Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 23

THURSDAY. JUNE 5, 2003 EDMONTON JOURNAL CUTBACKS KILL PROGRAM Cancelled course a 'huge loss' for deaf CITYPLIS i Michelle Leveille said at the time. The cut is part of an effort by the college to trim spending by $2 million in the coming year. Cundy said the end of the program the only one of its kind in Alberta will worsen the shortage of interpreters. "If Alberta is not training interpreters, then we are not going to have the interpreters to meet the needs of the general public and of the deaf community to facilitate communication between these groups," she said.

Betty Dean, principal of the Alberta School for the Deaf, called the cancellation a huge loss. While the school has its own interpreters on staff, Grant MacEwan students do their practicums there as well, Dean said. "But I think a bigger issue is the access of the deaf population to interpreter services outside of the formal school setting." Cundy said rather than being eliminated, the program should have been expanded from a one-year certificate program to a two-year diploma. That way, she said, graduates would have been better prepared for the working world. Grant MacEwan officials have already approached Alberta learning about making arrangements with other provinces to send sign-language interpretation students out of province.

Winnipeg's Red River College and Vancouver's Douglas College both offer such programs. Alberta Learning spokeswoman Beryl Cullum said the department is exploring the potential of interprovincial partnerships. "Our department officials met with stakeholders this week to talk about some of the challenges and look at some of the options," Cullum said. "No decisions have been made." Not in Metro mandate Metro Community College, the continuing education arm of Edmonton Public Schools, would not be in a position to offer a train-ing program for interpreters, spokesman Victor Tanti said. Vocational diploma programs are outside of Metro's mandate, he said.

Jennifer Hinecker, a student studying sign language at Grant MacEwan, had hoped to get into the interpreter program in the fall of 2004. Hercareerplans are nowcloud- nerals and other social events. "More and more physicians are asking for interpreters," Cundy said. "Once they've experienced having an interpreter, they don't want to go back to writingnotes." Interpreters are in short supply in Edmonton, where one in 1,000 people require their services. A registry maintained by the Connect Society, a non-profit group providing services to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, contains the names of 44 local interpreters.

Few freelance interpreters But many of them are employed full-time or part-time in schools or other settings. Only a handful are "freelancers" available on short notice, society executive director Colleen Robinson said. "They're running pretty fast to keep up." Last week, Grant MacEwan College announced its sign-language interpretation program will end when the current class of 10 students graduates this month. "It's ahigh-cost program withlowde-mand," college spokeswoman Sign language interpreters already in short supply DAVID HOWELL journal Staff Writer EDMONTON Amove by Grant MacEwan College to cancel its sign-language interpreter training program will cause suffering throughout Edmonton's deaf community, a spokeswoman predicts. "Without interpreters, we are not able to participate as fully as we want to," Linda Cundy, a representative of the Alberta Association for the Deaf, said Wednesday.

Cundy, who is deaf, is a liaison officer between interpreters and the deaf community. An interpreter was used during the interview. Sign-language interpreters are used to help deaf people with all kinds of activities, such as dental appointments, court dates, Workers' Compensation Board hearings and meetings with mortgage officers at banks. Interpreters work at weddings, fu IAN JACKSON, THE JOURNAL Darlene Karrans, right, is a sign-language interpreter. The deaf often use interpreters to help them communicate with doctors, lawyers and: business people Edmonton's deaf community fears it will suffer from Grant MacEwan's decision to cancel its interpreter training program.

ed, the 23-year-old single parent said. Relocating to Winnipeg or Vancouver may be out of her finan HARRY POTTER IfYSTERlA HITS EDMONTON Bookstores, libraries gear up for 'witching hour cial reach. "I either have to find a way to move or come up With a whole new idea for a career." dhowellthejournal.canwest.com i Li, vr- i V- i JOHN IUCAS. THE in the Harry Potter series. Jessie Wiles, 12 "More exciting adventures.

I'm curious to see how he copes with Voldemort. I'm also wondering why it's called the Order of the Phoenix. Wiles WW TKtirn Non-Rust Major Brand Hams Tall Kitchen Bags 49Utrc CapactTf tttCM SO CoatRnisa HFJll Comoare it '13 pCne BaEoT! ibfniuui GRF.G BUIUM Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON It may be the size of a tedious science text, butHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is set to jumpstart summer for thousands of young Edmontonians later this month. The fifth instalment of the Harry Potter series all 800-plus pages of it arrives in bookstores on June 21. At precisely 12:01 a.m.

"I don't think there's been anything like this before," says Allison Hooper, manager at Audreys Books. "It's even bigger than the last one." The last one, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, came out three years ago. Once again, many Edmonton bookstores will have little midnight bashes, cracking open the crates and sending hundreds of copies out into the night Raincoast Publishers in Vancouver announced Wednesday the first Canadian print run of the new book one of the largest ever at nearly one million copies has now wrapped up. The books will soon be shipped to stores across the country. In Edmonton, Audreys has ordered 500 copies, 150 of which have been presold.

Ordinarily, they might order 50 copies of a best-seller. Greenwoods' Bookshoppe believes 60 per cent of its advance order will be gone at the end of the first night At the Edmonton Public Library, 689 holds had been placed IT School are all set for the newest book Glenda Secord, 11 want to see lots of adventure and suspense, so it will make me read more. mwmk 1 6 classmates at Glenora Elementary What are you lookingforward to most in the fifth Harry Potter book? (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) The pupils below are all in Grade 6 at Glenora Elementary School L.Jwu Secord Kristina McKinnon, 11 "It's supposed to be a lot longer, but that doesn't scare me. I really liked the fourth book and this one's a continuation. 1 i McKinnon tomB asm': 1 i by Wednesday morning, with nearly three weeks still to go.

For bookstores getting everything onto the shelves 60 seconds after midnight might be a challenge. With costumes, games, and maybe a bit of magic, parties are taking place nationwide. That's because Raincoast has forced booksellers to sign waivers. They cannot unseal the boxes before midnight For Jill Atkins-Cyr's Grade 6 class at Glenora elementary school, the Harry Potter bug is something beyond waivers and publishing spats. "I really like her," 12-year-old Kate Suajgersays, referring to Potter author J.K.

Rowling. "She has a unique way of writing. There's a lot of suspense. Calaire Inglis, 11, isn't intimidated by the book'ssize. She read the previous volume, all 752 pages, in five days.

"It was really, really good," she says. "So it was easy to do." Monique Neilson, 11, loves these books because they stretch the line between reality and fiction. "They make people wonder if there really is a world of wizardry," she says. Atkins-Cyr believes her students are fundamentally drawn to the escapism "There are all these twists and turns, so the kids have to try and predict. It really keeps them on their toes," she says.

With files from The Canadian Press gbuiumthejournal.canwest.com IASON FRANSON. fHf JOURNAL Marguerite Helgren rides the exercise bike while respiratory therapist Tina Jourdain checks her heart rate. data on 217 patients with chron-ic lung disease who went through the six-week program. They compared the number of trips to the emergency ward the patients made during the 12 months before they took the program and the 12 months after. Emergency room visits dropped by 19 per cent The researchers also compared the number of days spent in hospital before and after the program; the drop was 22 percent While the cost of putting a patient through the Breathe Easy program is 1,092, roughly $300 is saved by the reduction in hos nTVTJ rTTTTn I7j7I Lung disease patients discover benefits of Breathe Easy program Mark Husband (front) and his Grade SAYS Carolyn Morie, 12 "Some new twists.

Will Voldemort be back and in full power?" mi Morie pital use following the program, the researchers concluded. The Breathe Easy program has been in operation since 1992, helping people with chronic lung diseases adjust to their conditions, get the right medications, start an exercise regime, and plug into the support system Eigner came to the program at age 50, when 30 years of heavy smoking caught up with her. She said the program helped her realize that emphysema wasn't an immediate death sentence, but something she could deal with through exercise and healthy living. She still comes back to the General's lung health centre several times a week to use the exercise equipment stationary bikes and treadmills. The equipment is set up so people exercising can plug into the centre's oxygen supply while they work out Eigner appreciates being around people with similar lung problems who also use oxygen tanks.

"We lookout for each other," she said of the group. "We help each other." Three hundred people go through the program each year. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is a progressive and incurable condition that affects more than 750,000 Canadians. trvttanG thejournal.canwest.com YOU I I I II 1 I I'l' U'J I ri I I'll rt'J'll' i (24 ar 781 Col CmWaOoi -13 Bane. 5 This Plus Ton kHMrtef Omsk HctiM Erin Beti MattHtiStcd Sii rur Bom -f Pieces! QiKctf larders titn laws Caatort Foaa vet Side 54" Double I 60" Queen S95 COMPARE AT S500 COMPARE AT S700 1 T-rTT-f HP Your Choice: mm Study reveals fewer trips to emergency, shorter hospital stays SUSAN RUTTAN Journal Health Writer EDMONTON When Irene Eigner was first told she needed an oxygen tank to breathe, she was overwhelmed with rage.

"I don't remember feeling such hatred for anyone," she said, speaking of the health worker who broke the news. Until that time two years ago, Eigner had been telling herself she was just out of shape. The news that she had emphysema, and needed to carry around an oxygen tank, overwhelmed her. Today, thanks to the six-week Breathe Easy program at the Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre, Eigner has learned to adapt to the reality of her condition, and to make the most of it "With the oxygen, Tm doing things I couldn't dream of doing a few years ago." Eigner, with her oxygen tank in a backpack, spoke Wednesday as Caritas Health Group and the Alberta Lung Association announced results on a study of the effectiveness of the Breathe Easy program. Researchers from the Institute of Health Economics collected l-i jur -t VJ6 sreYoar itIv Grocery Liquidator! it Beverages hchiding Pop a Juice Pastas Canned Goods Dry Goods Baked Goods Frozen Foods Crackers Candy Snack Foods a More! Now Dssls Every WssjSKcpGnen! W5 stunt rou FT zzzzz.

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