10 Take Course in Use of
Semi-Automated Defibrillators
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Instructing the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) was Pat Perkins who is shown above working on a dummy. There are now several semi-automated AEDs throughout the town in case they have to be used in emergencies. ©Provost News Photo.
• Units Stationed Around Town
Ten local people took a three hour course on Wednesday night, November 14 so that some people will be trained in the operation of several automated external defibrillator (AED) in buildings around Provost. Pat Perkins taught the St. John’s Course that featured a semi-automatic machine with machine-prompted voice messages to the person operating it. There are also electronic read-outs on the AEDs.
Full story and photos in November 21 edition of The Provost News.
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Empress Artifacts Turned Over to Royal Alberta Museum
After four years of campaigning to keep artifacts from the Empress of Ireland in Canada, the Empress of Ireland Committee, headed by Marion Kelch of Czar, turned over 55 artifacts, four replications and several pieces of archival material to the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.
The value was pegged at $45,000.
On November 15, the museum officially accepted the artifacts within its mandate of Western Canadian History.
During the Empress’s 95 voyages from 1906-1914, 117,000 passengers came to Canada many of whom went on to settle the West including the Provost and other neighbouring areas.
The artifacts help to illustrate what life was like aboard an Edwardian liner.
When the liner sank on May 29, 1914 among the 1,012 casualties were 71 passengers from B.C., 50 Albertans, and 26 from Saskatchewan.
Retrieved in the 1970s from the sunken liner, the artifacts were in danger of being sold to a collector in the USA. After an appeal to save the artifacts (first published in The Provost News Jan. 15/03) donations were received from across Canada, the United States, and the U.K. Most of the artifacts were purchased from diver Philippe Beaudry of Longueuil, Quebec.
Included in the gift to the museum were dinnerware plates from first, second and third, class, silverware, an automatic egg boiler, architectural trimming, and the starboard running light (see photo this paper). The starboard running light that would have shone a green light from the Empress was crucial in the investigation into the cause of the sinking. “Did the crew of the Storstad, which rammed the Empress, see the green light in the fog-enshrouded morning?” asks Kelch and others about the controversial sinking.
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Among the 12 of the Empress of Ireland committee started by Kelch are: two Americans, both of whom lost relatives on the liner, a University of McGill professor, Dr. Denis Salter, an acclaimed author about the wreck (Derek Grout) as well as Irene Johnstone (who lost her grandparents and two uncles on the liner).
Kelch—a Prairie woman became interested in the maritime story “back in the 1970s when I read a small book entitled ‘Canadian Disasters’. Once one learns about the story of the Empress of Ireland, it never leaves one.”
The prairie-based committee gift of $45,000 worth of artifacts came from donations of descendants of those who sailed the liner and from people who saw the exhibition of artifacts held in various locations in western Canada.
There were thousands of volunteer hours spent by committee members on the Empress project.
The News posed other questions to Kelch:
PN: How many other Empress artifacts are there in Canada and what happens to them?
MK: There are hundreds of Empress artifacts in Canada but most of them are in private hands. Frequently these owners try to sell them to buyers in the USA and other countries. All artifacts from the Empress of Ireland are considered to be Canadian Cultural Heritage property. To export an Empress item without a permit is a criminal offense with a penalty of five years jail term and a $25,000 fine. Yet I often see Canadians surreptitiously attempting to auction Empress artifacts on e-Bay for worldwide export. I know they do not have a permit so I always report them and then the artifacts are pulled from e-Bay. A museum in Rimouski, Musee de la mer, has about 500 pieces but here too most are on loan to the museum. The most significant and comprehensive collection is that of Philippe Beaudry. He still has about 350 pieces that the committee will try to procure and place in the Royal Alberta Museum.
PN: Can you give brief history on reaction of Canadian government on your efforts to keep them in Canada?
Full story and photos in November 21 edition of The Provost News.
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