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WEDNESDAY, November 27 2013
NEWS BRIEFS Mount Milligan ships metal Thompson Creek Metals loaded their first ocean concentrate shipment Nov. 16. Thompson Creek made the announcement on Nov. 21, and said that based on preliminary weights and assays upon ship loading, this first shipment consisted of 5,530 wet metric tonnes of concentrate containing approximately 2.8 million pounds of copper, 5,540 ounces of gold, and 10,500 ounces of silver. Thompson Creek said they expect to receive a provisional payment for 90 per cent of the value of the concentrate in early December. “We are pleased to have loaded our first shipment of concentrate just twelve weeks following the start-up of the Mt. Milligan Mine. This concentrate shipment represents a tremendous milestone for our company and our employees. Looking forward, we expect Mt. Milligan to create substantial value for our company and our shareholders,” said Jacques Perron, chief executive officer of Thompson Creek, in their release, “
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Community relieved by four arrests
Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier Four suspects have been arrested in relation to the murder of Fribjon Bjornson. Three men and one woman will be facing charges and are in custody in Prince George after a lengthy investigation. Twenty-seven year-old Wesley Dennis Duncan is facing a murder charge. Teresa Marie Charlie, 21, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder. Jesse Darren Bird, 31, is charged with accessory after the fact to murder and interference with a dead body. James David Junior Charlie, 23, is charged with interference with a dead body. “Our Major Crime investigators have been working extremely hard over the past year in order to identify and charge those responsible for this horrific crime. They have been working closely with the Bjornson family and though these arrests cannot bring Fribjon back, it can give some much needed closure to end the nightmare they have been living,” said Cst. Lesley Smith, North District media Fribjon Bjornson’s head was found in a vacant house on the Nak’azdli Reserve in February 2012. relations officer in a release. RMCP photo Bjornson’s murder has been hangFort St. James Mayor Rob MacDougall ing over the community of Fort St. James/ also echoed this sentiment, saying the inciNak’azdli, with rumours swirling ever since dent and lack of visible progress likely crethe young man’s severed head was found in a ated anxiousness for the family as well as the vacant house on Nak’azdli Reserve on Feb. 3, local community. 2012. His body was never found. “It’s a huge sigh of relief and I hope it’s the Bjornson had been missing since Jan. 12, beginning of the journey of final closure for 2012, after he was last seen leaving a 7-Elev- the family,” said MacDougall. “And I think at en in Vanderhoof. The house on the reserve the end of the day it shows that even though was searched following the location of his it doesn’t appear that RCMP are working on abandoned truck in the area. Bjornson lived some of the cases, quietly behind the scenes in Vanderhoof but had been working north of they are doing a lot of work.’ Fort St. James and had friends in the commu“I think this is proof they are very diligent nity. at what they do.” Then there were numerous reports of ruSam said some of those arrested were mours Bjornson had been killed and tortured feared in the community due to their violent during a drug fuelled party on the reserve. backgrounds. The alleged location of the party was next Bjornson was only 28 years old and the fadoor to the abandoned house where his sev- ther of two young children, but he had strugered head was found. gled with a cocaine addiction, according to “I think it’s a good thing for our communi- RCMP. ty,” said Nak’azdli Chief Fred Sam. “Knowing Bjornson’s parents, Eileen and Fred Bjornthese people aren’t out there running around son, had gone forward to the press with inforin our community.”
mation people had brought to them of their son’s torture and murder in the basement where the party was going on, but those who told the grieving parents were reportedly too afraid to come forward to the police because they feared reprisals from those involved. The abandoned house where his head was found was later damaged in a fire and eventually demolished. Bird was known to police, as he had been a suspect, along with two other men, in what was called by the press a “brazen daylight shooting” in downtown Prince George in 2008. One man was shot in his vehicle on Dominion Street in Prince George in what police believed to be a gang-related shooting. Two others in the targeted vehicle at the time of the shooting were later found dead of gunshot wounds. All three suspects, including Bird, were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. RCMP have once again stated they have found nothing in the course of their investigation to support the rumours regarding any links between Bjornson’s death and the disappearance of Madison Scott. Scott and Bjornson were know to each other, but Scott’s disappearance in May 2011 still appears in no way to be connected to the Bjornson murder. Sam said Nak’azdli is striving to address crime in the community and has been holding workshops to reduce incidents of violence and hopes the community can work to improve substance abuse issues and work more closely with the RCMP. “Sometimes they’re not perfect, each RCMP is different, but we still need to work with them and move ahead,” said Sam. “People need to step forward and provide that important information so we could have had closure on this earlier and people shouldn’t be afraid to provide that information.” “I think there’s an element of gangs in every community,” said MacDougall. “I think in our case, it’s very isolated.” A counsellor in the community said she has been taking calls from people fearing backlash as a result of the arrests, after people spoke to police. The charges in the case have not been proven in court and police say the investigation is still ongoing and more arrests are still possible.
Bennett first appearance
Former Fort St. James fire chief Robert H. Bennett made his first appearance in provincial court on Nov. 19. Bennett requested a continuance in order to consult legal counsel after formally being charged with three counts of sexual assault. Bennett was released with conditions until his next appear-
ance on Jan. 20, 2014. The charges come after allegations of sexual harassment brought forward by a female Fort St. James volunteer firefighter. The firefighter made the allegations to Bennett’s thenemployer the District of Fort St. James. Two other women also brought forward allegations of harassment.
The District of Fort St. James brought in an outside consultant Paul McKivett of James R. Craven and Associates Ltd. to investigate the allegations and Bennett resigned once the report was completed. The internal report given to the District of Fort St. James has not been released to the public.