BROWNIES The origins of one of your favourite treats is a mystery
O’CONNELL SURVIVES SLOW START TO EARN WIN
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Red Deer Advocate TUESDAY, SEPT. 15, 2015
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City joins call for inquiry BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
ABORIGINAL WOMEN
Red Deer has joined other municipalities in calling for a national inquiry into the murdered and missing indigenous women in Canada. Coun. Dianne Wyntjes cried as she spoke about the impact of talking to the families of missing and murdered women, the Walking with Our Sisters installation in Red Deer and the red dresses at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. She said the red dresses represented absence and death. “They were … symbolizing red the colour of
blood,” she said. “Red, the colour of spilled blood and red the colour of love.” In 2014, RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson said nearly 1,200 Aboriginal women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada in the last three decades, of which 1,000 were murdered. Wyntjes said as a city councillor it is important to take action and give messages to the federal government that it must be accountable and act upon issues that the citizens are asking for. “There are too many days that we listen to the media or see it on social media that there may be a
RIVER EXPEDITION
missing Aboriginal woman, sister, daughter here in Alberta and across Canada,” she said. “They are always sad stories … when you read those stories, you can’t help but be changed.” The city joins the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in asking the federal government to hold a comprehensive, independent national inquiry into the missing and murdered women. In June, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report was released containing 94 recommendations for action by all levels of government. It followed six years of hearings from thousands of residential school survivors and their families.
Please see INQUIRY on Page A2
Murder trial on hold until 2017 BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF
city exercise social responsibility when there are gaps in services to the community. The framework will allow the city to strategically prioritize the way it responds, advocates for another government to respond or partners with community agencies. The framework, she said, is a response to the new normal that municipalities are navigating. She said it builds a foundation for the city to inform decisionmaking in the future. It will help the city evaluate and address community needs, such as Red Deer’s social well-being. There are goals related to housing, health and basic needs, safety, social and cultural diversity, equitable services and access, among other issues. Paul Goranson, the city’s director of Corporate Services, said very few municipalities across Canada have adopted documents related to the well-being of the community. Goranson said the framework will clarify the city’s responsibilities and roles related to health, housing, transportation, safety, diversity, community belonging, and educational and economic opportunity.
The man charged with murder in the death of Talia Nelli Meguinis, 27, will go to trial five years after her body was found in a dumpster. The trial was supposed to start last week but was abruptly cancelled. New dates for early 2017 have now been set. Meguinis’s body was discovered in recycling collected from a dumpster in Red Deer’s Riverside Industrial Park on Feb. 22, 2012. Nathan Michael Desharnais, 26, of Red Deer is charged with second-degree murder and interfering with human remains. He has been represented TALIA MEGUINIS since October 2012 by defence counsel Arnold Piragoff, who was appointed by the Alberta Legal Aid Society. A four-week Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench judge and jury trial was scheduled to start on Sept. 8 with jury selection. However, potential jurors were turned away at the door to the Red Deer courthouse on Sept. 8 and the trial dates were cancelled. On Sept. 9, an Alberta Justice spokesperson said the trial dates were dropped because the defence wasn’t ready to proceed due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Appearing in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday for a new arraignment before Justice Bill Hopkins of Edmonton, Piragoff and Crown prosecutor Maurice Collard said they have arranged new trial dates. The trial is now scheduled for Jan. 23 to Feb. 17, 2017. Family members and friends of Meguinis sat in the back row of the court room wearing white Tshirts with the face of Meguinis on them. One supporter who did not wish to be identified called the newest delay frustrating. Desharnais appeared by closed circuit television from the Red Deer Remand Centre. He is serving time for a June 2012 aggravated sexual assault and choking with the intent of committing an indictable offence. He was found guilty in June 2014 of those offences and sentenced by Justice Adam Germain to six years in custody. He had four years left to serve at the time of his conviction after spending the previous two years in pre-trial custody. Meguinis, of Calgary, arrived in Red Deer on Feb. 17, 2012, and police believe she and Desharnais were casual acquaintances.
Please see FRAMEWORK on Page A2
Please see MURDER on Page A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Kevin Kiers of Lacombe leads a group of Seventh Day Adventist students in an introduction at the beginning of a three-day River Expedition on Monday. Some 120 Grade 7 and 8 students and trip leaders from around Alberta will paddle the Red Deer River from the Kerry Wood Nature Centre in Red Deer to Burbank and then on to Joffre Bridge. The curriculum-based river expedition has the group camping out along the way and is a way to build their paddling skills and do science and learn about the ecology of the river along the way.
Road map will help council address service gaps BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
SOCIAL POLICY FRAMEWORK
Red Deer has taken the lead in crafting a social road map that will guide efforts to meet the community’s needs. Council adopted a Social Policy Framework on Monday after a year of consultations, workshops and research. Municipalities typically do not deliver social services but are mandated to deliver the funding for them provided by the provincial and federal governments. Mayor Tara Veer said in recent years municipalities have been faced with a series of downloads, particularly on the social front, from federal and provincial governments. She said downloading has forced municipalities to shift toward a social mandate without having a road map to respond. “Shelter spaces are a prime example,” she said. “Shelters are a direct mandate of the provincial government. Having said that, when there was a closure of a not-for-profit last year, our citizens, and rightfully so, had a strong expectation that the local government would respond so we don’t have vulnerable citizens out in the cold.” Veer said there is a a public expectation that the
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Anti-violence programs receive $700K funding Central Alberta programs addressing violence, abuse and bullying received more gthan $700,000 in provincial funding. Story on PAGE C1
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