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UPDATE: RCMP arrest alleged truck thief after wild search

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5 minute read

From Coaldale RCMP

UPDATE

Thanks to overwhelming public tips from the earlier media release and information sharing from members of the Lethbridge Police Service, the identity of the suspect was learned. The white Dodge Ram 1500 truck was located abandoned this morning a short distance from the initial crime scene. A second truck, a black 1993 Chevrolet was reported stolen a short distance away from the abandoned white Dodge truck.
Monday afternoon at around 4:20 p.m. the stolen black 1993 Chevrolet truck was reported in the Tempest area east of Coaldale as a suspicious vehicle.  Members from the Taber, Picture Butte and Coaldale RCMP Detachments along with a K-9 unit from the Lethbridge Police Service converged to the area.  The driver and lone occupant, a 32 year old man from the Lethbridge area, was followed from the Tempest/Chin area to the east side of Stafford Lake. This is where he ditched the stolen truck and ran on foot across the sort of ice covered Stafford Lake to the west side. Once on the west side the suspect tried to enter a few vehicles before being lost in the residential area. A home owner alerted RCMP members out front of his residence stating his garage alarm was just activated. The main door was tried and noted barricaded from the inside.
RCMP members entered the garage using the garage door opener and searched the double car garage. The well hidden suspect was found trying to conceal himself above the garage door on a storage platform used to store light weight bulky items. The suspect was arrested without incident ending a long crime spree.
Charges are still pending so the name of the suspect will not be released at this time. The suspect will be facing nine criminal charges including break and enter, possession of stolen property, flight from police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, resist arrest and a number of provincial traffic offences including driving while suspended.
This is an obvious example of the valued assistance of the general public, local media and other police agencies coming together to identify, locate and safely effect an arrest of a suspect responsible for a number of rural crimes.

Coaldale RCMP Vehicle Rammed by a Stolen Truck

On January 14, 2019 at around 5:30 a.m. the Coaldale RCMP received a complaint of a man passed out in the drivers seat of a white Dodge Ram 1500. This truck was parked in a farmers yard located along Highway 512 within Lethbridge County, AB.  The Coaldale RCMP have received numerous complaints of a similar type truck which was stolen previously from the Picture Butte area. Complaints have also been received from the public regarding a white Dodge Ram truck attending several rural locations possibly stealing fuel.

Two Coaldale RCMP members attended the location. The first to arrive police member positioned his Ford Explorer police vehicle directly in front of the white Dodge Ram truck in a attempt to block it in. As the police member approached the drivers door of the white truck on foot the unknown male driver woke up. He then began to drive forward pushing the police vehicle backwards and out of the way. The police member was not injured. The white Dodge Ram truck then fled the area and was located abandoned a few hours later in a rural area. It was confirmed at that time the truck was stolen. The RCMP vehicle sustained damages to the front grill and fender area. It was still operational after the collision.

The public is being asked to assist with the identification of the male driver based on the attached in car police vehicle camera photos. The public assistance in notifying the Coaldale RCMP about suspicious people and vehicles in their areas is a very important step to assist with rural crime prevention and detection.

If anyone has any information in this crime or any other please contact the Coaldale Rural RCMP at (403) 329-5080/ Coaldale Municipal RCMP at (403) 345-5552 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or through the internet at www.tipsubmit.com.

Crime stoppers will pay cash rewards up to $2000.00 for information that leads to an arrest, the recovery of stolen property or seizure of illegal drugs.

Crime Stoppers does not subscribe to call display and the identity of the caller will remain anonymous.

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Regulator rules in favour of Trans Mountain route deviation

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Workers place pipe during construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on farmland, in Abbotsford, B.C., on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

By Amanda Stephenson in Calgary

The Canada Energy Regulator has approved Trans Mountain Corp.’s application to modify the pipeline’s route, a decision that could spare the government-owned pipeline project from an additional nine-month delay.

The regulator made the ruling Tuesday, just one week after hearing oral arguments from Trans Mountain and a B.C. First Nation that opposes the route change.

It didn’t release the reasons for its decision Tuesday, saying those will be publicized in the coming weeks.

By siding with Trans Mountain Corp., the regulator is allowing the pipeline company to alter the route slightly for a 1.3-kilometre stretch of pipe in the Jacko Lake area near Kamloops, B.C., as well as the construction method for that section.

Trans Mountain Corp. had said it ran into engineering difficulties in the area related to the construction of a tunnel, and warned that sticking to the original route could result in up to a nine-month delay in the pipeline’s completion, as well as an additional $86 million more in project costs.

Trans Mountain has been hoping to have the pipeline completed by early 2024.

But Trans Mountain’s application was opposed by the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation, whose traditional territory the pipeline crosses and who had only agreed to the originally proposed route.

In their regulatory filing, the First Nation stated the area has “profound spiritual and cultural significance” to their people, and that they only consented to the pipeline’s construction with the understanding that Trans Mountain would minimize surface disturbances by implementing specific trenchless construction methods.

The Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc argued that Trans Mountain never said its originally proposed construction method was impossible, only that it couldn’t be done in time to meet a Jan. 1 in-service date for the pipeline.

The First Nation didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada’s only pipeline system transporting oil from Alberta to the West Coast. Its expansion, which is currently underway, will boost the pipeline’s capacity to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd currently.

The pipeline — which was bought by the federal government for $4.5 billion in 2018 after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline’s planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition and regulatory hurdles — has already been plagued by construction-related challenges and delays.

Its projected price tag has since spiralled: first to $12.6 billion, then to $21.4 billion and most recently to $30.9 billion (the most recent capital cost estimate, as of March of this year).

Keith Stewart with Greenpeace Canada said it’s alarming to see the regulator over-rule the wishes of Indigenous people in order to complete a pipeline on deadline.

“Every Canadian should be outraged that our public regulator is allowing a publicly owned pipeline to break a promise to Indigenous people to protect lands of spiritual and cultural significance,” Stewart said.

The federal government has already approved a total of $13 billion in loan guarantees to help Trans Mountain secure the financing to cover the cost overruns.

Trans Mountain Corp. has blamed its budget problems on a variety of factors, including inflation, COVID-19, labour and supply chain challenges, flooding in B.C. and unexpected major archeological discoveries along the route.

Given the Canadian regulatory system has a reputation for being slow and cumbersome, it was surprising to see the Canada Energy Regulator rule so quickly on Trans Mountain’s route deviation request, said Richard Masson, executive fellow with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

“It’s a challenging decision to have to make, when you’ve got a $30 billion pipeline that needs to be completed,” Masson said.

“If there’s no feasible way to do that tunnel, then I guess you have to allow for this.”

Masson added that if the regulator had denied Trans Mountain’s request, it would have been bad news for taxpayers as well as the federal government, which is seeking to divest the pipeline and has already entered into negotiations with several interested Indigenous-led buyers.

It also would have been bad news for Canadian oil companies, who have been eagerly anticipating the pipeline’s start date to begin shipping barrels to customers.

“If this can result in the pipeline being completed by year-end and started up in the first quarter, that’s good news. The world is still looking for oil, and oil prices are up at US$90 a barrel,” Masson said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2023.

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Alberta

Partial settlement approved in lawsuit against Calgary Stampede over abuse of boys

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Calgary

A judge has approved a partial settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede that alleged the organization allowed a performance school staffer to sexually abuse young boys.

Phillip Heerema received a 10-year prison sentence in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child pornography and luring.

Heerema admitted to using his position with the Young Canadians School of Performing Arts, which performs each year in the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, to lure and groom six boys into sexual relationships.

The school is operated by the Calgary Stampede Foundation.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Alice Woolley approved the deal in which the Stampede has agreed to pay 100 per cent of the damages.

Hearings on the amount will take place on Dec. 14 and 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2023

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