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Chamber CEO hits back at job claims
POLICE PROBE MYSTERIOUS DEATH
BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Red Deer unexpectedly became the poster child for Alberta’s tanking economy in a speech by Edmonton’s chief economist on Wednesday. “Look at Red Deer,” said John Rose, at BUILDEX Edmonton, a large trade building industry show. “What a mess. Over one in 10 jobs has disappeared in 12 months. “They’ve got real problems,” said Rose, who was drawing from a Statistics Canada employment update released last Friday. News travels fast and it wasn’t long before Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce CEO Tim Creedon had seen a link to the speech and started doing his own investigating. Statistics Canada’s latest numbers show Red Deer economic region’s workforce dropped to 117,500 from 127,900 over the year ending in February, a drop of 8.13 per cent. The number of employed in the region shrank 11.4 per cent from 121,600 to 107,700. However, the number of unemployed here rose by only 3,500 workers to 9,800, said Statistics Canada. “The numbers aren’t the whole picture,” said Creedon. In January, local businesses were asked what kind of year they were expecting and 60 per cent said same as last year, with almost 24 per cent predicting a slightly better year than last year. “I don’t see Red Deer as being in a huge mess at the moment. I see it as having some substantial challenges but I’m not getting the feedback that we’re in dire straights.” Some job migration is expected in the Red Deer region, which has always had a mobile population with many workers who live here but work elsewhere. Please see JOBS on Page A2
BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF Police are being tight lipped on whether a blood-smeared van in Pines is connected to the death of a man found in a city alley. Red Deer City RCMP were called to a report of a man in distress at an alley around 4:54 a.m. on Wednesday. The man was taken to hospital where he later died. Police had a street cordoned off in Normandeau. The Calgary RCMP Major Crimes Unit were called in to help with the investigation. Around the same time, one Pines resident looked out his window to see something out of the ordinary unfold on Page Avenue near Pamely Avenue. The resident did not give his name. “I just looked out the window and saw the van roll up slowly,” he said. “It was eerie.” The man said he walked away from the window and when he returned a few minutes later, the white cube van had plowed into a car. He did not want to speculate on what happened. The white cube van had what appeared to be blood smeared on the driver’s side near the back tire. It appeared to have rammed into a small car. Details are few as police are continuing to investigate. A section of Page Street was taped off for most of the day as police went door to door to talk to residents.
Photo by CRYSTAL RHYNO/Advocate staff
ABOVE AND BELOW: Police tape off a section of Page Avenue in Red Deer. A white cube van appears to have blood smeared above the back tire on the driver’s side. Calgary RCMP Majory Crimes Unit are investigating an incident in Pines and another in Normandeau. Police have not said the two incidents are connected. There was heavy police presence in both neighbourhoods throughout the day. Pines resident Vickie Lee said she didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. She was surprised to see the police tape down the street from her home. Please see DEATH on Page A2
Former Michener Centre resident left behind legacy of bravery BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF
File Photo by MYLES FISH/Advocate staff
Leilani Muir-O’Malley (right) and Judy Lytton pet O’Malley’s dog, Peggy Sue. The two women lived at the Provincial Training School (now Michener Centre) in the ’50s and ’60s, and both would successfully sue the Alberta government in the 1990s for having been sterilized while institutionalized in Red Deer.
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Funeral arrangements are being made for a former Michener Centre resident whose personal battle opened a floodgate of lawsuits against the Alberta government. Leilani Muir-O’Malley, 72, died at her home in Devon this past weekend. She was found by a friend doing a welfare check, says Nicola Fairbrother, director of Edmonton-based Neighbourhood Bridges, a human rights group representing people with intellectual disabilities. While she had suffered some health issues in recent years, there was no outward indication of any serious illness, said Fairbrother, who has worked closely with Muir-O’Malley on a variety of projects during the last 10 years, including the documentary film, Surviving Eugenics.
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Please see LEILANI on Page A2
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Muir-O’Malley made Alberta and national history in the mid-1990s, when she successfully sued the Alberta Government for removing her Fallopian tubes without her consent while she was a resident of Michener Centre, known at the time as the Alberta Provincial Training School for Mentally Defectives. Unloved and unwanted, according to her autobiography, Muir-O’Malley had been admitted to the institution by an abusive mother just after her 11th birthday and was discharged as a young adult in 1965. A year after her discharge, she learned she had been sterilized under the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act, enacted in 1928 and repealed by the newly-elected Progressive Conservatives in 1972. However, Muir-O’Malley was so terrified of her mother, said Fairbrother, it took another 20 years for her to take action.
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