Leora Wildi, wearing pink in the centre, shares a special moment with her sister Sarah, left, and the Prince George Secondary School teachers who made such an impact on her life as she struggled to graduate secondary school while battling cancer a few years ago. The teachers and several others were invited to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Northern Lights Winery last week as Wildi showed her appreciation for those who helped her through her cancer journey.
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff
chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
Although certainly not unscathed, Leora Wildi is a cancer survivor who has surpassed many serious health challenges and is now a thriving college student who just turned 23.
Wildi was diagnosed with two kinds of leukemia at the age of 14 and was near death when she and her mom Lynn were flown by air ambulance to B.C. Children’s Hospital just hours after her diagnosis on Dec. 30, 2009.
As a friend of the family for the last 18 years, I have only seen a few of the ups and downs and mostly from afar as Leora was treated in Vancouver while she and Lynn lived in Ronald McDonald House during the extensive two-year-orso treatment which was required to save Leora’s life.
Low points like when she stopped breathing during surgery, received the maximum radiation treatments a body can endure and experienced many bouts of excruciating pain that came with the side effects of the many medications she was forced to take to combat cancer and the ailments that come with it were so very hard to watch – even from a distance. But nobody likes to dwell on those memories and there were great
moments of triumph as well.
One that stands out in my mind in particular was when I traveled to the Lower Mainland in 2013 to visit family and was able to connect with Leora and Lynn as Leora attended a G.F. Strong intensive rehabilitation program that offered an eight-week blast of physiotherapy to combat yet another side effect.
Leora’s tendons were seizing up, so walking heel-toe like the rest of us lucky ducks was impossible and using her hands that had curled up into little balls that got tighter and tighter over time was also a huge challenge. Leora was forced to walk on tip toe at an awkward angle that offered almost zero stability. But I must add that tenacious young lady teetered along as best she could whenever she could.
During my Vancouver visit in the summer of 2013, I was delighted when the two dynamic ladies accepted my dinner invitation to a small restaurant in the heart of Vancouver.
Lynn brought Leora to the restaurant using a wheelchair, a regular sight, as uneven sidewalks would pose a challenge and a fall could be devastating to the fragile, cancer-recovering young lady. It left me stunned when we were all seated and Leora placed her hand on the
table and it lay flat. Once I knew I could talk about it without sobbing, I quietly made mention of it.
Lynn leaned over to me and told me that Leora could walk with her heels down on the ground, too.
It was all thanks to the wonderful staff at G.F. Strong that made this small miracle happen. (Not to get too preachy but that’s what physio does for a body in need – we don’t have nearly enough physiotherapists to meet the demand in Prince George – that’s why Leora had to go there to begin with.)
When we left the restaurant Leora proudly walked down the street unassisted and flat-footed and we all cried with joy. In this one little story, I cannot tell you the number of times this young woman just kept amazing all those who are privileged enough to be part of her world but let me just say she is an astounding, outgoing, feisty woman who wouldn’t be alive today if she didn’t will it to be so.
Leora is surrounded by dedicated family, including the unwavering support (and I mean never-leave-her-side support) of mother Lynn and younger sister Sarah, who steadfastly stood by the side of her sibling through her many, many struggles.
— see LEORA, page 3
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Two men caught with a trove of property stolen from homes on Norman Lake and area were sentenced Friday.
David Michael O’Neill, 31, was sentenced to a further seven months and 23 days in jail for break and enter with intent to commit an offence and possessing a stolen weapon, along with concurrent terms of three months for possessing a weapon contrary to an order, 58 days for possessing stolen property under $5,000 and 30 days for resisting police.
O’Neill was also sentenced to 18 months probation on the counts.
Gary Edward Felix, 31, was sentenced to 18 months probation on the same counts as well as fleeing police and assaulting an officer with a weapon.
Felix had remained in custody since he was arrested on Aug. 16, 2017 – a total of one year, one month and 13 days. O’Neill had spent 86 days in custody following his arrest.
Over the four days that led up to their arrests, RCMP had received a number of reports of break and enters on homes on Norman Lake and other rural locations west of Prince George.
A member of the Prince George RCMP’s general duty section was returning from investigating one of those break-ins when he saw a suspicious vehicle traveling on Norman Lake Road – a cube van from a rental company.
When the officer tried to pull the van over, the driver refused to stop and instead headed back towards Highway 16, then east towards Prince George, then north on Telachick Road, where a spike belt was used to stop the vehicle. By then, about 10 minutes had passed.
O’Neill and Felix fled on foot and ammunition was found in the cab of the van leading police to believe the suspects may be armed.
Police called in a tracking dog and handler and, despite feeling the effects of bear mace in the area, RCMP found and arrested the two.
Dozens of items were found in the van, including a SKS rifle, a revolver handgun, power tools and an ATV. Police followed up with a search of a Wilson Crescent home where they found dozens more items including a rifle, a shotgun, ammunition, power tools, bicycles, chainsaws and computers. And a subsequent search of a van found on the property uncovered two outboard motors, a generator, a compressor and a vacuum, among other items.
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Lumber manufacturing is the cornerstone industry of the Prince George area.
When the announcement was made that the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States had come to mutual agreement on a new trade pact, the forest sector’s biggest local players issued a joint statement on the breakthrough.
“B.C. lumber producers congratulate (Minister of Foreign Affairs) Chrystia Freeland and the Government of Canada on reaching a renewed trade agreement that preserves the dispute resolution mechanism previously contained in Chapter 19 of NAFTA,” said Susan Yurkovich, president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council.
— see ‘HAVING A ROBUST, page 3, related story page 23
Election campaign signs are being knocked over and defaced at various spots around the city. But anyone thinking of pulling the stunt should think twice –it’s a criminal offence. If you’re caught, you’ll be charged with mischief under the Criminal Code and, if convicted, carry a criminal record with all that entails, police have said. As for those found with a sign they shouldn’t have, the charge is theft under $5,000, also under the Criminal Code.
From Prince George provincial court, Sept. 24-28, 2018:
• Darcy Lloyd Edward Webster (born 1976) was assessed $300 in victim surcharges for possession of a controlled substance and breaching probation, committed in Prince George, and breaching probation, committed in Vanderhoof. Webster was in custody for four days prior to sentencing.
• Justin James Klyne (born 1993) was sentenced to 106 days in jail and issued a five-year firearms prohibition for assault causing bodily harm, to 27 days for breaching probation and to 14 days in jail for theft $5,000 or under.
Klyne was also sentenced to 18 months probation and assessed $500 in victim surcharges on the counts. Klyne was in custody for 48 days prior to sentencing.
• Teddy James Lowley (born 1995) was sentenced to 13 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Lowley was in custody for four days prior to sentencing.
• Edward James Ballendine (born 1950) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation for causing fear of injury or damage.
• Chase Joseph Riley Cardinal (born 1992) was sentenced to 13 days in jail and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for two counts of breaching probation and assessed $200 in victim surcharges
for possessing a weapon contrary to an order and willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. Cardinal was in custody for 50 days prior to sentencing.
• Michael Bruce Elliott (born 1974) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence, ordered to pay $4,000 restitution and assessed a $200 victim surcharge for theft of a motor vehicle.
• Maurice Bruce Gardiner (born 1946) was prohibited from driving for 10 years, sentenced to a oneyear conditional sentence and assessed a $200 victim surcharge for driving while disqualified under the Criminal Code.
• Eugene William Alfred Jimmie (born 1990) was sentenced to 30 days in jail and one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under. Jimmie was in custody for 42 days prior to sentencing.
• Mikael Wayne Stewart (born 1997) was sentenced to 37 days in jail and one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for possessing or using a stolen credit card. Stewart was in custody for 21 days prior to sentencing.
• Raymond Lee Allen (born 1965) was fined $1,000, ordered to pay $300 in restitution and assessed a $150 victim surcharge for driving without due care and attention under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Rick Lee Alexis (born 1978) was
sentenced to 15 days in jail and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for possessing a weapon contrary to an order and breaching an undertaking or recognizance, to one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under and assessed a $100 in victim surcharge for a separate count of breaching an undertaking or recognizance.
Alexis was in custody for 48 days prior to sentencing.
• Derek Arthur Mitchell Jr. (born 1985) was sentenced to 34 days for possessing stolen property under $5,000 and to 15 days for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and assessed $200 in victim surcharges on the counts. Mitchell was in custody for 36 days prior to sentencing.
• Jeffery Austin Theriault (born 1992) was assessed a $200 victim surcharge and assessed a 10-year firearms prohibition for possessing for the purpose of trafficking. Theriault had been in custody for 353 days prior to sentencing.
• Bernard John Alook (born 1971) was sentenced to 55 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for break and enter with intent to commit an offence. Alook was in custody for 12 days prior to sentencing.
• Aidan Wesley MacDonald (born 1976) was prohibited from driving for three years and sentenced to 18 months probation for dan-
gerous driving, fleeing police, possessing stolen property over $5,000 under the Criminal Code and driving while prohibited under the Motor Vehicle Act. MacDonald was in custody for 226 days prior to sentencing.
• Boyd Alison Mattess (born 1983) was sentenced to 18 months probation and assessed $500 in victim surcharges for three counts of mischief $5,000 or under and two counts of breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Mattess was in custody for 12 days prior to sentencing.
• Carmelita Louise Abraham (born 1988) was sentenced to one year probation and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for theft $5,000 or under and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation. Abraham was in custody for six days prior to sentencing.
• Chantelle Marie Collier (born 1987) was fined $100 plus a $30 victim surcharge for breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Collier was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Waylon Jean Johnny (born 1996) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under.
Johnny was in custody for two days prior to sentencing.
• Leo Kirk Milton (born 1982) was sentenced to 16 days in jail and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for breaching probation.
Another dump of snow is expected to strike 100 Mile House today.
“Snow will develop this evening with the approach of an upper trough. Fifteen centimetres of snow will fall by Tuesday afternoon,” Environment Canada said in an update issued Monday afternoon. The area was hit by snowfall on Sunday.
— Citizen staff
There was a house fire reported in the 1100 block of McGregor Avenue at about 7 p.m. on Friday. There were 15 firefighters from three halls who responded. When Prince George Fire Rescue crews arrived, they discovered smoke and flames coming from the back deck and roof of the home.
Crews extinguished the fire which had spread throughout the kitchen to the roof. All occupants got out safely. Fire damage to the residence is estimated at $350,000. Cause of the fire is unknown at this time. There were no injuries to any firefighters. — Citizen staff
New operating hours are in effect at the Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill. The site will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. On Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Labour Day and Thanksgiving it will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on all other statutory holidays. For further information about the Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill or transfer stations within the Regional District and operating hours go to rdffg.bc.ca.
— Citizen staff
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
There were 317 bikes parked at the CN Centre parking lot Sunday afternoon in anticipation of the 37th annual Toy Run.
The Toy Run sees all participants donate a toy or more, taking to the streets of Prince George for a leisurely ride that ends at the Salvation Army Community Support Centre on 18th Avenue.
There were toys strapped to the back or front of motorcycles, some were tucked away in saddle bags, some were too awkwardly shaped to stay on the bike during the run and had already found their way into the donation bins set up under tents at the far end of the parking lot.
There was one thing for sure, every single person was there for the same reason – to help make Christ-
mas a little brighter for children in need in Prince George.
All donations, big or small, will go to the Salvation Army Christmas Hamper program where more than 350 families are recipients each year.
A community of motorcycle riders started the Toy Run 37 years ago, which then fell into the hands of the Harley Owners Group and now while riders participate and donate, it’s the Salvation Army that takes on the organizational details for the annual event.
“We are honoured and blessed to be part of this event,” Bill Glasgow, donor relations and fundraising coordinator for the Salvation Army, said. “We feel lucky to be involved.”
Len Hall, owner of the local Harley Davidson shop, said he’s been involved in the event for the last 25 years.
“This is about the riding community helping the Salvation Army
gather toys for the Christmas hampers for the kids and that’s what this is all about,” Hall said.
One of the many riders is Steve Nickolls, who’s been participating in the season-end Toy Run for the last six years.
“It’s all about the kids – giving to underprivileged kids,” Nickolls said. “I load up my saddle bag with as many toys as I can bring and unload them at the Salvation Army and just enjoy the ride.”
Nicholls, standing beside his 2012 Harley Davidson Fatboy, looked out over the crowd of motorcyclists waiting for the ride to start with a grin on his face.
“This is fantastic and you know that everyone is here for the same reason I am,” Nickolls said, adding it’s really nice to ride together on the Toy Run. “When you go on the run sometimes there’s people standing along the side of the road – little kids waving – it just warms your heart.”
— from page 1
I told you that story about Leora to tell you this one. Leora was approached by Hope Air to share her journey of surviving cancer thanks to the excellent care she received at B.C. Children’s Hospital. Leora was able to fly to Vancouver thanks to Hope Air, which provides flights to those who need health care outside of their hometowns. It’s been years of backing and forthing for Lynn and Leora for treatment and extensive follow up and every time Hope Air was there providing the flight.
Leora didn’t hesitate to agree to help Hope Air and off on an adventure we all went.
You see, Leora wanted to give back to the community that supported her in the last nine years.
Hope Air and Studio M brought a documentary film crew to Prince George who helped organize and provide an event to a few of her supporters so that she might show her gratitude.
After waiting for what seemed like forever I finally got notice telling me at the last minute the location of the first phase of filming. I was to meet the film crew along with Leora’s longtime family friend, a wonderful woman Leora calls ‘Auntie’, Marianne Koops and Leora’s loyal bestie, Katrina Framst.
We waited on the street and were told absolutely nothing until an envelope was handed to us. We were on Leora’s scavenger hunt. This wasn’t Leora’s first rodeo as she had organized at least one such activity in the past simply because she loves scavenger hunts. So suddenly the three of us were mic-ed up and walking down Third Avenue talking about the clue to finding a giant reptile in Prince George, which, of course, led us to The Exploration Place. We did our part at the museum as well and the clue from there led us to Northern Lights Winery where that evening, after much speculation, the entire group met Leora for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There were people from Ronald McDonald House, B.C. Children’s Hospital, local teachers who heavily influenced Leora’s educational path, friends and family. There was so much ugly-crying going on during our greeting to Leora who was standing and walking unassisted and while she offered a most eloquent speech where she thanked us all for what we’d done for her throughout her cancer journey and beyond. After we all sat in stunned silence for a while I said I hadn’t cried like that in a very long time and one of the teachers sitting across from me said she’d never cried so hard in her entire life.
As we chatted amongst ourselves words like surreal, whirlwind and unbelievable were thrown around as we each tried to understand the depth and breadth of what Leora was saying to us during her thank you speech.
The tables turned so quickly with us all leaning towards Leora in empathy and deep emotional connection, enthralled with her expressive words of gratitude that when she said the last sentence we were all shocked to hear it.
You see, Leora said she’d like to thank us all and also Hope Air for giving her the gift of flight and now she’d like to give the gift of flight to us. In a surprise announcement WestJet provided each of us with a flight for two anywhere they fly. And we all sat in stunned silence. The gears had switched too quickly. We could hardly react to the happy news for ourselves because the true gift was seeing Leora looking so healthy and breathtakingly beautiful as she gave her gut-wrenching speech and it was all too much to comprehend.
We did the take again and again before the camera crew was happy with our reaction.
I know I can speak for all those in attendance when I say thank you, Leora. You have taught all who know you what true determination, strength and tenacity looks like and you wear it beautifully. Thank you for being a source of continual inspiration and I have to tell you, Leora, that you put the whole world in perspective for me because if you can do what you’ve done and continue to fight and make your way in this world despite all the unspeakably difficult challenges you have overcome and have yet to face, the rest of us mere mortals should be able to do anything we want and never utter a whisper of complaint when life seems to gets too hard.
Citizen staff
Students interested in continuing their education after high school, and their parents, will have a chance to gauge what’s on offer at 10 B.C. colleges and universities on Thursday night. The information event will be held in the Canfor Wintergarden at the University of Northern British Columbia, 7 p.m. start. Representatives from Royal Military College, Capilano University College of New Caledonia Simon Fraser University, Thompson Rivers University, Trinity
Western University, University of British Columbia, University of Northern B.C. and University of Victoria will be on hand.
“While post-secondary reps have visited high schools in the region for many years, the school-hour schedule has traditionally made it difficult for parents to participate in the conversation,” the event organizers said in a press release.
“The format of the evening will allow parents and students to interact directly with representatives from all 10 institutions in attendance.”
— from page 1
“Chapter 10 of the new agreement maintains, for Canada and the U.S only, a bi-national panel review mechanism for reviewing anti-dumping and countervailing duty determinations by either country,” added Yurkovich.
“Having a robust and fair dispute resolution mechanism is absolutely critical to maintaining a rules-based trading system and providing an avenue for Canada and Canadian companies to appeal unwarranted duties.”
It was an important aspect of the trade agreement negotiation for forest companies, since no single sector experienced more disputes than softwood lumber under the previous NAFTA agreement. The nation’s lumber producers were earnest, having had to defend itself so often via the dispute resolution system, that Canadian negotiators not give in to American pressure to scrap the referee system.
The Canadian players in the forest industry were also motivated by the lack of a new Softwood Lumber Agreement, a deal cut separately from the trilateral trade deal now called the United States Mexico Canada Agreement or USMCA.
Yurkovich said a lot of diplomacy efforts were still ahead for the forestry sector.
“The duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce
‘Citizen
Finding a durable resolution to the softwood lumber dispute must remain a key priority.
— Susan Yurkovich, B.C. Lumber Trade Council
on Canadian softwood lumber are punitive and unfair, and are driven by the U.S. lumber lobby solely for the purpose of constraining imports of highquality Canadian lumber to drive up prices for their own benefit. Ultimately these duties punish consumers and workers on both sides of the border,” she said.
“Finding a durable resolution to the softwood lumber dispute must remain a key priority.” The B.C. Lumber Trade Council is the organization that covers the majority of wood manufacturing operations in this province when it comes to international trade. The Council of Forest Industries and the Coast Forest Products Association are associate members of this trade council. Its members include Canfor, Dunkley, Lakeland, Carrier, Conifex, West Fraser, Tolko, Interfor, Gorman and Western Forest Products.
Citizen staff
City hall is accepting residents’ feedback via an online survey on what should and should not be included in the coming budget.
The Citizen Budget will be available all this month at princegeorge.citizenbudget.com and through a link at the city’s homepage, princegeorge.ca. Features include a function that allows homeowners to do personal property assessments and see how it is allocated across
a variety of city operations. The tool also indicates how their choices about the financial allocations to various city services would be reflected in their property tax bill. Upon completing the questionnaire, residents can submit their feedback, review the implications for their personal taxes, and share the results on a variety of social networks. The outcome will be presented for council’s consideration at the outset of 2019 budget deliberations.
It was a typical summer night, sitting around the campfire at the lake. Friends and family, lots of laughter, toasting marshmallows, partaking in a few beverages.
“Why is it that I can find out on Facebook who is changing the colour of their hair, what they are serving for supper or if the laundry has been done that day? But... I cannot find out why the RCMP gathered north of town looking for a missing body.”
This, folks is the plain and simple truth about why journalism matters.
Because the facts and the truth are ferreted out by credible journalists whose writings fill the pages of community newspapers and national dailies.
No one reads newspapers anymore, you say.
Wrong. Nine in 10 Canadians read content that was originally generated from a newspaper each week. Canadians turn to newspaper information on a number of issues. It could be the details of a government program, or updates on NAFTA talks, or what the stock market is doing. In the case of a community newspaper, readers seek out information on town council happenings, or school events, or delight in seeing a picture of their children on the front page. Journalists not only gather the news, they also confirm the sources and double check the facts. In a world where information is instantaneous, it is surprising that 63 per cent of Canadians are unable to distinguish between legitimate news websites and fake news stories. Another important reason why newspaper journalism matters... now more than ever.
There is a cost to newspaper journalism. These news gatherers like to be paid, as does everyone who works for a living. The owners of the news outlets, whether a national corporate or the independent owner, have bills to pay. One of the largest forms of revenue is advertising sales.
Unfortunately, the mistaken belief that
In his letter criticizing Todd Whitcombe for his views on proportional representation, Daryl Sturdy suggested that Prof. Whitcombe stick to chemistry and stay out of politics. He followed the well-worn path of insinuating that those who disagree with this position are peddling fear and oppressing their fellow citizens.
First, it is a good sign for Prince George, and for your newspaper, that people in Vancouver take the time to follow our conversations. An even better sign would be for them to learn from our discourse, even perhaps emulate local proPR advocates’ approach, rather than insulting people who take positions that they do not like. Nowhere in Todd’s article did he engage in fear-mongering. He addressed a core assumption, taking a careful, considered position based on logic. In previous articles, Todd has drawn on experiences elsewhere to test whether aspects of proportional representation delivered the results its proponents claim we would enjoy. How logical examination and data analysis constitute fear and oppression is unclear to me. In coming to my opinion about PR, I have spoken with three of its local advocates and read material put out by its proponents. In these conversations, local PR proponents have been cordial, informative, helpful and friendly. This positive approach caused me to much more carefully consider their position. After research and
consideration, I have concluded PR will not deliver the benefits its supporters believe, or else will entail downsides that outweigh the benefits, but local proponents’ rational approaches got them a hearing that vitriol and bile would not have.
I won’t follow Mr. Sturdy’s approach and suggest that people I disagree with be silent. I suggest he visit and interact with his colleagues here so he might see how to advance a position effectively.
I hope you give him as loud a platform as possible. The more he speaks, the better life becomes for those of us opposing proportional representation.
Charles Scott Prince George
I’m 85 years old. I won’t be here much longer. I’m leaving a big batch of descendants behind, and I don’t want to leave them hornswoggled by the disguised dictatorship of first-past-the-post which has left me unrepresented in my governments for most of my federal and provincial votes. I want to leave them with an honest, fair representation every time they vote, so that they feel their vote is important. They may not find themselves in whatever group wins the largest number of seats in every election, but the group they align themselves with in values should have an influence in all resulting legislation. In other words, I want them to live in a truly representative democracy.
Far too late in life I have come to realize that the wish I have for them and their peers is impossible to achieve unless every vote in our increasingly complex society has an equal value in apportioning seats in our legislative chambers. Big parties or small parties, whether their values align or not with yours, should have an equal chance to be heard.
Retirement gives you time to realize how poorly our old fashioned first past the post system has served most of us. Oh yes, it has served the moneyed very well, but it has ignored the needs and wishes of our poorer majority. The inequality it has nurtured has reached the level we should be ashamed of in a true democracy. Only proportional representation can modernize our outdated system. It is the richest legacy we can leave those who follow.
Ian MacKenzie Kamloops
Hurray for letter writer Warner Bliskis. An election is approaching – I say Warner for prime minister! He is totally correct in solving the penalties handed out to criminals using handguns. When a life sentence is handed out, life means a whole lifetime, not 25 years maximum. Lawmakers do not seem to know the difference. “Good behaviour” is just an excuse to get out of jail! We definitely would reduce crime and the need for prisons and other related costs.
Ken Luggi Fraser Lake
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everyone can be reached through social media has caused advertisers to abandon newspapers. Many studies find that ads in newspapers are the most trusted of all. Newspapers do not share your data, either. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said, “Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word –paper. They’ve got to be defined by the first word – news.”
News is important – at the national level and at the local level. Journalism matters because democracy matters. It is what defines us as people who are fortunate to live in a free country. Newspapers matter because their credible journalists provide the facts and the truth that we deserve.
National Newspaper Week is being celebrated the first week of October with this year’s theme: Newspapers Matter: Now More Than Ever. At this time Canadians are being asked to show their support for the industry. Send a message to governments, to Canadian business, to journalists that newspapers matter. Pledge your support at www.newspapersmatter.ca.
Margaret Hasein is the publisher of the Biggar Independent newspaper in Biggar, Sask. Like the Biggar Independent, The Citizen is a member of News Media Canada, the national association of the Canadian news media industry, serving print and digital news media members in every province and territory.
We have a deal. It is no longer NAFTA but the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
“It is great deal for all three countries, solves the many deficiencies and mistakes in the NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduce Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations closer together in competition with the rest of the world,” tweeted Donald Trump.
The U.S. president finished his tweets by writing “The USMCA is a historic transaction!” and in that he is right. Much of what he is doing is historic. It will certainly be analyzed in history textbooks and Ph.D dissertations for all its mistakes.
But is it a great moment in history? No. It is not a high point in our ongoing relationship with the United States. Indeed, as CBSN reported, one analyst said the whole debacle has irreparably damaged U.S.-Canada trade negotiations all for a couple of gallons of milk.
The whole exercise came about due to a lack of understanding of the trade relationship between Canada and the United States by the president. Our goods trade balance is just about even – fluctuating a little on a year over year basis. It is presently sitting about $670 billion with an $8.2 billion surplus going to the United States. In other words, the United States was already getting more from its exports to Canada than it was paying for imports.
Trump’s presumption NAFTA was a “bad deal” filled with mistakes and deficiencies was, from a U.S. perspective, not valid. But it was part of his platform. It certainly played to the crowds and energized his base. The idea they were not to blame for their fiscal failures was music to ear of the masses.
We don’t know much about the details of the new agreement. We are told it will ensure more autoparts and automobiles are manufactured in high wage regions. High wages means a minimum of $16 per hour – something of a joke in my opinion. But it is intended to force some Mexican operations to increase the wages they are paying to their employees or shut down. Whether they will is debatable. What will happen is the cost of a new car will increase. American consumers and by default Canadians as well will pay more for cars manufactured anywhere in North America. The central idea behind all this is higher wages
means more money to buy cars so the price increase will be offset. Of course, not everyone works in the automotive industry nor will they see wage increase benefits. This is the part of all this I really don’t understand. There are slightly over 63 million people in the United States who voted for a man who promised to make everything they consume more expensive and more difficult to acquire. Why would people want someone in power who is going to make it more difficult for the average wage earner to afford to live?
The other “big win” for the United States appears to be in the dairy industry. Under the Trans Pacific Partnership, Canada had already agreed to opening up 3.25 per cent of our dairy to foreign inputs. Under the USMCA, it is 3.6 per cent – or a couple of more gallons of milk. If Trump hadn’t torn up the TPP and walked away from the discussions, he would have already had his win on this file. But this is no small potatoes. One estimate places this trade at around $400 million per year which will be lost to Canadian dairy farmers. Not a huge amount in an $18 billion per year industry but the fear is once the doors are opened, how are we going to stop them from opening further?
There are people on both sides of the fence about our dairy supply management system. It ensures all dairy farmers predictability and price stability. They know how much milk they must produce and what they will get when selling it. However, it also means the market is not as competitive as it can be and it previously hadn’t been open to international competition. There is also the whole question of standards regarding the use of growth hormones and antibiotics. I am not a big fan of the paranoia around food additives but just the taste of milk alone south of the border makes me wonder what is in it. I prefer the milk I know to drinking an American import. What did Canada get out of the deal? It appears we still have no control over our oil and gas production but the dispute mechanisms stay in place. Maybe that’s a good thing. We have a deal but were the negotiations worth the time, effort, and money just so Trump could say he kept his promise?
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Matt ROBINSON Vancouver Sun
KITIMAT — People in this North Coast town are looking forward eagerly to the boom that will come with construction of a $40-billion megaproject to export liquefied natural gas to Asia.
LNG Canada’s partners – Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Mitsubishi Corp., PetroChina Co. and Korea Gas Corp. – have approved the final investment decision, people with direct knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg on Sunday on the condition they not be named. A formal announcement is expected this week.
PetroChina and Korea Gas announced approvals of their share of the investment on Friday. The other partners declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.
“I know it will bring a lot of change to the town,” said Chris Wang, who moved here from Ontario a year ago.
“I think it will be a good thing. Right now, a lot of the restaurants, when you go out on a Friday, Saturday night, will be pretty empty and quiet.”
At the site of the planned liquefaction plant just outside of town, work has already been underway for some time. Sunday, heavy equipment hauled, spread and compacted earth at a whirlwind pace. The site, large enough to hold a small town of its own, was encircled by hundreds of metres of orange, temporary fencing signed LNG Canada.
The first phase of the company’s twophase LNG facility is expected to take five to seven years to build, said Susannah Pierce, director of external relations for LNG Canada.
Residents in Kitimat say the peak 7,500 construction jobs and 800 operational jobs could transform lives and the community.
Gilbert Noseworthy, who was out buying groceries downtown, said he hadn’t yet heard the news that an investment decision was coming.
“I just arrived here from Edmonton. Actually, I was hoping to get work with LNG,” he said.
Noseworthy said he’d worked in the gas industry in Alberta for the last 25 years as a heavy hauler but had come out to Kitimat in search of new opportunities after that province experienced a downturn. So far, he has not found work.
Down the street from the grocery store is City Centre Mall, where several shops sit empty and sport vacancy signs on their windows. Shopkeepers inside the mall said a positive decision could help boost the local economy.
Wang said when the market in Kitimat
recently began to rise he jumped in and bought a house. People have been saying prices could double when the new project really gets going, he said.
Wang said he had worked for a while in Calgary in the natural gas industry, but on the extraction side.
He now works at the Rio Tinto aluminum smelter, where in this town, “everyone has a connection to the plant.”
TransCanada has completed benefit agreements with all 20 elected First Nation bands along its Coastal GasLink pipeline route from Dawson Creek to Kitimat. The pipeline would feed the terminal.
First Nations have viewed the environmental dangers of gas, which evaporates during a spill, as less than that of an oil spill, particularly in the ocean or on inland waterways. The last First Nation to sign a benefit agreement was the Haisla Nation in Kitimat.
The Kitimat export terminal will be the closest North American LNG port to Asian markets. The shipping time to Tokyo is
about eight days compared to 20 days from the U.S. Gulf.
LNG Canada proposes to eventually export as much as 26 million tons of gas per year. The investment approval is only for the initial two LNG liquefaction units, capable of 13 million tons a year. But the odds that LNG Canada will double capacity in a second phase “is all but an inevitability” because of the economies of scale, National Bank of Canada analysts said in a May report.
But the project is politically sensitive. LNG facilities could dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions and further imperil B.C.’s pollution-reduction targets, which Green Leader Andrew Weaver has warned would cause him to end his support for the minority NDP government and potentially force an election.
Reports said the federal government agreed to waive import tariffs on steel plant modules built overseas that were estimated to add $1 billion to the cost of the project.
The go-ahead for LNG Canada could encourage other projects to follow suit, creating facilities needed to soak up Western Canada’s glut of natural gas, producers say. The projects would eventually provide a market for gas companies that are now discouraged from increasing production by low prices linked to fierce U.S. competition and Canadian pipeline capacity shortfalls, said Steve Laut, executive vice-chairman of Canada’s largest natural gas producing company, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. of Calgary.
“If you get one plant through, there will be a second and third plant that will follow much easier, and that makes a difference,” he said after participating in a recent panel discussion at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta.
“I think it gives confidence to the other proponents; they can see they can get through the process.”
— With files from Bloomberg and The Canadian Press
Dan HEALING Citizen news service
CALGARY — The smoke has cleared after the worst forest fire season in B.C. history but tourism operators fear the reputational damage to their industry will linger far into the future.
Hundreds of wildfires fanned by hot, dry conditions forced the province to declare a state of emergency in British Columbia for the second year in a row.
From Aug. 15 to Sept. 7, evacuation orders, closed roads and smoke-filled parks affected thousands of residents and visitors and the smoke was so thick it spilled over into Alberta and parts of the northwestern United States.
“We’ve run our guiding business for 30 years – in 30 years, we’ve had three smoky years and two of them were back-to-back, which is not a good sign, right?” said Ian Eakins of family-owned Wells Gray Adventures. “I’m a bit concerned, absolutely. If this is our future, it’s a lot tougher game, isn’t it?”
The company which offers guided hut-tohut backcountry hiking trips in the summer for small groups was shut down for three weeks in 2017 when the province closed Wells Gray Provincial Park due to fire danger.
This year, many of his guests called to cancel because of the smoke but Eakins, 63, said he was able to convince most that the air would be clear and the views magnificent once they got out of the valleys and onto mountain trails above the haze.
The 2018 fires burned more than 1.3 million hectares of forest, surpassing the total from the record set the previous year when the province was in a state of emergency for a much longer 10-week period.
Many tourism businesses have suffered losses from the back-to-back fire seasons but the damage to B.C.’s brand could be just as costly, said Jeremy Stone, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia who has conducted research into economic and business resilience to disasters.
“The brand damage, that’s the much more difficult one... You really start to become associated with, ‘This is not a place I should be,”’ he said. He said a recent news story
about a European tourist who was evacuated due to fire for the second year in a row this summer is an example of the hits B.C.’s reputation is taking.
The province is trying to mitigate and prevent wildfires but tourism operators should be dealing with what looks like a continuing risk by offering and promoting fall, spring and winter options rather than relying too heavily on the peak summer season, he said.
Hotel occupancy statistics will show Prince George had a great summer but the numbers don’t tell the whole story, said Annie Doran, marketing manager for the local tourism bureau.
“Our accommodations have been full two summers in a row due to large numbers of evacuees coming to Prince George as the main evacuation centre,” she said.
“It was incredibly smoky. We basically had six weeks of no sunshine, just cloaked in with smoke,” Doran said, adding the industry reported many cancellations or abbreviated trips.
Smoke that spilled over the border into Alberta caused more than 3,000 guests to cancel helicopter sight-seeing tours from locations near Banff National Park and in the Badlands of southern Alberta, reported Todd Johnson, director of business development for Alpine Helicopters.
He said it was a bad summer all around, estimating a total of 10,000 guests cancelled, leading to a $1-million shortfall.
“We had a lot of cancellations due to weather and then, when the weather improved, of course, fire season kicked in and it was smoke, so we had to cancel or give
guests the option of not going just because of the visibility,” he said.
He said the fires are a “black eye” for the industry.
“The whole point is to see the mountains, to be up close and personal to those big mountains.”
The fires led to many cancellations throughout B.C. this year and statistics will likely show a substantial impact on tourism when they are released, said Walt Judas, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of B.C. He said there may be an impact on bookings next year but he doesn’t expect a long-term reduction because demand for B.C.’s tourism product is growing in new markets such as China, Mexico and Australia and is steady in traditional markets such as the United States.
FORT ST. JOHN — A landslide is creeping down a steep slope in northeastern B.C., carrying away part of a gravel pit, isolating the small community of Old Fort and forcing the evacuation of two properties.
The Ministry of Transportation says on Twitter that Old Fort Road leading to the community was closed Sunday when the hillside began to give way.
The ministry said geotechnical experts expect it could be days before the earth stops moving.
By Monday, Old Fort Road was covered by several metres of dirt.
Gord Pardy lives in Old Fort and said the earth seems to be slowly slumping away from the hillside.
“If you can imagine a lava flow coming across, but (this) has sort of come under the road and lifted the road and pushed it,” he said.
An update on the Peace River Regional District website said there was no immediate threat to Old Fort, which is east of the slide. However, the community of about 30 homes is completely cut off and is preparing to lose electricity as the slide edges toward power lines, Pardy said.
Most people in Old Fort have switched
from wood stoves to electrical heat, he said, adding that they also depend on regular deliveries of water by truck.
“Everybody’s going to run out of water.”
The regional district ordered the evacuation of the gravel pit on the top of the slide and another nearby property.
Access to the Peace River Lookout, which oversees the entire area, has also been cut off.
Pardy said the gravel pit appears to be “split in half, half of it is sliding down the hill.”
“The trees make a lot of noise, they’re popping and cracking,” he said.
“The pavement falls. The dirt’s moving.
A big chunk of the hillside has just moved down 50 feet. Amazing.”
The regional district set up an emergency operations centre Sunday and residents of Old Fort who are not affected by the evacuation were being advised to stay put while efforts are underway to find a safe route into the community.
BC Hydro, which is responsible for the Site C project, posted several Twitter messages Sunday saying the situation is being monitored closely.
The slide is close to one of the gates leading to its dam, the Crown company tweets said. There is no evidence the slide is linked to construction.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After four losses to start the season, two at the hands of the Prince George Cougars, the Kelowna Rockets and their stagnant offence were fed up. Instead of fizzling on the launch pad with another dud Saturday night at CN Centre, they simply sizzled, scoring three times in the first 10 minutes on the way to a 5-2 victory over the Cougars.
Held to six goals in their first four games, the Rockets got the boost they needed from their top forward trio – Nolan Foote, Kyle Topping and Leif Mattson. That line had a hand in all five goals and proved too hot to handle for the Cougars.
“We came out hard, we were upset with 0-4 and we knew we could play a lot better and we decided to just work hard and play our systems and it worked,” said Foote, who had a goal and an assist and was a plus-5 in the game.
“Our line played great. I love playing with Topping and Mattson. It was a great team game all around, everyone played good. We don’t like losing three in a row to them, we wanted to come here and steal at least one.”
Foote stoked the furnace before the ice was dry from the pre-game
flood, setting up rookie blueliner Devin Steffler with a pass back to the point. Steffler dragged the puck into the middle and fired off a wrist shot that got through a maze of bodies in front of goalie Taylor Gauthier, just 23 seconds into the game.
The Cougars thought they’d tied it up just before the five-minute mark. Josh Curtis got tripped up as he headed to the net and slid into goalie James Porter, who came out to save a shot from Ilijah Colina. The puck was left uncovered in the crease and Curtis was standing on the goal line when he dragged the puck into the cage but the goal was disallowed when the officials ruled he’d made incidental contact with Porter.
On the next rush, Mattson cruised down the left side and dropped the puck back for Topping who found a sliver of net to make it 2-0. A fortuitous ricochet led to the third Kelowna goal. Topping’s shot deflected high off the glass and came out to the opposite side right on the stick of Mattson, who put it in past a pivoting Gauthier.
Mattson finished with two goals and an assist and had a plus-4 rating, while Topping had a goal and an assist and was also plus-4.
“They were really good tonight,” said Rockets head coach Jason Smith, referring to his top line.
“They played well throughout the whole rink. They put the puck to
It was a weird start, I thought we played pretty well in the first six or eight minutes but we were down 3-0.
— Richard Matvichuk
the
net and were getting to the areas where goals are scored. They were really good on the penalty kill and generated some momentum on the power play, which is an important part of the game.
“They did a real good job of skating to the net and not always looking to make an extra pass or an extra play. They shot the puck and got to the net for some rebounds and created some opportunities from below the goal line, which is a hard play to defend.”
A point shot through a screen from Austin Crossley stoked the Cougars’ offence late in the period, the first of the season for the 19-year-old defenceman from Fort St. John.
The teams traded goals in the second period. Foote tipped one in from the side of the net for the Rockets and Cougars defenceman Ryan Schoettler answered about a minute later with an unassisted effort.
“It was a weird start, I thought we played pretty well in the first six or eight minutes but we were down 3-0,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “We didn’t quit, we kept battling and got it to 3-1 and it was another weird goal on the fourth one.
“This was just a game of bounces and I’m not going to dig too deeply into it.”
The Cougars came out with a big push in the third period and had a 7-0 shot advantage through the first five minutes but had nothing to show for it. The Rocket defenders forced the play to the outside and gave Porter good views of the puck most of the time.
Foote helped put the icing on the Kelowna victory 14 minutes into the third while trying to split the defence. On the play, Crossley swatted the puck away, right to Mattson, who went five-hole on Gauthier to
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Puck Louwes didn’t get to be the topranked university soccer goalie in Canada without paying her dues and making saves that leave opponents shaking their heads in disbelief.
Kind of like what she was doing Sunday afternoon against the UNBC Timberwolves.
The T-wolves didn’t get to test the sixfoot-one Victoria Vikes goalie very often in their Canada West conference Pacific Division battle at Masich Place Stadium, but the four shots they did put on goal were of the Grade-A variety.
Like when T-wolves midfielder Hannah Emmond was sprung on a breakaway pass from Sofia Jones in the opening minute of the first half. Louwes, a fourth-year U Sports veteran, instinctively ran out and dove to get her body in smothering range of Emmond’s hard shot.
Or when Louwes used her face to deflect a bullet drive from just 10 yards away off the
foot of UNBC shooter Kiana Swift, who then hammered the rebound from only a few yards away off the goalpost.
But there was nothing the Victoria goalie could do to stop Paige Payne from collecting her team-leading fifth goal of the season, 77 minutes into Sunday’s game. Stopped on her initial shot, Payne tucked in a rebound low past the outstetched arms of Louwes to tie the game 1-1. That was all the incentive the T-wolves (1-4-3) needed to lock up an important point against a tough divisional opponent and snap a three-game losing streak which included a 7-0 loss at Masich to the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday night.
“After the Friday result against UBC we just really wanted to show all the improvement we’ve made this season and I think that showed this game, being able to come back after being down one,” said Swift.
“Just the tenacity and aggressiveness we showed, I’m super-happy to be on this team.” — see THUNDERBIRDS, page 10
cap the scoring – his team-leading fifth goal.
In Friday’s 3-2 win over Kelowna the Cougars were much more aggressive, using their bodies and sticks to separate the Rockets from the puck, which led to quality scoring chances. That element was missing in the rematch.
“At the end of the day they outworked us in the corners and beat us in the battles down low and they did get a couple bounces too,” said Crossley. “We had our chances in their zone and we moved the puck pretty well. We had a couple lines going down low that were working hard down there.”
The Cougars’ power play looked somewhat disorganized and predictable, a disturbing trend that began last weekend in the two games in Victoria. They did score one with the extra skater in their 4-2 win Wednesday in Kelowna but that’s all they have to show for 25 opportunities through five games.
“That’s not good enough,” said Matvichuk. “We all know that at this level, special teams wins hockey games.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars will have the week to prepare for their next opponents, the Vancouver Giants, who will play at CN Centre Friday and Saturday… The Cougars organization lost a longtime volunteer Saturday morning when penalty timekeeper Russ Bailey died in his sleep at his home of an apparent heart attack.
— from page 9
Swift, an 18-year-old rookie from Sooke, had a chance for the winner in the 89th minute when she got to Payne’s kick from the corner but her header sailed over the crossbar.
Emmond, 19, a second-year midfielder, came in off the bench late in the first half and teamed up with her older sister Madison and defender Julia Babicz to provide the small gathering in the grandstand some local content to follow on the field, and all three Prince George products had their moments of brilliance.
“They are a very good team but today we brought out our best and played around them really well,” said Hannah Emmond. “We like to keep possession in the back and we play around the back a bit more to break other teams apart and we try to play through them and I think that’s where we get our chances. The one thing about our team is we never give up.”
have made adjustments,” said David. “So we were playing a man short in a crucial situation. Maybe we need to work at scoring more goals and we wouldn’t be talking about this. But these are big points and it’s unfortunate that the referee directly impacted the outcome of the game.
“Credit to UNBC, they worked us off the park.”
The T-wolves did have a decided edge in ball possession time and won most of the loose-ball battles against the Vikes (4-4-1), a team that lost just three graduating players from last year’s Canada West runners-up and fifth-place national finishers.
The tying goal came just before Vikes sophomore defender Brea Christie had to be helped off the field after she got hurt in front of the Victoria net. Christie wanted to get back into the game not long after she got to the sideline and Vikes head coach Tracey David let the officials know she was ready to go back in, but Christie was still on the outside looking in with only 10 Vikes on the field when Payne scored.
“We’re pretty pissed,” said Louwes. “That was a really stupid call that cost us a goal. Because of that our centreback wasn’t there and they ran into that hole. That was some shocking refereeing.
“Of course, that wasn’t our best game. We didn’t bring it, especially in the first half, but we picked it up in the second half.” Georgia Bignold opened the scoring for Victoria 52 minutes in, chipping a left-side shot high and in off the hand of goalie Brooke Molby. David and the rest of the Vikes were still incensed at the referee’s decision as they packed up their gear for the trip back to Victoria.
“The referee should have allowed us to put Brea pack on the pitch, the fourth official did signal to her and we thought she would be on, otherwise we would
“I think it just shows the progress the program is making, the whole squad has lifted the level of training and on the field they just continue to stick to what our game model is and the way they came back after giving up a goal in the way we did was really good, especially against a team like UVic,” said UNBC head coach Neil Sedgwick. “We did extremely well and I’m happy for the girls. Puck is a fantastic keeper but we did get our chances and there were some great blocks in front of the goal. We were just able to create more than we have in the past and we’ve conceded some goals but were starting to tidy those pieces up.”
Victoria was coming off a 2-1 loss Friday in Edmonton to the Grant McEwan Griffins. The Griffins (5-2-1, third in the Pacific) will be in Prince George this weekend for a doubleheader against the T-wolves Friday and Saturday.
• The UNBC men, playing their third game in four days Sunday afternoon in Vancouver, lost 7-0 to the UBC T-birds. Kristian Yli-Hietenen scored four goals – three in the first half – and UBC took a 6-0 lead into the dressing room at the intermission. Thomas Gardner, Zach Verhoven and Connor Guilherme also scored for the T-birds (8-0-2), who tied the T-wolves 1-1 Friday. Jason Roberts had just one shot to stop for his fifth shutout in 10 games this season. UBC outshot the T-wolves 9-1. The UNBC men (4-2-3, fourth in the Pacific) earned four of a possible nine points on their road trip, which started with a 2-1 win Thursday in Victoria. They’ll head back on the road this weekend for games Saturday and Sunday in Kamloops against Thompson Rivers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Reed blames Jordan Spieth for them not playing together at the Ryder Cup and told The New York Times that U.S. captain Jim Furyk was not smart to sit him out twice. Europe won the Ryder Cup 17 1/2 to 10 1/2 at Le Golf National outside Paris. Europe now has won nine of the last 12 times.
Spieth and Justin Thomas went 3-1, the only American tandem to play all four matches. Reed was paired with Tiger Woods in fourballs, losing both matches, and sitting out both foursomes matches.
In an interview with the Times an hour after the closing news conference, Reed said he was fully expecting Furyk to pair him with Spieth again.
“The issue’s obviously with Jordan not wanting to play with me,” Reed said. “I
don’t have any issue with Jordan. When it comes right down to it, I don’t care if I like the person I’m paired with or if the person likes me as long as it works and it sets up the team for success. He and I know how to make each other better. We know how to get the job done.”
They were 4-1-2 in the previous two Ryder Cups and not had any other partners.
Spieth and Reed were asked at the end of the U.S. press conference Sunday night if they were surprised they didn’t play together. Both looked at each other to see who would respond before Spieth spoke first.
“We were totally involved with every decision that was made,” Spieth said. “We had two potentially fantastic teams (Spieth-Thomas and Woods-Reed) and we went out confidently and tried to play our best.”
Citizen news service
RENTON, Wash. — For whatever reason,
playing in Arizona has become a dramafilled trip for the Seattle Seahawks.
The latest chapter came Sunday when Earl Thomas broke his leg in a 20-17 win.
Seattle’s star free safety fractured the tibia in his left leg in a collision with Arizona wide receiver Chad Williams with nine minutes to play. It was nearly an identical injury to the one Thomas sustained in 2016 when he collided with teammate Kam Chancellor in a game against the Carolina Panthers.
The stadium in Glendale, Ariz., has turned into a house of horrible memories for the Seahawks, and the Super Bowl loss to New England is just one of the miserable moments for Seattle.
Former running back Marshawn Lynch extended a middle finger to the Seahawks sideline in Arizona in 2013 to express his displeasure with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell’s play-calling. There was the unsightly 6-6 tie during the 2016 season. And there was Malcolm Butler’s interception of Russell Wilson at the goal line to deny Seattle a second-straight Lombardi Trophy.
In addition to Thomas’ injury, Chancellor and Richard Sherman each saw his tenure with the Seahawks end because of injuries
sustained in a game in Arizona last November. Chancellor sustained a neck injury that has kept him from continuing his career while Sherman tore his Achilles tendon and was released this off-season.
Now there is the image of Thomas leaving the field on a cart with a middle finger extended toward his sideline in what could end up being his final game with the Seahawks.
The Legion of Boom all went bust in the desert.
“I don’t know where to put that,” coach Pete Carroll said. “It’s kind of uncanny that it’s happened like that.”
The loss of Thomas throws second-year safety Tedric Thompson into the spotlight. Thompson was the starter through most of the preseason when Thomas was holding out and has seen plenty of playing time in the first month as Seattle has used a mix of defences featuring three safeties.
“We’re excited about Tedric’s play and he’s been playing quite a bit in the dime group that we’ve been playing, so he’s been on the field a lot, so it’s nothing new for him to get out there,” Carroll said.
But Thompson isn’t Thomas – at least not yet – and his likely first start is set to come against the most potent offence in the NFL when the Los Angeles Rams visit on Sunday.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
The Prince George Spruce Kings were the instigators of their own fate Sunday afternoon in Coquitlam, where they lost 3-1 to the Express to finish off a three-game B.C. Hockey League road trip.
Ever since they angered the Express by beating them on consecutive nights Sept. 14-15 in Prince George, Coquitlam has done nothing but win hockey games.
The Express reeled off its sixth-straight victory Sunday in front of a sparse crowd of 209 at Poirier Sports and Leisure Centre, defeating the Spruce Kings 3-1. Head coach Adam Maglio admitted fatigue was a factor for a Kings team playing its third road game in less than three days.
“We looked a bit tired today,” said Maglio. “We looked a bit slow and our energy we usually have wasn’t there. They work hard every shift and you’ve got to be energized to play them and you have to push the pace and it was the other way around. You have to make them turn to go after pucks and we didn’t do a good enough job of that.”
The Rivermen stormed back to tie the game in the third period with goals two minutes apart from Alec Capstick and Garrett Daly, setting the stage for Poisson’s winner.
The Spruce Kings finished the game 3-for-10 on the power play and used their special teams time to build up a 35-24 shot advantage. Langley ended up 1-for-4 on the power play.
Anhorn finished with a goal and an assist and Kings defenceman Layton Ahac collected two assists. William Stromp had the other Langley goal.
Chase Danol’s shorthanded goal 6:06 into the second period gave the Express the lead and Drew Cooper added to the total during a 5-on-3 Coquitlam power play late in the period to finish off the scoring. Alex DiPaolo had the only goal of the opening period, also on an Express power play.
Brad Cooper took the loss in goal as the Kings were outshot 34-23. Kolby Matthews made 22 saves for his fourth win of the season.
Chong Min Lee, in the second period, had the lone goal for the Spruce Kings (6-2-0-1) who dropped to third place in the Mainland Division standings, one point behind Chilliwack and Coquitlam who each sport 7-3-0-0 records atop the BCHL.
Saturday night in Langley, Kings captain Ben Poisson scored his first three goals of the season and defenceman Nick Bochen collected three assists in a 4-3 win over the Langley Rivermen. Poisson’s power-play game-winner came with four minutes left in the third period.
Bochen, a 17-year-old rookie from North Vancouver coveted by several NCAA college teams, helped set up Poisson’s first two goals to stake the Kings to a 2-1 lead six minutes into the second period and defenceman Dylan Anhorn added to the count with an even-strength goal just nine seconds after Poisson’s second goal.
Logan Neaton improved his record to 5-00-1 in goal for the Kings, making 21 saves. Braedon Fleming took the loss in net for the Rivermen.
The Spruce Kings started out with a 3-2 loss in a shootout after playing five minutes of 3-on-3 overtime against the Surrey Eagles on Friday.
“That was our first shootout and it’s exciting for the fans,” said Maglio. “It’s tough losing in a shootout but you can’t get too low on those. It turns into that individual battle and takes a bit out of the team game.”
The Spruce Kings will be back on home ice at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena Thursday night when they take on the defending champion Wenatchee Wild in a rematch of last year’s Fred Page Cup final. On Friday they host the Victoria Grizzlies.
Spencer Chapman re-aggravated a hamstring injury from last season in Friday’s game and will be out indefinitely. The 19-year-old Kings winger, a native of Cochrane, Alta., will return home for treatment.
• On Monday, the Spruce Kings announced the acquisition of 17-year-old defenceman Jason Chu from the Surrey Eagles in exchange for future considerations. Chu, from Coquitlam, is just five games into his BCHL career, including one game last year with the Kings as an affiliated player. This season, he had one goal with the Eagles.
“Jason is a very good young defenceman that we are familiar with,” said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes. “I wanted to add another defenceman who we know can play but also someone who was younger and would be with us for a few seasons. I feel our group of defenceman is very solid and adding a good young player to that mix was the goal.”
Last season, Chu skated in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League with the Vancouver Northwest Giants. In 40 games, he had four goals and 25 assists. Chu is expected to be in the lineup when the Spruce Kings host the Wild on Thursday.
LOS ANGELES — What a day for Walker Buehler. The rookie with the preternatural calm pitched the Los Angeles Dodgers to a record sixth consecutive NL West title.
Buehler tossed one-hit ball into the seventh inning, and Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy launched two-run homers to beat the Colorado Rockies 5-2 in a tiebreaker on Monday.
“It’s a normal baseball game. It’s hyped up, there’s an adrenaline, but you got to execute,” Buehler said. “That’s all you can do.”
The defending NL champion Dodgers became the first major league team to win six straight division crowns since the Yankees captured nine AL East titles in a row from 1998-2006.
“It doesn’t get old,” confirmed ace Clayton Kershaw.
Los Angeles now hosts Atlanta in the best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Thursday.
“We’re going to beat Atlanta,” a shirtless Yasiel Puig proclaimed, rivulets of beer and champagne down his front and back. “No matter who’s coming, we’re going to the World Series and bring the 2018 championship here.”
Denied their first division title in franchise history, the Rockies head to Wrigley Field to play the Chicago Cubs in the NL wildcard game tonight.
“Our guys will put it in the rearview for sure,” Rockies manager Bud Black said of the loss. “The resiliency of this group has been awesome all year.”
Pitching in 90-degree heat, Buehler was oh-so-cool in closing out a regular season that ended with Game 163 after both teams had identical records of 91-71.
The soft-spoken 24-year-old from Lexington has been so steady of late that manager Dave Roberts had no qualms about giving Buehler the ball for the crucial game that helped decide the Dodgers’ post-season fate.
“He’s ready for this moment,” Roberts said, “and he responded.”
Buehler’s only slip-up came on the field after the game when he let loose with an inadvertent
expletive, having been handed the mic after fans demanded to hear from him. He clasped his hand to his mouth and apologized.
No need to be sorry, though, after that performance.
Buehler settled in quickly, retiring his first six batters in a row, and never did allow a run.
“Walker is a tremendous talent,” Kershaw said. “His competitiveness is off-the-charts, his ability is off-the-charts.”
Buehler (8-5) had his no-hit bid broken up in the sixth on Charlie Blackmon’s single, one of his two hits for the Rockies.
“He didn’t fold at all under pressure,” Muncy said. “He went there and attacked them just like we knew he was going to.”
Buehler even helped himself offensively, hitting a single in the sixth for his first professional RBI and extending the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0. “Love that, absolutely,” he said, soaked to the skin.
After giving up a two-out walk to Carlos Gonzalez in the seventh,
Buehler exited to a standing ovation from the announced crowd of 47,816. He waved his right hand and quickly strode to the dugout as fans chanted his last name. The right-hander struck out three and walked three.
Despite posting the best road record in franchise history (4438), the Rockies couldn’t get untracked. They didn’t advance a runner past second base until the ninth when Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story homered back-toback off closer Kenley Jansen.
Jansen then retired the next three batters in a row.
“What happened?” Jansen said when asked about the homers. “We’re first in the division, that’s what happened.”
The Dodgers’ two homers extended their franchise and NLleading total to 235 on the season. Bellinger got the Dodgers on the board with his 25th homer in the fourth, a two-out shot to left that made it 2-0. Muncy struck out leading off but was safe at first
Citizen news service
DENVER — Patrick Mahomes rallied the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 2723 win over the Denver Broncos on Monday night.
The Chiefs (4-0) took a two-game lead over the Broncos (2-2) in the AFC West with their sixth straight win over their rivals. Down 23-13, Mahomes directed a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ate up more than six minutes and culminated with a two-yard TD toss to tight end Travis Kelce, then added a 60-yard touchdown drive, handing off to Kareem Hunt for the four-yard score with 1:39 remaining. It was the first time since 2004 that the Broncos blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead at
home.
In between Kansas City’s scoring drives, the Broncos, who had run roughshod over the Chiefs all night – a 7.2-yard average per run – suddenly abandoned their ground game in favour of three-wide receiver sets that resulted in a quick three-and-out.
Then, struggling punter Marquette King shanked a 35-yarder out of bounds, giving the Chiefs the ball at their 40 with 4:35 left.
Mahomes overcame a couple of flags that put Kansas City in a second-and-30 hole from their 31 and completed a 35-yard pass to Demetrius Harris down to the Broncos’ 11 at the twominute warning.
The play should never have counted because the play clock expired before the snap, but referee Craig Wrolstad’s crew missed it.
on a passed ball by catcher Tony Wolters. After Manny Machado and Yasmani Grandal struck out, Bellinger connected on a 1-0 pitch from German Marquez (14-11).
Joc Pederson doubled to deep right-centre leading off the fifth. One out later, Muncy hit his 35th homer to left-centre, extending the lead to 4-0 and chasing Marquez.
Marquez gave up four runs –two earned – and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked two.
The Dodgers played their first tiebreaker since 1980, when they lost to Houston for the division title.
The Rockies were on a roll coming into the club’s second tiebreaker and first for the NL West title, having won nine of 10 since being swept at Dodger Stadium from Sept. 17-19.
“Today was unfortunate, but the fact of the matter is we have a chance to win the World Series,” Blackmon said. “I feel like most of the guys are looking at this as a great opportunity.”
After the Chiefs took the lead, the Broncos reached the Kansas City 28, but Case Keenum overthrew an open Demaryius Thomas near the goal line racing down the right sideline. Then rookie Courtland Sutton caught a firstdown pass but overhanded it back on a failed hook-and-ladder that resulted in a turnover on downs with five seconds left.
Phillip Lindsay’s one-yard TD run broke a 13-13 tie late in the third quarter, and Brandon McManus extended the lead to 10 with a 46yard field goal. Kelce’s TD catch got the Chiefs within three with 6:27 remaining. Denver’s three-and-out and shanked punt gave the Chiefs the ball at their 40 and brought the Broncos’ exhausted defenders right back onto the field with 4 1/2 minutes remaining.
Citizen news service
CHICAGO — Christian Yelich’s easy smile and champagne-soaked T-shirt said it all. A division title is much more fun than a Triple Crown.
Yelich collected three more hits as the Milwaukee Brewers won their first NL Central title since 2011, beating the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Monday in a tiebreaker game. The silky-smooth slugger stalled in his bid for the NL’s first Triple Crown in decades, but he starred once again as the Brew Crew captured the biggest prize of the day.
“I know how hard it is to get to this point and I’m proud to be a part of this group,” Yelich said as Milwaukee’s boozy party swirled around him, filling every inch of the cramped visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field.
Lorenzo Cain hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning to help Milwaukee to its eighth straight win and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. The Brewers will host the wildcard winner starting Thursday in the best-of-five Division Series.
Chicago stays at Wrigley for tonight’s wild-card game against Colorado.
Yelich singled home Milwaukee’s first run and won the NL batting title with a .326 average. He had 110 RBIs, one behind the Cubs’ Javier Baez, and finished with 36 home runs. The tiebreakers were game 163 of the regular season and counted in the totals.
Joe Medwick in 1937 was the last NL player to win the Triple Crown. Miguel Cabrera did it for Detroit in 2012.
Milwaukee trailed Chicago by as many as five games in September, but manager Craig Counsell’s club pushed the season to an extra day with a furious finish and then used its deep lineup and bullpen to outlast the playoff-tested Cubs.
Orlando Arcia, batting in the eighth slot, had a careerhigh four hits, and Josh Hader closed out another dominant relief performance for the Brewers.
Jose Quintana pitched six-hit ball into the sixth inning and Anthony Rizzo homered, but Chicago’s bullpen faltered at a key moment. Daniel Murphy and Javier Baez had the only other hits for the Cubs.
The game was tied 1-1 before Milwaukee opened the eighth with three straight hits. Arcia singled on a 0-2 pitch from Justin Wilson (4-5), Domingo Santana had a pinch-hit double and Cain greeted Steve Cishek with a single back up the middle.
After Yelich struck out swinging, Ryan Braun got the Brewers an insurance run with a run-scoring single to centre.
Jake COYLE Citizen news service
TORONTO — When Bradley Cooper saw Lady Gaga perform La Vie en Rose at a fundraiser at the home of entrepreneur Sean Parker, it wasn’t one of the important moments along the road to making A Star Is Born. It was, Cooper says, THE moment.
“She demolished the room,” he recalls, still wide-eyed about it. “I knew that was plutonium.”
The next day, Cooper went to Gaga’s home in Malibu to confirm that what he had seen the night before was real. He arrived hungry. Gaga – whose friends call her by her real name, Stefani – fed him some leftover spaghetti, and the two East Coast, Italian American-raised performers (Cooper is from Philadelphia, Gaga New York) felt an immediate, natural connection.
“Instantly,” says Gaga. “When I saw his eyes, when I opened the door.”
Within minutes, they were singing by Gaga’s piano and A Star Is Born was, well, born.
“And when I heard him sing! My God! I stopped playing the piano and I was like, ‘Bradley you can sing!”’ said Gaga, sitting next to her co-star and director. “And he was like, ‘Really?’ And then he said, ‘Let’s film it.’ He started filming it on his phone.” Cooper shakes his head. “It was nuts.”
It can be hard to separate the already mythologized transformations – Cooper directs! Gaga acts! – that fueled A Star Is Born from the fictional fable of fame, itself. In both the movie’s creation and in the finished product are lessons of bold chances and artistic integrity, of personal frailty and popular success. A Star Is Born is a movie mirrored by its making.
A Star Is Born is the fourth version of the story (or fifth, depending on how you count). First was George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? in 1932, followed by William Wellman’s 1937 remake. Later came one
with Judy Garland and James Mason in 1954 and one in 1973 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
A new A Star Is Born has been in development for about two decades at Warner Bros., with various incarnations once planned around Will Smith and Whitney Houston, or Beyonce and Leonardo DiCaprio with Clint Eastwood directing. Cooper, who starred in Eastwood’s American Sniper, first discussed acting in the film for Eastwood before deciding to direct, too. For encouragement, Eastwood visited the set on the first day of shooting.
“I remember he said he liked my boots,” says Gaga. “I turned bright red.”
Cooper, though, put his own imprint on A Star Is Born, retailoring the story and – he hopes – launching himself as a writer and director. With meticulous preparation, Cooper, ever the student, threw himself into the new role. Often, he could be found under a table in a scene with a monitor so as to be as close as possible to the actors.
“He was tireless,” says Sam Elliott, who plays Cooper’s brother in the film. “He never quit on it, from beginning to end. It probably drove the studio nuts at some point that he wouldn’t quit on it.”
“Being 39 when I started this journey, I just realize: Time is the biggest currency. If I don’t do what I keep feeling inside, constantly seeing shots in my head,” Cooper says, trailing off. “I always knew that at some point I had to stop critiquing other movies and just make one.”
Cooper stars as Jackson Maine, a hard-drinking, country-rock ‘n’ roll star in the vein of Gregg Allman. (Maine’s band is played by Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Neil Young’s regular backing band.) When Jackson ducks into a drag bar for a drink, he’s blown away by Ally (Gaga), who’s there singing – what else –La Vie en Rose.
COPENHAGEN — The man at the centre of a sex abuse and financial crimes scandal in Sweden that is tarnishing the academy that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature was convicted of rape and sentenced Monday to two years in prison.
Jean-Claude Arnault, 72, a major cultural figure in Sweden, had faced two counts of rape for the same woman in 2011. He was found guilty of one rape but was acquitted of the other because the victim said she was asleep at the time and judges said her account wasn’t reliable. Arnault had denied the charges.
Stockholm District Court said the ruling by the judge and three jurors was unanimous.
The victim’s lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said Monday’s verdict was important both for her client and for the #MeToo movement.
“(It was) a big relief for my client, who today believes in justice,” she said. “No rape victims should be silent, no rape victims should feel guilt or shame.”
Judge Gudrun Antemar said the role of the court was to decide whether the prosecutor had proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The court’s conclusion is that the evidence is enough to find the defendant guilty of one of the events,” she said, adding that the evidence “has mainly consisted of statements made during the trial by the injured party and several witnesses.”
In Sweden, rape is punishable by a minimum of two years and a maximum of six years in prison.
“We are obviously disappointed,” Arnault’s lawyer,
Bjorn Hurtig said. “I spoke to him a few minutes ago and his order was to start working on an appeal.”
Prosecutor Christina Voigt had demanded three years in prison for Arnault, a French photographer who ran a cultural centre in Stockholm that had financial ties to the Swedish Academy and who was a key figure among Sweden’s cultural elite.
Despite Arnault’s prominence in Sweden, Voigt told Swedish news agency TT that “this case is no different from any other rape trial.”
Arnault is married to a Swedish Academy member and poet, Katarina Frostenson, and is the reason that the famous yet secretive literature body is in such turmoil right now.
The case began in November, when 18 women came forward in a Swedish newspaper with sex abuse accusations against Arnault.
In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that “unacceptable behaviour in the form of unwanted intimacy” had taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution. That led to the police investigation.
A bitter internal debate then erupted over Arnault’s behaviour, with seven of the academy’s 18 members either being forced to leave or quitting in April, including his wife and the first woman to lead the academy, Sara Danius.
Commenting on Monday’s verdict, Peter Englund, one of the Swedish Academy members who quit in April, told TT he was “very pleased” that justice was done.
(AP) — Giles Martin says his father, producer George Martin, would wince whenever a fan would say that the White Album was their favourite Beatles’ record.
The late George Martin would recall how tough it was to make the sprawling double album, titled The Beatles but given its familiar nickname because of the allwhite cover. His son is in charge of a 50th anniversary repackaging that is due out Nov. 9.
“He liked things to be organized, and the White Album wasn’t organized,” Giles Martin said recently.
The Beatles worked through the summer of 1968, often in exhausting all-night sessions. As evidence of the time spent, the new package includes the 102nd take of Not Guilty, a Harrison song that wasn’t even included among the 30 cuts of the original album.
The recording sessions were said to be rocky, and Ringo Starr quit and walked out for an 11-day period. But Martin said he believed some of those reports to be exaggerated, based on the tapes that he waded through.
“I looked for the arguments, I looked for the stress,” he said.
“And there really wasn’t any.”
Besides punchier, remixed versions of songs on the original album, the anniversary package includes 27 acoustic demos of material the Beatles made at Harrison’s house before recording sessions began, and 50 studio outtakes.
Sheeran makes pub stop
BRANFORD, Conn. (AP) — Staff and patrons at a Connecticut pub got a thrill recently when British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran stopped in for a pint of Guinness. Sheeran and his fiance hung out at Tommy Sullivan’s Cafe in Branford following a wedding Friday night. Pub owner Maeve Sullivan says the singer ordered a beer before he was joined by others from the wedding party.
Marilynn MARCHIONE Citizen news service
Abone-strengthening drug given by IV every 18 months greatly lowered the risk of fracture in certain older women, a large study found. The results suggest these medicines might help more people than those who get them now and can be used less often, too.
Broken bones are a scourge of aging. A hip fracture can start a long decline that lands someone in a nursing home. The risk is most common in women after menopause.
But who should use drugs called bisphosphonates is debatable. They’re recommended for people with severely brittle bones, called osteoporosis, but their value is less clear for millions of others with moderate bone loss.
Yet “that’s the group in whom 80 per cent of fractures occur,” and the new results suggest they also may benefit from treatment, said Dr. Ian Reid of the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He led the study, reported Monday at an American Society for Bone and Mineral Research meeting in Montreal and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Estrogen keeps bones strong; they weaken after menopause when levels of that hormone drop. It often gets worse after 65, and women of that age are advised to have a bone mineral density scan –a low-dose X-ray to estimate bone strength.
If osteoporosis is found, treatment usually is Fosamax, Boniva or generic versions of these drugs, which help prevent bone from being lost faster than the body is able to renew it. Some people don’t stick with the pills or endure digestive side effects, so the medicines also can be given by IV, usually once a year.
However, concern about some rare side effects have limited their use, along with a lack of evidence that they might help before bone loss becomes severe.
The study involved 2,000 women, average age 71, with moderate bone loss. One quarter had previously had a fracture. They were assigned to get a Novartis drug, sold as Reclast in the United States and Aclasta elsewhere, or a placebo IV solution every 18 months.
After six years, 122 women in the drug group had broken a bone versus 190 of those on placebo – a 37 per cent lowered risk. The drug also cut in half the risk of a vertebral fracture, when bone compression causes part of the spine to collapse.
For every 15 women like this treated for six years, one fracture
was prevented – a ratio that some experts said makes treatment worth considering.
Two rare problems are tied to bisphosphonates – deterioration of the jawbone and unusual leg fractures. No cases of either occurred, but the study wasn’t big enough to rule out this risk. Other results stood out: fewer women in the drug group were found to have cancer – 84 versus 121 in the placebo group. However, the study was not designed to test for this, so other factors such as a family history of cancer may have influenced those numbers. Deaths and heart attacks also were fewer in the drug group, but the difference was so small it could have occurred by
chance alone.
Still, doctors said these were encouraging signs also seen in some earlier research.
“It now raises the question, should we be doing additional studies” to look for cancer and heart benefits from these drugs, said Dr. Michael Econs, an Indiana University professor who is president of the bone society.
The bottom line
Novartis supplied the drug but had no role in the study; a New Zealand government health agency sponsored it. Reid consults for the company and other drugmakers.
An IV infusion of generic Reclast
costs $200 to $500, depending on insurance and other factors, several doctors said. Other bisphosphonates may give similar benefits “but we can’t be certain of that,” Reid said.
The benefits also can’t be assumed to extend to women under 65 or to men, said Dr. Clifford J. Rosen of Maine Medical Center Research Institute and an editor at the medical journal. Gauging a patient’s risk and need for treatment should focus on age and previous broken bones, not just the bone mineral density score, Rosen said.
But “if you’re at high risk and you’re going to be treated, this is the kind of therapy you probably should get,” he said.
Sharon Zurowski (nee Wilson) Sept 7, 1938 to Sept 27, 2018
It is with great sadness the family of Sharon announces her passing. She was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Sharon and her husband Raymond moved to Prince George with their young family in 1970. Sharon worked as a legal secretary, yet still found the time to bake, sew Barbie clothes and elaborate Halloween costumes and prepare for weekends at the family cabin. She was happiest with a house full of family and friends and made everyone feel welcome. After her retirement in 2003, she pursued some of her many hobbies: painting, crafting, reading, bridge and watching Tom Selleck and horror films. In her younger years she was an accomplished basketball and baseball player. Her love of sports continued into her later years, making her an enthusiastic cheerleader for her grandchildren. Once widowed, Sharon was content in the company of her two faithful canine companions, often leaving family dinners early to tend to them. Sharon will be remembered as a great listener, always available to provide support to her family and friends. She never judged, was open minded and could be counted on for great advice. She was always positive and never one to complain. She was quick to laugh and had an incredible sense of humor. Sharon faced the diagnosis of dementia with grace and positivity. Her motto was “You just have to go with it, don’t you?” She spent her final year in care, and true to her nature, continued to make great friends. Brace yourself A&W for the sudden decline in root beer sales. Sharon is predeceased by her loving husband Raymond, in 1990 and Arthur Zarbock, her partner in 2006 and son in law Elmer in 2015. Left to mourn her passing and celebrate her life are: daughters; Cindy (Daryl), Kristy (Jeff), stepson Don (Carmen) and stepdaughter Wendy, grandchildren; Abby, Quinn, Ella, Lane, Claire, Nathan (Randi), Leah (Ryan), Brett (Kourtney), Allison (Scott), Tamara (Darren), Stacey (Sean), and sisters; Joan and Marlene. She is also survived by many nieces, nephews, great grandchildren and wonderful friends. We are thankful for a special reunion in her final month that brought her peace. Thank you Cary and the wonderful staff at Two Rivers Seniors Lodge, and the caring staff at Simon Fraser Lodge for being there. We couldn’t have done it without you. Please join us for a celebration of her life October 27, 2018 at 230-430 pm at CrossRoads brewery, 508 George St., Prince George. Rest easy Mom. All is well.
Abou
Passed away on September 22nd, 2018 at the age of 57. Robert is survived by his sisters Rosemary (Werner), Daisy (Alex) and Joyce (Harry). Robert is predeceased by his parents Louise and Wilson
and
has lost many of his
Terrance Albert Isabelle
Kevin Norris Joseph Plante
Aug 27, 1989 - Sept 28, 2018
A son; a brother; a grandson; a nephew; a “cool cousin Kevin”; a friend, a writer; a fireman; a welder; an uplifter; a man who was brave, respectful, caring, funny and lots of wonderful things… above all he was a lover of others to the core of his being. Kev you will be greatly missed by everyone, especially your mom, Claudette Plante, and sister Katie Plante, your extended family and numerous friends. We love you and wish you peace as you join your dad, Norris Plante. A celebration of Kevin’s life and legacy will be held Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 2:00pm, at the Hart Community Center. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Prince George Elizabeth Fry Society will be greatly appreciated. Grace Memorial Funeral Home in Care of Arrangements.
DOREEN IRELAND
JUN 1, 1926 to SEPT 25, 2018
“FOREVER LOVED”
It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Doreen. She passed peacefully with family by her side at PG Hospice House. Predeceased by loving husband Gordon, parents and dear sister Lorna. She is survived by her children Wayne (Rita), Nancy, Sharon, Sheila, Rick (Sharon). Grandchildren, Larry (Kata), Matt (Shawna), Jess, Stephanie (Jason), Danielle (Kyle) and Trinity. Great Grandchildren, Liam, Josh, Hayden, Dylan, Benson, TJ, Aaliyah, RJ and Danika. Doreen is survived by sister Anna (Clint), brother Murray, Sister-in-laws Marion, Fern (Harold) The family would like to thank the staff at Two Rivers Seniors Lodge as well as PG Hospice House. No service by request.
Passed away in Surrey, B.C. on September 23 at the age of 57 years. He is survived by his loving wife Suzanne, daughter Megan (Andy) Pechin, sons; Ryan Isabelle (Megan Bartleti) and Jason Isabelle. Terry is also survived by three grandchildren; Brayden, Grace and Harrison, brothers; Richard (Rhonda) and Brian (Andrea Bittner) sisters; Janice (Ken) McRoberts, Sandra (Darrell) Bradbury and sister in law Sam Isabelle, Predeceased by his mother & father Lois and Bud Isabelle, Brother Daryle and nephew Tyler McRoberts. Funeral services for Terry will be held on Tuesday October 2, 2018 at 11:00am at Assman’s Funeral Chapel. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Prince George Branch of Navy League of Canada.
The star of our beef barley soup is a rich, intensely flavoured beef stock. We were able to make a from-scratch stock in about 2 1/2 hours thanks to a lot of browned beef (we prefer shank) and a few small bones.
Beef barley soup with mushrooms and thyme
Servings: 6
Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
12 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
1 recipe rich beef stock (recipe follows) plus 2 cups meat, shredded into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
Heat one tablespoon oil in stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and carrots and cook until vegetables are almost soft, three to four minutes. Add remaining one tablespoon oil and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms soften and liquid evaporates, four to five minutes longer. Add beef stock and meat, tomatoes, barley, and thyme. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low; simmer until barley is just tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Stir in parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve. Rich beef stock
It took six pounds of beef and bones to make our stock. Here’s why: roasting and simmering just beef bones with some aromatic vegetables yielded beef stock that tasted like bone-enhanced vegetable liquid. We figured out that it
was going to take more meat than bones to get deep beef flavour. We tested different cuts of beef and shanks, a common supermarket cut with exposed marrow bones, were our favourite, followed by marrow bone-enhanced chuck.
Not only was the shank meat soft and gelatinous, it was perfect for shredding and adding to our beef soups. Unlike other traditional stocks, ours was done in about 2 1/2 hours and was a one-pot, stovetop-only affair.
Use a Dutch oven or stock pot that holds six quarts or more for this recipe. Makes about eight cups stock and six cups meat
Total time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 pounds beef shanks, meat removed from bones and cut into large chunks, bones reserved, or 4 pounds beef chuck, cut into 3-inch chunks, plus 2 pounds marrow
bones
1/2 cup dry red wine
8 cups boiling water
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat one tablespoon oil in stock-
pot or Dutch oven over mediumhigh heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, two to three minutes. Transfer to large bowl. Brown meat and bones on all sides in three or four batches, about five minutes per batch, adding remaining oil to pot as necessary; do not overcrowd. Transfer to bowl with onion. Add wine to pot and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until wine is reduced to about three tablespoons, about two minutes. Return browned beef and onion to pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until meat releases its juices, about 20 minutes. Increase heat to high; add boiling water, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer slowly until meat is tender and stock is flavourful, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, skimming foam off surface. Strain stock through fine-mesh strainer and discard bones and onion; reserve meat for soup or other use. Let stock settle for five to 10 minutes, then defat using wide, shallow spoon or fat separator.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Attorney Morton Katz, 99, recalls just one client assigned to him as a special public defender who made an issue of his age.
That man, charged with stealing a car while on probation, was unhappy about how long it was taking to resolve his case.
“He wrote me the most vicious letters,” Katz said. “The mildest one began, you senile old son of a... well I won’t quote all the language he used, but it got pretty violent.”
Katz became a lawyer in 1951, after serving in the Second World War, and continues working on a contract basis with the state of Connecticut as a special public defender. He does almost all of his work in person and over the phone, rather than using computers, but he impresses far younger colleagues with his sharpness of mind and recall of detail. And he has no plans to retire.
“I like what I’m doing. I wouldn’t know what to do if I weren’t practicing law,” he said. “There are frustrations to beat all hell, but I like what I’m doing. It’s very satisfying.”
Katz, of Avon, was born on May 15, 1919 – straw hat day, he explained. In those days men would wear a straw hat from mid-May to mid-September. After that, someone would take it off your head and put their fist through it, he said.
He graduated from Connecticut State College, the school that became the University of Connecticut, and saw action in the Second World War in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany before attending law school at UConn.
Superior Court Judge Omar Williams said Katz is asked to handle very difficult cases with tough defendants, and is very good at what he does.
“Obviously, it’s amazing that there is someone who is 99 years old who is still working in this field,” Williams said.
“But to be putting out that type of work product, to be every bit a persuasive advocate – it’s absolutely incredible.”
One recent day, Katz was trying to find a client in a burglary case. The man had appeared on similar charges a few days before in New Britain, and his lawyer in that appearance had not gotten back to Katz to tell him of its resolution. Despite being on the docket, the client had not been brought from prison to the courthouse.
“A typical St. Matthew 6:3 case,” Katz lamented. “The left hand has no idea what the right is doing.” David Warner, the supervisory public defender in Hartford, said nobody that he knows of has ever questioned Katz’s compe-
tence to practice law.
“He tells some amazing stories about his career, about the war,” Warner said.
“I thought he was joking when he first told me his age. You’d never know it from talking to him.”
As a special public defender, Katz is paid $350 per case, no matter how much work he puts in, unless the case goes to trial, and then he gets an hourly wage. Katz also serves as a magistrate for small claims cases, does free legal work on civil cases for Statewide Legal Services and provides free legal assistance to veterans.
He dedicated himself to public service after an uncle, who put Katz through college, refused his offer to pay him back.
“He said, ‘No, what you will do is find someone else who needs your help, and you will help them,”’ Katz said.
“It just hit me that that was the right thing to do.”
The American Bar Association said it could not determine whether Katz is the oldest practicing lawyer in the United States, and the National Association of Public Defenders says it also does not keep those records.
“However, having been a public defender myself for 31 years and involved with public defence since that time, I know of no one remotely approaching that age who is still active as a public defender,” said Ernie Lewis, the group’s executive director.
Katz said he plans to end his legal career “when they carry me out of here.”
In the meantime, he attends regular seminars to keep up to date on the law and wants to take a course to make him more computer literate.
“Here is someone who has served his country in ways that can never be repaid and continues to do so,” Judge Williams said.
“He’s just such a fine example of the best that humankind has to offer.”
And the accused car thief who had such vicious words for Katz? He came around a bit once Katz managed to get the case tossed.
The suspect’s case was taking longer than expected because Katz was having a forensic examination done of a phone that was found in the stolen car. That exam found messages that proved two other men had stolen the car and were renting it to his client.
“I think he mumbled a thank-you on the way out of court,” Katz said, chuckling, “but very low key.”
OTTAWA —
TORONTO (CP) — The price of oil hit a four-year high and the Canadian dollar rose to its highest level since May on Monday, but the reaction in North American markets to a tentative trade deal to replace NAFTA was pretty subdued. After rising sharply in early trading, markets ended the day moderately higher mainly due to the performance of the important energy sector in Canada and of General Electric Co. in the U.S.
The S&P/TSX composite index hit a high of 16,193.06 but closed up just 31.29 points to 16,104.43.
“It’s got to be good news for just about everybody but it is a bit of a muted response,” Michael Currie, vice-president and investment adviser at TD Wealth, said of the reaction to the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The energy sector led the market, rising two per cent on the back of a 38-per-cent increase in MEG Energy Corp. shares following a hostile takeover offer by Husky Energy Inc. valued at $6.4 billion, including the assumption of $3.1 billion in debt.
On top of that, reports have suggested LNG Canada, an estimated $40-billion gas liquefaction plant and pipeline that was delayed in 2016, could be officially sanctioned shortly.
“We haven’t seen many deals out of the energy patch of this size in quite a while,” Currie said in an interview.
Crude prices gained almost three per cent Monday with the November crude contract up US$2.05 to US$75.30 per barrel.
“If you are in the oilpatch you couldn’t ask for a better day.”
Shares of Canada’s largest auto parts company, Magna International Inc., closed up 2.2 per cent at $69.36, while Linamar Corp. was up 6.3 per cent to $63.26 and Martinrea International Inc. was up 10.5 per cent to $14.57.
U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose punishing auto tariffs on Canada if it didn’t reach an deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
As a side deal to the new pact, called U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, or USMCA, the Trump administration has agreed to exempt Canada if the United States imposes 25 per cent tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.
The loonie was trading at and average of 78.11 cents US, up from an average of 77.25 cents US on Friday. That’s the highest level since May 22.
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada gave up some access to its dairy, egg and poultry industries but will keep its agricultural supply management system and avoid punishing auto tariffs under the new North American trade deal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed the landmark agreement as a win for everyone and U.S. President Donald Trump did a victory lap at the White House as industries across Canada took stock of the new era in continental trade.
“Today we are securing a higher standard of living far into the future for the people of Canada,” Trudeau said during a news conference Monday in Ottawa.
The revamped NAFTA deal – dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA – was almost 14 months in the making and has 32 chapters, 11 annexes and 12 side letters. One letter promises Canada will be exempt from any future U.S. tariffs imposed on automobiles and auto parts as a matter of national security.
The deal does not, however, address the removal of the steel and aluminum tariffs Trump slapped on Canada last spring or the softwood lumber tariffs imposed in 2017. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday there is no timeline for removing those tariffs.
Trump said the tariffs he has imposed – or threatened to levy – may be a key reason he landed an agreement after months of agonizing talks.
“Without tariffs, we wouldn’t be talking about a deal,” Trump said.
The agreement includes new rules for the auto sector, such as requiring 40 per cent of car parts be made by workers paid at least $16 an hour, a labour rule Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said was unique in trade agreements and a very progressive way to protect jobs for higher-wage workers.
Freeland highlighted Canada’s success in maintaining the dispute-resolution process that sends trade quarrels between countries to an independent binational panel. Keeping that provision, previously known as chapter
19 under NAFTA, was one of Canada’s lines in the sand, though the U.S. initially wanted to eliminate it.
The B.C. Lumber Trade Council said retaining the dispute mechanism was “absolutely critical.”
As with the steel tariffs, the new trade deal does not undo controversial U.S.-imposed duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports. Other key aspects include lengthening the patents on biologic pharmaceuticals by two years to 10 years from eight, and increasing the amount Canadians can spend online at U.S. retailers without paying duty to $150 from $20.
Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at TD Economics, echoed the sentiment of many in expressing relief at an agreement.
“The deal is far from perfect, but other, decidedly more negative potential outcomes – such as Canada’s exclusion from a revised agreement, a ‘zombie’ NAFTA, and steep tariffs on Canadian auto exports to the U.S. – have likely been avoided,” he wrote in an analysis Monday.
Benoit Fontaine, the chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada, likewise expressed reassurance that “a year of uncertainty over the future of the agricultural landscape in Canada is over.”
Canada increased the amount of duty-free access for U.S. farmers in all five of its supply managed sectors – dairy, eggs, chicken, hatching eggs and turkey.
Fontaine says that will mean Americans can sell 12 million additional kilograms of chicken in Canada, which doesn’t make chicken farmers happy, but at least they know what they’re dealing with now.
Dairy Farmers of Canada, however, issued a terse statement saying the deal will have “a dramatic impact not only for dairy farmers but for the whole sector.”
Under the USMCA Canada is offering the U.S. a 3.6 per cent share of the dairy market, which is more than the 3.25 per cent it offered under the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Canada is also eliminating a recent pricing assessment for certain types of milk products that was a lightning rod of discontent for Trump.
On Monday Trump called dairy a “deal breaker” for him in the negotiations.
“Our farmers were not treated properly by Canada,” he said. “Now they’re going to be treated with respect.”
Trudeau tried to placate Canadian dairy farmers by promising compensation. The prime minister said he knows there is anxiety for dairy producers but also suggested things could have been a lot worse.
“We know full well the American administration targeted the complete scrapping of supply management and what we did with this agreement was to protect supply management for future generations because it is a system that works,” Trudeau said.
There are no details yet on how much compensation Canada is willing to provide or what form it will take.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called the deal a “failure” by Trudeau to achieve anything new for Canada. Instead, he said, Canada can only brag about what it didn’t have to concede. Scheer said he would have gotten a better deal.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Canadians will end up paying more for things like milk and pharmaceuticals under the deal.
Notably, the prime minister did not mention Trump in his opening remarks, saying only in answer to a direct question that the relationship with the president has been challenging during the course of tumultuous negotiations.
Trump acknowledged relations between himself and Trudeau have been “testy” but added that was simply because of the negotiations. The only thing wrong with Trudeau is that he “loves his people,” the president said. Trump and Trudeau did speak briefly about the agreement by phone Monday.
Trudeau also spoke with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Trump has been threatening for weeks to lock Canada out of a new trade deal and proceed alone with Mexico. Just six days ago he said he didn’t think Canada was negotiating fairly. But on Monday he was all smiles, calling the deal “historic.”
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — After more than a year of talks, Canada finalized a revamped free-trade deal with the United States and Mexico. The new deal, dubbed the U.S.Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Here are some key elements of the new deal:
GETTING MILKED: Trump frequently railed against Canada’s dairy industry throughout the trade talks, calling it unfair to the United States. The new deal grants the U.S. access to 3.6 per cent of the Canadian dairy
market, a move roundly criticized by domestic dairy farmers. The access given to the U.S. is slightly more than the 3.25 per cent conceded in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with Pacific Rim countries. TARIFFS AND TAUNTS: Trump joked that the deal wouldn’t have been made without tariffs, specifically on Canadian-made steel and aluminum, which prompted tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs from Canada on a number of U.S. goods. And as negotiations dragged on, Trump threatened to slap Canada’s auto industry with significant tariffs –a threat apparently now dodged.
The deal says the first 2.6 million Canadian autos exported to the U.S. will be exempted from tariffs, a figure well above the current export rate of 1.8 million. But the steel tariffs remain in place and Trump has given no indication when he might lift them.
ATTENTION SHOPPERS: The trade deal raises the threshold for duty-free purchases online from American retailers. When the deal takes effect, shoppers won’t pay duties until their online purchase is worth more than $150 – a significant bump from the current threshold of $20. But there’s more: language in the agreement no longer requires
companies – such as Google or Microsoft, for example – to put a data centre in Canada in order to do business here, meaning Canadians’ information could be housed south of the border and subject to American laws. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: The rules around copyright and intellectual property are set to change. On copyright, the length of time after a creator’s death that they maintain rights will move to 70 years from 50. On pharmaceuticals, new biologics – drugs made from natural sources – will be copyright protected for 10 years, up from the current eight.
