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Deadly cancer rising BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Melanoma has the distinction of being one of the most preventable cancers as well as one that is fast on the rise, according to the latest statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society. The rate of melanoma has increased about 50 per cent among men and about 40 per cent among women since 1986. And over the last eight years, melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer — has accelerated 2.6 per cent annually among women. “We know that this year 570 Albertans will be diagnosed with melanoma and we anticipate the death rate will be about 100 people,” said Evie Espheter, public policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta/NWT Division, on Wednesday. “Melanoma is very, very serious. If you don’t catch it early, your prognosis is not very good. It causes 80 per cent of skin cancer deaths.” She said skin cancer is also one of the most preventable types of cancer and the society is raising the alarm about the risks of using tanning beds.
Please see CANCER on Page A2
Security measures in place to protect Air of optimism hangs over pork meeting as newborns from industry has best year in a decade kidnapping Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Lindsay Thurber Raider Elena Stalwick is tackled by three Notre Dame Cougars including Brenna Colonna and Marquise Plouffe during rugby action at the Titans Field on Wednesday. The Raiders won 21-5. See related story on page B1.
BY HARLEY RICHARDS ADVOCATE BUSINESS EDITOR Officials with Alberta Pork were able to use a word on Wednesday that they hadn’t uttered for years: profit. The doom and gloom that’s hung over past regional meetings of the provincial hog association was replaced with an air of optimism at the producer gathering in Red Deer. “It’s been the best year we’ve had in more than a decade,” said Will Kingma, a Bentley-area producer and vice-chair of Alberta Pork. The improved prices are due in large part to a lower Canadian dollar, which favours hog operations here relative to their counterparts in the United States, said Kingma. “Once we’re sitting at 90 cents, and a little below 90 cents, we’re competitive again.” Meanwhile, record high feed costs have come down, he said. And pig numbers in the United States have plummeted as a result of the deadly porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, which has infected some 6,400 farms in 30 states. “We’re talking six per cent less pigs coming to market, basically on the back of the PED virus in North America.” The higher prices are finding their way to store
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Almost 30 years ago — similar to the terrifying situation this week in Quebec — a baby was stolen from the hospital maternity ward in Red Deer. Today, security measures to protect newborn babies from being kidnapped from the Red Deer Regional Hospital include photo identification for authorized staff and arm bands for the mother and her partner. Alberta Health Services provided security details following the kidnapping of the newborn from the Trois-Rivieres, Que., hospital on Monday. The incident made headlines across the country after the day-old infant was snatched by a woman posing as a nurse. An amber alert issued by police that went viral on social media helped to track down the baby unharmed within three hours. In Red Deer, only authorized staff and the partner, or significant support person, may remove an infant from the mother’s presence and every infant wears an arm band that matches the one issued to the mother.
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Please see KIDNAPPING on Page A2
BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF
Romeo Dallaire resigning from Senate Liberal Sen. Romeo Dallaire, is resigning — not retiring, he insists, from the upper chamber.
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coolers, acknowledged Kingma, but pork still offers excellent value. “It’s still a really affordable protein in comparison to, let’s say, beef or chicken.” He added that a 10 to 20 cent increase in the price of a kilogram of pork shouldn’t have a big impact on consumers, but is huge for producers. Kingma still expects ups and downs in the domestic pork industry, but said the long-term outlook is positive. “It’s not like producers are going to be forced out of the industry like they have been since 2006.” That said, Kingma doesn’t anticipate pig numbers in Canada — depleted during years of adversity — will rebound quickly. “There is nobody building right now,” he said. “We could be looking at three or four years, really, before there’s any response to this.” While delivering the chairman’s report at Alberta Pork’s Red Deer meeting on behalf of Frank Novak, Kingma noted that producers lost an average of $16 an animal over the past five years. “It’s going to take four years at $20 a pig to make all of that back. We’re experiencing some really good profits now, but it’s going to take a little bit to get us back to where we’re in a position that we feel like we can start expanding our industry again.”