CALGARY SUN
Sat, June 16, 2007
Anti-brawl campaign called ineffective
UPDATED: 2007-06-16
01:55:34 MST
By TARINA WHITE, SUN MEDIA
Encouraging
young men to "cage
their rage" is a weak solution to deterring bar brawls,
the mother of an 18-year-old murdered at a Calgary club
said yesterday.
Steffi Stehwien, whose son, Aaron Shoulders,
was stabbed to death outside a downtown nightclub in 2003,
suggested
the province's new awareness campaign will do little.
"It takes a lot more than awareness," she said.
The
Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission will unveil a campaign
next week that addresses bar violence, said spokeswoman
Marilyn Carlyle-Helms.
"We're targeting males 18 to 24," she said,
declining to disclose other details.
But Stehwien, whose
son's murder remains unsolved, said
stiffer penalties for assault and murder are necessary.
"The first thing that has to be addressed is the
lenient sentences for murder and for inflicting violence
on other
people -- everyone gets away with it."
But Karen Venables,
whose 18-year-old son Devin died as the result of a single
punch to the head outside a Calgary
pub in November 2003, supports the initiative.
She hopes
it will teach young men fists can do as much damage as
weapons.
"It doesn't take a beating, it doesn't take a knife,
it doesn't take a gun to kill someone -- this was one punch."
She
said bystanders to brawls are part of the problem. "That
fuels and encourages the bully and it gives them power," said
Venables.
Solicitor General and Public Security Minister
Fred Lindsay will formally announce the campaign on Monday.