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DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.

The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.

One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.

“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.

“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”

Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.

Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.

In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.

“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”

Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.

Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.

Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.

“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”

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VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.

The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.

It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.

The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.

Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.

The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – A re-elected NDP government would scrap British Columbia’s long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters” if the federal government dropped its requirement for the law, Premier David Eby said Thursday.

At a campaign event in Vancouver, Eby said his government would end the provincial carbon tax on consumers if the federal “legal backstop” requiring the province to keep the tax in place is removed.

“Two things will happen. One is we’ll remove the carbon tax for everyday British Columbians, for the farmers, for the truckers, for the average British Columbian,” Eby said Thursday.

“The second thing is we believe that climate change is a real and present threat, unlike (B.C. Conservative Leader) John Rustad who thinks it’s a hoax. “And so we will continue to ensure … that the big polluters are paying their fair share.”

He said the federal Liberal government’s approach to the carbon tax has “badly damaged” what was a political consensus on the issue in the province, which goes to the polls on Oct. 19.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has meanwhile vowed to end the carbon tax if elected.

British Columbia’s provincial carbon tax has been in place since 2008, when it became the first jurisdiction in North America to put a price on carbon emissions, but Eby said the carbon tax issue has since been “politicized,” something he called “incredibly unfortunate.”

“It’s had an impact right across the country in terms of peoples’ support for this kind of approach,” he said.

“Combine that with rising interest rates, high global inflation, and we need to make sure that we’re supporting British Columbians however we can right now.”

He said the federal government’s “unsustainable hikes” on how much people have to pay, coupled with differential treatment given to certain products and provinces had squeezed consumers at a time they need “support.”

“I believed and still believe that a price on carbon is and can be an effective tool, which is why I think that big polluters need to pay in this province,” he said.

Eby was flanked by Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew at the campaign event.

Kinew said climate change needed action but the politicization of the issue had alienated blue-collar workers and a “generation of Canadians,” something he said the NDP couldn’t afford.

He said there had to be “flexibility” in the face of the affordability crisis.

“Of course, we’re going to be doing all those things to reduce emissions and to incentivize a low carbon economy, but we’ve got to keep a critical mass of Canadians on side with solving the climate crisis,” Kinew said.

B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad said Eby’s “reversal” on the tax was a “desperate attempt to salvage his sinking political ship.”

“Eby has spent years championing this disastrous tax that punishes families and businesses. Now, faced with growing opposition, he’s pretending to care. It’s nothing more than a cynical ploy,” Rustad said in a written statement sent minutes after Eby’s comments.

BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, called Eby’s pledge a “carbon tax flip-flop.”

“It is obvious that the B.C. NDP is making up climate policy on the fly. He now says big emitters should pay for climate change — but his government is giving billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry to increase fracking,” she said in a written statement.

“B.C. deserves a clear, coherent plan for climate change and the clean economy, not confusing contradictions.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.