Red Hot Chili Papers
Citizen circulation manager Derek Springall stirs a pot of chili while director of advertising Shawn Cornell looks on at the Prince George Citizen booth on Saturday at Studio 2880 during the Community Arts Council’s 43rd annual Chili Fest and Spring Arts Bazaar. The Prince George Public Library’s chili was the returning champion, while The Citizen’s team
the Red Hot Chili Papers – came in fifth.
Fraudster’s mental health at issue during sentencing
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Whether a woman who stole more than $350,000 from her employer was suffering from depression emerged as a key issue as Crown and defence lawyers argued their positions during a sentencing hearing on Monday. Crown prosecutor John Neal is seeking a three-year prison sentence for Debra Velma Penttila, 63, while defence counsel Jason LeBlond is submitting a conditional sentence order lasting two years less a day followed by three years probation is appropriate.
Penttila has pleaded guilty to a count of fraud over $5,000. Between November 2004 and February 2011, she used her co-signing authority to alter 166 cheques adding up to $362,740 to make them payable to herself, the court has heard.
The money was spent on gambling. While the court cannot consider gambling as a mitigating factor, LeBlond argued Penttila could have been suffering from depression and encouraged provincial court judge Michael Gray to take the possibility into account.
However, Neal countered that nowhere in the two psychiatric assessments conducted on her was it said that Penttila was diagnosed with the the ailment and none has been made to this day.
“Neither of those doctors is prepared to say that mental illness led to the offending or that mental illness led to the gambling that led to the offending,” Neal said.
“And yet, my learned friend is inviting the court to do exactly that – to make its own psychiatric diagnosis, to go further than the medical professionals were prepared to do in this case.”
LeBlond painted a picture of a woman in a state of high stress at the time she committed the crime. Her husband was suffering from health issues and not working, her father had recently died and the effects of Alzheimers had put her mother into a home.
In response to an “accumulation of stress,” and perhaps depression, Penttila turned to gambling as a form of relief.
She ran up roughly $100,000 in debt through credit cards and a line of credit before she started to commit the fraud.
The court has heard that Penttila
found ways to alter cheques sent out and received by her employer to make her the payee and employed various tactics to string out the fraud.
By the time the fraud was discovered, the company’s books were a “mess” and charges were not laid until February 2017 because it took so long to determine the extent of the scam.
In some ways, conditional sentence order followed by probation is more onerous, LeBlond suggested, because it would last for five years, compared to the three years in jail Crown counsel is seeking. Conditional sentences are served at home but with conditions such as a curfew. If the judge decides in favour of jail time, LeBlond argued for two years plus a day so it could be served in a federal institution where programs for inmates tend to be better.
“I just want to say I am sincerely sorry for everything I have done and everbody that I have hurt,” Penttila said when given a chance to speak.
Gray will issue his decision at a later date, likely near the end of this month.
Teen nabbed for excessive speeding
Citizen staff
An 18-year-old youth is facing some stiff penalties for allegedly driving at more than twice the speed limit.
Prince George RCMP said he was pulled over on May 27 after he was clocked at 131 km/h in a 60 km/h section of Foothills Boulevard. He was issued a ticket carrying a $483 fine and the vehicle he was driving was impounded for seven days, despite the fact that he was not the registered owner. The teen will be required to cover the cost of tow-
ing and storing the vehicle, and a report of dangerous driving was submitted to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles. The youth was among 11 drivers who were issued tickets for excessive speeding and their vehicles impounded during May. As well, 36 tickets were issued for speeding in a school zone and 251 for speeding elsewhere. And RCMP volunteers dedicated 74 hours to a speed watch campaign, both with and without the assistance of officers.
In all, 4,734 vehicles were observed, with 2,751 of those vehicles traveling above the posted speed.
P.G. woman ranked Top 100 in Maxim cover girl contest
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
A Prince George woman is gaining altitude in a glamour magazine model search.
Brandi Hansen has been voted through by online fans into the Top 100, leaving thousands of other contestants in her jet stream. She was expecting nothing but turbulence when she entered the Maxim Cover Girl 2019 Model Competition because, by her own admission, she is not a model, won’t be a model, and refused to go through the usual Maxim customs with her entry.
“I’m doing things differently than what Maxim is used to,” she said. “I submitted my photos on a whim, I didn’t expect it would go anywhere, but they contacted me from Maxim and told me I was in. Wait...what? Yeah, I was in, even though all my photos show me hunting, fishing, shooting my bow, flying a plane, completely clothed in every shot. I didn’t have a single pretty photo.”
It resonated with the public. Hansen’s presentation was, by Maxim standards, a bit like showing up to a fighter jet convention in a helicopter, but the crowds still gathered round.
Hansen sailed through the preliminary rounds. She kept winning her groupings, her ball caps and camo always winning over the lingerie and bikinis. She is now into the semi-finals.
If it all ended now, Hansen said, she has already made a point. Comments and opinions have flowed in, many of them from parents of little girls thanking her profusely for reframing the conversation around femininity.
That was exactly the flight plan Hansen filed when she entered the competition. She is a professional pilot, working on
her accreditation at BP Aviation in Penticton and the Victoria Flying Club. She is also an active member of Search & Rescue. She pledged at the start of the Maxim adventure that should she win the $10,000 prize money, all of it would be divided up into donations: four for scholarships for aspiring female pilots and one to B.C. Search & Rescue.
“When I was growing up, my favourite TV show was Airwolf and my favourite superhero was Wonder Woman because she had an invisible jet,” she said, explaining where her aviation passion flew in from. She named her donation pledge the Higher Further Faster Fund, in honour of today’s breakthrough female superhero Captain Marvel that is popular with all genders.
“I grew up playing with my brothers,” Hansen said. “Indiana Jones was my No. 1 favourite. If I wasn’t going to be a pilot, I would have become an archeologist. We played He-Man and G.I. Joe and Transformers. So many girls get handed pink bunnies and unicorns, and that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but we just have to know that girls are capable of Airwolf and Barbie. So are boys.” — see ‘I’M JUST, page 3
HANSEN
Zumba in the park
Prince George provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, May 27-31, 2019:
• Albert Johnson Brantnall (born 1972) was sentenced to 12 days in jail and 18 months probation, issued a five-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for assault, committed in Willow River. Brantnall was in custody for five days following his arrest.
• Bryan Bradley Owen Adams-Allen (born 1999) was sentenced to 315 days in jail and two years probation, issued a 10-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for aggravated assault.
• Troy Gerald Samkow (born 1972) was fined $2,000 plus a $300 victim surcharge for driving without due care and attention under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Allen Shane Isaac (born 1965) was sentenced to zero days in jail for two counts of theft $5,000 or under, committed in North Vancouver and Vancouver. Isaac was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.
• Paul Joseph Kessler (born 1966) was sentenced to a 90-day conditional sentence order and one year probation for assaulting a peace officer.
• Twyla Marie Elizabeth Shelley (born 1978) was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay $1,087.99 for assault
and mischief $5,000 or under.
• Bradford Lee Horner (born 1990) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Janine Anne Isadore (born 1994) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Sarah Louise Joseph (born 1991) was prohibited from driving for three months and fined $750 plus a $112.50 victim surcharge for driving without a driver’s licence under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• David Benoit Joseph Nault (born 1967) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• William Ernest George Parent (born 1968) was fined $750 for breaching probation.
• Breanna Renee Payne (born 1995) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 for driving while disqualified under the Criminal Code.
• James Darryl Poole (born 1968) was sentenced to one year probation with a sus-
pended sentenced for causing a disturbance by being drunk.
• Curtis Thomas Fraser (born 1998) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for theft $5,000 and under and possessing stolen property under $5,000 and to zero days for breaching probation.
• Kirk Arthur Clark (born 1986) was sentenced to 91 days in jail for possessing stolen property over $5,000, to 31 days for a separate count of possessing stolen property over $5,000, to 30 days for breaching a recognizance or undertaking, prohibited from driving for three years and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act and prohibited from driving for one year for fleeing police.
Clark was also sentenced to 18 months probation on the stolen property and fleeing counts. Clark had spent a total of 131 days in custody prior to sentencing.
• Jordan Allan Lalonde (born 1994) was sentenced to zero days in jail for breaching probation. Lalonde was in custody for 11 days prior to sentencing.
• Matthew Richard Steven Lozon (born 1994) was sentenced to 80 days in jail and one year probation for mischief $5,000 or
under and to 30 days for breaching probation. Lozon was in custody for 24 days prior to sentencing.
• Zachary Dylan Karliss Neale (born 1995) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Gordon Wilfred Pagens (born 1992) was sentenced to 90 days in jail and one year probation and issued a three-year firearms prohibition for uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and to zero days for breaching probation. Pagens was in custody for 17 days prior to sentencing.
• Nathan Aaron David Peters (born 1985) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and to zero days for uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, breaching probation and a separate count of theft $5,000 or under. Peters was in custody for 17 days prior to sentencing.
• Brennen Blaine William Bond (born 1995) was sentenced to eight months probation with a suspended sentence for breaching probation.
A Zumba class was held at the Kiwanis Bowl at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park on Saturday as part of the National Health and Fitness Day that was hosted by the City of Prince George, Engage Sport North and the YMCA of Northern BC.
‘I’m just showing an alternative’
— from page 1
“If you give girls access and permission to play with helicopters and power tools, and you give boys access and permission to dolls and unicorns, imagine the improvements you’d see in the world. Everyone would find their own natural, true selves.”
Her true self involves the great outdoors, the wide open skies, and the cozy nest where she’s also a mom to a son and daughter.
Pursuing Maxim’s cover in this unorthodox manner is her way of showing them what all people are capable of, and what women can accomplish with a full wardrobe of clothing.
“I’m not judging the girls in the competition wearing the skimpy clothes, they are on their own walk, they are doing what they think is best for them, I’m not knocking them at all,” said Hansen.
“I’m just showing an alternative. I’m widening the conversation. I’m amazed that it has gone this well, I think that actually says a lot about society that someone like me is advancing in a competition like this.”
Hansen went to Heritage Elementary and D.P. Todd Secondary as she grew up, and still has a large circle of family and friends in Prince George (she also lived for a time in Mackenzie).
She’s hoping the hometown support will get her through to the finals.
Voting takes place at the maximcovergirl.com website.
The new round started Monday and runs to June 13. You can vote once per day for free, or buy blocks of votes with the money going to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Parole denied to Prince George man who murdered two women
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A man serving a life sentence for the murders of two Prince George women will remain behind bars for some time yet after his bid for parole was turned down.
In a decision reached May 15 for Brian Peter Arp, 59, a Parole Board of Canada panel agreed with professional opinion that the reasons for his actions remain unknown and “makes it extremely difficult to manage your risk in the community.”
Also at issue was Arp’s continued denial of committing the crimes.
In March 1995, a Quesnel jury found Arp guilty of killing Marie Blanchard, 18, in 1989 and Theresa Umphrey, 38, in 1993. He was sentenced to serve at least 25 years in prison before becoming eligible to apply for parole. During the time he has served, Arp has been convicted of 13 institutional charges and has been involved in 15 incidents,
though none involved violence. Arp told the panel he was angry when he was convicted and sent to prison and had a confrontational attitude and would often refuse to comply with institutional rules. But in 2015, he changed his attitude following a conversation with family members and a realization his behaviour was compromising his ability to reach his “‘end goal’ which is to get out of prison.”
According to the decision, Arp also conceded he did not feel he was ready for day or full parole and worried he would be overwhelmed if let out into the community. Instead, Arp said he intends to follow his correctional plan with the goal of gaining transfer to a minimum-security institution.
For the past 18 months, Arp has had clearance to work outside the institution perimeter but still within the limits of the penitentiary lands and has been working as a mechanic in the institution. The full decision is posted with this story at www.pgcitizen.ca.
Celebrating CNC grads
Drummers from Lake Babine Nation play while the academic procession make its way to their seats on Saturday afternoon at CN Centre during the 2019 College of New Caledonia Convocation ceremony.
Construction has started on the new
for the Bob Harkins Branch of the Prince George Public Library. The project, which will involve the installation of a two-and-a-half storey addition to the north side of the library and a new circulation area. Residents and library visitors will have to rely on the parking-level entrance to access the library. Construction will also require the partial closure of one of the traffic lanes on a section of Canada Games Way in front of the library.
Citizen staff
When you’ve got the kind of roads Prince George has, connecting the quadrants of the province and the routes to the regions beyond, all through one city in the centre, you’re going to have a fair share of motorcycles travelling through.
It’s a connection that Tourism Prince George wants to rev up. The local agency got some extra fuel in that tank, this week, when Destination BC announced $40,000 in extra funding to market this region specifically for motorcycle touring. It is a partnership that links northern B.C. communities all along Highway 16.
“The importance of promoting touring routes is essential to capturing our target market tourism traffic through Prince George and northern B.C.,” said Erica Hummel, CEO of Tourism Prince George.
“Motorcycle tourists are affluent, spend time in destination, and are interested in other tourism offerings such as cultural attractions, culinary, and outdoor adventures like camping and fishing, so they are a captive audience.”
Since its inception in 2017, Tourism Prince George has been leading the Route 16 marketing project.
A website, Facebook page, Instagram account, brochures, and stickers have been developed and promoted at consumer shows and through aggressive digital marketing campaigns to targeted motorcycle markets in B.C., Alberta, and Washington. To date, the marketing efforts have achieved over 21,000 website page views, reaching 95,000 on social media platforms and over 507,000 video impressions.
Videos, photographs, and blog content can be viewed on www.route16.ca
“Tourism destinations are in an increasingly ferocious global competition for travellers,” said Marsha Walden, CEO of Destination BC.
“B.C. is elevating its marketing impact through collaboration. This funding harnesses the collective power of tourism champions in towns, cities, and regions, connecting local networks and sectors with a common purpose. Together, we are positioning British Columbia as a must-see destination, and our industry is a leading source of growth in BC’s economy.”
Lisa Beare, Minister for Tourism, Arts & Culture, said this was exactly the kind of marketing campaign that capitalizes on what B.C. has to offer.
“We want to make sure visitors know all that they can see and do in our province, along with supporting tourism businesses who showcase all that British Columbia hold,” said the minister.
“With the Co-operative Marketing Partnerships Program we are investing in tourism’s continued growth to make sure tourism operators and businesses throughout the province will benefit from tourism in all seasons.”
HANDOUT PHOTO
Prince George resident Brandi Hansen is competing in the Maxim Cover Girl 2019 Model Competition.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Canada shirks from abortion debate
Watching a Canadian TV panel attempt to discuss Alabama’s new abortion restrictions recently, I was reminded how debate is like exercise: skills atrophy from disuse.
The panelists identified as supporting abortion rights recited only the blandest of cliches in abortion’s favour, implying that their position was so morally uncomplicated and self-evident, it was hardly worth mustering much intellectual effort to defend it. The push-back from their lone opponent, by contrast, was entirely procedural, arguing that abortion-rights supporters should have more empathy and awareness of the existence of their critics.
This, alas, is about as good as a conversation about the issue gets in Canada, a country in which the political, legal and media establishments have spent three decades attempting to stigmatize this important debate into an offensive taboo. The consequence has been a deeply sheltered society embarrassingly ignorant of even the most basic facts of the issue, and thus largely incapable of discussing one of the defining ethical challenges of our time in a substantial, adult manner. The vigour of the U.S. abortion debate brings pains of its own, but Canadians should clearly understand the thoroughly unimpressive set of circumstances protecting them from, as they so often sneer, “what’s going on in the States.” Abortion in Canada is not analogous to
Canadian health care or gun control, issues for which it’s possible to draw conclusions about the moral character of the country by pointing to a suite of public policies. There exists no Canadian Abortion Act, nor indeed any law, passed by any level of legislature, creating a legal abortion regime in the country. There is only the outdated Section 287 of the criminal code (previously known as Section 251), passed by the Liberal administration of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1969 and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1988. Section 251 – which declared government-mandated abortion-approval committees to be an unjust burden on the rights of women – was narrow and technical. It certainly did not rise to the level of Roe v. Wade, which offered a comprehensive theory of abortion as a constitutionally protected right. The 1988 ruling in Canada, R. v. Morgentaler, actively concedes the possibility of constitutional abortion regulation. Yet, unlike similar rulings overturning laws dealing with assisted suicide or prostitution, the 1969 abortion law was never replaced with anything else. Ottawa’s sole attempt occurred in 1990, when a moderate abortion bill drafted by the more conservative Brian Mulroney administration was defeated by a tie vote in Canada’s unelected Senate.
Since then, abortion has only been regulated by the ethics of Canadian doctors. Lacking prescribed legal boundaries, any sort of abortion can be performed in Canada so long as a willing medical professional can be
found. This has made Canada a wild outlier in global abortion policy, far more permissive than even the most liberal states in Europe.
Most Canadians are only dimly aware this is the case. A 2013 Angus Reid poll found that 45 per cent of Canadians believed the country’s law forbade abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which it absolutely does not. Such legislation would likely be popular, however. A 2018 poll by the same firm found 49 per cent of Canadians agreeing “there should be some laws on abortion in Canada, especially in areas such as late term pregnancies,” with an additional 12 per cent agreeing “we should have abortion laws in Canada which severely restrict availability of abortion except in cases of sexual assault.”
Such opinions are essentially banned from mainstream politics, however. Conservative politicians are now expected to recite with clockwork regularity that they have “no intention of reopening the abortion debate,” as Tory leader Andrew Scheer did earlier this month, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had implied otherwise. Trudeau, for his part, has prohibited antiabortion politicians from even running for office as a member of his party.
Very few ethical debates are ever completely closed. Unwanted children and pregnancies are one of the great constants of human existence, and virtually every civilization in history has had some process or custom for eliminating them. Yet such procedures have always offended many, given one of the other ongoing projects
Speaker wears many hats IN THE FAST LEYNE
Darryl Plecas needs to swap the tricornered hat that comes with the job of Speaker for the classic private detective’s fedora.
Fresh off his last big case, in which he collared his clerk, he’s apparently in the midst of another one.
It’s clear that the part of the Speaker’s role that most appeals to him is the unlimited investigatory power that comes with it.
It must be the criminologist in him. His career was in that field and now he’s got the clout to start pursuing suspects, rather than just theorize about them.
He pushed that authority to the max while pursuing the spending habits of the clerk and sergeantat-arms. Now he’s at it again.
But the latest episode of CSI Belleville Street is unfolding in a remarkably clumsy way. Nobody knows why he decided that senior officials’ desktop hard drives needed to be copied this week.
In an angry, sputtering scrum with reporters after the project created turmoil, he said it’s “simply a case of my wanting to make sure we have data secure.
“We need to make sure we have data secure. We have ongoing investigations, we’ve got to preserve data.”
That makes zero sense.
As if data isn’t routinely backed up already. And why use a private company when there’s already lots of IT wizards on the government payroll?
And why did this supposedly routine chore spark an emer-
LES LEYNE
gency meeting of MLAs, leave the acting clerk visibly upset to the point of tears and create such a wave of paranoia?
That emergency meeting was quite telling in its own right.
When word of the data sweep developed, MLAs from all three parties convened in short order to sit down with Plecas and find out what was going on.
The encounter lasted three hours. Liberal house leader Mary Polak took notes. She released them the next day and they provide a second-hand sketch of the Speaker’s mindset.
They suggest that Plecas is seething over Beverley McLachlin’s verdict on his last case. He had turned up evidence that former clerk Craig James was taking improper benefits. McLachlin confirmed his findings, condemned the clerk and James retired the same day her report was released.
But she also had strong criticism of how Plecas handled the matter.
She said Plecas did nothing to confront his employees as their boss and instead “viewed the matter through the lens of a police investigation and criminal prosecution, rather than the lens of an administrator.”
Plecas’s private response to that?
Polak’s notes record him as saying her work was “pathetic.”
“Way down on the scale… her report was deficient because info was withheld… McLachlin – evidence missing from her investigation.”
Her notes also make clear he is determined to continue sleuthing, and feels he has full power to pursue whatever case he’s on.
“I have the authority to say: ‘I need a copy of your hard drive.’”
“The company that is in the process of taking the hard drives is doing this in a manner that is within the law.”
“I can walk into offices and request hard drives all over the legislature. I have the authority, I will scream it from the rafters.”
It looks as though he’s bitter about McLachlin’s rap across the knuckles and upset that she only validated some of his suspicions, not all of them.
So he’s in the midst of pursuing them again, while leaving the MLAs on the committee that supposedly manages the legislature far behind.
Premier John Horgan has decided to back him, at least just to get through the sitting, which adjourned Thursday.
It shut down with 38 identical motions from the opposition to find the Speaker in contempt, which is likely a Commonwealth record. They won’t go anywhere. And where Plecas is going is anyone’s guess.
Just so you know: This column will be on a long break for the next few months, as I am taking an extended summer off.
Much gratitude to readers.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
of civilization is seeking to restrain and moderate our impulse to eliminate what we consider less than fully human. What Canada’s see-nothing-say-nothing status quo on abortion has done is enshrine a moral cowardice as part of the country’s civic culture. It has allowed abortion-rights supporters to feel righteous about protecting a right whose boundaries they’ve never been forced to define through legislation. The prime minister recently announced plans to sanctimoniously scold Vice President Pence for the recent raft of abortion restrictions in U.S. states, despite the fact that Trudeau lacks the courage to emulate states such as New York, and pass any progressive abortion laws of his own.
But so, too, has the country’s abortion status quo allowed antiabortion Canadians – including the many “personally pro-life” individuals of high rank in the federal and provincial Conservative parties – the empty righteousness of private dissent without any obligation of action. Through this abdication of political leadership, the rest of Canada is given permission to never trouble their minds with the issue one way or another. No thoughts of the unsettling procedure of abortion itself; no dilemmas over the logistical and philosophical difficulties of defining the start of life, or what a functional, enforceable abortion ban would look like in practice.
—
J.J.
McCullough is an opinion writer based in Vancouver who writes for
Immigration leads to ecomonic growth
Last week, Andrew Scheer, leader of the Conservative Party, provided his views on immigration. His speech was both a policy statement for the party and an attempt to outline his own personal thoughts.
Of course, it also included a fair amount of bashing the Liberals for their immigration policy and failures. His speech started well, pointing out the brave people who have left their homelands to come to Canada. Each wave added its own distinctiveness to our great country. But despite his best efforts, it fell into stereotypical rhetoric.
For example, after talking about Canada as “one country, the true north, strong and free,” he went on to say “just consider the hardship and suffering faced by the original First Nations” and compared their lifestyle to the struggles of the earliest settlers.
Except, of course, the original First Nations did not “suffer.” They did very well, living in thriving communities and living in an environment for which they were eminently well-adapted. It is only European hubris which downplays their lifestyle as they did not have the amenities of modern civilization. One could make a strong case they didn’t need them.
He went on to point out how European and Asian immigrants “built this great country of ours.”
Sure. But it is not a sunshine and roses history. In building Canada, our ancestors also changed the country. They populated the land which they claimed from the original inhabitants and altered the landscape to meet their needs. They contributed to the mass killings of animals such as the bison while engaging in hunts for beaver and otter pelts. They altered and tried to extinguish much of the indigenous lifestyle.
Yes, the efforts of many immigrants have led to modern Canada and it is a place where I live. I am a first generation Canadian. My parents arrived here in the late 1940s with dreams of living in the true north. And I understand the heartstrings Scheer is trying to pluck. I wouldn’t be here if Canada was not a welcoming state.
Canada is a great country. It has been built on immigration. And any party would be foolish to adopt policy arguing against it.
However, Scheer then goes on to claim the system is broken. Speaking in French, I believe he points out we are letting in 250,000 immigrants per year under the Liberal government.
True. But we have been averaging 250,000 immigrants every
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year since the 1980s, under both Conservative and Liberal governments. Even the likes of Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper recognized the necessity of immigration for the health of our economy. Indeed, with Canada’s present birthrate, if we did not have a healthy immigration policy, our population would have been declining for the past 30 years. And our economic model is built around inflationary growth to sustain it. Bringing in 250,000 immigrants might sound like a lot – especially when the majority of new immigrants settle in our major cities – but with vetting processes and employment opportunities, we are building our economic future. The vast majority, and I do mean vast, arrive through normal immigration channels following appropriate procedures.
Scheer then decries the efforts of the Liberals to allow some immigrants to “jump the line” and for not doing enough to deal with new immigrants sneaking across the border. Calling these asylum seekers “illegal aliens” is a way to dehumanize them and to ignore the circumstances which bring them to our country.
Perhaps if Scheer is seriously interested in improving immigration, the term should be “people who are entering Canada by unconventional routes as they seek a better life for their families.” But all of this show of compassion for immigrants might be just a show. A 2019 EKOS poll demonstrates two things.
The first is there has been a consistency in attitude about immigration for the past 20 years. When asked if there are too many, too few, or just about the right number of immigrants coming to Canada, the number thinking there are too many has held at around 40 per cent for the entire time.
The second is the number of individuals thinking there are too many is very much partitioned along party lines. In 2019, only 15 per cent of Liberals supporters think there are too many immigrants while 68 per cent thing it is about right. For Conservative supporters, 69 per cent think there are too many and only 23 per cent think it is about right.
Leading up to the next federal election, it will be interesting to see just how Scheer handles that balancing act.
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Gender equality under attack, Trudaeau says
Laura KANE The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Gender equality is under attack and, in the age of social media, it’s never been easier to taunt and spread abhorrent views, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a global conference on the issue Monday.
Trudeau, who was in Vancouver for the opening address of Women Deliver 2019, said that hatred is creeping in the public debate, with interest groups trying to roll back women’s rights, while politicians are giving into the public pressure.
“The rights we enjoy in Canada, and the rights so many have enjoyed around the world, are not guaranteed. Progress can backslide,” Trudeau said.
“We’re seeing it happen. Gender equality is under attack, and I can only imagine how hard it is to be a feminist on the front lines.”
The prime minister didn’t say what he was referring to, although last week he said he planned to talk to U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence about the growing number of American laws that restrict abortion.
The Trump administration has also reinstated a policy known as the “global gag rule,” which bans U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations abroad that provide abortion services.
Shortly after the U.S. adopted the rule in 2017, the Trudeau government committed $650 million for sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide.
Trudeau said the history of women’s rights shows that every step forward is met by another push back, and women are still routinely facing misogyny, racism and hatred.
He said politicians are “shamefully” campaigning to undo women’s hard-won victories.
“That’s a daunting reality to face. My friends, we are not powerless. It’s up to us to fight back,” he said.
He also spoke to the crowd about the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, saying Canada can and must do better to end violence against all women.
His remarks were interrupted by a woman in the crowd who cried out, “Then do something!”
Another yelled, “Shame!”
Despite the brief outburst, the crowd loudly applauded when he acknowledged that the report concluded that violence against Indigenous women amounted to nothing less than a genocide.
“Let me be clear, our government will always be your partner, willing to admit when mistakes are made and working very hard to build a better future for all our
children,” Trudeau said.
“My friends, I know and you know that we can’t take our foot off the pedal, not even for a moment. There’s simply too much at stake. Canada’s leadership isn’t going anywhere.”
Women Deliver is a global advocate for gender equality and the health, rights and well-being of girls and women. The four-day conference is billed as the world’s largest event advocating for those rights.
The conference was attended by world leaders, including the presidents of Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia, who joined Trudeau for a panel discussion following his speech.
Panel moderator Lyse Doucet, a BBC journalist, commended Trudeau for being one of the first world leaders to describe himself as a “feminist” and bring in a gender-equal cabinet.
But she noted he had a “tough year,” given that he brought “tough women” into his cabinet, and asked how it had affected his feminism.
Former cabinet ministers
Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott were kicked out of the Liberal caucus this year after they alleged the Prime Minister’s Office had pushed for Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to avoid a criminal trial.
Trudeau said the experience has increased his feminism and made him think differently about it.
“Feminism and diversity and inclusion is not about making things easier. It often makes things a little more difficult,” he said. “To have strong voices sticking up for different perspectives means you’re going to get challenged, means you get to challenge back, and you get to try and figure out what the right path is forward.
“No one person has the monopoly on all the right answers, regardless of their gender, regardless of their background, regardless of their position as prime minister.”
Canada needs to triple ocean protection, report says
An environmental group says Canada needs to up its game on protecting its oceans.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says in a report that while there has been progress in recent years, recommendations from international scientific bodies suggest there’s more work to do.
“At least 30 per cent should be protected if we want to ensure all the habitats are protected and that we’re securing the future of healthy oceans,” Sabine Jessen, director of the group’s ocean program, said Monday.
The report says protecting ocean areas includes banning oil, gas or mineral projects, not dumping waste and ruling out bottom-trawling fisheries.
Jessen credits the federal Liberal government for improvements in recent years. Two years ago, less than one per cent of Canada’s seas were under some form of conservation agreement. That figure has since risen to more than eight per cent.
Jessen suggested Canada is likely to exceed its protection target of 10 per cent by next year, more than meeting its international commitments.
But that goal, part of a multilateral treaty signed by 168 countries, had more to do with politics than science, she said.
“It was based on the fact there was so little protected, but people knew something had to be done,” Jessen said.
“It’s been a good spur to action, but we know that we’re changing the ocean and we really need to protect the places
No warning before tornado hit Ottawa
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Environment
Canada is reviewing its public alerts system after residents of a suburban Ottawa neighbourhood hit by a tornado Sunday were never warned that one was on the way.
The tornado, preliminarily classified as an EF1 with winds up to 178 kilometres an hour, reportedly injured one person slightly but it tore off roofs, levelled fences and uprooted trees. While Environment Canada issued tornado warnings for several nearby areas in western Quebec and eastern Ontario Sunday night, there was never a warning issued for any part of Ottawa.
A spokeswoman for the department said the weather leading up to the tornado didn’t suggest one could develop – it was warm but not hot and not that windy and only some thunderstorms were considered possible. It wasn’t until someone near the airport in Gatineau, Que., spotted a funnel cloud that the tornado risk became known.
By the time the warning was communicated over the Alert Ready warning system, the tornado had already touched down across the river in Orleans, a suburb in east Ottawa. Numerous residents posted to Twitter and Facebook that they either never got the alert message at all, or that by the time they got it, the storm was already over and it wasn’t for their area.
In one video of the tornado posted to Twitter, the cellphone alert can be heard going off as the tornado is passing.
“It was a little bit late and a little bit too far east, but you know what, it is better than what we had before,” said Marc Messier, an Orleans resident who’s also an inspector with the Ottawa Fire Service. “It might be better if we had it on time.”
Messier’s son called him shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday to say a tornado had just gone down his street. Messier was driving home and stopped rather than drive into the storm. He shot video of the tornado from the overpass where he stopped, and says he didn’t get the alert warning until after he stopped filming. And the alert was for Prescott-Russell, a county east and south of the city.
Since April 2018, wireless networks have been required to carry emergency-alert messages to warn people of things like severe weather or missing children. The Amber Alerts for
missing children have been criticized for waking people up in the middle of the night and some Ottawa residents said on Twitter they were perplexed that they get notifications for missing children many hundreds of kilometres away but not for a tornado that was right beside them.
Tim Warmington, a spokesman for Public Safety Canada, which is the department responsible for the Alert Ready system, said Monday Canadians won’t receive alerts if their phones are turned off, are in silent or airplane mode, are outside the area affected, aren’t compatible with or connected to LTE networks, or are connected to cell towers that aren’t in the coverage area.
Environment Canada spokeswoman Samantha Bayard said her department “will be reviewing this event with other public alerting partners to evaluate the alerting performance.”
(We) know that we’re changing the ocean and we really need to protect the places that still have some healthy ecosystems in them.
— Sabine Jessen
that still have some healthy ecosystems in them.”
She points out groups such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – one of the largest associations of governments and scientists in the world – suggest greater efforts are needed.
“They had looked at the evidence of what would be needed and they passed a resolution that at least 30 per cent of the ocean should be protected.”
The report says Canada is falling behind many of its international peers. Among the 10 countries with the largest marine economic zones, Canada ranks seventh. The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom all rank higher.
Jessen acknowledges some of those countries have large protected areas off overseas territories. As well, degrees of protection vary.
But the rankings do show what is possible, she said.
The report says Canada could get more than halfway toward the 30 per cent goal simply by completing projects already in the works to protect marine areas.
Mia RABSON
CP PHOTO
People look at the home’s roof which was damaged by a tornado in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans, on Sunday.
CP PHOTO
A shed from an adjacent home sits on top of a car after being thrown by winds during a tornado in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans on Sunday.
TRUDEAU
Bob WEBER
The Canadian Press
Halpape’s buzzer-beater ices junior boys’ title
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
With time ticking down in the junior boys final in Saturday’s Mann Dental/P.G. Summer Hoops Classic 3-on-3 basketball tournament, Ben Wolitski saw a glimmer of hope.
Playing in his sixth game of the day at Duchess Park Secondary School gymnasium, Wolitski was feeling the burn in his battlefatigued limbs but saved a little something extra for the dying seconds of the championship match to force the issue against Team Black.
With one well-timed leap, he swatted away a shot attempt from Tristan Yutuc and followed up with an energy surge to track down the loose ball in the corner and turned and fired. Wolitski’s three-point shot found its mark and with eight seconds left the game was tied 45-45.
Overtime was a virtual certainty until Oliver Halpape, the junior boys division MVP, got the ball in the backcourt and stepped back to avoid Wolitski’s check before launching a buzzer-beating three to give his team a thrilling victory. “It was pretty tough to guard (Halpape), he was making lots of nice takes but I didn’t expect him to make that shot,” said Wolitski. “He wasn’t making that many
before that. I tried to do as much as I could, that was pretty close.”
Halpape’s teammates, Yutuc and Dawson Schmidt – all Duchess Park students – were at the centre of a mob scene on the court and their classmates and family members joined in the celebration as an exhausted Wolitski and his teammates – Aidan Lewis, Denis Kim and Tony Kibong – took a seat on the bench.
In the girls division final, Rebecca Landry helped orchestrate the perfect courtside sendoff before she moves on to university basketball next fall with the UNBC Timberwolves. Playing in her home gym, the Grade 12 senior picked up where she left off in last year’s Summer Hoops Classic, teaming up with her Duchess Park teammates Hannah Loukes, Jasmine Schlick and Grace Caillier to hang a 35-23 defeat on Team Black – Tanesha Thomas, Katie Shchepotkin, Kayla Lupul and Samantha Harris.
Landry, 18, will join her sister Madison on the T-wolves next season, and her third-straight Hoops Classic win came as a bittersweet celebration. Rebecca played for the Condors senior team for four seasons.
“It’s kind of sad because I played here for so long, but it’s also a good feeling, kind of the last step before moving on,” said Rebecca.
Loukes played in the tournament as a Grade 8 student in 2016 but missed it the next two years when her provincial team commitments took her out of the city.
“All of us are friends on our team so we thought it would be fun to put a team together and try to win,” said Loukes.
“It’s fun going against other girls and the younger girls played well. It’s nice playing with tall people. We’ve got some good chemistry.”
Landry’s Team Gray led 18-8 after the first 10-minute half and Team Black closed the gap to three by the midway mark of the second half but couldn’t keep up the pressure. Try as they might, Black could not match the height of their opponents and that made a huge difference. Landry stands fivefoot-10, Loukes is five-foot-11 and Schlick casts the longest shadow at six-foot-three.
Thomas, of Duchess Park, played in the senior division last year as a Grade 9 student. Her team recovered from a one-point loss in the opening game Saturday and reeled off four straight wins to get to the final. Of the eight players in the girls final, six attend Duchess Park.
“It’s pretty fun that we get to compete with each other,” said Thomas.
“We had to play tough defence on them.”
In the senior boys final, there was
no denying another all-Duchess lineup led by Condor seniors Graydon Wolitski, Soren Erricson and Dan Zimmerman. They hooked up with Max Arnold and Ethan Wood to form a five-man hit squad and won 39-32 over Team Gray-White – Jackson Kuc, Aman Bansa, Randy Sandhu and Holden Black.
Wearing green T-shirts emblazoned with the words “City champions” on the back, the Condor boys built themselves a 13-4 lead. They were never in danger of losing it, with Zimmerman and Erricson hitting long shots and the older Wolitski setting the tone with his tremendous hustle and ball pursuit, which led to open looks and points. That earned him the Matt Pearce Memorial Award as the senior boys MVP, an honour shared with Landry and Halpape.
“That was pretty exciting, we had a really good team and it was fun,” said Graydon Wolitski. “It was a really good tournament this year, a lot of the teams were evenly-matched and it was tough all along. I’m pretty tired now. It was a lot more hard-fought than last year.”
For the Grade 12 Wolitski, the 3-on-3 win took away some of the sting he still felt three months after his Condors senior team lost the triple-A boys provincial semifinal 62-61 to North Delta, giving up the winning shot with
9.2 seconds left.
“It was really heartbreaking at provincials, not coming home with that one, so this was fun to all get together one last time and we won it,” he said.
Wolitski and Zimmerman teamed up with Erricson last year to win the 3-on-3 senior title. For Erricson, it was his third consecutive Hoops Classic championship. Kuc matched the older Wolitski’s determination but along with his teammates he struggled to hit the net. The team was missing its best outside shooter, Cameron Sale, who rolled his ankle in the first game Saturday morning which sidelined him the rest of the day. Sandhu was also out of sync in the final with his shooting after hurting his ankle in the previous game.
“They played really well there,” said Kuc.
“They hit all their shots and we were pretty tired and we had two guys who rolled their ankles. They were all Grade 12s except for one guy.” In the post-tournament awards ceremony, tournament organizer Nav Parmar told the crowd how close he came to canceling the tournament three days earlier when he learned his uncle in Duncan suddenly died at age 50. The 3-on-3 tournament is a fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and in its five-year history it has raised more than $50,000.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The fifth annual P.G. Summer Hoops Classic 3 vs 3 basketball tournament was held on Saturday at the Duchess Park Secondary School gymnasium.
Babcock wins WESCAR opener
P.G.’s Horwath
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After 12 years of racing the WESCAR late model touring stock car series at PGARA Speedway, Chris Babcock finally nailed it.
Practice makes perfect and his win in Saturday’s WESCAR 100 was about as close to perfection as the 51-year-old Fort St. John driver has ever come in all the time he’s been hauling his race car five hours down Highway 97 to Prince George.
“It’s redemption, man. We’ve been the bridesmaid here so many times, you just miss it by that little bit,” said Babcock, who finished second to series champion Jarret Bonn in the 2018 point standings.
“We’re starting out really strong this year and I’m really happy. We worked all winter on this thing and we did ’er.”
The random grid selection put Babcock and his 2019 Mustang in the front row to begin the 100lap main event, and he stayed near the head of the 10-car field the entire race. He gained the lead at the halfway mark when early race leader Trevor Adelman spun out.
“I was right on him when he hit the wall,” said Babcock.
“I knew he might have a tire going down so I kept my distance and it was a good thing I did because when that tire went down he just about took us both down.
Darrrell Horwath of Prince George finished second, an impressive WESCAR debut on the three-eighths mile oval track where it all began for him, while Austin Ogonoski of Edmonton ended up third.
The 38-year-old Horwath was runner-up in the Prince George Auto Racing Association street stock points championship last year, after winning the points battle the previous two years, and also claimed the Tri-City Invita-
second in series debut
tional championship in 2018.
Driving a 2019 Camaro built by crew chief Keenan Magnant and sponsored locally by Nelly’s Pub, Horwath posted the fastest time in qualifying with a lap time of 16.595 seconds and that put him in the back row in a 10-car field to start the 100-lap feature race.
His second-place result meant plenty of passing points, which left him atop the standings with five races still to come in the six-event WESCAR schedule.
“I had some brake issues in qualifying but we went back out and got a fast time and just had patience in the main event to make our way up to second,” said Horwath.
“We didn’t have quite enough to make it to first but we gave it our all.
Horwath is one of three rookies in WESCAR this year. Grant Powers of Prince George finished fifth in his first 100-lapper, just ahead of fellow rookie Donny Kunka of Williams Lake.
“It was a lot of fun, I can’t ask for much more for a rookie debut, it’s
a good feeling,” said Howarth.
“It’s a good group of guys to race with. We raced street stocks but we wanted to race against more equal cars and more cars and it was time. You’re a lot busier in the car (racing WESCAR). We’re a second quicker (per lap) than the street stocks and you put 10 cars out there and things can go to chaos quick.”
Horwath, Kunka, Thomas and Jarret Bonn were all part of a four-car spin that happened six laps into the race. All four avoided tagging the wall and escaped any real damage. The same could not be said for Adelman. After his mid-race revolution, the Quesnel driver came down off the wall and got tagged by Kirk Frost and Adelman’s fibreglass car body took the brunt of the hit, left with a couple of large cracks.
Sheldon Mayert was right beside Frost and avoided the collision but stalled his engine. A push start from his crew got the Prince George driver going again, but it wouldn’t last long for the WESCAR
president. Mayert cut a tire while heading into a corner on Lap 63 and almost lost it into the wall.
He ducked into the pits for a tire change but radiator problems eventually forced him to drop out and he finished ninth, ahead of only Bonn, who had to park his car early with a transmission issue.
Ogonoski, the 2017 WESCAR rookie of the year, drives a 2017 Chevy SS owned by Dustin Lengert of Kelowna, and they originally met playing Xbox racing video games online. Ogonoski took third in the June 2018 race in Prince George but wasn’t overly proud of how he reached the podium in that race when he tangled with Kendall Thomas and spun out heading into the final turn in the mad dash for the finish.
There was no such carnage this time around.
“I was all depressed on the podium here last year after I straight up wrecked (Thomas) on the final lap, so now it’s pretty awesome to come here and run it clean and the car is in one piece and no one’s
mad at you,” said the 26-year-old Ogonoski.
“It’s a lot different feeling this year. They seeded us first (starting in the front row with Babcock) and instead of being intimidated by guys who have run these cars longer than I’ve had my drivers’ licence, we just put together some good laps.”
The series resumes June 15 in Williams Lake. WESCAR returns to Prince George on Sunday, July 21, the second half of a doubleheader that starts the previous night in Quesnel.
• In Saturday’s PGARA series results, 66-year-old street stock driver Lyall McComber showed he’s not about to slow down any time soon.
The defending points champion won his first main event in two tries this season, holding off the hard-charging Desiree Case and Shane Murphy to capture the spotlight in the 25-lap feature. McComber had the top time in qualifying (17.763) and also won the A-heat, which was enough to put him back in the point lead ahead of Murphy.
Just seven street stocks were running Saturday, a far cry from the heyday of PGARA in the early ’90s when McComber used to race in the hobby stock class.
“I can remember when we had 24 or 26 cars in the hobby stocks,” he said.
“I was running a Camaro and I can remember going by on the back straightaway and I’d look over across at the flagman and he was dropping the green.
“It’s the commitment that’s needed. If you’re going to do it you move into the shop and work on the car and come to the race. It takes a lot of work.”
Other PGARA main event winners were: Ron’s Towing hornets: Stephen Woods; Chieftain Auto Parts ministocks: Spencer Forseth; and Northern Outlaw pro minis: Jeremy Floer.
Raptors have proven they can overcome adversity
Lori EWING The Canadian Press
TORONTO — Ever since Kawhi Leonard’s two free throws in the dying seconds clinched Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, and a delighted Kyle Lowry celebrated with childlike exuberance in the background, the Toronto Raptors have been navigating uncharted territory.
They’re playing basketball in June for the first time ever. They’ll play their first NBA finals road game Wednesday when they visit Golden State’s Oracle Arena, the series tied at one win apiece. Pressure? You bet.
But if there’s one thing the Raptors have grown accustomed to on this historic playoff run, it’s bouncing back from adversity. The Raptors lost their first game of the playoffs to Orlando but roared back to win four straight. They trailed Philadelphia 2-1 but bounced back to clinch the series in seven games. They were down 2-0 to Milwaukee but became one of six teams in NBA history to win a conference finals after losing their first two games.
If fans are sweating Toronto’s 109-104 loss on Sunday, the Raptors aren’t. “You guys didn’t think this was going to be a sweep?” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet said after the loss.
“I don’t know what you guys thought this series was going to look like, but we went into it expecting a dog fight. And, yes, we won Game 1. I think everybody else outside of our locker room was a lot more excited than we were. We understand what this team brings and what type of effort it’s going to take to beat these guys.”
The Raptors coughed up homecourt advantage on Sunday. Against a team that’s making its fifth straight finals appearance, the margin of error is sliver-thin. It could play out to be an opportunity lost.
The game turned on its heels during six lethal minutes to begin the second half. The two-time defending champion Warriors were at their very best, sprinting out to an 18-0 run that Toronto couldn’t answer. And now the Warriors are back home where they haven’t lost since April.
“The finals is not going to be easy,” said Leonard, the MVP of the 2014 finals with San Antonio.
“The only thing that matters is the four.
Four wins.”
The Raptors flew west to the Bay Area on Monday morning. A film session was certainly on their schedule for their afternoon.
After that, coach Nick Nurse said he’d have a better idea how his team let the game slip away in that deadly third quarter stretch.
“I’m going to have to re-watch that,” Nurse said after Sunday’s loss.
“I’m probably not going to enjoy that very much, but I’m going to have to check it out.”
The Warriors’ offence was humming Sunday, with 34 assists on 38 made baskets – an 89.5 per cent assist that that is the highest in the finals in almost 60 years. Their 20-0 run that straddled the second and third quarters was the longest in finals history.
The Raptors’ offence was sludge in comparison, with just 17 assists on 35 made baskets.
“(The Warriors) were obviously a little more aggressive and up in us a little bit,” Nurse said.
“I think were just a little too impatient, and just didn’t hold enough composure to a) get to a strong shot, or b) move it to the next one.”
One of the worst culprits with lack of composure was Lowry, who was a gameworst minus-17 in 28 minutes. He ran into foul trouble in the first half, and fouled out with 3:52 to play.
“You’ve got to play physical basketball, but you’ve got to be able to adjust and all those kinds of things and try to stay out of it, and you’ve got to avoid the silly (fouls) too,” Nurse said.
On the plus side, the Raptors managed
to pull within two points with 27 seconds left, and held the Warriors scoreless over the final five-and-a-half minutes until Andre Iguodala’s wide-open game-clinching threepointer with seven seconds left. The Raptors have won a road game in all three playoff series so far, and will be looking to steal at least one at Golden State to restore homecourt advantage.
“Obviously on somebody else’s home floor, they got the sixth man with the crowd, but just have to buy into ourselves, and come out hard, strong, no mistake, no turnovers,” Leonard said.
Warriors injuries could give Toronto some breathing room. They’ve playing without Kevin Durant, Kevon Looney left Sunday’s game with a chest contusion, while Klay Thompson suffered what he called a mild hamstring strain.
The Raptors have their own injury woes. Lowry was favouring his sprained left thumb late after he was sent sprawling late in Sunday’s game. But OG Anunoby, who has yet to play in the post-season after an emergency appendectomy, is inching closer to getting on the floor. He dressed on Sunday, although Nurse said he lost significant weight in his time off.
Game 3 is Wednesday, while Game 4 is Friday. The series returns to Toronto for Game 5.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Car No. 2, driven by Austin Ogonoski of Edmonton, races around PGARA Speedway on Saturday night during a WESCAR 100 event.
a forehand
Singles championship game of the Spring Fling
Fleck’s tennis graduation becomes official
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
With summer vacation just around the corner, Cory Fleck took the opportunity to school his teacher.
Fleck officially marked his evolution from understudy to champion with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Jim Condon – his former coach – in the Prince George Tennis Club’s Spring Fling advanced singles final Sunday morning.
Fueled by confidence gained a few days earlier when he beat Condon for the first time in an informal match at the Prince George Tennis Club, the 27-year-old Fleck picked up right where he left off with another straight-set win. The hard-serving club pro had Condon on the run early and often in the first set, jumping out to a 4-1 lead.
“I felt I was hitting my shots the way I wanted to and I got a lot of first serves,” said Fleck.
“It helps me a lot that my sec-
ond serve is on par with a lot of people’s first serves in the tournament.
“He was playing well, that was probably the best both of us have played against each other, usually one of us is having an off-day. He gets a racquet on everything and it’s hard to put a ball past him.”
Urged on by an enthusiastic gallery doing the wave in the stands behind the court, a crowd that included his wife Emma and their 8 1/2-month old son, James, Condon was unable to muster a rally long enough to turn the tables on the six-foot-three Fleck, who continued to pile up points with his devastating first serve. His long limbs, speed and agility left him rarely out of position on his returns and he made Condon suffer the consequences.
A service ace gave Fleck a 5-0 lead in the second set but Condon avoided getting skunked, winning the next three games before he hit a backhander into the net on the second match point, which ended it.
“His first serves are hard to get back,” said Condon.
“It’s tough because he changes it up. He’ll hit a hard flat one that you can block and then will do a hard kicker and you have to actually swing a lot and if I have the wrong grip and read it wrong, that’s when I start hitting the fence.
“The biggest difference this year is he’s going for his shots a lot more. Before, he would slow his swing down. Now he’s accelerating through the ball more and being a lot more consistent.”
Condon was the coaching mentor for a teenaged Fleck and his fraternal twin brother Zach when they traveled to Kamloops for the 2006 B.C. Summer Games and came home with the men’s double title. Condon and Fleck have faced each other three times in tournament play. Including their friendly matches Condon has beaten him in five of their seven matches over the last three years, since Fleck made his return to competitive
tennis. The first five matches all went to three sets.
“The biggest thing that’s helped him this year is he’s wanting to play more singles matches,” said Condon.
“I barely beat him two years ago in the tournament in three sets but he was tentative on a lot of shots and he probably doublefaulted a dozen times. This match he only double-faulted four times.”
In the semifinals Saturday, Fleck defeated Thomas Tannert, 6-2, 6-3, while Condon beat Shawn Hegan 7-5, 6-2.
In the advanced singles consolation final, Sean Margison of Vanderhoof defeated Steve Laing 6-3, 6-3. Michal Sankiewicz won the intermediate singles tournament. Rick Devore and Darren Smit captured the advanced double championship, while Stankiewicz and Ben Pelto won the intermediate doubles event.
In pickleball, Rocky McKinley and Ralph Wood teamed up to
win the men’s doubles tournament; Jennifer Hidber and Jeany de Wit, both of Terrace, captured the women’s double title; and the mixed title went to Rocky and Angelica McKinley.
Now that he’s been crowned the king of the local courts with his win over Condon, Fleck is hoping that will help divert more business his way as the club’s teaching pro. He’s already been teaching more tennis lessons this year, working 25 hours per week at the club. During the off-season he became more dedicated to his off-court conditioning in the weight room and on the volleyball and squash courts and that’s made him a better tennis player.
Fleck plans to enter the Sunshine Open in Kamloops in August and might travel to the Salmon Arm tournament in September. Next up for the 124-member Prince George club is the Prince George Citizen Open, June 28-30, followed by the Fall Wrap-up tournament, Sept. 6-8.
Blues beat Bruins to tie Stanley Cup final at 2-2
Stephen WHYNO The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — Ryan O’Reilly scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period for his second of the night, and the St. Louis Blues thrived in a chaotic Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night to beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 and tie the series at two games apiece.
O’Reilly ended an eight-game goal drought by scoring 43 seconds into the game and with 9:22 left in the third period. The game was a back-and-forth thriller, with Boston’s Tuukka Rask and St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington each giving up tons of rebounds for frantic scoring chances and scrums. Boston captain Zdeno Chara getting was knocked out of the game by a puck to the mouth.
Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues, and Binnington made 21 saves to improve to 7-2 in the playoffs after a loss. Even more impressive was the rookie’s bounceback from being pulled in Game 3 for the first time in his NHL career.
Rask allowed three goals on 37 shots and was on the receiving end of Blues onslaughts at times. Charlie Coyle scored for the third consecutive game, and Brandon Carlo had a short-handed goal for Boston, which was worn out by going down to five defencemen again after Chara left bloodied.
“It’s anyone’s game now,” Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist said. Game 5 is Thursday night in Boston.
O’Reilly was dominant all over the ice af-
ter a bad Game 3 in which he lost the majority of his faceoffs and couldn’t get anything going. He had a multigoal game for the first time since November.
Hockey Hall of Famer and Blues alum Brett Hull screamed at the top of his lungs into the microphone to pump up the crowd seconds before puck drop, “Are you ready?
Let’s Go Blues!”
They were ready, all right, and O’Reilly’s early goal came after Rask allowed the first of many juicy rebounds off a shot from defenceman Vince Dunn. Zach Sanford
retrieved the puck and O’Reilly tucked the it inside the post on a wraparound.
It was the sixth time in the playoffs
St. Louis scored in the opening two minutes, which it has now done in all four rounds.
The Blues are 6-0 in those situations.
Coyle continued his hot run by tying it at 13:14 in when Binnington allowed a big rebound of Chara’s initial shot. Coyle has nine playoff goals and is close to building a decent Conn Smythe Trophy case as playoff MVP.
Less than two and a half minutes after Coyle’s goal, Tarasenko scored on a re-
bound off captain Alex Pietrangelo’s shot to give the Blues the lead back going into the first intermission.
St. Louis improved to 7-3 when leading after 20 minutes by responding well to yet another poor look on special teams: the Blues killed off a Bruins power play and then hemmed Boston in its own end for more than three minutes. While St. Louis cycled the puck in the offensive zone and changed several forward lines and defensive pairings, Boston defenders were gassed and Connor Clifton took a penalty for an illegal check to the head of Tarasenko.
Twenty-six seconds into the Blues power play, the Bruins inexplicably got numbers on a rush and Carlo scored shorthanded to tie it again. It was the fourth shorthanded goal St. Louis has allowed in the playoffs to only 13 power-play goals.
After trading power plays in the third period, O’Reilly scored on another Rask rebound of a Pietrangelo shot midway through the third period. With St. Louis leading, fans could happily sing John Denver’s Country Roads at the under six-minute timeout, and Brayden Schenn sealed it with an empty-net goal with 1:29 left.
When the final horn sounded, they played Laura Branigan’s Gloria to celebrate the Blues’ first-ever home victory in the Stanley Cup final.
Notes: Sundqvist returned from a onegame suspension for boarding Bruins D Matt Grzelcyk, who missed his second game in a row. Sanford remained in the lineup.
Cory Fleck reaches to make
return against Jim Condon on Sunday afternoon at the Prince George Tennis and Pickleball Club during the Men’s
Open tennis tournament held at the Prince George Tennis Club at Recreation Place.
AP PHOTO BY JEFF ROBERSON
St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly (90) and Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) battle for the puck during Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final on Monday in St. Louis.
Appointment with Death
Paul McCartney praises Nova Scotia teen’s cover of Beatles’ Blackbird
The Canadian Press
A Nova Scotia teen who has drawn global attention for her Mi’kmaq rendition of The Beatles’ classic song Blackbird can now add Paul McCartney to her growing list of fans.
In concert footage published Sunday on Twitter by the United Nations’ human settlements and youth branch, the former Beatle praises Emma Stevens’ recording and encourages his fans to look it up online.
“There’s an incredible version a Canadian girl has done, you can see it on YouTube. It’s in her native language,” McCartney told fans at the unspecified venue. “It’s really cool. Check it out,” he said a moment later.
McCartney is the writer and original performer of Blackbird, which first appeared on The Beatles’ self-titled 1968 album, known as the White Album. The 76-yearold did not publicly respond to a tweet from UN-Habitat Youth proposing a duet with Stevens when his current tour comes to Vancouver on July 6.
Stevens and her classmates at Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni, Cape Breton, recorded the song to highlight the United Nations’ International Year of Indigenous Languages, which seeks to raise awareness of threats to Indigenous languages across the world.
As of Monday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 420,000 times since it was uploaded to YouTube on April 25.
Stevens also spoke and performed last week at a UN-Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, where she highlighted the red dress movement, which seeks to highlight the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women in Canada.
She identified herself as a member of the Eskasoni First Nation before singing the Mi’kmaq Honour Song.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Dr. Theodore Gerard played by Tristan Irvine, left, and Jeffereson Cope played by Christian Davidson perform during the Nechako Community Theatrics Society presentation of Agatha Christie’s Appointment with Death on Friday night at Artspace.
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Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) —
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index dipped to its lowest level since February to start the week on heightened trade concerns, despite gold prices hitting a three-month high.
“We’re seeing that trade tensions and trade concerns continue to put an element of caution in the overall equity markets,” says Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.
Chinese and Mexican trade fears haven’t disappeared but Nasdaq dipped into correction territory as the influential technology sector was hit on news that the Department of Justice might be exploring some antitrust probes affecting Facebook, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon. That drove down their shares by as much as 7.5 per cent.
“That’s particularly relevant for the markets because it has been those big tech names that have led the momentum to the upside for much of this bull market,” he said.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 21.60 points to 16,015.89, after dipping to an intraday low of 15,960,03, the lowest level in 15 weeks.
“All in all we’re seeing a very modest down day in the Canadian markets. We’re seeing a little bit more of pressure on the global market and the U.S. equity indexes.”
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 4.74 points at 24,819.78. The S&P 500 index was down 7.61 points at 2,744.45, while the Nasdaq composite was down 120.13 points at 7,333.02.
The July crude contract was down 25 cents US at US$53.25 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was down 5.1 cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU. Enbridge Inc. fell 4.7 per cent after a Minnesota court said state regulators must conduct a further review for Enbridge Energy’s plan to replace its deteriorating Line 3.
Diversification
Jim Carr takes part in a panel discussion in Ottawa on Dec. 13, 2018. Carr said Canada will work with the EU to prevent the U.S. from effectively sabotaging the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body.
Canada, EU plan to help WTO deal with Trump
Mike BLANCHFIELD The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Canada’s trade minister is endorsing a European Union plan to set up an alternative to the World Trade Organization’s appeals panel, in case a U.S. refusal to appoint new members paralyzes it by the end of the year.
Jim Carr said the EU’s plan to set up a proxy version of the WTO’s Appellate Body has merit and deserves further examination. The EU wants to set up an alternative arbitration process that would essentially mirror the function of the Appellate Body.
The United States is blocking appointments to fill vacancies at the Appellate Body, which is an appeal court of sorts for the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. The two groups deal with international complaints about trade policies, such as tariffs and domestic content requirements.
The appeals body is down to three members from its normal seven, and two of the remaining members’ terms expire in December.
If no approvals for new vacancies are forthcoming by then, the body will be down to one member, from China, and could effectively shut down.
“The European Union is looking at alternate ways, probably in an interim period, to make that transition less disruptive than it otherwise would be,” Carr said in a recent interview.
“We knew that the Europeans were likely to make public these possibilities and we’re open to it, and we welcome the creativity behind it.
And we also know that the clock is ticking.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, along with other members of his administration, has disparaged the Geneva-based WTO as a disaster
for the U.S. – part of his broader wrecking-ball approach to the international trading order.
The latest example of that came last week when Trump injected fresh uncertainty into the ratification of the new North American trade agreement.
Just hours after U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence held talks in Ottawa with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau aimed at pushing on with ratification, Trump threatened Mexico with new tariffs.
Trump said he would impose a five-per-cent duty on Mexican imports as of June 10 if it doesn’t stem the flow of migrants, mainly from Central America, into the U.S. Trump’s latest threat comes after he extolled the virtues of the new United-States-MexicoCanada Agreement as a strong replacement for NAFTA, which he called probably the worst trade agreement in his country’s history, at recent event at the White House.
In the same breath, Trump railed against the WTO, blaming it for everything he sees wrong with the global trade landscape. Trump said on May 23 that the WTO “may be even worse because of what it’s done with respect to trade, and international trade and trade with China, what it’s done for China and how much money our country has been losing to China.”
Canada has convened about a dozen likeminded countries – minus the U.S. and China – to try to reform the WTO, and Carr said the EU’s proposal to keep the Appellate Body functioning has been discussed there. In October, Carr hosted the ministers for their inaugural meeting in Ottawa.
A discussion document circulated at the meeting, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, succinctly summarized the
looming crisis with the Appellate Body: “The impasse of the appointment of the appellate body members threatens to bring the whole dispute settlement system to a halt.”
According to a Bloomberg report last week, an EU document described its proposal as an attempt to replicate the “essential principles and features” of the Appellate Body so its function can continue.
The EU proposal was not formally on the agenda of the October talks in Ottawa, said Carr.
“But in the side conversations, you’re always reviewing ideas from others as they are articulated,” he said.
“If you can get consensus that takes some of the edge off the hard stop of Dec. 10 and keep the dispute settlement function intact, even if it’s only for a temporary period, then that’s an idea I think all countries should be prepared to consider.”
Carr and his counterparts from the likeminded group also talked on the margins of the recent Paris meetings of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and will gather next week at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Japan.
The group is trying to present a series of workable proposals that could then be brought forward to the U.S. and China.
“Ultimately, we’re going to have to achieve consensus with the major economies of the world. That’s the only way that any kind of WTO reform will be sustainable,” said Carr.
“Meanwhile, we’re looking at other possible measures between now and the end of the year.”
The EU Embassy in Ottawa declined comment.
Feds begin payouts to informants for offshore tax intelligence
Jim BRONSKILL The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The federal government has begun making payments to confidential informants for intelligence that has so far brought in more than $19 million from offshore tax evaders.
The Canada Revenue Agency issued the first rewards under its offshore tax-informant program between April 2018 and the end of March this year, newly released documents say.
The program was launched five years ago amid public pressure to find and penalize Canadians who improperly use offshore accounts to avoid paying their fair share of tax to Ottawa.
The revenue agency says it cannot disclose the specific amounts paid to informants because that data could potentially reveal their identities.
However, under the program, the reward is between five and 15 per cent of the federal tax collected in cases where the amount assessed and recouped exceeds $100,000.
The latest data on the informant program
was recently presented to the House of Commons in response to written questions from New Democrat MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault.
The absence of additional details about the actual payouts makes it impossible to gauge the value of the informant program, Dusseault said in an interview Monday. The agency could have disclosed aggregate figures without compromising the identity of informants, he said.
“We can’t really judge, by this answer, the effectiveness of the program itself.”
The Sherbrooke, Que., MP is unimpressed that it took the agency five years to recoup $19 million. “By the numbers, it doesn’t seem like it’s working too well.”
The revenue agency says it received 1,431 calls as of March 31 this year to a hotline set up five years ago to field tips about offshore tax evasion. If it appears the case generally meets the program criteria, the caller is given a case number and instructions on how to submit information.
A total of 425 taxpayers have been singled out for offshore non-compliance audits based on intelligence gleaned from informants, the agency says. It suggests the investigations
underway could involve unreported income in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The agency cautions it might take several years from the date an informant enters into a contract with the agency until the additional federal tax is assessed, the taxpayer’s appeal rights have expired and the amount owing is collected.
Dusseault said he is skeptical the program will yield large sums of money for the federal treasury, pointing to the lack of success in prosecuting Canadians for offshore tax evasion in the courts.
It is encouraging that the revenue agency is beginning to recoup some money from offshore tax dodgers, said Toby Sanger, executive director of Canadian for Tax Fairness, a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that pushes for progressive tax policies. However, Sanger said he too would like to see more figures about operations, including how many of the informants are Canadian, given that the program is open to people from other countries.
“I’m just surprised that they don’t publicize this information on an annual basis.”
Violence toward Indigenous women ‘not a relic of our past’: PM
Kristy KIRKUP The Canadian Press
GATINEAU, Que. — Geraldine Gauthier
clutched a picture of her sister, Lynn, as she heard from the federally funded commission tasked with documenting the causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
Lynn was murdered 19 years ago. For Gauthier, the day was emotional and brought back many memories. But it was also filled with a touch of optimism now that 231 recommendations from the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls have been put on paper.
“They are going to hear what we have to say, first of all,” she said.
“It is a beginning and I hope it does bring change.”
Speaking in the grand hall of the Canadian Museum of History, facing Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, the inquiry’s chief commissioner Marion Buller said that nothing short of an absolute paradigm-shift is in order from all levels of government and public institutions to address the issue – one her commission labelled frankly as a genocide.
The tragedy, Buller said, is a direct result of a “persistent and deliberate pattern of systemic racial and gendered human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses, perpetuated historically and maintained today by the Canadian state.”
The term has instantly become a flashpoint, the subject of arguments over whether it denotes intentionality in the hundreds of killings and disappearances the inquiry examined, whether it’s fair if it does, whether the label matters.
For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped short of using the term – despite being directly asked to do so in a call from the crowd – when he spoke after accepting the report.
Instead, Trudeau said violence against Indigenous women and girls is “not a relic of Canada’s past,” but part of its present, and the justice system has failed them.
“Time and again, we have heard of their disappearance, violence, or even death being labelled low priority or ignored,” he
said. He received the report from the commissioners after they performed a traditional ceremony, including coating its pages with medicine.
The inquiry report itself uses the term “genocide” dozens of times, starting in the first paragraph of Buller’s preface: “This report is about deliberate race, identity and gender-based genocide,” she wrote.
After Monday’s ceremony, Buller said the commission does not need to hear the word “genocide” out of Trudeau’s mouth; it heard the truth from families and survivors. That Indigenous women and girls have been victims of genocide was an “inescapable conclusion” for the commission, she said.
When asked if she agreed with the use of the term, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said the Liberal government accepts the findings of the commissioners, adding it has heard for a long time that “racism and sexism kills.”
The federal government will leave the discussion of the use of the term “genocide” to
academics and experts, said Justice Minister David Lametti. He said the government has a responsibility to the families and survivors to fix the problem.
Conservative Indigenous-affairs critic Cathy McLeod said the discussion around the term was a distraction from the value of the report’s findings and would not say whether she agreed with the use of the word.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he thinks genocide is an accurate word to use for what he calls “a complete system failure” for Indigenous women and girls.
Monday, Buller told the crowd she and her three fellow commissioners are holding up a mirror to the country, reflecting what they heard from more than 2,300 people over two years of cross-country public hearings and work to gather evidence.
Commissioner Qajaq Robinson said the inquiry tested her to her core as a nonIndigenous person, struggling to come to terms with her “role in Canada’s genocide.”
“Shame, guilt, denial, that urge to say, ‘No, no, no, that’s not what this is,’” she said. “But it’s the truth. It’s our truth. It’s my truth, it’s your truth. The families, survivors, and Indigenous peoples across this country have brought this truth to light.”
(Robinson was born and raised in Nunavut, speaks Inuktitut and practises Aboriginal law, but her appointment as a member of a commission that had no Inuk member was questioned when the inquiry began.)
The report’s 231 recommendations – framed as “calls for justice” – include developing an effective response to humantrafficking cases and sexual exploitation and violence, including in the sex industry.
These moves are not optional, but constitute legal imperatives, the report says.
Additional calls include establishing a national Indigenous- and human-rights ombudsperson and a national Indigenous- and human-rights tribunal.
The report also focuses on a call for people in the justice system and in police services to acknowledge that the historical and current relationship with Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people has been largely defined by colonialism, racism, bias and discrimination.
Missing and murdered Indigenous women are believed to number in the thousands in Canada, but the report says that despite the commission’s best efforts to quantify the extent of the tragedy, “no one knows an exact number.”
In 2005, the Native Women’s Association of Canada created a database tracking cases and produced a 2010 report documenting 582 missing and murdered Indigenous women. In 2014, the RCMP released a national overview and pegged the number of cases between 1980 and 2012 at nearly 1,200.
Other unverified estimates are far higher.
Evelyne Youngchief, a survivor of violence who works on the front lines on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, said Monday the report may offer closure to some, but not her. More and more Indigenous women continue to go missing and be murdered, she said.
“It’s going to keep happening,” she said.
CP PHOTO
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with chief commissioner Marion Buller after she spoke at the closing ceremony for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Gatineau, Que., on Monday.