Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 17, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press thursday june 17, 2004 a3 band foils Orcas captors probe into old murders expands Alberta ramp Check 19 Manitoba cases by Bruce Owen a special ramp task Force set up last year to look at unsolved murders and unexplained disappearances of women involved in High risk lifestyles in West Ern Canada studied 19 cases from Manitoba police said yesterday. The cases now form part of a police Only database being used to investigate the deaths of 12 people Many of them sex Trade workers found in an area East of Edmonton since 1988. Ramp in Alberta said tuesday a Seri Al killer May be responsible for some of the deaths although there is no direct evidence to support that. Manitoba ramp spokesman sgt. Steve Colwell said 19 unsolved cases were for warded to a special mountie task Force called the High risk missing persons project in january 2003. Homicides the goal of the project was to see if any of the 155 cases collected from municipal police agencies in Manitoba Saskatchewan Alberta and Nunavut could be linked. The cases involve Long term missing persons and unsolved homicides that Are connected to the Street sex Trade. In Winnipeg there Are at least 12 known unsolved homicides of Street prostitutes since 1983. A computer database was created to collect collate and Analyse thousands of police records from a variety of police information systems including violent crime linkage analysis system and the Canadian police information Center. Other files including decades old Evi Dence was also collected. Because of that work investigators have now focused their efforts on the Edmonton area. Last fall ramp in Alberta launched project Kare in an attempt to identify any suspects who could be responsible for one or More of the 12 unsolved deaths. The cases from Manitoba Are still in the database but to Date police in this province do not have any evidence to indicate a violent sexual predator is responsible for any of the unsolved deaths in the province. In Winnipeg police Are still trying to find who killed 16-year-old Valicia Solomon. Her body parts were found in the red River a year ago. She was reported missing March 24, 2003. Missing women investigators Are also still looking for Sylvia Ann Gui Boche 21, who disappeared about july 15, 2003 from the West end and Sunshine april Wood 16, who went missing feb. 20 in the downtown area. In Alberta project Kare has 21 ramp officers on its Way to a planned full complement of about 30 police Mem Bers and a support staff of 20. This is More officers than were involved in the Early stages of the miss ing women Scase in Vancouver which has become the largest serial murder probe in Canadian history. Police say prostitutes Are often the Vic Tims of violent crime because they Are easy targets. They interact with strangers and live mostly on the Street using false names and moving from address to address. Many Are also drug addicts. When they disappear no one misses them right away. That gives an advantage to the offender. feds want to reunite whale with his pod by Scott Sutherland g old River . ? aboriginal people in dugout canoes patted a dangerously Friendly orca and led him out to sea yesterday in an Effort to thwart the capture of the creature they regard As the reincarnation of their late chief. Officials with the department of fisheries and oceans denied the protest was responsible for delaying the launch of a plan to eventually reunite Luna with his pod. However scientists and veterinarians did not attempt yesterday to Lead the whale into a net pen As scheduled. Yesterday morning 17 men and women of the mow Schaht Mucha Laht band boarded two traditional Craft at the Gold River Dock on the West coast of Vancouver Island. By mid afternoon Luna was about 20 Kilometres away from the pen where he was supposed to spend the next week. Luna playfully followed the canoes. Videotape shows him swimming along Side the paddlers spinning Over onto his Back while some of the aboriginals patted his skin rubbed his Teeth and scratched his belly with hands and paddles. Luna appeared to nibble at their wrists. We Hope to divert Luna away from capture said Mike Laquinna chief of the mow Schaht first nation. He said band members believe Luna embodies the spirit of his late father. Luna arrived in Nootka sound about the same time As the elder chief died in 2001. That Means a lot in that my late father expressed to a couple of Mem Bers that he was going to come Back As a killer whale said Laquinna. The killer whale in our culture is very important and significant in that the killer whale is the caretaker of the sea As the Wolf is the caretaker of the however the seemingly affection ate behaviour Luna exhibited yester Day with the paddlers is exactly the kind of behaviour that has led officials with the department of fisheries and oceans and the Vancouver aquarium to try to get him out of Nootka sound. Marilyn Joyce Marine mammal coordinator for fisheries said she Hopes to meet with Laquinna but Luna a relocation plan will go ahead. Moving ahead at this Point is the Only option she said. Certainly they had indicated to us that they Are opposed to us relocating this whale and we do understand that. But Public safety really is the prime concern Luna appeared in the sound three years ago healthy but alone. Officials decided to leave him there As he was Hunting and growing normally. But the whale became intrigued by the people of Gold River who frequented the Dock to see him. He devel oped a taste for pushing boats around scratching himself with boat propellers and popping up to peer at peo ple and dogs. People did to help. One person tried to Brush his Teeth. Another tried to pour Beer Down his blowhole. At almost five years old and four tonnes Luna has become a nuisance and a potential danger. Earlier this month he surfaced in the path of a Landing float plane. Officials planned yesterday to use a boat that Luna is particularly fond of to Lead him into a net pen. For seven Days he is to undergo medical tests. If he passes he will be coaxed into a Sling Crane lifted into a Container placed on the Back of a transport truck and then driven 350 Kilometres South to a Bay near Victoria. Once there hell be held in another net pen until his pod swims by. Hell be released and officials will Cross their fingers in Hopes he sets out to meet his family. It is a Federal crime to interact with a whale but Joyce said any decision about laying charges against the aboriginal paddlers would be left up to fisheries enforcement Branch. At this Point we re trying to be very sensitive. This whale is very important both spiritually and culturally to the first Joyce said officials Are also concerned about the people in the canoes. This is a Large whale. They be got some Small canoes so safety is an she said its important that Luna be kept wild. Contact with anyone including the aboriginal paddlers could eventually threaten the Young orca. ? Canadian press meat Congress put focus on Canadas plight by Leah Janzen when Jacques Pomerleau set the Agenda for this weeks world meat Congress nearly two years ago he had no idea How relevant his Choice of speakers would be. Pomerleau chair of the organizing committee for the Congress which wraps up today in Winnipeg sought out speakers to address the 650 delegates on issues related to animal health Trade and consumer behaviour. Little did he know then that Canadas meat Industry would be rocked by the discovery of be in May 2003, and All three of those issues would become Cen trial to the crisis. When we planned this conference we had no idea we would have the be sit twin $51300 double $61900 Queen $71900 King $105900 so Why pay More for a marked up mass produced mattress when nation he said As the discussion ses Sions wrapped up yesterday. Our timing was fabulous. We were dead on in terms of the world meat Congress has been held every two years for the last 30 years. This years meeting marked the first time the conference has been held in Canada. And while the Congress was established to examine beef pork and sheep meat issues Pomerleau conceded this years conference could to help but focus on the cattle Industry be and other Ani Mal health issues. Pomerleau said the Congress turned an International spotlight on Canadas plight. The speakers were not Here to resolve any issues but they raised the right ones he said. We Hope that it opened the lines of communication and that everyone leaves Here with the same level of yesterday the Congress was told that countries must adhere to existing Ani Mal health standards or risk suffering through Long and costly Trade disputes. Or. Alejandro Thiermann president of the Oie ? the International animal Dis ease Agency ? said that while 167 coun tries have adopted the Oie guidelines on animal health and Trade most choose not to implement them when faced with Dis ease in the animals they import. Every one of these countries has voted in favour of the Oie standards yet they Are not being applied he said. Decisions Are being made on a political basis for example Thiermann said the Oie has never recommended All cattle products be banned from countries which have experienced be. Some beef products ? such As hides embryos milk and semen ? can be safely imported even from a country which has experienced numerous be cases. Despite such science based recommendations most countries in the world have maintained a total ban on beef products from Europe since a be out break there about 15 years ago. Thiermann pointed out that even Canada has refused to lift bans against Europe. We re All guilty he said. Now that the problem has come to North America it might be time for everybody to sit at the table and find a More reasonable Way of trading according to the meanwhile Michael Mccain presi Dent and ceo of Maple Leaf foods told the Congress that Canada needs to grab hold of new meat markets by highlight ing our superiority to the americans where it comes to food safety. Its in our interest to be ahead of the americans he said. In fact we Are bet Ter than the americans today. We re just not doing a Good Job of illustrating that. I Don to think sameness with the . Is a Good Mccain said the Canadian food inspection Agency its food safety poli cies and enforcement processes Are the Best in the world. And if Canada wants to regain its share of the meat Market the Industry needs to differentiate itself from our Neighbours to the South. Right now you have Trade barriers masquerading As food safety concerns he said. Its about Trade not about food safety. If we re Good at marketing we can establish that Point of difference to customers.?. 786-5400 257-2337 ;