The town of St. Andrews, N.B., has announced changes to its parade rules following the death of a four-year-old Nova Scotia girl last weekend.
According to the RCMP, MaCali Cormier died tragically during the annual nighttime Santa Claus parade in Yarmouth, N.S. She had been running alongside the float when she fell underneath it.
The gut-wrenching tragedy prompted the small seaside village to implement new rules for participants in Saturday’s nighttime parade.
“Right now everyone is a little sensitive to what happened to Yarmouth. Essentially, you’ve got a community that is in mourning when it should be a time to celebrate family,” explains Brad Henderson, the deputy mayor of St. Andrews.
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All kids under ten will have to wear a glow stick, one adult will be assigned to every three kids and floats will have spotters on both sides.
“We don’t want to be rule-heavy or anything, we want everyone to have fun. But on the other side, you always want to err on the side of caution,” says fire chief Kevin Theriault. “We don’t want anyone to be injured. We want everyone to have a good time.”
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St Andrews isn’t the only New Brunswick community making some safety changes along its parade route. In Blackville, a small community in the Miramichi region, candy will no longer be thrown from floats. Instead, they will hand out treat bags at the local fire hall.