Prairie Update – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Mar 31, 2016

(Mba-Chase-Martens-Service)

More than 500 people turned out for a memorial service for the little two-year-old Manitoba boy who was found dead after wandering away from his family’s rural home.

Chase Martens drowned in a creek less than a kilometre from his house.

Chase’s mother, Destiny Turner, and his father, Thomas Martens, thanked the community yesterday for its support.

The parents say they are now focused on moving on. Turner says her son would want them to be happy and take good care of his sisters. (CTV Winnipeg)

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(Mba-Election-Child-Welfare)

Manitoba’s beleaguered child-welfare system is coming under the provincial election spotlight, with promises from all parties to cut a record number of kids in care.

The Liberals say they would bring the number down by half to roughly five thousand by putting more money into supporting families rather than apprehending children.

The Tories say they would give First Nations communities more power to intervene and would support struggling families rather than continue seizing children.

The N-D-P has proposed customary care legislation, which would have placed children at risk of apprehension with a family member in their community.

Manitoba has one of the highest apprehension rates in Canada and seizes an average of one newborn baby a day. (The Canadian Press)

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(Sask-Standoff)

Police in Regina have taken a 34-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman into custody after a lengthy standoff at a residence.

It started early yesterday morning when police were called to investigate a report of a man being sought in connection with a murder less than a block away.

The man barricaded himself in the second floor of the home and wouldn’t come out, and police believed another person was also inside.

Officers worked until about mid-afternoon to remove the suspect, who was believed to be armed, along with a woman in the residence. No shots were fired. (CKRM, CJME)

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(Sask-Fatal-Shots-Fired)

A suspect who died after another man was fatally shot on the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in Saskatchewan has been identified as the son of former N-H-L player Fred Sasakamoose.

A band councillor confirmed to CTV Saskatoon that 59-year-old Elgin Sasakamoose was being sought by R-C-M-P after the Tuesday morning shooting of a man friends have identified as heavy equipment operator Wayne Teed.

Mounties have said later that day they located a 59-year-old man who was believed to be responsible for the shooting, but while they were on scene the man suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital, where he died.

RCMP say no police weapons were fired during the incident. (CTV Saskatoon)

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(Alta-New-Dialysis-Unit)

After nearly 12 years of receiving kidney dialysis in a bus, residents of the Lac La Biche area of northern Alberta are going to be getting a permanent facility.

The Alberta government announced yesterday that construction will begin on a dialysis unit at the William J. Cadzow Lac La Biche Healthcare Centre.

Residents from Smoky Lake and Vilna to Wandering River and Athabasca will benefit from the addition.

Dr. Richard Birkill, medical director for the region, said for those living with kidney disease, dialysis is a critical but time-consuming treatment.

The unit is expected to start taking patients in early 2018 and the bus will be decommissioned after the permanent unit is open. (CHED)

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(Alta-Fake-Cancer)

A Calgary woman who pretended she had cancer and bilked friends and co-workers out of thousands of dollars has been found guilty of fraud.

Lana Rovang has been sentenced a 60-day sentence to be served on weekends for defrauding people out of 20-thousand dollars.

Rovang told people and co-workers at a daycare that she had stage 4 cancer, along with a heart condition and presented a fake doctor’s note.

All 12 employees of the daycare shaved their heads to raise money for Rovang, who was first charged in January 2014 after a lengthy investigation. (CFFR)

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(Prairie Update by The Canadian Press)

(The Canadian Press)