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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
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Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021
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Murderer’s release raises alarm bells for victim’s sister
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Serge Wolf was ready with his camera last Tuesday when he spotted a northern harrier bird of prey getting up close and personal with a black bear sleeping on a hay bale in a field near Salmon Valley.
Wolf lands bird, bear pic
TED CLARKE Serge Wolf has gotten into photography over the past decade and takes his camera with him most days when he’s making his calls as a heavy-duty mechanic. As an outdoorsman, he’s always on the lookout for nature’s splendor and he was out on a service call on Johnson farm north of the city near Salmon Valley last Tuesday when he saw something he’d never seen before. In a field stretched out on a large bale of hay was a black bear with its belly down on the warm mound, sleeping the afternoon away. Wolf got out his Sigma 150600mm lens and took some high-quality photographs, but the best was yet to come. Later in the day, Wolf noticed an adult male northern harrier hovering over the bear and was ready with his camera when the bird hovered over the bear’s back, not actually landing, but the angle of the shot makes it
appear that it had its talons buried deep in the animal’s fur and creates that illusion. The bear remained in a deep slumber the entire time and Wolf triggered the shutter to get a once-in-a-lifetime shot that will certainly be one of the highlights of his portfolio. “During lunchtime when I actually had more time to take pictures one of the harriers was hunting nearby and I was joking to my co-worker that it would be a sweet picture to have the harrier on the bear and, lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened,” said Wolf. “At the end of the day it was kind of a lucky shot because you had to be at the right angle. It turned out pretty funny. The entire time we were there the bear was munching clover in the field and he wasn’t bothered by the highway, which is pretty close. Quite a few people stopped and honked because of the bear and he couldn’t care less. He had no worries at all.”
MARK NIELSEN Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The sister of a victim of a brutal murder says Prince George residents should be “very fearful” after learning the culprit has been released into the area on day parole. Christopher Maurice Alexander, 40, is serving a life sentence for the 1998 deadly stabbing of Linda LeFranc. LeFranc’s sister, Anita Johnstone-LeFranc, has fought to keep Alexander behind bars but without success. In August 2019, the parole board authorized escorted temporary absences for community service and two years later, on August 26, he was granted day parole. Other than to say he is to go to a work camp in north-central B.C., specifics were not provided in the decision. Johnstone-LeFranc said he will reside at ‘Aghelh Nebun, a community residential facilty east of Prince George. She maintains that within months, Alexander will be able to “frequent, work and possibly reside” in Prince George. According to the parole ALEXANDER board, Alexander poses a moderate risk of reoffending and shows a “superficial” sense of responsibility but also noted he has completed programming and that his commitment and ability to use the skills he has been taught has been rated as moderate. “This is not about being vindictive, this is not about seeking revenge,” Johnstone-LeFranc said. “This is about shear fear that someone like this, who is not an intelligent person, who has not done the work to figure out why he did what he did and is just full of excuses.” Alexander’s day parole will be subject to a review after six months.
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