Voters interested in beating the crowds can take advantage of some advance voting opportunities this week.
The first is today at the Civic Centre, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is open to those who want to cast a ballot in the elections for Prince George city council and school board trustee electoral area one.
Those who want to vote in the elections for any of the contested electoral areas in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George will have to go to the regional district’s office at First Avenue and George Street. Votes for the area one school board election will also be accepted there.
Another advanced voting opportunity for city council, school board and the regional district races will be held on Thursday at Pine Centre Mall, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Additional opportunities will be held next week, on Oct. 16 at the Civic Centre and regional district office, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Oct. 17 at the Bentley Centre at UNBC and regional district office, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The general voting day is set for Oct. 20, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Locations in the city on that day are at Blackburn Elementary School, D.P. Todd Secondary School, Edgewood Elementary School, École Lac des Bois, John McInnis Centre, Kelly Road Secondary School, Malaspina Elementary School, Ron Brent Elementary School and Vanway Elementary School.
Locations for the regional district on that day are at the district office, Nukko Lake Elementary School, Beaverly Elementary School, Miworth Community Hall, West Lake Community Hall, Blackburn Elementary School, Hixon Elementary School, Shell-Glen Fire Hall, Sinclair Mills Community Hall, Ferndale Community Hall, Willow River Fire Hall,Bear Lake Community Commission, Summit Lake Community Hall, Kelly Road Secondary School and Vanway Elementary School.
Information on voting eligibility is available at princegeorge.ca and rdffg.bc.ca. As for checking out the candidates before voting, there is a “candidating” event tonight at the main branch of the Prince George Public Library from 6:45-8:30 p.m. — see TRUSTEE CANDIDATES, page 3
Preventing a suicide can be a matter of gut feeling, expert says
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Being a little nosey can sometimes be a life-saving gesture. That’s the advice Mary Lu Spagrud has for those worried a friend or relative is on the verge of taking their own life. Signs can be both obvious and subtle and there is no textbook way to be sure, the education and projects manager for the Canadian Mental Health Association’s northern region said Tuesday.
Spagrud said it’s often a matter of relying on gut feeling and characterized those indications as “invitations” to find out what’s wrong.
“These invitations are as unique to the individual as the individual is,” Spagrud said. “We often talk about changes in that person’s norm, we talk about seeing things – maybe people lashing out or withdrawing from normal activities. Normally they sleep well and now they’re not sleeping well.”
What someone is saying can also be a
Spagrud said simply reaching out and asking “are you OK?” can be helpful.
clue. “Sometimes it can be as direct as ‘I want to kill myself,’ and at other times it’s ‘things would be better off if I’m not here,’ or ‘I can’t take this much more,’” Spagrud said.
Support services were put in place over the weekend following what School District 57 has described as a “sudden death” of a College Heights Secondary School student but, according to numerous posts on social media, was the second death by suicide at the school in less than two weeks.
Spagrud said simply reaching out and asking “are you OK?” can be helpful. Even if the person doesn’t want to talk about it, the gesture can nudge them in the right direction. But a little training can also go a long way.
The CMHA offers a half-day workshop through its Prince George office. Called SafeTALK, it’s open to anyone over age 15 years old – although some leeway has been given – regardless of prior experience or training.
Those who take the training learn to recognize the signs and do some triage and point the person in the right direction in terms of getting longer-term help.
The CMHA also offers Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), a more advanced two-day program for anyone over 15 years old, also regardless of prior experience, who wants to be able to provide “suicide first aid.”
“Participants learn to intervene and help prevent the immediate risk of suicide,” according to the CMHA Prince George website.
For young people, Spagrud said it’s often a matter of lacking life experience to know that “this too shall pass.”
“They may feel that they may not want to live anymore but they sometimes forget that they didn’t always feel this way,” she said.
— see WAVE AND A SMILE, page 3
New Fort St. James hospital advanced to business plan stage
Citizen staff
A concept plan for replacing the Stuart Lake Hospital in Fort St. James has been given the green light, the provincial government said Tuesday.
The next step is development of a business plan – a process that will take 12 to 18 months. Once approved, the project will be advanced to procurement and then construction.
“It’s a go! This new hospital has been needed for a long time, and is why Premier John Horgan and I made it a key priority in our efforts to improve health
care throughout northern B.C.,” Health
Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement.
“The new hospital will bring better acute, primary and community care for people living in Fort St. James, local First Nations and the surrounding area. For a growing senior population in the region and for the economy as a whole, it is an essential public service.”
A media event was held Tuesday in the community to announce the development. A cost estimate will be determined during the business plan stage.
The hospital opened in 1972 and is outdated in terms of space, function-
ality and technology. Currently, the hospital has 12 beds and offers emergency, acute and complex care care, as well as residential care, lab and X-ray services, and mental health and addictions counselling.
Discussions regarding the replacement of the hospital have been ongoing since 2008. In September 2015, Northern Health submitted a concept plan to the Ministry of Health.
Northern Health submitted a revised concept plan to government in summer 2018, which was approved in October 2018.
Gas line rupture sends flames soaring
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A ruptured natural gas line was the source of a massive fire that broke out north of the city on Tuesday evening.
An intense orange glow topped by a large plume of smoke dominated the skyline in that direction for some time as firefighters, ambulance and police rushed to the scene at about 5:30 p.m.
People living in the vicinity, meanwhile, headed in the other direction.
Between 70 and 80 people living on the north side of the Lheidli T’enneh reserve were evacuated.
“It was a bit frantic,” said Terry Teegee.
“I just heard it at the start,” added Teegee. “I thought it might have been a jet engine or a lowflying jet. And the next thing that came to mind is that maybe it’s a train but that’s way too loud.
“But then, as soon as I looked outside, I saw a massive fireball about a
half a kilometre to a kilometre away behind the community.”
He said the subsequent evacuation to the band’s community hall on the south side of the river was a “little bit frantic as you can imagine,” but everyone arrived safely.
Rodney Godwin and his family live on Estate Road, near the end of Landooz Road and just across the Fraser River from the Shelley townsite. They heard the sound of thunder shortly after 5:30 p.m. and when Godwin looked across the way, he saw a flame shooting into the sky.
They left their home shortly after that. Police soon had a perimeter established and weren’t allowing anyone back in until it was deemed safe. The evacuation zone was initially for several kilometres but within a couple hours was reduced to one kilometre, allowing residents to return home.
Godwin and his family bided their time watching the slowlyshrinking fireball from a pullout along Northwood Pulp Mill Road while awaiting for the go-ahead to
city early Tuesday evening. return home.
RCMP said there were no injuries and no reported damage other than to the pipeline itself and as
of about 7:30 p.m. the gas supply had been shut down.
“There is no indication of a cause at this point in time,” RCMP
Calgary has IOC green light to bid for 2026 Winter Games
CALGARY — The International Olympic Committee has invited Calgary to compete for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, but Calgarians are proving more difficult to impress than the IOC.
Calgary, Stockholm and Milan-Cortina, Italy, got the IOC’s stamp of approval to bid for 2026 in a vote Tuesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
But Calgary must successfully sell a bid at home ahead of a Nov. 13 plebiscite before the city can start an international campaign, according to Calgary 2026 board chair Scott Hutcheson.
“Our view is we need to take care of our domestic interests first, make sure Calgarians are informed, make sure we’re listening to Calgarians and that they understand what is in their prospective bid,” Hutcheson told The Canadian Press from Buenos Aires.
“Until Nov. 13, I think the management, myself and the board, our real focus is to try and make sure we’re doing the right thing for Calgarians, Albertans and Canadians, getting the information at that level. If we went forward after the plebiscite, then it’s time for us to spend more time in what’s referred to as the international relations.”
Coincidentally, Calgary beat out Swedish and Italian entries – Falun and Cortina – to host the 1988 Winter Olympics.
said. Investigators will conduct an examination of the scene and a further update will be forthcoming tomorrow (Wednesday).”
The IOC will accept 2026 bids in January, but also announced Tuesday the election of the successful 2026 host city has been moved up to June in Lausanne, Switzerland, instead of September in Milan.
After presenting a draft host plan to city council and the public Sept. 11, the bid corporation Calgary 2026 is negotiating financial agreements with the city, province and federal governments and trying to engage the public in its plan.
A large fireball was seen north of the
Union issues ban on overtime at northern B.C. sawmills
Citizen staff
The union representing workers at 13 northern B.C. sawmills has directed its members to cease working overtime as a first step in job action after entering a legal strike position on Saturday.
The United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 and Conifer, the employers’ bargaining agent for the region, are at odds over a new contract. Bargaining has reached an impasse that a mediator was unable to resolve.
The sides, meanwhile, are keeping an eye
Trustee candidates gathering
at library on Saturday
from page 1
Attendees can spend up to two minutes of one-on-one time with the candidate of their choice to ask questions and discuss issues before moving on in a “speed dating” format.
The library is also hosting an event for School District 57 board candidates from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Saturday at the main branch. Candidates will each have two minutes to introduce themselves to the audience, followed by informal group and individual discussion.
Finally, The Citizen, in partnership with the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board and UNBC, will host an all-candidates forum for city council candidates in the Canfor Theatre at UNBC on Tuesday from 7-9 p.m.
The Citizen will be publishing short writeups from each school board and city council candidate in Saturday’s print and online edition.
on negotiations for sawmills in the southern Interior. Talks between the USW and the Interior Forest Labour Relations Association, the bargaining agent for that region, are set to resume today in Kelowna.
If the IFLRA offers a similar package to Conifer’s, a strike vote will be conducted there in the coming days, Local 1-2017 officials said in a posting on their website.
Conifer is offering annual wage increases ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 per cent over five years and is also seeking a series of concessions. The USW counters that given the high
LOCAL IN BRIEF
Driver killed in collision
The driver of a pickup truck was killed Sunday night in a two-vehicle collision on Highway 16, east of Prince George. Police, who were called to the scene about 15 kilometres outside city limits at 8:45 p.m., said he may have failed to stop before proceeding onto the highway from Geddes Road and was struck by another pickup truck traveling on the highway.
The victim’s name was not released. A passenger in his vehicle suffered serious but non life-threatening injuries while the three occupants of the other pickup received minor injuries.
“Road and weather conditions were described as good at the time and alcohol has not been ruled out as a possible contributing factor to this collision,” RCMP said.
The stretch was closed for several hours while investigators gathered evidence. Anyone with information regarding the collision who has not already spoken with police is asked to contact Prince George regional traffic services at 250-649-4004.
Attempted murder charge laid
A woman is in custody on a charge of attempted murder after a reported stabbing Sunday morning.
Sindy Pelletier, 38, also faces one count each of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and uttering threats.
price producers are attracting for their product, employees deserve better.
The sides are negotiating on behalf of 13 sawmills that employ roughly 1,600 workers: Canfor’s PG Sawmill and Isle Pierre operations as well as its sawmills in Houston and Fort St. Joh; Lakeland Mills in Prince George; Dunkley Lumber Ltd. south of Hixon; Conifex’s mills in Fort St. James and Mackenzie; Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake; Tolko’s Lakeview Lumber and Soda Creek mills in Williams Lake and Quest Wood in Quesnel; and West Fraser’s Williams Lake Planer.
She was arrested at the scene after RCMP were called to a McIntyre Crescent home and found a man suffering from what appeared to be stab wounds. He was taken to hospital and is expected to survive.
The accused and the victim are known to each other and alcohol was a factor, RCMP said.
Suspect sought after attack with hammer
Police are on the lookout for suspect after a man was hit in the head with what appeared to be a hammer during an attempted robbery Monday morning.
The victim was found at the corner of 17th Avenue and Larch Street after RCMP were called to the scene at about 9:30 a.m.
RCMP were told two men were walking along 17th Avenue when a lone man wearing a mask came up and demanded their phones. When they refused to hand them over, the perpetrator struck one of them on his head and then took off empty handed.
The injured man was treated in hospital and released.
The suspect is described as Caucasian, 20 to 30 years old and wearing a red jacket and a loose black pants in addition to the mask.
“Police would like to remind the public that the best course of action when faced in a situation like this, is to cooperate. Items can be replaced, lives cannot,” RCMP said.
Anyone with information on where the suspect could be found is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Demolition of the old RCMP building on Brunswick Street is almost done, causing a change of sight lines in the area.
Wave and a smile can help
— from page 1
Adding to the trouble, they often feel their only option is to die. The key, Spagrud said, is to offer a third alternative that will keep them out of harm’s way for the time being. “Just in this moment in time, what would you need to be safe,” she said.
Oftentimes the blinders are on and they’re unable to see other options and other alternatives.
Mary Lu Spagrud
It can often come down to small changes, said Spagrud, like making sure to get enough sleep or looking at a major disappointment in another way. “Oftentimes the blinders are on and they’re unable to see other options and other alternatives,” she said.
All that aside, a wave and a smile can sometimes go a long way. Spagrud recalled a client who was about to jump off a bridge when a friend, unaware of what he was about to do, honked and waved as he drove by.
“And just that moment of connection, of that smile and that wave, reminded him that he was important enough and not jump,” she said. “So it’s really important that we reach out as well.” Those interested in taking either SafeTALK or Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is welcome to leave their name with CMHA for contact when dates for delivering the programs are available.
Shots fired reports remain a mystery
Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP are asking for the public’s help to get to the bottom of reports of a shots fired incident that remains unconfirmed.
The detachment received more than one report on Monday at 6:15 a.m. of such an incident in the 2600 block of Upland Street in the VLA neighbourhood but while extensive patrols and inquiries were made, RCMP say “no further information or evidence of a shooting was obtained.”
The reports came after a shots fired incident early Friday morning near the corner of Strathcona
and Norwood in the VLA. A home was put behind police tape for much of the day.
RCMP said Tuesday the home appeared to have sustained damage consistent with gun shots.
Police described the incident as a targeted shooting. While several people were inside the home at the time, no injuries were reported.
Anyone who has information related to the reports is asked to contact Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477 or online at www. pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers.
Drought level raised in three regions
Citizen staff
The provincial government is calling for voluntary water-use reductions in the Upper Fraser East, Nechako and Peace regions as streamflows in the central and northern regions remain well below normal and continue to decline.
The drought condition for those three regions was raised to level 3, very dry, from level 2, dry, on Tuesday. Level 3 is also in place for the Northwest, Upper Fraser West, Middle Fraser and the Central Coast regions and Stikine and Skeena-Nass regions remain at drought level 4, extremely dry.
“If voluntary reductions of water use are not sufficient to maintain flows above critical
levels, the ministry may consider regulating water usage under the Water Sustainability Act,” the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said in a statement.
“Specific actions could include the temporary suspension of water licences or short-term water approvals to restore flows to minimum critical levels in the affected streams.”
There is a risk of drought continuing into next year if freeze-up in these regions occurs before streams, soil moisture and groundwater levels recharge, the ministry added and also noted that low water levels could inhibit salmon and bull trout from reaching spawning locations.
27 squatters arrested, charged in Nanaimo
NANAIMO (CP) — Twenty
seven squatters who took over a boarded-up elementary school in Nanaimo have been arrested and face charges. RCMP say it began Friday when the group breached a rear door at Rutherford Elementary School but police didn’t move in because they weren’t sure about the squatters intentions or if
any of them had weapons. A Vancouver Island Tactical Response Unit, police emergency response team, police dog services and other officers entered the building on Saturday and began arresting people. Police say they had to use a city fire truck with an extension ladder to arrest some of the people on the school’s roof.
Fraser Lake takes spotlight in CBC’s Still Standing
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Some towns boom and some towns bust. Fraser Lake has seen a lot of those two words over the years. The nation took a peak on Tuesday night on CBC-TV’s show Still Standing.
The town is home to the first known non-Aboriginal farm in B.C. history. It got its name from Simon Fraser, who established close business relations with the First Nations of the lake – the Stellat’en and Nadleh Whut’en –and set up a North West Company trading fort there in 1808 (second oldest west of the Canadian Rockies, three years younger than Fort McLeod).
Fort Fraser was where the last spike was driven to complete the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad in 1914.
Fraser Lake today is where Endako Mines operates its molybdenum mine, where West Fraser Lumber operates a major sawmill, where they call themselves the “white swan capital of the world” and the “Home Of 2007 Canadian karate champion Richard Bisanz.”
The downtown is dominated by cute Mouse Mountain park, and the biggest features of local culture include The Next Star singing champion Tianda Flegel and supermodel twins Shauna and
Man charged with murder in house explosion
KITCHENER, Ont. (CP) — A 58-year-old man is charged with first-degree murder in connection with a deadly house explosion in Kitchener, Ont.
Waterloo Region Police say Udo Haan was arrested on Monday – nearly six weeks after the explosion that rocked a quiet residential neighbourhood in August.
The blast levelled one home and caused extensive damage to some nearby residences.
The body of 58-year-old Edresilda Haan was found in the backyard of the destroyed home and her death was ruled a homicide.
Udo Haan, who family members previously identified as Edresilda Haan’s husband, was seriously injured in the blast and police say he remains in hospital to this day.
Police did not say how many charges the accused is facing in relation to the explosion, but say they include one count of first-degree murder and one count of arson with disregard for human life.
They say the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Shannon Baker. But Fraser Lake was also the site of Lejac Residential School. The forest industry has had its ups and downs, the price of moly is currently too low to run the mine, the town was almost burned to the ground by the Shovel Lake wildfire this past summer and it has been decidedly challenging to keep things like banks and grocery stores to stay open.
That’s what attracted Still Standing and comedian host Jonny Harris, who researches towns across Canada that are on hard times, but still fighting for its way of life. He found such a town less than two hours west of Prince George.
“Each week, Jonny takes a hilarious and heart-warming journey to find humour in the unlikeliest of places – small towns on the ropes,” said program liaison Tanya Koivusalo. “After immersing himself in the lives of local characters and unearthing the tall tales in these tiny towns, Jonny delivers a rousing original stand-up comedy routine – a toast, not a roast – for the whole community.”
CBC enticed audiences with a Still Standing teaser of the episode. Harris described what to expect thus: “The people of Fraser Lake recently took a one-two punch: they lost both their largest employer and their only grocery store. But the people in this hidden gem of a town have grit for
days and they are going above and beyond to take care of their own.”
One of the leaders of the “taking care of their own” movement in Fraser Lake is Shellie Gleave, the founder of a proposed cooperative agency working towards a multi-use facility in the town that will help stabilize some of their commercial needs, offer education opportunities, boost some employment, and establish a sustainable heartbeat in the municipal economy. Gleave said the TV episode was some positive reinforcement that Fraser Lake’s recent hard patch was leading to homemade better times ahead.
“It shows how we pull together in times of trouble and strife,” she said. “We are finding ways to collaboratively develop solutions that are in everyone’s best interest. In the spirit of cooperation, reconciliation and renewal, we are determined to harness and foster talent, and expand opportunities which build self-reliance, better health, and empowerment.”
That’s taking a lot of hard work, behind-the-scenes frustrations, intra-community diplomacy, and gathering the money to make it all happen. Still Standing came in to shine a light on the struggle and get everyone enjoying each other’s company and laughing about it.
The episode will be available on CBC’s online platforms now that the Fraser Lake episode has aired.
B.C. needs to know more about tax breaks it gives, says auditor general
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — British Columbia’s auditor general says politicians need to pay more attention to the billions of dollars they provide every year in tax breaks to support government programs and policies.
Carol Bellringer said Tuesday in a report that the breaks in the form of tax expenditures can continue on for decades without oversight on either their effectiveness or if they’re still required.
She said the government’s reporting of tax expenditures and how they relate to spending has been largely unchanged for the past 25 years.
if it didn’t offer the tax breaks. Tax exemptions, allowances, rate reductions, deferrals and credits are all types of tax expenditures.”
She said the government decided not to charge provincial sales tax on the purchase of new bicycles to help meet its environmental goals, but that means it gives up about $23 million in taxes every year.
She said the government’s reporting of tax expenditures and how they relate to spending has been largely unchanged for the past 25 years.
B.C. government tax breaks were estimated at $7 billion in the 2016-2017 budget year, the report says. The government’s direct spending total in the budget for programs such as health care and education was $48.7 billion.
“Tax expenditures are a significant component of government fiscal plans but legislators may not have all the information they need to determine whether tax expenditures continue to achieve government’s policy objectives,” Bellringer said in a telephone news conference.
She said the tax breaks give support to government social, economic and environmental policy objectives but providing those benefits comes at a cost of lost revenues.
“Essentially, a tax expenditure is forgone revenue,” Bellringer said.
“It’s money government doesn’t collect from taxpayers, but could
Bellringer said B.C.’s homeowner grant – introduced in 1957 to relieve the pressure of rising property taxes and encourage home construction – is a decades-old tax expenditure that has undergone few changes or reviews since its introduction.
“It may no longer be effective in supporting government’s policy objectives,” she said.
Bellringer pointed to the federal government as an example of a progressive approach to addressing the issue by clearly posting its most recent eight years of tax expenditures.
B.C.’s tax expenditures are included in an appendix section of its most recent budget, she noted.
“They’re accepting it year after year and it rolls forward and continues to be in the program,” Bellringer said. “It’s important for (politicians) to appreciate when they are voting on the budget for the year that the numbers for program expenses do not include tax expenditures.”
B.C.’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement Tuesday it is important that politicians and others have access to complete information relating to B.C.’s tax expenditures and it will consider improvements to the reporting of such expenditures.
Jonny Harris is shown in a Season 1 episode of Still Standing.
Unsafe vehicle cause of limo crash: driver’s family
HILL Citizen news service
Michael
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — Relatives of the limousine driver involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York said Tuesday they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle.
The family of Scott Lisinicchia released a statement through a lawyer shortly after another attorney representing the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, said the driver might have been unfamiliar with the rural road.
Lisinicchia was driving the limousine that ran through a stop sign Saturday at the bottom of a T-intersection on a rural road west of Albany. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo celebrating a woman’s birthday died.
The statement from Lisinicchia’s lawyer said he would never have “knowingly put others in harm’s way” and cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“The family believes that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants,” according to the statement from Grant & Longworth.
Prestige Limousine has been criticized for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license. The deadly crash also has shined fresh light on the business owner, a former FBI informant.
The limousine that ran the stop sign was cited for code violations Sept. 4, including a problem with the antilock brake system malfunction indicator system. Four of the Gansevoort, New York-based company’s limos were cited for 22 maintenance violations this year, though none were deemed critical.
“Those safety issues had been addressed and corrected,” attorney Lee Kindlon, who represents Prestige, told CBS News in a segment Tuesday. “Not all infractions are major. A lot of these things are minor and were fixed.”
State Department of Transportation spokesman Joseph Morrissey said a sticker was placed on the vehicle after the September inspection declaring it “unserviceable.”
He said Kindlon’s assertion that the code violations had been corrected and the vehicle cleared for service was “categorically false.”
Even if the repairs were made, the limo would have needed to be
re-inspected and the owner would need approval again to transport passengers, a state transportation department spokesman said. Kindlon said he doesn’t think those infractions contributed to the crash.
Kindlon told the Times Union of Albany that the driver might have misjudged his ability to stop at the bottom of the long winding hill.
“I think he came up over that hill unfamiliar with territory,” Kindlon said. “I think the state has been warned about that intersection for years and the Department of Transportation is just looking to point a finger.”
One of the victims, Erin McGowan, texted a friend saying the party bus that was supposed to take them to Cooperstown had broken down on the way to pick them up and that the group obtained a stretch limo instead, the friend, Melissa Healey, told The New York Times. McGowan texted that the limo was in poor condition, with its motor “making everyone deaf.”
The limousine, built from a 2001 Ford Excursion, ran the stop sign, crossed three lanes of traffic and hit a parked SUV before stopping in a wooded ditch.
Federal transportation records
show that Prestige is owned by Shahed Hussain, who worked as an informant for the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks. He infiltrated Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathizer in at least three investigations.
State police say Shahed Hussain is in Pakistan.
On Monday his son, Nauman Hussain, who has operated the limo company, met with state police investigators for several hours, according to the Albany newspaper.
Kindlon declined to comment on the interview to the newspaper. He did not return calls seeking comment from The Associated Press.
In 2014, Nauman Hussain and his brother were accused by police of insisting they were each other after a traffic stop. Nauman Hussain was the passenger, but had a valid license. His brother did not. Police later discovered Nauman had an extensive suspension and conviction list which had been cleared, according to the Times Union.
Prestige’s address is listed as a modest motel outside Saratoga Springs that is owned by Hussain, according to tax records.
Nearby residents complained to town code enforcement officials several times in recent years about the condition of Hussain’s property.
In spring 2017, the state health officials shut down the motel and its low-income residents were forced to temporarily move out after a sewer line failed. The owner claimed a disgruntled former tenant sabotaged the infrastructure, but a building inspector blamed the problem on improper fittings and lack of support for the waste lines.
Chretien calls electing of Trump ‘monumental error’ in book
Joan BRYDEN Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Jean Chretien says Donald Trump is “unspeakable” and his rise to the U.S. presidency heralds the decline of the American empire.
Chretien unleashes that unflattering opinion of Trump in a new book of anecdotes from his 10 years as Canada’s prime minister.
Although it’s entitled My Stories, My Times, Chretien, who retired from politics in 2003 after winning three majority mandates, does not shy away from opining on current events – most notably on Trump.
In the preface, Chretien says writing the book over the past year helped him recover his serenity when he got “tired of observing the surrealist vagaries of President Trump and of listening to his nonsense.”
“It’s been very sad to observe the monumental error our neighbours to the south made in November 2016,” he writes in a later chapter, in which he recounts happy times he and his wife, Aline, have spent with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, who was defeated by Trump.
“I fear that Hillary’s defeat, and the arrival of the fanatical Trump, mark the true end of the American Empire. You can understand why Aline and I are so happy to have the Clintons as friends, and almost as proud
I fear that Hillary’s defeat, and the arrival of the fanatical Trump, mark the true end of the American Empire.
— Jean Chretien
to be removed as far as possible from the unspeakable Donald Trump.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – aware that it doesn’t take much to set off the mercurial president, who is not above threatening to wreak economic “ruination” on Canada – has always been very guarded in speaking about Trump. But Chretien, now 84 and still active as a lawyer with Dentons, is not so constrained.
In an interview about his new book, Chretien elaborated on his view that the American empire is on the decline.
“You know, you see the emergence of the Chinese and the decline of America,” he told The Canadian Press.
“When I’m travelling the world, I feel that their influence is going down very rapidly.”
Chretien said the protectionist, America-
‘Lock her up’ chant rises again
Citizen news service
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Chants of “Lock her up!” rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as President Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night.
But this time, the staple of Trump’s 2016 campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton had a new target: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
Feinstein has denied her office was the source of the leak.
“Can you believe that?” Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman.
“Did she leak that? 100 per cent,” Trump said, adding: “I don’t want to get sued, so 99 per cent.”
In a statement, Feinstein called Trump’s
remarks “ridiculous and an embarrassment.”
Ford had sought to remain anonymous when she brought the allegation against Kavanaugh to Feinstein’s attention. She later went public after reporters started trying to contact her. Kavanaugh staunchly denied Ford’s accusation.
“Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly,” Feinstein said. “Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn’t me or my staff.”
The rally in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri river from Omaha, Neb., was Trump’s latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to midterms that will determine control of Congress. And it comes as the president is on a high wave following a series of wins, including Kavanaugh’s confirmation. It’s the second appointment Trump has made to the Supreme Court.
Indeed, Trump’s loudest applause came as he continued his victory lap, which has included bashing Democrats for attempting to sink the nomination. Trump and other GOP leaders say the effort energized Republican voters, who had long been considered less energized than Democrats.
first Trump administration is trying to break the international order “that has created prosperity around the world since the (1940s)” and is causing concern among traditional allies as the U.S. withdraws from the Iran denuclearization agreement, among other international pacts.
“If you want to be in isolation, that’s fine. But you have less influence.”
The rise and eventual fall of superpowers is natural and inevitable, Chretien added.
“You know, empires disappear. A lot of people are nostalgic about the British empire. A lot of people in France still dream of Napoleon; he’s dead since a long time. Life is like that.”
Chretien also weighed in on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has renamed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The 14 months of tortuous negotiations and repeated threats by Trump to rip up NAFTA and impose ruinous auto tariffs on Canada turned out to be “a lot of talk for nothing,” he said.
“He changed the name and not much else,” Chretien said, adding that the NAFTA partners made “a little bit of an adjustment but basically we still have a free trade agreement with them that will work about the same way that it was working before.”
In the book, Chretien says last year’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., “exposed to us the true face of Donald Trump.”
The rally was staged ostensibly to protest the removal of Confederate symbols but white nationalists and other far-right extremists chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans and carried guns and Nazi symbols. Violent clashes with counter-protesters erupted, leaving one woman dead. Trump refused to explicitly denounce the white supremacists, choosing instead to condemn hatred and bigotry “on many sides” and claiming that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clashes. While Chretien writes that no country is immune to “backsliding where social values are concerned” and Canada must remain vigilant, he said in the interview that Canada has avoided the kind of polarization plaguing the U.S. because “we have much better institutions.”
For example, he pointed to the heavily politicized appointment process for judges in the U.S., where the recent confirmation of Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh became a circus amid accusations of sexual misconduct when he was a teenager. The judicial system in Canada has remained largely untouched by politicization.
AP PHOTO
Debris covers the ground at the site of Saturday’s fatal limousine-style SUV crash in Schoharie, N.Y.
Let’s talk about suicide
This is a revision and updated version of an editorial that first appeared in The Citizen on Sept. 7, 2013. First, our condolences to the friends and family members who have lost loved ones to suicide. We are truly sorry for your loss. We also hope you might use your experience to help us help others to spare them the same tragedy but we understand if you can’t talk about it because it hurts too much. Like most people and most businesses, The Citizen and its staff are all too familiar with suicide. One of our colleagues took his own life three days after 9/11. Individually, we’ve all been affected. Personally, suicide took away an uncle, as well as classmates in Grade 7 and Grade 12.
The worst problem with suicide is that even the act of talking about it, just to discuss ways to prevent it, gets people thinking about killing themselves.
Yet if we don’t talk about it, we fail those who are not only thinking about it but planning it. We have to let them know there is help.
There are many complicated reasons why someone decides to take their own life when they haven’t been diagnosed with a terminal disease but those reasons are simply details. The source of all suicides is suffering. For people who are physically healthy and in no danger of dying any time soon, the suffering may be from long-term
depression, anxiety and other mental health issues or from a recent, traumatic event. Regardless, these individuals have concluded that causing their own death is the best form of treatment to the pain they feel. The cause of that pain is also irrelevant. For someone whose sole purpose in life is to be a household name, the realization that you’ll never be as famous as you were last year and fewer and fewer people will remember you over time is a soul-crushing discovery. Yet, depending on the individual, this hurts as bad as losing multiple members of your family in an accident, losing a limb or even losing a job. Whatever the source of the hurt, if suicidal thoughts are the outcome, then those feelings must be met head-on. At that point, the discussion isn’t about suicide, it’s about pain relief. Giving someone experiencing suicidal thoughts ways to cope gives them hope that they might not always feel the way they do now. Sometimes, sadly, the cure can be worse than the disease and coping methods lead to substance abuse, where
the pain is buried under drugs and alcohol but not actually treated.
The source of all suicides is suffering. For people who are physically healthy and in no danger of dying any time soon, the suffering may be from long-term depression, anxiety and other mental health issues or from a recent, traumatic event.
Not talking about suicide in public buries the problem. There is no shame in considering ending your own life during a dark time. It’s human to wonder who will miss you when you’re gone. Getting help, however, takes courage – first, to admit that your suffering, which seems invisible to most others but is silently consuming you, and second, to believe someone can guide you through your pain. It also takes courage to confront someone exhibiting suicide warning signs. Speaking up doesn’t make you their counsellor or responsible to fix all their problems. All it does is show that you care enough to bring the suffering in your midst out into the open before tragedy occurs.
Encourage depressed people to get help since untreated depression is believed to be the number one cause for suicide. Watch for dramatic changes in personality, mood swings, sleeping habits, eating habits, drug and alcohol use, work performance, loss
YOUR LETTERS
Some questions for the mayor
If Harold Moffat could pull off expanding the city limits, I’m sure Mayor Lyn Hall and company could do it too. It would reduce taxes for us with more money to spend on services and debt reductions.
I’d like to pose this question to all city council candidates about limiting the mayor’s ability to be a deciding vote when there is a four against four draw among councillors. Further deliberations should be required by council. Agree or disagree?
This would have required city council to deliberate more on the subject of a Cabelas sporting goods store being built over a housing project on O’Grady Road across from Home Depot. Everybody should have got it. It was a four-four tie, so Lyn Hall sent Cabelas packing. This business needed the right location to be successful here and not everyone listened to realtor Harry Backlin.
People from all directions
would have been coming here to see inside a Cabelas store and Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Wal-mart and company are right across the road. How convenient.
Hall wanted a housing project that could be built most anywhere up there, just put a bus shelter and hook it up on city transit, so simple it was! As for another suitable location for a Cabelas store, not likely for a long time now. Did you happen to have another location in mind, Lyn? Please share with us if you have that answer.
I also would like to ask why eliminate Seventh Avenue that merged with Patricia Boulevard.
Another housing project now eliminates a vital link to the Millar Addition residents and creates an instant bottleneck at Fifth Avenue and Queensway. Traffic is already backing up to Dominion Street well past George Street. Another bad call by Lyn Hall and city council. I ask all to respond to a question of why is our city council not gender neutral. I’d like to hear from everyone running as to if you disagree then let’s hear your
chauvinistic response as to why you won’t want to put a motion forward for gender neutrality in future elections. If you don’t agree then let’s hear why, and not that it’s impossible to do because you’re dead wrong.
I’m voting for newcomers and those not noble to step aside after so many terms need to be voted off the island.
For 40 grand a year any knucklehead will do an outstanding job with a seat at the table. New visions and ambitions are calling. Vote for them, please and thank you. In closing, if the pool gets built at the Days Inn location then where does the performing arts center get built? Maybe beside the Y where the pool should be built?
The last question I’m directing at Mayor Hall is why did you not sign on with the other mayors in support of the LNG industry. And you say you need to discuss this first with council.
It’s too late for you to show support as you had your opportunity.
Miles Thomas Prince George
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of interest in most activities and impulsive behaviour.
In recent years, we’ve become much better as a society in talking about mental health and rallying support for individuals who suffer from mental health issues.
Former TSN host Michael Landsberg gave a powerful talk in February at the UNBC Timberwolves Legacy Breakfast about the social stigma that persists around depression. It’s that same stigma that gets in the way of talking about suicide openly and honestly.
Cariboo Prince George MP Todd Doherty’s passion behind his private member’s bill to develop a national framework to help men and women in uniform – from first responsders, police officers and firefighters to members of the Canadian Armed Forces – suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was to prevent so many suicides. He convinced his parliamentary colleagues among all the parties that these individuals step up for their country in times of need and now their country must step up for them in their time of need. If we do nothing, people die. If we say nothing, people die. We can do better but it starts with being able to talk about suicide, to help those who are contemplating taking their own life and to help those still hurting from the suicide of a beloved friend or family members.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Kavanaugh decision about who you believe
These words are my third attempt to write about the nomination and confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, a vote which passed 50 to 48, the tightest in over a century. I have tried to come at this subject from several different angles, but as I have discovered, the reason this debacle is so divisive is precisely because there is only the one question that matters, and that is a “gut check.”
At the end of the day, who do you believe?
For what it’s worth, I trust Kavanaugh’s denials of the allegations brought against him more than I believe the veracity of Christine Blasey Ford and three others. I fully admit this is largely due to my bias. However, I’d argue bias is an indispensable facet of this ugly scenario.
First problem: context. It is irrefutable that activists, particularly those aligned with the Democratic Party, had their sights set on blocking Kavanaugh before anyone ever heard of Ford or the other accusers. Kavanaugh’s social and political conservatism are a widely known fact (though mischaracterized as extreme) and the liberal outrage machine had already decided that this Supreme Court nominee was going to assist in the Nazi-fication of America, damn the facts.
Or that whatever might of transpired between him and Ford, the fact that she chose now to reveal her shocking story was incredibly convenient?
Fourth problem: what she said versus what is confirmed. Digging in deeper to Ford’s story did not corroborate it, heart-wrenching as her narrative was. Furthermore, there was no evidence of prior police reports about the assault that allegedly took place; she had reason to believe law enforcement would accept her story at the time yet she did not go to them. The FBI’s cursory investigation of said accusations came up with bupkis –what more can be asked?
Fifth problem: who benefits?
For what it’s worth, I trust Kavanaugh’s denials of the allegations brought against him more than I believe the veracity of Christine Blasey Ford and three others.
Second problem: Ford’s letter. This item was in the hands of Senator Dianne Feinstein for months before the pot boiled over last month. Regardless of the veracity of the letter’s detail, why didn’t Senator Feinstein go straight to the White House with this evidence and explain that Kavanaugh should withdraw?
If she had, such a move would have shown genuine concern for the court’s integrity – instead, it all looks like yet another “gotcha” attempt for media coverage.
Third problem: he said, she said.
The “believe all survivors” slogan is beyond idiotic – all people are capable of lying.
The issue was, on the balance of probabilities, which narrative held more water prima facie: that Kavanaugh was a perfectly camouflaged monster for 30 years, his staff and family totally ignorant of his vices?
If people are naturally noble, rejecting Kavanaugh with shaky evidence would be fine, as no one would game the system; however, if people are self-interested, then rejecting Kavanaugh on less than irrefutable evidence would invite ever more spurious accusations to stop particular nominees or policies. The senate had to send a message to #MeToo activists and others – “accusations must be backed up by hard facts.”
Final problem: forgotten purpose. These hearings are to decide whether a nominee is judicially savvy enough to have the final say on questions of law in a republic of 350 million souls. In Canada, while our process might be too secretive, the lack of media distraction keeps the review focused on the candidates’ judicial merits.
Every confirmation in America since the 1980’s has been absurd, thanks to senators’ questions for media attention and vice versa. None of what occurred regarding Ford vs. Kavanaugh will help make sexual assault more likely to be reported nor for common citizens to believe such charges. There are rules for doubling down and risking big: the crash is that much worse when you gamble and lose.
I could digest “Kavanaugh: incompetent.” However, I couldn’t stomach, “Kavanaugh: evil incarnate.”
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NATHAN GIEDE
Right of Centre
B.C. First Nation establishes new reserve
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
CAMPBELL RIVER — Thomas Smith says his most vivid memory of living on British Columbia’s Turnour Island was watching families leave their homes.
Five decades later, images of the exodus from the Indigenous village of Kalagwees are just as clear, he said.
“I was pretty young at the time,” 60-year-old Smith said. “I was one year at the primary school there and then the family moved.”
Jobs were scarce in the village accessible only by boat or float plane, he said of his former home northeast of Vancouver Island in the Johnstone Strait.
The community began to empty as the school closed and hospital boat visits to the remote community were cancelled.
“The village went quiet,” Smith said.
“There were a few adults living there but the majority of the families moved. Some went to Alert Bay, others moved to Campbell River and some even further to Vancouver, Victoria, wherever they found a place comfortable.”
The estimated 450 members of the Tlowitsis First Nation haven’t had a permanent home since then.
But that is about to change, Smith said.
The nation paid $3.5 million earlier this year for a 257-hectare rural, forested property eight kilometres south of Campbell River. Plans are now underway to establish a community of up to 100 homes, he said.
“One of our hereditary chiefs, before
he passed away, said he wanted a place for my people to have a home. This is basically a promise kept. The chief was my oldest brother Alec.”
Frogs croak, ravens squawk and vehicles drive past as Smith stands at the steel gate and sign that mark the site in the Strathcona Regional District.
The new community will be called Nenagwas, which means “a place to come home to,” Smith said. Last December, the federal government approved the property as Tlowitsis reserve 12.
“This place in 30 years could be a very large place,” Smith said. “Indigenous people have lots of babies. It’s going to be an exciting place for our young
people to grow up.”
Engineering and planning studies are underway and the nation expects to break ground in 2020, bringing the dream of a new home community much closer to reality, he said.
“We need a place for our members to get together and share things and learn their culture, their history. What it means to be Tlowitsis,” Smith said.
“This will help.”
Brenda Leigh, the Strathcona Regional District’s elected area director, said local residents had concerns about a lack of consultation, but now the focus is on developing infrastructure like sewage and transportation and fitting the Tlowitsis community into the sprawling, rural neighbourhood.
“I am sure that they will love this setting and they will have an opportunity to build their reserve and enjoy the same peaceful life that all of us value so much in this region,” Leigh said in an emailed statement.
Smith said early reaction to the Tlowitsis plan was shrill and concerned his band members. Graffiti with the words “No Rez” was painted on a road near the community site.
The First Nation decided to move ahead with its plans and has met with the regional district board and local community associations, Smith said.
“We’re here now,” he said.
“You can see by our sign, we’re here and we’re going to start developing as soon as we can.”
‘I thought I was dead for sure’
Citizen news service
SAINT JOHN, N.B. — First, Jonathan Wright heard a loud hissing.
Then he was thrown to the ground and turned to see a wall of orange, as flames surrounded him and several other workers after a massive explosion at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., on Monday morning.
The American contractor said his workspace was approximately 35 metres from the blast –and the only stairway out was blocked by flames.
“You could not see anything besides smoke and flames,” Wright said. “I thought we were done right there.”
Wright told his story Tuesday, as the refinery regrouped from the Thanksgiving Day explosion which shook the historic port city shortly after 10 a.m. local time and injured four workers.
Mayor Don Darling said Tuesday residents living near the refinery remain “very nervous,” even though the fiery incident has been stabilized. He said the city’s large industrial base comes with risks and there needs to be a broader discussion about the interaction between residents and industry.
The city of Saint John has warned of possible “flare-ups” as the refinery comes back online.
At the time of the explosion, there were as many as 3,000 workers on the site.
Wright, 43, an electronics technician from Florida, said he’s worked at refineries around the world for 11 years, but has never experienced anything like Monday’s drama.
“It was a (expletive) nightmare, I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life,” Wright said.
“I thought I was dead for sure.”
Wright said he had to jump through high scaffolding and pipes several metres in the air to escape. He didn’t realize his coworkers were behind him until after he was outside, and he thought they were likely killed.
Once he got outside, Wright left the premises after getting a ride with someone else who was about to pull out of the parking lot.
He said he feels lucky to have escaped, and that neither he or his coworkers were severely burned. Wright said he pulled muscles and sustained scrapes and cuts in the clamber to escape.
“It was just a blur getting out of there. I just never imagined jumping through all that stuff, pipes and scaffolding and stuff. I just never thought that would happen to me, but you know, it did. I just can’t believe we weren’t burned.”
Wright is flying home to Florida today, and said most of all, he is looking forward to hugging his kids and his fiancee when he lands.
Irving Oil tweeted on Tuesday that the site is “isolated and contained,” and said workers were expected to be back to work Tuesday evening.
SMITH
TLOWITSIS FIRST NATION ARCHIVES PHOTO BY THOMAS SMITH VIA CP
Kalagwees, former home of the Tlowitsis First Nation, is seen in a handout composite image of two photographs.
Scheer talks energy with Modi
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi he wants to find ways to ship Canadian oil and gas to India to meet its voracious energy needs.
Scheer said that’s the message he delivered to Modi on Tuesday during their meeting in New Delhi, which was part of the Opposition leader’s week-long trip to forge economic links and deepen trade with the country.
Scheer said he told the Indian leader he is serious about developing the energy sector and getting oil resources to market, including reviving the failed Energy East pipeline that would have delivered Canadian oil to the East Coast, so it could be shipped to India.
TransCanada abandoned its Energy East pipeline project last fall, citing non-specific “changed circumstances.”
Supporters of the project blamed costs and delays due to federal regulatory demands, while others have said it succumbed to simple market forces.
In an interview, Scheer said he blames the Liberals, reiterating the criticism he’s levelled recently in the House of Commons.
“Energy East was on the table. It was can-
celled because of Liberal regulatory changes.
We continue to have tanker after tanker of foreign oil coming up the St. Lawrence into eastern Canadian markets directly because of the government’s decision,” Scheer said from New Delhi.
During an exchange with Scheer last month in the Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the plug was pulled on the project because a private company made a business decision based on the falling price of oil.
On Tuesday, Scheer said a Conservative government would remove roadblocks to pipeline expansion so Canadian oil and gas can reach new markets.
The Conservative leader made no mention of Trudeau’s heavily criticized trip to India earlier in the year, where he was taken to task for dressing up in traditional Indian clothing for a series of photo-ops with this family.
Scheer characterized his conversation with Modi as “warm,” saying his host wanted his take on the recently completed renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Scheer said he told Modi what he has been saying in public.
“This was a challenging time for Canada. Obviously what we had under the original NAFTA was very good. Canada prospered
greatly from it,” said Scheer.
“Now, we’ve given up ground in some key areas, and there’s a sense of frustration that some of the big issues that we thought would be resolved like steel and aluminum tariffs haven’t been.”
Scheer said he wanted to send a message to Modi that if the Conservatives form government in 2019, they will make India a major focus of efforts to expand free trade agreements.
Scheer acknowledged there are still many hurdles to be cleared in pursuing trade with India, but he suggested the country offers better prospects than some destinations.
Sheer didn’t mention China by name, but he said India and Canada are both Commonwealth democracies with “a similar foundation for the rule of law.”
Scheer also held meetings on Sunday with India’s foreign affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, and the minister of state for housing and urban affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri. He is to fill the rest of the week meeting with Indian business leaders.
The trip is one of a series of foreign forays that the Conservative leader has been making to burnish his international credentials ahead of next year’s federal election.
Charest to pilot space industry relaunch plan
Citizen news service
MONTREAL — Canada’s aerospace industry has appointed former Quebec premier Jean Charest to chart a new course for the sector.
The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada is putting Charest in the cockpit to coax funding commitments and a long-term plan from the federal government amid fears the country’s star is fading.
Canada is not keeping up with sector growth and innovation compared with countries such as France, Germany and the United States, which have long-term strategies in place, said association president Jim Quick.
“We certainly feel that we’re not keeping up with the globalization of space. Other countries have been increasing their investments in space,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
Quick said the new initiative, called Vision 2025, will push Ottawa to include a long-term aerospace plan in its budget next year.
Charest will lead discussions with government and industry officials in several cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax, culminating in a report on aerospace priorities.
Charest, a former federal cabinet minister who served as premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012, said he is “excited” about the sector’s strength and wants it “to become a global powerhouse... in the face of global risk and uncertainty.”
though
stocks rose again and led the TSX heading into next week’s legalization of the substance. The health-care subsector led the S&P/TSX composite index, rising 1.5 per cent. It was steered by Aphria Inc., Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis Inc., which gained between 3.4 and 6.8 per cent on heavy daily trading. Cannabis stocks have been very volatile of late but have surged over the past three months. “I think that’s just sentiment related to the Oct. 17 legalization date,” said Dominique Barker, Portfolio Manager, CIBC Asset Management.
Barker advised investors to be very cautious with the sector at this time as most companies are trading on hope rather than actual financial results.
Overall, the TSX closed down 92.12 points Tuesday to 15,854.05, slightly above the low of 15,853.87 on 227.5 million shares traded.
Many of the other sub-sectors were essentially flat on the day with information technology leading on the downside, followed by base metals, gold, materials and consumer discretionary.
Forest products companies and autoparts makers had a down day.
Barker said there’s negative sentiment towards U.S. homebuilding, related to labour shortages, low availability of lots and rising mortgage rates. But she said the number of new households is reinforcing strong fundamental demand.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 56.21 points at 26,430.57. The S&P 500 index was off 4.09 points at 2,880.34, while the Nasdaq composite was up 2.07 points at 7,738.02. The November crude contract was up 67 cents at US$74.96 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down one tenth of a cent at US$3.27 per mmBTU. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 77.13 cents US compared with an average of 77.30 cents US on Friday.
The December gold contract was up US$2.90 at US$1,191.50 an ounce.
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
AP PHOTO
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a public meeting in Ajmer, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, on Oct. 6.
Hurricanes blow past Canucks
Citizen news service
RALEIGH, N.C. — Sebastian Aho has earned a point in every game this season. So have the Carolina Hurricanes. It adds up to the best start since the team left Hartford.
Aho had a goal and an assist, and the Hurricanes beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.
Warren Foegele scored an important insurance goal in the third period, Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Staal and Brett Pesce also scored and Teuvo Teravainen had two assists.
“I think we’ve had a good start as a line,” Aho said.
And as a team, too. They helped the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes improve to 3-0-1 – their most productive
start since the move from Hartford in 1997 – under new coach and former team captain Rod Brind’Amour. They earned points in their first four games for the first time since 1994-95, when they were still the Whalers and opened 4-0-1. “It’s fun, right?” Foegele said. “High-scoring games, a bunch of young guys in here keeping it young, too. The group’s been good, and that’s what you want to see.”
Sven Baertschi had two goals and an assist, and Bo Horvat scored on the power play for rebuilding Vancouver, which has lost the first two games of its six-game trip.
Curtis McElhinney made 22 saves for the Hurricanes while Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots for the Canucks in a game in which the first seven goals were scored in the opening 23 minutes, 24 seconds and the de-
fences tightened up before Foegele scored with 6:12 left to restore Carolina’s two-goal advantage.
“It’s always good to see when you have a lead and you continue to bring it to them,” Staal said. “That’s kind of been the way we wanted to play.”
Vancouver has been outscored 12-7 during its two-game losing streak.
“If you score seven in two games, if you score seven in three games, I would like to get three wins,” Markstrom said. “We’ve got to be better goalies, better (defencemen), better everything, better defence, and we get our goals but right now, today, I was not good. It’s frustrating.”
Aho, who has points in all four games, put Carolina up 3-1 after taking a slick touch pass from Micheal Ferland and beating
Lulay expected to return to action for Lions
Gemma KARSTENS-SMITH Citizen news service
SURREY — Veteran B.C. Lions
quarterback Travis Lulay is feeling good after spending a pair of games on the sidelines with a dislocated shoulder.
Or at least he’s feeling good enough.
“I feel like I’ve caught up to where everyone else is playing hurt at this time in the season. No one feels great at this point of the year,” Lulay said after practice on Tuesday.
“But I definitely feel good, confident, ready to play.”
The 35-year-old has thrown for 1,845 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions in eight games this year.
He’s also faced a series of injuries throughout the season, which he started on the sidelines as he rehabbed a knee injury he suffered last year.
This time around, Lulay was hurt during the Lions’ 32-14 win over the Montreal Allouettes on Sept. 14, and missed B.C.’s last two matches.
Last week, the shoulder – his left, non-throwing arm – started to feel better and Lulay suited up as an emergency third option for the Lions (7-7) as they took on the Toronto Argonauts (3-11).
B.C. won 26-23, improving its season to .500 and retaining hope for a playoff spot.
Now the veteran is poised to be back in the starting role this week when the squad visits the Calgary Stampeders (12-2).
“We expect Travis to start and if we have to, Jonathon (Jennings) will be ready,” said Lions head coach Wally Buono.
He added that both Lulay and backup Jennings are taking a lot of reps in practice, just in case.
The 26-year-old Jennings has filled the starting role the past two games with mixed results, including a 199-yard performance last Saturday.
The coaches want to have a hard time picking a starting quarterback because they want everyone playing well, Lulay said.
“There’s no guarantees about anything. If I’ve learned anything about this business, it’s to not get ahead of yourself,” he said.
“You’ve just got to be ready to
‘It’s my life’s work’: B.C. Lions coach offers reward for missing items
SURREY — A member of the B.C. Lions’ coaching staff is hoping he won’t have to start from scratch after his car was broken into over the weekend.
Offensive coordinator Jarious
Jackson said Tuesday that he parked downtown Saturday night and went to watch a mixed martial arts fight at a nearby bar.
Jackson said when he returned, he found his back window smashed in and his work bag –containing his passport, credit and debit cards, work laptop, a hard drive and other miscellaneous items – was missing.
He says the laptop and hard drive contain his “life’s work,” including “thousands and thousands of (football) plays.”
The information is in his head, but the coach says he’s spent years creating documents and
play. And we need everybody down this stretch run. So it’s hugely important that everyone’s locked in and ready to play good football.”
Knowing that the team’s usual starter is back in fight form hasn’t changed anything for the backup.
Markstrom from close range with 2:09 left in the first. “The usual – he creates some space and makes a play, and makes a really nice pass to me,” Aho said of Ferland. “I think I had a pretty easy shot to put the puck in.”
After Horvat pulled the Canucks within a goal in the opening minute of the second period, Svechnikov restored the two-goal lead when he crashed the net and stuffed in a rebound – giving the rookie points in three of his four career games. Baertschi’s first goal tied it at 1 at 6:12 after a long pass from Alexander Edler set up a partial breakaway chance. His second came on the power play at 3:24 of the second and pulled the Canucks to 4-3, capping a furious stretch in which the teams combined for three goals in a span of 2:38.
accumulating information that could be difficult to replicate.
Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Jason Robillard said in an email that the force is investigating a theft from a parked car, where “several items of value to the B.C. Lions football team were stolen.”
He said no arrests have been made and the investigation is on going.
Jackson said he’s personally offering a $1,000 cash reward for the items.
“I just want to get my belongings back,” he said after Lions practice on Tuesday.
“Having someone take that, it just feels like you’re starting from ground zero all over again.” Before becoming a coach, Jackson spent seven seasons as a quarterback with the Lions.
— Citizen news service
“I’m going to work hard as I always have (in practice) and be ready,” Jennings said. Apparent questions have swirled recently about the quarterback’s commitment to the game.
Lions general manager Ed
Hervey spoke with two Vancouver media outlets last week, saying he has seen some good things from Jennings, but that the Columbus, Ohio native is “rarely” seen around the team’s training facility enough to show that he has what it takes to take his game to the next level.
Jennings refuted the comments after practice on Tuesday, saying he believes he’s one of the hardest working players on the team.
“I work my tail off – I’ve worked my tail off for four years,” he said, adding that he puts in the same amount of work as other quarterbacks in the league, including video review at home in the evening.
He began the season as the Lions starter as Lulay rehabbed his knee injury. He’s passed for 1,427 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions in eight games this year.
Jennings said he prides himself on his hard work and character, and never thought that either would be questioned.
“Obviously you’re not going to like everything that’s said about you, whether that’s your teammates, coaches or fans,” he said.
“But you’ve just got to accept it, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to play through it.”
He added that he hasn’t yet had a chance to speak with Hervey about the comments.
“It is what is,” Jennings said.
Sven Baertschi of the Vancouver Canucks pulls the puck around Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Curtis McElhinney and scores a first-period goal on Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C. The Hurricanes won 5-3.
Red Sox edge Yankees, advance to ALCS
BLUM The Associated Press
Ronald
NEW YORK — Craig Kimbrel and the Boston Red Sox held off the Yankees’ ninthinning rally that ended with a video replay, eliminating New York with a 4-3 victory Tuesday night that set up a post-season rematch with the World Series champion Houston Astros.
Trailing in Game 4 of the AL Division Series, the Yankees scored twice in the ninth and had runners at first and second with two outs. Gleyber Torres hit a slow roller that third baseman Eduardo Nunez charged and threw in a hurry.
Boston first baseman Steve Pearce stretched for an outstanding catch that nipped Torres. The Yankees immediately challenged and, with a sellout crowd standing and hoping, the out call was upheld after a 63-second review.
J.D. Martinez and the 108-win Red Sox reached the AL Championship Series for the first time since 2013. A year after losing to Houston in a four-game ALDS, they will open the best-of-seven matchup against the 103-win Astros on Saturday night at Fenway Park. Rookie Boston manager Alex Cora was Houston’s bench coach last October.
“We’re ready for another shot,” Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello said.
A New Jersey native who grew up a Mets fan, Porcello held the Yankees to one run over five innings for his first post-season win. Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier followed with a perfect inning each to protect a 4-1 lead, and Red Sox ace Chris Sale followed with a 1-2-3 eighth in a rare relief appearance.
New York had not put a leadoff runner on until Kimbrel, a seven-time All-Star closer, walked Aaron Judge on four pitches leading off the ninth.
Didi Gregorius singled and Giancarlo Stanton struck out, dropping to 4 for 18 (.222) with no RBIs in the series. Luke Voit walked on four pitches, and Kimbrel hit Neil Walker on a leg with his next pitch, forcing in a run.
Gary Sanchez fell behind 0-2 in the count, worked it full and sent a drive that had the crowd roaring only for Andrew Benintendi to catch it on the left-field warning track, a few feet short of a game-ending grand slam. Torres followed with the dramatic bouncer that led to one of 21st century baseball’s strangest sights – a team unsure whether to celebrate, its direction depending on a decision from the replay room in downtown Manhattan.
A night after Boston romped to a recordsetting 16-1 rout in a game that included three replay reversals, Martinez, Ian Kinsler and Nunez drove in runs in the third inning off a wobbly CC Sabathia. For the second straight night, Yankees rookie manager Aaron Boone hesitated to remove his start-
ing pitcher early. When Boone brought in Zach Britton to start the fourth, Christian Vazquez led off with an opposite-field drive over the short porch in right field for his first career postseason homer.
Not even the presence of Bucky Dent for the ceremonial first pitch could inspire the 100-win Yankees, who were outscored 2714 in the series, including 20-4 in the final two games. New York set a major league record this year for most home runs in a season, but didn’t go deep in the two games at Yankee Stadium.
Dent’s home run over Fenway Park’s Green Monster in the 1978 AL East tiebreaker propelled the Yankees to their second straight World Series title, but Boston eliminated its rival in the Bronx in the teams’ second straight post-season meeting. In the 2004 ALCS, the Red Sox became the first big league team to overcome 3-0 postseason deficit, winning the final two games on the road and going on to sweep the World Series for its first title since 1918.
Boston added championships in 2007 and 2013, becoming one of baseball’s elite clubs, but the Red Sox had been knocked out in the Division Series the previous two years and had not reached the sport’s final four since their last title.
A lanky, bearded 29-year-old righthander, Porcello lived a traffic jam from Yankee Stadium in Chester, New Jersey, and is a 2007 graduate of Seton Hall Prep in West Orange – the baseball field there was renamed in his honour last year after he helped fund artificial turf and pro-style dugouts. The 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner entered with a 0-3 in 12 previous post-season appearances, which included four starts.
New York got its first run on Brett Gardner’s sacrifice fly in the fifth. Aaron Hicks missed a home run by about four feet on a foul drive down the right-field line, worked the count full, then popped out to Kinsler to backpedaled from second to short right field.
Sabathia, a 38-year-old lefty who led
the Yankees to their last World Series title in 2009, had been the slide-ender of New York’s pitching staff with a 14-1 record following losses in the previous two regular seasons.
Pitching on 11 days’ rest and perhaps for the final time in pinstripes, Sabathia escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first when Kinsler hit an inning-ending flyout to Gardner in front of the left-field wall. He needed 35 pitches to get through two innings and nicked Benintendi on the right shoulder with a slider on his first pitch of the third. Steve Pearce sliced a cutter into right-centre to put runners at the corners and Martinez hit a third-inning sacrifice fly for second straight night, giving him six RBIs in the series.
Xander Bogaerts advanced Pearce with a comebacker and, with David Robertson starting to warm up, Sabathia threw a wild pitch on a cross-up with Sanchez. Kinsler doubled over a leaping Gardner for a 2-0 lead and Nunez singled on the next pitch for his first RBI of the post-season.
Thomas wins successive PGA Tour money titles
Citizen news service
Tiger Woods finished off the PGA Tour season by tapping in for par to win the Tour Championship, a moment that ended any doubts that he could win again after four surgeries on his lower back. And then the moment was gone.
Hours later, Woods and 17 other players were headed to France for the all-consuming Ryder Cup. And with barely enough time to digest Europe winning and Patrick Reed pouting, the PGA Tour started up a
new season in California. A few nuggets were lost in the quick transition. Justin Thomas tied for fifth at the Tour Championship, and that was enough for him to win the PGA Tour money title for the second straight year after earning $8,694,821, beating out Dustin Johnson by $237,469.
The PGA Tour no longer talks about money in the FedEx Cup era, though Thomas still wins a trophy. The Arnold Palmer Award is given to the leading money winner. Thomas became the first back-toback winner of the award since Woods in
2006 and 2007.
Johnson, meanwhile, won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average (the PGA Tour has the Byron Nelson Award, so Johnson gets two trophies). Johnson won for the second time in three years. The first time, in 2016, he wasn’t sure what it was.
Brooks Koepka won PGA Tour player of the year, which was no surprise considering his two major championships. The only time someone won two majors and was not PGA Tour player of the year was in 1990, when Nick Faldo wasn’t a PGA Tour member.
For the first time in 10 years, the tour’s three main awards were won by three players – Koepka, Thomas and Johnson. In 2008, Padraig Harrington was the player of the year, Vijay Singh won the money title and Sergio Garcia won the Vardon Trophy. Singh won the money title by $826,094 over Woods while playing 17 more events. That was the year Woods had seasonending knee surgery in June, so he was ineligible for the Vardon Trophy (Woods played only 20 rounds). Harrington won two majors that year.
AP PHOTO
Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel reacts after the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 4-3 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday night in New York.
This image released by Netflix shows Isak Bakli Aglen and Jonas Strand Gravli in a scene from 22 July, a docudrama about the 2011 Norway terrorist attack.
Norwegian massacre brilliantly handled in 22 July
Mark KENNEDY Citizen news service
Anders Behring Breivik probably thinks 22 July is about him. He’s the violent narcissist whose actions are at the heart of the film, but Breivik is really the enigma in its centre. No, 22 July is about everyone other than Breivik – and that is a remarkable cinematic feat.
This powerful, must-see film – written and directed by Paul Greengrass – explores several of the lives altered when right-wing extremist Breivik went on a deadly rampage in Norway in 2011, killing 77. How could this hatred happen in the heart of prosperous Scandinavia? That’s the subtext.
Greengrass is on the most slippery of slopes here – showing a mass murderer’s violence without glorifying it and letting the gunman explain himself without feeding supremacist hatred. He threads the needle brilliantly. His film becomes more than the sum of its parts: it’s a celebration of multiculturalism.
Shot like a documentary, the first third of 22 July lays out the horror of July 11, 2011, and the rest of the movie tracks how both a terribly wounded survivor, Viljar, (a stunning Jonas Strand Gravli ) and a lawyer for the gunman (a superb Jon Oigarden) struggle in its aftermath. Greengrass is known for employing a shaky cam and rapid-fire editing and those techniques are perfectly suited for examining this real, frightening moment. His other films dealing with real events include Captain Phillips, Bloody Sunday and United 93, and Greengrass
leaned on Norwegian actors and the book One of Us by Asne Seierstad to make 22 July.
The writer-director shows real artistry in framing both the gunman (a frightening Anders Danielsen Lie) and his victims as opposites. The opening sequences show Breivik alone and silent, preparing his attack with icy precision.
His soon-to-be victims at a summer camp, meanwhile, are laughing, hugging and clumsily putting up tents. Later, Greengrass will highlight the gunman’s fate – a closed cell in artificial light – while the survivors are outside in twilight, the camera spinning 360-degreees to show the glorious Norwegian snowy landscape.
On that fateful day, Breivik first set off a car bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people and wounding dozens. He then drove to the island of Utoya, where he opened fire at a summer camp of the left-wing Labor Party’s youth wing. Greengrass does not film these sequences moodily or evocatively. They are brutal and the fear is palpable.
“Come out, you Marxists!” the gunman screams on his hunting spree.
“I have started a war,” he later announces.
In the aftermath, we watch what Viljar goes through – multiple brain surgeries, a fake eye, relearning to walk. He wants to walk unassisted to the gunman’s trial. He and his younger brother, who was also there, are coming to grips with the aftermath, and he’s inspired by a
Bad Times at the El Royale doesn’t deliver on suspense
Jake COYLE Citizen news service
Drew Goddard, the screenwriter-turned-director whose feature debut was the meta-horror film
A Cabin in the Woods, has laid another movie trap.
This time, in the pulpy but artificial thriller Bad Times at the El Royale, it’s a motel. And as anyone who has ever watched a movie knows, bad things do indeed tend to happen in motels. Just ask Marion Crane or Llewelyn Moss.
The El Royale is Goddard’s hermetically sealed site this time. It’s a once-swanky, now-kitschy Lake Tahoe lodge – a blare of neon amid the pines – that straddles the state line. Half the motel lies in Nevada, half in California, and a red line of demarcation runs right through the middle. Rooms in California are $1 cheaper, owing to the fact that that’s the side with the bar.
Goddard’s real-life inspiration was the similarly arranged Cal Neva, which in the ’60s was a favoured hangout of the Rat Pack, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and an assortment of mobsters. When Frank Sinatra bought it, he built secret tunnels between bungalows. It was a notorious den of salaciousness and disrepute. Monroe spent her last weekend there.
Those heydays are long gone in Bad Times at the El Royale. Set in 1969 as Nixon is taking office, the El Royale has lost its gaming license and when guests beginning arriving, they find a desolate lobby. It takes an eternity to arouse the jumpy manager (Lewis Pullman). That’s enough time for us to get lengthy introductions to our cast of travellers. There’s a former bank robber posing as a priest from Indiana, Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges); a Motown singer trying to go solo, Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo); an FBI man posing as a vacuum salesman from Mississippi (Jon Hamm); and a pair of sisters on the run: Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) and
Taylor Swift dives into politics
Kristin M. HALL Citizen news service
NASHVILLE — Taylor Swift’s first big jump into politics might have gained her some extra haters, but her endorsement in a competitive midterm U.S. Senate race isn’t likely to result in a massive backlash against the countrysinger-turned-pop-star, observers say.
Republicans now have some bad blood with the star after a surprise endorsement on Instagram Sunday night for Tennessee Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen and an argument against Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn.
Republicans and U.S. President Donald Trump have already rebuked her for the endorsement, but the Swifties closed ranks in support of her and many others have applauded her for speaking out.
nurturing fellow survivor, Lara (a wonderfully understated Seda Witt).
“I can’t live like this,” Viljar wails. “It’s all still here in my head.”
Oigarden plays Brevik’s lawyer with an otherworldly calm. He clearly has no fondness for the murderer, but wants to offer his best defence possible, a noble higher calling.
There are consequences – his family faces death threats, his marriage is strained and a nursery school tosses out his youngest. The rampage’s aftereffects also are felt in the office of the prime minister, trying to see what went structurally wrong.
Greengrass adds context for the attacks, with characters referencing the rightward tilt to European politics and even the United States.
“There’s a lot of fear and anger out there,” one right-winger says. “That is why tomorrow belongs to us.”
(When the gunman is told his side will eventually lose, he responds coolly: “You can’t even see us.”)
The film, which has meandered a little since its explosive start, comes to a climax at Breivik’s trial. Viljar’s victim’s impact statement is a brilliant aria about surviving violence and the power of life, and Lara, an immigrant herself, has her own powerful line: “I don’t see what’s so frightening about me.”
With tenderness and toughness, Greengrass has made a great film about a terrible act.
22 July debuts on Netflix today.
— Three and a half stars out of four
Ruth (Cailee Spaeny). Turning up later will be Chris Hemsworth as a Charles Manson-like guru.
The production design (by Martin Whist) is stellar, the atmosphere (a rainy night) is dense and the cast terrific.
So why is Bad Times at the El Royale kind of a slog? Goddard’s film looks terrific and has all of the – as Hamm’s character would say with exaggerated Southern flare –“accoutrements” of an intoxicating slow-burn thriller, but none of the payoff.
But it’s continually tantalizing that something may be below the surface here beyond a belated Tarantino knockoff. Bridges naturally lends a gravitas to the movie’s mysteries. Johnson, armed with a shotgun, seems poised to take over the film. When Hamm’s agent finds dozens of surveillance devices and uncovers the motel’s hidden tunnels, you’d swear a larger conspiracy is about to be revealed.
And whenever Erivo (also in this fall’s Widows) is on screen, the film suddenly quivers with potential; her character’s climactic soliloquy (not to mention her singing) is a high point in Bad Times at
the El Royale that the film doesn’t quite earn.
Instead, as in A Cabin in the Woods, Goddard has assembled genre archetypes on a self-consciously movie set location for an elaborate morality test. This time, though, he doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve beyond the late-arriving Hemsworth. (Hunky as he is, Hemsworth is no match for Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford’s cleverer third act in the more audaciously postmodern Cabin in the Woods.)
Goddard (who adapted The Martian and penned numerous Lost episodes) should be applauded for his patience in letting the story unfold so leisurely. (The film runs 140 minutes.) But just as in Tarantino’s similarly styled The Hateful Eight, slowness doesn’t automatically make suspense. For such a specifically set movie, the motel’s dark past goes curiously unexamined. Heightened as Goddard’s movie is, Bad Times at the El Royale may be the unusual Hollywood thriller to not live up to the real-life drama of its pseudo setting. Like its motel, El Royale is just a front. — Two stars out of four
“She weighs every word carefully, but she has to because few artists receive more scrutiny than she does,” said Beverly Keel, chair of the department of recording industry at Middle Tennessee State University. “People will analyze every single word.” Accompanied by a Polaroidlooking selfie, Swift acknowledged being reluctant to publicly voice her opinions in the past. But she says things are different in recent years, a possible reference to when she went to court last year to testify against a radio DJ who she says groped her. Blackburn’s voting record, Swift wrote, “appalls and terrifies me,” noting Blackburn’s votes against equal pay for women and the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Trump, who has campaigned for Blackburn, dismissed Swift’s opinion of the candidate, saying Swift “doesn’t know anything about her. And let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25 per cent less now, OK?”
AP PHOTO
Cynthia Erivo and Dakota Johnson attend a special screening of Bad Times at the El Royale at Metrograph on Sept. 27 in New York.
Leonard Lee Whitcomb
June 6, 1940September 25, 2018
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of Leonard Lee Whitcomb - Dear father, brother, uncle and friend. He left this world peacefully after a brief illness. Survived by his daughters Twila (Paul), Tania (Neal), Lendel, grandchildren Miriam, Dawson, Abigail and Annika. Survived by his Whitcomb brothers Donnie (Sandra), Rick (Tawnya) and his Hedstrom siblings: Wayne Hedstom, Eleanor Thornton, Eileen Taylor, Randy (Mary), Richard (Cindy), and Daniel along with numerous nieces and nephews.
Predeceased by father Archibald Leonard Whitcomb and mother Vi Grace Nichols, stepfather Bill Hedstrom, Loren Whitcomb, Inez Fun (Gerry), Terry Hedstrom, Ron Taylor and Neil Thornton. Please join the family in a celebration of his life on October 13 at 1pm at Assman’s Funeral Chapel, 1908 Queensway, Prince George, BC. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the SPCA.
“Joy to the world
All the boys and girls Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea Joy to you and me”
BILLIE L. SANKEY 1917 - 2018
Bill passed awa October 2, 2018. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth (Mollie) Sankey and a large extended family. He was a WWII vet and worked for Canfor for many years. He was a resident at Gateway - 2 West for 4 years and was given the best of care and attention. Thank you 2 West for everything.
Arnold Edward Ballum
November 30, 1935October 5, 2018
Arnold was born in Mount Pleasant, PEI. He attended school in Mt. Pleasant until they moved to Bedeque, PEI where his folks purchased a beautiful farm. He was than 10 yrs old. When done with school, Arnold joined the R.C.N. and served for 5 years. Part of that service was during the Korean War. Upon leaving the R.C.N. in 1958, Arnold worked as a machine operator and in 1963 came to Prince George, BC., where he worked on construction through out BC but making his home in Prince George. He later became a heavy duty mechanic. “A man who gave an honest days work” He retired in 1998 from Terretech Equipment Co. where he was affectionately known as “Arnie”. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; daughter, Barb; sons, Chris and Jason (Jeong Hwa); grandchildren, Kenzie, Lexi, Hana, Everett; sisters, Eddy, Wilna, Eleanor; brother, Eric (Joyce); sister in law, Sandra and numerous nieces and nephews. His daily fun was meeting at Pine Centre for coffee with his old buddies, mechanics and machine operators. A service will be held a later date.
Mooers Laura Evelyn (nee Dubord-Zielke) Apr 28, 1929 - Oct 02, 2018.
It is with very heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our beautiful loving mother Ev. Born in Winnipeg, moved to Vancouver in the late 40’s where she met and married George, with whom she had her children, moved to Prince George in 1950. Predeceased by; Parents Thomas Dubord (Canada) Miriam Cook (England). Daughter Susan Laura (Ross) and Son Milton William Sterling Zielke. Husbands George Zielke , John Mooers. Sisters Ellen, Greta, Sybil. Mom leaves: Daughter April (Jerry) Selinger Sons David (Pam ) Zielke, Scott (Laurie) Zielke Grandchildren: Rod (Regan), Karry (Tim), David (Sheli), Natalie(Beau), Laura (Zane), Anna (Scott), Sarah (Colton), Brandy (John-Eric), Ben (Alie), Jessica (Scott) Colin (Nicole). Fifteen great grandchildren, two more arriving soon. Numerous nieces, nephews, in-laws, work, travel and pool friends. Mom was known for her open mind, acceptance of all, her loving ways, kindness and her wicked sense of humor. Love of animals, music, dancing, travel, shopping, fashion, hunting, fishing, cooking and holidays. Special thank you to the Nurses, Care staff and YMCA Volunteers at the Simon Fraser Lodge. In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Royal Canadian Legion and the SPCA. No funeral by her request. A private celebration will be held at a later date.
Bo (Thomas Warner) Carlson was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan on June 26, 1927, to Violet and Stanley Carlson. He fell in love with the outdoors and became an avid hunter and skilled marksman. Hockey also proved a passion: throughout the 40’s and 50’s, Bo played for the Prince Albert Black Hawks, Yorkton Legionnaires, Kelowna Packers, and McLennan Red Wings where he served as playing coach between 1955-58. He also played for the Falkirk Lions in the Scottish National League (1949-50) where he scored 16 goals in one season.
He settled in Prince George in 1977 where he worked many years for Northern Toyota. Bo is survived by his wife Anne Carlson and their two children, Katherine and Bradley—as well three children from his first marriage (Warner, Michael, and Joey) and numerous grandchildren.
Mack D Usipuik November 22nd, 1929October 3rd, 2018
Passed away at UHNBC Hospital on October 3rd, 2018 at the age of 88 years.
Mack is lovingly remembered by his wife Dorothy; his three children Kathy (Donnie Gee), Shane (Janice), and David (Kim); his grandchildren Ashley (Jared Brann), Megan, Kirstin, and Daniel; his great-grandchild Aela; and his beloved companion Annie. Mack was predeceased by his parents William and Helena Usipuik, sisters Annie, Katie, and Mary, and his sister-in-law Bernice. He was survived by his brothers Joe, John, and Steve, and his sister Lena.
He will always be remembered for his storytelling, his green thumb and love of fishing, and his pride in his family. His Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, October 13th, 2018 at the Fore Bistro and Patio (at the Prince George Golf Course) from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. There will be an open mic available at his service for anyone who would like to share stories and memories. Please join us in celebrating his life.
