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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
FRIDAY, OCT. 12, 2012
No public inquiry: Premier ALISON REDFORD REJECTS CALLS FOR PROBE INTO TAINTED BEEF RECALL AT XL FOODS
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Alberta Premier Alison Redford paid a visit to the Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre in Red Deer Thursday. Here she plays with Jack Thomson and his parents Warren and Michelle of Innisfail. The Premier was in the city to attend the Annual Premiers Dinner at the Sheraton Hotel later in the evening. BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Premier Alison Redford has rejected calls for a public inquiry into the tainted beef outbreak at XL Foods. “From my perspective, I don’t think it’s necessary every time that there is an unfortunate incident, in whatever sphere it might be, that we have to call
a public inquiry,” said Redford, in an interview with the Red Deer Advocate on Thursday prior to her appearance at the Premier’s Dinner. Opposition parties and the union representing workers at the XL Foods plant in Brooks have called for a public probe in recent days. Redford said lessons will be learned from the incident that saw more than 1,800 products from the company’s
Brooks plant recalled across Canada after meat tainted with a strain of E.coli was first discovered on Sept. 3. “But I don’t think it’s necessary to have a public inquiry in order to learn those lessons,” she said. On Thursday, the federally regulated plant was reopened to resume limited operations. It had been shut down since Sept. 27. Alberta Agriculture Minister Verlyn
Drunk driver jailed three and a half years for double fatal BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF An entire community suffers when a drunk driver kills somebody, a Crown prosecutor said during a sentencing hearing in Red Deer provincial court on Thursday. Crown prosecutor Maurice Collard sought a sentence of five years for April Gail Beauclair, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to the March 31 crash that killed two Red Deer teenagers and injured three others. Colton Keeler, 18, was killed at the scene. Tyson Vanderzwaag died six days later in hospital, just two days after his 18th birthday. Judge Thomas Schollie sentenced Beauclair, a 30-year-old mother of two, to three and a half years in prison for two counts of impaired driving causing death. Officials with the Alberta Motor Vehicle Branch have also decreed that she will be prohibited from driving for at least five years following her release from prison — more than double
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the two-year prohibition that Schollie had previously ordered. Court heard that Beauclair had been celebrating her upcoming 30th birthday with friends in Sylvan Lake on the evening of March 30 and had gone to bed to sleep off the effects. She awoke at about 2 a.m. and decided to drive home, heading east on Hwy 11A. A few kilometres down the road, at the intersection of Range Road 28-2, her car, travelling 110 km/h, slammed into the two teens who were trying to push-start a disabled car while its driver steered and pushed from the side. Two more young men were sitting in the back seat, too impaired to take part in their friends’ efforts to get the car moving. Beauclair, dressed entirely in black, wept throughout the sentencing hearing, sobbing openly as victim impact statements from 13 of Keeler’s and Vanderzwaag’s closest family and friends were read into court. Brandee Keeler, Keeler’s mother,
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Olson, his federal counterpart Gerry Ritz and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are working together to ensure beef remains safe. Redford brushed PREMIER’S off criticism that she DINNER A5 was not aggressive enough when the tainted meat issue BEEF PLANT arose. RESUMES She made her dis- LIMITED appointment clear OPERATIONS A6 from the outset that a food producer was not meeting regulations, she said. “My perspective, and it was the most important thing, was to make sure that the people of Alberta and across this country knew that the quality of beef we were producing in this province was of the highest possible standard, and they should be able to keep consuming that beef and have confidence in what they were eating,” she said. “And that to me was the fundamental issue. We will stand behind beef producers in this province every step of the way to ensure that we are doing everything we can to ensure there is consumer confidence in the product. “Me, standing up and banging my fist and criticizing a commercial enterprise isn’t going to get it open any faster.” The other big challenge her government has faced in the last four months has been the Plains Midstream Canada oil spill in the Red Deer River in June. Redford was encouraged that the environmental impact was not as bad as initially feared when up to 3,000 barrels of light sour crude oil spilled into the river just north of Sundre.
Please see REDFORD on Page A2
Maternity ward had recordbreaking August BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF
fought through tears as she spoke of the tremendous loss to her and her family, as well as terrible pain she continues to suffer. “It hasn’t gotten better. It’s gotten worse. What’s left of my family is falling apart because I don’t know how to deal with this terrible loss,” she said. Paulina Kerik, Vanderzwaag’s girlfriend of four years, spoke of the deep loss she felt on April 6, holding his hand when his life-support systems were turned off. “Every part of me was torn out when he took his last breath. There are no words to describe the heartbreak of seeing someone you love so much in so much pain. “She took everything from me that night. I still can’t catch my breath.” Defence counsel Norman Clair said his client, who has a history of depression and alcohol abuse, feels tremendous guilt and remorse for causing the deadly crash.
More pink and blue balloons than usual decorated the maternity ward at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre this summer. “In August, we had 251 births, which is the highest we’ve ever had in one single month. We had a record-breaking month,” Debbie Leitch, the hospital’s director of maternal child services, said on Thursday. In July, the hospital matched its previous record set a few years ago of 249 births. Leitch said while summer births climbed, it wasn’t a huge jump. “I think we’re just progressing the way you would expect in any town. “We’re seeing a slight increase overall in the number of births this year. By the end of this year, we may be up by about 100 births overall.” In 2011, births at the hospital increased 2.2 per cent to 2,577, up from 2,520 in 2010.
Please see SENTENCE on Page A2
Please see BIRTHS on Page A2
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