Telus employees Victoria Davoren and Stevie Karran volunteered
raiser supports local children’s literacy programs.
Vanderhoof RCMP understaffed, overworked says town’s mayor
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Vanderhoof is having trouble holding onto its police officers, the community’s mayor told a provincial government committee this week.
Speaking to the select standing committee on finance and government services, Gerry Thiessen said the town’s detachment is understaffed and overworked to the point where few stay longer than they have to. While the workload for a typical RCMP member in B.C. is 58 cases, Thiessen said the average caseload in Vanderhoof is 122.
“I talked to a young guy the other day,” Thiessen said.
“He really enjoys being a policeman but he just wants out of town. He says ‘my T4 is incredible because of all the overtime I’m getting, but I’m not getting a chance to have a life.’”
In the neighbourhood of six staff sergeants have passed through the town of about 4,500 people west of Prince George in the past six years and it’s reached the point where they no longer buy a home, Thiessen told the committee, which was in Prince George on Tuesday.
Asked why the workload in Vanderhoof is so heavy, Thiessen said the town is not only located near a major centre in Prince George but is a “sub hub” itself with Fraser Lake, Fort Fraser and seven First Nations communities in its vicinity. Because Vanderhoof is small and out
While the workload for a typical RCMP member in B.C. is 58 cases, Thiessen said the average case load in Vanderhoof is 122.
of the way, “we don’t get the funding” and he noted the detachment lost an RCMP officer to First Nations policing despite being told the position would be filled.
He contended strengthening policing in towns like his will help nip in the bud the trouble the Lower Mainland has with gang violence.
“I think there is a lack of understanding that where these young people come from is from small communities and they eventually migrate down to where more activity can happen.”
RCMP assistant commissioner Eric Stubbs has acknowledged the trouble the force has had attracting recruits to fill positions in the smaller communities. The RCMP is exploring the possibility of stationing members in regional centres like Prince George and then deploying them to outlying centres on an as-needed basis, Stubbs has said.
With his town heavily hit by the wildfires this summer, Thiessen also called for a return to “broadcast burning” – or controlled burning to get rid of debris before it becomes the source of a major
blaze. He said the assessment for fire danger in the region was conducted at a time when “we had a green forest.”
“So you’re seeing loggers being asked to continue working even when it’s not safe to do so,” Thiessen said and added some have voluntarily stopped work to avoid sparking a fire.
He said there was a time when workers would go around with drip torches to burn out the debris and to prompt the pine cones to pop and re-seed the forest floor.
Although the practice produced smoke, Thiessen said it was nothing like what the area went through in August when it was so thick the streetlights remained on in the afternoon.
Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall also spoke to the committee about wildfires and urged an updating of the method used by Emergency Management B.C. to process evacuees. He said it’s currently paper based and takes 25 to 30 minutes per person to complete.
“This system needs to be automated, it needs to give us the opportunity to register quickly and renew quickly,” Hall said.
“The important piece to understand is if we continue to run the manual system, we will continue to have to tap into some 2,000 volunteers and staff people if we are expecting to provide the service that we really need to provide these folks.”
The committee is holding hearings across the province to gather advice on what should be included in the next provincial budget.
Man jailed for attack in local park denied parole
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A man serving time in a federal penitentiary for an “unprovoked” and “savage” attack on a 66-year-old woman in a local park has been denied parole.
In a decision issued in mid-August, a Parole Board of Canada panel found that if released Keanen Drew Norman Duncan, 25, would “likely commit an offence causing serious harm to another person.”
The panel found Duncan has had trouble abiding by institutional rules and was involved in a serious assault of another inmate.
According to the report, Duncan has acknowledged detention may be appropriate for him, so that he can participate in learning trade skills and in a sexual offender maintenance program. As well, Correctional Service of Canada has said he should complete the program while still in detention. Duncan did not provide any written submissions for the panel’s consideration and waived his right to a hearing. And so, the panel made its decision by way of a file review.
In January 2016, Duncan was sentenced to a further four years in prison for the May 2013 incident for which he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, attempted robbery and uttering threats.
The sentencing judge described the event as an “unprovoked attack that was brutal and savage.”
In all, Duncan was sentenced to eight years less credit of four years for time served in custody prior to sentencing. Based on the attack and his criminal record for previous offences, Duncan was also designated a long-term offender. Consequently, he will remain under supervision for 10 years once he’s completed his sentence.
MP honoured for saving life
Citizen staff
Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty’s quick action when he revived a man who had passed out on an airplane last summer has been recognized by St. John Ambulance.
Doherty was presented with the St. John Ambulance Life-saving Award on Wednesday at his office in Ottawa. He was credited for saving the man’s life when, in June 2017, Doherty put his first aid skills to use on a flight from Vancouver to Prince George. It started when Doherty heard a loud bang and turned to the passenger beside him who asked if he knew first aid.
He quickly saw that a man had collapsed and had fallen into the front row of the aircraft where another passenger was sitting.
Doherty made his way to the man, who was unresponsive and had no detectable heartbeat.
With the help from a fellow passenger,
Doherty got the man into a prone position and began to give him chest compressions. This lasted for about a minute before the man came to. Doherty continued to administered care and attention while the flight attendant conveyed updates to the pilot, who turned the plane around and headed back to Vancouver. It was only just before landing that Doherty realized he knew the man and his family, which made this experience all the more emotional. Emergency services arrived and the man was transported to hospital where he made a full recovery.
“I’m honoured to receive this award; however it was the greatest reward for me, to speak to the gentleman’s wife a couple days later and to hear he was able to come home to his young family,” Doherty said. “It drives home the importance of knowing even basic first aid, you never know when or where you may have to apply your training and you just may save a life.”
HANDOUT PHOTO
Patricia Kearney and Robert White of the Order of the St. John Priory of Canada present MP Todd Doherty, centre, with the St. John Ambulance Life-saving Award in his Ottawa office on Wednesday.
All First Nations agreements now in place for Coastal GasLink pipeline
Citizen news service
TransCanada says it has signed project agreements with all 20 indigenous communities along its Coastal GasLink pipeline route from Northeast B.C. to Kitimat.
Support for the agreements comes from both traditional and hereditary leaders in the communities, the company said in a news release Thursday.
“This is an important milestone for the Coastal GasLink team,” Rick Gateman, president of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project, said in a statement.
“When we first began this project over six years ago, our goal was to build more than just relationships with First Nations communities in B.C.; it was to build trusted partnerships, and that has made all the difference. We are grateful to these First Nations communities for this opportunity and appreciate the incredible support they have shown us over the years.”
Earlier this year, TransCanada said it
had signed agreements to provide $620 million worth of contracts to more than a dozen First Nations governments and businesses.
Another $400 million in contract awards are expected, totalling a $1 billion impact for indigenous communities and businesses, TransCanada says.
Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance, said the announcement was great news.
“When the pipeline goes through, it will mean employment and career opportunities for Indigenous people, and long-term revenue for their communities and councils,” Ogen-Toews said in a statement.
Indigenous communities with agreements include: Stellat’en First Nation; Saik’uz First Nation; Cheslatta Carrier Nation; McLeod Lake Indian Band; Saulteau First Nations; Kitselas First Nation; West Moberly First Nations; Lheidli T’enneh First Nation; Nadleh Whut’en Indian Band; Burns Lake Indian Band; Blueberry River First Nations;
Halfway River First Nation; Doig River First Nation; Wet’suwet’en First Nation; Yekooche First Nation; Nee Tahi Buhn Indian Band; Skin Tyee First Nation; Witset First Nation; Nak’azdli Whut’en; Haisla Nation.
The $4.8-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline will take natural gas from northeast B.C. to Kitimat, where it will processed and shipped to Asian markets through Shell’s LNG Canada project.
Both projects have secured regulatory approvals by the province, and a final investment decision on LNG Canada is imminent.
The project has been challenged over whether the province has jurisdictional authority over the pipeline, or the federal government.
Earlier this month, a group of Northern B.C. mayors penned a letter to Michael Sawyer and the West Coast Environmental Law Association about their legal challenge, and voiced their disappointment with his 11th hour effort to stall the pipeline.
Missing woman found safe
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Kahlilah Ketlo has been found and is in the company of her family.
Lower Mainland RCMP confirmed that the 21-year-old, reported missing on Sept. 1, is now confirmed to be alive and well.
Family and friends of Ketlo added that she is now with loved ones.
“We can’t release details about how it all happened, but police and family and community all worked together, and it was a great outcome,” said RCMP Cpl. Mike Rail of the Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment in Chilliwack where Ketlo’s disappearance was first reported.
“You take all disappearances seriously and investigate them all on their own circumstances, but each one we look for is a vitally important person,” said Rail.
“We saw that in this case. I think the pace got picked up once it was in the Prince George newspaper, and that got the word out into the community. I can’t
Ban on smoking, vaping on city property to stay
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A 615-name petition failed to convince city council to take a second look at a ban on smoking and vaping during hockey games, concerts and other public events on city property.
Accompanied by a letter from Dane Greenwell, the petition was included in the correspondence section of the agenda for Monday night’s meeting and making good on a promise to Greenwell, Coun.Terri McConnachie pulled the item for discussion.
Greenwell maintains the public consultation conducted in advance of council’s December 2016 approval of a city bylaw on the matter was flawed, noting the opinions of only 584 people were gathered.
Greenwell said he and two others collected the names over a similar period, “working in snowy and rainy conditions for most of the time,” while also keeping a certain distance away from CN Centre.
Noting he is a non-smoker, Greenwell said he is not a proponent of the habit “but I am a voice for the rights of all people.”
He said council went above and beyond the guidelines the provincial government put it place when it chose to no longer designate an area for smoking and vaping at public events.
At CN Centre, it means those who go outside for a smoke while attending a hockey game or concert can no longer get back in – although the same applies to non-smokers during ticketed events.
CN Centre manager Glen Mikkelson confirmed as much Thursday but added staff will work with patrons depending on the situation.
“For example, if someone left their diabetic equipment in their car, Guest Services may escort that person to the car and back,” he said.
“We want to make peoples’ experiences positive ones.”
McConnachie went on to ask fellow council members for their opinions, prompting city manager Kathleen Soltis to say the consultation was in fact “very robust” and included a public hearing, although one was not mandatory. Turnout was small and all who spoke to council were in favour of the bylaw, she said.
Staff will likely recommend the same restriction for cannabis, council was also told.
Council members acknowledged Greenwells’ efforts, but took the issue no further.
Coun. Jillian Merrick said she agreed with Greenwell’s assertion that smokers are being treated like second-class citizens but had “absolutely no hesitation in supporting the bylaw” and noted the city no longer needs to pay for security guards to attend the doors at the smoking area.
Stressing she is a smoker, McConnachie spoke in favour of the restriction and said she told Greenwell as much when she spoke to him.
say how it all happened, but it sure felt great to have the message spread, the word gets out in ways you can’t predict and in ways you don’t even really know about, and then she is found safe and sound.”
Ketlo is originally from the Central Interior region and has a wide circle of loved ones in this area. She had been recently living in Chilliwack and was last seen in the East Vancouver area when family and friends noticed she had fallen uncharacteristically out of contact.
Foul play was not a factor in her disappearance, although the circumstances were of concern to police and loved ones.
“We all know all too well about the investigations into missing people that do not have positive outcomes, so we are certainly happy and relieved as investigators and as community members when we get to tell the public that the person is in fact OK and accounted for,” said Rail.
“I haven’t met a smoker who hasn’t wanted to quit and I think perhaps these new rules help in a way that they make people smoke less,” she said. “It’s not good for you.”
This map shows the proposed route of the Coastal GasLink pipeline from Northeast B.C. to Kitimat.
KETLO
Performance poet Koyczan hits the road
Frank
PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Getting out on the road is what Shane Koyczan needs.
Getting out of the Okanagan.
Getting away from old words like his street name and the now silent conversations between himself and his adored grandmother. They lived together. They were family, rock and oasis. One strong rope in a frayed tangle of familial relations.
And since her recent passing, his thoughts
have descended into his heart where they rattle around like the tail of a snake he can’t charm and isn’t sure he even wants to anymore. Could venom be any worse than his grievous disconnection?
He shot an entire short-film series in hometown Penticton and felt no triumph or pride in the creation, only numb.
The road north has lesson, distraction, other substances for the heart that might displace the grief also northward back to his mind where he can make of it what he makes of all the enormous emotional bag-
gage he’s had to carry in a life all too rich with pain.
“I’ve been kind of attuning myself inside of that (grief),” Koyczan said. “You can’t really write while you’re in it. You have to process all of it first. It’s like when you’re making a cake, you need all the flour and the sugar, all those ingredients need to be parsed out before you can really make anything creative. Often it is a giant mess. And right now I really feel like I’m in that place of looking at the recipe in my hand and wondering what I have to go get from the store. I feel lost. It’s a tangle of emotions from anger to love to fear to guilt to whatever you go through.”
If anyone knows how to untangle a chaos of emotional turbulance, it is Canada’s pinnacle performance poet, our national spoken word laureate, the wordsmith to whom Gord Downie tipped his hat.
Koyczan is an Olympian of Canadian literature, and that was made literal at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Games when more than 13-million people saw him deliver his passionate ode to the Canadian experiment entitled We Are More.
With all the pop culture celebrities available to the organizers – they had Bryan Adams, Donald Sutherland, Wayne Gretzky, Nelly Furtado and more – you’d perhaps not believe they would even think to include spoken poetry.
“I didn’t either,” he admitted.
“When I was first approached to do the Olympics, my thought was, they want me to be outside reading this poem while people are walking into the building. I did not expect them to make me the peanut butter in the kd lang / Sarah McLauchlan sandwich. A borderline homeless poet gets to do the Olympics between those two megastars. It was such a weird experience.”
He has now been called upon to do TED Talks, been the subject of documentaries, he’s a YouTube darling, he’s in the band The Short Story Long, he has collaborated with acts like We Are The City and Dan Mangan, he created the graphic novel Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To, and of course he has a growing library of original poetry titles.
“I have eight books out, and a ton of poems that I’ve never read on a stage,” he said.
“When I sit down to write, I don’t consciously think ‘oh, this is a piece I’ll perform.’ If it works out that way, great.”
His book Stickboy got the attention of James Wright, general director of Vancouver Opera. His creative team of director Rachel Peake, composer Neil Weisensel and conductor Leslie Dala former artistic director with the Prince George Symphony
Orchestra) approached Koyczan about turning the school bullying commentary into a modern Canadian opera.
There was only one catch. They wanted Koyczan to write the libretto.
“The extent of my knowledge of opera was Elmer Fudd singing Kill Da Wabbit,” he laughed, remembering that uncomfortable conversation.
“It’s a very different kind of writing. Spoken word poetry, part of the reason I do it, is I love language. With opera, everything you write, everything that comes out of the singers’ mouths, has to be very vowelly, and it all has to be used to propel the story. There wasn’t a lot of room for the poetry in the language, and the mathematrics of it as well as you try to fit the phrasing of the music. It was a very challenging experience. With poetry, I have all my vocabulary and my full lexicon at my disposal, whereas with opera, I had to be really choosy about which words would sound good when sung, would propel the story, so many other considerations.”
But once done, he got to see his life, through his own words, turned back onto himself through the interpretations of others (the story’s grandmother was portrayed by Megan Latham and the protagonist modelled on his own experiences was portrayed by Sunny Shams), and a foreign art form. Koyczan has been to Prince George before. The last time was at Artspace performing with Mangan. This time he’s on his own, driving for emotional relief and the stage of the Prince George Playhouse.
He’ll be live in performance Friday starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now online at the Central Interior Tickets website while supplies last.
KOYCZAN
Polillo running for school board
Citizen staff
A member of the local media is running for school board.
Ron Polillo, the program director at the Jim Pattison Broadcasting Group in Prince George, said his campaign is based on three issues – capacity, catchment and classroom.
“I know how important a good education will be for my two daughters and for our future generations,” he said in a statement. “I want the best education for my children and all our students.”
His community involvement includes five years as chairperson for the St. Mary’s School council, 16 years on the Prince George Crime Stoppers executive board, including two years as president,10 years as a member of the Prince George Italian Club including three years as president, and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
He is also a former Prince George Youth Soccer Association board member and a former North Cariboo Senior Soccer Association executive member. As well he coached with PGYSA for a decade and has refereed at every level of soccer in the city. And Polillo said had has been the master of ceremonies for more than 300 events
over the past 25 years. In accordance with the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommuications Commission guidelines, Polillo will be off the air during the campaign.
Kissel playing doubleheader at playhouse
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
He’ll be here for one show, he’ll be here for two shows, and fans are counting down the hours. Had he booked one more concert at the P.G. Playhouse he would have almost been his own lyric.
Brett Kissel is the man behind the hit 3-2-1, along with a string of other smashes like Started With A Song, Raise Your Glass, the touching I Didn’t Fall In Love With Your Hair, the NHL lockout ode Hockey Please Come Back, Canadian Kid, and many other Canadian country classics-in-waiting. Now he is back on the charts with new material from his seventh album We Were That Song.
The title track is already spinning around radio, as are the fresh singles She’s Desire, Anthem, Nights In The Sun, and Guitars & Gasoline – all of which have cracked the Top 10 on the Canadian Country Billboard Chart.
As much as fans like his songs pumping on the stereo, they love hearing his songs live. He is renowned for his personable and powerful concert experiences. He can blow the roof off, he can evoke tears, and he al-
NEWS IN BRIEF
CNC launches automotive glass technician program
The College of New Caledonia will be offering an automotive glass technician apprentice certification program this fall. This program marks the first trade at CNC to use a blended online and face-to-face model.
The 16-week course will see students complete 15 weeks online with the last week spent in the shop at CNC applying their knowledge in a practical setting. This model allows students to get their certification without having to leave work for long periods of time and makes it more accessible to students outside the Prince George area.
“Blended delivery can really enhance the apprenticeship experience,” said program instructor Ken Rowell. “This allows an apprentice to spent more time learning at their job while still being able to develop a network of peers outside of their workplace”
Automotive glass technicians are in high demand in northern B.C. CNC has opened two sections of the program, set to on Monday, with registered students from local glass shops, dealerships and communities as far away as Terrace. “CNC is responsive to the industry needs of the communities we serve,” said Frank Rossi, CNC Dean of Trades and Technologies. For more information about the program, contact CNC Trades by calling 250-561-5804 or sending an email to trades@cnc.bc.ca.
— Citizen staff
Big Brothers Big Sisters empowering event coming Big Brothers Big Sisters will be hosting a series of self empowerment events at Pine Centre Mall on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The events are all designed to show youth that it is okay to “be you” and include a craft area where kids can make dream catchers and take part in food and cooking demonstrations, self defense and fitness classes and face painting. BBBS will also have an information booth where participants can register and have
ways makes friends right out of the crowd. Kissel will be at the Prince George Playhouse on Nov. 16 and 17. He’ll be in Williams Lake at the Cariboo Memorial Rec Complex on Nov. 14 and 15. He moves on to Smithers on Nov. 18 at the Della Herman Theatre, plus other northwest dates. Tickets are on sale now at the centralinteriortickets.com website.
the chance to win a $500 Pine Centre Mall gift card. This event is targeted towards children ages 9-13, but all ages are welcome. All supplies are provided and there is no purchase necessary.
— Citizen staff
City’s unemployment rate
4.4 per cent in August
The city’s unemployment rate stood at an estimated 4.4 per cent in August, according to a Statistics Canada labour market survey, as the number of people holding down jobs stayed above 50,000 for the sixth month in a row. A further 2,300 were seeking work while 19,900 of working age were not participating. For the same month last year, the unemployment rate was 5.9 per cent and 49,200 people were working, 3,100 were looking and 20,100 were not participating. The accuracy of the unemployment rate for August was plus or minus 0.7 percentage points 68 per cent of the time. For the figure last year, it was plus or minus 0.8 per cent. As well, the figures are based on a threemonth rolling average and do no separate part time from full time work.
— Citizen staff
Fire restrictions lifted
KAMLOOPS (CP) — All restrictions on fires or forest use are being lifted in two of British Columbia’s six fire centres for the first time since early summer. The Ministry of Forests says open burning prohibitions will be rescinded Wednesday in the Coastal and Kamloops fire centres. Campfires, open fires no larger than two metres by three metres, and all types of forest use will be allowed in each centre, along with tiki torches, burn barrels, fireworks, sky lanterns and exploding targets used in firearms practice. The ministry says recent rainfall and cooler temperatures have reduced wildfire risks in both regions. Those doing any sort of open burning are reminded to be aware of local conditions and obtain a registration number for large fires. Campfires have been permitted for some time in all six fire centres, but open fires are still banned in the Southeast and Cariboo fire centres, while some restrictions on forest use remain within the Southeast, Prince George and Northwest centres.
KISSEL
POLILLO
Serious candidates only, please
We received some criticism online and on Facebook this week for Tuesday’s front-page story “Mayoral challenger gives rambling, erratic interview.”
Some felt Mark Nielsen’s first-person account of trying to get Willy Ens to tell us a little about himself and why he thinks Prince George residents should elect him mayor was unfair and disrespectful. Well, respect is a two-way street. When a reporter just trying to do his or her job respectfully asks basic questions to an individual seeking the support of voters for an important public service job that will pay $127,000 a year, and gets a hefty dose of disdain in return before being hung up on, well, this ain’t Fox News.
Our job is to report the news, not to kiss the asses of people who make a mockery of interviews with journalists or running for and holding political office with their buffoonery and alternative facts.
For those rational residents who can see the obvious differences between Lyn Hall and Willy Ens, here’s a startling thought. If sometime between now and Monday afternoon at 4 p.m., something were to happen to Hall that would force his name to be withdrawn from the ballot – anything up
to and including his tragic and unexpected death – Ens would find himself elected mayor of Prince George by acclamation.
That’s according to Section 98 of the Local Government Act.
If the prospect of a fellow who can’t remember where he worked in Kitimat, who thinks Hall has done nothing but demolish and tear things down in his four years as mayor and hangs up when asked his age getting accidentally elected mayor frightens you, feel free to call up Hall to inform him he’s not going out on his motorbike this weekend because he’ll be encased in bubble wrap for his own protection.
Hall is 63, by the way, because he answered the question when asked because age and experience do count for some people when going to vote.
Now if something were to happen to Hall between Monday afternoon and the general voting day of Oct. 20, then it gets a little fuzzy and a decision has to be made in Victoria.
“In that situation the Local Government Act provides that the chief election officer must notify the provincial minister of the circumstances,” wrote Walter Babicz, the city’s general manager of administrative services and the chief election officer, in an email.
“The minister must decide on whether to
approve a request by a candidate to withdraw from the election during that period, or make a decision on what happens due to unforeseen circumstances otherwise preventing the candidate from holding office.
The minister may order “that the election is to proceed, subject to any conditions specified by the minister,” or “that the original election is to be cancelled and that a new election is to be held in accordance with the directions of the minister.”
In other words, it’s ultimately up to the minister to decide what happens.
While the provincial government can fire elected school boards at will and there are several methods for political parties and outraged constituents to remove elected MPs and MLAs or at least force them to face voters in a byelection, there are few options at the local government level.
As long as residents are qualified to run for office (18 years of age or older, a Canadian citizen, a resident of B.C. for at least six months and otherwise not disqualified by law) and fill out the required paperwork, they can let their name stand.
If elected, there is only one narrow path to remove a mayor or city councillor from office, Babicz wrote.
“Once elected, the Community Charter (provincial legislation) provides for a process involving an application to the
YOUR LETTERS
No sympathy for the homeless
Every day we see on the news the plight of the homeless. First of all, the true homeless are those that have suffered a misfortune not of their own making. This may be a fire, flood or an eviction by reason of financial difficulty. They deserve sympathy. Those that choose not to comply with the norms of a civilized society, do not. If you suffer from mental illness there is help. Unfortunately most do not seek help. Shelter and sustenance should be supplied to these individuals in the form of residences or hospitals that the governments have chosen to close.
Those that choose to be homeless to pursue a lifestyle of noncompliance so they can partake of illicit drugs and be a nuisance in general do not deserve sympathy. Supplying cheap housing is not the answer. A lot of these people have no interest in maintaining a certain level of decency in these facilities. Most of these people came from somewhere else. It’s kind of strange that most of these homeless camps are in the warmer climes of the country. Wonder why that is?
The other strange thing is if they are so broke and poor, how do they afford the tents, sleeping bags , camp stoves and related equipment?
They seem to move this stuff around in shopping buggies which cannot be purchased. One gets tired of stepping around them at doors asking for “spare change.”
When told to get a job, you get sworn at and insulted.
Their “tent camps” are a collection of junk, garbage, dragged in paraphernalia, needles and related filth. If some remote area was offered for them to set up camp, they would not go there. There seems to be no answer to this or those in authority just do not care. Just hand out the checks and look the other way.
George Getty Prince George
Show support for Spruce Kings
I attended the hockey games this weekend between the Coquitlam Express and the Prince George Spruce Kings. Both of these game were won by the Spruce Kings. The Prince George Spruce
Kings honoured the city with a new hockey banner hanging from the rafters from last season’s championship run. I have been a season ticket holder for a number of years. I have seen the low points of this team as well as the highs. With last season’s run, I hoped more people would start attending the games to root these fine young people on. Many of these young men come distances where they don’t have their parents there in the stands rooting for them. It makes no difference to the game or what team these people are on. They make people of the city proud of the place they live in. The Rolling Mix Arena seats 2,000 people comfortably but with only little over 700 fans each night in attendance there are a lot of open seats. The cost of having these teams in Prince George is quite high as teams are required to travel. Many teams rely on advertising to operate. Businesses are not going to put their dollars into a team that doesn’t have community support. This, my friends, is cheap entertainment. This is also good hockey.
Stan New Prince George
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 at ngodbout@pgcitizen.ca
Mailing address: 201-1777 Third Ave. Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7
Office hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday General switchboard: 250-562-2441 info@pgcitizen.ca General news: news@pgcitizen.ca Sports inquiries: 250-960-2764 sports@pgcitizen.ca Classifieds advertising: 250-562-6666 cls@pgcitizen.ca
BC Supreme Court for disqualification of a member of Council based on certain pecuniary conflict of interest violations, the failure to make the required oath of office, unexcused absences from council meetings for a period of 60 consecutive days or four consecutive council meetings (whichever is the longer time period), or making unauthorized expenditures,” he explained in an email.
“Currently, there are no other statutory provisions providing for a challenge to “an individual’s fitness for office” once elected to municipal council.”
On one hand, this is good because it should be difficult and approaching impossible to remove anyone from office who was democratically elected by voters in a fair election (which is what makes the province firing school boards so repugnant). On the other hand, there seems to be little recourse for outraged residents who might want a mayor or city councillor gone after a serious legal or moral infraction.
Or for residents who suddenly find themselves represented by a mayor who was inadvertently elected by acclamation.
In that spirit, cheers to the good health of both of the mayoral candidates, so residents can decide Oct. 20 who’s the most serious and qualified to hold that position.
— Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Accusing powerful men can be daunting
It’s hard to publicly allege misconduct by a powerful man. No woman wants to be known primarily as a victim of harassment or, worse, assault. It’s humiliating. We – women who have gone public – are so much more than accusers or victims. Yet, once the news breaks, we are reduced in the eyes of the world to the role of accuser. The fact that we had a career, too – whether as a college professor, lawyer, actress, journalist, writer or waitress – gets lost. Christine Blasey Ford had excellent reasons to want to remain anonymous in her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It could hardly have been lost on her that – forevermore – rather than being known for her academic work, she would become infamous as a woman who alleged attempted rape by a Supreme Court nominee.
Last fall, when a reporter called me to ask about my employment with then-Rep. John Conyers, the first words out of my mouth were “off the record.”
Because I wanted to corroborate what other women had alleged about sexual harassment by Conyers (which he has denied) and bolster their credibility, I agreed to share some of my own experiences with the caveat that the reporter not attribute them to me, but rather to a “former staffer.”
I spent a day struggling over whether I, too, should publicly come forward. I knew that it would be much harder to dismiss allegations made by a named person.
I knew that only when women come forward publicly will we ever consign the culture of secrecy surrounding male misconduct to the dustbin.
In the end, I decided to attach my name to my statements. But the consequences for coming forward are daunting.
In at least some quarters, you are ridiculed, dismissed and labeled a liar, a lunatic – or both. Even some friends, family and colleagues are not supportive and instead question why you needed to stick your head out at all.
If the harassment or assault left you emotionally damaged and your career suffered, or caused you to leave your chosen field, you are unstable and not credible. If you overcame the harassment or assault and went on to career success, whatever happened must not have been as bad as you claimed, and you are not credible.
If you work in politics and reveal misconduct by someone on your
side of the aisle, some of your compatriots may call you disloyal (at least behind your back); your political opponents will applaud you as a hero – even if some of them demonized you in the past when you took positions with which they disagreed.
Even while praising your courage, potential employers wonder if you are a troublemaker and may pass you over, preferring a candidate with less obvious baggage. And unless you go on to even greater infamy – thanks to our appetite for scandal and the algorithms that feed us – this will be the very first thing discovered about you in any Google search, probably for the rest of your life. Monica Lewinsky’s impressive anti-bullying campaign, for example, still turns up well after her involvement in the Clinton impeachment scandal. Anita Hill has spent decades as a law professor, yet the first thing to pop up is her testimony during Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing.
So the downsides of walking into the spotlight are substantial. But there also are benefits: on a personal level, the upside may be hope for long-delayed validation that what happened to you was, in fact, wrong and not your fault, and you might even obtain some sort of rough justice. But most importantly – at least for me – was understanding that if I did not come forward, I could not expect anyone else to do so either.
And if none of us publicly shares our stories, forcing men – and not just the women they’ve hurt – to suffer real consequences, then how can we expect change?
Twenty-six years after Hill endured a grueling hearing in which senator after senator attempted to undermine her credibility, another woman is nevertheless courageously considering whether to brave a similar grilling by another group of entirely male Republican senators. Maybe in the wake of the myriad women disclosing their own #MeToo stories, men will come to terms with exactly how unacceptable harassment and assault are. Maybe we won’t have to watch the same narrative unfold yet again.
— Melanie Sloan is a partner with Summer Strategies, a public affairs firm. She was minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee in Washington from 1995-1998.
Display advertising, digital advertising and website inquiries: 250-562-2441 ads@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca
This is an updated version of a column that first appeared in the Nov. 22, 2012 edition of The Citizen:
Some people are concerned about what they put in their body. Television commercials, food network pundits, afternoon talk shows and such repeatedly tell us we need to watch what we eat. We need to be informed about what is in our food.
I had a conversation recently with a colleague about the subject. She wanted to make sure the food she eats didn’t have any chemicals in it or on it.
I had to groan. After all, everything is made up of chemicals.
But I listened to her point of view as she was very concerned about whether or not there might be lead in her lettuce or copper in her corn.
Then I noticed she had a tattoo.
I was a little surprised and asked her about it. She proceeded to tell me how important it was to her due to its symbolic meaning.
I asked “But didn’t you say you are concerned about what you are putting in your body?”
She gave me a confused look. I had to explain that a tattoo contains chemical compounds you inject into your body. The thought had never occurred to her.
Tattoos are a powerful and permanent personal statement.
Some people get them to remember loved ones. Others get them so they will stand out in a crowd or for the pure aesthetics or as an act of rebellion. And there is always the “me, too” crowd. Or the late night, “hey, it
Relativity
seemed like a good idea at the time” crowd.
Almost every tattoo comes with a story.
Whatever the reason for getting a tattoo, it is a personal choice and there is nothing wrong with it.
However, and without trying to sound preachy, I would suggest getting a tattoo is something which should only be done after a bit of research and forethought.
Gone are the days when a tattoo artist might recycle needles from one client to the next. Latex gloves are now used to ensure there is no exchange of blood or other bodily fluids. The fear of both HIV and hepatitis has ensured a level of health and safety during the actual application of a tattoo. Any credible tattoo artist will do their best to ensure the process is as sanitary as possible.
But getting a tattoo intrinsically involves repeatedly sticking a needle into the dermis and injecting a dye over and over again. The question is – what is in the dye? Surprisingly, in many cases, no one really knows.
This was the result published a number of years ago by Haley Finley-Jones and Leslie Wagner, two students at Northern Arizona University. As an undergraduate research project, they acquired 17 samples of ink from five different manufacturers and ana-
Fossils, new species found in Saskatchewan
REGINA — Scientists at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum have discovered several multimillion-year-old fossils over the summer.
Among the findings from Lake Diefenbaker was the skull of a baby elasmosaur, a long-necked creature that lived in water. A partial skeleton of a juvenile bronotothere, a 38-million-year-old rhino-like mammal, was also discovered near Eastend.
Scientists also discovered pieces of amber that contained insect inclusions, including a new species of wasp. The new fossils will be studied over the winter until fieldwork begins in the spring.
lyzed their contents.
What they found was a tremendous variety of compounds. At the time of their study, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulated the sanitation of tattoo parlors but didn’t monitor the actual pigment used in tattooing.
The United States has since started to regulate tattoo ink. As of 2017, Health Canada defines tattoo ink as a cosmetic and subject to some regulation.
Generally, there is very little information about what is being put into your body during a tattoo. Manufacturers can and do use a wide assortment of compounds to make up different pigments.
Black inks, for example, might contain iron oxide or carbon black (soot) while blue inks often contain salts of copper or cobalt oxide. White inks can be made with titanium dioxide, zinc sulfate or lead carbonate. But the manufacturers are not required to disclose their exact mixture or blend.
The only stipulation, in Canada, is the dyes are not allowed to contain chloroform or mercury compounds such as cinnabar or vermillion.
Furthermore, the regulations leave open the question of the composition of the liquid carrier used to suspend the dry pigment obtained from the manufacturer. The liquid carrier might be any one or some combination of water, witch hazel or alcohols (including ethanol, vodka or even Listerine) and a surfactant such as glycerin or propylene glycol. Simply put, the world of tattoo inks is a kind of mystery ranging from highly reputable sources to questionable compounds. An interactive poll carried out in the United States in 2010 found 14 per cent of all Americans and 38 per cent of millennials had ink somewhere on their body. The numbers are thought to be similar in Canada. Tattooing is one of the fastest growing retail sectors in the North American market, now valued at over $1.6 billion annually. It is ironic that we have government regulations controlling trans-fats and a host of other additives in the food we eat and yet there is little in the way of control on tattoo inks which provide a much more permanent exposure to a wide variety of chemical compounds.
TODD WHITCOMBE
Citizen news service
Trump vows support for storm victims
Anne GEARAN Citizen news service
U.S. President Donald Trump reassured residents of the stormdamaged Carolinas on Wednesday that “we’re giving you a lot of help” as he toured areas still dealing with flooding, power outages, and road and school closures from Florence, considered among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
Trump visited several sites in North Carolina and South Carolina nearly a week after the storm, which began as Hurricane Florence, started dumping rain on the southeastern United States. The storm has caused widespread damage, and nearly 40 deaths across the Carolinas and Virginia.
“Some of the hardest work is taking place right now, even though it’s nice and beautiful and sunny,” Trump said as he led a briefing with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, D, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and others.
Trump praised the federal effort as well-organized and expansive. He said Federal Emergency
Management Agency Administrator William “Brock” Long, facing an inquiry for potential misuse of government cars, was doing an “incredible job.”
“In moments of despair, we’ve witnessed the true character of the American people. Citizens all across our country rallied to rescue the stranded, to protect the innocent, and to restore hope to families who’ve experienced tremendous and unbearable loss,” the president said. “Our hearts break for you. God bless you.”
Trump visited a church distributing meals in New Bern, N.C., and helped hand out Styrofoam packages containing hot dogs, peas and apple sauce. He then toured a low-lying neighbourhood where brick and clapboard houses were swamped by the Neuse River. Residents stood along streets and sidewalks and pointed out damage, including a beached yacht lodged against one resident’s deck.
“At least you got a nice boat out of the deal,” Trump joked with the man.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said the owner told him his insurance company didn’t want to pay
for the damage to his home.
“We’re going to find out the name of the insurance company,” the president said.
“I think it’s incredible what we’re seeing,” he added. “This boat just came here.”
“They don’t know whose boat that is,” he added.
“What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs.”
As people milled and took pictures under an incongruously sparkling sky, Trump seemed to enjoy his role as consoler and doler in chief. The federal bill for storm relief is still unclear, but one preliminary analysis said that property losses could total as much as $20 billion.
“We’re giving you a lot of help,” Trump told one woman, before stopping to hug another woman and to hear a third point to her badly damaged home and explain that the storm had been too much.
“We’re going to move,” she told Trump. She pointed to a pile of sodden furniture outside.
There was a lighthearted moment as one man told Trump that he had named his dog after the president.
McKenna not quitting over climate change
Michael TUTTON Citizen news service
HALIFAX — Canada’s environment minister said she’s no “quitter” despite calls Wednesday from David Suzuki for her to resign and a G7 meeting that didn’t shift her American counterpart’s firm opposition to the Paris climate agreement.
Catherine McKenna had started off the three-day Halifax gathering by telling a personal story of encountering young people in the Arctic who are worried local hunters are falling through the ice due to rising temperatures.
“They’re worried about whether we’re going to do anything about it, because they don’t feel empowered to do anything about it,” she told the delegates, after reminding them of a summer that has seen massive forest fires and deadly hurricanes.
The minister also spoke of translating the targets of the Paris climate agreement into action and said countries need to firm up rules around how the carbon emission targets will be enforceable. But by day’s end, she’d faced calls from Canada’s most prominent environmentalist to leave her job due to the prime minister’s support of the fossil fuel industry.
The French environment minister recently took that route, saying he didn’t want to create the illusion his presence in the government was leading to progress on climate change.
In a story published by La Presse, David Suzuki says if McKenna really believes what she’s saying, she too should quit “instead of being an apologist for the government.” He told the Montreal-based news site that Canada lacks credibility on climate change, with the Liberal government supporting the construction of a pipeline to the British Columbia coast to transport Alberta bitumen.
Suzuki made the comments in the context of an interview about the resignation of French environment minister, Nicolas Hulot.
“She must stop rationalizing what Canada is doing,” Suzuki told La Presse, adding that the government “talks out both sides of its mouth.”
“We have a prime minister who signed (the Paris climate accord), who says, ‘We’re back,’ and we all praised him... then he approves pipelines! What is that?”
McKenna defended herself in an evening news conference, arguing it’s easy to be divisive but difficult to continue battling for progress on climate change in a country dependent on resource industries.
“I’m not a quitter. Resigning is easy. It’s really hard to do what we’re doing. This is a long-term transition to a cleaner future.”
“I’m going to stay in this job as long as the prime minister keeps me here.”
Meanwhile, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, said little in public during the meeting. After the gathering, he said in an interview the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump continues to be opposed to the Paris agreement.
“The Paris accord we didn’t think was fair to the United States, but we are taking a serious look at our carbon emissions,” he said.
Regarding climate change itself, Wheeler said: “I believe climate change is real. I believe that man has an impact on it. It’s still a question to what extent and what we can do about it.”
AP PHOTO
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with FEMA Administrator Brock Long as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen watches after visiting areas in North Carolina and South Carolina impacted by Hurricane Florence on Wednesday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
MCKENNA
Sports
Classic performances
Citizen staff
The College Heights Cougars put together an unbeaten weekend and were rewarded with a championship at the PGYVC Kodiak Classic.
At the season-opening senior boys and senior girls high school volleyball tournament, held last Friday and Saturday, the Cougars went 5-0 in pool play and 7-0 overall. In Saturday’s playoff matches at the College of New Caledonia, they beat the Duchess Park Condors in the semifinals and then took down the D.P. Todd Trojans in the final. Tournament MVP Dayton O’Neill led College Heights to the title. Fellow Cougars Zach Ohori and Matt Shand were selected as all-stars.
Six teams competed in the boys division.
In the girls division at the Kodiak Classic, the Dawson Creek Coyotes defeated the Cougars in the championship final. The match went to three sets and the Coyotes prevailed 15-13 in the third. Dawson Creek’s Julia Evans was named MVP while teammates Aidan Armitage and Gabby Capelle got the nod as all-stars. Justine Guillet and Brooke Eberherr of the Cougars were also picked as all-stars, as were Cassidy Malgunas (PGSS) and Macyn Unger (Duchess Park junior A).
The girls division featured nine teams. The junior version of the Kodiak Classic is slated for Sept. 28-29.
semifinal but fell to the Dawson Creek Coyotes in the championship match.
Cougars, Coyotes pound way to high school volleyball titles
Bartolillo boots to goal-scoring
Jason PETERS Citizen Sports Editor jpeters@pgcitizen.ca
Back in March of 2014, Alan Alderson knew he had received a commitment from an ultra-talented player. Alderson, coach of the UNBC Timberwolves men’s soccer team at the time, had secured the services of midfielder Francesco Bartolillo and fully expected the Calgary teenager to become a cornerstone of the UNBC program. Bartolillo is now into his fifth season of proving Alderson right. And, this past Sunday, he became the all-time leading goal-scorer in the history of UNBC men’s soccer. During a 3-0 win in Saskatoon against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, Bartolillo’s second goal of the contest stood as the 13th of his UNBC career, a number that placed him one ahead of former teammate
record
Tofa Fakunle. Bartolillo said he’s honoured to be at the top of the list but also gave a nod of thanks to the man he supplanted in the school record book.
“Tofa, who is my best friend, is a fantastic player and played a huge role in paving the way for what this program has become,” Bartolillo said. “Plus, he actually assisted a handful of my goals during our time here. It (the record) is definitely something really cool to experience.”
Fakunle also hails from Calgary and graduated from the UNBC program at the end of last season.
On Bartolillo’s record-setting goal, he pounced on a loose ball in the penalty area – the result of some great work by veteran teammate Josh McAvoy – and beat Saskatchewan goalkeeper Greg Buckley with a well-placed strike.
— see LETHBRIDGE, page 10
Karlsson finds a fit with Sharks
Citizen news service
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Erik Karlsson was handed a teal San Jose Sharks sweater and immediately proclaimed: “It fits.”
Karlsson’s first day with the Sharks went off without a hitch Wednesday. He paired up with Marc-Edouard Vlasic on defence in practice, took part in 3-on-3 drills with fellow Norris Trophy winner Brent Burns and began a new chapter in his career after nine seasons as the face of the Ottawa Senators.
“It’s definitely going to be a change,” he said. “I like to see challenges and I think it will be a fun challenge not only for me but this whole team. They’ve been a successful team for a number of years. They were extremely good last year and I’m extremely excited to be part of a good organization and good hockey club right from the start. I’ll do everything I can to fit in as good as I possibly can and being able to play the best hockey I know I can do.”
The Sharks made the big deal to acquire the two-time Norris Trophy-winning Karlsson from the Senators last week for a package of young players and picks, adding a world-class player to a team now expected to contend in the ultra-tough Western Conference.
Karlsson joins a team with a top goaltender in Martin Jones; skilled forwards in Logan Couture, Evander Kane, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski; and one of the league’s top defensive units featuring 2017 Norris winner Burns and perhaps the game’s top shutdown defenceman in Vlasic.
“I don’t think Erik has to adapt at all,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “He just has to do what he does. He’s one of the best players on the planet. We just need him to do what he’s done for his whole career.”
The acquisition was met with great
fanfare from the billboards welcoming Karlsson to San Jose overlooking Bay Area freeways and an introductory news conference at a local hotel.
The Sharks are doing everything they can to make Karlsson and his family feel comfortable in the new environment because they want to keep him long term.
The 28-year-old is entering the final season of his contract.
“As of right now I’m just focused on starting the season as good as I possibly can to help this team win games,” Karlsson said. “That’s where I’m at right now and we’ll go from there.”
The Sharks have had great success keeping star players at home. General manager Doug Wilson has acquired several big-name players during his tenure from Thornton to Dan Boyle to Burns. The only player he wasn’t able to keep was defenceman Brian Campbell, who joined the team at the trade deadline in 2008 and then signed with Chicago the following summer. Wilson started that process even before the deal. He and DeBoer flew to Toronto to meet with Karlsson with Ottawa’s permission before the trade was finalized. Owner Hasso Plattner also talked to Karlsson.
“We were given some opportunity to spend some quality time,” Wilson said. “I was truly blown away just by him as a person, sitting with him, how he sees the game, how he talks about the game, what his goals and aspirations are. That to me cemented that he would fit into this group so well.”
Karlsson has scored 518 points in his career, by far the most of any defenceman since he entered the NHL in 2009. He won the Norris as the league’s best defenceman in 2012 and 2015 and is one of the best quarterbacks on the power play in the league.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Nolan Minck of the College Heights Cougars goes high for a kill shot during the PGYVC Kodiak Classic high school volleyball tournament, held last Friday and Saturday.
The Cougars defeated the D.P. Todd Trojans in the final at the College of New Caledonia.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Karynn Hampe of the Duchess Park Condors tips the ball past a pair of College Heights Cougars blockers on Saturday at CNC. The Cougars won this
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Francesco Bartolillo of the UNBC Timberwolves, left, shows some fancy footwork during a 2017 Canada West game.
Sexual harassment rife in Cuban’s workplace: report
Owner of Dallas Mavericks to donate $10 million to women’s groups after investigation
Tim BONTEMPS
Citizen news service
After a seven-month investigation into the workplace culture of the Dallas Mavericks, owner Mark Cuban agreed to donate $10 million to women’s groups, and the NBA has created a series of mandates Dallas must follow moving forward.
Those punishments were announced Wednesday afternoon, in concert with the release of a 43-page report from the investigation by former Manhattan district attorney Evan Krutoy and former New Jersey attorney general Anne Milgram. That investigation included 215 interviews with current and former Mavericks employees who worked for the team during the past two decades and from the evaluation of more than 1.6 million documents, including emails and other electronic documents.
The first sentence of the report’s conclusions summed up its findings, which included exposing rampant sexual harassment allegations against former team president and CEO Terdema Ussery and two domestic violence incidents involving former team website writer Earl Sneed.
“This investigation has substantiated numerous instances of sexual harassment and other improper workplace conduct within the Mavericks organization over a period spanning almost twenty years,” the report said.
In the wake of the report, which stemmed from accusations made in a Sports Illustrated story, Cuban agreed to pay the $10 million –which was four times the amount ($2.5 million) the NBA is able to fine someone under its constitution and by-laws – to “organizations that are committed to supporting the leadership and development of women in the sports industry and combating domestic violence.” Those organizations will be selected by a committee of several members, including Cuban, team CEO Cynthia Marshall and Kathy Behrens, the NBA’s president of Social Responsibility and Player Programs.
In addition, the Mavericks will have to give the NBA’s league
office quarterly reports on their progress toward meeting and implementing the recommendations included in the report. They include: immediately reporting to the league office any instances or allegations of significant misconduct by any employee; continually enhancing and updating annual Respect in the Workplace training for all staff, including ownership; and implementing a program to train all staff, including ownership, on issues related to domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.
Cuban was not given any kind of suspension, nor were the Mavericks hit with any kind of basketball-related penalty. Cuban said in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols Wednesday afternoon that NBA commissioner Adam Silver never discussed the possibility of selling the team with him, and that he never considered it throughout the course of the past several months.
“No,” Cuban said. “I don’t run away from my mistakes.”
He also said his goal is to make the Mavericks into an example for how organizations can positively react to situations such as these in the future.
Phillies earn key victory
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After a monthlong swoon, Rhys Hoskins and the Philadelphia Phillies are ready to make one final push for a playoff berth. Hoskins became the seventh-fastest player to hit 50 career home runs and the Phillies kept pace in the NL East with a 4-0 victory over the New York Mets on Wednesday night. Zach Eflin and five relievers combined on a six-hitter and Odubel Herrera added a two-run homer for the Phillies, who won consecutive series for the first time since
We did a lot of things wrong, and I wasn’t there to oversee him.
— Mark Cuban
“I think more important than the money is the example we can set,” Cuban said. “There hasn’t been anybody who has had to go through this and set the tone on what the right way to respond and the right thing to do.
“The goal, even more than the money, is for me to get out there and teach others from my experience.”
In the interview with ESPN, Cuban took blame for what happened within his organization, though the investigation confirmed he was unaware of what was happening.
“We did a lot of things wrong, and I wasn’t there to oversee him,” Cuban said. “Everybody has every reason to question me, but I wasn’t there. That was my fault.”
When asked what stood out to him most in his readings of the report, Cuban said it was the pain that his employees experienced.
July 25 and stayed 5 1/2 games behind division-leading Atlanta.
Seven of Philadelphia’s final 11 games are against the Braves, including a fourgame series beginning tonight in Atlanta. Hoskins’ opposite-field solo shot against Noah Syndergaard in the first inning was his 32nd homer of the season and 50th in 192 career games. Only Rudy York (153), Mark McGwire (161), Gary Sanchez (161), Ryan Braun (171), Aaron Judge (174) and former Phillies slugger Ryan Howard (182) reached 50 quicker.
“It was the same way I felt when I stood in front of Mavs employees for the first time after this came out and I apologized to them,” Cuban said, fighting back tears as he spoke. “I never in my wildest dreams would have believed this was happening.
“The pain people shared with me, the tears that I saw... it hurt. (And) the way I felt was nothing compared to the way they felt.”
Silver said the investigation would be wrapped up by Aug. 1 during his annual news conference following the conclusion of the league’s summer Board of Governors meetings in Las Vegas in July, but it wound up taking nearly an extra two months to complete the investigation into the nearly two decades Cuban has owned the franchise.
The Sports Illustrated story detailed more than a decade of abuses by authority figures within the Mavericks. The article alleged Ussery, who served as team president from 2000 through 2015, had a host of offenses, including repeatedly asking another to have sex with him and promising he’d leave his wife if she did.
It also detailed the way the Mavericks handled multiple do-
mestic assault allegations against Sneed, a writer who worked for the Mavericks website until he was dismissed shortly before the article was published. One of those assault allegations involved another Mavericks employee. In a statement issued before the story came out, Dallas said Sneed – who was only referred to as “an employee” – had “misled the organization about a prior domestic violence incident.”
The Mavericks also fired Buddy Pittman, the team’s human resources director. The article said Pittman made clear his social and religious beliefs, and that made it difficult for him to be approached, according to both male and female employees.
“Oh, it was horrible,” Cuban said of the message that was sent to his female employees by keeping Sneed employed for as long as he did. “Again, I have no excuse. I should have done better. I could have done better. I’ve learned. There’s just no other way to put it.”
The fallout from the report has only just begun. But it comes as little surprise that Dallas had no draft picks stripped from it as part of the punishment, or any other basketball-related discipline. The NBA has never levied basketball punishments for non-basketball offenses. It was always unlikely in this instance.
It was also unlikely for Cuban to be placed in a position such as that of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was forced to sell his team in the wake of racist recordings being released. As long as there were no direct allegations against Cuban that could be corroborated – though Cuban was investigated previously, and not charged, after an alleged sexual assault in Oregon in 2011 – the expectation has been Cuban would be hit with some lesser punishment instead. That included the $2.5 million fine – the maximum amount Silver is allowed to levy, per the league’s bylaws and constitution – and a suspension. Given the league has been navigating through entirely uncharted waters from the moment Sports Illustrated’s story was released, the punishments levied toward the Mavericks will now serve as the baseline for how the league handles these situations going forward.
Blue Jays can’t sweep Orioles
Citizen news service
BALTIMORE — One night after setting a dubious record for losses, the Baltimore Orioles were ready to savour a rare win against a division rival.
Rookie DJ Stewart hit his first major league home run and Baltimore used five pitchers to avoid a three-game sweep by beating the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 Wednesday night.
The Orioles bounced back one night after taking their 108th loss of the season, the most since moving to Baltimore in 1954. They remained three away from the franchise mark set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns.
“I was thinking about it tonight how many times I walked down that long hall to get here after a great win, trying to temper the enthusiasm,” manager Buck Showalter said. “I still feel elated after we win a game and then I think about all the good things that went on, especially defensively tonight.”
Jimmy Yacabonis started for Baltimore and threw four scoreless innings, followed by Mike Wright (4-2), who blanked the Blue Jays over two innings. Miguel Castro allowed a solo homer to Billy McKinney in the eighth that cut the lead to 2-1 before Tanner Scott managed the final out of the inning.
Mychal Givens picked up his eighth save for Baltimore.
Stewart, who was promoted Sept. 11 from Triple-A Norfolk, gave the Orioles the lead when he led off the third with a tower-
— from page 9
“It is always something exciting to get your name in the record books and it’s an accomplishment to be proud of,” Bartolillo said. “But, the reality is in a team sport like soccer, individual accolades like this are highly influenced by your teammates. I’m very fortunate that during my time as a Timberwolf, I have been surrounded by fantastic players who have helped make it possible. This is as much a team accomplishment as it is an individual one, because without them it simply wouldn’t be possible.”
With the Canada West season still in its early stages, the Timberwolves have a 1-1-2 record, good for fourth place in the Pacific Division. At the end of the regular schedule, the top four clubs in the Pacific and Prairie divisions will advance to playoffs. The next test for Bartolillo and the T-
ing shot off Marco Estrada that caromed off the right-field foul pole. He also had a double in the seventh and scored an insurance run on a single by Cedric Mullins off Tim Mayza.
“I’ve felt comfortable every at-bat pretty much,” Stewart said. “I think there was one at bat I kind of went up there chasing a little bit, just trying to get that hit. I felt comfortable for the most part, but whenever you see one fall for the first time, it’s a little bit of a relief that not only are you feeling well but you’re seeing the results also. It was definitely big for me.”
Toronto won the season series 14-5.
“Any chance you have to try and sweep a team is a big one,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “We have had a pretty tough year ourselves so you try to build and win as many games as you can.”
The Blue Jays’ Estrada (7-13) bounced back from his previous outing when he tied a career-high by allowing eight runs against the Yankees. He was charged with one run and four hits with five strikeouts and one walk over six innings.
“It was a good outing. I made a lot of good pitches,” Estrada said. “One got away from me and the kid hit it out, Congrats to him. Weren’t too many hard hit balls.”
The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the fourth against Yacabonis, who was making his fifth career start. However, he escaped the jam when Kendrys Morales hit a fly ball to Adam Jones, who threw out McKinney trying to score from third. It was Jones’ 99th career assist and first in right field.
wolves comes on Friday (6 p.m.) at Masich Place Stadium when they take on the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, who are winless in their first six games (0-5-1). Then, on Sunday at noon, UNBC will clash with the University of Calgary Dinos (2-4). Friday’s night’s game will also mark the official opening of the newly-renovated stadium, which reopened in August after $4.8 million worth of upgrades. Meanwhile, the UNBC women’s soccer team will visit the Abbotsford-based University of the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday and will play the Trinity Western University Spartans of Langley on Saturday. The Timberwolves, sixth in the eight-team Pacific Division, take a 1-1-2 record into the weekend. The Cascades (0-2-2) are in last place but have earned ties in their past
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, shown in this undated photo, says he doesn’t run away from his mistakes.
Domi handed match penalty for sucker punch
Citizen news service
MONTREAL — Florida Panthers
goalie Roberto Luongo said Max Domi’s sucker punch on Aaron Ekblad was “gutless.”
Domi was given a match penalty for punching Ekblad in the nose in the third period in the Panthers’ 5-2 exhibition victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.
Ekblad left the game, at the NHL’s request, and did not return. He went through tests after the game and cleared concussion protocol.
“I’m sure the league will look at it and we definitely won’t forget about it,” said Luongo, who played the first two periods. “You don’t do that. You respect your opponents and if your opponent doesn’t want to engage in a fight, there’s no reason to drop your glove and punch him square in the face. Bit of a gutless play. You don’t do those types of things.”
With the Canadiens losing 2-1 at the start of the third period, Domi – acquired from Arizona in the off-season – began tugging on Ekblad’s shirt, asking him to fight. With the Florida star showing no interest to drop the gloves, Domi punched him in the face twice with two lefts, but still Ekblad didn’t respond. That’s when Domi dropped his right glove and sucker punched him in the nose.
The bloodied Ekblad dropped to the ice. Domi was given a minor, major and match penalty.
“NHL Player Safety will review it. It’s in their hands now,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “We had a delayed penalty and Ekblad was just trying to stay out of it. I didn’t expect that he was going to drop his glove and sucker punch him.”
Added Mike Hoffman: “I guess they were trying to showcase something over there. It’s preseason, so maybe guys are trying
to make an impression. But maybe do it by playing hockey.”
The Canadiens saw the altercation a little differently.
“The two were arguing with one another,” Jonathan Drouin said. “I saw a pretty big slash from Ekblad on Max, and Max just took matters into his own hands. It’s also Ekblad’s fault for not protecting himself.”
Evgenii Dadonov and Jared McCann each scored twice for Florida, and Nick Bjugstad added an empty-net goal. Luongo stopped 20 of 21 shots, and Michael Hutchinson stopped 11 of 12 in the third period.
Matthew Peca and Nikita Scherbak scored for the Canadiens. Carey Price played the first half of the game, stopping 20 of 22
relief.
Flyers 6 Rangers 4
At New York, Oskar Lindblom had two goals and an assist to help Philadelphia beat New York. Corban Knight had a goal and two assists, Dale Weise, Mikhail Vorobyov and German Rubtsov added goals, and Scott Laughton had three assists. Brian Elliott started for Philadelphia and allowed three goals on 17 shots. Carter Hart replaced Elliott, and finished with 22 saves.
Matt Beleskey, Ryan Spooner, Pavel Buchnevich and Filip Chytil scored for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist started in goal and allowed five goals on 22 shots.
Dustin Tokarski made 10 saves in relief.
Leafs 4 Senators 1
At Ottawa, Ontario, Tyler Ennis scored twice and Toronto beat Ottawa to sweep the two-game preseason series. Auston Matthews and Jeremy Bracco also scored for Toronto. Frederik Andersen played two periods, stopping all 19 shots he faced. Calvin Pickard played the third period, allowing one goal on six shots.
Filip Chlapik had a powerplay goal for the Senators. Craig Anderson played the first half, allowing a goal on 18 shots. Mike McKenna gave up two goals on nine shots.
Flames top Canucks in game of youngsters
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Spencer Foo scored the eventual winner as a young Calgary Flames squad earned a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.
Matthew Phillips, Andrew Mangiapane and Jusso Valimaki also scored for the Flames.
Winger Brendan Leipsic put up the Canucks’ only goal.
Calgary’s David Rittich stopped all 26 of Vancouver’s shots in the first two periods. He was relieved by Tyler Parsons in the third, who stopped 12 of 13 shots. Vancouver netminder Thatcher Demko held off 18 of the Flames’ 21 shots in the first two frames before he was replaced by Michael DiPietro.
DiPietro turned away all 11 of Calgary’s shots.
Calgary’s roster was filled mainly with young, untested players, as the team’s veterans played exhibition games in China.
The Flames started the scoring midway through the first period when 20-year-old Phillips got a breakaway pass near centre ice. The winger beat Canucks defender Ashton Saunter and put a rocket on net, sailing the puck past Demko. Minutes later, the Canucks got caught trying to clear the puck from their own zone.
The ensuing battle ended with Calgary’s Foo sneaking a shot in through the side of the net, past a sprawling Demko.
CP PHOTO
Calgary Flames goalie David Rittich makes a save as Calgary’s Philip Samuelsson checks Jonah Gadjovich of the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night in Vancouver.
Mangiapane added to the Flames’ lead in the second, collecting a pass from Dillion Dube in front of Vancouver’s net and hammering it home for a short-handed goal.
The Canucks lone goal came during four-on-four action in the third, when Leipsic stick-handled his way along the
Wings 3 Pens 2 (OT)
At Detroit, Michael Rasmussen scored 1:32 into overtime to lift Detroit past Pittsburgh. Trevor Hamilton and Jussi Jokinen also scored for the Red Wings. Jimmy Howard and Harri Sater split time in goal, each stopping 14 of 15 shots.
Derek Grant and Ryan Haggerty scored for Pittsburgh, and Tristan Jarry stopped 41 shots.
Canes 6 Lightning 1
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Janne Kuokkanen had a goal and two assists in Carolina’s victory over Tampa Bay.
Dougie Hamilton, Martin Necas, Michael Ferland, Julien Gauthier and Jaccob Slavin also scored. Scott Darling started for the Hurricanes, and stopped all 16 shots he faced in the first half of the game. Callum Booth made 10 saves on 11 shots. Boris Katchouk scored for Tampa Bay, and Edward Pasquale allowed all six goals on 35 shots.
Blues 3 Wild 2
At Des Moines, Iowa, Tyler Bozak scored twice in a 27-second span to push St. Louis past Minnesota.
Sammy Blais had a power-play goal, and Ville Husso made 23 saves.
Brennan Menell and Justin Kloos scored for the Wild, and Alex Stalock stopped 26 shots.
Bruins 3 Flames 1
In Beijing, Jake DeBrusk scored twice, Tuukka Rask made 22 saves and Boston beat Calgary to sweep the two-game NHL China Games. DeBrusk broke a tie 5:27 into the third period, and Kevan Miller added an empty-netter. Sean Monahan scored for Calgary, and Mike Smith stopped 16 shots.
boards and through traffic, then popped one in past the Flames netminder.
Jusso Valimaki put in an empty-netter for the Flames in the game’s dying moments.
Despite the final score, Vancouver had ample chances throughout the game.
Brandon Sutter had an opportunity to put his team on the board early in the second with a penalty shot, but the veteran centre couldn’t bury a backhand.
The Canucks also got looks from some young prospects, including Adam Gaudette, Kole Lind and Petrus Palmu, who all had shots turned away by Rittich.
The 26-year-old Czech backed up Mike Smith in Calgary last year, earning a 8-6-0 record and .904 save percentage.
The win was the first preseason victory for the Flames, who also sent a team of veterans to China for exhibition play. That squad has been beaten twice by the Boston Bruins, including a 3-1 loss on Wednesday.
The Canucks have now lost their first two exhibition matches after they were downed 4-2 by the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
Vancouver has one more exhibition game at home tonight when they’ll host the L.A. Kings. The club will then hit the road, for contests in Calgary, Salt Lake City, Edmonton and Kelowna.
The Flames are off to Winnipeg on Friday to face the Jets.
shots. Antti Niemi made 16 saves on 18 shots in
CP PHOTO
Max Domi of the Montreal Canadiens is pulled away by linesman Ryan Daisy after sucker punching Florida Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad during an NHL preseason game on Wednesday night in Montreal.
Canada wants to see ‘movement’ before signing NAFTA deal: Trudeau
James McCARTEN Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — Thirteen months is an “absolutely normal” time frame for a task as complex as modernizing North American trade, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday as she notched another day on the road towards a new NAFTA deal with the United States and Mexico.
On a day where signs of progress were in the air, Freeland shrugged off talk of congressional deadlines and growing impatience in political circles as she justified the amount of time it has taken for all three sides to get to their current positions.
Rome, in other words, wasn’t built in a day.
“For an agreement of this scale, 13 months for a very deep modernization of the kind we’re working on is absolutely normal,” said Freeland, who will be back for more talks today. “Trade agreements do take some time, both to negotiate and to update, because the economy is complicated and trade agreements are complicated.”
And when asked whether she could hear the clock ticking, she said: “Canada’s sole objective – the only target that we are aiming for – is getting a good deal for Canada, so that’s what we’re focused on.”
Among the evidence that the finish line isn’t far away: word from sources familiar with the negotiations that the U.S. backed off in recent weeks on its demands for lucrative procurement projects.
Then there was the mood of Freeland herself, who arrived in the U.S. capital the night before wearing a T-shirt from her kids emblazoned with the slogan, “Keep Calm and Negotiate NAFTA,” and thanked journalists for keeping vigil and ordinary Canadians for their expressions of support.
“People come up to me on the street or in airports, which is where I am often found, just saying how strongly they support Canada in these complex negotiations,” she said before a midday meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in town to wave the Team Canada flag.
“I just want to say to everyone who has done that, thank you very much. It means a lot to me. I always share your messages with the negotiating team, and that gives us real strength and reminds us of how important the work we’re doing is for Canadians.”
She credited Mexico with making signifi-
cant concessions in its deal with the U.S. on automobiles and for permitting large wage increases for Mexican auto workers – something Canada and the U.S. both wanted to stop the growing flow of automobile production into Mexico because of its cheap labour.
“Over the summer, Mexico made some very deep, very difficult concessions on rules of origin,” she said, referring to an early U.S. demand that would have dramatically increased the amount of American content required in cars built outside the country.
“The fact that Mexico made those concessions is good for higher-wage workers; good for the high-wage workers of Canada, good for the high-wage workers of the U.S., and that is what allowed the rest of the negotiations to move forward.”
And there was the all-nighter pulled by one of Canada’s negotiating teams, which Freeland said didn’t wrap up its marathon session until 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Sources say Mexico believes it has also done much of the “heavy lifting” on getting the Americans to back down on its demand to limit the ability of Canadian and Mexican firms
to bid on U.S. infrastructure projects, while seeking greater access for American firms to Mexican and Canadian government projects.
Mexico and Canada are both quietly taking credit for standing firm against the controversial U.S. position that would have effectively limited their respective countries’ ability to bid on valuable American government infrastructure projects.
Earlier in the day in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada isn’t backing down from its own demands – a position that has some U.S. legislators bristling at what they consider a stalling tactic.
“We’ve been very clear that we’re interested in what could be a good deal for Canada, but we’re going to need to see a certain amount of movement in order to get there,” Trudeau said.
Pressure is mounting on the federal government to get a deal done. On Wednesday, Texas Republican Kevin Brady, head of the influential House Ways and Means committee, told CNBC the two sides are “close enough” and the time has come for Canada to “step it up” and get on board.
Staying within the rules to beat the taxman
It was not uncommon to see several boys picking small rocks out of their knees in the hallway after lunch.
On a typical gravel playing field in rainy North Vancouver, the older boys played soccer nearly every lunch period. Considering the dank weather, the unforgiving fall air and the harsh playing surface, it’s a wonder the game got the traction it did – but it did. Maybe the lads all just wanted to be where all the others were, and nobody had a better idea.
I had no accomplice other than my Irish sense of injustice. I was in Grade 3, and by no means had I hit any sort of growth spurt. It just occurred to me that intimidation wasn’t a bunch of 10- to 13-yearold boys hogging the only ball on the only field. Intimidation was a big brother whose solemn duty was to nurture bruises daily, who chased friends out of the yard with an axe, and convinced all the girls in the neighbourhood that he was a wolf.
Not a werewolf, mind you. A wolf. So the ball. I wanted it. The teacher said it was my turn. Or something like that.
I suppose there was a some strategy in waiting until lunch was nearly over, but after dozens of times ball-boying errant kicks for the big kids, this time I caught it in my hands, turned and ran the other way, full-on sprinting, toward the stairs leading around the school.
Five minutes later I was ropea-doping strategically while counting in my head just as the end-of-lunch bell rang and the lunch-ladies made their rounds. This kept me alive a little longer, but the big kid who held the scruff of my shirt, leaned in and said those immortal words: “Meet me at the Paper Shack. Three. You’re dead.”
A bully takes his pound of flesh one way or another, and a bit of strategy might allow for an escape. The taxman is not so much a bully, but a legitimate player, ostensibly levelling the playing field. But when he comes for a visit, it’s not like we are all: “Hey wait! You forgot something. Here you go.” Instead we learn the rules and keep them, as advantageously as possible. A few more tips follow.
Receiving a bonus prior to year-end creates additional RRSP contribution room for 2019 if you have not yet reached the maximum for the year. It may also allow greater employee/ employer pension contributions and/or employee profit sharing plan contributions for 2019. On the other hand, if you expect to be in a lower tax bracket next year, consider deferring the receipt
of your bonus (if your employer permits) to early 2019.
If the bonus is paid directly to you, there will be withholding taxes unless your employer permits it to be transferred directly to your RRSP. You must have adequate unused RRSP deduction room in the year of transfer.
If you expect to be in a low marginal tax bracket for 2018 and a much higher marginal tax bracket in retirement, you may want to consider making an early withdrawal from your RRSP before year-end. The advantage of this strategy is that you can avoid a higher tax rate on these RRSP funds if withdrawn in the future when your marginal tax rate may be higher. If you can reinvest the RRSP funds withdrawn in your non-registered account, you can take advantage of the preferred income tax treatment on capital gains, Canadian dividends and return of capital. Furthermore, if you can reinvest the RRSP funds withdrawn in your Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), you do not pay any future tax on the income earned or capital gains realized. The drawback of this strategy is a prepayment of income tax and lost tax deferral on the growth of the RRSP funds withdrawn. It’s all in the math, and good financial planning software can help.
If you are required to make quarterly tax installment payments to the CRA, you should make your final payment on or before Dec. 15 to avoid late interest charges. If you missed an earli-
er installment payment deadline, you may want to consider making a larger final installment payment or make your final installment payment earlier than the Dec. 15 deadline to minimize late interest charges.
Making a charitable donation is one of the ways that you can significantly reduce the personal tax you pay. As an alternative to donating cash, you can contribute publicly listed securities in-kind to qualified charities without being subject to tax on the realized capital gain. You will receive a donation tax receipt equal to the fair market value of the security at the time of the donation, which can help reduce your total taxes payable.
This transfer must take place before year-end, so ensure you start this process well in advance to allow for processing and settlement time, typically at least five business days – also allowing a few days to account for half the world being on vacation that week. Lastly, be sure to verify that the charity organization is willing to accept in-kind donations.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member–Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are his 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.
The November crude contract was up $1.18 to US$70.77 per barrel, just short of a high set July 13. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 77.24 cents US compared with an average of 76.97 cents US on Tuesday.
The loonie started the day lower on NAFTA uncertainty but recovered following an inventory report showed another sizable draw in crude stockpiles, says Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital. She said crude prices rose on the report that said U.S. refinery demand was strong amid increasing global economic growth.
“You’re seeing supplies being reduced and of course on top of that you have some geopolitical uncertainty supporting prices,” she said referring to the potential for supply disruptions from Iran and the hurricane that struck North Carolina.
Fiera has a mid-$70s target for oil and an 83 cents US target for the Canadian dollar.
She said the march up to these levels in the coming months depend on how things develop on the trade front. The optimistic outlook would be undermined by a breakdown in NAFTA negotiations or a full-blown trade war between the U.S. and China.
But Bangsund says her base case doesn’t include those eventualities.
Canada’s main stock index decreased Wednesday.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 46.12 points to 16,149.92, its low point for the day. The market was pulled down by the healthcare sector, telecom and industrials, while metals and gold both gained almost 1.5 per cent. Health care dropped 3.1 per cent on lower prices for cannabis companies Aphria Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 158.80 to 26,405.76. The S&P 500 index was up 3.64 points to 2,907.95, while the Nasdaq composite was down 6.07 points to 7,950.04.
Bangsund said the improved investor sentiment has spurred an appetite for risk that allowed equities outperform fixed income investments.
“With little in the way of any notable economic or central bank developments, it seems that investors are reverting their focus back to trade developments and while we have seen a fresh round of tariffs between the U.S. and China, the response from China has been much more muted than the market were expecting,” she said.
MARK RYAN
Only Money
AP FILE PHOTO
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to media members in Washington earlier this month.
An I-told-you-so about the 2016 U.S. election
Moore documentary shows an America in crisis
Michael O’SULLIVAN Citizen news service
Fahrenheit 11/9, the latest documentary from agent provocateur Michael Moore, attempts nothing short of a magic act: turning despair into hope. That’s a tall order, in a film that starts out by posing a seemingly impossible question. After presenting, in its first few minutes, a brief recap of election night 2016, we watch as the evening of Nov. 8 slowly fades into the morning of Nov. 9 (the date referenced in the film’s title, which is also a play on Moore’s 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11). As ecstasy turns to horror for the Democratic voters who hoped to elect the first female president – and instead got a former reality TV star – Moore asks, “How the f--- did this happen?” You were expecting maybe “fair and balanced?”
To be sure, there’s a whole cottage industry devoted to answering Moore’s question, with constant fresh takes on the forces that swept Donald Trump to power. (According to a new book, something called “racialized economics” contributed to the “diploma divide” – the gap between the way that less- and better-educated white people voted.)
In Moore’s film, which the director narrates with a mix of outrage and humour, there’s plenty of blame to go around: Vladimir Putin gets name-checked, as does James B. Comey – and Gwen Stefani. The filmmaker argues, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, that the announcement of Trump’s candidacy may have been a stunt to convince NBC brass that he deserved a raise for The Apprentice, after he learned that singer Ste-
Ghomeshi essay backlash having ripple effects
Citizen news service
TORONTO
— The New York Review of Books has amended a personal essay by disgraced former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi to acknowledge the “serious nature” of the allegations against him, shortly after the editor who oversaw the piece parted ways with the publication.
A publicist confirmed Wednesday that Ian Buruma, who was appointed as the top editor at the New York Review of Books in late 2017, no longer works for the publication.
Hours after the news broke, the magazine added an editorial note responding to the nearly weeklong controversy over the piece, which sparked online backlash from those who argued Ghomeshi shouldn’t have been given such a prestigious platform.
The circumstances of Buruma’s departure are unclear. The magazine declined further comment.
Ghomeshi was acquitted in March 2016 of four counts of
sexual assault and one count of choking involving three complainants. In May 2016, he apologized to a fourth complainant and signed a peace bond that saw another count of sexual assault withdrawn.
In the essay, titled Reflections from a Hashtag and published online Friday, Ghomeshi opines about his post-trial life as a “poster boy” for bad male behaviour. He expressed remorse about the way he once treated people in his life, but continued to dispute the accusations against him.
Critics swiftly denounced the piece as a self-serving bid for public rehabilitation. They said Ghomeshi’s account downplayed the severity of the scandal, and questioned whether the piece had been properly fact-checked.
On Wednesday, the magazine added an editorial note clarifying several details about the allegations against Ghomeshi, how they emerged and the legal proceedings that followed.
“The following article, which has
fani, a coach on NBC’s The Voice, made more money than he did. Trump, Moore argues, was never serious about running. But although Moore cracks wise, he’s dead serious about his central thesis, which presents Flint, Mich., as a microcosm of the country, using the city’s disillusionment with politics as usual – a direct result of the water crisis there – as an explanation for why Trump won. The filmmaker, who was born in
provoked much criticism, should have included acknowledgment of the serious nature and number of allegations that had been made against the writer,” the note reads, adding that “substantial space” will be devoted to letters responding to the piece in the next issue.
Shortly after the essay was first posted Friday, Buruma defended his editorial judgement in an interview with the online publication Slate, saying Ghomeshi provided an “angle on an issue that is clearly very important and that I felt had not been exposed very much.”
Buruma said he was not in a position to know the exact nature of Ghomeshi’s alleged actions, nor was it really his “concern,” given that he was acquitted in court.
“All I know is that he was acquitted and he is now subject to public opprobrium and is a sort of persona non grata in consequence,” he told the Slate interviewer. “The interest in the article for me is what it feels like in that position and what we should think about.”
Start spreading the news: Sinatra estate to sell jewelry and art
Citizen news service
Pieces once owned by Ol’ Blue Eyes are going up for sale.
In December, Sotheby’s will auction scores of items that belonged to Frank Sinatra and his wife of 22 years, Barbara.
Lady Blue Eyes: Property of Barbara and Frank Sinatra will include about 300 objects, ranging from books and memorabilia to jewelry and artwork. The sale is expected to fetch about $3.5 million, Sotheby’s said Wednesday in a statement.
Barbara Sinatra, who died last year, was the entertainer’s fourth wife. The items come from their California residences in Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Malibu, and illustrate “the fashionable lifestyle of a beloved entertainer and philanthropist, and the home life where the couple surrounded themselves with the people and objects they loved,” Sotheby’s said.
Her collection of jewelry and accessories also is for sale.
Sotheby’s will offer the items during live auctions
Dec. 4 and Dec. 6, as well as during an online sale from Nov. 27 through Dec. 7.
Among the objects available are:
• A 1973 Norman Rockwell painting titled Sinatra: An American Classic (Portrait of Frank Sinatra), which is estimated at $80,000 to $120,000.
• A portrait of a woman in a green dress and red turban by Walt Kuhn, Girl With Turban (Zuleika). Estimate: $300,000 to $500,000.
• A 1991 abstract painting in the style of Piet Mondrian by Sinatra himself, called Abstract after Mondrian and valued at $10,000 to $15,000.
• A copy of the revised final script for From Here to Eternity, which won Sinatra an Oscar for best supporting actor. It’s estimated at $7,000 to $9,000.
• Childe Hassam’s 1914 oil painting Bathers and Cloud Reflections, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000.
Other highlights include jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and Marina B, as well as photos from Sinatra’s Rat Pack days and political memorabilia associated with U.S. presidents stretching from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.
Flint and who had long argued that Trump should not be written off, has made what feels, in some ways, like a dispiriting I-told-you-so. That’s apparently by design.
Moore goads us into experiencing the same emotions that citizens in Flint must have felt when President Barack Obama visited their blighted city in 2016 – and made a show of sipping the local water, in a PR stunt that some viewed as a callous act of betrayal
by a leader once seen as someone who might send in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to eliminate the problem of lead in the water.
Yet it’s no more of a stunt than a scene of Moore dousing the Michigan governor’s mansion with a fire hose filled with what he says is Flint water.
Fahrenheit 11/9 stalls a bit during these sequences, and many viewers may start to think: Wait, I thought this movie was about the election, not water.
Be patient. It’s both. If patience is what the movie demands, it’s not what Moore ultimately wants. Gradually, like an oil tanker changing direction, Fahrenheit 11/9 painstakingly pivots from a movie that seems to be working overtime to depress us to a movie that means to inspire us. By the second half, the film is presenting such political upstarts as New York’s congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who unseated a 10-term incumbent in this summer’s primary, and David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, as inspirations for other grass-roots activists who are impatient for change. “The America I want to save,” he says, “is the one we’ve never had.”
Those are hopeful words. But hope may be a commodity that’s in short supply by the time that Fahrenheit 11/9 has finished painting its unsettling portrait of an America in crisis.
Two and a half stars
PHOTO BY BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT-GATHRFILMS
Filmmaker Michael Moore, right, interviews David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting and a gun-control activist.
Monsanto asks judge to throw out $289M award in cancer suit
Sudhin THANAWALA Citizen news service
SAN FRANCISCO — Agribusiness company Monsanto has asked a San Francisco judge to throw out a jury’s $289 million award to a former school groundskeeper who said the company’s Roundup weed killer left him dying of cancer.
DeWayne Johnson failed to prove that Roundup or similar herbicides caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and presented no evidence that Monsanto executives were malicious in marketing Roundup, attorneys for Monsanto said in court documents filed late Tuesday.
Attorneys for Johnson had no immediate comment. Johnson’s lawsuit is among hundreds alleging Roundup caused cancer, but it was the first one to go to trial.
Johnson sprayed Roundup and a similar product, Ranger Pro, at his job as a pest control manager at a San Francisco Bay Area school district, according to his attorneys. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014 at age 42. A San Francisco jury last month determined that Roundup contributed to Johnson’s cancer, and Monsanto should have provided a label warning of a potential health hazard.
Johnson’s lawsuit is among hundreds alleging Roundup caused cancer, but it was the first one to go to trial.
It awarded Johnson $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Johnson’s attorneys have said the jury verdict would bolster the other Roundup lawsuits.
Many government regulators have rejected a link between the active ingredient in Roundup – glyphosate – and cancer. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that glyphosate is safe.
“While we are sympathetic to Mr. Johnson and his family, glyphosate is not responsible for his illness, and the verdict in this case should be reversed or set aside,” Bayer AG, which acquired Monsanto in June, said in a statement.
The court documents filed Tuesday ask San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos to override the jury’s decision and enter judgment in favour of Monsanto or order a new trial. Bolanos also has the authority to reduce the award.
Glyphosate came under increasing scrutiny after the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified it as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015.
A flurry of lawsuits against Monsanto in federal and state courts followed, and California added glyphosate to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer. Monsanto has attacked the international research agency’s opinion as an outlier.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says glyphosate is safe for humans when used in accordance with label directions.
Massive oil spill finally cleaned up
Citizen news service
BISMARCK, N.D. — Five years and almost $100 million later, cleanup is complete on a massive oil pipeline leak in North Dakota that has been called one of the biggest onshore spills in U.S. history, industry and state officials said Wednesday.
The spill by Tesoro, now known as Andeavor, was found by a Tioga farmer in September 2013. Crews had been working around the clock to clean it. Farmer Steve Jenkins had smelled the crude oil for days before discovering the spill in his wheat field after his combine’s tires were covered in it.
Patty Jensen, Steve’s wife, said the cleanup’s finish has “lifted a weight off our shoulders.”
She said her husband began planting a mixture of sweet clover, grass and winter rye last week as a cover crop to keep the soil in place on the affected area that she estimated at about the size of 70 football fields.
The spill was not far from where oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951. The Texas-based company and regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused the rupture in the 15-centimetre diameter steel pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border.
North Dakota regulators initially thought just 31,500 gallons of oil was involved in the spill, but later updated the amount exponentially.
Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess said less than a third of the 840,000 gallons that spilled was recovered. The remaining oil was cooked from the soil in a process called thermal desorption.
Suess said about 1.4 million tons was excavated from the site and treated. Crews had to dig as deep 18 metres to remove oil-tainted soil.
No water sources or wildlife was affected, he said.
Suess said the site will be monitored by the company and the state for up to five years.
The company originally thought it could clean up the site in two years for about $4 million. It later estimated the cost at $93 million.
The state fined the company $454,000 for the spill.
Feds accelerate phase-out of rupture-prone rail tankers
OTTAWA — The federal government is speeding up the timelines for the removal of rupture-prone tank cars from Canadian railroads.
Ottawa has taken steps to phase out certain types of tank cars following the deadly train derailment and explosions in Lac-Megantic, Que., that killed 47 people in 2013.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau
High-speed train project gets green light
announced new timelines on Wednesday that will now see CPC-1232 tank cars that carry crude oil phased out by Nov. 1 – which is 17 months earlier than the previous deadline. He says remaining DOT-111 tankers and CPC-1232 tank cars that transport highly volatile flammable liquids will be removed by Jan. 1 – more than six years sooner than an earlier target date.
Federation of Canadian Municipali-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A plan to build a highspeed train between Southern California and Las Vegas is back on track after a private rail company announced Wednesday it has taken over the project.
Florida-based Brightline said it has acquired the rights to XpressWest’s 298-kilometre federally approved rail corridor along Interstate 15. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Brightline said it will start construction of the $7 billion line next year. It expects to complete a link between Las Vegas and Victorville, Calif., by 2022, with plans to eventually extend the line another 130 kilometres to Los Angeles.
ties president Vicki-May Hamm and Railway Association of Canada CEO Marc Brazeau welcomed the accelerated timelines, saying in separate statements that the cars’ removal will lower the safety risks for many communities.
DOT-111s carrying volatile crude oil exploded in the Lac-Megantic disaster and the tanker models were completely removed from crude service two years ago.
Citizen news service
Smoke rises from derailed railway cars in Lac-Megantic, Que., on July 6, 2013. The cars were carrying crude oil.
Vancouver co-operative develops app to fight overdoses
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — A Vancouver technology co-operative is gaining recognition for developing a mobile app and three other digital monitoring tools aimed at preventing overdoses, especially among drug users who are dying alone.
Brave Technology is the only Canadian participant among 12 companies awarded $200,000 in the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge, and they are all now vying for a $1-million grant to come up with technical solutions to address the overdose crisis.
Oona Krieg,
chief operating of-
ficer for Brave, said people would log on to the Be Safe app before using their drugs to connect with trained volunteer responders ready to step in with the overdosereversing medication naloxone or call an ambulance.
“You’re connected to a community responder who will stay on the phone with you,” she said, adding a user would be asked a series of questions, including which drug they believe they’ll be using.
The next phase of testing the app, which has been in development for a year, is expected to begin in Vancouver next month.
Krieg said Be Safe, like the other tools under development, is intended to act as a form of digital supervision for people who use drugs alone and would never go to supervised consumption sites.
“The idea is to end the isolation and to be able to respond to an overdose quicker than somebody else calling 911,” she said, adding the app would also enable people to make connections with responders and get information on clean needles, wound care, or a referral to treatment if the user is ready to take that step.
Another app being developed would allow members of the community to register to be trained as responders.
Krieg said families of people who have died, those who have survived an overdose, and citizens looking for ways to get involved in dealing with the opioid crisis are stepping up to take action.
“One of the first things that can end the isolation is communitymember response,” she said.
The BC Coroners Service said 88 per cent of the 878 overdose deaths between January and July occurred indoors, among people who used alone or were with someone who was unwilling or unable to call 911.
Brave is also developing an internet-enabled “button” that would be installed in rooms of supported housing complexes, for example, so drug users can press it to connect with trained staff in the building, Krieg said.
“The whole premise is you press the button when you’re about to use and within three to five minutes someone comes and checks on you.”
An 11-day pilot project involved mounting the buttons in 17 rooms of a supported housing complex in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Krieg said.
“The results were that people were pressing the buttons when using, and three overdoses were reversed. For the other 68 per cent of people who’d used the button, there was no need for a reversal but people were checked on.”
Three more pilots in Vancouver are slated to begin in November, she said.
A prototype for a fourth tool, called an Odetect, is about a year from development and could be a wearable device such as a nose ring that may measure respiration and oxygen levels and transmit that information to responders who could take action, Krieg said. Hugh Lampkin, vice-president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said any technology designed to prevent overdoses would be an asset for people who are hiding their addiction.
“There’s so much shame associated with using drugs that they use alone because they don’t want their boss, their spouse, their family or their neighbours to know what they’re doing,” he said.
Dr. Keith Ahamad, an addictions specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital, said there’s an urgent need for technology-driven intervention where a “gaping hole” currently exists.
“One thing we’ve had a really hard time doing is figuring out how to get to people who are using alone. It’s very complicated, including things like stigma and being in recovery,” said Ahamad, who is also a clinical researcher at the BC Centre for Substance Use and spent seven years working as a computer engineer.
“We’ve got overdose prevention sites and take-home naloxone but for people who are dying alone we need something innovative.”
Ahamad said biomedical engineering faculties at universities across North America are showing interest in developing technology to respond to an alarming number of overdose deaths and there’s a need for groups like Brave to partner with them to evaluate digital tools that could be “mind blowing.”
“People who are hiding away in their rooms by themselves could put a device on that could potentially be linked via Bluetooth to your cellphone that could phone 911, text a friend, use GPS.”
Oona Krieg of Brave Technology shows an app the co-operative is developing in an effort to prevent overdoses.
• A performance bond is to be posted by the successful applicant(s) in the amount of Fifty
Inner peace and joy key to true contentment
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with the desire to alleviate it.”
What we rarely consider, however, is that compassion is a tremendous source of strength. The people who have shown the greatest compassion in our world are among the most powerful and influential.
The Book of Joy is a conversation between Bishop Desmond Tutu of South
Lessons in Learning
Gerry ChidiaC
Africa and exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. Both men are very old, but both are filled with peace and joy, looking back upon rich and happy lives in a changing world, and looking toward a hopeful future. In their dialogue, they often spoke of compassion and its impact.
Tutu, for example, spoke of his friend Nelson Mandela. Most remember the wise and peaceful statesman of his later years. We often forget that Mandela was imprisoned for committing acts of violence. He was angry about the injustices in his country, and he sought to bring about change, first through legal means and then by causing fear.
In prison Mandela not only saw his freedom taken away, he was further humiliated by a racist system. Black prisoners were forced to wear different clothing, and even had reduced food rations. Despite being a brilliant lawyer, he was made to break rocks and do other menial tasks.
After a number of years, Mandela learned to see his oppressors for what they really were, human beings just like him, and as people who also suffered. In an effort to subjugate the majority population, they had sacrificed a part of their humanity. They were ordinary people who wanted to be happy, and most had no idea that they had actually been building their own prisons.
Mandela used his time in confinement as an opportunity for personal growth. He learned to embrace his true power, his inner strength, his ability to love, to forgive, and to understand the heart of the white South African.
When he emerged from prison 27 years after entering, Mandela was no longer a man of violence, he was a man of power. He became the leader of the country that had tried to remove all of his human rights. He was a voice for peace and a symbol of hope for Africa and the entire world.
In his conversation with Tutu, the Dalai Lama also spoke of a Tibetan monk
Queer Cafe
The Queer Cafe is a monthly event taking place on Wednesdays, including Sept. 26, Oct. 24 and Nov. 28 from 5 to 6 p.m. at Books & Co., 1685 Third Avenue.
The Queer Cafe is an event where LGBTQ individuals and allies can come together to meet members of the com-
imprisoned in a Chinese prison camp for 18 years. He expressed that his greatest concern throughout this time was losing compassion for his captors. Though many died around him, this man not only survived, he maintained his joy and his humanity.
The Dalai Lama himself expresses compassion despite the fact that he and his people have lost their country and many now live in exile. Though he is a man of peace who has guided millions in finding inner sanctity and joy, he is still seen as a tremendous threat by the Chinese government. In an odd way, they seem to be aware of the power of his compassion.
The beautiful thing about this strength is that it is within the reach of all of us. Parents experience compassion when they care for their sick children, and when they see the good in a child’s heart despite their mischievous actions. It is a gift that we only need to nurture.
Some may say that compassion is a panacea, that those who embrace it are Pollyannas. Yet history shows time and again that it is a tremendous source for positive change; perhaps it is even the greatest force. As more and more of us embrace it, we not only bring hope, we actually advance the world by helping our sisters and brothers, both near and far, live to their potential.
As the Dalai Lama teaches, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
— 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.
munity and make new friends. If new to P.G. or the LGBTQ community, we will always have small crafts and ice breaker cards for anyone who’s a little bit shy.
Feel free to bring projects or sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee with the friendly queer community.
Not all breakfast cereals created equal
Breakfast is described as the most important meal of the day for good reason. Eating a healthy breakfast has been linked to a healthy weight and reduced weight gain over time, improved appetite control, and better intake of calcium, vitamin D, potassium and fibre.
Unfortunately, almost 40 per cent of all Canadians skip breakfast, blaming a variety of reasons.
Maybe you’re short on time, you don’t like breakfast foods, or you often decide to skip breakfast as a way to cut calories. Whatever the case may be, including even a small, balanced snack in the morning could increase your productiv-
Food
for Thought
ity in the day and help to avoid brain drain later on.
One of the most common, and convenient, breakfast foods available is cold cereal, but it can also be packed with added sugars and devoid of fibre while masquerading as a healthy choice.
Dietitians of Canada has five tips to help you navigate the cereal aisle and choose a healthier breakfast option:
1. Choose whole grains. Pick cereals with a whole grain as the first ingredient. Look for the
word “whole” before the name of a grain, such as “whole oats” or “whole grain whole wheat flour.” Whole grains can help reduce your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer.
2. Look for high fibre. Check the nutrition facts panel and choose a cereal with at least four grams of fibre in every serving. Fibre can help to promote good digestion, better blood sugar control and lower blood cholesterol. Plus, it can help to keep you fuller for longer and avoid that mid-morning slump.
3. Check for less sodium. Again, check the nutrition facts panel and look for a cereal with less than 360 mg of sodium per serving.
Breakfast cereals can be surprisingly high in sodium and
taste is not always a good indicator of how salty a food is. Eating low sodium foods is one way to help lower your risk for high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and kidney disease.
4. Go low on sugar. Take a look at ingredient labels and try to avoid products with added sugars. These ingredients can often appear hidden in the form of corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, sucrose, honey, fruit juice concentrates and any kind of syrup. Since the nutrition facts panel does not differentiate between “added” sugars and those that are naturally occurring, such as from fruit, it’s important to read through the ingredients. If a cereal isn’t sweet enough for your taste, try adding your own
sweetness in the form of fresh, frozen or dried fruit or add vanilla or cinnamon for extra flavour.
5. Pay attention to serving size. The information on the nutrition facts panel applies to the serving size listed at the top of the label.
If you eat two cups of a low sodium cereal, but one serving equals one cup, you may be well-intentioned but actually eating a breakfast that is high in sodium. Since the size of most breakfast bowls can easily dwarf listed serving sizes, it might be worth keeping a measuring cup in your box of cereal to prevent over-pouring.
— Kelsey Leckovic is a registered dietitian with Northern Health working in chronic disease management.
Terry Fox Run has historical significance to Prince George
Terry Fox’s heroic Marathon of Hope will be showcased in an exhibition called Terry Fox – Running to the Heart of Canada, which will be presented at The Exploration Place Oct. 15 to Jan. 13, 2019.
The project is presented in partnership with Exploration Place and UNBC, it was announced Sunday morning during the opening ceremonies of the annual Terry Fox Walk/Run that saw hundreds of Prince George residents attend.
The exhibition features an in-depth look at Fox’s 143-day, 5,373 km journey from St John’s, Newfoundland to Thun-
der Bay, Ontario, which began on April 12, 1980.
This is Dick Voneugen’s 38th Terry Fox Walk and he remembers when Terry Fox came to run the Prince George Labour Day Classic run so he could decide if he would be able to accomplish his Marathon of Hope.
“It means a lot to be here today,”
Voneugen said as he started out on the walk. “Terry Fox is my little hero, you know, because I was there in 1979 when he did the second loop of the race. He had signed up for the eight-and-a-half mile and then as soon as he finished the second loop he couldn’t wait to phone his mom to tell her he was ready for the Marathon of Hope.”
Kelsey lecKovic
Citizen photo by JAMeS DoyLe
Several hundred people young and old ran, walked, cycled, or scootered their way along the five-kilometre route of the 38th annual terry Fox Run on Sunday morning at Lheidli t’enneh Memorial park.
I picked up a discus. It’s that frisbee like throwing implement that is one of the field events held at track meets.
It felt great to have it in my hands again.
I decided as part of a boost to my fitness goals I would add major incentive – to be a competitor at the 2018 BC 55+ Games – that’s the new name for the Seniors Games.
It was an amazing event held last week in Cranbrook where approximately 2,500 participants gathered to compete in 28 different events.
You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face – even seconds before I put the shot, as I walked away from throwing the javelin, and especially during the athletes’ parade into the stadium during the opening ceremonies.
Because I am not at my peak physical condition by any means and the decision to compete was rather impulsive I was not sure what to enter. I knew I could enter discus and shot put, but even as a teenager the javelin – the spear – was never something I could chuck any kind of distance. And the hammer throw? Well, I had never laid a hand on one before. Back in the day girls weren’t allowed to throw that thing.
But now as an out-of-shape just turned 55-year-old, I was handed a three-kilogram metal ball on a 42-inch wire attached to a metal handle that I was supposed to fling over my head five times and let go.
I thought to myself – what could possibly go wrong?
I have to admit there were a couple of wild throws and one in particular scared the bejeezus outta me. My off-centre throw landed at the feet of my illustrious coach Tom Masich. My heart stopped. He blinked and told me to throw it again. I made sure from then on he was
behind the wire mesh for his own protection and my peace of mind. Coach Masich is a man after my own heart. When I told him that I hated the javelin and it hated me his response was if I hated the javelin and it hated me, then the rest of the throwing implements were pointless – and I didn’t get it.
When he said it a second time I immediately felt I was talking to a kindred spirit.
I love his sense of humour and the smile that inevitably comes right after the punchline. His wisdom he shares so freely saw gains in distances like I had never thought possible and I am so very grateful to him for his guidance and look forward to working with him again next season.
Not knowing what to expect coming into any competition there was a lot of trepidation as I made my way to my first competition at the games, the javelin. I was early because I was scared and so I took it all in with a pounding heart. You can see the fear on my face as my man Bob captured the moment with his camera before the competition.
Rules were explained and then explained again. Two of us were newbies and Joan Harris was not only at the competition but also practiced with me weeks before the meet. Both the newbies were from Prince George, you see. Somehow that made it easier.
As the competition started and one athlete was up, one on deck, and one retrieving, it all went very quickly. I knew I was embarrassingly weak at this event but you’d never know it by the reaction of the other competitors. The women who throw things who are between the ages of 55 and 69 all compete in a group. There are applause for each competitor, words of encouragement, and quickly the leaders are established. I threw poorly for two throws, nailed a good one – for me – and fouled
out on one.
We turned to each other, encouraged each other and consoled each other. It’s quite a different animal than when I competed as a teenager in Ontario. We were taught not to fraternize with our competitors. Mostly you’d get dirty looks, and sometimes snotty remarks were made. It was a hostile environment back then. I was always so disappointed about that.
In a school of 2,500 students in Newmarket, Ont., I was the only female thrower that went beyond the school’s meet. I made it to the Ontario championship and came fifth in discus. I could never figure out why the other competitors wouldn’t want to talk to someone likeminded. Nobody else in my world understood how much I loved to throw things. But they did. But wouldn’t talk to me. Go figure.
In the field at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, 37 years later, I found my community of throwers. Women who loved the sport. Women who have been through life, accepted all the challenges that come their way and still show up to compete in 6 C in the pouring rain and smile.
Terri Jones took one look at me as I approached the cage where we’d throw the hammer and grabbed my number out of my fumbling fingers, looked up at me, smiled, and said she could never pin these things on straight. She read me like a book. For whatever reason, I was out of sorts, and kindness from the record-breaking thrower was extremely welcome.
During the competition, participant Marlene Johnston saw something another participant, Joyce Essex, was doing wrong.
She took Joyce aside, offered her technique fine-tuning and suddenly Joyce was throwing like she never had before. From her first season to her third Joyce had doubled her throwing distance. The smile on her face brought goose bumps because as we’re aging we aren’t supposed to get better but we are.
As the hammer throw concluded the official who was measuring the throws came to me to tell me everything I was doing wrong. I cherish the advice she gave me and I will carry it forward into my training and throwing technique for next year.
Before the shot put competition we were all doing our practice throws. The official offered critiques on our technique. As I stepped into the circle, she walked by me and winked. I laughed. Delighted with the camaraderie, the support, the encouragement. It was my best throw. I did it with a smile on my face. I did a weird little curtsie thing to avoid stepping out of the ring and fouling out. I knew it was a good throw. I could feel it the second I released the shot.
I proudly took gold and when they announced the distance I ran to hug my sister, who came all the way from Ontario with her husband to support me. The throw was my personal best. After that I was immediately called the huggie girl and I loved it.
The ladies who throw at the games are a remarkable bunch of women. Those lines on their faces are well earned. Yvonne Dibblee is a farmer who throws the javelin a couple of times on her way to collect the eggs in the morning. She throws hay bales. She doesn’t need to train.
She’s a champion and quickly reminds me that everyone has had their challenges in the past, some as recent as a few months ago and still they show up to throw with their friends. An official stopped us at the end of a competition to commend us on our show of support and camaraderie as we compete against each other. She said the men before us were silent. It wasn’t nearly as much fun. Joyce Essex made quite a statement when she confessed that when she first joined a masters track and field club she was practicing but wouldn’t go into any competitions. With tears in her eyes she admitted she didn’t think she was good enough and above all she didn’t want to disappoint her team mates. That’s why she wouldn’t compete. As we shared an emotional moment together, with her hand resting on my arm she looked into my eyes and told me walking into that circle and giving it her all was the best thing she could ever do in her retirement. It didn’t matter what it said on that tape measuring the distance of her throw. She was doing it, she was proud to be there and she loved all those ladies who make up the community of women throwers aged 55 to 69.
Even though this is my first year at it, those wonderful, beautiful, kind and openlygiving women have sealed the deal for me. I will keep competing for as long as I can because of them. This first year I set my mark and made my throwing distances official. Next year I am determined to make my mark in the field. I can’t wait.
The officials who wink, tease, and offer advice, the sports chair who ran over to check in with the newbie, and the beautiful women whose stories are left unspoken but can be read souldeep in their eyes. That’s why I will go back and drag with me anyone who wants to join this inclusive club. You don’t have to be good. You just have to be willing.
Next year’s BC 55+ Games are in Kelowna from Sept. 10 to 14.
Us thrower girls will see you there. For more information visit www.55plusgames.ca.
Citizen photo by bob Dalgleish
Some of the lady throwers 55 to 69 years old at the 2018 Bc 55+ games right after competing in the shot put Friday morning. From right Yvonne Dribblee, nola Hendrie, christine Hinzmann (back row), Joyce essex, Marlene Johnston (back row), Joan Harris and terri Jones.
For the love of books
love to read.
IAnyone who knows me is crystal clear about my need to read. I read every single night at a minimum and as much as I can squeeze in throughout the day. Apparently, I am an anomaly among my friends with kids.
I surround myself with book people and only a few of them are still reading with any regularity and this saddens me to no end. It is the easiest thing in the world when you become a parent to forget to make time for yourself and I completely understand how your own hobbies are the first things to get dropped in a busy family life. However, there is no excuse for not reading. If you have time to play Candy Crush, you have time to read a few paragraphs before bed.
Again
i do not have a data plan on my phone so the option to scroll endlessly through pinterest, Facebook or instagram is not an option when i am waiting somewhere.
I do not have a data plan on my phone so the option to scroll endlessly through Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram is not an option when I am waiting somewhere.
I am in the minority.
When I get the opportunity to pick up my kids from school, I usually end up parking a thousand miles away from the school because I am late for everything. As I walk up the parking lot, nearly every single car has a parent inside waiting for their kids. Every single person is looking down at a smart phone. Only one time did I see someone waiting in the car, reading a book.
Last week I had to take my daughter to the walk-in clinic and, again, every single person in the waiting room was hunched over their phones. I didn’t bring any toys to the wait-
Megan kuklIs
ing room but I had a notebook and a pen and my daughter and I drew shapes and practiced our letters while the rest of the people tuned out to the world around them.
I think that as a species, smart phones have caused us to have bad posture and to forget about books.
The next time you are out and about and stuck waiting somewhere, pause a moment before you take out your phone and look up at your fellow humans. How many people are on their phones, unable to sit quietly and just be? Like half the summer spent with fires burning our province, this is the new normal – disconnection and impatience. I always thought that I would love teaching my children how to read. I would introduce them to the joy of making lines on a page turn into pictures in your head and we would spend countless hours sitting beside each other, reading. As it turns out, I am far too impatient to really enjoy the initial stages of my children learning how to read. I want them to be able to read now, not later.
I am impatient for them to open the doors of their mind and read everything they can get their hands on. If there was an app to make my kids learn how to read immediately, I would download it in an instant. I want so badly for them to experience the magic of being
transported to another place, another planet, into another person’s mind.
For my friends who have not found the time to read in the last few years, since they had kids, or since their lives have become too busy, I say to you, stop making excuses and start reading again. Not making time for reading is like saying no to a world made of magic.
“Magic? No, thank you. I prefer to live a perfectly normal life in a world where there are no flights of fancy.”
Bah. I choose magic and so should you.
Read a book – it’s good for you.
Kidney Walk goes Sunday
The annual Kidney Walk goes Sunday at 1 p.m. at AimHi, 950 Kerry St. and Ecole Lac de Bois field. Registration begins at 1 p.m., opening ceremonies to follow and walk to begin at 2 p.m. The distance is 2.5 km.
Grab family, friends, and coworkers to create a team.
Whether you’re looking for a corporate team building experience, a group outing or just an opportunity to get outside and have fun, this event is an ideal way to bring people together for a good cause.
All ages are welcome to enjoy food and entertainment.
Every year more than 15,000 volunteers and participants gather at Kidney Walks in communities throughout the country to raise awareness and funds for those affected by kidney disease. The Kidney Foundation’s walk is Canada’s cornerstone fundraising event. Funds raised will go to help support innovative and ground-breaking research projects and to offer crucial programs and services to the thousands of people living with kidney disease. For more information email princegeorgewalk@kidney.bc.ca.
Carrie Underwood talks about her miscarriages
Lindsey Bever Citizen news service
Facing what she worried was going to be her fourth miscarriage in less than two years, country music star Carrie Underwood said she curled up next to her three-year-old son and prayed like she had never prayed in the past.
The 35-year-old singer-songwriter said on CBS Sunday Morning that she became angry at God.
“I was like, ‘Why on Earth do I keep getting pregnant if I can’t have a kid?’ “ she said in an interview over the weekend. “’Do something. Either shut the door, or let me have a kid.’ For the first time, I feel like I actually told God how I felt. And I feel like we’re supposed to do that.”
Underwood said on the morning news show that when she went to the doctor a couple of days later, she learned her pregnancy was just fine.
“He heard me,” she said, explaining that God heard her prayers, and she and her husband, professional hockey player Mike Fisher, are now expecting their second child.
Underwood had a rough year in 2017. She fell while walking her dogs – breaking her wrist, chipping a tooth and injuring her face, requiring 40 to 50 stitches, according to People magazine. She also lost two pregnancies – and then a third one this year, she said.
She said on the show that “2017 just wasn’t how I imagined it.”
“We got pregnant early 2017, and it didn’t work out,” she added, her voice cracking. “It happens. And that was the thing in the beginning – it was like, ‘Okay, God, we know this just wasn’t your timing, and that is all right. We will
bounce back and figure a way through it.’
“Got pregnant again in the spring, and it didn’t work out. Got pregnant again early 2018 - didn’t work out. So, at that point, it was just kind of like, ‘Okay, what’s the deal? What is all of this?’ “
Underwood said that at the time, she was scared to allow herself to get angry.
“We’re so blessed,” she said on the morning show. “My son, Isaiah, is the sweetest thing, and he’s the best thing in the world and I’m like, ‘If we can never have any other kids, that’s okay because he’s amazing, and I have this amazing life.’ Really, what can I complain about? I can’t. I have an incredible husband, incredible friends, an incredible job, an incredible kid. Can I be mad? No.”
Earlier this month, Underwood told Redbook that at 35, she thought she and her husband “may have missed our chance to have a big family.”
“We always talk about adoption and about doing it when our child or children are a little older,” she told the magazine, adding that until that time, she and her husband plan to continue helping other children through charitable organizations.
“Our focus right now in our lives is helping as many kids as possible,” she added.
When asked about her successes, Underwood told CBS Sunday Morning that it has been a balance.
“You can’t win all the time,” she said. “You’ve got to have some downs to realize when you’re up.” Citizen news serviCe photo by nino Munoz
carrie Underwood as Maria in nBc’s 2013 production of the Sound of Music Live.
Tisci’s first Burberry show a London Fashion Week hit
Gregory Katz Citizen news service
LONDON — All eyes were on Burberry
Monday as new chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci showed his first collection for the venerable British house. It was a diverse, wide-ranging show, both showcasing the brand’s heritage and expanding on it. Earlier, Christopher
Kane showed a provocative collection built on one of his favourite themes: sexuality in all its glory.
Here are some of Friday’s London Fashion Week highlights:
The first thing different about the debut show by Burberry’s new chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci was the setting: no glitz, no over-the-top glam-
our, no chilled champagne for guests.
Instead, the show was held at an old post office sorting centre next to the new U.S. Embassy, which President Donald Trump has criticized for being in a bad part of London.
But the clothes – the clothes emphasized Burberry’s proud tradition in a disciplined, orderly way that made it clear that Tisci wants to build on the brand’s reputation, not rebuild it from the ground up after replacing Christopher Bailey.
Fashion stylist Zerina Akers, who works closely with Beyonce, was knocked out by the show.
“The collection is incredible,” she said, showing no signs of jet lag after a long trip from Los Angeles to see Tisci’s debut firsthand. “It satisfies the hunger for both classic femininity and modernism which thrilled me.”
The first model wore, not surprisingly, a Burberry trench with a slight twist to make it Tisci’s own take on what has long been a foundation of the brand’s enduring popularity.
The show was divided into three parts: the refined, the relaxed and evening wear. There were trench coats and car coats with cinched waists, pleated skirts and pencil shirts, and pussybow blouses for the “refined” look, which was followed by a punkier, less studied style that Tisci said was meant to capture the rebellious spirit of U.K. fashion.
And finally, the evening wear, a series of spectacular, full-length black jersey dresses, some with gold detailing.
Tisci seemed in control of all these diverse approaches. Early in his reign, he doesn’t want to pigeonhole Burberry and limit his future options.
“This show is a celebration of the cultures, the traditions, and the codes of this historic fashion house and of the eclecticism that makes up the beautifully diverse United Kingdom,” he said.
Christopher Kane’s catwalk show transformed part of the Tate Modern museum into a celebration of sex and nature.
The popular designer’s show Monday contained several outfits with a “sexual cannibalism” theme, including one with a T-shirt showing Kane’s own drawing of praying mantises mating.
“They were my hand drawings,” he said after the show. “I made a lot of
drawings of praying mantises killing each other” while mating.
The quirky designer said he was partially inspired by the words of revered nature broadcaster David Attenborough and also by Marilyn Monroe. The soundtrack featured their words intercut with each other, Kane said afterward with a smile.
“David Attenborough had a huge influence on me growing up,” said Kane, who confessed he could watch the Discovery channel nonstop if given the chance.
The theme of sexuality often plays large in Kane’s shows. In February, his collection paid homage to the Joy of Sex books.
Some of his fans wore shirts from that collection at Friday’s show.
It was an eclectic Kane collection displayed Friday, including a striking, barely there little black dress and a series of elegant, long pleated skirts paired with revealing, lacy tops.
He always surprises. There was a beautifully cut tuxedo paired with a white T-shirt with an animal theme, and a stunning white geometric minidress. One model wore a startling, sheer red dress, while other outfits had what seemed to be jeweled metallic stripes used to decorate the arms.
Citizen news serviCe photo by vianney Le Caer a model wears a creation by Burberry during their Spring/Summer 2019 runway show at London Fashion week in London on Monday.
Driver’s Seat
Volkswagen ends Beetle production
Citizen news service
Volkswagen is ending worldwide production of its iconic Beetle, the model once so popular in North America that it prompted the German automaker to build its first factory on the continent in the 1960s.
The last one will roll off the line from the company’s factory in the state of Puebla, Mexico, in July 2019.
VW had been pulling the Beetle from select markets as part of a broader effort by the German giant to rein in its bloated product range, which spans more than 300 different vehicles and variants, including heavy trucks, motorbikes and passenger cars. Cutting back on product complexity is one of the key ways the company is trimming costs and getting leaner in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal.
Last Friday, Handelsblatt reported VW also plans to halt production for a week next month of the Golf at its huge factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The model’s woes include more complex emission tests and plans to replace the current version of the hatchback.
Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess has been a driving force behind this slimming down since he started leading the main VW car brand in 2015. Demand for the Beetle and other hatchbacks like the Golf has come under pres-
from 2017 shows Volkswagen Beetles displayed during the annual gathering of the Beetle club in Yakum, central israel. Volkswagen says it will stop making its iconic Beetle in July of next year. Volkswagen of america announced on thursday the end of production of the third-generation Beetle by introducing two final special editions.
sure as customer appetite has shifted toward sport utility vehicles.
“The market is moving on,” said John Wolkonowicz, an independent auto analyst and industry historian in Boston.
“The people who wanted them, mostly baby boomer women, bought them, enjoyed them and they’re on to something else.
Younger people don’t know what the point is.”
The Beetle played the starring role of Herbie in the 1968 Disney film, The Love Bug.
The sentient race car sporting red, white and blue racing stripes from the front to the back bumper headlined several follow-up films and a television series.
Beetle buying in the U.S. peaked the same year of the original Disney movie at about 423,000 units sold. The car became a phenomenon again in the 1990s when VW brought it back to America after a 20-year lapse.
Last year, VW delivered just 15,166 units – less than one-seventh the sales of the Jetta sedan.
SUVs, meanwhile, are capturing record share of the market.
“The nostalgia for the ‘60s is going away as the baby boomer generation is going away,” Wolkonowicz said. “Most baby boomers are getting older and need something easy to get in and out of. Crossovers are easy to get in and out of, cars are not.”
Putting the Beetle out to pasture enables VW to produce more of the other models built in Puebla, including the Jetta sedan and Tiguan SUV.
But the car may not go away for good: Diess has pondered reviving the Beetle as a fully electric car to tap the model’s popular culture cachet. VW has touted the upcoming I.D. Neo hatchback being rolled out in 2020 as the potential new Beetle for the electric vehicle age.
“The loss of the Beetle after three generations, over nearly seven decades, will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle’s many devoted fans,” Hinrich Woebcken, CEO of Volkswagen’s U.S. sales unit, said in a statement.
While there are no immediate plans to replace the car with a next-generation version, he pointed to the I.D. Buzz – a modern interpretation of the legendary VW Bus – to hint that the Beetle could one day make a comeback.
“Never say never,” Woebcken said.
a Vw Beetle Dune concept automobile on display in Leipzig, germany in 2014. Citizen news serviCe photo by oded balilty
photo
Ford puts muscle behind Mustang as others fade
Citizen news service
Ford has stopped running national ads for the Fusion and Focus sedans it’s killing and put more marketing muscle behind the Mustang, a decision that paid off with a 35 per cent sales jump for the pony car last month.
“Those are the kind of things you’re able to do when you narrow the focus of your lineup,” Mark LaNeve, Ford’s vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, said in an interview. “It allows you to not only focus your product resources, but also to focus manpower, time, attention and marketing on your core lineup. And we think we’re getting a benefit from that.”
Ford will offer more variants of the Mustang, banking off the special Bullitt edition put out this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Steve McQueen movie that featured a legend-
ary chase scene. That model is in high demand, with customers willing to get on waiting lists, LaNeve said. The 480-horsepower fastback with a
top speed of 163 mph starts at $47,495. The Mustang is poised to be the lone passenger car to survive Ford culling its North American lineup to focus on more
lucrative trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. While Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett has vowed a return to a 10 percent profit margin in the company’s most important region, he has yet say when Ford will get there.
Ford surprised analysts with a 4.1 per cent August sales increase, driven by gains with the Mustang, F-Series trucks and sport utility vehicles, including a doubling of deliveries of the recently redesigned Lincoln Navigator.
The strong results followed a sluggish July in which its older SUVs sagged and sent its total light-vehicle deliveries down 3.3 percent. That resilience can be attributed to consumer confidence and a robust job market.
Ford’s August sales also got a boost from a 15 percent increase in deliveries to fleet buyers, driven by commercial vehicles such as the Super Duty pickup and Transit van.
New era of clean-energy vehicles is here
The emergence of clean energy vehicles over the past two decades has been a gradual one – but the trend that has emerged in recent months demonstrates we may be entering the dawn of a new era in electric, hydrogen and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales.
Car Dealers
B.C. has the highest per capital EV adoption rate in Canada and the
province also leads in market share of electric vehicle sales in this country at 3.7 per cent. In 2017, the CEVforBC program saw almost 1,800 applications processed for clean energy vehicles – a 20 per cent increase over 2016. Between April and June of this year, more than 1,400 applications were paid out to consumers. Remark-
ably, during a two-day period in June, a record 75 applications were submitted.
This is an exciting, but equally challenging, time for auto manufacturers, dealers, governments and consumers. On one hand, we are seeing an increasingly positive response from consumers but, adopting new technology takes time and requires proper infrastructure, such as charging stations, to be in place.
A variety of surveys have shown there are a number of valid reasons that consumers are still reluctant to buy EVs. As the association representing new car dealers across B.C., we recently conducted independent research involving 500 drivers, province-wide - to get a snapshot of opinions on the issue of EVs and factors that may motivate or hinder greater adoption of clean energy vehicles.
Some of the more interesting findings, include the following:
• six per cent of drivers report that their primary vehicle is electric, a proportion that jumps to 15 per cent among those aged 18-to-34.
• Three-in-ten drivers (29 per cent) have ridden as a passenger in an electric vehicle (EV), and 12 per cent have test driven an electric vehicle (EV).
• More than three-in-five drivers (63 per cent) say they have “definitely” (27 per cent) or “probably” (36 per cent) thought about purchasing an electric vehicle.
• More than nine-in-ten drivers of electric vehicles (92 per cent) are satisfied with their choice (recognizing the small sample size - nine per cent of the 500 individuals who participated in the survey own an EV).
• Two-in-five drivers (40 per cent) are “definitely” or “probably” considering purchasing a new vehicle in the next 12 months.
• Price (39 per cent) is the most important consideration, followed by fuel consumption (20 per cent), reliability (also 20 per cent), safety (eight per cent), comfort (five per cent) and the environment (also five per cent).
• At least two-in-five drivers say there are four significant barriers to purchasing an electric vehicle: Not having enough places to charge the vehicle in the areas where they usually drive (46 per cent), too expensive compared to nonelectric vehicles (44 per cent), fear of becoming stranded if you can’t find a charging station (42 per cent) and not having a place to charge the vehicle where they currently live (such as a strata) (41 per cent).
• Most British Columbians (56 per cent) are aware of the electric vehicle purchase incentives, but more than two-in-five (44 per cent) are not.
• Women (53 per cent), those aged 18-to-34 (50 per cent) and those in Northern B.C. (60 per cent) are more likely to be unaware of the incentives.
• Seven-in-ten drivers (70 per cent) say they “definitely” or “probably” would be more likely to purchase an EV after learning of the “Clean Energy Vehicles for British Columbia” program –a point of sale Incentive program with a potential rebate of up to $5,000.
• Three-in-five drivers (62 per cent) say they “definitely” or “probably” would be more likely to purchase an EV after learning of the BC SCRAP-IT Electric Vehicle Program – which provides financial incentive for early retirement of old vehicles that are replaced with lower emitting options, with a potential rebate of up to $6,000.
The results of our survey, while not definitive, certainly underline there are a number of factors that may influence new car buying – including current point of purchase incentive programs.
To that end, the New Car Dealers Association remains a strong advocate of the current approach that is based on incentives and education, because further adoption of clean energy vehicles is good for the economy, the environment and current and future British Columbians.
Blair Qualey is President and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of BC. You can email him at bqualey@newcardealers.ca.
Blair Qualey
New
Association of BC
news serviCe photo by Andrew hArrer
a 2019 Ford Motor co. Mustang Bullitt.
A portable version of pumpkin cheesecake
America’S Test Kitchen
Citizen news service
With a tangy, rich flavour and velvety consistency, cheesecake’s characteristic qualities make it well-suited to variation: Lemon cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, and berry cheesecake are all common. But our favourite variation might just be pumpkin cheesecake.
We love the way the tangy cream cheese offsets the warm-spiced pumpkin, and we set out to create a streamlined version in the form of a pumpkin cheesecake bar.
To avoid a soggy, heavy bar, we knew the key would be to remove excess moisture from the canned pumpkin, so we cooked the puree on the stovetop to reduce it. This step also concentrated its flavour and enhanced its sweetness so it wasn’t overshadowed by the cream cheese.
Adding pumpkin pie spice to the puree as it cooked allowed its flavour to bloom. We thought a gingersnap crust would be a fitting match for the pumpkin filling; but while the flavour of the crust was great, we found that the crushed gingersnaps baked up unappealingly hard.
To get the flavour of gingersnaps without the tooth-breaking snap we used the traditional graham crackers and simply added ground ginger to the crackers to spice them up.
Pumpkin cheesecake bars
Servings: 24
Start to finish: 3 hours
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
15 whole graham crackers, broken into 1-inch pieces 1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces)
4 large eggs, room temperature Cook pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, 6 to 8 minutes. Let pumpkin mixture cool for one hour. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 F. Make foil sling
for 13 by 9-inch baking pan by folding two long sheets of aluminum foil; first sheet should be 13 inches wide and second sheet should be 9 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil. Process graham crackers, 1/4 cup sugar, and ginger in food processor to fine crumbs, about 15 seconds. Add melted butter and pulse until combined, about 5 pulses. Sprinkle mixture into prepared pan and press firmly into even layer. Bake until just starting to brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Let crust cool completely in pan on wire rack. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat cream cheese and remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar on medium-low speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add lemon juice, vanilla, and pumpkin mixture and mix until combined. Increase speed to medium; add eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Pour filling over crust and spread into even layer.
Bake until edges are slightly puffed and centre is just set, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cheesecake cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours. Using foil overhang, lift cheesecake from pan.
Cut into 24 pieces before serving.
Nutrition information per serving: 188 calories; 104 calories from fat; 12 g fat (6 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 67 mg cholesterol; 180 mg sodium; 19 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 16 g sugar; 3 g protein.
For more recipes, cooking tips and ingredient and product reviews, visit https://www.americastestkitchen.com. Find more recipes like Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars in The Perfect Cookie.
Citizen news serviCe photo by Carl tremblay
this undated photo shows pumpkin cheesecake bars in Brookline, Mass.
In time for Thanksgiving, try this beet soup
Katie WorKman Citizen news service
With the arrival of fall, my produce thoughts start moving from things that grow above the ground to things that grow under it. Yes, my fellow seasonal cooks, root vegetable season is heading our way.
I always feel a little like a homesteader when I cook with root vegetables. I think of 19th century families setting up homes out West, filling their root cellars with all kinds of tubers, readying themselves for the cold winter ahead. I summon up my best Laura Ingalls Wilder self as I contemplate the piles of knobby, bumpy, often dirty vegetables, knowing that this is what the vegetal landscape is mostly made of until spring.
Ok, I’m clearly over-channeling here, but there is something about the humble sturdiness of a root vegetable that can be very pleasing, and even inspiring.
First stop - soup! This soup highlights the pale golden colours and slight sweetness of yellow beets and parsnips. You could also use red beets and make this into a pinkish-orange soup - which would be just gorgeous, too. And you could use carrots instead of the parsnips, which will make the soup a more orangey yellow. In short, the colours of the root vegetables you choose will dictate the tint of your soup.
You can definitely leave out the cream if you don’t want it, and a little squirt of hot sauce is a brilliant addition at the end (but not too much - no point in overpowering the delicate sweetness of the vegetables).
Another great way to cook beets is in the oven, especially if your oven is already cranking for another reason. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Trim the tops and roots from the beets, give them
this May 2018 photo shows a parsnip and golden beet soup.
a scrub, and then wrap them in foil. Place the foil-wrapped beets in a baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on their size. When a knife slips into the beet easily, it’s done.
And note that using vegetable broth gives you a vegetarian soup.
Parsnip and golden beet soup
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 1 hour, 20 minutes 1 1/2 pounds (about 4) golden beets 1/2 pound (about 4) parsnips, peeled and sliced
4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth, or more as needed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, plus more for serving 1/2 cup heavy cream, light cream or half-and-half
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Trim the tops and roots from the beets, and wash them thoroughly, using a brush if you have one. Place the beets in a saucepan and add cold water to cover. Cover the pot and bring to a simmer over mediumhigh heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer the beets, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes until a sharp knife slides easily into them. Drain the beets and allow them to cool (you can also
submerge them in cold water to speed the process). When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and cut the beets into chunks.
Meanwhile, combine the parsnips with 4 cups broth in a pot and bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Cover the pot, lower the heat to mediumlow, and simmer for about 30 minutes until the parsnips are very tender. Remove the parsnips with a slotted spoon and place them in a food processor or blender with the cooked beets and 1 teaspoon thyme. Add about 1/2 cup of the cooking broth and puree together until smooth. Stir the vegetable puree back into the pot with the remaining broth.
Return the soup to the pot over medium-low heat, stir in the cream, and season with salt and pepper. Add more broth if the soup is too thick. Stir for 1 minute to allow the cream to warm through, taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Serve warm in bowls with a few thyme leaves sprinkled over the top. Nutrition information per serving: 227 calories; 104 calories from fat; 12 g fat (7 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 41 mg cholesterol; 388 mg sodium; 29 g carbohydrate; 8 g fiber; 15 g sugar; 5 g protein.
Katie Workman has written two cookbooks focused on easy, family-friendly cooking, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.
