WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
11
YUKON NEWS
Robocaller Michael Sona out on bail pending appeal of election fraud conviction as long, if not longer, than the nine-month jail term itself. “In this case – a case of a TORONTO sentencing without precedent ichael Sona, the former and where there are arguable Conservative staffer con- grounds of appeal – Mr. Sona victed last month in the 2011 ought to have an opportunity robocalls scandal, has been to have this court consider the granted bail pending an appeal fitness of his sentence before he of his conviction and sentence. is required to serve it,” LaForme Crown lawyer Nick Devlin wrote. confirmed the Ontario Court “The novelty of this case of Appeal decision Monday. makes it more difficult for the The Crown contested Sona’s Crown to show that the appeal bail application last week, but is frivolous.” agreed it would be worthwhile Sona was the only person for the Appeals Court to review to be charged after some 6,700 whether his nine-month senautomated phone calls were tence was appropriate. placed on the morning of the Sona was released on 2011 federal election with $20,000 bail and was ordered to misleading information on how remain in Canada, not possess to vote. any weapons, or consume ilSona had been in jail since legal drugs. He must notify the Nov. 19, when he was convicted court if he plans to move from under the Canada Elections Act his Ottawa apartment. of wilfully preventing or endeaThe bail hearing focused vouring to prevent an elector only on Sona’s intention to ap- from voting. peal his sentence, although his Krongold argued Sona’s senlawyer Howard Krongold said tence was unnecessarily harsh, on Friday that he also plans to given that he’s already suffered contest the conviction. considerably in the aftermath Appeal Court Justice Harry of his arrest. LaForme said in his decision As a young first-time ofthat he granted Sona bail befender with good rehabilitacause the process of appealing tion prospects, Sona deserved the sentence could take almost a shorter jail term, he argued, Michael Oliveira Canadian Press
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noting that Sona’s life has been turned upside down and irreparably damaged by the charges and the trial, to say nothing of the conviction. LaForme agreed that Sona has had to endure more stress than the typical first-time offender. “Mr. Sona has been subjected to more than the usual ignominy of a public trial and conviction,” he wrote. “Most youthful first-time offenders enjoy some measure of obscurity; Mr. Sona’s trial has been fervently covered by the national media. Given the serious offence he committed, I am not being critical when I make this observation.” Krongold also said he intends to argue that Sona was punished for not showing any remorse during his trial, although he maintains he’s innocent. In a statement issued through a friend and posted to Twitter on the day he was sentenced, Sona continued to insist
he had “no involvement in the fraudulent phone calls.” “Furthermore, although I have suspicions based on media reports I’ve read, as other Ca-
nadians do, I have no (personal) knowledge who on the … campaign was responsible for these fraudulent phone calls,” the statement said.
Northern Lights School of Dance and the Youth of Dawson City presents:
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The Yukon home of
KWANLIN DÜN LAND VISION PROJECT
Wildlife ~ Heritage ~ Traditional activities ~ Land for residential use ~ Economic development ..
Project Introduction The intent of establishing a vision for Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) lands is to ensure that there is a consistent approach to the planning, management and use of settlement land based on the values of the Kwanlin Dün community.
Kwanlin Dün Citizens are invited come out to the following sessions and have your say! Community meeting: project introduction December 8 5:30pm – 8:30pm Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre
Workshop #1 January 24 10am - 4pm Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre
Workshop #2 February 7 10am - 4pm Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre
Meals will be served at each meeting and rides are available. Call Tammy Joe for more information at 633-7866.
Community meeting: review draft vision March 10 5:30pm – 8:30pm 1¢NZ¦Wȇ¢ .ĵɣ Potlatch House
12
YUKON NEWS
Winter wildlife
Whitehorse photographer Peter Mather has been working on a long-term project to document the wildlife of the Kluane region during the winter months. Here’s a taste of his work so far.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
13
YUKON NEWS
Experts revise extinction theory as mastodon bones older than thought Terri Theodore Canadian Press
VANCOUVER cientists who re-examined the fossils of mastodons that once roamed what is now the Yukon and Alaska have changed their thinking and now believe global cooling probably wiped out the ancient cousin of the elephant. Earlier estimates dated the mastodon bones at about 14,000 years old, but a paleontologist in the Yukon Paleontology Program says radiocarbon dating now puts the fossils at about 75,000 years old. Grant Zazula says that instead of dying off at the end of the ice age as first believed, mastodons are more likely to have migrated to the area during a warming trend. He says scientists always believed the dating of the fossils was suspect because it placed the animals in a time interval when it was incredibly cold in the north – at the height of the last ice age. “We know that mastodons – which are relatives of mammoths and elephants – are not really well adapted to cold conditions because their behaviour and their preferred habitats are forests. They eat forests-type plants,” Zazula said. Experts have always debated what drove so many of the
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Brennan Linsley/AP Photo
Paleontologists work near ancient mastodon bones on a shelf inside a workroom at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science last week.
animals to extinction around the same time. One theory is that when humans moved in, they hunted the animals to extinction. Another theory suggests climate change at the end of the ice age wiped out dozens of species.
But the dating of the mammoth bones pre-dates both those occurrences, Zazula said. “We actually learned – based on what we know of mastodons’ preferred habitat – they were actually probably killed off by global cooling, rather than global
warming.” Zazula said temperatures before the extinction were probably close to conditions we have today. “A number of these animals, mastodons specifically, migrated northwards, established populations and then they were subse-
quently wiped out because it got cold again.” The discovery is another piece in the puzzle over the disappearance of the massive creatures. It also raises more questions about the extinction of other animals presumed to have been part of an extensive dieoff at the end of the ice age, Zazula said. “There were periods in the past where populations were dying off because of other variables like cooling or warming. It wasn’t one massive extinction at the end of the ice age. Rather it was sort of a punctuated process through time.” He said there are interesting similarities between now and warm periods in between past ice ages. “We know with warming temperatures today, there are animals migrating northward as well. It provides a really interesting comparison from the fossil record of how these animals respond to global warming events.” He noted cougars and certain deer have been showing up in Yukon, something that hasn’t been seen before. Zazula was the lead author of a mastodon study published this week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gas prices tumbling along with crude oil, but lower Canadian dollar is a headwind Canadian Press
CALGARY ith the price of crude plunging to its lowest level more than four and a half years, consumers are benefiting at the gas pump, but the savings are being dampened somewhat by a weaker dollar and other factors, according to an energy expert. Roger McKnight, with En-Pro International in Oshawa, Ont., says motorists across the country are enjoying lower prices, though differing tax structures and market dynamics mean some are paying much more than others. The average price for a litre of gas in Edmonton now is at around 96 cents, according to Gasbuddy. com and some stations in Calgary were posting sub-dollar prices too. “On Sunday you’re probably going to see a drop of about three cents. That will put Ottawa, believe it or not, below a dollar,” he said. At the higher end, Montreal was seeing average gas prices of $1.24 per litre and Vancouver was at $1.21. McKnight said foreign exchange swings are a headwind for Canadian consumers, as energy products tend to be bought and
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sold in U.S. dollars. On Friday, the loonie was at 87 cents against the U.S. dollar. And oil companies that have operations in both oilfields and refineries will be looking to bolster their profit margins. “I just don’t know how much longer the oil companies can handle that because I think the refining margins must be getting rather narrow,” McKnight said. “If they start hurting in the upstream with this crude oil price war going on, they’re going to compensate for that by not passing on as much reductions on the downstream, so the consumer won’t see as much happening that way.” The price of U.S. benchmark crude – used to make gasoline and other products – is down by more than a third since the summer and closed down a whopping $7.54 at US.$66.15 a barrel on Friday. And with the decision Thursday by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep output at 30 million barrels a day rather than cut back and put a floor under prices, there’s not much to buoy crude in the near term. McKnight called OPEC’s deci-
sion to stand pat a “shot across the oil firms were taking a hit after the bow” aimed at North American OPEC decision. On Thursday, the shale oil producers, who have Toronto Stock Exchange’s energy added significant volumes to the market. But he said he can’t see OPEC Thank you keeping up its levels indefinitely. “I think OPEC is going to have for the an emergency meeting within conversations three months because nine of the 12 members of OPEC need ... US$100 a barrel to balance their budgets and provide social services Have you noticed I for their people. So I can’t see this haven’t been there for going on much longer.” The share prices of Canadian the past few weeks?
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index was off nearly seven per cent, and on Friday it lost further two per cent.
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YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Canada’s clean energy sector growing quickly as investment jumps: study Bruce Cheadle Canadian Press
OTTAWA anadian investments in clean energy totalled $6.5 billion last year, a 45 per cent increase from 2012, according to a new study released Tuesday. More than half the Canadian investment – $3.6 billion – went into wind power, with another $2.5 billion invested in the solar sector, says Clean Energy Canada, an advocacy and research organization. The investment spike moved Canada up to seventh place among the Group of 20 industrialized nations, from 12th spot a year earlier. “We hear a lot of talk about pipelines and the oil and gas sector,” Merran Smith, the director of Clean Energy Canada, said in an interview. “What we don’t hear is that Canada’s actually gone from a boutique clean energy industry to really big business.” Over the past five years, $24 billion has been invested in clean energy, and the sector now accounts for almost 24,000 direct jobs, a total that includes manufacturing but not construction employment. The report comes as Canadian officials begin two weeks of meetings in Lima, Peru, on the United Nations framework convention on climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising again in Canada, according to Environment Canada projections, and the country will not come close to meeting its 2020 international target for curbing emissions under the 2009 Copenhagen accord. The talks in Lima are part of negotiations for a post2020 international agreement that
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Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Wind turbines generate power on Dalhousie Mountain, N.S. in 2010.
is supposed to be completed next December. The UN talks were given a jolt of adrenalin last month when the United States and China, the world’s two biggest emitters, announced a bilateral deal to curb emissions through 2030. Both the Chinese and U.S. governments are investing heavily
in renewables. “There’s a clean energy transition underway globally already, and they’re backing their clean energy industries,” said Smith. What makes the Canadian investment story more compelling is that it’s happening without much federal government interest. Private sector financiers –
many from abroad – and provincial governments are driving the investment boom. Of the top five financiers of clean energy in Canada over the past five years, investing $3.44 billion among them, two are Japanese, two are German and just one is Canadian, says the study. Clean Energy Canada would
like to see a federal industrial policy, based on tax and research incentives, like the one that helped Canada’s aerospace and oil sands industries in their infancy. “If the federal government got engaged we could be a real world leader in clean energy,” said Smith. “But the federal government is really missing in action.”
Oldest Canadian, Merle Barwis, dies at 113 Amy Smart
oldest-person title for almost two years died Nov. 22. Her grandson Terry Barwis, 65, VICTORIA a resident of the nearby comanada’s oldest person who munity of Sooke, said she had was known for celebrating few tips to share with her family her birthday with a cold beer has about longevity. died just one month and one day “She said there’s nothing you shy of her 114th birthday. can do about it,” he said. “If you’re Merle Barwis lived at The old, you’re old. And if you’re Priory residential care facility young, you’re young.” in Victoria, B.C., and held the Variations of her favourite Canadian Press
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piece of advice included, “Mind your own business and don’t worry about too much.” Merle was born Dec. 23, 1900, in Des Moines, Iowa. Her father was a horse rancher and she moved to Abbey, Sask., in her teens. She met a ranch hand, Dewey Barwis, at a dance and they married in her parents’ parlour. Dewey got a job as a train station agent and the couple moved around Western Canada with their three children. Merle, who was often left alone with the kids, learned how to stretch a dollar. “I know sometimes she did without, so that we could have things,” said her daughter Esther Gaff, 88, from Medicine Hat, Alta. In 1952, Merle and Dewey retired to Sooke, where their son
lived. Dewey died in 1966 and Merle never remarried. Terry remembered waking up early Christmas mornings and seeing a light on at his grandmother’s house, which was on the same property. He and brother Richard spent the early morning there – Merle always had coffee on next to her bed – until their parents awoke. His daughter Tara, now 41, phoned Merle every day after school for a full report on the soap operas. “She called a spade a spade. But she was very loving – not in a mushy way, but hard loving. Like, ‘I love you and that’s that,”’ Tara said. Merle loved to bake, said her grandson Richard. But she also got a kick out of ordering cakes out of the Sears catalogue, Tara
said. Merle took pleasure in the simple joys of life. In her 90s, Terry said, she liked cutting the grass. “She cut half the lawn, sat down and had a cold beer, then cut the other half after she finished her bottle,” Terry said. She was pleased when she learned she was the oldest Canadian at age 112, Richard said. “She thought that was pretty good. I asked if she wanted the prime minister (Stephen Harper) to come, and she said, ‘I don’t want anything to do with Trudeau,”’ he said. Both of Merle’s parents lived into their 90s and she had a sister who lived to be over 100. Merle outlived her two sons and two of her 10 grandchildren. She had 17 great grandchildren.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
15
YUKON NEWS
Whitehorse Lions 59 Annual th
TV Auction
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16
YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Old Alberta wells that fail standards raise fears; critics seek tougher rules away.” mothball wells for years and even Under the regulator’s new prodecades without having to spend the gram, operators have to bring at least money to clean them up. EDMONTON “They can keep the well inactive as 20 per cent of their non-compliant ew research is raising concern wells up to snuff annually. long as they want. The longer a well about tens of thousands of dorMany of those wells are nonsits inactive the more the likelihood mant Alberta oil wells that don’t meet that you could have some sort of compliant because the operator hasn’t even minimum safety standards. done the paperwork, said David wellbore issue. The Alberta Energy Regulator Hardie, the regulator’s senior adviser “Some of these wells have sat for has begun a program that it says will on closure and liabilities. 15 or 20 years.” result in all wells meeting those mini“The well might be just fine, just Besides the environmental risk, mums within five years. the suspended wells are also a risk for that the company hasn’t reported it But critics say those standards to us.” landowners. amount to little more than a locked The program is to be strongly “The banks want protection that gate and a few signs. They want firm enforced by inspectors in the field. you’re not going to get nailed with timelines to force companies to clean a million-dollar cleanup when you But it won’t move wells along from up old well sites – some of which suspended to abandoned to fully buy a property,” said Don Bester of have been sitting unused for decades reclaimed. the Alberta Surface Rights Associa– before the liability winds up with “It’s not within the AER’s regulation, which advocates for landowners. taxpayers. tory authority to create timelines for “Same as the seller – he has to do an “Unless timely action is taken to environmental assessment to provide that,” said Anita Lewis, also a closure ensure that oil companies deal with and liabilities adviser. “That actuto the buyer. their liabilities while they still have the “If I’ve got a contaminated site on ally falls under government policy financial capability to do so, the reality my place, where do you think the buy- perspective.” will be that either the taxpayer is going ers are going to run to? Completely Alberta Environment spokesman to be on the hook or the landowner will be stuck with the problem,” said Keith Wilson, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of landowners against the energy industry. Since 2007, inactive wells in Alberta must be fenced, locked, signed and YUKON LAND USE PLANNING COUNCIL tested to ensure they don’t leak. For most “suspended” wells, no cleanup is required. But in the report, Barry Robinson of the environmental law group Ecojustice points to recent figures from the regulator that acknowledge 37,000 inactive wells in Alberta don’t meet those minimum standards. Of those, at least 3,300 also have wellbore 201-307 Jarvis Street, Whitehorse, Y.T. integrity problems. Alberta has 80,000 inactive wells 867-667-7397 in total, a number that is increasing We look forward to as the pace of abandonment outstrips seeing you there!!! that of reclamation. Worse, said Robinson, regulations designed to allow operators to bring wells into and out of production as markets require are being used to Bob Weber
Canadian Press
N
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4:00 to 6:00 PM Friday, December 12, 2014
Jason Maloney said the government will consider such timelines as part of policy reviews planned in 2015. “We’re working with stakeholders,” he said. “That will be explored.” Discussions will include industry, non-governmental groups, academics, First Nations and municipalities, he said. Other jurisdictions force operators to clean up a well after a certain period of inactivity, said Robinson. In Colorado, a well can only be suspended for a maximum of six months. After that, an operator must explain why an extension is necessary. Unless special circumstances apply, a well must be fully remediated with 18
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months after becoming inactive. Colorado’s ratio of active to inactive wells is 18 to one. In Alberta, the ratio is three to one. “That seems to be a process that works in some jurisdictions,” Robinson said. Wilson said Alberta’s current rules only postpone the inevitable – perhaps until it’s too late. “You have to clean these wells up while the cash is available in the oil companies to do so,” he said. “If they pay out all of their value in dividends and disposing of assets to shareholders without first cleaning up their liabilities, then who’s going to be left to deal with the liability?”
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
17
YUKON NEWS
Scarred, poisoned wasteland highlights Peru’s challenges in halting deforestation Rodrigo Abd And Frank Bajak Associated Press
TAMBOPATA, PERU decade of illegal gold mining has transformed large areas of virgin Peruvian rainforest into pocked, denuded, mercury-poisoned wastelands. Excavations to separate gold flecks from tons of earth have left holes big enough to swallow a half-dozen buses. Mercury, a neurotoxin used to bind the gold, pervades the local food chain, reaching humans through the fish they eat. The ruined lands scar the southeastern region of Madre de Dios, a mecca of biodiversity whose natural marvels lure ecotourists and where several tribes live in voluntary isolation. Thousands of people have left the region in recent months as the government has cracked down on illegal mining, dynamiting mining machinery, dismantling brothels and cutting off gasoline supplies. Illegal mining is the No. 2 cause of deforestation in Peru, after clear-cutting for agriculture, Environmental Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said on the eve of the Dec. 1-12 U.N. climate conference
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Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo
Policemen stand guard on the perimeter of a crater created by gold mining activities in La Pampa, in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Peru sent a battalion of police into its southeastern jungles to dismantle illegal gold-mining camps, just weeks before the global climate talks that the country is hosting.
that his nation is hosting. “It is terrible for the nearly irremediable wounds it causes to the forest,” he said. Peru is more than 60 per cent rainforest and only Brazil has a larger share of the Amazon jungle, whose preservation is vital to mitigating global damage from climate change. Deforestation and land conversion account for about 40 per cent of Peru’s greenhouse gas emis-
sions. The country has vowed to halt deforestation by 2021, and Norway in September pledged $300 million toward that goal. Yet Peru’s stewardship of its rainforest has been questioned by environmentalists, and deforestation appears to be on the rise. University of Maryland scientist Matthew Hansen, who tracks deforestation globally, said preliminary data indicates Peru lost an average of 770 square miles
(1,995 square kilometres) of forest annually over the past two years, up from 490 square miles (1,270 square kilometres) a year during the previous decade. As part of the agreement with Norway on halting deforestation, Peru said it would grant native communities ownership of a total of 19,300 square miles (5 million hectares). Environmentalists argue that native communities are better stewards of the world’s forests than
governments or private interests but say successive Peruvian government have been stingy for the past two decades in granting titles. Granting that much land to the more than 600 native communities that seek titles will not be easy. Regional governments, many of which have turned a blind eye to deforestation-related corruption and illegal logging, were given jurisdiction over land titling in 2008.
Corner Gas: The Movie a bittersweet ending for stars of the beloved sitcom Laura Kane Canadian Press
TORONTO hen the pumps closed at Corner Gas five years ago, the end of the beloved CTV sitcom was an emotional time for its close-knit cast. Now that Corner Gas: The Movie is set to hit theatres, stars including Brent Butt, Nancy Robertson and Gabrielle Miller say it’s bittersweet to face the end once again. “It was tough this time around,” said Lorne Cardinal, who plays simpleminded police officer Davis Quinton. “I took a selfie of myself in front of the gas station, in front of the ‘Corner Gas’ sign, and I got really weepy. I spent 10 years here with all my good friends. And now I have to leave again.” The movie picks up five years after fans last saw the Corner Gas gang, and little has changed in Dog River. But when Brent and his pals discover their sleepy Saskatchewan town is broke, a greedy corporate giant swoops in to capitalize on their misfortune. Filmed in Rouleau, Sask., this summer, Corner Gas: The Movie will screen in select Cineplex theatres across Canada from Wednesday to Sunday. Fans can visit cornergasthemovie.com to buy tickets or check local listings. Butt, the creator and star of Corner Gas, said one of the themes of the show is that nothing ever changes in Dog River. In the movie, the well-
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known cast of characters – gas station attendant Brent Leroy, his sidekick Wanda Dollard (Robertson), coffee shop owner Lacey Burrows (Miller) – are the same as always. “They’re almost frozen in time,” he said. “I think there’s comfort to knowing that or feeling that in Dog River, Sask., in this town that you watch every week on TV, nothing changes. You can come back at any time and they’re all going to be there hanging out.” But even while bringing back the characters fans loved, Butt knew he had to elevate the storyline for film. He spent years reworking the script, which was co-written by Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggit. “It’s a tightrope to walk,” he said. “You don’t want to change it so much, because (fans) like Corner Gas, they want to see Corner Gas. But you can’t just make it be a long episode. You have to raise the stakes.” After the movie’s theatrical run, it will air on The Movie Network Dec. 8, on CTV and CTV Two Dec. 17 and on The Comedy Network Dec. 22. The DVD will be released before the holidays. During recent interviews in Toronto, the cast was jovial and wisecracking. But when asked about how the movie perhaps marks the end of Corner Gas, all became earnest and reflective. In Butt’s mind, the people of Dog River will always be there, going about
their business and getting into trouble, he said. “In a way, it doesn’t feel like an end. It just feels like we’ve turned the cameras off and walked away. But that’s still all going on,” he said. Robertson, who is Butt’s real-life spouse, said she was grateful to have a second chance to say goodbye. When filming on the series wrapped, everyone was exhausted at the end of a four-month shoot, she said. So when the cast returned to Rouleau in June to film the movie, they made a point of being “present” and appreciating their surroundings. “This was the nicest month I’ve spent,” said Robertson. “If this is the end of it, then the wind-up couldn’t have been nicer. But we’ll always be a part of each other’s lives. As corny as that sounds, it’s true.” Fans were also constantly on set during the month-long shoot, in part because of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign – which raised more than $285,000 – that featured rewards like set visits and walk-on roles. “It’s really nice to run into fans at the airport or grocery shopping, but having the experience of them being in
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Dog River with us in that environment was lovely,” said Miller. Fred Ewanuick, who plays the perpetually unemployed, slow-witted Hank Yarbo, said it helped to get a daily reminder of who they were making the movie for. “Sometimes you get caught up in the world of shooting the film or TV or whatever you’re working on, and you forget that you’re actually making it for an audience,” he said. “It’s nice to
work on something that people enjoy and to be reminded of that is like a selfish kind of natural high that you get.” Ewanuick compared returning to Corner Gas to being reunited with an old friend. “That show to me is like a friend in your life that can go away for long periods of time, but when you come back, it’s like, ‘Yup, right back into it. Great, happy to have you around.”’
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YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Alistair Maitland/Yukon News
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A Saturn sedan collided with a Chevrolet minivan just after 5 p.m. Monday evening on the Alaska Highway near Sumanik Drive. Firefighters extricated a 49-year-old woman driver from the van. Paramedics took the woman and the 29-year-old male driver of the Saturn to hospital. The woman was later medevaced to Vancouver. The severity of the Saturn driver’s injuries remain unclear. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to have caused the crash.
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19
YUKON NEWS
LIFE How Clancy the cat became a Klondiker
Alice Thompson/Yukon News
Clancy, originally from Penticton, B.C., disappeared in Dawson this past July while on a trip with his owner. The cat was found last month and is recovering at the Dawson City Humane Society.
– Bill driving and Clancy riding shotgun – and headed north from their home in Penticton, B.C. f Jack London had decided to It wasn’t their first trip North write about a rough-and-tum- of 60. In 2013 they put 12,000 ble cat, he would have written kilometres on the RV, including a about a cat like Clancy. visit to Whitehorse. The orange tabby has They camped and travelled. crammed quite the explorer’s life Clancy has always been an into his five years. Most recently outdoor cat. He was taken off the he was found scrounging for streets of Penticton in 2012 before food in Dawson City, about four Burles decided to adopt him from months after he disappeared the local rescue group AlleyCats while visiting the area. Alliance. He’s a little tattered around the “He wasn’t the prettiest cat, edges now. His ears have pieces that’s for sure,” Burles remembers. missing from them, maybe from But Burles, whose dog had just foxes or possibly frostbite. died, decided to give Clancy a But his personality is intact, home. says Dani Thorne, shelter co-orThe two got along well. While dinator with the Humane Society camping with Burles, Clancy was Dawson. He purrs every time let out, but always returned home. someone opens his cage door. During the 2013 trip, Clancy Clancy heard the call of the wandered away once, but Burles wild back in May when he and was able to find him and trap his owner Bill Burles hopped in him. their camouflage-patterned RV But on that fateful day in July, Ashley Joannou News Reporter
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when Burles and Clancy were camping near the Bonanza Gold Motel, the cat wandered off and didn’t come home. Burles spent weeks looking for him. “I eventually thought, you know what, something’s got him.” Burles returned to B.C. without his travel buddy but not before filing a report with the local humane society. Fast forward to November. Thorne was at the shelter when she got a call from a woman who had found a stray cat. “He had been spotted in the Bonanza Gold Motel area for a few weeks now. I guess people had been trying to catch him,” she says. “But she just shook the food and was able to get him in her car in five minutes. He was so hungry he ripped open her bag of cat food.” The Good Samaritan was on her way out of Dawson, so
Thorne came by right away to pick up the cat. As shelter co-ordinator, she says she’s always in touch with Dawsonites who have lost their pets. No one local had reported an orange tabby cat missing. That’s when she started thinking about the tourist from months earlier. “I just sort of had that feeling, it was too much of a coincidence, same area, male tabby cat,” she says. A call to the AlleyCats Alliance for photo confirmation and a scan of the cat’s microchip confirmed his identity. Clancy had survived. Some might consider him an honourary Sourdough. Thorne admits it’s uncommon for a cat to survive out in the wild for so long. She calls the whole situation “absolutely insane.” It was a call Burles wasn’t expecting.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he says. He says Clancy is more than welcome to come back and live with him. It’ll be a few weeks before the cat is ready to travel. Aside from the damage from foxes and frostbite, Clancy had dirty eyes, ear mites and probably worms, Thorne says. But a once-over from the vet found no long-term damage. He’s sleeping and eating at the Dawson Humane Society for now. December van den Berg, president and co-founder of AlleyCats Alliance, says the group is fundraising right now to bring Clancy home to Penticton. Thorne is confident he’ll find a good home wherever he ends up. “He’s such a sweet cat... He’s remained pretty positive and lovely throughout this whole experience.” Contact Ashley Joannou at ashleyj@yukon-news.com
20
YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Gift Guide: Smart sports gear can measure crucial facets of your performance Ron Harris Associated Press
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22
YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Men, let the gloves come off before you shake hands accounts the URL for a website where interested parties can submit a request for an invitation. If you do not submit such a request, then they will assume you do not wish an invitation and will not by Judith waste money and paper by sending you one. Martin Since I get on Facebook maybe once every six months, I hadn’t seen this announcement, hence my ignorance. I guess I know what to do: If DEAR MISS MANNERS: Do I want an invitation – and I do – ladies remove gloves before shakthen I’ll have to submit my name. ing hands? What about gentlemen? It makes me feel weird, though. GENTLE READER: Why does This is my brother! We have a this question strike fear in Miss loving relationship. Surely he must Manners’ brave heart? assume I would want to celebrate She knows the answer to your this day with him? question, of course, and if you Do you think I would be out of will be patient for a moment, she line to just skip the online form will give it to you. But then she and call my brother directly to let will have to brace herself for the him know that I would very much onslaught of indignant reactions like to attend his wedding? Or from those who believe that any should I just suck it up and go to variation in expectations of ladies the sign-up website? and gentlemen, no matter how GENTLE READER: Admittedly, trivial, constitutes oppression. it is crude of your brother to reYou may notice that Miss quire people to request invitations Manners uses the term “ladies” to his wedding. He also commits here. She fails to see any conflict the common error of assuming between being a fervent feminist that the entire world is on Faceand being a lady – or a gentleman, book. Close, maybe, but he runs for that matter. the risk of omitting any relatives She also admits to a bit of fond- or friends who are not. ness for some of the social gestures But Miss Manners finds it that traditionally characterized astounding that you hesitate to let ladylike behavior. For example, your brother know that you want she is probably the last person on an invitation. How difficult would Earth to know that ladylike apit be simply to say to him directly, plause does not consist of smack- “Look, silly, of course I want to be ing the hands together vertically, invited to your wedding”? the way gentlemen clap. Rather, ladies should hold the left hand DEAR MISS MANNERS: palm up in a horizontal position When you are a guest at a family and hit the right hand against it. If member’s house, and the hostess the hands are slightly cupped, this overcooks the cinnamon rolls for can make a remarkable amount of breakfast, is there ever a way to noise. criticize her? Oh, and gentlemen must reGENTLE READER: So as to move gloves before shaking hands, avoid being invited back? That is but ladies need not. the only reason Miss Manners can think of, as no matter how you DEAR MISS MANNERS: My put it, you surely do not imagine brother announced a few months the lady will thank you and begin ago that he was engaged. We were another batch. delighted for his happiness and thrilled to meet his fiancee, who is DEAR MISS MANNERS: My a wonderful woman. wife and I had her family over We soon heard from family for dinner on a Sunday evening. what the wedding date would They came at 6:30. By 9:30 I was be, but have not yet received an tired. I’m a young man (31), but invitation. I assumed one would I’m a CPA, and it was my busy tax come eventually, but I was told season, when I need sleep for my by another family member that 60-65 hour weeks. I whispered in I was mistaken. Evidently what my wife’s ear that we should try my brother and his fiancee have to find an opportunity to let the done is to post on their Facebook party end, as my usual bedtime is
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10 to 10:30. My wife didn’t handle it gracefully, but her father seemed understanding. However, I heard the next day from my wife that my mother-in-law was upset that we “kicked them out.” Who is in the wrong here? I feel that 9:30 was late enough for a Sunday evening. If it was a Friday or Saturday, I would have been more willing to let the evening go longer. Who should apologize? GENTLE READER? You. While Miss Manners agrees that three hours is a reasonable amount of time for dinner, she must remind you that it is never polite to dismiss your guests. Departures, however much wished, should be made of their own volition. If you must entertain on a Sunday, plan for the evening to begin even earlier. Or when you issue the invitation, tell your relatives that you’re afraid that since it’s a work night, you won’t be able to stay up as long as you might otherwise like. If they still stay beyond your ability to stay awake, discreet yawns, surreptitiously checking the clock and occasional fits of narcolepsy are (marginally) allowed.
courages people from expressing their opinions. But on the other, for me to post a subsequent comment to those who agree with me – like “Thanks, you’re swell, too” – seems self-serving; for me to post a subsequent comment to those who disagree – like “I disagree; let me have the last word why” – is still more self-serving. I reply to those I know via private email, but many people don’t give contact info, since an email address on a website is an invitation for spam. What do you suggest? GENTLE READER: Too often the purpose of maintaining a blog appears to be to have the last word, so Miss Manners appreciates your modesty. But if your purpose is to foster dialogue, it seems only logical to allow dialogue. Replying politely to those who disagree with you will further your purpose more than thanking everyone who agrees with you.
much you hope she enjoys her trip. If you want to present her with a new outfit in addition, all the better. DEAR MISS MANNERS: Must every conversation become a job interview? People always seem to ask what I am doing, and I do not see a reason to tell them. Is there a polite response for people who see others as only their careers? GENTLE READER: Not if you mean a polite response that tells them to reorder their priorities. But a polite response need not actually answer the question. If you do not want to tell people what you do for a living, Miss Manners suggests that you tell them what you do for fun.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: In the past few years, I have been invited to baby showers that ask people to participate in a diaper raffle in addition to bringing a gift. Anyone who would like to brings a pack of diapers and then is entered into a DEAR MISS MANNERS: Our raffle for a prize. nanny has been with us for some I silently decline to participate, time now, and we just adore her. on the grounds that this comes She is everything you could want across as grabby. When I offered in someone who cares for your my opinion as graciously as possichildren – kind, attentive, patient ble on a social media site, I imme... I could go on. DEAR MISS MANNERS: Is it diately received numerous comShe is from another country OK for a gay coach to invite his ments from people who thought I soccer team of 16-year-old girls to and will be traveling in the next was the greedy one – among other few months back to see her famhis wedding? unpleasant comments. ily for the first time in almost a GENTLE READER: Certainly, So now I’m wondering if I’m decade. I am so excited for her provided he sends them all inoff base. What’s your take on diato get to see her own babies and dividual invitations, so that they per raffles, Miss Manners? grandbabies, and I want to do understand that being a guest at GENTLE READER: Miss something extra-special for her by a ceremonial occasion is not like Manners is happy to say that she way of taking her to get her hair showing up for a sports event. doesn’t have one. But she feels that Miss Manners is afraid that people and nails done, and maybe buy a she need hardly tell you that if nowadays do not always make that new outfit. you express an opinion on social I know that the amount of distinction. media, it will certainly be chalmoney I spend on her can go far lenged. Your first instinct – to stay DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have in her home country. If I offered always felt faintly ridiculous when- her the equivalent sum, I know she silent about a made-up ritual that would spend it on her family. She you find distasteful – was the corever someone proposes a toast, does so much for others and lives whereupon glasses are raised and rect one. pressure is applied to clink on each a very modest life in order to send and every glass remotely waved in more money back home. DEAR MISS MANNERS: If I Is it OK for me to insist that she encounter a celebrity whose stage my direction. Are toasts still considered good spend some time and money on name is different from his/her herself, just this once, or should form? Are they not a little trite? birth name, how should I address I offer her some cash and express And what does one do when at a him/her? What about celebrities long table where persons at oppo- my hope that she’ll do so? who go by only one name? GENTLE READER: That her site ends of the table can’t possibly GENTLE READER: If you are job includes telling the children clink on each other’s glass? being introduced to that person in how to behave does not make it a business situation, you use the yours to do the same for her. Miss stage name or names. If you have DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m not sure whether to reply to com- Manners believes that a kind, met socially, and the celebrity uses attentive employer restrains her ments on my blog. the birth name in private life, you impulse to make personal choices may use that. On the one hand, ignoring for her employees. You should reader comments entirely makes But Miss Manners suspects that offer her a bonus and say how the blog look one-sided and disyou are speaking of encountering that person in public, without an introduction. In that case, it would be more useful to know if that particular celebrity generally reacts to being addressed with a smile or a fist. The Fair Exchange Rate for the week of December 3, 2014 is:
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23
YUKON NEWS
Warriors log historic milestone at Yukon volleyball championships Tom Patrick
momentum going into the final. The Porter Creek team went undefeated in the tournament’s he F.H. Collins Warriors have round robin, dealing the Warriors finally gotten a monkey off their first loss of the season on their backs. Thursday. After coming close last year – “Our goal was to peak and play so darn close last year – the War- our best volleyball at the end of rior senior boys have achieved the the season, and throughout the team’s first Triple Crown in Yukon tournament we went 4-0 in the high school volleyball. round robin, so we beat every“This is a big win for the body – we were the only team to school, not just the team,” said beat F.H. Collins and they were Warriors head coach Denis Boyd. really good all year,” said Rams “F.H. hasn’t ever won the Triple head coach Derick Bilodeau. Crown, so we have the monkey “We didn’t play our best game off our back. F.H. is on the board today. But it’s a long weekend and it was a total team effort, so and our guys played their best I’m feeling pretty happy right volleyball this weekend and durnow.” ing the tournament, so I’m really The Warriors won the Dawson proud of them all. They are a Invitational Volleyball Tournagreat group of guys to coach and ment at the start of November. I’m happy with the outcome that They then won the Super Volley we got.” title, going undefeated during “We struggled as a group, we the Whitehorse league’s regular just didn’t have the killer atseason. titude,” said Boyd of Thursday’s They then pocketed the highly loss. “Porter Creek took our percoveted Triple Crown by winfect season away from us. So not ning the senior boys division at only did we want to get the Triple the Yukon Volleyball Champion- Crown – especially after coming ships at F.H. Collins Secondary on up short last year – we had someSaturday. thing to prove. Last season, the Warriors “We wanted to go out and achieved the first two, but then prove we were the best team and lost in the final of the champion- the guys did it.” ships to the Vanier Crusaders. After taking the lead at 13-12 “It’s really just a relief,” said in the first set, the Warriors Warriors power Max Clarke. “We reached set point on a kill from were expected to win the whole Tristan Sparks and then took the year and it’s just a relief to get it set on a kill from Clarke. over with. And considering last Then tied 3-3 in the second set, year’s disappointment, it’s just the Warriors took the lead a final really good to get that under our time on a kills from Peter Jacob, belts.” who later logged another to make The Warriors capped the it 18-11. The Warriors then went school’s standout season with a up 21-11 on three unreturned 25-19, 25-13 win over the Porter serves that came over the net like Creek Rams in Saturday’s final. knuckleballs from Tim Schirmer. Despite the Warriors’ suTwo more kills from Jacob premacy leading up the chammoved his team to 23-13 before they got match point on a missed pionships, the Rams had the News Reporter
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Porter Creek attack. Clarke, who was named Tournament MVP, finished off the Rams with thundering spike. “I thought the first set was interesting, in the second set PC sort of dropped off – their confidence was a little bit lower,” said Clarke. “But overall it was a pretty good game. “It was good revenge because we had lost to them (on Thursday).” Needless to say, the Warriors will attempt a second straight Triple Crown next season, but it won’t be easy. The team’s entire starting line – Clarke, Jacob, Schirmer, setter Ben Grundmanis, Sparks, Marcus Deuling, Allen Mark – will be graduating at the end of the school year. “Unfortunately we are losing our entire starting line-up, but we have a great group of guys, Grade 11s, coming up next year,” said Boyd. “We’re still going to have a very strong team.” “The juniors on the bench were really supportive; they’re a good group of guys to have on the team,” added Clarke. “They pushed us in practices and cheered during the games.” The Vanier Crusaders captured senior boys bronze at the championships with a win over Dawson City’s Robert Service Knights.
All-Stars Daniel Moses (Crusaders) Galen Clark (Knights) Jack Woodwalker (Rams) Trygg Jensen (Rams) Peter Jacob (Warriors) Ben Grundmanis (Warriors) MVP Max Clarke (Warriors) Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Warriors libero Allen Mark digs the ball early in the final.
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Top: F.H. Collins Warriors middle Etienne Geoffroy goes to block Porter Creek Rams’ Chance Goodman during the senior boys final of the Yukon Volleyball Championships at F.H. Collins Secondary on Saturday. The Warriors won the final and pocketed the school’s first Triple Crown. Below: Warriors middle Tristan Sparks goes to block Rams setter Trygg Jensen.
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YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Rams three-peat in senior girls division Tom Patrick News Reporter
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he Porter Creek Rams did it in threes this season. The team won the school’s third straight senior girls title at the Yukon Volleyball Championships at F.H. Collins Secondary on Saturday. The title also marked a Triple Crown for the school – another three. They already won the Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament – a third consecutive year – and Whitehorse’s Super Volley league. What they didn’t do in threes was win matches. The Rams went through the Yukon championship without a single match going to three sets; they won all of them in two. “We’re pretty proud of ourselves,” said Rams co-captain and tournament All-Star Sam Wintemute. “It’s pretty bittersweet for the seniors because it’s our last season, but finishing off with the Triple Crown couldn’t be any better.” “We started off as a group of individuals this season and we worked really hard to become a unit,” said Rams head coach Amy Palamar. “They brought all the skill that they individually have and mashed it all together and made the dream team.” The Rams capped the threepeat with a 25-15, 25-13 win over the Vanier Crusaders in the final. Porter Creek picked up steam as the final went on. After trailing in the beginning, the Rams caught the Crusaders at 8-8 and later went up 18-11 on four straight unreturned serves from setter Hannah Milner. Milner, who like Wintemute was playing in her final high school game, was named tournament MVP following the final. “I think the setter is the most important player on the court and she really sets up our offence very well,” said Wintemute. “And her serving was really on point this whole tournament and throughout the whole season.” “She’s a spectacular setter, she works really hard, she gets to the ball and makes good plays,” said Palamar. “She’s just an asset to the team.” The Rams claimed the first set on a service winner from co-captain Tayla NcNally and then a kill from Wintemute, her spike going off the net tape and over. Wintemute (whose jersey is No. 3) put her team off to a good start in the second, registering an ace in a four-point run. She put in another unreturned serve to make it 23-13. Following a missed Vanier attack, Rams’ Teah Dickson put in a big swinging kill into the corner for the win. Dickson was named Volleyball Yukon’s Female Athlete of the Year at the Sport Yukon Awards Night a couple weeks ago. “I think we were at the top of our game,” said Wintemute. “We weren’t beating up on ourselves.
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Porter Creek Rams co-captain Sam Wintemute spikes the ball during the senior girls final of the Yukon Volleyball Championships on Saturday at F.H. Collins Secondary. The Rams defeated the Vanier Crusaders in two sets.
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Vanier Crusader Olivia Smith looks to make a pass.
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Rams’ Teah Dickson bumps the ball as teammate Tayla McNally looks on during the final.
After every mistake we just moved strong.” on from it. Saturday’s win in the final “We couldn’t have played marked another three for Porter any better. We finished off very Creek. It was the Rams’ third
successful encounter with the Crusaders in a final this season, beating them in the final in Dawson, in Super Volley and now the Yukon championship. To Vanier’s credit, they dealt the Rams their only loss of the season during the Super Volley season. Dawson City’s Robert Service School Knights took the senior girls bronze with a win over the F.H. Collins Warriors.
All-Stars Olivia Holmes (Knights) Avery Bramadat (Warriors) Jiela Tobias (Crusaders) Chloe Turner-Davis (Crusaders) Sam Wintemute (Rams) Tayla McNally (Rams) MVP Hannah Milner (Rams) Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
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YUKON NEWS
Warrior junior girls go undefeated for gold
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
F.H. Collins Warriors setter Alice Frost dives for a dig during the junior girls final at the Yukon Volleyball Championships on Saturday at F.H. Collins Secondary. The Warriors defeated the Porter Creek Rams for gold.
Tom Patrick News Reporter
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he goal of every Yukon volleyball team is to peak at the seasonending territorial championships. Everything else – the Dawson invitational, the Whitehorse league – is just preparation. The F.H. Collins Warriors junior girls team achieved that goal. The Warriors went undefeated at the Yukon Volleyball Championships, beating the Porter Creek Rams in Saturday’s final at F.H. Collins Secondary. The Rams won the Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament, in which the Warriors didn’t even make the final. “It’s a little bit unexpected because we didn’t know what to expect coming into the tournament,” said Warriors head coach Peter Grundmanis. “All year long we’ve had 17 or 18 players, so in other tournaments and games we had different combinations of them … So the lineup for this tournament, we never had before. “After the first game, they played really well, and they just kept rolling.” The Warriors took the junior girls title and their fifth straight victory at the championship with a 25-16, 2426, 15-9 win over the Rams. The final was nearly a two-set affair. The Rams dispatched two match points for the Warriors to push the final to a third and deciding set. The Warriors reached match point at 24-22 on a kill from Maggie Brooks. However, a kill from Rams’ Kaitlin Organ, followed by three unreturned serves from Thea Carey, set the score at a set apiece. “I thought they did great, they worked their hardest, they played point for point, they fought the entire game,” said Rams co-head coach Brittany Milner. “They are an awesome
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
The Warriors celebrate their three-set win over the Rams for gold.
group of girls. They are amazing.” “Porter Creek played clutch at the end (of the second) and error-free ball, and made life a little more exciting for us,” said Grundmanis. Seemingly unfazed by the secondset comeback by the Rams, the Warriors came out hard in the third, going up 4-0 on a block from setter Alice Frost. Frost also made a block at match point for the win. During the third set, Warriors power Jayden Demchuk hit three consecutive kills and a few points
later registered an ace to put her team up 12-5. Demchuk, who is in Grade 9, was named Tournament MVP. “I was really excited about that,” said Demchuk. “All the hard work really paid off. “I know our setter Alice (Frost) did a great job playing, and she definitely set me up with some really good balls.” “Jayden just brings so much to the court,” said Grundmanis. “Everyone gets excited when she hits the big kill
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Porter Creek Rams’ Tasha Schwantz puts a free ball over the net.
and she really does do that. But she brings so much more to the court including her leadership, her passing and her defence. She really is such an outstanding player at such an early age.” The Warriors advanced to the final with a win over Dawson City’s Robert Service School Knights, who
went on to take the bronze with a three-set win over the Vanier Crusaders. “It’s a great way to end off the season and I think our team did super good with all our energy,” added Demchuk. Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
26
YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Dawson Knights claim gold at volleyball championships
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Members of Dawson City’s Robert Service School Knights celebrate their gold medal win at the Yukon Volleyball Championships on Saturday at F.H. Collins Secondary. The Knights defeated the Porter Creek Rams in the junior boys final.
Tom Patrick
respect each other and they’re in it together. It’s a team thing and today they pulled together.” ew gold medal wins are as The Knights came out really long in the making as the one strong in the opening set of the in the junior boys division at the final. After jumping out to a 4-0 Yukon Volleyball Championships lead, Dawson went on a nineon Saturday. point run on the serve of Caleb Dawson City’s Robert Service Verdonk to go up 15-4. The School Knights, who won gold, Rams chipped away at the deficit have been playing together since and caught up at 22-22 with a before they reached the high crafty tip by Jon Amos followed school level. by an unreturned serve from “We’ve known each other Amos. Rams’ Jarrett Peterson since we were six years old and then put away back-to-back kills we’ve never come apart from before teammate Robert Smalleach other,” said Knights cowood followed up with a kill of captain John Dagostin. his own for the set. “We keep our hopes up “We tend to start a little slow,” together, we always push each said Rams head coach Tara other to achieve greater goals. Wardle. “We get a little nervous That’s the benefit to this team, and get the best of ourselves … there’s only seven of us, but we’ve The more we talk the better we all known each other since we do, and unfortunately we were were kids.” a little quiet out on the court The Knights captured gold today.” with a 22-25, 25-17, 15-7 comeThe Knights got back on track from-behind win over the Porter in the second. They went on a Creek Rams in the gold medal five-point run on the serve of game at F.H. Collins Secondary. Dagostin to go up 8-1 and 10-3 It wasn’t the team’s first gold on an ace from middle Zach medal. The same Knights team Bartholomeus. Bartholomeus won gold in the Grade 8 division was named tournament MVP – with an all Grade 7 team – at following the final. the 2011 Yukon championships, “He’s got some big blocks, which was the last time the Daw- some timely hits and he really son school won a Yukon title. stepped up as a leader too,” said The next year, in Grade 8, the Laszlo. “It’s well deserving. He’s team won silver in the junior improved his game on and off boys division. the court.” “You look out on the court, The Knights got to within they know their positions and arm’s reach of the second set on they play them well,” said Knights a service winner from Dagostin, head coach Steve Laszlo. “They who plays middle, at 23-14. They are friends on and off the court. tied the match a set apiece on a After the game they’re not going kill from Will Connellan. off in every direction, they’re The Dawson crew took the hanging out with each other. So lead for the final time at 3-2 in they care for each other and they the third on a kill from Verdonk. News Reporter
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They then went up 13-6 on a kill from co-captain John Kilpin before the Rams were called on a double hit and missed a serve to end the match. “It’s special, it just doesn’t Tom Patrick/Yukon News happen every day for Dawson,” Knights co-captain John Kolpin goes for the kills against Porsaid Laszlo. “We’ve come to the ter Creek during the final. dance before, but we haven’t been able to close it. We were able to close today and it’s a good feeling.” The team is feeling “pretty great,” said Dagostin. “It’s been a while. We got silver last year at the (Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament) and we hungered for gold at this tournament.” The gold-winning Knights suffered just one loss at the championships, dropping a round robin game to the F.H. Collins Warriors, who went on to take bronze. Surprisingly, before the playoffs, the Rams went winless in four matches in the round robin. “We didn’t play well in the round robin at all,” said Wardle. “We’ve lost a number of players in the last week … It took us the round robin to find our chemistry again with the six out on the court.” The junior boys gold was one of three medals won by the Robert Service School Knights at this year’s championships. The Knights also won bronze in the junior girls and the senior girls divisions. Dawson also entered a Grade 9 team in the junior boys division that lost in the quarterfinal to fourth place’s Vanier CrusadTom Patrick/Yukon News ers. Porter Creek’s Zach Unruh, centre, and Jarrett Peterson go to Contact Tom Patrick at block Knights captain John Kolpin. tomp@yukon-news.com
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
27
YUKON NEWS
Nishikawa places 38th to open World Cup season
Felgenhauer/NordicFocus
Whitehorse’s Emily Nishikawa competes in the women’s 10-kilometre classic at the FIS World Cup in Ruka, Finland, on Sunday. Nishikawa placed 38th in the race to start the World Cup season.
Tom Patrick
Justina Kowalczyk of Poland, caught up to me just over halfway through the race, and I was able hitehorse’s Emily Nishikawa to hang on to her until the end of was just a few spots from a the race. This was a great expericareer best on Sunday – and it’s ence, and a confidence boost to just the start of the season. know that I can race with the The 25-year-old placed 38th in best.� a field on 76 skiers in the women’s Nishikawa, who was the only 10-kilometre classic at the FIS Canadian in the field, finished World Cup season opener in with a time of 28:31.1. Ruka, Finland. She was just four spots from a “I’m really happy to start my personal best World Cup placing. season off this way. This was a She placed 34th in a 15-kilometre great race for me, and I’m really skiathlon at a World Cup event in excited to build off this success,� Alberta in December 2012. said Nishikawa in an email to the “I was really close to getting News. into the top 30, and I’m very “One of the worlds best skiers, proud of the way I skied. The field News Reporter
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was incredibly deep, as this was the first World Cup of the season.� The national team skier placed fourth in a10-kilometre FIS race the previous weekend in Gallivare, Sweden. She is scheduled to compete at a second World Cup event this weekend in Lillehammer, Norway. Nishikawa, who raced for Canada at the Sochi Olympics early this year, was named International Female Athlete of the Year for a third year in a row at the Sport Yukon Awards Night a couple weeks ago in Whitehorse. Nishikawa was the first Yukon cross-country skier to compete at the Olympics since 1992. She led
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the Canadian team in two races in Sochi, topping out with a 42nd place finish in the 15-kilometre skiathlon. She finished the season with
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two gold and a silver at the Haywood Ski Nationals in March, placing second in aggregate open women. Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
28
YUKON NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
Wiggins makes the cut at nationals before excelling at Vegas pro-am Tom Patrick News Reporter
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hitehorse’s Jeff Wiggins has never missed a cut at a tournament in his professional career. The Mountain View Golf Club pro kept the string going at the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada in Fountain Hills, Arizona, two weeks ago. Wiggins was one of 70 golfers out of 108 to make the cut following two rounds. He finished tied for 58th. “There were a lot of great players who didn’t even make the cut,” said Wiggins. “So I kind of changed my goals. After the first two practice rounds, when we knew how fast the greens were and how difficult it was going to play, my initial goal was to make the cut. And I accomplished that, which is great.” “It was the most difficult golf course and conditions we’ve ever played the national championship on, and obviously the scores reflected it.” The 37-year-old finished the three rounds 22-over. The winner, Matt Peavoy of Peterborough, Ont., finished with a two-over-par, winning a playoff with a par. “That was the highest winning score ever in the championship,” said Wiggins.
“I don’t think anyone expected it to be that difficult. After we got a couple practice rounds in, it was unanimous among all the professionals, this was not going to be an easy task. “It was one of those tournaments where you had to know pars and bogeys were going to be great scores.” The club pro championships were held at Arizona’s Sunridge Canyon Golf Club, home of the “wicked six” – the nickname for the extremely challenging final six holes. In his “go for broke” third round, Wiggins finished with three double bogeys on the last three holes. Had he pared the last three, like he did in his second round, he would have moved up to 35th. “Coming into the last three holes I went, ‘I’m just going to fire at pins and see if I can get a few back here,’” said Wiggins. “I’m either going to strike it really good or I’m going to make some double bogeys, and it just so happened it was the latter.” “I went out there and gave it my best, and what a great experience,” he added. “It was a great championship to play because now I have even more experience that I can pass down to the amateur golfers in the territory that represent us at national events.”
Tom Patrick/Yukon News
Mountain View Golf Club pro Jeff Wiggins, seen here in August, made the cut at the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada two weeks ago in Arizona. Wiggins tied for 58th.
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Wiggins placed 27th last year and tied for 20th in 2011 at the nationals, then held in Florida. Following his stay in Arizona, Wiggins headed over to Las Vegas to meet up with a group of Mountain View golfers last week. Wiggins, Glen Slonski, Gary Hewitt, Sean Campbell and former Yukon champ Landon Kulych took part in the 15th annual Vegas Baby Pro Am. The Whitehorse team kicked off the four-day pro-am winning the first-day tournament with the low team score and Wiggins notched the low pro score of 73. The team then placed 11th in the three-day Stableford format event held at the Las Vegas Country Club, Cascata Golf Course and the Rio Secco Golf Club. “The courses were phenomenal,” said Wiggins. “We had a blast. “They were long days. We’d get up a six in the morning, be on buses at eight, shotguns at 10. So you weren’t getting back until 5:30 at night. By that time you were a little tuckered out, so you’d take a nap and then get up and eat. “So it wasn’t your typical Las Vegas trip: all shows and gambling.” Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
29
YUKON NEWS
Paslawski edged out of playoff spot at Travelers Championships Tom Patrick News Reporter
Y
ukon’s Team Paslawski was the most exemplary men’s team for the Travelers Club Curling Championship, last week in Halifax. The Paslawski rink traveled farther than any other in the men’s draw at the sixth annual event, formerly called the Dominion Curling Club Championships, held for club-level curling teams. But bonus points weren’t awarded for longest distance traveled. The Paslawski team, who was representing the Whitehorse Curling Club, went 3-3 and missed a spot in the playoffs. “We absolutely want to go back. It’s a great time,” said skip Pat Paslawski. “First and foremost, it’s a great party. And the level of curling there is better suited to the level that we’re at. “If we were to go to the Brier we’d get killed. So it’s nice to go there and compete for a national championship where we have a reasonable chance at winning some games.” The Paslawski team, which included third Doug Hamilton, second Trent Derkatch and lead Gary Brown, jumped out to a 3-1 record with wins over Northern Ontario, B.C. and N.W.T. They lost to Alberta, Manitoba and were eliminated with a 9-2 loss to New Brunswick on Thursday. “We were 3-2 and we had to win against New Brunswick,” said Paslawski. “I missed a shot and it was a five-point swing; instead of us getting four, we gave them one. That really took the wind out of our sails. If I made that shot it
Anil Mungal/Travelers
Team Yukon lead Gary Brown sends a shot down the ice at the Travelers Curling Club Championships last week in Halifax. Yukon’s men’s team went 3-3 at the championships.
would have been a very different game.” Paslawski, Hamilton and Derkatch, along with Alexx Peeach, won last year’s Yukon Men’s Curling Championships. The same four became the
first men’s rink from Yukon to reach the playoffs of the Travelers championships last year. They went 5-1 in the round-robin to make the semis, where they lost 5-1 to Saskatchewan. Yukon had less success on the
women’s side of the tournament. Team MacInnis, which was representing the Atlin Curling Club, went winless at 0-6. On board to represent the Atlin club were skip Sherry MacInnis, third Daniyel McNeil,
second Bev Murphy and lead Janis Harper, Their closest loss was 8-5 to Manitoba, who went on to reach Friday’s semifinal. Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
Reebok deal takes sport of mixed martial arts to a new level Neil Davidson Canadian Press
TORONTO he UFC has joined forces with Reebok on a six-year deal billed as the biggest nonbroadcast partnership in the history of the mixed martial arts organization. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta called the agreement “a seminal moment for this company and for this sport, taking it to another level.” The deal will change the way UFC fighters look. Instead of a mishmash of sponsors on shorts (or tops for women), they will wear gear with the Reebok logo with perhaps one title sponsor. “Think more along the lines of European soccer,” Fertitta said in a conference call prior to Tuesday’s announcement in New York.
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Any title sponsor on the Reebok gear will be “a major global brand,” promised Fertitta. “Just that alone is going to completely change the perception of the sport, the perception of the athletes, the level that where we’re at,” he added. “This is a true game-changer.” The new “athlete outfitting policy” will start in July 2015. Fertitta declined to detail the value of the Reebok deal but said “the vast majority if not all of the revenues” will go to the fighters in the beginning. The UFC hopes to dip into the revenue itself down the line as it grows. For the UFC, a partnership with Reebok adds legitimacy to combat sports. Indeed, it’s a far cry from condom and gun shop ads that used to adorn fighter butts. Fighters will be paid to wear the new gear on a per-fight basis. How much they get will be based
on their ranking the day of the weigh-in. Champions will make the most, with subsequent tiers for fighters ranked No, 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and those not ranked. Fighters will also get royalties on gear with their likeness. Previously fighters were essentially allowed to walk in wearing gear advertising their own sponsors. If their sponsor was not connected to the UFC and was of a certain size, it would have to pay the UFC an “affiliation fee.” Some elite fighters also shared in revenue from top UFC sponsors who elected to use them. Fighters also had their own deals. Light-heavyweight champion Jon (Bones) Jones, for example, has a deal with Nike. Former welterweight title-holder Georges St-Pierre had his own line with Affliction. Fighters can keep those sponsors although they won’t be able
to wear them into Octagon. “So no different than any other professional sports league,” said Fertitta. “Obviously if you play in the NFL, Tom Brady wears a Nike uniform, DeMarco Murray wears a Nike uniform but Tom Brady is actually sponsored by Under Armour and DeMarco Murray is sponsored by Adidas.” The UFC has some 500 male and female fighters under contract “Most of the people I’ve talked to, they really get it. They’re excited about it,” said UFC president Dana White. Now they will have to wear Reebok into the cage and the sponsor banners that were displayed during pre-bout introductions will disappear. But Fertitta says fighters will still have their own look under the new deal. “It will allow for each of the
fighter’s individuality but also will provide a unique iconic and consistent look for all the athletes,” Fertitta said. Fighters’ cornermen will also wear Reebok gear. The new partnership will see UFC-Reebok gear in 1,500 Reebok stores and thousand more retail outlets worldwide. “It’a a massive, massive move for the sport of MMA and the brand of UFC and the fighters’ brands,” said Fertitta. Reebok will also invest in research and development “to create and innovate new products for training in the sports of mixed martial arts.” A percentage of revenue from the deal will go to Fight for Peace, a non-profit organization. The UFC had hoped to announce the Reebok partnership at a Las Vegas news conference last month but did not get it done it in time.
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
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