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Wednesday, May 29, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Community mourns loss of Lheidli T’enneh elder Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca A memorial service is being held today for one of the region’s most active cultural figures and one of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation’s most beloved elders. Robert Frederick was born April 6, 1950, and died on May 4. A memorial service will be held today at 2 p.m. at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Following the service, he will be laid to rest in the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park. Following the interment, everyone is welcome to join the family at the House of Ancestors for a reception. As a child, Frederick was subjected to five years of residential school at Lejac where the attempt was made to forcibly remove Aboriginal connection from all the students. In Frederick’s case, he would spend his elder years building that back up, not only for Indigenous people but the broader community as well. Frederick, along with his equally active wife Edie, was instrumental in developing and instructing a UNBC course in the making of traditional cottonwood dugout canoes. In this experiential course, the students were also exposed to stories, songs, language, fishing, and other traditional elements of Lheidli life while also producing the first cottonwood dugouts in, Frederick estimated, the previous 60 years. Frederick was a member of the Lusilyoo Frog Clan and descendant of Letrick-Cho, according to one of the course’s participants Jennifer Pighin, a celebrated local artist tighly connected to both Robert and Edie. She and Dean Marsters, with consultation help from Brent Goertz, built Frederick’s casket. “He was solid to the core, funny and caring and so many other things,” Pighin said. “It will be hard to digest this loss as we lay his body to rest but I know his spirit is strong. The strongest souls seem to be needed elsewhere. I know they’re all doing great things in their own ways and holding us all so close as we hold them.” Frederick’s cultural influence was applied in a number of ways and locations around the territory. Master carver Robert Sebastian noted that Frederick was part of the carving project on the doors of the Tourist Information Centre, for example. In 2005, Frederick was key to the Indigenous programming at the Historic Huble Homestead. He was a leader in the construction of the Lheidli T’enneh Fish Camp exhibit there, close to where one had been in centuries previous. “Robert was at the heart of that project, not only as one of the elders with whom we consulted, but as the carver of the dugout canoe that is still on display in the exhibit today,” said Krystal Leason, executive director of the Huble Homestead/Giscome

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Edie and Robert Frederick hold a ceremonial sendoff for a traditional dugout canoe they made in 2013. A memorial service for Robert Frederick, a Lheidli T’enneh elder, is being held today at Sacred Heart Cathedral at 2 p.m. Portage Heritage Society. “From what I understand the canoe at Huble Homestead was the first one he led the carving of. He has, of course, done many since then and we are proud to have one of his pieces displayed at the historic site.” Leason said he and Edie were also closely consulted in 2011 on updating the fish camp display. “I remember him patiently answering our questions and despite seeming quiet he had a great sense of humour,” she said. “Robert was a wonderful advocate for the Lheidli T’enneh’s history and culture. He leaves an incredible legacy for his nation and we were fortunate to have learned from him.” 2011 was also the year Frederick was commissioned to create a permanent art installation for the Spirit Gate Project alongside Veterans’ Plaza at City Hall. He carved

a dugout with the story of Astace And The Salmon that was replicated in fiberglass and mounted in front of City Hall with a bronze plaque for passersby to always see. Tracy Caolgheros, CEO of Exploration Place Museum + Science Centre, said their institution, too, was indebted to Frederick. “In a very practical way, Robert was instrumental in the development of the Hodul’eh-a : A Place of Learning Gallery at the Museum, but his impact on the deepening of the relationship between his people and the broader community goes so much further,” Calogheros said. “In a culture where history and knowledge is primarily oral, Robert was a compelling storyteller. He held the wisdom of his ancestors and shared it willingly with those who cared to listen. We are losing our region’s elders but not before we have had the chance to know them, to hear them, to

learn from their lives and experience. I am going to miss Robert Frederick. I had the privilege of laughing with him and listening to him. We have captured some of his love of life at The Exploration Place but never enough to replace his twinkling eyes. We mourn with his family, his friends and his nation. Snachailya.” His dugout canoes can be seen around the community, including one at UNBC in the First Nations Studies Department and another at Nusdeh Yoh Aboriginal Choice School. There is a resurgence in learning Lheidli T’enneh culture by a younger generation numerous and motivated. Many of those traditions were nearly lost and some still in danger, thanks to colonial pressures to eradicate it. Frederick was one of the strongest bridges over that impasse to connect the new community with the old ways.

Committee blasts Zuckerberg, Sandberg for snub Child left Mike BlANCHFIELD The Canadian Press A panel of international politicians vented anger at Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on Tuesday after the Facebook executives snubbed their summons to appear at the international grand committee on big data, privacy and democracy in Ottawa. The committee’s chair, Prince GeorgePeace River-Northern Rockies Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, called it “abhorrent” the two did not appear, and he closed a marathon session of testimony by telling the two Facebook employees who were sent in their place that it was “shameful” their bosses didn’t show up. The committee, comprising politicians from Canada, Britain, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Ireland, Latvia, St. Lucia, Ecuador and Singapore, is examining the role of internet giants in safeguarding privacy and democratic rights. Zuckerberg and Sandberg were called to testify but did not appear. Representatives of Twitter and Google also testified, but it was Facebook’s two corporate pinch-hitters who drew the wrath of committee members. Their collective frustration grew as Kevin Chan and Neil Potts, Facebook global policy directors, separated by two empty chairs bearing Zuckerberg and Sandberg’s names, were grilled about past company conduct, including its decision this week to permit

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ZIMMER postings of a doctored video meant to portray U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as slurring her words, addled or possibly drunk. The video was labelled false, and users were made aware of that classification, Potts said. “This sets a very dangerous precedent,” said British MP Damian Collins, the committee’s co-chair. Edwin Tong, a Singapore MP, clashed with Potts over how Facebook responded to postings from last fall that heralded the violence that came to pass in the Easter Sunday

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suicide-bomb attacks on three churches in Sri Lanka that left 250 dead. “Let me suggest to you that you don’t remove it because such content, being sensational, inciting fear, violence, hatred, conspiracy theories... is what drives eyeballs to your platform – this is what drives users to your platforms, and that is the engine room of your profit mechanism,” said Tong. Potts shot back: “Mr. Tong, I reject the premise.” Some MPs questioned why Zuckerberg meets world leaders behind closed doors, but chooses to send other officials from his company to field the public questions of lawmakers at the committee. His and Sandberg’s absence on Tuesday has only fuelled skepticism about Facebook’s promises to operate in a transparent manner. New Democrat Charlie Angus said the pair’s absence showed disrespect to legislators around the world. “Facebook has serious responsibilities in terms of the misuse of the platform that has led to mass killings in Myanmar, the undermining of electoral systems around the world, the attack on private rights and citizen rights,” Angus said. “Mr. Zuckerberg has stated his willingness to work with legislators but he seems to blow us off whenever it seems we want to ask him questions.” The MPs, led by Angus, voted to serve a summons on the pair, compelling them to appear before the group the next time either sets foot on Canadian soil. — see ‘SOCIAL MEDIA’S, page 3

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alone in vehicle Citizen staff A close call has prompted Prince George RCMP to remind people to refrain from leaving children and dogs in their vehicles, exposing them to potentially-fatal summer heat. Over the weekend, RCMP were called to a report of a child left unattended in a vehicle while a parent went into a business. Although the engine and the air conditioning were still running, RCMP believed the youngster was in distress. Officers took lawful action and removed the child, notified the Ministry of Children and Family Development and cautioned the parent. “Fortunately, the toddler was found to be in good health,” RCMP said. RCMP have also been busy dealing with reports of dogs being left in vehicles – responding to 23 such calls so far in May. “Some of these incidents have resulted in officers finding dogs in good health while others have resulted in finding dogs in distress,” the RCMP said in a statement. “Either way, leaving a dog in a hot vehicle for even a few minutes is not acceptable and appropriate charges could follow.”

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