Vandals trashing Tabor Mountain
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Trouble with vandals is on the rise at the Tabor Mountain Recreation Area.
Meant to be a place where hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders, snowmobilers and ATVers can enjoy their passions without a long drive out of the city, it’s also become a go-to place for more destructive pursuits.
Gates have been ripped out, bridges destroyed, signs torn down and garbage dumped – and then there’s the shooting.
Bullet holes have been found on all manner of things, from signs to locks, while a pair of gravel pits have become informal shooting ranges with an unwanted television and discarded propane tanks being some of the targets despite the risk of stray bullets flying into nearby trails.
It’s all become too much for Ken Hodges, executive director of the Tabor Mountain Recreation Society. He is asking anyone who sees something suspicious to call
the RCMP and “if you’re one of these vandals, how about thinking a little bit?”
Prince George RCMP Cpl. Sonja Blom advises an observe, record
and report approach to giving the police the heads up.
“The best information you can get is descriptions of the people, if they are in a vehicle a description
Old Fort cut off, without water after landslide takes out road
Citizen news service
Residents of a northeastern B.C. community say heat and power has been restored but they are still without water and there’s no indication when the earth will stop moving around Old Fort.
A slab of earth has sloughed away from a steep hillside a short distance from about 30 homes near the community.
The slow-moving slide has carried away the only road leading to the neighbourhood south of Fort St. John.
Old Fort resident Bobbi Pardy says through Facebook messenger that crews worked through the night to restore power but the
Peace River Regional District is still unsure how to get water to the community.
She says a major crack has formed on a ridge between the original slide and the community and she hopes geotechnical engineers will check it soon.
The regional district held community meetings in Old Fort and Fort St. John on Tuesday and has set up a regular water taxi service on the Peace River to link Old Fort residents to the nearby town of Taylor.
No one has been injured since the hillside began to slump early Sunday but two properties remain on evacuation order while all other Old Fort homes are on
evacuation alert.
Businesses in Fort St. John are helping Old Fort residents who have chosen to stay in their homes, says Pardy.
“Save-On-Foods will box up groceries for us and we pay by credit card and somebody else will deliver it to the river boats to bring to us,” she says.
The supply lines are reassuring and Pardy says with power restored she can make bread again.
But she says the shifting earth remains a worry.
“It’s moving slowly, like lava, but every morning when we wake up and go... to the slide site, we are taken aback by how close it is getting to us.”
of the vehicle, a licence plate number if you have it, and if they do leave the area, the direction that they’re traveling,” she said. Charges for someone caught
damaging property or firing off a gun in an area where they’re not supposed to can range from mischief to careless use of a firearm to criminal negligence, she said.
“If you see something, report it,” Blom said. “We cover a huge jurisdiction with a finite number of resources so we really do rely on the public to be the eyes and ears out there and especially in outlying areas like Tabor Mountain.”
Since 2011, nearly 19,000 hours of volunteer work have been put into building up the complex that adds up to 407 kilometres of trails and more than two dozen new recreation sites, making it home to the largest trail system in British Columbia.
“All of this is for the public,” Hodges said.
He said the trouble really started to happen in the past year or so with the recent improvements to the trails. A particular problem has been people tearing down gates so they can drive their trucks into areas where the trails can’t handle their loads.
— see ‘GET INVOLVED, page 3
City scores high on tax fairness says business advocacy group
Prince George is at the top of the class when it comes to the way the city treats small businesses on the property tax front, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business report.
In 2018, small business accounted for 30 per cent of the revenue the city generated from property tax, while making up 18.4 per cent of the city’s total assessed value for property. That works out to a ratio of 1.63, the lowest among 20 municipalities analyzed for the report.
The average ratio was 2.39 and the worst was Saanich at
3.46. Just three other municipalities had a ratio less than 2.0 – Kamloops, Chilliwack and Kelowna.
Prince George also scored the best on the so-called “tax gap.” A small business paid $17.50 per $1,000 assessed value, 2.3 times the rate charged for residential property, the lowest ratio among the municipalities the CFIB considered. At 4.38, Coquitlam was rated the worst.
Mayor Lyn Hall was “very pleased” with the outcome and echoed a sentiment expressed in the report about the importance of small business. — see ‘WE’VE GOT, page 3
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Ken Hodges, executive director with the Tabor Mountain Recreation Society, points out the bullet holes on a vandalized gate on Wednesday morning near the Prince George Snowmobile Club.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
On top of the vandalism in the area, illegal dumping is also a problem near the Prince George Snowmobile Club.
City releases trail guide
Citizen staff
There are more than 100 kilometres of trails in Prince George and city hall has released a new guide to help you explore them.
“There have been so many great improvements in our parks and trails since the previous version of the trail guide was released in 2011 that it was time to make a more current version for residents and visitors,” said city community coordinator Marta Gregor.
“The guides are a popular item and staff members are frequently asked about trails and where there are spots to walk, cycle or snowshoe.”
To be exact, there are 102 kilometres of trails that the city maintains.
It just passed the “three-digit milestone” with the establishment of the trail system at Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park.
The guide features maps indicating the location and length of each trail, as well as how they can be accessed.
The Cranbrook Hill Greenway Trail, which is maintained by a local non-profit society, is also included, raising the total kilometres of trail covered in the guide to 134.
Recent and ongoing trail developments include:
• A new footbridge at the northwest end of Cottonwood Island Park and 240 metres of trail was recently upgraded.
• The city is developing a program to restore the riverfront from Cottonwood Island to the Cameron Street Bridge.
• Enhanced trail connectivity at Masich Place Stadium
• A paved trail system, lighting, and an off-leash dog area at Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park. Printed copies are free and available at city hall and both branches of the Prince George Public Library.
A digital version is also available at www.princegeorge.ca/trails.
HANDOUT PHOTO
City community coordinator Marta Gregor holds aloft the latest edition of the Trail Guide and a wee chickadee she met along one of the many trails of Cottonwood Island Nature Park.
Kast unveils The Long Strange Trip
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Michael Kast was once a full participant in the Dead Head lifestyle, but he was always a full participant in the Vibrant Head lifestyle at the same time. He was one of those original hippies who lived the humble, deliberate wanderer’s life made famous by the Grateful Dead band and their travelling community of fans, who valued personal expressionism and eschewed the constructs of society.
Kast was far from transient this past year. He was selected to be the artist-in-residence for the Community Arts Council (along with Lynette La Fontaine), getting him a year of free studio space plus some professional development at the Studio 2880 arts complex. Tonight, he shows the public some of what he’s been working on for that year. His solo exhibition opens at the Studio 2880 Feature Gallery.
“What a year. The name of the show is called The Long Strange Trip, once again referring to my Grateful Dead days and how that is applicable at any time in my life, as an artist and on my personal journey as well,” he said. “So much happened for me and my wife this year, I got to work with Lynette as well and got to see how she works, meeting so many other artists. I know Prince George has sometimes been called cliquish, and I’m sure it is in some ways, but for me, was there ever a lot of openness to myself personally and an openness to collaborating and sharing knowledge, so I have a different view of that. I am so very grateful to the entire Prince George community for being a place that supports the arts to the degree that a guy like me got a chance.” He enthusiastically remembered experimenting more as an artist than he ever dreamed before, because he had the room and the resources to try out new ideas, new techniques, and if they didn’t turn out to his liking, he could simply move on to the next experiment. As an artist with an array of
genres in his collection, he was never short on ideas.
“The main reason that the arts council chose me was my digital background so I thought it only fitting that I have some digital pieces in the show. At the same time they gave me a space in order to grow and experiment. I worked on some large abstracts, and I did something I have never heard of done before in the Feature Gallery” that he did not disclose the full nature of, only that it was a surprise piece of ceilingmounted art that had a nod of inspiration to the legendary Michelangelo.
“I believe that I’ve grown exponentially as
an artist,” he said, in thanks to the artistin-residence opportunity. “There was so much experimenting and stretching and attempting new techniques. I found that it’s okay to discover what doesn’t work and not consider that a failure. I went through a lot of gesso covering a lot of junk up, but I have no shame in that, I do not call any of that failure, finding out I was no good at this, because I did find out I was good at something else. And it all came from having a comfortable space for making those experiments. And I can’t say enough about the support I received from (Commuity Arts Council staff Lisa Redpath and Sean Farrell) in all aspects
of the residency.” The event runs from 5-7 p.m. and is free of charge for the public to attend. Local teacher and writer Al Rempel will also be involved, reading from his new book of poetry.
Kast is now the full-time artist-in-residence at Mills Office Productivity (formerly SpeeDee Printers) downtown. He is the manager of their art department, carrying on where the Community Arts Council position left off now that his year is finished. He will talk all about art, and the pieces he’s created, during Thursday’s unveiling of The Long Strange Trip.
— from page 1
“It really is one of the key drivers in the economy and so for us to be ranked number one with that tax ratio being so low, it was very, very good to see,” Hall said.
The low ratio may also be helping draw businesses to the city. As of Oct. 1, the number of business licences issued so far this year stood at 1,991, a 49.6 per cent jump from the number recorded at the same point last year. Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall had praise for city council but criticism for the provincial government.
“We’ve got a good tax regime for business from a municipal level right now but we’re getting hit on the provincial level,” he said.
Particular reference was made to the province’s Employers Health Tax.
Introduced to replace the Medical Services Premium, Corrigall said it could deliver an impact upwards of $300,000 during the so-called “double dipping years” to business who have also been covering their employees MSP.
During that time they will be paying both the EHT and the MSP until the latter is completely eliminated at the end of 2019.
The MSP was cut in half this year.
Corrigall also said it will also mean a $1.4-million hit to the city which will also likely be covered through an increase in the property tax levy with a commensurate increase to the bills businesses will pay to the city.
He said the provincial government will effectively be running surpluses on the backs of businesses during those years.
Adding to Corrigall’s frustration was the fact that the government went ahead with the EHT without waiting for a report from a committee appointed to review the MSP and ways it could be changed.
“Why engage committees to do this work if you’re not going to wait for final reports to come back?” he said.
The governing NDP has said getting rid of the MSP will save individuals up to $900 a year and families up to $1,800 a year.
As for the effect on property tax levy, it says the hike for the average Prince George household would work out to $1.17 per month in 2020 if the city chose to cover the cost entirely through the levy.
The full report is posted with this story at www.pgcitizen.ca.
— from page 1
Hodges said a bridge along a cross country ski trail was destroyed when someone tried to drive a vehicle over it.
“Guys in their big trucks just want to get in on the trails, I guess,” Hodges said.
“There’s a sign there – these trails are meant for vehicles less than 750 kilograms – for public safety. And we keep getting people trying to winch them out and pull them out and get on these trails.” The road into the west side of the area has become a dumping ground for unwanted furniture and other items that are accepted at the Foothills landfill for a nominal cost.
Stolen cars have also been found in the area.
There is a chance cameras will be installed to keep an eye out for troublemakers, but Hodges said it depends on whether the society can get enough grant money to pay for them. Effecting repairs can also be a process for the same
“Join
CITIZEN
Feds restart pipeline consultations
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Indigenous communities are open to a new consultation on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but many are greeting its launch with some caution.
The Liberals said Wednesday that they won’t appeal the August decision from the Federal Court of Appeal that tore up cabinet approval for the pipeline’s expansion.
Instead, Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said the government is hiring former Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci to oversee a new round of consultations with affected Indigenous communities using the road map for those consultations the court laid out in its decision.
Iacobucci’s first order of business will be to oversee the process to design the consultations in concert with First Nations and Metis leaders. Consultations themselves won’t start until that design phase is completed, and there is no timeline for that.
Squamish First Nation, which has thus far opposed the construction of the pipeline, welcomed the decision not to appeal in a statement, but appeared wary about the new consultation process.
“Our nation expects an honourable consultation process that upholds our nation’s Indigenous rights,” said Khelsilem, a band councillor and spokesman for Squamish.
“The Trudeau government tried to ram this project through our territory with a predetermined outcome and this was not acceptable to Squamish Nation or the courts.”
Khelsilem added artificial timelines would not be acceptable.
In the appeal, Squamish leaders told the court they didn’t feel they had enough information to decide how risky the pipeline was to their territory, which includes Burrard Inlet, the narrow water way through which as many as 35 oil tankers would travel each month carrying diluted bitumen away from the pipeline’s marine terminal in Burnaby.
Chief Michael LeBourdais of Whispering Pines Clinton Indian
Band near Kamloops said the new consultation is “extraordinarily ambitious.”
Whispering Pines supports the pipeline and was the first to sign a benefits agreement on the pipeline with Kinder Morgan Canada, which owned the pipeline until August 31 when the federal government bought it for $4.5 billion.
LeBourdais said the consultation is another opportunity to push for better benefits for First Nations, including a percentage of the value of the oil that flows through the pipeline, or an equity stake in the project.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposes to twin the existing pipeline that runs between Edmonton and Burnaby in order to triple its capacity and carry 600,000 barrels of diluted bitumen daily to oil tankers bound for export markets.
After being elected in 2015, the Liberals added another phase of consultations with Indigenous communities on the project hoping to overcome shortcomings in the process the court identified
in the review of the now defunct Northern Gateway pipeline.
In its decision, the Federal Court of Appeal found that additional phase was only a note-taking exercise and that the government incorrectly believed it could not do anything about specific concerns raised, such as by altering the route to move the pipeline away from one community’s only source of drinking water, or ensure another community would be involved in deciding exactly where certain elements of the pipeline would be built on their territory.
Sohi said an appeal of the decision would take years and the government would rather respect the courts – a decision that riled Alberta Premier Rachel Notley who said the Liberals should pursue an appeal in tandem with new consultations.
Sohi said the government planned to put additional people on the file and ensure all government employees involved have a clear mandate not just to listen to Indigenous concerns, but to figure out how they can be reasonably
accommodated.
However, Sohi said reasonable accommodation does not mean every First Nation has to be on side before the project can proceed.
“We also understand there are still groups that will still oppose this project,” he said.
“That’s fine. That’s their right to do so. But that does not mean that if we fulfil our constitutional obligation that those groups may have a veto to stop this project.”
NDP MP Romeo Saganash questioned whether the government could call the consultations meaningful when it is adamant the pipeline expansion proceed.
“Does the Prime Minister not recognize that consulting when the decision has already been made is not consultation as required by the Supreme Court of Canada?” Saganash asked in question period Wednesday.
Sohi said the government has made no assumptions about what cabinet will eventually recommendations, but the government still believes the project is in the national interest.
Pay drug users for insight to deal with overdose crisis, report says
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Drug users are often the first responders to an overdose and should be paid fairly for their contributions to research, service delivery and overdose prevention activities, says a report.
The BC Centre for Disease Control released the report Wednesday, based on input from a meeting last June of 160 people including drug users, law enforcement personnel, the province’s mental health and addictions minister, researchers and the medical community.
The report is aimed at health authorities and other organizations to consult and ultimately empower so-called peers who have past or present experience with substance use as experts who can provide insights into the applicability of policies and programs, such as harm-reduction services.
Vancouver Coastal Health, for example, has contracted RainCity Housing to run its peer support program in the Downtown Eastside. Jobs include outreach and support work, drug checking and leading counselling services.
Karen Ward, a longtime cocaine user who attended the gathering in June, was consulted for the centre’s report and said drug users’ knowledge has been vastly undervalued.
“A friend of mine trains the new employees who then go off to be her boss,” Ward said of an employee who works at an overdose prevention site.
“It’s empowering, definitely, but it is tokenizing. You can see that in the inconsistency in pay and the ad hoc nature of the arrangements.”
Drug users may have to form associations or unions to work on getting proper protections, said Ward, a former secretary of the board for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
“Just the consciousness of understanding themselves as workers is a new thing,” she said.
Marion Allaart, executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said some people who work at the organization’s overdose prevention site earn $7 per hour but it has decided to pay them more while awaiting action from the employer.
She said it’s often challenging to hire people who continue to use drugs because they sometimes fail to show up for their shifts.
“Some people have been addicted since they were 14. We have an aging population in the Downtown Eastside and that makes a difference to how successful they can be.”
Mentors are crucial to provide support for workers who live with complex issues and expectations beyond what they can deliver, Allaart said.
The BC Centre for Disease Control’s report calls for payment standards across the province, along with stable and fair employment to ensure a good quality of life and support for the rights of workers.
The centre has already outlined payment standards with recommendations, including a $25 per hour payment for meetings, reviewing documents and providing an advisory role; $30 per hour for a peer who works as a meeting support worker; $50 per hour for a presentation; and for other tasks, at least the B.C. living wage, which amounts to nearly $21 per hour in Vancouver.
Its report released in February included feedback from peers, who said they did not want to be paid by cheque or a coupon and asked for an honorarium for attending meetings of drug users.
The report released Wedneday says involvement of Indigenous drug users, who are overrepresented in the overdose crisis, should be encouraged.
“Be more inclusive of Indigenous perspectives, both within and outside of our organizations, through meaningful engagement during the planning process and follow-up for events and activities,” it says.
CP PHOTO
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, Paul Lefebvre listens to Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi respond to a question about the government’s plan for the Trans Mountain expansion project during a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.
LNG Canada deal has Horgan juggling Greens, Liberals, environmentalists
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — The prospect of billions of dollars in liquefied natural gas revenues has British Columbia’s government preparing for a political and environmental juggling act as Premier John Horgan attempts to hold together his minority government while appeasing ever watchful climate guardians.
Horgan said LNG Canada’s decision to build a $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in northern B.C. ranked on the historic scale of a “moon landing,” emphasizing just how much the project means to an economically deprived region of the province.
Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, former Liberal energy minister
Rich Coleman and Skeena Liberal MLA Ellis Ross, a former Haisla Nation chief and early LNG backer in Kitimat, were present at the signing ceremony with Horgan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and representatives from the five international energy giants behind the LNG Canada project.
Green party Leader Andrew Weaver did not attend.
Weaver, whose three members of the Green party caucus have an agreement to support Horgan’s New Democrat government, stood up in the legislature Tuesday and accused the NDP of being part of a “grand hypocrisy,” for its criticism of past proposed LNG projects.
But Horgan was already setting in motion plans to bring the Greens, Liberals and environmentalists on side.
“Mr. Weaver has been very clear on his view on LNG and he can certainly speak for himself, but we are working, he and I and the government, on putting in place our climate action plan this fall and it will include LNG,” he said in an interview after the LNG announcement.
Wilkinson’s Liberals issued a statement saying they have supported LNG from the outset and are looking forward to back-
ing any legislation concerning the Kitimat project.
The premier said during the news conference that his government will meet greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the federal government.
“It will be significantly challenging for all of us but with the revenue, some $23 billion coming to the province from this project, we will be able to innovate, work with renewables, work with Shell and the joint venture partners to bring down emissions over the long term.”
Horgan also directed senior officials to hold a background briefing at the legislature on the government’s plans to move LNG issues through the legislature and address climate goals.
The officials, speaking on a not-forattribution basis, said no LNG legislation is coming this fall and a repeal of the former Liberal government’s LNG income tax will not be tabled until the LNG Canada project is about to go into production by 2024.
A cabinet order was signed Tuesday, bypassing debate in the legislature and exempting the provincial sales tax during the construction phase of the project.
The officials said B.C.’s proposed climate plan will be designed to meet legislated targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Much of the reductions will be achieved by B.C. moving towards electrification, primarily in the transportation and industrial sectors. The officials said the plan will offer industry rebates on carbon tax payments if they meet global clean-energy targets.
The officials said the LNG Canada project is forecast to emit 3.45 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Clean energy advocate Pembina Institute said it is waiting to see how the government reconciles LNG’s carbon pollution with its climate goals.
B.C. currently emits about 63 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
B.C. Premier John Horgan speaks during an LNG Canada news conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.
Archie would know the feeling
When Archie Bunker would return to his Queens home each night on the hugely popular 1970s sitcom All In The Family, he often came through the front door weary and tired, beaten up by a rapidly changing world that made no sense.
The irony (and the show’s comedy) was that home was no sanctuary for him.
Between his free-spirited daughter Gloria, his proudly liberal son-in-law Mike and his practical, common-sense wife Edith, along with those black neighbours the Jeffersons, Archie was the “dingbat,” an intolerant, immature crybaby who just wanted to go back to the days when “guys like us, we had it made.”
The “us” was white men, of course. That’s why Archie’s rage was particularly directed at Mike. In Archie’s eyes, Mike was surrendering his role as the head of household and the top of the social pyramid without even putting up a fight.
The battle rages on, nearly 50 years since Archie first told Edith to “stifle yourself.” Edith never stifled herself, of course, and few women today will stand for a man telling her to “keep it down now, voices carry.”
Yet there are still plenty of Archies around, moping about how tough it is to be a man in 2018, no different than Archie was
in 1971.
“It’s a very scary time for young men in America,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday, noting how men – and powerful men, in particular – are being victimized by accusations of sexual assault, abuse and impropriety, years or even decades later.
Trump has an agenda, of course. First, he’s trying to discredit the dozen women who have made allegations against him.
Second, he’s trying to rescue his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing his own allegations.
Naturally, the whole thing has become a binary political argument, where either Kavanaugh is a decent man and a great judge worthy of sitting on the highest court in America for the rest of his life, if he so chooses, or a frat boy sexual predator during his teenaged and college years.
The reality, of course, is not one or the other. It’s both.
Kavanaugh’s legal career has been exemplary and he is a worthy Supreme Court candidate (although there are others with more experience and legal standing Trump could have nominated). It’s also clear, even by his own reluctant admission during his Senate hearings, that Kavanaugh liked to party it up back in the day. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, so long as it’s good clean fun and doesn’t involve holding girls down in dark bedrooms and covering
their mouths so they won’t scream.
A woman has stepped forward with a credible story that he did that to her 35 years ago and a credible reason why she never said anything until now (she was worried as a teenager she’d get into trouble for being at a party where there was drinking and there was no need to say much more as an adult until the drunken boy who did that to her was now a man being considered to sit on the Supreme Court).
There’s no need to believe Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations because it’s actually Kavanaugh’s numerous little fibs and several pants-on-fire lies in his testimony that should disqualify Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.
Trump, as well as their supporters, argue the “innocent until proven guilty” line. Kavanaugh would know that innocent until proven guilty is a lofty legal standard used in criminal cases, to make sure the accused are found guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In the everyday world, no one takes “innocent until proven guilty” in their personal and professional relationships. “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck” is the usual standard.
Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s last nominee to the Supreme Court, was confirmed easily because as a man, as a lawyer, as a scholar and as a judge, there simply wasn’t much
YOUR LETTERS
ICBC president responds to concerns about policy changes
There has been some misinterpretation around one element of our new basic insurance rating model, the unlisted driver protection, which will come into effect next September. Today, one in five crashes is caused by someone other than the vehicle owner. This is a big issue because, if you lend your car to a neighbour or friend and they cause a crash, it’s your premiums that go up and your driving record that is affected – that’s not fair. Under our new model, at-fault crashes will follow the driver, and not the vehicle owner – that’s fair. Vehicle owners will now be
asked to list all drivers who may drive their vehicle on their insurance policy.
We recognize this is a shift for British Columbians but the listing of other drivers is a common industry practice across North America and beyond. In fact, in many other jurisdictions, insurers will likely not cover your claim if an unlisted driver crashes your vehicle.
Our new model will give customers options if they want to let others, who are not household members or employees, occasionally drive their vehicle: customers will be able to add the occasional driver to their policy, purchase
extra protection for $50 annually to cover unlisted drivers (one fee, not per driver), or run the risk of a one-time penalty if an unlisted driver causes a crash while driving their vehicle.
Exceptions will also be made for situations like medical emergencies and programs like Operation Red Nose.
Importantly, these changes have been designed to be revenue neutral – they are about improving fairness, not about increasing revenue.
Nicolas Jimenez President & CEO Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact Neil Godbout (ngodbout@pgcitizen.ca or 250-960-2759). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.
to criticize. His accomplishments spoke for themselves and he didn’t need to portray himself as an unfairly maligned victim.
Trump also ignores the numerous rich and powerful men – most but not all of them white – who have fallen from grace because of the numerous allegations made against them by women (and men). Few of them have gone to jail but many were fired from their jobs and their careers destroyed because there was ample enough circumstantial evidence to do so.
The irony of someone like Trump insisting on innocent until proven guilty is incredible, coming from a man who seems to take great and cruel pleasure in judging others, usually without proof or even a passing respect of truth and facts. Yet Trump is somehow the victim here, as is his Supreme Court nominee, for being held accountable for their words and actions.
Meanwhile, back in Queens in the 1970s, Archie saw himself as the victim, too, a good, hardworking man under appreciated and unfairly judged by those around him, even as he called them down with racial and sexist slurs.
Then and now, some so-called men just can’t see the irony in calling those who disagree with them crybabies and then shedding tears – literally and figuratively – over the injustice of not getting their way.
—
Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Anti-vaxxers a danger in Canada
Afew weeks ago, the World Health Organization expressed great concern over the low rates of childhood immunization observed in some European countries. Research by medical anthropologist Emily Brunson revealed that more than a quarter of European residents currently identify with the so-called anti-vaxxer movement.
The anti-vaxxer movement is composed of people – in many cases, young parents – who systematically question the safety and effectiveness of childhood immunization and reject all scientific evidence associated with it.
The origins of the movement can be traced back to a study published in the weekly medical journal The Lancet in the late 1990s, which attempted to link childhood vaccination and autism.
The study’s assertions have long been debunked, but this has not stopped people from continuing to quote it as a scientific fact.
Advances in technology have allowed the anti-vaxxer movement to establish connections all over the world. Members are usually skeptical about government actions and prone to conspiracy theories – precisely the kind of speech that can reach a wider and dedicated audience online. Health authorities all over the world have had a difficult time dealing with this problem and the setbacks are evident.
A measles outbreak at the Disneyland Resort in California last year was widely covered by international media, yet countries like Italy have taken dramatic steps backward in the fight against childhood diseases.
The two major parties that serve in Italy’s current coalition government promised to abolish a compulsory vaccination law. As a result, children are no longer required to provide evidence of immunization in order to be enrolled in Italy’s public schools.
In Canada, the situation is not as dire as what is already developing in some European countries. But while we do not (currently) have political parties campaigning on the elimination of vaccines, there are specific pockets of the country where disinformation is palpable.
A Research Co. Canada-wide survey asked Canadians if vaccinations for children should be mandatory in their province. A staggering majority of residents (78 per cent) agreed that this should “definitely” or “probably” be the case.
But that leaves 18 per cent of Ca-
nadians – almost one in five – who believe parents should “probably” or “definitely” be the ones deciding whether their children should be vaccinated.
A further four per cent were undecided on the matter.
Quebec and British Columbia share the dubious distinction of having the largest proportion of residents who believe immunization should be up to the parents (22 per cent and 21 per cent respectively), followed by Alberta (18 per cent), Ontario and Atlantic Canada (16 per cent each) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (15 per cent).
A separate question asked Canadians if they think there is a correlation between the childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella and autism in children –the argument originally made in the discredited study published in The Lancet.
Across the country, almost one in four Canadians (23 per cent) said the correlation is “definitely” or “probably” real, including 25 per cent of residents in the two most populous provinces: Ontario and Quebec. The proportion was slightly lower in British Columbia (21 per cent), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (19 per cent) and Atlantic Canada (also 19 per cent).
At first glance, the numbers might not seem worrisome. Almost four in five Canadians side with scientific evidence and concur with the notion of compulsory immunization for children. But as was observed in Disneyland last year, a single unvaccinated child can cause an outbreak of massive proportions: 125 people infected, 500 more quarantined and a cost of US$2.3 million. With almost one in five Canadians feeling that immunization is a decision that the parents should make by themselves, an outbreak could happen here. We have already had a confirmed case of measles in a Maple Ridge high school earlier this year.
The current state of affairs would suggest that Canada’s provincial health authorities should carry on with targeted information campaigns. As has been observed in other countries, one outbreak is too many.
Mario Canseco is the president of Research Co. and writes a column exclusive to Glacier Media newspapers.
MARIO CANSECO Glacier Meida
Guest Column
Ig Noble achievements in science
Early in October each year the Nobel Prize committees release the names of the honorees in Medicine and Physiology, Chemistry, Physics, Literature, and Economics. Winning a Nobel Prize is a singular mark of distinction. It is the crowning glory for a career spent on the cutting edge of science.
In early September, the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research host a slightly less solemn affair, the Ig Noble Prizes, honoring “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
It is a good bit of fun held each year at Harvard University with Nobel Laureates as presenters and some amazing science demos entertaining the audience.
The research performed by the honorees is serious work published in peer-reviewed journals although these papers are the sort which causes people to roll their eyes and politicians to complain about research funding. But they do have scientific merit and can often lead to much more interesting research.
In 2018, there were a number of awards handed out as they do not restrict the awards to the five Nobel Prize categories.
For medicine, the award went to Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger for their work showing how a roller coaster ride could be used to hasten the passage of kidney stones. Kidney stones account for approximately 300,000 emergency room visits in North America every year as passing a stone is a long and painful process.
Anything which can speed the passage seemed reasonable so when the authors heard anecdotal evidence to suggest riding a roller coaster helps to speed the process, they decided to investigate.
While it might seem somewhat frivolous, their work stands up to scientific rigour and more importantly the rear seat of a roller coaster might just ease someone’s pain.
For anthropology, the award was given to Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc and Elaine Madsen for demonstrating chimpanzees at a zoo imitate humans about as often as the humans imitate chimpanzees.
Imitation is a critical component of our education albeit a mostly unconscious one. We imitate family members and others to learn visual clues and behavioural responses. The authors were able to show this is not a uniquely human trait and crosses inter-species boundaries. As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, next time you visit a zoo chimpan-
zees might be flattering you.
For chemistry, the award was earned by Paula Romao, Adilia Alarcao and Cesar Viana for studying what every mother knows – saliva is an effective cleaning agent. The inspiration behind their work is a common practice by museum conservationists who will often use their own saliva to clean delicate gilded surfaces such as gold leaf. The enzymes in saliva are particularly effective at breaking down the biological components in smudges.
For literature, the award was given to Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomex, Vesna Popovic, and M. Helen Thompson for documenting the fact most people do not read instruction manuals. This is despite the best efforts of technical writers and graphic designers. We simply don’t want to spend the time preferring to figure the device out ourselves. Understanding this might help produce better manuals, but most likely we still won’t read them.
For nutrition, the award went to James Cole for determining the relative nutritional benefits of a traditional meat-based diet versus human-cannibalism.
It turns out, humans are not particularly nutritious when compared to other forms of meat plus there are all the parasites and potential diseases within human flesh.
This coincides with the theory human-cannibalism was more about capturing a person’s spirit or physical properties than maintaining a
good steady diet.
For peace, the award was presented to Francisco Alonso and co-authors for analyzing something almost all of us do: cursing and shouting while driving an automobile. By studying the frequency, motivation and effects of outbursts, the authors were able to show aggression behind the wheel is not simply about letting off some steam. It has the opposite effect of leading to road rage and a high level of aggression is associated with higher accident rates worldwide.
On the other hand, the award for economics was given to Lindie Hanyu Liang and co-authors for investigating the effectiveness of voodoo dolls as a method for employees to retaliate against abusive bosses. If you have a supervisor who routinely engages in behaviour such as scapegoating, public ridicule, belittling or other such abuse, it is likely you will want to retaliate to restore a sense of justice in the work place. This can escalate the situation leading to a poisoned workplace.
Instead, stabbing a voodoo doll with pins can be much more cathartic and alleviate the tension. It is one way to possibly right the balance of feeling wronged and could lead to other non-confrontational strategies for dealing with work place problems.
Voodoo dolls of bosses and a spit shines –science which first makes you laugh and then makes you think.
Canadian wins Nobel Prize for Physics
Liam CASEY Citizen news service
WATERLOO, Ont. — A Canadian scientist who became only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics said her personal triumph doubles as a sign of progress for her male-dominated industry.
Donna Strickland, associate professor at Ontario’s University of Waterloo, was honoured on Tuesday for being half of the team to discover Chirped Pulse Amplification, a technique that underpins today’s short-pulse, highintensity lasers.
The 59-year-old Guelph, Ont., native made the discovery while completing her PhD at the University of Rochester in New York and will share half of the US$1.01-million prize with her doctoral adviser, French physicist Gerard Mourou. Arthur Ashkin of the United States was the third winner of the 2018 physics prize.
Strickland’s victory not only cemented her own place in Nobel history, but ended a 55-year-long drought for female physicists being recognized by the prize committee. She joins the ranks of Marie Curie, the first woman to claim the honour in 1903, and 1963 winner Maria GoeppertMayer.
Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences, which chose the winners, described Strickland and Mourou’s work as “revolutionary.” The Chirped Pulse Amplification Technique, first laid out in a 1985 article, was described by the academy as “generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses,” which have become a critical part of corrective eye surgeries amongst other uses.
TODD WHITCOMBE
Relativity
AP PHOTO
Noble laureates Eric Maskin (economics, 2007), Wolfgang Ketterle (physics, 2001), Oliver Hart (economics, 2016) and Michael Rosbash (medicine, 2017) attempt to assemble a heart during Ig Nobel award ceremonies at Harvard University on Sept. 13.
11
So we meet again
Cup finalists clash tonight at RMCA
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Last season, the Prince George Spruce Kings’ dream season ended three wins short of a championship and the Wenatchee Wild weren’t sharing any of the spoils of victory.
The Wild hoisted the Fred Page Cup Trophy as B.C. Hockey League champions, zooming to the top of the charts in only their third season in the league, becoming the first American-based team to win it since 1979.
Losing that five-game final series still doesn’t sit well with the Spruce Kings, especially the 14 players who returned to this year’s team, and Ben Poisson was one of them. He came back for Game 4 of the Wenatchee series after missing two months with a ruptured spleen and helped the Kings force Game 5 with a win at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Now the 20-year-old Poisson is captain of the Kings, the top-line centre, and plans on giving the Wild a rude reception when the teams take to the ice tonight at RMCA in their first of two regularseason meetings in 2018-19.
“Obviously everyone here is excited to play them, even the guys who haven’t played them before and are new to the team, they know what we went through last year against them,” said Poisson. “We played as hard as we could and ended up coming a couple games short and we’re going to try to get a little redemption on them here. Obviously the goal for us is to win a championship.”
Wild head coach Bliss Littler has eight returnees to work with, including forwards Lucas Sowder (a Minnesota State Mankato recruit), Murphy Stratton (University of North Dakota), and Penticton natives Nathan Iannone and Josh
Arnold. Chad Sasaki, Jacob Modry and Drake Usher are back on the Wild blueline and 20-year-old goalie Austin Park was the go-to guy in net for Wenatchee last season.
The now-graduated Kyle Johnson works his way past Wenatchee Wild forward Sam Hesler during the 2018 Fred Page Cup BCHL championship series last April at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. The Spruce Kings and Wild will renew acquaintances tonight. We played as hard as we could and ended up coming a couple games short and we’re gong to try to get a little redemption on them here.
Among the four Canadians on this year’s Wild roster are two from Sherbrooke, Que., who both answer to the name Christophe – Tellier and Fillion. Both are 18-year-olds and both are in the top-10 in league scoring. Tellier has five goals and 12 points in nine games, with Fillion right behind with 11 points, including seven goals. Sowder (1-10-11 in nine games) is averaging better than a point per game and another Wild forward to watch is newcomer Matt Gosiewski, a six-foot-four, 210-pound native of
— Ben Poisson
Willton, Conn., who ranks 19th in the scoring race (5-5-10).
“They’re a different team this year, they’re a lot bigger and with us being a faster team we can kind
of expose them,” said Poisson. “They were a fast team last year but they’ve kind of changed their structure a bit.”
The teams have a bit of history dating back to the Wild’s second season in which they owned the Spruce Kings as divisional opponents, winning all seven regular-season games by a combined score of 46-13. But in the playoffs, the Kings came close to pushing the Wild to the limit in the first round after trailing three games to none in the series.
A blown lead by the Kings late in the third period in Game 6 in Wenatchee was all that prevented Game 7.
Last year, reaching the final for the first time in their 22 BCHL seasons, the Spruce Kings set a new
It’s crunch time for Timberwolves
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
When is a tie like a victory?
When it comes at the expense of the UBC Thunderbirds.
Just ask the UNBC Timberwolves.
They came within nine minutes of beating one of the best men’s university soccer teams in Canada last Friday in Vancouver. Francesco Bartolillo put the T-wolves up 1-0 in the 38th minute and that lead lasted until the 81st minute when UBC’s Victory Shumbusho scored off a corner kick to keep the T-birds unbeaten.
UNBC suffered the consequences of frustrating a league powerhouse in the rematch Sunday, losing to UBC 7-0. But the T-wolves made their point and came back to Prince George with four more points in the standings, three of which were gained in a comefrom-behind 2-1 win Thursday in Victoria.
“That’s a very good UBC side, one of the best I’ve seen in my five years here,” said Bartolillo. “Their record kind of stands by itself, they’re undefeated and that 1-1 draw was very big for us. We were nine minutes away from three points and our tactics were spot-on for the game, Steve (head coach Simonson) set us up brilliantly and we knew what we had to do and we defended well. We’re definitely happy to get that one point.”
Consequently, the T-wolves are off to their best start in seven years of playing in the Canadian university ranks. Owners of a 4-2-3 fourth-place record, they’ll head to Kamloops for a two-game test against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s not very often you tie UBC and you’re disappointed, because you’re that close to a win,” said Simonson.
“At UVic we showed great resilience to come back and win that and at UBC we played a great defensive game and created a couple chances as well and got the point we needed.
“Sunday was the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong for us and right for them in the first half (UBC led 6-0 after 45 minutes), we were just shell-shocked. They came to prove a point and we were just brain-dead, probably a combination of fatigue, with three games in four days, but we’re not going to write it all off to that.
been very adaptable, something we’ve not been able to do in the past. We can change a few players, we can change tactics and change our style and now we’ve proven we can come from behind or we can hold on to stuff. There’s a collectiveness right now that’s going to give us a lot of opportunity moving forward.”
“Four of our nine games were against UBC and Trinity Western, traditionally the top teams, and we’ve got two losses. We’ve
Bartolillo, 23, one of three fifth-year T-wolves, has been supplying the leadership expected of him on and off the field.
He leads UNBC in goals (five), assists (three) and points (eight) and three weeks ago he became the all-time career leader in goals when he broke Tofa Fakunle’s former record of 12.
“The program has grown tremendously since my first year, a time when we would go into games hoping for the best but knowing there were some tough times ahead,” said Bartolillo. “We’re at a point now where we feel we can go in and compete with any team in Western Canada. Our strength with the team we have now is our cohesiveness and that’s kind of what’s enabled us to come back from deficits in our games, something we’ve
team playoff standard they will try to exceed next spring.
“Getting that close and coming up short was heartbreaking,” said Kings right winger Patrick Cozzi.
“Everyone on the team loved each other and this year it’s looking like the same so far – we’re building a lot of chemistry so we definitely want to take it to the next level and win it all.
“I think it’s a rivalry between us (and the Wild), they’re a good team and I think we’re a better team. We’ve been preparing all week for them and it’s just going to be a really good game – two of the top teams in the league going at it. I think we just have to stick to our systems and trust we’re going to get the job done.” see WENATCHEE, page 10
struggled with in the past.”
The T-wolves, unquestionably, have more depth than last year’s team, which made the playoffs for the first time in UNBC history. Rookie midfielders Anthony Stewart (who had two assists in Victoria) and Abou Cisse have been major contributors in limited playing time coming off the bench. The emergence of first-year striker Michael Henman and contributions from third-year midfielders Owen Stewart and Pierre Barrafranca have given Simonson options he never had in his previous two seasons at the helm. Stewart, a 19-year-old Prince George youth soccer product who grew up watching the T-wolves wallow most often near the bottom of the standings, is proud to be part of a team that’s setting the bar high as one of the better teams in Canada West.
“The year’s going well, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and the wins will continue to come,” said Stewart, who has two goals and one assist in nine games.
“We have the possibility to host a playoff game, which would be wild. That’s definitely the goal, to not only make the playoffs but to get the win in the playoffs. To be that confident team and know you’re the favourite, almost, is exciting. I don’t think that’s ever happened and we’ll just keep proving people wrong.”
— see ‘THEY’RE ALL, page 11
Yankees overwhelm Oakland in wildcard game
Ronald BLUM Citizen news service
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge got the party started with a two-run homer nine pitches in. Luis Severino let out a primal scream after escaping a bases-loaded jam with 100 mph heat. Giancarlo Stanton capped the mauling with monstrous drive in his postseason debut.
From the first inning on, there was little doubt. Next stop for the Yankees: Fenway Park and the rival Red Sox.
Going ahead quickly against relieverturned-starter Liam Hendriks, the Yankees pounded the Oakland Athletics 7-2 Wednesday night to win their second straight AL wildcard game.
Severino atoned for flopping in his postseason debut last year, and late-season spark Luke Voit added a two-run triple off Blake Treinen in a four-run sixth, missing a home run by inches. Stanton added 443-foot drive off the Oakland closer in the eighth that landed in left field’s second deck, completing a power show by the team that set a major league record for most home runs in a season.
After one of those boisterous Bronx celebrations that used to be an October staple, the Yankees will take a train to Boston for a best-of-five Division Series starting Friday, a matchup of 100-win heavyweights. By the late innings, the sellout crowd was chanting “We want Boston!”
The Red Sox went 10-9 against the Yankees this year.
For Oakland, it the latest disappointing defeat in what has stretched into decades of disappointment. The A’s have lost eight straight winner-take-all post-season games since beating Willie Mays and the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series, and dropped all four of their post-season matchups against the Yankees.
New York became the first team since the 2001 A’s to reach triple digits in wins and fail to finish first – the Red Sox set a team record with 108 victories.
Yankees fans fretted about an all-ornothing knockout match, thinking back to last year when Severino fell behind Minne-
sota 3-0 just 10 pitches in. New York rallied for an 8-4 win against the Twins, but the memory was still raw.
Severino was 14-2 at the All-Star break this year but slumped badly in the second half, and rookie manager Aaron Boone’s decision to start the 24-year-old righthander against the A’s instead of J.A. Happ or Masahiro Tanaka was intensely debated – the type of argument Boone used to enjoy as a television analyst who broadcast last year’s wildcard game.
Severino made the move look like genius. He threw nine fastballs in a 10-pitch first inning, then relied on sliders and chanegups.
He struck out seven his first time through the batting order, got in trouble in the fourth before striking out Marcus Semien on his fastest pitch of the night – 99.6 mph at the letters. He showed his emotion and looked spent despite not having allowed a hit. And he was.
Jonathan Lucroy and Nick Martini singled leading off the fifth, and Boone signalled for Dellin Betances to relieve.
This time, he had a no decision to savour.
Betances retired Matt Chapman on a liner to right and Jed Lowrie on a fly to centre, then struck out big league home run champion Khris Davis with a slider. Betances
Dodgers look to Ryu to set tone in opener
Citizen news service
LOS ANGELES — These aren’t the same Dodgers that won 104 games, ran away in the NL West, and fell one victory short of a World Series title last year.
Example A: After a slow start, they won 92 games and needed Game 163 to earn their sixth straight division title.
Example B: Clayton Kershaw won’t be opening the post-season as the Game 1 starter for the first time in six consecutive playoff appearances.
Example C: Kershaw told Hyun-Jin Ryu that the South Korean left-hander was going to take the mound tonight against Mike Foltynewicz and the Atlanta Braves to begin
the best-of-five Division Series.
“I’m obviously kind of nervous, but I think it’s a good thing,” Ryu said through a translator Wednesday. The Dodgers obviously think flip-flopping Kershaw and Ryu is the right move, with manager Dave Roberts saying it allows both pitchers to have five days’ rest between starts. If Kershaw started Game 1, he would be on four days’ rest, while Ryu would be on six days’ rest.
Kershaw starting the opener has always been the surest sign that it’s October. The face of the franchise has started eight of the past 10 post-season Game 1s. He can opt out of his contract after the World Series.
“He obviously wanted to pitch Game 1
and expected to,” Roberts said. “But after talking to him and explaining our thoughts, he accepted it and he just said he’ll be ready to go for the second game.”
Kershaw often has started on short rest in recent post-seasons, but the Dodgers don’t plan on that this time. Rookie Walker Buehler is set to go in Game 3, having impressed enough to be the heir apparent to Kershaw.
“It doesn’t have to all fall on his shoulders like it has in the past,” starter-turned-reliever Alex Wood said of Kershaw.
Slugger Matt Kemp added, “We got a lot of guys who can get the job done.”
Ryu is eager to make a mark after not pitching in the post-season since 2014, having been injured for most of the 2015 and
Wenatchee has cooled after strong start
— from page 9
In the only other meeting between the teams this season, the Wild hosts the Spruce Kings in Wenatchee on Oct. 25.
Cozzi is playing on a line with Dustin Manz and rookie Nicholas Poisson and ranks third in team scoring with two goals and five assists in eight games. The speedy Cozzi is a key component on penalty kills, usually working alongside Manz. Through eight games the Spruce Kings’ penalty killers have an unspectacular 78.1 per cent success rate (13th in a 17team league) but their power play has been clicking well at 23.1 per cent (fourth-best in the BCHL).
The Wild is part of a three-team logjam atop the Interior Division, tied with the first-place Merritt Centennials and third-place West Kelowna Warriors, each with 5-4-
0-0 records. Wenatchee played all nine of its games in September on the road and got off to a 4-1 start but has lost three of its last four games. Like the Spruce Kings, the Wild played three games last week, starting with a 5-2 loss in West Kelowna. On the weekend, Wenatchee dropped a 2-0 decision in Vernon, then beat the Smoke Eaters 5-2 in Trail.
“I think they are still building, just because they are a bit younger and we need to use our experience and jump on them early in the game, said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
“We want to take their time and space away and it helps with our rink size (being 10 feet shorter than most rinks) so we need to keep pressure on the puck all game.
“We made some mistakes and
mental errors (last weekend) and I think it’s a good time for that to happen. We probably needed that to rectify some of the stuff that we were weak in previously.”
The Spruce Kings (6-2-0-1) rank third in the Mainland Division, one point behind Chilliwack and
gleefully backpedaled off the mound. New York opened a 6-0 lead in the bottom half. Judge started it with a double – his grounder hit about a foot foul just beyond the batter’s box, then twisted fair down the line. Aaron Hicks followed with another doubles off Fernando Rodney. After Treinen walked Stanton, and Voit hit an opposite-field drive to right, thinking it was a home run and raising his right arm at the plate. He chugged into third with his first big league triple and let loose with a holler. The burly Voit tumbled across the plate, actually making a nifty slide, to just make it home on Didi Gregorius’ sacrifice fly.
2016 seasons. He was left off last year’s playoff roster after going 5-9 with a 3.77 ERA. Still, Ryu has posted a better ERA (2.81) in his three career post-season games than Kershaw (4.35) in his 24 playoff games. “Finding out that I made the post-season roster, especially not making it last year, was definitely huge for me,” he said. “I’m going to go full throttle from the very first pitch in the very first inning.” Ryu was 7-3 with a 1.97 ERA in the regular season. Fellow lefty Kershaw was 9-5 with a 2.73 ERA and team-high 155 strikeouts. Ryu had an edge over the final month of the season, posting a 1.88 ERA after overcoming a groin injury. Kershaw, also injured this season, had a 3.89 ERA in September.
Coquitlam (both 7-3-0-0) with a game in hand. In their first road trip, other than the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack, the Spruce Kings earned three of a possible six points. They started their threegame, three-day journey with a 3-2 shootout loss in Surrey, beat Langley 4-3 and lost 3-1 in Coquitlam.
“Road trips are always hard, especially the first one,” said Ben Poisson, who ended a six-game scoring drought with a hat-trick effort, scoring three times on the power play, including the winner Saturday in Langley. “It’s different hockey, you’re playing in a different building and your timing is all messed up and you can’t have the same routine. We took a bit of time to adjust to it and by the time we got to the third game we ran out of gas, physically and mentally.”
The Kings have another tough
test on home ice in store Friday night when they take on the Island Divison-leading Victoria Grizzlies. The Grizzlies will be bringing forward Alex Newhook, a 17-yearold from Newfoundland touted as a potential top-three overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft. He had 66 points as a rookie last season despite missing 15 games. He was second in BCHL scoring when he broke his wrist in a game Feb. 10. The Spruce Kings placed D Brennan Malgunas (illness) on the 30-game injured reserve list. To fill in for Malgunas the Kings this week acquired D Jason Chu, 17, from the Surrey Eagles in a deal for futures. Kings F Spencer Chapman (hamstring) won’t play this weekend.
Maglio said Logan Neaton will get the start in goal tonight. Game time is 7 p.m.
AP PHOTO
New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit scores against the Oakland Athletics on a sacrifice fly by Didi Gregorius during the sixth inning of the American League wildcard game on Wednesday night in New York.
‘They’re all massive games’: Simonson
from page 9
The WolfPack (2-6-2) is fighting to return to the Canada West playoffs, having won bronze at nationals last year and the T-wolves expect a physical battle, knowing they can’t afford to let either game slip away, knowing they are in contention to finish as high as second in the Pacific Division with just six games left.
UBC (8-0-2) ranks first in the Pacific Division, followed by the Fraser Valley Cascades (6-2-1) and third-place Trinity Western Spartans (5-1-4). A secondplace finish would guarantee UNBC a first-round playoff bye and a home playoff date at Masich Place Stadium. The T-wolves host UBC Okanagan, Oct. 13-14, then end the regular season on the road in Abbotsford against Fraser Valley, Oct. 19-20.
“They’re all massive games,” said Simonson. “The two Interior teams (TRU and UBCO) are the ones that are going to be chasing us and they’re towards the bottom not because they’re poor but because they haven’t got the results they want. So, if we can take a game from each of them it pretty much eliminates them from catching us and then it’s just UVic we have to stay above, and if we win a bunch of games we’re going to be shooting higher in the table.”
Right back Josh McAvoy likely won’t play this weekend. He’s missed four games with a foot injury. Midfielder Matt Jubinville (back injury) is still not 100 per cent but could see action in Kamloops. McAvoy, Barrafranca, Henman, Jonah Smith and Conrad Rowlands have two yellow cards this season and will try to avoid a third which carries a mandatory one-game suspension. The T-wolves, with 13 yellow cards, rank as the third-most disciplined team in Canada West, an abrupt turnaround from seasons past.
The UNBC women host the Grant MacEwan Griffins at Masich Friday and Saturday nights.
Caps open Cup defence with rout of Boston
Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — From banner to blowout, the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup defence is off to a rousing start.
After watching the franchise’s first Cup banner ascend to the rafters, the Alex Ovechkin-led Capitals scored two goals in the first two minutes on the way to a 7-0 thrashing of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. T.J. Oshie opened the scoring 24 seconds in and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals at 1:47 to give Washington the fastest first two goals by a defending champion in a season opener in NHL history.
“We scored right away,” Ovechkin said.
“After that, they were kind of in shock.”
By midway through the second period, the Capitals chased goalie Tuukka Rask with five goals on 19 shots and ignited chants of “Back-to-back! Back-to-back!” from the fired-up crowd. That’s the chant Oshie started after the victory parade in June, and it was echoing throughout the arena four months later.
“I said it because I believe it,” Oshie said.
“We got a lot of guys in here that not too long ago were raising the Stanley Cup above our head. Not a lot’s changed.”
Braden Holtby stopped all 25 shots he faced to improve to 15-2 with four shutouts against the Bruins.
The emotional banner ceremony featured montages from the Capitals’ playoff run and ensuing celebrations and a roar when Ovechkin carried the freshly engraved Cup onto the ice and skated a lap with it.
Minutes after Ovechkin kissed the Cup and put it back in its box, he and his teammates blew away any concern about an emotional letdown and began making a statement that they want to win it back.
“We showed we’re not going to give a team easy ways to beat us,” Ovechkin said.
In Todd Reirden’s first game as coach, the Capitals beat the Bruins for the 13th consecutive time, this time without Tom Wilson. Washington’s top-line right winger began his 20-game suspension for another illegal check to the head of an opponent in a preseason game.
Without Wilson, the Capitals’ offence didn’t miss a beat as Ovechkin scored one of four power-play goals, Kuznetsov scored his second on the power play and John Carlson beat Boston backup Jaroslav Halak on
a 5-on-3 advantage. Newcomer Nic Dowd joined the fun with a spinning back-hander, and Cup-clinching goal-scorer Lars Eller added the exclamation point with the seventh of the night.
The Bruins were not pleased by Eller’s celebration, and winger Brad Marchand instigated a fight with him soon after.
“His celebration was unnecessary,” Marchand said. “He took an angle in front of our bench and celebrated in a 7-0 game. So I just let him know.”
Rask fell to 1-11-5 in his career against the Capitals with a 3.30 goals-against average and .889 save percentage that are each the second-worst of any opponent.
“I’m out there to give us a chance,” Rask said. “It didn’t happen today. Three soft goals, you’ve got to look in the mirror and go fix it.”
Only two goals came against Halak, whose presence on banner night in Washington was poetic after his performance for Montreal in the 2010 playoffs ended one of the Capitals’ previous best chances to win a championship.
NOTES: The Capitals have outscored the Bruins 48-19 during this winning streak.
... Reirden expects Wilson to appeal his suspension through the NHL Players’ Association.
Matthews powers Leafs
TORONTO (CP) — Auston Matthews scored his second goal of the night in overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Monday in the NHL’s regular-season opener.
Matthews took a feed from Patrick Marleau and beat Carey Price upstairs with 61 seconds left in the extra period. John Tavares, with his first for Toronto, also scored, while Frederik Andersen stopped 34 shots. Nazem Kadri added two assists.
Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Shaw scored for Montreal, which got 23 saves from Price. Max Domi – the son of former Leafs tough guy, Tie Domi – had two assists in his first game with the Canadiens. • The Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 later Wednesday night. Rookie Elias Pettersson had the first goal of the game, and an assist, for Vancouver.
Ronaldo accuser suffers from post-traumatic stress: lawyers
Citizen news service
LAS VEGAS — Lawyers for a Nevada woman accusing Cristiano Ronaldo of raping her nine years ago said Wednesday their client has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress and depression, conditions they argue would have made her legally incompetent to reach a non-disclosure agreement.
Kathryn Mayorga didn’t appear with her lawyers at a news conference in Las Vegas the same day that Ronaldo denied the rape accusations, using Twitter to say he had a “clear conscience” as he awaits results “of any and all investigations.”
“I firmly deny the accusations,” he said. “Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle cre-
ated by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.”
Mayorga’s attorney Larissa Drohobyczer told reporters the psychiatrist’s recent medical opinion was that Mayorga’s psychological injuries were “caused by Cristiano Ronaldo’s sexual assault in 2009.”
The doctor, Norton Roitman in Las Vegas, did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.
Mayorga suffered several months of severe emotional stress and coercion by Ronaldo’s representatives to push Mayorga into taking a monetary settlement to keep quiet, her lawyers said.
“These injuries rendered Kathryn incompetent to participate in the negotiations and settlement and nondisclosure in 2010,” Drohobyczer said.
The argument previews claims
and law partner
would make when asking a judge to void the nondisclosure agreement that the attorneys say Mayorga signed while
accepting a $375,000 payment from Ronaldo. The AP does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Drohobyczer and Stovall spoke of Mayorga on Wednesday by name. Drohobyczer told the AP on Tuesday that Mayorga gave consent to have her name made public. A civil lawsuit filed last week in state court also seeks monetary damages that Stovall said could, counting compensatory and punitive damages, amount to many times more than the minimum $200,000 sought under Nevada state law.
Stovall said he had not asked Mayorga if she wants Ronaldo criminally prosecuted for rape.
Attorney David Chesnoff in Las Vegas, who was hired Wednesday by Ronaldo, issued a statement “categorically” denying the allega-
tions and expressing “complete faith in the justice system.” Chesnoff said Las Vegas police investigated Mayorga’s sexual assault claim in 2009 and did not recommend the filing of criminal charges.
Stovall said the lawsuit served as Mayorga’s legal team’s response to Ronaldo’s denials.
The civil lawsuit filed Sept. 27 in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Mayorga in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document called “fixers” to pressure Mayorga to keep quiet.
Earlier this week, the 33-yearold Portuguese soccer star used social media to label the allegation “fake news.”
Drohobyczer acknowledged that Mayorga accepted the money nine years ago because she never wanted her name made public.
Drohobyczer
Leslie Stovall
RONALDO
Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson celebrates his goal against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in Washington.
Vancouver CEO pleads guilty in trafficking case
Citizen news service
SAN DIEGO — American authorities say the chief executive of a Vancouver-area company has pleaded guilty to aiding narcotics traffickers around the world by providing encrypted communications devices designed to thwart law enforcement.
Vincent Ramos, CEO of Phantom Secure, was arrested March 7 in Bellingham, Wash., near Seattle, following a years-long undercover operation that included several American, Australian and Canadian agencies.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the southern district of California says Ramos and his coconspirators were able to disguise the physical location of its servers and to remotely wipe information from devices seized by law enforcement. The officials say they also used digital currencies, including Bitcoin, to
HANDOUT IMAGE
Vincent Ramos, CEO of Phantom Secure, has been indicted on charges he facilitated narcotics trafficking through the sale and service of encrypted cell phones.
facilitate financial transactions for Phantom Secure to protect users’ identity and to laun-
No wedgie for the tax man
— Part 2
If I was ever attacked by a gang, dad said I should challenge the leader of the group to a one-on-one. He might be bigger than me, but he can’t chicken out in front of his boys. Next, swiftly punch him in the nose before he has a chance to adjust. His eyes will water up and you will have the advantage momentarily. At that point, step around him and kick-stomp the side of his leg at the knee with all you’ve got, either breaking his leg, or severely hobbling him. Not bad in theory, but I dared not get close enough to allow this big kid any contact, so I faked an up-close rock-throw to his head and sped past him, right into the paper shack. I headed swiftly out the open window but his friends caught me outside and held me for my beating. But just as my assailant was hovering near, along came the Paper Boy himself – my perpetually-angry big brother.
I was a territorial thing. My brother routinely laid beatings on me, but seeing this stranger with murderous intent gave him a new sense of purpose. Without a word, he picked the kid up by the back of his pants and collar and shook him like a sack of fish heads. The boy beckoned toward me, eyes pleading, as if I might step in.
Uh… no.
Big brother put the boy back on his feet, as if to let him go, but instead, placed his free hand on the frightened bully’s shoulder, hand
pressed firmly while lifting with his other hand, which clutched the back of the boy’s crisp white Sears unmentionables.
Lift and press.
This brought on a series of pigsqueals which would have made both Jack and the fair-haired boy squirm. The resulting wedgie was so intrusive that the boy’s grandchildren were all later born with a tuft of bleached hair in their brow, and an inclination toward singing tenor.
My brother didn’t say a word as he dropped the package to the ground. He just stepped over him and into the paper shack, grabbed his canvas bag of Vancouver Suns with one muscular arm and headed the other way.
The now-humble oppressor writhed in the dirt, in full view of everyone. In the fetal position, he clutched his apparatus, squeaking something unintelligible, while nervously glancing toward my brother to make sure he was really leaving.
The next day, and every day I felt so inclined, I marched onto the soccer field during lunch and played along with the older boys.
Nothing was said, nor needed to be.
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your battles, but you
der criminal proceeds.
They say Ramos has agreed to forfeit C$102.7 million in cash, personal assets worth tens of millions of dollars as well as server licences and more than 150 internet domains used by Phantom Secure.
Ramos is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17 in San Diego, Calif.
“The Phantom Secure encrypted communication service was designed with one purpose – to provide drug traffickers and other violent criminals with a secure means by which to communicate openly about criminal activity without fear of detection by law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a statement issued Tuesday.
“As a result of this investigation, Phantom Secure has been dismantled and its CEO Vincent Ramos now faces a significant prison sentence.”
can’t give the tax man a wedgie. To keep the peace, for now consider picking which of these year-end tax tips apply to you.
Interest on family loans
If you set up a spousal loan or funded a family trust with a prescribed rate loan, remember to pay the interest owing by Jan. 30, 2019. The borrower may be able to claim a deduction for the interest paid on their tax return. The lender will have an income inclusion on their tax return. The timing of the income deduction and inclusion depends on the year the interest relates to, when the interest is paid, and the method (cash versus accrual) you regularly follow in computing your income.
Declare bonuses before year-end
If your business is incorporated, consider declaring yourself a bonus before the company yearend, but defer the actual payment up to 180 days after the corporate year-end. If your corporation’s year-end is say, Dec. 31, and you declare a bonus on Dec. 31, 2018, the company will get a tax deduction for 2018 and the tax your personal tax on the bonus will be deferred a few months.
Shareholder loans
If your business is incorporated and the corporation loaned you money, ensure that the loan is repaid before the end of the corporation’s tax year after the year the loan was granted to avoid having to include the value of the loan as income on your personal tax return.
Purchase assets for your business
If you intend to purchase depreciable assets for your business (i.e., a computer, furniture, equipment, etc.), consider making this purchase before year-end. If the asset is available for use, this year-end purchase will allow your business to claim depreciation on the asset for tax purposes. Even if the asset is purchased in last fiscal day of the company year, the corporation can write off half of a year’s worth of depreciation that same year.
Pay salaries before year-end
If you operate your own business, consider paying reasonable salaries to yourself and family members who work in the business, before year-end. This yearend payment constitutes earned income which increases RRSP contribution room which can be used for the following year(s).
This series contained several strategies, not all of which will apply to your particular financial circumstances. Speak with your qualified tax advisor to determine if any of these strategies are suitable for you.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Ryan’s views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. Ryan can be reached at mark. ryan@rbc.com.
U.S.-China trade war could be long one, says Alibaba founder
GENEVA (AP) — Alibaba founder Jack Ma said this week the trade dispute between the U.S. and China could last 20 years. But he expressed hope that a solution could be reached as a trade war would “hurt everybody.”
The Chinese e-commerce billionaire also questioned the focus among some on trade deficits, calling it a relic of the 20th century. U.S. President Donald Trump has long decried the U.S.’s whopping deficit with China.
“When trade stops, sometimes the war starts. So trade is the way to stop wars,” Ma said at a World Trade Organization seminar. “Trade is the way to build up trust. It’s not the weapon to fight against each other.”
He said trade conflict would not only hurt the U.S. and China but other countries’ small businesses. The standoff, he added, “may last 20 years, unfortunately.”
Overall, Ma expressed bullishness about trade, but said it needed to be protected from regulators.
“Today we see Made in China, Made in America, Made in Switzerland or Made in Geneva: 2030 will see Made in Internet.” More than 85 per cent of business will be e-commerce, he said.
Alibaba Group is the world’s biggest e-commerce company by value of the goods that pass across its platforms.
TORONTO (CP) — Further signs of U.S.
growth and
concessions in Italy drove global markets higher as crude prices returned to a near fouryear high.
U.S. private payroll data released Wednesday showed potential for a strong upcoming jobs report while the ISM non-manufacturing index for September beat expectations, said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp.
The index, which measures economic activity, registered 61.6 per cent for the highest level since the index was created in 2008. Market concern was alleviated when Italy gave signs that if would cut its budget deficit and tackle its debt in the coming years.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 54.82 points to 16,072.05, after hitting a high of 16,082.26 on 223.2 million shares traded.
The increase was led by a nearly five per cent gain in the healthcare sector, which includes some of the biggest names in the marijuana business, and the important energy sector, which was up 1.9 per cent.
“There’s been a strong move in the price of oil over the last number of weeks and months and that continues today,” Chopra said in an interview. “The price of natural gas has been up the last number of days and you can see that in the performance of the energy sector.”
The November crude contract was up $1.18 at US$76.41 per barrel, hitting its highest level since November 2014. The November natural gas contract was up 6.4 cents at US$3.23 per mmBTU.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average reached another new high, gaining 54.45 points to close at 26,828.39. The S&P 500 index rose 2.08 points to 2,925.51, while the Nasdaq composite was up 25.54 points at 8,025.08.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 77.93 cents US compared with an average of 78.02 cents US on Tuesday.
The December gold contract was down US$4.10 at US$1,202.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up 2.75 cents at US$2.83 a pound.
MARK RYAN
Only Money
Kimmel to open comedy club in Vegas
Regina GARCIA CANO Citizen news service
Jimmy Kimmel will see a dream come true when he opens a comedy club next spring in Las Vegas where he will make regular appearances and give up-and-coming comics a chance to hone their talents.
The late-night talk show host joined casino giant Caesars Entertainment in announcing plans Wednesday for the newest comedy club in Sin City.
Kimmel, a Las Vegas native, has spent a year planning everything from ceiling height to food for the venue along an outdoor promenade on the Las Vegas Strip across from Caesars Palace casino-resort.
“I grew up in Las Vegas, and I’ve always wanted to have a presence of some kind whether it be a restaurant or some kind of a pawn shop or something there,” he told The Associated Press. “We’ve been hard at work.”
The two-storey, 300-seat venue will host big names and new talent chosen by Kimmel and his team. Las Vegas is the home of a number of comedy clubs, including an outpost of New York’s
Idle writes about life’s brighter side
Michael HILL Citizen news service
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography (Crown Archetype), by Eric Idle Eric Idle has been funny for a very long time. He gained fame almost 50 years ago playing pompous TV hosts and leering idiots as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. While the original BBC TV show ran for only four seasons, it spawned a bunch of live shows and several movies, including Life of Brian, which ended with Idle on a crucifix singing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. He reprised the tune at the 2012 London Olympics and featured it in his Broadway hit Spamalot.
AP PHOTO
Eric Idle’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography offers a glimpse of the author’s personal history.
There are a few laughs in this book, billed as a “sortabiography,” but it mostly reads like a casual memoir of someone who still can’t quite believe his good fortune. Idle is one of those funny people who had a miserable childhood.
His father survived the Second World War in the Royal Air Force only to die in a traffic accident as he was coming home for Christmas in 1945. The boy was eventually packed off by his overwhelmed mother to an orphanage, or “Ophny” as residents called it.
He made it into Cambridge University and – more significantly – into its performing Footlights club, which was a springboard to British stage and TV shows. In 1969, the BBC rounded up some other bright young performers for a sketch show so undefined it didn’t even have a name. Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam toyed with names like Toad Elevating Moment and Whither Canada? before settling on Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
“We didn’t know what we were doing and insisted on doing it,” Idle writes.
A lot of the book is consumed with the many famous and fabulous people Idle hung out with, among them George Harrison and David Bowie. And a lot of pages are devoted to recounting his high-profile performances of Bright Side. It gets repetitious. But Idle can be insightful. His chapter about his relationship with the late comedian Robin Williams is especially poignant. But the chapter highlights how the book is most interesting when Idle writes about what he noticed instead of listing what he did.
Kimmel wants to distinguish his club by capturing the spirit of classic Vegas through shows that go way into the night.
“The Rat Pack would play until four in the morning,” he said. “Vegas is the kind of city where if the sun doesn’t come up by the time you go to bed, I think you’ve failed.”
The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! has not picked the first people to take the stage but said he wants to make it easy for comics to travel from Los Angeles to work at his club.
He said he sees other comedy clubs in Vegas as “opportunities” for comedians, not competition.
“The best comedy cities – L.A., New York, Chicago – have multiple comedy clubs and that’s part of why they have a great comedy scene,” he said.
Kimmel doesn’t foresee any difficulties convincing the best comics to work in Sin City.
“It’s become the premier food city in the United States. So, I don’t see why it couldn’t become the premier comedy city as well,” he said.
famed Comedy Cellar. Caesars’ 4,300-seat Colosseum theatre has
hosted Jerry Seinfeld, Sebastian Maniscalco, Steve Martin and
Martin Short, Jim Gaffigan and Jeff Dunham.
AP FILE PHOTO
Jimmy Kimmel appears onstage at the Oscars, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles in March.
Aston Martin’s trading debut flops
Tommaso EBHARDT, Benjamin KATZ, David HELLIER Citizen news service
Aston Martin’s trading debut floundered after investors balked at a valuation that had put the U.K. luxury carmaker on par with larger and more profitable Italian competitor Ferrari NV.
The stock closed down 4.7 per cent in London on Wednesday from its initial public offering price of 19 pounds ($24.70), a figure that gave the Gaydon, England-based company a market capitalization of 4.1 billion pounds.
The slide came after the marque made famous in the James Bond series of spy films had already pared back its IPO ambitions this week by narrowing and lowering the share pricing range from an initial valuation of as much as 5.1 billion pounds. In the lead-up to the stock sale by Aston Martin’s investors, analysts had questioned comparisons with its Italian competitor.
“It is clear to us that in terms of consistency of returns, Ferrari is superior with a better financial strength rating,” analysts from Quest, a division of Canaccord Genuity, wrote in a report, noting that Aston Martin didn’t generate any operating free cash flow last year.
Aston Martin’s IPO valuation was 20.7 times first-half earnings, according to Bloomberg data, close to the current share multiple of 21 times expected 2018 profit for Ferrari, which also has a stronger balance sheet. Both figures are more in line with luxury-goods companies than other automakers.
“We’ve taken 105 years to get to an IPO, we are not going to worry much on what the initial shares are doing as we will always look over the longer term,” chief executive officer Andy Palmer said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. As only the second luxury carmaker to go public, the market is still “adjusting,” he said.
The British manufacturer, now known as Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings, is planning to expand its presence in the sportscar world with the Vanquish, Vantage and DB models. It’s also reviving the Lagonda name to break into the segment shared by U.K. rivals Rolls-Royce Motors and Bentley.
The pricing was impressive from Aston Martin’s viewpoint but “far too expensive” given a backstory of historical losses and future targets reliant on the company replicating Ferrari’s performance after its own 2015 listing, accord-
logos are shown at the London Stock Exchange in
The listing marks the first IPO of a U.K. carmaker in more than three decades, since Jaguar was spun into an independent company under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1984.
ing to Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at Evercore ISI in London. It also shows that enthusiasm for luxury stocks is undimmed.
Owners including Italian private-equity firm Investindustrial SpA and Kuwaiti investors Adeem Investments and Primewagon were selling 27.5 per cent of stock, with an over-allotment option, for an offer size of 1.19 billion pounds.
They walked away with a 10-fold return thanks to the turnaround of the historically loss-making automaker following Palmer’s arrival in 2014, with the former Nissan executive introducing new models each year and seeking to double output to 14,000 cars a year.
“They priced it pretty well, getting that valuation,” Ellinghorst said. “For now there is very little left until people see some numbers and are willing to take more risk.”
For other investors, the execution risk of the
Amazon makes cuts to pay for raises
Citizen news service
Amazon.com is eliminating monthly bonuses and stock awards for warehouse workers and other hourly employees after the company pledged this week to raise pay to at least $15 an hour.
Warehouse workers for the e-commerce giant in the U.S. were eligible in the past for monthly bonuses that could total hundreds of dollars per month as well as stock awards, said two people familiar with Amazon’s pay policies.
The company informed those employees Wednesday that it’s eliminating both of those compensation categories to help pay for the raises, the people said.
Amazon received plaudits when it announced Monday that the company would raise its minimum pay. The pay increase warded off criticism from politicians and activists, and put the company in a good position to recruit temporary workers for the important holiday shopping season.
Even after the elimination of bonuses and stock awards, hourly operations and customer-service workers will see their total compensation increase, the company said in a statement.
“In addition, because it’s no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable,” Amazon said.
Workers whose pay was already above $15 per hour will get hourly raises of $1, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the company’s compensation practices.
Some long-time workers expressed frustration that
Barnes & Noble reviewing purchase offers
NEW YORK (AP) — Barnes and Noble is weighing its options after several parties expressed interest in buying the struggling bookseller.
The company said Wednesday that its board appointed a special committee to review the offers, including one from its founder and chairman, Leonard Riggio, who is credited with turning Barnes & Noble into a bookselling giant.
Shares in New York-based Barnes & Noble Inc. stock shot up 23 per cent in after-hours trading following the announcement. They had closed Wednesday down 30 per cent for the past year. Once demonized for killing off local bookstores with its superstores, Barnes & Noble has been struggling in recent years with competition from Amazon and changing consumer preferences.
“If they can pull something out to save the company that would be great, but they have a real uphill climb,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. “They’ve hung in there despite Amazon and all the rest of it. But the bookstore that solely sells books and periodicals is unfortunately a relic of the past.”
Despite the strong headwinds facing brick and mortar retailers, some analysts believe there’s still a place for bookstores in readers’ hearts.
“Consumers want unique experiences and escapes – we think they are finding that in independent bookstores,” said David Schick, managing partner at Consumer Edge Research. “Consumers want to feel a connection to their stores. We do believe Barnes & Noble can make some enhancements that could matter, but it will take time and investment.”
Robot farmers taking seed
SAN CARLOS, Calif. (AP) — Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He’s heavyset, weighing in at nearly 450 kilograms, not to mention a bit slow. But he’s strong enough to hoist 360kg pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Of course, Angus is a robot, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed on wheels. Alexander’s startup, Iron Ox, aims to feed people with produce grown from the hands of robots at indoor nurseries near cities. The idea is to deliver vegetables and fruits to restaurants and supermarkets more quickly than is now possible.
deal and macro-economic factors that could buffet the company in the future, such as the fallout from Britain leaving the European Union, remain too big a deterrent for now, he said.
Palmer said he was “delighted” with the response to the IPO, describing it as a milestone for the company and pledging to deliver on growth plans. The CEO said Aston wanted “investors looking for the long term and in choosing the price we have been able to select a very awesome book” of them.
The shares, which closed at 18.10 pounds, had fallen as much as 8.2 per cent during the day before rallying in the afternoon.
The listing marks the first IPO of a U.K. carmaker in more than three decades, since Jaguar was spun into an independent company under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1984.
their raises are small compared with newly hired workers who will see hourly pay bumps of as much as 40 per cent.
A higher hourly wage that new workers immediately receive is a better recruiting tool in a tight labour market than stock options that take years to materialize, especially in the warehousing industry that sees high turnover, said David DeBoskey, an accounting professor at San Diego State University. Amazon said it will hire 100,000 seasonal workers for the holiday crush this year, and temporary workers don’t get stock.
“In a tight labour market, when you’re the leader paying $15 an hour, that’s a big advantage,” DeBoskey said. “They probably realized people weren’t applying for warehouse jobs for the stock options.”
BLOOMBERG PHOTO BY LUKE MACGREGOR
Aston-Martin
London Wednesday.
GM, Honda team up to produce self-driving vehicles
Cathy BUSSEWITZ Citizen news service
General Motors and Honda are teaming up on self-driving vehicle technology as big automakers and tech giants race to develop the next generation of personal transportation.
Japan’s Honda Motor Co. will invest $2.75 billion in the autonomous vehicle unit run by General Motors Co., called GM Cruise, which is considered a leader in the nascent industry.
The goal, the companies said Wednesday, is to develop an autonomous vehicle that can be produced at a high volume and deployed globally. They will also explore commercial ways to use the
safer and more affordable.
Teaming up is a way to add a layer of safety, with some groups using one company’s software to operate a vehicle and a partner’s software to act as a backup, said Sam Abuelsamid, Navigant Research analyst.
“As companies move from the research phase into the production phase, there’s a lot of additional complexity that has to be added to those already complex systems,” he said.
Ride-hailing giant Uber announced in August a partnership with Toyota to develop autonomous vehicles months after one of its self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian crossing a dark street in Arizona. Other partnerships include
GM has been widely viewed as being in second place in the autonomous vehicle race, with Google’s Waymo on top.
BMW with Fiat Chrysler, chipmaker Intel and visual recognition software maker Mobileye; and German automaker Daimler AG with supplier Bosch to develop autonomous taxis.
GM has been widely viewed as being in second place in the autonomous vehicle race, with Google’s Waymo on top. Waymo plans to put autonomous vehicles on the road in a ride-sharing service in the Phoenix area before the end of this year, while GM has said it plans to roll out its fully-autonomous vehicles for passengers to use in 2019.
Waymo said in May that it would buy up to 62,000 more minivans from Fiat Chrysler to expand its ride-hailing venture. Waymo and Fiat Chrysler also said that they were discussing the use of Waymo technology in FiatChrysler self-driving vehicles that would be sold to the public.
Tesla is developing autonomous vehicles, but some analysts doubt that its system is on par with the rest of the industry, because it uses only cameras, ultrasonic sensors and a single radar – compared to dozens of sensors in competitors’ systems – and it doesn’t have enough memory bandwidth to process all the data, Abuelsamid said.
Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst with Autotrader, believes the partnership between GM and Honda is critical in the development of such advanced technology because it requires huge investments that have little promise of a quick payoff.
Honda will make an immediate investment of $750 million, and spend $2 billion over 12 years on the project.
“Honda chose to collaborate with Cruise and General Motors based on their leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle technology and our shared vision of a zero-emissions and zero-collision world,” said Seiji Kuraishi, an executive vice-president at Honda. Honda and GM are already partnering on fuel cell vehicles and announced in June that they are developing batteries for electric vehicles, mainly for the North American market.
In May, the Japanese tech firm investment firm SoftBank announced it was taking a 20 per cent stake in Cruise for $2.25 billion. GM had said it planned to use the cash infusion to roll out a robotaxi service in at least one major city starting next year. SoftBank also owns big stakes in Uber as well as in India’s Ola ride service and Didi Chuxing, China’s top ride-hailing firm.
Shares of Detroit-based GM were up one per cent in midday trading, while Honda’s stock was down one per cent.
Canada Post making effort to prevent Christmas strike
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada Post has issued wide-ranging new contract offers to its employees in the hope of preventing a work stoppage at the Crown corporation ahead of the busy holiday online shopping season, The Canadian Press has learned.
The proposals come after highlevel talks were held over the weekend aimed at bridging an impasse in negotiations with the union representing 50,000 of its workers.
The talks have stalled in recent weeks, mainly over wages and working conditions.
Failure to reach agreements with the agency’s 42,000 unionized urban carriers and 8,000 rural and suburban employees could result in a strike or lockout once either side gives 72 hours notice.
Any job action at Canada Post this time of year could threaten deliveries of packages to consumers who shop online.
Canada Post said last year that it delivered about one million parcels per day during the holiday season – an increase of 20 per cent over the same period in 2016.
A spokesman for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers confirmed the union had received new proposals from the Crown corporation late Wednesday, but said the bargaining agents would need to analyze them before commenting.
vehicle.
Doreen Caroline Faye, a resident of Prince George from 1974 to 1988, passed away peacefully on September 21, 2018 at the age of 77 years in Red Deer, Alberta. Doreen was a resident at Bethany Care Centre.
Doreen was born in Portage la Prairie on October 5, 1940 to her parents Arthur and Lenora Alldred. She married Eric Faye on November 18, 1961 whereupon they embarked on their journey together building family friendships and many exciting adventures. While raising their four children, Doreen also worked at Sears and was an active member in a number of social groups. Doreen loved to travel, enjoying trips to Hawaii, Mexico as well as an 18 month adventure in Chile with Eric. Doreen is survived by her loving husband Eric; her children, Jeffery (Carol), Derek, Jennifer and Allison Faye (Joe); her sisters Lona (Claire) and Fern (Gil); brother-n-law Ron; aunt Leona (Leonard) McElderry; and grandchildren, nieces, nephews of her children. Doreen is predeceased by her parents Arthur and Lenora Alldred, motherin-law Elsa Faye, father-in-law Joachim Faye, brother-in-law Magnus Faye and sister-in-law Elsie.
A Celebration of Life event is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on October 15, 2018 at the Bethany Care Centre Chapel, 97 Circle Drive Red Deer, Alberta. Pastor Dave Larson will officiate. Following the service there will be a lunch at the Conference Centre at Bethany. In lieu of flowers, donations may be offered in Doreen’s name to the Alzheimer SocietyAlberta and Northwest Territories 308, 14925 - 111 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5M 2P6.
Margaret Beverly Long (Seely)
Aug 30, 1921 - Sept 16, 2018
Our dear mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother died peacefully at Jubilee Lodge in the loving care of family and staff. Margaret was born in Quesnel but grew up in North Vancouver, where she obtained her ARCT piano teaching degree at age 17. In 1940 she obtained her Normal School qualifications and took a teaching position in Palling, BC, near Burns Lake. She met her future husband, Arthur Long, who then enlisted and served in the BC Dragoons, a tank corps that saw action through Italy and Holland until 1945. Margaret wrote Art daily for five years. They were married January 26, 1946 and returned to Palling, where they started a small logging and sawmilling business. The city girl became camp cook for the crew and mother to three sons. When the boys became school age, the family settled in Palling, where Margaret began her career as a piano teacher, which continued until she was 80. In the following years she was a founding and executive member of the Lakes District Festival Association. Her music touched many generations of local people through accompaniment for church services, weddings, funerals, dances, concerts, and summer camps. She taught elementary school mostly as a District Music Specialist in Burns Lake and Houston, spreading her joy of music to a wide audience. She also taught swimming lessons to many children in Palling and at Mollice Lake Camp. She and Art were avid travelers, with a special love for Africa. Following Art’s death in 1985, she lived in Burns Lake and later moved to Prince George to be nearer to her family. She is survived by: three sons; Sandy (Roberta), Gordon (Linda), and Jamie (Beverly); six grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren, all of whom considered Gramma Margaret the family Matriarch, Mistress of Limericks, and ultimate arbiter of all things musical. A memorial service will be held in Prince George at Trinity United Church, 3555 5th Avenue on Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 PM. Interment of her ashes in Burns Lake will take place next year.
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to a sweet lady, Marie Magdalena Primus (nee Merkosky) June 14, 1928 to Sept. 22, 2018 She has peacefully moved on to her eternal home. Sweet Marie will be joyfully greeted by her husband Ben, her parents (Joseph & Elizabeth Merkosky), in-laws (Frank & Anna Primus), her brothers (John, Ollie, Mike, Jake, Leo, Nick, Pete, Alex & Joey), her son-inlaw, David Ceaser and grandson, Shawn Bailie; when she reaches those pearly gates.”What a time they will have over there.”Marie & Ben moved from Leroy, Saskatchewan to Prince George in 1965. Marie sold Avon, then Nutri-Metics and worked at Woodwards for many years. They moved to Vernon in 1980 and resided there until they returned to Prince George in 2007. Marie was a resident at Parkside Care Home since 2016. Her children; Larry (Georgia), Doug (Sharon), Joan, Allan (Martha), Rick, Dale (Chris), Frank, Romay (Lynn), Greg (Bev), Diane (Werner), Corey, Beth (Dale), her grandchildren, great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren, her sister, Cecelia Taphorn and uncountable numbers of nieces, nephews and friends, will certainly miss this beautiful soul. A Memorial Service will be held for Marie at the Prince George Funeral Chapel, 1014 Douglas Street, on Saturday, October 6th at 2:00 p.m.
Jacob Albert Corba
December 12, 1959August 15, 2018
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jacob or, as he was know to everyone, Jack. Jack was predeceased by his parents Albert and Henderina and brother-in-law Jonathon. He will be greatly missed by his spouse Dawn, brother John (Lesley) and sister Joanne (Dean). Sisters-inlaw Maxine (John) and Dianne and brothersin-law Thane (Lisa) and Adam (Joeleane). Nieces Judy (Jim), Amber (Sean), Tabitha, Amanda, Andrea, Chandler (Mike), Madison and Tinayah. Nephews Brent (Karen), Devan, Josh and Tristan and great nieces Olive, Mabel, Audrey, Skyler, Brea, Alexis, Rayla, Isabelle as well as other numerous relatives and friends. Jack was born in North Vancouver where he made lifelong friends as a member of the Scouts and Rovers and enjoyed skiing and hiking. In his early 20’s Jack started working for BC Rail and later transferred to Prince George, BC and continued working for the railroad after the company transitioned to CN. Jack was well liked and was known for his sense of humor and easy going manner. Jack retired in 2017 after 35 years with the railroad. He and Dawn enjoyed camping and fishing and walks with their dogs and time spent together reading books and watching movies. We would like to thank his doctors for whom he had great respect; Dr. Sola, Dr. Miller and Dr. Wan, Seth and Kim and all of the nurses and staff at UHNBC and Hospice House who treated him with such kindness and compassion. Services will be held at a later date yet to be disclosed.
We are sad to announce the passing of long time resident, Sharon Dorothy (Belsham) Gordon: born in Prince George July 31, 1948, died PG Hospice Oct 1, 2018. She loved quilting, Bridge, golf, and the Blue Jays; but, most of all she loved her husband of 52 years, Merl, her children Lance (Susanne) and Leanne (Todd Abrahams) and 5 beautiful grandchildren Kayla, Melissa, James and in Australia Jayvin and Kylie. She leaves behind her brothers Brian (Trish), George and Derek (Kathy Richardson) Belsham as well as many extended family, in-laws and friends, whom she also dearly loved. Sharon will be missed by all. We would like to thank Dr. Inban Reddy and his palliative care team, the cancer clinic, and all the wonderful angels at Hospice. A memorial will be announced at a later date.
Kevin Norris Joseph Plante
Aug 27, 1989 - Sept 28, 2018
A son; a brother; a grandson; a nephew; a “cool cousin Kevin”; a friend, a writer; a fireman; a welder; an uplifter; a man who was brave, respectful, caring, funny and lots of wonderful things… above all he was a lover of others to the core of his being. Kev you will be greatly missed by everyone, especially your mom, Claudette Plante, and sister Katie Plante, your extended family and numerous friends. We love you and wish you peace as you join your dad, Norris Plante. A celebration of Kevin’s life and legacy will be held Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 2:00pm, at the Hart Community Center. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Prince George Elizabeth Fry Society will be greatly appreciated. Grace Memorial Funeral Home in Care of Arrangements.
Doreen Caroline Faye
Marie Primus
Family retires from business after almost a century
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
After 98 years the owners of McInnis Lighting have sold the business.
Paul Williams and his wife Joan have decided to retire and sold the business and the building its housed in to another couple who are well established in the community and have other business interests in town.
Paul said the unidentified new owners haven’t decided if they will keep the store at the current location or if it will move.
The transition from the former owners to the new owners will take place during the month of October.
“We’re on a ride,” Joan said about the process.
“Hopefully it’s got brakes,” Paul laughed.
The family is getting older and the children have all gone their own way career-wise.
“So when an opportunity arises, you take a look at it seriously and we did have an opportunity where the business would carry on and the staff will keep their jobs and could carry on as well,” Paul said. “The business will also continue to have the same name for, I hope, many years to come.”
The sale of the business has been in the works for the last couple of months.
Paul mentioned Joan’s amazing garden.
“We both like being out in the garden,” Paul said. “We also like to ski and snowshoe, kayak and bicycle. We lead a pretty active lifestyle.”
“Yeah, we have a pretty good group of friends who we do that sort of stuff with,” Joan added.
Travel is in their future as well, with Paul saying he would like to visit Prague, Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary to explore their interesting history and unique architecture.
Joan said they’d like to explore closer to home for longer periods of time and take a trip to the East Coast.
Once word got out about Paul and Joan’s retirement, there was an outpouring of support and well wishes from the community.
“People thanked us for all these years and how we’ve been an anchor in Prince George like Northern Hardware and that’s just been phenomenal for us to hear,” Joan said.
Paul said both he and Joan are both deeply touched by the public response to their announced retirement.
“We love this community,” Joan said. “We’re very involved with friends and family and there’s no other place we’d rather be.”
John McInnis, Paul’s grandfather, started the business in 1920. He was a home builder who went into the building supply business.
Paul was quick to say that he and Joan will happily stay in Prince George where all five of their children and four grandchildren live as well.
“I don’t believe there was anyone else who provided those services at the time,” Paul explained. “And it went along with what he knew. My father joined the firm in the early ‘50s and then myself – so it’s been three generations.”
Both Joan and Paul started with the company when they were teenagers, Joan said.
Paul and Joan don’t know what retirement will look like exactly for them but
“We’re so grateful for all the years the people of Prince George and area have supported us,” Paul said. “We’re grateful to have always had such an amazing staff. It’s always been so nice to come to work because it just feels like you’re going to your second family, including the staff and the clients coming in. We’re very happy to see the business continue.”
Citizen photo by brent braaten
Paul and Joan Williams are retiring from McInnis lighting. the business has been in the same location for the entire 98 years of its existence. the business will continue as new owners take over this month.
Jeff Elder, right , chair of the Prince George heritage Commission presented Paul Williams, the owner of McInnis lighting and grandson of original owner John McInnis, with the heritage Places award in 2015.
Food insecurity more than a food problem
What comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving? Turkey? Stuffing? Gravy and mashed potatoes? While thanksgiving may be a day filled with food for most, that’s not the case for all.
According to Statistics Canada’s, and the most recent Canadian Community Health Survey, one in eight Canadian households are food insecure. This means that approximately four mil-
lion Canadians, including 1.15 million children, are living in households that worry about, or lack the financial means to afford healthy, safe, personally acceptable food.
Those who are most likely to experience food insecurity are individuals who
receive their income from minimum wages, part-time jobs, employment or social assistance, are First Nation, Metis or Inuit, those with children, the homeless, new immigrants, and individuals with chronic health conditions.
Every two years, the Provincial Health Services Authority works with the Ministry of Health and the five regional health authorities to monitor the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet in B.C, based on the National Nutritious Food Basket (NNFB). The NNFB includes 67 food items that are minimally processed, require preparation, and are considered to be commonly eaten by most Canadians in amounts that provide a nutritionally adequate, balanced diet.
Data on the cost of these items is collected from hundreds of grocery stores across B.C. to determine the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet in different areas of the province.
In 2015, the average monthly cost of the NNFB for a family of four in Northern Health was $1,032, the highest in the province. This means that if two adults in a family of four are each working full-time, making minimum wage, over 30 per cent of their income would go towards providing an adequate diet. This would not account for restaurant meals, convenience products and the extra expenses that can be associated with special occasion meals such as Thanksgiving. The NNFB only refers to the basic food items that make-up a nutritionally adequate diet.
Food security is foundational to healthy eating. Individuals living in food insecure households are at a greater likelihood of having or developing one or more chronic physical and/or mental health conditions and becoming a ‘high cost user’ of health care services, according to Dietitians of Canada. This means
that whether you live in a food insecure household or not, all Canadians pay the price for the health and social issues relating to food insecurity.
Food insecurity is also much more than just a food problem, it’s complex and requires both short and long-term interventions.
Dietitians across Canada address the issues associated with food insecurity at multiple levels. Whether by providing education to individuals and families on healthy, budget-conscious foods, developing and increasing the awareness of community food skills programs or advocating for policy changes, Dietitians are taking steps to reduce the rates of food insecurity in Canada.
When the provincial government requested consultation on the development and implementation of B.C.’s first poverty reduction strategy, Dietitians of Canada provided a comprehensive report, outlining the need to address food insecurity and the inability of many British Columbians to afford a basic necessity of life.
Dietitians see the effect of poverty on the health and well-being of British Columbians and understand that it’s difficult to promote healthy, balanced diets when the root causes of food insecurity are not adequately addressed.
Following initial stakeholder consultation, the provincial government plans to bring poverty reduction legislation forward this fall, with a strategy to follow.
For information on food security projects, initiatives, and organizations in British Columbia as well as publications, tools, guides, and news on advancing food security in B.C. visit www.BCfoodsecuritygateway.ca.
— Kelsey Leckovic is a registered dietitian for Northern Health working in chronic disease management.
Kelsey lecKovic
Food for Thought
Citizen photo by Unnsplash
Many fresh foods are not accessible to those on a limited budget in B.c.
Rookie makes her mark at B.C. 55+ Games
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
She was told she’d never run again after suffering a major knee injury in 2016.
Joan Harris came back from the BC 55+ Games recently with eight medals after entering eight events.
Four of them were for sprint races. Other events she medaled in included javelin, shot put, hammer throw and long jump. Harris, who has boxed for the last 10 years, decided in January to start training for the B.C. 55+ Games.
The idea started to grow legs as she took up the Northern Sport Centre 600 lap challenge for the last two months of 2017.
“After that I started thinking I could run on this track and the old gears got turning in my head,” Harris said. She didn’t know what to do with herself during the winter and decided to start training for the games.
“Then it wasn’t until we could get out in the field that I started doing anything else,” Harris said, talking about the field events.
Even though Harris took silver in the 50 and 400 metres
and bronze in the 100 and 200 metres, she quickly came to the conclusion that she really wasn’t prepared as she thought she was for the competition.
“I always thought I was fast but, of course, once I was there I discovered there was a little bit higher level of sprinting than I was prepared for,” Harris laughed.
The camaraderie of the athletes during the games saw Harris taking in all the tips offered up by the more experienced athletes.
“One of the other ladies told me that I had great speed, I just didn’t have the endurance to carry that speed through the whole race,” Harris said. “She told me that I needed to get a training program that was going to make me stronger for that.”
Harris said when she thought about it she knew it was true because during the 50 metre dash she was able to keep the gap smaller between her and the first place sprinter. She lost a little bit more ground as the distance of each race increased.
The entire experience was a bit overwhelming and one of the highlights along with earning a medal in every event was the opening ceremonies, which included the parade of athletes
entering the stadium.
“I really enjoyed being with everybody,” Harris said. “A lot of what I take away from it is watching the older athletes. It was just ridiculous. I can’t believe how fit some of those people were.”
Harris said she was aware there were rivalries among the athletes because they’d been competing against each other for so long.
“But everybody seems to appreciate what everybody else does,” Harris said. “I think when people imagine doing that sort of thing they think it’s going to be high pressure and not a nice experience and others might be afraid to go out and do it because ‘what if I’m no good’. But if they went out once and saw what it’s actually like then they would realize that sure, winning medals is great but sometimes it’s just about going out and trying your hardest and doing you’re best.”
The biggest challenge for Harris was to actually go through with running the 400 metre.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Harris said. “It was cold, it was wet. I had a cramp in my leg. Nothing felt right and I thought ‘I don’t even know how to run this. I don’t know what I’m doing’.”
In the back of her mind she
kept thinking she could pull out of the competition.
“Who would care, right?” Harris asked. “But no. I had to do it to say I did it. I would never lie to anybody - it was the longest minute and 26 seconds of my entire life. But I did it and to me that’s just a huge, huge thing.”
Harris said it was probably the first and last time she will ever run that sprint.
A split second after crossing the finish line Harris hit the ground hard from sheer exhaustion as a result of the effort she gave during the race. She bruised her legs and her elbow and spent a few very long seconds lying flat on her back trying to find the strength to get up.
During her last throw of the hammer, she made such an effort that she ended up falling out of the circle, landing on her side as she hit the metal ring, earning yet another bruise. It takes a special kind of athlete to make that kind of Herculean effort where everything is put on the line.
“During those moments I’m like ‘I’m here, I have to do this, I just want to do this the best I can and not say I didn’t try my hardest,” Harris said. “It’s about digging down deep and showing people that I got one more
Older women may benefit from bone drugs, study suggests
Marilynn MArCHIoNe
Citizen news service
A large study finds that a bone-strengthening drug given by IV every 18 months greatly lowered the risk of fracture in certain older women. The new results suggest these medicines might help more people than those who get them now and can be used less often, too.
Broken bones are a scourge of aging. A hip fracture often leads to nursing home care. The risk is most common in women after menopause. People with severe bone loss are already advised to use drugs such as Actonel and Boniva. The new study found that an intravenous version of one such drug helped women with only moderate bone loss.
photo in this 2005 file photo, the Merck & co. product, Fosamax, is shown. a new study on the drug gives some reassuring news.
Results were reported Monday at a medical conference and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
in me.”
Looking into the future for the games, Harris has every intention of going back next year.
“I plan at looking at other masters’ track meets,” Harris said. “I plan on doing a couple of those at least so I get better and again, I have to work on the running.”
Harris will look at readjusting her list of events and will participate in the Throws Pentathlon and said after watching some of the hurdle events she is considering participating in one of those, while eliminating one of the other sprints.
She’ll figure it out as she resumes her training over the winter months.
Prior to the games, participants were invited to practice with Coach Tom Masich three times a week during the summer.
“If I didn’t have Tom Masich training me, I don’t know what I would’ve done,” Harris said. “I swear every practice I went to with him he tweaked something or told me something that just made things better.”
Editor’s Note: Reporter Christine Hinzmann returned from the recent B.C. 55+ Games with four medals of her own in the throwing events, competing against Harris in three of those events.
Citizen photo by JAMeS DoyLe
Joan Harris shows off the hardware she recently won at the B.c 55+ games. Harris entered eight track and field events and came away with eight medals.
Take time to invest in personal growth
Popular Zen master Leo Babauta tells us, “Do not be afraid of improving slowly. Be afraid of standing still.”
Many in our society believe that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and once we reach it life becomes easy.
Others believe that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We are just the way that we are, and nothing will change us.
These philosophies, however, run in stark contrast to traditions which have fostered greatness for thousands of year. Monasticism, regardless of the religion followed by the men or women living in the monasteries, requires not only time for prayer, but time for continual learning and personal reflection.
Some of the greatest minds in the history of humanity have come out of these traditions,
Lessons in Learning
Gerry ChidiaC
as well as some of the greatest books. Monasteries are essentially the model upon which the modern university was built, with the mission of the continual quest for truth.
Why would we ever think that such a quest would end for us as individuals? Yet we call adults in our society “grown-ups,” implying that they have arrived at their destination. We have to ask ourselves if this is indeed a healthy mindset. Research is now suggesting, for example, that meaningful activity actually extends life expectancy.
Research also suggests that older adults who engage in continual learning have a lower
risk of developing depression, dementia, and general cognitive decline often associated with aging.
When we go into bookstores, we will notice a section referred to as “self-help.”
Many of us walk past and say, “I don’t need that. I’m doing fine.”
Yet have any of us reached the point where we no longer need to grow? Do we know so much that we no longer need to learn? Indeed, perhaps “self-help” isn’t the right term to use. Perhaps the better term to use is “personal growth.”
A CNN report noted that those who are among the happiest people in the world take time every day to invest in their personal and spiritual growth. These include Buddhist monks who take time every day to engage in deep meditation on themes like compassion and love. Another study focused on
Enjoy the fall colours
There is no place in the world more beautiful than Prince George in the fall.
The seamless mix of evergreen and gold-leafed trees that surround our fair city so perfectly draw the eye up to the hills around the bowl that rims the city centre.
Most of the time, when I am driving around town, to work, to school to dance, etc., I hardly notice the trees that flank us on all sides. I am busy, distracted and over-concerned with all of the things that I have not had time to do so
Home Again
MeGan kuklis
gazing fondly at the trees is not normally a pastime that I have the patience for.
Except in the fall, Prince George, I cannot seem to help myself.
After the best days in the summer were eaten up by fire and smoke, what a relief it is to see the blue sky. Blue is such a pale
Christian nuns living a monastic lifestyle and found consistent results.
It is unrealistic, however, to expect everyone to adopt this kind of a lifestyle. Monasticism may not be for everyone, yet it teaches all of us valuable lessons.
Stephen Covey, for example, discusses the importance of “Sharpening the Saw.” Taking time for renewal to regain strength and focus as we pursue our goals. This is actually the seventh habit in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the best-selling “self-help” books of all time.
The bottom line is that it is necessary for all of us to invest time and resources into our own well-being and continual growth. We are not designed to stagnate. Trying to stand still will only cause us to move backward.
The fortunate thing for us
word to describe it though but what adjective can describe the colour that saturates our skies in the fall? Azure, cobalt, sapphire, peacock, indigo – the more I look for an appropriate synonym, the more it becomes an exercise in pretension.
Living here, year after year, our moods become intrinsically tied to the weather patterns. We are annoyed when spring is late, frustrated and agitated when winter stays overlong, feel betrayed when our summers are stolen by cold weather, or fires, or smoke, or mosquitos and are saddened when the fall is obscured by fog and wind. But, even through all of it,
today is that there are so many resources for us to choose from. It could be a good book, a meditation series, audio programs, a college or university course, journaling practice, an exercise program; in other words, there are a plethora of materials we can choose from, we only need to find what suits us best.
Continual growth is one of the greatest joys of life. Though few of us are called to be monks or nuns, we are all called to become our best selves.
As Canadian leadership expert Robin Sharma tells us, “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.”
Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com.
we are still resilient because every once in a while, the payoff is pure beauty and golden afternoons.
It’s the light that keeps us here. It burns through the fog and lights up the trees like a kaleidoscope of auburns, reds and golds – a treasure chest of colours. We are so lucky to have these beautiful days. When the miserably cold, wet winter comes, the memory of the these beautiful days light us up from the inside and comforts us with the memory of the golden afternoons.
It should help with the whining about the weather – probably.
The Scramble for Africa, Part 2
Leopold, King of the Belgiums, was a canny man and serious manipulator. He had set his sights on acquiring a colony for Belgium but had been rebuffed by all other nations in his attempts to buy a colony. Still, he was not deterred.
Knowing the major powers would not support a new colony in central Africa for Belgium (especially of the size he contemplated) he invited explorers, experts of all sorts, and the ”movers and shakers” from the major western European nations to a conference in Brussels. Those attending were given lavish rooms, amazing meals, and vintage wine. The purpose of this gathering was not to examine the profits possible from Africa. Leopold proposed the establishment of a crusading force supported by all nations (those that mattered, that is) to bring the Enlightenment to the Dark Continent.
Countries were encouraged to send explorers to Africa to penetrate the unknown interior under the newly formed International African Association, run by an International Commission, of which Leopold happened to be the chair. Once up and running no one noticed that funding and approval for the expeditions were only granted to expeditions heading well clear of the Congo River, which is where Leopold had already started to build small settlements, having recruited Stanley (of Livingston fame) to oversee things.
Dark clouds had gathered over the small colonies at the Cape. Poor diplomacy and stubborn diplomats had managed to anger all over the idea of a Union of South Africa. The Boers were not interested. They wanted total independence. So too did the Zulus. The British colonists wanted something but disagreed on what that should
Sidebars to History
willow arrune
be. Then a little stone picked up by an African shepherd near the town of Kimberly changed everything. The Cape was known to have gold, but diamonds! Now things had to be settled! A modern British Army was sent into Zulu territory to bring them to heel. Unexpectedly, the British were wiped out at Isandawanda, then held out at Rorke’s Drift, and finally won over the Zulus at Ulundi. The movies Zulu Dawn and Zulu are reasonably accurate. he find had made the establishment of a central government a necessity.
That is, for all but the Boers. The year after the Zulus were defeated, the Boers rebelled starting the First Boer War. This started with a series of British defeats and ended with the virtual independence of the Transvaal.
Then came the discovery of a major gold ended strike near Pretoria, the Transvaal capital that ignited yet another war, the gold giving the British a reason to fight.
It was an ugly guerilla war with scorched earth, overwhelming British firepower, and the introduction of concentration camps. Britain emerged victorious but with a badly battered reputation.
Over at the mouth of the Congo, where Leopold had hired the explorer Stanley to oversea development, a harbor was developed and construction of a railway hadstarted. It started up beside the difficult terrain of the Congo Rapids to Stanley Pond where the river widened and steamboats could set off on long journeys up the Congo. A brutal regime under the tight fisted control of Leopold was underway. With the towns and trading posts, the railroad and steamships, Leopold was estab-
lishing his own private colony in open view.
By 1887, other nations – Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Boers, and even Italy – had all taken bites of coastal Africa and claimed wider spheres of influence encompassing some of the inland tribes. The only real claim to anything in the interior of Africa was Leopold’s Congo Free State that he ran like a massive inhumane plantation. Still, most of the land mass remained unclaimed save those still considered under the rule of African kings.
The powerful nations of Europe took their differences with them to Africa. After several African kings in the Cameroon had asked Queen Victoria for British law and order, their request was ignored. But when a British ne’er-do-well of substantial means clamored that the French were about to interfere in the palm oil trade that demanded attention.
Something more than a mere sphere of influence was needed; Nigeria would take slow steps towards colonization, dragging the Gold and Ivory Coasts along as the British expanded their holdings.
To the north, the French moved eastward from Senegal through nominally Muslim country to Tumbuktu and then turned southwards eventually reaching Gabon and the Congo River, across that mighty river from Leopold.
The British and French narrowly avoided war as their desire for trade threatened to become a land grab.
In East Africa, the British colonies now stretched northward through Northern and Southern Rhodesia, British East Africa, and Uganda (German East Africa would join the list after World War One).
In Germany, Bismarck loathed the idea of colonies. But here too, visions of empire found a willing royal supporter in Wilhelm II, soon to be Kaiser.
B.C. church asks parishioners
Dirk Meissner Citizen news ervice
CAMPBELL RIVER — It’s no sin to use a mobile device during Sunday service at the Campbell River Baptist Church.
Pastor Jeff Germo calls it a blessing when he sees parishioners in the pews staring down at their mobile device screens rather than up at him at the pulpit.
It means the congregation is engaged with the topic he’s discussing, such as a recent sermon on failure. Have you failed? Have you dealt with failure and moved on or is it holding you back?
Germo is among the first pastors in the world to use a Swedish developed communications technology, Mentimeter, to make online, realtime spiritual connections with his flock while preaching.
Mentimeter, used widely in corporate board rooms and academic lecture settings, is an interactive survey tool that posts instant answers and results to the mobile devices of those connected to the event.
At the church auditorium in Campbell River, Germo started his sermon by asking parishioners to take out their smartphones and tablets, click on a Mentimeter link and punch in a code.
Moments later an email arrived asking parishioners if they had ever failed terribly.
Just two per cent replied: “No, I’m a winner.”
Germo expressed amazement that any member of the congregation said they had never experienced failure.
“If you are more than a year old, you probably would have failed at something,” said Germo as a man at the back of the auditorium of about 250 people raised his hand to acknowledge he chose the no failure answer.
“That’s beautiful. That’s delusional,” joked Germo.
But as the sermon continued, large display
screens showed the majority of the survey participants replied they have experienced failure and are trying to get over it.
“When you look at the right side of the graph, most people are experiencing some difficult things and have a hard time getting over failure,” Germo said. “So, you are not alone.”
The sermon then took a more traditional direction with Germo using scripture from the Bible to discuss how Jesus helped his disciples come to terms with their own failures and help others with their lives.
“Failure is an option,” said Germo. “We have to know it is OK or growth is impossible. Jesus says I want you to learn from your failure. You can teach others.”
His keen interest in challenging Britain as sovereign of the seas with a massive naval expansion was coupled with the need or global coaling stations and colonies. Cameroon, Togoland, and Southwest Africa were added to the German shopping list as Bismarck headed to London to hammer out the details.
A financial crisis for Britain in Egypt gave Germany the win. The Portuguese expanded their two colonies without too much problem; Italy and Spain each took a small nibble. Ethiopia remained independent. It was, after all, a nominally Christian state as was Liberia, formed by freed American slaves returning to Africa under the aegis of the United States (the British would do much the same in Sierra Leone).
The Congo was turning to be profitable for Leopold, having now given up any pretense of bringing enlightenment to the natives.
While Belgium priests and nuns were quick to establish religious centres, Leopold’s harsh regime and the importation of new diseases from Europe resulted in the death of an estimated twenty million blacks, exceeding the genocidal regime of Nazi Germany. Amazingly, the canny Leopold had managed to retain private ownership of one of the largest territories in the newly divided Africa until 1908.
As had happened in the Americas, the takeover of the continent by European nations supposedly justified by Christian and benevolent motives was stealthy and steady.
Trade led to European laws and administration and the destruction of much native culture. And, as in the Americas, the takeover was not without opposition.
While no tribal force was able to mount a defense as strong as the Zulus, there were outbursts and riots as European laws clamped down on prior cultural
norms and traditions that often continued under the veneer of obedience. The tribal conflicts remained and would often boil over as the colonies became self-governing in the latter half of the 20th century.
With the European powers tripping over themselves in establishing areas they controlled it was possible, if not probable, that eventually a conflict in Africa would evolve into a war in Europe. Sensing the danger, Bismarck invited leaders and diplomats from the world’s leading nations to a conference in Berlin in 1885. This resulted in the borders that now form the borders of the independent states. It formalized what had evolved on the ground. Once again, Leopold was able to continue his ownership of the Congo Free State until 1908 when it became the Belgium Congo.
The interface between cultures has always been difficult and too often has resulted in massive death by disease (as in the Americans and the Congo), war, or state sanctioned killing and prejudice. Few nations do not have such events in their history.
That speaks ill of any future meeting between those of our planet with those from another. If, as a species, we are not able to get along with those of different racial, ethnic, religious, or culture traditions, we can hardly expect the meeting with those from another planet to be the peaceful exchange so beloved in science fiction.
In most of the world, those arriving in a new culture are expected to fully embrace their new surroundings in two generations if not one.
If they fail to do so, ghettoization results that can linger on for decades. Canada’s experiment with multiculturalism, taking some of the new while keeping some of the old, offers a new solution to a worldwide and age-old problem.
to turn on mobile devices
Germo said he discovered Mentimeter while doing a Google search on live polling and decided to try it out.
“The biggest thing it does is it helps people to engage and we’re always looking to different ways for engagement,” he said after the recent Sunday service. “We don’t just want to have a bunch of people sitting with their bums in the pew.”
Germo said the immediacy of the connection brings another spiritual element to the service through the technology.
“I think it does help get the heart engaged,” he said. “It’s actually something visceral instead of just sitting there listening to a talking head. They’re involved in the process.”
Johnny Warstrom, Mentimeter’s
chief executive officer, said the platform has 25 million users in 120 countries, but few are churches. The main users are communications agencies, global corporations and universities, he said in an interview from Stockholm.
Warstrom said it is fascinating and creative that “somehow the priest connected to Mentimeter. He’s obviously a very creative person who actually dared to introduce this to a very traditional setting.”
Rebecca Palmerley said she regularly attends services at Campbell River Baptist Church and never forgets to bring her smartphone.
“I do all the polls,” she said. “It’s good to know that I’m not alone and that other people feel the same way.”
Gladue reports play key role in sentencing Aboriginal offenders
Keith FRASER Vancouver Sun
Martha May Kahnapace believes in Gladue reports, the court-ordered documents that provides judges with background information on Aboriginal offenders.
The B.C. woman has nothing but praise for the writer who presented a report to the judge at her sentencing after she was convicted of killing her partner during a drunken, drug-induced fight.
“If they’re done properly, they’re very, very helpful,” said Kahnapace, who is a member of the We Wai Kai (Cape Mudge) First Nation, which is based on Quadra Island and in Campbell River.
“Judges need to be more open to accepting them.”
Kahnapace received a sentence of time served after an 8 year court battle during which two murder convictions were overturned and eventually substituted with a conviction for the lesser offence of manslaughter.
She didn’t know until a year after he died that her father, whom she described as being “angry, bitter and an alcoholic,” had been in a residential school.
“I didn’t understand the way things were at the time because I didn’t know a lot about it. I didn’t know about residential schools. To me our way of life was normal. If it was someone else looking in, it would be totally dysfunctional and not just the normal way of living.”
She spent much of her childhood in foster homes. She become an alcoholic and an intravenous drug user at a young age. Those details and others were outlined in her Gladue report and were considered by the judge in crafting the sentence.
Patchwork system
Gladue reports are routinely ordered for the most serious offences, but critics say the systems for delivering them in B.C. and elsewhere in Canada are a patchwork at best.
The reports are aimed at trying to deal with the grossly disproportionate number of Aboriginal offenders incarcerated in Canada, a problem that has plagued the country for more than two decades and is on the rise.
Figures on the Statistics Canada website note that, in 201516, Aboriginal adults accounted for 27 per cent of provincial and territorial jail admissions, while representing only about three per cent of Canada’s population. The incarceration rates for Aboriginal women — they make up 38 per cent of committals — are even more worrying.
A recent study by an Ottawa think-tank found that B.C. has one of the most disproportionally high levels of Indigenous incarceration in Canada.
In 1996, Parliament recognized there was a crisis and
amended the Criminal Code to direct judges to look at all available sanctions, other than just prison, that are reasonable in the circumstances, with particular attention to Aboriginal offenders.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada released its Gladue decision, which also dealt with a B.C. Aboriginal woman who was convicted of manslaughter. The ruling set out factors that should be considered in the sentencing of Indigenous offenders, urging judges to use a restorative justice approach to sentencing. Restorative justice involves bringing together the victim, offender and some members of the community to discuss the effects of crime and includes such things as Aboriginal healing circles.
In 2012, a second ruling from Canada’s highest court basically repeated the message of Gladue, finding that the situation had got worse.
“There’s a complete lack of any kind of national strategy in relation to it,” said Doug White, co-chair of the B.C. Aboriginal Justice Council and the secretary of the Gladue Writers Society of B.C. “You see across the country, there’s a very ad hoc approach to the implementation of Gladue.
“Some provinces do nothing, some provinces take a very impoverished approach. The only two provinces that have anything that is remotely like a significant approach are Ontario and British Columbia.”
Slow progress in B.C.
In B.C., the first Gladue reports were written in 2009 following consultation with Aboriginal communities who felt the most important thing to improve their experience in the criminal justice system was to provide the reports.
The Legal Services Society of B.C., which provides legal aid in the province, until recently has been getting about $100,000 in non-governmental funding for Gladue reports from the Law Foundation of B.C. About 75 reports a year were being written, at a cost of about $1,500 a report.
Last year, for the first time, the provincial government kicked in money, providing another $100,000 to the society for the reports.
Increases to legal aid will result in an anticipated $500,000 in funding next year for the reports, which are contracted out to writers around the province. That’ll allow several hundred more reports to be written, but it’s still scratching the surface as thousands more aboriginals in the system will not get reports.
In the spring budget this year, the B.C. government set aside $750,000 in funding, some of which will likely go to more Gladue reports, but exactly how the money will be allocated has not been determined.
“That money isn’t earmarked for the reports necessarily because we’re going to work with the Aboriginal Justice Council on what the Gladue process looks like,” said Kurt Sandstrom, a B.C. assistant deputy attorney-general.
“Maybe it’s an Indigenous organization that takes over some of it, a hybrid between the Legal Services Society and other organizations.”
Mark Benton, chief executive officer of the Legal Services Society, said that after a “generation” of waiting for some progress on Gladue, he’s optimistic that changes will happen.
Benton, who said he’s not directly involved in the discussions surrounding how the $750,000 will be spent, said that despite the long term involvement of his society, they’d be happy if somebody else was to take it over.
“Some of the stuff that’s happening right now suggests it may go in that direction, but nothing has been decided yet.”
White said he appreciates the work that has been done by the society over the years, but imagines that ultimately it will be in the hands of some kind of Aboriginal justice entity in B.C.
The reports
Gladue factors that judges must consider when sentencing an offender include the effects of colonialism, residential schools, dislocation, isolation and racism.
The reports, which take several months to write and run to about 15 pages, focus on each individual offender and are just one element considered by a judge in deciding on a sentence. As much as possible, the reports are written by people familiar with an offender’s Aboriginal community and involve interviews with the offender, family and other community members.
The Gladue Writers Society has a roster of about 15 writers who have been producing many of the reports in B.C.
Pamela Shields, a lawyer who trains Gladue writers across Canada and is the former manager of Aboriginal services at the Legal Services Society of B.C., says that it’s been an “uphill battle” from the beginning to get the reports written.
She organized the program that resulted in the first Gladue report being written.
“I realized that the bench and the bar knew very little about Gladue. Rather than doing full reports, which were done in Ontario, the courts were relying on pre-sentence reports from
Victoria lawyer Kevin McCullough and his colleague, Tim Russell, have applied for a stay of proceedings for a client arising from delays in getting the court-ordered report.
“The government in this case, the defence says, farted around for six months after the court had ordered a Gladue report. They kept saying, well, go to Legal Services and there’s a program to fund it, they’ll pay for the Gladue report. And our position has been, no, no, these are court-ordered reports.”
There have also been some concerns raised by judges about the quality of the reports.
Currently there is no accreditation or certificate required for the Gladue writers, which means that theoretically anyone can write one.
A pilot program to train Gladue writers through Vancouver Community College was launched earlier this year, in part to provide a more systematic approach to the writing of the reports.
probation officers. It wouldn’t delve into Gladue factors.”
Shields said they developed policies and because there was very little funding, she had to routinely decline requests for reports.
“We set priorities that were women with children.” Female Aboriginal offenders often lose their children to government care if the moms are incarcerated, she said.
As a result, she said, children “grow up in care, they often become parents themselves and it’s just a continuous cycle. Gladue reports are one way to break that cycle and provide a remedy and support and acknowledgment and try to stop the kids from going into care and the kids becoming part of the justice system.”
Another challenge was finding the people to write the reports, which need to be neutral, accurate and corroborated, said Shields.
“And there’s a lot of barriers because it’s preferable that the writers are Indigenous themselves but that’s difficult. There’s a certain level of writing skills that’s required for the court.”
In 2013, an evaluation of the Gladue pilot project in B.C. found that Aboriginal offenders who received a Gladue report prepared by a Legal Services Society-trained writer had fewer jail sentences than comparable offenders without a report.
The study found that when jail was imposed, those with Gladue reports were incarcerated an average of 18 days compared to 44 days for those who did not benefit from such a report. And offenders being sentenced for a repeat offence received a shorter sentence with a Gladue report in 76 per cent of the cases.
A troubled system
But there were problems with the system, with some defence lawyers raising objections in court.
Terry La Liberté, an experienced Vancouver criminal lawyer, had one Aboriginal client who didn’t qualify for legal aid and was therefore facing a hefty bill to pay for a Gladue report of his own.
His client had been sexually assaulted by residential school employee Arthur Plint.
“This man was actually raped. A lot of people say, well, yeah, he’s blaming residential school history. This guy was a victim right out front and he would have to pay for a Gladue report. That is of itself offensive in the extreme.”
“We’d like to see the Gladue writing be an accredited component to ensure the quality and educational background of those individuals who are writing those reports,” said David Wells, dean of the school of arts and sciences at the college. “We know that there is a huge shortfall of people able to write those reports.”
A total of 15 people started the college’s pilot program, which was free, but only seven completed it in March.
“There were a couple of reasons why people never finished, like the travel was a bit of a problem,” said Gord McIvor, the college’s dean of continuing studies. “People couldn’t afford to travel. Other opportunities came up for people, but all in all seven people did complete that course.”
McIvor said that since the program finished, there have been a number of inquiries from institutions across Canada who are interested in the course.
“So we do get these inquiries, but we’re not really advertising that we’ve got this program because we recognize that we’re still developing it.”
The requirements for the course include Grade 12 English, some knowledge of Indigenous culture and history, knowledge of the Canadian judicial system and awareness of community support services.
The first students in the program included people with various backgrounds such as Aboriginal justice workers, justice and public safety students, native court workers and social service workers. Some travelled from as far away as Thunder Bay, Ont.
Jonathan Rudin, director of the Aboriginal Legal Services in Ontario, says his program makes use of a full-time staff including 14 writers whose sole job is to write Gladue reports.
“Our reports don’t say what the sentence should be, because that’s part of our realm. We will do a Gladue report for any Indigenous person facing a sentence of 90 days or more if it’s requested, “ said Rudin, who added the reports were first written in Ontario in 2001.
“If what’s being requested is a sentence of less than 90 days, then our Gladue case workers write Gladue letters, which are less lengthy and take less time to prepare.”
Between 400 and 500 reports are being written every year by the Ontario program.
“Every year the numbers keep going up. The demand goes up and we have more staff, so we’re able to serve that demand.”
Rudin, who just finished writing a book on Aboriginal justice issues, said that Gladue reports are being produced in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and some in Quebec. But he said there are effectively no reports in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
“Alberta has a fairly robust program but is very different from ours.”
Citizen news serviCe photo by gerry kahrmann
Martha May Kahnapace believes in glade reports, courtordered documents that provide a judge with background on an aboriginal offender.
Medicine Hat’s industrial heart now a creative hub
Lauren KrugeL Citizen news service
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — A century ago, the Medalta Potteries ceramics factory in Medicine Hat, Alta., was an unpleasant place to be.
There are stories of workers’ boots melting as they removed freshly-fired stoneware from still-scorching kilns. White clay dust clouded the air, causing serious lung disease in many of those toiling there, says Alice Osmond, who manages bookings at the eastern Alberta historic site.
“It really was a hard place to work and people definitely felt the pain,” Osmond says.
Medalta today is a museum, artists’ workspace, archaeological site and cultural hub in Medicine Hat’s Historic Clay District. It hosts weekly farmers markets in the summer along with yoga classes. The old factory’s photogenic weathered brick and vaulted ceilings make it a sought-after wedding venue. It also runs a prestigious residency program for ceramic artists from around the world.
Medalta manufactured crocks, butter churns, jugs, dishes and other ceramics between 1912 and 1954. It was one of many industrial sites to crop up in Medicine Hat last century amid a natural gas boom that provided a cheap and abundant energy source.
The buildings went to ruin after the plant shut down. In the 1970s, Jack Forbes, a University of Alberta ceramics expert and potter, along with Jim Marshall, a local brick muralist, began a decades-long effort to save the site from demolition and restore it.
One of the first things visitors to the old factory see upon entering is the intact foundation of one of the original beehive kilns, so named for their round shapes. Viewed from above through a gap in the floor, the circular formation of red bricks is still an active archaeological site.
Around the corner is a ceramic shop where artists use the same tools as in Medalta’s heyday.
There, artist Lisa Miklash forcefully presses the lever of a jigger machine into a lump of clay.
Aside from herself and a plastic bucket filled with water, Miklash says there’s nothing at her work station that’s less than 100 years old.
The jigger was sold to Medalta second hand in 1912, so there’s no telling how old it really is.
“There was no hand throwing here,” says Miklash, who has been making replica stoneware at Medalta for seven years. “This machine was devised to make symmetrical items very, very quickly.”
Jigger operators were paid per piece, so speed was crucial. Back in the day, some would be fortunate to have an underling, called a runner, to help.
The jigger men had to pay runners out of their own pocket, but it was worth it because they could churn out twice as much.
Thousands of clay artifacts are on display, including novelty ashtrays and antique dinnerware from train dining cars and posh railway hotels. Area antique collector Tony Schlachter has donated 2,500 pieces.
Visitors can explore the inside of the beehive kilns, which would reach temperatures of 1,400 C when they were working. Each brick is fitted precisely and held together with minimal mortar, following a technique that dates back to Medieval times. The spaces are infused with an earthy aroma and the acoustics are ideal for intimate musical performances occasionally held there.
In the area that would have been the factory floor, the original machinery still
operates, but with much less force than before. Back when the factory was operational, the machines would have created enough power to shake the structure.
Osmond says her favourite feature of this area are the toilets, which were only concealed by doors when women began working in the factory.
“The great thing about the doors is that people did the same thing that people always do - they carved their names in the doors. So we have the sense of who was working here and where they might have immigrated from, and there’s even a recipe for making glaze carved in there”
Travis Miller, who has lived in Medicine Hat for 16 years, says it’s common
for city residents to come across old Medalta products at yard sales.
Sitting down for supper from one of the food trucks at the farmer’s market with his mother and daughters, Miller says he’s long been intrigued by the site’s history.
“In the earlier years, in 2002 when I moved here, it was still in a relative state of inactivity here. They were still kind of deciding what to do,” Miller recalls. He says he was interested in learning more about the struggles of Medalta employees decades in the past.
“They weren’t good times, but these places took care of a lot of families in this town through the boom.”
Citizen news serviCe photo by Lauren KrugeL
a factory floor that decades ago roared with machinery is shown at the Medalta potteries site, part of the Historic clay District in Medicine Hat, alta. in June.
Robust grilled cheese sandwiches for adults
Grilled cheese has a kids’ menu reputation, but just a few tweaks make it a sophisticated dinner option.
To create a sandwich with more robust flavour and personality without going overboard on toppings and additions, we focused on the cheese.
Our recipe began by mixing flavourful aged cheddar with a small amount of Brie and some wine in a food processor.
Those two ingredients helped the cheddar melt evenly without becoming greasy.
A little bit of shallot increased the sandwiches’ complexity without detracting from the cheese, and a smear of mustardbutter on the bread added a sharp bite.
Look for a cheddar aged for about one year (avoid cheddar aged for longer; it won’t melt well). To bring the cheddar to room temperature quickly, microwave the pieces until warm, about 30 seconds.
Grown-up grilled cheese with shallot
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 30 minutes
7 ounces aged cheddar cheese, cut into 24 equal pieces, room temperature
2 ounces Brie cheese, rind removed
2 tablespoons dry white wine or dry vermouth
4 teaspoons minced shallot
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 8 slices hearty white sandwich bread
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 F.
Process cheddar, Brie, and wine in food processor until smooth paste forms, 20 to 30 seconds. Add shallot and pulse to combine, 3 to 5 pulses; transfer to bowl.
In separate bowl, combine butter and mustard.
Brush butter-mustard mixture evenly over 1 side of each slice of bread. Flip 4 slices over and spread cheese mixture evenly over second side. Top with remaining 4 slices bread, buttered
side up, and press down gently. Heat 12 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. Place 2 sandwiches in skillet, reduce heat to mediumlow, and cook until both sides are crisp and golden brown, 6 to 9 minutes per side. Transfer sandwiches to wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Wipe out skillet with paper towels and cook remaining 2 sandwiches. Serve.
Variations:
– Grown-Up Grilled Cheese with Comte and Cornichon: Substitute Comte for cheddar, minced cornichon for shallots, and rye sandwich bread for white sandwich bread.
– Grown-Up Grilled Cheese with Gruyere and Chives: Substitute Gruyere for cheddar, chives for shallots, and rye sandwich bread for white sandwich bread.
– Grown-Up Grilled Cheese with Asiago and Dates: Substitute Asiago for cheddar, finely chopped pitted dates for shallot, and oatmeal sandwich bread for white sandwich bread.
– Grown-Up Grilled Cheese with Robiola and Chipotle: Sub-
titute Robiola, rind removed, for cheddar; 1/4 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce for shallots; and oatmeal sandwich bread for white sandwich bread. Nutrition information per serving: 566 calories; 298
You wouldn’t trust just anyone with your health. So why trust just anyone for your news?
You wouldn’t trust just anyone with your health. So why trust just anyone for your news?
You wouldn’t trust just anyone with your health. So why trust just anyone for your news?
63% of Canadians can't tell the difference between legitimate and fake news. We need newspapers and their credible, independent reporting - now more than ever.
63% of Canadians can't tell the difference between legitimate and fake news. We need newspapers and their credible, independent reporting - now more than ever.
63% of Canadians can't tell the difference between legitimate and fake news. We need newspapers and their credible, independent reporting - now more than ever.
Access to truthful news is under threat. Help keep Canadian newspaper journalism alive. Pledge your support at newspapersmatter.ca
Access to truthful news is under threat. Help keep Canadian newspaper journalism alive. Pledge your support at newspapersmatter.ca
Access to truthful news is under threat. Help keep Canadian newspaper journalism alive. Pledge your support at newspapersmatter.ca
calories from fat; 33 g fat (20 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 90 mg cholesterol; 840 mg sodium; 45 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 20 g protein. Find more recipes like GrownUp Grilled Cheese with Cheddar and Shallot in New Essentials.
this photo provided by america’s test Kitchen in September shows a grown-up grilled cheese with cheddar and shallot in Brookline, Mass.