Music: {allcanada} Movie of N.B. sports tragedy upsets mother

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

{allcanada} Movie of N.B. sports tragedy upsets mother

A mother who lost her son in a fatal van crash is upset that a television movie is being made about the tragedy.

New Brunswick's Dream Street Pictures announced last week it is set to begin production on The Phantoms, based on the Bathurst (N.B.) High School varsity basketball team that lost seven of its players and a coach's wife when their van lost control and collided with a transport truck in the winter of 2008. The made-for-TV movie is being produced in conjunction with the CBC.

"The pain is still too fresh," said Isabelle Hains, whose son Daniel died in the crash. "I know myself it doesn't feel right."

Dream Street said in a news release the movie will focus on how the team rebuilt itself and came back the following year to win the provincial championship, helping to lift the spirits of the community.

But that isn't good enough for Hains. "No matter how you watch this movie, it's about seven innocent children that were killed," she said.

Hains has spent the past three years fighting for tougher regulations for school transportation vehicles. She feels the grant money the film company will receive from the New Brunswick government could be better spent on services like hiring qualified drivers.

"They keep telling me there is no money, but yet they have money and time to spend on this movie," she said.

What also has Hains upset is the lack of consultation. Hains said the last she had heard, the movie was not going to be made -- until this week when her sister informed her otherwise.

"She heard (on the radio) that they were going ahead with the movie. I was very upset," Hains said.

Dream Street was unavalaible for comment on the reaction to the planned movie, which is scheduled to begin shooting this fall, but the company's news release said the story "is the kind of inspiring tale we felt we just had to tell"