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Alberta health care workers stage information pickets across the province

2012-02-23T04:49:05Z

EDMONTON - Health care professionals have staged information pickets across the province to bring attention to the state of their negotiations with Alberta Health Services.

Members of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta work alongside general support workers who held a wildcat strike last week.

While the association supported the one-day walkout by their colleagues, the union says it is not considering similar action.

President Elisabeth Ballermann says wildcat strikes by their nature are something that unions don't necessarily call for.

She says they are a symptom of frustration among union members, adding she can't guarantee her own membership won't resort to it down the road.

Negotiations have been underway for 10 months and are currently at the arbitration stage, but Ballermann hopes it doesn’t require that process.

Ballermann says the main sticking point is wages.

(Global Edmonton)

Fire at Vancouver restaurant goes to 3 alarms

2012-02-23T04:21:09Z

Vancouver firefighters fought a three-alarm blaze at the Tandoori King Restaurant on the 8000 Block of Fraser Street Wednesday night.

“The fire started at approximately 5:45 pm,” said fire department Capt. Gabe Roder. “Firefighters arrived on scene to major smoke showing from the roof of this three-storey building.”

Roder said fire crews initially attacked the fire from inside the building, but retreated outside for safety when the third alarm was called.

There were no injuries, said Roder. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Fraser Street between 62nd Avenue and Marine Drive would remained closed while the fire was still active, Roder said.

Bead of Courage program helps sick children cope with anxiety of disease

2012-02-23T03:50:46Z

SASKATOON - Dealing with a chronic or life-threatening illness can be tough for anyone, but especially for children.

To help, a new program called Bead of Courage has been launched in Saskatchewan aimed at easing the anxiety.

The program takes arts and crafts to a new level for children such as Olivia Smood, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Since her diagnosis in December, the six-year-old has undergone countless rounds of tests, chemotherapy, and even surgery.

But this week, she's not worried about the treatment or medicine and is spending her time making a necklace.

Each coloured bead on her jewelry represents a different part of her battle against cancer.

"There's a really pretty one and it means courage, and the black ones mean pokes," explains the youngster.

Children battling life threatening disease or chronic illness receive a new bead for every medical milestone, treatment, and procedure. They also receive a journal to track the beads they earn.

Tammy Lucas, the manager of acute care in the pediatric ward at the Royal University Hospital, says the new program has gone over very well so far.

"It's something they can share. They can talk about. It helps them cope. It helps them to feel like they are supported and it even decreases their perception of pain and it's something to look forward to."

The Beads of Courage program was started eight years ago by an oncology nurse in Arizona who wanted a way to help her young patients deal with the emotional side of being sick.

Last month, Saskatchewan became the first province in Canada to launch Beads of Courage, with the help of a Saskatoon man who knows what it's like to undergo cancer treatments.

Doug Gillespie underwent cancer treatments of his own last year in Saskatoon. After watching a program on TV about Beads of Courage, he decided to launch a fundraiser to bring the program to Saskatchewan.

"It just fit. It answered all the questions I had," says Gillespie. "The beads were a perfect fit for us."

So far, Gillespie's efforts have helped to raise more than $50,000 to train staff in both Regina and Saskatoon, and to pay for enough beads for months, maybe even years to come.

As for the Smoods, more treatments and procedures are ahead for Olivia. But she and her mom Diana take comfort in knowing each medical milestone will be marked one bead at a time.

"It makes coming for treatment a lot easier. Something to look forward to at the end of treatment," says Diana.

(CTV Saskatoon)

Knicks Rout Hawks Before Showdown In Miami

2012-02-23T03:06:25Z

NEW YORK — Not much heat from the Hawks for Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks.

That's likely to change Thursday night when the show travels to Miami for Lin versus LeBron and some real Heat.

Lin had 17 points and nine assists, sitting out most of the fourth quarter in a rare easy game during his remarkable run, and the Knicks tuned up for their trip by beating Atlanta 99-82 on Wednesday.

Carmelo Anthony scored 15 points in his second game back from injury for the Knicks, who led the depleted Hawks by 25 points at halftime. New York bounced back from a loss to New Jersey on Monday and won for the ninth time in 11 games since Lin joined the rotation.

The Knicks visit Miami on Thursday in their final game before the All-Star break, and Lin's emergence has the Heat's attention.

"It's going to be a lot of, a lot of anticipation about this game," Anthony said. "We're going down there to win. Miami is playing great basketball right now. One of the hottest teams, if not the hottest team in the NBA.

"It'll be a great game."

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and teammates have been asked repeatedly in recent days about the ex-Harvard guard, and coach Mike D'Antoni was told the word out of Miami is the Heat will be waiting for the Knicks' back-to-back Sports Illustrated cover boy.

"At the airport?" he joked.

Not quite. But whatever they do will provide more resistance than the Hawks, who trailed by as many as 30.

Jeff Teague scored 18 points for the Hawks. They played without All-Star guard Joe Johnson, who left their loss at Chicago on Monday with a sore left knee and had to pull out of Sunday's game in Orlando, and have lost three straight and five of six.

"Coming into this game, being as depleted as we were, I still was hoping we could come out and just put together four solid quarters. We just didn't do that," Hawks coach Larry Drew said.

The Knicks shot 52 percent in the first half, scored 30 points in both periods, and led 60-35 at the break.

"We are professionals. They just came out and they attacked us," Teague said. "That's all I can really say."

The Knicks lost their focus briefly midway through the third before pulling away again to lead 78-56 heading into the fourth. Lin watched the first 6-plus minutes of the final period before D'Antoni curiously put him back in leading by 20 with 5:13 left. Lin still played only 33 minutes after he logged at least 36 in all but one of the previous 10 games.

He'll likely need to do more against the Heat, who have won seven in a row and have the NBA's best record at 26-7.

The Heat have been the NBA's biggest story since building their Big Three in 2010, but even they've been playing in Lin's shadow the last two weeks. That will change Thursday in a nationally televised game that James said could be "one of the most watched games we've had in a long time, especially with what Jeremy Lin is doing."

But Lin isn't getting caught up in the hype.

"I think for us, we want to make sure what we're thinking about is we want to build momentum going into the All-Star break and we want to make a push after the All-Star break. And I think this is a good opportunity to build momentum," he said.

"It's a big game, don't get me wrong. We're playing a great team, and it's going to be a good evaluation of where we're at. So from that end obviously we're excited and ready for the challenge. But besides that, we're just going try to stay consistent."

The game against Atlanta came on the one-year anniversary of the Knicks' acquisition of Anthony from Denver in a blockbuster trade that cost them four of their top six players. The results have been underwhelming – 14-14 last season and 17-17 this season, and D'Antoni acknowledged the high price the Knicks paid for the All-Star forward "depleted a lot of things."

However, he said they've built their depth back, and the potential was obvious in the first half, when all nine players who played scored.

New additions Baron Davis and J.R. Smith could be an explosive second-team backcourt, and teamed up on a pretty alley-oop that Smith dropped in with his back to the hoop. Steve Novak is the 3-point specialist needed to space the floor so Lin and Anthony have room to drive into the lane.

"The things are developing and we'll get our guys, everybody up to par, and if that happens then we should be fairly good," D'Antoni said.

Novak made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points. Landry Fields had 16, and Smith finished with 12. Davis had six assists in 14 minutes.

Notes: Drew was disappointed that Josh Smith was passed over in favor of Boston's Rajon Rondo when Commissioner David Stern chose the injury replacement for Johnson. Smith averages 16 points and 9.6 rebounds, is top 15 in the league in blocks, rebounds and steals, and was already considered perhaps the biggest snub when reserves were chosen. "I really thought that he would get the invite once word was that Joe wouldn't be able to play," Drew said. "I mean, you look at Josh's numbers, he has good numbers. His numbers are good enough to be where he should be an All-Star. Why he didn't make it, I don't know." ... Knicks assistant Mike Woodson was the Hawks' head coach from 2004-10. ... Lansdowne Road, an Irish pub in the Hell's Kitchen section of New York, announced it was changing its name to LINsdowne Road

Vancouver Thief Snatches $500,000 In Jewelry

2012-02-23T03:03:45Z

Vancouver police are looking for at least one man they believe stole $500,000-worth of jewelry from the back of a rental car parked in the city.

A salesman in town for a trade show Feb. 13 left five suitcases in plain view while he went for dinner, Const. Lindsey Houghton told a news conference Wednesday. The man returned to the car at about 8 p.m. to find the driver’s-side door had been pried open and the Samsonite-style suitcases stolen.

The cases contained sterling silver bracelets, earrings, pendants and necklaces.

Witnesses told police an East Indian man in his late 20s, about five feet six inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds, was seen breaking in to the car, Houghton said.

He was wearing a grey zip-up hoodie, a black ball cap and black gloves. Two other men seen nearby, described as white and possibly Asian or aboriginal, may have been accomplices.

Houghton cautioned all drivers not to leave valuables in plain sight in parked vehicles.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Vancouver police or anonymously to Crime Stoppers.

Newt Gingrich Calls Obama An 'Extremist' Who Supported 'Infanticide'

2012-02-23T02:40:27Z

The Republican presidential candidates Tuesday night, during a GOP debate in Arizona, took shots at President Barack Obama for his pro-choice history.

Newt Gingrich deflected a question about Obama's recent decision mandating that employers' insurance plans cover contraception by pointing out that Obama voted in favor of a law that protected abortion providers during his term as state senator of Illinois

"You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide," Gingrich said. "If we're going to debate about who is the extremist on this issues, it is President Obama, who, as a state senator, voted to protect doctors who killed babies.

Mitt Romney lambasted Obama's new requirement that insurers of faith-based organizations who object to birth control must offer the coverage to those groups' employees for free.

"I don’t think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on religious freedom we've seen in Barack Obama most recently requiring the Catholic Church to provide for its employees and its various enterprises health care insurance that would include birth control, sterilization and the morning after pill," he said. "He tried to retreat from that, but he retreated in a way that was not appropriate, because these insurance companies have to provide these same things, and now the Catholic Church will have to pay for them."

In fact, the Catholic Church is exempt from Obama's contraception mandate.

Santorum, asked about his previous comments on the "dangers of contraception," refused to engage in a discussion about birth control at all, going on a tangent instead about children born out of wedlock.

"What we're seeing is a problem in our culture with respect to children being raised by children, children being raised out of wedlock, and the impact on society economically with respect to drug use and all host of other things when children have children," Santorum said. "And so yes, I was talking about these very serious issues."

Man Beaten To Death At B.C. Concert

2012-02-23T02:33:24Z

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. - A former Manitoba man has been identified as the person was suffered a fatal beating at a music concert in Dawson Creek, B.C., on Valentine's Day.

The RCMP say 28-year-old Jason Patrick Foster and a friend were attacked by three other men at the Hedley concert at the Encana Event Centre Feb. 14.

Police say the fight continued into the men's washroom until another man intervened to break it up.

Foster was found unconscious and died later in hospital.

The three suspects were arrested but later released and police say charges are pending.

They say Foster had been living in the Fort St. John, B.C., area but was originally from Manitoba.

Apple's Next Big Move: The U.S. Military?

2012-02-23T02:25:56Z

The Air Force's Air Mobility Command is considering a monster purchase of iPads -- one that might give Apple inroads into a military market that's eluded it so far.

Firm With Tory Links Traced To Fraudulent Election Day Robocalls

2012-02-23T02:08:41Z

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country. While the agency investigates, aided by the RCMP, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive "robocalls."

WATCH: Oil Man's Son Fights Pipeline And 'Decline Of A Civilization'

2012-02-23T02:05:24Z

Lee Brain may claim to be "no one in particular," but after a speech delivered last weekend to a pipeline review panel, many identify him as the oil man's son who "does not see eye to eye" with his father.

Brain delivered his stirring speech in Prince Rupert on February 18 to Canada's Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel. As the Vancouver Observer highlighted, it was "the most moving moment" of the hearings.

The proposal to run a pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia has been fought by many environmental and aboriginal groups. According to their website, the government-mandated Joint Review Panel is working to "assess the environmental effects of the proposed project and review the application under both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board Act."

Growing up in Prince Rupert as the son of an EPCM contractor, 26-year-old Brain is an unlikely pipeline opponent. A few years ago, his father sent him off to experience the oil industry first-hand. His month-long experience on one of the world’s largest oil refineries in rural India gave him serious doubts about the future of the oil industry.

"It's time for us to dismantle the institutions that are beginning to imprison us," he said.

Brain told the panel he witnessed villages that had slowly become impoverished -- he believes this occurred after a refinery project arrived carrying a slew of troubles, from a pipeline break to cheap labor issues.

Brain said that his experiences left him believing that "those who work in industry can get excited about growth and yet subsequently, can turn their eyes off towards any adverse impacts they are creating as a result."

Looking to the future, he suggested moving away from fossil fuels, and focusing on a new energy economy. Although Brain was interrupted for presenting an argument over oral evidence of his personal experience, his speech was met with loud applause and a standing ovation, according to the YouTube description.

Brain concluded his speech by asking whether people will choose to embrace a new way of life or "a predictable path that leads to the slow, inevitable decline of a civilization."

The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel describes the panel's mission on its website, stating they are "an independent body, mandated by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board. The Panel will assess the environmental effects of the proposed project and review the application under both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board Act."

According to Reuters, many groups that oppose Keystone XL are also against Northern Gateway:

They say the route of the pipeline is too dangerous, owing to seismic activity, frequent landslides and other natural hazards that could lead to oil spills. They also say the chemical makeup of the diluted bitumen that would flow through the pipeline is more corrosive than conventional oil, a contention that has not been proven by independent study.

Enbridge claims their pipeline follows a safe route and uses new technologies which will cut down on rupture risks.

Sacha Baron Cohen Could Be Banned From Oscars If He Shows Up Like This

2012-02-23T02:03:24Z

Later today, faced with all the bad publicity resulting from its action, the Academy tried to parse what it did when questioned by some media outlets. But the fact is that, this morning, the Academy's Director Of Membership Kimberly Rouch phoned Paramont's awards staff to say Baron Cohen's tickets had been pulled unless he gives the Academy assurances ahead of time promising not to show up on the Red Carpet in costume and not to promote the movie on the Red Carpet. The Academy made it clear that, without those assurances, it would not issue him the tickets. So he's banned

B.C. casinos rapped for not checking patrons' backgrounds

2012-02-23T01:40:18Z

CBC News has uncovered new information indicating some B.C. casinos failed to adequately check the backgrounds of patrons dealing in large volumes of cash — opening the way for gangsters to launder money.

Uncensored, never-before-seen documents dated 2009/10 obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal three casinos were upbraided for not properly checking the backgrounds of patrons bringing in large amounts of cash and for improper documentation of potential money laundering incidents.

The documents are posted on website of B.C.'s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch but the documents are almost entirely censored due to what the province calls "law enforcement and commercial interests."

Following a year-long appeal, CBC News recently obtained the uncensored findings of the internal gaming investigations.

For example, in an audit by the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch of Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby, the province’s casino policing agency found that out of a sample of 27 large cash transactions in one month, nine records contained "insufficient detail."

Meeting requirements

For instance, patrons bringing in large amounts of money were allowed to merely identify themselves as "self-employed" or a "business owner," a violation of the federal Proceeds of Crime Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act.

The report states, "the service provider shall obtain the patron’s principle business or occupation prior to [accepting their money]. It is not sufficient for the patron to provide vague information."

"The requirement is for us to gather [the information], not verify it, and as long as we meet that requirement, we've done our job in the anti-money laundering," said Bryon Hodgkin, the director of operation compliance with the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

"We can do more in that we can probe them and then advise them of ... our process to not allow them to gamble further in our establishments ... We'll ask the questions, observe our player and if we observe something suspicious we will file a suspicious report on that, which is meeting the requirements."

'Real laxness'

Former Crown prosecutor and gambling critic Sandy Garossino says it's an example of casinos turning a blind eye to huge amounts of revenue.

"Just to see this real laxness really concerns me because it's almost — it's just a failure of understanding the seriousness of the operation, the seriousness of the risk," she said.

"Really, there's no excuse for it. You would never see this in a bank setup ... Given the BCLC's knowledge of its obligations, it's actually quite a shocking lapse that they haven't covered this off right at the beginning. I consider this to be pretty serious."

The B.C. Lottery Corporation, the province’s casino overseer, is already in trouble with Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, the federal financial transaction watchdog. BCLC is appealing a $700,000 fine for failing to comply with anti-money laundering measures.

As for the latest violation uncovered by CBC News, BCLC says it's improved its practices since the audit.

"We've made a number of changes in that large cash transaction process and gathering the information from the player," said Hodgkin.

"We've trained over 5,200 staff on online training and we've also implemented a flag that will come up on the reporting that if a generic occupation is given to go deeper and we also have investigators in the casino after the fact to look at these and make sure they're accurate ... and we're also in the process right now of automating the whole aspect of gathering the occupation ... and it'll be a mandatory field requirement."

'Let's get an audit'

But Garossino is still calling for an audit of the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

"If they [BCLC] can't do better than that, they shouldn't be in the casino business, because I can guarantee that in Las Vegas you don't operate that way," she said.

"Let's get an audit of B.C. Lottery Corporation and the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch because this is just not good enough."

In January 2011, CBC News obtained documents that showed millions of dollars flowing through several B.C. casinos in what police suspect was a sophisticated scheme to launder money from the drug trade.

The CBC News investigation triggered a substantial review by the provincial government of the B.C. Lottery Corporation and money laundering practices at B.C.'s casinos, after which it said it would transition away from the use of cash in casinos in an attempt to crack down on money laundering.

The province also promised to increase staff training around money laundering and work more closely with police agencies to track suspicious activity at B.C. casinos.

Mountie Investigated After Money, Drugs Disappear

2012-02-23T01:18:49Z

NANAIMO, B.C. - A Mountie in Nanaimo, B.C., is under investigation after $10,000 cash and some cocaine disappeared from an exhibit locker in the RCMP detachment.

Supt. Norm McPhail says the money and drugs were seized during a drug investigation and were stored in a temporary exhibit locker.

They were discovered missing during a routine movement of exhibits at the detachment in December.

An officer in the Nanaimo detachment with eight years' experience on the force has been removed from service pending an internal code of conduct investigation.

A separate criminal investigation is also under way to determine what happened to the exhibits.

McPhail says as those investigations proceed, he's made several changes to the way exhibits are handled in the detachment.

Sewage used as fertilizer sparks B.C. blockade

2012-02-23T01:17:32Z

A group of concerned residents in the Salmon Valley, near Prince George, is refusing to let a local farmer spread treated stabilized human sewage on his fields.

The residents are blocking city dump trucks carrying biosolids from driving down a frozen gravel road to the famer's property, where the sewage will be stored and then spread on his fields in May or June.

"That's the last thing we want to do is stand there and stop a trucker from making money, but we have to live out here," said protester Linda Parker. "We have not got a choice, we are being told it's going to come through, or you're going to jail!"

Parker and others are concerned about water contamination and smell.

"I need to know, is it going to seep into the waterways, is it going to be harmful for the environment out here? There's no tests that have been brought to us. We were not brought documents stating 'this is what it does, this is what it's for,' " said Parker.

Tuesday morning RCMP officers told the residents to dismantle their blockade, and Prince George city officials told residents their concerns would be addressed at a city meeting that afternoon.

But afterwards, Parker said, she and others still weren't satisfied.

"They have not said anything to us, they will not give us answers," said Parker.

Andy Angele says residents plan to keep blocking the dump trucks until an independent review is held, looking at the effects of spreading stabilized human sewage on agricultural land.

"The regulations and their own material says there is potential for water contamination from biosolids. They said more than 20 or 30 times in the regulation that there is potential for biosolid problems."

The City of Prince George maintains the use of biosolids on farms is safe, and will continue to work with the concerned residents.

Garbage blamed as 145 bears shot in Alberta's north

2012-02-23T01:06:18Z

Questions are being raised about garbage management after 145 black bears were shot by wildlife officers in northern Alberta's oilsands region last year.

More than half were killed in oilsands camps in the Fort McMurray area.

Companies running the camps should manage their garbage better, Nigel Douglas of the Alberta Wilderness Association told CBC News.

"They should be required to have the fencing and keep bears away from garbage," he said. "It should be a basic practice which all companies do, and certainly the government should be monitoring these camps and making sure they're doing what they're supposed to do. And if they are attracting bears, make sure that the companies clean up their act or face charges."

However, 51 bears were also killed on residential properties.

Hilda Ivanco has had a few surprise visits lately from bears outside her apartment in the centre of Fort McMurray.

"A bear popped up out of the bush," she said, adding she spotted it just in time to warn a passerby. "And I yelled, 'Excuse me, there's a bear.' "

Provincial review to focus on garbage management

It’s not the only one she has seen — three bears tend to hang out at a nearby garbage dumpster — but Ivanco said they’re not exactly uninvited guests.

"People [were] throwing dog food out and feeding the bears, enticing them to come back," she said.

Alberta Sustainable Resources Minister Frank Oberle said the government will review why so many bears have been shot in the area. The government's review will focus on what it calls "garbage management,” as dumps and landfills are turning into the bears' main source of food.

But for now, Ivanco has one clear message for her neighbours.

"Don't feed the bears," she said.