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Prince George Citizen September 6, 2019

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Friday, September 6, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Black bear put down after man attacked Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Ref? Ref? Hello? Julia Burkart of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack tries to slow down Sofia Jones of the UNBC Timberwolves during their women’s soccer game Thursday afternoon at Masich Place. Jones couldn’t be held back the whole game. She assisted on Paige Payne’s goal as the Timberwolves won their season home opener 1-0.

First Nations exploring cannabis opportunities The Canadian Press The cannabis industry is seen by some First Nations as an opportunity to take the initiative and get out of poverty, says the regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations. Cultivating, buying or selling cannabis could provide economic support to those First Nations devastated by a downturn in the province’s forest industry, Terry Teegee said Wednesday at a summit on cannabis held by the Assembly of First Nations. “A lot of the communities are tired of living in poverty,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for your community to assert your jurisdiction, assert your self-determination. We want to be a part of the community.” The two-day First Nations Cannabis Summit is attended by chiefs or their representatives from across the country to hear about policy, safety, health, and social and economic development. There are varying points of view among First Nations on how involved they want to be in the cannabis industry with some “dead set against it,” while others look at it as an economic development opportunity, Teegee said. While he doesn’t have statistics on how many First Nations want to be involved in the cannabis industry, Teegee said eight licences out of 122 were given to First Nations in Ontario. “So in Ontario that’s a real issue because there’s a lot more than eight First Nations interested in having a distribution site or cultivating them.” Teegee said it’s unclear how much money can be made in the industry because there’s

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CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee speaks in April at an announcement in Prince George about funding for advancing First Nations economic development.

been a limited number of licences distributed in most of Canada. “The only one that came out aggressively has been Alberta and that’s why you see Alberta leading the nation in terms of tax revenue,” Teegee said. Wesley Sam, owner of Nations, an Indigenous-controlled cannabis production company based in Burns Lake, said one of the main challenges for First Nations is financial backing. But there is still room for First Nations to get involved in the industry, he said, adding that profits could be used to fund housing or other projects. Sonia Eggerman, a lawyer with MLT Aikins who has extensive experience with Aboriginal and treaty rights, said after speaking to the conference that current federal and

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provincial regulations have cut First Nations out of opportunities to take part in the cannabis industry. “And I think that’s a real missed opportunity,” she said. Drew Lafond, also with MLT Aikins, said the key obstacle is lack of meaningful engagement by the federal government to work with First Nations. “Much like gaming and tobacco, cannabis carries a spiritual connotation, has traditional significance, medicinal significance, plus socio-economic significance,” he said. “From a legal perspective, it’s an area that First Nations have a close relationship with historically. So breadth and history are the two things that make this such a huge issue in Indigenous country.”

Vaping contaminant linked to deadly lung illnesses

A black bear believed to have been the one that chased a man into Ferguson Lake on Wednesday evening has been put down. “We did euthanize one bear early this morning that we set a trap for last night,” Conservation Officer Service Sgt. Steve Ackles said Thursday. “It just showed the behaviour of a highly-habituated bear and it was within a hundred metres of the incident.” Ferguson Lake Park, meanwhile, will be closed for one or two days to allow conservation officers to carry out their investigation. The man escaped with some scrapes and cuts but not before some scary moments. At one point, the bear was holding the man underwater before a woman who was in the area unleashed her dog in an effort to distract the animal. The tactic worked and saved the man from potentially bigger trouble. “You don’t like to talk about what could have happened but we do know he sustained relatively minor injuries and survived the incident,” Ackles said. A necropsy will be performed on the bear, a large male that was in good condition, to determine whether it had come to rely on food from human sources like garbage and fruit trees. “But the thing that was really a driver in the decision to euthanize was the bear’s behaviour,” Ackles said. “It was very indicative of habituated behaviour.” The dog’s owner, Alana Bull, described the incident in a posting on social media. She, her two boys and their grandmother had just started on a walk around the lake when they heard the man screaming for help. From another onlooker at the dock, they quickly learned a bear was chasing the man across the lake. “I ran my dog, Musket, down the trail with me as fast as we could. I knew he would distract the bear from a safe distance and hopefully the man could get away,” Bull said. “During this time the bear made contact with the man in the water and tried to push him under. “When we got to the other side, Musket caught scent and sight of the bear and started barking ferociously. The bear was distracted! He started to turn around and swim away from the man back towards shore and towards the barking.” “We then booked it back to the dock and away from the bear. I’m so proud of my dog.” The man was able to swim back towards the dock while police, ambulance and conservation officers were called to the scene. Ackles said bear-human conflicts are rare in the Ferguson Lake area but added it can be a matter of just one person failing to take care of their garbage or neglecting to clean up around their fruit trees to create a problem. And with bears beginning their annual feeding frenzy in the run up to hibernation, Ackles said conservation officers will be clamping down on households who refuse to do the right thing. Fines for failing to clean up attractants begin at $230. — See MANAGE on page 3

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