After the last coal mine closed, this Alberta hamlet set on becoming a tourist destination
Story by Liam Harrap • Yesterday 8:00 a.m.


When the Cardinal River Mine closed in 2020, it was the end of more than a century of coal mining near Cadomin, Alta.

Coal extraction in the Cadomin area began more than 100 years ago. 

Coal was one of the main economic drivers in the area, helping fuel the steel-making industry.

The community thrived for decades. By the 1930s, almost 2,000 people lived in Cadomin. By 2021, the population had dwindled to 54, according to Statistics Canada.

But instead of becoming a ghost town, the community is building a new business base: tourism.

"It's definitely going to become, without a doubt, a resort centre," said Curtis Way, president of the Cadomin Community Society.

The society is behind the push for a new $4-million community hall, which was recently approved by the Yellowhead County.

About three years ago, the mining company Teck Resources donated $400,000 toward the project. The province provided $950,000 and Yellowhead County has committed $2.25 million. Local property and business owners have also donated toward the new hall.

"We're still short a couple hundred thousand but we're very close to getting across the goal line," said Way.

Cadomin is roughly 50 kilometres south of Hinton, after the paved road becomes gravel.

The hamlet has been making do with the old Legion as its community hall. The building is more than 80 years old and at the end of its life, said Way.

The new hall would be a focal point for the community, he said, providing a space for music concerts, pig roasts and pot lucks.

Although the community has 54 year-round residents, the population explodes to more than 200 during a long weekend, according to Way.

"We're a hopping kind of place."

Related video: Controversial Alberta coal mine could soon get a green energy makeover (Global News)
Duration 2:05  View on Watch

The aim is for shovels to be in the ground by June, he said. The hall could be built by December, just in time for a Christmas party.

Cadomin is a popular area for ATVing, hiking and hunting, particularly big horn sheep.

"We're really seeing a lot of the older properties being knocked down and people are building new houses," said Way.

"We're kind of the best kept secret in Alberta right now when it comes to mountain living."

So far, the hamlet's rising popularity has been limited to summer visitation.

When local resident Leah Vallee arrived in Cadomin in the 1970s, there were about 20 kids. Now, there's none.

The new community hall would not only be a good location for weddings and celebrations, she said, but could help attract more year-round families.

As the owner of the hamlet's only motel for more than 30 years, she said her phone is ringing more than ever before from prospective visitors.

"I get so many calls from people wanting to come here," said Vallee.

"It will be the next Canmore."

Similar to Cadomin, Canmore also has an industrial history as its last coal mine closed in 1979.

Vallee, along with her husband, bought the Cadomin's only store last year, which sells items like chips and pop. The couple plan to open a cafe this month.

The community hall could also attract different kinds of businesses, said Way, including an ultra marathon event.

Edmonton's Monty McNeice, who also organizes the Klondike Ultra Marathon in Fort Assiniboine, has been visiting Cadomin for more than 20 years and running many of its trails.

His kids particularly like to play with basketballs from the unlocked sports shed.

"It's that kind of small town."

His race idea is inspired by history. In the 1930s, coal miners used to race up to the summit of a nearby mountain. The winner got $75, which was equivalent to nearly 15 days of wages.

"There's a few other old mining communities where ultramarathons were introduced and the community thrived, it definitely strengthens the community," said McNeice.

He's aiming for the new race to launch in 2024, noting that the new community hall could serve as the race's meeting point.

Could white-tailed deer hold the key to treating Lyme disease?

Story by Kim MacDonald • Yesterday


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Progress has been made in the fight against Lyme disease. Researchers at the New England Center of Excellence for Vector Borne Disease (NEWVEC) at the University of Massachusetts have discovered that white-tailed deer are immune to Lyme disease, offering hope for potential cures or prevention strategies. Scientists confirmed what they had already suspected, something in the deer's blood kills the bacteria that causes Lyme. The next step is investigating what the exact substance is. Knowing this could inform ways to protect humans and pets in the future.

Microbiology Professor Stephen Rich, director of the NEWVEC, tells me that "we can learn something about the pharmacology of it, like the drugs that work to ... mimic that thing that's happening inside the white-tailed deer. And if we get that, we're off to the races to having possibly another cure or prevention for Lyme disease."

Currently, antibiotics remain the best option for treating Lyme disease, with early detection and treatment being crucial for favorable outcomes.

The findings were published in the journal Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases.

Thumbnail: file photo: National Park Service.

Jury holds key to fate of $1 billion transmission project

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A battle over a $1 billion transmission line that won all regulatory approvals only to be rebuked by state residents in a referendum now comes down to nine regular folks.



In a rare move, a jury is being asked to decide a complicated constitutional matter — whether developers have a vested right to complete the 145-mile (233-kilometer) project, which would supply Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid.

The constitutionality of the statewide referendum on the project depends on the jury’s decision on the narrow vested-rights issue. And the case could turn on a simple majority of jurors.

“We’re not aware of a similar instance in which the fate of a large energy asset rests in the hands of a jury. This is an unusual circumstance,” Timothy Fox, vice president of Clear View Partners, an energy research firm in Washington, D.C., said before the trial began Monday.

The courtroom was packed Monday.

Attorneys for groups opposed to the project and the state attorney general’s office, which is charged with upholding the referendum, suggested to jurors on Monday that developers rushed construction with a goal of winning vested rights and nullifying the referendum.

But John Aromando, the lawyer for the developers, said the construction schedule was put in place years earlier, and that the case is “about fundamental fairness, about vested rights, about protection of property rights against retroactive laws.”

Last year, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court breathed new life into the stalled project when it ruled the retroactive nature of the statewide vote to stop the project would violate the developers’ constitutional rights if substantial construction already had begun in good faith before the referendum. Construction started in January 2021, about 10 months before the referendum in which 59% of voters rejected the project.

Justice Michael A. Duddy could have made the fact-finding determination himself. But he ruled in favor of project opponents, including the Natural Resources Council of Maine, who asked for a jury to make the determination. The judge seated nine jurors and two alternates.

Central Maine Power’s parent company and Hydro Quebec teamed up on New England Clean Energy Connect, which was unveiled in 2017 with a goal of supplying up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid. That is enough electricity for 1 million homes.

It’s one of two proposed large-scale transmission projects aimed at tapping hydropower from Quebec. The other would provide electricity to New York City.

Early on, developers envisioned smooth sailing because the transmission path would mostly follow existing corridors, with only a new 53-mile (85-kilometer) section crossing sparely populated woods to reach the Canadian border.

But the project encountered opposition each step of the way even as it received all necessary regulatory approvals. Developers already had begun cutting trees and setting poles for months when the governor asked for work to be suspended after voters rejected the project in November 2021.

Supporters say bold projects such as this one, funded by ratepayers in Massachusetts, are necessary to battle climate change and introduce additional electricity into a region that is heavily reliant on natural gas, which can cause spikes in energy costs.

Critics say the project’s environmental benefits are overstated — and that it would harm the woodlands in western Maine.

In Maine, two lawsuits over the project went before the Supreme Judicial Court, which ultimately upheld a lease for a 1-mile portion of the proposed power line that crossed state land.

The constitutional issue will likely end up back before the Supreme Judicial Court regardless of the outcome of the judge's decision after the jury trial.

___

David Sharp, The Associated Press

Newly Discovered Ghostly Marine Worms Look Straight Out of Japanese Folklore

Story by Jess Cockerill • Yesterday 

An ethereal blue glimmer just below the waterline has lured scientists like wisps from folklore to three new glowing species of marine bristle worm (polychaetes).


Pale marine worm with fuzzy head pale in black waters© Provided by ScienceAlert

Their genus name, Polycirrus, means 'many tendrils' in Latin. Looking at these otherworldly worms, you can immediately understand why.

Until now, we knew of only four species of Polycirrus with the ability to bioluminesce. In addition, there were only two species of Polycirrus described in Japan. This new discovery, led by marine worm expert Naoto Jimi, adds three new species to each tally.

Two of these worms have been named after supernatural entities from Japanese folklore, yokai. The third species' name pays tribute to former director of the Notojima Aquarium, Shinichi Ikeguchi, since this worm was found in waters near the aquarium, as well as off the Shirawara coast.

Polycirrus onibi, discovered in Notojima and Sugashima, is named after yokai not unlike the will-o-wisps of Western folklore. Onibi are spirits of the dead which appear as a floating ball of usually blue flame, and tend to inhabit damp areas in nature.

Illustration of an Onibi spirit. 

( Sekien Toriyama/ Public Domain )© Provided by ScienceAlert

Polycirrus aoandon, found in Sugashima, is named after the yokai Aoandon, a ghost-like creature with blue skin, long hair, horns and sharp teeth, who wears a white kimono and carries a blue lantern. A sort of Bloody Mary figure, it's said Aoandon is invoked by those who've spent the night sharing supernatural stories.


Artist Sekien Toriyama popularized the legend of Aoandon.

 ( Public domain )© Provided by ScienceAlert

"The hazy violet-blue bioluminescence emitted by the Polycirrus species is strikingly similar to the descriptions of these creatures found in folklore," Jimi said.

This color of light has a relatively short wavelength, so it is absorbed less quickly by water than other colors and therefore travels farther underwater. That's why this kind of bioluminescence is usually associated with creatures of the deep. The color of these worms' glow is unusual, given their coastal habitats.

The worms were examined in the wild ocean, thoguh some specimens were also brought to the lab for further study.

Japan Underwater Films Corporation helped record the action. In the sea, researchers found the bubbles from the SCUBA gear could set off the worm's hypnotic light show. They saw similar results in the lab by nudging the worms' tentacles with tweezers.



P. ikeguchii is more orange than the other two species. (Naoto Jimi/Nagoya University)© Provided by ScienceAlert

The pattern in which these glimmering lights flickered was near identical in all three species.

When stimulated, the tentacles flashed for about 0.3 to 1.1 seconds, with each flash lasting about 0.15 seconds. The scientists also noticed that disturbing one area of tentacles didn't trigger flashing in neighboring tentacles, nor did the flashing synchronize in an individual.

The lights' intensity waned after about 30 seconds of stimulation, like a glow stick at the end of a rave. But after the worms were given a few minutes' break from scientific tickling, their bioluminescent response was able to recharge, returning to full brightness.

"The discovery that all three new species are luminescent has allowed us to link taxonomic and ecological findings and establish research that others can readily apply to the study of luminescent organisms," Jimi said.

The flashing lights might be a kind of warning system, to scare off predators, not unlike the motion-sensor security lights in our homes. Since these worms are known to spend a lot of time buried in mud, rock crevasses or the nooks and crannies of sponges, the researchers think this bioluminescence is used mostly for "emergency situations", when the worm's body is exposed. The fact that the scientists' poking, prodding and bubbling was the main trigger for the worms' bioluminescence in this study certainly supports this theory.

"Bioluminescence is a treasure trove of interesting and unusual chemistry," Jimi said.

"We intend to use our findings to deepen our understanding of the molecular nature of this phenomenon and apply this knowledge to the development of new life sciences technologies."

This study is published in Royal Society Open Science.

Russian volcano erupts, spewing out a vast cloud of ash

Story by By REUTERS • 

One of Russia's most active volcanoes erupted on Tuesday shooting a vast cloud of ash far up into the sky and smothering villages in drifts of grey volcanic dust, triggering an aviation warning around Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

Photo of the Shiveluch volcano from the International Space Station.© (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Shiveluch volcano erupted just after midnight reaching a crescendo about six hours later, spewing out an ash cloud over an area of 108,000 square kilometers, according to the Kamchatka Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Geophysical Survey.

Lava flows tumbled from the volcano, melting snow and prompting a warning of mud flows along a nearby highway while villages were carpeted in drifts of grey ash as deep as 8.5 centimeters, the deepest in 60 years.


"The ash reached 20 kilometers high, the ash cloud moved westwards and there was a very strong fall of ash on nearby villages."Danila Chebrov

"The ash reached 20 kilometers high, the ash cloud moved westwards and there was a very strong fall of ash on nearby villages," said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Survey.

"The volcano was preparing for this for at least a year... and the process is continuing though it has calmed a little now," Chebrov said.


 A satellite image shows the Shiveluch volcano on the Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, November 26, 2022. (credit: Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS)

He said the volcano would probably calm now, but that further major ash clouds could not be excluded. He said lava flows should not reach local villages

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The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) issued a red notice for aviation, saying "ongoing activity could affect international and low-flying aircraft."

Volcano eruption leaves Russia's Kamchatka region in chaos

Some schools in the Kamchatka peninsula, about 6,800 km east of Moscow, were closed and residents were ordered to stay indoors, head of the Ust-Kamchatsky municipal region Oleg Bondarenko said in a Telegram post.

"Because what I have just seen here with my own eyes, it will be impossible for children to go to school, and in general, the presence of children here is questionable," Bondarenko said.

He said residents' power had been restored and that drinking water was being supplied.

One of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanoes, Shiveluch has had an estimated 60 substantial eruptions in the past 10,000 years, the last major one being in 2007.

It has two main parts, the smaller of which – Young Shiveluch – scientists have reported as being extremely active in recent months, with a peak of 2,800 meters (9,186 feet) that protrudes out of the 3,283 meter-high Old Shiveluch.

Scientists posted pictures of the ash cloud billowing swiftly over the forests and rivers of the far east and of villages covered in ash. One posted a picture of the depth of the ash fall – more than 8 centimeters deep.

Earth's Core Appears to Be Wrapped in an Unexpected, Ancient Structure

Story by David Nield • Yesterday 

Scientists have stitched together the most high-resolution map yet of the underlying geology beneath Earth's Southern Hemisphere, revealing something previously undiscovered: an ancient ocean floor that may wrap around the core.


Earth core and mantle© Provided by ScienceAlert

This thin but dense layer sits around 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the surface, where the molten, metallic outer core means the rocky mantle above it. This is the core-mantle boundary (CMB).

Understanding exactly what's beneath our feet – in as much detail as possible – is vital for studying everything from volcanic eruptions to the variations in Earth's magnetic field, which protects us from the solar radiation in space.

"Seismic investigations, such as ours, provide the highest resolution imaging of the interior structure of our planet, and we are finding that this structure is vastly more complicated than once thought," says geologist Samantha Hansen from the University of Alabama.



Seismic waves from earthquakes in the southern hemisphere were used to sample the ULVZ structure along the Earth's core-mantle boundary. (Edward Garnero and Mingming Li/Arizona State University)© Provided by ScienceAlert

Hansen and her colleagues used 15 monitoring stations buried in the ice of Antarctica to map seismic waves from earthquakes over three years. The way those waves move and bounce reveals the composition of the material inside Earth. Because the sound waves move slower in these areas, they're called ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs).

Related video: Geophysicists Discover Another Mysterious Layer In Our Planet’s Composition (Amaze Lab)

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Geophysicists Discover Another Mysterious Layer In Our Planet’s Composition

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"Analyzing [thousands] of seismic recordings from Antarctica, our high-definition imaging method found thin anomalous zones of material at the CMB everywhere we probed," says geophysicist Edward Garnero from Arizona State University.

"The material's thickness varies from a few kilometers to [tens] of kilometers. This suggests we are seeing mountains on the core, in some places up to five times taller than Mt. Everest."

According to the researchers, these ULVZs are most likely oceanic crust buried over millions of years.

While the sunken crust isn't close to recognized subduction zones on the surface – zones where shifting tectonic plates push the rock down into Earth's interior – simulations reported in the study show how convection currents could have shifted the ancient ocean floor to its current resting place.



Rock movements in the mantle. (Hansen et al., Science Advances , 2023)© Provided by ScienceAlert

It's tricky to make assumptions about rock types and movement based on seismic wave movement, and the researchers aren't ruling out other options. However, the ocean floor hypothesis seems the most likely explanation for these ULVZs right now.

There's also the suggestion that this ancient ocean crust could be wrapped around the entire core, though as it's so thin, it's hard to know for sure. Future seismic surveys should be able to add further to the overall picture.

One of the ways the discovery can help geologists is in figuring out how heat from the hotter and denser core escapes up into the mantle. The differences in composition between these two layers are greater than they are between the solid surface rock and the air above it in the part we live on.

"Our research provides important connections between shallow and deep Earth structure and the overall processes driving our planet," says Hansen.

The research has been published in Science Advances.

Alberta's ethics commissioner investigating whether premier interfered with administration of justice

Story by Joel Dryden • Yesterday 

Alberta's ethics commissioner is launching an investigation into whether Premier Danielle Smith interfered with the administration of justice tied to COVID-19 prosecutions, the premier's office says.

In a statement sent to media Monday, a spokesperson with the premier's office said Smith welcomes the investigation.

Smith "is fully co-operating with the commissioner, and is confident this examination will confirm there has been no such interference," wrote Rebecca Polak in an email.

The Opposition NDP has been calling for an independent investigation since a video was released of a phone call Smith had with Calgary street pastor Artur Pawlowski. During the call, they discussed his criminal case just weeks before his trial in Lethbridge on Feb. 2 on pandemic-related charges was set to begin.

The leaked phone conversation between Smith and Pawlowski happened in early January. On the call, Smith tells Pawlowski she was discussing COVID-19 charges with justice officials "almost weekly."

On her weekly phone-in radio show Your Province Your Premier, on Saturday, Smith delivered a new version of why she contacted Pawlowski, saying she took the call as she thought it would be in the context of his role as the leader of the Alberta Independence Party.


 NewsAlberta NDP allege corruption, conflict of interest in premier's office
1:31


Pawlowski faces charges of criminal mischief and an offence under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to last year's Coutts border blockade over pandemic measures, and a judge is set to deliver a verdict in early May.

In a letter sent to the ethics commissioner on March 31, NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir wrote that the video formed the basis of his complaint, adding he was raising a potential violation of Section 3 of the Conflicts of Interest Act.

A member breaches the act if they use their office or powers to "influence or to seek to influence a decision to be made by or on behalf of the Crown to further a private interest of the member, a person directly associated with the member or the member's minor child, or to improperly further another person's private interest," the act reads.

During a media event Monday afternoon, Sabir said the NDP welcomes the investigation.

"But I want to stress this investigation does not go far enough. We continue to call for a fully independent judicial investigation as well," Sabir said.



Alberta NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said the Opposition was continuing to call for an independent judicial investigation to conduct interviews concerning matters not covered in the Conflicts of Interest Act.© CBC

Smith threatened legal action against the CBC if the corporation didn't retract and apologize for stories tied to criminal cases related to last year's Coutts blockade.

Asked for comment last week, CBC's head of public affairs, Chuck Thompson, said in an email, "As we've said all along, we stand by our journalism on this story and, if necessary, will defend it in court."

Of the 85 requests for investigations sent to Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler in 2021-2022, she only conducted one probe, according to the commissioner's last annual report.

That investigation cleared Education Minister Adriana LaGrange of inappropriate conduct tied to a $150,000 contract for students' reusable masks granted by her ministry to a company in her Red Deer riding.

Some of Trussler's investigations have been completed within a month, but more commonly, the commissioner has taken between three and eight months. That means it's probable this investigation will wrap after the Alberta election on May 29.

Trussler's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBC News.

However, under the Conflicts of Interest Act, neither the commissioner nor any of the staff can disclose if an investigation is being conducted by the office.

Of the 12 complaints against MLAs that Trussler has investigated since taking office in 2014, the ethics commissioner has only found two politicians in breach of the act.

Alberta UCP candidate says people who have heart attacks should be held accountable

Story by The Canadian Press • 

EDMONTON — A United Conservative Party candidate in southern Alberta is being criticized for saying people who have heart failure should take accountability for their own health.



"Maybe the reason you had a heart attack was because you haven't taken care of yourself," said UCP Livingstone-Macleod candidate Chelsae Petrovic on a February episode of "The Canadian Story" podcast.

"You're extremely overweight, you haven't managed your congestive heart failure, you haven't managed your diabetes and there's no personal accountability.

"But they come into the hospital and all of a sudden it's everyone else's problem but their own."

Petrovic, who is mayor of Claresholm south of Calgary, has also been a licensed practical nurse for more than 12 years.

She issued a statement Monday saying her comment on the podcast was taken out of context.

"I was speaking for several minutes about the challenges our health-care system is currently facing," Petrovic said. "I understand my comment could be offensive when removed from the longer interview, and I should have chosen better language.

"I believe we should be a province that not only focuses on reactive health for those in need but also one that teaches our kids to practice healthy living, which includes taking care of our physical health."

On the podcast, Petrovic prefaced her comments saying, "This might be political suicide, what I'm about to say, which is fine with me, because it needs to be said."

Premier Danielle Smith was asked Tuesday during a news conference on health care in Sherwood Park, Alta., about her candidate's comment.

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"I'm pleased to see that (Petrovic) issued a statement yesterday clarifying that she could have used better language," Smith said.

"There are some times that I have had missteps," said Smith. "I think people are forgiving when you give an opportunity to explain what you meant and I want to extend the same opportunity to others."

Smith was criticized last year for saying that early-stage cancer is within a person's control during her own podcast.

"When you think everything that built up before you got to stage four and that diagnosis, that's completely within your control and there's something you can do about that that is different," Smith said.

She later said during a UCP leadership debate that her comment was "misunderstood," and she's a "proponent of early detection, early treatment, nutrition and holistic medicine."

In late March, UCP Lethbridge West candidate Torry Tanner resigned after claiming in a video that children are exposed to pornography in schools and teachers help them change their gender identity.

Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley took to Twitter to comment on Petrovic's statement, sharing that her grandfather had a heart attack and died while he was headed out to feed cows on their farm.

"No one saw it coming," tweeted Notley.

Kevin Van Tighem, the NDP candidate for Livingstone-Macleod, issued a statement demanding Petrovic and Smith apologize.

“Last year, Danielle Smith said Albertans are responsible for developing cancer. Now her candidate blames Albertans for having a heart attack. This is a pattern of cruel and hurtful language that kicks Albertans when they’re down. They must apologize today.”

"The Canadian Story" is a podcast hosted by Zach Gerber, owner of Skytrack Studios, and David Parker, who was a regional adviser to Stephen Harper while he was prime minister. The podcast covers a wide variety of topics under a politically conservative lens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2023.

___

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Angela Amato, The Canadian Press

UCP candidate calls out heart attack survivors in commentary bordering on ‘political suicide’

Story by The Canadian Press • 2h ago

Chelsae Petrovic, an ER nurse and United Conservative Party candidate for Livingstone-Macleod, is refusing media interviews after flirting with “political suicide” by suggesting that heart attack survivors should bear accountability for their poor health.

Petrovic offered her remarks, first reported by Global Edmonton’s Saif Kaisar, during her guest appearance on a podcast episode of The Canadian Story published to YouTube on Feb. 21, roughly three weeks before she swept the UCP’s nomination in Livingstone-Macleod.

Social media response to reports on this issue has been overwhelmingly negative.

Speaking as a hopeful nominee and the mayor of Claresholm, Petrovic also disparaged unions, including her own, and made it plain that she would rather be ejected from the UCP’s legislative caucus if she felt supporting the party line would go against the riding’s best interests.

Petrovic’s campaign responded to Shootin’ the Breeze’s request for comment with a statement saying her remarks about heart attack survivors had been “taken out of context.” A statement attributed to the candidate reads: “I understand my comment could be offensive when removed from the longer interview, and I should have chosen better language. I believe we should be a province that not only focuses on reactive health for those in need but also one that teaches our kids to practise healthy living, which includes taking care of our physical and mental health.”“No interviews or additional statements will be made regarding the situation,” her campaign team wrote.

Telling podcast hosts David Parker and Zach Gerber that she’d seen “a lot of similarities” between her roles as a nurse and a small-town mayor, Petrovic started talking about hospital patients.

“Everyone comes in with their problems, and how do you fix it? How do you go about being polite to them when you’re trying to save their lives in a high-stress environment?”

It’s a matter of “balancing saving their life and doing it with a smile on your face as they’re bleeding out,” she told Parker, who founded the right-wing populist movement Take Back Alberta, according to TBA’s website.

Asked where she saw “a lack of accountability and responsibility playing out in our Canadian society right now,” Petrovic told Parker that what she was about to say “might be political suicide … which is fine with me, because it needs to be said.”

Canadians have become “so dependent on being saved” by the government, they no longer take responsibility for themselves, she said.

“And I see it in health care,” she continued, dressing down a hypothetical patient.

“You know, I’m going to say it: Maybe the reason why you had a heart attack was because you haven’t taken care of yourself. You’re extremely overweight. You haven’t managed your congestive heart failure. You haven’t managed your diabetes and there’s no personal accountability.

“But they come into the hospital, and all of a sudden, it’s everyone else’s problem but their own.”

Petrovic went on to say that she wanted to rally behind one of her neighbours she said had recently suffered a heart attack.

“Well, let’s start shovelling his driveway,” she suggested.

Kevin Van Tighem, the NDP’s riding candidate, issued a statement Tuesday calling on Premier Danielle Smith and Petrovic to apologize for Petrovic’s comments “blaming Albertans for cardiac disease.”

“Last year, Danielle Smith said Albertans are responsible for developing cancer. Now her candidate blames Albertans for having a heart attack. This is a pattern of cruel and hurtful language that kicks Albertans when they’re down,” Van Tighem said.

Kevin Todd, the Alberta Party’s riding candidate, wrote in a prepared statement, “People of our constituency shouldn’t be made to feel as though their access to medical care is predicated on whether or not they ‘deserve’ help in one of life’s challenging moments.”

On the subject of front-line nursing, Petrovic said during the podcast, “We have the unions who butt in [to the nursing process]. Let’s be honest, the unions only have [their] best interests at heart and how they make money.”

“All the nurses are going to hate me for that,” she went on, adding, “Union reps are going to come after me for that one.”

Petrovic went on to say she’d represent the interests of Livingstone-Macleod if they conflicted with her party’s policy agenda.

“I promise that I’ll never cross the floor, but I can’t promise that I will always be a UCP representative,” she said, telling Parker and Gerber that she understood that the UCP, like most parties, would boot her out if she won her riding and then voted against the party as an MLA.

“If that means that … someone says, ‘You have to vote this way, otherwise you’re kicked out,’ and it’s not in Livingstone-Macleod’s best interest — well, I guess I’m no longer a UCP representative.”

Petrovic several times stressed that she valued Claresholm’s “very diverse” council, and that effective leadership meant honing the ability to change one’s mind.

The candidate will face the NDP’s Kevin Van Tighem and the Alberta Party’s Kevin Todd when Albertans head to the polls in May.

Laurie Tritschler, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Shootin' the Breeze

Over-emphasis on safety means kids are becoming more anxious and less resilient

Story by Simon Sherry, Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University 

• Sunday - 

THE CONVERSATION

We are facing a mental health crisis. Teenagers and young adults are more depressed, suicidal, anxious and lonely than ever before.


Parents being over-protective can deny children the experiences they need to learn and grow

Depression rates among teens have been increasing since the early 2000s. A 2018 national survey found that 13.3 per cent of U.S. adolescents experienced a major depressive episode in the last year.

But it’s not just teens — young adults are suffering too. A 2016 international survey of university counselling centres revealed 50 per cent of university students sought help for feelings of anxiety and 41 per cent for depression. Suicide rates are also increasing. The number of teenage girls in the U.S. who died by suicide nearly doubled between 2000 and 2015.

The mental health statistics for Canadian youth are similarly grim. In 2003, 24 per cent of Canadians aged 15-30 self-reported that their mental health was either fair or poor (compared to very good or excellent). By 2019, that number had risen to 40 per cent.

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the mental health of Canadian youths. In 2020, 58 per cent of Canadians aged 15-24 reported fair or poor mental health and nearly one in four hospitalizations for children and youth aged 5-24 were due to mental health conditions.

What has changed in the last decade to explain this rise in poor mental health among youth? Some psychologists point to the recent cultural emphasis on safety as a contributor.


Parental overprotection has been shown to foster unhealthy coping mechanisms in children.

Shift in children’s safety

In previous decades, American and Canadian children enjoyed more freedom, even though there were rising crime rates. The crime wave in Canada rose steeply from the 60s through the 80s until it peaked in the early 1990s. Cable TV became widespread during the same period, meaning that news of crimes spread farther and quicker than ever before.

This surge spurred safety initiatives like sharing pictures of missing children on milk cartons and crime shows like America’s Most Wanted. It’s no wonder parents became increasingly fearful and protective.

Crime rates began to come down in the 1990s, but fear among parents remained. This is where the problem of being over cautious begins. The concept of safety started to extend beyond children’s physical safety to emotional and psychological comfort. This denied children experiences they needed to learn and grow.

Parental overprotection has been shown to foster unhealthy coping mechanisms in children. Overprotected children are more likely to both internalize problems (as in anxiety and depression) and externalize them (as in delinquency, defiance or substance abuse).

Some psychologists propose that overprotection can morph into what they call “safetyism,” which teaches kids negative thought patterns similar to those experienced by the anxious and depressed. Safetyism can over-prioritize a young person’s safety to the exclusion of other practical and moral concerns.

It is natural to want to avoid problems, but avoiding things that bring us discomfort can reinforce a belief that we cannot handle certain issues and, over time, make us less capable.

Related video: Children's Mental Health Is Affected By Sleep Duration (unbranded - Lifestyle)

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Unhelpful thought patterns

Here are three unhealthy thought patterns to monitor in yourself and your children:

Identify negative filtering. Do not underestimate the positives of experiences like unsupervised play (joy, independence, problem-solving, risk-assessment, resilience) when considering the potential negative consequences.

Be aware of dichotomous thinking. Do not fall into the good or bad trap. There’s a world of possibility between one or the other. Considering people, ideas, places or situations as either good or evil (but never both or somewhere in between) fosters a polarizing “us vs. them” attitude and eliminates nuance.

Recognize emotional reasoning. Feeling “unsafe” (uncomfortable or anxious), does not mean you are actually physically unsafe. If you avoid all stress, you will never learn to overcome stressors or understand your full potential. Avoiding hurdles can make us think we are more weak or fragile than we are.


Avoiding things that bring us discomfort can reinforce a belief that we cannot handle certain issues and, over time, make us less capable

Painting the world as a place with dangers at every turn has created anxious youths who avoid activities they previously would have experimented with. Rising rates of loneliness and anxiety mean some youth are delaying getting a job, driving a car, having sex, drinking alcohol and dating. Research supports that overprotective parenting (such as “helicopter parenting”) decreases adolescents’ well-being, motivation, independence and ability to deal with problems in a healthy way.

Generational trends show that across all social and economic demographics, American teens are putting off activities they deem “adult” and don’t crave adult freedom as previous generations did.

They spend less time unsupervised by parents because they’re worried about what’s out in the world, and they think they can’t handle it. They don’t date or have sex because they’re worried about broken hearts, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. They don’t drink alcohol because they’re worried about drunkenly making mistakes and what people will think of them afterwards. They don’t drive because they are happy to rely on their parents for transportation.

While some of these are rational consequences to avoid, they shouldn’t feel so overwhelming as to keep youths from transitioning into adulthood. Broken hearts teach you about what you want in a romantic partner, young people can be taught about safe sex, alcohol can be drunk in moderate amounts and mistakes are healthy, human and normal. Teens shouldn’t be so afraid of life that they no longer feel excited to live it.

Without opportunities to explore and learn their limits, youths risk internalizing a false sense of helplessness and becoming depressed and anxious.

Helpful thought patterns

Positive thought patterns must be developed within ourselves. That means giving ourselves, our teens and our children the opportunities needed to become independent, resilient and autonomous. And that means embracing negative experiences like frustration, conflict and boredom.

Here are some words of advice:

Mind your mind. Your thoughts are powerful. They dictate how you see the world, others and yourself, so foster positive, rational thought patterns.

Raise your voice. Encourage curiosity and productive disagreement. We will never learn to be open-minded or become well-rounded people if we do not challenge our own beliefs, listen to others’ perspectives and recognize our potential to be wrong. Every aspect of our lives, including our relationships and jobs, depends on our ability to argue in an effective, respectful and productive way without becoming overemotional.

Open your heart. Try to give others the benefit of the doubt because most people do not intend to do harm. Do not let fear dictate your thoughts and actions.

Trust yourself. Life will always throw curve balls and there will not always be an authority to defer to. Life is not safe or risk-free. The best protection is the knowledge that you can handle life’s challenges.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
How to help teen girls’ mental health struggles – 6 research-based strategies for parents, teachers and friends
A friend who’s more boss than BFF may be harmful for teens’ mental health

Simon Sherry receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He also owns CRUX Psychology, a private practice in psychology.

He was 18 when his hand was crushed on the job. Years later, he still wants answers

Story by Hadeel Ibrahim • CBC

On a January day in 2019, in the wake of a fierce ice storm that struck New Brunswick, Kody Thorne was called to the Poley Mountain ski hill to help clear machines of what the storm had wrought.


Kody Thorne's left hand was crushed while working on Poley Mountain ski hill in January 2019.© Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC

Before the day was through, the 18-year-old's life would be changed forever.

Three hours after his shift started, Thorne was in his friend's car, holding his crushed left hand as they rushed to hospital.

"I was like, 'Wow, this is death. This is how it's gonna end for me," he said.

Four years later, after months of physiotherapy and several surgeries, Thorne knows he will never regain the full use of his left hand.

But he is moving on with his life, and indeed has an eye on a career in occupational health and safety, to work in a field which — as a young injured worker — he can bring a lived experience.

He has also dedicated the last year to better understanding what happened that day, hoping to help other people avoid the pain he has had to endure.

A communication error

With the hill closed in the wake of the ice storm, Thorne and two colleagues were assigned to work on equipment that had frozen over.

Thorne was brushing ice from the gears of the carpet lift — a large conveyer belt that takes people up small hills — when his hand was caught and then pulled in. The lift stopped.



Last month, Kody Thorne took the licensing exam to become a registered safety technician.© Pat Richard/CBC

In a panic, trying to pull his hand out, Thorne yelled to a nearby worker, "don't start the lift." The person halfway up the hill relayed the message to the person in the control room at the top.

But hearing only the words "start the lift," the worker at the top engaged the machine.

Thorne's whole arm was pulled into the inner workings of the lift's machinery. A coworker got a hacksaw to free his arm.

The incident had consequences for his employer. In court the following year, Poley Mountain Resorts Ltd. pleaded guilty to not providing adequate supervision, and was fined $3,000. Judge Andrew Palmer said he found no flagrant disregard for safety.

Knowing more now than he did as a teenager, Thorne wonders if enough has changed to prevent such an incident from happening again.

"Looking at it from a health and safety perspective now," he said in an interview, "even if there was supervision there, that lift still would not have been locked out, I still would have been in the same position, I still wouldn't have had the training."

Filling the gaps

After the company's fine was handed down, Stephen Moffett, the director of Poley Mountain Resorts, told CBC News the injury brought gaps to their attention, including the lack of lockout procedures that would have disabled the machinery, reducing the risk of someone accidentally turning it on.

In response to questions from CBC News, Jamie Hare, current general manager of Poley Mountain, said since Thorne's injury the hill has done a full safety review of processes and training. In a written statement, he said the company has a new learning management system to keep track of what training each employee has received.

Thorne said he still knows people who work there and has seen a change at the hill.

But he said it's not clear to him if anything has changed about supervision from WorkSafeNB, the agency that enforces the Workplace Health and Safety Act.

"I'd like to see [the changes] checked up on," he said.

Laragh Dooley, executive director of corporate communications for WorksafeNB, said employers are not the only ones who need to keep workplaces safe.

"Everyone in the workplace is responsible for their own safety and for the safety of co-workers," she said.

WorkSafeNB conducts an average of 6,000 inspections a year. She said there are approximately 30,000 workplaces in New Brunswick.

She said the organization considers risk factors and incident records when deciding how frequently a workplace is inspected.

When asked what has changed since the Poley Mountain incident, she said WorkSafeNB worked with the company to ensure they had a proper training program for their employees who work around carpet lifts.

"Our investigation focused on the carpet lift, and no other similar equipment was identified as part of the investigation," she said.

Ski hills, she said, are generally not considered a high-risk industry.

Since 2020, though the organization conducted three inspections at the ski hill. In the three preceding years, she said the organization had conducted five inspections. Since 2017, WorkSafe has issued four orders: One to make the health and safety committee more balanced between employer and employee, one to provide proper PPE, one to revise the COVID-19 plan, and a stop-work order related to the machine that caused Thorne's injuries.

Recovery is a long road

Thorne said one way he's healing from the injury is to speak out. He said people don't often hear about what happens after a workplace injury.

The road to recovery so far has been long. He receives compensation benefits from WorkSafeNB. Soon, he may require another surgery to alleviate some pressure on his nerves.

The biggest challenge, he said, has been not being able to work and be productive.

"If I sit there so long then my brain will just run and run and run … I have a hard time sleeping," he said.

"Mentally, I do have healing to do. I don't have hate. I'm not mentally distressed, like, I'm not depressed from the whole situation. But it's just when to shut off."


Kody Thorne says his partner, friends and family have been helping him through the process of recovering from his injury.© Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC

To find a career, Thorne first considered becoming a truck driver, but that is not an option because of his injury. Interested in justice issues, he wanted to become a lawyer, but WorkSafeNB would not cover the cost of obtaining a degree because it does not match up with how much he earned at the ski hill.

He found his way to occupational health and safety. He said his personal experience is helping him find motivation. He took the licensing exam last month, he said, and he's now waiting for the results.

"If I pass this exam, I would happily stay in it and look for a more field job than office job," he said.

Meanwhile, Thorne said he's trying to find a mental health practitioner and is on a wait list. He said he has many friends and family who are supporting him while he makes sense of what happened.

"I rely on my support and network very heavily," he said.

"I'm very big on hosting my friends and family. I like stuff being proper, so when they come over, that gives me peace of mind."