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RED DEER REBELS BEAT THE EDMONTON OIL KINGS
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Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, DEC. 30, 2013
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Remand burden downplayed COURT DATES BEING CHANGED BECAUSE LAWYERS, CLIENTS NOT ABLE TO COMMUNICATE IN PRIVATE BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF
ries for the section of Hwy 2 from Leduc to Olds and also recommended against towing those that had become stuck until conditions cleared. The southbound lanes near Bowden were shut down temporarily because of a collision on Friday night, with vehicles re-routed through Olds and Didsbury. Emergency services from Bowden and Olds provided buses to rescue stranded motorists at one point, bringing them into temporary shelters until they could get back on the road. Conditions had improved by Sunday afternoon, but visibility and slippery road surfaces were still an issue. “It sounds like it’s pretty crummy right now.
A senior official in the Alberta government is downplaying reports that taxpayers are carrying the burden for mistakes at the new Edmonton Remand Centre. Red Deer lawyer Paul Morigeau is among those who have had clients transferred to Red Deer on court dates because they can’t speak to them privately at the ERC. There is a closed-circuit TV system, but the new setup — including a sign on the wall stating that calls will be monitored — leaves clients with concerns that their conversations will be overheard. In his first court appearance for one Legal Aid client, Morigeau told the judge that he had not yet been able to take direction from his client because they had not been able to speak privately. The judge accepted Morigeau’s request to have the accused man transferred to Red Deer for a live court appearance rather than making his next court date by closed-circuit TV from the ERC. Calgary lawyer Kim Ross said in Red Deer provincial court earlier this month that he has also had trouble reaching clients at the ERC. Ross requested that one of his clients, who is facing a murder charge, be moved to a closer remand centre so they could discuss the charges before him. The sorts of problems that have emerged at ERC don’t exist at other remand centres, including Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, said Morigeau. “The setup is such that counsel, unless they actually go visit there — which is very difficult for us in Red Deer, can’t get a hold of our clients and our clients can’t seem to get ahold of us.
Please see ROADS on Page A2
Please see REMAND on Page A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Canyon Ski Resort was running full out with all lifts operating and hundreds of skiers, snowboarders and tubers enjoying the fine winter day on Friday. Here Dylan Davenport, of Peace River, his father Joe of Red Deer and brother Cody of Whitehorse hang on to each other’s tubes as they slide down the tube run.
Oh, the snow just won’t go FRESH SNOW GREAT FOR RECREATION, NOT FOR DRIVING BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF Cheery thoughts that an early winter might harken an equally early spring have been abandoned for now. Yet again, Mother Nature has dumped a fresh load of snow on Central Alberta, creating ideal conditions for skiers and sledders while wreaking havoc on sidewalks and highways. Cars and trucks littered the ditches on Saturday morning after a storm brought gale-force winds, heavy snow and poor visibility overnight — yet another chapter in a saga that began on Nov. 2 with heavy snows and unusually cold weather. Early Friday evening, RCMP issued travel adviso-
Mother decries jail warehousing of the mentally ill BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF LACOMBE — Too many people are being warehoused in jails and prisons instead of getting treatment for their illnesses, says the mother of a young man jailed for setting fires in the psychiatric wing of the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. Layton Wyatt, now 18, was diagnosed at the age of five with Asperger’s Syndrome — a mild form of autism. Earlier this year, he was hospitalized with an anxiety attack he suffered after his parents’ Candace Eberle marriage broke up. Wyatt’s mother, Candace Eberle, said her son lit two small fires in his hospital room, one on March 3 and the second on April 24, because he hoped to get kicked out.
WEATHER
INDEX
Snow. High -16, low -17.
FORECAST ON A2
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Instead, he was arrested in June and charged with Eberle has vowed to change the way society and the arson. legal system treat people who suffer from mental illAfter a series of forensic psychiatric assessments, nesses. Wyatt pleaded guilty to the charges on Sept. 17 and “The criminal justice system has completely was sentenced on failed my son,” she Dec. 24 to 12 months said from her office in jail, with nine in downtown Lamonths of credit for combe on Sunday. the six months he The larger crime had already served is that Wyatt is just in remand. — CANDACE EBERLE, MOTHER OF AN 18-YEAR-OLD JAILED one of many menThe extra credit FOR SETTING FIRES AT RED DEER REGIONAL HOSPITAL tally compromised was granted because adults who languish the judge recognized in jail because socithat, because of his mental state, Wyatt suffered ety does not know what else to do with them, she more than necessary while he was in remand, in- said. cluding taking a beating from a fellow inmate, said Sitting in a jail cell is not going to teach Wyatt anyEberle. thing, because he is highly impulsive and does not With three months left to serve, his earliest pos- have the ability to form criminal intent, said Eberle. sible release date is Feb. 21. While putting him in jail will protect society for He is getting no treatment or help in remand and a short period of time, the punishment of a jail senspends his days alone in his cell, doing nothing, she tence misses the mark and could set him back, she said. said. A clinical psychologist, spiritual healer and former corrections officer at Red Deer Remand Centre, Please see DISCUSSION on Page A2
‘THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS COMPLETELY FAILED MY SON.’
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