B.C. tanker ban passed by
Shauit it out
Singer-songwriter Shauit and his band performed
cultural activities. They will
Balloon man set up in protest of ICBC
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
With the help of a 30-foot tall mascot, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation took a protest of the provincial government monopoly over vehicle insurance to Prince George this week.
Once inflated, it took on the shape of a Mr. Moneybags figure dubbed Barron von FenderBender by the CTF as a “symbol of this high-cost, no-choice, bloated, nearly insolvent insurance corporation,” Kris Sims, the organization’s B.C director said.
“If it takes a balloon man bigger and scarier than King Kong to send that message, so be it,” she added.
Also recently deployed on the lawn of the B.C. legislature, he wears a powder blue suit jacket, matching the colour used in the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia logo and a top hat with the ICBC emblazoned across the front along a complimentary orange bow tie and matching pants. He’s smoking a cigar and lighting it with burning money.
The CTF also came armed with a study carried out by the Insurance Bureau of Canada that says B.C. drivers pay about 60 per cent more for auto insurance than their cousins in Alberta do.
According to the study, a 24-year-old Prince George man who drives his 2010 Ford F-150 to work pays an additional $263, a 45-year-old Langley couple with a learner driver in the family pays $837 more per year to insure their 2012 Honda Accord and a 50-year-old Victoria man pays $771 more to insure his Class C motorhome.
“ICBC’s own data shows that while our insurance rates have been jacked up to pay for this bloated monopoly, ICBC staffing levels are skyrocketing, with 124 new managers hired between 2017 and 2018, and executive pay getting boosted too. This is not fair,” said Sims. “Have executives at ICBC done such a great job that they deserve bonus pay?”
Speaking on background, a Ministry of Attorney General spokesperson said the CTF is misleading British Columbians about the benefits of an Alberta-style model and that comparing between provinces is difficult because each prov-
a 30-foot tall balloon in Prince George on Wednesday, protesting the government-enforced ICBC monopoly.
ince has a different system.
“For example, maximum coverage for accident benefits in Alberta is $50,000 while British Columbia’s accident benefits coverage has been increased to $300,000,” the spokesperson said.
“In Alberta, you can get up to $400 per week for wage loss while in British Columbia you can get almost double that at $740 per week, for crashes after April 1, 2019. Death benefits in Alberta start at $10,000; while they are three times as much in British Columbia at $30,000.”
Additionally, the spokesperson said two reports, one from Saskatchewan using 2016-17 data and one from Manitoba in June 2018, show auto insurance in B.C. to be significantly cheaper, on average, than auto insurance in Alberta or Ontario, the two closest provinces with private insurance.
“While individual experience will vary, the reports show on average savings for British Columbians to be between a few
hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on location and driver profile.”
The spokesperson also said private insurers and brokers are doing less business or have pulled out of areas of Alberta because government restrictions on rate increases makes it difficult for them to turn a profit.
“This has created a situation where many Alberta residents are driving without insurance. Private insurers are strongly lobbying government to remove the cap.”
As well, the spokeperson said B.C. drivers already have a choice in purchasing optional auto insurance. Even then, 80 per cent choose ICBC optional insurance because it provides excellent value for money.
“To be clear, ICBC’s well-publicized financial challenges stem from record high accident rates and escalating repair and personal injury costs – not from mismanagement,” the spokesperson said.
Links between cannabis, crashes to be studied
Citizen staff
A Northern Medical Program professor will be leading an investigation into the prevalence of impaired driving among young people with the advent of legalized cannabis.
Dr. Russ Callaghan has secured a $124,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to carry out the one-year research project. Callaghan and his team will examine data gathered from emergency departments across Canada to look for links between motor vehicle crashes and use of recreational cannabis by youth and young adults.
“According to recent data, young people have the highest prevalence of cannabis use in Canada, comprising more than 20 per cent of users,” said Callaghan. “Cannabis-impaired driving is now also more prevalent among adolescents than alcoholimpaired driving. It is essential for the public and policy makers to understand the potential problems and benefits of cannabis legalization and this study will provide important evidence regarding a major area of harm to youth and young adults in our society – that is, the burden of severe motor vehicle collision injuries in this sub population.”
The project includes collaborators from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and the University of Victoria.
B.C. imposes resource moratorium to protect caribou
Nelson BENNETT Glacier Media
The B.C. government is imposing an interim moratorium on commercial activities in the Mackenzie-Chetwynd-Tumbler Ridge area of the Peace region in northeastern B.C. to protect mountain caribou herds.
The industry that will be most affected most by the moratorium is forestry, although other activities like mineral exploration and natural gas would also be affected. The moratorium is temporary, lasting only until June 2021, until a more permanent recovery plan can be put in place.
The moratorium was announced Thursday, following the filing of a report by Blair Lekstrom.
The former Liberal MLA and current Dawson Creek councillor was appointed by Premier John Horgan to listen to the general public, following a major backlash in the region against the provincial government’s proposed caribou protection plan. — see ‘FOREST SECTOR, page 3
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation launched
Ready to rib
Prairie Smoke & Spice BBQ was setting up at Pacific Western Brewery on Thursday afternoon for the 2019 Prince George Ribfest. They are one of four ribbers that are in town for the event. The event runs noon to 11 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. There will also be live local entertainment all weekend.
Baker twins to host Indigenous Peoples Day event
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Today’s National Indigenous Peoples Day events bring together an array of Aboriginal talents to the stage. There is no more symbolic a gesture to the First Nations connections of this region than having the famed Baker twins act as masters of ceremonies.
They were born in Prince George, their family is well connected to this city, but they are fiercely Stellat’en, invited to preside over today’s cultural ceremonies by the host Lheidli T’enneh First Nation.
The Baker twins split their time between Los Angeles and Vancouver where they are dually ensconced in the fashion and film industries on both sides of the border. Shauna and Shannon are not identical, but they have paralleled each other into the heart of Aboriginal show businesses.
They carved time out to fly quickly home for today’s event.
“It’s nice to be able to come back and represent our community because we don’t get to do that often, back home,” said Shauna.
“We get to talk to other native communities across Canada and the United States but we rarely get asked to talk to our own people, or represent our own people to our own people, so it’s nice.”
The girls laughed about how their two days in Fraser Lake got pounced on, when word got out that they were back for a summertime visit. They return to home territory almost every year but it is usually in the winter.
“Shannon and I are actually speaking at our old school,” said Shauna.
“I heard they were playing my movie, Raven Tales (an animated family movie directed by Caleb Hystad depicting First Nations legends), so I offered to stop by and meet the kids. And all our teachers that taught us are still there at Mouse Mountain Elementary School in Fraser Lake.”
It’s not all fun and games, though. The Baker twins have used their name brand and their own individual passions to push for progress, culturally and politically. Before jumping in the car for the trip to Prince George, they made sure to attend a meeting of the Stellat’en chief and council, and they didn’t intend to be passive.
“I came back to the rez and found out the band’s bought an asbestos-ridden building,” said Shannon.
“Back in the day when I lived here, everybody knew that those apartments had asbestos. Our band recently, behind closed doors, spent a lot of money buying those. So we’ll be going to the band meeting before we go to Prince George. So, band politics, and talking to kids at school.”
They even had plans to go for a hunt with their mom, Sharolise, but one of them hastily grabbed the wrong luggage in Los Angeles and brought only city clothes. Such is their duality – ultra glamour and rural rustic.
They couldn’t get out onto the game trails but they have been busy on the career paths. Sometimes their projects are done together, and sometimes it’s a part for one of them, but neither is bored.
Both got to be in the vampire horror short-film WiHM9 Blood Drive: Blood Bus last year.
Both have roles in the upcoming civil
war-set drama The Red Man’s View. Shauna was cast in the short-film Checkpoint C and the television movie Hey Cuzzin, both soon to be released.
Shannon has the lead in an as-yet undisclosed project that is currently securing a distribution deal.
“We have a new TV show called Future Proof that will soon be out on PBS. It is basically a comedy tech show co-hosted with Lucas Brown Eyes, and that was a lot of fun,” they said.
They are also heavily involved in the voyeuristic video game-playing sector with regular live-streaming appearances as gamers on the Twitch game-viewing platform.
With all of their personal imaging platforms combined, the Baker twins have well more than a million followers.
This has turned them into official “influencers” which enables them to market themselves as experiential advertisers for companies wishing them to be seen utilizing their products, attending their events, and other endorsement opportunities.
This event, National Indigenous Peoples Day at Lheidi T’enneh Memorial Park, is all for their personal love of their home region and the friends and family they so rarely get to see in summer months.
They will be the on-stage hosts today throughout the park’s slate of entertainers and cultural activities.
It is free, family-focused, with static displays and workshops as well as music and dancing, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. before the attention shifts to Canada Games Plaza at 7 p.m. when the event continues on in the form of the Heatwave Festival.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Man no longer missing
A man reported missing earlier this week has been found.
Mikey Fowler has been located and is safe, RCMP said Thursday.
“The Prince George RCMP would like to thank the public for providing information to investigators,” RCMP said.
— Citizen staff
Ride Don’t Hide ready to roll
Cycling enthusiasts will be able to put their feet to pedals in the name of the Canadian Mental Health Association this Sunday.
That’s when the CMHA’s Ride Don’t Hide event will be held.
Starting from CN Centre, riders can choose from rides of six, 15, 30 and 50 kilometres. The two longest involve steeper hills and are for more advanced riders.
The Ride Don’t Hide movement began with Michael Schratter, a Vancouver school teacher living with bipolar disorder, who spent almost a year and a half cycling 40,000 km around the globe. Armed with only his bike, a knapsack and the determination to realize his dream of raising awareness and empowering those who experience mental illness, his story inspired millions of people and raised $100,000 for CMHA.
The event is open to cyclists of all ages and skill levels.
Online registration is open through princegeorge. cmha.bc.ca until this Saturday for $50.
Registration on the day of the event is $60 at the CN Centre parking lot.
Registration opens at 8 a.m.
— Citizen staff
Leave the garbage cans alone, online poll takers say
During the last Prince George Citizen poll we asked “Are you in favour of the city adding radio frequency identification tags to garbage cans?”
Readers have answered the call with a resounding no.
With 57 per cent and 655 votes the answer was “No, because local government shouldn’t be monitoring when I put my garbage can out or what I put in it.”
After that no came the second no with 26 per cent and 303 votes stating “No, because the service is fine already.”
Then came the yes vote with 11 per cent and 121 votes with “Yes, because it will improve service,” followed by “Yes, because it will reduce costs,” with six per cent and 70 votes.
There was a total of 1,149 votes. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
The next question is “Do you support the federal government’s decision to go ahead with the TransMountain pipeline expansion?”
To make your vote count visit www.pgcitizen.ca
— Citizen staff
‘Forest
sector communities and workers are facing significant challenges’
— from page 1
That plan was done largely in consultation with the two key First Nations in that area, but municipal governments, industry and the general public said they were never informed of the plan.
Lekstrom was tasked with listening to the community and coming back with recommendations for addressing concerns raised by the provincial government’s caribou recovery plan. The interim moratorium on commercial activities was one of 14 recommendations Lekstrom has made.
It appears the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations wanted no part in the wider community consultations, however, as they refused to meet with Lekstrom, despite several attempts to set up a meeting.
“We were unable, after numerous attempts, to secure that date and that meeting,” Lekstrom said at a press conference this morning.
Chiefs from the Saulteau and West Moberly were not immediately available for comment.
“One of the issues we heard, right off the bat, was an increase in racism, an increase in intolerance in the community because a lack of understanding of what the two orders of government and the indigenous communities were talking about when it come to caribou,” Horgan said. Lekstom said that there is general acceptance in the region that the caribou are in trouble and that conservation measures are needed.
“The concern that was expressed to me was, ‘How did we get to this point without our involvement?’” Lekstom said.
It was a message he said he heard from local governments, business and backcountry users.
The provincial government has spent $50 million to date on recovery efforts.
Those include a wolf cull and a maternal penning program, run by First Nations, in which mother caribou and their calves are kept in pens to protect them from predators.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Notices will be filed in the Land Title Office for two rural properties where buildings were found to be in contravention of the FraserFort George Regional District’s building bylaw.
Directors unanimously approved the moves Thursday for 2255 Sharelene Dr. in Miworth and 9955 Old Cariboo Highway in Pineview. Action against the Miworth property’s owners, Bessie and Kenneth Gagnon, began in January when FFGRD staff noticed work had begun on a single-family home without first securing a
building permit.
After receiving a warning letter, the Gagnons did apply for a building permit but it lacked several supporting documents, including a letter of assurance from an engineer, staff says in a report to directors.
When told he needed to supply the documents, Kenneth Gagnon sent emails stating he is unwilling to hire an engineer and contending approval from a building inspector should be enough.
Regarding the Pineview property, in September 2018 a building inspector noticed a steel shelter had been constructed on the site without a building permit. The
permits are required for any structure over 10 square metres in size, staff said in a report.
Despite verbal and written warnings delivered to the property’s owners, Celeste and Daniel Forbes, “no building permit application, or any other communications, have been received from the owners and the structure has not been removed.”
Documentation from a registered professional is required to ensure the structure is built to BC Building Code standards and safe for its intended use, staff added. Neither couple attended the directors meeting Thursday to argue against the decisions.
Horgan pointed out that the province is obliged to act, since the federal government has deemed the mountain caribou a threatened species, although it appears the herd has not been officially designated an endangered species yet.
Caribou herds in that region have declined from about 800 in the early 2000s to about 220 today.
Horgan acknowledged that his government did a poor job of consulting with the nonindigenous community before it announced it caribou protection plan back in April. That failure to communicate and consult with the general public resulted in what has been described as a racist backlash, mostly on social media, against First Nations that have been pushing for stronger caribou protection measures.
B.C.’s forest sector must evolve to survive
Recent sawmill closures in British Columbia have brought to light the need for renewed focus on the mismanagement of B.C. forests over the past decades, which is having a significant effect on the B.C. and Canadian economies.
If you are living in the B.C. Interior, where over 820 job cuts due to permanent mill closures have been announced in the last week alone, the effects could be devastating.
When we take in the local multiplier effect of 2.5 jobs for every job created by industry, we realize the possibility of economic hardship hitting 2,050 families without work and tight on money.
According to some reports, these recent mill closures could just be the beginning of a further trend.
It is estimated that another 12 mills could close in B.C., putting another 2,000 people out of work.
So what is the problem?
Undoubtedly, there have been some challenges in recent years with timber supply, including the pine beetle epidemic in the early 2000s, which led to an unprecedented amount of timber being cut by 2005 and the subsequent years of forest fires devastating significant swaths of marketable timber.
But this could hardly be considered mismanagement or could it?
There is evidence that suggests that the pine beetle epidemic could have been averted had there been less forest fire suppression in affected areas during the early years of infestation.
Logging practices that included allowing the trucking of the
beetles through uninfected areas to distant mills and the logging ban in Tweedsmeer Park when the pine beetle problem first became an epidemic have all been criticized as mismanagement of the forests. Yet the problems go much deeper.
Deeply ingrained in the forest practices of British Columbia are problems that have contributed to the recent years of wildfires.
These include a lack of diversity of species in reforestation practices, which have concentrated on the planting of coniferous trees and the spraying of herbicides to kill deciduous trees that are naturally more resistant to forest fires.
These practices, which have been ingrained for decades, have resulted in a lack of variety in our forests. This has definitely contributed to the spreading of forest fires.
But the lack of diversity doesn’t stop with just trees. We have a significant lack of diversity in the types of products that are being produced by our trees, with a significant lack of value-added products. This is compounded by the fact that small manufacturers lack access to wood and timber supply.
Failure on the part of government over the years to demand investments into strategies that would diversify our product mix to protect the economy has now become disastrous for families in
the interior of British Columbia.
A report several years ago demonstrated that Sweden, a country with a commercial forest land base similar to the one in B.C., employed double the number of people in forestry and produced almost 2.5 times the value in wood products.
The tenure system, where large companies have been given the access and management of large regions of forest in exchange for jobs, is a system that is fraught with problems.
Like a third world country, we have essentially given our trees away for a pittance.
Not only that, these companies have grown their mills over the years to consume more and more of our forests in exchange for fewer and fewer jobs while we turned a blind eye. Shame on us.
Now these companies are selling their tenure, taking their money, shutting down their mills in Canada and buying up others in the U.S. or in Europe.
It might be too late to act to change our forest practices and protect the economy in the short term, however in the interest of future generations we need to start making changes. These changes need to start at the university level, where our future leaders continue to be taught forest practices that have led to our present situation.
We need voices to be heard that want to consider ecological practices that enable our forests to be healthy. We need changes to the distribution of timber rights that allow smaller companies to have access to timber. Finally, we need to think about
Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, said the moratorium only applies to new licences and tenures.
“Existing approvals in that area are not impacted,” he said.
The Council of Forest Industries (COFI), is greeting the interim moratorium and Lekstrom’s recommendations with some relief.
“Forest sector communities and workers are facing significant challenges,” COFI CEO Susan Yurkovich said in a press release. “Timber supply shortages, high log costs and volatile market prices have led to closures and curtailments across the Interior of the province. Considering these circumstances, it comes as some relief that the province has seen fit to pause to ensure that collectively we strike the right balance between caribou recovery and economic viability.”
how tenure should revert back to the Crown when forestry giants close their doors instead of allowing them to sell to others who continue down the similar path where British Columbians and Canadians fail to benefit.
This is a complex matter. Unless we stand up and demand change, however, change will never happen and we will continue this cycle of boom and bust for generations to come and continue negatively affect our economy.
Dave Fuller MBA, is a certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Feel lost in the woods with your business? Email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Citizen new location
Citizen staff tour the new Citizen offices, located at 505 Fourth Avenue. The Citizen will open at the new location on July 2. Until June 28, The Citizen remains open at its current location: 201-1777 Third Ave.
Laura Grizzlypaws bringing bear dance to Heatwave
Wendy FRASER Glacier Media
A great poet once posed the question: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
That phrase comes to mind watching Laura Grizzlypaws’ intense and powerful grizzly bear dance.
She crouches, she bends, she bounces, bells jingle, she turns, she stalks, she stands tall, paws extend skyward, she pounces, she shakes the imposing head of the magnificent – and heavy – grizzly bear regalia draped over her.
This is no mere performance she’ll be bringing to Heatwave in Prince George; the vigorous spirit of the bear is proudly prancing before you.
“It’s very moving, the strength is there, the connectedness,” she explains. “To feel the spirit or the presence of that. Some people say, ‘Oh, it’s just a hide.’ It’s not just a hide. It’s not just a costume. We are united and become one. I become the bear. I am the bear.”
The bear has a name – Grizz. She and Grizz evoke the days when grizzly bears were abundant and freely roamed the land. During the dance, she says she and Grizz “mark our ancestral footprints together.”
She is emphatic: “It’s not for show or fashion, it’s about empowering, it’s about increasing awareness, it’s about educating, it’s about identity and identifying oneself to a particular group or community or family.”
YouTube videos of Laura Grizzlypaws’ bear dance and other dances have been seen online by hundreds of thousands of people. She has danced across North America and in such far-flung locations as Hawaii, Chile and New Zealand. Her appearances at pow wows, indigenous gatherings and festivals introduce St’at’imc culture and tradition to new and appreciative audiences.
She says many of the communities she visits – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – are undergoing crises of sustainability and identity as a unique cultural group.
“In some communities, their languages are dying, in some communities their cultures are dying, some communities have high suicide rates, some communities are struggling with youth academic achievements. They’re facing all these challenges and barriers and a large percentage of the time, I get invited to communities to inspire, to give hope, to share stories,” she said.
“It’s not just the dance. There’s a story, there’s a history, there’s a purpose and there’s an intention and meaning. If I can have a positive impact on at least one child, one elder, one community member, then I believe I’ve made a difference.”
Laura Grizzlypaws knows firsthand that one person can make a difference.
“Because that’s all it took for me was for one person to say, ‘I’m here, I believe in you, you can do this, you can achieve.’”
She overcame a tough childhood, living in foster homes, being mistreated. She left Lillooet Secondary School one month into Grade 8. By the time she was 18, she’d given up on the system, given up on the community, given up on taking care of herself. She was overwhelmed, hurting and angry; she lashed out violently and found herself in jail. “I had anger, hate and rage and the power of the punch was how I maintained con-
trol,” Grizzleypaws said.
But there was one person – a teacher –who was encouraging and caring. He kept encouraging her to go to school. Days, weeks and months went by. He persisted. Her response was “The hell with school.”
Still he persisted. She asked him why he continued to “pick on” her.
He replied, “You didn’t fail, Laura. The system failed you, those teachers failed to teach you and those who failed to care and look after you failed as well. It’s not your fault.”
“So I went into class and I was just sitting there, wondering what the hell am I doing
here? He had to sit there, right beside me, to help me with my studies. In three months, I completed Grade 8, 9, 10 in jail with him... I recall having tantrums and throwing tables and chairs and books because of the false principles that were put in my window as a child, going through the system. ‘I’m a failure, I’m a stupid Indian, I’m incapable, I have nothing to offer.’ He had to deal with the physical and emotional part of that.”
After she left jail, she says her friends expected her to be same battling Laura she was before she went in. They wanted her to physically fight their battles for them. She refused. She had better things to do. She enrolled in the Adult Dogwood program, graduated and decided to be a teacher. When she confided her ambition to one of her teachers, he discouraged her, telling her that would be “too challenging.” He did not dissuade her. She ignored him and became a teacher.
Recently, she’s been a guest teacher at a Lillooet, teaching oral traditions and languages to students there. She is also teaching language, culture and dance at her home community of Xwisten, including creating regalia. Additionally, she works as the education training manager for St’at’imc Government Services.
Laura Grizzlypaws is also a singer, songwriter and drummer who released her first CD Hear Me in April of 2016. As a motivational speaker, she is a mentor and inspiration to many. She’s an important catalyst on the women’s empowerment PowHERhouse website and the TV series Powhertalks. She is a mom to three sons and she and her partner Levi Blackwolf will welcome their first child next month.
And whether she’s dancing, speaking or teaching, she tries to impart traditional St’at’imc laws. She says those laws are inseparably connected to the land “because the land is basically where we come from.
“If it wasn’t for the land, the territory, the land mass, we wouldn’t have a home. The land, the language and the people are all inter-connected. And all of that boils down to a culture and a way of life. And all of that encompasses ceremony, songs, dances, stories, teachings, traditions and how we communicate, interact and engage.”
The Heatwave-Celebrating Cultures roster at Canada Games Plaza is: Today: Opening Ceremonies, Saltwater Hank, Rivière Rouge, and the Tonye Aganaba Band.
Saturday: Navaz, En Karma and George Leach (with special performances by Laura Grizzlypaws).
Sunday: Madame Diva & Micah, Kym Gouchie, Shauit and Alex Cuba.
Fibre optic project at preliminary design stage
Mark NIELSEN Citizen news service mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Progress is being made on a plan to install fibre optic cable along Highway 97 from Prince George to Dawson Creek, Fraser-Fort George Regional District directors were told Thursday.
In a presentation to the board, Shaw Communications Inc. government relations manager Kiersten Enemark said the project is in the preliminary design stage and indicated there is still a chance to make some adjustments in terms of so-called “breakout points” for service along the route.
Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2020 and is to be completed by the end of March 2021.
It will fill in a long-standing gap in northern B.C. – there is currently a fibre optic loop from Kamloops to Prince George and from Dawson Creek to Edmonton but nothing in between.
The project has been hailed as providing the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of attracting a data centre to Prince George because it will provide the redundancy they need to continue to provide service should there be trouble along one of the routes.
Most of the discussion on Thursday, however, centred on how it will improve
service to the communities along Highway 97 North.
About a dozen spots along the route have been identified for breakout points, some of them to provide wifi service at highway rest stops while Powder King was also mentioned.
There will also be a breakout point at the junction of Highway 97 and Highway 39 to Mackenzie, but the community will remain outside the fibre optic service for the time being.
However, Enemark and two of her colleagues were in Mackenzie earlier Thursday to discuss the possibility of bringing fibre optic to the community.
Salmon Valley, the McLeod Lake Indian Band’s main reserve and Peace Christian School in Dokie Siding west of Dawson Creek have been slated for major points of presence, Enemark said. In March 2018, it was announced that Shaw will receive conditional funding totalling $20.7 million from the federal and provincial governments to bring the service to the 410-kilometre route as well as for similar work along Highway 99 to the south.
For most of the route, the cable is to be underground with about 75 kilometres to be strung out on existing utility poles.
Meals on Wheels needs more volunteers
Citizen staff
The Prince George Council of Seniors’ Meals on Wheels program has become a victim of its own success.
The program is desperate for more volunteers after seeing the volume of meals delivered more than double from a year ago.
As it stands, it delivers more than 1,000 meals per month and has about 80 regular clients.
The current client load is pushing the volunteer time commitment past the usual one to one and a half hours, organizers say.
The meals are delivered to seniors in the city’s bowl area on weekdays.
Volunteer drivers pick up the packaged hot meals at the Seniors Activity Centre at Fourth Avenue and Brunswick Street at 10:45 a.m., deliver to individual client’s
homes, then return insulated bags to the kitchen for the next day. Each route averages 10 or more clients.
Volunteer drivers use their own vehicles and donate their time and gas. Most volunteers drive once per week. Although more year-round volunteers would be helpful, the program is also welcoming short-term volunteers for the summer months – particularly on Wednesdays – while regular volunteers are away on vacation.
Those interested must complete a volunteer application form and provide a criminal record check and driver’s abstract, as well as have a valid driver’s license and reliable vehicle.
Forms are available at the Seniors Resource Centre, 721 Victoria St. For more information, contact Nicole Currie at 250 564 5888 or Nicole.pgcos@ gmail.com.
Laura Grizzlypaws will perform the grizzly bear dance at the Heatwave-Celebrating Cultures event at Canada Games Plaza on Saturday.
Gov’t bans shark finning
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Carving fins off live sharks and tossing them in the ocean to drown will be illegal in Canada as early as Friday.
Importing shark fins that are no longer attached to sharks will also be against the law, as part of efforts to prevent Canada from being complicit in the practice of “shark finning” elsewhere.
“It is a practice that is not sustainable and is inhumane,” Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Thursday.
Shark finning has been barred as a condition of getting a fishing licence in Canada since 1994 but legislation that passed through Parliament this week will turn those licensing conditions into law.
Canada is the first country in the world to ban the import and export of unattached shark fins.
Wilkinson held a news conference about the ban at a Toronto memorial to filmmaker Rob Stewart, whose 2007 documentary Sharkwater helped raise global awareness of the problem. Stewart died in a scuba diving accident in Florida in 2017 making a followup to Sharkwater, and his parents, Brian and Sandy Stewart, said Thursday their son would be very proud about this development.
“This is a huge step for Canada,” Brian Stewart said. “We’ve got to stop the devastation in the world’s oceans.”
The United States has similar legislation in Congress, which the Stewarts hope will gain traction following Canada’s move on the issue.
Multiple bills have been introduced but not passed at the federal and provincial levels over
the last decade to end the practice in Canada, which is the largest importer of shark fins outside of Asia.
This latest legislation had all-party involvement. It was introduced in 2017 by Conservative Sen. Michael MacDonald and sponsored in the House of Commons by NDP MP Fin Donnelly. However in early June, it became clear that the bill, as a private member’s bill, was unlikely to pass before Parliament rose.
With a federal election looming, if the bill didn’t pass this spring, it would once again die and have to be started from scratch with the new Parliament in the fall.
So Wilkinson worked with the Senate, which considered other
amendments to the Fisheries Act in Bill C-68, to add most of MacDonald’s bill.
That legislation passed the Senate for the final time on June 18, and will become law as soon as it is proclaimed.
That is currently expected to happen on Friday.
“It’s a historic moment,” said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International/ Canada.
She said the decision should lead to a reduction in shark deaths because so much of the shark-fishing industry is based on finning. It is more lucrative for shark fishers to carve off the fins and carry only them on their boats, because they fetch the best price.
Teens have privacy rights, doctor tells inquest into 16-year-old’s opioid death
Dirk MEISSNER
The Canadian Press
VICTORIA — Two family doctors and an orthopedic surgeon told a British Columbia coroner’s inquest Thursday about the dilemmas they faced treating a 16-yearold patient who denied he was abusing drugs but showed signs of a growing opioid addiction.
Elliot Eurchuk was found unresponsive in his bedroom on April 20, 2018 and the coroner’s jury has heard he died of a drug overdose.
The teen’s parents, Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuk, both testified this week that privacy laws restricted them from getting medical information about their son to help address his addictions.
But the family doctor who delivered Eurchuk as a baby in July 2001 and treated him up until 18 months before his death testified that teens have a right to privacy about their medical issues.
Dr. Marjorie Van der Linden said she spoke with Eurchuk in November 2016 about the risks of overdose associated with using street drugs after his mother found a bag containing marijuana and sedation-type pills in his room but he defiantly denied using drugs.
“He was denying he had a drug issue,” she said, adding that Eurchuk told her he was selling the pills at school. “He was defiant he wasn’t using.”
Van der Linden said she supported efforts by Eurchuk’s parents to take a tough love approach to their son’s issues, including challenging his behaviours, cutting privileges and scheduling counselling appointments, but she also believed the teen had privacy rights.
“I do believe they have the right to keep their information private,” she said. “In most cases, 15 and 16 year olds are very clear in what
decisions they want, and I would respect that.”
Van der Linden told the jurors that she encourages teenage patients to discuss health issues with their parents, but some are not comfortable discussing matters like birth control or abortion.
A year after Eurchuk stopped being her patient, she received medical test results that confirmed opioids in the teen’s blood system, said Van der Linden.
She said she didn’t recall sharing the drug test information with Eurchuk’s family.
Dr. David Harrison testified he became Eurchuk’s family doctor in July 2017 and found it unusual that the teen asked for a prescription for the opioid Percocet on his first visit to help ease pain from recent shoulder surgery.
He said he checked Eurchuk’s body for signs of needle marks but didn’t find any, but ordered a blood test which revealed opioids.
“I was obviously concerned,” said Harrison, adding a second test in November 2017 also showed opioids.
He said Eurchuk’s family was aware of the test results.
The concerns heightened in
B.C. MP dies of cancer
Kristy KIRKUP The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Conservative MP Mark Warawa’s family said his “new address is in heaven” on Thursday, announcing his death following a “brief but valiant battle” with pancreatic cancer.
The statement on his Facebook page gave a final message to his constituents, saying it had been an incredible honour to serve his community – the federal riding of Langley-Aldergrove, outside Vancouver – since being elected in 2004.
Warawa was a devout Christian and his family said he hoped “that one day he will see you in heaven too.”
The 69-year-old died peacefully at Langley Hospice, his office said in a separate statement.
The House of Commons suspended its morning schedule on Thursday. A framed photograph and white flowers sat on Warawa’s desk.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Thursday he could not begin to express the sorrow and loss he and his wife feel following Warawa’s death.
“Mark was a true gentleman,” Scheer said. “While his warmth and kindness knew no partisan bounds, his love for his Conservative family was special. The Conservative caucus is devastated. He will be missed dearly.”
Parliamentarians and Canadians also mourn Warawa’s passing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I extend my deepest condolences to his wife Diane, his five children and 10 grandchildren, his friends and colleagues, and the many people he represented in his riding,” he said.
In April, Warawa announced his diagnosis and in May he gave an emotional farewell to the House of Commons. He also used the speech to speak about the need to improve palliative care. Statistics show between 70 and 84 per cent of Canadians have no access to specialized health care at the end of life, Warawa said, adding the number is “tragic.”
February 2018 when Eurchuk was admitted to hospital in Victoria with a blood infection commonly associated with intravenous drug users, said Harrison. He overdosed in the hospital and was revived with Narcan.
Harrison said the family was aware Eurchuk overdosed on street drugs while in the hospital. He said he later spoke privately with Eurchuk in his office, but the teen “was more ambivalent.”
Eurchuk didn’t want his parents to have the drug overdose information even though they had seen the hospital discharge sheet that disclosed cocaine and fentanyl, said Harrison.
“Internally, I was struggling,” he said. “Should I share and disclose this information to the parents? Elliot has rights. On the other hand, there was a life at risk.”
Harrison told the jury that B.C. needs more treatment facilities and options for adolescents who abuse drugs.
He said the last time he saw Eurchuk was in February 2018.
Harrison left the inquiry in tears. He embraced Staples and said, “Sorry.”
Dr. Brent Weatherhead performed two shoulder surgeries on Eurchuk in 2017 to repair sports injuries and told the inquest he prescribed five days of opioid pain relief medicine for the teen following the operations.
He said Eurchuk never asked him for more pills, but the surgeon said he did have a discussion with the teen about self-medicating.
“What else are you taking?” asked Weatherhead. “He denied taking anything else.”
Staples testified earlier about her family’s efforts to help their son recover from serious sports injuries that resulted in him becoming addicted to pain medications and eventually street drugs.
WARAWA
EURCHUK
AP FILE PHOTO
A worker cuts a shark fin at a fish market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2012. Carving fins off live sharks and leaving them in the ocean to drown will become illegal in Canada.
Big raise in 2018 for city manager
This past week has brought devastating news for area residents and the communities they live in.
West Fraser is laying off 210 workers in the South Cariboo, permanently closing its Chasm mill and eliminating the third shift at its 100 Mile House facility, on top of major cuts in production across B.C.
Canfor is closing its Vavenby sawmill, eliminating 170 jobs.
Tolko is halting work at its Quest sawmill in Quesnel, with 150 workers losing their jobs.
Louisiana Pacific is shutting down its the Peace Valley OSB mill in Fort St. John, putting 190 employees out of work.
The Norbord OSB mill in 100 Mile House is being shuttered as well, leaving 160 people looking for work.
Fortunately, the sun continues to shine and the good times are still rolling at Prince George City Hall.
The city has released its 2018 annual Statements of Financial Information in advance of city council’s upcoming meeting Monday, which includes the names of city employees who received remuneration (basic pay plus all other compensation, such as overtime, vacation payouts and so on) of more than $75,000.
If you recall the 2017 statements revealed some shocking details about the soaring salaries among the city’s senior administrators over the previous three years. Then came the appalling fact those same managers collected overtime at double their regular hourly rate during the Cariboo wildfire evacuation crisis, even while they were asking residents to volunteer their time to help and only paying unionized city employees time-and-ahalf overtime, as per their collective agreements.
The 2018 base pay for city manager Kathleen Soltis, the city’s senior bureaucrat, was $256,930.39. In 2017, her base pay was $237,487.10.
Those details in The Citizen seemed to have sparked a change in how the city is reporting the pay of city staff over that $75,000 threshold.
Up until this year, those financial details were just a name and total remuneration plus expenses, making it difficult to separate base pay from other forms of income. The 2018 numbers break out base pay, overtime payout, vacation payout and all other compensation, leading up to remuneration, plus expenses.
The wage increases and the overtime revealed by The Citizen last summer also led Mayor Lyn Hall and the six city councillors who ran for re-election lin October –
Frank Everitt, Garth Frizzell, Murry Krause, Terri McConnachie, Susan Scott and Brian Skakun – to all solemnly declare at public forums that they would welcome a review of the city’s overtime policy for senior administrators.
All of those incumbents were re-elected to city council but eight months into their four-year term, there has been no announced change to that overtime policy.
Not only that but the big raises are still coming to the top people.
The 2018 base pay for city manager Kathleen Soltis, the city’s senior bureaucrat, was $256,930.39. In 2017, her base pay was $237,487.10.
In other words, Soltis received an 8.2 per cent wage increase, totalling $19,443.29 last year.
That’s on top of the 3.3 per cent increase she received in 2017 from her 2016 base pay of $229,827.
Contrast that 11.5 per cent wage increase in just two years to the 6.75 per cent pay raise over four years granted to the city’s unionized staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
YOUR LETTERS
City anticipated AAP’s failure
Dear mayor and city council, I feel compelled to write you to provide my thoughts on the outcome of the Alternative Approval Process and your response to it.
First of all, while you state otherwise, there was an option to the AAP. You could have chosen to go to referendum at the same time as the new fire hall and new pool went to referendum (I can’t help but feel these expenses were known at the time). Or you could have gone to referendum at a different time.
While you would argue it’s expensive to hold the referendum, I would counter that the difference between it and the energy and costs from city staff associated with the AAP is negligible and, at the end of the day, there’s no way to assign a value to truly engaging and consulting residents that a referendum would have provided.
It’s my opinion you chose the AAP because it was easy and you realized the outcome would be more likely in your favour.
At the time of the pool/firehall referendum, I feel you and city staff had to know that the question of this $32 million was out there. But I can’t help but think you held back on this information with the logic being “let’s get the new pool and fire hall approved
first, then worry about this later.”
I can honestly say that I voted for each and every one of you. Unfortunately I now feel let down by you. You didn’t really give us a fair chance to prioritize our spending because of the approach taken.
So an increase to property taxes of 2.3 per cent each year over the next 20 years to pay for these expenses plus roughly 3.6 per cent increase to our property taxes each year over the next 20 years for the new pool and firehall, with a total spending of more than $80 million. And that doesn’t include any increases that come about between now and then to cover off other inevitable projects, inflationary increases, wage increases, etc. I also take issue with what I perceive as a dismissive and almost arrogant response to the outcome. Mayor Hall, according to media reports you said: “I stand firm on the infrastructure needs of this community and I will continue to work for it. You can disagree and I’m fine with that […] But to continue to ignore what’s going on from an infrastructure perspective in this city I just can’t do it.”
I think it’s fair to say none of us want to ignore the infrastructure concerns but how they got addressed may have been different if you put all of the issues in front of us at the same time. Maybe we would have said no to the fire hall or pool or both in light of the other infrastructure projects on
the table but we weren’t given that opportunity.
Coun. Murry Krause and Coun. Kyle Sampson, you both effectively said the same thing. This quote from Krause: “We’ve heard from those who responded. Those who didn’t sign a response form sent a message too, there are people who didn’t sign those for very good reasons.” So, in essence, your argument is that those who didn’t respond was a vote in favour of the initiative? To quote Col.Potter from M.A.S.H.: “Horse hockey.”
Following through on that logic, during the last municipal election more people didn’t vote for each of you than voted for you. So does that mean you shouldn’t be on council? It’s crazy logic. Not to mention the cumbersome, onerous process that is the AAP. And again it’s the dismissive, seemingly arrogant tone to your responses. No sense of humility or conciliation whatsoever.
Lastly, I think it’s fair to say that so many of us are frustrated and angry over the ongoing cost overruns with various city projects, which only exacerbates everything above. They seem to be frequent and extreme with no accountability. There’s at least the perception when it comes to the relationship between city management and the council, it truly is a case of the tail wagging the dog.
John Barrett, Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
While the city manager decides without city council oversight what senior administrators are paid, mayor and council have direct authority over what their city manager receives in pay and benefits.
Perhaps local taxpayers should be grateful city council only increased the city manager’s salary by 11.5 per cent over the past two years. An outside consultant hired by the city to review pay levels of the city manager and senior recommendation recommended a 15 per cent raise for the city manager in a November 2017 report.
Perhaps local taxpayers should be grateful Soltis declared no overtime in 2018, compared to the $16,500.40 she received for 70 hours of overtime at an hourly rate of $235.72 in 2017.
Perhaps local taxpayers should be asking why city council has approved property tax increases totalling 12.56 per cent (that doesn’t include compound interest) over the past four years.
Perhaps local taxpayers should be asking city council why their top bureaucrat deserves an 8.2 per cent pay increase in one year while nearly 1,000 Central Interior residents working in the forest sector have been thrown out of work so far this year. There is no universe where those numbers add up, except on the fifth floor of Prince George City Hall.
—
Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
TMX approval the only way forward
Only in Canada could the government majority declare a climate emergency one night in the House of Commons and next morning see its cabinet approve a megaproject to channel and ship extracted bitumen abroad.
We are walking, talking contradictions – not necessarily hypocrites, as some suggest, just living amid paradox.
The Justin Trudeau government might not have completed the full-fledged Indigenous consultations the court directed. It might not have found a buyer for the multibillion-dollar asset that looks more economically stressed by the hour. And it might not have any political dividend coming in the election in four months from its decision Tuesday.
But the shovels are being taken out of the shed to open the ground in the weeks ahead, about which Trudeau had little choice in the realpolitik now guiding his deliberations.
To say no to the resumption of the TransMountain twinning pipeline into Burnaby would have been, on balance but not by much, to commit to little progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and much regress as a country in cutting investor confidence.
We might as well build a wall for all the international interest we would repel.
Context is everything. For the Trudeau government to make any headway on its climate change targets – already tapered, already bound to fall short of goals that were already themselves tapered, the palliative to what the Commons grieved in its climate declaration – the pipeline needs to be twinned to extract Asian revenue that will reveal the Americans as basement bargainers who held us hostage.
Through the possible but not certain eventual riches the project will help convert the Canadian economy over years, maybe decades, into one in which we can be international leaders as investors in alternative energy.
Some of us will live that long.
Few of us are that optimistic. But it is our only feasible way forward.
To leave much-demanded energy in the ground would abrogate responsibility to develop a prosperous economic resource.
To import it would be immoral.
To continue to sell it to the U.S. at discounted prices would be subservient.
Trouble is, there will be trouble.
It would be vastly better if we had divined the full wisdom of Indigenous bands on how to move
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forward, shared the pipeline’s yield most fully to help emancipate their economies and viewed the pipeline as a gesture in the early stages of reconciliation. That might come another day. Instead, what we will see is confrontation and court action amid construction.
In the short term, that court action will come as the existing pipeline is saturated and rail shipments practically buckle the tracks. Other pipeline proposals are stalled in U.S. courts and, what’s worse, the appetite for the cheaper Canadian oil at these prices in the short term is not the stuff of Albertan renewal.
Trudeau has known for as long as he has had this file on his desk that the day would come when he would have to make a big, somewhat defiant decision. To back his belief that the TransMountain twinning was in the national interest – as do a majority of British Columbians – he would have to shave his climate-change agenda, stake taxpayers to its ownership and navigate his professed most important relationship with First Nations. Well, he did it. It may not be a deal-maker or deal-breaker for his reelection. It will win him nothing more in Alberta and lose him little more in British Columbia.
But if he hadn’t made that call, his post-election position if he were to win a second mandate would be nothing short of destitute: an economy into international recessionary headwinds, investor confidence depleted by governmental ineptitude to build what it considers a national fundamental.
For British Columbia’s government, the toolbox is a bit hollow at the moment. It is pouring funds into forlorn court battles and fighting what it considers a good fight, when the truth is that the oil will come from the ground no matter, trundle hazardously over rail across the province, retail for cut-rate prices and deliver negligibly to an economy that will need the help.
Premier John Horgan will be a happier camper as an economic steward if the pipeline is built and invests some of its dividends into jobs and royalties for what are largely underdeveloped markets within the province. Here we go on the next step. It will be the ugliest yet. It is hard to see the winner yet in its midst.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca
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TO THE POINT
KIRK LAPOINTE
B.C. tanker ban bill squeaks through final vote in Senate
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Legislation barring oil tankers from loading at ports on the northern coast of British Columbia slipped over its final hurdle in the Senate Thursday, despite last-minute attempts by Conservative senators to convince their colleagues to kill it.
Bill C-48 is one of two government bills Conservatives in both the House of Commons and the Senate say are kneecapping Alberta’s oil industry by limiting the movement of its oil. It passed the Senate by a vote of 49 to 46.
The tanker ban and Bill C-69, an overhaul of federal environmental assessments of major construction projects, have together become a flashpoint between the Liberals and Conservatives over how Canada can protect the environment without driving investment away from the fossil-fuel sector.
C-69 imposes more requirements for consulting affected Indigenous communities, widens public participation in the review process and requires climate change to be considered when major national resourceexploitation and transportation projects are being evaluated.
It applies to a wide range of projects including interprovincial pipelines, highways, mines and power links.
C-69 was set for its final dance in the upper chamber late Thursday evening. The Senate made more than 200 amendments to that bill earlier this month but the government accepted only 99 of them, mostly to do with reducing ministerial discretion to intervene in the review process.
The unelected Senate has generally bowed to the will of the elected House of Commons when there is a dispute between the two parliamentary chambers about legislation.
The bills, both expected to be fodder for Liberals and Conservatives on the campaign trail to this fall’s election, were on a long list of legislation the Senate pounded through as it prepared to rise for the summer.
The House of Commons called it quits earlier Thursday.
The House closed after MPs delivered condolence speeches following the death of
Conservative MP Mark Warawa, forgoing the rest of the day’s planned activities out of respect for the veteran MP who died of cancer.
Bill C-48 imposes a moratorium on oil tankers north of Vancouver Island, but after the government accepted an amendment from the Senate, it will now undergo a mandatory review in five years.
The Senate committee that reviewed the bill recommended in May the entire Senate vote down the bill in its entirety, but that didn’t happen, leading Conservatives to
accuse the Independent senators who make up a majority in the chamber of being Liberals in disguise.
Conservative Sen. Michael MacDonald was one of a few from his caucus to make final pleas with his colleagues to not proceed with the bill.
He said it “will be devastating for the Alberta and Saskatchewan economies.”
However several Independent senators rose to speak in favour of the bill, including Yukon Independent Sen. Pat Duncan.
“I believe we should be doing it,” said
Trump offers help with Canadian detainees in China
Mike BLANCHFIELD
The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON — It was third-time lucky for Justin Trudeau in Washington on Thursday as President Donald Trump welcomed his “friend” the hard-working Canadian prime minister and offered to help him out of a jam with China.
One year after Trump insulted Trudeau after leaving the G7 in Quebec – dishonest, weak, meek, mild is how he described him on Twitter – the president displayed a statesman’s grace in welcoming the Canadian leader.
Trump signalled Thursday he will raise the issue of two Canadians detained in China when he meets with the Chinese president next week. And even though he held to his tough talk on tariffs, refusing to rule out using them in the future, he praised his North American neighbours for crafting an excellent new trade agreement.
The aura of restraint that Trump projected came on a tense morning as his administration was seized with responding to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shooting down a U.S. surveillance drone. The move sparked competing and unverifiable accounts over where the downing occurred and deepened a conflict between the U.S. and Iran but Trump was adamant the plane was in international waters.
Trudeau’s trip to Washington, including his third Oval Office visit since Trump assumed power in2017, was aimed primarily at pushing the new North American trade agreement over the finish line in both countries.
“He’s been a friend of mine. We’ve worked hard together. We worked, in particular, on the USMCA,” Trump said, using the acronym for his preferred name for the new trade pact, the United States-Mexio-Canada Agreement.
After his meeting with Trump, Trudeau announced co-operation on a series of initiatives, include a new push to combat the opioid crisis in both countries.
They also agreed to speed up two previous plans to ease the flow of goods and people across the border: a new preclearance plan and a long-planned sharing of information on people entering and exiting the two countries will begin this summer.
Speaking to reporters as he and Trudeau sat in the Oval Office, Trump vowed to do whatever he could do to help Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig when he meets China’s President Xi Jinping at next week’s G20 leaders’ summit in Japan, if Trudeau – as expected – asks for his help.
The two Canadians have been languishing behind bars in China since shortly after Canada arrested high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou late last year at the behest of U.S. authorities.
Canada has been caught in the crossfire after the RCMP arrested Meng last December in Vancouver, where she awaits extradition south of the border to face allegations of fraud in violating Iran sanctions.
Trudeau doesn’t have a planned meeting with Xi, unlike Trump. The U.S.China meeting next week is focused on a trade deal.
“I’ll represent him well, I will tell you,”
Trump said. “We’ll see what happens, but anything I can do to help Canada I will be doing... I would, at Justin’s request, I will actually bring it up.”
Trudeau said he and Trump had an “extended conversation” about the situation Canada finds itself in with China, which includes blocking imports of Canadian canola and pork. But what Trump will say to Xi isn’t clear – all Trudeau would say is that he expects Kovrig and Spavor to be on the agenda for the Trump-Xi meeting.
Conservative foreign-affairs critic Erin O’Toole said it is about time someone talks to Xi about the situation.
“After half a year of inaction and bungling by the Liberals, the crisis will finally be raised directly with the Chinese president, but it will take the United States to make our case. While this is a positive step, it is frustrating Trudeau let the crisis deepen over half a year,” said O’Toole.
Trump and Trudeau projected genuine enthusiasm for the hard-fought completion of a new North American trade deal.
Canada has started the ratification process, with legislation making its way through Parliament. Lawmakers in Mexico voted Wednesday in a landslide to ratify the deal, which Trudeau said he was pleased to see.
But now Trump needs to persuade his Democratic opponents in the House of Representatives – in particular Speaker Nancy Pelosi – to allow the actual start of the ratification of the USMCA.
Pelosi and her fellow Democrats want stronger enforcement mechanisms for the deal’s new labour and environmental provisions.
Duncan. Ontario Sen. Donna Dasko, who was on the committee that studied the bill in the Senate, said she thinks “it is quite a good bill.”
“This bill does not actually ban tankers from the Hecate Strait; it simply landlocks Alberta and Saskatchewan oil, and destroys the possibility of economic development in northern Indigenous communities,” said Conservative Sen. Dennis Patterson, a former premier of the Northwest Territories, after the Senate passed it.
Student killed by falling tree on field trip
The Canadian Press
SOOKE — The Greater Victoria School District says counsellors will be at a local middle school to help students and staff deal with the death of a fellow student.
Superintendent Shelley Green posted a letter on the district’s website Wednesday, advising that the district has deployed its critical incident response team to Lansdowne Middle School after a student died during a field trip.
Officials with the Otter Point Volunteer Fire Department, near the west coast Vancouver Island community of Sooke, say they responded to Camp Barnard on Wednesday afternoon for a report that a boy was trapped under a fallen tree. RCMP say in a news release the 13-year-old boy was unconscious and not breathing when emergency responders arrived. Camp personnel and first responders performed life-saving measures but they were unsuccessful and the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
A second youth was taken to hospital in critical condition but the RCMP say his injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
Premier John Horgan offered his “heartfelt sorrow” for the loss of life of the “youngster,” who died in his constituency.
“I just want to offer my sincere condolences to the family and to those kids at Lansdowne who are grieving the loss of a friend at what was supposed to be a joyous end to the school year,” Horgan said Thursday.
“Nobody wants to ever hear of events like this and now we have families living it in Victoria.” Green’s letter says the death of the unnamed youth “may raise certain emotions, concerns and questions for our entire school district...”
The Camp Barnard website says the roughly one-square-kilometre camp at Otter Point, just west of Sooke, offers wilderness camping and other programs for youths and adults.
An oil tanker navigates Burrard Inlet in Burnaby in 2018. On Thursday the Senate passed Bill C-48, which imposes a moratorium on oil tankers north of Vancouver Island.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) —
Quotations in
Walmart to pay $282M over foreign corruption
Matthew BARAKAT
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Walmart agreed Thursday to pay $282 million to settle federal allegations of overseas corruption, including funneling more than $500,000 to an intermediary in Brazil who was known as a “sorceress” for her uncanny ability to make construction permit problems disappear.
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index closed slightly higher Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged but indicated it’s prepared to cut it if economic stimulus is needed.
The mixed news saw the S&P/ TSX composite index inch up 8.44 points to close at 16,511.79, after having one of its biggest one-day gains of 2019 on Tuesday. Information technology saw the biggest index gains on the TSX at 1.92 per cent, pushed up in part by Shopify’s 6.8 per cent gain after it announced it had launched a fulfilment network.
The energy index was down 0.89 per cent after oil slipped 14 cents at US$53.97 per barrel and the July natural gas contract closed down 5.2 cents at US$2.28 per mmBTU. Oil dropped on OPEC uncertainty, despite news from the U.S. of higher than expected crude inventories and gasoline demand, said Currie.
“The news seems to be all about OPEC, whether they can get their act together. They announced they were having a meeting in July, but they’ve still got Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Emirates on one side, everybody else is on the other side.”
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 38.46 points at 26,504.00. The S&P 500 index ended up 8.71 points at 2,926.46, while the Nasdaq composite was up 33.44 points at 7,987.32.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.95 cents US, up from 74.66 cents US on Tuesday after Statistics Canada said the consumer price index rose 2.4 per cent in May compared with a year ago. The higher-than-expected inflation rate could make it harder for the Bank of Canada to cut rates.
The August gold contract ended down US$1.90 at US$1,348.80 an ounce and the July copper contract was down 2.3 cents at US$2.68 a pound.
U.S. authorities went after Walmart under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American companies operating abroad from using bribery and other illegal methods.
The nation’s biggest store chain settled both civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal case built by federal prosecutors in Virginia.
It said the two settlements close the books on federal investigations that stretch back to 2012 and have collectively cost the company more than $900 million.
“We’re pleased to resolve this
matter,” said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon in a statement. “Walmart is committed to doing business the right way, and that means acting ethically everywhere we operate. We’ve enhanced our policies, procedures and systems and invested tremendous resources globally into ethics and compliance, and now have a strong Global Anti-Corruption Compliance Program.”
In the criminal case, Walmart agreed to pay $138 million to avoid prosecution, while its Brazilian subsidiary, WMT Brasilia, pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As for the civil case, the SEC announced a $144 million settlement against Walmart for “failing to operate a sufficient anti-corruption compliance program” in Brazil, China, India and Mexico.
“Walmart valued international growth and cost-cutting over compliance,” said Charles Cain, chief of the SEC unit overseeing FCPA violations. “The company could have avoided many of these
problems, but instead Walmart repeatedly failed to take red flags seriously and delayed the implementation of appropriate internal accounting controls.”
The criminal case focused on corruption that occurred in Brazil in 2009 and 2010 and involved what authorities said were misdeeds by the subsidiary that led the parent company to submit inaccurate financial records.
The money that went to the intermediary was recorded as payments to a construction company, even though there were numerous red flags indicating the intermediary was actually a government official, authorities said. Walmart Brazil was barred at the time from hiring civil servants.
Court papers do not identify the intermediary but say she became known inside Walmart Brazil as a “sorceress” or “genie” for her “ability to acquire permits quickly by ‘sort(ing) things out like magic.”’
A representative of Walmart Brazil had no comment.
Walmart’s foreign practices
have been under investigation since 2012. The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that year that exposed millions of dollars in bribes made by Walmart executives to facilitate growth in Mexico.
According to the SEC, companies including Halliburton, Anheuser-Busch InBev, JPMorgan and Panasonic reached settlements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ranging from $6 million to $264 million in recent years. Last year a Brazilian energy company agreed to pay nearly $1.8 billion.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart recently reported quarterly earnings of $3.84 billion. It announced last year that it decided to sell 80 per cent of its stake in Walmart Brazil to Advent International at a loss of $4.5 billion. At the time, the subsidiary had 438 stores in Brazil.
AP Correspondent Yesica Fisch in Rio de Janeiro and AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this story.
Pig disease spreading in Asia as nations struggle to stop it
Hau Dinh and Sam McNeil The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam — Asian nations are scrambling to contain highly contagious African swine fever, with Vietnam culling 2.6 million pigs and China reporting a million dead in an unprecedentedly huge epidemic some fear is out of control.
Smaller outbreaks have been reported in Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, Cambodia and Mongolia after cases were first reported in China’s northeast in August. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported in its weekly update on Thursday the infections had reached Laos.
With pork supplies dwindling as leading producer China and hard-hit Vietnam destroy huge numbers of hogs and tighten controls on shipments, prices have soared by up to 40 per cent globally and caused shortages in other markets.
“This is the largest animal disease outbreak in history,” said Dirk Pfieffer, a veterinary epidemiologist at the City University of Hong Kong.
“We’ve never had anything like it.”
In South Korea, where diets rely heavily on pork, there is concern an outbreak could hurt an industry with 6,300 farms raising more than 11 million pigs.
African swine fever is harmless to people but fatal and highly contagious for pigs, with no known cure.
Since last August, one million pigs have been culled in China. It has reported 139 outbreaks in all but two of its 34 provinces, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts China’s total hog herd will shrink by 18 per cent this year to 350 million animals, the lowest since the 1980s.
This year’s Chinese pork output might fall by up to 35 per cent, according to Rabobank, a Dutch bank.
Vietnam reported in mid-May that 1.2 million pigs, or about five per cent of its total herds, had died or been destroyed. FAO said Thursday that the number has risen to 2.6 million, and Vietnam said military and police officers were mobilized to help contain the outbreak.
Rabobank expects Vietnamese pork production to fall 10 per cent this year from 2018.
The mass culling in Vietnam could sink many
farmers deeper into poverty, said Wantanee Kalpravidh, a regional co-ordinator of FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease.
Last month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged authorities to prevent the disease, which has spread to 58 of 63 provinces, from escalating into an epidemic.
Vietnam’s farm ministry reports it has so far culled eight per cent of its 30 million pigs.
In My Duc, a suburb of Hanoi, disinfecting lime powder has been scattered around empty pig farms and checkpoints set up to control shipments.
“We have to prevent and fight this disease like fighting an enemy,” Phuc told Cabinet officials.
Farmer Nguyen Van Hoa lamented that only three pigs had died from the fever but authorities culled 40 of his pigs. They were among 14,000 hogs buried in My Duc district in the past month.
About 2.4 million Vietnamese households engage in small-scale pig farming, a large share of the 30 million hogs raised in an industry worth $18 billion, one of the world’s largest.
In Cambodia, more than 2,400 pigs have died or were culled since April in an eastern province bordering Vietnam, FAO said.
Still, Sem Oun, a 58-year-old farmer and father of two in Ta Prum, a village near the capital Phnom Penh, frets that the illness could spread from Vietnam.
“I don’t have any other job and my income that provides for my entire family relies solely on these pigs. If they die because of swine flu then everybody in the family will die too,” he told The Associated Press.
Hong Kong authorities have killed 10,700 pigs in two outbreaks, including one trig-
gered by an animal imported from the mainland that was found to be infected. Two dead pigs infected with a virus similar to those in mainland Chinese were found in Taiwan, the FAO says.
Epidemic fighting efforts have gotten entangled in regional geopolitics.
North Korea scaled back co-operation with South Korea after the collapse of a February summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, hampering joint work on stemming the spread of the disease following an outbreak near North Korea’s border with China.
South Korea’s agricultural ministry said that blood tests of pigs from some 340 farms near the border with the North were negative. Fences and traps have been installed near farms to protect hogs from being infected by wild boars that roam the inter-Korean border.
The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said quarantine efforts were focused on disinfecting farms and transport vehicles, restricting visitors, and banning the distribution of food products containing pork. Its references to nationwide quarantine efforts suggest the disease may have spread beyond regions near China. Thailand and other countries still free of infections have taken strong preventive actions, including banning importation of pork, sausages, ham, or bacon.
Sorawit Taneeto, director-general of Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development, urged people to co-operate with soldiers at checkpoints in border provinces and quarantine areas. Airports are using more dogs like beagles to help in luggage inspections.
This 2018 file photo shows a Walmart Supercenter in Houston.
AP PHOTO BY HENG SINITH
Pigs wait for food in Ta Prum village outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Thursday.
Sports
Northern Hardware canoe race route a paddler’s paradise
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Seeing wildlife in its most natural surroundings is one of the side benefits of competing in the Northern Hardware Prince George Canoe Race on the Nechako and Fraser rivers.
When paddlers begin stroking their way to Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park for the annual race on July 6, they’re liable to see an assorted collection on animals – bear, elk, moose, lynx, beaver, otter, eagles, and maybe even a 10-foot long river monster like the huge sturgeon Nikki Kassel spotted a few years ago while practicing for the Northern Hardware race.
“Paddling in the big open expanse where the Fraser meets the Nechako, I had one surface beside my canoe,” wrote Kassel, in her Facebook post.
“It rolled over just as a whale would surface. Amazing.”
Race organizer Pat Turner can’t guarantee a similar big-fish encounter for those who enter the race, the fifth annual since its revival in 2015. But he’s paddled the Nechako enough times to know it’s never boring when nature comes out of the woodwork to take a peek at the paddlers.
“When you get out of Cottonwood Island Park, the amount of wildlife and birdlife is just incredible,” said Turner.
“These types of events really open people’s eyes to the water resource we have. We drive by it and maybe run by it but the rivers are right here, accessible, and with a bit of training you can be out there.
“The voyageurs used to go up river to Stuart Lake to Fort St. James, loaded with pelts. We’re going the other way, down river. The Nechako is kind of undiscovered, not many people live on it and it is just a beautiful river and the water is very clear. We know there are tons of canoes and kayaks in the community, we see them on cars. If they really want to have a fun day, a float from Miworth to the park is a great way to spend half a Saturday.”
The Canoe Kayak BC-sanctioned race starts at 9 a.m. on July 6 with the Alexander Mackenzie class race, a 67.5 kilometre canoe float from Isle Pierre to Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.
The 25 km Simon Fraser route is geared towards recreational paddlers in two-person canoes, voyageur canoes, kayaks and standup paddle boards. That class starts at Miworth at Wilkins Provincial Park and ends at the park.
Safety of participants is a priority and the route is well-patrolled by volunteers from the Prince George Jet Boat Association and Prince George Search and Rescue, overseen by race director/ safety co-ordinator Sheldon Clare.
“Our safety team is unparalleled in any canoe race in North America,” said Turner.
“We’ve had situations in the rapids where the boats go over and they pluck the paddlers out of the water and drain the canoe and they’re back in the boat.
“The SAR techs love it because they get live training.”
On June 30, the host Two Rivers Canoe Club will haul a trailerload of boats to Isle Pierre to give paddlers a chance for a practice run.
Last year’s race drew 14 Mackenzie route entrees and 40 were part of the Fraser class. Fraser route racers will be on the lookout for 10 treasure hunt buoys marked with numbered flags along the Nechako and can claim one of the 10 prizes from local sponsors attached to the buoys.
An ultralight Clipper Whitewater II canoe will be raffled off to paddlers and volunteers.
Crossroads Brewing is sponsoring the post-race barbecue and awards banquet and there will
be a birthday cake to celebrate Northern Hardware’s 100th. Race volunteer Dave Mothus plans to shoot video of the race using a camera mounted on a drone.
The inaugural Northern Hardware race, organized by the Northwest Brigade Canoe, happened in 1955 and it was an annual event from 1960-1984.
The original route started in Fort St. James and ended in Prince George. To attract more participants the route was shortened in 1960, the year Northern Hardware came on board. In 2015, the Two Rivers Canoe Club revived the race as part of the city’s 100th birthday celebrations.
This year is the 100th birthday of Northern Hardware, the title sponsor of the race since 1960.
The race happens the weekend after the conclusion of the 715 km Yukon River Quest, a paddling race from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Five of the Yukon Quest boats are entered in the Northern Hardware race. Turner, 58, will be part of the Mackenzie open age class event with Kevin Taylor.
He says the masters class will be hotly contested with the likes of 1983 winners Harry James/Tom Blackburn, and Bob Vincent of Regina and his paddling partner.
Bob, the father of 2015/2017 Northern Hardware champion Mike Vincent, is one of the most experienced marathon paddlers in Canada.
“That’s really exciting, that’s kind of a sign the reputation is spreading that this as a fun but competitive event,” said Turner. Turner is trying to get more voyageur canoes involved.
An all-female entry from Pitt Meadows is already entered, as is the Carrier-Sekani boat headed by steersman Rudy Kamstra. He’s also trying to encourage community entries from Vanderhoof, Prince Rupert and Quesnel, where he knows there are voyageur boats.
The deadline to enter is June 28.
The cost to enter is $120 (Mackenzie class) and $60 (Fraser class). Registration is available online at strideandglide.ca or on the race website, northernhardwardpgcanoerace.ca.
Race packages will be available to pick up the day before the race at Stride and Glide.
A group of local paddlers will be heading south this weekend for the provincial marathon canoe championships. Enderby will host the solo event on Saturday and Kamloops has the tandem race on Sunday.
Jones snags junior high school rodeo title
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Fallon Jones is having herself a career year on the junior high school rodeo circuit.
The 14-year-old Prince George Secondary School student finished at the top of her class in B.C. and claimed the 2019 all-around cowgirl junior title over the May long weekend at the provincial finals in Barriere.
Winning the goat tying event on the final day of competition came with a painful price for Jones.
“On the short go on the last day I sprained my foot in the middle of my run and had to keep tying my goat,” she said.
“You have to flank (the goat), so you sit on it and tie three legs together so you do two wraps and a knot.”
During the three-day event she won the goat tying and all-around competitions, was reserve champion in ribbon roping and breakaway, was fourth in team roping, fifth in pole bending and sixth in barrel racing. She came in to Barriere as a top-10 qualifier in all six events.
For winning the junior championship Jones received a gift certificate for a new saddle. Combined with her other prizes and trophy buckles her winnings amounted to about $4,000.
Jones went into the finals as the season leader in four events – breakaway roping, team roping, goat tying and .22-calibre small bore rifle shooting.
Next week, Jones will be in Huron, S.D., for the national junior finals rodeo, an international competition that will draw the best entrants from the four western provinces of Canada, 50 U.S. States, Mexico and Australia. Jones competed there last year in her first national finals.
This time, armed with an all-around title, that gives her the kind of credentials that could land her on the radar of NCAA college coaches looking for potential athletes to offer scholarships.
“It’s pretty exciting,” she said.
“When you go down to the States you meet people you’ll eventually compete
against when you’re older, at college. I met a lot of people there last year.”
After her trip to South Dakota, Jones will turn her attention to the Canadian high school rodeo finals in Merritt, July 26-28. She’s set to compete in five events in Huron – goat tying, breakaway roping, ribbon roping, team roping and small bore shooting. She could have entered pole bending and barrel racing but decided to leave her best horse in Prince George so he’s well-rested for the Canadian finals.
She’ll have two of her horses along for the ride – Pooh Bear will carry her in team roping and goat tying, while Gordon, her most competitive horse, will enter the breakaway.
Jones was in the top-10 in points in B.C. in all six rodeo events – breakaway, team roping, goat tying, ribbon roping, barrel racing, pole bending.
Rifle shooting has been part of B.C. high school rodeos for about three years, but the shooting events don’t count for points in the overall standings. Juniors (Grades 6-8) are limited to just .22 rifle shooting, while seniors (Grades 9-12) also have a skeet shooting event.
To help stay in shape for rodeo season Jones works out recreationally with the Prince George Judo Club and has been with the club for six years. That physical strength comes in handy in the rodeo arena when she’s tying goats and roping steers and the balance drills she goes through in judo prepare her well for the riding events.
For the past two years she’s practicing her shooting with her grandfather, Garry Suter, learning how to control her breathing while she’s on the target range.
“There are so many people, family and friends and supporters at so many different levels,” said Christine Jones, Fallon’s mother.
Jones also plans to enter the B.C. team roping championships, Aug. 2-4 in Quesnel and the B.C. rodeo finals Sept. 6-8 in Barriere. Nevada Jones, Fallon’s 10-year-old sister, is also entering both events. Prince George will host a high school rodeo at Exhibition Park, Aug. 23-25, which counts towards the 2019-20 points standings.
PHOTO Fallon Jones of Prince George competes in the breakaway roping event last year at the national junior high school rodeo finals in Huron, S.D. Jones will be in South Dakota next week for this year’s finals as the B.C. provincial junior all-around champion.
HANDOUT
This file photo was taken during the 2017 Northern Hardware Canoe Race.
NHL draft prospects Jack Hughes, Kaapo Kakko closely linked
Joshua CLIPPERTON The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Jack Hughes shook hands with Kaapo Kakko for the first time Thursday.
If the expected script plays out at the NHL draft, the two potential future stars know their stories will be intertwined for years to come.
Hughes and Kaapo are on course to be selected No. 1 and No. 2 at Rogers Arena on Friday, with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers owning the first two selections.
“It’s right here,” Hughes said during a noon-hour media availability with fellow prospects on the top deck of a yacht in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour neighbourhood.
“When you close your eyes that’s what you’re thinking about. Now that it’s finally here, I’m going to enjoy it.”
But although Hughes and Kakko will be forever linked, the pair are a lesson in contrasts.
The former is a five-foot-10, 170-pound American-born centre with slick hands, while the latter is a powerful Finnish winger that already looks like a man at six foot two and 194 pounds.
“This is a new thing,” said Kakko, who is working to improve his English.
“It’s coming, great day for me.”
The 18-year-old Hughes put up a record 154 assists and 228 points over the last two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program. Kakko, also 18, scored 22 goals – a record for a draft-eligible prospect – and added 16 assists in his country’s top professional division in 2018-19.
Hughes said having their career paths compared and dissected should be interesting.
“You saw (Alex) Ovechkin and (Sidney) Crosby do it,” Hughes said. “I’m not saying we’re going to be Ovechkin and Crosby, but I’m saying it’s going to be pretty cool to be linked like that.”
Hughes was born in Orlando, Fla., but spent his formative years in the Toronto area when his father worked for the Maple Leafs.
The younger Hughes, who registered 112 points in 50 games with the USNTDP
in 2018-19 and is the brother of Vancouver Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes (seventh overall in 2018), is looking to become the eighth American-born player to go No. 1 and the first since Toronto took Auston Matthews in 2016.
“He’s a really nice kid,” Matthews said of Jack Hughes earlier this week.
“Everybody has seen tape and goals that he’s scored, just plays that he can make, he looks to be like a really special player.
“It’s awesome, another American projected to be first overall. It’s amazing, I think he’s going to be great for the game. Whether it’s New Jersey, New York, wherever he’s going to go, I think he’s going to do great there.”
Kakko, meanwhile, has already won three
gold medals internationally, including scoring the winning goal for his country at the 2019 world junior hockey championship in Vancouver before helping the Finns capture the recent men’s worlds in Slovakia.
“Good memories here,” the Turku product said of Vancouver.
“Nice city.”
Dan Marr, the NHL’s director of Central Scouting, said the choice between the two stud forwards could come down to personal preference.
“(Kakko’s) a little more physically developed,” Marr said.
“That dictates the type of game he’s capable of playing, the situations he can be used in, the results that he gets. Skill levels, smarts, skating, you go down the whole list
Spruce Kings tap Ontario talent pool
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The BCHL-champion Prince George Spruce Kings have reached out to the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League to replenish their roster for the 2019-20 season
The Kings announced Thursday they’ve signed forward Ryan McAllister from the Komoka Kings of the GOJHL and goalie Jack McGovern, who played in the league last season for the St. Catharines Falcons. Both are 2001-born players.
McAllister, a five-foot-10 175-pound native of London, Ont., is committed to play college hockey in the NCAA for the Western Michigan University Broncos. He totaled 11 goals and 26 assists in 47 games with Komoka and London Nationals. He was traded at midseason to Komoka and contributed four goals and eight points in 12 playoff games.
McGovern stands six-foot-three and weighs 195 pounds. In 23 games, the Waterdown, Ont., native posted a 20-2 record with four shutouts, compiling a 1.90 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.
Last season the Spruce Kings recruited defenceman Max Coyle from the Listowel Cyclones of the
GOJHL and he went on to become one of the team’s most valuable playoff performers.
In other Spruce Kings news, the team has hired Cole Waldie as its director of media. Waldie, 22, is a native of Prince George who served two seasons as communications director for the major midget Vancouver Northeast Chiefs while earning a diploma in the radio arts and entertainment program at BCIT.
Waldie will provide play-by-play commentary for all 58 regular season games and playoffs on Hockey TV and Mixlr.
“I am genuinely so happy to be a part of the Prince George Spruce Kings,” said Waldie, in a team release.
“It has been a goal of mine to work in the BCHL, and for it to be at home, makes it that much better. I have tons of passion for the game, and I look forward to sharing that with the Spruce Kings fans. It is a really exciting time for the organization coming off the Fred Page Cup and Doyle Cup championships and I am looking forward to being a part of it.”
of boxes to check off, and he has those.
“Jack comes across more as that skilled elite forward, where you play the game with speed, quickness... it’s going to be hard to say down the road who’s going to be better than who because they’re both going to bring different things to the table.”
Vancouver Giants defenceman Bowen Byram could be the first Canadian to come off the draft board at No. 3 to the Chicago Blackhawks.
“I’m trying not to worry about things,” he said.
“I did all I could do. Now I just kind of get to sit back and relax and whatever happens, happens.”
Lethbridge Hurricanes centre Dylan Cozens, meanwhile, is primed to become the first player ever from Yukon to be drafted in the first round.
Edmonton own the highest pick among Canadian NHL teams at No. 8, followed by Vancouver (10th), Montreal (15th), Ottawa (19th), Winnipeg (20th) and Calgary (26th). Toronto isn’t slated to step to the microphone until Saturday’s second round at No. 53.
All the highly-touted prospects will be long gone by then, with the USNTDP looking primed for a banner night during Friday’s first round.
Apart from Hughes, centres Alex Turcotte and Trevor Zegras, as well as wingers Cole Caulfield and Matthew Boldy, all figure to potentially go in the top-10. Ten members of the program are slotted in among NHL Central Scouting’s top-50 players in North America, not including Spencer Knight, the continent’s top-ranked goalie.
Heading into Rogers Arena, the USNTDP has never had more than three players selected in the opening round immediately following their two-year terms in Plymouth, Mich.
But Friday will be remembered for Hughes and Kakko.
And both know no matter which player’s name is called first, this is just the beginning of their journey.
“We’ll be linked together for a long time –Devils, Rangers,” Hughes said.
“It should be pretty cool. It should be a lot of fun.”
B.C. 55+ Games call for athletes
Citizen staff
The deadline is fast approaching for anyone interested in participating in the 2019 55+ B.C. Games to be held in Kelowna from Sept. 10 to 14. Deadline to register is June 30.
During the games, thousands of athletes and supporters will gather to help celebrate the spirit of athletic excellence and fun with friends from across the province.
Currently, there are 33 sports to choose from, including track and field, hockey, lawn bowling, horseshoes, mountain biking, whist, bocce and cribbage. The diverse group of sports to choose from is a reflection of the many interests of those who are 55 years and older. Everyone 55 years and older is welcome to join the enthusiastic group of like-minded people.
Prince George is in the North Central Zone 9, which encompasses 70 Mile House, 100 Mile House, Barkerville, Bridge Lake, Canim Lake, Forest Grove, Green Lake, Horsefly, Interlake, Lac la Hache, Likely, Mackenzie, McBride, McLease Lake, Quesnel, Wells and Williams Lake.
For more information or to register contact Dick Voneugen at 250-962-7672 or email dvoneugen@telus. net or visit www.55plusbcgames.org.
CP PHOTO BYJONATHAN HAYWARD
NHL top prospect Jack Hughes, of Orlando, Fla., speaks to the media during a top prospects media availability in downtown Vancouver on Thursday.
WALDIE
Wrestling documentary screens in Calgary
Bill GRAVELAND
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — A documentary exploring the golden era of professional wrestling had one of its final private screenings Wednesday evening prior to becoming more readily accessible to Canadian fans next month.
350 Days is a project by Vancouver-based actor Fulvio Cecere, who is the director and co-producer along with Darren Antola, who began the project six years ago.
The final product includes 38 interviews, mostly of professional wrestlers and many of them dead, who described rock-star lifestyles that included big money, sex, drugs and steroids.
“Of the 38 we talked to, we’re approaching about 20 of them who have passed and that’s really sad. That’s in a six-year span. It’s crazy. They’re just dropping like flies,” said Cecere, 59, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“Many of them are going through real hard times. It’s health problems, financial problems. They’ve had to do a whole bunch of GoFundMe campaigns to cover mortgages and medical issues.”
Calgary’s Bret (The Hitman) Hart attended the screening and is featured prominently in the movie.
“How could I not come to Calgary and thank Bret? He’s really
the star of the movie,” Cecere said.
The title 350 Days refers to the amount of time many of the performers wrestled each year.
Hart, who made his ring debut in 1978, said he’s been part of several wrestling documentaries, but this one tells a different story.
“As much as everybody went
through to be a professional wrestler and what the career took out of them, on their body and their health and even their welfare, it was all worth it in the end,” Hart said.
“I loved my career. I loved what I did. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
The Calgarian gained popularity and championship success
Jeopardy! champ Holzhauer a winner in TV ratings, too
NEW YORK — A case can be made that Jeopardy! savant James Holzhauer is one of the year’s biggest TV stars, although a shortlived one.
An estimated 14.5 million people watched him on June 3, when the professional gambler from Las Vegas lost for the first time after 32 consecutive wins and $2,464,216 in prize money, the Nielsen company said. He left with the 16th highest one-day scores in the show’s history.
The television ratings also put him in good company. In fact, no television series this season (football excluded) averaged more viewers per episode on the first night they aired.
Not The Big Bang Theory, not NCIS, not even Game of Thrones, although all those shows gain more viewers when time-shifting is figured in.
In fact, the initial airing of the Game of Thrones series finale on HBO, considered the biggest event
of the year in television, reached 13.6 million people, Nielsen said.
The first four games of the NBA Finals between Toronto and Golden State all had fewer viewers in the U.S. than Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher’s take-down of Holzhauer.
Close Jeopardy! watchers had a hint that June 3 was Holzhauer’s last show because news of his defeat leaked on the Internet before the show aired. Jeopardy! is taped well in advance, and show producers knew for weeks when Holzhauer’s defeat would air but kept it secret until the day before.
It’s hard to argue, however, that the leak significantly increased the show’s viewership. Holzhauer was nearing the show’s all-time record for winnings, and two of the episodes that aired the week before his defeat gathered more than 13 million viewers, Nielsen said.
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek punted when asked at Wednesday’s NHL Awards in Las Vegas who would win in a match between Holzhauer and all-time money winner Ken Jennings. He noted that another Jeopardy!
champ, Brad Rutter, had never lost to another human being (Rutter was topped in a competition with an IBM computer).
Four of Holzhauer’s episodes ranked among the 10 mostwatched entertainment programs of the year, a list topped by the 18.5 million who tuned in to the series finale of The Big Bang Theory. Again, the numbers don’t include people watching on subsequent days.
It was the biggest audience for the show in 14 years, since 18 million people watched on the night that Jennings’ 74-game winning streak was snapped.
Jeopardy! is popular even without a dynamic player. The show averaged around 9 million viewers for a week in March before Holzhauer made his debut.
It won’t be the last time viewers see him, however. Jeopardy! has an annual tournament of the year’s best players, and it’s hard to imagine him not being there.
“Our ratings were great when James was doing well,” Trebek said, “so it’s very likely you’ll see him again, folks.”
through the 1980s and ’90s in the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment, where he was part of the tag-team the Hart Foundation.
But Hart said far too many of his former friends and competitors have died.
“Some of them have been just
tragic circumstances and bad luck.
For the most part, far too many deaths in wrestling are from drug dependency on pills and overdose and opioids, and that kind of thing,” he said.
“They should all be here. They’re all tragic accidents and guys who took too many pills thinking that they had some sort of special tolerance and they all miscalculated.”
Cecere, who grew up in Montreal, has a long list of TV and movie credits, but wanted to get on the other side of the camera.
“I’m stunned. I wasn’t even a wrestling fan. I did this strictly from a filmmaking point of view and it’s just nuts. Everybody and their mother is a wrestling fan,” he laughed.
“It’s got the nostalgia factor. I do have this built-in audience which is pretty awesome.”
Although its release was limited, the movie will soon be available to Canadian wrestling fans next month on Amazon.
“It’s not readily available in Canada now and because I’m Canadian, because it’s got so much Canadian content, because I live in Vancouver, it’s just a no-brainer to do these private screenings,” he said.
“This is just strictly me thanking the crews, thanking the wrestlers, just raising some awareness and promoting the film before it becomes readily available in Canada.”
CP PHOTO BY FULVIO CECERE
Canadian-American retired professional wrestler Bret Hart, poses with a clapboard on the set of a wrestling documentary in Calgary, in this undated handout photo.
David BAUDER
The Associated Press
AP FILE PHOTO
Jeopardy! sensation James Holzhauer speaks after being presented with a key to the Las Vegas Strip in front of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign in Las Vegas on May 2.
Passed away suddenly on June 12, 2019. He was only 24 years old, and with Danielle the love of his life; had such a wonderful future ahead of him. Pat will be deeply missed by so many people, including friends and staff from Immaculate Conception, Duchess Park and UNBC - not to mention staff and friends at Earls, Canfor and his basketball & softball teams. Pat was predeceased by his brother Josh in 2004 and his mom Joyce in 2012. His dad Rick, brother Jesse, along with cousins Carly, Tanya and Shayla will always miss them so very much. A get together to celebrate a wonderful but far too short of a life will be held at College Height Baptist Church — 5401 Moriarty Cres, Saturday June 22, 2019 @ 2pm. In lieu of flowers, a donation to the charity of your choice would be good.
LUCY BECK
It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Lucy Beck on June 14, 2019. A loving wife and devoted mother, she was generous and caring towards all who knew her, a shining ray of sunlight for those whose lives she touched. Lucy was known for her style, as colourful and vibrant as her personality. We have lost a spirited and dynamic soul, but there is one more radiant star in the sky watching over all of us. She is survived by her husband Jim, her son Aidan, her sister Eadi, her brother Henry, and a nearly uncountable number of loyal friends. Per Lucy’s wishes there will be no service, in lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to the BC Cancer Foundation at https://bccancer foundation.com/LucyBeck
Blaine L. Hunter
May 24, 1946 - June 15, 2019
With sadness we announce the passing of Blaine Hunter, born May 24, 1946, devoted husband, father, uncle, papa, brother and friend. He passed away peacefully, June 15, 2019, with his family at his side. Blaine is survived by his wife, the love of his life, Sandra (Wilkinson); children: Chris (Amber) Brian (Isa), and Laura Harrop (Brendan); siblings: Douglas (Beverly), Karen; and his treasured grandchildren: Breanna, Tristan, Cole, Taya, Ashlin, Garrett, and Callie. Blaine was predeceased by his parents Victor and Winnie (Davis). Blaine was born, raised, and started his career in Springhill, Nova Scotia. After his transfer to Toronto, he became Eastern Canada’s financial division controller for Foundation Company of Canada. The highlight was overseeing the building of the CN Tower. With his family, he moved to Prince George in 1980 to be a project controller for the Northwood expansion. The mid 1980’s marked a change in careers when he became a computer information Instructor, teaching for two decades at the College of New Caledonia. At the college, he enjoyed teaching and interacting with his students. Blaine was very involved in his community. His church, the Prince George Symphony and other charitable groups drew upon his skills and vision. In his final years, Blaine spent his time focused on his family, especially his grandchildren. There will be a Celebration of Life at our home, 983 Heritage Cres, from 1-3 pm on Saturday, June 22. Blaine’s charity of choice is worldaccord.org/donate (1-800-525-3545).
Following areas:
• Hart Area • Driftwood Rd, Dawson Rd, Seton Cres, • Austin Rd.
• Lower College Heights O’Grady Rd and Park, Brock, Selkirk, • Oxford, Simon Fraser Trent, Fairmont, Guelph, Gladstone,Hartford,
• • Upper College Heights • St Barbara, St Bernadette, Southridge, St Anne Ave, Bernard, St Clare St, St Gerald Pl, Creekside, Stillwater.
• • Full Time and Temporary Routes Available. Contact for Details 250-562-3301 or rss@pgcitizen.ca
Vicki Collison Feb 15, 1954 to June 15, 2019
Vickie is survived by the loves of her life, grandchildren Tyler (Jordon), Taylor, Brooke, Grace, Jack, Arilynne.
Love you forever Nan always be in our hearts. XOXOXO
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
Cindy Read Cindy passed away peacefully with family by her side. Survived by her loving husband Earl, daughter Desiree’ of Prince George, Son Wes (Marina) of Fort St John, grandchildren Tiffan, Kaysen & Prentice. Brother Norm (Nicole) of Kelowna. Sisters Doreen (Tom) of Williams Lake, Khonny of Prince George. Many nephews and nieces and great nephews and nieces. Predeceased by her father Gerald Phillips, mother Bernice Bowditch, brother Wes Phillips, sister Myrna Paice, nephew Guy Phillips. Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to MS Society.
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