Prince George Citizen May 18, 2019

King of the blueline

Max Coyle plays big minutes as a Spruce Kings defenceman and he’s not afraid of a challenge, on or off of the ice

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

BROOKS, Alta. – Max Coyle has become the Prince George Spruce King player fans of the Brooks Bandits love to hate. They chant his name in derision when he’s on the ice, which in Coyle’s case is often. The 21-yearold defenceman played 38 minutes in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Bandits which clinched first place in the preliminary round for the Alberta champions.

Coyle has done nothing sinister to draw the ire of the Bandits’ bandwagon brigade. He doesn’t go looking for trouble, even though he’s probably the strongest and toughest guy out there wearing a crown on his jersey.

Coyle knows he can’t help his team if he’s stewing in the penalty box. He’s got himself and his teammates focused on winning the national junior A hockey championship and the Kings are getting close, just two wins away from the ultimate prize.

Coyle has been the warrior on the Prince George blueline. Coach Adam Maglio uses him in all situations as a shutdown d-man and he’s also showed his offensive upside when it matters most in the playoffs. He’s already matched the 18 points he accumulated in 56 regular season games and now has four goals and 15 assists for 19 points in 27 playoff games.

Two of those helpers came this week in the national tournament, which pushed the Kings to a 3-1 record with a chance to advance to the final if they defeat the Oakville

Blades in a semifinal game Saturday night (6 p.m. PT).

Coyle is the vocal leader of the pack. He’ll yell out instructions to his teammates on the ice before a face-off to make sure they know what they have to do on a set play and when they need a bit of a boost on the bench, Coyle is not afraid to speak up.

He goes that extra mile to look out for his Spruce King brothers. Like when he jumped off the bench to hug 15-year-old Fin Williams after he scored his first B.C. Hockey League goal in the playoffs against Victoria.

It’s the little things like that which make Coyle the naturalborn leader he is.

Like when Coyle saw defenceman Nick Bochen, all of five-footnine, struggling as the only Spruce King not tall enough to reach through the pack of jubilant players and touch the Doyle Cup the Kings won a couple weeks ago in Prince George. He picked Bochen up just so he could get a hand on the trophy.

Before he got to the Spruce Kings, Coyle played three seasons with the Listowel Cyclones, and he last year he led them their firstever Ontario junior B provincial championship. He did the same thing with the Spruce Kings, who had never in their 23-year BCHL history won the Fred Page Cup or Pacific regional Doyle Cup title until this season.

As much as his parents, Bob and Belinda from Tillsonburg, Ont., are proud of their eldest son’s hockey accomplishments in his final junior season, it’s what

he’s done away from the rink that touches their soul.

The lure of the NCAA and the chance to get a team interested enough to offer a U.S. college scholarship is what brought Coyle to Prince George. The one thing holding him back was his academic standing. Several Division 1 schools wanted him for hockey abilities but he didn’t have enough high school core subjects on his resume to meet their requirements.

The University of AlabamaHuntsville made him a deal. If Coyle enrolled in school full-time at CNC while he played for the Spruce Kings and he was able to pass all his subjects with good enough grades, there was a fouryear full-ride scholarship waiting for him. Juggling school and hockey was the hardest thing Coyle has ever had to do but he did it, pulling off a 2.70 grade point average to clear the lone hurdle preventing him from playing in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association with the Chargers.

“We both didn’t expect him to make it,” said Belinda. “He knew it was going to be the worst year of his life and he got through it. He was on the ice or watching video until 3 p.m. and then he’d go to school until 9 or 10 at night. We’re more proud of that than his hockey.”

Coyle has beaten the odds before. He was born seven weeks premature on Jan. 29, 1998, as a seven-pound baby and spent a month on a respirator until his lungs could develop.

“They sat us down three times over a three-week period to say

he’s not going to make it through the night,” said Belinda.

Coyle has a 19-year-old sister, Meg, a law student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and they get along like fire and water, and he has a 17-year-old brother, Kenny, who worships the ground Max walks on.

Tillsonburg is a tobacco town of about 15,000 located 40 minutes south of London. Coyle started skating when he was two, with help from his mom, a former figure skater who taught him how to use his edges. By the time he was four, he was playing on a team of eight-year-olds. His path through minor hockey led him to triple-A regional teams until his first year of bantam, when the Tillsonburg coach asked him to play for his hometown team which went on to win the provincial title.

Coyle first heard about Prince George from his hockey buddy, Jamie Huber, who was recruited by the Kings two seasons ago but didn’t like all the bus travel the Kings have to do and left the team early that season. Coyle was prepared for those long trips and has used that time to form an unbreakable bond with his teammates.

“He absolutely loves the guys and he felt this team did a lot more work than any other team as far as icetime and video preparation,” said Belinda. “He’s got buddies on other teams that came from Listowel and they’d be on the ice 45 minutes a day and that was it. This was a lot of work and he thinks very highly of Mags (head coach Maglio). He thinks he got in with the best coach, which is why

he came to Prince George.”

Bob was home in Tillsonburg watching with a crowd of friends and Belinda was in Colorado and couldn’t be there to join the celebration when the Kings captured the Doyle Cup in a six-game series win over Brooks in front a delirious sold-out crowd at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. But Max used his phone to Facetime his mom so she could share the moment with him. All the Kings players have parents with them this week in Brooks.

Coyle’s billet parents from Prince George, Carmen and Shawn DeMerchant, also made the trip and found out it was Bandits forward Jake Lee’s billet grandfather who started the “Coyle” catcalls. Lee, a native of Owen Sound, Ont., and Coyle were Cyclone teammates for those three seasons and became best friends after they stayed together in the same billet house for those three seasons in Listowel.

“Max spoke to the billet grandfather and spoke to him when he visited Jake’s house and he told him he was going to yell out his name, just joking around, and the fans caught on to that,” said Belinda.

“He thrives on it, and it makes him better. He’s a pretty chirpy guy and he loves that.”

Coyle used to fight a lot in Listowel and he started to change his ways after one particular scrum.

“An older guy on another team pinned him in a corner and said to him, ‘You’ve gotta stop the beaking, you’re a good hockey player, rely on that more than your mouth.’ That turned Max, he went from 100 per cent chirping to 10 per cent chirping.”

CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

Prince George Spruce Kings defenceman Max Coyle with his parents Bob and Belinda, who came from their home in Tillsonburg, Ont., to watch their oldest son play for a national junior championship. Every Spruce Kings player has at least one parent in Brooks, Alta., including Chong Min Lee, whose mother came all the way from Korea.

For that story, turn to page 9.

Agencies hold disaster rehearsal

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

It’s an exceptionally-hot midsummer morning and it hasn’t rained for weeks when a lightning strike southwest of Prince George sparks a wildfire that has grown out of control, forcing an evacuation of the Beaverly area while a northwest wind is pushing the blaze into city limits.

With the help of a 900-squarefoot map of the city laid out on the floor of CN Centre, about 80 people representing a dozen agencies worked their way through what should happen next on Friday in what was described as a worst-case scenario.

City emergency programs

manager Adam Davey said the exercise followed on two previous versions beginning with one on April 2 when they looked at a “tactical evacuation” or an immediate evacuation with responders knocking on doors and urging residents to leave.

That was followed on May 2 with a look at how a planned evacuation would work if the wildfire grew. “How would we talk to other agencies, how would we work together, how would we make sure the public is safe,” Davey said.

Friday’s “rehearsal concept drill” was the culmination.

“Just walking through both of those days on a large map,” Davey said. “Rather than discussing it around a white board, now we’re doing it as close to real time as we can get.”

Their shoes covered with plastic booties to prevent scuffing, participants arranged signs and placed miniature vehicles on the map. Where livestock should be corralled and where pets should be housed were among the topics they dealt with.

“Emergency response is doing simple things in really challenging conditions,” Davey said. “When the sky is smoky and people are scared and stressed, simple things become challenging which is why we’re testing it out today - so that if an event ever hit, what process do we have to go through.”

Along with roads, forested areas and elevations, the map also depicts the city’s four colourcoded garbage collection zones which also act as the emergency evacuation zones should that need arise.

If an evacuation order is issued for a particular zone, residents in that area are encouraged to gather at CN Centre.

While the vast majority of the city’s population can simply drive, the elementary schools in each zone will act as mustering points for those who cannot and from there, they will be bused to the arena.

Regardless, Davey urged everyone to assemble a “grab and go” kit containing enough food, water, clothing and personal items to tide them over for a full 72 hours. He also encouraged people to sub-

Local doctor receives provincial award

Citizen staff

A Prince George doctor has been named the B.C. Family Physician of the Year.

Along with helping patients daily, Dr. Catherine Textor as also been working extensively behind the scenes to improve health care in Prince George, according to the B.C. College of Family Physicians.

“Dr. Textor has worked diligently in her 10 years of practice in Prince George to

preserve and improve full-service family medicine in the north,” the BCCFP said in a statement issued Thursday.

“Through her work in the Division (Prince George Division of Family Practice) she has led a number of projects in a pursuit to improve medicine in the north. One such project is geared at improving access to psychiatric care in Northern B.C.

“She has also spearheaded the development of a Family Medicine Teaching Unit at

the University Hospital of Northern B.C.”

Textor has also been instrumental in bringing a healthcare centre to Parkwood Mall, slated to open next month.

Textor grew up on Vancouver Island and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Victoria before heading to medical school at the UBC.

Inspired by the teaching she received at the Prince George site of the Family Medicine Residency Training Program, she

scribe to the city’s emergency alert app. Above all, he said there is no need to panic.

While the risk of fire outside the city may have increased with the lack of water, Davey also noted the work to clear beetle-killed pine has lowered the risk within Prince George.

“Be prepared, know your zone, but still enjoy summer,” he said.

became a full-service family doctor in this city in 2003. She provides all aspects of family medicine including emergency room, obstetrical, long term, and palliative care.

Textor has also taught in the Northern Medical Program since its inception and was a preceptor in the Family Medicine Residency Program from 2003 to 2009. In addition, she is the Physician Lead at the Prince George Division of Family Practice.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

The City of Prince George held a Emergency Operations Workshop on Friday at CN Centre. The city has been hosting these workshops in order to train staff, external agencies and emergency personnel, as well as to refine the city’s evacuation plan.

Resignation ‘a shock to the district’

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Former School District 57 (SD57) superintendent Marilyn Marquis-Forster has issued a statement for the first time since her sudden departure from the job earlier this week.

Tuesday was her last day as head of one of the geographically largest school districts in the province.

“It has been an honour and privilege to serve the students, families and communities of School District No. 57 (Prince George) over the past three years,” said her written statement, but other than a description from the district’s board of trustees that suggested a desire to “devote more time to the pursuit of other activities and opportunities,” there is still no concrete reason given for Marquis-Forster’s resignation.

In her written statement issued by the district, she praised the partnerships and collaborations she had worked with in her three years here.

“I have enjoyed working collaboratively with UNBC, CNC, Northern Health, other provincial ministries, local non-profit organizations and the private sector,” she said.

“The SD57 team is over 2,000 strong,” she added. “Together we have celebrated

Polygamous leader guilty

CRANBROOK (CP) – There’s

“no room for doubt” that a former leader in a fundamentalist Christian sect that practises polygamy in Bountiful, B.C., knew that an underage girl who he removed from Canada to be married in the United States would be subject to sexual contact, a judge said Friday.

James Oler was found guilty of removing a 15-year-old girl from the community to the United States to be married to an older member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2004.

In delivering her decision, Justice Martha Devlin of the B.C. Supreme Court said Oler saw with substantial certainty that the girl would be expected to consummate the marriage immediately in order to “fulfil her role in bringing forward children in line with the divine mandate.”

“Entering (the girl) into an ordinary marriage would leave no doubt, but as here, entering her into a plural marriage that is imperative to her salvation, leaves even less room,” she said.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 15.

The ruling brings to an end a lengthy court process. Oler was acquitted in 2017 by a judge who was not convinced he did anything within Canada’s borders to arrange the girl’s transfer. But the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned the decision, saying that proof of wrongdoing in Canada was not necessary and ordered a new trial.

Oler was self-represented and did not call any witnesses or make a case in his defence during the retrial. He sat quietly as Devlin delivered her decision in the small courtroom in Cranbrook and declined to comment outside.

Lawyer Joe Doyle, who served as a friend of the court to ensure a fair trial, argued that a four-day gap in the girl’s whereabouts is enough to dispute whether she was removed from Canada in 2004.

Devlin said she had to “wrestle to a conclusion” whether the evidence established the girl’s presence in Canada during that time, and specifically on the day that Warren Jeffs, the church’s prophet and president, ordered Oler to deliver her for the marriage.

“This is the linchpin of this retrial,” Devlin said.

But a “perfect reconstruction” of the girl’s movement was not required of the Crown and Devlin found it would “strain credulity” to suggest the girl travelled to the United States ahead of a group driving from Canada, she said.

If the girl had already been in the United States, it’s more likely that she would have been sent directly to meet Jeffs rather than back to a site near the border where witness accounts placed her the day before her marriage.

The community also doesn’t allow young women to travel without supervision, so Devlin said it’s very unlikely that the girl would have crossed the border on her own.

a number of significant achievements. The district met the requirements of the restored language to the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation Collective Agreement, and Springwood Elementary was reopened in September 2017. Construction of a new Kelly Road Secondary School, scheduled to open in September 2020, is well underway.”

She also celebrated, at length, the improved learning outcomes for Aboriginal students of the district, plus the signing of two education agreements with area First Nations - Lheidli T’enneh in July of 2017 and McLeod Lake in June of 2018 – plus the implementation of policies to support better Aboriginal learning outcomes and other inclusionary protocols.

“Most recent measures of SD57 student achievement, as reported through the SixYear Graduation Rates and Foundation Skill Assessment (FSA) results, have never been higher,” she said. “SD57 students, staff,

families and community deserve to feel gratified with this achievement are well-positioned to enjoy continued success.”

When asked how much notice the board had been given, the board’s chair Tim Bennett told The Citizen there had been little advance warning but did not specify the timelines. It was at a point close to the end of the school year, he said, which offered certain advantages in administrating the complexities of managing the school district’s business.

“It’s always a shock to the board when there’s a resignation of your superintendent,” Bennett said. “We had a heads up but it is still a shock to the district.”

The board as a whole 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.

“We have a great leadership team at the district office, between our assist superintendents, our secretary-treasurer, and other very capable senior administrators,” Bennett said. “But many of them have what’s probably best described as a morethan-full-time job, so we will be looking first for an interim superintend to address any added pressures and then beginning our search for the next full superintendent of the district.”

Bennett did not specify is the parting was amicable or acrimonious but did say he and the board felt gratitude for her three years of work and “we wish her nothing but the best. We respect her decision.”

The resignation of any senior staff has impacts on the flow of the district’s administrative organization, Bennett said, but nothing that would be felt in the classroom.

“The district will not run as normal, but schools will run as normal,” he said. “We have a fantastic team and this is, as we look forward, definitely an opportunity to find someone new to the position who will embrace our district’s challenges and move the district forward on the work already done.”

Fan appreciation

City rains on Elks May Day Parade

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

There will be no Elks May Day Parade after all.

A representative of Elks Lodge 122 said via Facebook message that the annual event, set for its 88th edition to happen today, had to be halted.

An initial Facebook message addressed from P.G Elks Community Hall stated on Thursday that “regretfully this parade had to be cancelled due to not getting maps for location from the City.”

A further message from the same address said on Friday that “This is to notify all that due to City not providing map of route for parade(s) that they are putting into effect, too many participants had cancelled due to

not knowing what when where how for the parade and the parade had to be cancelled. We are working with the City elected official to ensure the persons are going to proceed in a better manner. We also wanted to put on a Santa Claus Parade and they will be working with this also. Our apologies to all that are disappointed and we hope to make this up to you.”

When The Citizen contacted Elks Club administrator Larry Lovell for clarification, he explained that they made their formal application for the parade on March 16, and were given permission to ahead, but the permit was only valid with an official map of the route which City Hall would provide.

“We got it day before yesterday,” said Lovell on Friday. “There is a delegated map now for all parades. This is a new program someone in

one of the upper offices thought up. It was too late, then (only three days in advance of the event). We ended up with only three participants who were willing to go ahead. Nobody else wanted to take a chance, in case it was deemed illegal. They wanted that map to be in our hands so we had the legal certainty, and that is perfectly right, but we couldn’t do that for them.”

Lovell said he was in to the office at City Hall so many times he now knows the clerk on a first name basis and the clerk would cringe every time he came through the door, knowing there was no new answer to the months-old question.

The City of Prince George was asked to explain the allegations.

A representative said those answers would be made available after the long weekend.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Prince George comedian Mike McGuire is puzzled by a souvenir thrown on stage during the Wheely Funny Fundraiser 2 event Thursday night at Theatre Northwest. An array of comics performed to benefit the Wheelin’ Warriors of the North’s efforts to conquer cancer.

MARQUIS-FORSTER

Pioneering politics

In Nevada’s state legislature, women outnumber the men – a first in North America

Emily WAX-THIBODEAUX

The Washington Post

She didn’t plan to say it. Yvanna Cancela, a newly elected Democrat in the Nevada Senate, didn’t want to “sound crass.” But when a Republican colleague defended a century-old law requiring doctors to ask women seeking abortions whether they’re married, Cancela couldn’t help firing back.

“A man is not asked his marital status before he gets a vasectomy,” she countered – and the packed hearing room fell silent.

Since Nevada seated the nation’s first majority-female state legislature in January, the male old guard has been shaken up by the perspectives of female lawmakers. Bills prioritizing women’s health and safety have soared to the top of the agenda. Mounting reports of sexual harassment have led one male lawmaker to resign. And policy debates long dominated by men, including prison reform and gun safety, are yielding to female voices.

Cancela, 32, is part of the wave of women elected by both parties in November, many of them younger than 40. Today, women hold the majority with 23 seats in the Assembly and 10 in the Senate, or a combined 52 per cent.

No other legislature has ever achieved that milestone in North America. Only Colorado comes close, with women constituting 47 per cent of its legislators. In Congress, just one in four lawmakers is a woman. And in Alabama, which just enacted an almost complete ban on abortion, women make up just 15 per cent of lawmakers.

The female majority is having a huge effect: more than 17 pending bills deal with sexual assault, sex trafficking and sexual misconduct, with some measures aimed at making it easier to prosecute offenders. Bills to ban child marriage and examine the causes of maternal mortality are also on the docket.

“I can say with 100 per cent certainty that we wouldn’t have had these conversations” a few years ago, said Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a Democrat. “None of these bills would have seen the light of day.”

Nevada didn’t reach this landmark by accident. A loosely coordinated campaign of political action groups and women’s rights organizations recruited and trained women such as Cancela, who became political director of the 57,000-member Culinary Workers Union before she turned 30. One of those organizations, Emerge Nevada, said it trained twice as many female candidates ahead of the 2018 midterm election as it had in the preceding 12 years.

Meanwhile, the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 mobilized Democratic women nationwide, including in Nevada, where women already held 40 per cent of statehouse seats.

Along with the gender shift has come a steady increase in racial diversity: of 63 lawmakers in Nevada, 11 are African American, nine are Hispanic, one is Native American and one, Rochelle Thuy Nguyen, 41, is the legislature’s first Democratic female Asian American Pacific Islander.

The result may seem surprising in a state more often defined

Above, Nevada State Representatives Alexis Hansen, Sarah Peters,

Torres,

Miller, Melissa Hardy and Lisa

listen to testimony during a hearing at the Nevada State Legislature. Right, a graphic shows the proportion of women legislators in federal and state governments. Canada is 61st in the world, with women filling 27 per cent of elected positions. In the B.C. legislature, 39 per cent of the MLAs are female.

by the hypersexuality and neonlit debauchery of the Las Vegas Strip. Until 2017, the legislature included an assemblyman who had briefly appeared as an extra in a film about women being kidnapped and forced to live naked in kennels, according to PolitiFact.

But that lawmaker, Republican Stephen Silberkraus, 38, was defeated by a woman, Democrat Lesley Cohen, 48, who highlighted the film during her campaign.

(Silberkraus told reporters that he had been unaware of the film’s sexual nature.)

As a member of the Assembly, Cohen is leading a study on conditions for female sex workers in Nevada’s rural brothels, the nation’s only legal bordellos.

“Outsiders ask why and how Nevada – of all places – became first,” Cohen said. “But I say, why not Nevada? Why not everywhere?”

Carson City is a tiny frontier town, cradled among the snowcapped Sierra Nevada. For decades in the statehouse, charges of sexual harassment often were shrugged off or belittled, and bills sponsored by women were sometimes mocked.

In 2015, Sen. Patricia Ann Spearman, now 64, said legislative leaders refused to schedule a hearing on her bill to promote pay equity for women. “The boys club was like, ‘Why do we need that?’” Spearman, a Democrat, said. “It was a very misogynistic session.”

As recently as 2017, when the legislature approved a public referendum to repeal the “pink tax” on necessities such as tampons and diapers, one assemblyman argued against it, saying it would create a slippery slope.

“Can I add my jockstrap purchases to your list? You might argue it’s not a necessity, but I might

beg to differ,” Republican Jim Marchant, said at the time. Last November, voters agreed to repeal the tax – and replaced Marchant with a woman, Shea Backus, a Democrat.

Even now, female lawmakers in both parties say they receive anonymous phone calls from men commenting on their looks or threatening sexual violence. GOP women “share a lot of common ground and lived experiences with Democratic women,” said Republican Assemblywoman Jill Tolles, 45.

Still, Nevada also has long history of female leadership. The first woman was elected to the legislature in 1918, before the U.S. Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote.

And although the state has never elected a female governor, it has had at least four female lieutenant governors, the first appointed in 1962.

These days, a giant banner strung across Main Street advertises a hotline for victims of sexual harassment and assault. Set up two years ago, after state Sen. Mark Manendo, D, now 52, resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment, witness tampering and other misconduct, the hotline has been buzzing during the current legislative session.

Many women called with allegations of harassment against Assemblyman Michael Sprinkle, 51, a Democrat who stepped down in March.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Sprinkle said that he was “taking full responsibility for my actions,” would “continue to seek therapy,” and asked his accusers and family for forgiveness.

“There’s change in this building that is just this amazing story of

transformation,” said Assemblywoman Heidi Swank, 51 and a Democrat who helped bring the allegations against Sprinkle to light. “And it really highlights the importance of the female majority being not just here, but finally being heard.”

Some female lawmakers say the old guard is literally dying. In November, voters in rural Nevada elected Republican Dennis Hof – a 72-year-old reality TV star and owner of several legal brothels, including the Love Ranch and the Moonlite Bunny Ranch – to the state Assembly. At the time, Hof had been dead for three weeks.

While many female lawmakers say they have found strong male allies this session, a few older men seem to be finding life in the minority difficult.

Democratic Assemblywoman Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod, 45, who keeps a “No Bullshit Allowed” sign on her desk, said one assemblyman frequently asks, “Have you been a good girl today?”

“It’s so inappropriate on so many levels, and it’s that old guard trying to hang on,” she said. “Calling this out is the way you change the world.”

The assemblyman, co-Deputy Minority Leader John Ellison, 66, said he has “great respect” for Bilbray-Axelrod. Ellison, a Republican, sent her a handwritten card asking her to “please accept my apology if I ever said anything offensive to you.”

Bilbray-Axelrod said the moment shows that “there is hope for everyone.”

Historically, state legislatures have been “stubborn, slow-tochange institutions, which were heavily male-dominated,” said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Although it’s notable that “one state has crossed into the 50-percent mark to represent women,” she said, “it’s probably a lot more significant that we have 49 legislatures left to go.”

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO/GRAPHIC

Selena

Brittney

Krasner

Forest sector stays focused on China

Chuck CHIANG Glacier Media Conflict over Canada’s detainment of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. CFO Meng Wanzhou has brought repeated calls in government, trade promotion and academic circles for Canada and B.C. businesses to divert trade away from the Chinese market.

But for B.C.’s forestry-products sector – often seen as one of the province’s fundamental industries, contributing $12.9 billion in GDP to the B.C. economy – those calls to diversify beyond Canada’s largest Asian trade partner have been met with defiance.

Perhaps surprisingly, one of the more recent calls for diversification came at the 2019 COFI Convention in Vancouver last month, when a keynote speaker, Robert Johnston, managing director of the global energy and natural resources division of the Eurasia Group consultancy, told attendees that resource producers should look to alternative markets like India.

Johnston noted that the global commodity outlook is weakening because of U.S.China trade tensions, that the tariff war will likely further slow China’s growth and that India and Southeast Asia may become more important for Canada’s natural resources sector.

In addition, China’s decision to ban canola imports from two major Canadian exporters, widely seen as retaliation against Meng’s arrest, has made some local trade analysts nervous when they look at the high percentage of Canadian and B.C. exports going to China.

B.C. provincial ministers have turned trade attention in Asia to markets like South Korea and Japan, where established free-trade agreements and pacts like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership have lowered tariff barriers.

That diversification, says one U.S.-based analyst, makes sense, even with China’s economy being the world’s second largest at US$13 trillion in nominal GDP last year.

“It’s always good to diversify your risk even when times are good, but now even more so, as it regards trade and investment with and in mainland China,” said New York-based Park Strategies LLC senior vice-president Sean King. “Yes, (China’s) enormous market size makes it harder for some companies to look elsewhere even when it’s in their own interest to do so. But bigger is not always better. It is, in fact, sometimes worth growing a little less and selling a little less to safeguard your own values and security.”

King added that while Japan and South Korea may not have China’s market breadth, they can “offer greater market depth and higher per capita consumer spending” and higher levels of protection for intellectual property.

But for B.C. forestry, which depends on the Chinese market for a quarter of its business, there appear to be no plans to turn back.

Canfor CEO Don Kayne, speaking at the company’s annual general meeting in late April, said the firm has no plans to pull back from the country that is its largest market for pulp.

“I was in China a few weeks ago,” Kayne said at the meeting. “I continue to be very encouraged by the positive discussions we are having with customers and Chinese government officials. Now more than ever, I believe it’s important for industry, along with the governments of Canada and B.C., to

maintain our strong relationships in China with customers and government officials.”

Other industry officials noted the amount of investment that B.C. and Canadian producers have made to open up China over the last two decades, and a consequent unwillingness to retreat from that hard-won market.

China, they noted, was not traditionally a wood-building culture but now yields major opportunities in wood manufacturing of items like furniture, as well as in green homes and mid-rise hotels and resort developments.

“Look, we’ve made real strides in that market,” Yurkovich said. “We were at two to three per cent in that market 15, maybe 18 years ago. Now it’s 25 per cent of our business. So it has been a huge focus; it has been a partnership between industry and both the provincial and federal governments to open up that market, dealing with

Author Wouk dies at 103

The Associated Press

Herman Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of millionselling novels as The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War whose Jewish faith inspired his stories of religious values and secular success, died on Friday at 103. Wouk was just 10 days shy of his 104th birthday and was working on a book until the end, said his literary agent Amy Rennert. Rennert said Wouk died at his home in Palm Springs, Ca., where he settled after spending many years in Washington, D.C.

Among the last of the major writers to emerge after the Second World War and first to bring Jewish stories to a general audience, he had a long, unpredictable career that included gag writing for radio star Fred Allen, historical fiction and a musical co-written with Jimmy Buffett. He won the Pulitzer in 1952 for The Caine Mu-

tiny, the classic Navy drama that made the unstable Captain Queeg, with the metal balls he rolls in his hand and his talk of stolen strawberries, a symbol of authority gone mad. A film adaptation, starring Humphrey Bogart, came out in 1954 and Wouk turned the courtroom scene into the play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.

Other highlights included Don’t Stop the Carnival, which Wouk and Buffett adapted into a musical, and his two-part Second World War epic, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, both of which Wouk himself adapted for a 1983, Emmy Award-winning TV miniseries starring Robert Mitchum. The Winds of War received some of the highest ratings in TV history and Wouk’s involvement covered everything from the script to commercial sponsors.

Wouk was an outsider in the literary world. From Ernest Hemingway to James Joyce, major

Lifeguard charged with sexual assault

The Canadian Press

PENTICTON – A 54-year-old lifeguard from Penticton has been charged with 10 counts of child sexual assault and pornography involving alleged offences between 2008 and 2014.

RCMP say information they received last November sparked an investigation of a longtime employee at a recreational facility in Summerland.

Police believe Edward Casavant, also known as Eddie Spaghetti,

worked as a lifeguard for more than 30 years and used his position to gain access to school-aged children.

They say he also volunteered as a lifeguard at various local summer camps and community events, where he may have had access to children.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Chris Manseau says while officers have identified at least two victims, they strongly believe there are others. Casavant was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

issues like build standards and the knowhow to build with wood.”

Yurkovich added that, while B.C. provincial ministers cancelled a scheduled visit to China to promote the forestry sector last December, about 29 companies continued with the original itinerary.

That delegation included Yurkovich, who says she plans to visit the market again this fall, if not sooner.

COFI, meanwhile, has regular interactions with Chinese partners and market players.

Yurkovich said her delegation did not sense any change in mood while in China after Meng’s arrest, adding that everything was business as usual during last December’s meetings.

“Of course we are closely monitoring it,” she said. “It’s an important market, and we are watching what’s going on. You asked me if we are seeing anything that could

authors of the 20th century were assumed either anti-religious or at least highly skeptical. But Wouk was part of a smaller group that included C.S. Lewis, Chaim Potok and Flannery O’Connor who openly maintained traditional beliefs. One of his most influential books was This Is My God, published in 1959 and an even-handed but firm defence of Judaism.

Wouk had a mixed reputation among critics. He was not a poet or social rebel, and shared none of the demons that inspired the mad comedy of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.

But Wouk was widely appreciated for the uncanniness of his historical detail, and he had an enviably large readership that stayed with him through several long novels. His friends and admirers ranged from Israeli Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin to Nobel laureates Saul Bellow and Elie Wiesel.

be impacting our business as yet, and no, I haven’t seen anything right now. If there was something that changed significantly, we would re-evaluate… Those customer relationships are very important, and we have members of our team going back and forth to and from China all the time. So we haven’t changed our operations at all.”

Yurkovich said federal officials need to look closer at the hard numbers for the forestry sector, which provides 140,000 people with direct, indirect or induced jobs that are “well-paying” and “family-supporting.”

“The health of our industry and our industry’s ability to prosper and support workers and their communities is really, really important,” she said. “It’s a foundational industry, and we need to make sure that we steward the resource well, but also focus on creating the climate where our industry can be competitive and provide high-quality products that are in demand to the world.”

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

Canfor lumber is stacked for shipping at Brink Forest Products on River Road in this 2011 file photo. Canfor and other major B.C. forest companies say they have worked too hard to access the Chinese market over the past 20 years to walk away from it now, despite escalating tensions between Canada and China.

Canada has worst fuel economy

Usually when Canada is at the top of an international ranking, it’s cause for celebration. Not this time.

A recent report by the International Energy Agency shows that Canada’s vehicles have the highest average fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre driven.

They are also the largest and the second heaviest in the world.

In short: Canadian vehicles are big, heavy and guzzle a lot of gasoline. For a country that is championing its climate action, how do we square these facts?

Many point to Canada’s vast land area –often connected with less-than-ideal roads and highways – and our cold climate as reasons for requiring more substantial vehicles. These arguments are not convincing.

More than 80 per cent of Canadians live in urban or suburban areas where a more modest vehicle suffices for most activities.

In terms of vast distances, that actually calls for better fuel efficiency, not worse. And if cold weather is the excuse for buying an SUV, similarly frigid countries – Sweden, Finland and Iceland – have all managed to survive with lower-emitting vehicles.

So what explains Canada’s preference for gas guzzlers?

North American vehicle manufacturers produce larger cars than their European and Asian counterparts. This in part reflects consumer preferences, but it is also the result of marketing campaigns and econo-

mies of scale in production that push buyers towards SUVs.

Fuel economy standards in Canada and the United States act to reverse this pressure, pushing manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. In part they have worked: the average fuel consumption of cars and trucks has fallen substantially since 2005. Even so, Canada’s average fuel consumption trend has flatlined recently, with almost no improvement since 2013.

The slowdown in fuel economy improvements has a lot to do with the types of vehicles Canadians buy. The Toyota Camry and Honda Civic, once the mainstays of the average Canadian family, have given way to Ford F-150s and Dodge Rams.

The shift towards trucks, including SUVs, crossovers and minivans, in the past decade has been phenomenal. And before fingers point at places like Alberta, this is a trend seen across every province in Canada.

Canadians say they are now buying trucks in droves because they are safer.

The common wisdom is that bigger, heavier cars are safer in a collision. This is half right. Vehicle weight does affect the likelihood of a fatality from a collision, but only in a relative sense.

When similar-sized vehicles collide, it makes little difference to safety outcomes whether it is large-on-large or small-onsmall. However, when a large vehicle collides with a small one, the results are (unsurprisingly) far worse for the small vehicle’s passengers.

This introduces the notion of vehicle-size

externalities: buying a larger car imposes safety costs on drivers of smaller cars. It also raises the prospect of a vehicle arms race, with drivers buying ever-larger cars in order to protect themselves, when safety would be just as effective if everyone drove similar, smaller vehicles.

Far and away the biggest reason for Canada’s fuel inefficient vehicles comes down to cost. Simply put, the cost to purchase and operate a gas guzzler in Canada (or the U.S.) is far less than the rest of the world.

This cost difference comes in two forms: upfront charges for vehicle registration and gas prices.

In Europe, vehicle registrations are often based on the vehicle’s fuel economy or emissions profile. In France, for example, car buyers face a sliding “bonus-malus” scale (or “feebate”). High-emitting vehicles incur a registration charge up to 10,000 while zero-emission vehicles receive 6,000 in rebates. And in Norway, where new vehicles are subject to a 25 per cent valueadded tax and up to 10,000 in registration fees, electric vehicles are exempt from both charges. It is little wonder that Norway has highest share of new sales of electric passenger cars.

These upfront charges are often seen as alternatives to carbon taxes to shift consumers towards smaller, less emitting vehicles. And as Norway has shown, they can be effective.

However, other research has shown feebates are less cost effective than fuel or carbon taxes in reducing greenhouse gas

Northerners love gardening

Whether you observe Victoria Day or the Journée nationale des patriotes, the third weekend of May unofficially marks the start of gardening season in Canada. British Columbians may have had a head start over the rest of the country in the past few weeks, thanks to the record-high temperatures in many municipalities.

Research Co. took a quick glance at the gardening habits of British Columbians, including their motivations, expenditures and the feelings they get from growing plants.

There are three in five residents of the province (59 per cent) who currently grow or cultivate plants in their home, either indoors or outdoors. Residents of northern B.C. lead the way, with 68 per cent saying they are active gardeners. The proportion drops to 60 per cent in Metro Vancouver and southern B.C., 58 per cent in the Fraser Valley and 57 per cent in Vancouver Island.

On a political note, we might as well start referring to the BC Green Party as the “Green Thumb Party.” Seven in 10 residents who voted for the Andrew Weaver-led Greens in 2017 are actively growing plants. Smaller proportions of British Columbians who supported the BC New Democratic Party and the BC Liberals join them (66 per cent and 58 per cent respectively).

In spite of B.C.’s traditional

BY THE NUMBERS

position as one of the most environmentally friendly provinces in Canada when it comes to food, the main motivation for gardeners is related to appearance, not sustenance. More than half of the province’s gardeners say they grow plants mostly for ornamental purposes, including 61 per cent of men and 60 per cent of those over the age of 55. While the proportion of gardeners who focus primarily on growing items for consumption (such as fruits, vegetables and herbs) is smaller (29 per cent), there are some fascinating fluctuations.

B.C.’s gardeners aged 18 to 34 are more likely to be growing food (35 per cent) than their older counterparts (31 per cent for those aged 35 to 54 and 21 per cent for those aged 55 and over). Growing food is also big in the Fraser Valley (40 per cent) and southern B.C. (34 per cent). There are also 15 per cent of gardeners in the province who grow both for appearance and consumption. One in four gardeners in British Columbia (25 per cent) spend less than $50 each year on tools, plants and/or seeds, while 39 per cent spend between $50 and $100. More than a third of gardeners allocate more money to their hobby (36 per cent), including 14 per cent who splurge

beyond the $200 mark.

When it comes to bragging rights, most British Columbians cautiously place themselves in the middle, with 58 per cent saying the plants they grow or cultivate are “about the same” as most others in their neighbourhood.

One in four of the province’s gardeners (26 per cent) believe that their plants are better than most others in their surroundings, while 11 per cent dejectedly admit that what they grow or cultivate is worse.

When we analyze how much money British Columbia’s gardeners spend and the feelings they profess about their plants, there is a direct correlation. Only 19 per cent of the province’s gardeners who spend less than $50 annually on tools and supplies feel their plants are better than others in their neighbourhood. The proportion grows slightly to 23 per cent for those who spend anywhere from $50 to $100. The number of happy gardeners climbs to 31 per cent among those who spend $101 to $199. But if you are one of the indulgers who devotes more than $200 to gardening supplies, you are decidedly more likely to feel that your plants are among the best in your neighbourhood (42 per cent).

Money alone will not be responsible for giving you a garden that becomes the envy of your neighbours. But it seems that the more we spend caring for these living things, the more we feel that we are doing a better job than the occupants of adjacent households.

Mailing

emissions. Carbon taxes are better at targeting high-mileage drivers, and penalizing a gas guzzler that is driven sparingly can be a very ineffective (and costly) way to reduce emissions.

But perhaps the most significant reason Canadians drive less-efficient vehicles is gas prices. There is a clear correlation between the price of gasoline and the average fuel consumption of vehicles. Where gas prices are low, as they are in Canada and the U.S., fuel consumption tends to be high. While most people focus on the role of carbon taxes to reduce emissions by discouraging driving, higher gas prices can also affect the choice of which vehicle to buy. In the aptly named article “Frugal cars or frugal drivers?,” economists Werner Antweiler and Sumeet Gulati from the University of British Columbia looked at driver response to the provincial carbon tax. They found that people started purchasing and driving more fuel efficient vehicles. According to their calculations, without B.C.’s carbon tax fuel, demand per capita would be seven per cent higher and the average vehicle’s fuel efficiency would be four per cent lower. Carbon taxes may be unpopular with many, but they play an important role in determining what vehicles are on the road now — and in the future.

— Blake Shaffer is an adjunct assistant professor in economics at the University of Calgary. This column first appeared in theconversation.ca.

Greens are scary

On May 6, the Green Party of Canada elected its second member of Parliament in the party’s 35 years of existence.

As with every meager success this party achieves, Paul Manly’s narrow victory is a nauseating development in the degeneration of Canadian democracy, the triumph of a dark and ignorant flavor of populist politics enabled by a breathtakingly irresponsible media bias.

Though Canada possesses more than a dozen minor parties desperate for attention, at some point the Canadian media seems to have arbitrarily decided it’s the plucky Greens the nation must collectively back, cheering their every toddle with the excitement of an anxious stage parent.

The oblivious naivete powering this phenomenon is clear enough: a mix of writerly class conventional wisdom that “the environment” deserves a more prominent place in national politics, coupled with deference at the exceptional self-promotional skills of the Green’s leader-for-life Elizabeth May. In her 13 years as party boss, May has put tremendous effort into building a personal brand as Canada’s kindest, noblest, wisest, most ethical and hardest-working politician – a mythology of cartoonish vanity Canadian journalists obediently regurgitate . Every federal election (and even most by-elections) earns stories saying things like May’s party is eyeing a breakthrough and “could make history.” Voters are said to be giving the Greens a serious second look this time and the other parties are instructed to worry. Some hallucinate scenarios in which May winds up “kingmaker” of the next parliament. Everyone agrees she must be included in the prime ministerial debates.

In return for this unceasing torrent of propaganda, May has delivered little. In her first decade as party boss, she presided over the election of precisely one member of parliament (herself) and saw the Greens’ share of the national popular vote dwindle to 3.5 per cent – an even lower figure than was achieved by her forgotten predecessor in 2004.

That May and her party have remained so stubbornly unpersuasive to voters despite a tremendous media slant in her favor says something about just how repulsive she has made Canada’s Greens. Far from broadening her

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fringe party’s appeal, her leadership has simply made it a more efficient alliance of conspiracy theorists, faith healers and obsessive anti-Israel cranks – with the latter constantly on the brink of an outright takeover.

Much effort has been exerted lately to link Canada’s Conservatives and upstart People’s Party to the white nationalist fringe. Yet the only party that has truly struggled with clear and overt anti-Semitism within its ranks are May’s Greens.

In 2016, the Green Party’s national conference tried to make it party policy to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund. May intervened to prevent that, but the party did successfully pass a resolution endorsing the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which many Jews consider anti-Semitic. The motion was sponsored by Green Party Justice Critic (and 2015 candidate) Dimitri Lascaris, whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused of spreading “vile anti-Semitic smears” against Liberal politicians. The ensuing backlash saw the policy amended into a softer anti-Israel position that B’nai Brith Canada still called “loaded with factual inaccuracies.” In 2014, the Jewish president of the Greens quit over what he called his party’s constant “abuse and unbalance” toward the Jewish state.

This sort of thing is not all that’s wrong with the Greens, but it is a valuable case study in how it has become an enthusiastic receptacle for Canada’s political runoff. The Greens may continue to profess environmentalism as their core creed, but no serious Canadian turns to the party for policy wisdom on climate change. It merely fear-mongers about the environment in the same way it fearmongers about WiFi, genetically engineered products, carcinogens, Fukushima radiation, “chronic Lyme disease,” Zionists, etc. It’s a party of ignorant and sinister populism of the sort the Western world is supposed to be exercising vigilance against. It is a grotesque faction of Canadian politics that deserves honest exposure, not cheerleading.

— J.J. McCullough is a political commentator from Vancouver.

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U.S. lifts trade tariffs against Canada

The Canadian Press

Canada’s year-long standoff with the Trump administration over punitive U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs is finally over, removing a key hurdle in efforts to ratify the new North American trade pact.

Global Affairs Canada says the tariffs will be removed within two days.

Canada has also agreed to drop all of its retaliatory measures and legal actions at the World Trade Organization.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unscheduled, last-minute trip to Hamilton, Canada’s steelmanufacturing capital, where he was expected to confirm the breakthrough during an event at steel giant Stelco with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Word of the agreement began to trickle out amid reports that U.S. negotiators had backed off long-standing demands for a hard limit on imports of Canadian steel and aluminum, part of an effort to keep cheap Chinese product out of the country.

Late Friday morning, U.S. Presi-

dent Donald Trump and Trudeau wrapped up their third phone call in less than a week on the tariff dispute, which includes Canada’s decision to retaliate with more than $16 billion of its own punitive levies on American products.

“The two leaders discussed the United States’ Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout of the call.

They “also discussed relations with China, uranium, and the new NAFTA.”

One year ago, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs on Canada, as well as Mexico, were necessary to prevent a flood of cheap Chinese steel into the U.S. through its NAFTA partner countries.

Ross also said the U.S. was imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico because the trade talks were taking too long, even though they were ostensibly imposed under a section of American trade law that gives the president that

authority to do that to protect national security.

The Trudeau government has branded the tariffs as illegal, absurd and insulting, while Canada and Mexico say that it will be tough to ratify the new continental free trade agreement - the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA - if they remain in place.

Ottawa has also been working to demonstrate to Washington that it has taken steps to stem the flow of cheaper Chinese metals into Canada.

But Canada has stood firm with the U.S. on one key, related point: it has steadfastly refused to agree to quotas or other limits on its exports to get the tariffs lifted. Canadian sources have de-

scribed the idea of a quota system as a non-starter and a concession that Canada was not prepared to make.

The agreement says the U.S. and Canada will establish a process for monitoring steel and aluminum trade between them.

“In the event that imports of steel or aluminum products surge meaningfully beyond historic volumes of trade over a period of time, with consideration of market share, the importing country may request consultations with the exporting country. After such consultations, the importing party may impose duties of 25 per cent for steel and 10 per cent for aluminum,”says the agreement. Canadian negotiators persuaded their American counterparts to

accept that position – a compromise that could allow the Trump administration to holster one of its favourite new trade weapons, while claiming to have enlisted the help of an ally in its ongoing fight.

“We have always said we are not the problem and that USMCA wouldn’t pass as long as the tariffs were in place. We would never accept a hard quota. I think they finally heard us,” said one source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, citing the delicate new phase of the negotiations.

“Now we can work together to deal with overproduction outside of North America and approve the improved free-trade deal.”

Dan Ujczo, a trade lawyer and Canada-U.S. specialist in Columbus, Ohio, said he believes the U.S.

has “moved off of its demand for a hard quota, which is a key factor in the new optimism.”

The discussions among the three countries have now moved to creating “enhanced monitoring” and “anti-circumvention measures” relating to non-North American steel imports.

The three countries are also considering strict new rules of origin for steel and aluminum, said Ujczo.

“Companies that rely on nonNorth American steel and aluminum in their NAFTA/USMCA region supply chains are highly likely to be impacted by these discussions,” he said.

“While companies may celebrate a top-line without a hard quota, the devil will be in the details.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland looks on as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer delivers his statement to the media during the sixth round of negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement in Montreal in January.

Into the Oregon wilderness

Dina MISHEV

Special To The Washington Post

Minam River Lodge is a rare piece of private property within Oregon’s 146,000-hectare Eagle Cap Wilderness, which itself is located within the 931,000 hectare Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. It was founded as a hunting camp in 1950 and even today the only ways to get here are to hike, ride a horse or have local rancher Joe Spence fly you there in his three-seat Cessna 206. (Or fly yourself in if you have a license and similarly small plane; Minam’s is not a commercial-grade runway.) Once at the lodge, which is open from late May into October, there is no cellphone reception, Internet or television; power in the cabins and main lodge comes from an array of solar panels near its organic greenhouse and pigpen. Eagle Cap Wilderness has nearly 1,000 km of trails and 17 peaks taller than 2,700 metres. Much of the Wallowa Mountains, are in the Eagle Cap. Four rivers that run through the wilderness are in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, including 63 of the Minam River’s 83 kilometres. Rather than heading directly to the barn after a family-style dinner with about 30 other lodge guests, my boyfriend Derek and I opted for a walk through some of the property’s 51 hectares. We took a trail that starts near the firepit over which chef Carl Krause cooked the lamb that was part of the evening’s entree. (It was served atop gnocchi.) The path heads through Douglas and grand firs, ponderosa pines and Engelmann spruce, then passes glamping wall tents that have electricity as well as queen-size beds and down comforters inside, and a perfect-for-two, wood-heated hot tub before descending to grassy flats and the Minam River.

We crossed the flats, which include the 600-metre-long grass runway that private pilots use, and walk to the river, where a tepee and bench hide in trees along the banks.

We sat, enjoying the feeling of remoteness and talking about how nice it was that it comes with a cabin that has a rain shower, crisp linens on a soft bed, a wood-burning stove and a front porch with rocking chairs. Only when the mosquitoes came out did we head to the barn.

Square dancing and musiciansin-residence, along with the organic garden and greenhouse, hot tub, sauna, log cabins named after local flora, massages, badminton net, morning yoga classes on the deck, microbrews on tap, gourmet meals, winemaker dinners and specialty cocktail weekends are new at Minam River Lodge. After a six-year rebuild, it reopened in May 2017. From its founding in 1950 until its sale in 2011, the lodge catered to hunters, who didn’t want or need amenities beyond a simple place to stay in this corner of the Wallowas, which is known for trophy-size elk and bighorn sheep. The hunting here was so good that hunters nicknamed the lodge Mert’s Meat Locker, after Mert Loree, who built and ran it with his wife, Erma.

Outside of hunting season, guests were often families looking for a rustic retreat. This is how current owner Barnes Ellis first came here – the Ellises had a family reunion at the lodge in the mid-1990s. Ellis’s second time here was after he bought it in 2011 at auction for $650,000. The weekend I’m at the lodge features another Ellis family reunion, this one celebrating the completion of the renovation. One morning, over a breakfast of German pancakes topped with a berry reduction and the best bacon I’ve ever had, Ellis told me: “I just remembered how special it was. I’m glad I didn’t come before the auction. I’m sure I would have talked myself out of it.” Included in the renovation, which cost more than $3 million, was $15,000 to blast off the tops of several tall tamarack and fir trees that had grown so tall they were a hazard for pilots. But Ellis couldn’t take a chain

saw to them; they were just outside the boundaries of his property and in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, where the use of mechanization is prohibited and which is managed so as to appear untouched by humans.

A local forest service supervisor eventually approved the use of explosives to mitigate the danger the trees posed to pilots landing and taking off. Placing the explosives at different levels in the offending trees, the idea was that the tops would be blasted off and also make their shortened appearance look like the result of a wind event rather than the work of people.

Logs felled on the property by traditional means – saws of various types – along with logs salvaged from the original lodge and cabins were used to build the new cabins. In our cabin, Morel, the log ceiling beams were scratched, scarred and loaded with patina. (They glow gold.)

Ninety-nine per cent of guests hike in from the Moss Springs Trailhead, which, at 14 km away, is the closest trailhead. But Derek and I, along with our friends Tara and Chase, started at the Wallowa Lake Trailhead. This allowed us to see dozens of high alpine lakes and some of the range’s tallest peaks, but was substantially longer in time and distance then the trek from Moss Springs. Including an 13 km detour to Ice Lake and the 3,000-metre summit of the Matterhorn, the second tallest mountain in the Wallowas, our route to the lodge was 100 km. We took five days to do it, carrying all

of our supplies and camping along the way.

It is understandable then that our three days at the lodge were spent mostly relaxing. The four of us played horseshoes every night before dinner and Derek and I played a couple of games of badminton. We went on mellow hikes and napped and read on the banks of the Minam River. When we got hot, we swam in the river, which is cold enough that the lodge uses it to keep its extra kegs of beer chilled, but not so cold that my lips ever turned blue. We rocked in the chairs on our cabin’s front porch and watched small planes come and go. (Flying in for breakfast seems to be a thing.) And we drank and ate.

We couldn’t do the latter immediately upon arrival – the kitchen is closed between lunch and dinner – but we could do the former. Derek, Chase and Tara got beer; I ordered a whiskey cocktail. Three of the beers on tap come from Terminal Gravity Brewery in Enterprise, Ore., the town closest to the trailhead where we started our hike. There is an afternoon snack available, ponderosa sugar cookies, which chef Krause, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, makes with extract from ponderosa bark that he harvests on the property.

If you go

MINAM RIVER LODGE Eagle Cap Wilderness, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Lostine, Ore., 503-758-

0973, minam-lodge.com.

This remote lodge near the Minam River in the Eagle Cap Wilderness is only accessible by charter flight, foot or horseback ride and offers log cabins, lodge rooms and “glamping” wall tents. The lodge’s 2019 guest season runs May 24 through Oct. 14. Rates for wall tents start at $195, lodge rooms start at $245 and cabins start at $395. There is a two-night minimum stay. Closest commercial airports are Eastern Oregon Regional (Pacific time) and in Pasco, Washington. (PSC).

Well-behaved dogs are allowed for $25 per night.

DISPERSED EAGLE CAP WILDERNESS CAMPING

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest/Wallowa Mountains Office 201 E. Second St., Joseph, Ore. 541-426-5546, fs.usda.gov/ main/wallowa-whitman/home. Camping is allowed in most areas in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. There are flat areas in the area around Red’s Horse Ranch, about one mile from Minam Lodge.

Note that this is backcountry camping, where there are no official campsites, campgrounds, or amenities, including bathrooms, running water or showers. Free.

Where to eat

MINAM RIVER LODGE

Family-style dinners at communal tables highlight produce grown in the lodge’s own organic greenhouse as well as produce

and animals from local ranches. Dinner $75. A full breakfast is $25 and a “light” breakfast is $15.

What to do

HIKE FROM WALLOWA LAKE TRAILHEAD

A long way to Minam Lodge includes many of the Eagle Cap Wilderness’s most scenic spots, like Ice Lake, the Matterhorn, Swamp Lake and Minam Lake. This route is about 108 km and requires backcountry camping along the way. Every group visiting the Eagle Cap Wilderness must obtain a self-issued Wilderness Visitor Permit, which is available at registration/permit boxes at each trailhead. Free.

HIKE FROM MOSS SPRINGS TRAILHEAD

The easiest, least expensive way to get to Minam Lodge is to hike 14 km from this trailhead 44 km east of La Grande. The hike is free, but a Northwest Forest Pass ($30) is needed to park at this trailhead. Passes may be purchased at the Joseph Ranger district office or online at discovernw.org.

RIDE FROM MOSS SPRINGS TRAILHEAD

Eagle Cap Wilderness Outfitters Hurricane Creek Road, Enterprise, Oregon, 541-962-5900, eaglecapwildernessoutfitters.com. Minam River Lodge partners with Eagle Cap Wilderness Outfitters to bring guests to the lodge on horseback. The easy- to moderate-ride from the Moss Springs Trailhead takes a half-day. Rates between $100 and $170 depending on group size and how much luggage the horse will carry.

VISIT RED’S HORSE RANCH facebook.com/RedsHorseRanch. Hike 1.5 km from Minam River Lodge to this historical dude ranch on the Minam River now owned by the U.S. Forest Service and maintained and staffed by volunteers who rotate on a weekly basis from April through November. Some volunteers bake cookies or make lemonade to share with visitors; all love to talk about Red’s history and give ranch tours. Some of the buildings date to 1918. It is not possible to stay at Red’s but there are flat camping spots nearby. Free.

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO Above, Dina Mishev heads for the Matterhorn’s summit. Much of the Wallowa Mountains, known as “the Alps of Oregon,” are in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, in northeaster Oregon, left.

Kings face Oakville for spot in final

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

BROOKS, Alta. – Last time they met the Oakville Blades, it took the Prince George Spruce Kings the better part of a period before they found their stride. Knowing the stakes are much higher tonight (6 p.m. PT start) when they face the Blades in a sudden-death semifinal for the right to pay for the national junior A hockey championship Sunday afternoon, the Kings plan to be more vigilant from the get-go. In their tournament-opening game on Sunday against Oakville, the Kings found themselves trailing late in the first period on a Peyton Reeves power-play goal 15

minutes in.

“We got off to a bad start in that game, down 1-0, but outscored them 5-0 in the last 40 minutes of the first game,” said Kings left winger Nick Poisson. “If we come out with that urgency and that compete level from the start ,we should be happy going into Sunday.”

The Blades (2-2) defeated the Ottawa Senators 7-4 in their final preliminary-round game to finish third. The Spruce Kings (3-1, second place) suffered their first loss in the tournament Thursday night, a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the host Brooks Bandits (4-0).

The winner of the Blades-Kings game will move on to the championship game against either the

Bandits or fourth-place Senators (1-3), who play each other in the other semifinal today at 1 p.m. PT.

The Mike Tarantino-coached Blades scored 16 goals in the national championship preliminary round, second only to Brooks (17) and Oakville allowed 20 goals.

Spencer Kersten won the scoring race with a goal and five assists for six points. Reeves (4-1-5) and Garrett Pyke (0-5-5) have also averaged a point per game or better.

Oakville went 16-3 in the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs, then reeled off four straight wins to capture the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central region champions.

“They’re a good team, they have a good forward group, they’re fast,” said Kings goalie Logan Nea-

ton. “No one gets to the national championship semifinals by fluke so we have to take them seriously and be ready to go. They’re a team we know we can beat but you can’t take anybody lightly. We know they’re a skilled group so we’ve got to be prepared going into it.”

The Spruce Kings scored 15 times and were the best defensive team of the tournament with just five goals allowed in their four preliminary games. They have six players who put up at least a point per game, including Poisson (4-0-4), Ben Brar (2-3-5), Dylan Anhorn (1-44), Dustin Manz (1-4-4), Chong Min Lee (2-2-4) and Patrick Cozzi (1-3-4). Poisson doesn’t want to look

Neaton named top goalie at nationals

Citizen staff

Prince George Spruce Kings goalie Logan Neaton was shut out of the B.C. Hockey League honours but scored big on Friday when Hockey Canada named its national junior A hockey championship award winners.

Neaton has been on top of his game throughout the national tournament and was chosen for the top goaltender award. In four games, Neaton’s goals-against average was a miserly 0.91 and he built an astronomical .955 save percentage, with one shutout.

“It’s not something I focus on too much, it’s cool to get accolades and get recognized for your play but at the end of the day I’m here to win a championship, and that’s kind of the same thing I said when I didn’t win the league award,” said the 21-year-old UMass-Lowell recruit from Brighton, Mich.

“I’m trying to win a national championship and it hasn’t set in. Maybe in a few years, it will mean more to me. For us to have all the success we’ve had as a team and as a community means the world to me. I’m always going to remember this year and this group of guys for the rest of my life.” Neaton was the Mainland Division finalist for the BCHL award but lost in the voting to Jack Lafontaine of the Penticton Vees.

Neaton went 32-8 in the regular season and he set a club record for wins. His 1.92 goalsagainst average and five shutouts was tops

in the league and his .914 save percentage ranked third-best. Neaton’s father Pat is with him in Brooks

beyond the semifinal but like the rest of the Kings he’d love to have another shot at the Bandits, the hometown favourites this week at Centennial Regional Arena.

“It’s been us and them since the Doyle Cup where we’ve been growing a hatred for each other and you want to come out and win it all and I think they’re the team to beat,” said Poisson.

The Spruce Kings will try to improve on their 23-4 playoff record.

“We’re just going to focus on our own game here, they’re a team that has some offence and can skate decently well and we need to just play our game,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. “We’ll be ready to go.” Sunday’s final starts at 2 p.m.

and his mother Kelly is back home in Michigan watching the webcasts of the games.

“They’re excited for me, just for me to be able to play in May and contend for another championship is very cool for them to see,” said Neaton. “They hadn’t seen me since Christmas so for them to see me (be successful) is cool.”

The Kings are 23-4 in the playoffs so far, and are preparing for their semifinal against Oakville tonight. They allowed just four goals in the preliminary round and were within a goal of tying the tournament record for fewest goals allowed set by the South Surrey Eagles in 1998 and matched by the Camrose Kodiaks in 2008.

“I have a great team in front of me, they make my job easy every night,” said Neaton. In other NJAHC awards announced Friday, Ottawa Senators goalie Francis Boisvert won the Roland Mercier Award as most valuable player. In four round-robin games, Boisvert sported a 2.24 goals-against average with a .928 save percentage.

Brooks Bandits forward Ryan Mashie was chosen top forward; Luke Bast of the Bandits won the top defenceman award; and Simon Gravel of the Bandits was named most sportsmanlike player.

Spencer Kersten of the Oakville Blades was the tournament’s top scorer, with a goal and five assists for six points in four games.

Prince George Spruce Kings goaltender Logan Neaton focuses on the puck on the stick of an incoming Langley Rivermen attacker during a November game at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

Patrick Cozzi of the Prince George Spruce Kings scores in last Sunday’s round-robin game against the Oakville Blades in Brooks, Alta. The teams face each other in tonight’s semi-final with the winner to play for the National Junior A Championship on Sunday afternoon.

Mastering the charge

The call can change a game but few willing to pay the price

The Associated Press

Toronto guard Kyle Lowry squarely planted his feet and braced for contact with Milwaukee Bucks athletic big man Giannis Antetokounmpo barrelling down on him. Lowry, one of the best in basketball at taking a charge, absorbed the punishment and drew a foul against the 6-foot-11 Antetokounmpo. These days, not everybody is willing to do what Lowry does in the fast-paced, open-floor NBA game.

“I think it’s kind of a lost art,” DeMarcus Cousins of the Golden State Warriors said of taking a charge.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich won’t argue that sentiment.

“It seems so, doesn’t it? You can count on one hand how many charges are taken over the course of five or 10 games, in some situations,” Popovich said with a chuckle.

“You see it a lot more in college than you do in the NBA. Maybe they’re protecting their contracts, don’t want to get hurt, I don’t know. There aren’t very many, that’s for sure.”

Successfully taking a charge is difficult and even those who are willing to try won’t always do so. Yet it’s a play that can change the momentum of a game during the pressure-packed post-season.

The 6-1 Lowry went into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night with a league-best 11 charges during these playoffs, a stat the NBA keeps under “hustle plays.” The Raptors have drawn 16 charges and the Warriors were at 16 going into Thursday night’s Game 2 win in the Western Conference finals against Portland. There are several keys to it: Anticipate. Get in position. Solidly square your feet and prepare to be run over, knowing the foul call won’t always go your way.

“You’re going to have to stand in there. The one thing I’m super proud of our defence is we stand in there and we take hits, and we take charges,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “I don’t have the numbers but we’ve got to be up there really close to leading the playoffs or leading the league.” Golden State defensive leader Draymond Green thrives in the middle of the action, but he knows firsthand about calls not going his way.

Green failed to get the favourable whistle in the final minute of an overtime road loss against Houston in the last round. Green seemed to have position when James Harden drove the lane but no call was made.

Replay showed what appeared to be a textbook charge , and the NBA Last-Two Minute Report ruled the next day a charge should have been issued.

The play came outside the restricted area, which is defined within the NBA rules as an arc of a 4-foot radius measured from the centre of the basket and an area in which a defensive player cannot step in to take a charge.

“At the end of the day if that’s something you like to do you’ve got to be all right with some of them not going your way because they are really subjective,” said Golden State guard Stephen Curry. “Whether you were slightly moving side to side or your feet were planted or the charge circle debate, you’ve just got to take the good with the bad. The ones who do it well get the benefit of the doubt more times than not for sure.”

There are players in the league who stand out for consistently doing it well and getting the call – Lowry, Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, Boston’s Marcus Smart and Cousins.

“It’s a big play. All of us can’t be up there and be rim protectors and dunk the ball,” Rockets star Chris Paul said. “It can definitely ignite the crowd. Charges are huge and there’s not a lot of guys in the league who do that.”

Not many teams have elite shot blockers anymore either, so taking a charge has

of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Salt Lake City last month.

become that much more important.

“It’s funny, I took a lot of charges as a player, and I had guys who just would not take charges,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “There are also guys who don’t know how to take charges. Then every once in a while when we get a guy who never takes one and he takes one, we realize he didn’t take one, he got charged. There’s a big difference. I don’t think it’s a lost art, though, I think there’s a lot of guys (doing it)... what’s lost is that a lot of the bigs don’t do it anymore. There used to be this thing that if you don’t block a shot you’re not a rim protector but rim protection is protecting guys from getting to the rim and I think the charges are another part of that.”

Cousins enjoys using his 6-11, 270-pound

frame to draw charge calls – despite the pain he knows is part of it.

“It’s fun,” he said. “Not only does it help your guys, but it also puts the opponent in a tough position. It’s a turnover and a foul for them... I don’t feel a lot of guys want to sacrifice their body. It’s not fun taking them, obviously. It hurts.”

Nuggets forward Torrey Craig simply chooses not to take a charge.

“You want to know my honest answer?

I’ve never taken a charge before in my life.

I’d rather block a shot,” he said. “I tried a couple of times overseas, to take charges, and ended up bumping knees with some guys.”

In the modern NBA, often there are fewer opportunities in games to take charges.

Teams don’t drive as much in the half court – layups often come in transition, open space. Charges also are typically taken by the player who helps, not the primary defender. Golden State’s Klay Thompson, known for drawing a tough defensive assignment, believes the ability to take a charge is under appreciated.

“I think it’s a stat that should be accounted for, charges taken, because that’s just as good as a steal, it’s just as good as a block,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of guys who are good at it – Andrew (Bogut) is good at it, Draymond – these guys lay their bodies on the line and it’s kind of like a momentum shifter when you take a charge like that.” But not every player is willing to do it.

Whitecaps struggling on offence

The Canadian Press Midway through the Major League Soccer season and the Vancouver Whitecaps are still desperately searching for scoring.

Though Vancouver has climbed its way back from a slow start thanks to strong defensive efforts, the Whitecaps have scored just 11 times in 12 games and are secondlast in the league in goals for.

“We need to be better offensively. That’s not a secret. We need to be better,” coach Marc Dos Santos said Thursday before the squad embarked on a two-game road swing.

Only two Whitecaps (3-6-3) have scored multiple goals this year, including striker Fredy Montero, who has three, and centre back Doneil Henry, who’s tallied two.

“We have many players who can score goals. As a midfielder, as a group, we need to create the opportunities for those guys,” said midfielder Felipe Martins, adding that he and his teammates need to move the ball more quickly and limit the number of long passes they send down the field.

Everyone is still confident in

the team’s offensive abilities, said right back Jake Nerwinski.

“I think that we just need to continue to do what we do,” he said. “We trust in our front guys to score goals and we know it’s going to happen.”

The club is currently scouring the international soccer scene for talent that could be added in the summer transfer window, Dos Santos said, but staff are also looking for improvements from current players. What the coaches really want to see is more chances created in the final third of the field.

“I’m looking for results. I’m looking for more shots, better quality in the last pass, putting guys in better positions,” Dos Santos said.

“A little bit of everything there.”

The Whitecaps’ next opportunity for results will come today when the team visits Sporting Kansas City (2-4-4). It’ll be Vancouver’s third match in eight days and the compressed schedule, combined with some injuries, is making roster decisions difficult.

Winger Lass Bangoura left Wednesday night’s game against Atlanta United in the 64th minute with a hamstring issue. The Whitecaps previously lost striker Yordy

Reyna to a hamstring injury and midfielder Jon Erice was sideline with an ankle injury on Monday. “I’m totally lost right now,” Dos Santos said of his lineup for Saturday’s game.

Kansas City, meanwhile, are working through their own offensive woes amid a spate of injuries to key players like centre back Matt Besler and midfielder Roger Espinoza.

Sporting hasn’t posted a win since March 30 when they beat the Montreal Impact 7-1. Since then, the club has lost six league matchups – its longest winless run since May 2016 - and has been shutout in its last two contests.

“They’re having a difficult time, a lot of injuries. But they’re still a good team with a good mentality. They are very good playing at home,” Martins said. “But we’re going to go there full of energy and confidence that we can make points and win a game.”

Dos Santos knows better than most not to count out Kansas City. He spent 2016 with the club’s United Soccer League affiliate Swope Park Rangers and knows Sporting’s coach Peter Vermes well.

Houston Rockets guard James Harden takes a charge from Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale during the second half in Game 4

Lee credits star athlete mom with his hockey success

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

BROOKS, Alta. – Chong Min Lee has emerged as a scoring threat in the playoffs for the Prince George Spruce Kings and has been one of the team’s most dependable forwards this week in the national junior A hockey championship. Through four games, he had two goals and two assists with his team heading in the right direction as they prepare for a semifinal clash Saturday with the Oakville Blades. The 20-year-old Lee has gained a reputation as a tremendous shifty skater who is difficult to knock off the puck and together on a line with the Poisson brothers, Ben and Nick, they’ve been an effective combination.

Lee comes by his athleticism honestly. His 22-year-old brother Chong Hyun played two years in the BCHL with the Spruce Kings from 2015-17 and has played internationally in Korea in the IIHF world championship.

Their mom, Choi Kyung-hee, is a former basketball player who played 10 years professionally in South Korea as a national team shooting guard. In 1984, she helped South Korea to a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and was also with the team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, her Korean hometown.

“It’s great that my mom’s such a good athlete, she’s supported me well and that’s the biggest part,” said Chong Min, whose mom made the trip to Brooks from Seoul to cheer on the Spruce Kings. “She taught me about the importance of sleep and how to eat properly.”

Choi says her best years came later in her career, when she was

Prince George Spruce Kings forward Chong Min Lee tries a wraparound on Nanaimo Clippers goaltender Jordan Naylor while being checked by Clippers defender Kyler Kovich during a game in December at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

the MVP for Korea in a gold-medal run at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, after winning a silver medal at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

Korea lost to the host United States in 1984 in Los Angeles. Just getting that far was a huge surprise. She was just 19, the youngest player on her team.

“I wasn’t expecting to win the Olympic silver medal, it was amazing,” said Choi. “We had a big parade through Seoul when we came

home. For me, the 1990 win at the Asian Games was better, because I was one of the best players on the team.”

She has four children, three boys and one girl, and all four played hockey.

Chong Min played basketball for a few years but turned to hockey full-time in Korea, before he came to Canada five years ago to live with his agent in Port Coquitlam. He scored the winning goal in the third period of Game 6 in the

Doyle Cup final on May 4 in Prince George. Choi wasn’t there to join the celebration but she watched the game on her computer.

This is the second time Choi has been there to watch her son play live with the Kings. In March, she followed the team in the first two playoff series with Coquitlam and Chilliwack.

“Canada is a good environment for Chong Min to play hockey, the people are very nice here,” she said. “It’s really exciting to watch

Memorial Cup kicks off in Halifax

The Canadian Press

It’s down to the final four.

A season that began with 60 eligible teams spread across nine provinces and four states competing for the Canadian Hockey League’s biggest prize is down to three league champions and a host entry.

The 101st edition of the Memorial Cup opened Friday with the host Halifax Mooseheads facing the Western Hockey League champion Prince Albert Raiders.

The Ontario Hockey League champion Guelph Storm will play the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion RouynNoranda Huskies today.

Preliminary-round play at the national major junior championship runs until Wednesday, with the championship game set for May 26.

Here’s a look at the four teams battling for the Memorial Cup.

Halifax Mooseheads

Regular-season record: 49-15-4, third in QMJHL standings, No. 8 in CHL rankings Memorial Cup history: Third appearance, host in 2000, won in 2013 as QMJHL champions

Head coach: Eric Veilleux

Captain: Antoine Morand

The skinny: NHL draft-eligible winger Raphael Lavoie paced the Mooseheads offence through the QMJHL playoffs, leading all scorers with 20 goals in 23 games. Halifax nearly suffered a first-round upset, having to go to a Game 7 against the Quebec Remparts just to advance.

A first-round exit could have raised questions about the Mooseheads being good enough to compete with three league champions as the host team. But they proved their legitimacy by sweeping the Moncton Wildcats, taking down the higher-ranked Drummondville Voltigeurs and going six games with Rouyn-Noranda for the President Cup.

Halifax has eight NHL prospects on its roster, including defenceman Jared MacIsaac (Detroit), who was part of Canada’s 2019 world junior team, while veteran forward Samuel Asselin did his part after being acquired from defending Memorial Cup champion Acadie-Bathurst, leading the team in the regular season with 48 goals and 86 points in 68 games. The Mooseheads went 25-5-4 at the Scotiabank Centre this season for the third best winning percentage on home ice (.794).

Halifax is going for its second Memorial Cup after a Nathan MacKinnon-led squad beat the Portland Winterhawks in the 2013 championship.

Prince Albert Raiders

Regular-season record: 54-10-4, first in WHL standings, No. 2 in CHL rankings Memorial Cup history: Second appearance, won in 1985 as WHL champion Head coach: Marc Habscheid Captain: Brayden Pachal

The skinny: The Raiders are back at the Memorial Cup for the first time in 34 years after beating the Vancouver Giants in seven games in the WHL final. Their return to the

his games, they don’t play like that in Korea, it’s so intense. I was worried about how he would adapt to this team and his teammates but now he’s doing so well. The start of the season was tough, for the first half, but now he’s doing so well and I am proud of him.” Lee has been approached by a few NCAA schools and is getting closer to deciding on a scholarship offer. He will likely defer until after his final season of junior eligibility.

national championship isn’t a fluke either as Prince Albert was the No. 1-ranked CHL team for the majority of the season until being bumped to No. 2 by Rouyn-Noranda down the stretch. Habscheid, who became the eighth WHL coach in history to reach 500 wins and 1,000 games this season, easily led his club past the Red Deer Rebels, Saskatoon Blades and Edmonton before needing an overtime goal in Game 7 from trade-deadline acquisition Dante Hannoun to get by Vancouver. The Raiders are a balanced lineup offensively, with draft-eligible Brett Leason, Noah Gregor, Aliaksei Protas and Hannoun sparking much of the goal scoring. Goaltender Ian Scott, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, built off his strong regular season and was named WHL playoff MVP for his efforts. He went 16-7 and led all netminders with a 1.96 GAA, .925 save percentage and five shutouts.

Prince Albert is going for its second Memorial Cup title after its 1985 championship, when coach Terry Simpson led the Raiders to a 6-1 win over Shawinigan in the final.

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

Regular-season record: 59-8-1, first in QMJHL standings, No. 1 in CHL rankings Memorial Cup history: Second appearance, lost in 2016 final

Head coach: Mario Pouliot

Captain: Peter Abbandonato

The skinny: The Huskies used a 25-game game win streak in the regular season to

prove they were for real, eventually vaulting past the Prince Albert Raiders into the No. 1 spot in the 60-team CHL rankings. Abbandonato, who led the QMJHL with 111 points in 68 games to earn the Jean Beliveau Trophy, got his team to the post-season, and then Rouyn-Noranda’s depth took over when needed to capture its second league title.

Abbandonato played the first two rounds against the Shawinigan Cataractes and Victoriaville Tigres before going down with mononucleosis ahead of Round 3. Forwards Joel Teasdale (the QMJHL post-season points leader with 34 in 20 games), Felix Bibeau and Rafael Harvey-Pinard and defenceman Noah Dobson carried much of the workload offensively against the Rimouski Oceanic without their captain, who returned for the final, while Samuel Harvey did his part in net with a playoff-best 1.97 goals-against average. Dobson, part of last year’s Acadie-Bathurst Memorial Cup championship team coached by Pouliot, went on to be named QMJHL playoff MVP with 29 points in 20 games.

Rouyn-Noranda has never won a Memorial Cup, falling 3-2 in overtime against Mitch Marner, Matthew Tkachuk and the London Knights in the 2016 tournament final.

Guelph Storm

Regular-season record: 40-18-10, eighth in OHL standings, unranked Memorial Cup history: Sixth appearance, 1996 OHL runner-up, 1998, 2004 and 2014 OHL champion, 2002 host Head coach: George Burnett

Captain: Isaac Ratcliffe

The skinny: The Storm had one of the most difficult roads to the Memorial Cup, having to go through the top two teams in the OHL West before knocking off the No. 4-ranked team in the country, the Ottawa 67’s, in the OHL final.

After sweeping the Kitchener Rangers, they fell behind 3-0 to the London Knights in Round 2 and 3-1 to the Saginaw Spirit in Round 3 and had to overcome seven elimination games just to reach Ottawa.

Guelph didn’t crack the CHL top-10 rankings despite its firepower, in large part because the Storm roster didn’t come together until January.

General manager/coach Burnett made five major trades at the deadline for a playoff push, and it paid off.

Guelph is arguably the best team on paper, featuring four Canadian junior national team members, and was led in the playoffs by a deep core featuring childhood friends Nick Suzuki and captain Ratcliffe, as well as Nate Schnarr, a 102-point producer in the regular season. Suzuki was one of the players Burnett acquired mid-season and the Montreal Canadiens prospect went on to win OHL playoff MVP with 42 points in 24 games. He found the scoresheet in 17 of his final 18 post-season games to upset three teams that finished higher than Guelph in the standings.

Guelph has never won a Memorial Cup, falling twice in the tournament final. First in 1998, a 4-3 overtime loss to Marian Hossa and the Portland Winterhawks, and a 6-3 defeat against Curtis Lazar and the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2014.

Prince George Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg attempts to pass the puck out of his zone while fighting off a check from Prince Albert Raiders defender Parker Kelly during Prince Albert’s only game in Prince George in January. The WHL champion Raiders are appearing in the Memorial Cup for the first time in 34 years.

Aykroyd eyes more Ghostbusters

The Canadian Press

The next incarnation of Ghostbusters will spawn another series of revivals if Dan Aykroyd gets his way.

In addition to the upcoming Jason Reitman-penned sequel, Aykroyd says he’s handed Reitman a script for a 1960s-era prequel, which would look at the teenage years of parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz, played by Aykroyd.

In fact, Aykroyd, who co-wrote the original, has pretty much mapped out the next several years of Ghostbusters-inspired material, including multiple followups to Reitman’s upcoming version, set to begin shooting this summer.

CP: Your “Ghostbusters” reboot has taken a long time to come to the screen.

Aykroyd: (Original director) Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has written a beautiful script, I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces... But I don’t want to discount the work that the girls did with Paul Feig. I kind of got mad, but I realized I should have blamed myself as a producer, the costs were out of control, I should have been watching as a producer a little more, but you don’t dispute with your director.

You hire a director, you trust a director, you trust their vision. But the job that (stars) Kate (McKinnon), and Kristen (Wiig), and Leslie (Jones) and Melissa (McCarthy) did and indeed Paul did on that movie was superior, or superb. We would have done another one but, again, the cost overruns prevented the studio from looking

at it and doing another ladies’ movie...

Now we’re going to do it in a sensible way. Costs will be under control and it’ll be brought in for a sensible budget without waste and that’s what’s important now in getting it made.

CP: What’s the budget?

Aykroyd: It’s definitely going to be way

under $100 (million). I would think. Movies cost a lot today. It can’t be $30 (million), $50 (million) would be stretching it. I don’t know. Listen, it’s going to be as little as we can spend.

CP: Do cost concerns mean less effects or a more naturalist approach?

Aykroyd: I’m always urging to use pup-

pets. I’m always urging to go back to the mechanicals. But CGI is so efficient and easy to use but I think that all of us are on board with the idea of maybe doing mechanicals and puppets where we can.

CP: Like the original.

Aykroyd: We were harnessed by the technology then. That was all you could do, was puppets and mechanicals and basic opticals. Now you can just do anything.

CP: Could this new one not incorporate the women’s story?

Aykroyd: It’s so different from even the first and second (film)... This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed.

CP: When did you first discuss this with Jason Reitman?

Aykroyd: Just within two years. Although I’ve written Ghostbusters High, where they meet in New Jersey in 1969 and we’re looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years... And it would lead to a television project and I thought of him immediately for that. It’s on his desk but that’s years away from the current project. But it’s a neat idea for a prequel. Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers!

CP: So this is a feature for the theatre?

Aykroyd: Way, way down, though we have other stuff after the Jason Reitmanhelmed movie. We have at least one or two other concepts for the Ghostbusters and then we’ll look at doing the prequel, which will be a perfect button on all we’ve done up to that point.

Play explores Beatles reunion in Quebec

Sitting half in Stanstead, Que. and half in Derby Line, VT., the Haskell Free Library and Opera House has long been an international meeting place, where Canadian and American citizens can mingle freely across the border line drawn on the floor – as long as they return to the proper country afterwards.

But the most talked-about meeting in the border-straddling Victorian-style building is one that never happened at all.

When writer Ross Murray moved to Stanstead in 1992, he became fascinated with an

outlandish local legend: that The Beatles had almost met at the Opera House in the early 1970s to discuss a reunion tour.

The rumour, which has persisted despite a lack of evidence it ever happened, is the subject of Murray’s play, All Together Now, which mixes history and fiction to create a comedic homage to the library and the unique realities of his border town – where in places a line of flower pots is all that separates Canada and the United States.

Murray’s play, subtitled “The possibly true story of a thing that almost happened,” includes some historical town characters,

including the local librarian and mayor.

The Beatles, like in real life, never make an appearance.

“The play is not ultimately about the Beatles rumour, it’s about people connecting in the library,” he said.

Murray said Stanstead and Derby Line residents are used to being portrayed by journalists and other outsiders, who are drawn to their flower-pot border and commitment to maintaining a community that crosses national boundaries, despite the fact that residents can no longer wander across the border as freely as they used to.

But he said it’s rare they get to see themselves depicted by one of their own.

“One town really just flowed into the other, and there was a lot more back and forth between the community, the people, organizations,” he said. “That’s the beautiful thing to me, and the play celebrates that fact that we are one community, and we still are despite the barriers that have been put up over the last decade, decade-and-a-half.”

Stanstead, a sleepy town of quaint historic cottages and wellkept gardens, where patrolling RCMP SUVs provide the only visible signs of heightened security, seems an unlikely meeting place for Britain’s Fab Four.

But Murray insists the scenario isn’t that far-fetched.

For a period in 1973, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were each facing drug charges, which would have left Lennon reluctant to exit the United States and McCartney unable to enter.

The Haskell Library, where citizens of both countries can circulate without a passport, would have been the perfect place to “subvert the border,” he said.

“So if they had wanted to have a meeting, this would have been a great spot for it,” Murray said.

But after researching local sources and contacting prominent Beatles historians, Murray concluded that not only did the meeting not happen, there’s no concrete evidence it was even planned.

CP PHOTO

Actor Dan Aykroyd talked about future Ghostbusters in Toronto on Thursday.

The Canadian Press

his new book,

Jay Jones

the

You should read it in a box! You should read it with a fox!

The Washington Post

Imagine a world without the Lorax, the Grinch, the delicacy of green eggs and ham and the word “nerd.”

To be deprived of the imagination of children’s book trailblazer Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel, would leave readers without the timeless tales and iconic characters that remain embedded in our collective psyche more than 80 years after the first Dr. Seuss book was published.

But who’s the man behind the crafty couplets?

Brian Jay Jones comprehensively answers that question in a nearly 500-page biography. Credit either Geisel’s amusing personality or Jones’ breezy writing, but Becoming Dr. Seuss never feels like a slog; rather, pages fly by, acquainting readers with Geisel’s work ethic, frequent pranks and core belief that children’s books should never be condescending or simplistic. Born in Springfield, Mass., to German parents, Geisel read voraciously in his youth, claiming he read Jonathan Swift and Charles Dickens at six years old. Later though, his childhood was marred by anti-German sentiment during the First World War, and in that era of xenophobia he would sometimes flee from high school with coals bouncing off his head. His fury at this kind of hate would form the backbone of his story The Sneetches.

At Dartmouth College, Geisel found his footing penning cartoons for the college’s satire magazine Jacko and his art was used in everything from house ads to column filler. He knew he had talent, Jones writes, but he also needed to make a living post-college. Geisel brought his artistic skills to advertising, most notably for Standard Oil and the bug spray Flit. In this section, we’re treated to Jones’ impressive details of how certain ad illustrations featured several creatures resembling the distinct characters any Dr. Seuss fan would recognize.

Moving to San Diego, Geisel pivoted to children’s books partly for financial reasons, but also because of a long-held frustration: Dick and Jane books talked down to kids and never challenged them, Geisel complained. It was time to entertain and educate young readers, he thought, while wrapping the stories in playful language and invented words. (Geisel coined the term “nerd” in 1950 in his book If I Ran the Zoo.)

The more compelling portions of the book focus on Geisel’s tense relationship with his publisher Random House, whose editors appointed the author the president of their new Beginner Books imprint. Geisel not only had issue with the “word list” – the 200 or so unique words authors were limited to using – but also publication choices. His arguments with Random House brass over which books to launch were particularly telling, showing how passionate Geisel had become about advancing children’s literature. What will undoubtedly satisfy Seussian scholars and casual readers alike is a portrait of his work schedule, which Jones chronicles as being so rigid his first wife Helen often had to pull the author out of his basement and into dinner parties where he would reluctantly socialize over cocktails. Don’t think children’s books are any easier to write than adult prose, Jones stresses. Geisel could spend days perfecting a single rhyme, lest it shine duller than the other gems surrounding it.

Pranks and jokes invigorated Geisel when he was bored; he once slathered paint onto a canvas and convinced an art-loving friend it was the work of a “great Mexican modernist.” The man paid $500 for the slapdash work, but Helen convinced Geisel to return the collector’s money.

When Jones turns to the amusing origin stories behind The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the book picks up in pace and intrigue. The section on Geisel’s idea for The Lorax could be the most relevant today. Jones writes that Geisel came up with The Lorax as a response to watching condo development envelop San Diego’s pristine coastlines. “It’s one of the few things I set out to do that was straight propaganda,” Geisel says of his environmentally friendly anti-greed book.

Profiling cultural empires and their instigators is familiar territory for Jones, who also wrote “Jim Henson: The Biography” and “George Lucas: A Life.” It’s clear that Jones is experienced in extracting details from the most innocuous letter or interview, fleshing out the lives of cultural groundbreakers we’ve long admired. As all successful biographers should do, Jones doesn’t cheerlead his own writing style by adding unnecessary flourishes or similes; he lets the subject’s actions and quotes energize the book. Thankfully, Geisel is a hilarious and insightful character whose love of literature is almost as infectious as his timeless rhymes.

WASHINGTON POST HANDOUT PHOTO

In

Brian

studies

workaholic prankster Theodor Geisel, better known by his artistic name of Dr. Seuss.

Sorry is the hardest word

The Washington Post

When Eve Ensler was five, her father started sexually abusing her at night while she lay in bed.

As she grew older, he began beating her. She developed strange infections, suffered night terrors and began drinking.

Eventually, she broke away, and in 1996 she wrote The Vagina Monologues, one of the most celebrated plays of the 20th century.

But before that, her father did everything he could to undermine her, humiliate her, poison her.

Although Ensler knew he never would, she waited for him to say he was sorry.

Even after he died, she kept waiting.

Until now.

The Apology contains the words that Ensler needed to hear her father say.

It’s a slim book of unbearable heft.

The text is presented as a letter written by her father from a kind of void beyond the grave, “floating, unmoored, spinning.”

He candidly describes the atrocities he committed, he confesses the weakness that made him so cruel, and he acknowledges the damage he wrought on her tender mind and body.

The Apology is not a creation of psychological realism so much as an act of therapeutic imagination. For Ensler, now 65, writing out these sentences brought freedom – finally.

Ensler had been trapped in an internal dialogue with her father every day for decades.

Then, in one intense four-month period, she wrote morning and night until the book was done.

As difficult as The Apology is to read, it was infinitely harder to write.

“I didn’t want to climb into my father,” Ensler admits. “I didn’t want to know what was inside my father. It was too painful.”

That process involved thinking deeply about the way her abuser was raised and acculturated in what she calls the “rape paradigm.” His own parents, following the brutal child-rearing advice of a popular German physician, were severe and unaffectionate.

Her father was taught to be strong and proud, charming rather than loving.

Any expressions of vulnerability or regret were signs of weakness to be repressed in himself, scorned in others.

But Ensler isn’t letting her father – or any abuser –off the hook.

“I needed to understand what led my father to do what he did in order to make sense of it,” she says. “I didn’t feel like it was justification. I felt like it was explanation.”

The Apology may be a very personal act of therapeutic recovery for the author, but Ensler also offers it as model for others.

Most abused women, after all, will never hear an expression of sorrow from their tormentors.

Ensler hopes victims can experience a degree of healing by writing the letter they need to hear. That process is already in use at City of Joy, a women’s center Ensler founded in the Congo.

“We can actually shift the way those predators live inside us,” she says, “and move them inside us from a monster to an apologist.”

But she has a very different audience in mind for The Apology, too: men.

A couple of years into the #MeToo era, she’s yet to hear what she thinks needs to be said.

“We’ve told our stories. We’ve broken the silence. A few men have lost their jobs (but seem to be getting them back fairly quickly). Some have gone to prison.

But I really haven’t heard one man make a true, thorough, public accounting: an apology for what he’s done, reflecting any self-interrogation, reflecting that he went back into therapy or worked with his clergy or looked into himself to figure out what the seeds of this are.”

For those men – the famous and the unknown –The Apology is a blueprint of contrition.

It’s surprising for one of America’s most famous playwrights to turn to prose instead of drama, but Ensler says she needed the isolation of a book to get her story down.

Someday, though, she’d like to see it performed as a monologue on the stage.

“I think many people will pay money to come hear a man make an apology, seeing that we’ve never heard it before,” she says with a rueful laugh. “It’s like a foreign language.”

How to pick wireless earbuds

Step one: ask Sammy Hagar for help...

Geoffrey A. FOWLER

The Washington Post

When you’re rocking out, the last thing you want to hear is “kerplunk.”

That would be the sound of your fancy new wireless earbuds flying out of your ears and into a puddle, train tracks or the loo. Apple’s AirPods, those white sticks dangling down people’s lobes, jump-started a big trend in headphones with separate buds that connect wirelessly to each other and to your phone. They’re liberating us from tangles and mismatched plugs. But after you cut the cord, what’s keeping your headphones on your head?

I think we need a new way to judge this new kind of earbuds. Or maybe it’s a very old-school way: headbanging.

I gathered three totally wireless earbuds with very different designs for staying on ears – AirPods 2, the new Beats Powerbeats Pro and the Bose SoundSport Free. Then I sought help reviewing the wobble factor from someone very accomplished at headbanging: Sammy Hagar.

If anyone can shake loose a pair of wireless buds, it’s the former Van Halen singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, whose album Space Between debuted last week.

“I am notorious – the little stickthem-in things don’t work for me unless they have rubber on them and they can really grip,” Hagar said. “I have large ears on the outside but small inlets.”

Sure, sound quality, price and call quality matter for headphones, too. But not if the darn things won’t stay in your ears as you bounce through life. Our results surprised me and offer an important lesson: human ears are as unique as our feet. The outer parts of the ear vary in size by up to a third of an inch. Sometimes the left and right ears don’t even match. Women’s ears tend to be a little smaller, so Sammy’s wife, Kari Hagar, who is even better at headbanging, kindly joined our test, too.

“Designing something that is one-size-fits-all is analogous to making a pair of shoes that fit everyone,” says Dr. Robert Jackler, a professor of Otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. One technique that might help earbuds better stay put – going deeper into the ear canal – would require custom fits. Other than that, it’s all about adding stabilization from other parts of the ear.

“The ear canal is a unfriendly place for any kind of electronic device,” says Robert Sweetow, a Professor Emeritus of Otolaryngology at the University of California, San Francisco. It’s a “rain forest” in there, he told me, at 98.6 degrees and filled with varying amounts of hair and wax. Sweating can cause plastic devices that normally grab on to the skin to slip right out. The

older we get, the more rigid ear cartilage becomes, too.

All of this is why it’s good we now have lots of choices beyond the one-size-fits-most AirPods. I included three of the most wellknown brands in this rundown, but there are now dozens of models, ranging with prices starting as low as $60.

To pick the wireless earbuds that are right for you, approach them like shoes. Don’t be afraid to ask to try some on – just clean them with a wet wipe first – or buy a bunch and return the ones that don’t survive your own headbang test. Then also consider how you’ll carry and charge them: these things all have to go somewhere else when they’re not on your head.

Apple AirPods 2

What they look like: AirPods look like Q-Tips dangling out your ears, but they’ve also become a status symbol. In many offices, they’re how you communicate: “I’m busy and would rather not speak with you right now.”

How they stay in: if AirPods were shoes, they’d be flip flops. AirPods break all the design rules: they come in just one size, and don’t have adjustable tips that make a seal with the ear canal.

To develop their shape, Apple 3D-scanned hundreds of ears to find an oval form that it thinks fits many. (They don’t define many.) AirPods rest in between parts of the ear that stick out around the canal, and hold on through friction between the plastic and your skin. You do have to get the left and right side correct to use them – and the labels could be clearer.

How they headbanged: the AirPods stayed put for all three of us during our most vigorous rocking, and were my panel’s overall favorite. That’s not what I expected, given how insecure they feel in my ears when I’m just walking around. But the AirPods prove earbuds don’t necessarily have to

make a seal on the ear to stay put.

In terms of sound, AirPods don’t block surrounding sound, but still manage to pump good-enough sound for pop music right into the ear canal.

Sammy says: “They felt like nothing in my ear – they disappeared real fast.” Adds Kari: “They were just easy to pop in.”

How you carry them: the small charging case is perhaps the best thing about the AirPods. They slip easily into jeans. And the lid makes a satisfactory flick, like fiddling with a lighter.

How long they last: AirPods promise 5 hours of music, which increases to 24 hours with the charging case. Apple won’t say how many months of use or charge cycles AirPod batteries can withstand, but some owners have reported they conk out as soon as 18 months. (Mine have lasted 29 months.) When the batteries do die, Apple will replace them for $49.

Beats Powerbeats Pro

What they look like: less silly than AirPods, the behind-the-ear hooks of the Powerbeats Pro say, “I’m busy running a marathon.”

How they stay in: if the Powerbeats Pro were shoes, they’d be Tevas. A large loop tucks behind the ear and reaches toward the ear canal, where an acoustic nozzle pokes in with silicon tips (included in four sizes). Beats’ focus is clearly athletes who want headphones that feel locked in. One advantage to the loop design is that the back of the ear can take more pressure than sensitive front parts (such as the bit right above the ear canal). I didn’t have problems wearing them with glasses, but the hooks do have to share the same ear real estate. How they headbanged: all three of us could have rocked all night long. The Powerbeats Pro felt by far the most secure in our ears, without feeling heavy. They’re also the best choice for intense

sweaters. They block more ambient noise than the AirPods thanks to their acoustic seal, but the bass isn’t as deep as other Beats I’ve tried. One downside: they’re a little bit of a hassle to get in and out of your ears, at least at first.

Sammy says: “Wouldn’t come out even if you got hit by a truck!”

How you carry them: not easily. The charging case is about the size of a scone and won’t slide easily into jeans. You could go sans-case, but they started playing in my pocket when I did that. It’s fine if you’re just taking them out for runs, but less convenient for everyday. (Beats are owned by Apple, and the Bluetooth connection on these headphones work as seamlessly with iPhones as the AirPods.)

How long they last: each earbud promises up to nine hours of listening and there’s up to 24 hours if you include the case. Beats won’t say how many months or charge cycles the batteries can withstand, and a battery replacement will cost you $79 plus $7 shipping from Apple.

Bose SoundSport Free

What they look like: if the SoundSport Free were shoes, they might be downhill ski boots. And they protrude from the ears, making you look a little like Frankenstein’s monster. How they stay in: silicon tips

(included in three different sizes) seal around the ear canal, and connected “wings” push up against an edge in the area just outside the ear canal. You twist them slightly to “lock” the buds in. The material is soft and pliable, but it definitely feels like you’ve got something in your ear.

How they headbanged: one bud went flying out of Sammy’s right ear, while they stayed put for both me and Kari. Sammy’s problem might have been one ear is too shallow for the wings to securely grip on to. (Bose says the smaller tips it includes in the box are the most appropriate for such people.) The design was divisive, but these headphones also sounded the best – when they stayed in.

Sammy says: “They’re just too clumsy sticking out there like that.”

How you carry them: the charging case is larger than it ought to be, but narrow enough you could stick in a deep pocket. The earbuds shut off when they’re placed in the case, but unfortunately the music doesn’t stop automatically just by removing one from your ear like with the AirPods and Powerbeats Pro.

How long they last: the buds promise five hours of play time, plus 10 more from the charging case. Bose says they’re good for at least 500 full charge cycles, and there’s no way to replace the batteries in them.

The Washington Post

Facebook said it shut down 265 fake accounts run by an Israeli social media company on Thursday for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it sought to affect politics in African, Latin American and Southeast Asian nations.

The move, while underscoring the increasingly global nature of social media disinformation campaigns, was unusual for singling out a company that appeared to profit from its publicized work to spread falsehoods online. Archimedes Group, the Israeli company, claims the ability to “use every tool and take every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client’s wishes.”

The fake accounts were on both Facebook and its photo-sharing sister site, Instagram, the company said. Archimedes Group is now banned from both.

“We’re taking down these Pages and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted,” said a post by Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of global cybersecurity policy.

WASHINGTON POST PHOTOS

Above, Apple’s AirPods 2, Beats Powerbeats Pro and Bose SoundSport Free use different mechanisms to stay on the ear. Right, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sammy Hagar helped The Washington Post test them.

How to nail a gallery wall

The Washington Post

Every now and then, a design blog will declare gallery walls “over” – a fad that’s had its moment.

But they’re a decorating staple, says Susan Tynan, founder and chief executive of Framebridge, an online framing company. “I get asked a lot whether I think the gallery wall trend will go away anytime soon,” Tynan says. “It’s not a trend. It’s been around for hundreds of years.”

In 17th-century Paris, the paintings of recent graduates of the Royal Academy were hung floor to ceiling so as many as possible could be viewed, creating a sensation and inspiring grand salon-style museum exhibitions that continue to this day. This arrangement style eventually became popular with collectors and art lovers.

There’s no end in sight. Some of the country’s top designers showed off gallery walls in this year’s high-end Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York. And for the more timid and budget-strapped among us, an army of experts, online tools and apps have popped up to help consumers curate artwork - and get over their fear of hammering multiple holes in their walls.

“Gallery walls give a visual wow factor,” says Paula Wallace, founder and president of Savannah College of Art and Design. “Lots of residences today are small. Instead of scattering postage-stamp-size works of art all over, focus attention and care on one wall and arrange your works of art and collectibles. With a salon wall, all rules are out the window. If it pleases you, mix modern and vintage frames, traditional art with contemporary. It’s all fine.”

A gallery wall (or salon wall) is loosely defined as a collection of items: framed artwork, photographs and personal treasures hung in a grouping. Search #gallerywall on Instagram, and you’ll see more than 865,000 incarnations, some hung in millennial-friendly symmetrical rows, some Bohemian assemblages in mismatched frames.

“You see gallery walls all through history, whether in grand estates in Moscow, at Monticello or in Diana Vreeland’s iconic apartment in New York,” says Michelle Adams, editor and creative adviser at Artfully Walls, an online company that sells the work of more than 450 artists reproduced in digital giclee prints and has a collection for Anthropologie. It also sells pre-curated gallery walls you can try on for size with an online tool that shows how they will look in your room.

“We see people mixing in a lot of personal photos, and even wall-hanging plants have become part of the gallery wall today,” she says. “They’ll even mix in Samsung’s Frame TV that looks like a piece of art.”

Interior designers say the gallery wall is frequently on clients’ wish lists. “When I

start working with someone, I ask them to send me photos of rooms that inspire them,” says designer Miles Redd of the New York firm Redd Kaihoi. “Invariably they show me that one wall of eclectic art that everybody loves and wants to have.”

Designer Sheila Bridges filled an entire wall with art in her tiny 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House room. Her theme in her “Le Salon Des Chiens” was the “manyfaceted relationships between humans and canines.” The gallery mixes portraiture, needlepoint and evocative photos from the civil rights movement. “I usually start with the important work in the middle, sometimes a mirror,” Bridges says. “But for my show house room I chose a photo of Martin

Luther King. I like to combine different frames and textures, and both horizontal and vertical.”

There’s no one way to organize a wall. Some gallery walls have the same style frames or all the same color frames; some have artworks that share a theme, such as travel, or a certain shade of chartreuse. Some just reflect the whim of the collector.

“It’s a collage you are making, and it’s all about relationships,” Redd says. “You hold things up, and if it feels good you keep going.”

The grid styles that are popular right now, Framebridge creative director Tessa Wolf says, can give your place a clean look while still portraying your personal style.

“A lot of overthinking goes into choosing art and making a gallery wall, but it should be fun choosing things that you like to look at every day,” Adams says. “It should show what your interests are to people when they walk into a room.”

Not sure what is really you? Help is everywhere.

West Elm’s Design Crew offers free inhome consultations on how to arrange your wall. Then to install, the store charges $129 for hanging up to 10 pieces of art. Framebridge started selling framing online in 2014 and started a gallery wall consultation service a year later. This year, it opened its first two brick-and-mortar stores, in Washington and suburban Bethesda, Md. “It sounds like it should be so easy, but people just struggled so much,” Wolf says. For $199, an online Framebridge consultant will help you organize your artwork into a gallery wall and provide one custom layout mock-up and $39 toward your framing order.

Last year, the company launched a pre-designed gallery wall collection that includes three to 12 framed photos made from digital pictures customers upload. “We heard from people that they wanted a very specific look that they’d seen on Instagram and Pinterest,” Wolf says. Each pre-designed gallery wall comes with a life-size template to tape on your wall so you’ll know exactly where to hammer.

Framebridge customized a hallway gallery wall of 14 framed photos for Alexandra Sullivan’s Winchester, Mass., home using mostly pictures stored in her iPhone. They printed them, framed them and gave her a layout. “This hallway is in view from our back stairs, kitchen and front door, so it’s a high-traffic area,” Sullivan says. “It was a great spot to showcase the images that make me happiest - photos of our babies, wedding, honeymoon and dog.”

As for installation, David Kassel, who owns ILevel art placement and installation company in New York, recommends enlisting a second pair of hands to hold things up before you hammer, mix up sizes and use picture hooks, as plain nails often aren’t strong enough in the wall by themselves. He’s not a fan of adhesive hooks, either, which he says can’t hold the weight of most framed artworks and can discolor walls. “Fret not” is his mantra: You’re not causing any structural damage if you hang something and later want to move it. If you still can’t bring yourself to put nails all over your perfectly painted walls, and you’re not exactly sure of placement, there are always photo ledges. “As someone who lives in a perpetual state of redecoration, I love the flexibility ledges offer,” Wolf says. “Be sure you get the proportions of the pieces right; frames on a ledge need to be different enough in height so that they stand out when layered.”

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO

A room by Sheila Bridges at the 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House features a gallery wall.

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.

Carol Rachel Elsie Miller Oct 23,1943 - May 14, 2019

It is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of Carol Miller, beloved wife of Maynard Miller. Survived by Husband Maynard, Daughter Brenda Spencer, Son Rick Miller (Terry) Grand Children Melissa (Kal), Kaitlynn (Brad), Chad (Julie), Nicholle (Devon), Amanda (Braden) And eight great grand children Brother Blaine Stafford (Feerozah), Sister Gail Switzer Sister InLaws, Clarece Dyson, Pat Stafford and Judy Demman And numerous nieces, nephews and friends. Carol was born October 23,1943 in Cadomin Alberta, and her family moved to the Prince George area in 1949. Carol and Maynard met in 1958 and were married September 30, 1961. Carol was a loving wife, mother and homemaker who loved to watch sports live or on two televisions at the same time. Carol loved crocheting for her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She also enjoyed the occasional Coors light. Predeceased by parents Roy and Adeline Stafford, Brother Garry Stafford, Nephew Jody Stafford and Brother In-Law Blake Switzer. Carol (Wife, Mom, Grandma, Sister, Sister in-law and Friend) will always be in our hearts, memories and thoughts. Services will be held at Assman’s Funeral Chapel Saturday May 25, 2019 at 2:00 pm. Celebration of life to follow at Sandman Signature Hotel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

WOOD,CRAIGA. OCTOBER8,1994 -MAY18,2014

Rememberingthelossof Craig,gonetoosoon. Alwaysrememberedand alwaysloved.Ourshining star,inourheartsand forevermissed.Xoxo

CARPENTERS&LABOURS WITHOFA2OR3

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

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Networks race to make next hit

The Washington Post

The Game of Thrones finale

Sunday means viewers will get their last taste of the blood and the Westerosi fight that has been spilling it.

But back in Hollywood, the battle is still very much underway.

Even after House Lannister, Targaryen or Stark end up controlling the Iron Throne (or all of them in a fatal heap), premium television networks will continue waging war, seeking a new show to rule the world Thrones created.

Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Showtime have all been feverishly working to reconstruct the scale, acclaim, relevance and – not to be underestimated – subscriberattracting properties of the HBO smash.

“There is an arms race going on for event television,” said a veteran TV executive who has spent years at a premium platform, using the term for the expensive and location-heavy show with bigcanvas plotlines. “There could be multiple winners. Or there could be no winners at all.”

The markets today

Canada’s main stock index moved lower Friday despite the announced lifting of steel and aluminum tariffs by the United States and Canada. While the ending of metal tariffs didn’t have much impact on markets, it gives investors hope that a North American trade pact can be ratified and that a trade agreement between the world’s two largest economies is still possible, says Patrick Blais, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. Markets fell on new threats of retaliation from China after an executive order by the Trump administration, aimed at banning Huawei equipment from U.S. networks, took effect on Thursday.

In a front-page commentary in the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, China said that a trade war with the U.S. will strengthen the country and never bring China to its knees.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 42.11 points at 16,401.75. Eight of the market’s 11 major sectors fell, led by energy and health care. Crude oil prices were down on the day but higher than a couple of weeks ago. While the current prices are strong enough to encourage production of U.S. shale, there is geopolitical uncertainty, particularly from Iran and Venezuela.

The July crude contract was down 14 cents at US$62.92 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was down 0.8 of a cent at US$2.63 per mmBTU. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.25 cents US compared with an average of 74.41 cents US on Thursday.

The June gold contract was down US$10.50 at US$1,275.70 an ounce and the July copper contract was down 0.95 of a cent at US$2.74 a pound.

Industrials rose on CAE Inc. shares gaining 14.6 per cent to an all-time high after the Montreal flight training and simulator company posted strong results that beat expectations. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 98.68 points at 25,764.00. The S&P 500 index was down 16.79 points at 2,859.53, while the Nasdaq composite was down 81.76 points at 7,816.28. Although markets dropped on Friday, they ended the week higher and pared some of the deep losses from the previous week. Blais said that week’s steep drop was probably an overreaction to tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump about raising tariffs against China.

That success has changed how

Netflix has The Witcher, based on a supernatural-monster literary franchise; Showtime has Halo, based on one of the most popular video-games series of all time. Amazon seeks to bring viewers back to the Shire with Lord of the Rings; Apple is hoping to finally give life to Isaac Asimov’s sweeping Foundation. And HBO is going back to the well, developing a Game of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts.

The scramble isn’t happening just because the end of Thrones will leave a massive audience looking for their next epic (or, lately, a target for social-media outrage). For networks it’s about taking advantage of a new set of rules. Swords-and-scepters was once overlooked material – the stuff of a Tolkien adaptation in the movie theatre every few years and, at best, a niche show on weekly television.

Yet Thrones has turned in to the dragon that lays the golden eggs – it has averaged some 18 million viewers per episode this season, more than 50 per cent above even the much-watched The Sopranos finale. HBO Now subscribers spiked by 91 per cent during the seventh season.

executives think, increasing the acceptable risks and price tags for a new genre series. (Budgets for a Thrones episode can now come in at more than $10 million, several times that of most highend series.) Their logic is that not only is it worth making shows in categories like fantasy and science fiction – it’s worth spending a lot on them, too. Given how elusive a hit can be amid the present TV crowds, that means a lot of executives could soon be taking a bath. Consumers? They could be swimming in event-TV content. Halo is an apt spiritual heir to Thrones. It has the power struggle, the spectacle and the doublecrossing. Though springboarded from a video game, it contains juicy central characters and names of Thrones-ian dimensions (Master Chief John-117, The Arbiter).

But that also makes it a good candidate for failure – with a sprawling mythology across an original trilogy, a second trilogy, spin offs, novels and graphic novels, the source material may be too unwieldy for eight hourly episodes.

That’s partly why Halo development has been going on for nearly six years. Top-tier filmmakers such as Neill Blomkamp of District 9 and Guillermo Del Toro each took a look and eventually went away.

Air Canada stock soars over Transat

The Canadian Press

Air Canada’s interest in buying rival Transat AT Inc. for about $520 million got positive feedback from the markets Thursday after the two companies announced they’re in exclusive talks to finalize a deal.

Transat shares rose 13.4 per cent to close at $12, while Air Canada stock gained nearly four per cent to $40.39, above Wednesday’s all-time high at $39.16.

The two companies say Air Canada – the country’s largest airline – would pay $13 per share for Transat, the Montreal-based owner of Air Transat and numerous vacation travel businesses. That’s more than double what Transat shares were worth prior to its announcement that it was in talks with more than one potential buyer, without identifying the contenders.

McGill University professor Karl Moore said a combination of the two companies would help grow Air Canada Vacations, which competes with Transat, WestJet and others in the leisure travel market.

“Air Canada’s plan is to grow and this is part of their growth strategy,” Moore said.

“And I think Transat is going to be in better shape because of the potential of being bought by Air Canada.”

Keeping Transat’s head office in Montreal would also be greeted favourably by politicians in Quebec, just as Alberta politicians want to see WestJet headquarters remain in Calgary if it’s bought by Onex, Moore said.

After bringing on acclaimed TV writer Kyle Killen as showrunner, the network last month hired a second showrunner, Steven Kane of TNT’s The Last Ship. But it’s still seeking key cast members and a production start date.

Gary Levine, Showtime’s entertainment co-president, talks about it with longing. He says the key may be finding people not known for sci-fi, the way Thrones found its voice with a pair of creators not known for fantasy.

It’s a sign of these event-TV times, the Foundation trilogy that was once an attempted movie is now getting new life as a TV show – and from Apple, with designs on HBO-like dominance.

The literary work is a classic, not just a genre exercise but a deep contemplation of global power politics via something called psychohistory. Empires rise and fall in Foundation in ways that make Westeros look like a city council election. And yet that same sprawling quality is why the show has still not found the airwaves.

Apple may face a similar challenge to Showtime with its event series: the problem of too much myth.

Neither Apple nor Showtime would comment on their bets.

That’s why despite a green light, writers and a producer-financier, Foundation lacks a cast and start date. The show was barely mentioned at the service’s high-profile

deal

Toronto-based Onex Corp. announced Monday that it has a friendly deal to buy WestJet Airlines Ltd. – Canada’s secondlargest scheduled airline company – for about $3.5 billion, subject to approvals. Moore said Air Canada will face stiffer competition from WestJet as a private company with backing from Onex.

Gabor Forgacs, an associate professor who teaches tourism and hospitality management at Ryerson University, said he doesn’t think consumers will see a reduction of choice or competition from an Air Canada-Transat combination. “I think they can beef up the whole selection of vacation packages they offer,” Forgacs said.

In addition, he said, there continues to be competition in the packaged vacation business from Sunwing Travel Group, a private Toronto-based company that’s 49 per cent owned by Germany’s TUI Group.

“So I think the consumer will have similar selection, maybe better,” he said. “I don’t see travellers suffering any consequences.” Mona Nazir, a transport analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, issued a note advising clients “we do not believe that TRZ will get a better offer than $13.

“We think this is a great deal for Transat shareholders given it represents 149 per cent premium over the 20-day weighted average trading price prior to the announcement of April 30, 2019” when Transat first revealed it had been in discussions with more than one party about a potential sale.

presentation in March.

In some ways, the fight to follow Game of Thrones is a lot like the game of thrones itself: You win or you die. There is no middle ground. Spending that much on a series sets a bar for profit and viewership very high, and shows that don’t reach it can fail badly. But those risks aren’t deterring some players – and may even be motivating them.”

In 2017, Amazon paid a reported $250 million for the license to Lord of The Rings. For a license. Production costs, according to some estimates, could take the show to $1 billion.

Amazon is now planning a prequel to the events of the original Lord of the Rings novels, hiring writers from Star Trek and targeting the series for 2021.

“We feel like Frodo, setting out from the Shire, with a great responsibility in our care – it is the beginning of the adventure of a lifetime,” Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke, who was hired in 2018, recently told reporters. Frodo’s adventure also included captivity at the hands of a giant spider and a stalker who eventually bit off the hobbit’s ring finger. Observers see plenty of risk for Amazon as well.

“It could be a massive failure in the making. Or it could be a Game of Thrones-sized cultural event,” wrote Nerdist.

WASHINGTON POST/HBO PHOTO

A battle scene from Season 8 of Game of Thrones. The finale of the popular series airs Sunday.

States bringing scripture back to public schools

The Washington Post

Todd Steenbergen leads worship services in church sometimes, but today he was preaching in a different venue: the Kentucky public-school classroom where he teaches.

“A lot of people will look at the Beatitudes and glean some wisdom from them,” he told the roomful of students, pointing toward the famous blessings he had posted on the board, some of the bestknown verses in the Bible. “I want you to think about what kind of wisdom we can get from these today.”

While Steenbergen was urging students to draw lessons from the Bible here in southern Kentucky, students halfway across the state were reading from the Gospels as well, in a classroom where they drew pictures of the cross and of Adam and Eve walking with dinosaurs, hanging them on the walls.

Scenes of Bible classes in public school could become increasingly common across the United States if other states follow Kentucky’s lead in passing legislation that encourages high schools to teach the Bible.

Activists on the religious right, through their legislative effort Project Blitz, drafted a law that encourages Bible classes in public schools and persuaded at least 10 states legislatures to introduce versions of it this year. Georgia and Arkansas recently passed bills that are awaiting their governors’ signatures.

Proponents of Bible instruction – such as Chuck Stetson, who publishes a textbook that he says is already in use in more than 600 public schools across the nation – are thrilled.

“We’re not too far away from a tipping point. Instead of having to find a reason to teach the Bible in public schools academically, as part of a good education, you’re going to have to find a reason not to do it,” Stetson said.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonpartisan advocacy group organizing opposition to the state laws, takes a dark view of Project Blitz. The organization coordinated a statement signed by numerous religious groups that oppose Project Blitz’s efforts – including the Union for Reform Judaism, the Hindu American Foundation, Muslim Advocates, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church.

“It’s part of an effort to establish this sort of narrow Christian agenda as the norm for our country, the government-sanctioned and supported norm,” said Rachel Laser, the president and chief executive of the Americans United group.

In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in School District of Abington Township v. Schempp that school-led Bible reading is an unconstitutional religious practice. But the court noted that teaching the Bible was allowed: “Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

Advocates of these classes view the Bible as a key component of a well-rounded education, key to understanding Western literature and American history.

Such classes have long been offered by some public schools across the nation, sometimes taught by public-school employees with textbooks paid for by school budgets.

Other times, schools have adopted “released time” rules that let students use part of their school day attending church-taught classes.

West Virginia is now embroiled in a legal battle over such a policy.

Even those opposed to Bible classes in public schools often agree that religious literacy can be valuable if it is incorporated into world-religions or history classes.

But that is not what is called for in the state bills supported by Project Blitz, an effort of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, which describes its purpose as protecting “the free exercise of traditional Judeo-Christian religious values and beliefs in the public square.”

According to Americans United’s analysis of the texts of state Bible-class bills, all but South Carolina’s – which includes permission to teach alternatives to evolution,

along with “religions of the world” – focus on the Christian Bible.

The Alabama, Georgia and West Virginia’s bills say schools can teach the Old or New Testament, or both. Florida’s bill, which not only encourages but also requires public high schools to have an elective religion course, called for either “objective study of religion” or “objective study of the Bible”; consideration of the bill was indefinitely postponed this month.

Mississippi and North Dakota’s bills failed this year.

The rest are still up for consideration, according to state legislative trackers.

The model for many of these states is Kentucky, where state standards for elective Bible education became the law in 2017.

The American Civil Liberties Union swiftly responded, issuing a letter that said it would closely monitor all school districts in the state.

The organization flagged four school districts in Kentucky, warning that the materials used to teach the Bible in those schools suggested they were violating the Constitution and might lead to a future ACLU lawsuit.

Two of the four districts have since stopped offering a Bible class, saying student interest was low.

The remaining two are in Glasgow and Paducah.

Both are in mostly rural counties where residents are vastly more likely to hold evangelical Christian beliefs than those of any other religious affiliation, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. Very few residents of either county belong to a non-Christian religious group.

At Barren County High School in Glasgow, principal Brad Johnson refers to the school he graduated from and now leads as “a prayerful school” and “a churchinvolved community.”

On days when they are at school but students are not, teachers lead prayers over the loudspeaker.

Johnson, also a Sunday-school teacher,

says he sometimes drops in on Steenbergen’s Bible class for ideas.

He said parents are glad their children take the Bible class because they know Steenbergen is “a Christian man” who leads Baptist services outside school.

Students describe Steenbergen’s Bible class as a chance to do something they enjoy during the school day – Cole Wilson, who took the class in a previous semester, likened reading the Bible in school to getting the chance to shoot hoops during gym class.

“I like studying the Bible anyway,” agreed Mattie Coomer, who also took the class. “As a Christian, I believe the Bible, it’s a living book – if God is a living God, he’s going to speak through his word every time you open up the Bible. It’s more important than any other book I could be reading.”

Coomer said she just finished reading the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, outside of school, and then started all over again.

But that’s not what happens in the classroom.

In Steenbergen’s Bible class, the students hardly read the Bible at all. There is no classroom set of Bibles for

every student, no encouragement to download a Bible app on their smartphones. He never assigns chapters or verses to read.

Instead, he said, he summarizes biblical stories for them and focuses class time on highlighting connections between the Bible and modern life.

During one class this spring, he spent most of the hour-and-a-half period on a game in which students guessed which theme from the Gospel of Matthew or which blessing from the Beatitudes that Steenbergen meant to connect to when he played clips from country songs and Disney movies.

His consistent message throughout the game was that students should draw moral lessons from the Gospels.

“ ‘Pure in spirit’ is a good word to equate to humility, humble,” he said. “We see humility, a wise thing that could be applicable for us today. How many of us would like to be more humble about something?” And later: “Was there a time you helped provide some cheer for someone and it made you aware how good it was?... We can use wisdom and apply it in new ways today and help people be comforted.”

WASHINGTON POST PHOTOS

Above, longtime English teacher Ellen Powless leads a Bible class in February at McCracken County High School in Paducah, Ky. Right, Todd Steenbergen is shown last month with students in his Bible class at Barren County High School in Glasgow, Ky.