BC needs both rivers AND mines page 4
SPOTLIGHT
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The Similkameen
Volume 65 Issue 53
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Proudly serving the community since 1948 • www.similkameenspotlight.com
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Posse suffers bloody blow “The worst injury I’ve seen.” Andrea DeMeer Spotlight Staff
Hockey games change in a heart beat. It could be a goal, a brilliant save, a bad call, or “the worst injury I’ve seen.” Posse head coach Bill Rotheisler knew from across the ice at the Summerland Arena December 20 that newly-signed Brandon Schaber was in serious trouble. “I’ve known Brandon a long time. He’s a pretty tough guy and he doesn’t usually show pain. He was down on the ground…and there was a tremendous amount of blood.” Schaber, 19, was locked in the corner with a teammate and a Summerland player when a stick struck him in the face “acting like a machete,” crushing bone and cartridge and tearing flesh. “The nose part was gone,” said Rotheisler. “The cartilage was there, and the skin had peeled back exposing basically whatever was under it which wasn’t much and it wasn’t a pretty sight.” Schaber, who was taken to Penticton General Hospital, moved to Kelowna General Hospital and eventually transferred to University of Alberta Hospital, suffered numerous breaks to both nose bones as well as two fractures to the orbital bone beneath his right eye. Doctors are now waiting for Schaber’s facial swelling to reduce enough that he can undergo reconstructive surgery. A best-case scenario sees him returning to the ice in eight to ten weeks. “When something like this happens the game stops,” said Rotheisler. “It’s not about the game, win or lose anymore, your concern is about the well-being of your players. The boys have long careers and lives and you are concerned about any longterm effects and making sure they are alright physically and also mentally.” Rotheisler said he anticipated Schaber’s reaction to the incident. “You’ve got to know Brandon to understand. He’s a pretty tough guy. He’s just telling everybody not to worry about it that he’s fine and trying to keep a sense of humor the whole time. “The first question he asked was how soon he could come back.” Princeton re-signed Schaber December 1 from the Estevan Bruins, the culmination of a series of trades that saw the Posse give up point leader Colton St. John to the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. He recorded four goals and two assists in his first seven games. “Our expectations of Brandon were big and they still are because eventually he will be back,” said Rotheisler. “We’ve always known we are a playoff team and he will be back for that.” Also over the holiday break the Posse lost second year key
Weather Watch
Shotgun and drugs netted in roadblock Joe Fries Black Press
Newly signed Brandon Schaber, shown here in hospital after receiving stitches, is awaiting word on when he can undergo facial reconstructive surgery following his injury in a game December 20. Schaber broke boht nose bones in several places, and fractured his orbital bone in two places.
forward Tyler Ehlers, who left the team citing personal reasons. “He’s not going to be easy to replace but at the same time there are other guys who are going to pick up the slack.”
Switching seats with his female passenger within view of an RCMP roadblock near Princeton has cost a man almost half a year of freedom. Mounties watched Rene Michael Charles Cherot swap places with the woman in her Jeep at a Highway 3 rest stop on Nov. 2, 2014, court heard at this sentencing hearing Tuesday in provincial court in Penticton. An officer walked over to the Jeep and soon spotted a can of bear spray inside, and a further search of the vehicle turned up a shotgun, one pound of marijuana and suspected cocaine and ecstasy. Cherot, 38, pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle while disqualified, possession of a controlled substance and occupying a vehicle in which there is a firearm. He was sentenced to a total of five months in jail, which will start in March when he finishes serving what had been a conditional sentence of house arrest for prior offences. The conditional sentence was collapsed to a jail term upon his arrest in November, since he didn’t have permission to leave Princeton. Defence counsel James Pennington said his client left town for the weekend to meet relatives in the Lower Mainland whom he hadn’t seen for 10 years, but didn’t have a chance to get clearance ahead of time. “So he rolled the dice and he crapped out,” said Pennington. The lawyer added that Cherot’s female companion, who owned the vehicle in which they were travelling, did most of the driving but became ill, so Cherot took over not long before the roadblock west of Princeton, and tried to switch her seats before the roadblock because his driver’s licence was suspended. “We might all have done that, given his circumstances,” said Judge Gale SInclair with a grin. Besides the jail term, the judge also handed Cherot a three-year driving ban and a five-year weapons prohibition.
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