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Davidson

RCMP seek help solving hit-and-run

The Craik RCMP is asking for the public’s help in identifying a truck that fled following a serious collision earlier this month at the north entrance to Davidson.

The RCMP said a two-vehicle collision occurred July 6 at approximately 5:25 p.m. on Highway 11. In the collision a southbound Chevrolet Uplander van struck an eastbound truck that crossed into its path from a stop sign.

“The people in the Uplander were taken to the hospital with minor injuries and released,” said Craik RCMP Constable Ian Smith. “The truck is still unidentified.”

The truck has been described as tan in colour and possibly a GMC or Chevrolet work truck with a red fuel slip tank in the back. It received substantial damage in the collision as its rear bumper and tailgate were seen hanging from the back when it was last seen heading northbound on Hwy. 11 past the Davidson Golf Course.

Smith said the driver of the truck is at fault in the collision and also faces a criminal code violation for leaving the scene of an accident. He said the truck was pulling out into oncoming traffic at the time of the collision going from Davidson across to the other side.

“We don’t know at this point what the motive is for leaving (the scene),” he said. “If anybody has witnessed it or are possible witnesses or have any tips please let us know or Crime Stoppers.”

featured

Buckle up or be fined

The RCMP is focused on improving seatbelt use among drivers and passengers in vehicles this summer and will be handing out $175 tickets if they see someone not buckling up.

Craik RCMP Constable Kam Hay said the number one reason for injuries in a collision is not wearing a seatbelt. He said seatbelt use among motorists driving in towns around this area is pretty bad and this needs to change.

“Seatbelts are really important to me,” said Hay, who has been on the force for 10 years with detachments in Craik and Wynard and also with Lanigan Traffic Services. “I’ve been to a lot of collisions and the chances of survival are amazing if you stay in that vehicle without being thrown out.”

Hay said a $175 ticket is going to be handed out to drivers found not wearing a seatbelt or not wearing a seatbelt properly as well as any passengers in a vehicle not buckling up. He said if there are any passengers under the age of 16 who are not wearing a seatbelt the driver is going to get the ticket and multiple tickets can be issued at the same time if more than one person in the vehicle is in violation of the law.

“Vehicles are designed nowadays with a survival space,” he said. “Everything is designed to protect occupants of the vehicle. If a person is wearing a seatbelt they can stay in that survival space, which adds to their survival chances in a collision.”

A recent two-day traffic blitz in the province sponsored by SGI and involving multiple police agencies resulted in a total of 412 tickets being issued. Of that total, 95 were for seatbelt violations.

Kelly Brinkworth, manager of media relations for SGI, said in more than one-third of all traffic fatalities in the province, the person killed was not wearing a seatbelt. She said in 2012, improper or non-seatbelt use contributed to 47 deaths and 274 injuries.

“It’s quite crazy to think that around 100 tickets for non-seatbelt use are issued every month,” said Brinkworth. “It’s such a simple thing to do. It doesn’t prevent a collision, but it does reduce the risk of being injured or killed in one.”

According to RCMP statistics, Saskatchewan has the second highest seatbelt usage in Canada at over 90 per cent, but in rural areas this drops to below 60 per cent.

Hay said the excuse he often hears from motorists caught not wearing a seatbelt is that if their vehicle goes into the water or if it catches on fire they could become trapped if they are wearing a seatbelt.

“If you do go into the water and you’re not wearing a seatbelt you’ll probably get knocked out and won’t be able to get out of the vehicle, whereas if you are wearing a seatbelt you’ll remain conscious and be able to get out,” he said. “I have never come across a scene where someone was severely injured from wearing a seatbelt.”

Kenaston, Sports

Tweet gets ready for fight of her career

A local mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter wants a knockout this Saturday at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, MO, in what will be the biggest fight of her young career.

Kenaston native Charmaine “Not So Sweet” Tweet (4-3) is fighting Brazil’s Ediane Gomes (10-2) at Invicta FC 6: Coenen vs. Cyborg. The winner of the bout will determine the next challenger for the Invicta FC (fighting championships) featherweight crown.

“We’ve had some predictions from my camp that this could be my first knockout in MMA,” said Tweet. “My coach can really see me actually scoring the knockout on her and basically if it does go to the ground I have to be really conscious of her submissions and go for my own.”

Tweet, ranked sixth in the world, said she doesn’t know that much about her opponent, who is ranked second in the featherweight class, other than the Brazilian has a black belt in ju-jitsu and likes to strike. She said the fight against Gomes was up in the air until the last week of June and she is a last minute replacement for fellow Canadian fighter Julia Budd who had to back out due to a neck injury.

“I was told to stay ready, so basically what I’ve been doing is just going to my classes as usual and not training for any specific opponent, but training and staying loose and practising the techniques (of) ju-jitsu,” she said. “Now that we know who I’m fighting we can tailor it for the next two weeks to an opponent and come up with a game plan.”

Despite not knowing if this fight would happen, Tweet has been working hard with her coach Wiley BJJ out of Regina to prepare for it just in case. Since moving to the Wiley BJJ camp, Tweet’s ground game has improved mightily resulting in four wins out of her last five fights.

Tweet said other trainers kept telling her to stop fighting off her back, which went against her style of fighting. She said at her new gym they have let her develop her striking from the bottom philosophy.

“That is what I did in my last fight (against Amanda Bell June 1) and it worked really well for me,” said Tweet. “Just as I was striking her, and she didn’t really want too much more of that, I got lucky enough to steal the sweep and take the top position.

“Basically my style hasn’t changed too much. They’ve just worked more with the style I already have whereas at other gyms they tried to change it. It’s really a good fit where I am now because of lot of their philosophy is the same as mine going into MMA.”

To read more please see the July 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Red Sox peewee girls have “middle of the pack” ball season

The Davidson Red Sox peewee girls softball team finished off a short but successful season last month with a strong showing at a tournament in Moose Jaw.

“The girls played extremely well,” said Red Sox co-coach Rebecca Farrell, who was helped in the dugout this season by her husband Todd. “We ended up second in our pool, but didn’t make it to the final. You had to finish first in your pool to go on to the finals, but we were extremely pleased with how they played.”

Farrell said the Red Sox, who consist of Kylee Evans, Teryn Bristow, Breanna Shaw, Sarah Allan, Annika Ouellette, Miranda Farrell, Emily Read, Gracie Allan, Jessica Matheson and Brianna Jess, finished the season at that June 16 tournament due to the Saskatoon peewee B league playoffs being cancelled because of rain. She said the girls’ season usually starts in late April and ends in late June, but due to the long winter and the rainy late June weather this year was a bit different.

“We played our first game on May 10, so it was a really short season,” she said. “But we did play a lot of ball.”

In that five-week schedule the aged 14-and-under Red Sox managed to fit in 11 league games and four tournament games. The ball club went 5-6 at league play and 2-2 during the tournaments in Watrous and Moose Jaw.

“We were middle of the pack this year, so there were some teams that are stronger and some teams that are a little weaker than we are,” said Farrell about their league play in Saskatoon. “In general, the games that we played, the scores were all very close whether we won or lost, so it was a perfect place for us to be.”

Farrell said the team was “extremely young” this year and they had to include some 12-and-under Squirts ball players onto their team, but no matter the age the girls all came together to play some good baseball.

“They all seem to really enjoy playing ball,” she said. “They are just happy to be there and we had some good pitching and good back catching (by Teryn, Breanna, Gracie, Emily and Miranda).”

The Red Sox have historically been a strong club and that has not changed over the past few years playing out of Saskatoon, due to not enough ball clubs in this area to put together a league. Farrell said she expects next year to be just as good and they should be getting a few players back next season from this year’s team.

“The unfortunate part is we will lose some of the girls to different towns. We won’t have enough (girls) for a bantam team next year, which is 16-and-under girls ball. There just won’t be enough players here, so some of them will go play with other towns so that they can continue playing ball.”

Davidson

Saskatchewan MLAs lend their voice to fight against U.S. protectionism

Agriculture and rural leaders of state and provincial legislative bodies, including three Saskatchewan MLAs, came together last month to pass a resolution encouraging the United States congress to build trade in Canadian cattle and hog exports rather than implement a new regulation that could become very costly to each country’s producers.

Greg Brkich, MLA for Arm River–Watrous, said the U.S. government’s new rule that disallows meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be processed on the same packing line as meat from other countries is going to end up costing the cattle industry in both countries more money. He said in response to this new regulation SARL (State Agriculture and Rural Leaders) passed this resolution at their annual Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit held June 7 to 9 in Vancouver.

“We feel that North America should be just a straight trading block,” said Brkich. “The border should be an imaginary line because we produce the same kind of meat. We have the same safety regulations (and) environmental rules are the same. It’s just a little bit of protectionism. Some of their federal politicians down in the United States try to protect an industry that doesn’t need protecting. What it is is our producers are going to be getting less money.”

The United States government presented the new rule as a way to try and resolve years of trade disputes with Canada and Mexico over mandatory country of origin labelling rules (mCOOL). Canada and Mexico brought the United States before the World Trade Organization (WTO) over mCOOL, which ruled in Canada and Mexico’s favour last year.

In the resolution passed by SARL, it is stated that mCOOL was found by the WTO to discriminate against imported livestock, which creates challenges for Canadian cattle and hog producers, jeopardizes the viability of U.S. packing and feeding infrastructure placing local and state economies at risk and undermines North American competitiveness in the global market.

Canada’s Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz and Minister of International Trade Ed Fast responded to the U.S. decision to impose the new rule by stating their intention to apply retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to Canada.

To read more please see the July 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Pro-life sign prompts council to take action

A request by Mid-Lakes Pro Life to put a sign up at the Davidson Rink has prompted town council to develop a policy on rules governing religious and political signage on town property.

Deborah Doell, chairperson of Mid-Lakes Pro Life, said the group “just wanted” to put up a sign to let people know their organization is around and people can join them if they like. She said a letter was sent to the town before their May 21 council meeting asking if this would be possible.

A reply back to her from the town was received a week later stating signs on town property are only available for businesses. There is currently no Davidson bylaw in place governing what can and cannot be displayed on signs on town property.

“I found that (reply) kind of surprising because the Elks aren’t a business, the Knights of Columbus aren’t a business and the Kinsmen aren’t a business,” said Doell. “Kenaston has allowed a pro-life sign by their highway and that is the same thing that I was looking for because their town has allowed it and other towns have (too), so I was a little surprised that Davidson isn’t supportive. I’m hoping they change their minds.”

Davidson town councillor Tyler Alexander said council needs a policy about what is allowed, so they have sent a request to Davidson recreation director Trevor Ouellette to write a policy eliminating religious and political messages from appearing on signs displayed on town property.

“I feel that we really shouldn’t start expressing any beliefs on our taxpayer signs because beliefs are just so radically different among town members,” said Alexander. “We really can’t start doing that and be seen supporting one side or the other.”

Alexander said the difficult part in developing this policy is the question of what is considered a political and religious message. He said if federal conservative member of parliament Tom Lukiwski asked to put up a sign that just had a picture of him and his name, would that be considered a political message?

“It is so hard to draw the line,” he said. “There is so much grey area. We just figured it would be easier and really wouldn’t cause any grief if we just stayed away from religion and politics altogether.”

To read more please see the July 1 print edition of The Davidson Leader.