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u Doggy-do race P. 5 u Speed skating results P. 8
u New Year Baby P. 3 u Basketball tournament P. 5
Publications Mail Contract #: 40007759
WEDNESDAY, January 22, 2014
NEWS BRIEFS Pulse of the North Help measure the pulse of the B.C. North. Readers of Black Press community newspapers from Ashcroft to Prince Rupert will have a chance to win a cool $1,000 for completing an online survey that will help local businesses better understand customers in their community. The of Pulse of B.C. North survey looks at the shopping plans and priorities of our readers and their media reading habits. Responses will be kept completely confidential; reader contact information will only be gathered in order to enter the name into a prize draw for one of two, $1,000 cash prizes to be given away across the Black Press B.C. North region.
Open house The Oil and Gas Commission and B.C. Environmental Assessment representatives will be holding an open house in Fort St. James. At Kwah Hall on Jan. 30 between 3p.m. and 7 p.m., visitors will be able to get information on regulations and permits on proposed pipeline projects. There will also be a fracking presentation. People are encouraged to attend to ask any questions they may have about the processes, how a person may be impacted or how government will mitigate impacts. Coffee and refreshments will be provided.
PHONE: 996-8482 www.caledoniacourier.com
Opportunity Knox
VOL. 36 NO. 47 $1.30 inc. GST
Pee Wee playoffs
Dylan Playfair chooses a role - not hockey Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier The young man on the phone is polite and articulate. Very professional. Hard to believe this is a 21-year-old actor working his first television role on a new YTV series, if only because a person might expect more ego, more self-importance. But while Dylan Playfair has no problem finding words and talks at length about all aspects of his latest role, as the character Knox on YTV’s Some Assembly Required, he definitely does not come across as all ego or overconfidence, though he is clearly at-ease talking to the press. Playfair is down-to-earth and seems to partially credit his time in Fort St. James for some of the lessons which keep him grounded in reality outside the insular world of acting. “You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to be honest, you’ve got to be dedicated,” said Playfair. These are things Playfair learned working in the bush doing the kind of blue-collar jobs a young man like him can pick up for a summer working in Fort St. James. Jobs at the Northern Interior Forest Products Mill and Stone’s Bay Holdings. These jobs help keep things in perspective for Playfair, like when people say how hard a job acting is. “I’ll be on set sometimes and I hear people saying after 10 hours on set their feet are sore or their back’s sore and I think to myself ‘None of you guys have ever pulled a frickin’ 12-hour shift on a green-chain so shut up, this is not a hard job,” said Playfair. “A lot of those lessons have come in hugely, hugely beneficial for making a career in film.” While he was born in Fort St. James, Playfair’s family left right after he was born to head to Dayton, Ohio to pursue his father’s career in the world of professional hockey. His dad, Jim Playfair, is now working as part of the Phoenix Coyotes coaching team, and his two brothers, Jackson and Austyn, both still play hockey. “The unique thing about having a dad in the hockey world is I never really called any of … those places home because I never had stability there,” he said. It was not until Playfair was in Grade 5 he began to think of somewhere besides Fort St. James as home, when the family moved to Calgary for a time. Each year, when the hockey season was over, Jim and Roxane would return with their three sons to Fort St. James for the summer and live at their cabin in the Big Bay area on Stuart Lake. “It’s been a blessing for sure to call Fort St. James at least a part-time home,” he said. Dylan made the switch to acting from a family steeped in hockey, but the family is definitely okay with his direction. “His parents are pretty open … if something interests the kids, then that’s good,” said his grandmother Beverly Playfair, who still lives in Fort St. James. “What the heck, if he’s happy, we’re happy,” she said. Dylan may have even gotten some of his thes-
A Fort St. James Pee Wee Stars player tries to put a rebound past the Houston Flyers goaltender during the nail-biter battle for third place in the tournament at Fort Forum on Jan. 12. The Stars ended the game on top 4-3, with a team partially comprised of Atoms players moved up to fill out the bench. Sean Tay Julian scored two of Fort’s winning goals, Max Burgart scored one and Donovan Gregg scored one. Fraser Lake won the tournament, while Mackenzie took second. Ruth Lloyd/Caledonia Courier
pian genes from his grandmother, as she was involved for many years in the Music Makers theatre group, but Beverly also credits Dylan’s mom Roxane’s family with performer genes, as many in Roxane’s family are very musical. Now the young actor calls Vancouver home, and he is continuing to film episodes of Some Assembly Required, which premiered on Jan. 6 on YTV and has been showing Monday nights ever since. In the show, Playfair is Maxwell Knoxford III, known to everyone as “Knox” because of his last name and the number of actual knocks he takes as a thrill-seeking adrenaline junky. This makes Knox the perfect person for the job at his friend’s toy factory as the product and safety tester. The show is built around the premise a young teen named Jarvis Raines (Kolton Stewart) is given control of a toy company after a product of theirs destroys his family’s home. Raines then employs a number of fellow high schoolers to help him run the company. The eclectic ensemble cast is an interesting group, and Playfair had something good to say about each of them, and even said he was a little “starstruck” when he first met Ellie Harvey who plays the toy company’s former owner Candace Wheeler. Harvey played Morticia on The New Addams Family. “It’s been really cool being able to watch those guys work, see different people come to the same result,” said Playfair of his fellow actors. The show began filming in mid-August and will continue filming in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby, B.C. until the middle of February. The live audience creates a sense of a hybrid between film and theatre, according to Playfair, who enjoys being able to feed off of the energy of the young audiences. “The neat thing is that you get that instant gratification as to whether a joke has landed or not,” he said.
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Mischief charges laid
Community helps collar suspect Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier Citizens of Fort St. James were a big help to RCMP with an investigation into a mischief case. Stephen Wilson, 38, was arrested on Jan. 9 and subsequently charged with multiple counts of mischief. RCMP believe Wilson to be the man responsible for numerous complaints of a male approaching residents in their homes in Fort St. James to request money or food for various reasons. RCMP compiled their reports and sought a warrant for Wilson when he was identified as their prime suspect. After the arrest, Wilson appeared before a justice of the peace, and was released on conditions, which included not to attend private residences and he was also given a curfew. Within eight hours of his release, RCMP received similar complaints which led them to believe Wilson was in breach of his conditions. He was rearrested and was remanded in custody and additional charges of mischief, breach of an undertaking and being unlawfully in a dwelling house were added. Staff Sergeant Paul Thalhofer said he appreciated the assistance of the public in coming forward with further information of mischief complaints after they requested this. He said there were concerns the behaviour was escalating.