Penn State sex abuse scandal conjures terrible memories for victims

Michael Talbot with files from Avery Haines, CityNews

Former NHL hockey star Theoren Fleury poses for a photograph after an interview about his new book called Playing With Fire`` in Toronto on Wednesday...

Video

Theo Fleury comments on Penn State sex abuse scandal

Video

Survivors of abuse troubled by Penn State scandal

Former NHL star Theo Fleury, who was abused at the hands of a former hockey coach, says the Penn State scandal is yet another reminder of the frightening prevalence of pedophilia in society.

"I wasn't surprised at all,” he told CityNews on Thursday. “This is the biggest epidemic we have on the planet today. When a quarter of the earth's population before the age of 18 years old has been sexually molested, we have a huge problem on our hands.”

Fleury suffered in silence throughout his hockey career, coming forward after retirement from the NHL. For years he battled addiction to drugs, alcohol, and gambling.

He fears the alleged Penn State victims will suffer a similar fate.

"What I know from my own experience is the hell that those kids are going to face if they don't get the help that they need as soon as possible.

"Drugs and alcohol and sex and gambling, food and cutting, all these things can relieve that pain from us.”

Penn State isn’t the first storied sports institution to be rocked by scandal.

In Toronto, iconic hockey shrine Maple Leaf Gardens was the sordid scene of two decades of abuse in the 70s and 80s.

Martin Kruze, the first victim to come forward, later committed suicide.

For his sister-in-law, Teresa Kruze, the Penn State story rings too familiar.

"Yet another sex abuse scandal coming to light, another storied sports franchise having to deal with this issue," she said.

But Fleury stresses it’s not just the world of sports dealing with the problem.

"Wherever children can be left alone, that's where you're going to find these guys,” he said. "There's 750,000 pedophiles online every single day and they are not looking at real estate. They are looking at the most disgusting, horrible pictures you've ever seen in your life."

Paul Dennis, PHD, sports psychology, says the Penn State scandal serves as a reminder for us to be vigilant in our own communities.

"If it can happen at an institution like Penn State, where the academics and athletic programs are beyond reproach, then it can happen anywhere,” he said. “And because of that we have to look inside our own backyards now. If it's going on at Penn State what's happening at University of Toronto, what's happening at York University?”

Fleury urges citizens to use common sense. If you notice something that doesn’t sit right, contact the authorities.

"If you see something that is not within your core values of who you are as a human being, you need to speak up."

The rumours are true, Canadians really don't like Toronto

METRONEWS

Bank of Canada governor Gov. Carney hired as world banking regulator

The Canadian Press

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney on Jan. 19, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has been appointed the world's top banking regulator at the G20 summit in France.

The position at the Financial Stability Board is part-time, meaning Carney will continue in his position at the Bank of Canada.

As head of the Financial Stability Board, Carney will oversee and attempt to enforce reforms in global financial regulation.

Carney, whose seven-year term at the Bank of Canada expires in 2015, has been a strong advocate of new, stringent regulations for banks.

It is not often Canadians are considered for top jobs at global financial institutions, but Carney appears to be an exception.

Earlier this year, he appeared in a London bookmaker's list for the International Monetary Fund's top job, which eventually went to France's Christine Lagarde.

Last year, Carney was named chairman to a committee on financial stability at the Bank for International Settlements, of which the FSB is a part.

10 Torontonians among 39 Order of Canada recipients

Erin Criger, CityNews

Eugene Levy visits the "Late Show with David Letterman" on Aug. 25, 2009 in New York City. WIREIMAGE/Jeffrey Ufberg.

Ten Torontonians, including a world-famous comedian and an internationally-acclaimed writer, are among the 39 recipients of the Order of Canada.

Gov. Gen. David Johnston will preside over the ceremony on Friday at Rideau Hall in Ottawa where Eugene Levy and Nino Ricci will be honoured along with the other recipients.

Levy is known for his comedy chops and will be recognized for his mentoring of college students and involvement with the Autism Society.

Ricci’s novel Lives of the Saints received huge acclaim worldwide and has been translated into several languages.

The other Torontonians are Arnold Aberman, a co-director of the Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai Hospital; Anthony and Elizabeth Comper, volunteers and philanthropists; Mary Lou Fallis, a soprano known for comedic, one-woman shows; and Frederic (Eric) Langford Rowell Jackman, a businessmen and philanthropist, who supports the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Patricia Aldana, the founder and publisher of Groundwood Books, is honoured for her focus on First Nations people; Maureen Sabia will be recognized as a role model for women in the corporate sector; and Bob Macdonald, a science journalist who made learning accessible.

The Order of Canada, which was created in 1967, is the centrepiece of the Canadian Honours System, and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

Chosen by an independent panel based on nominations from the public, the order has three levels of membership — companion, officer and member. Since its creation, more than 5,000 people have been named to the Order.

Injured husband pulled wife from B.C. plane wreck

Woman says she is 'so happy to be alive

A plane burns on a city street in Richmond, B.C., near the Vancouver airport. (Submitted by Nikolai Jensen)

The Canadian Press

Wrecking ball nears for WWII plane plant

MONTREAL — A building that played a major role in the production of aircraft for the Allies in their fight against Hitler during the Second World War is facing the wrecking ball.

It's located in Toronto's Downsview Park and is described in federal heritage documents simply as "CFB Plant .1, Building .1."

Just one month after the federal government celebrated Canada's aviation history by reintroducing the name, "Royal Canadian Air Force," it was sending an eviction notice to a building where RCAF planes were assembled.

Built in 1929, the plant housed the operations of the de Havilland Aircraft company which provided 17 per cent of Canada's planes during the war years.

The old brick-and-glass building in a sprawling industrial complex produced more than 2,500 Mosquito fighter bombers and Tiger Moth trainers during 1939 and 1945.

The building is on federal land and is currently rented by the privately run Canadian Air and Space Museum.

The museum and neighbouring tenants were told on Sept. 20 they would be evicted to make way for a four-rink ice complex. Everything but the facade of the old airplane factory is slated for demolition.

Museum CEO Robert Cohen says Parc Downsview Park Inc., the Crown corporation redeveloping the area, has not been honest with the museum and the 10 other tenants.

"I can only say that if Stephen Harper really knew what was going on here, I think he would be totally appalled as to how the people at Parc Downsview Park have been treating us," he said.

Cohen says all tenants facing eviction from "65 Carl Hall Road," including a sewing school and a few small businesses, were misled into believing they had a long-term future there.

"They broke many hearts, they've put these small entrepreneurs into a terrible predicament," he added.

The air and space museum has a number of classic aircraft in its inventory, including a full-scale $3-million replica of the ill-fated Avro CF-105 Arrow, which was built by volunteers -- many of them former members of the military.

Production of the cutting-edge intercepter was halted and all planes were ordered scrapped by the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker in 1959.

Mark Adler, the Tory MP for York Centre, in whose riding the building is located, originally said in an email it was officially designated as a historic site, but he later recanted and said that was not the case.

The Canadian Press tried several times to contact Adler for an interview, but was told by his office that he had no further comment.

David Soknacki, the chairman of Parc Downsview Park, says the building at 65 Carl Hall Road is not currently classified as a heritage building.

Up until Oct. 26., the Canada's Historic Places website listed the facility as "a recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations and its architectural and environmental value."

Then the listing disappeared.

The site is maintained by Parks Canada and, when contacted, a media-relations official there said the building was listed in error on the website and had to be removed.

Attempts were made to interview an official with the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office, which is run by Parks Canada, without success.

The building was once listed on the official register of the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office -- but that entry is gone, too.

The de Havilland building may have lost its recognized heritage designation when the Department of National Defence transferred ownership of the property to Parc Downsview Park in 2006.

The City of Toronto asked a local architectural firm to conduct a detailed heritage conservation review of all buildings in Downsview Park.

In its 70-page report, the E.R.A. firm recommended that the complex, which houses the air and space museum, be maintained because of its cultural heritage.

Architect Michael McClelland says the the federal government should preserve the building.

"It would be my hope that in the long term they really resolve something so that the museum can stay there," he said in an interview.

McClelland says concerns were raised when the Department of National Defence demolished two nearby hangars in 2009. Those other buildings were in "dreadful condition," he said.

Mary MacDonald, the acting manager of the City of Toronto's Heritage Preservation Services, says there's been no request yet for a permit to demolish 65 Carl Hall Road.

"The City of Toronto has this building -- and a number of buildings on the Downsview site -- listed on its inventory of heritage properties," she said.

"We believe they are significant heritage resources for the City of Toronto."

At a meeting in late September, Toronto City Council urged the federal government to grant the museum a long-term reprieve and to keep it on the Downsview lands.

But the chairman of the Crown corporation that owns the building says there are serious problems with it.

"We've identified about $3.5 million worth of work that the building needs now," Soknacki said.

"Neither we, nor all of the tenants combined, had the wherewithal to repurpose that building as it is."

Soknacki says the federal corporation is willing to store artifacts currently in the museum at its own expense, "until such time as the museum decides to figure out what to do."

Museum head Cohen says storage has indeed been offered -- with a long, complicated list of conditions attached. One example is that the Avro's wings would have to be lopped off for it to fit into the space being offered.

Soknacki says the Crown corporation is willing to look at any proposal for a new museum on the lands now under redevelopment.

"This isn't hostility. This is one public body wrestling with a building that's falling apart, needing the space and willing to do what can reasonably be done to accommodate its tenants," Soknacki said.

"And so, if they need a number of months to organize and to reappear as a viable organization, then we will do what we can to make that happen."

CFB Trenton soldier dies in rescue mission

A C-130 Hercules takes off from CFB Trenton in Trenton, Ont., in this file photo. (CP PHOTO/Kevin Frayer)

IGLOOLIK, Nunavut — A soldier who died while helping to rescue two people stranded on a boat in Nunavut has been identified.

Sgt. Janick Gilbert was a search and rescue technician based at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont.

Captain Pierre Bolduc says Gilbert jumped into the icy waters of the stormy Hecla Strait from a military aircraft Thursday with two other search and rescue technicians.

The C-130 Hercules had flown to Nunavut after the two men in the boat ran into choppy seas 25 kilometres east of Igloolik.

Bolduc says after the rescue, all five people waited for a Cormorant helicopter to arrive from CFB Gander in Newfoundland.

Gilbert died before the chopper arrived three hours later.

Eight injured in Vancouver plane crash | Canada

Acquitted of G20 weapons charges

Torstar news service

Gary McCullough

A judge has acquitted a Haliburton man who was arrested with a loaded crossbow in his car’s roof carrier.

Justice David Fairgrieve found Gary McCullough not guilty of weapons dangerous yesterday after a protracted trial.

“The offence that was charged ... requires more than speculation that there was a possibility of an accidental discharge,” Fairgrieve said.

At the same time, the judge ordered the man, who has a history of mental illness, to enter into a three-year peace bond to ensure he continues to see a Whitby psychiatrist and has no access to weapons.

He was arrested near Yonge Street and The Esplanade on June 24, 2010, just two days before world leaders met here.

Police unloaded the crossbow, a slingshot, propane canisters, chainsaw, knife, hatchet and other objects from his roof carrier. Const. George Maxwell testified that McCullough told him he owned the crossbow in case he encountered a neighbour who had broken into his car at his Haliburton property .

Dead birds litter Georgian Bay in the thousands

Carcasses blamed on botulism outbreak

Dead birds line a portion of Allenwood Beach just outside of Wasaga Beach, Ont., on Saturday. As many as 6,000 dead birds are washing up on the shores of Georgian Bay, say authorities. (Benjamin Ricetto/Canadian Press)

As many as 6,000 dead birds have washed up on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, say authorities, who believe botulism may be to blame.
Ontario Provincial Police Const. Peter Leon said the number of dead waterfowl is estimated to be between 5,000 and 6,000. Officials will be collecting more of the carcasses on Sunday for examination.
The dead birds are scattered along a nearly three-kilometre stretch north of the community of Wasaga Beach, said Leon.
Federal and provincial officials believe the cause of the death is a form of botulism, apparently from the birds eating dead fish, he said.
A spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle says staff in his department are monitoring the situation and will be collecting more samples. Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a news release saying the death of large numbers of fish and wildlife on the Great Lakes is not uncommon at certain times of the year. Georgian Bay is on Lake Huron.

No cases of human botulism

Small-scale die-offs caused by botulism occur annually around the Great Lakes, with the last large-scale one happening in Lake Ontario in 2007, the ministry said.
According to public health agencies, no cases of human illness have been attributed to outbreaks of botulism in the Great Lakes.
Type E botulism toxin is produced by a bacterium that lives in lake bottom sediment, and under certain conditions it begins producing the toxin, which then enters the aquatic food chain, according to the ministry. Birds who eat affected fish can die.
Health Canada says proper cooking and handling of food eliminates the botulism toxin.
Police say people in the area are being advised to keep a close eye on their children and pets to make sure they stay away from the dead birds.

Tax-free accounts give rich benefits meant for poor

A Canadian dollar is shown Wednesday, January 26, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

OTTAWA — Wealthy Canadians are getting access to a retirement benefit that was intended for the elderly poor, suggests a new report on the country's retirement-security system.

An actuarial report on the Old Age Security Program for the first time calculates the long-term impact of a popular tax shelter that was created by the Conservative government in 2009.
Tax-free savings accounts, or TFSAs, allow Canadians to save up to $5,000 each year with all earnings and withdrawals exempt from taxation.
TFSAs also come with another big plus: none of the money counts when determining whether the account-holder is entitled to a retirement benefit for low-income seniors.
The Guaranteed Income Supplement currently provides a basic maximum of $665 a month for a single senior, but the amount paid out is reduced or eliminated if the recipient has significant other income.
The official report from chief actuary Jean-Claude Menard, tabled in the summer when Parliament was not sitting, calculates that excluding TFSA money from the means-test for that benefit will cost the federal government an extra $4.2 billion annually by 2050.
That's because as more Canadians see significant growth of wealth inside tax-sheltered TFSAs, they will nevertheless be eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, or GIS.
And rising payouts of the low-income supplement will increase even further if the Tory government eventually raises the annual savings limit to $10,000, as promised in the May 2 election campaign.
"GIS annual expenditures are projected to reach $38.9 billion in 2050, including the effect of TFSAs," says the report.
"This represents an increase of $4.2 billion or 12 per cent in GIS annual expenditures in 2050 compared to projected GIS expenditures without the effect of TFSAs."
Menard's report, due every three years, concludes:
"As investments in TFSAs grow over time and as such, an increasing amount of TFSA-related income is excluded from the determination of program benefits, (GIS) program expenditures will increase as greater numbers of recipients and higher amounts of benefits will result than would otherwise be the case."
Jon Kesselman, a professor in the school of public policy at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, says an individual saving diligently from age 18 to age 65 could accumulate as much as $1 million in a TFSA account with good investment returns.
Yet, this wealthier individual would still be eligible to collect the low-income supplement -- a public-policy contradiction he calls a "looming problem."
Although the drain of GIS money by well-off Canadians is modest now, Kesselman says, it will grow and a future government will likely have to change the rules to ensure those with fat TFSAs are denied the poverty supplement.
"Common sense tells us that at some point in the future, government will change the policy," he said in an interview.
"Better to address this sooner rather than later so that people have honest, accurate expectations about how they're going to be treated. ... I don't see any reason for governments to wait until it's a sizable issue."
Kesselman also says doubling the annual TFSA contribution limit to $10,000, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to do when Ottawa's books are balanced, will provide "a very disproportionate benefit to higher earners."
That's because middle- and low-income earners are already unable to save enough to take advantage of existing tax shelters, including RRSPs, under the current limits.
The federal government should consider measures to offset the benefits TFSAs provide the rich, including increasing the upper income-tax bracket, Kesselman said.
The Finance Department says its internal 2008 analysis of the impact of TFSAs on the Guaranteed Income Supplement is in line with the numbers in Menard's July report.
Spokesman Jack Aubrey also says the actuarial report shows TFSAs have achieved their main purpose, that is, encouraging everyone -- especially low- and modest-income Canadians -- to save. And part of their effectiveness is the exclusion of TFSA withdrawals and income from means-testing for GIS benefits.
"Over three-quarters of the benefits of saving in a TFSA (in the first five years) will go to individuals in the two lowest tax brackets," Aubrey said in an email.
An individual can deposit up to $5,000 a year in TFSAs, though there is no income-tax break for doing so, as RRSPs offer.
Rather, the money accumulating inside an TFSA is exempt from taxation and can be withdrawn any time without tax penalty. RRSP funds are also untaxed inside the account, but are subject to tax on withdrawal.
As of Dec. 31 last year, 6.7 million Canadians had TFSA accounts with total assets of almost $43 billion.

Tax-free accounts give rich benefits meant for poor

An actuarial report on the Old Age Security Program for the first time calculates the long-term impact of a popular tax shelter that was created by the Conservative government in 2009.
Tax-free savings accounts, or TFSAs, allow Canadians to save up to $5,000 each year with all earnings and withdrawals exempt from taxation.
TFSAs also come with another big plus: none of the money counts when determining whether the account-holder is entitled to a retirement benefit for low-income seniors.
The Guaranteed Income Supplement currently provides a basic maximum of $665 a month for a single senior, but the amount paid out is reduced or eliminated if the recipient has significant other income.
The official report from chief actuary Jean-Claude Menard, tabled in the summer when Parliament was not sitting, calculates that excluding TFSA money from the means-test for that benefit will cost the federal government an extra $4.2 billion annually by 2050.
That's because as more Canadians see significant growth of wealth inside tax-sheltered TFSAs, they will nevertheless be eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, or GIS.
And rising payouts of the low-income supplement will increase even further if the Tory government eventually raises the annual savings limit to $10,000, as promised in the May 2 election campaign.
"GIS annual expenditures are projected to reach $38.9 billion in 2050, including the effect of TFSAs," says the report.
"This represents an increase of $4.2 billion or 12 per cent in GIS annual expenditures in 2050 compared to projected GIS expenditures without the effect of TFSAs."
Menard's report, due every three years, concludes:
"As investments in TFSAs grow over time and as such, an increasing amount of TFSA-related income is excluded from the determination of program benefits, (GIS) program expenditures will increase as greater numbers of recipients and higher amounts of benefits will result than would otherwise be the case."
Jon Kesselman, a professor in the school of public policy at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, says an individual saving diligently from age 18 to age 65 could accumulate as much as $1 million in a TFSA account with good investment returns.
Yet, this wealthier individual would still be eligible to collect the low-income supplement -- a public-policy contradiction he calls a "looming problem."
Although the drain of GIS money by well-off Canadians is modest now, Kesselman says, it will grow and a future government will likely have to change the rules to ensure those with fat TFSAs are denied the poverty supplement.
"Common sense tells us that at some point in the future, government will change the policy," he said in an interview.
"Better to address this sooner rather than later so that people have honest, accurate expectations about how they're going to be treated. ... I don't see any reason for governments to wait until it's a sizable issue."
Kesselman also says doubling the annual TFSA contribution limit to $10,000, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to do when Ottawa's books are balanced, will provide "a very disproportionate benefit to higher earners."
That's because middle- and low-income earners are already unable to save enough to take advantage of existing tax shelters, including RRSPs, under the current limits.
The federal government should consider measures to offset the benefits TFSAs provide the rich, including increasing the upper income-tax bracket, Kesselman said.
The Finance Department says its internal 2008 analysis of the impact of TFSAs on the Guaranteed Income Supplement is in line with the numbers in Menard's July report.
Spokesman Jack Aubrey also says the actuarial report shows TFSAs have achieved their main purpose, that is, encouraging everyone -- especially low- and modest-income Canadians -- to save. And part of their effectiveness is the exclusion of TFSA withdrawals and income from means-testing for GIS benefits.
"Over three-quarters of the benefits of saving in a TFSA (in the first five years) will go to individuals in the two lowest tax brackets," Aubrey said in an email.
An individual can deposit up to $5,000 a year in TFSAs, though there is no income-tax break for doing so, as RRSPs offer.
Rather, the money accumulating inside an TFSA is exempt from taxation and can be withdrawn any time without tax penalty. RRSP funds are also untaxed inside the account, but are subject to tax on withdrawal.
As of Dec. 31 last year, 6.7 million Canadians had TFSA accounts with total assets of almost $43 billion.

Charges dropped but women still say they're victims

korean231011 — Five Korean women who say they were gang raped by former members of their church, comfort each other. DAVE THOMAS

TORONTO - They sit around a kitchen table decorated with a plastic runner from their tiny Korean church, five young visa students who are a portrait in despair.
Speaking out for the first time, they are the women who maintain they were drugged, beaten and gang raped by nine former members of the Canada Jesus First Church between 2009 and 2010. But this week, the Crown attorney withdrew the almost 500 charges laid against the accused seven men and two women, saying there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction.”
“Does that make us liars?” demands one of the women. “They weren’t declared innocent; the Crown told us they believed us, but they just didn’t have enough evidence to convict them.”
But now they feel abandoned, left with their accusations and their pieces of memory. Trying to support them is their senior pastor Min-Sun Cho, who angrily insists they are not members of a cult as they’ve been portrayed in the media.
“The church is damaged so much,” sighs Cho, an ordained minister by the Evangelical Association.
Two of the women tried to commit suicide after learning the case was being thrown out. They consider themselves victims, but have been painted as liars who fabricated bogus rape stories under instruction from Cho’s assistant pastor, Jae-Kap (Joe) Song, to deflect the church’s attention from the scandal of his own alleged sexual misdeeds.
One man close to the case believes the women were indeed given date rape drugs — just that the perpetrator was not among the nine falsely accused.
Their accusations were violent and graphic. In all, six women — all but one in their young 20s — would go to police in March 2010 with similar stories: that several deacons and elders of their church would visit their apartments, or take them to motels or even a park outside Etobicoke Collegiate, and offer them Tim Hortons’ coffee, which they later assumed was drugged. They claim that on numerous occasions they were given injections that left them unable to remember everything that happened, but they do recall snippets of being held against their will, beaten, sexually assaulted and videotaped while two women from the church cheered on the attacks.
One woman says the rapes began when she was just 14.
They never told anyone, they say, because the parishioners threatened to kill them if they did.
It seems very hard to believe — monsters who repeatedly prey on their congregants, with no one knowing, with some of the attacks supposedly happening outside with no passersby noticing a thing. There were no syringes found, no videotapes ever surfaced. And then last October, one of the six complainants recanted her entire story, saying she’d been given a 50-page script by the pastor to memorize.
But they still insist they were telling the truth. And after listening to them for several hours, there is little doubt they believe sincerely in what they are saying. The tears are real, their torment is palpable.
So what truly happened? It’s unlikely we’ll ever know.
None of the women wanted their names used but they wanted to finally speak publicly about their side of the story after being told to keep silent by the police and the Crown while the case was ongoing.
“I know my memories, I remember the terrible incidents in my brain,” insists “Anne,” a late-20s Korean visa student now recuperating from her failed suicide attempt. “I couldn’t speak to anyone, I couldn’t tell anyone the secret of my sexual assault. It’s not one time, it’s very many times. They drugged me and I can’t control my body and I can’t remember very well.”
It was those gaps of recall, of course, that would help undo the case.
“I have just pieces of memory,” explains “Rhonda,” in her early 20s. “I was hit by somebody, I was raped by somebody. Just small pieces.”
Cho, who is fiercely loyal to Pastor Song, said he’d found out about the alleged assaults during a counselling session and announced in church March 7, 2010 that “something had happened” and the victims should go to the authorities. Rhonda decided she had to finally report what she remembered to police.
When Anne testified at the preliminary inquiry this summer, she was mystified when the defence lawyers spent 80% of their time asking her about Song, accusing him of engineering her story and telling her what to say. “It’s the truth; it’s not a lie,” she says of her allegations. “Who can memorize everything? Whole pages? Who’s the genius?”
Adds “Mary,” “What’s the benefit of memorizing a script saying I was sexually assaulted,” she asks, her anger rising. “What do I get from that? I didn’t think people would actually believe that, but they do.”
When the Crown met with them last month to tell them the charges were being dropped, they were stunned. Anne’s voice trembles as she recalls her sense of hopelessness. “I wanted them to be punished by the law but my hope is broken and I can’t do anything now,” she says.
With her pain and embarrassment, she felt there was only one solution that remained for her. “I remember what they do to me and I have to live with my terrible memories for all my life,” she says, collapsing in tears. “I want to die, I don’t want to live anymore.”
“Susan” dropped out of college after Korean news crews came to her school looking to interview her. Now she says she’s been branded a liar in the Korean press and her parents have been threatened back home.
“It’s killing me,” says the girl, in her mid-20s. “I trusted the police and the Canadian law system, even though it was very difficult to tell my story to the police and even in court. I’m so angry right now. I think because I’m Asian and on a student visa and not a Canadian citizen, I don’t get full protection.
“But,” she insists, “it happened in Canada.”

Ford cuts cops a break

Mayor Rob Ford has given the police service a budget break he has not given the TTC, fire department, or any other city department or agency.

For 2012, Ford and city manager Joe Pennachetti have demanded a 10 per cent budget cut from every city entity’s 2011 budget. But Ford endorsed Police Chief Bill Blair’s request for a 0.6 per cent increase over the 2011 police budget — $936 million, up from $930 million.

No other city entity has been permitted to begin its budget exercise at such a favourable starting point.

The police service, long a political third rail, is far from the only entity facing rising costs.

The TTC, for example, identified $39 million in new expenses for 2012, thanks to increases in salaries, energy costs and vehicle maintenance costs. Yet it was forced to come up with a 2012 budget that assumed the city would slash its annual subsidy by 10 per cent, or $46 million.

That budget included a major reduction in bus service and a cut of 1,000 employees.

The TTC chair, Ford ally Councillor Karen Stintz, would not answer directly Thursday when asked if the city should have granted the TTC the same latitude.

“We were all given a direction by the mayor’s office, and we were advised that our subsidy was going to be cut by 10 per cent. And we had to figure out our budget within that constraint,” Stintz said. “The difference is, we’re an agency that can charge a user fee. Obviously we wouldn’t have made up the entire (lost) subsidy with higher fares, but we are in a different situation than the police.”

York Region commuters face strike on Monday

More than 200 York Region Transit workers are scheduled to walk off the job Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011.

Workers with the Amalgamated Transit Union have overwhelmingly rejected the latest offer from First Transit and Miller Transit.
The union says 95 per cent of staff voted against the most recent contract offer and are prepared to walk off the job at midnight Sunday, affecting Monday's commute.
Commuters in northern and southeast York Region, including Newmarket, Georgina Keswick and parts of Richmond Hill and Markham, will be affected.
In total, 51 bus routes will see a service disruption. A complete list of routes has not yet been provided.
ATU Local 1587 President Ray Doyle said a stoppage would affect roughly 60 per cent of the entire transit service for York Region.
However, Doyle told CP24 that staff working the overnight shift on Sunday have been instructed to continue their duties until their shift is over.
"Nobody will be stranded without a ride home," he said, but come Monday morning: "People will have to look at carpooling and finding alternative ways to work and getting around."
Doyle said his group would be at the Delta Toronto Airport West hotel through the weekend working on finding a resolution to prevent a work stoppage.
Negotiations also continue with GO Transit and York Regional Transit's VIVA division which services the rest of the area.
While talks are ongoing, Doyle said that as far as he is concerned all three group negotiating with York Region will go on strike at midnight Sunday.
Viva workers rejected a contract offer Wednesday night. GO workers have yet to vote on a contract offer.
Vasie Papadopoulos , spokesperson for Metrolinx, released a statement Thursday saying officials "continue to be optimistic that an agreement will be reached" with ATU 1587, the union representing GO Transit bus drivers, ticket sellers, maintenance personnel, transit enforcement and some office staff.
"Our primary concern is to negotiate a fair collective agreement," she said. "We are hopeful that a negotiated settlement can be reached."
Papadopoulos said should negotiations fail, there is a contingency plan "aimed at maximizing services" in place for GO users.
"We understand that a labour disruption will be disruptive to our passengers and the travelling public. We will work to try and minimize the inconvenience," she said.
Doyle said unionized workers are fighting for better pay.
"Employees and drivers in York Region are working for up to 40 per cent below any other transit system in the GTA," he said. "Even employees recognize they are badly underpaid."

McGuinty's new cabinet unveiled

By Jonathan Jenkins

Premier Dalton McGuinty's government will be sworn in at Queen's Park Thursday. (Toronto Sun files)

TORONTO -
Dwight Duncan will add the title of deputy premier to his resume as government sources confirmed the list of cabinet ministers to be sworn in Thursday.

But there were no new faces and just shuffled chairs in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s new cabinet as the loss of seven ministers to retirement and defeat and the trimming of spots from 28 to 22 left no room for newbies.
McGuinty had always made clear he would be keeping Dwight Duncan as finance minister to focus on jobs and the economy — what he has called the number one priority for the government heading into the next legislative session.
Also staying put is Deb Matthews at health, Harinder Takhar at government services and Michael Chan at tourism and culture but other high-profile ministers are on the move.
Former attorney general Chris Bentley now takes on the problematic energy file — a hot topic during the election and one that will demand difficult decisions on the future of nuclear energy and renewable generation.
The move pushes Brad Duguid from energy to economic development and innovation.
Ted McMeekin, a former cabinet minister relegated to the backbenches last session returns as agriculture, food and rural affairs minister, which could also pose challenges in government top-heavy with urban MPPs.
Paring the cabinet down to a smaller size has also required changes, with some ministries subsumed into others — such as innovation and research now getting tacked onto economic development — while some ministers will wear two hats.
Kathleen Wynne takes on two ministries — municipal affairs and housing and aboriginal affairs.
She leaves the transportation file to Bob Chiarelli, who will also do double duty as infrastructure minister.
Laurel Broten takes on education and women’s issues, Madeleine Meilluer gets community safety and corrections and Margarett Best is in charge of consumer services.
John Milloy is the House leader and minister of community and social services while veteran Jim Bradley lands at environment.
Northern Ontario MPPs Rick Bartolucci and Michael Gravelle, who both had tough fights to get back to Queen’s Park, get northern development and mines and natural resources and forestry respectively.
John Gerretsen, another veteran, becomes attorney general.
Glen Murray takes on training, colleges and universities, Charles Sousa is at citizenship and immigration, Eric Hoskins is in charge of children and youth services and Linda Jeffrey rounds out the list at labour and seniors affairs.

Markham mosque plan sparks local concerns

By Tom Godfrey

TORONTO - A plan to build a massive mosque next door to a Catholic school in Markham has angered some residents who claim the minaret is too tall and the facility will create traffic problems in the area.
Markham City Council voted last week for the Islamic Society of Markham to build a 28,000-sq. ft. mosque, at 6232 -16th Ave., just east Markham Rd., beside St. Brother Andre Catholic High School.
The $7 million mosque, to begin construction next year, will hold about 500 worshippers and include parking spots for 188 vehicles. Its dome and minaret is about 40-metres tall.
The plan has sparked so many concerns from residents that Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti took out a newspaper ad last Saturday to “provide the facts about the size, parking, traffic” and other concerns.
Scarpitti said the site was deemed a place of worship in 2003 and sat idle for three years until purchased by the Islamic Society of Markham.
“The plan is in complete compliance with zoning bylaws,” he said on Monday.
“The site plan approval process cannot be used as a tool to stop a a permitted use.” Scarpitti said a pubic meeting was held last month to discuss the matter and flyers were sent to 150 homes in the area.
“The size is comparable to many other places of worship in the community,” he said. “Some people think this was rushed through but that’s not the case since this has been in the works for years.” Ward 3 Councillor Don Hamilton said he’s fielded many calls from irate residents.
“Some residents are very upset,” Hamilton said on Monday. “It was zoned correctly but there are concerns about high traffic and the height of the minarets.” Hamilton said some residents believe the project may have been rushed through by council.
“Some residents have complained they weren’t given proper notice,” he said.
“One of the main concern is the traffic congestion.” Regional councillor Joe Li said the mosque “resembles the Taj Mahal in India.” Officials of the Islamic society said a new mosque is needed because the current one has reached its capacity and more Muslims are moving into Markham.
“Markham is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada and Muslims make up a large part of the growth,” according to the society website. “Most of the Muslims in this community are first generation immigrants from all over the world.” The site many of the Muslims are primarily professionals and working class people.
Meanwhile, dozens of residents are expressing mixed feelings about the mosque in postings on an Internet website.
“I think it should not be planned there, not because it is a mosque, but because it is a mass daily rally point for non-residents in a residential area,” one Markham resident wrote.
“Its kinda cool that your neighbours might have a different religion, something you can learn from,” another resident said. “This will hopefully bridge gaps and help become more tolerant of other ideologies.” “Most folks are afraid of crackheads, porn shops, strip clubs and massage parlours moving into their neighbourhood,” another writer said. “This is the first time I’ve heard someone complain about a church.”

Occupy Toronto peaceful on Day 1 | Toronto & GTA

Child porn found by police can be used at trial: court

TORONTO — Child pornography that police accidentally found on a man's computer while investigating him on fraud charges can be used in court, Ontario's highest court has ruled.

But, the court warned, it does not mean police have the right to poke into every corner of someone's computer under the guise of a specific search.

The police were investigating Ronald Jones in an Internet fraud and stumbled upon 57 images of child pornography. They asked a Crown attorney for advice, the lawyer said they could proceed with a further search, and the police also found 31 child pornography videos.

A lower court judge ruled that Jones' charter rights were violated because the warrant authorized a search for evidence of fraud, not of child pornography. That court dismissed his charge of possession of child pornography, but in a ruling released Tuesday, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ordered a new trial.

The police were entitled to seize the initial images they stumbled upon, under the so-called plain view doctrine, the three-judge Appeal Court panel ruled.

But, they said, it was a charter breach to go looking for more evidence of child pornography without getting a second warrant.

The Crown had argued that the initial warrant authorized the extended search because a computer is like pieces of physical evidence, which can be tested and inspected in whatever ways the police deem necessary once lawfully seized.

But the court rejected that, saying when a computer is seized for a specific reason, it does not give police carte blanche to pore through it to root out evidence of unconnected crimes.

"I do not accept that the right to examine the entire contents of a computer for evidence of one crime ... carries with it the untrammelled right to rummage through the entire computer contents in search of evidence of another crime ... without restraint," wrote Justice Robert Blair on behalf of the panel.

The police acted in good faith and balancing all the factors, it was wrong to exclude the pornographic evidence, the court said.

"The administration of justice would be brought into disrepute more, in the long-term, if the video file evidence is excluded rather than included," the court wrote.

"Crimes involving child pornography are among the most abhorrent in society. Society's interest in having these charges tried on their merits, with the important, reliable and real evidence that is available being tendered, is very high."

‘Evil’ zombies hurt on T.O. film set

Ali Larter, left, and Milla Jovovich are shown in a scene from, "Resident Evil: Afterlife."

A number of extras and crewmembers working on director Paul W.S. Anderson’s new Resident Evil film have been hospitalized following a set collapse in Toronto on Tuesday.Cameras stopped rolling on the set in the early hours of Tuesday when a wheeled platform inside the Cinespace Film Studios crashed to the ground, injuring 12 actors dressed as zombies and four members of the production team.

Emergency services were called to the scene, although they had trouble establishing how badly the actors had been hurt due to the fake bandages and blood they were covered with for their roles as the undead for the forthcoming fifth installment of the Resident Evil film franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ten of the victims were taken to a local hospital for further treatment, although none of the injuries are considered life-threatening, according to police reports.

The sci-fi movie's star Milla Jovovich was not onset at the time of the accident, which TMZ.com claims is now being investigated by officials from the Toronto Police Department and the Ministry of Labour.

Cops need help with mentally ill

Police are only called into many situations when every other societal institution has failed.
The recent fatal police shooting of Silvia Klibingaitis, 52, after the mentally ill woman reportedly came at a police officer with a knife, appears to be such a case.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating, but from what is already known, the circumstances leading up to her tragic death are depressingly similar to what we have heard so many times before in these tragedies. That is, family members, desperate to get appropriate medical help for a loved one whose mental condition is deteriorating, are often stymied by the lack of appropriate care.
Of course, police should review their training every time a tragedy like this occurs. But Toronto police have been at the forefront in training frontline officers to deal with the mentally ill, including the creation of Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (MCIT), which pair officers with mental health nurses to respond to such calls.
Problem is, they can’t be everywhere at once.
Hollywood nonsense like “shooting to wound” has nothing to do with the real world in which police often have split-seconds to make life-and-death decisions.
As for alternatives to deadly force such as stun guns, only sergeants are equipped with them under current rules.
An officer who shoots someone coming at him with a knife, who has ignored his command to stop, is doing what he’s been trained to do — aim for the centre body mass and keep shooting until the threat stops.
Why? Because police are permitted to use deadly force when facing a genuine threat, not just to protect civilians, but themselves.
The larger issue is the lack of appropriate facilities and care for the mentally ill, in part due to the long-standing government policy of “de-institutionalization.”
The original idea was to release patients into the community with appropriate supports, but they’ve never been put in place.
Meanwhile, our obsession with civil rights, while well-intentioned, often makes it difficult to give the mentally ill the treatment they need, even if it is available.
If we’re going to reduce these tragedies, government policy towards the mentally ill needs to be reviewed, not just the split-second decisions a police officer makes when everything else has failed.

Government likely to intervene in Air Canada strike

The federal government is considering its options for handling a threat by Air Canada flight attendants to walk off the job

B.C. tot 'not scared' of alleged abductor

The parents of a toddler who was kidnapped from his Sparwood, B.C., home last month say he did not react with fear when he saw himself on television next to his alleged abductor. 10:39 PM ET video

Abducted B.C. boy's parents forgive suspect

Prime Minister unveils coins marking Jets return

Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveils a Winnipeg Jets commemorative coin prior to the Jets' inaugural game

WINNIPEG — Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled one of the two commemorative coins the Royal Canadian Mint is producing to mark the Winnipeg Jets' return to the NHL.

Harper is in Winnipeg today for the season opener between the Jets and the Montreal Canadiens.

The mint is issuing a 50-cent piece and a pure silver $20 dollar coin.

The 50 cent coin is produced at the mint in Winnipeg and will sell for $14.95.

The $20 limited edition silver coin goes for $94.95.

There will be 15,000 produced, almost exactly the seating capacity of the MTS Centre where the Jets play.

Blame Hudak — not Ford — for Tory loss: Levy

By Sue-Ann Levy

hudy — PC Leader Tim Hudak (QMI AGENCY PHOTO

The e-mail landed in my Inbox Friday night after I’d signed off to observe the Yom Kippur holiday.But when I finally read it Sunday morning, I had a good laugh.

The writer provided me with the link to my colleague’s article in the Globe and Mail suggesting Toronto Mayor Rob Ford helped lose Toronto for PC Leader Tim Hudak — along with a few choice comments.

“You and your employer can ‘sort of’ suck this one up!!” wrote my new e-mail pen pal, who judging from his now semi-regular rants at my columns isn’t prepared to “suck up” any of Ford’s cuts.

“The people have spoken ... Not all so-called taxpayers believe in Wal-Mart wages and benefits,” he wrote.

His comments were so absurd I thought them worth a very public reply.

I would agree the people did speak very loudly last Thursday.

But he and his friends at the Globe are putting words in voters’ mouths.

Tim Hudak lost because of Tim Hudak, not Rob Ford.

He lost Toronto because residents didn’t believe the Tories embraced the diversity and the differences that make up this city.

Hudak lost because he offered no beef that would convince Torontonians to make the switch — not with respect to lowering the HST, or tackling e-Health or health care and education spending.

Their anti-gay flyer mocking the Liberals’ sex education curriculum, released in the last week of the campaign? That was the final nail in the coffin.

As for Ford, his nearly one year in office has been far from smooth. He’s made mistakes.

That said, he’s been incredibly dogged in his efforts to curb spending at City Hall. One can hardly criticize him for trying to keep his promises.

Reining in spending and cutting debt is not pretty. If Toronto residents expected that to happen without some pain, they are grossly deluding themselves.

I suspect the closet voters — the silent majority who came out to vote for him last October — want Ford to “stay the course.”

No it’s the public teat-suckers, of which I’d bet my e-mail pen pal is a part, that have done the lion’s share of the handwringing and complaining — not just by turning up City Hall but with slick e-mail, telephone, advertising and Internet campaigns.

Take my friends at Toronto Fire Services.

Adept at spin and self-promotion, the Toronto Professional Firefighters Association has even managed to convince some of the city’s seasoned columnists that Toronto will burn if they are forced to make the most minor of cuts.

Yet their claims about trucks being out of service are hardly new.

In 2001 I wrote that Fire Chief Al Speed complained about needing $2.6 million to hire 55 firefighters to man (or woman) out-of-service trucks — even as he was prepared to take 64 highly-paid firefighters off the trucks to act as glorified chauffeurs to district chiefs!

Absurd?

These Fire Incident Technicians (FITs) — of which there are now closer to 80 — exist to this day, 10 long years later.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that firefighters spend most of their time these days answering medical calls instead of fighting fires.

Or that a coalition of union and special interest groups calling themselves the Good Jobs for All Coalition have sent out a flyer to constituents in Frances Nunziata’s ward claiming she wants to send cleaners into poverty with her efforts to contract out cleaning at 25 police stations.

Never mind author Margaret Atwood, who still hasn’t come up with her own ideas on how to streamline library services without shutting down branches.

If these organizations and so-called advocates for good jobs, quality services and the city’s safety spent as much time coming up with solutions as they have with their spin, imagine how much closer City Hall would be to managing its debt.

I keep hoping that the city’s powerful unions will eventually get the message that times have changed, the well is dry and that their efforts to intimidate their political masters will do nothing but bankrupt the city.

Don’t tell my e-mail pen pal or my friends at the Globe that, however.

They’re too busy trying to cling onto the status quo.

PM's office kept MacKay in dark about 2007 Afghan review

The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, and Defence Minister Peter MacKay arrive to a forward operating base in the district of Sperwan Ghar, Afghanistan earlier this year. A new book says Harper's office kept details of a special review of the Afghanistan mission from his defence minister in 2007. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office was so seized with controlling public opinion of Canada's shooting war in southern Afghanistan that even Defence Minister Peter MacKay wasn't always in the loop, says a new book about the conflict.
The Savage War, by Canadian Press defence writer and Afghanistan correspondent Murray Brewster, paints a portrait of a PMO keen to preserve its tenuous grip on minority power and desperate to control the message amid dwindling public upport for the war.
MacKay, who took over Defence from Gordon O'Connor in August 2007, was blindsided by the Harper government's decision later that year to set up a blue-ribbon panel to review the mission headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, Brewster writes.
"It wasn't discussed with the broader cabinet, no," the minister says in the interview. "I didn't know all of the specifics."
Jack Layton knew even less. In interviews before his death in August, the late NDP leader confides to Brewster that Harper never once tried to engage him in an in-depth discussion about Canada's deepening involvement in a deadly counterinsurgency effort.
The revelations emerge at a time when MacKay suddenly finds himself at the centre of a brewing controversy surrounding his use of government-owned Challenger jets — 32 times since 2008, at a price tag of more than $2.9 million.
He's also in hot water over a 2010 vacation at a Newfoundland fishing lodge owned by the federally appointed chairman of Crown corporation Marine Atlantic, during which he was picked up by a Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter.
In the book, MacKay also suggests Canada signed on to the Kandahar posting without a clear grasp of how enormous a challenge the mission of beating back the Taliban on their home turf was going to be.
"I don't think there was a true recognition on just how difficult it was going to be to turn back the wave of insurgency," he says.
His first phone call as foreign affairs minister in early 2006 was from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The topic was Afghanistan.
MacKay also suggests the decision to go to Kandahar was borne in part of a sense of guilt — on the parts of both the previous Liberal government and the new Conservative one — of Canada not having participated in the U.S. mission in Iraq.
"The deployment down to Kandahar, my understanding from the briefings, came after much consternation within the department and within the previous government about not having gone to Iraq," he says.
There was "almost a sense of, 'We have to do something more significant than we have thus far."'
The book documents how Harper's apparent need to keep communications on a short leash was fuelled, in part, by sagging public support for the war and the hardening opposition of the New Democrats, who ended up advocating for an immediate and total withdrawal.
Throughout the conflict, Harper never once had an in-depth discussion about the war with Jack Layton, whose fierce opposition to the mission earned him the nickname "Taliban Jack."
"Whenever the topic was brought up, Harper would just smile and say, 'We're going to have to just agree to disagree on that, Jack,"' Brewster writes.
For Layton, who died earlier this year after a battle with cancer, it was an appalling break from governmental custom in times of war: co-operation, consultation and a sense of everyone in Parliament, be it in the government benches or the opposition, being on the same side.
"Most governments, when you're in a war context, the structure of the relationship changes and there's this kind of understanding that we're at war," Layton is quoted as saying.
"They could have shared certain kinds of information. There was none of that."

Kandahar move raised tensions

From the outset, the NDP felt misled about the intent and predicted consequences of Canada's move to Kandahar, a decision that was made in 2005 without any input from the party or debate in Parliament, much to Layton's dismay.
Paul Martin, the Liberal prime minister at the time, depicted the Kandahar mission to Layton as relatively benign, not unlike the country's deployment in the capital of Kabul to the north, which began in 2002.
"He generally characterized it within the ambit of the mandate that had been ours to date, except that it would involve more troops and in a different location," Layton says.
"I was concerned because I felt that it wouldn't be possible to go to Kandahar and have the same kind of role that we had previously. I told him I was concerned."
That concern continued to mount over the course of 2005 amid the increasingly aggressive anti-Taliban rhetoric coming from Gen. Rick Hillier, then the chief of defence staff, and Defence Minister Bill Graham's public warnings that casualties were likely.
"Layton and his handful of MPs went from concerned to uneasy to fidgeting in their seats," Brewster writes in describing how the NDP ended up being such staunch opponents of the war.
"The fact that they couldn't square what was being said made them suspicious."
In 2006, with Canadian casualties mounting, some of Hillier's people were frustrated with the fact the government was saying little about the war, allowing the NDP to fill the void with anti-military rhetoric and robbing the mission of public support.
That frustration "boiled over" during a meeting between Defence Department officials and the PMO on Sept. 6, 2006, in the immediate aftermath of bloody Operation Medusa, Brewster writes. Hillier chastised Harper's staff for what he considered a lack of moral support.
Insiders later attributed the silence to the PMO's difficulty in crafting a suitable political message.
"It was always a crisis," the book quotes one anonymous PMO official as saying.
"I think the reason there was so much silence was because we were trying to figure out how to transition the communications politically from a hard terrorism message to, you know, about women voting and all that stuff."
That's why, Brewster writes, "there was no consoler-in-chief during that awful summer.
"The country that had not been at war in half a century was left to figure out for itself why its sons and daughters were coming home in caskets."

Male stripper found not guilty of sex assault

By Sam Pazzano

Domenic Antonelli, said he is just happy to have his name cleared on Wednesday after being found not guilty of sexual assault by a judge for sex with a woman in an Etobicoke strip club.

TORONTO - An exotic dancer at a well-known male strip club in Etobicoke was exonerated of sexual assault charge after a judge believed that it was casual sex, not rape.
Justice Susan Himel acquitted Domenic Antonelli, 37, of two counts of sexual assault and forcible confinement, saying she believed that he had consensual sex with a 33-year-old woman at the Foxxes Den at on The Queensway in June 2009.
Himel described the woman’s testimony as “inconsistent, implausible and incredible.”
The woman’s friendly behaviour towards Antonelli after the alleged rape undermined her credibility, said Himel.
The woman alleged Antonelli had a lap dance with her, then led her to the building’s basement where she was raped and later forced to perform oral sex after a second lap dance.
The woman, who married her Christian fundamentalist fiance one week after the incident, hadn’t had sex for several months as she had been abstaining for religious reasons, court heard.
The woman attended the strip club with a group of friends. After the sex with Antonelli, she hugged and kissed him and her sister bought her a second lap dance with him. Some suggestive photos of the two of them were also snapped.
“I want my good name back and to resume to my normal life,” said Antonelli, a full-time social worker who danced part-time under the name of “Dallas.” The charges resulted in him being suspended without pay from his two social work jobs.
Antonelli said his defence lawyers Todd White and Vanessa Christie “worked as a great team to deliver justice.
“Other defence lawyers were pushing me at the first meeting to plead guilty but I was innocent and today the right judgment was reached,” said Antonelli, supported by his sister and girlfriend in court.
“The judge was fair and amazing,” said Antonelli. “The last two years have been horrible. I lost my mother due to illness and I’ve suffered so many sleepless nights. This is a relief.”

Oshawa military museum may have to sell tanks

By Tom Godfrey

The Ontario Regiment Museum is having problems making ends meet and may have to sell rare Canadian military equipment to keep its doors open. Leo Morin and Terry Woods stand of a Sherman tank, one of the centrepieces of the museum's collection. (MICHAEL PEAKE

TORONTO - Members of the Ontario Regiment Museum say they may have to sell some of their historic military vehicles to keep their doors open to the public.
The museum is fighting to survive and its volunteers are working hard to prevent it from being the second military history centre to close in the Greater Toronto Area in recent weeks. The locks were changed and the doors were closed to the public at the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park last weekend.
The Ontario Regiment Museum, located in Oshawa, is a link to history dating back to the 1850s and has about 70 operational vehicles, including the Sherman, M60 Patton and M551 Sheridan tanks, as well as a variety of armoured personnel carriers and jeeps.
“It is a constant struggle to keep the doors open,” said museum spokesman
Terry Woods. “We are in danger of having to sell some our vehicles to stay open.”
He said it takes a lot of money to maintain all the tanks and heavy equipment, plus the cost of fuel.
“Nobody wants to sell their collection of items,” Woods said Wednesday. “It will be a great shame to have the collection pieced off.”
The museum is primarily supported through fundraising, including the $100 is costs to become a member and volunteer at the museum.
A fundraising event featuring a 1945 U.S.-made Sherman tank is planned for Saturday at the museum at 1000 Stevenson Rd. N., north of Rossland Rd. and on the south side of the Oshawa airport.
The Ontario Regiment is among the oldest continuously serving reserve regiments in Canada and is one of the senior armoured regiments in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The Ontario Regiment was officially formed from the nine independent rifle companies on Sept. 14, 1866.

Leafs win, but Kessle M.I.A.

By Terry Koshan

Maple Leafs — Leafs forward Nikolai Kulemin charges the net on Tuesday night in Ottawa. (Darren Brown/QMI Agency)

OTTAWA - Training camp and the pre-season games that are involved usually are, of course, the time when battles are won and lost for jobs.
And while it’s fine to debate whether Nazem Kadri or Matt Frattin should be on the Maple Leafs’ opening-night roster, whether young Jake Gardiner should knock a veteran out of the defence corps, it’s also paramount the team’s leaders get in tune before the real fun starts.
The line of Mikhail Grabovski between Nikolai Kulemin and Clarke MacArthur could begin the regular season today and be in sharp form.
During a 5-3 victory against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Place before an announced crowd of 18,831, the trio was a threat to score on nearly every shift it had.
Not surprisingly, the line was more than just dangerous, as all three found the back of the net. Grabovski scored a short-handed goal in the first period when he intercepted a Jason Spezza pass, beating goalie Robin Lehner with a wrist shot.
Kulemin blew around Senators defenceman Mark Borowiecki in the second period, eventually banging away at Lehner until the puck crossed the goal line, putting the game at a 3-3 tie.
MacArthur had an assist on Kulemin’s goal as the line continued to jell and then scored on a wrist shot with less than two minutes to play.
The Leafs lost Grabovski midway through the third period when he left for the dressing room for a brief time when he was hit by Ottawa’s Chris Neil in the neutral zone.
Phil Kessel, on the other hand, must be waiting for the regular season to start. The Leafs’ resident sniper doesn’t appear to be having a heck of a lot of fun in the pre-season. He had a few good scoring chances, and Lehner was quick to get a toe on a Kessel drive in the second period. On another occasion, Borowiecki fairly easily knocked Kessel off a loose puck not far from the Senators net.
It’s easy to say Kessel has to better for the Leafs, and an uneven camp that has included a lack of chemistry with Tim Connolly, who was kept out of the game with a leg injury, continued on a line with Kadri and Joffrey Lupul. Kessel, against a team of Senators that surely will not threaten anybody this season, could not really get on track.
With just a pair of pre-season games remaining, the fire that apparently has to be set under Kessel to get him going has not yet been lit.
Kadri didn’t completely take a golden opportunity by the horns, filling in for Connolly. Kadri had an assist on a John-Michael Liles power-play goal in the first period, as did Lupul. On another shift, Kadri stole the puck to set up Kessel, who fired a shot over the net.
Frattin skated on a line with Darryl Boyce and Colby Armstrong and had an assist on a third-period goal by Boyce. It’s still hard for some to see how Frattin could make a large impact for the Leafs in 2011-12 without having had much seasoning in the minors.
Boyce and Philippe Dupuis are locking horns for the fourth-line centre role, but Matthew Lombardi’s possible return this weekend in a home-and-home set with the Detroit Red Wings could have a domino effect on both.
James Reimer went the distance in goal for the Leafs and made 32 saves. Goalies are the ones who suffer most in pre-season games as they often have to be sharp to mop up where their teammates have made defensive mistakes. Reimer saved Kadri and Carl Gunnarsson from embarrassment on the same shift with saves on their giveaways, and made a couple of big stops on the Sens’ Nikita Filatov.
Leafs defencemen Cody Franson and Keith Aulie both were minus-2 in the first period. Franson should be okay, but Aulie is not guaranteed of a roster spot.
Mika Zibanejad, Zack Smith and Nick Foligno scored for the Senators.

TCHC scraps affordable housing project plans

ANDREW WALLACE/Torstar News Service

Coun. Adam Vaughan greets TCHC tenants at a meeting earlier this year. He would prefer to see funds from any land sale allocated to build affordable housing elsewhere in his ward.

Councillor’s take

A member of council’s affordable housing committee said he fears Mayor Rob Ford’s administration wants to sell the site to shore up the city’s finances.
“They want to monetize it; you can smell that a mile away,” said Coun. Joe Mihevc, a left-winger who would oppose such an outcome.

The city’s housing company has given up plans to build a 322-unit affordable housing building in the Railway Lands condominium development west of the Rogers Centre.

The large 1.2-hectare site sits beside Canoe Landing Park, the park with the big red canoe that serves residents of nearby condo towers built by developer Concord Adex.

It was to be home to a 43-storey affordable housing building, but — citing a lack of funding — the Toronto Community Housing Corp. has turned back the site to the city, and the city is now pondering what to do.

Local Coun. Adam Vaughan would prefer to see funds from any land sale allocated to build affordable housing elsewhere in his ward.

Two schools, a community centre and daycare are also to be built on the site, now a hole in the ground, and construction must begin to utilize $38.5 million already raised from development charges to build the facilities, Vaughan said.

“We don’t have sufficient provincial or federal funding to build public housing on site. We’re going to sell to a private developer,” he said. “I would rather put the money from that back into public housing somewhere else, but my guess is they’ll use it to balance the budget.”

McGuinty denies killing plant to save his skin

Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty serves beer after speaking about his party's plan to make post-secondary education more accessible and affordable while at the Regal Beagle Pub in Toronto on Sunday.

Ontario’s tightest election campaign in three decades has entered a crucial week, with Dalton McGuinty denying charges he’s killing a Mississauga power plant to save Liberal seats.
The Liberal leader’s claims came Sunday as Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservative campaign made a surprise stop at the site and NDP boss Andrea Horwath revealed how she’d pay for her $3.35 billion platform if elected Oct. 6.
McGuinty, who will go head to head with his rivals in Tuesday night’s debate, insisted the timing of the plant cancellation is pure coincidence less than two weeks before voters head to the polls.
“We’ve responded to a compelling argument put forward by the folks living in that community,” he said, noting he was keeping an “open mind” because the plant was already under review.
“I don’t think anybody buys that,” Hudak told the Star after his visit to the site just northwest of Sherway Gardens mall, where concrete footings and construction cranes dot a pit the size of two hockey arenas.
It’s in the swing riding of Mississauga South, where a Forum Research poll in Saturday’s Star had McGuinty’s labour minister, Charles Sousa, in a dead heat with Conservative challenger Geoff Janoscik.
The decision to scrap the plant, announced quietly Saturday by Sousa and fellow Liberal MPPs from neighbouring ridings, follows years of community opposition.
“These sneaky tactics have become part of the Liberals’ standard operating procedure,” charged Hudak, who said he would not go ahead with the plant. “The eco taxes were brought in through a sneaky way and the HST and health premium were broken promises.”
McGuinty said there have been “significant changes” since the natural gas-powered plant was announced six years ago, including three nearby condos, new rules that would prevent even a wind turbine on the site because of the proximity to a residential area, and ample electricity supplies.
Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath noted McGuinty still hasn’t come clean with taxpayers on how much it will cost in penalties for cancelling a similar power plant months ago in the Liberal-held riding of Oakville.
“What’s it going to cost to change the location, what’s the new location?” Horwath said, calling for details before the vote a week from Thursday.
“This is more about saving seats than it is about making decisions on where to site power plants.”
McGuinty evaded the cost question, saying “it’s the subject of continuing conversation.” He attacked the NDP platform for raising corporate income taxes to 14 per cent from the current 11.5 per cent.
Horwath said that will raise government revenues $1.85 billion a year by 2015 to help pay for pocketbook help for ordinary families, such as freezing tuition fees, transit fares and scrapping the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST on natural gas and oil for home heating.
She set aside a “buffer” of almost $2 billion a year as a financial cushion in case the world economy crashes again, but wouldn’t rule out spending more if there’s a double-dip recession, or using any unspent money to erase annual deficits before 2018.
“Nobody has a crystal ball,” she told reporters at a downtown hotel.

Kenyan Boys Choir helps fans get ready for Shawn Desman

Phil Lameira/for Metro

Members of The Kenyan Boys Choir treated fans to an impromptu performance outside toronto

For a good five minutes, the sidewalk outside Toronto’s Me to We store was filled with uplifting tunes and packed with dozens of dancing and clapping teens on Saturday.

We Day supporters were treated to an impromptu performance put on by The Kenyan Boys Choir — best known for their rousing performance at President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony — as they lined up patiently, waiting to catch a glimpse and get an autograph of their favourite performer and speaker.

“We’re here to see Shawn Desman,” said 17-year-old Suraiya Jinah. “Spencer West is amazing too, he came to our school before.”

Shawn Desman, Kardinal Offishall, Spencer West, The Kenyan Boys Choir and Free the Children co-founder Marc Kielburger were in-store signing autographs and greeting fans as part of the sneak peek event for tomorrow’s We Day at the Air Canada Centre, where 18,000 students and educators will attend the annual performance put on by Free the Children to inspire and empower youth.

“It’s always special when you do a show at home, just ’cause this is where you’re from and people know that and they’re very proud of it,” said Desman. “It’s all about the kids, all about meeting the people and supporting a great cause.”

But not everyone was there for an autograph. One of the youth in line, Sinead Zalitach, who, when asked why she was there, responded, “For drought relief. I could care less who’s appearing. That’s not really the point. I’ve been coming to We Day since 2008, but I can’t this year because I graduated from high school, so I wanted to come out today.”

‘Now … we’re dreaming’

RICK MADONIK/TORSTAR news service

Former MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, left, welcomes Arjan Tabaj at Pearson airport Thursday after Tabaj and his family arrived in Canada. Wife Anilda and one of the couple’s sons is seen with her.

“For me, for my family, this means future, hope, freedom.... We want to forget. We want to focus on the future now.”

Arjan Tabaj

They were just three years old when their family was deported from Canada, but the Tabaj twins, Kristian and Vincenco, now five-years-old, never forgot Canada — the place their parents and sister adopted after fleeing Albania, fearing for their lives.

“Now we’re back, and we’re dreaming,” said their mother, Anilda Tabaj as the twins clutched miniature Canadian flags and their older sister, Maria, grinned and said she couldn’t wait to see her friends. Their father, 41-year-old Arjan Tabaj, knelt down and kissed the ground.

“For me, for my family, this means future, hope, freedom,” he said, holding back tears.

The Tabaj family returned to the country Thursday after two years away.

Last month, a judge overturned a June 2009 deportation order that sent them back to Albania.

The Tabajs took refuge in Canada after an alleged assassination attempt on Arjan Tabaj’s life in April 2000. According to the family, he was in a vehicle with colleagues from the pro-democracy newspaper where he worked when they were ambushed by machine-gun fire. Two of the occupants in the car were killed, and Tabaj was left partially paralyzed and lost his left foot.

In January 2001, the couple and their daughter entered Canada using fake passports. They remained for several years, settling in Etobicoke.

But they had problems getting refugee status, due to an abandoned claim made during a brief stay in Canada in the late 1990s. Despite pleas from friends, family and then-MP for the Tabajs’ Etobicoke Centre riding, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, the family was deported in 2009.

They spent the last two years in hiding in Albania, moving from place to place, and not allowing their children to leave, even to go to school. Still, the family says they received death threats and claim they were the victims of another assassination attempt.

Arjan Tabaj refused to give details about the assassination attempt or the past two years in hiding.

“We want to forget. We want to focus on the future now,” he said. The family was also secretive about their plans, refusing to disclose where they will stay.

Plane crashes in Yellowknife neighbourhood | Canada | News |

Police Blotter: Happening now in TO

Man wanted in road rage case surrenders

A 23-year-old Toronto man faces a long list of charges after he fled the scene of an accident Wednesday night, leading police on a short chase throughout the city.

The man was involved in a two-vehicle collision near College Street and Ossington Avenue at about 7 p.m.

Police say he struck the 37-year-old driver of the other vehicle involved in the collision and pinned him against his own vehicle, before driving off.

The man sustained serious leg injuries in the incident.

Responding officers pursued the man, but were not able to catch him.

Police later found his vehicle parked near the Bathurst subway station.

William Davidson surrendered to 14 Division police Thursday.

He is charged with attempted murder, threatening death, failure to stop for police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Police investigate sexual assault

Toronto police are searching for two male suspects after a woman was sexually assaulted in the Keele Street and Junction Road area Monday.

Police say the woman had also noticed one of the men following her while walking in the Keele and Dundas Street area on Sept. 3, though he didn't approach her at that time.

The first suspect is described as white, 5'7", in his 20s, with short, light-brown hair. He was last seen wearing a blue baseball cap, dark pants and a dark T-shirt and has a large tattoo of a black faded insect on the left side of his neck.

The second suspect is described as aboriginal, 5'8"-5'10", with droopy eyelids, black hair and a skinny build. He was last seen wearing dark, baggy pants and a dark T-shirt.

'Cross fire' feared in B.C. gang war

vancouver gang — Supt. Tom McCluskie issues a public warning to people linked to the Duhre and Dhak crime groups during a press conference in New Westminster, BC. Sept. 20, 2011. (Carmine Marinelli, QMI Agency)

VANCOUVER - Police have taken the rare step of issuing a public warning about the potential for “cross fire” and escalating violence after a gang member was shot last week.

In a news conference Tuesday, the regional gang task force also issued a strong message to anyone linked to two alleged crime families – the Duhres and Dhaks.

“Given the growing gang tensions and potential for violence in the Lower Mainland, we want to assure the public that every effort is being made to get ahead of this violence should it erupt again on our streets,” said Supt. Tom McCluskie.

McCluskie said friends and family connected to the Duhre and Dhak groups “could be in danger.”

“We want to ensure people are warned,” he added.

The warning stems from a shooting in Surrey, B.C., Friday night. Police identified the victim as Dhak associate Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, 24, who was arrested last month in Nanaimo, B.C., with two other men for possession of drugs.

Police believe “other criminal groups” are targeting members of the two organizations.

There are also reportedly links between Friday’s shooting and the brazen daylight killing of Red Scorpion leader Jonathan Bacon Aug. 14 in Kelowna, B.C., which also injured Hells Angel Larry Amero.

There was another incident a day after the Kelowna shooting; Surrey RCMP said another unidentified man with gang connections was shot at up to eight times, but only sustained minor injuries from broken glass.

“These public displays of violence where gang members are opening fire in public venues are completely unacceptable,” said McCluskie, concerned someone innocent may be hurt.

The police task force had warned earlier this month of “gang tensions” growing in the Lower Mainland, and had declared “it’s no longer a question of if retaliation will occur, but when.”

As of Sept. 7, 65 officers had been assigned to monitor tensions arising from “several key individuals and groups identified at the core of the conflict.”

Tory crime bill cracks down on drug, sex offences - Canada

Tougher justice system long overdue: Mandel

By Michele Mandel

TORONTO - The infamous Bathtub Girl killers represent much of what’s outrageously wrong about the current justice system in Canada — and what could finally change under the sweeping new omnibus crime bill just introduced by the Stephen Harper government.
The Safe Streets and Communities Act — which bundles together nine bills that died in the last Parliament before Harper won his “tough on crime” majority — has defence lawyers complaining and inmate advocates crying foul for its mandatory minimum sentences, elimination of house arrest for violent criminals, increased terms for sex offenders and other harsh new provisions.
Cry me a river.
For a change, the shift has tilted to victims, not perpetrators; to the protection of the public rather than the protection of the offender.
Is that pandering to the masses? Of course it is. But people are tired of the slaps on the wrist that so often pass for sentences in many courtrooms. Of accused killers released on bail. Of repeat violent criminals in a revolving door of justice.
And it starts with our youngest criminals. Of course, rehabilitation has to be a crucial component of any youth sentence. But for violent teens, there has to be more. There has to be a stronger message from society that such behaviour won’t be tolerated. But under the current Youth Criminal Justice Act, the courts can’t even include deterrence and denunciation as factors in sentencing.
That will change under this proposed law as will the easy ride we’ve given many teen killers in the past. And none have had it easier than the two stone cold sisters who drowned their mom.
In 2003, the Mississauga teens — 15 and 16 at the time — conspired to kill their alcoholic mom for the insurance money. This wasn’t a spontaneous act. After careful planning and giddily discussing their plot online with friends, the girls plied their mom with vodka, slipped her Tylenol 3s laced with codeine and then drowned her in her bath.
They almost got away with the murder until their loose lips brought the police calling a year later. Charged with first-degree murder, the siblings actually won bail and remained free until their trial. And how did they use that freedom? They posted nude photos of themselves and solicited sex online. Remorseful they were not.
Found guilty in 2005, they were sentenced to just 10 years — the maximum allowed under the YCJA — but by law, they could only spend six years of that time behind bars.
They, of course, served far less time than that.
Now 25, the older sister was released to a halfway house after only three years in custody and is at the University of Waterloo studying engineering. Her younger sister, 24, served four years and was freed in 2010 to attend the University of Ottawa.
They’re well on their way to new lives with no one the wiser. None of their fellow students will ever know what they’ve done. Nor will their future spouses or employers or workmates. Under the YCJA, the identities of these heartless killers are forever protected.
Fast forward to this new act.
Under the proposed changes, it would have been much tougher for the girls to win bail and flaunt their pornographic photos.
Their prosecutor did try to have them sentenced as adults — but the bid was rejected by the judge. Under the current law, it’s up to the Crown to decide whether they want to seek an adult sentence for teens convicted of violent offences. The new act removes that discretion and requires Crowns to consider applying for an adult sentence for any youth convicted of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter or aggravated sexual assault.
As for the sisters’ carefree, anonymous new life, that would also have been different under this new bill. “The amendment would require judges to consider lifting the publication ban on the names of youth convicted of a violent offence and given a youth sentence, when the protection of society requires it,” explains the department of justice website.
Imagine — they would have to live with the public shame and notoriety of drowning their mom. Now that would be a real punishment.

CTV cancels ad campaign under Saudi pressure

By Daniel Proussalidis

(Screenshot from a TV ad by Ethical Oil)

OTTAWA - Efforts to silence an advertising campaign about Saudi Arabian oil before it re-airs in Canada have succeeded in keeping the ads off CTV News Channel.
QMI Agency has acquired an e-mail that indicates the broadcaster cancelled a booking for an Ethicaloil.org ad campaign that presents Saudi Arabian oil as an "unethical" energy choice.
"Our position should be that we are in receipt of notice of a legal dispute with respect to this spot and that, accordingly, we will not broadcast the spot until the legal dispute is resolved," reads the e-mail quoting CTV's legal department.
The ads have raised the ire of the Saudi government because they equate buying Saudi oil with helping fund a kingdom that oppresses women while presenting Alberta's oilsands as a more humane alternative.
Sun News Network continues to run the ads.
Saudi Arabia's government has hired a high-powered law firm to get the ads banned.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney shot back at the moves to silence the ads.
"Apparently (the Saudi) government has threatened Canadian broadcasters if they run a particular ad by a Canadian non-profit, non-governmental organization," Kenney said during a stop in Brampton, Ont. "Canada is a country that is a champion of freedom of speech. That is a constitutional right. And we don't take kindly to foreign governments threatening directly or indirectly Canadian broadcasters or media for giving voice to freedom of speech."
An industry insider has told QMI Agency the Saudi government has been asking around to find out who funds Ethicaloil.org.
Responding to inquiries, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers wouldn't confirm that it had been approached by Riyadh, but did make clear it doesn't fund the group.
Meantime, Tory MP Dean Allison, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, confirmed he'll ask MPs to look into how Saudi Arabia has reacted to the controversial campaign.

Poster shaming for public peeing

By Jenny Yuen

A bathroom break outside Alex Hess' building will cost you a public shaming.
The building manager at 1266 Queen St. W., near Dufferin St. was "pissed off" enough with all the public urination in his entranceway, he created a "small penis alert" poster campaign.
"It started in 2009, when security footage caught a man peeing here," said Hess, 28. "It angered me, so I put up the posters and everyone thought it was a great idea. It's public humiliation."
Two years later, the shaming continues.
The latest posters, which Hess put up in the Parkdale area on Friday, showed a ginger-haired man urinating against the wall while texting on his phone earlier this month, with a big headline that reads, "Small Penis Alert."
Hess uploaded the security video to YouTube last week and since it has garnered nearly 1,000 hits.
"I got about four different people emailing me, telling me his name, where he lives, that his music isn't very good and he approaches people for money," he said. "I called the police and they weren't interested."
The mystery pee man in 2009 was never identified, Hess said, but the poster campaign served as a good deterrent for others thinking about whipping it out.
"There has been a downward spike in the amount of pee," he said. "I have also installed new security cameras and a loudspeaker system."

Man plunges from balcony

in stun gun arrest

TORONTO - Ontario's police watchdog is investigating after a Toronto man was hit by a police stun gun and then plunged from an apartment balcony.

The Special Investigations Unit says the man was injured after police responding to a domestic call used a stun gun early today.

Video from the scene shows a man straddling the concrete railing and later pacing on the balcony as police watch from inside the apartment and down below.

Later, as the man sits on the balcony, an officer discharges the stun gun from the balcony above and the man moves to the edge of the balcony and then plummets to the ground.

Daniel Wright, 42, was taken to Sunnybrook Hospital for treatment but there's no immediate word on the nature or extent of his injuries.

Toronto police would not comment on the incident because of the provincial watchdog's involvement.

The provincial agency says police officers were called to an apartment building at 1765 Weston Rd., in the city's northwest area at about 5:30 a.m.

Two subject officers and five witness officers have been identified by the agency.

The Special Investigations Unit is an arm's-length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

Killer drunk driver four times over limit

EDMONTON - An Edmonton drunk driver who killed a city grandmother while she was was walking home admitted to having a blood-alcohol level of nearly four times the legal limit after leaving a bachelor party.
Christopher Dew, 29, pleaded guilty Monday in Court of Queen's Bench to impaired driving causing death.
According to agreed facts, Dew fatally struck Charlene Brown - a 43-year-old grandmother of six - as she was walking home from a store early Valentine's Day 2010.
Court heard Dew had been at a bachelor party and police experts determined his blood-alcohol level at the time of the deadly collision was between .24 and .31.
Court also heard Dew was speeding just before hitting a vehicle in front of him, and then losing control and striking Brown, sending her flying approximately 20 metres through the air.
Brown died at the scene.
Crown prosecutor Chantelle Washenfelder said Dew's level of intoxication was "shocking" and asked for a prison term of two-and-a-half years.
In a heart-wrenching victim impact statement, Leann Monkman cried as she described the death of her mother at the "hands of a drunk driver."
Defence lawyer Alex Pringle called it a "terrible tragedy all around" and said Dew, a former soldier, is "absolutely devastated" by what happened.
Pringle suggested a sentence of two years.

Canada’s military chief says he takes

‘full responsibility’ for challenger jet

flights

By Bryn Weese ,Parliamentary Bureau

**General Walt Natynczyk, Chief of Defence Staff, talks to members of the media on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, September 19, 2011. Chris Roussakis/QMI Agency**

OTTAWA - Canada’s top military official says he takes full responsibility for his flights aboard government jets, and will cut the feds a cheque if it's found some of his jet-setting ways were inappropriate.Reports surfaced last week that Chief of Defence Staff Walt Natynczyk cracked up a $1.5-million tab since 2008, flying Challenger jets to sporting events, fundraisers and the Caribbean. The Challenger jet costs an estimated $10,000 per hour of flying time.
One flight in particular, to St. Marten in the Caribbean to join his family for a holiday, has irked some critics.
But Natynczyk said he will reimburse the government for the flight is deemed inappropriate use of the jet.
He has said he had just spent his second Christmas in Afghanistan and had pre-booked the holiday in the Caribbean with his family when an improvised explosive devise (IED) killed four Canadian soldiers and journalist Michelle Lang. Natynczyk said he had to stay in Canada for the repatriation ceremony of the bodies, and couldn’t leave with his family.
In hindsight, he said Monday, he probably should have cancelled the whole trip and been reimbursed from the Treasure Board, which is allowed if leave is cancelled for official business.
“(I)t probably would have been better to just put a cheque in and ask for reimbursements for the whole thing, which again treasury board policy allows us to do,” he said. He said a business case was made to use the Challenger jet to fly to St. Marten afterwards, and that he was only following the best advice available.
“I assume all responsibility for all my decisions and activity over the past years as the chief of defence staff. When I travel, I travel on duty,” he said. “If government, as the prime minister indicated, looks at that trip ... I assume responsibility for this. If the interpretation of the treasury board guidelines in this regard is incorrect, then I will reimburse as required.”
When asked if he felt the media coverage of his flights was an attack, he said he’s developed “thick skin.”
“I’ve served in some pretty war-torn locations. I’ve been shot at in Sarajevo, I’ve been shot at in Baghdad. I’ve got some pretty tough skin right now, and I just continue to serve,” he said.

Cop chase ends with head-on crash in Ottawa

By Larissa Cahute

Crash involving police shuts Hunt Club — The SIU has been called in to investigate a serious head-on crash Sunday night, Sept. 18, along Hunt Club Rd. near the Airport Parkway in which police were involved. A police cruiser sits in the median at the scene, but does not appear to have been directly involved in the crash. (LARISSA CAHUTE Ottawa Sun

OTTAWA - A police chase in the city's south end Sunday night ended in a horrific head-on crash, leaving a woman in serious condition and a man under arrest.The province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating the crash.
"From what we gather at the moment, it was a brief pursuit," said SIU investigator Jon Ansell.
An Ottawa police cruiser pursued a green Lexus after it was spotted travelling erratically along Hunt Club Rd around 11 p.m.
Ansell said the Lexus headed westbound, mounted the curb and struck a Mitsubishi head-on.
The remnants of the crash remained on the road early Monday morning.
The demolished green Lexus rested on the south lawn of Hunt Club Rd, its roof torn off on the grass behind it — fire crews extricated the woman in the passenger seat.
The blue Mitsubishi sat on the median with the front passenger side heavily damaged from the force of the impact.
A police cruiser was also on the median, but didn't show visible damage.
"There's no evidence whatsoever to indicate there was any contact between the cruiser and the Lexus," said Ansell.
Randy Scharf was on his way to his shift at Tim Hortons and saw the aftermath of the crash.
"You could see the suspect was trying to see if his friend or girlfriend was OK," he said.
"His passenger was not moving at all."
According to Scharf, minutes after the crash, another cruiser arrived on scene.
He said cops immediately handcuffed the man and put him in the cruiser.
The man faces numerous charges, according to Ansell.
The woman suffered serious injuries. She's listed in serious condition and police were unable to interview her.
"The entire force of the impact was on her door," said Ansell.
Most injuries were to the lower right side of her body — her leg and pelvis.
"She's in pretty rough shape," said Ansell.
However, her injuries are not life-threatening.
The woman in the Mitsubishi was the only person in her car. She wasn't seriously injured.
Cops are investigating the speed the Lexus was travelling when it lost control over the median.
"It looks as though (the man driving the Lexus) would have been going over the limit," said Ansell.

Toronto police cars and police tape are pictured in this Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, file photo. (CP24/Tom Stefanac)

Sept 18, 2011

Teen stabbed at house party

A 17-year-old boy is in hospital today after a house party in the Sheppard and Wilmington Avenues area took a sinister turn.
Police say the boy was stabbed when an altercation broke out at a party on Amos Crescent early this morning. He was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery as a result and his condition is not known.
Police are searching for suspects.

Police investigate hit-and-run

Toronto police are investigating a possible hit-and-run that occurred in Etobicoke overnight.
Police say a cab driver discovered an injured man near Kipling Avenue and Rathburn Road, who may have been hit by a vehicle.
He was transported to hospital with head injuries.

Early morning crash in Vaughan kills two

Two people are dead after a collision in Vaughan early this morning.
The accident happened around 2 a.m. on Keele Street, between Langstaff and Rutherford.
According to York Regional Police, one of the vehicles ended up in a ditch as a result of the crash.
Police have not yet released any information about the victims other than to say that one was a driver and the other was a passenger.
More to come.

Whitby sexual assault never happened, police confirm

Police seek clues after sex assault

Durham Regional Police confirmed Friday that a sexual assault reported earlier this week by a 16-year-old Whitby girl did not take place.
The Sinclair High School student had initially reported that she was attacked by three men while eating lunch in a park near Lazio Street and Samandria Avenue on Sept 12.
Police said the investigation is now closed, and that charges are not pending against the girl.

Corruption: Quebec premier rejects inquiry

JONATHAN MONTPETIT

MONTREAL - A surge of new claims about corruption in Quebec's construction industry has failed to sway Premier Jean Charest to hold a public inquiry into the controversy, leading his political rivals to accuse him of protecting mobsters.

Charest insisted Friday that his government was doing enough to tackle corruption in the province, following a report alleging ties between the province's construction industry, its political parties and organized crime.

The report was prepared by a Charest-appointed anti-collusion task force and leaked to media outlets earlier this week, reigniting calls for a more substantial probe into the rot engulfing the construction industry.

But Charest was adamant at a news conference called to deal with the furor over the leaked document: no public inquiry is forthcoming.

Flanked by two senior ministers, he argued his government has not just sat idly by in the face of scandal and has opted to tackle the problem through the justice system instead.

The premier rattled off a litany of policy changes introduced by his government in everything from policing, to tax evasion-laws and political fundraising rules.

"We are acting to obtain results," Charest said.

"No government before us ever did this much to fight corruption and collusion... And we will continue."

Charest's political opponents ridiculed the notion that his Liberals might ever provide the solution to corruption — instead of being part of the problem.

Opposition Leader Pauline Marois said his reluctance to call an inquiry was a shameless attempt to protect his party's finances from scrutiny.

She accused him of doing the underworld's bidding.

"He is protecting the Liberal party, and in protecting the Liberal party Mr. Charest is protecting the Mafia and is protecting organized crime" the Parti Quebecois leader said in Quebec City.

"I am profoundly disgusted by the Quebec premier's attitude."

But Marois, herself, did not escape unscathed from a day that underscored the sheer reach of the construction industry's tentacles into the world of Quebec politics.

Her own plea for transparency was undermined by opponents who noted that her 2007 leadership bid was largely financed by engineering-consulting firms. Such companies were singled out in the leaked report as being central to the industry's problems.

But Marois insisted her case was different. She said she was still in opposition at the time, and therefore unable to reward such firms with lucrative contracts.

Marois said the funding to her own leadership campaign was "not relevant" to the current scandal.

Internal disputes within the PQ in recent months have helped Charest manage the fallout from the corruption scandal, which has been an enduring drama in Quebec politics for the past two years.

But this week's leaked report may have significantly imperilled his hopes for a political resurgence. It contains the most detailed allegations yet about the magnitude of the corruption.

A Montreal tabloid summed up the public sentiment with a large front-page headline Friday that said, "That's enough."

Charest is already dealing with a majority of only three seats. Marois has now signalled her intention to whittle away at his majority; she described Liberal legislators as Charest's cronies and called on them to join the opposition-led movement for an inquiry.

"I am asking them to break free from the straitjacket imposed by Jean Charest," she said. "Liberal representatives have to stop being the premier's accomplices."

The public pressure on the premier was already evident at a morning news conference Friday.

Charest engaged in several testy exchanges as he dealt with a press corps that has grown increasingly hostile.

At one point the premier was asked him flat-out: "Are you the head of a corrupt state?" His last campaign slogan — "both hands on the (economic) wheel" — was also mocked. Charest was asked who else's hands were on the wheel.

Charest fended off such questions at the news conference and, again, later in the day as he granted media interviews.

"There can be allegations, there can be people who think things," Charest replied at the news conference. "But between thinking things and allegations, and reality (and) facts, there is a distance."

For Charest, the mere contents of the leaked report serve as proof his government's approach to corruption was working.

He spoke at length about the steps taken so far.

That list includes: the creation of a tactical squad in the province's construction commission; new procurement rules; new rules to block criminals from the construction industry; changes to municipal-contracting rules; tougher tax-evasion laws; four political-fundraising bills; a new police anti-corruption squad; and the anti-collusion task force.

He noted that the leaked report would never have been possible without his government — because it was produced by a task force he created.

Many of the measures adopted by the government have been inspired by the anti-corruption struggles of other jurisdictions, Charest said, pointing to New York state as an example.

"This isn't unique to Quebec," he said.

"This impression that we're the only ones that have this kind of issue is wrong. It exists elsewhere."

The report released this week is the most explosive account yet of a corruption scandal that has been simmering for months.

It says a corrupt and weak civil service has allowed construction companies to drive up the price of public-works contracts in Quebec.

It suggests that, last year alone, there was a $347-million difference between original contract amounts and the final price tag.

At the end of the process, the report says, some of the companies' profits are plowed into the coffers of political parties.

Transport Minister Pierre Moreau, who accompanied Charest at the news conference, said the report also contained a number of recommendations his department was already implementing.

Moreau said he consulted with cabinet colleagues before the news conference about improving employment policies at the Transport Department in order to attract and retain expertise.

But perhaps the most explosive allegations revolve around ties between construction companies, the Mafia and criminal biker gangs.

It says the criminals act as enforcers for friendly construction companies, preventing rival firms from getting work done with threats or by pulling strings to create red tape.

Thirteen cases have been transferred to police for criminal investigations, the document announced. Meanwhile, Quebec's elections watchdog immediately declared plans to probe deeper, saying the allegations represented a setback after 30 years of efforts to clean up political financing.

Manitoba RCMP bust up multimillion-dollar grow-op

WINNIPEG - Manitoba RCMP have busted a multimillion-dollar rural grow-op and seized marijuana worth $3.5 million.

Cpl. Miles Hiebert says Mounties executed a search warrant in the rural municipality of Fisher, about 150 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

He says the grow-op was a sophisticated and significant outdoor operation.

Hiebert says officers found plants almost two metres high - twice the usual height officers tend to find in a grow-op.

He says police seized almost 2,000 marijuana plants and nearly 25 kilograms of processed marijuana.

Six men were arrested and two Winnipeg men have been formally charged with production and possession of marijuana for the purposes of trafficking.

Hurricane Maria to drench eastern Newfoundland

Hurricane warning in effect for southern Avalon Peninsula

CBC News

NOAA's prediction at 11 p.m. Thursday night of Huricane Maria's track. (Courtesy NOAA)

Tropical storm Maria has become a Category 1 hurricane and is expected to make landfall Friday afternoon in southeast Newfoundland

Nfld. preps for hurricane Maria2:02

Hurricane Maria is bringing heavy rain and high winds to southeastern Newfoundland, as the storm continues to churn northward.
The Category 1 hurricane, which is about 200 kilometres south of Sable Island, N.S., is expected to become more powerful throughout the day.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Maria is expected to make landfall as a hurricane Friday afternoon in southeastern Newfoundland.
The powerful storm is expected to dump up to 90 millimetres of rain with winds gusting to 120 km/h.
Environment Canada said toppled trees, widespread power outages and some damage to buildings were possible .

Hurricane warning in effect

A hurricane warning is in effect for the southern Avalon Peninsula and a tropical storm warning is in effect for the northern Avalon, Burin and Bonavista peninsulas.
Rob Harris of the Gander weather office said the Burin Peninsula and south coast can expect the heaviest rain.
"It could be really heavy downbursts in a short period of time.… you can get quite a bit of rain pretty quickly because the storm is forecast to move through the area really quickly throughout the day," he said.
Schools in the southern Avalon area began closing before 7 a.m.
Windy conditions are expected across Atlantic Canada Friday and Saturday as Maria is expected to merge with a storm front in Labrador.
Winds had picked up to 50 km/h in St John's by 7 a.m.
Rain has already begun with the systems ahead of Maria over Nova Scotia and southern Newfoundland.
Coastal Newfoundland is expected to see large waves Friday of up to seven metres.

Hurricane Igor hit in 2010

Hurricane Igor is the most powerful storm to strike Newfoundland on record. It made landfall Sept 21, 2010, near Cape Race with winds of 140 km/h while still at hurricane force.
More than 200 mm of rain fell, washing out roads, and taking out hydroelectric power and knocking over numerous trees.
The Canadian military was called in to help rebuild bridges and destroyed infrastructure.

Cocaine dealer freed due to trial delay - British Columbia

Swissair crash speculation prompts anger, surprise - Canada

Const. Styles’ accused killer remains paralyzed

York Regional Police Const. Garrett Styles was standing beside a minivan during a traffic stop on Hwy. 48 when it suddenly accelerated and dragged him about 300 metres before losing control and rolling on top of him

NEWMARKET - The teen driver charged with dragging York Regional Police Const. Garrett Styles to his death remains paralyzed in hospital and is “devastated” by what’s happened, his lawyer says.
At a brief court appearance Thursday morning for his 15-year-old client, lawyer David Berg said the York youth is under police guard and is “depressed” about the officer’s death and his own condition. He has no use of his legs but has regained some feeling in one of his arms.
“The injuries are catastrophic,” Berg told reporters outside the courtroom.
“He and his family are devastated by the whole thing, the death of the officer and his injuries.”
Styles was standing beside a minivan during a traffic stop on Hwy. 48 when it suddenly accelerated and dragged him about 300 metres before losing control and rolling on top of him.
The seven-year veteran, father of two young children, died in hospital about an hour later.
The van’s driver was charged with first-degree murder and the Crown has announced it will seek an adult sentence.
Berg said his client is expected to be hospitalized until the end of November when he may be released to a rehabilitation centre.
His next court date is set for Oct. 28.

Prosecutor attacked outside Prince George court

CBC News

A B.C. Crown prosecutor was attacked outside the Prince George courthouse on Thursday morning. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)

A B.C. Crown prosecutor was attacked outside the Prince George courthouse on Thursday morning.
The unidentified man was taken away on a backboard by emergency responders around 9 a.m. He was conscious, with blood on his side, but police said his injuries were not life-threatening.
RCMP said they have a man in custody in connection with the attack. They did not say what kind of weapon was used in the attack, but said it was not a gun.
Police said they don't yet know if the attack was targeted or random, but that several crime scenes around the downtown area were connected with the attack.
A few blocks away, the windows of a homeless shelter were smashed. People staying at the shelter said a man brandishing a chair had attacked the windows.

Fighting traffic tickets gets a twist

By Terry Davidson ,Toronto Sun

TORONTO - Businessman Jay Kimel-Fleishman found himself in a common — and immensely annoying — situation last year: Taking a day off work and waiting hours on end in line to fight a traffic ticket.
The ordeal was compounded by having to take a second day off six months later to appear in court.
This led the entrepreneurial-minded Kimel-Fleishman to launch filemytickets.com, a business that aims to eliminate at least half of that hassle for those who choose to fight a traffic or parking ticket.
The client simply fills out the ticket information on a standard challenge form posted on Kimmel-Fleishman’s website. It’s then printed and taken by a “filer” to a provincial offences or parking tag office, where they wait to file the challenge on the client’s behalf.
Such a service could change “the whole court system,” he said Wednesday.
“This is something that should have been done a long time ago,” said Kimel-Fleishman, who reckons his company has filed close to 3,000 tickets since its inception.
“I was just tired of waiting in line to fight tickets. I figured out that they want to make it difficult for you.”
Bureaucrats make it troublesome to fight tickets for two reasons, says Jason Baxter, general manager of X-Copper, an agency that fights traffic tickets in court for its clients.
One, the province and municipalities don’t want drivers to fight tickets — it gums up what is otherwise a revenue driver.
Two, there is a reluctance on the part of governments and courts to move away from the current antiquated, paper-based format.
“They want to discourage people from fighting tickets,” Baxter said. “Also, the governments and court systems operate at a slow (pace) and they just want a paper trail brought right to them.”
Toronto Police Service spokesman Wendy Drummond acknowledged there are at least two stages to fighting any kind of ticket.
“Of course you have to make yourself available to (challenge the ticket),” Drummond said. “And yes, there is another date where you have to be available again (for a court date).”
Information on the number of traffic and parking tickets issued by Toronto Police each year was not immediately available, Drummond said. But according to Ontario Provincial Police spokesman Peter Leon, the OPP issued more than 450,000 traffic tickets last year.

College buildings in poor shape: Students

One of the photos taken this summer shows an exposed ceiling.

Decline

Queen’s Park has given colleges $13.3 million a year over the past decade to fix facilities, plus occasional one-time grants, and together Ottawa and Ontario gave colleges some $300 million for repairs between 2006 and 2010, and $556 million more in capital grants in 2010/2011.
Yet the auditor-general’s report found the condition of college campuses on the decline, with at least half in “poor repair.”

TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

Leaky gymnasium ceilings with buckets to catch the drips, exposed pipes and rotten foundation beams are damaging the quality of Ontario’s community college experience, warns the province’s College Student Alliance, which is releasing a stark online photo gallery today as part of its election push for better post-secondary funding.

“Repairs and deferred maintenance don’t sound like a sexy campaign issue, but they could become a crisis of health and safety if they aren’t dealt with,” said Jim Robeson, the alliance’s director of advocacy.

The 15 photos were taken this summer by staff and students at colleges across the province.

The student group cites an Ontario auditor-general report that warns the value of deferred maintenance on college campuses is between $568 million and $748 million — with $70 million that needs fixing within one year.

Yet no party has properly dealt with the problem over the past 20 years, said Alliance President Brian Costantini, whose group represents about 130,000 students across 15 of the province’s 24 colleges. It is calling on students to educate themselves on the parties’ platforms.

Torontonians bow their heads for the victims of September 11

Toronto police pay tribute at Nathan Phillips Square to emergency workers who died in the line of duty during the 9/11 attacks. About 400 emergency workers died that day.

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

By Antonia Zerbisias Feature Writer

Flags flew at half-mast and hands were held over hearts in Toronto on Sunday as emergency responders came together to salute their lost brothers and sisters in New York City on 9/11.
About 200 participated in a morning ceremony at Nathan Phillips Square, many of them leather-clad and ready to saddle up for their 33rd annual ride for Christmas toys.
Sporting jackets emblazoned with “Blue Knights” for the Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, or “Red Knights” for the biker firefighters, they also wore patches that commemorated the World Trade Center, where New York firefighters, police and Port Authority officers were killed.
As Jason Balgopal, chair of Community Centre 55, put it at an afternoon remembrance service at Woodbine Park’s Millennium Garden, “Let us think of all those firefighters and police officers who ran into the buildings to give hope to the people running out.”
But there was no hope.
When the towers fell, the death toll of nearly 3,000 included 340 New York firefighters, two paramedics, and a beloved chaplain. The NYPD lost 23 officers while the Port Authority counted 37 dead, plus a bomb-sniffing member of the K-9 unit.
Their names were all engraved on a billboard mounted on the stage at Nathan Phillips Square.
Owen Sound paramedics Marsha and Ian Graham, members of the Red Knights, recalled being out on their bikes that morning, when they heard the news of the planes hitting the twin towers over the radio.
“It was a great day, just like today,’’ Ian told the Star, as he pointed to the almost cloudless sky. “We couldn’t believe it. We rode to the nearest ambulance station and watched the TV all day. Everybody was speechless.”
In Woodbine Park, where about 100 were assembled, Rosemarie Gordon, whose brother Titus Davidson was killed in the North Tower, read out the names of the 24 Canadians lost that day.
Their sister Monica Davidson, who was in the audience, said in an interview that Titus, a security guard contracted to Morgan Stanley, stayed behind to help out. All but three of the investment bank’s staff survived — but its five security guards did not.
“He called his daughter Tonya to say he was okay, and on the 49th floor helping some older folks out,” said Davidson. “But then she heard noises and he was calling Tonya, Tonya, Tonya …”
That was when the building was collapsing.
Gordon was joined at the podium by a succession of emergency responders, spiritual leaders and politicians.
Paying tribute to those they left behind, Beaches-East York MP Matthew Kellway talked of their “stories of tremendous resilience and triumph.”
Michael Prue, MPP for Beaches-East York, said, “It’s taken 10 long years but the pain never goes away.”

500 gather to stop ‘across the board’ city cuts

Nigel Bariffe, a school teacher in north Etobicoke, is worried about how budget cuts would affect his neighbours.

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

Tess Kalinowski Staff Reporter

Nigel Barriffe was a rare suburbanite among the downtowners at Dufferin Grove Park on Saturday at a gathering of about 500 people bent on organizing against planned austerity measures at City Hall.
“We’re part of Ford Nation but we feel we’ve been just thrown out,” said Barriffe, who lives and teaches near Kipling and Finch Aves.
It’s in the northwest part of the city represented by Mayor Rob Ford’s brother Doug Ford and Ford supporter Vincent Crisanti.
The prospect of cuts to libraries, the arts, parks, fire and police have rendered him “almost hopeless” on behalf of his students and their families at Greenholme Junior Middle School, said Barriffe.
In his diverse community only about half the kids have Internet access at home so the closure of a single library would be devastating, he said.
“These cuts are going to have a detrimental effect on the black and brown people in (Wards 1 and 2),” he said of his neighbours.
Saturday’s event was organized by the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network, with the goal of drafting an alternative vision for the city.
A homeowner, Barriffe was among those at the park near Dufferin and College Sts., who support property tax increases over service cuts when city council decides later this month how to close a gap estimated at up to $775 million in Toronto’s 2012 budget.
But Stop the Cuts organizer Jessica Lyons doesn’t buy the dire financial picture.
“We’re coming from a perspective that this is a crisis that has been manufactured,” she said.
A nurse and mother, Lyons said she’s personally concerned about cuts to daycare and public service workers, and Mayor Ford’s initial refusal to accept provincial funding for two public health nurses.
“The thing about these cuts is that they’re so across the aboard. There’s nobody that won’t be affected,” she said.
Saturday’s meeting was peaceful. Although one man, wearing an anti-union T-shirt and carrying another pro-Ford shirt, was asked to leave.
Toronto artist Cleo Halfpenny used the occasion to sell her homemade Mayor Rob Ford voodoo dolls for $20 as an outlet for anger she said people were feeling about the Ford administration. Ford dolls with Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti in the pocket sold for $25.
Organizers said the city tried to shut down the event by cancelling all programming in the busy park and closing the washrooms. But supportive city councillors intervened on Friday and arranged to have the washrooms remain open.
Another meeting is being planned for Sunday by the councillors for Toronto-Danforth, Paula Fletcher and Mary Fragedakis. Representatives trying to avert cuts to Riverdale Farm, libraries and environment programs will meet at Eastminster United Church on Danforth Ave., east of Broadview, at 2:30 p.m.

Oshawa boater missing after empty boat found

Vidya Kauri and Molly Hayes Staff Reporters

An Oshawa man was missing Sunday night after his boat was found near Ashbridge’s Bay on Toronto’s waterfront.
Toronto police say the boat was found about two kilometres south of Ashbridge’s Bay at about 5 a.m. on Sunday.
The boat is a 16-foot aluminum fishing boat with a small motor.
Nobody saw the boat launch — or the man get into his boat — but police say a truck and trailer belonging to the man were found at the harbour in Whitby.
Police say the boat left the marina sometime after 6 p.m. on Friday. They were trying to determine Sunday how many people might have been on board.
A grid search for the missing man was conducted Sunday between Toronto and Oshawa. Trenton Search and Rescue, Durham Marine Unit, Pickering and Ajax Rescue Unit, and the City of Oshawa’s Marine Rescue Association were involved.
The search will continue Monday morning.

Acadia student dies after heavy drinking

CBC News

RCMP said the student was found unconscious in a basement dorm room in the Chipman House residence building. The student died on Thursday. (CBC)

A 19-year-old Acadia University student, originally from Calgary, has died after consuming a large amount of alcohol earlier this week.
RCMP confirmed the teenager died at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax on Thursday. He was transported to hospital in critical condition early Tuesday morning after he was found unconscious in a basement dorm room at the Wolfville, N.S., university.
A cause of death has not been released.
Students at Acadia University told CBC News the student in question was participating in a drinking game on various floors of the Chipman House residence. All official frosh week events are dry, but residences are not.
One witness said the student drank about 40 ounces of alcohol.
A source inside the Chipman House residence said university staff held a meeting on Thursday afternoon to inform all the students who lived there that the 19-year-old had died.
Ben Jessome, the president of the Acadia Students' Union, said many students were upset to hear the news.
"I've spent a bit of time with some of his close friends over the past couple of days and from what I understand he's just the type of guy that everybody loves to be around and a lot of people care a lot about him," Jessome told CBC News.
"People are just pretty shook up right now and it's not a good time at Acadia but we're doing our best to try and be supportive of everybody and there's a lot of good people here on campus that are really stepping up to try and help our family out."
Ray Ivany, the president of Acadia University, said he had spoken with the student's family and offered his condolences.
"It's pretty rough, to be honest. Our thoughts and prayers, first and foremost, are with the family. Just tragic, tragic news," Ivany said.
"We are a family and we will mourn with our student's family."
Earlier on Thursday, Ivany sent a letter to the campus community.
"Our deepest and most heartfelt condolences are extended to all family members. The university has been informed by the student's family that he has donated his organs but they have requested that no other personal details be released," he wrote.
"I do, however, feel it is important to say that this student was a member of the Acadia family and, during his brief time on campus, established many friendships. His passing will be felt intensely by those individuals and staff and faculty will be reaching out to provide support."
Ivany said earlier this week that he had consulted with Dr. Robert Strang — Nova Scotia's chief public health officer — about the university's safety policies and procedures.
Ivany told CBC News he was committed to a review.
"I think Acadia has always prided itself on being a safe and secure environment and I think we're shaken over that," he said.
"But we also are committed to the review that I announced yesterday with Dr. Strang. We will leave no stone unturned to try to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again."

Body found at CFB Borden

Sarah Ratchford Staff Reporter

A body was found Thursday morning on the grounds of CFB Borden, near Barrie.
The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service is looking into the cause of death, which has not yet been released.
Capt. Shalako Smith, a spokesman for Canadian Forces, said the incident is under investigation, and that the Forces still have to inform the family of the death.
As a result, he couldn’t say whether the deceased was a man or a woman, or whether they were a member of the Forces. He also couldn’t say whether the death was an accident.

Joe O’Connor: Doug Ford is a genius. Maybe

Tyler Anderson/National Post

Etobicoke North councillor Doug Ford and brother of mayor Rob Ford

Joe O'Connor

My first job in journalism was a three-month stint interning at Toronto Life magazine back in 1999. One of the rituals at the magazine was to bring in guest speakers for a luncheon with editors — and lowly interns.
One such speaker was an urban planning guru, whose name I forget, but whose vision for Toronto, articulated in a room full of Torontonians accustomed to living beside a Great Lake that, for the most, was an urban afterthought and, thanks to neglect or ill-conceived development (think: Gardiner Expressway), more of a blight than a boon to the big city, sounded brave and bold.
On that day, some 12 years ago, the planner crowed about Chicago, a one-time industrial giant built on a meat packing industry that had bloodied the waters of Lake Michigan. Chicago transformed its mess into a miracle of parkland and beaches packed with people, and shoreline trials, and green space and life.
Toronto, the planner said, needed to be more like Chicago. To think big and reconnect to the big, theoretically blue body of freshwater it was built beside.
And so it was last week when Doug Ford, a business tycoon with a branch plant in Chicago, brother to Mayor Rob Ford, and a Toronto city councilor, unveiled his vision for Toronto’s long-neglected and oft discussed Port Lands.
Ford spoke of monorails, of lakeside shopping, of a giant Ferris wheel (!) and more, much more. He later told the Post’s Natalie Alcoba about his NFL dreams, sketching out his vision for a sparkling new stadium built not beside the lake, but in it, with a spit made of landfill connecting it to downtown.
Critics scoffed. They cried foul. The Brothers Ford are often dismissed as intellectual lightweights in this town, as hicks from the ‘burbs. But here was a hick doing something novel, and thinking outside the box about our waterfront.
To be fair, good things have been happening by our lake, albeit slowly. Progress has been made. Innovative thinking produced the Sugar Beach project and the Sherbourne Common.
Doug Ford (who knew?) might just be an innovator, too. A stadium in the lake. A giant Ferris wheel. It sounds crazy, and perhaps it is crazy, but crazy ideas can be transformative. The easy thing to do is dismiss them.
The Earth, after all, was flat, before it was round.

Human rights complaint filed against Persichilli

Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives to the Palais de l'Elysee in Paris, France., on Thursday, September 1, 2011 to take part in talks on Libya. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

MONTREAL — A separatist firebrand in Quebec has filed an official complaint against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new choice for

communications director. Gilles Rheaume wants the Canadian Human Rights Commission to investigate the appointment of Angelo Persichilli.

The ex-president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society says the fact that Persichilli can't speak French is unfair to French-speaking Canadians and journalists.
Rheaume also says that Persichilli, a former journalist, has engaged in "Quebec bashing" in some of his work.
Rheaume isn't the first Quebecer to complain about the appointment.
Several politicians and pundits have criticized the choice, saying it's a sign the province isn't a priority for Harper.

Markham daycare shut down after toddlers escape

Published On Sat Sep 03 2011

Claudia and Damian Alfonso pose with their daughter, Lucia, 18 months, at their Markham home. Lucia and some daycare friends left the centre's playground, crossed a busy parking lot and were found in a nearby drugstore.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR

Laurie Monsebraaten Social Justice Reporter

An award-winning daycare in Markham has had its licence suspended after three toddlers walked out of the playground undetected, crossed a busy parking lot and entered a neighbouring drugstore.
A subsequent investigation by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services found that the children were being underfed and that the centre’s supervisor was not qualified.
The Markham Village Childcare Centre, located in a strip mall on Highway 7 near Ninth Line, was closed by ministry officials Wednesday.

View the PDFs (Page 1 and Page 2) of the Notice of Direction.

Three staff were supervising 11 children on the morning of Aug. 16 when the incident occurred.
After the toddlers — ranging in age from 18 to 24 months and still in diapers — wandered out of sight, five other children also escaped from the playground through an open gate. But the five were rounded up before they got very far, say parents and a daycare staff member interviewed by the Star.
Store staff who found the little boy and two girls at the neighbouring Shoppers Drug Mart were horrified. “We all have small children and we couldn’t believe this was happening,” said cosmetics area manager Shireen Moniz.
She was alerted to the drama when the boy got his fingers caught in the store’s automatic door and began crying. Moniz and another staff member freed him.
“One of the little girls was already inside and when we looked outside we saw another little girl standing in the driveway,” she said.
“There was a UPS truck coming and we ran out screaming ‘Stop!’ ” she said.
Damian Alfonso credits the Shoppers staff with saving the life of his 18-month-old daughter, Lucia.
“She was standing in the parking lot. She could have been killed by that truck,” he said.
It was obvious to staff that the children didn’t belong to anyone in the store, so they sent someone to the daycare, about 100 metres away.
At first, the daycare didn’t seem to realize there was anyone missing, said store manager Gary McKoy. Once they realized their mistake, workers came to collect the children.
“I wasn’t going to release the children to just anyone,” said McKoy, who called police. The police took a report and released the children back to the daycare.
Sarah Tan, whose son, Kairon, had his fingers caught in the door, learned of her son’s escape from York Regional Police.
Tan later asked police to retrieve the daycare’s playground surveillance video. They did so this week, and passed it on to the ministry.
Tan, who saw one of two videos recorded, said footage showed one of the playground staff on a cellphone and the other two staff talking to each other.
The ministry has told Sharifah Amanda Ally, the daycare’s owner, to hire a new supervisor.
“(Ally) has not hired a qualified supervisor to plan and direct the program of the day nursery, be in charge of the children and oversee the staff,” says an order from the ministry, posted on the daycare’s door.
Ally did not return numerous phone calls Friday.
However, a letter from the daycare to parents the day after the three toddlers escaped said the incident occurred “when staff were distracted while tending to other children.”
The daycare letter said the tots were missing for about 12 minutes before staff were sent to the drugstore to retrieve them.
“The Centre is taking the following measures to ensure that an event like this never occurs again,” the letter says. The measures listed include: installation of child-proof latches on playground gates, rearrangement of toys “to allow for an unobstructed view of the entire playground” and reprimands for staff involved.
The daycare opened on June 10, 2009, and has won the Markham Economist and Sun’s reader choice award for best child care two years running.
A ministry inspection in June gave the daycare failing grades on 12 points. Those issues, which were quickly resolved, ranged from incomplete playground checklists to improper record-keeping on medicine administered to children.
Most recently, a ministry inspection found there was not enough food in the centre to feed the number of children enrolled.
There were 28 children enrolled, “but catered food was ordered for only 13,” according to the ministry.
The daycare will remain closed until a qualified supervisor is hired and the centre’s operator provides evidence of sufficient food, as well as a detailed plan on how the children will be looked after at all times.
“This daycare will not open until all our requirements are met,” said Ken Dove, a government spokesman.
Meanwhile, little Lucia’s family — who sent Shoppers Drug Mart staff flowers to thank them — has found another daycare centre.
“I can’t imagine my little granddaughter, wandering alone like this,” said Lucia’s grandfather, Edgar Timor.
“It just makes me feel terrible. She is everything to us.”
With files from Liam Casey

Cop side-swiped by SUV, driver charged

By Chris Doucette ,Toronto Sun

Toronto Police officer carries a child from an SUV where the driver allegedly tried to run down two bicycle cops in downtown areaon Friday. The vehicle was stopped on Shuter St, and after a brief foot chase, a female passenger with a baby, was taken into custody. The woman was later released without charges, while the driver was charged with attempted murder. (ALLAN CULLEN/Special to the Toronto Sun)

TORONTO - A 29-year-old man faces an attempted murder charge Saturday for allegedly trying to run down two bicycle cops with a stolen SUV in downtown Toronto.

A woman and a baby were also on board as passengers in the SUV that Toronto bike cops tried to stop.
Police say the officers involved in the close call had received information the SUV was stolen and they tried to stop the vehicle Friday afternoon near Bay and Dundas Sts.
However, the driver of the SUV allegedly attempted to evade police by speeding off eastbound on Dundas St. E. and he came dangerously close to running down two officers along the way.
“They had to scramble to get out of the way,” Sgt. Ed McVeigh of 51 Division said Saturday.
One cop dove out of the way near on Dundas just east of Bay. Some reports suggest his bike was run over.
A second cop narrowly escaped being run down near Dundas Square, McVeigh said.
The incident prompted other officers to flood the area on bikes and in cruisers, he said.
Police caught up with the stolen vehicle soon after in front of 285 Shuter St., an apartment building just east of Parliament St.
The occupants attempted to flee on foot but were quickly nabbed.
The baby was found uninjured, McVeigh said.
The woman was taken into custody but was later released without charges.
But the man who was allegedly behind the wheel is charged with attempted murder, assault with a weapon, failure to stop for police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and possession of property obtained by crime.
The two officers who were nearly run over were taken to St. Michael’s Hospital with minor injuries.
“They have some scrapes and bruises, but they’re okay,” McVeigh said, adding it could easily have been much worse.

Waterfront Toronto leaking cash

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford walks along the waterfront with Councillor Michael Thompson on Friday. The city proposes on taking over development of the shoreline. (CRAIG ROBERTSON/Toronto Sun)

TORONTO - The eco-snobs were predictably all a-Twitter this past week that Councillor Doug Ford and council’s executive committee are poised to strip Waterfront Toronto of control over development of the Port Lands — and hand it to the Toronto Port Lands Company.
Those with a Predilection for Navel-Gazing and their pals in the media chose to attack Ford’s “vision” for the Port Lands instead of focussing on what Waterfront Toronto has done, or not done, since it was created through a tripartite agreement 10 years ago.
Fact is, in 10 years Waterfront Toronto has done a better job than many city departments of spending money on pricey consultants and of expanding their highly-paid staff — with limited results to show for it.
It didn’t escape my attention either that within hours of Ford putting forward his ideas, Waterfront Toronto was busy doing their P.R. Spin on some of the perceived to be pliable councillors – Michelle Berardinetti, Mary Margaret McMahon, James Pasternak and Josh Matlow.
“Waterfront Toronto has an excellent P.R. Machine and the taxpayers of the city of Toronto pay a good dollar for that,” Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a vocal critic, says.
Waterfront Toronto has a staff of 70 and an operating budget of $12.9-million this year, all of which is funded by tax dollars.
That does not include 11 staff with the city’s $1.5-million Waterfront Secretariat.
Some 15 of the 70 staff were part of the $100,000-plus club last year. CEO John Campbell made $352,531 and v-p of government relations Marisa Piattelli earned $223,518.
I asked Piattelli to confirm whether $1 billion has been spent to date on projects and consultants and to provide a list of projects completed and their cost. She came back with a dizzying array of numbers.
But basically her figures do confirm that close to $1 billion has been spent to date, slightly less than half of that on actual infrastructure — roads, sewers, site preparation, soil remediation and flood protection — new green spaces and land acquisitions.
Another $230-million has been racked up on technical consultants, architects, master plans and environmental approvals and a further $45.2 million on “corporate costs”, including H.R. and management consultants.
Waterfront Toronto claims on its fancy website it has opened 17 new or improved public spaces in 10 years. A quick check of Piattelli’s numbers shows the big-ticket items — Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common and the three wave decks — were pretty much entirely funded by the Harper government.
A source told me the projects only got done because finance minister Jim Flaherty insisted they be completed and coughed up virtually all of the money to make it happen.
But the biggest myth circulating amongst the eco-snobs is that Waterfront Toronto was responsible for Corus Quay, the first commercial development on the Waterfront.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It was developed by Toronto Port Lands Company (TPLC), or the former TEDCO, with money borrowed from the city, money which is now being paid back with interest.
The building cost about $130-million to construct with Waterfront Toronto kicking in $12-million to bring it up to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standard.
“We built the building on time and on budget and the tenant (on a 20-year lease) has been paying us rent for over a year,” Michael Kraljevic, president and CEO of TPLC, says.
“It allows the rest of the East Bayfront lands to be developed,” he adds, noting Corus Quay “kickstarted” the development of George Brown College, which is funded 100% by the province.
The Corus Quay building is now up for sale and has had “many bites,” Kraljevic added.
I could go on about the 200 affordable housing units that Waterfront Toronto said would be built in the West Don Lands by 2007 and which won’t start construction until at least 2012.
But perhaps Minnan-Wong says it best.
“Waterfront Toronto...they’re big on spending...short on results,” he said.
He adds the TPLC is kind of like the Little Engine that Could.
“They’re the only organization on the Waterfront that’s built one square foot of commercial space,” he says. “They’re focussed and get things done.”

Police lay charges in shooting death of woman

A Toronto police car appears in this file photo. (CP24/Tom Stefanac)

Toronto police have charged one man and are seeking a second suspect in the shooting death of a 25-year-old woman.
Pamela Ariza was fatally shot in an apartment on Seeley Drive early Saturday morning, while a second woman suffered a non-life-threatening wound to the knee.
Toronto resident Andy Barrientos, 18, is charged with second-degree murder. A second suspect, 23-year-old Jeremy Sirur-Yee, is wanted for second-degree murder.
Sirur-Yee is described as black, 5'6", and 150 pounds with black hair worn in a medium afro or cornrows, police said.
He also has the word "Amirah" tattooed on his right forearm.
Police said he is to be considered armed and dangerous.
Anyone with information about Sirur-Yee's whereabouts is asked to call police

TTC driver in fatal crash probed for pot

By Ian Robertson ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Thursday, September 01, 2011 06:53 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, September 01, 2011 07:07 PM ED

**A female passenger died after a TTC bus rear-ended a flatbed crane truck Tuesday afternoon. (ALEX UROSEVIC/Toronto Sun)**

TORONTO - The investigation into a TTC bus crash that killed a passenger took a startling twist Thursday, when a detective confirmed the driver is being probed for possessing marijuana.Toronto Police traffic unit Det.-Const. Carl Anderson said officers will meet next week with a prosecutor to determine the status of any pot-related offences or charges related to Tuesday’s fatal crash.
The TTC later announced “disciplinary proceedings” were launched against the driver, who was suspended from duty after the collision.
The TTC learned late Wednesday “police suspected the operator had an unspecified quantity of illegal drugs in his possession,” but added in a statement “the TTC found no evidence of impairment.”
The alleged pot found in the 52-year-old, 11-year driver’s bag several hours after the crash is undergoing forensic testing, Anderson told the Sun Thursday.
No blood test was conducted, since there was “nothing at that time to show he was under the influence of an intoxicant” he later told reporters.
Anderson would not say who may face charges related to the crash on a Lawrence Ave. E. hill near the Don Valley Parkway, but said the busman, operator of the rear-ended flatbed crane truck. plus the driver of a car scattered with wreckage debris were interviewed.
The detective said the heavy Orion coach was apparently beginning to pass when the truck slowed down just east of a DVP northbound on-ramp, west of Railside Rd.
Sitting in the back of the bus, Jadranka Petrova, 43, pitched forward in the collision. She was able to leave by the nearby rear exit, but then collapsed.
Paramedics were treating her when she died in the ambulance, Anderson said.
He said four on-board video cameras recorded the “very dramatic” impact, showing the front entrance being demolished and passengers as young as eight being “tossed around the inside of the bus.”
A spokesman for the Heritage Funeral Centre on Overlea Blvd., near where Petrova lived, said her family is finalizing funeral arrangement.

Doctor dined while patient died

By Michele Mandel

TORONTO - For a motherless boy who sends balloons heavenward on the anniversary of his mom’s preventable death, the liposuction anesthetist who mismanaged her care in the recovery room should lose his medical licence for life.
That was the position of the boy’s father as well as the College of Physicians and Surgeons Thursday at the start of the penalty hearing for Dr. Bruce Liberman, who was found incompetent in his post-operative care of realtor Krista Stryland at the Toronto Cosmetic Clinic in 2007.
“Every Sept. 20, my son sends balloons up to heaven with messages like, ‘I hope you’re okay’ and ‘I miss you’ to his Mummy,” Nick Stryland wrote in his victim impact statement read at the hearing.
“As a father, it is so painful to watch as (he) looks to the sky, hoping to see heaven and maybe a glimpse of his mother looking down,” he wrote.
Stryland said his only hope is Liberman and Dr. Behnaz Yazdanfar, who performed the surgery, will be held responsible and stripped of their right to practise medicine.
“When (my son) grows up,” he wrote, “I want to be able to look him in the eye, explain to him what happened and let him know that although this was a terrible, tragic loss, the system did not fail him in how it dealt with these doctors.”
Liberman displayed no emotion as Jill Copeland, the lawyer for the college, said the severe penalty of revoking his licence is the only way of reassuring the public that their safety is being protected.
In May, the college’s disciplinary committee found that when Stryland’s condition worsened and she went into shock following a botched liposuction operation, Liberman didn’t call 911 when his initial treatment failed or later when she became unconscious.
The panel also said he “engaged in disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional conduct when he removed his Sept. 20, 2007, resuscitation note from the chart and replaced it with a note written the next day.”
The hearing heard that when the dying Stryland was finally taken by ambulance to North York General Hospital and doctors were struggling unsuccessfully to save her life, Liberman and Yazdanfar went out for dinner.
While his lawyers are expected to argue Liberman can mend his ways, the college wants to introduce a 1998 complaint which it says proves otherwise. After finding he didn’t react aggressively enough in treating a dying child while working as an emergency doctor, he was referred to the college’s quality assurance committee in 2001.
“Dr. Liberman was given a warning,” Copeland said. “He did not heed that warning...He failed to equip himself to deal with another emergency, Krista Stryland’s case.”
The hearing continues Sept. 26

Cops ripped for handcuffing autistic boy

By Michele Mandel

TORONTO - Surely there’s a better way for police to deal with an unruly child with special needs than slapping him with handcuffs and treating him like a criminal.
“That wouldn’t be appropriate for any child,” insisted Dr. Glenn Rampton, the CEO of Kerry’s Place Autism Services, which serves 5,000 clients with autism disorders across Southern Ontario. “I can’t imagine anyone would think that would be an appropriate way to deal with a nine-year-old kid.”
Yet Toronto Police are actually defending their treatment of a young boy with Asperger’s syndrome after they were called to Fairbank Memorial Day Care Centre on July 28 by staff who had locked the nine-year-old in a classroom.
“We got a call that this boy was out of control and he was a danger to himself,” explained Const. Victor Kwong. “One officer had to wait for backup because this kid was being aggressive — he barricaded himself with tables and chairs, he had thrown paint all over the room. The police pushed open the door and told him to lie down and they cuffed him.”
Kwong said the handcuffs were removed about five minutes later once the mobile crisis intervention team arrived and calmed him down.
“We don’t like to handcuff children but safety is the No. 1 issue here and if it’s called for, we will do it,” he said. “The police officers did everything right.”
But why didn’t they wait for the crisis team — with an officer trained in mental-health issues and a registered nurse with more than 30 years experience — instead of terrifying a developmentally disabled child?
“There was no telling how long it would have been,” Kwong maintained.
The boy’s mother is understandably outraged. Instead of waiting for her to arrive to defuse the situation, the daycare called 911.
“Our staff are not able to restrain a child nor should they,” explained Peter Frampton, director of the centre’s parent organization, the Learning Enrichment Foundation.
Once she arrived, she couldn’t believe her son had been handcuffed by police. “My son is traumatized, I’m traumatized, My son is devastated,” Linda Dastous told a reporter. “It’s something my son is never ever going to forget.”
The boy blamed his tantrum on being bullied during the lunch hour. Children with autistic spectrum disorder can often have outbursts when they become frustrated, Dr. Rampton said. But there are far better ways of dealing with the situation — such as avoiding the triggers and defusing their anger — than mechanically restraining them.
“Why would two great big policemen need to put handcuffs on a nine-year-old when they should be fully capable of calming that child down?” the psychologist demanded. “Maybe they shouldn’t go out on a call like that unless they’re trained to deal with it.”
Autism Ontario spent Tuesday fielding calls from distraught parents.
“It’s very distressing,” said executive director Margaret Spoelstra. “I had a mother in tears saying, ‘How is it possible that this could happen in our city that we don’t have enough information out there that you can’t treat people with autism spectrum disorder — and a nine-year-old — in this way?’ ”
Her organization has offered training to Toronto Police but unlike their colleagues in Ottawa, few have taken advantage of it. “To me, the most important thing is training and public awareness. There is a way to respond and a way to de-escalate,” Spoelstra said. “I’d be very concerned about the impact on this boy.”
Just imagine his fear.
“They busted through the door with their shoulders,” he told a reporter. “And then they said, ‘Get on the ground,’ so I got on the ground. Two cops grabbed my arms and then he took the cuffs and put them on me.”
Toronto Police say they later reassured him that he wasn’t in trouble and gave him and his mom a ride home. “The boy left with a handshake and a hug. He seemed to understand the situation,” Kwong insisted.
Not quite so, it seems.
“I still feel scared of the police,” the poor child said. “And whenever I see a cop car, I hold my mom’s hand.”

Brampton man and son cleared of attacking thieves

By Michele Mandel

BRAMPTON - Nine months after being arrested as vigilantes for apprehending the two punks repeatedly stealing from their auto parts yard, John Hutchins and his son Steve have had all their charges withdrawn.

But Hutchins insists he would do it all again because a man has a right to defend his family business, especially when it seems the police won’t do anything at all.
It’s the day after they’ve finally been set free by the court system that has had them entangled ever since they took the law into their own hands last November. In their busy scrap business piled high with old radiators and car carcasses, there is much relief that it’s over at last.
“It’s been a real ordeal,” sighs Hutchins, the burly 60-year-old who made our front page last fall. “I guess they looked at all the facts and have seen we weren’t aggressive.”
His victory follows that of Chinatown grocer David Chen who was acquitted last year of assaulting a shoplifter after a judge found he “tried to fill the void where the justice system failed.”
Like Chen, Hutchins argued he wasn’t looking for a confrontation, he was just tired of being left to fend for himself. “I didn’t go to those kids’ homes and break in and steal their X-boxes and their secret porn stash. They came here. And they just kept coming back and back and back. They were relentless — like mosquitoes.”
Until finally he decided enough was enough.
He made at least eight documented complaints to Peel police about thieves stealing from his yard. Hutchins supplied license plates, descriptions, even preserved a boot print. “We did all the work for them,” he argues.
He was told to hire himself a security guard.
He’s not a big utility company or a brand name corporation being ripped off for its copper. Hutchins runs a small business with his three sons and doesn’t have the cash to hire security or sustain thousands of dollars in losses every weekend. So when thieves broke in for the third week in a row, he hatched his plan.
Hutchins armed himself with a baseball bat and lay in wait with his sons. When they spotted a van being loaded with his radiators, he blocked the vehicle with his own, smashed their windshield with his bat and demanded they get out. The thieves took off across the field. His son caught one kid while Hutchins chased the other with his truck and then got out to subdue him.
“He was a little uncooperative so he has a few black eyes,” Hutchins said at the time.
Today he insists the thief must have fallen in the field. “I could have done so much damage to them. We were very, very careful.”
The two 17-year-olds readily admitted they’d stolen from Hutchins’ yard on six different occasions and they were promptly charged with theft. Hutchins thought his problems were over.
But three days later, he was shocked to learn the teens weren’t the only ones in trouble: He and his son were under arrest as well.
Hutchins was charged with mischief over $5,000 for smashing the windshield, assault and assault with a weapon — the bat — while his 24-year-old son was charged with theft because he had one of the teens’ necklaces in his possession after he’d ripped it off in their struggle.
After much negotiating behind the scenes and their agreement to sign a peace bond, the two Hutchins’ men saw the charges withdrawn Tuesday. As for the teens, he has no idea what happened to their charges — he doesn’t expect much was done — but he believes he’s entitled to some restitution, especially since one of their parents arrived at the police station driving a BMW.
He remains bitter that he and his son were charged.
“I really believe it was unfair what happened to me,” Hutchins says. “I was totally let down. Totally.”
After thousands in legal bills and months facing serious charges, you’d think Hutchins would think twice about repeating his Rambo routine. Not so.
“I believe we did what was right,” he argues. “I have to do whatever I have to do to protect my property, my family and my life.”

Perjury case against Mounties postponed

QMI Agency

First posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 07:57 PM EDT

VANCOUVER - Four Mounties involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski have had their legal proceedings put over until Sept. 28.

Constables Bill Bentley, Kwesi Millington and Gerry Rundell and Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson were scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday to face perjury charges. They are accused of lying about their actions when they confronted Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport.

Dziekanski’s death on Oct. 27, 2007, captured international attention after video surfaced of the Polish immigrant being shot with RCMP Tasers.

His death also sparked the Braidwood inquiry that looked into the Mounties actions. The four officers told the commission they feared for their safety when Dziekanski picked up a stapler. Commissioner Thomas Braidwood rejected that testimony in his final report.

The officers did not appear in court Wednesday. Instead their lawyers appeared on their behalf to ask for the change of date.

No charges were ever laid again the Mounties in Dziekanski’s death.

Government of Canada expands “Wanted by the CBSA” list

Toronto, Ontario, August 18, 2011 — Today, the federal government expanded its “Wanted by the CBSA” list to include individuals who have failed to comply with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and have criminal convictions in Canada. The announcement was made in Toronto by the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety, Candice Hoeppner, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, Chris Alexander and Luc Portelance, President of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

“Canadians are taking a stand against those who are in our country illegally,” said Minister Toews. “Our Government is committed to removing individuals who are inadmissible because they are suspected of, or complicit in, war crimes or crimes against humanity and those who have been convicted for acts of serious criminality committed in Canada.”

The Government of Canada takes its obligation to safeguard public safety very seriously and will take all necessary measures to ensure Canadians are protected. To date, tips from the public have helped in the successful apprehension of six individuals on the original list of 30 announced on July 21, with a seventh individual located outside of Canada.

“Canada’s doors will not remain open to those who have broken the law and have endangered the safety of our citizens,” said Parliamentary Secretary Hoeppner.

The CBSA, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police work cooperatively with international partners to ensure that those who have failed to comply with the IRPA, have been found to be inadmissible and have criminal convictions in the country, find no sanctuary in Canada.

“With the tremendous assistance of the public, the CBSA has made progress in finding and apprehending individuals on the ‘Wanted by the CBSA’ list,” said President Portelance. “With this expanded list, we encourage the public to visit our Web site for updates and continue to send in any tips as to the whereabouts of these wanted individuals, by calling the Border Watch Toll-free Line or their local police.”

The Government will continue to be vigilant at the border and around the world, making our communities a safer place to live and our country more secure.

“Our Government cannot tolerate individuals who attempt to stay in Canada illegally,” said Parliamentary Secretary Alexander. ”Through CBSA’s expansion of the list of individuals who are believed to be residing illegally throughout this country, the Government of Canada, with the help of the public, will continue to track down these individuals so that justice can be served”

Wanted by the CBSA - War Crimes

These individuals are the subject of an active Canada-wide warrant for removal because they are inadmissible to Canada. It has been determined that they violated human or international rights under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act or under international law.

Take no action to apprehend these persons yourself. Report any information to the Border Watch Line

Found

Name: BAHATY BAYAVUGE, Abraham

Alias:
BAYAVUGE, Bahaty

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1962-07-27

Place of Birth: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Last Known Address:
Montréal, Quebec

Identifying Features:
No information on file

Apprehended

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(jpg, 53 KB)

Name: MUHAMMAD, Arshad

Alias:
ARANCI, Certosa
ARSHAD, Muhammad

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1968-10-01

Place of Birth: Pakistan

Last Known Address:
Montréal, Quebec

Identifying Features:
Scar Right Leg-Gen
Scar Forehead

Apprehended

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(jpg, 15 KB)

Name: PANTOJA CARBONEL, Henry

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1958-06-27

Place of Birth: Peru

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

Removed/Apprehended - PANTOJA CARBONEL, Henry

Apprehended
Removed

Wanted

Name: ALIDU, Kiemtor

Alias:
SEIDU, Kiemtor (1955-01-01)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1955-01-01

Place of Birth: Ghana

Last Known Address:
Scarborough, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 20 KB)

Name: BERKO, Frank Kobena

Alias:
KOBENA, Berko Frank

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1952-11-30

Place of Birth: Ghana

Last Known Address:
Downsview, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Scar on cheek

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(jpg, 12 KB)

Name: DEMIYE, Ali Mohamed

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1956-05-02

Place of Birth: Somalia

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 2 MB)

Name: DJURIC, Dragan

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1970-12-08

Place of Birth: Yugoslavia

Last Known Address:
Kitchener, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Scar middle of back

High resolution
(jpg, 31 KB)

Name: EDOSOMWAN, William

Alias:
NAMBIA, JOHN (1960-01-30)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1960-01-30

Place of Birth: Nigeria

Last Known Address:
Weston, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 32 KB)

Name: EMMANNUEL, Nna

Alias:
NNA, Emmanuel (1965-03-26)
ADIMIBE, Chuks (1962-06-13)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1965-04-26

Place of Birth: Nigeria

Last Known Address:
Mississauga, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Scar loc: cheek

High resolution
(jpg, 30 KB)

Name: FARAH, Mohamed Hassan

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1954-09-24

Place of Birth: Somalia

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

High resolution
(jpg, 7 MB)

Name: FERNANDO, Jerome

Alias:
PUNCHA, Jerome (1963-09-30)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1963-09-30

Place of Birth: Sri Lanka

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Mark Mouth
Mark Eyes
Scar Cheek

High resolution
(jpg, 36 KB)

Name: GABRIL, Sebastiao Jose

Alias:
PINTO SOBRAL, Jose Pedro (1972-11-19)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1969-10-07

Place of Birth: Angola

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Birth mark on upper left arm

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(jpg, 36 KB)

Name: HAFIZ, Mahmood Khalid

Alias:
Aslam

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1969-01-15

Place of Birth: Hafiz Abad, Pakistan

Last Known Address:
Calgary, Alberta

Identifying Features:
Hair-black, Eyes-black

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(jpg, 1 MB)

Name: HERNANDEZ HERNANDEZ, Francisco Manuel

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1968-04-20

Place of Birth: El Salvador

Last Known Address:
Scarborough, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

Name: HERSI, Abdullahi Said

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1950-05-15

Place of Birth: Somalia

Last Known Address:
Etobicoke, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 1.9 MB)

Name: KESIR FIRS, Atean Al Meliky

Alias:
HAIDER, Bashir
BASHIR, Haider
AL MELIKY, Kesir
BASHIR, H Abed Rashid

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1973-11-14

Place of Birth: Iraq

Last Known Address:
Montréal, Quebec

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 46 KB)

Name: KHALID, Abdullah

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1967-03-21

Place of Birth: Afghanistan

Last Known Address:
Scarborough, Ontario

Identifying Features:
Birth mark on cheek

High resolution
(jpg, 21 KB)

Name: KHALIL, Abdul

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1935-12-05

Place of Birth: Afghanistan

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information available

High resolution
(jpg, 33 KB)

Name: MALAGA ARICA, Jose Domingo

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1955-02-22

Place of Birth: Peru

Last Known Address:
Mississauga, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file.

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(jpg, 7 KB)

Name: MOHAMED, Mohamud Kariye

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1949-09-28

Place of Birth: Somalia

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file.

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(jpg, 15 KB)

Name: OSMAN YOUSEF, Omar

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1980-01-02

Place of Birth: Sudan

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 2.3 MB)

Name: OSMANI, Sharif

Alias:
SHARIF, Osmani (1972-06-25)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1972-06-25

Place of Birth: Afghanistan

Last Known Address:
North York, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information available

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(jpg, 12 KB)

Name: PRINCE, Mathurin

Alias:
No information on file

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1960-10-24

Place of Birth: Haiti

Last Known Address:
Gloucester, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information on file

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(jpg, 13 KB)

Name: RASULI, Nazir Ahmed

Alias:
LATIFI, Ahmed (1974-08-01)
YEAYEA, Gulan (1974-02-02)

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1974-02-02

Place of Birth: Afghanistan

Last Known Address:
Toronto, Ontario

Identifying Features:
No information available

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(jpg, 13 KB)

Name: RATNI, Mohamed

Alias:
BRECHE, Jérôme
BRECHE, Jean Francis

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 1975-05-22

Place of Birth: Algeria

Last Known Address:
Montréal, Quebec

Identifying Features:
scar on forehead

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(jpg, 91 KB)

Co-worker charged in Schomberg slayings

By Terry Davidson

Mystery surrounds the death of two workers and the arrest of another at an excavating company north of Toronto on Tuesday.
Police were called around 10:25 a.m. about “unknown trouble” at James Elliott Underground Construction Inc. on Lloydtown-Aurora Rd., near Hwy. 400, in King Township.
One male employee was found dead at the scene and another, a badly injured man, was taken to hospital where he later died.
York Regional Police took a third man into custody and are treating the incident as a double homicide. No charges had yet been laid.
Friends and co-workers identified the dead men as Billy Jones and Jimmy Wilson, both in their 70s and long-time employees of the company.
York police confirmed Wednesday morning that the victims' identities as James Wilson and William Allan Jones, both 76.
An employee said the man taken into custody, described as a worker who had been hired a year ago after arriving from Saskatchewan.
The three men often worked together and usually got along, said part-time employee Dorie Nightingale.
“Someone must have got angry and snapped, and now two people are dead — and they were all friends,” said Nightingale.
Clarence Boyd was supposed to be at the construction yard at 10 a.m. Tuesday to help with some paperwork, but missed the deadly episode because he was late.
By the time he arrived, police had cordoned off the yard.
Boyd said he had known both Jones and Wilson for years. He remembered them as good men — each with a quick, wry sense of humour. He was perplexed as to what could have prompted the killings.
“(Jones and Wilson) treated all the (other) employees with great respect,” said Boyd, adding that Jones was a single man from nearby Schomberg, while Wilson had a wife and “a couple of kids” and was from the Orangeville area.
Boyd also said that Jones had worked there for over 40 years, and Wilson had been an employee for just over a decade. He also said that the office manager, Judy Cox, was the one who called 911.
Later in the afternoon, a black, unmarked police car left the site with a teary, puffy-eyed blonde woman in the back seat who both Nightingale and Boyd identified as Cox. Later, a black van rolled out of the dusty yard carrying a body bag.
The owner of the company, James Elliott, spent the day talking with police and did not comment about the incident.
Robert Abernethy, 47, Schomberg, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder. He is to appear in Newmarket court on Wednesday.

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