Low-flowing rivers linked to climate change
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mneilsen@pgcitizen.ca
The unseasonably low water levels along the Fraser and Nechako rivers – and all the events that have led up to it – may be a typical sight in the years to come, according to a provincial government hydrologist.
“In a lot of ways, when we look at climate change projections, the types of things that we expect to happen more frequently are very much demonstrated this year,” River Forecast Centre head Dave Campbell said Tuesday.
Unprecedented heat followed by unseasonably dry weather has led to the current situation.
Exceptionally warm temperatures in April and May caused the snowpack to melt more rapidly than usual and over the last three months the amount of rainfall has been “less than half or even a third” of what the region typically gets.
“And probably the biggest driver has been that persistent dry weather,” Campbell added.
As of Tuesday, the Fraser’s level at South Fort George stood at 3.5 metres, compared to 5.3 metres on the same day last year, according to Environment Canada measurements.
“We’ve seen this year extremes at either end,” Campbell said.
“The early melt, which was quite extreme and then the dry, lowflow season which is also extreme in terms of the context of the longterm history of this river.”
Although the lowest on the 70
years of records the RFC has kept, Campbell said the current depth is still higher than what is usually seen during the winter as the headwaters get snowed in and produce less runoff.
Looking ahead, Campbell said a bit of rain over the next 10 days is in the forecast.
“So there might be a bit of a bump up but at this point we’re not expecting any major correction in terms of the flows,” he said.
Because its wells are about 30 metres deep, the city’s water supply has not been affected.
“However, residents should at all times be conserving water, and
are reminded that the city’s water use restrictions are in effect all year round,” city spokesperson Mike Kellett said.
“The cost of the infrastructure, maintenance, pumping, and treating of the water is the primary reason for the city’s efforts towards water conservation.”
On Thursday, the Nechako Watershed Roundtable core committee issued a “statement of concern” saying it has “grave concerns for the health of the Nechako Watershed following a decade of unprecedented wildfire, and other changes, in our watershed.”
— see ‘EVERYTHING, page 3
Operation Red Nose looking for 300 volunteers
Citizen staff
Operation Red Nose Prince George is seeking volunteers for this holiday season.
The designated driving service will take to the roads on Nov. 30, Dec. 1, Dec. 7 and 8, Dec. 14 and 15, Dec. 22 and 23 and New Year’s Eve.
“We’d love to have a total of 300 volunteers to ensure we can meet the demand for rides we expect during the holiday season, especially on New Year’s Eve,” said ORN spokesperson Andrea Johnson.
“Our volunteers who return year after year have a great time knowing they’ve made a difference in the community. We guarantee new volunteers will feel the same way.”
The service is organized by the Rotary Club of Prince GeorgeNechako, in partnership with the RCMP and ICBC.
It allows partygoers to not only get themselves home safely, but their vehicles too. Rides are free but donations are welcome and the proceeds go to local youth and amateur sport organizations.
On average, about 15 road teams of three will be on call each night of service, working from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Volunteers can be part of a road team of three or work behind the scenes answering phones at ORN headquarters. They must be 19 years old, have a valid driver’s license and
Our volunteers who return year after year have a great time knowing they’ve made a difference in the community.
— Andrea Johnson
are subject to a criminal record check. The first step is to go to www.ornpg.ca and fill out the application.
Those who have volunteered for the last three years can forgo the criminal record check – on the application click the box saying no screening is needed, print it off, sign it and drop it off with Karen at T & S Communications, 2276 Nicholson St.
All new volunteers, or those who have less than three years experience, must fill out the standard application. They must print it out and take it, along with their driver’s license, to the Prince George RCMP detachment at 455 Victoria St. Volunteers will then be called by the RCMP if they have cleared the check.
In 2017, 838 rides in nine nights were delivered in Prince George. In 2016, 872 rides in nine nights were delivered in Prince George, and 1,059 rides in 2015.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
With water levels very low on the Nechako and Fraser rivers, people are able to walk on the river bed.
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Studio Fair returns to the Prince George Civic Centre from Friday to Sunday.
Studio Fair returns to Civic Centre
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Any old definition of the word artisan will get a rebuild and rethink this weekend at the Civic Centre.
Studio Fair is the biggest annual arts show and sale on the Prince George calendar. It is like a convention for the best makers and creators. More than 100 artists will have their work on display downstairs while another 15 or so fill the upstairs mezzanine. They were juried by a panel of arts evaluators to earn their place in the event, so the products were vetted for top quality.
The gathering of vendors – each one an expert in making their items by hand – is a mix of local artists and artisans and out of town creators.
Two of the local talents involved in the event will be making new art in progress at Studio Fair. Sculptor Elmer Gunderson will do a live carving demonstration while painter Audrey McKinnon will have a painting project underway. Studio Fair is the largest fundraiser each year for the city’s premier arts charity, the Community Arts Council (CAC). The CAC’s artistin-residence, Donna Morrison, will also be working on a painting she has underway. The
finished work will be a door prize for one lucky Studio Fair patron.
“These are examples of art in progress,” said Lisa Redpath, the CAC’s program manager.
“Watching artists and artisans create, in a setting where you can observe as long as you want and ask questions as they work, that is so popular with the public. What artists do is fascinating and inspiring, and when you’re surrounded by some of the best works of art you can imagine, it’s nice to be able to see some being created right there in front of you.”
Another connection Studio Fair is making with the public this year is the busyness Redpath anticipates at the section devoted to the Northern Indigenous Artists’ Collective. This is a new partner council of all-Aboriginal artists of this region. They will be collectively showing and selling their works, with a little help from some aspiring youth artists who will be right alongside these veterans the whole event.
“Our Northern Indigenous Artists’ Collective will have a huge presence in our fair, and these are some of our most beloved artists in our community,” said Redpath.
“Their work is very high calibre, and each member will have an apprentice or a mentee accompany them in their booth, so its also an education opportunity – setting up displays, inventory control, public interaction, sales techniques. It’s a beautiful way to encourage
new artists to get deeper involved in the arts and learn new skills, and we are so proud to be able to help with that.”
Studio Fair is also a primary sales point for the new Prince George Fire Rescue Service calendar, which is a fundraiser for the province’s burn recovery causes but it is also a work of art itself. Photographer Philomena Hughes volunteered to stage and photograph the firefighters comprising the 12 months of images inside the calendar.
On Friday, there will be a live radio broadcast of Studio Fair from 9-10 a.m. The morning team from CFIS, the city’s community radio station, will be on the air live from the Civic Centre floor. The CAC and CFIS are also sharing a 50/50 raffle available at Studio Fair.
On Saturday, the dancers and actors from Judy Russell’s Enchainement Dance Studio will be serving complimentary cake while dressed as the characters from their upcoming show A Christmas Carol.
Also on Saturday, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra will be performing an afternoon set. Tickets are $5 per day (free for kids under 12), available at the door.
Studio Fair takes place Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Prince George Civic Centre.
AleFest tickets on sale starting Saturday
Citizen staff
Tickets for the fifth annual Kiwanis AleFest Craft Beer Festival will be on sale starting Saturday.
They will be available exclusively through www.kiwanisalefest.ca, the service club said in a release.
The event itself is set for Jan. 25 and 26 and will once again feature the Kiwanis AleFest tasting sessions, Brewmaster’s Dinners, and the Cask Beer Experience.
Tickets for the tasting sessions – there will be three at Two Rivers Gallery to choose from – include six craft beer tasting tokens, free tapas, music, a silent auction and 50/50, and access to the art in the Rustad Galleria and Canfor Galleries.
Tickets for the Brewmaster’s Dinner will bring a four-course meal with small-batch craft beers from around British Columbia. Both the Ramada and Coast Inn of the North will host a dinner. The Cask Beer Experience is an unticketed craft beer and food tour held at various downtown Prince George establishments.
The 2018 event raised $50,000 in support for the Ronald McDonald House of British Columbia, and other Kiwanis legacy projects for kids and families in Prince George.
‘Everything is just simply exposed and dried out’
— from page 1
“The combination of the mountain pine beetle epidemic, salvage logging and major wildfires has created a series of threats within the watershed, with severe implications for runoff and flood risk, erosion, water quality, and habitat, and related community impacts and concerns.”
It called on the provincial government to conduct a review of the timber supply in accordance with a recommendation in a report authored by former Liberal
MLA and cabinet member George Abbott and Maureen Chapman, hereditary chief of the Skawahlook First Nation in Agassiz following the 2017 fires and floods.
“This recommendation would lead to better landscape level planning (watershed level planning) and ensure that we are looking at and conserving all values of the land base,” the committee said in the statement.
In an interview, Wayne Salewski, who chairs the NWR’s working group for the Nechako white
sturgeon, pinned the blame for the low water levels on the scramble to harvest beetle-killed pine.
“The water is no longer metered out from underneath the canopy,” he said.
“Everything is just simply exposed and dried out. It’s superheated, an obvious end result when you lay the land barren.
“If you were to look out there, it’s just amazing. There isn’t a mature forest left within an hour and a half of my house and I live in downtown Vanderhoof.”
No change in pot habits, poll shows
Citizen staff
During the last Citizen opinion poll we asked what you would do now that marijuana is legal in Canada.
With 49 per cent and 227 votes online pollsters said they will keep using as much as they did before, then things took a mellow turn with the next popular answer seeing only 19 per cent of the
vote and 88 people saying they’d keep buying from the guy they’ve known since high school.
Then tied at nine per cent of the vote with 42 people saying they’re going to try it for the first time but wait for edibles because they hate smoking, and 41 people said try it for the first time since high school.
With seven per cent and 33 votes people said they’d use more
because now they can, and finally six per cent and 29 voters said they’d smoke it for the first time once they can get a legal joint. There was a total of 460 votes. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Next question the Citizen is asking is “what are you going to do with your mail-in ballot for the proportional representation referendum?”
Progress in remote sensing subject of Doug Little Memorial Lecture
Citizen staff
Free and open access to data generated by satellite remote sensing technology has made Dr. Michael Wulder’s job a lot easier – so much so that he will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Doug Little Memorial Lecture, set for Thursday evening at UNBC.
The senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada will deliver a lecture entitled Sometimes a Crazy Plan Comes Together: How Open Data Unlocked Remote Sensing for Forest Monitoring.
Wulder uses remotely sensed and spatial data to study and monitor forests across Canada, over a range of scales, contributing to national and international programs.
“Having access to free and open data in a form ready for analysis means spending more time generating information, rather than on extensive data gathering and
preprocessing tasks,” he said.
“We are now able to produce otherwise unavailable forest
information products over large areas in a timely, systematic, and transparent fashion.”
The Doug Little Memorial Lecture series was initiated in 1996 by the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies at UNBC and named for the late J.D. Little.
A former executive with Northwood Pulp and Timber Ltd., Little was a founding supporter of UNBC.
The lecture series is supported with an endowment from Northwood Pulp and Timber Limited (now Canfor).
Wulder’s lecture is free and open to the public. It will be delivered in the Canfor theatre, 7:30 p.m. start.
Red Green returning to P.G. on possible final tour
Frank PEEBLES Citizen
staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Not every performer gets to go on touring forever like the Rolling Stones. Red Green has always been a practical thinker. He knows that one day even duct tape loses its stick, so he’s giving his fans fair warning. His latest comedy tour is called This Could Be It.
“This might be your last opportunity to catch Red Green live before he takes a long look at his birth certificate and decides not to keep pushing his luck,” said the tour organizers for this beloved Canadian writer, actor and standup comic.
“The latest one-man show features some brand new handyman projects, advice to married guys and teenage boys, tips on getting old, an apology to the world on behalf of all baby boomers, with special contributions from Harold and a couple of other cast members talking animals, and a final wish from Red Green to all of his loyal fans.”
This Canada/U.S. coast-tocoast joke junket comes to Prince George’s Vanier Hall on Sept. 26.
The 35 American tour dates are already nearing sellout status.
The Canadian branch goes on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. at the CN Centre box office and online at the TicketsNorth website.
For decades, the Red Green character has transcended popular fiction and become a friend and neighbour via the half hour Red Green Show where handymen get all their best ideas. Well, they get ideas, anyway.
It’s family friendly, it’s as comfortably familiar as the grey on your favourite adhesive, and no matter where the Possom Lodge holds its meetings feels like home. You know, a bit musty and in need of cleaning.
“The Red Green Show is a hilarious insight into men, their dreams, and their obsessions,” said tour organizers. “It’s a show for anyone who thinks God created man to give the rest of the world something to laugh at.” Canadian comedy/theatre icon Steve Smith plays “the acerbic, dry-witted Red Green, lodge leader and host of the show that takes special aim at the yet unexplored humorous side of the male ego and other inflatables.” Each live performance brings past fans and other breakers of wind into that colourful world –assuming that the only colours are red and green.
Explosions may occur, but the only injuries are usually associated with belly laughs and funny bones.
PGSS closed due to broken water main
Citizen staff
Prince George Secondary School was closed Tuesday and will remain closed today, due to a broken water main.
With no water available for drinking, toilets and fire protection, students were sent home after Tuesday’s first period and those students who usually get to and from the school by bus were transported home by bus.
“It became apparent there was water on the surface this morn-
ing as school was opening,” Marilyn Marquis-Forster, School District 57 superintendent, said. Excavators were called in and discovered the water main was broken, Marquis-Forster added. “That’s when it became apparent we would have to close the school,” she said.
Officials expected the water main will be repaired today and the school to reopen on Thursday. More information will be posted on the school district’s website and sent to parents.
WULDER
SMITH
Starting the conversation about death
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
It’s taboo, it’s feared, it’s generally a topic of discussion that’s avoided at all costs but eventually every single person must deal with it at one time or another.
It’s death.
To start the conversation that most people find uncomfortable at best, Brent Goerz, a local health care social worker for more than 17 years, is hosting a Death Cafe on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at ArtSpace, above Books & Co., followed by a living boxes art installation from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
“The death cafe is not a grief group,” Goerz said. “It’s just a safe space for people to talk about death, recognizing it’s not group therapy. It’s really about people starting the conversation about death. The idea of scheduling it after Halloween is because death is uncorked, so before people avoid and stuff it back into the safe it’s in for 340 days of the year, let’s just take the day and have a conversation.”
The goal, Goerz gave the example, would be to see an 80-year-old woman who has been trying to talk to her family about her death invite her daughter to the death cafe to talk about her mortality.
“But I don’t want to limit it because there’s a lot of scenarios where people are ready to talk about death and they’ve got a family member who’s stuck,” Goerz said. “You may have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and you’re in your 50s – and you know this is going to be what gets you.”
The person knows death is part of life and wants to talk about it, he added.
“We need to have these conversations,” Goerz said.
The cafe will have tables set up for groups of six to eight people to sit and chat and there will be three facilitators to guide the talk or redirect if necessary, Goerz said.
Following the death cafe is the living boxes art installation.
Goerz might be best remembered for his appearance on Dragon’s Den years ago with
his son to promote his simple pine boxes. The idea was to first use the box as a book shelf, hope chest or other type of functional furniture that could ultimately be used as a coffin.
Goerz invited local artists to paint individual
pine panels that will be assembled to create several boxes, which will be on display Sunday evening. “If there’s unfinished work, come and engage with the beast,” Goerz said.
Rotating postal strikes continue
Citizen news service
MONTREAL — The union representing Canada Post workers says 6,000 members in Montreal walked off the job Monday night as part of its country-wide rotating strikes.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said the walkout began at 10:30 p.m. local time.
Quebec’s largest city joined other locations on strike across the country Monday.
CUPW says walkouts continue in Lloydminster, Sask., Peterborough, Ont., and in the B.C. communities of Royal City, Upper Valley, Fraser Valley West, Squamish and Prince George.
Last week, 9,000 workers in the Toronto area walked off the job for two days, forcing delays in shipments of tens of thousands of letters and parcels across the country.
In a statement, Canada Post warns that the Montreal walkout will have a significant impact on operations, since it is an important processing hub.
“Canada Post will make every effort to minimize the impact, but customers well beyond Montreal may see delays for parcel and mail delivery,” the Crown corporation said.
CUPW and the postal service have been unable to reach new collective agreements for the two bargaining units in 10 months of negotiations.
“We outlined our major issues to Canada Post at the very beginning of the negotiation process... and clearly stated that we would not sign any agreements that don’t address overwork and overburdening, equality and full-time jobs,” CUPW national president Mike Palecek said in a statement.
“Our position hasn’t changed. We aren’t just bargaining for today, we are bargaining for the future – for our members and everyone who relies on the postal service.”
Last Tuesday, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu appointed Morton Mitchnick, a former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, to help the two parties resolve their contract differences.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Foundation for Site C dam completed
VANCOUVER (CP) — The foundation for Site C hydroelectric project has been completed. Acciona says the 70-metre high foundation structure is solid enough to support the 1,100-megawatt power plant and spillways.
The company leading the construction for contractor Peace River Hydro Partners says a permanent network of roads, a temporary access bridge, drainage and debris handling facilities to and from the site have also been completed. The contract was valued at $1.75 billion.
The dam, the third across the Peace River, will flood an 83-kilometre stretch of valley west of Fort St. John. When complete, BC Hydro estimates Site C will provide enough power to heat and light as many as 450,000 homes a year.
Mom tells jury about last day she saw daughter alive
VANCOUVER (CP) — The mother of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared 40 years ago tearfully told a jury about the last time she saw her daughter. Madeline Lanaro says she was driving home with her other children when she honked her horn as they passed Monica Jack on the highway but the girl wanted to keep riding her new bike instead of going with them. Lanaro told the B.C. Supreme Court murder trial of Garry Handlen that it was the first time Jack had asked permission to ride about 30 kilometres into Merritt, on May 6, 1978. Lanaro says she saw her daughter riding home hours after she was heading to the reserve from buying supplies for a fishing trip.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Brent Georz is a health care social worker who is holding two events that will try to make death less like the beast in the room and more like something we all have to accept in our lives.
Canadian children still being held in Syria
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada’s foreign ministry says it has opened a communication channel with the Kurdish jailers of Canadian children and their families in Syria, but hasn’t been able to secure their release because of the volatile security situation.
The response Tuesday from Global Affairs Canada comes after a Toronto-based organization called on the government to come to the aid of Canadian infants and children being held in Syria.
The Canadians detained by Kurdish authorities in Syrian territory include nine families and more than 10 children, including some who were taken to Syria at young ages and others who were born there, said Alexandra Bain, the director of Families Against Violent Extremism.
Bain said the children are facing the outbreak of disease and a harsh winter and the Canadian government has a duty to protect its citizens. She said they live on a diet of rice and pasta and there are no diapers or milk for the infants.
Bain said her group and another Britishbased volunteer organization want to foot the cost of getting the Canadians out of a war zone and are willing to do the necessary work on the ground, but that the government has to help them.
The group includes Jack Letts, the Britishraised son of a Canadian father and British mother, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the U.K. media. His father, John, joined Bains on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, calling for the release of the Canadians. He branded as “fake news” the reports of his son being a terrorist, and laid the blame at the foot of a British journalist, whose use of the moniker stuck.
Bain and Letts were in Ottawa and met with senior consular officials at Global Affairs to plead their case.
“Canadian diplomats have established a communications channel with local Kurdish authorities in order to verify the whereabouts and well-being of Canadian citizens,” said Stefano Maron, a department spokesman.
“The government of Canada is engaged in these cases and is providing assistance, to the limited extent possible.”
A Canadian government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation, said even if it were possible for them to leave Syria, the detainees “would most likely be detained by authorities and face serious charges in neighbouring countries.”
John Letts told the Hill press conference that he thinks his son, Jack, is innocent and that he needs treatment for various illnesses
contracted while in prison. He says his son was never involved in the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh.
“I want everyone here to know what we know: that Jack worked with others in the religious opposition to ISIS in Raqqa (the city the Islamic State claimed as its capital), that he condemned ISIS on social media, and that he wants to spend the rest of his life living peacefully and bearing witness against ISIS,” Letts said. Letts says that by saying that publicly he
The Canadians detained by Kurdish authorities in Syrian territory include nine families and more than 10 children, including some who were taken to Syria at young ages and others who were born there, said Alexandra Bain, the director of Families Against Violent Extremism.
is violating British court orders that could get him thrown in jail when he returns to the country.
He and his wife, Sally Lane, were charged by British police in 2016 with funding terrorism after they tried to send their son money to get their son out of Syria.
Letts said previously that his son’s Kurdish jailers are willing to hand his son over to Canadian authorities.
Letts also maintains Global Affairs Canada told the family for months that it was working to get their son released but that the department recently decided it would
be too dangerous.
“It obviously has something to do with the upcoming election,” Letts said Tuesday.
“We have fairly good evidence of the British having cracked the whip and said you have to toe the line – no one breaks the line of letting people back – and I think Canada is responding to that.”
Earlier this month, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Letts, whom Scheer described as a “known jihadi fighter.” Letts calls Scheer’s assertions about his son a lie.
Bain said all those imprisoned in Syria should be vetted by Canadian authorities and it is possible some should face charges for their activities abroad.
“They were all captured and detained in a war zone, and they must be thoroughly investigated by Canada’s security services and some will undoubtedly face justice.”
Calgary city council expected to kill bid for 2026 Winter Olympics
Donna SPENCER Citizen news service
CALGARY — A Calgary bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games appears virtually dead unless a financial rabbit is pulled out of a hat.
City council will vote today on motions to kill the bid and cancel a Nov. 13 plebiscite asking Calgarians if they want the games or not.
Coun. Evan Woolley, who chairs Calgary’s Olympic assessment committee, brought forth the motions Tuesday at committee and those motions were referred to council. “We do not have acceptable agreements in place with the other orders of government,” Woolley said. “It’s going to be a difficult, difficult decision for council as a whole and for individual councillors.”
Advance voting for the plebiscite is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
The bid corporation Calgary 2026 estimated the cost of hosting the games at $5.2 billion. Calgary 2026 asked for a combined $3 billion contribution from the federal and provincial governments and the city. The Canadian government committed $1.5 billion and the Alberta government $700 million. The feds expressed their contribution in “2026 dollars” at $1.75 billion, however.
The city has yet to state what its share would be, but when the mayor said Calgary shouldn’t pay more than the province, it appeared the three levels of government were not going to get to the $3-billion ask.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi wasn’t ready to call Calgary’s bid for 2026 dead Tuesday.
“If you know me, you know I am a Canadian football fan and in the CFL you often get that last field goal in the very last second going through the uprights,” the mayor said. “I remain optimistic that something is possible here.
will be reached,” he said in a statement.
“We know thousands of Calgarians understand what’s at stake and the importance of deciding the outcome themselves. These would be Canada’s Games, Calgary’s choice.”
What council has to do tomorrow is determine whether there’s enough there for Calgarians to vote on two weeks from today, or if in fact they feel that the clock has in fact run out without the field goal.
— Mayor Naheed Nenshi
“What council has to do tomorrow is determine whether there’s enough there for Calgarians to vote on two weeks from today, or if in fact they feel that the clock has in fact run out without the field goal.”
Calgary 2026 board chair Scott Hutcheson was also not ready to concede.
“Negotiations with government are positive, are continuing – they have not stopped – and we remain confident an agreement
B.C. to act on report about health firings
Citizen news service
VICTORIA — Goodwill payments of more than $1 million and a university scholarship in the name of a student who died by suicide are among key actions taken by British Columbia’s government after a report on the firings of eight Health Ministry workers, says the province’s ombudsperson.
The report, called Misfire, found that seven workers and a contract employee involved in drug policy research were fired in 2012 due to a flawed and rushed investigation. It said they did not deserve the personal, financial and professional harm they suffered.
The government committed to implementing the report’s 41 recommendations following its release in April last year. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke, in an interim progress report Tuesday, said there are four outstanding recommendations and his office is reviewing four others.
“When we look at the degree of implementation, including comparing it to how quickly public bodies have implemented the recommendations from some of our other reports, this level of implementation is very good,” Chalke said in a conference
call with reporters. He said the major completed recommendations include: apologies and goodwill payments to people impacted by the firings, whistleblower protection legislation, a new policy regarding conflict of interest and an independent review of government dismissal policy.
The government contributed $500,000 to create a scholarship in memory of deceased former employee Roderick MacIsaac, who killed himself about four months after he was fired by the Health Ministry, Chalke said. Chalke said in the Misfire report that most of the grounds cited for MacIsaac’s dismissal “were unsupported by the evidence and not true.”
MacIsaac, a co-op university research student, had been accused of jeopardizing privacy and the reputation of the ministry as he and others worked on a drug research program in 2012.
The total amount of payments to affected individuals amounts to $1.16 million, Chalke said. “In relation to individuals, ex gratia, also known as goodwill payments, were made and both public and private apologies were made,” he said.
The provincial government said it would not provide a penny more that $700 million, nor would it provide any financial guarantees against cost over-runs.
The federal government’s hosting policy for international sports events provides for up to 50 per cent of the public investment required.
The feds committed the $1.5 billion, but required the city and provincial governments combined to match that figure.
“The federal hosting policy is we will match dollar for dollar the contribution of the municipality and the province,” federal sports minister Kirsty Duncan said in Ottawa early Tuesday.
But Woolley believes that city cannot travel further down the 2026 road without
a financial agreement between the three orders of government.
“Right now, we have seven hundred million dollars committed from the provincial government with no indemnities or no guarantees on that money,” he pointed out.
“We have a proposal from the federal government that does not move beyond their 50 per cent and is in 2026 dollars, which does not add up to the money required to host the games.
“We had a number of positive conversations that signalled they would be willing to go beyond their 50 per cent.
“The gap is too large.”
Calgary was the host city of the 1988 Winter Olympics. The venues still used for international and domestic competition and training are the foundation of a second bid.
Calgary 2026 estimated $502 million would required to get those venues Olympic-ready again.
The bid corporation had built $1.1 billion in capital and operational contingency funds into its draft host plan.
Calgary 2026 chief executive officer Mary Moran predicted hosting the games again would bring $4.4 billion into the local economy. The International Olympic Committee has committed $1.2 billion in cash and services to the 2026 host city.
— With files from Terry Pedwell
Alexandra Bain, director of Families Against Violent Extremism (FAVE) and John Letts, father of Jack Letts, a British Muslim convert and an alleged member of ISIS, announce plans to secure repatriation of Canadians who travelled to Syria. Bain and Letts spoke during a press conference on in Ottawa on Monday.
The trick or treat of PR
It’s Halloween but the fun and frights will continue throughout November, thanks to the referendum on proportional representation. That unopened envelope pushed to the corner of the kitchen counter that contains your ballot will haunt you until you either fire it into the recycling bin (the least preferred option) or take a couple minutes to fill it out and drop it into your neighbourhood mailbox (the most preferred option).
The devil is, as always, in the details, something that is frighteningly short on the PR side. Voters are being asked to choose from three PR options with sketchy details on how it will all work here in B.C. To make this devil less scary, PR proponents are simply pointing to other jurisdictions where PR is in place to argue that any kind of PR is better than the evil first past the post system.
The pro-PR folks have been conjuring up all sorts of phantoms to spook up support for electoral reform. Only the votes cast for the winners under first past the post actually count is their favourite little demon, glossing over the fact that Canada’s highest courts have already ruled that this line of reasoning is legally flawed. An elected political official represents everyone in their constituency, not just the people who voted for them. Furthermore, every vote is
counted without discrimination. So while this demon might look like Chucky at first, it’s just a weird baby doll under closer examination.
PR is a benevolent spirit, we’re told, the bright morning sun that can make democracy all better. It not nearly that strong because an election is merely the act of voting. Governing is the real work and that’s where the real horror lies, having the power to choose. Even under PR, democracy will still be an endless corn maze at dusk and government will still be a bureaucratic jungle of shadows, knives and blood. PR seems to be that safe haven everybody dies trying to get to in the zombie movies.
Meanwhile, the anti-PR crowd have certainly conjured up their own monsters and boogeymen in hopes of convincing B.C. voters to stick with the devil they know, rather than take a chance with the one they don’t.
Neo-Nazis elected in the Legislature!
Political parties firing duly elected MLAs!
An NDP-Green coalition until the cows come home!
In other words, lots of shouting, exclamation points and menacing voiceovers proclaiming death, destruction, darkness and decay. Well, yes, bad things can happen from the moment we step outside the front door but that doesn’t mean it’s always safe to say inside. The zombies, vampires and that thing under the stairs can still come for us.
All of this apocalyptic nonsense from both sides is being used to frighten, not to inform.
When Premier John Horgan and B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson go on TV next Thursday to debate the pros and cons of PR, they will each take their turn at a Vincent Price impersonation, telling ghoulish tales about the past, present and future under the electoral system they don’t like, before proclaiming themselves as the golden knight out to stop dragons, trolls and smooth, double-talking politicians out to subvert democracy and oppress the people.
Strip away the cheesy Halloween narrative, however, and the PR vote comes into focus.
This referendum is about the leader of the day, as all referendums are.
Last October’s city referendum on borrowing money to build a new fire hall and downtown pool was really about Mayor Lyn Hall and city council. The results pointed to this October, where Hall and the six city council incumbents seeking re-election easily won their seats.
Now imagine if former mayor Shari Green had brought the exact same question before Prince George voters after three years in office. No Four Seasons Pool replacement. No replacement for Fire Hall No. 1.
If the LNG Canada deal had fallen through, if Horgan had decided to stop the construction of the Site C dam, if the
YOUR LETTERS
A voice missed
Earlier this month, a longtime voice in The Citizen went silent. It hadn’t been heard from for more than a year but in previous years, and decades, had been very prominent. I am talking about my mother, Julia Serup, who might have been the most prolific letter writer in Citizen history.
I am a little surprised that at my father’s passing this spring, there was mention of him in the paper besides his paid obituary, which was very nice, but at my mother’s passing, there has not been anything. In any event, my mother was truly a woman of letters, having penned many epistles for the paper. She, at times, upset people but she spoke for so many that The Citizen inevitably ran her letters. She wrote from her convictions, from the facts, yet as time went on, the paper would limit the amount of her letters they would print and refused to publish some at all.
I don’t know if hers is a bygone era, when people could write things that others might vigorously disagree with without being called “hateful” and censored. My mother’s lifelong values were those of the 1950s which produced much of the baby boom, with its echo, the last time in Canadian history that citizens felt optimistic enough, felt happy enough about Canada to produce sufficient children to keep the population up to replacement levels. During the 1950s and later, homosexuality was illegal in Canada and anyone assisting an abortion was liable for life in prison.
I recently read an online post published in The Citizen that spoke, with disdain, of the Christian Heritage Party, that opposes homosexual marriage and abortion. They get their beliefs however, from the word of God.
Despite how their convictions are obtained, some, like my mother, would be called hateful. This a term that is designed to elicit an immediate negative reaction and shut down all discussion, and thought along with it. My mother, however, had the courage to speak out regardless of the false and derogatory things said about her. I remember many people saying over the years, though they didn’t know her, they very much appreciated what she had to say. She also was a wonderful mother who was tremendously influential in my life.
The Christian Heritage Party is far from holding power, with their horrible viewpoints, which they get from the Bible. It is curious though, as Canada exists today, with the right kind of beliefs holding sway, if the rest of the planet were to be destroyed in a nuclear war, (we are told with Trump it could happen), and the fate of the world was in our hands, mankind would be doomed.
It’s funny how with the wrong, “hateful” beliefs, there was such optimism and an attendant increase in population accompanying that hope, and with the perfect, currently politically correct views there is an opposite effect.
Psalm 144:15b reads “...happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” As societal norms reflected biblical ones, these happy people produce more progeny, enough
for the survival of a nation, as Canadian history shows.
I am glad my mother was one of those happy people, through her saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul Serup Prince George
Yes to change
People from all over the world come to Canada to escape extremism in their countries of origin. Remember the winter when people risked freezing to death and suffered frostbite to escape the extremism south of us? Canada is not Europe with its centuries-long fighting to preserve its various cultures. Canadians ask only an attitude of tolerance and respect, interest, curiosity and acceptance.
Federally, all of the fringe parties together account for less than one per cent of the popular vote. All three proportional systems offered require five per cent to win a seat in the provincial legislature. Suppose one extremist became an MLA. Isn’t it better to have the necessarily large rise of this view openly expressed rather than secretly expanding underground? When people are talking, they’re not fighting.
It is our present first past the post system that allows extremists to win because parties can gain power and majorities with a minority of votes. In 1993, the Bloc gained 54 seats with 13.5 per cent of the vote. Choose the fairness, stability and strength of democracy and vote yes to proportional representation.
Nancy Leathley Sechelt
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Trans Mountain pipeline debacle had been his fault, instead of Justin Trudeau’s, if the NDP caucus were out to undercut Horgan at each turn and if people were genuinely mad about how Horgan ended up premier after the last election, then this vote would be much different. It wouldn’t matter if PR came with a dollar a beer and sundae Sundays for the kids, people would go to vote to show their displeasure with Horgan. Instead, Horgan has governed controversy-free for more than a year and made decisions that even the Liberals had to agree with (finish Site C, get the deal done for LNG Canada). Meanwhile, sore loser Christy Clark slunk off into immediate retirement because she couldn’t be premier. The B.C. Liberals are still recovering from that and a brutal leadership campaign to replace her that Wilkinson narrowly won over Dianne Watts. It’s not that everyone is happy with Horgan. It’s just that there’s not nearly enough unhappiness to send him a blunt message about where he could stick proportional representation.
PR will pass, not because it’s better than first past the post but because of Horgan. At this point, it seems most people are still willing to knock on his door and hold out their pillowcases in hopes he’ll put a full chocolate bar and a juice box inside.
— Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Regaining communion of love
On this Reformation Day, it is right and just to hope and pray for the reconciliation of all Christians into one body, and to ponder the unintended consequence of those hammer falls against the church door at Wittenberg.
After many bloody battles that deeply stained our faith, the secular state arose to bring peace.
Five centuries later, it is clear that secularism and the state are not innocuous – they can become a quasi-religious system for beliefs and actions.
Christians cannot turn back the clock. And indeed they shouldn’t want to, insofar as the Reformation was a necessary corrective to corruption of the faith.
Oddly, this topic has fascinated many Canadian thinkers, likely due to the ultramontane Catholicism that survived in Quebec well past the French Revolution but was finally undermined by the Quiet Revolution. George Grant, Marshall Mcluhan and Charles Taylor have written of the secular and technological effects on the Christian world; while it is impossible to properly discuss all their thoughts, they agreed that secularism seeks “perfectibility” in man and nature.
Here of course is both the source and the summit of what Taylor calls modernity’s malaises: bluntly put, neither man nor nature is perfectible. Christian orthodoxy declares that the created order can only be perfected by God’s grace. Indeed this was the very issue at the heart of the Reformation itself: one cannot buy a way into heaven, but must instead have a sincere conversion of the heart; man cannot be saved and perfected by his own power or works alone.
It’s impossible to overstate how deeply this cornerstone of divine revelation and human experience has been rejected as secularism and the state evolved. Because the great leaps in science and brave new systems of government proved repeatedly that immutable truths of the past were incomplete or inaccurate, it was believed that man’s very nature could be changed.
We live in the twilight of this quasi-religious belief; it started as theories of evolutionary and economic determinism, but ended up manifesting in policies of eugenics and collectivism, causing the death of millions. Friedrich Nietzsche predicted this outcome in his “God is dead” melodrama.
With Christian morals absent, man would seek new beliefs, regardless of brutality. Ultimately, the Reformation unleashed a miasma of rootlessness, which has become the undercurrent of Western culture. This feeling is part of human nature, due to the loss of Eden – the prescription for which was the “Kingdom of Heaven” the medievals sought. But for the last five centuries, with Christendom broken, any cure has been sought and the feeling disseminated to all of society. Simply observe how fiercely questions of identity are debated by many today.
Thus, the secular state has become the indispensable mechanism of our lives; it’s traditional role of law and order, trade and commerce, have been supplanted by provision from birth to death and even the carving out of “safe spaces” for every identity.
In short, the colourful tapestry of Medieval Europe with one pope and many principalities is now a dull grey of modern architecture with one all-powerful state and many districts offering lifestyles based on “values.”
Christians cannot turn back the clock. And indeed they shouldn’t want to, insofar as the Reformation was a necessary corrective to corruption of the faith. But believers must be wary of the secular state and the amount of power it’s gained in historically religious or private areas. Furthermore, treating it as an inanimate object or disinterested body of apparatchiks is naive; the legacy of martyred believers around the world proves the secular state is not our friend. Christians must find ways to regain the communion of love that should unite all of us, as Christ himself says in the Gospel of John. I’d argue those same chapters also address issues of identity, rootlessness, perfectibility, and purpose – words that ought to be preached from pulpits once again: Our Lord is preparing a true home for us, and his example is to be our order of life.
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NATHAN GIEDE
Right of Centre
The dog has had its day
Greyhound’s Canadian operations were founded in B.C., but after 89 years, the last passenger bus will roll to a stop here today.
The company’s steady withdrawal from Western Canada culminated in a summer decision to abandon the region completely. If their service schedule was as brisk as their shutdown timetable, they might have lasted longer. Starting a year ago, the company announced two big retreats in B.C., and capped that with a July decision to bail out completely. It was incorporated as Canadian Greyhound Coaches Ltd. in November 1929. George Fay and aptly named partner Speed Olson started routes from Nelson to Trail, Kaslo and Nakusp.
The initial fleet was four buses and some seven-passenger touring cars. The company survived the Depression and rode the post-war prosperity wave for decades. It became so well known the brand got genericized, like “Thermos,” “Kleenex” and “yo yo.”
There might be a few emotional goodbyes and politicians are grappling with the problems left by lack of service. But massive indifference seems to be the order of the day.
It’s partly because a number of smaller more nimble operators have stepped up to take over.
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said 83 per cent of Greyhound’s network will be covered within a few weeks by operators whose applications have been expedited by the Passenger Transportation Board since July.
A relatively small number of routes have not yet been taken over in the Kootenays, the North and the Thompson Okanagan regions.
The most obvious route to southern residents without a successor is the Hope-Princeton run.
In the last chapter of its life in Western Canada, Greyhound was mostly an off-hours freight service that picked up passengers only
incidentally, usually at inconvenient times.
Greyhound Canada is an institution that couldn’t keep up, so down it goes, at least everywhere west of Ontario.
In one of its filings with the Passenger Transportation Board as it was disengaging from B.C, the company outlined a litany of financial problems.
It said it had been unprofitable for many years due to market conditions and publicly subsidized competition. There was intercity competition from ridesharing, cutrate airlines and subsidized public transportation that offered fares up to 80 per cent cheaper.
It disclosed a $70-million loss over the previous six years –$35,000 a day – and a 46 per cent decline in ridership since 2010.
More generally, it cited increased urbanization, which has left rural routes with fewer passengers.
A Senate committee several years also looked at bus service from a broader perspective. It mentioned rising incomes and increased car ownership as negative forces.
So sustained prosperity is considered a negative factor as well, as far as bus services are concerned.
B.C. is looking for expressions of interest to fill in the remaining 17 per cent of Greyhound’s former network. Trevena was pleased with the interest so far and sounded confident that it will be covered.
It will be a patchwork of small and mid-sized operators, using everything from 55-passenger coaches to vans seating as few as seven people. Rider Express (Vancover-Winnipeg, $280), Silver City Stage Lines, Whistler Rides and Merritt Shuttles are some of the new names to be seen on the highways, along with established firms such as Wilson’s.
“They looked at the market, they think they can make it work by providing better service,” said Trevena.
The province stepped in directly with $2 million to fund B.C. Bus North on the Prince George-Prince Rupert route. But that was mostly due to political sensitivities about the Highway of Tears and the dangers to women along that corridor. Surprisingly, that’s the extent of public investment so far.
No public money has gone to the private companies applying for the routes. Greyhound repeatedly asked for government help and got nothing. It looks like that stance is holding.
Wednesday will go down as a bit of a marker for rural B.C. Subject to all routes being taken over successfully, Greyhound’s withdrawal heightens the rural-urban split, and widens the service gaps between B.C.’s half-dozen big cities and the rest of B.C.
Consent doesn’t justify assisted suicide
Thanks, Scott Harris, for your response to my letter about assisted dying.
I realize that my letter was fairly aggressive and confrontational. That’s because I think it’s such an important issue with long-term implications, some of which we are already seeing in Canada. The main confusion, as we can see in your response, is around the idea of “consent.” Consent apparently now gives license for us to take someone else’s life. This was not the case only a few years ago. As mentioned, it would have been called murder.
This is a fact. What has changed?
Well, our values have changed.
The sanctity of life used to be the highest value in Canadian culture and law. But now our individual autonomy (freedom to make our own choices) has bumped it from its rightful place. This has implications that most Canadians have not considered.
This is clear when you write,
“If you don’t want assistance dying, then don’t apply for it.”
To me this attitude is frightening, because it’s not that simple.
VANCOUVER — A British
Columbia woman who brutally beat and drowned 14-year-old Reena Virk near a Victoria-area bridge in 1997 has been granted an extension to her day parole.
Thirty-five-year-old Kelly Ellard was convicted of seconddegree murder in 2005 and the Parole Board of Canada granted her conditional day parole last November.
The board extended her day parole for another six months in late July, but the decision was only provided to media on
There are many reasons why people want to die: depression, anxiety, chronic pain, low quality of life, addiction or relationship problems. Mr. Harris, you may have had times in your life when you wanted to die, and I may have had times in my life where I felt the same way. I’m thankful that we’ve so far lived in a society where life is always encouraged. But times are changing quickly. Added to this, the concept of “consent” is full of difficulties, as we’ve seen in the #MeToo movement. Consent can be manipulated by people with power. If we can’t see that this also applies to euthanasia, then we are perhaps blind to the realities of life. Mr. Harris, you mention “subjective perceptions… and/ or religious beliefs.” I would challenge you to think about your subjective perception that human autonomy can be our highest moral and legal value. I would also challenge you to research what is happening in other countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.
Tim Schouten Prince George
Tuesday. The decision says Ellard now goes by the name Kerry Marie Sim and is living at a halfway house after successfully completing residential treatment for substance abuse. It says she has been open and transparent with her case management team, has managed her daily stress well and has not breached her conditions. Ellard became pregnant in 2016 during a conjugal visit with her boyfriend, who is also on parole, and the decision says she’s working with his case management team to facilitate the care of their child.
LES LEYNE
In the Fast Leyne
CP PHOTO
A worker walks past a Greyhound bus sitting idle in Vancouver on Monday. Today will mark the end of Greyhound service in B.C.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Canadians should get used to higher interest rates, Poloz says OTTAWA (CP) — Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz wants Canadians to get used to the idea of three per cent interest rates as the new normal, now that the era of rock-bottom borrowing costs is gradually fading away.
Poloz raised the benchmark rate last week for the fifth time in just over a year to 1.75 per cent – its highest level in about a decade.
He sent signals that future hikes could arrive sooner than previously expected, in large part due to the economy’s resilience and the removal of some business uncertainty following the recent agreement on an updated North American trade pact.
Testifying before MPs on Tuesday in Ottawa, Poloz said many adults are used to the lower rates and are too young to remember the much-higher rates of the 1980s, when they climbed into the teens. Poloz says the current rate is still too stimulative for the improved economy and he’s reiterating his warning that it will rise to what the bank considers its neutral range of between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent. He says the pace of future rate increases is still unknown, but he adds the bank will carefully analyze how well the hikes are absorbed – particularly for the many households that have piled on considerable debt in the low-rate environment.
“We sought to put more emphasis on the notion that someday we’re going to be back at neutral – and that neutral is 2.5 to 3.5 per cent – so that people would begin to digest that as an approaching fact,” Poloz told the House of Commons finance committee. “It shouldn’t be a hard thing for people to service their debt at those kinds of interest rates.”
Airlines cut ties with SeaWorld
Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. are joining a growing wave of companies that have cut ties to SeaWorld, in sync with the spirit of a bill to ban whale and dolphin captivity and in the wake of concerns raised by animal rights advocates.
The Senate passed legislation last Tuesday that would make keeping and breeding cetaceans such as dolphins and whales a criminal offence.
Air Canada says its vacation wing stopped offering SeaWorld tickets for purchase on its website last week, calling the move a “commercial decision.” WestJet dropped the tickets – previously available as part of vacation packages – last August.
“This was a decision our leadership team made entirely on its own and believes the decision is entirely in keeping with our caring culture,” spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said in an email.
SeaWorld, which has three marine theme parks in Florida, Texas and California under the umbrella of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., confirmed Monday that “the business relationship has ended” with both airlines. Carriers and other companies such as JetBlue Airways Corp., Southwest Airlines Co. and Taco Bell have all jettisoned links with SeaWorld, many amid the fallout from the 2013 documentary Blackfish that focused on orca captivity. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organized a recent email campaign urging Air Canada to sever promotional ties.
Kenney’s
pipeline legal fund pitch a ‘divide-and-conquer’ tactic: senator
Lauren KRUGEL Citizen news service
CALGARY — A Manitoba senator says a proposal by Alberta’s United Conservatives to pick up the legal tabs of propipeline First Nations is an example of age-old “divide-and-conquer” tactics.
Leader Jason Kenney touted the proposed legal fund in a Calgary speech this month as part of his party’s multipronged “fight-back strategy” against anyone wishing to shut down Alberta’s energy sector.
“His approach is nothing new,”
Sen. Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation on residential schools, told The Canadian Press.
“It’s very typical of the way governments have approached the issue of Indigenous people in the past, and that is to foment division and to ensure that those who are on the side of whatever government policy is at issue or whatever corporate interest is at play are the ones that get the corporate money or get the government money.”
In his speech, Kenney said Indigenous people in favour of natural resource development are often at a disadvantage compared with those working with well-funded environmental groups.
“If I’m premier, we’ll be writing cheques to allow them to go to court,” he said. “We’ll be supporting pro-devel-
opment litigation.”
Indigenous entrepreneur Calvin Helin – who has proposed a $16-billion oil pipeline between the oilsands and the northern British Columbia coast –thinks the litigation fund is an “excellent idea.”
“You have First Nations people who often are natural resource rich but cash poor. They don’t have money for stuff like this. How do we compete against American foundations?”
Helin, president of Eagle Spirit Energy Holding Ltd., said a council of 35 chiefs and mayors along the proposed pipeline’s route are fed up with environmental groups coming into their communities and dictating how they should look after their people.
He said First Nations have been stewards of the land for thousands of years, but must also find ways to fund social programs and ease economic hardship.
“They really resent... these fly-in celebrities interfering in their traditional territories and interfering in their communities by basically hiring local people to be props and puppets for their opposition to most development,” he said.
Eagle Spirit’s chief council has set up a GoFundMe campaign for a legal fight against federal legislation banning tankers from B.C.’s north coast. It’s raised less than half of its $100,000 goal.
OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Tuesday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
“In a lawsuit against the cashed-up federal government, that’s not going to take you very far,” Helin said.
An expansion to the Trans Mountain pipeline between Edmonton and the Vancouver area remains in limbo following a Federal Appeal Court ruling in August that quashed its approval. The ruling requires Ottawa to consult more with affected First Nations and to do further study on the impact of increased tanker traffic.
Sinclair wonders whether the government will “still run roughshod” if no amount of consultation can sway some First Nations.
“The indications I’m getting is that they might be willing to try to do that, but whether they’ll be able to do that is another question.”
Sinclair said compromise is possible, including moving the project’s end point away from Vancouver.
“Everything needs to be on the table and those that are advocating for the pipeline need to look at all options,” he said. “The communities that are supportive of the pipeline need to be respected in their decision, but the ones who are not supportive of the pipeline also need to be respected. The question becomes, then, what’s the alternative? And if the alternative is finding a way that doesn’t harm their interests, then let’s find it.”
one per cent in major U.S. markets.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 172.75 points or 1.17 per cent at 14,894.50 as all major indexes outside of utilities rose. The index hit an intraday high of 14,899.20 and traded 264 million shares.
The industrials index led gains with a 2.75 per cent climb, while the utilities index was down just over one per cent. The gains across North American markets came after a rocky stretch in recent weeks as investors digest a changing reality for equity, Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital.
“We’re in sort of a changing, evolving landscape here where we’re not going to have central banks backstopping the markets for the foreseeable future.”
The Canadian dollar averaged 76.14 cents US, down 0.09 of a US cent from Monday. The December crude contract closed down 86 cents at US$66.18 per barrel and the December natural gas contract ended down a penny at US$3.19 per mmBTU.
CP FILE PHOTO Sen. Murray Sinclair poses for a photo outside his Senate office on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa in 2016. He says a proposal by Alberta United Conservative leader Jason Kenney to provide legal support for pro-pipeline
Condor crunch
Cougars fall to Wheat Kings
Citizen staff
The start was oh-so promising.
But, a tough second period was the undoing of the Prince George Cougars, who let a 3-1 lead slip away during a Tuesday night Western Hockey League game at CN Centre and suffered a 5-4 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Cougars went into the middle frame in great shape, having gotten first-period goals from Cole Moberg (on a power play), Matej Toman and Josh Maser, while only Luka Burzan was able to find the mark for the Wheaties.
Early in the second, at the 4:14 mark, Connor Gutenberg netted a power-play goal for the visitors. Then, about seven minutes later, Linden McCorrister pulled the Wheat Kings into a 3-3 tie. Moments later, the Wheaties took the lead on a marker by Braden Schneider.
Half way through the third period, Stelio Mattheos struck for Brandon. The Cougars, now down 5-3, managed to get that one back a minute later, the goal by Vladislav Mikhalchuk on a power play. The Cats, however, got no closer.
The Wheat Kings outshot the Cougars 44-30. Prince George held Brandon to the one power-play goal in six chances and scored on two of its three opportunities.
Starting goaltender Taylor Gauthier gave up the first four Brandon goals and was replaced by Isaiah DiLaura, who took the loss. Ethan Kruger got the win for the Wheaties.
The Cougars saw their record drop to 5-7-1-2 while the Wheat Kings improved to 7-3-3-2.
The Cougars host the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday and Saturday.
Whitecaps looking to solve ‘culture problem’
VANCOUVER — Problems in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ locker room this season spilled into the team’s on-field performance, say players and the club’s president.
The comments come as the team’s captain confirmed on Tuesday that he’s looking to leave the organization.
“I want to leave, I’m not going to change my mind,” Kendall Waston said.
The 30-year-old defender is under contract with the Whitecaps but said his agent will work out a deal that will get him out of Vancouver.
Waston said he’s been loyal to the Whitecaps since joining the club in 2014, but moving on is the best decision for his family.
His comments come after Waston publicly disagreed with the dismissal of head coach Carl Robinson in September.
On Tuesday, the team’s captain said he understands that the move was a business decision, but he “doesn’t like twofaced people.” He declined to comment on who, specifically, he was referring to.
“If I don’t trust, I better walk away,” Waston said.
The Costa Rican international said he’s been looking at opportunities with
other clubs but declined to name specific teams or leagues.
The market for Waston will likely be strong based in part on his recent performances in international matches, said Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi.
Waston scored for Costa Rica in this year’s World Cup, and has 14 goals and four assists in 114 regular-season games in Vancouver.
The organization isn’t willing to sell the defender at a loss, Lenarduzzi said.
“In spite of the fact that he wants to leave, he won’t be leaving for anything less than what the market value is,” he said. “It’s not going to be a fire sale.”
The situation with Waston tops a difficult season for the Whitecaps, who missed the playoffs after finishing eighth in MLS’s Western Conference with a 1313-8 record.
Lenarduzzi said issues in the locker room caused problems on the field.
“We have a culture problem. There’s no doubt about it,” he said.
Veteran midfielder Russell Teibert said there was a “divide” in the locker room. He did not name any players specifically.
“There has been a lack of respect for the jersey in this season,” Teibert said. “And that can’t happen anymore. Going forward into 2019, you have to respect
this jersey and this club.”
There were “cliques” in the Whitecaps locker room, said goalie Stefan Marinovic. He added that he’s heard from other players that the issue is prevalent across MLS.
“It became difficult because we weren’t doing too well and it became more apparent,” Marinovic said.
“When the going got tough, players didn’t come together as we should have.”
Defender Doneil Henry said some players seemed at times to be working for themselves instead of the organization.
“I think when you play for a team, you have to have something that drives you to want to win and build instead of your own personal desires,” he said. “Personal success kind of comes from what’s done within the team. They kind of go hand in hand.”
The coaching upheaval near the end of the season didn’t help with the locker room issues, said Henry.
“We’re professionals. We need to go about our business professionally and I don’t think everybody did that,” he said. “I think certain things kind of escalated and took from the team. We don’t want any situation that’s bigger than the team.”
McComber celebrates monster year at PGARA
Citizen staff
Veteran stock car driver Lyall McComber was recognized repeatedly for his stellar 2018 season at the Prince George Auto Racing Association’s awards banquet on Saturday night.
At the banquet, held at the downtown Marriott Courtyard hotel, McComber was handed hardware for his PGARA street stocks points championship, as well as for having the most fast times, most A-dash victories and most main-event wins. McComber took the points championship with 162, ahead of runner-up Darrell Horwath (154) and third-place finisher Desiree Case (96). A total of 19 street stock drivers earned points over the course of seven race weekends. McComber missed the first event on May 26 but was behind the wheel for all the rest. In his six events, he was the top point-getter five times. McComber’s mechanic, Chad McComber, was named street stocks mechanic of the year. Other points champions who were saluted on Saturday were Tristan Bruvold (hornets), Nathan Linfitt (mini stocks) and Jeremy Floer (pro minis). Bruvold finished at the front of the hornet pack with 100 points, 21 more than second-place driver Keely Rommel and 47 ahead of Warren McCann, who placed third in the title chase.
Linfitt, the mini stocks champ, finished the year with 242 points. For the crown, he edged Spencer Forseth, a mini stocks rookie who rolled to a 235-point season. Floer – who competed in mini stocks as well as pro minis – was third with 175 points.
In the pro mini class, Floer accumulated 109 points, which placed him ahead of Terry Braman (77) and Steve Jackson (64).
Point brings thunder for Lightning
Citizen news service
TAMPA, Fla. — Brayden Point and the Tampa Bay Lightning had a big-time response after a lopsided loss at Arizona over the weekend.
Point had a career-high five points with a goal and four assists, defenceman Braydon Coburn scored twice, and the Lightning rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat the New Jersey Devils 8-3 on Tuesday night.
“We controlled the majority of the play,” Lightning star Steven Stamkos said.
Point has seven goals and seven assists in 11 games this season.
“He’s a real tenacious player,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “He’s extremely competitive. He’s a high-skilled player that plays the game the right way all the time. He’s a difficult player to play against.”
Stamkos got his 350th career goal and added two assists for Tampa Bay, which was coming off a 3-1-1 trip that included a 7-1 loss in Arizona on Saturday.
“It’s always nice when you get an accomplishment like that,” Stamkos said.
Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, and Tyler Johnson and Ryan McDonagh had the other Lightning goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves. Kucherov left with six minutes left in the second after taking a shot near the inside of his left knee but returned early in the third.
Miles Wood, Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri scored for the Devils, who started a seven-game trip. Keith Kinkaid stopped 31 of 38 shots before being replaced five minutes into the third by Cory Schneider, who allowed a goal on six shots in his first game after off-season hip surgery.
Point scored 31 seconds into the second as Tampa Bay went up 3-2. Kucherov and Stamkos added power-play goals later in the period that made it 5-2.
“The game just slipped away,” New Jersey centre Nico Hischier said. “We didn’t play our game. We stopped forechecking, we stopped hitting them.” Tampa Bay’s penalty kill had not allowed a goal in 24 chances at home before Palmieri got his ninth goal, which cut the deficit to 5-3 on the Devils’ second power play late in the second. Taylor Hall assisted and extended his point streak to eight games (10 assists, 12 points).
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Emily Bast of the Duchess Park Condors hits past the block of D.P. Todd Trojans player Megan Montgomery on Saturday afternoon at a senior girls volleyball tournament hosted by the Trojans.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Prince George Cougars forward Ethan Browne looks to make a play at the net against Brandon Wheat Kings goaltender Ethan Kruger on Tuesday night at CN Centre.
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Red Sox keeping Sale
BOSTON (AP) — The Red Sox have exercised their $15 million option for next season on ace lefthander Chris Sale.
Sale will earn $15 million in the final season of a five-year contract he signed with the Chicago White Sox before the 2013 season that guaranteed $32.5 million, including a 2017 option buyout. He had a $12.5 million salary this season in the first of two option years and will wind up earning $59 million over seven seasons plus award bonuses. Sale can become a free agent after the 2019 World Series. In addition, infielder Eduardo Nunez exercised his $5 million player option rather than become a free agent. The 2017 AL Cy Young Award runner-up and a seven-time All-Star, Sale struck out the side in the ninth inning of World Series Game 5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers to close out Boston’s fourth championship in 15 seasons. Boston announced its decision Tuesday, two days after the finale. Moose loose from Brewers (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Mike Moustakas is becoming a free agent again. Moustakas declined a $15 million mutual option Tuesday.
He rejected a $17.4 million qualifying offer and left Kansas City after the 2017 season but was unable to find a long-term deal he liked. He returned to the Royals in mid-March for a one-year contract that included a guaranteed $6.5 million: a $5.5 million salary and $1 million option buyout. Moustakas earned an additional $2.2 million in performance bonuses based on plate appearances, raising his total earnings for 2018 to $8.7 million.
A 30-year-old left-handed hitter, Moustakas had a .251 average with 28 homers and 95 RBIs. He hit .256 with eight homers and 33 RBIs in 54 games for Milwaukee, which acquired him from the lastplace Royals on July 27.
Cavaliers’ Love sidelined
CLEVELAND (AP) — Kevin Love doesn’t know when he’ll be able to help the struggling Cavaliers. The All-Star forward said Tuesday night he will miss at least several weeks with a painful left toe injury that has bothered him since the preseason and recently got so severe that he had trouble walking. He did not rule out surgery.
The 30-year-old had an MRI and visited Dr. Martin O’Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. He’s been told to rest the injury, and there is no clear timetable when he’ll play again. Love missed his third straight game Tuesday as Cleveland hosted the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavs entered the game 0-6, and the four-time defending Eastern Conference champions are reeling after coach Tyronn Lue was fired Sunday.
Rams make splash at deadline
NASHVILLE (AP) — The NFL’s lone undefeated team has just made an already dominant defensive front even deeper.
The Los Angeles Rams swapped a pair of draft picks for Jaguars pass rusher Dante Fowler on Tuesday, adding the third overall pick in 2015 to a defence already stocked with Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh, Michael Brockers and Mark Barron for the most surprising move at the NFL trade deadline. The Rams gave up a third-round pick in 2019 and a fifth-rounder in 2020 for Fowler, who is a free agent at the end of this season.
Up and over
Leonard lights up Sixers
Citizen news service
TORONTO — Another game, another seemingly easy 20-plus points for Kawhi Leonard.
The Raptors’ new star poured in 31 points on Tuesday to lead Toronto to a 129-112 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, breaking a record in the process. His six consecutive 20-plus point games to begin his Raptors career topped the previous record held by Rudy Gay.
Jonas Valanciunas had 23 points off the bench, while Kyle Lowry had 20 points and 12 assists for the Raptors (7-1), who remain undefeated at home. Serge Ibaka chipped in with 20 points, while Pascal Siakam had 15, and Danny Green finished with 10.
Joel Embiid led the Sixers (4-4) with 31 points. Toronto and Philly were popular preseason picks to contend in the Eastern Conference. But the Raptors, motivated by Monday night’s loss at Milwaukee and happy to have Leonard back in the lineup after he missed that game, dominated for most of the night.
They led by 17 midway through the
second quarter, and had stretched it to 112-103 to start the fourth.
A basket by Embiid pulled Philly to within nine points with 6:38 to play. But on the Sixers’ next possession, Lowry swatted the ball away from Embiid, and Green connected on a three-pointer and the Raptors were back up by 12.
The Sixers weren’t going down easy, and with 3:30 to play, Embiid drained a three that made it a six-point game. A Leonard three-pointer though capped a 7-0 run that brought the capacity crowd to its feet and put Toronto up by 13 with 1:56 to play. “M-V-P!” chants rang out
on Leonard’s next trip down the court.
The victory was Toronto’s 12th straight at home versus Philly.
The Raptors were coming off their first loss of the season, dropping an ugly 124109 decision in Milwaukee the previous night. It marked the second game Leonard – who played just nine games last season in San Antonio due to injury – was held out for precautionary reasons.
“We are trying to be really smart with what we’re doing,” coach Nick Nurse said before the game. “If somebody were to knock on the door and tell me he’s not playing tonight, I’m going to go put somebody else in there and we’re going to go fight to win. It’s a long-term type of thing.”
Leonard headed to the locker-room with medical staff in the second quarter after he was swatted in the eye by Robert Covington, but was back on the floor five minutes later.
The Raptors aren’t back at Scotiabank Arena until Nov. 10. They head out on their first extended road trip of the season, which takes them through Phoenix, Los Angeles to play the Lakers, Utah and Sacramento. They host the New York Knicks in their next home game.
Pettersson snipes a pair for Canucks
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Scoring was nice.
Winning was even better for Elias Pettersson.
The speedy rookie scored a pair of goals, the second on a third-period breakaway, to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild Monday night. The victory snapped a two-game Canucks losing streak and came on the heels of Vancouver’s 5-0
loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday at Rogers Arena.
“It’s always fun to score,” said Pettersson, who is the 21st player in NHL history to score at least seven goals in his first seven games. “But I think the biggest thought in the team was to bounce back from our last home game and we did that.”
Pettersson, who was picked fifth overall in the 2017 draft, leads all NHL rookies in goals and in points with 10.
His opening goal came at 6:51 of the second period. He took a pass from defenceman Michael Del Zotto and blew a one-timer past Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk. The second goal early in the third had the crowd of 16,546 on their feet cheering. First Pettersson blocked a shot at the blueline. Then Brock Boeser passed the loose puck to the streaking 19-yearold from Sundsvall, Sweden, who beat Dubnyk high on the blocker side.
Andrew Starkes carries his bike over a log obstacle on Sunday morning at Otway Nordic Centre during the last of three cyclocross races hosted by the Prince George Cycling Club this season.
Buble shifts gears after son’s cancer battle
Michael Buble faced his darkest days as a parent when he watched his young son battle cancer, but the singer says living through the experience gave him a renewed perspective on what’s important.
Whether it’s his family or his music career, the 43-year-old singer appears to have found a higher meaning in all corners of his life.
“Everything I’m doing now is because I get to wake up every morning and just enjoy the moment,” the four-time Grammy winner said in a phone interview.
“It sounds New Agey, but it’s not. It’s how I’ve chosen to attack my life.”
Buble expressed his newfound appreciation many times during a conversation from his Vancouver home. When he jumped on the phone, his kids could be heard playing in the background, though eventually he ducked into the laundry room for a moment of quiet.
The chart-topping crooner talked about falling into a period of disillusionment with the music industry and critics, a sentiment that suddenly became meaningless with his son’s diagnosis. In 2016, he sidelined a publicity tour to focus solely on the boy’s hospital treatment.
It was a painful experience for his family and something that Buble still isn’t ready to discuss in much detail.
When he appeared on a segment of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke this month the singer told the host he’s “not OK” and still finds it “painful to talk about.”
With his family a few rooms away, Buble is focused on staying positive while he talks about his new album.
His son Noah, now five years old, has gone through cancer treatment and is in remission.
“I’ve got no room in my heart for any kind of negativity or cynicism,” he said.
“I made a very conscious decision to step away from all those things.”
And Buble has plenty to celebrate in his life anyway.
His son Noah, now five years old, has gone through cancer treatment and is in remission. He’s also recently started attending Kindergarten.
In July, Buble and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, welcomed their third child, a baby girl.
All of this good news almost makes Buble’s return to music feel like an afterthought – and in many ways it kind of was. His new album, titled Love but spelled with an emoji instead of the word, wasn’t always a guarantee.
Before Noah’s diagnosis, Buble was in the midst of a personal crisis. Some of the excitement he once experienced on stage had faded into routine.
While he remembers once feeling “pure bliss” as he sang to crowds, he said those emotions had often devolved into bouts of “fear and ego” that came with a rise to stardom.
“What I thought was people’s perception of me might’ve had a negative impact on me. And I probably stopped enjoying this part of my life,” he said.
“It wasn’t as fulfilling.”
After Buble put his career on hold for his family, he wasn’t certain when he’d come back to music. But like most artists he found himself jotting down ideas anyway.
When his life started getting
back to normal, he decided to invite band members over to his house for a jam session and rounds of Mario Kart.
“I hadn’t seem them in a long time,” he said. “We just wanted to get drunk, ya know? Drink beers and play video games.”
Between the rounds Buble explained his ideas for a concept album written about finding love again.
“I wanted to explain that it was my romance rekindled with music,” he said.
“I wanted there to be a really strong through line.”
The final album includes Buble covering a selection of classic love songs, including La Vie en Rose and My Funny Valentine, alongside a number of new efforts.
Pop singer Charlie Puth is credited as one of the writers on the lead single Love You Anymore while Buble’s personal touch is all over Forever Now, a poignant and tender ballad written in tribute to Noah. Buble has said he doesn’t intend to perform the song live.
Even Buble’s mentor David Foster temporarily stepped out of retirement from making studio projects for what Buble supposes was a one-off effort. It took the singer prodding him a bit before Foster agreed to make the exception.
“I don’t know that he would’ve come out of retirement for anyone else,” Buble said.
“We both kept saying, ‘I’m so rusty, I haven’t been in here a long time.’ It was really fun to get the rust off and start moving.”
Buble said as he forges the next stage of his career he’s thinking more about what he chooses to “put out into the universe.” He wants whatever he does next to come across as “genuine” and “pure.”
“What I’ve been through and the perspective I have, I think it’s been invigorating in a way,” he said.
“I found that joy again.”
DuVernay to make Prince doc for Netflix
(AP) — Ava DuVernay is making a multipart documentary on Prince for Netflix with the support of the late musician’s estate.
The director on Tuesday confirmed Twitter reports late Monday that she’s working on the film. The documentary will be made
with extensive use of Prince’s archives and will span the artist’s entire life.
It will be the Selma filmmaker’s second documentary for Netflix.
Her 2016 film, The 13th, explored mass incarceration as a form of continued slavery for African-
Americans. It was nominated for best documentary by the Academy Awards and won an Emmy Award for outstanding documentary.
DuVernay, who earlier this year directed Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, is currently filming the Netflix miniseries Central Park Five.
Thompson bio tackles late reporter’s drive
Russell CONTRERAS Citizen news service
Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism (PublicAffairs), by Timothy Denevi
The common image of the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson is one of a drug-induced writer who rode with the Hells Angels, often shot up his red IBM Selectric typewriter and helped Chicano attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta burn the lawn of a California judge.
But a new book on the counterculture crusader attempts to dig deeper into the mission of a writer who pushed “gonzo journalism” – a style of journalism written without claims of objectivity and with the journalist at the centre.
Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism by Timothy Denevi looks into the events of the turbulent 1960s and 1970s that drove Thompson to literary journalism and his desire to tackle what he saw as a rising tide of fascism in the
United States. That included the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the persistence of the Vietnam War and the rise of President Richard Nixon and his monitoring of activist groups. For Thompson, these events were an attack on the essence of the foundation of the United States and humanities. He decided early on to use his skills as a journalist to combat the rise of a totalitarianism event when it affected his mental state, his marriage and his health.
Unlike other portrayals of Thompson as a simplistic alcohol-driven journalist who brushed off identity politics, Denevi’s book argues that Thompson was indeed disturbed by the plight of young protesters, Chicanos and other minorities as the federal government sought to quiet dissent. He wouldn’t be silent, especially during the Nixon presidency.
Denevi’s work reminds us that the modern-day concern about totalitarianism overwhelming free speech isn’t something new. And 50 years ago, one journalist decided to do something about it.
David FRIEND Citizen news service
CP FILE PHOTO
Michael Buble and wife Luisana Lopilato attend the Juno Awards in Vancouver in March 2018.
Chong,Chris October26,2018 ChrisChong,attheageofsixty,passedawayaftera lengthyillnessinpalliativecareattheRoyalVictoria HospitalinMontreal.ThesonofWinnieChanandthe lateJohnChong,heissurvivedbyhiswife,Johanne Riverin,hismother,Winnie(ArlettDale),andhis siblings,Louise,Denise,GregandWayne.Chris’s childhoodhomewasonthePrinceGeorgeAirport whereheandhissiblingsrodedoubleontheirbikes toexploreandlookforagates,sliddownsnowbanks andskatedontherink.Thethreebrotherslivedtheir childhoodlikeitwouldneverend.Theysucceeded eachotheratsummerjobsandfilledthegapathome whentheirfatherdied.ChrismetJohanneafterhis graduatestudiesinMontreal.Theirswasan extraordinaryunconditionallove.Theylivedand taughtinChinaandtheUnitedArabEmirates,and travelledtheworld.Theywerealwaysbyeachother’s side,sharingabottleofSancerrewhentheycamped, collectingfineporcelainsorscouringmarketsinthe pre-dawnforChinesebas-reliefs.Chris’sillness broughtthemhometoMontreallatein2017.He pulledthefamilytogetheratatimeofcrisis,teaching themtoliveinthemomentashedid.Hewasa warrior,astorytellerandinventorofsurprises.Until thefinalthreeweeks,heaccompaniedJohanneon thepianowhenshesang.Inhisgoaltoaddallof Chopin’snocturnestohisrepertoire,hefellthree short,whichhissiblingswilllearninhishonour.
It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Brent Masse who was born and raised in Prince George, BC. He is already incredibly missed by his wife Jody, their children Jenny, Andie (Al), Morgan (Mike), Roger (Carla) and Toby, as well as his six grandchildren Cody, Sara, Blake, Taylor, Kennedy and Jackson. Brent, predeceased by his parents Doris and Roger Masse, is survived by his siblings, Wayne, Viv, Deb, and Lexi. He will also be missed by many friends and family members whom he entertained with numerous stories, jokes and his gentle teasing that always made them smile. His generous spirit and willingness to help others will not be forgotten. Brent was well known and highly respected by everyone he worked with, especially in the trucking industry. He loved to work but was happy to retire so he could head south before the first snowfall. Brent managed to combine his love for travel, watching hockey games and spending time swimming and boating by wintering in Lake Havasu, Arizona. He was always excited to plan “The Next Trip”. When home, Brent looked forward to spending time with family. He loved camping, fishing and sharing stories around the campfire. He had such fun watching his grandkids enjoy life and their activities and he was always amazed by what they could do. They in turn, were equally amazed by how Papa Brent always knew when it was just the right time to share a sweet treat or a funny joke. He was eagerly awaiting the chance to hug his new grandchild arriving this December. There will be no service at Brent’s request. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to a charity of your choice in Brent’s name.
1970-2018
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of a great man. He is survived by his Dad William Morawski, his Mom, Elizabeth Sewell, brother Stephen Morawski and nephew Thomas. He was predeceased by many uncles. His Celebration of Life will be held November 1, 2018 at the Native Friendship Center from 11:00am - 2:00pm. He will be missed by many family and friends.
Linda Jane MacNutt 1951 - 2018
Died peacefully at Prince George Hospice October 16. Linda is survived by her husband Jack MacNutt, and sister Patty Huber. Most at peace among all the worlds animals, Linda found her calling working with her best friend Florence Barton DMV in Penticton. A pilot, painter, potter and life partner, she is greatly missed. A memorial will follow. In lieu of flowers, consider the BCSPCA, and Hospice House.
Robert Bruce
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Robert James Bruce who at 62, in his home in Mackenzie BC, left this Earth on October 24, 2018. He was predeceased by his Mother Vera Bruce, Father John Alistair Bruce and sister Barbara Janet Bruce. Bob is survived by his wife Marjolyn of 37 years as well as his children Kimberly, Pamela and Geoffrey. He had three grandchildren Soleil, Kayden and Dylan. He will be missed by his older brothers John and Richard along with many nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. Bob was struggling with his health for numerous years but still managed to keep his spirits high and his humour on top. A big thank-you to the doctors and nurses of Mackenzie and Prince George who made the last few years more manageable for him. A special thank-you to all the family and friends who have supported us all during this heavy hearted time. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, October 30,2018 at 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the legion in Mackenzie , B.C
Danis
Kay passed away on Saturday October 27, 2018 in Penticton, BC. Born near Estavan, SK on February 19, 1924 Kay was the third of fourteen children. After moving to Vancouver, BC she met and married Andrew Joseph Danis in 1951. Together they moved to Prince George, BC where they welcomed their only child, Bernadette. After Andrew passed away in 1992, Kay moved to Nanaimo, BC where she lived for eight years. From there, she moved to the Okanagan where she resided in Summerland, BC. Kay was well known for her positive outlook on life and she had a large group of friends, with whom she was very social and active. Kay is survived by her daughter Bernadette Boyer; her grandchildren Adrienne (Nigel) Tom, Jacqueline (Jamie) Eddie, Michael Boyer (Marissa Gutsch); her great grandchildren Neela and Ashton Tom; her sisters Trudy Levasseur and Charlotte Gordon; and her brother Ronald (Elvina) Gordon. A service celebrating Kay Danis’s life will be arranged at a later date. The family asks that a contribution be made in Kay Danis’s name to the Diabetes Association, Unit 220, 6223 2nd Street S.E Calgary, AB, T2H 1J5. Condolences may be made to the family through providencefuneralhomes.com
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