Two RDC runners finish top ten at nationals

RDC Athletics Update
Red Deer, November 13, 2018 – Red Deer College Athletics is proud to announce the Boston Pizza

Athletes of the Week.

Jill Stewart – Queens Cross Country Running
Hometown – Red Deer, AB
Occupational & Physical Therapist Assistant Diploma (3rd year)

This past Saturday, Jill Stewart (24:30) had a strong race at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Cross Country Running National Championships in Ontario. Over 6 km, the Red Deer runner finished 10th overall in a competitive field, leading the Queens to a national bronze medal in challenging running conditions. With the top 10 finish, the Occupational & Physical Therapist Assistant Diploma student received the honour of being named an All-Canadian.

Matthew Hope – Kings Cross Country Running Hometown – Red Deer, AB
Bachelor of Education Secondary (3rd year)

Matthew Hope has been among the top Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) male
runners this year, and also proved his talent on the national circuit on November 10. At the CCAA Cross Country Running National Championships, the Bachelor of Education Secondary student (28:01) finished third, earning national bronze over 8 km in snowy and cool temperatures. Despite an ailing back, the third-year student-athlete showed a lot of heart and was named an All-Canadian for his outstanding bronze medal achievement.

This Week in RDC Athletics

This week, there are several exciting ACAC matchups on tap. The Hockey Queens will face-off against the NAIT Ooks in a pair of games. The RDC Kings Hockey team will play the SAIT Trojans in a home-and-home series. Both volleyball squads will compete against the Ambrose University Lions in two matches and the Red Deer College Basketball teams will host the Lions on Saturday evening at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.

For convenience, game tickets can be purchased online.
Here is a summary of what is happening this week in RDC Athletics.

Queens Hockey | Friday, Nov. 16 | 7:00 p.m. | NAIT

In Edmonton, the third place RDC Queens (4-4) will challenge the NAIT Ooks (8-2). Veronika Bucifalova and Kaely McMurtry have continued their chemistry on the ice. The gifted linemates have scored six goals each, sharing the league lead. Bucifalova, a first-year forward from Czech Republic, also shares top spot for overall points in ACAC Women’s Hockey with 11.

Queens Hockey | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 7:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The venue will shift to the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, as the two teams will hit the ice in the second half of the home-and-home series.

Kings Hockey | Friday, Nov. 16 | 7:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The RDC Kings (7-2-0-1) will face-off against the SAIT Trojans (7-3-0-0) at home. The Kings share first place in the standings with the MacEwan University Griffins. Both teams have 15 points and the SAIT Trojans are one point back, so this will be an important weekend series.

RDC’s Dylan Baer will enter this game on a roll. The talented blueliner has recorded 10 points in 10 games while taking care of his own zone, and he scored a hat trick in Saturday’s overtime victory against the Portage College Voyageurs.

Second-year Kings’ forward Lynnden Pastachak assisted on all three of Baer’s markers, and the Kinesiology student from Bienfait, Saskatchewan contributed seven points in two games, helping the Kings take four of a possible four points this past weekend.

Kings Hockey | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 7:00 p.m. | SAIT

The Kings and Trojans will square off in Calgary.

Queens Volleyball | Friday, Nov. 16 | 6:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The Red Deer College Queens (5-5) will compete against the Ambrose University Lions (6 – 2). Both teams will enter the match on a winning streak. The Queens have won four in a row and the Lions have captured five straight.

The Lions will host the 2018-19 ACAC Women’s Volleyball Championship.

Queens Volleyball | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 6:00 p.m. | Ambrose University

In a rematch, the Volleyball Queens will take on the Lions on the road.

Kings Volleyball | Friday, Nov. 16 | 8:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The second place Red Deer College Kings (6-4) will host the sixth seeded Ambrose University Lions (2-6). Regan Fathers, a talented right side hitter, leads ACAC Men’s Volleyball with 5.74 kills per set.

Kings Volleyball | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 8:00 p.m. | Ambrose University

Following the Queens, the Kings and Lions will meet.

Queens Basketball | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 6:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The hard-working Basketball Queens will face the Ambrose University Lions at home.

Kings Basketball | Saturday, Nov. 17 | 8:00 p.m. | Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The third place RDC Kings (4-2) will hit the hardwood against the second place Ambrose University Lions (5-1). The Kings have been strong on the boards. Six-foot-four forward Eric Bakker leads the way with 8.2 rebounds per game.

For more information on RDC Athletics, the student-athletes, scores, and game recaps of conference games, please visit: rdcathletics.ca

Duane Rolheiser

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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Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

Published on March 10, 2024

SPARC Red Deer

Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

Published on January 28, 2024

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.

Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.