Police searching for driver of van following suspicious incident
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
A pair of school children received a scare from a driver in the College Heights area over the weekend. Police are investigating and called the situation suspicious.
Mounties were alerted on Saturday at about 4:45 p.m.
“Police were advised that a 16-yearold girl and an 11-year-old boy were followed by a man in a white van in the St. Mark Crescent area,” said Prince George RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Craig
Douglass. “Both children ran to a residence known to them and reported the incident.”
Officers attended the area and made patrols for vehicles matching the description, however the vehicle was not located.
However, police got some descriptions on which to proceed and they hope the public can help bring them closer to the person of interest.
“The vehicle was described as a white van with an ‘N’ sign on the back. No license plate, make or model was obtained,” said Douglass. “The driver was described as a South Asian male,
approximately 35 to 40 years old with a slim build. Investigators would like to speak to the person or persons involved.”
The Prince George RCMP would like to remind parents to speak to their children about personal safety. Douglass recommended the RCMP’s Street Proofing website for more information.
If you have any information about this incident, please 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.
Safety tips for children
• Know your home address and landline phone number.
• Know how to contact your parents on their cell phones or at work.
• Know how and when to call 911 in an emergency from a landline phone and from a cell phone.
• Establish a secret password for your family. This should be used in emergencies to identify a safe person other than their parent or caregiver.
• Play “what if” games with younger children to reinforce these safety messages.
• If possible, give your child a cell phone when they are away from home.
• Children and teens should play and walk to places with a buddy. If they become separated or lost, they should tell someone with a name tag (for e.g. a cashier or security guard) immediately. If there is no one with a name tag, preferably they should tell a female.
• Avoid long conversations with strangers. If someone you do not know asks you personal questions – like “Where do you live?” – do not answer. Run away or leave the situation immediately.
Two regional volunteers honoured
Citizen staff
Two of the region’s prolific community helpers will receive the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. Gov-Gen. Julie Payette and B.C. Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin will present 40 of these citations to British Columbians at a ceremony this week.
“The Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers recognizes the exceptional volunteer achievements of Canadians from across the country in a wide range of fields,” said a spokesperson from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.
The honourees of nearest proximity are Surinderpal Rathor of Williams Lake and Liz (Kathleen) Jones of 108 Mile Ranch.
According to information from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Rathor has been with the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program for 40 years in addition to volunteering with the City of Williams Lake and the Indo-Canadian community. He participates in public fundraising events, has been a member of the local health board, and founded the Community Policing Committee. Over the past 15 years, Jones has been the local coordinator for the Emergency Support Services of 100 Mile House. During the 2017 wildfires, she led her dedicated team of volunteers by example and ensured that evacuees had access to temporary shelter, food and clothing.
Another northerner, Donna Ziegler of Terrace, will be recognized at the ceremony for her work on behalf of the Heart & Stroke Foundation, the Rotary Club and her church. When a school music program faced funding cuts, she started the Dare To Dream Foundation so students could participate in music classes and the school band.
All recipients of this year’s awards will be publicly honoured at an event at Government House in Victoria on Thursday.
To earn a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, candidates must have demonstrated an exemplary commitment through their dedicated volunteerism. The medal is awarded to individuals only, not to groups or couples. Non-Canadians are eligible if their contributions have brought benefit or honour to Canadians or to Canada.
There is no deadline for submissions. Nominations are accepted on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
TEDx speakers named for UNBC event
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
The first two names have been announced for Prince George’s next TEDx event.
One will be one of the featured keynote speakers and the second is the event’s master of ceremonies.
The event is set for Nov. 17 at UNBC’s Canfor Theatre.
“TEDxUNBC will be showcasing Shawn Caldera as our first speaker and Wil Fundal as our MC,” said Leah Labarrere, president of the TEDx organizing committee for the UNBC event.
• It’s OK to say no to adults who ask you to do something for them, such as: help them find a lost pet, join them in an activity or game, or give them directions.
• Never walk with or accept a ride, money or gifts from strangers or even someone you may know, without checking with your parents.
Keep a safe distance (two arm lengths) from strangers and cars that approach you.
• Run to a safe location like an open store.
• If a vehicle is involved, try to take notes describing the suspicious vehicle, license plate and the stranger’s description. Call 911 for help
• If you are taking a public bus, always sit near the bus driver.
• Reduce the use of headphones or use of electronic devices that can distract you from your surroundings when you are walking.
• If a person tries to grab you: scream loudly, make a lot of noise, and try to create a disturbance (e.g. knock things over, scatter belongings, kick wildly).
Shout, “Help, this person is not my parent!”
— Source: Prince George RCMP
“This year’s speakers will address their version of Destination: Future. More speakers will be announced weekly on our website, Facebook, and Instagram.”
TED Talks are carefully selected speeches presented by authorities in their field. TEDx events are those operated by independent local organizations but in conjunction with the worldwide TED organization.
“At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection,” said Labarrere. “TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers.”
“Caldera is the owner and operator of Volcanic Gaming, one of the first Esports startups in Western Canada,” according to event organizers.
“He also teaches youth and teens at the College of New Caledonia as an instructor for programming and game design.”
— see FUNDAL, page 3
School zones like this one along Vanier Drive in front of Westwood Elementary will be in effect today in Prince George as children return to classes.
Back to class
ABOVE: The UNBC Class of 2022 gathered for a photo on Tuesday during orientation activities at the Prince George campus.
LEFT: Natalie Cameron in the Professional Cook training program at the College of New Caledonia makes an order of poutine during the orientation day barbecue on Tuesday at the college’s Prince George campus.
Lawyer says medical pot users should be able to buy weed in stores
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — A lawyer for several medical marijuana dispensaries has urged a B.C. Supreme Court judge to toss out an application to close the shops, saying the federal government failed to include them in its plan to legalize recreational cannabis.
John Conroy said Tuesday the dispensaries have been operating illegally in a kind of “grey zone” while the city makes a $30,000 profit from each business licence.
The City of Vancouver required medical marijuana dispensaries to be licensed starting in June 2015. Many have continued operating without a licence and police have not taken action, unlike in Toronto, where police have raided several similar retailers.
Now, the City of Vancouver is seeking a court injunction to shut down about 50 medical marijuana dispensaries that remain unlicensed.
“The city, in doing what it’s doing, is aiding and abetting the continuation of illegal activity,” Conroy told Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson.
Conroy said it’s up to the federal government to create provisions for medical marijuana users to buy their cannabis at a store, the same way recreational pot users will be legally permitted to do, start-
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
One of the longest-serving incumbents in this year’s municipal/ school district elections is once again seeking a seat at the table. Murry Krause announced on Tuesday that he will once again vie for a position on Prince George’s city council.
“It has been a great honour to have served the citizens of Prince George for six terms on city council, and I want to officially announce that I will be seeking a seventh term in the upcoming local government elections,” Krause said in an email.
ing Oct. 17. The Karuna Health Foundation is the lead plaintiff in the case and currently operates one dispensary that is licensed and another that is not.
Since 2016, federal regulations have permitted medical marijuana users to grow limited amounts of marijuana or have someone grow it for them, but Conroy said they have a constitutional right to buy the drug from a dispensary if a doctor has approved its use.
It’s up to the federal government to amend the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, he said.
“Most people want to go to a store, like a pharmacy, talk to people and get their medicine,” he said outside court. “They don’t want to grow it for themselves, they don’t want to sit around and wait to get it in the mail from a licensed producer.”
Patients are opposed to a licensing requirement of dispensaries being located at least 300 metres from a school, Conroy said.
“The right of the medically approved patients to reasonable access is to prevent the violation of their constitutional rights. The security of their person is involved, a doctor has said ‘You’re approved for this medicine.’ ”
The City of Vancouver and the British Columbia and federal governments maintain that individual patients, not dispensaries, should
“I believe I have worked diligently on behalf of all of our citizens, through my active participation at council meetings, and with the leadership role I have played on a number of city committees,” he added.
School board chair seeking re-election
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The incumbent chair of the area’s school board is seeking re-election.
Tim Bennett announced on Tuesday that he is vying once again for a position at the School District 57 trustee’s table.
“I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish in support of our students,” he said. “However, education is something I am very passionate about and there is still work for me to do. As I look ahead to the next four years there are a lot of challenges and opportunities facing our school district and public education. I know I have the experience and leadership to advocate for and support our students, staff, district and region over the next four years.”
In addition to his role as trustee and chairperson, Bennett is a director with the BC School Trustee Association and is the executive director with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince George. He is the former president of Volunteer Prince George, former president of the Northern Interior Branch of the BCSTA and has been an active volunteer supporting various Prince George non-profits and events.
Bennett identified some of his priorities for the new board as:
• Addressing the current catchment and capacity issues facing schools in Prince George;
• Supporting staff through the final implementation of the new curriculum;
• Advocating for our district and region through the current provincial funding formula review;
• Advocating for and ensuring a fair and successful bargaining process in 2019 with our teachers and support staff. Information about Bennett’s campaign and contact information can be found at www. timbennett.ca.
be arguing for themselves about their need to reasonably access medical marijuana.
Robert Laurie, a lawyer representing several dispensaries including the Karuna Health Foundation, said outside court that 19 medical dispensaries are currently licensed in Vancouver and many whose licence applications were refused have appealed unsuccessfully to the city’s Board of Variance.
He said the 300-metre buffer zone has eliminated 87 per cent of dispensaries, adding zoning for facilities that sell alcohol are required to have only a 150-metre buffer zone.
The alcohol regulations are more lax compared with the dispensary rules, which interfere with patient access to medical cannabis under the charter, he said.
Laurie said he believes the City of Vancouver’s licensing regime was merely a holding pattern until marijuana legislation was enacted, with the anticipation that it would include medical dispensaries, especially after two Supreme Court of Canada decisions allowed patients to grow and use medical marijuana.
“However, we’re still waiting because it seems that a recognition of medical access has continued to fall on deaf ears with our federal government, which is why we’re here today.”
He said it was important, in his view, for multiple perspectives, opinions and balance to be a prevailing reality in the local government dialogue. He valued those touchstones of civil discourse.
“Councils need to work in a spirit of collegiality, respect and honesty with their colleagues and the entire staff team to accomplish council’s goals,” he said. “I truly believe every citizen matters and should have an equal opportunity to be a participant in a healthy, vibrant, and inclusive community – a community where everyone has a chance to thrive. I am particularly excited by what has been accomplished in this past term. I look forward to what the next four years bring, and the role I could play in our community’s future.”
Fundal a well-known local broadcaster
— from page 1
“He is self-taught in the areas of web design, graphic design, digital education, digital marketing/ social media management, and event management,” organizers added. “He’s also done graphic design and social media management for past clients such as Gold’s Gym, B.X Pub, Innovation Central Society and the University of Northern British Columbia, as well as some work for Hockey TV and Hockey Canada.”
Fundal is well known in northern B.C. as a longtime on-air personality and news reporter for CBC Radio. He is also a noted stage performer, such as being one of the Prince George Cougars in-house anthem singers, special guest vocalist alongside pop-soul
diva Maureen Washington and with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, and a featured cast member for musical theatre shows in Prince George like The Producers and Legally Blonde among many others.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.
This year’s theme for UNBC 2018 focuses on speakers who are looking ahead at the next 150 years, now that the first 150 years have passed in Canadian confederation. At the first TEDx event held at UNBC in 2017 the lineup of featured speakers included Nadine Caron, Dahne Harding, Penny Jones, Leona Prince, Cori Ramsay, Shohba Sharma and Seth Shelley. Tickets to attend the event are
on sale now via the tedxunbc.com website.
Warning issued over Banff wolf
Citizen news service
BANFF, Alta. — A warning is in effect in Banff National Park after a wolf approached campers in a busy campground.
Parks Canada ecologist Jesse Whittington said the warning on the Bow Valley Parkway, which runs between Banff and Lake Louise, was issued this week because a collared wolf entered the Castle Mountain campground at night on Aug. 27.
“She searched through several occupied campsites for food and she approached campers to within one metre and then left the campground,” Whittington
said in an interview Tuesday.
“She did not receive any food rewards, which is great, but her persistent behaviour while people were watching and following her was concerning. Once wolves and wildlife become conditioned to human food, it’s so hard to change their behaviour.”
The wolf, which found a mate and had at least four pups this spring, was one of the members in the Bow Valley pack that was fitted with a tracking collar.
“She was a yearling in 2016 when the Bow Valley Pack became food conditioned,” he said. “She and her father were always the most wary wolves.”
CP FILE PHOTO
A customer peruses marijuana products at a dispensary in Vancouver on Jan. 30.
Liberals won’t back down on dispute resolution in NAFTA talks
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held firm Tuesday to the lines drawn in sand three decades ago as the latest push to preserve a North American Free Trade Agreement – one that still includes Canada – was poised to unfold.
Trudeau said Canadians will not sign onto a deal that does not include a dispute resolution mechanism and exemptions for cultural industries – two positions that were among the pillars of the original 1988 Canada-U.S. free trade deal.
The prime minister staked out Canada’s ground as a fresh Oct. 1 deadline and the encroaching American midterm elections cast a shadow over today’s resumption of negotiations in Washington. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is to resume talks with U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer, whom she has praised as a “good faith” negotiator in the face of President Donald Trump’s Twitter barrages.
Faced with an unpredictable U.S. president ready to strike on Twitter, Trudeau said the dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 ensures trade rules are followed.
“We’ve said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that,” Trudeau told reporters in Vancouver.
“We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians and, quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians.”
Chapter 19 allows for independent panels to resolve disputes between companies. The Trump administration views it as an infringement of U.S. sovereignty.
It was the hill that former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney was willing to die on during the final hours of the original Canada-U.S. free trade deal in 1988. After consulting with Mulroney over the weekend, Trudeau made clear he shares that view.
The prime minister also said his government won’t sign an updated free trade accord with the U.S. and Mexico if the deal doesn’t continue exemptions for Canada’s cultural industries, which aims to protect Canada’s publishing and broadcast industries.
That too was entrenched in the original Canada-U.S. free trade deal that preceded NAFTA.
Giving up the exemptions would be tantamount to giving up Canadian sovereignty and identity, Trudeau said.
“It is inconceivable to Canadians that an American network might buy Canadian media affiliates, whether it’s newspapers or TV stations or TV networks,” he said.
“So we’ve made it very clear that defending that cultural exemption is something that is fundamental to Canadians.”
Canada and the U.S. need to present a text to the U.S. Congress by Oct. 1 in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week, trade analysts say. The overall goal is to reach a deal by Dec. 1 so Congress can give its approval to a new NAFTA before Mexico’s new president takes office.
Otherwise, Trump is threatening to move ahead on a deal with Mexico that excludes Canada.
Canada enters today’s talks with some strength on preserving Chapter 19 because American companies need its anti-dumping safeguards more than Canada’s, according to Toronto trade lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak.
Foreign companies seeking relief through Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal are often repeatedly coming up empty handed, said Todgham Cherniak, a former federal tax court adviser.
She said that’s because a recent ruling by the court emphasized that it did not have jurisdiction under the Special Import Measures Act to change so-called “dumping margins.”
Canadian negotiators are also trying to protect Canada’s dairy sector from American demands in NAFTA renegotiations.
The two sides broke off talks Friday as Trump formally notified Congress of the deal with Mexico, saying Canada might join later.
But in recent days he has become more aggressive towards Canada on Twitter –bluster that some trade experts are dismissing as a predictable negotiating tactic.
On Saturday, Trump said there is “no political necessity” to keep Canada in NAFTA
and he warned Congress not to interfere or he would kill the pact.
U.S. business and labour leaders have warned Trump not to dump Canada from NAFTA.
Trump’s “bombastic rhetoric” ought to be ignored because he has no power to override the opposition in Congress to exclude Canada, and he needs 60-days notice to terminate NAFTA, said Derek Holt, vicepresident and head of capital markets at Scotiabank Global Economics.
Holt wrote in a Tuesday note that Congress will not allow Trump “to skirt past Canada in NAFTA negotiations given the long line-ups of members of Congress – Democrats and Republicans – saying they will not support a bilateral deal” with Mexico.
With the U.S. midterms eight weeks away, and Trump facing pressure to maintain the Republican hold on the House and Senate, the influence of Congress will permeate the resumption of today’s talks.
Congress must approve any rewrite of the deal and could refuse to endorse an agreement that excludes Canada. But that’s not set in stone, said Dan Ujczo, an Ohio-based trade lawyer with Dickinson Wright.
“Congress will support Canada throughout September,” he said. “After that, Congress will have a tough choice to make
in terms of going forward with a good deal with Mexico, opening Mexico’s agricultural markets as we brace for the long haul with China.”
At a Liberal party fundraiser in Surrey on Tuesday night, Trudeau avoided trade talk, instead outlining the approach the Liberal party will take in the coming election. Speaking to dozens of supporters at a posh banquet hall, he said he believes his party won the 2015 election by putting out a message of positivity. He also condemned the rise of what he called “aggressive nationalism.
“We see there is a tendency to exploit short term emotions as a way of getting that capacity to govern. But one of the things that we know is that once you’ve gone and divided citizens into small groups... it actually hurts you capacity to govern for the good of all,” said Trudeau.
He also noted the seven-year sentence handed down to two Reuters reporters in Myanmar and pointed to reporters gathered at the fundraiser, saying the Liberal party believes it’s important to be transparent about the messages it sends to its donors.
“I want everyone to reflect on the fact that it is absolutely essential in any democracy to have a strong, empowered independent media,” he said. — with files from Amy Smart
Sickly orca found, given antibiotic dart
Citizen news service
PORTLAND, Ore. — Biologists have managed to administer what they believe is a full dose of antibiotics to an emaciated killer whale in the waters off B.C.
Michael Millstein with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Portland, Ore., says the female, southern resident killer whale was spotted Monday and researchers were able to deliver a dart filled with the potentially life-saving medication.
“Martin Haulena, the veterinarian from Vancouver Aquarium who administered it, believes that most of the dose was delivered,” Millstein said. He said team members were
pleased with the outcome because the first time a dart was used to deliver medication to the animal in early August, Haulena suspected it fell out before releasing a full dose.
The nearly four-year-old orca, known as J50, is staying close to her mother and is active as the pod of whales moves toward the mouth of the Fraser River where they are expected to continue foraging for salmon.
“The teams did remark on just how emaciated J50 is,” said Millstein after researchers located the young whale.
J50 has often lagged far behind other members of the pod as it travels through coastal waters from B.C. to California and back.
Concern that the young whale was dead rose over the long weekend when she wasn’t seen with the rest of her pod in waters between Victoria and Seattle.
“They have never seen a whale this emaciated hang on for this long so she has some fight in her, it seems,” Millstein said of the researchers who have been watching the whale.
J50 has been in poor condition for months and her death would further devastate the dwindling southern resident population where only 75 orcas remain.
In May, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the species faces imminent threats to survival and recovery and the government limited the chinook
fishery off the B.C. coast in an effort to increase the main food source for the whales.
Biologists were not able to administering a deworming medication to J50 on Monday, but Millstein expected further attempts would be made, depending on available boats, crews, water conditions and the location of the pod.
“There are indications that J50 may have some parasitic worms that are common among marine mammals and typically are not a problem, but in compromised animals they can be, so that is the next step,” he said.
Because the whales appear to be travelling north toward the Fraser River, Millstein said Fisher-
ies and Oceans Canada would be the lead agency while the pod is in Canadian waters.
A range of options for treatment of J50 has been discussed, including the possibility that she could be captured and held for life-saving treatment before being released to rejoin her pod, but Millstein said that would be a very last resort.
He said if she was found on a beach and the only alternative was her death, then they would likely intervene.
“There are many advantages to her being with the other whales and we know they share prey so that’s something we certainly want to respect as long as she is still with them and active with the pod.”
AP FILE PHOTO
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks during a news conference at the Canadian Embassy after talks at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington on Friday.
PM, Horgan vow support for B.C. transit projects
SURREY — The federal and British Columbia governments reiterated their commitment Tuesday to funding two major rapid transit projects in Metro Vancouver.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan stood together to show their support for the Broadway subway project in Vancouver and a new light rail transit line in Surrey.
Ottawa and B.C. are spending more than $3 billion on the projects, which will see 5.7 kilometres of track and six stations added to the SkyTrain line along Broadway, helping to ease congestion on the busy corridor connecting east and west Vancouver.
The Broadway subway is slated to carry 5,100 more passengers an hour in each direction than the bus service it will replace. Eleven new stations will be built along 10.5 kilometres of street-level track in Surrey, creating the first light-rail system in B.C. The LRT project will take passengers from one end of the line to the other in about 27 minutes.
The Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project is intended to make it easier to travel across the Lower Mainland.
The announcement mirrored a previous agreement on the project released in March. But Trudeau said the federal government
wanted to show the transit projects have support from Ottawa before municipal elections in the fall.
“What we’re doing right now is making sure that in advance of the municipal elections everyone understands that we’ve locked in this funding for the next 10 years,” he said.
Horgan agreed with Trudeau that there is a spirit of co-operation between Ottawa, the province and the municipalities to get the projects started.
“This is about locking this down. This is happening. It’s not being revisited. It’s going to be putting people to work and getting people moving in the Lower Mainland,” he said.
“The cheque’s in the mail and we’re going to be building.”
Ottawa is contributing $1.37 billion to the two projects, while B.C. is spending $1.82 billion. Regional transit provider Translink, Vancouver and Surrey will contribute $1.23 billion.
Later on Tuesday, Trudeau joined Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Organized Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair for a roundtable meeting with youth affected by gun violence in Surrey.
Trudeau told young people gathered in the room that he was interested to hear their ideas for solutions.
Prison escapee found hiding in outbuilding
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
SAANICH — An inmate who walked away from a minimum-security prison while serving time for a firebombing that killed two children in Calgary is being sent to a more secure facility after his arrest Tuesday in a rural area near Victoria, says an assistant warden.
Saanich police said Michael Sheets was arrested Tuesday and will be transferred to the custody of the Correctional Service of Canada.
Sheets escaped Saturday from the Mission Institution where he was serving a sentence of more than 14 years for manslaughter and arson after a firebombing that killed a six-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister in 2004.
Sheets, 48, was found hiding in an outbuilding in an agricultural area and was arrested without incident, police said in a statement.
Rhonda Cochrane, an assistant warden at the Mission Institution, said an investigation is underway into the escape. Cochrane said inmates undergo risk assessments before being placed in a correctional facility.
“Every time an offender cascades from maximum to medium and from medium to minimum, a thorough review is done,” she said. “(Sheets) was assessed as being suitable for minimum security.”
Cochrane, who described a minimumsecurity facility as one without gates or barbed wire, said Sheets will not return to the Mission Institution, which has 161 male inmates.
“He will be going to a medium-security level,” she said.
“The medium has the barbed wire like a traditional jail.”
A spokeswoman for a victims of crime organization said prison escapes are rare but they can be stressful for crime victims and their loved ones.
“Some will feel overwhelming fear, anxiety and anger,” Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, said in an email statement.
Illingworth questioned the review process for prisoners who are moved to less secure prisons.
“Sometimes, perhaps the system cascades offenders down the prison levels too quickly,” she said.
Correctional Service Canada said in a statement that “ensuring the safety and security of institutions, staff, and public remains the highest priority in the operations of the federal correctional system.”
A search continued Tuesday for a second inmate from the Mission Institution.
John Mackenzie was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder when he did not appear for a head count on Aug. 7.
Michelle McQUIGGE Citizen news service
TORONTO — Canada’s global reputation as a healthy place to raise children is belied by statistics showing strikingly high rates of suicide, child abuse and struggles with mental health, a new report suggested Tuesday.
Health markers covering everything from infant mortality to obesity and poverty rates paint a troubling picture of child welfare in Canada, according to the report compiled by Children First Canada and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health.
The study, which analyzes data from major research organizations including Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute of Health Information, said all orders of government need to do more to ensure that children benefit from the country’s overall wealth and prosperity.
“Whether we’re talking infant mortality or accidents or mental health concerns, all these statistics are deeply disturbing,” said Sara Austin, lead director of Children First.
“Canada’s ranked the fifth-most prosperous nation in the world, yet when it comes to the well-being of children, we fall far behind. There’s a big disconnect between the well-being of our children and the well-being of our nation.”
Austin said this disconnect has been acknowledged in some international circles, pointing to a UNICEF ranking of 41 Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development countries that placed Canada 25th on the list when assessing for children’s well-being.
The various research agencies included in the latest report have documented many troubling markers of kids health over the years, Austin said, with mental health emerging as an area of increasing urgency.
The report found the number of mental health-related hospitalizations among people aged five to 24 had soared 66 per cent over the last decade, while the number of hospitalizations jumped 55 per cent over the same period.
Austin said there were few stats focusing specifically on those 18 or under, which she highlighted as one of many shortcomings in Canada’s efforts to keep tabs on children’s health.
Ontario recorded by far the highest number of mental health-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations, the report found.
In 2016 alone, for instance, 16,291 children were hospitalized, more than double
Canada’s ranked the fifth-most prosperous nation in the world, yet when it comes to the well-being of children, we fall far behind.
the number recorded in Quebec, which ranked second.
The numbers represent the continuation of a well-established trend according to Dr. Peter Szatmari, Chief of the Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative between Sick Kids Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto.
Despite documenting high prevalence of mental health issues in kids as far back as 1987, he said Canada has taken comparatively little action to get at the root of the problem.
Szatmari said the spike in hospital visits is “out of proportion to any global trend.”
While it can be seen as a sign that mental health stigma is diminishing, he also views it as a red flag for ongoing shortfalls in the way mental health is handled in schools and primary health centres.
“We’re not giving kids the tools to cope with these things when they’re minor,” he said.
“We’re a crisis-driven health care system, we’re not a public health system.”
Austin said kids are increasingly seeking help in hospitals due to lack of other options in their communities.
But the data shows that a growing number are ultimately resorting to suicide. Austin said suicide is the second-most common cause of death among children, adding that Canada’s child suicide rate is among the top five in the world.
Szatmari noted that Canada is the only G-7 nation not to have a national suicide prevention strategy in place, adding jurisdictions that have adopted one, such as Quebec, have seen positive results.
“These issues are all interconnected,” Austin said.
“...(they) all tie back to lots of related causes around poverty, around abuse, and the systemic underinvestment in the health and well-being of our children.”
PENTICTON — A Vancouver woman is recovering in hospital in Kelowna, after falling more than a dozen metres into a cave in the south Okanagan
Penticton and District Search and Rescue spokesman Randy Brown says the 50-year-old victim suffered severe head and upper body injuries in the Monday fall. He says the rescue took seven hours to complete and involved crews from his organization, the RCMP, Penticton firefighters and members of the Alberta/British Columbia Cave Rescue Service.
Brown describes the rescue as complex with “lots of logistics and moving parts,” but says the teamwork was seamless.
Cave rescue team co-ordinator Doug Munroe says all cave events are challenge but things get
even more complicated when an injured person is added with difficulties that include confined spaces, low visibility and unstable rock.
He estimates up to 50 personnel from across the province took part in the rescue. Woman
— Sara Austin, Children First
A member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special detail unit is left standing on the platform after the doors to a train he was taking to Surrey for a transit funding announcement closed in Vancouver on Tuesday.
Online medical advice risky
For decades, British Columbia has been a popular destination for Canadian retirees. Two years ago, the number of seniors in our province prompted the previous provincial government to call for changes in health care funding, essentially abandoning the per capita transfer in favour of a formula that would take into account the age ranges of each province’s population.
Our province’s aging population also includes doctors. In a recent letter, former provincial health officer Perry Kendall outlined a severe problem that may affect the health care system for years to come. Many family practitioners are entering retirement age and their patients face uncertainty about what will happen to existing practices and who will be there to see them when they require attention and care.
With this backdrop, Research Co. asked British Columbians about specific ways in which they are using online tools to take better care of themselves. The survey shows a province that is actively using the web to learn more, with the expected variations across gender, age and region depending on the topics of interest.
It is not surprising to see that more than two-thirds of British Columbians (68 per cent) have searched online for information about a particular illness or condition in the past year. We are more connected than ever before, and it is remarkably easy to learn more about ailments than it was two decades ago.
Still, as is the case with the prevalence of “fake news” stories designed to look legitimate, some websites may be providing people the wrong kind of advice. Internet users may be overwhelmed by the number of hits a search engine can give them.
What we are researching online, and when, is of particular interest. Almost half of British Columbians (47 per cent) have looked for information about nutrition, exercise or weight loss online. There is a sizeable gender gap, with 54 per cent of women going online to learn more about these topics compared with just 41 per cent of men.
More than a third of British Columbians (35 per cent) go online before and after visiting their doctor.
Some residents appear to be arriving at the doctor’s office armed with information gathered online.
Others seem to be getting a “second opinion” from the web after spending time with their general practitioner.
There are generational differences when it comes to combining online research with visits to the doctor. Residents aged 18 to 34 are significantly more likely to check online before seeing the doctor. Those aged 55 and over are more likely to put the recommendations of their doctor to the test after their visit.
Baby boomers also lead the way in a particular category – searching for information about prescription drugs. While 41 per cent of British Columbians have conducted online research about dosage and side effects, the proportion jumps to 49 per cent among those aged 55 and over.
Millennials are ahead of their older counterparts in conducting online searches related to sexual health (33 per cent, compared with the provincial average of 18 per cent).
Our province’s youngest adults are also more likely to have looked for information about mental health, including anxiety and depression (32 per cent, compared with the provincial average of 23 per cent).
Many of these interactions included a
YOUR LETTERS
Lack of forest control
“Ye shall reap that which you have sown.”
Never was a truer phrase written.
The seeds of our present destructive fires were sown in 1912 with the establishment of the B.C. Forest Service.
At that time, the sole purpose of the forest service was to generate revenue for the government of the day over good forest management.
In the early days there were opportunities to develop good forest management. Five forest districts were established with associated ranger districts, which covered the major eco-systems of the province.
The research branch was established in 1920, where a few far-sighted individuals recommended that forest research stations be established throughout the province. Aleza Lake was the only one to be created in the mid-20s.
At that time, it was observed that it was virtually impossible to
obtain spruce regeneration after logging without exposed mineral soil.
Then, and up to the mid-60s, all logging was done in winter which excluded the exposure of mineral soil. This fact was ignored until scarification trials commenced at Aleza Lake in the mid-50s.
Over the intervening years we have seen a steady erosion of government control over the forests on Crown land, resulting in a massive disconnect between logging for quantity and harvesting for quality.
Harry Coates Prince George
More than the flag
I have been fortunate in my lifetime to witness the exploration of the entire solar system, from the launch of Sputnik in October 1957 to the New Horizons flyby of Pluto in July 2015.
A highlight was in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
Like many who lived in that era, I have been looking forward
to First Man, the upcoming biopic about Armstrong. I was surprised, therefore, to hear of the controversy that has erupted around the movie not showing the planting of the American flag. Armstrong made clear with his first words “…one giant leap for mankind” that this was an achievement of humanity, not just of the U.S., and he certainly did not try to claim the Moon for his own nation as early explorers sometimes did here on Earth. Indeed, there are international agreements on that aspect of space exploration.
However, it is a fact that the Apollo moon program was largely an American national achievement and the planting of the flag was a signal moment of the first landing. How is this different than raising a flag and playing a national anthem for an Olympic gold medal winner?
Current American politics aside, this seems to be an example of revisionist history and political correctness gone too far.
Mike Nash
Prince George
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visit to the general practitioner, but there is a problematic statistic that suggests more needs to be done to improve the province’s doctor-patient ratio.
Sixteen per cent of British Columbians acknowledge that they diagnosed or treated a medical condition on their own, without consulting a doctor. The proportion of self-appointed medics is slightly higher on Vancouver Island (19 per cent), an area that has been affected by doctor shortages. While the internet can certainly help in clearing misconceptions about health care issues, the quality of information cannot be guaranteed. It is refreshing to see residents doing a bit of research before and after seeing their doctor, but the proportion of British Columbians who are going exclusively with what the internet tells them is worrying.
The internet cannot be a substitute for a consultation with a physician. Improving access to general practitioners is the key to reducing the number of British Columbians who have no choice but to diagnose and treat themselves.
— Mario Canseco is president of Research Co. and writes an exclusive column for Glacier Media newspapers.
News media’s runaway role
My journalistic colleagues and I are hurtling down a long, steep highway. There’s no longer any resistance on the brake pedal and we realize, to our dismay, that we are unable to figure out what replaced the hand brake on this late-model vehicle.
There has to be an emergency off-ramp; some media analogue to the gravel or sand-filled inclines designed to rescue runaway 18-wheelers; but for the moment there is none in sight, merely a horrifying sense of acceleration.
There’s only so much mileage to be derived from any metaphor, but one more allusion. There are, among us, the adrenaline junkies, the speed freaks, for whom the thrill of the ride overwhelms all considerations of how the ride will end.
Whether by strategy or inadvertence, U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn much of the media into a distortion of their traditional roles.
Editors and reporters insist that they are bound by the strictures of objectivity, but the very nature of the president’s character – the preening, the boasting, the torrent of careless tweets and the avalanche of lies, the seemingly reckless assaults on pillars of the establishment – provokes reactions that confirm precisely what Trump’s most avid supporters already believe: the creatures of “the swamp” belong to a secret society from which they are excluded.
When icons of the intelligence community and retired leaders of the military community proclaim their solidarity with the president’s most prominent targets, whose security clearances have been removed or threatened, Trump’s supporters find confirmation of the existence and solidarity of the “deep state.”
When those targets then appear on a succession of cable-news programs and are gently encouraged to denounce the president, his policies and his patriotism, the convictions of Trump’s political base are merely reinforced. It does not help the appearance of journalistic objectivity that the panels featuring the president’s most enthusiastic critics also include a rotating cast of reporters from major newspaper and wire services.
They are there daily, from predawn appearances on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to early evenings on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Sometimes these same reporters
end what must have been 16-hour days back on cable news, discussing their latest newspaper articles. To the legions of viewers already convinced that Trump is a toxic threat to the very foundations of American democracy, those appearances amount to benedictions by some of the high priests of journalism. To Trump supporters, though, these are purveyors of “fake news,” suspect precisely because their reporting so routinely and (it sometimes seems) exclusively focuses on negative aspects of the president’s character and behavior.
What a brilliant piece of political jujitsu: Trump has turned reported evidence of his many failings into confirmation of his victimhood. Once that perception is pushed through the megaphone of conservative radio, especially by its pioneer and founding father, Rush Limbaugh, and once the message is crystallized on Fox & Friends in the morning and by Sean Hannity in the evening, it congeals into the Rudy Giuliani observation that “truth isn’t truth.”
A partial journalistic remedy would be to lower the temperature, reduce the volume. Except, of course, that there is no story to match it. The world without Trump, even a world with reduced portions of Trump, would be a much duller place, and the industry of journalism does not thrive on dull. The paradox of the Trump presidency is that its very sleaziness has re-energized American journalism even while undermining it.
The illusion that things will go back to normal after Trump is just that – a chimera.
The nation has always been divided: over race, immigration, sexual identity, gender equality, social safety nets, foreign entanglements. Journalism has always been fueled by the disagreements over those issues.
What Trump has injected into the equation is an intuitive appreciation for the internet and its capacity to make social media – Twitter and Facebook – easily accessible instruments of mass outrage. He is merely the first master manipulator to use the tool for political advantage.
He won’t be the last.
— Ted Koppel, managing editor of ABC News’s Nightline from 1980 to 2005, is senior contributor to CBS News’s Sunday Morning.
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TED KOPPEL
Special to The Citizen
U.K. union backs calls for new Brexit vote
Jill LAWLESS Citizen news service
LONDON — One of Britain’s biggest trade unions on Tuesday joined calls for a new public vote on leaving the European Union, saying voters were misled during the 2016 referendum campaign.
The GMB union, which has more than 600,000 members, said “the promises that were made during the referendum campaign are simply not the reality we are facing.”
In a video statement, GMB general secretary Tim Roache says the union’s members in manufacturing, retail and other sectors face uncertainty because the British government has yet to negotiate a deal with the EU.
The union says Britons voted to leave the EU, but they “did not vote for economic chaos or to put jobs and hard-won rights on the line,” and voters should be able to accept or reject the final Brexit deal.
With less than seven months to go until Britain leaves the EU, the two sides have yet to strike a deal on divorce terms and future trade, and Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government remains split over how close a relationship to seek with the bloc.
May wants to keep the U.K. aligned to EU regulations in return for free trade in goods. But her plan has infuriated Conservative supporters of a clean-break Brexit, who say it would prevent the U.K. from striking new trade deals around the world.
EU leaders, meanwhile, say May’s plan smacks of “cherry picking” benefits of membership in the bloc without the cost or responsibilities.
Britain and the EU had hoped to hammer out an agreement on divorce terms and the outlines of future trade by October so that it
can be approved by individual EU countries before the U.K. leaves the bloc on March 29. Both sides now say that deadline may slip to November or later.
U.K. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted Tuesday that a deal was “within our sights.” Raab told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the two
Highway overpass collapses
Citizen news service
KOLKATA, India — Rescuers using huge cranes, iron cutters and drills worked overnight to clear the wreckage of a highway overpass that collapsed Tuesday in the crowded Indian city of Kolkata. The concrete segment that slammed to the ground killed at least one person and injured another 23, police said Wednesday.
The rescuers did not find anyone trapped in the debris overnight, but a police officer said the clearing operation was continuing Wednesday morning.
A half-dozen vehicles, including a bus, fell with the broken section of concrete, about 30 metres long, in Kolkata’s Majerhat neighbourhood.
The officer in the police control room said 24 injured people were taken to hospitals.
At least one person died, according to an official at the city’s Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. The nearly 50-year-old bridge ran over the Majerhat railroad station but no train was running at the time, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters that several transportation workers may have been in a small office under the overpass when the collapse occurred. It was the second major road collapse in Kolkata in recent years. In 2016, a section of an unfinished overpass collapsed, killing 26 people. An official report later blamed that collapse on bad design and poor-quality materials.
Woodward book features explosive quotes about Trump and cohorts
Citizen news service
WASHINGTON — Longtime Washington Post
reporter Bob Woodward’s new book on U.S. President Donald Trump’s first 18 months in office includes some incendiary comments attributed to the president and key former and current White House staffers. Trump and other officials have denied some accounts. A look at some of the most explosive passages: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on working for Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in crazytown.”
Trump on Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. ... How in the world was I ever persuaded to pick him for my attorney general?... He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama. What business does he have being attorney general?”
Trump after making a speech condemning white supremacists over violence in Charlottesville: “That was the biggest f--ing mistake I’ve made. ... You never make those concessions. You never apologize. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?”
Trump to former director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn when he tried to resign postCharlottesville: “This is treason.”
Defence Secretary of Jim Mattis on Iranian leaders: “Those idiot raghead mullahs.”
Trump on his Twitter habits: Woodward recounts that after the messaging platform doubled its character count for a single tweet from 140 to 280, Trump told then-White House staff secretary Rob Porter, “It’s a good thing, but it’s a bit of a shame because I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.”
Trump on his nickname for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: “Little Rocket Man.... I think that may be my best ever, best nickname ever.” Ivanka Trump, when told she was a “staffer” by Steve Bannon: “I’m not a staffer!... I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter and I’m never going to be a staffer.” Deputy Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes on Kelly: “He’s not a detail guy.... Never put more than one page in front of him.”
The union says Britons voted to leave the EU, but they “did not vote for economic chaos or to put jobs and hard-won rights on the line.”
“The government has got six weeks to get this right,” Starmer said. “More of the same will not do.”
With the clock ticking, the British government has ramped up planning for a “no deal” Brexit, amid warnings from businesses that such an outcome could cause economic mayhem.
In a move that may give the markets a measure of reassurance, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said Tuesday he was talking to the government about extending his term in office to help oversee a smooth Brexit.
sides had “injected some additional pace and intensity into the negotiations as we reach the final phases.”
But Labour Party Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said the negotiations were “in serious trouble” and that the government had no strategy except “to plow on regardless.”
Carney is due to leave the helm of the central bank in June after six years, but told a committee of lawmakers he was “willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and effective transition at the Bank of England.”
Carney said he expected the government to make an announcement “in due course.”
Fraternity group votes to ban hard alcohol
(AP) — Most U.S. and Canadian fraternities have one year to ban vodka, tequila and other hard alcohol under a rule adopted during the recent annual meeting of their trade association, the group announced Tuesday.
In “a near-unanimous vote” on Aug. 27, the 66 international and national men’s fraternities of the North-American Interfraternity Conference adopted the rule prohibiting hard alcohol with more than 15 per cent alcohol by volume from fraternity chapters and events unless served by licensed third-party vendors, the group said. The member fraternities have until Sept. 1, 2019, to implement the rule across their more than 6,100 chapters on 800 campuses.
The rule adoption follows the alcohol-related deaths last year of fraternity pledges at Louisiana State University and Penn State University.
Alcohol abuse and “its serious consequences endanger” fraternities’ core values of brotherhood, personal development and providing a community of support, said Judson Horras, president and CEO of the conference. “This action shows fraternities’ clear commitment and leadership to further their focus on the safety of members and all in our communities,” he said.
The Interfraternity Council at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., voted in February 2015 to ban hard liquor from fraternity properties and all chapter events. Seth Gutwein, current Purdue IFC president, said the result has been “a positive shift in our culture when it comes to the health and safety of our members and guests.”
AP PHOTO
The cover of Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House, which will be available for purchase on Sept. 11.
AP PHOTO
Anti-Brexit supporters stage a protest in front of the Houses of Parliament in London on Tuesday.
This screen grab made from video provided by an eyewitness shows a highway overpass that collapsed in Kolkata, India, on Tuesday.
Nike endorsement sparks controversy
Citizen news service
An endorsement deal between Nike and Colin Kaepernick prompted a flood of debate Tuesday as sports fans reacted to the apparel giant backing an athlete known mainly for starting a wave of protests among NFL players of police brutality, racial inequality and other social issues.
The deal unveiled by Nike and the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was a trending topic on Twitter and other social networks, with some fans urging a boycott of the company’s clothes and sneakers – even burning and cutting out the signature swoosh logos on their gear. Others pushed back, saying the backlash against Nike showed the polarizing debate has morphed well beyond whether NFL players should be allowed to demonstrate for social causes while the national anthem plays in stadiums before games.
The league itself weighed in Tuesday afternoon with an executive saying the social issues Kaepernick has raised are valid.
“We embrace the role and responsibility of everyone involved with this game to promote meaningful, positive change in our communities,” said Jocelyn Moore, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications and public affairs. “The social justice issues that Colin and other professional athletes have raised deserve our attention and action.”
Moore’s statement was paired with a detailed breakdown of things players and league executives have done together to learn about and address social issues, including community meetings, lobbying and financially supporting local programs.
On Twitter, country music star John Rich posted a picture of one of his crew members holding the tops of a cut pair of Nike socks, with the caption: “Get ready Nike multiply that by the millions.”
The tweet garnered about 10,000 retweets and 30,000 likes, plus thousands of critical comments.
Rich, part of the duo Big & Rich and a former contestant of U.S. President Donald Trump’s reality
show The Celebrity Apprentice, said he supported the right to protest but Nike lost his support when it endorsed Kaepernick.
Mixed martial arts fighter Elias Theodorou, a UFC middleweight, tweeted a widely shared picture of the Nike logo with a meme that read: “Instead of throwing away your Nike gear give to one of the millions of homeless veterans you pretend to care about.”
Trump, a frequent critic of protesting NFL players, said Tuesday that he thinks it’s a “terrible message” for Nike to use Kaepernick in ads but that it’s their decision whether to use the quarterback. “In another way, it is what this
country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do, but I personally am on a different side of it,” he said.
Trump has loudly urged the league to suspend or fire players who demonstrate during the anthem, repeatedly diving into what has developed into one of the most contentious debates in sports.
Kaepernick already had a deal with Nike that was set to expire, but it was renegotiated into a multiyear deal to make him one of the faces of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign, according to a person familiar with the
contract. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Nike hasn’t officially announced the contract.
The person said Nike will feature Kaepernick on several platforms, including billboards, television commercials and online ads. Nike also will create an apparel line for Kaepernick and contribute to his Know Your Rights charity, the person said. The deal puts Kaepernick in the top bracket of NFL players with Nike.
Nike also provides all NFL teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel, a partnership that was extended in March to run through 2028.
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
The Canadian dollar closed at its lowest level in more than a month Tuesday, closing at 75.86 cents US compared with an average of 76.60 cents US on Friday. Everything seems to be taking their cues from the U.S. dollar, said Craig Jerusalim, portfolio manager at CIBC Asset Management.
“A stronger U.S. dollar which is bad for emerging markets, not good for trade, commodities are all weaker and as a result Canadian equity markets are in the red for the most part.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 101.58 points at 16,161.30, after hitting a low of 16,152.17 on 239.4 million shares traded. That adds to a 108.67-point decline on Friday amid uncertainty about Canada’s trade talks with the United States. The only sectors that rose on the day was cannabis-heavy health care that gained 5.15 per cent and information technology, up 0.10 per cent.
The others were in negative territory, led by gold and materials, down 2.5 and two per cent, respectively.
The Bank of Canada isn’t expected to increase interest rates on Wednesday but markets will be watching for any word coming out of the resumption of NAFTA talks between Canada and the United States, said Jerusalim. He said the loonie will suffer if there is no deal and will drift lower until there is more concrete news on the continental freetrade pact.
“If there is a deal, you could see an immediate snap-back in the loonie, assuming that the terms are not overly cumbersome, but the initial reaction will be that getting any deal signed would be positive for the Canadian dollar.” he said in an interview.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 1.48 points at 25,963.34. The S&P 500 index was down 4.19 points at 2,897.33, while the Nasdaq composite was down 17.28 points at 8,092.26.
Amazon.com Inc. shares were up slightly as the online retailer became the second company after Apple Inc. to pass US$1 trillion in market capitalization.
Crude prices rose strongly earlier in the day on weather-related disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico and exports from Iran being affected by the impending reimposition of sanctions.
But the October crude contract closed was up just seven cents at US$69.87 per barrel.
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS
Above, shoppers walk past the Nike Miami store on the Lincoln Road Mall on Tuesday in Miami Beach, Fla. Below, a new Nike advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick debuted Monday as part of Nike’s 30th anniversary Just Do It campaign.
PAGE 10
Up to the task
UNBC Timberwolves midfielder Pierre Barrafranca goes airborne to head the ball away from two University of Victoria Vikes players during the Timberwolves’ home- and season-opener on Tuesday night at Masich Place Stadium. The Canada West Universities Athletic Association game was Barrafranca’s first with UNBC and ended in a 1-1 draw. Owen Stewart, on a setup by Matt Jubinville, opened the scoring for UNBC and Victoria got the equalizer from Matteo Ventura. Both goals came in the first half. UNBC hosts Trinity Western on Friday at 6 p.m.
Herrington at home with Cariboo Cats
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
John Herrington is the first Cariboo Cougar in the major midget hockey team’s 15-year history to call Hudson’s Hope home.
The town of 1,000, a four-hour drive north of Prince George, has an indoor arena and not a lot of people using it, which left plenty of ice time for Herrington and his dad, John Sr., to work together developing his hockey skills. That started soon after John Jr. got his first pair of skates when he was two. Now 16, Herrington has cracked the roster of the top midget team in northern B.C. and over the weekend in their exhibition series at CN Centre against the Everett Silvertips under-18s he reminded the Cougar brass what a talent they have on their hands.
Herrington played two of the four games and was at his offensive best with a hat-trick effort in an 8-2 win over the Silvertips on Friday. He also had two assists in a 9-2 triumph on Saturday.
Herrington joined the Cougars in the playoffs last March and played both games of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League final against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds. It didn’t take him long to get immersed in the hockey culture that exists around the Cougars dressing room at the Kin Centre. The team’s wall of fame highlights Cougar alumni such as Brett Connolly, Ryan Howse, Brett Bulmer and Brandon Manning, who used their major midget opportunities as a springboard to the NHL, and that left a big impression on Herrington.
“I’m a pretty big fan of Brandon Manning – he was on my favourite team, the (Philadelphia) Flyers,” said Herrington. “I didn’t know much about the Cariboo Cougars until my second year of bantam when I came to U-16 (camp). Just to see him on the side of the bus and stuff was pretty cool.”
Herrington can score but is also responsible defensively and that will no doubt help raise his value as he climbs the ladder to junior hockey.
“I think I’m a two-way forward and I’m pretty versatile,” he said. “If you want me to kill a penalty I can kill a penalty and if you want me to score I can try to score.”
Herrington’s introduction to the major midget ranks comes on the heels of a provincial bronze medal win in March with the Northeast Trackers double-A team.
“The Trackers did a great job developing him and it was a great spot for him to build some confidence,” said Cariboo Cougars general manager Trevor Sprague. “He’ll play wing or centre and he’s come in and done a good job. He did have a good Cougars camp and he’s had a good camp here and put up some numbers.
“He’s not very big (five-foot-nine, 150 pounds) but he’s very smart and very skilled and he plays both ends of the ice very well.
He’s a guy from the north that not lot of guys know because he comes from Hudson’s Hope. He’s definitely a guy we had penciled to be here this year.”
Former Tracker forward Curtis Hammond, 17, is also in his first year with the Cariboo major team while forward Connor Bowie, 17, who was with the Trackers two seasons ago, has found a role with the WHL Cougars.
Herrington attended the WHL Cougars training camp in Prince George the past two years and got to play in the Black-White intrasquad game last Wednesday. He plans to stick around the city for a few years and the Cougars have indicated they have a spot for him on their 50-player protected list.
Herrington says he’s looking forward to a winter playing in the shadow of the WHL Cougars and BCHL Spruce Kings.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of towns that have major junior, junior A and major midget hockey teams – Vancouver maybe,” he said. “You have the Cougars and Spruce Kings, all the exposure you need is here.”
Herrington will be attending Grade 11 classes starting this week at Prince George secondary school.
Kozlowski joining Kings
Citizen staff
The Prince George Spruce Kings will have a new face in the lineup when they open the B.C. Hockey League regular season on Friday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. On Tuesday, the Spruce Kings announced the acquisition of forward Sam Kozlowski. The Kings picked up the veteran skater from the Coquitlam Express in exchange for the Canadian Junior Hockey League rights to forward Ethan O’Rourke, as well as future considerations. O’Rourke – a Penticton product who played 57 games for the crosstown Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League – divided his time last season between the Cougars and Everett Silvertips (37 games with Prince George, 29 with Everett). In 2016-17, he appeared in 19 contests for the Kings.
As for the 20-year-old Kozlowski, he’s entering his third BCHL season. The Delta native scored eight goals last season and added 22 assists in 55 games. In his BCHL career thus far, he has 19 goals and 33 helpers in 107 games. Kozlowski has college hockey in his future, as he is committed to the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers for 20192020. Kozlowski will be in uniform on Friday when the Spruce Kings take on the Chilliwack Chiefs (7 p.m. faceoff). The Kings – Mainland Division regular season and playoff champions last season, and also Coastal Conference playoff champs – will hold a bannerraising ceremony before the puck drops.
The Chiefs hosted and won the RBC Royal Bank Cup national championship tournament in May. The teams will also clash on Saturday night.
Big names back in Ryder Cup
Citizen news service
WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, golf’s most prominent players for more than two decades, never realized the Ryder Cup would mean so much.
For Woods, it’s the culmination of a comeback that began in January after a fourth surgery on his lower back. For Mickelson, more than setting a record by playing his 12th Ryder Cup, the 48-year-old gets what he believes will be his last chance to capture that gold trophy away from home.
U.S. captain Jim Furyk added them to his team Monday evening as wild-card selections, along with Bryson DeChambeau. Woods agreed to be a vice captain in late February, and he set a goal to be in Paris on Sept. 28-30 as a player.
Wheeler signs new deal with Winnipeg
Citizen news service
WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Jets have signed captain Blake Wheeler to a five-year contract extension.
The deal announced Tuesday is worth US$41.25 million, with an average annual value of $8.25 million.
Wheeler, 32, led the Jets with a career-high 91 points (23 goals, 68 assists) last season, good for ninth in NHL scoring. The assist total tied him for the league lead. The winger from Plymouth, Minn., who has a salary cap hit of $5.6 million for the coming season in the final year of a deal signed with Winnipeg in 2013, will make $10 million in 2019-20, $6.5 million in 2020-21, $10 million in 2021-22, $6.5 million in 2022-23 and $8.25 million in 2023-24.
The six-foot-five, 225-pound winger made the NHL all-star game for the first time last season and helped lead the Jets to their first Western Conference final.
“With where I’m at in my career, with my age, I feel like my best years are ahead of me,” Wheeler told reporters in Winnipeg. “I wanted to give those years to his organization and hopefully push this team to the championship levels.”
Wheeler reached at least 20 goals for the fifth consecutive season, and the sixth time in his career, in 2017-18.
The six-foot-five, 225-pound winger made the NHL all-star game for the first time last season and helped lead the Jets to their first Western Conference final.
“There were some lean years,” Wheeler said. “Piecing this thing together has been a process.
Everyone’s been a part of it – from ownership to management, right down to the players. When you’re pushing through it and maybe not getting the rewards for your efforts, as a team, it can take its toll.
“To finally kind of get over the hump a bit and have some success and play some really meaningful, fun hockey last spring, it just makes you hungry for more.”
Winnipeg locked up goalie Connor Hellebuyck to a six-year, US$37-million contract and defenceman Jacob Trouba to a one-year deal worth $5.5 million in July, but still needs to sign fellow restricted free agent defenceman Josh Morrissey before training camp opens Sept. 13.
“There’s been guys here that have invested a lot of time and a lot of blood, sweat and tears to try and build this into something we can be proud of,” Wheeler said. “Hopefully, we are getting to the point now where we can be a contending team year-in and year-out.”
“It’s incredible, it really is, to look back at the start of the year and now to have accomplished a goal like that,” Woods said. “To be a part of this team, and now to be a player is just... beyond special.”
Mickelson had qualified for every team since 1995, a streak that ended this year when he finished No. 10 in the standings. His 12th appearance breaks the Ryder Cup record held by Nick Faldo.
Mickelson has only been on three winning teams – at Brookline in 1999, Valhalla in 2008 and two years ago at Hazeltine. His last time overseas was at Gleneagles, where he infamously closed out a losing press conference by questioning captain Tom Watson and the direction the PGA of America was taking the U.S. team. That led to sweeping changes in the U.S. structure, mainly by giving players a stronger voice.
HERRINGTON
Serena heats up after slow start
Howard FENDRICH Citizen news service
NEW YORK
— Serena Williams began her U.S. Open quarterfinal tentatively. Her shots lacked their usual sting, her attitude its usual conviction.
She was facing the last player she lost to at Flushing Meadows. She kept looking up her coach, as if seeking solutions. After just 20 minutes Tuesday night, Williams was in danger of trailing by two service breaks. Not much later, the outcome was no longer in doubt, because the 23-time Grand Slam champion suddenly was in complete control.
Williams put aside some early shakiness and an early deficit, turning things around with an eight-game run en route to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 8 seed Karolina Pliskova for a spot in the semifinals. It was Williams’ first win over a top-10 player this season.
“I was playing really not a good game,” said Williams, who was a point from trailing 4-1
and did fall behind 4-2 while making 22 of her 30 unforced errors in the first set. “I was thinking, ‘You know, I can play better.’ So that was the good news.”
Pliskova offered this guess about what was happening to Williams: “Maybe she was a little bit nervous.”
Maybe. But that didn’t last long.
Pliskova is a big server and hitter in her own right, someone who briefly spent time at No. 1 in the WTA rankings and was the runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2016, when she beat Williams in the semifinals. The 36-year-old did not compete in New York a year ago, because she gave birth to her daughter during the tournament.
Go back to 2015, and that was another semifinal departure for Williams, whose bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam was shockingly ended by Roberta Vinci.
This time, Williams’ semifinal opponent will be No. 19 seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, who surprisingly beat defending champion
Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3 earlier Tuesday.
Stephens, who said she had been dealing with a sinus infection, rued all of her wasted opportunities, most notably the seven break points she failed to convert in the first set. She sure didn’t attempt to hide her frustration, either, repeatedly gesturing toward or speaking in the direction of her coach, Kamau Murray, up in the stands.
When someone urged her to raise her level in the second set, Stephens replied, “I’m trying!”
“When you don’t play big points well, the match can get away from you,” Stephens said.
“I think that’s what happened today. I didn’t convert.”
Sevastova, who retired in 2013 because of injuries and returned nearly two years later, advanced to her first Slam semifinal.
“Still long way to go, I think,” she said. Especially considering that the next step will come against Williams, who’s heading into her 36th semi at a major, 12th at Flushing Meadows.
Isner falls to del Potro in quarterfinal
Citizen news service
NEW YORK — John Isner doubled over and rested his elbows on his knees. He grimaced. He shook his head.
He looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but where he was: falling further and further behind against Juan Martin del Potro in muggy, energy-robbing heat at the U.S. Open. Isner’s bid to become the first American man in a dozen years to get to the final four at Flushing Meadows ended Tuesday with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss in Arthur Ashe Stadium to No. 3 seed del Potro, the Argentine who won the 2009 championship. The temperature, more than 32 C, made things uncomfortable across the 3 1/2-hour match. So did the humidity, at about 50 per
cent. Those kinds of conditions were a problem for Roger Federer when he was upset by 55thranked John Millman a night earlier, and Isner had all kinds of trouble, too – certainly more than del Potro did.
Things got so bad around the site that the tournament suspended junior matches for a few hours in the afternoon. The U.S. Tennis Association invoked its new extreme heat policy, which allows men to take a 10-minute break after the third set, but that clearly didn’t help Isner, who quickly trailed 3-0 in the fourth.
This has been something of a breakthrough season at age 33 for Isner, including two hardcourt titles and a run to his first Grand Slam semifinal, which happened at Wimbledon in July. He followed that up by getting to the
quarterfinals in New York for the first time since 2011; no one from the U.S. has made it past this stage at this tournament since Andy Roddick in 2006, three years after he became the country’s most recent male champion at any major.
But del Potro presented all sorts of problems. His serve is almost as imposing as Isner’s, while other elements of del Potro’s game –returns and, most notably, his thunderous forehand, which often clocks in at more than 161 km/h – are superior.
Del Potro will next play either top-seeded Rafael Nadal or No. 9 Dominic Thiem in the semifinals on Friday. Nadal and Thiem squared off later Tuesday night. They were playing a fifth and deciding set at The Citizen’s press deadline.
Jays waste strong start by Borucki
Citizen news service
TORONTO — After Ryan Borucki struggled in the first inning, Toronto Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker and manager John Gibbons gave him a simple instruction. Slow down.
Borucki loaded the bases and faced six batters on 31 pitches in the first, but allowed no runs in the inning before settling down for a six-inning quality start as Toronto fell to the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 on Tuesday. “I was rushing a little bit. Pete and Gibby both noticed it and told me to settle down a little bit,” said Borucki. “Took a couple of extra deep breaths when I was out there and my stuff really started to work a little bit.”
Borucki’s (3-4) effort was wasted by the Blue Jays (62-75) lineup, which managed just three hits and stranded five runners, including three in scoring position. Borucki gave up two earned runs over six innings, striking out five on three hits. Jake Petricka pitched an inning, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out two. Thomas Pannone and Taylor Guerrieri each had a scoreless inning of relief.
Ryne Stanek started on backto-back days for Tampa Bay (75-63), pitching in the first inning on Monday and again on Tuesday. He had a strikeout and allowed one hit on 10 pitches Tuesday.
Hunter Wood (1-1), Jalen Beeks, Jose Alvarado, Diego Castillo, Adam Kolarek and Sergio Romo also pitched in the seven-player shutout. Romo earned his 19th save of the season.
Brewers gain ground
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Lorenzo Cain reached base five times, Wade Miley pitched six stingy innings and the Milwaukee Brewers romped past the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Tuesday night to climb within three games of the NL Central leaders. Miley (3-2) allowed one run and three hits, struck out five and walked none as Milwaukee won for the fifth time in its last six meetings with its division rival. The second-place Brewers maintained a 1 1/2-game lead over St. Louis for the top NL wild card.
Mike Montgomery (4-5) struggled with his control in just four innings, and the Brewers had little trouble with a succession of Cubs relievers. Cain had four walks and a double, setting the tone for Milwaukee’s offence.
Serena Williams hits a return against Karolina Pliskova during a quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday in New York.
Five Canadian films to watch at TIFF
Citizen news service
From teen tales to timely stories and documentaries about the environment, the Canadian lineup for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival offers up a mix of big names and rising talent from across the country.
The Canadian Press spoke with five homegrown filmmakers headed to the festival, which runs Sept. 6 to 16.
Firecrackers
Karena Evans, who directed several of Drake’s latest music videos, is one of the stars of this debut feature from Jasmin Mozaffari. Evans and Michaela Kurimsky play best friends whose plans to escape their small town are stifled when one of them is violated by her onagain, off-again boyfriend.
Firecrackers was shot in the summer of 2017 throughout Ontario in Hamilton, St. Thomas, and London.
The story is an expansion of a short film that Mozaffari, the writer-director, made while studying at Ryerson University in 2012.
“I also thought the time was right to explore these themes about women seeking freedom in a patriarchal system,” says Mozaffari, who was born in Saskatoon, grew up in Barrie, Ont., and now lives in Toronto.
“I had written this film before the allegations of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up had come out. It was just interesting that that aligned after I had written the script.”
Clara
The Toronto-shot sci-fi drama stars Toronto actor Patrick J. Adams of Suits fame as an obsessive astronomer dealing with a personal tragedy. Pretty Little Liars actress Troian Bellisario, who also happens to be Adams’ wife in real life, plays an inquisitive artist who helps him with a scientific discovery.
Writer-director Akash Sherman says he got the idea for the film after reading about NASA’s plan to launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope.
“Essentially they’re going to revolutionize the way we’re able to find habitable planets,” Sherman says.
“So I wanted to tell a story about space on Earth, about an astronomer who’s looking for life out there. The TESS telescope actually just launched, as did our film, so it’s very timely.”
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Twenty countries and six continents are explored in this documentary about environmental issues caused by humans, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander.
It’s the final title in a trilogy from director Jennifer Baichwal, producer Nicholas de Pencier and photographer Edward Burtynsky, after Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark.
“The anthropocene means the human epoch,” says Baichwal.
“It means that humans are affecting the Earth on a geological scale; we are changing the systems of the Earth as a species.”
The three co-directors say the film is part of a larger project that will include museum exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada this fall.
On Tuesday it was announced Vikander, who won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2016 for her role in The Danish Girl, would voice the doc.
Les Salopes or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin
Brigitte Poupart, star of last year’s acclaimed film Les Affames, plays a 45-year-old professor
No place like home FBI recovers stolen Wizard of Oz slippers
Citizen news service
A rare pair of red sequined slippers that Judy Garland wore in the classic film The Wizard of Oz”have been found, the FBI announced Tuesday, nearly 13 years after the iconic shoes were stolen from the actress’ birthplace.
The shoes, estimated to be worth at least $1 million, had been kept in a Plexiglass case atop a podium inside the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn.
On Aug. 28, 2005, burglars (or a burglar) broke into the museum and smashed the case with a baseball bat. Investigators estimated that the heist took only seconds.
At a news conference Tuesday, investigators unveiled the once-missing shoes, enclosed in a glass case on top of blue velvet linen.
“They’re more than just a pair of shoes, the slippers. They’re an enduring symbol of the power of belief,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Scott Johnson told reporters. The search for the famous ruby heels, which Garland wore while playing Dorothy, has taken investigators to a collector’s mansion in San Diego, to a roadside diner in Missouri, and to the bottom of the Tioga Mine Pit, just outside Grand Rapids. Last summer, the Grand Rapids Police Department received a tip that took investigators outside of Minnesota, Johnson said.
Officials revealed little else about how and where the shoes were found, citing an ongoing investigation. Federal prosecutors in North Dakota are involved in the probe.
North Dakota U.S. Attorney Christopher Myers said investigators are still finding the person or people who stole the beloved movie memorabilia. He said his office will file charges “as appropriate and if appropriate at a later time.”
Several pairs of ruby slippers were made for the 1939 MGM film, and at least four, including the stolen pair, are known to exist. One pair was found in the basement of MGM’s wardrobe department in 1970. An anonymous buyer bought it at an auction for $15,000 and donated it to the Smithsonian in 1979. The pair was removed from display in April 2017 to be preserved. The Smithsonian raised nearly $350,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to pay for the shoes’ restoration. They will be back on display in October.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg bought one other pair for display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Another pair is owned by a private collector.
The once-missing slippers are owned by collector Michael Shaw, who lent the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum every year. Museum officials wanted to keep the slippers in a safe every night, but Shaw didn’t want other people touching the delicate
artifact. So Shaw delivered the slippers himself and placed them in the Plexiglass case.
“We kicked ourselves in the butt for not putting them in the safe,” Jon Miner, one of the museum’s board members, told The Washington Post’s Jessica Contrera in 2015. “Of course, the owner was dumbfounded. And so were we.”
with a promiscuous secret life in this drama from Quebec’s Renee Beaulieu.
The film celebrates female sexuality and desires, particularly those of a more mature woman, says Beaulieu.
“I want to talk about women, I want to focus on women, because there are not enough women in movies,” adds the writer-director.
“And I want to talk about sexuality of women in a positive way, not negative like usual.”
Giant Little Ones
Josh Wiggins and Darren Mann star as best friends whose lives are changed after an expected incident at a party. Golden Globenominated actors Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan play the divorced parents of Wiggins’ character.
Writer-director Keith Behrman,
who was born in Shaunavon, Sask., says the spark for the drama came to him several years ago.
“I was really concerned with all the negative things that were happening to young people who were struggling with their sexual identity and the suicides that were happening,” says Behrman. Finding his leading actors was a long process, he admits.
“Because of the nature of the film, which is a question exploring sexuality, we actually were surprised to find that we were having a hard time getting some young men to come out (to audition),” Behrman says.
“Our casting agents told us that a lot of young men were passing on the auditions, which we were shocked by. We thought (in these) contemporary times, people would be willing to play these roles.”
CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Director Jasmin Mozaffari is photographed during TIFF’s 2018 Canadian Press Conference, in Toronto on Aug. 1.
Carmen Noëlla Grace (LeFebvre) born July 8th, 1944 in Edmonton, AB and passed peacefully at home on August 31st, 2018 with her children by her side. Carmen is survived by her daughter Bernadette Kipping, sons Daniel (Sandra Morris), Philip (Denise) & Michael (Trish Schiedel), grandchildren, Jared Kipping (Kelly Pratt), Kendra Kipping (Jeremy Goertzen), Marc Foucher (Sarah Rollins), Conrad Foucher (Erika Aspen), Celine Foucher, India and Amara SchiedelFoucher. Also survived by her siblings and in-laws Henri LeFebvre (Cecile), Dolores Baza, Alan Collie, Richard (Louise), Suzanne, Noel (Judi), Alain (Susan), Florent (Sandi) Foucher and Jeannine (Lance) Allard and many, many nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends. Predeceased by husband Alain Foucher, parents Louis and Marie-Ange, baby brother Jean Paul, sister Patricia, brother Louis and sister-in-law Bernardine. Carmen retired from BC Hydro after 25 years and then became active with the Power Pioneers. She was a CWL member for 55 years and it played a major role in her spiritual and social life. Carmen was a devoted wife, mother, sister, grandmother and aunt. A visitation and prayer service will be held Friday, September 7th at 6:30 pm at St. Mary’s Catholic Church (1088 Gillett St.). Funeral Mass will follow Saturday, September 8th at 11:00 am. Please feel free to leave messages of condolences at carmenfoucher.weebly.com. In loving memory of Carmen, donations to the Prince George Community Foundation.
PAQUIN, Albert “Al” November 11, 1940 Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan September 1, 2018 Cochrane, Alberta
Al of Cochrane, Alberta passed away on Saturday, September 1, 2018 after a long battle with Parkinson’s/Dystonia.
Al started working in Calgary in the late 50’s at what was Canadian Natural Gas and now ATCO. Moving his family to Prince George in 1966 where he took a job at Northwood Pulp for many years, and in that time received many trade tickets before moving on to start his own company working from coast to coast in Pulp mills. Later Al put many working years at Husky Energy before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the 2005. Al lived a full life and had a love of flying his own plane, camping, and fishing with family and his close and dear friends. When living in Nanaimo, Al loved the day’s salmon fishing with a dear friend. Al was full of humor, big laughs, always social and a great story teller.
Albert is survived by his spouse, Marilyn, daughter, Michele Paquin, son, Jeff (Helen “Scotty”); grandchildren Ian, Christopher, Cole, Marin and James and his little buddy Radar. Albert also leaves behind his sisters, Collette Robertson, Linda (Dave) Morgan; brothers, Hank (Shirley), Terry (Barb), Beno “Alvin” (Glenda); brothers-in-law Fred (Deany) Penhale and Doug (Carol), along with numerous nieces and nephews. Al was predeceased by his brother David and his wife Gail.
Condolences may be forwarded through www.mcinnisandholloway.com. The family would like very much to thank the wonderful staff at Bethany Home Care for their compassionate care. Also a big thank you to Mel and Dianne for their kindness and being by dad’s side. If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Parkinson Association of Alberta, #120, 6835 Railway St SE Calgary T2H 2V6, www.parkinsonalberta.ca, or the Bethany Home Care in Cochrane, 1000 32 Quigley Drive Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1X9 Telephone: (403) 932-6422, https://bethany7754.thankyou4caring.org/donate or a charity of your choice.
In living memory of Al Paquin a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Cochrane, 369 RAILWAY STREET, COCHRANE, AB, T4C 2E2, Telephone: 403-932-4740.
Surrounded by family, Gerald Thomas Sheppard passed away August 26, 2018. He was a gentle soul who accepted everyone. He will be missed by those who knew him. There will be a Celebration of Life held at the South Fort George Resource Center, 1200 La Salle Avenue, Prince George, BC on Saturday September 8, 2018 from 4:30 - 6:30pm. Please join us in remembering him with a favorite memory.
Mahood,ShirleyA.
August24,1930-June29,2018
WithgreatsadnesswesaygoodbyetoShirleyAnne Mahoodwhopassedawayat87surroundedbyloved ones.Shirleyissurvivedbyherhusbandof50years, WilliamJohnMahood,sonsBillMahood(Sheridalee)andPatMahood(Carol),grandchildrenKayla Mahood23,LiamMahood13andSeanMahood9. ThosethatknewShirleywillrememberherasafeisty littlewomanwithaheartofGold.Shirleylivedthe last5yearswithhersonBillandhisfamilywhere shehelpedraisetwostrongboysandwasableto spendtimeshoppingwithhergranddaughterKayla. Shirleywillbeforeverrememberedinourhearts. AcelebrationoflifeOPENHOUSEwillbeheldatthe RamadaHotelCranbrookroomSaturday,Sept.8 from12-2withlightsnacks,coffeeandtea.Allare welcometocomeandrememberShirley.
Johnny Roy Pius
October 28, 1946 - August 31, 2018 Band member Lheidli T’enneh Born in Prince George
He was predeceased by his mother, Rose, father Max and brother Max Pius. He will be sadly missed by daughter Agatha Short, family Lucille Duncan, Mystri Duncan, Robert and Edie Frederick, Peter Thompson and his long time cherished love Elizabeth. Johnny passed away at Rotary Hospice after prolonged illness and complications following severe injuries in a bicycle accident in August 2017. Johnny was a proud member of Iron Workers Local 7 in Boston. He travelled extensively and worked in San Francisco, Arizona, New Mexico, New York and all the New England states. An active member of the Boston Indian Center, he canoed with other members from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia on a fund raiser. Johnny loved bicycling and after retiring from iron work, biked back up to Prince George from Boston. He was an adventurous guy who loved traveling. In addition to his work travel across the US, he also visited Hawaii, Ireland, the Grand Canyon, the West coast from San Diego to Prince George. He was a generous and loving soul who will be missed by his family and many friends across the miles.
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FOUCHER,
ANNA ROWE Anna passed away Sunday, September 2, 2018. May she rest in peace. No service by request. Family gathering at a later date.
