Prince George Citizen November 20, 2018

Scheer ties sawmill troubles to Liberal tail

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer leveled plenty of blame against the federal Liberals for the woes B.C.’s forest industry is suffering as he paid a visit to Prince George on Monday.

“One hundred per cent,” he said when asked if there is a connection between the curtailments and layoffs the Interior’s lumber producers have recently invoked and Trudeau government policies.

Companies have pinned the cutbacks in production on a lack of fibre due to the mountain pine beetle, which ate through roughly half of B.C.’s harvestable timber supply. But Scheer said the federal government has played a role too and linked the issue to Canadian-

based producers’ ongoing quest to expand into the United States.

“When I’ve talked to people who say they’ve made decisions not to invest in Canada, they’ve perhaps opened up a second part of their business in the U.S. because our government has been raising taxes and putting in new regulatory burdens,” Scheer said.

“And that impact (is) on all communities – small, big, northern B.C., southern B.C., all over Canada. There is absolutely a tie in to Liberal policy.”

Canfor said last week it has reached a deal to purchase a sawmill in South Carolina. Once completed, it will raise to 16 the number of operations it owns in the Southern United States. West Fraser has 21 sawmills in the region.

Scheer and local MPs Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer met with about 40 people at a local hotel Monday. Scheer said two members of the city’s real estate industry told him more and more people are unable to buy a home because of federal government policies around mortgages.

In January, a new stress test invoked by federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions came into effect. It requires buyers to afford the greater of two percentage points above the contractual mortgage rate or the fiveyear benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada.

“There is absolutely a link between government policy and what people are feeling here today,” Scheer said. While the Liberals made a “great

spectacle” about reaching the new trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, “they didn’t solve softwood lumber,” Scheer also noted.

With another election about a year away, Scheer predicted voters will see through the charisma Trudeau evoked during the last campaign and question whether his policies have actually improved their quality of life.

“I’m getting a lot of people telling me, ‘I’m kind of done with the selfies, I’m kind of done with the theatrics,’ and they want to see a government that’s actually led by people who have real-world experiences,” Scheer said.

“I can relate to the challenges that most Canadians face. I grew up in a very modest household with two parents who had to

Deadly drunk driver granted parole, told to stay away from Fraser Lake

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

A man serving a four-year sentence for killing a married father of three while driving drunk has been banned from traveling to Fraser Lake while serving the rest of his term in a halfway house.

It was one of the conditions a Parole Board of Canada panel issued to Christopher Clayton Scott McGuiney, 34, in an Oct. 31 decision to grant him day parole.

“The victim’s family have the right to be free from any unwanted contact from you,” the panel said.

Duane Francis Pearson, 46, died Jan. 17, 2014, at the scene on Highway 16 near the community west of Prince George. Pearson lived in 100 Mile House at the time but worked at West Fraser sawmill in Fraser Lake.

Friends and family filed numerous victim impact statements to the panel prior to its decision.

“The statements speak of the profound loss they have in their lives and also describe the ongoing anxiety and trauma they have experienced,” the panel said.

Several of them suggested the parole board should not consider him for any type of release, saying the fact that he twice breached his bail by drinking showed a lack of remorse.

However, the panel found his behaviour while behind bars has been appropriate. He regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and his case management team found he has accepted full responsibility for the offence.

On the breaches of his bail, McGuiney told the panel he made a poor decision when he moved in with his girlfriend who also had substance misuse issues and acknowledged he rationalized his drinking by the fact he was not driving.

Conditions of McGuiney’s parole also include being prohibited from consum-

ing alcohol or entering any bars or liquor stores and staying away from anyone involved in substance abuse. He has roughly 18 months left on his sentence.

In sentencing McGuiney in May 2016, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale accepted in full Crown counsel’s position, and emphasized his criminal record, which includes convictions for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08 and driving while impaired and a number of other alcohol-related driving suspensions.

McGuiney, who pleaded guilty to drunk driving causing death, was also prohibited from driving for 10 years upon completing his sentence.

The court was told McGuiney had been drinking at a friend’s home in Fraser Lake from early in the afternoon to about 8:20 p.m. when he and two others decided to drive to a pub in Fort Fraser.

— see GIRLFRIEND, page 4

Mall,

work, and the stress at the end of the month of paying off debt and paying off bills and that’s who our party is speaking to.” Scheer said the government’s growing deficit has become top of mind among the voters he’s talked to and accused the Liberals of squandering a strong fiscal position.

“What happens when that global growth slows down? Canada’s not going to be able to respond to that,” he said. And he said there is a real desire to craft a national energy strategy and a lot of frustration about the fact consumers in the east must buy their oil from Saudi Arabia because there is no pipeline to ship oil to that region from western Canada. — see related stories, page 3

Sally Ann dispute choir kerfuffle claim

Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff

chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca

A Facebook post claiming a choir performance at Pine Centre Mall that ended earlier than scheduled late Friday afternoon to kick off the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas kettle campaign was shut down due to “material being performed that was offensive” is being downplayed by both the church and the mall.

In his original post on Facebook, which Rod Walker subsequently took down, he wrote in part “MALL ADMINISTRATION, accompanied by SECURITY, came out. Some things were said about material being performed that was offensive to some. Salvation Army was asked to leave, and the music ceased. KICKING THE SALVATION ARMY OUT OF THE MALL. IN PRINCE GEORGE, CANADA!!”

Walker’s post spread quickly through Facebook, as numerous people shared it with their social media friends and commented on it.

— see ‘THIS IS JUST, page 4

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer speaks at a business town hall meeting on Monday, flanked by local MPs Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer.

Cold plunge

The UNBC accounting team leaps into a pool of frigid water on Sunday in front of CN Centre as they participate in the annual UNBC JDC West Chillin’ for Charity fundraiser. Funds raised will go to the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation.

Prince George provincial court docket

From Prince George provincial court, November 9-16, 2018:

• Matthew Robert Humphreys (born 1991) was sentenced to 14 days in jail and one year probation for theft $5,000 or under and to nine days in jail for break and enter with intent to an commit offence and assessed $200 in victim surcharges. Humphreys was in custody for 42 days prior to sentencing.

• Mary Elizabeth Patrick (born 1996) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under.

• Victor Willier (born 1998) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Willier was in custody for 15 days prior to sentencing.

• Kelly Newton Bone (born 1976) was sentenced to four months in jail for driving while impaired, to three months in jail for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08, and to 30 days in jail for three counts of driving while disqualified. Bone was also prohibited from driving for five years and assessed $500 in victim surcharges.

• Patrick Chad Buttenaar (born 1993) was sentenced to 18 months probation, issued a fiveyear firearms prohibition and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for two counts of uttering threats

to cause death or bodily harm.

• David Warren Girroir (born 1974) was sentenced to 27 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.

Girroir was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.

• Jordan Allan Lalonde (born 1994) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.

Lalonde was in custody for 25 days prior to sentencing.

• Lyle Douglas Meise (born 1970) was sentenced to 14 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for two years and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.

• Jamie Christopher Porter (born 1985) was sentenced to 74 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, and one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for possessing or using a stolen credit card and possession of stolen property under $5,000.

Porter was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.

• Bryan Matthew Seymour (born 1984) was sentenced to a 90-day conditional sentence order and nine months probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for assault.

Seymour was in custody for three days following his arrest.

• Nathaniel Lazarus Basil (born

1988) was sentenced to time served and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for mischief $5,000 or under and breaching probation. Basil was in custody for 105 days prior to sentencing.

• Robert Richard Prettie (born 1975) was sentenced to 30 days in jail for theft $5,000 or under and to 12 days for breaching probation. Prettie was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.

• Brent Michael Guillet (born 1987) was sentenced to 528 days in jail for possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm, to 365 days for possessing a firearm without a licence or registration and to 203 days for possessing a firearm contrary to an order. Guillet was in custody for 287 days prior to sentencing.

• Destiny Hannah Josephine Hunt (born 1995) was sentenced to time served and one year probation and assessed $300 in victim surcharges for possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, assaulting a peace officer and breaching probation, all committed in Fort St. James. Hunt was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.

• Carl Thomas Sinclair (born 1995) was sentenced to 81 days in jail for break and enter and committing an indictable offence and break and enter with intent to commit an offence and to 30 days

in jail for possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Sinclair was also sentenced to two years probation, issued a 10-year firearms prohibition and assessed $600 in victim surcharges on the counts. Sinclair was in custody for 187 days prior to sentencing.

• Kenneth Michael Wipfli (born 1981) was sentenced to 36 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.

• Linda Marie Collison (born 1991) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage.

• Maria Antonia Felix (born 1994) was sentenced to one day in jail and one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under and ordered to serve in jail the remainder of a 45-day conditional sentence order first issued on October 26 for breaching its conditions. Felix was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.

• Kelly James Grainger (born 1970) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage.

• Luke Dominic Pierre (born 1980) was sentenced to six days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching an undertaking or recognizance, committed in Mackenzie. Pierre was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.

Man killed in Terrace hit-and-run

TERRACE (CP) — The Mounties are searching for a pickup-type truck that was involved in a deadly hit-and-run accident over the weekend near Terrace. Police say the body of a man in his 30s was discovered in the ditch on the north side of Highway 16 about four kilometres outside the city. The man’s injuries were consistent with having been struck by a vehicle and police say there was supporting evidence at the scene. The man has been identified as a Terrace resident and police say it’s believed he was walking on the shoulder facing traffic when the crash occurred between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Police say they’re looking for a larger pickup that would have significant damage to the passenger side and may be missing a passenger-side mirror. The RCMP say they’re also urging the driver to come forward to police.

No change to referendum deadline

VICTORIA (CP) — The potential impact of rotating postal strikes on British Columbia’s electoral reform referendum is being watched closely but so far there are no plans to extend the Nov. 30 mail-in deadline, Elections BC said Monday. Rebecca Penz of Elections BC, the non-partisan election agency, said it has yet to determine that the ongoing labour situation at Canada Post will cause voters to miss the deadline. She said Elections BC is monitoring ballot returns and keeping tabs on developments at Canada Post.

“It’s just not clear enough yet,” she said. “If and when we understand the impact we will be extending the deadline but we just don’t know if there’s going to be an impact at deadline time. That decision is still up in the air.”

Elections BC said Monday that about 21 per cent of the eligible ballots had been returned so far.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

JONES

Jones to speak at UNBC Legacy Breakfast

Citizen staff

Olympic gold medallist and two-time world curling champion Jennifer Jones will be the headline speaker at the fifth annual University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves Legacy Breakfast on Wednesday March 6.

Jones is Canada’s most decorated and recognized women’s curler. She won gold as skip of the Canadian team at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, going undefeated over 11 games. More recently, Jones won her second women’s world curling title in March in North Bay, Ont.

“We could not be happier to welcome Jennifer to the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre and have her be a part of our annual Legacy Breakfast fundraiser,” said UNBC athletics and recreation director Loralyn Murdoch.

“Jones has accomplished so much in her sport and life including a major comeback post ACL injury, to being wife, parent and winning an Olympic medal. I am very excited to hear her story and hope that she inspires all who attend.”

Jones also has strong academic credentials.

A graduate of the University of Manitoba, where she completed her Bachelor of Laws degree in 1999, Jones has worked as a lawyer both in private practice and as in-house counsel in a corporate setting.

In its five-year history, the Timberwolves Legacy Breakfast has raised more than $250,000.

Tickets are $90 for an individual seat, or $720 for a table of eight. Other ticketing options are also available. The doors open at 6:45 a.m. and the breakfast begins at 7 a.m.

For information, or to register a table, visit www.unbc.ca/ legacy-breakfast

Hospital busy

Citizen staff

The University Hospital of Northern B.C. is currently experiencing higher-than-normal volumes of patients and residents are being asked to consider other options before heading to the emergency department.

On Monday, Northern Health offered the following advice to avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital:

• Patients who aren’t sure whether their condition would warrant an emergency room visit can call HealthLink BC at 811. For deaf and hearingimpaired assistance (TTY), call 711. If you are concerned about a possible poisoning or exposure to a toxic substance, call Poison Control at 1-800567-8911.

• For non-emergency health information nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists go to www. HealthLinkBC.ca

• For non-urgent care, use community health services including your family practitioner or walk-in clinics, where available.

• If you have a cold, call HealthLinkBC at 811 for advice, or ask your pharmacist about over-the-counter medications to ease symptoms.

• Flu season is approaching; check immunizebc.ca for clinic dates.

Sliding NDP popularity biggest threat to Tories

Citizen news service

The federal Conservatives return to the House of Commons today after a tumultuous two weeks that included losing one of their best-known MPs to a sexual-misconduct scandal.

But for leader Andrew Scheer and company, it’s not Tony Clement’s online activities, the potential spillover of harassment allegations against provincial Tory politicians, or even the growing popularity of former Tory Maxime Bernier’s new political party that are keeping them up at night.

The Tory nightmare now is the fall of the NDP.

“That’s where I’m actually worried, frankly – from a strategic perspective, that’s what I’m watching,” said Alexandre Meterissian, a conservative strategist with Montreal firm Hatley Strategy Advisors.

“The collapse of the NDP is a big problem for the party.”

Meterissian in particular is concerned about a Mainstreet Research Poll published Nov. 14 that had the Liberals with a comfortable lead and the NDP down at 10 per cent, barely ahead of the Green Party. That was an unusually bad poll for the New Democrats but Meterissian said there is a downward trend for the party and leader Jagmeet Singh, who is struggling with caucus discontent and communications problems.

An NDP official was livid at the suggestion.

“If the Conservatives want to say it’s the NDP’s fault their message is failing to resonate with more Canadians, that’s up to them, but it’s a pretty feeble argument,” said James Smith, the NDP’s senior communications advisor.

“While the Conservatives are blaming others for their own problems, the NDP is focused on pushing this government to deliver solutions Canadians urgently need in their everyday lives like reducing the cost of prescription drugs and getting serious on the housing crisis.”

The Liberals ability to win a majority in the last election however, came in large part because of the collapse of the NDP vote, most of which went to them.

Meterissian said the Conservatives need to figure out how to attract NDP voters in Quebec and northern Ontario, because otherwise those votes will all go to the Liberals.

Scheer said that going back into the House of Commons after a break week for Remembrance Day, his party is going to focus on being united and not dwelling on the difficulties of the last few weeks or even months.

Scheer said sexual harassment is not a partisan issue, all the parties have had to contend with it, and all the parties have to figure out how best to investigate and address it. Clement is the fourth MP since the last election to be forced out of a caucus because of allegations of improper behaviour. Two have been Liberals and one was a New Democrat.

“We’ve had our issue, we’ve dealt with it and now we’re focusing on going back to holding this government to account and putting for-

ward innovative policy options,” Scheer said.

He acknowledged losing an MP as experienced and well-known as Clement is a bit of a blow. Clement has been a cabinet minister in the Ontario and federal governments, a leadership candidate and the party’s justice critic.

“Obviously Tony held significant roles in our caucus,” Scheer said. “That said, we have a great team with a lot of depth.” Clement – who admitted to sending explicit photos to women online – is just one of at least five conservative politicians and staff members at the federal level and in Ontario and Manitoba who have quit or were forced out in the last few weeks after allegations of sexual misconduct.

The publication last week of former Ontario Tory leader and former federal MP Patrick Brown’s book, in which he threw deep shade at many of his former staff and fellow Tories, added to the disarray. At best, the stories were a distraction for Scheer, whose major policy announcement on how the Conservatives would address gang and gun problems went largely under the radar.

The Tories almost had a big win against the Liberals when the government changed rules and sent child-killer Terri-Lynne McClintic back to prison from a healing lodge. But then came the news Nov. 13 that during the Conservatives’ own time in office, 10 people convicted

of killing children had been in such lodges for at least some of their sentences.

The Conservatives are also about to receive a report on how the party handled allegations in 2015 that then-MP Rick Dykstra had been accused of sexual assault. The party, including leader Stephen Harper, allowed Dykstra to stay on as a candidate and the report is to examine the propriety of that decision. (Dykstra has never been charged in the matter and denies the allegation.)

Meterissian said most of these stories are gossip that will not live long in the minds of voters.

The Conservatives are also, however, facing a challenge from the right in Scheer’s one-time leadership rival Maxime Bernier. Bernier quit the Conservative Party of Canada to launch his own. Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada is growing in popularity, claiming more than 30,000 members signed up and more than $300,000 raised in just its first few weeks. Bernier’s party is polling between three and five per cent on most surveys at the moment. But a lot of Conservatives worry that even if the party can’t win a lot of seats, it can steal enough votes from the Conservatives to help the Liberals win. Meterissian isn’t convinced of that, believing Bernier is really attracting people who otherwise would not vote.

Scheer proposes alternative to handgun ban

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer says he wants to tackle a surge of gun violence in Canada by targeting criminals who use weapons illegally, rather than supporting an outright handgun ban.

Scheer is to unveil the second part of his plan for improving public safety today in Delta: a policy plank focused entirely on guns.

It is a response to the calls for a ban on handguns and assault weapons in Canada, and instead proposes to give police more tools and write tougher laws to crack down on illegal gun users in Canada.

Scheer’s gun policy includes seven new policy measures that will target repeat offenders or criminals that help to make illegal guns available on the streets. They include tougher sentences for those who knowingly possess smuggled weapons and cracking down on socalled “straw purchases” in which guns bought by otherwise legal buyers are diverted to criminal markets. New penalties for selling guns to people already prohibited from possessing them are also part of the Conservative plan.

“We need to get guns out of the hands of people who use them to commit crimes, and that’s what this policy will do,” said a senior

Conservative party official. “A handgun ban may sound like a good idea, but it will only make criminals out of responsible gun owners while doing nothing to prevent criminals from getting guns.”

Scheer is expected to propose a special task force to try to keep guns from being smuggled

in from the United States.

Canada has had a rash of gun killings this year, including a mass shooting on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue in July that killed an 18-yearold woman and a 10-year-old girl and injured 13 others.

A shooting this weekend at a communityhousing complex in Toronto was the 90th homicide this year in the city, breaking the record for the deadliest year in Toronto since 1991. Calls for Ottawa to ban handguns and assault weapons have been growing, including from both Montreal and Toronto city councils.

Scheer has taken a strong stance against the push for a handgun ban, saying it would penalize law-abiding gun owners while failing to address the ongoing use and smuggling of illegal guns by criminals and gang members.

Scheer announced the first part of his public safety policy earlier this month, in which he outlined more punitive measures for gang members and organized crime organizations. He also wants to impose tougher jail sentences and limit parole and bail opportunities for gang members who are repeat and violent offenders.

Since 2013, gang-related homicides in Canada’s largest cities have almost doubled, according to Public Safety Canada.

SCHEER

CP PHOTO

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday. The decline in NDP popularity has Conservative strategist Alexandre Meterissian worried about his party’s hopes in the next election.

Theatre offering apprentice program

George at Theatre Northwest, with the help of the Arts Council.

‘This is just a misunderstanding’

— from page 1

Walker told the Citizen in an interview Saturday that he stood behind his Facebook post. Walker, according to his post, arrived at the mall as the event was ending and said one of the performers told him they were asked to leave the mall because the group performed Go Tell It On The Mountain.

Salvation Army Capt. Neil Wilkinson said he was not escorted out of the Pine Centre Mall by security, contrary to comments made on the original Facebook post. It was Wilkinson’s choice to end the performance and leave early, he said.

Everything went well as the Bel Canto Choir performed without amplification, Wilkinson said. Then another group started to perform with electric guitars and an amplified microphone.

“We are partly at fault,” Wilkinson said. The performers were not supposed to have any kind of amplification during their performances.

The music selection was also an issue when the group sang Mary’s Boy Child and Go Tell It On The Mountain, he added. The music is Christian and there were complaints made to the administration of Pine Centre Mall about it.

“That’s when I decided to shut it down,” Wilkinson said. “The Salvation Army does not bare any ill will. We are very grateful for all our community partnerships. This is the first time we were asked not to sing religious music. The Salvation Army is a spiritual organization. We are Christian and being Christian is part of who we are.”

“This is just a misunderstanding and miscommunication amongst all parties – no children were removed from the property,” Rachel Olson, Pine Centre Mall’s marketing director, said. “No kettles were removed from the property.” Olson said there was not an agreement in place with the Salvation Army and that meant they did not know what the expectations for their performance at the mall would include. There is an agreement in place for the kettle campaign and it will continue as scheduled, she added.

“We’ve spoken to the Salvation Army and we’re all good,” Olson said. “Things just got blown up. The kettles are still here, no children were involved – nothing crazy like that. That’s not what happened. The Salvation Army and Pine Centre Mall have an amazing relationship that goes back years and they will continue to be here and we will continue to support them in all the ways that we can.”

Girlfriend pressured McGuiney to drive

— from page 1

McGuiney was behind the wheel of a large pickup truck when just six minutes after leaving the home, he lost control and veered into the oncoming lane, striking Pearson’s SUV.

Pearson, who had been driving to work at the Fraser Lake sawmill where both he and McGuiney were employed, died at the scene while one of the passengers in the pickup was also injured.

The collision occurred about 70 metres west of the intersection of Highway 16, which was in a slippery condition, and Orange Valley Road, about 8.4 kilometres east of Fraser Lake. At the time, McGuiney was in a “toxic” relationship with Nicole Larson, the passenger who was injured in the crash and had yielded to her suggestion to drive, Tindale noted. It was agreed that his bloodalcohol level was between .192 and .214.

During a sentencing hearing, 20 victim impact statements from friends and family were read out in court.

The full decision is posted with this story at princegeorgecitizen.com.

Theatre apprentice Melissa Glover speaks after an announcement Monday morning of an apprenticeship program aimed specifically at developing technical and directorial talent in Prince

Frosty day

Frost clung to a tree branch along Air Tanker Road by the airport on Monday.

Advocates urge criminalization of ‘non-state torture’

Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Canada needs a special criminal charge to cover extended campaigns of physical and emotional abuse that amount to torture, say two Nova Scotia nurses who are in Geneva to try to shame the country before a United Nations body.

Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson, nurses and human rights advocates from Nova Scotia, are appearing before the United Nations Committee Against Torture this week to apply more pressure on the Canadian government to amend the Criminal Code to include “non-state torture” as a distinct crime.

“Electric shocking... caging, shackling in basements, water torture in a toilet or a bucket... (it’s) done at home or in a private place with tools you wouldn’t think of like a hot electric light bulb or a gun, scissors or knitting needles,” said MacDonald.

Many of the acts are already crimes in themselves, but MacDonald and Sarson argue that protracted abuse is a particular kind of crime that isn’t captured by a charge of, for instance, aggravated assault. Canadian criminal law only recognizes torture as a crime if it’s done by someone working for the state.

The abuse they’re talking about is often perpetrated by victims’ relatives, friends of older family members, human traffickers, and johns who want very violent sex. MacDonald said that because nonstate torture is not identified as a crime, there is no data to show how widespread the problem is.

If the numbers at one women’s centre in Ontario are any indication, it could be stunning. Megan Walker, the executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre, said 59 women between Janu-

ary and October fit the description of victims of torture.

Walker said more than once a woman has come to the centre struggling to walk because an intimate partner has shoved a hot curling iron into her vagina.

Women and girls’ stories are so horrendous, she said, they’re terrified of reporting perpetrators to the police because they fear no one will believe them. They also fear that if they are caught reporting the abuse, the terror will escalate.

In Ottawa in 2009, federal public servant Donna Jones died after her husband doused her with boiling water – the culmination of many months of physical and emotional abuse. She went 11 days without medical attention after the scalding, apparently not calling for help even though a telephone was within reach where she lay on a makeshift bed in her basement. She had broken bones and air-gun pellets in her skin when she died of septic shock from her burns. A jury eventually convicted her husband of murder.

In Winnipeg this fall, police said a woman who was being trafficked for sex was regularly locked in a freezer until she passed out from lack of air, and subjected to electric shocks. She was victimized for four months, police said.

Children sometimes suffer long-term abuse by guardians who mistake what they’re doing for discipline. In another Ottawa case, a former police officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year for chaining his son up in a basement, starving him, and burning his genitals.

Walker said she sees women who have been abused by their partners or relatives, and women and girls who are trafficked, but most abusers have one thing in common: an attraction to violent pornography and a desire to real-

ize their fantasies.

“These girls will have identified to us that they have been dragged across the floor by their hair, had their heads put into the toilet where they can’t breathe, and the toilet consistently flushes, they’ll come up for a breath and then will be pushed down again,” she said. Victims suffer permanent physical and psychological damage.

Walker said the extreme forms of violence could be considered state torture if a government were responsible.

She wants to see non-state torture identified as a crime so women’s experiences are validated, to establish a data bank where torture can be tracked, and so that law officials and medical providers can be trained to recognize signs and believe women when they come forward with their stories.

The London Abused Women’s Centre shared questionnaires with The Canadian Press that victims completed, without identifying information.

One individual wrote on a survey, “When you’re tortured, it destroys who you are and what you know. It annihilates what it is to be human. You are still in the human race if you are abused, but you don’t exist as a human being when you are tortured.”

MacDonald and Sarson have been pushing this cause for 25 years. The closest they came to change was a private member’s bill from Ontario Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos, which died in 2016. Fragiskatos’ bill proposed to change the Criminal Code to define torture as an act of violence carried out not just by state actors but also ordinary citizens. He said it was unsuccessful because the House of Commons justice committee determined it would conflict with Canada’s obligations under international laws that specify that torture is a crime car-

ried out by a government.

“That was the vision, but the proposal was found to conflict with international law, that torture is a state crime,” said Fragiskatos.

MacDonald and Sarson say a number of countries have included non-state torture or sexual torture in their criminal laws.

MacDonald said after the pair appeared before the UN anti-torture committee in 2012, it recommended Canada change its Criminal Code to include nonstate torture. Now they’re going back to tell the committee Canada failed.

Celia Canon, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, said creating the offence of private torture could “seriously weaken” Canada’s contribution to the international effort to prevent torture under the Convention against Torture, because there would be two definitions.

Canon said the Criminal Code already contains numerous crimes of assault, including sexual assault.

“In other words, the Criminal Code already contains crimes that capture the kind of conduct associated with private torture, most notably the crimes of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault, while existing sentencing provisions already provide a range of aggravating factors that could apply in a case of private torture,” she said.

But the activists reiterated that what women and girls experience behind closed doors is consistent with state torture and is beyond the various classes of assault.

“Activists say if you try all avenues the only thing left is social shaming, so that’s what we’re hoping to do because Canada is held up as a beacon of human rights around the world right now,” MacDonald said.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Police seek witnesses in crash

BURNABY (CP) — The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is asking for the public’s help in determining a timeline of events that led to what they say was a woman’s suspicious death. The team says RCMP responded to a crash late Friday on Barnet Highway, a busy route along the north side of Burnaby Mountain.

They say both a man and woman were found at the scene and the single-vehicle crash involved a 2017 charcoal grey Kia Sorento sport-utility vehicle.

The team says the man is expected to make a full recovery, but the woman, identified as 34-year-old Nicole Hasselmann of Burnaby, had injuries indicative of foul play and later died in hospital.

Anyone with information is asked to come forward and investigators are specifically interested in speaking with anyone who saw the woman or her vehicle on Friday along the 7000-block of Ridgeview Drive in Burnaby, the 200-block of College Park Way in Port Moody or the 8000-block of Barnet Highway in Burnaby. Police say they do not believe the incident was random and there appears to be no risk to public safety.

High-end house prices dropping

VANCOUVER (CP) — The British Columbia government says it’s already seeing positive results from the policies it put in place to address the housing crisis, but one expert says there’s still a long way to go.

Housing Minister Selina Robinson says the government is seeing some high-end house prices starting to drop.

“Right now we’ve got the speculation and empty home taxes, so part of what we need to do is monitor the impact that it has and continue to see what it does,” Robinson said in an interview Sunday.

But Andy Yan, the director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, says that while very expensive houses are starting to show a decline in price, the numbers haven’t translated to mid- and lowerlevel units.

“Sixteen months is a little bit premature to know whether the polices are a success or failure,” Yan said, referring to the approximate time the NDP minority government has been in power.

“But the softening of the market and cooling of the market is something that is definitely happening.”

Janice DICKSON

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

How medical pot made me a better mom

Ihad a medical marijuana card for nearly two years before I worked up the nerve to buy legal weed. Living in laid-back Vermont, I had access to a friend’s homegrown herb, which my husband used to make me cannabis-infused coconut butter in the family Crock-Pot. Applying the butter topically soothed my chronic pelvic pain and relieved symptoms of the debilitating bladder syndrome that had plagued me for a decade and warranted the card. Occasionally, I ingested a tiny lick of butter during a flare-up – an imprecise home remedy. I savoured the full-body relaxation that followed but loathed the disorienting mental side effects.

I’d been a cannabis skeptic from the start: I never much liked getting high for fun, tending to feel nervous and paranoid rather than happy and chill. I also carried childhood shame about catching my mom smoking a little pipe in secret – the strange pungent smell, her altered state, her mortified reaction when I walked in on her. And I worried that using more cannabis would alter me in turn, distance me from my children and prevent good parenting. How wrong I was. It turns out the costs of living with chronic pain and depression are far greater than the risks of using medical marijuana to help those conditions. This past summer, al-

though I was physically pain-free, a sudden depression knocked me to the ground. Crippled by anxiety and insomnia, I struggled to get out of bed and function for my two daughters, ages 10 and 12, who had both experienced some depression themselves. I’d read in Scientific American that mood disorders are passed genetically from mother to daughter, and I feared what my girls would learn from watching me break down in tears or lash out in rage. Even in the fog of despair, I knew taking care of myself was essential to my ability to take care of them.

on benzodiazepines or suffer more pharmaceutical side effects, I got out my green card and made an appointment at the local dispensary.

It turns out the costs of living with chronic pain and depression are far greater than the risks of using medical marijuana to help those conditions.

When my therapisthusband gave me Victoria Costello’s memoir, A Lethal Inheritance: A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness, I took its message to heart: one of the best things a depressed parent can do to help a child prone to mental illness is to treat her own depression. So I went to my doctor, but all he could offer was a prescription for Ativan, an anti-anxiety med, and an increase in my antidepressant dosage. I was already going to therapy, practicing yoga and exercising regularly. Rather than become dependent

The modest office felt like a hippie health spa, with green-and-white decor and posters displaying different plant strains. My consultant, Mike, quickly put me at ease with his cheerful brown eyes and gentle manner. Clad in jeans and plaid flannel, Mike told me that cannabis had been his “exit drug” from opiates, then listened carefully to my history of chronic pain and depressed mood. He explained the healing properties of endocannabinoids and cited a recent study in which cannabis significantly reduced reports of stress, anxiety and depression, especially in women.

Because I didn’t like to smoke and wanted minimal psychoactive effects, Mike recommended I try micro-dosing – taking small amounts of cannabis to reap the therapeutic benefits without getting stoned. I took home a tin of indica-dominant butter-mints, some salted caramel gummies and a highCBD oral tincture. (Indica strains of cannabis tend to be more sedating and relaxing;

YOUR LETTERS

Wrong approach

I don’t understand the push for a different voting system to elect B.C. MLAs.

Most people just want a local candidate that will represent them, will listen to their concerns and do a decent job of bringing their concerns to the legislature. However, they don’t expect that person to check in their brain to become only a walking poll result; they expect diligence, thoughtfulness and accountability. No voting system will change the quality and character of people we elect. Improving accountability will at least give the public a tool to get rid of a poorly performing politician. I say vote for our current system and then let’s work to improve the recall process so that if a candidate is not up to the job, they can actually be recalled.

Trudy Klassen Prince George

PR means no dictatorships

I’ve been involved in politics for 62 years and for about 40 of those years lived through unbearable dictatorships. One of the worst was the father of the current PM who bragged that he didn’t pay much attention to any of his MPs and certainly never any to the opposition members. He ran us into debt by hundreds of millions of dollars. Now his son managed to increase our debt by several billion dollars buying a 70-year-old pipeline that may fail or blow up at any moment and spill millions

Here we are 400-plus years later with the same dysfunctional electoral system.

of litres of oil in our major river which it runs parallel to.

John Warner, in his brilliant letter of Nov. 1, mentioned FPTP started in 1265 when the British King gave the vote to wealthy landowners. Then in 1605 a man by the name of Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the parliament buildings because the system was so dysfunctional and non-representative of what the people wanted. They could not get any Catholics or other minorities elected or in power. Here we are 400 plus years later with the same dysfunctional electoral system. In Summit Lake, we have acknowledged Guy Fawkes for 50 years but we do it to prevent summer forest fires, by having the cottage owners bring the dead trees and rotting dock boards to a giant pile not far from our community hall and have a huge bonfire on Nov. 5.

(Previously they burnt their debris by their cabins, which caused a couple of them to burn down.)

I am always sad that Guy Fawkes was unsuccessful so we may have had a functional system of caring people to rule over us. My reason for telling you this is because if we had a proportional representation system, these dictatorships would never happen.

The first point I want to make is about John’s math. Some of these parties and their leaders get

100 per cent of the power with between 15-25 per cent of the eligible votes because, as you well know, only between 45-55 per cent of the eligible voters actually cast their ballots.

So my second point is that any of the PR systems will be 1,000 per cent more representative of the wishes of the 50 per cent of the people who do vote. My third point is we don’t want to be the second last in the world to make our so-called democracy more democratic. As most people know, by watching what happens in U.S., if you spend enough money and spread enough “fake news” you seem to be able to get people to vote for the dumbest of the dumb.

Floyd Crowley Summit Lake

Not with my money

I was taken back when I heard on the news about cannabis businesses complaining that our B.C. government isn’t doing enough to promote destination vacations for cannabis users.

The gist I got is we the taxpayers are already doing this with the wine industry. I question should taxpayer dollars be used to promote private businesses? If we are, should we be doing this for beer and alcohol?

Canadian businesses pay one of the lowest tax rates in the G20. Most taxpayers don’t get the write off all the items that business people get to. I am of the opinion that these businesses should get together and pool their resources and do their own advertising.

Stan New Prince George

CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive cannabis compound with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.) The sativastrain gummies were strangely activating and made me irritable, but even one tiny buttermint allowed me a blissful night’s sleep. And the oral tincture proved the holy grail – one dropper-full to relieve anxiety and sustain a mellow relaxation for hours. Within a week, I felt my depression lighten, and for the first time all summer, I could laugh with my family.

Stigmas and false stereotypes have surrounded marijuana use since the 1930s, when it was classified a federal Schedule 1 substance, like heroin. Maybe because of this disrepute, I never expected the gifts of cannabis to go beyond symptom relief. But I’ve discovered that the plant slows me down and tunes me in, softens my competitive edges. When I micro-dose, I experience a heightened sense of gratitude and patience, as well as lighthearted humour. Joining the kids on the couch for a lovefest with the dog or playing a family game of cards, I feel more present, more grounded in my body, free from mental agitation. I hope that, by speaking honestly about my own use, more women will come out of the cannabis closet, a crucial step toward ending the stigma.

Get to the real problems

The most unfortunate aspect of the whole debate over proportional representation is that we are not really discussing how to improve the way government operates.

Many of the proponents for PR, for example, rail against the dictatorial nature of our present system and how it gives all of the power to just one party. Yet they seem to be perfectly content, if not condescendingly so, to point out voters don’t need to know how it will work. We will let the politicians dictate that to us after we have voted.

One recent letter pointed out you don’t need to know how a car works in order to drive it. True. But it does help to know a little bit about how a car works so you can distinguish running out of gas from a complete engine failure.

And yes, you have to trust a mechanic when they tell you there is a problem – just as we will have to trust politicians regardless of the outcome. But a lack of trust in politicians seems to be the central theme of several letters in favour of switching our voting system.

We have seen people writing about the “corruption” in our political system and the undue “influence” of corporations. Other writers claim politicians operate at the behest of the rich.

Not any politicians I know.

Indeed, I am trying to remember when we last had a corruption scandal in this province. And most of the politicians I have met are willing to listen to good ideas, regardless of where they originate – and not listen to bad ideas, even if they come from very rich people. But I don’t know every politician in B.C.

The real question we should be asking is how does proportional representation change any of this?

A PR system has a much lower threshold to power than FPTP. Invariably, as rightly pointed out, our political parties do not capture more than 50 per cent of the vote. That means any government formed will likely be some form of coalition. Imagine a scenario where a party has 48 per cent of the seats in the house and a minor player has five per cent. The governing party with 48 per cent requires that five per cent to get its legislation past. The minor player can bring down the government at any time. Who has the power in this relationship? Or, perhaps more accurately, who has the power in our present legislature? It is the minor party. They can collapse the government and force an election any time there is a vote of confi-

dence. There is nothing the major parties can do about it.

This is why the opponents of proportional representation have railed against fringe parties. The advertising has been inappropriate and definitely over-the-top but a multitude of voices in the legislature will lead to instability. It will also always lead to compromise and that can deadlock the government from taking action.

Perhaps the most amusing aspect of the “pro-PR” discussion is the contention we can “always change back” after two elections. Really?

The legislation enabling this –Bill 40 - Electoral Reform Referendum 2018 Amendment Act – was tabled Oct. 2 and has only passed first reading. Given the timeline between now and the end of the session, it is possible it will die on the order table.

However, even if it is passed, it is not binding on the next government. It is legislation and can be amended or even removed at the will of the governing parties.

If you had just been elected to government by a PR system and would be unlikely to be in government if there is a switch back to FPTP, would you be in support of holding another referendum? I think not.

Of course, there are a number of proponents of PR who would say “yes, absolutely.” But it does mean trusting our politicians to do things which are not necessarily in their best interest.

Which brings us back to the point – the feeling expressed by a number of letter writers over the past two months is “we don’t trust our politicians.” So how are things going to be different?

I would have preferred to spend the last 18 months having a discussion about what is wrong with our present democracy. What needs to be fixed and why? Is it just apathy? Or is it a strong sense all politicians are corrupt? Or that money controls the system?

If we had spent the time trying to understand the real issues, maybe we could have worked towards fixing the problems instead of putting on a band aid and hoping things will be better. Proportional representation won’t make things better. Just have a look at the democracies which use it now. They are no better off than we are.

— Diana Whitney is the poetry critic for the San Franciso Chronicle

Allegations of forced sterilization of Indigenous women must be investigated, NDP says

Kristy KIRKUP Citizen news service

OTTAWA — The federal government and the provinces must examine “monstrous” allegations of modern-day forced sterilizations of Indigenous women, NDP reconciliation critic Romeo Saganash said Monday before he pressed for answers in the House of Commons.

Coerced sterilization clearly breaches human-rights standards that Canada must fight to uphold, Saganash said Monday, and said that authorities should very carefully read Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the UN in 1948.

That international agreement says that “genocide” includes any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as by “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

Canadians should not tolerate forced sterilization, Saganash said, and Ottawa must address the issue as alleged victims share their stories.

“I think they have to take this seriously,” said the Cree lawyer and MP from northern Quebec. “Just the fact that it is happening and people are coming out makes it serious enough to look for a solution.”

The issue of forced sterilizations will also be raised at the UN Committee Against Torture this week, when Amnesty International Canada and a national law firm call for accountability for the practice.

Maurice Law is leading a proposed classaction lawsuit against the federal govern-

Todd Whitcombe explains the science behind every day life in Relativity, every Thursday only in The Citizen

ment, the government of Saskatchewan, all its health authorities, and individual medical professionals.

The lawsuit was launched in 2017 by two affected women in the Saskatoon Health Region who each claimed $7 million in damages. Now about 60 women are part of the lawsuit. An additional 32 women have come forward to report they were sterilized without consent since The Canadian Press first published a story last Sunday, associate Alisa Lombard said Monday, noting the women are mostly from Saskatchewan but elsewhere as well.

In its submission to the UN committee, Maurice Law said there has been no effort at a comprehensive review to understand the scale of the problem or the conditions that make forced sterilizations possible.

It also listed a number of solutions, including a proposal to specifically criminalize forced sterilization as the “single most effective, immediate and enduring measure that could be taken” to protect women from this practice.

The Liberal government has not indicated it is looking at this step.

During question period on Monday, Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott said the Liberal government knows coerced sterilization is a gross violation of human rights and of reproductive rights.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde also wants to see the scope of forced sterilization examined and called the practice wrong, immoral and a gross human-rights violation.

Users browse the internet in an underground station in Hong Kong. Global Affairs says its employees are being targeted by sophisticated phishing scams.

Sophisticated phishing scams put secrets at risk, Global Affairs says

Jim BRONSKILL Citizen news service

OTTAWA — Canada’s Global Affairs Department says too many of its employees are being deceived by digital scams – a “serious problem” that could see sensitive information end up in the wrong hands.

The increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns – which fool users into revealing passwords and other closely guarded data – are targeting email, texting and social media accounts, the department says.

Global Affairs plans to hire a company to test employees with phoney phishing messages to raise awareness and stamp out the electronic scourge.

In a tender call Monday, the department said workers who click on tempting but bogus links would be directed to educational resources to help them identify telltale traits of such messages and report them to officials.

The move comes as organizations of all kinds become more conscious of threats from cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers out to make a quick buck or steal valuable secrets.

Global Affairs warns a successful attack could lead to everything from a malware infection or loss of information to a complete shutdown of a government network that would disrupt operations.

“Even worse, sensitive information in the wrong hands could potentially put our staff or partners in physical danger,” the bid solicitation says.

“It is important for staff members to understand that they must do their part to

prevent successful phishing attacks.”

The department has more than 10,000 employees spread across Canada and 178 missions in more than 100 countries, providing consular assistance to Canadians and administering international programs.

It wants the chosen company to run three tests per fiscal year and provide statistical summaries of the results.

The reports would include aggregate numbers on those who took the clickbait – excluding individual results – by region, branch and directorate, the bid documents say. “The data collected will produce statistics that will allow us to evaluate our state of readiness against real attacks.”

Four years ago, hackers used emails, malware and password theft to worm their way into National Research Council computers in pursuit of valuable scientific and trade secrets.

Government officials took the unusual step of openly blaming the intrusion on a highly sophisticated, Chinese state-sponsored player. Beijing denied involvement, accusing Canada of making irresponsible charges.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has since warned China and Russia routinely target Canada’s classified information and advanced technology as well as its government officials and systems.

Federal officials are also wary of foreign attempts to interfere with Canada’s democratic institutions and electoral processes.

Last year, Elections Canada put out a call for a company to run a simulated phishing program to create awareness among staff.

JAMES DOYLE

CITIZEN PHOTO BY

The crowd watches as Jovan Leamy of the UNBC Timberwolves goes high to power down a two-handed dunk against the Trinity Western University Spartans on Friday night at the Northern Sport Centre.

Kings clipped in Nanaimo

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Almost perfect. After two wins and many kilometres on a tough three-game weekend tour of the BCHL’s Island Division, the Prince George Spruce Kings were looking to run the table and beat the Nanaimo Clippers Sunday afternoon in Nanaimo.

No Spruce Kings team has ever accomplished such a feat since they joined the BCHL in 1996, but the guys wearing the blue and red crown came awfully close Sunday. They outshot their opponents 3628 but could not outscore them.

Gunnar Wegleitner found the net with just 21 seconds left in the five-minute overtime period to lift the Clippers (1113-0-0) to a 3-2 victory. It was the first overtime loss of the season for the Spruce Kings (17-7-1-1), who had a 2-0 overtime record heading into Sunday’s game. Tyler Schleppe’s goal 2:10 into the third period tied it for the Kings, after the Clippers went ahead 2-1 on second-period goals from Jonathan Stein and Thomas

Samuelsen. Ben Poisson’s 10th goal of the season, 6:48 into the game, gave the Kings an early lead.

Bradley Cooper made 25 saves in net for Prince George. Jordan Naylor picked up the win in goal for the Clippers, making 34 stops.

The Kings began the weekend with a 3-0 win Friday over the Powell River Kings and edged the Alberni Valley Bulldogs 2-1 on Saturday. The Bulldogs did the Spruce Kings a favour Sunday afternoon in Port Alberni when they defeated the leagueleading Chilliwack Chiefs 4-1.

The Chiefs (19-8-0-0) continue to hold on to first place in the Mainland Division, just two points ahead of secondplace Spruce Kings, who gained a point Sunday and have a game in hand over Chilliwack.

The Spruce Kings return to home ice at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena Wednesday night to face the Trail Smoke Eaters (1011-4-2, seventh in the Interior Division), then head to Chilliwack to take on the Chiefs Friday and Saturday.

Sweet success

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

You won’t find UNBC Timberwolves post Vaggelis Loukas near the top of the scoring race in the U Sports Canada West conference.

He gets his share of points but that’s not what makes him so valuable to the T-wolves.

It’s the grunt work he does night after night fighting for territory under the basket, hauling in rebounds, setting up screens and using his quick hands to make life miserable for opponents who venture into his turf.

Not blessed with an abundance of height for such a key position, the six-foot-five Loukas makes up for that with his leaping ability, long arms and pure hustle.

In two games against the Trinity Western University Spartans this past weekend at the Northern Sport Centre, both convincing wins for UNBC, Loukas wrote himself into the T-wolves’ record book.

Fifth-year T-wolves guard Jovan Leamy had his usual strong day at the office. He led all shooters with 20 points and picked up a pair of steals and three assists. James Agyeman put up 15 points and PGSS grad Tyrell Laing collected 14 points. Vova Pluzhnikov had a 17-point night and also had two steals and forced four turnovers. Boria Soriano picked up a team-high 19 points for the Spartans. After losing by 43 the night before, the Spartans tightened up considerably on defence and were within a point or two of the T-wolves well into the second quarter but couldn’t sustain their offence.

Another night of winning for UNBC basketball teams w

It started with a 101-58 annihilation of the Spartans Friday when he broke Dennis Stark’s all-time rebounds record of 461 and he added to his total with seven more rebounds in a 98-82 win on Saturday. Loukas also bagged three steals in the rematch with the Spartans to move past Billy Cheng into first place on the T-wolves career list, bringing his total to 90 with 14 games still to play in his fifth and final season.

Best of all for the 24-year-old native of Athens, Greece, his record-setting season coincides with the T-wolves’ best-ever start in their seven seasons playing in Canada’s top basketball league. The weekend sweep of the Spartans left the T-wolves third in the 17-team Canada West standings behind only Calgary (7-0) and UBC (7-1).

“We were expecting a tougher night and they gave us a tougher night, but we stayed focused when they made their pushes and we maintained the game within our comfort zone and played the basketball we always play and won the game,” said Loukas.

“Since I’ve been here, five years, this is our best start and we are hoping we will continue this winning streak.”

The fact Loukas regularly draws assignments against players who tower over him makes his rebounding record even more remarkable.

“One of the reasons I’m here is because rebounding is what I offer the team and the guys make it easy for me to grab rebounds,” he said. “I’m undersized for the position I play but I try to bring energy to gain the advantage over the big guys.

“It’s something that I will remember when I leave here, that I helped the team to the best of my ability, and it’s a great honour to be part of that history at UNBC to help move the program forward and become better.”

“UNBC played really well the first night and shot the ball really well and we just weren’t ready to play, but tonight there were some positive things for us,” said Spartans head coach Aaron Muhic. “We attacked a lot more inside-out and faced adversity better and I was proud of the guys’ effort. But if we’re going to win, we need to rebound better and that didn’t happen.” The UNBC women also kept up their winning ways Saturday, beating TWU 83-54 to move into sole possession of first place in Canada West with a perfect 6-0 record.

After a sluggish opening Friday which led to a nail-biting 78-77 victory over the previously undefeated Spartans (now 6-2), the Twolves made a promise to themselves they’d get off to a better start Saturday and they did.

UNBC’s all-star guard, Maria Mongomo, led by example. She hit five of her seven field goals in the opening 10 minutes, picking up 13 points in the opening quarter as the T-wolves built a 24-7 lead. They continued to pour it on and had a 49-29 cushion at halftime. Despite a brief letup in the third quarter, the result was never in doubt and UNBC put it away in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

“(On Friday) we didn’t play as focused and we gave them hope to win (Saturday), so we tried to come out stronger,” said Mongomo. “I guess we were tired (in the third quarter), I think we did a very good effort in the first two quarters and we tried to keep scoring and win the game. We tried to keep the intensity on defence the whole game.”

The Spartans were without their top scorer, Tessa Ratzlaff, who missed both games with a concussion. She’d been averaging 17.5 points per game. After a onepoint squeaker the previous night, T-wolves assistant coach Dave Holmes said his team brought a similar approach to Saturday’s game, not worrying too much about what their opponents would bring.

“For us, today it was finding more communication and intensity on defence because that’s what we were missing (Friday) night,” said Holmes. “We made a run in the first quarter and that set the tone for the rest of the game.”

see TIMBERWOLVES, page 11

College Heights teams put on a show at zones

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

The College Heights

Cougars have been near the top of the provincial boys volleyball charts all season long. With one final chance to strut their stuff in a Prince George gym and show why they deserve to be the top dogs in the north central double-A zone, the Cougars certainly made the most of it. They put the hammer down on the Kelly Road Roadrunners Saturday afternoon at Kelly Road, winning a three-set final 25-14, 25-18, 25-19.

In the third set, Grade 12 power hitter Nolan Minck put the exclamation point on a dominating team performance, pounding out five jump serve aces. Dayton O’Neill, the Cougars’ six-foot-five middle blocker, clinched the last two points with a towering block at the net, followed by a crushing kill shot.

“We wanted to show everyone here why we’re ranked second in the province and I think we did a great job showing how athletic we are on the court and how close we are as a group of guys,” said Cougars power hitter Matt Shand, the zone tournament MVP.

“We just had to bring our best.”

O’Neill certainly did that. He casts a long shadow at the net and scored numerous points with his big leaping serve. He’s probably the most improved Cougar and has excelled in the middle since making the switch from the right side last season.

“Dayton had a phenomenal game – that was probably the most consistent offensive game he’s had, he was just dominant, hitting that ball unbelievably hard,” said Cougars head coach Linden Smith. “He grew a lot last year going into Grade 11 and he grew even more this year – he’s six-foot-five with a six-foot-eight wingspan.”

We wanted to show everyone here why we’re ranked second in the province...

— Matt Shand

The Cougars will go into the provincial tournament in Langley next Wednesday as the secondranked team behind the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country. George Elliot has been the Cougars’ nemesis all season, beating College Heights in three tourna-

ments, twice in the final. Last season the Cougars beat George Elliot in the provincial quarterfinal round, then lost in the semis to Duchess Park. Two seasons ago, as juniors, the Coyotes lost the season series but eliminated the Cougars at provincials.

“We wanted to show that we really deserve the second-place ranking we currently have and we needed to prove to ourselves that we deserve to be in that top tier,” said Smith. “I definitely want to have another shot at George Elliot and we’ll see them first day in the power pool and hopefully in the playoffs.”

— see ROADRUNNERS, page 10

Blazers smoke Cougars in doubleheader

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

The Kamloops Blazers towed a woodshed behind the bus on the trip up from Kamloops and made use of it in both their weekend games.

They used it as cover while handing the Prince George Cougars back-to-back buttkickings – winning 5-1 on Saturday followed by a 7-3 thumping Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately for the Cougar faithful, all 2,301 of them in the CN Centre stands, there was no way to avoid seeing the carnage on the ice that befell their hockey team.

The Blazer boys from Marwayne, Alta., (population 500) – Zane Franklin and Orrin Centazzo – feasted on the opportunities they created as wing men on a line with centre Luc Smith. Franklin, who joined the Blazers over the summer in a trade from Lethbridge, had a five-point game Sunday with a goal and four assists, while Centazzo, a former Everett Silvertip, and Smith each rang up a goal and two assists.

“That was a good night for us but we’ve been playing together for awhile and it’s been clicking for awhile,” said Franklin, 19, who played minor hockey with Centazzo every other year in Marwayne, a small farming community 45 minutes north of Lloydminster.

“I love playing with those guys. It’s a new opportunity for me and I’m just trying to take advantage of it. We just played to our strengths this weekend. They’re a heavy team with some big forwards that like to hit and I don’t think we can match that so we just used our speed and chipped pucks and that just kept building momentum.”

The Franklin line’s picturesque tic-tac-toe power-play goal that ended with Smith onetiming Franklin’s shot-pass from the opposite side 13 minutes into the second period made it a 5-0 count and it left the Cougar supporters envious, wondering when they’ll see a goal that pretty from their own team.

The Cougars began the weekend having won three straight at home and four of their last five. The Blazers came to town in the midst of a four-game losing streak.

“We started to click here tonight and yesterday, we talked about it all week and just came back to the basics,” said Franklin, the Blazers’ scoring leader with 25 points in 19 games, who finished the weekend with two goals and five assists. “I think we were getting too complicated so that was a good goal for us to play simple and it worked out pretty good.”

In both games the Cougars fumbled their passes, had very little forecheck intensity

and were woefully outplayed on special teams – much to the delight of the Blazers, their long-standing WHL rivals, who thoroughly enjoyed their weekend all-expensespaid trip to P.G. The Blazers scored on two of their four power-play chances Sunday, while the Cougars went 1-for-9.

A third-period power-play conversion from Cole Moberg spared the Cougars the embarrassment of being shut out by their WHL rivals on home ice. The Cats fired two more past 16-year-old rookie goalie Dylan Garand – the second goals of the season for Connor Bowie and Austin Crossley. But by that point, late in the third period, it was already a done deal.

“Obviously it wasn’t the weekend we wanted whatsoever and it starts from us, the leaders, all the way down to the 16-year-olds,” said Cougars captain Josh Curtis. “I don’t think any of us played well at all. I don’t think the effort was there. We weren’t fast enough. The first game we didn’t get enough shots and that put us down. We took some tough penalties. I thought we got some momentum and then took a penalty and the next thing we know it’s in the back of our net. Nothing was clicking this weekend.

“Maybe we thought them being at the bottom of standings, maybe we were too

high, but it was one of those times when we didn’t come out ready and they were. It’s unacceptable, you can’t lose two straight at home like that.”

Sunday’s win allowed the Blazers (8-9-11, fourth in B.C. Division) to creep within three points of the Cougars (9-10-1-2, third in B.C. Division). Kamloops has played three fewer games than Prince George.

“We never look at the standings – we can’t because we get wrapped up where we have to get these points, have to do this. We just wanted to get our game better and get it to a place where we can move forward and I’m happy with this weekend,” said Blazers head coach Serge Lajoie.

“Both our goalies (Garand and Saturday starter Dylan Ferguson) made saves at key moments where it didn’t allow P.G. to get any momentum. It’s nice to have the luxury of going with a veteran guy in Ferguson and know that our guys love playing in front of him, and same thing with the kid (Garand). They rally around him and maybe put in extra effort to make sure he’s wellsurrounded.”

The Cougars started Isaiah DiLaura in net and replaced him with Taylor Gauthier after the fourth Kamloops goal, 2:16 into the second period. DiLaura allowed four goals on 13 shots. Gauthier stopped 15 of 18 shots.

The Cougars put 28 shots on Garand, double their output from the 14 they managed on Ferguson the night before. In that Friday game, Blazers winger Jermaine Loewen polished his reputation as a Cougar-killer with two goals. He now has nine goals in his last 11 games against the Cougars. The visitors led 3-0 at that point and Franklin and Smith cashed in two more goals 20 seconds apart in the third period on a 5-on-3 power play to put it away.

Mike MacLean potted a rebound with 3:35 left to wreck Ferguson’s shutout. Special teams also favoured the Blazers in that one. They went 3-for-7 on the power play while the Cougars went 0-for-2.

The Cougars host the Regina Pats in their next game Friday night, followed by a Saturday encounter with the Saskatoon Blades at CN Centre. Guaranteed, there will be some soulsearching before the Cougars get back on the ice.

“It’s our job to sit down and go through it and figure out exactly why we kind of laid an egg this weekend,” said head coach Richard Matvichuk. “There’s no easy answer. It’s not fun to lose at home. We’ve been playing real well here and with a division rival like Kamloops it’s not good to lose two in a row to them, especially on home ice.”

— from page 9

The Grade 12 Cougars – Shand, O’Neill, Minck, setter Zach Ohori and Raphael Rodrigues – have played together five seasons and they also play club volleyball. That cohesiveness on the court has been a big factor in their success this season. They know they’ll have to play even better to bring home a senior boys provincial volleyball banner to College Heights for the first time in the school’s history.

“It means a lot to win with all the guys I’ve been with since Grade 8 – we’ve always been a tight-knit group and it means a lot to come this far,” said O’Neill. “Everyone on this team is best buds and the thing I like best is even in the toughest situations we always come back to each other and we can always rely on each other to make everyone else feel good.”

The Roadrunners had to gut out a tough five-set semifinal to eliminate the D.P. Todd Trojans and claim the other north central berth for the provincial tournament. With four north central double-A teams ranked

in the top-12 in last week’s provincial poll, it was difficult just getting out of the zone. The Roadrunners rallied around their veteran core – seniors Caleb Gurney, JT Laxdal, Ben Hirtz, Greyam Heppner and Grade 11 setter Koen Heitman – to stop the Trojans (who were ranked sixth in the province) and earn the right to play for the zone title on their home court.

“Honestly, it was the best game we’ve played, we all just played our hearts out and it was so much fun to play,” said Heppner. “It was nice to win at Kelly Road, it’s our home and (the final was) our last game here. I’m really excited to play at provincials, we deserve to go down there. I’m predicting we’ll be in the top five.” D.P. Todd played College Heights Saturday morning and won the first set, which added to the intrigue of the Roadrunner-Trojan semi. “I was pretty worried because they were playing pretty well but we were pretty consistent and our serve was pretty consistent,” said Roadrunners coach Todd Kuc. — see ‘IT

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Matej Toman, left, and Josh Curtis go hard to the net of Kamloops Blazers goaltender Dylan Garand during Sunday afternoon’s WHL game at CN Centre.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Stamps out to end Grey Cup losing streak

Citizen news service

The numbers appear to be in the Calgary Stampeders’ favour ahead of Sunday’s Grey Cup in Edmonton.

Whether that’s enough to end the team’s losing skid in the championship game remains to be seen.

The West Division champion Stampeders led the CFL in victories again this season, were second in points scored and allowed the fewest points of all nine teams. However, there is one statistic that will be a main talking point all week and it has made this year’s Grey Cup a tough one to predict.

Despite winning the West in 2016 and 2017, Calgary is 0-2 in Grey Cup appearances over those years.

“I can shrug it off, you guys can’t,” Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell told reporters after the West final. “Y’all will bring it up and I understand that. It’s your job. This is a completely different team. It’s not a rematch of 2016. It’s not the same Ottawa Redblacks.

“They’ve got a different defence, different defensive coordinator, different quarterback. The only thing the same is the two logos.”

Ottawa surprised Calgary 39-33 in overtime in 2016 in Toronto.

The Argonauts upset the Stampeders 27-24 in last year’s championship at Ottawa.

“Pretty proud of our guys, three straight Cups,” said Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson. “Problem is if you don’t win one, you don’t feel you’ve accomplished anything. You look back and you really have, but it’s not enough.”

The Stampeders came through at home on Sunday with a 22-14 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Redblacks, who led the East at 11-7, took the division crown with a 46-27 win over the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“We believe in ourselves and we knew what we were capable of,” said Ottawa receiver Greg Ellingson. “And I think (Sunday) we kind of showed everybody else, the doubters, that we are a force to be reckoned with.”

It will be the fourth time that Ottawa and Calgary have met in the Grey Cup. The Stampeders beat the Ottawa Rough Riders

12-7 in 1948 and Ottawa took the 1968 game by a 24-21 score.

The Stampeders last won the Grey Cup in 2014 when they beat Hamilton 20-16.

Calgary swept the 2018 season series against the Redblacks with a 24-14 win in Week 3 and a 27-3 rout in Week 5. Bookies have installed the Stampeders as early four-point favourites with an over-under of 53.5 points.

“Look at our roster, there’s hardly anybody here that’s been here for two years,” Dickenson said. “There’s been so much turnover. We’ve done it with totally different teams. We’re not

Blues fire head coach Yeo

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Blues have fired coach Mike Yeo and named Craig Berube as his interim replacement.

General manager Doug Armstrong announced the move late Monday night. The Blues lost to the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 on Monday night to fall to 7-9-3.

St. Louis is in last place in the Central Division. The team missed the playoffs by one point last season.

Yeo is the third NHL coach to be fired this season after the Kings’ John Stevens and Blackhawks’ Joel Quenneville. He went 73-49-11 in parts of three seasons with the Blues since replacing Ken Hitchcock midway through the 2016-17 season. Berube had been an associate coach on Yeo’s staff since the summer of 2017. Before that, he was coach of the Blues’ AHL affiliate and has NHL headcoaching experience with Philadelphia.

the same team. We may have had more explosive players, but we’re still a damned good team.

“We’re more than capable of doing it. We’ve just got to go up there and do it.”

The CFL was expected to announce a decision later Monday on the status of Redblacks defensive back Jonathan Rose. He made contact with an official during a sideline scuffle on Sunday.

The weather forecast looks rather appealing for a late-November date at Commonwealth Stadium. A high of minus-6 C is expected with a slight chance of precipitation.

Flames scorch Vegas

CALGARY (CP) — Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau tied career-highs with fourpoint nights on Monday as the Calgary Flames took over top spot in the Pacific Division with a 7-2 rout of the Vegas Golden Knights. Calgary is even in points with the San Jose Sharks, but have one more regulation/overtime win.

‘It will be lots of fun at provincials’

— from page 10

“They are very tall, so trying to hit through them like we have in the past hasn’t been very successful so we got a bit smarter and hit into the holes and hit some roll shots if there was a really big block. Our boys were not only playing hard but were playing smart.”

For the Kelly Road senior boys, it will be their first trip to the B.C. championship in five years, when they were a triple-A team. “It’s a very strong zone and we’re just happy we made it out and get to go to provincials,” said Kuc.

• In the three-team double-A girls zone championship at D.P. Todd, the Kelly Road Roadrunners defeated the host Trojans 25-14,

25-23, 25-22 in Saturday’s final. The Roadrunners claimed the lone north central berth in provincials, which start Nov. 28 in Burnaby.

The Trojans advanced directly to the zone championship match with wins over Nechako Valley and D.P. Todd.

“We had a bye to the finals and D.P. Todd had to play an extra game, so I guess they were already a bit tired and we beat them in three sets,” said Kelly Road libero Kaia Bjorklund. “Lately we’ve just been keeping a good attitude and I think that’s one of the main reasons why we won against D.P. Todd, just keeping our composure in our games and improving our mental game.

“It will be lots of fun at provincials and I’m

(holding) 15:58; Leppard Pg (high sticking) 17:06; Onyebuchi Kam, MacLean Pg (unsportsmanlike cnd.) 19:50; Onyebuchi Kam, MacLean Pg (major, majorfighting) 19:50. Third Period 6. Prince George, Moberg 7 (Lakusta, Mikhalchuk) 11:19 (pp). 7. Kamloops, Lang 4 (Schmiemann, Zazula) 14:10. 8. Kamloops, Franklin 14 (Kneen) 15:46. 9. Prince George, Bowie 2 (Kohner, Kjemhus) 16:50. 10. Prince George, Crossley 2 (unassisted) 18:21. Penalties - Kneen Kam (double minor, high sticking) 8:43; Centazzo Kam (slashing) 0:26; Sopotyk Kam, Kjemhus Pg (roughing) 8:07; Lang Kam (slashing) 8:07; Crossley Pg (roughing) 12:02; Kneen Kam (roughing) 18:51; Toman Pg (cross checking) 18:51. Shots on goal by Kamloops 9 13 9 - 31 Prince George 10 7 11 - 28 Goal - Kamloops: Garand (W). Prince George: DiLaura (L), Gauthier (2:16 second, 18 shots, 15 saves). Power plays (goals-chances) - Kamloops: 2-3; Prince George: 1-9. Referees - Mark Pearce, Dexter Rasmussen. Linesmen - Brett Mackey, Tim Plamondon. Attendance - 2,301 SATURDAY’S SUMMARY BLAZERS 5 AT COUGARS 1 First Period 1. Kamloops, Pillar 3 (Onyebuchi, Lang) 18:35.

2. Kamloops, Loewen 7 (Strange) 19:16. Penalties - Franklin Kam, Maser Pg (major, majorfighting) 9:22; Onyebuchi Kam, Crossley Pg (major, major-fighting) 9:31; Crossley Pg (misconduct, 10-minute misconduct) 9:31; Perepeluk Pg (interference) 10:30. Second Period 3. Kamloops, Loewen 8 (Lang, Schmiemann) 19:06 (pp). Penalties - Crossley Pg (slashing) 5:11; Franklin Kam (interference) 6:48; Moberg Pg (holding) 10:13; Loewen Kam (interference) 15:22; MacLean Pg (kneeing) 17:53. Third Period 4. Kamloops, Franklin 13 (Smith, Mohr) 8:48 (pp).

Kamloops, Smith 6 (Franklin, Centazzo) 9:08 (pp). 6. Prince George, MacLean 2 (Rhinehart, Colina)

really excited.”

• Meanwhile, at the triple-A girls zone championship in Dawson Creek, the College Heights Cougars were repeat winners of the north central zone banner Saturday, after a 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 26-24) victory over the Dawson Creek Coyotes in the final Saturday.

The Cougars advanced after beating the Prince George Polars 3-1 (25-17, 24-26, 2519, 25-17) in the semifinal round.

College Heights advanced to the triple-A provincials in Powell River, Nov. 28-30.

• The Cedars Christian Eagles of Prince George will host the 16-team single-A boys provincial tournament starting on Thursday at the College of New Caledonia.

Sports Timberwolves hitting the road

— from page 9 The speedy Mongomo shot a game-high 29 points and also had

Vasiliki Louka also collected 11 rebounds and had 17 points, while Madison Landry and Russian-born Alina Shakirova each contributed 14 points. UNBC’s shooting accuracy tailed off as the game went on. They shot 57.1 per cent in the first half and that dropped to 32.4 per cent in the second half. Former T-wolf Sarah Buckingham was the top shooter for the Spartans with 17 points.

“It was a bit of a tough one and it’s important that we use this weekend to get better, we have a lot to improve on,” said Buckingham. “They made some adjustments but we needed to come out with a bit more hustle. We did that in the second half and I was proud of how we played.

“It was fun for me to be back here, I played here in my first year (four years ago) and we knew the matchup was going to be hard coming in. UNBC’s a good team.”

The T-wolves take to the road this weekend to Abbotsford to face the Fraser Valley Cascades. They have two weekends left before the Christmas break and won’t return to their home court until January.

Laine fuels Jets in win against Canucks

VANCOUVER (CP) — Patrik Laine’s hat trick led the Winnipeg Jets to a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

The right winger put the puck into an empty net with less than two minutes to go seal the game. Brian Little, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor also scored for Winnipeg (12-5-2).

Elias Pettersson, Tyler Motte and Nikolay Goldobin put up goals for Vancouver (10-11-2).

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 of 25 shots for the Jets and Jacob Markstrom made 43 saves for the Canucks.

The Jets’ 49 shots on goal were the most Vancouver has allowed in a single game all season. The Jets extended the Canucks’ losing streak to six games.

Winnipeg opened the scoring just over a minute in after Markstrom tried to clear the puck along the boards. Little collected the puck at the point and hammered it in as the Vancouver goalie slid back into his net.

The Canucks responded with a power-play goal after Dustin Byfuglien was called for slashing. Goldobin got a behind-the-back pass off to defenceman Ben Hutton, who sliced the puck to Pettersson. The Canucks rookie fired a rocket past Hellebuyck, tying the game. Petterson now has 19 goals in his first 17 NHL games.

The Jets will be in Calgary on Wednesday to battle the Flames while the Canucks are off to California, where they’ll face the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.

CP PHOTO

Calgary Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell throws to a receiver during the CFL West Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday in Calgary.

Little Drummer Girl remains relevant on screen

John CARUCCI Citizen news service

NEW YORK — John le Carre’s bestselling novel The Little Drummer Girl was released in 1983 but remains timely – and that disturbs Alexander Skarsgard.

Skarsgard and Michael Shannon star in a six-hour miniseries based on the novel, playing Israeli agents on the hunt for a Palestinian bomber. The Little Drummer Girl premiered Monday night on AMC.

“What’s depressing is the fact that it takes place 35 years ago, but it feels more relevant today than ever,” Skarsgard said. “We’re in a situation where feels like we’ll be having this conversation in 35 years. And it’s horrific what’s happening down there.”

The story centres around the manipulation of a radical left-wing actress named Charlie, played by Florence Pugh, who is coerced to go undercover to help root out a terrorist named Khalil, responsible for bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe.

Shannon didn’t see any ethical issues with the premise of using a thespian to a root out a terrorist. Instead, he was enthralled by the concept.

“It seems to highlight something that I find very intriguing – that there can be a difference between your identity and your true self. That you can actually present yourself to be someone entirely other than who you actually are, which I think people do a lot,” Shannon said.

Korean director Chan-wook Park, best known for the 2003 classic Old Boy, helmed all six episodes of the miniseries.

“To spend like four or five months with one of the greatest filmmakers on the planet, it’s obviously such a treat for us actors,” Skarsgard said.

Skarsgard, fresh off an Emmy win for the HBO series Big Little Lies, tends to gravitate toward meatier projects, so the script length also appealed to him. “When you have a 400-page script as op-

Grillo looking for a fight in Netflix doc

NEW YORK (AP) — Most travellers to new places usually aren’t looking for a fight. Frank Grillo definitely is.

Fightworld, a new Netflix docuseries, follows Grillo, an actor and self-described “fight enthusiast,” as he goes globe-trotting to explore fighting styles and the cultures behind them.

“I immerse myself in certain

fight cultures,” said Grillo. “And through the eyes of the fighters, we explore the culture of that place in a very different way. It’s very similar to what Anthony Bourdain did, but instead of food, it was fighters.” Grillo travels to places such as Mexico, Thailand and Senegal, locations chosen based on his familiarity with those country’s

various fighting disciplines such as Muay Thai, wrestling and boxing. “I know these things well, so I could go there and immediately embed myself,” he said. Grillo also visited Israel, where citizens are required to join the army since the country is surrounded by hostile nations. He asked the mayor of Jerusalem to define Israelis in one word. “He said ‘fight’ because that’s in their in their DNA, that’s in their blood.”

Grillo plays Brock Rumlow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. He hears lots of rumours about the next Captain America.

“I don’t know what will hap-

le Carre’s best-selling novel.

“You can really take your time and enjoy it and slowly introduce characters and conflicts.”

pen with Captain America. But wouldn’t it be great if Captain America was African-American?” Grillo remarked. “Or a woman?” Then he said: “Or an African-American woman?” He also hopes that instead of asking people of colour to portray traditional superheros, it might be better to create new, diverse characters.

“Superman was a white guy with black hair and who has a curl, right? Could Superman be Anthony Mackie? Yeah, sure. But I’d rather see Anthony Mackie do something else. Where are the new characters who represent certain people?”

Guess Who tapes donated to Winnipeg museum

Citizen news service

WINNIPEG — A trove of The Guess Who tapes recently saved from a Winnipeg garage are stoking speculation there might be unfinished songs from the legendary Canadian rock band that have never been heard before.

“There’s lots of boxes marked in the ’70s that say ‘Rehearsal tape: Guess Who’ that are of great interest to us,” says Tom Kowalsky, a longtime veteran of Winnipeg’s music scene who donated the approximately 100 tapes to a small museum in the city last week.

The dates on the labels run from 1971 up to 1996. They include masters recorded at studios in Winnipeg, videotapes of performances on public television in Iowa and live recordings of tour performances through the U.S. Midwest. There’s a Brave Belt tape, which was Randy Bachman’s band after he’d left The Guess Who, before he formed BachmanTurner Overdrive.

According to Kowalsky, they belonged to an employee of The Guess Who who got them from a band member, but ended up needing to store them in the garage of his sister and brother-in-law for a few months. A few months turned into more than 10 years, and Kowalsky says the relatives were about to throw them into the trash.

“I don’t understand the circumstances how he secured them from a band member, but of course, in the topsy-turvy rock ‘n’ roll world, we don’t all live in comfortable three-bedroom bungalows. Sometimes you gotta bug out, as it were, and move, and that’s what happened and things get lost.”

“Literally, the day before they were going to throw them into a Dumpster, they just couldn’t sleep over what they knew they were tossing away. But an abandonment order had been written up and there was no reply, and really they needed to get this huge plethora of stuff out of their garage.”

Luckily, they called Kowalsky, who picked them up and donated them to the St. Vital Museum, which has a collection of Winnipeg rock memorabilia.

The Guess Who, under the leadership of guitarist Bachman and vocalist Burton Cummings, was formed in Winnipeg and became Canada’s leading rock band of the late ’60s and early ’70s with such million-selling hits as These Eyes, Laughing and American Woman. Bachman split with the band in 1970 and the group broke up a few years after that, although several reconstituted versions would surface later. The original group reunited for an appearance at the closing ceremonies of the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, then followed up with highly-successful national tours. Kowalsky hasn’t heard or watched any of the tapes yet because they’re on a variety of obsolete formats and he doesn’t have the machines to play them.

AP PHOTO Alexander Skarsgard, left, and Michael Shannon star in the AMC series The Little Drummer Girl, based on John

Change of plan

Greek retirees moving to one of Europe’s poorest countries

Citizen news service

Greek pensioners have seen their payouts slashed so much, some of them are moving to one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Take George, 75, for example. After his wife died five years ago, he rented out his apartment in Thessaloniki, the country’s secondbiggest city, packed his bags and moved to Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, where he says his monthly 800euro pension – or US$905 – allows him to “live like a king.”

“Of course there are difficulties with adjusting and friends,” said George, who didn’t want to give his surname, fearing he’ll be pursued by Greek tax authorities. “But with the money I have, I can return to Greece often, and I also have the opportunity to travel.”

Greece, which is among retirement destinations for other Europeans, is finding its own citizens – like George – are now looking to live out their senior years in the country’s cheaper northern European Union neighbor after seeing their pensions cut at least 20 times during its protracted debt crisis.

They may be glad they made the move as pensioners again find themselves in the cross hairs of Greece’s potential clash with creditors, its first since exiting its bailout in August. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras risks creating the impression of backsliding on reforms as he tries to avoid implementing pension cuts that are scheduled to come into effect next year.

Greece’s budget, submitted to the European Commission on Oct. 15, includes a scenario without pension cuts agreed to and pre-legislated in 2017 after months of back and forth negotiations. The government believes the country can meet its target of a budget surplus before debt service of 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product without such cuts. A decision on the matter will be taken by the end of November, according to a European official.

In the meantime, Greek pensioners are making a rational choice by

moving to Bulgaria. In 2017, according to Eurostat data, Greece’s cost of living was almost double Bulgaria’s – the lowest in the EU. Although there is little data to show how widespread the phenomenon of Greek retirees heading north is, anecdotal evidence suggests it may be picking up. Gasoline costs 1.15 euros per liter in Sofia, compared with about 1.60 euros in Athens; a home Espresso coffee costs 2.30 euros while the same brand in Greece has a 4.70-euro price tag; a metro ticket costs 80 cents compared with 1.40 euros. Cell phone charges are half those in Greece.

“In general, life is 30 per cent cheaper than in Greece, and that’s if you choose to stay in Sofia, Burgas or Plovdiv,” said George. “In smaller towns or villages, life is even cheaper.” Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 and has grown at an average annual rate of 2.4 per cent since then. That year was the last that Greece’s economy grew before a sovereign debt crisis wiped out a quarter of its economic output, sent unemployment soaring and left the country at times teetering over the abyss of a euro-exit. Bulgaria, the ex-Communist nation of seven million people

The turkey is grandpa territory

Sara STILLMAN BERGER Special to The Citizen

The kitchen smells like warm orange peels and rosemary. Surrounded by the lanky bodies of greatgrandchildren, my grandfather’s slight, five-foot frame hunches over the turkey, a flowered apron tied around his waist to shield his sweater from grease splatters. “Who wants a taste?” he asks his adoring fans, as he spears a dripping piece of skin.

I marvel as my six-year-old daughter, a strict noodletarian, pops the glistening turkey in her mouth. As picky as she is, she knows the family secret: nothing tastes better than the first bite, straight from The Carver himself.

“How are you feeling, Poppa?” I ask him as I pinch some grease-drowned turkey left stranded in the cutting board’s shallow moat and pop it in my mouth. “I feel 95,” he answers with a grin, or maybe it’s a grimace. Considering he is, in fact, 95, there is no irony in his response. Yet even as his back aches, and his knees are bent from standing too long, he carves our family’s Thanksgiving turkey, just as he has for more than 70 years. His cuts are skilled and precise as he lovingly fans the meat onto the platter – dark meat to the right, white meat to the left.

I realize not every family is as lucky as we are to have such an experienced carver at the helm. In fact, I’m convinced turkey carving is a lost art, and Poppa is one of the last great masters. This revelation hit me last Thanksgiving: we had two large birds that needed carving. (Why two? Not because we had a big, growing family that needed to be fed. It is because Aunt Mindy and Aunt Heidi both think the other’s turkey is too dry, so they each make their own. Turns out they both needed copious amounts of gravy.) When my well-intended husband noticed Poppa’s fatigue as he started carving Turkey No. 2, he took over the knife – and proceeded to tenderly hack the beautiful bird to ugly pieces. Clearly, my 42-yearold husband wasn’t prepared for the task, because presentably slicing a 20-pound turkey isn’t anything like slicing bread, or even roast beef. It takes skill and practice. Even with an electric knife, which my Poppa sometimes uses for some extra muscle, carving takes skill and practice. If you don’t believe me, check one of the more than five million YouTube videos explaining how to do it correctly. And a quick Google search shows that pros from Alton Brown to Geoffrey Zakarian have an opinion on the right technique. (They both recommend removing the wishbone before cooking to make it easier to carve the breast meat. But Poppa has never done this, so I’m not sure I trust them.)

I decided that this holiday season, when Poppa starts to tire, the birds that were so carefully braised for hours (and hours, maybe too many hours? Is that why they are dry?) should not suffer in turn. I decided it was time for my Poppa to divulge his great secret of turkey carving so that generations of family to come can continue in The Carver’s plucky shadow. So I called him.

“Poppa?” I say when he answers. “It’s Sara.”

“Sara! It’s so nice to hear your voice!” he responds, as always.

“I have a random question for you,” I say, getting right to the point. Our conversations are always short and sweet. “You’ve been carving the Thanksgiving turkey ever since my mom was little – at least for 70 years

now. How’d you learn to do it, and what’s the trick?”

I guess I expected a bit of Yoda-like advice, such as “Decide you must how to serve them best,” or at least some detailed instructions. Instead I got something equally as ponderous, for the opposite reason: “You cut through the legs and the breast, and you always save the wing.” He responded as if there was nothing more. Nearly a century of experience, and that was it?

“Save the wing?” I repeated, baffled.

“Grandma always liked the fligl,” he clarifies, using the Yiddish word. My grandparents were married for 73 years, until my grandma passed away two years ago. Until the end, he was her devoted servant, climbing to the tops of trees to pick her the biggest, shiniest apple – both metaphorically and literally – until he couldn’t climb anymore.

“Yes, I know. But...” I said, trying to grasp at something that didn’t seem to be there.

“If I was in charge of carving the turkey, I could make sure she got her fligl,” he told me. “Well, it’s always nice talking to you! Thanks for calling.” And he hung up. I was left staring at my phone’s screen saver. All these years he had been carving the turkey just so he could be sure my grandma got the piece she wanted? It seemed astounding. Comical. Romantic.

Since I’ve had some time to chew on this revelation, I’m going to make sure that my husband will be properly prepared to be the relief carver this Christmas. I know Poppa will tie on the apron and carve the turkey like always. His slices will be beautiful.

The great-grandchildren will gather around taking first bites and giggling as they pull with greasy hands at the wishbone. And when Poppa’s knees finally give and my husband takes over the knife, he’ll make great ugly cuts.

“Save me the skin,” I’ll whisper to him, my stomach gurgling just thinking of my favorite part of the turkey. Because if I learned anything, it’s that tradition doesn’t lie in the precision of the slices. It’s in the love that’s put into carving them. And I’m lucky to be the carver’s wife.

remains the EU’s poorest member state. By July 2019 it hopes to join ERM-2, the waiting room for entering the euro area. It fulfills the formal criteria to become the euro region’s 20th member given its solid public finances, although inflation zoomed up to a five-year high of 3.6 per cent in September, which could complicate its path.

Still, those price rises aren’t enough to concern Nikos. The 71-year-old Greek national, who also didn’t want to give his surname, points to bread costing 60 euro-cents, restaurant meals rarely exceeding 10 euros and rent of 200 euros for a one-bedroom

apartment in a good neighborhood for why he’s living out his retirement in Bulgaria. Nikos has seen his pension slashed by 45 per cent during the crisis to 1,100 euros, and could see it cut further if Greece’s euro-area creditors compel Tsipras’s government to push ahead with more pension cuts.

“I still live very comfortably here despite the big drop as prices in all goods and services are much lower than Greece,” said Nikos. “I now rarely come to Athens. My son often visits, and he always finds and buys things that are more expensive in Greece.”

BLOOMBERG PHOTO

An elderly pedestrian passes an outdoor newspaper vendor in Athens, Greece, in May 2015.

FAMILY HANDOUT PHOTO

The author’s grandfather, Phillip Layne, makes his first cut into the holiday turkey.

Stock market uncertainty has older workers on edge

Citizen news service

The recent turbulence in the U.S. stock markets is spooking some older workers and retirees, a group that was hit particularly hard during the most recent financial crisis.

There’s no indication, though, that the recent volatility has brought about large-scale overhauls in retirement planning.

“There’s a lot of fear that if you have another event like 2008 and you retire the year before or the year after, you’re screwed. I’m not taking that risk,” says Mark Patterson, a recently retired patent attorney from Nashville, Tenn. “There’s a huge fear of folks my age that they’re going to run out of money and they’re going to need to rely on the government for help.”

By the time the market bottomed out during the financial crisis in 2009, an estimated $2.7 trillion had been wiped out of Americans’ retirement accounts, according to the Urban Institute. Older Americans, in particular, have had a tough time recovering their losses. The Pew Research Center estimates the net worth of the median Baby Boomer household in 2016 was still nearly 18 per cent shy of where it sat in 2007.

“discretionary spending” money invested in stocks and riskier assets. But he says he was reluctant to put too much money into a stock market that soared throughout 2017, a decision he says was driven in part by memories of the 2008 financial crisis.

“I can retire in 2018 and not be sweating bullets because I put together a budget and I protected it,” Patterson says. “The thing that the crash in 2008 taught me is that, even though my portfolio was well set up, that was a black swan type of event. Even if you had a balanced portfolio, everything went down.”

Memories of the recession continue to take a financial and psychological toll on many of those who were affected.

Indeed, memories of the recession continue to take a financial and psychological toll on many of those who were affected.

“There is no evidence that retirement wealth has improved in the last few years,” says Teresa Ghilarducci, a labour economist, professor and director of the Retirement Equity Lab at The New School. For workers 50 to 65, there are indications wealth has actually fallen, she said.

In the two years since Donald Trump’s election, 62 per cent of Americans – and 76 per cent of those 65 and over – don’t believe their financial situation has improved despite the run-up in the stock markets, according to a recent Bankrate survey. Nearly one in five respondents said their finances have actually gotten worse.

Paul Kelash, vice-president of consumer insights at Allianz Life Insurance Co., says the market fluctuations throughout 2018 look less like the prelude to a retirement savings crisis and more like a return to normalcy after a remarkably steady market run.

As such, he hasn’t seen much evidence of Americans drastically altering their retirement plans. “We get the feeling that folks are getting more comfortable with volatility,” he says.

Patterson, the recently retired patent attorney, gradually began stepping away from his law practice in 2016 – a decision he says was motivated in part by the stress of his job, his relatively stable finances and a “re-evaluation of priorities” after losing his wife of 35 years in 2013.

Now, 68, Patterson says he still has some

Ghilarducci notes that workers and their employers stopped or cut back on 401(k) and retirement account contributions immediately after the financial crisis. Many also opted to “de-leverage” and pay down debt as the recovery got underway, she says, which tied up money that otherwise would have been saved or invested.

“They had other things to do with their money, even if they didn’t lose their job,” she says. “Saving is sort of a luxury good. It’s what you can do when you can pay for everything else.”

And with a limited number of working years ahead of them – and, in some cases, their peak earning years largely behind them – many older Americans haven’t managed to replenish their depleted retirement and savings accounts.

Mark Hamrick, the Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst at Bankrate, notes that the Federal Reserve’s ongoing efforts to boost interest rates benefit savers with money in the bank but also make it more difficult for those with debt to pay back what they owe. The “rising economic tide” has been a boon for many, he says, “but it doesn’t lift all boats.”

He believes there’s a tendency to “overgeneralize” Americans’ retirement situations and their day-to-day reactions to the economy.

Established

Gross Revenues

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Established Franchise Tax Preparation BusinessMackenzieservicing and McLeod Lake area for over 30 years.

Gross Revenues of $85,000 to $90,000 Annually and Potential to expand revenues in a

LARRY PETER NORBECK

January 24, 1945 - November 16, 2018

With broken hearts we sadly announce the sudden passing of Larry Norbeck. Larry will be dearly missed and remembered by his loving wife and best friend, Joan, daughter Dana (Andy), treasured grandsons, Koewen, Brendyn and Tyrell (Robbin). He was predeceased by his beloved daughter, Leslie in 1986, his parents, Peter and Roberta Norbeck, his mother-in-law, Kathy Melville, father-in-law, Ken Melville Sr. and brotherin-law, Ken Melville. Larry was an avid outdoorsman and competitive shooter. He was a longtime member of the Rod and Gun Club and enjoyed many days hunting and fishing with friends. He treasured many happy days at the Cluculz Lake cabin with his grandsons, swimming, fishing, picking berries, hunting for agates and reading special bedtime stories. Larry worked many years in the oil industry, involved with service stations, driving fuel trucks and running very successful bulk oil agencies for ESSO and Shell Oil. Larry’s main focus was his family, providing for them and always trying to do what was best for them. His children always came first, as did his grandsons.

A Celebration of Larry’s Life will be held Saturday, November 16, 2018 at 11:00am at Esther’s Inn/Super 8 Hotel. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to a charity of your choice.

-He Was a Good Man-

SENIOROFFICEADMINISTRATOR

Joinourteam!Thesuccessfulcandidatewillhavea minimumof5yearsofficeandfullcyclebookkeeping experience,andbeabletopassawrittenand practicaltest.NDTofficeexperienceanasset.Email orcalltorequestadetailedjobdescription. Call:236-423-0447Email:office@horizontesting.ca

WDCSNORTH

JOBDEVELOPER/FACILITATOR

Thesuccessfulcandidatewillberesponsiblefor workingcloselywithourVocRehabteamtoassist injuredanddisabledworkers;directlylinkingthemto sustainableemploymentinvariousoccupations,and toconductJobSearchskillsworkshopsasneeded. Acompletejobdescriptioncanbefoundonour website: www.workforcedevelopmentconsulting.ca

DISTRICTOFMACKENZIE LIFEGUARDINSTRUCTOR (FULL-TIME)

TheDistrictofMackenzieiscurrentlyaccepting applicationsforqualifiedFull-timeLifeguard Instructorstojoinouraquaticsteam.Thesepositions areresponsibleforensuringthesafetyand enjoymentofouraquaticcustomers.

LocatedinthescenicNorthernRockyMountains Trench185kmnorthofPrinceGeorge,Mackenzie offerssuperbfourseasonoutdoorrecreation opportunitiesandanexceptionalqualityoflife. Housingcostsareamongthemostaffordableinthe province.Residentsareinvolvedincommunitylife withnumerousserviceorganizations,community clubsandgroupscateringtoavarietyofinterest.The localRecreationCentrewitharena,swimmingpool, fitnesscentre,communityhallandlibraryisviewed asthehubofthecommunity.Alltheseamenities withthesafetyaffordedbysmalltownlivingmakes Mackenzieidealforyoungworkingfamilies.

SuccessfulcandidatesmustholdacurrentNational LifeguardService(NLS)(PoolOption)certificate,be acertifiedRedCrossWaterSafetyInstructor,and haveStandardFirstAid/CPR-C-AED.

Thesuccessfulcandidatesmustbeabletointeract withthepublicinaprofessional,tactfulandpositive manner.Thispositionwillappealtoindividualswho areavailabletoworkeveningsandweekends.The successfulapplicantswillbesubjecttoaPolice InformationCheck.

ThisisaunionizedpositionwithintheCUPE3706 BargainingUnit,offeringanhourlywageof$24.49to $27.27dependingonlevelsofcertification.

Ifyoufeelyouarequalifiedforthispositionyouare invitedtosubmityourresumewithacoverletter indicatingFull-timeLifeguardInstructorCompetition. Pleaseprovidedetailsconcerningworkexperience, education,qualificationsandemploymentreferences to: DistrictofMackenzie Bag340-1MackenzieBlvd. Mackenzie,BC,V0J2C0

Attn:DianeSmith,DirectorofCorporateServices Email:diane@districtofmackenzie.ca

TheDistrictthanksallinterestedapplicantsin advance,howeveronlythoseshort-listedwillbe contacted.

R.RADLOFF&ASSOCIATESINC. ADMINISTRATIVEASSISTANT/RECEPTIONIST

R.Radloff&Associatesisacivilengineeringfirm thatrequiresafulltimeAdministrativeAssistant/ Receptionist.Thisteammembermustbedetailed orientedandhavegreatpeopleskills.Oursmall,fastpacedofficehasbeenoperatinginNorthernBCfor over25years.Offeringverycompetitivesalaryand benefitspackages,wearelookingforindependent, hard-workingindividualstojoinourteam.

Qualifications:

-Effectiveandclearcommunicationskillsinboth verbalandwrittenEnglish -Highcustomerserviceorientation&professional phonemanner -Detailedoriented&maintainahighlevelof accuracy -Relationalskills:Abletocommunicateeffectively andprofessionally;abletodevelopandsustain workingrelationshipswithstaffatalllevels;selfmotivated,professional,andflexible -OrganizationalSkills:Abletoallocateone’stime effectively,workunderpressure,andmanagetight deadlines.

-Multi-taskingSkills:Abletohandlemultiple demandsandcompetingpriorities;adapttonew ideasandconstantchange;abletocopewith changingclientneedsanddeliversuccessfulresults withinagreedupontimeframes -HighlyskilledWordProcessingskills&afamiliarity withsoftwaresuchasWord,AdobePDF,Outlook Duties: -Managingawidevarietyofsmallbutessentialfront desktasks -Editing,printing,andbindingdocuments(letters, reports,etc..)inatimelymannerwithahigh-degree ofaccuracy

-Handlingcustomerqueries&multiplephonelines -Workingwithinateamenvironmenttocomplete assignedprojects -MaintainingtheestablishedRecordsManagement System -Otherassignedprojectsandadministrativeduties Requirements: -2+yearsofofficeadministrationexperience -Previouscustomerserviceexperience -Abackgroundinengineering/scienceswouldbe beneficial

Ifyouareself-motivatedandhavestrong communicationandorganizationalskillswe encourageyoutoapply.Interestedcandidatesare invitedtosubmitadetailedresumeandcoverletter onorbeforeNovember24th,2018.

Attn:JaneRadloffjradloff@radloffeng.com 250-562-6861radloffeng.com

No strike settlement imminent despite Canada Post offer

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government signalled Monday it was willing to give Canada Post a couple more days to settle a labour dispute with its employees despite pressure from business to end rotating strikes that have caused a month-long backlog of undelivered parcels and mail.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also gave clear indications that if the Liberals introduced back-to-work legislation to force an end to the dispute, they would be in for a rough ride.

As Canada Post emerged from a weekend stalemate with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers over its latest contract offers, the Crown corporation issued another proposal: it would agree to mediation with the union, but only if its striking workers ended their walkouts during a so-called “cooling-off” period.

It also called for binding arbitration if no settlement was reached by the end of January.

Within minutes of CUPW rejecting that proposal, federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu renewed her call for the two sides to continue bargaining – but did not respond directly to reporters’ questions about back-to-work legislation.

“We’ve encouraged (both sides) to work together, we’ve appointed special mediators,” Hajdu said on her way into the House of Commons.

“They are not open to voluntary arbitration, so we’re reviewing the evidence right now and we’ll have more to say in the days to come.”

Soon afterward, Canada Post said it had amended its proposal for a coolingoff period and dropped the notion of binding arbitration.

In the end, however, the union rejected the amended offer.

The strikes have created a huge backlog of undelivered mail and parcels, much of it stranded in hundreds of trailers at sorting centres across the country, prompting some businesses to issue pleas for a resolution.

The Retail Council of Canada urged Ottawa to “bring an immediate end”

With the rotating strikes, resulting backlogs, and the massive Black Friday and Cyber Monday volumes that will arrive within days, we are trying everything we can to work together with the union – urgently – to deliver the holidays to Canadians.

— Jessica McDonald, Canada Post interim CEO

to the rotating strikes through back-towork legislation.

But Singh said such a move would undermine workers’ rights and his party would not support it.

“(The strike is) concerning, but that’s exactly why workers have the right to (strike),” he said. “That’s why we need to see the employer get back to the table with an employee and work out an agreement.”

In an earlier statement, CUPW national president Mike Palecek said the union wasn’t holding rotating strikes to harm the public. But he said he would not ask his members to return to work under conditions that effectively have some employees working without compensation.

“The proposal asks our members to go back to work at the heaviest and most stressful time of year, under the same conditions that produce the highest injury rate in the federal sector,” he said in a statement. “It asks women to continue to do work for free. How can we do that?”

Canada Post proposed the cooling-off period as pressure mounted to resolve the labour dispute ahead of the busy Christmas delivery season.

The Crown corporation wanted CUPW members to put down their picket signs, and offered a special payment of up to $1,000 for each member if there was no labour disruption while mediated talks were on.

“With the rotating strikes, resulting backlogs, and the massive Black Friday and Cyber Monday volumes that will arrive within days, we are trying everything we can to work together with the union – urgently – to deliver the holidays to Canadians,” Jessica McDonald, chair of the board of directors and interim president and CEO of Canada Post, said in the statement.

“This proposal also includes a way for the parties to resolve their differences and these negotiations.”

Canada Post said it would start talks “with a jointly agreed, governmentappointed mediator,” while reinstating both its collective agreements with CUPW during the cooling-off period. If an agreement was not reached by Jan. 31, the corporation said a mediator would provide recommendations for settlement. If the sides didn’t agree, it said binding arbitration would follow.

But a Canada Post spokesman said McDonald dropped the binding-arbitration element from the proposal in an email sent to Palecek Monday afternoon.

The Canada Post proposal came as its workers continued rotating strikes Monday after rejecting the Crown agency’s latest offer and also requested the government to appoint a mediator to help end the dispute.

The union had let pass a time-sensitive proposal from Canada Post meant to stop the strikes, which affect about 42,000 urban employees and 8,000 rural and suburban carriers.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a last-minute plea to the two sides to resolve their differences, just hours before a midnight deadline on the Crown corporation’s latest offers expired.

Elections BC, meantime, said it was assessing the potential impact the strikes could have on British Columbia’s electoral-reform referendum.

Ride sharing coming to province

Citizen news service

VICTORIA — Ride-hailing companies could begin operations in British Columbia by next fall under legislation introduced Monday. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena says the government’s bill strikes a balance between meeting consumer demand and protecting public safety. Among other things, the bill would give the Passenger Transportation Board the power to accept applications and set terms and conditions for licences covering taxis and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. It would also set rates and determine the number and coverage areas of the services. The legislation

would see the creation of a legislative committee to review and make changes to the system as well.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver says the NDP’s bill is a step forward, but he questions why the government has chosen to require driver training and class four licences rather than class five, which he says have been used successfully in Quebec.

Trevena says the experience of other jurisdictions has been used to develop British Columbia’s legislation, which is aimed at preventing gridlock, maintaining ridership on public transit, and reducing accidents caused by unsafe or inexperienced drivers. Vancouver is one of the few major

OTTAWA (CP) —

cities in Canada that does not permit ride-hailing. The New Democrats, Liberals and Greens promised to bringing in ride-hailing during the 2017 provincial election campaign.

An all-party committee of the legislature made 32 recommendations last February to help pave the way for ridehailing.

The report highlighted five key areas that needed to be considered when establishing regulations for the industry including pricing, insurance, licensing, and public safety. The committee also recommended updating legislation that regulates the taxi industry to “allow for equitable and fair competition.”

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index fared better than American markets Monday even though all felt the brunt of brunt of technology sector weakness.

After generating a 30 per cent return last year, the U.S. tech sector is up just 5.5 per cent year-todate with the S&P 500 having lost more than 13 per cent from its early October peak. Monday’s downturn in tech stocks wasn’t driven by any new news but an extension of existing undercurrents, says Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. “Expectations have grown so high,” he said. “And to the extent that the numbers have come in good but perhaps not living up to those lofty expectations, we’re seeing that entire sector kind of come under a bit of a re-rating from the market at the moment.”

Apple Inc.’s shares slid another four per cent on a Wall Street Journal report that iPhone sales won’t be as strong as originally expected, while other FAANG names also lost ground with Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google all closing lower by 3.9 to 5.7 per cent. Facebook fell amid reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg for the handling of scandals facing the company.

In Canada, the tech sector was the worst performer on the day after health care, falling on an 11.3 per cent drop by Shopify Inc, and lower values other tech names such as Blackberry Inc. and CGI Inc. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 84.49 points to 15,071.01, after hitting of low of 15,040.53.

The industrials sector led on a rebound of almost 24 per cent in Bombardier shares, followed by telecommunications.

Terry PEDWELL Citizen news service

CP FILE PHOTO

Striking Canada Post workers stay warm around the fire as they walk the picket line in front of the Saint-Laurent sorting facility in Montreal on Nov. 15. Rotating postal strikes has caused a backlog of deliveries.

Tijuana residents protest migrant caravan arrival

Julie WATSON, Mark STEVENSON Citizen news service

TIJUANA, Mexico — Many Central American migrants camped in Tijuana after crossing Mexico in a caravan said Monday that a protest over the weekend by residents demanding they leave frightened them and left them even more anxious while they try to get into the United States.

The angry protests have been fed by concerns raised by U.S. President Donald Trump’s month-long warnings that criminals and gang members are in the group and even terrorists, though there is no evidence of that.

About 500 people demonstrated in an affluent section of Tijuana on Sunday against the caravan. Dozens of protesters then marched to an outdoor sports complex near downtown where 2,500 migrants are staying, sleeping on dirt fields and under bleachers after arriving at the border city a week ago.

Dulce Alvarado, 28, from Lempira, Honduras, said she was stepping out of a corner grocery near the stadium carrying her twoyear-old son when she was surrounded by the demonstrators chanting “Get out!” and “We don’t want you here!”

“I was very scared,” Alvarado said. A Tijuana police officer saw them in the

crowd and helped them get out and behind police tape marking off the block where the sports complex is located. The protest eventually ended peacefully.

Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road – and with many more months likely ahead of them while they seek asylum in the U.S. The federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000.

U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by the migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived.

For most of this city of 1.6 million, the arrival of thousands of Central Americans is not noticeable. Most migrants stay within a three-block radius of the sports complex that faces the towering metal walls topped with barbed wire at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But many residents fear with the passage of time their presence will take its toll and crime could go up. Since 2016, thousands of Haitians who also tried to get to the U.S. ended up settling here, while at the same time, Tijuana has taken in thousands of Mexicans deported from the United States.

Tijuana also has been struggling with

drug violence and some say they do not want the caravan bringing more problems.

Sandra Lucia Montanez, 28, a Tijuana psychologist, said news reports last month of Central Americans storming Mexico’s southern border fed the fears. But, she said, it’s important that Tijuana not forget it is a city of migrants.

“Almost no one here is from Tijuana,” Montanez said. “We have to help the neediest ones. They come from countries with a lot of poverty. Honduras is worse off than Mexico.”

The United States has dramatically increased border security in preparation for the caravan’s arrival, closing lanes at ports of entry to place cement barriers topped with razor wire that can be quickly moved to block passage should there be a mass number who try to force their way into the country.

But the lane closures have also made it harder for cross-border residents to go back and forth into the U.S. to work and shop.

The San Ysidro port of entry is one of the world’s busiest border crossings, with more than 40,000 vehicles and 34,000 pedestrians using it daily.

On Monday, U.S. authorities closed off northbound traffic for several hours and closed a pedestrian lane at the crossing to install new security barriers, after a tip that people were gathering in Tijuana to rush

the border checkpoints.

“Waiting until a large group of persons mass at the border to attempt an illegal crossing is too late for us,” said Pete Flores, director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in San Diego.

Some of the demonstrators at Sunday’s protest complained that some migrants have been aggressive, yelling insults at U.S. Border Patrol agents and climbing walls and getting into fights at Tijuana’s Pacific beach.

But Tijuana police officer Victor Coronel, who has overseen security outside the sports complex where the migrants are staying, said those fears are based on the bad behaviour of only a handful of migrants.

“The problem is that there has been bad information circulating on social media, with videos of two or three migrants acting badly, climbing the wall or grabbing food in stores,” said Coronel, adding that most are poor people simply trying to find work.

Coronel said he hopes as time passes, many will opt to go home or find jobs in Mexico and integrate into society.

Lesbia Navarro, 36, stayed inside the stadium with her four children ages three to 16 as they listened to the shouts and insults from the protesters Sunday.

“We only want to be here awhile, until we can get into the United States to work,” said Navarro, of Choloma, Honduras. “We don’t want to cause anybody problems.”