Artifacts not from pipeline construction site
Indigenous artifacts found at the construction site of a contentious pipeline project were likely not in their original location, says British Columbia’s energy regulator.
The Unist’ot’en clan, a hereditary house group of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, complained last month that supporters recovered two ancient stone tools and observed other artifacts at the site where Coastal GasLink is building a natural gas pipeline.
The company suspended work on the line, which is a key part of a $40-billion LNG Canada project in northern B.C., while the BC Oil and Gas Commission investigated.
The commission said in an information bulletin that investigators found stone artifacts on top of frozen clay soils and the archaeology branch of the provincial Forestry Ministry is working to return the items to the appropriate Indigenous communities.
“The soils upon which the artifacts were found would not typically contain any such cultural artifacts and this was likely not their original location,” the commission said. “However, a definitive determination on their exact location of origin cannot be made.”
The two stone tools that were originally reported discovered were not present at the site, the information bulletin said.
The Unist’ot’en have previously said the two tools were removed to protect them. The clan has also said an archeologist from the Smithsonian Institution estimated one of the tools dates back up to 3,500 years.
In an emailed response to questions on Monday, the commission said the team examining the site was not aware the two tools had been removed.
Archaeologists found four artifacts in total – one complete biface tool and three biface fragments – but could not make a cultural association, it said.
The commission acted on an order under the Heritage Conservation Act to secure the four artifacts for protection and further examination, it added.
It said the area had been logged twice,
The soils upon which the artifacts were found would not typically contain any such cultural artifacts and this was likely not their original location.
— BC Oil and Gas Commission report
prepped and replanted, and all soil layers where cultural artifacts would typically be found had been removed and were at some distance from where the items were found.
The Unist’ot’en clan said Monday the artifacts were recovered from a site that “had been heavily disturbed” by Coastal GasLink bulldozers.
It said in a statement that the “cryptic bulletin” from the commission “ignores the role that CGL’s industrial activity has played in disturbing this cultural site and displacing these artifacts.”
Asked about this allegation, Coastal GasLink referred questions to the oil and gas commission.
The commission said “removing artifacts from their original context greatly diminishes the information that can be extracted from them.”
The Unist’ot’en said they have not been included in the archeological work done on their territory.
“Wet’suwet’en cultural artifacts cannot be properly identified and analysed without the input of Wet’suwet’en people,” it said.
Coastal GasLink said in a statement it has been cleared to resume construction and it has filed a mitigation plan that has been accepted by the commission and the archaeology branch.
— see ‘THERE IS NO WAY, page 3
Threat leveled against child care centre
Citizen staff
Evasive action was taken Monday afternoon when a threat was leveled against a College Heights child care centre.
Pupils attending Kool Kats Kid Care were transferred to another location while Polaris Montessori Elementary School was put on lockdown for about 90 minutes.
On Friday, students at Polaris were evacuated in response to a threat and police believe the two are connected.
The school was “all clear” by 2 p.m. and the school’s day ended with regular dismissal, school district superintendent Marilyn Marquis-Forster said. On Friday, students at Polaris were evacuated in response to a threat and police believe the two are connected. The incidents are being actively investigated, RCMP added.
“Our officers take all threats seriously and will continue to investigate these criminal offences with all the resources we have available,” Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said.
“With an abundance of precaution, we have taken the necessary steps to ensure the safety of these children and the children attending the neighbouring school.”
The threat against Polaris on Friday has been “thoroughly investigated” and no evidence was found to suggest it was credible, RCMP also said.
Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to contact the Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www. pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only).
You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Supporters of Unist’ot’en camp demonstrated outside of the Prince George Law Courts in January to show solidarity with their fight against a pipeline.
Imperial Metals sells stake in Red Chris mine
Citizen news service
Shares in Imperial Metals Corp.
soared in early trading after the company announced a deal to sell a 70 per cent interest in its Red Chris copper and gold mine in B.C. to Australia’s Newcrest Mining Ltd. for US$806.5 million in cash.
Imperial shares were up $1.37 or about 69 per cent at $3.35 in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Imperial president Brian Kynoch said in a statement that the deal allows the company to strengthen its balance sheet while forging a strategic partnership with a leading global mining company.
“We believe that this joint venture partnership will enable Imperial to unlock significant value at
Red Chris by leveraging Newcrest’s unique technical expertise in block caving operations,” Kynoch said.
“With a stronger financial position and highly actionable path to exploiting the underground mining potential of Red Chris, Imperial will be in a much stronger position to create value and opportunities for its shareholders, stakeholders and the Tahltan Nation.”
Under the deal, the company, which will retain a 30 per cent stake in the mine, will form a joint venture for the operation of the
mine, with Newcrest acting as the operator.
Imperial says it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to repay debt and for working capital. The sale is subject to customary conditions including regulatory approvals. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
In addition to Red Chris, Imperial owns the Mount Polley and Huckleberry copper mines in B.C. It also holds a 50 per cent interest in the Ruddock Creek lead-zinc property.
IN BRIEF
Man
shot to death in 100 Mile House
Police investigating a shooting death of a man in 100 Mile House. RCMP and emergency personnel in the community were called to a Cedar Street home on Sunday at about 10 a.m.
The man was found dead upon arrival.
North District RCMP’s major crime unit has taken over the investigation and are treating the case as a homicide.
“This residence was well known to police and although the investigation is in the early stages, police have no information to suggest that the greater public is at further risk,” RCMP added. Further details on the victim were not provided.
If you have any information about this, please contact the 100 Mile House RCMP at 250-395-2456 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477.
Valemount death suspected homicide
The death of a 60-year-old man whose body was found in Valemount over the weekend is being treated as a homicide.
North District RCMP’s major crime unit has take over the investigation, police said, after Valemount RCMP were called to the scene shortly after 11 a.m.
“Although the investigation is in the early stages, police have no information to suggest that the greater public is at further risk,” RCMP added. No further information on the victim was released.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Valemount RCMP at 250-566-4466 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-2228477.
Making it right
The total cost of the Willow Cale Road bridge project at Haggith Creek was $6.8 million. An incorrect number was provided in Saturday’s Citizen. The Citizen regrets the error.
Prince George provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, March 5-8, 2019:
• Brittany Marie Gagnon (born 1993) was sentenced to zero days in jail for breaching probation.
• Paul Raymond Murray (born 1963) 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.
• Angel Rae Reno (born 1988) was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to provide a DNA sample for assault and sentenced to zero days in jail for two counts of breaching an undertaking. Reno was in custody for 20 days prior to sentencing.
• Dale Andrew Dowswell (born 1971) was sentenced to a 30-day conditional sentence order and 14 months probation for being unlawfully in a dwelling-house.
• Jason Scott Beetlestone (born 1973) was sentenced to 14 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for two years and fined $1,000 plus a $150 victim surcharge for two counts of driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Prince George and McBride.
• Cheryle Lynn Gibson (born 1965) was
sentenced to 14 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for two years and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Dillion James Loehndorf (born 1995) was sentenced to zero days in jail for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and two counts of breaching probation, committed in Prince George and Williams Lake. Loehndorf was in custody for 13 days prior to sentencing.
• Cheryl Ann Roberts (born 1985) was sentenced to 18 months probation, issued a 10-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for robbery and to zero days in jail for two counts of breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Roberts was in custody for 62 days prior to sentencing.
• Robin William Farrington Azak (born 1997) was sentenced to one year probation for two counts of breaching a recognizance.
- Trevor John Cowell (born 1985) was sentenced to 25 days in jail for breaching probation and breaching an undertaking or recognizance, both committed in Mackenzie.
• Tracy Dawn Marie Reid (born 1978) was fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Louisa Janessa Wells (born 1989) was sentenced to one year probation for assault with a weapon and assault.
- Kristian Anders Jacobson (born 1972) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Eric Wayde Thor Johnson (born 1983) was prohibited from driving for three years for driving while disqualified under the Criminal Code. Johnson was in custody for 63 days prior to sentencing.
• Amber Marie Desjarlais (born 1989) was ordered to pay $6,188.80 restitution and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for providing false or misleading information under the Insurance Vehicle Act.
• Crystal Anne Hall (born 1995) was sentenced to 14 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for $18 months and fined $1,000 plus a $150 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Tod Scott Keller (born 1958) was sen-
tenced to 136 days in jail and one year probation for break and enter with intent to commit an offence.
• Victor Willier (born 1998) was sentenced to one year probation for breaching probation and two counts of theft $5,000 or under.
• Bailey Elisabeth Dobson (born 1987) was issued a nine-month $500 recognizance after allegation of causing fear of injury or damage.
• Stanley Robert Hill (born 1982) was sentenced to 60 days in jail for two counts of breaching probation and to 10 days in jail and two years probation for assault. Hill was in custody for 50 days prior to sentencing.
• Gordon Wilfred Pagens (born 1992) was sentenced to one year probation for breaching probation. Pagens was in custody for 189 days prior to sentencing.
CORRECTION
Darryl David Vankuipers (born 1980) was sentenced to one year probation and fined $250 for driving without a driver’s licence under the Motor Vehicle Act. Incorrect information was provided in last week’s court docket.
The Citizen regrets the error.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO
Protesters stand outside the Imperial Metals office in downtown Vancouver in 2014.
Kinky Boots ready to hit the stage
Frank PEEBLES
Citizen
staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The boots are kinky, the boots are splashy, the boots are made for a lot more than walking.
Inside those boots, though, are highly trained dancing feet called together from all over America for the touring cast that’s sashaying into Prince George next week.
A cast of 27 performers plus a sizable touring crew will dazzle the CN Centre stage in one of the hottest blazes of musical theatre glory to burst from Broadway in years.
There’s a wagon load of Tony and Grammy awards on the shelves of the creators (music by Cyndi Lauper, choreography by Jerry Mitchell, story development by Harvey Fierstein – all of them legendary), and a pile of its own Tony Awards since it opened in New York.
Now, after stops all over the States and a few B.C. dates on their way north, Kinky Boots will kick up its heels here.
One of the most prominent actors in this rollicking play is Karis Gallant, who grew up in smalltown Robbinsville, New Jersey about halfway between New York City (she now calls NYC home) and Philadelphia. For a kid who grew up singing around the house and dancing in the streets, it was a perfect place to find her way into musical theatre.
“There is a lot going on around there. I’m very fortunate to have been in such a great area growing up, which I love. There is a lot of stuff to audition for and be surrounded by, which is great,” Gallant told The Citizen in a phone call from the tour bus somewhere near Albuquerque.
“I was pretty young when I started and I haven’t really looked back. I’ve been riding it since I was middle school when I did my first musical and then it just kinda kept going and going.”
She has been at the top end of the marquee for several of those musicals she got cast in, like Sandy in Grease and Olive in Bullets Over Broadway, but she also earned rolls like Curly’s Wife in Of Mice And Men and Miranda in The Tempest.
“Every now and then I enjoy the dramatic challenge, the experience of doing a straight play, I really do enjoy that,” she said but musicals are her hands-down favourite, but she has to search for parts that really speak to her personal sensibilities as well as her raw creative side.
“It has been nice to get some roles in the last couple of years
that are a little more funny and a little more well-rounded and have a little more backstory behind them other than singing about wanting boyfriends. I do enjoy the comedic aspect a lot, that’s something I’ve been running with. But what I really do look for when I pick up a script, I really do like character depth the best, I’m really drawn to it.”
Kinky Boots, for all is sass and sizzle, is exactly that kind of play. Broadway has a new wave of musical theatre striking out across the world’s community stages these days, and Kinky Boots epitomizes the new movement, one that more fully realizes female characters and one that gives more volume to social undercurrents.
“She (Lauren, her Kinky Boots character) is deep and there is a real message in her,” Gallant said. “That’s something we try to get through to our audience, and I think we do a good job in the show. And the book and the music stand for themselves in that fact. They are pretty clear in what they are trying to deliver to an audience, so we just help do that, which is really something we are all grateful for.”
The play hilariously tells the story of a young British man who is
‘There is no way to determine when or how they came to be in the location’
— from page 1
The plan requires an archeologist to determine if there is additional cultural material, sample topsoil stockpiled on the edge of the site, supervise construction operations and further assess the topsoil when it is spread back on the site.
The company said the province has added the site to its archeological database based on the presence of artifacts at the spot.
The company quoted the Forests Ministry as saying there was “strong evidence” the artifacts had been moved from their original location, as they were found sitting on top of a frozen slab of clay. Remaining sediments are considered to be “culturally sterile,” it added.
The Forests Ministry said in a statement it was impossible to determine the age of the artifacts or attribute them to a specific Indigenous community.
“There is no way to determine when or how they came to be in the location,” it added.
Analysis of the artifacts is complete and the branch is now working toward returning them to the
appropriate communities, it said.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline would transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to LNG Canada’s export terminal in Kitimat on the coast. In January, police arrested 14 people at a blockade in the area.
The company says it has approval to build the pipeline from First Nations along the pipeline, but some Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs say they haven’t given their consent.
reluctantly taking over his family’s struggling shoe factory. It needs a fresh idea in order to survive, since society’s consumer habits have shifted to quickly disposable footwear, not the quality craftsmanship this factory provides. It also provides a lot of jobs and a big slice of a small town’s local economy.
That innovative idea clicketyclicks through the door when a drag queen named Lola, or rather the man who portrays Lola, offers some input, in need of some strong stiletto heels himself.
Part of the research for the cast was learning about the inner workings of footwear factories, their importance to local towns where they were often based, and the changing tides of throwaway consumerism. That makes Gallant appreciate all the more her own favourite pair of shoes.
“I’m super into Doc Martens. I think they are the most fashionable shoes that goes with all of my outfits and they’re so comfy and sturdy and long lasting, which I love. I’ve had so many pairs of shoes that just break so easily, I had a lot of friends who recommended Doc Martens, I like the idea of investing in shoes and
which has been my tour lifesaver because it makes it look like I planned my outfit, but I didn’t, really, I just put them on and they make everything look better, in my opinion. And they feel moulded to my feet; I love them.”
Gallant is also striving for a quality touring experience to last the tests of her own life’s time. The only other time she has participated in transportational theatre was as a cast member of Norwegian Cruise Lines shows that had some ports of call in Canada. She got into the habit of trying to find the local personality in each place they fleetingly visited.
Gallant said life on the bus is very much focused on “sleeping, eating, breathing,” just to stay set for the rigors of the next performance but she does manage some road hobbies.
“I like reading, listening to podcasts, I like to listen to music, I really like working out but it’s kinda hard on this schedule. And I’m definitely a big explorer, adventurer. I love to find cute little hole-in-the-wall places whether it’s a coffee shop or restaurant or something. I love to take photos and document everything.” Her shutter will snap into Prince George view when she and the Kinky Boots production take their big steps on the CN Centre stage on March 22. Tickets are on
every day,
having them last so long, which brings up the shoes in the musical, too. They are built to last. So I wear these Doc
Martens
HANDOUT PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURPHY
Karis Gallant and Connor Allsto perform during in the national your of Kinky Boots.
Foreign policy experts call for release of Canadian in China
Citizen news service
Fifteen prominent U.S. foreign policy experts on Monday called for the release of a Canadian detained in China in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a top Chinese tech executive in Canada.
The scholars and think-tank executives released a joint statement saying Michael Kovrig’s detention is worrying because independent policy research institutions can help mitigate conflict during a time of growing differences and heightened suspicions between China and the West.
“That is why we are particularly concerned by the detention of one of our colleagues,” the statement said. “Michael’s arrest has a chilling effect on all those who are committed to advance constructive U.S.-China relations.”
Kovrig is an expert on Asia and works International Crisis Group think-tank.
China arrested Kovrig and another Canadian on Dec. 10, apparently attempting to pressure Canada to release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Meng was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities who want her extradited to face fraud charges.
The scholars include Nicolas Burns from Harvard, Anne-Marie Slaughter from Princeton and retired U.S. Gen. John Allen from the Brookings Institute, among others. Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor haven’t had access to a lawyer since being arrested.
A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial on allegations of drug trafficking, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier. China is also blocking some imports of canola from Canada in a development that could be related to Meng’s case.
Province earmarks $50M to close broadband gap
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
The provincial government is putting $50 million towards delivering highspeed internet service to about 200 rural and Indigenous communities across B.C. Northern Development Initiative Trust will administer the money and will be used to lever further money from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s $750-million broadband fund.
The province’s share is the “largest ever investment to connect British Columbians with modern internet services” made by the government, B.C. Citizen Services Minister Jinny Sims said during a media event Friday in Prince George
The aim is to close the gap between rural and urban areas so that all Canadians have access to speeds of at least 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads, as well as access to mobile wireless services including on major transportation roads.
“Investments on connectivity are
opening doors, bringing people together, providing new opportunities and creating local jobs,” Sims said.
NDIT CEO Joel McKay said it will be up to the internet service providers to apply for the funding and added their proposals should be “well integrated with what the community wants.”
With the possible exception of Prince George and Fort St. John, McKay said every community in northern B.C. could use the help.
NDIT has also previously administered a $10 million fund for “last mile” projects that brought internet service to more than 43,000 homes and businesses in rural and remote regions, spread over 417 communities, including 74 indigenous communities.
NDIT is also overseeing a $40 million fund focused on fibre optic.
In March 2018, $7.1 million of that total was committed to Shaw Communications Inc. to install a fibre optic loop along Highway 97 from Prince George to Dawson Creek. That project is still in the planning stages, McKay said Friday.
Once completed, the hope is it will
provide the impetus to attract a data centre to Prince George. Coun. Garth Frizzell has said getting that second loop has been a “constant refrain” because it will provide the redundancy the facilities need to continue to provide service should there be trouble with the loop running from Vancouver to Prince George.
Lynda Pattie, executive director of AscenTECH Solutions, a Prince Georgebased technology services provider, said high technology one of is one of the “fastest-growing sectors in B.C.”
“There are tremendous opportunities for rural and remote areas and First Nations communities to benefit from these services,” Pattie said.
“By connecting a rural and remote community to the rest of the world, the entire social fabric of the community is strengthened.
“Telehealth, telemedicine and elearning are all key services that can be provisioned effectively in connecte communities and they can make an incredible difference to the people that live and work in those communities.”
Lynda Pattie speaks at a funding announcement for high speed internet in Prince George Friday.
OECD concerned about SNC-Lavalin allegations
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development is monitoring the allegations the Liberal government tried to influence a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin to determine whether Canada is violating its commitment to an international antibribery convention.
The OECD’s working group on bribery said in a statement Monday that it is “concerned” by accusations that Trudeau and staff in his office tried to get former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to let the Quebec engineering giant negotiate a remediation agreement rather than pursue the firm on criminal charges of bribery and fraud.
It’s particularly keeping an eye on the twin federal investigations of the allegations, the group said, including one by the House of Commons justice committee that is to continue this week.
SNC-Lavalin is accused of bribing Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 to win business there.
Canada is one of 44 nations that in 1999 signed the legally binding AntiBribery Convention, which established international standards to criminalize the bribery of foreign officials so nations would punish their own citizens and companies for trying to undermine governments elsewhere.
The working group monitors the implementation and enforcement of the convention. It wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office to express its concerns about the SNC-Lavalin matter and says it is interested in the investigations by the justice committee and the federal ethics commissioner. It says Canada has pledged to update the group on the matter at the working group’s June meeting.
The statement says Canada’s commitment under the convention is to “prosecutorial independence in foreign bribery cases,” and that political factors such as national economic interests and the identities of the company or individuals involved should have no influence on the prosecution.
Adam Austen, a spokesman for For-
eign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, said Canada “firmly supports” the OECD and noted Canada was a founding country in the Anti-Bribery Convention.
“We acknowledge the concerns raised today by the OECD working group on bribery,” he said in a written statement.
“We will continue to work with and update the working group on the robust and independent domestic processes currently underway in Canada, which the working group has recognized and encouraged.”
The thrust of the controversy surrounds a decision by the director of public prosecutions not to use a new law in Canada to put off a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in favour of a remediation agreement (also sometimes called a deferred-prosecution agreement). Under such an agreement the firm would admit wrongdoing, pay financial penalties and allow outside monitoring, and if it fulfilled its end of the agreement the prosecution would eventually be dropped.
As attorney general, Wilson-Raybould could have ordered prosecutors to pursue such an agreement or taken over the prosecution and done it herself, but she elected to do neither.
Wilson-Raybould says multiple people from Trudeau’s office, the finance minister’s office and the Privy Council Office
all put sustained, improper pressure on her to change her mind and she believes she was shuffled out as attorney general in January because she wouldn’t.
Trudeau and his staff say their only concern was for SNC-Lavalin’s 9,000 jobs, which might be at risk if the company were convicted and then barred from bidding on federal contracts for up to 10 years. They deny exerting any improper influence on Wilson-Raybould and say she did not get shuffled over it.
Wilson-Raybould resigned Feb. 12.
Jane Philpott, her close friend and cabinet ally, followed suit March 4, citing lost confidence in how the matter had been handled by the prime minister’s office. Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, resigned his own post Feb. 18. He said last week he resigned not because he had done anything wrong but because he felt if he stayed on after Wilson-Raybould resigned it would look as though Trudeau had chosen him, a longtime friend, over a minister.
Last week Trudeau blamed the problem on a breakdown in trust between Wilson-Raybould and his office and committed to hiring outside experts to advise the government on interactions between political and public-service staff on justice files.
The justice committee has already heard from 10 witnesses, including Wilson-Raybould and Butts, and is set to meet again Wednesday to discuss additional witnesses to call.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper said he wants to call other Trudeau advisers Wilson-Raybould named as people who approached her on the SNC-Lavalin matter.
But Cooper said the chief desire is for Wilson-Raybould to be brought back to answer questions that arose from Butts’s testimony. The Conservatives say the waiver of solicitor-client privilege and cabinet secrecy that Trudeau issued to allow Wilson-Raybould to speak is limiting and that she should be allowed to also answer questions about why she resigned from cabinet and what she subsequently told the cabinet in a meeting after that resignation.
Support for climate-change action could wane if no help for coal workers: report
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is hinting the upcoming federal budget might have room for additional aids to help coal industry workers transition to new jobs.
The 2018 federal budget included a $35 million, five-year fund to help retrain coal workers to work in new jobs, but that was before Ottawa assigned a task force to consult affected provinces and communities on what was specifically needed.
That task force reported Monday, laying out 10 broad recommendations to help workers prepare for a future without coal.
McKenna told The Canadian Press Monday she was intrigued by most of what was in the report.
“There are some really good suggestions here,” she said. “We kind of have to look at it as a package. Most of the things we’re looking at in terms of the budget.”
In 2016, the most recent year for which greenhouse-gas emissions statistics are available, coal accounted for nine per cent of all Canada’s emissions and 71 per cent of emissions from generating electricity. That comes from 16 power stations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which are fed by nine remaining mines producing “thermal” coal.
To meet Canada’s international commitment to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by nearly 30 per cent over the next 12 years, McKenna has ordered that all existing coal-fired power plants be shut down or converted to burn natural gas before 2030. The task-force report warns that failing to prepare coal-dependent communities for that change risks public support for climatechange action.
TRUDEAU
Early takeaways from Trudeau’s mess
We could choke the internet with take-aways from the SNC-Lavalin controversy. It’s far from over, but let’s start with these:
1. The combined cabinet portfolio of justice and attorney general has to go. The government of the day put Jody Wilson-Raybould, like her predecessors, in an impractical situation. The justice portfolio advocates the government’s agenda and the attorney general impartially determines the prosecutorial path. Tension naturally ensues, the hats can’t switch, so fix the unique-to-Canada anachronism.
2. If Justin Trudeau is trying to bring emotional intelligence into the political sphere, he has to learn how to empathize and apologize with a disposition less resistant than a reluctant root canal patient.
3. The tide has turned, and when someone asserts that advocacy is persuasion and when someone else asserts that advocacy is pressure, we no longer see it as a saw-off or as a matter of agreeing to disagree on the interpretation of the discord. In this circumstance in 2019, the person pressured is to be believed.
4. As a principle politicians need to at-
tract, build and protect jobs as a duty of office, but not when companies break and conduct themselves consciously outside the rules, even with eventual contrition.
5. A Quebec engineering company job to be protected at almost all cost appears to be worth about 10 Alberta resource jobs to be protected at some cost.
6. Media have to stop permitting political cowards to spread anonymous disparagement of others as some sort of punch in the blindfolded face. The practice is a long-standing disgrace to the craft and corrodes hard-earned and easily frittered trust.
7. The unelected Prime Minister’s Office is preposterously powerful. Can’t anyone please pledge to diminish it?
sionally abandoning his post. No matter your political perspective, his unsuccessful attempt to shield his boss cost the country an important element in running it.
An election is when we get to decide if a government has earned renewal. How the government has dealt with scandal is one way we judge. But the notion of calling an election over any scandal short of a public crisis is unhealthy.
8. Gerald Butts need not have resigned his role as the most important adviser to Justin Trudeau in order to speak about this matter. He, and those who establish the rules of conduct, should have found a way for him to publicly state his position without profes-
9. It is difficult to see how Wilson-Raybould is permitted to run for the Liberals this fall, but it is much more difficult to see how Trudeau rescinds his permission.
10. Libya and many other countries have been cesspools of corruption, but that doesn’t mean we should consider bribery and paying for prostitutes for visiting officials as an acceptable price of doing business. What are we saying about our own moral standards when we shrug?
11. Once the Public Prosecution Service of Canada renders its view, game over.
12. Administrations are systems, and one system is to figure out who can prod whom, when and how. The exertion of influence in the SNC-Lavalin affair suggests it is time for the Trudeau administration to figure out who stays in which lane.
Seeing daylight on time change
Sunday. Too-early a.m. The alarm clock in one ear and the sharp elbow in the other say it’s time to get out of bed.
But why’s it so dark? Honey, did we forget to pay the Hydro bill again? No, it’s daylight time. We lost an hour of sleep Sunday. Can’t find it anywhere. It’s probably with your missing car keys or Trudeau’s re-election chances.
Daylight time used to arrive in April, just like relatives from Alberta, but since 2007, it has landed on the second Sunday in March. Has it really been a dozen years? It feels like it happened yesterday.
Or yesterday minus one hour.
A glimmer of light is on the horizon, though. After hearing that politicians in California, Washington and Oregon are all considering doing away with the twicea-year time change, Premier John Horgan wrote their governors this past week to broach the idea of acting in concert with British Columbia. The three states and B.C. have too much binding us together for one or two to go off on their own, he said.
“It makes sense to me that we move in unison on this matter,” the letter stated.
“We believe that if we are going to go forward with a change to keep either permanent daylight saving time or permanent Pacific standard time, we need to do it in all four jurisdictions,” Horgan later said.
That’s a much meatier statement than we’re used to. Politicians occasionally make noises
GUEST COLUMN JACK KNOX
about ditching daylight time, but when they do it’s usually in the tone you use when talking about maybe getting around to losing 10 pounds some day.
Those who argue in earnest have tended to be lonely voices, such as B.C. MLA Linda Larson, who wants to switch to permanent daylight time (good idea, we’d get the extra evening daylight in summer without changing our watches twice a year) and Edmonton MLA Thomas Dang, whose attempt to get Alberta to adopt year-round Redneck Standard Time (I might not have that quite right) failed in 2017. Whose idea was daylight time, anyway? The Americans claim it was Benjamin Franklin, way back in 1784, but the Americans also claim the Vietnam War was a tie, so… The real instigator was England’s William Willett, who in 1907 published a pamphlet arguing we should spring forward an hour each spring. Everybody scoffed at Willett until 1916, when they changed their minds, which would have been wonderfully satisfying for him had he not died (or fallen back) in 1915. With the First World War raging, the U.K. reasoned that nobody was going to get any sleep with all that shelling going on, so they might as well get up and go to work an hour early.
British Summer Time, as they called it, was so popular that when the Second World War broke out, they introduced Double Summer Time, advancing clocks two hours past Greenwich Mean Time in summer and one in winter. If the Third World War ever breaks out, the Brits will be up by walk-of-shame o’clock and back in bed by the end of Coronation Street.
On this side of the Atlantic, almost all of Canada changes its clocks today, with notable exceptions being most of Saskatchewan, bits of Nunavut and those parts of B.C. where people are technically in this province, but think of Alberta as their real dad. That doesn’t mean Canadians like being rousted at bayonetpoint, though. As far back as 1947, Robertson Davies wrote: “I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen… At the back of the daylight saving scheme, I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.”
The real complaint is that all this time-changing is discombobulating, not to mention dangerous, as it is linked to a rise in heart attacks and car crashes (I would also like to throw in measles, if that helps the cause).
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13. An election is when we get to decide if a government has earned renewal. How the government has dealt with scandal is one way we judge. But the notion of calling an election over any scandal short of a public crisis is unhealthy.
14. As we head into October, the single largest accomplishment of the Liberal government appears to be the legalization of cannabis – and even that has been a hot mess.
15. We have said this for decades: the Indian Act cannot disappear soon enough. Nor can omnibus legislation.
16. Given the rush by various parties to tap into former Supreme Court justices, maybe we’d better create an Eminent Court of Canada to get a few of these tricky bones thrown their way for consideration.
17. Scott Brison must shake his head at how he went safely from being a Conservative MP to a leadership candidate to a Liberal MP to a scandal-free cabinet minister to a bank executive and only now in departing politics generated any kind of cascade of woe.
18. As far as I can tell, Donald Trump had nothing to do with any of this – at least, as of this writing. Any moment I stand to be corrected.
— Kirk LaPointe is editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media
Budget creating opportunities
According to Finance Minister Carol James, “British Columbia’s economy is thriving with the strongest GDP and wage growth in Canada. It’s clear that sharing the benefits of growth with all British Columbians results in a stronger economy,”
The B.C. Budget was released Feb. 19, promising to create opportunities and make life better for people. The central theme is putting more money back into the pockets of “hardworking” British Columbians so they can get ahead “at every stage of this life, no matter where they’re starting from.”
As budgets go, it is definitely a family-first budget with the new B.C. Child Opportunity Benefit right up front. This promises families with one child up to $1,600 per year, two children up to $2,600, and three children up to $3,400.
Of course, there is “up to” included in this announcement. Giving a family of four $20 per year is with the range of “up to” $2,600. I am not suggesting the government will do this but a little further digging does show the benefit operates on a sliding scale. The more a family makes, the smaller the benefit will be.
Ditto on the elimination of the Medical Services Premium. MSP has been a bane for governments since it was introduced. While providing revenue for our health care system, it is a regressive form of taxation with everyone paying at the same rate. Not so much of a problem for someone earning over $100,000 per year but a struggle for a minimum wage earner making $24,000 per year.
MSP isn’t actually going away. It will be replaced with a new “employer health tax” which will fill in the revenue hole. In essence, the government has simply moved the cost up the line. Now employers will be expected to pick up the costs directly rather than having their employees pay.
For a one-person business, the net result is pretty much a wash except for this year where both the MSP and employer tax are in place. For a larger organization, it is a shift which may or may not end up costing companies more. It depends on collective agreements and such. For the City of Prince George, this year the double dipping will result in an extra $1 million or so in cost but going forward, I am given to understand, it will balance out to a net zero.
The effects of both of these measures is to decrease the amount of
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money individuals and families pay in taxes and for some will mean money back after their tax bill has hit zero. It will benefit low end earners more than the middle class while not really impacting high wage earners all that much. They won’t be paying more – just not receiving the benefits. These programs won’t affect the bottom line, according to the estimates tabled in the Legislature.
Total revenue will increase from $56.6 billion to $59.0 billion, while expenses will increase from $55.8 billion to $58.3 billion. We have a surplus from last year and the government is projecting a surplus for the year to come. Indeed, they are expecting surpluses in each of the next three years. All the result of a strong, thriving economy. There are some significant risks in Budget 2019, not the least of which is a projected reduction in the deficit at ICBC from $1.2 billion to $50 million. The government has tabled legislation in an attempt to control costs, limiting the amount which can be claimed for injuries and accidents. It will be interesting to see how the legislation holds up over time.
But if ICBC has a similarly bad year – the deficit is on the order of $1 billion again – they could easily swallow up a surplus in the budget. (This is why people should drive safe!)
The other big question in the budget is how much money to allocate for fighting fires this coming summer. The direct and indirect costs of fires will likely keep climbing for the foreseeable future and it is only a matter of time before a major community is threatened which will quickly escalate the overall costs. This is one area where prevention is better than the cure. More money should be focused on clearing combustible material although this will impact other values in the forests. Much of the rest of the budget appears to be “stand pat”. Most of the major projects proposed – replacing the Pattullo Bridge and building a Broadway subway line – are targeted at Vancouver which is not too surprising, given the provincial demographics. And there is the CLEANBC initiative of $902 million over three years to ensure we meet our climate commitments.
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Reagan set the standard on political apologies
Thirty-two years ago, Ronald Reagan gave what many believe was his most difficult and least favourite speech of his career. Some would say it was the most important.
Usually, when getting ready to address the nation in a primetime Oval Office address, Reagan looked forward to it, or at least accepted the circumstances requiring him to do so.
For example, he was energized to rally the nation behind his economic program, he was determined to call out the Soviet Union for its role in downing a commercial Korean jetliner, he wanted to comfort Americans grieving the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, he was excited to announce his candidacy for re-election and he was proud to review his administration’s record, while a bit sad to say goodbye, in his farewell address.
But things were different on the night of March 4, 1987, which, as it happened, was the Reagans’ 35th wedding anniversary.
GUEST
COLUMN
MARK WEINBERG
The long-awaited speech about the Iran-Contra affair – the illegal sale of U.S. arms to Iran and diversion of profits to the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua – was no cause for joy.
The White House was not a happy place.
While many of us on the staff were relieved that the president would say what needed to be said, we knew it was not a speech he had ever anticipated having to give, nor was it one that he wanted to.
But he knew he had to.
It turned out to be a watershed moment for the Reagan presidency. By uttering the words the nation had long waited to hear, Reagan was able to turn the corner on Iran-Contra.
It had taken a while for Reagan to get to that point. While he was
shocked and disappointed when first told about Iran-Contra, he knew for sure that he had not directly or indirectly approved of what men he trusted had done. And he was somewhat reluctant to believe it.
It was not until he received and read the report of the Tower Commission – the bipartisan group he appointed to examine what happened and make recommendations for future operations of the National Security Council – that he fully realized the magnitude of what had taken place and what he had to do.
Once he did, there was no hesitation. He was heavily involved in the writing of that speech.
This is what he said: I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration. As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities. As disappointed as I may be in some who served me, I’m still the one who must answer to the American people for
this behavior.
And as personally distasteful as I find secret bank accounts and diverted funds – well, as the Navy would say, this happened on my watch.”
What may have bothered Reagan most about the Iran-Contra affair was not what his rogue subordinates did – although he was mad about it – it was that polls showed the public did not believe him when he repeatedly said he was not aware of the scheme.
He knew that without the people’s trust, he could not govern effectively, but even more than that, he just could not accept the fact that he was telling the truth but some people thought he was lying.
Contrast that, if you will, with the current president. It is widely accepted that President Donald Trump lies many times a day. As bad as that is, what’s worse is that he does not seem to care. Rarely if ever does he accept responsibility for his own mistakes or those of his subordinates. On the contrary, he always blames someone or
something else for any failure. Nothing is ever his fault. Equally obnoxious is how often he credits himself for things he did not accomplish. On his desk in the Oval Office, Reagan had a sign that said: “There is no limit to what a man can accomplish or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.” Sadly, Trump has turned that principle of leadership – giving credit and taking responsibility –on its head.
For better or worse, Trump is who he is. We have no right to expect him to be Ronald Reagan. But telling the truth and accepting responsibility – even when unpleasant and unwelcome – are as basic as it gets when it comes to being a president with character and integrity, and we have every right to expect that of him. Mark Weinberg, a communications consultant, served as special assistant to the president and assistant press secretary in Ronald Reagan’s White House, and is the author of Movie Nights with the Reagans.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Monday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
Deep pockets needed to fight Netflix
Citizen news service
Media giants are realizing what Netflix Inc. already knows: streaming is expensive.
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index closed higher in a broad rally led by energy stocks, while in the U.S. tech stocks helped lead markets to sharper gains.
Monday’s gains were a bit of a recovery after the TSX registered its first loss of the year last week, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. “I think we’re just getting something of a rebound.”
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 110.03 points at 16,106.24 after reaching as high as 16,131.94 on 248.5 million shares traded. The influential energy index climbed 1.17 per cent as the crude price ended up 72 cents at US$56.79 per barrel after OPEC signalled more production cuts.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 200.64 points at 25,650.88. The S&P 500 index was up 40.23 points at 2,783.30, while the Nasdaq composite was up 149.92 points at 7,558.06.
The gains came after about a half a per cent loss for the TSX last week, while US stocks lost closer to two per cent last week to create bigger gains Monday, said Fehr. The U.S. market was also boosted by strong retail sales numbers out Monday to help ease concerns from recent payroll reports and sales data.
This report gave a counter to that weakness, suggesting the consumer is still on a pretty solid footing, said Fehr.
U.S. stocks were also boosted by gains in technology, while the Dow was weighed down by a five per cent drop in Boeing’s stock after a second of its 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed in recent months. Friday’s healthy jobs numbers from Canada likely also helped prop up the Canadian market as a welcome counter to some of the headwinds in the economy.
“To me, the rather healthy labour market, in terms of job growth in recent months, is probably the brightest spot for the Canadian economy in terms of a pillar that will continue to support a positive expansion,” said Fehr. Canada does, however, face significantly more challenges that the U.S. in the coming year, he said.
The Canadian dollar averaged 74.55 cents US, compared with an average of 74.50 cents US on Friday.
The April gold contract closed down US$8.20 at US$1,291.10 an ounce and the May copper contract was up a penny at US$2.90 a pound. The April natural gas contract was down nine cents at US$2.77 per mmBTU.
The costs are adding up as Walt Disney Co., WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. build their own online video services to make up for shrinking cable and DVD businesses. Those investments, coupled with efforts to pull back content from Netflix and other online services, mean revenue and profit will be under pressure for years.
“Starting a direct-to-consumer service takes an incredibly strong stomach for losses,” said BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield. “If you want to win, it’s very expensive.”
Deep-pocketed buyers like Netflix and Amazon initially helped media companies survive the decline in DVD sales and rentals by providing a new outlet for movies and TV shows. But now they’ve become a threat – luring customers away from lucrative cable subscriptions –and have forced major media companies to develop their own online services.
Disney lost just under $100 million on streaming in the first quarter and expects to lose an additional $200 million on its online video efforts in the second quarter, mostly to develop ESPN+, its subscription sports channel.
The company will also surrender about $150 million in operating income after cutting off licensing to competing services, executives said on a February call.
Captain Marvel, a superhero blockbuster that opened Friday, is the first Disney movie in years that won’t eventually show on Netflix.
Michael Nathanson, a media analyst with MoffettNathanson, expects the Burbank, Californiabased entertainment giant to lose more than $1 billion this year and another $1 billion next year by forgoing licensing deals and investing in its online video business, including Disney+, which will be the TV home for the company’s movies when it debuts later this year.
AT&T Inc., which bought Time Warner Inc. for $85 billion last year, is looking at a minimum of $1 billion in new annual costs for added programming it wants from HBO, the premium cable network.
The phone company sees streaming as a way to attract wireless customers and take revenue from Netflix. HBO spent about $2.2 billion on programming in 2017, and AT&T has said it will boost the network’s budget by 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, Discovery expects to sink $200 million to $300 million into its digital efforts in 2019.
The company, owner of HGTV and Animal Planet, recently created an online video service for golf fans and has hinted at starting a subscription video channel dedicated to Chip and Joanna Gaines, the stars of Fixer Upper. It also streams live matches in
Doug Jones, above, appears as Lt. Saru in Star Trek: Discovery, which appears exclusively on CBS’s online platform (and on Crave in Canada). Along with Disney, Discovery is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars on its streaming platform, which will include its HGTV stars Joanna and Chip Gaines of Fixer Upper, shown below.
Europe on its Eurosport Player, which it calls “the Netflix for sports.”
In January, Viacom Inc. sunk $340 million in Pluto TV, an advertising supported multichannel TV services that operates online.
It takes deep pockets to be like Netflix, which will spend about $14 billion on content this year.
“You need code writers who are very expensive. It’s not like
the old days.” For starters, you need to invest large sums in technology. Disney bought tech expertise by acquiring a majority stake in BAMTech, which handles the back-end infrastructure for the company’s streaming offerings. Media companies also need to hire engineers to ensure their video services don’t crash on different platforms like Roku, Ama-
zon and Apple, said Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin said. “You need code writers who are very expensive.” Martin said. “It’s not like the old days when a signal bounced off a satellite and everyone gets it on a set-top box.”
But the biggest cost is creating exclusive shows and films for those services. CBS Corp. has launched several original series exclusively for its online $5.99-a-month channel, CBS All Access. One of them is Star Trek: Discovery, which costs on average $8 million per episode, making it one of the most expensive shows in TV history, according to Variety.
“All these companies are really splurging on new shows,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan said. “With all the different options available today to the consumer, content becomes the true differentiator.”
Besides the upfront costs, there’s also the lost income by no longer selling hits to rivals.
On an earnings call last month, Discovery Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav said his company has “purposely left meaningful revenue dollars on the table” by not selling past seasons of its shows to streaming services.
Building a global streaming service is “risky” because media companies are trading a sure thing – licensing revenue – for a business model where “no one has actually generated material free cash flow yet,” Nathanson said.
Netflix expects to have a negative free cash flow of $3 billion this year as it spends eye-popping sums on shows and movies.
Media companies will hit “peak spending” this year as they invest to get their streaming services off the ground, Martin said.
Most will add enough customers to break even after their third year, she predicts. Disney said last month that ESPN+ now has 2 million paid subscribers, double from five months before. CBS and Showtime combined have over eight million online subscribers, while HBO has about eight million online-only subscribers, though many of them watch through Amazon and Hulu, giving those companies control over valuable viewer data, according to Greenfield.
Not everyone is willing to accept the trade-offs.
While Disney plans to keep its movies and shows for its own properties, Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal plans to continue licensing programs to others –and then keep the rights to some shows for its new streaming service, which is expected next year.
AT&T’s WarnerMedia just renewed a licensing deal with Netflix for reruns of Friends, despite plans to start its own streaming channel later this year. Nathanson summed up their thinking this way: “Strategy is nice. Money is nicer.”
Captain Marvel will be the first Disney film in years that won’t eventually appear on Netflix.
Sports
P.G. Rush defeat Kelowna Heat in ringette provincials
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Rory Bird knew before he stepped out on the Kin 1 ice Sunday afternoon to face the Kelowna Heat for the provincial ringette 18plus A-division championship he would be playing his last game of the season. The stakes were never higher for Bird and the Prince George Rush – a berth in the Western Canadian championship later this month in St. Albert, Alta.
No matter what the outcome of Sunday’s game, Bird knew he wouldn’t be there to help his teammates try and win a Western Canadian title. By that time he’ll be in Australia with his family from Terrace scattering the ashes of his father Terry, who died
of cancer in March 2018.
Bird has always been a goalscorer ever since he started playing ringette as a kid in Terrace. Filling the nets of opponents is what he does best and given a chance to lock up their first-ever A provincial championship, he scored five goals in a 6-2 win over the Heat.
“It’s a good feeling winning an A title, we came out a lot stronger than the first game (a 4-3 overtime loss to Kelowna Friday night) and I thought we actually controlled the whole game,” said Bird. “It’s quite amazing we could achieve all this success when we hardly practice together as one whole team.”
Bird’s five-goal game ranks among the best games he’s ever had.
“It just means more because we won the championship, it’s the first gold for me and I’ve had a bit of rough year and a bit,” said Bird. It feels good to win for dad, so that was motivation. It’s good to help the team got to Westerns and I’ll be with them, not physically, but I’ll be thinking about them.”
Bird kickstarted the Rush offence early, scoring on a delayed penalty 1:36 into the game. Samantha Weigel tied it for Kelowna at the eight-minute mark but three minutes later Bird took a pass from Darian Campbell in the slot and fired a high shot into the net behind Rebecca Forrester to restore the lead.
The Rush penalty-killers had to work overtime late in the first period with Kristen Tooms and Brooklyn Howard serving
Kassel skis to gold in Norway
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Nikki Kassel knows the feeling of being a world champion cross-country skier and was reminded Saturday how good that feels.
The 45-year-old Prince George nurse posted the fastest-overall time among 88 women on the way to a gold-medal finish in the 15-kilometre freestyle event at the Masters World Cup in Beitstolen, Norway.
Kassel completed the course in 40 minutes 17.0 seconds.
The race marked the return for Kassel in the Masters World Cup. In 2017 in Kloster, Switzerland she won silver medals in the 15km and 30km freestyle events. In 2011, at Sovereign Lake near Vernon, Kassel captured gold in the 15km and 30 km freestyle and helped Canada win gold in the relay. She also claimed silver in the 10 km classic race.
In other results from Beitstolen, Scott Forrest of Prince George finished 35th in the men’s 60-69-year-old 15km classic technique race on Friday.
Kassel and Forrest will be back on the course for races on Sunday. Kassel is entered in the 10km freestyle race and Forrest will race in the 10 km classic.
Relays are today followed by the longdistance classic races Wednesday and the long-distance freestyle events on Thursday.
Next Saturday, the 62-year-old Forrest is entered in the Birkebeiner, a 54 km classic technique race from Rena to Lillehammer while carrying a 3.5-kilogram backpack.
The traditional race is symbolic of a
made
penalties that left Prince George two players short for 1:40 but goalie Megan Spooner was sharp when she got tested and kept the Rush ahead 2-1 heading into the break. The speedy five-foot-six Bird continued to make life miserable for Kelowna. He fired off a backhander made it 3-1 4:39 into the second period and he toe-dragged the ring across the crease for his fourth of the game at 9:40. Taylor Cristofoil put in a rebound to make it a 4-2 game, but about a minute later Sydney Irving used her backhand shot to finish off a crisp three-way passing play with teammates Tara Holmberg and Saynia Pickering. Bird iced it with a wraparound late in the game.
— see ‘EVERYBODY, page 11
Kings face Chilliwack in Round 2
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The Prince George Spruce will begin Round 2 of the BCHL playoffs Friday night in Chilliwack. That’s because Cole Donhausser scored two goals and Daniel Chenard made 43 saves to give the Chilliwack Chiefs a 3-2 win Sunday night over the Langley Rivermen in the seventh and deciding game of their Mainland Division semifinal series.
The Chiefs completed a miraculous comeback after losing the first three games of the series. Donhausser scored the winner while shorthanded, 17:20 into the second period, and the Chiefs hung on to the lead despite being badly outplayed.
Trevor Ayre made it a one-goal game 10:24 into the third period. The Rivermen outshot the Chiefs 14-4 in the third period and 45-21 in the game.
Harrison Blaisdell opened the scoring on a Chiefs’ power play 14:18 into the game. Kalen Szeto got the Rivermen on the scoreboard 4:14 into the second period.
The Chiefs, who wrapped up the regularseason title by finishing one point ahead of the Spruce Kings, lost the opening two games in Chilliwack, 5-4 and 3-2, and faced elimination after a 5-0 loss in Langley. They won the last three games of the series 2-1, 2-1 and 3-2.
The Spruce Kings advanced with a 4-1 series win over the Coquitlam Express. They finished off the Express with a 4-2 win Thursday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. Games 3 and 4 of the Chiefs-Spruce Kings series will be played next week, on Monday and Tuesday.
Tickets will be on sale at the Spruce Kings office at RMCA.
winter trip
in 1206 by Norwegian loyalists to save Hakon Hakkonsson, the one-year-old heir to the throne of Norway.
HANDOUT PHOTO
Nikki Kassel of Prince George skis to gold in the women’s 15 km freestyle race at the Masters World Cup in Beitstolen, Norway.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The Prince George Beaut Showz defeated the Houston Royals 4-2 in the under-16 B division ringette provincials at Kin 2 on Sunday morning.
Hughes tapped for huge role with Canucks
Citizen news service
Vancouver general manager Jim Benning expects recently signed defenceman Quinn Hughes to be a big part of the Canucks future.
For now, though, he just wants the 19-year-old to get a taste of the NHL.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. It’s a big step,” Benning told reporters on Monday, a day after the Canucks signed Hughes to a three-year entry-level contract. “He’s a 19-year-old kid and he’s going to play his first NHL games and there’s lots of expectations for him. I just want him to come in here and do what he’s capable of and feel comfortable and get experience.”
The Canucks (28-32-9) picked Hughes seventh overall at last year’s draft and in July, the Florida-born, Toronto-raised teen opted to spend a second season playing at the University of Michigan.
He put up five goals and 28 assists in 31 games before the Wolverines were bounced from the NCAA playoffs on Saturday by the University of Minnesota.
Hughes will fly to Vancouver on Tuesday but when he’ll hit the ice remains to be seen.
The Canucks host the New York Rangers on Wednesday, but the young defenceman may not be ready for his NHL debut.
“If he’s healthy and ready to play, then he’ll play,” Benning said. “But if he’s not, then we’re going to make sure we do the right thing for him and he won’t play until he’s healthy.”
The five-foot-10, 170-pound blueliner injured his ankle while blocking a shot on Friday.
X-rays came back negative and Hughes played “sparingly” on Saturday, but was still swollen and walking with a limp on Sunday, Benning said.
The young defenceman will have a physical and CAT scan done when he arrives in Vancouver, he added.
Injuries have rocked the Canucks defensive core in recent weeks, sidelining Alex Edler, Chris Tanev and Ben Hutton at various points.
Strengthening the back end has long been a priority for Vancouver, Benning said, noting that the franchise has taken d-men in the first rounds of two of the last three drafts.
Defenceman Olli Juolevi, the fifth-overall pick in 2016, was expected to be called up from the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets to play some games in Vancouver before he underwent season-ending knee surgery in December.
Right now the front office is looking to add a defenceman through college free agency before turning their attention to NHL free agency and possible trades, Benning said.
“We’re going to continue to address our defence and try to make it better going forward,” he said.
The second half of the season has been a struggle for the Canucks, who sat nine points out of a wild card spot in the Western Conference on Monday. Coming out of the all-star break, the team has posted a 5-10-3 record and been outscored 56-40.
Vancouver’s front office has been criti-
cized for the lacklustre results of some of last summer’s free agency signings and for hanging on to players like left-winger Loui Eriksson and centre Markus Granlund at the trade deadline.
“It’s never easy when you’re not winning games,” he said. “I feel like we’ve competed hard in the games and we’ve come up short on the scoreboard and we need to continue to work to get better.”
Fans looking to Hughes for a quick fix should temper their expectations, Benning said, adding that he’s already spoken to the rising star about pressure from the hockey mad market.
“When I talked to Quinn, I explained to him that there’s going to be a lots of expectation, but just come in and do the things you’re capable of doing,” he said.
“He has a lot of good attributes that will help our group moving forward. So I just said just come in and work hard and have fun and don’t be nervous, just do the things you’re capable of doing and I expect him to do that.”
Despite Vancouver’s recent losses, Benning said there have been bright spots for the Canucks this year, including the development of young players.
Centre Adam Gaudette, 22, and goalie
Thatcher Demko, 23, have cemented their roles in the lineup this season after starting the year in the AHL. Other prospects have been called up to help fill out the ranks during spates of injuries.
“I think when you look at how they’ve developed over the course of the year, how much they’ve played, how many young players we’ve been able to get up and get games, they’re going to be that much further ahead going into next season,” Benning said. “That was objective as we went into the season. So I think if we look at it that way, it’s been a successful year.”
Those up-and-coming stars are the players that Benning gets calls about from other general managers around the league, but he said the Canucks are unlikely to part with them.
“It would take a real big deal and it would have to be in the same age group for us to move out our (young players),” he said.
“They’re the future of the organization and of the team. They’re our core players and I’m not trading those players. We’re going to continue to develop them. And I feel like when we get to the point where we’re going to be competitive on a year-to-year basis, they’re going to be a big part of that.”
Koe back on top
Citizen news service
For Kevin Koe and Ben Hebert, winning the Canadian men’s curling championship a year after missing the medals at the Winter Olympics felt sweet.
Koe scored two points for the win with his last throw Sunday to edge Brendan Bottcher’s wildcard team 4-3 in an all-Alberta final.
There were 13 seconds left on Alberta’s shot clock when Koe released his final stone.
“It’s awesome, especially a nailbiter like that,” Koe said.
With previous victories in 2010, 2014 and 216, Koe joined Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin and Ernie Richardson among skips who have won four national titles.
The 44-year-old has done it with at least one different player in his lineup each time.
Hebert hoisted the Tankard trophy a second time as Koe’s lead. He also won it twice with Martin in 2008 and 2009.
It was the first Canadian championship for vice B.J. Neufeld and second Colton Flasch.
They joined Koe prior to this season and appeared in their first Brier final.
They will represent Canada at the men’s world curling championship March 30 to April 7 in Lethbridge, Alta.
Koe also earned a return trip to the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier in Kingston, Ont., as Team Canada.
Koe, Marc Kennedy, Brent Laing and Hebert did not compete in last year’s Alberta playdowns to prepare for the Winter Olympics where they finished fourth.
“A pretty low point coming back from the Olympics and not winning a medal,” Koe said. “I’m not going to lie. It sucked not getting a medal.”
“It was probably a low point, but obviously this is better.” Koe recruited Neufeld and
Flasch when Kennedy took a step back from curling and Laing joined John Epping’s team.
“I’m really proud of Colton and B.J. and really happy for them, but also for Kevin,” Hebert said. “He’s still a star, man. He’s so good it’s gross.
“After what happened last year at the Olympics for us. This was a nice little point me and him proved. The other two guys left and we’re back here doing it again with two new guys.” The Glencoe Club foursome from Calgary went undefeated in Brandon, Man., at 13-0.
Alberta’s Martin (2008-09), Ferbey (2003) and Pat Ryan (1988) are the only other teams to run the table since playoffs were introduced in 1980.
Eliminated in the provincial semifinal by Koe, Edmonton’s Bottcher beat Epping in a winand-get-in game prior to the main draw to gain entry as the wild-card team.
Bottcher represented Alberta in last year’s Brier when he lost in the final to Brad Gushue in Regina.
“I think if we stick with it, we’re going to win this eventually,” Bottcher said.
Neufeld, the team’s import player from Winnipeg, joined his father Chris as a Brier winner.
Chris Neufeld was a member of Manitoba’s championship team skipped by Vic Peters in 1992.
“Ever since I was a kid watching my dad curl and watching him win the Brier in ‘92, that really drove me to want to do this, really push myself as an athlete to be as good as I could be and help make a team great,” Neufeld said.
Brier winners earn $70,000 in prize money, plus another $30,500 to wear sponsorship crests in the playoffs and at the world championship.
The team is also eligible for Sport Canada funding of almost $170,000 over a two-year period.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS
American Quinn Hughes fights for control of the puck with Finland’s Samuli Vainionpaa during a world junior hockey game in Victoria on Dec. 31, above. Hughes dons a Canucks jersey after the team selected him during the 2018 NHL hockey draft in Dallas, left.
Cougars break losing streak
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After 56 days and 13 home games with nothing but losses to choke down, the Prince George Cougars finally found a reason to celebrate.
They beat the Portland Winterhawks 5-2 in front of 3,806 witnesses Saturday at CN Centre and the taste of victory was never sweeter.
A four-goal third period and some solid netminding from Taylor Gauthier salted this one away for the Cougars.
Josh Maser scored twice, his teamleading 29th and 30th goals of the season, to lead the Cougars. They took advantage of an injury-depleted Winterhawks team missing five injured regulars and outshot Portland 49-39.
“It feels amazing to get a win, we’re really happy to just end the season strong here,” said Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg, who had two assists. “Obviously, we’re out of the playoffs right now so we’re playing for pride now and building for next year. None of us want to go home early but that’s the way it is now and we’re just leaving it all out there for the last few games here.”
In an eventful third period, Vladislav Mikhalchuk got the fans out of their seats when he scored his 22nd goal of the season on a Prince George power play. Connor Bowie, a former Winterhawk, added to the total 12:25 in, using linemate Mitch Kohner as a decoy as he finished off the 2-on-1 break by filing away a hard wrister in behind goalie Joel Hofer. Maser made it 4-1 on another Cougars’ power play when he got to the rebound after a shot from Moberg
bounced off Hofer’s leg with 5:28 left on the clock. Just before that goal, Gauthier came up with the save of the game, stretching out his leg to deny WHL scoring leader Joachim Blichfeld on a shorthanded breakaway.
“When I saw him on the breakaway I knew I was going to have make a pretty good save and I wasn’t too sure what he was going to do and relied on the instincts a little bit,” said Gauthier. “I saw him make that one move and he committed to that side and made a big save.” Gauthier (14-29-4-2) had been stuck at 13 wins ever since Feb. 22, the day
the Cougars ended their team-record 17game losing streak with a 2-1 shootout win in Kamloops.
Saturday’s win was only the second in the last 25 games for the Cougars (1840-5-3) who have just two games left and will miss the playoffs for the secondstraight season.
The Winterhawks (39-20-3-3) remain third overall in the Western Conference and have second place in the U.S. Division wrapped up.
The Cougars will finish off the season with a home-and-home series with the Kamloops Blazers Friday in Kamloops and Saturday at CN Centre.
‘Everybody just came with more determination in the final’
— from page 9
Prince George breezed through the tournament with a 4-1 record. Kelowna drew the bye into the final while the Rush had to defeat Surrey 9-2 in the semifinal to get to the championship game.
Rush head coach Art Lamothe said having to play that extra game Sunday morning actually helped his team tune up for the final. They had plenty of energy left for the afternoon game, given a rare opportunity to play for a title on home ice.
“We don’t play in a league, so these tournaments are our warm-up games, so we start out slow, but our stabbing, our shooting, our timing was all better as we went along,” said Lamothe.
“I think it helped playing at home, these girls haven’t played a game in town here since they were like 14 or 16 years old, like 10 years, so it was nice to play in front of family and stuff. It’s a little more nerve-wracking but the team responded well.
“We’ve been stressing defence the last three games – no odd-man rushes, just make sure we get the ring out of our zone first and they bought into it and that’s why they won. Rory was stellar.” Spooner, a former Western Canadian championship MVP, is looking forward to the trip to St. Albert for the tournament, March 27-31. Prince George teams will have guaranteed berths next year after the Prince George Ringette Association won the bid to host the tournament
in March 2020.
“I haven’t been to Westerns in at least 10 years, we came second the last two or three provincials and it feels nice to finally get one,” said the 25-year-old Spooner. “Everybody just came with more determination in the final, they knew what was on the line because Kelowna was competing for Westerns too. I was still stressing out when there was 30 seconds left and we were up 6-2.
“Just being from the north makes this team special, every tournament we go to we spend so much time and money and effort to get there and it just means so much more for the team to do something like this because it doesn’t happen that often.”
In other local results, the Prince George Beaut Showz went undefeated at 5-0 in the under-16 B division, wrapping up the provincial title with a 4-2 win over the Houston Royals.
Avery Lea scored two goals, while Taryn Atkinson and Paige Shaw also found the net for Prince George. Rebecca Sketchley scored both Houston goals.
“It was a really intense aggressive game but we came out of top, we had some really nice breakaways and our offence was top-notch and so was our defence we were on our game,” said Paige Shaw.
The Royals got great goaltending from Carson Niven and had their chances in the other end but Ryan Shaw was sharp backstopping the win, the eighth in nine games this season against Houston. Two
of the wins for Prince George came in overtime.
“That was really intense, I’d never played in overtime before and you have to work that much harder, it was so intense and so fun,” said Atkinson, who notched the OT winner against Fraser Valley. Emma Watson was the overtime hero for the Beaut Showz in their win over Kelowna.
“This was exciting, especially in front of a home crowd. It was very intense because everyone was watching and so we had to make ourselves look good but we worked very hard for it,” said Prince George captain Meghan Watson. In the U-14 B final, Terrace defeated the Prince George Great White Sharks 5-2. The Sharks finished the round robin 3-1, then beat Vernon 4-2 in the semifinal. The Prince George Heat finished fifth in the nine-team tournament.
“This is a fantastic group of kids, they support each other and give everything they have on the ice and they understand what the concept of team is and their sportsmanship is off the charts.” said Sharks head coach Jen Wheeler. “Today it was a battle to the end with Terrace. We’re so proud of these kids, they’ve worked so hard all season and have collectively been a wonderful group of people and on the ice they showed it.”
Other division final scores were: U19A – Vancouver 8 Kelowna 5; U-19 B –Winfield 4 Houston 2; U-16 A – Kelowna 6 Vancouver 3; U-14 A – Greater Vancouver 7 Delta 5.
Huskies grab win from Condors’ talons
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Leading by two points over the North Delta Huskies in the dying seconds left in Friday’s semifinal playoff, the Duchess Park Condors had a berth in the final slip through their fingertips at the B.C. triple-A boys basketball championship in Langley.
Suraj Gahir took the ball on the inbound play with just 9.2 seconds to work with and sunk a three-pointer off the backboard which gave the Huskies a one-point lead.
The Condors called their timeout and got the ball to Soren Erricson with two seconds left and his shot bounced twice off the rim and out, ending the Condors’ dream of winning a provincial banner.
“It was definitely a heartbreaker,” said the 17-year-old Erricson. “We didn’t want it to end, this thing we’ve been building up since Grade 9. We had a junior team that went to provincials and finished 31 out of 32 and ever since then we’ve put on the hard hats and put some work in and built up to this Grade 12 year for us seniors. It was a bit of a lucky bank shot to end our season.”
Erricson had just enough time to get his shot off before the buzzer.
“We drew up a play we actually practiced the week before provincials and I came off a baseline screen and grabbed the ball and put up a shot and it went rim-to-rim and right out,” he said.
“It was pretty devastating.”
Duchess Park trailed by five points with 2:45 left when Condors guard Caleb Lyons hit the first of back-to-back threes. His second long shot cut the Huskies’ lead to 59-58 with 1:32 left. Jackson Kuc them hit two free throws with about 20 seconds left, the first foul shots of the game the Huskies allowed. Then Lyons went 1-for-2 from the foul line for a 61-59 Condor lead, which set the stage for Gahir.
Condor senior guard Dan Zimmerman, until he fouled out with about three minutes left, drew the assignment of shadowing the six-foot-five Gahir and was able to limit the damage he was capable of causing.
“The only way we would have stuck in that game was Dan Zimmerman played ridiculously stellar defence on what people would consider as one of the best players in the province in Suraj Gahir. He kept us in that game and without him we wouldn’t have even been close.”
Duchess Park did not home empty-handed. The Condors went on to defeat A.R. MacNeill of Richmond 75-54 for bronze. North Delta beat Vernon 46-44 in the gold-medal game.
Emir Zejnulahovic led the Condors with 16 points and eight rebounds. Zimmerman had 11 points and five assists and Erricson put up 10 points. Meanwhile, in the double-A boys championship, also in Langley, the D.P. Todd Trojans defeated Westsyde of Kamloops 68-59 on Saturday to finish seventh at the 16-team tournament. Cameron Sale accounted for half the Trojans’ offence with 34 points. He also had seven rebounds and forced six turnovers. Saager Shergill contributed nine points for D.P. Todd.
The Trojans began the tournament ranked second, but lost their quarterfinal 91-74 to George Elliot of Lake Country. George Eliot went on to lose in the final 71-51 to the Charles Hays Rainmakers of Prince Rupert.
At the single-A boys championship in Langley, the Cedars Christian Eagles placed eighth, losing their final playoff 77-43 to Kelowna Christian. Northside Christian of Vanderhoof finished ninth after a 74-54 win over Gudangaay Tiasstsigaa Naay of Masset.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Prince George Cougars forward Vladislav Mikhalchuk blasts a one-timer slap shot over the shoulder of Portland Winterhawks goaltender Joel Hofer on Saturday night at CN Centre.
Canadians in Ethiopian crash mourned
Citizen news service
Six members of an Ontario family, including two teenage sisters, were among the 18 Canadians killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia. The Peel District School Board the girls, Ashka and Anushka Dixit, were travelling on the Ethiopian Airlines jetliner with their parents and grandparents when it crashed moments after takeoff from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Sunday. All 157 people on board were killed.
The school board did not provide the names of the girls’ parents and grandparents. Across the country, tributes also poured in for the other 12 Canadians killed in the crash. Several of them were on their way to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, including Micah Messent from Vancouver Island.
In an Instagram post, he said he had been selected by the United Nations Association of Canada to attend the assembly and was travelling to Kenya on Sunday where he would “have the chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation. I’m so grateful for this opporttunity and want to thank all of the people in my life who have helped me get this far.” Danielle Moore, 24, of Winnipeg, was also headed to the aseembly. Moore, a marine biology student who had just been accepted into an education program, graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax in 2017. Danielle was exceptional in every sense,“ Moore’s thesis adviser Prof. Kim Davies said in an email. ”She excelled at her studies, she was a kind and friendly person, and she was deeply devoted to environmental and human rights causes.“ Davies said after graduating from Dalhousie, Moore returned to Manitoba where she worked for several non-governmental organizations, including the Canada Learning Code, a group dedicated to improving the accessibility of educational and technological resources for Canadians.
Questions continued to swirl around the cause of the crash, which prompted officials in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia to ground their Boeing Max 8 aircraft.
Ethiopian officials said Monday that the black box from the downed plane had been recovered, though it was partially damaged.
The accident was strikingly similar to last year’s crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both
crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne.
WestJet and Air Canada, both of whom operate Max 8 aircraft, have indicated they intend to keep flying the planes and touted their safety performance in recent years.
Other Canadian victims of the crash included a mother and daughter from Edmonton, a renowned Carleton University professor, and an accountant with the City of Calgary.
Amina Ibrahim Odowaa of Edmonton, and her five-year-old daughter, Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir, were on the way to Keny to visit with relatives when the plane crashed.
Carleton University confirmed Pius Adesanmi, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, was also among the victims. The school called him a “global thinker,” and a “towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship.”
Derick Lwugi, an accountant who worked for the City of Calgary, also died in the crash. He leaves behind his wife and three children, aged 17, 19 and 20.
Plane crashes widespread over past five years
Where are commercial plane crashes most common?
A look at the past five years of crashes shows that no country or region is especially dangerous for air travel.
Tragedy has struck from Russia to Colombia, and for reasons as varied as pilot error, system failure and terrorism.
Here is a summary of the 18 commercial crashes since 2014:
• March 2014. A Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines took off in Malaysia, bound for China, but disappeared into the Indian Ocean with 239 aboard. The cause of the crash is unknown.
• July 2014. A Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines left the Netherlands and never made it to Malaysia. It was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard.
• July 2014. An ATR 72 from TransAsia Airways, scheduled to fly from Taiwan to Penghu Island, crashed into a building as it approached the airport, killing 48 people. Noncompliance with standard operating procedure was blamed.
• July 2014. A malfunctioning anti-icing system was blamed for the Mali crash of a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 flown by Air Algerie. All 116 on board, who were headed from Burkina Faso to Algeria, were killed.
• December 2014. An Airbus A320 operated by Indonesia AirAsia and headed to Singapore from Indonesia went down over the Java Sea. Crew miscommuni-
cation was a contributing factor to the crash, which killed 162 people.
• March 2015. An Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, headed from Spain to Germany, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard. The pilot was believed to be suicidal, intentionally downing the plane.
• August 2015. An ATR 42-300 operated by Trigana Air Service and traveling in Indonesia crashed, killing 54. Investigators determined that crew members did not adhere to standard approach procedure while going over mountainous terrain.
• October 2015. An Airbus A321, operated by Kogalymavia and traveling from Egypt to St. Petersburg, was bombed over the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people.
• March 2016. Adverse weather was blamed for the crash of a FlyDubai Boeing 737 traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Russia; 62 people were killed.
• May 2016. An EgyptAir
CITIZEN
Danielle Moore of Winnipeg, above, and Derick Lwugi of Calgary, right, are two of the 18 Canadians who died Sunday in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
Play uses curling for message on new Canadians
Citizen news service
An iconic Canadian winter sport serves as the vessel for a Calgary play telling the story of new Canadians dealing with adversity and finding a way to become a part of their new community.
Alberta Theatre Projects is presenting The New Canadian Curling Club, a comedy that follows four new Canadians resettled in a small Alberta town.
They include a Chinese medical student, a widowed Tim Hortons manager from Jamaica who gave up her dream of being a fashion designer, a father of triplet boys from India seeking a better job, and a 17-year-old recent immigrant from Syria worried about the safety of her brother back home.
The community offers a learn-tocurl class and when its instructor gets injured, the club’s ice custodian and former champion curler has to step in.
The instructor unfortunately has some negative views on Canadian immigration and refers to the team as “The International House of Pancakes,” and shows disdain for their lack of knowledge about curling.
“You start each game with a handshake. Wish the other team good curling. You don’t cheer, you don’t heckle. You call your own fouls,” growled curmudgeonly Stuart MacPhail, played by Saskatchewan actor Duval Lang, at a recent rehearsal.
“I start out as a crusty old fart and then gradually change into someone who is more accommodating and begins to enjoy life a little bit more,” Lang said with a laugh.
Lang has curled for decades and also serves as the show’s curling consultant.
“It’s come along. Everything from how to sit in the hack to how to extend yourself when you make a shot... how to sweep.”
The group eventually comes together to become a true team on a stage fitted with an authentic curling ring, complete with rocks, set in a small curling club.
“I think it combines the quintessential idea of curling with the other thing that Canada is know for, which is multiculturalism,” explains Toronto’s Richard Young, who plays Anoopjeet Singh.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of curling and I was just too scared to do it.”
There’s a lot of sight gags including Young’s difficulty in standing on the ice and being cautioned by his coach to throw the stone “nice and easy” and “not all the way home to India.”
“Thank God,” Young’s character retorts. “The postage on this thing would be a nightmare.”
Sepidar Yeganeh Farid was drawn to play the part of recent
Syrian immigrant Fatima AlSayed.
“When I read the script it was obvious that I had to audition and my life story is very similar to the character Fatima so I have a very close connection to her,” Farid said.
Farid was born in Iran and her family eventually ended up in Montreal – sponsored by a church, like the character she portrays.
“As I see the interactions between Fatima and another character, Charmaine, I definitely see those characteristics in the relationships I had with the people that sponsored us.”
For Jenni Burke, playing the Jamaican-born Tim Hortons man-
ager was natural.
“My parents were from Jamaica. I feel like I’m doing an homage of what happened to them,” she said.
“It’s a great Canadian story and it supports multiculturalism and everyone bringing their own colour to the mosaic.”
Jonathan Ho, who moved to Toronto from Hong Kong before his first birthday, plays medical student Mike Chang who’s also dating the granddaughter of the curling coach.
“It does speak to aspects of the immigrant experience particularly with interracial relationships and the difficulties of the culture clash there.” Young managed to try the sport
thanks to a friend who was a curling coach in Pickering, Ont.
“The first time I was slipping and sliding on the ice just like my character does here, but I was able to throw some rocks and to understand,” he said.
“So I got to learn a lot about the game and it is, as the play says, like chess on ice.”
Farid remembers her first impressions when moving to Canada.
“The first time I saw curling on TV with my family and we had no idea what it meant and we thought, ‘Oh, they’re sweeping, that’s very interesting,”’ she said.
“It is super fascinating and now that I’ve watched curling it’s like ‘Oh my God I understand.”’
Airwolf star dead at 73
Citizen news service
Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, the Airwolf television star whose sleek good looks belied a troubled personal life, has died. He was 73. A death certificate shows that Vincent died of cardiac arrest on Feb. 10, 2019, in an Asheville, North Carolina, hospital. The certificate signed by a doctor says he died of natural causes and no autopsy was performed. It wasn’t clear why it took several weeks for news of the death to surface.
Born in 1945 in Denver, Colorado, Vincent starred in such films as 1972’s The Mechanic and 1978’s Hooper, in which he played a stuntman opposite Burt Reynolds. Off-screen, his handsomeness earned him a spot on a cosmetic surgeon’s Ten Best Noses list in the late 1970s.
He also starred in the 1983 television mini-series Winds of War as the love interest of a character played by Ali MacGraw, “piling up enormous ratings,” according to a current news service account. He earned a Golden Globe nomination. In a 1984 AP interview, Vincent described his passion for being on the water. He said he spent three months after wrapping up Winds of War sailing the Caribbean. He also said he was a longtime surfer. “I was a travelling surfer for years... I’ve been all over the world surfing,” he said. “I’ll be 40 in July and I still like to surf.”
Perhaps his best-known role was in the television action-adventure series Airwolf, which lasted for several seasons after launching in 1984. Vincent played pilot Stringfellow Hawke, a rugged pilot who could pull off aerobatic crime-fighting manoeuvres in an advanced helicopter – but also play the cello. However, his surfer-like demeanour was overshadowed at times by his troubled personal life. He pleaded guilty in 1997 to a drunken driving accident that left him with a broken neck and was sentenced to a rehab program. He was also charged in 1980s barroom brawls, receiving probation in one and an acquittal in another. In a separate case, he was acquitted in 1986 of hitting a woman. He also spent 60 days in jail in 2000 in California after he admitted to violating his probation by appearing drunk in public and assaulting his then-girlfriend.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Actors Richard Young, left, and Duval Lang portray a scene from the play The New Canadian Curling Club in Calgary.
GERVAIS,AllenG.
January6,1954-February23,2019
VeryearlySaturdaymorning,Allenwentintothe armsofhisLordandtothelovedoneswaitingfor him.Nomoresadness,confusion,orpain.Heleaves tomournhistwosons,Ryan(Laura)andBrandon; hisgrandsons,Taylor,Brady,andKingston;his brothers,Lloyd(Shirley),Gordon(Darlene),Martin, andRaynie(Bev);andsisters,Audrey(RonSellberg) andSylvia;niecesandnephews;relatives;extended families;andfriends.Hewaspredeceasedbyhis firstbornson,Trevor;hisparents,MarieandJohn Gervais;brothers,Norman,Lawrence(Flora),and Willie(Shirley);hissisters,GloriaBearandElsie Umpherville(Glenn);andhisniece,RachelHawryluk. Whatahappyreuniontheyarehaving! Allen’simmenseloveformusic,woodcrafts,his hilarioussenseofhumor,andfaithinGodcarried himthroughmanyroughtimesinhislife,andin turn,enrichedallthoseinhislifeinsomeway.We wouldliketothankthoseatGatewaywhocaredfor himandfortheirthoughtfulnessandkindness towardhisfamily.Thankyoutothosewhocameto praywithandforAllen.Thankyoutoallwhogaveto Allentomakehislifeeasier,challenging,andfun. Theloveandrespectwasmutual.Wewillbehavinga celebrationoflifeforhimtobeannouncedatalater date. Allenlived,loved,andwasloved,andisgreatly missed!Untilwemeetagain.....AllenGervaisfamily.
ROWLAND,GordonKelly February26,1931-March5,2019
Itiswithdeepsadnessweannouncethepassingof GordonKellyRowlandinKamloopsonMarch5, 2019.KellywasborninNorthBattleford, Saskatchewan,theonlysonofHelenandWalter Rowland.HemarriedShirleyKingin1950.Theyhad threechildren-Jeff(Carolyn),Mary(GerryPeppler), andJohn(Cynthia).Kellyhasfourgrandchildren, Chris(Sonya)Rowland,Alexis(Ryan)Gunderson, KelseyPeppler,andSarahRowland.Kellywasvery proudofhisgrandchildrenandgreat-grandchildren whoweretheloveofhislifeashewasoftheirs. Afterhighschool,KellyworkedforCNRailwayinthe freightsheds.Kelly,Shirley,andJeffmovedto Biggarwherehecontinuedtoworkasabrakeman.In 1964hepurchasedandoperated"KellyAgencies Insurance"inKindersley.In1967hemovedhis familytoPrinceGeorgewhereKellypursueda numberofjobsbeforereturningtohisloverailroading,thistimewithBCRail,transferringto FortStJohnandNorthVancouver,workinghisway uptoAssistantManagerofOperationsbeforehis retirementin1990.Uponretirement,Kellyand ShirleymovedtoBlindBay,Sorrento.Next,theyrelocatedtoChase,beforefinallysettlinginKamloops. Kellyfoundhimselfbackontherailsonceagain volunteeringwiththe"WildlifeExpress"attheB.C. WildlifePark. Hewasagentlemanwhowillalwaysberemembered forhisbigheart,hiskindness,andhisgenerosity. Familyandfriendswillrememberhimfondlyasthe ultimatestoryteller.Hehadendlesstalesofhis formativeyearsinNorthBattleford,storiesoffamily, and,ofcourse,abroadpersonalhistoryofhis railroaddays. ThefamilywishestothankDr.Wynneforhis kindnessandunderstanding,andthestaffatPine GroveManorwhosecareandcompassionare unsurpassed.Theytrulyare’Angels’. TherewillbenoserviceatKelly’srequest.Afamily gatheringwilltakeplaceinearlysummer.Inlieuof flowers,donationsinKelly’smemorymaybemade toacharityofthedonor’schoice.
PAVLIK,Anna
October29,1926-March5,2019
Withdeepsadness,weannouncethepassingof AnnaPavlikofWestKelowna,previouslyalongtime residentofPrinceGeorge.
Shewasourbelovedmom,grandmother,great grandmother,andabeautifulperson.Familywasso importanttoher. Predeceasedbyherhusband,Josef;andgreatgranddaughter,KaeliMae.
Annawillalwaysbelovinglyrememberedbyher daughters,Helen(Ian)andHilda(Paul); grandchildren,Matthew(Ragne)andRashelle(DJ); andgreat-grandchildren,Mira,Jax,andAsher.
Shewillbesadlymissedbynumerousrelativesinthe CzechRepublicandGermany. Weraisearumandcoketotoastourdearmom. CelebrationoflifetobeheldatalaterdateinPrince George. DobraNocMom. Weloveyou andyouwillbe inourheartsforever.
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