5 things to watch for in the Quebec election leaders' debate

The leaders of Quebec's four main political parties will face off tonight in the last debate before voters go to the polls on April 7.

The event will be broadcast live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on TVA, LCN and Argent.

The debate is divided into three themes: social policies and governance, economy and public finances, identity and sovereignty.

The four candidates are Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Françoise David, Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault and Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois.

They will have the opportunity to face off one-on-one for each of the themes, and then face off again in a four-person debate.

Here's what you should watch for tonight:

1. Integrity

A new issue to emerge in the campaign this week, as both leading parties are spattered with questions and allegations in the last 48 hours. 

Who can make the stronger case in the debate on issues of integrity?

2. Referendum

A significant discussion in this campaign, this final leaders debate could be key for voters who are trying to decide how they feel about a referendum on Quebec's independence. How will candidates keep it at the forefront or quell the conversation? 

3. CAQ lures votes

François Legault needs to convince supporters who drifted to the Liberals to come back to the Coalition Avenir Québec. He'll have to do so by convincing them they don't have to worry about a PQ majority anymore.

4. The left

Can Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Françoise David continue to draw left-wing voters who are turned off by the PQ's apparent shift to the right? She'll work to solidify her party's position as a true left party and one that is a viable option for voters. Pauline Marois needs to paint the increasingly popular Québec Solidaire as a fringe group who will never be able to govern.

5. Overall impressions

Overall impressions play a big role in determining influences on voters. Philippe Couillard needs to show he can be premier, while Marois, who seemed to struggle with composure during the last debate, needs to reassure voters she's capable of leading a majority government. 

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Why candidates 'skirted' around the Rob Ford crack issue during the debate

It may be that the four Toronto mayoral candidates sharing the stage with Rob Ford Wednesday night just wanted to appear statesmanlike and not sully themselves with the details of the scandal that's made the chief magistrate an international sensation. 

But there must have been some satisfaction among the four when, nearly 75 minutes into the 90-minute first televised mayoral candidate debate, CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan bluntly raised the issue with the mayor.

"Mr. Ford, everyone has skirted around quite delicately the issue of the scandal," Mulligan said. "I'm going to give you a chance to address it and speak to it first hand.

"You have admitted to smoking crack cocaine. There's a police investigation underway into you as we speak.You have said in the past you're not perfect, but people do expect a lot from the chief magistrate. How can voters trust good judgment in you, going forward for the next four years, and can you address this scandal head on?"

Up to that point, the candidates seemed to cautiously avoid mentioning any specifics about the scandal. Former NDP MP Olivia Chow, seen as one of the top contenders, had been the most aggressive on the issue, saying it was time to "take down the circus tent," that the mayor had made the city an "international embarrassment," and that Ford was hardly a role model for her grandchildren.

Mostly silent on Ford's troubles

The other three candidates were mostly silent on Ford's personal troubles.

Former Ontario PC leader John Tory, also considered a front-runner of the race, seemed to avoid the subject — that is, until he took offence at a comment by Ford in which the mayor said Tory, who had failed in his bid to become Ontario premier in 2007, had "fallen flat on [his] face" in provincial politics.

A visibly angry Tory then lectured Ford: "Maybe you would like to give us a minute on the respect for the office you hold, where you have let the taxpayers down of this city very badly, you've let the citizens of this city down, you've let the reputation of this city down; maybe you would like to address that."

The debate itself was messy — a free-for-all fuelled by a laissez-faire style of moderating. ("Oh my god that hurt," Ryerson University political science professor Myer Siemiatycki said immediately after watching the televised melee.)

Karen Stintz, (left to right) John Tory, Olivia Chow, David Soknacki and Rob Ford shake hands before the first Toronto mayoral debate in Toronto on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

And there were none of the "knockout punches" the media so covet. Still, Ford held his own against the attacks by the other four.

(Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who had Ford on his show earlier this month and watched the debate, tweeted that Ford "is JFK compared to some of these candidates.")

Ford kept to his one-note message of taxpayer savings, conveying it in a direct and compelling way, said Siemiatycki.

"If he can convince Torontonians that the only thing they need in a mayor is someone who is going to be vigilant on taxes and then he can go the next step of convincing them that he is that person, he has a real shot at re-election."

And when it came to the issue about his crack smoking, Ford smiled, prepared for the question he's faced for months — one he hopes that voters are tired of hearing. 

"People have heard the story. It's rewind, rewind, rewind," Ford said before launching into his familiar defence that he's made mistakes and he's not perfect.

Lob the grenade

That the question was left for Mulligan to ask may not be surprising, as candidates may have feared going after the mayor personally, not wanting to appear excessively divisive, shrill, antagonistic or aggressive, Siemiatycki said.

"I think in a way each one of them may want the other one to lob the grenade as ground cover for them to run through," he said.

But with the election nearly seven months away, this will change, Siemiatycki said.

"I think maybe one of the takeaways from this debate will be that there's a cost of not doing it, because if you don't challenge the mayor's personal behaviour, he gets a lot of air time [to repeat] what he regards as his great achievements and it's difficult to challenge and try to argue against it.

"So I think some of them may be thinking if we don't go after character, then we're leaving too much space for him to go on and on about how wonderful he is, and maybe it's time to remind people there are some aspects of the mayor that aren't too wonderful."

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What's the mudslide risk in your community?

The hard part about predicting mudslides isn't the "where" — it's the "when." 

They're like earthquakes that way. Pointing to areas on a map where there's potential trouble — California, Japan, Iran — is a fairly simple job for any geologist worth his or her salt. But knowing whether the Big One will strike today, next year or sometime in the next 10,000 years is a question one might as well refer to a Tarot deck. 

It's the same with landslides and mudslides, such as the  2.6-square-kilometre mass of earth that over the weekend devastated the community of Oso, Wash. 

Often the best geologists, hydrologists and the like can do is read the terrain, rainfall patterns and other conditions around a community and say whether the ground is at risk of what they call "failure." 

"The kind of failure we saw in Washington occurs when a number of factors come together," said Prof. Andrew Miall of the department of Earth sciences at the University of Toronto. 

"Very soft sediment and a fairly steep slope facing a river," will set the stage, he said, though a slide itself is often triggered by heavy rainfall or other saturation of the soil. 

"Heavy rain can do it. The springtime, when things start to thaw, makes those setups particularly prone to collapse," he said. 

There are three regions in Canada that fit this general profile, say geologists: the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and the St. Lawrence Valley up into the Eastern Townships in Quebec. 

All three have the right combination of hilly or mountainous terrain, water and unreliable soil. Much of B.C. is covered with the same soil found across Washington state — loose silt and sediment left behind when the last local glacier melted.

In Quebec, the culprit is leda clay, another relic of the last ice age that sometimes lurks deep under seemingly more stable ground, and which contributed to the deadly landslide in 2010 that killed a family of four. 

B.C. has seen at least a dozen dangerous or deadly slides over the past 10 years, though one geologist said there are probably many more that go unreported because they occur in remote areas. 

"We have higher frequency [in B.C.] but we also benefit from lower population density," said Erik Eberhardt, a professor of geological engineering at the University of British Columbia. "Hundreds or thousands probably happen every year, but we just don't hear about them."

Construction or deforestation due to logging or fire can also make bad situations more dangerous. Older communities — established without the help of modern engineering and safety standards — might also be at more risk, though there's no clear date after which a site can be considered entirely safe. The more recent, the better, say experts. 

Mud and landslides can also happen anywhere there's an unstable slope — even flat, featureless Toronto has had a few, thanks in part to a previous century's poor idea of using garbage to reinforce ravine walls. 

But it is hard to predict when, if ever, any of these factors will add up to actual trouble. 

"We can't say when the land will fail," said Eberhardt. "It could be one year, five years or 50 years." 

Indeed, it came to light this week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers once warned that a "large catastrophic failure" was looming over Oso, though it took 15 years for that prediction to come true. 

"Specialists can talk about risk and conditions that apply, but it's like talking about the risk of earthquakes. You hear it, but you don't necessarily change your behaviour," said Miall. 

Even after a community has been hit by a slide (and areas are often struck more than once, though the slides might be decades or more apart), residents may give in to what experts call "hazard amnesia," eventually forgetting about the need for diligence and disaster preparedness as the most recent disaster recedes into the past. 

"It's one thing to talk about risk, but if you're not talking about when something that's going to happen — something that's intangible like an earthquake or slide — it's very difficult to know how to respond," he said.

"You could tell people today to stock up on batteries and bottled water but [the disaster] could be 200 years from now or it could be tomorrow." 

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B.C. measles outbreak reveals vulnerability of unvaccinated children

Widespread use of the measles vaccine has dramatically reduced the numbers of cases in Canada over the past 45 years. But the recent outbreak in British Columbia is underscoring how the highly contagious virus can very effectively seek out groups of unprotected children.

More than 200 cases of measles have been confirmed in the Fraser Valley, an outbreak health officials have linked to a region east of Vancouver where immunization rates are low in certain school and religious groups.

"It's in those pockets of unimmunized or under-immunized kids where measles can, because it's such an infectious disease …. get into those populations," says Dr. John Spika, director general of the centre for immunization and respiratory infectious diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The B.C. case appears to be linked to a similar community in the Netherlands that is also not vaccinated, he says.

Cases of measles have also been reported this year in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, and while many health officials generally talk of a 95-per-cent coverage rate for the measles vaccine across the country, these pockets of lesser protection are prompting concerns.

"There's certainly more religious communities where vaccination is not necessarily supported," says Dr. Kumanan Wilson, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who holds a research chair in public health policy.

"We're also seeing with immigration, people coming from countries where vaccine-preventable diseases are occurring, and that also challenges our protection."

Diseases coming back

Until now, individual decisions not to vaccinate may not necessarily have had a significant impact on the larger population. Through the use of vaccines, people haven't been seeing many examples of disease, and perhaps they have been thinking it's not so important to get vaccinated.

"But of course, when several people start making that decision, then the diseases come back, and we're starting to see that happen," says Wilson.

"We're seeing the measles, we're seeing the mumps, we're seeing pertussis, whooping cough, come back. I think then it becomes apparent that this collective decision by several individuals starts to have a population-level effect."

In Canada last year, there were 83 cases of measles, with about half linked to a community in southern Alberta. The previous year, there were 10 cases.

Spika says the number and size of outbreaks in Canada recently are consistent with, and maybe even smaller than, what was statistically predicted for the country 15 years ago.

"What we're seeing is what one would expect in a country where there are a lot of travellers coming from places where measles has not yet been eliminated."

Public health officials of course hope as many people as possible will turn to vaccination to limit those outbreaks, but it is a complex issue, coming at the crossroads of medicine, personal choice and, for some, religious beliefs.

Public health progress

Health officials have also long argued that vaccination is one of the most significant public health accomplishments in modern times.

"They say it's the second-most effective measure to reduce illness after clean water," says Wilson.

Some diseases have been eliminated through vaccination, including smallpox. Vaccines have also dramatically reduced the number cases of measles, but not everywhere around the globe.

A girl receives a measles vaccine at a makeshift camp housing people displaced by violence at Don Bosco in Bangui, Central African Republic on Jan. 4, 2014, as part of a campaign run by Doctors Without Borders. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)

​"Measles, fortunately, has been largely controlled in the Western hemisphere, but it is a problem throughout the world particularly in countries where they don't vaccinate and there's a huge burden of illness due to it," says Wilson.

The U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control reported 240,000 deaths worldwide from the disease in 2006. It now says about 330 children die every day from measles, which is just over 120,000 a year.

In Canada, says Spika, the risk of brain infection from measles is one per 1,000 cases. The risk of death is about one in 3,000 cases.

"Even in populations like Canada that are well-nourished, measles is still a serious and deadly disease."

It also spreads very easily.

"It's one of our most infectious viruses," says Wilson. "In an unvaccinated population, for every individual that has measles, another 15 individuals will get infected." With the flu, he says, the corresponding number is two.

Looking for a high uptake

For public health officials, the need for a high uptake on vaccination is clear. But determining just exactly how well covered Canada is with the measles vaccine is not easy.

Generally speaking, officials consider the coverage rate to be about 95 per cent.

But a report last year from UNICEF suggested Canada's childhood immunization rate was stunningly low, coming in at 84 per cent and falling near the bottom of a list of more than 30 countries.

Spika questions the results of that study. "For a variety of reasons related to methodology used, we don't feel those figures truly represent what … our current status in Canada is."

But Wilson sees limitations on the current estimates of coverage and a need for better data.

"We have a hard time actually measuring that, and we don't have a national vaccine registry," something he considers would be important to implement.

Information on diseases like measles is gathered through surveys, and while some jurisdictions may have data on school-age children, they don't have it for those who are younger, an age range in which a lot of outbreaks occur.

The measles virus, seen here through an electron micrograph, is highly contagious and can be spread through coughing and sneezing. (Canadian Press)

Determining whether Canadian vaccination rates are up or down in recent years is problematic. Certainly, in Canada, there hasn't been the falloff that was observed in Britain after parents responded to a now widely discredited report on a possible link between the measles vaccine and autism.

"We haven't seen that kind of drop in relationship to that," says Spika.

But Wilson is sensing more "vaccine hesitancy."

"In the past, people would just get vaccinated," he says. "They would accept what their doctors told them about the importance of it. Now people are considering it more, and unfortunately they're going on the internet and getting a lot of misinformation … and this is making them think twice, delay their vaccination, sometimes forget to get vaccinated."

God's will?

Sometimes the decision not to vaccinate is based on personal attitudes or beliefs.

"We know in some communities getting measles is viewed as something that maybe is God's will," says Spika.

"Others believe that measles strengthens their child's immune status, and that it isn't a dangerous disease because you really don't see much of measles in a place like Canada because of our high rates of coverage."

Public health officials have to try to overcome some of those ideas and beliefs, he says.

But the key to overcoming such ideas, he says, is getting to know the specific concerns of a particular group and coming up with effective messages to help people change their opinion.

Studies have shown that a respectful, collaborative approach is the most effective. "If it becomes confrontational I think you'll see more and more people move toward the anti-vaccine camp," says Wilson.

While vaccination focuses first and foremost on protecting the individual getting the needle, Wilson says people also "need to get vaccinated to protect others."

Some children can't get vaccinated because they have certain diseases that affect their immune system or are vulnerable when they have chemotherapy or cancer.

These children are at "a particular risk of a very serious illness and I think that's a message that really needs to get out there," says Wilson. "I don't know how aware people are of that."

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Inuit go hungry more than any other indigenous group: report

A child holds a sign at a protest against high food prices in Nunavut in June 2012. A new study released Thursday says people in Nunavut have the highest food insecurity rate for any indigenous population in a developed country at 68 per cent. (Genevieve Nutarariaq/Facebook)

A new study released Thursday highlights the fact that people in Nunavut have the highest food insecurity rate for any indigenous population in a developed country at 68 per cent.

The report by the Council of Canadian Academies says 35 per cent of Inuit households in Nunavut do not have enough to eat. It also says 76 per cent of Inuit preschoolers skip meals, while 60 per cent have gone a day without eating. 

The report does not present any new data or make any recommendations. Its authors say they hope their document will help develop priorities for the North and "direct northern food security research to priority areas." 

None of this comes as a surprise to Northerners. The alarming data on Inuit child hunger in Nunavut was first published in 2010 following the 2007-2008 Inuit Child Health Survey. 

'Folks in the South, I hope they're shocked and I hope they're embarrassed.'- David Natcher

"That's the same as it's always been here," said Rus Blanchet, who works at the Iqaluit soup kitchen. "Food is more expensive here. There's nothing anyone can do about that. They have to ship it in by plane and boat."

The report says the average cost of groceries for a family of four in Nunavut is $19,760 per year while almost half of Inuit adults earn less than $20,000 annually.

David Natcher, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, contributed to the report.

"For the folks up north, I think they're going to say 'Yeah, I'm glad you recognize this,'" he said. "For the folks in the South, I hope they're shocked and I hope they're embarrassed."

Natcher says Canada has the resources and capacity to improve food security in the North. 

"The conditions in Nunavut in particular are in many ways dire. We have the resources. We have the capacity to address these issues and we can resolve food insecurity for Northern and Inuit communities."

The World Health Organization defines food security as existing "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life."

The Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey, 2007-2009, found that 70 per cent of Inuit preschoolers don't know when they'll get their next meal. (Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge)

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Fears of a housing bubble in Canada overblown, report says

Fears that a housing bubble is brewing in Canada are overblown, according to a new report by the Conference Board of Canada. 

While house prices may be headed for a modest decline in some markets, there is no bubble to pop, the report says.

As the price of homes continues to rise, low interest rates and low mortgage rates are keeping affordability at reasonable levels, according to the report.

Average home prices in February rose an annual 10.1 per cent across Canada, with large increases in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta.

The report says those calling it a bubble are looking at the wrong statistics — by focusing on the ratio of house prices to incomes and the ratio of house prices to rents.

Instead, the report looks at the ratio of principal and interest costs to incomes and to rents, and finds that they are in the same range they have been in for the past 20 years.

"Mortgage costs, not just house prices, are the principal deciding factor for potential home buyers," according to Robin Wiebe, senior economist at the Conference Board's Centre for Municipal Studies and author of the report.

"Mortgage rates are expected to rise this year, but not dramatically, because the Canadian economy remains in slow-growth mode," she said.

The report also looked at the real estate markets in six major Canadian cities, and found there to be a good balance of buyers and sellers in each, indicating a healthy market.

In February, the IMF and TD Bank said the Canadian housing market is 10 per cent overvalued, while in a report released last November, ratings agency Fitch said prices in the Canadian market are overvalued by 21 per cent.

All three said the market would find a soft landing, without a painful crisis when prices drop.

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Snowmobilers threatened with gun, catch incident on video

Jeff Smerechanski and his friend were snowmobiling last month south of Saskatoon when they were confronted by a man with a gun.

The pair were riding through fields in the Rural Municipality of South Corman Park when they realized they were on private property.

Jeff Smerechanski, near the location in the Rural Municipality of South Corman Park where the incident happened on the Family Day long weekend. (CBC)

"I got to this one spot and got stuck, got off my sled to start digging myself out," he said. "I turned around and realized there's a house there and I am on some guy's yard."

When he dug himself out and caught up to his friend, a truck was blocking their path, and a man was approaching their snowmobiles.

"I saw that he had a gun in his hand, and not some hunting shotgun. It looked like some kind of combat shotgun and he was kicking my friend's sled," he said.

(Warning: Language in video below may offend) 

Smerechanski's friend was wearing a camera on his helmet, which captured the confrontation that followed.

"I got off my sled and in a fairly aggressive tone, said 'what the F are you doing?'" he said. "At that point, he slaps me in the side of the head. He was very, very upset and you couldn't even reason with him."

He said he apologized to the man for allegedly trespassing and they tried to leave the field.

Man defends his actions

Deryl Ring, the man who confronted the snowmobilers with a gun that day, is an alpaca farmer who lives in the area. He said the snowmobilers crossed through his land while they were riding, stressing out his prize-winning animals.

So he got in his truck and caught up with them on his neighbour's property to confront them. 

Deryl Ring, on his alpaca farm. (CBC)

"I was really, really upset. Especially when they asked what they did wrong," he said. "Well, it is a no-brainer to me. You were on private property. That's what they did wrong."

Ring said he has had problems with snowmobilers for years. He said they ignore signage, tear through fencing and often trespass on his farm.

He said he was scared of what the snowmobilers might do to him, which is why he brought a gun along.

Deryl Ring believes his cat was run over by careless snowmobilers. (Deryl Ring)

"I'm not a young man ... how do I know I'm not going to get a round taken out of me," he said.

Ring also said that in the past, one of his cats was chased and run over by snowmobilers. He said he overreacted, but maintained he never intended to shoot either of the men with the gun.

Police deciding whether charges will be laid

The event has left Smerechanski, who started snowmobiling this winter, wondering how bad things could have gotten.

"I think, what would have happened if someone who was more of a hot head, had been in that situation? How could that have ended?" he said. "You know, with him and his shotgun, would someone have tried to take the gun away from him, or struck him back? This story could have ended a lot worse."

The snowmobilers have since complained to RCMP. Police said they forwarded the case to prosecutors to decide whether charges will be laid.

---

Replay the Saskatoon Morning live chat looking into snowmobiling and private property. 

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First Nations launch green light strategy to combat violence

The colour green usually means go.  But in northwestern Ontario, First Nations are using green light bulbs to symbolize their fight against the high level of violence faced by women and girls.

Called the Green Light Strategy, First Nation communities are being asked to light up their homes with green bulbs to symbolize that they stand for healthy families and against violence.

"There's been homicides, there's been brutal sexual assaults," said Karen Kejick, the woman behind the strategy. Kejick is a member of the Grand Council Treaty #3 Women's Executive Council.

The Green Light Strategy recently kicked off on the Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation near Nestor Falls, distributing 50 green light bulbs in the community.

Kejick says the colour green has a strong cultural significance to First Nations.  

Karen Kejick started the Green Light Stategy, which recently kicked off on the Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation near Nestor Falls. (Karen Kejick)

"Green is a healing colour," says Kejick. "It represents healing and a spiritual connection to mother earth."

Although in the preliminary stages, First Nation leaders and community members in northwestern Ontario are already joining in.

Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation, east of International Falls will be launching the green light strategy in a couple of weeks, said Chief Gary Allen.

"When we have strong, healthy women, we have healthy communities," said Chief Allen.

"I think it's needed especially when we're looking at missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada and the continued violence against our women," 

'No one is going to help us, we have to do it ourselves, together...the vision is to empower our communities by working together to work on ending violence.'- Karen Kejick

Earlier this year, Ottawa-based researcher Maryanne Pearce revealed that there were 824 missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in Canada.  

(Left to right) - Chief Kathy Kishiqueb, Judy Morrisson, Chief Gary Allen, and Karen Kejick. Pictured are Treaty 3 representatives who have been working on the 'Green Light Strategy.' (Grand Council Treaty #3 - Women's Executive Council)

Even though it is not known how many of these cases are from northwestern Ontario, Pearce plans to break down her research by region.

What is known is that aboriginal women and girls in Canada experience higher rates of violence and are eight times more likely to be murdered compared to non-Aboriginal women.

"When federal, provincial, and even our own leaders are flying over us at night, they'll be reminded there's work to be done," says Kejick.

Currently the strategy is operating with no funds. The goal is to not only raise awareness about violence but to raise funds to purchase security systems, dead bolts, or even self-defence classes for women.

"No one is going to help us, we have to do it ourselves, together," said Kejick.

"The vision is to empower our communities by working together to work on ending violence."

The Urban Native Friendship Centre in Fort Frances is interested in hosting an event and bringing the strategy to all the friendship centres across the province.

Taking it one step further, planning is underway to declare a National Day of Empowerment for women and girls.

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Canadian soldier suicides poorly tracked, veterans groups say

The recent deaths of two Canadian soldiers who fought in Afghanistan have renewed public debate about how to deal with military suicides. But veterans advocates say that the data collected by the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada on how many active and retired army personnel have committed suicide is incomplete, and makes it difficult to help soldiers who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"If you don't have all the data, then how are you able to determine the causes and address some of the trends?" says Bruce Poulin, communications manager for Dominion Command of the Royal Canadian Legion in Ottawa.

Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) has confirmed that two soldiers died in the past week.

Corporal Alain Lacasse, 43, of Valcartier, Que., was found dead in his home on March 17. Police said it was a suicide.

Master Cpl. Tyson Washburn, 37, of Pembroke, Ont., was found dead on March 15. Officials aren't releasing details about his death, but CBC News has learned Washburn appears to have taken his own life.

There has been a spate of soldier suicides in recent months, including three in the span of three days in November. 

Three more soldiers died in January. On Jan. 3, Cpl. Adam Eckhardt, a native of Trenton, Ont. who was based with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at CFB Suffield in Alberta, was found dead.

Alain Lacasse, 43, served six tours of duty including two in Bosnia and one in Afghanistan. He was found dead in his home in Valcartier, Que., on March 17. (Facebook)

On Jan. 8, Cpl. Camilo Sanhueza-Martinez, a member of The Princess of Wales' Own Regiment based in Kingston, Ont., who had fought in Afghanistan, was found dead.

On Jan. 16, Lt.-Col. Stephane Beauchemin, a 22-year veteran who had been deployed to Haiti and Bosnia, died in Limoges, Ont, a small town east of Ottawa.

The deaths of Master Cpl. Washburn and Cpl. Lacasse bring the number of confirmed suicides of Canadian soldiers in 2014 to five.

The difficulty of getting accurate numbers

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has published figures on soldier suicides up to and including 2012. The numbers show there were 10 suicides in 2012, 21 in 2011 and 12 in 2010.

Poulin says the figures published by the CAF are incomplete, because they only look at men currently serving in the forces and do not include army reservists, those who have retired from the military, or women.

According to the CAF website, "the low number of suicides amongst female CAF members makes the statistical analysis of female rates unreliable."

The CAF has not published numbers for 2013, but according to Nicole Meszaros, a senior public affairs officer for the Canadian Armed Forces, "in the calendar year 2013, the CAF lost nine members to suicide and another four members whose deaths are under investigation but remain to be officially confirmed as suicide."

Of the nine confirmed suicides in 2013 cited by Meszaros, one was a woman and three were reservists. Those numbers do not include veterans no longer serving in the military.

A 'disingenuous' comparison

The published CAF figures show that over the period of 2005-2009, the suicide rate was 18 deaths per 100,000. This rate is comparable to that for males in the civilian population. According to Statistics Canada figures from 2009, the suicide rate for Canadian males was 17.3.

Poulin says that historically, the official suicide rate for serving soldiers is about 20 for every 100,000 but adds that it's not a complete picture of what's happening.

"By not counting women, reservists and those that leave the military, you're still looking at 20," says Poulin. "The question then becomes, OK, but is that an accurate reflection of PTSD and the situation that we are facing right now?"

A 2013 report published by the Department of National Defence found that suicide rates in the CAF have not increased over time, and after age standardization, were lower than those in the Canadian civilian population.

That comparison is "disingenuous," says Michael Blais, CEO and director of Canadian Veterans Advocacy.

"These men and women are not like those in the [civilian] population," says Blais. He points out that soldiers are recruited for their mental toughness, and that anything that might trigger a suicide was "not a pre-existing condition – it's a wound."

"To compare a wound that was sustained in a military environment to the [psychological difficulties of someone in the] civilian population, that doesn't cut it," he says.

'Veterans Affairs has an obligation'

While he takes issue with the suicide figures presented by CAF, Blais says it's equally concerning that there is no data on the number of veterans who commit suicide after leaving the military.

"We have people who are getting out [of service], and within a year, committing suicide," says Blais. "So many times, you find out about a suicide literally months after it's happened."

The Canadian Armed Forces does not keep track of suicides by retired soldiers, and Blais says neither does Veterans Affairs. CBC made several interview requests to Veterans Affairs, but did not receive a comment.

Blais says that the lack of documentation of suicide among retired veterans hinders efforts to get a proper handle on the scope of PTSD.

"Veterans Affairs has an obligation – we can't fix this unless we know what's wrong," he says.

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Why 'fireball season' is so spectacular this year

Unusually bright meteors called fireballs have been blasting across the night sky all over Canada in recent weeks. Last week, a fireball thought to have ended up as a meteorite on the ground was spotted in southern Ontario. In Nova Scotia, fireballs were spotted two days in a row. The first one was also visible from P.E.I. and parts of Quebec. Just two weeks earlier, a spectacular fireball exploded over Yellowknife.

How strange and unusual is this?

Well, in some ways, it isn't.

Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Centre, describes spring as "fireball season."

A Nova Scotia webcam image captured a bright light in the sky near the Masstown Market last week. (Nova Scotia Webcams)

"We do tend to see more fireballs just before early spring," he said at a news conference in St. Thomas, Ont., Friday.

Canadian astronomer Ian Halliday first reported the seasonal phenomenon decades ago, he added.

In fact, NASA reports that the nightly rate of fireballs increases 10 to 30 per cent around the spring equinox.

But scientists still don't have a good handle on why that is, Cooke said.

Martin Beech, professor of astronomy at the University of Regina's Campion College, said the explanation may be pure chance, and it may be that "the Earth just happens to encounter more of these objects at this time of year."

Fewer meteors typically spotted in March

The strange thing about that is that, in general, March is the time of year when the number of meteors spotted overall is at its lowest. There are no major meteor showers and rates of "sporadic" meteors unrelated to meteor showers are also at their minimum.

That's because sporadic meteors tend to come from the direction the Earth is travelling, the apex, which is at its highest point in the night sky in the autumn. Consequently, that's the time of year when sporadic meteors peak.

However, Robert Hawkes, a solar system astrophysicist at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., said fireballs may not necessarily have the same distribution as fainter meteors and in fact, some meteor showers are known to have a larger number of brighter meteors than fainter ones.

But are there more fireballs this year than in other years?

No, not according to a network of cameras across North America that track fireballs.

"This year appears to be a pretty normal year," Cooke said Friday.

No relationship between Ont., N.S. fireballs

Nor does he think there was any relationship between last week's Ontario and Maritime fireballs, since they appeared before midnight and before dawn respectively. That suggests that they came from different directions in space relative to the Earth.

This is a composite, all-sky camera image of the southern Ontario fireball as seen from Aylmer, Ont., last Tuesday. It is thought to be unrelated to one seen over the Maritimes the same night. (Western University, the Physics and Astronomy Department )

Meteor experts have a number of explanations for why there are so many reports of fireballs this year.

Beech said fireballs actually occur fairly regularly.

"Most of the time, they go unnoticed, believe it or not," he said.

He suggested that the location of the fireballs may have made a difference – they happened to be visible in highly populated parts of Canada.

CBC's national science correspondent, Bob McDonald, thinks the ability to quickly share reports with friends also plays a role.

 "Everyone's got a webcam now on their phone, so we're seeing them more and their pictures are being posted online."

Timing plays a role

McDonald added that the fireballs tend to show up around 5 a.m. because that's the time of day when we're on the "front" of the Earth as it moves through space: "You're actually underneath the windshield as we run into them."

Hawkes thinks that the timing the fireballs, as well as the weather, probably increased the number of people who saw them.

He noted that the Maritime fireballs were visible during a period of clear skies and they appeared around 5 a.m., when many people are awake.

Hawkes, who used to be in charge of the Canadian fireball reporting network, noted that media reports of fireballs tend to increase the number of subsequent reports.

"It gives people the confidence and the interest to bother reporting," he said.

He added that the massive and spectacular Russian meteor that caused $33 million in damage and injured more than a thousand people in February 2013 likely also "sensitized" people to similar events.

"They're more apt to report bright events than they were three years ago."

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Jury in chained teen sex assault trial finds accused guilty

John Leonard MacKean, of Lower Sackville, has been found guilty of sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18. (CBC)

After deliberating for much of Friday, a Nova Scotia jury has found John Leonard MacKean guilty of sexually assaulting a boy who was held for days in chains in a remote cabin.

The jury announced it had verdict around 4:20 p.m. local time. MacKean, of Lower Sackville, was also found guilty of communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.

MacKean, 64, will be sentenced on June 24. His daughter began to sob as the verdict was announced, as did the mother of the victim.

"I'm really grateful that he was found guilty on both counts," the mother of the victim told reporters. "I really didn't know what way it was going to go, I really didn't. And I'm glad that it's going to be over."

A key piece of evidence was a videotaped interview MacKean had with police.

That video made it a difficult case to defend, according to MacKean's lawyer, Mike Taylor.

"It certainly posed problems," he said. "There were acknowledgements by Mr. MacKean that he had done certain things during that process. So that certainly caused some difficulty."

Crown prosecutor Lloyd Tancock agreed the video played an important role in the conviction. 

MacKean remains free on bail until his sentencing. The communicating charge carries a minimum penalty of six months in jail; the sexual assault charge has a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The victim testified that he was blindfolded with a sleeping mask and his hands and feet were chained to a bed when a man sexually assaulted him at the cabin in a rural area, where he was held against his will for eight days.

The boy, now 17, told the province's Supreme Court in Bridgewater that a man performed oral sex on him as he cried, unable to move.

MacKean testified in his own defence. He told the jury that when he arrived at the cabin the teen was not chained and did not seem upset.

The teen said he is certain attack was not carried out by one of two other men accused in the case, one of whom was convicted in his kidnapping, because he was able to determine from a limited view beneath his blindfold that the perpetrator was a balding, heavy-set man who wore glasses.

The court heard that MacKean's DNA was found on the teen and on the bed to which he was chained.

MacKean denied he performed oral sex on the youth, said he was led to believe the victim was a young adult and that if he felt the youth was distressed, he would have made sure he was freed.

He said he was invited to the cabin by Wayne Alan Cunningham, with whom he had a sexual relationship after the two met at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Cunningham invited MacKean to the cabin where the teen was being held.

David James LeBlanc, another man accused in the case, was sentenced last June to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats and breach of conditions.

An agreed statement of facts in LeBlanc's case said he offered the teen a painting job and drove him in a van from Halifax to a cabin in Lunenburg County about 130 kilometres away in September 2012 on the pretext of picking up painting supplies.

The youth later escaped and a woman found him barefoot at her doorstep, chained at his wrists and ankles.

LeBlanc was arrested in northern Ontario in September 2012. Police were also searching at the time for Cunningham, whose body was later found near the area where LeBlanc was arrested. Foul play was not suspected in his death.

 

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Halifax technology helping in Malaysian flight search

Technology developed by a Halifax company has been used by Australian authorities as they search the Indian Ocean for debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared nearly two weeks ago.

CarteNav Solutions Inc. has a special software system that integrates sensor data from various sources to help searchers.

In this case, satellite sensors detected objects that might be airplane debris in the ocean. CarteNav's AIMS-ISR takes the GPS location and uses that information to help a special telescopic camera, mounted underneath a military airplane, hopefully spot the material.

The company knew its technology was being deployed by the Royal Australian Air Force. But CarteNav officials had no idea it was being used in the search for the missing Boeing 777 until they saw a photo of the system in an Australian government article on the mission.

"Here at CarteNav, like everywhere in the world, we're so concerned for those families," said Rick MacDonald, chief technology officer at the company.

"It's been two weeks now, it's an awful long time not to know. We're proud to be involved, even in a tiny little way. We hope it's found soon."

There has been no confirmed sign of wreckage but two objects seen floating deep south in the Indian Ocean were considered a credible lead and set off a huge hunt on Thursday.

One object is reported to be 24 metres in length, the other 4.5 metres.

Australian authorities said the first aircraft to sweep treacherous seas on Friday in an area about 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth returned to base without spotting the objects picked out by satellite images five days ago.

"Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating," Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Perth. "It may have slipped to the bottom."

"It's also certain that any debris or other material would have moved a significant distance over that time, potentially hundreds of kilometres," he said.

CarteNav's chief financial officer, Michel Lechmann, says the technology can integrate various sensors onto one screen, making the search quicker.

That's particularly important in an area as remote as the Indian Ocean. Australian aircraft can't search long because so much time is spent flying to and from the area where possible debris was spotted.

"When we first developed the software, we called it looking for a needle in the haystack," Lechmann said. "Simply because when you're searching an area like over the water, for even a 24-metre object, you're talking about a very small thing in a large, vast area."

With files from Thompson Reuters

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B.C politician is repaying $35K for Europe, Disney trips

NDP MLA Jenny Kwan says she is repaying $34,922.57 in expenses for trips she and her family took to Bristol, Vienna and Disneyland that were paid for by the Portland Hotel Society.

In an emotional appearance this morning in Vancouver, Kwan said she trusted her husband Dan Small, who was a director with the Portland Hotel Society, when he told her that he had paid for the family's personal expenses when they accompanied him on a business trip to Europe in 2012.

She said he also told her he personally had paid for an upgrade during a family trip to Disneyland the same year.

"I was reassured by my ex-spouse that he had paid for all the family portion of the travel...I trusted that he was telling the truth," she said.

Kwan and her husband are now separated and have filed for divorce.

She said she talked to him this week and to the society to try to get clarification on his handling of the expenses for the trips, but says she was unable to get a clear answer.

"I've asked individuals involved to advise how much of the travel costs is attributed to my family, and to provide me with the document to verify this.

"As of today, they were not able to provide information....It is clear to me that their accounting is deficient," she said.

So, Kwan said she wrote a personal cheque Friday morning to cover the full amount of the questionable expenses attributed to their trips, which were identified in a recent audit of the PHS.

The expenses Kwan has repaid include:

• $8,323 for travel to the UK.
• $3,175 for travel to Bristol.
• $5,950 for flights.
• $4,100 for transportation.
• More than $10,000 for travel to Vienna.
• $2,600 for a trip to Disneyland.

When asked why she did not question the expenses at the time, the visibly shaken Kwan said, "I trusted him... In a relationship there is a element of trust."

She added she now plans to take an unpaid leave of absence to spend an undetermined amount of time with her family.

"My first priority is to be with my children," she said.

The non-profit Portland Hotel Society runs several operations for homeless people and drug addicts on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, including the Insite supervised drug injection facility.

The trips were part of several questionable expenses uncovered in a government audit of the society. Its directors and board resigned Tuesday after the government issued an ultimatum to step down or it would pull the non-profit's government funding.

The audit released this week found the Vancouver group spent thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, limousine rides, expensive dinners and a trip to a Disneyland resort.

Separate financial reviews examining expenses by the Portland Hotel Society — which runs Canada's only supervised injection site — have uncovered alleged misuse of corporate credit cards, unsupported expenses and inadequate criminal record checks.

The audit report released on Thursday also detailed over $8,600 spent on limousine rides last year and a stay in a British hotel that cost almost $900 per night.

The society's co-executive director Mark Townsend said none of the expenses in question were paid for with government or program money. He said the expenses in question were paid for out of the society's administrative fund.

Mark Townsend says none of the expenses in question were paid for with government or program money. (CBC)

"You have to understand the vast majority of these expenses are non-government expenses, they are from private foundations and their purpose is education or speaking at conferences and they're all funded by non-government money and they are part of the wider work we do," Townsend said 

The Disneyland trip was a way of rewarding the hard work performed by Kwan's former partner because the society doesn't offer traditional health and overtime benefits, he said.

The Portland Hotel Society runs Insite, which is Canada's only stand-alone supervised injection site for drug users, and a number of social housing and support facilities in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

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Private Gordon's family upset over leaked U.S. government letter

Did the remains of Lawrence S. Gordon end up in a crypt in Normandy? His family expects to learn the truth soon. (Courtesy Gordon family)

A man trying to repatriate his soldier uncles's body home to Saskatchewan is angered by a letter mistakenly released by the U.S. military.

It's the latest twist in the story Private Lawrence S. Gordon, a former Eastend resident who died in France in World War II fighting in the ranks of the U.S. Army. Gordon disappeared after being killed in action in 1944.

Lawrence R. Gordon, a nephew who bears the same name, says he and his family have been looking for answers ever since. 

Earlier this year, after mounting a search on their own, the Gordon's received the results of French government DNA tests. They proved their relative had been mistakenly buried in a German war grave.

Prior to that, though, the Gordon family had a strained relationship with the U.S. government agency tasked with finding missing U.S. soldiers, the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing In Action Command (J-PAC).

In an email last year J-PAC rejected the family's appeal for help — and rejected a further request to explain why they wouldn't help.

It was in that second email, to a Gordon family researcher named Jed Henry, that a J-PAC official made a fundamental error.

The man from J-PAC mistakenly attached a document explaining internal concerns in his organization about the Gordon family's request

The seven-page letter, first published on March 20 on the widely-read American news website The Daily Beast, recites a litany of problems in helping out the Canadian family searching for their loved one.

J-PAC was concerned about whether they had the jurisdiction to re-open a case involving a Canadian national fighting in the U.S. Army, about the accuracy of the documents presented to them by the Gordon family, the impact this case would have on thousands of other similar cases and more. 

As a result, J-PAC did nothing.

Five months later the Gordon family, with French and German government help, opened a war grave in Normandy. The samples collected last September proved Private Gordon's identity when DNA test results were revealed this winter.

Reflecting this week on the mistakenly released letter, Lawrence R. Gordon says, "It was infuriating at the time and it still is."

"It was an attempt to bury this particular file. It appears…J-PAC spent more time finding reasons not to act than they spent acting."

In a statement released by J-PAC on March 20 a spokesman wrote, "We remain committed to the fullest possible accounting of our missing and unknown service members."

She then alluded to a reform ordered by the Obama government in response to many families' complaints abut J-PAC's failure to find their loved ones.

"This is why Secretary Hagel has directed Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Michael Lumpkin to provide him a plan to better organize the Department's personnel accounting community." 

"This will include a proposal to increase the number of missing we account for."

Meanwhile, at a solemn ceremony on June 10 at the German war cemetery at Mont d'Huisines, Fance, the body of PFC Lawrence S. Gordon will be turned over to his nephew.

Lawrence S. Gordon will then be flown to the United States for a second and final round of genetic testing previously agreed upon at the University of Wisconsin.

From there Private Gordon will be taken home to Saskatchewan for burial in Eastend, scheduled for August 13, the 70th anniversary of his death.

His nephew would like to reach an agreement with the American government that would allow the official U.S. Army  to hold a funeral that his family desires.

But it will have to be on Lawrence R. Gordon's terms. 

He wants the Americans to accept the research his family has arranged up until now, including the genetic tests.

"The U.S. Government can help us with the arrangements, if they want to," says Gordon.

"But we're going to get this done, with or without them."

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Supreme Court of Canada defends itself and the provinces in Marc Nadon ruling

Well, since you asked…

As one intervener put it, the Supreme Court was put in an "uncomfortable position," by having to rule on itself.

But since the government asked, the justices of the high court answered in a way that will likely mean they won't be put in an "uncomfortable position" again for quite some time.

Friday's decision on who may or may not be considered for one of Quebec's three positions on the court's bench was remarkable for many reasons beyond simply refusing the government's hand-picked choice for one of the spots.

Fundamental characteristics of the court

The court has now enshrined in law that its fundamental characteristics cannot be changed on a whimsy by the government of the day and also that recognizing Quebec's distinct character (certainly when it comes to law) is vital.

"It consecrates the constitutional nature of the court," says constitutional lawyer Julius Grey.

The court worried that if it had allowed the government to change the eligibility rules for Supreme Court justices, "It would mean that the court would have less protection than at any other point in its history since the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council."

The notwithstanding clause is unaffected, the principle of "supremacy of Parliament" remains intact — but the court is attempting to ensure its role and independent voice in our democracy remains intact.

Provincial unanimity

The best way to do that? Make sure any proposed changes are so self-evident, and so well discussed, that every provincial legislature signs off on them.

"The judiciary has ceased to be something in the hands of the federal government and it has become an independent arbiter," adds Grey, "which, therefore, has to be treated as a constitutional player and cannot be subjected to sudden modifications."

The involvement of the provinces was also a key aspect of the court's other main message in this decision: Quebec's distinct legal system must not only be recognized and included, but be seen to be recognized and included.

"Requiring the appointment of current members of civil law institutions was intended to ensure not only that those judges were qualified to represent Quebec on the court," the judges said, "but that they were perceived by Quebecers as being so qualified."

Include, not assimilate

This goes back to Confederation; the efforts to include Quebec — not assimilate it — meant giving it room to maintain its culture and traditions. The court says these compromises would be "undermined" by failing to recognize Quebec's legal system.

"Its (the eligibility requirements) function is to limit the Governor in Council's otherwise broad discretion to appoint judges," the justices wrote, "in order to ensure expertise in civil law and that Quebec's legal traditions and social values are reflected in the judges on the Supreme Court, and to enhance the confidence of the people of Quebec in the Court."

Before anyone can start hollering about "activist judges" and "judge-made-laws," the court points out that the special considerations for judges from Quebec go back to 1875 — and have never changed.

That's significant, the court points out, because it is Parliament that wrote the rules and parliamentarians that have tinkered with them for well over a century — but evidently decided the rules were fine.

Until sometime last fall, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Marc Nadon's nomination.

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Downtown Eastside social agency audit reveals limos and luxury hotels

The B.C. government has released details of a damning audit that shows a non-profit group that looks after some of Canada's poorest citizens spent thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, limousine rides, expensive dinners and even a trip to a Disney resort.

Separate financial reviews examining expenses by the Portland Hotel Society — which runs Canada's only supervised injection site — have uncovered alleged misuse of corporate credit cards, unsupported expenses and inadequate criminal record checks.

The audit report released on Thursday detailed over $8,600 spent on limousine rides last year, a stay in a British hotel that cost almost $900 per night, and a trip for two adults and two children to the Disney resort in Anaheim, Calif., at a cost of more than $2,600.

Among the "questionable expenses" identified by the report are:

• $678.23 for a limousine trip for 11 individuals from Fairmont Pacific Rim to Grouse Mountain and then to a PHS director's house.
• $8,657.96 in limousine charges by an executive director in 2013.
• $8,323.22 on travel to the U.K. to look into heroin prescription programs and for other business purposes, including a hotel room costing £478 ($887) per night and a £35 ($65) charge for flowers.
• $5,850.20 on travel to Austria to teach harm reduction practices including one night in a luxury king-size room at $549 per night.
• $3,175.12 on travel to Bristol for business purposes, including one £288 ($535)-per-night room and one £420 ($780)-per-night room, and charges relating to alcohol and spa services and £25 ($46) on flowers.
• $1,636.51 at a restaurant for a staff appreciation event.
• $2,694.95 for the Disney Resort Grand Anaheim for two adults and two children, including a room upgraded to accommodate a director in poor health.
• $5,950 on Transat Holidays. No receipt or documentation was provided for this transaction.
• $8,900 spent on a minibus and driver in the United Kingdom.
• $917.83 for a staff baby shower.
• $1,807.68 for a staff Christmas dinner.
• $7,024.72 for a celebration of life for a deceased employee.
• $1,600 in monthly expenses charged to PHS by the executive directors for use of office space within the residence they share. In addition, improvement expenses such as cabinets were also charged to PHS.
• $5,832 reimbursed for the purchase of a Danube cruise made on what appears to be a personal credit card of a PHS director.

The audit also revealed the non-profit society is in weak financial shape, is more than $130,000 into its bank overdraft and drew $1.2 million from lines of credit and a business loan.

The B.C. government's review and an external financial audit led to the resignation of the two PHS executive directors and other senior managers, as well as the board of directors, earlier this week.

The society's co-executive director Mark Townsend said earlier this week none of the expenses in question were paid for with government or program money.

Portland Hotel Society co-executive director Mark Townsend led the non-profit agency, which opened Canada's first supervised drug injection site, for two decades. He announced his resignation Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Townsend said senior managers and the board of directors were resigning because of an ultimatum from the provincial government. Townsend said the managers were given the choice of resigning or having the society's contracts with the province cut.

He confirmed that fellow executive director Liz Evans and other board members decided to step down by the end of the month to avoid any service disruption, and that they would relinquish control of PHS to a new board selected by the provincial government.

The Portland Hotel Society runs Insite, which is Canada's only stand-alone supervised injection site for drug users, and a number of social housing and support facilities in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

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When is a person declared dead? Doctors divided over rules

The standards for defining death in Canada vary so much that the hospital where a dying person ends up may affect when they are declared dead - and that has some Canadian doctors concerned about the implications for organ donation, CBC's the fifth estate has learned.

There are about 2,000 organs transplanted in Canada every year, but hundreds of people die while on a waiting list because of a critical shortage of life-saving organs.

Across the country, physicians involved in organ donation must adhere to what's known as the "dead donor rule." It seems simple - organs cannot be procured until after the donor has died.

'The challenge is that death is a process, and when it's a process, taking it to one specific time is very difficult.'- Dr. David Zygun, University of Alberta director of critical care

The problem is how to pinpoint the exact time of death, says the University of Alberta's director of critical care, Dr. David Zygun.

"The challenge is that death is a process, and when it's a process, taking it to one specific time is very difficult," he told the fifth estate's Bob McKeown.

The result is that the length of time before a person can be officially declared dead in Canada and around the world may depend less on medical science than where the hospital is located.

Health lawyer Jacqueline Shaw of Dalhousie University calls it "postal code death."

"That doesn't line up with what most people think death is - they think, well, it's the same standard everywhere," she said.

The national guidelines for pronouncing death require doctors to wait at least five minutes after the heart stops beating.

That is the policy in place at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital and the Toronto General Hospital.  But across the city at St. Michael's hospital, the wait is at least 10 minutes.

Defining death

The fifth estate's Bob McKeown examines how we define death in Canada, and what it means for organ donation. 'Dead Enough' airs on CBC Television on Friday March 21 at 9 p.m. EDT, 9:30 p.m. in Newfoundland. 

In some parts of the United States, the amount of time before death can be declared is much shorter. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it is two minutes, while in Denver, Colorado, the wait is just 75 seconds.  

In Italy, it takes longer - doctors must wait a minimum of 20 minutes after the heart stops to declare death.

There is another layer of complication: three Canadian provinces - Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan - do not accept cardiac death as the standard; they rely on brain death, when all brain activity stops.  

Even if a province has adopted a certain standard, individual hospitals can make their own decisions. In Alberta, the Foothills hospital in Calgary accepts only brain death, while the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton recognizes both brain and cardiac death.

Why so much variation?

In Canada, organ donor rates lag behind the United States and Europe. Here, more than 4,000 people are on transplant waiting lists, and each year about 300 people die waiting.

Dr. Sam Shemie of McGill University is an intensive care specialist who was influential in pushing for the new "donation after cardiac death" standard used to determine when someone is clinically dead. DCD is credited with saving hundreds of Canadians' lives by increasing the pool of viable transplants. (CBC)

For years, the standard measurement of death in Canada was brain death: people were not declared deceased until after the brain stopped functioning. But brain death can take up to 24 hours to confirm, and since organs deteriorate rapidly once blood flow ends, the long wait meant many desperately needed potential donations were wasted.

So in 2005, the guidelines for declaring death were changed, so that more organs could be donated and procured. Now the national standard, based on when the heart stops beating, is known as "donation after cardiac death," or DCD.

Dr. Sam Shemie of McGill University, an intensive care specialist at the Montreal Children's hospital, was influential in pushing for this new definition to save Canadians' lives with more transplants.

"DCD has accounted for over 1,000 transplants in this country that otherwise would never have occurred," he told McKeown.

Intense debate

Despite that success, the change to DCD has prompted an intense but largely behind-the-scenes debate in medical circles about the consequences for organ donation.

"Some physicians, including myself, believe there is genuine debate about whether organ donors are already dead," said Dr. Ari Joffe, who works in the intensive care unit at the Stollery Children's hospital in Edmonton.  

"I don't want to be misinterpreted because I do definitely support organ donation, but I have concerns about the process involved in DCD," he told McKeown.

Dr. Ari Joffe, who works in the intensive care unit at the Stollery Children's hospital in Edmonton, questions whether the standard five-minute wait after the heart stops beating is long enough to be certain that cardiac death is irreversible. He points out that medical interventions like CPR often bring patients back after five minutes without a pulse. (CBC)

Dr. Joffe questions whether a five-minute wait after the heart stops beating is long enough to be certain that cardiac death is irreversible. He points out that medical interventions like CPR often bring patients back after five minutes without a pulse.

He argues that it would take at least 20 or 30 minutes to be sure death is irreversible, but at that point, Dr. Joffe says the quality of the donated organs may no longer be adequate. Doctors need to harvest organs within two hours after the heart stops or they may deteriorate beyond use.

For some doctors, DCD also raises ethical concerns. Intensive care unit physicians are trying to prolong the patient's life, while the transplant team is focused on saving lives of organ donation recipients.  

Dr. Shemie said the national guidelines indicate there must be strict separation between those two teams, to ensure the transplant team has no role in determining when death occurs.  

"The first sacrosanct rule in organ donation in this country – it's a moral rule and it's a law – is that there needs to be strict separation of teams," Dr. Shemie told McKeown.  

But Dr. Joffe says some critical care specialists may still feel pressure.  

"Although we're not the surgeons taking the organs, we're still part of the transplant team. My concern is, I don't think we can separate those processes as clearly as has been stated."

Life and death decisions

The families of potential donors can also feel pressure to make critical life and death decisions.  

In its documentary Dead Enough, the fifth estate has the stories of two families who both faced difficult decisions about organ donation, because their loved ones were not expected to survive severe brain injuries.

When her daughter was critically injured and paralyzed in a car crash, for example, Sharon Thompson was at her bedside in a Calgary hospital around the clock.

Thompson says she was approached to consent to organ donation, and asked to consider taking her daughter off life support.    

"When people are in an emotional state, I don't think that's the time to be asking those questions. Because the emotional roller-coaster we were on for, I would say, at least three of those six weeks … that's not a great time to be having to make that decision too, because you're not thinking," she told McKeown.

Thompson chose not to take her daughter off life support, and Brandice Thompson made a remarkable recovery.

More public debate  

What happened to the Thompson family reflects the complexity of the life and death decisions at stake in the DCD debate.  

So far, the debate over defining death has mostly been conducted in the medical community, out of public view.

'I think that we're not doing ourselves justice by not providing frank information about death and about the procedures that go on in organ donation to patients.'- Jacqueline Shaw, health lawyer

Health lawyer Shaw says that may explain why one national survey suggests almost a quarter of Canadians feared physicians might declare death prematurely in order to expedite the procurement of organs.

"That's a serious amount of concern in the population, and it could certainly be affecting donation rates. I think that we're not doing ourselves justice by not providing frank information about death and about the procedures that go on in organ donation to patients," she told McKeown.

In Montreal, Dr. Shemie says what the Canadian public needs to know most of all is that there is a system that works to both save lives through transplants - and to protect dying patients who could become donors.

"We know that organ donation saves lives, and we know that we have standards in this country that protect patients at the end of life to make sure that all efforts are provided to those patients. But when that can't happen and that patient's going to die, then we're able to provide the chance to donate, okay," he told McKeown.

"So, standards are in place so that public trust is maintained. I can assure the public that we do a great and very credible job in doing that."

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Ex-scout leader David Wolfe sentenced to 2 years for sex charges

Former New Brunswick scout leader David Wolfe previously pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault involving boys in the 1960s. (Kate Letterick/CBC)

Former New Brunswick scout leader David Wolfe has been sentenced to two years in prison for sex-related charges involving four boys decades ago.

Wolfe, 68, who now lives in Halifax, was sentenced in Moncton provincial court on Friday.

He previously pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault, dating back to the 1960s, when he was an assistant scout master in the Riverview area.

The latest victim came forward in January, after Wolfe pleaded guilty to the other charges.

The first victim went to Codiac Regional RCMP in 2011.

The sentencing judge imposed a publication ban on any information that could identify the victims.

The Crown and defence made a joint recommendation on sentencing.

More to come

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Quebec party leaders' debate sets tone for final weeks of campaign

And now begins the part of the Quebec election campaign that will decide it all.

After a little more than two weeks that have seen some surprising twists — including the arrival of media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau as a PQ candidate and champion of Quebec independence — last night's debate represented not only the half-way point in the campaign, but the pop of the starting gun for the race toward the finish line.

Pauline Marois entered the debate with her party trailing in the most recent opinion polls. The PQ has been forced off its original game plan, and Marois has had to address the issue of sovereignty, and whether she would hold another referendum if she forms a majority government. The issue appears to be dragging down PQ support.

Last night, Marois repeated she would not call a referendum "as long as Quebecers aren't ready for one". But she once again refused to categorically close the door to the possibility.

After all, Marois has no choice, since much of her political support base has the firm expectation another referendum be called as soon as possible.

The Liberal leader, Philippe Couillard, came into the debate on top of the polls, but also as the only freshman among the debaters. He was criticized for publicly losing his temper earlier in the week after suggestions of an improper business relationship between himself and the former head of the McGill University Health Centre, Arthur Porter, who is currently being held in a Panamanian prison.

In his first debate, Couillard appeared to deliberately stay cool and calm throughout, even as opponents tried to tie him to the legacy of the last Liberal government that was tossed out of power amid allegations of corruption.

The other two debaters, CAQ leader François Legault and Quebec Solidaire candidate Françoise David, each scored points with viewers through the evening, attacking both Marois and Couillard. But Legault's campaign has stalled in general. And while David was firm and clear throughout the debate, her support base remains very centralized in a small number of Montreal ridings.

What matters in last night's debate is the tone it sets for the critical final two weeks of the campaign.

As was clearly demonstrated by Marois, the PQ will try to turn the focus away from a possible referendum, and stick to two main lines of attack: first, to insist the Secular Charter of Values is needed to ensure the neutrality of the public service; and second, to try tying Couillard to alleged corruption and collusion on the watch of the former Liberal government.

Couillard began the campaign talking about the lagging economy and job creation, insisting only the Liberals have a remedy for both. He will surely continue to do that. But last night revealed he will also keep hammering the PQ on the possibility of a referendum if Marois is re-elected, hoping that will be enough to frighten voters away from giving the Parti Québécois the majority government it is seeking.

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Marc Nadon appointment rejected by Supreme Court

Marc Nadon cannot take his seat on the Supreme Court of Canada, the court's justices said Friday, in an unprecedented move that blocks Prime Minister Stephen Harper's latest appointment to the top court. 

In a six-to-one decision, a majority of justices on the top court ruled that Nadon doesn't qualify to join them on the court.

The court ruled that its composition is constitutionally protected, and Parliament's attempt to change the Supreme Court Act through a budget bill is unconstitutional. 

The government introduced changes in last December's budget bill in an effort to make Nadon eligible as a former member of the Quebec bar — as opposed to a current member. The court says that section is void because the government does not have the power to make such amendments unilaterally.

Changes to the court's makeup require a constitutional amendment with the unanimous consent of the provinces, the court says.

Nadon's appointment to the country's top court is declared void retroactively, and he is deemed to have never been sworn in.

Implications for Senate reference

"Today's judgment will be of great importance, especially in constitutional matters," said Sébastien Grammond, who represented two groups of retired Quebec judges in the case. "First and foremost because it makes important statements as to how the Constitution of Canada can be amended."

The decision may also provide insight into how the court will rule on the Senate reference, Grammond suggested, which includes the question of whether Parliament can reform the Senate without reopening the Constitution.

"It will take months and years perhaps to understand" all the implications of the decision, he said.

Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati had challenged Harper's appointment of Nadon. Galati argued he didn't qualify for one of the court's three Quebec seats, because he came from the Federal Court and not from a Quebec court.

Quebec judges are a special category because of the province's unique civil legal code, different from the common-law code in the rest of the country.

Harper referred the question to the court and Nadon stepped aside until the matter could be decided.

Nadon has been collecting a salary since he was named. It's now up to the registrar of the Supreme Court to decide whether he has to pay the  money back, likely the first time the court has ever faced this question. Nadon's annual salary would have been $351,700. He was named in October, so has been receiving a pay cheque for about six months.

One option the registrar is considering is having Nadon repay the difference between the Supreme Court and Federal Court salaries.

Court silent on some questions

In its ruling, the court repudiated the government's claim that Nadon was eligible because the Constitution does not actually say he has to be a "current" member of the Quebec bar.

"In our view," the ruling says, "the answer to this question is no: a current judge of the Federal Court of Appeal is not eligible for appointment under [section 6] as a person who may be appointed 'from among the advocates of that province.' This language requires that, at the time of appointment, the appointee be a current member of the Quebec bar with at least 10 years standing."

The court is silent on whether Nadon could be appointed from another province, or whether he could simply re-join the Quebec bar, where he began his career, and then be properly named.

Justice Michael Moldaver was the only dissenter from today's ruling.

Justice Marshall Rothstein, also appointed from the Federal Court, recused himself. He has given no public reasons for that, but it removes the perception of a conflict of interest.

Rothstein is from Manitoba and remains on the Supreme Court because the rules governing Quebec appointments are different. They impose additional requirements, the Supreme Court says, which Nadon does not meet.

Three of the six justices who ruled against Nadon's appointment were appointed by Harper, as was Moldaver. The remaining three justices who ruled against the appointment were appointed by previous governments.

Quebec missing judge

New Democrat justice critic Françoise Boivin said it has been a year now that Quebec has gone without one of its judges on the Supreme Court.

She said Nadon isn't responsible for what happened.

"I feel for Justice Nadon this morning," Boivin said.

Boivin was on the committee of MPs that advised on a final list of candidates from which Harper chose Nadon. She said it wasn't a unanimous decision.

Mobile users, read the Supreme Court's ruling here.

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Why internet upload speeds in Canada are ‘frustratingly slow’

In a busy week, Jeremy Phan might do 10 photo shoots for various business clients, each typically taking about five or six hours and resulting in two to five gigabytes worth of images. But that's only half the job.

After processing the photos at home, he spends a seemingly interminable period watching a status bar on his computer inch forward as he uploads his work to clients, many of whom are looking to add virtual tours of their offices to their web sites and Google Street View.

Comparing upload speeds

Global average: 7.6 Mbps

G8: 8.8 Mbps

OECD: 6.6 Mbps

Canada: 5.67 Mbps (53rd)

Global mobile average: 2.9 Mbps

Canada mobile average: 5 Mbps (14th)

G8 Countries

Japan: 28.75 Mbps

Russia: 19.84 Mbps

France: 8.54 Mbps

United States: 7.03 Mbps

United Kingdom: 6.03 Mbps

Canada: 5.67 Mbps

Germany: 4.2 Mbps

Italy: 1.7 Mbps

Nations faster than Canada

Kazakhstan 10.77 Mbps (27th)

Mongolia 9.93 Mbps (28th)

Kyrgyzstan 8.52 Mbps (34th)

Mexico 6.55 Mbps (45th)

Source: Ookla Net Index

Phan has a fast internet connection for downloading in his Toronto condo, but he's stuck in the slow lane when it comes to the other direction. His $80-a-month internet plan gives him a four-megabit-per-second upload speed – just a 10th of the download speed – and anything higher would cost significantly more.

He has considered switching to the other provider available in his building, but that wouldn't save him much time or money.

Such is life in Canada, where upload connections are among the worst in the developed world.

"Upload speeds are so frustratingly slow that oftentimes, it's quicker for me to copy the files onto a USB stick and drive it over to clients," he says.

For the most part, consumers choose their internet plans based on download speed, price and data allowance, paying little attention to upload capabilities.

But with sharing, the social web and entrepreneurialism exploding, getting things up onto the internet is becoming just as important as downloading email, music and movies. Applications such as video conferencing, home security monitoring, online gaming and cloud-based file storage — all of which depend on fast and reliable upstream connections — are rapidly moving from early adopters to the mainstream.

But with an average upload speed of 5.67 Mbps, Canada ranks 53rd in the world and below the global average of 7.6 Mbps, according to the Net Index from Montana-based speed-testing firm Ookla. That's in stark contrast to world leaders Hong Kong and South Korea, where internet users see average speeds closer to 61 and 45 Mbps, respectively.

Canada also rates below the G8 average of 8.8 Mbps and is being outperformed by several developing nations, with upload speeds in Manitoba and British Columbia comparable to those in Honduras and Iraq, respectively.

Faster uploads unavailable in some regions

The poor showing is partly due to the fact that fast upload speeds are not available in some parts of the country. In Winnipeg, for example, many customers of Manitoba Telecom Services are stuck with a maximum of 5 Mbps. The same goes for northern Canada, where Northwestel is the main provider.

With an average upload speed of 5.67 Mbps, Canada ranks 53rd in the world and below the global average of 7.6 Mbps, according to speed-testing firm Ookla.

​Where faster uploads are available, they usually cost a lot. For anything over 10 Mbps, major internet providers such as Rogers in Ontario, Shaw in western Canada and Eastlink in the Maritimes are charging anywhere between $120 and $253. So, while many consumers do have access to better speeds, relatively few choose to pay extra for them.

Provincial average upload speeds

New Brunswick 10.66 Mbps

Quebec 9.8 Mbps

Newfoundland 9.14 Mbps

Nova Scotia 8.34 Mbps

Prince Edward Island 6.73 Mbps

Alberta 4.98 Mbps

Saskatchewan 4.96 Mbps

Ontario 4.86 Mbps

British Columbia 4.34 Mbps

Yukon 2.7 Mbps

Manitoba 2.37 Mbps

Northwest Territories 2.29 Mbps

​Source: Ookla Net Index

Experts say the situation is reflective of the larger competitive dynamic in telecommunications service in Canada. Most markets are being serviced by one big phone company and one big cable provider. Smaller independent ISPs such as Teksavvy and Telnet operate as alternatives in many places, but the speeds they offer are often limited by the big network owners they connect to. The big companies therefore have little incentive to ratchet up speeds.

"They've used the drip-drop approach where they steadily offer more, often at pricing that's difficult to compare with some of the competition," says Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. "They've been reluctant to open up the tap fully and offer up to consumers what the technology is capable of."

Part of the problem lies in how telecommunications services have historically been sold in Canada. Many new innovations – think BlackBerry – have generally been aimed at businesses first, with mainstream consumers eventually following along. Better and faster internet connections have followed the pattern, with businesses paying more for them initially.

[Business]

are "in the minority and they need it and are willing to pay, so it sets the market price," says Bill Sandiford, president of Telnet and the Canadian Network Operators Consortium, which represents a group of independent ISPs.

Applications such as video conferencing, home security monitoring, online gaming and cloud-based file storage — all of which depend on fast and reliable upstream connections — are rapidly moving from early adopters to the mainstream.

The service providers say they have simply been matching supply with demand. Rogers, for one, says upstream usage accounts for only 13 per cent of total traffic on its network. The company expects overall internet usage will continue to increase significantly by 40 per cent year over year, so better upload speeds will inevitably follow.

"In the past couple of years, we have tripled or quadrupled the upload speeds for our most popular tiers," says Rob Goodman, senior director of internet product management at Rogers.

If you want faster uploads, it'll cost you

Phone companies have also been upgrading their networks with faster fibre, meaning they're increasingly able to offer better uploading. Bell, for example, is offering 10 Mbps uploads in Ontario starting at $56. In Manitoba, MTS has rolled out its FiON network to 14 communities so far, providing access to upload speeds of up to 30 Mbps, although that service is priced at $280 a month.

"MTS offers a variety of high-speed internet plans, tailored to suit individual customer needs," says spokesman Craig Lawrence.

Things are slightly better on the wireless side. With an average upload speed of 5 Mbps on Ookla's Net Index, which tracks millions of wired and wireless speed tests around the globe, Canada ranks 14th in the world. However, with usage limits typically capped at just a few gigabytes per month, wireless connections aren't suitable for many of the heftier upload-intensive applications.

Critics don't believe that following along with existing demand is good enough in an increasingly digital society. By constraining upload speeds, providers may in fact be discouraging certain types of online activities.

Jamie Granek offers network and security services such as internet-connected home cameras, alarms and intercoms to both businesses and individuals through his Toronto-based company Freebird Solutions. A potential customer in Vancouver recently considered setting up a cloud-based system that would allow employees to work from home, but ultimately decided against it because of the high cost of the necessary upload connections.

"Having the ability to access your own information and resources on your own network is a key function of the network today," Granek says.

"You can't really separate the download from the upload anymore."

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Canadian Forces dentists' productivity questioned

A CBC News investigation has revealed a number of highly-paid dentists in the Canadian Forces have been performing little or no dentistry, according to documents obtained through the Access to Information Act.

Military records show some Canadian Forces dentists — who make between $200,000 and $300,000 a year plus benefits — have treated only a handful of patients in their chairs over the last few years, while the dental unit contracted out millions of dollars worth of work to private dentists.

"My first reaction is sadness," said Murray Cuff, a former military periodontist who retired in 2010 and lives in Victoria, B.C.

"It's pretty disgraceful when you think of the performances in comparison to the salaries these guys are receiving and the number of dentists that there are."

The military has roughly 140 salaried general dentists and specialists who are enlisted members. CBC News examined their productivity records between 2007 and 2013.

In each year, approximately 75 per cent of them performed less than $200,000 worth of treatments — many performed less than $100,000.

In 2008, for example, 112 of 149 salaried dentists and specialists — 75 per cent — did less than $200,000 worth of dental work. The following year, that number went up to 77 per cent, or 112 of 149 Canadian Forces workers.

In 2010, 80 per cent of salaried dentists and specialists performed less than $200,000 worth of treatments.

This graph represents the value of the dental work done by military dentists and contracted dentists, known as Calian, between 2007 and 2013. The value of the work is based on the Ontario Dental Fee guide. (CBC)

"I would say anybody should be able to produce $200,000 worth of dentistry," said Cuff.

He said it's common for general dentists in the private sector to bill between $400,000 and $800,000 a year. Most specialists, he said, would bill upwards of more than $1 million annually.

Col. Kevin Goheen, the commanding officer of 1 Dental Unit, calls the numbers an "indicator" of productivity but not the only way the military measures success. He said the Canadian Forces concentrates on getting people dentally fit to deploy, while private dentists tend to do more expensive or cosmetic work.

"I just go back to 100 per cent of our people who are deploying, this is CF military members deploying, are dentally fit all the time," Goheen said.

The productivity numbers are based on the Ontario Dental Fee guide. Because military dentists are salaried, they do not actually bill anyone.

Deployment means less time in chair

In the data examined by CBC News, some specialists worked on no patients. In 2007, four specialists did zero dollars worth of work. It was the same for two specialists in 2008 and one specialist in 2011.

Others did less than $50,000 worth of procedures.

Col. Kevin Goheen said the Canadian Forces concentrates on getting people dentally fit to deploy, while private dentists tend to do more expensive or cosmetic work. (CBC)

Goheen said some of those dentists may have been deployed or getting ready to deploy, which means less time in the chair.

"Anybody right up to the rank of lieutenant-colonel is expected to do at least a day [a week] of dental care if they're in a staff position," said Goheen. "If they're in a position of a specialty care commander, of which we have six, those individuals will do at least two to three days a week of dental care."

Goheen said dentists also spend a lot of time on paperwork once done by less expensive administrative officers whose positions no longer exist. 

But Cuff and other recently retired dentists say too much attention is paid to careerism in the dental unit with no incentive to do more dental work.

"What's really expected of them is to assume as many administrative roles as possible and of course, if you shun that in lieu of doing dentistry, your career is toast," said Cuff.

Ratio doesn't add up, says critic

According to the Canadian Dental Association, there is one civilian dentist for every 1,664 people in Canada.

In contrast, there are 72,000 Canadian Forces members and 140 salaried dentists, making the ratio roughly one dentist for about 500 serving members. That means the military has triple the ratio of dentists to patients compared to the civilian population.

Murray Cuff, a former military periodontist who retired in 2010, said 'anybody' should be able to produce $200,000 worth of dentistry a year. (CBC)

Cuff said even if you take into consideration the percentage of civilians who don't go to the dentist, the ratio doesn't add up.

"You're still talking about twice the number of dentists available to our servicemen and women than the civilian population," he said.

Despite the smaller dentist-to-patient ratio, the military hires about 40 civilian contract dentists in its clinics. From 2008 to 2012, it also referred between $8 million and $14 million of dental work a year to civilian dentist offices through Blue Cross.

'It's pretty awkward'

Kevin Lacey of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the numbers suggest huge inefficiencies.

"We should see more private sector doctors doing work that is currently being done by right now by expensive military dentists," he said.

"Second is to release the dentists we do have from a lot of the administrative red tape that obviously shows and that the military admits goes on."

The Canadian government spends about $56 million on salaries alone in the dentistry unit. That includes military members, public servants and the contracted dentists. Most military dentists receive between $50,000 and $100,000 a year in pension and other benefits in addition to their salaries.

Cuff said the unit needs to undergo a full review in order to improve efficiency.

"The majority, by far, among the military dental corps officers know this. Will they say something about it? It's pretty awkward," he said.

"They're hoping for the best and punishment postings can happen. It's not the kind of thing people like to stick their neck out on."

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