Prince George Citizen March 14, 2019

Condo construction

Crews shovel off the deck at the

Grinhaus, Brotman leaving TNW

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Two of Prince George’s leading theatre lights are drifting over the horizon.

Jack Grinhaus and partner Lauren Brotman have been anchorpoints for Theatre Northwest (TNW) the past five years, Grinhaus as the artistic director and Brotman as the associate artist.

A family health issue has necessitated they move back to their hometown of Toronto.

“This has nothing to do with Prince George, we love Prince George deeply, Prince George took us in and made us a home and a life we love. Our son has spent almost his entire life here and that is going to be forever imbedded in him,” said Grinhaus. “We got opportunities here that we could never have gotten in Toronto, and I hope that we gave some things to Theatre Northwest and this city that were also special and unique.”

It was an effort that went beyond the natural challenges of mounting successful professional plays.

Grinhaus inherited a theatre that had already served about 20 years of theatrical life, so physical upgrades were needed like a complete set of new theatre seats, a full foyer renovation, an online digital box office system, inroads with local visual artists for complementary displays coinciding with plays and increased public support from all levels of government. Upon their arrival, there was also a preexisting court case involving TNW not of Grinhaus’s making that was successfully concluded but cost significant

personal energy and stress, plus theatre resources.

Grinhaus said he is proud to have been there to steer the notfor-profit company through the challenges and the others that faced the company right from his

start in TNW management.

“We know he leaves behind a legacy that will never be forgotten and the theatre is better because of his time here,” said Hans Suhr, chair of the TNW board. “We are saddened to see Jack leave us after

his five-year tenure at the theatre.”

Brotman, too, made artist contributions that wowed TNW audiences, earned high praise from her co-stars from here and across Canada, and also worked behind the local cultural scenes to write, teach, create events and mentor others in the creative field.

Some of her roles included The Secret Mask, The Girl In The Goldfish Bowl, Drowning Girls, Half Life, and the first actor to inhabit the eponymous lead role in Hedda Noir.

This original script was written by Grinhaus especially for her to debut, based on the 19th century classic play Hedda Gabbler. If post-production buzz on the street is a gauge, Hedda Noir was one of TNW’s definitive triumphs over the past five seasons.

Brotman was also the leading force behind an outdoor summer spectacle on the steps of city hall she entitled Shakespeare Unfolded, which she presented for the city’s 100th anniversary.

She produced and assistant directed Isitwendam (An Understanding), a coproduction between her company B2C Theatre and TNW along with Grinhaus and principal creator Meegwun Fairbrother. It was a world premiere and it isn’t finished its development to full play just yet so they urge local audiences to be ready for more Isitwendam one day.

Brotman also created a program that mentored and created new performance work with the youth of Fort St. James.

Along with Amy Blanding, Brotman was well into the act of codeveloping a Prince George-set play called Painting The Streets. — see ‘I HAVE, page 3

Building code to allow taller wood buildings

Joannah CONNOLLY Glacier Media

There could soon be a rise –literally – in wooden residential buildings across the province, after the B.C. government announced changes to the provincial Building Code to allow for mass timber structures of up to 12 storeys, up from the previous limit of six storeys.

“Mass timber technology allows faster construction where large sections of a building can be manufactured in a plant and then assembled on site,” said housing minister Selina Robinson in Wednesday’s announcement.

“The faster we can deliver the homes that people need, the better for communities right across B.C.”

The benefits of mass timber construction have already started to be embraced by multi-family residential developers such as Adera Development Corporation, which has built a number of six-storey projects using prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Its latest such project is Virtuoso, a sold-out six-storey condo and townhome development at UBC’s Westbrook Village that won a Georgie Award on March 9 for Best Multi-Family Mid/High-Rise Residential Building.

— see ‘THIS IS, page 3

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

Theatre Northwest creative director Jack Grinhaus and associate artist Lauren Brotman are leaving the theatre company to deal with a family health issue.

Arts centre hosting market for Mother’s Day shopping

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

For those who need the reminder, Mother’s Day is coming up on May 12. For those of you who need to buy gifts for Mother’s Day, a special market is coming up on May 11, conveniently timed and specifically aimed at things for moms. It’ll happen at the Omineca Arts Centre (OAC) so even the location is convenient, right in the heart of downtown.

This is a first for the community arts and culture organization located at 369 Victoria Street. OAC has hosted workshops, concerts, dances, art exhibitions, public meetings and some introductory markets, but never a shopping fair specifically for Mother’s Day.

The mandate of OAC is to help stimulate the local arts and artisan scene. So, said

board member and multidisciplinary artist Jennifer Pighin, “tables must have an artistic element to the work, i.e. not mass produced commercial products.”

Anyone wanting to have a vendor’s table in the Mother’s Day Gift Market is asked to inquire by emailing chelsea@chelseamillerphoto.com with a description of your wares. A standard folding table will be provided for each vendor accepted.

Since childhood, homemade creations have been gifted to our mothers bringing such great delight in the thoughtfulness, care, selection and creation of each gift.

“Since childhood, homemade creations have been gifted to our mothers bringing such great delight in the thoughtfulness,

care, selection and creation of each gift,” Pighin said. “These gifts honor the endless hard work and unconditional love we receive from our mothers. Giving daily and on special occasions is tradition for many. And for some mothers yet to be or surrogate mothers, you never know, it’s always nice to treat yourself to a gift anyhow.”

— Jennifer Pighin

If you are a vendor selected for the market, the table fee is $40, payable by etransfer to info@ominecaartscentre.com or cash at the OAC front desk during regular operating hours (Tues-Fri from 2-5 p.m.) or

during any of their weekly events. The next upcoming event at the Omineca Arts Centre is the Sunday Open Drum Circle hosted by the Khast’an Drummers at 2 p.m.

“Art is ceremony,” said Pighin.

“Drumming is a sacred and powerful form of ceremony and an art in itself. Creativity goes beyond the pen an paper to sounds, actions and energy. As we work together to build a strong community, events like this can build lifelong relationships and connect creative people with other creative people, breaking barriers and making our PG arts and culture scene stronger every day. Everyone is welcome. No experience or equipment necessary.”

Following the Sunday drumming, OAC hosts a folk-rock concert by a trio of artists: Corwin Fox, Naomi Shore, and Kitty & The Rooster. It happens March 18 at 8 p.m. (doors at 7:30) for $15 at the door.

‘This is good for... buyers and developers and builders’

— from page 1

“With recent trends in land prices, taller wood buildings allow a larger number of homes on a smaller lot,” Adera’s Eric Andreasen said of the announcement.

“This is good for... buyers and developers and builders. Opportunity comes with acceptance from buyers, consultants like architects and engineers, and approving officials. Acceptance comes from awareness. This announcement is generating an awareness of the potential to build taller wood buildings that perform as well as, if not better than concrete buildings built to code.”

Currently, there are only a few B.C. examples of wooden buildings over six storeys.

UBC’s Brock Commons student

housing is a pilot 12-storey residential building constructed out of mass timber.

According to the B.C. government, the estimated carbon benefit from the wood used in the Brock Commons building was equivalent to taking 511 cars off the

road for a year.

Other construction companies are also embracing mass timber, including laneway home builders such as Rockridge Fine Homes. Rockridge is supplied by B.C.’s leading CLT manufacturer Structurlam – which also provided the CLT for Brock Commons.

Hardy Wenztel, CEO of Structurlam, told Glacier Media in a recent interview, “CLT and other forms of mass timber have been used widely for more than two decades in Europe. Although mass timber is a nascent material here in B.C., we’re at a point where we’re seeing a groundswell of product acceptance in the marketplace – and B.C. is at the North American forefront of understanding and proliferation of the product.”

Wentzel outlined the benefits of mass timber as “building faster, building sustainably, building economically and building higher quality, compared with steel and concrete buildings. We can prefabricate our CLT in a climate-controlled

workshop using computer-controlled robots, within a tolerance of a millimetre – compared with steel-framed buildings, where the tolerance can be half an inch.”

It is theoretically possible to build any height of building out of mass timber, even a skyscraper, said Wentzel – but he believes eight- to 10-storey buildings are the “sweet spot” in terms of what’s needed. Premier John Horgan said in the code change announcement, “Companies like Structurlam are leading the way with innovative engineered wood products that create jobs in the forest sector and opportunity for people in communities throughout B.C. Changes to the national building code that allow for taller wood buildings take effect next year, but we’re not waiting to get started. Our government is ready to work with communities to build safe, secure and green tall wood buildings that will create jobs, grow B.C.’s value-added sector and realize our low-carbon future.”

Rustad praises step towards taller wood buildings

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

Opposition Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations critic John Rustad welcomed news that the provincial government will get a jump on allowing “mass timber” buildings of up to 12 storeys in B.C.

Premier John Horgan and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson announced the change on Tuesday in Okanagan Falls.

The 2020 National Building Code is expected to allow mass timber construction up to 12 storeys and will be reflected in the next edition of the B.C. Building Code.

In the lead up, eligible local governments are now able to approve the structures.

“Changes to the national building code that allow for taller wood buildings take effect next year, but we’re not waiting to get started,” Horgan said Tuesday.

“Our government is ready to work with communities to build safe, secure and green tall wood buildings that will create jobs, grow B.C.’s value-added sector and realize our low-carbon future.”

Rustad, the MLA for Nechako Lakes, said it follows on the previous B.C. Liberal government’s “wood first” policy that saw the introduction of such buildings to a height of six storeys.

“The next step was to look at these taller buildings,” he said.

Mass timber buildings are defined as those in which the primary load-bearing structure is made of either solid or engineered wood.

The Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George is an example.

Rustad sees potential for greater use of wood in the Lower Mainland burgeoning condominium market.

But he cautioned that while the market in B.C. will create some demand, it will still amount to only a small fraction of the lumber produced in the province for export.

The longer-term goal would be to use the province to showcase to export markets the advantages of using wood to build multi-storey buildings, according to Rustad.

“That’s where the real benefit could be for our forest industry,” he said.

As well, B.C. has obtained permission from the National Research Council to use the encapsulated mass timber – where the components are surrounded by fire-resistant materials like drywall – through a jurisdictionspecific regulation.

Rustad said the government also needs to address struggles sawmills are having with cost competitiveness, saying he’s heard

the break-even point for producers now stands at US$400 per thousand board feet.

Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations Doug Donaldson has said he plans to launch a review of forest policy as it relates to the Interior by the end of April.

Rustad said he hopes the review will look at such items as resource roads and how the province can help with transporting logs.

“Perhaps taking out whole logs as opposed to what we’re doing now which is cut to length to try to reduce the costs of the secondary opportunities where that wood waste would (go to) pellets or other types of industry,” Rustad said.

‘I have had such an amazing time while here’

— from page 1

That project is still underway, she pledged, with her intention to see it through to performance.

Together, Brotman and Grinhaus “brought a period of renewal to the theatre,” said Suhr. The fortunes of the company were at a generational crossroads when they arrived and “Grinhaus brought exciting new works, community engagement initiatives, and a fresh, vibrant energy and appeal to the theatre.”

We know his family needs him now and we also know he will continue to do great things wherever he goes in his career.

— Hans Suhr

Everyone who made regular visits to see TNW shows has their own list of favourites, but particular buzz was generated for Drowning Girls, Art, the casting and set appointment of Alice In Wonderland, It’s a Wonderful Life: Radio Play, bringing in Cariboo actor/writer Julia Mackey’s original play Jake’s Gift, and the box office record breaker Million Dollar Quartet that made this past season the highest fan watermark in the 25-year history of Theatre Northwest.

He and Brotman were also influential in partnerships and associations with UNBC, the Prince George Public Library, the local Pride community and much more.

“I have had such an amazing time while here,” Grinhaus said. “I watched my son grow up, my partner Lauren thrive in remarkable roles, and the theatre come through a transition. I feel so much was achieved during my time here, and it is the right time to hand the reins over to a new voice and energy. I feel a great sense of accomplishment from my work at the theatre. That, along with recent family health issues has meant it is time for me to hand over the reins. It has been a difficult decision, but I know it is right for me, and my family. We will miss this theatre, its audiences whom I’ve come to know personally, its incredible staff and board, and this community. I thank every one of them for the opportunity to be a part it all.”

He does not close the door on returning, should circumstances unfold favourably in the future, and he will still be a helpful hand in the upcoming season that he has already arranged and has set to go. He also promised to be an ally as needed for whomever comes next to the post of TNW’s artistic director and an active ambassador for Prince George wherever he goes.

“We know his family needs him now and we also know he will continue to do great things wherever he goes in his career,” said Suhr.

“We wish Jack all the best.”

A search for TNW’s new artistic director is underway with a national search to begin in the coming weeks.

Amy Acker coming to FanCon

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

A true sci-fi heroine is coming to Northern FanCon.

Amy Acker is a Saturn Award winner (Best Supporting Female Actor On Television, 2003, for Angel) and an Indie Series Awards winner (Best Guest Star-Comedy, 2014, for Husbands) and a face well known to science fiction and superhero audiences for a large body of work far and above a single role.

“She has street cred like crazy,” said Northern FanCon organizer and arranger Norm Coyne.

“In 2017 she was one of the favourites at Calgary’s fan expo, she gets a lot of attention at events like ours. She’s a major player.”

She is best known for starring as Winifred “Fred” Burkle (and also a supporting character called Illyria) on the highly popular supernatural drama series Angel.

She was Kelly Peyton on the action drama series Alias.

She moved on to play Root on the science-fiction drama series Person of Interest and also voice the role of The Machine on that series. Acker was pivotal as Dr. Claire Saunders/Whiskey in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse series.

As of 2017, she’s been starring as Caitlin Strucker on the superhero drama series The Gifted based on Marvel Comics’ X-Men, bringing her to a whole new and current prime-time audience.

In smaller parts she has been cast in shows like How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Human Target, the horror film Cabin In The Woods, the lead part of Amanda in the movie Amanda & Jack Go Glamping, a recurring guest role in Suits, some screen time over two seasons of the rebooted MacGyver series, and most recently she plays the part of Kathleen Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy.

Sewer main budget rises

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mneilsen@pgcitizen.ca

A further $4.5 million has been earmarked for installation of the new sewer main in the city’s downtown.

City council approved the increase on Monday night, boosting the total cost of the project to $5.1 million.

The money to come out of a reserve for such projects and the tax levy will not be affected, council was told.

The pipe has been installed but work to switch over from the old sewer to the new sewer, and restoration and cleanup are still to be done this year.

In a report and presentation to city council, engineering projects supervisor Hayley Sedola said the original intention was to relocated 230 metres of a 30-centimetre trunk gravity sewer along the alleys from Sixth Avenue and across Queensway to Ontario Street.

But preliminary engineering work revealed limited room in the lane, conflicts with other utilities and insufficient pipe slope. As well, adjacent development in the area – notably the Park House condominium project, the new Four Seasons Pool and a new hotel – meant additional capacity will be needed.

The plan was revised to install 1.1 kilometres of new line stretching east along Lower Patricia Boulevard from a lift station at Dominion Street and Seventh Avenue to one near Lower Patricia and Fourth Avenue.

The intersection of Queensway and Patricia Boulevard was closed for most of November and the first week of December to install the line along Patricia.

Virus found in fish farms not as harmful as believed, studies say

Amy SMART Citizen news service

VANCOUVER — Two new studies suggest a fish virus linked with a potentially deadly disease in Norway that has inspired an antifish farm movement on the West Coast isn’t as harmful as some believe.

The studies were released Wednesday in the journals Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Physiology and review the effects of piscine orthoreovirus, also known as PRV, on Atlantic salmon in Pacific waters.

Studies in Norway have linked PRV with a disease known as heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, which does not affect human health but has killed Atlantic salmon farms in that country.

But Mark Polinski, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientist who was the lead and colead author on each study respectively, says they found the virus does not seem to have the same effect on Atlantic salmon studied in British Columbia.

While PRV could be a contributing factor to fish developing the disease, the study suggests it’s not the sole cause and seems to cause less harm, Polinski said.

“With this data, it’s kind of clearly showing you can’t just blame it on the presence or absence of PRV,” he said. As part of the study, scientists injected healthy fish with the virus collected from an infected fish that also had heart lesions consistent with the muscle inflammation disease.

“A lot of people will know her from Con Man and that’s one that Alan Tudyk was also a major part of, so we are now starting to have crossovers happening at FanCon where guests know each other from mutual projects. We have a teamup,” Coyne said. A true craftswoman, Acker was a student of ballet, jazz and modern dance in her youth, then went on to earn a degree from the acclaimed Southern Methodist University theatre program.

She and her college roommates had weekly Buffy The Vampire Slayer pizza parties, when little did she know her first big break would be a major role in the Buffy franchise, doing five seasons of Angel alongside David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, J. August Richards and other cast members. Acker has done everything in the industry from voice-over work on cartoons to Shakespearean theatre.

The work hasn’t been easy. Sedola described the existing piping along parts of the route as “a bit of a bowl of spaghetti” that has required workers to weave the new line through existing infrastructure.

Few actors can touch as many popular franchises as Acker, putting an extraordinarily familiar face with an extraordinarily wide range of audiences into the laps of local convention goers. For a chance to meet Acker and hear her tell personal stories of her many connections to the film and television industry, be there for Northern FanCon May 3-5 at CN Centre.

RCMP seeking four suspects at large

Citizen staff

Prince George RCMP released images and descriptions of four people suspected of carrying out a range of offences and is asking for the public’s help to track them down.

Warren Allan Beatie, 44, is an Indigenous man, five-foot-nine, 166 pounds with black hair and brown eyes and tattoos on his forearms.

Beatie is wanted on an allegation of breaching probation a late-2018 incident. He has ties to the Houston and Smithers areas.

Beatie is considered violent and should not be approached. Instead, call police immediately.

Alisha Chelsi Burger, 24, is an Indigenous woman, five-foot-eight,155 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a tattoo on her right forearm.

Burger is wanted on allegations of obstructing a peace officer, breaching probation, possessing stolen property, breaching an undertaking and failing to appear in court stemming from incidents in Prince George, Kelowna and Salmon Arm in 2016 and 2018.

Casey Dawn Monk, 31, is an Indigenous woman, five-foot-six, 150 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Monk is wanted on allegations of possessing a controlled substance stemming from an incident that occurred in Prince George in 2018.

Sean Patrick Patterson, 48, is an Indigenous man, five-foot-11, 155 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.

Patterson is wanted for an allegation of breaching probation stemming from a 2017 incident in Prince George. He may be in the Victoria area.

Patterson is considered violent and should not be approached. Instead, call police immediately.

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.

Each of the pipes have had to be exposed by hand to make sure they’re not damaged by heavy equipment, Sedola said, and added some of it is fragile due to its age, “so it can be delicate to work around.”

Trouble with groundwater added to the challenge, Sedola said. The jump in cost raised alarm bells for Coun. Brian Skakun. In response, engineering and public works general manager Dave Dyer said costs are rising in general because contractors are so busy.

“We might have more difficulty getting contractors to bid and if they do, it’ll be pricey,” Dyer said.

Council was also given a preview of changes in store at Veterans Plaza in front of city hall that will be part of the work.

Cautioning that the plan is still in draft form and stakeholders are still being consulted, city engineering director Adam Homes said parking on the north side of Seventh is to be removed and the sidewalk widened providing room for trees and street lights.

A sidewalk is also to be added on the south side of Seventh while the plaza will be expanded north to towards Sixth Avenue. A section of George Street, running along the northeast side of the plaza will be closed and a lighted walkway put in place connecting Seventh and Patricia.

Seventh Avenue would be used more as a plaza, Homes said, with temporary bollards at the entrance to Sixth Avenue and at the entrance to city hall so the stretch can be blocked off for events.

There will also be plug-ins on the street lights for vendors to use.

Council also voted to use the city’s endowment reserve as the source for the $12.6 million budgeted for the parkade to be constructed as part of the condominium project.

police cruiser

Citizen staff

A Penticton man is in custody on assault and weapons charges after allegedly ramming a Prince George RCMP car. Michael Daniel Jakins, 33, has been charged with assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, fleeing police, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace. Police said the trouble began at about 2:30 p.m. when an officer on patrol observed a driver failing to signal while turning and attempted to pull the vehicle over.

The driver refused to stop and continued west along Strathcona Avenue before coming to a dead end. When the officer attempted to block him in, the driver rammed the RCMP vehicle, police said. Jakins and a passenger were arrested without further incident and the officer was not injured. A search of the vehicle uncovered bear spray, knives and a small amount of what is believed to be fentanyl, according to RCMP.

The virus load exploded in the healthy fish, but they didn’t develop the significant heart lesions that the original infected fish had. Some developed minor heart inflammation but that also happened in the control population of healthy fish, he said. The reason for the difference between Canada and Norway is still unknown but he said it could come down to genetic differences in both the disease and the fish.

The second study published Wednesday found that although PRV affects oxygencarrying red blood cells, infected fish performed just as well as healthy fish when it came to respiratory tasks.

“We’re not trying to say it’s not causing any harm at all,” said Polinski, pointing to previous studies on the effects of the virus including one that linked PRV to an equally deadly type of anemia in at least one species of wild B.C. salmon.

“It’s probably likely that PRV is not making the situation any better and very well may be contributing to it, but it’s hard to pin it all on PRV.”

Opponents of ocean-based fish farms have argued the muscle inflammation disease could spread to wild stocks, making them lethargic and vulnerable to prey. There are still gaps in knowledge about how the virus and disease affect wild stocks, but Polinski said he recently completed a parallel study looking at whether PRV caused the disease in sockeye and could not prove any causation.

The federal government also announced Wednesday that it will not appeal a recent Federal Court decision ordering it to review its policy not to test young farmed salmon for PRV before the fish are transferred to open-net farms along the British Columbia coast.

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the department is reviewing its policies in line with the court decision and results are due this spring.

“What the court found was the threshold the department is presently using to assess harm to wild salmon was set too low and asks us, me specifically, to go back and review the wild salmon policy to ensure that it was appropriate in terms of assessment of harm,” he said in an interview. The department is developing a risk framework that will clarify how risk is assessed and on what basis, he said.

Wilkinson said the court decision doesn’t compel him to change the policy not to test for PRV ahead of a transfer, but the department will make decisions on that and other aspects of its policy using the best scientific information available.

The ‘Namgis First Nation challenged a Fisheries and Oceans Canada authorization transferring Atlantic salmon smolts to an open-pen aquaculture facility in Vancouver Island’s Broughton Archipelago without

friends in Kenya.

Citizen news service

TORONTO — A 72-year-old Toronto man was identified Wednesday as one of the Canadian victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia.

The Ismaili Centre said Ameen Noormohamed was on board the Ethiopian Airlines plane that went down on Sunday moments after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew.

“We understand that members of the deceased’s family have made their way to Kenya and are in the midst of making arrangements,” the centre said in a statement.

Noormohamed, who lived in the Toronto area, was one of 18 Canadians who died in the crash.

The youngest was a nine-month-old baby girl – the only Canadian citizen in her family – who was travelling with her mother, grandmother and two older siblings to meet her grandfather in Kenya for the first time. Rubi Paul’s grandfather said he was struggling to accept the devastating loss of much of his family.

A Brampton, Ont., family was also mourning six of its members who had been on their way to enjoy a safari in Kenya. Two teen sisters – 13-year-old Anushka Dixit and 14-year-old Ashka – their mother, Kosha Vaidya, 37, and father, Prerit Dixit, 45, were killed. The girls’ grandparents, who were believed to be Indian citizens, were also killed in the crash.

A Hamilton-area family, meanwhile, was mourning a special education teacher who had a passion for volunteering with the vulnerable. Cody French said his mother, Dawn Tanner had been travelling to visit

A number of other victims had been travelling to a United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi when their Ethiopian Airlines flight went down.

Micah Messent, Danielle Moore and Angela Rehhorn and Darcy Belanger were all slated to attend the conference through various humanitarian or conservation organizations.

Other victims included Stephanie Lacroix, who was working with the United Nations Association in Canada, and career aid worker Jessica Hyba, who was employed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Forestry advocate Peter deMarsh of New Brunswick, Carleton University literature professor Pius Adesanmi, Calgary accountant Derick Lwugi, and a mother and daughter from Edmonton – Amina Ibrahim Odowaa and five-yearold Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir – were also killed in the crash. Ethiopian authorities have said it will take several days to identify the remains of the victims.

— see related story, page 7

Man dies after being held in police cells, IIO called in

being tested for PRV or another serious disease. An appeal of that authorization is still before the courts.

Fisheries and Oceans says its officials are working to ensure the aquaculture sector is economically successful and environmentally sustainable.

“At the end of the day, aquaculture is a significant economic opportunity for British Columbia and Atlantic Canada, but we only get there through a path where people believe it is being done in an environmentally sustainable way,” Wilkinson said. The department is continuing a study of on-land and sea-based closed containment fish farming technology that could keep farmed salmon out of waters shared with B.C.’s wild stocks, reducing the potential for the transfer of diseases. It says the study’s results are expected this summer.

Amy Acker attends the Fox Networks Group 2018 programming presentation afterparty at Wollman Rink in New York on May 14, 2018.

BEATIE BURGER

MONK PATTERSON

You might like pot but your dog won’t

It wasn’t a big dog that staggered into the Juan de Fuca Veterinary Clinic in Victoria, but not a super-small one, either. Probably weighed 20 pounds.

“We don’t know what’s wrong,” the owners said.

Dr. Margaret Cairns had a pretty good idea, though. The dog was showing the signs of marijuana poisoning.

“It looked drunk, basically.”

It turned out this dog began acting strangely about an hour after being taken for a walk.

That’s a common story.

The same quiet, wooded paths where people like to walk their dogs are the same secluded trails where people like to stroll and smoke weed — and to dispose of the roaches, which your household hound hoovers up along with all the other interesting-smelling bits along the way.

Next thing you know, an hour, hour and a half later, the dog has gone strange — drowsy, lacking co-ordination, starting to fall over before catching itself and regaining its balance.

Maybe it urinates, or seems hyper-

sensitive to loud sounds, or acts anxious or paranoid.

It’s an awful experience for a dog.

This isn’t a rare occurrence. Cairns has had two similar cases in the past couple of months. It’s even more common at the Central Victoria Veterinary Hospital – the animal ER – where they average maybe one suspected doggie overdose a day. The numbers climb during holidays and long weekends, when more people are out and about.

Anecdotally, there hasn’t been much change since legalization in October. The dogs-and-dope dilemma isn’t new (“We’ve always seen it,” Cairns says. “It’s always been an issue.”) but isn’t getting worse, either – possibly because, legal or not, anybody who wanted to consume cannabis already did so.

What might become different, though, is where people choose to consume. If they now feel freer to inhale outdoors, the worry is that pets will stumble into more pot when out in public. “As the warmer weather hits, there may be an increase,” says the veterinary hospital’s Dr. Christin MacIntyre.

The experience of other jurisdictions shows cause for concern. A story out of Massachusetts last week talked about dogs overdosing after nosing their way through a field where an outdoor music festival had been staged. The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association cites a study showing a fourfold jump in cannabis poisoning among pets in Colorado after marijuana was legalized there.

The problem isn’t confined to dogs getting into randomly discarded butts, of course. The leading cause of intoxication is actually cannabis edibles – gummies and brownies wolfed down when left on too-low counters in the home. People are pretty good about fessing up when that happens, though. The owners will be upfront, MacIntyre finds.

“The marijuana butters, marijuana oils, marijuana baked goods are much more potent.”

What complicates things is when no one knows what the source of the dog’s distress is. The symptoms can mimic ones displayed when other toxins are involved.

“There are other things that look like pot,” Cairns says. “Anti-freeze is the scary one.”

YOUR LETTERS

Biologists holding local workshop

Professional regulation in the province of B.C. is changing. The passing of the Professional Governance Act provides the College of Applied Biology the opportunity to take a leading role in improving protection of the public interest through its regulation of the profession of applied biology. Currently, applied biology is a “Right to Title” but that will change with the enactment of the “Right to Practice” regulation of the Professional Governance Act: in the future, membership to the college will be compulsory for those practicing applied biology. The scope of practice for applied biology, and all the work that falls within it, is therefore an important element of regulating the profession, and of protecting the public interest.

Applied biology has evolved over time, perhaps more than any other applied science discipline. With the proliferation of topics such as conservation, climate change and environmental risk assessment, the college needs to generate a fulsome scope of practice that is fair to biology professionals but allows for proper regulation of the profession. Consequently, the college is seeking input from applied biologists, other resource management professionals and members of the public as it works to refine the scope of practice.

The college will gather input

during a series of open workshops, one of which will be held in Prince George on March 21 starting at noon in the Ramada Plaza Prince George.

This workshop is an opportunity to hear from professionals and the public about where applied biology fits in the spectrum of resource management and how the college can fulfill its legislative mandate in a just manner.

The evening of March 21, the college CEO will present an informative session about the new act and answer questions related to right to practice, scope of practice and the role that applied biology professionals play in the resource management sector. If you are interested in attending, more information can be found on the College’s website.

If you have any questions regarding the College of Applied Biology or the scope of practice of applied biology, please direct your questions to Tory Davis at ea-comm@cab-bc.org

Derek Marcoux Victoria

Money over the law

It is sad that the Canadian government in power now, as previous governments as well, seek to promote corporations making big bucks rather than standing up for the environment, stopping climate change, and looking after the rights of Indigenous peoples, by following the UN Charter for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We are fortunate that Jody

Wilson-Raybould has made Trudeau’s cozy relationship with SNC-Lavalin public. The Canadian government has a long history of cozying up to corporations and putting the law aside for them. Justin Trudeau has shown throughout his term in office that he is willing to ignore Indigenous rights in order to satisfy corporate greed. Corporations should always have to follow Canadian law and suffer the consequences when they break them. Corporations should not have ‘special treatment’ just because they are “job creators.”

Laws that protect people and the planet must not be scrapped for corporate profit.

Everyone will suffer while making big bucks dominates the government’s agenda rather than looking after our welfare by stopping all the corporate actions that contribute to climate change and decimate our environment.

Alas, Coastal GasLink’s current and ongoing action at the Unist’ot’en Camp are an example of a B.C. Supreme Court Judge thinking that making big bucks justifies environmental damage and disrespect for Indigenous rights to their traditional territory, which was granted through the Delgamuukw Decision and the Tsilhqot’in Decision. We will all pay dearly for the damage to our environment and climate if this kind of action continues. It is time for us to look after our deepest needs.

Antonia Mills

Prince George

The smaller the dog, the more intense the effects of the marijuana. Cats are susceptible, too, though it’s relatively rare for them to get into trouble.

“Cats generally avoid eating garbage, scavenging cigarette-type butts on walks around the block, or table- or counter-surfing,” the veterinary association’s website says. “They also lack a sweet tooth, so we do not see them take in pot products like dogs do.”

If the pot-ingestion is caught early, vets will try to induce vomiting, MacIntyre said, but it’s actually dangerous to do so once the dog is sleepy or has difficulty swallowing, as the animal could aspirate the vomit. Sometimes, they’ll give the dog activated charcoal to filter THC from its bloodstream. A mild sedative might help it deal with what is a freaky experience, Cairns says. No, it’s not funny to blow smoke in your pet’s face. And yes, even what seems like a harmless amount to a human can be hell on a dog.

“People need to be aware,” Cairns says.

“Don’t drop your roaches.”

— Jack Knox, Victoria Times Colonist

Money doesn’t always win votes

Atraipse through the financial reports from the referendum campaign raises even more questions about how proportional-representation advocates managed to lose the vote.

It looked at the outset as if they had every advantage.

Opinion polls at the start – before any details – suggested that the idea had majority support.

The premier and the governing party wanted the change and campaigned ardently.

The government’s partner in power was equally enthusiastic about a new voting system.

Rallies got the segment of the population who cares about the issue energized.

The rules were slanted at every opportunity toward a Yes vote.

As someone who thought the fix was in and Yes would win, I am startled to learn the Yes side had a financial edge, along with all the other advantages.

Reports released this week by Elections B.C. show the Yes side had a lot more money at its disposal to swing the vote.

That just compounds the surprise about the result, announced last December.

The Yes side went down to defeat, losing by a convincing margin, 61-39 by percentage of the overall vote.

In the battle for hearts and minds, they wound up more than 300,000 votes behind the nochange side.

It wasn’t for lack of funding.

Both sides got $500,000 in taxpayers’ money to make their cases.

And both camps were free to raise more money.

The No side was more successful in that effort, but not by much.

The No side listed $196,000 in donations, while the Yes side posted $148,695.

Where the Yes side outdistanced the No camp was in the funds raised by interested entities outside of the two officially designated groups. They all had to register as advertising sponsors and file reports.

All three parties in the house registered and contributed heavily.

The NDP put in $196,000 and the B.C. Greens listed $176,000.

Regardless of how cavalier Green Leader Andrew Weaver was about the loss, the contribution suggests how important the vote was to his party.

The amount represented about a quarter of the party’s total dona-

tions last year.

That’s $372,000 for the Yes campaign from the two parties that control the legislature, compared with the $173,000 the B.C. Liberals donated to the No camp. There were several other bigbudget entities that backed the Yes side.

The B.C. Government Employees Union donated $84,000, FairVote Canada B.C., a national voting-change lobby group with a B.C. address, donated $192,000.

The LeadNow Society, a political advocacy group, filed a report saying it collected $66,000 in sponsorship contributions, although it spent less than that.

B.C. Liberals are keen to support the impression they were underdog winners of last year’s contest. So party executive director Emile Scheffel said it was “shocking” to learn they were outspent almost four to one.

Bill Tieleman, one of the leaders of the No campaign, criticized the other side’s tactics during and after the campaign. On Tuesday, he said the financial reports back that criticism.

He said the Yes side was much more interested in getting out the votes from people who were committed to proportional representation, rather than bringing new supporters into their camp.

On the other side, the campaign to maintain the status quo concentrated on reaching as many voters as possible with its message, which was one full of suspicion about the effect of changing how we vote.

People turned out to be receptive to that message.

The Yes side also took an enormous hit at the start.

The strong support for proportional representation in opinion polls lasted only until people started seeing details.

When the two-question ballot with one three-part multiplechoice question was released, doubts started to arise.

The financial data released this week resurrect a bit of the argument over tactics and strategy that was running hot months ago.

But it also suggests that all the money in the world spent trying to persuade people won’t swing the vote if the idea is a confusing proposition that leaves many questions to be decided later.

LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. 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).

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LES LEYNE

Feds ground Boeing 737 Max 8s for safety reasons

Citizen news service

Transport Minister Marc Garneau is closing Canadian skies to the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, effectively grounding the planes over safety concerns arising from the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed everyone on board, including 18 Canadians.

The decision to ground the planes is a precautionary move that was made after a review of all the available evidence, Garneau told a news conference Wednesday in Ottawa that was twice delayed by what he called new incoming information.

“There are – and I hasten to say not conclusive – but there are similarities” between the Ethiopian Airlines flight profile and that of a Lion Air flight involving the same aircraft that crashed off the Indonesian coast in October, the minister said.

Those similarities, he said, “exceed a certain threshold in our minds with respect to the possible cause of what happened in Ethiopia. This is not conclusive, but it is something that points possibly in that direction, and at this point we feel that threshold has been crossed.”

The “safety notice” means none of the aircraft – or a new version, the Max 9, which isn’t as widely used – can fly into, out of, or over Canada, he added: “I will not hesitate

to take swift action should we discover any additional safety issues.”

Garneau tipped off his American counterparts just before the announcement about the Canadians’ change of heart on the aircraft. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would follow suit.

Trump said he had told American airlines about the decision as well as Boeing and all agreed with his administration’s decision. Any planes in the air will be grounded upon landing, and remain on the ground until further notice, Trump said, while Boeing works on a fix to the aircraft’s software.

“The safety of the American people and all people is our paramount concern,” Trump said in announcing his decision.

While aviation experts warn against drawing conclusions until more information emerges from the crash investigation, numerous jurisdictions, including China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union, had grounded the Max 8 or banned it from their airspace before Canada and the U.S. did.

Garneau said evidence about multiple Boeing 737 Max 8 flights suggests a worrying correlation between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the tragedy in Indonesia less than five months ago. In certain circum-

stances, the planes’ systems try to tilt their noses down, contrary to the efforts of pilots – a pattern that was seen in both flights before they crashed, he said.

“I would repeat once again that this is not the proof that this is the same root problem,” he emphasized. “It could be something else.”

Passenger-rights advocate Gabor Lukacs said Wednesday that it would be prudent for Garneau to suspend use of the aircraft until questions are answered about what caused the Ethiopian crash.

“Generally, one should always be erring on the side of caution when it comes to safety questions,” he said from Halifax. “If there is enough evidence of a potential harm, and in this case I think there is evidence of potential harm, then the prudent thing is to ground those aircraft.”

He said airlines should allow passengers to rebook on other planes or cancel their tickets without penalty if they have apprehensions about flying on a Max 8.

Garneau said affected travellers should contact their airlines to find out what to do, he added.

“There will be some disruption, there’s no question about that,” he said, but safety is more important. He said he hopes the planes will be flying safely within weeks.

In a statement Wednesday, before the order from Transport Canada, Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said the airline has a “flexible rebooking policy” that includes options to change flights to another aircraft if space permits, but wouldn’t indicate if that comes with a fee.

“Based on real information and data, and ongoing consultations with government safety regulators including Transport Canada and the FAA, we have full confidence in the safety of our fleet and operations and we continue to operate the 737,” she said in an email.

Air Canada, along with Southwest and American Airlines, had been the major outliers in resisting a grounding of the planes. Air Canada has 24 Max 8 aircraft (out of 184 in its main fleet), which it uses mainly for domestic and U.S. routes, while Calgarybased WestJet Airlines Ltd. has 13 Max 8s (out of about 150 planes).

Air Canada cancelled London-bound flights from Halifax and St. John’s, N.L., after the United Kingdom banned all Boeing Max 8 jets from its airspace.

The U.S.-based Boeing had said it had no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies and did not intend to issue new recommendations about the aircraft to customers.

Liberals shut down SNC-Lavalin investigation

Opposition MPs erupted in fury Wednesday after the Liberals used their majority on the House of Commons justice committee to delay an opposition attempt to call Jody Wilson-Raybould to testify again on the SNC-Lavalin affair.

The meeting was called as an emergency session by the three Conservatives and one New Democrat MP, after the Liberals used their majority last week to put off having the discussion on future witnesses until March 19. That is also the day the federal government will drop the 2019 budget.

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre kicked things off with a motion to summon the former attorney general back, saying she “was not allowed to complete her testimony” the first time.

But after two Conservatives and NDP MP Tracey Ramsey laid out the reasons the committee should bring the former star cabinet minister back to speak a second time, Liberal Francis Drouin moved to suspend the sitting and reconvene on March 19 as originally planned.

Thus far no Liberals have said publicly whether they will agree to call her a second time. She testified the first time on Feb. 27, in a four-hour session where she laid out her case that the Prime Minister’s Office had put sustained pressure on her over four months last autumn to change her mind on diverting a criminal prosecution of SNCLavalin. The engineering and construction giant faces charges of bribing foreign officials in Libya.

Poilievre tried in vain to raise point of order demanding his motion be fully dealt

with before Drouin’s but according to committee rules, a motion to adjourn takes precedence over anything else the committee might do.

The Liberals, with five MPs to the opposition’s four, prevailed. The discussion on future witnesses, including Wilson-Raybould, will now be next week, in private.

Opposition MPs were incensed, leaping to their feet and shouting out epithets like “shame,” “coverup” and “despicable!”

Conservative Michael Barrett pointed across the committee room floor at Drouin and yelled that he hoped Drouin knows how to “translate ‘coverup’ ” into French when he spoke with reporters outside the room.

CITIZEN

The governing Liberals shot down efforts Wednesday by opposition MPs to summon former justice minister and attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould, left, to testify again before the House of Commons justice committee.

Drouin shrugged off the criticism.

“The committee has already expressed its wishes on March 6 to have this particular hearing on March 19 so it’s as simple as that,” he said as he left the room.

Poilievre told the committee he wanted Wilson-Raybould to appear again to answer claims made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former top aide Gerald Butts. Wilson-Raybould quit the federal cabinet in mid-February, a few days after the allegations of improper pressure arose.

When he testified, Butts put the dispute down to a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings. Poilievre said it wasn’t fair that Butts got to speak about things

that happened between the time WilsonRaybould was shuffled from the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs in January and the day she quit cabinet a month later, while the former minister herself felt bound by cabinet-secrecy obligations. Trudeau could have let her speak openly, he said.

Both Butts and Wilson-Raybould were freed to speak about matters often protected by cabinet confidences, and in her case, solicitor-client privilege, by a waiver issued by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in late February.

The waiver does not, however, allow Wilson-Raybould to speak about the period after she was shuffled from Justice to Veterans Affairs, including her conversations with Trudeau about why she quit cabinet. Poilievre said Trudeau needs to extend the waiver because something clearly happened in that time that was so “egregious” it pushed Wilson-Raybould to quit.

But Poilievre said Trudeau doesn’t want Canadians to know what that is.

“He sent in his majority to shut down that discussion without a debate and ensure that Canadians will never know the truth,” Poilievre said after the abrupt end of the meeting. “If they were going to let her speak, they could have done it today ... Justin Trudeau is transforming the justice committee into the Justin committee.” Ramsey said Trudeau himself has benefited from a double standard.

“We’ve heard the prime minister speak very freely about a period of time that Ms. Wilson-Raybould has not been able to speak about,” Ramsey said. “Today, (Liberals) signalled to Canadians that they aren’t interested in the truth.”

Motte doubles for Canucks against Rangers

the second period.

VANCOUVER — Tyler Motte scored two goals in 11 seconds to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

Brock Boeser and Jake Virtanen also scored for the Canucks (29-32-9).

Pavel Buchnevich responded with a power-play goal for the Rangers (28-29-13).

Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 shots Henrik Lundqvist had 24 saves for New York but was held back from collecting his 450th career win.

It was a tough night overall for the Rangers, who became the first team this season to lose two players to misconducts in a single game after left-wingers Chris Kreider and Brendan Lemieux were both ejected in

Star rookie Elias Pettersson left the ice with a bloodied face after taking an elbow from Kreider along the end boards 4:23 into the second period.

Pettersson returned to the Canucks’ bench near the end of the period and Kreider was handed a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

Vancouver capitalized on the man advantage with Josh Leivo flipping a backhanded pass to Boeser at the face-off dot.

The right-winger dropped to his knee and unleashed a rocket, sailing the puck over Lundqvist’s shoulder.

Nine seconds after the power play ended, Motte collected a cross-ice pass from Vancouver defenceman Alex Edler and faked right on the Rangers’ netminder before popping the puck into the left side of the net around Lundqvist’s skate.

The 24-year-old centre added another

goal 11 seconds later, marking the first multi-goal game of his NHL career. He now has 16 points in 68 games this season.

Vancouver’s Antoine Roussel was injured on the play, colliding with Lemieux in front of the net.

The feisty Canucks left-winger crumpled to the ice, grabbing his leg in pain and had to be helped off the ice. He did not return to the game.

Lemieux was given a game misconduct for the play.

Some sloppy penalties threatened to turn the game midway through the third period, with the Canucks having to go five-on-three for a minute and 33 seconds.

But Vancouver’s penalty-kill unit managed to hold the Rangers off, allowing just a single shot. A stick save from Markstrom steered the puck out of harm’s way and into New York’s end.

The Rangers finally capitalized on the

man advantage 10:28 into the final frame after Edler was called for interference.

Mika Zibanejad sliced a pass to Buchnevich down low and the right-winger put a snap shot in past Markstrom to put New York on the board.

Virtanen added an empty-net goal for Vancouver with 25 seconds to go in the game.

The Canucks will be back in action on Friday, hosting the New Jersey Devils. The Rangers are off to Calgary where they’ll battle the Flames on Friday.

NOTES: Chris Tanev returned to the Canucks lineup on Wednesday. The 29-yearold defenceman missed 11 games with an ankle injury after he went down in a game against the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 13. ... Canucks left-winger Loui Eriksson was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. He has 22 points over 69 games. ... Virtanen played his 200th NHL game.

UNBC sign Duchess student to soccer squad

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

The UNBC soccer team unveiled their latest recruit and it’s a name already well known on the Prince George pitch.

Demian Dron is a product of the Duchess Park Secondary School and PG Youth Soccer Association programs and now he gets to pull on the Timberwolves jersey of his hometown university team.

“A few years back, I came to a UNBC game and saw the community support,” said Dron.

“I thought it was a great playing environment and started to think maybe I could play on this team. I started understanding U SPORTS when I was about 14 or 15 years old.

“I have been training to improve my conditioning and

strength, because I really want to be a part of this program.”

The players and coaches already look up to their new rookie.

“He happens to be six-foot-five and extremely athletic” according to team sources.

Timberwolves coach Steve Simonson has had his eye on the 17-year-old for a number of years and suggests his newest athlete

“has the potential to make a major impact on the UNBC program” over his five years of eligibility.

“Demian is a quality young player,” Simonson said.

“He is extremely versatile, in terms of positions he can play, due to his size and technical ability. I think the future is very bright for Demian within our program, and I look forward to seeing him grow and develop into a significant player for us.”

The TWolves saw fifth-year centrebacks Gordon Hall and Conrad Rowlands graduate this

past season, so adding Dron to a stable of hungry young defenders is a great benefit to the program moving forward, said Simonson.

Dron said Hall, a three-time Canada West all-star and fellow PGYSA product, was an ideal player to model his own game around.

“I am hoping to earn that starting position,” Dron said. “I have to step it up. I have been watching Gordon play and I really like the way he plays. I am hoping to base my style of play on his, and see where that takes me.”

It helps that Dron’s local presence has given him a chance to already engage in some training with the UNBC squad at the Northern Sports Centre, plus the playing he’s doing in the local adult league.

His youth soccer coach happens

to be Timberwolves assistant coach Rob Lewis, so there is a lot of familiarity to go around.

“It’s really great. I like the intensity,” said Dron, describing the experience of training with the university players he will call mates next year.

“They are really rough and really fast. So many quick plays and you have to be on your game and you can’t ever be sleeping out there.

“It’s a big jump, because a lot of the guys are big and strong as you can probably see. You just have to stay on top of your game.”

Dron is slated to graduate from Duchess Park in June and will pursue a business degree at UNBC while playing for the TWolves.

He will make his official entry to the soccer program this summer for training camp.

CP PHOTO

Tyler Motte of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates his second goal against the New York Rangers during a game in Vancouver on Wednesday. The Canucks won 4-1.

Gemma KARSTENS-SMITH Citizen news service

Dream comes true for Iditarod winner

A young Pete Kaiser had the drive to learn about racing sled dogs and the family and community to support his passion. Years later, he won his first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Growing up, Kaiser had plenty of sled dogs to choose from at his parents’ kennel in Bethel, a rural community in southwest Alaska. He got his first taste of success as a senior in high school when he won a 65-mile (105-kilometre) race. From there, the competitions and prizes kept getting bigger.

On Wednesday, the 31-year-old captured the crowning glory in the sport, the Iditarod, a grueling test against the wildest terrain Alaska has to offer.

Kaiser crossed the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome after beating back a challenge from the defending champion, Joar Ulsom of Norway.

Ulsom finished the race just 12 minutes after Kaiser, who took nine days, 12 hours, 39 minutes and six seconds to complete the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) journey over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the treacherous, wind-swept Bering Sea coast.

It’s Kaiser’s first Iditarod victory in his 10th try.

He said he wasn’t sure what made everything come together for him this year.

“Just years of knowledge gained and trying to put it all together to have a better race, better dog team this year – every little detail coming into play,” he said in a postvictory interview televised from the finish line.

Kaiser became the fifth Alaska Native and first Yupik musher to win the world’s most famous sled dog race.

Veteran Iditarod musher Mike Williams Sr. has been friends with the Kaiser family and watched Pete’s career progress. His victory lifts up not only the Yupik people but all southwest Alaska, Williams said.

“It’s going to make 35,000 people proud,” Williams said. “I think he’s going to be a great representative for us.”

A large group of residents from Bethel, Kaiser’s hometown, flew in to see his victory.

Alaska Native dancers and drummers performed near the finish line as they waited for Kaiser to arrive, even though it was past 3 a.m.

Kaiser called the support “extremely humbling, and it motivates me every day to perform to my best, and I just want to thank them for coming out here tonight.”

When he was young, Kaiser went to races like the Kuskokwim 300, an annual mid-distance race in Bethel, to learn everything he could from the mushers.

That includes Ed Iten, a veteran musher whose best Iditarod finish was second place in 2005.

“He was a young boy then and came over and helped me feed the dogs,” Iten said. “Then he went from helping out when I was in Bethel feeding my dogs to eventually whipping my butt in the Kusko 300, so he’s a quick study.”

Kaiser, who counts Iten as his mentor, went on to win four Kuskokwim 300 races.

“It just couldn’t be better,” Iten said of Kaiser’s Iditarod victory.

“We’ve been waiting for this. There’s been no doubt in my mind

that he was going to get it sooner or later.”

Dogs are in the Kaiser family’s blood. Pete’s father, Ron, raced dogs for a few years and then kept an active kennel.

His mother, Janet, managed the Kuskokwim 300.

Kaiser, who is married with two children, mushes in the winter and gets seasonal summer jobs on top of managing the kennel.

Sled dog races don’t have lucrative jackpots – Kaiser picked up about $50,000 and a new truck for winning the world’s premier competition. The prize money is down about $20,000 from what the 2017 winner received.

This year’s race was marked by the stunning collapse of Frenchman Nicolas Petit, who was seemingly headed for victory as late as Monday. He had a five-hour lead until his dog team stopped running. Petit said one dog was picking on another during a rest break,

and he yelled at the dog to knock it off. At that point, the entire team refused to run. He had to withdraw.

Fifty-two mushers began this year’s race. Petit was among 10 who withdrew. The 2019 race came during a bruising two-year stretch for the Iditarod that included a dog doping scandal and the loss of national sponsors amid protests by animal rights activists.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is the biggest critic.

“Hundreds of dogs (including six from Pete Kaiser’s team) were so sick, exhausted, or injured that they were pulled from the race, forcing the ones remaining to work even harder, struggling on in what is

Citizen news service

a grueling test – not of human endurance but of a dog’s ability to survive extreme cruelty,” PETA executive vice-president Tracy Reiman said in a statement after Kaiser’s victory.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO

Pete Kaiser arrives at Unalakleet, Alaska on Sunday during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Kaiser crossed the finish line early Wednesday to win the iconic race.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS

Above, Peter Kaiser poses with his lead dogs, Morrow, left, and Lucy on Wednesday in Nome, Alaska, after winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Below, Nicolas Petit hugs one of his dogs before they leave Unalakleet, Alaska, during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday. Petit had the lead until late Monday but had to withdraw after his dog team refused to run after a break.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Senators’ d-man Chabot out with broken toe

OTTAWA (CP) — Ottawa Senators all-star defenceman Thomas Chabot has been sidelined with a broken toe, with his status listed as week to week.

Chabot suffered the injury while blocking a shot on Monday night in Philadelphia.

Senators head coach Marc Crawford said Chabot hopes to return before the end of the season. Chabot is the leading scorer for the NHL’s worst team, registering 49 points (13 goals and 36 assists) in 62 games.

Meanwhile, college free agent signing Max Veronneau practised with the Senators for the first time on Wednesday.

The Ottawa-born Princeton product is expected to make his NHL debut on Thursday against the visiting St. Louis Blues.

“This kid’s a great Ottawa kid,” Crawford said. “Hopefully he’ll be one of the finer products to come out of Gloucester.”

Marcus

Stroman to start

for Blue Jays on opening day

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Right-hander Marcus Stroman will get the start on opening day for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Manager Charlie Montoyo confirmed the decision before Wednesday’s pre-season game against the Baltimore Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium.

Toronto will kick off the regular season on March 28 at Rogers Centre against the Detroit Tigers. Stroman is entering his sixth season with the Blue Jays.

The 27-year-old is coming off a down year in 2018, when he posted a 4-9 record and 5.54 earned-run average. Stroman has a career mark of 41-34 and a 3.91 ERA.

Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are expected to serve as anchors of the starting rotation for the rebuilding Blue Jays this season.

F1 race director dies three days before Australian GP

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Formula One race

director Charlie Whiting has died from a pulmonary embolism three days before the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix. He was 66. FIA, the federation for international auto racing, issued a statement saying Whiting died Thursday morning in Melbourne.

FIA president Jean Todt described Whiting as “a great race director, a central and inimitable figure in Formula One who embodied the ethics and spirit of this fantastic sport.”

A pulmonary embolism is a blockage in the lung, usually caused by a blood clot.

Whiting began his F1 career in 1977 working at the Hesketh team and the Englishman later moved to Bernie Eccelstone’s Brabham team in the 1980s. He joined FIA in 1988 and became a race director in 1997.

“Formula One has lost a faithful friend and a charismatic ambassador in Charlie,” Todt said in a statement. “All my thoughts, those of the FIA and entire motor sport community go out to his family, friends, and all Formula One lovers.” Whiting was active in making F1 a safer sport and was widely acknowledged as a calming influence. F1 Motorsports manager director Ross Brawn said he was devastated after losing a long-time friend.

“I have known Charlie for all of my racing life. We worked as mechanics together, became friends and spent so much time together at race tracks across the world,” he said. “It is a great loss not only for me personally but also the entire Formula 1 family.”

Andreescu, Raonic advance at Indian Wells

Stephanie MYLES Citizen news service

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With all the insouciant freedom of the new kid on the block, 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu has become the best story of all during a great run for Canadians at the BNP Paribas Open.

On an afternoon when three Canadians were playing at the same time on different courts, the native of Mississauga, Ont., recorded her most impressive win of the tournament.

In just 52 minutes on Wednesday, she dismantled two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-0, 6-1 to move into Friday’s women’s singles semifinals.

Muguruza, the No. 20 seed and world No. 1 just 18 months ago, needed more than 40 minutes just to get on the scoreboard as Andreescu raced to a 6-0, 3-0 lead.

“I had a good day. She didn’t have such a good day. I felt she was holding back a lot, and I felt it, so I just kept putting pressure. She just kept missing. So I’m just really happy,” Andreescu said.

The Canadian, who started the year ranked 152nd, surged into the top 50 with her win in the previous round over No. 18 seed Wang Qiang.

With this victory, she vaults into the top 40. In the semifinal, will face No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine after she defeated 19-year-old left-hander Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

If Andreescu can win that, she’d have an excellent chance of going from being a wild-card entry in Indian Wells to one of the 32 seeds at the Miami Open next week.

“I have watched them play many, many times. I played juniors with Marketa. And Svitolina has had an incredible run,” said Andreescu, who is 26-3 on the 2019 season. “I’m just gonna study their match and then hopefully have another good day on Friday.”

Chilliwack at Prince George, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY, MAR. 19 Chilliwack 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, MAR. 22 x-Cowichan Valley at Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m.

SUNDAY, MAR. 24 x-Wenatchee at Cowichan Valley, 7:05 p.m.

TUESDAY, MAR. 26 x-Cowichan Valley at Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m.

As Andreescu was dominating on the main stadium court, No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., was quietly making his way past unseeded German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-3 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals.

Struff had upset his German countryman Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, earlier in the tournament.

However, 19-year-old Denis Shapovalov couldn’t make it a Canadian sweep.

The No. 24 seed from Richmond Hill, Ont., said he brought his “C” game on a day Hubert Hurkacz stood firm. The unseeded 22-year-old from Poland defeated Shapovalov 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3.

“I just don’t think I played well today. I played a little bit tight, a little bit stupid. Just wasn’t able to convert when I wanted to. So just one of those days,” Shapovalov said.

For Raonic, who has reached at least the quarterfinals in his last five appearances in the desert, it was about improving on the things he felt he hadn’t done well in a first-round loss to Struff in his last tournament, in Dubai.

“I think there were things I really disliked about the way I went about in that match that I wanted to change. I don’t

think I was extra pumped, per se, but I definitely was a lot more diligent about the way I went about things,” Raonic said.

The three Canadians followed each other into the press conference room Wednesday: first Andreescu, then Shapovalov, and then Raonic. All three matches started within about 20 minutes of each other.

“I saw that score actually on a changeover in my match. I’m, like, ‘No way.’ I know she’s good, but love and one? She destroyed her,” Shapovalov said of Andreescu’s big win. “I’m happy for her. I just saw her (on the way into the press conference). Congratulated her.”

Earlier in the week, Shapovalov pointed to his younger years, when he and Felix Auger-Aliassime watched Raonic play Davis Cup and were inspired.

“Incredible honour, especially with the massive potential that the two of them have,” Raonic said. He pointed to the fact that he had a player to compete with in Canada of the same generation in Vasek Pospisil. And now Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime have each other.

“I think that kind of constant national competition made them strive and try to make the most of things. And I think that’s a big part of the reason the success has been on such a big ascent over the last few years,” he said.

Raonic will play lucky loser Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in a Thursday quarterfinal.

Another Canadian, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski, will team up with Chinese partner Yifan Xu to play their women’s doubles semifinal Thursday.

Next week, Andreescu, Shapovalov and Raonic will head to the Miami Open, another major tournament. AugerAliassime, out in the third round here, will play in the qualifying event. Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., also may have to qualify, unless there are two more withdrawals before qualifying starts early next week.

RAONIC

AP PHOTO

Canadian Bianca Andreescu returns a shot to Garbine Muguruza at the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday in Indian Wells, Calif. Andreescu won 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the women’s singles semifinals.

Experts call for stop to gene-edited babies

Citizen news service

Scientists and ethicists from seven nations on Wednesday called for a moratorium on geneediting experiments designed to alter heritable traits in human babies. It’s the latest alarm sounded by researchers who have been both excited and unnerved by the powerful genetic engineering technique known as CRISPR, which can potentially prevent congenital diseases but also could lead to permanent changes in the human species and create a market for enhanced, augmented offspring, sometimes called “designer babies.”

The call for the moratorium, published as a commentary in the journal Nature, came in direct response to the actions of a Chinese researcher who, disregarding a global consensus on the ethical boundaries of gene editing, altered embryos that were implanted and carried to term, resulting in the live birth of twin babies. The Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, said his experiment was intended to alter a gene to make the babies resistant to infection with HIV. He said he knew he would receive criticism but defended it as an ethical form of gene therapy and not something akin to making cosmetic genetic alterations.

But the scientific community was outraged, condemning He’s actions as “rogue human experimentation.” The new call for a moratorium is an acknowledgment that the many warnings emerging from conferences on the ethics of gene editing have not been sufficiently clear and emphatic, and, in the case of the Chinese twins, have failed to prevent an ethical violation.

The authors of the Nature paper include two of the primary inventors of the CRISPR system, Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. In addition to calling for a moratorium, the authors argue for the creation of an international governing body that would oversee the technology.

Separately on Wednesday, Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, issued a statement supporting the call for a moratorium and a governing body.

“What we’re talking about here is one of the most fundamental moments of decision about the application of science to something of enormous societal consequence. Are we going to cross the line toward redesigning ourselves?” Collins said.

The new Nature paper does not call for a permanent ban on gene editing of heritable traits. It’s a call for a temporary stop, with no firm expiration of the moratorium. It focuses specifically on experiments involving sperm, eggs and embryos – also known as germ line cells – that are designed to result in pregnancy. The moratorium would not cover laboratory research not intended to result in a birth nor gene editing for therapeutic purposes in a patient’s nongerm-line cells – called somatic cells – because those changes wouldn’t be heritable.

The authors of the Nature paper call for an “international framework” supported by a coordinating body that could either be fully independent or part of the World

Health Organization. The authors envision voluntary compliance by individual nations that would retain sovereignty over their scientific enterprises.

“To begin with, there should be a fixed period during which no clinical uses of germ line editing whatsoever are allowed,” the authors wrote. “As well as allowing for discussions about the technical, scientific, medical, societal, ethical and moral issues that must be considered before germ line editing is permitted, this period would provide time to establish an international framework.”

One name is notably absent from the list of authors of the Nature paper, that of CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley. Doudna is a powerful voice on this issue, having not only invented much of the CRISPR technology but also warning early on that this could be used for malign purposes. She helped instigate a CRISPR summit in Washington in December 2015 that included scientific leaders from the national academies in the United States, the United Kingdom and China.

Doudna said she declined a request by Zhang to join this new call for a moratorium and new governing body. She said she will continue, instead, to work with the national academies in the United States, the United Kingdom and China.

“My feeling is, this is effectively just rehashing what’s been going on for several years,” Doudna said.

The consensus among scientists and ethicists has been that CRISPR and other gene-editing techniques can have many desirable applications. That would include

research on cells, including human embryos, so long as the modified cells weren’t used to establish a pregnancy. There is no objection to using gene editing in somatic cells to treat an individual patient in a way that does not pass along those changes. One example: editing the genes in blood cells to relieve sickle-cell anemia.

But the consensus is that there’s a bright line: no one should edit genes in a way that could become a permanent trait of the human species unless there is broad agreement that such a modification is safe, necessary and ethical.

The 2015 summit in Washington ended with a consensus statement that came close to calling for such a moratorium, but the language was nuanced and complicated: “It would be irresponsible to proceed with any clinical use of germ line editing unless and until (i) the relevant safety and efficacy issues have been resolved, based on appropriate understanding and balancing of risks, potential benefits, and alternatives, and (ii) there is broad societal consensus about the appropriateness of the proposed application. Moreover, any clinical

use should proceed only under appropriate regulatory oversight.”

That summit did not explicitly call for a “moratorium,” which some researchers refer to as the “m-word.”

“To me, that word implies enforcement,” Doudna said. “I don’t want to drive others underground with this. I would rather they feel that they can discuss it openly.

Gene editing, it’s not gone, it’s not going away, it’s not going to end.”

The United States has laws that prevent this kind of germ-line editing. Legislation requires that such experiments receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which in turn is prohibited by law from evaluating such proposals. The Nature paper states that about 30 nations, including Canada, have laws that directly or indirectly prevent this kind of genetic engineering.

Eric Lander, lead author of the commentary in Nature and the head of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said the effort to keep CRISPR under international guidance could be a template for handling powerful new technologies more generally.

“I think it raises the question, how do we govern complex technology,” Lander said. “Powerful technologies, we just increasingly see they have upsides and downsides. We can’t just throw up our hands and say there’s no way to stop it. There is a way to guide it.” Lander said that after the revelation of He’s experiment in China, he and CRISPR pioneer Zhang talked about the need to make a new call for some way to halt rogue application of the technology. They recruited other prominent researchers in the field and collaborated on the article.

CRISPR, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, and is more precisely known as CRISPRCas9, leverages a natural bacterial system that targets viruses that invade a cell. It has been described as molecular scissors.

Technicians can use this system to alter an organism’s genome, for example by deleting a genetic mutation associated with a disease. Invented early in this decade, this type of gene editing has become more precise, with fewer off-target edits.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS

Above, Qin Jinzhou deposits an embryo into a microplate in a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province. Right, He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, is at the centre of a firestorm after helping make the world’s first gene-edited babies.

MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are in-

dicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. Quotations in Canadian

No evidence to support Chinese canola ban

Andy BLATCHFORD Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Canada still hasn’t seen the evidence China used to block canola shipments from one of Canada’s largest grain producers, International Trade Minister Jim Carr said Wednesday in an interview.

A Chinese government spokesman has said Beijing’s move this month to suspend canola imports from Richardson International Ltd. came after “hazardous organisms” were detected in the company’s product.

Carr said Canada is pushing to solve the economically important matter – but it needs China to provide proof to back up the claims.

“We continue to ask Chinese officials for any evidence that this canola has any problems that can be proven with any scientific base or any scientific evidence – and so far we’ve heard nothing,” he said in a phone interview from Saskatoon, where he was talking to business leaders about making the most of opportunities created by Canada’s major trade deals.

“It’s a concern because we are a major exporter of canola to the world and we produce the finest canola in the world. It’s a very im-

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Rising commodity prices helped push Canada’s main stock index to close slightly higher and push the loonie up, while U.S. markets climbed after encouraging economic data.

Crude rose for another day to hit a multi-month high on a combination of rising inventories and cut-backs in production, said Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital.

“Oil is rallying again today, at its highest level since November, after the Energy Information Agency this morning reported an unexpected decline in U.S. inventories, while there’s also more indications that OPEC and its allies continue to adhere to those pledges for curbs to production.”

The April crude contract closed up $1.39 at US$58.26 per barrel and the April natural gas contract ended up 3.6 cents at US$2.82 per mmBTU.

The rise in crude helped push the influential S&P/TSX energy index up 2.18 per cent on the day.

Higher crude prices also helped lift the loonie for a fourth consecutive day. The Canadian dollar averaged 75.04 cents US compared with an average of 74.75 cents US on Tuesday.

Overall, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 13.31 points at 16,149.97 after hitting an intraday high of 16,212.56 on elevated volume of 270.1 million shares.

Cannabis stocks were the main cause of the uptick in volume as Aurora saw more than 50 million shares traded after announcing it had appointed U.S. billionaire Nelson Peltz as a strategic adviser. Hexo also brought further volume after announcing a takeover of the Newstrike Brands Ltd., the cannabis company backed by members of the Tragically Hip band. The activity in the cannabis sector helped push the health care index up 2.49 per cent on the day. More conservative sectors including utilities and real estate saw declines.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 148.23 points at 25,702.89.

Call 250-5623301 to advertise

portant part of our trade mix and we want to get to the bottom of it and we want to get to the bottom of it fast.”

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley issued a statement last week demanding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fight for canola farmers and all related jobs.

“We are calling on Ottawa to stop its navel-gazing about its

internal controversies and fight back,” she said.

Notley added the issue could cost Alberta farmers hundreds of millions of dollars and lead to a loss of up to 3,000 jobs.

China’s decision to reject shipments of one of Canada’s key exports comes with the two countries in a diplomatic dispute that erupted after the December

On March 1, Canada’s Justice Department gave the go-ahead for the extradition case against

which marked the formal start of the high-profile process that has thrust Canada into a highly uncomfortable position between the two superpowers.

U.K. lawmakers vote against no-deal Brexit, seek delay

Jill LAWLESS, Raf CASERT Citizen news service

LONDON — In a tentative first step toward ending months of political deadlock, British lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the country from leaving the European Union without a divorce agreement, triggering an attempt to delay that departure, currently due to take place on March 29.

Parliament is scheduled to decide Thursday whether to put the brakes on Brexit, a vote set up after lawmakers dealt yet another defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May amid a crisis over Britain’s departure from the EU.

The lawmakers’ 321-278 vote has political but not legal force, and does not entirely rule out a chaotic no-deal departure for Britain. But it might ease jitters spreading across the EU after lawmakers resoundingly rejected May’s divorce deal on Tuesday.

Exiting the EU without a deal could mean major disruptions for businesses and people in the U.K. and the 27 remaining EU countries.

In chaotic scenes that revealed how May’s authority has been eroded by Brexit battles, more than a dozen pro-EU government ministers abstained rather than vote with her against ruling out no-deal.

Speaking with a raspy voice after weeks of relentless pressure, May hinted that she plans to make a third attempt to get lawmakers to support her Brexit deal, which they have already rejected twice.

She said Parliament faced a “fundamental choice” – a “short, technical extension” if lawmakers approve a divorce deal with the EU in the next week, or a much longer delay to Brexit if they don’t.

The EU warned that voting against no-deal Brexit wasn’t enough to stop it. By law, Britain will leave the EU on March 29, with or without a deal, unless it cancels Brexit or secures a delay.

“There are only two ways to leave the EU: with or without a deal,” a European Commission official said.

“The EU is prepared for both. To take no deal off the table, it is not enough to vote against no deal –you have to agree to a deal.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensi-

tivity of the unresolved situation.

Earlier, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier warned that “the risk of a no-deal has never been higher.”

As Britain teeters ever closer to the edge of the Brexit cliff, lawmakers are trying to seize control from the divided and squabbling government, although it’s far from clear if they can agree on a way forward. There are competing factions that support May’s deal, a “softer” deal that would keep close ties with the EU, a no-deal Brexit, or even a new referendum on Britain’s EU membership. Parliament likely will agree to delay Brexit, but it would need EU approval.

The bloc – openly exasperated by Britain’s continuing Brexit crisis – warned that the U.K. would need to present a strong reason for any extension.

“I am against every extensionwhether an extension of one day, one week, even 24 hours - if it’s not based on a clear opinion of the House of Commons for something,” said the European Parliament’s chief Brexit official, Guy Verhofstadt. “Please make up your minds in London, because this uncertainty cannot continue.”

The bloc is also reluctant to consider a delay that goes beyond elections to the European Parliament in late May, because it would mean Britain would have to participate in the polls even as it prepares to leave.

Both Britain and the EU have ramped up planning for a nodeal Brexit, which would rip up decades of rules for travel and trade between Britain and the bloc. Economists say it could cause huge upheaval, with customs checks causing gridlock at U.K. ports, new tariffs triggering sudden price increases and red tape for everyone from truckers to tourists.

The U.K. government announced its plans for the Irish border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, saying it wouldn’t impose new checks, duties or controls on goods coming from EU member Ireland into Northern Ireland.

It also said it wouldn’t slap tariffs on 87 per cent of goods coming into Britain from the EU – though there would be new levies on imports of some items including meat and cars.

The tariffs, intended to be temporary, wouldn’t apply to goods crossing from Ireland to Northern Ireland, raising fears the plan would spark a rise in smuggling.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said under the proposals, “Northern Ireland will become a backdoor to the European single market and I think that in a matter of months that will lead to the need for checks at Northern Ireland’s ports.”

“I don’t think the U.K.’s proposals will be workable for very long,” he said during a visit to Washington. In Irish border communities and U.K. ports, no-deal anxiety was mounting.

“Potentially it is going to be a nightmare,” said Michael Eddy, a district councillor who lives in the aptly named town of Deal, a few miles from the major Channel port of Dover on England’s south coast.

He says local authorities have modeled potential disruptions and believe that even “a two-

minute delay for every truck going through the port of Dover” would lead to an 80-kilometre traffic jam.

“What then happens with local people wanting to go about their business, wanting to get to hospitals, wanting to get their kids to school, all of that kind of stuff?” he said.

The European Parliament approved measures Wednesday to ameliorate the immediate hardships of a no-deal Brexit. It backed emergency plans to provide continuity for everything from air, port and road traffic to foreign students to the fishing industry.

The U.K. Parliament has twice rejected the withdrawal agreement that May spent two years negotiating with the EU, and the bloc insists there will be no more talks.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned British lawmakers that “whoever rejects the (Brexit) agreement plays with the welfare of their citizens and the economy in a reckless way.”

arrest of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver at the behest of the United States.

Meng,

A woman and two girls ride horses through a canola field near Cremona, Alta.

Hollywood labour war brewing

Citizen news service

Amy Berg is a television writer who has worked on series such as Person of Interest and Counterpart, largely with the anonymity common to the profession.

But since late last week she has become something of a celebrity among creators for a long Twitter thread criticizing an unlikely target: the creators’ own agents.

“Clients are often coming last in the pecking order of priorities. Yet, by law, we are supposed to be their only priority,” she wrote of agents. “Starting to feel sticky yet? Because I haven’t even gotten started,” she said in the tweets, which have collectively drawn nearly 10,000 likes and zipped around Hollywood offices with a mix of urgency and fear.

Berg is part of a growing labor movement by Hollywood writers – the people primarily responsible for on-screen drama, jokes, stories and suspense – pushing back against a fundamental change in the entertainment business.

The writers are upset by the evolution of the major Hollywood agencies, particularly the “Big Four,” the companies known as CAA, WME, UTA and ICM. These firms have over the years gone from a business model based heavily on collecting 10 per cent commissions on jobs booked for clients to collecting fees from studios for the larger role of putting together the creative elements of a TV show or movie, a process known as packaging. In some cases, the agencies have also recently launched separate productionlike divisions themselves.

The writers say these practices create a conflict of interest that badly harms their bottom lines and often leads to the agents putting their own interests before their clients’. The agencies counter that they are merely looking for the greatest number of revenue streams, the attainment of which will only enhance opportunities for the very clients objecting to them.

At issue are essential questions of how Hollywood should operate in a world of massive global entertainment conglomerates. Are the middlemen who unite the creative and business communities increasingly central to the birthing of ideas, and should they thus be allowed – even encouraged – to expand their role? Or does such expansion amount to profiteering in contradiction of their purpose, and should their tasks be limited to the more specific goal of landing jobs for clients?

In a way it might seem like a strange time for labour unrest. There are more television-content providers than at any time in the history of Hollywood. Several of them, such as Netflix and Apple, pay well above market averages. But the writers say agencies are sharing revenue in a highly inequitable way, leaving many creative people to fight for scraps.

It has added up to an unusual labour battle, one not between management and workers but between two parties ostensibly on the same side – a brewing civil war that could radically alter how Hollywood puts together shows and movies.

The writers are represented by the Writers Guild of America, the WGA West and WGA East. The agencies are represented by the Association of Talent Agents, or ATA.

The parties must negotiate what’s known as a new Artists’ Manager Basic Agreement, or franchise agreement, which governs terms of their fee sharing. If the two sides cannot agree on a deal when that agreement expires on April 6, it could result in a mass firing of agents and unprecedented levels of chaos and confusion.

Unlike the most recent Hollywood labour showdown in 2007-2008, in which writers walked off the job for more than three months because they could not reach a deal with producers, there would be no strike, and thus – probably – no immediate interruption of new shows on the air.

But the lack of a deal would create a set of seismic and surreal consequences: a world of writers with no agents and agents with no one to represent.

“War, that’s what it would mean,” said one prominent film executive, speaking on

the condition of anonymity so as not to appear to be taking sides, when asked what a mass firing of agents would mean.

Asked to elaborate, he said: “Nobody knows. But war, I think.”

The situation is coming to a head. In the last week of March, the WGA’s members – nearly 15,000 in its West Coast branch, based in Los Angeles, and some 5,000 in its East Coast wing in New York – are scheduled to vote on requiring a new “code of conduct” for agents that would dramatically curtail agents’ ability to collect revenue off activities not strictly related to booking client jobs.

If the code is adopted, that means members could be asked to fire any agent who does not sign it when the deal expires April 6 or leave the guild. It is highly unlikely any of the big agencies would sign the code as it is currently conceived.

“As agencies get into production it creates a very large problem,” said David Goodman, the president of the WGA West, “because it means a writer would be working for their agent. Now an agent has an interest in controlling the budget, for instance.” That, he noted, runs directly against a writer’s interest in increasing a show’s budget to up their paycheck.

But the WGA also says it resists the much

more established practice of agency “packaging fees,” in which agencies take money, both upfront from a show’s budget as well as from “back-end revenue,” for bringing to a writer’s project other agency clients such as actors, producers and directors before presenting the whole package to distributors and financiers. Packaging fees have, according to the WGA, become a more central part of the agencies’ business model. And, they say, that runs counter to clients’ well-being as well.

“The budgets have gone up, in some cases way up. And yet the mid-level quotes on TV shows have been stagnant with 20 years ago. That’s a really important data point,” Goodman said. A veteran creator and current showrunner of Fox’s sci-fi comedy The Orville, he was head writer on Family Guy and has written on such shows as The Golden Girls and Star Trek: Enterprise. He noted the budget for Orville is “more than twice it was on Star Trek: Enterprise.” Goodman said packaging fees were directly responsible, in part because agents collect 10 per cent from the studio that in turn reduces the pool writers draw from, and in part because those fees disincentivize agents from fighting for higher client fees because they’re already collecting much more on packaging.

Stars caught in crossfire of college admissions scandal

Citizen news service

Fallout from a sweeping college admissions scandal swiftly spread Wednesday, with actress Lori Loughlin surrendering ahead of a Los Angeles court hearing and a Silicon Valley hedge fund replacing its leader.

Loughlin and fellow actress Felicity Huffman headline the list of some 50 people charged in documents unveiled in Boston that describe a scheme to cheat the admissions process at eight sought-after schools.

The parents bribed college coaches and other insiders to get their children into selective schools, authorities said.

Loughlin turned herself in to the FBI on Wednesday morning and is scheduled for a court appearance in the afternoon, spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

Prosecutors allege Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, paid $500,000 to have their two daughters labeled as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, even though neither is a rower. Giannulli was released Tuesday after posting a $1 million bond.

The scandal also ensnared movers and shakers in the corporate world.

The Palo Alto, Calif., hedge fund Hercules Capital announced Wednesday it was replacing its leader, Manuel Henriquez, who was arrested in New York City on Tuesday and released on $500,000 bail. Shares of the hedge fund plunged nine per cent.

Henriquez will still hold a seat on the board and serve as an adviser, Hercules said.

Mark Riddell – an administrator for Bradenton, Florida’s IMG Academy, which was founded by renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri and bills itself as the world’s largest sports academy –was suspended from his job late Tuesday after he was accused of taking college admissions tests as part of the scheme.

At the centre of the scheme was admissions consultant William

FBI Special Agent in Charge Boston Division Joseph Bonavolonta, left, and U.S. Attorney for District of Massachusetts Andrew Lelling, right, face reporters as they announce indictments in a sweeping college admissions bribery scandal during a news conference, Tuesday in Boston.

“Rick” Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network of Newport Beach, Calif., authorities said. Singer pleaded guilty Tuesday, and his lawyer, Donald Heller, said his client intends to co-operate fully with prosecutors and is “remorseful and contrite and wants to move on with his life.”

Prosecutors said that parents paid Singer big money from 2011 up until just last month to bribe coaches and administrators to falsely make their children look like star athletes to boost their chances of getting accepted. The consultant also hired ringers to take college entrance exams for students and paid off insiders at testing centres to correct students’ answers. Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, as much as $6.5 million, to guarantee their children’s admission, officials said.

“These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a news conference in Boston, where the indictments in the scandal were handed up. At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents were charged. Dozens, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning star of ABC’s Des-

perate Housewives, were arrested by midday Tuesday.

Huffman posted a $250,000 bond after an appearance in federal court in Los Angeles. Her husband, actor William H. Macy, has not been charged, though an FBI agent stated in an affidavit that he was in the room when Huffman first heard the pitch from a scam insider.

Loughlin became famous as the wholesome Aunt Becky in the 1980s and ‘90s sitcom Full House. She has lately become the queen of the Hallmark Channel with her holiday movies and the series When Calls the Heart.

The coaches worked at schools such as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. Stanford’s sailing coach John Vandemoer pleaded guilty Tuesday in Boston. A former Yale soccer coach had pleaded guilty before the documents went public and helped build the case against others.

No students were charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on.

In 2007, the Writers Guild of America went on strike for three months against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. This time around, the writers are set to take on their own agents.

Environment in bad shape, getting worse: UN report

Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new UN report says.

Climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are making the planet an increasing unhealthy place for people, says the scientific report issued once every few years.

But it may not be too late.

“There is every reason to be hopeful,” report co-editors Joyeeta Gupta and Paul Ekins said in an email. “There is still time but the window is closing fast.”

The sixth Global Environment Outlook, released Wednesday at a UN conference in Nairobi, Kenya, painted a dire picture of a planet where environmental problems interact with each other to make things even more dangerous for people. It uses the word “risk” 561 times in a 740-page report.

The report concludes “unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth’s ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society.”

But the same document says changes in the way the world eats, buys things, gets its energy and handles its waste could help fix the problems.

The report is “a dramatic warning and a high-level road map for what must be done to prevent widespread disruption and even irreversible destruction of planetary lifesupport systems,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t part of the report.

Several other scientists also praised the report, which draws on existing science, data and maps.

“This report clearly shows the connections between the environment and human health and well-being,” said Stuart Pimm, a Duke University ecologist.

Gupta and Ekins, environmental scientists

in Amsterdam and London, said air pollution annually kills seven million people worldwide and costs society about $5 trillion. Water pollution, with associated diseases, kills another 1.4 million.

The scientists said the most important and pressing problems facing humankind are global warming and loss of biodiversity because they are permanent and affect so many people in so many different ways.

CLIMATE CHANGE

“Time is running out to prevent the

BIODIVERSITY

“A major species extinction event, compromising planetary integrity and Earth’s capacity to meet human needs, is unfolding,” the report says, listing threats to ecosystems, fisheries and other major systems. It notes conservationists are divided on whether Earth is in a sixth mass extinction.

AIR POLLUTION

Not only are millions of people dying each year, but unhealthy air especially hurts “the elderly, very young, ill and poor,” the report says.

WATER POLLUTION

While 1.5 billion people now get clean drinking water they lacked in 2000, water quality in many regions has worsened. Plastics and other litter have invaded every ocean at all depths, the report says.

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

People getting sick from diseases caused by antimicrobial resistant bacteria in water supplies could become a major cause of death worldwide by 2050, unless something can be done about it, the report says.

LAND DEGRADATION

irreversible and dangerous impacts of climate change,” the report says, noting that unless something changes, global temperatures will exceed the threshold of warming – another 1 C above current temperatures – that international agreements call dangerous.

The report details climate change impacts on human health, air, water, land and biodiversity.

Almost all coastal cities and small island nations are increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rising seas and extreme weather.

advertising.”

Mark Twain

Land is getting less fertile and useful. The report says degradation “hot spots,” where it’s difficult to grow crops, now cover 29 per cent of all land areas. The rate of deforestation has slowed but continues.

“The report provides a roadmap to move beyond ‘doom and gloom’ and rally together to face the challenges and take the future in our hands,” said former U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco, who wasn’t part of the report. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”

Capturing carbon

Many years ago, when I was performing “chemistry magic shows” in schools and other venues, one demonstration involved a very simple process. I would get a volunteer to blow through a straw into a solution of lime water.

The carbon dioxide in their breath would permeate the solution and react with the calcium hydroxide resulting in the production of calcium carbonate. Essentially, we were capturing their carbon dioxide emissions and converting them to minerals.

Capturing carbon dioxide is easy – sort of.

One of the subtle points of this demonstration is it requires calcium hydroxide or slaked lime. To capture all of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we could just make large quantities of slake lime but where do we get it from?

From calcium oxide which, in turn, comes from heating calcium carbonate to very high temperatures, on the order of 900 C. The breakdown of calcium carbonate to calcium oxide releases – you guessed it – carbon dioxide. And perhaps more to the point, some form of fuel is used to get the mineral to the required temperature resulting in even more carbon dioxide emissions. The atomic economics are such that we would be using lime to capture one carbon dioxide by releasing two others.

Not a winning proposition.

But just because this particular version of carbon capture is not economical and is environmentally damaging doesn’t mean carbon capture isn’t possible. Indeed, if we are to keep global temperature rise below 2 C by the end of the century, we must invest in some form of carbon capture.

In the United States, the National Academy of Science and Engineering has recently released a report entitled “Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A research agenda” outlining, in broad terms, how the United States might move forward in this area.

A negative emission technology, as its name implies, is an enabling technology which consumes more greenhouse gases than it generates. For example, using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide to other compounds which could be stored in some fashion. The latter – storage – is the critical issue and finding reliable methods of sequestering carbon is an important component of any strategy.

The report focuses on a number of approaches, some of which are already in place and some are waiting development. They all have pluses and minuses so central to the theme is the need to consider the complete life cycle analysis. The simplest idea is to chemically capture carbon dioxide from the air.

This is technology we know how to do as it is used in submarines and spacecraft to keep sailors and astronauts alive. Similar approaches have been effectively utilized on some coal-fired power plants and such.

But these techniques have at least a few major drawbacks as a worldwide solution. The first is they are most effective for point sources, such as smokestacks, and not particularly cost effective for the atmosphere as a whole.

The second is that once the carbon dioxide has been captured, it needs to be desorb from the material and then disposed of in some fashion. This requires heat which, in turn, implies carbon dioxide emissions. And the gas needs to be dealt with through some form of sequestration.

While the cost isn’t particularly high when attached to an industrial plant – around $50 to $100 per tonne – scrubbing the atmosphere would like cost a whole lot more –around $1,000 per tonne.

The major avenues for dealing with the gas are either burying it within basalt formations or converting various calcium- and magnesium-rich silicate minerals to carbonates through mineralization.

Burying would require compressing the carbon dioxide gas to form a super-critical liquid which is not particular difficult. The technology for doing this is used in decaffeinating coffee beans, for example. It would then involve injecting the liquid into areas in the Earth where the high pressure would be maintained by the overburden. Unfortunately, the Earth gets a lot hotter the deeper you drill which could lead to issues with the pressurized gas.

In places where this is being tried, there has been evidence of the gas re-emerging through aquifers in the surrounding land. This means the gas is only temporarily trapped.

Mineralization leads to a much longer sequestration and there is a large capacity of suitable deposits but the whole process is not yet well understood. A recent study in Science holds out some hope as it demonstrated chemical reactions can convert carbon dioxide to minerals in less than two years. At present, we are injecting a staggering 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year and of that 35 billion tonnes are carbon dioxide. That is five tonnes for every man, woman, and child on the planet. It is not sustainable and yet it will only increase as the population grows.

Carbon capture is one possible route to a solution.

CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO

Russ Lewis covers his eyes from a gust of wind and a blast of sand as Hurricane Florence approaches Myrtle Beach, S.C. last September.

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Nov 14, 1935 to Mar 5, 2019

It is with great sadness that the family announces the passing of a great husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. Eddie went to be with the Lord and was reunited with his beloved wife, Verna. He passed away peacefully with his family by his side. Survived by his children, Debbie (Kent) MacPhee, Randy (Louise) Fischer, Kelly (Gloria) Fischer. Grandchildren Kristy (Terrance), Kyle, Shaun (Kathryn), Jenni (Jordon), Shannon (Cory), Julianne (Garett), Zachary (Jill). Great Grandchildren: Max, Caesey, Maddox, Edwin, Nolan, Blake, Reid, Atticus, Callum. Eddie’s passion was spending time with family and friends. A special thank you to Dr. McLeod You’re the best! In lieu of flowers please donate to the PG Hospice Society. Thank you to all the wonderful people there who took care of Dad with dignity and love. There will be a viewing on Friday March 15, 2019 from 7pm-9pm at PG Funeral Home 10th & Douglas. His Celebration of Life will be Saturday March 16, 2019 at 11am at College Heights Baptist Church on Domano Blvd.

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Thursday, March 14, 2019

Ski trails ruined

Tabor Mountain ski trails wrecked by snowmobile tracks

4-H weigHs in for spring

During a sunny Sunday morning, the Agriplex was a busy place for cows.

The local 4-H community came together to do their spring beef weigh-ins to start off youth projects that are monitored from the start of the care of the animal to the last day they are weighed, auctioned off at the B.C. Northern Exhibition and put in a buyer’s freezer.

BreeAnna MacDonald, 21, is a 4-H B.C. ambassador and was pushing fencing together before the young cows were led into the pen for safe keeping to wait their turn on the weigh scale.

MacDonald’s been doing projects for the last nine years. She started out with swine and then took on several beef projects during that time.

She explained that at the end of the beef project each animal gets weighed and the difference from now until August is recorded.

The math is done to see what the total weight gain is and the animal that shows the biggest gain is designated as the grand champion, second place is reserve grand champion.

4-H’s mission it to empower youth to be responsible, caring and contributing leaders that effect positive change in the world around them.

Synchronized swimmer and vegetarian Kennedy Moore, 10, is making her first attempt at a beef project and took on a swine project for the second year just to keep things interesting.

Kennedy said she’s OK with doing the animal projects despite not eating meat herself because she treats the animals well throughout their lives and Melman the cow and Bacon Bits the pig then go to feed someone’s family.

Kennedy is following in big brother Cameron’s foot steps. He’s 15 and doing a beef project so Kennedy thought it would be a good idea to give it a try, too.

Getting the about 500 pound Mel-

97/16 photo by James doyle Ten-year-old Kennedy Moore poses with her cow Melman as he gets weighed during the annual 4-H weigh-ins on Sunday at the Agriplex.

man off the trailer in preparation for the weigh-in went off without a hitch.

“It was pretty good,” Kennedy said of the experience. “Cows are way easier than pigs.”

Cows have a lead by which they are controlled but with pigs they are untethered so pig-wrangling is a hands-on adventure.

“Last year my pig slipped and he landed in all the poo,” Kennedy said. “It took me two hours to wash him off after.”

That wasn’t Kennedy’s first poop rodeo. She was showing a chicken a while back and that required her wearing a white shirt and holding the chicken. During the showing the chicken pooped all over her. She’s not quite sure why these things keep happening to her but she seems to take it in stride.

Kennedy’s mom Erica thinks being involved with 4-H is a good learning experience.

“It’s important for kids to be respon-

sible,” Erica said. “It’s important for them to learn farming practices. It’s a ton of work.”

Kennedy is a busy child, attending synchronized swimming three times a week, caring for her cow and pig, attending meetings for each animal, the general 4-H meetings and everything that goes with the projects including days like Sunday where the animal is weighed.

“Hey, it’s better than sitting on the couch,” Kennedy said with a smile.

Prince GeorGe’s weekly news

christine hinzmann 97/16 staff

local Humane Society nameS new director

fraNk peebles

97/16 staff

The Prince George Humane Society (PGHS) is changing bosses.

The only executive director the society has ever known, co-founder Angela McLaren, is moving on. The society’s new E.D. is Melissa Garner who said “Angela is so appreciated here and did such amazing work, and she is leaving with our full support. Everything is amicable.”

The PGHS’s board president Leah Coghlan said McLaren was heading into a new venture “with First Nation communities and animal welfare” that dovetailed to her work with the Humane Society.

“Over the past 11 years Angela has continued to work collaboratively with these communities to create and individualize animal management programs, while developing methods designed to reduce the large, stray dog population,” Coghlan said. “Under Angela’s leadership, thousands of animals’ lives have been saved

and she continues to show an unwavering commitment to our furry friends.”

To fill McLaren’s departure, the society looked from within.

“I’ve been working with the Humane Society for a long time now, so it’s not like I’m coming on board completely green,” Garner said. “But this will be a new challenge for me, definitely a step up in an organization I care about so much. It’s a real honour.”

Garner started volunteering with the PGHS in 2016, said Coghlan, “both in a daily operational setting, along with being a member of the Board of Directors. Melissa has a strong understanding regarding the mission of the Prince George Humane Society, and is educated in animal safety and welfare. She also has a successful background in business and has a huge passion for animals. With Melissa’s experience and dedication to the growth of the Humane Society, we look forward in continuing our goal of helping animals while providing compassionate education to our community.”

Selfie fail as jaguar attacks woman at zoo

97/16 wire service

A woman was attacked by a jaguar as she was apparently trying to get a photo outside the big cat’s enclosure at Wildlife World Zoo in Arizona, authorities said.

Shawn Gilleland, a spokesman for the Rural Metro Fire Department, said that the woman, who is in her 30s, climbed over a barrier at the zoo on the weekend to get closer to the jaguar’s enclosure so that she could get a selfie with the animal.

The jaguar reached out and grabbed her arm with its paw, leaving lacerations, Gilleland said.

Gilleland said the woman, who was not publicly identified, was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not lifethreatening.

Officials with Wildlife World Zoo said in a statement that a guest was injured by a female jaguar at the zoo in Litchfield Park, not far from Phoenix.

Officials said the attack is under investigation but noted that the animal was not outside her enclosure at any time.

“Please understand why barriers are put in place,” officials tweeted. “Sending prayers to the family tonight.”

One witness, Adam Wilkerson, told AZFamily.com that he and his mother heard the woman scream Saturday evening and ran to help.

“My mom runs up and takes her water bottle and shoves it through the cage near where the jaguar is, and the jaguar goes to let go of the girl to take the water bottle, and the claw just catches this girl’s sweater,” he told the news organization. “So at that point I see that it’s no longer attached to the girl’s actual arm, only on her sweater, so I grab the girl on her torso and I pull her back.”

Wilkerson, who captured some of the aftermath on video, added that the woman was “lying on the ground, screaming in agony.”

Zoo owner Mickey Ollson told AZFamily.com that about a year ago, the big cat scratched another guest who also had

crossed the barrier.

“There’s no way to fix people crossing barriers,” Ollson told the news organization. “That happens occasionally. And we put substantial barriers there and if people cross them, they can get in trouble.”

Last summer, a male jaguar escaped from an enclosure at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and went on a rampage, killing nine other animals at the zoo: five alpaca, three foxes and an emu.

The Post’s Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reported at the time:

“Jaguars are opportunistic hunters that prey on more than 85 species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their habitat ranges from the jungles of Central and South America, where they are considered ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN, to the southern regions of Arizona and New Mexico, where they are listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lions and tigers are the only big cats that are bigger than jaguars, making the felines the biggest in the Americas.”

The president of the Humane Society of the United States urged zoos to “set a higher standard to protect people and to respect wildlife from a safe distance.”

People get the mistaken idea that wild animals are approachable,” Kitty Block said in a statement. “Throw in a healthy dose of poor judgment, and incidents like this are bound to happen.”

Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium houses more than 600 species, and the aquarium has more than 75 exhibits, including stingrays, penguins and sharks, according to the zoo’s Facebook page. Ollson told AZFamily.com that zoo officials will look at whether more barriers should be added to the exhibits to keep guests away from the animals.

On Sunday, the zoo assured people that “nothing will happen to our jaguar.”

“She’s a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe,” the zoo tweeted. “Not a wild animal’s fault when barriers are crossed.”

97/16 photo by christine Hinzmann

diane and Norm clark, avid back country skiers and members of the hickory Wing Touring ski club and the Tabor Mountain recreation society, discovered the ski and snowshoe trails on Tabor Mountain were ruined a few days ago by a snowmobiler who broke the lock to get through the gate to gain access to the trails and then drove all over them. Below right photo provided by Norm clark shows the signs on the gate with a new lock in place.

This is the map showing the trail system designated for skiers and snowshoers. It takes a lot of hardlabour volunteer hours to maintain the pristine trails.

Snowmobile trackS ruin tabor mountain Ski trailS

People might not think a snowmobile could damage a ski trail but it does.

Especially on the steep Tabor Mountain trail where traversing up the mountain might not be too treacherous but navigating back down the mountain over ridged snow-machine tracks certainly is not safe for skiers.

“When we went up there the other day we were expecting a nice layer of about 12 inches of snow to ski in but that wasn’t the case,” Norm Clark, president of the Hickory Wing Ski Touring Club, and member of the umbrella organization the Tabor Mountain Recreation Society, said.

Sometime during the previous few days, snowmobilers smashed the lock to release the chain that held the gate shut to gain access to the pristine ski and snowshoe trails groomed and maintained by the Tabor Mountain Recreation Society and the Hickory Wing Ski Touring Club, which works under the authority of Recreation Sites and Trails B.C.

“As soon as it’s packed down it gets really slick for us,” Diane Clark, a member of the society and club who is also Norm’s wife, said. “And that’s not safe for us.”

The skiers and snowshoers only have about 30 km of trails on Tabor Mountain, while the rest of the 200+ kilometres of trails are there for the snow machine crowd.

Why ruin the skiing trails?

“Because they are really nicely groomed, wide open trails,” Diane said. “When we go up to groom the trails, we take chain saws with us.”

Norm said sometimes there’s as many as six chain saws present during one of their many work parties where some of the 40 or so members of Hickory Wing spend hundreds of hours grooming the trails for hiking, skiing and snowshoeing.

Only to be ruined when snowmobilers decide to ride the trails, he added.

For many years the trails on the east side of the tower road have been designated a “non-motorized winter use area” and there are signs posted in several places to reflect this, Norm explained.

The main trailhead is located along Highway 16, five kilometres east of Tabor Mountain Resort in a parking area on the south side of the highway where there is an old BC Rail Boxcar, Norm added. There is also access to the trails from Groveburn Road which runs along the east side of Tabor Lake.

This road is maintained only to the Groveburn gravel pit during the winter months. In the summer the road offers access to the communication towers at the top of the mountain.

In the winter months the Hickory Wing group leads twice-weekly ski outings, usually Sundays and Wednesdays.

“Tabor Mountain is our home away from home,” Norm said. “We spend a lot of time there because we enjoy it. Is it too much to ask that people respect our little area on the mountain so that we can ski and snowshoe safely?”

christiNe hiNzmaNN 97/16 staff

In praIse of our youth

Ihave had the pleasure of driving high school students to phys ed classes at various locations in Prince George and that has had me loitering in the hallways while waiting for the students to collect. This has afforded me the opportunity to see what happens during this period between classes.

Here is what I have witnessed the three times I have done this: the vast majority of students are walking down the hallway chatting with friends, on their phones talking to someone or alone.

Perhaps one or two kids were looking down at their phone.

One or two.

This goes contrary to the popular belief

Thinking aloud

Trudy klassen

that the youth of today are abandoning all personal relationships for screen time.

A casual observation does not scientific research make but I was encouraged and reminded that while we may wring our hands in concern for our future generations, we need to give our youth the respect of acknowledging that they aren’t planning a life of disengagement, despondence, or ignorance, or of whatever we accuse them of.

These youth were chatting, making plans, cracking jokes, complaining, or whatever, just like generations before them. Times change, which means that the values of one generation are ordered differently than previous generations, but people don’t really change. The val-

ues people hold most important fluctuate over time.

If parents stress the value of hard work, their kids tend to value time off work.

If parents stress “taking one for the team,” their children may see the value in speaking up.

When parents value stuff, the next generation may value experiences.

When it seems that justice is not served and too many people get away with bad behaviour, the next generation focuses on impartiality and justice.

While that ebb and flow is natural, we do need to consider what it is we (those of us past high school) are leaving our youth to work with.

The decisions we make, or don’t make, have far-reaching effects for the future.

Not every mistake is equal in consequence and not every decision is equally easy to reverse.

When we overspend as a society and borrow from our grandchildren, for example, we are hobbling their freedom

to react to the concerns of their age. This is why the most important legacy we can leave is maximum freedom, in all its forms.

Perhaps in a future column I can explore the idea of looking at things through a long-term lens, but for now, go and hug, kiss, high-five, or whatever, the young student in your life.

They are in a difficult stage in life, with so many choices to make, and like anyone, can use a friendly smile.

UNBC students and other young adults are hosting Political Week at UNBC. Come check out what they are doing on March 15th from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at a talk with four different political views challenged by their own proponents, titled: What Conservatives (and everyone else) Get Wrong, in Room 7-238 at UNBC. Let’s hope there is a prize for the person who can most honestly trash his own political party’s errors. This should be fun.

The Town ThaT kepT a secreT

Bullies are to be found everywhere.

So much so that a special day – April 27 – has been designated International Pink Day (Feb. 27 was Pink Shirt Day) to remind all that bullies can and must be stopped. In schools, where bullies were accepted as a normal part of life, students have

banded together to stop bullying in its tracks.

sidebars

To hisTory willow arune

But no community has taken this as far as the small town of Skidmore, Missouri (pop. 300).

Matters there came to ahead one summer day in 1981. A local bully by the name of Ken McElroy had terrorized the town for ten years. From arson to theft, from rape to rustling, and various forms of intimidation and harassment, McElroy had managed to avoid any charge using his faithful lawyer –and a bit of witness tampering.

Having left school in Grade 5, McElroy could not read or write. His lawyer, it was said, was his only friend.

One day in 1980, McElroy stopped by the town’s grocery store, a mom and pop operation, and sent his daughter and young son in to pick up a few things. A clerk spotted the boy shoplifting some candy and ordered him out of the store. This was enough to enrage McElroy. He was out for revenge.

the storeowner once and for all. At the same time, most of the men of the town were meeting at the town hall in an attempt to resolve the growing threat. The men present knew they had to act to prevent a murder as the law was helpless to stop the bully.

The sheriff, unable to convince the men to follow the law, left the meeting and drove out of town.

Leaving the town hall, the townsmen headed over to the saloon where McElroy was still drinking. Still blustering about revenge, McElroy left the bar carrying his rifle and a six-pack of beer and got into his pickup, his wife in the passenger seat.

The first shot rang out followed by a few more. McElroy, shot twice, was dead or bleeding out. No one called for an ambulance nor did anyone bother to shut off the running pickup.

Later, he ambushed and shot the storeowner at the rear of the grocery store. For the first time, he was criminally charged – with attempted murder.

Legal footwork reduced this charge to assault and McElroy was convicted. His lawyer immediately appealed and McElroy was released on $40,000 bail pending a further hearing. Immediately, harassment of the grocery storeowner, his wife, and any potential witnesses started. This was standard practice for anyone who crossed McElroy’s path.

The D&G Saloon was one of the few amenities in the small farming community. On June 10, 1981, McElroy entered carrying a bayoneted rifle graphically telling all that he was going to finish off

The first shot rang out followed by a few more. McElroy, shot twice, was dead or bleeding out. No one called for an ambulance nor did anyone bother to shut off the running pickup.

The later investigations found 46 witnesses to the shooting, none of whom saw anything. All claimed to have hit the ground following the first shot. McElroy’s wife tentatively identified one of the shooters but there was not enough evidence to lay charges. She did start a civil suit against one resident and the town, which was settled for under $20,000. A bully’s life does not have much value, it seems.

Skidmore has kept its secret now for almost four decades.

Not one resident has come forward either to confess or identify the shooters. Most of the 43 witnesses have died or left town.

As many bullies find out, the patience and toleration of others never lasts forever.

Eventually, the victims and others react to shut the bully down.

Let’s Listen to young voices

Nelson Mandela said, “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.”

American news and social media were recently stirred up by a video of children meeting with Sen. Dianne Feinstein which has gone viral. The children represented a youth organization known as the Sunrise Movement, which advocates political action on climate change. They are strong supporters of the Green New Deal, currently being discussed in the American Congress.

In the shortened version of the video, Feinstein seems condescending with the young people who come into her constituency office in California. In the longer version of the video, however, one can see that, though she appears frustrated, Feinstein is trying to find common ground with the youth. Toward the end of the video, she is even seen helping one outspoken older teen to channel her political passion into an internship, presumably in her office.

As a professional educator, what I find most disturbing about this issue is the attitude toward the children expressed in the media. American journalists

lessons in learning

Gerry ChidiaC

Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell, on the program Meet the Press, discussed how the incident made them uncomfortable.

Conservative activist Al Cardenas added, “I… would have resented anybody in their school pounding my kids with propaganda either left or right of any political issue.”

There are several things these commentators don’t seem to understand.

First of all, teachers follow a code of ethics which does not allow us to “pound kids with propaganda.”

According to my union, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, “the member speaks and acts toward students with respect and dignity, and deals judiciously with them, always mindful of their individual rights and sensibilities.”

It further states, “a privileged relationship exists between members and students. The member refrains from

Novo Voce set for Sister Act

frank peebles 97/16 staff

The award-winning local singing group Nove Voce won the right to represent Canadian choirs at the European Choral Games coming up this summer in Sweden.

The all-female ensemble is back to old habits for a fundraising show to offset the travel costs. They are hosting a doublefeature movie night with some creative twists added.

Fans are invited to come watch a couple of old choral singing cinematic favourites, Sister Act and Sister Act II: Back in the Habit, the franchise that left nun behind in the fun.

“Costumes are encouraged, singing along highly encouraged,” said event host Catherine Higgins, one of the members of the singing group. “There will be a costume contest, door prizes, popcorn and treats, and other games and prizes.”

The singalong to the sisters on screen happens March 29, 7 p.m., at the Stan

Shaffer Theater (Room 1-306) at the College of New Caledonia where Cinema CNC shows its series of movies.

These popular musical comedy films from the 1990s have an all-star cast of actors led by Whoopi Goldberg alongside Maggie Smith, Lauren Hill, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, and appearances by Harvey Keitel, James Coburn, a young Jennifer Love Hewitt and many others.

Also starring in both these movies are their soundtracks, with great tunes played prominently like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Get Up Offa That Thing, Dancing in the Street, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, Rescue Me, Shout and many others.

Sister Act will screen at 7 p.m., and the sequel at 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are $15 adults or $10 children and students for one film, or $20/$15 for both films.

They are available from any member of Nove Voce and on Monday they go on sale at Books & Company.

exploiting that relationship for material, ideological, or other advantage.”

We present important issues to our students, but we must remain as unbiased as possible. If we do not, we can be disciplined.

Secondly, our young people are very passionate about the world around them and their place in it. They really do want to make the world better, and as the Sunrise Movement demonstrates, they are often willing to take an active role.

There is nothing uncomfortable about children taking a political stand. In fact, it is inspiring, and history is riddled with amazing and courageous young people. Craig and Marc Kielburger were in middle school when they began their activism. Their advocacy has grown into the Me to We movement, which is present in schools across the country and continues to empower youth to make the world better.

Malala Yousafzai began speaking out for the educational rights of girls in her country of Pakistan, and has become the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The students of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida re-

sponded to a school shooting by organizing the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C. in 2018.

As a teacher, I am appreciative when students challenge issues. Perhaps the reason why some adults are uncomfortable when young people speak is because they hold us accountable. If I am not living the ideals I am teaching, such as honesty and respect, they will certainly let me know. My students hold me to a high standard and this not only makes me a better teacher, it makes me a better person.

The fact of the matter is that our young people look at the problems in the world and say, “let’s do something.”

They see beyond the political gerrymandering and self-interest and understand the impact certain issues can have on the future, their future.

We need not fear the voices of our children and youth. They have a wisdom and idealism which is potent and powerful. Let’s listen to them and give them the respect they deserve.

Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com

Heritage elementary does Pink day rigHt

Feb. 27 was Pink Day.

Leadership students at Heritage Elementary School showed their support of this day in several ways.

They put up posters reminding all the school population to wear pink.

Leadership students went to classes and explained how Pink Day came into being.

They explained what bullying was and offered strategies for those being bullied and for bystanders who witnessed bullying.

They followed this with a skit that reenacted the pink shirt bullying situation that started the whole Pink Shirt day phenomeneon.

Every teacher was given a set of materials to review these ideas with their class and every student was given a “No Bullying Zone” colouring sheet.

In one intermediate class, a teacher, Ms. Beers, followed up with an assignment which asked students to consider bullying from three different perspectives, the bully, the victim and the bystander. They produced some amazing poems.

Here’s a sample:

The Bullied

by Dante Meyer

I wonder if this will ever stop

I hear their mean jokes

I see their faces

I want them to stop

I am the bullied

I pretend everything is OK

I feel their punches

I touch my heart

I worry if I even matter I cry myself to sleep

I am the bullied

I understand it will probably never stop

I say, “I’m OK.”

I dream that it will stop

I try to make it stop

I wonder what she is feeling

I hear her cries as she runs away

I want to help but I am scared

I am the bystander

I pretend I don’t notice

I feel useless

I touch her shoulder to comfort her

I worry the bullying will get worse

I cry with her when we talk

I am the bystander

I understand the bully is only human

I say kind words to comfort her

I dream of a perfect world

I try to help her but I get laughed at

I hope I am not the only one seeing this

I am the bystander

The Bully

by

Dylan Gerlach

I am the bully

I wonder why I bully

I hear the pain in others

I see my problems

I want to stop

I am the bully

I pretend that it’s a joke

I feel my anger

I touch my heart and hope

I learn from my mistakes

I worry it won’t stop

I hope that it will stop I am the bullied

The Bystander

by Ciara Collie I am the bystander

I am the bully

I cry in my head

I understand that it hurts them

I know that I need help

I dream that I stop

I try to care

I hope that it ends

I am the bully

97/16 photo by Brent Braaten heritage Elementary Grade 6 students are seen here with their poems they wrote for Pink shirt day. The poems considered bullying from three perspectives, the bully, the victim and the bystander. Left to right dante Meyer, 11, (The Bullied), ciara collie, 11, (The Bystander) and dylan Geriach, 11, (The Bully).

SportS

Are the CApitAls ever going to the White house?

97/16 wire service

It’s been nine months since the Washington Capitals hoisted the Stanley Cup for the first time as a franchise, and while it took just a few days to parade the chalice down Constitution Avenue, they have yet to take it to the White House, as has become tradition for title-winning teams. Now the Capitals have just one month left to complete that last bit of ceremony. The organization remains in talks with the White House about a possible date to visit, according to a person with knowledge of situation, but time is running out with the regular season finale on April 6.

That’s an unofficial deadline for the Capitals, who are poised to be in the playoffs, at which point teams try to limit distractions for their players. If a date can be agreed on for a visit, it will most likely be at the end of this month, perhaps during Washington’s four-game homestand March 20-26.

The Clemson Tigers football team visited the White House just a week after their Jan. 7 victory over Alabama in the College Football Playoff national championship game, but that turnaround was considered abnormally quick. Most major professional championship teams have received invitations in recent years, though they’ve been met with some controversy during President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump canceled the 2018 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ visit to the White House after some players said they would skip the ceremony to protest the president and his rhetoric.

When the Golden State Warriors won the 2017 NBA championship, multiple players, including Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, said they would not visit the White House. They were later disinvited by Trump. The Warriors won another title last year, and rather than visit the White House during their trip to Washington in late January, they met with former president Barack Obama. The team visited the National Museum of African-American History and Culture during their trip to Washington the previous February.

“I think we’ll have the Caps. I mean, we’ll see,” Trump said in June. “You know, my attitude is if they want to be here, the greatest place on Earth, I’m here. If they don’t want to be here, I don’t want them.”

After the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2017, they visited in October, a day before their game against the Capitals. Visiting the White House should be more convenient for a team based in Washington, but the limited options for an out-of-town club makes for a simpler choice of date and adds a sense of urgency.

The Capitals and the White House are believed to have discussed dates in January and February to no avail.

“What I have said is, we’re in Washington, D.C., and the players and the coaching staff have to decide,” team owner Ted Leonsis said in October. “I’m not going to influence, and if we go to the White

House, I will go to the White House... I’m sure at some point as the season gets started, there’ll be a team meeting, and they’ll talk about it and come out and tell us what to do.”

The subject hasn’t been brought up within Washington’s locker room to this point, and in the week after they won the Stanley Cup, most Capitals players said they would want to visit the White House. “Can’t wait,” captain Alex Ovechkin said in June.

Forward Devante Smith-Pelly, who is black and Canadian, was the first to say he would not want to be part of a White House ceremony because “the things that [Trump] spews are straight-up racist and

sexist,” he said Smith-Pelly is no longer with the Capitals after he was waived and sent down to the American Hockey League in a salary cap-clearing move two weeks ago. Forward Brett Connolly later joined Smith-Pelly in saying he would also skip a White House visit.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” Connolly said, noting that “it has nothing to do with politics.”

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” added Connolly, who brought the Stanley Cup to Prince George in August.

“I think there’ll be a few guys not going, too. Like I said, it has nothing to do with politics. It’s about what’s right and wrong, and we’ll leave it at that.”

97/16 file photo by Brent Braaten Brett connolly carries the stanley cup out of the Prince George cougars dressing room prior to showing it off to 2,500 fans inside cN centre last august.

Female reFs coming to the nhl

Paul Stewart grew impatient waiting for Katie Guay to feel comfortable making history, so he finally did it for her. The director of officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s (ECAC) hockey programs, Stewart informed Guay he scheduled her to referee a game between Union and Sacred Heart in 2015. She figured it was a routine women’s college hockey assignment – until he told her it was actually a men’s game, a step she had been reluctant to take.

“I don’t know if I’m ready,” she told him.

“Now you’re second-guessing me?” he fired back.

And just like that, Guay became the first woman to officiate in Division I men’s college hockey. Then last month, she served as a referee for a game between Harvard and Boston College in the Beanpot, the first woman official in the history of the prominent tournament. Might she also become the first woman to referee an NHL game one day?

Of the five major professional sports, the NHL is the only major league to not have a woman officiate on its stage, exhibition or otherwise, and it is actively looking to change that. To help identify potential future officiating talent for the NHL and other professional leagues, the NHL has been encouraging women to participate in its annual combine.

NHL Director of Officiating Stephen Walkom said the league plans to reach out to Division I hockey coaches this year

97/16

referee Katie Guay watches a Boston college change during their Beanpot Tournament game against harvard in an Ncaa hockey game, Feb 4 in Boston. she became the first female to referee a Beanpot Tournament game.

for help spreading the word about the NHL Exposure Combine to their seniors, women in particular. The ideal candidate is a strong skater, to keep up in a game that’s as fast as it’s ever been. The appeal to players it’s a way to stay in hockey after their college career is over. Walkom even tried to sell Kendall Coyne Schofield on it as an option for the future after the U.S. women’s national team forward posted an impressive lap of 14.346 seconds in the NHL’s fastest skater competi-

tion at the All-Star Game in January.

Guay was one of seven women who were invited to the combine this past August, but she and two others had scheduling conflicts.

“I don’t think we really have a deadline for putting a woman [official] in the NHL,” Walkom said. “I think we want the most talented individuals doing our games regardless of who they are or where they’re from. Our big goal is to just deepen the pool of aspiring young officials, men and women, and get them involved and get them to try officiating, especially those that are great athletes and great skaters who played at a pretty high level. And then I know one day, somebody is going to like it enough and be good at it that one day we see them in pro hockey.”

Violet Palmer became the first woman to call an NBA game in 1997, and after Sarah Thomas made her debut as an NFL referee in 2015, she officiated a playoff game between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Chargers in January. While there hasn’t been a female umpire in an MLB game, women have worked spring training games. Sandra Hunt, Nancy Lay and Kari Seitz all worked as centre referees in the MLS roughly two decades ago.

“What it comes down to is, it doesn’t take an X or a Y chromosome to stick your hand in the air and call a penalty,” said Stewart, who called more than 1,000 NHL games over two decades. “Which lavatory you use doesn’t really matter to me. When I hire you, I hire you for your ability to recognize penalties and skate and get in shape and be where you need to be to make the call.”

Guay became a referee in 2006, when gas prices had just spiked and she needed some extra cash to recoup the money she was spending driving to and from women’s league games. She had played four years of college hockey at Brown, and she missed being in the rink. But what started as a part-time gig shifted to something more serious when Guay realized that officiating could lead her to international tournaments.

Stewart said he has six women on his officiating roster, including Guay, and he’s recruited them personally, constantly handing out his business card. Though Guay initially laughed off Stewart’s suggestion that she referee men’s Division I

games, she now works an equal amount of men’s and women’s games. After Guay refereed that Beanpot game between Boston College and Harvard, legendary Eagles coach Jerry York had some unsolicited feedback for Stewart. “She’s superb. What a great skater and good demeanor,” York told him.

“This isn’t a gimmick,” Stewart said. “She’s got the right stuff.”

While the focal point will be the NHL level, Guay believes the path for adding more female officials needs to begin at the game’s lesser levels.

“I do think it’ll happen in my lifetime for a female to get out there in the NHL, but I think in order for it to happen, assigners at the lower level, the junior level, need to provide opportunities to females in order for us to see a female referee in the NHL,” Guay said. “As players develop and grow and make it to the show, officials are put on a similar path, so they need to be given the development at the lower levels first in order for them to work their way up... That’s something that I’m hoping, me being out there at the college level will open not only young kids’ eyes to realize that there’s potential out there, but also assigners’ eyes in providing more opportunities for females in the boys’ and men’s game.”

Two NHL players interviewed for this story were supportive of women refereeing their games, but they wondered if a woman could be a linesman, since that official is tasked with breaking up post-whistle scrums and fights. Elizabeth Mantha, who attended the NHL Exposure Combine in August, has worked as both a referee and a linesman in Quebec, and she said she’s had to break up a few fights in games with 15- to 17-year-old boys.

“But I’m 5-foot-10 almost, so for me, it’s OK,” she said. “I may not be as strong as a man, but I was able to do something at least... Sometimes you just need to talk in a fight and tell the players and guys to stop and just speak with them and work with them. Sometimes you can get away with that. We have tactics.”

Said Walkom: “We have less and less fighting in the game now than we ever have. You just need to be agile and quick and a great backwards skater and a great communicator as a linesman with some good hockey sense. I wouldn’t rule out one position over the other.”

Every official, man or woman, has had to deal with criticism and the occasional verbal abuse over their calls – and that’s part of the reason it’s so hard to not only recruit people to be officials but then get them to stick with it. Hockey Canada’s officiating registration for the 2017-18 season was 28,937 males and 2,024 females, and USA Hockey has 25,272 males and 1,561 females for 2018-19. Mantha said she’s the only woman who officiates men’s games in Quebec, which puts and even bigger spotlight on her

“It’s really a hard world to be in,” she said. “They’re going to try to take advantage of the fact that we’re women and think maybe that we’re maybe more soft and we don’t apply the rules and we can get run over.”

Guay is often asked about how male coaches and players regard her. Her answer is that she’s usually treated like any other official, which is all she wants.

“Getting a few f-bombs is really a sign of respect because that means they’re not treating me any differently than any of the other officials out there,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

news service photo

Bordens hit the right notes

JSeniorS’ Scene

Kathy NadaliN

im Borden was born in 1943, in Grand Prairie, Alta. His mother had to travel by train from Demmitt to the hospital in Grand Prairie for the delivery and then back home again by train with her new baby. Jim was the fourth of five children. His father was a homesteader and life was not easy on the farm or in the small town where he grew up. Jim said, “There was no electricity in the school or in the family home. There was no running water and in fact we used to laugh and call the river our artesian well.”

Jim was born a few days before Christmas and he always quips that he was the best Christmas present his mom ever received.

He graduated from high school in Demmitt, attended the B.C. Institute of Technology (BCIT) and earned his Class A electrical contractor’s license and his interprovincial ticket.

In 1963 Jim was working in Fort St. John as an electrician’s helper. He was sent to Giscome for a two-day job to add updates to the electrical system for the area sawmill.

He finished the job in Giscome and never returned to his job in Fort St. John. Instead he was hired as an electrical helper by the Electric Power Equipment

company in Prince George for the next 10 years.

It was during this time that he met and married Brenda Barry. Brenda was born in Dryden, Ont. and raised in Kimberley. When she was six months old, Brenda and her mother traveled by train to Kimberley to join her father who was working in the Sullivan Mine.

Brenda graduated from high school and along with some friends, she came to

Prince George looking for work. She was working in the office of the Electric Power Equipment company when she met future husband.

Jim said, “She was there for awhile before I spotted her. My work took me out of town a lot so I was just lucky to have met her. To make a long story short we met, we got married, built our family home in 1972 and the rest is history.”

Jim worked for H. N. Smith Electric for five years. Later he formed a partnership and bought Bater Electric. They closed the company eight years later.

Jim and Albert Tosoff partnered and formed Borden and Tosoff Electric. After 18 years, they closed the company and Jim retired.

Jim and Brenda have three sons; Doug (Gillian), Dan and Brian (Kirby) who in turn gave them five grandsons.

he was 10 years old, he made a baptismal font for the church in his hometown and as far as he knows the font is still there. When he was 12, he built an 8x12 detached bedroom because he wanted to live independently.

Jim always succeeded at whatever he did – mainly because if it didn’t work out the first time he tried again and again until it did work out. He maintained a can-do attitude in all that he did both during his entire working career and into his retirement.

He built his own shop in 1990 and spends much of his time puttering away with a variety of new ideas or perfecting old ideas.

He is a perfectionist in all aspects of his woodworking. He can make anything from cabinets right down to musical instruments.

His first attempt at making a musical instrument was when he ordered a kit to make a mandolin.

Jim said, “The parts were not accurate and they were poorly built. The mandolin ended up with no quality at all so I threw it in the fireplace and built one from scratch. Right then and there I was hooked on making musical instruments.

“I started sourcing out my own wood from local trees. Then I dried it, sawed it and graded it. That was just the first step toward a finished product. I had an understanding of an end-grain and an edge-grain and that is the secret and the art of understanding the configuration of wood structure.”

Jim said, “Brenda was a stay-at-home mom for 16 years. During that time, she taught our boys to be resilient, compassionate and how to stand on their own two feet. The family always came first. She was creative in their activities and always tried to make every event interesting and fun. We are both proud to say that our boys turned out just fine.”

Brenda started working at the Prince George Public Library in 1984 and then moved to the Nechako Branch Library in the Hart Highway area until she retired 30 years later.

She has been active at her church and volunteered with anything to do with her three boys.

Woodworking has always been Jim’s passion pretty much all of his life. When

Over the years he built more than 40 mandolins, 25 guitars, 20 fiddles, two mandola’s and a base fiddle (also known as a doghouse) just to name a few.

He not only builds stringed musical instruments, he is also known all over B.C. for his ability to repair them.

Years ago, Jim was invited to appear on a local TV show to talk about his projects and to explain the steps involved in making musical instruments. There is no sign of Jim retiring because now there is a demand for ukuleles.

He volunteered and was part of the Andy Mackie project for four years.

The project consisted of a group that made small learning guitars that were donated to be used as a teaching tool for children.

He volunteered to assist in the electrical wiring for the Little League concession stand and their score keeping buildings. He also assisted in the building and the wiring of the Emmanuel United Church on the Hart.

Jim has been a member of the Old Time Fiddlers for nearly 25 years.

I asked Jim what the difference was between a violin and a fiddle and his oneword answer was “attitude.”

97/16 photos by Brent Braaten Jim and Brenda Borden are seen in Jim’s shop where he makes guitars, violins and other instruments.

Mandolin built by Jim Borden.

HealtH

Pregnancy finally getting research attention

97/16 wire service

For two years, a group of world-class scientists pitched their idea for a hot new biotech company to investors: a start-up focused on a promising therapy for preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication that can become life-threatening. It was cutting-edge science, backed by a Nobel laureate, a Harvard kidney specialist, a leading chemist and a biologist with both expertise and personal experience. Eventually, they gave up – not on the science, and not on preeclampsia – but on the investors.

“We talked to so many different venture capitalists and other companies. The scientists and doctors would get excited,” said Melissa Moore, a University of Massachusetts Medical School scientist who began working on preeclampsia after she suffered from it in 2003 and was put on bed rest for more than a month, only to give birth seven weeks early to a baby girl who weighed less than four pounds.

“But as soon as their lawyers heard ‘sick, pregnant women,’ nothing happened,” Moore said. “There’s such a sense of liability.”

Moore and her colleagues’ experience highlights a persistent problem in medical research. The effect of medicines on pregnant women and their fetuses is rarely studied. Basic understanding of pregnancy itself is full of gaping scientific holes, mysteries that include how the placenta forms and what, exactly, controls the timing of birth. Some pregnancy experts call the placenta, an organ that is necessary for all human reproduction, the Rodney Dangerfield of the human body because it gets “no respect.”

The default assumption has long been – and, to a large extent, still is – that it’s essential to protect pregnant women from research, rather than ensure they benefit from its rapid progress. But concerted pressure from scientists and advocates is slowly beginning to change policy and research culture.

Activists successfully pushed for more women to be included in medical research in the 1990s, but pregnant and lactating women have largely been left behind. Now, another round of activism that began a decade ago is pushing new thinking on pregnancy.

Some researchers note that pregnant women are increasingly being studied in their own right – and not just as the environment in which a fetus develops. Recent evidence suggests that pregnancy complications may predict women’s susceptibility to dementia or heart disease decades later.

The medical attitude toward pregnancy was shaped more than half a century ago by the thalidomide crisis, when women who took the medication for morning sickness had babies with birth defects. The incident helped launch the modern era of U.S. drug regulation, with requirements to prove the effectiveness and safe-

97/16 news service photos stephanie hinze holds her son harrison, 2, at home in Gainesville, Ga. hinze, who suffers from spina bifida, is five months pregnant with her third child.

ty of drugs before they could be approved for sale. Pregnant women, however, are typically left out of such research.

One study found that the risks to human pregnancy were “undetermined” in 98 per cent of prescription drugs approved between 2000 and 2010. An analysis of historical data showed it took nearly three decades to get more precise risk information. That’s despite the fact that of the six million women in the United States who are pregnant each year, 90 per cent take at least one medication.

Anne Drapkin Lyerly, a bioethicist and obstetrician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that there is a deep-seated norm to leave pregnant women out of clinical trials, reinforced by policies that have classified them as “vulnerable” and institutional rules that have made it easier to avoid considering the potential risks and benefits altogether.

“If you want to exclude a pregnant woman from research, all you’ve got to do is check the box; she’s excluded, no explanation needed,” Lyerly said. “If you want to include her, there’s a whole slew of paperwork and decisions, and you have to justify your decision.”

Taking women out of the vulnerable category is a long way from changing their access to drug trials or changing the incentives drug companies have to include them, but advocates say it’s a long-overdue start. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also released draft guidance on when to include women in clinical trials, laying out the case that there is a “critical public health need” for more information on how to

use drugs safely in pregnant women.

For people who are pregnant or hope to conceive, the unknowns extend far beyond what drugs women can safely take. The National Institutes of Health, which tracks its research funding on nearly 300 health categories, ranging from rare Batten disease to ubiquitous allergies, only began breaking out its spending on pregnancy, maternal health and breastfeeding in 2017.

Stephanie Hinze, 37, of Atlanta, suffers from spina bifida and has used a wheelchair since she was eight years old. When she and her husband decided to conceive, there was little information for her to rely on – except for an informal network of other women with disabilities who had already had children. Concerns included whether it was safe to carry a child at all; fertility questions; whether she was gaining weight at the right rate, given that doctor’s offices weren’t equipped with accessible scales; and what to do when she couldn’t feel the baby moving due to a decreased lack of sensation in her abdomen.

Hinze, who has two sons, one of whom is adopted, is now pregnant for the second time. She says she was lucky – her first pregnancy went smoothly and her medical team was supportive, contrasting with anecdotes she has heard from others. But at each step, they were solving new puzzles.

My doctor, while he was great and very receptive, didn’t know everything to expect. As things happened, during the pregnancy, he’d say, ‘Let’s deal with this issue and let’s figure this out.’ “ Hinze said. “You don’t want to go in and your

doctor’s not entirely sure what the solution will be for what’s going on.”

NIH last year partnered with the CDC to survey how disabled women experience pregnancy. The questions they hope to answer include: are they more likely to develop complications? Does disability affect women’s ability to breast-feed? What is their basic experience of pregnancy like?

“We don’t know,” said Alison Cernich, director of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, describing the evidence gap around disability and pregnancy that she attributes to a “quadfecta” of barriers for women: Women’s health is often overlooked, many disabled women belong to ethnic groups that do not receive optimal care due to bias, many disabled people experience poverty, and disabilities are often stigmatized.

The basic science of pregnancy, too, is getting a closer look, as NIH has so far funded $76 million in research projects to study the human placenta, the temporary organ that provides oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. The recent discovery that it is possible to grow a miniature version of the placenta in a laboratory setting may help scientists understand fundamental questions about how it develops, in part in response to secretions from the uterus.

“Even in the 21st century, we don’t know what’s in the secretions, we don’t know the composition of them, which the whole of the future of the human species depends on,” said Graham Burton, a professor of the physiology of reproduction at the University of Cambridge.

Great team behind mL a bond

christiNe hiNzmaNN 97/16 staff

Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond credits her team for her successful career in politics.

Bond’s team includes Dorothy Titchener, who is in charge of Bond’s very busy schedule, setting up events and meetings. Titchener also meets with concerned constituents seeking help from their MLA and representing Bond when she is unable to attend public events.

Luckily for Titchener, who has worked with Bond since 2007, the other full-time member of the team, Krystine Iley, who is the frontline worker at the office, will soon be taking over some of the speaking engagements once relegated to Titchener.

Iley, who joined the team in 2016, enjoys taking on the challenge of public speaking and considers it part of her professional development.

Rounding out the team is Tegan Raines, who has worked one day a week for up to five hours since 2013 doing electronic filing, event research and odd jobs like shredding, creating front-window posters and filling the photo copier. Raines takes her job very seriously and always wants to help.

She is a great asset to the team especially when it comes to the many events hosted by Bond.

Raines puts up posters around town and canvasses for door prizes and gifts for Bond’s annual Seniors tea.

“The strength of our team – first of all we’re friends, as well as employee and employer,” Bond said. “I think what we

a great work environment, a great relationship with the people you work with, is so important.”

Bond is very aware having an intergenerational staff is an important component.

Iley is a busy mom of two young children, while going to school and managing a full-time job.

Seeing Iley navigate her life is a really good reminder about what a typical family looks like in today’s society, Bond said.

“Krystine brings a very important perspective to files that’s very pragmatic so Dorothy and I also learn from her and we value that,” Bond said. “I have appreciated my own personal growth and watching the two of them grow has been really energizing for me.”

Iley has two children, three-year-old Scarlette and one-year-old Lincoln and is attending UNBC with a major in accounting and minor in economics.

“I love working for Shirley but I don’t think I could do her job,” Iley said.

really need in this office is people who are committed to serving the public. So while I might be the elected person, my team works so hard behind the scenes and directly with constituents to solve problems.”

Bond said that getting to yes is always the priority and getting a no only presents a challenge that needs to be overcome.

Each victory is celebrated as if it were their own, because when a problem is solved for a person in need, it’s a win for everyone.

Bond said Titchener and Iley always go the extra mile.

“Working here I have learned so much about our provincial government, the structure of it, how it works, how ministries operate with one another and MLA offices. I have a big interest in political science now and how our government operates, which I didn’t think I would be interested in but I am very much interested in it, so I would like to follow along this path politically and stay in this type of constituency work.”

Iley said no day is ever the same and she likes that.

A big part of the job is helping people find their way through bureaucracy and advocating for them.

“I have appreciated my own personal growth and watching the two of them grow has been really energizing for me.”

shirley

Bond, MLa

“My team has a great deal of caring and a passion for solving the problem,” Bond said, who started out as a school trustee and was chair for a term before she started her provincial political career in 2001. She is currently in her fifth term as an MLA.

Working under Bond’s guidance, Titchener said she has developed into a person she never thought she could become.

“I never would have believed in me like she has,” Titchener said of rising up to the many challenges that come with being part of a public-service team.

“That’s one of the things we really enjoy about being part of this team is watching each other grow,” Bond said. “And that includes me. They also challenge me to think realistically. I can be a really great ideas person and then we have to figure out how to deliver that.”

Bond said she’s seen both Titchener and Iley grow throughout their jobs and they encourage her growth as well.

“To be honest they give a me a lot of strength every day,” Bond said. “Because when you come in to the office and there’s a lot of work on your plate, having

They celebrate the victories when they are able to help the single mom, the senior and the woman who lost her purse. Bond and her team not only host events like the Seniors’ Tea and the International Women’s Day Breakfast but also participate in many fundraisers within the community like the Relay for Life, Kidney Walk, Alzheimer’s Walk and the Big Bike for Heart and Stroke.

“One of the many benefits of this job is that we’ve gotten to know the many organizations in this community,” Bond said. “We love our community and we feel strongly about giving back.”

Bond said a big part of the motivation to keep doing her job is that she lives here, too.

“And I care deeply,” Bond said. “This is not a 9-to-5 job. I take my work home with me and so does my team and I’m so grateful for that.”

When Bond must appear in the legislature that means she is only in the Prince George office on Fridays.

She takes a homework bag with her to be completed by Sunday evening, returns it to the office and after that she stays in touch with her team from Victoria.

“While I may be the face of the organization this office would not operate without great staff,” she added. “They work tirelessly to meet the needs of constituents who come through the door. I am very blessed to have my team.”

97/16 photo by Brent Braaten

The team behind MLa shirley Bond, centre, includes dorothy Titchener, left, and christine Iley.

Scene

Exhibit offErs glimpsE into farm lifE

frank peebles

97/16 staff

Cliff Mann knows from experience that chickens aren’t always the charmingly oblivious strutters of the barnyard.

The one he painted as the lead image for his new art exhibition is the kind of chicken he knew back in childhood, the one that looks you in the eye with a “you want a piece of me?” attitude – the Alpha Chicken. You can find Grade A chicken at the butcher shop, but you’ll find this Type-A chicken at his upcoming event.

“This bird means business. Look at it, it’s staring into your soul,” said a chuckling Lisa Redpath, the curator of the Community Arts Council’s feature gallery at Studio 2880. Redpath has booked Mann for previous art shows, he was once the CAC’s artist-in-residence, and he is also a past Art Battle champion. He is one of the city’s preeminent painters.

“I knew he was up for a challenge,” Redpath said. “We have been able to develop a unique and close working relationship with Cliff over the years, and if anyone could take on a challenge like this, it was him.”

That’s some bold barnyard talk.

The chicken led to discussions about a series and that theme comes unveiled on March 14. Animal Farm may have been a bestselling satire novel in the hands of George Orwell, but it’s a colourful depiction of local rural life under the brush of Cliff Mann. And it all got hatched because of that engrossing gallina.

“Some family members sent me a photo of a chicken and I loved it, it grabbed my attention right away, and I thought ‘one day I’m going to have to paint this’,” said Mann. “Half an hour later, it became someday. Once you’re rolling, you start thinking about it, turning ideas over in your mind, one thing leads to another, and before I knew it I had nine paintings and I have more in the works.”

Mann is a watercolour specialist, but transitioned there several years ago from oil and other painting genres. He has done street-scapes and nudes using his new style. He has done speed-painting events like Art Battle and deliberately careful activities like book illustrations.

He makes watercolour do things wide outside the usual scenes of that style (see: florals, long-distance landscapes, semiabstract conceptual images).

“I don’t like the pale, pasty, old-English styles of watercolour we grew up with,” he said. “I want to play with the colour palette, with achieving detail, and treat watercolour more like an oil painter would approach the craft.”

The evidence of this blurring of boundaries, said Redpath, is in the way the filaments of a feather or the strands of hair are represented by Mann. S he said his animals “appear like ones you’d recognize if you walked onto their farm and saw them standing there. There’s nothing cartoonish about any of them.”

You actually can walk onto the farm of many of these animals in the Cliff Mann Animal Farm. There’s a portrait of Penny, a real horse rescued from abuse near Fraser Lake. There’s a horse saddled and ready for a ride into the backcountry near Houston. There’s a rabbit at Huble Farm. Some of these critters he knows personally, and some are friends of friends who sent him photos.

Some photos he even got from a callout he posted on Facebook. Only one of those responses he refuses to paint.

“I was sent an alpaca photo, and I am just not there yet. Too difficult,” he said. “It’s an amazing picture, I was blown away, but the hair of an alpaca is unique and I’m going to have to work up to it. If I can pull off an alpaca, I’ll have done my job.”

Mann grew up on a farm about two hours west of Prince George, where cows were milked and eggs were gathered and predators would do the murder of the circle of life. Farms are pastoral and idyllic settings, but they are also places where pain and loss and difficulty grow as naturally as the hay and vegetables.

These conditions are subliminally imbedded into these animal scenes, as Mann contends with realism in the dabs and slashes of paint.

Animal Farm opens its gates today at Studio 2880 (located in the gift shop at 2880 15th Ave.) with a free public reception starting at 5 p.m.

Captain Marvel cheers theatres after a dismal start to 2019

97/16 wire service

Oscar winner Brie Larson delivered a superhero-sized jolt to theatres with her portrayal of the comic-book character Captain Marvel, waking up fans of blockbuster movies from their long winter slumber.

The film from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel division opened with North American weekend sales of $153 million, researcher Comscore Inc. estimated Sunday in an email. Forecasts ranged from a low of

$125 million from Disney to $175 million, the mean projection from Box Office Pro. Captain Marvel also opened in international markets, and Disney estimated the global weekend take at $455 million, the sixth-biggest ever.

The domestic tally makes Captain Marvel the biggest opening of the year and could signal a rebound for theatre owners, whose sales were down 26 per cent year to date as of last weekend. Disney, the box-office leader in recent years, has several potential blockbusters lined

up in coming weeks, including a Dumbo live-action remake later this month and Avengers: Endgame in late April.

It’s been a longish dry spell for fans of big action films, which explains the drought in sales for theatre owners. So far this year, the biggest weekend film was How to Train Your Dragon at $55 million in February. The last big hit was Warner Bros.’s Aquaman opened in late December to $68 million and went on to collect $1.14 billion worldwide.

Captain Marvel breaks new ground for

Disney. It’s the first female-led superhero movie from Marvel, the master of bigscreen comic-book films.

The studio also enlisted a woman to co-direct the picture, in another first for the company.

Not surprisingly, no other major studio opened a new film in competition with Captain Marvel.

Larson, 29, won the Oscar for best actress in 2016 for Room, about a woman and her young son who were held captive for seven years.

97/16 handout photo

cliff Mann created this image of a chicken using water colour. This painting and many other works can be seen in an exhibit at studio 2880.

EvEnts for this wEEk

Youth-Centred Performance

Tonight from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., attend the youth-centred evening of performances with Kym Gouchie and Francis Arevalo on healthy environments and communities. The event will be held with free admission. Contact 250-508-3410 or vanessa.sloan.morgan@gmail.com

Scalawag album release show

Tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. at Nancy O’s, 1261 Third Ave., Scalawag, a solo musician, offers an eclectic mix of genres and distinct vocals. Admission is by minimum $5 at the door. Contact 250-643-3576 or thescalawagmusic@gmail.com.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Theatre NorthWest, 556 North Nechako Rd., based on the 1988 slap-stick comedy starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels follows the story of two men who con their way through a series of beautiful women on the French Riviera. This show features catchy songs, farcical humour, and a plot twist. Tickets are $10 for UNBC and CNC students with valid ID, and $15 for non-students. For tickets visit tickets.theatrenorthwest.com.

BC Old Time Fiddlers’ Dance

Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Elks Community Hall (old Moose Hall), 663 Douglas St., enjoy toe-tapping live music to swing your partner. A chance to do the old-time dances like polka, waltz, schottishe, barn dance, 7 step, two step. Ticket includes a light lunch. Cash bar. Contact 250-5631025 or beth.bressette@telus.net.

Family Gaming Afternoons

Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at Bob Harkins Branch, Prince George Public Library, 888 Canada Games Way, bring the whole family to this gaming afternoon. Choose from tabletop board games or video games. Contact 250-563-9251 or ask@ pgpl.ca .

Open Drum Circle

Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St, there is an Open Drum Circle to build community. This is an inclusive activity exploring drum ceremony as we use it to learn and promote Indigenous and Dakelh languages, knowledge, cultures and histories. Everyone is welcome to participate, share, dance, learn or observe. For more information visit www.ominecaartscentre.com.

New Horizons Adult Band

Every Monday until June 24 at 5 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 483 Gillett St., Alban Classical New Horizons Adult Band is welcoming musicians. Contact: 250563-4693 | admin@albanclassical.org

Minecraft Monday

Monday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Bob Harkins Branch, Sky Lab, 888 Canada Games Way, children between the ages of five and 12 are invited to join in the fun. Limited registration. Contact: 250-563-9251 ext. 108 | ask@pgpl.ca

Stitch ‘n’ b!tch

Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., attend a cozy evening of crafting and tea. Bring projects or try something new. Drop-in by donation. For more information visit www.ominecaartscentre.com.

Wheelchair Basketball

Every Monday until April 15 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Northern Sports Centre (NSC), 3333 University Way, P.G. LumberJacks wheelchair basketball is a Rec North drop-in program at the Northern Sports Centre. No experience is necessary and all equipment including sports wheelchairs is available. Everyone welcome. Free for NSC members and youth under 13 years or $6 drop-in rate for non-members. Call 250-613-5187 or email pgwheelchairbball@gmail.com.

Teen Tabletop Meet Up

Every Monday until May 27 from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Bob Harkins Branch, Prince George Public Library, 888 Canada Games Way, try your hand at a variety of tabletop games. All experience levels welcome. Bring your own decks for MtG, Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. For 13 to 18 yrs. For more information call 250-563-9251 or email ask@pgpl.ca.

Conscious Dance

Tuesday from 6:15 to 8:15 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., conscious dance/authentic movement for mental, physical, social, spiritual and cultural rebalancing for every body will be offered. This inclusive event is

open and beneficial to every community member. Bring a yoga mat or blanket, warm socks, water bottle, comfy clothes – whatever you like to wear and come as you are. This movement is about being non judgmental, about reconnecting with body, mind, community space through rhythm and music. Hosted by Sacredsouldance. Admission is by donation. For more information visit www. ominecaartscentre.com.

Wheelchair Rugby

Every Tuesday until May 28 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the College of New Caledonia , 3330 22 Ave., wheelchair rugby program runs weekly. No experience is necessary and all equipment including sports wheelchairs are available. Everyone welcome. BC Wheelchair Sports annual membership is $10. In this full-contact sport, athletes play in tank-like wheelchairs and hit each others’ chairs in an attempt to carry a ball across the line. For more information call 250-649-9501 or email Northern@bcwheelchairsports.com.

A Day with Kym Gouchie

Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bob Harkins Branch, Prince George Public Library, 888 Canada Games Way, everyone is invited to join Kym Gouchie, a member of the Lheidli T’enneh, will share her music and art, tell soul-touching stories about the land and the people, while promoting reconciliation. From 10 a.m. to noon everyone is welcome at this creative workshop featuring shaker-making and rock painting. Bring your own special rocks. From 1 to 2 p.m. bring your shakers and enjoy Kym Gouchie’s inspirational music. Contact 250-563-9251 or ask@pgpl.ca.

Tea ‘n’ Beads ‘n’ Bannock

Wednesday from 7 to 10 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., there is a community beading circle hosted by Lynette La Fontaine, a Metis artist who blends traditional art and teachings with contemporary flair in the form of acrylic paintings and beadwork.

This is not a class, but a place to bring beading projects and sit together to inspire, connect and learn from one another. Everyone is welcome.

Admission is by donation. For more information visit www.ominecaartscentre.com.

This is the front page of the Wednesday March 12, 1919 edition of the Prince George Citizen. The Citizen archives are available at the Prince George Library’s website at pgnewspapers.pgpl.ca

First time down the waterslide

Home AgAiN Megan kuklIs

With the impending destruction and rebuild of the Four Seasons Leisure Pool, I have been feeling rather nostalgic about the ol’ girl. She has been well-loved. The roof tiles are stained, the floors are less than sparkly but, in her bones, the Four Seasons still gives it her all to the community.

When I was growing up, the Four Seasons was all we had, except for birthday parties at Esther’s Inn and we loved to go.

Swimming lessons were a part of our school curriculum and we spent ages at the pool begging the lifeguards to turn on the waterslide and the water fountain. Now I still spend ages at the pool but in a different capacity: mom on the sidelines.

As a child, I did not understand the appeal of sitting on the bench with your socks off and your pants rolled up when you could be swimming instead. I still don’t understand the appeal. It is hot, muggy, my glasses fog up and the floor is sloshy.

I have become the incredibly lame superhero “Mom Who Carries the Bags of Stuff and Makes Sure You Are Listening to the Instructor.”

It is not a glamourous job but someone has to do it – like my husband, next week.

And sitting on the sidelines is often preferable to getting in your swimsuit, getting in the pool, getting out of the pool and getting dressed again, all within a half hour.

Although being the Mom Who Carries the Bags is not my ideal way to spend an evening (which would be alone, reading), it can provide a wonderful opportunity to watch your kids grow and develop confidence in themselves.

After the panic at the pool last week (where I lost sight of my son when he

New ALS support group starts April 10

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A Prince George woman is ready to facilitate a support group for those living with ALS.

Deborah Miller has just completed her training, the ALS Society of B.C. said. The meetings will be held the second Wednesday of the month. The first meeting will be on April 10 at St. Giles’ Presbyterian Church, 1500 Edmonton St., 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The groups provide an open, friendly and safe environment for ALS patients, family members, friends and caregivers to discuss issues related to living with ALS.

Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and causes a loss of control of voluntary muscles. For more information, call Miller at 250-230-4742.

went into the changeroom), I am really trying not to overreact and to allow the kids to expand their boundaries even though it makes my heart hurt.

So when my son asked me if he can go on the waterslide, I told him yes (he still had to wear a lifejacket because he is not the strongest swimmer yet). He looked at me, surprised, I imagine, and asked if I could go down the water slide with him. Carrying all the stuff and wearing my regular clothes, I gently explained that I wasn’t wearing a bathing suit so if he wanted to go, he would have to go down

by himself. He looked worried. He put on his lifejacket and watched the kids go down. He looked up at the top of the slide. He bobbed a bit, standing there in his lifejacket, jittering with indecision. Finally, he took off his lifejacket and went back into the pool.

We talked a bit about how it was okay to be nervous and that he would be able to do it eventually. Three more kids came down the slide laughing and he couldn’t handle it anymore so he jumped out of the pool, pulled on a lifejacket and hurried up the stairs.

The lifeguard, a young woman who was perfect with my son, encouraged him when he started to get scared at the top of the slide. When it looked like he wasn’t going to go down, she asked him if he wanted to watch some of the other kids go down so he knew what it was going to be like.

I went to the bottom of the stairs so he could see me and the lifeguard said that it was okay, he was just getting comfortable.

I gave him a thumbs up and waved to him and, I swear, the whole pool cheered when he went down (even if they didn’t, I certainly did).

I was so proud of him. He came down the slide and waved at me enthusiastically right before slamming into the pool.

He swam over to the edge and ran right back up the slide for another go. Next up, more adventures in letting go – his sister still needs to go down by herself, too.

97/16 file photo The Four seasons Leisure Pool is seen in 2017.