Telehealth service benefits local teen
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Life for a Prince George teen fitted with a special kind of hearing aid has just become notably easier – and a bit of medical history has been made in the process.
On Thursday, Lily Palmer, 13, was able to have her cochlear implants checked at University Hospital of Northern British Columbia. Normally, she would have had to make the eight-and-a-half-hour drive to Vancouver and meet faceto-face with an audiologist at the B.C. Children’s Hospital.
But with the help of video conferencing technology, called telehealth, the audiologist was able to sit at a laptop at BCCH and take over the implant’s programming software and make the adjustments from nearly 800 kilometres away.
It marked the launch of Canada’s first ongoing remote clinical service for people with cochlear implants.
“A service like this for what already is an amazing technology is pretty cool,” Lily’s mother, Andrea said.
“Lily basically plugs into software, (audiologist Raegan Bergstrom) can read her ears, as we call them, from Vancouver and do all the fundamental testing that she needs to do from a technological point of view.”
Essentially an array of electrodes, a cochlear implant is placed in the ear’s cochlea. It bypasses the normal hearing process and, with the help of a magnet and a processor placed outside behind the ear, the patient can hear sounds digitally.
Instead of being deaf, the patient is simply hard of hearing.
Lily’s implants were put in place when she was one year old and for the next two years she had to be brought down to Vancouver every two months to get them assessed.
“In her toddler years, it was a ton of travel and we’re lucky in that I have family in the Lower Mainland, we can stay with them,” Andrea said.
“But for an average family that doesn’t, it’s the gas, the food, the accommodation.
“When she was really little, we tried to fly a few times just because it’s hard to drive with a baby for eight-and-a-half hours. So telehealth, in this capacity, is a huge saver.”
Lily will still need to travel down to Vancouver once a year, but that’s still down from the four trips a year she had been making. A key piece of the video conferencing is a clear picture to allow Lily to lip read while the outside processor is out – and it came in crystal clear on Wednesday. The session was the culmination
of more than a year of planning and testing.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Lily said during an interview with Lower Mainland media via the conferencing system.
“I’ve never had a video chat this clear. I’ve facetimed with my friends who live just a few minutes away and it’s so glitchy and you guys are all the way in Vancouver and it’s not glitchy at all. It’s great.”
Until she pulls back her hair, the implants are not at all noticeable.
Barring any serious bumps to the head, the internal implants remain
in place for a lifetime. As for the external pieces, Lily is now on her fourth generation as the technology has improved.
With the help of a waterproof cover, she can swim. She also plays ringette and because she’s had the implants since she was so young, she speaks without an accent.
Hearing in a crowd can still be a problem. She needs to pass around a mini-microphone to carry on a conversation. Her ringette coach also uses the microphone to tell her when to get on and off the ice.
Developer keen on Prince George prospects
Frank O’BRIEN Glacier Media
Developer Frank Quinn says incentives provided by the City of Prince George were appreciated but the city’s potential would likely have been enough to convince him to build the first modern strata housing complex in the downtown core.
Kamloops-based A&T Project
Developments, of which Quinn is a partner, is constructing the phased Park House development, a condominium project of four four-storey buildings next to city hall.
The first phase of 36 units saw 16 pre-sales while still in the framing stage. The condos are selling for about $350 per square foot.
“We like Prince George,” Quinn said, noting that A&T built the 160-unit RiverBend seniors’ housing rental project in the city three years ago.
Under a developer incentive program that Prince George started in 2011, A&T was allowed a 10-year break on municipal property taxes for Park House and the city sold the land for the project at appraised value.
The site is ideal, Quinn said. It will be among the anchors for a substantial downtown redevelopment that includes the existing city hall and Prince George convention centre, the Wood Innovation and Design Centre and a new swimming pool, sports centre and green space.
It is part of a “common realm” plan meant to transform the downtown into a walkable,
inviting space for residents and shoppers. Approached by the city, which
was interested in creating more housing in the core, A&T soon hired the architects behind Wesbrook Village at the University of British Columbia to ensure the project would be built to the latest standards.
“Most of the condo projects in Prince George are older. Park House will be the first contemporary new homes in the downtown,” Quinn said.
The complex will offer underground parking, the first in downtown Prince George and will include electric-vehicle charging stations, as well as such perks as a yoga studio and fitness room.
Quinn expects the condos to sell well, noting that pre-sales have gone better than expected.
“Prince George is not traditionally a pre-sale market,” he said.
“Buyers are more likely to buy a finished product.”
No commercial space was included in Park House he said, because the downtown site is ringed with shops and services.
Planning for Park House began before the final investment decision for LNG Canada’s $40 billion liquefied natural gas terminal was even made, but that project, along with the approved $4.5 billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline, is likely among the reasons why Prince George is attracting more real estate investments.
In the first quarter of this year, for instance, 257 homes sold in the city, worth $90 million, up
from $82.2 million in sales volume at the same time last year. The median detached-house price is up about 10 per cent from 2018, at $327,500, according to the BC Northern Real Estate Board.
As of the end of December 2018, total building permits in Prince George reached $186 million, up from $116 million a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2019, building permit values topped $26 million.
Melissa Barcellos, Prince George’s manager of economic development, said that the city will benefit directly from oil and gas pipeline development. The Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Alberta to the Lower Mainland, which was expected to receive federal government approval in June, runs quite close to the city, she noted.
“As the biggest city in the north, Prince George will naturally attract a lot of the business associated with LNG Canada as well,” Barcellos said.
Among the major investments is the new, 174-room Courtyard Marriott Hotel, which opened a year ago in the downtown. Under construction is a 95-room downtown hotel by Mundi Hotel Enterprises Inc. and modular builder Horizon North Logistics Inc.
It will replace the old Days Inn that will be demolished to make way for the new pool.
— see STUDENT, page 3
Palmer, left, along with her mom Andrea consult with Raegan Bergstrom, an audiologist from B.C. Children’s Hospital. Bergstrom can remotely tune Lilly’s cochlear implants without having to meet in person.
UNBC honours outstanding alumni
Citizen staff
Two UNBC alumni – a senior executive at a major biotechnology company in Canada and a champion for cancer survivors – recently received awards for their leadership and service.
David Llewellyn, the senior vice president for business operations at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver, earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1997.
He received the Professional Excellence Award based on his outstanding professional contributions to the social, cultural and economic well-being of society.
Despite his busy schedule, Llewellyn gives back to his alma mater, regularly visiting UNBC to meet with students and hire UNBC graduates. He engages students in research talks discussing various initiatives at STEMCELL and providing informative lectures on the work that his company is involved in.
Sarah White, who earned a bachelor of social work degree in 2007, and is currently working on a graduate degree in counselling, received the UNBC Distinguished Alumni Award for Community Service for her role in founding the Northern Cancer Survivor Society, the first cancer support group of its kind in Prince George.
The organization has an active soup/ care package program delivered to
individuals’ homes on weekends. It also involves volunteers visiting people in hospital and doing household repairs to raising money to help people with medical expenses. “As UNBC graduates, both David and Sarah have become outstanding leaders who are making valuable contributions in their professions and communities,” said UNBC President Daniel Weeks.
“They are just two more examples of UNBC alumni who continue to do amazing work and are role models for both
our alumni and students.”
A special awards committee selected the recipients based on nominations submitted to the UNBC Alumni Council.
“It is always a wonderful opportunity when we can recognize our alumni and showcase how they have contributed to their alma mater,” said UNBC Alumni Council President Jennifer Young.
“Through their leadership and dedication to helping others, they help inspire current UNBC students and fellow alumni.”
Milling
Contractors mill the edges of Fir Street Tuesday afternoon to prepare for repaving of the
Sentence issued for ramming RCMP cruiser
Citizen staff
A Penticton man was sentenced Wednesday to two years probation and prohibited from driving for three years for ramming a Prince George RCMP cruiser while attempting to flee police.
Michael Daniel Jakins, 33, had remained in custody since he was arrested on March 13, a total of 105 days.
At the time, police said the trouble began at about 2:30 a.m. when an officer on patrol observed a driver committing a traffic offence while driving along Strathcona Avenue and attempted to pull the vehicle over.
Jakins refused to stop and continued west before coming to a dead end. When the officer attempted to block him in, the driver rammed the car, police said. Jakins and a passenger were arrested without further incident and the officer was not injured.
Jakins was also sentenced on counts of possessing a controlled substance and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
A search of the vehicle uncovered bear spray, knives and a small amount of what is believed to be fentanyl, according to RCMP.
Police also found Jakins was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant out of Vancouver on charges of breaking and entering, possessing break-in Instruments and driving while prohibited.
LLEWELLYN WHITE
Millar Addition street.
Artist Darin Corbiere arranges his art cards at the tourism office on First Avenue on Thursday. A ‘Artnership’ between Tourism and Community Arts Council will see a different artist displaying their work every Thursday for the next six weeks.
No pipeline blow-out as Western premiers meet in Edmonton
Dean BENNETT
The Canadian Press
EDMONTON — Canada’s western and northern leaders pushed Thursday for reducing trade barriers and building trade corridors while avoiding a bunfight on the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his B.C. counterpart John Horgan amicably agreed to continue to disagree on the pipeline expansion project that would carry Alberta oil to the West Coast.
Horgan even made a joke about being the lone New Democrat at the table with Kenney, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe and Manitoba’s Brian Pallister, all leaders of conservative governments.
“I wore a blue suit so I could blend in,” Horgan said as he and the other leaders spoke to reporters at the end of the one-day meeting in Edmonton.
“I think Premier Kenney and I are off on the right foot.”
There has been friction between B.C. and Alberta over the pipeline project.
Kenney restated that Alberta is prepared to use provincial legislation to limit oil and gas exports to any province he sees as standing in the way of pipelines – a so-called turn-off-the-taps law.
Horgan said his government will push ahead with a legal challenge of that law, as well as a reference to the Supreme Court on whether the federal government had the constitutional jurisdiction to approve the pipeline expansion.
Horgan stressed B.C. has followed the rule of law and will continue to do so.
“We have been and will continue to issue permits as they are requested by the proponent, and we will continue to assert our jurisdiction and hold the federal govern-
ment accountable,” said Horgan.
“This issue has not been, in my opinion, about British Columbia and Alberta.”
Kenney said, “I made it clear to Premier Horgan that if we see from any province obstruction of the movement of our products from this province in a way we think violates the Constitution, we will take action.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that and I believe we’ve begun a productive, professional and respectful relationship.”
But there were no fireworks at the closing news conference like last year, when the pipeline issue led then-Alberta premier Rachel Notley to opt out of signing a document from the meeting.
The premiers did find common ground on issues such as economic corridors, reducing trade barriers and recognizing professional credentials from province to province.
“I think we agreed it makes no sense that a nurse or a doctor from B.C. shouldn’t be able to have that certification recognized in Alberta and vice versa,” said Kenney.
Kenney said the corridors include everything from electricity
grids to natural gas lines, highways, railways and pipelines.
He said those plans will be pursued at the full meeting of premiers at the Council of the Federation in Saskatoon next month.
Pallister’s efforts to have the premiers unite against Quebec’s law banning civil servants from wearing religious symbols did not make it on the formal agenda of the meeting.
Pallister said he wouldn’t give up the fight.
“Manitoba remains very concerned about anything that interferes with our ability to celebrate as a country the diversity that’s a reality here,” he said.
“I’m a farm boy and I don’t like erosion. And I certainly am always concerned about the erosion of rights in our country.
“So I’ll continue to have that view and I’ll continue to express it.”
On climate change, the premiers agreed to continue working on plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also push a process to formally recognize climate change initiatives the provinces and territories have already achieved.
Student housing project under construction
— from page 1
In May, HDR|CEI Architecture Associates Inc. and Chandos Construction representatives were in Prince George to consult with the city and residents on the new $42 million public swimming pool that will replace the aging Four Seasons pool downtown. Design work will occupy the rest of this year with construction to start in 2020. A new student housing project is
also underway downtown and the city is working to establish a fastbus network to link the city’s core with the University of Northern British Columbia and the College of New Caledonia campuses. Prince George offers a relatively generous incentive program for downtown developers for both residential and commercial projects. These can include five-to 10-year property tax breaks, waiving of parking requirements and
Citizens on Patrol volunteers wanted
Citizen staff
A group who acts as a second set of eyes and ears for the Prince George RCMP is welcoming volunteers. Citizens on Patrol members deter crime and promote safety by conducting vehicle and bike patrols looking for suspicious activities in public places, local parks, and neighbourhood streets.
Volunteers also use speed reading equipment to monitor compliance and enhance awareness of speed limits in the community, and they provide community awareness at public events.
The group works through the RCMP detachment’s community
police section. “Volunteers take part in patrols and duties at all hours of the day, so whether you’re a night owl or a morning person, we are looking for you,” said assistant coordinator Melissa Lang. Applicants must be 19 years or older, have a clean driving record and have completed the graduated licencing program. They also must be able to pass a police information check (formerly known as a criminal record check), and be able to dedicate a couple shifts per month. For an application package, go to the community policing desk at the Prince George RCMP detachment located at 455 Victoria St.
Stranger chases female runner
Citizen staff
Prince George RCMP are asking for the public’s help in a search for a man suspected of harassing a woman while she was out for a run in the Heritage neighbourhood. The incident occurred on Saturday at about 9:30 a.m. while she was running along a path between Coreless Crescent and Claxton Avenue.
An unknown man began running to catch up to her, RCMP said, and she sped up just before he was able to reach her and made it to safety.
“Although no physical contact was had, the man’s motives are not known,” RCMP said.
Police learned of the incident via an email that had been sent to city hall and subsequently passed on to the RCMP.
“The Prince George RCMP would like to remind the public that the police are not able to take reports via email. Reporting a crime to police must be done via the telephone or in person
An unknown man began running to catch up to her, RCMP said, and she sped up just before he was able to reach her and made it to safety.
and should be done as soon as possible,” RCMP said.
Anyone with information about the man or with external video surveillance in the area, is urged to contact the Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers. bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward.
flexible zoning. Development-cost charges are among the lowest in the province, at $299 per unit for multifamily projects and around $28 per square foot for commercial projects. Contributions of $10,000 per unit are available for residential and mixed-use projects in the downtown, payable to the property owner after an occupancy permit has been issued, according to a city release.
KENNEY HORGAN
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN Art and tourism
NEWS IN BRIEF
Feds sign selfgovernment deals with
Metis nations
OTTAWA (CP) — The federal government signed historic self-government agreements Thursday with the Metis nations of Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The agreements affirm the Metis right of self-government and formally recognize the mandates of the Metis nations in the three provinces.
They further recognize the Metis governments’ jurisdiction in the areas of citizenship, leadership selection and government operations and set out processes for negotiating more areas of jurisdiction in future. The agreements also spell out the next steps toward formally recognizing Metis governments in Canadian law.
Audrey Poitras, president of the Metis Nation of Alberta, said the agreements mark the beginning of “a true government-togovernment relationship with Canada based on reconciliation and a recognition of our place in Confederation.”
“This historic agreement is a major step toward guaranteeing our rights to our land, our resources, our education and our culture,” said Greg McCallum, president of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan. “It is real progress for our people.”
Enderby wins Participaction challenge
ENDERBY (CP) — Enderby has been crowned the most physically active community in Canada in the first annual Participaction challenge.
The victory comes as the city in B.C.’s north Okanagan tracked almost two million activity minutes while hosting events like the Dash n’ Splash, a flash mob and the Foam Fest.
In addition to the most active accolade, Enderby takes home the top prize of $150,000, which it plans to spend on recreation infrastructure projects.
There are also five regional winners that won $20,000 each for their efforts: Amqui, Quebec, Gameti, N.W.T., Harvey, N.B., Headingley, Man., and Marathon, Ont.
Search suspended for missing man
SECHELT (CP) — A search has been suspended in B.C. for a former New Brunswick man who vanished in a rural area about 125 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
Thomas Hines, who recently moved from Sackville, N.B., to the small community of Egmont was last seen on June 17, canoeing on Waugh Lake, not far from his new home. His empty canoe was found the next day and a search was launched. Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue and members of the RCMP’s dive team have scoured the surrounding bush and searched the lake bottom but have found no trace of the 26-year-old.
FISHERIES AND OCEANS
A North Atlantic right whale found dead last week in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has been brought to shore on western Cape Breton for a necropsy. The 40-year-old female whale named Punctuation, was towed late Monday to Petit Etang, N.S., where pathologists from P.E.I.’s Atlantic Veterinary College were expected to examine the carcass.
Gov’t should have acted quicker to prevent right whale deaths, expert says
Kevin BISSETT
The Canadian Press
FREDERICTON — A whale expert says Canadian officials did not respond quickly enough to this year’s migration of North Atlantic right whales and now five of the endangered animals have been found dead.
Laurie Murison, executive director of the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station, says while vessel speed limits, fishing restrictions and other measures are now in place, they should have come sooner.
“They have reacted now, but it is something that needs to be in place at the beginning of every season. You need to look at what’s going on and what the distribution is,” she said in an interview Thursday.
Murison said it was clear from Gulf of St. Lawrence surveillance
flights that the whales were travelling further to the east this year than in the past two years.
“The whales are going to go to wherever the best food resources are. They can vary from year to year and we don’t have a long term database for right whales in the Gulf,” she said.
Necropsy results show at least one of the dead whales had injuries consistent with a vessel strike.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) confirmed Wednesday a right whale was found dead on the shores of Anticosti Island near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, bringing the number of recent deaths to five.
In a statement, officials said scientists are on scene collecting samples for analysis, and working with various partners to assess necropsy options.
During a news conference Thursday, Isabelle Elliott, a marine mammal response officer with
Fisheries and Oceans, said the age and identity of the fifth whale was not yet known.
She said the first whale was a nine-year-old male named Wolverine and necropsy results were inconclusive.
The second dead whale was a 40-year-old female known as Punctuation, and her injuries were consistent with a vessel strike.
A necropsy was scheduled for Friday in Norway, P.E.I., on the third whale – a 34-year-old male named Comet.
Elliott said the name of the fourth whale, an 11-year-old female, was not yet available. She said the carcass was too decomposed to allow for a necropsy.
DFO officials said that as of Thursday 16,000 square kilometres in the Gulf are closed to fishing, based on confirmed right whale sightings since April 28. The snow crab fishery will close in the
southern Gulf as of this Sunday. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday that vessels 20 metres or longer are now restricted to 10 knots in two designated shipping lanes north and south of Anticosti Island in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence. He added the speed restriction is an interim measure.
However, the government will issue a fine of up to $25,000 to those who fail to follow the speed limit, Garneau said.
On Thursday, Michelle Sanders, director of clean water policy for Transport Canada, was asked why the speed restrictions weren’t in place earlier. She said wider speed restrictions began April 28, but there were exclusions within the shipping zones because data over the last two years showed no whales in those areas, and the speed limits would be imposed as soon as any whales were spotted.
Male stripper gets new sex assault trial
Colin PERKEL The Canadian Press
TORONTO — A male strip-club performer convicted of sexually assaulting a woman who paid him for a lap dance should get a new trial because the judge relied on stereotypes of how women behave, Ontario’s top court ruled on Thursday.
In quashing the conviction against Damir Cepic, the Court of Appeal faulted the judge’s reasoning in deciding the complainant, 23, did not consent to sexual activity with him.
“The trial judge’s path to conviction rested largely on a series of erroneous assumptions about what a young woman would or would not do in the circumstances of this case,” the court said. “The conviction must therefore be set aside.”
The case arose in March 2016, when the woman, identified only as OI, and seven girlfriends went to the Foxxes Den in Toronto to celebrate a birthday, court records show. It was OI’s first time at such a club.
During the evening, OI paid Cepic $10 for a lap dance. He would testify she reached into his pants to touch his private parts, something she would deny. She then paid Cepic, 29, another $40 for a private lap dance. This time, court heard, she performed oral sex on him and he briefly penetrated her.
Cepic testified at trial before Superior Court
Justice Anne London-Weinstein that he was already having intercourse with the woman and about to ejaculate when the woman said, “no, I have a boyfriend.”
She denied saying that and testified she told him, “no” and tried to push him off her.
After the dance, OI texted a friend wondering what to tell her boyfriend. She also said she was worried her father, a police officer, would be furious, court heard.
When her then-boyfriend arrived to pick her up, she told him she had been sexually assaulted, court heard. She reported the incident to police several hours later. Police charged Cepic with sexual assault.
The only issue at trial was consent. OI argued she was forced into fellatio and intercourse.
Cepic, described as a hard-working and trustworthy father, said the woman had been a willing participant.
London-Weinstein sided with OI, saying she found the complainant reliable and credible, and Cepic self-serving.
For example, the judge rejected Cepic’s evidence that OI had touched him sexually, saying it was unlikely the woman would have done so on her first-ever lap dance. The judge also called it “completely implausible and nonsensical” that OI would have told the accused about her boyfriend just as he was about to climax.
London-Weinsten convicted Cepic and jailed
The Canadian Press
ABBOTSFORD — A couple moving from Langley to Manitoba didn’t even get out of the Lower Mainland before their plans went sideways, but Abbotsford police hope someone has information that can help the pair.
Sgt. Judy Bird says the U-Haul moving truck was packed with almost all the couple’s possessions when it was stolen from a hotel parking lot in Abbotsford sometime between last Friday night and Saturday.
The truck contained everything from furniture to books, photos and a red Taotao scooter but it was completely empty when it was found on Saturday, in the parking lot of a Surrey secondary school. Police are appealing for information from anyone who may have seen the U-Haul or have dashcam video that could help them trace the thieves.
In a similar case, a U-Haul containing all the possessions of a newlywed couple moving to B.C. from New Brunswick was stolen from an Abbotsford parking lot in September 2017 and was found empty in Surrey. In that case, investigators linked
him for two years less a day.
Cepic appealed, arguing the judge had relied on stereotypes and assumptions, while OI maintained London-Weinstein was entitled to rely on common sense assumptions about basic human behaviour.
In its analysis, the Appeal Court warned the common-sense approach to assessing credibility is “fraught with danger,” and London-Weinstein had unfairly made assumptions about female behaviour in accepting OI’s testimony and rejecting Cepic’s.
“The trial judge started from the assumption about what a young woman would do in a strip club and carried that theme throughout her analysis,” the Appeal Court said. “(Her) determinations about what ‘made no sense’ or was ‘implausible’ were blatant assumptions, unsupported by the evidence.”
The judge, the Appeal Court said, ignored the context in which OI found herself.
“The context was significant: a women’s only party in a highly sexualized environment involving alcohol and male dancers,” Justice Mary Lou Benotto said for the Appeal Court. London-Weinstein, the higher court said, also appeared to resort to stereotypes about male aggression when she rejected Cepic’s evidence that OI had come on to him and found he had taken advantage of a “stunned and confused” young woman.
‘Riverton Rifle’ among new Order of Canada members
Jordan PRESS
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Ask Reggie Leach about hockey and you can hear the joy in his voice as he talks about winning the Stanley Cup in his own playing days, and donning a Team Canada jersey and watching his children represent the country years later in hockey and lacrosse. And then the man known as the “Riverton Rifle” stops to think about the thank-you the country is giving him this Canada Day for all he has done during and since his hockey career.
“Hockey to me was just a stepping stone to my life circle. I am more proud of what I did after hockey than what I did during my hockey days,” says Leach, who is Ojibwa.
Leach is among 83 new appointees to the Order of Canada, in a list that includes scientists, health-care advocates, jurists, actors, athletes and public servants. They join nearly 7,000 people on the honour roll – “the elites that Canada has to offer,” Leach says – since its introduction more than five decades ago, including Leach’s relative, educator Rev. Frederic Leach.
“To me, it’s one of the highest honours you can receive as a Canadian,” the former hockey star said. “It just hasn’t sunk in yet, but you think back on all the people who are in there and all of sudden you have Reggie Leach in the Order of Canada. It’s hard to believe. It’s something that will sink in.”
Leach’s NHL career started in the fall of 1970, three years after the Order of Canada was created in 1967 to mark Canada’s centenary. It was around the same time that the women’s-rights movement was laying the foundation for women like Moya Greene to make their way up the corporate ladder.
Greene, originally of St. John’s, N.L., rose through the public service and the private sector to lead Canada Post in 2005.
‘She moved to the United Kingdom to become the first head of the Royal Mail in 2010.
Although she received a damehood from the Queen last year, Greene says the Order of Canada carries a different significance.
“This is the country of my birth. This is where I grew up. These are the people who educated me, these are the people who mentored me, who gave me this brilliant career,” Greene says in an interview from the U.K., where she still lives.
“This is very, very special for my country – the country that just gave me nothing but opportunity, really – to recognize me in this way.”
Leach looks on things the same
way. He went from growing up poor in Riverton, Man., to playing alongside fellow Order of Canada member Bobby Clarke. The two hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1975. The next year, Leach was named the most valuable player in the NHL playoffs – one of a very few from a team that didn’t win the championship – and donned the Team Canada jersey.
Leach regularly speaks to Indigenous youth about his life, hoping they don’t repeat his past missteps: “That’s what I live for today, is to help these kids out and get them in the right direction.”
Similar to Leach, it’s what
Claude Raymond has done since his professional baseball career that gives him a smile. The former Montreal Expo runs an annual golf tournament to raise money for needy children, speaks with young people, and has his name tied to a baseball tournament that attracts some of the best youth teams in Quebec and Ontario.
“I’ve had many honours throughout my career and my life, but this is it,” he said of the Order of Canada. Others are being promoted within the order, including some well-known faces from stages and screens: Singer Buffy Sainte-Marie
and actors Martin Short and Donald Sutherland.
One new appointee, however, works behind the cameras.
Since the late 1970s, Renee April has been a costume designer for more than 50 Hollywood and television productions, including The Red Violin, Grey Owl, Night at the Museum, Arrival, and “Blade Runner 2049. She, too, said she is happiest with her work with young designers, paying forward opportunities others afforded her.
“That I am proud of – to give a chance and believe in young people and fresh talent,” she said.
Edna Elias has been teaching young people since she was a teacher’s assistant in the 1970s in what is now Nunavut, which turns 20 this July. She is one of the territory’s former commissioners – a role similar to a lieutenant-governor in provinces – and is being recognized for her decades-long efforts to maintain and revitalize traditional Inuit languages.
“There are a number of great people who are trying to do the same thing as I am who are now putting in a lot of the groundwork and doing the revitalization necessary,” Elias said.
“I hope that it (the Order of Canada) gives them incentive to carry on.”
Brewer John Sleeman is also on the list, as is Michael Smith, an American-born chef and television personality who has lived and worked mainly in Atlantic Canada since the 1990s.
He runs the Inn at Bay Fortune on Prince Edward Island with his wife Chastity and oversees its renowned kitchen.
“To be a Canadian is so tied to who I am as a person, as a human being, as a father, as a husband, as a neighbour, as a business owner. My values are here,” said Smith, whose work has included promoting eat-local initiatives.
“This honour is just a tremendous validation of 30 years of head-down hard work, doing it day after day after day because it’s the right thing to do. It’s just so hard to get your head around.”
Order of Canada recipients from a wide variety of backgrounds
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — On Thursday, Rideau Hall unveiled a list of 83 new appointees to the Order of Canada. Here are short profiles of a few who are being given one of the country’s highest honours:
Renee April
You’ve not seen April in front of the camera but you likely have seen her work. The renowned costume designer has worked on more than 50 Hollywood and television productions, including The Red Violin, Grey Owl, Night at the Museum, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049. Born and raised in Riviere-du-Loup, Que., she has been doing costume design since the late 1970s, but prefers working on period pieces.
Ronnie Burkett
Burkett has been doing theatre productions featuring his puppets – his own designs and creations – for more than 40 years. He has gone from being a one-man street theatre show that toured schools and community centres to having his own theatre company. He got interested in puppetry at age seven, wrote fan letters to
puppeteers as a child, and by 15 had travelled alone to the U.S. for a puppetry festival. Now, he mentors young people interested in the art.
Claire Deschenes
The first woman to teach engineering at Laval University, Deschenes sees herself as a role model for women in the field. She founded a hydraulic research lab in 1989 that is internationally renowned for its work on hydraulic turbines. She has also founded three international organizations that promote women in science and engineering.
Edna Elias
Elias began her lifetime of teaching in the North decades ago as a primary-school teacher in Arctic Bay, teaching traditional Inuit languages. She has worked since to revitalize the use of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun – the latter that Elias worked on during her time in a residential school – and made it the hallmark of her time in politics.
She had a leading role in Nunavut’s birth 20 years ago and in 2010 when she was made commissioner of the territory.
Moya Greene
In 2018, when Greene was given an honorary degree from York University, she told the graduates about taking a long path in life. It was an apt metaphor for her career: working on social policy in the federal civil service, to infrastructure financing, and finally to chief executive of Canada Post before moving across the Atlantic to run the U.K.’s Royal Mail.
Lisa LaFlamme
LaFlamme has been a familiar face at CTV for more than 30 years, first locally in her hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo and since 2011 as the anchor of the nightly national broadcast. She has reported from around the world, including from Iraq and Afghanistan with Canadian troops, and interviewed world leaders. She also volunteers for Journalists for Human Rights and PLAN International.
Reggie Leach
When Leach made his National Hockey League debut in 1970, it was a long way from the tiny town of Riverton, Man., where he grew up. He would win a Stanley
Cup with the Philadelphia Flyers a few years later and become known as a prolific scorer. A role model for young Indigenous athletes, Leach, who is Ojibwa, now speaks to Indigenous youth nationwide to help them along their own paths in life.
Claude Raymond
Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Raymond had an arm that led him to a 12-year career in Major League Baseball – pitching against the likes of Willie Mays – and spent the last days of his career with the upstart Montreal Expos. Still a favourite among Expos faithful, Raymond focuses on helping young people through an annual charity golf tournament, a high-profile youth baseball tournament, and speaking engagements.
Nick Saul
For more than 30 years, Saul has been working with lowincome and homeless people, beginning in Toronto’s east end, and now as the long-time chief executive of Community Food Centres Canada. The Tanzanianborn activist co-founded the organization in 2012, aiming
to bring together communities around a table and provide food programs, training, and grants for social change.
John Sleeman
The Ottawa-raised Sleeman first dipped into the beer industry when he opened his own pub in the late 1970s. A few years later, inspired by his family’s history as brewers – the family brewery was closed in 1933 over charges of smuggling and failing to pay taxes – he opened Sleeman Breweries, one of the country’s most successful.
Since selling to Japan’s Sapporo, Sleeman has reached into the family past again and founded a new distillery. His community involvement is what also lands him in the Order of Canada.
Michael Smith
Best known from his television shows, chef Michael Smith is also an advocate of eating local by finding seasonal products close to home. He has been involved in grassroots movements and testified at a Senate committee about the topic. The American-born chef moved to Prince Edward island three decades ago.
AP ARCHIVE PHOTO
Philadelphia Flyers players Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach hug seconds after Leach scored the winning goal in overtime against the Boston Bruins during the semifinals on April 30, 1976. Leach was one of 83 people named to the Order of Canada on Thursday.
Meat ban could hurt food sector
The China-Canada relationship has been deteriorating following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei chief financial officer. She faces possible extradition to the United States on charges of helping Iran evade American sanctions. Apart from detaining two Canadians in retaliation, the diplomatic rift has also had negative consequences for bilateral trade between Canada and China.
There has been a direct adverse effect on Canada’s agri-food sector. First, there was the ban of Chinese imports of canola from Canada. That ban derailed the cordial relationship that existed between the two countries.
But now tensions have escalated with a Chinese ban on all meat from Canada over claims of 188 forged veterinary certificates and the discovery of ractopamine residues in a shipment of pork by a Canadian producer. The Canadian government has called in the RCMP to investigate a falsified export certificate.
Ractopamine is a feed additive used to promote leanness in animals for the purpose of domestic consumption. Although ractopamine is allowed to be used at a specified limit in North America, it’s banned elsewhere, including China, Japan and the European Union.
The current ban may jeopardize the cooperative agreements between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and China’s General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. That includes the deal signed in 2012 for Canadian beef, beef products, tallow and dairy.
Within the global livestock market, Canada is a major player, especially in the cattle and hogs sector. Canada is well-integrated in the global economy and its livestock industry is highly dependent on foreign market access to sell its excess domestic production.
For cattle and beef products, the share of domestic production exported is about 50 per cent. For hog and pork products, it’s
more than 70 per cent, according the Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.
The share of livestock, including live animal, red meat and other animal products, accounted for more than 17 per cent of total agri-food export in 2016. This emphasizes the importance of livestock for the growth of the agricultural sector in Canada. Canadian beef and pork exporters have become increasingly reliant on China. That’s not surprising – China is a significant player in the world meat market due to its huge population of more than 1.3 billion people. It’s also the world’s second-largest economy, with a GDP of about $13 trillion. Chinese consumers have provided muchneeded demand for Canadian exporters.
Exports have helped to maintain Canadian farm income and increase profit margins.
So the current Chinese suspension of Canadian meat imports will increase financial risk and uncertainty for the Canadian beef and pork industries.
According to bilateral trade data from Statistics Canada, China has been steadily increasing its imports of pork and Canada
has been cashing in. Between 1997 and 2017, Canada increased its world pork exports by 153 per cent. At the same time, Canada increased its Chinese exports from $2.4 million to $560 million. China accounted for more than 22 per cent of all Canadian pork exported in 2019, making it Canada’s third largest importer behind Japan and the United States.
In June 2011, Canada became the first country to regain access to China’s beef market after being affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The agreement to allow entry spurred beef exports. Canada went from exporting $12,465 in beef products in 2010 to $82.9 million in 2017. Beef exports peaked at $255 million in 2015.
Barriers to trade, or denial of market access, could have a significant effect on the marketability of Canadian meat products, and substantial financial ramifications for the Canadian beef and pork sector since it’s so heavily reliant on trade.
Escalating tensions between the two partners threatens to disrupt the growth trend of Canadian meat exports to China. Continuing
market disruptions will have significant impacts on the long-term growth and prospects of the Canadian livestock sector.
As a matter of urgency, the Canadian government must quickly work to resolve the frayed diplomatic relationship with China. This is critical since most people believe the trade restrictions imposed on Canada by China are politically motivated, largely due to the continuous detention of the Huawei executive.
If these trade restrictions are genuinely due to food safety concerns to protect Chinese consumers, the onus lies on Canada to improve its food safety requirements and also block any illegal loopholes in the issuance or acquisition of veterinary certificates for export of meat products.
Canada should also consider banning ractopamine in Canadian meat production to conform to the standards in Europe and other parts of Asia.
But diversifying markets through regional trade agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement will give Canadian producers access to a diverse set of markets. In the face of Chinese-Canadian diplomatic tensions, Canada should continue to direct its efforts to accessing other emerging and developing countries’ markets.
Thankfully, it’s already doing so. In the wake of China’s canola ban, Canada has successfully diversified its exports to other emerging markets like Paskistan. Export of canola seeds to Pakistan increased by 149 per cent from March to April in 2019, from 65,000 tonnes to 162,000 tonnes, while exports to other markets remains relatively stable. That type of quick diversification is necessary again for Canada’s beef and pork sector amid the latest diplomatic salvo fired by China.
— Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor is an assistant professor in agri-food trade and policy at the University of Guelph, Brendan McDougall and Jiahao Zhu are masters students at the University of Guelph
YOUR LETTERS
Daylight savings nothing to lose sleep over
I am having a problem with this Daylight Savings Time business.
I do not understand why people complain they lose sleep when the clocks change. It seems like they think they are losing every night until the clocks change back in the spring.
Every day, you lose sleep for whatever reason so what’s the
difference?
DST means you will never lose that hour of sleep again so I am all for it.
Another problem I have is the fact that I can’t understand why people would not want to have that extra hour of daylight. More time to do things.
B.C. will also lose out economically as businesses will be shut an hour prior and open an hour prior to the southern states who they do business with.
Can’t make money that way.
D. Both, Prince George
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published.
Ethics overshadow brain technologies
Brain technologies are all the rage these days. Entrepreneurs are selling wearable devices in the open marketplace with claims of benefits to memory, attention and concentration.
Neurosurgeons and psychiatrists are exploring new ways and further developing old invasive ones to intervene in the brains of people with major mental illnesses whose conditions are resistant to conventional drug therapy.
Other scientists interested in the brain are sleuthing ways to give people with disabilities who do not have the ability to communicate verbally a technologically-mediated way to do so.
As experts in the field of neuroethics, our research is dedicated to raising critical questions about ethics, law and society alongside discoveries in the neurosciences and explaining new knowledge and methods for the benefit of Canadians and people worldwide.
When it comes to innovations with brain technologies, we ask questions such as: who are the individuals who might benefit?
What are the technologies?
And, most importantly, in what circumstances can these approaches be used ethically?
Many different types of neurological
disorders can affect a person’s ability to communicate via spoken language.
A stroke, for example, can cause a disorder of verbal language and render a person unable to communicate as they could before.
A stroke could also cause “locked-in” syndrome, where a person is fully aware, but paralyzed and unable to move muscles in the body except for those that control eye movements and blinking.
Brain injuries from falls or head traumas can put people in a state of disordered of consciousness and unable to respond physically to external cues.
A lack of oxygen at birth can leave a child with deficits in the development of brain and body, including cerebral palsy, characterized by impairments of movement, language or both. Technological responses to these challenges involve recording proxy signals to visualize imagined or silent speech from which meaning needs to be interpreted.
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For example, in the case of disorders of consciousness, communication may be elicited by a faint signal related to the way that blood and oxygen flow to regions of the brain specific when a person is asked to think about certain tasks such as acknowledging a familiar voice or mentally navigating a space.
Some more robust signals can be drawn from non-invasive recordings of brain electrical activity from the scalp, or more invasive ones from deep in the brain. Augmented reality methods are lifting measurements from simple physical movements of the eyes or head to a whole new level of interaction and experience.
Are these signals meaningful and are they trustworthy enough for communication of messages that are of especially high consequence, such as a request for medical aid in dying, consent to participate in research, testimony about abuse, voting or sharing of an intimate desire with a loved one?
The challenges are immense and they begin with questions about the technical aspects of the interventions.
For example, the quality, sensitivity and reliability of the signals produced have still to be well-understood.
People and brain conditions differ; so do brain signals. Variability related to severity, gender, and simple daily fluctuations
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in mood and functioning is significant. The ethics challenges are no less tricky: definitions of risk and benefit, autonomy, bias and affordability are all in play. And in today’s world of open science and data, privacy concerns are increasingly significant.
Scientists, ethicists, health lawyers and entrepreneurs shoulder enormous responsibility to innovate, analyze and deliver complex data transparently in today’s fastpaced, neuro-obsessed and technologicallycharged world. Pseudoscience is not science and hype about hopeful benefits of real biomedical advances cannot overshadow limitations and warnings about potential harm.
Still, given the enormous potential for enhancing human well-being, speed of innovation is essential to compressing health inequities in Canada and elsewhere. Progress, however fast or slow, must also be accompanied by humility that will preserve public trust, promote the kind of inclusion and hope the most vulnerable people in our society deserve and ensure that discoveries about the brain and the human right to access them are in balance.
— Judy Illes is a professor of neurology at UBC and Jennifer Chandler is a law professor at the University of Ottawa. This article first appeared in The Conversation.
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GUEST COLUMN
JUDY ILLES, JENNIFER CHANDLER
CP PHOTO
A chef cuts Canadian meat products at a Chinese restaurant in Cremona, Alta. on Wednesday.
Chinese jets ‘buzz’ Canadian ships in Taiwan Strait
Kristy KIRKUP, Lee BERTHIAUME
The Canadian Press
OSAKA, Japan — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Osaka, Japan for the G20 leaders’ summit, with a contact between Chinese fighter jets and Canadian ships in the Taiwan Strait adding a new tension between the two countries.
Trudeau is hoping for progress, or at least fresh support from other countries, in Canada’s disputes with China over agriculture products and China’s arrests of two Canadians in apparent retaliation for Canada’s detention of a Chinese high-tech executive on an extradition warrant from the United States.
The prime minister has no meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping at the summit to do this, but U.S. President Donald Trump committed to raising the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor during his own meeting with the prime minister in the Oval Office last Thursday.
Trudeau will also lean on like-minded allies that have already spoken out about the detentions, including France, the U.K., Germany and Spain (see story, page 8).
On Friday, he will meet with European partners to discuss a range of issues such as climate change, though the diplomatic issue with China is expected to be raised.
The incident at sea was reported by former journalist Matthew Fisher, now with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute thinktank, who was aboard HMCS Regina on June 18 when two Chinese jets flew within 300 metres of the frigate.
Canada’s Defence Department says the Regina and the navy’s interim resupply ship, MV Asterix, were travelling in international waters from Vietnam to the coast of North Korea to help the UN prevent North Korean smuggling.
It says the decision to transit the strait between mainland China and Taiwan was not intended to send a political message, but simply represented the most practical route for the vessels.
“The most practical route between Cam Ranh Bay (in Vietnam) and Northeast Asia involves sailing through the Taiwan Strait,” said Defence Department spokesman Jessica Lamirande.
“Transit through the Taiwan Strait is not related to making any statement.”
Another Canadian warship, HMCS Calgary, made the same trip last October.
Yet China recently condemned France and the U.S. for similar passages through what it described as “Chinese waters,” as it claims ownership over Taiwan and has been asserting its dominance over various coastal regions in the area.
According to Fisher’s report, the “noisy fly-past” was the first such incident between a Canadian vessel and Chinese aircraft, though the Regina’ captain, Cmdr. Jake French, was quoted as playing down any threat.
“This was not a dangerous scenario, but it
is one that we certainly paid close attention to,” French said.
“It is normal for air forces to check foreign navies operating in their backyard. Seeing the proximity of Chinese forces is part of the business. This is what militaries do.”
Russian aircraft have previously been buzzed Canadian warships in similar fashion in the Black Sea, where tensions have been high since Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Lamirande did not respond to questions about the Chinese fighter jets, but Brian Job of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia said the department’s description what happened during the transit has changed several times.
“First, DND simply reports passage through the Taiwan Strait, then it reports being monitored by Chinese vessels... but without anything untoward,” he said.
“Then today, the report on being buzzed by Chinese (military) planes – again with a reassurance by the military that this is not a concern.”
Adam MacDonald, deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Security and Development at Dalhousie University, predicts such incidents between Canadian and Chinese military forces will become more common.
That’s because Canada has been steadily increasing its military presence in the Asia-
Pacific region as its economic and strategic importance has grown even as China has been asserting more control over the neighbourhood.
“For a number of decades, we’ve had an erratic period of engagement militarily with East Asia and now what we’re seeing over the past five years is a real commitment to establish a pseudo, semi-permanent presence in East Asia,” MacDonald said.
“So this is going to become the new normal in operating throughout East Asia.”
And while the government insists it was not trying to send a message to China, MacDonald said the decision to travel through the strait nonetheless sends a “passive” statement that the water is not owned by the Chinese.
“Even in operating in these water spaces,” he said, “we are showing a resolve that we see them as international waters and that is in some ways a passive balancing against China if they ever expand their claims.”
At the same time, Job said diverting the vessels around Taiwan would have also sent a signal – and possibly opened the federal Liberal government up to attacks from the opposition.
Still, the incident represents yet another wrinkle in the already tense relationship between Canada and China, which will be front and centre in Osaka over the next few days.
Prior to the G20 meeting, experts including Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney said Canada could use the forum provided at the summit to speak to other leaders who face similar challenges with China.
“It is in America’s interest and it is in the interest of a lot of other countries to see China pull back from hostage diplomacy and bullying,” Mulroney said in an interview. The arrests of Kovrig and Spavor are widely viewed as a response to the December arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver. Meng remains under house arrest, where she resists extradition to the U.S. to face allegations of fraud in violating Iran sanctions.
Days after Meng’s arrest on Dec. 1, China responded by detaining the two Canadians and resentenced another to death after he had already been sentenced for a drug conviction – moves perceived as attempts to apply pressure for her release.
Meng’s arrest also sparked a diplomatic chain of events that have resulted in strained relations between China and Canada.
The Chinese have refused to talk to senior Canadian government officials, including Trudeau and Freeland. Before its actions on meat, China stopped importing other Canadian products including canola, of which is has been a major buyer.
Feds, provinces partnering to reduce plastic waste
HALIFAX — The federal government and the provinces and territories say they have pieced together an action plan to gradually harmonize the recycling and reduction of plastic waste, with details yet to emerge.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said today at a Halifax meeting of environment ministers the governments agree there should be consistent standards and targets for companies that produce plastic waste or use it to package their products. She told reporters during a conference call the plan could ensure that companies are held responsible for managing and collecting their waste and also paying the costs involved. The minister said tensions con-
tinued around the table between her and ministers from conservative governments over the issue of a federal carbon tax. However, she says that didn’t stop them from moving forward on the plastics file.
McKenna said it would “take time” to negotiate different elements of the federal-provincial plan, and details will begin to be worked out in the months to come.
“For the first time, we now have this national zero plastic action plan to eliminate plastic waste. This is the first phase of it,” she said.
There were concerns before the meeting that the high level of antagonism between McKenna and conservative premiers over the federal carbon tax might harm talks on other environmental issues.
Five of the provinces at the table are challenging or plan to challenge Ottawa in court over its “backstop” carbon tax, and a decision in Ontario’s case is coming Friday.
Last fall, the group was to meet in person in Ottawa to discuss plastic pollution but that meeting was downgraded first to a video chat and then to just a phone call. While officials chalked it up to scheduling conflicts, behind the scenes it was said that the carbontax disagreement between Ottawa and many provinces was to blame.
Still, during that call the provinces and Ottawa agreed to work toward cutting Canada’s waste in half by 2040 and trying to eliminate plastic as a source of garbage altogether.
Much of the responsibility for plastics standards and producer
responsibility lies with provincial governments.
Canada only recycles about nine per cent of the plastic it produces. According to a recent report prepared for Environment Canada by Deloitte and ChemInfo Services, in 2016 Canadians threw out 3.3 million tonnes of plastic, 12 times more than was recycled.
“A nine per cent recycling rate is abysmal,” McKenna said, ahead of the meeting. There are a limited number of recycling facilities in Canada, and a lack of standards for plastic packaging makes it difficult to recycle many items. Different dyes or glues used in labels can make recycling impossible, for example.
The Deloitte report also mentioned that it is still cheaper and easier to produce and use new plastic than it is to recycle and
use recycled plastics. The report recommended setting standards to require packaging materials and other products to use a set amount of recycled material to create new demand that would propel growth in the domestic recycling industry.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this month that Canada was looking at banning a number of single-use plastic items within the next two years, including Styrofoam takeout containers, plastic straws and cutlery.
The products that will be banned won’t be determined until the Canadian Environmental Protection Act review process is completed. But environment groups aren’t certain the provinces and Ottawa are getting a strong enough message about the need to reduce plastics.
A woman walks past a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s J-11 fighter jet displayed for the Air Force’s 60th anniversary in 2009 at an airport in Beijing, China. On June 18, two Chinese fighters flew within 300 metres of the Canadian frigate HMCS Regina while it was in the Taiwan Straight.
Mia RABSON, Michael TUTTON
The Canadian Press
Trudeau seeks support from allies at G20
Kristy KIRKUP The Canadian Press
OSAKA, Japan — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Osaka, Japan for the G20 leaders’ summit, where he will look to raise the issue of two Canadians held in China at “every opportunity.”
Trudeau has no meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit to do this but U.S. President Donald Trump committed to raising the issue during his own meeting with the prime minister in the Oval Office last Thursday.
Trudeau will also lean on like-minded allies that have already spoken out about the detentions, including France, the U.K., Germany and Spain.
On Friday, Trudeau will meet with European partners to discuss a range of issues such as climate change, though the diplomatic issue with China is expected to be raised.
Earlier this month, Trudeau also discussed the detentions with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of D-Day commemorations, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Prior to the G20, experts including Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney said Canada could use the forum provided at
the summit to speak to other leaders who face similar challenges with China.
“It is in America’s interest and it is in the interest of a lot of other countries to see China pull back from hostage diplomacy and bullying,” Mulroney said in an interview.
The arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are widely viewed as retaliation for the
Ticketmaster fined $4.5M for misleading prices
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The Competition Bureau says Ticketmaster will pay $4.5 million in penalties and associated costs to settle a case investigating misleading pricing claims for its online ticket sales.
The bureau said Thursday that Ticketmaster LLC, TNow Entertainment Group Inc. and Ticketmaster Canada LP will pay a $4-million penalty and $500,000 for the bureau’s investigation costs.
The companies will also create a compliance program as part of a consent agreement.
The bureau found Ticketmaster’s advertised prices did not reflect the true cost to the consumer as the online ticket service added mandatory fees later in the purchasing process that often added more than 20 per cent to the cost and in some cases over 65 per cent. The bureau found the initial prices misleading despite consumers seeing the fees before completing their transaction.
Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell said that Canadians should be able to trust that they will pay the advertised prices when purchasing tickets online.
“The bureau expects all ticket vendors to take note and review their marketing practices, knowing that the bureau continues to examine similar issues in the marketplace and will take action as necessary,” Boswell said in a statement.
Ticketmaster said Thursday it is committed to leading in consumer safety and transparency and has adopted practices to protect Canadians.
December arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
Wanzhou remains under house arrest, where she resists extradition to the U.S. to face allegations of fraud in violating Iran sanctions.
Ahead of the G20, China renewed its demand for her release a day after announcing a suspension of all imports of Canadian meat products.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday that Canada should “take seriously China’s concerns” and release Meng immediately.
In response, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said when it comes to the Meng extradition request, Canada has “very carefully and intentionally abided by its extradition-treaty commitments in accordance with the rule of law.”
“There has been no political interference in this case, it has been entirely about officials taking decisions according to Canada’s commitments,” press secretary Adam Austen said.
“When it comes to China, our government’s priority is the welfare of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been arbitrarily detained. We have rallied an unprecedented number of partners around in the world in support of Canada’s position.”
Business Traumatic Stress Disorder affects many business leaders
Over the years, I have worked with a number of business leaders who have had break downs from the stress of owning or running a business or organization.
The symptoms they have exhibited are very similar to PTSD. However, it is very unlikely that a psychiatrist or psychologist would give them a diagnosis of PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs if you have experienced a traumatic event where you or someone you observed has been exposed to violence.
Similar symptoms are experienced by business owners and leaders worldwide on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there is no clinical diagnosis for Business Traumatic Stress Disorder or BTSD (yes, I seem to have coined that phrase).
Let’s dig a little deeper and examine some symptoms to get an appreciation of how prevalent this condition is in the business community.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, people with PTSD might experience a range of symptoms across four categories: Category 1 symptoms: Intrusive symptoms related to the event, such as nightmares, flashbacks or unwanted thoughts about the trauma.
• Many leaders of organization have been traumatized by bankers, creditors, suppliers and landlords who have put considerable pressure on them when the business has been in financial difficulties.
Clients have told me that they wake up in sweats and have had unwanted thoughts about these conversations. Some are waking up with nightmares, while others can’t get to sleep because they are so stressed.
Think about how you might feel if you can’t pay your bills and you don’t seem to have a way out of your tough business situation.
Category 2 symptoms: avoiding people, places or situations that are reminders of the event.
• If I could have a dollar for every time I have had a client tell me that they “are done” and have no interest or energy to go back into their business, I could buy a $100 gift certificate for my editor.
When we are dealing with shoplifters, crooks, irrational staff members, compounded with demanding customers and the everyday problems of a business, we are going to have similar symptoms. Business leaders do start avoiding the people, places and things which remind them of their present overwhelming business difficulties. The problem is magnified in small communities, where business owners are recognized and approached by well-meaning friends and acquaintances asking how business is. While it might seem like it is the most important thing in their life right now, often it is the last thing they want is to talk about with someone who has little understanding
BUSINESS COACH
DAVE FULLER
of the magnitude of the problems they are facing.
Category 3 symptoms: negative thoughts and feelings may include ongoing and distorted beliefs about oneself or others (e.g., “I am bad,” “No one can be trusted”); ongoing fear, horror, anger, guilt or shame. • This symptom is common with business owners who are struggling with their business. There is often a deep sense of shame because they feel that they should be successful but they aren’t. There is guilt about laying off employees, anger at oneself for getting into this business in the first place and ongoing fear and anxiety about the future.
Category 4 symptoms: arousal and reactive symptoms may include being irritable and having angry outbursts; behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive way; being easily startled; or having problems concentrating or sleeping.
Having owned businesses for over 30 years, my staff and family can attest to the fact that there have been times when I have been irritable, had angry outbursts, couldn’t concentrate and have had trouble sleeping.
These could be considered common in business owners who have businesses that are challenging or dysfunctional for any period of time.
Business Traumatic Stress Disorder is real and the symptoms can be found in our business leaders.
BTSD deserves to be studied so that our leaders can talk about the legitimate symptoms they are facing without being stigmatized.
Until we acknowledge that the ongoing stress faced by our leaders is actual and has consequences, we will fail as a society to do anything about it. Recognizing that businesses don’t always work out, that it’s not shameful to get business support, and that there are often unrealistic demands placed on organizational leaders and business owners, is paramount to starting the real conversation around BTSD.
While it’s unlikely that a medical professional will understand clearly the root causes of BTSD, its important that if you have a family member or business leader friend who is exhibiting symptoms of BTSD, you try to encourage them to get help.
Without an intervention to solve the problems of the business and support the leader, the BTSD conditions will continue to spiral downhill.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award winning certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Know someone who is suffering from BTSD email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
U.S. markets ahead of weekend G20 talks. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 4.49 points to 16,307.73 while the Canadian dollar hit a more than fourmonth high. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 10.24 points at 26,526.58. But the S&P 500 index gained 11.14 points at 2,924.92, while the Nasdaq composite was up 57.79 points at 7,967.76. Investors are eagerly awaiting G20 meetings this weekend where U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping, will seek a resolution to their trade war, says Kash Pashootan, CEO and chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc. “The markets are going into this weekend’s meetings with the expectation that some resolution will be met,” he said in an interview.
Still, there were conflicting signs ahead of the meeting. Markets initially gained on Chinese reports that an agreement was being discussed to avert U.S. tariffs on an additional US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports. But then White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Washington may proceed with more tariffs. Pashootan said Kudlow was trying to manage expectations.
“The market is pricing in more than just progress. It seems to be pricing in a full agreement given he amount of enthusiasm we’ve seen as of late,” he said.
“So it’s really just to recalibrate and have more of a correlation between optimism and really where the discussions are at.”
The outcome of the weekend could have a material impact on the U.S. Federal Reserve rate decision in July, he added.
“No deal, higher probability of interest rate cuts; deal there could be a neutralizing effect to rate cuts for July.”
The prospect of rate cuts has weakened the U.S. dollar and pushed the loonie to its highest level since Feb. 1. It traded at an average of 76.27 cents US compared with an average of 76.16 cents US on Wednesday. Four of the 11 major sectors of the TSX fell, led by energy and materials.
The August gold contract was down US$3.40 at
TRUDEAU
Sports
Cougars take Koffer 10th overall in import draft
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Filip Koffer, the newest member of the Prince George Cougars, will need no introduction to at least one of his Cougar teammates.
The 18-year-old right winger from the Czech Republic, drafted 10th overall by the Cats Thursday in the CHL import draft, is a friend and former teammate of Cougars centre Matej Toman. They played together in April at the world under-18 hockey championship in Sweden, and in five tournament games Koffer led the Czech national team in scoring with four goals and two assists.
Cougars general manager and interim head coach Mark Lamb said the five-foot-10, 165-pound Koffer wants to play in the WHL and will provide a mix of speed, skill and physicality.
“We looked at his stats – obviously I haven’t seen him play and you go through agents – but he’s a quick, gritty, two-way player that does have some scoring touch and he proved that at the U-18s,” said Lamb.
“He played on the power play and I think led the team in scoring and the other thing is he’s good friends with Toman, too. They’ve played together in the past and they know each other and that’s a good fit coming over to help out with the culture change. They know each other really well.”
In 38 games last season for HC Dynamo of the Czech under-19 league, Koffer scored 10 goals and added 28 assists for 38 points. He also drew one assist in 12 games playing with adults for Czech Extralinga. Koffer helped the Czechs to a bronze medal at the 2017 Under-17 Hockey Challenge and also represented his country a year ago at the Gretzky Hlinka Cup.
Koffer speaks broken English but was able to communicate with Lamb when he called him on the phone to introduce him to the Cougars on Thursday.
“I talked to him and he understands, it would be pretty compa-
rable to Toman,” said Lamb.
“I didn’t need an interpreter. Most of these kids know English. They learn quick.”
The Cougars were left with just one European – Toman – when Vladislav Mikhalchuk, a 20-yearold winger, signed a pro contract to play in Russia for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Mikhalchuk led an offensivelychallenged, non-playoff Cougar team in scoring last season with 25 goals and 50 points.
Lamb said his departure didn’t change the team’s approach to the import draft as they try to address their lack of scoring heading into the new season.
“It’s all about developing and we hope we can insert some guys into the lineup and we’re going
to to try to create offence in different ways, but it’s pretty black and white, we didn’t score many goals,” said Lamb.
“Hopefully some guys, with another year of experience, they can do that also, but you really never know until you see how guys (develop over the) summer.”
• Cougars goalie Taylor Gauthier did not get picked last weekend in the NHL draft but the Boston Bruins thought highly enough of the 18-year-old Calgary native they invited him to their development camp, which wraps up tomorrow in Boston. Gauthier was touted as a potential second- or third-round pick for much of last season and Lamb knows how disappointed he was when he made the trip to Vancouver to attend the draft and wasn’t
selected.
“It’s just hard on their psyche –he’s a highly-rated player and it’s how you deal with it,” said Lamb.
“If he deals with it the right way, which he’s going to, it’ll make him a better player and a better person. It’s a little adversity. The belief system in him is still as high as it ever was.”
• Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg, drafted Saturday by the Chicago Blacks in the seventh round, 194th overall, will attend the ‘Hawks development camp in Chicago, July 15-19.
• Three Cougar prospects – goalie Tyler Brennan, defenceman Hudson Thornton and forward Craig Armstrong – have been invited to Hockey Canada’s national under-17 team development camp in Calgary, July 19-26.
Armstrong, the Cougars ninth overall pick in the 2018 bantam draft, had 12 goals and 28 points in 29 games last season for the Edge School Mountaineers midget prep team in Calgary last season. Brennan, who went 21st overall in 2018, posted a 12-5-1 record, 2.69 goals-against average and .909 save percentage last year with the Rink Academy midget rep team in Winnipeg. Both have signed standard WHL contracts with the Cougars.
Thornton, picked 33rd overall in 2018, also played for Rink Academy and was the top-scoring defenceman in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League with 17 goals and 30 assists for 47 points in 31 games. He remains unsigned.
“He hasn’t indicated he’s going to college, he’s not ready to sign,” said Lamb.
“We have a good relationship with him, we’re working on him, he’s a good player, he just thinks he needs another year of development.”
• Lamb said the Cougars are “close” to making an announcement as to who will take the reins as head coach. Lamb took over Feb. 4 after Richard Matvichuk was relieved of his duties with the last-place Cougars on their way to a team-record 17-game losing streak.
Rumours are still circulating that Lamb will leave the Cougars this summer to fill an assistant coaching position with Edmonton Oilers. Earlier this month, the Oilers hired Dave Tippett, Lamb’s longtime friend, to replace interim head coach Ken Hitchcock and take over as head coach. Lamb served as an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars from 2002-09 when Tippett was the head coach.
Last weekend the Oilers hired Fort St. James native Jim Playfair as an associate coach, with one assistant’s position yet to be filled on a staff that also includes Glen Gulutzan.
Lamb is entering the second year of a four-year contract as GM of the Cougars.
Canada Day fastball a P.G. tradition for 50 years
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
For 50 years, Canada Day weekend has been synonymous with fastball in Prince George.
Today at 3 p.m. at Spruce City Stadium, the 50th annual Canada Day Fastpitch tournament gets underway with 13 men’s teams and six women’s teams entered.
“The tournament originated (in 1969) when Charlie Ghostkeeper invited people down from northern Alberta for family gatherings because there were so many people from Alberta who moved to Prince George for work,” said Sheldon Bjorklund, now in his fifth season as the tournament organizer.
“It started off as a northern Alberta reunion in Prince George and they had some exhibition softball games amongst each other and that’s how the tournament started.”
Bjorklund remembers when he was volunteering for the tournament as a teenaged statistician and having plenty of late nights and early mornings at the ball park with very little sleep in between due to the sheer number of teams entered in the event.
He found a Citizen article in the Prince George Library’s digital archive which talked about the lengths Ghostkeeper would go
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO In 2016 Brody Rosychuck of the Prince George Junior River Kings took a cut at the ball at the Minor Boys baseball field at Carrie Jane Gray Park. The River Kings took on the Big Guy Lake Junior Blazers in the junior men’s divison of the Canadian Native Fastball Championships with the Blazers punching their ticket to the finals with a final score of 9-7.
to cheat Mother Nature after an extended downpour left the field temporarily unplayable.
“He brought a helicopter to dry the field,” said Bjorklund. “Charlie was pretty good at problem-
solving and making sure the show went on, by hook or by crook we were going to make that tourna-
ment happen.
“You couldn’t do it nowadays but I heard they dumped a bunch of diesel to dry out the field and lit it on fire.”
The Big Guy Lake Kings of Prince George are one of the favourites to be playing in Sunday’s final. The Kings won tournaments this spring in Kamloops and Williams Lake and fared well in a Kelowna tournament over the Victoria Day long weekend which drew Canada’s national team.
Custom Edge Sports is the other Prince George team in the men’s tournament. The men’s draw includes four Saskatchewan teams, including the ever-tough Regina Hawks, Prince Albert Thunderbirds, Canoe Lake Cree 45s and Water Hen Royals.
Driftpile LTA Cree will represent Alberta, while the other B.C. teams are the STK Orioles (Chase), Witset Arrows (Moricetown), Burns Lake Redskins, Woyenne Nation (Buns Lake) Naka’zdli Pirates (Fort St. James) and Takla Lakers (Fort St. James). In the women’s tournament, Falcon Contracting and Prince George Chaos are the two local teams. Also entered are Driftpile, Burns Lake, BC/Alberta Selects and Secwepemc Saints (Shuswap). Finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sunday at Spruce City Stadium and the Spruce City Minor Boys Stadium.
England beats Norway 3-0 to reach Women’s World Cup semis
Rob HARRIS The Associated Press LE HAVRE, France — Lucy Bronze helped set up the first two goals before completing England’s 3-0 victory over Norway with a powerful shot of her own Thursday night, sending the team into its second straight Women’s World Cup semifinal. After finishing third at the last tournament four years ago, England will now face either France or the United States on Tuesday in its quest
flank before cutting the ball back. Ellen White missed a shot but Jill Scott was primed to strike in off the post. White did get her fifth goal of the tournament in the 40th minute. Played in by Bronze, Nikita Parris spotted White racing between the Norway centre backs to receive the pass and sweep into the net. It was a clever routine that led to the third in the 57th minute. With England preparing to take a free kick on the left flank, Norway was expecting it to be swung into the penalty area. But Beth Mead spotted Bronze arriving at the edge of the penalty area unmarked and the right back connected first-time and raised it high into the roof of the net with a fierce shot. Nodding in approval from the stands was David Beckham, who high-fived Sue Campbell, the head of women’s soccer in England. While Beckham never made it past a quarterfinal as a player for the England men’s team, the Lionesses are now in their third successive semifinal after also making the final four at the 2017 European Championship.
Filip Koffer is the newest member of the Prince George Cougars. He is an 18-year-old right wing player from Czech Republic.
Big 3 rule men; more champs in women’s tennis
Howard FENDRICH
The Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England — As the start of Wimbledon approaches, two recent trends capture the completely disparate states of men’s and women’s tennis at the moment.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have combined to win the past 10 Grand Slam tournaments, while nine women collected trophies in that span –including a half-dozen first-time major winners.
And consider this: There hasn’t been a first-time men’s champ at any Slam tournament since Marin Cilic at the 2014 U.S. Open.
“If you start looking at the stats,” said Kevin Anderson, the runnerup to Djokovic at Wimbledon last year, “it’s really unbelievable.”
At the All England Club, where play begins Monday, the superiority of that select group of men is particularly pronounced. One needs to go all the way back to 2002 to find a men’s champion outside of the quartet of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray, who will be playing only doubles this time as he works his way back from hip surgery.
Since Federer claimed his initial Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003, he has won the grass-court tournament a men’s-record eight times. Djokovic owns four trophies at Wimbledon; Nadal has two. They rank 1-3 in overall majors for men, with Federer atop the list at 20, Nadal next at 18 and Djokovic third at 15.
“We were happy to win one. Now, if you win one, you’re a loser,” said Pat Cash, the 1987
champion at Wimbledon and twice the runner-up at the Australian Open.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling to see the standard of tennis that these guys are playing at this age. And the motivation. That’s the thing: the motivation. Once I won a Grand Slam, I was (thinking): ‘That’s enough. I’ll go hang out with my family.’ They’re motivated to keep going.”
Federer turns 38 in August, Nadal is 33 and Djokovic 32.
For quite a while now, the questions have been: How long will the
Big Three continue to rule the sport?
And: Which younger player will make a move and grab a Grand Slam title?
“You’re looking at, to me, the three greatest players that have ever lived, playing at the same time,” said John McEnroe, an eight-time major champion who is now an ESPN commentator.
“They’re extremely hungry, which is an amazing quality at that age. They’ve psyched out opponents, I believe. And they’re better.”
That same dynamic was in play
for years in women’s tennis, but with just one player dominating: Serena Williams. She accumulated title after title, only occasionally facing much resistance while raising her count to 23 singles majors, more than anyone in the Open era, which dates to 1968.
That left her one short of equaling Margaret Court’s total of 24, accomplished against both amateurs and professionals.
Williams took a break from the tour after winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant and, not coincidentally, that was the
start of the current anyone-canwin stretch, in which Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko each won her first major championship. It’s not just about who is taking home the trophies. Take a look at the most recent major, the French Open.
Nadal, who won there for the 12th time, Federer and Djokovic were all in the men’s semifinals. The women’s final four, meanwhile, featured a pair of unseeded semifinalists for the first time in Paris since the introduction of 32 seeds in 2001; the champion, Barty, hadn’t even been to the fourth round at any Slam until last year’s U.S. Open.
Barty’s subsequent rise to No. 1 in the ranking highlighted another way in which men’s and women’s tennis have been different: She was the 17th player to sit atop the WTA since 2005; only four men – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – have led the ATP in those years.
Despite a career record of 2-3 at Wimbledon, Barty is the bookmakers’ favourite. Djokovic, Federer and Nadal are, not surprisingly, the top choices among men. Truth is, with the way things are, it would not be all that shocking to see just about anyone in the women’s draw hold the trophy at the end of the fortnight.
Any man outside of the Big Three would cause quite a stir.
“It would be highly surprising if it’s not one of those three guys at this stage,” McEnroe said.
“I think a lot of us want to be surprised and see who could step up.”
Prospect of breakdancing becoming Olympic sport draws mixed reactions
TORONTO — Canadian breakdancers
are expressing mixed feelings about the danceform moving closer to becoming an Olympic sport – with some enthusiastic about the possibility and others concerned it may alter the underground culture around the activity.
Known more commonly as breaking, the dance is being considered for the 2024 Games in Paris, with a final decision expected in December 2020.
Mandy Cruz, a 22-year-old breaker in Toronto, said she’s excited at the prospect.
“It was a really great moment that dance is being recognized as a sport, because it’s very physically demanding and you do have to train your body like an athlete,” she said. “A lot of people overlook dancing, like it’s an easy hobby.”
Cruz said she was curious to see how breaking would be judged if it becomes an Olympic sport. Since it’s also an artform, she said it can’t be judged on athleticism alone. In typical “break battles,” judges also look for creativity and originality, she said.
And while even the possibility of becoming an Olympic sport could raise the profile of the activity, Cruz said she believes breaking will continue to be important at a local level.
“There’s a lot of people of colour going to this culture, because there’s oppression going on around them,” she said. “There’s a lot of things going on around them in this world that (breaking) is just an outlet for.”
Caerina Abrenica, an instructor with the Toronto B-Girl Movement, which supports
AP FIL E PHOTO
level.
young girls in the danceform, said a spot in the Olympic games could help boost female representation in breaking.
“Having a b-girl category in the Olympics would allow more b-girls worldwide to see the potential of where women are taking it in the dance,” she said.
Some breakers, however, are concerned about the potential elevation to the Olympic
“Is it going to be celebrating (breakers’) diversity? Or is this a platform that shows there’s something great that comes out of (the culture) but it’s predominantly owned or taken up by people who are more privileged,” asked Nick Nyguyen, the owner of a breaking studio in Halifax.
Marcelino “Frostflow” DaCosta, a breaker
and president of the Ground Illusionz breaking crew, was also uncertain.
“It’s not a sport – it’s a dance, it’s an artform,” he said. “There are athletic qualities to it, but the heart and essence of what this is, it’s a dance.”
DaCosta said he worried the dance could stray too far from its foundation if it becomes an Olympic event.
But Mary Fogarty, an associate professor with the department of dance at York University, said conversations on the evolution of breaking have been going on since the 80s.
“The style has already changed significantly ... So I don’t see the form being transformed that much,” she said. “These dances will always happen on the local level, it will always happen on the street and it will always have different (meaning) for people who are marginalized.”
Breaking started as one of the pillars of hip-hop culture in New York City in the 70s. Since then it has transformed into a competitive, collaborative activity around the world.
It was a medal event last October at the Buenos Aires Youth Summer Games. And Olympic organizers have said they are considering having competitions with 16 athletes in men’s and women’s medal events if breaking gets approved for the 2024 Paris Games. Having the dance become an Olympic sport would take it to new audiences, Fogarty said, while also giving wider exposure to breakers around the world.
“This is probably the best thing that could happen for the breaking scene internationally.”
AP PHOTO BY PETER KLAUNZER
Novak Djokovic of Serbia stretches for the ball during a training session at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London on Thursday.
Lidia ABRAHA The Canadian Press
Jannis Bednarzik performs during the German Breakdance Championships in Magdeburg, Germany in 2017. Canadian breakdancers are expressing mixed feelings about the event becoming an Olympic sport.
Missing treasure: Delacroix canvas rediscovered, now on sale
Catherine GASCHKA The Associated Press
PARIS — It’s been hanging on people’s walls for almost 170 years without drawing much attention, but a painting showing a group of women has turned out to be more than meets the eye.
The most recent owner of the picture, a Parisian woman, has found out that what she has is a longforgotten painting by 19th century French Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix.
“A woman walked into the gallery with a painting under her arm, telling me she’d just visited the Delacroix exhibit at the Louvre Museum... and that she thought her painting shared some resemblance” with the artist’s Women of Algiers in their Apartment, said Philippe Mendes, director of the Mendes Gallery in Paris.
“I took a look at the painting, which was dirty and with a very thick yellow varnish, but I felt it had Delacroix’s very particular style. So I said, let’s clean the painting and let’s see what comes out of it,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.
“After we cleaned it, the radiant and extraordinary colours typical of Delacroix really stood out and we knew we had to start doing some real research.”
The painting, now hanging in Mendes’ gallery as he negotiates with a U.S. museum seeking to buy it, shows a pale woman seated and an African slave standing next to her, looking at the other woman over her shoulder. The same scene is captured in Women of Algiers in their Apartment, which was painted after in 1833-34 after Delacroix visited North Africa. That painting now hangs in the Louvre.
Art historian and Delacroix expert Virginie CauchiFatiga investigated the curious canvas at Mendes’ request. She analyzed the technique and use of colours, compared it with other Delacroix paintings, then used infrared and X-ray images to look deeper.
After more than a year of examination, her verdict: She says with “absolute certainty” that the painting is a Delacroix work, a study for Women of Algiers. The
study was sold at auction in 1850 and hadn’t been shown in public since.
She called it a discovery “of prime importance, because it really is a gateway into the artist’s mind right at the moment” he was working on Women of Algiers.
“The colours are distinctive of Delacroix’s work, but it’s also about how they are associated,” she said. “He doesn’t use colour in the same way as other big classical painters – colour is not an accessory for him. He shapes his painting around colours.”
The painting bears no Delacroix signature, since it is only a study, she said – but does bear a stamp at the back of the canvas reading “118.”
That matches the number listed for the study in the catalogue of paintings sold at auction in 1850 by the Count de Mornay, a diplomat who sponsored Delacroix’s trip to North Africa, Mendes said. Lot 118 was bought for a private collection, and its subsequent movements aren’t known.
The Parisian woman bought the painting about 10 years ago with her father, but does not want to be publicly identified, Mendes said.
He also showed the canvas to experts at French museums that hold Delacroix paintings and received an export certificate from the Culture Ministry identifying it as a Delacroix work.
The National Eugene Delacroix Museum in Paris and its parent, the Louvre, would not comment on the painting because it is on the open market, but did not question its authenticity. The Metropolitan Museum in New York, which hosted a Delacroix exhibit in 2018, would not comment on a work outside its collection.
No one would comment on the possible value of the painting.
Paul Exbrayat of the Britain-based Art Loss Register said the painting had not been listed on international databases as missing or stolen, and described it as just long-dormant. “It has woken up from a long slumber, like Sleeping Beauty,” he said.
Country music exhibit to feature k.d. lang outfits
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — Everything’s coming up rhinestones in Calgary as a new exhibit opening Friday pays tribute to Canada’s flamboyant country music history.
Outfits worn by k.d. lang, Shania Twain and country pioneer Hank Snow will be part of the National Music Centre’s Homegrown Country showcase, which throws open its doors ahead of the Calgary Stampede. Among the memorabilia on display is Snow’s vintage Nudie suit, a rhinestone-emblazoned outfit decorated with roses and designed by influential American tailor Nudie Cohn. There’s also one of lang’s quirkiest looks, a dress
adorned with felt cut-outs and miniature farm animals, created by the singer and her mother. She wore it on The Late Show with David Letterman and on the Jim Henson Hour in 1989. And Twain’s halter top from her first stadium tour in 1998 will also be part of the collection. Other items include honky-tonk singer Dick Damron’s banjo, country star Lucille Starr’s stage outfit, and Gordie Tapp’s overalls from the variety TV series Hee Haw. Visitors can also saunter into a full-sized barn where videos of Calgary musicians the Polyjesters and Terra Hazelton will coach them on a traditional barn dance. The exhibit at the NMC, which is part of Studio Bell in downtown Calgary, runs until Jan. 6, 2020.
The Canadian Press TORONTO — RuPaul’s Drag Race is coming north of the border.
Drag Race Canada is part of a newly announced partnership between Bell Media’s streaming service Crave and the LGBTQ-Plus television network/streaming service OUTtv.
This is the first Canadian adaptation of the popular American reality series, in which drag queens compete in front of a panel of judges for a grand prize and title of drag superstar.
Casting begins this summer for the 10-episode, one-hour series, which is produced by Blue Ant Studios in association with Crave.
Production is set to begin this fall in Ontario.
Details including the host and judges have yet to be announced.
“The panel and judges will be from the Great White North, representing Canada’s very best,” RuPaul said Thursday in a statement.
“This new franchise has my wholehearted blessing. Good luck! and don’t puck it up!”
Crave and OUTtv will also screen past and future seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, airing day and date with the U.S. broadcast.
They will also carry the new series RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K., as well as all past seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
AP PHOTO BY FRANCOIS MORI
This photo shows a detail of Eugene Delacroix’s oil painting Women of Algiers in their Apartment at the Galerie Mendes in Paris on Friday.
The National Music Centre launches a new temporary exhibit paying tribute to Canada’s contributions to country music in Calgary in this undated handout photo.
AP FILE PHOTO RuPaul attends the 36th annual PaleyFest RuPaul’s Drag Race at the Dolby Theatre on March 17 in Los Angeles.
TYSON BACHINSKI
August 18, 1994June 14, 2019
It is with broken hearts that we announce the sudden passing of Tyson Bachinski at 24 years old. Tyson leaves behind mommy Marie, step dad Seth, dad Rick, sister Breanna, half brother Keenan, Auntie Panty Roxane (T.J.), uncle Tyrone, auntie Marie, grandma Sharon, Grandma Val, great grandma Helen, special friend Desiree and numerous family and friends. Predeceased by Papa Harold and Jeff. Tyson brought great joy and love to all who knew him with his sense of humor, his love of adventure and his big heart. Tyson has now crossed over to his greatest adventure ever.
Peace Out
A Celebration of Life for Tyson will be held on July 13, 2019 at 1:00pm at Pineview Hall with luncheon to follow.
Eva Marie St Pierre September 5, 1919June 17, 2019
Passed away peacefully at her home at Rainbow Lodge surrounded by family. She leaves to join her husband Rigo (1975) and son Dominic (2015). Survived by her children Louise (Ron) Kohinski, Marius (Heather) St Pierre and Rachelle (Randy) Poznikoff, 10 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren, brother Luc (Lise) and sister Rachel. Memorial mass to be held at Sacred Heart Cathedral on June 29, 2019 at 11:00am. Celebration of Life to be held at Rainbow Lodge Day Centre, 1000 Liard Drive, Sunday June 30, 2019 1:00 - 4:00pm.
Special thank you to Drs. Powell, McCoy, King and the staff at Rainbow Lodge for their wonderful care and dedication to Eva’s best care. In lieu of flowers, in memory of Eva, donations to the Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul would be greatly appreciated. Grace Memorial Funeral Chapel in care of arrangements.
Emma Bulmer
October 23, 1936June 19, 2019
It is with incredible sadness that we are announcing the sudden passing of Emma Bulmer. Up until her death, Emma was in terrific health at the age of 82. Emma had an amazing work ethic as was demonstrated in her work as a Teacher’s Aide with the Prince George School District for 30 years, supporting children with special needs. She took great pride in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a phenomenal cook, an enthusiastic bowler, a talented musician, and a caring member of her church. Emma loved the Toronto Blue Jays dearly -- never missing a game. She was a resilient woman who approached challenges with strength and Faith.
Emma was predeceased by her loving husband Cliff, parents, and some siblings. Emma is survived by her loving children, along with their respective spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brothers, sisters, and all of the friends who loved her.
Please join us in honoring her at a celebration of her life held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Vincent de Paul.
A Celebration of life
Will be held on August 31, 2019 to remember the lives of Nancy “Carole” Stooksberry and Russell (Rusty) Samuel Stooksberry. The celebration will be held between the hours of 12:00pm and 3:00pm in a backyard setting at the residence of Guy & Leanne Stooksberry located at 3554 Rosia Rd. Prince George. Burgers and beverages will be provided. Bring your stories and memories. ~Their loving family~
BRAYBROOK, Martha Mathilda (Redenbach) September 1, 1934 - June 4, 2019
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of our wonderful mother, Martha, of West Kelowna (previously of Prince George, BC).
Mom is predeceased by her husband, Loyd Braybrook; her parents, as well as her four sisters and three brothers.
She is survived by her sister Adele Seibert (Al); her three sons, Bert (Louise), Brad (Lea) and Bo (Nadine). Her grandsons, Chad (Camille), Korey, Cody and Keydon and her cherished granddaughters Payton and Makayla.
A celebration of Mom’s life will be held at a later date.
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