EDMONTON
Edmonton

    • Workers at Jasper's critical services return to townsite for initial damage assessment

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    Workers at a limited number of critical retail services, such as gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies, were allowed into Jasper on Tuesday to do an initial assessment of damage in preparation for resuming service.

    The move is part of preparation for re-entry into the townsite after the July 24 wildfire.

    Crews are also continuing to work on restoring utility services, as well as hazard mitigation and debris removal on private properties.

    Tours of the townsite are also underway for residents.

    Three buses from Hinton and Edmonton went through on Monday, a bus from Hinton went through on Tuesday, and more are scheduled throughout the week.

    No one is allowed to leave the buses during the tours. 

    Evacuees who have been in B.C. were able to travel back to Alberta on Tuesday on Highway 16.

    They were escorted by police during scheduled times and were not allowed to stop en route or go to the townsite.

    Work continues on the firefight in Jasper National Park.

    "The fire is still approximately 34,000 hectares. People might be wondering why can't we get an exact hectare count? It's because we're doing the mapping with a helicopter or even some of the remote sensing technologies," Landon Shepherd of Parks Canada said.

    Crews are working on hot spots at Lake Edith and Moberly Bridge.

    Hot spots at Pyramid Bench have been extinguished.

    Members of the Canadian Armed Forces are patrolling the Pyramid Bench area to make sure there are no further threats to the community.

    "We're expecting that the fire season will continue like it has for the last five fire seasons where it may extend right into early November," Shepherd said. "We're geared up and braced that we might be dealing with wildfire for as long as that."

    Officials say crews spent Monday maintaining and protecting critical infrastructure inside and outside the Jasper townsite.

    Structures within 15 kilometres of the fire perimeter are also being protected/have been given protection.

    Structural protection that had been set up at the Miette Hot Springs has now been removed.

    Cooler weather and light rain on Monday helped minimize the spread of the fire.

    The rain won’t stop the fire, according to officials, but will minimize the intensity of the flames and help firefighters in their suppression work.

    "If you're trying to reference how much rain the fires received over the last two days, approximately 10 millimetres. That gives us some really good relief," Shepherd said. 

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    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

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