Ruston Kelly, although she hasn’t been home much. She travelled the world last year opening for Harry Styles, headlined her own European tour and will be on tour in the United States through September. And she’s still writing out the next steps of her story after Golden Hour.
“That’s what I want to figure out,” Musgraves said. “Like what’s the next thing going to sound like?”
Face recognition next form of secure travel ID
Bloomberg
The global travel industry is looking to replace your paper tickets and security documents with your biometric data in an effort to ease gridlock.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N.’s aviation body, met last week in Montreal to discuss ways to bridge the gulf between physical and digital travel documents.
At least 53 biometric systems are used by the industry for everything from airline boarding to hotel check-in, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
Each is typically unique to a particular venue. British Airways’ boarding gates in New York, Los Angeles, London and Orlando, for instance, use facial recognition, while Clear, a New York-based private security screening company, uses iris and fingerprint scans to move passengers through security checks. The current lack of global standards frustrates achievement of a seamless journey from airport curb to destination city.
“Right now it’s very fragmented,” said Gloria Guevara, the council’s president and chief executive officer. “We need to make sure that there is some interoperability among these different models.”
Reducing travel friction and increasing security is critical for the industry, which is expecting passenger growth from 4.6 billion this year to 8.2 billion in 2037-a surge that current methods will be unable to handle, Guevara said.
Beyond biometric security measures, airlines are working on new data standards for traveler records, called One ID, to “liberate the industry from a century of accumulated legacies,” Alexandre de Juniac, chief
executive officer of the airlines’ global trade group, the International Air Transport Association, said last week.
“With One ID, passengers will no longer be subject to repetitive document checks from check-in to the departure gate,” said de Juniac while addressing a crowd in Athens at a symposium on aviation data. “Air
travelers have told us that they are willing to share personal information if it removes some of the hassle from air travel, as long as that information is kept secure and not misused.”
Passengers have, in the past, expressed concerns about their privacy when asked to share biometric data.
On Wednesday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency in the U.S. government’s executive branch, said it would review benefits and privacy concerns arising from biometric tech use in aviation.
Through a spokesperson, the agency declined to comment on the issue but noted it’s at an early stage of its research. For biometric traveling to gain acceptance, it will need to allow people to opt for a “single-journey token” for personal data that would be saved and used for a single trip, Guevara said. “When you hear [passenger privacy] concerns, that’s because they don’t see the benefit,” she said.
Last week, Delta Air Lines said it would expand facial-recognition boarding for international flights at 49 gates at its Atlanta, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City hubs. The carrier has been using the tech since last fall in Atlanta’s Terminal F and claims 72 per cent of surveyed passengers prefer facial recognition to standard boarding.
Delta and JetBlue Airways Corp. began experimenting with biometric data two years ago; American Airlines Group Inc. started tests with such boarding in Los Angeles in December. British Airways says more than 250,000 customers “have experienced a glimpse of the journey of the future” by using their face to board at three U.S. airports and its London Heathrow base over the past 18 months.
Later this year, some airports and carriers will begin tests on the next step of this digital evolution: a complete travel experience from curb to destination, involving all travel documents and security screenings. Routes planned include London-Dallas, Amsterdam-Aruba and Dubai-Sydney, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
Where to get a great drink in New Orleans
The Washington Post
Across town in Central City, well away from the party atmosphere of the French Quarter, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans provides a more refined atmosphere in which to enjoy a Sazerac or a mint julep and learn about the signature dishes and drinks offered in the French Quarter. Operating since 2015 on the site of a former public market (its first home was in the Riverwalk mall), the museum not only covers Louisiana cuisine, and specialties such as gumbo and beignets,
but also the culinary traditions of 15 Southern states and Washington, D.C. The best part: visitors are allowed, encouraged even, to sip a perfectly executed cocktail from Toups South, the museum’s adjacent bar and restaurant, while checking out the displays. (A table is required to enjoy the sourdough biscuits, blood sausage cassoulet and other Cajun specialties on the menu.) Organized by state with pullout exhibits on chefs, Mardi Gras and other themes, it covers a wide swath of notable foods and drinks – hot sauce, Virginia
hams, sno-cones, Derby pie and the South’s many, many different takes on barbecue – through recipes, posters, menus and, of course, stories. The Washington exhibit offers presidential anecdotes, including one involving Thomas Jefferson and a gift of a four-foot-high block of cheese that may have ended up in the Potomac. For kids, there are nonelectronic interactive opportunities, such as a please-touch sign hanging below a table full of old kitchen gadgets, including egg beaters, sausage grinders and meringue cutters.
Country singer Kacey Musgraves looks over her new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn. on Monday. The exhibit opens Tuesday and runs through June 2020.
Clickety, clack, let’s look back
Tom Hanks and many others love collecting typewriters
The Associated Press
For most of us, the clickety clack of a manual typewriter – or the gentler tapping of the IBM Selectric – are but memories, if we’ve heard them at all.
But at the few remaining typewriter repair shops, business is booming as a younger generation discovers the joy of the feel and sound of the typewriter – and older generations admit they never fell out of love with it.
“What’s surprising to me is that the younger generation is taking a liking to typewriters again,” says Paul Schweitzer, 80, owner and operator of the Gramercy Typewriter Co., founded by his father in 1932.
He now works alongside his son, Jay Schweitzer, 50, and – this summer – a grandson, Jake.
Vintage typewriters are sent for repair and restoration daily from around the country, Schweitzer says.
Demand is so great that early this year, the family finally opened their own store, in New York City. Other surviving shops include Berkeley Typewriter and California Typewriter, both in Berkeley, California, and also founded in the 1930s.
Gramercy sold dozens of old typewriters over the holiday season, Schweitzer says.
Two recent documentaries, The Typewriter (In The 21st Century) (2012) and California Typewriter (2016), featuring collector Tom Hanks, have helped popularize vintage typewriters among young people, who also have a soft spot for other analog technologies like vinyl records and fountain pens.
At one time, Schweitzer says, there were six pages of typewriter repair listings in the New York City phone book (which also hardly exists anymore).
Schweitzer, who also services HP laser printers, still packs up his leather typewriter-repair bag and heads out on jobs at offices around the city, seeing to sticky keys and shredded ribbons.
But these days, he sees to just a handful of typewriters in any given office, as opposed to years ago, when he visited offices with as many as 700 typewriters, one at each desk.
“A lot of law firms and accounting firms still have typewriters in their offices. They have computers, too, but there are always times when typewriters come in handy,” he says.
They are convenient for smaller jobs, like addressing envelopes, and there are times you just want something done quickly and in triplicate.
Ellen Lupton, senior curator in contemporary design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, which has an array of typewriters in its collection, says, “There’s an irresistible tactility to typing on a typewriter, a satisfying sound, a feeling of authentic authorship. No one can spy on you and there are no distractions,” she says.
She notes that typewriters’ legacy can be seen in smart phone and computer keyboards.
The “shift” key, for instance, was originally meant to literally shift the position of a typewriter key, to a capital letter from a lower-case one.
The return key (or lever, on manual typewriters) originally returned the carriage into position for the next line.
“And we’re still stuck with the QWERTY keyboard – even on phones – which was supposedly designed to prevent keys from sticking together when someone is typing quickly,” Lupton says.
While early typewriters of the late 19th century were designed purely for function, “by the ‘20s and ‘30s they’d become quite stylish,” Lupton says.
“We have quite a few very stylish Italian typewriters in our collection. They’re very chic, with wonderful geometry and unusual lines. Olivetti was a big producer
of office equipment and they are really invested in design,” says Lupton. “Another reason for the appeal must surely be the beautiful and authentic appearance of a typewritten page.”
It’s common for typewriters to allow for typing in red and black, and to feature a “ribbon reverse” function to maximize use of the ink ribbon by running it in the opposite direction once it reaches the end of the spool.
And as with every tool, there are tricks to using a typewriter. To save on the number of keys, there is generally no number “1” on older keyboards (a lower case “L” suffices), and to make an exclamation point, a period is simply topped with an apostrophe. (The “cent” key seems decidedly quaint today.)
The American Writers Museum, in Chicago, features a popular section with seven manual typewriters and an electric typewriter that visitors can try out.
“Typing for the first time is exciting, especially for younger people,” says Carey Cranston, president of the museum, which now features an exhibit with 16 typewriters used by famous writers like Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou and John Lennon.
“With a pen or pencil you can distract yourself by doodling, and of course on a computer it’s easy to find distractions. But a typewriter was invented specifically for writing. There are no distractions. It’s just you and the page,” Cranston says.
Students who visited the museum on a field trip were so enamoured with the typewriters that they started their own typewriter club.
Cranston says he’ll never forget the reaction of one fifth-grader discovering typewriters for the first time.
“Wow, this is great! It’s an instant printer!” he exclaimed.
AP PHOTOS
Above, a vintage typewriter on display for use at the American Writers Museum in Chicago. Below, a working Smith-Corona typewriter from the 1950s, for sale at the Gramercy Typewriter Co. in New York.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Born in Saskatoon. SK May 28th, 1931 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 MacDonald. 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.
JACK BATEMAN LITTLE
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MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) — These
indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
Those bad words of business
IThe markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index ended a holiday week on a down note after gold prices fell from a six-year high and a strong U.S. jobs report undercut hopes of an interest rate cut this month. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 46.86 points at 16,541.99, partially rebounding after hitting an intraday low of 16,469.92.
U.S. markets resuming from the July 4 holiday fell from record highs as 224,000 jobs were added in June, beating expectations and suggesting that the economy is stronger than some have speculated. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 43.88 at 26,922.12. The S&P 500 index was down 5.41 points at 2,990.41, while the Nasdaq composite was down 8.44 points at 8,161.79. The stronger employment picture could convince the Federal Reserve that extra stimulus is not required from lower interest rates.
“Given the topsy-turvy bizarro world we live in today, good news is bad news I guess because then the rate cut isn’t priced in nearly as strongly,” said Les Stelmach, portfolio manager at Franklin Bissett Investment Management. Before the global financial crisis, the economy and interest rates moved in tandem so a good day for the economy was also good for the stock market, he said. Now, the stock market rises on bad news and falls on good signals because of the impact on central banks. North American markets increased in June on investor belief that a weakening global economy would get central banks to cut rates. Stelmach said the jobs report probably just delayed rate cuts. Eight of the 11 major sectors of the TSX were lower on Friday, led by a 1.12 per cent decrease by materials with First Quantum Minerals Ltd. dropping 2.65 per cent, followed by Teck Resources Ltd. and Barrick Gold Corp.
The August gold contract was down US$20.80 at US$1,400.10 an ounce and the September copper contract was down 2.2 cents at US$2.66 a pound.
The Canadian dollar traded for an average of 76.34 cents US compared with an average of 76.58 cents US on Thursday.
The August crude contract was up 17 cents at US$57.51 per barrel and the August natural gas contract was up 12.8 cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
IT’S ONLY MONEY
MARK RYAN
t’s as benign as nomenclature – or as lethal. It’s what action thrillers and real-life war crimes have in common. Create an enemy or enhance an actual one by fertilizing his sins with the potent tonic of storytelling. Then infantilize the victim (or victim group) until the contrast between the oppressed and the oppressor is so acute that it awakens (manipulatively) the powerful human instinct of compassion. Then the guttural outcome is violence.
Who didn’t fist-pump when (insert Clint Eastwood character here) kills the bad guy in a flurry of blows to the head? Repeat, bring to a simmer and wait for the revolution to rise.
As much as diehard communists decry corporate marketers, Marx is the father of doublespeak. I come from a long line of working class families. As a young worker, I’ve been variously a member of the IWA, the BCGEU and CUPE. These unions are filled with salty, honest working folks, many of whom I’d welcome to my backyard barbeque.
And since he is so willing to listen, I’m patient with my dear, leftleaning friend. He, with his three humanities degrees, is baffled by basic financial terminology. Conversely, I’m his grasshopper when he describes the goings on in his Lower Mainland school district where he is a pragmatic, but goodhearted administrator.
But I cringe when I witness the mob-like moralistic diatribes against free markets. Financial terms are synonyms for tyranny, when in reality they are tools for prosperity.
Big business: they suggest that
it’s the size that offends, not the concept. But why then do they have such an inherent trust in big unions or big government? Is there some sort of human purification system that filters out greed, abuse of power, selfishness, laziness, dishonesty, cronyism, favouritism, racism, sexism or other forms of corruption in the government or union setting? History doesn’t support that idea. Corporate profit: would you prefer corporate losses? Don’t be so Canadian. Buy shares. The one per cent: anyone in such an exclusive club must have cheated to get there. Give me some of your stuff. But on a global basis, according to Investopedia, earning more than $45,000 Canadian is in the top one per cent of earners worldwide. I guess we all cheated. Capitalism: The catch-all critique. The presupposed descriptor of pure inhumanity, defining the heartless machine-gods of commerce. On the way home from the protest, ride-sharing back to their condo, (carefully-chosen for its proximity to Walmart), in their next free minute, the protester pulls out his $1,200 smart phone and mumbles: “I hope my mutual
Lack of leadership leads to frustration and failure
Ilearned something about leadership last weekend that I had known for a long time but suddenly understood differently.
As the assistant coach of a sports team, our team had lost its first two games against teams it could have beaten. As coaches, we were frustrated because our players weren’t playing to their potential. Our players were discouraged, dejected and angry at themselves and each other.
We had at least two more games to play and I wasn’t sure how we would make it through. I wanted to go on the court and score myself or just throw in the towel but those options weren’t even remotely possible. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to sitting on the bench as our team was punished on the court for the next couple days. Something had to change.
We can see exactly the same thing happening in some organizations. We try to tell our team what we need to accomplish. We think we have taught them the basics of sales, customer service, production, finance, and yet when it comes to the day-to-day operations, our business falls short. We are getting beat up with calls from our suppliers, bankers, customers, or our boards of directors because we are failing in some aspect.
We think that if we could clone ourselves and do everything, that things would be better. We can’t understand why our team doesn’t get it, why they don’t just listen to us. Something needs to change, but what is it?
In 1985, I worked in a convenience store and gas station. The owner of the business had a list of the 15 employees posted up in the office on a page of paper, with the title Pecking Order. My name was about halfway down the pecking order.
If someone above me was working the same shift as I was, they were in charge of the store and could give me orders. Each shift we would check to see which worker was on top of the pecking order. Just like chickens in a barnyard who establish dominance based on pecking at others, we knew exactly who was in charge. The system worked.
Unfortunately in some organizations, teams and businesses, there is no established chain of leadership. Often, we as leaders, fail to give clear directions about who is in charge when we are not around.
funds are up today.”
Speculation: A few tech savvy youth might think their generation invented crowd-funding. Ooh, such disruptors! Nope. If you take venture capital financing, or even an initial public offering, and subtract the professional industry training, remove the regulatory oversight, and a wash away the well-developed legal framework, you have something like crowdfunding. Both involve speculation, which is a crucial element in any free economy, and a mystery to those who have not seriously swam in it. Speculation is vital to a healthy market. It is Keynes’s “animal spirits.” To speculate is to hire new employees, to rebuild your sawmill, to buy a new logging truck or even a house. Right brainers tend to lean left and are often opinion leaders. And all of them, the professors, union leaders and journalists are by nature, superior at story-telling – the life blood of culture. It’s difficult to ignore their compelling themes after a few decades. On the other hand, finance nerds usually write like tongue-tied zombies and successful entrepreneurs are often reclusive, so their stories are
BUSINESS COACH
DAVE FULLER
As a result, our people are confused. They start hearing different messages from different people, none of whom have clearly defined leadership roles and most often there are disagreements about who to follow. The outcome of this dysfunction is that disorganization, drama and frustration impedes our ability to achieve the defined goals.
As I was dwelling on our inability to get our team to win, I had a brainwave.
I realized that while our team had some great players, great plays and good athleticism, they were all playing as individuals or groups of two or three friends. To win games, we needed to play as a team. To succeed, the team needed a leader. We had never identified who that team leader was.
Walking up to our team the next day as they sat huddled in a group while other teams were playing, I asked one question. “Who wants to be the team leader today?”
Immediately, one of the players, Alex, put her hand up and said “I can do it, coach.”
We left Alex to do her job and skipped the pre-game meeting. As the team came to the bench, they were fired up, they had more energy and they seemed united in their cause.
We won that game and the next two as well. Under the direction of the team leader, the players became cohesive, focused and happier. For them, it wasn’t just some coaches who wanted them to win. They understood that together they could achieve their goals.
When we fail to provide clear direction regarding who is in charge or give the opportunity for our people to step up and become leaders, we are setting ourselves up for failure and frustration.
I learned something about leadership last weekend with our team, but as the author Doris Lessing says, “That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”
— Dave Fuller, MBA, is a certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Dave would like to learn from you, email so dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
garbled by their natures.
The entrepreneur’s reward for taking risk can be staggering. When this unbounded success is juxtaposed with these stories, it seems to nail the point home. Once they rise to the top, most business people retain their humanity, but some (not all of whom are named Donald) become vicious and cling to power. This pushes the point further.
Fictitious whoppers incessantly flow from Marxist nations, where administrations have no counter balance other than free-enterprise nations. But while the Marxists outlaw dissent, we embrace it as healthy political tension. As a result, a steady stream of criticism fills our minds at home, while mostly homogenous praise greets the left. Somehow, despite their stellar track records of fiscal ineptitude, we get the warm-fuzzies when the government takes over a segment of the economy. Those nice people are working for us. Like an over-exuberant hockey referee, governments – on the left (and right) over-estimate their importance in the economy. This crowds out business and gives a whole additional class of workers a skewed view of the source of wealth. Governments do not create wealth any more than the referee is the star of the hockey game. In the face of all this, it’s a wonder free enterprise can stay alive at all, but it does because it isn’t planned. There is not a society on earth that doesn’t gravitate to it without so much planning as waking up hungry in the morning. — Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Mark’s views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article.
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Demonstrators protest during a 2016 march in Berlin, Germany.
Pride in the name of love
CLERGY COMMENT
REV. DR. BOB K. FILLIER
TRINITY UNITED CHURCH
This is Pride week in Prince George. We raised the rainbow flag on Wednesday to celebrate our Pride in the full diversity and humanity of all people today with a parade and festival, along with many other events mixed in.
It seems normal and it happens every year, yet people still ask: “is it really necessary”; “why isn’t there a straight parade?”; and “how is Pride Christian?”
Let me be clear.
I’m a 40 something, white, middle-class, highly educated, ordained, straight person who identifies as male.
In many ways, I’m the epitome of entitlement and the beneficiary of hundreds of years of corrupt and oppressive social structures and policies.
I wrestle with the ways I’ve benefited from my white-straightmaleness simply because I was born that way.
Pride, in that sense, isn’t about me, or is it?
Let me be clear.
I’m an ally.
A colleague of mine reminded me recently that, “Pride isn’t for me. It isn’t just about my being comfortable in my own skin, with who I am, and how God made me. It’s about the person who is still in the closet. Who lives in fear of family, friends, society, church, school and work. It’s about saying you don’t have to deny who you are.” If that’s true, then Pride is as much about me as anyone because, as a follower of Jesus, I’m called to resist the structures that in anyway limit, diminish, or seek to eradicate the full diversity and humanity of people created in God’s image.
For me to be a follower of Jesus means I need to love all my neighbours as myself (Mt 22:37-40) without reservations or preconditions.
Jesus doesn’t say love your straight/common heritage/common ancestral/common language speaking/ common faith believing neighbour.
Jesus simply says love your neighbour.
Full stop.
Love them because God created them in the fullness of their humanity, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Apostle Paul pushes that further in Galatians 3:23-39 and states that there is nothing that divides us within the gospel’s ecosystem.
If God looked upon creation and said it was all God… then all really does need to mean all.
Not most, not some, not with qualifiers.
All.
Part of the challenge, of course, is that the Christian church has been (and some still are) complicit in the dehumanizing of people and the sin-a-fication of their humanity.
Conversion therapy is still a part of some religious groups.
The belief that you can “pray the gay away” still permeates the consciousness of some groups.
Phrases like “love the sinner, hate the sin” or “it’s ok to be gay, just don’t act on it” still echo in
some ‘hallowed’ halls.
All of that is true, yet it isn’t the only voice within the Christian Church.
There are those who affirm the fullness of everyone’s humanity and their right to live into it.
Homophobia has become the placating terminology of the oppressor and on this subject, I agree with Morgan Freeman.
“I hate the word homophobia,” he said. “It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared.”
People are a lot of other things, yet scared isn’t really one of them.
There is nothing in scripture that supports this rhetoric.
Seriously.
There isn’t.
Each text citation that is commonly used has been subject to significant interpretation and proof texting. Often taken out of context.
Often ignoring the original text, translation, and meaning. Jesus never says anything on the subject.
He does say lots of things about what we should do with our money, the treatment of the poor, imprisoned, sick, outcast, widowed, immigrant, neighbour, and orphaned.
I wonder what would happen if Christians paid more attention to what is said, rather than looking for statements that support hate, fear, segregation and humiliation.
Back to my original question, why is Pride important?
Because people need to know they don’t need to live in fear. Laws that allow conversion therapy need to be challenged and struck down.
Events like the anti-LGBTQ2SAI+ events in 2019 in Surrey
Parenting should focus on humility
The best parenting advice I know is found in a book that is not about parenting.
It is a book, however, about human nature, and it is necessarily true that if we do not understand human nature we cannot be good parents.
The advice is found in chapter nine, book three, of the Christian classic, Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis.
Lewis is writing about pride, “The Great Sin,” and he says this:
“Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy’s pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity – that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time,
CLERGY COMMENT
TIM SCHOUTEN
PRINCE GEORGE
CANADIAN REFORMED CHURCH
he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride – just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”
Although Lewis does not directly refer to parents here, what he says is very applicable to them.
Just as teachers may be tempted to appeal to a child’s pride to cure them of “simpler vices,” so parents may be tempted to do the same. If my observations are correct, some parents regularly indulge in this temptation
and therefore raise children who seem to believe that the sun shines out of their nose and that every opinion they happen to have is worth its weight in platinum.
Christian parents (including myself) are just as prone to this kind of child-rearing than other parents, and perhaps even more so.
Christian parents have a very vested interest in getting their children to “behave” and sometimes seem to aim at that behaviour at the cost of all else, even the risk of the dictatorship of pride.
It may be that these parents themselves are caught up in that same dictatorship, which is why they need their children to behave – because they think it reflects well on them.
There are many problems with using the method of pride to get our children to behave, as Lewis indicates, but there is one problem that transcends them all.
It is stated very clearly by the Apostle
and other parts of B.C. need to be challenged and labeled for what they are.
Our children and youth need to know that God made them who they are and loves who they are. They need to know that it does get better and that there are people who will support, nurture, and encourage them without any prejudice.
People need to know that institutions can change and the church can be a place that affirms, uplifts and nurtures the body, mind and soul.
Pride is important because without it, we’re not a rainbow of people, we’re just a monochromatic duplication of our own image.
I hope I see you at the festival or in the parade celebrating the Pride we all have in the rainbow of our common humanity.
James: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). The grace of God only extends to those who recognize their sins and know that they are needy.
As Jesus also said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
Of course, parents should not be harsh with their children, nor should they try to humble them by treating them like dirt. These are not better alternatives.
Instead, Christian parents, while unconditionally loving their children, should try to instill in them a deep sense of humility in constructive ways, including in their discipline.
Most importantly, they should do this with daily prayer for the wisdom and patience of God, which He has promised to give to those who ask.
Thousands took part in the 20th annual Prince George Pride Parade through downtown Prince George in July 2017.