CELEBRATING A MUSIC LEGEND Honouring Stompin’ Tom Connors legacy is starting to take on a life of its own
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Arens wins new trial BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF The Alberta Court of Appeal has quashed a Sylvan Lake man’s convictions for the 2010 Canada Day crash that killed one teen and injured two more people. Rodney Ross Arens, 38, will get a new trial. Jeffrey Chanminaraj, 13, was killed on July 1, 2010 in a two-car crash at the intersection of Taylor Drive and Kerry Wood Drive. Jeffrey’s brother Jamie, 18,
was airlifted to Foothills Hospital in Calgary with severe injuries. A series of surgeries and months of treatment followed. Jeffrey and Jamie were in the car with their sister Stephanie on their way to Bower Ponds to watch the Canada Day fireworks. Arens was convicted of four charges, two for impaired driving and two for dangerous driving, on June 19, 2014 by Justice Kirk Sisson in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench. He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. His appeal was heard on Sept. 9, 2015 by the ap-
peal court. In a decision released late last week, two Alberta Appeal Court Justices, Justice Ronald Berger and Justice Barbara Lea Veldhuis, ruled in favour of allowing the appeal and quashing the four convictions. A third justice, Justice Peter Martin, wrote a dissenting opinion, saying he would dismiss the appeal. Because of the successful appeal, a new trial has been ordered for Arens.
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HOTELS RED DEER
Campaign raising city’s profile BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Hotels Red Deer is taking its pitch nation-wide as part of a major push to make the city a destination leader. Karen Kitchen, who was hired as the organization’s business development manager in 2014, recently attended Destination Direct Canada conference in Ottawa where she promoted the city and its accommodation offerings. It’s only one example of the kind of networking underway to advertise the Red Deer brand. “I’m actually out actively KAREN KITCHEN marketing Red Deer across Canada, which typically hasn’t been done in the past. There has not been an individual doing this,” said Kitchen. Hitting trade shows, bringing clients in for familiarization tours and sealing bookings is all part of taking local marketing to a new level. In preparation, the brand look was refocused, a marketing video created and clips prepared for social media. On Feb. 28, www.hotelsreddeer.ca will be launched. After Kitchen joined, she spent the next two years building a marketing machine ready to put Red Deer on destination maps. It’s an approach that has a proven track record in communities from Calgary and Lethbridge to Banff and Canmore. “Until two years ago, Red Deer didn’t have someone doing this exclusively,” said Kitchen. “Hotels Red Deer is about driving events towards our city. That’s our whole mandate.” Playing the long game is important in the hotel, convention and event business. “When I’m meeting with clients they’re looking at Red Deer for 2020 and 2021,” she said. “We’re always looking into the future, laying those foundation bricks down.” Local hotel owners took a major step towards self promotion in 2010 when a destination marketing fund was created, funded with a voluntary one-percent fee on bookings. Fourteen hotels and venues with 1,420 rooms, 63 per cent of all rooms in Red Deer, have joined the initiative. While the province’s economy is obviously struggling, that doesn’t mean events have dried up. “Events still happen. Associations still have to have meetings,” she said. “Sport tourism is going to happen. Parents are still going to drive their kids around for hockey no matter what the economic situation is. “Whether the economy is good, bad or otherwise events still occur.” Red Deer’s upcoming 2019 Canada Winter Games is a “huge leverage point” when pitching the city’s merits in one-on-one meetings with potential visitors, she said. “(The Games) creates some validation for our city, that we are equipped to handle that volume and that type of event.”
WEATHER Sun and cloud. High 5. Low -8.
INDEX Two sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business . . . . . . B9-B10 Canada . . . . . . . . A5-A7 Classified . . . . . . B6-B7 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . B8 Entertainment . . . . .A10 Sports . . . . . . . . . B1-B4
Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
A memorial table is set up at Westmount Charter School in Calgary on Monday for Evan and Jordan Caldwell, who were killed in an after-hours toboggan accident on a Calgary bobsled track this past weekend.
‘We miss you’: grief counsellors working with students at schools affected by tragedy BY THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY — A table with photos of twin brothers who died in an after-hours joyride down a Calgary bobsled run was set up Monday at the school where both spent several years of their lives. A handwritten note with the words “We miss you”, Luge operator likely not followed by the drawing of liable for teenagers’ a heart, was propped up in front of the smiling pictures deaths: lawyer . . . . . . A3 of Jordan and Evan Caldwell at Westmount Charter School in northwest Calgary. The building is not far from Canada Olympic Park where they both died early Saturday morning. The two students, both 17, were part of a larger group that police say snuck onto the grounds of the WinSport facility, jumped onto their own toboggans and headed down the icy track where Olympic and World Cup events have taken place. They hit a gate set up to divide the bobsled and luge runs and died almost instantly. Six other young men were also taken to hospital after a 911 call from a staff member. Westmount Superintendent Joe Frank told reporters he knew both of the boys who started at the charter school in Grade 5. He said Evan switched to Ernest Manning High School because of a pre-engineering program for Grades 11 and 12, but Jordan remained at Westmount. “He was our students’ council president, a very active, very popular student right from Grade 5 to 12. The little guys called him their rock star,” Frank said. A dozen grief counsellors are working with stu-
‘HE WAS OUR STUDENTS’ COUNCIL PRESIDENT, A VERY ACTIVE, VERY POPULAR STUDENT RIGHT FROM GRADE 5 TO 12. THE LITTLE GUYS CALLED HIM THEIR ROCK STAR.’ — JOE FRANK, WESTMOUNT SUPERINTENDENT, ON JORDAN CALDWELL dents at the two schools. Frank said it’s important to let the students discuss their feelings and staff members have been giving them the facts of what happened. “We try to stay strictly to factual information. We don’t want to get into the rumour-mongering and one of the comments we often make to them is things that they don’t know lend themselves to kind of negative assumptions,” he said. Both Frank and Calvin Davies, District 4 director for the Calgary Board of Education, were wearing intertwined blue ribbons in honour of the two boys. Blue is the colour of both schools and Davies said there is a sense of community with those sharing the loss. “We know there is certainly tremendous strength and comfort that comes from a sense of community and having opportunities for students to meet in small groups for staff to meet together, for us to be able to provide individual opportunities for counselling,” Davies said. All notes and tributes from students at the schools will eventually be given to the Caldwell family. Two small memorials remain at Canada Olympic Park near the bobsled run. Bunches of flowers, a teddy bear and a dark blue Ernest Manning High School debate team sweatshirt were placed carefully on the ground.
ISIL mission retooled Canadian military trainers will likely face ‘engagements’ with enemy Islamic militants as part of their mission. STORIES ON PAGE A6
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