www.pgcitizen.ca
THE
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
PRINCE
GEORGE
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CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Pastor Fleming Blishen officiates the funeral of local medial personality Ben Meisner Saturday at the Prince George Civic centre.
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meisner memories
Friends, family, dignitaries pay tribute to local media icon
Rodney VENIS Citizen staff rvenis@pgcitizen.ca
The life of longtime Prince George media personality Ben Meisner was much greater than one man’s opinion.
Friends, relatives, dignitaries, and many others who spent time on both sides of the 76-year-old journalism figure’s microphone gathered in the Civic Centre Saturday for a funeral that started with bagpipes and turned into a wide-ranging, tears- and guffaw-laden affair that bounced around like the jet-boat jaunts Meisner loved on the nearby Nechako River.
From a succession of grieving men and their humourous, generous stories, mourners heard Meisner, who died on April 2 in Winnipeg after being diagnosed with cancer, counted as his chief passions his family, his dog, his boat, fishing, hunting and the people, places and causes of northern B.C.
They also listened to memories and
Ben settled in Prince George where he remained for the past 40 years. To me, Ben is, was, and will always remain the consummate northerner...
— Justice Glen Parrett
stories from a nearly six decades long career in talk radio, newspapers and on the Internet that brought to speakers’ minds a mix of Hemingway, Springsteen, Cervantes and Louis Armstrong.
“(He was) an interviewer, investigative journalist, and designated troubleshooter who people in the north went to when they had problems they couldn’t seem to solve,” said B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Par-rett, who met Meisner as a young lawyer in
the 1970s and served as a pallbearer.
“He never forgot (his) roots... (But) after his sojourn in Kamloops, Ben settled in Prince George where he remained for the past 40 years. To me, Ben is, was, and will always remain the consummate northerner...
“One of his deep and abiding loves was the northern country... It is because of this love that he remained in this region and he fought so many battles for this area, its resources and the people who live here. To me, the picture of Ben I will always have in my mind is of him, happiest and at peace, sitting at the wheel of his boat on some river or lake in this beautiful region.”
Peter Ewart, a regular contributor to the website Meisner founded, 250News.com, said the broadcaster had a hardscrabble existence early on. Born in Maryfield, Saskatchewan, his father was hospitalized and never recovered from trauma suffered during the Second World War.
“His mother, cheated out of a pension and flung into poverty, scrubbed floors to put food on the table for the family,” said
Ewart. “Herself illiterate, she insisted Ben go to school to learn how to read and write and, above all, to stand up for himself.”
Meisner would work in Winnipeg, Toronto, Yorkton, Red Deer and Kamloops before settling in Prince George.
Throughout his time in this community he would write columns for the Prince George Citizen and the Prince George Free Press; host a talk show on the community radio station CFIS; and provide editorials for the CBC. Among the recognition for his work was a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Radio, Television Digital News Association.
But he is perhaps best known for his nearly 25 years working as a broadcaster for CKPG.
“We didn’t become friends until 1974 when he moved from Kamloops to Prince George to open a business,” said Gordon Leighton, a speaker and pallbearer.
“I recognized Ben’s no-nonsense straight talk, his curiousity, as a great fit for an open line radio show. Talk Back was born.” — see MEISNER, page 3
Open house showcases endangered program
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN
Citizen staff sallen@pgcitizen.ca
One student leans over a plastic mannequin, its mouths agape, as she mimics an investigation for cavities. Another pulls back a tongue, pointing to hidden sores, gum disease, gingivitis and oral cancer markers.
On a typical day at the College of New Caledonia dental clinic, these students would be working on live patients. But at Sunday’s afternoon open house, they were showing the public the services and learning offered at the decades-old program.
It’s part of an ongoing effort to save the dental hygienist and assistant programs which the college has suggested suspending in an effort to find $2.8 million to help balance its budget. The college has said running the program, which typically has full enrolment, costs $1 million. The college postponed
CITIZEN PHOTO BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN
Rachel Harper, a second year dental hygienist student at the College of New Caledonia, mimics patient care at the dental clinic open house Sunday.
the vote last month and instead held a public forum but by Friday, at the Board of Governor’s next meeting, the dental community will have its answer.
“They’re still recommending suspension,” said Leslie Battersby, who has been teaching at CNC for 15 years.
The college said the decision
to postpone the vote was “based on an overwhelming amount of considerable and thoughtful feedback regarding the potential program suspensions and changes in services.”
But Battersby said it was because the college didn’t follow its own guidelines.
“When they’re making budget decisions they must hold one public forum and they must not make a decision for four weeks after the public forum,” said Battersby, noting the plan was to have a public forum and vote the same day last month. “It was brought to their attention that that is not how the process is supposed to go.”
After the March public forum, Battersby said they haven’t heard from the board other than some questions around patient fees and process.
“We were hoping that that might then mean there would be some dialogue, but there hasn’t been,” she said.
— see ‘WEHAD NO TIME,’page 3
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