Inside
u P. 8 KDL Bike Park u P. 12 Pumpkin walk
u P. 3 HIV u P. 4 Editorial
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WEDNESDAY, November 5, 2014
NEWS BRIEFS Thompson Creek Metals to close down Fort St. James offices Jesse Cole Caledonia Courier
Thompson Creek Metals, the Colorado-based mining company that owns and operates the Mt. Milligan mine outside of Fort St. James will be closing its Fort St. James and Mackenzie offices this month after the company gave notice at the end of October. The closure of these two satellite offices was cited as being due to a low level of usage that made the offices less than viable from a business perspective. The offices will be moved to Prince George but their services will remain in the communities via a partnership with the College of New Caledonia (CNC) who will have a dedicated staff member present to provide services related to Mt. Milligan’s operations. Offices located at the Mt. Milligan mine will still remain open and in use.
HIV scare in Fort St. James Jesse Cole Caledonia Courier
A routine medical procedure gone wrong resulted in a young girl from Fort St. James being exposed to HIV. The young girl, who has since moved to Prince George with her family, underwent a routine vaccination procedure at the Fort St. James Health Unit that when awry when the administering nurse accidentally pricked themselves with the needle while they were injecting the patients. The little girls father, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Huffington Post B.C. that while the nurse was administering the shot (a subcutaneous injection that is often administered at a 40 degree angle) the little girl flinched and the needle went through the skin of her arm and pricked the nurses hand. When the needle was removed their blood mixed and the little girl was exposed to the virus. Initially, the family was unaware that their child had been exposed to the HIV virus as the nurse re-
A stroll through the pumpkin patch Fort St. James national historic site pulls out all the stops for a halloween haunt
Hundreds of of pumpkins, all with unique carvings like this one, lined the walkways of the National Historic Site in Fort St. James for the annual halloween pumpkin walk. Photos on P. 12 Photo by Jesse Cole.
portedly told the family that they had no blood-borne illnesses. A week later, a representative from Northern Health con-
tacted the family and told them that the administering nurse had tested positive for HIV and that their daughter had been ex-
posed. It remains unknown whether or not the nurse was aware of their HIV status prior to the contact or
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whether they became aware after undergoing testing as a result of the blood-to-blood contact. However, one of
the guidelines set out by the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. states that: Continued on page 3