Teen hockey player punches official after game

A midget-division hockey player in B.C. has been suspended for punching a linesman after a heated game Sunday between his Surrey Hurricanes and the Prince George Cougars.

The incident occurred after the game at the Richmond International Bantam Hockey Tournament and, though accounts differ, appears to have involved the player, a linesman and the referee. The teenager allegedly hit the linesman when he stepped in to break up an on-ice skirmish. 

Witnesses say the linesman hit the ice and the player was swinging his arms wildly at him until they were broken up. The linesman was sent to hospital and released.

Randy Potskin, coach of the Prince George Cougars, was shocked at what he saw on the ice.

"[The player] went after the referee initially and then the linesman stepped in and he got the brunt of it and he wouldn't stop. He would not stop. He wanted a piece of somebody," Potskin told CBC News.

'Unacceptable at any level of hockey'

Parents watching the game said the incident came after a highly emotional game. Steve Vorley, the father of another Surrey player, said he had never seen anything like it.

"Not after the whistle blows and the game ends, but there were lots of emotions through out the game. I guess that is what happens," said Vorley.

Barry Petrachenko, Executive Director of BC Hockey, said the organization is investigating what he called an unprecedented incident. (CBC)

​Potskin said it has been years since he witnessed that level of aggression, especially after a game and directed at an official.

"If one of my players did that, I wouldn't want him on my team. It's unacceptable at this level of hockey. It's unacceptable at any level of hockey."

Surrey Hurricanes coach Scott Sparkman said the incident was overblown and he never saw his player throw a punch. 

"I saw a scrum ... My main concern was that my player was acting inappropriately in a scrum," Sparkman told CBC News.

Sparkman said he suspended the teenager "because he's in my doghouse."

Unprecedented incident, BC Hockey says

BC Hockey, an organization governing all levels of amateur hockey in B.C., has started investigating the incident, said Barry Petrachenko, the group's executive director.

The investigation will take several days and is likely to include a hearing with the player.

'We've never had this type of thing happen before, and so we'll be kind of charting a new path with it.'- Barry Petrachenko, BC Hockey's executive director

Petrachenko said this type of incident is unprecedented for the organization.

"We've never had this type of thing happen before, and so we'll be kind of charting a new path with it," he said.

 A decision will be made in the next seven to 10 days. Petrachenko said he hopes the decision will act as "a little bit of a deterrent in the future."

"We have to find a balance between having something that has no effect on them because it's so severe ... and the fact that I think we all agree this is a pretty terrible situation and one that has to be dealt with very, very sternly," he said, adding a lifetime ban is an option that has not yet been ruled out.

Richmond RCMP are not investigating and said no charges are likely for the teenage player.

Meanwhile, the linesman will not be able to referee for the remainder of the Richmond International Ice Hockey Tournament, one of the biggest events of the year.

The midget division of minor league hockey is aimed at players aged under 18, usually between 15 and 17 years old.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Surrey hockey mom not expected to survive arena attack

A 53-year-old hockey mom who was brutally assaulted while waiting to pick up her son in an arena parking lot in Surrey, B.C., Sunday night, is not expected to survive the attack, police say.

The woman was discovered unconscious in the Newton Arena parking lot around 9:30 p.m. PT Sunday.

"The investigation revealed a female had been attacked and suffered serious injuries and is not expected to survive," RCMP said Monday in a release.

A Surrey hockey coach who knows the family told CBC News the attack was an attempted robbery gone wrong and the woman is in hospital on life support with her husband at her side, but she is not expected to survive.

"This woman is so nice it's just ridiculous. So many people in our association know this family and what this family is all about," said coach Darwyn Shawara.

"This is crazy, whoever did this, this is ridiculous, this is just crazy," he said.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over the investigation on Monday morning and blocked off a large area of the parking lot while they search for clues.

"Due to the circumstances of this tragic incident,we are asking the public to be extra vigilant," RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said in a news release.

"It is important that people are aware of their surroundings when they are out and that they keep their valuables concealed. Walk with a friend whenever possible, particularly after dark."

The recreation facilities remain open to the public while the investigation is underway.

Google Maps: Newton Arena

View Larger Map

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Year's chill: Bitterly cold temperatures to ring in 2014

Canadians awoke to below-freezing temperatures and wind chill warnings in much of the country and can expect a body-numbing last day of 2013, with the wind chill creating extremely cold conditions heading into the New Year. 

On Monday, a number of provinces faced below-freezing temperatures, as Manitoba, parts of Saskatchewan, northern Ontario and Quebec were all under extreme wind chill warnings.

In Manitoba, where the wind chill made it feel like –40 C to –50 C, the cold weather forced at least one airline to cancel some flights. ExpressJet, a partner of United Airlines, cancelled several flights out of Winnipeg Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Airline representatives said the unique combination of extreme low temperatures and ice crystals exceed safe operating guidelines for their aircraft, which are small commuter planes that carry 35 to 70 passengers.

Passengers were moved onto flights operated by other airlines and rerouted through other cities.

According to Environment Canada, an arctic ridge of high pressure from northwestern Alberta is responsible for the cold temperatures, with wind chills of –55 C in some areas of the country, and it doesn't get much better Tuesday and into 2014.

While snowfall warnings remain in effect Tuesday morning in areas of B.C. and Alberta, parts of central through southeastern Alberta will see light snow or flurries, says CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland.

"The eastern Prairies remain locked in a deep freeze again today [Tuesday] with a bitterly cold day (and night) ahead," Scotland says, adding. "Aside from some light snow in southwestern Saskatchewan (two to four centimetres) and possible flurries as far east as Regina, it's at least a quiet day aside from the cold."

However, Regina will see the risk of flurries with a high of only –23 C while the high in Saskatoon will be –26 C. 

In Manitoba, Tuesday temperatures were expected to range from –31 C in Winnipeg to –53 C with the wind chill in northern parts of the province.
 
Wind chill warnings are also in effect in Ontario and Quebec, across northern portions of both provinces, Scotland says. 

"While it at least stays clear — albeit very cold — to the north, southern Ontario will pick up light snow and flurries today with amounts generally less than three centimetres, although a strong westerly flow will lead to locally higher amounts off the lakes with snow squall watches in effect from Goderich to Parry Sound, and these extend east through parts of the Kawartha Lakes."

Bitterly cold arctic air combined with moderate west winds to result in extreme wind chills of –45 C to –50 C across much of northern Ontario, Environment Canada said Monday. Several regions have issued frostbite warnings. In Thunder Bay, the district health unit warned people that at a wind chill of –40 C, skin can freeze in about five minutes. Wind chill in the city made it feel like –51 Tuesday morning, a record low for December.

Ottawa, where the wind chill made it feel like –30 C early Tuesday morning, also issued a frostbite advisory. The nation's capital was expecting a high of –14 C during the day and a low of –21 C overnight, without the wind chill.

Signs of frostbite include skin that is pink and feels prickly and grey and white patches on the skin.

In southern Quebec, areas including Saguenay could see temperatures plummet to –27 C, with a wind chill of –38 C. 

On Tuesday, there will be light snow Tuesday morning in Toronto and a high of –6 C. Fewer than 200 people in the city who lost power in the recent ice storm are still waiting to have it restored.

Montreal could see light snow or flurries, with chilly highs of –17 C.

Eastern Canada, meanwhile, is still recovering from the effects of the ice storm. Recovery efforts were set back when a new winter storm hit overnight from Sunday to Monday. New Brunswick was still struggling to restore power to about 2,300 homes, with NB Power crews hoping to have most customers back online by late Tuesday night.

In P.E.I., where several dozen people were still without power Monday night, authorities warned residents to have emergency kits on hand with enough bottled water and non-perishable food to last 72 hours in case of additional power outages.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

The top 10 Canadian newsmakers of 2013

Embattled politicians, a misbehaving pop star and a Nobel Prize-winning author — the top Canadian newsmakers of the year span young and old, esteemed and controversial.

Rob Ford

Toronto's beleaguered mayor has endured a wave of scandals this year since news reports surfaced in May about a video that allegedly shows him smoking from a crack pipe. His troubles have garnered international media attention, and have prompted city council to restrain his powers as chief magistrate of North America's fourth-largest metropolis.

Ford has withstood the pressure to step aside, vowing to remain in office and seek "professional help" after he admitted to having smoked crack cocaine and drinking to excess. He has also refused to speak with police, who have interviewed a number of former staff in his office as part of an investigation dubbed Project Brazen 2.

In recent months, Ford's troubles have become fodder for a growing list of comedians in Canada and abroad, including U.S. late night talk show hosts like Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien.

Senators

The Red Chamber has made headlines for the wrong reasons throughout 2013. Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau face allegations of misspending and are under investigation by the RCMP. Brazeau has also been charged with assault and sexual assault, while Senator Colin Kenny has been accused of sexual harassment.

The RCMP probe into Duffy's spending has reached the highest echelons of power with Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, under investigation.

An 80-page court filing by the Mounties sheds light on a trail of emails that suggests Harper's staff and his top senators helped to manipulate a Senate committee and its report into Duffy's contested living expenses. The group also allegedly tried to quash an independent audit commissioned by the Senate.

Naheed Nenshi

Calgary's popular mayor achieved something akin to rock-star status this summer in the days after the city suffered extensive flooding, which caused more than $1.7 billion in damage.

In 2013, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi become the sympathetic public face of the Alberta floods. ((CBC))

Nenshi became the most visible public figure in the wake of the disaster, holding a flurry of press briefings and interviews, attending private events with emergency personnel and visiting flood-struck areas of the city.

After being elected as a relative unknown in 2010, Nenshi won a second term in October by taking three-quarters of the vote.

Rehtaeh Parsons

Parsons was 17 years old when she was taken off of life support in April, days after a suicide attempt.

According to her parents, four boys sexually assaulted their daughter at a house party when she was 15. They said the Cole Harbour, N.S., teen then endured relentless harassment and humiliation after a digital photo of the alleged attack was circulated at school and on social media.

Parsons' suicide garnered national headlines. It happened months after B.C. teen Amanda Todd took her own life after posting a video on YouTube describing how she was tormented by bullies, including one person who captured a freeze frame of the teen topless and used that photo to try to blackmail her.

In an attempt to combat such tragedies, the federal government tabled legislation in November that would make it illegal to distribute intimate images without the consent of the person in the photo. (The legislation would also give police new powers to track terrorism suspects and individuals who use computers to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service – measures that have drawn criticism.)

Chris Hadfield

Hadfield spent five months on the International Space Station earlier this year and was the first Canadian to command it.

During his stay, he attracted more than one million Twitter followers and captured the imagination of people around the globe with his often-poetic online updates, breathtaking photography, educational question-and-answer sessions and fun musical performances.

As part of his personal farewell to the space station, Hadfield released a video of his version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, which NASA said is the first music video made in space.

Thorsten Heins

Last month, BlackBerry's largest stakeholder announced it would lead a group that will lend the troubled smartphone maker $1 billion US as the company seeks to revamp its operations.

As part of the deal, both BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins and the chair of its board of directors, Barbara Stymiest, left the company.

Heins took over as CEO in 2012, faced with the daunting task of turning around a struggling Waterloo, Ont.,-based firm in an increasingly competitive global smartphone market. Instead, BlackBerry continued to run into trouble, including repeated delays in releasing a new operating system and new generations of handsets, less than stellar sales, staff layoffs, and a stock price that stubbornly continued to decline.

As part of the terms of his severance agreement, Heins may be awarded up to $55 million.

Dellen Millard

Millard is one of two men charged with first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Tim Bosma, who lived in Ancaster, Ont., with his wife and small child. Bosma was last seen leaving his home on May 6 with two men who wanted to take a test drive in a truck he had advertised for sale online.

On May 14, police announced they had found Bosma's body, which had been burned beyond recognition, at a Waterloo area farm.

Ontario Provincial Police are probing two other deaths they say are linked to Millard. In early October, investigators said the disappearance of Millard's ex-girlfriend Laura Babcock and the death of his father, Wayne, are connected to the Bosma slaying.

Alice Munro

On Oct. 10, Munro became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature since the award was launched in 1901.

In 2013, Alice Munro became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

The 82-year-old was lauded by the Swedish Academy during the Nobel announcement in Stockholm as the "master of the contemporary short story."

"It just seems impossible – a splendid thing to happen," Munro told CBC News the day the award was announced. "I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art, not something you play around with until you've got a novel written."

Two of Munro's titles – her latest collection, entitled Dear Life, and a compilation called My Best Stories — vaulted into Amazon's top 20 sales list just hours after news of the Nobel award was announced. Neither title had ever appeared among the retailer's top-selling titles in the past.

Cory Monteith

Monteith, a Canadian actor who played the quarterback Finn Hudson on the Fox TV series Glee, was found dead in his hotel room in July at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in downtown Vancouver.

Monteith, who had struggled with addiction problems, died from mixed drug toxicity involving heroin and alcohol, according to a report from the Coroners Service of British Columbia. He was 31.

His death sparked tributes from celebrities and fans of the high school musical drama in which he starred.

Glee said goodbye to Monteith's character and paid tribute to the Calgary native in a much-anticipated episode that aired in early October.

Justin Bieber

It has been a tough year for the golden boy of Stratford, Ont.

Among his trials and tribulations, the teen pop singer had his pet monkey confiscated by German authorities. More recently, Bieber made headlines when local media in Rio de Janeiro were tipped off to his purported visit to the Centauros private members club, widely considered a brothel. Meanwhile Brazilian police were investigating whether the 19-year-old had illegally spray painted graffiti on a local hotel.

To make matters worse, Bieber was unseated as the unofficial king of Twitter when pop singer Katy Perry surpassed Bieber's total of 46 million followers in November.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

The year of scandal-proof politicians who refuse to quit

In politics, 2013 might be remembered as the year politicians tainted by scandal decided that the concept of honour no longer required them to step aside.

The actions of three Conservative senators have done more harm to the government than any other circumstance since Stephen Harper became prime minister in 2006.

Yet there has been no flurry of resignations — not one of them bowed out, or even stepped aside voluntarily from caucus. The Senate suspended them without pay, but they are still "honourable senators."

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied repeatedly that he had smoked crack cocaine, right up until he blurted out the truth in a media scrum. He refused to resign as mayor, even as he was stripped of most of his power by city councillors.

'What does it mean to assume responsibility if you say, "Well, I did it, but I'm carrying on.'"— Greg Levine, lawyer

The mayor of London, Ont., Joe Fontana, has refused to step aside, despite RCMP charges for allegedly using a government cheque to pay for part of his son's wedding reception while he was a Liberal cabinet minister.

A different world

"What does it mean to assume responsibility if you say, 'Well, I did it, but I'm carrying on," asks Greg Levine, a lawyer who specializes in government ethics. 

It seems a different world from 1986 when Sinclair Stevens, a cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney's government, resigned his post because he'd been accused of abusing the blind trust all cabinet ministers are required to set up to hold their financial portfolios while in government.

"Just the mere accusation against me is what was used to have me resign," said Stevens, reached by phone at his law office in Newmarket, Ont.

Then Stevens had to resign again, this time as a candidate in the next election. He'd easily won his nomination, but realized the NDP was planning to make his case an election issue.  

"I resigned rather than run," he explained. "[Prime Minister Brian] Mulroney phoned me, I can recall, and said he thought it was unfortunate." 

He spent half an hour on the phone with Mulroney, but, looking back, isn't bitter about not getting the chance to face the ultimate test in the face of a scandal — letting voters decide his fate.

Stevens was never criminally investigated, but a public inquiry found him guilty of conflict of interest. Seventeen years later, a federal court judge overturned the conflict of interest finding

Ethics were different at the time, he sums up.

Resigned over tainted tuna

In 1985, Fisheries Minister John Fraser resigned from Mulroney's government over what was known as the tainted tuna scandal. He says no one ever became ill from eating the Starkist canned tuna in dispute, but he had overturned the decision of a food inspector to reject a large batch of the tinned fish.

Fraser, in a phone interview from B.C., said he told Mulroney, "In the interests of the Conservative Party and in the interest of the public, I am prepared to step aside."

He never questioned that he should resign in order to protect the party and Mulroney's government.

Concept of honour disappearing?

Levine said the concept of honour seems to be disappearing in political life, but stresses the operative word is "seems."

He cites Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay, who resigned after a 25-year career in public service, calling him an interesting contrast to Fontana.

"He resigned because of what the Charbonneau Commission in Montreal was saying about corruption, without even being charged. He said there's too much concern about this, it's affecting our work, so he resigned."

Levine also points out that Conservative MP Michael Chong resigned from a cabinet position simply because he disagreed with Prime Minister Harper about recognizing the Québécois as a nation, which Chong felt would encourage separatists.

On the other hand, said Levine, Peter MacKay, when he was defence minister, "hops on a [search and rescue] helicopter and uses it in a certain way" during a fishing trip. Should MacKay have resigned?

''He used public property for private use, or at least that's how it looks," Levine said. "I would have said that's a resigning issue — you just don't do that. You could come back into cabinet in a year. But you surely resign over such a mistake."

Currently, the bar seems to have been reset, where resignations are required only when a police charge leads to a conviction.

But long before it ever came to that extreme, Fraser said he made a resolution when he took office.

When he went into cabinet he instructed his staff to make sure he never inadvertently benefited by taking public money.

"One thing I couldn't live with was an incident that in some way I seemed to be getting some financial advantage that I wasn't entitled under law to."

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Husband of Ontario politician George Smitherman found dead

Christopher Peloso, the husband of Ontario's former deputy premier George Smitherman, has been found dead after being reported missing for the second time this year.

Smitherman released a statement saying Toronto police confirmed to him they had found the 40-year-old Peloso dead.

"We will celebrate his life and we will find comfort somehow in knowing that he has found peace from the depression that has wreaked havoc on his mind," wrote Smitherman.

Peloso, who is survived by three children, was last seen on Sunday, Dec. 29, at approximately 11 a.m. ET

Smitherman served as the province's deputy premier, health minister and energy minister before he stepped down to run for Toronto mayor in 2010.

On Sunday evening, Smitherman tweeted: "Freedom from depression has been elusive for Christopher and once again he is missing and we fear for his safety."

Peloso was also reported missing in September and was found two days later by a police K-9 unit, curled up and lying near a fence that runs along the railway tracks near Lansdowne and Dupont avenues.

"We will find strength going forward from the legions of people in our extended family who loved him so," wrote Smitherman.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gay Conservatives find their footing in party

At the Conservative Party's convention in Calgary in November, supporters queued up outside a chic lounge blocks from the convention centre. Music throbbed and lights flashed inside as the doorman stopped them: the party was full and the only way new people could get in was if somebody else left.

The biggest after-hours event at the Conservative Party convention last fall wasn't Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's hospitality suite. Nor was it a shindig thrown by a major lobbying firm. The party everyone wanted to go to is one that, 10 years ago, many wouldn't have imagined: one that celebrates the prominence and prevalence of gay Conservatives. Organizers call it the fabulous blue tent.

"I get more reaction from gay people" who aren't Conservative, says Fred Litwin, one of the organizers of the biennial fabulous blue tent parties, and president of the Free Thinking Film Society.

Litwin, who has been known to say that he has to come out as Conservative to his gay friends, was one of the party members in 2011 who helped arrange the first blue tent party.

Party-goers at the 2013 fabulous blue tent party, held during the Conservative Party convention on Nov. 2. (Jamie Ellerton)

"Look, when I first started blogging under the name 'gay and right' back in 2003 or 2004, I used to get three different types of email. I'd get [small-c] conservatives who were really pissed off that I was gay, I'd get gay people who were really pissed off that I was Conservative, and then I would get a whole bunch of gay people who are like, holy f--k, I found somebody [similar]," he said.

For a party that saw most of its MPs vote against legalizing same-sex marriage in 2005, and which ran ads about Stephen Harper's support for "traditional marriage," the difference is striking.

The first fabulous blue tent party in 2011 drew about 600 people, said Roy Eappen, one of the organizers, who helped front some of the money for the events. Thrown in a swanky suite at Ottawa's Westin hotel, the party spilled out onto a balcony with a view of Parliament Hill. 

"I think people are very supportive and you know it's funny, people have now started calling it an institution at conventions. After two times — it's hilarious," Eappen said.

Among the guests at the 2013 party were Laureen Harper, whom Eappen notes stayed for three hours, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Employment Minister Jason Kenney, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Minister of State for sports Bal Gosal. Wild Rose Party Leader Danielle Smith was also there.

The doorman at this year's event said he turned away a cabinet minister because the event was too full, albeit at a smaller venue than the 2011 event.

'Vocal' on gay rights

The idea for the party started with Jamie Ellerton, a former staffer for Jason Kenney and a Conservative Party member since 2005.

Ellerton says it's inaccurate to paint the Conservative caucus as the only one that was slow to recognize gay rights.

Laureen Harper, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's wife, and Conservative supporter Jamie Ellerton, pose at the fabulous blue tent party Ellerton helped organize in Calgary Nov. 2. (Jamie Ellerton)

"If you look at how society has progressed on this issue, don't forget that in the late nineties, the vast majority of the Liberal caucus voted against this when Jean Chrétien was prime minister," he said.

When the then-Liberal government passed the Civil Marriage Act in 2005, more than two dozen Liberals voted against the bill. 

Now, Ellerton and Eappen say, the Conservatives, fight for gay rights around the world. Baird has singled out individual countries for criticism over bills that would punish people for being gay or for fighting for gay rights.

"The government has been very vocal symbolically when it matters and tactically behind the scenes constantly looking to advance minority rights," including minority religious rights, Ellerton said.

"Yes, some historical NDP members were there in the very early days when nobody had time or were accepting of gays or lesbians. But this isn't 1965 anymore. It's 2013 and here you have gays and lesbians across the political spectrum, active in all parties, including in the Conservative Party and robustly so ... So the fact that Liberals, and I think more particularly NDP, think that because you're gay you're a tax and spend socialist is disconnected from reality," Ellerton said.

Despite that, the party doesn't have any MPs who are open with the media about being gay or lesbian (both the Liberals and New Democrats have openly gay MPs). A Conservative senator, Nancy Ruth, is the lone openly gay member of caucus.

Interests beyond rights

After a couple of high-profile teen suicides, attributed in part to bullying over the teens' sexuality, comedian Rick Mercer, who is gay, alluded to a gay cabinet minister and urged people in the public eye to come out of the closet.

"Because I know gay cops, soldiers, athletes, cabinet ministers, a lot of us do. But the problem is, adults, we don't need role models. Kids do," Mercer said in 2011.

Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Wild Rose Party Leader Danielle Smith pose for a photo at the fabulous blue tent party in Calgary, Nov. 2, 2013. (Twitter)

​

"So if you're gay and you're in public life, I'm sorry, you don't have to run around with a pride flag and bore the hell out of everyone, but you can't be invisible. Not any more."

Eappen suggests there's a difference between being openly gay and doing interviews about one's sexuality.

"I think people are comfortable with what people are comfortable with. Until recently I never went around telling people I'm gay. It's not that I was closeted, everyone knows, I just didn't make a big point of talking about it," he said.

After all, Ellerton said, there are plenty of other issues for people to care about. The fight in Canada is more about how to take on bullying than pushing for equal rights.

"We have all the laws on the books," he said, while acknowledging there's likely room for improvement on some. 

Being gay or lesbian doesn't mean someone who is politically interested cares only about gay rights, Ellerton said.

"I think gay Canadians want a job. Gay Canadians want to be able to live free and prosper ... They want to make sure government is being run effectively," he said.

"Just because they happen to be sexually attracted to and love someone of the same sex, they're otherwise Canadians like the rest of us."

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mafia associates likely at today's funeral for Teflon Don Vito Rizzuto

Hundreds of people are expected at Montreal's Notre-Dâme-de-la-Défense church this afternoon for the funeral of former Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, who died of natural causes last week.

Rizzuto, 67, died on Dec. 23 at Montreal's Sacré-Coeur Hospital, a day after he was hospitalized for pulmonary problems.

His funeral Monday starts at 12:30 p.m. ET at the church in the city's Little Italy neighbourhood.

Nicknamed Montreal's Teflon Don — a nod to the original Teflon Don, New York's John Gotti — Rizzuto walked free for much of his life despite a number of accusations against him over the years.

Mourners arrive for a visitation at a funeral home in Montreal on Sunday to pay their respects to former Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, who died last week from natural causes. (Graham Hughes/CP)

However, a 2007 guilty plea on racketeering charges related to the 1981 murders of three alleged New York gang leaders landed him in prison in the U.S. for eight years.

"My job was to say, 'It's a holdup!' so everybody would stand still," Rizzuto said at the time of his plea.

He denied being the trigger man. 

Arrested in 2003 and extradited to the U.S. in 2006, he served the last six years of his sentence in a Colorado prison.

He returned to the Montreal area in late 2012, settling in the Laval suburb of Ste-Dorothée.

Deep roots in organized crime

Born in the Cattolica Eraclea area of Sicily in 1946, Rizzuto moved to Canada with his family when he was eight years old.

The Rizzutos are said to have risen to power after Paolo Violi, head of the Calabrian Mafia in Canada, was shot and killed while eating at a Montreal restaurant in 1978.

A visitation for Vito Rizzuto was held Sunday at the Loreto funeral complex in St-Leonard, a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in Montreal. (Radio-Canada)

Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. — the patriarch of the Rizzuto crime family — was assassinated at his Montreal home in November 2010 at age 86. His death came after a string of legal battles.

The elder Rizzuto and several associates pleaded guilty to gangsterism-related charges in 2008 after their arrest in Operation Colisée, a massive four-year police investigation targeting the Mafia that logged more than a million hours of taped conversations from wiretaps.

Rizzuto Sr. received a suspended sentence. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to new charges, this time for tax evasion.

Vito Rizzuto had three children. His son Nick Jr. was assassinated in broad daylight in 2009. He is survived by his son Leonardo and daughter Bettina, both lawyers in Quebec.

Power vacuum left by Rizzuto's death

Experts in organized crime say Rizzuto's death will likely lead to a power vacuum — a struggle over leadership of the Montreal Mafia caused by the lack of an heir to the so-called throne.

Journalist and Mafia expert Antonio Nicaso told CBC News on Sunday that it was unclear whether Rizzuto had the time to name his successor.

His death could lead to a major upheaval in the underworld, said Adrian Humphreys, author of The Sixth Family: The Collapse Of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto​.

A surge of violence is possible as members of organized crime outfits in Montreal, Toronto and New York vie for Rizzuto's territory, Humphreys said.

"To have him now permanently removed from the underworld, the crime landscape, it'll just open up the floodgates to everyone jockeying for positions," he said.

Rizzuto funeral a chance to ID associates

A visitation Sunday at the Loreto funeral complex in St-Leonard, a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in Montreal's east end, drew hundreds of people to pay their respects. Loreto is owned by the Rizzuto family.

Vito Rizzuto's son Nick Jr. and father, Nicolo Sr., were assassinated while he was incarcerated. Nick Jr.'s funeral took place at Madonna della Difesa Church in Montreal's Little Italy. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Michel Martin, a former inspector with Quebec's provincial police, said wakes and funerals of people known to be members of the Mafia are often good opportunities to identify possible associates.

"Here we'll find them all in the same place in a relatively short period of time," Martin said. 

A police presence is required at such events in case there are any conflicts, he added.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Brunswick winter storm hits during ice storm recovery

Restoring heat and light to 3,700 New Brunswick homes that lost power during last week's ice storm could be hampered by a winter blast that dumped 30 centimetres in some areas of the province overnight.

CBC reporter Shane Fowler said from Fredericton that people are going through a "collective moment of shock" Monday morning as they look out their windows and see the amount of snow in the already storm-weary province.

Emergency officials had warned the storm could put more stress on already icy trees and wires, though it wasn't yet clear early Monday if that was the case.

They are advising people to be prepared with 72 hours worth of water, food and backup heat.

Additional line and tree-trimming crews were sent to New Brunswick from the other Maritime provinces, Quebec and the United States to assist with efforts ahead of the storm. More than 200 workers are busy trying to restore electricity.

Forecasters have since lifted weather warnings for the province, except for a wind chill warning that remains in effect for northern New Brunswick.

Police are advising people to stay off the roads for their own safety, and to allow crews to clear the streets and highways.

Saint John Transit officials say the roads in the city are a mess. Most side streets have not been plowed and buses are running about 15 minutes late.

The storm affected flights as well, with some cancellations and delays in Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, as well asHalifax.

Most of the remaining outages are in the Rothesay area with more than 2,300 customers affected, the St. Stephen area with more than 1,100 outages and on the Kingston Peninsula, according to NB Power. Fowler said it's likely the outage tally will rise as people wake up and call the utility. 

Premier David Alward warned Sunday that the storm would be followed by "a significant freeze over the next two or three days, is going to test our resiliency as a province, as a people again."

82,000 without power

NB Power said that during the last week 82,000 customers — nearly a quarter of its total — have been without electricity at some point.

Some customers in the Rothesay and Quispamsis areas have been without power for more than a week.

In some cases, customers have lost power six times.

"We can certainly understand the frustration," spokesman Brent Staeben said.

"We can also certainly understand a little bit of the confusion for people in terms of how they could gain their power back and lose it again, and lose it multiple times."

Premier David Alward, centre, flanked by NB Power spokesman Brent Staeben, left, and New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization director Greg MacCallum address a news conference Sunday to gives an update on the storm recover operations. (Shane Fowler/CBC)

Greg MacCallum, director of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization, urged people to call their local fire department if they need anything. Warming centres will continue to be open, he said.

MacCallum said changes to emergency measures before this storm have improved local operations, but the response was complicated when cell communications were cut.

"That is something where we need to work on more redundancy and we need to find workarounds, which we are finding," MacCallum said.

He urged people to be careful with portable heaters and candles, and warned not to warm up pipes with blowtorches.

He said people should check and make sure neighbours are all right.

Warming centres busy

The power outages are keeping volunteers busy at the Quispamsis warming centre.

Almost 500 people used the service at the qplex, a 75,000 square-foot multi-purpose recreation and conference centre, to warm up, get a hot drink, check the NB Power website and charge their cellphones.

Volunteer Mary Schryer says water is one of the biggest reasons for visiting the centre.

"You know Quispamsis is dependent on ground water and when there's no power, there's no water, and that was really complicating things for a lot of people," she said.

The Quispamsis warming centre moved back to the Civic Centre on Monday morning.

Karla Brown, a volunteer at the Oak Bay warming centre at the firehall, says it has also been a busy spot, offering hot drinks and warm food.

The community response has been overwhelming, she said.

People can also pick up firewood and kerosene at the warming centres. J.D. Irving has been stocking the centres with the donated fuel.

The warming centre in Grand Bay is at St. Matthews Church. The Simonds fire hall is open in Saint John and up river, the Lower Greenwich firehall is open.

Some warming centres are open all night and are considered shelters, including the Anglican parish hall at Kingston Corner, the Lawrence Station Elementary School and St. George's Macadavic Place.

NB Power is trying to restore power to everyone by New Year's Eve.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

All of Toronto should have power restored today, mayor says

About 725 customers are still without electricity in Toronto, but everyone's power should be fully restored today, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said, more than a week after an ice storm hit Eastern Canada and knocked out electricity to about 300,000.

Ford and Toronto Hydro officials gave what would be their final daily update on the power outages that came in the wake of a powerful ice storm two weekends ago. 

All power, with the exception of some unforeseen individual cases, is expected to be back Monday.

"I want to thank the residents of the city for their patience during this terrible storm," Ford said. "We have never had a storm like this in Toronto's history and hopefully we will won't have one like this again.

"It's truly remarkable, what people have done in this city to help each other … sacrificing and giving up family time over the holidays."

Four warming centres remain open Monday as crews continue to work. 

An emotional Anthony Haines, CEO of Toronto Hydro, thanked all the crews who worked round the clock.

"We were all tired, but we never stopped," Haines said.

He also urged anyone still without power to call Toronto Hydro. 

Earlier Monday, emergency response officials said the influx of calls they began receiving after the storm has not stopped.

More than a week after the ice storm, emergency calls remain at 10 times the normal volume.

EMS emergency medical dispatcher Rocky Ruffalo said the challenge is prioritizing those calls.

"One of the toughest calls to field was people that were on home oxygen and with the power being out, they knew that they only had a specific period of time left for their home oxygen," Ruffalo said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said that after all power is restored and it's business as usual in the city, a debriefing on what was and wasn't done efficiently will be required.

In Sunday's briefing, Ford said restoring power and repairing damage from the ice storm costs the city approximately $1 million per day.

"So it's going to cost Toronto Hydro $10 million on the high side," he said, "The very low side is about $8 million."

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Quebec provincial police chief's chalet destroyed in suspicious fire

Chalet des Cinq, a 12-room hotel co-owned by the director general of Quebec's provincial police, Mario Laprise, was burnt to the ground in a suspicious fire early Saturday morning. 

SQ director general, Mario Laprise, co-owns the chalet in Saint-Côme, Que. (Radio-Canada)

The fire broke out around 3:30 a.m. local time at the hotel in Saint-Côme, about an hour-and-a-half north of Montreal. 

Although no one was injured, the building is a total loss, according to police. 

Because the incident involves members of the Sûreté du Québec, the case has been handed over to the Montreal police.

"According to the observations of first responders, the presence of certain elements might suggest that this is a suspicious fire or perhaps even criminal," said André Leclerc with the Montreal police. 

One of the chalet's co-owners, Bruno Beaulieu, heads the investigation of former SQ director general, Richard Deschênes. (www.chaletdescinq.com)

The circumstances of the fire are still unknown, but police say the cause is suspicious and have cordoned off the area to investigate until at least the end of the day.

One of Laprise's four business partners, Bruno Beaulieu, is heading the investigation into alleged criminal misspending of former SQ director general, Richard Deschênes.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Most of Manitoba under extreme wind chill warning

Environment Canada has issued wind chill warnings for most of Manitoba after a wicked storm hit the province Saturday morning. A blowing snow warning for most of Southern Manitoba has since ended.

Meteorologist Mike McDonald told CBC news some roads have been down to zero visibility due to blowing snow during the storm. 

"That's a blizzard, here in the city because of the trees and buildings we're sheltered so visibility is quite variable across the city, well near zero in open areas about one kilometre, so not quite a blizzard in the city, but once you get outside the Perimeter Highway it gets pretty bad," said McDonald referring to the visibility in and surrounding Winnipeg. 

Due to the bad weather the City of Winnipeg has closed its three cemeteries: Transcona, St. Vital and Brookside until further notice.

City crews are currently out plowing major routes, and will do bus and collector routes after that.  Sidewalks will be cleared tonight starting at 7 pm.

According to Environment Canada an Alberta clipper will track through North Dakota causing storm-like conditions in southern Manitoba.

The heaviest snowfall was in Central Manitoba stretching from Dauphin through to Selkirk and through Whiteshell with a total accumulation of 10 to 15 centimetres. A winter snow storm warning was issued earlier today for Selkirk and Dugald due to heavy snow and blowing snow. 

A blowing snow warning has since ended for Winnipeg and the Portage region, after poor visibility on the roads. 

Temperatures are also expected to fall dramatically with a wind chill warning throughout most of the province. 

With the wind chill it's supposed to feel between -40 and -45 in most regions. Environment Canada is reminding people that exposed skin may experience frostbite in less than 10 minutes in these extreme cold conditions. 

It's also predicted that the freezing temperatures will continue for the remainder of the year. 

The only area not under a wind chill or blowing snow warning is the central part of Manitoba including The Pas, Westray, Norway House, Cross Lake, Oxford House and Gods Lake. 

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ice storm aftermath: outages near end, but N.B. wary of storm

Officials in Toronto say they are nearing the return of heat and light to customers who have been without power for eight days, but New Brunswick's power utility is worried a winter storm bearing down on the Maritimes will cause new problems.

The latest tallies show power is still out for about 7,400 customers in Toronto, 9,500 in New Brunswick, and 7,300 in Quebec. (In Quebec, the outages have fluctuated as crews turn off power in some areas to safely return it to others.)

Officials in both Toronto and New Brunswick have said they hope to have most customers back on the grid by Tuesday.

"We're still working to that plan to have most customers powered up by Tuesday; However, there are a couple of concerns [including] the upcoming storm," NB Power CEO Gaetan Thomas said.

There is a snowfall warning in effect for most of southern New Brunswick including St. Stephen and Rothesay, two of the communities that were hardest hit after last weekend's storm.

A winter storm will develop over the U.S. Eastern Seaboard this afternoon and track northeastward passing over the Maritimes, Environment Canada warns.

Total snowfall amounts of 10 to 25 centimetres are expected across southern New Brunswick. Some freezing rain is expected in the province, but not enough to merit a warning, the weather agency said.

NB Power spokesman Brent Staeban said the utility is preparing for the storm by moving additional crews, material and management to the affected areas in advance of the storm, and is co-ordinating with local communities and the Department of Transportation to make sure roads are cleared as soon as possible.

"It's simply going to slow us down and be an impediment, but we're going to do everything we can to push through it and keep the effort going," he said.

Staeben said if the storm's effects are "minimal," the vast majority of customers should have their power restored by 10 p.m. AT on New Year's Eve.

Even without the storm, Staeben described the restoration efforts as an "exceedingly complex and slow slog" that has included crews looking for outages on snowmobile, and some fixes requiring the removal of 50 to 60 trees on a section of line.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said Sunday morning that the finish line is within sight, while provincial utility Hydro One said the ice storm outages are essentially over outside the city, allowing their crews to lend a hand.

Haines and Hydro One CEO Carmine Marcello both said even when power has fully returned it won't mean business as usual at the utility. Cleanup including tree-trimming will take months, Marcello said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who says the concern she's heard most around the province is spoiled food, announced that Loblaws will be donating $25,000 in grocery store gift cards. Wynne said the government will look to match that amount, and challenged other food chains to help out. 

Wynne said the program is meant especially for people who can't afford to replace the food that was lost.

Private citizens who would like to make donations should use the Daily Bread Food Bank, she said.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said on Saturday that the City won't be looking into any sort of compensation until the power has been restored. 

"I can't give any numbers or any assurances that we can reimburse anyone," Ford said.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vito Rizzuto funeral visitation a chance to 'gather intelligence,' says mafia expert

Visitation of Vito Rizzuto is scheduled for today ahead of the reputed Mafia boss's funeral on Monday in the Montreal neighbourhood of St-Leonard, and it's expected to draw a big crowd.

Montreal police said officers will likely be discreetly observing the Loreto funeral complex where the visitation will take place.

Montreal police spokesman André Leclerc confirmed that police officers will direct traffic at the funeral home, where a large crowd is expected.

A retired RCMP analyst said police often use funerals and visitations as an opportunity to update photos of persons of interest and establish any new allegiances within the Mafia.

And Mafia expert Pierre de Champlain said visitations can be an especially valuable place to gather intelligence.

He said they are more informal and often attract more people with ties to the underworld than the funerals themselves.

"It's not the front door they'll be watching, it's the back," ​de Champlain said, referring to the Loreto funeral complex, which belongs to a member of the Rizzuto clan.

"The most interesting people might arrive by car and enter by the underground garage to avoid being seen by the media and police," de Champlain continued.

Rizzuto returned to Canada in 2012 after spending six years in a U.S. prison on racketeering charges related to the 1981 murders of three alleged New York gang leaders.

Rizzuto, who died of natural causes in hospital last Monday, led a powerful criminal organization that stretched beyond Canada's borders.

His father Nicolo Rizzuto, Sr. — the patriarch of the Rizzuto crime family — was assassinated in his Montreal home in November 2010.

Rizzuto had three children. His son Nick, Jr. was assassinated in 2009.

A number of Mafia experts have said that Rizzuto quickly reasserted control upon his return from prison.

De Champlain said there's no apparent heir to the Rizzuto family's organization, which means his death could bring about some tumultuous activity in the underworld as members of organized crime in Montreal, Toronto and New York jockey for the Rizzuto territory.

Rizzuto's funeral is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday at Little Italy's Notre-Dâme-de-la-Défense Church.

Loreto funeral complex:

View Larger Map

Notre-Dâme-de-la-Défense Church:

View Larger Map

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lac-Mégantic library may reopen in 2014 thanks to donations

The public library incinerated in Lac-Mégantic is aiming for a 2014 renaissance after receiving so many donations it politely pleaded that people stop sending books.

The institution and its treasured archives were consumed by flames in July after a runaway tanker train derailed, exploded and destroyed part of the Quebec town, killing 47 people.

Lac-Mégantic's only library lost a one-of-a-kind trove, which included original local artwork, heirlooms donated by families, the oldest-known photos of the town and the negatives.

The blaze also swallowed nearly all of the library's 45,000 books, sparing just the 1,000 or so titles out on loan at the time.

The only item recovered from the ashes was the library's petty-cash box.

But thanks to a cascade of donations from across Canada, the United States and even Europe, the library's 2,500 members could see the doors open at a new location, in another part of town, as early as this spring.

The rebuilding project is a key part of the recovery process in the community of 6,000 that is still struggling to cope with the disaster, said the library's chairperson.

Diane Roy added that as the derailment obliterated part of the downtown core, many popular gathering spots like the library disappeared with it.

"Through the summer, there was no library — there was nothing in Lac-Mégantic," Roy said in an interview at the new site, as a team of volunteers assembled shelves and labelled books.

"They hope that it will open soon, as soon as possible. Every day, they ask us when."

A project to move the library to a larger building outside the downtown area started around six years ago. The board was planning to gradually move the 22-year-old institution to an old factory.

But except for the new building, the library had to restart from scratch when disaster struck on July 6.

Support, however, for the library's revival flooded in — so much so that workers became overwhelmed.

Two months after the crash, the library issued a news release to say it was deeply touched by the outpouring of generosity, but asked the public to stop sending books.

"It's now time to evaluate them, classify them, process them and make them accessible for the population," said the September statement.

"It will be a colossal job."

At the time, the library said it had received more than 100,000 books, with most coming from donors across Quebec and eastern Ontario.

Today, the library's directors estimate they've taken in some 200,000 documents, including books, comics and CDs. They stored 37 pallets worth of donated goods in one warehouse alone, Roy said.

The library expects to keep up to 15 per cent — or 30,000 — of the donated items and it has already sold many of the extra volumes, an initiative that raised $16,000.

Supporters, meanwhile, in places like British Columbia, Maine, Pennsylvania, France and Germany held fundraisers and sent cash gifts totalling $90,000.

Those contributions include a $5,000 cheque sent to the library by a Halifax woman shortly after the accident and $47,000 from the Quebec branch of the Lions Club.

Roy also hopes to build another archives with the help of new donations she says the library has been promised from the owners of private collections.

The library reconstruction team is mulling plans to display the only item recovered from the old Frontenac Street building: the mangled, oil-soaked petty-cash box.

The librarian recalled the day the box was returned to him. Daniel Lavoie said police brought him to the site of the old building a few weeks after the crash.

"There was nothing left," Lavoie said.

"All that remained were the two columns that had supported the building and the petty-cash box."

Inside the dented metal box, he found about $500 in rolls of coins and oily bills.

"It's a relic," Lavoie added.

The reopening date has yet to be determined, but one board member said he has a personal goal of seeing it happen on April 6.

"That will be nine months since (the disaster) happened," Jacques Dostie said.

"So, that will be the rebirth of the library."

The project has even helped some of those involved deal with the pain of losing a loved one.

The library's treasurer, whose brother was killed in the disaster, said staying busy has helped him get through the grieving process.

"It's a good moment to work with our friends," Pierre Paquet said.

"We need that."

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

A year of hot air on MPs' and senators' expenses

Politicians' expenses are usually a sleeper issue because so little is known about travel and housing claims that are regulated in secret sessions by the politicians themselves.

But this year, the veil on politicians' expenses was pulled back - a bit - in what became the top Ottawa story of 2013: the gross abuse of public money by a few senators.

The year began with the revelation of Senator Mike Duffy's habit of claiming expenses for living in his long-time Ottawa home. It drew to a crescendo with the spectacle of  Duffy and three other senators — Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb — suspended or retired and under an RCMP microscope over their inappropriate travel and housing claims.

The scandal might have been the reason for MPs unanimously voting in what senators call "the other place" — the House of Commons — to consider replacing their own secretive administrative closed-shop with an independent body to monitor their expenses.

Suddenly, transparency for expense accounts was an urgent issue.

But by year's end, almost nothing has changed.

One small step, but little detail

There was one bit of movement: Liberal MPs and senators, under orders from new leader Justin Trudeau, began posting online their travel and hospitality spending, modelled on cabinet ministers' proactive disclosure, a step in the right direction to be sure, but with little detail. Conservatives say they will follow suit.

MPs already post expenses in broad categories covering their office budgets, printing, hospitality costs and use of travel points, but again, with almost no detail.

Yet in June, when the Senate expense scandal was near a boiling point, it seemed the House of Commons was ready to slay its own dragon. The NDP persuaded all MPs to turned their attention towards replacing their closed-door committee for monitoring expenses known as the board of internal economy. The board, or BOIE, is made up of MPs from each party.

The mission was to find some independent body to scrutinize and regulate MPs' expenses

In special hearings, MPs listened to Auditor General Michael Ferguson urge them to allow random audits, "at my discretion," as he put it, of their expenses.

MPs also heard from John Sills of IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in the U.K., set up in 2009 after a scandal revealed some British MPs were charging the public for expenses such as moat-cleaning, or were claiming second homes a few miles from their main homes, and then flipping them or renting them out.

Sills explained that IPSA, an organization independent of Parliament, approves MPs' expenses and sets members' pay and pensions. Then it publishes the information — all of it.

The 'exam question'

Some Conservative MPs asked Sills if the same system were adopted here, wouldn't parliamentary staff just have to move over to a new body modelled on IPSA and "basically replicate what they do now under a different organization."

Sills replied that query was what he always called "the exam question." And, he added, "Can you be truly independent if you're in-house?"

In the end, the Conservative majority on the committee recommended keeping the status quo.

MPs will continue having the final, undisclosed word on expenses. Meetings will be held in camera. The Auditor General was shown the door.

Not all MPs went along with preserving the secretive board of internal economy, or shutting out the Auditor General.  The Liberals agreed the board should continue to monitor MP expenses, but asked for an independent commissioner to set salaries and pensions. The NDP dissented, holding out for an independent body.

Neither suggestion was adopted.

Bigger steps taken in the Senate

In the Senate, with members wincing from being viewed as scandal-ridden and way too clubby, bigger steps were taken.

Most significantly, the Senate invited the Auditor General to conduct an audit of every senator's expenses. His first report is possibly a year or more away, but for some senators, inevitably, the iceman cometh.

No such fate awaits MPs. As the clerk of the House of Commons, Audrey O'Brien, reminded the committee debating opening up expenses, MPs have never been audited by the Auditor General. It's "something members have strongly resisted," she testified.

As the year ends, a public wanting to know what true transparency about expenses looks like is left to read the private websites of Conservative senators Doug Black, Bob Runciman and Linda Frum, or Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. These four have decided to publish details of every public penny they spend.

Readers will find that Frum doesn't charge for meals, that Black paid $5.50 for parking, that May has posted more than 300 pages of scanned receipts for everything from postage stamps to office cleaners.

Otherwise, it seems the matter of politicians' expenses has been put back in the closet until the next scandal.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Senate scandal made Stephen Harper stumble, Tom Mulcair shine

The Senate scandal dominated federal political news in 2013, causing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stumble while New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair used his aggressive style to score points.

The controversy over spending by senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb gave Mulcair the chance to stand out among MPs — and among the three party leaders — for his pointed, careful questions. Harper, forced on the defensive, faltered and was forced to retreat on his support for his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, as well as on his assertion that it was Wright alone who knew about the deal to cover Duffy's $90,000 in expenses.

Keith Beardsley, a former deputy chief of staff to Harper, says the Senate scandal was pivotal for Harper.

"It's the first time the government has got themselves into pretty heavy criticism and one I suppose where the population is really paying attention," Beardsley said in an interview with CBC News.

Harper also faced increasing grumbling among his MPs, with several complaining in the House about the Prime Minister's Office limiting their ability to speak in the few minutes allotted to backbenchers, and Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber quitting caucus.

Even some cabinet ministers disagreed publicly. Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Justice Minister Peter MacKay defended Wright after Harper said he'd fired him, and Kenney spoke out against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's crack use, despite Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's public support for Ford.

"You can see the backbenchers starting to stir a little bit," Beardsley said, adding there could be more of that to come in 2014 as MPs decide whether they're going to run again in 2015.

"There will be a number that, for all sorts of reasons, decide they don't want to run again, so they're going to have a certain degree of freedom and they're going to want to leave their mark … they don't give a damn what PMO says or anyone else says," he said.

Mulcair excelled

The Senate scandal gave Mulcair the chance to show off his skills in question period, asking sharp questions and highlighting Harper's refusal to answer beyond a few talking points.

Gerry Caplan, a former NDP strategist, said Mulcair has been embraced by the media and even conservative commentators for his question period ability.

Caplan calls it "the splendid and completely irrelevant job he's done in the House in pinning Harper to the wall."

"I say irrelevant because Harper hasn't changed his tune and it doesn't seem politically to be helping the NDP," he said.

The Liberals are ahead of the NDP and even the Conservatives in recent polls, though, as Mulcair pointed out in a year-end press conference, the NDP's previous ceiling in polls is now its floor.

Steve MacKinnon, former Liberal Party national director, agreed that Mulcair kept Harper on his toes in question period.

"I think that his work in the House of Commons has been more or less effective, perhaps not in elevating his own stature, but certainly in keeping this scandal on the front pages and on Canadians' minds. He has at times made the prime minister look very, very bad. And speaking as a Liberal, any time the prime minister looks bad, that's a good day," he said.

Canada-EU trade a bright spot

The tentative trade deal Canada is finalizing with the European Union was the one bright spot for Harper in 2013, although it isn't a done deal.

"There's a lot of heavy lifting to be done, both with the provinces and in terms of settling on final language," said MacKinnon, who handles financial transaction files in his role at Hill & Knowlton Strategies.

"Obviously all judgment on any deal has to be suspended until we see that [final text]. But nonetheless, I think a major trade victory there … one that's pretty good for the country."

While Harper's trade policy drew praise, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who won the party's leadership race last April, has been criticized for lacking policy ideas. Trudeau says he's consulting with experts and with Canadians.

Caplan said those explanations usually mean a politician doesn't have any policies.

"That's been true for many, many generations of politics," he said.

"Can he get away with it? We don't know. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you bluff it out.… [But] it's very hard to do because the pressure to say something of substance gets pretty strong."

Trudeau exceeded expectations

New Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau appears lacking on the policy front, but has outperformed expectations in drawing popular support. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

MacKinnon said the on-the-ground organizing done by Trudeau's team is under-appreciated. Both Beardsley and Caplan agree Trudeau has done better than expected.

"He still has a way to go in question period. He's not quite there in that," Beardsley said.

"If you look at his first few days versus now, he's much more polished than he was before, so I think he's done well and he's shown that he's got some staying power.

Caplan said he fears Mulcair isn't taking Trudeau as seriously as he should.

Trudeau "has succeeded far beyond what anyone ever thought. I don't know anyone who thought the Liberal Party could come back as far as it appears to have done. Much of it I attribute to him and this astonishing appeal that he has," Caplan said.

"I think [Mulcair] hopes it's a passing ephemeral phenom, which is something that I'm not sure that it is." 

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Botched baby vaccinations prompt alert in N.S.

Patients of Nova Scotia physician William Vitale are being notified that some may need to be vaccinated again after the doctor mixed incompatible vaccines in one syringe and injected them in one shot.

Vitale has had his licence suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia for improperly administering vaccines.

The Capital District Health Authority says people who were vaccinated by Vitale from 1992 to 1994 and from 2003 to present and who were under age 24 months at the time may need to be re-immunized.

On Friday, health officials said Vitale was told to stop the practice by the health authority in 2006. But the authority's medical officer of health said she can't explain how that misconduct was handled.

"I can't speak to what happened in 2006. Why he wasn't followed up," Dr. Robin Taylor said.

And the registrar at the college said he doesn't know why the professional body wasn't notified at the time. Gus Grant, the registrar, said the college first learned of Vitale's conduct on Dec. 11.

Health officials are urging Vitale's patients to get re-vaccinated properly, but say it is not an emergency. Taylor is recommending patients have their first re-vaccination appointment by the end of February.

"Immunizations work to protect us against diseases such as measles, mumps, tetanus and whooping cough and are the best way to stay healthy for years to come," Taylor said.

It may take up to six months for some re-immunizations to be effective.

Patients or parents of patients vaccinated by Vitale during the affected periods should contact their family physician or call 811 for health information.

For those in the Halifax area without a family doctor, a vaccination clinic for former patients of Vitale will start Jan. 8. Appointments are required and can be arranged by calling (902) 481-5813.

Capital Health says patients should not go to emergency rooms or walk-in clinics, because they are not designed to perform routine immunizations.

"Doctors are well-informed on the right way to deliver vaccines, so this is a rare occurrence," said Dr. Frank Atherton, deputy chief public health officer for the provincial Health and Wellness Department.

"Most Nova Scotians are properly immunized. However, it is important that affected patients of this doctor take action to ensure that they are protected against these preventable diseases."

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Head of railway in Lac-Mégantic disaster 'also a victim,' he says

The railway executive behind the company whose train smashed into Lac-Mégantic wants people to know he's been suffering, too.

Looking back at the year as it comes to a close, Ed Burkhardt said he's still troubled by the Quebec derailment and has thought about it every day since the July 6 catastrophe killed 47 people and destroyed part of the town.

The chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. also told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that he's sustained significant personal financial losses since the disaster.

"They had every reason to be very upset with what had occurred," Burkhardt said about the anger directed toward him by the people of Lac-Mégantic.

"But what they didn't know was that I was equally upset and I was also a victim of this whole thing."

Investment wiped out

The chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. also told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that he's sustained significant personal financial losses since the disaster.

Burkhardt, who said he is the largest shareholder in the now-insolvent MMA, explained that he lost his entire investment after the crash forced the company to file for bankruptcy protection.

"That's a big pile of money, I might say," Burkhardt, the president of MMA parent company Rail World Inc., said in a phone interview from his Illinois office.

"It's reduced me from being a fairly well-off guy to one that's just getting by. But OK, that's what happens."

He added, however, that he wasn't complaining about the hit he took to his bottom line, insisting he didn't want to criticize the people of Lac-Mégantic because "they went through hell."

"[Financial losses are] not in the same category as the personal losses, the deaths and all of that, that people suffered in Lac-Mégantic," he said.

Burkhardt's frequently blunt remarks, often lacking public-relations massaging and sentimentalism, made him public enemy No. 1 last summer in Lac-Mégantic.

His brief stop in the town in the aftermath is perhaps best-remembered for his tumultuous news conference, during which he was heckled by irate locals.

Heavily criticized

Burkhardt, who also faced criticism for waiting more than four days before visiting the town after the crash, had anticipated the rough reception. He defended his delayed appearance, saying he was dealing with the crisis from his office.

Before travelling to Lac-Mégantic, Burkhardt even quipped that he'd probably have to wear a bulletproof vest during his visit.

Burkhardt displayed his straight-shooting style in the middle of the news conference when a reporter asked him how much he was worth, financially. He replied: "A whole lot less than I was Saturday [the day of the derailment]."

Reflecting on his reputation in Lac-Mégantic, Burkhardt believes local anger was directed at him because, as chairman, he was the voice of the company.

"I think I assumed too much of a personal role up there, so I guess I was the magnet for all of the people's unhappiness, which is not terribly surprising," the railway boss said.

He then repeated an allegation he first made publicly at that July news conference: the train driver didn't do his job properly the night of the disaster.

"They view me terribly, but I wasn't the guy who didn't set the brakes on the train," he said.

Burkhardt has alleged that the driver did not apply enough handbrakes before the train broke loose and barrelled about 10 kilometres down a hill into Lac-Mégantic.

Train driver did not respond

Tom Harding, the train's driver, was suspended by MMA following the accident. Harding's lawyer did not respond to a request to comment on Burkhardt's allegation.

Firefighters from the neighbouring town of Nantes have said they responded to a blaze on board the train hours before it came off the tracks in Lac-Mégantic. MMA has suggested the fire department's decision to shut off the locomotive to extinguish the fire might have disabled its air brakes.

Police and federal transport safety officials are conducting investigations into the crash.

In the months since the disaster, Burkhardt says he's questioned whether his trains should have ever been transporting crude oil.

"I've asked myself a number of times as to whether we should have been handling this oil at all," Burkhardt said.

"Hindsight is 20-20 vision, so at this point I wish we hadn't been handling oil. We would have obviously not been exposed to such a situation."

MMA stopped hauling oil after the crash, but Burkhardt noted that other Rail World operations in Europe have continued to transport other highly explosive cargoes, like propane.

Canadian authorities have indicated that the deadly oil in Lac-Mégantic proved to be as flammable as gasoline, though it had been improperly labelled as something less volatile.

"There's always going to be risks in handling dangerous commodities," he said.

"You try to minimize those risks, you try to manage your company well, so that those risks are low. But the risks are never zero."

Burkhardt said he welcomes the fresh debates over regulations for the rail industry, as long as any eventual changes are harmonized in Canada and the United States.

For example, he thinks tank-car construction needs to be improved, though due to the high costs he expects any transition to a more-durable tanker to take a long time.

He also encouraged more testing of operating employees, with particular attention placed on brake management and in preventing runaway trains.

Still, he thinks it should be up to railway managers to enforce any changes, rather than a heavier-handed approach by regulators.

"I put the pressure on the management, not on the regulator," Burkhardt said.

"I don't want the regulator telling me what to do. I want to figure this out within management."

MMA and Rail World executives, including Burkhardt himself, are among those named in pending lawsuits in Canada and the United States over the Lac-Mégantic​ crash.

The insolvent MMA has filed for bankruptcy protection and is now under trusteeship, though it continues to manage its day-to-day operations. MMA is expected to be sold off in the coming weeks.

There are concerns in Lac-Mégantic that a new owner could eventually resume oil shipments in the area. MMA's train service recently returned to the community, though it will no longer carry dangerous freight through town.

Burkhardt said the railway's next owner will need additional traffic along the line for it to be profitable. It will be up to them, he added, to decide whether to start hauling crude oil again.

On that question, he doesn't think the door should be forever closed to moving oil on the MMA line.

Burkhardt said MMA's decision to stop handling oil after the derailment was made easy by the fact it was unlikely to be commercially viable under the circumstances.

"Obviously, the shippers were just as horrified as we were by what occurred and probably wouldn't have used our services anyway," he said.

"Although the risks of moving over some other railroad to destination are probably just as great."

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ice storm aftermath: warm weather brings more outages

More than 30,000 customers in Ontario and New Brunswick remain in the dark one week after a major ice storm blanketed Central and Atlantic Canada, and warming temperatures have caused new power outages in Toronto.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said early Saturday that melting ice falling from trees and other structures has led to fresh damage. At about 1 a.m. ET the number of customers without power had dropped below 20,000 for the first time, but by 8 a.m. it was back up to around 23,000.

"Over the morning hours we've been moving backwards, but I'm sure our crews will attend to those and we'll start moving in the right direction again over the next couple of hours," he told CBC News Network.

Haines couldn't provide a guess for when the power would be restored to everybody. He said computer simulations have shown three days, but that there are variables at work like the new outages and the arrival of more crews. The provincial utility, Hydro One, said the outages outside Toronto are largely over, which has allowed it to send crews in to help the city.

"I'm hopeful certainly by the early part of next week the vast majority of customers will be back," Haines said.

Haines, who noted that the average Toronto Hydro customer is equivalent to 2½ people, said his heart goes out to those without power but that crews are working as fast as they can. 

"I understand the difficulties that not having electricity brings, but what we can do is work around the clock and we can bring extra resources in from far and wide, which is what we've done, and we will not stop until the power is on for everybody," he said. "What we can do is what we can do, I suppose."

Haines stressed the enormous scope of the damage:

• Forty per cent of the city's power lines, which would cross Canada twice, have been affected by the storm.
• Thirty-thousand pieces of equipment have been installed back into the grid and about 47,000 metres of cable have gone back up into the air.
• The City of Toronto says about 20 per cent of the city's tree canopy has been damaged and it could take seven weeks to clean up all the fallen limbs, Haines said. 

Amid the rising anger and frustration of those still in the dark, utility companies are pleading for patience, saying crews are working around the clock and nothing else can be done to speed up the process.

That's little consolation for people who have been in the dark for a week, including Carmen Andronesu, who is one of more than 1,000 residents who live in a condo complex in Toronto's north end.

"No matter how much you try calling here and there, it's like you cannot find help from anywhere," she said.

Wynne promises help for food spoilage

In a morning news conference, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said the concern she's heard most around the province is spoiled food. She said she's looking at providing help and would offer details over the next couple of days when a plan had been confirmed.

"We've reached out to food suppliers to try to come up with a way of compensating people and getting some extra food — or food vouchers, something to folks, so that's what we're working out over the next couple of days," she said.

12,000 without power in N.B.

About 12,000 customers in New Brunswick are also struggling through a long power outage, mostly in St. Stephen and the Saint John area.

About 23,000 customers were still without power in Toronto on Saturday morning. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

In the rural southern New Brunswick community of Titusville, people without power have been heading to the generator-powered general store to buy kerosene, propane, candles and water. 

Owner Mark Carline said the storm and outage has caused him to reflect.

"I think we were all reminded and humbled by the fact that at any given time we could be set back to this state, where we're scrambling [to get] the basic necessities."

In Quebec, the outages are almost over: Hydro-Québec tweeted late Friday night that they were "almost there" with only about 400 customers left who needed power restored.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Senate scandal made Stephen Harper stumble, Tom Mulcair shine

The Senate scandal dominated federal political news in 2013, causing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stumble while New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair used his aggressive style to score points.

The controversy over spending by senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb gave Mulcair the chance to stand out among MPs — and among the three party leaders — for his pointed, careful questions. Harper, forced on the defensive, faltered and was forced to retreat on his support for his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, as well as on his assertion that it was Wright alone who knew about the deal to cover Duffy's $90,000 in expenses.

Keith Beardsley, a former deputy chief of staff to Harper, says the Senate scandal was pivotal for Harper.

"It's the first time the government has got themselves into pretty heavy criticism and one I suppose where the population is really paying attention," Beardsley said in an interview with CBC News.

Harper also faced increasing grumbling among his MPs, with several complaining in the House about the Prime Minister's Office limiting their ability to speak in the few minutes allotted to backbenchers, and Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber quitting caucus.

Even some cabinet ministers disagreed publicly. Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Justice Minister Peter MacKay defended Wright after Harper said he'd fired him, and Kenney spoke out against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's crack use, despite Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's public support for Ford.

"You can see the backbenchers starting to stir a little bit," Beardsley said, adding there could be more of that to come in 2014 as MPs decide whether they're going to run again in 2015.

"There will be a number that, for all sorts of reasons, decide they don't want to run again, so they're going to have a certain degree of freedom and they're going to want to leave their mark … they don't give a damn what PMO says or anyone else says," he said.

Mulcair excelled

The Senate scandal gave Mulcair the chance to show off his skills in question period, asking sharp questions and highlighting Harper's refusal to answer beyond a few talking points.

Gerry Caplan, a former NDP strategist, said Mulcair has been embraced by the media and even conservative commentators for his question period ability.

Caplan calls it "the splendid and completely irrelevant job he's done in the House in pinning Harper to the wall."

"I say irrelevant because Harper hasn't changed his tune and it doesn't seem politically to be helping the NDP," he said.

The Liberals are ahead of the NDP and even the Conservatives in recent polls, though, as Mulcair pointed out in a year-end press conference, the NDP's previous ceiling in polls is now its floor.

Steve MacKinnon, former Liberal Party national director, agreed that Mulcair kept Harper on his toes in question period.

"I think that his work in the House of Commons has been more or less effective, perhaps not in elevating his own stature, but certainly in keeping this scandal on the front pages and on Canadians' minds. He has at times made the prime minister look very, very bad. And speaking as a Liberal, any time the prime minister looks bad, that's a good day," he said.

Canada-EU trade a bright spot

The tentative trade deal Canada is finalizing with the European Union was the one bright spot for Harper in 2013, although it isn't a done deal.

"There's a lot of heavy lifting to be done, both with the provinces and in terms of settling on final language," said MacKinnon, who handles financial transaction files in his role at Hill & Knowlton Strategies.

"Obviously all judgment on any deal has to be suspended until we see that [final text]. But nonetheless, I think a major trade victory there … one that's pretty good for the country."

While Harper's trade policy drew praise, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who won the party's leadership race last April, has been criticized for lacking policy ideas. Trudeau says he's consulting with experts and with Canadians.

Caplan said those explanations usually mean a politician doesn't have any policies.

"That's been true for many, many generations of politics," he said.

"Can he get away with it? We don't know. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you bluff it out.… [But] it's very hard to do because the pressure to say something of substance gets pretty strong."

Trudeau exceeded expectations

New Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau appears lacking on the policy front, but has outperformed expectations in drawing popular support. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

MacKinnon said the on-the-ground organizing done by Trudeau's team is under-appreciated. Both Beardsley and Caplan agree Trudeau has done better than expected.

"He still has a way to go in question period. He's not quite there in that," Beardsley said.

"If you look at his first few days versus now, he's much more polished than he was before, so I think he's done well and he's shown that he's got some staying power.

Caplan said he fears Mulcair isn't taking Trudeau as seriously as he should.

Trudeau "has succeeded far beyond what anyone ever thought. I don't know anyone who thought the Liberal Party could come back as far as it appears to have done. Much of it I attribute to him and this astonishing appeal that he has," Caplan said.

"I think [Mulcair] hopes it's a passing ephemeral phenom, which is something that I'm not sure that it is." 

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Crews search river area for missing Ontario boy

Emergency crews in Ontario's Waterloo region are scouring the Nith River area of the community of New Hamburg for a missing boy who apparently left his parents' home without a jacket and headed toward the river.

Neighbours said the boy is five years old. 

Rescue workers found footprints leading to a hole in the ice by the river's edge, with no footprints heading back.

Police have set up a command centre near the New Hamburg division of the Royal Canadian Legion to co-ordinate the search.

The boy's name has not been released.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Toronto deputy mayor defends quick trip to Florida

Toronto deputy mayor Norm Kelly took an overnight trip to Florida to be with family over Christmas as pockets of the city, including his own ward, remain in the dark after a weekend ice storm, CBC News has learned.

Kelly, who is Premier Kathleen Wynne's point-man for city affairs, said he left at noon on Christmas Day to visit his last living sibling and returned on the "first flight out" earlier today.

"Quite often in politics you ignore your family," said Kelly. "Over the past several years I've lost two brothers and a sister. My remaining sister is ailing and I just wanted to make contact with family."

'I understand the optics of it, at the same time you try to live a balanced life and I tried to balance the family side of my life with my obvious obligations to the residents of Toronto.'- Toronto Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly

As the 72-year-old Kelly travelled to sunny Tampa, thousands of his constituents in his ward of Scarborough-Agincourt went another day without heat and hydro.

As of late Thursday night, Toronto Hydro confirmed there were 46,000 customers without power, down from 300,000 after the storm hit overnight last Saturday.

When asked by CBC Toronto if he regrets the decision, Kelly said he regrets the controversy his trip caused but he "would have gone to North Bay. It didn't matter where it was.

"I understand the optics of it, at the same time you try to live a balanced life and I tried to balance the family side of my life with my obvious obligations to the residents of Toronto," he said.

The decision to travel south was met with mixed emotions from those calling into local Toronto radio shows, or voicing their opinions online.

Kelly said he kept in touch with city officials and residents while he was away.

"I was in touch with the emergency committee. I answered all the emails that came into me during that time. Responded to all the texts and that's in essence how I continued to do my business," he said.

Despite being at all the city briefings about the storm since Sunday, Kelly was absent at Wednesday's 11 a.m. news conference - the same day he travelled to Florida.

"I'm not into press conferences as some other people are," he said. "I prefer my contribution to be solid and important."

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was grilled at a Toronto Community Housing barbecue at 400 McCowan Avenue, near Eglinton Avenue E., on Thursday where residents remained without power.

With cameras rolling, one angry resident told the mayor: "You better do something fast ... I'm upstairs freezing my ass off, Mr. Ford."

Ford has maintained there is no reason to issue a state of emergency as hydro crews from as far away as Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, Ottawa and Manitoba work around the clock.

Part of the powers handed to Kelly by city council would be to lead the city if a state of emergency were to be called.

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Toronto ice storm: Thousands begin Day 6 without power

With thousands of Toronto residents now in their sixth day without heat and electricity in freezing temperatures, some say they're reaching the breaking point. Despite this, many will likely not have power restored for at least a few more days.

CBC's Travis Dhanraj spoke to people Thursday who've been without heat and power since Sunday's devastating ice storm hit.

The storm knocked out power to more than 250,000 customers. As of Friday morning, Toronto Hydro reported that 32,400 customers are still without power while crews work around the clock to repair damaged lines.

Toronto Hydro crews are working around the clock to repair damaged power lines, six days after the ice storm struck. (Charlsie Agro/CBC)

Among the thousands still without power is George Sabourin and his wife Carole Anne Marie. They have no heat or power in their Victoria Park apartment. Worse, the water was shut off to prevent pipes from freezing.

"All my food is spoiled. I have to throw everything out in the fridge," Carole Anne Marie said. The city has set up warming centres across the city, but the Sabourins say they won't go because they're worried about their pets. (The city has confirmed with CBC News that pets are welcome at city warming centres: Dogs must be leashed and cats must be in a crate).

And while residents become increasingly frustrated, Toronto Hydro says they're working around the clock to restore power.

Full restoration likely days away

Spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller said that while large blocks of power have been restored, crews are now into the slower work of reconnecting individual buildings. She said it may still be a few days before all customers have power.

Scarborough remains the hardest hit area of the city, with pockets of outages remaining in North York, Don Mills and the West end. In some cases, Toronto Hydro workers have been slowed by fallen trees and branches that litter many streets.

Bruckmueller also asked residents not "engage" work crews with questions.

"We want to make sure our crews can concentrate on the work that they're doing," she said Friday in an interview on CBC News Network. "They don't have any more information than what's out there. The faster they get the work done, the faster everybody gets power back."

Bruckmueller also said some residents may see their power restored, then shut off again. In many cases this is a good sign, and a possible indication that crews are working in their area.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is expected to provide an update on the storm situation at 11 a.m. Friday.

City warming centres

Dennis R Timbrell Community Centre, 29 St. Denis Dr. (Eglinton/Don Mills)
Malvern Community Centre, 30 Sewells Rd. (Neilson/Finch)
Driftwood Community Centre, 4401 Jane St. (between Finch and Steeles)
Mitchell Field Community Centre, 89 Church Ave. (Yonge/Finch)
Joseph P Piccininni Community Centre, 1369 St Clair Ave. W. (St Clair/Keele)
Matty Eckler Community Centre, 953 Gerrard St. E. (Pape/Gerrard)
Lawrence Heights Middle School, 50 Highland Hill (between Ranee and Dane)
Edithvale Community Centre, 131 Finch Ave. W. (between Bathurst and Yonge)
Pleasantview Community Centre, 545 Van Horne Ave. (between Edmonton and Brian)
East York Collegiate Institute, 650 Cosburn Ave. (Coswell/Coxwell)
McGregor Park Community Centre, 2231 Lawrence Ave. E. (Lawrence/Kennedy)

In addition, 13 Toronto Police Service facilities have been identified as having community rooms available for use 24/7 as warming centres:

Division 11 – 2054 Davenport Road (Davenport/Osler)
Division 12 – 200 Trethewey Drive (Trethewey/Black Creek)
Division 14 – 350 Dovercourt Road (College/Dovercourt)
Division 22 – 3699 Bloor Street West (Bloor West/Dundas West)
Division 23 – 5230 Finch Avenue West (Kipling/Finch)
Division 31 – 40 Norfinch Road (Norfinch/Finch West)
Division 33 – 50 Upjohn Road (York Mills/Don Mills)
Division 42 – 242 Milner Avenue (Milner/Markham)
Division 43 – 4331 Lawrence Ave. E (Lawrence Ave. E/ Kingston Road)
Division 51 – 51 Parliament Street (Front/Parliament)
Division 52 - 255 Dundas Street West (LOBBY ONLY)
Toronto Police Service College – 70 Birmingham Street (Birmingham/Fifth)
Toronto Police Service Headquarters – 40 College Street (College/Bay)

Source: City of Toronto

22.40 | 0 komentar | Read More