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CANADIAN POLICE ARE continuing their search for five French tourists who fell through ice on snowmobiles while on an excursion in northern Quebec, as provincial authorities pledged to tighten safety measures on the use of the recreational vehicles.
Police said they had found a total of six snowmobiles at the bottom of Saint-Jean Lake near where the accident occurred.
On the ground, authorities scaled back most search operations late last night and said they would resume again in the morning.
The group consisted of eight French tourists, three of whom survived, and their Canadian guide, who died after they crashed through ice while snowmobiling Tuesday evening at a dangerous spot where the lake funnels into a river.
Provincial authorities pledged to tighten safety measures on the use of snowmobiles yesterday as a 30-member team, including divers and sonar operators, carried out search efforts.
Dozens of police officers, backed by two helicopters, were also deployed in the area, near the town of Saint-Henri-de-Taillon, about 225 kilometres north of Quebec City.
However, hope was dimming of finding the five, who crashed in an area of water off-limits to snowmobiles because the ice is thinner there.
Canadian police identified the missing snowmobilers as Yan Thierry, 24; Jean-Rene Dumoulin, 24; Arnaud Antoine, 25; Julien Benoit, 34; and Gilles Claude, 58.
Investigators earlier in the day said they were still hopeful that the French tourists managed to find refuge on an island or a chalet but had been unable to communicate.
Straying ‘off-piste’
Police said they were alerted by two of the tourists who had rescued a third from the water.
The 42-year-old guide, Benoit L’Esperance of Montreal, was pulled out by emergency response teams and taken to hospital, but died overnight.
The surviving tourists were briefly hospitalised and treated for exposure and shock.
Investigators do not know why the group left the approved paths to venture “off-piste” at nightfall, but some experts believe they may have been trying to take a shortcut to their destination.
One of the missing, Gilles Claude, is the father of three international biathletes, according to French media.
“There was a tragic accident in Canada involving my father,” said one of Claude’s sons, Fabien, in an interview on the channel L’Equipe after winning a bronze medal at Thursday’s Biathlon World Cup in Slovenia.
“This podium is for him, I am sure he is proud of us and I am proud of what I have done today,” he told L’Equipe, speaking with his brother Florent by his side.
Mandatory snowmobile training
The Quebec provincial government yesterday said it wants to make training mandatory for guides and tourists who use snowmobiles.
“Lessons will be learned and actions will be taken to prevent such tragedies in the future,” said Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx.
In addition, effective Thursday, nature and adventure tourism businesses in the province will require quality and safety certification in order to be eligible for financial assistance from the tourism ministry.
Quebec, with some 33,000 kilometres of marked trails in postcard settings, is popular with snowmobile enthusiasts, especially foreigners.
According to the Federation of Snowmobile Clubs of Quebec, snowmobile tourism generates more than CAN$3 billion a year for the province, and creates jobs for more than 14,000 people.
Each year, however, an average of 20 people die in Quebec due to snowmobile accidents.
In February 2019, two French tourists, a mother and her son, were killed while snowmobiling in a Quebec park.
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Terrible to have to break the law for pain relief. Glad it helped her in many ways.
If it helps take away the pain. Make it legal.
If it grows in the ground and doesn’t kill you then why is it illegal
Unfortunately, it is because of the corrupt, capitalist system we live in. Government propaganda would have you believe that it is illegal because they care so much about us, that they wouldn’t want us to damage our health. You’d wonder how alcohol and tobacco are legal then, I guess. The truth is, that pharmaceutical companies are lining the Government’s pockets, and if marijuana was legal, it would make many pharmaceutical drugs obsolete, and the companies that are making the drugs, would lose out on profit. Basically, it all boils down to money and greed, like most things in life, so MS sufferers and other people that suffer severe pain, must break the law to alleviate their burdens.
We know by now, that the Government couldn’t give a shite about us, so it is probably best to take their propaganda with a mountain of salt!!
‘Cos big pharma have profits to protect.
I’m sorry I can only give you one green thumb. Well said.
Money. Hemp was too good a crop, and the oil boom was underway at the time, plastics were invented….other reasons like that, all leading back to profit.
Sure even the Puritans grew it when they landed in the US way back when!
Nonsense really, hopefully it’ll be back to it’s natural status sooner rather than later. It is just a plant, as you said – seems odd alright.
Hemp was originally banned in Texas because it was damaging the cotton industry and was becoming more popular. That basically says it all
A lot of industries would like to keep hemp illegal.
Well said
Cannabis should be legalised immediately!
Anti-cannabis folk can’t see the benefits, and that we drink our (potentially fatal) drug in this country. Weed aint ever gonna kill nobody
*Legalise.
*anybody
lucky the pigs didnt raid him, you know like to protect us….
Smoker’s can live normal lives, doesn’t effect their working or family life yet it’s outlawed while alcohol ruins lives and families on a daily basis.
What a feckin silly society we live in.
I’m off to medicate :)
I am in constant pain with this horrible disease and weed is the only thing that takes the pain away, it also helps with my spasticty.
It’s a bitch of a disease Hun, I wish you well, roll a fat one n have some for me :0)
I no longer smoke weed, but at one time in my life, for a prolonged period of 6 or 7 years, I was a fairly heavy user.
I just found it slowed me down too much and got in the way. It kinda killed my energy levels too much so I stopped.That was about 15 years ago at least.
The last time I had a joint was 7 or 8 months ago, before that it was probably a few years at least. I got this incredible toothache one night about 9 pm. It was mind numbingly painful. I had cloves, but no painkillers in the house and the shops etc were closed. I tried having a shot of booze or two but it made no difference.
In the end, out of desperation, I rang a local stoner and asked him for a nodge. He called in to me about 12pm with it. I had a joint straight away and almost instantly felt huge pain relief. I smoked away until I finally fell asleep and got to the dentist the following morning.
I’m a big believer in cannabis as a pain killer and muscle relaxant (it works well for back aches and insomnia too, for me at least)
12am
Years ago, soon after I first received my diagnosis for MS in 2000, John James, founder of AIDS Treatment News, sent me a news clip from the MIT science magazine that showed mice with MS (EAE) who had received a treatment of cannabis. The experiment showed that cannabis worked as a neuroprotector in mice.
Later, I searched PubMed for MS, cannabis, and neuroprotection, and found literally 100 studies that either showed positive data or no data, with the majority of studies indicating neuroprotection.. There was a large cannabis and MS study at Queens Park in London in which preliminary data at three months showed neuroprotection from Cannabis in MS. I don’t have access to PubMed, and I don’t know what happened to those findings in the end.
In 1988, the US DEA had an administrative hearing about medical marijuana. There were many people who testified under oath about what medical marijuana did for their MS. I remember the testimony of a college student who always walked with a cane, but after getting stoned down the hall in her dorm, she left her cane behind to run to answer the phone.
The point of all of this is that marijuana offers the same protection that the interferon-b drugs, Copaxone, Tysabri, and all the rest offer. Perhaps marijuana neuroprotection isn’t as strong, but I have never seen a research study that compared cannabis head-to-head with any of the other therapies.
I personally live in BC, Canada, and when I want my marijuana, I drive to the dispensary, show my medical marijuana card, and purchase my supplies over the counter. If your politicians do not allow this, they should be put in jail. It is criminal to deny MS patients this life-saving drug.
Yes, it helps with pain and spasticity, but it also protects the brain. No MS patient should be denied the right to have daily MJ medication in addition to their other drugs. Politicians who don’t agree are evil.
Condolences for your loss Tom. The government should be ashamed of themselves. They laughed at Ming when he presented his bill, a bill that had the potential to help so many people with some the suffering they go through. Stories like this annoy me, the power is there to help people and allow the people to save thousands of euro in the process of raising taxes to pump back into the health and education systems. But we’re governed by a bunch of ignorant fools that suit no one but there greedy self’s and whoever throws them a bone every now and again. Absolute parasites.
I can’t understand why our government won’t make it legal. I also can’t understand why there are people against it being made legal because it can remain illegal forever and people will still be always able to get it. Who would you rather get the money out of it criminals or our own country through taxes.
But the money they’d earn from tax is nothing compared to what big pharma line their ppckets with
Pharmaceuticals are one of our biggest exporters and unfortunately the government in Ireland are lapdogs to the big corporates so it is not going to be legalised any time soon!
It’s inhumane to deny cannabis to people who are suffering, it’s a natural non-toxic plant medicine that can treat a whole range of ailments, MS, Parkinson’s, Crohns Disease and many more. They’ve also discovered that it works as a preventitive medicine against Alzeimers and many forms of cancer. Good book on the topic if anyone’s interested http://www.bookdepository.com/Marijuana-Gateway-Health-Clint-Werner/9780983426189
And Tom, thank you so much for speaking out so openly & honestly about Marie and the use of cannabis for treating her illness.
Again it’s society telling you what you can and can’t do to comply with what they want. People who are against it don’t want to hear about its benefits. It’s a natural substance that has little or no side effects such as tablets that will fix your problem but cause countless more.
It’ll be another 10 years before cannabis is legalised here.
Incoming: student movement to train new generation of drug policy reformers #freetheweed
Thank you for standing up and telling the truth!
Let he who cast first pain ‘comes to mind – if the powers that be felt half the pain that these poor sufferers are going through ‘cannabis’ would be legal in the morning ignoramuses the lot of them
Pickart, you are a complete arse, simple as.
It doesn’t agree with me just as alcohol doesn’t a agree with others, but why is something so natural not just legalised!? The govt should cash in on it quick before the world wakes up and all countries develop it!
Irish (anti) Cannabis laws are unjust, un democratic, puritanical and extremely prejudice. So many lives ruined for being in possession of this life saving substance. The Irish establishment have nose picked and navel gazed regarding cannabis based medicine. “We are looking into it”.. “We hope to have re written the cannabis laws soon”… its been over 4 years now for the Irish government to change the laws on cannabis… Is it because our state is a corporate bitch to the likes of Lilly and Bayer and the rest of the white pill makers??
Medicinal cannabis is totally different from the kind you buy on the street. It comes as a spray that you spray under the tongue. George Michael, who knows a thing a two about cannabis use, has said that its use kills ambition and motivation and he wouldn’t advocate it’s use by young people.
nonsense.
‘Medical Canabis’ is a term invented by Pharma to control any possible canabis trade and jack up the price.
The natural product aint killing anyone and is doing its job and so why mess with it ?
Because it is easy and cheap to grow and is effective.
Big pharma is crapping its self.
The junkies on here do not want to hear the truth.
@Pikart. Back in you box.The grown up’s are talking.
As the article so clearly states the cannabis was grown for marie meaning she either ingested it, smoked it or vaporised it. That cannabis was just like any other cannabis and it helped. The street cannabis you keep referring to is grown for profit with no regulation to keep the ratio of THC:CBD in a safe margin.
That said the growers also weight down the cannabis with chemicals and other unwanted additives thus making the cannabis unsafe. Its only thing making cannabis harmful is its illegality, grown properly and used properly its safe.
It is the governments failure to regulate this substance that has caused all the harm
@pickart: Please read my comments about the science of MS and pot.
Processed laudanum is still sold today but it is very different to the original form which was supposed to be used as an analgesic. Advocating the use of cannabis in its present form is a nonsense that does not warrant an explanation.
Did you even bother to read the story above?
Are you seriously that fu*king heartless that you would rather criminalise a good man trying to get releif for his dying wife than legalise a substance which causes less hospital admissions worldwide last year than paracetamol did in Irish hospitals last week.
You truly are some p*ick.
pickart “it does not warrant an explanation” because there ain’t no explanation
When I hear words such as “nonsense” and ” does not warrant an explanation”‘ I know that I’m dealing with pure prejudice and bias.
Pickart Solny has convinced me that there may be a case for the decriminalisation of the natural cannabis varieties but I have reservations about the very highly potent firms which can have side effects.
A rational debate would be appropriate. Such a rational debate obviously could not include Pickart Solny.
Peter, thanks for releasing from the obligation to engage in such a debate. I will be eternally grateful.
Let the scientists use THCA in its raw un-carboxulated form for testing its medical properties. That is all
Check out the difference between THC and THCA which is not provided to the scientists
Ill roll one now and get baked!
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