An uncle and his niece have been charged after a robber held up the Onoway Hotel on Saturday, firing a warning shot that injured an employee.

RCMP were called to the Onoway Hotel around 1:15 a.m. Saturday after a lone man entered the hotel, pointed a handgun at employees and demanded money.

The man then fired a shot into the ceiling, but the bullet ricocheted and struck a hotel staff member. The employee suffered minor injuries.

According to investigators, the robber obtained an unspecified amount of cash before climbing into a getaway vehicle where a female accomplice was waiting. The two suspects then fled the scene.

Tia Bergseth, 18, of Mayerthorpe has been charged with robbery using a firearm and will appear in Stony Plain provincial court Wednesday.

Tia’s uncle, Dixon Bergseth, 38, of Edmonton faces 13 charges, including robbery using a firearm and assault with a weapon. Dixon is in police custody.

twitter.com/ClaireTheobald

ctheobald@postmedia.com

More than two dozen cowering, semi-feral dogs have been seized by an animal rescue group from a rural property north of Edmonton.

The dogs were found May 11 in “horrendous” conditions, said Jaimie Kreklewetz, operations manager of Infinite Woofs Animal Rescue Society.

“They were obviously beaten. All they do is cower, they hide, they’re scared of people, they’re scared of hands.”

Law enforcement from the municipality north of the city contacted the rescue group, which took the dogs from a shed on the property, loaded them into kennels and took them to foster homes to recover.

The society did not disclose the property owner’s name or exactly where the dogs were rescued from.

“It will take a lot of patience, a lot of time and a lot of love and we don’t know when they are going to be adoptable,” Kreklewetz said. “It’s disgusting how it got to this point.”

It’s unclear if charges will be laid against the owner, whom Kreklewetz suspects might have a mental illness.

“I couldn’t help but feeling bad for this guy,” she said. “Everything that he has is these dogs and we’re taking them off of his property.”

Some of the older dogs were in worse shape, while the younger ones, who tend to be more resilient, were expected to recover sooner.

“It’s baby steps, it’s a dog finally eating or a dog coming out from under the bed or a dog walking for five minutes on a leash without freaking out,” Kreklewetz said. 

A few dogs displayed some aggression when being loaded into kennels.

“Some were growling from their kennels; it’s just fear,” she said. “They don’t want to rip your face off, they’re scared, they’ve never been in a kennel with so many people around them.”

Infinite Woofs Animal Rescue Society is posting almost daily photos and updates about the dogs on its Facebook page.

Infinite Woofs Animal Rescue Society seized over two dozen dogs in deplorable conditions from a rural property north of Edmonton on May 11 after local law enforcement contacted the group.

Edmonton is perceived as a safe city by its residents, though a faster police response and a desire to see more officers on the streets topped the list of concerns in the results of a recent survey of citizen satisfaction with police.

The survey of 1,367 adult Edmontonians was undertaken during the first three weeks of February, prior to the city’s homicides rocketing up after a rash of killings this spring.

There have been 21 homicides in Edmonton in 2016.

Results of the survey were presented Thursday to the Edmonton Police Commission and show an overall improvement in citizen satisfaction with the Edmonton Police Service.

Asked about perception of crime levels in Edmonton compared to other Canadian cities, 78 per cent of people said they thought it was the same or lower. Confidence in police increased one per cent over 2015, with 94 per cent of respondents indicating they either strongly or somewhat agree that they have confidence in the police. 

Police department strategic analyst Andrew Lejeune wrote the report presenting the survey results, and said the concerns people do have are ones that stay the same, year after year. 

“Concerns with traffic, they want to see more officers out on the street, they want to have better communication with their police officers,” Lejeune said. 

Another concern for those surveyed was call response times, with 36 per cent rating police response time as average, and nine per cent calling it poor.

The commission also heard a presentation on policing outcomes for the first quarter of 2016 that showed an overall decrease in violent crime compared to the same period last year. However, two of the indicators are up: there were 12 homicides in 2016’s first quarter, compared to last year’s five, and robberies are up 26 per cent. 

Lejeune said he couldn’t speculate about how results might have changed if the survey had been taken after the slew of homicides that followed in March and April. He did say that the perception of safety got knocked down a bit in 2011, a year when homicides hit 48.

“There was a spike in people in 2011 who did feel that Edmonton was a little bit more unsafe than other Canadian cities,” he said. 

The survey also revealed Edmontonians don’t always report crime. When it comes to theft of household property, victims report only 26 per cent of the time. Lejeune said the most commonly given reason for not reporting is because people don’t feel it is important enough to alert police.

However, he said it is important for police to know about illegal activity happening in the community.

“If vehicle thefts are going under-reported, and we don’t know it’s happening, we aren’t able to effectively allocate our resources to that,” he said. 

The survey is considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

pparsons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/paigeeparsons

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating after a man was found unresponsive inside a police cell just hours after he was arrested.

Edmonton police arrested a 47-year-old man shortly after midnight on Thursday, charging him with theft under $5,000 and violating two bail conditions.

The man is believed to have been intoxicated at the time of his arrest.

Officers booked the man into the detainee management system and put him in a cellblock.

At 3 a.m. the man was found unresponsive, lying on the floor of his cell.

Officers provided emergency medical aid. An ambulance took the man to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy has been completed. The man showed no visible injuries.

The cause of the man’s death has yet to be determined as investigators wait for results of toxicology tests.

ASIRT’s investigation will focus on how officers treated the man leading up to his death.

ASIRT is called in to investigate any incident involving police officers in Alberta that leads to serious injury or death, or cases of serious police misconduct.

Another ASIRT in-custody death investigation in Edmonton is still ongoing after a 46-year-old man went into medical distress and later died while being taken Oct. 26, 2015, to the Edmonton Remand Centre in a prison transport van.

A 49-year-old man died while in Edmonton police custody on Dec. 8, 2015, after being shocked with a Taser by Edmonton police inside his home. ASIRT is also investigating the circumstances of this death.

twitter.com/ClaireTheobald

ctheobald@postmedia.com

A grieving father demanded answers Thursday from the Edmonton Police Commission about the investigation into his son’s homicide.

Abdikadir Mohamed, 25, was shot outside a hookah bar at 111 Avenue and 93 Street early New Year’s Day. He died of his injuries Jan. 7. 

Abdikadir Mohamed, 25, was shot outside a hookah bar north of downtown Edmonton on Jan. 1, 2016, and died days later of his injuries in hospital. Mohamed was the city’s first homicide victim of 2016.

Police ruled the shooting death a homicide. No one has been arrested.

Mohamed’s father, Mohamed Ahmed, attended the commission meeting on Thursday to express his frustration with how police are handling the case.

“I want to know who killed my son, justice and peace,” Ahmed said. 

Ahmed told the commission he doesn’t believe police took information seriously that was provided by community members.

He said he believes his family’s case is not getting fair treatment from the police because the family is African-Canadian.

“They don’t want to talk to us,” Ahmed said, describing his experience dealing police”We are very disappointed. We are very sad.”

Ahmed said it has been difficult dealing with the loss of his son. 

“He was a good boy, he was a great Canadian,” Ahmed said.

Following the commission meeting, deputy chief Brian Simpson said he understood Ahmed’s frustration, but said equal efforts are made to solve all Edmonton homicides, regardless of the victim. He also said any information provided to police about a homicide is taken seriously, but he said investigative steps have to been taken to ensure that information holds up in court.

“These investigations are tough. They require a lot of time,” Simpson said. “Knowing something is a long way from proving something.”

He said the rates of arrests and solved cases involving homicides with African Canadian victims are similar to the rates in cases overall. 

“But numbers don’t count when you’re a family member and you don’t have resolution. I absolutely understand that,” Simpson said. 

pparsons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/paigeeparsons

I am one of the 90,000 people who escaped the raging Fort McMurray wildfire. As flames licked away at buildings and consumed the surrounding forest, I was among those who headed south to Edmonton.

Many of us have frequented Edmonton, sometimes for a shopping trip or a doctor’s appointment, but this experience was like no other. We were filled with panic and fear, wondering if we would ever see our beloved city again. We were anxiously seeking solace, hoping we would find it when we reached you — and you welcomed us with open arms.

Never before have I seen such hospitality, full of raw emotion and rooted in the purest compassion. The look of concern, the genuine “Are you OK?” and the overwhelming amount of support that you showed, and continue to show, is outstanding. 

You have given homes to the displaced, filled hungry stomachs with food and comforted those who learned they have nothing to go back to. Indeed, united we stand. Please accept my most genuine gratitude. Thank you for your efforts. They have affected us profoundly and will be remembered.

Aiman Naeem, Fort McMurray

Disabled parking should be used considerately

To vehicle drivers out there: the disabled parking placard that you are allowed to use when you drive your disabled relative is not for your personal use as you bound from your vehicle and do a quick run into the store, and not for you to conveniently park when you aren’t transporting that passenger. 

No matter how quick your errand, you thoughtlessly take up a spot for someone who really needs that space who may need to park further away rather than wait for your return.

Also, please drive carefully in parking lots so you don’t scrape my (or anyone else’s bumper). If you do, please leave a note. And to the person who backed into my front bumper — remember the new white German SUV parked in the disabled parking spot — when I have the chance, I’m reviewing my dash-cam footage in the hopes that your careless act was recorded. 

Maybe you can report to the local police station before a uniformed officer shows up at your door.

Gordon Gee, Edmonton

Fort McMurray connector long overdue

It appears that the road from Highway 881 in Alberta to Highway 155 in Saskatchewan would have paid off big time — if it had been built, mainly on the Alberta side as the Saskatchewan side only needed upgrading.

This road has been thought of since 1975 and was expected to bring in the many tradespeople from Saskatchewan and the east, plus offer a shorter route for supplies to the oilsands developments.

Not only would this road have offered economic and tourism opportunities, it would have allowed escape routes for evacuees from the fires near Fort McMurray twice in the last two weeks. I can only say that the former Progressive Conservative government also dropped the ball on this project along with the late twinning of Highway 63.

Myron C. Kirik, Chestermere

Another attack on green space

What is it about any green space that makes developers want to pave it over and throw up a building on it? 

Our beautiful little Peace Garden in Oliver has probably had a target on it since it was completed; today’s mail informed us that rezoning is being applied for so that a 16-storey condo can be built on the property. The garden would be “swapped” for a much less attractive and accessible section of the entire area. 

Residents are encouraged to submit comments to this project — a futile exercise, as experienced in past objections to new construction in this district. Developers seem to have the power. But one can always hope, I suppose.

 Susan Gilchrist, Edmonton

Letters welcome

We invite you to write letters to the editor. A maximum of 150 words is preferred. Letters must carry a first and last name, or two initials and a last name, and include an address and daytime telephone number. All letters are subject to editing. We don’t publish letters addressed to others or sent to other publications. Email: letters@edmontonjournal.com .

Edmonton’s homicide unit has charged a fifth man in connection to a stabbing death more than a year ago.

Keith James Phillips, 31, was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and three counts of aggravated assault in the death of Deng Mathew Garang Tong, 23.

Police first responded to a weapons complaint near 102 Street and 107 Avenue on Feb. 22, 2015, at about 3:30 a.m. When they arrived, they found two men with stab wounds.

A tip led patrol officers to a nearby apartment building where they found a third man, later identified as Tong, who had also been stabbed.

Tong — a Sudanese-Canadian who was the oldest of six children — died in hospital.

Police have already charged Clinton Robert Kailek, 26; Billy Joe Nelson, 37; Tyler Strathdee, 27; and Jonathan Piche, 32, with first-degree murder and three counts each of attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Tong’s death was the city’s third homicide 0f 2015.

twitter.com/ClaireTheobald

ctheobald@postmedia.com

After spending seven years abroad with Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department and more than two decades with some of North America’s largest consulting firms, John Rose had an epiphany.

It was early 2010, he was in his late 50s, his marriage was over, his children had grown up. His house had grown quiet. “Basically, I woke up one day and the nest was empty. I’d been in Toronto for 23 years and I thought, ‘What am I doing here?'” 

“So I started looking around for other opportunities. Then I saw this ad for the City of Edmonton and I thought, well, I’d been consulting to municipal and regional governments for decades, so maybe it would be nice to be on the other side.”

Rose promptly applied for the post. In May 2010, he was named the city’s chief economist.

“I remember sitting on the plane after everything had been signed and thinking, ‘What happens if I show up and people just say, ‘Oh, here’s one more guy from out East coming to tell us how to do it.'”

“But I haven’t had any of that. In fact it’s been the opposite. The business community in Edmonton is very open. If I want to talk to somebody, it usually just takes an email or a phone call, whereas in Toronto you can spend the better part of your life just banging on doors.”

In the past six years, Rose — a University of Toronto economics grad with a passion for jazz and theatre — has had a front-row seat chronicling the ups and downs of Alberta’s energy-fired economy, and in particular the more diversified economy of the Edmonton region.

His weekly reports touch on everything from local jobless rates and inflation to commercial and residential construction, manufacturing and retail sales. On top of that, he delivers roughly two dozen presentations a year to business, government, academic and community audiences, and conducts scores of media interviews.

In short, this well-travelled Toronto transplant has become the most respected and knowledgeable voice on what makes Edmonton’s economy tick and where it may be going.

“When I first came here, people would always say Edmonton is a blue-collar town. But this isn’t a blue-collar town, this is a white-collar town. It’s a town full of medical specialists, academics, engineers and professional people who export their services globally.

“Yes, there are guys out there bending metal, lots of them. But this isn’t just a working class community that does nothing but serve the oilpatch. This is a different kind of place. I think we have a much more nuanced story to tell than Calgary, which is really about the energy industry.”

Since oil prices cratered in late 2014, of course, Alberta has been mired in recession. The devastating wildfire in Fort McMurray and surrounding area have compounded the pain for tens of thousands of oilpatch workers.

A recent Conference Board of Canada report said the temporary shutdown of more than one million barrels a day of oilsands output is likely to cut Alberta’s gross domestic product by about a third of one per cent this year before a rebound takes hold in 2017.

But it’s a markedly different and far more upbeat story in Edmonton. In fact, based on Rose’s analysis, the capital region added 30,000 new jobs in the past 12 months. Amazingly, that’s fully a third of Canada’s total and more than any major city but Vancouver. Toronto ranks third.

Although he expects Edmonton’s jobless rate to creep a bit higher, topping seven per cent in the final half of the year, he says the area’s diversified economic base holds the key to its long-term prosperity, which he expects to rebound as oil prices recover.

“In addition to the companies that have grown and expanded here, and are now regional if not global in reach, we’ve also got foundational institutions such as universities and hospitals that increasingly serve regional and global markets,” he says.

“So on the educational and health-care side, I think this region is in a much better position than it was after the 2008-2009 recession. It’s certainly much better off than it was in the 1990s. Those things will provide the foundation for stable, reliable growth.”

He also sees Edmonton as an attractive destination for those who have been priced out of the red-hot Toronto and Vancouver markets. 

“When you look at the top jurisdictions that are generating jobs — Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto — the only place that’s even vaguely affordable is Edmonton. So people are going to take a look at Vancouver and say ‘Yeah I can get a job there, but I’m going to be living in a closet.”

As for what lies in Rose’s future, that’s a bit less clear. 

“I just turned 65 so I have to make a decision about retirement at some point. That’s something I’ve been chewing on, but I haven’t made any decisions.

“It may be prudent to keep going and try to bank a little bit more, but another part of me says wouldn’t it be nice to just wake up and not have to worry about what I’m going to say at the meeting Monday morning.”

glamphier@postmedia.com

An Edmonton man who took pornographic pictures of several children was sentenced to 5-1/2 years in prison Friday and told to get help for his “sickness.”

Jamie Lee Boileau, 35, earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of making child pornography, three counts of possession of child pornography, voyeurism and sexual interference.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Vital Ouelette criticized Boileau for taking advantage of his friendship with the mother of two of his victims and abusing that position of trust.

Ouelette also noted that Boileau “obviously has a sickness” and told the sex offender he hopes he seeks treatment while behind bars “because you obviously need it.”

According to an agreed statement of facts, Boileau was arrested with a collection of child pornography images and videos.

Court heard he also secretly filmed a 12-year-old girl while she was in the shower and shot video of the private parts of a young girl who was still in diapers.

Boileau was also placed on the national sex offenders registry for life and banned for 10 years following his release from working or volunteering with minors or from going to parks, playgrounds and pools or any other place where children congregate.

When Violetta Ambrozuk was diagnosed with an advanced form of skin cancer, the outlook was bleak.

Diagnosed with Stage 3A melanoma in May 2009 when she was just 25, Ambrozuk said doctors gave her a 50-50 chance of surviving another five years, and available treatments would have only extended her life by another year, accompanied by debilitating side effects.

That is, until she was accepted for a clinical trial.

“It saved my life, it really did,” said Ambrozuk, sharing her story Friday at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton during an event to mark International Clinical Trials Day.

When she started the trial for ipilimumab — an immunotherapy treatment that helps a patient’s body recognize and attack cancer cells — Ambrozuk couldn’t even be sure she was taking the drug, as the study included placebos, but knew the chance for a better life for herself and those diagnosed after her was worth the risk.

“At least I feel like I would have left a legacy because my cancer wouldn’t have been for nothing,” said Ambrozuk.

When a rare side effect caused her pituitary gland to fail, Ambrozuk was oddly relieved.

“It was a side effect that was very pleasing to me because at that time I knew that I got the treatment and the treatment is working,” Ambrozuk said.

Cancer survivor Violetta Ambrozuk shared her clinical trial success story on Clinical Trials Day at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton on Friday May 20, 2016. Alberta Health Services has been able to put more than 6,000 patients on a clinical trial in the last five years.

Seven years later, Ambrozuk’s melanoma has yet to return — though the drug did not prevent her from developing a “golf-ball sized” brain tumour in 2012 — and the drug is being used to give other melanoma patients a new lease on life.

For Lorne Cochrane, being a part of a successful clinical trial for nivolumab — a immunotherapy drug now approved for the treatment of lung cancers — meant his 53rd birthday wouldn’t be his last.

“I am walking proof that there is hope,” said Cochrane, now 56.

When Cochrane was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, he had more than 20 tumours filling his lungs and was given just over a year to live, even with treatment. For him, a clinical trial was his only chance of survival.

Within 15 weeks of starting the trial, his tumours were gone, and have yet to return.

“All we can do is look for that hope, and we don’t have hope unless we have trials,” said Cochrane, proud that his efforts helped save the lives of other cancer sufferers.

Cancer survivors Violetta Ambrozuk (left) and Lorne Cochrane (right) meet with Dr. John Mackey, director of the Cross Cancer Institute’s clinical trials unit on Friday May 20, 2016.

While results like theirs are in the minority, said Dr. John Mackey, director of the clinical trials unit at the Cross Cancer Institute, they demonstrate how good research can lead to tremendous outcomes for cancer patients.

“We are starting to see cures where we never saw cures before,” Mackey said.

Mackey said he has seen first-hand how clinical trials have led to better treatments for cancer patients over the last 20 years, and with continued research and support, said he expects to see further advancements in the near future that promise to make progress thus far seem “trivial.”

“With the strong clinical trial system we have here in Edmonton, we are going to be on the forefront of those new advances,” Mackey said.

The Cross Cancer Institute is involved in about 100 clinical trials every year, having put more than 6,000 patients through clinical trials in the last five years.

twitter.com/ClaireTheobald

ctheobald@postmedia.com

Playwright Sharon Pollock’s “The Komagata Maru Incident” was directed by James DeFelice at a newly opened Citadel Theatre in its 1976-77 season. All of us who saw the production were moved by this portrayal of injustice — an unresolved error of our nation’s evolution that was absent from our studies of Canadian history.

I never forgot how uncomfortable I felt as a Canadian as I watched this production. I’m sure that Pollock and hundreds of theatres across Canada are immensely satisfied that for decades they were able to keep this story in front of Canadians until our government’s historic admission of a wrong.

Congratulations to Prime Minister Trudeau and the government of Canada for apologizing for the injustice to Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus on board the Komagata Maru in 1914 who were the victims of racial and social prejudice as they attempted to make Canada their new home.

Gordon M. Gordey, Edmonton

Trudeau’s firecracker behaviour a strike against PM

It was the prime minister’s attempt to unduly restrain the opposition parties’ democratic prerogatives that eventually prompted the altercation on the floor of the House of Commons Wednesday.

While Trudeau was only exercising those powers Stephen Harper tenaciously and without conscience embedded in the Prime Minister’s Office during his tenure, an apology is not an appropriate response for his conduct.

To allow himself to leave his chair in our parliament, to enter a melee on the Floor, not once but twice, was a clear demonstration that he does not have discipline and self-control. His behaviour was that of a firecracker; unpredictable and completely irrational.

Discussion about the incident should not be about procedures and apologies; it should be about the acting commander-in-chief of our armed forces, and whether we are comfortable with him having his finger on the trigger that could take us into another war.

 Andy Thomsen, Peachland, B.C.

MP’s overreaction over the top 

MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau has just effectively moved back the women’s movement by 50 years when coming into contact with the prime minister’s elbow. Since when is being bumped into accidentally considered “physical molestation”?

As a women I am pretty disgusted Brosseau played the helpless female card when Justin Trudeau came into the melee to break up the oppositions stalling. Was that correct? No it was not, however no doubt the opposition will run with the molestation charge till we all scream for silence. 

Lynn Vogelesang, Edmonton

Empowering parents key to early years

Re. “Deeper investment in early childhood education will benefit many,” Siobhan Vipond, May 18

While I certainly agree that there is a need for good early childhood education, I’m not sure I agree that it can only be provided by means of a large expansion of the formal education system run by experts. 

What about empowering the first and most important educators of preschool children; that is, parents and family to provide the kind of inputs that we know will help young children develop the language and cognitive skills that will prepare them to benefit from the more formal curriculum of the school? 

This may seem like a naive proposal, but the fact is that, with a little information and help, most parents and other caregivers of young children are in a unique position to enable them to develop the skills and attitudes they need for successful school entry. 

The Centre for Family Literacy headquartered in Edmonton has long provided free programming for parents (and training for early childhood educators throughout the province) to help them acquire skills of language interaction and early literacy development. 

Robert W. Bruinsma, professor of education (emeritus), Edmonton

Pro-pot signals cloud “no smoking” message 

Re. “How Stoned is Too Stoned,” May 18

Why do we promote the use of cannabis and at the same time try to discourage tobacco smoking? Smoking sucks, period.

Don’t be a smoke sucker. Don’t suck smoke. Don’t be a sucker.

Henry A. Spencer, Edmonton

Letters welcome

We invite you to write letters to the editor. A maximum of 150 words is preferred. Letters must carry a first and last name, or two initials and a last name, and include an address and daytime telephone number. All letters are subject to editing. We don’t publish letters addressed to others or sent to other publications. Email: letters@edmontonjournal.com .

Rebuilding burnt homes in Fort McMurray will be one job in the coming months. Moving into the ones still standing could be a task just as complex and potentially more dangerous.

“After people go back to their homes, some of them have the possibility of experiencing exposures to contaminants which have entered into the house,” said Dr. Robert Lockhart, a retired expert in occupational and environmental hygiene.

In 2008, Lockhart worked as a consultant with B.C. Research, a private firm, to find out what might be causing respiratory illness in a Kelowna household five years after fires there destroyed nearly 250 homes.

All four people in the home were experiencing health issues since moving back to the home about two weeks after the fires ended.

“They had gone through a whole array of efforts over a five-year period,” said Lockhart. “We were able to demonstrate the particulate deposits on basically any surface we looked at. That includes floors, walls, ceilings, furnishings, clothing, you name it, and demonstrated that the chemicals were emitting from the particulate.”

The issue isn’t the microscopic smoke particles themselves but the volatile gases they emit over time, the names of which smack of an occupational health safety pamphlet – methanol, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, formic acid, methyl acetate, formaldehyde – all of which are emitted in forest fires and can trigger everything from breathing irritation to allergies to asthma.

Cleanup is possible but not easy.

“There are multiple steps that can’t be done overnight,” said Jorge Gonzalez, general manager of ServePro, a restoration company in Edmonton that has been doing some work in Fort McMurray in the past few weeks.

Gonzalez outlined the basic work houses exposed to smoke will need, including carpet and other surface cleaning as well as washing things like dishes and cleaning the furnace. The softer and more porous the surface, and the more exposed to soot and smoke, the harder it will be to clean.

Clothes should be washed or dry cleaned and plastic children’s toys can be washed as well, though Gonzalez said he wouldn’t take a chance on stuffed ones.

Buildings with ceiling tiles may need them replaced and older ones could need asbestos abatement done, something Gonzalez said should be left to the professionals.

Lockhart said harder surfaces should be cleaned diligently, wiping with a detergent-moistened cloth, throwing the cloth away and wiping again.

Finally, both men say to approach the return with patience and with caution.

“If people start to feel difficulties, leave,” said Lockhart. “It’s not a good thing to try to suffer through it because I know and the literature knows that exposure to the products of char and combustion is not good for you.”

dlazzarino@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/SUNDaveLazz

A carbon-capturing process being developed by a group of Edmonton researchers could land them big money and international fame. The idea? Copying what plants do.

“Nature itself can be the best teacher to learn from,” said Ehsan Jenab, project lead for the carbon transformation project at Edmonton’s Ingenuity Lab, a science and innovation lab funded by the Sherwood Park-based Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation.

The project has a team of researchers working to artificially produce the carbon sequestering properties of plants by creating the individual steps of the carbon cycle and then putting them together in a bio-reactor.

In essence, they’re making trees from scratch.

“If you look at the leaf, it can be a really tiny energy factory,” Jenab said. “All of these processes are happening in the plant cells.”

The chloroplasts, he said, are the main part of that factory, converting CO2 into intermediate sugars using 13 different enzymes during the carbon cycle.

By mimicking the processes — including creating the individual enzymes through fermentation — the team hopes to be able to trap carbon dioxide, using light as an input energy source, and produce byproducts like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

It’s a mouthful to say but, along with hydrogen, it combines to NADH, a widely-used ingredient in the pharmaceutical industry.

“All of these sugar phosphates are the initial reactants for producing value-added chemicals,” said Jenab. “There is a huge market demand for that.”

As in plants, some of the other byproducts are recycled back into the initial reactions and make the entire process far more efficient, something Jenab says makes the project enticing to governments looking to increase energy efficiency as global populations and energy use continue to rise.

The team is in the stage of developing the enzymes and incorporating them into the larger system but they hope to be ready to demonstrate it for consideration at the first stage of the Carbon XPrize competition in 2017.

If they manage to move past the first two rounds, it could mean $2.5 million in prize money and if they win the entire thing another $7.5 million could be up for grabs. But Jenab says the exposure to industry could be even more lucrative.

The lab, which has a number of other projects on the go, is also working on a 4-D printer, which promises to use 3-D printing technology to create structures made of living biological material.

More information on the Ingenuity Lab and the XPrize can be found online.

dlazzarino@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/SUNDaveLazz

An Alberta doctor is concerned Canada’s guidelines for diagnosing Lyme disease are too narrow, leaving many undiagnosed and suffering.

Dr. Ralph Hawkins, the site lead of general internal medicine at the South Health Campus Hospital in Calgary, has treated more than 100 patients for Lyme disease, and has a wait list at least 200-long.

Currently, the standard Lyme disease diagnosis is based on two blood tests and a particular set of symptoms. But, Hawkins’ takes an alternate approach, basing his diagnoses on tests and a broader set of symptoms.

Hawkins shared his concerns at a conference earlier this week in Ottawa, a first step in developing a federal framework on Lyme disease. He wants the new framework to expand the diagnosis guidelines.

Susan McInnis, who started the Lyme Disease Association of Alberta in 2013 to spread awareness of the disease, also attended the conference. She too wants broader guidelines established.

“As a former patient, it’s quite…it’s alienating as a patient when you’re kind of lost in a health care system within which you can’t really find answers,” said the Calgary woman.

It took three years and eventually travelling to the United States to get her diagnosis and by that time she was “highly debilitated,” said McInnis, who has since fully recovered.

“I developed a balance disorder, I lost control of a lot of the right side of my body,” she explained.

But there is debate within the medical community about whether broader diagnosis guidelines are needed.

Alberta’s deputy chief medical officer of health, for instance, doesn’t think they are.

Dr. Martin Lavoie noted doctors can already make a diagnosis based common symptoms, such as the “bulls-eye” rash, in the early stages of the infection. However, in later stages the two-test system used in Canada should confirm that a patient has Lyme disease, he said.

Alberta Health reports on its website that there have been 63 cases of Lyme disease reported to the department between 1991 and 2014. None of those cases contracted the disease in the province, said Lavoie.

While the department is automatically notified when Albertan cases of Lyme disease are confirmed through standard testing, it would be up to the doctor to report any cases diagnosed based on symptoms, said Lavoie.

Alberta Health cautions that people who go to alternate laboratories in U.S. to get diagnosed should have it confirmed in Canada, as some do not use recognized tests and have been found to result in false positives.

The blacklegged tick, which can transmit Lyme disease to people, is not established in Alberta, Lavoie said.

“But we know that over time, we might be seeing some pockets, some areas, where the tick can establish itself just due to climate change over time,” he said.

Alberta Health relies on people to submit ticks found on themselves or pets to monitor their presence in the province.

In 2014, 1,376 ticks were submitted to the department’s tick-monitoring program. Eighty-one of those were blacklegged ticks and nine tested positive for the bacteria that can cause Lyme disease.

Given the potential severity of Lyme disease, McInnis wants the province to undertake a more active tick-monitoring program.

The passive program is designed to trigger a more active investigation if for example there are a number of ticks submitted from a specific area or if they get young ticks, which may suggest some ticks have established themselves in an area, said Lavoie.

That hasn’t happened yet, but to practice, a team was sent to do some active surveillance in a few areas in Edmonton, where a few more ticks have been found a bit more often, said Lavoie.

What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a serious infection. A person can get Lyme disease if they a bitten by an infected blacklegged tick.

What are the symptoms of Lyme disease?

Symptoms can vary between people but may include: a round, red rash centred around the tick-bite, flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, fever, chills, headache, weakness, spasms, numbness, swollen lymph node, feelings of fogginess, dizziness, nervous system disorders, arthritis or arthritis-like symptoms, or abnormal heartbeats.

How is Lyme disease treated?

Most cases of Lyme disease are treated with two to four weeks of antibiotics. More severe cases may require longer rounds of antibiotics.

How can you avoid ticks?

Wear closed-toe shoes, long-sleeves and pants, and light coloured clothing (so you can spot ticks more easily) in grassy or wooded areas. Check yourself for ticks after being in those areas.

How can you remove a tick?

Alberta Health suggests that if a tick is attached to your skin, use tweezers to gently grab hold of it at its mouth and head as close to your skin as possible and pull it straight up. To submit it for testing put it in a clean container with a damp cotton ball so it doesn’t dry out.

Where can you submit a tick for testing?

You can submit a tick at an Alberta Health Services Environmental Health Office, a First Nations health centre, or if the tick is found on a pet, at your veterinarian.

Since the Fort McMurray fires started I have heard some brief discussions on the need for alternate routes from the area. The province of Alberta knew this was a potential problem and has been studying this for more than 15 years.

In 2003, a group which I was part of researched, developed a business plan and met with local industry, the Northern Alberta Development Council, forestry companies, oil companies and other interested stake holders. We were encouraged to present our plan to Alberta Transportation. The plan featured an industry pay only, all-weather toll road (all passenger vehicles would not pay).

We presented the plan but realized there was no appetite among government for it to go any further. About two years we heard Alberta Transportation was doing yet another study on this road.

How many more studies will we do on this project before someone just builds it?

Rob Wiedeman, Carvel

How can we stop abuse of parking permits?

Re. “Use disabled parking with consideration,” Letters, May 20

I thank Gordon Gee for his comments regarding blatant misuse of disabled parking placards. This is a major abuse of a privilege that is not monitored or reported. As noted by Gee, the abusers of this privilege can be seen parking in designated stalls in shopping marts, for the convenience of parking, and without conscience or concern of those who are truly disabled. 

How does one report such abuse and have this valued privilege removed from the abusers?

Garry S. Popowich, Edmonton

Don’t rush to judgment

Re. “Use disabled parking with consideration,” Letters, May 20

Of course it’s important to use disabled parking permits according to the rules. It’s also important to remember that not all disabilities are readily visible. For instance, a person may walk normally but have limited endurance or other vulnerabilities. 

What’s more, I think the rules for using the permits should be extended. In my family, I’m the one called to be the caregiver when someone is operated on or newly confined to a wheelchair, etc. While I haven’t abused a parking permit, I’ve often been tempted given the very brief windows of time for the many errands required for my patient’s comfort and treatment.

There’s a huge range of abilities and disabilities that are accommodated with disabled parking permits. Sometimes the caregiver’s situation is more desperate than the disabled person’s. A little patience and consideration can mean so much when your world is turning upside down.

Beatrice Nearey, Edmonton

House of Commons is a workplace

The accidental elbowing of NDP member Ruth Ellen Brosseau is not the issue. There is a far bigger, more important issue here that is being frightfully sidelined. And as a result, Trudeau may be getting a free pass. 

Parliament is Trudeau’s place of work, he is the top member of the group of people who work there, the top boss, if you will; as such, he must exercise a decorum and a modesty befitting a leader. He did not do that. 

In any place of work in Canada, a manager, a boss, a co-worker is simply not allowed to manhandle an employee like Trudeau did the whip. But instead of the focus being placed squarely on this inappropriate action, the accidental elbowing is being shoved to the forefront as a smokescreen for Trudeau’s out-of-place, undignified bullying.

What Trudeau did was wrong, pure and simple. He should be held accountable for his actions.

Sheree Zielke, Edmonton

Trudeau’s apology accepted

We are all human. Every one of us do things and say things that are inappropriate and foolish from time to time.

I am no Justin Trudeau fan, nor am I a Liberal supporter.

However, that being said, I highly respected his apology for his inappropriate actions in the House of Commons a few days ago. As far as I am concerned, the true mark of man of noble character is his recognition of his screw ups and the ability to sincerely say he is sorry.

I don’t doubt that Trudeau will do and say a few more really foolish things in the future, because he is human like the rest of us. However, as long our leaders have the conviction of heart to sincerely apologize to us Canadians when they come to grips with their folly, well, I for one will gladly forgive them.

Garth Ukrainetz, Edmonton

Blame to share in House of Commons flap

I am not a Liberal. What Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did in the House of Commons was hasty and ill-mannered. 

But, let’s rewind the news film and watch that replay a few steps before the pushing incident. MP Gordon Brown is trying to walk right through a crowded aisle, using more than one attempt, when the PM comes over and takes him by the elbow to escort him to his seat. 

If Brown would have just taken a step back after his first attempt, and walked to the left around the group to return to his seat, life would continue as before. No issue, no outrage, and no apologies needed. 

Nadia Willigar, St. Albert

Hear the noise? Issue a ticket

Why is not city charging these people who drive vehicles that are too loud?

Put a constable or a sheriff on Victoria Park Road or Jasper Avenue and reap the benefit of much needed revenue for the city and making it a better place to live at the same time.

Mike Brandt, Edmonton

Fire guards key to northern living

All towns within the continuous boreal forest — where the spruce, pine and fir woodlands grow thick — need the following: a half-mile wide golf green-like fireguard.

Take away the fuel; no fire. No use wasting time and money on further studies. Put a digger to work and get it done. The only other expense then is the ongoing maintenance — the regular “haircut.” On the forest side of the greens, let the forest transition to a more deciduous variety like willow or poplar, being less combustible. 

Last summer an unchecked wildfire burnt the west corner of my trapline. When I first set a cabin and sea can there, I had a fireguard cut all around the buildings right down to mineral soil. You guessed it: the cabin survived intact.  

Many energy companies are already realizing this and are doing it. Others are still right up against the forest and vulnerable. Mother Nature is a powerful force.

Wolf Hoffmann, Vilna

Game to see Oilers launch the next dynasty

I’ve been an Edmonton Oilers fan my entire life. I was a three-year-old when the team won their first Stanley Cup of their “five in seven.”

I never was fortunate enough to play organized hockey, but I played hockey all four seasons, didn’t really matter the time of day. Then the introduction of video games changed everything for us. Three brothers fighting over two controllers — that became a viable way to live out our biggest fantasy, winning a Stanley Cup.

When the video game hockey came out with option to “build a character,” I chose my jersey number: No. 97. Since that first time and pretty much every year since then, I’ve created my No. 97 Oilers captain, leading my digital team to Cup after Cup.

Now I know I’m just a gamer nerd who likes the idea of the six degrees of separation, but we now have an Oiler in a No. 97 jersey. We have had a “five in seven” that nobody wants. So make Connor McDavid our captain. Let’s sit back and enjoy the beginning of the next “five in seven” — the McDynasty.

C. S. Norris, Kamloops, B.C. 

Letters welcome

We invite you to write letters to the editor. A maximum of 150 words is preferred. Letters must carry a first and last name, or two initials and a last name, and include an address and daytime telephone number. All letters are subject to editing. We don’t publish letters addressed to others or sent to other publications. Email: letters@edmontonjournal.com .

Harriet Tinka has been named a Woman of Distinction and a Woman of Vision.

She is also a woman on the run.

“Ants in my pants,” she said during a recent interview. “When I sit down, I feel I should be doing something. I feel guilty when I go on vacation and I’m just sitting on the beach. Can’t do it.

“It’s just my personality. I’m just go, go, go.”

She has run five Tough Mudders, gruelling 20-kilometre, military-style obstacle races, and plans five more. She ran the 125-kilometre Great Canadian Death Race in tandem with one of her brothers. She ran the Phoenix Marathon earlier this year. She race-walks for the City of Edmonton during Corporate Challenge.

She wedges all that activity into a life that includes a job as a senior accountant with the city. She raises three children with a common-law partner. She runs her own business, Empowered Me, which presents self-esteem boosting workshops at schools. She is studying to become a football referee and will start officiating minor-level games next month. She volunteers with Lurana Women’s Shelter and Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

And she has been a United Way campaign chair for the city, which recognized her extraordinary efforts during protocol at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I was humbled by it,” she said.

Tinka, who said she is in her 40s, comes by her activity level quite honestly.

“I’m from Kenya. It’s sort of automatic. We just run. It wasn’t enforced, but when you go to school, that’s really all you do.”

Tinka’s parents lived well in a gated community in Nairobi, complete with household servants, but they could see an even better future for their family in Canada. They wanted all seven children to graduate from university and start their own businesses, so they emigrated to Edmonton about 25 years ago.

Tinka has certainly seen to her part of that family vision. But she is always looking ahead, ready to do more.

“My goal would be to have a sanctuary, a place where young women could come in any time they’re feeling down in the dumps, and be empowered. I want everyone to feel as good as I feel no matter what you’ve gone through.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/jrnlbarnes

The city’s tax bills are in the mail and the average Edmonton home, with a median value of $408,000, is going to cost its owner $3,266 for the 2016 tax year.

“That typical home, if it realized the average increase in market value of about one per cent, the increase is about $11 per month,” said Rod Risling, manager of the city’s Assessment and Taxation Branch.

The bills are based on assessments, the results of which were sent out in January. Risling said out of 380,000 homes, just 2,500 assessments were challenged, 500 of them residential properties.

Taxation will amount to about $1.9 billion in 2016 with $1.4 billion covering roughly 56 per cent of the city’s operating budget.

Of the average bill, 70 per cent will be going to pay for municipal services including road repair, police, fire, transit and recreation facilities, and the other 30 per cent goes to the province to fund education.

When asked about how opposing forces of sprawl and infill affect the rates, Risling said it all comes down to market dynamics.

“At the end of the day, the assessor has to reflect what the market value of that property is,” he said. “So we do look at infill and those types of things to see what types of impact they have and that’s reflected in the assessed value of the property.”

For people finding it tough to meet the increase, Risling suggested monthly payments to ease the burden of a lump-sum payment. And for seniors on fixed incomes, he pointed to a provincial program that defers tax payment through a low-interest home equity loan.

Notices should be arriving in the mail in the next few days. If one is expected and doesn’t come by about June 6, homeowners can call 311 or email tax@edmonton.ca.

dlazzarino@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/SUNDaveLazz

It’s a fleeting image that never left her.

Bright pink and magenta hues springing forth from the charred earth where a fire had ravaged the forest just a year prior, seen as she was driving past on a Highway 63 near Fort McMurray years ago.

For Edmonton artist Trish McIsaac, fireweed is an enduring symbol of hope and renewal.

“The message behind the exhibition is all about hope, hope after the devastation. If somebody from Fort McMurray can look at those paintings and they can see that after everything settles there is that hope, there is that message of hope there, (and) maybe things will turn out to be better than what they were,” said McIsaac.

Before McIsaac was an artist, she was a teacher for more than 30 years in Fort McMurray.

During a school trip years ago, on their way back to Fort McMurray from Edmonton, a forest fire blocked Highway 63, leaving them trapped in traffic until firefighters could battle back the blaze.

“We’re driving very slowly past the charred forests, and it was very sad going through this, seeing the devastation,” McIsaac recalls.

But as they passed through, they came upon an area that had been burned in a forest fire the year prior, where fireweed bloomed from the ashes.

“The way the sun was coming up, and the light through the trees, I suddenly saw this beautiful colours of magenta and greens,” said McIsaac. Despite how quickly the moment passed, that image of hope and new life never left her.

After McIsaac retired from teaching, she finally found the opportunity to pursue her art, enrolling in the University of Alberta’s Visual Arts program.

McIsaac’s 11 semi-abstract paintings, now on display in the Muttart Conservatory in her exhibition Memories of Magenta, are an effort to reclaim that memory years later.

McIsaac spent a year creating the works in her exhibition, and no one planned for Memories of Magenta to be put on display as tens of thousand of wildfire evacuees flooded into Edmonton.

She, too, watched in horror as the Beacon Hill neighbourhood where she lived was ravaged by a wildfire that continues to burn, now covering almost 523,000 hectares.

“To see where you lived, where your children played, decimated like that is just awful,” McIsaac said.

Regardless of whether it was coincidence or fate, McIsaac hopes those impacted most by the devastation of this Fort McMurray wildfire will find hope and a sense of peace in her art.

“You have to hang on to the hope, and it will get you through,” she said. “It’s that little spot of magenta you see in the forest as the bus zooms down Highway 63.”

Memories of Magenta is on display at the Muttart Conservatory until June 24.

Admission is free for Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees, as is access to all City of Edmonton and recreation centres.

twitter.com/ClaireTheobald

ctheobald@postmedia.com

Cam McDonald is a passionate promoter, but he’s got one tough sales job ahead. McDonald’s mission is to change us from NIMBYs to YIMBYs when it comes to new social housing projects.

“We’re reaching out to the majority of Edmontonians, progressive folks who believe in diverse communities, who say, ‘Yeah, join up and be a YIMBY,’ ” says McDonald, executive director of the new, non-profit Right at Home Housing Society, which formed from the merger of two established social housing agencies.

Right at Home’s new goal isn’t just to build in the inner city, but all over the city. First up are four new projects in Belvedere, Westwood, Millbourne and North Glenora.

“We want social housing, diverse housing, throughout Edmonton,” McDonald says.

My first thought? Good luck. McDonald will need it.

NIMBY-ism is in full roar right now in Edmonton. Folks rage and organize against neighbours who want to split their lots and build skinny homes. As for any notion of building social housing units in Edmonton’s finer neighbourhoods, I bet homeowners would declare civil war. Even our inner-city neighbourhoods, which were historically open to social housing, have fought to preserve the recent moratorium on new city-funded projects. 

In the face of fierce opposition, McDonald makes a number of arguments, the most eloquent being the good quality and upkeep of his agency’s current 26 properties and 475 units.   

On our tour, we visit a dozen of them. The Right at Home properties are invariably as nice as any other house or apartment on the street. Often, they are the nicest. Each place is neat, clean, well-kept, as if a proud homeowner resided there. In the inner city, the contrast between the social housing projects and the many empty lots and boarded-up homes is stark. 

In any neighbourhood where social housing is to be built, there’s no risk of lovely single-family homes being taken out, McDonald says. Economics alone drives social housing developers to buy the cheapest lots with the worst homes and apartments to knock down and redevelop. It’s a benefit to a neighbourhood when such structures get torn down, with new homes and new families instead.

Before anything is built, there’s also a lengthy discussion with neighbourhood residents. Homeowners need to know his group is credible, reliable and will be there it things go wrong, McDonald says. 

“We’re going to do our best that there’s not any negative impact on the neighbours, as much as we can. And at the end of the day, the neighbour across the street will say, ‘Is that a social housing building? I didn’t know that.’ ”

McDonald says in the inner city — home to some of Edmonton’s poorest and most troubled people — homeowners tend to associate social housing with crime, homelessness and distress. In fact, he says, by giving homeless folks a place to live, it gives them a key pillar to lean on, to start leading a stable life, with a safe place to sleep, decent conditions for children and no greedy landlord overcharging on rent. 

In social housing, rent is often determined by the amount of money the family makes, with a 30-per-cent charge being the norm. So instead of having to move around two or three times a year, a family can settle in a decent, affordable home for years. The kids can stay in the same school. They have a place to invite home a friend.

“This makes all the difference in the world to these families,” McDonald says. 

“We want the homes that we are providing to become their homes for the long term where they can raise a family, or if they’re a single adult, that they have a permanent place to call home. They can get a cat, get plants … and also have the resources to get out and participate in the community.”

McDonald also says social housing doesn’t add to the crime in any neighbourhood.  He says his group won’t tolerate criminality in its units, and that means evicting people now and then who cross that line. 

How will this go then? As strong as the NIMBY movement is, it’s also true that rarely have all three levels of government been so keen to invest in social housing. 

But what of you and I? Will we say yes or no when such a project comes to our own neighbourhood?

Of course, each neighbourhood should debate each project on its specific risks and merits, but McDonald makes a thoughtful case for Yes, In My Back Yard.

dstaples@postmedia.com

twitter.com/DavidStaplesYEG