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THE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013
PRINCE
GEORGE
CITIZEN
NEW HOLIDAY
Lots of fun on Family Day
Peter JAMES Citizen staff
The mid-winter blahs were quickly forgotten Monday as Prince George celebrated its first Family Day holiday.
“It’s awesome because it’s a long winter,” Sheryl Wiebe said while enjoying the day with her family at Exploration Place. “February, even though it’s the shortest month of the year, it feels like the longest. It’s nice to have an extra day to relax and spend time with the kids.”
The province instituted the new statutory holiday this year, following the lead of five other provinces which have added an extra day off from work and school in recent years.
One of the busiest places in the city Monday was Exploration Place, which was hosting a provincially funded open house complete with face painting,
gold panning and crafts in addition to the regular exhibits. By noon the parking lot was jam packed and the lobby was overflowing with families.
“It’s a nice way to spend the day and do things we don’t normally get to do together,” Charity Taylor said as she visited the museum and science centre before going out for lunch and then roller skating with her family.
Nine-year-olds Chase Taylor and Deacon Faucher said they really enjoyed some of the interactive activities at Exploration Place, like one game where you step on projected images of bugs, water, ice and other items.
“It’s funny,” Chase said. “Probably my favorite is when you step on the ice because it sounds like real cracking ice.”
Derek Domeij enjoyed the
new holiday with his daughters Alyssa and Micheala, but would have preferred if the province had fallen into line with Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island which all have their days off on the third Monday of the month.
“It would be nice to have them all on the same day, it’s weird how we’re on a different week from the other provinces,” he said. “All across Canada it should be the same day, I think.”
In addition to a visit to Exploration Place, Domeij said his family was also going take advantage of the mild weather and go sliding.
The unseasonably warm temperatures continued Monday as it got as high as 3 C.
“It’s nice to see a lot of families out today,” Domeij said.
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accused
arrested
Peter JAMES Citizen staff pjames@pgcitizen.ca
Police arrested Lloyd William Cook on Monday morning, 11 days after he failed to show up in court to hear the verdict in a trial into the events surrounding the death of his stepson in 2000.
“He’s in custody, there’s no public threat,” Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Monday afternoon, noting the arrest was made at a residence in Osoyoos.
“We received information and we followed up on that information,” Douglass added.
On Friday, Cook was found guilty in absentia of unlawful confinement and interference with a dead body in the death of 13-year-old Adam Scott Wil-liams-Dudoward but was found not guilty of the more serious offences of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett had been scheduled to issue his verdict on Jan. 31, but Cook never showed up at the Prince George courthouse. He did contact his lawyer that day to say his car had broken down in Williams Lake. A warrant was subsequently issued for Cook’s arrest and Parrett officially declared Cook was an absconder on Feb. 5.
It’s not yet known when Cook will be transported to Prince George but Douglass expects it will be a priority. He said more details will likely be forthcoming on Tuesday.
Cook has yet to be sentenced, but Crown prosecutor Lara Viz-solyi has argued he should receive two to three years on each
count, to be served consecutively. Cook’s defence lawyer Stephen Taylor is seeking concurrent sentences of 18 months.
In his judgment, Parrett found that Adam died on or around Jan. 7, 2000 after he had been tied up and left in a bedroom in a mobile home on Glenview Drive.
At the time Adam had been living with his mother, Judy Elaina Williams, a younger brother and Cook. Williams and Cook said they tied Adam because they believed he was molesting his younger brother.
Parrett determined that, when Adam was found in distress, it was Cook who tried to revive him with CPR while Williams looked on. Neither adult called 911; instead they placed the child’s body in the back of a truck and left it there for up to a month before burying Adam in a wooded area along the Nechako River.
Parrett found Cook not guilty on the manslaughter charge after determining that there was “no medical, mechanical or physical explanation of the death, let alone one linking the accused to that result.”
Similarly, on the count of criminal negligence causing death, the judge said the charge had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
However, Parrett did find that by restraining Adam on a bed for two or three days, Cook was guilty of unlawful confinement. Taylor didn’t offer any defence for the charge of interference with a dead body.
Williams, who testified during Cook’s trial, is currently serving two years of house arrest for interference with a dead body.
Will a Canadian be named the new pope?
Peter JAMES Citizen staff
When Pope Benedict XVI surprised the Catholic world by announcing his pending retirement on Monday speculation immediately turned to his successor and a Canadian is near the top of the list.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s name has been one of many bandied about in the aftermath of the first papal resignation in over 600 years.
If the former archbishop of Quebec City is elected by his fellow cardinals to lead the world’s more than one billion Catholics, he would be the first non-European pope in more than a millennium.
— see ‘IT WOULD, page 3
CARDINAL MARC OUELLET
Papal
resignation shocks world PAGE 18
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