Alberta
Kane scores twice as Oilers beat Kings, force deciding game
By Joe Reedy in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If a picture indeed tells a thousand words, Evander Kane holding seven fingers in the air after scoring an empty-net goal told plenty about the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
The Oilers fought off elimination and forced a deciding game.
Kane’s second goal late in the third period put an exclamation point on the Oilers’ 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 6 of their Western Conference first-round series.
Edmonton will host the winner-take-all game Saturday night. In a series during which the road team has won four times, Kane likes his team’s chances.
“It’s gonna be juicy,” said Kane, who also had an assist, about what type of atmosphere he expects back north.
Tyson Barrie scored the go-ahead goal and Connor McDavid added two goals and an assist.
Kane has seven goals in the series to tie Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel for the league lead. He is the seventh Edmonton player to score at least seven times in a series and the first since Esa Tikkanen in 1991.
Kane gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead at 1:50 of the second period when he redirected Brett Kulak’s shot from the point past Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick. The left wing then added an empty-net goal with one minute remaining and flashed the seven fingers to the crowd.
It was Kane’s way of getting even after Los Angeles’ Adrian Kempe cupped his hand to one of his ears Tuesday night in Edmonton after scoring the winning goal in overtime.
“He must not have liked the celebration in our building after they had scored. I think Evander plays with emotion and he’s looking forward to the next game,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said.
The game was tied at 2 before Barrie snapped a 19-game playoff goal drought at 14:50 of the third with a snap shot inside the far post after getting the pass from Leon Draisaitl.
“Yeah, just kind of saw the puck turn over, I think, and we’re headed the other way and for whatever reason there was a big gap between me and Leon and I just saw that I could jump in and kind of make it an odd-man (rush),” said Barrie, whose last postseason goal was in 2019 with the Colorado Avalanche. “He made a nice little sauce over to me and kind of got lucky to beat Quick there. You know, he’s been playing great and so far out. So just kind of a nice to see that one go in.”
Kane said even though the Oilers squandered a two-goal lead, there was still plenty of confidence as the third period progressed.
“I think we were saying all the right things. I was talking about how we were in good shape,” he said. “It’s a 2-2 hockey game in Game 6 in the third period. I liked our chances to score quite a bit.”
McDavid — who has three goals and 12 points in the series — scored on a wraparound 1:40 into the game for his third goal of the series. It was the third-fastest goal by an Edmonton player when facing elimination.
Cody Ceci added a pair of assists and Mike Smith stopped 30 shots for the Oilers, who host the deciding game Saturday night in Edmonton.
Sean Durzi and Carl Grundstrom scored for Los Angeles, which was looking to wrap up its first series since defeating the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. Quick made 33 saves.
“Just timely goals, and I thought we had a good chance there at the end,” said defenseman Matt Roy about the difference in the game. “We just had a little breakdown that led to their third goal, so we just need to minimize those going forward.”
Rookie defenseman Durzi got Los Angeles on the board at 13:59 of the second period on the power play with his first goal of the postseason, a one-timer from the center point.
Grundstrom had the equalizer 29 seconds into the third with a slap shot over Smith’s blocker after getting the feed from Roy for his third.
“It didn’t faze us too much,” center said Anze Kopitar of the early deficit. “I mean, we knew we had to get one on the power play at some point, so that was big. And then, obviously, tie it up pretty early in the third. Just couldn’t push it over the line.”
The Oilers are 6-4 in Game 7s, including 3-1 at home. The Kings are 7-4, with a 5-3 mark on the road.
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Canada’s agricultural land is under increasing pressure to produce more food as demand grows domestically and internationally, while the industry grapples with limited resources and environmental constraints, a new report found.
“We need to grow more food on less land and in a volatile climate,” said Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
The report by the institute released Thursday looks at the pressures on Canada’s agricultural land to produce more food while also mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, said McCann.
Despite Canada being a big country, it doesn’t have as much agricultural land as people might think, said McCann, with the report noting that agricultural land makes up only around seven per cent of the country.
Because of that, we can’t take what we do have for granted, he said. “We need to be really thoughtful about how we are using our agricultural land.”
In 2020, Canada was the eighth largest country in terms of cropland area, the report said, with that cropland decreasing by seven per cent over the previous two decades.
Canada is a major producer and net exporter of agriculture and agri-food products, the report said, exporting $91 billion in products in 2022, and one of the top 10 exporters of wheat, canola, pulses, pork and beef.
In the coming years, Canada will face increased demand from countries whose populations are growing, the report said.
“With population growth on one side and climate change on the other, Canada will be amongst an increasingly smaller number of countries that is a net exporter,” said McCann, noting that Canada’s own population is growing, and farmland also needs to be protected against urban sprawl.
The wildfires clouding Canadian skies this week are a “vivid reminder” of the pressure that extreme weather and the changing climate are putting on the agricultural sector, said McCann.
“We need to clearly mitigate … agriculture’s impact on climate change. But we also need to make sure agriculture is adapting to climate change’s impacts,” he said.
One of the ways the world has responded to demand for increased agricultural production over time is to create more agricultural land, in some cases by cutting down forests, said McCann. But that’s not a viable option for Canada, which doesn’t have a lot of land that can be sustainably converted into farmland — and even if it could, doing so could have a variety of adverse environmental effects, he said.
Some of the practices used to reduce emissions and sequester carbon in agriculture can also improve production output on existing farmland, the report found, such as precision agriculture and no-till practices.
However, intensifying the production of current agricultural land also comes with potential environmental downsides, the report said.
For example, McCann said fertilizer is an important part of sustainable agriculture, but there’s a balance to be struck because excessive use of fertilizer can quickly turn food production unsustainable.
“We need to be a lot more thoughtful about the inputs that we’re using,” he said, adding the same can be said about the use of technology in agriculture and the policies and programs put in place to encourage sustainable intensification of Canadian agriculture.
The report recommends that Canada adopt policies that provide financial incentives and technical assistance to farmers and develop regulatory frameworks promoting sustainable land use, as well as promoting education and awareness campaigns, so that the country can “ensure the long-term sustainability of its agricultural sector while protecting the environment.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.
Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
A family member of five slain students holds a heart sign with their names on it following a court decision in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Alberta’s highest court is being asked to overturn a review board decision on the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party that confined a man to a supervised Edmonton group home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
By Ritika Dubey in Edmonton
Alberta’s highest court is being asked to overturn a review board decision that confined a man to a supervised Edmonton group home after the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party.
The lawyer representing Matthew de Grood argued Wednesday the review board’s decision was biased, citing what she described as political interference from Alberta’s former justice minister.
“The appellant says, ‘I think the conclusion about me is wrong. The board’s conclusion is incorrect and not supported by evidence,”’ Jacqueline Petrie said before the Alberta Court of Appeal. “He says there’s no significant evidence that he’s a risk.”
De Grood, 31, was found not criminally responsible in 2016 for the killings two years earlier of Zackariah Rathwell, Jordan Segura, Kaitlin Perras, Josh Hunter and Lawrence Hong because he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time. Petrie said de Grood has been stable on medication, is at low risk to reoffend and should be allowed to live with his parents while being monitored under a full warrant.
She argued the review board misunderstood medical evidence during the September 2022 review, which deemed de Grood a significant risk despite the assessment showing improvements. She said the board is supposed to recommend the least onerous disposition compatible with public safety and did not do that for de Grood.
The defence lawyer has said the review had been influenced by former justice minister Doug Schweitzer, who weighed in on de Grood’s case in October 2019 after the panel allowed de Grood to transition from institutional care to a supervised group home.
He has been under supervision at a group home. His case is reviewed by the Alberta Review Board yearly to see whether he can transition back into the community while maintaining public safety.
Petrie pointed at de Grood’s “exemplary record,” and that he has been “compliant to the (medical) treatment team.”
“Nobody knew he had schizophrenia (at the time of the stabbings) and needed medication.”
Crown prosecutor Matthew Griener said the board considered a conditional discharge but dismissed it, citing a relapse in schizophrenia symptoms in 2021.
Griener said de Grood’s relapses were brief and happened at the hospital, providing an early window for medical professionals to intervene.
Justice Kevin Feehan said de Grood may be low-risk, but the consequences of even one relapse could be significant.
Reading from an expert’s report, Feehan said: “A low risk to offend doesn’t mean the reoffence would not be severe.”
Some family members of the victims drove from Calgary for the hearing.
Segura’s mother, Patty, said the last nine years have been about de Grood and his rights.
“He should be thankful that he ended up NCR (not criminally responsible) rather than end(ing) with five life sentences for murdering five people,” she said. “He should not be appealing.”
Hunter’s father, Barclay, opposed a potential full release.
“The idea that he wouldn’t be monitored for the rest of his life seems to defy logic, it doesn’t make any sense,” said the father.
Hunter’s mother, Kelly, said the family has had “no healing.”
“We do this every year, at least once. Now, this is the second appeal,” she said. Barclay
Hunter said although there are attempts to reintegrate de Grood into society, he hopes the man is not left on his own with an absolute discharge.
“Regardless of what they say, he killed five people. If that doesn’t stand on its own as a risk factor, then I don’t know what does.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.
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