Rock of Ages hitting CN Centre Friday
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Rise up, gather round, rock this place to the ground. Get your gunters in a row with your gliebens and glautens and globens. There’s a stage show coming, and it’s one for the ages.
The soundtrack to the dusty gravel backroads and gritty urban streets of the 1980s is now the soundtrack of musical theatre stages from Broadway to Buenos Aires. Rock of Ages pumps the glam metal of the acid-washed era rewrapped in a story made for today’s live audiences eager for a new kind of musical – one that begs you to feel the noize right through to the final countdown.
Kenya Hamilton is too young to remember the heyday of Starship and Whitesnake but she didn’t live under a rock. She was familiar with these seminal rock hits when she won the role of Justice in the 10th anniversary U.S. National Tour Cast, but that cast has now crossed the line, they’ve come to Canada, and she was surprised by how deeply the Canadian audiences are invested in these songs.
“They kind of get immersed in it,” said the singer-actor-dancer who grew up in Georgia and New York. She’d been to Canada, but never on an extended voyage like this one. She didn’t know that Canadians took their classic rock almost as seriously as their hockey. “Sometimes they’re singing the songs before we get there. They hear the first chords and they’re already singing it, so they’ve been great, I love that.”
This is Hamilton’s first tour of any kind. She’s a pro at musical theatre, she got her degree in that discipline from Ithaca College, but her past credits (Ghost, Sister Act, Barnum) have been stationary musicals. Now she’s out on the road, sometimes performing every night for days on end then rolling down the highway on miles of asphalt that can
numb the concept of what city she’s in.
“At the beginning I wasn’t so versed in how to just keep it going for so long, and I asked friends who had done it before for advice, and they told me lots of helpful things, but I really didn’t get it until the second leg of the tour – ahhh, this is how you maintain,” she said. “Hearing about it and actually living it are just two different things. Self care is a big thing. You are definitely an athlete in some respects.”
Carefully managing sleep, vitamins, water, good nutrition and other aspects of wellness will hopefully lead her to future goals of Broadway or The West End. She’s happy doing musical theatre as a profession, which wasn’t always an automatic eventuality in her head. She remembers telling her mother that she just didn’t want a career that led her into the same four walls every day. Over time her pursuit of personal freedom led to the stage.
“It’s not easy by any means, but I think my goals grew as I grew,” she said.
Now she has to become other people as a condition of who she is as a profession. At the moment, that’s a rather saucy character named Justice, the owner of the story’s prominent strip club.
“Justice... oh boy,” said Hamilton, assessing who Justice is and how she had to be approached. “I feel like Justice has a lot of heart if you look past the fact she owns a strip club with these vulnerable girls. Besides her job description, she is very open and honest and doesn’t take any crap, so I can respect that.”
Hamilton and her tour mates will all be in Prince George at CN Centre this Friday with enough rock to go on for ages. She is loving the Canadian experience and this city is the farthest north on the show’s tour, so she’s soaking up the culture along the way. The whole tour went axe throwing in Calgary so the challenge is on for Prince George to offer up something northerly for the memory banks of the cast and crew.
We will leave it at that because it’s better to burn out than fade away.
Legion seeking new members
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
A membership drive is underway to ensure more music and other entertainment events can happen at the beloved downtown location.
“The Legion operates on a club license, which means it’s technically only open to members and their guests,” said Danny Bell of Mad Loon Entertainment, a public events organization that puts on shows around town and has done so at The Legion in the past. “They are transitioning to a full liquor primary license which will solve this issue. While they await the approval of their application, we can’t do any shows the way we used to.”
The solution – more members – is one that also benefits The Legion organization. This venerable charity helps veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP as its primary mandate across Canada, but also contributes heavily to other community causes as well.
“Our membership is down this year, and it’s been going that way the last three or four years,” said Wilma Scott, the local Branch 43 membership chair. “We have a lot of respect for the older people, we’ve been the ones that have gotten The Legion this far, our veterans are now young people. We are really gearing for the younger generation. That’s who counts.”
The events in the past couple of years are not exclusionary of any age group, and have not displaced the other events that cater more specifically to the traditional veterans of our armed forces, but a whole new audience has shown its potential by embracing the downtown restaurant and its many amenities.
“We would welcome the younger generation to spend their social time with us, they have such great ideas and great energy,” said Scott. “We need to keep the Legion going and with their help I think that would be great.”
To ensure all B.C. government legalities and national Legion policies are covered, the simplest way to hold music concerts, comedy nights, and other entertainment events is to sign up as members the people most likely to want to see those shows.
— see ‘THE IDEA IS, page 3
HANDOUT PHOTO BY JEREMY DANIEL
An international production of the 1980s rock musical Rock of Ages will be performing at CN Centre this Friday.
CITIZEN
Breakfast with Rex
Rex Murphy, CBC and National Post commentator, spoke at the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association breakfast in the Civic Centre on Tuesday. The crowd of 200 enjoyed Rex’s insight and incomparable wit as he offered his tales on Canadian politics, energy and construction.
Video contest looks to promote cooking together as a family
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Sharing family meals provides nourishment of all kinds. It’s healthy for the body and healthy for life in general to spend that time together with food in the middle.
A Prince George nutritionist is calling on her townspeople to get a video into the Better Together BC video contest called the Hands-On Cook-Off. Great prizes are up for the winning and great family times are up for the having.
“The contest has been going on for 10 years and it is about getting people excited about cooking and enjoying food with family, sharing, interacting in the kitchen, and not professional but just people inspired to enjoy good times with good food,” said Lindsay Van Der Meer.
After a modern period of society sinking deep into a culture of disconnection from grassroots food relationships, where processed meals and snacks have become the norm, where factories do more for food preparation in the modern household than the families themselves, a movement has
been gaining momentum to know more about where our food comes from, how it is prepared for better health, and how that relates to getting the most out of our meals. Heritage, culture, history, community, family connections – it all relates to food.
“My hope is that it sparks an interest – in food and in closer family time,” said Van Der Meer. “This is enjoying one of life’s greatest pleasures, and how that can be good for our bodies, good for our communities and good for our families. Eating is a foundational part of our lives, every single day, and it can be so much more than just obligatory.”
The contest calls for three-minute (maximum) videos, applicable to two categories.
One is for multi-generational cooking, where at least two generations must be involved in the making of the recipe.
One is for getting kids involved, where at least two youth aged 18 or under must participate in the making of the recipe.
“This contest is a tradition that many B.C. families look forward to each year, and for good reason,” said a statement from the Hands-On Cook-Off organizers.
“New research confirms that families that cook together and share meals on a regular basis experience valuable lifelong benefits, such as improved dietary intake and healthier overall eating habits, including higher intakes of fruits and vegetables and lower intakes of fast food and takeout meals for both female and male youths in both high-functioning and low-functioning family environments.”
More than $4,500 in money and in-kind prizes will be up for grabs, including a grand prize of $1,000 cash, as determined by a panel of notable judges including:
• Chef Ned Bell, Ocean Wise executive chef and culinary director of the Vancouver Club
• Chef David Hawksworth, chef/owner of Hawksworth Restaurant Group
• Claire Newell, travel expert and media personality
• Susie Wall, style and entertainment expert
• Samantha Gutmanis, food editor and blogger
• MLA Lana Popham, B.C.’s Minister of Agriculture
• Anna Brisco, chef, registered dietitian and
nutrition educator
“We are in an age where social media circulates a lot of videos, and some of them are really good, so people might be afraid to enter because they aren’t confident they could make a professional-grade video, but that’s not what we’re after,” said Van Der Meer. “We’re just hoping for simple homemade videos. The important thing to see those recipes being made together.”
Van Der Meer said the act of getting kids involved in the kitchen has demonstrated side benefits like less pickiness, willingness to try new foods, improved social skills, better overall nutrition, and even better scholastic results.
“I love to cook and I have a four-year-old who also loves to cook,” said Van Der Meer.
“It’s messy, and it doesn’t always turn out the way the recipe called for, but it’s so easy to see the enjoyment and the benefits that set in even at that age.”
To enter a video, go to the Better Together B.C. website (bettertogetherbc.ca/contest) for submission links and also handy tips on how to film and edit the video. It is free to enter and the deadline is May 15.
tie affair
Attendees enjoy a cocktail on Saturday night at the Prince George Civic Centre during the Mayor’s Black & White Ball For The Arts.
Rural residents urged to sign up for public alert system
Citizen staff
The Fraser-Fort George Regional District wants you to get the message.
It’s urging rural residents to sign up for its public alerting system – used to transmit important information via text, text to landline or email in the event of emergencies, including severe weather, wildfire and floods.
To register, go to www.rdffg.
bc.ca and follow these steps:
1. Resident or visitor: The system will ask you to select if you are a permanent resident of the area, or if you are visiting for a limited time.
2. Name and email: Enter your name and email. Your email address becomes your account user name.
3. Phone number: Register your phone number (or numbers if you have multiple phones you’d like to receive notifications to).
These are the numbers the system will use to communicate with you via text for mobile phones or voice recorded notification for land line phones.
4. Set your password: Remember to keep this secure.
5. Select the zone or zones you wish to receive notifications for: You may select one or more areas.
• Zone 1 includes Area G (Summit Lake, Bear Lake, McLeod Lake, north of Mackenzie);
• Zone 2 includes Areas A,C,D, E and F (Ness Lake, Salmon Valley, Miworth, Beaverly, Buckhorn, West Lake, Pineview, Red Rock, Hixon, Shelley, Penny, Willow River);
• Zone 3 includes Area H (Dome Creek, McBride, Dunster, Tete Jaune, Valemount).
6. Once all the information has been entered, click ‘finished.’
The system does not provide alerts or notifications for events within the City of Prince George, Village of McBride, Village of Valemount or District of Mackenzie.
RCMP campaign focuses on bike, motorcycle violations
Prince George RCMP handed out 190 violations during a month-long campaign focused on bicycle and motorcycle safety.
During April, the detachment’s municipal traffic services section kept an extra-close eye on drivers who did not show respect for these types of road users, and cyclists and riders who put themselves in harm’s way.
At 96, violations for failing to wear a helmet while cycling led the way. One bicycle helmet violation was also issued to the guardian of a youth and one helmet violation was issued to a motorcycle rider.
As well, 50 violations were issued to cyclists for riding on sidewalks and one was issued for careless cycling. A further 29 were issued for other cyclingrelated offences. Additionally, six were issued to drivers for driving without due care and consideration and two for failing to signal.
And four were issued to pedestrians for jaywalking.
“As a motorist, it’s your responsibility to follow the rules of the road and be courteous to all types of road users,” said Sgt. Matthew LaBelle.
“As a cyclist or pedestrian, it’s even more important to follow the rules of the road, as you lack the protection required if a collision happens.”
‘The idea is that we all go in and sign up together’
— from page 1
Bell is calling for all those concertgoers to come down tonight or on May 15 between 7-9 p.m. to sign up for $55.
In addition to solidifying an audience for the shows that Bell (and other promoters besides) plans to put on, all the usual benefits of being a Legion member will apply. That includes discounts on certain Legion items, the ability to vote for local Legion executives, discounts at participating hotels and other services across Canada, and other perks. It also gets you in the door for any of that hypothetical entertainment, plus the ability to sign in five additional people for that same event.
“I’ll be making a private event for both nights we’re doing the membership drive,” said Bell.
“The idea is that we all go in and sign up together. For those of you that are already members, thank you. We need as many members to attend the shows as possible to allow for more guests.”
As more members enjoy the Branch 43
bar and kitchen, the better the income for the not-for-profit organization that runs it and has done so for decades on end (the Legion movement is almost 95 years old in Canada).
In addition to the music fans of the city, those enlisted in the various forms of the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP are also key helpers for this situation.
There is no charge to sign up as a Legion member for current or past members of the Forces, including the RCMP, and that can be done online, free of charge, through the legion.ca website.
Once you’re signed up through Dominion Command, you can walk into your preferred local branch and transfer into their club.
“If you can’t make either work, PM (private message) me and I’ll line up a time with a Legion official that will work for you,” to get signed up for Branch 43, said Bell.
Branch 43 of the Royal Canadian Legion is located at 1116 Sixth Ave.
Conifex begins curtailments at two sawmills
Citizen staff Production curtailments began at two Conifex sawmills Monday.
The Fort St. James operation has been shut down for four weeks and the Mackenzie operation for three weeks.
They’re expected to reduce Conifex’s British Columbia lumber output by about 24 million board feet. The moves were made in response to an “unprecedented combination of continued fibre supply challenges in the BC Interior and low lumber prices,” Conifex vice president for Canadian operations Adam Infanti said in a letter to employees.
“The expected uptick from a
spring lumber market has been delayed due to poor weather conditions which has led to subsequent build-up of inventories in the marketplace,” he said.
“We also continue to experience high log costs and additional challenges with low log inventory levels in Mackenzie and continued uncertainty around the reservoir levels.”
Starting May 20, there will also be a one-week curtailment at the Mackenzie finishing end. Canfor began production cuts on April 29 adding up to 100 million board feet. They translated into a week of downtime for all of Canfor’s B.C. sawmills and an additional week for its Mackenzie operation.
The Prince George RCMP are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing man.
Teddy James Lowley is described as First Nations, six feet tall, 200 pounds with brown eyes, short black hair that may be dyed purple and red, and a tattoo of a heart near his left eye and a tear drop near his right eye.
Although Lowley is believed to still be in the Prince George area, he has family in the Quesnel and Smithers areas.
Anyone with information on where Lowley might be, is asked to contact the Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.
bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers.
Citizen staff
Citizen staff
One million species face extinction, UN says
Darryl FEARS The Washington Post
Up to one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with devastating implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday.
The report’s findings underscore the conclusions of numerous scientific studies that say human activity is wreaking havoc on the wild kingdom, threatening the existence of everything from giant whales to small flowers and insects that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye.
But the global report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services goes a step further than previous studies by linking the loss of species to humans and analyzing its effect on food and water security, farming and economies.
Nature’s current rate of decline is unparalleled, the report says, and the accelerating rate of extinctions “means grave impacts on people around the world are now likely.”
In a statement, Robert Watson, a British chemist who served as the panel’s chairman, said the decline in biodiversity is eroding “the foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
Human-caused climate change is a direct driver that is exacerbating the effects of overfishing, widespread pesticide use and urban expansion.
For example, the warming climate is altering ocean ecosystems, the study warns. Global trade has introduced invasive species to countries with devastating effects, such as crop-destroying stink bugs and tree-killing emerald ash borer in the United States.
Travellers exploring forests in other countries have returned home with diseases lethal to animals, such as the white nose fungus that is killing millions of bats.
Coral reefs lost to warming and acidifying oceans, for example, could cause a collapse in commercial and indigenous fisheries, affecting billions of coastal residents who rely on seafood for protein.
And the loss of pollinators such as bees and other insects is likely to have a devastating effect on farming.
“The most important thing isn’t necessarily that we’re losing... one million species – although that’s important, don’t misunderstand me,” Watson said during a teleconference Sunday. “The bigger issue is the way it will affect human well-being, as we’ve said many times – food, water, energy, human health.
“We care about nature but we care about human well-being,” Watson said. “We need to link it to human well-being, that’s the crucial thing. Otherwise we’re going to look like a bunch of tree-huggers.”
The report has a positive spin, saying “it is not too late to make a difference.”
But that difference requires more than 100 developing and non-developed nations to work together to bring about change.
Nations that signed off on the study’s findings acknowledged that opposition
from rich people invested in the status quo is expected.
“Let’s be quite candid,” Watson said.
“Since 1992, we’ve been telling the world we have a problem. Now what’s different? It’s much worse today than it was in 1992. We’ve wasted all of the time... the last 25 years.”
However, he said, “we have a much better understanding of the links between climate change, biodiversity, and food security and water security.”
Nearly 150 authors from 50 nations worked for three years to compile the report. They relied on input from 300 contributing authors who assessed the impact of economic development on nature to estimate future effects.
half the marine environment have been altered by humans.
On land, “more than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75 per cent of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production,” the report said. Farms that cut into forests that trap carbon have expanded exponentially, increasing crop production by 300 per cent since 1970. At sea, a third of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels in 2015.
Wildlife managers in British Columbia caught the last female in a herd of caribou that once migrated between the Pacific Northwest and Canada and stuck her in a pen because “that animal was not going to survive,” an official said.
“Sixty per cent were maximally sustainably fished,” meaning they were being pushed to the verge of collapse.
the federal government moved to protect a declining group of Bryde’s whales in the Gulf of Mexico with an endangered listing because fewer than 100, and possibly as few as 45, are estimated to exist.
In January, wild reindeer were declared extinct in the Lower 48 states.
Wildlife managers in British Columbia caught the last female in a herd of caribou that once migrated between the Pacific Northwest and Canada and stuck her in a pen because “that animal was not going to survive,” an official said.
Meanwhile, a doomsday count on the tiny vaquita porpoise in the Gulf of California is nearing zero.
As Mexican fisherman continue to poach shrimp and fish consumed in the United States, vaquitas occasionally show up dead in their fishing nets.
They note that the world’s population has doubled since 1950 and that urban areas worldwide have doubled since 1992.
The resulting pressure on natural resources has been enormous. Seventy-five per cent of the land environment and well more than
The UN report followed a study in January that predicted a bug massacre – 40 per cent of all known species face extinction, including beetles, flies, moths, butterflies and bees, the result of habitat loss and pesticides, according to a recent study.
The United States is hardly immune to the loss of biodiversity. In recent weeks,
In Antarctica, the second largest group of emperor penguins, the tallest of all penguins, have not produced offspring for three years, assuring a catastrophic drop in their numbers.
The UN report “means that nature is collapsing around us and it’s a real wake-up call to humanity,” said Andrew Wetzler, managing director of the nature program for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a conservation group.
Environmental lawyer meets northern B.C. politicians to discuss climate change
The Canadian Press WILLIAMS LAKE — A lawyer specializing in environmental issues is meeting with politicians from across northern and central British Columbia to discuss
the costs of climate change.
Andrew Gage, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, is in Williams Lake to attend the meeting of the North Central Local Government Association, which represents elected officials across the region.
A statement from West Coast Environmental Law says Gage wants to hear firsthand about how wildfires and other climate-related impacts have affected northern communities...
A statement from West Coast Environmental Law says Gage wants to hear firsthand about how wildfires and other climate-related impacts have affected northern communities, and how local communities are handling those costs.
The environment group has received mixed response to its proposal that communities across B.C. identify and plan for the costs of climate change, and to try to recover some of those costs from fossil fuel companies.
It says the North Coast Regional District sent a letter to 20 fossil fuel companies asking them to share some of the region’s climate costs, but the City of Fort St. John wants the local government association to declare such letters “inappropriate.”
Gage says the question of costs is key because northern B.C. has experienced more warming than other parts of Canada, faces a mountain pine beetle epidemic and has endured several seasons of severe wildfires.
“I’m looking forward to hearing firsthand how local governments are dealing with these realities, how they are preparing for future climate impacts, and who they think should pay for those costs,” Gage says in the statement.
Mystery man pulls toddler from chilly water
The Canadian Press
SQUAMISH — Mounties in Squamish say an 18-month-old girl who fell into the cold waters of Howe Sound was rescued by a bystander.
Police say the girl was standing on a multi-layered dock system in Porteau Cove, 40 km north of Vancouver, when she slipped through a railing from an upper deck and fell into the water.
A man jumped into the water Tuesday and pulled the girl to safety.
An ambulance and the Lions Bay Fire Department attended the scene and the girl was transported by air ambulance to B.C. Children’s Hospital and was listed in stable condition.
Cpl. Sascha Banks says they are looking for witnesses and they haven’t been able to identify the man who rescued the girl.
Banks says he has no doubt the bystander was the girl’s guardian angel.
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL BREEDING PROGRAM HANDOUT PHOTO
Two northern spotted owls are seen in this undated handout photo. Researchers at British Columbia’s Northern Spotted Owl
Breeding Program centre in Langley are attempting to breed the owls to save one of Canada’s most endangered bird species. The northern spotted owl is only one of a million species on the verge of extinction, according to a UN study.
Green Party wins Nanaimo byelection
Mia RABSON The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The Green Party of Canada’s newest MP says the spring floods in eastern Canada contributed to his win in Monday’s byelection on Vancouver Island.
The connection: concerns about climate change are becoming a bigger and bigger influence at the ballot box, Paul Manly said in an interview the day after.
Manly blew away the traditional parties in the race to fill the seat in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, finishing 5,000 votes ahead of the Conservative. The NDP, who won the riding in 2015, finished a distant third and the governing Liberals placed fourth.
Manly said while voters raised affordable housing, health care, and small-business woes with him, climate change was a thread woven through most of his interactions on the doorstep.
His win, he said, is a victory for the environment.
“It sends a strong signal to the other parties that people are serious about climate change and it’s time to stop subsidizing the fossil-fuel industry and move forward with a clean-energy economy,” Manly said.
Last summer, voters in his riding spent most of August indoors or breathing smoky air as their province suffered through its worst forest-fire season on record, with the number of fires exceeding the tally British Columbia had set just the year before.
Residents are already being forced to conserve water, with rivers in the region running at 40 per cent of their normal levels.
And during the vote, they watched from afar as parts of Central and Atlantic Canada tried to beat back the second once-a-century flood in less than three years. Politicians of all stripes were tripping over each other to link the floods to climate change.
“People see this and they’re very, very concerned,” said Manly.
Manly is only the second Green candidate to ever get elected and will join leader Elizabeth May in the House of Commons when he is sworn in later this month.
Abacus Data, in a new poll released Tuesday, found what it called “a marked rise” in the number of Canadians who would consider voting Green, giving the party more hope for the fall election. But the Greens in
the past have not been able to convert interest from voters between elections to support on voting days.
Manly acknowledges that voting for him in a byelection isn’t the same as a general election, when the direction of the whole government is on the line. But he thinks he will be safe come the fall general election because he now has incumbency status.
The Liberals and NDP are clearly looking over their shoulders at the Greens, who have had a number of successes at the provincial level in the last year, culminating in Prince Edward Island’s decision to elect them to official opposition last month.
Greens have been elected to legislatures in New Brunswick and Ontario and three Greens have held the balance of power in
B.C.’s minority government since 2017.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party held Nanaimo-Ladysmith until MP Sheila Malcolmson resigned in January to run provincially, said he thinks the byelection shows people are encouraged about actions on the environment. But he admitted there are some lessons to be learned.
“We’ll learn from ways we can improve our communications, our contacting our voters and making sure they come out to vote,” he said.
Despite the plunge in Liberal support in the byelection – they’d run second in Nanaimo-Ladysmith in 2015 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Manly’s win is a sign Canadians are “preoccupied” by climate change. He says that tells him his party’s
strategy to promote its climate-change plan, versus what he calls the inaction of the Conservatives, is the way to go.
“That’s certainly the point we are going to be making throughout the fall,” he said.
Fourteen of Canada’s most prominent environment advocacy groups stepped up Tuesday to try to take advantage of Canadians’ growing concern about the environment, to ask the parties to weigh in on their positions on 20 environment policies. The groups want bigger cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions, a national law banning singleuse plastics and stronger laws to bar toxic chemicals and pesticides.
Both the NDP and the Conservatives say they’ll release their climate plans later this spring.
Warawa bids emotional farewell to MPs, calls for more access to palliative care
Andy BLATCHFORD
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Conservative MP
Mark Warawa used his emotional farewell address to the House Commons on Tuesday to call for changes that will ensure more Canadians have access to palliative care.
Warawa, who is facing his own battle with cancer, also urged parliamentarians “to love one another, to encourage each other, because God loves us.” Lawmakers from different
political parties struggled to hold back tears as they paid tribute to the veteran British Columbia MP, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004.
He received his cancer diagnosis after he’d publicly announced in January he would retire from politics. In April, he said doctors had found cancer in his lungs, colon and lymph nodes.
The issue of palliative care became very real to him, he said, during his recent stay in hospital.
He found himself “experiencing what it’s like to face end of life.”
Warawa said statistics show that between 70 and 84 per cent of Canadians have no access to palliative care, a number he called “tragic.”
“We’re trying to fix the body, but in some cases it’s better not to do the heroic things,” he said, referring to treatments like chemotherapy and surgery. “Science has shown us that you can live longer and (have) a better quality of life, in some cases, if you’re given palliative care. But that was not provided to me, those options. Why is that? The system’s broken
and needs to be fixed.”
Warawa, who celebrated his 69th birthday on Tuesday, said he hopes the next Parliament will commit to legislative changes to ensure palliative care is available to more Canadians.
A religious man, he retired from politics with a plan to become a chaplain.
“I’m doing the studying and reading, and lo and behold I got sick,” Warawa said.
He said he hopes to stay on the job as an MP until the October election, but added he’ll likely
work from his constituency office in his Langley-Aldergrove riding.
“I may be around for a long time, or I may be around for a short time. We don’t know,” said the father of five and grandfather of 10. MPs in the House of Commons stood and applauded.
Nathan Cullen, a B.C. New Democrat MP, said: “I hope that you’ll understand that the shortness of my words here are in direct contrast to the depth and length of my admiration and love for you. Thank you, Mark.”
PHOTO
Green Party’s Paul Manly celebrates with his family from (left to right), his mother Eva and father Jim, wife Samantha and daughter Aven after results come in for the Nanaimo-Ladysmith byelection in Nanaimo on Monday.
Never think past next election
Iwas puzzled by Prof. Trevor Hancock’s guest editorial. Of course, as a Tory, I do appreciate “thinking beyond the next election,” which is why I support the monarchy. But as I struggled through his left-wing talking points and cliches that might have been written by any short pants staffer on that side of the spectrum, I wondered what the alternative was and, more importantly, how that alternative form of governance would be properly checked?
The one world state, the wise ruling the vulgar, the philosopher-king and his guardians – such ideal societies of perfect merit and justice have been discussed since before Christ, and attempted in every century of recorded history. Yet each one has failed, often spectacularly.
Of course, the reason Plato’s Republic and its many imitators never succeed is due to human nature. And given that idealists, whom are often intellectuals like Prof. Hancock, imagine a regime of total power wielded by benevolent experts, the problem arises that if any nefarious people do manage to seize control, violence is the lone re-
course of the citizens. To quote an entirely original man, Mark Steyn: “where do you go to vote out global government?” It bears repeating that in modernity, as leading nations drew up constitutions, debates raged about the whims of the mob as well as the fancies of autocrats. In the Anglosphere, we chose representative democracy, where elected members are held accountable by voters. Our current system’s failings can best be traced to our abandonment of the two bulwarks protecting our rights: Judeo-Christian ethics as well as the rule of law. Hopefully we correct course soon.
Then there is the other half of the equation – who invented not thinking beyond the next election? We on the right are
guilty of it economically, as Manchester Liberalism’s “rip and ship” praxis displaced Burkean sensibilities. But at the political level, it was the radical movements on the left, from Rousseau to Marx to Foucault, that began denying human nature, then blaming institutions for our sins, and finally declaring any idea of justice or truth as a social construct.
Politics followed slowly behind, at first simply wishing to alleviate the suffering masses, then trying to make everyone equal, and finally declaring utopia within reach if only we would destroy everything older than today. This created the mountains of corpses that covered the globe throughout the 20th century everywhere but the Anglosphere. Thus, switching emphasis between “beyond this life” and “beyond the next election,” was a recipe for unleashing hell. Within the English-speaking world, instead of presidents-for-life or polit bureaus, we have a tyranny of technocrats, whose purview reaches from the air we breath to the water we flush. If one needs a model of “thinking beyond the next election” run
YOUR LETTERS
Incentives needed
Dear Premier John Horgan: Recently, I read a comment that you sent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau your approval for the tanker moratorium on our Pacific West Coast. A week later, I read that you’re telling David Black that his refinery plan for Onion Lake near Kitimat is just a dream and that he would likely fall short on it. What you should have told him is that the Douglas Channel in the very near future will have mega LNG ships loaded with liquified natural gas using the narrow ocean inlet. As well, there will be another LNG terminal built in Kitimat using electricity to liquify the natural gas, which will be the cleanest LNG operation on the planet and they will have their own mega LNG ships. After the second LNG proposal gets built for the Douglas Channel it will be like a Tim Hortons drive thru but with LNG ships in the lineup. What should have been said is for David Black’s refinery plan be built near its customer base in the Lower Mainland where they needed it yesterday, not shipped to other countries as he wants to do. Give him incentives to get it done as you did for the LNG industry, which turned out to be the news the LNG industry was waiting for. Great idea,
Premier Horgan and a great followthrough but now incentives are in need for the oil industry. Load incentives for David Black’s refinery idea and other big oil companies to build refineries in the Lower Mainland. Transportation and gas taxes will be greatly diminished, from $1.70 plus per litre to 70 cents and possibly lower per litre.
Get them to build a refinery that is the greenest operating refinery built by capturing carbon and other pollutants which then get pumped deep into the earth’s surface.
Miles Thomas Prince George
Climate change folly
In his May 3 guest editorial, “Think beyond next election,” Trevor Hancock, referring to Conservative leaders asked, “Why are they fighting against one of the most effective tools we have to reduce global warming, one that if done properly is revenueneutral and socially just?”
The answer is obvious. It is a burden on the economy and it will have zero effect on global warming.
Canada is responsible for only 1.6 per cent of total global emissions, according to Environment Canada. China, by far the world’s biggest contributor with a third
of all emissions, puts out more GHGs than the U.S. and European Union combined. Just their increase each and every month is more than Canada’s total emissions per year. If we could eliminate all our emissions, it would make no difference to the climate because of how much more China is continually increasing their output.
It’s like tilting at windmills. Any action taken by us is nothing more than virtue signalling.
And if you are naïve enough to think that if we cut emissions, the rest of the world will follow our example, well I have some swampland in Florida for sale.
Canada’s commitment to the Paris Accord is to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, a target which we have no hope of reaching.
China by contrast will meet its Paris Accord target. They committed to increasing emissions until 2030 – business as usual with no attempts to cut.
So what possible effect could any action taken by Canada have?
As for my detractors (including The Citizen) notice that I am not denying climate change. If you disagree with what I’ve written, I welcome the criticism. That would be a welcome change from the usual response.
Art Betke Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
amok, let us tour the hospital that used to have an elected board of governors and a miniscule number of administrators: does that institution seem the model of productivity and innovation we were promised when voting ended?
Indeed, the very bait and switch Prof. Hancock is accusing the right of are the same tactics of the left but in reverse. Voters were promised a free lunch if they chose a certain party or approved a certain treaty. Decades later, as costs rise and freedoms decrease, citizens in the old and new worlds are beginning to question the orthodox consensus experts preached for almost a century. And an intellectual dares to posit electoral democracy might be overrated?
“Thinking beyond the next election” easily justifies obtuse and unaccountable programs. And the more out of touch policies appear, the greater reaction they will inspire at the ballot box. In the West, a great deal of blood was spilled until we all agreed to use non-violent means to rule ourselves. Again, I ask what is the alternative and what will keep it in check without a revolution?
Editorial off-key
Re: “For whom the bell tolls,” Neil Godbout editorial.
To suggest that because the attorney generals for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did not intervene during the Iran-Contra and Monica Lewinsky scandals means Jody Wilson-Raybould was right not to intervene in the SNC Lavalin decision is not only a bad faith argument, it is an apples and oranges comparison.
The former were clearly criminal acts; the latter was nothing of the sort.
No sex or no money changed hands.
Rather, the SNC affair demonstrated that though bright and willing, JWR was underqualified for such an important position of justice minister and it was a bold and risky political move by Justin Trudeau to appoint her.
What made the SNC affair sadder was the other important and oft-forgotten fact, that the SNC was a side issue for WilsonRaybould, which conveniently fit into her resistance to get her way on other matters.
Her emails to Butts released to the justice committee revealed she left discussions about SNC to staff and indicated to Butts her real interest was Indigenous litigation rights and was peeved that the PMO had not signed off on her new litigation directive to Crown prosecutor.
Going out the door of Justice, her Jan 11 thunderclap announcement of a new litigation directive for all Crown prosecutors to seek out of court settlements with aboriginal litigates signalled her real intent.
Last June, she refused to appear before the Senate committee to discuss (educate herself) on the new deferred prosecution legislation, because she was too busy.
Her concern to save the PM from potential scandal actually foreshadowed events she herself set in motion. After the initial leak about undue pressure, she could have doused the leak by saying nothing illegal happened.
Instead she fanned the leak into a public drama and climbed out on a limb of righteousness from which she ultimately fell, taking her friend Jane Philpott with her because of her faulty legal interpretation and hubris.
John Donne, my favourite 17th century poet, was a religious man whose poem “for whom the bells toll” is one of many meditations he wrote.
However Godbout has it wrong.
This meditation is an expression
about man’s potential hubris. “No man is an island” and we are all part of mankind, he wrote. “Any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” (all of us).
To succeed we must engage, to be a part of, not stand alone.
Jon Peter Christoff West Kelowna
Silly transit rule
I am writing this letter on behalf of a neighbour who is confined to a wheelchair and is 90 years young.
For the past three years, he has looked after his wife of 50 years who has early stages of dementia and has done an admirable job, considering his and her disabilities.
In February, his wife was hospitalized and remains in hospital to this day.
Recently, he has been advised that he has to start paying for her to remain in hospital although he has no say in her future.
For him to visit his wife every second day at the hospital he must pay $40 return daily for a taxi. The reason he must pay this is because Handy Dart will not carry him as his electric scooter purchased in Prince George happens to be four inches longer than the rules for transportation.
How do things like this happen?
Why would he have been sold an electric scooter that is too long for Handy Dart requirements?
I rarely see more than three people on a Handy Dart at one time and in most cases one. He has been on Handy Dart buses, as he should, however someone in their wisdom figures we will teach him a lesson with his four-inch oversized scooter.
Now this may seem trivial to some, however $40 as opposed to $10 return to visit his wife in the hospital is substantial for a fixed income family.
Why would we penalize those whose service this was intended?
The most ironic part of this story was this winter when the individual who shops for groceries twice weekly for he and his wife was stuck at Superstore because the taxis that are equipped for this were not available and they had Handy Dart pick him up. Come on, Prince George, we are better than this.
Let’s bite the bullet and let him ride on Handy Dart, which is meant for these kinds of customers.
George Marcus Prince George
Bags of cash, luxury car export scheme described in B.C. money laundering report
VICTORIA — An independent report suggests organized criminals are laundering money through British Columbia’s luxury car sector and some are even receiving tax rebates from the province for the transactions.
The B.C. government tasked former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German in September to identify potential links between criminal enterprises and real estate, horse racing and luxury vehicle industries.
Attorney General David Eby called the findings released Tuesday “disturbing confirmation” that money laundering is a problem in B.C. that goes beyond the previously identified channel of casinos.
“In the luxury car market, there is no financial reporting of large cash purchases, no oversight of international bank wire transfers and no apparent investigation or enforcement,” he said.
“It’s a recipe for exactly what’s happened here: Vancouver becoming North America’s luxury car capital generally, and perhaps since 2013, claiming North America’s luxury car export capital title as well.”
In addition to gathering accounts of luxury car sales of up to $240,000 paid for with bags of cash, German uncovered a “huge” and complicated luxury-vehicle export scheme involving hundreds of so-called “straw buyers” in the grey market.
Many of the straw buyers appear to be foreign students hired to purchase a car in Canada that will almost immediately be exported and re-sold in China, where dealerships charge more due to the tax structure and soaring demand.
The role of a straw buyer is to insulate the true purchasers from contact with the seller, the
report says.
The purchasers pay provincial sales tax when they buy the car but apply for a refund when it’s exported and the practice has grown exponentially, costing the province almost $85 million since 2013, Eby said.
Before 2014, fewer than 100 vehicles a year received the refund. In 2016, the provincial sales tax was rebated on 3,674 vehicles and the surge in applications required the Finance Ministry to hire more staff, the report says.
The source and destination of the tax refunds and any income tax reporting from these individuals or entities is unknown, but the conditions are ideal for money laundering, the report says.
It’s an unregulated grey market, with little know about the people or companies involved and where the money comes from, the report says.
“It provides a wonderful opportunity for large-scale money laundering, with very little chance of detection.”
It’s impossible to put a dollar figure on the amount being laundered through the luxury car sector, German said.
Eby said he was shocked to hear about the refunds and the government is moving quickly to address the issue.
“We have not waited to take action on this report.”
The Finance Ministry is reviewing the tax rebate program and details of allegations made in the report have been forwarded to police, the Insurance Corporation of B.C., and the Vehicle Sales Authority. The province is also preparing plans for regulation of the luxury car sector.
The apparent growth in luxury car money laundering has coincided with other potential criminal activity and problems in the market, Eby said.
“I note the remarkable correlation between the timing of the exponential expansion of this grey market export scheme, the exponential growth of suspicious cash transactions at B.C. casinos and the exponential real estate price ramp up on the Lower Mainland,” he said.
The report also found vulnerabilities in the horse racing sector with a lack of financial reporting requirements, but no excessive issues related to money laundering.
The report is one of two commissioned by the province in September amid what the government said was “widespread concern about B.C.’s reputation as a haven for money laundering.”
German was asked to look further into the problem after he concluded a review last June on money laundering in Lower Mainland casinos.
Another report by an expert panel on money laundering recommends rule changes that would close loopholes in the real estate market and increase transparency around who owns property in B.C. Eby said that report, along with German’s findings about the real estate sector, should be released in the coming days.
In an entirely separate report also released Tuesday, the C.D. Howe Institute estimates Canada fails to catch money launderers 99.9 per cent of the time.
The institute says in a news release that the protections against money laundering in Canada are among the weakest of Western liberal democracies.
“While it is impossible to estimate the exact amount of money laundering, a realistic estimate of the magnitude of dirty money laundered in Canada each year likely lies in range of $100 – $130 billion,” report author Kevin Comeau says in the statement.
Vancouver artist Stephen Waddell wins $50K photography award
The Canadian Press TORONTO — Vancouver artist Stephen Waddell has won the $50,000 Scotiabank Photography Award. Waddell received the honour at a gala in Toronto on Tuesday night.
In addition to the cash prize, Waddell will be featured in a solo exhibition during the 2020 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, and a book of his work will be published. Waddell, who was shortlisted for the same award last year, is known for his photographs and
paintings of urban spaces, which have been exhibited in galleries across the globe. He beat out two other finalists for this year’s photography prize, Shannon Bool and Althea Thauberger, who will each receive $10,000.
Founded in 2010, the Scotiabank Photography Award celebrates the creative vision and accomplishments of Canadian photographers.
The 2018 winner, Moyra Davey, has a solo exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre, which is open to the public free of charge through Aug. 4.
The Canadian Press
B.C. Attorney General David Eby and Federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair speak to media following a meeting to discuss money laundering during a press conference at Legislature in March.
Canada calls out on China at WTO council meeting for evidence to back canola ban
Mike BLANCHFIELD The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Canada has used a major World Trade Organization gathering to demand China deliver evidence that Canadian canola is contaminated.
Stephen de Boer, the Canadian ambassador to the world’s leading trade body in Geneva, told the WTO’s general council on Tuesday that Canada wants to meet in China in good faith to hear its science-based concerns that recent Canadian canola shipments were, in fact, tainted.
China banned shipments from two Canadian canola companies last month. This week, the government announced China had similarly banned pork from two Canadian companies.
“Open and predictable rules-based international trade is the only way global commerce can succeed. Co-operation between WTO members – and willingness to engage on issues – is equally important,” de Boer said.
“Canada therefore concludes by asking again for China to provide the scientific evidence that supports its findings. This is a specific case, but I raise it in this setting because it’s an important example of the broader concerns and the trend of increasing trade-restrictive measures.”
De Boer’s intervention at one of the WTO’s most senior decision-making bodies is an attempt to push China, which has stonewalled requests for Canadian experts to travel to the People’s Republic to examine Chinese evidence on the canola.
The government says two separate inspections by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have turned up nothing, while several cabinet ministers have said China’s complaint about the quality of the canola shipments is not science-based.
China’s rejection of Canadian food products is part of the escalating tensions following
the RCMP’s December arrest in Vancouver of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou. Canadian authorities detained her on a U.S. warrant alleging she committed fraud on American banks in an effort to get Huawei around sanctions against Iran.
Meng’s arrest infuriated China. Nine days later, China imprisoned two Canadians – exdiplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor – and accused them of violating China’s national security. Both are still in custody.
While de Boer’s statement is not the formal complaint that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has urged the government to launch, it represents the first formal opportunity to draw attention to the issue in front of a major meeting of the WTO, said a senior Canadian government official, who was not authorized to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the situation.
China places great importance on being a member in good standing of the WTO, the world’s trade referee, especially as it tries to displace the United States as a global trade leader.
De Boer told the WTO council that Canada wants to be a good trading partner and if another country sees a problem with a Canadian export, Canada wants to find a solution.
Canada has been working hard to resolve this issue with China, using every available means on the ground in both countries, said de Boer. While Canada was pressing its case at the WTO, a Nova Scotia cabinet minister said the federal government would welcome American influence to resolve the ongoing dispute with China.
“I would say that it would be helpful, for sure,” Rural Economic Development Minister Bernadette Jordan said in an interview. “It’s different times now in the world than we’ve
faced even four years ago. We see challenges all around the world. And we will continue, as a government, to stand up for our Canadian products.”
Conservative MP Randy Hoback recently told the House of Commons agriculture committee he’s concerned China might decide to single out Canadian maple syrup or seafood next.
Jordan said her constituency is the largest lobster-producing riding in the country, and hardly a day goes by without her talking to a fisher.
In 2017, Canada exported 10 million kilograms of live lobster to China.
Canada’s efforts to diversify its markets for seafood continue apace with the ratification of free-trade deals with the European Union and the 10 Pacific Rim countries in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, she said.
“Yes, China accounts for a significant portion of our lobster sales – our seafood, it’s not just lobsters. But I think with the ability for us to open up Europe, our ability to open up other Asian markets, there is that potential to make sure that those challenges are mitigated.”
Jordan stressed there has been “absolutely no indication” of any movement by China to take trade action against Canadian seafood.
While she offered few details of what contingency plans the government may have if China does hit the seafood sector, Jordan suggested the government would come to its aid if necessary.
“We’ve worked with the canola farmers specifically on a package for them. I’m sure that when the time comes, if there’s a need, we will be there for our fishers as well.”
Last week, the government helped canola farmers by changing a special agricultural program that advances money against later crop sales.
Horgan asks BCUC to investigate rising fuel prices
The Canadian Press
VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan has asked the British Columbia Utilities Commission to investigate why gasoline in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island is so much more expensive than the rest of the country.
A statement from the premier’s office says Horgan spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and brought up his concerns, making it clear that gas hovering around $1.70 a litre is of national importance.
Horgan’s request to the utilities commission on Tuesday asks that it explore why gasoline and diesel prices have shot up by 40 cents a
litre in the last few months.
“Across the province, but particular in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, people are alarmed at the rapid increase in the price at the pumps,” his letter says.
Horgan’s letter to utility commission chairman David Morton says that, historically, wholesale prices have been between 2 1/2 and four cents a litre more in Vancouver than in Edmonton, but that gap has widened over the last four years to almost 24 cents a litre.
“In March 2019, refining margins for Vancouver were more than double the Canadian average and higher than any other major city in North America,” he says. “This suggests
that the producers are realizing a significant additional profit margin for fuel sold in Metro Vancouver compared with other jurisdictions.”
Horgan says B.C. residents can’t accept a situation where the price of gasoline – correcting for differences in tax rates – is increasingly out of line with prices in the rest of Canada.
Metro Vancouver residents pay more than 50 cents a litre in taxes to the federal and provincial governments and for carbon, transit and other taxes.
Horgan’s letter says Morton is a trusted and respected regulator and has the ability to conduct detailed hearings that will provide residents with necessary evidence and recommendations for the best path forward.
The commission regulates electricity and natural gas prices in the province. Last week, the left-leaning research institute the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggested that gasoline should also be regulated, similar to policies in the Maritimes.
Horgan was cool to the idea. He said he didn’t believe that B.C. would have more success with regulation. He has said part of the problem comes from a low supply and high demand.
Markets mostly recovered Monday from early losses after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted he’s set to impose 25 per cent tariffs Friday against US$525 billion worth of Chinese imports, including US$200 billion that currently face 10 per cent levies. A similar bounce-back didn’t materialize Tuesday after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer reinforced original market anxiety about tariffs by talking about China reneging on prior commitments. The comments came even though China will send a delegation for negotiations on Thursday, a day later than originally planned.
“It’s certainly a bad day,” said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp.
“Given the tight timeline and the details coming out of other senior U.S. government officials, it just seems like it’s getting to be more certainty that it could happen.”
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 135.71 points to 16,357.75 after hitting an intraday low of 16,317.94.
In New York, market losses were at least twice as steep.
The Dow Jones industrial average had its biggest single day decrease of the year by losing 473.39 points at 25,965.09. It was down more than 648 points or 2.4 per cent earlier in the trading session.
The S&P 500 index was down 48.52 points at 2,884.05, while the Nasdaq composite was down 159.53 points at 7,963.76.
After more than a quarter century moving towards freer global trade, increased tariffs would be seen as a step backward, said Chopra.
“When you move away from freer trade generally you have an impact on global economic growth and the market is adjusting to the potential, assuming that the tariffs do get put in place, that you’re looking at just lower GDP growth rates worldwide going forward,” he said.
Investors headed to safety as defensive sectors like consumer staples and utilities which led the TSX. Large sectors that account for the bulk of the market fell as eight of the 11 major sectors were down on the day.
AP FILE PHOTO
Bottles of Canola Harvest brand canola oil, manufactured by Canadian firm Richardson International, are seen on a shelf of a grocery store in Beijing, China.
Lindsey Sahayadak and her horse
Urielle RPH leap over a gate while participating in the show jumping event on Sunday morning at the Prince George Agriplex as part of the Spring Warm Up Show 2019 hosted by the Spruce Ridge Pony Club. The event is a qualifying show for the BC Heritage Circuit, BC Summer Games and the B.C. Interior Hunter Jumper Association.
Gold bars and beam for local gymnast
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Mary-Grace Maurice is passionate about the great outdoors.
The 13-year-old nature lover discovered her appreciation for kayaking, hiking and rock-climbing at a young age, doing those activities with her parents and younger sister. She’s also become an accomplished gymnast and proved her ability to perform under pressure in two meets over the weekend at her home base at the Prince George Gymnastics Club.
In the Prince George Invitational meet at the Prince George Gymnastics Centre on Saturday, Maurice was the gold medalist in bars and beam and won the Junior Olympic Level 6 overall title. She topped the field in bars and beam again in Sunday’s Zone 8 championships and was eighth in the floor event.
Her score on the beam Sunday – 9.4 out of 10 – was a personal best and the key to that was performing two back walkovers, her toughest element.
“I’ve always been good at it but it’s never been my best event,” said Maurice, a Duchess Park Grade 8 student who turns 14 in June.
“It’s fun, but it’s scary when I’m competing. I was in Interclub and did do back walkovers but they were always messy and I always fell.
“Bars is my favourite. It’s just swinging around and it’s less stressful for me. I just find it fun. When a gymnast does a handstand on bars that’s what you want and I’m never there. You stop in a handstand and then come back down but I’m like 45 degrees (instead of 90 degrees).”
Coached by Storm Garcia, Maurice practices at the same times as Alia Wilson, who just got back from winning two silver medals at the Western Canadian championships.
The 16-year-old Wilson has earned a spot on Team B.C. for the national championships in Ottawa, May 21-26 and Maurice tries to earn as much as she can from her.
“She’s four levels above me and I watch her quite a bit,” said Maurice. “She’s quite a bit more
MAURICE
talented. She’s the highest level in the gym.”
It’s unusual for a gymnast to advance two levels from season to season but that’s what Maurice did, moving from Level 4 to Level 6. She started recreational gymnastics at a young age and did that for two years. Now at the end of her second
year of competitive gymnastics, Maurice’s background as a wall crawler at Overhang, the city’s indoor climbing facility, is serving her well. It gave her a jumpstart on the strength and conditioning she needs now that her primary focus is hanging onto uneven bars, executing handstands on 10-centimetre-wide balance beams and performing the quick twists and body contortions required for the vault and floor exercise.
“I was into climbing for a very long time and that also helped me with my gymnastics, Maurice said.
“Now, when I come back to climbing obviously I’m not as good as I was before but I haven’t lost most of my skills because I’ve kept it up with gymnastics.
“I’m getting more consistency.
I think it‚s from competing more, training more and getting more used to everything I’m doing.”
As her own critic, she says her vaults are too plain and she needs to get better at tumbling to get better scores on the floor.
Known around the gym for strong work ethic and sportsmanlike attitude, Maurice has one more meet on her competition
calendar and if the weather holds she will be walking the beam and leaping the vault outdoors at the Whistler Summer Classic, June 21-23 in Whistler.
“I’ve never done an outdoor meet, I love being outdoors and I love gymnastics so it’s a great combination,” said Maurice. “I’m just a little paranoid there’s going to be wasps when I’m competing. I’m not allergic, they just scare me.
“We go outdoor climbing a lot as a family, normally at Squamish,” she said.
“My dad has done The Chief multiple times and he did El Capitan (in Yosemite national park in California) as well.”
The back-to-back meets and Interclub competition that followed Sunday afternoon made the weekend events the largest, participation-wise, in the Prince George Gymnastics Club history.
In other Prince George club results, Saige Lupul, 10, won both JO Level 4 competitions.
Arianna Vukovic was also a dual overall winner in the Level 3 events. Nine-year-old Kenlee Coleman won JO 3 category overall zone 8 title.
Edmonton Oilers confirm owner is seriously ill
Dean BENNETT The Canadian Press
EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers are confirming that team owner Daryl Katz has been dealing with a life-threatening illness.
Citizen staff
Seven Prince George Special Olympians earned first place medals at a powerlifting event in Victoria over the weekend.
Diana Bramble, Ruth Caldwell, Sean Demers, Samuel Russell, Leif Skuggedal, Calvin Vanderwoerd and Hailey Whitcomb all won their categories Saturday at the Special Olympics Vancouver Island Powerlifting Championships.
Marinka VanHage was second place and Jennifer Germann placed third in her category.
Nine local athletes took part, with two of them competing in their first powerlifting event.
Speculation arose Tuesday when Katz appeared at a news conference announcing the hiring of new general manager Ken Holland. Katz rarely appears at media events and onlookers, and those on social media, noted his facial features had changed appreciably.
Afterward, Sportsnet hockey analyst John Shannon tweeted: “There’s been a lot made publicly today about how Daryl Katz looks. After asking a few questions, I can tell you he has been struggling with life threatening bacteriaresistant sinus infection over the past few years.”
Shannon said it goes back years, including last time the Oilers were in the playoffs, in the spring of 2017.
“(Katz) carried an IV bag 24/7 during the playoff run, 2 seasons ago. The infection has a 50-50 survival rate. He’s had 3 surgeries over the past 10 months with one more surgery to go. It is the primary reason why he hasn’t been around Edmonton and the team,” wrote Shannon.
Later Tuesday, Shannon tweeted that while Katz has one more operation, “he is through the worst of it and the long term prognosis is positive.” Katz spoke to reporters at the news conference but did not speak
CITIZEN
Newly named Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland speaks as Oilers owner Daryl Katz looks on in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Blues win 2-1
Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg (3) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) help goaltender Ben Bishop (30) defend as St. Louis Blues left wing Pat Maroon (7) reaches over Bishop to score during the second overtime in Game 7 of an NHL second-round hockey playoff series in St. Louis on Tuesday.
Sharks hope for Pavelski’s return before Game 7
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Captain Joe Pavelski was getting staples put into his bloody head when the San Jose Sharks staged an epic comeback in Game 7 of the opening round against Vegas.
Now that the Sharks have been forced into another ultimate game after missing a chance to eliminate Colorado in an overtime loss on the road, they are hopeful of getting their leader back on the ice for the first time since then.
Perhaps the biggest question heading into Game 7 at the Shark Tank on Wednesday night is whether Pavelski will be healthy enough to make a dramatic return against the Avalanche. Coach Peter DeBoer said that will happen as soon as doctors give him the OK.
“I’m not hiding anything,” DeBoer said Tuesday.
“He’s day to day. He’s getting better every day. We’re going to make a decision on game days whether he’ll be available or not.”
The winner of the game advances to play St. Louis after the Blues beat Dallas in double overtime during Tuesday night’s Game 7. Pavelski’s injury happened midway through the third period in Game 7 against Vegas on April 23 with San Jose trailing 3-0. He was cross-checked by Cody Eakin after a faceoff and then bumped by Paul Stastny before falling awkwardly to the ice head first.
The impact of Pavelski’s helmet slamming the ice knocked him out briefly and caused him to bleed from his head.
A dazed Pavelski was helped off the ice by his teammates and then had eight staples put in his head to stop the bleeding. While that was going on, his teammates scored four power-play goals during the
AP PHOTO
Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) is congratulated by teammates after scoring a game-winning, overtime goal against the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of an NHL hockey second-round playoff serieson Monday. Colorado won 4-3 in overtime.
major penalty to Eakin that even Pavelski acknowledged was not warranted.
San Jose ultimately won the game on Barclay Goodrow’s overtime goal to advance to the second round. Pavelski was unable even to travel to Colorado for Games 3 and 4 but got back on the ice while his teammates were away last week. He made an emotional appearance at the Shark Tank during the third period of Game 5 to fire up the crowd and travelled to Denver for Game 6 where he took part in the morning skate.
“It still really is day-to-day,” Pavelski said before Game 6. “Wish
I had a set-in-stone answer – go here, do this and be ready. We’re taking everything into play.” No matter what happens with Pavelski, the Sharks will need better performances from several of their other forwards who have been mostly invisible this series. San Jose was supposed to have the better depth up front but that hasn’t been the case so far.
Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc have gone five straight games without a point, Evander Kane and Marcus Sorensen haven’t recorded a point for four straight games and the fourth line has generated almost no offence.
Colorado has six forwards with at least two goals this series, including secondary options like J.T. Compher, Tyson Jost, Colin Wilson and Matt Nieto. The Sharks have just three with Couture’s three goals all coming in a Game 3 win, Tomas Hertl’s two coming in a Game 5 victory and Timo Meier scoring one of his two into an empty net.
Compher scored twice in regulation in Game 6 and assisted on Jost’s goal as well as the Avalanche managed to get the game into overtime despite its top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen
being on the ice for all three San Jose goals in regulation.
“They’ve been unbelievable all playoffs, all season,” Compher said of Colorado’s Big Three. “The depth guys, we’ve got to step up when we can. Guys were stepping up all over the place and that’s why we’re in the spot we are.”
That spot is one win away from Colorado’s first appearance in the conference finals since 2002. Getting there hasn’t been easy.
The Avalanche had to knock off the top seed in the West, Calgary, in the first round and has never led in this series with the Sharks taking all the odd-numbered games and Colorado answering after that.
Even the Game 6 win at home proved treacherous with the Avalanche blowing a one-goal lead three times before finally winning on Landeskog’s overtime goal.
“We knew it wasn’t supposed to be easy, nobody said it was going to be,” Landeskog said. “For us we try to reload. As frustrating as it was to keep losing those leads we tried to reset and go back at it.”
Facing elimination isn’t a new feeling for the Sharks, who won three win-or-go-home games in the first round against Vegas when they overcame a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in franchise history.
This veteran team is playing its third Game 7 at home in the past four years, having beaten Nashville in the second round in 2016 and the Golden Knights two weeks ago.
“Instead of a fear or a nervousness there’s an excitement about them,” DeBoer said. “We do have guys that have participated in them in the past. Does that count for anything? I don’t know. I’d like to think it does. I do know this. Our guys have a comfort level in big games.”
Josh DUBOW
The Associated Press
Ryan Reynolds has all the answers
Jake COYLE The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Ryan Reynolds once envisioned himself, bestcase scenario, as Wilson on Home Improvement or Mr. Furley on Three’s Company.
“When I started in this business, my highest goal was to be the wacky neighbour on a sitcom,” Reynolds says. “It took a much different path.”
Against his own expectations, Reynolds has emerged as one of Hollywood’s top movie stars, thanks in large part to the runaway success of his two Deadpool movies, R-rated wise-cracking films that seemed to unlock Reynolds’ own powers of motormouthed sarcasm.
In Pokemon Detective Pikachu, in theatres Friday, Reynolds uses his sharp-tongued talents for good – or at least, for a more cuddly, family-friendly movie. Reynolds voices the title character, a Pokemon who helps a 21-year-old man (Justice Smith) search for his missing father, Pikachu’s former partner.
In an interview, Reynolds discussed his Pokemon transformation.
AP: You’ve voiced characters in a number of films, including The Croods and Turbo, but on Detective Pikachu, you also crafted the character through facial motion capture.
Reynolds: I did about an hour of motion capture and performance capture on Deadpool 2 as Juggernaut. But this is the first time I’ve really been in that world in this immersive way where I’m shaping a character’s arc from beginning to end with motion capture. You’re wearing a tracking suit, head to toe. There are multiple cameras fixed to your head, which is completely insane. I’m sure that in our Instagram world there are people wondering where they can buy that for their personal use.
AP: You must have had considerable free rein considering this was a Pokemon character rather than, say, an ape.
Reynolds: It’s a mythical pocket monster. There’s no tether to reality whatsoever with this character. It’s pretty free rein, which is its own weird burden. Once possibilities become limitless, you can get a little locked up. It took me a couple sessions to realize everything’s
possible and just to embrace that. It’s really just a matter of accessing that six-year-old part of your brain that’s fueled exclusively on imagination, and just let that run wild. I wish I could do every movie like this.
AP: Is there less PG-friendly Broll of you in that environment?
Reynolds: Dear god, yes. There’s probably an entirely different film that they could cut together that wouldn’t make the PG cut at all. When you’re feeling that kind of freedom, you don’t really govern yourself by ratings systems or that sort of thing.
AP: Your career seemed to really come alive when you carved out a path of less traditional leading men. Reynolds: Some of the stuff that I’ve done in the past that you would categorize as maybe didn’t work were moments where I was stepping into the role of the arche-
typal leading-man role. It’s just not something I’ve ever been really that great at, to be totally blunt. I have immense respect for those who are great at it. But I also think our idea of a traditional, leading man, archetypal male is changing wildly day to day, over the last five years in particular. And I think that’s great. I think that’s evolution, to put it in Pikachu terms.
AP: When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, the culture clash was often represented by drawings of Mickey Mouse and Deadpool together. Do you have any concerns that future Deadpool films will be toned down under Disney?
Reynolds: I don’t, no. I don’t have any reason to be concerned based on everything I’ve heard Disney say publicly and privately. So at this point, I have nothing to be particularly worried about.
AP: You’ve become so connected
Barack Obama’s book not to be released in 2019
Julie PACE The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Former presi-
dent Barack Obama’s post-White House memoir isn’t expected to be released this year, setting up the likelihood that the highly anticipated book will drop during the 2020 campaign.
Publisher Penguin Random House started alerting foreign partners and others about the status of Obama’s book on Tuesday. The former president has been writing the book himself, handwriting a first draft on legal pads, the same technique he used for numerous White House speeches and his first bestseller, Dreams from My Father.
The former president and his wife, Michelle Obama, signed lucrative book deals in 2017.
Mrs. Obama’s book was released last year and quickly became one of the most popular political memoirs in history, with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide.
The timing of the former president’s book release is trickier.
A 2020 book launch could thrust Obama back into the spotlight just as Democratic voters are choosing a presidential nominee, prompting fresh discussion of his legacy and putting him on the spot about the candidates hoping to build on it.
That would be a particularly delicate dance given that Obama has made clear he has no plans to play a role in the Democratic presidential primary, including declining to endorse his vice-president, Joe Biden, or any other candidate. But as the most popular Demo-
crat in the country, even more than three years after leaving office, Obama’s every word about the campaign will be scrutinized for signs of which candidates he favours.
The publisher did not give its partners any updates on a launch date, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Obamas signed with Penguin Random House in 2017. While the financial terms of the agreement were not released, the former president’s book was expected to garner the largest advance for any ex-president.
The previous record is believed to be $15 million for Bill Clinton’s My Life.
to Deadpool. Was making Detective Pikachu a conscious pivot to something more family-friendly? People are already oozing over the cuteness.
Reynolds: I’ve never really looked at things from the 30,000foot view of: How will this shape public perception of me? That stuff honestly makes me nauseous to even think about. Really it just came organically. They had animated a test example of Pikachu and they had obviously tried out a whole bunch of actors’ voices to it. And they tried out mine and for whatever reason, it worked, according to them. I think that juxtaposition between his visuals and me being kind of acerbic and grumpy as his voice is a match made in heaven.
AP: You’ve kind of carried over the tongue-in-cheek marketing of Deadpool to Detective Pikachu.
You made a video extolling your immersive, Method-acting to get into character as Pikachu. You seem to enjoy a side of the business that most disdain.
Reynolds: I love marketing. I have a company, Maximum Effort Productions, and that’s what we do. We’re a film production company but we’re also a marketing company. We do the marketing for Aviation Gin, a lot of stuff for Deadpool, a lot of stuff for Pikachu and a few other companies. It’s a blast. I think marketing is most interesting when you’re acknowledging and playing with the cultural landscape.
AP: Part of that has been an ongoing mock social-media feud with Hugh Jackman. Do you have any message for him?
Reynolds: (Laughs) I’ll save my catalogue of insults for Hugh Jackman for our next interview.
AP PHOTO
Actor Ryan Reynolds, left, is joined by his pregnant wife, actress Blake Lively at the premiere of Pokemon Detective Pikachu at Military Island in Times Square in New York on Thursday.
AP PHOTO
In this file photo former U.S. president Barack Obama is seen speaking at the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Summit in Oakland, Calif., last month.
February 25, 1933 May 3, 2019
It is with profound sadness and relief that we announce the passing of Betty at Hospice House in Prince George at the age of 86 years. Surrounded by her loving family, her congregation, and her many friends, Betty died peacefully on May 3, 2019 having expressed her last wishes and expressions of love to all those close to her. Betty touched, inspired, and was loved by all who met her during her 86 years and to her end she continued to express her kindness, care, and concern to all that she met including many of her wonderful caregivers who continued to visit her on their days off. Betty was born in Winnipeg, moved to the farm in Wadena, before making her way to Prince George where she met and married Harold. They enjoyed Prince George raising their three children and after retiring relocated to her beloved Vernon for eighteen years before returning to Prince George with Harold and closer to her daughter and primary caregiver, Lynn and family. Betty is survived by her loving husband of 67 years, Harold, her sons Stu Dornbierer (Barb), Les Dornbierer (Ursula), and daughter Lynn Logan (Rod), her grandchildren, Kendra, Haley, Chad, Katelyn, Carli, Ashton, Adam, and Alexa, and her special great-grandchildren Jayvin, Hayden, Berlyn, Hudson, Bentley, Olivia, and Ryker. She is also survived by her two brothers, Paul and Byron Nelson, and sister Doreen Mutz. The family is grateful to Dr. York, Dr. Ducharme, and her many special caregivers at both Hospital and Hospice. Betty will be memorialized at the Coast Inn of the North at 2:00 PM on Saturday, May 25, 2019. Tea to follow.
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Pauline Dornbierer
