Local Navy League cadet earns top award
Mark
NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Prince George is home to the top Navy League cadet in the province.
Dante Meyer, 11, was recently awarded the accolade in the form of the Medal of Excellence which he now wears over the right pocket of his uniform. And if he decides to pursue a career in the military, he will be able to continue to wear it as he progresses up the ranks.
It is awarded on the basis of leadership, marksmanship, drill team and first aid
skills. But you don’t have to be perfect.
“We watch the kids as they come up through the program and really they’re asked for only one thing – effort,” said Lt. (NL) Tom Taylor.
“Even if their effort doesn’t produce the best, stellar performance, putting in the effort that’s what we’re looking for. But in a group like that, there are always the ones that shine a little bit more.”
Navy League is open to youth ages nine to 12, and Meyer began pestering his mother, Shawna, to join when he was as young as three years old.
“My cousins,” he said simply when asked
why he wanted to join. Meyer excelled as a drill team captain and led a team that finished in the top three out of 11 in a first aid competition. Along the way, he’s also learned such skills as the phonetic alphabet used by the military and semaphore – the system of flags used in the navy to send messages to other ships. Some outdoor adventure training has also been thrown into the mix.
Other attractions include a summer camp at HMCS Discovery in Stanley Park.
“I like the leadership skills you can obtain, the sense of responsibility,” Meyer said.
“Not like ‘okay, I’m here, can you do this
for me?’ And I like how you have to earn your position, it’s not a given.”
Meyer is the third member of the local Navy League Cadet Corp., known as 142 Aurora, to earn the medal. Past recipients are Vincent Toderovich and Cameron Taylor.
“They earn everything they get,” Taylor said.
“They don’t get it just because they show up, they earn everything.” Starting in September and continuing through the school year, NLCC 142 Aurora meets every Monday at the Connaught Youth Centre, 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Baker twins to host National Indigenous People’s Day celebrations
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The Baker twins are coming home for a special event at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.
These fashion and film stars are from the Stellat’an First Nation at Fraser Lake, and were born in Prince George. They are the special guest emcees for the National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebrations at the park on June 21. They will also be part of the Heatwave-Celebrate Cultures Festival at Canada Games Plaza on June 22. The two events are linked.
“We also have Cree chainsaw carver Randy Gauthier from Moberly Lake and Saltwater Hank joining us all the way from his new home in Haida Gwaii,” said Kym Gouchie, organizer of the event.
“Also joining us on June 21 at the LTN Memorial Park will be Doris Munger and the Old Fort Traditional Dancers, the Khast’an Drummers, Thundering Eagles, Tazzy Fraser, The Northern Outlaws, Ivan Paquette, The Vegabonds and many other talented Indigenous performers.”
The Heatwave component of the three-day music and culture festival will have two of B.C.’s most acclaimed First Nations performers coming in for concert
appearances: George Leach and Laura Grizzlypaws fresh off her recent win at the 2019 Indigenous Music Awards.
Presiding over the festivities are international Aboriginal superstar sisters that Gouchie is excited to see back on stage in their home region.
“Shannon and Shauna are
identical twins from the Stellat’an First Nation,” she said.
“They currently live in Los Angeles, California and are excited to be able to have this opportunity to come home and celebrate with us. They are actresses, models and fitness enthusiasts. We are so excited to have them join us.”
Gouchie listed a number of
additional cultural features at National Indigenous Peoples Day in the park like food vendors, artisans, information booths, on-site carving, a teepee, a cottonwood canoe display, childrens activities and games, an elders’ tent, and more. Not all of these features are specifically derived from Lheidli T’enneh history, but as has been
the case for millennia, this is a connection community where other cultures are welcomed and their own customs honoured.
To pass this ancient knowledge and fun onwards, workshops will be held at an on-site pavilion. They include medicinal plants and medicines with Crystal Kennedy, drumming and singing with the Khast’an Drummers, Dakelh language and stories with Edie Frederick, and beading with Lynette La Fontaine.
Schedule of events
• 11 a.m. Opening ceremonies • 11:15 a.m. Khast’an Drummers • 11:35 a.m. Tazzy Fraser • 11:45 a.m. Mona Rock
12:05 p.m.
Jennifer Pighin and the Khast’an Drummers perform in Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park in 2017.
Local Navy League cadet Chief Petty Officer (first class) Dante Meyer, 11, was awarded the Medal of Excellence.
Highvisibility
Marty Umperville waves from his scooter decked out in Canadian flags travelling along Massey Drive on Friday morning. He put the flags on to help motorists see him after nearly being hit a couple times. Despite having the flags on his scooter, he was hit by a car a couple weeks ago.
Metallion Festival cancelled
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The Metallion Festival is no more.
The annual metal music extravaganza has punched the sky for the past five years, bringing such crusher names as Aggression, Terrifier, Touch The Sun, Gladius Sky, Tyrant’s Blood, Iron Kingdom, Hellchamber, Cocaine Moustache, Over the Coals, Axis Disrupt, Zuckuss, and it closed with Michigan’s metal maniacs Battlecross.
Through blazing heat, cold rain and apocalyptic forest fire smoke, the Metallion Festival put Prince George on a unique music map and tourist route. Metal fans are dedicated and passionate.
This week, local musician and founder of the festival, Brad Foster, said the burdens of underwriting the two-day event, were now beyond his capabilities.
“Metallion Festival has been cancelled,” Foster said in a media statement.
“Due to the fest being funded (for the most part) from one man’s paycheque, and recent changes in his employment situation, we have no choice but to cancel so he can protect his family’s interests.”
He told The Citizen that more time
with family was what he would value most about setting aside the incalculable time spent organizing the event.
“This festival came about by strange means,” said Foster during the leadup to the first year.
“My band (Deveined) played Armstrong Metal Festival last year (2013).
One of the bands on the bill was Tyrant’s Blood out of Vancouver – a huge band from Van who have toured the world. Their members are all friends with our singer Sean Robinson. Their guitarist Marco Banco had mentioned he wanted to come up for some camping and fishing. Sean has contact with the Brookside Resort (the site of all the Metallion events) through work. They got to talking and Sean figured what better than to have a weekend metal and hard rock festival and invite all our old and new friends in the underground metal scene up for a concert and then they can stay and camp/fish with us and our band and friends. Metallion Festival was born.”
Foster gave particular thanks to Blake Productions and technician Darren Neufeld for all the years of technical professionalism providing sound and light services.
He thanked many family, friends, bands, and the RCMP for being reason-
able in their keeping of the peace and safety. “Every single person that ever attended owes you gratitude for that,” he said.
His biggest thanks went to the owners of Brookside Resort.
“To Pam and Percy, you are amazing,” he said.
“Allowing hundreds of longhairs to invade your property every year to party as hard as they can is not an easy choice to make. For those who don’t know, they cleared their land of all outbuildings, levelled the ground, ensured a liqour store onsite, and provided deadly homemade food for everyone, every year. Words cannot express the gratitude the local scene owes you two. Thanks for putting up with my (BS).”
After the first edition of Metallion, once the dust had settled, Foster told The Citizen “We aren’t in it to make money, we are in it to make memories.”
One more Metallion mission accomplished.
Foster said he was by no means closed to the idea of being a future impresario once again, but it would take a different form than an outdoor, multi-band, multi-day event.
“Thank you everyone. This is not the end, just the end of Metallion.”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Road condition may have played role in fatal collision
The condition of the road may have contributed to a fatal collision south of the city, a coroner said in a report on the incident. A 21-year-old local man was killed in the March 23, 2018 crash on Highway 97 at Buckhorn Lake Road. He was the passenger in a northbound car when, at about 7:15 a.m., a southbound pickup truck went out of control while turning into left-side turning lane, spinning counterclockwise into the oncoming vehicle, coroner Danny Scoular said in the report. Speed of the car was estimated at 87 to 94 km/h and 87 to 100 km/h for the pickup.
Why the pickup went into the oncoming lane was undetermined, but Scoular noted the roadway was covered in compact snow and ice at the time. A snowfall that began at 10 p.m. the night before ended at 4 a.m. and the last application of sand occurred at 4:30 a.m. Scoular classified the death as accidental but also said the condition of the road “may have been a contributing factor.” — Citizen staff
PGCF joins grant program for youth-led initiatives
Up to $15,000 is being made available for youthled projects to address urgent local priorities. The RBC Future Launch Community Challenge is a call to action for youth, ages 15 to 29 in more than 150 small and mid-sized communities across Canada. The Prince George Community Foundation is the local participating organization and is welcoming proposals that respond to one central question: what is your boldest idea to respond to an urgent local need?
“Youth are facing pressures on many fronts, and so are our communities,” said PGCF senior fund development manager Mindy Stroet. “We want to be part of creative solutions that enhance equity, sustainability and fairness that help lay the groundwork for a brighter future.”
Applications are being accepted until Sept. 18. For more information, go to www.pgcf.ca or call 250-562-7772.
— Citizen staff
Library hosting book sale
The Friends of the Prince George Public Library is taking their pay-what-you-want book sale to the Hart. Being held at the Nechako branch, it’s open to the public today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proceeds will go towards renovating the multipurpose room at the branch.
The renovation will open up the room to allow more natural light, create better sightlines and to make additional space for patrons to read and socialize whenever programs are not in progress. Sales of Nechako branch-branded library cards have also begun. They’re available for a minimum donation of $5, which will also go towards the renovation. Regular library cards are still available at no cost.
— Citizen staff
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Woman still considered missing, RCMP say
Citizen staff
Despite postings on social media claiming to the contrary, RCMP continue to consider Tori Schram a missing person.
The woman is facing charges from an alleged April 2018 home invasion which may be making her reluctant to contact police.
But Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Friday that RCMP’s primary concern is that she’s safe and sound.
He also said police will accept confirmation from a “confirmed verifier” such as a parent provided they, in turn, are not relying on hearsay.
“If they came forward and said ‘she’s fine, I’ve seen her,’ not ‘oh, yeah, somebody said she was okay,” he said. “They have to basically say ‘yeah, I’ve seen her and she’s okay.”
Douglass added that Schram can simply call RCMP although that may not be good enough to take her completely off the list.
“It would help in the sense that we’d feel better knowing she’s okay,” Douglass said.
“Calling us herself may not be good enough because she might be being held against her will but at least we know she is okay or at least still alive.”
Schram, 24, is described as Caucasian, five-foot-six, 119 pounds with long brown hair and blue eyes.
Schram has not been seen since April 30. She was living in the Pineview area and has ties to Quesnel.
UNBC welcomes new Canada Research Chair
Citizen staff
A professor holding a Canada Research Chair is coming to UNBC.
Dr. Tristan Pearce, who starts at UNBC as an assistant professor in the Department of Global and International Studies on July 1, was appointed a tier 2 Canada Research Chair which carries funding of $500,000 over five years.
The CRC program is a federal initiative to attract and retain exceptional scholars. Pearce studies the cumulative impacts of environmental climate change.
He grew up in Prince George and holds a bachelor of arts in international studies from UNBC, a masters degree in geography and international development from the University of Guelph and a doctorate in geography from the University of Guelph.
He comes to UNBC from his current position with the Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
“I am delighted to bring my research program to UNBC,” said Pearce. “I will continue to work with communities in the north
and globally to better understand how people are experiencing and responding to changes in the environment brought on by climate change and other forces.
“A key focus of my research is the engagement of multiple knowledge systems, scientific and traditional knowledge, to better understand our relationship with the environment and how it is changing. UNBC faculty are at the vanguard of these issues and I look forward to building new collaborations.”
Pearce’s appointment brings to eight the number of CRCs at UNBC.
Alberta Mountie found not guilty in pedestrian’s death
The Canadian Press
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta.
— There was stony silence followed by tears Friday as a Mountie was found not guilty of dangerous driving causing death of a man near Fort McMurray.
RCMP Const. Michelle Phillips was also found not guilty of dangerous driving causing bodily harm of another man.
Court heard that Tracy Janvier, 41, was struck by a vehicle on Aug. 21, 2016, while walking along a remote part of Highway 881 in the dark.
James Cardinal, who was a passenger of the truck that struck Janvier, got out of the vehicle and made a 911 call about the pedestrian collision.
Phillips was responding to that call in her police truck when she ran over Janvier, who was laying in the road, and also struck
Trudeau urged to meet with Pelosi on U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal
Mike BLANCHFIELD
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — For now, he’s going to Washington to meet President Donald Trump, but Canadian business leaders say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be talking to Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi to push the continent’s new trade pact towards ratification.
Trudeau’s Thursday trip to Washington is being billed as part of a concerted push to win ratification of the new North American trade deal in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Legislation to do just that is slowly wending through the House of Commons, and Mexico’s Senate is poised to give its final legislative approval early next week.
But similar legislation has yet to be introduced in the Democratcontrolled House of Representatives.
The Democrats would like to deny Trump a victory on the trade front, but they also have specific concerns about the labour and environment provisions of the new United States-MexicoCanada Agreement.
With the U.S. Congress set to rise at the end of July, Trump’s hopes to have the House and Senate ratify USMCA this summer – as Vice-President Mike Pence promised Trudeau last month in Ottawa – are dwindling.
Brian Kingston, vice-president of international issues for the Business Council of Canada, says that’s why Trudeau should add Pelosi to his agenda.
“I think it would be important, if there’s an opportunity, to have a discussion with the House leader. That could be beneficial primarily because, right now, the ball is fully in her court,” Kingston said in an interview Friday.
Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, says that’s a good idea, but only if Trump asks Trudeau to speak to Democratic lawmakers.
“If they feel it would be helpful for the prime minister to speak to members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, then I would think he’d be very open to doing that,” Beatty said Friday.
“Should we insert ourselves in the process without a request from the U.S. administration? My inclination would be to ask the administration what they think would be most helpful.”
Flavio Volpe, president the Canadian Automotive Parts
Manufacturers’ Association, said the meeting of the two leaders is probably most significant for its context rather than content.
“The Canadian prime minister publicly appearing on the same side as the American president could give Democrats some cover for supporting the new USMCA.”
The Prime Minister’s Office would only say that it would keep the media informed of Trudeau’s itinerary.
Trudeau and Trump will meet on Thursday in Washington where the new continental trade deal, as well as their shared concerns about China, will be major topics of discussion.
Business groups in all three countries are pushing for a timely ratification of the new pact because they say the uncertainty created by the long, tempestuous renegotiation of NAFTA and the ratification delays are harmful to long-term investment plans.
Canadian MPs are to adjourn by next Friday for their summer recess, their last planned sitting days before the October federal election, but they could be recalled in the summer to deal with ratification.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland sidestepped questions on her trip to Washington this week about how Canada would proceed “in tandem” with the U.S. if its lawmakers on Capi-
tol Hill don’t ratify the deal before their summer recess.
In Canada, the Business Council, an association of top corporate executives, and the Chamber of Commerce, which represents 200,000 Canadian businesses across all sectors, have differing views on how urgent it is for the Trudeau government to ratify the new deal.
“Their strategy of following the U.S. process makes sense, however there will be a point where we should ratify this agreement before the election,” said Kingston.
“Our biggest concern right now is if the president does not feel the Democrats are moving quickly enough, he will withdraw from NAFTA... That would be absolutely disastrous for the Canadian economy.”
NAFTA, which remains in force, allows any country to withdraw on six-month’s notice. If Trump did that, it would be the “ultimate pressure tactic” to push Congress, said Kingston.
Beatty said an earlier ratification is certainly a better option, but if the U.S. leaves it hanging, it is not imperative for the Liberal government to ratify before the federal election.
“It would be preferable, but I don’t think it’s essential. Both the Liberals and Conservatives are in favour of ratification.”
Cardinal’s hand.
Justice John McCarthy of Court of Queen’s Bench said he was unable to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Phillips’ actions were a contributing cause of Janvier’s death.
“I find that the Crown has failed to establish that the accused caused Mr. Janvier’s death, either in fact or in law,” McCarthy said Friday in Fort McMurray court.
“Rather, this is one of the rarest cases where the court is unable to determine on the evidence before it, whether the deceased was in fact alive at the time of the alleged prohibited act.”
Phillips didn’t move and showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.
Janvier’s sister, Marina Nakahoo, cried and soon left the courtroom.
AP PHOTO
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks at a news conference in Washington on Thursday. The Business Council of Canada is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with Pelosi to discuss the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
PEARCE
Election a chance to toughen climate-change targets, McKenna says
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is hinting that the upcoming Liberal election platform will promise deeper cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions, including the possibility of legislating targets.
McKenna says her focus for now remains on Canada’s current targets – to cut emissions so they are no more than 70 per cent what they were in 2005 by 2030 – and implementing the policies the Liberal government has already put forward, including carbon pricing, phasing out coal and a standard for clean fuel.
But she noted there is a federal election coming up and an entire platform from the Liberals to come.
“We all know we need to get to a better place,” she said. “We need to do more like the whole world needs to do more.”
Some parts of the world are doing more.
New Zealand introduced legislation in early May to get emissions by 2050 to “net zero” –where emissions produced are offset entirely by greenhouse gases consumed by plants and trees or captured and stored using technology. Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May is making “net zero by 2050” legislation one of her final acts as her country’s leader, introducing a bill on June 12 to set legally binding targets. France is working on similar legislation. Putting such targets into law might have little practical effect but it can be a symbol of how seriously a government takes a problem.
Such a law can also require periodic reports from ministers and departments on what they’re doing to achieve particular goals and how much difference it’s making.
Canada’s plans are less clear.
Last fall, the government acknowledged projections that its existing policies will get Canada only a little more than halfway to its emissions target.
Emissions in 2017, the most recent year for which they are available, were 716 million tonnes. To hit the current targets, Canada needs to get to 513 million tonnes. Last fall Canada said the current policies leave us about 80 million tonnes shy of the goal.
McKenna believes Canada will get there all the same, as Canadians adopt technology like electric cars and once investments in public transit and other innovative solutions are taken into account.
But next week the Liberals are to decide whether to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion for a second time. An expanded pipeline carrying more Alberta bitumen to the West Coast could see emissions from the oilsands go up another 10 million tonnes. Meeting the national emissions target would require even more cuts to come from other sectors.
The Liberals are under immense pressure to finally prove their long-standing claim that the environment can be protected while still developing Canada’s natural resources, a claim their opponents on both sides of the spectrum argue is bogus.
Six right-leaning premiers this week accused the Liberals of threatening national unity by pushing through a new environmental-assessment regime for major construction projects. Among other things, it requires climate-change impacts to be taken into account when deciding whether to approve new major projects like pipelines and hydro lines.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau wrote the premiers back on Friday to accuse them of being the ones threatening national unity as well as risking Canadians’ health and jobs, infringing Indigenous people’s rights and harming endangered species.
Green leader Elizabeth May, whose party is polling better on the national stage than ever before, said Friday that a law requiring Canada’s emissions to be “net zero” by mid-century is the least the country can aim for.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh wants to cut Canada’s emissions in half by 2030, a more ambitious goal than the Liberals have set.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer – who is to unveil his much-anticipated climate plan June 19 – hasn’t yet said how he will meet Canada’s existing emissions targets, and has
been somewhat coy about whether he intends to meet them at all.
But pressure on McKenna to toughen the emissions target isn’t just coming from outside her party.
Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith introduced a private-members bill on June 5 that would enshrine in legislation a goal to get Canada to zero net emissions by 2050.
Erskine-Smith knows his bill will never see the light of debate, introduced as it was in the waning days of this Parliament, but he’s hoping to draw attention to the need for Canada to do a lot more than it’s doing to keep the planet from warming catastrophically.
“We have made some meaningful progress but to meet our international, generational and moral obligations to tackle climate change we need greater ambition,” he said.
“I hope to see this in our platform going forward. In the end I hope to see it in all parties’ platforms.”
The Paris climate-change agreement has every country in the world pledged to cut its emissions to help keep the planet from warming up much more than 1.5 C, compared to preindustrial times. By 2016, the world had already warmed up by 1 C, and it will hit 1.5 C by 2040 without drastic action.
For countries such as Canada, the report said, emissions need to be cut 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, and to zero by 2050.
The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Canada Post is proposing to raise the prices of stamps ever-so-slightly next year. The federal corporation says it is looking to increase the price of stamps two cents, to 92 cents, for a stamp purchased as part of a sheet of stamps, or to $1.07 for a single stamp.
The Crown corporation says it expects the cost to Canadians would be about 26 cents a year and the cost to businesses would be about $6. Regulations made public Friday show the cost to send mail or packages internationally would go up between three cents and 48 cents depending on the size and destination.
The proposals are subject to a 30-day consultation.
If approved, the new rates would take effect Jan. 13, 2020.
Last year, Canada Post delivered about three billion pieces of mail, a 44-per-cent decline from a peak in 2006, though that’s partly because of major work stoppages in the fall related to a labour dispute. Meanwhile, an average of 174,000 new addresses are added in Canada each year, requiring Canada Post to deliver to more places. The result, the Crown corporation says, is a drop in revenue with a before-tax loss of $270 million in 2018 compared to a profit of $76 million in 2017.
Increasing postage rates would generate $9 million in gross revenues, Canada Post predicts.
The Citizen archives put more than 100 years of history at your fingertips: https://bit.ly/2RsjvA0
CP PHOTO
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday.
Liberals stop slump in the polls
Joan BRYDEN The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — A new poll suggests the federal Liberals have stopped the bleeding from the beating they took in the SNCLavalin furor.
The Leger poll suggests the Liberals have closed the gap slightly with the front-running Conservatives since April and dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government has eased a bit.
More significantly, the poll also suggests the Liberals have opened up a 14-point lead over the Conservatives when it comes to which of the two main parties Canadians would prefer to see form government after the Oct. 21 vote.
At the same time, however, the poll suggests more Canadians are worried about the prospect of four more years of Trudeau’s Liberals than they are about the Conservatives regaining power.
The poll of 1,528 Canadians, randomly recruited from Leger’s online panel, was conducted between June 7 and 10 for The Canadian Press; polling experts say online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not generate a random sample of the population.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents said they would vote for Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives if an election were held today, versus 29 per cent for Trudeau’s Liberals - a two-point dip for the Tories and a two-point uptick for the Grits.
Another 13 per cent said they would vote for Jagmeet Singh’s NDP, 11 per cent for Elizabeth May’s Green party and three per cent for Maxime Bernier’s fledgling People’s Party of Canada.
Fifty-eight per cent registered dissatisfaction with Trudeau’s government, down seven points, while 36 per cent said they were satisfied, up five points.
And 25 per cent picked Scheer as the leader they think would make the best prime minister, unchanged since April, while 22 per cent picked Trudeau, up two points. Another eight per cent picked May, six per cent chose Singh and four per cent Bernier.
A Leger poll in April found support for
the Liberals and Trudeau had sunk to a new low, in the immediate aftermath of the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Trudeau lost two senior cabinet ministers, a top aide and the country’s top public servant as a result of allegations that his former attorney general, Jody WilsonRaybould, was improperly pressured by the Prime Minister’s Office last fall to halt a criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant.
While the latest survey suggests only very modest improvement for the ruling party on most questions, the biggest change came when respondents were asked whether Canada would be better off under a Liberal or a Conservative government: 34 per cent preferred the Liberals versus 20 per cent the Conservatives.
In April, the Liberals had only a five-point lead over the Conservatives (30 to 25) on that question.
Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque speculated that the shift is due to people getting past their initial reaction to the SNC-Lavalin affair and focusing on the choice they’ll have to make at the ballot box in October.
“My guess is that all the news coverage, all the polls and all the pundits saying that the Conservatives were surging, that the Liberals were in trouble, maybe some people are waking up and saying, ‘Wait a minute here, I stated my case on whatever my thoughts were on the Wilson-Raybould crisis and therefore (said) not Trudeau but, hey, what’s the outcome?’ ”
But the poll also suggests there are some contrary impulses at play as voters contemplate the coming election. Forty-six per cent of respondents said they’re most worried about the prospect of four more years of Trudeau’s government while 37 per cent said they’re most concerned about the prospect of the Conservatives regaining power.
Bourque said the results suggest to him that the coming campaign could see the Conservatives trying to turn the election into a referendum on Trudeau’s leadership and the Liberals trying to turn it into a referendum on what their party stands for.
Victoria council to fund Remembrance Day ceremony
Dirk MEISSNER The Canadian Press Victoria council dropped its plan Thursday to seek federal funds to cover Remembrance Day ceremony costs, deciding apologies to veterans and those currently serving in Canada’s Armed Forces were in order.
A council committee voted last week to approach the Defence Department and Veterans Affairs Canada about helping with policing costs for Remembrance Day events, but the move provoked widespread criticism from veterans and Canadians who said it was disrespectful to the military and the sacrifices made by those who serve.
Council decided instead to mend fences, voting unanimously to provide $135,500 from its contingency fund to help with policing costs for Canada Day, Remembrance Day and other events. The Remembrance Day funding amendment did not even come up for debate Thursday, but that did not stop several council members from apologizing over the uproar.
“I am sorry on behalf of this council,” said Mayor Lisa Helps, who opposed the original plan to approach the federal government for funding. “I think when we send any kind of signal that feels like disrespect to the military, that is not a good signal to send.”
Helps said she and the other members of council were inundated over the past
week with messages from people across Canada upset about the plan to look for government funds for Remembrance Day ceremonies. She said debating Remembrance Day funding last Thursday on the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion added more fire to the issue.
“I think all members of council gave this sober second thought,” she said outside of the meeting. “Those of us who did not support the motion last week, I think, we are very happy to see it not even hit the floor this evening.”
Coun. Ben Isitt initiated the request, saying the Canadian Forces budget is in the billions of dollars and should help the city defray some costs associated with the event. He told council Thursday that the discussion about funding community events such as Remembrance Day was poorly timed.
“If anyone was offended by the timing of council’s consideration of that motion, my apologies, particularly to ex-soldiers and other ex-members of the Armed Forces,” said Isitt, who declined to make further comments after the meeting. Canadian military veteran Keith Rosenberg addressed council, saying the members who voted in favour of the funding review last week, “should be ashamed of yourselves.”
He said council should apologize to all veterans and called for Isitt to step down from council.
SCHEER
TRUDEAU
Everyone can be Raptor resilient
The Toronto Raptors have won their first NBA title in franchise history, and their star player, Kawhi Leonard, was crowned the most valuable player in the finals.
But just a year ago, Leonard’s career was plagued by injuries that caused him to miss almost the entire basketball season.
So when the Raptors acquired him in the summer of 2018, they put him on a regimen of what’s known as load management to ensure he was healthy and capable of performing at his best.
According to the International Olympic Committee, the goal of load management is to design loads, such as training and competition, to enhance performance while reducing the risk of injury. Essentially, load management helps athletes stay resilient in the face of the many relentless demands they face.
Each of us can apply load management in our lives to help promote our own resilience and success.
Most of us aren’t elite athletes focused on maximizing physical prowess. We are more likely to be employees, caregivers and students who are mainly focused on ensuring our mental competence. We therefore need to focus on our psychological load more than our physical load.
The psychological component of load management involves successfully handing the internal loads we face, like stress, that can interfere with our well-being and performance.
One of the ways to manage our psychological load and combat the
stress of everyday obligations is to ensure that we enjoy an adequate amount of leisure time that allows for recovery. We also need to make sure that our time spent unwinding is of sufficient quality. Ironically, though, it is precisely when our loads are most intense and our stressors most extreme that we are least likely to participate in activities that allow us to recover. This is known as the recovery paradox. For example, one effective strategy for combating the stressors caused by our everyday experiences is to engage in psychological detachment, which involves men-
Trudeau battles
the
The West is out.
Again. The federal-provincial narrative of pre-election politics is on.
Again.
As it heads into an election, Justin Trudeau’s suddenly trailing government is in the process of passing heavy-handed, ruleladen, jurisdiction-intruding legislation of how Canada reviews its infrastructure proposals, the much-maligned Bill C-69. Environmentalists quite correctly rejoice, but investors quite correctly will think longer and harder about coming here, while businesses quite correctly worry we will be saying no more than yes when developing resources at the heart of the economy. Where and near where we live are most affected and bound to become most disaffected.
Politically written off.
Again.
A letter in the last week from six premiers – five of them conservatives – castigates the C-69 overreach and another law, Bill C-48, to ban oil tankers from northern waters, legislation that formalizes recent practice. Trudeau had options to keep his cool but demonstrated a certain inherited imperiousness by losing his shoo and incredulously accusing the premiers of savaging national unity. They barked back that he started it, and there we are with the scripted standoff heading into October’s general vote.
To be fair and restrained about the political moment, this was the first occasion for the five conservative first ministers to put joint
tally “turning off” from our daily obligations in our leisure time. However, when we experience stressful job situations that involve deadline pressures, conflict at the office or emotional demands, we are less likely to psychologically detach in our leisure time. This adds to our load and prevents recovery. Sleep is another method for helping us recuperate from our daily hassles. In fact, high-quality sleep is one of the most important recovery mechanisms there is. Unfortunately however, when we experience strain in our jobs due to things such as a lack of control
Furious Five! TO THE POINT
KIRK LAPOINTE
pen to paper, a first self-serving flag-waving of many in the months ahead. Andrew Scheer might be the leader of the official Opposition, but the premiers are the political equivalent of a football Fearsome Five that Trudeau must navigate to get across the goal line.
Jason Kenney of Alberta, Scott Moe of Saskatchewan, Brian Pallister of Manitoba, Doug Ford of Ontario and Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick – along with a less conservative-leaning Bob Macleod of the Northwest Territories – are in a funk for good reason. They may be over the mountain, but they are not over the top.
These two bills jar the federalprovincial dynamic and at best will help the constitutional lawyers put their grandchildren through medical school. Even if we might disagree with the premiers’ objections, we ought to worry about the thin edge of this wedge the federal government appears to be widening.
The Senate is typically what is fair to call the taskless thanks of Canadian politics, but the Conservative-led committee that proposed hundreds of amendments to Bill C-69 was more right than wrong in its prescription. It was off base to suggest the infrastructure reviews be granted discretion to dodge Indigenous consultation – this is the new normal – but it was on point to
suggest the new review agency have profound powers of independence.
As for Bill C-48, it seems incongruent with Trudeau’s bent to enable the same-styled traffic within a golf shot of B.C. cities. No matter.
The Senate appears ready to pass it, even if one of its committees says it shouldn’t.
We want our projects to be ultra-safe, to mitigate risk to our marine life, to employ the best technology to minimize the environmental footprint and ideally to have the concurrence of our First Nations or to work through an acceptable settlement. Believe it or not, so do the premiers who signed the letter.
What they don’t comprehend is how we now will play our hand early as the projects are initiated, how we will lay down the cards and lose to other, less savoury players. This is like a negotiation in which you reveal your books and say you will withstand a certain settlement to put you beyond the brink.
The tag-team premiers will not always be right, but they know that we will not move to a greener economy without the most lucrative segue from the lingering messy one.
We will not prosper globally if we cannot ship that messy goo abroad and fetch the highest price for it to invest in the new energy forms.
On this matter, Trudeau agrees with them in calling the pipeline twinning a national priority. He has also supported the LNG Canada megaproject. But his law might make it the last gasp of energy infrastructure.
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.
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over our work tasks, it interferes with the quality of our sleep and prevents recovery.
A failure to engage in proper load management can have disastrous consequences. We saw this in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, when Golden State Warrior Kevin Durant, his team on the verge of elimination, laced up to try to help his squad live to fight another day despite nursing an injury to his right calf.
Tragically, however, in the second quarter of the crucial game, he ruptured his Achilles tendon and required surgery that may put him on the sidelines for the entire
next season. For those of us who are not professional athletes, participating in physical activities in our leisure time can be an effective source of unwinding that helps us manage our psychological load. Again, though, research shows that stressful experiences during our work or obligation time can lead us to engage in less exercise and other physical activities in our leisure time. This prevents us from recovering as successfully as we could.
Human beings are not machines. We can’t be on the go nonstop and expect to excel. For us to perform at our best we need to recover successfully from the numerous and persistent demands we face on a daily basis – just as Kawhi Leonard did during his months of load management.
This requires overcoming the recovery paradox and ensuring that we participate in leisure activities that help us recuperate, particularly when we experience high levels of stress.
Managing our psychological loads is an important part of enjoying a good life, ensuring our own resilience and performing at our best. The King in the North is a great example of how implementing load management can keep us physically and psychologically healthy and promote our ultimate success.
Congratulations to the Toronto Raptors on a historic victory – and on embracing the importance of load management.
— Jamie Gruman is a professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Guelph. This article first appeared in The Conversation.
NDP sabotaging homeowners
Never in history has B.C. lost so much wealth so quickly –and intentionally.
A year and a half ago, British Columbians awoke to a startling announcement from their government: the BC NDP said it would enact whatever initiatives were required to reduce home prices.
This was a revolutionary statement. For the first time in history, a government in Canada announced that its policy was to proactively reduce the wealth of the majority of its constituents.
Approximately 70 per cent of British Columbians own a home, and the majority work hard to slowly pay down large mortgages. These homeowners are careful and prudent families who are working to build an asset over time.
A year and a half ago, seven in 10 British Columbians found themselves confronted by a government that was actively, and openly, trying to make them poorer. It is worth looking at what this policy has achieved. It cannot be denied that it has been wildly successful. Recent reports are that $90 billion has been lost in home value in Metro Vancouver over the past year alone. That is equal to roughly 65 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s $137 billion GDP. It represents approximately $40,000 for every resident of Metro Vancouver, almost matching average annual salaries.
Behind this success is the fact that no rational person would make an investment into an asset where it is the government’s stated policy to make that asset worth less. Some observers point to other drivers of B.C.’s housing correction, especially the federal government’s tightening of mortgage lending rules.
However, the Greater Toronto Area has absorbed the federal changes and the market there
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remains healthy.
The key ingredient in B.C. is that there is no reason to believe the market will recover as long as it is the government’s policy to ensure that it does not.
The real estate development and construction industries – which account for more than 20 per cent of B.C.’s economy – are facing a significant downturn as a result.
An MLA Canada advisory on April 2019 pre-sale real estate insights stated that approximately 5,000 concrete units within 17 development projects have been postponed. Housing starts are down by at least 20 per cent.
Further project cancellations are announced weekly. Billions in investment has already been lost, with job losses and associated decline in economic activity to follow.
One is hard pressed to find the winners of this NDP policy. Despite the massive wealth destruction and economic damage, few millennials are now celebrating that they can finally afford a home, nor would it make sense for any of them to buy a home as long as it is their government’s stated policy to destroy the savings they invest.
Few homeowners will tell you they had excess wealth and had no plans or eventual use for the equity in their homes.
For the believers in the policy, the argument is that its benefits have yet to be realized because it has not gone far enough. With patience and perseverance, they believe, we can eventually destroy enough of our own wealth to be free of this problem.
— Norm Streu is the president and chief operating officer of LMS Reinforcing Steel Group.
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First Nations, developer seek protection of burial site
The Canadian Press
Indigenous leaders from across British Columbia and parts of the United States gathered at a sacred burial site in Abbotsford, alongside the developer who owns it, calling for its protection by the provincial government.
From a grassy plateau overlooking farmland in the Fraser Valley, Sema:th First Nation Chief Dalton Silver told those who assembled on Friday that they were standing on a mass grave. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Sema:th and Sto:lo First Nations were killed by smallpox carried by colonists, wiping out an estimated 80 to 90 per cent of their populations, he said.
The Sema:th have been fighting for years to have the 65-hectare property known as Lightning Rock returned to them.
“I can’t really explain in detail the cultural and spiritual importance for our people to protect the resting places of our ancestors,” Silver said.
John Glazema of Cold Water Ranch Developments said he was among a group of developers who purchased the site in 2011 with plans to build an agricultural mall but only learned of its spiritual and cultural significance a year later.
“So we stopped. And we did the right thing, we’re going to respect our neighbours and we’re going to do what’s right with respect to these burial grounds. So we’re not going to dig it up,” he said.
Since then, he said they have been in negotiations with the province to return the site to the Sema:th people, but have yet to reach a settlement for their $12 million in costs.
Chief Dalton Silver shares a laugh Friday with land developer John Glazema after signing a letting to the government of British Columbia following a ceremony of Indigenous leaders in a call to save a First Nations burial site in Abbotsford.
The lengthy process and large interest payments have been costly for the developers and their families, Glazema said.
They were hopeful two years ago after signing a letter of understanding with the province that said they would receive reimbursement for exactly what they had paid.
“And still we’re here fighting for our money back,” he said.
More than a dozen Indigenous leaders, including former lieutenant-governor Steven Point and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, signed a joint letter to Premier John Horgan calling for the lands to be returned.
Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser was unavailable to comment but his office issued a joint statement with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
“We acknowledge that Lightning Rock is a sacred place for Sema:th. We have had extensive discussions with Sema:th and the landowner, and we continue to work to
find a solution to protect the Lightning Rock site,” the statement says. The site isn’t protected under the specific criteria of the Heritage Conservation Act, so the ministries say they’re working to find “an alternative solution.”
“We have respected the request of the nation that the site not be disturbed. That has meant we have been unable to obtain the archeological evidence required for the protection under the Heritage Conservation Act,” the statement says.
The province remains interested in finding a solution, it says.
Dave Schaepe, an archeologist who has worked with the Sto:lo for 20 years, said the process shows there’s a two-tiered system for protecting sites in Canada, where there’s an “intangible” connection between human lives and the land.
He gave the example of the Slesse Mountain airplane crash monument near Chilliwack, which is recognized and protected legally as a memorial to the 62 people who died the 1956 crash but whose bodies were never recovered.
“There’s an aspect of a similar situation, intangible heritage where there’s a combination of humans and people with the land. That’s protected but this area is not,” he said.
All major anthropological and archeological bodies in the world have endorsed a declaration on the safeguarding of Indigenous ancestral burial grounds as sacred sites and cultural landscapes, Schaepe said.
“There’s a basis here and a call to action more broadly to do something about situations like this and the Lightning Rock exemplifies this need,” he said.
CP PHOTO
Alberta’s hidden Rockies gem
Colette Derworiz
The Canadian Press
It’s off the beaten path with adventures ranging from viewing burly bison on the plains to hiking the stunning ridge of nearby Coliseum Mountain.
Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site, an archeological site that has remnants of early 19th century fur trading posts, is in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains west of Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton.
Each time you visit the rustic area, there’s opportunity for a new experience.
“I really like Rocky,” said Susan Kennard, manager of heritage programs with Parks Canada, which manages the site. “To me, it feels like it’s infused with the community spirit, too. That makes a difference there.”
Four forts once stood on the land at the confluence of the North Saskatchewan and Clearwater rivers.
First Nations, the Metis and European traders used the rivers like highways, transporting their goods to and from the forts – a centre of commerce in the West for decades.
Only remnants of the forts remain, but there are plenty of signs pointing to the significance of the site.
You can explore the Chimney Trail, which goes through the archeological remains of two Hudson’s Bay Company forts from 1835 and 1868, or the David Thompson Trail, which follows the banks of the river.
There are also several heritage programs including First Nation drum and song, as well as bannock-making and dream-catcher workshops.
Marcien LeBlanc, past-president of Metis Local 845, said they actively try to teach people who visit about the history of the place.
“We train the young people to be able to tell people about that,” he said.
LeBlanc said visitors can tour two tents and climb aboard a Red River Cart to imagine what life was once like there.
The programs are run by the Metis, the Confluence Heritage Society or Parks Canada.
“People love the idea of doing a beading workshop or capote making,” said Kennard.
Visitors can also walk up to a lookout and catch glimpses of some of the 12 Plains bison in the paddock.
And make sure to listen for yipping coyotes, watch for deer wandering through the campground and keep an ear out for mooing cows – sometimes all in the same day.
“It’s a hidden gem,” said Kennard.
Our group, which included two children, also found must-do activities in the surrounding area:
• Head down to the shore of the brilliantly blue Abraham Lake. Located along the David Thompson Highway between Saskatchewan River Crossing and Nordegg, it’s a man-made lake and the province’s largest reservoir for drinking water.
The lake was created in 1972 with the construction of the Bighorn Dam.
• Hike on trails like Siffleur Falls, a 10-kilometre hike with impressive waterfalls; and Coliseum Mountain, a 12-kilometre trail with stunning views. The trails are much quieter than those in nearby Banff National Park.
• Tour an old mine site, a collection of buildings and machinery left from coal-mining operations of the Brazeau Collieries in Nordegg.
• Eat pie at the Miners’ Cafe in Nordegg. Try the banana cream and the strawberry rhubarb and the coconut cream. There’s lunch, too, but definitely save room for the pie – or take a full pie home with you.
If you go
What’s new: A Plains bison exhibit will open at the visitor centre this summer, allowing people to watch a video about their reintro-
duction in nearby Banff National Park. The visitor centre also has a new 3D Virtual Reality Experience, which allows visitors to tour the four fur trading posts - made in a version of the Minecraft video game – with virtual reality goggles. How to book: Reservations can
be made online for the teepees, trapper tents, trapline cabins or camping. The teepees have room for eight people, the trapper’s tents fit three to five people and the trapline cabins sleep up to six. All have comfy mattresses to sleep on, but bring your own sleeping bags and
pillows. There’s also 10 walk-in tenting sites and 26 unserviced trailer sites.
How to get there: Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site is located west of Red Deer, Alta. on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. It’s between 200 and 225 kilometres from Calgary or Edmonton,
depending on the route you take. There are several scenic options, but the easiest way is taking Highway 2 to Red Deer and driving west to Rocky Mountain House, Alta. The historic site is about a 10-minute drive from town, just off of Highway 11A.
-CP PHOTOS
Above, Abraham Lake in central Alberta is a man-made lake and the province’s largest reservoir for drinking water. Below, Katherine O’Neill and her daughter Lauren stand on the ridge of Coliseum Mountain north of Nordegg, Alta.
Sports
Cricket tournament
A cricket match between Royals United (in blue) and Kings XI (in red/black) in Vanier Park Friday afternoon. The Kings XI won the match by five wickets. What’s new with the Cougars? Get
Junior football Huskies latch on to Adams
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
College Heights secondary school graduate Oak Adams is off to Edmonton to begin the next chapter of his life and he’s got two jobs lined up. Both will involve having sticky hands.
One of them is working with his uncle on a paving crew, the other is playing junior football as a receiver for the Edmonton Huskies.
Adams had four other junior teams interested in his services on the gridiron and he decided on Edmonton, where his aunt and uncle will be on hand to provide the comforts of home.
“It’s exciting, I’m leaving next Friday,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and having a team that actually shows up for practice and everyone wants to play. We’ll be practicing four of five times a week and we have (gym) workouts three times a week as well.”
After two years as the Cougars’ starting quarterback, sometimes working with a skeleton crew in the high school ranks, Adams will switch to slotback as a junior rookie this season. He’s always had good hands, whether it’s throwing or receiving and he doesn’t anticipate he’ll have trouble making the switch to receiver, even though he’s still on the mend after separating his shoulder a few months ago while snowboarding.
“I enjoyed playing quarterback but there’s only one quarterback on the field at a time,” he said. “My shoulder still looks messed up but it works. We’re going into war with duct tape.”
Adams was always a gifted athlete with speed to burn and he started out playing lacrosse before he took up basketball and football. His focus switched to football during a Grade 9 gym class when one of the players on the College Heights team saw what he could do cradling a football in the hook of his arm.
“We started playing this football-type game and I took the ball and ran through the entire gym class and one of the guys who played said, ‘You’ve got to come out and play football, you’ll be one of the best.’ So I went to a couple practices and started playing the game and I just loved it. The team atmosphere and everything in football is just great.”
“Hopefully I can get there to play,” he said.
Adams and Matt Kemp of College Heights were picked for the Matt Pearce Memorial Bursary which rewards high-achieving football players for their work in the classroom. The award is named for Pearce, a College Heights teacher/Duchess Park coach who played professionally as a fullback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“He coached every one of my basketball games and he coached at Duchess Park because his son played there,” said Adams.
“He was super-involved in the community and that inspired me to give back. I do coaching with the seven-on-seven touch football coaching the younger kids and I got offered a coaching spot when I get back next spring.”
Adams has a stellar academic record at College Heights, except for math, and he plans to upgrade his marks in that subject this summer, now that he’s been accepted to UNBC’s forestry program for the winter semester in January. He’s hoping to eventually transfer to the University of Alberta.
Adams went to the Huskies’ spring camp in May and made the team. He’s the only B.C.-born player on the Huskies roster. He had a tough season last year at College
Heights as one of the Cougar captains. The team played well early in the season but injuries and a lack of players led to the Cougars having to default their semifinal playoff against Nechako Valley. In 2017, they got to the P.G. Bowl final and as Northern Conference runners-up College Heights advanced to a provincial playoff game in Vernon.
Adams’ cousin Connor also played for the College Heights senior team and Oak’s 16-year-old brother Austin is a promising young running back/receiver who will keep the Adams family tradition going this year on the Cougars senior team.
“Austin is very quick, he’s kind of small but he does laps around everyone,” said Oak. “His lateral movement is unreal, he moves side-to-side like a rabbit.”
The Huskies play in the six-team Prairie Conference with the Winnipeg Rifles, Saskatoon Hilltops, Regina Thunder, Calgary Colts and Edmonton Wildcats. The Huskies have won five national titles since their inception in 1954 and last year got as far as the conference final, which they lost to
Saskatoon, the eventual Canadian Bowl champions.
The Huskies open their eight-game 2019 schedule at home at Clarke Park on Aug. 18 against Regina. Seven other graduating Northern Conference players have made junior teams, all in the B.C. Junior Football Conference. That list includes four Kamloops Broncos – receiver T.J. Nyberg, fullback/linebacker Tyler Frederick, lineman Cody Hawn and running back/defensive back Sam Maganda, who all played for the Kelly Road Roadrunners. From the Prince George Polars, running back/linebacker Gage Ridland and fullback/linebacker Gage Bernard are heading to the Okanagan Sun, while Polars running back/linebacker Gavin Murray has been recruited to the Chilliwack Huskers. PGSS quarterback Braden Reed has locked up a scholarship with the Queens University Golden Gaels, the defending U Sports national champions. Reed did double-duty on defence with the Polars, as most local high school players do, and will play as a linebacker at Queens.
CITIZEN
College Heights Cougars player Oak Adams scrambles and gets off a pass against the Duchess Park Condors at the Prince George Secondary School fields in the 2018 Matt Pearce Memorial Spirit Game.
Free agency looms over NBA off-season
The Associated Press
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is expected to open next week’s draft by announcing that Zion Williamson is the No. 1 overall selection headed to New Orleans. And four months after that, Silver will be in Toronto on opening night to help the Raptors hand out championship rings and watch them raise a banner.
There are few other certainties in the NBA right now.
The league has a new champion and a new landscape. Toronto has climbed to the mountaintop, defeating a Golden State team that lost All-Stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson to major injuries toward the end of the NBA Finals. For the first time in a half-decade, the Warriors won’t be the overwhelming favourites to win it all next season. They might not even be favoured to win the Western Conference.
“I think true champions like we are, we should be able to adapt and keep this same kind of DNA no matter what our roster looks like next year,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “And have high hopes about being back on this stage, whether it looks the same or not.”
It won’t look the same. Not much will next season.
The champion Raptors don’t know if they’ll be keeping NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who becomes a free agent in a couple weeks and one that every team with lots of spending power will want. Danny Green, who went to Toronto in the deal that brought Leonard, is a free agent. Marc Gasol, a huge midseason pickup, is a free agent. There are even reports that Raptors president Masai Ujiri may consider leaving.
“I was focused on the now, and I wanted to make history here and that’s all I did,” Leonard said. “I’m still playing basketball no matter what jersey I have on.”
Durant won’t be playing on opening night next season, and almost certainly not on any night next season because of his torn Achilles – though he’ll still be highly coveted if he hits the freeagent market as expected.
Thompson will miss, at mini-
mum, most of the regular season with his torn ACL. The Warriors may lose DeMarcus Cousins in free agency and Shaun Livingston to retirement.
The team going to San Francisco might look much different than the one that ended this season in Oakland.
Longtime NBA stars like Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker will be gone, enjoying retirements. Vince Carter plans to be back for a 22nd and final season.
Leonard, LeBron James and Andre Iguodala – if he returns, which is expected – may be the only three players on the court to start the season with an NBA Finals MVP trophy in their possession.
There will be new coaches taking over in Sacramento, Phoenix, Cleveland, Memphis and with the Los Angeles Lakers. The makeups of the front-office teams in Wash-
ington and New Orleans will be different.
And then there’s all the player movement, which could be seismic.
Anthony Davis may be traded by the Pelicans, as the soap opera there continues. Kyrie Irving, who told Boston fans before the season that he’d re-sign with the Celtics, is going to be a free agent. Durant might change teams. Thompson may as well, though that seems unlikely. Kemba Walker is dropping every hint that he wants to stay in Charlotte.
“I don’t know if I’ll sign back with them,” said Walker, who is eligible for a supermax contract worth $221 million over five years. “I’m not sure. But they are my first priority. ... We’ll see when the time comes.”
There’s going to be a lot of “we’ll see” over the next few months.
Milwaukee had the NBA’s best regular-season record at 60-22 and will likely enter next season with the MVP – if Giannis Antetokounmpo walks away with that trophy on June 24.
He’s vowing to improve and that might make the Bucks, who have some free-agent decisions to ponder, better as well.
“Giannis is going to get better,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “To be excited about his future at 24... the thing that makes Giannis unique and exciting is in our minds, we feel like he’s going to get a lot better. Giannis, we feel, has got a lot of room to grow.”
Philadelphia gave Toronto all it wanted in a seven-game series, and seeing the Raptors win the title might convince the 76ers that they’re right there as far as being a championship-ready club. In L.A., James missed the finals
for the first time since 2010 and will surely be motivated for better things – if the Lakers can escape the dysfunctional rut that they’ve been in for the past few months. Houston may sense opportunity with Golden State ailing. Oklahoma City has two elite players in Russell Westbrook and Paul George, both coming off surgeries. Perhaps it’s time for a team like Denver or Portland to take another big step forward. At this time last year, few thought the Raptors would win the 2019 championship. Everyone should stay tuned to see who wins in 2020 – there are no guarantees.
“I know how hard it’s been, how hard it is to get here,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said, a few minutes after he became a champion for the first time. “And it takes some luck.”
AP PHOTO
Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard celebrates after the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of basketball’s NBA Finals in Oakland on Thursday. Leonard, Marc Gasol and Danny Green are among the many free agents across the league.
Veteran rider makes cut for pro motocross
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Dean Johnson is living proof motocross is not just a young man’s game.
Just two months shy of his 50th birthday, the Fort St. James mill worker was more than willing to puts his guts through the blender racing the 450cc pro class last weekend at the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MX tour stop at Blackwater Motocross Park, and lived to tell the tale.
Just to qualify for the race was a feat in itself, taking on some of the top professional riders in Canada and the United States, most of whom are half his age.
Johnson was among 37 riders who lined up in the gate and he finished 32nd in his first moto and 35th in the second to place 35th overall.
He was three laps behind the leaders when the checkered flag dropped, but those guys up front do it for a living as sponsored riders. Johnson decided this year he’d take a run at the pros riding a bike he borrowed from his buddy, Garry Logan, at Forest Power Sports.
It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for Johnson racing one of the most technically-challenging courses on the pro circuit. Blackwater is known for its long steep pitches, rutty tracks and bone-jarring bumps and it didn’t help tat his 450 pro class are marathons – 30 minutes plus two laps – more than enough to leave him feeling drained.
“It’s really rough out there, I probably haven’t rode a track that rough in 20 years,” said Johnson, while sipping on a cool drink of water.
“I’m turning 50 this year so I wanted to have one last kick at the can and qualify for a national and go and have fun, mix it up with the guys and show some of the younger kids that age in not something that makes you pack everything in. You can still do things when you’re old.
“I want to kind of be that guy kids look up to, ‘It’s cool, he’s still racing,’ I want to be that guy. It’s satisfying. My arms are throbbing a bit, but everything else feels good.”
UNBC
Johnson started racing motocross when he was 15 and knows how hard you have to train to be able to race at a national level. Before last weekend it had been 20 years
Timberwolves
since he last raced in a national event. That was also at Blackwater and placed seventh overall after finishing 16th on the Western national pro circuit the previous season.
soccer teams release schedules
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Last year the UNBC Timberwolves men’s soccer program had its best team since joining the U Sports Canada West Conference in 2012.
But on the final weekend of the season the T-wolves gave up goals in injury time in consecutive games and dropped from third to fifth. Despite posting a winning 5-4-6 record, their first-ever finish above the .500 mark, they missed the playoffs.
The horror of that lost weekend has burned in the minds of the T-wolves ever since.
They’ll get their chance to erase that painful memory starting Aug. 27 in Kelowna when they start the season with a weekend set against the UBC-Okanagan Heat.
Led by veterans Rob Goodey, Cody Gyspers, Jonah Smith, Owen Stewart, James Stephens and Joel Watson, the T-wolves will be a much younger squad than the veteran-laden group they were in
2018. Ten players from that team have moved on.
Now in his fifth season at the helm, head coach Steve Simonson is also putting his faith in his veterans and a group of promising second- and first-year players that includes Anthony Preston, Abou Cisse, Michael Henman, Mitch Linley, Graeme Lewis, Demian Dron, Daniel Zadravec and Hussein Behery.
Prince George audiences will get their first look at the T-wolves men at Masich Place Stadium when they play the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday, Aug. 30. The two-month regular season wraps up Oct. 19-20 when the T-wolves host the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack.
The T-wolves women will be looking for a third-straight postseason berth when they start their 14-game soccer season at Masich with home games against TRU, on Sept. 5, and UBC-Okanagan, on Sept. 7.
UNBC won its last two games of the season to finish 3-8-3, sixth
in the Pacific Division, and made the postseason. After establishing team highs for wins, points and goals, the T-wolves went into the playoffs against the Manitoba Bisons and beat them 2-1 for their first-ever playoff victory. Their season came to an end the following weekend with a 7-0 loss to UBC.
Fourth-year head coach Neil Sedgwick will have plenty of experienced players to work with this year, including Canada West all-star Paige Payne and speedy striker Sofia Jones, one of the top rookies in the conference last season. Fifth-year Julia Babicz and veteran defenders Ashley Volk and Mara McCleary are back for another Canada West season, surrounded by the likes of Kiana Swift, Sarah Zuccaro, Lydia Lavigne and rookies Claire Turner and Kalista Kirkness.
The T-wolves women will wrap up their eighth regular season Oct. 18-19 in Victoria.
See the complete T-wolves schedules below.
His job at Apollo Forest Products involves shift work and that means getting into the gym whatever time of the day suits his schedule. Ever since the snow melted in March he’s been making the half-hour trek to Vanderhoof, the closest motocross track, to practice on his bike. But there’s nothing like a race to replicate the adrenaline rush he gets cranking the throttle. Living on the edge for more than half-hour each race taxes his body to the limit.
“It’s exhilarating, but on the same page it’s mentally challenging and physically demanding and it’s something you can’t take lightly,” he said.
“I started training three months ago, changed my diet (trading sugar and carbohydrates for fruits and vegetables). If you’re going to do it, you can’t do it half-assed. There’s days when I’m lying there and I don’t want to go ride – I’m 50 and I’m tired – but if you want to come out here and do well, you have to do it. You have to put in the seat time, I’ve probably got close to 70 hours on this bike and my own personal bike this year, with three months to go. Last year I had 35 hours for the whole year.”
Most often he has his 20-year-old son Nathan along for the ride. Nathan, who started riding minis when he was five, tried to qualify last Saturday in the 250cc pro class for the Prince George pro race but came up two seconds short of cracking the 40-rider field.
“Me and him I think we were the only father and son to try out for nationals this weekend, because most of them aren’t old enough even to have kids,” laughed Nathan.
“It’s just really awesome to see your dad, 50 years old, out there. He’s happier than a pig. It’s so cool to see him out there racing. It’s not even being fast, it’s just knowing he’s out there. He was three laps down and still giving ‘er.”
The Blackwater race will be Johnson’s only pro race this year but he’s not going to let his talents for taming horsepower go to waste.
He plans to enter oldtimers series races this summer in Agassiz and Edmonton.
Astros beat Blue Jays
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Robinson Chirinos said he was late on the fastball the whole game. He finally caught up to one when it counted most.
Chirinos hit his first grand slam and finished with a careerhigh six RBIs, Gerrit Cole struck out 10 and the Houston Astros routed the Toronto Blue Jays 15-2 on Friday night.
“Thank God I was able to square one that went out of the ballpark,” Chirinos said.
“It was fun.”
After Toronto walked Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez on four pitches with the bases loaded, Chirinos cleared the bases with his 12th homer of the season off Thomas Pannone.
The Astros won their 13th straight series opener and improved to 9-3 in June.
Cole (6-5) allowed two runs and three hits while increasing his MLB-leading strikeout total to 140.
The Blue Jays’ runs came in the fifth inning. Cavan Biggio, son of Astros Hall of Fame
second baseman Craig Biggio, drew applause when he came to the plate. The younger Biggio doubled to deep centre field off Cole, scoring two runs. The elder Biggio cheered from the front row near the Houston dugout.
“I think it just goes to show the amount of respect the name Biggio holds in this stadium,” the younger Biggio said. “I think it’s cool for me, but it’s even a better tribute to my father and what he did.”
Biggio said he was a little emotional in his first at-bat after hearing longtime Astros PA announcer Bob Ford’s voice say his last name the same way he heard him announce his father’s name for many years of his childhood. He said he knew where his family was sitting but tried not to look at them.
Both teams loaded the bases in the first inning. The results were starkly different for each of the starting pitchers. Cole escaped the inning with a strikeout.
“I got into a better rhythm with the fastball command,” Cole said.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY TED CLARKE
Motorcross 450cc pro rider Dean Johnson of Fort St. James and his son Nathan take a break during the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MX motocross races last Saturday at Blackwater Motocross Park.
Iglesias looks back on ‘miracle’ life
Associated Press
The
At 75 and after a five-decadelong career, Julio Iglesias keeps performing internationally, driven by his passion and, above all, a relentless discipline.
It’s something the Spanish crooner says he had to learn early on, after a nearly fatal car accident frustrated his plans to play professional soccer.
“In fact, my life has been a miracle,” says Iglesias, recalling how he spent “months and months” in bed unable to move, and then needed canes to walk for more than two years. The “magical” accident – as he calls it today – stripped him of his physical strength and his life as he knew it, but it also gave him a greater awareness of other people’s struggles and helped him learn to fight, to listen, to look people in the eye. “You see life differently, you learn to live again,” Iglesias says.
It also put him in the path of music. While Iglesias was struggling to move his arms and fingers, his physician-father’s assistant gave him an old guitar as a gift.
“I learned five or six harmonies from a music book that I had, don’t think I learned much more than that because I couldn’t move my fingers that fast. That is why my first songs have two or three
harmonies,” the singer recalls with a laugh.
But those few chords were more than enough to launch an impressive career.
Iglesias, who also studied law, debuted in 1969 with the album Yo canto and went on to become one of the most successful singers in the world, with more than 250 million records sold around the globe.
He has received awards and accolades that include the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from Spain, was named a knight of France’s Legion of Honor and, early this year, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys. He is currently touring in Europe ahead of a series of shows in the U.S. that begin Sept. 14 in Boston.
How does he do it?
“Everything was a bigger struggle for me, everything required a bigger effort, so I understood that the sole basis for my future was discipline, and I maintain that discipline today, at 75,” Iglesias assures. “I mean, going out onstage to sing is an act of discipline and of absolute passion. Passion is natural, but discipline is willpower.”
In a recent interview with The Associated Press from the Dominican Republic, where he lives, Iglesias spoke about his life, his career, his family and his regrets.
Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: It’s been 50 years since the release of Yo canto and here you are, still singing strong. Besides discipline, what else has worked for you? Any advice for the younger generations?
Iglesias: Giving advice is very easy... but giving advice to younger people is hard. I have two older sons that sing, Julio and Enrique, and they don’t allow me to give them advice. They don’t, neither of them. And when we start talking about music, the conversation takes a different turn and goes to other places because they need their own free will, the absolute freedom to choose what they like. That is important.
AP: How did you develop that unique singing style?
Iglesias: In life, it is very important to be natural, because
that’s what creates your style. Good or bad, liked or disliked, but your style has to be unmistakable. When we speak of Pavarotti, Placido, Carreras or Bocelli, we are fundamentally speaking about great styles. I think the style is more important than the voice.
AP: In retrospective, anything you regret about your life or your career?
Iglesias: I regret not having taken more advantage of time – of the solidity of time, the intention of time. That’s why I don’t like to sleep much anymore. Had I known when I was 20 that I was going to be a musician, I would have taken to the piano, I would have taken the guitar more seriously, I would have perfected my knowledge of music.
AP: But here you are, one of the biggest artists in the world half a century later. You didn’t do so
badly...
Iglesias: No, but I think you must learn as much as you can, and also know how to learn. A few days ago, I recalled when I had a huge American success with the album 1100 Bel Air Place and I gave 12 or 14 concerts at the Universal Amphitheater. Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Bob Hope, legendary artists that have since passed away, came to see me, and I didn’t make the time. It didn’t occur to me to approach them, to have dinner with them and ask them about their lives to learn from them.
AP: You career demanded constant travelling. Would you have liked to spend more time with your family?
Iglesias: I don’t think – and I always say this clearly – that it affected my relationship with my children. Quite the opposite. Enrique is a singer, Julio is a singer, Chabeli did television for many years. Then there is Miguel, the only one who doesn’t like to sing. Rodrigo, who loves music. And the younger girls, who now want to be models or something. And my little Guillermo plays the piano, the drums, he is a natural musician. I think all those things happened because I opened a highway for them. Of course, they need to follow it, amplify it and seek other roads, separate from that road. But that opened a door that is the door of light, and the door of light is magical. That makes me not regret it. If I had taken much more care of my children, they wouldn’t have lights. And I would have lost my time.
AP: At 75, anything you would still like to achieve?
Iglesias: Many things. I like a lot to read; I don’t read that much anymore. I loved to travel; I travel less. In reality, time puts many things in its place. Stairs seem much longer and steeper. Everything after 65 starts to be a part of your life that you have to legitimize based on discipline. And give thanks continuously. In fact, my life has been a miracle. Almost like a novel: a person that plays soccer, that has an accident and almost dies, that studies law and starts to sing, that doesn’t know how to sing and sings, that doesn’t know how to walk and runs, that was a skinny boy and becomes stronger. I was nobody. And I’m still nobody because deep down we are all nobodies. Deep down it’s the people that make us somebody.
AP FILE PHOTO
Julio Iglesias smiles during his star unveiling ceremony at the Walk of Fame in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2016.
Ives’ new novel ‘a riotous success’
Special To The Washington Post
Lucy Ives’ hilarious novel Loudermilk or The Real Poet or The Origin of the World borrows its premise from Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac – and, according to Ives, Steve Martin’s 1987 rom-com Roxanne.
But it’s much more than a retelling of the familiar tale in which a homely poet writes verse to be recited by a clueless hunk.
It’s a farce about the struggle to make honest, unadulterated art in a market-driven world.
Poetry, long thought to be the product of creative purity – and almost anti-capitalist in its unmarketability – becomes a tool for deception and self-promotion in Ives’ capable hands.
Our Cyrano is Harry Rego, a shy poet who is described by a fellow writer as “a kind of humanoid lemur or gentle bat-boy hybrid.” Harry is maladapted to nearly every social situation he finds himself in, and often has to rely on his best friend, the charismatic Troy Loudermilk, to translate his grunts and stutters.
Loudermilk is a student in the Seminars, an MFA program in the fictional no-man’s land of Crete, Iowa.
The program is not dissimilar from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which Ives attended. Harry is along for the ride.
For Loudermilk, whose life is a clownish exercise in long-form improv, getting into an MFA program becomes an ambition.
“Do you have any idea how many people are into this? Somebody could totally run this scene,” he tells Harry. The idea that Harry will write the poetry and Loudermilk will be the face of the poetry is born shortly thereafter.
What exactly Loudermilk is after – money?
Unfettered access to female undergrads?
Cultural capital?
Pulling one over on the poetry world?
Those questions are never fully addressed but the story isn’t any less captivating as a result. Never are high-minded questions of art and authenticity more expertly lampooned than in the person of Anton Beans, a hacky second-year poet in the Seminars.
Beans, who develops an immediate, territorial dislike of both Loudermilk and Harry, is either the novel’s villain or its obnoxious antihero in his quest to foil Loudermilk’s scheme and expose Harry as the real poet.
And while Beans’ intentions may seem noble, they are purely self-interested: he cannot bear the idea of another talentless poet getting more attention than he does.
Unlike Loudermilk, Beans doesn’t know he’s talentless – but then he will never be exposed.
Ives uses Beans to skewer the kind of self-serious, academy-bound male poet who only bothers to think of his female peers when he’s wondering who will review his next book.
Loudermilk is successful in getting readers to think about the origins of contemporary literature: the MFA program and the satellite communities that arise from it may be, after all, functional last bastions of literary ideas in the United States. But the novel falters when it tries to be about more than just Loudermilk’s deception.
Clare Elwil, the creatively blocked daughter of a late minor poet, is a particularly opaque character whom Ives uses to introduce discussions of Jacques Lacan and Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde.
To make matters more difficult, the novel is interspersed with giant chunks of Clare’s fiction, all of which is far less interesting than Harry’s poetry. Ives, a poet as well as a novelist, is at her best when dramatizing Harry’s development as a poet, not Clare’s as a fiction writer.
Ives leaves the reader to ponder whether Clare is on an upward trajectory or just a middling writer who, like Beans, has found herself a gimmick.
Still, Loudermilk is, overall, a riotous success. Equal parts campus novel, buddy comedy and meditation on art-making under late capitalism, the novel is a hugely funny portrait of an egomaniac and his nebbish best friend.
— Rebekah Frumkin, author of the novel The Comedown is a professor of English and creative writing at Southern Illinois University.
Rebekah FRUMKIN
WASHINGTON POST IMAGE
Lucy Ives pokes fun at the male ego and academia in her cheeky novel Loudermilk.
Migraines have left long, painful history
Sibbie O’SULLIVAN Special To The Washington Post
It’s estimated that over one billion people today suffer from migraines, two-thirds of them women. I am one of them.
In Migraine, Katherine Foxhall delivers a thorough and illuminating history of migraine that traces our endeavors to understand, treat and eliminate this painful condition we still know little about. Is migraine a disease? What causes migraine? What are its social costs? These are not the questions I ask when a migraine hits, but I’m glad Foxhall does. Her intention to write “a history of migraine from below” by examining the experiences of people in pain, many of whom lived centuries ago, puts my own pain in perspective. I and my wincing, throbbing right eye do not suffer alone: Migraine is as old as humanity. Foxhall’s early chapters are a cornucopia of historical detail and examples of human ingenuity in the service of finding, if not a cure, then a way to live with migraine. Early remedies included bloodletting, an evolving and increasingly sophisticated practice that relied on specific charts and instructions. Applying to the forehead a plaster of ground-up boiled earthworms encased in linen was another. Then there was trepanning, a process of drilling holes in the skull to dispel bad vapors in the brain. By the 1700s, pills promising relief were advertised in British newspapers and sent through the mail. Lower’s Restorative Powder, a snuff product, was sold on London street corners by gangs of dealers, like crack. By 1781, the French word migraine entered the English language as the accepted medical term. The history of migraine also involves gender and class. Foxhall, a cultural and social historian, relates how migraine came to be seen as a female disorder in the 19th century, and how the belief in a migraine personality – “sensitive, effeminate and nervous” –infected the medical establishment with gender bias. By the 1960s, an image of a suffering housewife with her face in her hands appeared in advertisements for migraine medications. Men who suffered migraines were seen differently. An 1888 article in The Lancet, the prestigious medical journal founded in 1823, declared that “the (male) migrainous patient frequently belongs to the most cultivated and intellectual class of society.”
Smart men got migraines – Freud dosed his with cocaine – from thinking too hard, but men working in factories and on farms were evidently pain free. Women were simply nervous and hysterical. With growing knowledge about the brain and nervous system, the occurrence of such medical cum moralistic declarations declined, though their sexist residue still exists: in 2017, the National Institutes of Health budgeted $22 million for migraine research compared with $57 million for smallpox, a disease that was declared “globally eradicated” in 1980. One way to explain the disparity is that migraine, an ongoing global problem, is still considered a women’s problem and therefore gets less funding.
Oliver Sacks’ 1985 book, Migraine, does contain elegance and awe. Sacks – the late neurologist best known for his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – eschews self-help but embraces mystery and acceptance of a condition that remains shrouded. To him, migraine is both “physical and symbolic.” His medical analogies are often literary. In a section about visual disturbances with migraine, Sacks describes the “Lilliputian vision,” wherein an “apparent diminution” of whatever object you’re looking at occurs. Thanks to Sacks, I now have a word for what I once experienced as I felt a migraine coming on. I looked down and perceived that my left leg was the size of a rolling pin. Fortunately, this distortion soon passed. Since my late 40s, I’ve had migraines but, luckily, only one Lilliputian vision. Nevertheless, I’ve not told my doctors about this experience for fear they’ll think I’m “sensitive, effeminate and nervous.” Having a name for this neurological mix-up is helpful. It means others have experienced what I have, and I take comfort in knowing this.
MRIs, CT scans, spinal taps, along with discoveries about the brain’s chemistry have changed our view of migraine. With these new advancements in medical knowledge, what Foxhall calls “the neurological turn,” the social complexity of the body can too easily be reduced to neurological or hormonal functions. The migraine medicine Imitrex debuted in 1991 and has given relief to millions, including me, but there’s no complexity in taking Imitrex, no snuff-sniffing gangster standing on the corner, only a prescription faxed to my local CVS.
A lively, scholarly book about migraine, Foxhall’s history is also a treatise on the human condition. Although relief from pain is wonderful, pain remains the great equalizer. Whether we take Imitrex or dress our foreheads with worms, we shouldn’t forget this. — Sibbie O’Sullivan writes frequently about culture and the arts. Her book of essays about John Lennon is forthcoming from Mad Creek Books.
WASHINGTON POST IMAGE
Katherine Foxhall unpacks the long history of migraines in her new book.
Swiss women hold general strike
The Associated Press
Women across Switzerland walked off the job, burned bras and blocked traffic Friday in a day of demonstrations to demand fairer pay, more equality and an end to sexual harassment and violence.
It was the first such protests in the Alpine nation in 28 years.
Discontent over sexism and workplace inequality in prosperous Switzerland underpinned the women’s strike.
Many protesters were also demanding more pay specifically for domestic workers, teachers and caregivers – jobs typically held by women.
Swiss female lawmakers – mostly decked out in purple, the movement’s colour –streamed out of parliament Friday in the capital of Bern, where several thousand women were demonstrating, public broadcaster RTS reported.
Hundreds of marchers also blocked roads near the main train station in Zurich, the country’s financial centre.
Demonstrators in Geneva’s Parc Bertrand hoisted a banner showing that only eight per cent of jobs in engineering were held by women in Switzerland, in contrast to 91 per cent of the country’s domestic help jobs.
The Swiss Federal Statistics office says women on average earned 12 per cent less than men for similar work – the so-called “gender pay gap” – as of 2016, the latest figures available.
Also in Geneva, demonstrators bedecked the statues of four bearded Protestant reformers with purple-colored scarves and put up alternative street names honouring women underneath the official street names, which have been given to men.
Earlier in Lausanne, hundreds of women rallied at the city’s cathedral around midnight Thursday and marched downtown to set wooden pallets on fire, throwing items like neckties and bras into the inferno.
A few women scaled the cathedral to shout out the hour, a Swiss tradition rarely carried out by women.
In Lucerne, hundreds of women staged a sit-down protest in front of the city’s theatre, according to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, and some of the paper’s female reporters joined in.
People across the country wore face paint or stickers. In symbolic gestures large and small, businesses showed their support for the protests.
The Roche Tower in Basel, the northwestern city’s highest skyscraper, lit up in the logo of the movement. Restaurants and stores hung purple balloons and the strikers’ logos.
Swiss women were urged to leave their workplaces at 3:24 p.m. – the time when organizers figured women should stop working to earn proportionally as much as men in a day.
Vanessa Trub, a Geneva pastor and vicepresident of a city association of ministers and deacons, said protesters on Friday were also demanding longer paternity leave –now just one day in Switzerland – to get men to help out more with child care.
The International Labour Organization reported recently that Switzerland is one of the worst nations in Europe and Central Asia when it comes to the post-high school education gap between the sexes, especially in the STEM science fields.
The Swiss statistics office also says of the 249 homicides recorded in the country
AP PHOTOS
Women protest during a nationwide women’s strike Friday in Lucerne, top, and Lausanne, Switzerland, above.
A woman protests in front of the University Hospitals in Geneva.
between 2009 and 2018, 75 per cent of the victims were women and girls.
Friday’s events evoked the protests on June 14, 1991, that drew hundreds of thousands of Swiss women out to condemn discrimination.
The date was 20 years after Swiss women won the federal right to vote and a decade after sexual equality became law.
One Swiss region, Appenzell Innerrhoden, did not allow all Swiss women to vote in local elections until it was ordered by a court to do so in 1990.
MPs pass parental leave policy
The Canadian Press
For the first time ever, members of Parliament will have the right to take paid parental leave from their jobs on Parliament Hill when they adopt or give birth.
The House of Commons unanimously agreed to new rules that will allow new parents who are serving as MPs to take up to 12 months of parental leave. The rules give MPs who are expecting babies the right to take up to four weeks off as leave at the ends of pregnancies as well.
Until now, MPs who missed more than 21 days of sitting time for a reason other than illness or official business have been docked $120 a day. (Their $178,900 base salaries work out to $490 a day.)
Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould, who was the first cabinet minister to give birth while in office, calls the move a historic change.
“I think it’s long overdue, but I wholeheartedly welcome it,” the Liberal MP for Burlington, Ont., said. “It sends the signal that it’s acceptable and legitimate to take
some time away from Ottawa after you’ve given birth or adopted a child.”
Gould said many of her constituents were “gobsmacked” to find out she didn’t have the option to take formal maternity leave after she gave birth to her baby boy, Oliver, in March 2018.
She did take a few weeks off, which she credits to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being supportive, but was back in the House of Commons a few weeks later, with Oliver in tow. But she said the lack of a formal leave policy has left new parents in Parliament feeling pressure to go back to work right away.
This policy change is the latest effort by the House of Commons to try to make the Hill more familyfriendly.
Child-care services are available to members during sittings, including when the House has deliberations that go late or, as has happened a few times in the last year, when there is an all-night voting marathon.
Also, when the Commons moved into temporary quarters while Centre Block undergoes years of renovations, the new facility in West Block came with a family room equipped with a crib, change table and rocking chair.
Gould said these are welcome changes, but notes there is still work to do to make being an MP with a newborn easier.
One thing that could make a big difference is allowing MPs to vote by proxy if they are unable to be in Ottawa for an important vote due to childbirth or major illness.
Piano lessons
Once a living room staple, now many people can’t give them away
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Taking a shortcut through an alley on Capitol Hill last month, Amy Moore was both amused and crestfallen to come across an old upright piano pushed up against a brick wall with the sign “Free Piano.”
“I know it’s super-duper expensive to move a piano,” says Moore, executive director of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. “What immediately went through my mind were visual images of how this piano might have been used. Maybe a family once sat around it or a kid took lessons on it? Why was it discarded? Pianos bring people together, they are part of celebrations. It kind of made me sad to see it out there in the alley.”
The piano, once the pride of many living rooms, seems out of tune with a growing number of households. People who own old uprights, especially the oak and walnut ones, often have the same problem as those with homes full of traditional brown furniture: when you need to get it out of your house, you can’t sell it or even give it away.
Although this will make music lovers cringe, the reality is that some pianos have become disposable. There are lots of them around, some not in great shape. Although memories of an instrument may spark joy, sometimes circumstances dictate that a piano be let go. Downsizing boomers often don’t have room for them; millennials can’t (or won’t) squeeze them into urban quarters; teens often learn to play on electric keyboards.
“They often just won’t fit,” says Libby Kinkead, one of the owners of Potomac Concierge, which offers downsizing and moving services. Sometimes “people have to choose between their couch and their piano.”
Their sheer weight – 500 to 1,200 pounds – makes them difficult and costly to move. Then there are tuning costs. But anyone looking for a piano is in luck: plenty are available free if you pay for the move. The downside: many more old pianos end up in landfills, some after being chopped up so they’ll fit in a truck.
It can be painful to see a precious family instrument relegated to a dump when all other efforts to rehome it have failed. Mark Rubin, who owns 12 franchises of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, says his employees have seen customers in tears as their pianos are hauled away. “Pianos are something very hard to get rid of. They hold a lot of memories.”
There are many reasons there is an excess of pianos. A century ago, they were a must in a fashionable home, but New York design historian Emily Eerdmans says they are no longer status symbols. “Pianos started in the place of honour in the living room, and gradually they moved to the family room,” she says. “Today people don’t gather around a piano, they gather around a screen.”
Fewer people are buying pianos. In 2018, 30,516 new pianos were shipped to retailers in the United States, down 3.2 per cent from 2017, according to Industry Census of Music Trades, a magazine that covers music products. The postwar peak for the piano industry was 1978, when 282,000 units were shipped, according to Brian Majeski, editor of Music Trades. “A piano was part musical instrument and part aspirational item. You can trace this back to Jane Austen novels,” Majeski says. “Now it’s just a musical instrument. The people who buy it are the people who play, and this is a smaller set of the population.”
Nick Margaritas owns two Piano Man stores in Maryland and has endured the ups and downs of the business for 45 years. He’s in the midst of a store-closing sale in College Park. In addition to used pianos, he offers moving services. Margaritas has a roll-off dumpster for depositing what’s know in the business as “removals.”
“It’s not a glamorous part of the-
WASHINGTON POST PHOTOS
Top, an abandoned piano sits in a Capitol Hill alley, free for the taking, in Washington. Its sign says “Free piano – please take and enjoy – Otherwise bulk trash will haul away, Thank you.” Middle, Karen Yoho and daughter Mary Alyce Yoho, 17, in front of a piano found on Craigslist last year. Bottom, a pink piano from Craigslist became part of an art installation by Washington visual artist Carolina Mayorga.
piano industry,” Margaritas says. “A dozen pianos can fit in one.” There are various ways to deaccession a piano. None are easy. Many an owner has envisioned a loving second home for their prized instrument – or at least a hefty sales price. Most will find neither.
Ebonized pianos by Steinway, Yamaha and Kawai are models that sell best at Weschler’s Auctioneers and Appraisers in suburban Rockville, Md., says vice president Mark Weschler. When clearing out estates, Weschler often advises clients that old dark wood pianos are not worth auctioning and are best donated. If in bad condition, a removal service is suggested.
Many churches, schools and senior centres already have as many as they need. Goodwill stores in the Washington area don’t accept them, a spokesman said. At Levine Music, a center for music instruction and education with 300 Steinway pianos on five local campuses, a piano might be accepted for donation if it’s in good condition and passes an assessment by a Levine piano technician. Steinways will be put to use in teaching studios; other uprights or spinets might go to the school’s piano loaner program, according to Stan Spracker, Levine’s president. But in many cases, the instruments end up in places like Margaritas’s trash bin. “First they call to try and sell you the piano,” he says. “That doesn’t work. They ask if they can give you the piano. When that doesn’t work, you have to quote them the basic $295 moving fee for an upright plus $4 per stair step.” Finally, they agree to have you pick it up, “if they don’t hang up on you or tell you they would rather burn the piano than have you remove it,” he says. The glut of free pianos is a blessing for some.
Last December, Washington artist Carolina Mayorga needed a pink piano for her interactive
installation at Art Museum of the Americas. A Craigslist search for “free piano” turned up one in suburban Maryland. It was pink. “It was crazy, but it was exactly the piano I needed,” she says. “I just had to pay for the movers.” She transferred it to a storage space and then to the museum. Total moving tab: $708. Her installation is now going to be shown at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Karen Yoho of Greenbelt, Maryland, has had many pianos pass through her life. Communications director for the Salvation Army National Capital and Virginia Division, Yoho played piano as a child and acquired her first piano through Freecycle in 2008.
She paid $100 to move it, hoping that she might take it up again and that her six-year-old daughter Mary Alyce might show an interest. Neither happened, so in 2012, when Yoho saw a “piano wanted” posting on Freecycle, she gave it away. In 2015, her neighbor was offering a piano free to a good home, so Yoho and the neighbour split the $150 moving charge to roll it down the sidewalk. “I was hoping this piano would become a member of the family,” she says. But a year later, it was getting no love, so she gave it away.
But in 2018, Mary Alyce joined a high school theater program and desperately wants to learn piano. Yoho found one on Craigslist and paid $185 to move it. “My daughter started taking lessons and it just clicked. She plays every morning and every evening,” Yoho says.
“It’s wonderful.”
Some pianos don’t come and go so easily. Margo Prator reluctantly scheduled a pickup last month with 1-800-GOT-JUNK to remove the cherry upright her parents bought in the 1950s. But she canceled. “I just wasn’t ready,” she says. She had offered it to a school,
posted it on an internet mailing list and tried to get her brother to put it in his beach house.
“It makes me sad they will take it to the dump,” Prator says, “not only because it’s a piece of history, but it’s a musical instrument.” She has to get it out of her house by next month; a family credenza is arriving to fill that spot in the living room.
“The closer we get to July, I realize that I’m going to have to pick up the phone and call them again to take it away,” Prator says. “I can’t believe nobody wants this free piano. Do you want a piano?”
George Mike Hasbon
August 31, 1934 - June 9, 2019
“On the road again”
George passed away peacefully on June 9, 2019 at RIH Kamloops BC after a long battle with heart disease and complications of the disease. He leaves behind his wife Lena Hasbon, his children Mark (wife Rosemary), Pam Hale, Candace Galbraith (husband John) plus grandchildren Brent Galbraith (spouse Jessica Lane), Corinna Long (spouse Lunden Long), three great grandchildren Derek and Devyn Galbraith and Hudson Long, he was predeceased by grandchild (Derek Galbraith) and brother Andrew Hasbon. He is survived by his brother Peter Hasbon.
George’s career was spent in Prince George working with CNR and Via Rail after retirement in 1990 George and Lena moved to Osoyoos, BC. In 2014 George and Lena wanted to be closer to their children so they packed up and moved to Kamloops BC.
George was a very loving and devoted husband and father and will be missed terribly by all. George’s passions included being at Fraser Lake at the family cabin, heading south to Yuma Arizona as snow birds, spending time with family and friends, and he was known for spending endless hours enjoying the outdoors. George was know for his quiet demeanour and teasing nature. His family wishes to thank Navy Sahota for her TLC and all the staff at Ponderosa and RIH for the care and support they provided during George’s short stay at their facilities. George’s wishes were to have no formal service. In lieu of flowers, individuals could send donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Arrangements entrusted to Kamloops Funeral Home 250-554-2577 Condolences may be sent to the family from www.kamloopsfuneralhome.com
With profound sadness we announce the passing of Veronica Blackstock our loving and devoted mother, grandmother and friend to all whose lives she touched on May 31, 2019 in Prince George at the age of 78 with her children by her side. She was loved dearly by her son Todd and daughter Kim and forever remembered by her grandchildren Carson, Royce and Kim’s dog Koji. Veronica is survived by brother Julian (Leslie) and sister-in-law Gladys as well as numerous other loving relatives. Veronica was predeceased by her parents Stephen and Maria and brother Edward. Veronica was known for her infectious smile and kind and compassionate spirit. The family wishes to thank those who have extended emotional support for Veronica during her final days. A Celebration of Veronica’s Life will take at a later time in July 2019 (date to be announced).
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for awhile, but their hearts forever.”
Harold Cedric Moore passed away March 7, 2019 at the age of 92. There will be a celebration of life Saturday, June 15th at 1:00pm, at the Elders Recreation Center, 1692 10th Avenue, Prince George. Lunch to be served at my Dad’s request at 1:30pm. No flowers, no donations.
Fred Doig 1928-2019
it is will great sadness we announce the passing of beloved family member and friend, Fred Doig. Fred is survived by the love of his life, wife Marion. There is be a Celebration of Life June 22/19 at the Hart Community Center, from 1-5pm. In lieu of flowers donations to the PG Hospice House would be greatly appreciated. Hospice House, 1506 Ferry Ave, Prince George, V2L 5H2
BLACK,LorelieC.
December20,1965-June9,2019
ItiswithgreatsadnessthatthefamilyofLorelie BlackannouncesherpassingonJune9,2019,at PrinceGeorgeHospiceHouse,withAlisaunwavering byherside.
LoreliewasbornDecember20,1965,toCliveandJo Black.Sheissurvivedbyherpartner,Alisa;her brother,Shane(Colleen),andtheirchildren,Corbin (Kurumi),Joel(Olivia),andtheirsweetEllie;brother, Shawn(Leslie),andtheirchildren,Madeleineand Ian;sister,Tanya(Mark),andtheirchildren,Clayton, SebastianandElla.Sheisalsosurvivedbymany relativesandfriends,aswellasherbelovedRufus.
Loreliewasanincredibleteacherwhosededication andleadershipoftheJusticeLeaguewillmarkher legacyatKellyRoadSecondaryandPrinceGeorge Secondaryschools,nottomentiontheimpacther teachinghadonherstudents.Loreliewaspassionate aboutteaching,sheenjoyedhavingapoliticaldebate andenjoyedparticipationinbookclubwithfriends.
Loreliereceivedamazingmedicalsupportthroughout herfightfromDr.Nowlan,Dr.Murray,Dr.Ho,and thewonderfulstaffatboththeCancerClinicand HospiceHouse.Loreliewassupportedbytheloveof herfamilyandreceivedfrequentvisitsfromfriends, coworkers,andstudents.
TherewillbeacelebrationofLorelie’slifeonFriday, June21stattheInnoftheNorthfrom3pmto5pm.
Inlieuofflowers,adonationtothePrinceGeorge HospiceSocietywouldbegreatlyappreciated:3089 ClappertonStreet,PrinceGeorge,BCV2L5N4.
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Obituaries
Obituaries
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) — These are in-
dicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Wednesday.
Quotations in Canadian funds.
Home sales forecast upgraded
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Real Estate Association is upgrading its forecast for 2019 home sales, which are now expected to show a slight improvement compared with last year.
The association said home sales are projected to edge up 1.2 per cent from last year to 463,000 units in 2019 compared with its previous forecast of a decline of 1.6 per cent this year.
The updated outlook came as CREA reported home sales in May were up 6.7 per cent compared with a year ago, the largest year-overyear increase since 2016.
On a month-over-month basis, sales in May through the Multiple Listing Service were up 1.9 per cent.
“Defying the gloom-and-doomers, the Canadian housing market is gradually regaining strength, powered by falling long-term interest rates and the fastest population gains in a generation,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter wrote in a report.
Pot edibles
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index closed just shy of a three-week high Friday after the heavyweight financials sector was bolstered by a positive housing report.
Volume was light across North American markets as investors awaited two big events in the coming weeks – next week’s Federal Reserve decision about interest rates and a meeting between the U.S. and Chinese presidents to discuss trade at the G20 summit the following week.
It’s not atypical for markets to wait to see results from meetings of this importance, says Macan Nia, senior investment strategist at Manulife Investments.
Investors are expecting the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates, but everyone will be watching for signals about its assessment of the slowing economy. He said the market could be disappointed by just one cut.
“It’s really a Goldilocks economy in the U.S. where it’s not too hot and not too cold so we’re all, as market participants, looking to the Fed and what they have to say in terms of gauging what to expect from them over the next couple of months.”
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 62.65 points to 16,301.91, the highest closing since May 27.
Seven of the 11 major sector climbed, led by industrials, financials and materials. Industrials was helped by CAE Inc. shares rising 2.4 per cent and financials led by TorontoDominion Bank.
Earlier, the Canadian Real Estate Association upgraded its forecast for 2019 home sales to an increase of 1.2 per cent, compared with its previous forecast of a decline of 1.6 per cent this year. The updated outlook came as CREA reported home sales in May were up 6.7 per cent compared with a year ago, the largest year-overyear increase since 2016. Materials continued to be helped by rising gold prices with the August gold contract up 80 cents at US$1,344.50 an ounce while the July copper contract was down 2.7 cents at US$2.63 a pound.
The energy sector was one of the three biggest losers on the day even though crude prices inched higher on geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East following the targeting of two tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran denied the U.S. accusation that it had a role in the apparent attacks.
The Canadian Press Canadians looking to buy cannabis-infused brownies or lotions will find a “limited selection” in legal stores in mid-December at the earliest, the federal government says, but industry players expect the full rollout of nextgeneration pot products to come in 2020 or later.
Health Canada on Friday released its final regulations governing the new classes of cannabisinfused goods, including topicals and vaporizable concentrates, and indicated the rules will come into force on Oct. 17 – exactly one year since the legalization of recreational pot in Canada.
However, the Ottawa-based agency noted that after the law takes effect, federal cannabis licence holders must provide 60 days notice to the agency of their intent to sell new products.
That means that they will hit legal retailers’ shelves no earlier than mid-December.
“As with any new regulatory framework, federally licensed processors will need time to become familiar with and prepare to comply with the new rules and to produce new products,” Health Canada said in a statement.
“Provincially or territorially authorized distributors and retailers will also need time to purchase and obtain the new products and make them available for sale.”
The final regulations, which will be formally published in the Canada Gazette on June 26, have been highly anticipated by pot industry players as well as a flurry of food and beverage companies that have announced plans to cash in on the anticipated demand.
For example, Toronto-based Greenhouse Juice Co. said it plans to develop beverages infused with cannabidiol, or CBD, helped by an investment by Canopy Growth Corp.’s venture capital arm. Quebec-based Hexo Corp. has also partnered with alcohol giant Molson Coors to form a joint venture called Truss to make and sell cannabis-infused, non-alcoholic beverages.
A recent report by Deloitte estimated the Canadian market for these pot products is worth about $2.7 billion annually, with edibles contributing more than half of that amount. That’s on top of the roughly $6-billion estimated domestic market the consultancy had already estimated for recreational and medical cannabis.
The major rollout of this next wave of pot products will likely happen further into 2020, said Jefferies analyst Ryan Tomkins in a note to clients before the govern-
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
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The improvement in sales was driven by the Greater Toronto Area, which accounted for close to half of the overall increase.
“That rebound in sales has brought the GTA market back into better balance, and has helped lift prices at a moderate pace,” Porter wrote.
The national average price for a home sold in May was close to $508,000, up 1.8 per cent from a year ago. Excluding the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto Area, two of the country’s most expensive markets, the average price was just under $397,000.
Home sales softened last year in the wake of new mortgage stress test rules and a rise in mortgage rates. However, sales have improved in recent months as mortgage rates have trended lower and the economy shows signs of rebounding after the weakness at the end of 2018 and the start of 2019. CREA also pointed to several changes in the federal budget this year to help potential buyers.
The spring budget raised the maximum individual RRSP withdrawal limit under the
home buyers’ plan and announced plans for a new shared equity program to help first time buyers.
However, CREA said the overall level of home sales is expected to remain below where it was in recent years and noted that the outlook for 2019 is below the 10-year average and well short of the record set in 2016, when almost 540,000 homes were sold.
Regionally, the association said New Brunswick is expected to see sales rise 10.6 per cent this year, while Quebec is forecast to climb 7.7 per cent. Ontario is expected to gain 3.9 per cent.
Home sales in British Columbia are expected to drop 13.3 per cent this year, while Alberta is forecast to fall 0.9 per cent.
The national average price is forecast to edge down 0.6 per cent to around $485,000 this year following a 4.1 per cent drop in 2018. In 2020, CREA predicted home sales will rise 4.4 per cent to 483,200, while the national average price is forecast to edge up by 0.9 per cent to around $490,000 next year.
to roll out by end of year
ment announcement.
“We are likely to only see the first products launched late into December... with regulators likely to review numerous details of proposals including testing, manufacturing and packaging procedures as well as product data and ingredient specifications.”
Ottawa-based cannabis lawyer Trina Fraser expects a “handful” of these new cannabis products from the bigger industry players to hit the market in December, with more in 2020. She notes that there is a broader licensing backlog, and companies will need to get amendments approved before being able to produce these goods.
“There will be lots more new products coming onto the market in 2021, mostly due to regulatory delays,” she said.
Health Canada in February wrapped its public consultation on the draft rules for these additional cannabis products, and the final version is largely in line with what the agency had proposed.
Edible cannabis, whether food or beverage, will have a cap of 10 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol – the high-inducing compound known as THC – per package. Cannabis extracts for inhalation or topicals, such as pot-infused lotions, will have a cap of 1,000 milligrams of THC per package.
These products cannot contain nicotine, caffeine or alcohol. As well, no elements on these
products would associate them with alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, or vaping products. All packaging must be plain and child resistant, and must not be appealing to young people.
Whether an edible cannabis product is reasonably considered to be appealing to kids would depend on various factors including its shape, colour, flavour, scent and how it is packaged, a government official said on a media briefing on Friday.
The determination of whether a product does violate the guideline will be made on a case-by-case basis, the official said.
The intent is the “protection of our kids,” Organized Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair said on Friday.
“Gummy bears, for example, or things that represent cartoon characters... is clearly aimed, at a younger market or a younger audience – our children,” he told reporters. “And we are very much putting restrictions in place to ensure that does not happen.”
Omar Khan, a vice-president with Hill and Knowlton Strategies who advises several clients in the cannabis industry, said there were few surprises in the final regulations.
Health Canada continues to take a cautious approach which focuses on harm reduction, he added.
However, “there needs to be room for legal brands to develop
consumer loyalty if the illicit market is to be eliminated,” Khan said. “This is something government needs to consider as the Cannabis Act regulations come up for review in a couple of years.”
Hill Street Beverage Co.’s chief executive Terry Donnelly had hoped that the final regulations would not require separate manufacturing facilities for cannabisinfused goods, but he was pleased to see the final regulations will now allow for the sale of multipack drinks.
A six-pack of cannabis-infused beverages would be permissible, for example, as long as the overall package has no more than 10 milligrams of THC.
This change is “allowing us to create products that kind of mirror what people are used to buying,” said Donnelly, who is also cofounder of the Cannabis Beverage Producers Alliance.
Hill Street, which plans to launch a line of cannabis-infused, non-alcoholic beverages, may have some products ready by December but is aiming for next spring, he said.
Greg Engel, the chief executive of licensed producer Organigram, said he had hoped each individual container in a multi-pack could have five or 10 milligrams of THC each, as is available in other markets such as Colorado.
Still, the regulations were in line with what he expected, he said.
CP/AP PHOTO
Edible marijuana samples are set aside for evaluation at Cannalysis, a cannabis testing laboratory, in Santa Ana, Calif., in 2018.
D-Day prayers answered
As my clergy comment appears in the Prince George Citizen, it is Saturday, June 15, 2019, and if you listened to news reports leading up to June 6, you would have heard the details of the 75th anniversary celebrations for D-Day.
The D-Day invasion of Europe by the Allied Forces in the Second World War occurred on June 6, 1944.
That Invasion force may have been the largest conglomeration of men and machines in the history of the world.
CLERGY COMMENT
ARLO A. JOHNSON WESTSIDE FAMILY FELLOWSHIP
It was composed of some 250,000 men, 1,400 aircraft, 3,300 assault ships, six battleships and countless destroyers poised to invade Europe to rout the German forces from their occupation of Western Europe, and thereby hasten the end of the war.
The D-Day invasion on the shores of Normandy was crucial to the outcome – a must-win battle! In view of the desperate need to win this crucial battle, Western leaders were calling on the people to pray concerning this urgent challenge.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on Americans to pray. Some had asked for a day of prayer, but the president said, “Because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in continual prayer.”
King George VI called on the entire British Empire to pray: “We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may do the will of God.” As the invasion drew near, General George Dempsey, commander of the British and Canadian forces, met in the parish church in Portsmouth, England with 400 officers and men and prayed for an hour in what he called “one of the most moving experiences of my life.”
June 5 was supposed to be the day of invasion, but hazardous weather delayed it. General Dwight D. Eisenhower recalled: “I made the most agonizing decision of my life.” To delay the invasion beyond June 6 would require a further wait of two weeks, so he decided to proceed to invade on June 6. He said, “If there were nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an Almighty Merciful God, the events of the next 24 hours did it!”
Suddenly the weather changed, the D-Day invasion of Europe proceeded and the loss of life was far below the anticipated number. Incidentally, had the Allies delayed the invasion another two weeks, they would have encountered the worst storm to hit the English Channel in 80 years!
However inside Europe, the Nazi commanders also consulted their weathermen, and they were told that the Allies would never invade under the weather conditions. So high-ranking German officers like General Erwin Rommel went to a birthday party, hence they were unprepared for the Allied invasion.
Listening to the stories told during 75th anniversary celebrations, we heard appeals that we express appreciation for the men and women who gave their lives to bring about freedom for the people of our western countries. To this appeal, I am in full agreement.
However, I must ask this: where was the praise to God for His Divine Intervention in the guidance given to the Western leaders? These leaders made momentous decisions beyond their own human ability, decisions that had their source in God alone.
Make church strange again
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. (Acts 2:1-3)
This is the time of year that many people in Prince George have been waiting for to celebrate, to gather with friends and family, and perhaps to focus on some fire in the midst of a group of people. I am speaking, of course, about Pentecost.
Forty days after Jesus’ resurrec-
CLERGY COMMENT
REV. ANDREW AUKEMA CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
tion he promised his disciples right before he ascended into heaven that they would receive ‘power’ to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8). And it was 10 days after that (Pente means “fifty”) that the power of the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples and to all believers.
Last Sunday was the 50th day after Easter, which means that many churches specifically recognize the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, and celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit – the third person of the trinity. Pentecost has been a ‘feast day’ for many church traditions,
and so it has a lot of significance for Christians. But it also carries a lot of significance for the many people who claim to be spiritual but not religious.
Religion, as it has been traditionally practiced, has been on the decline in North America and Europe for a while now. But despite polls showing how fewer people go to church or identify themselves with a particular religion, the percentage of people who call themselves atheists or agnostics has not risen very much. Where we are seeing a major rise is in the religiously non-affiliated, or those commonly called the spiritual nones.
In her article in Journal for Preachers in 2013, Cheryl Johns describes the nones in our culture as those who have responded and reacted to our modern world’s
case of enchantment deficit disorder (EDD). The symptoms of EDD include a loss of a sense of wonder and a skepticism of anything that smacks of the supernatural or the miraculous. On the other hand, EDD has left many young people searching for the wonderful, the holy and the authentically spiritual.
It used to be that the religiously non-affiliated would show up at churches on Christmas and Easter. Even that trend has sharply declined. But perhaps Pentecost will be the new day for the nones to make their annual appearance at their former or local church.
Pentecost is the day when the church celebrates that the presence of God is very real, very authentic and very mysterious and strange. God inhabits people
through Holy Spirit in such a way that crosses ethnic and gender boundaries. If a modern world and modern apologetics emphasized knowing that God was real, Pentecost emphasizes experiencing God is real. Pentecost is the day that is closest to what the nones in our culture are looking for, because the Holy Spirit is the one that is closest to what they desire.
Has Christmas and Easter lost its lure to go to church? Try Pentecost.
What happened on that first Pentecost was a strange event of disciples of Jesus being filled with the presence of God that moved people beyond boundaries with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And may the Holy Spirit do such a strange thing once again.
AP PHOTO
A member of the Canadian Armed Forces holds the photo of a Canadian Second World War soldier during a ceremony at the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Reviers, Normandy, France, on June 5.