Health Canada releases pot edibles draft regulation
Local MLAs pleased with referendum results
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Prince George MLAs Mike Morris and Shirley Bond are celebrating the outcome of the provincial referendum on proportional representation.
“I think the British Columbians who participated in this process sent a clear and decisive message to retain the current electoral system,” said Bond, who was MLA during the two previous referendums on this same question over the past 13 years.
“We’ve got this behemoth behind us,” said Morris. “Infrastructure, jobs, developing British Columbia, those are the issues people want us all in the legislature to be focused on. This was poorly designed, it was a waste of resources, a waste of time, a waste of our collective attention, and we sure could have put that $15 million (the estimated cost of holding this referendum) to much better use.”
Both MLAs noted that the numbers showed a nonpartisan core of support for FPTP, once the extreme victories were subtracted on either side of the argument. The biggest numbers for FPTP were in B.C. Liberal strongholds and the biggest PR numbers were in B.C. NDP strongholds. Apart from those fringes, neither region nor population nor incumbent party deterred the FPTP voter. For example, in the 10 decisively northern ridings of the province, two are held by NDP representatives but all 10 voted down PR.
For another example, of the three ridings held by Green MLAs – the Green Party was the staunchest party seeking the PR system – one (Cowichan Valley) voted for FPTP and the other two voted for PR by 51 per cent (Saanich North & The Islands) and 53 per cent (Oak Bay-Gordon Head, held by Green leader Andrew Weaver).
Bond said that despite the big win for FPTP, there were enough voters supporting PR even in northern and rural ridings that they had her attention.
“For people who did vote for change, those who are speaking for improvements to our system, I hope they are shown that their voices are heard,” said Bond.
“Their concerns do need to be reflected. I don’t think the message of an improved electoral system has been lost. We can look within the system to innovate how we approach governance. We can improve our democratic process, we can modernize the system, but it is clearly the will of British Columbians that it be done within the structure of FPTP.”
— see REGIONAL RESULTS, page 3
since 1916
City of Prince George employee Debbie Simpson clears off the sidewalks in front of CN Centre and the Kin Centres on Thursday morning.
B.C. voters reject switch to proportional representation
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — Voters in British Columbia have rejected a proposal to switch to a system of proportional representation to elect members of the legislature for a third time, prompting all three parties to declare electoral reform a dead issue.
The current first-past-the-post system received 61.3 per cent of the votes cast in a mail-in referendum, while proportional representation got 38.7 per cent in the results released Thursday by Elections BC.
“I think electoral reform is finished,” deputy premier Carole James said.
“The public has clearly spoken. As elected officials you always know the public is right.”
About 1.4 million voters cast ballots by the Dec. 7 deadline, which represents a turnout of 42.6 per cent of eligible voters.
“It’ll be surprising if there’s any interest in this in the foreseeable future,” said Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson.
The Liberals campaigned against electoral reform, arguing the minority government New Democrats and the Greens wanted to implement a system that would have given more power to political parties than voters.
“People like to know democracy is in their hands,” he said. “I think people saw through this convoluted referendum, which was set up to be confusing.”
Green Leader Andrew Weaver said he was disappointed with the result but accepts it as a clear signal voters support first past the post.
Electoral reform has struck out with B.C. voters, he added.
“I think we’re not going to be raising that issue any time soon,” said Weaver.
The deadline for ballots to be received by Elections BC was extended by one week to Dec. 7 because of the postal strike.
In the first referendum in 2005, about
I think electoral reform is finished. The public has clearly spoken. As elected officials you always know the public is right.
— Carole James, deputy premier
57 per cent of ballots were cast in favour of proportional representation, which did not meet the threshold of 60 per cent to make it binding on the government. Four years later, 61 per cent voted in favour of first past the post.
The latest referendum was binding and the winner declared by a simple majority of votes cast.
Under proportional representation, the number of seats held by a party largely matches the percentage of votes its candidates receive versus the first-past-the-post model in which a candidate with the most votes in a district wins and then represents the riding.
In addition to asking voters which system they support, the ballot also included a second question that allowed voters to rank their preference for three types of proportional representation.
Other provinces, including Prince Edward Island and Ontario, have also held referendums on their electoral systems but neither made any changes.
In Prince Edward Island in 2016, the Liberal government decided not to honour a provincial plebiscite on electoral reform, in which only 36 per cent of eligible voters took part. Premier Wade MacLauchlan said it was debatable whether the result reflected the will of Islanders, and announced another vote will be held during the 2019 provincial election.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The best of local holiday light displays
Attempted murder charge stayed as guilty pleas entered from drug house shootout
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Editor’s note: This story started on the front page of Thursday’s print edition but didn’t continue on page 3 as indicated. Here is the full story as it was intended to appear: A Prince George man no longer faces a charge of attempted murder for his role in a shootout in the driveway of a local drug house. The count against Michael CampbellAlexander was stayed during a hearing Tuesday in provincial court.
However, he pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with intent to wound, killing
an animal, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm contrary to an order.
The counts stem from an Oct. 22, 2017 incident at a 2000-block Tamarack Street home in which he exchanged gunfire with Cody Aubrey Lorntsen, who was sentenced in November to a further 2 1/2 years in prison for possessing a prohibited loaded sawed-off shotgun.
In video footage retrieved from a camera at the home and shown during a sentencing hearing, Lornsten is seen shortly before 6 a.m. entering the home via a side entrance with his dog on a leash.
About two minutes later, Lorntsen is seen leaving the same way while CampbellAlexander stations himself at one end of the
driveway and opens fire with a .22-calibre rifle.
A handful of flashes from muzzles are visible on the footage as Lorntsen returns the volleys with blasts from his shotgun as he retreats from the scene while CampbellAlexander uses a car as cover.
Lorntsen, who needed a cane to make his way around the courtroom, was hit in the leg while his dog was shot and killed. Campbell-Alexander, meanwhile, was hit in an ankle with bird shot.
Despite the wound, Lorntsen got away and, after wrapping his leg with some clothing he had with him, made his way to Quesnel. Police tracked him to an apartment building where he was arrested and
the shotgun was found. The video also shows Lorntsen following three women into the home, in hopes of buying some methamphetamine. But, according to his testimony, it was made clear he was not wanted.
Lorntsen denied carrying the gun into the home and claimed instead, that it was wedged in a couch and he grabbed it as he retreated from the scene. Either way, the judge found he acted in self defence. Prior to Tuesday, the case against Campbell-Alexander was set to go to trial in February. Five other charges against him, all firearms related, were stayed.
Sentencing will occur at a later date once a pre-sentence report has been completed.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
The house at 2749 Upland St. was lit up with lights and holiday decorations on Dec. 14. The home is one of 15 on The Citizen’s list of local holiday light displays.
Regional district directors approve illegal dumping strategy
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Fraser-Fort George Regional District directors approved a strategy Thursday to reduce illegal dumping that puts a strong emphasis on making residents aware that there are better options.
Signage and an education campaign should be ready to go by this spring, FFGRD waste diversion program leader Rachael Ryder said after providing a presentation to directors.
The strategy puts a particular emphasis on education and will work to let people know that many of the items dumped are actually accepted at many FFGRD facilities at no cost. Ryder noted in one case someone dug a hole 20 feet deep to bury 4,000 litres of used oil, despite the fact the nearby Mackenzie landfill accepts the material for recycling.
“Used oil, paint, tires, electronics and cardboard are commonly found in illegal dumping sites but they are all part of well established EPR (extended pro-
ducer responsibility) programs,” Ryder told directors.
Types of material the FFGRD will accept at no cost will continue to grow, she added, and noted appliances containing refridgerants – described as ozone-depleting substances – will be added to the list starting in January. Through an EPR program, the customer is charged a recycling fee at the point of first purchase which the producer, in turn, uses to cover the cost of handling the item once it has ended its useful life and is hauled off to a depot. Ryder also noted that the Miworth transfer station has become a “hot spot” for illegal dumping of large items like furniture because it is one of only two transfer stations that are not staffed.
During 2017-18, staff had to carry out 23 cleanups at the site, retrieving 4,450 kilograms of refuse not meant for the facility in the process. She said it’s become a sore spot not only for the FFGRD but for Miworth residents who have taken care to use
the facility in a proper manner only to see people from outside that community abuse it, despite the fact most of the items can be dropped off at the Foothills landfill for a nominal fee.
For loads no larger than 100 kilograms, the landfill charges $6, she noted. People seem willing to respond when made aware of opportunities to get rid of unwanted but recyclable items.
As part of this past summer’s Junk in the Trunk event at CN Centre, the FFGRD hosted a Do the Right Thing event that saw residents drop off 151 appliances, 1,200 tires, 3,340 pounds of automotive batteries and five pounds of household batteries over a fourhour period. Ryder also noted that the FFGRD has set aside $10,000 to grant to non-profit groups in the form of waived tipping fees for efforts to clean up messes left by illegal dumping. Directors generally applauded the strategy while also vowing to lobby for more conservation officers to help catch illegal dumpers.
Comic book artist coming to FanCon
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Northern FanCon is the headquarters for celebrities and fan interactions with characters from page and screen, but it is also where the visual arts come alive.
The convention is home base to local artists who have shown the world, through their display booths in the trade show, that they are among the finest in popular culture.
Our painters, sculptors, graphicos, makeup specialists and more get to assemble alongside internationally renowned peers.
One of this coming year’s special VIP artists was announced on Thursday. Tula Lotay is a comic book illustrator, a painter and sketcher, she even runs her own event, the Thought Bubble Festival, in her native England.
“We are beyond excited to welcome Tula Lotay to our Artist Alley for North-
ern FanCon 2019,” said Norm Coyne, head organizer for the local fan convention. “We are absolutely thrilled.”
Lotay has been involved in the eightpart series Bodies produced by DC
Vertigo.
She also illustrated All-Star Batman No. 7 with Scott Snyder.
Poster company Mondo has commissioned her to do a number of their images.
Her work on issue 13 of The Wicked + The Divine earned her a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book. She is best known, however, for the original comic series Supreme: Blue Rose, written by Warren Ellis for Image Comics.
She and Ellis are also collaborating on a project they call Heartless expected out under the Image Comics imprint in 2019.
To meet Lotay in person, peruse her work up close and even learn from her personally, come to Northern FanCon 2019 from May 3-5.
Tickets are on sale now via the Northern FanCon website and/or under the Events tab on their Facebook page.
Local results favoured FPTP
— from page 1
Morris agreed that this was not the end of striving for electoral improvement, just that three consecutive, decisive victories for the existing system was enough indication what the general structure should be.
Both said it was a relief to go into the Christmas season knowing the uncertainty generated by the referendum was now behind all British Columbians. The final numbers for the northern ridings were (shown as FPTP percentage and total valid votes):
• Prince George-Mackenzie: 71.3 / 13,138
• Prince George-Valemount: 70.87 / 13,520
• Nechako Lakes: 77.65 / 6,243
• Cariboo North: 75.23 / 8,582
• Cariboo Chilcotin: 76.48 / 10,463
• Peace River North: 86.42 / 10,135
• Peace River South: 84.87 / 6,545
• Stikine: 60.03 / 5,234
• Skeena: 66.83 / 7,277
• North Coast: 52.7 / 4,330
Dangerous offender denied parole
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A man who was declared a dangerous offender after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a 2001 attack near Connaught Hill has been denied parole.
In a decision issued last Friday, a Parole Board of Canada panel found William Garfield Garnot, 60, had not taken steps towards rehabilitation. Specifically, he has not participated in a psychological assessment or programming or other interventions that would reduce his risk to offend again, the panel said.
Garnot continues to claim his innocence, which is his right, the panel said, but that does not preclude him from participating in programs and his refusal to do so has stifled his ability to learn how to manage his risk factors and address his childhood trauma issues.
Garnot waived his right to a hearing before the panel and did not provide written comments. Garnot was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault in 2011 and declared a dangerous offender in 2015, which meant he had to serve at least seven years behind bars before he could apply for parole. If he is released from prison, he will be under supervision for the rest of his life.
The sentence stems from a 2001 incident. In 2008, a match with Garnot’s DNA was discovered during a search of the national databank and the matter went to trial in late 2010.
Garnot had six previous convictions for sexual offences, all involving children, and a criminal record of 56 convictions since his first one in 1973, when he was prosecuted as an adult at age 15. He has been sentenced to periods of imprisonment totaling about 30 years.
Five people injured in hit-andruns in Langley, man arrested
Citizen news service
LANGLEY — The RCMP say five people were injured after a series of hit-and-runs in Langley and Abbotsford on Wednesday night.
None of the injuries are considered life-threatening, and the RCMP say many of those who were taken to hospital for treatment have been released. A dog was killed in one of the Langley incidents.
A 24-year-old man from Abbotsford has been arrested by police, who allege he was in breach of a recognizance over a condition that he was not be in a vehicle without the registered owner.
The first incident was reported just after 8 p.m. involving a small pickup truck that police say was stolen in neighbouring Abbotsford.
They say it was found on fire about 2 1/2 hours later on Highway 1.
Shortly after, police say a car was stolen and the suspect was arrested in that vehicle.
The RCMP is asking for anyone with dashboard cameras to review their footage to see if they may have recorded the pickup truck.
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
Discarded furniture sits on the side of the road near the Prince George Snowmobile Club.
Guide outfitters suing province over cancelation of grizzly hunt
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. (GOABC) launched a class-action law suit on Tuesday. The legal action is aimed at the provincial government for the wholesale closure of the grizzly bear hunt in B.C. The Omineca Region, in which Prince George sits, has 25 listed guide-outfitters. The neighbouring Cariboo-Chilcotin region has another 19 affiliated with GOABC.
The lead name on the law suit is Ron Fleming, owner of Love Bros & Lee, a 45-year guide outfitting company outside Smithers.
“The government has pulled the rug out from under guide outfitters, without any consultation,” said Flemming. “To suggest we can just retrain to other businesses or move to the city is absurd and disrespectful of rural communities.”
According to the association, they have filed the legal challenge in B.C. Supreme Court to counter the ban on grizzly hunting that was made law in December of 2017.
“The suit alleges the decision was taken for inappropriate reasons, without regard to proper wildlife management practices, and with the knowledge that the decision would cause harm to guide outfitters,”
said a statement from McMillan Vantage Policy Group and McMillan LLP, the legal consultants facilitating the suit for the 245 collective guide-outfitters signed on to the initiative. “These businesses directly employ more than 2,000 people whose livelihoods are now at risk.”
Prior to the ban, said the law suit proponents, fewer than two per cent of grizzly bears in B.C. were hunted each year and grizzly bear numbers have been increasing in B.C.
The law suit against the provincial government also has the support of at least one geographically large First Nation with significant connection to the grizzly bear population.
“The grizzly bear hunting ban decision by the province was made without consulting the Tahltan Nation and many other important stakeholders,” said Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan Central Government. “It has hurt our people culturally, economically and put many of British Columbia’s communities and dwindling ungulate and salmon populations at further risk. We support the efforts taken to hold the province accountable for this very irresponsible, counter-productive and dangerous decision. Wildlife management decisions in British Columbia need to be based on science and best wildlife and conservation practices.”
Charges against driver who hit toddler ‘expected,’ police say
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Contrary to an initial report, Prince George RCMP now say the driver who struck a toddler Wednesday while in a parking lot off Ospika Boulevard was not backing up when she hit the child.
Rather, RCMP now believe the woman was entering the parking lot from the southbound lane and had been traveling against traffic flow for a short distance to bypass a meridian in the process.
The child was standing near a parent who was tending to a younger child when the toddler was struck by a small SUV.
One tire drove completely over the threeyear-old’s midsection, RCMP said.
“Fortunately, the child was transported to hospital for treatment and miraculously, is expected to fully recover,” RCMP said.
In an email to The Citizen, the child’s father said she was in critical condition when she was taken to hospital and rushed into trauma immediately.
“Fortunately she is stable now and we are hoping for a full recovery thanks to the amazing team of doctors and nurses at our
Fortunately she is stable now and we are hoping for a full recovery thanks to the amazing team of doctors and nurses at our hospital.
— Father of child hit by vehicle
hospital,” he said.
The investigation is continuing and charges against the driver, who remained on the scene, are “expected.”
The decision on whether to press charges remains with Crown counsel once it has received a report from the RCMP.
RCMP are reminding all drivers to slow down and take extra precaution in parking lots.
“Pedestrians and vehicles share parking lots,” said Sgt. Matt LaBelle of the detachment’s traffic services section. “This incident should never have occurred and we could have had a far more tragic ending.”
Woman gets time served following spike belt takedown
Citizen staff
A woman arrested when police used a spike belt to apprehend the driver of a stolen truck was sentenced Wednesday to time served for her role in the incident, as well as for a similar one committed in Mackenzie.
Monique Lee Willey was arrested on Aug. 7, the same day a 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 had gone missing from an 1800-block Oak Street home.
Police deployed the spike belt on North Kelly Road and she was apprehended a short time later.
Co-accused Shane Paul Parsons was sentenced on Sept. 19 to 27 days in jail and one year probation for possession of stolen property over $5,000. By then, he had been in custody for 41 days.
Willey spent seven days in custody following her arrest in Prince George but by Aug. 27 she was back in custody on a charge of possession of stolen property from Mackenzie and has remained there ever since, for a total of 112 days. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to time served on breaching probation from the Prince George incident, taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, as well as counts of breaching probation and breaching a recognizance or undertaking, from the Mackenzie incident and for breaching probation from an Aug. 17 offence committed in Prince George. Willey was also sentenced to one year probation.
CP PHOTO
A grizzly bear is seen fishing along a river in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park near Bella Coola. The Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. has launched a class action lawsuit against the provincial government over the cancellation of the province’s grizzly bear hunt.
Cleaning up
Salvation Army Food Bank volunteer Christine Brown demonstrates how to wash a bin from the Zero Waste Food Recovery program on Thursday morning at the food bank. Each of the 36 bins has to be washed and sterilized by hand each time they are used, taking roughly five minutes per bin. Thanks to a generous $10,000 donation by Herb Millar, owner of Northern Dynamic, and Gale Horth, owner of Jack and Jill Embroidery, the food bank has been able to order a commercial grade dishwasher that will significantly cut down on the manpower needed to clean and sanitize the bins.
Don’t catch a case of the bah humbugs this season
Have you ever felt like Scrooge? I have.
I went to the local production of A Christmas Carol and was thoroughly impressed. As it often happens with great acting, I am reminded of people who I have come into contact with who are similar to the characters on the stage. This was no different.
The script, while set in the mid-1800s, could have easily taken place in modern times with some business owners that I know – owners who are so tight with their money that they see Christmas as a frustration, staff holidays an annoyance and family celebrations as an interruption of the cycle of business.
While these people are rare, they do exist. As a business owner, I would be lying if I told you that I have never had a case of “bah humbugs” at some past Christmases.
Christmas can be challenging if you own a business. Not only are we trying to get everything done for the year end of Dec. 31, sometimes we have inventory that needs to be counted. We are trying to hit targets and sales. We are often working long hours, especially if we are in the retail, restaurant or service sector. Customers are demanding and our staff want time off.
Oh, yes, there is that tricky idea of a Christmas bonus. We feel guilty if we can’t afford one. On top of everything, we have pressure to buy Christmas presents for the ones we love. As business owners, there are some years that we just want to keep our heads down until January and hope that the whole season goes away.
Bah humbug! So what should we do if we have a case the bah humbugs?
The bah humbugs are actually more serious than a man cold – they can last longer and when they settle in your soul, they can do life-long damage. Don’t get me wrong –man colds are serious too. A bad man cold can take down a business leader in 24 hours flat, but we men are over it in 21 days at the most. The bah humbugs usually take longer to get rooted and can last as long as a lifetime. If we are lucky we can shake a case of bah humbugs after one bah humbug season, but this generally isn’t the case.
Bah humbug is a business leader’s disease that manifests itself at Christmas
Wind storm uproots trees, traps person, knocks out power
VANCOUVER (CP) — Trees toppled, power lines downed, flights delayed and ferries were cancelled as a storm system brought strong winds to British Columbia’s coast and snow and rain to other parts of the province Thursday.
A person who was stranded on a pier in White Rock needed to be rescued by helicopter after part of the structure collapsed in strong winds.
Parts of southern British Columbia were hit by a powerful wind storm that left thousands of BC Hydro customers without power on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast.
Business
but generally gets entrenched in a person in late spring or early summer and lasts until Christmas. Brought on by overwork and lack of holidays, the bah humbug virus feeds on our natural need for someone to feel pity for us because of the energy and effort we have committed to the business.
Bah humbug rears its ugly face early in summer when employees who we don’t think deserve a holiday decide that labour laws are written to protect them and insist on their two weeks.
Poor me disease is related to bah humbugs, but differs because poor me can be healed with increased profits. The severity of the bah humbugs, on the other hand, can increase when, as leaders, we focus only on driving profits in an already profitable business and forget about the humanity of the business, our customers, our staff. We see them with their hands out for payroll or to get something more from us.
The bah humbugs can be a real problem when we forget that the reason for our success as a business is usually not just us as leaders, and we neglect to thank our staff for the good they do. We forget all the people who enabled us to be successful, whether it was our parents, our first employers, our partners, the breaks we had being at the right place at the right time. We underappreciate the blessings that our business is creating in the community through the contributions of wages, jobs and donations. We fail to appreciate that we are making a good living doing what we love.
The bah humbugs touch all of our lives at one point or another. However, when we take the time to count our blessings and appreciate how lucky we are, we can shake off those ill thoughts and work towards creating a culture in our company that celebrates the joy of Christmas all year long.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy, and is counting his blessings this year. Email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com if you would like to count more of yours.
DAVE FULLER
Coach
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Apocalypse averted, election next
Christmas came early for Shirley Bond and Mike Morris on Thursday. Their hallelujahs could be heard from on high. And the next time Bond sees B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver in the legislature, she’ll be sorely tempted to imitate the woman in the GoDaddy commercial from a few years ago: “Hey, Andrew... STICK IT!!!”
In fact, about 71 per cent of area residents would probably pay good money to see that happen.
That’s roughly how many voters in both Morris’s Prince George-Mackenzie electoral district and Bond’s Prince George-Valemount rejected proportional representation in the provincial referendum.
Provincially, 61.3 per cent of voters who mailed in their ballots chose the current first past the post system over PR. That’s a crushing defeat of the “let’s not vote again on this EVER” variety. For the third time in 15 years, B.C. voters have rejected electoral reform. Just 16 electoral districts chose PR, with nearly three-quarters of the people in Vancouver Mount Pleasant preferring that option, the stronghold for PR in the province. The other 70 districts took FPTP, with the folks in Peace River North rejecting PR
by a whopping 86.4 per cent, the highest in B.C.
Besides Bond and Morris, this is a big win for the B.C. Liberals and leader Andrew Wilkinson. Just one Liberal electoral district chose PR – Vancouver-False Creek – and just barely at 51.3 per cent.
The other 70 districts took FPTP, with the folks in Peace River North rejecting PR by a whopping 86.4 per cent, the highest in B.C.
The prospect of a minimum of two future provincial elections where the Greens could hold a dozen or more seats in the legislature is gone. Even more significantly, voters in Nanaimo favoured FPTP by 54.1 per cent. That matters because voters there will choose a new MLA in a spring byelection, with the NDP, the Liberals and the Greens all fielding strong candidates in this traditionally NDP stronghold. Whoever carries the district will likely win with less than 40 per cent of the vote.
Oh, the irony. In Wilkinson’s riding of VancouverQuilchena, PR was handily thumped, with 70.3 per cent choosing FPTP. Meanwhile, in John Horgan’s district of Langford-Juan de Fuca, just 50.9 per cent of voters supported PR, with just 53.5 per cent backing PR in Weaver’s Oak Bay-Gordon Head district.
This result is a flat-out disaster for Weaver and the Greens. Even with the deck stacked completely in their favour by hinging the outcome on the overall provincial total, regardless of how the vote went by district, giving Greater Vancouver a huge sway over the rest of B.C., PR proponents successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
A major Green platform was soundly rejected right across the province, taking the possibility of the Greens evolving into a serious third party alternative with it.
Lastly, any power Weaver had over Horgan and the NDP government has all but evaporated. If Weaver doesn’t support Horgan during all upcoming confidence votes in the legislature, that would almost certainly spark an immediate provincial election and the very real prospect of political oblivion for the Greens.
Worst of all for Weaver, Horgan is free to blow up their deal whenever is convenient for him.
Like, maybe this coming spring?
From Horgan’s perspective, that might be the last best chance to go to the voters looking for a majority government. Since
Seems like good news
I was a little perplexed by Tom Moore’s letter to the editor on Dec. 18, complaining about too many negative news reports concerning Donald Trump. Indeed, one is hard-pressed to imagine what a good news story about the beleaguered American president might actually look like. Evidently, Mr. Moore believes that the “good” news stories are being suppressed.
The problem, of course, is good or bad rests in the eye of the beholder. As such, I’m inclined to argue that there has been a great deal of good news about the Trump presidency of late.
For example, both Trump University and the Trump Foundation have been shut down for multiple illegal acts. Further, the Trump campaign, the transition process, the inauguration, the administration of public affairs and Trump’s organization of private business practices are also under criminal investigation at both the state and federal level in the United States. Perhaps Mr. Moore thinks that bringing criminals to justice is unfair to Donald Trump, his family and his administration.
In fact, according to investigative reporter Garrett Graff, there are 17 known investigations of Trump, his businesses and his association with Russian president Vladimir Putin. This total does not include congressional investigations or other internal inquiries into how the administration has behaved.
Specifically, the special counsel is investigating 1) the Russian government’s election interference; 2) the Wikileaks manipulation and hacking of stolen emails;
3) Middle-Eastern (primarily Saudi) influence peddling with the Trump family; 4) former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s money laundering felonies; 5) the Trump Tower Moscow project that involved funneling millions of dollars into Russian interests; 6) other problematic Russian activities in connection with the Trump candidacy involving at least 14 Trump associates; and 7) a series of obstruction of justice cases involving administration officials.
The U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York also is investigating: 1) campaign conspiracies stemming from the operation of the Trump organization; 2) the funneling of campaign contributions through Trump-controlled businesses for private use by members of the Trump family; 3) the questionable operation of the Trump Super PAC as directed by Paul Manafort; and 4) the activities of foreign lobbyists with connections to the Ukraine.
All of these may produce (or already have produced) criminal indictments.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia is also investigating the actions of foreign lobbyists and, in particular, Maria Butina, whose relationship with the Putin government and the National Rifle Association in the United States has exposed financial connections and cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Butina pled guilty last week and is now cooperating with investigators.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has: 1) indicted Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova for her involvement in election meddling in both the presidential election of 2016 and an attempt to do so again in
the recent mid-term elections; and 2) is currently investigating Trump organization connections to Turkish parties which sought out illegal influences orchestrated through Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor who, as he faces sentencing, continues to cooperate with investigators.
Finally, New York City, New York state and other state attorneys are investigating Trump’s tax payments to the state, the now disbanded Trump Foundation and the possibility of prosecuting the president for breaking the emoluments clause of the American Constitution that, writ simple, prevents a president from profiting through the exercise of his or her executive functions.
There are, in addition to these 17 investigations, more undisclosed enquiries being pursued at various levels with state and federal investigatory offices. Most, if not all of these, reflect the ongoing cooperation of former Trump operatives, partners and associates.
None of this may have any effect on Mr. Moore or his opinions about the accomplishments of the Trump presidency and the extent to which they deserve praise. He’s certainly welcome to provide his own summary of the good news and achievements but, in so doing, he’ll have to account for the growing sentiment south of the line that, without any exaggeration, Trump is the worst president in the history of the United States.
As such, Graff’s evidence as published is unmistakably a “good news” story suggesting that perhaps this nightmare is nearing an end.
Jonathan Swainger
Prince George
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
becoming premier, Horgan has captained a virtually scandal-free ship, a shocking departure from past NDP governments. The sky hasn’t fallen, the provincial economy remains strong, Site C and LNG are happening. The only place for Horgan’s standing among voters to go in the eyes of voters is down. That Nanaimo byelection, a new leader in Wilkinson who has yet to catch on with voters and the nonsense around Speaker Darryl Plecas just further plays into Horgan’s hand. And for any disenchanted NDP voters on Vancouver Island even considering supporting the Greens again, he just has to remind them what 16 years of Liberal rule looked like under Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark. It’s still a risk, however, for Horgan. The NDP took six out of the nine seats in Surrey in the 2017 election but not one Surrey district came even close to supporting PR. If Horgan can’t hold on to those Surrey districts he worked so hard to gain in the last election, Wilkinson will be the next premier and card-carrying NDP members will want Horgan’s head on a platter. Still, the odds are never perfect in both politics and poker.
The PR campaign is over.
Go enjoy Christmas because the next provincial election campaign is about to start. —
Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Greens have reason to see red
The NDP and B.C. Greens deserve full credit for taking such a kick in the teeth from voters with good grace.
Premier John Horgan, Finance Minister Carole James and Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver said magnanimous words Thursday and accepted the major rebuff in the referendum loss.
But behind the scenes, there will be a lot of second-guessing.
First, over how they lost by such a surprisingly large margin, after appearing fairly confident about a win.
Second, what else might they be wrong about when it comes to the public’s views of their combined policies?
Both parties put the new voting system in their campaigns, in the belief there was a tide running strongly in favour of change. They made it a top priority in the confidence agreement that holds them together and rushed the process together as soon as power changed hands.
At every point in the design where the government had some discretion, it tilted the process in favour of getting a yes vote. They ditched the idea of letting an independent body design it, keeping it in the hands of a government that already knew what it wanted – a yes vote.
The approval threshold was set as low as possible and no regional approval was required.
Then they both campaigned vigorously in favour of what they put together.
They also engineered reassurance to win support from hesitant voters, by legislating in mid-campaign a second referendum after two test elections, to give them a chance to change their minds.
Even with all those yes advantages, the people said no by a margin much wider than the polls suggested.
The joke in the midst of a howling wind storm Thursday was that proportional representation left as many people in the dark as B.C. Hydro did.
Greens, who now hold three seats, come out the big losers.
Proportional representation would have given them an automatic, guaranteed dozen or more seats in the next election.
That huge bonus has now been snatched away. They’ll have to win any gains they make under the old rules they’ve complained about for years.
Weaver insisted that big potential bounce had nothing to do with
Mailing address: 201-1777 Third Ave. Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7 Office hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday
General switchboard: 250-562-2441 info@pgcitizen.ca
General news: news@pgcitizen.ca
Sports inquiries: 250-960-2764 sports@pgcitizen.ca Classifieds advertising: 250-562-6666 cls@pgcitizen.ca
Green priorities. He wanted to just accept the results and move on. But as a student of politics, he’ll likely spend some time wondering how this exercise blew up in their faces.
Tactical second-guessers are citing the complexity of the doublebarrelled, triple-option questions on the ballot. The mind-numbing details about dual-member, mixed-member, rural-urban proportionality, overhang seats and partial STV didn’t help.
Weaver touched on a possible demographic explanation that made the rounds – change-resistant boomers show up. Younger voters don’t.
But that analysis has yet to be done. (Disclosure: I thought at first the rural-urban split would make it an easy win, as Metro Vancouver would swamp the rest of B.C., where the bigger changes would occur. But it doesn’t look as if that happened.)
There was also the irony that it was the old system that delivered, in a roundabout way, what people were said to have hungered for – a co-operative legislature where people of different parties work together.
In short, voters already have what they were said to have wanted.
Weaver promised to keep working on various other fronts. He also promised not to mention proportional representation for a long time to come.
“We’re not going to be raising the issue any time soon.”
The results have implications for all those other fronts. The alliance lavished a lot of care and attention on a Christmas present for voters and they just tossed it in the recycling bin.
NDP strategists have to be wondering what would happen to a few other projects they have on the go, if they were ever subjected to a popular vote.
The one positive outcome from this expensive exercise ($15 million for the vote, plus the cost of developing the options) is the engagement. Democracy is under siege elsewhere in the world. But British Columbians are now world experts at looking at the mechanics of how it works. And voting repeatedly –three times in 15 years – on ideas for making it better.
Shawn Cornell, director of advertising: 250-960-2757 scornell@pgcitizen.ca Reader sales and services: 250-562-3301 rss@pgcitizen.ca Letters to the editor: letters@pgcitizen.ca
Website: www.pgcitizen.ca
Website feedback: digital@glaciermedia.ca
Member of the National Newsmedia Council A division of Glacier Media
LES LEYNE
In the Fast Leyne
Chinese hacking campaign targeted Canadian companies
Jim BRONSKILL Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Companies in Canada were among the targets of two Chinese citizens charged with waging an extensive hacking campaign to steal valuable data over many years, U.S. authorities say.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, prosecutors say Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong were acting on behalf of China’s main intelligence agency to pilfer information from several countries.
Beginning about four years ago, Zhu and Zhang waged an intrusion campaign to gain access to computers and networks of “managed service providers” for businesses and governments around the world, the indictment says.
Such providers are private firms that manage clients’ information by furnishing servers, storage, networking, consulting and information-technology support.
Electric vehicles key to meeting climate plan, McKenna says
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada’s current climate-change plans leave it 79 million tonnes shy of its greenhouse-gas emissions targets but Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says most of that gap will be closed if Canadians switch to electric cars and public transit more quickly. Canada aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and similar gases to 513 million tonnes a year by 2030. In 2016, the most recent year for which measurements are available, Canada emitted 704 million tonnes. Computer modeling suggests by 2030 we will get down to 592 million tonnes if we fully implement all the measures Canada has planned, like the carbon tax, clean fuel standards, energyefficiency improvements for buildings and closing coalfired power plants.
But McKenna said Thursday that a number of moves haven’t been worked into the country’s models yet, such as the construction of major new transit systems and policies to cut the use of single-use plastic packaging.
She said new technology is coming fast that will help Canada get all the way there, holding up her iPhone multiple times as an example of something that didn’t exist 10 years ago but that has now been widely adopted. (Apple’s iPhone was introduced 11 years ago, though it wasn’t available in Canada until 2008.)
“We’re talking about 2030,” she said. “That’s 12 years. We can do this.”
McKenna’s office released more details on some of the climate programs meant to make a difference. Those include proposed regulations for a clean-fuels standard that will require liquid fuels like gasoline and diesel to burn 11 per cent more cleanly by 2030. That measure alone will contribute to cutting 23 million tonnes of emissions, the government says. New standards for solid and gaseous fuels will be introduced later, with a goal to cut at least seven million tonnes of emissions from them by 2030.
The clean-fuels standard is on top of the carbon price that will be applied to input fuels in provinces that don’t already have their own.
McKenna called the need for Canadian companies to find ways to meet the new rules an economic opportunity.
“We did not get out of the Stone Age cause we ran out of stones,” McKenna said. “We got smarter and that’s exactly what we’re doing with our policies, including the cleanfuel standard.”
Breaking into one such computer system can provide a route into multiple customers’ data; the hackers breached the computers of enterprises involved in activities ranging from banking and telecommunications to mining and health care, say the papers filed in U.S. District Court.
The indictment says Zhu and Zhang are members of a group operating in China known as Advanced Persistent Threat 10. They purportedly broke into computers belonging to – or providing services to –companies in at least 12 countries, including Canada.
How? According to the indictment, they used forged emails to get unwitting recipients to open files impregnated with security-breaching malware, a technique called “spear-phishing.”
The two suspects, who worked for Huaying Haital Science and Technology Development Co. in Tianjin, are accused of acting
in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s Tianjin State Security Bureau.
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment issued a statement supporting the U.S. allegations a few hours after the American announcement.
“Today, many of Canada’s allies and partners have made statements concerning the compromise of several Managed Service Providers. CSE also assesses that it is almost certain that actors likely associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of State Security (MSS) are responsible for the compromise of several Managed Service Providers (MSP), beginning as early as 2016,” it said.
The statement said Canadian authorities detected the threat at the time and warned businesses in general terms about good security habits in dealing with these providers.
The CSE sent out a more detailed bulletin after Thursday’s indictments, advocating practices such as “multi-factor authentication,” which requires people to sign into computers in more than one way, and running background monitoring software that sends up an alert when an apparently legitimate user starts doing unusual things on a company network.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a news conference that the government isn’t aware that any data was stolen from Canadians.
“To the best of our knowledge, we do not have reports – to the best of my knowledge – of specific losses, but we are aware of intrusions,” he said. “So the incidents took place, the hacking and the compromise took place. Whether there was actually a theft committed or the withdrawal of information or data, that’s not information that’s within our domain.”
MCKENNA
To the bucket
Chris Magrath of the D.P. Todd Trojans works against Josh Holubuch of the Correlieu Coyotes on Thursday afternoon at Duchess Park. The teams met during the second day of the Condor Christmas Classic basketball tournament. D.P. Todd, one of the stronger double-A teams in the province, won 113-43.
That’s the spirit
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Every year at this time since it first began in 2003, the Spirit of Hockey, high schoolstyle, builds to a fever pitch.
Today is the last day of school before the Christmas holidays and two teams, the Prince George Polars and College Heights Cougars, are set for a high school hockey clash that will give one of those schools bragging rights for the next 365 days.
The game starts at noon at CN Centre and spectators might be wise to bring earplugs. The College Heights drum line and PGSS school band are teaming up to help create an atmosphere in the stands that replicates a college game.
“It’s a ton of fun,” said Polars co-coach Renzo Berra. “It’s all about school spirit and bringing kids together. This year most of our kids are Grade 12s and that’s super-exciting because they sign up to be considered for the game. It’s all about experiences for kids and hopefully for the Grade 12s this year it will be a lasting one that they’ll enjoy.”
Last year was the year of the Cougar. College Heights wrestled the crown away from PGSS in a tight 2-1 battle. The year before it took a shootout to decide it and the Polars left the rink as champions for the second consecutive year.
All but three of the players on this year’s edition of the Cougars either play on minor hockey rep teams or did so a year or two ago. Cougars coach Craig Horswell says he has one of the stronger teams he’s seen in his 14 years as a phys-ed teacher at College Heights.
“There’s a lot of rep players available this year so we’ll have a pretty competitive team,” said Horswell, who will dress 12 forwards, seven defencemen and two goalies. They represent all age levels in the school, from Grades 8 to 12.
Storm postpones
Spruce Kings’ game in Langley
Hockey high schools clash in annual game
Logan
McMillan of the PGSS Polars during last year’s Spirit of Hockey and Community Cup game. This year’s contest is today, starting at noon, at CN Centre.
Cougar forwards Amar Powar and Scott Cousins, who play together as linemates on the North Central Bobcats double-A bantam
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The Prince George Spruce Kings were blown away by what they encountered when they arrived at the rink Thursday at George Preston Recreation Centre in Langley. It had nothing to do with hockey and trying to defeat the Langley Rivermen.
team, will form an all-Grade 9 line with James Kitney. Most of the Cougars in today’s game are Grade 11s. Just two players – de-
Mother Nature won handily, forcing postponement of a B.C. Hockey League game between the Spruce Kings and Rivermen. A windstorm that produced 100 km/h gusts downed trees and knocked out power for 300,000 residents of the Lower Mainland and Langley was one of the hardest-hit areas. The refrigeration plant in the rink was off most
fencemen Evan Hansen and Clayton Bassani – are in their last year of high school.
Forwards Bryce Blackman, Kody Olson Jacob Fanshaw, Aaron Janjua and Rylee Gaboury all have Tier 1 midget experience, as does defenceman Jacob Fillion. Dawson Wickstrom and Devin Porter are the College Heights goalies.
Seventeen of the 20 players on the PGSS roster are seniors. Ten of them play rep hockey and another five or six on the Polars squad used to play as city representatives in out-of-town minor hockey games and tournaments.
Three of the Polars play for the female midget triple-A team, the Northern Capitals, including forwards Braxtyn Shawara and Camryn Scully and defenceman Caitlyn White, a University of Windsor recruit for next season.
“I’d say we’re pretty well-rounded with four lines that are very similar in style, which is not usually the case, and we have six defencemen who are all Grade 12s,” said Berra. William Tanemura, a Grade 12 student, and Grade 10 Ryan Nemitz will share the goaltending duties for PGSS.
“It’s a special group this year, a lot of these kids are pretty with it in terms of doing random acts of kindness around the school like recognizing certain staff members who go out of their way for them,” said Berra. “It’s a fun group and they seem really excited about playing.”
The Spirit Game is an offshoot of the hockey program Berra started as an accredited course at PGSS in 2003. College Heights followed a similar template and teaches hockey as well as baseball to students as elective courses.
PGSS has invited elementary school students to their school for a pancake breakfast in the morning followed by a concert in the gym, put on by the School of Rock. Then it’s off to the rink to watch the Spirit Game.
of the day and ice conditions would not be ready in time for the 7:15 p.m. game. The postponement was confirmed at 4 p.m. “The rink staff said it wouldn’t have mattered if the power came on in 20 minutes, the ice was soft and they’re not going to risk any lives with ice that’s not suitable,” said Kings coach Adam Maglio. — see KINGS, page 11
Forman of the College Heights Cougars, left, tries to chase down Jordan
Grassroots para ice hockey group gaining momentum
Gemmell demonstrates national team skills during P.G. visit
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Back in his minor hockey days in Quesnel, James Gemmell was a sniper.
He could pick the eye out of a snake with his shot and made a habit of filling opposition nets.
Years later as an oilpatch worker he put his love of hockey aside and developed habits that were not so healthy. He lived life to the fullest and had a hard time saying no to the party lifestyle that nearly consumed him.
At age 24, Gemmell was involved in a car accident in August 2004 that forever changed his life. He was ejected from a car being driven by a drunk driver, left with injuries that resulted in the amputation of his right leg above the knee.
“I sat around feeling sorry for myself for two years until I found sledge hockey,” said Gemmell, a native of 100 Mile House. “I don’t know where I’d be without it. When I was in my accident I was working in the oil field and I was not up to a lot of good. I got myself into a lot of trouble and got away from hockey for awhile and was brought back to it because of my accident.
“I always tell everybody sledge hockey saved my life. It got me back to living a positive life. Now I travel the world playing hockey and get to go talk to kids in every city we go to and be a positive role model for kids all over our country, which is one of the best feelings in the world. There’s nothing else you could ever want.” Now in his ninth season with the national team, Gemmell won the IPC world championship with Team Canada twice (2013 and 2017) and has two Paralympic Games medals – silver in Pyeongchang in 2018 and bronze in Sochi in 2014.
Last Sunday, Gemmell came to Prince George with some of his friends from Quesnel to join forces with a local group from the Northern Adapted Sports Association (NASA) and provide a demonstration of the sport.
This is the first year NASA has offered para ice hockey, adding to its list of team activities which also includes wheelchair basketball
and wheelchair rugby. Sunday’s hockey practice was the fourth of 10 NASA sessions. As many as 17 players (able-bodied as well as those with physical disabilities) have participated in the weekly practices.
“The biggest feedback we’ve gotten is people want more icetime,” said Brandy Stiles, NASA’s program director. “There’s definitely an interest and we’re just excited to have an opportunity to get out and play and get people active and involved, and if we can one day bring it to a higher level that would be super-exciting as well.”
I always tell everybody sledge hockey saved my life. It got me back to living a positive life.
— James Gemmell
The Prince George group has 25 members and 23 sledges. On average, about 15 players have been turning up. Quesnel also has an entry-level group playing para ice hockey and with Gemmell’s assistance Stiles hopes to eventually have games involving players from both cities.
Gemmell first discovered what was then known as sledge hockey after watching the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy, while he was recovering from his accident at G.F. Strong rehabilitation centre in Vancouver. He started playing that year for the Surrey-based B.C. Eagles, and by 2008 he was on the national squad, the first B.C.-born player ever to play for the team.
“I saw a bunch of other onelegged guys out there playing a really physical game and I just fell in love with it,” said Gemmell. “I grew up playing hockey and it’s always been part of my life and I had the opportunity and took it.”
At 38, he’s now the oldest player on Team Canada. Gemmell plies his trade on the ice as a defenceman, a position nobody else wanted when he first started playing with the Eagles. Seven months later he was invited to his first national team camp.
Para ice hockey players are strapped into sleds that are balanced usually on one blade. Each player holds two curved sticks
with metal teeth at the butt end which they drive into the ice to propel their sleds. They use their sticks on either side to shoot or pass the puck.
“It’s physically demanding, your arms aren’t meant to skate with,” said Gemmell. “It’s just a challenging game all around, but I wouldn’t want that to scare anybody away. It’s rewarding. It’s hockey, the greatest sport in the world. I’d highly recommend anybody giving it a shot.”
Sledge hockey has been part of the Paralympics since 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.
As the lone wolf from B.C., Gemmell has had offers to move to Toronto, where most of the national team players live, but he doesn’t want to leave his home province where he has his own business, Ridgetop K9 Boarding Kennels in Quesnel.
After nine years of playing the sport at the highest level, Gemmell is at a point now where he’s never felt better about his own skill level, but he admits he’s still evolving as an athlete.
In February, Gemmell will gather with his teammates for a national team training camp in Toronto. They’ll have a series with the U.S. national team, then head to the Czech Republic for the IPC world championship in May. He’s hoping the Russians will be there.
“We haven’t seen Russia since 2014,” he said. “We’d love to have them around – another competitive rival. The first time we played them it was an instant rivalry.”
Trevor Adelman, a friend of Gemmell’s from Quesnel, plays para ice hockey for the B.C. provincial team and was among the group demonstrating the sport Sunday at Kin 1. Adelman lost the use of his legs in a car accident but hasn’t let that get in the way of a successful career as a stock car racer who wins regularly in the provincial WESCAR late-model racing series. Like Gemmell, Adelman was a hockey player all through minor hockey and was still active in the sport at the time of his accident in 2004. He played para ice hockey for a few years in his early-20s and came back to it a few years ago.
“Physically, it’s tough to stay in good shape when you’re disabled and to have other people to guide you, like James, it really motivates you,” said Adelman.
— see SEYMOUR, page 11
Canadian men qualify for World Cup pursuit
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
It was a good day for Canadians on the World Cup biathlon slopes in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Three of the four who entered in the men’s 10-kilometre sprint race Thursday were fast enough to finish in the top-60 and qualify for Saturday’s pursuit.
Scott Gow of Canmore was the quickest Canuck. He shot clean in both bouts on the range and crossed the finish 91.8 seconds behind gold medalist Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway.
Jules Burnotte, a 23-year-old World Cup rookie from Sherbrooke, Que., called up from the IBU Cup circuit to replace Nathan Smith, finished 33rd. He missed one standing target and ended up 1:57.8 off the winning pace. Scott Gow of Canmore was 38th (1+1, +2:04.7) and Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., placed 67th (1+1, +2:43.0). Alexander Loginov of Russia (0+0, +21.0) and Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden (0+0, +21.0) shared the medal podium with Boe. The race drew 105 starters. The women take the stage today in a 7.5km sprint and two Prince George girls will be sporting the maple leaf. Megan Tandy, 30, will start 46th and Sarah Beaudry, 24, will be 95th out of the start gate. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore is 54th in the order and Emma Lunder of Vernon will start 94th in a field of 97.
Beaudry just got called up to the World Cup circuit this week after posting three eighth-place finishes in IBU Cup races this season. Lunder was also moved up from the IBU Cup team. She posted her best solo result this season when she was 21st last week in the pursuit in Ridnaun, Italy. Lunder also helped the mixed relay team to a fifth-place finish.
Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon, and Megan Bankes of Calgary dropped down from the World Cup team to the IBU Cup circuit. Moser, Bankes, Emily
Dickson of Burns Lake and Darya Sepandj of Calgary are entered in Friday’s super sprint, a twopronged race that includes a qualifying run and a final. The 2.4 km single-start qualifier consists of three 800m loops with two shooting stages, prone and standing. The top 30 athletes from the qualifier then start simultaneously in the final and compete over four kilometres (five 800m loops with four shooting stages – prone, prone, standing, standing). In both the qualification and the final, three spare rounds can be used per bout. If any targets are left standing the athlete is disqualified. Carsen Campbell of Bedeque, P.E.I., Aidan Millar of Canmore and Adam Runnalls of Calgary are entered in today’s IBU Cup men’s super sprint.
Hughes caps U.S. rally against Russia
Citizen news service
KAMLOOPS — Jack Hughes scored with 28.3 seconds left to play as the United States rallied past Russia 3-2 on Thursday in a pre-tournament game ahead of the world junior hockey championship.
Jason Robertson and Oliver Wahlstrom also scored in the third period as the Americans reeled off three unanswered goals.
Alexander Alexeyev and Kirill Marchenko built a 2-0 lead for Russia by the midway point of the second period.
Hughes took a pass from Joel Farabee in front of the crease and backhanded it beneath Russian goalie Danil Tarasov Tarasov for the game-winning goal.
Spencer Knight and Cayden Primeau split time in goal for the Americans.
The Americans will face the Czech Republic in their final pretournament game on Saturday in
Langley. Russia will play Switzerland on Sunday in Burnaby.
The world junior hockey championship begins on Dec. 26 in Vancouver and Victoria.
Leafs prospect won’t play
TORONTO (CP) — The Toronto Maple Leafs have confirmed defenceman Timothy Liljegren won’t represent Sweden at the 2019 world junior hockey championship due to an ankle injury. Liljegren suffered a highankle sprain while playing for the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies in a Dec. 1 game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He is considered week-toweek.
Fellow Marlies defenceman Rasmus Sandin will represent Sweden, along with teammate Pontus Holmberg.
Canadian Paralympian James Gemmell leads a para ice hockey skills clinic at Kin 1 last Sunday.
TANDY
BEAUDRY
Schenn-sational play
St. Louis Blues centre Brayden Schenn keeps Vancouver Canucks right winger Jake
during Thursday night’s game at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The Canucks
Hart now 2-0 as an NHL goaltender
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The kid has lived up to the hype so far.
Carter Hart made 31 saves for his second straight win in his second NHL start, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 on Thursday night.
Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers, who won their second straight since interim coach Scott Gordon replaced Dave Hakstol after he was fired on Monday.
The 20-year-old Hart made 20 saves in his debut in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Detroit. He was even better against Nashville.
“He’s the main reason we won the last two games,” Voracek said.
Hart, a touted prospect who was selected in the second round of the 2016 draft, made two big saves to help kill off the Predators’ lengthy 5-on-3 power play late in the second period.
He stopped each of the 13 shots he faced in the third.
“I’m competing and having fun,” Hart said.
Hart made his best stop early in the third when he denied Roman Josi from close range with a strong glove save. The Flyers also caught a break when Ryan Johansen’s wrist shot hit the post just before time expired.
While he is facing players he idolized just a few years ago, Hart isn’t intimidated.
“They’re the same as you and me,” Hart said. “They bleed when you cut them.”
Nick Bonino scored for Nashville, which lost its ninth straight game on the road. The Predators, who began the day in a tie for first in the Central Division, last won away from Nashville on Nov. 10 in Dallas.
“We had some good looks, (but) the young kid in net made some good saves,” Johansen
said. “We competed hard. ... We just couldn’t find a way.”
The Predators tied it at 1 4:04 into the second when Bonino scored from in front after a deflection.
Philadelphia regained the lead when Giroux got his 12th of the season on a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Pekka Rinne on the blocker side.
The Flyers preserved the lead by killing off a 5-on-3 in the final two minutes of the second.
Hart denied Ryan Ellis and Kevin Fiala during the stretch, and defenceman Robert Hagg blocked two shots. Philadelphia also got lucky when Josi’s shot clanked off the post.
“It gave the whole building a lift,” Gordon said of the penalty kill. “You could feel the emotion in the crowd and that carries over to the bench.”
O’Dine off to good start on World Cup circuit
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Meryeta O’Dine of Prince George qualified 14th as the World Cup snowboard cross season officially began Thursday in Cervinia, Italy. She finished the course in 1:25.03. Nelly Moenne Loccaz of Italy had the quickest time of the day, qualifying first in 1:22.46. O’Dine, 21, will race in the third quarterfinal heat of the day today, vying for a top-two finish needed to advance to the semifinal round. She’s grouped with former Olympic champion Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States, American Anna Miller, Rafaella Brutto of Italy, Lara Casanova of Switzerland and Sarah Devouassoux of France.
The race drew 34 competitors and the top 26 advanced. In men’s qualifying Thursday, Evan Bichon of Prince George finished 58th and did not advance. He posted a time of 1:21.11. Martin Noerl of Germany set the pace, qualifying first in 1:15.18.
Other Canadian results Thursday were as follows: Women: Carle Brenneman, 26th, 1:27.02; Haili Moyer, 31st, 1:321.41. Men: Eliot Grondin, 34th, 1:19.49; Danny Bourgeois, 64th, 1:21.77; Liam Moffatt, 69th, 1:21.92; Colby Graham, 76th, 1:22.90.
The top 48, including Grondin, moved on to today’s quarterfinals.
O’Dine is coming off her best season on the World Cup tour, albeit one that ended prematurely when she suffered a concussion when she fell during a training run at the Olympics
in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The injury knocked O’Dine out of the Olympic competition and she missed the final four World Cup events, which dropped her from sixth to 11th in the final points standings.
Before that, she posted seven top-10 finishes and twice made it to the podium in team events, combining with Zoe Bergermann of Erin, Ont., to win team silver and bronze. They finished third overall in the team standings.
Warm temperatures and a lack of snow forced cancellation of the first of eight World Cup snowboard cross stops last week in Montifon, Austria.
In her only other race result this season, a Europa Cup event Nov. 29 in Pitzal, Austria, O’Dine finished third. She’s currently ranked 13th in the world.
Seymour a goalie for Team B.C.
from page 10
“He tries harder than anybody and he knows what it takes to be a pro athlete. Even if I never get to his level it still gives me personal satisfaction training and pushing myself to be a better person all around.”
Adelman is preparing for the national tournament in May in London, Ont. One of the Team B.C. goalies is Trent Seymour of Prince George, who lost the use of his legs a few years ago in a hunting accident. For more information on NASA’s para ice hockey program go to northernadaptedsports.ca or call 250-649-9501.
Kings facing Eagles tonight
— from page 9
“They said, at minimum, it would be six to eight hours to get the ice going. The power went off at 9 a.m. and the backup generators only last for an hour.”
The first-overall Spruce Kings (24-9-1-2) will finish off the 2018 calendar year with a game tonight in Surrey against the last-overall Eagles (8-25-12), then will head into an eight-day Christmas break. The Langley game will be rescheduled for sometime in January or February.
Rockets lose Paul, Heat escape with win
MIAMI (AP) — Josh Richardson scored 22 points, Tyler Johnson added 19 and the Miami Heat held off the Houston Rockets 101-99 on Thursday night for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
James Harden scored 35 for the Rockets, whose five-game winning streak was snapped when Eric Gordon’s three-point try at the buzzer hit the rim and bounced away. The worst part of the night for Houston, however, will likely be the loss of point guard Chris Paul in the second quarter to a strained left hamstring.
“It’ll be some time,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said of Paul, who will undergo an MRI today. Gordon’s three-pointer with 37 seconds left got Houston within two, and the Rockets got a stop on a long ensuing Heat possession. Dwyane Wade missed, Hassan Whiteside got the offensive rebound and Wade wound up missing again, with the Rockets finally corralling the ball with 3.8 seconds left.
The last play went to Gordon, and his three – Houston’s 54th attempt of the night from beyond the arc – was off, and Miami escaped.
Derrick Jones Jr. scored 15 for Miami, which got 11 from James Johnson and 10 from Wade. Gordon scored 20 for the Rockets, who got 14 from PJ Tucker and 10 from Danuel House Jr.
Virtanen from getting a shot on goaltender Jake Allen
blasted the Blues 5-1.
Baldwin battling through tough times
Tim BOOTH Citizen news service
RENTON, Wash. — Doug Baldwin knows he’s fortunate to have spent eight years in the NFL and to have established himself as one of the better players on several elite teams.
He also knows he’s fortunate to have gotten this far without having a season defined by obvious injuries affecting his play – until this year.
“I was talking to some friends about it the other day in the league and it feels like every player who is fortunate enough to play a long time in the NFL has a year like this where they cannot knock the injury bug,” Baldwin said. “It’s just part of the game, part of the lifestyle.”
The Seattle Seahawks haven’t gotten the production this year that they have come to expect from a player who has been their top receiver for most of his career since signing as an undrafted free agent in 2011. He has just 41 catches for 465 yards and four touchdowns entering Sunday night’s game against Kansas City. Those are decent numbers but not up to Baldwin’s standard. Baldwin hasn’t had fewer than 66 receptions in the past four seasons. The fact injuries are the main reason he’s struggled this season makes it even more frustrating.
“It’s been pretty difficult. Really difficult,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin hasn’t gone through a year like this with injuries since early in his career.
It started in training camp with a knee problem that forced him to the sideline for most of the
Cowboys taking another shot at NFC East title
Citizen news service
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys failed in their first attempt to wrap up the NFC East by losing to Indianapolis when the Colts badly needed a win for their playoff chase.
Now the NFL’s rushing leader and his teammates will try again Sunday, this time facing an opponent with nothing on the line a week after Tampa Bay was eliminated from postseason contention with a loss in Baltimore.
“I think everyone in this locker room understands how important this game is,” Elliott said with Dallas coming off the franchise’s first shutout loss in 15 years. “I think it would be kind of beating a dead cow to come in here and harp on what happened last week.”
Jameis Winston and the Bucs (5-9) are putting the wraps on a strange year that began with the quarterback’s personal-conduct suspension, followed by his inability to keep the job once Ryan Fitzpatrick cooled off. Fitzpatrick’s struggles gave him another shot, and Winston is set for his fifth straight start, the longest stretch for either QB this year.
The Cowboys (8-6) just want to end their division race. Dallas ran off five straight wins to earn the position of needing one victory in the final three games to reach the post-season. Moving the ball wasn’t a problem for the Cowboys in the first half of the 23-0 loss to Indianapolis, but they squandered several scoring chances.
The Cowboys can win the division with another loss if Washington and Philadelphia lose.
preseason. When he returned for Week 1 against Denver, he almost immediately suffered an injury to his other knee when he was tackled awkwardly. He missed two games and ultimately had other problems that have hung over his season.
“I think the knee was the trigger for everything,” he said.
For the past six weeks, it’s been either a groin or hip injury that has slowed Baldwin. He missed Se-
attle’s win two weeks ago against Minnesota during which Russell Wilson threw for a career-worst 72 yards, in part because the Vikings didn’t have to worry about Baldwin being on the field.
Six days later with Baldwin again healthy enough to play, he caught two touchdown passes in a 26-23 loss to San Francisco.
“That was great to see him have a big game and look so effective for us,” coach Pete Carroll said.
“It’s just been frustrating for him. He just has not been able to get it going with the consistency he knows he can do and we know he can do, so it’s a big deal. You can see he and Russ were really hooking up and made some great plays (against San Francisco) – crucial third downs and big plays and all that. It’s good to have him back in action.”
The hip problem popped up two days before the Seahawks played
If you know me I have a plan for everything. There is a method for the madness.
— Doug Baldwin
San Francisco in Week 13. He was still able to play that week against the 49ers, but needed a week off to recover. He’s spent seemingly as much time in the training room as on the practice field.
The injury issues have raised questions about his future, how much longer he wants to play and whether that future will be with the Seahawks. He’s 30 and is signed with Seattle through the 2020 season. But his salary cap hit is more than $13 million in each of the next two seasons.
“If you know me I have a plan for everything. There is a method for the madness,” Baldwin said.
For now, he’s enjoying being on the verge of clinching a playoff berth and believes the style of play Seattle has employed this season can make the Seahawks dangerous in the post-season.
“I think a lot of us are getting healthy at the right time. We’re coming into our own at the right time and I’m really looking forward to obviously securing our playoff berth first but then getting into the tournament and being able to show what we’re capable of against playoff-level talent. I’m really excited about our chances,” Baldwin said.
NFL suspends Gordon for substance abuse violation
Kyle HIGHTOWER Citizen news service
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Patriots receiver
Josh Gordon was suspended indefinitely Thursday by the NFL for violating an agreement that allowed him to play after multiple drug suspensions, casting doubt on whether the talented but troubled playmaker would ever play in the league again.
League officials said Thursday that Gordon was returned to the reserve/commissioner suspended list indefinitely for breaking the terms of his reinstatement under the NFL substance abuse policy.
The news came several hours after Gordon said he was stepping away from football to focus on his mental health.
Gordon said on Twitter his decision was spurred by his own feelings that he could have a better grasp on things mentally. He thanked the Patriots for their support and vowed to work his way back.
“We support Josh Gordon in his continued efforts to focus on his health. His attempt to do so is a private and personal matter, which we intend to respect,” Patriots team officials said.
Gordon has been suspended several times by the NFL for violations of its drug policies since being drafted by the Browns in 2012, and missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons.
After being reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in 2017, Gordon revealed in an interview with GQ magazine that he drank or used marijuana before games. “Probably every game of my career,” he said.
Gordon also said in a 2017 mini-documentary on Uninterreupted.com that he took Xanax, cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics.
Gordon’s outlook had improved with New England, where he landed in September in a trade after the Browns felt it was time to cut ties. He had 40 receptions for 720 yards and three touchdowns with the Patriots, five years removed from an All-Pro season in 2013 with 87 catches for 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns. Special teams captain and receiver Matt Slater said despite his suspension, Gordon still
Happ hoping Machado joins Yankees
Citizen news service
NEW YORK — Now that he’s staying with the New York Yankees, J.A. Happ would like to see Manny Machado join him in the Bronx.
“You get any kind of player like that on a team, that would be exciting,” the pitcher said Thursday, three days after finalizing a $34 million, two-year contract. Machado, one of the top free agents along with Bryce Harper this off-season, visited the Yankees on Wednesday. New York’s level of
interest in is unclear, though the Yankees say they hope to add an infielder while shortstop Didi Gregorius recovers from Tommy John surgery.
Pitching was a priority, and the Yankees tacked to Happ after failing to sign free agent Patrick Corbin. A first-time all-star, Happ was acquired from Toronto on July 26 as a summer rental and went 7-0 with a 2.69 ERA in 11 starts for New York. He finished 17-6 with a 3.65 ERA for the season. He lost at Boston in the AL Division Se-
has support inside the Patriots locker room.
“My No. 1 concern is with him as a man,” Slater said. “I’m thankful for the approach he took here, how he was as a teammate. I enjoyed getting to know him in that process and I’ll continue to support him in any way I can.”
Safety Devin McCourty said the 27-year-old’s well-being is his biggest concern, not football.
“Life comes before all of that,” McCourty said. “I think we wish him the best and care about that more than wins or losses.”
New England officials had insulated Gordon and focused him on getting acclimated to the team’s highly-disciplined culture, while also limiting his time with reporters.
Coach Bill Belichick said last week that Gordon was thriving on the field, developing chemistry with quarterback Tom Brady and learning the offensive system.
“He’s a smart kid, so he learns well,” Belichick said. “For better or worse, he’s been in a lot of different systems. I know it was only one team, but it was a lot of different systems up there. Most everything we’ve asked him to do he’s done somewhere along the line for somebody.
“As we go through each week, I would say we’ve gained a little more ground on the overall knowledge of the system,” he said. Gordon said earlier this month he thought he was settling in well with New England.
“It felt like home a long time ago,” Gordon said. “The atmosphere is very welcoming. It took me a little bit to get acclimated to the area. Other than that, it’s been pretty smooth so far, and that’s due in part to the facility, the organization, just everybody helping me along the way.”
ries opener, allowing five runs in two innings – including J.D. Martinez’s three-run homer in the first. Happ, a 36-year-old lefty, gets $17 million in each of the next two seasons. His deal includes a $17 million option for 2021 that could become guaranteed if he has either 27 or more starts as a pitcher in 2020 or 165 or more innings that year. He’s s projected to be part of a rotation that includes Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia. The one newcomer is James Paxton, acquired from Seattle in a Nov. 19 trade.
Doug Baldwin of the Seattle Seahawks watches from the sidelines during warm-up before a Dec. 10 home game against the Minnesota Vikings.
GORDON
Colbert takes little credit for spoof book
Hillel ITALIE Citizen news service
NEW YORK — For Stephen Colbert and his Late Show staff, the bestselling spoof Whose Boat Is This Boat? essentially wrote itself.
Because all of the words are by U.S. President Donald Trump, who is billed as the author “by accident.” The picture book’s title and contents were inspired by Trump’s disjointed response last September to Hurricane Florence, which struck North Carolina and South Carolina, where Colbert grew up.
“If you love Trump, you’ll love this book because every word in it is exactly what he said,” Colbert, for whom the president has been prime comic material, said. “And if you’re anti-Trump you’ll love this book because every word in it is exactly what he said.”
Whose Boat Is This Boat? Comments That Don’t Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and raised more than $1.25 million for such charities as Foundation for the Carolinas and World Central Kitchen. The contributions come from author proceeds and from the publisher, Simon & Schuster.
Books can take years from conception to publication, but Whose Boat Is This Boat? was essentially written in 24 hours and within six weeks was already on shelves, physical and virtual. It began after Trump visited New Bern, N.C., and was preoccupied with a yacht that had landed in a resident’s backyard.
“To see what we’re seeing – this boat. I don’t know what happened, but this boat
Good,
just came here,” he said. Other comments included “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal” and “Have a good time!”
Late Show staff writer Emmy Blotnick heard Trump’s remarks and said, “That sounds like a children’s book.”
With illustrations by Andro Buneta and
and not so good
Hollywood hits and misses of 2018
Citizen news service
A look at the biggest box-office hits and flops of 2018:
HIT: Black Panther: On a budget of $210 million, Ryan Coogler’s superhero film – the first to feature a predominantly black cast – grossed more than $700 million domestically (third highest all-time, not accounting for inflation) and $1.3 billion worldwide. It became the first movie to top the weekend box office five times in a row since Avatar.
MISS: Solo: A Star Wars Story: Not everything Disney did in 2018 was perfect; The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and A Wrinkle in Time also fizzled. But few disappointments were more acutely felt than the extensively retooled Han Solo spin-off directed by Ron Howard after original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were jettisoned. On a production budget of at least $250 million, the heavily promoted spin-off grossed $392.9 million worldwide. It did worse than every previous Star Wars film, and the negative reaction from fans and critics forced Disney to reconsider its future plans for the franchise.
HIT: A Quiet Place: With just a $17 million budget, John Krasinski’s horror thriller grossed $340.7 million worldwide. The Paramount Pictures release was the biggest original hit of a year typically dominated by sequels, superheroes and reboots. Of course, A Quiet Place will get its own sequel, slated for release in 2020.
MISS: Mortal Engines: One of the year’s worst bombs arrived just as 2018 was coming to a close. The Peter Jackson-produced $100 million fantasy, from Universal, opened with a mere $7.5 million last weekend. Young Adult fantasies aren’t selling like they used to, especially when they come with big budgets and a 27 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
HIT: Crazy Rich Asians: Romcoms have for years been largely absent from theatres, but the Warner Bros. adaptation of the bestselling novel grossed $238 million
Colbert said. “I smell a rat.”
According to a Times spokesperson, “The book was placed on the advice, how-to and miscellaneous list where many books that defy easy categorization have ranked. It’s a great achievement being on this highly competitive list for six weeks, including a week at No. 1, and we wish Stephen were happier about it.”
Colbert said the book is for “children of all ages,” one that appeals to kids because it’s “pretty to look at, no nudity, no violence” and one that shows adults how “our president responds” to natural disasters. The book is billed as “an excellent teaching tool” that lets readers learn “about empathy by process of elimination.”
John Henry, Whose Boat Is This Boat? looks like a bedtime story, albeit one that ends with the message “There is no moral.”
Defining it has proved challenging: On The New York Times bestseller charts, it appears under Advice, How-to & Miscellaneous.
“We should be on the nonfiction list,”
image released
worldwide on a $30 million budget. As the first studio release in 25 years to feature a predominantly Asian-American cast, it was another example of how diversity sells at the box office.
MISS: The Happytime Murders: Who could have foreseen that an R-rated puppet comedy would disappoint? The STX Entertainment release starred one of the most bankable stars in comedy, Melissa McCarthy, but it has managed only $27.5 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.
the Dragoon Tattoo, they had little interest in more Robin Hood. The Taron Egerton-led return to Sherwood Forest, released by Lionsgate, cost $100 million to make but made out with just $72.9 million worldwide.
Blumhouse’s Halloween sequel, 40 years after the original, grossed $253.5 million worldwide on a budget of just $10 million.
HIT: Incredibles 2: Success is usually expected of Pixar; all but one of their 20 releases has opened No. 1 (and the one that didn’t, Inside Out, grossed $857.6 million globally). But even by their high standards, Brad Bird’s Incredibles sequel was a massive hit. With $1.24 billion in worldwide sales from a $200 million budget, Incredibles 2 ranks second behind only Frozen among animated movies in ticket sales.
MISS: Robin Hood: Just as audiences didn’t want another Girl
HIT: Halloween: Horror continued to dominate the box office – the Conjuring spin-off The Nun also ranked as one of the year’s most lucrative hits. But Blumhouse’s Halloween sequel, 40 years after the original, grossed $253.5 million worldwide on a budget of just $10 million. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, 60, it now holds the record for best opening weekend for a film with a female lead over 55.
MISS: London Fields: It cost a modest $8 million to make, but the long-delayed Martin Amis adaptation starring Amber Heard was among the most widely ignored films of the year. After being held up for years by lawsuits, it opened with just $160,000 on 613 screens – a per-screen average of $262. It ranks as among the worst performing wide releases ever.
Whose Boat Is This Boat? isn’t the first picture story to mock the Trump administration. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo is a bestselling parody of Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of a Vice-President, a tribute to the family’s pet bunny written by Mike Pence’s daughter, Charlotte Pence, and illustrated by his wife, Karen Pence. The vice-president is known for his conservative social views; in Oliver’s book, Marlon Bundo has fallen for a fellow male bunny. Charlotte Pence herself bought a copy of the Oliver edition, noting that proceeds went to charity.
Colbert senses he may have similar luck with Trump and his family.
“What I’m hearing, from the voices inside my head, is that he enjoys it,” Colbert said, mimicking the president’s own fact-checking style. “Everybody is saying he likes it.”
The cover of Whose Boat Is This Boat?: Comments That Don’t Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane, by The Staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
With
AP PHOTO
This
by Disney shows a scene from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, one of the biggest movies of the year.
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Leroy (Pat) Strandberg, born Dec 21, 1935 passed away July 29, 2018. He left behind his wife Andrea, his children Laurie (LeRoy), Shawn (Justine), 4 grandchildren Eifa, Julien, Milo and Noah, as well as many friends. He was a kind and gentle soul, loved by all that knew him.
Ashley Laurie Dec 6, 1984 to Dec 15, 2018
It is with utmost sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of a wonderful mother, daughter, wife, sister and friend. She will be dearly missed by her husband Jason Laurie, her children Austin and Elizabeth Laurie, her parents Pat and Brenda O’Neill, grandparents Adam and Linda Meier, Betty Eheler, sister Willow, Sara, Melissa, nephew Jax and niece Arabella, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family. She loved her “partners in crime” so much. She’s gone to soon but will always be held in our hearts.
Leroy (Pat) Strandberg
Draft regulations for pot edibles released
was accompanied by renewed threats of a partial shutdown of the United States government.
The market expected a much more dovish outcome from the Federal Reserve so it’s adjusting to the realities that the central bank won’t have the market’s back, at least at current prices, says Mike Archibald, associate portfolio manager at AGF Investments Inc.
Sentiment also soured after U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he doesn’t want to sign a temporary funding bill unless he gets money for his signature campaign promise –a wall at the Mexican border.
“Combine that with the extremely negative sentiment that’s in the market and the sloppiness that we’ve seen over the last several weeks and it’s a recipe for another weak day,” he said.
The S&P/TSX composite index hit a two-and-a-half year low of 14,075.94, closing down 122.29 points to 14,141.77. It has lost more than 1,000 points or 6.9 per cent in the past three weeks alone and 2,000 points so far in the year.
All sectors struggled Thursday except materials, which rose more than two per cent, largely on the strength of gold.
At its peak, the price of gold gained US$23 on the day. The February gold contract was up US$11.50 at US$1,267.90 an ounce.
Gold stocks received a lift after the Fed raised interest rates.
“It hasn’t acted as a great hedge to equity market volatility in the past 12 months (but) it is starting to act a little bit more of a hedge here as we’ve seen another leg lower in equities,” said Archibald. Health care was the worst performing sector on the TSX, falling by 2.8 per cent, followed by technology and energy.
The energy sector fell 1.7 per cent as the February crude contract plunged nearly five cent, losing US$2.29 to US$45.88 per barrel.
That’s the lowest level since July 2017.
“I’m hesitant to say that energy’s going to go a lot lower here but we probably do need a better catalyst to get risk appetite up again,” he said.
“The outlook for Canada remains a little bit uncertain at the moment. Clearly we need oil to start working.”
OTTAWA — Canadians won’t be allowed to buy cannabis-infused booze when other marijuana-laced “edibles” become legal next fall, under new rules the federal government proposed Thursday.
The regulations say cannabis-infused alcoholic products would not be permitted in Canada, except where the alcohol content is minimal, such as in tinctures meant to be consumed a few drops at a time, and they would have to be labelled as non-alcoholic.
Packaging or labelling beer or wine products together with cannabis would also be prohibited, to reduce the risk of people mixing the two substances, which has been deemed a health risk.
And companies that produce alcoholic drinks wouldn’t be allowed to put their names or brands on cannabis drinks.
The draft regulations, released Thursday by Health Canada, propose three new classes of cannabis: edibles, extracts and topicals – and includes a hard cap on the amount of THC these products can contain.
No package of edibles would be permitted more than 10 milligrams of THC, while extracts and topicals could not exceed 1,000 milligrams of THC.
Restrictions would also be placed on ingre-
dients that would make edible cannabis more appealing to children, such as sweeteners or colourants, or adding ingredients that could encourage consumption, such as nicotine.
Cannabis edibles that appear or are packaged like candy or other familiar children’s foods would also be banned.
Similar restrictions are proposed for topical products and cannabis extracts, and manufacturers would be prohibited from making any claims about health benefits or nutrition on their labels.
All packaging would have to be plain and child-resistant and display the standard cannabis symbol with a health warning.
Legal cannabis companies welcomed the proposed regulations Thursday, saying they appear at first glance to take into account the need to balance public safety with the effort to divert cannabis consumers from the illegal market.
“The bottom line here is that you want to create enough space for legal products while ensuring that kids are protected,” said Omar Khan, a vice-president with Hill and Knowlton Strategies and a former Ontario Liberal staffer, who advises several clients in the cannabis industry.
Licensed producers are very interested in the market for edibles and cannabis-infused products, Khan noted, pointing to a recent report by
Deloitte that estimated most new recreational pot users would likely gravitate toward edible products. Cannabis beer, wine or spirits won’t be permitted under the regulations but cannabis beverages that do not contain alcohol would be allowed. Bruce Linton, the CEO of Canopy Growth Corp., was especially happy to see that.
The company, which is headquartered in Smiths Falls, Ont., has spent the last four years developing a non-alcoholic cannabis drink and has even built a bottling plant in the hope the government would allow cannabis-infused beverages once edibles are legalized.
He said the categories and products that government is proposing to allow in its next phase of legalization are sure to make a big dent in the illegal market.
“When I look across these categories it strikes me that, if you’re currently in the illegal production business, we now (match) on every category you make money on, which means you’re going to quit making money soon.”
He applauded the government for coming out with the regulations now, allowing lots of time for study and feedback before they come into effect.
Ottawa is gathering public input on these proposed rules until Feb. 20.
Edibles are to be allowed for sale in Canada no later than Oct. 17, 2019.
Canada Post operations back to normal
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada Post says its operations are back to normal across the country, less than four weeks after its striking employees were forced back to work by federal legislation.
The Crown corporation says it is restoring its delivery service guarantees across the country, now that its Vancouver operations have caught up on a backlog of parcels that it said had built up at its main western sorting plant.
On Tuesday, the national mail carrier announced that service guarantees were being put back in place everywhere except Vancouver for the first time since Nov. 13, when rotating strikes caused parcel logjams at most of its distribution centres.
The rotating walkouts started Oct. 22 to pressure Canada Post into accepting contract demands from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and ended once a back-
to-work bill was passed in Ottawa on Nov. 27. Efforts to mediate an end to the labour dispute under that legislation failed on Tuesday with
arbitrator Elizabeth MacPherson declaring Canada Post and CUPW too far apart to continue negotiating. Both sides are to begin an arbi-
tration process next month that’s expected to result in a contract being imposed on the corporation and its 50,000 unionized employees.
CUPW has said it will challenge the Trudeau government’s backto-work legislation in court. Meanwhile, the union announced Thursday that rural and suburban mail carriers, or RSMCs, will see pay raises of up to 25 per cent and other benefit improvements in late January, thanks to a separate arbitrator’s ruling on a pay-equity dispute issued earlier this year.
The ruling, which affects up to 8,000 Canada Post workers, imposed pay hikes that will see hourly wage rates for some fulltime employees increased from $20.03 per hour up to $26.60 per hour.
Base salaries for permanent relief employees are being bumped from $60 to $90 per day when not covering delivery routes.
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Teresa WRIGHT Citizen news service
Yannick Craigwell shows off some of his edible marijuana baked treats in Vancouver on Oct. 3. Health Canada released its draft regulations for edible cannabis products.
