MANHUNT
WILLIAMS SCORES IN OT TO LIFT KINGS OVER RANGERS
Three RCMP officers were killed in Moncton, N.B., Wednesday by a man armed with guns
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Red Deer Advocate THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2014
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D-DAY PILOTING HIS SPITFIRE ABOVE THE SHORES OF NORMANDY, DON LAUBMAN WAS AMONG THE MANY CENTRAL ALBERTANS WHO MADE THEIR MARK DURING THE HISTORIC INVASION
SEE STORY ON PAGE A2 Contributed photo and photo by RENÉE FRANCOEUR/Advocate staff
ABOVE: Don Laubman stands outside his Spitfire in Redhill, England, in 1943. Laubman took out eight Nazi planes in three days and was one of the fighter pilots circling above the French coast as D-Day unfolded. INSET: Laubman, 92, goes through his pilot’s log book, remembering his patrols on D-Day 70 years ago.
Plains Midstream fine ‘absolutely absurd’ BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
‘THESE COMPANIES ARE GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER’
The $1.3-million fine slapped on Plains Midstream Canada for two oil spills is “absolutely absurd,” said a long-time surface rights activist. “A million bucks to them is like change in the pocket,” Don Bester, of the Alberta Surface Rights Action Group, said Wednesday. “There should be some really strong repercussions.” Plains Midstream was fined in Red Deer provincial court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to three provincial and federal environmental charges in connection with oil spills in northeastern Alberta in 2011 and on the Red Deer River just downstream of Sundre in June 2012. Bester does not believe fines are the way to keep oil companies in line. “I can’t see a fine in dollar figures. I think it has to be some other kind of repercussion.” Companies should face the threat of having their operating licences pulled if they fail to adequately maintain their pipeline systems, putting the public and environment at risk. Bester pointed out Plains is a repeat offender. “This just isn’t a one-time mishap this company has had. So what do we do?” Ensuring companies are diligent is critical considering how many pipeline river crossings Alberta has and the huge amount of pipeline that is at least
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50 years old, he said. An investigation of the Red Deer River spill, which dumped 2,900 barrels of light sour crude oil into the river, was sharply critical of Plains Midstream for failing to heed government warnings about the potential impact of spring runoff on its pipeline, which had not been properly maintained. Wayne Johnston, who lives just a few hundred metres from the spill point, is disgusted with the company’s attitude. His wife, Ila, read a victim impact statement in the courtroom describing how the incident changed their lives. On the day after the spill, Ila had to be taken to hospital because she was suffering from breathing problems she blames on the noxious stench that rose up from the river to the house on the bluff above. Plains Midstream has not taken responsibility for affecting people’s health, said Wayne. “They didn’t even consider health problems,” he said, adding the company has also not taken responsibility for damaging the environment. “These companies are getting away with murder.”
Please see SPILL on Page A2
HB-No! Woman urges AHS to get a grip on hospital TV costs BY RENÉE FRANCOEUR ADVOCATE STAFF A Red Deer woman says she’s appalled at the extra cost of TV for patients at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre and wants the system changed. Diane Stewart’s husband, Garry, has been in and out of the hospital for the past two years due to various chronic conditions including congestive heart failure. “To rent a television for him is $87.94 a week,” she said. “I could not believe the price that they’re asking . . . . A lot of people can’t afford that.” Stewart said she recently found out TV is free at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary and doesn’t understand why there is regional disparity with the issue. “I mean it’s all Alberta Health Services . . . It’s really not fair. They have you hostage because what are you going to do? You can’t take your own TV and my husband is in there for eight weeks so it gets pretty boring after a while.” While Stewart said she understands free TV is not a pressing issue in health care, it is a “simple little thing that might ease the process for people that are in there and their families, if they have a free TV to watch to pass the time,” The Hospitality Network, a country-wide company, is the television service provider for Red Deer Regional.
Please see TV on Page A2
Families mark Tiananmen anniversary China allows no public discussion of the events of June 3-4, 1989, when soldiers fought their way into the heart of Beijing.
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