Prince George Citizen November 6, 2018

Queensway to be closed at Patricia

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

Queensway Street will be closed at Patricia Boulevard starting Wednesday to allow the city to install a new sewer line.

The city hopes to have the stretch reopened by the beginning of December, said engineering director Adam Homes.

“We’re going to be working six days a week and 12-hour days to get this opened as quickly as possible,” he said.

He said the pipe will be placed seven metres underground.

And because it’s in the city’s floodplain, now is the best time of year to do the work, when the groundwater is at its lowest, Homes said.

The work is needed because the existing system, which serves the downtown and the industrial area to the east of Queensway, is at capacity. The upgrade is also part of the larger project to improve aging infrastructure in the vicinity of city hall that is at capacity, in poor condition, or at high risk of failure. The work will allow for more housing and commercial development downtown, the city said.

The new system is about one kilometre long and will extend from the intersection at Seventh Avenue and Dominion Street, past city hall, to Patricia Boulevard, across Queensway, and along the base of the Patricia Boulevard escarpment to a lift station at Fourth Avenue and London Street.

From there, the new sewer line will join the existing system that connects to the wastewater treatment plant on Lansdowne Road more than five kilometres away. Alternate routes to the downtown from the south are available along Victoria and Winnipeg Streets.

“We’re extremely grateful for residents’ understanding during this project and we would also like to remind motorists to follow traffic signs and to drive cautiously in the area of road closures and detours,”

B.C. Corrections officers didn’t stop as inmate dies in back of van

Kim BOLAN Vancouver Sun

For more than an hour as they drove down Highway 97 in the back of a B.C. Corrections van on Oct. 4, inmates pounded on the walls and shouted for help. They were worried that fellow passenger Alex Joseph was dying of a drug overdose, after watching him slump to the floor, at first snoring heavily, but later turning blue. The jail guards driving the van from Prince George to Maple Ridge stopped for coffee in Williams Lake, but didn’t respond to their shouts, three of the inmates who were also in the van told Postmedia this week.

When the van finally pulled over, north of 100 Mile House, Joseph, 36, was unresponsive. A passerby stopped and performed CPR, but he was dead.

His brother, Joseph Antoine, said Friday that he has a lot of questions about how his brother ended up dead while in the care of B.C. Corrections.

“For sure, it is upsetting,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense. I would like to know why and how this happened.” Gordon Hansen, in custody on fraud charges, was in the same compartment as Joseph – each handcuffed and shackled –when the other inmate appeared to pass out after snorting something.

“We go around a corner and he can’t brace himself, so he slides off the seat onto me and then falls onto the floor,” Hansen said in a phone interview from Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.

before Williams Lake. Maybe for half an hour, we were like screaming at the top of our lungs: ‘This guy is in overdose. Pull over, man.’”

Cosh thinks the officers just assumed they were misbehaving, “Which is understandable. I get it.”

But he thinks they should have noticed on their cameras that Joseph was in distress.

“For anyone to be treated the way that guy was treated is inhumane,” said Cosh, who has struggled with addiction himself and is serving a sentence for theft under $5,000.

In a statement, B.C. Corrections official Cindy Rose said “any in-custody death is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the family and friends of this individual.”

She also said her agency is conducting “a formal review of the circumstances to make recommendations that may reduce the likelihood of a similar incident in the future.”

“Staff in the cab of vehicles can monitor inmates via cameras mounted in the passenger compartment, supplemented by a two-way communications system,” the statement said.

Hansen thinks the van was about 50 kilometres south of Williams Lake when it finally stopped.

“When they got me out, there was already an RCMP (officer) there, lights flashing,” he said.

Hansen said paramedics did not arrive for a long time – he thinks 40 minutes to an

“I took his leg up, slapping him, trying to get him up, but he’s snoring, so I know he is alive.” Joseph later stopped snoring and his hand was blue. Hansen checked his breathing. He thought the officers in the cab would see Joseph on cameras they monitor. But the van passed through Quesnel and continued on to Williams Lake without anyone checking on Joseph.

hour. Joseph was dead, but still in shackles and handcuffs.

Keghan Cosh was in the next compartment, but was able to see Joseph collapse onto the floor.

“Just before Williams Lake, I could see that his hand was just blue. He was going under. He was done. He needed a naloxone shot and he would have been fine,” Cosh said in an interview from Fraser Regional. “We were banging (on the van walls) at this time, maybe 10 or 20 minutes

The government did not respond to specific questions about what the inmates said happened before Joseph died.

The inmates also said they were being moved because of staffing shortages at the Prince George jail.

Rose said only that inmates are transported between provincial jails “on an as-needed basis.”

Andy Watson, of the B.C. Coroners Service, said an investigation is underway to determine “the official cause of death and any contributory factors.”

— see ‘AT THE TOP, page 3

Homes said. It includes replacing 60-year-old watermain made of cast iron and rated as “very high risk” for failure. Crews also removed remnants of an old

wooden pipe used to distribute water many years ago. The intersections at Sixth and George and at Seventh and Dominion will reopen in about a month, according to city hall.

The installation of a new sanitary sewer line along Lower Patricia Boulevard will require Queensway to be closed at the intersection with Patricia for several weeks.

HANDOUT PHOTO

Alex Joseph died in the back of a jail van despite efforts by the other prisoners to alert the van’s driver and guard that the man was in distress.

Small Town boy

Studio Fair turns 50

Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca

As Studio Fair came to a close for another year, there was still hundreds of people wandering through the aisles late Sunday afternoon where more than 100 artisans had their wares showcased for sale.

The three-day event saw thousands crossing the Civic Centre threshold to find those treasured items for themselves or as gifts for their loved ones.

Studio Fair is the only juried art fair in northern B.C. and the quality of items reflected that.

“Numbers at Studio Fair have been fantastic,” Lisa Redpath, program manager at the Prince George and District Community Arts Council (CAC) which hosts the event, said.

“Every year the gate numbers keep going up. It just really shows you how much support Prince George has for the arts and our organization. We are in our 50th anniversary year so to have this happen once again – record breaking numbers – is just the cherry on top and we’re absolutely thrilled.”

This is a major fundraiser for the CAC and the money goes to the programs offered.

“It allows us to do what we do in the community and we all work together to build that vibrant arts and culture community,” she said.

One of the many new vendors at the fair this year included Dan Spratling and Wally Mitchell who are the creators of The Lemon Square from Vancouver. They make and sell lemon squares made with the entire lemon, including the zest to make them extra lemony and coconut that sits upon a graham cracker crust.

Spratling and Mitchell are on the craft show circuit and decided to add a stop in Prince

George this year.

“We’re coming back next year,” Mitchell said.

“Everyone is so friendly and nice.”

“We’re excited to be here,” Spratling chimed in as yet another customer approached the booth.

Mitchell said they saw other vendors that are on the circuit with them.

“It’s kind of like a community unto itself,” Mitchell explained. “And it’s always nice to come into a new market and meet new people. The organizers have been phenomenal and the fair is run like a well-oiled machine.”

MelonHead KnitWear from Vancouver was one of the many repeat vendors found at Studio Fair. It’s the eighth appearance for Carmen Craig-Martin, who hand dyes and hand spins wool to make her many creations, which are predominantly hats, with a few other items thrown in the mix.

Craig-Martin talked about seeing clients visit her eight years ago while they were expecting and making the purchase of a hat for their precious newborn-to-be. She sees them revisit every year to get another hat and this year people are bringing their eight-year-olds, and those families will continue to share bits and pieces of their lives with Craig-Martin as they pick their next woolen creation.

There’s lots of ‘see you next years’ in CraigMartin’s world as customer after customer returns year after year.

“Sunday afternoon at a craft show is craft madness,” Craig-Martin laughed.

“There’s something about this craft fair and something about Prince George. I do a lot of craft shows in a lot of towns but this one has the most loyal customer base. People wait all year to buy something from me and I don’t have that at a lot of other shows that I do, so that’s what makes this one so special. I feel like it’s family.”

Court docket

From Prince George provincial court, Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, 2018:

• Teresa Marie Charlie (born 1992) was sentenced to 45 days in jail and assessed $300 in victim surcharges for theft $5,000 or under, possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Charlie was in custody for 55 days prior to sentencing.

• Joseph Bennedict Morin (born 1983) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for assault. Morin was in custody for 91 days prior to sentencing.

• Matthew Darrel Raymond Paquette (born 1988) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. Paquette was in custody for 84 days prior to sentencing.

• Deryl Wayne Moore (born 1966) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for possession of stolen property under $5,000.

• Christie Rose Gause (born 1989) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for theft $5,000 or under and uttering threats.

• Anthony Russell Smith (born 1970) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Smith was in custody for one day following his arrest.

• Benjamin Edward Cardinal (born 1983) was sentenced to 30 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for mischief. Cardinal was in custody for 23 days prior to sentencing.

• Phillip Thompson Cooper (born 1966) was sentenced to 22 days in jail and assessed a $200 victim surcharge for wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and assessed a $200 victim surcharge for possessing or using a stolen credit card. Cooper was in custody for 51 days prior to sentencing.

• Robert Jason Louis Hall (born 1982) was prohibited from driving for two years and fined $2,000 plus $300 in victim surcharges for two counts of driving while prohibited under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Prince George and Gitwangak.

• Jordanna Nicole Lane (born 1987) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.

• William Gerald McBride (born 1979) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. McBride was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.

• Kevin James Monk (born 1980) was

assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.

Monk was in custody for 28 days prior to sentencing.

• Robin Alvin Prince (born 1961) was assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.

Prince was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.

• Lyla Amanda Emma Sam (born 1987) was sentenced to time served and one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for assault with intent to resist arrest and theft $5,000 or under. Sam was in custody for 37 days prior to sentencing.

• Kenneth Melvin Seymour (born 1991) was sentenced to 40 days in jail and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and breaching probation. Seymour was in custody for 35 days prior to sentencing.

• Adam John Stayko (born 1993) was sentenced to seven days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for possessing or using stolen credit card, both committed in Fort St. John. Stayko was in custody for 46 days prior to sentencing.

• Brandon Leonard Ricky Keehn (born 1998) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage.

• Clinton Gabriel Martin Lucas (born 1981) was sentenced to 47 days in jail for assault with a weapon and to 30 days in jail for breaching probation and to one year probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges on the counts. Lucas was in custody for 29 days prior to sentencing.

• Chad Murphy Peter George (born 1997) was sentenced to 54 days in jail for assault and to 20 days for causing a disturbance as well as to one year probation on the counts. George was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.

• Bruce Cassidy Nelson (born 1993) was sentenced to 54 days in jail for theft $5,000 or under and to one year probation on the count as well as willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. Nelson was also assessed $400 in victim surcharges on the counts as well as one count each of failing to comply with an order or obligation and breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Nelson was in custody for 18 days prior to sentencing.

• Charles Karloy Santa (born 1991) was sentenced to nine days in jail for possession of a controlled substance and willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. Santa was in custody for three days prior to sentencing.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

John Mellencamp performed in front of roughly 3,600 fans at CN Centre on Sunday, during the Prince George stop of the Sad Clowns and Hillbillies tour.

Inquest postponed into death of RCMP officer connected to Dziekanski case

LUYMES Vancouver Sun

Glenda

The coroner’s service has postponed an inquest into the suicide of the RCMP officer who was in charge of media relations when Robert Dziekanski was fatally stunned with a Taser at the Vancouver airport.

Pierre Lemaitre, who was stationed in Prince George in the 1990s, was 55 years old and a sergeant with the Mounties when he died at his home in Abbotsford in July 2013.

A coroner’s inquest was scheduled to begin Nov. 19. It has been postponed to Nov. 26 due to scheduling conflicts, the B.C. Coroners Service said in a news release.

When Dziekanski was shot with a Taser in October 2007, Lemaitre was posted to the RCMP’s traffic services division, but was the officer in charge of RCMP media relations.

His initial accounts described Dziekanski as being distraught and behaving irrationally, adding that RCMP officers used two bursts of the Taser to immobilize him. Video later surfaced that appeared to contradict those accounts. An inquiry into Dziekanski’s death was also told that Lemaitre had watched portions of the video before issuing the first news release about the incident.

Lemaitre’s death was investigated by the coroner, and “after reviewing the information from the coroner’s investigation, the chief coroner directed this

inquest to review the circumstances of Lemaitre’s death, and to explore whether there are opportunities for a jury to

make recommendations that may prevent deaths in similar circumstances,” said the news release.

Lemaitre was a 28-year veteran of the RCMP. In 2015, his widow launched a lawsuit against the RCMP, saying he was driven to commit suicide as a result of the negligence of other RCMP officers and harassment on the job.

According to the lawsuit, Lemaitre became aware that some of the information he had released to the media was incorrect. When he requested permission from his superiors to correct the misinformation, he was ordered not to and then removed as media representative on the case.

“After his posting to Langley in early 2008, he was shunned and isolated by his fellow members and constantly and repeatedly identified with the criticism levelled at the RCMP generally for their conduct in the YVR incident.”

Lemaitre was also brought into public contempt, according to the lawsuit, as he was accused of being the “RCMP liar” and/or the “RCMP spin doctor.”

The veteran police officer became depressed, furious, reluctant to engage socially and told his wife he had “a rage in his brain that he could not stop and he could not control and didn’t know why,” said the lawsuit.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court.

— With files from Postmedia and The Canadian Press

Drivers urged to watch for pedestrians

Citizen staff

Both drivers and pedestrians are encouraged to be extra cautious as daylight hours decrease and the weather worsens.

Almost double the number of pedestrians are injured in crashes from October to January and are particularly high between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on workdays when most people are commuting home from work and school, according to a statement by the Insurance Corporation

of British Columbia.

“Please focus on the road and leave your phone alone,” said Lindsay Matthews, ICBC’s interim vice-president responsible for road safety. “It’s time we all do our part to create a safer driving culture in B.C.”

Drivers should also be ready to yield to pedestrians, especially when turning at intersections and near transit stops. Remember, if a vehicle is stopped in front of you or in the lane next to you, they may be yielding for a pedestrian.

Walkers, meanwhile, should never jaywalk and always be careful at intersections. Watch for drivers turning left or right through the crosswalk and remove your headphones and take a break from your phone while crossing the road. It also helps to make eye contact with drivers, as it’s hard to see pedestrians when visibility is poor in fall and winter. Never assume that a driver has seen you. And be as reflective as possible to make it easier for drivers to see you in wet weather, at dusk and at night.

Unemployment rate 4.8 per cent in October

NEWS IN BRIEF

One suffers from smoke inhalation in house fire

Prince George Fire Rescue crews from three halls responded Friday about 11 p.m. to a house fire on Shady Lane. Upon arrival crews discovered light smoke coming from the front door and roof of the occupied single family home and one of the occupants suffered smoke inhalation. Crews quickly extinguished the fire. There was moderate damage done to the structure. There is no damage estimate available at this time. The fire remains under investigation.

— Citizen staff

Suspect sought in stabbing

Police are on the lookout for a suspect following an apparent stabbing on Monday morning. Called at 9:25 a.m. to a 1500-block Strathcona Avenue home in the VLA, police and paramedics found a man suffering from what appeared to be a stab wound. The suspect fled the scene before police were called. The victim was transported to hospital. “Police believe this incident was targeted and that the general public is not at risk,” RCMP said. “The investigation is continuing.”

A description of the suspect was not immediately provided. — Citizen staff

Green-lit Mr. PG to mark adoption awareness

Mr. PG will be among the landmarks across B.C. to “go green” to raise awareness for adoption. It will be lighted with the hue during Nov. 9-16 as part of Adoption Awareness Month to illuminate the message that adoptive families make great families, according to the Adoptive Families Association of B.C.

Nearly 1,400 kids have been adopted from government care in the past five years, but there is still an ongoing need for more adoptive families – particularly, Indigenous families and families willing to take on larger sibling groups, teens, or children with significant special needs, according to the AFABC.

“Adoption is one important way we can connect young people with the care and support that loving adults are eager to provide,” said Children and Family Development Minister Katrine Conroy. — Citizen staff

but 2,000 more people were holding down jobs at the time. As of October this year, 47,500 people were working

— from page 1

Joseph was a member of the Beaver clan in the Nak’azdli Nation, near Fort St. James. He had battled addiction for years and been in and out of jail. At the time of his death, he was in pretrial custody on a number of charges, including assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats.

while 2,400 were looking for work, 22,900 of working age were not participating, and the employment rate was 65.2 per cent. Last year, 49,500 were working, 2,700 were seeking jobs and 20,300 were not participating and the employment rate was 68.3 per cent. In September this year, the unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent, 49,000 were working, 2,500 were seeking employ-

Joseph’s family said he told them he was determined to go to treatment once he was out.

Inmate Josh Suvee-Forsythe said this week that he is still rattled by what he witnessed on Oct. 4.

He was beside Cosh in the B.C. Corrections van when he saw Joseph crumple to the ground.

“We knew something was wrong right there,” said Suvee-Forsythe, who is also in Fraser Regional serving a 665-day sentence for robbery. “We were doing

ment, 21,300 were not participating and the employment rate was 67.4 per cent.

The numbers are based on a threemonth rolling average and the accuracy of the unemployment rate estimated for October was plus-or-minus 0.8 percentage points, 68 per cent of the time. The accuracy of the rate for October 2017 was 0.8 percentage points and for September 2018, it was 0.7 percentage points.

everything we could to get the guards to respond. We covered the cameras. They just slammed on the brakes to make us fall down.”

Suvee-Forsythe said Joseph’s death was preventable and he wants his family to know they really tried to save his life.

“At the top of our lungs we were just screaming,” he said. “Looking at his skin – his hands were purple. His face was purple. He wasn’t moving.”

LEMAITRE

Gonna die in this small town

For the Prince George residents wondering what this midterm election nonsense tonight in the United States is about (and why it’s interrupting all of the regular network shows with wall-to-wall live news coverage), there was a taste of it Sunday night at CN Centre when John Mellencamp took the stage.

The pride of Bloomington, Ind., Mellencamp must feel right at home when he comes to Prince George. Prince George isn’t much smaller than Bloomington and both cities are surrounded by rural towns. Most of the citizens of Monroe Country live in Bloomington, just like most of the residents of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George live in Prince George.

Bloomington, just an hour south of Indianapolis and its two-plus million residents, is an outlier in south-central Indiana. The vast majority of the state, which is home to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, are solid Republicans, but not Bloomington.

U.S. President Donald Trump carried Indiana by more than 20 percentage points over Hillary Clinton in 2016, but the numbers were reversed in Bloomington.

The only other place in Indiana that consistently votes Democrat is in Gary, in the far northwest corner of the state, but that’s because Gary is actually part of greater Chicago.

Although he made no reference to Trump

directly Sunday night, the 67-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer joked that Canada should build a two-foot wall at the border to confuse Americans looking to come north for free health care. Mellencamp’s disdain for his own people and his Indiana roots has been fuel and fodder for his music for his entire career.

Like Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., Mellencamp’s iconic Small Town is one of the most misunderstood songs of the 1980s. While most listeners gravitate to the last verse of Small Town (and the Prince George crowd sang it enthusiastically), they gloss over the first half of the song.

“All my friends are so small town, my parents live in the same small town, my job is so small town, provides little opportunity,” he sings.

The narrator makes his peace with his small town roots (“got nothing against a big town, still hayseed enough to say look who’s in the big town”) but that final line – “gonna die in this small town and that’s probably where they’ll bury me” – cuts both ways.

On one hand, it’s a triumphant shout of independence and on the other, it’s a tragic admission of defeat by a man geographically and ideologically trapped by his roots, unable to shake the small town and be the man he really wants to be.

Mellencamp’s heartland songs have always translated well in Canada and to Canadians outside of the major urban centres

because of that small town tension. Can’t wait to get out, can’t stop going back.

This was well-tred territory for Canadian rockers in the 1980s, too, from Small Town Bringdown by the Tragically Hip to Rush’s Subdivisions.

“My old school is getting drunk on the town, don’t think they’ll ever get out, go home just to realize, why I had to get out,” the Grapes of Wrath sang in Backward Town about Kelowna, their hometown.

Despite his incredible career success, Mellencamp clearly still has a big chip on his shoulder about leaving Indiana to become a rock star, from the big city record companies forcing him to change his name to John Cougar to the dismissive Rolling Stone magazine reviews comparing him to Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen.

To this day, Mellencamp’s seethes over how guys from Detroit (Seger) and an urban area of New Jersey sandwiched between Philadelphia and New York City (Springsteen) were defined as heartland rock over a guy actually from the heartland.

He’s the Rodney Dangerfield of rock, still feeling he doesn’t get enough respect.

That anger is how everyone from a small town feels, whether they are in the U.S. or Canada, from Bloomington or Prince George, when they go to the big city and are treated like unsophisticated country bumpkins.

It’s the same anger that drove those small

YOUR LETTERS

Refuting concerns about proportional representation

Re: Electoral change doesn’t mean better government, Eric Allen, Nov. 1. Where to start when refuting Allen’s innuendo, half truths and faulty reasoning?

How about here: “Those who want to change the system are self-interested political parties, as opposed to the everyday average citizen of this country.”

The B.C. Liberals are scared to death that they will never again be able to use the stacked deck that is FPTP, to win election after election.

Allen goes on and on about tax rates, comparing the higher rates of some PR countries with Canada’s, as if that is a fair comparison. Did he give any thought to the possibility that the citizens of those countries like what they

get for their taxes?

Allen tries to downplay the example of the unfairness of FPTP, by using completely faulty logic in the case where the Greens got only three per cent of the seats yet 17 per cent of the vote. He assumes they deserve only that many seats because the rest of the voters voted against them.

What would happen if he used that logic when his Liberal party only got 40 per cent of the votes yet got 100 per cent of the power. Didn’t 60 per cent of voters vote against them?

Allen ignores an important message his parents and teachers gave him. He asks why, when electoral change was defeated twice before are we doing it again. What did his parents and teachers say? “If at first you don’t

succeed...”

Where would we be if the suffragettes had quietly gone home after a couple of attempts to gain the vote?

Allen says that we wouldn’t get better representation under a PR system. He needs to go back and read the voters’ guide. Under FPTP he would only get one MLA and it might not be from the party he voted for. That MLA would not represent Allen’s views if they were contrary to party policy. Under PR, however, he would have a choice of more than one MLA to represent his views, one from the governing party and one from an opposition party. If you want your vote to not only be counted, but to count, choose PR.

Daryl Sturdy, Vancouver

LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen. ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.

heartland American towns into the arms of Trump. Tired at being told what to think and believe by the tastemakers and trendsetters in New York and Hollywood, they saw their outrage in Trump’s outrage.

Mellencamp has slammed Trump repeatedly in interviews but he also clearly understands why his state elected Pence governor and then backed the Trump-Pence ticket to the White House.

Big city Democrats, like Barack Obama from Chicago, have looked down their noses at the little people from the small towns for too long.

All of the polls heading into today’s vote suggest a United States sharply divided between rural and urban concerns, a worrisome trend also evident across Canada.

“So black lives matter, who we trying to kid, here’s an easy target, don’t matter, never did,” he sang Sunday on Easy Target, the only song he included from his newest album Sad Clowns and Hillbillies.

“Crosses burning, such a long time ago, 400 years and we still don’t let it go.”

Small town alienation and resentment, too often morphing into hate and violence, has been around even longer than he has and will continue long after he’s gone.

Still, the hopeful optimism, a heartland staple, eventually shines through in Mellencamp’s music and in the millions of Americans dutifully casting their ballots today. — Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout

PR doesn’t fix what is broken

Last week, I was chatting with a couple of colleagues about proportional representation.

They favour switching.

Unfortunately, one of their arguments has shown up in the letters to the editor on a few occasions – “the present system isn’t working so why not give PR a try? After all, if we don’t like it, we can change back in a few years.”

When I hear people say this, I groan and point out if we used this type of reasoning in the rest of our lives, society would be a mess.

After all, you and your partner are going through a flat spot in your relationship what should you do? Just try someone else for a few years. If it doesn’t work out, you can always go back.

You are having trouble with a pet? Try a new one for a while and if it doesn’t work out, well, you can always go back to the old one.

Having a disagreement with a friend? Try some new ones for a while. If it doesn’t work out, you can go back to the old one.

Of course, all of these examples are facetious. But it does say something about society when we are more inclined to toss something out rather than work on making what we have better. It could certainly explain the divorce rate.

But the other half of their idea is there will be another referendum after two elections in which we can switch back if we want. There is no way for the government of today to make this stick. It is a false safety valve – equivalent to fixed election days and other legislation.

The government can put in its legislation changing the voting act that such a referendum will be held but it will be the government in power after the next two elections who will decide if such a referendum occurs. Not today’s government.

This is one of the big concerns about the whole referendum –anyone voting for PR really has no idea what they are actually voting for. Most of the important and major questions are unanswered and will not be answered until after we have voted.

It is a bit like being asked to buy a car for $40,000 without knowing anything about it.

What will the new riding boundaries look like?

How many MLAs? How many will be riding-based and how many will be pulled from lists?

Will the lists be public?

Would the voters be able to disqualify individuals on a party’s list? For that matter, would the party members have a say in the construction of the list?

A whole host of questions.

But my conversation with my colleagues took a different turn. My question to them was “what problem are you trying to fix with proportional representation?” and they answered “the way government runs.”

Nothing about PR will fix that. We will still have a party in power who will be able to make their “dictatorial” decisions. We will still have opposition members who will not be able to stop such decisions from being made. The only real different will be the party in power will likely be a coalition of several distinct special interest groups.

Most likely none of them will be able to completely enact their agenda because they will need to compromise on their promises in order to stay in power. This happens all the time under PR governments. In any case, a change in voting systems will not address the fundamental issues affecting our democracy.

A number of books and articles I have read recently point out the problems with capitalism. It is built on two fundamental principles: one is perpetual growth and the other is the notion profits will be plowed back into companies and corporations to achieve growth and better wages for workers.

This sounds fine and many of the business people I know do invest heavily in their companies. However, this social contract has fallen into a state of disrepair.

The result is that in the mid1960s, the number of weeks worked for a middle class lifestyle was 46 per year. It is now closer to 90.

How? By woman joining the work force in larger and larger numbers.

In the late-1980s, when lifestyle and income fell out of step again, the answer was tax cuts. All they did was to lower middle class incomes by about 30 per cent. By objective measures, they did not make the economy boom.

In the 2000s, cheap credit was the solution to societal woes. Everyone increased both their personal and national debt. Many people are now under water and will never get out.

These are the issues leading to dissatisfaction with our society – the general sense that we are working harder but not getting ahead. It is not the way we vote.

TODD WHITCOMBE

Olympic bid supporters speak up in Calgary

Lauren KRUGEL Citizen news service

CALGARY — Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the naysayers have been winning the debate over whether Calgary should hold the Winter Olympics in 2026, but there’s still time to change the narrative before a nonbinding vote on the bid next Tuesday.

Nenshi’s remarks capped off a pro-bid rally which featured a parade of Olympians and a deluge of 1988 nostalgia from Calgary’s first turn at playing host.

“We are, my friends, in the last week of an election campaign. It’s an election campaign that today we’re going to lose,” Nenshi told the crowd in a downtown convention centre Monday, a Team Canada scarf draped over his shoulders.

“But we have the power to turn that around. And that power is within every one of our hands.”

Last week, the bid appeared on the brink of death as the city, the province of Alberta and the federal government wrangled over cost sharing. Nenshi called the week the “grossest” of his political career, but said it led to a great deal.

“What we have is undeniably an outstanding bid and an outstanding deal for Calgary and we’ve got to tell our friends and our neighbours.”

He urged bid supporters to speak up online and in coffee shops and to text everyone they know before the plebiscite.

“For better or worse, we’ve allowed the naysayers to control the narrative. If you look on social media, you probably think 100 per cent of Calgary is opposed to the Olympics. If you listen to the loudest voices, whether they’re politicians or people in line at the Tim Hortons, you’d think everybody hates the Olympics,” Nenshi said.

“But that’s not true.”

No Calgary Olympics, a three-member grassroots group with no advertising money, has been trying to push its anti-bid message without the same Olympian star power.

The group’s concerns include the cost, the transparency and ethics of the International Olympic Committee and what it sees as shortcomings in the bid process.

Opposing a bid isn’t a slight against Calgary, spokeswoman Erin Waite said.

Attorney general says casino rules apply to all

“We’re not doubters about Calgary’s initiative or capacity or enthusiasm for taking on big projects,” she said. “It’s a matter of if it’s the right project now and what won’t we be able to do because we’re choosing the Olympics.”

The bid has an estimated price tag of $5.1 billion. The province has said it would kick in $700 million of that and Ottawa would cover $1.4 billion. The city was asked to contribute $390 million, which includes $20 million for a $200-million insurance policy against cost overruns.

VICTORIA (CP) — British Columbia’s attorney general says new rules to fight money laundering at provincial casinos will apply universally.

David Eby says he can’t comment on private issues that occur in casinos, but stresses there are no exceptions to rules requiring gamblers to disclose sources of cash deposits of more

New Brunswick mill fined for dumping effluent

Citizen news service

SAINT JOHN, N.B. — Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. has been hit with one of largest penalties ever imposed in Canada for an environmental violation.

The company, based in Saint John, N.B., was fined $3.5 million Monday for dumping improperly treated effluent into the Saint John River over a two-year period.

The firm has also been added to the Environmental Offenders Registry, which includes information on convictions of corporations under federal environmental laws, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

On Oct. 9, the company pleaded guilty in Saint John provincial court to three charges under the pollution prevention provisions of the federal Fisheries Act.

“The charges stem from several incidents that occurred between June 2014 and August 2016, when improperly treated and deleterious effluent was released... into the Saint John River,” the federal department said in a statement.

In a plea deal struck with the Crown, the company admitted its mill near the Reversing Falls tourist attraction in Saint John failed to meet standards under the federal Fisheries Act.

The company failed a test that requires 50 per cent or more of tested rainbow trout to survive 96 hours in 100 per cent effluent. However, the company said the Crown and federal authorities acknowledged the river was not harmed by the discharges, and no fish were killed.

The remainder would be expected to come from ticket sales and other revenues.

Monday’s rally featured British ski-jumper

Michael Edwards – better known as Eddie the Eagle – and 1988 mascots Hidy and Howdy. Some came to the rally wearing vintage Olympic swag.

“I think you did such a great job in 1988 and there was such a great buzz and there’s continued to be that buzz for the last 30 years,” Edwards said.

Olympians, including gold-medal sprinter Donovan Bailey and multi-medal-winning

than $10,000.

Canadian superstar singer Drake posted on his Instagram over the weekend that he was prevented from gambling at the Parq Vancouver casino while he was in the city for two concerts.

Drake’s post says he believes he was following the rules and raises concerns about racial profil-

“Safeguarding the environment has been and continues to be our top priority,” company vice-president Mark Mosher said when the company pleaded guilty on Oct. 9. “We respect the decision of the court and will ensure the mill meets the stringent guidelines.”

Irving Pulp and Paper has also agreed to build a new, multimillion-dollar effluent treatment facility over the next five years.

The mill, which employs 375 people, currently uses a so-called reverse osmosis system to meet environmental regulations. The company has said it invested heavily in this system because the mill’s neighbours were opposed to an effluent treatment facility.

The company also confirmed Monday it will provide $1.16 million to the University of New Brunswick, where the Canadian Rivers Institute will use the money to conduct research related to the conservation of Atlantic salmon.

The head of the institute, Allen Curry, said his group will now be able to buy more equipment and hire more students and technical staff.

“We’re attracting students from all over the world,” he said in a statement, adding that he expects to double the number of students working at the institute.

The company had originally planned to give money to a non-profit conservation group known as the Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST).

Although there are no commercial ties between CAST and Irving Pulp and Paper, the co-CEO of parent company J.D. Irving Ltd., Jim Irving, is one of CAST’s three directors.

Saskatchewan may let police release domestic violence records

REGINA (CP) — Police in Saskatchewan could soon be allowed to release information about someone’s abusive past if they believe that person’s partner may be at risk.

Dubbed Clare’s Law, the proposed legislation is said to be the first of its kind in Canada and is aimed at reducing the province’s high domestic violence rates. The legislation would allow a partner, friend or relative to request background information, but only the person potentially at risk would be allowed to see it.

An umbrella group of women’s shelters and support services says it has questions about what kind of information a person would be given.

The Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan wonders, for instance, whether they would be told if an individual had charges dropped in the past.

“Not all the details have been worked out in terms of what sort of information will be accessed,” association executive director Jo-Anne Dusel said Monday. Dusel said a committee is being set up to decide which cases would warrant information be released.

hockey player Cassie Campbell-Pascall, spoke of the importance of refurbishing the city’s sports facilities.

University of Alberta professor Stacy Lorenz, who studies the sociology and history of sports, said it’s not surprising bid boosters are tugging at heartstrings by invoking past Olympic glory.

“They are going to have to make an argument for civic pride and national identity, because if you look hard at the economics of it, that is not going to convince people to support the bid.”

ing at the casino.

Parq Vancouver says in statements it stands against racism of any kind and always follows provincial rules.

Eby didn’t name Drake during his comments, but says new rules to verify sources of cash at casinos have sharply cut suspicious gambling transactions.

CP PHOTO

Calgary 2026 Olympic bid supporters pose in a photo booth during a rally in Calgary on Monday.

IN BRIEF

Trans Mountain consultation redo off to quick start

OTTAWA (CP) — Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi has personally met with leaders of nearly two dozen Indigenous communities since the Federal Court of Appeal struck down federal approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in August.

The government is doing additional consultations with Indigenous communities affected by the pipeline expansion after the court said the original consultation was insufficient.

One of the court’s chief objections was that the bureaucrats who engaged with Indigenous communities listened and documented the concerns they raised but had no authority to do anything about those concerns or even answer some of the Indigenous groups’ questions.

Sohi says this time that has changed and he has a mandate to address the concerns raised where possible, and explain why not when it isn’t. He says he has already met with 22 Indigenous communities, including leaders from most of those that sued Ottawa over the pipeline. Sohi maintains the Liberal government is not assuming the outcome of the consultations –even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the pipeline is going to be built and Ottawa laid down $4.5 billion to buy the project over the summer.

Province sued over fracking dam decision

VANCOUVER (CP) — A conservation group is suing the British Columbia government for deciding two oilpatch dams are exempt from environmental rules.

The B.C. Sierra Club says foreign-owned Progress Energy built the dams in the province’s north without environmental assessments.

The club alleges the government then retroactively exempted them from needing the reviews. It alleges the government’s own staff have said the dams, which are used to store water for fracking operations, clearly meet the criteria for assessments. The Sierra Club also claims the government doesn’t have the power to exempt dams from review after they’ve been built. Even if it did, the club alleges the province didn’t have enough information to make a proper decision. The government has not immediately responded to a request for comment.

Research has suggested that British Columbia has dozens of unlicensed and unreviewed dams built to service fracking operations.

Feds unveil details of homelessness program

OTTAWA (CP) — The federal Liberals are promising more money to more cities through their cornerstone homelessness strategy, pledging $1.25 billion over the next nine years to cities looking to tackle poverty.

Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos also said Monday that there will be dedicated funding for the territories of $43 million over the same period. The changes being unveiled give some high-level details that anti-poverty activists and cities have been waiting for since the Liberals promised in June to revamp the strategy, known as “Reaching Home.”

The Liberals took a long look at the homeless program after hearing complaints from cities about cumbersome reporting requirements, inadequate funding and unrealistic expectations about how quickly the money should be spent. The money should help up to six large cities qualify for regular federal funding, the government says. There will also be new spending targeting Indigenous Peoples – a group over-represented in shelters compared to their percentage of the general population – but how much will be spent remains unclear. The Liberals say they are working with national Indigenous groups on how to allocate new spending.

Details of the Reaching Home plan are were laid out on the same day the Liberals introduced legislation to enshrine into law a plan to lift more than two million people out of poverty.

The government’s strategy sets reduction targets of 20 per cent from 2015 levels by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2030.

Oaks return to Vimy Ridge

Morgan LOWRIE Citizen news service

MONTREAL — In April 1917, a Canadian soldier standing on a war-ravaged battlefield in France pocketed a souvenir to send home: a handful of acorns from a downed oak tree at Vimy Ridge.

Now, a century after the First World War ended, oaks descended from those acorns have begun growing at parks and cenotaphs across Canada. And the Vimy oaks have made the journey back to France, where they will grow in a new centennial park beside the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

The project is possible thanks to the late Lt. Leslie Miller, who gathered the acorns from the denuded site of the 1917 battle and planted them on his farm in Scarborough, Ont.

They thrived in their new habitat, where 10 are still standing on land that now belongs to the Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church.

Ralph Coleman, a vice-president of the non-profit group Vimy Oaks Legacy, said the trees are a powerful symbol of the connections between Canada and France and of soldiers’ resilience.

“There’s such symmetry to it,” he said of the oaks returning to France. “Out of death comes life and regeneration, and it comes full circle.

“There were no oak trees left on Vimy Ridge, and now the oak trees that grew up in Canada descended from Vimy Ridge are sending their own descendants back.”

The park in France, set to be to inaugurated Friday in advance of the centennial of the war’s end, will feature four concentric rings representing the four Canadian divisions that fought at Vimy.

Shady pathways will offer a direct view of the neighbouring monument.

The 1.6-hectare park was created by the Vimy Foundation, a charity that educates Canadians about the milestone battle.

Coleman said the idea of sending back the trees began in the mid-2000s, when the founder of Vimy Oaks Legacy, Monty McDonald, travelled to the famous battlefield and realized that none of the original oak trees at Vimy had survived the intense shelling.

McDonald had worked on Miller’s farm, and the Vimy veteran was like a grandfather to him.

As Coleman tells it, McDonald

A label hangs from an oak tree at Place de Vimy in Montreal on Sunday. In 1917, Lt. Leslie Miller gathered some acorns from a fallen

Ridge and planted them on his farm in Ontario.

will be planted in a park near the Vimy

thought: “Wow, wouldn’t it be a nice gesture to repatriate some oak trees back here from Canada and a nice gesture to my surrogate grandfather, Leslie Miller.”

In 2015, cuttings were taken from the original trees in Scarborough and grafted onto roots at a nursery in Dundas, Ont., where they began to grow as new trees that could be flown to Vimy.

The group had hoped to have the project ready for the 2017 centennial of the battle, but that fell through when an outbreak of a disease affecting oak trees led the French government to ban tree imports.

Instead, McDonald gathered acorns from the original trees and flew them to France in 2016, where they have been growing in a nursery and will be transplanted to the park in time for the inauguration.

Meanwhile, the saplings grown in Dundas are making their way across Canada, where over 800 have been ordered for planting at legions, parks, war monuments and private residences.

Three are destined for a Montreal park dedicated to Vimy, where they’ll line the pathway leading up to a large stone cenotaph.

City councillor Sterling Downey said

of

the idea of using Vimy oaks came after a microburst swept through the park last year, destroying many of its mature trees.

Downey, the son of a veteran, said the trees symbolize the ability of both humans and nature to overcome great adversity.

“These trees are a nice living memorial to celebrate life after this atrocity, and as a reminder hopefully that this will never happen again,” he said.

The gesture is appreciated by Della Robertson, a Sergeant at Arms of a local Royal Canadian Legion branch whose grandfather served at Vimy. Robertson, 54, was at the Montreal park in uniform Sunday as local politicians and citizens held a small remembrance ceremony organized by the legion.

She said she likes the idea of having something to connect the past to the present at a time when fewer young people seem to feel personal links to Canada’s military history.

“You need to work to keep that connection,” she said. “There are some schools that do ceremonies, but very little. There’s very little connecting (them) to 100 years ago.”

U.S. heads to polls today in divisive midterms

Steve PEOPLES Citizen news service

WASHINGTON — The day of reckoning for American politics has arrived.

Today voters will decide the $5 billion debate between U.S. President Donald Trump’s take-no-prisoner politics and the Democratic Party’s super-charged campaign to end the GOP’s monopoly in Washington and statehouses across the nation.

There are indications that an oft-discussed “blue wave” may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of Congress. But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, nothing is certain on the eve of the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency.

“I don’t think there’s a Democrat in this country that doesn’t have a little angst left over from 2016 deep down,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, which spent more than ever before – nearly $60 million in all – to support Democratic women this campaign season.

“Everything matters and everything’s at stake,” Schriock said.

All 435 seats in the U.S. House are up for re-election. And 35 Senate seats are in play, as are almost 40 governorships and the balance of power in virtually every state legislature.

While he is not on the ballot, Trump himself has acknowledged that the 2018 midterms, above all, represent a referen-

dum on his presidency.

Should Democrats win control of the House, as strategists in both parties suggest is likely, they could derail Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years.

Perhaps more importantly, they would also win subpoena power to investigate Trump’s many personal and professional missteps.

Today’s elections will also test the strength of a Trump-era political realignment defined by evolving divisions among voters by race, gender and especially education.

Trump’s Republican coalition is increasingly becoming older, whiter, more male and less likely to have a college degree. Democrats are relying more upon women, people of colour, young people and college graduates.

The political realignment, if there is one, could re-shape U.S. politics for a generation.

Just five years ago, the Republican National Committee reported that the GOP’s very survival depended upon attracting more minorities and women.

Those voters have increasingly fled Trump’s Republican Party, turned off by his chaotic leadership style and xenophobic rhetoric. Blue-collar men, however, have embraced the unconventional president.

One of the Republican National Committee report’s authors, Ari Fleischer, acknowledged that Republican leaders never envisioned expanding their ranks

with white, working-class men.

“What it means to be Republican is being rewritten as we speak,” Fleischer said. “Donald Trump has the pen, and his handwriting isn’t always very good.”

A nationwide poll released Sunday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal details the depth of the divide.

Democrats led with likely AfricanAmerican voters (84 per cent to eight per cent), Latinos (57 per cent to 29 per cent), voters between the ages of 18-34 (57 per cent to 34 per cent), women (55 per cent to 37 per cent) and independents (35 per cent to 23 per cent).

Among white college-educated women, Democrats enjoy a 28-point advantage: 61 per cent to 33 per cent.

On the other side, Republicans led with voters between the ages of 50 and 64 (52 per cent to 43 per cent), men (50 per cent to 43 per cent) and whites (50 per cent to 44 per cent). And among white men without college degrees, Republicans led 65 per cent to 30 per cent.

Democrats hope to elect a record number of women to Congress. They are also poised to make history with the number of LGBT candidates and Muslims up and down the ballot.

Former president Barack Obama seized on the differences between the parties in a final-days scramble to motivate voters across the nation.

“One election won’t eliminate racism, sexism or homophobia,” Obama said at an event in Florida. “But it’ll be a start.”

CP PHOTO

oak tree on Vimy

Descendants

those trees

Ridge memorial in France.

SPRUCE KINGS MOVE UP IN BCHL STANDINGS Page 8

Grand night for Gauthier

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

Seeing what his teammates were doing to try to protect his first career WHL shutout Saturday against the Seattle Thunderbirds, Taylor Gauthier decided it was time to sacrifice his own body for the cause.

He raced out of his crease to chase down a loose puck along the side boards at CN Centre and dove with his shoulder to nail Nolan Volcan just after the Seattle forward touched the puck. Gauthier’s helmet and mask went flying in the collision and the play was blown dead, but their goalie’s late hit meant the Cougars had to kill off an interference penalty with less than three minutes to play.

On a night when their special teams were indeed special, the Cougars leaned heavily on Gauthier, their best penalty-killer. He stared down Seattle’s 6-on4 advantage with goalie Liam Hughes swapped for an extra skater and won that battle, but it took a collaborative effort to keep the door barred.

With about a minute left, defenceman Cole Moberg saved the shutout when he dove to clear a loose puck in the crease just before Volcan could swat it into the open net and the Cougars hung on to win 2-0 – sweeping Seattle in the two-game weekend series.

“I felt really good coming into the game and the boys played really well in front of me,” said the 17-year-old Gauthier, who made 37 saves. “I thought I made a couple of good saves and at the end of the game the boys blocked a lot of shots for me and got in front of pucks I couldn’t really see. The shutout is just as big for them as it is for me.”

The hit on Volcan was an unexpected thrill that brought a rise out of the 3,585 spectators, who were treated to a scrappy and entertaining conclusion to the weekend doubleheader.

“I thought I had a better chance of getting to it than I actually did and once I realized I wasn’t going to get to the puck I thought I might as well get to the man,” smiled Gauthier. “(Volcan) got a lot of me and I didn’t get much of him.”

Cougars goaltender gets first WHL shutout

a

and

Moberg and Jackson Leppard were the goalscorers. The win improved the Cougars’ record to 7-7-1-2, third-best in the B.C. Division, and they moved one point ahead of Seattle (7-62-0) in the Western Conference standings.

On Friday, Gauthier and the rest of the Cougars shared goalie Isaiah DiLaura’s pain when he allowed the only Seattle goal in a 4-1 victory with just 38 seconds left in the game. Gauthier knows that feeling of losing a shutout late all too well. It happened to him in the season-opener in Victoria when the Royals scored with 1:07 left and went on to beat the Cats in a shootout.

His best save Saturday came with about five minutes left when he was forced to do the splits to

His best save Saturday came with about five minutes left when he was forced to do the splits to make a toe save on Jaxan Kaluski...

make a toe save on Jaxan Kaluski, and he followed that a few seconds later with another toe-flicker to deny Samuel Huo’s low shot through a screen. The Cougars took four minor penalties in the first period and got out of it unscathed. The T-birds went 0-for-5 on the power play.

The Cats, justifiably, have taken heat over their own power play, which was the worst in the WHL coming into the weekend. But in the past three games they’ve scored five with the man advantage and are now firing at a 14.9 per cent clip. They went 1-for-5 Saturday.

“It was a good effort from everybody, from our two goalies to all our defence and forwards and our special teams,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “We put 120 minutes of hockey together and that was our objective all week.

“Taylor was fantastic. If you ask him his last couple games didn’t go the way he wanted them to go. He went in tonight and he was a game-changer and that’s what we expect from him. Not only did he

make the easy saves but he made the big saves and as a competitor you can see how hard he wanted to win that game with the bodycheck at the end.”

Leppard scored his fourth goal of the season with T-birds defenceman Owen Williams off for hooking. That came 5:57 into the second period, set up by a Ryan Schoettler pass into the slot which Leppard finished with a backhand deke on goalie Liam Hughes, Moberg has had a hot hand lately and he opened the scoring with a high wrister from the face-off circle that sailed in over the shoulder of Hughes, 6:19 into the game. Moberg also assisted on Leppard’s goal and has three goals and eight points in his last five games.

see GIANTS, page 8

UNBC women stay perfect on season

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Four games, four wins to start the season. For the UNBC Timberwolves women’s basketball team this is uncharted territory.

They kept their perfect record intact Saturday night with a 90-75 win over the Winnipeg Wesmen, sweeping the U Sports Canada West conference doubleheader at the Northern Sport Centre.

There was no joy on the court later Saturday for the UNBC men. The Timberwolves fell 96-81 to the Wesmen – their first loss of the season.

Tasked with the added motivation of trying to score back-to-back wins against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in the first round last season, the UNBC women did not falter.

The T-wolves put the Wesmen

permanently in their rearview mirror to start the third quarter and it was the usual suspects – Vasiliki Louka, Madison Landry and Maria Mongomo – who provided that degree of separation.

They each found the net while putting together a 6-0 run which gave the T-wolves a 52-40 lead that was never threatened the rest of the way.

“It was a tough weekend for us but we got both wins, which is important,” said Louka, a fifth-year forward from Athens, Greece, who had 26 points and 14 rebounds. “It gives us confidence to keep going and move as high as we can. Our goal is to be one of the best teams.

“We lost to Winnipeg last year in the playoffs, so we wanted to prove we were a good team and we could beat them and we played for last season.”

— see FOUL TROUBLE, page 8

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Prince George Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier slides across the crease to make one of his 37 saves during

2-0 shutout of the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday night at CN Centre. It was also Pink in the Rink night, held to raise awareness

funds in the fight against breast cancer.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Maria Mongomo of the UNBC Timberwolves drives to the basket, past University of Winnipeg Wemen defender Faith Hezekiah on Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre.

Foul trouble hurts male Timberwolves

from page 7

They certainly looked like a confident crew, especially in the late stages Saturday. Their passes were crisp and accurate, they shot nearly 50 per cent from the field, and only one player (Landry) got into foul trouble.

Mongomo, now in her fourth season, came up with her best offensive output of the season, contributing a team-high 31 points. She also had 12 rebounds and two steals.

Landry was also a standout, finishing with 12 points and seven assists.

The UNBC guards did their jobs distributing the ball. Emily Holmes picked up a season-high seven assists, Abby Gibb had five helpers and Alina Shakirova had four assists and nine points, going 5-for-6 from the free-throw line.

Faith Hezekiah played an outstanding game despite an upset stomach which kept her close to a bucket near the Wesmen bench all game. She shot a game-high 33 points and also picked up 12 rebounds and three steals before fouling out late in the game. Lana Wenke, with 12 points, and Jessica Dyck, with 10, also reached double figures for Winnipeg.

“Our coach (Sergey Shchepotkin) talked to us at halftime and said we have to play better defence and focus on Number 9 (Hezekiah) because she had 21 points in the first half,” said Louka. “I think we did a pretty good job on her.

“This year we have more players who can contribute and it’s good, it gives confidence to all of the players that we are a good team. It’s not just two or three players who can score.”

The Wesmen women had too many good looks at the net that were wasted by shots they went off-target. Winnipeg made it to the Canada West Final Four last season, but it’s a much younger team now that’s taking its lumps, starting the season with four straight losses. Head coach Tanya McKay says this year’s edition of

CFL modifies TD celebration policy

TORONTO (CP) — The CFL wants to make sure Jon Gott’s beer-chugging touchdown celebration doesn’t become a regular occurrence.

While the Ottawa Redblacks offensive lineman wasn’t fined by the league after grabbing a beer from his girlfriend and chugging it last Friday night in the after-

the T-wolves has great potential to make a dent in the Canada West playoffs.

“They’re a very veteran team, they have a lot of experience, they’ve been through the grind and know what it takes to win,” said McKay. “When we pulled close they knew how to take it up a notch and hit some key shots down the stretch. They controlled the boards and they definitely outplayed us.

“They have a team that’s been together a few years and we competed in longer stretches than we did (in Friday’s 75-68 loss). UNBC’s got a very good team and if they play smart down the stretch they’re going to do very well in the playoffs. They’ve got all the parts.”

In the men’s game, the T-wolves fell behind 23-14 after one quarter, then rode Jovan Leamy’s 13-point second quarter to get back in the game and take a 42-34 lead into the intermission.

The second half was a killer for UNBC.

The Wesmen went on a 15-4 run to start the third quarter and led 68-65 heading into the fourth quarter. They continued to pile up points in the final quarter, doubling the T-wolves 28-16 to even their season record to 2-2.

Narcisse Ambanza shot a game-high 27 points, Don Dayrit had 22 points and Sean Tarver finished with 18 for coach Mike Raimbault’s Wesmen. For UNBC, Vaggelis Loukas collected 18 points and 13 rebounds and James Agyeman finished with 11 points and six assists.

“They ran it down our throats and got us in foul trouble,” said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. “Our confidence started to go, theirs started to build, and we didn’t answer the bell.”

Leamy fouled out with 3:48 left on the clock and Loukas had to take a seat on the bench when he drew his fifth foul with 2:35 remaining.

Both UNBC teams are heading into a bye weekend. They’ll get back it Nov. 16 at the NSC when they host Trinity Western.

math of a touchdown against the Toronto Argos, the league revised its celebration policy on Monday. The new policy prohibits “the use of alcohol or drugs and the mimicking of the use of alcohol or drugs.”

Gott’s celebration, which ended with him crushing the can against his helmet, was a social-media hit. It was picked up by ESPN and has been retweeted more than 22,000 times. The CFL’s celebration policy has now been reworked twice this year.

Giants up next for Cats

from page 7

This one had a nastier edge than Friday’s game. Tempers flared a few times and there were a couple of minor scraps but with the score close, neither team went looking for trouble. Cougars defenceman Rhett Rhinehart was already a target for the Tbirds as a result of Friday’s shoulder check that knocked 20-year-old Seattle forward Noah Philp out of Saturday’s lineup with an upper-body injury and Rhinehart drew the wrath of the opposition again when he took out Jared Davidson with another clean hit. Davidson had just returned to the ice after serving a bench penalty late in the second period when he took an alley-oop pass and tried to break into the Cougars’ zone 1-on-2. Rhinehart lined him up and decked him cleanly with a shoulder-to-chest hit, prompting Williams to instigate a fight, which he lost decisively.

“Hitting’s a part of hockey and those clean ones always get the boys going,” said Rhinehart, whose parents, Jessica and Dwayne from Lloydminster, Alta., were in the stands

watching both weekend games.

“The last few games here we’ve been in lots of them but just haven’t finished them off. Those two against Seattle we’ve been able to play a full 60 both times and we came out with the result we wanted, so there’s nothing but happiness out of that.”

Saturday’s third period was Seattle’s best of the weekend. They outshot the Cats 17-5 in the period but there were no rewards around the net. The T-birds have now lost three straight.

“Right now we’re struggling to score goals and our power play’s not clicking,” said T-birds head coach Matt O’Dette.

“We’ve had some injuries and we’re plugging guys in we aren’t used to being on those units. We’re happy we created some chances tonight but obviously we didn’t finish them. We’re disappointed. Compared to (Friday) it was night and day, effort-wise.”

The Cougars head to Langley for their next games Saturday and Sunday against the division-leading Vancouver Giants.

Spruce Kings climb back into second place

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

Ben Poisson’s leadership qualities made him an obvious choice as captain of the Prince George Spruce Kings. Saturday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena the 20-year-old centre let his actions speak louder than words.

Poisson gained the puck on the right wing side of the ice and let go a wrist shot that found the net behind Penticton Vees goalie Derek Krall. Poisson’s second goal of the game and eighth of the season, 1:46 into overtime, gave the Kings a 3-2 victory which moved them back into second place in the B.C. Hockey League’s Mainland Division. They started the weekend with a 2-1 win over the visiting Alberni Valley Bulldogs.

Logan Neaton improved his record to 11-3-0.

“It was a really good game overall –both teams prepared well and both teams played really good games, it just ended up going to overtime because we were so well-matched,” said Poisson, whose team beat the Vees 3-2 at the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack in September. “It was a one-goal game or tied for the most part and we were able to roll four lines and play everyone. Everyone got into it on both teams and it was a good battle.

“After losing kind of a tough game on Sunday (in Salmon Arm) we needed to have a good weekend to kick off the homestand the right way – especially with how tight our division is this year, we need all the points we can get,” said Poisson, a University of Maine recruit for 2019-20.

Poisson’s first of the night 6:44 into the third period gave the Kings a 2-1 lead, which lasted only about a minute. James Miller tied it for the Vees at the 8:10 mark on a Penticton power play.

Ryan Sandelin staked the Vees to a 1-0 lead with the only goal of the first period.

Ben Brar evened the count in the second period with his team-leading 16th of the season, and also assisted on Poisson’s goal in the third period. Kings winger Patrick Cozzi picked up two assists.

Shots were 26-19 in favour of the Kings.

“Just talking to (Spruce Kings general manager Mike) Hawes after the game, he said the games we played against Penticton this year have been some of the best games in the league, they were such good games.”

The Spruce Kings (14-60-1) are tied in points with the third-place Coquitlam Express (14-6-1-0) but occupy second place based on their 3-1 head-tohead record against the Express.

“It’s nice to finally come up the leaderboard, we’ve had a pretty good season this year, it’s just the other teams in our division have also had a good year and it’s nice to start seeing a bit of change here,” said Poisson. “Last year we finished first in our division but overall in the league we were fourth and this year, 1-2-3 in the league is the top three in our division.”

Saturday’s win moved Prince George closer to the first-overall Chilliwack Chiefs, who lost 4-3 Saturday to the visiting Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Then on Sunday afternoon the Chiefs (17-7-0-0) restored their fivepoint gap over the Spruce Kings when they beat Alberni Valley 7-4 in Chilliwack. The Kings host Langley in their next games, Friday and Saturday at RMCA.

Minor midget sweep for Cariboo

Citizen staff

They were a tired bunch by the time they got on the ice for their third game of the weekend Sunday in Richmond.

But apparently the Cariboo minor midget Cougars had gas left in the tank. They hung on to defeat the Vancouver Northwest Hawks 4-3, after taking the first two games of the B.C. Hockey Minor Midget League weekend set, 4-1 Friday and 6-1 Saturday.

Jackson Powers notched the win in goal for the Cougars on Sunday. Hunter Brown, Jayden Merritt, Lee Livingston and Kellen Brienen were the goalscorers.

Kenny Gerow backstopped the Cougars in goal for their first two games of the weekend. Merritt led the way offensively on Friday with a pair of goals, while Ashton Underhill and Deegan Tremain also scored.

Colton Thon accounted for half his team’s goals Saturday, notching the hat trick.

Hunter Brown had a two-goal effort and Landon Ingham collected a single. The six-point weekend left the Cougars (7-1-1-0) first in the 10-team league, tied with the Okanagan Rockets, who sport an identical record. Cariboo will travel to Chase for a three-game weekend set against the fifth-place Thompson Blazers (5-3-1-0) which starts Friday night. Meanwhile, in B.C. Hockey Major Midget League action over the weekend in Saanich, the Cariboo Cougars won their fifth-straight game Sunday, defeating the South Island Royals 4-3. On Saturday the Cougars skated to a 6-3 triumph over the Royals. That left the Cougars (7-3-2-0) fourth in the 11-team league with 16 points, four points out of first place. They will head to Kelowna this weekend for a two-game test against the Okanagan Rockets Saturday and Sunday. The Rockets (10-4-0-0) are tied with Fraser Valley and Vancouver Northeast atop the league standings, each with 20 points.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Prince George Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg jumps into the boards in celebration after scoring the opening goal of the game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday night at CN Centre.

Canucks not surprised at early success

Gemma KARSTENS-SMITH Citizen news service

VANCOUVER — Young stars are blazing a new trail for the Vancouver Canucks and defying the flagging expectations that loomed over the team heading into the NHL season.

Fifteen games into the 2018-19 campaign, the Canucks (9-6-0) have chalked up wins against tough teams like Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh and climbed to second in the Pacific Division.

“We have a lot of guys in here that want to win and want to prove people wrong,” said Bo Horvat, the team’s 23-year-old first-line centre. “Everybody wants to prove that we can be a good hockey team that can step up and compete with anybody. And I think we’ve been doing that so far.”

The Canucks finished secondlast in the Pacific last season, out of the playoff race for the third year in a row. They also lost veteran superstars Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who retired at the end of the year following 17 seasons in Vancouver.

The team signed free agents Jay Beagle, Tim Schaller and Antoine Roussel in the off-season, but questions lingered about where the Canucks scoring would come from.

So far, the squad’s top five scorers are all 25 or younger. Rookie Elias Pettersson leads the pack with nine goals and six assists over nine games.

The 19-year-old Swedish centre was named the NHL’s second star for last week based in part on his eye-popping five-point

performance in Vancouver’s 7-6 overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday. He’s now the youngest player in Canucks history to record five-plus points in a regular-season game.

Pettersson was also named the league’s top rookie for October despite missing two weeks with a concussion.

Injuries have sidelined a number of other Canucks, too, including defenceman Alex Edler (knee

USOC moves to shut down USA Gymnastics

Citizen news service

The U.S. Olympic Committee is moving to revoke USA Gymnastics’ status as the governing body for the sport at the Olympic level, meting out the nuclear option to an organization that has botched its own reorganization in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal involving former team doctor Larry Nassar.

In an open letter to the gymnastics community Monday, USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland said “you deserve better,” and that the challenges facing USA Gymnastics are more than it is capable of overcoming as currently constructed.

The organization, even with a newly constituted board of directors, made repeated mistakes after the revelations Nassar molested Olympians while working as a volunteer.

Those included the botched hiring of a program coordinator and an interim CEO to replace Kerry Perry, who lasted barely nine months on the job after replacing Steve Penny.

The announcement comes only days after the U.S. team brought home nine medals from the World Championships in the first major meet on the lead-up to the Tokyo Games in 2020. Five of those were individual medals won by Olympic champion Simone Biles, who is among the athletes who have not hesitated to criticize the organization. By decertifying USA Gymnastics, the USOC is taking major action against an organization that couldn’t grasp its own rebuilding. But the move also leaves a void that cannot be easily filled. In addition to supporting elite and Olympic athletes, USA Gymnastics serves more than 150,000 athletes in 3,000 clubs around the country. There is no other organization standing by to fill that need.

injury), goalie Anders Nilsson (fractured finger) and left winger Sven Baertschi (concussion).

But Pettersson said the team still has what it takes to get wins.

“I think if everyone is heading to the same goal and everyone is focused to do what they can bring to the team and do that every game, good things will happen,” he said.

Vancouver is currently tied for third in the league in wins, behind

only the Nashville Predators and the Lightning.

“Obviously it surprised a lot of people out there,” said 21-year-old right-winger Brock Boeser. “But it just goes to show the trust of the guys within this room. We all believe in each other and it’s that next-man-up mentality. And we don’t quit. It’s fun to watch.”

Canucks head coach Travis Green said he likes the way his players are buying into a team

wants to prove that we can be a good hockey team that can

step up and compete with anybody.

— Bo Horvat

mentality.

“No one is bigger than the team. Every guy in the room plays to win. And when you do that, good things happen,” he said. “Individually you bring your best, but collectively you win and lose as a team.”

Fans are buying in, too. A crowd of more than 18,000 at Rogers Arena on Friday was raucous, an atmosphere that Vancouver hasn’t seen much in recent years.

“You can sense that people are excited about a lot of our young guys and the way that they’re competing,” Green said. “When you feel that (from the crowd) at the end of a game or when you score a goal, that’s why you play the game. It’s a privilege to play in the NHL. It’s extremely special.”

The Canucks will look to build on a three-game win streak as they start a six-game road trip tonight in Detroit.

“We want to play well, we want to take points when we can in the Eastern Conference and win games on the road,” Horvat said. “We’ve got lots of confidence going on the road right now and to keep it rolling is going to be huge for us.”

Former B.C. Lions player accused of murder

Camille BAINS Citizen news service

VANCOUVER — A former wide receiver with the Canadian Football League’s B.C. Lions has made his first court appearance following a charge of second-degree murder more than nine years after a woman’s death.

Joshua Boden’s lawyer said outside provincial court Monday his client intends to plead not guilty in connection with the death of 33-year-old Kimberly Hallgarth, whose body was found in a Burnaby home in March 2009.

Police called her injuries suspicious.

Lawyer Kevin Westell would not comment on his client’s reaction to the charge coming so long after Hallgarth was discovered dead.

“All I’m prepared to say is that these allegations have been out in the media the entirety of that time,” Westell said. “Mr. Boden has been unwavering in his denial of his guilt in this matter and he maintains that opposition today.”

Westell said he and his co-counsel have not yet received disclosure from the Crown and will review the material before Boden is expected back in court on Dec. 10.

Boden was arrested on Friday and will remain in custody.

Westell would not say if he will apply for bail.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced the charge against Boden a few hours before he appeared in court on Monday.

Insp. Dave Chauhan, the acting officer in charge of the

homicide team, said “excellent foundational work” was done by the original investigators and a review by a coldcase team led to the approval of charges by B.C.’s prosecution service.

“I realize that the past nine years have been very difficult on Kim’s family and my deepest condolences go out to them,” Chauhan said, adding he thanks the woman’s relatives for their patience.

“For us to arrive at today’s outcome, it took a great deal of tenacity for all investigators involved, both past and present,” he said.

Chauhan said the cold-case team continually reviews and prioritizes IHIT’s unsolved cases for a number of key factors, including physical evidence obtained and new leads or information received.

“The homicide investigation of Kim Hallgarth met many of these factors and the cold-case team has successfully met the high threshold to bring this file to a successful conclusion, resulting in charges being laid against Mr. Boden.”

A statement from Hallgarth’s family said their grief has been unimaginable and the death of the woman “with a heart of gold” has taken a toll on all of them.

“Kim was a bubbly and caring person who deeply loved being the mother to Hailey, and the void that her murder has left in our hearts can never be filled. She loved life and was always able to make everyone around her laugh.” Boden played for the Lions in 2007 before briefly joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2008.

14:12. Third Period No scoring. Penalties – Savey SEA (slashing) 2:19, Perepeluk PG (roughing) 7:41, Kaluski SEA (goaltender interference) 9:31, Gauthier PG (interference, served

From left, Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Derrick Pouliot of the Vancouver Canucks celebrate Pouliot’s overtime goal against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday in Vancouver.

Chance for Walking Dead to hit reset button

Citizen news service

Although many of us have given up on AMC’s The Walking Dead, which has shed an average of five million or so viewers in the last year (fear not – it still draws more than seven million each week, keeping it cable’s highest-rated drama by far), Sunday night’s episode offered a fitting opportunity to come back for an hour and witness the emotional exit of its lead character, Rick Grimes. Rick, played by Andrew Lincoln, survived eight-plus seasons in a dreary, often excessively violent zombie apocalypse epic, which all began from his perspective: he was a wounded sheriff’s deputy in Georgia who woke from a coma in a hospital that had been abandoned during a sudden zombie outbreak. Initially reunited with his wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), son Carl (Chandler Riggs) and his colleague Shane (Jon Bernthal), Rick became the de facto leader of a band of survivors who slowly journeyed outward from the Atlanta megalopolis (and its infinite supply of zombies). Many arduous seasons later, Rick’s group made its way to Northern Virginia in a seemingly hopeless search for safety and security amid stressful group dynamics and deadly conflicts with packs of other humans. No character on this show is ever guaranteed a permanent stay, regardless of what happened to The Walking Dead comic-book characters they were all based on: Shane became a zombie and was killed; Lori died many seasons ago, leaving Rick with an infant daughter, Judith. Even Carl, who had grown from being the show’s preteen nuisance to one of its noblest citizens, took his own life last

A&E

year after a zombie bit him. Countless other friends have come have gone – eaten, murdered, beaten to a pulp. Along the way, Rick changed. The violence and loss took its toll, and his heroism flagged in the face of all that self-preservation. Thanks to far too many violent encounters with the living, the leader of the pack discovered his own inner monster, as well as a potential to be a righteous tyrant. Rick got lost in the post-zombie world’s widening chasm of moral choice and viewers stopped worrying so much about zombies. The show was about humans treating each other terribly – with no end in sight. It was that aspect of the show –

Spice Girls planning shows

LONDON (AP) — The Spice Girls are coming back for a British stadium tour next summer.

The band plans to take the stage without fashion designer Victoria Beckham, who performed as Posh Spice during the group’s 1990s pop heyday.

The band said Monday Beckham would not take

scene from The Walking Dead.

The violence and loss took its toll, and his heroism flagged in the face of all that self-preservation.

no end in sight – that effectively keeps fans of the show tuned in, while slowly alienating the rest of us, who grew too weary with the ever-circling plot to go on. The Walking Dead is a show for the video game era – resetting and rearranging players without any hope of true conclusion. It offers no narrative payoff for your time investment, other than the stand-

ing offer to keep going, full gore ahead.

Sunday’s episode saw Rick fending off the zombies once more – pulling himself off the rod of rebar on which he was accidentally impaled last week, then hallucinating his way through some flashback-type settings and encounters that have defined the show since it premiered in 2010. He visited with dead characters (Bernthal’s Shane; the late Scott Wilson’s Hershel; Sonequa MartinGreen’s Sasha), each urging Rick back to consciousness, where, in a final scene, he blew up a bridge that sent dozens of flaming zombies into a swift-moving river. Despite AMC and actor Lincoln’s

part because of business commitments. June dates have been set in Manchester, Coventry, Sunderland, Edinburgh, Bristol and London.

CBC boss stepping down

TORONTO (CP) — The woman in charge of CBC’s English-language TV, radio, and online services is

insistence that this is the end of Rick, he was nevertheless found downstream, alive, by a character named Anne (don’t ask me, I’ve moved on to 500 other TV shows), who summoned a helicopter (!) that scooped Rick up, tended to his wounds and flew off into the far horizon. If that’s the very last we ever see of Rick Grimes, then I’ll eat someone’s arm. Rick or no Rick, The Walking Dead thrives on its own intensity, shedding producers and showrunners wherever necessary. The acting is still often quite convincing and emotionally sharp – a tone Lincoln helped define. The pace cannot be argued with, particularly the keen way with which the show constructs its cliffhanger scenes around cable’s incessant commercial breaks. There’s a good reason so many people watch the show (and why it still requires its own hour-long, cathartic wind-down immediately after, called The Talking Dead). It still delivers on a simple formula.

This was certainly true Sunday, when the touted attraction that we showed up for (Rick’s departure), had its thunder impressively stolen by a last-minute swerve that seemed to be an openinvitation for lapsed fans to start believing again. In the episode’s final scene, the show’s timeline shifted forward six years, where a group of humans were rescued from a zombie attack by a pistolpackin’ young lass named... Judith Grimes. It’s the easiest kind of emotional symmetry, providing the show one more opportunity to press that reset button and lure the hordes of Walking Dead zomb – I mean, viewers – toward the scent of another reset.

leaving the public broadcaster.

Heather Conway says she will “pursue other opportunities” after five years overseeing all platforms, including CBC-TV, CBC News Network, CBC Radio One and Two and CBC.ca. Conway was appointed executive vice president of CBC’s English Services in 2013. Her tenure included the dramatic fall of CBC Radio star Jian Ghomeshi.

Kids in the Hall now kids in a book

TORONTO (CP) — As they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their ground-breaking TV show and a new book about their lives, the Kids in the Hall are hoping to reunite for another project.

“We always talk about it and I think the gravity is created enough now that we’ll be doing something,” troupe member Bruce McCulloch said in a recent interview, noting it could be a tour or a TV project.

“Something is coming, definitely,” added fellow Kids star Scott Thompson.

On shelves now, The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy is by Canadian writer/musician Paul Myers, who is the brother of comedy star Mike Myers and has known the troupe since their early days.

It’s the first authorized biography on the Canadian fivesome, who formed in 1984 and pushed the boundaries of comedy on the CBC and HBO.

But they’re excited about the idea of creating new material at a time of heightened social awareness, political upheaval and a resurgence of sketch comedy on Canadian TV through CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show, of which they’re all fans.

“I didn’t understand how much the world was changing when we were young, and now the world has never changed more, so I think that would be interesting to comment on,” said McCulloch.

“To me it’s a very similar time to when we were in our heyday – a very turbulent time, lots of social change, lots of political change, political correctness with a stranglehold on popular culture,” added Thompson.

“I think what people are waiting for is five white guys in their 50s to tell people what’s what. Right, people?” he added jokingly. “Isn’t that what 2018 is waiting for?”

When they first started, the troupe did sketches in drag and tackled topics such as religion, modern sexuality and suburban life, which “changed CBC’s comedy lineup,” said Myers.

“They had Codco and later This Hour Has 22 Minutes, but this was where a lot of stuff happened, with The Kids in the Hall.”

Seth Meyers wrote the introduction for the book, which has interviews with all members, including Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, and Mark McKinney – as well as Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels and other comedy giants.

PHOTO BY GENE PAGE-AMC

Andrew Lincoln, as Rick Grimes, appears in a

Lloyd David Bygrave (Isaak)

Lloyd David Bygrave (Isaak), age 24, unexpectedly passed away on Monday, October 29, 2018. Lloyd was born on May 24, 1993, in Kelowna, BC and was adopted by his uncle as a toddler. Lloyd was a special young man and made friends with everyone. We will never forget our many trips where Lloyd would meet everyone in the campground and spend hours walking the dogs and visiting. All that knew him will remember him for his “look” that could only mean trouble or laughter was bound to follow. Even when he was getting into trouble, he somehow managed, even for a moment, to make you smile or laugh.

Lloyd is survived by his Parents Chris and Richard, his sisters Amanda (Ryan), Shawna (Anthony), Kayla, and his brothers Ryan (Brittany), Micheal, Jeremy, his many Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and his large AimHi family. Lloyd will be sorely missed, and we hope he catches up with Grandma and helps light up her way, just as he did for all who knew him.

A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, November 9, 2018 at 3:00pm with a viewing prior at 2:00pm in the family side room, at Assman’s Funeral Chapel, 1908 Queensway Street, Prince George, BC.

MCCULLY,MaeK.

May8,1947-November1,2018

ItiswithgreatsadnessthatthefamilyofMae KathleenMcCully(Hounslow)announcesherpassing afterabriefbattlewithcancerattheageof71.

Maewillbelovinglyrememberedbyherchildren Doug(Michele)andJulie;hergrandchildrenChelsea (Ross),Robert(Jessie),Josh,Ryley,andTanja (Logan);hergreatgrandchildrenJacob,Daryl,and Duncan;hersistersJuneandMargaret;aswellas countlessfriendsandextendedfamily.Maeis predeceasedbyherparentsLenaandWilliam Hounslow,herhusbandAlanMcCully,herbrothersin-lawRegFollettandGarryVirgin,andherson-inlawAndrewPeters.

AcelebrationoflifewillbeheldonSaturday November10that2:00p.m.attheRockfordGrill BanquetHallinPrinceGeorge.

Bruce Victor Swan Nov 2 1945 - Oct 30 2018

It is with heavy hearts that, we the family of Bruce Victor Swan, announce his passing after a brief illness.

Bruce was born in Vancouver and moved to Prince George in 1969. A 33 year member of the Prince George Fire Department; he retired in 2005 as Assistant Fire Chief. An avid fisherman, hunter, member of the Ridgeriders ATV club and the Overdrives car club, he enjoyed all aspects of the outdoors. Bruce is survived by his wife, Wanda, daughters Christina of Bermuda and Shaylen Bresett (Mike) of Chestermere, Alberta. He is also survived by his sister Judi Klick (Bill) of Salmon Arm, British Columbia and nieces Gayle and Lisa. He was predeceased by his parents, Edith and Vernon Swan. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Columbus Community Hall located at 7201 Domano Blvd., Thursday, November 8th, 2018. Doors open at 11:00 am, service will commence at 11:30 am. Refreshments and light lunch will follow.

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FOUCHER,CARMENN.

TheFoucher’s/Kipping’s/LeFebvre’swanttothankso manypeople,forallthesupportandlovethatwe receivedwhileourmother/grandmother/sister/aunt/ cousin,CarmenNoellaGraceFoucher,wasgallantly fightingherbattlewithcancerandfinallysuccumbed onAugust31st,withherprideandjoysbyher bedside.

Duringthistimewecreatedastrongerbondand created/renewedfriendships.Friends/familywere generouswithensuringwewerewellfed,knowing wewerethoughtofbythemanybeautifulsympathy cardsandthemanybeautifulbouquetsofflowers. Wehaveahugevoidinourfamilybutweare promisingamongstourfamilytocontinuethe closenessthatCarmenworkedsohardatachieving. Wedidonelastthingforourmotherwhichwasthe tributetripweplannedwithher.Wetookherto Toronto,Montreal,TroisRiviere,Batiscan,andVieux Quebec.Iencourageyoutovisitmymothers websitewhereyoucanseeherlifefrombeginningto end(carmenfoucher.ca).Wealsohavecreateda LegacyFundinhonourofourparentsandallthe informationisonherwebsite.Fromallofher childrenandgrandchildrenwethankyoufromthe bottomofourhearts.

Obituaries

Obituaries

Autos / Trucks & Vans

DEVELOPMENT OF A PEST MANAGEMENT PLAN

The purpose of Pest Management Plan (PMP) No. 233-0022-19/24 is to reduce overall mosquito annoyance within the District of Mackenzie by using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM)approach to control. The PMP focuses on larval mosquito control initiatives and uses public education, physical site modification and biological controls to reduce larval mosquito populations, and to conserve or enhance natural mosquito predators wherever possible. This includes the use of non-persistent, bacterial larvicides. This Pest Management Plan is a renewal of the expiring (April 2019) 5 year PMP for this program. The proposed duration of this PMP is from 15 April 2019 to 15 April 2024.

Mosquito larvae require stagnant or non-flowing waters, temporary or permanent, to develop.

When physical alterations (drainage, filling) are neither practical nor desirable, developing larvae will be treated using VectoBac or VectoLex larvicides. VectoBac 200G (PCP # 18158) contains the natural-occurring soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis and VectoLex CG (PCP #28008) is made with the related bacterium Bacillus sphaericus. Both of these products are classified as bio-rational products, they do not accumulate in the environment and provide species specific control of mosquito larvae. They are non-toxic to other organisms including fish, birds, wildlife, man and domestic animals. Applications of VectoBac 200G and VectoLex CG will be made using aerial(helicopter) and ground-based, hand-broadcast methods. Total larvicide treatment area is not to exceed 400 hectares of public lands in each year of the PMP. All applications will be conducted within the municipal boundaries of the District of Mackenzie.

This Pest Management Plan for mosquito control is being prepared for the District of Mackenzie by Duka Environmental Services Ltd, a biological sciences firm, with extensive experience in integrated pest management plan development and local mosquito control operations. Information on proposed treatment areas, annual mosquito control program operations and this PMP are available to the public by request from Duka Environmental Services Ltd 19732 - 68th Avenue, Langley, BC V2Y IH6 (604) 881-4565, Facsimile (866) 759-5902, or email;duka@telus.net. For VectoBac or VectoLex product information please see the manufacturers website www.valentbiosciences.com.

A person wishing to contribute information regarding a proposed treatment site, relevant to the development of this Pest Management Plan, may send copies of the information to Duka Environmental Services Ltd (agents for the District of Mackenzie) at the contact addresses above within 30 days of the publication of this notice. The identity of any respondents and the contents of anything submitted in response to this notice and application will become part of the public record.

Dairy farmers’ anger over trade deal gets awkward for one Liberal MP

Andy BLATCHFORD Citizen news service

OTTAWA — The newly struck North American trade agreement will let more American dairy products into Canada and, while it has yet to be ratified, it’s already putting at least one MP from the governing Liberals in an awkward spot.

A couple of weeks ago, Quebec Liberal MP Pierre Breton offered support to farmers in his rural riding of Shefford at a protest that opposed his government’s trade policy. Theatrically.

On a small stage in Granby, Breton took a mouthful of American milk. Then he spat it on the ground for a cheering crowd of farmers.

The moment – when Breton sprayed the milk from his mouth – was captured in photos and on video. The images accompanied local newspaper and TV reports about his public display of solidarity with the demonstrating farmers.

“It’s not real milk,” a smiling Breton can be heard saying in one video as another man on stage hands him the bottle.

One news report said some 300 farm-

ers participated in the demonstration against Trudeau’s trade deal.

The Trudeau government’s agreementin-principle with the United States and Mexico, once finalized, will open up Canada’s protected dairy market by 3.59 per cent.

That might seem like a tiny number but dairy producers argue that cracking open the country’s doors to American milk will hurt their bottom lines and expose Canadians to an inferior product. The Dairy Farmers of Canada have warned it will have a “dramatic impact” on individual producers and the industry as a whole.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has defended the trade agreement, hailing it as a big victory for Canada after 14 months of tough negotiations with the Trump administration. But the deal’s contentious dairy provisions, and the resulting outrage, could echo in dairy-producing regions in the leadup to the October 2019 federal election.

Breton’s office said he was unavailable for an interview but his spokesman insisted the MP’s objective at the rally was to listen to farmers’ concerns.

and energy stocks leading the gain.

“At that moment, Mr. Breton, all he would have said is that he was there to bring their message to Ottawa,” said aide Danny Girard, who added that the government is preparing consultations aimed at finding ways to ensure the Canadian milk industry remains viable.

“So, it’s a little premature – there’s not really anything to say about his opinion.”

Asked about Breton’s decision to sputter the milk, Girard said the MP essentially followed the lead of the president of a milk producers’ organization.

“It wasn’t just Mr. Breton that spat the milk,” he said. “Pierre demonstrated his support for milk producers by making the same gesture that had just been made by the president.”

When asked whether Breton has a problem with the new North American trade deal, Girard said from a global perspective it’s a good agreement – but noted that “nothing is perfect in this world.”

He recalled that the U.S. wanted to dismantle Canada’s supply-managed system and the deal succeeded in maintaining it.

“That’s good news,” he said.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 190.87 points to 25,461.70 and the S&P 500 index gained 15.25 points to 2,738.31. The Nasdaq composite retreated 28.14 to 7,328.85.

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative

rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Monday. Quotations in Canadian funds.

The gains are a continuation of restored optimism in the markets following the selloff last month, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. When stocks plunged in October, Fehr said, the fundamentals of corporate earnings and economic growth were a bit overshadowed by some panic.

Investors are now re-entering the market in recognition of the positive fundamental backdrop, he said.

It’s likely this month and the next will be good for the markets, Fehr said.

“If history holds, the November/December period after a mid-term election tends to be quite positive for equities,” he said. “Under the premise that when you just remove the spectre of uncertainty of an election, markets get back to focusing on what tends to drive them more over the long term, which is fundamentals and not politics.”

America holds its mid-term elections

Tuesday. The outcome could drive some short-term volatility, said Fehr, but is less impactful over the long term.

In currency markets, the Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.36 cents US, up 0.05 of a U.S. cent from an average of 76.31 cents US on Friday.

In commodities, the December crude contract fell four cents to US$63.10 per barrel and the December natural gas contract rose roughly 28 cents to about US$3.57 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract shed a dollar to US$1,232.30 an ounce and the December copper contract declined about five cents to roughly US$2.76 a pound.

Time to withdraw economic stimulus, Poloz says

Andy BLATCHFORD Citizen news service

OTTAWA — The governor of the Bank of Canada says after a decade of low-interest rates around the world the global economy has reached stronger footing where stimulus can be “steadily withdrawn.”

Stephen Poloz’s remarks Monday came as the Bank of Canada signals it will gradually raise its benchmark interest rate from its current level of 1.75 per cent to a so-called neutral stance of somewhere between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent.

The big question is how quickly the rate will rise. Poloz recently introduced the central bank’s fifth interest rate hike in 15 months and warned Canadians, many of whom are carrying high levels of debt, to get used to the idea of three per cent interest rates as the new normal. In prepared remarks of Poloz’s speech Monday in the United Kingdom, he said the world economy has made considerable progress in shaking off the effects of the 2007-08 financial crisis.

Interest rates around the world have remained very low over that period.

“After a decade of extraordinary effort by central banks to flood markets with liquidity, the global economy has reached the stage where stimulus can be steadily withdrawn,” said Poloz in a speech to the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce.

He also said the risks of international trade actions, both actual and threatened, have preoccupied investors.

But he argued these risks are two-sided and resolutions to disputes can provide fresh economic lifts.

“We have seen exactly this dynamic play out in Canada, as fears that (the North American Free Trade Agreement) would be torn up have been replaced with relief after agreement on the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement,” he said.

“In general, it is not appropriate for a central bank to formulate policy based on only one side of a risk distribution. Rather, the Bank of Canada must attempt to weigh both the upside and downside risks and take a middle, risk-balanced path.”

Poloz reiterated Monday that Canada’s projections for economic growth and inflation mean interest rates will continue to move higher. The central bank raises rates to keep inflation from climbing too high.

The Bank of Canada, he added, will decide on the appropriate pace of the increases based on how well the economy adapts to higher interest rates established by earlier hikes, given the high levels of household debt.

He also said the central bank will pay close attention to new developments in international trade.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pours coffee for supporters next to local candidate Pierre Breton during a campaign stop at a coffee shop in Granby, Que., on Oct. 6, 2015. The newly struck North American trade agreement will allow more American dairy products to enter Canada and, while it has yet to be ratified, it’s already putting Breton in an awkward spot.

POLOZ

You’ll go bananas for this pudding

Ellie KRIEGER Citizen news service

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for pudding, in large part because it brings me right back to my grandma’s house, where as a child I stood on a step stool so I could reach the pot and help stir, stir, stir as the sweet scent of the thickening mixture wafted upward.

Looking back, I see how that aromatherapy, along with the anticipation of waiting for the warm mixture to set in the refrigerator in the little glass ramekins she had poured it into, only added to the pleasure of eating it in the end.

These single-serving cups of maple-kissed pudding, layered with sliced banana and topped with a crunch of graham cracker crumbles, transport me to that comforting place – and in a better-for-you way to boot. The recipe doesn’t veer far from grandma’s, except that rather than refined sugar I use a modest amount of maple syrup, which adds a lovely layer of flavour. She generally used whole milk like I do here, instead of cream, so the pudding has some richness yet is still relatively light.

One thing grandma definitely had down was the perfect portioning. Building each serving with layers of thinly sliced banana into small ramekins or cups is not only visually appealing, it means you get just

the right amount for a satisfying, healthful snack or dessert.

Banana pudding cups

Four servings You’ll need four six-ounce ramekins or cups. Make ahead: The puddings need to set up in the refrigerator for at least four hours, and up to three days.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cold whole milk

2 tablespoons plus 1 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 large egg yolk

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large ripe, firm banana, peeled

1/3 cup coarsely crushed whole-grain graham crackers

Steps Combine the milk, cornstarch and salt in a heavy-bottomed, medium pot, whisking until the cornstarch has dissolved. Place over medium heat; cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for two minutes, whisking often, to form a loose paste. Place the egg yolk in a medium bowl; whisk in a few tablespoons of the hot milk mixture until well blended, then pour all the tempered egg mixture into the pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently, for two minutes, until thickened further.

Remove from the heat; whisk in the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Thinly slice the banana.

Distribute about a third of the pudding among the ramekins or cups, then place a few banana slices over each. Top that with more of the pudding, then add another layer of banana.

Spoon the remaining pudding over the layer of fruit. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, and up to three days. Scatter graham cracker crumbs over the top of each portion just before serving.

PHOTO BY DEB LINDSEY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Single-serving cups of maple-kissed pudding, layered with sliced banana and topped with a crunch of graham cracker crumbles, can transport you back to grandma’s house.