Thursday, August 30, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Demolition of the old RCMP building is well underway. Crews removed the hazardous materials prior to the demolition.
Old RCMP detachment being leveled Citizen staff Workers are about halfway through demolition of the old Prince George RCMP building. A concrete crusher featuring jaws capable of exerting roughly 6,000 pounds per
square inch of pressure began gobbling up the structure’s exterior this week following about a month of work gutting the interior of the building. Western Thermal Demolition was awarded a contract worth about $487,000 to carry out the operation, which includes
getting rid of all hazardous materials. The site should be completely cleared by the end of September and will be converted into a city-owned off-street parking lot. However, the site may be developed in the future. Built in 1972, the building at 10th Avenue
and Brunswick Street also previously served as a provincial courthouse. The demolition work began a bit more than four years after Prince George RCMP members and staff moved into the new – and considerably larger – home at 450 Victoria Street.
Convicted killer gets extra year for jailhouse attack
Connolly says he won’t attend Capitals’ White House visit
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Isabelle KHURSHUDYAN Citizen news service
A man serving time for manslaughter has been sentenced to an additional year for a “hot butter” attack on a rival inmate at the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre. Kurtis Riley Sundman, 29, was issued the term Wednesday at the Prince George courthouse for the September 2015 incident. It was described as a preemptive strike against Justin Edward Pawluck, who allegedly had held Sundman responsible for a January 2015 drive-by shooting against his home and planned to stab him. Images from surveillance cameras showed Sundman microwaving some butter in a plastic container then running across the unit and dumping it on Pawluck’s face as he was lying on a bench talking on a communal telephone. As Sundman ran off, he was overheard saying “I didn’t shoot up your house, goof.” Pawluck suffered severe burns and blistering to his face and neck and was taken to hospital for treatment but he was not left with any lasting scars. As a result, Sundman was able to plead guilty to assault causing bodily harm rather than the more serious charge of aggravated assault. Following the attack, Sundman showed guards a seven-inch shank or homemade knife, saying he had retrieved it from behind one of the hand basins in the unit’s bathroom after a fellow inmate had tipped him off about the plan. Sundman was in custody awaiting trial for the January 2015 murder of Jordan Taylor McLeod, who was 24 years old when he was shot to death on Upper Fraser Road moments after he jumped out of a moving pickup truck to escape his assailants. The crime was committed just 10 days after Pawluck’s home was shot at. In July, Sundman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in McLeod’s death. Less time served, Sundman had seven years seven months and 15 days to go at the time of sentencing.
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Pawluck suffered severe burns and blistering to his face and neck and was taken to hospital... Pawluck was described as a “well-known drug trafficker” and, as a result of his reputation, a “heavy” in the unit at PGRCC where he and Sundman had been housed. Likewise, Sundman was also dealing in drugs and during submissions on Wednesday, his lawyer, Brad Smith, said staff at PGRCC had noted during intake that there were issues between the two. Placing them in the same unit was a “recipe for an unhealthy relationship,” Smith added. Sundman has since received mail from Pawluck indicating he wants to “squash the beef” or “resolve the matter between them,” Smith also said. Prosecutor Tyler Bauman said the Crown found Sundman’s story “somewhat dubious” because the shank could actually have been his and he was keeping it to protect himself. However, Bauman also noted Pawluck told police he had a list of suspects from the shooting but declined to hand it over, saying he preferred to deal with the matter himself. That, combined with Pawluck’s reputation and background leading up to the attack corroborates Sundman’s story, Bauman told the court. Either way, Bauman said Sundman had the option of notifying the guards of Pawluck’s plan rather than taking the matter into his own hands. In sentencing Sundman, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels. The term will run consecutive to the time Sundman is serving for the manslaughter conviction. Given a chance to speak prior to sentencing, Sundman said he is treating his time behind bars as a “blessing in disguise” and rehabilitating himself so he is no longer the “way I used to be.”
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If the Washington Capitals visit the White House as part of a tradition for most championship teams, forward Brett Connolly won’t be attending, he told reporters in Toronto on Wednesday. Connolly is the second player to say he would decline an invitation, joining forward Devante Smith-Pelly. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” Connolly said at BioSteel Camp, an annual preseason training session for NHL players and prospects, noting that “It has nothing to do with politics.” “Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” added Connolly, who is Canadian. “I think there’ll be a few guys not going, too. Like I said, it has nothing to do with politics. It’s about what’s right and wrong, and we’ll leave it at that.” U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to officially invite the Capitals to the White House, but most major professional championship teams have received invitations in recent years. Trump canceled the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ visit to the White House in June after some players said they would skip the ceremony to protest the president and his rhetoric. When the Golden State Warriors won the 2017 NBA championship, multiple players, including Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, said they would not visit the White House. They were later uninvited by Trump. The Warriors won another title this year, and Curry has already said he does not want to attend a White House celebration. Other title-winning teams, including the Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Penguins and New England Patriots, have visited Trump’s White House. Less than a week after the Capitals won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, players were polled about a White House visit and most said they would attend. Connolly declined to comment at the time.
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CONNOLLY Smith-Pelly, who is black and Canadian, was asked about the subject while the Capitals were still playing in the Stanley Cup final, and he said then he would not want to visit the White House because “the things that (Trump) spews are straight-up racist and sexist.” “Some of the things he’s said are pretty gross,” Smith-Pelly told Canada’s Postmedia. “I’m not too into politics, so I don’t know all his other views, but his rhetoric I definitely don’t agree with.” Smith-Pelly stood by his remarks when he was again asked about a White House visit after the season, and he said his teammates “have his back.” “I said what I said, and that is what I believe,” Smith-Pelly said. “Again, I haven’t thought about it any more than that. I stand by what I said... They can do whatever they want, you know what I mean? “When I said what I said, no one in the room said, ‘Hey, maybe you should do this or maybe you should do that.’ Everyone can do whatever they want. I will still love (captain Alex Ovechkin) if he goes and the other guys if they go.”
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