Prince George Citizen May 17, 2019

wrap up

Petition campaign making final push

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

A key organizer of a campaign to prevent the City of Prince George from borrowing as much as $32.2 million says he will launch a blitz to convince residents to sign petitions expressing opposition to the proposals.

Under the alternative approval process, opponents have until May 30 to get at least 5,546 elector response forms submitted to city hall for each of the 11 packages of upgrades to a range of city buildings, parks, roads and fleets.

The threshold is equal to 10 per cent of the electorate and if it is met for a particular item, council will be forced to either nix the work, find another way to pay for it or take it to a referendum.

“I’m really going to push the next two weeks,” said Eric Allen, one of the people behind the Enough Already! campaign.

Allen, who had led successful campaigns against the Harmonized Sales Tax in 2011 and borrowing $3.56 million to pay for the city’s portion of a dike along River Road in 2012, said possibilities include simply dropping off petitions at doorsteps.

That would save people the effort of tracking them down and Allen said it takes about five minutes to fill them out. But there still remains the effort of getting them back to city hall in what Allen and others contend is a cumbersome

process designed to make it difficult to stop a proposal.

That said, Allen estimates the campaign is about halfway to meeting its goal and he is “75 to 80 per cent confident” it will be met. If the count falls just shy of the “magic number,” Allen said campaigners will make an appeal to council to consider a referendum regardless.

One of the core arguments against the borrowing is the cost of paying the interest. Based on a 3.79-per-cent annual interest rate, the cost would add up to $20.5 million over the 20-year duration of the debt if all of the projects were to survive the process, according to a city estimate. (If a proposal to borrow $2.9 million for a range of equipment purchas-

es goes ahead, financing for that one will be over no more than 10 years and at 2.6 per cent, adding up to $676,000 in interest.)

“The borrowing is just a tax increase because that’s how you have to pay for the interest,” Allen said.

Moreover, Allen maintains the proposals “are not real capital projects, or not large capital projects... they just put them together in an omnibus deal.”

One proposal is to borrow $4.7 million to pay for roof replacements.

“If you spend $500,000 on a roof and you spend it over 20 years, it costs you $250,000 in interest and that doesn’t make any sense on any level,” Allen said.

A common argument in favour

of borrowing for a capital project is that future users will also benefit from the asset and so, should contribute to paying for it. It’s a position with which Mayor Lyn Hall agrees.

“We see that in our operation on an ongoing basis,” Hall said. “We will make a decision on a particular project knowing full well the folks that are paying for it will reap the benefit of it. And they’ll reap the benefit sooner than us saving up for $32 million of expenditures that may take us many, many years to save up.”

He also noted that the city has access to “extremely good rates” through the Municipal Finance Authority, noting it has a AAA credit rating.

After voters approved proposals to borrow a total of $50 million to pay for a new Four Season Pool and Fire Hall No. 1 during a referendum in October 2017, Allen said residents were “blindsided” by the latest ask. Hall said voters were not given the heads up because “we were going through an assessment process at that time.”

He said council used the option of a referendum for the swimming pool and fire hall because it involved two large-ticket items and there was a bit more time to get assent via that type of process. Hall said all 11 proposals currently up for approval are worth pursuing, saying they will “set us on a good path.”

“We’re going to continually have

infrastructure needs,” he said. “We’ve had infrastructure needs since the city was born and the community will continue to have those, but right now we see this package of infrastructure requests as the key to us moving forward.”

Hall spoke particularly in favour of borrowing $5 million to replace about 600 street lights and traffic signals around the city and taking on $500,000 to install signals to the intersection of Domano and St. Lawrence. He said they are a matter of public safety and are in answer to concerns raised not only by staff but by residents.

Not all of council is onside with the proposals. In March, Coun. Brian Skakun voted against proceeding with six of the projects: Masich Place, Ron Brent, 14th Avenue, Highway 16 West frontage, Goose Country Road and the street light replacements.

According to a staff report, the estimated impact on the property tax levy of the 10 projects for which borrowing would be for 20 years will be 0.29 per cent in 2021, 0.32 per cent in 2022 and 1.31 per cent in 2023 when the largest of the projects, a $10.2 million upgrade of the Aquatic Centre, kicks in. (The report is posted with this story at www. princegeorgecitizen.com.)

Information on the alternative approval process and access to the elector response forms, can be found through the City’s main webpage at princegeorge.ca.

Alex Adler, right, and Casey Hautzinger cycle on Massey Drive on Thursday afternoon. The duo from Germany left Vancouver May 3 bound for Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. From there, they’ll strike west to

their trip in Anchorage, Alaska.

ALLEN HALL

Little Prince ready for rollout

Frank

Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

The train whistle is blowing. The chugga-chugga-choo-choo of the city’s favourite vehicle will be heard this weekend, back out of winter storage. The Little Prince rolls again around Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.

“The Little Prince steam engine will return for the 37th season this Saturday,” said Exploration Place’s Chad Hellenius. “This takes us back to 1978 when this little steam engine that could made its inaugural run on Canada Day. Wait, did we say 1978? We also said 37th season, didn’t we? No, we’re not bad at math. The Little Prince took a four-year hiatus from 2007-11 with a gasket leak. Well, it was built in 1912, what do you expect? So, be kind to those diligent engineers while they keep this little engine in top form and be understanding when it does go off the rails for repairs.”

It’s all systems go this weekend. The train was polished and spruced up for its annual circles around the Fort George Railway line. The Little Prince operates

Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays from 1-5:30 p.m.

A ticket to ride costs $3.50 for adults, $2.50 for children 2-18 (must be accompanied by an adult unless 13-plus) and for elders 60 and over, and $1 for children younger than two.

Season passes can also be purchased (those with last year’s

passes are asked to email info@ theexplorationplace.com due to last year’s weather disruptions). Weather will do that sometimes, said Hellenius. “The train can’t run in inclement weather. If you are unsure about the status of the train due to weather, please call us before coming down to the park: 250-

562-1612,” he said. The weather and the day of the week has little effect on the second most popular thing at the Fort George Railway Station. The train is cool, but the ice cream is cold and ready. Locally made Frozen Paddle Ice Cream scoops out its treats seven days a week from 12-8 p.m.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Truck, jetboat thief receives jail time

A Prince George man caught with a pickup truck pulling a jetboat, both stolen in Alberta, was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in jail.

Daniel Arvey Webster, 32, was arrested on Dec. 12, 2018, following a prolonged pursuit that began just east of McBride and ended in the Vavenby area near Clearwater.

The chase involved a spike belt, a tracking dog and RCMP air services.

Webster, who has remained in custody since his arrest, was issued the term for a count of possessing stolen property over $5,000 while counts of fleeing police and dangerous driving were stayed. He must also serve one year probation upon completing his sentence and is prohibited from driving for five years for a series of offences committed in Calgary.

Co-accused Michael Arthur John Rickett continues to face three counts of possessing stolen property and is to appear in McBride provincial court on June 7.

Superintendent resigns from SD57

Marilyn Marquis-Forster, superintendent of School District 57, has resigned her position.

“On May 14, 2019, the Board of Education of School District No. 57 (Prince George) accepted the resignation of superintendent Marilyn Marquis-Forster,” said Tim Bennett, chair of the SD57 board of trustees. “Ms. Marquis-Forster worked for the School District for almost three years. She has chosen to devote more time to the pursuit of other activities and opportunities.”

The board expressed thanks to Marquis-Forster “for her service to the school district, specifically with the operationalization of the Strategic Plan and her focus on student success.” Bennett said the board would be meeting “in the coming days” to begin the process of finding first an interim and then a permanent superintendent.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Crews from A&B Rail Services Ltd. use a backhoe to align the rail line for the Little Prince at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park on Wednesday morning.

PEEBLES

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

The Little Prince steam engine makes its way around the tracks during 2018 Canada Day celebrations at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.

MP fights to send killer back to maximum security

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

With the help of letters from constituents, Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty says he will continue to wage a campaign to put serial killer Cody Legebokoff back in maximum security prison.

Doherty first raised the issued in the House of Commons in February when he “specifically challenged” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

In March, Goodale responded with a letter to Doherty in which he effectively issued a rebuff.

Goodale said Legebokoff is incarcerated

New hotel unveiled

A new hotel has been announced for downtown Prince George.

The construction of the hotel will begin almost immediately and the ensuing road closure for that work will be permanent, said officials from the City of Prince George. This was approved by council in 2018 but the details were only disclosed late Thursday.

“The road closure is necessary to allow for the installation of trailers related to the future construction of the project led by Mundi Hotel Enterprises Inc. and constructed by Horizon North Logistics Inc.,” said a city hall statement.

The closure will affect 6th Avenue between Dominion Street and Quebec Street. That closure will start Tuesday at 6 a.m. Access through the work site will be limited to construction equipment.

Cooking fire put out

A local hotel suffered about $10,000 damage on Thursday night when cooking in one of the rooms got out of hand.

Prince George Fire Rescue were called to the North Star Inn and Suites at the corner of Victoria Street and Patricia Boulevard shortly after 9 p.m.

Staff had extinguished the fire by the time firefighters had arrived but there was a small amount of light smoke coming from one of the units, PGFR Asst. Chief John Law said. Firefighters checked for any further hot spots and ventilated the unit.

The lone occupant had got out safely and there were no injuries.

in a facility “surrounded by two chainlink fences, topped with razor wire and equipped with an electronic detection system. The facility also has multiple armed posts, cameras and mobile patrols.”

A Corrections Canada spokesperson has said a medium-security institution has the same security safeguards as maximumsecurity, but allows for more interaction among offenders.

“Our government remains focused on ensuring that our correctional system holds guilty parties accountable while providing an environment conducive to inmate rehabilitation, staff safety and protection of the public,” Goodale said.

In September 2014, Legebokoff was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for 25 years for the murders of three women and a teenage girl - Jill Stuchenko, 35, Natasha Montgomery, 24, Cynthia Maas, 35, and Loren Leslie, 15.

In January, Legebokoff was transferred out of maximum security, sparking an outcry from the victims’ families.

The Northern Women’s Centre at University of Northern British Columbia has since joined the chorus, issuing a form letter it is encouraging people to sign and send to Goodale.

In part, it notes that Legebokoff has served only five years and that B.C. Su-

preme Court Justice Glen Parrett said at sentencing that Legebokoff “should never be allowed to walk among us again.”

“If Legebokoff completes the rehabilitation programs available to him in medium security prison, he will only learn more pro-social skills that will assist him to be a smarter, more discrete and efficient murderer,” NWC says in the letter.

Doherty is encouraging constituents to send letters of concern to him.

“Send them to me and I will actually print every one of them and put them on his (Goodale’s) desk every day,” Doherty said. Doherty’s main email is Todd.Doherty@ parl.gc.ca.

Day of Giving

Efforts continue to keep Tabor Lake alive

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff

fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Tabor Lake has an annual crop of water weeds and some new equipment is needed to keep up.

The weed harvester machine is a common sight on the picturesque lake a short distance east of the city.

It is a popular residential neighbourhood and a great place for recreation, as long as that floating aqua-swather can keep up with the invasive vegetation that has overrun the lake in past years.

A fundraising campaign is underway now to buy some attachments for the harvester to ensure better weed control and cost control in the years ahead – a conveyer system in particular.

A recent event at the Westwood Pub raised $9,000, which triggered a matching grant of a further $9,000 from the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.

“It’s a conveyor belt to get the weeds off the harvester into a truck,” said Dave Mothus, a member of the Tabor Lake Cleanup Society. “The issue is that it takes 20 minutes to load and then an hour to drive across the

Liberals win re-election in Newfoundland, Labrador

The Canadian Press

Voters in Newfoundland and Labrador have elected a Liberal government, confounding critics and pollsters who said the incumbent party had been hobbled by a stalled economy and a disinterested electorate. With most of the polls reporting, the Liberals were elected or leading in 20 ridings, the Tories were at 15, the New Democrats had three and there were two Independents. A total of 21 seats is needed for a majority.

Led by Premier Dwight Ball, the Liberals secured their second term in office. Ball, a 62-year-old former pharmacist, easily won his seat in western Newfoundland.

The Liberals had history on their side. Since the easternmost province joined Confederation in 1949, no governing party has won less than three elections in a row.

When the election was called, the Liberals held 27 seats in the 40-seat legislature, the Tories had eight, the New Democratic Party held two and there were three Independents.

The Liberals were considered front-runners at the beginning of the campaign, but the Tories – led by lawyer Ches Crosbie – closed the gap toward the end of the race.

Crosbie won his Windsor Lake riding in the provincial capital.

During the campaign, Ball stressed that the province’s economic picture had improved by citing an increase in employment over the past year. Statistics Canada figures show 7,000 more people were working in the province in March when compared with the same month last year.

Ball also promised he would balance the province’s books by the end of his term in office - the same deadline promised by Crosbie.

The Liberals have pledged to scrap the tax on auto insurance, draft a new autism action plan and lift the age cap for those who qualify for insulin pumps. As for Crosbie, it appears the electorate wasn’t won over by his pledge to do things differently.

lake to dump and back so with the conveyor belt we can go from 800 loads of weeds per year to 2,000 loads of weeds per year which means we get lots of additional (kill-off of the aquatic invaders) which means the weed growth slows down and the lake isn’t choked out.”

The harvester will also be spared a great deal of wear and tear, with the new conveyer, which will reduce maintenance costs and prolong its life. Replacement of the harvester is estimated at $80,000, said Mothus, so it is important to invest in making it last.

“She is an old machine and at the end of days,” he said. “Without the harvester, the lake would go atrophic and die in a short time.”

Another fundraiser, a golf tournament at the Alder Hills Golf Course, is scheduled for Sept. 8. People will be able to buy a round of golf and a burger for $50 with proceeds to the cleanup society.

Volunteer time, sponsors, and cash donations are all welcomed by the charitable society to help keep the lake alive. Contact Mothus by email at David.Mothus@sunlife.com.

Damsel in distress

Students from Sacred Heart Elementary School go through a dress rehearsal of their school play Sleeping Beauty on Wednesday morning at the

Clerk retires after report finds misconduct

The Canadian Press

British Columbia’s top legislative official has retired after a report by a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada says he improperly claimed benefits and used legislature property for personal reasons.

While Beverley McLachlin says legislature clerk Craig James engaged in misconduct, she also noted that there was a “lack of clarity” in authority over expenses and administrative matters at the heart of her investigation.

New Democrat House Leader Mike Farnworth told the legislature Thursday that James has retired with a “non-financial” settlement.

Both James and sergeant-atarms Gary Lenz were suspended last November amid allegations of receiving improper benefits and expensing spending on personal items, which they have denied.

McLachlin’s report found four of five administrative allegations against James were substantiated, while she said Lenz did not engage in misconduct. Farnworth says Lenz will remain on paid leave.

McLachlin says James engaged in misconduct in expense claims for suits, luggage and a private life insurance premium for himself.

Her report says he engaged in misconduct by directing the creation of three benefits for his personal advantage: the 2012 retirement benefit, the 2018 resigna-

tion benefit and the death benefit proposed in a 2017 letter.

She says James also took alcohol from the legislative precinct without accounting for it and kept a wood splitter and its trailer under his personal control, in the face of clear consensus that there is no reason for the equipment not to be at the legislature.

McLachlin’s report only looked at the administrative allegations made by Speaker Darryl Plecas in a report he released in January.

The Speaker alleged that Lenz and James engaged in inappropriate spending on personal items and foreign trips. His report also alleged inappropriate vacation pay outs and retirement allowances.

James said in a statement that he has been in public service for more than four decades and has fond memories of his time at the legislature, but he has now “had enough.”

“I have been publicly ridiculed and vilified. My family has been deeply hurt and continues to suffer humiliation. In an effort to put an end to that, I have decided to retire, and reach a settlement with the legislative assembly,” he said. He added that when the allegations were disclosed to him, he provided detailed written submissions and supporting documents to the legislative assembly, but many of them are not referred to or addressed in McLachlin’s report.

The Canadian Press

Canada intends to introduce a digital charter to combat hate speech, misinformation and online electoral interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a technology conference in Paris Thursday. Trudeau’s announcement, made during a speech at the VivaTech conference, an international summit that brings together startups and technology leaders, was short on specifics as to the charter’s contents. But the prime minister said he’s confident the framework his government will propose will restore the faith of citizens while holding online platforms accountable.

“We look forward to working alongside internet companies, but indeed, if they do not choose to act, we will be forced to continue to act in ways that protect Canadians and we will have more to say about the kinds of tools we will be using in the coming weeks and months,” Trudeau said. “Canadians expect us to keep them safe, whether it’s in real life or online, and we will do just that.”

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains is expected to provide more details at a summit on digital governance in Ottawa in late May. Social media and combating online extremism were at the top of the agenda as Trudeau finished his two-day trip to France. As various countries signed on to the “Christchurch Call” Wednesday, many socialmedia companies, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, pledged to step up efforts to prevent their platforms from being used to spread hatred, help extremist groups organize and broadcast attacks.

In Christchurch, New Zealand, a gunman used Facebook’s livestreaming feature in March to show himself shooting worshippers at a mosque, an attack that ultimately killed 51 people. The video was quickly posted and reposted on numerous other sites.

Liberals using abortion to raise funds

The Canadian Press

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decries American states for “backsliding” on abortion rights, the Liberal party is using abortion to galvanize its base and help fill its war chest for the upcoming federal election.

The Liberals issued a fundraising email blast Thursday, raising “alarm” about 12 Conservative MPs who went to an anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill last week. The email directed supporters to websites for the 12 Liberal riding associations working to unseat the Conservative MPs, whom the party accuses of trying to reopen the abortion debate in Canada.

“While these Conservative MPs have been busy working to roll back women’s rights, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are focused on making real progress for women and all Canadians,” the fundraising email says. “Chip in now to support Justin Trudeau and our the Liberal team to help earn another mandate this fall.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has repeatedly pledged not to reopen the abortion debate – most recently at the party’s policy convention in Halifax last year, where party members narrowly defeated a resolution that proposed to remove any reference to regulating abortion from the party’s official policy. In power under prime minister Stephen Harper, the Conservatives did nothing to restrict abortion, despite some efforts by backbenchers to get them to.

The debate about abortion rights has abruptly flared south of the border, thanks to several U.S. states’ moves to restrict women’s access to abortion services.

On Thursday, Missouri became the latest in a string of Republican-led state governments to pass new abortion restrictions, outlawing abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.

On Wednesday, Alabama passed an almost total ban, making virtually all abortions illegal even in cases of rape or incest. Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio have also passed so-called “heartbeat bills,” which effectively ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The laws are likely bound eventually for the U.S. Supreme Court, where a new conservative majority might be inclined to overturn or drastically diminish the court’s landmark abortion-rights precedent set in the Roe v. Wade case in 1973.

Trudeau told reporters in France Thursday he is “deeply disappointed” in these U.S. developments, which he characterized as “backsliding on women’s rights.”

“We very much regret what is happening, particularly in the United States, where they are moving backwards in terms of defending a women’s right to choose,” he said. “As a government, as Canadians, we will always be unequivocal about defending a woman’s right to choose, defending women’s rights in general.”

Liberals block Norman inquiry

OTTAWA (CP) – The Liberals have used their majority on a House of Commons committee to block an attempt to launch an inquiry into the failed prosecution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. Opposition MPs on the Commons defence committee forced a special meeting Thursday, aiming to start an investigation of how the military’s former second-incommand came to be prosecuted on breach-of-trust charges. The case fell apart last week, when Crown prosecutors told the judge new evidence they’d received from Norman’s defence team led them to conclude they stood no reasonable chance of convicting him. The admiral had been accused of leaking secrets to Quebec’s Davie shipyard to help it nail down a $700-million contract for a navy supply ship. That deal had been negotiated under the previous Conservative government and in 2015 the Liberals paused before finalizing it. The opposition has repeatedly accused the Liberals of persecuting Norman through the courts for political reasons.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Sacred Heart auditorium.

Indigenous teen’s treatment common, advocate says

The Canadian Press

B.C.’s former child representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says the “heinous” treatment of an Indigenous teenager during a 2012 interrogation by an RCMP officer reflects a pattern she has seen over and over.

In recent days, politicians have expressed outrage after APTN published a video of a male officer asking pointed questions of a young woman describing a sexual assault she said she experienced in the B.C. fostercare system.

“Were you at all turned on during this at all, even a little bit?” the officer can be heard saying in the video.

“No,” the young woman replies.

“Physically, you weren’t at all responsive to his advances, even, maybe, subconsciously?” the officer says.

“Maybe subconsciously, but no... I was really scared,” she says.

Upon the video’s release, as a result of a current lawsuit, politicians were quick to convey outrage, including on the floor of the House of Commons.

During question period, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Wednesday that its contents were “absolutely abhorrent” after he was asked about it by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

“The apparent attitudes and techniques that were on display in 2012 are profoundly outdated, offensive and wrong,” said Goodale, the minister responsible for the RCMP, to applause from MPs on both sides of the House.

B.C.’s Minister of Children and Family Development Katrine Conroy said Thursday the video is “sickening and horrible.”

“Women, especially Indigenous women and girls, face many barriers in reporting sexual violence,” she said in a statement.

“We must do everything possible to reduce those barriers and protect survivors of sexual violence.”

While the video may have generated shock, it is far from an isolated case, TurpelLafond told The Canadian Press, adding that provincial and federal politicians know well there has been “major difficulty” with this issue for some time.

“The heinous way in which this young person was treated, being alone in an interrogation room, being treated as though she

was a criminal, not a victim, and also the poor training, the suggestion that somehow a victim of sexualized violence is enjoying the sexualized violence, this is so fundamentally offensive but is a pattern I’ve seen again and again and that we need to address,” Turpel-Lafond, now a law professor at the University of British Columbia, said in an interview.

In 2016, she produced a report showing at least 109 girls were the victims of sexualized violence while in government foster care and that 74 of them were Aboriginal. The case of the teen in the 2012 recording was among them.

“My experience has indicated to me that this has been an issue for some time and it should be known to be an issue,” TurpelLafond said. “There was a comprehensive reporting.”

Young women who face sexualized violence and then get inappropriate responses by police are less likely to get support and more likely to be preyed upon, she said, adding an effective complaints process for such treatment is sorely lacking.

Turpel-Lafond said young people being abused in foster care often can’t find a way to bring it to official attention.

“We don’t have an easy process for young people in care or Indigenous girls and women to bring their issues forward, to be taken seriously, to be dealt with in a rapid way,” she said. “It takes years and years and lawsuits.”

Policing is expected to be a major theme highlighted in the forthcoming report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, set to be released publicly on June 3 in Gatineau, Que.

Racism, sexism and victim-blaming were raised during pre-inquiry gatherings before the commission began its work, CrownIndigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Thursday.

There has been an acknowledgment of these issues particularly by the RCMP, Bennett said, noting a 2017 report produced by the force to help strengthen police training and awareness.

“We also hope that all other police forces will be very intentional about this and take this all very seriously, not only in recruiting but in training and consequences at any incident,” she said.

Feds make plans to bring back trash sent to the Philippines

The Liberal MP who chairs a parliamentary friendship group between Canada and the Philippines says the ongoing garbage war between the two countries is both embarrassing and unlikely to end soon.

Kevin Lamoureux, a Winnipeg MP whose riding has one of the largest Filipino populations in Canada, said that Canada told the Philippines clearly that it could not meet the May 15 deadline to repatriate 69 containers of Canadian trash. He said it is “a sore

B.C. man wins language case

OTTAWA (CP) – A British Columbia man charged with a driving offence is entitled to a trial in French, the Supreme Court of Canada says in a decision that represents a victory for minority-language rights.

The ruling came Thursday in the case of Joseph Roy Eric Bessette, who was charged under B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act in September 2014 with driving while prohibited from doing so.

The following January, Bessette appeared in provincial court in Surrey, B.C., and asked that his trial be held in Frencha request the Crown contested.

Bessette’s application for French proceedings relied on a section of the Criminal Code that grants an accused the right to be tried by a provincial court judge who speaks his or her official language.

Bessette said the section applied in his case because the Motor Vehicle Act and B.C.’s Offence Act are silent on the language of trials. In addition, the Offence Act says Criminal Code provisions apply when there are gaps in the law.

The Crown, however, said English is the language of provincial-offence prosecutions in B.C., according to a statute dating from 1731. A judge accepted the Crown’s arguments and refused to order a French trial, concluding that B.C. law does not include a right to one for provincial offences.

Bessette asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to intervene but the court declined, saying he would have to wait to lodge an appeal after having a trial in English.

Bessette unsuccessfully challenged that decision in the B.C. Court of Appeal, prompting him to take his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In its unanimous decision, the high court said, first of all, that B.C.’s Supreme Court should have ruled on the merits of Bessette’s challenge.

Second, the Supreme Court found that B.C.’s Offence Act indeed incorporates the relevant Criminal Code section and effectively repealed the statute from the 1700s.

“The provincial court judge erred in holding otherwise and in denying Mr. Bessette his right to a trial in French.”

point” for some of his constituents, many of whom have family in the Philippines and are embarrassed by Canada’s inaction.

“I’m disappointed that we were not able to try to get this thing resolved before the May 15 deadline but it just wasn’t possible,” Lamoureux said.

The trash has been in two ports in the Philippines for nearly six years, arriving there in 2013 and 2014 improperly labelled as plastics for recycling. The Philippines recalled its ambassador and consuls general Thursday, after President Rodrigo Duterte’s dead-

line came and went without any movement of the garbage.

“That recall shows that we are very serious in asking them to get back their garbage otherwise we’re gonna sever relations with them,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Lamoureux said “it’s really sad that it’s gotten to this point.”

In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said it was disappointed by Duterte’s decision to recall the top diplomats, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday the Canadian government will continue to work on getting the

Departing judge receives tributes

The Canadian Press Supreme Court Justice Clement Gascon received a standing ovation Thursday after hearing his final case on the high court.

Gascon graciously thanked his family and colleagues, saying it is an immense privilege to be a judge.

Last month, Gascon, 58, announced his plans to retire from the bench for unspecified personal and family reasons. He said this week that he has long struggled with anxiety and depression, and while he has generally been able to manage the illness, it recently led to a difficult episode.

Gascon said he suffered a panic attack before he briefly went missing May 8.

He profusely apologized for the uncharacteristic absence, citing the effects of his difficult career decision and a change in medication.

In the crowded courtroom Thursday, Chief Justice Richard Wagner praised Gascon as an exceptional person.

“Our esteemed colleague has served Canadians with dignity and wisdom,” Wagner said. “His commitment and friendship will be missed.”

Justice Sheilah Martin shed tears.

Gascon officially steps down Sept. 15 but will continue to have input into judgments flowing from cases he has heard, as long as they are released within six months of his retirement date.

Judgments released after mid-March will note that Gascon had no input into the decision.

“My work as a judge is far from complete,” he said. “I can assure you that I will continue.”

garbage out of the Philippines.

“We very much hope to get to a resolution shortly,” Trudeau said in Paris.

Lamoureux said he met with the ambassador from the Philippines in Ottawa Monday about the issue and Petronila Garcia warned him that her government was serious about fthe dispute and that if the May 15 deadline wasn’t met, action would be taken.

Duterte set the deadline last month, after he threatened to “declare war” on Canada over the garbage. He said if Canada wasn’t going to take the garbage back, he

would put it on a ship and send it over himself, dumping some of it outside the Canadian Embassy in Manila to underscore the point.

“Celebrate because your garbage is coming home,” he said on April 23. “Eat it if you want to.”

“Had he not made the statement that he made, I suspect through the bureaucracy they would continue to be moving at a snail pace,” Lamoureux said. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind because of the president’s actions the government of Canada has come to the table, and we are expediting it.”

B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond speaks to a reporter in Vancouver in November 2015.

The Canadian Press

Dropouts huge economic burden

Recently, the Ontario government proposed educational reforms that collectively amount to savings of almost $1 billion, according to an analysis by the charity People for Education. As a result of reforms, students will receive less attention in bigger classes in Grades 4 to 12 and have fewer targeted resources available to them due to a reduction of education grants. At the secondary level, students will find fewer course options or fewer class sections due to teacher loss while being required to complete a minimum of four mandatory e-learning courses.

The potential consequences of mandatory e-learning for students who already struggle in ordinary face-to-face classroom situations are particularly troubling. Longitudinal research suggests the level of individual support students receive from their teachers in high school is important to staying in school. Are the most vulnerable students being put at increased risk for dropping out?

School failure has profound economic consequences for individuals and society. While the purpose of education should never be reduced to promoting economic growth, every child out of school represents lost personal and social opportunities – and staggering economic costs – for countries.

High school completion rates have been steadily increasing in Canada and around the world for decades. Recent statistics

indicate the “on-time” high school graduation rate across Canada is 79 per cent while the “extended-time” rate – students who needed up to an additional two years – is 88 per cent.

Yet particularly when we look at Canada in comparison to other industrialized nations, it’s clear Canada could improve. Japan and Finland boast a graduation rate of 97 per cent. Canada is currently fourth in the world at taking advantage of human capital but possesses relative areas of weakness in secondary education attainment rates for 15- to 24-year-olds when ranked internationally. Differences in high school completion rates exist across Canada’s provincial and territorial education systems. For example, Alberta and Québec both have extendedtime graduation rates of 83 per cent while Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Ontario boast rates of 94 per cent, 93 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively. These graduation rates should serve as important benchmarks to help monitor and evaluate educational reforms and hold provincial governments accountable for policy choices.

Economic and public policy estimates of the total cost of dropouts vary depending on the range of sectors examined and the methodologies used.

A comprehensive 2008 study of the cost of dropouts in Canada estimated impacts on labour, employment, health, social assistance and criminal justice systems to find if Canada increased its high school gradu-

ation rate by one per cent, the estimated savings would be over $7.7 billion annually. This study considered the estimated loss of private earnings, public tax revenues, employment revenue premiums and the cost of employment insurance. It also examined what are called “intangible costs” – the nonmarket effects of less schooling associated with reduced quality of life.

For Ontario, which possesses more than 40 per cent of the country’s student population, this $7.7 billion annual savings would amount to a relative share of more than $3 billion. It’s worth noting this conservative estimate was based on dollar amounts more than 10 years ago and the projection applies to only a one per cent increase in high school graduates.

U.S. research has indicated that in practical terms, $1 spent on education provides a lifetime benefit to society of $2. Each new graduate in the U.S. provides a net benefit to taxpayers of approximately US$127,000 over the graduate’s lifetime.

Collectively, this research suggests that the difference in high school completion rates between Canada and top industrialized countries such as Japan or Finland carry staggering economic costs.

We can’t do justice to the wide range of factors that influence high school completion rates in this short review, but we offer some key education system features that are within policymakers’ control.

To reduce school failure, governments would be wise to invest in quality early

Public inquiry plays into Horgan’s hands

If it makes us feel any better, we can all recall how John Horgan only months ago threw shade on the need for a money laundering inquiry: too time-consuming, too resource-greedy, too distractive, too little a province could directly do, anyway.

But really, was there any doubt his government would call one?

This is at first blush a dream scenario for the BC NDP: a madefor-media haul over the coals of the preceding Liberal government through daily testimony that will, it prays, provide evidence of an awestruck and dumbstruck administration of the economic contamination under its nose –and perhaps with its hand – of real estate, luxury goods, our gaming tables and even our postsecondary institutions. What politicians in their right minds – even their left ones –wouldn’t love it?

The timelines announced Wednesday are exquisite for the next election. A black-hat vilification of the Liberals for a year or so – made more devastating because leader Andrew Wilkinson hasn’t dispatched the old guard among his ranks – followed by white-knight legislation. Game of Thrones couldn’t have scripted it better. Well played politically. For now. But while it is true that a thorough and public examination is better than a tepid and private one in alerting the public to the apprehended threat government seemingly snored through, I doubt many are ready to understand the full impact of the laundered dollar and the relevance in their daily lives. This might get

TO THE POINT

KIRK LAPOINTE

quite personal for many of us.

What we see typically in our portrayal of money laundering are the bad guys – the gangs, the influences from afar, the carpetbaggers – and their links to our drug trade, to organized crime and even terrorism, and to our conflated housing market. And sure, hardly anyone would want them to continue to evade punishment, whether it is eventual imprisonment or more immediate civil forfeiture.

What we don’t regularly realize, though, is how even laundered money finds its place into the routine economy through layering and integration. For every property there is an agent earning income. For every supercar there is a supercar salesperson on commission. Intentionally or not, there are legal and financial services and institutions in the mix. There are businesses paying rent or mortgages. There are unwitting people in turn shopping, spending and investing.

If you wish to drive a stake into the heart of money laundering, you will take more than the vampires with you. Granted, that dirty money evades direct taxation and depresses overall economic performance, so beating it back will plug some holes, but its disappearance or diminution will create several new ones into the economy that will be a test to

replace.

Which is not to say you don’t conduct the inquiry, only that as part of the process you don’t stay in the simpleton phase of quantifying the sums involved. An inquiry needs to understand the periphery of the scourge, too, and to some degree prepare the public for the true picture of the impact in our lives if we stop the shell games.

To date, the government hasn’t done anything like that; it appears more driven by the opportunity of dropping the big one than the more difficult task of comprehending the fallout. Witness how Horgan recently departed from the statesman pose to state: “I believe the public should have access to what the former government knew and when they knew it,” he said. “An inquiry would assist in getting that information.”

What the public wants isn’t entirely what the public needs, though, and the inquiry announced Wednesday ought not only to be bipartisan but educational. The Charbonneau inquiry into Quebec construction fraud played such a role, as have many other such initiatives.

The terms of reference for the new inquiry are weighted to the political and other institutions that were asleep as the wayward train passed the switch.

There is much more inadvertent complicity in this story in our economic performance than has so far been told, and we deserve to understand that as part of this important process as the easy villains in politics and business are drawn and quartered – and electorally exploited.

years education that demonstrably reduces the need for later special education; provide additional support and funding aimed at bringing students into a successful school career when students are identified as being vulnerable or at risk; support curriculum and professional development to bolster culturally responsive teaching; avoid early tracking of students into different ability groups; ensure students are equitably directed to school choices; provide funding according to student needs, particularly for disadvantaged students and schools; in tandem with equitable and targeted support for all students’ academic achievement, including ensuring equal access to academic-track coursework, improve the quality of secondary vocational or apprenticeship courses. It is important to remember that expenditures that lead to a one per cent increase in graduation rates may represent good value for money based on benefit-to-cost ratio calculations. On the other hand, policies that cut expenditures under the mantra of “doing more with less” can also contribute to a decrease in high school graduation rates that could easily cancel out those savings. — Louis Volante is a professor at Brock University, John Jerrim is a lecturer in economics and social statistics at University College London and Jo Ritzen is a professor of international economics of education, science and technology at Maastricht University. This column first appeared in theconversation.ca.

NDP minister faces new charges

Another round of allegations that Citizens’ Services Minister Jinny Sims bypasses legal communication protocols turned much more serious on Tuesday.

Kate Gillie, a former constituency worker fired by Sims, wrote various authorities on March 4 with allegations of questionable conduct by the minister. Her email to the conflict-of-interest commissioner and to senior staff in Premier John Horgan’s office was obtained by the opposition B.C. Liberals.

Liberal MLA Mike de Jong told the house the allegations include that Sims was trying to facilitate entry into Canada of foreign nationals who were on a security watch, in exchange for money.

MLA Shirley Bond also quoted a passage from Gillie, saying she continually got “strident instructions from both the minister and senior political staff to phone or text only.”

Sims said the allegations were “a load of nonsense” and denied any money was involved in doing constituency work.

The email was sent nine weeks ago and opposition critics pressed Attorney General David Eby on how it has been handled. He appeared unaware of the email and referred instead to a letter Gillie’s lawyer wrote last week that surfaced in the legislature on Monday.

Lawyer Donald Sorochan copied various officials with a letter saying Gillie is concerned about Sims’ office being in deliberate defiance of the laws requiring retention of a full record of public business.

He said Gillie is prepared to swear that Sims instructed her to use non-official communication methods in order to avoid being captured by freedom-of-information laws.

Gillie also says that Sims used official email only for routine conversations because: “I have to have something to show them,” meaning people making FOI requests.

Gillie said, via her lawyer: “On more than one occasion, Sims’ ministry staff reprimanded me for communicating with them on their government emails and I was told on more than a few occasions: ‘Now I’m going to have to delete that. We’ve spoken to you about this before.’ ” She also said she was repeatedly told not to admit the use of a personal email address by Sims,

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IN THE FAST LEYNE

because “we have to protect the minister.”

Gillie ignored the instructions and stuck with official channels because she wanted communications documented.

She lasted six weeks on the job before Sims fired her in February.

“I was dismissed for being disrespectful of Jinny Sims, which was true since I had lost all reason to respect her,” Gillie said.

Sims told the house Tuesday that she only was trying to explain that government and constituency communications flow through different channels.

“I was very, very clear that the individual was to follow proper practices, and there was nothing nefarious about them.”

She said she would be remiss if she didn’t explain to new employees that they could not do constituency work through her government email or phone.

Sims had a similar tangle a year ago about following the FOI law, for which she is minister responsible. When numerous governmentbusiness emails were found from her personal address, she initially denied any wrongdoing, saying she was just forwarding material from a personal tablet. Then she eventually was forced to admit she broke the rules.

“I should not have used my personal email. I’ll be more diligent in the future,” she said at the time. “We are not a government that is trying to hide things.”

But Liberal critic Jas Johal said the new allegations show she has gone to even greater lengths than last time to circumvent the system she is responsible for upholding.

Sims said it’s “a very difficult human resources matter” and she could not get into details. There was no record as of Tuesday of any definitive response to Gillie from any of the offices she contacted with the complaints. It should have set off a few alarm bells. The fact it didn’t appear to is likely why Sorochan was retained by Gillie to make the case again. He wrote that he knows and respects the leadership on both sides of the aisle in the legislature and hopes they will respect democratic principles and respond appropriately.

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Tougher rules needed on imported dogs, vets say

The Canadian Press

When a British Columbia woman experiencing fever, headaches and weight loss for two months finally went to her doctor, a blood test revealed she’d contracted a contagious disease from a dog she’d rescued in Mexico.

Dr. Elani Galanis, an epidemiologist and public health physician at the BC Centre for Disease Control, said the case was surprising because the previously healthy middle-aged patient didn’t seem to be a candidate for the transmission of brucellosis, which medical literature suggests can afflict people with weakened immune systems, or the very young and elderly.

“Up until this adult woman became infected and tested positive we felt like the risk to humans, although possible, was very, very low,” said Galanis, who wrote about the anonymous woman in a recent issue of the BC Medical Journal.

The woman worked for an animal-rescue organization that transported dogs to Canada from Mexico and the United States, often driving there to pick up the animals, Galanis said.

On one occasion, she was bringing back a pregnant dog from Mexico and likely came into contact with the animal’s pregnancy fluids as it spontaneously aborted two stillborn puppies, Galanis said, adding the dog later tested positive for the bacterium brucella canis and the woman was diagnosed after seeking medical treatment last December.

“Given the story in other places, like the rest of North America, this hasn’t been seen much before,” Galanis said of transmission of the disease to humans. “We’re just starting to see it so I do believe it’s a true emergence of a new problem.”

“For us, the priority will be to ensure that physicians are aware that this is possible, that they ask the question about contact with animals, particularly imported dogs.”

Rob Ashburner, a veterinarian and spokesman for the B.C. branch of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, said efforts to have stricter regulations on the

importation of dogs involving multiple federal agencies have so far been fruitless.

“The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association has spent a lot of time trying to get the federal government to put some rules in place where animals imported from other countries should be tested for a bunch of communicable diseases, brucellosis being one of them,” he said. “Dogs from the warmer climates have all sorts of parasites that we don’t have here and they bring them in and affect our population as well.”

Plenty of dogs are available for adoption in Canada, Ashburner said, adding rescued animals can be traumatized after long trips and bring with them behavioural problems people may not expect.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency establishes requirements for animals such as dogs coming into the country.

It said dogs that are less than eight months old are inspected by its veterinarians at borders and older dogs are inspected by Canada Border Service Agency officers, who also review the animals’ certificates, such as those listing any vaccinations.

“If the CBSA officer has any concerns, such as the animal showing signs of illness or incomplete/ incorrect paperwork, they call a CFIA veterinarian for examination,” the agency said in an email. Ashburner said examinations at the border are not comprehensive and current regulations, requiring just a rabies vaccination, have been in place for decades, long before an increase in the number of pets and rescue-dogs being brought to Canada, sometimes with certificates that are bogus.

“In reality, just from personal experience, there are times when what the paperwork says is not

true,” he said, adding while more dogs are being brought to Canada, there are no national statistics on how many are coming in.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it acknowledges the global movement of animals, including dogs, can facilitate the spread of diseases that can be passed on to people.

“Educating breeders, importers, rescue organizations and Canadians on both the risks and mitigation measures is important to manage this issue,” it said.

However, the agency did not respond to questions about whether it plans to consider any policy changes involving potential transmission of diseases to humans.

Emilia Gordon, a veterinarian and senior manger of animal health with the British Columbia branch of the SPCA, said various groups in the province are trying to create standards of practice for

rescued animals.

“This is really an important issue for Canada,” she said. “I’ve personally seen a number of significant diseases in animals that were rescued from shelters in other countries.”

“We are increasingly seeing surrender requests for animals who were rescued from other countries and we’ve actually had to set an entire set of protocols and procedures in place to do risk assessments on these animals as they come in,” she said, adding up to five imported animals a week are being brought in to shelters around the province.

The United States, Mexico and south and central America were the major source countries about five years ago but that changed in the last year, with more dogs coming in from elsewhere in the world, including Asia and Morocco, Gordon said.

A dog is examined at a free animal health care clinic in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in October 2017.

Support your executive director

If you have ever sat on the board of a non-profit or charity, sports organization, or even that of a company, one of the things you have probably noticed is that most meetings are boring. Usually one person, the president, runs the meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order, and after minimal discussion, the board will vote on some agenda items, provided a quorum has shown up. Without a doubt, the agenda item that gets the most enthusiastic response is when someone moves that the meeting be adjourned.

One of my most interesting and gratifying gigs is that once a month I get to sit down with the executive directors of some nonprofits and charities to facilitate a peer-support group. We talk about the opportunities and challenges facing each of them in their roles of trying to make the world a better place. I watch as they help each other find solutions based on their own similar experiences.

Because of my previous board experience at a local and national level, I have had professional experiences with executive directors where they ran the organizations that I was tasked with helping provide direction for. I was often frustrated in those positions, sitting on a board, as I found many

BUSINESS COACH

DAVE FULLER

of the board members disengaged because they were preoccupied, short on time and lacking in vision. Some board members seemed to think that sitting on the board meant that you were only expected to show up for meetings.

Most boards I sat on have been dysfunctional in the sense that either the president or the executive director seemed to have an expectation that the decisions were to be made before the board meetings and that directors should rubber stamp all executive decisions.

I am not the only one unsatisfied at the dysfunction of boards. As I have learned working with my group of EDs over the past couple years, most executive directors are frustrated because their boards aren’t functioning the way that a good board should.

So what does that look like?

The purpose of a board of directors is to set the vision of the organization and provide a framework in which the ED is expected to operate. A board should give clear direction as to what achievements

they expect from the ED and have key performance indicators, (KPIs) measuring success. A good board leaves operational and managerial decisions to the executive director and supports that director by giving them advice when they ask. Board members should be prepared to do committee work when needed bringing additional information to the board to help the decision-making processes.

A healthy board meeting should have passionate discussions, not boring agreements.

There should be a variety of opinions, backgrounds, and diversity.

There needs to be clarity about the roles of the ED and of the board members. In addition, there needs to be clear lines of communication within the organization. Staff members should not be coming to the board looking for direction and directors should not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization.

A well-functioning organization has regular reviews of the executive director. These reviews should revolve around how well the executive director is performing regarding the completion of the strategic plan, the fulfilling of the mission and vision of the organization while adhering to the core values.

Having surveyed executive directors in my community, I know that most boards aren’t functioning the way they should be. In fact over 80 per cent of the EDs surveyed said that their board relied on them to provide the strategic direction for the organization. Executive directors are typically working very very hard for their organizations. They are often working more than 47 hours a week supervising on average seven employees and 30 volunteers. Most are paid 20-50 per cent less than they would receive for the same effort in government or the private sector.

The executive directors I know are passionate about the work they do and often, they don’t receive enough recognition or gratitude that they deserve for the effort they are putting in. This week if you happen to bump into the executive director of a nonprofit or charity or one of their employees, please thank them for working so hard for trying to make the world a better place. Our communities wouldn’t be the same without them.

— Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award winning business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Email your executive questions to dave@ profityourselfhealthy.com

Housing markets mix of contradictions

Riding the Skytrain in Vancouver always brings back a flood of memories to me. One of these surrounds a small mossy home, derelict, and in a less-thandesirable section of Whalley (one of the tougher neighbourhoods in Surrey).

The Skytrain was still a dream back when I was in college. The provincial election was in the air, and, as always, fraught with hostility between left and right. The proposed Skytrain route was a key point of debate in the campaign and I happened to frequent the thrift stores in the same part of Whalley where they were planning to put the train. And there, not far from a friend’s place, was a falling down old house, uninhabitable. It had been the site of a grizzly drug-induced murder that had also made the news and it was boarded up. Real estate was depressed – that used to happen occasionally in Vancouver area. As a student, I couldn’t even fathom the thought of buying a piece of property, given that a pair of jeans was well out of reach. But I knew if I could grab it, I would probably make good on it someday. It was something approaching worthless at that moment. Not really, but very cheap. I just looked up the assessed value for this year, and it is now worth roughly $1 million.

With the right real estate, a person could build a real estate.

Courtesy of RBC Economics, here is a view of the current housing trends in Canada’s two hottest markets, Toronto and Vancouver. To some extent, Lower Mainland refugees feed in to our market as well, adding salience to the discussion. The housing market picture is getting clearer but not simpler across Canada. Local real estate board results published in recent days show very contrasting paths. There was evidence that the Greater Toronto Area market is turning a corner with activity rebounding strongly in April and benchmark prices accelerating for a secondstraight month. Regina also saw a big pop in activity though prices

IT’S ONLY MONEY

continued to decline.

On the other hand, the Vancouver area market gave no hint that it was coming out of its slump and conditions were still definitely soft in Victoria. Resales and prices fell further in both markets last month. And despite some improvement, weak demand-supply conditions still apply downward pressure on prices in Calgary and Edmonton. Ottawa continued to stand out as one of Canada’s stronger markets although very tight for-sale inventory was a limiting factor for activity in April. This could well be the new normal in the near term.

In the end, Toronto home resales did bounce back from February’s weather-struck levels. It’s just that it occurred in April, not March. The Toronto Real Estate Association today said that April resales surged by more than 11 per cent m/m (on a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis). This fully reversed the sharp nine per cent drop that occurred in February and returned the market to late-2018 levels – which were admittedly soft but not dangerously so.

As we suspected, the muted market response in March was more of a supply story than a demand story. A decline in new listings in March had a restraining effect on market activity. A material increase in new listings in April (up almost 15 per cent m/m by our own calculations) pulled many buyers into play – a sign that pent-up demand is plentiful. Sales of single-detached homes grew the fastest among all housing categories (on a year-over-year basis), which was a surprise. Properties with lower price points (typically seen in the condo segment) have been the most sought-after in the past couple of year. It’s too early to tell whether

this is a sign of improving affordability for single-detached homes. Overall benchmark prices accelerated for the second-straight month, rising from an increase of 2.6 per cent y/y in March to 3.2 per cent in April. Generally balanced demandsupply conditions are setting the stage for further modest increases in the near term. Not so in the Vancouver area. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s April market report released last week showed a persistent imbalance between demand and supply, giving buyers substantial swaying power over prices. The benchmark price fell deeper with the pace of decline barely letting up. The benchmark is now down 8.7 per cent since the peak in June 2018. Home sales remained d e-pressed (down 29 per cent y/y) though they likely

picked up slightly (by two per cent by our calculations) from March on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

This could be a tentative sign of a cyclical bottom – or maybe not given the decidedly foul mood that continues to prevail in the market. Vancouver buyers and sellers are still digesting the many housing policy changes at all levels of government, and it may take still longer for the market to turn around.

— Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are his views and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on this information.

“You’re starting to see some optimism,” said Kash Pashootan, CEO and chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 125.72 points to 16,443.86.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 214.66 points to 25,862.68. The S&P 500 index advanced 25.43 points to 2,876.39 and the Nasdaq composite added 75.90 points to 7,898.05.

The gains come after steep losses to start the week, when Toronto’s main index shed just over 100 points, while the three major indices in New York fell by more than two per cent each after China announced retaliatory tariffs in response to action by the U.S. administration.

“It’s the market playing the game of quantifying tariff probability risk,” said Pashootan, “and given that there was a glance of sunshine from a tariff perspective today, markets are taking some comfort in that.” That relief came from media reports that American President Donald Trump could delay new tariffs on car and auto parts imports from Europe by up to six months.

The market is extrapolating that delay and placing a belief that it could carry over to other tariffs that have been spoken about, said Pashootan.

“The irony of it is that comfort comes at a time when the fundamental economic data is, in fact, negative,” he said, pointing to Wednesday’s American retail sales figures.

The Commerce Department said sales dropped 0.2 per cent in April.

While that’s one data point, Pashootan said it’s a factor that warrants some pause. In commodity markets, the Canadian dollar averaged 74.41 cents US, compared with an average of 74.34 cents US on Wednesday.

The June crude contract was up 85 cents at US$62.87 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was up 3.8 cents at about US$2.64 per mmBTU. The June gold contract fell US$11.60 at US$1,286.30

MARK RYAN

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

Despite freezing temeratures in February, crews continued to keep building the O’Grady Heights Apartments by Broadstreet Properties, located on Stringer Crescent and O’Grady Avenue.

Court time

Judo teammates taking no prisoners

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

Lochlan Young and Koen Heitman know the drill.

They’re both vying for the same national judo crown that goes to the under-73 kilogram champion and there’s a chance the Hart Judo Academy teammates will fight each other when they get to the mat this weekend in Edmonton.

Good friends away from the gym, they know there’s nothing friendly about their martial art when it’s time to compete. If it comes down to match between the two of them, they’re going to have to find a way to hate each other until it’s decided.

For Heitman, who moved up this year from the 66 kg weight class, he might think back to what Young did to him two years ago in practice to stir the rivalry in case they face each other this weekend.

“We have our moments where we fight a lot and things go wrong,” said Young. “I did break his ankle once, by accident. We train together, we’re friends, but as soon as you step on the mat it’s like fighting anybody else, no hard feelings when you lose. You just have to do what you have to, to win.”

Hart Judo Academy coach Bruce Kamstra says the two 16-year-olds are closely-matched and both are considered medal threats in the 73 kg class, one of the largest categories.

“It’’s going to take a lot of hard work (to beat Young),” said Heitman. “Whoever works harder gets it. I’ll be thinking about when he broke my ankle. I might break his knee.”

Both have gained international experience this year. In March, Heitman competed in the Masters International in Bremen, Germany, while Young attended a two-week training camp in Japan, the birthplace of judo.

“I’m used to fighting in the bigger divisions, too,” said Heitman.

“When I went to Germany, there were 94 people in my division, that’s three times what we get

here. It was a huge experience and I fought well. I lost to the guy that won bronze, who lost to the guy who got gold.”

Young represented B.C. at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer in March. Each province was limited to one athlete in each weight class at the Games, but there’s no such restriction at nationals this weekend.

At last year’s Canadian championships in Calgary, B.C. sent eight males in the 66 kg class. Four made the medal round and three of them found their way to the podium. Heitman fought at 66 kg and finished fifth, while Young was seventh in the U-18 class and lost in the U-21 bronze-medal match to finish fifth.

“We have a really strong B.C. team going, with Koen and couple other guys moving up in the 73 kg category,” said Young. “So I’m expecting a lot of medals from us.”

Twelve Hart Academy judokas are on the national slate this weekend. Also competing will be Davin Greenwood, Aydin Greenwood, Kimiko Kamstra, Andries Van Zyl, Brooke Corbett, Tula Moore, Gabe Paterson, Ioan Frizzell, Asher Young and Maxwell Young.

Corbett is entered in the U-21 women’s 42kg class. She won U-21 national bronze last year and claimed bronze two years ago in the U-18 event. The 17-year-old is in both age classes this weekend.

“Winning (gold) at nationals has been by goal forever, since

Canada still cool to Raptors TORONTO (CP) – Canada’s Team? Not quite. The Toronto Raptors enjoy a strong following in southern Ontario but it can be a rather mixed bag throughout the rest of the country. Supporters have been out in force in some cities but other markets are greeting the team’s deep playoff run with a shrug of the shoulders. Depending on the depth of team allegiance, sports fans in this country sometimes gravitate to Canadian clubs left standing in the post-season. With Canadian NHL teams eliminated and the soccer and baseball seasons in the early going, the Raptors are the last remaining option among the top North American sports leagues. Toronto superstar Kawhi Leonard has done his part to get people excited. His series-winning buzzer-beater last Sunday night gave the Raptors a berth in the Eastern Conference final against Milwaukee. Vancouver Whitecaps centre back Doneil Henry, a Raptors fan from Brampton, Ont., was walking his dog at the time.

I was little, seeing Lavanna Lass and Grace Northrop from my club go to the nationals and do good,” said Corbett. “I’m feeling healthy, ready and good.”

Tami Goto and Corbin Hilman will represent the Prince George Judo Club.

Goto, 17, has been to several national championships and is qualified for the national team gearing up for the world championships in Kazakhstan in September. She has a lot more experience than Hilman but their weights are the same and that makes them a good match as training partners at club practices.

For Hilman, 13, it’s his first time at that level and he’s entered in the U-16 -42 kg class.

“I think it’s going to be pretty

fun, I have friends from the Hart Judo club going there,” said Hilman, now in his eight year of judo.

“I’ve been practicing a lot, working on my cardio and everything.

(PGJC coach Aline Strasdin) doesn’t take it easy on me, she works me hard. Me and Tami work out a lot. She’s pretty strong and it’s hard to throw her.” Hilman is coming off a solidgold performance at a tournament in Dawson Creek.

“I’m pretty good at defence and I have a couple of good throws,” said Hilman. Competition starts today. Also looming on the horizon for a select few local athletes is the Canada Cup international event in Montreal, June 30-July 2.

“When Kawhi made the shot, you could hear everybody in Vancouver kind of screaming from my rooftop,” said Henry. “So I was really happy and I knew that we won.” An average 2.2 million Canadian viewers tuned in to Game 7, making it the most-watched NBA game ever in Canada, Sportsnet said. That’s still well below the ratings generated when the Blue Jays are in the playoffs – for example, the Jays averaged 5.12 million viewers for Game 6 of the 2015 American League Championship Series against Kansas City and 4.02 million for their 2016 wild-card win over Baltimore –but progress is being made. “I really believe the Kawhi Leonard buzzerbeater, win or lose in this next round, could go down in history as a real tipping point for basketball culture in Canada,” said Tom Mayenknecht, a Vancouverbased marketing communications executive and sport business commentator. “Because we don’t have a basketball culture, it’s obviously a heavily dominated hockey culture in this country. But this engaged so many people.”

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Lochlan Young, left, flips Koen Heitman at the Prince George Judo Club on Saturday morning during a demonstration.

Kings fall to Bandits

tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

BROOKS, Alta - The Brooks Bandits have been ranked Number 1 in the Canadian junior A hockey charts since the season began last September.

Now, after 85 games and nearly 10 months of hockey, the Bandits haven’t fallen from their lofty perch.

Not even a determined bunch of Prince George Spruce Kings could do the deed.

In the battle of the unbeatens at the National Junior A Hockey Championship Thursday night at Centennial Regional Arena, the Bandits beat the Kings 3-1 to finish atop the round-robin standings heading into Saturday’s semifinals.

Bandits defenceman Andrew Lucas gathered the rebound of his own shot on a fast-break entry into the Spruce Kings‚ zone and jammed the puck in for his second goal of the tournament with seven minutes gone in the third period.

That gave Brooks a 2-1 lead and Brandon Scanlin followed that up with an empty-netter while killing a penalty with 22 seconds left to put it away.

“We spent some time killing penalties tonight which took away from our flow but I thought the guys did a good job sticking with it throughout that and it was pretty darn close to (a full 60-minute effort),” said Bandits head coach and general manager Ryan Papaioannou. “We were on the kill most of the night so you better be good at it.”

The Bandits will face the fourthplace Ottawa Junior Senators in a semifinal game Saturday at 2 p.m. MT. The Kings will play Saturday night (6 p.m. PT) against the Oakville Blades, who claimed third place Thursday afternoon with a 7-4 win over Ottawa. Prince George played the only game of the tournament on Wednesday, a 5-1 win over the Portage Terriers, and head coach Adam Maglio thought that was a factor in the outcome Thursday, especially in

the third period in which the Kings were outshot 11-4.

“We were coming off playing last night and Brooks had a day off so it’ll be nice to have a day off (Friday) and regroup,” said Maglio. “I think sometimes you need that (adversity) to get better in a tournament and I’m sure our guys will come out firing on Saturday, They’re not happy with that loss.”

Down 1-0 late in the second period, the Spruce Kings got what they were after with just 67 seconds left on the clock. Dylan Anhorn drifted in with the puck from the point and unleashed a wrist shot that ticked into the net behind Pierce Charleson off the stick of Nick Poisson standing in front of the Bandits’ net. It was the tournament-leading fourth goal for Poisson, who has scored in all four of his team’s games this week in Brooks.

“It’s tough losing this game, we don’t really like these guys too much,” said Poisson. “At the end of the day we’re probably the two

best teams at the tournament and we’ll probably end up seeing each other again Sunday, so we just have to focus on Saturday and make sure we bear down and win a game against Oakville.

“We had a sloppy third. When it was a 1-1 game, we had all the momentum and that’s inexcusable. If we come out buzzing in the third, it’s a different game.”

The shots favoured Brooks 3122. The Kings failed to score on five power-play chances, while Brooks went 0-for-2.

“Tonight was still a good game,” said Kings goalie Logan Neaton. “At the end of the day, it didn’t go our way but there are definitely some positives we can build off it. We actually played pretty decent at times and had a chance to win.”

LOOSE PUCKS: The Kings are auctioning off their game jerseys on the team’s Facebook site. Each player gets to keep one of their game-worn sweaters, either blue or white, and the one they don’t pick will be available to Kings’ fans.

Raptors hoping for Game 2 rebound

MILWAUKEE (AP) – When the season started, everyone knew the Eastern Conference would have a new king. LeBron James left Cleveland, having taken his talents to Los Angeles.

Toronto got swept out of the 2017 and 2018 playoffs by James and the Cavs. Now they’re already facing a 1-0 deficit against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks tonight, after dropping Game 1 despite leading for 37 of the game’s 48 minutes.

“Sometimes, we just missed some shots,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry shrugged.

The way the Raptors see it, the adjustment to make finals might not be an adjustment at all.

They liked most everything but the outcome of Game 1 – a 108-100 Bucks win – and figure that if they play the same Friday, they’ll have another chance at stealing away homecourt advantage.

“This team has handled downs pretty well and ups pretty well, and that’s been one of our focuses since day one of training camp,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “So let’s hope we can keep that going a little bit.”

The Bucks won a game where they shot just under 40 per cent and were 11 of 44 from 3-point range. They made up for that on the defensive end and on the backboards – they held every Raptor not named Lowry or Kawhi Leonard to 1 for 23 shooting after halftime, and outrebounded Toronto 60-46.

Still, Toronto insists it is not worried about the offence.

“Everything starts on the defensive end,” Raptors forward Serge Ibaka said.

Here’s some other things to know going into Game 2:

• The last time Toronto had two 30-point scorers in the same game and lost – before it happened Wednesday – was Feb. 2, 2012. Game 1 was only the third time this season that the Bucks allowed two opponents to score 30 in the same game; Brandon Ingram and LeBron James did it for the Los Angeles Lakers in a Milwaukee win on March 1, and Leonard and Pascal Siakam did it in a Toronto victory on Jan. 5.

Bruins sweep Canes to reach Cup final

The Associated Press

Tuukka Rask posted his seventh career playoff shutout, and the Boston Bruins swept the Carolina Hurricanes out of the Eastern Conference final, winning 4-0 on Thursday night to reach their third Stanley Cup Final in nine years. Rask made 24 saves in his second straight series-clinching shutout. Patrice Bergeron scored two goals, David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and Brad Marchand added an empty-netter.

Both Bergeron and Pastrnak scored on second-period power plays.

The Bruins won their seventh straight post-season game – their longest playoff winning streak in nearly half a century – to return to the Cup final after winning it in 2011 and losing to Chicago in 2013.

On its longest post-season win streak since reeling off nine straight in 1972, Boston earned a break before taking on the West winner. San Jose leads its series with St. Louis 2-1 heading into Game 4 tonight.

The Bruins won this one without captain

Zdeno Chara, who was scratched with an unspecified injury and is day to day, ending a run of 98 consecutive playoff games for the hulking 42-year-old veteran that dated to 2011. Chara joined his teammates on the ice for the post-series handshake line with Carolina.

Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves for the Hurricanes, whose first playoff appearance since 2009 ended precisely the same way their previous post-season trip did – by being swept in the East final. Carolina got this far by sweeping the New

York Islanders in Round 2.

Not that the extra rest time helped the Hurricanes, or anyone else in these playoffs: no team that swept its opponent has won its next series. After outscoring them 17-5 in four games, Boston no doubt wants to halt that trend – especially with the sport’s biggest prize on the line.

Special teams drove this series, with the Bruins scoring seven power-play goals in the four games while the Hurricanes had five during their entire 15-game post-season run.

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

MATTHEW MURNAGHAN / HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES

The Brooks Bandits defeated the Prince George Spruce Kings 3-1 on Thursday night in the final game of the round-robin at National

Junior A Championships in Brooks, Alta.

Archie Bunker returns to TV next week

The Associated Press

Archie Bunker is coming back to prime-time network TV and he might look a little different to viewers – even if what he says is exactly the same.

Woody Harrelson is stepping into the iconic role as part of a 90-minute ABC special celebrating writer, director and producer Norman Lear. It airs May 22.

“It’s going to be exciting as hell,” said Lear. “Another version of Archie Bunker is going to play Archie Bunker. A great, great talent is going to be Archie Bunker.”

The live special will recreate one original episode from All in the Family and another from The Jeffersons. It will be hosted by Lear and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who dreamed up the idea.

“It really is astonishing just how great these shows are. I say ‘are’ and not ‘were’ because they are still great,” Kimmel said. “I’m excited that a new generation will get to see them, and be reminded of them and then maybe take the time to go back and watch all the old ones.”

Joining Harrelson in Carroll O’Connor’s old role in All in the Family will be Marisa Tomei playing Bunker’s long-suffering wife, Edith. Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes will play George and Louise Jefferson in The Jeffersons, in

roles played originally by Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford. The special will also feature Ellie Kemper, Will Ferrell, Justina Machado,

Kerry Washington, Sean Hayes and Anthony Anderson. Lear’s two 1970s-era sitcoms are cut from the same topical cloth,

Canadian date for Stones show going ahead

The Canadian Press

The Rolling Stones are sticking to their Canada Day weekend concert date after all.

The British rockers say they’ve put the only Canadian stop on their North American tour back on their schedule as planned, after it was postponed when Mick Jagger underwent heart surgery earlier this year.

The Stones will perform on June 29 at the outdoor Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, Ont., about 30 kilometres north of Barrie.

They’ll be joined by two Juno-winning rock bands, Toronto quartet the Beaches and Kingston, Ont., natives the Glorious Sons.

The announcement came as the Stones unveiled a new set of dates for their No Filter tour, which was

originally set to begin in Miami on April 20. It’ll now kick off in Chicago with two shows on June 21 and 25.

There’s also a new July 14 date set for New Orleans, where the Stones were originally slated to play the jazz festival.

Jagger’s recovery has been swift after he went under the knife in the early spring.

The 75-year-old attended the ballet performance of his girlfriend Melanie Hamrick in April, and on Wednesday posted an Instragram video of him dancing to “Techno Fan” by the Wombats, sparking speculation among his fans that a tour announcement was on the horizon.

Tickets sold for the original No Filter dates will be honoured, but those who can’t attend can get refunds by accessing their Ticketmaster accounts.

New doc looks back at Gorbachev

The Canadian Press

For German filmmaker Werner Herzog, the rise and fall of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev represents not only a personal tragedy, but a political failure of global proportions.

Herzog’s new documentary, Meeting Gorbachev, chronicles the Communist leader’s efforts to open the Soviet Union to the outside world, which set the stage for the fall of the Iron Curtain.

But Herzog fears Gorbachev’s promise of a “peace zone” extending from Vancouver to Vladivostok has been squandered as renewed hostilities between Russia and the West raise the spectre of the Cold War.

“What was interesting to me is the dynamics that rule international relationships beyond Gorbachev,” Herzog said in an interview with Meeting Gorbachev co-director Andre Singer at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall.

“The feeling is always present in the conversations with Gorbachev: How many chances have we missed ever since?”

Over a six-month period, Herzog conducted three interviews with Gorbachev, reflecting on his political trajectory from party apparatchik to trailblazing reformer and, ultimately, scapegoat for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

With his signature Bavarian bravura, Herzog paints an

unabashedly fawning portrait of his subject, at one point outright telling Gorbachev “I love you” for his leadership during the reunification of Germany.

This praise is echoed by a host of international dignitaries in the film who say Gorbachev’s diplomatic touch was instrumental to forging a nuclear disarmament deal with former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

Herzog draws a parallel between Gorbachev and Reagan’s “improbable” rapport at the 1986 Reykjavik summit and the “even more improbable” top-level meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore last year.

“They talk to each other, and we

should have respect for that – no matter what you think of Trump, no matter what you think of Kim Jong Un,” Herzog said.

The same accomplishments that made Gorbachev a “mascot” in the West – particularly his reluctant role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union – have rendered him a “traitor” for many Russians, said Herzog.

Since the death of his beloved wife in 1991, the ailing 88-yearold has lived in Russia in relative isolation, most of his family having moved abroad.

“He lives in fundamental solitude, in a way, and it’s not only a personal tragedy. I think there’s something very Russian about it,” said Herzog.

tackling racism, feminism and the Vietnam War. Asked if they still hold up, Lear was clear. “I think they work very well,” he said.

“Funny is funny.”

Kimmel took inspiration from the recent move by networks to mount Broadway musicals and make them into live events, like Rent, The Sound of Music and Grease.

“I’m not that interested in musicals. I love television shows. And I was just thinking about what gets ratings on TV nowadays,” said Kimmel. “It seems like live events are still pretty popular and still doing well. I was thinking about the old shows and I thought, ‘Why don’t we do one of these great old shows?’ I know people love Grease but how many times do you need to see that?”

Though producers won’t reveal which episodes of the sitcoms are being restaged, Kimmel promised having them live in front of a studio audience – and the world on TV – will give the shows a jolt of electricity. He wants Americans to watch them the way they used to –together, at the same time. He’s not worried about any screw ups, either, since that adds to the suspense.

“We may release a box of rats onto the set just to see what happens,” he joked. “I think it adds something to the production. You see it in the live musicals. They wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if they were on tape.”

Executive producer Norman Lear appears at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills last July.

AP PHOTO

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is helped by his assistants as he arrives in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9 to attend the Victory Day military parade to celebrate 74 years since the victory in the Second World War.

Nancy “Carole”

Stooksberry

March 20, 1939

May 13, 2019

Our sorrow runs deep as we announce the passing of Carole, at the age of 80 years. She was a loving mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt and, until just a few months ago, a wife to her beloved “Rusty” of 54 years. If you were one of her friends, she was your staunchest supporter. Carole was a fiercely independent soul by nature. She relished a good suspense novel, complex crossword puzzles, art, gardening, “Jeopardy”, and was obsessed with watching the sport of curling (no interruptions tolerated!).

Carole had a flair for decor, and could create the most amazing displays, from wreaths to extraordinary Christmas trees; and her gardens were a paradise. Her censure was swift and direct; her support was absolute.

Walk peacefully, sweetheart, among your prized marigolds and stargazer lilies, knowing you were so very cherished. ~Your loving family~ Celebration of Life to be announced at a later date.

Gary Vincent Samis; The Commish; Sammy; 67 years old, Prince George, BC

Gary Vincent Samis was born on March 1, 1952 at St. Vincent Hospital in Vancouver, BC. He passed away peacefully at St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver, BC on May 13, 2019. Gary was the eldest son to predeceased parents, Lorraine and George Samis. He is survived by his best friend and loving wife, Theresa of 44 years of marriage, children Allison (Paul) and Ryan (Leah) and six beautiful grandchildren Jake, Thomas, Charlotte, Cora Lee, Geneva and Lincoln. Also survived by his brother Verne and twin sisters, Maureen (Clark) and Marilyn (Frank) and numerous nephews and nieces; Aunt Jocelyn and Uncle Bob and cousins; all of whom loved him dearly, including his little pup “second Chance”.

Gary worked with Petro-Canada/Suncor for over 30 years with commitment and dedication. After he retired, he fulfilled his lifelong dream of working with a WHL team by becoming the Corporate Sales Manager for the Prince George Cougars. He also commenced the Prince George Cougars Alumni Hospital Charity Golf Tournament, raising funds for The Spirit of the North HealthCare Foundation. He was an active parishioner of Immaculate Conception Parish, serving on both the parish and finance councils. Prayer vigil will be held at Immaculate Conception on Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. Funeral will take place at Sacred Heart Cathedral on Friday, May 24, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Burial and reception to follow. The family would like to extend a thank you to the excellent care and dedication of the staff at the University Hospital of Northern BC and St. Paul’s, allowing his family to properly say goodbye. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations to the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation.

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Forever in our hearts

Celebrating the life of Irvina (Vi) Corallie Forden (Butler) Nov. 8, 1940Feb. 22, 2019

Please join us Saturday May 18th at 1:00 p.m. at the Spruce Capital Senior’s Centre, 3701 Rainbow Dr. Prince George, BC. Left with loving memories are her husband Charles, her children: Joe (Lee) McAuley, Teri (Brian) Helgeson, stepdaughter, Velvet (Rick) Speiss, her very special nephew, Rod Butler (Marg), her grandchildren: Michael Helgeson, Ryan Helgeson (Sophia), great grandson, Tyson Helgeson, step grandchildren: Doug (Lisa), Kelsey, Jake, Amanda (Wyatt), Heather, Derek and several great grandchildren, her sister and best friend Thelma White (Glen), brothers John Butler (Trish), Bud Butler (Betty), as well as her many sister and brothers-in-law, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. She will be forever missed

Norman Clemens Goetken Dec 12, 1940 to Apr 1, 2019

It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the passing of Norman Clemens Goetken”Papa”.Norman is survived by his sons Norman (Corina) & Dave, Art (Donna) & Brian along with his cherished grandchildren: Megan, Brooklyn, Amy & Radek, Crystal, Brandon & Lucas. We always knew we shared our dad with his many close and special friends. dad’s friends were so important to him and we appreciate them and all the help they provided us during our father’s health crisis. Norman was born in Unity, Saskatchewan, grew up in Vancouver, eventually settling in Prince George.

Please note: we will have a Celebration of Life on June 29, 2019 from 1-4pm at the Elders Citizens Recreation Association located at 1692 10th Avenue, Prince George, BC. In lieu of flowers donations can be made in his honour with the Canadian Cancer Society.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Royden Pearson Priest on May 10, 2019. Surrounded by family, he went to reunite with his wife, Virginia Lena Priest. Royden was born in Diligent River, Cumberland Co., NS. His kind and gentle presence will be missed by his family, friends and church members.

A Service to celebrate Royden’s life will be held Saturday, May 18, 2019 @ 1:00pm at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 4180 5th Ave., Prince George, BC. Tea to follow at 3:00pm at the church.

LINDSAY,CELIAM. FEBRUARY22,1945 -FEBRUARY11,2019 Pleasejoinusaswe celebratethelifeofour mother,grandmother, sisterandfriend,Celia LindsayonSaturday, May25that1:00pmat GraceChurch,2640 GoheenStreet,Prince George,BC.Reception tofollow. Thoughwegrieveour loss,thereisjoy,too, inhavingknownand lovedsuchaspecial person.

Tracy Keith (Griffiths) 1971 - 2019

It is with incredible sadness that Peter, Julie and Jeff Griffiths share the passing of their beautiful daughter and sister Tracy on May 13 at Kensington Hospice in Toronto. Tracy was born in Kitimat BC but spent most of her childhood and teen years in Prince George. Tracy graduated from high school in Prince George and quickly left to go to Vancouver to attend UBC. Wanting a fresh start she moved to Toronto and immediately fell in love - both with the city and her husband to be Scott Keith. She graduated from Ryerson University with a degree in Social Work and followed that up with her Masters from U of T. Tracy worked in child protection for many years both for Children’s Aid and in private practice. Tracy and Scott were married in 2001 and have two wonderful children Owen (15) and Bronwyn (12). She was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2009 and through her determination and refusal to be beaten survived much longer than her original prognosis. Tracy was cared for twice in the last nine months at Kensington Hospice in Toronto. We ask in her memory that you send a donation to Kensington Hospice www.kensingtonhealth.org . Celebrations of her life will be held in Toronto and in Vancouver at a later date.

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

It is with great sadness the we announce the passing of Robert (Bob) Lehoux. He passed away peacefully on May 3rd, 2019. He was 76. He made it to the day our parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. He is survived by his wife Linda Lehoux, his four children: Michelle Lehoux, Leah Healey (spouse Dillon), Nicole Lehoux, and Ryan Lehoux (spouse Melissa), 7 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren as well as his 11 siblings.

A celebration of life will be held at the home of Leah and Dillon Healey on Sunday, May 26th, at 1:00 pm at 7312 Eugene Rd., Prince George, B.C.

WALKER, Ernest Ian passed away May 14, 2019 in Prince George, BC. He was born Sept. 23, 1933 in Richhill, Armagh, N. Ireland and immigrated to Canada in 1951. After receiving a B.A. from Acadia Univ. in N.S. and a B.D. from McMaster Univ., ON, he pastored with Canadian Baptist churches in NS, ON, MB, & BC. He was known for his sense of humour and love for God and people. Ian is lovingly remembered by his wife of 59 years, Margaret (nee Burritt), children Heather of Kelowna, John (Susie) of Prince George, Jeff (Cathy) of Penticton, Rod (Jody) of Prince George; grandchildren, Andrew (Bree), Brennan, Owen (Kezia), Kyle, Meg, Kaleigh (Brandon), Ian (Lianna), Jaymie; great-grandchildren, Alexa, Esmeralda, Zalena, Jax, Zaira, as well as many other family and friends. He is predeceased by parents John and “Lily” (nee Redmond) and siblings, Jim, Alan, Jean, Hilda, and Emily. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Sat. May 18, at the E. Free Church, 4590 5th Avenue, P.G.