KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK TUESDAY
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NOVEMBER 25, 2014 | Volume 27 No. 140
WEATHER Snow/rain High 2 C Low 2 C
SUN PEAKS SNOW REPORT Mid-mountain: 52 cm Alpine: 56 cm Snow phone: 250-578-7232
SMARTY PANTS
FAREWELL TO THE BIG IRISHMAN
Kamloops connection to nation’s best brain
Pat Quinn is remembered by the hockey world
A14
A15
Accused says death was accidental TIM PETRUK STAFF REPORTER tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
A Kamloops man charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 death of his girlfriend admits he killed her, but says it was an accident. “I didn’t want anybody to die,” said Robert Balbar, taking the stand in his own defence in the third week of his murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops. “The last thing I wanted was for anybody to die. I was just in a panic.” The body of 31-yearold Heather Hamill was found floating in the North Thompson River on Aug. 1, 2003. She had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt object. In court on Monday, Nov. 24, Balbar, 42, admitted to killing Hamill during a drug-fuelled confrontation in late July 2003. HEATHER HAMILL: He said an intoxicated Was slain in the Hamill showed up at his summer of 2003. apartment and pushed her way in. Balbar said he was having a quiet night because his nine-year-old son was sleeping over. Balbar said Hamill was pacing around his apartment, taking swigs from a brown methadone bottle, when she eventually started throwing items around the suite. “The more I tried to calm her down, the more violent she got,” he said. “She was pretty much just full out trying to hit me with whatever she could find to hit me with.” See BALBAR, A6
DAVE EAGLES/KTW Sharing real-life success stories from the Car 40 program are Interior Health Authority mental-health nurse Kirk Sullivan (left) and RCMP constables Kim Lucas and Marie-Pascale Gagnon. Turn to page A4 to read about a first for the Interior — a crisis-response team.
THREEYEAR EXTENSION FOR CAR 40 TIM PETRUK STAFF REPORTER tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
Car 40 will remain on the streets of the Tournament Capital for at least three more years. After being launched last year as a new way for police to deal with people afflicted with mental-health issues, the joint partnership between the Interior Health Authority and the Kamloops RCMP has been renewed. “This partnership is all about working together to provide the best health care possible for those individuals in our com-
munity who struggle with mental-health and/or substance-use problems,” Health Minister and Kamloops-North Thompson Liberal MLA Terry Lake said. The Car 40 program sees a psychiatric nurse teamed up with an RCMP officer to attend calls from people with mental-health problems. “There are many benefits of working together,” Kamloops RCMP Supt. Brad Mueller. “Over time, this team has developed relationships with a diverse group of clients and has successfully diffused situations that, in previous years, would have involved
significant police resources and a client spending time in a jail cell or an emergency room. “Instead, individuals in crisis are given a roadside triage and assessment with a wide range of ways to resolve the situation.” According to the Interior Health Authority, Car 40 has responded to more than 600 calls. Six per cent of those calls resulted in a referral to Royal Inland Hospital. In September, a second Car 40 unit was added to the program. The partnership has been extended to April 2018.
dq.ca Valid November 20 - December 31, 2014
KAMLOOPS LOCATIONS!
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Downtown - 811 Victoria Street 250.372.3744 Aberdeen - 1517 Hugh Allan Drive 250.372.3705 North Shore Grill & Chill - 1075 8th Street 250.554.4390