City council will consider adding a further $8.5 million to its debt load during Monday night’s regular meeting to cover the cost of building the bridge on Willow Cale Road at Haggith Creek and dealing with the sinkhole on Winnipeg Street.
Of the total, $6.8 million is for the bridge project. Previously expected to cost $3.7 million, the bill rose to $10.5 million after the project ran into difficulties. Work on the sinkhole added up to $1.7 million.
Pending council approval, money for both projects would be borrowed over five years. A term for longer than five years is not possible as elector assent would be required and the projects have already been completed.
Debt-servicing costs over those five years add up to $1.47 million for the bridge and $368,364 for the sinkhole and both those totals would be incorporated into the 2020 levy. The $3.7 million first earmarked for the bridge was included in the 2019 levy. Combined, the cost of borrowing for the two projects will increase the property tax levy for 2020 by 0.95 per cent over the total approved for 2019, according to a report from finance director Kris Dalio.
Previously-approved debt would add a further 0.75 per cent for a total of 1.7 per cent for 2020. The 2020 levy won’t be affected if all 11 projects for which the city will be seeking voter approval to borrow $32.2 million passes the alternative approval process, scheduled to begin April 18. But for 2021, the levy would rise by 1.41 per cent, of which previously-approved debt would account for 0.87 per cent. For 2022, it would decline by 0.57 per cent due to a 0.89 per cent decline in debt servicing for previouslyapproved debt. And in 2023, it is set to rise by 4.01 per cent over the 2019 level, with the $35 million Four Seasons Leisure Pool replacement to account for 2.27 per cent, Fire Hall No. 1 replacement accounting for 0.97 per cent and the 11 projects accounting for 1.31 per cent. But that jump could be tempered.
The city has applied for $10 millon from the B.C.-Canada Infra-
Bills for bridgework, sinkhole repair total
ABOVE: On Monday city council will consider adding $8.5 million to the city’s debt load
Cale Road over Haggith Creek and dealing with a major sinkhole on Winnipeg Street. Construction of
budget after unstable soil beneath the bridge caused the asphalt to start cracking.
BELOW: A large sinkhole formed in Winnipeg Street in June 2018, caused by a leaking
roadway cost the city $1.7 million.
structure Program for the Four Seasons Leisure Pool project and on Monday, council will also be asked to give staff permission to apply for a $6.3-million grant from the Clean BC communities fund in the name of increasing the pool’s energy efficiency and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Combined, those two would lessen the increase by 1.06 per cent, bringing the amount down to 2.95 per cent for 2023. In reports to council, engineering and public works general manager Dave Dyer provided summaries of the circumstances that led up to the bills for the Haggith Creek Bridge and the Winnipeg Street sinkhole.
A culvert at Haggith Creek, where the Willow Cale Forest Service Road was first built more than 50 years ago, was failing. — see ‘THE REMEDIATION, page 3
Spot a large puddle? Call 311
Citizen staff
City residents are encouraged to contact city hall to report large puddles or flooding as the March melting season gets underway. That can be done by calling 311, sending an email to 311@princegeorge.ca, submitting a service request through the city website, www.princegeorge.ca, or the CityofPG app, or by dropping by the service centre on the first floor at city hall, 1100 Patricia Blvd. Those calling from outside city limits can call 250-561-7600
Taking the step helps the city prioritize and plan, city utilities manager Wil Wedel said. The utilities division has a crew of about 40 people who keep their eyes on more than 5,500 storm drains to keep them as clog-free as possible and to prevent traffic issues and localized flooding.
The city’s roads and fleet division also provides crews and equipment, including snow plows, to address open ditch and culvert flooding and drainage issues. Workers use a variety of means including GPS mapping and metal detectors to locate
drains and steel grates buried under snow and ice.
At this time of year, they may use vacuum trucks to remove water from puddles and expose drains and melt ice with steam units to allow meltwater to drain freely down drains, culverts and storm inlets.
It is the responsibility of property owners to procure pumps and other materials and tools necessary to protect their properties from damage due to flooding. They can work to prevent large puddles and ponding near their homes by ensuring that debris such as leaves, plastic, or paper are not covering nearby storm drains.
Residents are also reminded not to use sprinklers to melt snow and ice, and that those who do may be subject to a fine as per city bylaws.
“Sandbagging, tarping, ditching, and clearing clogged drains and culverts are all effective measures for reducing the risk of flooding,” said Wedel.
“Residents with houses at risk for basement flooding are advised to have sump pumps available and to be prepared to work with neighbours to divert water to the closest storm drains.”
Highspeed web
Minister of Citizen’s Services
Jinny Sims announced $50 million in funding to connect people in roughly 200 rural and Indigenous communities with highspeed internet. Sims made the announcement in Prince George on Friday.
Family legal assistance, dedicated criminal case aid among legal aid review suggestions
Jeremy HAINSWORTH Citizen news service
An independent lawyer has made 25 recommendations to B.C.’s government for improving B.C.’s legal aid system – including legal clinics, a targeted criminal law aid system and expanded availability of lawyers for families. Legal aid is not broken in B.C. It has simply lost its way,” author Jamie McLaren said in the report.
“Years of underfunding and shifting political priorities have taken their toll on the range and quality of legal aid services, and especially on the people who need them. Still, the will exists in B.C. to make legal aid more accessible and effective for all of its many users.”
Richard Fowler of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers said the report’s title – Roads to Revival – is telling.
“The report recognizes that our province needs to do a much better job of providing legal aid, and that this can only happen with significant investment,” Fowler said. That’s a comment that has been made repeatedly over decades as different government’s have tackled the issue.
What will happen this time, however, remains to be seen as Attorney General David Eby continues to review the report.
McLaren’s other recommendations include:
• Developing and launching an online client portal to accept legal aid applications, to diagnose and treat clients’ legal problems, and to empower clients in the active management of their own cases;
• Engaging the Office of the Auditor General
to perform a value-for-money audit of legal aid service provider Legal Services Society (LSS) operations;
• Broadening the scope of Indigenous legal aid services to include more preventative services that are not premised on agreeing to state intervention or correction, which impose stigma;
• Creating a Child Protection Clinic to help parents before child protection concerns reach the level of Ministry of Children & Family Development intervention, and to serve as a practice resource centre for lawyers representing parents in contested child protection matters;
• Creating a Criminal Resource Centre at the Criminal Law Office offering free access to tariff lawyers, pro bono lawyers and other legal aid service providers, and provides space for co-working and training as well as resources for legal research and practice management, and;
• Developing a major case team of LSS staff lawyers and paralegals to provide in-house capacity and to support tariff lawyer capacity for long and complex criminal case work.
Eby announced McLaren’s review in October.
Veteran lawyer Len Doust covered some of the areas addressed by McLaren in 2011 after 10 months’ work. Doust made nine recommendations.
Included were suggestions legal aid be recognized as an essential public service, that core services and priorities be defined; financial eligibility should be modernized and expanded; regional legal aid centres and innovative service delivery should be established; and that public engagement and political dialogue
needed expanding.
McLaren said his ability to do the review was limited by time, geography and a limited study sample size. He said he did not have time to meet the many legal aid stakeholders.
“Wherever possible, I consulted with people at their workplaces to better understand the context of their experiences. The 240 individuals who engaged with my review work or live in 37 different B.C. municipalities.”
Time constraints also constrained his opportunity to meet legal aid clients.
“I did my best to compensate for this limitation by engaging at length with frontline lawyers and legal advocates, and by reviewing LSS’ extensive library of client surveys. I also drew from my own experience of serving about 1,500 low-income clients over thirteen years as a pro bono clinic lawyer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.”
Fowler said his group fully agrees with much of the report.
“Firstly, that legal aid is an essential element of a fair, humane and efficient justice system based on the rule of law,” he said. “Secondly, as we have been saying for a long time, years of underfunding have taken a toll on the quantity and quality of legal aid services.”
Fowler commended McLaren for recognizing LSS as a “high-functioning organization that does as well as it can with the current levels of funding.”
He agreed with McLaren’s supporting the LSS being independent from government, a point the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers has also strongly encouraged.
City spending poll sees online readers mostly say ‘no’
During the last online Citizen poll we asked “Do you believe the City of Prince George should borrow $32.2 million to pay for 11 projects?”
With 41 per cent and 297 votes was “No, because mayor and council need to better prioritize what is needed from what is wanted.”
The next popular vote with 27 per cent and 197 votes was “No, because these projects should only be brought forward one at a time for approval, not in a lump,” and coming in with 21 per cent and 153 votes was “Yes, because this is essential infrastructure that needs to be maintained,” which was followed at 10 per cent and 71 votes by “Yes, but only if the spending is approved in a voter referendum.”
There was a total of 718 votes. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
The next poll question bring asked during the online poll is “What would you like to see happen in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal?”
To make your vote count visit www.pgcitizen.ca.
— Citizen staff
Pets injured in house fire
Three fire halls and 13 firefighters from Prince George Fire Rescue responded Thursday afternoon to a fire in the 8400 block of Bunce Road. When crews arrived, they saw the back of the home was on fire.
Crews entered the home and quickly extinguished the flames.
Crews helped the resident who had evacuated safely and provided medical aid to two pets who survived the fire. There were no injuries to fire crews. Cause of the fire is yet to be determined and damage estimate is not available.
— Citizen staff
The city wants to borrow $32 million, of which $10 million will go to improvements to
City sets start date for alternate approval process
Citizen staff
Voters who want to voice their opposition to any of the 11 projects for which the city is seeking consent to pass borrowing bylaws will have to wait.
The starting date for the alternative approval process is expected to be April 18, the city said in a statement issued Friday, although that remains pending approval from the B.C. inspector of municipalities and then publication of a public notice.
Since city council gave first three readings to the bylaws for $32.2 million worth of capital projects, some residents have contacted the city about submitting elector response forms, the city said.
Should the process begin on April 18 as expected, voters will have until May 30 to submit elector response forms expressing
their objections to the projects.
If at least 10 per cent of the electorate, estimated at 5,546 responses, submit forms for a specific project, council will be forced to either scrap the related borrowing bylaw or take it to a full-blown referendum in which approval from 50 per cent plus one of those who vote will be required to advance the bylaw to final reading.
The city has created a web page, www.princegeorge.ca/AAP, to provide residents with information on the process, including key dates and other details.
A link to the page is included on the city homepage at www.princegeorge.ca
The AAP web page will be updated on April 18 to include information on how to obtain elector response forms, together with detailed instructions regarding how to properly complete the forms.
UNBC hosting Political Week
Citizen staff
Several UNBC student groups have collaborated to host Political Week next week to focus on political engagement for the community’s youth.
Micah Green, president of the UNBC Conservatives club and a political science and commerce student, said they’ve partnered with the UNBC Greens, the political science student association, the debate society and the NDP club to host this series of events including one where local politicians introduce themselves to students.
Other events include Tales from the Front, Put Your Degree to Work in Ottawa, a discussion about being Young and In Politics, Women in Politics, What It Took To Get Here and Why It Matters and What Conservatives (and everyone else) Gets Wrong.
“All of our university clubs were started because we saw a lack of conversation happening on these important issues at UNBC,”
Montessori school evacuated because of threat on Friday
Citizen staff
Green said in a news release.
The event will facilitate a respectful conversation between those who disagree and create an environment that is conducive to becoming politically engaged, Green added.
Events take place March 11 to 15 at the university.
The schedule is as follows:
• Face to Face Meet Your Politicians Up Close, March 12 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the NUSC Space.
• Tales From the Front: Put Your Degree to Work in Ottawa, March 13 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Classroom 8-164.
• Young & In Politics, March 14 at 1 p.m. in the Senate Chambers.
• Women in Politics: What It Took To Get Here and Why It Matters, March 15 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Up-Tempo Lounge beside Canfor Theatre.
• What Conservatives (and everyone else) Gets Wrong, March 15 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Classroom 7-238.
Polaris Elementary School students were evacuated to École College Heights Elementary School on Friday.
The move was made at midday after police received information regarding threats directed at Polaris, both Prince George RCMP and School District 57 said.
Parents were being contacted by school staff to make arrangements for student pick-up at CHES while police were working to determine the exact source of the threat.
“As this is a stressful situation for all involved, police wish to remind everyone to be mindful of your driving and obey all the rules of the road, especially in and around the school zones,” RCMP said.
In a social media posting, Polaris principal Tim Yule said that while police are investigating the threat, no incident occurred at the school and the evacuation was carried out as a precaution. And in a statement issued late Friday afternoon, school district superintendent Marilyn Marquis-Forster said school “will be ready to welcome staff and students back to normal operations on Monday.”
— from page 1
Because of the depth of the crossing and because the creek is fish bearing, it was decided the culvert should be replaced by a bridge.
Construction began in September 2016 and the bridge opened on March 30, 2017. But by early August 2017, cracks appeared in the new asphalt on the south side of the bridge, indicating unstable ground beneath.
The culprit turned out to be an unstable layer of clay about 20 metres below the surface that was undetected in a geotechnical survey.
The bridge was closed, a culvert was installed in Haggith Creek and covered with five metres of fill to stabilize the ground.
Work on repairing the bridge itself began in early April 2018. Two steel piles were driven into the ground on the south side, a brace structure was built to support the bridge deck, and a new approach span was constructed.
After the work was completed, the north-side bridge abutment was inspected and repaired and the bridge was reopened in July 2018.
“Because of the urgency of the project to both preserve public safety and the integrity of the bridge structure, as well as to resume access for local industry, the remediation project proceeded as quickly as possible,” Dyer said.
After obtaining external legal and engineering advice, Dyer said the city will not be taking any legal action to recover costs from any of the parties involved in the project’s design, delivery or construction.
As for the sinkhole, it first emerged in July 2014. Despite a series of excavations and camera-assisted inspections, a combination of water and over one metre of sediment prevented crews from determining the cause. But a geotextile fabric was
used to wrap drain rock in an attempt to impede further movement of sand and gravel underneath the road.
But in October 2014, it opened again when a water main crossing above the storm sewer broke. The main was repaired but once again, in mid-May 2018, the sinkhole re-emerged. No cause was determined and the sinkhole was filled and the road repaved.
Following major rainfall over June 20-21, 2018, a larger, deeper sinkhole formed and a more thorough investigation was carried out. A sheet pile dam and pumps were installed to prevent water flowing back into the excavation from the Hudson’s Bay Wetland and the site was dewatered.
It was subsequently found that a 6.5-metre section of the storm pipe, which was about 50 years old, had severely eroded.
“It appeared that the depth of sediment, which was above the eroded section of pipe was keeping the pipe from collapsing,” Dyer said. “When the severe storm occurred in June 2018, the sediment would have flushed out some of the sediment, exposing the holes in the pipe and drawing road base material into the storm sewer pipe.”
An 8.5-metre section of the pipe was replaced and a concrete chamber was installed to tie together the three sections of pipe that meet in that area.
“The chamber was designed to withstand the high velocity of storm water flowing into the chamber from Carney Street. It also includes a sump and two manholes to allow city utility crews to clean sediment from the storm water system at this location,” Dyer said.
The stretch was reopened to traffic on Oct. 26, 2018. The full staff reports are posted with this story at www.pgcitizen.ca
the Prince George Aquatic Centre.
Wild salmon council calls for immediate action
Citizen news service
VICTORIA — A government-appointed council says British Columbia must take immediate action to increase wild salmon populations.
The Wild Salmon Advisory Council says in a report Friday the provincial government must focus on “tangible, achievable, nearterm actions” that address the immediate needs of wild salmon and their habitat.
The council’s 30-page report says the government should take on the role of the champion of wild salmon.
It says that despite billions of dollars in public and private investments over the past 30 years to protect, restore, enhance and manage B.C.’s wild salmon and steelhead populations, the stocks continue to weaken, with some at alarming rates.
“We heard at multiple times, and in many ways, that increasing wild salmon abundance is and should be a provincial government goal,” the report says.
“We also heard repeatedly that the citizens of B.C., and particularly adjacent communities, must benefit directly from the public investment that will be required.”
The 14-member council included representatives from the fishing industry, conservation groups, Indigenous communi-
and
served as the council’s co-chairwoman.
The council held meetings in seven communities, including Campbell River, Kamloops and Skidegate, in December and January and met with wild salmon stakeholders in Vancouver for two days.
The report makes 13 recommendations to the government to increase wild salmon populations, urging quick action to protect salmon habitats that have not been disturbed and restore degraded habitats.
The government said it is reviewing the council’s report as part of its plan to restore wild salmon stocks.
Salmon conservation groups said they were pleased with the council’s recommendations to increase wild salmon stocks and protect and restore habitat, but were concerned about calls to support the commercial fishery in areas of threatened fish stocks.
“There’s a strong focus on revitalizing the commercial fishing industry, but no talk at all about the impacts of fishing on endangered salmon stocks,” said Aaron Hill, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.
“And there’s no talk of moving to new technologies that will allow for sustainable harvests of abundant runs while minimizing the harvest of endangered stocks.”
Concert to pay tribute to crew of the St. Roch
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Seeing the St. Roch in person can strike a history buff with an almost religious dumbfoundment.
This famous schooner was home to a special RCMP captain and crew who together (for vessels are equal to people to those who work them) travelled the Northwest Passage twice and circumnavigated North Americas as well.
At 104 feet long and 25 feet wide, the St. Roch seems like a hummingbird in a hurricane when you think of the violent water and monstrous ice it confronted on its many history-setting voyages in aid of Canadian sovereignty.
You can see the St. Roch in the Vancouver Maritime Museum and you can now hear the spirit of this small, stalwart, sensational ship contained in the a new composi-
tion by Thomas Beckman. No one has ever heard this ode to the great Canadian ship and her many adventures.
The first audience will be tonight when the Prince George Symphony Orchestra sails forth on its maiden voyage.
“The piece celebrates the 90th anniversary of the launching of the St. Roch,” said PGSO general manager Teresa Saunders.
“The piece is incredible and will be presented with Jude Neale, renowned Canadian poet who will recite poetry she wrote in concert with the composition.
“The Vancouver Maritime Museum also created a video and slide presentation to be shown while the piece is being played.
“PG’s own Nove Voce choir will be a part of the second movement of the piece as well.
“The presentation of this new composition was made possible
by a grant from the Fraser-Fort George Regional District.
“Our own Exploration Place has also created a slide presentation on activity on the waterways of Prince George in the same era that the St. Roch was working further west and north. This presentation will be shown at intermission.
“It’s been a true collaborative effort to bring this project to fruition. We’re very excited to be able to hear it (tonight).”
The PGSO’s conductor, Michael Hall, said Beckman approached him and Saunders more than a year ago asking if there would be a possibility of the orchestra performing the piece he had been working on without any set destination in mind. Beckman is a Vancouver composer and musician but frequently works in Prince George with the city’s symphony.
Hall said the chance to be part of a world debut was too exciting to
pass up.
“He provided me with a score and an audio file that gives an approximation of how it will sound, but it is only an approximation,” Hall explained.
“You prepare for a world premiere in a lot of the same ways you always do, but without the templates of a piece that’s been done before. This has never been heard by another orchestra or audience. There is no model for reference.”
Does that impose any trepidation on the rehearsal process to be the absolute first?
“No trepidation. Quite the opposite,” Hall said.
“We are in fact really excited that Thomas thought of us and considered us a good fit. There could be trepidation, I suppose, if you don’t know the composer but we had a strong relationship already so we knew it would be a
wonderful experience.”
Beckman has written previous works for the Borealis String Quartet, the Vancouver Symphony orchestra, the Postmodern Camerata and the Vancouver Youth Choir, among others.
Hall built an entire water theme around knowing the PGSO was debuting the St. Roch Suite.
Rounding out this unique presentation are three other sea-themed pieces: Selections From Water Music by Handel, Moldau by Smetana, and Pelleas & Melisande by Faure.
There will also be the quick whiz of the Tritsch Tratsch Polka with special guest conductor Cindy Marcotte.
The concert will be held at the Prince George Playhouse tonight starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale online at the Central Interior Tickets website.
ties
provincial politicians, including NDP co-chairman Doug Routley and Green
legislature member Adam Olsen. Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett also
CP FILE PHOTO
A 24-pound chinook salmon sits on the dock in Vancouver on Aug. 18, 2012.
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Facebook should ban posts by so-called anti-vaxxers in order to protect children against measles and other contagious diseases, says a British Columbia mother who launched a petition urging parents to start home schooling if they’re against immunization.
Katie Clunn of Maple Ridge said Friday the social media giant must go beyond reducing its distribution of such content as well as the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation, according to its new policy.
“I don’t think it should be reduced, I think it should be all-out banned,” she said.
“Why are we OK with misinformation that’s putting children at harm?”
Nearly 45,000 people have signed Clunn’s petition since she started it about three weeks ago after a measles outbreak that has now reached at least 17 cases in Metro Vancouver.
Clunn said she attempted to draw attention to the issue of vaccinations about three years ago in her local school district but only about 100 people signed a petition as groups opposed to vaccination seemed to be increasingly using Facebook as a platform to spread their message.
The mother of two children, aged six and nine, said the site that has been widely accused of allowing misinformation to continue on a range of topics needs to do more to protect youth from “dangerous” groups that deal in paranoia, not science.
Facebook said it would not ban anti-vaccination content.
“We have long believed that simply removing provocative thinking such as this does little to build awareness around facts and different approaches to health,” it said in a statement. “Counter-speech in the form of accurate information from experts in the field... can help create a safer and more respectful environment.”
The company said it is exploring ways to provide more accurate information from expert groups such as the World Health Organization about vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on pages discussing the topic and on invitations to join groups.
It said it would detect misinformation from groups with names that may not suggest opposition to immunization through its artificial intelligence system, which is “constantly scanning posts and links shared on Facebook” and that a team would confirm if the content violates the company’s policies.
“A team at Facebook will use guidelines based on the most widely debunked vaccine hoaxes published by health experts,” it said.
“Posts from violating groups and pages containing these hoaxes will appear lower in News Feed and will be removed from search results and group recommendations.”
Fuyuki Kurasawa, a sociologist and director of the global digital citizenship lab at York University in Toronto, said Facebook could have gone as far as Pinterest by banning all vaccine content.
“(Pinterest) couldn’t keep up with the number of attempts to deceive either their human moderation or their algorithms, whether it be anti-vaxxing or provaxxing,” said Kurasawa, who analyzes controversial issues on social media platforms around the rejection of scientific expertise, including vaccinations, climate change and gender-based violence.
He said Facebook, as well as other companies including Google, has been “asleep at the switch” on the impact of such content but is now trying to develop a response.
“What they’re fearful of is government regulation and any sort of intervention with their business model so they’re going to, as much as possible, be relatively evasive while at the same time try to address the issue without compromising their commercial interests.”
Anti-vaxxers have used social media to spread misinformation about the highly contagious disease, some maintaining the measles, mumps and rubella or MMR vaccine causes autism despite that belief being repeatedly debunked through scientific research.
Despite the lack of evidence between the vaccine and the neurobehavioural condition, more parents appear to be shunning immunization, with public health experts warning the progress made against the disease that was declared eradicated in Canada in 1998 could be threatened, with consequences including hearing loss and inflammation of the brain greatest for children.
On Wednesday, Health Canada issued an advisory about “false claims” in the marketing of homeopathic remedies, known as nosodes, being promoted as alternatives to vaccines.
“If we identify any non-compliance with the Food and Drugs Act or its regulations we will take action,” the department said.
“Children given nosodes instead of vaccinations are at risk of developing serious and potentially fatal childhood illnesses such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio and whooping cough. Vaccination continues to be the very best way to prevent serious infectious diseases and to protect yourself, your family and your community.”
Troy McMullin and Yolanda Wiersma examine lungwort lichen on a tree during a survey for lichen diversity in Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia, in an undated handout photo.
Lichens key to understanding forest ecosystems
Hina ALAM Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Two scientists say defining the biodiversity of a forest by the age of the trees is an oversimplification because it does not take into account the richness of the species in a forest, but lichens can provide a deeper understanding of a woodlands’ ecosystem.
Troy McMullin, a lichenologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, said lichens “are kind of like the coral of the forest or the canaries in the coal mine.”
The fungi are sensitive to the smallest changes including pollution, humidity or the amount of light being received, which makes them strong indicators of a particular environment, he said.
There are some lichen that are “intolerant to disturbance” and are usually found in old-growth forests, which McMullin and Yolanda Wiersma at Memorial University of Newfoundland want to study to determine the age of an area.
Old trees don’t always equate to old forests, McMullin said.
“We use the term old-growth forest a lot. But what does it mean exactly? There isn’t a clean definition,” he said.
In the United Kingdom, there are forests designated as “ancient woodlands” that are not characterized by the presence of large, stately, old trees but
rather by the length of time they have existed as woodlands, says a paper written by McMullin and Wiersma that was published this week in the Ecological Society of America journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
“What we’re trying to show here is that it doesn’t matter how old the trees are,” he said.
While they advocate that no oldgrowth forests should be “cut at all,” McMullin said they realize it’s not as simple as that.
“So if we’re going to do this we should identify those that have the most unique biodiversity. And lichens are one of the best indicators because they are so sensitive,” he said. “It’s only these lichen that live in these old forests that make it special and that tends to happen when forests haven’t been disturbed for a long time. It’s not about how old the trees are, it’s about how long there’s been a forest on that site.”
Studying lichen that can only be found in a particular site will help determine the age and biodiversity of a forest, he said.
Lichens are found on every continent and can grow on trees in frigid polar regions and harsh deserts. They are usually the first life form to grow on bare rock following a volcanic eruption.
Some lichens look like leaves while others hang down like hair, and others
grow into the bark becoming part of italmost like a crust on a tree, he said.
“Lichen is fungus that has learned how to farm,” he said. “It’s just a fungus but its transformed itself into a greenhouse and it has algae inside of it. The algae is ... producing carbohydrates and sugars and it’s actually feeding the lichen.”
Wiersma, a landscape ecologist, said research has shown that certain types of lichen are specific to forests that have been continuous for a long time, and it is these fungi that scientists need to look for.
Lichens are not just an important food source for caribou, insects and slugs, but birds use it to build their nests because of its disinfectant properties, she said.
They also prevent soil erosion by growing on it, Wiersma added.
The biologists said the fungi are already being used to assess old-growth value in parts of Europe, and they want to start by building a list of lichen seen in different forest types.
Conserving biodiversity in forests is important, Wiersma said.
“If we lose it, we can’t replace it,” she said. “That diversity of life and species is there because that place has been a forest for hundreds and hundreds of years and you just can’t replant and replace that full suite of biodiversity.”
Building Highway 2019
We all know that our economic system for the last 100 years has relied on safe highways to transport goods and bring services to our diverse and widespread population in the North. We all know how important highways are.
Internet connections into our homes are like real-life residential streets that connect to faster arteries, and ultimately to the internet equivalent of a super highway. We need these tech highways in almost every aspect of our lives, from public safety and modern education to the capabilities which enable businesses to innovate and grow.
But even now, there are residents inside city limits without access to high-speed internet, and outside Prince George, the connections can be worse. In Northern B.C., there are large rural areas with no Internet, and no prospect for it. We’re not alone, either; there are two million Canadians without reliable internet connections today. Our problem is a national problem and it’s past time it got fixed. We need our technology highways as much as we need our physical highways.
Our problem is a national problem and it’s past time it got fixed. We need our technology highways as much as we need our physical highways.
In particular, the leaders of P.G.’s tech community have identified the lack of redundant high speed as a serious gap for at least a decade. In physical terms, think of our city as a superhighway cul-de-sac. With only one route in, no large company would locate their data here, because up to now, that single route was too risky for industry standards. One line is simply too easily severed by errant events ranging from a tragic wildfire to a misguided tractor.
That could soon be fixed. On March 13, we mark the one-year anniversary of the federal/provincial announcement that Shaw had been selected to build a fibre optic line between Prince George and Dawson Creek, thereby turning our cul-de-sac into the superhighway we need. After years of advocacy, it’s getting built and we’ll get redundant high speed.
That one project is a game-changer for Prince George. Our employers will finally have the capacity so today’s businesses can compete on a level playing field with busi-
nesses in the big cities around the world. Just knowing it is coming has also opened new doors for our economic development department to legitimately compete to attract data centres. This opportunity, which hinges on the Dawson Creek line, has become one of four key areas we are actively pursuing. Looking at the bigger picture, broadband for all of rural B.C. is very much a Prince George issue. When we think about traditional highways and our traditional economy, we all know the adage that Prince George thrives when the communities around it thrive, and vice-versa. This applies just as strongly to Internet superhighways. It is essential that broadband internet access gets rolled out throughout Northern B.C.
Yesterday, Jinny Sims, the Minister of Citizen’s Services, was in our city to talk about the successes of the B.C. government’s investment of $50 million toward enhanced connectivity. Some past successes specifically dealt with funding the
Why are Victorians so intolerant?
The batteries in his 97-year-old grandmother’s hearing aids were failing, so Tristin Hopper had to raise his voice to be heard in the noisy Sunday morning Victoria restaurant.
That was too much for the aging baby boomer at the next table.
“You’re RUINING everyone’s breakfast,” said the man, dramatically gesturing toward a table full of diners who couldn’t care less. Ruining.
That’s what he said.
Hopper and his gran had been talking about church. Just imagine if they had been discussing pipelines, or bike lanes, or cherry blossoms, or one of the other subjects that really send Vancouver Islanders off their nuts.
Now, were this in the 31-yearold Hopper’s youth, he would have just shrugged. Old people yell at young people.
It’s what the Oak Bay High grad learned while growing up here. Chew gum with your mouth open or wear the wrong shirt and you’ll get a super-helpful hectoring from someone who thinks you should know what you’re doing wrong.
“As a child of Victoria, I thought that this was just normal.”
But then he moved away, went to school back east, and ended up working elsewhere in Canada, where he learned that no, this is not acceptable behaviour. “You would get laughed at. Someone would make fun of you.”
So Hopper, now an Edmontonbased reporter for the National Post (which to some Islanders is enough of a crime to warrant an application of non-petroleum-
based tar and free-range, organic chicken feathers) posted on Twitter: “I’ve been 48 hours in Victoria and a man just lectured me for talking too loudly to my hard-ofhearing 97-year-old grandma IN A CROWDED RESTAURANT. People never believe me when I tell them the West Coast is uptight.”
Uptight?
Us?
This is the City of Gardens, laidback Lotus Land, the only place in Canada where legalization made it harder to buy weed.
Even the panhandlers park on yoga mats. Our bunnies get palliative care, or at least an airlift to a sanctuary in Texas (I’m not making this up).
Ours is the hacky-sack city that replaced the grim-lipped parking police with kinder, gentler, bluejacketed “ambassadors” (which means what? They dot the “i’s” on your tickets with little hearts?).
Yes, but it’s also a rule-heavy government-and-military town (civic motto: “Solving the world through regulation since 1862”) that loves to tell people how to live.
Victoria toyed with turning off its Christmas lights because apparently you don’t know you’re wrong-headed for liking them. (No truth to the rumour that city hall plans to replace the Sir John A. statue with one of the judgmental Church Lady from Saturday Night Live.)
Saanich says residents are supposed to register hens, just
like handguns. Esquimalt banned Bongy the head shop mascot.
Want to see the SWAT team in action? Try parking your boat in your driveway in Oak Bay.
Is there any city in Canada where you are more likely to be yelled at by a stranger? (Try standing up at a concert and dancing – I dare you.)
Is there another region whose residents keep the bylaw officers on speed dial or hand out unsolicited parenting advice?
Our busybodies are both young and old, and span the ideological spectrum. Too many used-to-be powerful people with too much time on their hands.
Too many indignant, self-righteous people imbued with the selfcertainty of those who have not yet learned the value of doubt.
Too many people whose opinions are shaped in echo chambers, free of the complicating influence of dissenting opinion and unconsidered perspective. (That’s not just a West Coast thing.)
Too many people who, without a sense of entitlement, would have no sense at all.
One of those who responded to Hopper’s tweet spoke of West Coasters as being both “surrounded by beauty and so angry.” That’s not a new observation – in 2015, a Statistics Canada study of life satisfaction found the Victoria region to be one of the unhappiest in the country, 27th out of 33 metropolitan areas, with Vancouver at the bottom of the list.
Of course, that might not be your experience, and you might say those who think us uptight are out to lunch.
But if they are out to lunch, please don’t yell at them.
“Last Mile” of connectivity. Renewing and increasing funding for local programs like this helps to encourage our federal partners to come to the table too.
On Monday, the city’s resolutions committee will introduce Mayor Lyn Hall’s resolution on broadband, and ultimately invite all B.C. communities to support it. It echoes the call by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for a robust national strategy for broadband. That national strategy needs to have firm dates, a commitment to speed targets and an investment of at least $400 million per year for 10 years. Making Internet access better is about making our city better, making our region better and making Canada better. Last century, when roads and highways were pushed through, Northern B.C. communities were opened up to transporting the goods and services that fueled our economy. This century and next, we are collaborating and competing with the world and we are going to succeed. Because working together, we are going to get those new tech superhighways built.
— Garth Frizzell is a councillor for the City of Prince George and second vice president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
India, Pakistan clash a brewing nightmare
While India and Pakistan seem to have stopped bombing one another, the causes behind the cross-border tensions aren’t going away any time soon. The two nations are nuclear-armed; have large conventional armed forces; have had four serious wars since they became independent in 1947; and have enormous cultural and religious antipathy. This is a prescription for a disaster, and yet the confrontation is flying below the international radar – well below North Korea, Brexit, ChinaU.S. trade confrontations, Iran and even the “yellow vests” of France. A full-blown war in the valleys and mountains of Kashmir is a very real possibility.
When I was the supreme allied commander of NATO, the most important mission of the alliance was dealing with terrorism in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, our Pakistani partners continued to support many of the radical elements of the Taliban. They were afraid of creeping Indian influence and much preferred a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan to a more Westernleaning and independent Afghan government. I dealt often with General Ashfaq Kayani, the lean, chain-smoking chief of staff of the Pakistani army (arguably a more powerful position than the prime minister). He frequently came to NATO’s political headquarters in Brussels to brief the combined military leadership of the alliance on the key threat Pakistan faced several years ago – internal terrorism. Yet always hovering over our conversations was the Pakistani military’s deepest concern: India.
The most recent crisis was set off in mid-February when a Pakistani terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, detonated a suicide bomb in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers. It was the deadliest attack on security forces since that insurgency began in earnest decades ago. While the Pakistani government denied involvement in the bombing, India believes it was aware of the incident, and therefore responded with significant airstrikes into Pakistan.
Two Indian fighter jets were shot down and a pilot captured. There was an unmistakable echo of the 1947 and 1965 Kashmir conflicts, in which tens of thousands died. The extremely fragile cease-fire in place for two decades is fraying. Partly this is the result of domestic politics in India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elected on a Hindu nationalist agenda, is up for re-election in April and May. After
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the Indian bombing of Pakistani territory, a popular hashtag in India became #Indiastrikesback. This is rare behavior, given that Indian armed forces have not otherwise crossed the so-called Line of Control between the nations since 1971. Most worrisome, of course, are the significant nuclear arsenals of the combatants. Each has roughly 150 missiles, although only India has a submarine-based ballistic missile capability and thus a true nuclear triad (land, air and sea). Pakistan is developing sea-launched cruise missiles to counter that Indian threat. India has adopted a “no first use” doctrine, although Pakistan – which has smaller conventional forces and thus potentially the need for a more ambiguous doctrine – has not made an equivalent pledge. Paradoxically, the fact that both sides want to avoid a nuclear conflict has probably prevented an escalation on the conventional side during recent crises. In past conflicts, the U.S. has played a mediating role. But today Pakistan is more inclined to work with China. India has strong relations with both the U.S. and Russia, but is unlikely to turn to either, so as not to appear beholden to any peer “great state.” This tracks with the tendency of the Trump administration to let nations work things out themselves. Other than National Security Advisor John Bolton’s sensible comment that the U.S. supports India’s right to selfdefense, the administration is staying on the sidelines. Complicating the picture is that the Washington is trying to enlist Pakistani aid in ending the long war in Afghanistan by reining in the Taliban.
As Hussein Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., recently pointed out, Pakistan in on the verge of an economic crisis. While the Khan government has tried to defuse the situation, in part by appealing to the International Monetary fund, internal pressures are building. With Pakistan’s economic plight and the upcoming elections in India, South Asia is in a situation in which a military miscalculation, perhaps even a nuclear one, is a real possibility.
— James Stavridis is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
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Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer speaks during
bigger than Justin Trudeau himself and if he truly had respect for the office he holds, he would do the right thing and step aside.”
ROSSER, Man. — Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will not be introducing a motion of non-confidence against Justin Trudeau despite saying the prime minister has lost the moral authority to govern because of the SNC-Lavalin affair.
“It’s up to his party now to determine whether or not they want to keep him on as leader,” Scheer said during a news conference in Rosser, Man., on Friday.
Scheer said his party will be introducing motions “aimed at getting to the bottom of this” but a motion of non-confidence is not on the table.
Scheer added that if Trudeau respected his office, he would step aside.
“The role of prime minister is bigger than any one individual, it’s
Freeland thanks U.S. lawmakers in Meng affair
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs
Minister Chrystia Freeland applauded Friday a bipartisan American political effort backing Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huawei’s chief financial officer.
Freeland’s remarks – in an email to The Canadian Press – came hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a Beijing news conference his country would take “all necessary measures” to defend Chinese companies and citizens abroad against “deliberate political suppression.”
The latest round in Canada’s diplomatic dispute with China came as a new poll was released Friday by the University of British Columbia that cast new light on the deterioration of Sino-Canadian relations since the Meng affair.
Meng is wanted in the U.S. on fraud related charges in connection with violating sanctions on Iran – allegations China angrily dismisses as a politically motivated attack.
The U.S. Senate foreignrelations committee introduced a measure this week that commends Canada for arresting Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver to fulfil an American extradition request.
The joint Republican and Democratic effort recognizes Canada for upholding the rule of law and expresses concern over actions by China in response to the U.S. request. It calls on China to release Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were jailed by Beijing authorities following Meng’s arrest.
“Canada appreciates these bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate to pass a resolution echoing our call for the release of Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig and recognizing Canada’s respect for the rule of law,” Freeland said. Freeland also noted that Canada appreciates the support of Australia, the European Union, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and NATO, “who have spoken in support of these detained Canadians and the rule of law.”
Lawyers to appeal sentence for Quebec City mosque gunman
Citizen news service
QUEBEC — Lawyers for the gunman who killed six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque announced Friday they are appealing the killer’s sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. Alexandre Bissonnette should instead be given a sentence of 25 years before being eligible for parole for his Jan. 29, 2017 attack on the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre, the motion filed with the Quebec Court of Appeal says.
Legal aid lawyers CharlesOlivier Gosselin and JeanClaude Gingras argued the trial judge erred when he sentenced Bissonnette on Feb. 8. It was the harshest prison term ever in Quebec and one of the longest in Canada, which since a 2011 Criminal Code reform has allowed consecutive life sentences for multiple murders. Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot’s sentence was “illegal” and “manifestly unreasonable,” the defence lawyers wrote. The sentence,
Board president Jane Philpott, resigned from cabinet in the wake of the controversy.
Trudeau is in the midst of a controversy over allegations his office leaned on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help SNC-Lavalin avoid prosecution.
On Thursday, Trudeau said he was not aware at the time that there was an erosion of trust between his officials and WilsonRaybould. He said he continues to believe there was no inappropriate pressure put on her to offer the Montreal-based engineering firm a remediation agreement instead of proceeding to trial for bribery and fraud.
The former justice minister has alleged she was improperly pressured to stop the criminal prosecution and was punished for refusing by being moved to the veterans affairs portfolio. Wilson-Raybould and her cabinet ally, Treasury
SNC-Lavalin lost a court bid early Friday to overturn the public prosecutor’s refusal to negotiate an agreement that would see the company avoid a criminal trial.
When asked whether he would have offered SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution, Scheer said that he would never interfere in a court case.
“What Justin Trudeau stands accused of is overstepping that line for political purposes. That is a very dark and dangerous path that we do not want to go down as a country,” he said.
The Opposition leader was in Manitoba to announce that he would remove the GST from home heating and energy costs if the Conservatives were to win the October election. Scheer said the policy would put $1.6 billion back into the Canadian economy.
Manafort gets 47 months behind bars for fraud
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines.
Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence. While that was the longest sentence to date to come from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year term, effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he feels “very badly” for Manafort.
“I think it’s been a very, very tough time for him,” Trump said before leaving Washington to survey tornado damage in Alabama.
Judge T.S. Ellis III, discussing character reference letters submitted by Manafort’s friends and family, said Manafort had lived an “otherwise blameless life.”
Manafort has been jailed since June, so he will receive credit for the nine months he has already served. He still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying.
Manafort told the judge that “saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.” But he offered no explicit apology, something the
judge noted before issuing his sentence.
Manafort steered Trump’s election efforts during crucial months of the 2016 campaign as Russia sought to meddle in the election through hacking of Democratic email accounts. He was among the first Trump associates charged in the Mueller investigation and has been a high-profile defendant.
But the charges against Manafort were unrelated to his work on the campaign or the focus of Mueller’s investigation: whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with Russians.
A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.
Manafort’s lawyers argued that he had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions of dollars from the IRS and served less than a year in prison.
Prosecutors said Manafort’s conduct was egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more with defence attorneys. “These guidelines are quite high,” Ellis said.
Neither prosecutors nor defence attorneys had requested a particular sentence length in their sentencing memoranda, but prosecutors had urged a “significant” sentence.
Outside court, Manafort’s lawyer Kevin Downing said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct “and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr. Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia.”
however, was well under the six consecutive life sentences – 150 years before being eligible for parole – sought by the Crown. The six life sentences were automatic after Bissonnette pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, but the defence had asked that they be served concurrently.
Huot rejected the Crown’s call to sentence Bissonnette to 150 years with no chance of parole, arguing a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The judge instead rewrote the 2011 consecutive sentencing law, section 745.51 of the Criminal Code. Huot gave himself the discretion to deliver consecutive life sentences that are not in blocks of 25 years, as had previously been the case, arriving at a total of 40 years.
In their motion, Gosselin and Gingras claim the 40-year sentence was still cruel and unusual.
Quebec Attorney General Sonia LeBel and the Crown can also appeal the sentence. The deadline to do so is Monday.
Notley, Kenney square off on how to involve women in politics
EDMONTON (CP) — On International Women’s Day, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Opposition Leader Jason Kenney locked horns over the best way to recruit female political candidates.
Both parties have worked to recruit more women on their nominee slates for the upcoming election.
About half of Notley’s 87 NDP nominees are women, matching the slate the party ran in 2015. About a third of the United Conservative candidates are female. Notley says they set a goal of 50 per cent because that’s the best way to ensure women are represented in politics. Kenney says their female candidates had to run in nomination races like everyone else, but were given mentorship and other resources to put them on par with more seasoned candidates.
Kelly GERALDINE MALONE Citizen news service
CP PHOTO
a press conference in Toronto on
Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula is truly wild
M.L. LYKE Citizen news service
Squawking parrots fly tree to tree, waking up the little village of Drake Bay on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. They’re right on time, shortly after 5 a.m., a fine hour to get up and enjoy the cool of morning before heat and humidity set in. I throw on shorts and tennies and hit the nearby jungle path that heads south along the coast, stepping carefully, trying not to make noise: heel first, roll the sole, shhhh.
They know I’m there. I can feel their eyes on me as I move, see bits of them through trees: a footlong, spiky iguana regarding me with a prehistoric stare; a white-faced capuchin monkey throwing an inquisitive glance from a tree; a macaw, in primary reds and blues and yellows, rolling a hooded eye from on high. Venomous vipers hide in undergrowth, spiders in tree bark. A morpho butterfly flashes Avatar blue.
I am surrounded by animals – not tourists, whose voices are happily missing from the symphony of sawing katydids, chirping frogs and singing birds. Here, I’m species .000001. The sensation is lush, primordial, an eco-immersion in one of the great untamed wildlife kingdoms of the world.
National Geographic has described the remote Osa Peninsula as one of the most “biologically intense” places on Earth. It hosts more than 50 per cent of the country’s animal and plant species, while covering only three per cent of Costa Rica’s land area.
Here, animals rule, naturelovers drool. And locals struggle to find a balance between making money off nature and protecting it. They’ve seen too many other dreamy green eco-destinations undone by development and rampant tourism. “There’s a fear that this place may get ruined, like so many beautiful places in Costa Rica,” says a longtime resident who has watched wealthy developers grabbing properties up and down the coast in recent years.
The area’s best protection may be its isolation. Drake Bay can be challenging to get to.
Driving on the rough 4x4 dirt road that leads to Drake Bay is dicey in bad weather, and carrental companies may not allow it. River crossings can flood and become impassable. A few buses make the trip, but the ride can be scary. “I wasn’t sure we were going to make it,” said one intrepid European traveler arriving by bus at the end of the rainy season.
Flying in a prop plane from San Jose to Drake Bay’s small domestic airport is relatively easy. But most people come by boat from the docks of Sierpe, a small, sleepy town a little more than an hour’s boat ride north. It’s cheaper, and the breathtaking boat journey, with a wet-exit finale, offers a proper introduction to this wild corner of the world.
We arrive an hour early at the docks, find our captain and check out the hulking 400-horsepower outboard on the stern of our canopied boat. A nearby boat has twin 250s. The trip to Drake Bay was nearly impossible before the advent of these high-powered brutes, a crew member tells us.
The captain cruises through the calm, mangrove-lined Rio Sierpe, stopping to check out baby crocs on the shore, then it revs and heads into the tricky intersection where river meets sea. It is a mass of confusion today, water headed every which way, with black rocks jutting up through swells and surf. Our captain navigates expertly outside the river mouth and inside the break. Despite a few soakings when the boat goes airborne and slaps back down, we arrive safely at our destination, exiting the boat’s stern and wading ashore in knee-deep water to be greeted warmly by local “ticos,” as Costa Ricans call themselves.
We’ve come to Drake Bay from Manuel Antonio, whose national park and easy access from the capital of San Jose make it one of the most visited spots in Costa
Rica. Tourists jam beaches and souvenir stands and queue up to get into the park, where some animals have become habituated to humans. Raccoons and monkeys are known to grab backpacks, unzip them and steal snacks and body wipes. (A guide told us that clever capuchins love to clean themselves with the wipes.) It’s cute but sad. Definitely not natural behavior.
Drake Bay is a 180-degree contrast, a quiet kickback place with a climbing, rocky dirt road for a main drag, two little grocery stores on opposite sides of it, and a sprinkling of hostels, no-frills cabins, private rentals and small restaurants. The fancier lodges and eco-resorts, including luxurious all-inclusives, are tucked farther away in the jungle. There is no disco here, no museum, no boutique shops or galleries, just one or two beach vendors and a tiny souvenir store. Don’t expect to use a bank or ATM: There aren’t any. Bring a good stash of U.S. dollars or Costa Rican colones; locals accept both and might not take credit cards.
The up-and-down jungle trail I hike in the morning is a jewel. It leads across a short suspension bridge to a string of pretty coves and beaches. Well-prepared hikers (Sunscreen! Water! DEET!) can trek the path for hours one way. I smile when I spot a large steppingstone along the trail that reads: “Costa Rica, un pais de paz y amor.” It’s perfect. Costa Rica, the enlightened nation with no standing army, a literacy rate over 97 per cent and about a quarter of its land under protection, is “a country of peace and love.”
Yes!
The pace in Drake Bay is easy, evident in a hand-lettered sign advising visitors: “Go slow. You already are in paradise.” Slow is easy to do on the beach below, a long, uncrowded crescent of sand backing up on jungle. The protected water of Drake Bay – named for a 16th-century visitor named Sir Francis Drake – is warm, the surf gentle. Friendly town dogs wander the beach, greeting old friends and new, rolling in the sand, splashing in the surf and chasing horses that, freed from saddles and reins, break into a full gallop across the open expanse. Popping up everywhere around town are signs advertising tours for whale and dolphin watching, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, birdwatching, hiking, and
snorkeling and diving on nearby Cano Island. (Unfortunately for us, it’s December, and waters are still too murky to snorkel.)
One of the most unusual tours happens by night.
We meet up with Tracie the Bug Lady at dusk along the jungle trail. Tracie Stice has a degree in biology, with a specialty in entomology. Her husband, Gianfranco Gomez, who joins us, is a naturalist and photographer. For years, they’ve been documenting the nocturnal creatures of Drake Bay and introducing tourists to the animals’ wonderfully weird ways.
They give us headlamps, and we head down the familiar path into an unfamiliar world of glow-inthe-dark fungi and spider eyeshine. We see pygmy rain frogs the size of a fingernail, giant walking sticks, millipedes that give off cyanide, gladiator tree frogs that fight to the death to protect their nests and a creepy tailless whip scorpion that Stice handles like a dear old friend.
Gomez charts the activity of bats with a detector that tracks their echolocation. They swoop above our heads like gray shadows as he explains that there are three species of vampire bats in the world – “and all three are here.”
A delicious chill runs down my spine. This, I think, is “nightlife” at its finest.
The ultimate, must-do tour here is an excursion to nearby Corcovado National Park, a pristine
rain forest that occupies almost half
The isolated park provides refuge for multitudes of animals and plants that might otherwise be extinct, including jaguars and pumas, Baird’s tapirs, giant anteaters and harpy eagles. It is, says one tour guide, a “different planet.”
Reservations are a must, made through hotels or private operators. You can’t go without a certified guide, and the number of daily visitors is strictly, thankfully, limited to protect wildlife. We choose a $90 US one-day excursion with a guide, lunch at a ranger’s station and boat transportation. Our boat picks us up at 6 a.m. on the beach – about 45 minutes after the parrot alarm clock goes off in town. Ninety minutes later, we’re wading ashore at Corcovado, changing water shoes for hiking shoes and meeting our guide, a biologist with a long spotting scope, keen eye and quick wit. “Let’s go see whatever wants to say hello this morning,” he says in his lilting Spanglish.
The first thing he shows us are tapir tracks in the sand, the next a stern committee of redheaded turkey vultures, drying wings spread 1.5 metres wide on the beach. A raccoonlike coatimundi pops up from the scrub, and lizard eyes follow us as we exit the sweltering beach and enter the shaded jungle, searching trees for toucans and macaws and exqui-
sitely painted little birds, such as the black-throated trogon with its yellow breast and swanky, blackand-white patterned tail.
The rumble in the jungle begins as a distant, deep-throated roar. We follow the sound to a tree full of howler monkeys. The leaves shudder as they jump from branch to branch, mamas carrying their young on their backs, papas hooting and whooping. Excited visitors clump below, pointing up and mesmerized.
Before the day is done, with our guide’s trained eye, we will have seen all four species of Costa Rican monkeys: the howlers, whitefaced capuchins, squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys that stage an attempted takeover of a toucan tree. The birds shriek in protest. It’s a raucous day in the wild. Some seven hours after we came ashore, we splash back into the water and board the boat home, happy and tired. Soon, frigates and kites are wheeling above us and flying fish with wings like glass leap along the boat’s sides. I study Corcovado’s protected shores as we pass: all those empty beaches, all that crazy life teeming in the jungles behind them. The scene stretches on. I close my eyes, overcome with a sense of relief and gratitude. For here, on this untrampled peninsula, in a country of love and peace, in a world slowly paving over, there is still a place for the wild things.
primary
the Osa Peninsula.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS
Above, a tailless whip scorpion covers the palm of an adult hand during a night tour with Tracie Stice, aka the Bug Lady. Right, a black-throated trogon at Corcovado National Park, a pristine primary rain forest that occupies almost half of the Osa Peninsula.
Managing editor Neil Godbout puts the news in perspective every day, only in The
Tough defence
Quesnel’s Tori Anderson tries to get a shot on net while being surrounded by Vancouver players during a 16A game on Friday at Kin 1. The teams met on the first day of the Ringette BC provincial A and B championships. The event continues today and wraps up with medal contests on Sunday. Games are being held at the Kin Centre and Elksentre.
Penalties costly for Cougars in loss
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Play with fire and you’re liable to get burned, as the Prince George Cougars were rudely reminded Friday night. They gave the potent Portland Winterhawks’ power play a few too many chances to score and that proved their downfall in a 3-2 decision at CN Centre.
All three Portland goals came with Cougars locked in the penalty box and that made all the difference in an otherwise well-played game for the struggling Cats. Portland right winger Jochim Blichfeld padded his lead in the WHL scoring race. The talented Dane was in on all three of his team’s scoring plays with a goal and two assists, raising his season point total to 110. Jake Gricius and Jake Paterson also scored for Portland. Cole Moberg and Matej Toman were the Cougars’ marksmen.
Joel Hofer made 40 saves in the Portland nets for his 14th win of the season. The 18-year-old St. Louis Blues draft pick sent the Cougars to their sixth-straight loss since ending a 17-game losing streak Feb. 22 in Kamloops. The Cats (17-40-5-3) haven’t won a game on home ice since they beat Kelowna 4-0 on Jan. 12.
The Winterhawks (39-19-3-3) won for the third time in three games this season against the Cats. They remain solidly entrenched in second place in the U.S. Division.
Five-on-five, the Cougars were the better team. They outshot Portland 42-27, but gave Portland too many opportunities after undisciplined penalties.
The Cougars’ penalty-killers were called into action 13 minutes into the second period with six-foot-seven Mike MacLean’s head hit in the Portland corner on Brendan De Jong. The Winterhawks went to work on the power play and Blichfeld patiently held the puck in the face-off circle and waited for a screen to form in front of goalie Taylor Gauthier. Gricius was in perfect position just outside the crease to take the rebound off the pad of Gauthier and tuck it into the open side.
The Cougars took an ill-advised penalty in the Portland end again early in the third period. Jackson Leppard was off for hooking when Blichfeld put a shot on goal that kicked high off the foot of Gauthier, and Paterson batted the puck in from just outside the crease to tie it up 2-2.
“When you take two offensive-zone penalties in the offensive zone – we just find ways,” said Cougars GM and interim head coach Mark Lamb. “When you make mental
mistakes like that against a real good offensive team that’s going to happen. It hurts.”
Portland went on the power play again 14 minutes into the third period when Toman got caught cross-checking and Blichfeld made them pay dearly with the gamewinner at 14:51. The San Jose Sharks’ draft pick took a cross-ice feed from Jared Freadrich and from the top of the face-off circle launched a rocket that sped in under the arm of Gauthier. It was Blichfeld’s 53rd goal this season, tops in the WHL.
“I liked everything about the game except the penalties,” said Lamb. “The Toman penalty was real soft but you put yourself in that position. The other two in the offensive zone, there’s no need to do it.”
Until Portland got on the scoreboard there was much to like about how the Cougars were handling one of the top teams in the league. They left the ice after the first period ahead 1-0 and fully deserved their
lead. They outshot the Winterhawks 15-8 in the opening frame and outchanced them at least 3-1.
Cole Moberg, in his first game back after missing five games with an upper-body injury, hooked up with defence partner Ryan Schoettler for the opening goal on a Cougars’ power play. He gave the puck to Schoettler just inside the blueline and swapped sides to take the return feed and his one-timer sailed high into the net for his 12th goal of the season.
Moberg, ranked 175th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm report, had four assists in his previous four games.
The Cougars doubled their lead 2:29 into the second period, taking advantage of a turnover in the Portland end. Gricius misfired on his pass attempt to Clay Hanas and the puck caromed off the side boards to Josh Maser, who fed Toman on the left
wing and his shot to the short side beat goalie Hofer.
LOOSE PUCKS: The same teams meet in the rematch tonight (7 p.m. start) at CN Centre… Attendance was announced at 3,391... Before the game the Cougars presented Maser with a $600 gift certificate as the Jim’s Clothes Closet player of the month for February. He came into Friday’s game with eight goals in his last 10 games… Left without the services of centres Ethan Brown (concussion), Brendan Boyle (sick) and Ilijah Colina (returned home for personal reasons), the Cougars have added 19-year-old pivot Liam Ryan to the roster. Ryan collected five goals and nine points in 22 games this season in the BCHL with the Surrey Eagles, who did not make the playoffs… The Cougars are teaming up with the United Way of Prince George on a mega 5050 draw during tonight’s game. A payout of $15,000 is already guaranteed.
SPRUCE KINGS LOOKING FORWARD TO SECOND ROUND OF BCHL PLAYOFFS
Page 10
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Josh Curtis of the Prince George Cougars works against Reece Newkirk of the Portland Winterhawks during Friday night’s WHL game at CN Centre.
Kings one step closer to playoff goal
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Now that the Prince George Spruce Kings are through to the second round of the playoffs after they eliminated the Coquitlam Express with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 Thursday night, the spotlight is intensifying on the Kings, who think they’re good enough to win their very first B.C. Hockey League championship.
That would please nobody more than 17-year-old Kings left winger Corey Cunningham, a born-and-bred Prince George boy who scored the Kings’ second goal Thursday when he tipped in a shot from linemate Nolan Welsh late in the first period.
“I only played nine games in the playoffs last year so it’s definitely a fun experience playing in front of my hometown and scoring a big goal like that. It was unbelievable,” said Cunningham, who celebrated it with a high leap into the Plexiglas. “It’s really exciting. We went on a big run last year and we hope to do it again this year.”
Cunningham saw only spot duty last year in the Kings’ 24-game run to the league final. This year he has a much more prominent role on the third line with centre Lucas Vanroboys and right winger Welsh.
Cunningham feeds off the energy of his linemates and his aggressive forechecking style led to numerous scoring chances in the Coquitlam series. He also drew an assist in Game 3 and could well surpass his eight-goal, 14-point totals in 47 regular season games if the Kings, the team he grew up watching, stick around for an extended playoff season.
“It’s a dream come true playing here,” said Cunningham. “I never got this opportunity before and it’s amazing that I’m getting it now.”
Kings defenceman Dylan Anhorn is also in his second season with the Spruce Kings and throughout his BCHL career he’s been one of the kingpins on the blueline. He has two assists in five playoff games, after a two-goal, 27-point regular season, and his poise under pressure helps set the tone for what is considered one of the most highly-skilled defence corps in the league.
Anhorn knows how close they came to winning the league last sea-
son before they were stopped short of their mission by the Wenatchee Wild in a five-game final.
“A lot of the group from last year has come back, plus we filled the holes with some great additions and we think we’ve got the group to go all the way,” said Anhorn.
“We have a deeper group and it’s nice to see that depth scoring we have here. We don’t have to rely on the top line as much like we did last year. This year we’ve got four lines that can get the job done so that’s really uplifting.
“Coquitlam had a really deep team – goaltending, defence, forwards, it was a good challenge for us and we felt we put a good effort together for almost the whole series and came out with the result we wanted.”
Although they took it in five games, the Kings got pushed out of their comfort zone in four of the five games, including Game 5, when Coquitlam scored two thirdperiod goals and was threatening to get even closer in the late stages. Having a 4-0 lead to work with made all the difference.
“We weren’t happy with (their 3-0 loss in Game 4), that was the
one game we did get outworked and give Coquitlam credit,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
“Maybe the timing was right for that to happen and better it happened in Round 1 rather than Round 2. Our guys responded (in Game 5) with the best team performance of the series. They made it interesting at the end but we played a pretty complete game.
“(The Express) upped their game and did some good things out there and made some adjustments coming into the playoffs and they made it tough. They were low-scoring, grind-out games. They’re really an offensive team
Leonard and Raptors feast on Pelicans
Citizen news service
NEW ORLEANS — Kawhi
Leonard was bound to have a big night.
New Orleans was without its best on-the-ball defender in Jrue Holiday and best rim protector in Anthony Davis. Those absences gave Leonard an opportunity to use the Pelicans’ up-tempo pace against them by going strong to the basket early and often.
Leonard scored 31 points and the Toronto Raptors snapped a two-game skid with a 127-104 victory over undermanned New Orleans on Friday night.
“I got a lot of buckets in transition, easy layups, even wide-open shots, and that probably got me going a little bit,” Leonard said. “Tonight was just my night.”
Pascal Siakam scored 19 and
Fleetwood co-leader at Bay Hill
Kyle Lowry had 13 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds for the Raptors, who began to pull away late in the third quarter and cruised from there.
“We weren’t forcing our will on the game as much as we should have in the first half,” Lowry said.
“They played well in the first half and we figured it out.
“We just had to get our defence into the game a little bit more.”
Frank Jackson scored 20 points for the Pelicans, who’ve lost two straight. Julius Randle had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Cheick Diallo had 16 points and 12 boards for New Orleans.
Leonard met little resistance in the paint. While he missed four of five three-point attempts, he was 13 of 15 from closer range. He threw down a handful of dunks on drives or cuts and mixed in a
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Tommy Fleetwood used two new clubs to make two eagles on his way to a sixunder 66 that gave him a share of the lead with Keegan Bradley going into the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
finger roll and reverse layup.
“He used his strength a lot tonight,” Lowry said. “He got to his spots really well.”
Toronto shot 54.1 per cent, scoring 66 points in the paint and a season-high 53 on fast breaks.
“We know they can run, but we like to run, too,” Lowry said. “We got some easy buckets out of it.” Holiday, the Pelicans’ secondleading scorer, was ruled out Thursday because of an abdomen strain that is expected to sideline him at least a week. On Friday, the Pelicans first announced that swing player E’Twaun Moore also would miss at least a week because he’d reinjured his left quadriceps, and then that Davis would sit out against the Raptors with back spasms. The Pelicans’ front court got even thinner when Jahlil Okafor went out with a left
Bradley says he feels comfortable at Bay Hill, and it shows. He had a 68 on Friday afternoon and joined Fleetwood atop the leaderboard.
They were at nine-under 135, with no one else closer than four shots.
Fleetwood hit a new four-iron in his
and we expected a bit more of a back-and-forth game and it tuned into more of a slugfest.”
The Spruce Kings capitalized on their chances early in three of the four games they won and for a majority of the series they dictated the play and outworked their opponents. Express head coach Jason Fortier hopes his returning players will remember the intensity the Spruce Kings brought to the ice and that his team will be able to replicate that, given the chance in next year’s playoffs.
“The series was very close, every game had moments when a team could have pushed away and I think with that experience the year before and the level of compete they showed and the resiliency and the physicality they brought was something we hadn’t seen in a long time,” said Fortier. “Hopefully that will be a good teaching point for our group next year. It’s a hard pill to swallow when you lose but the good news is you’ve got something to learn from.”
The Spruce Kings are awaiting the outcome of the other Mainland Division semifinal series between
ankle sprain after halftime.
Still, New Orleans kept the game competitive until late in the third quarter, when Danny Green hit consecutive threes during a 9-0 run that widened Toronto’s lead to 88-75.
“I still think that we competed and to me, that’s the most important thing. I don’t really care who we put out there,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. “We just ran into a situation in the middle of the third quarter where they had guys to go to and we missed a couple of layups, missed a couple of open threes and that’s where they got the separation.”
When Jeremy Lin and Lowry hit consecutive threes in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Raptors’ lead had grown to 21 and fans started making their way toward the exits.
bag to 18 feet for eagle on the par-5 sixth, and then he used seven-wood for a shot to six feet on the par-5 12th. He played the par 5s in six under Friday. Phil Mickelson was 10 shots worse than his opening-round 68 and, at two over par, missed the cut.
the Langley Rivermen and Chilliwack Chiefs. Leading 3-1 in the series, a Langley win Friday will allow the Rivermen to advance to Round 2 against Prince George. A Chiefs’ win Friday would force Game 7 Sunday in Chilliwack. Friday’s game between the Chiefs and Rivermen went to overtime and the Chiefs stayed alive with a 3-2 victory.
“Whoever comes out of there will be battle-worn,” said Fortier. “Hopefully we prepared (the Spruce Kings) with our speed and stuff and we wish them nothing but the best. We want to see them go on and actually win it all. That’s what our goal was and if it’s not going to be us, we’d like to see Prince George go out and do it.”
The Spruce Kings, who finished one point behind the Chiefs for first place overall in the league, would have home ice advantage for the rest of the playoffs if Chilliwack loses. That makes it obvious who the Kings are rooting for.
“We want home ice so you can pick the team we want to win it, because it gives us home ice,” said Maglio. “But both teams are good teams.”
Beaudry makes cut for pursuit race at worlds
Citizen staff
Sarah Beaudry of Prince George qualified for Sunday’s women’s pursuit at the world biathlon championships in Oestersund, Sweden. Beaudry, 23, finished 47th in the 7.5-kilometre sprint Friday. She missed two of 10 targets and completed the course 2:09.8 behind race winner Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia, who finished in 22:17.5 with one missed target.
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold of Norway (+9.7, 0+0) won silver and Laura Dahlmeier of Germany (+12.6, 0+0) took bronze. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore (+56.0, 1+0) was the top Canadian in 18th place.
Two other Canadians – Emma Lunder of Vernon (+2:11.4, 1+0) and Megan Bankes of Calgary (+2:31.7, 0+2) – finished in the top 60 to qualify for the pursuit. Lunder was 51st and Bankes placed 58th.
Scott Gow, Christian Gow and Aidan Millar all of Canmore, and Jules Brunotte of Sherbrooke, Que., will represent Canada in today’s 10km men’s pursuit.
DOYLE
Prince George Spruce Kings forward Chong Min Lee throws a pass into the slot while being watched by Coquitlam Express defenceman Ty Westgard on Thursday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Bottcher’s belief pays off at Brier
Donna SPENCER Citizen news service
BRANDON, Man. — Brendan
Bottcher could have apprenticed playing third or front end for more experienced skips after he graduated from the junior curling ranks. He had faith in his own abilities, however. Bottcher accepted he would be on the wrong end of some lopsided games as a young skip in the men’s competitive ranks.
He didn’t take his lumps for long.
The 27-year-old has guided a team into the playoffs at the Canadian men’s curling championship for a second straight year.
“It’s really nice to look around the other top skips in curling and know that I’m six, eight, 10 years younger than some of them,” Bottcher said. “That is good on the ego.
“It feels like we’re doing the right things. I’m just fortunate I can compete with a lot of these guys that have been doing this on an elite level for 15, 20 years. I think it’s just amazing we’re even in the mix.”
Three-time national champion Kevin Koe observed in Brandon that Bottcher is ahead of his years throwing fourth stones.
“He’s not afraid of having the big shot and making it or taking the chance when it presents itself,” Koe said. “He’s only going to get better. He’s still young. Hopefully he doesn’t get to be his best for a few more years.”
Alberta’s Koe (11-0) and Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs (9-2) locked down berths in today’s Page playoff between the top two seeds.
The winner goes directly to Sunday evening’s final, while the loser drops to the semifinal earlier
Jays down Pirates twice in same day
Citizen news service
Marcus Stroman pitched four scoreless innings in one game, Anthony Alford hit two home runs in another, and the Toronto Blue Jays downed the Pittsburgh Pirates in a pair of split-squad spring training games on Friday.
Stroman allowed one hit and struck out three in his home start in Dunedin, Fla., to help Toronto beat the Pirates 5-2. The Blue Jays won the road matchup 11-0 in Bradenton, Fla., powered by Alford’s two homers and a 3-for-5 day from shortstop prospect Bo Bichette. Bichette hit a two-run homer off Matt Eckelman as part of Toronto’s five-run fourth inning.
Jonathan Davis and Billy McKinney also homered in the road game and right-hander Sean ReidFoley worked four hitless innings, striking out four and walking one, to earn the victory. The Blue Jays have won six straight exhibition games.
Sunday.
Defending champion Brad Gushue (9-2) and Bottcher’s Wild Card team from Edmonton (8-3) will square off in the playoff between the third and fourth seeds in a reprise of last year’s Brier final. The victor advances to the semifinal.
Koe downed Jacobs 7-5 and Gushue beat Bottcher 8-5 in Friday’s championship-round finale, which ended up being a playoff preview.
But Friday’s winners each earned hammer in the first end and choice of rocks for today’s games.
“Undefeated doesn’t mean a lot,” Koe said. “We’ve got to keep playing well and we’re going to
have to find out best game still on the weekend.
“If anyone knows that teams can come charging out of the three-four and semifinal game, it’s me, having come though the semi five times and the Page lots of times too.”
Gushue is a career 0-for-4 in three-four playoff games, but hasn’t played in one since 2013 when he lost to eventual champion Jacobs.
“All of those were before we had won a Brier,” Gushue said. “At the end of the day, if we don’t win this, we’ve won a couple.
“I’m not saying we’re settling by any means, but it’s a little different mentality now than what it was when we were in our mid-twenties trying to win and trying to break through.”
An extra-end win for Jacobs over Gushue earlier Friday gave Northern Ontario the higher seed.
“There’s little goals you set throughout the week and one of them was definitely to make the Page one-two playoff game,” Jacobs said. “It gives you two opportunities at making the final.
“Everyone was really exhausted after that Gushue game going to an extra end and being down most the time. That was a very mentally tiring game and it reflected a little bit in our play tonight.”
Bottcher skipped Alberta to last year’s championship game in Regina and lost 6-4 to Gushue.
Barkov has big night for Panthers
Citizen news service
SUNRISE, Fla. — Aleksander Barkov set a franchise record with five assists, and MacKenzie Weegar and Mike Matheson each scored twice as the Florida Panthers beat the Minnesota Wild 6-2 on Friday night to snap a six-game losing streak.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and three assists, Mike Hoffman also scored and Evgenii Dadonov added three assists. Sam Montembeault made 26 saves in his second career start for his first NHL win.
Marcus Foligno and J.T. Brown scored for the Wild, who had their eight-game point streak stopped. Devan Dubnyk allowed three goals on seven shots before he was replaced by Alex Stalock to start the second period. Stalock stopped 19 shots.
Florida stretched its lead to 5-1 when Matheson scored with a wrist shot from the right circle at 17:40 of the second period. The Wild answered 15 seconds later on Foligno’s tap-in.
Matheson’s second goal came on a wraparound at 10:23 of the third and made it 6-2.
Hoffman’s one-timer from the right circle during a 5-on-3 power play gave the Panthers
(hooking)
Blichfeld Por (cross-checking) 13:27, Cl.Hanus Por (slashing), Maser PG (cross-checking) 15:22, Nolan Por (highsticking) 17:45, Rhinehart PG (cross-checking) 19:38.
2. Prince George, Toman 9 (Maser) 2:29
3. Portland, Gricius 25 (Blichfeld, Paterson) 11:38 (pp) Penalties – Blichfeld Por (hooking) 7:09, Bowie PG (interference) 10:12, Cicek Por (high-sticking) 13:04, MacLean PG (hit to the head) 16:03. Third Period
Karrick Martin, the 29-year-old son of Hall of Famer Kevin Martin, has been Bottcher’s lead since they won a national university championship for Alberta in 2012. Moulding, 36, came on board as vice midway through the 201617 season. They went 3-8 in their Brier debut in St. John’s N.L., where Gushue took the title in his hometown.
They’ve steadily gained biggame experience as a foursome via a fourth-place finish at the 2017 Olympic trials and reaching the Brier final.
They claimed their first Grand Slam victory in January at the Meridian Canadian Open in North Battleford, Sask. That felt like a breakthrough for Bottcher.
“Last year we got to a lot of big games and we struggled in a lot of those big games, whether it was a Brier final or some of our other big games of the year,” the skip said.
“You get to big games enough you eventually learn how to win them. That felt like the moment when we learned how to win them.”
Moulding believes Bottcher can push the envelope in Canadian men’s curling. He wants to be along for that ride.
“I honestly believe fully he’s the best in the world and I believe he’s the best in the world right now,” Moulding declared.
“As the five-rock rule has come into play, I think he’s one of the best strategists out there. Plus he can make every shot and he’s not afraid to throw any shot.”
“I want to be along for the first half of his career. He’ll have to find someone else for the last half of his career.”
Ousted by Koe in this year’s Alberta’s playdowns, Bottcher had to beat Toronto’s John Epping in a sudden-death game before the main draw to gain entry. Bottcher and second Brad Thiessen, 29, have been teammates since their junior days.
a 4-0 lead at 3:34 of the second.
Brown deflected a shot by Jonas Brodin into the net to make it 4-1 at 9:02 of the second.
The Panthers took a 3-0 lead on seven shots in the first period. They went up 1-0 on Huberdeau’s goal 61 seconds in. Barkov passed from behind the net to Huberdeau in front and he skipped the puck into the net.
Weegar, who had one goal in 49 games this season, scored two in a span of 1:40.
His first goal gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead when his wrist shot from the point bounced off the back of Minnesota’s Ryan Suter and across the goal line at 16:51.
Weegar stretched it to 3-0 on his second goal, a shot from the top of the right circle that got past Dubnyk at 18:31.
A potential goal by Aaron Ekblad midway through the first period was disallowed after Minnesota successfully challenged for offside.
Jets soar past Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — With first place in their sights, the Winnipeg Jets delivered their most dominant performance of the season.
Andrew Copp scored twice, Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists, and the Jets rode
a four-goal first period to an 8-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night. Kevin Hayes, Blake Wheeler, Kyle Connor and Ben Chiarot each had a goal and an assist. Adam Lowry also scored as Winnipeg posted its largest victory of the season and moved ahead of idle Nashville atop the Central Division.
“We forced them to make some plays at our line,” Wheeler said. “Fortunately for us, we got a couple sticks and got some oddman rushes the other way and were able to convert.”
The Jets scored three times in the first 10 minutes to jump ahead early and then three times in the final 10 minutes to turn it into a rout. Laurent Brossoit made 28 saves. Curtis McElhinney stopped 21 of 29 shots for the Hurricanes. Greg McKegg scored their lone goal midway through the third period.
“We have had a couple bad games, but nothing like that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It was shocking. I didn’t expect that at all.”
Hayes, Wheeler and Chiarot all scored in the first 10 minutes to set the tone immediately. Ehlers scored at the end of the first period and Copp’s first goal came in the final minute of the second to make it 5-0.
CP PHOTO
Team Wild Card skip Brendan Bottcher directs his sweepers during the 18th draw against Team Ontario at the Brier in Brandon, Man., on Friday.
Beat It or drop it?
David FRIEND Citizen news service
TORONTO — Nothing floods
the dance floor like a classic Michael Jackson track, says Montreal DJ Stefan Jez. Whenever the party is losing its spark, or too many people have stepped away to grab a drink, the owner of wedding entertainment company Uptown Xpress throws on one of Jackson’s funky faithfuls and watches as it pulls everyone back into the groove.
“Everybody knows the words,” he says. “He’s one of those go-to artists you can use to reignite a crowd and it’s because most of his hits are almost timeless.”
Grandparents, teenagers and even the younger kids are almost guaranteed to know the songs, he says, and the disco-infused Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough is one of Jez’s favourites. He’s incorporated it into his wedding warm-up set for years and plans to keep it that way. But renewed accusations of child sex abuse levelled against Jackson in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland are giving some DJs reason to reconsider whether his songs can – or should – still be the life of the party.
Hollywood DJ Michelle Pesce addressed the question in trade
magazine Variety as part of an opinion piece on why she’s decided to remove Jackson’s music from her club nights after years of wavering on the decision.
“I choose to believe that... you cannot separate the art from the artist when it comes to using your public platform,” she wrote.
“I personally don’t want my irresponsibility on song selection to be the cause of something that’s highly triggering to somebody who has been sexually abused or mentally beaten in the same way.”
Members of Jackson’s family have denounced the documentary, saying they were not given a chance to defend the singer.
Jackson’s estate has also launched a lawsuit against HBO.
Since the film’s broadcast, other corners of the music community have removed Jackson from their rotation. Three major Montreal radio stations said they’d stop playing his music after considering listener feedback, while Toronto music store Tiny Record Shop announced on social media they would no longer stock his records.
What hasn’t been tested much yet is how Jackson will be received in other public spaces, such as dance schools, karaoke bars and bar and bat mitzvahs.
Toronto DJ Sum Wong, who performs under the name DJ Sumation, says Jackson is usu-
Wedding DJs consider whether they’ll spin Michael Jackson’s hits
ally a winner at parties – but he’s also seen a crowd turn against his music.
It happened around the time of his 2004 criminal trial when Wong threw on Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ at a wedding, and watched as many women evacuated the dance floor.
“I was surprised by that – and then somebody told me ‘Don’t you know what’s going on?”’ he says.
“I guess as a parent they felt very offended.”
Wong says it taught him a lesson about how party-goers react to certain artists. He’s seen it happen more often in recent years as the #MeToo movement and other public conversations ripple into the DJ booth.
“When people dislike some-
Smollett indicted
thing, they’ll actually come to you and say, ‘You offended me by playing this song,”’ he says.
Similar reactions recently convinced Wong to pull R. Kelly’s music from his set lists, as the singer faces another round of sexual abuse accusations. But he says the allegations against Jackson – who died in 2009 – can’t be compared with Kelly, because Jackson isn’t able to defend himself.
For now, Wong plans to continue playing Jackson’s music when the time feels right. He says the real test of Jackson’s staying power will be this October when many DJs will likely want to spin Thriller.
“It’s one of the biggest Halloween songs,” he says.
“People like it because you get
CHICAGO (AP) — A grand jury in Chicago indicted Empire actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs.
the crowd going, you do the dance together... everybody asks for it.”
As wedding season ramps up, Montreal DJ Jez says he’ll also be attuned to his clients’ feelings. If a couple specifically asks for no Jackson at their wedding, he’s going to honour their wishes, but otherwise he plans to keep the songs in his rotation.
“If no one tells me so, I will play it that first time, and if someone runs up to me and says, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re playing that,’ then I’ll note it,” he says.
“The song is the song. If it makes you feel good, and you like the music, look at it as an artist’s piece of music... we definitely know his positive side was the art he created – there’s no doubt in that.”
The Cook County grand jury indictment filed Thursday says he made a false report about an offence. Smollett was charged on Feb. 20 with one count of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
Bayer Sager to get special honour
Citizen news service
NEW YORK — Carole Bayer Sager will receive the Johnny Mercer Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June.
The Oscar- and Grammywinner, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall in 1987, will earn the organization’s highest honour on June 13 at its 50th induction ceremony in New York City.
Bayer Sager, who turned 72 on Friday, has written more than 400 songs, including the Oscar-winning Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) from Arthur. Bayer Sager and former husband Burt Bacharach teamed up to write hits like Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald’s On My Own and That’s What Friends Are For, best known for its version featuring Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles and Bette Midler have all recorded songs written by Bayer Sager.
Michael Jackson waves to crowds gathered to see him in New York on Nov. 7, 2001.
Solitary memoir a wrenching read
After his plane was shot down during the Korean War, CIA operative John Downey spent more than 20 years in a Chinese prison, much of it in solitary confinement. When he was finally released and repatriated in 1973, friends urged him to write a book, but Downey demurred: A book about his time in prison, he said, would consist of “500 blank pages.”
In Solitary, an account of his 40 years in Angola, one of America’s most notorious prisons, Albert Woodfox takes up the challenge Downey declined. The result is a book that is wrenching, terrible, sometimes numbing, sometimes almost physically painful to read. You want to turn away, put the book down: Enough, no more! But you can’t, because after 40plus years, the very least we owe Woodfox is attention to his story, however agonizing we find it. At one point during the revolving-door incarcerations of his early manhood, however, something changed for Woodfox. In 1970, after he was arrested during a trip to New York and sent to the Manhattan House of Detention – known to prisoners as “the tombs” – Woodfox met several members of the Black Panther Party. He was entranced. Unlike most of the prisoners he had encountered, the Panthers had “pride and confidence... fearlessness, but there was also kindness... They treated all of us as if we were equal to them, as if we were intelligent.”
The Panthers set up meetings, taught people how to read and tried to organize the men. Many prisoners ignored them, but Woodfox jolted into political awareness with a convert’s zeal. He learned about the “institutionalized racism” of the criminal justice system: “It was purposeful and deliberate ... and it wasn’t just blacks who were marginalized. It was poor people all over the world. ... It was as if a light went on in a room inside me that I hadn’t known existed.”
For Woodfox, the teachings of the Panthers were revelatory, giving his life a direction and moral meaning he had never previously found. But to law enforcement officials in the early 1970s, the only thing worse than an African-American petty criminal was a radicalized black man, and Woodfox’s determination to spread the principles of Black Pantherism to his fellow prisoners earned him punishment piled upon punishment. Extradited back to Louisiana and back in Angola, he, along with several other Panthers, was soon placed in solitary confinement, where he remained for four decades.
At this point, Woodfox’s story becomes impossibly painful. His hopes for an early release are destroyed when he and several others are accused in the 1972 stabbing death of a young prison guard. Little evidence points to Woodfox, and much of the evidence is exculpatory, but lawyers fail him, over and over, and perfunctory and corrupted hearings and trials each time land him back where he started. Years pass. Woodfox’s siblings grow old without him. His mother dies, and he can’t attend her funeral. Friendships made in the single daily hour allotted for exercise are disrupted by prison transfers and deaths. The day-to-day brutalities continue. Woodfox gets older and struggles to remain hopeful. He reads; he learns the law; he writes hundreds of letters seeking pro bono legal assistance. Most go unanswered. He gets older still. Outside the prison walls, the Black Panther Party has ceased to exist. Inside his cell, however, Woodfox remains sustained by his commitment to the party’s principles and by his deep belief, notwithstanding the world’s many efforts to convince him otherwise, that his life matters – that neither he nor any other human being should be discarded and forgotten. Finally, the outside world began to take notice. Juan Méndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, took up Woodfox’s cause: “Keeping Albert Woodfox in solitary confinement for more than four decades clearly amounts to torture,” Méndez told reporters in 2013. Activists and pro bono lawyers rallied around him, and in 2016, after reluctantly accepting a manslaughter plea bargain as the price of freedom, Woodfox was finally released from prison. He emerged, miraculously, a free man and a generous man, determined to get to know his grandchildren and fight for the rights and dignity of the hundreds of thousands of human beings still behind bars.
His relentless account of four decades of injustice, imprisonment and brutality is difficult to read and difficult to write about - its moral power is so overwhelming. Every summary phrase that comes to mind is a cliche: “a triumph of the human spirit,” “a wholesale indictment of mass incarceration and the American criminal justice system,” “inspiring,” “a call to arms.” But in Woodfox’s case, the cliches all ring true.
Woodfox’s story makes uncomfortable reading, which is as it should be. Solitary should make every reader writhe with shame and ask: What am I going to do to help change this?
Rosa Brooks is a law professor at Georgetown University and the author of a forthcoming book on policing.
Rosa Brooks Citizen news service
A new Swedish voice for Stieg Larsson fans
Elizabeth Hand Citizen news service
It’s early to be pegging the year’s best books, but The Wolf and the Watchman, Niklas Natt och Dag’s stunning debut, is sure to be one of them. A longtime cultural columnist and blogger for Swedish magazines, Natt och Dag brings a reporter’s eye for detail to this feverishly dark historical thriller, first of a trilogy and published in more than 30 countries. Even readers inured to grim depictions of Sweden in the work of writers like Henning Mankell or Stieg Larsson may be taken aback by Natt och Dag’s 1793 Stockholm, a hellish place that seems mired in the Middle Ages, despite the gradual encroachment of Enlightenment ideas.
The watchman of the title, Mickel Cardell, is one of the ragtag crew employed by the city’s police force to arrest vagrants, prostitutes, orphans and others who struggle to survive in Stockholm’s cesspit streets. A veteran who lost his left arm during Sweden’s ill-fated war with Russia, Cardell works at a beer cellar, where he keeps order with a carved wooden prosthetic – a formidable weapon for dealing with truculent customers. Very early one morning, he’s awakened from a drunken stupor by two children who have found a body in a nearby lake that’s little more than an open sewer.
“The waves lap against the shore, churning up a pale yellow froth. Something rotten – a dark lump –is floating a few meters out. Cardell’s first thought is that it cannot possibly be a human being.”
But it is, or was, a human being, so horrifically mutilated that it causes the hardened Cardell to experience a panic attack. The corpse is brought to the attention of Cecil Winge, a young lawyer turned investigator who works with Stockholm’s police chief, Johan Gustaf Norlin. Set during a period of political and social unrest, with rumors of the French Revolution muttered in the alleys, corruption is rampant among the Stockholm police. In the shadows of this chaos, Norlin and Winge, two righteous men, know their days with the force are numbered, especially Winge’s. In the last stages of consumption, with only weeks to live, Winge has nothing to lose by joining forces with Cardell to uncover the identity of the unknown man, whom they name Karl Johan, and his murderer.
“So this man has had his arms and legs shorn away in turn,” Winge calmly observes to Cardell, before noting even more disturbing details.
Yet even more nightmarish are the descriptions of everyday life in a society where numbing poverty is ubiquitous. Naive farm boys who come to Stockholm fall into paralyzing debt, with dire consequences. Crowds gather to cheer an executioner, himself a condemned man so drunk it takes minutes for him to cleave his victim’s head from his body. Those soldiers who survive attack by Russian warships subsequently die of typhus by the hundreds. Female victims of sexual assault are thrown into workhouses indistinguishable from prisons, where they are tortured. Most sinister of all is the Eumenides, a secret charitable order made up of the city’s wealthiest men that supports the workhouses, which takes its name from Greek myth. The Eumenides, “the Kindly Ones,” are also the ravening Furies.
The Wolf and the Watchman is exceedingly grim and often grisly, but, in the elegant translation by Ebba Segerberg, it’s never lurid. Natt och Dag has spoken of his admiration for Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Like Eco’s novel, The Wolf and the Watchman is a cerebral, immersive page-turner whose detective is a rationalist trapped in a world ruled by superstition, fear, and men whose humanity has been debased and erased as surely as Karl Johan’s.
Natt och Dag takes some narrative risks. Divided into four parts, the book focuses on Winge and Cardell’s investigation in its first and final sections, with Winge himself growing sicker and more corpselike every day.
3The middle two sections jump back to the previous spring and summer: each follows a different character whose connections to victim and killer are only gradually and chillingly revealed. It’s a strategy with an impressive payoff, as scenes that initially seemed to serve as stylistic or historical flourishes instead prove crucial to the plot, fitting together as precisely as the gears of the pocket watch Winge obsessively takes apart and puts back together.
The Wolf and the Watchman makes sly use of the conventions of the modern police procedural: the coolly clinical investigator and his brawling sidekick; the furtive dance between corrupt police commissioners and their politician puppet-masters; even the coffee-swilling Stockholm policemen who avidly avail themselves of the still-novel beverage. The last 50 pages provide plenty of twists to satisfy thrillstarved readers, but it’s the final haunting sentence that raises gooseflesh and leaves one reaching to turn up the light.
Elizabeth Hand’s novel Curious Toys will be published this fall.
Amazon seeks exemption from labour protections
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Many of Amazon’s Seattlearea employees would be exempt from new labour protections in a bill passed by the state Senate after lobbyists for the tech giant pushed to change a key threshold in the rules.
The protections would partially prohibit noncompete clauses – controversial agreements used by tech companies and others to block employees from going to work for competitors or launching rival startups. Lawmakers say Amazon lobbied to have the income threshold set at a level that would likely exempt many workers in Seattle.
The effort came as the company has expanded its presence in the state capital, where its spending has tripled in recent years.
The bill passed the Washington state Senate Tuesday with the salary threshold set at $100,000 – the level sought by Amazon. The original wage threshold in the measure was about $180,000. The median salary for Amazon employees in Seattle is about $113,000, according to Glassdoor.com.
New code aims to increase women working in construction industry
Amy SMART The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER
—
Mary-Anne
Bowcott says she still remembers the fear she felt when she overheard her co-workers talking about her while she was a roofer. It was violent enough to make her consider leaving the industry all together, like so many other tradeswomen she knew.
“It was horrific, it’s something one should never hear,” she said in an interview Friday.
“Being the only female on the job site I was a clear target, but it was to the point where I just didn’t feel safe at all.”
It wasn’t the first or last time she would be the subject of inappropriate behaviour but Bowcott said she’s happy she persevered because she now has a career she loves.
She celebrated the announcement of a new code for the construction industry Friday that aims to attract and keep more women in the construction trades.
The Building Code widens the definition of safety beyond physical concerns to include stress or distraction caused by discrimination, bullying, hazing or harassment. It also gives employers tools and training to promote safe behaviour.
The province and the BC Construction Association said the code includes the goal of having 10 per cent of skilled trade jobs held by women by 2028, which they say would be a first for a Canadian province.
Currently, 4.7 per cent of building trades workers in B.C. are women. To reach the goal, another 9,500 women would have to join the workforce, the association said.
“We need to drive aggressive agendas because five per cent of women in the trades isn’t good enough,” Melanie Mark, minister of advanced education, skills and training, said at the announcement.
The association said it is also trying to retain women in the workforce at a time when the province is suffering from a skills shortage of 7,900 workers.
More women are entering the trades than ever, but retention rates remain low, the association said. Anecdotally, it estimates fewer than half of women stay in their apprenticeships in the first year, compared with 70 per cent of men.
Andy Calitz, the CEO of LNG Canada, said the company is committed to supporting equity and diversity, adding that half of the company’s leadership team are women.
“Our support of the Builders Code will help the province grow and retain its skilled labour pool,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to working with contractors and suppliers whose commitment to safety and diversity matches our own.”
Bowcott, who is now owneroperator of Westcom Plumbing and Gas, said she’s happy she persevered and pursued a career in the industry.
“We’re going in a positive direction here and I really hope that it does make a difference. We need workers and I think we have an untapped market we can expand into,” she said.
She said she knows her experience wasn’t unique. When she was on the executive of the BC Tradeswomen Society, some women told her they were afraid to walk to their cars alone at the end of a shift.
Things have gotten better in the past 15 years, she said, but there’s still space for improvement.
While she couldn’t say definitively if there’s a gender wage gap, she once discovered she was paid less than a male journeyman with the same experience in the same position, she said.
Bowcott also said she hopes to change perceptions that men are better at trades because they tend to be bigger and stronger.
“I’m 100 pounds soaking wet and I can do the job just fine. So I don’t think it should be a stereotype that you have to be a super strong fit woman to do the jobs out there, because a lot of it is brains,” she said.
The announcement on International Women’s Day was also supported by a number of other agencies including the Industry Training Authority, WorkSafeBC and the BC Construction Safety Alliance.
2028.
Tom JAMES Citizen news service
At Home
Tech aims for home efficiency
Closets that freshen clothes, cooktops that won’t let pots boil over, faucets told to dispense just enough water to fill the coffee maker. Wherever one looked at the annual Design and Construction Week, there was a new way to make our lives more efficient.
“We can make appliances work harder for you,” said Cara Acker, a senior brand manager for Bosch Home Appliances.
So while homeowners list security cameras, video doorbells and programmable thermostats as the technology they’re most interested in, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders, the future is offering that and much, much more. More than 2,000 exhibitors participated in the annual trade show, which brings the NAHB and the National Kitchen and Bath Association together.
Some highlights:
DRESS REFRESH
Two companies, LG and Samsung, demonstrated self-contained clothing lockers that use a combination of air and steam to remove dust and odours from clothes and other items, like stuffed animals and pillows.
Samsung Electronics says a 25-minute cycle in its AirDresser removes 99 per cent of the germs and bacteria in clothes ranging from cotton to cashmere. LG Electronics, meanwhile, says its LG Styler with SmartThinQ eliminates so many allergens during a 20-minute cycle that it’s certified by the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America.
Both units can hold three items and a pair of pants, and both are Wi-Fi-enabled to send alerts when the cycle is finished. The Styler can also recognize simple voice commands through Google Assistant.
One difference between the two is that the AirDresser has hangers that send jets of air over and through the garments, while the Styler vibrates the hangers back and forth about 220 times per minute.
“It extends the life of clothing in between trips to cleaners, saving users money and keeping them looking their best,” said LG Styler spokeswoman Taryn Brucia. Price tag: about $2,000.
The Styler is already available, with a new black mirror finish out later this year. The AirDresser launch date isn’t yet set.
DRYER DISHES
It’s a bold boast, but Bosch and Thermador, which are owned by the same parent company, say their high-end dishwashers will eliminate towel and air-drying, even on plastic.
To show how it works, Acker added water to a goldfish bowl containing small white pellets of the mineral zeolite. The water was quickly absorbed, and the bowl warmed noticeably. In their high-end dishwashers, the heat generated by the moist zeolite is circulated through the tub after the final drying cycle. This “CrystalDry” feature should be available in late summer on the Bosch Benchmark and 800 Series dishwashers. The price hasn’t been released, but the technology debuted last year on the Thermador Star Sapphire dishwasher with “StarDry,” which retails for $2,800. Not to be left out, the mid-priced Bosch 500 series dishwashers will be advertising a new feature called AutoAir. It pops the dishwasher door open about 5 inches at the end of the cycle to release steam. (Look for it in late summer. Price not yet released.)
COOKING CREATIVITY
Induction cooking is getting an upgrade, and celebrity chef Brian Malarkey used it in a cooking demonstration at the GE display, touting the precise control it allows. “You have so much more range,” he said. For those with nascent cooking skills, GE Appliances’ new Cafe brand offers an induction surface that uses Bluetooth to sync the burner with a smart frying pan when fol-
lowing a recipe through its Hestan Cue app. That pairing will adjust the pan temperature and monitor the cooking time. It retails for $2,530-$4,300.
For more confident cooks, Gaggenau has a full-surface, 36-inch induction cooktop that can determine the shape, size and position of up to six pots or pans. The power level follows the pan around the cooktop, and sensors ensure that pots don’t boil over. It retails for $6,750, with a five-pan, 30-inch cooktop selling for $6,200.
FLAUNT IT
While Houzz principal economist Nino Sitchinava told a seminar that a “hot new trend” is to hide the range hood behind cabinetry, GE Profile is taking the opposite approach with its new 27-inch “Kitchen Hub.”
In addition to a four-speed ventilation system, the flat-fronted hood is a touchscreen that can take voice commands via Google Assistant. Cameras face forward and down to allow multitaskers to post food shots or video chat while they cook. The hood can also be used to access recipes, playlists, social media and Netflix, or to connect with some other GE and Haier smart products to perform tasks such as adjusting the thermostat or turning on the dryer. It is set to launch in May for $1,200-$1,400.
WATER WORKS
For those of us who need our coffee, there’s now a way to measure the correct amount of water automatically.
Delta’s VoiceIQ faucets lets you set up to six custom container sizes, so a voice command to “fill coffee pot” will turn the water on and off, dispensing the preset amount. It also understands requests for direct measurements, like “2 cups” or “3 quarts.” Available for the past few months on its $500 Trinsic faucet, the $150 VoiceIQ module will be sold separately starting this summer. It is designed to work on any Delta faucet with Touch2O Technology manufactured after January 2018.
It also lets you track water usage.
Another smart water product intended to reduce the headaches caused by leaking faucets and frozen pipes won an award at the show for best Smart Home Technology. The Flo by Moen hooks up to a home’s main water supply line. Sensors on the Wi-Fi-connected device monitor water flow, pressure and temperature, while artificial intelligence differentiates between normal and abnormal use. Homeowners are fed the information and alerts through a smartphone app. It retails for $500.
BLACK THE NEW GRAY
“We’re kind of tired of stainless steel,” said Sitchinava, of Houzz. “There is a contender that is coming through: black stainless steel.”
On the show floor, stainless and black stainless appliances were in abundance, as were shades of white and the occasional pop of cobalt blue and emerald green.
And there are new options on the horizon. The Cafe brand offers glass fronts over a platinum finish this fall. And, Samsung is launching a new neutral colour this spring: Tuscan Stainless. The warm natural bronze finish was shown on a refrigerator, which still carried accents of stainless steel. A Samsung spokesman said that was to allow the refrigerator to co-ordinate with existing stainless appliances.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS
Top, the GE Profile Kitchen Hub has a vent hood that also works as touchscreen or voice-assistant tablet. Builtin cameras let the cook post food or video of what’s on the stove, or in front of the hood. Right, steam blows into an AirDresser by Samsung, a clothing locker that uses a combination of air and steam to remove dust and odors from garments.
EDWARD FISCHER
Nov 14, 1935 to Mar 5, 2019
It is with great sadness that the family announces the passing of a great husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. Eddie went to be with the Lord and was reunited with his beloved wife, Verna. He passed away peacefully with his family by his side. Survived by his children, Debbie (Kent) MacPhee, Randy (Louise) Fischer, Kelly (Gloria) Fischer. Grandchildren Kristy (Terrance), Kyle, Shaun (Kathryn), Jenni (Jordon), Shannon (Cory), Julianne (Garett), Zachary (Jill). Great Grandchildren: Max, Caesey, Maddox, Edwin, Nolan, Blake, Reid, Atticus, Callum. Eddie’s passion was spending time with family and friends. A special thank you to Dr. McLeod You’re the best! In lieu of flowers please donate to the PG Hospice Society. Thank you to all the wonderful people there who took care of Dad with dignity and love. There will be a viewing on Friday March 15, 2019 from 7pm-9pm at PG Funeral Home 10th & Douglas. His Celebration of Life will be Saturday March 16, 2019 at 11am at College Heights Baptist Church on Domano Blvd.
Arnold William Horning (Red) June 11, 1932 - March 4, 2019
It is with great sadness that the family announces the passing of a great husband, father and grandfather. He was well loved and will be sorely missed. Survived by his wife Faith Horning, daughter Deryl (Earl) Henderson, grandson Jared (Tam) French and granddaughter Madeline Ellwood. Brothers Glen (Bea) Horning, Bob (Patty) Horning, Sister-in-law Avis Cassidy and many nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his parents Richard & Alice Horning, sister Joan (Don) Jack, brother-in-laws Ted and Roy Eytcheson, Billy Cassidy and sister-in-law Mardy Heinrich. Red was born near Cantaur, Saskatchewan in the Swift Current area and later his family moved north to Turtleford. As a young man Red enjoyed sports (especially hockey), hunting and fishing. He moved to BC in 1949 and eventually made his way to Prince George where he married Faith in 1956. A strong man in body, mind and spirit, he overcame many obstacles in life. Red was blessed with a keen mind, strong work ethic and sense of humor. He had many interests. His work history was as varied as his interests in life. He worked in the bush and on pipelines, was a correctional officer, private contractor and retired from the Netherlands division of Canfor with more than 26 years service, but the work he cherished the most was on his farm at Chief Lake, where he lived for over 25 years turning raw land into a working family farm. Red always enjoyed a game of cards, reading, a good meal with family and friends, watching hockey or a lively debate over politics. In later years, after the farm was sold, his love of the land and nature turned him into an avid gardener and though he enjoyed fresh produce, he loved flowers more. A big man with a kind heart he was generous to many and provided well for his family. Red gave respect were it was due and never had to raise his voice to be heard. There will be no funeral as he requested but a Celebration of Life will be held in his garden at a later date. The family wishes to thank all the extended family and friends who supported them during his last days. We also want to extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Ferreira, Home Care and Hospice House staff for their excellent care. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Rotary Hospice House.
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Salmon habitat to recover from pipeline work within two years, DFO says
Laura KANE Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Work on a Trans Mountain pipeline crossing in a British Columbia stream altered habitat for young salmon, but the creek is expected to return to normal in one to two years, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Two biologists with the department visited Stewart Creek in Chilliwack on Jan. 30 after receiving a complaint from Mike Pearson, a biologist with 30 years of experience who raised concerns about the work done by Trans Mountain Corp.
Pearson said in January that the placement of 17 metres of articulated concrete mats at the bottom of the stream had reduced hiding places for coho and chum salmon and inhibited growth of the aquatic invertebrates they feed on.
The Fisheries Department said the habitat has been altered but the natural accumulation of sediment is expected to restore the salmon habitat.
“The stream bed in the vicinity of the works has been altered from soft sediment bottom to hard substrate as a result of the placement of the concrete articulated matting for protection of the pipeline,” it said in a statement.
“Pre-existing habitat conditions are likely to be fully established within one to two years.
“However, monitoring of the site should be undertaken by the proponent to ensure that the habitat functions effectively.”
The department believes it’s unlikely salmon have been affected by the temporary alteration, as similar rearing habitat exists upstream and downstream of the site.
Pearson said while it’s true the work covered a small area, it raises concerns about the ability of Trans Mountain to build infrastructure through waterways if the expansion project proceeds.
“The standard of work there is low, very low, in terms of habitat,” Pearson said. “The cumulative effects of hundreds and hundreds of these (crossings) is not trivial.”
The project was purchased by the Canadian government for $4.5 billion and would triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline by laying nearly 1,000 kilometres of new pipe from the Edmonton area to a marine shipping terminal in Burnaby.
Pearson also doubted that enough sediment will accumulate at the site to cover the cement, and therefore maintains that the alteration to the stream bed is permanent, not temporary.
Sediment collects in places where water slows down, but that part of the
Work on a Trans Mountain pipeline crossing in Stewart Creek in Chilliwack altered habitat for young salmon, but the creek is expected to return to normal in one to two years, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
creek is shallow and the current moves quickly, he said.
“Habitat is about a lot more than sediment,” Pearson added.
“There’s no cover. The banks are peeled back with concrete going right up the banks. The sediment is not what I would be most fixated on.”
The corporation could add cover of larger rocks to create more habitat and hiding spots, Pearson said.
Fisheries and Oceans said it’s not contemplating further action at this time.
It added that new vegetation planted post-construction will help avoid recolonization of an invasive plant species called reed canarygrass and improve fish habitat once it’s re-established.
Trans Mountain said it agrees with the assessment by the Fisheries Department and will continue to monitor the site.
“Trans Mountain relies upon highly qualified professionals to design and implement solutions that are effective and compliant,” it said.
“From an engineering and habitat perspective the Stewart Slough crossing is functioning as designed.”
Gravel was used to fill in the opencelled concrete blocks in order to hasten accumulation of material such as fine sand, silt and organics by natural accumulation and restore the habitat to its
CP, CN Rail appeal safety order for handbrake use
CALGARY (CP) — Canada’s two largest railways are appealing Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s order requiring railways to immediately use handbrakes on all trains stopped on mountain slopes following a deadly derailment in the Rocky Mountains.
Canadian Pacific Railway’s chief executive says the company is focused on safety, but the application of handbrakes introduces additional risks and will have unintended consequences.
Canadian National Railway also says it is filing a review.
pre-construction condition, it said.
The company has denied an allegation by Pearson that photos he took in December show that small stones the company placed over the concrete blocks have been swept away by currents. It said when construction was completed in September, the expectation was that it would require a period of sustained high-water levels and flows to allow the accumulation of material.
Last month, the National Energy Board recommended the government approve the expansion project after reviewing the effects of increased tanker traffic on the marine environment.
The board found that the project was in the public interest despite likely “significant adverse effects” to endangered southern resident killer whales and Indigenous cultural practices related to the animals.
Southern residents primarily eat chinook salmon during May to August, but chum salmon is an important component of their diet from September to October, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The energy board also concluded in its report last month that Trans Mountain’s approach to the design of watercourse crossings is in keeping with current industry standards and practices.
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index registered its first losing week of the year on new signs of a global economic downturn. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 60.30 points at 15,996.21 Friday after hitting an intraday low of 15,891.94.
The Toronto market lost 72.04 points in the week, its first weekly drop since the end of December. The market pulled back after a very strong start to the year that saw it gain up to 12.7 per cent from last autumn’s deep selloff, says Patrick Blais, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.
“We’ve had such a strong run and any weakness in the data and anything that would undermine the confidence of the markets would cause sort of a quite abrupt pullback or some volatility and I think that’s what we saw today,” he said. The market’s decrease was prompted by signals this week from central banks about slower global economy growth and Friday’s release of weak U.S. jobs numbers.
Employers added just 20,000 jobs in February, well short of the 180,000 expected by economists and 311,000 in January.
Investors reacted to U.S. jobs numbers even though Canada saw the best two-month start to a year since 1981 with the creation of 55,900 positions and the unemployment rate holding firm at 5.8 per cent.
“I think the read through today is more sort of all the weakness that we’ve seen globally is potentially having an impact on the U.S. labour market,” Blais said.
MIKE PEARSON HANDOUT PHOTO
Giving up plastic for the Easter season
Citizen news service
Chocolate, alcohol and Twitter are some of the popular indulgences many Christians give up during the period of Lent leading up to Easter. But this year, some churches are encouraging congregants to give up plastics.
Dozens of Pennsylvania churches near Pittsburgh that belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are encouraging their churchgoers to forgo commonly discarded single-use plastics. Each week, parishioners will be encouraged to give up a different item: shopping bags, drinking straws, water bottles, Styrofoam and food wrappers.
The Rev. Sarah Rossing, pastor of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Youngstown, Pennsylvania, said the idea originally came from a similar challenge that the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh issued this year to reduce dependence on single-use plastics such as grocery bags and Styrofoam plates.
“It’s a way to think about it as more than just a personal thing, like chocolate or alcohol that’s enjoyable,” Rossing said. “This is asking people to give up convenience . . . and be more intentional with things and the Earth.”
Lent began on Ash Wednesday and runs during the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, the day Christians celebrate their belief in Jesus’ resurrection, which many churches this year will mark on April 21.
Lent marks a period when some Christians reflect on the biblical story of Jesus’ time in the desert, where he fasted and prayed before his eventual death. Many Catholics and some Protestants give up something during Lent.
Last year, the Church of England urged its worshipers to give up single-use plastics, distributing a calendar with environmentally-themed Bible verses and suggestions on how to avoid using plastics.
This year, the church is encouraging congregants to go on “litter pilgrimages” where congregants walk together, pray together and collect litter.
The Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado as well as several Protestant churches in Portland adapted the Church of England’s calendar for their own use and are also encouraging parishioners to give up plastic this Lent.
The world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic each year, and scientists estimate that up to 91 per cent of plastic is never recycled, threatening the environment and poisoning animals.
Plastics don’t biodegrade and can stay in landfills for hundreds of years. Several cities, including Washington, have banned Styrofoam containers and are taking action to limit other single-use plastics such as straws and grocery bags.
Lent can serve as a time for Christians to reflect on how our ordinary way of living has become destructive of God’s creation, says Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary who
has written a book on Lent.
“Christians have to resist the dominant world of commoditization in every way that we can think to do,” Brueggemann said.
“Fasting is a discipline that gives energy for positive engagement with justice questions. The question is, what does it empower us to do?”
The idea of giving up food, especially sugar and alcohol, since they were associated with feasts, has its roots in early Christian traditions, according to Aaron Damiani, pastor of Immanuel Anglican Church in Chicago, who wrote a book on Lent called The Good of Giving Up.
By the late second century, Christians fasted for 40 hours, going without food and
drink between the afternoon of Good Friday and morning of Easter. Two centuries later, fasting was extended to the whole Lenten season.
“One of the objections to Lent is it’s a trend, that it’s a gimmick, that it’s a flash in the pan that will not have substance to it,” said Damiani, who recommends Christians follow the early Christians in prayer, fasting and almsgiving, or giving money.
“This is an ancient practice that the early church found a lot of benefit in. Participating in the life of Christ through training is not a trend.”
The Rev. James Martin, a popular author and priest who is an editor at large for America magazine, said he hasn’t heard of
any Catholic parishes encouraging giving up of plastics for Lent but that he thinks it would be in the spirit of Pope Francis’s major document on the environment that came out in 2015.
“Giving up plastic would benefit the common good more than giving up chocolate,” Martin said.
Spiritual preparation for Lent is more than simply giving something up, though, Martin said.
“It’s about your relationship with God. That’s more than simply self-sacrifice,” he said. “If you’re confused about what to do for Lent, just be kind. You can give something up, but doing something positive is just as important.”
Lent a time to ask why we bother to believe
Ash Wednesday has come again, meaning Lent has now begun. To those who still believe I ought to relinquish my space to those not bound by observance, I can only respond that politics isn’t everything: verily, verily, I say to you, man is a religious, rather than a political, animal.
This Lenten and Eastertide season hold special significance in my life: at the vigil, I will have completed my seven year maturation as a convert to Catholicism. That milestone was given more attention in the ancient church, as pagans made for tougher sheep to shepherd. But the endurance of faith in an anti-theistic time such as our own demands an explanation; over the next few weeks, I will offer a series of meditations on “why does anyone still bother to believe?”
A short caveat is due here: given the nature of this heptannum, a Catholic viewpoint will be primary, with ecumencial concepts or projects hardly referenced. This is not meant to be divisive or unkind to my non-papist brethren and it is my sincere hope that none take it as such.
Many have asked me why I converted to Catholicism. Glib answers spring to mind as a way to diffuse the tension hidden in such a question. For choosing a religion is not unlike choosing a spouse: when we answer “what first caught your attention,” there’s cause to blush, even to be smitten anew; from the most candid to the
most indirect words, the reason is clear – I fell for the Roman Church because her indescribable beauty completely overwhelmed me.
Of course, over the years, the warts begin to show, as well as the glaring corruption and evil in the extended global family. Combine this with the seven year itch of any relationship, and I must confess that the idea of leaving Mother Church has crossed my mind more than once.
Ironically, we live in an age where that divorce might be praised most of all. With a single decision to pull up the stakes, one can be rid of the spiritual baggage that are part of Catholic life and simultaneously be praised as a clear, progressive mind. Not bad for a total betrayal of love.
Perhaps this is why the Church’s seasons are so important. For just as marital vows must be recalled and renewed lest we forget love’s cause, so must our souls be
reminded why we have bound ourselves to so imperfect a religion. Graham Greene called the Mass a drill, and indeed it is – in the basics of the faith by repeating the Creed and the testament to divine love by the sacrifice on the altar. Human hearts are so fickle, which is why the Catholic faith is so fixed.
The other reason for why any bother to believe is well answered by the Ash Wednesday service: the celibate clothed in sacred robes, the soot he places on the forehead, the words he says to all – “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” or, “repent and believe in the Gospel.” It is a compelling scene worthy of the greatest literature – and you can partake of this rite of mourning, more ancient than any religion, without cost in nearly every corner of the globe. It is this blend between high and low, tactile and mystical, the
eternal true, good and beautiful embodied in service by the parish down the street that brings so many to Catholicism every year. The Church is greater than the sum of her parts – but even her parts subsume me.
Of course it’s not all grand vistas and encouraging words. I mentioned baggage above and I meant it, for beyond guilt or Pascal’s wager, there is the undeniable truth that, as Flannery O’Connor said, “faith is not an electric blanket – it is a cross.” We papists are wont to praise pain, almost more than heavenly light in some cases. But is is also right and just that God’s saving work might ask much of us – so much of us in fact that we have no choice but to become saints.
That will have to suffice as a prologue for what is to come over the course of Lent. I hope that at the end of these 40 days, the reasons for keeping faith are clearest to
Plastic straws are pictured in North Vancouver on June 4, 2018.
