Prince George Citizen May 11, 2019

A legacy for Shea

Mark NIELSEN Citizen

staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

Avid Citizen readers may recall the 2014 story of Baby Shea, the Prince George infant stricken with a rare and painful skin disorder. Known as “butterfly syndrome,” it made his skin so sensitive that even the slightest friction gave him blisters.

Born in December 2013, he died a scant eight months later and in the aftermath his father, Bryn Fell, had a choice to make – either “crawl into a dark hole or do something momentous.”

Fast forward five years and Fell is among the latest crop of students to graduate from the Northern Medical Program.

“This legacy is for him,” Fell said Friday just prior to a celebration at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Born and raised in Terrace, Fell graduated from the community’s high school in 2000. He enrolled at UNBC and by 2005 had completed a degree but remained unsure about what he wanted to do.

He had applied three times to get into the NMP only to be rejected on each and every occasion. By the time Shea was born to him and wife Christy, Fell was just about to complete a diploma in radiography but their lives were put on hold as Shea was taken to B.C. Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Inspired by what he had seen in terms of the care their son was given, Fell decided to give the NMP one more try. Those who decide who gets admitted saw something in Fell they hadn’t seen before.

“This time, I had a reason, I had a story, I had something that I was able to really speak to as for my passion for medicine and why I was hoping to be able to pursue it

as a career,” he said.

It’s been a busy few years for Fell and his wife. To go along with all the rigours for both husband and wife of getting through medical school, they’re now parents of a three-year-old girl, Callie and a two-and-a-half-month-old son, Kaidin.

Fell said he had plenty of support along the way, from his wife, his fellow students and guiding physicians and instructors.

“There are a lot of resources that they invest in us as students beyond the tuition we pay and so there is a lot of passion from faculty and others to make sure that we’re as successful as possible,” he said.

Fell is working towards becoming a general practitioner in the

field of family medicine.

“I love the diversity, I love the fact that especially in rural or northern communities, you can have such a broad and varied practice in family medicine,” he said. “You can have your clinic, you can have emergency, you can do mental health, drug and alcohol support, you can work in the operating room assisting general surgeons. The scope is massive.”

Now 36 years old, Fell has two years of residency to go and he is among the lucky ones to land a spot in Prince George. He will be working under Dr. Gerrard Prigmore and Dr. Stephan Ferreira out of the Two Rivers Medical Clinic.

He said the process of getting a residency is very similar to applying for medical school. It involves

The Rock of Ages Tenth Anniversary Tour hit the

drafting a resume, getting references and supporting documentation and then submitting an application to the Canadian Resident Matching Service for the residencies the student is interested in.

A review of the student’s file and an interview follow, from which the residency programs rank their preferred candidates. The students also rank their preferences and an algorithm is used to make the closest match.

“The challenge is that there are only so many residency spots in a given field,” Fell said. If there are more applicants than spots, he said someone might not get their first choice and either be left without a residency for the time being or be forced to move to another community.

Fortunately for Fell, he got his first choice. Fell will spend most of his first year at University Hospital of Northern B.C., although he will be in the office for a few hours each week.

In all, 33 students received a wood shingle and long white coat to mark their graduation. Eleven of them are from northern B.C., including eight from Prince George. Fifteen of the them will be entering family medicine residency programs, with most training in rural and smaller centres in B.C. and across the country according to the NMP. Fell is among three who will train in Prince George. The remaining 18 will pursue specialties such as diagnostic radiology, neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery.

CITIZEN PHOTOS BY BRENT BRAATEN

LEFT: Dr. Bryn Fell in the atrium of Dr. Donald Rix Northern Health Sciences Centre (home of the Northern Medical Program). He is a graduate from the Northern Medical Program Class of 2019. RIGHT: Baby Shea is seen with his parents Christy and Bryn Fell on March 13, 2014. Shea suffered from a rare skin disorder known as “butterfly syndrome” and died at the age of eight months.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE Rock of Ages

stage at CN Centre on Friday night in front of 1,800 fans. The show was a musical time machine ride back to the 1980s.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Madeline Kloepper will debut her new book, The Not-So Great Outdoors, on Saturday at Books & Company. She wrote and illustrated the book.

Local artist to debut children’s book

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Kids at storytime will get a special thrill this morning.

Books & Company always has a 10 a.m. reading for children on Saturdays, but this time the reader and the author are the same person.

Local artist Madeline Kloepper is the VIP guest. The children who attend will be the first in the world to experience her new book The Not-So Great Outdoors.

Of course it is an ironic title. Kloepper tells a tale of kids who complain about all the modern conveniences they will have to do without, should they go on their family camping trip. Those sacrifices end up being the best joys of the great outside.

Kloepper was already a national award winner as an illustrator of books, but in this case she also wrote the story. That dual touch made for a deeply personal finished project.

“The locations in the book are not specified, but when you study the illustrations where they are camping you can see a loose interpretation of a northern place, but it is open to interpretation,” said Kloepper.

She was raised in Surrey and

moved to Prince George in recent years, where she has cheerfully embraced the endless trails and waterways of the area.

“My boyfriend and I went to Jasper a few years ago,” she said, explaining the process of inspiration. “I already had some of these ideas forming, but Jasper is such a quintessential park that it really got me going on more of the work that led to the book.”

She credits a lot of hikes with establishing her love of the super natural – from the Holliday Creek stone arch near McBride to the cathedral of old-growth trees at The Ancient Forest to summiting Mount Terry Fox. From the Robson Valley to the Bulkley Valley, she has earned every letter and brush stroke inside The Not-So Great Outdoors.

She still loves to visit the city and maintains close ties to her Lower Mainland circle of family and friends, but “I really couldn’t imagine going back south again.” Urbanity is not vilified in her book, but nature is described as a happy balance.

She found a kindred spirit in a book printer located in big-city Canada but named Tundra. That relationship started when the publisher needed an illustrator for Cary Fagan’s children’s book Little

Blue Chair. Recent Emily Carr University graduate Kloepper got the job, won awards for it, and the momentum was rolling.

She has now worked on more projects for other authors, but The Not-So Great Outdoors was her personal debut.

“You need an idea that’s strong enough to stand as your own book, and after a few other ideas I had, this was the one that stood out,” said Kloepper. “You start with the general concept. I did up some rough sketches and the text, and then there was a lot of back and forth. Eventually I came up with a dummy book and sent that to the publisher and they came back with an offer. Once that was done, we could really get working at refining things.”

She said she found the staff at Tundra to be challenging and professional, to get the project just right. Any compromises were made in a positive spirit and “it really felt collaborative, like we were all working together on the same side. I definitely had a lot of help.”

She did the initial work as sketches but after concepts hardened into firm plans she solidified the process on watercolour paper and then got transferred to Photoshop software for easier editing. The drafts were honed,

back and forth with Tundra staff, using note-writing capabilities in the PDF document format.

The cover’s design and the binding style was inspired by Rocky Mountain writer Ben Gadd’s books.

“Once I got the green light after all the back-and-forth with the text and rough sketches, it took me two to three months of working on final pieces plus redo some bits and pieces. It was a lot of work, pretty intense,” she said.

“We’re over the moon to be able to debut this story about a reluctant camper who discovers that the (not-so) great outdoors can be just as exciting as screens and skyscrapers in this playful picture book celebration of the pleasures of unplugging and embracing nature,” said a statement from the staff at Books & Company.

“Join us solo, with your kidlets, or let your kidlets join us so that you can browse or sip actual hot coffee, if your children are able to sit solo for the better part of an hour. If not, please be on hand to supervise.”

The book will be officially released on Tuesday, but Prince George gets an early opportunity starting today. Copies of the hardcover book will be on sale at her 10 a.m. reading.

Three thieves nabbed with bait bike

Citizen staff

In a span of just two hours, Prince George RCMP scored a hat trick of arrests when they deployed a bait bike on Thursday.

Deven Douglas Oulette, 24, and Stacie Anne Buttee, 46, have both been charged with theft under $5,000 while a 19-year-old woman was released on a promise to appear at a later date.

The longest the bike stayed in one place before being stolen was 25 minutes.

“The theft of bicycles in our community is a big issue,” said Cpl. Craig Douglass. “Thieves specifically target bicycles for a quick and easy profit, and the bait bike initiative specifically targets the thieves.”

The bait bike will continue to be part of the RCMP’s arsenal for rounding up bike thieves. They are also asking bike owners to do their part by taking steps to prevent their bikes from being stolen and aiding a quick recovery in the event they go missing. Those steps include:

• Always using a high-quality lock designed for bicycles. The extra expense is worth it. Avoid cables and inexpensive locks, as they can be defeated easily and quickly;

• Reporting bike thefts right away. Many thefts are never reported to police, giving officers no chance of arresting someone in possession of it. Even if the bike isn’t worth much to you, reporting it could help arrest a thief.

• Knowing the bike’s serial number. Even if the bike is recovered, owners need to show that the bike is theirs. The best way to do this, is to provide a serial number.

• Registering bikes with 529 Garage (www.project529. com). Essential information like make, model, serial number and photos are recorded and accessible on any internet device which helps get the word out to other cyclists so they can keep an eye out for the stolen bike.

Property sale proposal on city agenda

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

City council will consider a proposal on Monday night to sell as many as 20 cityowned pieces of property in the name of raising revenue and cutting costs.

In a notice of motion, Coun. Kyle Sampson is proposing staff draft a list of 10 properties with buildings on them and a list of 10 undeveloped sites to be sold either to the tenants or to developers.

The city owns a number of high value properties, as well as a number that require a large amount of financial assistance not offset by the revenues of usage or tenancy, according to Sampson.

“The sale of these properties can create a net positive impact to our overall budget, as well as increase available property for commercial and residential development and usage,” he said.

Also on the agenda for Monday’s city council meeting:

• A revised set of guidelines for the way the city conducts its finances will be brought to council.

The measures include a change in the point at which staff must seek council’s permission to amend a budget.

It’s currently set at $1 million per project or service and the finance and audit committee is proposing it be changed to

a cumulative level of five per cent of the total operating budget.

“This will allow the limit to naturally scale with the city’s budget growth and will place a more defined limit on the amount by which administration may amend the financial plan,” Coun. Garth Frizzell said in a report to council.

The city’s operating budget sits at about $150 million, which would give staff $7.5 million worth of discretion.

However, once capital spending is included, the city’s budget for this year adds up to about $200 million.

• A five-year asset management strategy and roadmap will be presented to council.

As of 2017, the city’s assets were valued at nearly $3 billion. Many were built in the 1970s and “will need to be strategically replaced while also supporting the city in meeting its service sustainability and climate change adaptation and mitigation goals,” according to the strategy.

• A bylaw setting the rates households and businesses will pay for property taxes this year will be up for final reading.

Pending final approval, owners of residential property will pay $7.34 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Although down from $7.60 last year, the owner of a typical home, valued at $300,680 will pay an extra $91 – push-

ing the bill up to $2,207 – to reflect the 4.3-per-cent increase in the tax levy.

Add on the city’s share of taxes for the Fraser-Fort George Regional District and the bill rises a further $315, compared to $252 last year.

Those with homes valued below that level will see a smaller increase while those with homes above that level will see larger increases.

Businesses will pay $17.17 to the city and $2.59 to the FFGRD, major industry $53.32 and $3.59, and light industry would pay $27.62 and $3.59, with them accounting for 28.67, 2.82 and 13.2 per cent of the levy respectively.

Residential properties account for 67.3 per cent of the city’s total assessed value.

Business makes up 26.6, major industry 2.46 and light industry 0.97 per cent.

The total levy stands at just under $110 million.

• A public hearing will be held for a proposal to add more apartment buildings at the foot of University Way.

Specifically, it is to allow as many as 125 units per hectare over a 2.5-hectare site at 1755 Foothills Blvd.

As part of a consultation process, the city sent out 159 letters on March 6 seeking requests for comment by April 11. None was received, according to a staff report. The hearing begins at 7 p.m.

Quilts on display

The Prince George Quilters Guild is holding the Fly Into Spring quilting exhibition in the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. There are 300 quilts on display and lots of vendors showing their wares. The quilt extravaganza continues Saturday.

Waste Management drivers get training to keep eyes out for trouble

Citizen staff

Emergency responders in Prince George have some extra eyes to watch for suspicious activity. Ten Waste Management drivers recently completed training through the Waste Watch program to identify and report problems to police, fire and other emergency services.

Waste Management drivers begin their routes in Prince George neighbourhoods and commercial areas early in the morning. This puts them in the unique position to serve as extra “eyes and ears” for public safety.

The company’s Waste Watch training instructs them on what to look for and who to contact when they see something unusual. Trained Waste Management drivers have been credited with reporting theft and vandalism, aiding people in distress and even saving lives.

Started by Waste Management 15 years ago and now active in more than 100 communities across North America, Waste Watch has achieved national acclaim for supporting law enforcement, emergency services and the Amber Alert system. Waste Management has received recognition from municipalities and organizations including USAonWatch and the National Sheriff’s Association.

Northern spotted owl chicks are seen in this undated handout photo. Curious bird lovers can now get a glimpse of the youngest member of one of the most endangered creatures in Canada. A webcam has been set up above the nest of a pair of northern spotted owls, just days after a newly hatched chick was placed inside.

Rare look at northern spotted owl chick now possible thanks to B.C. webcam

The Canadian Press

LANGLEY — Curious bird lovers can now get a glimpse of the youngest member of one of the most endangered creatures in Canada.

A webcam has been set up above the nest of a pair of northern spotted owls, just days after a newly hatched chick was placed inside. Fewer than 10 northern spotted owls are left in the wild in Canada so a breeding program in Langley, B.C., takes a fertile egg from a captive pair, incubates and hatches it and then transfers the chick to foster parents.

It’s hoped the parents will then produce their own eggs in the next breeding season.

A chick, dubbed Chick F, was placed in the nest of a newly bonded pair on Tuesday and the webcam was turned on, revealing the female owl, Skalula, has adapted to her unexpected motherhood with ease.

A news release from the breeding program says there are five bonded pairs and 10 other

birds in captivity and Chick F is one of three hatched in April with several more chicks expected this breeding season.

“This is leading up to a record breaking year in the number of chicks produced by the program,” the release says.

All of the chicks are from eggs provided by a bonded pair, but the eggs were removed, incubated and the chick was fed for 10 days before being returned, either to the original nest or to a foster pair in an effort to kick-start their bonding and breeding.

The eggs are removed because they are very delicate and the program doesn’t want to risk the loss of a single chick, owl specialist Jasmine McCulligh said in a recent interview.

Robotic eggs are left in their place while the real egg is out of the nest and when it’s returned, the owl resumes parenting as if nothing had occurred, McCulligh said.

The centre aims to house a total of 10 bonded, breeding pairs before it begins releasing as

many as 20 juvenile owls every year, with the goal of restoring B.C.’s wild population to more than 200 adults over the next 10 to 15 years.

“If all goes well with breeding this year, owls will be released into 300,000 hectares of protected old forests starting as early as next spring,” the release said.

Northern spotted owls once thrived throughout old-growth forests ranging from B.C.’s southern Interior to California. The B.C. Forest Ministry said at one time there were up to 1,000 owls in the province, but habitat loss and competition from the barred owl have reduced the population to less than a dozen.

The breeding centre, launched in 2007, is working with The Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program, a partnership between BC Hydro, the Province of B.C., Fisheries and Oceans Canada, First Nations, and public stakeholders to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife in watersheds impacted by BC Hydro dams.

First Nation should have been consulted after artifacts found, court hears

Amy SMART The Canadian Press

HOUSTON — Members of a northern British Columbia First Nation are arguing in court that they should have been consulted on an archaeological mitigation plan prepared by a natural gas company on their traditional territory.

The Unist’ot’en house group of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and hereditary chief Knedebeas filed an application for judicial review in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

It challenges the decision of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission and provincial Archaeology Branch to accept a mitigation plan prepared by Coastal GasLink that the First Nation members say did not involve consultation.

The plan followed the discovery of stone tools on Feb. 13 at

a construction site for the company’s planned pipeline, which would transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to Kitimat on the coast as part of the $40-billion LNG Canada project.

Work was temporarily suspended while the commission investigated, and it announced on March 8 that archeologists had found four stone artifacts that were likely not in their original location.

Coastal GasLink says in a statement that it is limited in commenting because the matter is before the courts, but says it has a valid environmental assessment certificate and permit from the commission.

“Our preference is always to resolve our differences through respectful and meaningful dialogue. We remain focused on continuing to advance this fully approved and permitted natural gas pipeline,

which is under construction and delivering jobs, opportunities and economic benefits to British Columbians and Indigenous communities,” it says.

The company says in the March 8 news release that it contracted an archaeologist to develop the mitigation plan in case of discoveries that would involve soil testing, visual inspections and ongoing monitoring.

It shared the plan with the Unist’ot’en members’ lawyers, “should they wish to discuss the mitigation” with the commission, it says.

The site was entered in a provincial archaeology database following the discovery of the artifacts.

The commission referred questions to the provincial government, which declined to comment as the matter is before the courts.

In the 17-page court petition,

B.C. Liberals seek intervener status in gas price probe

VICTORIA (CP) — Opposition

Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson says he wants to be part of a probe of high gasoline prices by British Columbia’s independent energy regulator. Wilkinson says he’s applied to participate as an intervener in any examination to identify factors impacting gasoline prices in the province.

Premier John Horgan asked the B.C. Utilities Commission to investigate why gasoline in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island is so much more expensive than the rest of the country. A date and terms for an investigation have not been set but David Morton, chairman of the utilities commission, says in a statement the regulator is interested in conducting a fair, transparent and inclusive process to identify the factors impacting the price of gasoline.

B.C. heat wave sets 15 temperature records Thursday

VANCOUVER (CP) — Fifteen temperature records were broken in British Columbia Thursday and several more could fall Friday as a heat wave settles across the province.

Environment Canada says a strong ridge of high pressure is responsible for the unseasonable heat.

The mercury hit 29.5 C in Squamish, breaking the old record of 26.1 set 51 years ago, while a 141-year-old record toppled in Pitt Meadows as the Vancouver suburb reached 28, edging the old mark of 27.8 set in 1878.

The weather office predicts the Fraser Canyon community of Lytton will reach 32 Friday, while a high of 28 is forecast in the north coast city of Terrace and the southeastern B.C. town of Creston is forecast to reach 30 by Sunday.

the First Nation members say the Wet’suwet’en have never relinquished or surrendered their title and rights to the land and resources.

But they say they didn’t receive a copy of the mitigation plan until after it had already been approved and call for the plan to be quashed or set aside.

“To date, no attempt has been made to include Unist’ot’en people in the archaeological work conducted on our own territory,” they say in a statement.

It says the six artifacts found are “important evidence confirming the long-standing use and occupation of Wet’suwet’en people in the area.”

“As such, Coastal GasLink continues to disturb a significant archaeological site that informs Wet’suwet’en history, occupancy, and potential evidence for rights and title.”

The company says it has signed agreements with all 20 elected First Nation governments along the pipeline path, but some members of the Wet’suwet’en have said it has no jurisdiction without the consent of its hereditary chiefs.

In January, police arrested 14 people at a blockade in the area.

The B.C. Prosecution Service later said it did not have enough evidence to pursue charges of criminal contempt against the 14 individuals, but that it has approved a charge against of assaulting a police officer with a weapon against one person.

Environment Canada’s longer range forecasts show conditions are expected to moderate and much-needed, more seasonable showers could reach the south coast by next week.

Moisture in May and June protects B.C.’s woodlands during the dry summer months, but concern is growing because snowpacks are below average, spring rains have been scant and the wildfire danger is already moderate to high in many areas.

Whales stranded in Boundary Bay

DELTA (CP) — The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says a recovery effort is underway to help two grey whales stranded in Boundary Bay, south of Vancouver.

The department says a marine mammal response team is on site with a vessel and refloatation equipment to try and help the whales get back into deeper waters. It is asking the public to stay at least 100 metres away to ensure everyone’s safety. The Vancouver Aquarium says its head veterinarian, vet technicians and staff from its Marine Mammal Rescue Centre are also in the area to provide assistance.

The aquarium’s operator Ocean Wise says on Twitter that the whales are a mother and calf, and the tide is coming in so the hope is that the pair will be able to swim away.

Feds looking to expand rural internet, cell coverage

Jordan PRESS

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A new plan to help rural Canada thrive will focus on expanding internet and cellphone coverage, even funding communities that want to be their own service providers, the minister in charge of it says.

Rural Economic Development

Minister Bernadette Jordan is expected to unveil the strategy next month.

In an interview this week, Jordan said the top complaint she hears on cross-country travels is the lack of high-speed internet in rural areas, which hurts businesses and efforts to woo and keep residents.

The House of Commons emphasized that concern on Thursday, when its members unanimously backed a motion from a Liberal MP calling for expanded digital infrastructure in rural areas for economic and public-safety reasons.

The motion highlighted struggles local officials faced in responding to flooding in place with poor cellphone coverage.

The Liberals are promising to connect every household in the country to high-speed internet by 2030, through a $6-billion spending plan.

Jordan said the government wants to entice big telecommunications companies to invest in rural areas, where populations are smaller and more spread-out than in urban centres.

But she said officials are also working out how some of the money could go directly to com-

Flood waters to rise again in Ottawa area

The Canadian Press

Water levels are expected to rise again this weekend between Ottawa and Montreal, even as New Brunswick’s floods are effectively over.

Officials warned late Thursday that “significant” rainfall is expected to raise water levels in the Ottawa/Gatineau area down to Montreal, although they aren’t expected to exceed the previous highs of earlier this spring.

Water levels to the west of Ottawa, between Mattawa and Lac Deschenes, will also rise this weekend, and the peak could exceed maximum levels earlier this spring – and even previous historical highs.

The City of Ottawa – which has been in a state of emergency since April 25 – said with water levels expected to rise in the city, people should keep sandbag walls intact.

“Flood waters will be at a similar level to the peak on April 30,” the city said in a tweet Friday afternoon. “City staff will advise residents when it is safe to remove sandbags.”

Meantime, New Brunswick’s Emergency Measures Organization said Friday the Saint John River is now below flood level across the province as recovery efforts continue.

EMO Director Greg MacCallum said the flood response took 20 days, but the recovery will take months.

He said there are fewer damage reports than last year, and credits people being better prepared.

“They sandbagged their properties and relocated things out of harm’s way. As fundamental as that is, it was a huge difference and a huge improvement over last year,” he said.

MacCallum said there were also lessons learned about the resources required.

“Getting the military assistance early in this operation was advantageous. I would say the same about the other resources we brought in from other organizations federally and provincially.”

The Transportation Department reports 75 roads have reopened to traffic and only 13 remain closed for inspections and repairs.

The Canadian Red Cross says 69 households remain in temporary housing because of the earlier flooding, and it’s offering $600 to help meet immediate needs under its own assistance package.

EMO says satellite and temporary offices are opening to assist with financial assistance claims.

Satellite offices in Saint John, Hampton, Fredericton and Burton will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. A temporary office has already opened in the Maugerville Community Centre and three more will open next week in Grand Bay-Westfield, Jemseg, and Quispamsis.

munities that decide to start their own internet service providers (ISPs) instead of waiting for big companies to show up.

“There are a number of communities that have stepped up to form their own ISPs because they don’t want to wait for the telcos, they don’t want to wait for the bigger companies to provide the service,”

Jordan said. “It’s something that we’re looking at right now.”

The decision to create a minister of rural economic development in

last January’s cabinet shuffle was in response to rural representatives in the Liberal caucus who wanted a dedicated voice at the cabinet table, Jordan said, rather than having elements of their concerns addressed by different ministers for subjects such as fisheries, agriculture and tourism.

The 2016 census showed that 82 per cent of the Canadian population lives in large and mediumsized cities, one of the highest urban concentrations among G7

nations. Rural areas close to city centres saw better growth than those farther away, while some watched their populations drop.

Those include several small towns in Jordan’s home province of Nova Scotia, like New Glasgow, Cumberland and Digby. The rural population is also aging at a faster rate than that in urban centres, which tend to attract younger families.

Jordan’s riding of South ShoreSt. Margaret’s is so rural she

jokingly calls it “sub-rural.” She talked about how she sometimes can’t connect online at night when she’s at home because the lines are overloaded, a problem that hurts businesses looking for new markets and farmers who increasingly rely on digital infrastructure.

She said one family told her how a university-student daughter didn’t want to return on weekends because of the spotty cellphone and internet service.

“We see a lot of young people leaving rural communities. As a mother, I wanted my kids to go out and experience life in other places, but I also know that if they want to come back, they should be able to,” Jordan said.

“If people want to stay, they should be able to. If people want to move to rural communities, they should have access to the same services as people in the city.”

Jordan said government spending is not the only way to help rural Canada, noting regulatory barriers and concerns about how communities must apply for infrastructure money - which puts administrative burdens on small municipal governments.

“Those are some of the challenges that we’re hearing about that we’re hoping to address,” Jordan said.

“When you’ve got a municipality with 700 people in it, sometimes the application process itself can be daunting. We’re hearing that. We know that. How can we address that, how can we make it easier for them? Those are some of the things we’re looking at.”

CP FILE PHOTO

Minister of Rural Economic Development Bernadette Jordan rises during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on April 5. Jordan will unveil a plan to help rural Canada thrive, which will place a heavy focus on expanding broadband and cellphone coverage.

A father-son chat for Mother’s Day

Xavier. Come here this instant. Papa, you’re home early

Your principal called, Xavier, pulled me out of question period and just when I was finally wiping that little smirk off Andrew Scheer’s face that he’s been wearing for the past two months. We need to have a father-son chat. I need a second, though, to get the right tone.

Maybe my “I’m conveniently, but unexpectedly crashing your wedding photo shoot” voice?

No, not that one.

Maybe my “selfie with insert face of adoring Canadian with me, life’s a peach” tone?

Nope, lacks gravitas.

Ahh, got it. I’ll go with my lectern-lecture voice. Canadians like that one.

Gerald Butts told me it reminds them of being in elementary school with a substitute teacher. At least that’s what the focus groups said. Whatever became of Butts, I wonder? Never mind.

Your principal told me that you offered someone your lunch today if they would vote for you as class president, the lunch your mother made for you last night. Yes, papa

Xavier, that’s a bribe. Bribes are against the law. You’re trying to get someone to do something they might not otherwise do by giving them a personal benefit for doing so. You can go to jail for bribing someone. It’s about the rule of law, son, and in Canada we respect the rule of law, even when it’s inconvenient. It’s like that woman we arrested at the Vancouver airport at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice last December.

We knew the Chinese government would be mad, just didn’t quite realize how mad, but I’m sure we’ll get those two Canadians out of jail, and besides everyone loves cannoli. Or maybe Katie Telford said canola. Canola, cannoli, six of one, half a dozen of the other.

But papa, what about SNC-Lavalin?

As you get older, you’ll appreciate that sometimes you need to bend – no, that’s not the right word – shape, that’s it, shape the rule of law for political purposes. I mean the public good.

You can go to jail for bribing someone. It’s about the rule of law, son, and in Canada we respect the rule of law, even when it’s inconvenient.

If we didn’t arrest that woman, it would fly in the face of the rule of law, and our allies might begin to ask themselves how much confidence they could have in Canada.

People’s faith in our justice system would begin to slip away, and that’s a far greater price to pay. The rule of law must always trump partisan interests.

Like for jobs, papa?

That’s right, Xavier, and while there’s a bit of confusion over the number of jobs that might be lost, my advisers tell me it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s somewhere between one and 9,600. But our civics teacher says the deferred-prosecution legislation doesn’t allow jobs to be considered as a factor by the director of public prosecutions in making their decision.

Yes, but your civics teacher isn’t the prime minister of Canada – who represents a Montreal-area riding, as well – or one of 176 other MPs hoping that I can sweep all of this under the carpet by the election this fall, is she?

Even though SNC-Lavalin might have broken the law by bribing officials in Libya, helped a brutal dictator in the process and bribed other officials, allegedly including a CEO of the McGill University Health Centre

YOUR LETTERS

So much for right wing myths

I have to confess that I read the gospel according to Nathan Giede whenever his writings on the wall appear in The Citizen. However, I must remember that the Bible warns us about false prophets in the end times and while I trust that the majority of Citizen readers see through Giede’s prolific “red baiting” and that I shouldn’t dignify his ravings with a response, sometimes silence is considered agreement.

Giede’s gospel suggests that all persons on the political left are hell bent on creating a tyrannical society, a socialist dystopia of the kind warned about in books like 1984, Brave New World and Animal Farm. Nothing could be further from truth. In fact with social media evolving as it is, the future will be a right wing corporate dystopia.

After the Second World War, British Tory and war leader Winston Churchill was defeated in the post war election by Clement Atlee. One campaign slogan declared “We trusted you to win the war but we don’t trust you to win the peace.”

The soldiers returning from the war fighting fascism remembered the hardships they had endured during the failure of capitalism called the Great Depression that precipitated the war and may have been a major contributing

factor, and decided they wanted a more equitable society and elected a government that started to build social safety nets. Interestingly, Churchill tagged Atlee as an aspiring socialist tyrant.

The post war world is called “the golden age” in some economic discussions due to strong economic growth and the rise of what we now call the middle class. It’s my view that the capitalist class tolerated this redistribution of wealth because the “red threat” of communism haunted them.

However, the golden age ended in the early 1970s when the OPEC oil crisis jolted the Western economies. Oil prices quadrupled and along with the rising cost of the U.S. war in Vietnam stimulated inflation, which resulted in some draconian economic reactions like wage and price controls that didn’t work and the crippling increases in interest rates, which eventually did work but it was painful.

The 1980s brought the Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney triad that adopted Milton Friedman’s “trickle down” economic theory in the West. Meanwhile, the communist world was starting to unravel culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 80s also brought the great hue and cry about government expenditures and the national debt and deficit. The right wing clamoured to cut social programs. In the end, the deficit miraculously shrunk in the early 1990s and in Canada Paul Martin is credited for it.

However, it is no coincidence that interest rates came down significantly at that time and have remained low ever since. The right wing credit austerity but declining interest rates played a huge part.

The 1990s was the decade of global free trade agreements, where democratic governments surrendered their sovereign rights to global corporations.

Unelected global organizations like the WTO and the World Bank began to influence if not direct local economies. These are not leftwing creations. Many of us on the left wing opposed the FTA and NAFTA precisely because they overrode the ability of democratic governments to make decisions without corporate approval.

Critics of the carbon tax calling its proponents left wing totalitarians are off base because the carbon tax is a capitalist concoction for dealing with pollution. No left wing totalitarian country that I know of has a carbon tax. They are usually unabashed polluters.

As for recycling, we’ve left that to the free market and it turns out they just ship it overseas and dump it or leave it on container ships in foreign harbours.

We are not facing a struggle between democracy and socialist dictatorship or even between democratic capitalism versus democratic socialism. We are facing democracy versus global corporatocracy.

Roy Olsen Prince George

LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week.

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to buy, sorry, to win a $1.3-billion contract to build a new super hospital, I still felt there was room to find an accommodation, to let bygones be bygones. But this is about you, son. You know I’m going to have to punish you for this. There needs to be very real consequences for your behaviour. If there were no consequences, you would be telling all your classmates that it’s OK to bribe someone. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?

No, papa. You’re grounded for 10 days. It’s important to send a message to Ella-Grace and Hadrien that there are real consequences for bad behaviour. You can go to your room now.

I want mama to speak to you. Mama can’t lobby on your behalf, son. First, she’s not registered as a lobbyist. Besides, mama and I have already spoken privately about this, and we both feel 10 days is the right deal, I mean punishment.

After Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott quit, my civics teacher says that you’re just a feminist for political convenience. Go to your room, Xavier. — Dermod Travis is executive director of IntegrityBC

Clash of the caffeine titans

Coffee has long been a staple of Canada’s beverage spectrum. Global studies consistently place our country in the top five when measuring the number of litres of coffee that each Canadian consumes. These studies have their naysayers, who claim that European nations that would never dream of concocting an “Americano” – such as Italy or Spain – cannot compare with Canada’s abundant containers of brewed non-espresso if we are measuring millilitres, and not servings.

With this in mind, Research Co. wanted to take a look at the coffee habits of British Columbians. We focused on consumption outside the home, which places people are more likely to visit or shun when they require caffeine, and just how many have embraced the environmentally friendly concept of using their own mug.

For starters, non-coffee drinkers are a minority. Only one in five British Columbians (20 per cent) say they do not consume coffee outside of their home in a regular week. About three in five (59 per cent) admit to drinking anywhere from one to six cups, while 22 per cent consume seven or more cups of coffee in a week – a proportion that reaches 25 per cent among residents of Metro Vancouver.

When British Columbians who drink coffee outside of their home are asked about their favourite place to get their fix, Tim Hortons is in first place with 43 per cent of the “coffee vote,” followed by Starbucks at 31 per cent. Other chains – such as Blenz, Second Cup and Waves – are in single digits.

Tim Hortons is ahead across all gender and age demographics in British Columbia, Starbucks gets is best showing among women (35 per cent) and residents aged 18 to 34 (also 35 per cent).

On a regional basis, Tim Hortons obliterates the competition in northern B.C. (61 per cent), Vancouver Island (53 per cent) and southern B.C. (42 per cent).

In coffee-loving Metro Vancouver, the two global brands are practically tied: Tim Hortons is the first choice for 39 per cent of urban coffee drinkers, with Starbucks at 38 per cent.

Coffee drinkers in British Columbia also had strong opinions about the places they would never visit to get a cup of coffee. One in five (20 per cent) say they avoid Tim Hortons, including 25 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 and 24 per cent of those aged 35 to 54. Conversely, 18 per cent of coffee drinkers say they would never visit Starbucks, including 25 per cent of those aged 55 and over.

The rivalry between the two

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main franchises is powerful as well. More than a third of those who say Starbucks is their favourite place to get coffee (35 per cent) say they never go to Tim Hortons. More than two in five coffee drinkers who express a preference for Tim Hortons (42 per cent) say they always spurn Starbucks.

Last year, Research Co. found that 55 per cent of City of Vancouver residents would welcome customers paying an additional fee for the disposable cups they require when purchasing a beverage. Some coffee shops have a different approach, by reducing the price if a customer brings his or her own container.

The coffee-drinking public has not wholeheartedly embraced the concept of the travel mug for regular use. Only 19 per cent of British Columbians who drink coffee outside their home say they always bring their own mug to the coffee shops, while 24 per cent claim to do this “some of the time.” One-third of coffee drinkers (34 per cent) never bring their own mug, including 40 per cent of women and 48 per cent of British Columbians aged 55 and over.

The prevalance of travel mug users is higher among those who prefer Starbucks (70 per cent) than Tim Hortons (63 per cent). However, as one respondent from Burnaby explained, part of this behaviour may be directly connected to a specific promotion.

“No rim to roll on my travel mug,” he wrote.

Two-thirds of British Columbians who drink coffee outside their home (65 per cent) are part of a loyalty program at their favourite coffee shop.

Baby boomers, sometimes derided for their coupon-clipping habits, actually lag behind their younger counterparts on this matter, with 62 per cent of coffee drinkers aged 55 and over joining their favourite shop’s loyalty program.

The proportion is higher for those aged 35 to 54 (65 per cent) and those aged 18 to 34 (70 per cent).

Starbucks has had an impressively successful loyalty program for years, so it is not surprising to see 77 per cent of their visitors saying they get “stars” for their purchases in a card or app.

The Tim Hortons rewards program was just launched in late March, but we already see 65 per cent of their faithful visitors enrolled.

Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca

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BY THE NUMBERS

MARIO CANSECO

Orcas play in Chatham Sound near Prince Rupert on June 22, 2018. The federal government has imposed new rules requiring ships to stay 400

New rules for ships to protect B.C. orcas

VANCOUVER — Canada has announced sweeping new rules to protect southern resident killer whales off British Columbia’s coast, including requiring ships to stay 400 metres away from the whales and closing some salmon fisheries.

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced on Friday the latest set of recovery measures for the endangered southern residents, of which only 75 remain and they face serious threats.

“We are at a crossroads. The impacts of climate change, combined with habitat loss associated with human activity over the past several decades, has resulted in ecosystem degradation here in Canada and around the world,” he told a news conference.

“Our government is taking action to protect and enhance biodiversity. This is critical for the health of the planet and ultimately for the health of the human population.”

Starting in June, the minimum distance ships must keep from all killer whales will double to 400 metres, although commercial whale-watchers may be authorized to view whales other than southern residents from 200 metres away.

Several commercial whale watching companies, including members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, have agreed to refrain from offering tours to see southern resident killer whales.

Ben Duthie, general manager of Prince of Whales Whale Watching, said it will take time for customers to adapt, given that southern residents are the most well-known killer whales, but he supports the measures.

“Without orcas and without whales in our waters, we don’t have a business,” he said. “It’s not strictly from a busi-

ness perspective. I think everybody who works at Prince of Whales and at all the other whale-watching companies ... are connected to these animals.”

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans also announced Friday that no vessel traffic will be allowed at all in “interim sanctuary zones,” at Swiftsure Bank, off southwestern Vancouver Island, and near Pender and Saturna islands, two Gulf Islands.

The department is immediately asking ships to voluntarily turn off echo sounders when not in use, allow engines to idle when within 400 metres of killer whales and, in some locations, go slow when they’re within one kilometre of southern residents.

It’s also closing recreational and commercial salmon fishing in parts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf Islands, which will take effect after previously announced restrictions on chinook fishing wrap up in mid-July or August, and extend through Oct. 31.

Owen Bird, executive director of the Sport Fishing Institute of B.C., noted the closures are actually less restrictive than last year, when fishing of all recreational finfish was banned, including halibut, rockfish and lingcod.

But he said he’s still frustrated by the tough chinook restrictions announced last month, which prohibits or restricts fishing of the species in several parts of southern B.C. Chinook are the primary prey of southern resident killer whales.

DFO also announced Friday that it will ask recreational and, where possible, commercial harvesters to temporarily suspend fishing activity when within one kilometre of a killer whale in part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf Islands, as well as in the mouth of the Fraser River.

The department also said it’s implementing initiatives to support habitat

protection and restoration of chinook salmon.

It says one major initiative is an increase of one million juvenile chinook at a Chilliwack hatchery, resulting in 35,000 additional adults – a 35 per cent increase in total abundance of fall chinook in the Fraser River.

Transport Canada is also launching a trial program of an expanded voluntary slowdown for commercial vessels through Harrow Strait and Boundary Pass, ranging from June to at least the end of September, but possibly until the end of October.

Dedicated fishery officers will be on the water verifying compliance with the new measures, while Transport Canada conducts aerial surveillance and Parks Canada and Canadian Coast Guard will assist with enforcement, the government said.

The Liberal government unveiled the $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan in 2016, shortly before announcing it would approve the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which would increase tanker traffic seven-fold in Burrard Inlet in Metro Vancouver.

The government has also launched a $167-million Whales Initiative and last October announced a further investment of $61.5 million over five years to address threats to the southern residents.

Hussein Alidina, lead specialist for ocean conservation at World Wildlife Fund Canada, said Trans Mountain is one of several expansion projects expected to increase the amount of shipping in southern B.C. waters.

The measures announced Friday are a positive step for this year, but more longterm commitments are needed, Alidina said.

“This, by itself, is not going to get us to recovery. We really need to sustain this kind of effort year after year.”

Toddler dies after being left in hot car

BURNABY — RCMP say an “absolutely heartbreaking” set of circumstances led to the death of a 16-month-old boy who was left alone in a hot vehicle for hours.

Police said Friday that many of the details about the death were still being investigated, but Burnaby RCMP

Supt. Deanne Burleigh warned parents leaving their cars to make sure their children aren’t left inside on hot days.

“Make sure you’ve delivered them where they need to be delivered,” she said during a news conference.

“We’re in a heat wave right now. Please don’t leave your children unat-

tended in a car at any age.”

Police say an ambulance was called late Thursday afternoon to a report of an unconscious toddler in a vehicle near Burnaby’s Central Park, about 10 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Several heat records were broken across the province on Thursday. In Metro Vancouver, temperatures inland reached into the mid-20s C.

The boy was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Burleigh said the child’s father was found at the scene and both parents were co-operating in the investigation.

“As with any tragedy like this, I can’t imagine how the parents are coping,”

she said. “As a parent myself I can’t imagine how I would cope, so we have provided victim services. They are surrounded by friends and family.”

She couldn’t say if any charges would be laid.

The BC Coroners Service said it was also in the early stages of investigating the boy’s death.

Burleigh said the main message police wanted to get out was that such deaths can be prevented.

“It’s about taking that extra time. It’s tragic. It’s horrible. There are no words to describe what anybody would be feeling right now. Please don’t leave your child unattended in a car.”

Dirk MEISSNER The Canadian Press

VICTORIA — The Speaker of British Columbia’s legislature is apologizing for offending some people with a speech he gave about leadership qualities that he says went “sideways.”

Darryl Plecas said Friday the point he tried to make to about 160 local government politicians on Wednesday was that even though crime bosses and some politicians are considered successful leaders, they don’t pass the leadership test.

Plecas said when he mentioned the Hells Angels, Mafia and U.S. President Donald Trump as examples of leaders considered successful, some people attending the Lower Mainland Local Government Association gathering objected to his comments because they thought he was endorsing those leaders.

“It went so sideways,” Plecas said in an interview in his office at the B.C. legislature. “I guess some people in the audience, one person anyway, took offence, but I apologized for that. I was surprised, of course, when it was taken the way it was.”

Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton, the government association president, said Plecas’s speech was a topic of conversation this week at the association’s annual convention at Harrison Hot Springs.

Crompton said Plecas chose to apologize following his speech, but the organization is not commenting beyond acknowledging the apology.

“Our organization is a big tent and we want to hear a lot of voices,” Crompton said.

Plecas said during the interview that Trump is considered a successful leader by many because he was elected president and brought the Republicans back to power, but leadership goes beyond achieving and holding power.

“Does that make you a good leader?” he asked. “I would say that doesn’t go far enough. You have to say, ‘Yes, I accomplished my goal. I was successful and along the way I never hurt anyone.’ ”

An audio recording of Wednesday’s speech obtained by CHNL Radio of Kamloops includes Plecas saying, “I personally despise Trump.”

He said he told the audience successful leaders accomplish goals while being inclusive, collaborative, open and transparent, and above all, “unbelievably ethical.”

Plecas said he criticized politicians during his speech for not meaningfully consulting with Indigenous people about decisions, comparing the approach to someone who was sexually assaulted being told they were consulted first. But he said in the interview what he meant was that unless consultations involve genuine input, some Indigenous people say governments use the term “consult” as if consent were given.

Plecas said the comparison came directly from an Indigenous woman who made the same point to him.

“She said to me, if we were to agree consultation was good enough, somebody could sexually assault me and say, ‘Gee, that’s OK. I consulted first,’” he said.

Plecas said his speech also focused on his attempts to improve decorum during question period and debates in the B.C. legislature.

“We don’t help ourselves by the behaviours we exhibit,” he said. “I use the example of question period. It would be a bit of a leap to say the behaviour in question period is the kind we should aspire to.”

He said many Canadians do not trust politicians and democracies worldwide are crumbling.

Plecas told the local politicians to seek leaders who possess a strong moral compass and strong inner core. He said New Democrat Premier John Horgan exhibits strong leadership qualities through his actions.

Laura KANE The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press

metres away from whales.

Hike to Mount Everest Base Camp scenic, accessible

Molly SPRAYREGEN The Associated Press

Whenever I told someone I was planning to climb to Mount Everest Base Camp this spring, I received the same shocked and wide-eyed response: “Be careful!”

While that’s good advice for any adventure, it was difficult to convince friends and family that this trip would not at all be the same thing as actually climbing Mount Everest. Instead, the Everest Base Camp Trek provides an opportunity for regular hikers like me to tackle a feasible portion of one of the most iconic climbs in the world.

Base Camp is located at 17,600 feet, well below the peak of Everest, which is 29,000 feet. Base Camp is where those planning to summit spend weeks acclimatizing and preparing for their journey. It is also the furthest you can go using only your legs, before other equipment like ropes and ice picks get involved.

Our eight-day journey to Base Camp began at 9,300 feet, in the small Nepalese mountain town of Lukla. There are no roads to Lukla. It is accessible only by a 30-minute plane ride from Kathmandu. When we landed, I was shocked to find the area crowded and bustling, filled with locals selling trinkets and outdoor gear, and what felt like hundreds of trekkers preparing for their climbs.

From Lukla, we wound our way up muddy paths and across dangling suspension bridges, stepping aside for herds of yak and dzo (yak/cattle hybrids) as we walked further and further into the most remote area in which I have ever hiked. Yet, it didn’t feel that way. Small towns continued to greet us all the way up. There were lodges to stay in. There were restaurants and bars. I have photos at the world’s highest Irish pub and the world’s highest bakery. In one of the larger towns, Namche Bazaar, at about 11,200 feet, there was even a North Face store. In these towns, dozens of miles from the nearest road, all food and supplies are brought in by helicopter, porter or animal.

In addition to breathtaking, 360-degree views of the Himalayas, elaborate Buddhist monuments lie along the entire route.

Every day along the trail we saw massive, intricately painted boulders and colourful stupas (structures meant to bring good karma) wrapped in multicolored prayer flags. At one point, we even toured a large, fully functioning monastery.

The terrain itself is not as difficult as you’d expect. Anyone in good physical shape could do it, and I have done many other hikes that I found more challenging.

We still climbed several thousand feet per day, but the inclines were relatively gradual. This trek, instead, should be known for its panoramic views and the unique experience of hiking through these remote mountain towns.

Of course, the trip is not without risks, but they lie in unexpected places. The flights to and from Lukla are the most dangerous part of the journey. The Lukla airport has long been considered one of the most dangerous airports in the world – and in fact, a fatal crash occurred while we were there.

I tried to push the knowledge of the airport’s dangers to the furthest recesses of

my mind as I boarded a tiny propeller plane bound for that very place.

The plane ride is beautiful, with mountains on all sides, but the landing is enough to put even the fiercest adventurer on edge.

A standard runway is between 6,0008,000 feet long; Lukla’s is only 1,700 feet long.

It’s sloped upward to help slow the plane before it hits the solid rock wall waiting at the end of it. At the other end is a 2,000foot drop. After landing safely, we were mesmerized watching the planes taking off for Kathmandu literally fly off the edge of a cliff.

Altitude sickness is also a concern, though if you work with an experienced guiding company as we did, they will ensure you climb up slowly to acclimatize. We had two layover days and hiked a far shorter distance each day than our bodies were capable of going.

This itinerary helped us grow accustomed to the air as it grew thinner.

Hiking up slowly didn’t feel like a burden,

though, as it allowed extra time to take in those jaw-dropping views. The higher I climbed, the more I felt like I could reach out and touch the shimmering, snowcapped peaks. The further we progressed, the more the mountains seemed to bend toward us, like we were inside of a snow globe.

At several points, we caught sight of Everest’s majestic peak peering out from behind its neighbours. Most of Everest lies in Tibet, but the peak is in Nepal. As such, the trek to Base Camp does not actually take place on Mount Everest, but inside Sagarmatha National Park – Sagarmatha being the Nepalese name for Everest.

Each day, as we made it a little higher, the air became a little thinner and our breath a little shorter. By day eight, the time between each step I took had grown significantly. I was breathing hard. My feet were dragging and my head pounding. I trudged slowly upward, but upward nonetheless, knowing the goal was within reach. By mid-afternoon, we hiked across the final ridge and Base Camp came into view. We had made it to the gateway to the top of the world.

Base Camp rests on a massive glacier. I high-fived my group and took in the sight of dozens of yellow tents pitched across the ice, tents belonging to those preparing for their ascent. According to my trekking guide, the glacial terrain changes so rapidly that the expeditioners have to move their tents every two weeks.

We took pictures beside the sign declaring we were there and feasted on dark chocolate almond bark to celebrate. As the afternoon clouds rolled in, we lay back and watched the mountains disappear above our heads.

The cheers and squeals of more trekkers arriving filled the air as it began to snow. It may not have been the top, but it was nonetheless a spot where most people on the planet will never set foot. I feel so lucky to have stood in that very special place, and, as I always do at the end of a hike, I feel so strong knowing it was my own two feet that got me there.

Camping with kids easier with the right equipment

Kim COOK The Associated Press

For some parents, it can be plenty challenging just to take young children on a trip to the mall. Then there are those who take their tiny hikers into the wilderness.

The outdoor gear industry is ready to help with a wide range of easily packed camping items that both parents and kiddos can enjoy.

Not that you need lots of gear.

New Yorkers Amy and Paolo Marini, both avid rock climbers,

have camped in the Catskills with their five-year-old, Lorenzo, and family friends with five- and twoyear-olds. Just getting a leafy site by water provides ready entertainment, Amy says.

“Little more is needed other than swimsuits, butterfly nets and maybe water shoes to guarantee hours of afternoon fun,” she says.

For hikes with very young kids, she advises packing a pair of trekking poles, as backpack-style baby carriers can throw off your centre of gravity.

Vermont-based writer, photog-

rapher and outdoor enthusiast

Berne Broudy, who blogs about hiking and camping, recommends the Thule Sapling Elite as a carrier. Adjustable and well-padded, the pack has a built-in reservoir sleeve and lots of pockets for phone, snacks and diapers.

Plus, says Broudy, “Kid-focused features include a sunshade to keep your cargo cool, and a mirror to monitor your passenger’s mood.”

Or consider the Piggyback Rider, a lightweight yet sturdy strap-on carrier that lets kids two

years and older – up to 50 pounds – stand on a bar while they’re securely strapped to your back.

When the day’s adventures are over, next up is mealtime and some rest. Sleeping bags that provide a warm, safe and size-appropriate snuggle spot are easy to find now.

Kalee Thompson, senior editor for product-review site The Wirecutter and a longtime camper with her two boys, tested several bags over a couple of weekends, with her kids and several others ranging from infant to nine years old.

She gave REI’s Kindercone top marks: “It’s inexpensive and warm, comes in cool colours, and should last all the way from toddler to tween.” She also liked the Kelty Big Dipper, which has a roomier shoulder area and a zip-open foot that’s handy as the child grows. For preschoolers, the Kelty Woobie is sized for those under four feet tall. It’s got dual zippers and a soft-finish cover. These are all mummy-style bags, more form-fitting than a standard square sleeping bag.

HANDOUT PHOTO BY MOLLY SPRAYREGEN VIA AP

A herd of Dzo (a yak/cattle crossbreed) walks along the Everest Base Camp Trek in Nepal on April 13.

JAMES SPRAYREGEN HANDOUT PHOTO VIA AP

Writer Molly Sprayregen celebrates reaching Mount Everest Base Camp, at 17,600 feet, after an eight-day hike.

Sports

Spruce Kings prepare for battle in Brooks

Doyle Cup champs begin national championship quest Sunday against Oakville

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

The Prince George Spruce Kings have not encountered a ton of resistance from their playoff opponents in their push to the national junior A hockey championship. It shows in their 20-3 postseason record. Their ride down easy street hit a few roadblocks in the Doyle Cup when the Kings played the topranked team in the country, the Brooks Bandits. After winning 2-0 in the first game of the best-ofseven series, the Kings lost 3-1 and 4-0 and faced a 2-1 series deficit coming back to P.G.

They turned it around in a hurry, winning 3-1, 4-1, then scoring three times in the third period of Game 6 to beat the Bandits 4-2 and stake their claim as Pacific champions. The Bandits provided plenty of pushback in all six games and that was no more apparent than in the series-clincher a week ago at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

“It certainly was good thing, facing a bit of adversity in that round against Brooks, to kind of prepare us for this short-term tournament,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.

“I thought getting a win in their rink in Game 1 was huge. We learned we can beat any team on any ice surface, which was great. When we came home down 2-1 in a different playoff format the guys really took advantage of that. Playing our way and sticking to it, if you do the right things it usually works out.”

The Kings went 16-1 in their run to the Fred Page Cup to claim the title for the first time in their 23-year B.C. Hockey League history. But they were not alone in dominating their respective league

playoffs. The Oakville Blades, who provide the Kings their first challenge in the five-team tournament Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. PT), went 16-3 while winning the Ontario Junior Hockey League title, then captured the Dudley Hewitt Cup in four games.

The Portage Terriers swept their first two series, then needed a Game 7 win in the Manitoba league final against Swan Valley. In the Anavet Cup they defeated the Saskatchewan league-champion Battlefords North Stars in five games.

The Ottawa Junior Senators went 12-2 in the Central Canada Hockey League, then won five straight in the Fred Page Cup playoffs to advance to Brooks. The

national tournament host Bandits, after a 57-3 regular season, went on a 12-3 roll in the Alberta league playoffs before they ran into the Spruce Kings.

As Doyle Cup champions, Prince George inherited a schedule the Bandits likely had hoped was going to be theirs. The Kings will get to watch from the stands at Centennial Regional Arena Saturday while the other four teams play each other. It starts at 1 p.m. when Ottawa plays Portage at 1 p.m., followed by the Oakville-Brooks game at 6 p.m. PT. In their tournament opener the Kings will be playing an Oakville team that will have less than a day to recover from their first game.

“It’s a team we’ve never seen,”

said Maglio.

“Video is going to give you some tendencies but you’ve got to get out there playing and we’ll do our best to prepare without seeing them but we have to focus more on our own game here.

“We’re not playing on Day 1 and Oakville has a pretty short turnaround between games so you want to take advantage early on teams like that. Our schedule with two games and one day off is like a normal playoff series for us. No excuses.”

Prince George faces Ottawa in the only tournament game on Monday (6 p.m. PT), then has the day off Tuesday before going back to work Wednesday night against Portage, followed by a rematch

with Brooks Thursday night to conclude the round-robin schedule. The top team after roundrobin play gets to choose which semifinal game they will play on May 18, either 1 or 6 p.m. PT. All five of the Kings’ playoff series so far have been best-of-seven affairs. The format is much different this week in Brooks. Each team plays each other once in the roundrobin to determine the four semifinalists with one team eliminated.

“There’s a point where you don’t get another day,” said Maglio. “You can’t lose (in the playoff round) and if you do you’re done and if you win you move on and I think that’s going to be the learning curve. Time is not on your side in tournaments like this.”

If the Spruce Kings advance to the final they will have played six games in eight days.

All round-robin games and the two semifinals Saturday will be webcast on the Hockey Canada site, hockeycanada.ca. The final on May 19 will be televised live on TSN starting at 2 p.m. PT.

The Kings spent two days in Calgary booked into the Fairmont Palliser, one of the oldest and swankiest downtown hotels. After their practices on the ice each day the players had free rein to check out the sights, do some shopping and explore the city’s extensive river trail network on rented bikes. They also crossed paths with the Colorado Mammoth, in Calgary to take on the Roughnecks in the National Lacrosse League West Division final.

“They really enjoyed it, it’s just a nice change,” said Maglio.

“It was a great hotel in a great location and great hospitality. it was obviously neat for the guys to see a pro lacrosse team because they’re pretty fit, big guys. Some guys haven’t seen a city downtown like that, to be honest.”

Goalie Binnington a steady rookie rock as Blues advance

Joe HARRIS The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Jordan Binnington still doesn’t look nervous.

Sure, the standout rookie goalie for the St. Louis Blues admitted he got a little tired late in the doubleovertime win over Dallas in Game 7. But he said he is ready to keep his strong play going as St. Louis advanced the Western Conference final for the first time since 2016.

“I was pretty happy to see that puck go in, and in front of a home crowd, the atmosphere was crazy,” Binnington said. “It was a fun experience.”

The Blues will play the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 winner over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 on Wednesday night.

The Blues are making their fourth conference finals appearance since 1970. They can thank Binnington for doing his part.

The 25-year-old Canadian was cool and composed – and maybe a bit weary – following Pat Maroon’s winner at 5:50 of the second overtime Tuesday night. There was no overly demonstrative celebration. He calmly skated to his teammates as is if the Blues had wrapped up a ho-hum, regular-season game in October.

It’s been this way since Binnington was called up from the AHL on Jan. 5.

make the post-season after being last in the league in points on Jan. 3. They are the only team to win a playoff series after climbing out of that hole.

Now they are halfway to the first Stanley Cup in the franchise’s 52year history.

“A lot of people doubted us, but I’ll tell you what, and I really do mean this, I’m really proud of this group more and more every single day,” Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said.

“You’re around this group of guys and a lot of people say we have a close room, and we do because that’s a resilient effort from where we were in December to get to where we are now. Sometimes you’ve just got to look back and be proud of the effort. It’s been a long road, but we just keep on pushing and it’s taken everybody right now, but we’re finding a way.” That resiliency was tested in Game 7.

Bishop, who grew up in St. Louis and was originally drafted by the Blues, threatened to steal the game and the series for Dallas. He made 52 saves, thwarting chance after chance.

“Big time, big time saves, at key moments,” Blues coach Craig Berube said about Binnington.

“That’s a credit to him. When you’re sitting there and watching it all, we’re getting a lot of action at the other end, things happen and they come down and get an

In the first round, Winnipeg fans tried to throw Binnington off his game by chanting, “You look nervous.” After helping lead the Blues to a momentum-shifting win in Game 5 at Winnipeg, reporters asked him about the chant to which he simply replied, “Did I look nervous?” Binnington, a Calder Trophy finalist, continued his stellar play against the Stars and Ben Bishop, a Vezina Trophy finalist.

opportunity, he was there to make a big save for us.”

Binnington’s arrival helped turn the Blues around.

St. Louis was last in the league in points in January. Behind Binnington, the team went on a franchiserecord, 11-game winning streak from January into February.

Binnington wound up 24-5-1 in the regular season and is 8-5 in the post-season, where his save percentage is a pedestrian .915 but

his goals-against average is just 2.39 behind a stingy defence.

He hasn’t lost more than two games in a row all season.

“There were a couple moments where you just took a second and realized where you were,” Binnington said. “It’s pretty special. I’m happy to be part of it and I’m happy we got the win in front of the home crowd here.”

The Blues run is historic. They are one of only seven teams to

Binnington was not tested nearly as much, but he stepped up in overtime, including a sprawling save on a wrap-around attempt that was dangerously close the goal line.

“They had a couple chances in overtime and I just tried to do my job and try to make the saves and give the team a chance to win,” Binnington said.

“Everyone else took care of their job and got the win, so it was good.”

Adam Maglio seen in 2017 when he became head coach for the Spruce Kings.

Dallas Stars centre Justin Dowling (37) attempts to wrap a goal around the net as St. Louis Blues’ Brayden Schenn (10) watches goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) slap the puck away during Game 7 of an NHL second-round hockey playoff series on Tuesday in St. Louis.

Midget Knights batter Kolby Lukinchuck swings on a pitch against the Red Sox on Friday night at Citizen Field as the two teams met in the PGSBL Bud Light Classic baseball tournament.

Knights have had remarkable string of success

two provincial championships.

When you think about what the Prince George Surg Med Knights have accomplished over the past three years, the word dynasty comes to mind.

In those three seasons they’ve won five titles (either provincial or Western Canadian championships). Any player who gets fitted for one of the Knights’ pinstriped uniforms knows that winning tradition is something they are expected to keep up.

It’s pressure, but they’ll gladly accept that challenge for a chance to play for P.G. in the big tournaments around the province, facing the best of their 15-to-18-year-old peers.

Last year’s team was one of the strongest double-A midget squads the city has ever produced. Armed with the likes of thirdyear midgets Mike Schwab, Ajay Nickolet, Quinten Astorino, Ryan Hampe, Joseph JenVenne and Liam Campbell, the Knights tuned up for their provincial opponents playing against adults in the Century 21 Prince George Senior Men’s Baseball League, then went to the Lower Mainland to play in

They lost to Aldergrove in the semifinal round of the 18U B.C Minor championship in Mission but went to Whalley soon after and went on an undefeated run to bring home the Baseball BC provincial banner. From there the Knights went to the Western Canadian championship in La Broquerie, Man., and skunked the Portage la Prairie Pirates 10–0 in the final.

In 2017, the Knights advanced as far as the Western Canadian final.

Now there’s a clean slate with the new season just beginning and the Knights know they’re going to be the target of every midget opponent wanting to beat last year’s best from this side of Ontario.

“This team has a winning attitude, we’ve got a good program and everyone’s buying in and it’s working,” said Knights assistant coach Buck Schmidt.

“It really helps that we play in the men’s league, that’s a big part of it. The guys in the men’s league are older and smarter and it makes the kids work harder. We have a lot of good players in the league who aren’t afraid to offer information to the kids when

we’re playing against them.”

This year’s Knights team has nine holdovers from last season and five first-year midgets who played last year for the LTN Contracting bantam Knights – 15U division finalists in both provincial championships in 2018.

“We have a lot of younger kids and they have a lot of skill coming up,” said pitcher/shortstop Kolby Lukinchuk, 17, now in his third season.

“A lot of us were close friends last year and we just have to build that bond with each other and I think we’ll do good this year. I think it’s going to be a helluva ride, honestly.”

The other returning Knights are third-year players Brady Pratt, Richard French, Derian Potskin and Kaelon Gibbs, while Nolan Hull, Jake Anker, Hunter Fanshaw and Colby Clarke are second-year midgets. Making the jump from the bantam squad are Jacob Ross, Luka Kim, Leigh Peebles, Zach Fillion and Jacob Fillion.

Potskin and Gibbs are longbomb hitters and will join Pratt and Lukinchuk hitting near the top of the order. Ross provides pitching skill, joining Lukinchuk, French, Potskin, Hull and

lefthander Pratt on the staff. Kim will slot into the catcher’s spot with Lukinchuk.

“We have a lot more guys who can throw, we have more skill to it,” said Lukinchuk.

“We have more guys able throwing breaking balls and faster fastballs. I don’t want to dis on the guys from last year, they were really good, but I think this year’s pitching is way stronger, to be honest. A lot of the younger kids can throw and they’ve been putting in the work in the off-season.”

Schwab, who now plays at Prairie Baseball College in Lethbridge, was known for his consistent hitting, stellar defence and speed on the basepaths and the Knights coaches are waiting to find out who will assume Schwab’s role as leader of an already tight-knit group. Considering the city’s sports fields opened just this past week, the players are already well-tuned. For the past three months they’ve been taking their game indoors on the UNBC campus at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre playing ball in the spacious confines of the fieldhouse. They’ve conditioned their throwing arms, used the batting cage to get their swings in and practiced fielding and

Cougars raise $25,000 for midget Cats

Citizen staff

The Prince George Cougars ownership group has done it again.

They’re in the habit of investing in the community and this week on behalf of the Prince George Cougars Society they presented a cheque for $25,000 to the Cariboo Cougars midget hockey team.

“Our organization is incredibly proud to be a major contributor to our community as we put all of our fundraising effort back into helping local agencies and non-profit groups, said Cougars’ vice-president, business Andy Beesley, in a team release.

“The Cariboo Cougars are a great development program here in northern B.C. and we look forward to continuing to support them in the years to come.”

The Cougars Society has provided more than $150,000 over the years to the midget Cats to help pay the team’s operating costs in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League and help fund their annual trip to the Mac’s Triple-A Hockey Tournament at Christmas.

In the past four years the society, using money raised on game nights through 50-50 draws – has donated more than $631,000 to local charities and community groups.

The Cougars’ ties to the midget team has benefitted them as well. Former Cougars Brett Connolly, Brad Morrison, Brogan O’Brien and Chase Witala and current players Josh Maser and Reid Perepeluk are all products of the major midget team, which has for decades has been one of the most successful teams in the league. The current midget Cougar roster includes three Cougar prospects – Matthew Magrath, John Herrington and Fischer O’Brien.

• The Cougars announced Friday they’ve extended their partnership with with Vista Radio to have FM 94.3 The Goat broadcast their games for the 201920 season. Fraser Rodgers will return for a third season as the play-by-play voice of the Cougars, with Hartley Miller back for his seventh season behind the mic as colour commentator.

baserunning three times per week in two-hour sessions in a program set up by the Prince George Youth Baseball Association.

“That’s a big thing for us to have the university and the (league) organization has really bought into that,” said Schmidt, who shares the dugout duties with head coach Murray Lukinchuk, Dylan Lukinchuk and Jody Hannon. “We have three field times (each week) already booked for us starting January 1st. That kind of evens up the score against the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan for us.”

The midget Knights played the Queensway Auto World Red Sox Friday night in the second game of the senior men’s icebreaker tournament at Citizen Field and will back on the field today, either at non or 2 p.m. The tournament wraps up with the final tonight at 8 p.m.

The Knights will be in Sherwood Park, Alta., May 31–June 2 to try to defend last year’s title win at the Doc Plotsky Memorial. They’ll also play tournaments in Mission, June 28–July 1, and Kelowna, July 12–14, leading up to the B.C. Minor provincials at a site to be determined, Aug. 2–5. The Baseball BC provincials are set for Burnaby, Aug. 8–11.

HANDOUT PHOTO

Trevor Sprague, general manager of the Cariboo Cougars accepts a $25,000 donation from Andy Beesley, vp, business for the Prince George Cougars.

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Eight-time Stanley Cup winner Red Kelly laid to rest

TORONTO — Red Kelly only ever got two phone calls from the NHL.

The first came from league president Clarence Campbell in 1960 when he refused to report to New York after the Detroit Red Wings traded him to the Rangers.

The second – more than half a century later – was from Gary Bettman to inform the eight-time Stanley Cup champion he’d been named one of the NHL’s top 100 players.

“This call’s much better,” Kelly told the commissioner.

Kelly, who died last week at age 91, was remembered at his funeral on Friday as a gentleman, hockey icon and pillar in the community.

He suited up for 20 NHL seasons from 1947 to 1967, won four Cups each with Detroit and the Toronto Maple Leafs, switched from defence to centre mid-career, and was twice elected to Parliament while still playing.

“It was the ability to be the person he was that was so important,” said former Toronto teammate Bob Baun.

“Red never did change, always such a great guy, very thoughtful and caring. He was as honest as the day is long.”

The flying redhead – born Leonard Patrick Kelly – spent nearly 13 seasons with Detroit as a defenceman before a trade to the Leafs gave birth to his second act as a centre.

“One of the all-timers,” said Eddie Shack, another of Kelly’s Toronto teammates. “One of the greatest.”

Shack and Baun were joined by fellow Leafs alumni Frank Mahovlich, Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Dick Duff, Ron Ellis, Dave Keon and Jim Gregory as honorary pallbearers.

“He was a hero to us all,” said McDonald, who played for Kelly when he coached Toronto in the 1970s. “We all looked up to him... how he lived his life. He showed us the way.”

As a youngster trying to cut his teeth in the league, McDonald recalled getting regular invites to the coach’s house for dinner,

In this Feb. 1,

something that would raise eyebrows then and now.

“I didn’t know as a player you weren’t supposed to do that,” McDonald said with a chuckle. “I wasn’t trying to get on the power play. That’s just the way they were. They made me feel so comfortable.

“Red never swore. It was, ‘Wholly smollerinos... son of a sea cookin’ bottle washer.’

That’s the kind of gentleman he was, through in through.”

Bettman, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and general manager Kyle Dubas, Detroit GM Steve Yzerman, Red Wings president Christopher Ilitch and former Toronto captain Wendel Clark were also in attendance Friday at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church to pay their respects.

“As much as he loved the game and he gave great service to the game and to this country... family was always first,” Bettman

said. “That’s something I always respected about him. Great, great man.”

“He was just a real soft-spoken gentleman,” Shanahan added. “Very intelligent, but a very sweet guy.”

The mobile defenceman from Simcoe, Ont., won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955, and took home the Lady Byng Trophy in 1951, 1953 and 1954 as the league’s most gentlemanly player.

In 1954, Kelly was named the first winner of the James Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman.

Things would eventually sour in Detroit and he was traded to New York, but rather than accept the deal, the eight-time all-star retired.

The Leafs convinced him to change his mind, and he was instead shipped to Toronto, where Kelly would lift the Cup as a centre in 1962 – the franchise’s first title

since 1951 – 1963, 1964 and 1967, the team’s last championship.

As if he wasn’t doing enough on the ice, Kelly doubled as a Liberal member of Parliament from 1962 to 1965, commuting to Ottawa between practices and games.

“He won four Stanley Cups playing defence and four Stanley Cups as a centreman,” said Sittler, who also played for Kelly in the 1970s. “That’s amazing in of itself. But to leave hockey and give back to the community, make it a better place, that’s what we know Red to be.”

Kelly retired following the 1966–1967 season, finishing with 281 goals and 542 assists in 1,316 regular-season games, to go along with 33 goals and 59 assists in 164 playoff outings.

His eight Cup victories are the most by anyone that didn’t play for the Montreal Canadiens.

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969, Kelly went onto coach three teams over 10 seasons – including the Leafs – finishing with a combined record of 278–330–134. He made headlines in 1976 by unveiling Pyramid Power – placing pyramids under the team’s bench after wife Andra had read of their supposed power – during a playoff series with the Philadelphia Flyers, which Toronto still lost in seven games.

“If you ever wanted to have an idol to model yourself after, you couldn’t go wrong with Red,” said Gregory, GM of the Leafs when Kelly was coach.

“The only thing I can say that was bad was the way (former owner Harold) Ballard treated him. Harold fired both of us, but hasn’t told us yet.”

Kelly’s No. 4 is retired in Toronto and Detroit, and his statue is part of Legends Row outside Scotiabank Arena, where memorabilia and a book of condolence were on display Friday.

Kelly – who died on the 52nd anniversary of the Leafs’ last Cup win – is survived by Andra, his wife of 60 years, their four children and eight grandchildren.

“It’s incredible, the quality of life that he led,” Shanahan said. “Just a fantastic example for all of us.”

Joshua CLIPPERTON

The Canadian Press

Toronto Maple Leafs’ alumni Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, and Eddie Shack greet mourners outside the church following the funeral mass for NHL legend Leonard Patrick “Red” Kelly in Toronto on Friday.

2019, file photo, former Detroit Red Wings player Red Kelly watches during his jersey retirement ceremony before an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Detroit. Kelly died on May 1 at the age of 91.

Rihanna to launch groundbreaking new fashion label

FEKADU

Mesfin

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Rihanna certified her status as a cultural fashion icon with her groundbreaking new deal with LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury group.

The pop star, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, announced Friday that she will debut a line called Fenty this spring through LVMH. Her luxury house will be based in Paris.

The 31-year-old singer becomes the first person since 1987 to launch a new house with LVMH (the last person was Christian LaCroix). Rihanna is also reportedly the first woman to create an original brand at LVMH and the first woman of colour at the top of an LVMH maison.

“Designing a line like this with LVMH is an incredibly special moment for us,” Rihanna said in a statement.

She added that Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, “has given me a unique opportunity to develop a fashion house in the luxury sector, with no artistic limits. I couldn’t imagine a better partner both creatively and business-wise, and I’m ready for the world to see what we have built together.”

LVMH’s leather and goods divi-

sion includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Celine, Kenzo,

Givenchy, Fendi, Marc Jacobs and more, while its wine and spirts includes Moet & Chandon and Dom Perignon. The company has also backed Rihanna’s ultra-successful cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty.

Arnault said “everybody knows Rihanna as a wonderful singer, but through our partnership at Fenty Beauty, I discovered a true entrepreneur, a real CEO and a terrific leader.”

“She naturally finds her full place within LVMH,” he continued. “I am proud that LVMH is leading this venture and wish it will be a great success.”

Fashion has been synonymous with Rihanna’s name since the Grammy-winning superstar launched her music career in 2005. She has collaborated with brands like Armani, Puma, Dior and more to launch products and lines, and she debuted her lingerie line, Savage X Fenty, last year. Her Fenty Beauty collection dis-

rupted the beauty industry when it launched in 2017, offering 40 foundation shades and bringing in more than $500 million by the end of last year.

The success of it forced other cosmetic brands to be more inclusive and launch more foundation colour shades, while Fenty even extended to 50 shades.

A release date for Rihanna’s new Fenty line with LVMH was not announced, but a website where consumers can eventually purchase the line launched Friday.

The new line “is centred on Rihanna, developed by her, and takes shape with her vision in terms of ready to wear, shoes and accessories, including commerciality and communication of the brand,” according to a press release.

“Celebrity fashion brands have been around a long time and led by singers, but in the past they’ve

tended to be done via licensing, wholesale distribution and often more with mass retailers or department stores.

“What’s different about this Rihanna project is her partner, which is the world’s largest luxury group, which has expertise across a range of leather goods, perfumes, fashion, beauty – so it really raises the bar for celebrityled fashion brands,” Miles Socha, editor-in-chief of WDD, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Rihanna, a native of Barbados, expressed her excitement about the epic new deal in an Instagram post Friday.

“Big day for the culture,” she wrote. “Thank you Mr. Arnault for believing in this little girl from the left side of an island, and for giving me the opportunity to grow with you at LVMH. This is proof that nothing is impossible. Glory be to God.”

The Associated Press

CHICAGO — A judge in Chicago says another judge will decide if a special prosecutor is needed to investigate why the state prosecutor’s office dropped charges accusing Jussie Smollett of staging a racist, anti-gay attack against himself.

Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. insisted Friday he was merely transferring the matter, not recusing himself.

Former Illinois appellate Judge Sheila O’Brien had asked for a special prosecutor to examine why the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx dropped charges against the Empire star. O’Brien asked Martin last week to recuse himself because his son is a prosecutor in Foxx’ office. Prosecutors opposed Martin’s recusal, saying it wasn’t necessary and would set a bad precedent.

The Chicago Tribune cites Martin as saying “the appearance of justice is important” and so the transfer was “prudent.”

In this file photo taken last September singer Rihanna attends the fourth annual Diamond Ball at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

Tolkien a tale of real fellowship

Michael O’SULLIVAN The Washington Post

By virtue of its marketing campaign (and, um, its name), the film Tolkien suggests that it is a portrait of the formative years of J.R.R. Tolkien, the English author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And while it certainly is a literary coming-of-age story – Nicholas Hoult plays the young J.R.R., or Ronald, as a young man, with Harry Gilby covering his teenage years – it is also very much a movie about three other young men, or at least Tolkien’s relationship to them.

Those men are: Geoffrey Bache Smith, Robert Quilter Gilson and Christopher Wiseman, who with Tolkien called themselves the Tea Club and Barrovian Society (or T.C.B.S.) when the four met as teenage friends at King Edward’s School in Birmingham.

Tolkien is a tale structured, like its subject’s books, around the theme of fellowship. Just don’t expect action and adventure along the lines of the Battle of Helm’s Deep. The movie is a capable and attractive enough biopic, if also less than riveting cinema.

That’s not for lack of trying.

Directed by Dome Karukoski (Tom of Finland) from a serviceable screenplay by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, the film jumps back and forth between First World War France, where Tolkien served as an officer – before being diagnosed with trench fever and sent home – and the aspiring author’s school days at King Edward’s and Oxford.

Between all the intercutting, Tolkien leans heavily on a single point: imagination served as an escape from what Tolkien’s sickly mother calls the “impecunious circumstances” of his youth; his adolescence as an orphan, under the care of a priest (Colm Meaney); and, later, the horrors of war.

Some of the battle scenes are staged as if Karukoski were channeling Peter Jackson: smoke, fire and enemy combatants resemble hallucinatory dragons and ringwraiths, in Tolkien’s imagination.

These war scenes make for a sturdy framing device for the narrative, but it’s the Oxford scenes that serve as the meat of the movie. It’s during those passages that Tolkien explores the hero’s courtship with his future wife (Lily Collins) and his deepening friendship with the other members of the T.C.B.S., whose meetings are spent in youthful yammering about art, music and poetry, in that plummy British way that will be familiar from similar schoolboy tales.

Although Tolkien presents the bond among the T.C.B.S. as brotherly, one relationship, it suggests, was particularly special: that between Tolkien and Anthony Boyle’s doomed poet Geoffrey, whose longing looks in Tolkien’s direction hint of an unrequited romantic attraction.

In the war scenes, Tolkien is shown risking his life in an attempt to find Geoffrey on the front line. That implication may or may not be a bit of poetic license.

Before the film’s release, the late author’s estate released a statement saying that Tolkien’s family members “do not endorse it or its content in any way.” Their reasons are left unstated, and it should be noted that the family had yet to even seen the film. Still, Tolkien is anodyne enough that no one should be terribly upset by it, let alone deeply moved in any other way.

— Two stars out of four

Pavone delivers a tight thriller

The narrative in Chris Pavone’s The Paris Diversion jumps back and forth between several characters in the course of a single day in Paris. Each person in the spotlight shares a different part of the terror that has engulfed the city of love. In addition to several suspicious packages left around the city, a man has walked to a major tourist attraction and after setting down a briefcase unbuttons his windbreaker to reveal a suicide vest.

A man named Hunter deals in the world of finance, and he contemplates leaving his wife for a woman he considers his vision of perfection, his assistant. Security arrives to keep the two of them protected, but on a day where he is about to make a huge deal, the phones and Wi-Fi are down due to the threat. For Kate Moore and her husband, Dexter, the events transpiring will keep them apart for different reasons.

Pavone delivers a sequel to his first novel, The Expats, and fans of that book will enjoy seeing the return of Kate and Dexter, though it’s too bad that their relationship has not been a happy one. Those unfamiliar with that novel will still find a fast-paced and heartfelt thriller set in the world of espionage and terrorism that echoes the best of John le Carre.

HANDOUT

Nicholas Hoult plays J.R.R. Tolkien in Tolkien, a film about the formative years of the popular fantasy author.

Jeff AYERS The Associated Press

De Sa mines family trauma from colonial war in Children of the Moon

Press

The Canadian

Adina BRESGE

TORONTO — Before they came to Toronto, they went to war in Africa.

Anthony De Sa’s uncles fought in the Portuguese army to quell nationalist forces in Angola, Guinea and Mozambique through the 1960s and 1970s. But some brought scars from the battlefield with them when they emigrated to Canada, showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. These struggles were only acknowledged in whispered conversations among his aunts, one of whom once confided in De Sa that not a week went by without her husband waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, lashing out.

When De Sa prodded his uncles about their time at war, his queries were met with resistance or deflection, and several took their memories to the grave. So, the acclaimed author decided to find his own answers in writing Children of the Moon, published by Doubleday Canada this week.

It was a mission that sent the Toronto teacherlibrarian across the globe, marking a departure from his previous works rooted in the PortugueseCanadian experience, including his debut short-story collection, Barnacle Love, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Giller Prize, and 2013’s Kicking the Sky.

“There are times where you write what you know,” said De Sa, 52. “For this one, it’s really about writing about what I wanted to understand.”

Children of the Moon is told from a trio of interlocking perspectives, each character bearing a connection to De Sa’s own story.

There is Ezequiel, inspired by one of De Sa’s uncles, a Toronto recluse who in the throes of dementia revisits the violence he endured and perpetrated as a child soldier in Portugal-controlled Mozambique. Amid this colonial conflict, a young Ezequiel crosses paths with Po, a Maasai woman with albinism, a genetic condition affecting the colour of the skin, hair and eyes that in Africa can carry life-threatening stigma rooted in superstitions that those who have it possess magical qualities.

The author acknowledges he has a personal stake in the plight of people with albinism. Late in life, De Sa said he learned of a relative with albinism who had been “mystified” and relegated to the periphery of his family.

“It struck me that that sense of otherness that is created either by the individual or the people closest to them is something all writers really write about,” said De Sa.

In trying to capture that “otherness,” De Sa found common cause with the novel’s third narrator, Serafim, a Brazilian journalist who struggles to shed his outsider’s gaze to faithfully tell Po’s story.

“There was some moral ambiguity,” De Sa said.

“But the more I spoke to people, the more I was invited in, the more I felt compelled to tell this story as honestly as I could.”

This sense of duty drove the mild-mannered father of three to venture into parts of Mozambique normally off-limits to visitors.

De Sa brokered a deal to get into the Grande Hotel in the coastal city of Beira, once considered one of Africa’s premiere luxury destinations and now a socalled vertical slum for thousands of squatters.

He had less success reaching the peak of Mount Gorongosa, one of the novel’s key settings, having shrugged off the warnings of Canadian travel officials to find that no amount of cash could convince nearby villagers to guide him through what some had deemed “the ghost road” due to the high number of disappearances in the area.

But as he excavated his family’s buried traumas, he didn’t expect to come back with his own.

“I felt like I had been torn apart by something,” said De Sa. “What’s tough is writing about it and trying to be really honest about it, and then trying to make sense of it all, and coming out of it OK.”

The deeper De Sa immersed himself into the painful subtext of his family’s involvement in the colonial wars, the more out of sync he felt with his life in Toronto.

“It just shifts your whole understanding of the world, and your place in it,” he said, his voice growing quieter. “I became angry. I became disconnected from my family.”

Having witnessed the devastating aftermath of war, De Sa sought help as he worked to transition back into his Toronto life, so he could be there for his wife and children.

But even with Children of the Moon on the shelves, De Sa said he’ll never fully shut the book on this story.

“You’re asked to relive it over and over againwhen people are intrigued, when people ask questions, when people share their stories and how it moved them,” he said. “It’s an artifact that lives and breathes.”

CP PHOTO

Author Anthony De Sa poses for a photograph after talking about his new book Children of The Moon, in Toronto on April 26.

Canada’s labour market surprises with record-breaking employment gain

Andy BLATCHFORD

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada’s labour market delivered a surprise Friday with its biggest one-month employment gain since the government started collecting comparable data in 1976.

The country added 106,500 net jobs in April, the bulk of which were full time, Statistics Canada said in its latest labour force survey.

The rush of new jobs far surpassed market forecasts and helped drop the unemployment rate to 5.7 per cent, down from 5.8 per cent in March.

The labour market has seen strong numbers since mid-2016 and has remained a bright spot for an economy that has struggled in other areas. Economic growth, for instance, almost stalled over the winter.

“Wow. This was by and large a solid report. Nearly every indicator of quality came in strong this month,” TD senior economist Brian DePratto wrote in a research note.

“Chalk this one up as a solid message that employers still have faith in the Canadian economy.”

Overall, compared with March, employment in April was up 0.6 per cent, which was the highest proportional monthly expansion since 1994 when it reached 0.7 per cent.

A closer look at April reveals the overall gain was driven by the creation of 73,000 full-time jobs and 83,800 positions in the private sector.

The gains were spread across many industries, with both the services and factory sectors seeing gains. Employment rose by 32,400 in wholesale and retail trade positions, while the construction

sector added 29,200 jobs.

A rush of 66,400 part-time positions for workers aged 15 to 24 years old helped lower the youth unemployment rate last month to 10.3 per cent, down from 10.7 per cent, the survey said.

By region, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Prince Edward Island all saw net job gains last month.

Desjardins senior economist Helene Begin said in a report that nearly 80 per cent of the overall gain was concentrated in Ontario, which added 47,100 jobs in April, and in Quebec, which saw its jobless rate fall to 4.9 per cent for its lowest level since the survey’s creation in 1976.

Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for all employees in April was 2.5 per cent, up from a reading of 2.4 per cent in March. Wage growth is a key indicator monitored by the Bank of Canada ahead of its interest-rate decisions.

Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said that overall the strong numbers suggest the economy has been rebuilding momentum in the second quarter following a sharp winter slowdown.

The Bank of Canada has blamed the deceleration on temporary factors and is predicting the economy to pick up its pace as 2019 progresses.

While the monthly jobs figures are often volatile, over the longerterm Canada has been on a solid employment run.

Compared with a year earlier, the economy added 426,400 jobs for a proportional increase of 2.3 per cent. The labour market has created an average of 36,000 jobs per month over the past year.

The numbers have remained strong even though more and more people have been looking for work in Canada. The ranks

of workers have grown in recent years thanks in large part to a big immigration boost.

“The good news here is that despite the fact we’ve seen such a huge increase in labour-force growth the jobless rate has come down,” Kavcic said.

“The labour market in Canada is doing pretty well at absorbing that influx of labour right now.”

The April increase put Canada back on the job-creation path following a one-month interruption in March.

Overall employment dropped by 7,200 net jobs in March, the first monthly decrease after six consecutive months of rising employment between September and February.

Economists had expected a gain of 10,000 jobs for the month and the unemployment rate to remain at 5.8 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

CTV News restructuring, cutting jobs in five provinces, says union

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — The union representing staff at CTV News said restructuring announced on Thursday has impacted jobs at stations in at least five provinces, and will result in a net reduction of staffing.

Unifor says the stations affected by restructuring include the CTV1 stations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

The union, which represents local television staff across the media chain, said in a

release that CTV News’ parent company Bell Media has told journalists and field technicians to expect a mix of retraining, layoffs and new “digital” jobs.

A spokesman for CTV News said Thursday that it is “expanding our digital news presence with new hires nationally and significant investment in training and equipment.”

This “significant project” will require enhanced training as well as job reclassifications for some members of the news team, said Scott Henderson, vice president of

communications for Bell Media.

“While we will be creating a substantial number of new digital news positions, some traditional roles may be impacted by the changes,” he said in an emailed statement.

“We cannot yet offer a specific number of how many, if any, departures may result.”

Unifor National President Jerry Dias said retooling local news for the digital world is “necessary” and is “hopefully, a successful business plan.”

He added that local television is being “starved” for advertising revenues and anything that brings in more viewers and ad revenue is “welcome.”

However, Dias said Unifor has told Bell Media that the restructuring cannot leave media workers out in the cold, stressing it has a responsibility to guide news staff through the technological changes.

“We are going to ensure no media worker is left behind,” he said in a statement.

“Bell knows us pretty well and they know we mean it.”

GM, Unifor announce investment in Oshawa plant that will save 300 jobs

Adam BURNS and Shawn JEFFORDS

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — The union representing Canadian auto workers claimed a partial victory Tuesday after General Motors Canada announced an Oshawa, Ont., plant slated

to close later this year will be converted to a part-stamping and autonomous vehicle testing facility.

Unifor and GM Canada said the transition will cost $170 million and save 300 of the 2,600 union jobs at the plant, with the potential to grow and attract more jobs as

the facility attracts new customers.

GM Canada president Travis Hester, who announced the so-called “Transformation Agreement” alongside Unifor national president Jerry Dias, said the Oshawa site will still end vehicle production at the end of 2019.

However, 22 hectares of the facility will be converted into a test track for autonomous and other advanced vehicles, which Hester said will help expand the nearby Canadian Technical Centre.

“I want to send a strong and positive message from GM to the people of Oshawa,” he said. “With our Canadian headquarters, our sales and marketing organization, the OnStar support centre, the Oshawa engineering centre, and the new announcements just mentioned here, GM plans to be one of Oshawa’s leading companies and employers for many decades to come.”

Dias, whose union suspended a media campaign against GM in March amid what it called productive talks with the automaker, called the agreement “innovative” but admitted it was far from a perfect solution.

“What I do know is you play the cards you’re dealt and you make the best out of a bad situation,” he said. “I will suggest that instead of us facing a hard closure in December of this year ... we have an understanding between the parties of a long-term commitment.”

Dias said the agreement will help keep the company in Oshawa over the next

decade.

“This announcement, though it may not have a lot of jobs as we sit here today in May, there’s going to be a heck of a lot more in December,” he said.

“There’ll be more next year. There’ll be more the year after as we continue to attract work.”

Dias called it a “deeply personal” announcement, noting his niece and nephew work for GM in Oshawa, while his father lives in the town and his mother is buried there.

“I’ll see you Sunday,” Dias said, pausing briefly during an emotional speech.

A joint statement from GM Canada and Unifor said the company will offer relocations to other facilities in Ontario for those affected, as well as “enhanced retirement packages” to 1,300 eligible employees. Ontario Economic Development Minister Todd Smith said in a statement that the province welcomes the agreement, calling it good news for the City of Oshawa and the surrounding region.

“We are glad this historic site will continue to be a hub for vehicle parts manufacturing, technological innovation and regional economic growth,” Smith said.

However, he acknowledged that many workers still face an “uncertain future,” saying the government is working with Unifor and GM to support affected employees and their families.

CP PHOTO

Statistics Canada’s offices at Tunny’s Pasture in Ottawa are shown in March.

At Home

Staging

Audrey HOFFER

could be most significant action taken by seller

Special to the Washington Post

Marina and Daniel Ein acquired an extraordinary collection of Oriental rugs, antiques and art over a lifetime of travel. When it came time to sell their 5,500-square-foot house in the District of Columbia, they assumed the furnishings would add to the appeal.

“Our house was on the market for a year and a half, and we had no offers,” Marina Ein said. They turned to their friend, Theo Adamstein, a real estate agent with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty who also has a background in architecture, design and photography.

“It took him to tell us the house was not going to sell as is,” Ein said.

Adamstein knew immediately what needed to be done. They needed to stage their house.

“I walked in and said, ‘We have to get rid of the furniture, take the paintings down and repaint,’” Adamstein said. “We actually fought a bit. I told them what they thought about their house didn’t really matter because prospective buyers wouldn’t think so.”

Sellers have mixed feelings about staging. On the one hand, they want the best price possible for their home.

On the other, they think their home is beautiful as is. It is often left to the real estate agent to help them understand that the best way to market their listing is to remove the things that make it their home and add the things that turn it into a buyer’s home. The National Association of Realtors estimates that for every $100 spent on staging a home, a seller can potentially recoup $400.

“When the front door opens, people walk in and say, ‘Oh this looks great.’ They’re responding to the lighting, well-placed furniture and objects in place. That’s what staging does,” Adamstein said. “They don’t consciously think that they won’t get any of those things. They say, ‘Oh my God, look at this beautiful lamp or coffee table.’ It’s the overall impression that sells the property.”

The two instances when staging makes the most sense are an empty home and a cluttered home. Few buyers can envision the space in a room without

furnishings. Will a king bed fit in a bedroom? What size table fits in the dining room? Can a sectional fit in the family room? Furniture helps a buyer imagine which of his possessions will work in the new house.

Clutter hides a home’s potential.

“People have way too much stuff, yet advice to declutter can be taken heavily,” said Catarina Bannier, an agent with Compass.

“Agents have to be brutally honest.”

Bannier had a client who had lived in her home for 45 years. The walls were olive and orange. The dining room wallpaper had brown and green flowers with gold accents.

“I gently suggested ways to make the house more attractive,”

Bannier said. “She refused. We talked several times. She wouldn’t make any changes. We couldn’t get anywhere. I finally said, ‘I can’t sell your house,’ and I walked away.”

Several weeks later, Bannier offered her a compromise: move out and then she would sell it. The woman agreed. Bannier emptied the house, painted it and added new furnishings.

“It went on the market, three offers came in, and it sold,” Bannier said.

The woman never returned.

She told Bannier that it wasn’t her house anymore.

“But she sent her children a link to the online photos and a son told her it looked grand, he’d buy it,” Bannier said. “She said that was the moment she understood why we were doing all this.”

Larry Bivins, an agent with Long and Foster, will stage houses at all price points, not just high-end listings.

“If a seller can afford to hire a professional stager, then even a $200,000 condo or house could benefit” from staging, Bivins said.

In fact, (lower-priced) properties probably would benefit even more from professional staging than, say, a newly renovated, freshly painted, vacant singlefamily home.”

Bivins also will stage distressed properties such as short sales, foreclosures and fixer-uppers.

Holly Theis, a senior project manager with Red House Staging and Interiors, has a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Hyattsville, Maryland, stocked with furniture, decorative decor, rugs and artwork. She views each property individually before deciding what to use.

“I let the house and neighborhood dictate the style,” Theis said.

Theis brainstorms ideas with

the listing agent, who often has a certain look in mind.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” she said.

On top of minimizing possessions, painting walls a neutral color and grouping furnishings, a thorough cleaning is essential.

“Bathrooms and kitchens are the most important,” Bivins said.

“They should sparkle.”

Buy new towels, bathmat and shower curtain.

“You have to make the house look worth the price,” he said.

The outside of the house matters as much as the inside.

“Don’t forget about curb appeal,” said Brendan Doyle, proprietor of Planterra, a landscape design and planning firm. “The front yard is the first thing people see when they drive by.”

Prune trees, shape bushes and mow the lawn. Paint the front door. Wash the windows. Polish the hardware.

Bivins recommends cleaning the gutters and repairing fences. Repaint or at least power wash the siding.

Naomi Hattaway, founder of 8th & Home, a real estate and relocation company, suggests sweeping the front steps and clearing the driveway.

“Add pops of colour with flowers in decorative pots,” she said.

The Eins eventually realized they should heed Adamstein’s advice if they wanted to sell their house.

“Our approach clearly wasn’t working,” Ein said. “So we denuded the house, put the furniture in storage.”

The walls were painted a neutral color. The hand-painted tiles on the backsplash were replaced with ones that mimicked the look of subways tiles. The linens and towels were changed. Art that matched was added to the walls.

“We had buyers the first week,” Ein said.

“One couple even wanted to know if they could buy all the furnishings. Theo couldn’t have been more right. When we listened to him, we got results right away.”

A well-staged house can be a revelation to the sellers as well as an enticement to the buyers.

If you stage:

You don’t need an expensive consultant to stage your house. Start by putting yourself in the mind of the buyer and force yourself to look at your home unemotionally.

“It shouldn’t be assumed that all staging has to be done by a professional company,” Bivins said.

“I often advise potential sellers that if they plan on moving out before selling, it would be wise to leave a few pieces of furniture for staging purposes.”

• Remove most of the furniture, but keep the best pieces and arrange them for easy conversation.

• Hang new towels in the bathroom. Buy a new floor mat. Put new soap bars in dishes.

• Add fresh flowers from the garden in vases throughout the house.

• Pull back curtains, raise shades and open blinds to allow natural light into the space.

• Cover beds with bedspreads.

• Take half the clothes out of the closets to make them feel bigger.

• Clear tables and desks.

• Put away personal photos and knickknacks.

• Empty the dishwasher and trash cans.

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO

Stagers from Red House Staging and Interiors prepare a home for sale in the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO

A living area is professionally staged to make the home more appealing to buyers.

Maxwell

July 23, 1935 - May 5, 2019

It is with extreme sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Mother, Nana, and Great-Nana, Carol G. Maxwell. This Amazing, Beautiful, Kind, and Loving woman passed peacefully, with her entire family by her side, in Prince George, at the age of 83 years.

Carol was born and raised in Edmonton Alberta. She attended the Alberta College for Business Administration, and upon completion of her studies, the family moved west. In 1952 they settled in the Prince George area where Carol met her husband Herb, and their love story began.

Carol worked for Bryant Motors and then for the City of Prince George as assistant to the City Manager from 1956-1958. She further worked as an administrative assistant at the Prince George Regional Hospital.

In 1959 Carol started her 35 year career with Odeon Theatres. Starting as Manageress of the Princess and Strand theatres, as well as the Startime, and Moonlight drive-ins, she continued on to manage the Triple Odeon from 1978 - 1994. Most will remember her simply as “Mrs. M.” Carol gave many young people their first job opportunities at the theater. She was a supportive mentor and believed passionately in helping her young employee’s develop good work ethic.

In 1993 Carol trained as a RCMP Victim Services Caseworker. She excelled at supporting and consoling individuals and families in their time of need. She dedicated countless hours of her time helping those in crisis.

Carol joined the BC Corps of Commissionaires at UNBC in 1994 where she continued her work with young people as 2nd In-charge/Head of Security, harassment coordinator, and trainer of new commissionaires up until her retirement. Carol was extremely active in the community and was involved in many organizations throughout Prince George. As a President of the Canadian Mental Health Association Prince George branch, she presided and cofounded the Prince George Crisis Center. She also served on many boards of directors including Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, and Prince George Crimestoppers. Carol was elegant, wise, and a superb conversationalist. She would embrace any opportunity to sit down and chinwag over coffee with friends and family. She enjoyed spending summers at the family cabin and in retirement, cruising the world with her beloved husband Herb. She was extremely proud of her family and loved them immensely. Carol was a pioneer who was far ahead of her time and she was loved and respected by all. Over the years she left an imprint on people’s lives in the most positive ways. The world has lost one of the “Great Ones” and she will be eternally remembered in our thoughts, memories and in our hearts for the Amazing woman that she was… a True Angel. Predeceased by her mother Grace Stephens, father Roy McDermid and Grandson Shawn Roy Dumonceaux. Survived by her loving husband of 62 years, Herbert J Maxwell, Son Shawn Maxwell, Daughter Grace Dumonceaux (Lowell), Grandchildren Lauren Apps (Cody), and Adam Dumonceaux (Hannah), as well as her Great Grandchildren Brynlee and Bentley Apps. The family wishes to say a heartfelt thank you to Dr. N. Bartell as well as the staff at Northern Home Care for their professional care and kindness over the past 5 years. There will be no formal service as per Carol’s wishes. Any monetary donations can be made in Carol’s memory to the Prince George Hospice House or the Canadian Diabetes Association.

CARPENTERS&LABOURS WITHOFA2OR3

LedcorConstruction Limitedcurrentlyhas openingsinthePrince Georgeareafor CarpentersandLabourers withOFA2or3,safety experiencewouldalsobe anasset.Localapplicants willbegivenpreference. Pleasesendresumesto heather.taron@ledcor.com Wethankallapplicantsin advance,onlythoseshort listedwillbecontacted.

John Ponton Ormiston Feb 18, 1936 - June 10, 2018

We are so sad to announce the passing of our family patriarch, John Cain on May 3, 2019 at 84 years of

(Jon),

and spending time with his extended family, when not tending to his beloved garden and making wooden toys. We will miss his gentle and kind ways and his never ending patience and love. Many thanks to the Hospice House nurses and care aids and the doctors who supported his peaceful passing. A service of Remembrance to be held at St. Michael’s Anglican Church on Sunday, July 7th 2019 at 2pm. Donations in memory of John can be made to the charity of your choice. No flowers please.

In Loving Memory of Carol Grace Gwendoline

MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Quotations in Canadian

U.S. hikes tariffs on Chinese goods Beijing vows trade retaliation

Joe McDONALD

The Associated Press

BEIJING — U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff hike on Chinese goods took effect Friday and Beijing said it would retaliate, escalating a battle over China’s technology ambitions and other trade tensions.

The Trump administration raised duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 per cent from 10 per cent. China’s Commerce Ministry said it would impose “necessary countermeasures” but gave no details.

The increase went ahead even after American and Chinese negotiators began more talks in Washington aimed at ending a dispute that has disrupted billions of dollars in trade and shaken global financial markets.

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index ended its weakest week of the year down just slightly despite another day of extreme volatility over trade uncertainty.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 24.20 points to 16,297.55 after hitting an intraday low 16,138.98.

The Toronto market ended the week down 1.2 per cent, the largest weekly loss since the third week of December.

The decrease resulted from conflicting signals coming out of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. Markets fell after the United States made good on its threat to raise tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 per cent. But they rallied in the afternoon after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks were “constructive” and his relationship with his Chinese counterpart remains very strong. Despite the losing week, investors shouldn’t lose sight of the strong gains experienced so far in 2019, said Mike Archibald, associate portfolio manager with AGF Investments Inc.

“It’s probably a little bit of a give-back here and a recalibration of expectations to what’s going on around us, particularly with respect to trade,” he said in an interview.

Most investors anticipated a week ago that the two sides were close to a deal based on upbeat comments from U.S. administration officials. Like the earlier trading sessions of the week, markets started weak and rebounded later in the day on encouraging tweets and comments from Trump or other officials.

In New York, markets fully rebounded from deep losses earlier in the day. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 114.01 points at 25,942.37 after dipping as low as 562.58 points or 2.1 per cent. The S&P 500 index was up 10.68 points at 2,881.40 after being down 2.2 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite was up 6.35 points at 7,916.94 after falling by three per cent.

Trump has threatened tariffs on another US$352 billion worth of Chinese imports. The Chinese have threatened retaliation but have yet to announce what they will do. With little room to apply tariffs on other U.S. goods, China is likely to stop buying agricultural products like soybeans, sell some of its large holdings of U.S. treasuries or devalue its currency, said Archibald.

“None of those are perfect solutions for China,” he said.

“The risk of a complete breakdown in trade talks has certainly increased,” said Michael Taylor of Moody’s Investors Service in a report.

American officials accuse Beijing of backtracking on commitments made in earlier rounds of negotiations.

The talks resumed on Friday after wrapping up Thursday evening with no word on progress.

“China deeply regrets that it will have to take necessary countermeasures,” said a Commerce Ministry statement.

Shares in Asia were mixed Friday amid renewed investor jitters that global growth might suffer in the battle between the two biggest economies and international traders.

Business groups appealed for a settlement that will resolve chronic complaints about market barriers, subsidies and a regulatory system they say is rigged against foreign companies.

Companies disagree with tariff hikes but “are supportive of the idea in the short term if it helps us get to a strong, enforceable, longterm agreement that addresses structural issues,” said Greg Gilligan, the deputy chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

The latest increase extends 25 per cent duties to a total of $250

billion of Chinese imports. Trump said Sunday he might expand penalties to all Chinese goods shipped to the United States.

Beijing retaliated for previous tariff hikes by raising duties on $110 billion of American imports. But regulators are running out of U.S. goods for penalties due to the lopsided trade balance.

Chinese officials have targeted operations of American companies in China by slowing customs clearance for them and stepping up regulatory scrutiny that can hamper operations.

The latest U.S. increase might hit American consumers harder, said Jake Parker, vice-president of the U.S.-China Business Council, an industry group. He said the earlier 10 per cent increase was absorbed by companies and offset by a weakening of the Chinese currency’s exchange rate.

A 25 per cent hike “needs to be passed on to the consumer,” said Parker. “It is just too big to dilute with those other factors.”

Despite the public acrimony, local Chinese officials who want to attract American investment have tried to reassure companies there is “minimal retaliation,” said Parker.

“We’ve actually seen an increased sensitivity to U.S. companies at the local level,” he said.

The higher U.S. import taxes don’t apply to Chinese goods shipped before Friday. By sea, shipments across the Pacific take about three weeks, which gives negotiators a few more days to reach a settlement before importers may have to pay the increased charges.

The negotiators met Thursday evening. Then, after briefing Trump on the negotiations, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dined with the leader of the Chinese delegation, Vice Premier Liu He.

Liu, speaking to Chinese state TV on his arrival in Washington, said he “came with sincerity.” He appealed to Washington to avoid more tariff hikes, saying they are “not a solution” and would harm the world.

“We should not hurt innocent people,” Liu told CCTV.

At the White House, Trump said he received “a beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi Jinping and would “probably speak to him by phone.”

The two countries are sparring over U.S. allegations Beijing steals technology and pressures companies to hand over trade secrets in a campaign to turn Chinese companies into world leaders in robotics, electric cars and other advanced

industries.

This week’s setback was unexpected. Through late last week, Trump administration officials were suggesting that negotiators were making steady progress. U.S. officials say they got an inkling of China’s second thoughts about prior commitments in talks last week in Beijing but the backsliding became more apparent in exchanges over the weekend. They wouldn’t identify the specific issues involved.

A sticking point is U.S. insistence on an enforcement mechanism with penalties to ensure Beijing lives up to its commitments. American officials say China has repeatedly broken past promises.

China wants tariffs lifted as soon as an agreement is reached, while U.S. officials want to keep them as leverage to ensure compliance.

“A real enforcement mechanism is critical,” said the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai in a statement.

Also Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Trump in a phone call to press China to release two Canadians who have been held for five months. The men were detained in apparent retaliation after Canada arrested an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei on U.S. charges of bank fraud.

Dean BENNETT The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Alberta’s opposition to a carbon tax won’t influence his cabinet’s decision on whether to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

“Moves that a province may or may not make will have no bearing on the approval process for important projects like the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion,” Trudeau told reporters Friday.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has promised to bring in legislation to kill Alberta’s provincial carbon tax as the first order of his new United Conservative government.

Kenney has also promised to fight in court any move by Trudeau’s government to replace the provincial levy with the federal one.

When asked if Alberta will get the federal tax, Trudeau said,

“There are many discussions still to have on this.

“What we are going to ensure is that nowhere across the country will it be free to pollute.

“We’d much rather work with the provinces on that. But if some provinces don’t want to act to fight climate change, the federal government will, because it’s too important for Canadians.”

Kenney’s spokesperson, Christine Myatt, responded in a statement: “We look forward to approval of the Trans Mountain expansion project and fully expect the federal government to do everything in its power to see that this pipeline gets built.”

The federal tax has been put in place in Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – provinces that have not implemented their own carbon levy.

A week ago, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled in a split decision that the tax imposed on provinces without a carbon price of their own is constitutional.

The court said establishing minimum national standards for a price on greenhouse gas emissions does fall under federal jurisdiction.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has promised to appeal the decision up to the Supreme Court if necessary. Ontario is also challenging the

federal tax and is waiting for a decision after arguing its case in court last month.

Kenney’s office reiterated its promise to launch a similar challenge.

“We look forward to introducing legislation that will repeal the (Alberta) NDP’s job-killing carbon tax and are prepared to fight any federally-imposed carbon tax all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Myatt.

Kenney campaigned, and won, Alberta’s election last month on a platform that included repealing the provincial carbon tax.

The bill is expected to be introduced shortly after the Alberta legislature begins sitting May 21.

Kenney has promised to replace it with a program of levies on GHG emissions by large industrial producers.

The money raised will then be used for carbon pollution technology and research that Kenney says can be shared globally and will

have a broader impact on arresting climate change.

He says the current carbon tax on home heating and gasoline at the pumps hurts working families, while having no effect on global GHG emissions.

Alberta’s program offers rebates for low and middle-income families, and Trudeau noted the federal one does too.

“We’ve made sure that the average family is actually better off with the climate action incentive we return to them at tax time than they would be paying as an extra price on pollution,” said Trudeau.

“Fighting climate change while making it affordable for Canadians is at the heart of how we’re going to move forward.”

Trudeau’s cabinet is expected to make a decision as early as next month on whether to approve Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which will triple the capacity of oil shipped from Alberta to the west coast.

AP PHOTO

A worker walks near truck trailers and cargo containers on Friday at the Port of Tacoma in Tacoma, Wash. The U.S. increased tariffs on an estimated $200 billion of Chinese imports on Friday.

Prosecutors investigating Georgia church

Julie ZAUZMER

The Washington Post

The news that Georgia’s attorney general is investigating sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, coming just after Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory was chosen for the top job in Washington’s Catholic church, came as yet another blow to those who had been hoping for a relief from scandal when their new archbishop arrives. Gregory, 71, has been cast as a much-needed reformer for the Archdiocese of Washington. Within the past year, ex-archbishop Theodore McCarrick was disgraced and defrocked after accusations that he committed sexual abuse, and then his successor Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the leader of Washington’s Catholics for the past 12 years, retired early due to revelations about his own handling of abuse cases. When Pope Francis picked Gregory last month to replace Wuerl, many Catholics hopefully heralded Gregory as someone who could clean house.

On Tuesday, Atlanta media cast a pallor over that hope, by reporting that the archdiocese that Gregory has led for the last 14 years, in Atlanta, is the latest of dozens of dioceses nationwide to be the target of a criminal investigative probe.

The Atlanta archdiocese, home to about 1.2 million Catholics, is one of two dioceses in the state.

The Savannah diocese, which has about 77,000 Catholics, is also under investigation.

“Washington is both a wounded church, and a vital and diverse Catholic community. What we don’t need is PTSD (from another investigation). Hopefully we’ll avoid that. That depends on the result,” said John Carr, who worked with Gregory at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the 2002 crisis and who spoke out in the past year about his own childhood abuse.

He said he still trusts that Gregory can steer Washington’s Catholics faithfully. “Let me be clear, no

one did enough. But Archbishop Gregory showed courage and compassion and urgency in addressing this crisis in 2002 and since then. He has been a leader and I expect him to continue to be a leader.”

In statements, the Atlanta archdiocese and the Savannah diocese both said that they support the investigation and had entered into a “memorandum of understanding” to provide their cooperation, which seemed to mean access to previously private diocesan files on priests.

The bishops said that the investigation would eventually lead to a published report.

Joe Grace, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, said on Wednesday that since that state completed its massive inquiry into sexual abuse by Catholic priests last summer, documenting abuse of more than 1,000 children by more than 300 clergy over a span of 70 years, Attorney General Josh Shapiro

and his top staff have spoken with the attorneys general of 45 states. Following Pennsylvania’s example and acting on the belief that similar abuse took place in secret in every state, many of these attorneys general launched investigations last year. Georgia’s Chris Carr is now the latest.

The Georgia attorney general’s office did not respond to questions from The Washington Post, including an inquiry about what prompted the state to announce its investigation now. Carr told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 in a joint interview that the office had been working on putting together this investigation since last summer.

“I heard from those that I go to church with every Sunday, and I saw the level of anger and frustration and distrust,” Carr, who is Catholic, told the Atlanta reporters. “I think it’s important that we hold accountable those that have done wrong but also lift the cloud

of suspicion from those that may not have.”

He said that local prosecutors will carry out any criminal cases that emerge from the probe. Amid the cries for accountability nationwide in the wake of the Pennsylvania report, Gregory was one of many bishops across the country who published lists in the past several months of priests known by their diocese to have been “credibly accused” of abuse. His list, published in November, included 15 people – significantly fewer than many dioceses.

Candida Moss, a theology professor at the University of Birmingham in England, said that a significant difference between the number of alleged abusers in the eventual state report and the 15 names on the list would cast doubt on Gregory’s credibility.

“The Catholic Church has tried to wipe the slate clean many times, and there’s only so many times you can do that before the stains

stick,” Moss said. Gregory has a lengthy history of leadership on the topic of sexual abuse. The first time he led a diocese was in the 1990s in Belleville, Ill. There, just as he would later be in Washington, he was appointed in the midst of an abuse scandal; he took charge of a diocese in the process of removing priests accused of abuse, long before the topic became a nationwide question.

When it did, in 2002, Gregory was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He pressed hard for a zero-tolerance standard for accused priests, which the U.S. bishops eventually enacted.

That means any newly revealed abuse that took place since 2005, when Gregory became Atlanta’s archbishop, would be particularly concerning, Moss said. “If it turns out he was complicit in any of this or he didn’t act appropriately, that’s going to have a very damaging effect.”

It was the Pennsylvania report that led to Wuerl’s early retirement from the spot that Gregory has just been appointed to. In that report, the grand jury questioned Wuerl’s record of handling abusers who were under his watch when he was bishop of Pittsburgh. But those cases took place before 2002.

John Gehring, a Catholic author in Washington, said he’s just as hopeful that Gregory will be the reformer needed here as he was before the Georgia investigation was announced.

“I think his record has been pretty clear that he’s taken this crisis seriously for a very long time,” he said. The existence of an investigation doesn’t lessen his faith in Gregory.

“As far as coming in with an investigation going on right now in Georgia, sadly this is becoming so commonplace that I don’t think it stands out... It feels so commonplace now that our leaders are under some form of investigation or at least close to it – as a Catholic now, when you wake up you’re going to be learning about the next investigation.”

Woman detained in Poland for adding LGBT rainbow to revered icon

Monika SCISLOWSKA The Associated Press WARSAW, Poland — Rights groups and government critics in Poland are protesting Tuesday after police temporarily detained a human rights activist for putting up posters depicting the country’s most revered Catholic icon with the LGBT rainbow on the halos of Mary and baby Jesus.

Prosecutors in the central city of Plock said the woman has been questioned and has heard charges of insulting religious feelings and desecration of the icon of Mother of God of Czestochowa, popularly known as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, a painting housed at the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, in southern Poland, since the 14th-century.

The activist, 51-year-old Elzbieta Podlesna, last month placed posters with altered images of the icon on walls, garbage bins and mobile toilets near St. Dominik’s church in Plock. She did not physically damage the icon, which was venerated by pontiffs including Pope John Paul II.

European Council president Donald Tusk, who was in his native Poland, said the Polish authorities’ harsh reaction was “inconceivable.”

The Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights found the raid on Podlesna’s home and her brief detention “hard to understand.”

Podlesna defended her actions on private TVN24 Tuesday.

“This is certainly not an attack on religion, certainly not an attack on faith, this is not a form of attack,” she said.

“How can you attack anyone using a picture, let’s be serious,” she added.

Podlesna said police came for her early Monday and searched her home. She was put in custody for several hours.

She could face up to two years in prison or a stiff fine if convicted.

Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski thanked the police for their action and said that the principles of freedom and tolerance did not give anyone the right to hurt the feelings of believers.

Poland is predominantly Catholic and its government is conservative and pro-church, in recognition of the church’s supportive role in the country’s struggle for freedom during Second World War and later against communist rule.

Deputy Justice Minister Patryk Jaki called the posters part of a campaign to “humiliate Catholics” and said it has to be stopped.

The debate came ahead of this month’s European Parliament elections. In recent weeks, the ruling rightwing Law

The case has highlighted the clash in predominantly Catholic Poland between the freedom of speech and laws banning hostility against religious beliefs. On social media, debate raged between critics of the government who said it was an abuse of power, and Catholics and backers of the conservative ruling party who argued their feelings were intentionally hurt.

and Justice party has described the LGBT rights movement as a danger to Polish families and children. It seemed to be tapping into a belief held by some Poles that liberal values have been forced on them as a result of Poland joining the EU 15 years ago.

LGBT rights have become increasingly visible as more Polish cities and towns hold gay pride parades, including in places known as bastions of the church and conservative values like Czestochowa.

Jasna Gora is the nation’s holiest shrine, drawing hundreds of thousands in annual pilgrimages. The late Pope John Paul II, who was Polish-born, visited it since childhood and as a clandestine student during the Second World War.

The church has recently been under criticism in Poland for its continuing prominent role in state matters, and for revealing hundreds of covered-up cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Public opinion surveys have shown falling support for having nuns and priests, or even lay educators, teach religion in public schools.

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO

Archbishop Wilton Gregory was introduced as the new leader of the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. in April. This week it was reported that the archdiocese that Gregory led for 14 years, in Atlanta, was the latest of dozens of dioceses nationwide to be the target of a criminal investigation.

AP PHOTO

Participants in a protest hold copies of the posters and a giant rainbow flag in support of Elzbieta Podlesna, in Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday.