CALGARY- A woman is fighting for her life in hospital after a serious crash Friday night on Deerfoot Trail.

Officers were called just before 8 p.m. after a vehicle rolled near the exit ramp at Southland Drive.

Witnesses called 911 saying the vehicle had been driving erratically, before losing control and smashing through a chain link fence.

The 52-year-old driver was transported to the Foothills Hospital in critical condition. No other occupants were in the vehicle.

Police say alcohol appears to be a factor in the crash.

Watch above: A team from the University of Alberta has confirmed and named a previously unknown species of dinosaur. Tom Vernon has the story.

EDMONTON – An old dinosaur has been given a new name.

A new species of ankylosaur was discovered in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia in 2000 by a team led by University of Alberta researcher Philip Currie.

A zoological journal published a paper by Currie and others this week that names the creature Zaraapelta nomadis.

Zaraapelta is a combination of Mongolian and Greek works meaning “hedgehog” and “shield.” Nomadis was added to honour Nomadic Expeditions, the Mongolian company that has aided dinosaur digs in the region for almost two decades.

Like other ankylosaurs, Zaraapelta was an armoured plant-eater with a gigantic club for a tail. But it was more spectacular than most, with distinctive horns and an elaborate pattern of bumps and grooves behind its eyes.

Victoria Arbour, a University of Alberta expert in ankylosaurs who has been tracking their family tree, helped write the paper that announced Zaraapelta in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

She said it’s believed other kinds of dinosaurs, such as crested hadrosaurs or ceratopsians with horns and frills, once used their ornaments during sexual displays.

And ankylosaurs may have too.

Arbour thinks Zaraapelta, along with a couple of other flashy ankylosaurs called Saichania and Tarchia, may have evolved with elaborate embellishments to attract their mates.

“Bone requires a lot of nutrients and metabolic energy to create, and so that investment needs to pay off in some way,” she said in a news release.

“Maybe ankylosaurs had this bumpy ornamentation for protection, but another good explanation is that the horns and bumps on their skulls showed that they were a good mate to choose, in the same way that male peacocks use their tail feathers.”

The discovered Zaraapelta skull is part of a collection at the Mongolian Paleontologist Center.

CALGARY – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is seeking approval to resume crude extraction from the part of its Primrose East oilsands property where a bitumen-water mixture was found oozing to the surface last year.

But the Calgary-based company said it’s planning to use a different steaming method that it says would avoid the problems that may have led to the high-profile leaks in eastern Alberta, which are still being investigated by the province’s energy watchdog.

Canadian Natural filed an application to the Alberta Energy Regulator last week asking for permission to inject steam at low pressure in a technique known as steam flooding.

READ MORE: 2 provinces, 2 environmental disasters, 2 very different responses

Previously, Canadian Natural had injected steam at high-pressure using a technology known as cyclic steam stimulation, the safety of which has been questioned by environmental groups. With that method – often described as “huff and puff” – a well alternates between injecting steam and drawing the softened bitumen to the surface.

On a conference call with analysts Thursday, Canadian Natural president Steve Laut says it’s “not possible” for steam flooding to create the same conditions that led to the Primrose East leaks.

Cyclic steam would enable production to ramp up more quickly, but rates over the long term are expected to be the same if steam flooding is used instead, said Laut.

“I wouldn’t see much of a drop in overall yearly average production from a steam flood at this stage versus a cyclic program at this stage,” he said.

The AER has said it won’t allow steaming to resume until it’s convinced all the risks have been addressed.

Last month, the energy watchdog said it had a better idea of what went wrong at Primrose. It said the main issues centre around Canadian Natural’s steaming strategy and on old wellbores around the site that have provided paths for fluids to flow to the surface.

Once a final report has been completed, Canadian Natural said it will apply to use cyclic steam on other parts of the Primrose East property. The section of Primrose East where the leaks took place, and where the company wants to use steam flooding, is a “unique area geologically,” said Laut.

Some 1.2 million litres of the bitumen-water emulsion have been recovered and 20.7 hectares have been affected. The company said on Thursday that clean-up is complete.

READ MORE: Steaming may have caused endless Alberta oil spills, CNRL admits

Thermal oilsands production for this year at Canadian Natural is expected to come in lower than previously anticipated, with the bottom end of the range lowered to 112,000 barrels per day from 120,000.

Some of that is due to the fact that it’s taking longer than expected to start steam flooding at Primrose East. As well, mechanical issues at Canadian Natural’s Kirby South steam plant are causing production to ramp up more slowly than planned.

Earlier Thursday, Canadian Natural said it more than doubled its second-quarter net earnings, helped by increased sales and higher prices.

The Calgary-based oil and natural gas producer reported profits of $1.07 billion, or 97 cents per share, versus $476 million, or 44 cents per share a year ago.

Adjusted profits were $1.04 per share, which beat analyst expectations by six cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Company-wide production for the three months ended June 30 grew 31 per cent to 817,471 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Realized prices for its crude oil averaged $87.03 per barrel, up nearly 16 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Product sales rose to almost $6.11 billion from $4.23 billion.

Shares of the company were down more than 2.5 per cent at $44.68 in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

A quartet of spills in northern Alberta has been oozing bitumen emulsion for more than a year with no sign of stopping, and the provincial regulator’s latest report finds the oil company’s own extraction method could be partly to blame.

A massive tailings pond breach sends a wall of potentially toxic mine waste flooding through central British Columbia.

Which garners more outrage?

The second one – by a long shot.

Mount Polley mine‘s tailings pond breach in B.C. has sparked a state of emergency as residents’ tap water is deemed unusable and provincial authorities scramble to determine just how toxic the spilled wastewater is, where the sludge went and what’s in the suspended solids.

Mine owner Imperial Metals has seen its share prices tank about 40 per centin the days following the breach.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited, on the other hand, has been barely bruised by the months-long series of spills at its Cold Lake site, even after an Alberta Energy Regulator report concluded the company’s high-pressure steaming is just too much for the rock, causing it to fracture and leak bitumen.

That conclusion’s a big deal, said Dinara Millington, vice-president of research with the Canadian Energy Research Institute: It suggests the operation itself is unsound, and has implications beyond these four spills, or even CNRL’s operations in that area.

“The regulator has been called by the public and Pembina Institute and other environmental institutes to  undertake a study where they would be looking at [cyclical steam stimulation] in general, and whether it’s even appropriate in a place where CNRL is,” she said.

“It will set a huge precedent for anyone who wants to get into that area.”

But shareholders don’t seem concerned: CNRL’s share price sits at about $44 now, compared to $31 a year ago.

And the public outcry in the days following B.C.’s tailings spill so far exceeds any outrage connected to Alberta’s ongoing bitumen spills.

Calgary billionaire Murray Edwards is Imperial’s controlling shareholder, as well as CNRL’s chairman and founder.

Why the divergent responses?

From a shareholder perspective, it could be a simple evaluation of risk, Millington said.

“CNRL, as a company, has large reserves, large assets large capital invested into various projects …  they could, for example, if the regulator says to walk away from the [Cold Lake] project, they have options.”

The sharply different reaction for Imperial Metals, she said, “Is directly related back to the concept of social licence: whether the company has that social licence, whether they’ve been able to obtain it and retain it. … You need to continue with what you said you were going to do, which is being the environmental steward of the land that you’re occupying. “

And the intimation from both the B.C. government and former employees that there were problems with the tailings site that should have been addressed earlier likely doesn’t inspire confidence, she said.

The tailings breach also has a more immediate and more visible human impact than the months of bitumen seeping from what is, effectively, a weapons range that’s a fair distance from even more remote First Nations communities.

But that just makes its effects more insidious, she said.

“We don’t know what the long-lasting impact can be – the emulsion can be seeping into the underground water resources or reaching small lakes and rivers and streams.”

OTTAWA – Federal health officials have announced recalls of two products due to concerns about listeriosis and a third recall due to possible E.coli.

Concord Premium Meats Ltd. is recalling Marc Angelo brand Genoa Salami in 100-gram packages with a best-before date of Dec. 01, 2014.

A package of Marc Angelo brand Genoa Salami, recalled due to Listeria monocytogenes, is pictured in a handout photo released on Aug. 6, 2014. T

The salami was distributed in Ontario and Quebec.

Avina Fresh Mushrooms brand Sliced Crimini Mushrooms in 454 gram packages are also being recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes.

Avina Fresh Mushrooms brand Sliced Crimini Mushrooms in 454 gram packages are also being recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes.

The mushrooms are sold in Alberta and B.C.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is also recalling certain brands of La Fromagerie Hamel brand French cheeses in Quebec due to possible E. coli.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is also recalling certain brands of La Fromagerie Hamel brand French cheeses in Quebec due to possible E. coli.

Consumers with any of these products are advised to throw them out or return them to the store where purchased.

The CFIA says no illnesses associated with these recalls have been reported.

He’s one of Canada’s most prominent billionaires – co-owner of the Calgary Flames, chairman and creator of oilsands giant Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and head of Penn West and other sundry energy companies. According to Forbes, he’s worth about $2.2 billion (but told the National Post last year he doesn’t keep track).

He chairs Ensign Energy (and paid, along with other insiders, a total of $4.37 million as a reimbursement to settle concerns around stock option irregularities earlier this year); he owns Resorts of the Canadian Rockies and chairs Magellan Aerospace.

Forbes called him “the most important billionaire in Canada” two years ago, shortly after the Globe and Mail reported he’d advised Prime Minister Stephen Harper on how to deal with ownership bids by state-owned foreign (read: Chinese) companies for Canadian resource companies.

Murray Edwards is also the controlling shareholder of Imperial Metals, whose Mount Polley mine tailings pond failed catastrophically in the early hours of Monday morning, releasing a wall of sludge and wastewater whose full impact on the people and wildlife of British Columbia’s Cariboo Region have yet to be fully felt.

READ MORE: What five million cubic metres of tailings looks like

Edwards hasn’t spoken on the spill and hasn’t returned calls from Global News requesting an interview this week.

(We feel less slighted knowing that, several years ago, he tried to flee an interview when he found himself alone unexpectedly with a reporter)

Edwards owns 36% of Imperial Metals, whose share price has tanked since Monday’s breach – down 44% by Tuesday, by noon Thursday it was sitting at about $9.55 , compared to more than $16 a week ago.

It isn’t clear what the massive tailings breach will mean for Imperial Metals, which has multiple other mines in B.C. and elsewhere, including Red Chris, which has yet to begin production.

Mount Polley was Imperials’ first mine and, as chairman Pierre Lebel told the Vancouver Sun earlier this year, it almost didn’t materialize when partner Gibraltar pulled out.

“Don’t even think about” abandoning the project, Lebel recalls Edwards saying. “We can do this on our own.”

Lebel described Edwards as a “very engaged partner” on Red Chris – someone who is “all about making things happen.”

“It always amazes me the depth of Murray’s understanding and his ability to retain details and names and events of the past,” Lebel told the Sun. “He engages people as he goes along. People really respond well to him.”

READ MORE: A closer look at Imperial Metals

Recent court cases have established a precedent for a company’s directors being held responsible for environmental misdemeanours: The Ontario government has argued directors of a now-insolvent company were responsible for cleanup at a contaminated site.

But the Canadian Energy Research Institute’s Dinara Millington thinks it’s unlikely the Mount Polley breach will hurt Edwards directly.

“Him personally beign held responsible, I don’t think so. But what might happen is you might see if he’s feeling pressure … he might be selling off shares,” she said.

“There could be pressure – internally or externally … to get him to rethink what companies to invest in.”

READ MORE: BC orders mine to plug toxic tailings release

Last year, Edwards was awarded the International Horatio Alger Award, given to someone “who has persevered through adversity to become a successful entrepreneur or community leader.”

“There isn’t a Canadian more deserving of this award than Murray Edwards – a man of extraordinary business achievement and a dedicated philanthropist,” Dominic D’Alessandro, President of the Horatio Alger Association of Canada, said in a statement at the time. “Murray’s story showcases that hard work pays off.”

An alumnus of the University of Saskatchewan (which named a business school after him) and the University of Toronto, Regina-born Edwards told the Post he grew up in a “spectacularly unspectacular middle-class family.”

“Anybody can do a deal,” he said at the time. “The tough part is doing the deal at the right time, being strategic.”

TORONTO – When a code blue is announced in hospital and a resuscitation team rushes to a patient’s side, tradition has dictated that family members get out of the way, both to protect their sensibilities and to give doctors and nurses the room and concentration needed to perform life-saving care.

But that notion of separating patient and loved ones is slowly being replaced by a new model of care, in which family members are given the option – and sometimes even encouragement – to remain near the bedside, where their presence is viewed as beneficial.

Among centres embracing the idea is Calgary’s recently opened acute-care hospital, South Health Campus, where staff make sure family members know they are welcome to be present during a resuscitation if they so choose.

When Lisa Lazenby’s then two-month-old son Abel suddenly had a seizure and stopped breathing at home in February 2013, she and her husband rushed to the nearby hospital, where staff whisked the baby off to the ER’s resuscitation room.

READ MORE: We’re doing CPR all wrong, Canadian doctor suggests

Supported by a family liaison worker – her husband Jason had taken their two older children to a friend’s home – Lazenby initially stood in the corner, biting her nails and trying to stay out of the medical team’s way so she wouldn’t jeopardize the care of her son.

“Part of that is you’re really scared of what’s happening to him … And you also get accustomed to thinking that the doctors want you out of the room and out of the way, because on TV shows it’s always like that,” she said Wednesday from Calgary.

She then heard a doctor working on Abel ask: “Where’s Mom?”

“He said, ‘You won’t be in the way because you are the only voice and sound and touch that he will recognize in the whole room, so you come close and we will work around you,”‘ Lazenby recalls.

“I just went right in and I held onto his little head and his eyes were closed and he was quite unresponsive, but I was like petting his head and trying to sing to him a little bit.

“Then you get a front-row view – they’re trying to get in an IV and they’re trying to do all these things and I can just talk to him,” she says. “That sticks with me forever because that room, of course, is buzzing with people and beeps and sounds, and if I imagine myself in his little shoes, of course the only sound that’s familiar is me.

“I thought that was pretty impressive on the team’s part and I won’t ever forget it.”

Joanne Ganton, manager of the Patient and Family Centred Care program at South Health Campus, said the idea of hospitals including loved ones during life-saving efforts raised a number of objections in the past, including that it would be too traumatic for families to witness, there would not be enough room to work and there was a danger of a person fainting, thereby creating another patient.

However, research into the issue and experience shows those fears haven’t been borne out, said Ganton.

“All the families that attended said they would attend a code in a heartbeat.”

Stephen Samis, vice-president of programs at the Canadian Foundation for Health Care Improvement, said studies have shown that the presence of family has a number of benefits – for the patient, their loved ones and the resuscitation team.

“What they’ve found is … that families want to be there and they’re not traumatized by the experience,” Samis said from Vancouver, where he was attending the International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care.

“In fact, they’re less traumatized than if they’ve been waiting out in the corridors and having somebody come out and tell them, ‘Well, here’s what happened. Here’s what the results were.’

“Their loved one will often understand and feel their presence and they also can see how hard the providers are working to try to do what they can for the patient,” he said, adding that research suggests patient outcomes are better, care is improved and there are fewer medical errors.

“Having the loved ones of the patient present really creates a much better experience for everybody.”

While resuscitation staff may experience some performance anxiety under the eyes of family members, Ganton said loved ones are typically focused on the patient.

“They just want to be close, because your biggest fear is ‘I don’t want him to die alone. I don’t want him to die with strangers.”‘

And if a patient doesn’t survive, she said, family members often regret they weren’t at the bedside: “They feel that if ‘he could have just heard my voice, felt my touch, I know that he would have known I was there for him, and maybe he would have held on.’

“It’s that regret. It’s not knowing what happened,” Ganton said, adding that witnessing a loved one’s end can help ease the grieving process.

Fortunately for Lazenby, the team was able to stabilize her son, though he spent a week sedated and intubated in a children’s hospital for a week until he fully recovered. Doctors said Abel, who’d been born seven weeks’ prematurely, had been struck down by a cold virus and his tiny airwaves had swollen closed, leaving him unable to breathe.

Now 20 months old, he still has the odd episode of breathing difficulties but is otherwise healthy.

But at the time, as she watched the doctors and nurses frantically working on her boy, Lazenby was terrified of what might happen.

“It was really momentous for me because I think in that moment I thought if he does – it’s awful, I can’t even say it – if he does die, then I have to be here,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion at the still-raw memory. “I can’t have been out of the room and missed those moments.

“I couldn’t have not been with him.”

For the latest health news follow @Carmen_Chai

CALGARY – Calgary’s Muslim and Jewish leaders have condemned tensions during recent rallies in the city over the Gaza conflict.

Leaders of both religious groups met Thursday after an imam reached out to Jewish leaders and requested a meeting.

Last week, a protest at city hall in support of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza turned violent when a handful of Israeli supporters showed up.

Some men began pushing and shoving, and one man stomped on an Israeli flag before police moved in and separated the groups.

Police have also charged a man after two replica handguns were brought to a pro-Israel rally earlier this week.

The leaders have agreed imams will invite rabbis to speak at mosques and rabbis will invite imams to speak at synagogues to promote understanding.

“Violence cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. We may disagree on issues and perspectives but we are firmly against resolving disputes and conflicts through violence,” reads a statement from both sides following the meeting.

“The only way to resolve disputes and conflicts is through dialogue and the promotion of mutual understanding.”

The meeting was held at the Beth Tzedec synagogue.

For most of the Muslim leaders, the joint statement said, it was the first time they had ever entered a synagogue and met a rabbi.

“We believe in the freedom of expression. This is a treasured value of Canadian society that every citizen has an equal right of expression. We recognize and respect the rights of both the pro-Palestine and pro-Israel individuals and groups,” the statement said.

“They have the right to protest and lobby for their causes, but these protests and rallies must be peaceful and law-abiding. We will never allow anyone to disturb the peace of our city.”

Here is your morning news rundown for Monday, May 5

• The 10 Most Resilient Cities In The World – Fast Company
• Outlook for Canada’s job market – and economy as a whole – still far from certain – Financial Post
• Job-vacancy rate plunges as Tories drop Kijiji data – Globe and Mail
• CMHC Says It Will Trim Canada Mortgage Insurance – Bloomberg

Morning news rundown is a post from: CREBNow… Read More

Morning news rundown is a post from: CREBNow