Local news from Fort St. John, Taylor, Fort Nelson, Dawson Creek and the rest of Northeast B.C. Energeticcity.ca is your source for news and events! We are the only local news source with full-time staff working in Fort St. John.
A man and woman are facing charges after a report of an armed robbery in Grande Prairie. RCMP responded to a report of armed robbery in the Pinnacle area of Grande Prairie, on September 21st. The victim said he was held at gunpoint and forced into a vehicle where he was assaulted during the drive […]
TORONTO — Disgraced former broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi has pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him.
The former host of CBC Radio's cultural affairs show "Q'' is facing five charges including four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcome resistance, choking.
Ghomeshi was arraigned this morning during a court appearance in Toronto.
More coming.
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — As his ministers begin hailing a yet-to-be-signed trans-Pacific trade deal, Stephen Harper is promising Canada's long-standing protection of the dairy and poultry industries will be preserved.
The long-awaited 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership is shaping up to be a dominant theme on the campaign trail this week, with speculation rampant that a deal is finally taking shape.
An agreement in principle could be announced as early as Friday, but it's not the first time an anticipated announcement has failed to materialize: the last round of negotiations in July ended in disappointment.
Not everyone expects the deal to be good news.
On Parliament Hill, dairy farmers walked their cows, parked tractors on city streets and dumped milk on the pavement to protest an agreement they fear will mark an end to their way of life.
Major dairy producers like New Zealand are pushing for fewer trade barriers in foreign markets, including Canada's.
Canada's supply management system — a structure of production limits and import tariffs — has long been a cornerstone of the profitable, economically viable family farm, Harper said during a campaign event in Kleinburg, Ont.
"This government remains absolutely committed to making sure we preserve our system of supply management through trade negotiations," he said.
"Decisions to be made on whether we have such a system or not are decisions we want Canadians to take, not foreigners to take."
The Conservatives' energy is focused on being able to herald a deal on the TPP by the end of the week, thereby bolstering the party's credentials on matters of international trade.
A series of events are being planned for the end of the week, but ministers were already sending out news releases Monday touting the advantages of a deal and quoting from supporters in the business community.
Harper also said that Canada's auto sector would be protected, but that it was important for the wider economy to be part of the negotiations. Part of the talks have centred around loosening the rules around what proportion of a car manufactured in Canada must actually originate here.
"We know it is important, the jobs of the future are going to depend in a global economy in our access, privileged access to international markets," he said.
"We have to stay at the table, defend and protect our interests, and be prepared to move forward."
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's position is quite similar to Harper's, although he says there should have been more openness around the deal. There is uncertainty around many other elements of the TPP, including provisions that would affect cultural industries and health care.
"Yet again, we have a prime minister who is engaged in the kind of secrecy and non-transparency that leaves a lot of people uncertain, when we need to have a prime minister who is making the case for trade, and pointing out how many jobs come through trade," Trudeau said in Winnipeg.
The trade deal came up during Monday night's foreign affairs debate. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said he didn't trust the Conservatives to protect the dairy industry, which has a large presence in Quebec.
"I'm quite concerned about what’s being left on the table by the Conservatives," he said.
"And our dairy farmers have every right to be concerned; I think that supply management is on the table."
Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — An aboriginal agency that was caring for a foster teen who died at a British Columbia hotel says the province appears to be shifting blame for political reasons.
Premier Christy Clark has accused the Fraser Valley Aboriginal Children and Family Services Society of making a "real mistake" for not telling the Children's Ministry that 18-year-old Alex Gervais was staying alone in a hotel.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the agency says the ministry can't distance itself from systemic issues that lead to devastating outcomes such as Gervais's death.
It says focusing on the agency appears to be a political move at a time when it needs leadership, not politics.
The agency says the ministry must work with it to ensure such a tragedy never happens again, and the plan must include proper residential placements for youth who need support.
Gervais fell from a fourth-floor window of an Abbotsford hotel on Sept. 18, and his death has prompted the Opposition NDP to call for Children's Minister Stephanie Cadieux to resign.
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — Asking the public to "reimagine carbon," a group of oilsands companies is helping to launch a $20-million XPrize competition to find innovative ways to address carbon emissions.
Dan Wicklum, chief executive of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, said the goal is to find practical uses for converted carbon emissions, rather than an outright reduction in carbon dioxide production.
"The competition will promote and advance the discovery and development of new technologies to take carbon emissions, which are now seen as a liability, and change them into a resource, a valuable, usable product," Wicklum said at the public launch Tuesday.
"Today we're throwing down the gauntlet, we are lighting a fire under the brightest minds in the world."
The competition runs for four and a half years and the winning team will be the one that converts the most CO2 into one or more products with the highest net value and the smallest environmental impact.
Possible solutions listed by the organizers include new ways to make cement, concrete and other building materials, chemicals to make industrial and consumer goods, low-carbon transportation fuels, or entirely new products.
Teams will be able to choose between capturing carbon emissions from a coal power plant or a natural gas facility.
The prize is being half-funded by U.S.-based NRG Energy, a utility that promotes renewable energy, and half by Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, founded by 13 oilsands companies to find ways to reduce the environmental impacts of the industry.
"The Carbon XPrize embodies everything COSIA works toward every day," said Wicklum.
"COSIA was launched to be the vehicle through which oilsands companies would do things differently, where they would work together on shared environmental challenges and where they would share technology that would accelerate performance improvement."
The non-profit XPrize foundation, known for organizing high-profile research competitions like creating the first private space flight, will run the competition.
Follow @ibickis on Twitter.
Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
BOSTON — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says his comments that he hopes Donald Trump will win the presidency were taken out of context and an example of why he tries to say as little as possible when speaking publicly.
Brady said during an interview with WEEI-FM radio in Boston (http://bit.ly/1L2fn3x ) that his vote is going to be his own personal choice based on how he feels.
"I don't even know what the issues are. I haven't paid attention to politics in a long time," Brady said. "It's actually not something that I really even enjoy. It's way off my radar."
The clarification comes after Brady displayed a red "Make America Great Again" hat from the Trump campaign in his locker while speaking with reporters on Sept. 16, the same day as a Republican presidential debate. When asked whether he thought Trump has what it takes to win the presidency, Brady said: "I hope so. It would be great. There would be a putting green on the White House lawn, I'm sure of that."
Brady called the remark an "offhanded comment" that reporters ran with to "get the clicks."
"I try to have fun with certain things, you know, but some things a lot of times get taken out of context," he said. "I think you are just more careful with what you say because you don't want certainly a big headline with you as saying something that's going to take the attention away from your teammates or what you're trying to do."
Brady said he thinks athletes in team sports sometimes selfishly draw attention to their own opinions and comments.
"When you're speaking publicly and you've got a lot of people listening I think it's probably in everyone's best interest in today's day and age to say as little as possible," Brady said. "That's just the way it is and I think the way our culture is right now. Everything is really out there."
Asked by the radio hosts whether his sentiments amounted to an endorsement, Brady said: "I've known him for a long time, he's been a fun guy that I've had a lot of time around." Trump's candidacy sparked a lot of stories and ratings were big for the Republican debates, he said.
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AP NFL
The Associated Press
KAMLOOPS, B.C. — He fed the cats, prepared a meal, shaved, showered and even took meat out of the freezer to thaw.
The only problem? Christopher Hiscock, 33, was not at home and didn't know the owners of a ranch where he became a bit too comfortable.
The Nova Scotia man pleaded guilty Monday to possession of stolen property and being unlawfully in a dwelling house stemming from a bizarre incident north of Kamloops, B.C.
Provincial court heard the residents of a ranch in Little Fort on the Yellowhead Highway returned home after a night out last week to find a stranger sitting on their couch with a cup of coffee.
“She found the accused in her home watching TV,” Crown lawyer Mike Wong said.
“He had started a fire in the fireplace and prepared himself a meal. He said he had been driving by and the door was open, so he came in.
Hiscock had also helped himself to a truck in Ontario on his way to British Columbia, court heard.
“The accused appears to have done some laundry. He also fed the cats and put out some hay for the horses,” Wong said. “He used (the residents') toothbrush and shaver, he had taken some meat out of the freezer to thaw and he had written in their diary.”
"Today was my first full day at the ranch," he wrote in the diary. "I fed the cats and horses. So much I can do here I have to remind myself to just relax and take my time.
"I don’t feel alone here, I guess with 2 cats and 3 horses it’s kinda hard to be alone. Last night I had a fire in the house. It was so (peaceful). I slept like a little baby.
I saw a picture in the basement on the wall of a man holding and weighing fish on a boat. Looking at him I realized we look a lot alike, but I think I’m more handsome."
The residents flagged down a passing police car and Hiscock was taken into custody.
Hiscock’s journey to B.C. started in his home province of Nova Scotia earlier this month. Court heard he drove his car from Nova Scotia to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where he stole a truck and headed west.
The stolen truck, which went missing on Sept. 16, was found on the Little Fort property.
Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate said Hiscock had been working seasonally for a swimming pool company but, sensing he would be laid off, decided to travel west in search of work.
“He quickly found that his funds were less than adequate and that led him to using the vehicle from Sault Ste. Marie to get out here,” Tate said. “By the time he got to B.C., you can imagine, he was without any funds at all and he saw an unoccupied home.”
Hiscock, who has no prior criminal record, apologized in court.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” he said. “There’s really no excuses for it.”
He was still beaming about his brief stay at the ranch.
“Beautiful ranch,” he said. “Gorgeous. I was driving and I just turned in. Beautiful place.”
Judge Chris Cleaveley placed Hiscock on a one-year probation term with orders barring him from contacting the residents of the ranch and the owner of the Ontario truck.
Hiscock will also have to surrender a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.
"I really have nowhere to go," he said, when Cleaveley asked about his plans.
“The woods is a good place, I suppose. There’s a lot of fish out there.” (Kamloops This Week)
Tim Petruk, Kamloops This Week, The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Robert Marve has retired.
Marve made cited health concerns as the reason for his decision. He suffered a season-ending knee injury while filling in for banged-up starter Drew Willy.
"After consulting with my doctors, and contemplating my future, and life after football, I have made the decision to retire from this great game," Marve said in a statement. "I would like to thank the great fans of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and this organization, who have supported me through this process. I'll deeply miss the on field competitiveness, but this is the right decision for me and my long term health."
Marve, 26, started two games this season after Willy suffered a knee injury on Aug. 9 in a 38-8 loss to Hamilton. He was replaced late in a 36-8 loss to Calgary, and the team later said he suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Marve had been troubled by serious knee injuries before joining the Bombers in 2014. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee three times in college.
The Canadian Press
The growing number of baby boomers entering the ranks of senior citizens has brought about a fundamental shift in Canada's demographic makeup, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
The agency said the number of Canadians aged 65 or older edge out the number of children under the age of 14, according to the most recent population figures.
StatsCan said seniors made up 16.1 per cent of Canada's population as of July 1, 2015, compared to 16.0 per cent for children between the ages of 0 and 14.
The shift was driven by a trend that took root in 2011 and has continued to accelerate — the aging of the baby boomers, or Canadians born between 1946 and 1965.
StatsCan said the population growth rate for Canadians over the age of 65 was 3.5 per cent, nearly quadrupling the national average of 0.9 per cent.
Baby boomers now account for 18 per cent of the senior demographic, the agency said.
Demographer David Foot said the latest figures still represent the early days of a trend that is likely to persist for at least a decade. StatsCan seems to agree, projecting that Canadians over the age of 65 will make up a fifth of the national population by 2024.
Foot said the most serious implication of this shift, namely an increased toll on Canada's health care system, won't be felt for some time.
"They're still fairly young seniors. They're in their late 60s," Foot said of the boomers. "Many of them are still working and paying taxes."
The aging of the Canadian population has also begun to make itself felt in provincial figures in recent years, with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador all reporting that deaths have begun to outpace births.
This aligns with StatsCan's latest figures, which found that Atlantic Canada had a higher proportion of Canadians over the age of 65. Seniors comprised 19 per cent of New Brunswick's population, making it the most aged province in the country. The most youthful region was Nunavut where just 3.7 per cent of the population are currently senior citizens.
While Canada's year-over-year population growth was the highest among G7 countries, StatsCan said the 0.9-per-cent increase was the smallest of its kind since 1998-99.
The slower pace was caused primarily by a drop in international migration growth, which slipped from 0.7 per cent in 2013-14 to 0.5 per cent this year.
The agency said 86 per cent of Canada's 35,851,800 residents were located in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press
BERN, Switzerland — Switzerland's justice ministry on Tuesday granted an American request to extradite former Costa Rican soccer federation president Eduardo Li in the FIFA bribery case.
Li was ousted from the FIFA executive committee two days before he could take up his seat after being arrested on May 27 in a dawn raid on a Zurich hotel along with six other football officials.
Li can appeal against the extradition order at Switzerland's federal criminal court within 30 days.
Costa Rica authorities have also opened an investigation against Li, who is accused by the U.S. of asking for a six-figure payment from marketing agency Traffic USA as part of an agreement for rights for Costa Rica's home qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. That deal was worth $2.55 million to $3 million, depending on the team's success, the U.S. indictment alleges.
"By accepting bribes for the award of sports marketing contracts, Li massively influenced the competitive situation and distorted the market for media rights in connection with the World Cup qualifying matches," the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement, referencing the extradition request.
A civil engineer and son of Chinese immigrants, Li became involved in football in 2004 after buying the franchise of a first division club in Costa Rica. He was credited with some of the recent successes of Costa Rica, including the national team's appearance in the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
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Online:
AP video of Li's arrest in May https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDJ6FKW-uoU&app=desktop
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Twenty-four people from the arts and sciences have won this year's "genius grant" awards from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The prize comes with $625,000 over the next five years that can be used any way the recipient likes.
The winners are:
__ Patrick Awuah, 50, Accra, Ghana. An educator and entrepreneur who founded a university in Ghana that teaches ethical principles and skills needed in contemporary Africa.
__ Kartik Chandran, 41, New York. Columbia University environmental engineer integrating microbial ecology, molecular biology and engineering to transform wastewater into useful resources such as fertilizers, energy sources and clean water.
__ Ta-Nehisi Coates, 39, Washington, D.C. Journalist and blogger who writes about issues such as racial identity, urban policing and racial bias.
__ Gary Cohen, 59, Reston, Virginia. Environmental health advocate and co-founder of Health Care Without Harm who has worked to reduce the amount of pollutants and hazardous waste produced and released into the environment by American hospitals.
__ Matthew Desmond, 35, Cambridge, Massachusetts. An urban sociologist at Harvard University, Desmond's work has revealed the impact of eviction on the urban poor and how eviction is not just a symptom of poverty, but a cause.
__ William Dichtel, 37, Ithaca, New York. A Cornell University chemist working to bring a new class of nanostructured materials out of laboratories and into daily use.
__ Michelle Dorrance, 36, New York. A dancer and choreographer reinvigorating tap dancing by combining its musicality with the intricacies of contemporary dance.
__ Nicole Eisenman, 50, New York. An artist whose paintings, sculptures and drawings explore such themes as gender and sexuality, family dynamics and the inequities of power and wealth.
__ LaToya Ruby Frazier, 33, Chicago. Photographer and video artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who uses visual autobiographies to capture the impact of economic decline and environmental degradation.
__ Ben Lerner, 36, New York. An English professor at Brooklyn College of the City College of New York, Lerner also is a novelist, poet and critic who has explored the relevance of the artist to modern culture.
__ Mimi Lien, 39, New York. A set designer for
__ Lin-Manuel Miranda, 35, New York. A playwright, composer and performer whose work fuses traditional storytelling with contemporary musical styles and whose most recent play, "Hamilton," is a Broadway sensation.
__ Dimitri Nakassis, 40, Toronto, Canada. A classicist at the University of Toronto, whose work is transforming the understanding of prehistoric Greek societies.
__ John Novembre, 37, Chicago. A computational biologist at the University of Chicago, Novembre's work has shed new light on the study of human evolution, migration and the cause of the genetic diseases.
__ Christopher Re, 36, Stanford, California. Stanford University computer scientist, who has created an inference engine, DeepDive, that can analyze data in a way that is beyond the capabilities of traditional databases.
__ Marina Rustow, 46, Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University historian whose work has shed new light on lives of Jews and the broader society of the medieval Middle East.
__ Juan Salgado, 46, Chicago. President and CEO of Instituto del Progresso Latino, Salado has pioneered an education helps immigrants learn the skills they need for higher paying manufacturing and health career jobs.
__ Beth Stevens, 45, Boston. A neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, Stevens' research has triggered a major shift in thinking about neuron communication in the healthy brain and the origins of adult neurological diseases.
__ Lorenz Studer, 49, New York. A stem cell biologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Studer has pioneered research that could provide treatment for Parkinson's disease and perhaps other neurodegenerative diseases.
__ Alex Truesdell, 59, New York. An adaptive designer and fabricator, Truesdell has created low-tech and affordable tools and furniture out of such materials as cardboard and glue for children with disabilities.
__ Basil Twist, 46, New York. A puppeteer and
__ Ellen Bryant Voigt, 72, Cabot, Vermont. A poet whose work is known for its distinctive musical quality, Voigt explores will, fate, and life cycles of the natural world.
__ Heidi Williams, 34, Cambridge, Massachusetts. An economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Williams has explored the causes and consequences of innovation in health care markets.
__ Peidong Yang, 44, Berkeley, California. An inorganic chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, Yang is seeking to transform the field of semiconductor nanowires and nanowire photonics.
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Online:
www.macfound.org
The Associated Press
ZURICH — Four years after stepping down in disgrace, former FIFA
Warner, a long-time ally of President Sepp Blatter who was allowed to resign from FIFA in 2011 with his "presumption of innocence" maintained, is currently fighting extradition from Trinidad and Tobago on U.S. charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering.
The decision by the FIFA ethics committee on Tuesday shows that judge Hans-Joachim Eckert will pursue officials long after they have left their jobs.
A more pressing case for the ethics body is an investigation into Blatter, who was interrogated by Swiss prosecutors on Friday in part over allegations he undervalued the awarding of World Cup television rights to Warner. Blatter, who denies wrongdoing, is at risk of being suspended by his own organization.
Warner's lifetime FIFA ban stems from Eckert's report on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
As leader of the CONCACAF region from 1990-2011, Warner gained considerable influence in World Cup votes by the FIFA executive committee and now the extent of his wrongdoing has been reinforced by Eckert.
"Mr. Warner was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF," the FIFA statement said.
"In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes."
The case highlights how the
Former FIFA
With Blatter under criminal investigation and general secretary Jerome Valcke suspended from work and being investigated by the ethics committee, Chung said FIFA is in "total meltdown."
"Under such circumstances, FIFA and regional confederations should consider convening extraordinary sessions of their respective executive committee(s) as well as congress to set-up an emergency task force that will enable FIFA secretariat to function without interruption," Chung, a former
Among Chung's potential rivals in February's election is UEFA President Michel Platini, who has been questioned as a witness over a payment from FIFA — one of the reasons Blatter was interrogated on Friday by Swiss authorities. Blatter and Platini denied wrongdoing as they await news from the ethics committee, which is looking into the case.
FIFA is expected to hold an election on Feb. 26 to replace Blatter, who delivered his sudden resignation statement in June, four days after being re-elected for a fifth term.
"FIFA is currently facing an unprecedented crisis," said Chung, a billionaire businessman and member of the family that founded Hyundai. "However, this is also an unprecedented opportunity to reform it. If all those who love football can bring their collective wisdom to bear on reforming FIFA, it will be possible to save and revitalize it.
"The most urgent task at hand is to root out corruption from within FIFA."
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Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and www.facebook.com/RobHarrisReports
Rob Harris, The Associated Press
CHICAGO — A tap dancer who has spent her life demanding respect for an overlooked art form. A writer at the
They are among the 24 winners of this year's "genius grants," each to receive US$625,000 over five years to spend any way he or she wants, no strings attached, thanks to the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Each of them found out in recent weeks through a phone call out of the blue.
University of Toronto associate professor Dimitri Nakassis was chosen for his work studying prehistoric Greek societies.
"You think it's a prank until you hear everyone on the (conference) call describing your work," said Matthew Desmond, the sociologist, who works at Harvard University.
Some have gained fame and fortune for their work that, in the case of Ta-Nehisi Coates, landed him atop
Others come from worlds little understood outside their fields. For them, the award is a reminder that what they are doing is important — and the money may just help keep what they do alive.
"I can finally pay my debts that I have to create what I have created," said Michelle Dorrance, a tap dancer and choreographer. "But what is so much more important is this will turn heads toward this art form."
Kartik Chandran said he sees his grant as validation for something bigger than his work as an environmental engineer at Columbia University turning wastewater from a pollutant into a valuable resource. It is recognition, he said, that something must be done about the many millions of people without clean water.
Maybe, said Matthew Desmond, the Harvard sociologist, the work he's done can remind people that there are human beings behind statistics and quiet tragedies going on around them.
Evictions "used to be so rare that they used to draw crowds," he said. "Now families have grown used to the rumble of moving trucks early in the morning."
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Online:
www.macfound.org
Don Babwin, The Associated Press
