I was not prepared for the tragedy of CKPG's Wikipedia entry

The Cougars eject a rowdy fan. Prince George as a unit of measurement for tourists. Cool dust devils. And, listen: The bears are actually back

Happy Monday. I’m loving the rain.

Today’s newsletter has the Cougars ejecting a rowdy fan, Prince George as a unit of measurement for tourists, cool dust devils and so much more. But first:

If the posts in Facebook groups and my own encounters over the weekend are any indication, the bears are definitely up again. So are the deer, moose and coyotes.

And listen, we live in a city surrounded by and containing wilderness — I don’t want to overstate/panic about something that we have every year, which is the presence of wildlife. However, as seen in that list pic, there is a risk associated with not having enough caution and the result is not good for the animals. 81 bears were killed in Prince George last year, more than double the previously yearly average, in a city that already leads the province in number of bears killed every year. No one wants to set another record.

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Here are some more cool dust devils

It’s a good year for dust devils, I guess — Nekita Joseph filmed these near Vanderhoof:

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Pop-up restaurant success

On Saturday I waited in line with dozens of other people to get a meal from the Foraging Moose Ramen pop-up at Deadfall which, I’m told, was quite a bit bigger than their previous pop-up events so indicates some word-of-mouth success (they ran out of take-out containers and were nearly out of food by the time I got mine). I was not able to attend the Suzuran pop-up at Nancy-O’s but am pleased to see it was sold-out and well-reviewed event, as well.

I long ago had the idea of a subscription restaurant service where once every two months or so a chef is brought in to prepare a type of cuisine that we don’t have in the city otherwise — you’d buy a season’s pass and you’d get x number of meals as a result, with the money paid up-front reducing the risk to the folks trying something new. I’m still not convinced it isn’t a good idea, and the success of these events — where people get a limited run of a specific cuisine — is only further convincing me it’s a good one. Even better, though, is that it’s being done by local chefs looking to expand their repetoires or cook on occassion without doing it full time. I hope to see more!

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A tragic story of hockey, violence and CKPG

Over the weekend I was talking with friends about the old analogue TV stations we used to get over rabbit ears (I’m ancient now) and we had a bit of a debate over whether CKPG was on channel 2 or 3. I figured the Wikipedia entry for the station might have the answer, so I clicked on the history section and when I tell you I was not prepared for what I saw there:

On December 12, 1970, Brian "Spinner" Spencer, a rookie hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs from Fort St. James, was called up to play with the Leafs in what would be his first NHL game on television. He called back home to his father, Roy Spencer, to tell him to watch the game that night on Hockey Night in Canada. Spencer was to be interviewed between periods during the game. However, CKPG-TV instead aired a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the California Golden Seals in place of the Maple Leafs-Chicago Black Hawks matchup. Infuriated, Roy Spencer drove 135 kilometres (84 mi) to CKPG-TV's Prince George studios and ordered the technicians at gunpoint to broadcast the Maple Leafs game instead. The station complied, but as Roy Spencer left the station, he was confronted by RCMP officers. After a brief stand-off, Roy Spencer was shot and killed. The event was later depicted in the 1993 Atom Egoyan-directed made-for-TV movie Gross Misconduct.

Following up on Spinner’s life reveals even more tragedy. I am surprised I am just learning about this.

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Prince George as a unit of measurement for tourists

(This is the deputy chief of the Vancouver Police, btw)

News roundup:

• I received several notes assuring me Ice Cube did, indeed, stay at the Treasure Cove. That rap star life.

• An interesting read from Stefan Labbé on how the logging industry is looking to position itself as the heroes of the fight against wildfires, a strategy cricitized by one ecologist as “mendacious and dangerous.”

• A split weekend for the Cougars against Portland. I was at Friday night’s game where a fan was kicked out — a Portland hockey writer has the reason why. And here’s an interview with a non-aggressive fan who has his own set of fans for his wild dancing.

• London Drugs should be open again today after a “cybersecurity incident” shut down stores across Western Canada.

• It’s not specifically local news but given the extent to which it’s dominated local issues, worth noting the province’s Friday announcement on drug use in public spaces as well as the reaction from various groups. The extent to which this actually changes what’s happening on the ground — and whether it actually helps people with addiction get any help — is a pretty open question.

• The Surrey city police vs RCMP debate may not be one that you think has much impact on policing here, but the province begs to differ — in legal documents reported on by CBC News, the province argues that if Surrey were to reverse course and go back to having an RCMP detachment, it “would create public safety risks in other communities. The RCMP has 1,500 existing vacancies across the province and was already having difficulty filling these vacancies.”

• The Citizen reports on the police not responding to a call about “a vagrant” lighting a fire at the Aquatic Centre but I guess it is the leftists fault the police didn’t respond, rather than the police? I am just linking to the article, idk.

• 900 Vanderhoof students to help release sturgeon into Nechako.

• “We want them all to come home safely”: Day of Mourning commemorated in PG.

• Some of the 260 cats rescued from a single propert in Houston are ready for adoption.

• 5th Ave. at Burden St. is closed.

Today’s song:

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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.