under category during the
Directors urged to get on broadband bandwagon
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Fraser-Fort George Regional District directors were urged take action and make the most of federal, provincial and private sector funding to bring broadband internet to rural areas when a service provider spoke to the board on Thursday.
ABC Communications vice president Falco Kadenbach made note of $750 million over five years from Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission plus a further $50 million from the provincial government committed to the cause.
The goal is to ensure all Canadians have access to speeds of at least 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads, as well as access to mobile wireless services including on major transportation routes.
“It’s a great opportunity for those two funds to be matched and perhaps another opportunity for local government to also participate at some level,” Kadenbach said.
He encouraged directors to form a broadband committee to create a strategic plan for bringing the service to outlying areas.
“The opportunity is for you to start to open that dialogue, start to create a list of communities that should come first and start to look for partners to help with that plan,” Kadenbach said.
Northern Development Initiative Trust is administering the provincial portion of the money. Kadenbach said ABC is submitting an application to NDIT for a project to bring broadband to Tabor Lake, Salmon Valley, Mackenzie and Gantahaz Lake via wireless technology. Kadenbach also talked about the challenges of bringing broadband to rural and remote spots. While coverage via wireless can be inconsistent, he said fibre optic can be extremely expensive. Even if the cable is strung along utility poles, Kadenbach said that if the poles are too old, “we end up having to replace every single pole at a cost of $10,000 each pole.”
In those cases, “going straight to ground” and digging a trench for the cable can be the better option but it takes working with local governments.
Prince George director Lyn Hall said the wildfires that have struck the region over the last two summers raise the need for expanded broadband. “Over the years that’s been a real issue for us, not only from an economic perspective but from a safety perspective,” Hall said. “We saw very quickly in 2017 that some of the outlying areas that were being impacted by the wildfire had no connectivity and therefore no updates on the wildfire situation that impacted their community.”
Kadenbach said he kept a close eye on wireless towers to make sure they did not get burned to the ground.
Following Kadenbach’s presentation, directors voted to apply to NDIT for funding to develop a strategic plan.
First Nation’s plans for Summit Lake presented to directors
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
Fraser-Fort George Regional District directors were given an update Thursday on a plan to transfer Crown land within the Summit Lake townsite to the West Moberly First Nation as part of a treaty settlement agreement.
In a presentation, Dale Morgan, the northeast regional manager for the B.C. Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, said the move emanates from a miscounting of the number of people involved when, in 1914, Treaty 8 was expanded to include First Nations in the B.C. Peace.
As a consequence, West Moberly did not receive all the land it was entitled to. Fast forward 100-plus years and work is being carried out to make good on the shortfall while also providing the First Nation with additional land in acknowledgment of the loss of use over that time.
“You can’t just say, ‘oh well, it’s been 100 years, we’ll give you exactly that amount that you
were owed from 100 years ago,’” Morgan said. “There has to be, and there is, recognition that they have lost the use of that land opportunity for 100 years. We’re not just providing the land that was not provided in 1914 but also providing a negotiated settlement to provide more lands.”
Additionally, in 2017 the B.C. Supreme Court agreed with Treaty 8 First Nations that the western boundary is at the height of land separating the Arctic and Pacific watersheds rather than the central range of the Rocky Mountains.
Morgan said the ruling has been appealed to the federal courts and so, the land to be allocated will be as fee simple rather than reserve due to the current uncertainty. If the 2017 decision is maintained, West Moberly will have the right to convert the sites into reserve land.
Morgan provided a series of maps showing the land drawing West Moberly’s interest. It’s looking at five plots adding up to just under 160 hectares, none of it developed.
Most of it is adjacent to the residential areas along Summit Lake itself and would be used for
additional housing and community development, but also includes a spot to the south and alongside Highway 97 deemed a prime spot for a gas station. And while Summit Lake is generally considered to be within McLeod Lake Indian Band territory, West Moberly already owns some land within the townsite. Overlap of traditional territory is common, Morgan said, and added that affected Indigenous groups must also be consulted on any land transfer.
Directors were told that the sewage lagoon for Summit Lake is now at capacity but Morgan said West Moberly has been active in keeping its home lake clean and would have the same interest in protecting Summit Lake. The process is “absolutely separate” from development of the strategy for conserving the southern mountain caribou, Morgan also confirmed.
He said the process could take another two years before it’s completed but believes an agreement on the final selection of lands and approval to transfer can be reached before the next federal election in October.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN Highland high-stepping
Charlotte Campbell competes in the Cultural Specific 12 and
2019 Prince George Dance Festival in Vanier Hall on Thursday morning. The Gala, which will showcase the best performance of the festival, is this afternoon at Vanier Hall.
Music and stories
Tsilhqot’in holding protest against mine
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
One of the region’s First Nations will pound out a message of protest in downtown Vancouver today.
The Tsilhqot’in Nation and its allies will be on the steps of the B.C. Court of Appeal conducting a water and drum ceremony as a sign of their ongoing opposition to a proposed mine on their traditional territory.
More than just making a symbolic gesture, though, the Tsilhqot’in will also take legal action while at the courthouse. The drumming will commence at 8:30 a.m., but when the front doors are unlocked for morning business, said Tsilhqot’in National Government spokesperson Myanna Desaulniers, the group would then be “entering the B.C. Court of Appeal seeking an injunction to stop Taseko Mines Ltd. from attempting to to do pre-construction work for a mine repeatedly rejected by the federal govern-
ment and cannot lawfully be built.”
Taseko has been advocating for the ability to build the New Prosperity Mine west of 100 Mile House/Williams Lake for decades. The construction plan included using Te tan Biny (Fish Lake) for the mine’s tailings. That drew the initial ire of the resident First Nation, and that opposition grew to include other points of contention as well.
“Te tan Biny is one of B.C.’s most productive wild trout lakes, and the surrounding area is an active Tsilhqot’in cultural school and sacred site, adjacent to the Aboriginal title lands and inside one of Canada’s only court-declared areas of proven Aboriginal hunting and trapping rights,” said Desaulniers.
“Despite the court declaration of Aboriginal rights to the Te tan Biny area, Taseko Mines Ltd. has tried for almost 30 years to advance a massive open pit mine over the concerns and objections of the Tsilhqot’in Nation.
“Twice (in 2010 and ‘14) they have emphatically failed to obtain federal en-
vironmental approval, in both cases from the most pro-mining federal government in recent history...
“Both times the mine proposals were rejected, in part, because of the devastating and immitigable impacts that it would mean for Tsilhqot’in rights, culture and cultural heritage.”
The double rejection by the federal approval process did not ensure the death of the project, however. The provincial government in 2017 granted more drilling permits to Taseko in the same area as New Prosperity and a court challenge proved unsuccessful.
Under the current plans for that activity, said Desaulniers, “the company wants to begin extensive road building, drilling, test pits, and seismic line testing, and build a 50-man camp.”
Today’s proposed injunction intends to stop that work while the Tsilhqot’in National Government applies for leave from the Supreme Court of Canada to have the appeal heard at the highest court in the land.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Fraser-Fort George Regional District directors approved a $51.1 million operating budget for the year on Thursday.
The total is a $5.3-million increase from last year with most of the jump to be made up through a variety of revenue sources other than property taxes, which will total $19.3 million, up $450,090 or 2.4 per cent.
For the average Prince George owner, defined as someone with a house worth $302,422, the regional district portion of the property tax bill will be $161.25, up $5.80 from last year.
Fees and charges will cover 16.5 per cent of the total and prior years surplus will account for 16 per cent and grants 12 per cent. For the average Prince George owner, defined as someone with a house worth $302,422, the regional district portion of the property tax bill will be $161.25, up $5.80 from last year. The rate per $100,000 assessed value will be $53.32.
In Mackenzie, the average bill, based on a house value of $152,521, will be $94.31, down $3.95 and the rate will be $61.84 per $100,000. For McBride, the average bill, based on a house value of $132,137, will be $547.41, down $26.22, and the rate will be $414.28 per $100,000. For Valemount, the average bill, based on a house value of $226,135, will be $640.09, up $64.27, and the rate will be $283.05 per $100,000.
In electoral area A, the rate will be $122.15, in area C, $134.63, in area D, $143.70, in area E, $160.89, in area F, $156.51, in area G, $114.48, and in area H, $131.97.
Solid waste management will continue to be the biggest expense at $22.8 million followed by 911 emergency response services at $6.5 million, protective services at $5.8 million and recreation and cultural services at $3.6 million.
FFGRD chair Art Kaehn said the budget reflects an investment in capital projects in a number of key areas. They include moving the fire operations call centre to the new fire hall and establishing a back up site, relocating the entrance to the Foothills landfill, converting the Mackenzie landfill to a transfer station, redesigning the Cummings Road transfer station, updating the landfill closure and post-closure care financial plan and updating the regional parks plan.
“We are excited to move forward on some big projects that will improve quality of life for residents in our region without a significant impact on taxation,” he said.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Children enjoy Kym Gouchie’s music at the Prince George Public Library Bob Harkins branch during A Day with Kym Gouchie. In the morning there was a creative workshop featuring shaker-making and rock painting. In the afternoon she shared her music and stories with the children.
Group calls for seniors’ advocate’s resignation over union ties
VICTORIA — The BC Care Providers Association is calling for the resignation of the province’s seniors’ advocate, alleging her relationship with the Hospital Employees’ Union leadership has been too “cosy.”
In a statement, the association also asks the province to conduct an audit and review of the mandate of the Office of the Seniors’ Advocate. But seniors’ advocate Isobel Mackenzie says she never did anything inappropriate, adding that consulting and collaborating with stakeholders is part of her mandate.
The association alleges that documents obtained through a freedom of information request show Mackenzie collaborated closely with the Hospital Employees’ Union leadership in shaping a report on the transfer of patients from care homes to hospitals.
The report, called “From Residential Care to Hospital: An Emerging Pattern,” was released in August and followed complaints from emergency room clinicians that some care homes were sending residents to the emergency department unnecessarily.
The association alleges she shared draft language of the report with the union, incorporated its feedback and notified the union of the planned timing of the report’s release.
In contrast, it says the care providers association was never advised in advance by Mackenzie’s office on the release of the report and its members were never notified beforehand of its findings.
“We have tried to work with the seniors’ advocate over the years with mixed results,” it says in a statement.
“The release of this FOI provides us with a disturbing insight into which organization is having the most profound influence over the OSA.”
In an interview, Mackenzie said the report was independent from the Hospital Employees’ Union.
“What they’ve chosen to say is, ‘Well she colluded with the HEU on this report,’ to which I’m saying, ‘Well how?’ The results, the methodology, the data sources – it’s all there. That has nothing to do with the HEU,” she said.
She said sharing contents of reports with some stakeholders or members of an opposition party is common practice.
“Everybody does that,” she said.
In the past, Mackenzie said she has shared content from reports that are favourable to the BC Care Providers
Association in advance and not with the Hospital Employees’ Union.
In this case, she said her office shared contents of the report in advance with health authorities, the union and contracted care providers, which includes members of the BC Care Providers Association. She said her office has a relationship with care providers, but no obligation to the industry association.
Mackenzie suggested the association is calling for her resignation because it didn’t like the content of a report that found contracted care providers transfer patients to hospitals more often.
“The BC Care Providers took great offence to this report. What’s interesting is when the reports serve their interests, they don’t have this problem,” she said.
Mackenzie said she is not considering resigning.
The association is also calling for a full and independent review of the office.
Unlike other advocates that are independent, such as the BC Ombudsperson or the children and youth advocate, the seniors’ advocate reports to the Health Ministry, which couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The association says it also wasn’t consulted on a decision by the B.C. government to move more than 4,000 home support jobs from the private sector to
public health authorities, and accused Mackenzie of failing to press the government on that decision.
“Not one question was posed by her to government on their reason for the change, or if any analysis had been provided,” it said.
“For BCCPA, this was a tipping point.”
Mackenzie said she was briefed by the deputy minister and health authorities in advance of the decision and she found there was an argument to be made for the change.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the office’s position under his ministry has never stopped Mackenzie, who was appointed five years ago by the previous Liberal government, from criticizing him or the ministry freely.
“She has criticized the NDP government, the Liberal government, the care providers and just about everyone else in her advocacy,” Dix said.
Dix said he has personally been on the receiving end of her criticism but he recognizes that’s her mandate and said she does a “good job.”
“If people want to make the argument for a long-term review of what the status of the office should be, that’s something the care providers and everyone else could look at and I think absolutely could be considered,” he said.
Feds, province, First Nations look to protect caribou habitat
Alaska Highway News
A draft agreement between B.C., Ottawa, and two Treaty 8 First Nations proposes interim moratoriums and changes to resource development practices in critical caribou habitat to help recover three dwindling herds in the South Peace.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development provided details Thursday of two agreements being developed as part of recovery efforts for the southern mountain caribou in the region.
A partnership agreement between the two governments and the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations targets the Pine, Narraway and Quintette herds around Chetwynd, Tumbler Ridge, and Mackenzie.
The agreement calls for protected areas and closures in high and low elevation caribou habitat, along with measures for recreation management, maternity penning, predator control, and land restoration. The closures are targeted at resource development, and not tourism and backcountry recreation, ministry officials said during a briefing Thursday morning.
No existing mining operations will be affected, but forestry and other tenure holders will be impacted, according to officials. The total amount of land considered for moratorium wasn’t immediately available. A new committee is proposed to review ongoing industry operations and to develop better land management practices in collaboration with companies.
Southern mountain caribou have been listed as a threatened wildlife species under the federal Species At Risk Act since 2003, two herds in the South Peace of which have already been extirpated.
According to recent counts, there’s an estimated 229 animals in five other herds in the South Peace, with an estimated 74 animals in the Quintette herd, and 26 in the Narraway herd. Those numbers are down from between 150 to 200 animals in the early 2000s.
The province has also drafted an agreement under the federal Species At Risk Act with Ottawa that outlines “broad recovery actions” and gives the province access to federal funding to support recovery efforts, officials said. The agreement sets out herd manage-
Lawsuit against BC Hydro dismissed by consent
Citizen staff
A long-running legal battle between a Prince George man and BC Hydro over the appearance of the utility’s Chief Lake substation has come to an end.
An order was filed March 8 stating that the proceeding be dismissed by consent of both parties. It further states that it be without costs to any party and that the dismissal is “for all purposes of the same force and effect as if judgment had been pronounced after a hearing of this action on its merits.”
In a notice of claim filed in September 2017, Peter Houghton alleged that Hydro’s decision to remove all the vegetation from around the substation has decreased if not eliminated the enjoyment of his own land and significantly reduced its value. But in a response filed in November, Hydro said the work was done for safety reasons and it had the right to do the work.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Canada still welcomes immigration despite plan to beef up border, Trudeau says MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada remains welcoming to newcomers even as his government takes steps to curb the influx of asylum seekers coming into the country at unofficial entry points.
Speaking at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, the prime minister said Canadians continue to be “overwhelmingly in favour” of immigration even though the issue has become “politically charged” here and south of the border.
“One of the reasons Canadians do have confidence in immigration as a positive force in our country is because they have confidence in our immigration system,” he said.
“We are dealing with larger than usual numbers and have had to make investments to account for that but the integrity of our immigration system continues to hold.”
More than 40,000 people have crossed into Canada on foot through fields and forests since 2017. Trudeau’s comments come days after his government presented a budget that includes a new border-enforcement strategy aimed at detecting, intercepting and removing irregular migrants.
The plan, which is expected to cost $1.18 billion over five years, includes more funding for the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP to beef up enforcement at the border, as well as money to speed up the processing of asylum claims.
Some provinces, particularly Quebec and Ontario, have called on Ottawa to reimburse them for hundreds of millions of dollars in housing and other expenses they say have been incurred in accommodating the flow of asylum seekers. The budget did not set aside money for provincial immigration costs, but Trudeau said Thursday his government will continue to work with provinces and municipalities to relieve that pressure. Meanwhile, Border Security Minister Bill Blair said over the weekend he was in talks with lawmakers in the United States to close a loophole in Canada’s border agreement with the U.S. that some say encourages asylum seekers to avoid official checkpoints.
Chicken nuggets recalled over possible salmonella
OTTAWA (CP) — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced a recall of a frozen breaded chicken product over fears of salmonella contamination.
The agency says Sofina Foods Inc. is recalling Janes brand Pub Style Chicken Nuggets from the marketplace. The recall affects 800-gram packages with a best before date of Dec. 15. The CFIA says there have been “illnesses associated with the consumption of this product,” but it doesn’t offer any more details.
It’s the third time this year the agency has announced a recall on frozen chicken nuggets, after previous notices affecting Compliments brand and Crisp & Delicious brand products. It also follows the recall of Janes brand Pub Style Chicken Burgers last October and Pub Style Chicken Strips in November.
ment planning that will be done collaboratively between governments, First Nations, local governments, and other industry and public stakeholders.
A socio-economic study on the impacts of any closures has yet to be completed, and will be done collaboratively, officials said. However, the agreements would ensure the federal government doesn’t unilaterally impose any closures in the region with an emergency order, and without a study of the socio-economic impacts, officials said.
Public town halls on the caribou recovery plan are expected to roll out in April. The province has launched a website soliciting public feedback in the meantime, at engage.gov.bc.ca/caribou
The agreements do not set out snowmobile closures. Snowmobilers will be consulted on management practices in early May, officials said.
Both the B.C. and federal cabinets will decide by summer whether to sign the agreements.
The province has committed $47 million over five years for caribou recovery efforts. Canada has committed to funding recovery efforts through a three-year agreement worth around $5 million.
Sir John A. Macdonald statue vandalized in Montreal
MONTREAL (CP) — Vandals struck a Sir John A. Macdonald statue in downtown Montreal once again, spray painting the imposing bronze monument to the country’s first prime minister early Thursday. Montreal police noted the vandalism at the site, located at Place du Canada in the downtown area.
Activists calling themselves #MacdonaldMustFall claimed responsibility and said in a statement the vandalism coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination promulgated by the United Nations. They said it was done in solidarity with other worldwide actions against racism.
Critics have argued that Macdonald’s role at the head of a government that created the Indian Act and established the residential school system, as well as his racist comments about Indigenous Peoples, are reason to remove monuments to him.
The statue of Canada’s first prime minister was removed from the steps of Victoria City Hall in British Columbia last August.
That move sparked a debate over how such effigies should be dealt with. Some suggested they should remain, but context should be added so history can be expanded and not erased.
Amy SMART Citizen news service
CP FILE PHOTO
The BC Care Providers Association is calling for B.C. seniors’ advocate Isobel Mackenzie to resign because of her ties to the Hospital Employees’ Union.
New Zealand to observe Muslim prayer, ban ‘military style’ guns
Nick PERRY, Juliet WILLIAMS Citizen news service
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Thousands of New Zealanders and others who have flown in from abroad plan to observe an emotional Muslim call to prayer today as the nation reflects on the moment one week ago in which 50 people were killed when a gunman terrorized two mosques.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and thousands of other people plan to congregate in Hagley Park opposite the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch to observe the call to prayer at 1:30 p.m. Many radio and television stations plan to broadcast the event live.
The call to prayer will be followed at 1:32 p.m. by two minutes of silence. At least 42 people died at the Al Noor mosque and at least seven others at the nearby Linwood mosque in last Friday’s attack.
The observance comes the day after the government announced a ban on “militarystyle” semi-automatic firearms and highcapacity magazines like the weapons that were used in last Friday’s attacks.
An immediate sales ban went into effect to prevent stockpiling, and new laws would be rushed through Parliament that would impose a complete ban on the weapons,
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
“Every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned,” Ardern said.
The prohibition includes semi-automatic guns or shotguns that can be used with a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds. It also applies to accessories used to convert guns into what the government called “military-style” weapons.
The ban does not apply to guns commonly used by farmers and hunters, including semi-automatic .22 calibre or smaller guns that hold up to 10 rounds, or semiautomatic and pump-action shotguns with non-detachable magazines that hold up to five rounds.
The legislation is supported not only by Ardern’s liberal Labour Party but also the conservative opposition National Party, so passage of the legislation is expected.
The announcement brought immediate comparisons to the United States, where contentious debate over gun control remains unresolved after frequent mass killings.
Firearms experts said the ban in New Zealand has wide support.
Polly Collins of Christchurch was thrilled to hear of Ardern’s announcement as she visited a memorial to the victims.
“The prime minister is amazing,” she said.
“It’s not like in America, where they have all these things and then they go ‘Oh yeah, we’ll deal with the gun laws,’ and nothing’s done.”
One of New Zealand’s largest gun retailers, Hunting & Fishing New Zealand, said it supports “any government measure to permanently ban such weapons.”
“While we have sold them in the past to a small number of customers, last week’s events have forced a reconsideration that
has led us to believe such weapons of war have no place in our business – or our country,” chief executive Darren Jacobs said in a statement.
He said the company will no longer stock any assault-style firearms and will also stop selling firearms online.
“What (Ardern’s) done is a very brave move, and it’s the kind of move that can only be done in a common-law country where guns are not a right,” said Alexander Gillespie, a professor of international law at Waikato University. “Guns are a real privilege. If there was a legal right like there is in the United States, this would be much more difficult.”
There are nearly 250,000 licensed gun owners in New Zealand, which has a population of five million. Officials estimate there are 1.5 million guns in the country.
Ardern said people could hand over their prohibited guns under an amnesty while officials develop a formal buyback scheme, which could cost up to 200 million New Zealand dollars ($140 million).
She said there will be “tightly regulated” exemptions for some owners such as hunters and farmers.
The government said the police and military would be exempt. Access for international shooting competitions would also be considered.
The man charged in the mosque attacks had purchased his weapons legally using a standard firearms license and enhanced their capacity by using 30-round magazines
“done easily through a simple online purchase,” Ardern said.
Although the exact weapons used in the mosque attacks have not been announced, images posted by the gunman show at least one of them to be a semi-automatic rifle similar to an AR-15 that is widely available in New Zealand. Semi-automatic refers to a firearm’s ability to self-load, not only firing a bullet with each trigger pull, but also reloading and making the firearm capable of firing again.
The military versions most resembling the AR-15 rifle are the M16 and M4 carbines, which can fire in semi-automatic mode, three-round burst mode or fully automatic mode.
Many different types of firearms, from pistols to rifles and shotguns, can be semiautomatic. Semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 can often be modified with aftermarket parts to fire in fully automatic mode and instructions can often be found on the internet.
Ardern’s announcement came as authorities said all 50 bodies from the attacks were formally identified.
At least nine funerals took place Thursday. Solemn farewells were made for high school student Sayyad Ahmad Milne, 14.
Tariq Rashid Omar, 24, graduated from the same school, played soccer in the summer and was a beloved coach of several youth teams and also was buried.
In a post on Facebook, Christchurch United Football Club Academy Director Colin
Liberal, Conservative messages on budget resonate with voters, poll shows
Lee BERTHIAUME
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — With a federal election looming this fall, the Liberals and Conservatives are bracing for an ideological battle that pits the merits of balancing the books against spending on consumer confidence – and many Canadians may actually agree with both of them, a new poll suggests.
The Leger poll was conducted for The Canadian Press this week shortly after the government released its latest federal budget, which promises billions in new spending on measures like job retraining, services for seniors and incentives for first-time homebuyers.
The budget also leaves government coffers with average annual deficit of around $18 billion over the last four years – a far cry from the modest deficits and balanced 2019 books that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the 2015 election campaign.
The Liberals argue the spending is necessary to make a real difference in the lives of Canadians, while Conservatives accuse the government of wasting money and saddling future generations with unnecessary debt.
Both messages, however, resonated with Canadians, the Leger poll suggests: while a substantial percentage of respondents agreed the Liberal deficits were bad, many also expressed support for the centrepiece spending measures featured in Tuesday’s spending blueprint.
Some 44 per cent of respondents said they believed the decision to run four years of deficits was the wrong call, while 20 per cent called it the right move and 35 per cent were not sure.
A large majority also voiced support for some big-ticket items in Tuesday’s budget, including a plan to expand high-speed internet to remote and underserved areas of
Canada, which garnered the support of 76 per cent of respondents, and a suite of measures to help workers to learn new job skills, which got a thumbs-up from three quarters of those polled.
Measures in the budget designed to make it easier for more Canadian families to buy their first home got a 68 per cent approval rating, while 55 per cent cheered proposed financial incentives to foster electric-vehicle sales.
As for the budget itself, 12 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied, while 19 per cent felt the opposite. The remainder of respondents either said they didn’t know, or remained neutral – an amorphous body of swing votes the parties will no doubt be courting as the election clock ticks down to October.
“If you’re the Liberals, the clear story is to say: ‘Well, we needed to go into deficit to help the economy and do all of these great things that you agree with,”’ said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.
“The story for the Conservatives is to say: ‘It’s not right. We can’t do this, period.’ So I believe we’ll hear a lot about not necessarily the budget, but about public finances more generally in the weeks to come. And I think that will be a ballot-box question.”
Leger’s internet-based survey, which cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered random samples, was conducted March 19 and 20 using computer-assisted web-interviewing technology.
It heard from 1,513 Canadians who are eligible to vote and were recruited from the firm’s online panel. The poll also suggested the Liberals have been bleeding support over the past month as the government struggled to contain the damage caused by the ongoing SNC-Lavalin affair.
Overall, 31 per cent of respondents polled said they would vote for the Liberals if an election were held now, a decline of three percentage points from February and a total loss of eight percentage points since November.
Yet while 37 per cent said they would back the Conservatives – a one-point bump from February and four-point increase since November – Bourque said most of the gain has come from voters in the West and may not translate into a big gain of seats in Parliament.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer also jumped ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the question of who would make a better prime minister, earning 25 per cent support, compared with 24 per cent for Trudeau.
Williamson described Omar as “a beautiful human being with a tremendous heart and love for coaching.”
Linda Armstrong, 64, a third-generation New Zealander who converted to Islam in her 50s, was also buried, as were Hussein Mohamed Khalil Moustafa, 70, Matiullah Safi, 55, and Haji Mohammed Daoud Nabi. Police Commissioner Mike Bush said investigators were trying to conclude their work at the two mosques.
“We are working to restore them in a way that is absolutely respectful,” he said. An Australian white supremacist, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, was arrested by police who ran him off the road while he was believed to be on his way to a third target. He had livestreamed the attack on Facebook and said in his manifesto he planned to attack three mosques.
Tarrant, 28, is next scheduled to appear in court on April 5, and Bush said investigations were continuing. Police have said they are certain Tarrant was the only gunman but are still investigating whether he had support.
Workers at the Al Noor mosque have been working feverishly to repair the destruction from the attacks, said imam Gamal Fouda.
“They will bury the carpet,” he said, “because it is full of blood, and it’s contaminated.”
Fouda said he expects the mosque to be open again by next week and that some skilled workers had offered their services for free.
B.C.panel rejects permit for pair of cheetahs
Citizen news service
NELSON — The owners of two cheetahs will not be allowed to return the large, African cats to southeastern British Columbia to use them as ambassador animals promoting conservation of the endangered species.
The Environmental Appeal Board, which considers issues raised under B.C.’s Wildlife Act, has refused to overturn a 2017 ruling denying a permit to move the cheetahs to Crawford Bay, north of Creston.
The appeal by Earl Pfeifer argued the permit denial relied on allegedly unsupported details about the danger posed by cheetahs, as well as charges that were laid by the province but later dropped, after one of the cats escaped in December 2015.
In a 37-page decision, the appeal board says Pfeifer and his partner Carol Plato have not offered any special circumstances that would allow the province to override legislation written in 2007 after a captive tiger fatally mauled a woman at a zoo-like attraction near Williams Lake.
The board panel, chaired by Linda Michaluk, questions Pfeifer’s commitment to his own safety protocols and his ability to control the seven-year-old cheetahs, Robin and Annie, which were described as “undisciplined” by a wildlife park operator in Alberta who briefly housed the cats.
Pfeifer and Plato had hoped to bring the pair to a property in Crawford Bay to use them for “education and outreach” aimed at children, after acquiring them from a South African reserve. Without the permits, the cats remain in Ontario where Pfeifer testified he now rarely sees them.
A team member with Cheetah Outreach in South Africa told the hearing that cheetahs are the most docile of the large cats
and that Robin is blind but both he and Annie, “are well socialized and suitable as ambassador animals.”
Linda Rosenl said she worked with the two felines in South Africa in the year after they were born and before they were shipped to Pfeifer and Plato in Ontario in 2013.
She testified there is no formal study program to become a cheetah trainer but the panel referred to a textbook co-written by cheetah biologist and handler Laurie Marker, who testified on behalf of B.C.’s director of wildlife.
“Cheetahs are not pets; they are wild animals and should be treated as such,” says the textbook “Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation.”
“Working with cheetahs requires extensive previous experience with animal training and handling. There are both courses and books that teach training practices that use positive reinforcement. Additionally, trainers new to cheetahs must begin their hands-on work with a mentor or with experienced co-trainers,” the textbook says.
Given that description, Michaluk writes that the panel “has concerns” about Pfeifer’s level of formalized training and with the consistency of care he could offer the cheetahs, especially during the daily walks and exercise he told the panel they would require outside the enclosure.
“Of particular concern is the evidence regarding Annie’s escape (in Crawford Bay) in December 2015. This reflects on the appellant’s abilities as a handler, although the panel accepts that this incident raises more issues than simply handling expertise,” writes Michaluk, adding that Pfeifer brought the cheetahs to B.C. shortly before Annie escaped, even though he knew he lacked the required permit.
AP PHOTO
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during an event where she met with first responders to the March 15 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand.
TRUDEAU SCHEER
MPs pull all-nighter as Tories filibuster budget
Philpott says there is more to
SNC-Lavalin scandal
Joan BRYDEN Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Former cabinet minister
Jane Philpott fanned the flames of the SNCLavalin fire Thursday as Liberals struggled to douse the controversy and focus Canadians’ attention on their pre-election budget.
Philpott gave an interview to Maclean’s magazine in which she said there is “much more to the story” of improper pressure allegedly exerted on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to avert a criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
The early-morning publication of the interview coincided with a Conservativeorchestrated filibuster, landing like a bombshell in the House of Commons where exhausted MPs were in their 12th hour of non-stop voting, line by line, on the government’s spending plans. The filibuster, which continued into the afternoon Thursday, was intended to protest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s refusal to offer a blanket waiver of privilege and confidentiality that WilsonRaybould has claimed is necessary if she is to fully tell her side of the story.
In the late afternoon, Conservatives believed they had caught the Liberals shorthanded, with not enough of them ready to vote to pass one item. Since spending votes are confidence measures, the government might have been at risk.
Liberals quickly flooded into the chamber, male MPs hastily doing up their neckties for decorum. Assistant deputy speaker Anthony Rota, an Ontario Liberal then in the chair, cited a Commons rule to say that it’s not the speaker’s duty to police whether members were in their seats at the critical time to be eligible to vote. When the tally came, the Liberals got the motion carried.
Philpott, who resigned early this month as Treasury Board president, told Maclean’s that she raised concerns with Trudeau, during a Jan. 6 discussion about an imminent cabinet shuffle, that Wilson-Raybould was being moved out of Justice because of her refusal to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case.
“I think Canadians might want to know why I would have raised that with the prime
minister a month before the public knew about it. Why would I have felt that there was a reason why Minister Wilson-Raybould should not be shuffled?” she said.
“My sense is that Canadians would like to know the whole story.”
Philpott appears already to be free to talk about that Jan. 6 conversation with Trudeau: The government has waived solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality for last fall, when Wilson-Raybould alleges she was improperly pressured, until Jan. 14, when she was moved to the Veterans Affairs portfolio.
The waiver applies not just to Wilson-Raybould but to “any persons who directly participated in discussions with her” relating to the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin for alleged corrupt practices in Libya. The waiver allowed her to testify for nearly four hours before the House of Commons justice committee.
Trudeau rejected Thursday the opposition parties’ contention, echoed by Philpott, that a broader waiver is required to cover the period between Jan. 14 and Wilson-
B.C. law singles out Trans Mountain pipeline,
VANCOUVER — Environmental legislation proposed by British Columbia is targeting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and would significantly impact it, says the proponent of the project.
Maureen Killoran, a lawyer for Trans Mountain ULC, is asking the B.C. Court of Appeal to reject proposed amendments to the province’s Environmental Management Act that would create a permitting system for heavy oil transporters.
B.C. has argued the proposed rules are not intended to block the project but instead aim to protect its environment from spills and would require companies to pay for any damages, but Killoran disagreed.
“Trans Mountain will be directly and significantly impacted by the proposed legislation. Indeed, we say it is the target of the proposed legislation,” she told a panel of five judges on Thursday.
Killoran said Trans Mountain, which has operated since 1953, is the only pipeline that transports liquid petroleum to the West Coast and the only pipeline to which the legislation would apply.
The proposed law presented more risk than private-sector proponent Kinder Morgan was willing to accept, prompting it to sell the pipeline and related assets to Canada for $4.5 billion last year, she said.
Since the expansion project was first officially proposed in 2013, Killoran said it has been through the largest review in the National Energy Board’s history, a number of court challenges and faced protesters and blockades in B.C.
The energy board ruled the expansion, which would triple the capacity of the pipeline, is in the Canadian public interest because the country cannot get all its available energy resources to Pacific markets including Asia, she said.
First Nations, the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, and environmental group Ecojustice have delivered arguments in support of B.C.’s proposed rules, in part because of concerns about the local impacts of possible spills.
Killoran said the energy board recognized that there is a wealth of evidence about the fate and behaviour of diluted bitumen and there is further research underway.
The board also disputed the views of project opponents including Vancouver that the company hadn’t provided enough information about disaster-response plans, and recognized that spill prevention was a part of pipeline design, she said.
The Appeal Court is hearing a reference case filed by B.C. that asks whether the province has the authority to enact the amendments.
Canada opposes the amendments because it says Ottawa – not provinces – has exclusive jurisdiction over inter-provincial infrastructure.
The Trans Mountain pipeline runs from the Edmonton area to Metro Vancouver and the expansion would increase the number of tankers in Burrard Inlet sevenfold.
B.C.’s proposed permitting system would require companies that want to increase the amount of heavy oil they’re transporting
Raybould’s resignation from cabinet.
“It was extremely important that the former attorney general be allowed to share completely her perspectives, her experiences on this issue, and that is what she was able to do,” he said after an announcement in Mississauga, pumping up the latest budget’s promise to invest $2.2 billion more in municipal infrastructure projects. “The issue at question is the issue of pressure around the Lavalin issue while she was attorney general and she got to speak fully to that.”
Trudeau also gave his version of the Jan. 6 conversation with Philpott, during which he informed her she would be moving to Treasury Board and that Wilson-Raybould would be taking her place at Indigenous Services. His version echoed the testimony of his former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, to the justice committee.
“She asked me directly if this was in link to the SNC-Lavalin decision and I told her no, it was not,” Trudeau said. “She then mentioned it might be a challenge for Jody Wilson-Raybould to take on the role of
CP FILE PHOTO Trans Mountain ULC’s facility in Edmonton is seen in 2017. A lawyer for the company says that the B.C. government is targeting the pipeline with regulations.
lawyer says
through the province to apply for a permit. Companies would have to meet conditions, including but not limited to providing disaster response plans and agreeing to pay for accident cleanup.
Joseph Arvay, a lawyer representing B.C., has argued that if a project proponent finds a condition too onerous, it can appeal to the independent Environmental Appeal Board or, in the case of Trans Mountain, to the National Energy Board.
But Killoran said Thursday that the energy board only created the special process for Trans Mountain after the company asked for it, and the province opposed it.
“While Mr. Arvay talks about it being an efficient route to solve problems, it was not ideal and it was not a route that Trans Mountain felt it should have to take. It was one that it felt it ought to take given the amount of opposition it had received.”
Indigenous Services and I asked her for her help, which she gladly offered to give, in explaining to Jody Wilson-Raybould how exciting this job was and what a great thing it would be for her to have that role.” Wilson-Raybould ultimately turned down the move to Indigenous Services and Trudeau moved her instead to Veterans Affairs. She resigned a month later. Neither Philpott nor Wilson-Raybould voted Wednesday on a Conservative motion calling for a broader waiver. Nor did they speak during debate on the motion in the Commons, where anything they said would have been protected by parliamentary privilege. While she conceded speaking up in the Commons is “technically possible,” Philpott told Maclean’s that debates wouldn’t give the ex-ministers the “hours of time” needed to fully tell their stories. Since any vote involving government spending is automatically a confidence vote, Liberals were required to be out in force throughout the all-night, all-day voting marathon to avoid potential defeat of the government.
Liberal MP Jane Philpott delivers a keynote speech at an International Women’s Day event at Ottawa City Hall on March 8. Philpott told Maclean’s magazine there is more to the SNC-Lavalin scandal than the public knows.
Laura KANE Citizen news service
How little things turn big and deadly
Forty years ago, Ross Hume Hall, then a professor of biochemistry at McMaster University, and Donald Chant, a University of Toronto professor of zoology and one of the founders of Pollution Probe, co-authored an important report on ecotoxicity for the Canadian Environmental Advisory Council.
“The whole environment, including humans, is being contaminated in a sea of chemicals,” they wrote. “The term for this environmental defilement is ecotoxicity.”
One of the key concepts underlying ecotoxicity, they went on to say, is the “enormity of tiny-ness” in biological systems. First, they helped us understand just how tiny measures such as parts per million are: “one part per million (ppm) is equivalent to one inch in 16 miles, one minute in two years.”
In our daily lives, such small amounts are insignificant. If you are an engineer building a one-kilometre bridge, I suspect a difference in length of one millimetre – a difference of one part per million – is not very important. And if you had a million dollars, I doubt you would worry about a
difference of one cent, which is 10 parts per billion (ppb) – a ppb being 1,000 times smaller than a ppm, so one inch in 16,000 miles, one minute in 2,000 years.
But in biology, it’s different; such tiny amounts do matter. For example, our daily requirement for vitamin B12 is about two to three micrograms per day, and average weight for adult humans globally is 62 kilograms. So we need less than one 10-billionth of our body weight of B12 daily – but without it we would develop a life-threatening disease, pernicious anemia.
On the other hand, tiny amounts of chemicals can also be harmful. Take dioxins, for example, which are mainly “unwanted byproducts of a wide range of manufacturing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides,” according to the World Health Organization, although there are also natural sources. Dioxins are “highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer,” the WHO states.
In 2001, a joint expert committee of the WHO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization established what’s called a provisional tolerable monthly intake of these chemicals (the amount we can ingest without detectable health effects) of 70 picograms/kg per month, which is about 120 picograms per day for a 60 kg adult. Since a picogram is one-millionth of a microgram, this level is about 20,000 times less than the daily dose of vitamin B12 needed to keep us healthy.
Dioxins are a family of chemicals that are part of the “dirty dozen” – 12 persistent organic pollutants so toxic that they are covered by the 2001 Stockholm Convention, a UN treaty intended to protect human health and the environment. The convention describes POPs as “chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and have harmful impacts on human health or on the environment.”
Here we have other important aspects of ecotoxicity. First, these chemicals are new to nature and cannot be easily broken
YOUR LETTERS
PM’s real power
Many years ago, at the height of the Watergate scandal, I was sitting around with a bunch of other graduate students at Dalhousie University sharing semi-informed views and imperfect legal and political understandings, as graduate students are wont to do. The topic arose: could this (the Watergate mess, including the then-imminent and well-deserved removal of Nixon) happen up here in our sunny Dominion? There was as usual (and you’ll still hear lots of this today) pompous assertions of how much better we Canadians are than Americans, how much less prone to unscrupulous political behaviour our system surely is. Alas, among our group was a political scientist who was studying Canadian institutions and actually knew a few things about comparative institutions. He made some very sobering remarks to the effect that if our leader, the prime minister, ever got his hands that dirty, he’d be able to bury the issue. Our more knowledgeable friend pointed out that while the president is top-dog in executive terms, the U.S Congress, unlike our parliament, is largely independent of his will.
Congress’s work (as Mr. Trump is now experiencing) is not at the
president’s bidding. This, one of the strongest countervails to Nixon and his shenanigans, was the Senate watergate Committee. While its majority were Democrats, the Republicans on the Watergate Committee did not try to stifle the investigations. Ranking Republican member Sen. Howard Baker sternly demanded an answer to the question: “What did the president know and when did he know it?”
Can you imagine Liberal MP Anthony Housefather asking something like that about Justin Trudeau’s actions? In the end, the Senate Committee fully carried out its mandate to get to the bottom of the scandal and Nixon’s goose was cooked.
Forty-six years later Canadian parliamentary investigations of the SNC-Lavalin affair and the alleged inappropriate pressure on the Solicitor General to meddle in the prosecution of the engineering giant have been shut down, with minimal explanation as to why, by the Liberal majority Justice Committee.
A major difference is that all of those shameful toadies sit completely at the beck and call of the man whose alleged misdeeds were being looked into. None of those members have much profile or political strength, beyond their own ridings and, conceivably, could be elbowed out even at the
re-nomination stage by a vindictive Prime Minister. The recent statements and resignation of Celina CaesarCevannes, after encountering Trudeau’s unsunny nastiness, just confirms what kind of a person Jody Wilson-Raybould was up against when she didn’t capitulate to his will. The point is that a petty even not very bright but certainly self-preserving leader here in Canada has been able to rather easily thwart full parliamentary investigation of his alleged wrongs.
Norman Dale Prince George
Muslims welcome
An open letter to all Muslims living in or near Prince George. First, let me assure you that you are most welcome here and you are a valued member of our community. Furthermore, I am well aware that you add value to our community. The recent atrocities in New Zealand and earlier in Canada are committed by deranged people and most definitely do not represent the citizens of Prince George or, for that matter, most if not all Canadians.
Welcome and best wishes.
Lorna Dittmar Prince George
down, so they persist. Second, they are taken up by and stored in fat. Third, because they persist and accumulate in fatty tissues, the seemingly tiny concentrations of these pollutants that we emit are re-concentrated by nature and presented back to us through the food chain. For dioxins, for example, the WHO notes that “more than 90 per cent of human exposure is through food, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish.”
This is because when a tiny fish eats plankton, it gets a dose of POPs that are then stored in its fats and oils. It is then eaten by a small fish, which is eaten by a bigger fish – and at each step, the amount and concentration of the POP increases. Then a seal eats the largest fish – and a human eats the seal. A chart in the 2010 World Ocean Review shows the concentration of one POP – PCB – in seal fat is 80 million times the levels in seawater.
This is another way in which tiny amounts can become enormous.
— Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy
Fracking science short on answers
The Energy Ministry reached right to the ragged edge of accuracy when it claimed the scientific review of fracking in B.C.
“found the regulatory framework to be robust, while also identifying areas for improvement.”
The report, leaked to the Victoria Times Colonist last month, is more than 200 pages long and is a dense technical study about all aspects of that prevalent oil-andgas-drilling technique in northern B.C.
So the government could have highlighted any number of observations in its initial response to the official release of the document this week.
Its reaction was as above – it summarized the entire report by saying it concluded the regulations are “robust,” but could still be improved. That is an extremely debatable takeaway. The full quote from the report’s summary is a bit more nuanced.
“The panel could not quantify risk because there are too few data to assess risk. Nevertheless, it is the view of the panel that current regulations under many acts appear to be robust. At the same time, insufficient evidence was provided to the panel to assess the degree of compliance and enforcement of regulations.”
So the regulations on paper might “appear” robust, but the panel couldn’t find enough information to conclude if they’re being followed or enforced.
And in some specific alarming cases, the panel makes it clear they are not. Take the section on dams, for instance. The panel noted a series of large earth dams built between 2011 and 2016 to retain water for fracking appear “to have escaped proper regulatory oversight.”
They were essentially classed as holding ponds, not dams, so they didn’t need some permits. One of them was 20 metres high and didn’t even have a spillway.
That’s an elementary safety feature. The dam regulations have since been tightened up, but the lack of a spillway was noted during the panel’s visit last year.
The regulations require regular tests of the spillways. But you can’t test a safety feature that doesn’t exist.
“The earth dam visited by the panel appears to be in violation, as such a spillway was not even constructed,” said the report.
There aren’t many places on Earth where you’d call the regula-
IN THE FAST LEYNE
tions “robust” when there’s a 20-metre-high dam built without permits that doesn’t have a spillway.
The government’s official response to the report also said that since the election, the NDP government has strengthened regulations and much of that work addresses concerns raised by the panel.
That’s the response by all governments to many investigations undertaken by the auditor general and others over the years. “We’ve already fixed the problems.”
Some gaping loopholes have been plugged in the past few years. But the scientific panel’s main general finding is that there are dozens of questions that need an enormous amount of research before they can be answered.
“Rising to meet these challenges will require a more detailed accounting of existing knowledge gaps and addressing these with science-based solutions.”
Fracking raises questions about the increase in minor earthquakes, storage of water, handling of wastewater, impact on water quality, safety of wells, and overall impact on the environment and human health.
The panel’s overarching conclusion was that it “could not assess with confidence whether risk is currently being managed or not.”
So most of its 97 recommendations are on the theme of needing many more answers.
The government is going to respond in May with a short-term action plan and follow up with a long-term plan in December. That time frame hints at the volume and the complexity of the work.
Anyone whose first reaction is that the report concludes the regulatory regime is robust is reading it from a predetermined perspective.
That would be that fracking is a fundamental requirement of an entire sector of the B.C. economy that produces almost all the natural gas.
And that it underpins the $40-billion investment in the liquefied-natural-gas industry about to take shape. And that it’s going to continue no matter how many questions scientists raise about the impacts.
More studies might produce adjustments and refinements, but the drilling will continue.
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LES LEYNE
She’s got all that she wants
Citizen news service
Forty years ago, Olivia NewtonJohn launched a million dreams – and, later, feminist backlash –when she stepped onto a highschool field in a pair of skintight black pants, puffing a cigarette, her hair tarted up in curls. As Sandy in Grease, she became the embodiment of the good-girlgone-bad, the one who ditched her cardigan for a leather jacket and swiveled her hips suggestively as she teased a gobsmacked John Travolta about how to keep her satisfied.
Today, at 70, she’s singing a different song. “I’m a housewife and I’m loving that,” she enthused. She is also now an author. Her book, the memoir Don’t Stop Believin’ –its title borrowed from her 1976 hit, not the Journey song or the Glee remake – came out March 12.
Newton-John says she took to the page in part to protect her image. When she learned that a lengthy television biopic was in the works, she worried about what it might say, so she decided to write her own version of events. (She has not seen the film.)
Anyone who has been through a supermarket checkout can probably understand why Newton-John might be concerned. Since she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, the singer-actress has been a tabloid target, her health the subject of wild speculation. When cancer returned in 2013, to her sacrum, the singer-actress was able to keep it mostly under wraps. But in September, after she checked herself into the Melbourne cancer centre that bears her name, rumours spread that she was near death.
In January, Newton-John took to social media, posting a video as proof of life. As she promotes her book on the morning TV circuit,
she beams positivity and cheer.
Though she is grateful for the concern over her health – “I think it’s lovely that people care,” she said – reading about her death wasn’t easy: “I was like ‘what, no! I think I’m still here!’”
Five months after she fractured her pelvis, Newton-John is moving much better, without the help of a walker, she says. But the incident has shifted her priorities. She talks less about singing and more about caring for herself, her family and her mini-horses, dog and cat. “Table tennis and ponies have replaced horseback riding and real tennis,” she says. She’s completed radiotherapy and is receiving hormonal and alternative treatments. Her days begin with a thick green algae drink prepared by her husband, John Easterling, who owns an herb company; she also takes medicinal cannabis.
In conversation, she is animated and sharp. “That’s all in my book!” she points out when asked whether it’s true that she almost turned down the Sandy role because she thought that at 29 she was too old to play a high-school student. (John Travolta was 24.) She did equivocate on taking the part, she confirms nonetheless: “I was very nervous about pulling it off. When I look at it now I think I was nuts. But when you’re really young you’re just more fussy about that stuff. When you’re older you’re just grateful.”
She admits to being equally nervous about the sexually suggestive 1981 music video Physical. At the time she worried “it was too raunchy and racy.” It turned out to be her biggest record, and now her only regret is that she didn’t start a leotard company then. “Jane Fonda kind of took that spot from me,” she jokes.
And what of feminists who question the plot of Grease?
“I think people are thinking too deeply about it,” she says. To the accusation that the movie was telling girls to “sex it up to get their man,” she replies in her book: “It was about choice. Wear those pants, or a dress down to the floor.
Empowerment comes from calling your own shots and being who you want to be.”
Anyway, she adds on the phone, “It’s a love story! It’s a movie, for goodness sake. It’s meant to be entertaining. It was set in the ‘50s.
A comforting accompaniment for
Citizen news service
“The woods decay, the woods decay, and fall, “The vapours weep their burthen to the ground, “Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
“And after many a summer dies the swan.”
So begins Tennyson’s haunting poem Tithonus, a meditation on death as part of the natural order of things. Natural, that is, for everyone except Tithonus, to whom the gods granted immortality but not eternal youth. Thus he grows older and older, ever more feeble with each passing day, yet can never die.
Today, Tithonus seems an uncanny prevision of much contemporary medicine. Drugs and radiation, chemotherapy, ventilators, feeding tubes, medical drips and monitors – all these may be worth enduring when a reasonable hope exists for a return to the world outside the intensive care unit. But, suggests Katy Butler in The Art of Dying Well, for more dire cases, when there is no cure for the cancer or one is already old and frail, alternative courses of action may be preferable. Some noninvasive treatments and gentler medications may allow a life with dignity, even if a shorter one, and avert the suffering and purgatory of a living death.
Butler isn’t a doctor, but she is a professional science writer and author of the widely admired Knocking on Heaven’s Door, a critique of our broken medical system told through case histories and an account of her father’s traumatic last years.
Not surprisingly, then, this “practical guide to a good end of life” delivers on its subtitle, offering detailed advice on dealing with – in poet Philip Larkin’s phrase – “age, and then the only end of age.” Butler’s factual, nononsense tone is surprisingly comforting, as are her stories of how ordinary folks confronted difficult medical decisions. In short, if you’re coming up on three score and 10 or
Things were different.”
Newton-John tries to stop herself from saying more but adds: “People forget that he changes for her too. He ends up in a letter sweater when she wears the leather jacket. So they are trying to help please each other – and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
As a Hollywood tell-all, NewtonJohn’s book is not terribly juicy. It’s more gossip-dispelling than gossip-spilling: she and John Travolta were never more than good friends, she had to be sewn into those You’re the One That I Want black pants every day, the red heels were her own, people still call her Sandy and she doesn’t mind (how very Sandy!). There are nonetheless some surprises: Newton-John, we learn, is the granddaughter of Max Born, a Nobel-prize winning physicist, a Jew who left Germany with his family in 1933. Her Welsh father was an intelligence officer with M15 during the Second World War. Newton-John failed music in high school. There are also unsettling tales of Newton-John’s illness – of discovering a mass following a car accident in 2013, of her lying on the floor of her Las Vegas dressing room in agonizing back pain. She seems at peace. “Tour again? Not right now,” she writes in the book’s final pages. “I’m easing into this decade without a mic in my hands. I’m just being.” One thing she adamantly wants to do, she says, is auction that black leather Sandy jacket (which still fits) along with the matching pants. The proceeds will go toward the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Institute she founded. Never mind what the critics say about the message of her famous outfit: “I hope a billionaire wants to buy it for his daughter!” she says.
that last thing
have already passed that biblical term limit for earthly existence, you will want to read The Art of Dying Well and keep it handy, if only for its lists of what to do as one’s physical condition changes. Overall, Butler’s advice can be summed up in the Boy Scouts’ motto: be prepared. If you’re merely approaching the end zone, do all you can to preserve your well-being. Exercise. Keep your weight down. Eat lots of vegetables. Control your blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar, ideally without medications or with the smallest dosages possible. Stay mobile, but watch out for falls. Be sure, too, that your financial and medical records are organized, comprehensible and digitally accessible to the appropriate people in case you are incapacitated. After all, accidents and unexpected diagnoses happen, and no one knows when or from where the blow will fall. While you can, think through possible medical futures, however unpleasant. Do you wish to be kept alive no matter what, at any cost? Are there procedures you want nothing to do with? Whatever you decide, make sure that your family, friends and medical advisers are aware of your desires – and that you and they have the proper documentation to implement them. These start with a durable power of attorney for health care, so that someone you trust can make decisions if you can’t. You should also set up a living will or advance directive as a guide to what you want and don’t want if you land in the emergency room.
In general, Butler tends to be wary of the medical establishment. Pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, physicians and nursing homes make money on drugs and
to do
high-tech procedures, often overprescribing the former and automatically recommending the latter. Butler suggests that palliative care, milder, less invasive protocols and physical therapy are often underutilized, work well or well enough, and avert the ravages and often devastating aftereffects of expensive Hail Mary treatments.
Throughout The Art of Dying Well, Butler stresses the vital importance of having what she calls a “tribe.” A tribe can be one’s extended family but might also include the neighbours you socialize with, or your bridge club and fishing buddies, or members of your church – in short, the people you care about and who care about you.
The need for a support circle grows particularly important for those who hope to die at home. Hospice care is invaluable – and Butler recommends starting it sooner than most people do. Of course, a rational society would properly tax its obscenely super-rich if only to pay better, more appropriate wages to hospital and hospice nurses, physician assistants and the aides in dementia wards and long-term nursing facilities. When you need to have your soiled linen changed, you will bless the one who does it.
The actively dying, Butler reminds us, are frequently troubled by unfinished business: They have regrets, want forgiveness, fear being utterly forgotten. Above all, they yearn to know that their lives had meaning. Some solace may be found in having been part of an enterprise larger than oneself – a religious faith, the education of children, the advancement of some area of art, science or scholarship, civic activism, the care of the sick and dying. There will, nonetheless, always be regrets.
Olivia Newton-John looks back on her life and her career in her new memoir Don’t Stop Believin’.
CITIZEN
What comes after age is the subject of Katy Butler’s book The Art of Dying Well.
Facebook left millions of passwords exposed
Citizen news service
Facebook left millions of user passwords readable by its employees for years, the company said Thursday , an acknowledgement it offered after a security researcher posted about the issue online.
By storing passwords in readable plain text, Facebook violated fundamental computersecurity practices. Those call for organizations and websites to save passwords in a scrambled form that makes it almost impossible to recover the original text.
“There is no valid reason why anyone in an organization, especially the size of Facebook, needs to have access to users’ passwords in plain text,” said cybersecurity expert Andrei Barysevich of Recorded Future.
Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data. But thousands of employees could have searched them. The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them.
The incident reveals yet another huge and basic oversight at a company that insists it is a responsible guardian for the personal data of its 2.2 billion users worldwide.
The security blog KrebsOnSecurity said Facebook may have left the passwords of some 600 million Facebook users vulnerable. In a blog post, Facebook said it will likely notify “hundreds of millions” of Facebook Lite users, millions of Facebook users and tens of thousands of Instagram users that their passwords were stored in plain text.
Facebook Lite is a version designed for people with older phones or low-speed internet connections. It is used primarily in developing countries.
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted a new “privacy-focused vision ” for the social network that would emphasize private communication over public sharing. The company wants to encourage small groups of people to carry on encrypted conversations that neither Facebook nor any other outsider can read.
The fact that the company couldn’t manage to do something as simple as encrypting passwords, however, raises questions about its ability to manage more complex encryption issues – such in messaging – flawlessly.
Facebook said it discovered the problem in January. But security researcher Brian Krebs wrote that in some cases the passwords had
been stored in plain text since 2012. Facebook Lite launched in 2015 and Facebook bought Instagram in 2012.
Recorded Future’s Barysevich said he could not recall any major company caught leaving so many passwords exposed internally. He said he’s seen a number of instances where much smaller organizations made such information readily available - not just to programmers but also to customer support teams.
Security analyst Troy Hunt, who runs the ‘haveibeenpwned.com’ data breach website, said that the situation is embarrassing for Facebook, but that there’s no serious, practical
impact unless an adversary gained access to the passwords. But Facebook has had major breaches, most recently in September when attackers accessed some 29 million accounts .
Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said storing passwords in plain text is “unfortunately more common than most of the industry talks about” and tends to happen when developers are trying to rid a system of bugs. He said the Facebook blog post suggests storing passwords in plain text may have been “a sanctioned practice,” although he said it’s also possible a “rogue development team” was to blame.
SNC-Lavalin failure would be good for Canada
When I was in secondary school, there was a school bully who had to have his way. He figured that because he was bigger and stronger than most other kids his age, he should be able to do whatever he felt like. He coerced other kids to do his dirty work and sometimes even his homework. He intimidated students and teachers alike. He thought that because he was “someone special,” he was invincible. One day he was kicked out of school for his misdeeds and the terror stopped.
Now to be honest, I don’t know a lot about SNC-Lavalin, except for what I have read and heard, and I didn’t know a lot about the bully except for what I observed. However, I do know a little about business, government and politics and how they work. And as an outsider looking in, there seems to be some fear that if SNC fails, it will be bad for Canada. We have politicians, bureaucrats and people in la belle province of Quebe, suggesting that any attempt to stop SNC-Lavalin from bidding on government contracts will result in tens of thousands of lost jobs and a damaged economy.
I am here to say that I believe that the failure of SNC-Lavalin would actually be good for the Canadian economy and the Canadian people and there should be no government intervention to stop it from facing the conse-
BUSINESS
COACH
DAVE FULLER
quences it has bestowed upon itself.
Here is why:
1. SNC-Lavalin has a history of corruption and we cannot tolerate corruption as Canadians. Canada has historically been listed as one of the countries with the lowest corruption levels in the world, yet our toleration for SNC-Lavalin could be changing that rating. Corruption is generally defined as the use of power for personal benefit. Typically, someone is paid money or another benefit in exchange for a favour. This might be as simple as getting your family member a job or on a larger scale, receiving a contract to build a bridge, or hospital, or the capacity to influence government decisions. SNC-Lavalin has faced allegations of corruption in as many as 14 different countries. In 2013, the World Bank banned SNC-Lavalin for 10 years from bidding on World Bank projects.
The former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime was charged with paying $22 million in bribes to win SNC-Lavalin a $1.4 billion bid to build a hospital in Quebec.
Just last year, SNC-Lavalin’s former vice president Norman Morin pleaded guilty to helping the company funnel $117,000 in illegal campaign funds to the political parties. It’s not surprising that
Canadian support for the ruling Liberals and their leader Justin Trudeau is fading. With government officials leaving office on a weekly basis, the scent of possible corruption here in Canada in relation to this company is only growing stronger. Yet the government assures us that we need to protect SNC-Lavalin because it’s the largest construction and engineering company in Canada.
I don’t buy it.
2. For far too long, Canadians have been silent as big business has driven the government agenda. We see it in all sectors of our economy from the steel industry, to agriculture, construction, manufacturing, mining and forestry practices. Most times, we see the influence of multinational corporations who, for their own benefit, push the government to make changes that are often not in the best interest of the individual Canadian. These businesses bully, coerce and threaten governments with the loss of taxes and jobs, in order to obtain competitive advantages, subsidies and tax breaks. Yet when there is no longer much benefit to the company, it quickly cuts ties and moves on. Small business owners miss out on those benefits and are often at the mercy of the multinationals as they supply services to these companies, and are often squeezed on prices to ensure that the giant is profitable. SNC-Lavalin has been one of those giants for too long.
3. No jobs will be lost, only changed. Fear not, O Canada,
that the failure of SNC-Lavalin to obtain government contracts will lead to a loss of jobs in Canada. It is true that SNC-Lavalin will be forced to lay off employees if it doesn’t get those sweet government contracts because of their wrongdoings. However, those jobs will go elsewhere. In fact, some employees laid off from SNC-Lavalin will likely end up starting their own companies, getting their own sweet contracts and hiring employees of their own. Other competitors of SNCLavalin who get the contracts through a fair bidding process will likely need help in building, engineering and constructing those projects. They will gladly hire employees laid off by SNCLavalin. We don’t need to fear the propaganda of lost jobs, we only need to seek the truth and understand the economics of the situation.
I am not sure where he ended up, but for the teachers and students in the school there was a sense of relief when the bully in the school was expelled. My expectation is that when we come to a decision that we won’t tolerate corruption in Canada and dispel any idea that SNC-Lavalin can use political bidding to get its way, Canada too will breathe a sigh of relief. It will be good and healthy for Canada to put the likes of SNC-Lavalin and its culture and history of misdeeds behind us and move on.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
Canada’s
as investors responded to
news on both sides of the border. Investors appeared to have had a delayed positive reaction to Wednesday’s dovish outlook by the U.S. Federal Reserve. And that was followed by good jobs and wholesale trade numbers in Canada, said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp.
“What you have at the end of the day is a supportive Federal Reserve, which is generally positive for markets,” he said.
The U.S. central bank said it doesn’t expect interest rate increases in 2019 and only one in 2020. It also surprised observers by announcing it will stop scaling back its bonds portfolio in September, instead of in December. ADP’s latest report on Thursday said Canada added 36,200 jobs in February while Statistics Canada said wholesale trade increased by 0.6 per cent in January, above analyst expectations.
“So not only do you have supportive central banks, especially with the news coming out of the Fed, but you’ve got positive economic data in Canada as well,” added Chopra.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 77.03 points to 16,244.59, after hitting an intraday high of 16,266.47. That’s just short of the 2019 high set Tuesday. Nine of the market’s 11 major sectors posted gains, with the exception of cannabis-heavy health care and financials. Lower interest rates and flattening yield curves make it harder for banks to be as profitable.
Leading the market were the industrials and technology sectors.
The central bank’s stance supports industrial earnings while Canada’s small technology sector followed the upswing in the U.S. market as Apple Inc. gained 3.7 per cent, said Chopra.
The TSX composition index was led by Shopify Inc. and Canadian Pacific Railway. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 216.84 points at 25,962.51. The S&P 500 index was up 30.65 points at 2,854.88, while the Nasdaq composite was up 109.99 points at 7,838.96. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.82 cents US compared with 75.09 cents US on Wednesday.
The May crude contract was down 25 cents at US$59.98 per barrel and the April natural gas contract was up one tenth of a cent at US$2.82 per mmBTU.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO
In this 2018 file photo, a woman logs into her Facebook account on her phone.
Squeaking one by
the championship game of the Bantam Tier 1 provincials at Kin 1 on Thursday evening. The
Cats get prime draft picks
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Two major draft picks are coming to the Prince George Cougars this coming summer. The Western Hockey League held the annual draft lottery on Thursday to determine which teams would get which position in the annual intake draft.
The new Winnipeg Ice squad (recently moved from Cranbrook) will make the first overall selection, but it is Prince George after that, followed by the Saskatoon Blades and then Prince George again.
Trades aided in this sweet selection situation. The Cougars regular season record got them the fourth overall pick, but second overall came to them by way of a trade made more than a year ago with the Swift Current Broncos.
The Cougars dealt defenceman Josh Anderson for two successive first-round picks. In last year’s draft, that pick turned into Craig Armstrong (an offensive powerhouse for the Airdrie Xtreme minor hockey program who got called up for five WHL games this past season) and this year it will turn into the second overall selection.
“In the last 25 years, the Cougars have chosen second overall on three occasions, including Tyler Bouck and Jansen Harkins. Bouck was selected in 1995 and the Cougars took Harkins in 2012,” said Cougars spokesperson Fraser Rodgers.
The third instance was Travis Eagles in 1996, who later became a 1999 NHL draft pick of the Florida Panthers. Eagles was a play-making forward who got dealt midseason by the Cougars in 2000-01 to the powerful Brandon Wheat Kings where he finished his WHL career then embarked on a three-year university hockey career for the University of Manitoba.
The other two picked second overall in Cougars history have even more lauded names in hockey lore.
“Bouck played 197 career regular season games in the WHL, all with the Cougars, and compiled 151 points,” said Rodgers.
“He was drafted by the Dallas Stars in the second round in the 1998 NHL Draft, and went on to a 14-year career in profes-
sional hockey. Harkins played four seasons with the Cougars and is the Prince George Cougars’ franchise all-time leader in assists (167) and points (242).
“He was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in the second round in the 2015 NHL Draft. He currently plays for the Jets’ American Hockey League affiliate the Manitoba Moose.”
The lottery selection process – done by selecting random balls emblazoned with team names – was performed by Tori Gabura from acccounting firm KPMG.
The 2019 WHL Bantam Draft will be held in Red Deer on May 2.
The full selection order for the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft is:
1. Winnipeg Ice
2. Prince George Cougars (from Swift Current)
3. Saskatoon Blades (from Regina)
4. Prince George Cougars
5. Kelowna Rockets
6. Brandon Wheat Kings
7. Kamloops Blazers
8. Seattle Thunderbirds
9. Winnipeg Ice (from Red Deer)
10. Brandon Wheat Kings (from Victoria)
11. Calgary Hitmen (from Tri-City)
12. Medicine Hat Tigers
13. Calgary Hitmen
14. Swift Current Broncos (from Portland)
15. Spokane Chiefs
16. Brandon Wheat Kings (from Moose Jaw)
17. Regina Pats (from Lethbridge Hurricanes)
18. Edmonton Oil Kings
19. Victoria Royals (from Saskatoon)
20. Kamloops Blazers (from Everett)
21. Swift Current Broncos (from Vancouver)
22. Prince Albert Raiders
The order of the second round and all other rounds of the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft will be determined by the inverse order of the 2018-19 regular season standings.
Players eligible for the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft will be 2004-born players who reside in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Spruce Kings have break until March 29
Citizen staff
The Spruce Kings now know when they will play their next games in the playoff push, even though they don’t yet know who the opponent will be.
The city’s BCHL team is through to the Coastal Conference Final after a sweep of the Chilliwack Chiefs and are awaiting the winner of the Island Division. By virtue of their second overall status in the regular season, the Spruce Kings will have home ice advantage in the Coastal Conference Final, starting with Game 1 on March 29, and Game 2 March 30. Tickets go on sale today for these two games, as of 10 a.m. at the Spruce Kings office and online at www.sprucekings.bc.ca.
A two-game package is also available: $28 for adults, $22 for seniors (55-plus), and $10 for youth 6-18. Children under five are free to attend. Single-game tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $10 for youth. Children under five are free. Office hours next week at the Spruce Kings headquarters inside Rolling Mix Concrete Arena are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, (closed Saturday and Sunday) and Monday – Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On game days the office is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the box office opens at 6 p.m. The remainder of the schedule will be set once the opponent is known. For more information, please contact the Spruce Kings office at 250-564-1747.
World
Carey rink beats Russia at women’s worlds
Citizen news service
SILKEBORG, Denmark — Chelsea Carey’s Canadian rink stayed in the playoff hunt with a 9-6 win over Russia’s Alina Kovaleva on Thursday at the world women’s curling championship.
The Calgary-based team of Carey, third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown had lost 9-3 to Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni earlier in the day.
Carey (5-5) was tied with Japan and the United States for sixth in the 13team event heading onto the final day of preliminary-round action. The top six teams make the playoffs after the roundrobin concludes on Friday.
“We made it a goal early the season to be a grinding team,” said Carey. “We had a bad loss at an early event (in September) where we kind of gave up after we got a few points down, and I said to the girls, ‘This needs to be our identity. We need to own this and work really hard to be a team that grinds out wins.’
“We’ve done it all year, we did it all through the Scotties, in the final, and it’s been like that all week here, too. It’s been tough, we’ve been fighting for every inch, but we’re good at that and we’re just rolling with it.”
Reigning Olympic champ Anna Hasselborg of Sweden led the way at 9-1. Russia, which rebounded with a 7-4 win over Scotland in Thursday’s late draw, was next at 8-3. Both Sweden and Russia have qualified for the playoffs.
South Korea and Switzerland were tied for third at 7-3, followed by China at 7-4. Canada battled back from a 3-0 deficit against Russia, scoring three in the fourth
to tie it at 5-5. Carey notched another three in the ninth to break a 6-6 tie, making a draw on her final stone.
Two big shots from Wilkes – a runback triple takeout and a draw behind a corner guard - set things up for the big ninth.
“In other games, that would happen (giving up a big end like the three in the first against Russia) and it would kind of snowball,” said Brown.
“In this game, we were just like, ‘You know what? Let’s just get our deuce back, and we’re right back in it.’ That was our mindset – just keep plugging away, like we did in the Scotties final. We felt like the old Team Carey.” Against Switzerland, Carey gave up four in the eighth, all but sealing it for Tirinzoni.
Canada wraps up the round-robin with games against Sweden and Denmark on Friday.
“Unfortunately, we keep putting ourselves in this situation where we need the big wins,” said Carey. “But we pulled one off (Thursday). We have a tough day (Friday) with two really good teams, and we have to keep doing this.
“I can’t guarantee we’re going to win, but I can guarantee we’ll give it everything we have on the ice, and we won’t quit until the last rock is thrown.”
Carey is trying to avoid becoming the first Canadian team to miss the playoffs at the women’s worlds in 20 years.
She’s also trying to give Canada a third consecutive world women’s title after Ottawa’s Rachel Homan and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones went undefeated at the event the past two years.
Team Canada second Dana Ferguson throws a rock during the
Women’s Curling Championship in Silkeborg, Denmark on Saturday.
North Central Bobcats Tye Peters gets the puck past North Vancouver MHA goalie Shayan Kermany to score during
Bobcats won 6-1.
Andreescu rallies for dramatic win over Irina-Camelia Begu
Stephanie MYLES Citizen news service
MIAMI — Everything was completely different for Bianca Andreescu at the Miami Open on Thursday compared to her victory in the final of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday in Indian Wells, Calif. Except for one thing: the 18-year-old Canadian’s fight and determination.
Andreescu was nearly out in the first round at the hands of Irina-Camelia Begu on Thursday, in a match postponed from the night before because of rain. The product of Mississauga, Ont., was down a set, and down 5-1 in the second set before pulling out a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory that puts her in the second round against No. 32 seed Sofia Kenin of the U.S.
There won’t be much time to rest as that match will be played this afternoon.
The surface in Miami is different than the one in Indian Wells, much quicker. The conditions were different too, being warmer and much more humid.
Even the cheering section was different. Andreescu’s parents, Nicu and Maria (and dog Coco) were on hand, having already arrived in Miami as their teenaged daughter was winning the title in California.
It was a lot to adjust to, only four days after the unexpected triumph of her first win on the WTA.
“I hit 30 minutes before (Wednesday’s postponement), and then 30 minutes today. So just an hour. Now, I know that it’s pretty difficult to come into a new tournament after winning a really big tournament, because everyone has so many expectations,” Andreescu said. “But I try not to focus on that, even though it’s really difficult. And I think that’s what happened today a bit in the first set.”
Andreescu looked short on energy, understandably. While Begu was relatively cool and collected in the other chair, Andreescu was draping the ice towel around her neck, or across her upper legs. She sat on changeovers with another big bag of ice between her thighs. Occasionally, she poured some water over her head.
And Andreescu’s game, usually full of variety, wasn’t working.
Some of that was Begu, who she had beaten in the first round of that Indian Wells run. The veteran Romanian played much better this time, until it came time to close out Andreescu.
After Begu broke her serve for the second time to take a 4-1 lead in the second set, a tearful Andreescu looked for a little inspiration with an on-court consult from coach Sylvain Bruneau. “I’m not feeling anything out there. Every time I try to do the right thing, it never goes my way,” said Andreescu. “I’m getting so mad at myself. I’m, like, so irritated.”
Bruneau told her to mix it up more. He told her she wasn’t far away. After that consultation Andreescu got a second wind just as her opponent got tight.
“He obviously helped me, as he always does. I fought as hard as I could, and I’m really proud of myself with how I dealt with everything,” Andreescu said.
Begu served for the match at 5-2 in the
second set, and squandered a match point. She served for it again at 5-4, gave Andreescu a couple of free points, and the Indian Wells champion found her wings again.
In the third set, the big question was whether or not Andreescu could just keep holding her own serve, after an early break.
It turns out she had enough in the tank, after 2 1/2 hours, to do even better than that.
She broke Begu’s serve a second time for safety, and closed it out.
As with Begu, Kenin is a repeat opponent for Andreescu in her breakout season.
The 20-year-old American defeated Andreescu in the semifinals of the WTA tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, the week before Indian Wells.
She was, in fact, the last player to defeat Andreescu, and one of only three players to accomplish that feat during a 2019 season in which Andreescu is now 29-3.
Also on Thursday afternoon, Andreescu’s fellow 18-year-old Canadian Felix AugerAliassime advanced to the second round with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Norwegian qualifier Christian Ruud.
“I feel like since the beginning of the season, I’ve had some good starts to matches. Normally I start serving well. But not today,” Auger-Aliassime said. “The wind, the noise from the next court, both of us had trouble winning our serve at start. But I stayed calm, tried to find solutions, and I found my rhythm and my zones as the match went on.”
McIlroy to play at RBC Canadian Open this summer
John CHIDLEY-HILL
Citizen news service
HAMILTON — Rory McIlroy is – finally – coming to Canada.
The world No. 4 will be coming to the RBC Canadian Open this summer, making it the first time the ultra popular golfer has ever played in Canada. McIlroy’s inclusion in the field of Canada’s only PGA Tour event comes four days after he won the Players Championship, one of the most competitive events in men’s professional golf.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Bryan Crawford, the tournament director for the Canadian Open.
“Rory is one of the top players in the world, has been one of the top players in the world for
quite some time. He’s truly one of the global ambassadors for the game.”
McIlroy’s Players Championship win on Sunday was his 15th title on the PGA Tour. He’s one of only three players to win three of golf’s majors under the age of 25, having victories at the U.S. Open (2011), the British Open (2014) and the PGA Championship (2012, 2014).
The 29-year-old from Northern Ireland has twice been named the PGA Tour player of the year (2012 and 2014) and held the world No. 1 ranking in the world for 95 weeks over his career.
“He’s a fan favourite everywhere, but he’s certainly a fan favourite among Canadians,” said Crawford. “To have him partici-
(MDT) SATURDAY’S GAME Calgary at Lethbridge, 7 p.m. (MDT) TUESDAY, MAR. 26 Lethbridge at Calgary, 7 p.m. (MDT) THURSDAY, MAR. 28 Lethbridge at Calgary, 7 p.m. (MDT) SATURDAY, MAR. 30 x-Calgary at Lethbridge, 7 p.m. (MDT) SUNDAY, MAR. 31 x-Lethbridge at Calgary, 4 p.m. (MDT) TUESDAY, APR. 2 x-Calgary at Lethbridge, 7 p.m. (MDT)
WESTERN CONFERENCE
B.C. DIVISION Vancouver (1) vs. Seattle (WC2) FRIDAY’S GAME Seattle at Vancouver, 7:30 p.m. (PDT)
GAME Seattle at Vancouver, 7 p.m. (PDT) TUESDAY, MAR. 26 Vancouver at Seattle, 7:05 p.m. (PDT)
MAR. 27 Vancouver at Seattle, 7:05 p.m.
pate in the RBC Canadian Open for the first time is fantastic.” Golf Canada, RBC and the PGA
Tour have made a special effort to raise the stature of the Canadian Open starting with the 2019 edition of the 115-year-old event.
The Canadian Open was moved from August to June starting this year, taking the event out of the shadow of the British Open. The overall purse has been increased from US$6.4 million in 2018 to $7.6 million this year.
In November, the Canadian Open was named one of three qualifying tournaments for the British Open. The top three players at the Canadian Open, who have not already earned an exemption to play at the major, will earn a spot at the British Open.
On Tuesday it was announced that country duo Florida Georgia Line and Canadian rock group the
Glorious Sons will have concerts on Friday and Saturday night at Hamilton Golf and Country Club when the course hosts the Canadian Open from June 3-9.
“This effort began about two and a half years ago when RBC was looking to renew its relationship with the PGA Tour,” said Mary DePaoli, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer for RBC. “One of the most important things about that renewal is that we had a shared understanding with the PGA Tour that we wanted this historic tournament to be elevated.
“It was extremely important to us that if we were going to move forward that we could move forward with an event that could regain a lot of its glory.”
AP PHOTO
Bianca Andreescu returns to Irina Camelia Begu during the Miami Open tennis tournament on Thursday in Miami Gardens, Fla.
MCILROY
From Full House to big house?
Citizen news service
Could Aunt Becky be headed to prison? It could go either way, experts say.
Some of the wealthy parents accused of paying bribes to get their kids into top universities may get short stints behind bars, if convicted, to send a message that the privileged are not above the law, some lawyers say. But others predict that most, if not all, will end up with probation and a fine, particularly if they quickly agree to accept responsibility and co-operate, which observers anticipate many will do.
“If the parents are well represented, it is reasonable to expect that possibly none will go to jail,” said former federal prosecutor Jacob Frenkel. “These are not the type of offences for which judges exercising their discretion would normally put people in jail,” he said.
The parents ensnared in what prosecutors have called the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department include Hollywood stars Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on the sitcom Full House, and Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives.
Other parents are prominent figures in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry, and other fields.
Prosecutors have said, though, that they believe other parents were involved and that the investigation – dubbed Operation Varsity Blues – continues.
The parents are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, a count that carries up to 20 years in prison, although defendants, espe-
cially first-time offenders, typically get far less than that.
Attorneys for at least some of the parents are likely already negotiating deals with prosecutors, experts say. And authorities have lots of leverage to push parents to plead guilty by promising to bring more charges, like tax evasion or money laundering, if they don’t. Frenkel, now a white-collar
One last push for Schitt’s Creek
Citizen news service
Schitt’s Creek fans, prepare to say goodbye to the Rose family.
As the hit Canadian comedy series cements its status as a critical and cultural smash during its fifth season, father-and-son co-creators Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy have announced the story will come to an end next year.
In a statement on Daniel Levy’s social media accounts Thursday, they revealed the beloved halfhour show will wrap up for good at the end of its sixth season. The 14 final episodes are due to begin in January 2020 on CBC in Canada and Pop TV in the U.S.
It’s a decision the Levys reached a long time ago and is one they’re excited about, noting they’ve envisioned this final chapter from the beginning.
“I’ve always known how the show was going to end,” Daniel Levy, who is also the showrunner, said. “I’ve always seen every season of our show as a chapter in the story of this family’s life, and we have reached our inevitable conclusion in that story, so it was the right time and it was something that I had been building to for five seasons.”
The Levys also play father and son on the sitcom, alongside Catherine O’Hara as the mother
and Annie Murphy as the daughter of the Rose family, who lost their fortune due to a shady business manager and now live in a motel in a small town the dad bought as a joke years ago.
Each character has carved out their own niche in the town over the years, providing nuance and a joyful spirit that has helped Schitt’s Creek grow in popularity from season to season.
Where the show once was a modest gem, it now has a spot on Netflix, countless memes and mentions on social media, and accolades from top critics.
“It’s really been quite unbelievable,” said Eugene Levy, a comedy treasure and SCTV alum who was born in Hamilton. “Having a show like Schitt’s Creek in the autumn of my years, so to speak, is something not a lot of people get to experience.”
The show has also spawned a live tour with sold-out audiences in Canada and the U.S., won several Canadian Screen Awards, and was up for a Critics’ Choice trophy in January.
“I’m sure people will be questioning, ‘Why walk away when so many people are watching it?”’ Toronto-born Daniel Levy said, noting he tries not to pay attention to the show’s buzz because he doesn’t want it to affect the
creative process. “But the reality is, we’ve always been about the show, and I hope that when people watch this last season, they’ll understand that we did nothing but respect that experience.”
Levy said he had a feeling around season three that the Roses’ story was halfway through and would be done come season 6. His dad was fully supportive and they’ve been carefully constructing the storylines to reach that conclusion ever since.
“We’re going out on a nice, natural high and never really wanted to risk taking it any further into what I might call the law of diminishing returns,” said Eugene Levy.
Executives at CBC and Pop say they’re sad the show is ending, but they admire the Levys’ commitment to wrapping it up on their own terms.
“It’s creative genius, and who am I to mess with creative genius?” said Sally Catto, general manager of programming for CBC English Television, noting the show has grown the public broadcaster’s audience, particularly its younger demographic.
“It really also became an anchor for a new era of (scripted) comedy at the CBC,” she added. “I truly think it will be, always, one of the greatest comedies ever created in this country.”
defence attorney at Dickinson Wright in Washington, said he suspects many parents could wind up pleading guilty to a tax charge, for deducting the bribes from their income taxes, and get probation.
Most parents could get merely a fine and community service, agreed Jeffrey Cramer, who was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.
But those who went to great
lengths to participate in the scam or enlisted their children help them carry it out may spend a few months behind bars, because judges may not see a financial penalty as sufficient punishment, he said.
“If you told (the parents) at the beginning of this that in addition to the bribe, you’d have to pay a $200,000 penalty and have to work at the Beverly Hills food bank, they’d probably take that deal,” said Cramer, now managing director of Berkeley Research Group consulting firm.
“You cannot have a criminal justice system where at the end of the day,” he said, “the crime was worth doing.”
The parents are accused of paying admissions consultant Rick Singer to rig standardized test scores and bribe college coaches and other insiders to get their children into selective schools. Coaches at schools including Yale University and the University of Southern California are also charged with accepting bribes. Singer secretly recorded his conversations with the parents after agreeing to work with investigators in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence.
He pleaded guilty last week to racketeering conspiracy and other charges.
Left, actress Lori Loughlin at the Women’s Cancer Research Fund’s An Unforgettable Evening event in Beverly Hills, Calif., last year and, right, actress Felicity Huffman at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles last September. Experts are divided about whether they could be facing jail time as the result of criminal charges for being part of a college admissions bribery conspiracy.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy, Daniel Levy and Catherine O’Hara of Schitt’s Creek pose for a portrait during the 2018 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., in January 2018.
EARL (Al) McPHERSON
July 28, 1931March 18, 2019
Predeceased by wife Sheila and son Jim. Survived by daughter Lynn (Gys), son John (Rachel), grandchildren Marianne, Jeff (Jenn), great granddaughter Sandy. No service by request.
“You were the wind beneath our wings”
JO ANNE MARIE HUSOY
June 12, 1957March 15, 2019
It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Jo after a brief stay in the hospital. She will be remembered fondly for her generous spirit and fun-loving personality. Joanne loved to garden, and anyone who knew her or passed by her house was in awe of her beautiful, award-winning flowers. She proudly raised her son Aaron with the help of her mother, Polema, and absolutely doted on her young granddaughter. She recently celebrated her 40th anniversary at Peterbilt, where she was a well-known and beloved employee. Joanne is survived by her son Aaron (Lydia) Husoy, granddaughter Adara, brothers Thomas (Tracey) Husoy and Edward (Janet) Husoy, sister Karen Harvie, niece Robbin, and many extended family members and close friends. She is predeceased by her parents, Leiv and Polema Husoy, brother William Husoy and niece Shana. A celebration of life will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Nora Marie Harmider
Sept. 6, 1925 - March 15, 2019
Nora passed away peacefully in her home in Langley B.C. on March 15 with family by her side. Nora was a long term resident of Prince George. She was instrumental in starting the Phoenix Transition House, which she managed from 1974 until retirement in 1989. She travelled the world and experienced life to its fullest. Nora was always there for those who needed her and ready to help in any way she could. The door was always open and the coffee pot was always on. Predeceased by Husband: Bernie Harmider 1969 and Son: Bob Snodgrass 2006. Leaves behind Son: Lon (Candauce) Harmider, Daughters: Noreen (John) Shomody, Janet (Ken) Corrigan, Cheryle (Michael) Watson , Waneta Averill and Daughter-in law Karen Snodgrass. 15 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and 2 Great-Great Grandchildren. The Celebration of Life to held at Evergreen Timbers Hall, 5464 203st. Langley B. C. March 29th 1:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Charity of your choice. Released With Love
Bargy,ViciRoseAnn January18,1946-March15,2019 BornJanuary18,1946,inFortStJohn,BC.Passed awayMarch15,2019,inPrinceGeorge,BC. Momhasgonetobewithourdad.It’swithheavy heartswesaygoodbyetoamostlovingdevoted mom,grandmother,andgreatgrandmother.Alady thatcouldnurtureanyplaceintoabeautifulgardenof loveandbeauty,itshowedineverythingshetouched. Viciissurvivedbyherdaughters,FayeBargy,Mandy (Harold)Matte,andWendyBargy(Gary);son,Brian (Sheri)Bargy;grandchildren,Lindsey(Will)Royrock, RyanFolz(Alyssa),ShaunBargy,AlyssaMatte (Braden),Cathleen(Kyle)Pesserl,BrianMatte(Tess), andBrandonMcKnight(Katy);and12greatgrandchildren.Predeceasedbyhusband,Lloyd Bargy;parents,JackandElsaLamarr;sister,Jean Weatheral;grandsons,JustinMcKnightandMathew Matte;andgreat-grandson,JakobPesserl. SpecialthankstoDr.ElGendiforherdedicationand lovingcaregiventoMom.LastlythePGRotary HospiceHouseforalltheloveandsupportgivento Mom. AcelebrationoflifewillbeheldonMarch23,2019, at1:00pmattheWestsideFamilyFellowshipChurch, 3791Highway16West,PrinceGeorge.Inmemoryof Vici,donationstothePGRotaryHospiceHouse wouldbegreatlyappreciated.
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