EDMONTON — A group of health professionals is urging the Alberta government not to ease COVID-19 restrictions next week and to instead toughen measures for bars, restaurants and pubs. 

The plea comes from two doctors who co-chair the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association’s pandemic committee. 

Dr. Noel Gibney and Dr. James Talbot say in a statement that new daily active cases have stopped decreasing and that new, more transmissible variants of the virus may cause rapid increases. 

They also say many bars, restaurants and pubs are not following the existing rules and that it will be months before all at-risk Albertans are vaccinated. 

The Alberta government could as soon as Monday ease restrictions on retail businesses, banquet halls, community halls, conference centres, hotels, indoor fitness and children’s sport and performance. activities. 

The province’s chief medical officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, has said that while hospitalizations are down, the next reopening phase is not a done deal because the test positivity rate and number of new people infected by each case are rising. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published February 26, 2021. 

The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — An Alberta woman who admitted to shooting her husband and dumping his body in a slough wants her 18 -year prison sentence reduced.

Helen Naslund pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter in the September 2011 death of 49-year-old Miles Naslund on a farm near Holden, Alta., about 100 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

An agreed statement of facts said the husband had a domineering pattern of abuse against his wife.

It said she feared for her safety, but she didn’t want to leave the marriage out of concern for her children and because of her depression. 

Naslund shot her husband twice in the back of his head with a .22-calibre pistol while he was in bed.

A notice of appeal filed Thursday by her lawyer says the sentencing judge didn’t properly consider the domestic abuse she suffered

After Naslund killed her husband, she and her son put his body in a metal box and used a boat to dump it in a swampy area on their farm.

They threw the gun in a dugout and buried the man’s car in a field. 

Police initially investigated Myles Naslund as a missing person and only later, after receiving a tip, opened the case as a homicide. Investigators, with the help of a dive team, found the body six years later. 

The couple’s son, Neil Naslund, pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains and was sentenced to three years in prison.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published February 26, 2021.

The Canadian Press