Unist’ot’en hereditary chief Smogelgem (Warner Naziel) speaks at a rally on Thursday morning at the Prince George Law Courts. Coastal GasLink is seeking an injunction against the Unist’ot’en Camp, a blockade preventing work on a gas pipeline south of Houston. A B.C. Supreme Court judge will rule on the injunction today.
Court to rule on injunction against
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A B.C. Supreme Court Justice will issue a decision this afternoon on whether to allow builders of a pipeline that would deliver natural gas to the LNG Canada project to pass through a blockade south of Houston. Justice Marguerite Church heard arguments from lawyers representing the plaintiff Coastal GasLink and defendants Freda Huson and Warner Naziel, leaders of the Unist’ot’en Camp, over the course of a day Thursday. As many as 60 people, reportedly including all the chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, packed the gallery. Peceding the hearing, a rally outside the courthouse in support of the blockade drew about 50. Inside the courtroom, defendants’ lawyer Michael Ross argued a decision should be delayed until at least Jan. 31 to allow his clients to file a proper response to a Coastal GasLink notice of claim. Ross said they’ve had only two weeks to sift through 17 documents adding up to 2,400 pages and had retained him as a lawyer only on Friday.
In reply, Coastal GasLink lawyer Kevin O’Callaghan argued for an interim injunction that would let work begin while the judge makes a final decision, saying time is of the essence. He said Coastal GasLink needs to begin pre-construction work soon and start clearing trees along the route by early January and continuing to the end of April.
Already working on a tight timeline on a project the company is supposed to complete by the end of 2021, O’Callaghan said even a short delay at the outset could push the schedule back by many months to a year. Some of the steps must be completed before winter breakup begins and prior to a time when migratory birds pass through the area, he added.
Also known as Dark House, the Unist’ot’en is among 20 clans within the Wet’suwet’en Nation and it has been characterized as the lone holdout against letting the project go through its traditional territory.
O’Callaghan accused Huson and Naziel of refusing to participate in the consultations Coastal GasLink had conducted with First Nations along the route and said they had-
pipeline blockade
had failed to challenge any of the permits the company had secured prior to deciding to go ahead with the project.
The blockade amounts to an illegal “selfhelp remedy,” he contended.
Plenty is at stake, he also emphasized, and read out affidavits from Wet’suwet’en Nation nation members that spoke of the economic benefits the project would deliver.
The court heard that the Wet’suwet’en has entered an agreement worth up to $75 million that will employ up to 80 people to service a work camp and an agreement worth $55 million that will employ over 60 people to provide log hauling. The project is a “generational opportunity” to provide well-paying jobs and reduce unemployment among Wet’suwet’en members.
Without the 670-kilometre pipeline, the LNG Canada project at Kitimat would cease, O’Callaghan contended, and maintained the section in question cannot be rerouted. Both the pipeline and the LNG plant stand to deliver billions of dollars in economic activity.
O’Callaghan said the blockade is actu-
Police seek help finding missing teen
Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP are hoping local residents can provide information that could help them locate a 16-year-old boy who has been missing since May. Colten Therrin Fleury, who would now be 17, was last seen at his home on May 3 and was reported missing the following day. The Indigenous teen is described as being five-foot-eight in height, weighing 120 pounds with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a red hoodie and jeans.
“We are convinced that persons in this community, particularly youth,
were messaging Colten right before he was last seen, and possibly afterwards,” Cpl. Craig Douglass said in a release.
“We would like those persons to contact our investigators and help us find out what happened to Colten Fleury.”
Prince George RCMP say they have no credible information to suggest Fleury ever left Prince George or that foul play was involved in his disappearance. His main communication was through Facebook Messenger. Police are asking anyone who communicated with Fleury or knows someone who was in the days leading up to the day he was last seen to contact them.
ally located on the territory of an adjacent clan and that about four kilometres of the route, adding up to about 30 hectares, passes through Unist’ot’en land. He said the Unist’ot’en has allowed Canfor to log on its land, resulting in much larger cutblocks. Defendants lawyer Michael Ross went some way to spelling out his clients’ position, which hinges on an interpretation of the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1997 Delgamuukw decision. At issue, he said, is a need to reconcile Wet’suwet’en law with Canadian and British Columbia law, and noted important decisions are made through the traditional feast.
During the rally, Huson said that at no time did the company come to the Unist’ot’en’s feast hall.
“What we’re doing is exercising our rights and exercising free, prior and informed consent,” she said and later added it’s not about money but about saving the two territories the clan has left.
Church, who is in Williams Lake on today, will issue her decision at 3:45 p.m. via videoconferencing into the Prince George and Smithers courthouses.
Child porn charges filed against local man
Citizen staff
A 32-year-old Prince George man faces child pornography charges after RCMP raided a local home on Tuesday.
The man, whose name was not released, was arrested and charged with accessing and possessing child pornography. He was released under conditions that include no accessing the internet and no contact with children under the age of 17.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 2, Prince George RCMP said in a release.
A Christmas Carol hit all the right notes
Sean FARRELL Special to The Citizen
I must hand it to the Russell family. A Christmas Carol is the fifth Judy Russell production I have seen, and once again I am amazed at what they can accomplish in our little Prince George Playhouse, along with the ever-enthusiastic and talented members of our local performing arts community.
The story of A Christmas Carol is really the modern-era definition of Christmas itself. Written and published in the mid1840s during a popularist revival of interest in the secular Christmas holiday, Dickens’ novella has consistently driven the annual revival of the English interpretation of Christmas for almost two centuries.
The ideas of family togetherness, a day of gift-giving, charity and delicious feasts, are all perfectly manifested in his story. It is almost a picture postcard. Too good to be true? Who can say?
A quick reality check reminds us that the era in question was as much about poverty, incurable illness, colonialism and midVictorian era prudish social constructs, as it was about Christian-themed aspirations. Now, don’t get me wrong, even though I value the themes of good will towards your neighbour and the benefits of living an ethical life, the thing I really dig about A Christmas Carol are the ghosts and I can honestly say I got goosebump-quality scared at least twice during the performance.
The Anna Russell adaptation which opened Thursday night packs so much onto the stage that at times I felt a bit distracted, but only because I’m inclined to want to peek behind the curtain to figure out “how did they do that?”
Gary Chappel quite literally works up a
sweat as the snivelling and fretting Ebenezer Scrooge. At times I wondered if he might give the audience a moment of repose from the persistent neuroses oozing from Scrooge and provide some glimpses into the damaged soul we only get to see rehabilitated in the final moments of the play. But he works
the character deeply into our senses and ensures that we stay with him, as he travels around the elaborate and ever-rotating double set that supports most of the onstage action.
And again, how about those ghosts! Perhaps it might seem a bit curious that I somewhat classify A Christmas Carol as a
winter-themed ghost story – the reasons for that belong to a whole other conversation – but I have to say I was genuinely spooked by the interpretations of both Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, with Melissa Glover absolutely spectacular as the Ghost of the Present, and young Sofia Pellegrino beautifully ethereal in her role as the Ghost of Christmas Past. And of course, there are the party scenes. I love seeing the community get involved with live theatre.
I’ve attended and worked with hundreds and hundreds of professional productions over the years, but none of them bring a smile to my face as when I see my neighbours and friends up on stage, singing and wearing delightful period costumes. Anna and Judy Russell have once again engaged some amazing local talent in this production and I cheer them all on.
As well, Bill and Jon Russell and their production team members have performed near-miracles with the lighting and sound designs. A rich sound design is imperative to creating the vast repertoire of moods that are integral to Dickens’ story. Dread, fear, nostalgia, sadness and loneliness all comprise the premise of the storyline and the Russells have pulled out all the stops to highlight these through imaginative sound and lighting effects.
Once again, my congratulations to everyone involved with this year’s presentation of A Christmas Carol. I hope folks of all backgrounds consider taking a break from the December hustle, to take a walk down 1840s London memory lane.
Tickets are a real value at $38 and are going fast at centralinteriortickets.com. The show runs until Dec. 22.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Bill and Jon Russell mount a projector on a lighting bar in preparation for Judy Russell Presents: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol adapted by Anna Russell. The production started Thursday and runs through Dec. 22.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Strong
wind gusts expected this afternoon
Wind gusting to as high at 80 km/h is expected to blow through the region starting this afternoon, Environment Canada says.
“An approaching Pacific low pressure system will make landfall along the central coast midday Friday and then track across northern B.C. in the afternoon and evening,” the agency says in an alert issued Thursday.
“As the low moves inland Friday afternoon, strong southerly winds will develop over the central interior.”
The peak is expected to occur in the late afternoon and then gradually diminish tonight.
— Citizen staff
Driver killed in highway crash
One person is dead after a head-on collision on the Alaska Highway south of Taylor on Thursday morning.
The accident happened around 8:30 a.m. on the highway south of the 230 Road, and involved a semi truck and pickup truck, according to RCMP Traffic Services.
The lone driver of the pickup truck died at the scene.
The cause of the crash is not known.
Emergency services, Dawson Creek RCMP, Traffic Services and the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service were at the scene.
Alaska Highway News
Suspicious death under investigation in Williams Lake
Williams Lake RCMP and the North District Major Crime Unit are investigating a suspicious death in the Cariboo city.
Police discovered a dead man at a home on Mountain House Road after being called to the residence on Tuesday night.
Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to contact the Williams Lake RCMP at 250 392-6211 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. — Citizen staff
Avalanche warning issued for B.C.’s backcountry
REVELSTOKE (CP) — Avalanche Canada has issued a special public warning for backcountry users about the dangers of avalanche in several areas of British Columbia.
The agency says after a drought in late November and early December, the province has been hit with a series of storms with snow that isn’t bonding with the old surface.
Senior avalanche forecaster James Floyer says the main concern is that the weather is expected to clear on Saturday and backcountry users will want to get out to the alpine, but that’s where the danger is greatest.
He says there’s a weak layer of snow buried between 60 and 150 centimetres of new snow and any slide triggered will definitely be life threatening. Avalanche Canada warns that skiers and borders leaving resort boundaries and snowmobilers riding above the treeline are in the greatest danger. Regions of concern are Northwest Coastal, central Vancouver Island, the Sea to Sky, South Coast, North Shore and from the Lizard and Flathead mountain ranges all the way to the North Rockies
Absolute discharge for man accused of assaulting sex workers
VERNON (CP) — The Crown says a man who faces a series of charges including alleged assaults of sex workers has been given an absolute discharge in a separate allegation against him by a judge in Vernon.
The B.C. Prosecution Service says Curtis Sagmoen pleaded guilty to a single count of mischief Thursday and the court granted his application for a discharge, which means no conviction will be placed on his record.
Prosecution service spokesman Dan McLaughlin says the decision was made after consultation with the victim and the investigating agency. Sagmoen was accused of mischief under $5,000 for wilfully placing spikes or nails on a spike belt to damage the tires of a vehicle before pleading guilty to the lesser offence.
He faces a series of other charges including assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon. Police have said the alleged victims worked as escorts in the North Okanagan and advertised their services online.
Santa hospital visit
Leland Funk, 4, checks out his gift from Santa as his dad Dean looks at the University Hospital of Northern BC Thursday morning. Santa and his helpers provided gifts to children in the pediatric ward and brightened up their day.
Carbon pricing best way to cut emissions, business group says
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada’s largest business group has endorsed a carbon tax as the most efficient way for the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In a report released Thursday, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says there is general consensus in Canada that something needs to be done about climate change, and the debate should not be about if, but how that happens.
Aaron Henry, the chamber’s director of natural resources and environmental policy, said the businesses that make up its membership agree a carbon price is the most efficient way to do it.
“Our members are very much
in favour of it,” he said.
“They’re happy to do this. We applaud the Canadian government’s direction on this.”
Henry said what chamber members don’t want is more years of political uncertainty that leave businesses unsure what the policies will be next year for getting to those lower-carbon realities. Nor, he said, do they want layers of environmental regulation on top of carbon pricing that add inefficient requirements to cut emissions that are less flexible than carbon prices.
The government’s climate change action plan includes a national price on carbon, but it also develops clean fuel standards, new energy-efficiency building codes, and a phase out on the use of coal to generate electricity.
Traffic was down to two lanes as BC Hydro crews were changing a pole on Ferry Avenue between Ospika Boulevard and Westwood Drive on Thursday.
Canada’s extradition act on display with world watching Meng case: experts
Mike BLANCHFIELD, Andy BLATCHFORD
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada’s cumbersome extradition system means Chinese business executive Meng Wanzhou could wait years before her case is resolved even if she will inevitably be committed to stand trial in the United States, legal experts say.
That means there are no quick fixes to Canada’s current political quandary: resolving Meng’s case to alleviate the wrath of China, which has arrested two Canadians in apparent retaliation, without alienating the United States.
China is Canada’s second-biggest trading partner; the U.S. is its biggest.
Robert Currie, a professor of international law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, pointed to the case of Ottawa professor Hassan Diab as an illustration of the flaws with Canada’s Extradition Act.
Diab was extradited to France on charges he bombed a Paris synagogue in 1980, even though the Ottawa judge presiding over the case acknowledged the evidence was too weak to have led to a conviction in Canada. Judges in extradition cases aren’t supposed to examine the evidence as if they were conducting trials.
Diab’s case took six years to
wind its way through Canadian courts before he was sent to France. Last January, after Diab spent years in a French jail, the French dropped all the charges against him for lack of evidence. He returned to Canada vowing that his mission in life had become to reform Canada’s extradition law.
There’s no reason to believe Meng’s case will unfold any quicker, Canadian officials said this week, saying the case could take years.
When all is said and done, it’s all but inevitable that Meng will be extradited to the U.S. because the Canadian system is so steeply tilted against the accused person, said Currie.
“The accused is not meaningfully able to challenge the requesting state’s evidence,” said Currie.
“Diab’s case really highlights that.”
Diab’s lawyer Donald Bayne said the extradition law essentially gives judges no discretion.
“It’s a terrible and defective system... (the judge is) a rubber stamp,” Bayne said. “And now we’re going to be the victims of our own defective system.”
Bayne and others have called for a review of the Extradition Act. Now, he said, Canada’s faulty extradition system will be on full international display as the world closely watches Meng’s case.
“We get caught as the filler of
the sandwich between these two giant superpowers and we’re constrained by our own Extradition Act,” he said. “China’s looking very hard at what we do here and if our extradition system works in its normal way... The world is looking at our process here.”
That leaves Canada entangled in a diplomatic crisis with China, which has threatened serious consequences and has arrested the two Canadians, alleging each violated national security.
The Trudeau government has repeatedly said Meng will be dealt with fairly and transparently by an independent judiciary, but U.S. President Donald Trump undermined those assertions when he mused Tuesday in an interview with Reuters about interfering in Meng’s case if it would help him forge a trade deal with China.
On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Meng’s lawyers could use Trump’s comment to help fight her extradition.
Currie said Freeland was sending “a shot across the bow” at Trump to keep politics out of the process. “Or,” he said, “it could also have been, ‘Hey you better stop the president from making those remarks because it might screw up the extradition; we don’t want to give her lawyers ammunition.’”
Currie said Trump’s remarks raise the possibility that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould could block Meng’s extradition on political grounds. The minister has to sign off on the extradition once a court renders its decision, but that decision is also subject to appeal.
It would be rare for a justice minister to reject a court-ordered extradition, said Currie, who cited one obscure case in the last decade where an extradition ruling was blocked at the political level.
Bayne said he believes the stakes in Meng’s case are so high for Canada that it’s possible WilsonRaybould will step in to prevent the extradition.
Regardless, it will likely be years before the case is resolved.
“It has taken in some other cases, many years – 10 years, 12 years,” said a senior Canadian government official, who briefed reporters this week on the condition of anonymity.
“Typically, they’re done more expeditiously than that.”
CP PHOTO Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, right, arrives at a parole office with a member of her private security detail in Vancouver, on Wednesday.
Border wall dispute could lead to U.S. gov’t shutdown
Erica WERNER, Damian PALETTA Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump pledged Thursday to do “whatever it takes to get border security,” deepening an impasse over border wall funding barely a week from a crucial deadline for a partial government shutdown to begin.
In a video posted on Twitter, Trump attacked Democrats as “absolute hypocrites” and claimed they’ve supported funding border barriers in the past but won’t do so now because of their opposition to him.
The video showed images of people rushing the border and included clips of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama speaking in opposition to illegal immigration and in favour of border security.
“We need to have the wall. We need border security. Whatever it takes to get border security, I will do it,” Trump says in the video. “I pledged that a long time ago, and I will pledge it always.”
The video had a caption saying “Let’s not do a shutdown, Democrats – do what’s right for the American People!”
The video came two days after Trump declared during an Oval Office meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government to get the wall money he wants.
Since then, Democrats have attacked him relentlessly on the issue, with Schumer repeatedly accusing the president of throwing a “temper tantrum” as he threatens to lead the government into a partial shutdown in pursuit of a costly and unnecessary wall. Trump is demanding $5 billion for his border wall for 2019, while Democrats are unwilling to give him more than $1.3 billion for border fencing. Democrats said Thursday that they won’t budge.
“President Trump is willing to throw a temper tantrum and shut down the government unless he gets his way,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“I want to be crystal clear: There will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall. It’s done.”
Funding for federal agencies including the Homeland Security Department that funds the wall runs out Dec. 21 at midnight, unless Congress passes a spending bill before then and Trump signs it. Other agencies affected include the Justice, Interior and Agriculture departments, totaling 25 per cent of government spending that is controlled by Congress.
Other major agencies, including the Pentagon, have already been funded through
Honduran migrants help a woman cross over the U.S. border wall near San Diego, Calif., on Wednesday. The group turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents in order to apply for asylum. A dispute over funding for an enhanced border wall between U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. legislators may lead to a government shutdown.
September.
On Capitol Hill, confusion and uncertainty reigns about how the dispute will end.
Lawmakers headed home for a long weekend Thursday no closer to a solution, leading one key lawmaker to suggest that Congress might have to fall back on passing another short-term spending bill, kicking the can down the road once again because of an inability to compromise. The Homeland Security Department and other agencies are already operating under a twoweek short-term spending bill.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., suggested Congress might have to extend funding until Dec. 26, or until Jan. 3 – right before a new Congress is sworn in and Democrats take control of the House.
Shelby said other options could include short-term extensions until later in January, February or May, or all the way through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, which is the solution Democrats have proposed.
“We’re at an impasse,” Shelby said.
“Something’s going to happen, or we’re going to have a CR or a shutdown.” A CR is a “continuing resolution” that extends government spending at existing levels.
However, Democrats said no one had discussed the shorter-term options with them.
House members are not scheduled to return to the Capitol until next Wednesday evening, two days before the shutdown deadline, prompting sniping from some senators.
“I don’t understand why people don’t come to work and work all the way through December when the taxpayers are paying them,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “I mean, finish your job.”
Trump also claimed in an earlier tweet Thursday that “money we save” from a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada would make good on his long-standing promise to have Mexico pay for the wall – an assertion backed by no verifiable evidence.
“I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall,’” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!”
Mexican officials have said there was no discussion in the trade-deal negotiations of mechanisms under which Mexico would
pay for the wall.
Schumer and Pelosi both ridiculed Trump for his claim.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference.
“Maybe he doesn’t understand how a trade agreement works... I think the Oval Office is an evidence-free zone.”
Pelosi, who is likely to become House speaker in January, also pointed out that Congress has yet to ratify Trump’s new trade deal.
Schumer, meanwhile, suggested on the Senate floor Thursday that if Mexico is truly funding the wall, Congress does not need to spend any money on it.
Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign promising American voters that Mexico would somehow pay for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a demand that angered Mexican officials but enthralled his supporters. Since becoming president, though, Trump has sought U.S. taxpayer money to fund the wall’s construction and threatened to shut down parts of the U.S. government if lawmakers do not acquiesce.
John Wagner and David J. Lynch contributed to this report.
AP PHOTO
Who, what made news in 2018
Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be asking for your input through four online polls on our home page (pgcitizen.ca) about who and what were the biggest local newsmakers of the year.
This morning, we’ll post the first poll, which asks you to choose the local story of the year. And the nominees are:
• Interior wildfires, evacuees in Prince George
• Spruce Kings banner, league final playoff run
• Opioid, fentanyl crisis
• City of Prince George managers wages, overtime
Next week, we’re going to ask who you think the local artist of the year was. And the nominees are:
• Andrew Burton (CBC Poetry Prize finalist)
• Jack Grinhaus, Lauren Brotman (Theatre NorthWest, Hedda Noir)
• Carla Joseph (Art battle, Northern Indigenous Artists’ Collective)
• Shelby Meany (Cabaret, Legally Blonde)
On Dec. 23, we’ll post the third poll, asking who you think the local athlete of the year is. And the nominees are:
• Ethan de Jong (Prince George Spruce Kings)
• Vasiliki Louka (UNBC Timberwolves basketball)
• Brett Connolly (Stanley Cup winner, Washington Capitals)
• Jared Young (Chicago Cubs minor league player of the year)
• Sarah Beaudry (Winter Olympics, biathlon)
Finally, on Dec. 28, we’ll ask who you think the local newsmaker of the year was.
And the nominees are:
• Brett Connolly
• Dominic Frederick (Lheidli T’enneh First Nation chief)
• Shelby Meany
• Kyle Sampson (Cariboo Rocks The North, city councillor)
• Jared Young We’ll share the results from all four polls on Jan. 2, in the print edition of The Citizen, as well as on our website. On that day, we’ll also name the most-read Citizen articles online in 2018.
In the meantime, the Canadian Press sent out its annual poll this week to newsrooms across the country, asking editors to pick Canada’s newsmaker of the year and news story of the year.
Cannabis legalization will bring about significant cultural and social changes to Canadian life in every province and community...
For newsmaker, the nominees were:
• Colten Boushie (Indigenous man killed trespassing on a Saskatchewan farm)
• Viola Desmond (human rights activist, first Canadian woman to be featured on a regularly circulating banknote)
• Doug Ford (premier of Ontario)
• Chrystia Freeland (foreign affairs minister, NAFTA lead negotiator)
• Francois Legault (premier of Quebec)
• Bruce McArthur (alleged Toronto serial killer)
• Rachel Notley (premier of Alberta)
• Donna Strickland (Nobel Prize in Physics winner)
• Justin Trudeau (prime minister)
• Humboldt Broncos hockey team (16 players, staff killed in bus crash)
The choice was obvious. While all of those individuals made headlines and many of them sparked national debates,
the Humboldt Broncos tragedy was felt across the country. In the immediate aftermath, the team and the community were flooded with financial and emotional support. Later in the year, the survivors, many of them dealing with paralysis and other lifelong injuries, inspired Canadians with their stories of resilience and optimism.
For the news story of the year, the nominees were:
• Fredericton shooting
• Extreme weather
• Ontario politics
• Humboldt crash
• Indigenous justice
• Pot legalization
• Toronto van attack
• Toronto outdoor shooting
• NAFTA negotiations
• Quebec election
To be blunt, most of this list is a joke, partly because of the predominance of regional stories that had little to no impact on the nation as a whole and partly because of the absence of three of the year’s biggest stories.
The Federal Court of Appeal slamming the brakes on the proposed TransMountain pipeline expansion, ruling that the federal government did not adequately consult affected First Nations and assess potential environmental impacts was huge. So was the announced $40 billion LNG project across Northern B.C., which Trudeau rightly declared as the largest private sector initiative in Canadian history. If anyone in Quebec or the Maritimes wonders how either of these stories affects them, they need to ask where the money for their provincial equalization payments from the federal government comes from.
Why Mueller should try to indict Trump
Now that Michael Cohen has placed President Donald Trump squarely in criminal crosshairs, a constitutional crisis appears to be looming: if there is evidence that Trump committed a crime, can he be indicted while in office?
This isn’t settled law, though most legal analysts conclude that an indictment is unlikely – the Justice Department has had an internal policy since 1973 that sitting presidents cannot be indicted. But there is another policy that can use the 1973 Office of Legal Counsel opinion to its advantage and achieve the same effect as an indictment without having to issue one: the special counsel regulations under which Robert Mueller is appointed. The special counsel does not act independently; he is supervised by the attorney general (or, under the current circumstances, presumably the acting attorney general – though that itself has raised some problematic legal questions). Specifically, while Mueller does not have to report day to day to the attorney general, he has the power to approve any “significant steps” taken in the investigation or to overrule them. This authority has received intense scrutiny ever since Muel-
ler’s appointment because of the power it can wield over the scope and effect of the special counsel’s investigation.
Importantly, the attorney general cannot deny the special counsel’s requests based on a mere whim. The regulations state that the attorney general must give “great weight to the views of the Special Counsel,” and only if the attorney general concludes “that the action is so inappropriate or unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued” may the latter’s request be denied. If this happens, the attorney general is required to report a description and explanation of the denied actions to the House and Senate judiciary committees at the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation.
And there is the rub. If, at the end of his inquiry, Mueller believes that he has gathered enough evidence that would warrant charging Trump with one or more crimes, he can provide that evidence in his final report to the
attorney general, along with a recommendation that the president be indicted. The attorney general could approve that recommendation, in which case such an indictment would become public (with its constitutionality litigated in court). But the attorney general could just as legitimately deny the requests based on the internal 1973 policy that suggests an indictment is “inappropriate and unwarranted under established Departmental practices.”
Precisely because the only remedy might ultimately be a political one – impeachment and removal by Congress – Mueller must ensure that the fruits of his investigation don’t get buried. In 1974, Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski faced a similar predicament when he uncovered evidence of crimes committed by then-President Richard M. Nixon. His solution was to pass off his findings to Congress and create a “road map” for potential impeachment proceedings. By recommending an indictment that will be overruled, Mueller could likewise automatically pass the baton to Congress and allow the political process to pick up when the criminal process can go no further.
– Asha Rangappa is a lecturer and a former FBI agent.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
And not considering the opioid crisis, which has led to more than 3,000 overdose deaths across Canada in 2018 alone, in communities large and small, including Prince George, is just a ridiculous oversight.
Those three stories easily overshadow most of CP’s nominees.
The Quebec election? Please.
The Humboldt crash was significant, Indigenous justice remains a huge, ongoing national issue and the NAFTA negotiations were significant to the country as a whole but the real game changer and The Citizen’s pick for news story of the year was the legalization of pot.
Canada is only the second country in the world to legalize marijuana and the provinces will spend years sorting out the legal implications while municipalities will sort out to what extent retail sales and cannabis production may or may not happen in their respective communities. The RCMP and other police forces across the country are faced with the immediate problem of detecting and charging cannabis-impaired drivers. Expect numerous legal cases in the years ahead on a variety of fronts, from what constitutes a reasonable impairment test to the selling of edibles.
And that’s just the law.
Cannabis legalization will bring about significant cultural and social changes to Canadian life in every province and community – some positive but many negative –in the same way that alcohol and gambling have.
Refocusing back on Prince George, we hope you take the time to vote in our online polls on the local news story, newsmaker, artist and athlete of 2018. We can’t wait to hear what you decide.
– Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Time bomb ticking
NDP and Green MLAs decided Wednesday to sit tight for now and not intervene in Speaker Darryl Plecas’s plan to detonate his bombshell about mismanagement of the legislature.
Two B.C. Liberal MLAs at a meeting chaired by Plecas urged a committee to prepare for and get the jump on what he has in mind come January. They struck out.
The NDP-Green majority on a management committee’s subgroup voted to stick to more mundane matters and ignore the ticking time bomb that Plecas produced last week.
In an emotional outburst then, he referred to a laundry list of “absolutely serious” concerns about the financial management of the legislature and promised to quit if upcoming revelations don’t outrage the public and make them throw up in revulsion.
Two weeks before that, he arranged for the house to suspend the two senior officers of the legislature because of an ongoing police investigation into matters that Plecas and his friend and special adviser, Alan Mullen, brought to their attention.
The two events – in a minority legislature where a change of Speaker could destabilize the house – left MLAs flummoxed.
Wednesday’s meeting showed the NDP and Greens are going to try to ride it out until January, the time Plecas has set to show his cards.
They rebuffed Liberal efforts to change the agenda and start handling, or bracing for, the Speaker’s revelations. They stressed the importance of the routine job of approving next year’s $83-million budget to run the legislature, even though final sign-off of the audit of last year’s budget has been suspended because of the controversy.
But the Liberals said the budget could be “tainted” by Plecas’s information, and that carrying on amounts to pretending last week’s allegations didn’t happen.
NDP and Green House Leaders Mike Farnworth and Sonia Furstenau referred to Liberal attempts to attack and target the Speaker. They both stressed the importance of doing nothing that would get in the way of the police investigation. That is where the Speaker’s planned exposé could run off the rails. Although Plecas has repeatedly insisted he can deliver
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it without interfering with the police investigation, it’s not clear how. If he has solid evidence of widespread, long-running, outrageous mismanagement, his plan to reveal it is incomprehensible. He and his special adviser spent several months developing information about clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz that they handed to the police. Going into detail next month about a legislature management scandal while two special prosecutors are overseeing that police investigation would breach all standards set for handling such affairs. Plecas said last week: “I’d better be extraordinarily careful about how I say things... I do not want any overlap with what’s going on with the police. I am not going to do that whatsoever.”
On Wednesday, he recommitted to spilling the beans. The NDP and Greens will have to determine if the measures they took to quell the Liberals might apply equally to Plecas next month.
Farnworth said: “We are going to continue to respect the work of the police.”
Furstenau said: “We need to recognize that questions are being asked by the RCMP and special prosecutors. The notion of us, as a committee, proceeding along any lines around those kinds of questions at this point seems not entirely responsible. ”
But that’s exactly what the Speaker is planning to do at the January committee meeting, on the basis that his upcoming revelations have nothing to do with the two top officers.
He made one curious remark about what he wants to divulge.
“There was a point made that there was an allegation of fraud,” he said. “Looking at books does not necessarily follow that you’re talking about fraud whatsoever.”
The full legislature management committee is scheduled to meet again next week for more routine business. The Liberals will try again to focus on Plecas and will likely be shot down again – if the meeting even comes off.
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Guest Column
LES LEYNE
In the Fast Leyne
Police across Canada probing bomb threats
Adam BURNS Citizen news service
TORONTO — Police forces in cities across Canada were investigating multiple bomb threats on Thursday as authorities in the U.S. said similar threats sent to dozens of locations appeared to be a hoax.
Police departments in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg, as well as RCMP detachments in B.C. and Manitoba, were investigating multiple threats.
One busy subway station in downtown Toronto was briefly evacuated Thursday afternoon due to a threat received in the area, but King Station was up and running again within hours.
A spokesman for Toronto police said it wasn’t clear whether that threat, or any of “at least 10” received across the city, were related to those in other locations.
“The problem with that thinking is – if you believe they’re related and this is nonsense
NEWS IN BRIEF
Court rules
Vancouver can close illegal pot shops
VANCOUVER (CP) — Vancouver says a court decision has reaffirmed the city’s authority to shut down illegal marijuana dispensaries.
In a news release, the city says the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision to order the closing of unlicensed retail shops also sets a precedent if illegal operators fight injunctions requiring them to close in the future.
The city says it filed 53 injunctions against businesses that were operating outside its regulations, but only 28 stores participated in the legal test case after some closed down. Years before cannabis became legal, illegal marijuana-related businesses grew so the city introduced regulations and fees to control where medical pot dispensaries could operate. Injunctions were filed on May 31, 2016, against the businesses that didn’t have approval to operate but remained open after missing a deadline to close. The city says it has collected almost $3 million from more than 3,700 tickets that were issued against businesses operating outside its regulations.
“This (court) decision reaffirms the city’s authority over land use and our municipal business licensing for cannabis retail, and confirms the regulatory regime introduced in 2015 was well within the city’s jurisdiction to establish,” Kaye Krishna, the city’s general manager, development, buildings and licensing, said in the news release. “It also signals that any cannabis retail store operating outside city regulations can and will be enforced against using all the tools at the city’s disposal to the fullest extent moving forward.”
No recreational pot shops have been approved in Vancouver since the drug became legal on Oct. 17.
Man facing animal abuse charges
OTTAWA (CP) — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has laid 38 charges against a man from Chilliwack and two companies over allegations of undue suffering to chickens. The agency alleges that Dwayne Dueck, Elite Farm Services Ltd. and Sofina Foods Inc. unlawfully harmed chickens during a loading or unloading process. The charges were laid under the Health of Animals Regulations, which say no person shall beat an animal being loaded or unloaded in a way likely to cause injury or undue suffering. Marcie Moriarty of the British Columbia SPCA said in June that its investigators were examining claims of animal cruelty involving Elite Services following the release of video footage allegedly showing hens stuck in mounds of feces and packed into wire cages with dead birds. Dueck, who is president of Elite Farm Services, which loads birds into crates for processing, wasn’t immediately available for comment, but in June he said the company follows all animal welfare guidelines according to industry standards. Sofina Foods could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.
– then your investigation suffers and your response suffers,” Const. David Hopkinson said in an interview.
“We know... that a number of other cities have received bomb threats. To us, that doesn’t matter – we will investigate them seriously every time.”
In Montreal, police responded to five emailed bomb threats received by local businesses Thursday afternoon.
Agent Jean-Pierre Brabant, a police spokesman, said the emails were the same as those received elsewhere in North America.
They warned in imperfect English that unless $20,000 in Bitcoin was paid, a bomb would go off.
“Each call was taken very seriously,” Brabant said.
“We sent police officers to the site, they searched the premises. We found nothing suspicious. There were no explosives.”
It was not necessary to call in the bomb squad, he added. He said there was nothing connecting the companies, which were spread across the city.
“It appears to be a hoax, but we are not taking any chances,” Brabant said.
The Calgary Police Service said in a statement that the threats received there were “not believed to be credible,” but officers were taking precautions nonetheless.
“The threats are being received by email and they have been sent to various locations throughout the morning,” its statement reads.
“Similar threats are being received across the continent and are believed to be connected.”
Police in Edmonton issued a similar statement, saying they had received several reports of bomb threats emailed to local businesses.
South of the border, a wave of bomb threats emailed to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings triggered searches, evacuations and fear.
However, there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and were not considered credible.
Some of the emails had the subject line:
“Think Twice.”
They were sent from a spoofed email address.
The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment in Bitcoin.
— With files from The Associated Press
Sports
P.G. swimmer qualifies for world final
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Prince George Barracudas swimmer Haley Black is making waves at the FINA short course world championships in Hangzhou, China.
The 22-year-old qualified for today’s 50-metre butterfly final when she clocked 25.60 seconds in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Black broke the Canadian women’s record with a time of 25.43 seconds in her preliminary swim. Her time was eight-thousandths of a second quicker than the previous national record of 25.51 set by two-time Olympian Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., in the 2016 world short course championships in Windsor, Ont. Black was ranked 29th in the word in the 50m fly going into the meet in Hangzhou. She is also scheduled to compete in the 100m butterfly event today.
She now attends Auburn University in Alabama, where she’s a three-time All-American.
After a full decade with the Barracudas swim club, Black began her NCAA career at Western Kentucky, where she competed for her freshman season (201415). She transferred to Auburn after the Western Kentucky swim program folded in 2015.
Black is being groomed by Swimming Canada for more international competitions upcoming this season, including the long-course FINA world championships in Gwangju, Korea, the FINA world junior championships in Budapest, Hungary, and the FISU Summer Universiade Games in Naples, Italy. She’s also vying for a national team spot for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
UNBC adds to its soccer flock
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
If the UNBC Timberwolves women’s soccer team needs someone to move mountains to clear the path to victory next season in the U Sports Canada West conference they might turn to Kenzie Chilcott.
As an off-road runner, Chilcott is quite adept at turning mountains into molehills. She proved she can go the distance back in August when she won the women’s 18-and-under category in the Emporer’s Challenge, a grueling 20-kilometre race in the northern Rockies near Tumbler Ridge. — see PHYSICAL, page 10
Managing editor Neil Godbout puts the news in perspective every day, only in The Citizen
Among the elite
Gauthier picked for CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Taylor Gauthier is leaving the Prince George Cougars.
But just for one game.
The 17-year-old goalie has been invited to play in the 24th annual CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game on Thursday, Jan. 24 in Red Deer, Alta.
Gauthier, listed by NHL Central Scouting as a B prospect for the June draft, is among 40 players from the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League who will play for either Team Cherry or Team Orr in the game.
He’s one of six goalies picked for the game.
Each will play one period.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for him – obviously with what he’s done in his short career he’s opened up the eyes for people to see he’s a true prospect to be drafted and will move on in the future to play the big game,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk.
“There’s something there that people are seeing. His commitment, his work ethic, his compete level is off the charts. We all forget he’s only 17 and he’s only going to get better the more he plays and the more maturity he gets.”
The nationally-televised game in Red Deer coincides perfectly with the Cougars’ road trip in Alberta that week. They’ll play Calgary the day after the Top Prospects Game, then travel to Red Deer and Edmonton to wrap up a threegame weekend the next two nights.
Gauthier has drawn the bulk of the work in net for the Cougars this season, playing in 24 of their 31 games so far. In 1,352 minutes of action he’s made 645 saves for a .982 save percentage and 3.36 goals-against average. He sports a 7-12-1-1 record with one shutout, a 4-0 win at CN Centre over the Seattle Thunderbirds, Nov. 2 – the first of his WHL career.
The Cougars are in the midst of a three-game losing streak and Gauthier has been in net for all but one period of those three losses – two in Portland and one in Seattle. As the last line of defence, Gauthier has taken criticism lately from some Cougar observers who aren’t con-
vinced he deserves to play as much as he has been ahead of 18-year-old backup goalie Isaiah DiLaura.
“It’s tough because (Gauthier) is such a huge competitor,” said Matvichuk. “The other night (in a 6-5 loss to Seattle) he wanted to stop a couple more. But the game is a matter of growing into who he’s got to be and you have to go through these life experiences and ups and downs of being a starting goaltender. Some days you just don’t have it.”
In August, Gauthier played for Team Canada in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton. He came into the gold-medal game 11 minutes in to replace Saskatoon Blades goalie Nolan Maier, with Canada trailing Sweden 2-0, and stopped all 16 shots he faced in a 6-2 victory.
Gauthier, the Cougars’ 10th overall pick in the 2016 WHL bantam draft, is among several Cougars over the years selected to the Top Prospects Game. Other Cougars who played include: Eric Brewer and Jarrett Smith (1997); Blair Betts (1998); Dan Hamhuis (2001); Eric Hunter (2004); Nick Drazenovic (2005); Ty Wishart (2006); Brett Connolly (2010); Ty
His commitment, his work ethic, his compete level is off the charts. We all forget he’s only 17 and he’s only going to get better... — Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk
Edmonds (2014); Jansen Harkins (2015); and Nikita Popugaev (2017).
“The Sherwin-Williams CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game provides scouts and general managers the unique opportunity to evaluate talent competing in a best-on-best showcase,” said Dan Marr, NHL Central Scouting director. “All 31 NHL clubs contributed to the roster selection and take great interest in seeing this event unfold in which players can elevate their game under the spotlight.”
The event was originally known as the CHL All-Star Challenge, from 1992-95, and it became the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in 1996.
In that inaugural 1992 game, Matvichuk, then a defenceman for the Saskatoon Blades, was named player of the game in a 5-4 win for Team West over Team East. Dean McAmmond of the Prince Albert Raiders scored the overtime winner.
“It was a fun game to play,” said Matvichuk, who went on to play 14 seasons in the NHL with Minnesota/Dallas and New Jersey. “You get to know these guys so well. We did a lot of tours in the summer, too, and it started with this game.
“The realism hits you that you’ve got a chance (to play in the NHL) because they’re talking about you. It kind of gives a boost to your confidence. It was added pressure in Saskatoon, where I played (for the Blades), but it was fun.”
Now three games into an 11-game road trip, the Cougars (11-17-1-2) are in Victoria to play the Royals Saturday night, then travel to Langley for a Sunday afternoon encounter with the Vancouver Giants.
Prince George Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier makes a stop on Kelowna Rockets forward Kole Lind last season at CN Centre. Gauthier, 17, has been chosen to play with and against the top players in the Canadian Hockey League.
GAUTHIER
CHILCOTT
Physical play part of Chilcott’s game
— from page 9
Chilcott’s endurance and soccer skills she learned growing up in Fort St. John could serve the T-wolves well over the next five seasons now that she’s committed to the team as a defender.
“Soccer has always come naturally,” said the 17-year-old Chilcott, in a UNBC team release. “I have done it the longest, and the idea of letting it go didn’t feel good. I know it is close to my heart. This is a big relief, and a big step, and now I am just excited for this to happen.”
Her cross-country running ability and conditioning should serve her well on the soccer field.
“I like to get into tackles,” Chilcott said. “I am fast, so I have been the one to chase opposition down. I really have been trying to take more risks playing forward, because I play so defensively. That will be something to see, along with, hopefully, some goals.”
Chilcott visited the UNBC campus twice in the past two years and has had a chance to train with the T-wolves.
She’s a product of the Northern Strikers club program in Fort St. John and she’s been monitoring the T-wolves’ progress as Canada West playoff contenders the past two seasons.
“When I saw Mara (McCleary) scored their first playoff goal, I just lit up,” said Chilcott. “I felt like I was beside her cheering her on. That just pumps me up for next year.
“One of the things Neil (T-wolves head coach Sedgwick) talks about is being comfortable being uncomfortable. (The Strikers) have played like the Timberwolves, and I want to continue that. I love how Neil inspires us to grow and get better. That fits me really well.
“Seeing how this team works as a community, and Neil not pushing the culture on anyone. It just happens naturally around him. I am really a community-based person and I love having a culture where everyone is equal.”
Sedgwick expects the five-foot-nine Chicott to make a smooth adjustment from youth soccer to U Sports in 2019, joining a team that will have the bulk of its roster made up of returning players.
“Kenzie is a truly exciting prospect for this program,” said Sedgwick. “She has seemingly limitless energy and grit to her game. Her playing environment in Fort St. John has more than prepared her to take the next step.
“When recruiting, we look for two key qualities. A love of continued growth in the game, and the work capacity to support that desire. Kenzie checks both those boxes in a major way. When you look in her eyes during training, it’s easy to see how much she cares. She is constantly searching for deeper understanding, and then she takes action.”
Chilcott currently attends North Peace Secondary School in Fort St. John and she plans to study civil engineering at UNBC.
Last week, UNBC committed to five-foot-eight fullback Kalista Kirkness of Chilliwack for the 2019 season. Kirkness met Sedgwick when he served as a guest coach for her club team Coastal FC in the B.C. Soccer Premier League.
“Soccer has been my life since I was four years old,” said Kirkness. “When Neil came and ran a session with our team, it became clear this was something I wanted to do. I pursued it, and to be a part of a varsity team like this is really amazing. I am really proud of being able to play at this level, and I am really excited.”
The 17-year-old Sardis secondary school honourroll student has applied for UNBC’s bio-medical program. As for her on-field attributes, she says she’s not afraid of the physical side of soccer.
“I am really looking to grow in my technical ability,” said Kirkness. “I am a good passer, but I am looking to improve on my one-on-one skills. I love to release and get up on the attack. Plus, I am gritty. If someone hits, they can expect it back. I am excited.”
New King a heavy hitter
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Spencer DenBeste, the newest member of the Prince George Spruce Kings, did not hesitate when asked to describe what Kings’ fans can expect from him when he makes his BCHL debut tonight at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena against the Surrey Eagles.
“I like to hit, score goals and make plays and just do little things right,” said the 19-year-old centre, acquired earlier this week in a future considerations deal from the Springfield (Ill.) Junior Blues of the NAHL.
If DenBeste’s words match his actions on the ice for the duration of the season, his value as a hard-nosed centre with college-material skills could grow exponentially as the Kings try to rein in their first BCHL championship.
DenBeste will line up at centre tonight against the Eagles on a line with left winger Corey Cunningham and right winger Chong Min Lee.
“This team is good, really good,” said DenBeste, following his fourth practice with the Spruce Kings Thursday afternoon.
“I don’t know much about the league but I’ve heard good things about it. It just seems faster and a lot more skillful than where I was before.”
The six-foot-one, 178-pound native of Marquette, Mich., might well be the missing piece in the playoff puzzle for last-year’s Fred Page Cup finalists. The coaches at Lake Superior State University who signed him in May to a scholarship deal which takes effect next season obviously like what he has to offer.
In 24 games with Springfield this season he had four goals and four assists, along with 20 penalty minutes and a minus-15 rating. DenBeste played in the USHL last season for two four-game stints with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and Sioux City Muskateers and finished the season with the Blues, totaling six goals and three assists for nine points and 43 penalty minutes in 27 games. He played 12 games for Springfield in 2016-17, his senior year
at high school in Marquette.
“It was fun but it wasn’t working out for me,” said DenBeste. “I wasn’t getting the icetime I thought I should have been. (Prince George) is a long ways from home but I’ve heard good things about it.”
He made his trade request known to Lake Superior State head coach Damon Whitten and it was relayed to Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes, who already was familiar with Lakers staff who signed Kings winger Dustin Manz for the 2019-20 season.
“We’ve had chats with the Lake State coaches who recruited him and we’ve watched video of him playing this year for Springfield in the NAHL and he certainly has a high work ethic and high compete (level) that we really like,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
“He gets around the ice pretty well for a big guy and he seems to have a pretty good head for the game too. He’s a centreman and he adds some depth up the middle. I think his style of game and his age and strength will do well within our league and our team.”
The NAHL is top-weighted with older juniors more likely to rely on their bodychecking ability to get the better of opponents and DenBeste expects a faster, more freewheeling pace in the BCHL. As a centre, he’s looking forward to being able to use his feet to win faceoffs, not legal in the NAHL.
“(The NAHL) is definitely a lot more physical, more grinding, not as skilled,”
said DenBeste, who had 12 goals and 25 points in 65 NAHL games over three seasons. “I guess in my high school and midget days I was a little more skillful and then I finally realized I like to play the body and shoot the puck.”
DenBeste was home in Marquette last Friday when the deal went down and spent part of the day snowblowing the driveway of his parents’ home, which was buried under two feet of fresh powder. He was surprised there’s no snow in his new home in north central B.C. and he’s looking forward to playing in front of the Kings’ crowd in the building formerly known as the Prince George Coliseum, where the fans are all in close proximity to the rink.
“I just want to get in the groove of things, lay the body around and hopefully get some points,” said DenBeste. “I’ve heard it’s pretty fun and it’s pretty cool. I’ve never been on a team where the town is so around the organization.” Tonight’s matchup pits the firstoverall Spruce Kings (34-8-1-2) against the last-overall Eagles (7-24-1-2). In the only other meeting between the Mainland Division rivals this season, Sept. 28 in Surrey, the Eagles beat the Spruce Kings 3-2 in a shootout. The Kings will be without two regular defencemen. Layton Ahac is playing for Canada West and the World Junior A Challenge and Dylan Anhorn is still sitting out a concussion. The Kings have called up Skyler Cameron, 16, an affiliated player from the Burnaby Winter Club, to fill in as the sixth defenceman. Garrett Worth, a winger acquired in a trade from Vernon three weeks ago, suffered a knee strain in a game against Langley Dec. 1 and also won’t play this weekend.
The Eagles have a new head coach, Linden Saip, who moved up from his assistant role when Peter Schaefer was fired in late November.
LOOSE PUCKS: Tonight’s game is the Spruce Kings’ annual Drop The Gloves and Sock It To ’Em promotion and fans are being asked to bring donations of warm winter clothing to toss onto the ice when the Kings score their first goal. The donations will be distributed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Dickson cracks top-five, Beaudry eighth at IBU Cup
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Sarah Beaudry and her rifle-toting Canadian counterpart Carsen Campbell finished eighth out of 25 teams Thursday in the IBU Cup biathlon single-mixed relay race in Ridnaun, Italy.
Beaudry, a 24-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member from Prince George, had six misses in four bouts on the shooting range (0-2, 0-1, 0-1, 0-2). Campbell, from Bedeque, P.E.I., used just two spare rounds (0-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1).
Relay shooting bouts consist of five targets and competitors alternate between shooting while prone and while standing. Each biathlete carries three extra rounds that can be hand-loaded to make up for their misses. For each target that remains standing, a 150-metre penalty lap must be skied.
Beaudry and Campbell finished 1:32.6 behind the gold-medal pace of Russians Anastasiia Morozova and Sergey Koratsylev, who finished the 13.5-kilometre course in 39:03.2.
The German team, which included two-time Olympic/world champion Laura Dahlmeier and Roman Rees, were 2.1 seconds behind Russia to claim silver. Ukraine (Yuliia Zhiravok/Vitaliy Trush) won bronze, 15.3 seconds behind.
In the mixed relay, Emily Dickson of Burns Lake (0-1, 0-1), Emma Lunder of Vernon (0-0, 0-0), Aidan Millar of Canmore (0-
2, 0-2) and Jules Brunotte of Sherbrooke, Que. (0-3, 0-2), posted a fifth-place result. The Canadians were 2:16.2 behind the gold medalists from Russia (Irina Kazakevich, Svetlana Mironova, Yuri Shopin, Anton Babikov), who won in 1:19:27.1. Sweden took silver and Norway captured bronze. Meanwhile, in the BMW World Cup women’s relay Thursday in Hochfilzen, Austria, Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was the top Canadian in 49th place. Crawford (2-0) crossed the finish 1:56.4 behind race winner Dorothea Wierer of Italy (0-1). Wierer completed the 7.5 km course in 21:04.9. Silver medalist Kaisa Makarainen of Finland (0-1) was just six-tenths of a second behind, while Extarina Yurlova-Percht of Russia (0-0) was 24.4 seconds behind. In other Canadian team results, Megan Bankes of Calgary was 73rd (1-2, 2:47.8), Megan Tandy of Prince George was 87th (23, 3:26.9), and Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon was 88th (2-2, 3:34.8) out of 98 starters. Only the top 60 in the sprint race qualify for the pursuit on Saturday.
Four Canadians are entered in Friday’s 10 km men’s sprint. Scott Gow of Canmore will start 14th, Christian Gow of Canmore will start 26th, Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T, is 65th in the start order and Nathan Smith of Canmore is 106th in the 110-competitor start order.
Prince George Spruce Kings forward Ben Brar cuts hard to the Surrey Eagles’ net during last season’s BCHL playoffs.
DICKSON
Canuck comeback quelled in overtime
Citizen news service
NASHVILLE — Colton Sissons
scored 3:05 into overtime to give the Nashville Predators a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Ryan Hartman, Nick Bonino and Calle Jarnkrok also scored and Pekka Rinne made 19 saves for the Predators, winners of two straight.
Jay Beagle, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat had the goals for the Canucks, who had won three in a row.
Vancouver tied it with 43.5 seconds remaining in the third period when Horvat, parked at the far post, slipped one past Rinne. The Canucks were short-handed at the time and had pulled goalie Anders Nilsson for an extra skater.
In overtime, Bonino sent a pass from the left boards to Sissons skating through the slot and he elevated a shot over Nilsson.
Hartman scored the game’s first goal at 5:52 of the opening period. With the Canucks changing lines, Predators defenceman Dan Hamhuis sent a long pass from inside the Nashville zone to Hartman at the red line. Skating in on the right side, Hartman used Vancouver defenceman Ben Hutton as a screen and beat Nilsson on the glove side with a wrist shot from above the right circle.
Bonino made it 2-0 at 8:40 of the first with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot that beat Nilsson high to the far side.
Beagle halved the Nashville lead at 15:15 of the first.
With the Predators on a power play, Markus Granlund intercepted a pass from defenceman Mattias Ekholm in the neutral zone.
Granlund carried the puck into the Nashville zone on the left side.
Colton Sissons of the Nashville Predators scores the overtime-winning goal against Vancouver Canucks goaltender Anders
on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. The Predators prevailed 4-3.
Inside the circle, he sent a pass to Beagle in the slot, where he made a quick forehand-to-backhand move and beat Rinne on the stick side.
Beagle’s goal was his first with
the Canucks. Nashville regained its two-goal lead at 11:05 of the second when Jarnkrok tipped Kyle Turris’ shot past Nilsson, who finished with 30
saves. Turris returned to Nashville’s lineup after missing eight games with an injury. Boeser made it 3-2 at 15:55 of the third with a power-play goal.
Tampa tops Toronto in battle of NHL leaders
Citizen news service
TAMPA, Fla. — Andrei Vasilevskiy delivered a record-setting performance after sitting out a month.
Tampa Bay’s goalie made a career-high 48 saves in his return from a broken left foot and the Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Thursday night in a matchup of the NHL’s top two teams.
“Actually (felt) pretty good,” Vasilevskiy said. “Tried to survive the first period, then the second, too.”
Vasilevskiy tied the team record for saves in a game established by Ben Bishop against Carolina on Jan. 19, 2014.
“He was the best player on the ice for us by a country mile,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson both scored for Tampa Bay during the final 36 seconds of the second period to make it 4-1. Vasilevskiy, who missed the previous 14 games, stopped all 23 shots he faced in the period.
“That was a pretty good test for
us,” Vasilevskiy said. “Guys scored important goals at the end of the second.”
Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov also had goals for the Lightning (25-7-1), who have won eight in a row and lead Toronto by eight points in the Atlantic Division. The franchise record is a nine-game winning streak in 2016.
Tampa Bay scored three times on 12 shots in the second. Killorn put home a backhand with 35.8 seconds left, and Johnson converted from the slot with 1.7 seconds to go.
Toronto got a goal from Kasperi Kapanen, and Frederik Andersen
stopped 17 shots. The Maple Leafs have lost three of four (1-2-1) after a five-game winning streak.
The Leafs went 0-for-6 on the power play.
“We did everything but put the puck in the back of the net,” Toronto centre John Tavares said. “I don’t think you want to hang your head. I think you’re obviously disappointed in the result. We have high expectations for ourselves. It’s a long season. We’ll see these guys again.”
Vasilevskiy got his glove on Patrick Marleau’s point-blank chance and then trapped the loose puck with his pad early in the third.
The Maple Leafs hit the crossbar or post three times in the first and Vasilevskiy made a left pad save on Tavares’ in-close backhand late in the period.
Nazem Kadri had a nifty deflection stopped by Vasilevskiy and also hit the post during a power play midway through the second.
“He played unbelievable,” Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews said. “I thought we played well. We had a ton of chances. I think sometimes you’ve just got to tip
your hat and move forward.”
Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead on Kucherov’s power-play goal at 5:31 of the second that required a video review. A no-goal call on the ice was overturned when officials determined Andersen’s glove save came behind the goal line.
Kucherov also had an assist and has six goals and 29 points over the last 15 games.
Kapanen put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 after stealing an errant pass into the slot by Kucherov 5:26 into the game.
Cirelli tied it on his third shorthanded goal at 8:20 of the first.
NOTES: Mitchell Marner (seven), Tavares (six) and Kadri (six) combined for 19 shots. ... Toronto (15-1-1) lost for the first time in regulation when scoring first. ... Marleau played in his 738th consecutive regular-season game and passed Jay Bouwmeester for the seventh-longest streak in NHL history. ... Toronto LW Zach Hyman served the second of a two-game suspension for a hit on Boston D Charlie McAvoy on Saturday. ... Tampa Bay RW Mathieu Joseph sat out with a lower-body injury.
got the secondary assist on
goal, extending his point streak to five games (three goals,
Harden plays huge against Lakers
HOUSTON (AP) — James Harden had 50 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, scoring 11 points during a big fourthquarter run to lead the Houston Rockets to a 126-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
Harden grabbed his 10th rebound with less than 90 seconds left to give him his second triple-double this season and the 37th of his career.
LeBron James finished with 29 points for the Lakers, who had won their previous two games.
Houston’s lead was three after Kyle Kuzma’s soaring dunk, but Harden was fouled on a threepointer and made all three free throws to make it 112-106. Harden then made threepointers on consecutive possessions to push the lead to 12. It was the first meeting between these teams since Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo got into a fight on Oct. 20 that led to suspensions for both players and Brandon Ingram.
Rookie sensation Elias Pettersson
Boeser’s
eight assists).
AP PHOTO
Nilsson
Encarnacion, Santana part of three-team trade
LAS VEGAS — Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto was in a hospital, making a trade from a bed. Cleveland counterpart Chris Antonetti was boarding a plane headed back home, trying to finalize the deal before the flight pulled away from the gate.
They managed to complete the swap as the winter meetings came to an end. Carlos Santana was sent back to Cleveland, where he was an Indians fan favourite. Edwin Encarnacion is headed to Seattle – no telling how long he’ll stick there.
The star hitters were dealt for each other Thursday, part of a three-team trade that also involved Tampa Bay.
The Rays got infielder Yandy Diaz and minor league right-hander Cole Sulser from Cleveland. The Indians also acquired first baseman Jake Bauers from Tampa Bay, while the busy Mariners wound up with a draft pick. Tampa Bay will send $5 million to Seattle and the Mariners will pay $6 million to Cleveland.
“I called Edwin earlier this morning before we had final sign-off because again I wanted him to hear from me,” Antonetti said after landing, adding he was in midflight when he finally reached Diaz.
Dipoto made likely the first winter meetings deal from a medical facility since then Jim Hendry’s agreement with pitcher Ted Lilly in 2007 when the then-Chicago Cubs general manager was taken for angioplasty in 2006. Dipoto felt ill a day earlier and was checked “out of an abundance of caution,” the team said. Dipoto was released from the hospital later Thursday.
“We’ll see how it goes with Edwin, whether he stays with us or he moves on to another destination,” Seattle assistant general manager Justin Hollander said. Coming off their third straight AL Central title, the Indians had been expected to make a move at the meetings, presumably with ace Corey Kluber or pitcher Trevor Bauer.
Instead, they jettisoned Encarnacion –the designated hitter has averaged 108 RBIs over the last seven seasons – and
They jettisoned Encarnacion and brought back the popular Santana.
brought back the popular Santana.
“Not sure how to feel,” Indians star Jose Ramirez tweeted.
The 32-year-old Santana, known for his power and ability to draw walks, spent the first eight seasons of his career in Cleveland before signing a $60 million, three-year deal with Philadelphia last winter. He is still owed $35 million. Philadelphia sent Santana to the rebuilding Mariners this month in a trade that included All-Star shortstop Jean Segura. Seattle quickly parted with Santana, who was appreciated by Indians rooters even more after he left.
“We know what makes him tick. We know all of the things that he brings to a team into a clubhouse, so that does help,” Antonetti said. Santana hit .229 with 24 home runs and 86 RBIs while walking 110 times as the Phillies’ first baseman. He is owed $17 million next season and $17.5 million in 2020, part of a deal that includes a $17.5 million team option for 2021 with a $500,000 buyout.
Yonder Alonso hit 23 homers with 83 RBIs last season as the Indians’ first baseman. He’s signed for 2019 with an option for 2020 – with the additions of Santana and Bauers, perhaps Alonso could end up in a trade along with one of Cleveland’s star pitchers.
Encarnacion had 107 RBIs while hitting 32 homers and .246. He leads the majors in homers and RBIs since 2012, and could provide the power lost when DH Nelson Cruz became a free agent.
A month before he turns 36, Encarnacion is guaranteed $25 million: $20 million next season and a $5 million buyout of a $25 million club option for 2020.
“Both Carlos and Jake are productive major league players that not only will contribute but enhance the versatility of our roster,” Antonetti said. “And beyond
Kelly signs on with Dodgers
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Reliever Joe Kelly agreed Thursday to a $25 million, threeyear contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
A 30-year-old right-hander, Kelly was 4-2 with a 4.39 ERA and two saves in 73 games
this year for the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Kelly pitched in all five World Series games against the Dodgers this year and did not allow a run, striking out 10 in six innings. He gave up one earned run in nine post-season appearances with 13 strikeouts and no walks.
that it adds some payroll flexibility for us in 2019.”
Seattle gets a competitive balance round B draft pick, currently projected at 77th overall. The Mariners, who recently traded star second baseman Robinson Cano and closer Edwin Diaz, said getting that choice was key to them making the deal.
“By adding another draft pick for 2019, we have another opportunity to add to the talent in our minor league system,” Dipoto said in a statement.
Tampa Bay was eager to get Yandy Diaz, who hit .283 with 28 RBIs in 88 games for Cleveland in the last two seasons. Highly regarded at 27, his opportunities were limited with the Indians because they already had a talented infield.
Diaz hit .312 in 39 games for Cleveland this year. The Cuban led the Triple-A International League in on-base percentage.
“The key to this deal for us is how we feel about Yandy Diaz,” said Chaim Bloom, the Rays’ senior vice-president of baseball operations. “We really like his bat. He hasn’t gotten an opportunity to show it regularly at the major league level just being blocked by some of the players that the Indians have had.”
“But we think there’s a lot of upside there,” he said. “He’s a third baseman by trade. He can also play first base. He’s kicked around the outfield a little bit. That and the fact that he’s a righthanded hitter is a really good fit for our roster.”
The 23-year-old Bauers made his major league debut last season and hit .201 with 11 homers and 48 RBIs in 96 games for Tampa Bay.
Sulser, 28, spent last season in Triple-A and Double-A, going a combined 8-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 47 relief appearances.
Tampa Bay will send the Mariners $2.5 million in two installments by May 1 and Aug. 1 next year. Seattle will send Cleveland a pair of $1 million payments on or before May 1 and Aug. 1 next year, and $2 million on or before each of those dates in 2020.
Bad timing
Officiating error led
to
controversy in Canada Cup curling final
Gregory STRONG Citizen news service
Curling Canada said an “officiating mistake” was made during a key fifth-end shot in the Canada Cup men’s final between Team Brad Jacobs and Team Kevin Koe last Sunday in Estevan, Sask.
After an internal review, it was determined that the mistake resulted in Koe’s team being told its final stone was being pulled from play, the federation said Thursday in a statement on its website.
The incident led to much confusion at Affinity Place and served as a flashpoint for critics of the new timing setup that was being tested at the competition.
“We want to give our athletes the best possible on-ice environment in which to show their talents, and we will continue to work with our on- and office officials, and review all processes with regards to timing to ensure this mistake isn’t repeated in the future,” the statement said.
Instead of the usual 38-minute full-game timing system, teams had four minutes in each of the first five ends and 4:15 in each of the last five ends. In addition, teams had two 90-second timeouts and additional 30-second timeouts ahead of a skip’s final throw in each half of the game.
Trailing 3-1 and with hammer in the fifth end, Koe’s team called a 30-second timeout with 11 seconds remaining. However, the clock ran down to two seconds and was not properly reset, the federation said.
Thinking he had 41 seconds to work with, Koe delivered his final stone in time – it took approximately 36 seconds – and the throw should have been considered legal.
However, Koe’s team was told as the stone was moving down the ice that the rock would be pulled, “potentially resulting in a communication lapse between vice-skip B.J. Neufeld and the sweepers,” the statement said.
Koe’s draw was heavy and the team missed its chance for a deuce that would have tied the game. Jacobs went on to post a 5-4 victory.
Team John Epping second Brent Laing, a teammate of Koe’s over the last quadrennial, said it was an unfortunate human error made by the official.
“Obviously having played with Kevin for four years, he’s methodical and sometimes he’s slow,” said Laing, whose team finished fifth. “They should have played a faster end but at the same time, they didn’t actually run out of time. It should have never happened.”
After Koe made his throw, an official advised the players by the rings that time had expired.
Before the stone stopped, Koe lead Ben Hebert questioned the official’s presence and explained – mixing in an f-bomb with some coarse language – that the team was told by an official at the other end of the ice that they had enough time. Koe later tied the game in the ninth end before a Jacobs single sealed it in the 10th.
Supporters of the timing setup feel it creates more scoring and helps keep play at a steady pace while those opposed note that skip stones are sometimes rushed.
“The cons so far outweigh the pros of this system even if you do believe that it’s speeding up the game or creating fewer blank ends,” Laing said in an interview this week. “If it’s at the expense of a key end like (Sunday) where it turns the game into a bit of a mockery, then why bother.
“The upside is not big enough.”
Volunteers traditionally handle competition timing at curling bonspiels. Some are trained on the setup in the days leading up to an event.
Another area of concern is that when a 30-second timeout is called, that time is not added to the clock. Instead, an official at ice level raises an arm when the timeout begins, leaving curlers and spectators unsure of how much time may be left.
In an email, a Curling Canada spokesman said the federation holds debriefs after every event, and that all aspects of timing are being reviewed.
According to Brooks Baseball, his fastball averaged 98.7 mph this year. The Red Sox acquired him from St. Louis in July 2014. Kelly broke a rib of the Dodgers’ Hanley Ramirez when he hit him with a pitch in the 2013 NL Championship Series opener. Kelly hit the New York Yankees’ Tyler Austin on
the back with a pitch last April 11, four innings after Austin spiked Red Sox shortstop Brock Holt when he slid into second base with a high right foot. That set off a brawl and Kelly was suspended for six games. Kelly’s departure leaves a gap in a Boston bullpen expected to lose Craig Kimbrel.
Ben WALKER Citizen news service
Cleveland hitter Edwin Encarnacion, now a member of the Seattle Mariners after a Thursday trade, follows through on a two-run home run against the host Boston Red Sox on Aug. 22.
Eastwood gets self-reflective in The Mule
Both tender apologia and vigorous justification, Clint Eastwood’s The Mule is a deeply, fascinatingly personal meditation from the 88-year-old director who, like his aged drug mule protagonist, has spent a long time on the road.
The Mule is the indefatigable Eastwood’s second film just this year, following The 15:17 to Paris, a distinctly undramatic dramatization of the thwarted 2015 train attack, starring the real-life heroes. Eastwood isn’t playing himself in The Mule – far from it – but it’s hard not to appreciate, and be moved by, the film’s many echoes for the filmmaker, acting for the first time in one of his own since 2008’s similarly self-reflective Gran Torino.
That he finds such intimate dimensions in the story of Leo Sharp is a testament to both Eastwood’s knack for pared-down elegy and to the lean script by Nick Schenk that envisions larger American themes within its geriatric drug courier.
(Dianne Wiest) and his equally furious daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood, the director’s daughter), though his granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga) has kept the faith.
To help pay for Ginny’s wedding, Stone follows a tip that leads him to a non-descript auto shop. Cartel members put a bag of drugs in his beat-up Ford pickup, hand him a phone and tell him to respond to any call or text. “Text?” he replies. After reaching his destination, Stone finds a wad of cash in the glove compartment.
And yet there’s still a potent, classically Eastwood parable here about eking out a little bit of freedom in an America that seems to always be tightening the noose.
Sharp was arrested at age 87 with 104 kilos of cocaine in the back of his pickup while en route to Detroit. Little in the Second World War veteran’s appearance suggested his secret identity. Sharp, it was discovered, was among the most prolific regional smugglers for the Sinoloa cartel. The hardto-believe tale was recounted by The New York Times’ Sam Dolnick, an article that’s been adapted here.
The Mule takes plenty of liberties with Sharp’s story – Eastwood’s smuggler is named Earl Stone, and is a Korean War vet – just as it has found curious parallels for its star. Some of them are silly. Some are profound. But rarely does The Mule – for better and worse – not reverberate with Eastwood’s own mythology in intriguing, if sometimes painfully awkward ways.
Eastwood’s Stone is a celebrated horticulturalist whose specialty is the day lily, a fragile flower that blooms for 24 hours a year. In the film’s early scenes, we see him, dressed in a seersucker suit, dishing out jokes while being fawned over by fans. Eastwood has made celebrity a regular subject, (the Capt. Chesley Sullenberger of his Sully resented the spotlight). But the director has found his most peculiar metaphor for his own fame in a horticulturalist who wins at the day lily equivalent of the Oscars.
But Stone’s lily farm runs into hard times. Dolling out cash to his Hispanic workers, he mutters, “Damned internet. It ruins everything.”
Like Gran Torino (also penned by Schenk) there are plenty of such old-man lines in The Mule, some delightful, some less so. We learn that Stone has long been estranged from his bitter ex-wife Mary
Many more trips and more kilos follow, and the legend of the smuggler known as Tata (grandpa) begins to grow, attracting the attention of the cartel kingpin (Andy Garcia). At the same time, a DEA investigation (Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena co-star as agents) is closing in. But they, too, aren’t immune to the superficial ways of the modern world, and are pressed to make “a splash” for politicians and press. Baked into The Mule is a sense of changing America squeezing out the regular Joe. Stone has occasional encounters – giving a repair suggestion to a lesbian biker, fixing a tire for a couple he refers to as “Negroes” – that seem intended to show he’s a good ol’ guy, even if he doesn’t know the politically correct lingo. The Mule isn’t unconcerned with racism, but these scenes are really just for a laugh. Worse, I found, was scene that parodied the anxiety of a Latino man wrongly pulled over by the police.
A film about an old white guy working for a Mexican cartel called for more curiosity to those around Stone. There isn’t a Hispanic character (or woman) in The Mule that rises above a stereotype, an irony considering Stone’s success is predicated on not looking like a typical smuggler.
And yet there’s still a potent, classically Eastwood parable here about eking out a little bit of freedom in an America that seems to always be tightening the noose. Even the low-level cartel guys get a new, unforgiving boss.
And as The Mule ambles toward its conclusion, it draws closer to Stone, and maybe to Eastwood’s legacy, too. Much of the movie measures temporary pleasures (from a motel threesome to the fleeting bloom of a lily) with long-term guilt. When Stone makes a reckoning with his ex-wife and daughter (Eastwood’s late scenes with Wiest are the best in the film), it’s hard not to wonder if Eastwood (whose expansive family attended the film’s premiere) is channeling his own misgivings over a nonstop career.
“I thought it was more important to be somebody out there,” he says, “than a damned failure in my own home.”
— Three stars out of four
Def Leppard leads hall of fame inductees
NEW YORK (AP) — Janet Jackson joins her brother Michael and the Jackson 5 as members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, earning induction on Thursday along with Stevie Nicks and the top fan votegetter, Def Leppard.
Radiohead, the Cure, Roxy Music and the Zombies will also be ushered in next spring at the 34th induction ceremony. It will be held March 29 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Jackson’s induction comes after her third time as nominee and many saw it as overdue, given her prowess as a hitmaker with All For You, That’s the Way Love Goes, Nasty, Together Again and What Have You Done For Me Lately.
It will be Nicks’ second induction into the rock hall,
since she’s already there as a member of Fleetwood Mac. She launched a solo career in 1981 with her duet with the late Tom Petty, Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around. Other hits followed, including Edge of Seventeen, Stand Back and I Will Run to You.
Def Leppard earned more than half a million votes from fans, which are incorporated into more than 1,000 ballots from artists, historians, industry professionals and past winners in deciding who gets honoured.
The British heavy metal band with a pop sheen were huge sellers in the 1980s on the back of songs like Photograph and Pour Some Sugar on Me.
Def Leppard, Nicks and Roxy Music were voted in during their first years as nominees.
Citizen news service
Canadian star Ryan Reynolds’ superhero alter-ego has outed himself as a Nickelback defender in a new trailer for Once Upon A Deadpool.
The trailer, titled Respect the Back, parodies The Princess Bride with 42-year-old actor Fred Savage reprising his role as a child listening to a bedtime fairy tale.
When Savage takes a swipe at Nickelback, Reynolds’ Deadpool character rises to the defence of the Alberta rock group that’s often the punchline of jokes.
“I’ve had it with all this Nickelback hating, all right? You think that makes you cool with the cool kids in school, Fred?”
Deadpool taunts. Savage sticks to his guns, bashing Nickelback’s music as “overproduced, formulaic, eargarbage.”
“Oh really? You know who might disagree with that? Facts,” Deadpool retorts, before prattling off a list of Nickelback’s musical plaudits.
“Fifty million album sales world-wide, 11th best-selling musical act of all time, Billboard’s most successful rock group over the last decade, six
Grammy nominations, and 12 Juno Awards – those count – six
Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, one People’s Choice Award, Canadian and a partridge in a... pear tree,” he rants, throwing in an expletive for good measure. Savage sheepishly tries to apologize, but Deadpool cuts him off. “I got to say, you were nicer as a kid.”
The two make amends by launching into a duet of Nickelback’s How You Remind Me, holding hands as they rock out to the 2001 anthem.
Jake COYLE Citizen news service
PHOTO BY CLAIRE FOLGER/WARNER BROS. PICTURES VIA AP
Clint Eastwood is shown in a scene from The Mule, in theatres now.
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White December 24, 1929December 7, 2018
It is with sad and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Bud White due to cancer. Bud was born in Peace River, AB, and joined the Northern Alberta Railway in 1948. In 1951
he moved his young family to Squamish, BC, where he became a trainman on the PGE. In 1955 they made the move to Prince George. He worked on the PGE/BCR for the next 37 years before relocating upon retirement to Chilliwack in 1992. He was predeceased by son Darcy (Tom) in 2017. He leaves to mourn his passing his wife of 68 years Leasl, son David (Annette) of New Zealand, daughter Kim (Michael) of Langley; grandchildren Jonas (Cheryl) and Carla (Jamie) and two great granddaughters Leia and Adrienne. Bud will be especially missed by all who knew him, he was a true gentleman. In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Chilliwack Hospice Society (The Cascades Hospice Care).
Kaethe Tagmann October 16, 1920December 9, 2018
It is with great sadness that the family of Kaethe Tagmann announce her passing on December 9, 2018. Kaethe lived a long and fulfilling life with many people who loved and cherished her. She was born in Germany in 1920 and lived there many happy years raising her daughter Barbara on her own. She met her husband Ulrich and moved to Canada with him in the 1960’s to live a new life where she met many new friends. Kaethe is survived by her grandsons Matt Hammond and Kris (Holly) Hammond, and her great grandchildren Shania, Riley, Logan and Ella. Predeceased by her husband Ulrich and her daughter Barbara Hammond. Many thanks to the staff at Jubilee Lodge for taking such good care of her in her final months. A small service will be held for Kaethe on Sunday December 16, 2018 at the Prince George Memorial Park Cemetery Niche Wall/Rose Garden at 11:00am. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to her favorite charities the BC SPCA or Easter Seals BC.
Donald Alexander Ross
Passed away peacefully on December 10th, 2018. He was born on January 15th, 1923 in Hanna, Alberta, and spent his formative years in Victoria, B.C. before enlisting and fighting in Europe in World War II. Don was predeceased by his loving wife of 65 years, Rosemary, in 2015, whom he met and married in Victoria, B.C.. Don is survived by his four children, Cathy (Tom), Leslie (Shawn), Laurel (Mike) and Stuart (Naomi), as well as his eleven beloved grandchildren, Ross, Devon (Kyle) and Megan (Paul), Madeleine and Ian, Katherine, Claire, Alex and Colin, and Paige and Jack, and four greatgrandchildren, Roslyn and Calum, Owen and Ryan. After an accomplished career at B.C. Hydro, Don and Rosemary enjoyed many years of retirement at their home at Ness Lake. Don continued his contribution to the community of Prince George, serving as an executive at Camp Trapping in the late 1980s. He was a 40 plus year member of the Yellowhead Rotary Club, where he served in numerous executive capacities, including President. Don embraced life in northern B.C. and loved spending time hunting, fishing, boating and cross-country skiing with friends and family. He never lost his appreciation for coastal seafood, especially oysters and crab, and enjoyed a good local rainbow trout when available. Don had a quick wit, evident throughout his life to all who enjoyed time with him over a game of crib or a puzzle, as well as those to whom he regularly sent emails right up until his passing. He relished in the give-and-take of good friendly discussions about politics or news of the day. His sense of humour and good times with friends and family will be an enduring memory. He rewarded all who knew him with his attention to the individual, their family, and making all welcome in his home at Ness Lake and later at Brendan Court. Most of all, we knew him as our Dad, Papa and GreatPapa, and he will be dearly missed. No service by request. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Prince George Hospice Society.
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Lori Gay Tidsbury
August 7, 1957 to December 9, 2018
With heavy hearts and lots of tears our beautiful Lori joined her son in Heaven on December 9, 2018 at 9:30 AM. She fought a long and hard battle against pancreatic cancer. Lori’s heart of gold, radiant smile, contagious laugh, and love of life will never be forgotten and will forever be held in our hearts. She loved her family, friends, her puppies, and a good glass of white wine.
Lori is survived by her loving husband Rod Tidsbury, children Brandon Koch, Jennifer (Koch)Walker and Avery Walker, Shane and Candace Tidsbury, grandchildren Alia and Aiyla Walker, Jack and Willie Tidsbury, parents Gwen and Ed Labas, Ross Marra Senior, siblings Scott and Mary-Ann Norgren, Ross Marra and Carol McLelan, Craig and Corinne Labas, Lauren Labas and David Siebenga, nieces & nephews Michael and Chelsea Norgren, Jordan and Eric Labas, Alex and Max Marra.
Our hearts would like to convey a heartfelt thank you to all the doctors and nurses at the B.C. Cancer Agency and Prince George Hospice. In addition, we would like to thank all friends and family for all of your love and support.
In lieu of flowers please donate to B.C. Cancer Agency and Prince George Hospice Society in Lori’s name. Please save the date: Celebration of Life will be held here in Prince George on August 3, 2019. We all know how she loves sunshine and warm weather. Information to follow.
Margaret Christina Mary Westerhout “Peggy”
Born in Winnipeg, MB - Passed away December 9, 2018 in Prince George, BC
Margaret has gone on to join her father and mother, along with her three brothers and one sister. Also her loving daughter Heather, grandson Joel and granddaughter Robin.
Margaret is survived by her husband of 46 years, Johannes “Hans”, Westerhout and their sons Stephen and Donald Lamoureux with their six grandchildren and eleven great grandkids and one great great grandson. Peggy’s home was her castle and cooking and baking were her forte. Her butter tarts were famous and were sought after by many. No matter how many would show, she would always have enough and all meals would be served on a regular time. Her mottos would be that no one would leave hungry and that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Her greatest strength would be the kids. she would gather kids and support their development and commit to them on a long term basis. Her love for family would be endless. The entire family wishes to extend a heartfelt gratitude to Dr. McLeod for her selfless emotional, compassionate and caring support for the entire family. In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Covenant House or the local Salvation Army food bank would be appreciated. No Service by request. A memorial gathering will take place in the future.
OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Thursday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
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a
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Her face hurt. Her head ached constantly. The wound was not yet beginning to cleave reliably to itself again. The gash was massive, running from between her left temple and ear, all the way down her face to her chin, in a diagonal.
It was from flying glass, one large shard among millions, which instantly ripped across her cheek as the earth shook, Armageddonlike. The house shook with it, and although the structure stayed mostly erect, it became instantly uninhabitable.
They were in a warm shelter provided by the generous contributions of people from around the world, and most especially Boston, their sister city. But the baby was constantly fussy.
She was probably hungry, and not just for food. She reflected back the anxious melancholy her grieving mother couldn’t shake.
The boy, just 18 months old, missed his daddy. To try to comfort him, (or maybe herself) she sang the English version of an old Acadian folk song.
“Oh come, dear mother, and sit beside me
“Oh sit beside me and pity my case
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index closed lower Thursday despite a surge in the price of crude oil.
Markets were “whipsawed” in a volatile trading session that saw initial optimism about the trade dispute between the U.S. and Chinese falter later in the day as the Trump administration said China needs to do more to get a deal.
“The sentiment out there is just very fragile and so markets are trading basically on any headlines associated with the ongoing trade dispute,” said Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital.
The morning saw constructive developments as Chinese importers resumed purchases of U.S. soybeans and officials in China reported that they are in close contact with the U.S. administration and negotiating a broader trade agreement. But the U.S. later poured cold water on markets by suggesting China has to do more to settle the dispute.
“It’s just a very temperamental market right now where the swings are quite drastic and the market’s just gyrating essentially on these headlines pertaining to the trade relationship between the U.S. and China,” she said in an interview.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 32.71 points to 14,750.35 after reaching a high of 14,783.06 in morning trading.
Defensive sectors like utilities and consumer staples gained while health-care, industrials, technology, telecommunications and financials were down. Energy was down slightly even though the January crude contract was up US$1.43 at US$52.58 per barrel.
Crude jumped on Saudi Arabia’s indication that it would curb shipments to the United States while U.S. inventories remain elevated and the International Energy Agency warning that global supplies could decline in the coming year because of disruptions out of Iran and Venezuela that almost equal OPEC production cuts.
“So this could have a huge impact on the supply picture and obviously this has sent oil prices higher today,” Bangsund added.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 70.11 points at 24,597.38. The S&P 500 index was down 0.54 of a point at 2,650.53, while the Nasdaq composite was down 27.98 points 7,070.33. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.86 cents US compared with an average of 74.93 cents US on Wednesday. The January natural gas contract was down 1.2 cents at US$4.12 per mmBTU.
“For my head it is aching, my heart it is breaking.”
About 101 years ago, my grandmother was recovering from the Halifax explosion, what would be called the largest non-nuclear detonation in history of mankind.
I took my family to her old neighbourhood last year to commemorate the auspicious 100year anniversary of the thing that changed everything for my father’s family. On arrival, after a long coast-to-coast journey, we drove straight to the old neighbourhood, wanting to get a feel for the scene, as much as possible 100 years later. We pulled up to what might have been their neighbour’s home, which looked exactly as I imagined it should.
As we glided to a stop at the one and only street sign marking the tiny lane where they lived, we interrupted a drug deal in mid-exchange and waited awkwardly while the trade completed. This patch of dirt still hadn’t shook the sketchy image it had years before.
As rough as the next few decades of recovery would be, it would have been much worse without the kind-hearted contributions of so many whose hearts were touched by this terrible tragedy.
Legacy often focuses on passing assets to the next generation, but many view it as being much more, enveloping beliefs, traditions and reputation. Structured giving may solidify
your stamp on the world. Whether you have a strong commitment to philanthropy or you lean more towards something simpler, planning your charitable giving in advance will help assure that the areas you feel strongly about during your lifetime continue to receive support thereafter.
As with transferring wealth to heirs, it’s beneficial to make your charitable intentions known among family members in advance, to publicly crystallize what you might hope will become enduring family values. Doing so will help to provide clarity around the decisions you’re making, and may also create a shared sense of purpose in giving back within your family. This can be a catalyst for embedding those values through multiple generations to further your enduring statement of what really matters.
While recent statistics are limited, data suggests that only approximately four to seven per cent of Canadians include a charitable gift in their will. But some are sitting on more than they or their children will ever need.
Our firm (and presumably others) has developed a charitable gift program enabling individuals and families to make ongoing contributions to a charitable gift fund managed by Gift Funds Canada.
The program provides the opportunity to express and strengthen charitable values during one’s lifetime and then preserve them for generations to come. Multiple generations can get involved in the process and collectively
discuss how to direct the contributions each year, and unlike a one-time major gift to a charity, this type of giving can live on for years and potentially indefinitely. The program allows donors to provide annual giving to one charity or spread out grants to many charities over time.
Most of us wish to pass along our values and beliefs – in all aspects of life, charitable or otherwise – to future generations. For those who want to build or deepen philanthropy within their family, being proactive with education can go a long way in helping to preserve those types of values for generations to come.
A key message for your children is that they can help make a difference, whether it’s within their school or community, or more broadly through national or global causes.
Depending on age, it may be worthwhile to start with a discussion about what charitable values are important to you and how you give, and then ask what causes they may be passionate about.
From there, help them research a project they would be interested in supporting.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member –Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are his views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Ryan’s website at: http://dir. rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan.
Is it possible to work less and earn more?
“You just learned in a year what most MBA students never learn in a lifetime” I said to my client this week when he responded to my question, what did you learn in the past year?
With “I learned that I can earn more by working less,” not only had my client doubled his income over the past year, but he also significantly reduced his stress levels. You might think that this story is an exaggeration or isn’t possible. How can someone double their take home pay in just one year?
However here is the testimonial I received and it is similar to what I hear from my clients on a regular basis.
“ As the owners of a contracting company with 10 employees, we have been working with Dave for the past year in trying to take our business to the next level. As a result of Dave’s coaching we have doubled the amount of income that we took home this year over the previous year, and our stress levels have dropped significantly.”
In 2014, one of my professors in my MBA program asked the question, why are you here? As he went around the class, many people responded, “to further my career,” “to earn more money,” “to get a better job” and when it came to me, I responded, “I am here to learn how to work less and make more money.”
I remember to this day when I said that, there was a gasp of unbelief in the room and several people said it is not possible.
“How can you work less and earn more?”
Earning more and working less is a concept
beyond imagination for most small business owners. How could this be possible? Most business owners believe that they need to work more to earn more. They are stuck in the mindset of an hourly employee, and at some levels of business, where there is not enough income to hire people this is sometimes the case. However, in order to take our business to that next level, to get to the point where we can work less and earn more, we need to have the right systems and people in place that allow us to step back as owners and focus on doing those things that will really make the company successful.
The challenge for most “stuck in the weeds of the business” owners is that they have a hard time seeing beyond the day to day operations of the business.
They get up go into work and fail to have a plan that will enable them to increase their margins or generate more sales or develop new markets. Those are the things that might allow them to work less and earn more.
So what did my client do that allowed them him to earn more and stress less?
First, he recognized that what had worked in the past was not working any more for him and his partner. They needed to think differently about their business as sales were
going up, but profits were going down. They decided not to focus on sales but focus more on profitable business and as a result in 2018 their sales dropped 20 per cent but their bottom line doubled.
Second, the partners recognized that they had a great crew of employees and decided to delegate more while keeping their employees more accountable. They started having regular staff meetings that were “uncomfortable” for them at first but improved morale and communication. These changes enabled them to step back from the day to day work and focus more on the high-level operations like working on margins and developing relationships with their clients.
Thirdly, they started planning. They developed a plan for 2018, and recently 2019, that will help them to strategically focus their energies and their operations. In the past, like many business owners, they were floating from year to year. Now with some concrete objectives and guidelines about what they should and shouldn’t do, which they developed for themselves, they had clarity on what they needed to do to be successful.
Many business owners would be able to earn more if they thought like these clients. Thinking differently, delegating more and strategically planning are key to earning more and worrying less.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award winning Certified Professional Business Coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Need help with your business? Email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
DAVE FULLER
Business Coach
MARK RYAN
People search among the ruins following the Halifax Explosion on Dec. 6, 1917.
