NIELSEN Citizen staff
City council voted unanimously Monday night to borrow a total of $8.5 million to pay for two projects that hit the city with some unexpected expenses but not before expressing plenty of frustration with the situation.
Of the total, $6.8 million is for work on a bridge on Willow Cale Road where it crosses Haggith Creek that forced closure of the stretch for a significant amount of time and caused inconvenience to commuters in the process.
Tom Mowatt, a story teller, artist and mature student who is Wolf Clan of the Gitxsan Nation explains some of his items on display at Gathering Place in The College of New Caladonia. CNC celebrated aboriginal communities, students and employees at its Prince George campus during Aboriginal Culture Day on Tuesday. The free event encouraged the community to gather, share and learn traditional arts, medicine, language,and food from elders, Knowledge Holders and community members.
Another $1.7 million is for extensive work the city hopes has put an end to the re-emergence of a sinkhole on Winnipeg Street at 20th Avenue, which also forced commuters to alter their routes.
The escalating cost of work on the bridge in particular drew sharp words.
“In my opinion, somebody’s got to be held responsible,” Coun. Brian Skaun said. “We are held responsible every four years and in this case there is obviously some mistakes made.” Coun. Terri McConnachie gave similar remarks, saying it’s money that otherwise could have been spent on other items such as sidewalks and playgrounds.
“And yes, this is a deliberate shot across the bow because I think the way this turned out and the additional costs, with all those experts involved, is really just simply unacceptable,” McConnachie said.
“I don’t know where to go from here but once again we have to pay the bill. We can’t not pay the bill, we’re forced to. We can’t go back and redo it but I sure wouldn’t want to see this type of debacle moving forward again.”
By that time, city manager Kathleen Soltis had joined city engineering director Adam Homes at centre table to field questions and comments from council.
When a culvert that had been in place since the road was built more than 50 years ago began to fail, it was decided that a bridge over the creek should be constructed in answer to the depth of the crossing and because the creek is fish bearing.
Construction began in September 2016 and the bridge opened on March 30, 2017. But by early August 2017, cracks appeared in the new asphalt on the south side of the bridge, indicating unstable ground beneath.
The culprit turned out to be an unstable layer of clay about 20 metres below the surface that was undetected in a geotechnical survey.
The crossing was closed for a further 10 months and, on top of the $3.1 million that had been approved for the project, another $3.7 million was spent to get the crossing into proper shape. It was reopened in July 2018 and has remained that way since then. Other councillors were not as confrontational.
Coun. Frank Everitt said it’s “not always the case” that there is anyone to blame.
“If the ground shifts, that’s not your responsibility, that’s not my responsibility, that’s just an act that happened out there in the ground and we have to live with the results of that,” he
continued and added that staff did what they did with the time they had to get the road back in shape.
“I don’t like the difference in price. Nobody likes the difference in price but that’s what is cost for us to do it,” Everitt concluded.
Led by Skakun, council members also quizzed Homes over the possibility that more work will be in order because the site is not up to Department of Fisheries and Oceans standards due to an undersized culvert.
Homes said DFO will eventually want the city to remove the culvert “but we’re saying that for public safety, for the time being that culvert can’t move.” He added that while the remediation work was being carried out the ground moved again and, in response, more fill was put on top of the culvert.
“That ground needs to consolidate. That could take years and years to happen,” Homes said.
He said a properly-sized culvert could not be found while the project was underway.
Staff met with DFO officials on Tuesday to discuss the matter. In the aftermath, city spokesman Mike Kellett said the city will continue to monitor the fish habitat in the area.
“In the interests of public safety, the culvert will remain in place,” he added.
Willow Cale Road was originally a forest service road owned by the provincial government. The city took it over in the early 2000s on the condition that the provincial government pave it first to help reduce the city’s dust problem.
Trouble at the crossing was not noticed for another eight years or so, city engineering and public works director Dave Dyer told council. City finance director Kris Dalio said the money needs to be borrowed to free up cash flow while the city waits for revenue from property taxes to come in.
The $8.5 million will be borrowed over five years. Debt servicing will amount to $1.83 million per year, adding up to $9.17 million over that time for a difference of $664,686 over and above the principal. Spread over five years, that works out to $132,937 per year or 1.56 per cent in interest, according to Citizen calculations.
Debt servicing on the first $3.7 million for the bridge has been incorporated into the 2019 budget while the remaining will be folded into the 2020 budget, delivering an estimated 0.95 per cent increase to the tax levy.
A term for longer than five years is not possible as elector assent would be required and the projects have already been completed, according to staff.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A proposal to build a largescale cannabis grow operation in the BCR Industrial Site was advanced to final reading on Monday night after city council was assured steps will be taken to control the odour the plants will emit.
Responding to a question from Coun. Brian Skaun, Cannwest Development CEO Sean Maloney said the air leaving the facility will go through two stages of carbon filtering. He said the first filter will eliminate 99.5 per cent of the odour and the second will remove 99.5 per cent of the remaining 0.5 per cent.
“So it is, at the end of the day, completely odourless,” Maloney said. He also said air going into the operation is filtered and “very technical” heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are used to govern the humidity and temperature in the area where the plants are grown.
Council subsequently voted unanimously in favour of giving third reading to rezone 14.9 hectares (36.97 acres) at 7250 and 7574 Willow Cale Road for the operation. No opposition was expressed during the public hearing on the matter.
Maloney said Vancouverbased Cannwest intends to build as many as eight growing structures on the site but beginning with two that would hold 20 microcultivators and cover 4,000 square metres. According to company projections, the first two facilities will inject $28 million into the local construction industry. — see FACILITY, page 3
Frank
PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
If you scour the local landscape, you can clean up your act and shower yourself in natural goodness.
A local artist and entrepreneur has a growing business based on a principle she calls “wildcraft” which uses handmade creativity and ingredients from the local garden, farm and forest.
Teresa DeReis is the forager and financeer behind her newly released Signature Artisan Soap Collection, which was released for the public at the Two Rivers Gallery Gift Shop.
“This collection represents what is most important to me: community, nature, the simple beauty and abundance they provide,” said DeReis, who made the soap from her own garden, wanderings in the forest and visits with local farmers.
She was inspired, she said, by local businesses like Hope Farm Organics, Betulla Burning and Birch & Boar which all work together to bolster their individual business case but at the same time help out the others. They stand together, which gives them each a more personal sense of where their products and services come from, which gets passed on to their customers.
“I love seeing local restaurants buying from local farmers – it’s one of the best things that can happen for the sustainability of our community,” she said. “Anyone buying from local farmers, it’s so important. It’s something I try to do as much as possible.” DeReis had made soaps before, so this collection was an extra step up on a familiar task. She worked closely with Hope Farm Organics and enjoyed the results so much it spiraled into this new collection.
Some of the bars are labelled as Happy Hippie, Goat’s Milk Oatmeal & Lavender, Wild Mint and Blue Chamomile. There are also shampoo bars, as well as organic and vegan bars. The local and handmade nature of her work qualified the Signature Artisan Soap Collection for the Two Rivers Gallery shop, which puts strong emphasis on locally and artistically made commercial products.
“I was honoured to be invited by Two Rivers Gallery to have my soaps available in their gift shop,” DeReis said. “They’re familiar with my products, since I’ve been doing their Artisan and Maker Fairs for a few years now, and I really appreciate their support of my work.”
The collection is finite, so when it’s sold out, there is not automatic resupply until DeReis can craft more. She also writes a blog and teaches do-it-
Alaska Highway News
Four people well-known to police face a slew kidnapping and weapons charges following arrests at a Fort St. John motel and a Taylor home last week.
Fort St. John RCMP say its officers attended a room at the unnamed motel on March 7 around 4:50 a.m. after observing suspicious activity, according to a news release issued on Tuesday.
In the room, officers found a loaded semi-automatic firearm and three individuals were arrested.
With a warrant, police searched both the room and two vehicles, and officers seized a semi-automatic firearm, a sawed-off shotgun, a large quantity of drugs and various drug trafficking paraphernalia, according to the release.
While officers were at the motel, a person attended the detachment
to report they had been kidnapped in Dawson Creek and forcibly confined at a home in Taylor, police say. Officers went to the home with a search warrant, where a fourth person was arrest and two more guns were seized.
The Crown has approved a total of 24 charges against Christopher Munch, 42; Gavin Davis, 29; Natasha Ray, 34; and Theodore Capot-Blanc, 26. Charges include kidnapping with a prohibited firearm, forcible confinement, and various other firearm and drug offences.
Munch, Davis, and Capot-Blanc remain in custody. Ray was released on an undertaking.
Fort St. John RCMP call the effort a “multi-jurisdictional investigation” that included plain clothes officers, the Regional General Investigations Section, the Dawson Creek RCMP, and police dog services.
ABBOTSFORD — British Co-
lumbia’s Education Minister Rob Fleming says a new anti-gang strategy will help at-risk youth make the right decisions and not join criminal groups.
The ministry says in a statement the school-based strategy is part of an expansion of a program called Expect Respect and a Safe Education, or ERASE, and will be offered in 12 priority communities identified by police and safety experts.
The $1.12 million initiative will provide new training and “intensive supports” focused on gun and gang violence awareness and prevention and will also create new resources for classroom teachers.
Funding will go to the B.C. School Superintendents Association and support school districts to partner with the Boys Club Network, a non-profit organiza-
tion that works to create safe spaces for boys ages 12 to 19.
Through the partnership, the ministry says after-school programs will be set up where they don’t already exist and new local secondary school elective courses will be created that focus on connecting teen boys.
An organization called Safer Schools Together will provide students, parents, teachers and others with an overview of the current gang landscape in the province, gang recruitment strategies, warning signs and information on how to help someone who is being recruited or already involved with gangs.
It will also develop videos and a teacher guide to help students develop healthy relationships, avoid unsafe or exploitative situations and protect themselves from harm. Localized monthly reports on social media posts regarding gang activity will be provided to school districts.
— from page 1
Once completed, the facility will be home to 80 full-time jobs adding up to an annual payroll of $12.8 million and also generate $13.2 million per year in services contracting.
Cannwest grows “craft cannabis” that carry a higher potency of both cannabinoids, regarded as a source of pain relief, and THC, the psychoactive agent that provides the high, when compared to cannabis grown to “factory level” qualities.
The Cannwest product will also be less susceptible to mold, mildew and pests and feature more unique strains, according to the presentation.
“More patience, care, and attention to detail during the process of growing, curing and harvesting the product,” company says in the presentation.
Maloney likened the product it will grow to single malt scotch.
He hopes to see construction begin this year and completed as soon as possible once council has given the related rezoning bylaw final reading and the referral process has been completed.
Former Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley sits on the Cannwest board of directors and attended the public hearing on Monday night.
An extensive study of caribou herds across British Columbia and Alberta suggests a way to reverse a long and steady decline of the endangered species – kill more wolves and moose and pen pregnant cows.
“It’s go hard or go home,” said Rob Serrouya, a University of Alberta biologist and lead author of the study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Unfortunately, it’s that black or white.”
Another study released within days of Serrouya’s suggests another way. And wildlife advocates worry Serrouya’s findings could be misused, illustrating the complexity of what he calls the “toughest conservation challenge in North America.”
Serrouya and his colleagues looked at 18 caribou herds ranging over more than 90,000 square kilometres. At the study’s start in 2004, 16 herds were declining. Restoring habitat damaged by oil, gas and forestry activity is too slow, said Serrouya.
Herds don’t have the decades that takes.
The scientists compared four government-run management programs – killing wolves, protecting pregnant cows, moving caribou between ranges and culling moose that attract predators. Six of the herds were not managed. By 2018, the unmanaged herds remained unchanged.
But eight of the 12 managed herds improved. Half of them had either stabilized or begun increasing. One almost doubled over three years to 67 from 36 animals.
“That’s almost unprecedented,”
Serrouya said.
“It doesn’t mean recovery, but it means some of these herds have turned around. It’s the first study to show management has turned around sharp declines of caribou on such a broad scale.”
Herds with the best growth rates were linked to both maternity pens to protect pregnant cows during calving and extensive wolf kills. Ranges with the best herd growth had the most intense cull.
Those five ranges saw a total of 144 wolves killed every year,
mostly by aerial gunning and strychnine.
A cull that large over the entire study area would result annually in nearly 650 carcasses, although Serrouya said that’s not being recommended.
Removing moose at the same time would allow managers to kill up to 80 per cent fewer wolves, he said.
Still, moose numbers in any one range would have to be reduced by up to 83 per cent.
Jonah Keim, an independent
biologist and consultant, offers a different solution. In research published in the British Ecological Society’s journal, he suggests caribou can be adequately protected by making it tough for wolves to get to them.
“What we need to do is reduce the encounters between wolves and caribou,” he said. “You can do that without reducing the number of wolves.”
Between 2011 and 2014, Keim studied what would happen if it weren’t so easy for wolves, deer
and moose to follow cutlines and forestry roads into caribou habitat. Over an 800-square-kilometre area, researchers dropped 200 cubic metres of tree debris every 200 metres.
The rate at which wolves stopped using the paths dropped 70 per cent, the study found.
“It was unbelievably effective at reducing wolf use,” said Keim. Serrouya applauded Keim’s paper, but questioned its practicality on a landscape with 350,000 kilometres of linear disturbance.
“To block 350,000 kilometres would take years and years,” he said. “What would happen in the meantime?”
Four herds vanished between 2004 and 2018.
Keim said efforts could be focused on where they’d do the most good. He suggested that snowmobile trails could be designed to draw wolf packs away from caribou. It wouldn’t be that hard, he said.
“That type of work can be done in the summer or winter by somebody on foot.”
Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association fears Serrouya’s findings could be used to declare “a war on wildlife.”
“These findings could be used by industry and government to prolong unsustainable forest exploitation while endlessly harming wildlife species,” she said.
She urged governments to keep restoring habitat.
Serrouya said drastic measures will be needed into the foreseeable future.
“Society would have to change the way it values natural resources. Society would have to decide to reduce the rate of resource extraction.”
Glacier Media
Called Iskwew Air – which is a Cree word for “woman” – the airline plans to provide scheduled and charter service to remote communities across the province in an effort to boost accessibility and
Indigenous tourism.
Iskwew Air’s CEO, Teara Fraser said the choice to use a word that means woman was a very intentional one.
“I chose that name very mindfully as an act of reclamation. Reclamation of womanhood, reclamation of matriarchal leadership and reclamation of language,” Fraser said.
“Iskwew Air is for everyone… we support and encourage and champion all women, all those identifying as women, but also all of those who are supporting women.”
According to Fraser, less than six per cent of pilots in Canada are women. Fraser herself is an experienced pilot and leader in B.C.’s aviation industry and hopes to provide mentorship to other female pilots.
“We need to do better. I need to do better. We need to respect and lift up all of those identifying as women,” she said.
“As a Metis woman, as a leader, as a mother, as a daughter, as a pilot, Iskwew Air is just one way that I can do better.”
Richmond city councillor Linda MacPhail attended the launch at YVR and said she was “so intrigued” by Iskwew Air.
“It’s not like any other airline that I’ve read about,” she said.
“From a tourism point of view, their focus on nature and Indigenous tourism is fascinating. I think that’s really where the future is.”
While the airline only has one twin-engine aircraft so far, Iskwew Air will begin offering chartered services in the next few weeks and has partnered with Indigenous tourism operators to schedule joint tours.
For Fraser, intentionally harnessing the power of women and the Indigenous community will only benefit the aviation industry.
“Including and amplifying the diverse, important, talented and much-needed voices in aviation, we can see a future of innovation, of abundance and of economic prosperity,” she said.
“With this, I feel great hope that with continued strong leadership from our partners who are championing women, such as YVR, the aviation industry will be stronger, more diverse and more inclusive.”
The federal government has reached a proposed settlement with former Indian Day Schools students that would compensate each survivor $10,000, CrownIndigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett announced Tuesday.
Those who experienced physical and sexual abuse at the schools are also eligible for additional compensation of between $50,000 and $200,000 based on severity.
Bennett called the proposed agreement a historic step forward, adding Canada is committed to righting historical wrongs in the spirit of reconciliation.
“This agreement will bring us one step closer to a lasting and meaningful resolution for survivor... of this dark and tragic chapter in Canada’s history,” Bennett said.
The proposed settlement follows discussions between the government and parties in a class action lawsuit originally filed in 2009 on behalf of Indigenous people and their families who attended Indian Day Schools.
The lead plaintiff in the case, Garry McLean, died of cancer about one month ago.
“We are all so sad that he didn’t live to see this day,” Bennett said, acknowledging that his “courage” and “advocacy” paved the way for the settlement.
Nearly 200,000 Indigenous children attended more than 700 federally operated Indian Day Schools beginning in the 1920s, where many endured trauma, including, in some cases, physical and sexual abuse.
Indian Day Schools operated separately from the Indian Residential Schools system and were not included in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement approved in 2006.
“Although children who attended Indian Day Schools did leave school at the end of the day, many students experienced trauma and were subject to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of individuals who had been entrusted with their care,” Bennett said. “It is my sincere hope that this will be the start of a successful healing process for all of those involved.”
They called us twins, although we weren’t even brothers.
I guess playing the same sports, both being about the same height and hair colour and repeatedly serving detention together put us in a category together. We stayed friends long after we both moved away from the North Shore, but promised each other that after high school that we would ride our bicycles across Canada in the journey of a lifetime.
We sort of drifted apart toward the end of high school and although we still stay in touch maybe once a year, we haven’t spoken much about the bike ride for decades.
To protect the guilty, I’ll call him Bill. Since our trip kind of fizzled, Bill took a ride with his younger brother Phil to Portland in the summer of 1979. Bill carried the bulk of his younger brother’s cash with him because his bike had a top notch lock on it and the tube of his quick-release seat had a perfect spot for a roll of cash, a great hiding place in the event they were ever mugged on their long journey. This was at a time when bank machines were not widely available and intra-bank computer systems were not a given. Credit cards were unheard of for young adults and probably wouldn’t work in a foreign country. Thus, cash was essential for two young men on such a journey. Bill gave Phil whatever he asked for along the way but acted as the family banker for the whole trip.
Big brothers have a way of being jerks and Bill was no exception. He rationalized that it was family money and he spent his younger brother’s stash quite freely, even feigning brotherly generosity whenever they hit a restaurant, a convenience store or stopped for some sight-seeing along the way.
The whole time, Phil kept thinking what a great older brother he had. Always so generous!
When the truth eventually spilled that Bill had no bills of his own but was having his fill of thrills with Phil’s bills, Phil went shrill on Bill. As you can imagine.
Phil’s bills filling the tills might be a good way of looking at the federal government’s budget. We are fortunate to have the analysis of RBC Economics in pre-evaluating the expected federal Liberal pre-budget later
this month. We borrow heavily from those predictions here today. In short, we expect the March 19 federal budget to reflect this government’s penchant for spending. After all, it had no trouble boosting spending by an average of 6.5 per cent annually while the political and economic winds were blowing favourably. With storm clouds appearing, in the form of weaker-than-expected domestic economic growth, we doubt the finance minister will change course.
Our view is upheld by the fact that the final month of the government’s fiscal year is typically a large deficit month. Over the last 10 years, the March deficit has averaged $7.3 billion, and the average over the last three (under the current finance minister) was $10 billion. The most recent run includes three of the four largest monthly federal deficits on record. With that history in mind, we anticipate the March madness to continue in the form of substantial spending announcements. But any spending initiatives need to be considered against a weakening revenue backdrop. The economic slowdown we saw in the fourth quarter is likely to continue
in the first quarter. As a result, growth forecasts for nominal GDP (a key driver of government revenues) are being reduced. We currently expect nominal GDP to rise by 2.1 per cent this year compared to an assumed growth rate of 4.1 per cent in the government’s Fall Economic Statement. The slower growth suggests the finance minister should exercise spending caution if he is to avoid a miss on next fiscal year’s $19.6 billion deficit forecast and a reversal in the downward trend in the debt-to-GDP ratio. To be sure, the government will get a break from lower-than-anticipated interest rates but this won’t be enough to offset the impact of slower economic growth.
So with all that fiscal space, a slowing economy and a keen interest in spending, what can we expect from this government, especially in an election year? Potential budget measures that have been discussed include support for child care, a national pharmacare program, and attempts to address the skills/labour challenges that plague many Canadian businesses and workers. Each could have substantial costs associated with them. We’re betting that
each of these initiatives will get a down payment in the current budget, with promises of more to come in future years. We would welcome a focus on skills, since it could address a current business challenge while at the same time creating better conditions for stronger economic growth in the period ahead. A stronger economy would go a long way in supporting many of the government’s income redistribution goals. Much of the budget speculation has focused on housing-market support, and particularly on efforts to improve access to home ownership for millennials. We worry that this policy would lead to a rise in the number of highly indebted, higher-risk households in Canada.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Mark’s views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Mark’s website at: http://dir.rbcinvestments. com/mark.ryan
On July 6, 1916, a poster depicting Uncle Sam beckoning viewers to enlist in the U.S. Army appeared in an issue of Leslie’s Weekly, a popular U.S. magazine.
The poster’s creator, James Montgomery Flagg, had no idea just how popular his creation would become. Working without a model or concept in a narrow window of time before publication, Flagg scrambled to embody the urgency of American participation in the Great War. Flagg’s most iconic poster depicted the figure of a gallantly dressed Uncle Sam with the prominent text, “I Want You for the U.S. Army.” Today, the poster has largely been relegated to college dorm rooms and movie theatres.
The digital age has ushered in a new form of artistic expression: the meme.
While memes originally had a comedic purpose, they invaded the political realm in a far more sinister manner during the 2016 presidential campaign. Like the propaganda posters from the world wars, politically pointed memes employed a striking visual coupled with effective communication intended to alter the mind frame or subconscious of a viewer. In many cases, they also aimed to dehumanize the opposition and to personalize the political cause in question.
The alt-right in particular weaponized the meme format to spread disinformation through social media.
Members of the alt-right turned characters such as Pepe the Frog into symbols for their virulently racist movement, building awareness of and even support for their
cause. The meme propaganda came from foreign sources, too, as reports of Russian bots spreading disunity surfaced.
Most worryingly, the new political art format has far greater viral potential than the posters of yesteryear. Instead of just government-commissioned posters, any figure, domestic or international, with a political agenda can reach a mass audience with weaponized symbols, images and digital art to advance a political cause.
Ultimately, propaganda posters can teach us a great deal about the psychological effects of politically pointed art.
While memes may seem like the silly clutter of internet culture, studies of advertising and the way we consume information have shown that such images can alter our subconscious, often in ways we do not understand.
As a hard working NDPer, I’m going to irk my political associates and defend Justin Trudeau. While I don’t always agree with the PM in his decisions (electoral reform, pipeline), I do admire him as Canada’s leader. I think he does us proud in international affairs. I like his proposed revenue neutral gas tax that returns the tax to citizens equally; thus encouraging average citizens to participate in reducing our carbon footprint.
He handles the idiot Trump as well as anybody could.
He and Minister Freeland did admirably in the new free trade agreement. I far prefer him to dictator Stephen Harper who would keep me awake at night wondering which part of the environment and/or our democracy he would attack next. I think Trudeau has Canada’s interest at heart and was well trained by his parents, both of whom gave him their best qualities.
OK, he screwed up. I admit it. He acted as an MP in defending his constituents against the effects of an SNC conviction, but when his minister made her decision, he failed to act as PM and keep out of it altogether as he should have.
When all is put in the balance, I can forgive this screw-up. It should not be repeated.
Donald A. Fraser Prince George
There is something that I do not get about this ongoing scandal in Justin Trudeau’s government.
If what I read is correct, a few months ago, when these charges came up against SNC-Lavalin, the Liberals enacted a new law allowing for the possibility of not been charged criminally for some serious charges by allowing companies to ask for a Deferred Payment Agreement plan to pay a healthy fine and avoid criminal charges.
I must ask: are we still living in Canada?
That the rules for large companies are different than for others, so folks if you do something you criminally bad just ask for a fine instead and avoid the costly criminal record.
That in and of itself almost sounds like a bribe or extortion.
It all is a result, they say, of the company stating they would move out of Quebec, which it appears they did not say. It appears this can only be done in Quebec where they are afraid of losing 9,000 jobs. What did the feds do for Alberta, where they have lost I believe 30,000 jobs?
This sounds like third world politics – give us money and you can stay. The question is always asked why should I go vote. With all the appearance of corruption and malfeasance here in our politics and one might have the answer. I can only hope in my lifetime, which is not likely, that the rule of government will change. If it did, it would have to be for the better as it could not get much worse, and I mean any government, federal, provincial and municipal.
People just stop and think. Take the rose colored glasses off and see where we are headed.
Bill Manders, Prince George
The time line on the Willow Cale bridge was wrong. The original bridge was under construction in 2012.
September 2016 to March 2017 is also wrong. It would take engineers seven months to figure out where to put the portable outhouses, let alone build a bridge of this magnitude. Now the cost for the original bridge is who knows as it was not mentioned. Who OKed the building of this bridge? I must assume it was city council and city engineers. The main problem turned out to be an unstable layer of clay? If I want to add a back porch to my house I am required permits detailing how deep footings will be, width and material I am putting it on.
The main contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and engineers all got pardons for doing a sloppy job. The residents are on the hook for all those costs. Who signed off on building this lemon? Does nobody have to stand up and admit they messed up?
Repairs to this bridge were estimated at $3.7 million but came in at $10.5 million. How can this be – is nobody responsible or accountable? If you go to buy a new car, you and the dealer settle on $30,700, you don’t come to pick up your car and now it’s $100,500.
The Willow Cale has only businesses on it in city limits. There is not one residential property on it. So why should the residents of Prince George pick up the tab for building and repairs for this very smelly lemon?
Chad Johnson, Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
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Or as one Garfield meme put it, “you are not immune to propaganda.”
The danger with memes is that the visuals are no longer centrally orchestrated pieces, designed to advance the public good. They spread in real time, seemingly from the depths of the internet, and virtually anybody can achieve virality through the power of mass replication.
Discerning facts from fiction has become the real challenge with this latest incarnation of visual propaganda. Time will tell if memes will become a permanent part of our political history, but for now, we are still experiencing their unpredictable effects.
— Albinko Hasic is a Bosnian-American attorney, digital analyst and history PhD student whose primary research interests are propaganda, military history and human rights.
Analysis of the 2015 federal election suggested that two groups had chosen to cast ballots in overwhelming numbers compared with previous democratic contests: Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 and Indigenous Canadians.
Much has been written about the way in which voters aged 18 to 34 embraced the Liberal Party of Canada in 2015, particularly in urban areas. “Strategic voting” played a role in steering some of Canada’s youngest electors towards Justin Trudeau and away from their more traditional ideological homes in the New Democratic Party and the Green Party of Canada.
But one issue that has not been reviewed thoroughly is the commitment of the current federal government to dealing with unresolved Indigenous concerns.
Prime Minister Trudeau appeared to set the bar high in December 2015 – just weeks after being officially sworn in as Canada’s head of government – when he declared “it is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations peoples, one that understands that the constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations in Canada are not an inconvenience but rather a sacred obligation.”
The events that have followed Trudeau’s pledge have not provided Canadians with much to celebrate. On the bureaucratic side, two different people have occupied the office of minister of Indigenous services, created in August 2017.
Last month, Opposition MP Charlie Angus visited the Cat Lake First Nation in northern Ontario –a community where homes have been wrecked by mold infestation and where residents are in dire need of medical assistance.
The cornerstone of the seemingly renewed commitment of the federal government was the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in September 2016.
A countrywide Research Co. survey conducted last month showed that almost half of Canadians (47 per cent) have followed news stories related to the inquiry “very closely” or “moderately closely” –a proportion that grows to 59 per cent in British Columbia, 52 pert cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and 51 per cent in Quebec.
In spite of the attention that the inquiry has garnered, Canadians are not satisfied with what they have witnessed so far. Fewer than three in 10 residents (27 per cent) think the inquiry has been “a success,” while almost half (46 per cent) consider it “a failure.”
Canadians aged 55 and over are decidedly more likely to believe that the inquiry has not been satisfactory (59 per cent), but the level of criticism is also higher than the
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national average in Alberta (51 per cent), Manitoba and Saskatchewan (49 per cent) and British Columbia (48 per cent).
Even Canadians who voted for the Trudeau-led Liberals in 2015 appear disappointed, with just 35 per cent saying the inquiry has been successful. Those who voted for the New Democrats or the Conservative Party of Canada show significantly less approval of the federal government’s efforts (24 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively).
It is understandable for Canadians to be skeptical about the inquiry. Several staffers have left the inquiry commission since it was first established. Last year, a two-year extension was sought by the commissioners, along with an additional $50 million to carry on with the tasks at hand. The federal government countered with a disappointing two-month extension, meaning a report will have to be tabled by April 30 of this year.
In spite of all these negative aspects, Canadians are still hopeful that change can be effected.
More than half of respondents to the Research Co. survey (52 per cent) think a renewed relationship with First Nations peoples can be achieved in the country, while one-third (34 per cent) believe this is impossible.
Cynicism about a resolution to this impasse grows with age. While 63 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 think true reconciliation can still happen, the proportion drops to 54 per cent among those aged 35 to 54 and 44 per cent among those aged 55 and over.
It would seem that the residents of Canada who have dealt with the federal government the longest are not as enthusiastic about reconciliation as their younger counterparts. This may be because they have seen similar efforts wither. In 1969, the federal government, headed by the current prime minister’s father, gave itself five years to abolish what was then called the Department of Indian Affairs. It did not happen.
The other issue that remains to be seen is whether Indigenous Canadians, who looked at Trudeau with hope, will develop the same pessimism that is observed in this survey among baby boomers. Their effect may not be measured in the number of seats that stay with the Liberals or go to other parties, but in the realization that the phrase “sacred obligation” carries a burden that few Canadians believe has been matched by the current government’s actions. Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.
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To an outside investor, especially an American, it may seem odd to learn that, in Canada, when opponents make their case against a pipeline or any other resource project before regulators, the Canadian government sometimes pays them to do it.
It may seem especially masochistic that some environmental groups that are already well funded received money from taxpayers to try to thwart a project owned by Canadian taxpayers: the Trans Mountain pipeline.
During the recent reconsideration of the marine impacts from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the National Energy Board (NEB) revealed that it doled out $5 million to interveners to help them participate in the hearings.
Fifty-one First Nations and Métis groups received funding. Most of them got $80,000 each.
Given the complexity of the formal NEB hearing process, it’s not unreasonable for government to provide funding to First Nations that may be directly affected by a pipeline. Some of the First Nations that received funding support the pipeline expansion. But well-funded environmental organizations also received tax dollars to participate in the hearings. Some of these groups have also received substantial funding from large U.S. philanthropic groups as part of the campaign against the Alberta oilsands.
Stand.earth, Georgia Strait Alliance, Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation Foundation each received $80,000 from the NEB to participate in the recent reconsideration hearings, according to the NEB.
The B.C. Green Party’s Andrew Weaver and Adam Olsen also received $12,000 each to participate as interveners.
And two environmental law groups that have been involved in various legal and regulatory challenges to pipelines have received funding from the Law Foundation of B.C. The foundation provided West Coast Environmental Law last year with $470,000 and Ecojustice with $190,000.
Jonathan Drance, a retired Stikeman Elliott partner who now works as an energy consultant, said Canada is known for being generous when it comes to funding stakeholders in regulatory review processes. He doesn’t begrudge the funding environmental groups receive to participate in hearings.
“The amount of funding given, whether it’s environmental groups or First Nations, has been an absolute drop in the bucket compared to the resources that are available to proponents,” he said.
But it’s not as though some of the environmental groups that campaigned against pipeline and liquefied natural gas projects are financially strapped.
As researcher Vivian Krause has detailed over the years, environmental groups in Canada have received millions from U.S. philanthropic groups like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Tides Foundation.
A good deal of that funding was part of the Tar Sands campaign launched in 2008. According to Krause, of $40 million doled out to environmental groups by the Tides Foundation and Tides Canada since 2009, $25 million was for anti-pipeline activities.
The Tar Sands campaign’s stated aim was to limit the growth of Alberta’s oilsands by halting pipeline and refinery projects, and raising the cost of oilsands production to make it uneconomic.
The campaign failed to halt the expansion of the oilsands, which has roughly doubled in production capacity since the campaign was launched, although it can claim some success in delaying pipeline projects.
While regulatory processes have been largely blamed for killing or stalling projects like Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain, court challenges backed by groups like Ecojustice, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Living Oceans Society can also take some credit.
These groups backed First Nations in successful Federal Court of Appeal challenges that found First Nations consultation to be inadequate in both the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain projects.
One of the groups that have received funding as part of the Tar Sands campaign
In January, there was a
by supporters of
was the Pembina Institute. It is an energy think tank that has produced evidencebased research on energy issues and has often worked with the oil industry and government agencies.
But its involvement in the Tar Sands campaign – launched in 2008 and originally funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund –has dogged the institute, raising questions about its motives with respect to Alberta’s oil industry.
When the campaign was launched in 2008, the Pembina Institute was designated as the Canadian lead. According to Krause, the institute received $8 million primarily from U.S. funders.
Former Fraser Institute senior fellow
Mark Milke isn’t surprised that Canadian organizations like the Pembina Institute received funding from American charities.
But he is astounded that Canadian energy companies have worked with, and funded, the Pembina Institute, despite its involvement in a campaign to halt or limit new pipelines and refineries, and raise the cost of oilsands production.
Milke characterizes the Canadian oil industry’s support for the Pembina Institute as a kind of “Stockholm syndrome.”
“Here’s the reality: anti-energy activists have long been funded not only by foreign money, but also by Canadian governments and companies in Canada’s energy sector,” Milke wrote in an opinion piece in October 2018.
“I’m just amazed at the utter silliness of some of these CEOs and some of these companies that, on the one hand, complain about a situation their shareholders’ dollars created by funding the most radical antienergy groups in the country,” Milke told Business in Vancouver.
Pembina Institute executive director Simon Dyer said the institute’s goal is to promote responsible oilsands development, not shut it down.
“We continue to be committed to the middle, and I think the middle is both meeting our economic objectives and also ensuring that Canada meets its environmental objectives.”
Dyer added that 85 to 90 per cent of the grant funding Pembina receives is Canadian-based.
“We currently get no funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.”
However, the institute does not report in annual financial statements its funding sources or how it is spent. But neither does the Fraser Institute or the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers.
That is one of the problems in Canada – a lack of transparency on funding sources for non-governmental organizations, regardless of their political stripe. Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., Canadian nonprofits are not required to disclose funding sources or spending details.
SNC-Lavalin Group has had more than its share of woes lately. The company faces charges for bribery in Libya, posted two profit warnings for troubles in Chile and Saudi Arabia and has lost almost half its value in nine months.
Why, then, is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau risking his political career to rescue the construction firm? It comes down to three things: jobs, SNC’s political clout and the special status that many Quebec companies hold in the halls of power of Canada’s capital.
SNC was hardly a household name before Trudeau’s crisis began about a month ago on reports his former attorney-general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, felt she was unduly pressured by Trudeau’s office to help the company avoid a trial on the corruption charges. Its work is certainly well known. The Montreal-based engineering firm built the train line linking Vancouver’s downtown and its airport. It’s part owner of the massive toll highway than runs along the north end of Toronto. Globally, it’s built or managed everything from coal terminals in Colombia to petroleum projects in Saudi Arabia.
These global contracts in far-flung places have created many problems for SNC – and now for Trudeau. The company was charged by the RCMP in 2015 for allegedly paying bribes more than a decade earlier to Moammar Qaddafi’s regime in Libya. Closer to home, the company paid restitution to several Quebec municipalities under a provincial program to recoup overcharges in tainted public contracts, while La Presse has reported it could face charges over a bribery scheme tied to the renovation of a Montreal bridge. On the Libya charges, SNC thought it had secured what was essentially a get-out-of-jailfree card in the form of a deferred prosecution agreement. Under this program, used in the U.S. and U.K. but new to Canada, the company could have avoided trial and paid a fine instead by arguing it has cleaned house and shouldn’t be punished for the sins of former executives. Canada’s public prosecutor rejected SNC’s request for an out-of-court settlement in September. Wilson-Raybould could have stepped in to overturn the order but chose not to. Trudeau’s team urged her to reconsider, sparking the current scandal. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said Monday it has written to Trudeau’s government outlining its concerns about potential political interference in the case. So why is SNC so special it warrants all this political capital?
Jobs for one – lots of them.
SNC employs more than 52,000 people around the world and is one of the few global giants still based in Canada. Nortel Networks Corp. went bankrupt, BlackBerry Ltd. is a shell of its former self and Barrick Gold Corp. may soon be run from South Africa. Almost 9,000 SNC workers are in Canada, with about a third of those in the largely French-speaking province of Quebec. Those kinds of job numbers – and highly skilled, well-paid workers –are tempting for any politician to protect.
“There was concern SNC could leave
Canada altogether,” Trudeau told reporters last week in Ottawa.
Gerald Butts, the prime minister’s former top aide and best friend from their days at McGill University in Montreal, echoed that in his testimony to lawmakers last week. He said jobs were at risk and that the company could move its head office to London. SNC already has about 10,000 employees in the U.K. after its 3.6 billion purchase of WS Atkins Ltd. in 2017.
“When 9,000 people’s jobs are at stake, it is a public policy problem of the highest order,” Butts said. “It was our obligation to exhaustively consider options the law allows.”
The risk of a massive jobs flight may be a stretch. Even the worst-case scenario, in which SNC is convicted and faces a 10-year government ban in Canada, would hardly be crippling. Canada accounts for less than 30 per cent of the company’s revenue and the government work is only a fraction of that.
What’s more, SNC committed to keeping its head office in Montreal under terms of a loan from a Quebec pension fund in the Atkins deal.
“There’s a number of uncertainties around the company,’’ Chris Murray, an analyst with AltaCorp Capital Inc., said. “I don’t think any of them are lethal in the long term.’’
SNC’s finances are also relatively healthy. It has an order book worth $15 billion, revenue of $10 billion a year and has just $2.3 billion in debt. The company, with a market value of more than $6 billion, is considering asset sales to bolster its balance sheet, and could raise more than $2 billion alone from the sale of its stake in the 407 toll road.
The stock has plunged by almost half since June, but most of that decline was in January when the company had two profit warnings in as many weeks related to work delays in Chile and a slowdown in the Middle East -- in part due to a rift between the Trudeau government and Saudi Arabia. The scandal in Ottawa seems to be less of a concern for investors than it is for lawmakers.
“There is a tremendous amount of value here” after the price decline, Steve DiGregorio, a fund manager at Canoe Financial LP in Montreal told BNN Bloomberg Television.
SNC also punches above its weight for political clout. Few people are as knowledgeable about the inner workings of Canada’s capital
as SNC chairman Kevin Lynch, who joined the board in 2017 and became chairman 14 months ago. He was clerk of the privy council – the country’s top bureaucrat – under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He’s also held senior posts at the finance department, the Bank of Canada and the International Monetary Fund and remains a vice chairman at the Bank of Montreal.
It’s no surprise then that when he reached out to Michael Wernick, the current clerk of the privy council, in October the call was taken. Lynch wanted to know what could be done to help the company, which had announced five days earlier that it had been denied a settlement.
SNC is “not a pariah, it was not improper to have communications with the company,” Wernick told lawmakers. He said he told Lynch to reach out to the attorney-general.
SNC has been a frequent lobbyist in Ottawa. Chief executive office Neil Bruce or other executives had 59 meetings, calls or encounters with Trudeau’s inner circle over the past 12 months, according to Canada’s lobbyist registry. That group included Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his chief of staff, Ben Chin, and Mathieu Bouchard, a senior adviser to Trudeau. All three were among the people Wilson-Raybould said had contacted her or her staff to advocate for SNC.
The company also pushed to have the deferred prosecutions introduced in the first place. The new policy was introduced quietly in last year’s federal budget.
Quebec, meanwhile, is the final piece of the SNC puzzle. No federal party can win power without strong support in the province, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s population and carries similar weight in the House of Commons.
So when companies like SNC or Bombardier Inc. need help, their pleas are heard, especially with an October election looming. Quebec Premier Francois Legault has placed SNC on his list of 10 companies that need to be protected from takeovers.
SNC has a long history in the province. Its name derives from the surnames of three founders – Arthur Surveyer, Emil Nenniger, and Georges Chenevert – who started the firm 108 years ago. With its backlog of orders and plenty of support in Ottawa, it’s not going away anytime soon.
The big U.S. manufacturer slipped for a second day as the fallout from a second deadly crash in recent months involving its 737 Max 8 aircraft spread further. “The big story today continues to be the escalation of concerns related to Boeing 737 Max aircraft,” said Natalie Taylor, portfolio manager at CIBC.
While regulators across much of the world moved to ground the aircraft, the U.S. expressed faith in it and Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Tuesday that Canada had no plans to ground the plane.
The uncertainty created by the situation weighed on airline stocks generally, said Taylor. “This is having an impact not only on Boeing, which is down another six per cent, similar to what we saw yesterday, but just the entire airline industry, and in Canada that’s impacting Air Canada and WestJet.”
Air Canada, which has 24 Max 8 aircraft, closed down 3.96 per cent, while WestJet, which has 13 of the aircraft, closed down 3.21 per cent.
The share price drops helped push down the S&P/TSX industrials index by 0.76 per cent to be second only to the consumer discretionary index for losses on the day.
Most sectors, however, saw modest gains to lead the S&P/ TSX composite index to close up 30.42 points at 16,136.66. Materials had the biggest gains at 1.26 per cent as key commodities rose. The April gold contract ended up US$7 at US$1,298.10 an ounce and the May copper contract was up three cents at US$2.93 a pound.
“Generally commodities are up, and that would include energy, I think that’s just a continuation of the momentum that we’ve been seeing in the market,” said Taylor. The April crude contract closed up eight cents at $56.87 per barrel and the April natural gas contract up a penny at US$2.78 per mmBTU. The Canadian dollar averaged 74.75 cents US compared with an average of 74.55 cents US on Monday.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 96.22 points at 25,554.66 as Boeing weighed. The S&P 500 index was up 8.22 points at 2,791.52, while the Nasdaq composite was up 32.97 points at
Several top curlers have started talks with Curling Canada to address concerns about the difference between men’s and women’s payouts at the national championships.
The winning team at the Tim Hortons Brier received over two times the prize money given to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion. Kevin Koe’s Alberta team earned $70,000 for winning the men’s title last Sunday while Chelsea Carey’s Alberta team earned $32,000 for taking the women’s crown last month.
Lisa Weagle, who plays lead on Team Rachel Homan, is part of a group of curlers - women and men - who have recently discussed the subject with the federation.
“We’re confident that they’re listening to our concerns and they’re working with their sponsors to try to make it equal,” Weagle said.
In addition to prize money, national champion teams are also eligible for athlete funding, including almost $170,000 from Sport Canada over a two-year period, along with sponsorship cresting funds for playoff and world championship appearances.
The national men’s finalist also earned over double the prize money of the women’s finalist.
Brendan Bottcher’s wild-card team rink received $50,000 for reaching the Brier final while Homan’s Ontario team earned $24,000 for finishing second at the Scotties.
“I can understand there being some (general) difference because the Brier nets more money if you look at ticket sales and the Patch (Brier entertainment venue/bar) and all that stuff,” Carey said on a recent conference call. “The viewership ratings are slightly higher. But the difference isn’t justified completely.
“So I think that from a financial standpoint, from a business standpoint, it’s hard to demand exactly equal money. That would be great, but it does need to get closer. We are having those conversations to move it in that direction.”
Other top domestic events, including the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series and Home Hardware Canada Cup, offer an even split for prize money payouts.
The men’s and women’s competitions for each event are held
concurrently at the same venue with the same sponsor.
Team Brad Jacobs and Team Jennifer Jones earned $14,000 apiece for their titles at the Canada Cup in December. Bottcher and Homan both earned $30,000 for their teams with victories at the Grand Slam’s Canadian Open in January.
The Scotties and the Brier are highlight stops on the Season of Champions calendar but they have different title sponsors.
Curling Canada holds the events a few weeks apart in different cities.
Kruger Products took on title sponsorship of the Canadian women’s championship in 1982 while Tim Hortons came on board for the men’s playdowns in 2005.
“Our contracts with our title sponsors are very different and I’m not at liberty to give confidential
Mikael Kingsbury picked up a TV remote control and, like it was an action figure, used it to demonstrate his latest moguls trick, the cork 1440.
He lifted the remote up like it was flying off a jump, and then rolled it four times parallel to the ground.
An onlooker summed it up with: “It looks terrifying.”
The Olympic moguls champion was sitting in a sundrenched downtown Toronto office on Monday, reflecting on yet another record-breaking season.
At 26 years old, he’s run the table on freestyle skiing accomplishments.
An Olympic gold medal.
A world-record 56 World Cup victories. Eight crystal globes as the season’s overall champion.
But Kingsbury is far from finished. And pioneering new tricks and continuously pushing the envelope is part of what keeps him hungry for more.
“Three years (to the 2022 Beijing Olympics) is still far far away. But there’s many things I still want to do,” Kingsbury said.
“The Olympics is the big, big picture goal, but before that, there’s a lot of steps I want to go through, a lot of little goals. It’s like a mountain, and the top will be the Olympic gold. I’m going to try to reach all the goals that I want on the way up, and then peak there. I feel like in three years I can reach the potential that I want.”
The skier from Deux-Montagnes, Que., always has “a million” potential new tricks or combinations of grabs running through his mind. He envisioned the cork 1440 when he was 14, and waited for someone to come along and land it.
“Over the years, no one was ready to do that trick, so I thought maybe I’d be the first one ever to do it,” Kingsbury said. He did exactly that two-and-a-half weeks ago at the World Cup in Tazawako, Japan.
business details but I do want to clarify that both title sponsors provide quite significant support to the athletes and to the sport,” Curling Canada chief executive officer Katherine Henderson said in an email.
Curling Canada did not say whether future discussions with the players were planned. There is no formal domestic players’ association in place so athletes often have to contact federation brass directly with any concerns.
The Brier drew more spectators than the Scotties this season but television ratings were similar.
The men’s competition in Brandon, Man., had an announced average attendance of 3,288 spectators per draw while the Scotties averaged 2,035 per draw in Sydney, N.S.
The Brier had a slight edge in overall average audience viewer-
ship with 378,000 compared to 351,000 for the Scotties, a TSN spokesman said in an email. However, the women led in playoff viewership with an average of 574,000 to 545,000 for the men, while the Scotties final averaged 762,000 viewers to 659,000 for the Brier final.
Henderson noted that Kruger also sponsors and invests in provincial tournaments and that Scotties teams receive jewelry for their participation, raising the value of the women’s compensation.
“We look at this on an ongoing basis and will continue to do so with our stakeholders,” she said.
Athletes do not have the option of choosing cash instead of jewelry.
There is still a significant payout gap in many professional circuits like golf and tennis, for example, although it’s difficult to compare
with curling since those are world tours with international players and different television/sponsorship arrangements.
A national curling championship includes provincial and territorial winners, most of whom still consider themselves amateur athletes.
Weagle said curling has come a long way since her tour debut almost a decade ago.
“I think it’s great that we can say that we’re really close or on par at most of our events,” she said from Ottawa. “I know a lot of work has gone on over the years where a lot of women have fought for this, and men as well, to get equal pay.
“I think it’s our responsibility now to keep working and get it so that it really is truly equal so that the next generation of curlers coming up - and hopefully I can see it during my playing career too – that we truly are equal.”
again.
“And I just love my sport. I love the process of the work I have to put in, and the travel, I get to travel the world with my best friends and ski. I can do a sport and make a good living out of it. And to know that I feel I haven’t reached my full potential, I can be better and better and push the sport and bring new tricks to the table. All of those things combined are super motivating.” Kingsbury’s season isn’t quite done. He’ll compete at the Canadian championships March 23-24 in Val Saint-Come, Que., and while the season’s big international events are behind him, he’s always happy to ski on home snow.
“Kids are going to start competing at nationals at 14, 15, 16 and those kids watch us for sure on TV... but now they have the chance to ski on the same course as us, at the same time,” Kingsbury said.
“I remember my first nationals, it was very inspiring, I was trying to put myself in the line-up for training right behind Alex (Bilodeau, Canada’s retired two-time Olympic champ). I was standing with him on the moguls course and I thought it was very cool. So for me, and the other top Canadian athletes, it’s very important to do it.” Kingsbury makes a point of chatting with kids, offering them tips. He often gives away some of his gear, a pair of poles or goggles.
He couldn’t appreciate the moment right when his skis safely hit snow.
“I was standing on top of the course, and the conditions were perfect,” Kingsbury said. “I tried it and landed it, and won the event. It’s pretty cool when you’re the first one in history to be able to try something in your sport and be able to land it, and win with that new trick, the feeling is very cool.”
ment I thought ‘Oh yeah!”’ he added with a grin. Those moments are what will keep Kingsbury coming back for more.
“You don’t have much time to think because that’s a super blind trick, so when you land you have to ski very fast, you land very close to the (next) bump,” he said. “You realize, but don’t realize. “I skied maybe five bumps and at that mo-
“It’s still easy for me (to be motivated),” he said. “When you’re winning those big events, the feeling is just so great. You know there’s no step above winning a world championship or winning a gold medal at the Olympics. And once you win those things, you kind of want to have that feeling
“And at the same time I try to give a good show (at nationals),” Kingsbury said. “Because they want to see us at our best.” Kingsbury’s Toronto media blitz was partly to promote his sponsor Goodfood’s Clean15 plan. The plan provides healthconscious ingredients and recipes that are higher in protein and lower in carbs, with a balance of healthy fats, delivered to your door.
Last off-season, Kingsbury decided to be more vigilant about his diet, and dropped between seven and 10 pounds of body fat.
“It’s the reason why I’m able to do cork 1440,” he said. “That’s a trick where you need to be fit because you need to spin very fast, and if you’re too heavy your body is not going to spin that fast.”
The Prince George Sports Hall of Fame is hosting its 12th annual Induction Dinner on March 30. This year, there will be three people inducted into the local sports hall of fame including race car driver Cliff Hucul, wheelchair basketball player Elisha Williams and Prince George Track and Field Club coach/president Brian Martinson. That brings the total number of people inducted into the hall of fame to 78. During the event, featuring dinner, a guest speaker, awards ceremony and a silent auction there will also be 12 youth honoured with an excellence award, including Jonah Brittons, Ben Hendrickson, Kimoko Kamstra, Natasha Kozlowski, Anna MacDonald, Eric Orlowsky, Colburn Pearce, Derian Potskin, Ainslee Rushton, Matthew Shand, Zenze Stanley-Jones and Jordan Vertue. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Ceremony begins at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $45 and are available at Northern Food Equipment, 814 Fifth Ave. Deadline for tickets is March 22 at 3 p.m. For more information visit www.pgsportshalloffame.org. — Citizen staff
Several representatives from the Prince George Judo Club participated in the Edmonton International Judo Championship tournament over the weekend.
Here are the local participants’ results: Gold medals: Jade Nielson – U10 girls, Lyndon Holliday – U10 boys, Jason Foot – U10 boys, Ryder Bachinski – U10 boys, Grayson Holliday –U12 boys, Tyson Schaeffer – U12 boys, Nevada Jones – U12 girls, Kevin Foot – U12 boys and Lily McCullough – U12 girls.
Silver medals: Tami Goto – U21 women, Jeremy Thompson – veteran men, Sarah Chisan – U14 girls, Evan Temoin – U12 boys, Rhianna Bachinski – U12 girls and Jesse Hedstrom – U12 boys. Bronze medals: Tami Goto – Senior women and Corbin Hilman – U16 boys.
Coming up for the local competitors is the Pacific International competition in Richmond this weekend. This is the final major qualifier for judo athletes preparing for the national championships. Tami Goto and Koen Heightman of Hart Judo will compete in Europe on March 16 and March 23, respectively. The Prince George Open regional competition will be held on April 6. — Citizen staff
City to pay cost of dasher boards
City council backed away Monday night from trying to convince the Prince George Cougars to cover half the cost of replacing the dasher boards in the CN Centre hockey rink. During budget discussions in February, council balked at having the city pay the entire $578,000 bill to replace nearly 24-year-old dasher board system with an acrylic rink board and acrylic glass system.
The Western Hockey League mandated that this National Hockey League standard be in effect for the 2019-2020 season it was noted at the time, prompting Coun. Kyle Sampson to argue that other user groups did not ask for the change. Sampson changed his tune on Monday, saying he has since learned other groups will also benefit, noting the new system will be safer and easier to put up and take down.
In a report to council, city manager Kathleen Soltis said a dasher board system that meets current standards will enhance the chances of Prince George attracting national-level and even international-level games and tournaments. The work will be funded out of reserves and won’t affect the 2019 tax levy, Soltis said.
Gemma KARSTENS-SMITH 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 criticized 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.”
Citizen staff
Jordan Vertue topped the podium in the 400 metre individual medley race during the 2019 Winter Provincial Long Course Swimming Championships held in Kamloops over the weekend.
Vertue, 13, also placed third in the 200 metre backstroke, fourth in the 200 metre butterfly, fifth in the 800 metre freestyle, sixth in 100 metre back stroke, 14th in the 400 metre freestyle and 15th in the 200 metre breast stroke.
There were about 500 swimmers registered to compete during the meet.
Other local swimmers participated and here are their individual results in alphabetical order:
Claire Brown, 15, placed 30th in the 200 metre backstroke, 17th in 100 metre butterfly, 33rd in the 200 metre individual medley and 28th in 100 metre backstroke.
Eryn Isaac, 15, placed 24th in 200 metre backstroke and 39th in the 400 metre individual medley. Rya Kish, 16, placed 32nd in 200 metre breast stroke, 29th in 100 metre breast stroke, 44th in 400 metre individual medley and 46th in 200 individual medley.
Mackenzie Lewington, 16, placed 11th in the 200 metre breast stroke, 10th in the 200 metre butterfly, 12th in the 400 metre freestyle, 18th in the 100 metre breast stroke, eighth in the 200 individual medley, ninth in the 800 freestyle,
21st in the 200 metre freestyle and third in the 400 metre individual medley. Liberty Vaughan, 13, place 45th in the 200 metre butterfly, 44th in the 200 metre back stroke and 32nd in 100 metre back strok.
Chloe Vertue, 11, placed 36th in the 200 metre breast strok, 27th in 200 metre butterfly, 20th in the 200 metre back stroke, 45th in the 200 metre individual medley and 48th in the 100 metre back stroke.
Katerina Wood, 15, placed 25th in 200 metre backstroke, 40th in 100 metre breast stroke, 43rd in 400 metre individual medley, 40th in 200 metre individual medley and 41st in 100 metre back stroke.
at Prince George, 7 p.m.
THURSDAY, MAR. 21 x-Prince George at Chilliwack, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY, MAR. 23 x-Chilliwack at Prince George, 7 p.m.
MONDAY, MAR. 25 x-Prince George at Chilliwack, 7 p.m.
INTERIOR DIVISION Wenatchee (3) vs. Cowichan Valley (WC)
FRIDAY’S GAME Cowichan Valley at Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAME Cowichan Valley at Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m.
TUESDAY, MAR. 19 Wenatchee at Cowichan Valley, 7:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAR. 20 Wenatchee at Cowichan Valley, 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY,
Snotty Nose Rez Kids rappers Darren Metz and Quinton Nyce weren’t equipped as children to analyze the vicious Indigenous stereotypes and racist caricatures flashing on their TV screens.
Like many kids of the late 1990s, they were raised on a steady diet of Disney classics while living in Kitamaat Village on Haisla Nation in northwest B.C. Some of those animated movies sent clear negative messages about their identities that echoed throughout the community.
Peter Pan presented Native Americans as savages who spoke in monosyllables, while Pocahontas romanticized colonialism by framing it against a love story. Metz and Nyce remember how elders rarely questioned the ways Hollywood movies taught the Indigenous youth to devalue themselves.
“We grew up with a lot of racism in our community,” explains Metz, the 26-year-old MC known as Young D.
“It was normalized, even to me and my parents.”
The wounds of those memories flow throughout The Average Savage, the rap duo’s 2017 sophomore album nominated at this weekend’s Juno Awards in the Indigenous music album category.
The 16-track project rebukes those damaging stereotypes they say affected generations of Indigenous people, drawing from audio samples of Bugs Bunny cartoons and a conversation about mascots broadcast on Oprah’s talk show. Each clip is a pop culture reference point for rhymes about racism in Canada.
“I wanted to make an album about all the stuff that’s been drilled into our heads for years,” Metz said.
“It’s a never-ending cycle unless you break it.”
Songs like Kkkanada and Savages are brash, confident and were written to elevate young Indigenous people, rather than attract mainstream accolades.
That changed, however, when a jury of music critics and industry players heard the album last year and helped the small independent release land on the national radar with a spot on the Polaris Music Prize short list.
Not long afterwards, tour dates
and festival appearances were being locked in across the continent.
It was a shock for the two high school friends who embraced their shared love for hip-hop and began recording music with a “cheap $20 mic” on their computer in 2012, Metz said.
Three years later, Metz enrolled in an audio engineering program at Vancouver’s Harbourside Institute of Technology where Nyce joined him on a mixtape.
In rapid succession, the duo released two full-length albums that marked an evolution in their sound. The first album was inspired by the cadence of their idols, the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, but The Average Savage carried a voice that was unmistakably their own.
As the album gained traction, the duo leaned more heavily into their political views by dropping the single The Warriors, a relentless condemnation of a planned pipeline expansion in Western Canada.
“With the stuff that’s going on in our own backyard... getting a pipeline through the territory
makes it really personal for us,” said Nyce.
What’s different for Snotty Nose Rez Kids now is that people are listening. They’ve seen it within the Indigenous community, and also in outside circles where their commentary on social issues is leading to a new unity across many lines, he added.
“Now that we have this stage, this platform, we can have our voices heard by communities all across Turtle Island,” said Nyce, the 29-year-old who performs as Yung Trybez.
“There’s no way we would’ve been able to do that two years ago with any mixtape we released.”
But the sudden popularity also led the duo to reassess their priorities. After initially planning to release a mixtape that capitalized on the growing attention with a collection of protest anthems with club tracks, they decided to hit reset on the project and reconsider exactly what they wanted to say.
“The tone of the album wasn’t supposed to be a political album,” said Nyce, “but with who we are, and what we write about, it’s kind
Citizen news service
Hal Blaine, the Hall of Fame session drummer and virtual oneman soundtrack of the 1960s and ’70s who played on the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys and laid down one of music’s most memorable opening riffs on the Ronettes’ Be My Baby, died Monday.
Blaine died of natural causes at his home in Palm Desert, California, his son-in-law, Andy Johnson, told The Associated Press. He was 90.
On hearing of his death, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson called him “the greatest drummer ever.”
The winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award last year, Blaine’s name was known by few outside the music industry, even in his prime. But just about anyone with a turntable, radio or TV heard his drumming on songs that included Presley’s Return to Sender, the Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man, Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were, the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, dozens of hits produced by Phil Spector and the theme songs to Batman, The Partridge Family and other shows.
Blaine forged a hard-earned virtuosity and versatility that enabled him to adapt quickly to a wide range of popular music. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he played on 40 No. 1 hits, 150 top 10 songs. Blaine also played on eight songs that won Grammys for record of the year, including Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night and Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water.
He may be the only drummer to back Presley, Sinatra and John Lennon.
Some accounts have Blaine playing on 35,000 songs, but he believed that around 6,000 was more accurate, still making him a strong contender for the most recorded drummer in history. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. Out of so many notable sessions, his signature moment was the attention-grabbing “on the four” solo - Bum-ba-bum-BOOM - that launched the classic Be My Baby,
after placing them
a hit for the Ronettes in 1963 that helped define Spector’s overpowering “Wall of Sound” productions. The song remained a radio staple for decades and got new life in the ‘70s when it was used to open Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and again in the ‘80s when it was featured in Dirty Dancing. Few drum parts have been so widely imitated, from Billy Joel’s Say Goodbye to Hollywood to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey.
Blaine said in a 2005 interview that he wasn’t quite sure how he came up with the solo. To the best of his memory, he accidentally missed a beat while the song was being recorded and improvised by only playing the beat on the fourth note.
“And I continued to do that,” he recalled. “Phil might have said, ‘Do that again.’ Somebody loved it, in any event. It’s just one of those things that sometimes happens.”
Blaine nicknamed himself and his peers The Wrecking Crew,
because they were seen by their more buttoned-down elders as destructive to the industry - an assertion that Kaye and others disputed. Many members of The Wrecking Crew worked nonstop for 20 years, sometimes as many as eight sessions a day, a pace that led to several marriages and divorces for Blaine.
As more bands played on their own records and electronic drums arose, business dropped off in the 1980s even as younger musicians such as Max Weinberg of the E Street Band cited his influence.
Many younger drummers counted him as a friend and mentor.
“Hal was funny, sweet, and genuine,” Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, drummer for the Weird Al Yankovic Band, said in email to The Associated Press. “He made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. His inspiration and influence to drummers everywhere is immeasurable. Hal was a treasure.”
of hard to stay away from that.”
The duo scrapped the album’s original title, which had a lighter bent, renamed it Trapline and wrote several new songs and skits that “turned it into something more powerful,” Nyce explained.
One of the tracks features allfemale Toronto group the Sorority lending their vocals to a song about empowerment of women in the hip-hop community, which has traditionally fallen short of giving women equal space to tell their stories.
Keysha Fanfair, who performs in the Sorority as Keysha Freshh, said the experience was one of mutual reverence.
“They were giving us the opportunity to take the lead and come up with the ideas,” she said.
“There was no male bravado over us. It was just like, we’re all here, we’re all respecting each other’s talent.”
Nyce said Trapline won’t lose sight of the role of women in First Nations communities.
“We come from a matriarchal background where the women are our leaders, so the album’s going
to speak to that,” he said.
What lies ahead for Snotty Nose Rez Kids seems almost limitless. They’re arriving at a powerful time for Indigenous music, an era that fellow Juno nominee Jeremy Dutcher has labelled a “renaissance” for the Indigenous arts community.
Nyce is hopeful that radio stations across the country will pay more attention to the vibrant and diverse sounds of Indigenous musicians, who he believe hit a stride around the formation of the Idle No More movement in 2012.
“We started getting a different kind of attention in the media, we started being broadcasted more,” he said.
“People were changing as artists and they were starting to find their true identities.”
He is confident Indigenous music will be elevated higher over the next five years as another generation of voices emerges.
“You’re going to start seeing a lot more First Nations artists on the mainstream platform,” Nyce said.
“That includes ourselves if we keep playing our cards right.”
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.
Cell 250-981-1472
Established Franchise Tax Preparation BusinessMackenzieservicing and McLeod Lake area for over
