Artist brings Red Dress Campaign home
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Heather Potts is a fibre artist who knows the power of a dress. The First Nations clothing designer specializes in the colours black and red.
After the final report was released from the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Potts felt moved to create. She was already well aware of the Red Dress Campaign (also known as the REDress Project), a visual touchstone across Canada that draws attention to the issue of too many female victims of violence. As someone who works with fabrics and fashions dresses, this billowed in her mind along with the personal grief she suffers.
It all blew out onto her front yard this week. Her Killarney Drive home is now a backdrop for a piece of public art, acting as a visual response.
“I have been thinking about this, turning it over in my mind, for quite some time,” she said, and even purchased a red dress she saw one day that had the elegance she was looking for to accomplish her artistic purpose. “It finally came to me. I put the red dress out on a stand I had for displaying clothing. I put it between two birch trees. One arm is outstretched, lifted up to the Creator. The Canadian flag is wrapped behind her because Trudeau said he would help. I’m taking him at his word. He has to respond. The Canadians have suffered, too, not just First Nations. It’s mostly First Nations victims, but not all, and it affects us all. We are all together in our suffering. We must be all together in solutions. I put all this out there, then lo and behold, I looked down and saw that it was all above some lily of the valley. Jesus has sometimes been symbolized by the lily of the valley, so I took that to mean Jesus was holding all of this up.”
The public art expression has a mental meaning to Potts as an Indigenous elder and longtime fibre artist, but it also has a
Heather Potts and the public art red
direct streak of pain that comes from her heart. Her niece Amber Potts-Jaffary was last seen in 1988 after a teenaged conflict with her parents. The Etobicoke teen flagged down a stranger for a ride, following a rebellious argument and was never again seen or heard of by her loved ones.
It happened right in the midst of a serial rapist spree in that same area that turned out to be perpetrated by Paul Bernardo. Was Potts-Jaffary one of this killer’s victims?
Or, as in the case of the Highway of Tears experience, it is possible there were mul-
Smithers-based gymnastics coach charged with sex offences against teen
Postmedia
A former Regina gymnastics coach has been charged with five sexual offences involving a then-teenaged gymnast over a six-year period in the early 2000s. Marcel L. Dubroy, now of Smithers, is charged with sexual exploitation in a position of trust, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual assault on a person under the age of 18 and sexual assault, according to a news release issued Tuesday by the Regina Police Service.
“It is not common practice for the Regina Police Service to include information about an accused person’s occupation but, in this case, the alleged offences are the result of the position of authority and trust held by the accused over the alleged victim during the years that he was her gymnastics coach, living and working in Regina,” police said in the release.
“The access to numerous young persons by virtue of a coaching position, combined with the nature of the alleged offences, prompted this decision to release information about the occupation of the accused.” Regina police first received the report of an alleged sexual assault in November, via the Ottawa Police Service, which was the agency that took the original report. The complainant, now a 30-year-
old woman, alleged her gymnastics coach had, over a period of years, committed sexual offences against her between Jan. 1, 2002 and April 30, 2008. Both Dubroy and the then-teenaged gymnast lived in Regina at the time of the alleged offences.
When Dubroy was interviewed by Regina Police Service, he was residing in Smithers and still coaching young athletes. In Feb. 2016, a Smithers newspaper ran a story about Dubroy returning to the club where he first started coaching. It mentions that Dubroy coached in Toronto and Vancouver in addition to Regina, where he was the long-time head coach at QCK Gymnastics.
As a result of their investigation, Regina police officers requested a warrant for Dubroy’s arrest. He was arrested without incident and subsequently charged.
Dubroy, a Gymnastics Saskatchewan competitive coach of the year in 2002, was provisionally suspended by Gymnastics Canada on May 21 for alleged code of ethics and conduct violations.
“This provisional suspension is made in conjunction with an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Regina Police Service for alleged activities while Mr. Dubroy was a coach in the province of Saskatchewan,” the organization said in a press release. “(Dubroy’s) membership is suspended nationwide and he may not coach in any provincially-affili-
ated member club across Canada.”
In a statement, Gymnastics Saskatchewan CEO Klara Klesmarky Miller said the organization is “deeply concerned about these allegations.
“The safety of all Gymnastics Saskatchewan members is our primary concern and we support Gymnastics Canada’s swift action to ensure that Mr. Dubroy is banned from all activities involving any gymnasts pending the outcome of the judicial process,” Miller said.
The release notes that people with concerns related to Dubroy are encouraged to contact their local police department immediately.
“There is no place for harassment, sexual misconduct or abuse of power in any gymnastics facility and we continue to work vigilantly to protect the safety of all our members,” Miller said.
Gymnastics Saskatchewan is “actively taking additional measures to ensure its members participate in safe environments, with the principal aim of of empowering its member clubs with the tools, knowledge and resources to protect children and youth from abuse,” the release said, adding that the organization is currently promoting policies and reporting/investigation systems that will be “critical to driving change.”
Dubroy is due to make his first appearance on these charges in Regina Provincial Court on July 17.
tiple predators at work.
“Both her father and her mother have passed on, now,” said Potts. “She has been heavy in my heart. She was so young when she went missing, and it has been more than 30 years now.”
— see ‘IT IS, page 3
Murder pleas entered in double homicide
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Two men have each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in relation to a drug-related double homicide.
Seaver Tye Miller and Joshua Steven West entered the pleas Monday during a B.C. Supreme Court hearing at the Prince George courthouse for the Jan. 26, 2017 shooting deaths of Thomas Burt Reed of Burns Lake and David Laurin Franks of Prince George.
On May 30, Aaron Ryan Moore pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal negligence causing death while Perry Andrew Charlie continues to face two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder with a firearm. A trial for Charlie is set to begin on July 2.
On the day of the incident, RCMP responded to an early-morning report of shots fired and found a vehicle off the side of the road near the intersection of Foothills Boulevard and North Nechako Road.
Reed and Franks were pronounced dead at the scene. A third victim, whose name has not been released, was also shot but survived.
Moore and West were arrested within the hour while Charlie was apprehended the next day. Following a flood of tips, Miller was apprehended 15 days after the shooting.
Prince George RCMP Supt. Warren Brown has said both the suspects and the victims were involved in the drug lifestyle “consistent with activities that could lead to gang involvement.”
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
City council gave final reading Monday night to bylaws to borrow a total $32.2 million for 11 projects with some acknowledging the opposition expressed during the alternate approval process.
Depending on the item, between and 2,756 and 2,967 electoral response forms were submitted in opposition – all well short of the 5,546 threshold to force council to either abandon a proposal or take it to a referendum.
But the counts were enough to prompt comment from council members.
As he had in February when the bylaws were advanced to that stage, Coun. Brian Skakun voted against six of the initiatives.
said and noted the borrowing comes on
top of a 4.7 per cent increase to the city’s property tax levy as well as $50 million worth of borrowing, approved during an October 2017 referendum, to build a new Four Seasons Pool and a new Fire Hall No. 1.
Coun. Terri McConnachie suggested a spate of cost overruns contributed to the opposition and indicated the city will need to do better to avoid similar trouble in the future.
“Even though the challenge failed, the message has been received,” McConnachie said.
Others said the outcome still shows a majority of the city’s voters remain in favour of borrowing the money to pursue the work.
are people who didn’t sign those for very good reasons,” said Coun. Murry Krause.
Mayor Lyn Hall said he refuses to ignore the city’s infrastructure needs and predicted the projects will be regarded as money well spent.
“I am convinced in a decade or 20 years from now, we will look back on this, or councillors of the day will look back on this, and I think there may be a bit of thank you, because we have addressed the problem and we haven’t kicked that can down the road,” Hall said.
Court to consider continuing injunction against LNG pipeline opponents
The Canadian Press
Coastal GasLink and opponents of the company’s natural gas pipeline are set to make arguments in British Columbia’s Supreme Court over whether an interim injunction should continue.
The natural gas company is building a pipeline from northeastern B.C. to LNG Canada’s export terminal in Kitimat on the coast.
Coastal GasLink says it has signed agreements with all 20 elected First Nations councils along the 670-kilometres route but hereditary chiefs in the Wet’suwet’en First Nation say the project has no authority without their consent.
The court granted the company an interim injunction in December against pipeline opponents and protests erupted around the world when RCMP enforced it in January, arresting 14 people along a logging road leading to the construction site near Houston, B.C.
An injunction hearing is scheduled for three days beginning today in Prince George and Coastal GasLink says the application would allow the directive to remain in place without a time limit, ensuring “continued safe and unimpeded access” to the site. Court documents filed on behalf of the opponents say the Wet’suwet’en have self-governed since before colonization and while the defendants admit to preventing access to certain vehicles and people in the traditional territory, they did so in accordance with Wet’suwet’en law.
Opponents built gates along the forest service road and a bridge, as well as accommodations and facilities, but deny that they were built for the purpose of creating a “blockade,” says a response to the civil claim filed this week with the court.
Wet’suwet’en law dictates that access can only be granted with permission from the relevant clan’s hereditary chief, it says.
“Coastal GasLink’s wilful disregard for Wet’suwet’en law and governance has led to their employees and contractors being denied entry,” it says.
“I understand the frustrations of the people that signed the forms,” Skakun
“We’ve heard from those who responded. Those who didn’t sign a response form sent a message too, there
According to a staff report, the estimated impact on the property tax levy of the 10 projects for which borrowing would be for 20 years will be 0.29 per cent in 2021, 0.32 per cent in 2022 and 1.31 per cent in 2023 when the largest of the projects, a $10.2 million upgrade of the Aquatic Centre, kicks in.
The company says in a statement that its project will deliver significant, long-term benefits for Indigenous and northern B.C. communities along its path and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by providing natural gas to replace coal burning in Asian markets.
“We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with all communities and have a shared interest in ensuring the safety of people, protection of the environment, and the continued progress of this critical infrastructure project,” Coastal GasLink says. Bylaws
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Rita Borkowsky and Grace Morrice stuff 288 welcome bags in the lobby of the Civic Centre for Confluences 2019 Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds Conference hosted by The Prince George Fibre Arts Guild. There are over 200 out of town delegates attending the conference from June 11th to 16th.
Council balks at expanding bus service
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
City council wants more information before deciding whether to put as much as $265,881 towards enhancing the city’s public transit service.
As part of a long-term strategy, a proposal to add 4,000 hours was presented on Monday night, complete with two options for allocating the time – to split the time evenly between peak and off-peak hours or devote it all to peak hours.
Splitting the time would require the addition of one bus and increase the cost by $190,851
per year while putting it all towards peak hours would mean three more buses and a hike of $265,881.
Staff and BC Transit recommended council endorse the more expensive of the two, which would allow for express services along the high-use routes during peak times.
The price tag raised alarm bells for Coun. Terri McConnachie.
“I think we’ve got a lot on our plate right now, our dance card’s pretty full,” she said.
“We’re looking at some capital projects. I always, always, always start at yes and work my way backwards and I think I just hit a
‘It is... an aesthetic response to this critical national issue’
— from page 1
The empty red dress represents the missing girl who would now be a woman in Potts’ life, just as the red dresses all across Canada in the national campaign represent the shocking numbers of missing and murdered women and girls, all too predominantly Indigenous.
The project began in 2014 in Winnipeg by Metis multimedia artist Jaime Black who asked for 600 red dresses be donated to her creative vision that involved them being placed in numerous public spaces around that city, and beyond.
“It is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to this critical national issue,” said Black, who sought to establish an unforgettable “visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with
MAKING IT RIGHT
In the “Relay For Life raises $325,000” story in Tuesday’s print edition, it was incorrectly reported that no one completed
us. Through the installation I hope to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.”
It was given nationwide life when it was taken on as an ongoing call to action by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Potts has given it its most personal and intimate voice here in Prince George. It was coincidental, said Potts, that the Prince George Fibre Arts Guild was hosting the Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds conference here in this city, opening on the same day as her unveiling of the red dress. Potts considered it a happy accident that underscores the power of fibre, fabric and fashion to make statements on life’s most important issues and concerns.
the entire 24 hours of the relay. Actually, 20 walkers accomplished that feat. Congratulations to those walkers for their incredible commitment.
stumbling block at this time.”
While McConnachie initially suggested it be brought back to council next year, she joined others in voting to refer the matter to the finance and audit committee to take a look at such possibilities as raising fares to offset the cost.
Coun. Murry Krause made it known he will oppose any move in that direction, noting that most of the ridership are people living on low incomes.
“I’ll just let everyone know at the outset, I will not support any fee increases,” he said. “If we can find another way to cover the cost, I’ll be supportive of that but I think at this juncture it would just be the
wrong thing to do.”
Coun. Garth Frizzell, who chairs the finance and audit committee, said the hike amounts to as much as a quarter per cent increase in the property tax levy.
BC Transit needs council’s decision by the end of this month to give it time to put in an order for the buses and submit the proposal to the provincial government for approval. Council will also have until the end of the month to decide whether to spend as much as $40,331 to extend the operating hours provide by the custom or HandyDART service to match those of the conventional service.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Shaw resolves service outage
An outage that struck Shaw customers on Tuesday has been resolved.
Service, which went down in the early afternoon, was restored by 9:17 p.m., the company said in an online posting. Fibre damage was the cause and meant repairs would take longer than expected, the company said in an earlier posting. The company also acknowledged the outage could have impacted customers’ ability to view the Toronto Raptors-Golden State Warriors basketball game.
The outage affected internet, television and home phone services for customers in Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake and surrounding areas.
— Citizen staff
Airport service roads closed for repaving
Two service roads on the grounds of Prince George Airport will be closed until September to make way for repaving.
Neither Altimeter Road nor Beacon Road are routes used by passengers or airline staff to access the airport terminal or parking and there will be no impact on flights, the Prince George Airport Authority added in a statement issued Tuesday.
However, the area is used by joggers and pet walkers who, for safety reasons, are requested to stay away during construction.
“Once barricades are down and the roads reopen, those users are welcome back,” PGAA said. Closure of the arrivals area door was delayed by a day. Work on upgrading the sidewalk and constructing a new garden will start today, PGAA also said.
— Citizen staff
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Buses wait at the Pine Centre Mall transit stop. City council is looking for more information before committing extra funding to expand public transit service.
Warming climate to threaten sea life, fisheries, study says
Animal life in the world’s oceans will drop steadily and consistently as the climate warms, a Canadian-led study suggests.
“What we see is pretty consistent,” said Derek Tittensor, a biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
“For every degree of warming, we project a five per cent decline in the abundance of animals. The warmer it gets, the more the decline.”
That means that the world’s oceans are on track to lose about 17 per cent of their productivity by 2100 if there are no significant reductions in greenhouse gases.
The study found the impact of climate change is so strong it almost doesn’t matter if commercial fisheries are included in the calculation. The results are nearly the same.
The research, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combined six marine ecosystem models with global ecosystem models and emissions projections. Tittensor said that produced a comprehensive projection for the oceans similar to what already exists for the continents.
“There are winners and losers,” he said.
Arctic seas are expected to become more productive in a warmer world. Waters northeast of Greenland could have 50 per cent more animals by 2100, the study suggests.
But the great majority of the world’s oceans will be less abundant. If greater efforts aren’t made to rein in emissions, almost all mid-latitude and tropical seas will produce between 25 and 50 per cent less.
The report’s conclusions have been tested against actual data on fish stocks. The predicted results and the measured trends agreed.
Warmer waters reduce animal growth in several ways, Tittensor said.
For example, they increase metabolism, which forces fish to burn more energy just staying alive and leaves them less for growth.
As well, warmer ocean water mixes less, which slows the cycling of sea floor nutrients needed by the tiny plants at the root of the ocean’s food web.
The decline in sea life will be concentrated in larger fish, which tend to be the ones humans rely on for food.
“The species that we have a real interest in are likely to be those that are more susceptible,” said Tittensor.
United Nations figures suggest
10 per cent of the world’s people depend on fisheries for their livelihoods. They say 4.3 billion people rely on fish for at least 15 per cent of their animal protein.
“Five per cent might not seem like much of a decline,” Tittensor said.
“But we’re in a world that’s heading towards 10 billion people and the oceans are hugely important in terms like food security and making sure we can feed people.
“Any kind of climate impact is another stress upon the oceans over and above the other stresses they’re experiencing.”
Some of the changes are inevitable. Greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere already guarantee a certain level of warming. Tittensor said studies such as his will help managers plan for the changes.
“We can try and adapt to this effect.”
And, he added, we can always try to reduce it as much as possible by cutting carbon emissions.
“The future’s not fixed,” Tittensor said.
“We know the climate’s changing and we know that is going to have consequences. We can move toward reducing our greenhouse emissions.
“We have things we can do. We can tackle this.”
Jim BRONSKILL
The Canadian Press
Ottawa is encouraging Washington to take careful note of criminal pardons granted to Canadians for pot possession so that U.S. officers have the most accurate information when deciding whether to let people cross the border.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he made the point to a receptive Kevin McAleenan, the acting U.S. secretary of homeland security, during a meeting in Washington this week.
“It is important for the records that are kept on the American side to reflect the accurate legal status of Canadians,” Goodale said in an interview.
Parliament is studying a government bill that would ease the process of obtaining a pardon for possessing a small amount of cannabis now that recreational use of the drug is legal in Canada.
Under the legislation, which is before the Senate, Canadians convicted of simple pot possession over the decades before legalization could apply for a pardon, also known as a record suspension, without the usual fee or waiting period.
The RCMP cautions that Canadians convicted of cannabis-related offences could be refused entry to the U.S., even if they have been granted pardons in Canada.
Goodale said while U.S. officials have the right to decide who enters their country, Canada wants to ensure the Americans make decisions based on comprehensive data.
“There may be old information, or it could be conflicting information,” he said. “And we just want to make sure that it’s as complete
and accurate and current as it can be, so that people are not unduly or improperly impeded at the border.”
Goodale said the U.S. agreed to work with Canada on the issue. When possession and sharing of small amounts of marijuana became legal in Canada last October, it sparked concerns that more Canadians would be questioned at the border about pot, or even turned away. Many U.S. states allow medical or recreational use of marijuana. But it means nothing when crossing the border because cultivation, possession and distribution of the drug remain illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
The border falls under federal jurisdiction, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can deny Canadians and other non-citizens entry on a number of marijuana-related grounds.
These include a pot conviction in the U.S. or abroad, an admission of use without a conviction, or reason to believe someone is a drug addict or involved in trafficking.
A traveller could also be turned away if the federal officer believes they will violate the Controlled Substances Act by smoking pot, even in a state like Colorado or Washington where it’s legal. Once ruled inadmissible, a traveller might require a special waiver to enter the U.S. Goodale said the Americans acknowledged this week that the border procedures “have worked pretty well” to date.
“There haven’t been the lineups and the disruption that some people had expected might happen after the law was changed,” he said. “And that’s a tribute to the good work of border officials on both sides.”
Trump, Biden trade barbs in Iowa
Thomas BEAUMONT, Darlene SUPERVILLE and Will WEISSERT
The Associated Press
MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa — U.S. President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden spent Tuesday trading insults – sometimes almost simultaneously – as they stumped across Iowa in split-screen moments that could preview a ferocious fight ahead if the two face off for the presidency next year.
Biden has used near-universal name recognition and generally strong ratings on electability ratings to climb to the top of the packed Democratic field, but Trump used overlapping trips in the key battleground state to punch back. He said Biden only gained in the polls when he went on the offensive against the president himself and linked the former vice-president to 2016 foe, Hillary Clinton.
“People don’t respect him,” Trump said after touring a renewable energy facility in Council Bluffs. “Even the people that he’s running against, they’re saying: ‘Where is he? What happened?”’
With a dose of exaggeration, the president added: “He makes his stance in Iowa once every two weeks and then he mentions my name 74 times in one speech. I don’t know. That reminds me of Crooked Hillary. She did the same thing.” At almost the same moment in Mount Pleasant, Biden noted that his criticisms of Trump from earlier in the day were playing on TV screens when Air Force One landed in Iowa.
“I guess he’s really fascinated by me,” said Biden, who mentioned Trump by name about a dozen times during his first two events in Iowa.
“I find it fascinating.”
He started to say more but then stopped himself, quipping: “My mother would say: ‘Joey, focus. Don’t descend. Stay up.”’
Pressed later by reporters
about his earlier repeated assurances that he wouldn’t openly criticize Trump while campaigning, Biden said, “By not talking about him personally – talking about where I disagree with him on the issues, why he’s doing such damage to the country – that’s totally different than attacking his character or lack thereof.”
Still, the back-and-forth laid bare the rising political stakes for each man, even with the election about 17 months away. Trump has zeroed in on Biden as a potential threat to his reelection chances and is testing themes to beat him back. Biden, meanwhile, is campaigning as a front-runner, relishing the oneon-one fight with Trump while making sure he doesn’t ignore the demands of the Democratic primary.
“I’d rather run against Biden than anybody,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before flying to Iowa.
Bob WEBER The Canadian Press
Tuna are lined up at the Honolulu Fish Auction at Pier 38 in Honolulu. A new Canadian-led study suggests that for every degree of global warming, the abundance of ocean animals will decline by five per cent.
BIDEN
TRUMP
Trudeau calls out Tory premiers for threatening national unity
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau says it is “absolutely irresponsible” for conservative premiers to threaten to tear Canada apart if the government doesn’t accept all the Senate’s amendments to new environmental-assessment legislation.
The Liberals are expected to say as early as Wednesday what they want to do with the 187 amendments made to Bill C-69 in the Senate last week. The bill would revamp the way the federal government evaluates major infrastructure projects, from pipelines to interprovincial highways.
The conservative premiers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, and the non-partisan premier of the Northwest Territories, wrote an “urgent” letter to Trudeau Monday telling him that he must accept every last one of the amendments or he will be threatening national unity.
They say Bill C-69 will make it virtually impossible to ever build another major pipeline in Canada and will drive away jobs and investment in the energy sector.
The premiers also want him to scrap Bill C-48, which would put a permanent ban on oil tankers’ loading at ports in British Columbia north of Vancouver Island.
Trudeau lashed out at the premiers when the letter was raised by deputy Conservative leader Lisa Raitt during question period.
“Will the prime minister do the right thing, consider the amendments from the Senate and agree to every single one of them?” she asked.
Trudeau said the government is happy to accept amendments that make the bill better and are in the best interests of the country.
“What we will not do is accept the premiers’ saying ‘There is a threat to national unity if we don’t
get our way,’” Trudeau said. “That is not the way to hold this country together.”
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was not impressed, saying the premiers signed the letter “in the best tradition of co-operative federalism.”
“We only asked to be heard, and this dismissive response from the federal government is the real threat to the national economy and to national unity,” he said in a tweet.
Raitt said the premiers were warning about national unity but that they did so as premiers representing a majority of Canadians.
Trudeau said for the first time that at least one of the Senate’s amendments, which he says makes Indigenous consultation “optional,” is a no-go.
“I don’t think Canadians want to go back to Stephen Harper’s years of ignoring Indigenous Peoples in how we build resource projects. That’s a good way to get nothing done, the way Stephen Harper did over 10 years.”
The federal cabinet considered the issue at its weekly meeting Tuesday and a motion listing which amendments the govern-
ment will accept and which ones it won’t could be tabled for debate in the House of Commons as early as Wednesday.
Bill C-69 fulfils a Liberal election promise to redo the way major national projects are assessed; Trudeau has said previous changes made by the Conservative government in 2012 led only to court challenges.
Among the new changes are:
• Creating a new Impact Assessment Agency to conduct the reviews.
• Limiting the influence of regulators like the National Energy Board in project approvals.
• Requiring the reasons for an approval or denial to be made public, including any science used to reach the conclusion.
Trudeau is under intense pressure from environment groups to reject almost all the Senate amendments, which the groups say are directly taken from the demands of the oil and gas sector and cut into the bill’s attempts to balance protecting the environment and economic growth.
Environmental Defence, Greenpeace Canada and the West Coast Environmental Law Association say the amendments weaken the requirement to consider a project’s impact on climate change, reduce the ability of the public to participate in assessment hearings, and limit the right to ask a court to review a project approval.
That last change is also of concern to law professors, at least 50 of whom penned a letter to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Tuesday saying it would undermine access to justice, and therefore public trust.
“Canadians must be assured that, when there has been a legal error in the exercise of public duties, they can bring their case to a court without undue expense, impediments and burden,” the law professors said.
Feds unveil new rules for interns
Christian PAAS-LANG
Canadian Press
The
OTTAWA — Unpaid interns in federally regulated industries are getting closer to having some of the same labour protections paid employees get.
They include standard protections like 40-hour work weeks, holidays, maternity-related reassignments and leave. On top of that, the new regulations would add new protections, like unpaid breaks for every five hours worked and an eight-hour rest period between shifts.
The federal government posted the proposed rules under laws that extended standard health and safety protections to unpaid interns in federally regulated private businesses and limited those
internships to placements that are part of educational courses. They’re up for 30 days of public comment.
Federally regulated private sectors include activities like banking, telecommunications and some areas of transportation, but not the federal civil service. A 2015 survey found there were 2,346 unpaid interns in these sectors.
Despite the small numbers, one organization consulted on the legislation says the regulations will help reduce exploitive unpaid internships elsewhere as well.
“It sets clear standards that people within the federal jurisdiction will be paid for their work,” said Hassan Yussuff, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Yussuff said his organization is “deeply worried” that other pro-
‘Gig economy’ driving need for basic income plan, committee says
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — A cross-party committee of MPs says it’s time for the government to take a deeper look at a guaranteed minimum income to help workers caught in the tectonic shifts of the “gig economy.”
The MPs’ report on declines in traditional, full-time employment in favour of short-term contract work says the government needs to explore new types of income supports “that do not depend upon someone having a job.”
To that end, the committee calls on federal officials to review a minimum-income program, which is typically a no-stringsattached government payment to every citizen that replaces an assortment of targeted benefits, as an option to help those between gigs who fall through the existing social safety net.
The report calls for a revamp of the employment-insurance system to widen that net, reducing the minimum number of hours someone must work before qualifying for benefits, boosting payments to low-wage workers, and reconsidering the benefits available to self-employed workers. It also calls on the government to modernize federal labour regulations.
MPs on the committee nod to some recent federal efforts, such as a soon-to-be-launched tax credit for individuals to offset the cost of work-training courses.
But here, too, the committee urges the government to pay close attention to the design of the Canada Training Benefit to make sure it is accessible to lowwage, part-time or self-employed workers and to make every effort to ensure they use the program.
The training benefit, to launched in late 2020, would
provide a $250 refundable tax credit each year, accumulating over time if it isn’t used, to Canadians earning between $10,000 and about $150,000 a year. The plan is expected to cost $710 million over five years. Federal officials have considered the idea among a wide range of possibilities to reshape social-safety-net programs that were designed for a workforce that needed help at certain fairly predictable points, such as upon losing a full-time job, having children and retiring. Lifetimes of freelancing, contracts and multiple part-time jobs punctuated by returns to school don’t fit the model.
A discussion paper crafted in December 2018 for the deputy minister at Employment and Social Development Canada identified rising income inequality and the growth of the “online platform economy” – exemplified by companies such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, which broker work while doing everything possible not to become formal employers – among the top issues to tackle in a redesign of federal policies. Officials wanted to look at a small number of policy areas to keep work manageable and “stress-testing” alternative policies under “more extreme scenarios” than officials had previously envisioned.
“The nature of work is changing. Yet, the blueprints of our social safety net and our foundational labour legislation were developed in a different time,” the report says. “In this new world of work, it is essential that government and employers take necessary measures to protect workers from precariousness, the effects of which can be mitigated with efficient policies and social safety nets.”
vincial and territorial jurisdictions don’t have regulations dealing with unpaid interns.
TRUDEAU
Trudeau clutching at straws
Iremember my pack-a-day mother swearing off cigarettes when the doctor scheduled her for a partial lung removal. She lived for more than a decade afterward, but the damage had been done.
But at least my mother had a plan to move forward.
We woke up Monday to see Justin Trudeau barely has a plan to make a plan. His pronouncement Monday on eventually banning prolific single-use plastic has all the trappings of my mother’s panic involving a menace that had too far spread.
The prime minister, no doubt stirred by the international embarrassment to his Canadian-style environmental brand of the Philippines returning our disguised plastic waste by freighter, has become a convert to the notion that we’re using too many straws, cutlery, bags, plates and so on the way NBA-bound collegiate basketball stars use their academic stations – one and done. Fair point.
It’s a molten mess.
We have waited a long time to properly confront this. But more of a mess can be made without a strategy to diminish the overused resource and find a competent replacement that doesn’t cause as many problems as it addresses.
Which is why Monday’s miasma on the file smacks of a poll-friendly pre-election promise with more aspiration than precision.
This is no way to convince the skeptics, doubters and opponents; even to some of the environmentally conscious, it must seem cynical to make a big announcement with no big detail.
That being said, here come headlines for a day or so, lovely social media buzz to make many feel as if the egg is hatched and the bird will fly when it has been barely conceived.
Now, much as this will leave many traditionalists sighing or snorting, let’s not lose sight of the benefits of a ban.
Our landfills and oceans are rife with plastic and our technology can smartly move in the right direction to put incentives and disincentives together to get us out of the deep hole we pour plastics into.
We could have used that information Monday.
But, somewhat like the dilemma Trudeau has in supporting a pipeline project and professing the need to address climate change, this is not a problem we created in 500 days and not one that can be addressed by 2021. The balance of proceeding and ceasing needs to be struck.
It feels eerily like the super-swift, lackingin-foresight ban on plastic straws Vancouver proposed last year. If anyone noticed, we still have them lingering about in the city, mainly because these issues take a lot more effort to confront than a bylaw on a piece of paper takes to create.
As other jurisdictions would inform us if we’d consulted them and adopted their measured strategies, there are easier
Taboos surround tolerance
Apparently June is Pride Month. Who sets the criteria used to designate certain parts of the calendar for a particular people or persuasion is a mystery.
Ostensibly, the reason for pride events is that these counter the shame or exclusion felt by LGBTTQQIAAP persons, past and present. But given the celebrations’ ubiquity, as well as the extensive corporate sponsorship, the question is how could these festivities be any more mainstream and has something been lost?
Subcultures, with their own language, art, and protocols, were created by partakers in non-heterosexual behavior and non-binary gender identity over the centuries, their endurance largely thanks to segregation from mainstream society, not in spite of it. Even in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, participants revelled in choosing an unconventional life, believing the intolerance they experienced was a validation of their individuality and proof of society’s fetish for repression. In the last 30 years, the landscape has changed radically: “intersectionality” for any who are oppressed has created a groundswell of activism. Pierre Trudeau’s decriminalization of homosexual activity now seems quaint; government as well as big business and non-profits, including many churches, are expected to grant new rights or endorse new categories, setting the gold
RIGHT OF CENTRE NATHAN GIEDE
standard of tolerance, regardless of their traditional location on the ideological spectrum.
By contrast, any who question this political movement’s speed, agenda or ascendancy invite a kind of social and political scorn that make old Soviet show trials look like a stroll in our newly renamed park. Unspeakable a generation ago, now these concepts are taboo to critique.
But progress at lightspeed isn’t any more comfortable for its supporters: demands for marriage equality were anathema to most libertines and issues surrounding transgenderism have left many of the older cadre feeling like prudish conservatives for the first time in their lives.
Such questions demand an answer: is gender incidental or essential to our being? If the former, why is there any moral imperative for society to financially support those transitioning? If the latter, how can gender ever be changed? Why are advocates allowed to use both arguments simultaneously despite their logical incompatibility? Even ignoring all of this, is it ethical to let a minor brave the gauntlet of drugs and surgery this procedure requires to permanently change?
Perhaps that’s the psychobabble expected from one who so clearly fits the profile of an “oppressor,” despite those doubts being shared by many members within the movement. The rebuttal is that self-correction sustains our society – all are encouraged to reflect upon that truth.
To the question of loss, while I am no connoisseur of “gay culture,” it appears clear that greater acceptance has resulted in less vibrancy, as any amount of comfort can dull our spirit.
Put another way, I am fairly certain being LGBTTQQIAAP ought to be more than a political statement, or just one more option on the menu of bourgeois consumerism – something about “the Sabbath was made for man” rings an old bell.
Being human is more than attending a rally or playing to type; it is the pursuit of happiness and meaning. That requires facing risks out in the world as well as the deepest fears within ourselves: quite the opposite of “safe spaces.”
Such suggestions do not go far in our age of outrage and puritanical political correctness. But I remain convinced that the alleviation sought by the oppressed can only be found within the uniqueness of individual experience and accomplishment. Until then, token months or garish parades awash with corporate cash make for sad substitutions, leaving everyone unsatisfied.
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plastics to eliminate than others. Moreover, there are smart exemptions we want so that people with disabilities and others don’t face further struggles.
There will be businesses that arise and businesses that sink, and unsurprisingly Monday’s focus was on none of the latter and more of the former. But for a government that has dropped 20 points in the polls since its 2015 election, it might be – as the Conservative leader Andrew Scheer suggests – time to clutch at straws. And it is, I suppose, how our politics have evolved – drive-by announcements, few details to confront the worries about the eventual consequences, and a follow-up well down the road once the impression has been seared into us that government is doing something. In other words, politically: single-use and plastic. — Kirk LaPointe is editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, at Glacier Media.
Avoiding the fate of Winston Smith
Irecently finished reading George Orwell’s 1984 again. It is one of those books I read every 20 years or so and in many ways it has held up well. For those who haven’t read it or don’t remember it well from high school, the story is about Winston Smith who works in the Ministry of Truth rewriting history.
At one point, he latches on to information showing the whole government is a scam and joins a revolutionary group to fight the system.
But it turns out Big Brother or the State is on to him from the start.
He gets caught by the Thought Police, imprisoned and eventually broken by interrogators whereupon he is released to live out his days until he finally comes to understand that he loves Big Brother. (The book is a lot more detailed!)
Orwell wrote the book in the aftermath of the Second World War and with the looming rise of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.
As he saw it, collectivism was the downfall of civilization.
The idea of controlling commodity production and prices would lead to shortfalls and hoarding. It would eventually lead to long lineups and a much poorer society. One could make the argument he was right if we use the Soviet Union as the test case.
The other central idea he addressed was the notion of content control in the media.
The government had an official line and all citizens were expected to swallow it, hook, line and sinker.
There was no questioning the official broadcasts nor denying the truth of what was said.
A free press – in Orwell’s book – would have been the enemy of the government and according to the doublethink of Big Brother the enemy of the people.
Where have I heard that recently?
Orwell goes on to point out control of the present – of the current media – leads to control of the past which will allow for control of the future.
For example, if every record of U.S. President Trump calling Meagan Markle “nasty” was deleted, would it ever have happened?
Sure, we would all remember it but how many times have you been confronted by your family or friends saying something you remembered is wrong? And do you give in?
It takes a lot of courage or certainty to deny the collective view of those around you.
Perhaps more to the point, we are continually rewriting our collective history.
For example, somewhere in my school days, I was told the printing press was invented by Gutenberg.
He printed the Gutenberg Bible
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and started a revolution in reading.
Except the printing press predates Gutenberg by several hundred years. It was invented in China and had been used for any number of documents including the production of paper money. Our collective history is inaccurate.
There are lots of other examples of historical inaccuracies which we take for granted as part of our collective past such as Columbus discovering America or the Greeks thinking the world is flat. The Vikings visited North America long before Columbus and no ancient civilization believed the world was flat. The Greeks actually had a reasonably estimate of just how large the planet is.
In any case, we engage in writing the story of ourselves and can engage in rewriting. Which leads to the question of what constitutes news. What is the truth about what people say or do? What do you remember?
And for that matter, does it change anything?
We are headed into an election cycle over the next four months. Television advertisements are already appearing with their own version of history displayed. We will invariably be hearing how the Liberals are destroying the economy or allowing illegal aliens to stream across the border. And how Conservatives are all racist homophobes who will undo the social safety network while giving tax breaks to the rich.
Or how the NDP would drive the country further into debt with a tax-and-spend approach which would force companies to move overseas.
None of these are true depictions of any of the parties. They are the sort of crafted messages generated by the spin-doctors and media companies to paint their party in the best possible light and to use half-truths to disparage the opponents.
But by controlling the narrative, there will always be some for whom confirmation bias will make everything their party says sound reasonable and right.
We are not in the state of Big Brother and 1984.
There is still a free press in our country which will be engaged in fact checking and balanced coverage.
But we are getting closer to a world in which history is being written and rewritten to fit the present and not as a bastion against which nonsense crumbles. Hopefully, we will never have a Ministry of Truth.
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Drought looms over much of B.C.
The Canadian Press
The likelihood of a drought in British Columbia is rising as warm weather melts away what’s left of a minuscule mountain snow pack and spring rains fail to appear, say provincial wildfire and forecast experts.
Drought level warnings for Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and B.C.’s northeast have already increased to the voluntary water-restrictions stage, and Dave Campbell, head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre, said Tuesday the current forecast points to provincewide drought conditions in the coming weeks.
“It’s hard to predict whether we’re going to get much rain or not and that’s going to be the wild card,” said Campbell. “But I think right now we’re at a stage of seeing there certainly is a lot of increased risk this year.”
The winter snow packs this spring are half of what they would normally be and between 55 per cent and 100 per cent of the snow that feeds many of the province’s waterways has already melted, he said.
If spring rains don’t arrive soon, the drought conditions will increase, he said.
“To some extent, the way things are setting up, I don’t think it’s too early to raise some of those alarm
bells,” said Campbell, suggesting more use of voluntary water restrictions and communities and farmers practising conservation measures.
The BC Wildfire Service has also been watching the weather, hoping rain will bring moisture to the
forest floor.
“If the forecasts are correct, then we’re looking at a drier than normal June, and this could result in a greater total of area burned for the season due to an earlier availability of dry fuels,” said Erika Berg, a wildfire service officer in a
telephone interview from Kamloops.
But she said the preliminary forecasts are not predicting the record fire seasons similar to the past two summers, where B.C. declared emergencies because out-of-control wildfires.
Accused parent challenges medical finding
The Canadian Press
The medical examiner who did an autopsy on a 19-month-old boy says there was no suggestion a lack of oxygen had anything to do with the child’s death.
David and Collet Stephan are on trial in Lethbridge, Alta., on a charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son Ezekiel.
They treated the toddler with alternative and natural medicines instead of seeking medical assistance right away.
Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo on Tuesday repeated the view he also presented in court a day earlier that Ezekiel clearly died of bacterial meningitis and a lung infection in March 2012.
David Stephan, who’s representing himself, pointed out that the first ambulance that tended to his son was missing key equipment, so his son was without oxygen for almost nine minutes.
“Is it fair that you did not take into consideration the amount of time Ezekiel had not had air in that ambulance in your findings?” Stephan asked.
“There is no evidence that Ezekiel did not have air,” Adeagbo replied.
The pathologist, who was working as a medical examiner in Calgary in 2012, testified by video from Indiana, where he now works as a pathologist.
He said it’s important to keep an open mind during an autopsy and to take tissue for study, including from the brain. Adeagbo said there were no signs of any effects from oxygen deprivation.
“The issue of the lack of oxygen... was answered totally by the pathology,” he said.
“If there was oxygen deprivation injuries, I would have seen it. It was not in the brain.”
Stephan also asked Adeagbo whether his work as a medical examiner was influenced by others.
On Monday, Stephan produced a letter from Alberta Justice to the medical examiner’s office warning about Stephan’s background.
“There is information to suggest the family and extended family are sovereign citizens, also known as being from a sovereign or freedom group. Those from
this group tend to be anti-government and anti-establishment and there are suspicions that they are typically wellarmed,” Stephan read from the document.
Adeagbo replied that the office is independent and his only concern was finding out why Ezekiel had died.
He said the warning didn’t influence the way he did the autopsy.
“At this point, whether it’s the Taliban or whatever it is, I don’t care,” said Adeagbo.
“Do you feel it’s appropriate on the day of the autopsy that you were given a letter with prejudicial information? Did this letter at all affect your opinion moving into the autopsy of Ezekiel Stephan?”
Stephan asked.
“No, it did not.”
Stephan, as well as the lawyer representing his wife, are challenging the pathologist’s qualifications to testify as an expert witness.
Stephan had already questioned the
doctor for seven hours by midday Tuesday.
Until he is accepted as a witness, none of Adeagbo’s comments are considered to be evidence.
It is the second trial for the Stephans.
A jury found them guilty in 2016, but the Supreme Court overturned the convictions last year and ordered a new trial.
This one is before a judge alone.
The trial, which was originally scheduled for one month, is likely to stretch into the summer.
Justice Terry Clackson said Adeagbo will probably require an extra three days on the stand.
The Court of Queen’s Bench doesn’t normally sit in July and August, but could for this case if necessary, Clackson said.
“You will have me in the month of July ... unhappily,” the judge told court.
“I’m hearing this case until it’s done. We’ll sit until August if we have to.”
Last year, dry weather contributed to B.C.’s wildfire season, with more than 2,100 fires consuming about 13,000 square kilometres of forest, grassland and properties.
The latest wildfire service seasonal outlook for June forecasts busier than normal fire activity, Berg said.
Richard Kennett, a co-owner of Bucky’s Sports Shop in Duncan, said the dry spring and the prospect of prolonged hot days has him worried. He’s concerned vital salmon spawning tributaries will dry up, causing a severe blow to vulnerable fish stocks.
“The streams are like they were in August of last year,” Kennett said. “It’s already low. The water is at summer levels.”
He said the Duncan area’s Cowichan River system is a major salmon-bearing waterway.
“The alarm bell that I’m getting is the salmon could be stuck out in the bay and not able to get up the river,” said Kennett. “They won’t be able to spawn.”
Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson introduced strict chinook salmon fishing closures earlier this year in an effort to ensure more fish are able to get to their spawning grounds. The restrictions include a catch-andrelease only fishery until at least mid July on many parts of Vancouver Island.
CP FILE PHOTO
A wildfire burns on a logging road approximately 20 km southwest of Fort St. James last August.
CP FILE PHOTO
David Stephan leaves the courts in Calgary on Feb. 8, 2019. The Alberta man and his wife are facing a second trial in the meningitis death of their son.
SNC-Lavalin CEO steps down
The Canadian Press
Neil Bruce’s tenure as CEO of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. came to an end Tuesday, capping off a near four-year stint marked by a 42 per cent plunge in share price and a political controversy tied to an ongoing corruption case.
Bruce, 58, will be succeeded on an interim basis by chief operating officer Ian Edwards, effective immediately. The board of directors has asked Edwards to review “the strategic direction of the company on an expedited basis” and develop a new plan “for sustainable success,” the company said in a release.
Analysts say the change at the top may portend selloffs at the Montreal-based company’s costly construction unit as SNC-Lavalin mulls a return to its roots in engineering and design.
After hitting successive 10year lows since late January, the company’s stock jumped seven per cent to close at $25.35 on Tuesday.
SNC-Lavalin said Bruce is retiring and returning to his family in the United Kingdom. He is expected to remain an adviser to the board until the end of the year.
“Neil Bruce was supposed to be the saviour... but now there’s no credibility. It’s time to move on,” said David Taylor of Torontobased Taylor Asset Management, an SNC shareholder. “It’s not that they’re liars. Neil Bruce just couldn’t predict what his own business was capable of doing. Bruce, who took the helm in
October 2015 and steered SNC through its purchase of engineering powerhouse WS Atkins in 2017, has struggled to move beyond a difficult period in the company’s history, despite bolstering its backlog by more than $15 billion. Its reputation has taken a beating over fraud and corruption charges related to its work in Libya that preceded Bruce’s tenure, and the company has found itself ensnared in political controversies both at home and abroad.
The firm became the casualty of a diplomatic feud between Canada and Saudi Arabia – a key source of oil and gas revenue – last August, when Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted her support for jailed dissidents, prompting the Saudi regime to suspend new trade and invest-
ment ties with Canada. SNC subsequently slashed its 2018 guidance twice in three weeks, more than halving its profit forecast and halting all bidding on future mining projects.
“This is a guy who told us after Freeland pissed off Saudi Arabia that it was business as usual,” Taylor told The Canadian Press. “Every meeting he went into was extremely contentious. Shareholders were upset, and they’d point the finger at him.”
The company announced in May plans to wind down its operations in 15 countries and reported a $17-million loss in its latest quarter. It also recently announced the sale of a bigger-than-expected chunk of 407 International Inc., a move opposed by some prominent shareholders who sought to retain the lucrative Ontario toll road.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Yuri Lynk said in a note to investors that a fresh face in the corner office “could spur a much-needed strategic shift.”
“In terms of this move, the writing was on the wall in... January 2019 when Mr. Edwards was appointed as COO,” Lynk said. The appointment came the same day the company announced about $350 million in unexpected cost overruns on its project with Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper mining company, which has since cancelled the contract.
Analysts said the path to profit lies in SNC’s lower-risk engineering services – which generate about 75 per cent of revenue – and scaling down or divesting
construction activities, plagued by cost overruns on fixed-price contracts.
The firm has been mired in a political controversy following accusations by former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould that top government officials pressured her to overrule federal prosecutors in the Libya case and negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with the company.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his aides have argued that a criminal trial could trigger the company’s exit from Canada and the loss of thousands of jobs - a sentiment that was later contradicted by Bruce, who told the Canadian Press that he never cited the protection of up to 9,000 Canadian jobs as a reason it should be granted a remediation agreement.
That claim was later contradicted by an internal SNC-Lavalin document obtained by The Canadian Press. It outlined a “Plan B” that the company presented to federal prosecutors last fall in which, absent a remediation agreement, it would split the company in two, move its offices south of the border and chop its Canadian workforce to 3,500 from 8,700 before eventually shuttering its domestic operations.
Bruce’s efforts to secure a deal were unsuccessful, and a Quebec judge ruled last month there was enough evidence to send SNC-Lavalin to trial over charges of fraud and corruption. The company has pleaded not guilty.
Thousands attend Calgary pipeline rally
The Canadian Press
Anger was on full display under the hot spring sun as thousands of oil and gas industry supporters gathered on the Calgary Stampede grounds to hear speakers take turns blasting the federal Liberal government for policies they blame for the sector’s low level of activity and investment.
Organizers estimate 4,000 people, many wearing black T-shirts reading “The world needs more Canadian energy,” came for the event which featured a bluegrass band, free hot dogs and admission to the annual Global Petroleum Show trade show.
The crowd cheered and chanted “Build that pipe” as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called for a national conversation around federal bills C-69 and C-48, reviled by those in the energy industry, because they affect the entire economy of Canada.
They booed when newly appointed Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage listed energy sector grievances – including the failures of the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines, delays to the Keystone XL and Trans Mountain pipelines, and the previously mentioned federal bills to revamp the way big energy projects are approved and to declare an oil tanker ban on the north coast of B.C.
Earlier in the morning, Premier Jason Kenney delivered a similar speech in a conference room at the opening of the annual trade show before leaving on a trip through Quebec and Atlantic Canada to sell Alberta’s virtues to investors and other premiers.
Kenney’s speech was briefly postponed when a man rushed up on stage and grabbed the podium – saying the premier doesn’t represent him before the microphones were muted and he was subdued by police and security officials and dragged away.
“Well folks, there are very few energy producers around the world where you’d see something like that happen,” Kenney said after order was restored.
“This is a free, liberal democracy with freedom of speech and we embrace that.”
Dmg Events, which mounts the annual petroleum show, says it expects to see about 50,000 attendees this week, down from nearly 75,000 at its peak in spring of 2014 just before world oil prices crashed.
“Many
flat after U.S. President Donald Trump shifted his focus on trade from Mexico to China. The markets started the day stronger but retrenched around midday on some macroeconomic realities, specifically on trade, says Craig Jerusalim, portfolio manager at CIBC Asset Management. In a volley of tweets, Trump defended using tariffs as a “great negotiating tool,” putting China back in his crosshairs as the G20 summit approaches where he is expected to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 32.50 points at 16,248.76.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average snapped a six-day streak by losing 14.17 points at 26,048.51. The S&P 500 index was down 1.01 points at 2,885.72, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.60 points at 7,822.57.
Six of the 11 major sectors of the TSX were up led by materials, energy and industrials. Materials was up 1.42 per cent as shares of Teck Resources Ltd. climbed 4.75 per cent, followed by Barrick Gold Corp. The August gold contract was up US$1.90 at US$1,331.20 an ounce and the July copper contract was up one cent at US$2.67 a pound.
In addition, iron ore prices reached a new record high of more than US$100 per tonne on major supply disruptions in Brazil and strong demand from Asian countries, said Jerusalim. The energy sector was up 0.77 per cent with Cenovus Energy Inc. rising 1.73 per cent, followed by Canadian Natural Resources.
The July crude contract was up one cent at US$53.22 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was up 4.2 cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
“Crude seems to have found some stability or support in the low $50s and really everyone is now waiting for news out of the next OPEC plus Russia meetings to determine whether or not they’re going to continue to control the supply coming out of the group,” Jerusalim added.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.31 cents US compared with an average of 75.37 cents US on Monday.
BRUCE
Bax fast finisher in final hometown meet
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After just three track meets in the renovated Masich Place Stadium, Jordan Bax has run his last hometown race as a competitive high school athlete.
Bax, a mid-distance runner in his fifth season with the Prince George Track and Field Club, didn’t have much competition this past weekend as one of the few senior athletes registered in the two-day Spruce Capital meet, which drew just 90 participants, most in the younger age categories. Even with nobody pushing him in two of the three running events he entered, Bax still managed to post a personal best in an event he doesn’t usually race, the 400 metres.
“I was super-happy to get a PB, 1:00.78, almost sub-one minute, which is not as fast as some of the guys but for being a distance runner I’m pretty happy about that,” said Bax, who is graduating from D.P. Todd Secondary School this year.
“What’s hard about it is this meet is normally bigger than Sub Zero but there’s nobody here. It’s a great meet for all the younger kids in elementary who are just trying to get experience. I could have walked in and got gold.”
Bax raced the 1,500m Saturday with Maxwell Whitehouse, a Grade 10 student from Cedars Christian and the two were close to each other for two laps but Bax kicked it into high gear in the last lap and beat Whitehouse by 20 seconds, winning in 4:46.
Bax was the only senior in the 800m race Sunday and finished his two laps of the track in 2:25.
“Because I was the only one in it I didn’t take it that seriously and I stayed up later (the night before) and hung out with some friends and I knew it was just for fun,” said Bax. “My time wasn’t bad, but I took it easy. “Nolan McCleary from Vanderhoof, he’s
a year younger than me and he killed it. He ran a 2:07. He gave it all.”
Bax will be in Burnaby for the Harry Jerome International Track Classic June 20, then will head to Kelowna for the Jack Brow International meet, June 28-30.
“The Jack Brow is usually a B.C. meet but the Australians come and they bring a little zest to it,” said Bax. “It makes it fun to race against people you normally don’t race against. That’s where I’m looking to peak, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Bax also excels as a trail runner and won the cross country running zone championship last fall and placed 54th at provincials.
He’s also got a bit of triathlete in him, having finished second overall at the Prince George Iceman multisport endurance race in February.
He plans to move to Kamloops next year to train with former PGTFC high jumper Bazil Spencer, who trains with former Olympic bronze medalist shot putter Dylan Armstrong. There’s an opportunity for Bax to train with the cross country team at Thompson Rivers University without actually enrolling in the school.
He wants to work full time for a year to save some money for when he eventually does go back to school.
“Right now I feel I’m not at the greatest point to get anything too amazing (for scholarships) and that’s why I want to take the year off,” said Bax. “If I take the year off and do all the city meets and improve myself drastically, that’s when I can get something.”
Also on the horizon this summer for Bax is the B.C. Athletics Jamboree in Kamloops, July 5-7. If he does well, he’ll move on to the B.C. Junior Development championships in South Surrey, July 19-21. The junior development meet is a qualifier for the Canadian Legion Youth Track and Field Championships in Sydney, N.S., Aug. 9-11. Sophia Mahmoud, a Grade 10 student at Duchess Park Secondary School, wasn’t severely tested in her 400m and 200m races at the Spruce Capital meet but had personal-best times in both.
“It was a lot better than I expected, because when we first got here it was dead, no one was here,” said Mahmoud. “I was running with Jordan in my 400 and got a PB, 1:04.52, and that was my favourite race of the whole meet. It was so much fun. I took a full second off my time and I was really surprised I PB’d.” Mahmoud ran her best-ever 200 in 27.95, one-hundredth of a second slower than Taigen Wheele of D.P. Todd, a Grade 11 student.
“I ran 400 hurdles and that was far from my PB, but that was hard because I was running by myself,” said Mahmoud.
“It was just me so I just focused on form and not so much speed, which made it more technical. It’s fun racing with all the little kids cheering you on, because we coach them and they all know who you are.” Mahmoud is entered in all three events at the Jack Brow, her season-ending meet. She’ll continue to train with the club until mid-July. She and her dad are working on an off-season training program that will include weight training, swimming and cross-country skiing.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Noah Gladdish clears the bar while competing in the high jump on Sunday morning at Masich Place Stadium during the Spruce Capital Track and Field Meet.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Jordan Bax set a pair of personal best performances at Masich Place Stadium during the Spruce Capital Track and Field Meet.
CITIZEN PHOTOS BY JAMES DOYLE FAR LEFT: Ava Cundy throws a javelin on Sunday morning at Masich Place Stadium.
LEFT: Nolan McCleary races around the track at Masich Place Stadium on Sunday.
BOTTOM LEFT: Mitchell Baxter prepares to throw a shotput on Sunday morning at Masich Place Stadium.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Morgan Boileau flies through the air at the long jump pits on Sunday.
Blues unfazed by Game 7 in Boston
Stephen WHYNO The Associated Press
BOSTON — If the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7, perhaps Steve Hatze Petros should get his name on the Stanley Cup.
He is the NHL schedule-maker , making him the most responsible for a JanuaryMarch stretch when the Blues didn’t play more than one consecutive home game at a time. It was a virtual 70-day road trip that forced a team with a half-dozen new faces to come together under coach Craig Berube.
It also helped them put up a 9-3 road record in the playoffs and it is a big reason the Blues say they feel totally at home playing for the Cup in Boston on Wednesday night.
“It was a time for us to get to know each other better,” centre Ryan O’Reilly said.
“We got out and got away, got the chance to go to the rink together every day, eat together every day. It just kind of brought us together. I think that’s where we found our identity and came together. As you can see throughout the course of the playoffs, we’re confident in the room. We find it easier to get to our game and have success.”
Whichever team gets to its style of game faster and more effectively wins. That has been the story of this hard-fought series between evenly matched teams that like to play different ways.
Boston wants to skate and use its talent to score goals and grab momentum. St. Louis prefers to get pucks deep in the attacking zone, make defenders turn around and then deliver body blows whenever possible.
The Blues front office has tried to replicate life on the road by having players stay in a hotel at home, but they are just 6-7 in St. Louis in the playoffs.
“I think when you’re at home, you’re maybe trying to play a little differently at times,” Berube said.
The opening minutes of a 5-1 loss in Game 6 exemplified that. Players abandoned their straightforward approach and got fancy by trying to razzle-dazzle the puck past the Bruins, and when a goal didn’t materialize in the first 10 minutes, momentum went the other way.
That’s exactly how the Bruins like it.
“We came out pretty well,” Boston defenceman Brandon Carlo said. “We’ve had good starts on the forecheck early, playing
assertive, being aggressive and staying right on top of them, not backing down from anything, keeping our gaps tight, forwards are doing a great job on the forecheck and kind of asserting the pace out there.”
Who sets the pace could win Game 7. If it is fast and up and down the ice, advantage Bruins.
“I think we’re a better skating team, and if we’re playing to our pace both skating and moving the puck, I think we’ve taken over a little bit and created more chances, playing better defensively,” Bruins forward Joakim Nordstrom said.
“When we’re skating, we’re getting back on pucks better. It obviously helps our D to
break the puck out. Same thing goes up ice.
We get on the forecheck a little bit quicker.”
The Blues’ whole game is based on their forecheck – how they put pressure on opposing defencemen and wear them down over the course of a game and a series.
“We’re definitely built to sustain pressure,” Blues winger David Perron said.
“When we do that, we can really back off teams and hopefully slow down the crowd a little bit.”
Quieting what should be a raucous crowd on hand for the first Stanley Cup Final Game 7 in Boston is easier said than done.
St. Louis did that in Game 2 to tie the series and is brimming with confidence, unfazed
by the lack of home-ice advantage in the final game of the season.
“We’re excited and we’re happy to get back on the road,” winger Patrick Maroon said. “I think this where we jell the best.” The Bruins have won seven of 12 home games in the playoffs. Coach Bruce Cassidy said playing for home-ice advantage all season is for a situation just like this, but the road warrior Blues don’t seem concerned.
“We just seem to like it,” defenceman Carl Gunnarsson said.
“We just keep putting up good results on the road. I don’t know why, but it seems to be working for us. We’ll try to keep that going.”
Orioles down Blue Jays in series opener
Todd KARPOVICH
The Associated Press
Baltimore Orioles rookie John Means admittedly had to grind through his latest start.
Nonetheless, he was still able to put his team in position for a much-needed win.
Means tied a season-high with seven strikeouts and the Orioles took the series opener from the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 on Tuesday night.
“I have to attack better,” Means said.
“I wasn’t getting ahead of guys either, so that was an issue. Not only were there long at-bats, but I wasn’t getting strike one, strike two, very consistently. I had to pitch behind in the count a lot. That’s definitely on me.”
Means (6-4) allowed one run on four hits with three walks over
five innings and lowered his ERA to 2.60.
Baltimore reliever Shawn Armstrong threw a pair of scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
Miguel Castro entered and allowed a bloop RBI double to Randal Grichuk that pulled the Blue Jays to within 3-2 in the eighth.
The Orioles answered in the bottom half with a double that scored Stevie Wilkerson for a key insurance run. Mychal Givens pitched the ninth and picked up his sixth save.
Anthony Santander had three hits and an RBI-double for Baltimore, which can win consecutive games for the first time since May 4-6 and a series for the first time since April 22-24.
“I’m not concerned about the standings,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said.
“I’m concerned about how we play and I’m concerned about try-
ing to win a game that night and how we prepare that day, and if we’re playing the game the right way, giving these guys opportunities to develop at the major league level. Obviously, winning is what this is about. At the same time, we’re process-based right now and we’re going to try to give guys opportunities to have success.”
Eric Sogard led off the game with his sixth home run for the Blue Jays, who dropped their fifth straight game and have lost 11 of 13.
Blue Jays rookie right-hander Trent Thornton (1-5) loaded the bases on three walks in the second, but the Orioles couldn’t capitalize. Baltimore took a 2-1 lead the following inning on backto-back doubles by Trey Mancini and Chance Sisco.
The Orioles extended the lead to 3-1 in the fourth when a pop
up by Santander landed between the second baseman Sogard and right fielder Grichuk. Thornton allowed three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and three walks over five innings.
Toronto has scored two or fewer runs in five consecutive games for the first time since 2014.
“We’re working hard, the hitting coaches are working hard.”
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.
“There are still (more than) three months left. There are lots of chances for us to get hot. I really believe that we will.”
Draft update
The Orioles have signed 20 of the 41 players taken in this year’s MLB draft, the highest being fourth-round pick Joey Ortiz, a shortstop from New Mexico State.
General manager Mike Elias still expects “everything to go smoothly” with signing catcher Adley Rutschman, the No. 1 overall pick from Oregon State.
Trainer’s room
Blue Jays: RHP David Phelps, who underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2018, still needs “a few more minor-league appearances” before the team decides the next course of action, Montoyo said.
Orioles: RHP Alex Cobb will undergo season-ending hip surgery.
He went 0-2 with a 10.95 ERA in just three starts this season.
“He clearly hasn’t been 100 per cent and it’s more important to us that we get this issue corrected at the right time and have him 100 per cent for next spring training,” Elias said.
St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko skates across the ice as Boston Bruins players celebrate a goal by Zdeno Chara in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday in St. Louis. The Bruins won 5-1 to even the series 3-3.
Steve Lawrence reveals he has Alzehemier’s
The Associated Press
Singer Steve Lawrence wrote Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.
In a letter sent by his spokesman Howard Bragman, Lawrence confirmed the diagnosis, saying that he felt he needed to speak out in light of recent rumours and media inquiries.
“I’m living my life, going out in public and trying to spend as much time as possible with my family and friends while I am still able to engage and enjoy,” he wrote. “I have lived and am living a wonderful, joyous life filled with love, support and amazing moments.”
The 83-year-old crooner is known for solo hits including the ballad “Go Away Little Girl” and as one half of the 1960s pop duo Steve and Eydie alongside his wife, Eydie Gorme, who died in 2013.
Lawrence and Gorme helped keep alive the legacy of the American Broadway songbook at a time when rock became dominant.
They were known for their frequent appearances on TV variety and talk shows, in night clubs, and on the stages of Las Vegas.
Songs on stage
Radiohead releases hacked music to benefit environmental group
The Washington Post
Radiohead announced on Tuesday that it had released 18 hours of previously unheard material from the studio sessions for its landmark 1997 album, OK Computer.
According to guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the English rock band decided to release the outtakes as a way to thwart ransom-demanding hackers.
Greenwood wrote on the Radiohead Facebook page that someone had stolen a MiniDisc archive belonging to frontman Thom Yorke last week and demanded $150,000 while threatening to release the material.
“Instead of complaining – much – or ignoring it,” Greenwood continued, the band members decided to upload the tracks to Bandcamp, where they will be accessible for the next 18 days.
MINIDISCS (HACKED), as the digital album is called, costs 18
pounds and will benefit Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group.
The details warranting the “HACKED” descriptor are fuzzy at best – Greenwood himself used the word “reportedly” while describing the hackers’ monetary demands, and it is unclear whether physical discs were stolen, or whether Yorke’s computer got hacked.
Some Reddit users got ahold of the leaked material last week and cataloged it online, insisting that they were not the hackers and that “the rumour about the XL Recordings intern stealing the tracks right in front of Colin Greenwood as he sat there doing nothing is unconfirmed, but most likely untrue.”
What we do know is that the album consists of 18 tracks, most of which are around an hour long.
While Radiohead members insist in both the Bandcamp description and in Greenwood’s post that they might bore listeners – “Never
intended for public consumption... it’s only tangentially interesting,” he wrote – fans seem to think otherwise.
One Bandcamp user wrote, “Blimey ! That’s the best possible reaction for such a huge hack ! You’ve hacked the hackers and did it with so much humility and humanity !” Greenwood was casual about the dramatic release.
The album is “very, very long. Not a phone download,” he warned fans, adding: “Rainy out, isn’t it though?” OK Computer met with universal praise upon its release and helped forge the legend of a band that would become one of the most acclaimed of the two decades that followed. The album’s themes of a techdriven dystopia seemed to predict the coming existential crises of the coming century; it was added to the National Recording Registry in 2014.
John Rogers performs at Cafe Voltaire on Friday as part of the cafe’s regular Friday Night Mics.
AP FILE PHOTO
Thom Yorke, left, and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead perform during the band’s headlining set at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.
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