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RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values & Environmental Needs) has reached a milestone goal in their efforts to fund legal action for Treaty 8 Nations on the opposing side of Site C – Over $100,000 has been raised. Thank you, thank you thank you to everyone for your incredible efforts to stop the #SiteC dam. For all […]
INVERNESS, N.S. — A wildly popular fundraising game that has drawn thousands of people to a small Cape Breton town will be brought to an end on Oct. 3 by organizers who say Chase the Ace has simply grown too big.
Cameron MacQuarrie said Wednesday that if no one wins the jackpot this Saturday, they will regroup the following weekend and play until someone draws the highly sought ace of spades.
MacQuarrie, one of the game's organizers and the vice-president of the local Royal Canadian Legion, said he expects 15,000 people will descend on Inverness this weekend as the game tightens and the chances of winning increase.
But he said the growing crowds are raising concerns among police and emergency health providers who worry the large number of people might hamper their access to someone in distress.
"We're not able to facilitate all the needs of the people coming — like basic needs like washrooms and also emergency services," he said from his home in Inverness.
"Our emergency providers have kind of been on a watch to see how high the risk factors were getting. And now it's at a critical point."
The game of chance, which involves finding the ace of spades in a deck of playing cards, saw its jackpot grow from $35 last October to more than $884,000. Also, the person with the winning ticket — and a chance to pick a card — gets 20 per cent of the total ticket sales.
MacQuarrie expects the jackpot to hit $1 million, which led them to add a third venue in the community to host people for the event Saturday.
He says the Broad Cove concert grounds, along with the local legion and arena will be used to accommodate the throngs of people who have been coming in droves to buy tickets, listen to music, play cards and wait to see if they struck it rich.
Compared to the same event last year, MacQuarrie said this Chase the Ace has grown well beyond their expectations with people coming from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to play.
"It took on a different life somewhere around the $100,000 mark," he said. "It's an interesting phenomenon and has developed its own culture. It has a bit of a carnival feel to it."
So many people were participating that a temporary cellphone tower was brought in to handle a surge in traffic and it was taking hours to simply get out of the parking lot and back onto the highway nearby.
The draw raised money for the local legion and a centre for adults with intellectual disabilities.
There are six cards left in the deck for the next draw Saturday.
The Canadian Press
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — About 100 supporters rallied Wednesday at Memorial University of Newfoundland to demand more help for students with special needs.
The university students' union urged people to "show your outrage" at the event after hearing-impaired history major William Sears said an instructor refused to accommodate him by wearing an FM transmitter.
He filed a complaint with the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission after history professor Ranee Panjabi allegedly refused to wear the transmitter earlier this month, citing religious beliefs. The assistive device helps Sears, 20, hear lectures.
Leah Robertson, the student union's director of advocacy, called at the rally for several improvements. They include a campus office to handle reports of discrimination, an external review of the Sears case and regular accessibility audits to be made public.
"We are going to continue pressing for change at this institution," Robertson said. "We're going to continue working to ensure that not a single student or member of our community experiences any form of discrimination or barrier to accessing education, which is their right."
University president Gary Kachanoski has apologized for the incident and promised a full review of how accommodation procedures failed. A university spokesman said Wednesday Kachanoski will discuss changes demanded at the rally with student leaders.
Panjabi has not answered requests for comment.
She has been the subject of similar complaints before, including in 1996 when Memorial University reached an agreement aimed at balancing competing rights. It did so after Panjabi filed her own human rights complaint over the university's decision at the time that she should have worn a microphone as requested by another student.
The agreement called for other forms of accommodation, Kachanoski said in a statement released Monday.
Options included providing a stand to hold the microphone portion of the "phonic ear" to pick up Panjabi's lectures. She told local television station NTV last week that other technology might have helped avoid the most recent fracas.
A letter from the university made public by the former student involved in the 1996 dispute quotes Panjabi as telling the dean of arts her religious objections were not based on a specific tenet. They're part of her "personal spirituality and commitments."
The agreement reached by the school with Panjabi further states: "The university will inform any hearing-impaired student registered in any of Dr. Panjabi's courses that the instant settlement accord is binding ... and that the university cannot entertain an objection or complaint that Dr. Panjabi will not wear a microphone or other technological device on her person."
That deal is also under review, Kachanoski said in his statement.
Morgan Sears, sister of William and a fourth-year student at Memorial, attended the rally in his place as he focuses on his studies. It takes courage and determination for students with disabilities to handle situations others don't have to think about, she told reporters.
"MUN is supposed to be a very inclusive environment and this just goes to show that it's not all the time."
Leon Mills, executive director of the local Canadian Hard of Hearing Association branch, said Memorial's initial response was "weak."
"I think it gave the university a black eye," he said. The association has asked the school to review whether its 1996 agreement with Panjabi is legal.
Follow @suebailey on Twitter.
Sue Bailey, The Canadian Press
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