“Stuck in this chair for life”
Mining company flagged for 2006 accident that left Saskatoon man a paraplegic
Former potash miner Paul Goddard, here with his partner, Tanya Eckersley, was injured in an accident last year at the Agrium mine near Vanscoy
SASKATOON - Paul Goddard had just stepped off a giant mining machine when large chunks of rock, weighing about 900 kilograms, fell on top of him.
Pushed down to his knees, Goddard had to wait for the dust to settle before he noticed his right arm was stuck in a conveyor belt that was slowly ripping off his skin.
He tried to move, to stand up, but he couldn't.
"Because my back was broken," says the 30-year-old, sitting in a wheelchair in his Saskatoon apartment, speaking publicly for the first time -- one year after the accident at Agrium potash mine near Vanscoy.
"I'm going to be stuck in this chair forever."
According to government reports recently obtained by The Star Phoenix, "cutting and ground control processes at Agrium were substandard and unacceptable" before Goddard was injured on Aug. 31, 2006.
The company had no written procedures for ground checks, and most checks done prior to mining were limited to visual inspections.
See Failure in safety standards / A8
Three victims die in two separate arson incidents in one day
SASKATOON – Saskatoon Police and Fire Department officials are investigating not one but two separate fatal arson incidents this month.
The first incident occurred in mid-afternoon Monday, August 27th in an apartment building on the corner of Avenue Q and 22nd Street.
Although the fire was not large, 21 year old female Jolene Van Sant passed out from smoke inhalation and could not be revived. She was declared dead at the scene.
Later that night firefighters responded to a house fire nearby on 23rd St. The house was nearly completely destroyed by the time the time response was on scene.
The bodies of two males were found in the remains of the house. The first was 27 year old Jeffery Middleton, who rented the property. The identity of the second man has yet to be released.
Arson investigators have confirmed that both fires were started deliberately. Police are considering the deaths to be the fifth, sixth and seventh homicides to occur in the city this year.
“There is a strong possibility the incidents were related, but we’re not drawing any conclusions yet,” said Detective Sergeant Ewatski of the Saskatoon Police Service.
“We have several strong leads thus far, and we are confident that we will resolve these cases quickly.”
After assault on grandchild, family living in fear
For the past two weeks, Claudia Lynn Scott and her family huddled in their living room at night, sleeping with hammers at their sides.
They expected a next-door neighbour, who allegedly attacked them with a bat and metal pipe on Aug. 19, to come back "and finish the job," said Scott's son, Mike, 18.
"I've been living in fear. I'm a nervous wreck," Scott said outside the provincial courthouse Tuesday.
After the beatings, the neighbour fled and wasn't arrested until Aug. 31 in another area of the city.
During the afternoon of Aug. 19, Scott's five-year-old granddaughter ran into the family home saying she was hit with a plastic bat by her neighbour. The allegation stunned Scott, 43, who went to confront her neighbour. She claims the man lifted her and threw her to the concrete sidewalk before striking her with a metal pipe. She suffered a hairline fracture in her tailbone and writhed in pain.
Scott's brother, who was visiting at the time, went out to help, but was grabbed by the accused and struck, she said. Surgery was required to staple the back of his scalp back onto his head.
Jeffrey Dean Vanhouwe, 41, is facing 12 charges in all, including three counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of aggravated assault, mischief, obstruction of justice and several breaches of court-imposed conditions.
Saskatoon police investigating city’s third homicide of 2007
SASKATOON – Saskatoon Police Service are still busy investigating the city's third homicide of 2007.
Arnold Ronnie Nicotine, 38, died on Saturday, August 25th at Royal University Hospital as a result of injuries he suffered following an assault on July 29. His death makes the case the city’s third homicide of the year.
Nicotine was found on the ground near 334 Avenue S South at approximately 6:30 a.m. that morning. Following an investigation, police determined that Nicotine and several others had been drinking prior to him being found. Police think that could be where he was involved in the altercation in which he received his injuries.
Detectives with the Major Crimes Unit have interviewed several persons of interest, although no charges have been laid.
Crop circle discovered on farm
REGINA -- Gail Michel is feeling a bit like she's come full circle after the province's first reported crop formation of 2007 was spotted in the same field on her family's St. Gregor area farm where there was a similar discovery two years ago.
Her son Evan, 14, and husband, Calvin, were swathing when Michel got a cellphone call from her excited son.
" 'Mom,' he said, 'the aliens are back. Bring the camera out,' " she recalled in an interview Friday.
Michel isn't so sure about aliens, but clearly the crop circles are back. The latest one, discovered Aug. 26, cropped up in a field that sported a circle, then planted with barley, in September 2005 on the farm about 200 kilometres north of Regina.
The Michels don't dwell on the cause, but her husband has joked that if it is aliens checking out land, "maybe they'll pay better than the Albertans," Michel laughed.
Some in the area have speculated about pranksters, but Michel isn't as convinced. She said the crop surrounding the 15-metre-diameter circle appeared "totally undisturbed" until her family walked in to get a closer look. Within the circle, the wheat stalks aren't broken, but lie counter-clockwise. There's also cross-layering, with the wheat flattened in alternating layers.
If it is a hoax, "they would have gone to a lot of trouble to accomplish that," said Michel.
Saskatoon resident Beata Van Berkom, a volunteer field researcher with the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network (CCCRN), examined the site and noted that nodes on the circle's wheat stems are enlarged compared to those on other wheat stalks in the field. It's a phenomenon that hasn't been duplicated in man-made crop circles.
Bert Roach, the Estevan Chamber of Commerce's community development manager, sparked the creation of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Museum in that city this spring and has been eagerly anticipating the province's first sighting of 2007. The Museum was vandalized last month.
The Michel's most recent circle is located about 200 metres from the one found in 2005 and slightly larger. Curiously, when the family planted peas last year in the former circle, they didn't grow. This year's field of wheat seemed unaffected -- except for the pesky wheat midge which damaged crops on many farms this year.