Alberta News Archives

“It'd be terrible for Canadians to put a black mark on Calgary when I'll bet a lot of the people doing this stuff are from somewhere else.”

Calgary's image is taking a national pounding following the brutal pummelling of two Ontarians who'd recently arrived in the city chasing a better life, says an alderman and father of one victim. via Slam Sports

“Stunned, very, very numb, especially in light of what happened. Complete disbelief. It can't possibly be happening again”

The Transportation Safety Board confirmed the pilot of an Edmonton plane was having problems with navigational tools eight minutes before losing control of the aircraft last week. via CBC

Charges are pending in connection with a highway collision that injured a sheriff and two others. via Calgary Herald

“We're just really happy that the parole board actually saw that he wasn't ready to be released into society and they kept him in there”

A Sherwood Park man who killed a teenage boy while driving drunk has been sent back to the slammer after he was found to pose a risk to the public. via Edmonton Sun

“There was no other marks on the cat, nothing to indicate it was previously deceased before being put up there”

- RCMP are investigating what could be a shocking case of animal cruelty in a central Alberta community - just the latest in a string of incidents that have outraged animal rights groups.

On Saturday, officers were forced to cut down a dead cat that had been hung by its neck with wire from a lamppost outside a store in Ponoka, Alta., about 130 kilometres south of Edmonton.

Const. James Lai said in an interview Sunday that a customer going into a Fields store noticed the grisly sight around 10 a.m. Saturday morning and alerted the store manager, who then called police. Read more

“We will not actively pursue bringing back to Canada murderers who have been tried in a democratic country that supports the rule of law”

- The Canadian government is being hypocritical by pleading for the life of one Canadian citizen facing beheading in Saudi Arabia while abandoning another who sits on death row in Montana, say supporters of the man in the U.S. prison.

Ronald Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., pleaded guilty in 1983 to the execution-style murder of two cousins who picked him up while he was hitch-hiking. Although he originally asked to be put to death, he later changed his mind and has been fighting his death sentence for over 20 years. Read more

“Before he was on it he was grey in colour and he had no head control”

Without funding from Alberta Heath and Wellness for an experimental drug, a young Edmonton Oilers' fan will likely die within six months. via Edmonton Sun

“I'm putting my neck on the line, but my hope is that we top 100 million people”

Canadians joined communities around the worldA on SaturdayA inA turning off the lights for this year's Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change. via CBC

“Now I think, if that's the other half of him, somebody did him in”

Hugh Hoyle holds photos of his beloved cat Felix next to an urn containing the remains of the cat that he found possibly mutilated near his west Edmonton home at 148 Street and 90 Avenue. via Edmonton Sun

“That consumer base will go somewhere else to find their product”

Police say arrests made in a 15-month undercover operation have crippled a Hells Angels "puppet club" with links throughout northern Alberta. via Edmonton Sun

“On a net basis, I think Calgary is still doing quite well”

Calgary has become one of the most expensive Canadian cities in which to do business, second only to Vancouver, says a report released yesterday by accounting firm KPMG. via CANOE

“What I can tell you is that we're following this closely. What I can also tell you that in every market we like to have partners. We like to work with companies that are locally respected and that have talent. So maybe one day.”

Areva SA is eager to build Western Canada's first nuclear power plant, the president of the French nuclear giant's Canadian wing said Friday. via 102.9 CKDS-FM

“It was a single-engine plane with five people on board. There is aircraft debris, but we have not located the folks”

Officials at the rescue co-ordination centre at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., said military personnel and RCMP were investigating wreckage at the site. via The Globe and Mail

An undercover police operation has ended with the arrest of 14 members of the White Boy Posse gang. via Edmonton Journal

“Landscape Ontario is committed to promoting the benefits and joys of horticulture, and the alliance between VIA Rail and some of Canada's premiere public gardens is an initiative we wholeheartedly support.”

NEWS RELEASE VIA RAIL CANADA INC. ************************* VIA Rail takes you down the garden path VIA's Garden Route now includes Communities in Bloom destinations TORONTO - - It's an arrangement that makes ... via SooToday

Fire officials say someone driving by the Prairie Mushrooms plant east of Edmonton called in after seeing flames. via The Globe and Mail

“We need companies to call us so we can document exactly what was taken”

A couple on AISH have been charged after police smashed a $300,000 stolen construction goods ring. via Canoe

The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index ended a volatile session higher on Thursday, as financials were buoyed by Bank of Montreal's deal to restructure two of its commercial paper trusts. via Globeinvestor.com

“We've already started signing up people that will do that”

A Canadian landlord is offering a $100,000 guarantee that he can boost enrollment at an Edmonton, Alberta, school with an uncertain future. via Daily India

“People look up at you and think that you now cannot make a false move.”

He's already one of the country's foremost painters and a member of the Order of Canada, but Alex Janvier was still thrilled Tuesday about receiving a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. via CBC News

“Right now, we've got bupkis on this but I'd rather he be unconscious than in pain”

Calgary police Det. Len Dafoe at the scene of a vicious assault in a green space between 14 St. via CANOE

“Potash One") (TSX VENTURE:KCL) is pleased to report steady progress on the Company's "3D”

Potash One Inc. is pleased to report steady progress on the Company's "3D" seismic program on its 97,400 acre Legacy Potash Project in southern Saskatchewan. via Market Wire

“For policy makers and physicians, our findings should assuage some of the concerns related to the possible opportunity costs and potential downsides of participating in the clinical research enterprise.”

Hospitals that participate in clinical trials appear to provide better care for patients with heart attacks or other acute heart events and have lower death rates than hospitals that do not participate in ... via Newswise

“We had a couple of acreage owners out taking care of their rodent problem with this device”

A war on gophers waged by two Canadian men went awry this weekend when a device used to blast the rodents in their holes sparked a massive grass fire in a rural area near Calgary, Alberta , causing more than ... via Littleton Courier

A Continental Airlines flight carrying 158 passengers and crew has made an unscheduled stop in Denver to replace a cracked window.

Airline spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said Flight 635 was en route from Calgary, Alberta, to Houston when the crack was discovered in an "eyebrow window" above the windshield.

Cripe said the 737-800 landed in Denver without incident at 9:20 a.m. MDT.

The plane took off again for Houston at about 4 p.m. MDT. Read more

“There's that added stress level there.”

Five infants, two young children and a teen were injured in a crash east of the city today that also sent two adults to hospital. via Calgary Sun

“It wasn't done maliciously, but there's still a lot of destruction there. "That's the frustrating part -- every single fire we've had has been preventable.”

Igniting a propane device designed to kill gophers sparked a massive grass fire that forced the evacuation of residents in Springbank and destroyed barns and vehicles on Saturday. via Calgary Sun

Speed has been cited as a factor in a car crash that killed an 18-year-old woman near Okotoks. via Calgary Sun

An Air Canada jumbo jet with 279 people on board had to make an unscheduled landing in Calgary after a flight attendant smelled an "acrid odour." Flight 34 was on its way from Vancouver to Toronto on Sunday ... via CANOE

“We didn't lose the house, so that's OK”

Several residents of the rural community of Springbank were evacuated yesterday as a massive grass fire swept across their properties in the afternoon. via Slam Sports

“The building has one common attic which gave us grief to be able to hold the fire.”

A multimillion-dollar blaze that destroyed Prairie Mushrooms' main growing plant is expected to leave at least half of the facility's 120 employees out of work and could hurt mushroom supplies in Alberta. via Edmonton Sun

A Canadian man arrested in Lewiston is facing child pornography charges. Eric John Gauthier, 49, of Calgary, Alberta, was indicted in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on charges of transmitting child ... via KLEW-TV Lewiston

Rory writes: Shell's Canadian oil sands business is suffering a profitability squeeze because of the soaring cost of energy needed to extract bitumen from sand. via Peak Oil

“We do have a plan in place. We feel it's a good plan.”

Things will get a lot worse before they get better. Officials are advising motorists to find alternate routes to get around the south side beginning next month when work is slated to begin on the mammoth 23 ... via Edmonton Sun

“He's always coming home with bruises”

The last thing Theresa Morin said to her brain-injured son before he vanished was, "Whatever happens, make sure you come home in one piece." Now, with the mystery in its second week and no clues of what ... via Canoe

“She says stop you've got to come see this”

Would you believe aliens have landed in North America? Well, neither did Global television station CICT in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. via WTLV

“I'm sad that a good man is gone, but it must be the will of God.”

Mounties have identified a man whose headless remains were dumped near Chestermere as a senior last seen at a city bank where he had possibly gone to get money to send to sons in India. via Calgary Sun

“Unfortunately, you can't get diesel fuel for free. But that's neither here nor there. We're just here to help.”

A semi-trailer filled with 25,000 kilograms of donated supplies arrived Thursday at a farm east of Edmonton to help care for 97 neglected and starving horses. via CBC

“It represents the oldest known forerunner of this amazing period in North American prehistory.”

One of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils recovered in North America, and the oldest yet discovered from the Cretaceous Period, represents a new genus of the prehistoric aquatic predator according ... via PhysOrg Weblog

“We are not giving any guidance between now and 2010 because there are a lot of moving parts, especially in Nigeria”

Royal Dutch Shell plans to quintuple production in the controversial Canadian tar sands in an attempt to halt falling production from resource nationalism and the drying up of old fields. via The Independent

“I said 'I've finally won some major money' and she said 'holy blank, blank, blank.”

For lottery winner Murray Erickson, the sky's the limit -- literally. The forestry-oilpatch heavy- equipment operator said winning the $2.5-million Super 7 windfall a week ago could clear the way for a dream in ... via Calgary Sun

A man accused in the murders of a southern Alberta couple and their young son two years ago is having his day in court moved to another city. via Calgary Sun

“This is supposed to be maple syrup weather with plus four and minus four (degree temperatures), melting during the day and freezing at night, and yet we're going to see negative double-digit temperatures (for the low) on the weekend”

Canada's top weatherman says this country's groundhogs got it wrong - and now, as spring arrives, he's forecasting six more weeks of winter weather. via Canoe

“Alberta doctors rated access to emergency as being the worst in the country. That reflects what we see every day”

As Albertans face growing delays in hospital emergency rooms, a new poll says doctors in this province are more concerned about the state of emergency care than physicians in the rest of the country. via Calgary Herald

“Katie is an avid horse person and she could see that something wasn't right”

It was a gruesome scene. Animal rescue workers stumbled onto a field of dead and starving horses in Alberta over the weekend -- with one animal apparently more than 300 pounds underweight. via Canada.com

“We're very fortunate that we have a duopoly in Canada, and we have rational players in the marketplace.”

Canada's two largest airlines say they're heartened by brisk advance ticket sales, a sign that the U.S. economic slowdown hasn't dampened the near-term travel plans of Canadians. via The Globe and Mail

Canadian National Railway Co laid out its regional spending plans on Tuesday for more than C$1.0 billion in track and infrastructure work planned for North America this year. via Globeinvestor.com

“It's not that we've forgotten it - it's at the forefront of our mind in the family - but when you see something like that ...”

Shernell Pierre was shot to death before her car was set ablaze, police revealed last night. via Edmonton Sun

“One million Iraqis have died and people in Iraq have not had a moment of peace”

The snow and cold didn't stop Calgary anti-war protesters from making their voices heard yesterday at a rally marking the upcoming fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. via Calgary Sun

“Pelkey developed schizophrenia.”

Former students of Edmonton's Alberta School for the Deaf are suing the Alberta government, alleging they were physically and sexually abused at the boarding school. via Edmonton Sun

“Never, never go back into a burning structure. And remember, fire extinguishers are to aid in a safe egress from the fire and should never be utilized as a full fire suppression tool.”

An off-duty firefighter who saw smoke billowing from an autobody shop as he drove past jumped into action as employees were trying to extinguish the blaze themselves. via Calgary Herald

- Military police were investigating Sunday after the body of soldier was found on a Canadian Forces' base in Edmonton.

The body was discovered on Saturday in the soldier's room at a barracks at the Edmonton Garrison, said Capt. Mark Peebles of Land Force Western Area.

"The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service is investigating the death," Peebles said.

"At this point we have notified his next of kin. Right now the family is our No. 1 priority. We are going to do everything we can to support them. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to them." Read more

A Fort McMurray man is facing drunk-driving charges in relation to a crash that killed a St. via Edmonton Sun

“It was definitely worth their while to be out there for the few hours that they were”

It took less than half an hour for a nurse to go from working her shift to being found dead in her burnt out car, police have revealed. via Edmonton Sun

“The higher the number of traumatic events, the higher the number of emotional problems”

Each death on the dusty roads and battlefields of Afghanistan creates a new group of soldiers who must cope with the loss of a friend and comrade. via Penticton Herald

“She usually contacts her family at December, during Christmas time. That didn't happen this past year so we are concerned about her whereabouts, as is her family”

A Grande Prairie woman, described by police as living a "high-risk lifestyle," is missing and authorities have notified Project Kare, a joint Edmonton Police-RCMP task force investigating the killings and ... via Holly's Fight to Stop Violence

“It's a small community here - I really noticed it being in L.A. for just two days”

Calgary artist Jason Gogo was still pumped as he held court in a swank Beverly Hills hotel recently, delighted that several Hollywood stars showed up at his "gifting suite" to score some of his paintings amid ... via CTV.ca

“My job will involve overseeing operation of programmes, carrying bills through the legislative assembly and its committees, and attending events on behalf of my minister Doug Horner. As well, I will perform the minister's duties in his absence”

Two Indo-Canadians have been given ministerial berths for the first time in the Canadian province of Alberta, with one of them becoming the country's youngest minister. via India eNews

- An Ontario-based company that operates Canada's first private nuclear electricity generating plant has announced it's one step closer to building Western Canada's first nuclear facility.

Bruce Power says in a news release it's been successful in acquiring the assets of Energy Alberta Corp. and has filed an application with the Nuclear Safety Commission to build a power plant in northwestern Alberta.

The company says it's considering construction of up to four reactors, which could produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity - enough power to supply roughly two million homes. Read more

“Tory-Liberal alliance will result in 1,388 more days of war in Afghanistan.”

A group opposed to a decision to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan plans to stage protests in 20 Canadian cities on Saturday. via 900 CHML AM

- Canada's Pat Ryan trounced Estonia 12-0 and beat Germany 6-1 to remain undefeated at the world senior curling championships Thursday.

Ryan's Edmonton rink improved to 8-0 with wins in the eighth and ninth draws and held on to the lead in the Red Group. Sweden was second at 7-1 after a 10-3 win over Wales and a 7-1 win over Japan. Germany occupied the third spot at 6-2 after the loss to Canada.

In the Blue Group, Finland, Scotland and the U.S. all won to maintain a three-way tie in first place. Read more

The Globe and Mail leads the pack of finalists with 15 nominations in the running for the 2007 National Newspaper Awards, to be announced May 9 in Toronto. via Canoe

“Our first and most important order of business will be getting to know the people in the Peace Country, sharing our plans, answering their questions and understanding their concerns”

Bruce Power, the largest private operator of nuclear plants in Canada has officially launched plans to bring nuclear power to Alberta, saying Thursday it has taken the first steps to build an up-to ... via Calgary Herald

“The dream is for them to access the information before they come (to Canada)”

Canada can be a bewildering, even frightening place for immigrant women who arrive as mail-order or Internet brides, but now they have a new Web site to help smooth the transition. via XtraMSN Real Estate

CALGARY Keyera Facilities Income Fund, a Calgary-based operator of gas processing plants, has agreed to buy a diluent distribution terminal in the Edmonton-Fort Saskatchewan energy hub in Alberta for $32 ... via The Toronto Star

“It is a huge undertaking for them”

Two men have been charged in connection with a herd of horses found dead and starving on a ranch northeast of Edmonton. via National Post

“If this works, as we hope it will, it will have a significant benefit around the country”

DENVER, Colorado - Drivers in the Mile High City will be the first to help gauge how punching the accelerator or slamming the brakes affects greenhouse gas emissions. via Vail Daily News

“When the plane leaves Calgary it's loaded with enough fuel to fly to London so that's very heavy and you're not able to land a very heavy aircraft”

An Air Canada flight from Calgary to London was diverted to Toronto after the aircraft blew a tire during takeoff, a spokesman for the airline said Wednesday. via Toronto Sun

“Generally, the AGLC takes the issue of overservice very seriously”

The mother of a Calmar woman whose alcohol-poisoning death has led to a rare charge against a local bar is hoping for justice. via Canoe

“These parties that emerge based on flavour-of-the-month hostility or even enduring, latent hostility ... if they're not planned out carefully and if you don't do the 95 per cent of the real work that has to be done, they're destined to fail”

- The future of Alberta's fledgling Wildrose Alliance was up for discussion Monday evening as executives of the right-wing party planned a conference call in the wake of last week's election drubbing.

A key question is what will happen to leader Paul Hinman, whose narrow defeat by the Conservative candidate in the southern riding of Cardston-Taber-Warner cost the party its only toehold in the Alberta legislature.

"Tonight's meeting is kind of pivotal on that - on whether I have support or whether we need to move forward without me or with someone else there," Hinman said Monday. Read more

“Before we move any items in the scene, it's videotaped as we find it”

The trial of a city man charged with murdering his former common-law spouse commenced yesterday with the showing of grisly crime-scene video. via Slam Sports

“Securing this rig gives Husky the flexibility to advance the White Rose subsea tieback program and drill some exciting exploration prospects in the Jeanne d'Arc basin.”

ST. JOHN'SHusky Energy Inc., a major integrated oil company based in Calgary, says it will expand its development and exploration drilling in the offshore East Coast, with plans to raise production from fields ... via The Toronto Star

“These aren't amateurs or hacks. These are some of the best qualified men and women in their field”

Just yesterday, 85 elk were carefully loaded onto trucks and moved from Elk Island National Park, east of Edmonton, into their new digs around Rocky Mountain House. via The Globe and Mail

“None of the campaigns really struck that core that absolutely captured the electorate.”

Ed Stelmach address the media after the Monday's Provincial Election. Albertans whose soldiers are fighting for freedom in Afghanistan have a duty to vote at home, says the father of a Calgarian killed in the ... via Canoe

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to make a decision tomorrow on a construction permit for the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline. via KMOT-TV Minot

“Now that they1re in the land of the Tories, they didn't realize there was a Liberal option.”

Supporters of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach react as they watch the election results come in during a Progressive Conservative celebration rally in Edmonton, Ab. via CANOE

“The thing is that the ice is melting, so of course it's not safe.”

A man who disappeared on Tuesday turned up dead in the North Saskatchewan River yesterday. via Canoe

“Professional opportunity is what made us open our eyes to Edmonton”

From the prestigious halls of Oxford University, Patrick MacDonald considered more than a few attractive offers on where to start his career as a research scientist. via CFRB

“Starting Feb. 24th, we began to apportion diesel and gasoline supply in Western Canada to our customers”

Esso stations in Western Canada are short of gasoline and some could run dry in the next few weeks as the company struggles with reduced output at its Northern Alberta refinery. via Globeinvestor.com