Toddler missing 15 hours found safe near Ontario cornfield

A two-year-old girl who wandered from a farm in Norwich Township near Woodstock, Ont., has been found safe by provincial police.

According to CBC reporter Kerry McKee, Brooklyn Honderich has been found safe and is currently with paramedics. 

OPP Const. Larry Plummer said the girl was found by a volunteer at the edge of a cornfield around 10 a.m. ET, a significant distance from where she had gone missing. She has been taken to hospital as a precaution.

Her disappearance sparked a huge search effort by police. 

A helicopter and two canine units and more than 25 officers were involved in a large-scale sweep of cornfields east of Norwich following the girl's disappearance just before 7 p.m. Sunday. 

"We had searchers out all night, searching the corn, and all the property and all the areas of highest probability," said OPP Const. Larry Plummer in an interview with CBC News earlier Monday morning. 

Plummer said the girl's parents were working on the farm when shewandered away.

"They were working, and she was outside playing, and they noticed she was missing," he said.

Plummer told CBC that the family owns a barn and cattle at the farm property, but lives somewhere else nearby. 

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Luka Magnotta admits to killing Jun Lin but pleads not guilty

Luka Magnotta has admitted to the acts underlying the five criminal offences he's charged with, including the killing of a 33-year-old university student, but has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer told the court Monday that Magnotta and his defence agreed to the facts in the case, after the accused entered his not-guilty pleas.

The judge then told jurors it's their duty to decide if Magnotta was criminally responsible, including in the death of university student Jun Lin in May 2012.

The turn in the highly publicized case, which has taken more than two years to reach a courtroom, came soon after the proceedings began Monday.

The Crown no longer needs to prove those facts, but now needs to convince a jury that Magnotta is guilty of premeditated murder and should be held criminally responsible for his actions

Jun Lin, a Chinese national, was studying computer engineering at Concordia University in Montreal at the time of his death. (CBC)

Magnotta pleaded not guilty to:

• First-degree murder.
• Committing an indignity to a body.
• Publishing obscene material.
• Criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other MPs.
• Mailing obscene and indecent material.

Sixteen people, including two alternates and two spares, were selected to serve on the jury. On Monday, the two spares were immediately dismissed. 

More to come

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Stephen Harper gives pricey free ride home to European leaders

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave visiting European delegates a free flight home to Brussels last week, after adding a Toronto reception to their schedule, CBC News has learned.

That reception made it impossible for the visitors to make a planned commercial flight from Ottawa, and thereby get to a Saturday meeting in Brussels. The cost of the Airbus flight is estimated at more than $300,000.

The prime minister's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, described the free flight as "a courtesy" to ensure the summit would not be "cut short."

But the summit was held in Ottawa and the only event on the schedule in Toronto was a reception attended by Harper, the EU dignitaries and several hundred representatives of the business community.

Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, were in Ottawa Friday to sign a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.

They were greeted with a ceremonial military guard on Parliament Hill. The two European leaders normally fly commercial and arrived in Ottawa on an Air Canada flight from the United Nations meeting in New York.

However, just four days before the summit, the Harper government added a reception for the Toronto business community to the itinerary — meaning the visiting delegation would miss their flight to Brussels. For that reason, Harper offered them the Canadian Forces Airbus he normally uses himself on foreign trips.

Like a 'British royal tour'

The last-minute change of plan caused officials to scramble to provide extra motorcades and security for the two visiting leaders, beyond the level that they would normally get as so-called "Level 3s" for protocol and security purposes. The two are not ranked as high as heads of states or prime ministers.

But according to an e-mail sent to the RCMP's Protective Policing branch and obtained by CBC News, there was "an expectation of a complete package" from the Prime Minister's Office for the visitors.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gestures as he stands with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right, and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Parliament Hill Friday in Ottawa. The leaders heralded a Canada-EU free-trade agreement, although the deal must still be ratified. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

"It is a 'British royal tour/visit equivalence' from the Centre's perspective," the memo says.

"The Centre" is how bureaucrats refer to the Prime Minister's Office.

The memo goes on, "The significance of this particular summit due to CETA [the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement] is paramount. The prime minister has offered the CF [Canadian Forces] Airbus to return the leaders to Brussels for example. With only four working days to plan this, we would be grateful if we could count on your support — these visits being designated as two level 3s makes it difficult if not impossible to do what we need."

That suggests the two European leaders were upgraded to receive the royal treatment requested.

The modified Airbus A310 costs $22,537 an hour to operate, according to official figures in 2012. The price has likely risen since then, but, at that rate, and assuming 15 hours' flight time from Toronto to Brussels and back, the trip would have cost $338,055.

That doesn't include the cost of the reception, where Canadian quartet The Tenors and a military jazz band entertained Toronto's business elite. (On the trip from Ottawa, the European delegation travelled on the Airbus with the prime minister and his staff.)

A high-priced 'victory lap'

Among the invited guests at the Royal York Hotel event in Toronto was Greg Thomas, director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation — a supporter of free trade but not of lavish spending. Thomas said his organization would send a cheque to the government for the cost of his attendance, and added that the Airbus freebie was a waste of taxpayers' money.

"Victory lap or not, there's no excuse on blowing 300 grand on short notice for what amounts to a political show."

"Many Canadians," Thomas added, "can stomach the expense of hosting the royal family when they come to Canada." But, he said, "having royal treatment afforded to European bureaucrats is not something that's going to go down, I think, in any part of the country.... They could have done this in Ottawa. They could have saved $300,000 and it would have had the same effect."

The NDP's Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kingsway, agreed.

"This is a last-minute attempt by the Harper government to use these officials as props in their continued staging for Canadians' use. And that's what makes this, I think, an inappropriate use of taxpayers' dollars."

MacDonald, Harper's spokesman, told CBC News, "The Airbus was offered as a courtesy to our European Union guests and helped ensure that no elements of Friday's summit were cut short."

Watch Terry MIlewski's full report Sunday night on The National, on CBC Television, CBC News Network and CBCnews.ca.

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Foreign worker paid $25K for a non-existent job

An Ontario immigration consultant is under investigation for charging foreign clients up to $25,000 to help them enter Canada to work at low-skill jobs. In at least one case, the worker arrived to find the employer no longer existed.

"[The consultant] said, 'You must be thankful to me. I legally brought you to Canada,'" said Mohamad Tehrani of Iran, one of David Aryan's clients.

"But, I would not have paid this amount of money only to come to Canada and be unemployed."

Tehrani, 29, is from Iran and said he wanted to work hard in Canada and build a life here.

Tehrani has been in Canada looking for another job for seven months. Other employers don't want to hire him, because his visa only allows him to work for Trade Nine Enterprise, a defunct business. (CBC)

He connected with Aryan, a regulated immigration consultant, last year. Aryan's services are advertised on a Persian website, promoting an "opportunity" for low-skilled jobs in Western Canada arranged by "agents."

"After a year of employment, we would proceed to apply for the permanent residency," reads the site.

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It stipulates clients must pay him $5,000 up front plus another $20,000 when the work visa is approved. However, rules governing immigration consultants forbid them from charging fees contingent on visa approvals.

Tehrani didn't know that, so it sounded great to him.

"I wanted to change my life. Change my future. I can speak English fluently. I have academic degrees," he said.

Tehrani's family paid the full $25,000. He also paid for his flight to Vancouver in February for a food processing job, arranged through Aryan.

Under federal rules, employers are supposed to cover flights for low-skilled workers, but Tehrani said he didn't know that either.

Employer out of business

When Tehrani arrived, he went to the job site in Delta, B.C., eager to introduce himself to his new boss. He said he was stunned when he found the employer, Trade Nine Enterprise Corp. Ltd., wasn't at the address he was given. An unrelated company was doing business there instead.

Trade Nine Enterprise Corp. Ltd. was dissolved several months before the federal government gave approval for it to hire 10 foreign workers. (CBC)

​"I found two or three workers there and they denied the existence of this company. I showed them the address, the name of the company… they said there's no company like that."

It turned out that when the federal government authorized one-year work visas last fall, for Tehrani and nine other foreign workers, Trade Nine Enterprise had already gone out of business.

The B.C. corporation was dissolved months earlier, in June.

Tehrani eventually reached someone connected with the former company. He said the man insisted he was not his employer, but said he might call him about possible work and never did.

He said he feels duped by the whole experience.

"[Aryan, his agents and the 'employer'] deceive both the applicants and the government without being held accountable," he said. "It's a profitable business."

Questionable government approval

 "[The government] effectively gave a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) for 10 workers to a company that didn't exist," said immigration consultant Phil Mooney.

"This file clearly, in my opinion, should never have been approved."

Mooney is the former CEO of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, the body that regulates consultants like Aryan. He said he believes several rules were broken here.

Phil Mooney, former CEO of the immigration consultant regulatory body, says he's amazed that the federal government allowed this to happen. (CBC)

"I am very convinced after looking at all of the information on the case that basically there is a … conspiracy here," he said. "There are many people taking advantage of this individual who has paid a substantial amount of money to come to Canada."

Seven months after arriving, Tehrani is still in B.C., unemployed. He said his parents are paying his bills because he said he can't find anyone willing to hire him.

"Whenever they find that I have a job-specific work permit they rescind their offers. They say you must have an open work permit," he said. "But, I am still trying my best."

He filed complaints against the consultant with the regulator, which is investigating, and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Consultant blames client

CBC News tried to find Aryan, but his Toronto office is empty and his cellphone doesn't accept messages. He responded to an email, saying everything that went wrong in this case was Tehrani's fault.

"Tehrani has been one of the most problematic clients that I have served, in the past two decades," said Aryan.

He insisted his client jumped the gun by showing up at the workplace too soon.

Immigration consultant David Aryan advertises this location as his Toronto office, but CBC News found it empty. (CBC)

"Tehrani decided to not follow the instructions he was provided … he further took the liberty of taking matters into his own hands and approached his employer directly. He proceeded to aggressively demand his employer to allow him to begin working immediately."

Aryan claimed it was Tehrani who was "cheating the system."

"I believe that he is playing victim here while throwing me under the bus, simply because I was doing my job according to the books."

When asked how he justifies his $25,000 fee, he said the money isn't for job placement, but for various other services, including an "employment search."

'Prices are what they are'

"I do not find it of any relevance to the matter. My prices are what they are and no one forced Mr. Tehrani to sign the contract that he did," said Aryan.

Mooney said consultants are only supposed to charge for immigration advice and paperwork, not for a job. He added that Aryan charges at least 10 times what a consultant should.

Even though Tehrani did get his work visa, Mooney pointed out, he didn't get what he paid for.

"The individuals involved in this scheme saw nothing wrong with cheating possibly up to 10 people, with basically years' worth of their income from their home countries."

Tehrani claimed Aryan later told his family that if he wanted another job, they could pay him another $15,000. They refused. Aryan denies he ever offered to help Tehrani find another job.

Aryan's services are advertised on a Persian website offering opportunities in Canada which also outlines a $25,000 fee. (CBC)

Mooney said countless foreign workers are stung like this — people take their money but the promised jobs don't work out. Often they end up working under the table, he said, because they desperately want to stay.

Creating illegal workers?

"What does an individual do if they are not able to work legally in Canada? They work illegally. If they work illegally, they are not paying taxes," said Mooney.

"Desperate individuals do desperate things. Individuals with no way to make a living could also turn to a life of crime."

The Canada Border Services Agency is aware of this case and said immigration consultants found guilty of misrepresentation face fines up to $100,000 or up to five years in prison.

"The CBSA takes this issue very seriously and works closely with its partners to identify, investigate and prosecute those engaging in immigration fraud to the full extent of the law," said a statement from the agency.

In the last six years, the CBSA has investigated 172 serious complaints against immigration consultants. Thirteen have been found guilty so far.

Mooney thinks the key to curbing this is empowering foreign workers, by telling them exactly what the rules are when they apply or when they pick up their visas.

"I want to see things done to prevent this. So why aren't we working harder to inform the potential foreign workers about how things really are?"

Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public

Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter

See the Persian website

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Corner Gas town Rouleau, Sask., swept by fire

Fire crews battled a large fire Sunday in downtown Rouleau, Sask. — the town where the popular television sitcom Corner Gas was filmed.

Throughout the evening, crews poured water on a single-storey commercial building on 105 Main St., an area where the show was shot for six seasons. The building that burned had been used as one of the sets.

"It was quite an inferno, all right," Mayor Grant Clark said the next morning. "It's a pretty sad morning for a lot of people here."

Crews were on the scene at 7 a.m. CST combing through the rubble. The walls of the stucco building remained standing, but the roof was destroyed.

The building was home to Spalding Orthopedics, a prosthetic limb design company. Clark said the owner of the business was part of the volunteer fire crew that fought the blaze.

"He doesn't know what he's going to do," Clark said. The cause of the fire isn't known.

A Corner Gas movie was filmed in Rouleau this summer. In the TV show and movie, the town is called Dog River.

Corner Gas has been an important tourist draw for the town of 453 people in recent years.

Fire crews combed through the rubble of the fire on Main Street on Monday. (Adrian Cheung)

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Mulcair's dilemma: Canadians like him, but will they vote for him?

Liking a political leader and wanting to vote for him or her can be two very different things.

Take the example of Canada's three federal leaders.

Justin Trudeau's approval ratings are high and he tops the polls on who would make the best prime minister. But his chief rival on that latter question is not Thomas Mulcair, who boasts similarly impressive approval ratings, but rather Stephen Harper, who has ratings no incumbent leader should envy.

Harper's approval ratings have been relatively consistent for some time. A simple average of polls conducted since mid-May gives the prime minister an approval rating of just 34 per cent, compared to a disapproval rating of 58 per cent.

While that is an improvement on his average numbers from earlier in the year, when his approval rating was around 31 per cent, it is lower than the 37 per cent Harper was able to manage in the latter half of 2012.

It is also considerably lower than the approval ratings of his two main opponents on the other side of the House of Commons. Over the same period of recent polling, Mulcair has averaged an approval rating of 43 per cent and Trudeau 45 per cent. Their disapproval ratings, at 32 and 39 per cent respectively, are also superior.

Yet Mulcair is not as competitive on the question of who would make the best prime minister. An average of recent polls suggests about 17 per cent of Canadians would select the NDP leader, compared to 28 per cent for Harper and 31 per cent for Trudeau. And Mulcair's numbers have been worsening — he was polling at around 20 per cent earlier in the year.

That trend is somewhat contrary to Mulcair's improving approval ratings. Before the Senate scandal re-ignited last fall, the NDP leader's approval rating averaged about 34 per cent, with equal proportions disapproving or having no opinion. After the scandal broke, and Mulcair received rave reviews for his performances during question period, the number of Canadians saying they had no opinion of the NDP leader dropped by about 10 points.

Virtually all of those people who finally formed an opinion of Mulcair liked what they saw.

But that has not translated into higher support, as Mulcair continues to lag on leadership polling and his party remains stuck in third place.

Trudeau, on the other hand, has remained ahead on both measures despite his growing disapproval rating. His approval rating has been generally consistent since he became leader of the Liberal Party. However, in the first three months of his leadership his disapproval rating averaged 27 per cent, with 29 per cent undecided. For the remainder of 2013, those undecideds fell by about 10 points.

But the number of Canadians who said they disapproved of the Liberal leader also increased by about 10 points. Nevertheless, this has yet to hurt his party in the polls.

One factor holding Mulcair back may be the lack of familiarity Canadians have with him. A poll by Abacus Data, conducted Aug.15-18 and interviewing 1,614 online panelists, found 51 per cent of respondents either had a neutral impression of the NDP leader or did not know what kind of impression they had of him. This compared to just 34 per cent for Trudeau and 28 per cent for Harper.

The challenge for Mulcair, then, would seem to be to get more Canadians to get to know him. The polls suggest that in the past this has worked well for the Official Opposition leader, at least on a personal level. This may explain the recent NDP campaign to roll out policy proposals and to contrast Mulcair's experience with that of Trudeau.

But it may not work. The same Abacus Data poll asked respondents if Trudeau was "in over his head," borrowing an attack-ad line from the Conservatives. The survey found that a majority of Canadians said that he wasn't, or that if he was he could "learn on the job."

It would appear that Canadians are giving Trudeau the benefit of the doubt, while Harper retains a solid base of support. Unless Mulcair can turn sympathy into votes, it leaves him and his respectable approval ratings in the lurch on the question that matters most.

The Abacus Data poll asked the following questions: "Do you think Justin Trudeau 'is in over his head', as Conservatives have been saying?" and "Do you have a positive or negative impression of the following people? Prime Minister Stephen Harper / NDP Leader Tom Mulcair / Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau". As the poll was conducted online, a margin of error does not apply.

This article reviews trends in national public opinion surveys. Methodology, sample size, and margin of error if one can be stated vary from survey to survey.

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Head lice build up resistance to treaments that dominate the market

With elementary school students back in class, more kids may be going home with itchy heads. That's due to the lice that get spread by the head-to-head interactions that happen frequently enough among kids that age.

While the official recommendation for treatment will likely include using a product on their hair that contains pyrethrins or permethrin, scientists are finding that head lice have acquired resistance to those compounds.

Over the past 35 years or so, head lice have built up considerable resistance to the pyrethroids via genetic mutations, says lice expert John Clark.

"The efficacy of all those products has gone way down. It started out at 100 per cent, now we're down to 20 to 30 per cent in recent clinical studies."

Natural pyrethrin formulations, made from chrysanthemums, were introduced in 1945 for the control of head lice. Permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, dates back to the 1980s.

With the start of school in the fall, numbers of cases of lice begin to rise, particularly in day-care centres, kindergartens and elementary schools. Head lice, like this one being viewed with an electronic microscope, mostly spread via head-to-head contact. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Products containing those compounds — Nix, Rid, Kwellada, R&C Shampoo — dominate the head lice treatment market in North America.

"When these products came on the market, they were very efficacious and very good louse control agents," says Clark, who directs the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Laboratory and is a professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He has co-authored a numbered of lice studies, including one published this year that looks at what scientists call "knockdown resistance" in head louse populations.

'Treatment failures'

The Clark paper documents how lice studies over the years have found the frequency of the mutations steadily and rapidly increasing, so that now the mutations are almost always present "within North American head louse populations and likely a major reason for the treatment failures encountered with pyrethrins- and pyrethroid-based pediculicides in both Canada and the United States."

Nevertheless, public health officials and organizations such as the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control continue to recommend products containing those compounds.

Clark says we're "trapped in this scenario where we're being forced to use compounds that clearly aren't near as efficacious as they were 30 years ago."​

Head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, cause infestations that, overall, cost an estimated $1 billion in the U.S. annually. This frontal view of a head louse was captured with an electron microscope. (Bioimaging Unit/Oxford Brookes University)

Bayer Healthcare, which claims its product Rid is "the #1 head lice treatment brand" in the U.S. — which they don't sell in Canada — told CBC News that while "lice can develop resistance to pediculicides," the insecticides used to kill them, "when used according to directions, RID is effective in killing lice."

Bayer also notes that products like Rid which contain pyrethrin or permethrin are approved by the FDA for the treatment of head lice.

Clark says it's hard to find financing for a rigorous clinical study that looks at whether a product still works.

"Unfortunately, until we actually do something like that, there's nothing driving any of these organizations to change their position."

"The safest method"

A 2014 U.K. study that compared treatment with a mousse or a lotion containing a permethrin to  just wet-combing the hair found that, "none of the treatments was significantly more effective than any other."

This month, Consumers Reports published their advice on how to treat lice, saying "the safest method of getting rid of lice is to physically remove the insects and their eggs by combing with a lubricant such as a hair conditioner."

Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist with Consumers Union, says the conditioner, or olive oil, especially helps with the removal of nits, the louse eggshell.

Earlier understanding was that a louse cemented her nits to a hair shaft, usually near the base, but he says the nit can actually be slid up and down the shaft.

He pointed to a 2014 study in the Journal of Medical Entomology that says ordinary hair conditioner is just as effective at removing nits as special nit-removal shampoos and conditioners.

Consumers Reports has a step-by-step guide for lice and nit removal from an infested scalp.

Infestation usually involves less than 10 live lice, according to the CPS.

But an adult female louse can produce up to six eggs per day, which hatch seven to 12 days later.

Best practices

Consumer Reports says "the safest method of getting rid of lice is to physically remove the insects and their eggs by combing" — with a metal nit comb, not a plastic one — using hair conditioner or olive oil as a lubricant. (iStock)

When removing nits, it's important to use a metal — not plastic — nit comb, Hansen says, "because the tines of those metal combs, they're small enough so that an individual hair can go through, but not the egg itself."

"Concentrate around the ears and the nape of the neck, those are the areas where you'll see the bulk of the eggs being laid."

Clark agrees with the Consumer Reports statement on nit-picking. "There's no question that it can be effective, it's just very time consuming." There's also professional salons for lice treatment, he adds.

New products available

For parents without the time and the energy for tedious nitpicking, there are new products on the market.

A number of products contain dimethicone, which suffocates lice. One Canadian manufacturer, Pediapharm, claims the insects "cannot develop resistance."

Clark says that's debatable.

"Insects have been around a long time and to say that we're going to come up with the silver bullet that's going to eliminate a louse that's been around for a million years and they're not going to find a way around it, is sort of naive.

"It may take a little longer to develop resistance, but I'm sure they can develop resistance even to the physical acting type of compound."

Hansen adds that the products sold in North America with lower dimethicone concentrations don't kill the nits, so "you have to continue to use it every few days."

A lousy strategy

Clark says over-reliance on one insecticide is a lousy strategy because of insects' ability to acquire resistance. He recommends, on a community level, using a variety of products "that have novel modes of action."

Lice are found nearly everywhere on the planet there are human heads, including Siberia. And head lice are fast, capable of travelling up to 23 cm in a minute.

In addition to dimethicone compounds, he mentions products containing ivermectin, spinosad and benzyl alcohol, which kill lice in different ways. Those three usually require a prescription.

When asked about those compounds, Hansen doesn't dispute their effectiveness, but he notes they're "incredibly expensive" and questions their worth.

"Just do the simple combing every couple days, it works," he recommends.

Clark calls their prices "unbelievable," although they're often covered under insurance plans.

He says that in the U.S., a person has to twice use an over-the-counter product relying on pyrethrin or permethrin, and then show they're ineffective, before a doctor can write a prescription for one of the new products.

Hansen and his co-authors call for "an approach to management of head lice infestations that balances effectiveness and safety with treatment expense and the need to use treatments that have novel modes of action."

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Halifax police search home where deck collapsed, injuring 6

Halifax Regional Police have executed a search warrant at a home where a deck collapsed and fell three storeys onto another deck, injuring six people.

Police say they searched the small apartment building "to allow further processing of the scene."

Once the search was over, tenants were allowed to return home. 

Police say the investigation into the deck collapse continues and involves other municipal officials.

Police say seven people were on the deck of a house on Brussels Street during a party early Saturday morning when the deck collapsed, landing on another deck below. Police have not said how many people were on the lower level.

Four women and two men, all in their early 20s, were taken to hospital. Police say some of the victims have serious injuries but all are expected to survive. 

A newspaper clipping from 2002 shows the deck was part of a controversial addition to the original home. 

​According to court documents and an article by the now defunct Halifax Daily News, there was backlash from neighbours when the owner at the time attempted to turn the house into two apartments

The issue went to court and the owner was ordered to pay thousands of dollars to the city. 

Last September, 15 people were sent to hospital after a deck collapsed in Dartmouth.

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Hamilton's Lancaster bomber homecoming: What you need to know

Hamilton's Lancaster bomber is expected to arrive in Hamilton around noon Sunday after a tour lasting several weeks in the U.K. The event is expected to draw large crowds of onlookers eager to welcome the plane home. 

Schedule

The plane will land at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, adjacent to the Hamilton International Airport. The museum opens at 9 a.m. The plane's not expected to land until 12 p.m. ET but museum officials suggest arriving early since they expect traffic around the airport as the landing approaches.

Museum CEO David Rohrer will be flying the plane. Once it lands, he'll address the crowd and the public will have a chance to get closer to the plane and meet the crew. 

Rohrer has said the plane will fly over Hamilton, so you might have a chance to catch it if you look up in the sky before noon, but its exact trajectory, and which parts of the city the plane will fly over, were unknown Saturday evening pending other flight traffic, said Al Mickeloff, spokesman for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. 

Homeward journey

The homeward journey has taken a few days, including a couple of delays in Iceland due to weather. The plane arrived in Labrador Friday and in Quebec Saturday. Thousands of people have seen Canada's Lancaster throughout the tour.

Some fans of the bomber snapped photos of the plane's Canadian landing on Friday. 

The plane is homeward bound after a successful tour in the U.K. But it will also be carrying a hefty $180,000 bill for shipping back the engine it's been borrowing from a British company since one of its four engines shut down a few weeks ago. 

The Lancaster was grounded in the U.K. after an engine was shut down mid-flight. Plumes of smoke billowed along the fuselage as it landed at Durham Tees Airport in northern England.

Repairs were done at the airport before the plane flew to Coningsby, 250 kilometres away. Hamilton's Lancaster rejoined the other airworthy Lancaster Bomber.

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

Hamilton's Mynarski Memorial Avro Lancaster Mk X bomber was built at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont., in 1945. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963.

The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000. A team of volunteers led by Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the bomber, and it returned to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.

"On the day of that first flight, we thought we'd get a couple of hundred people at the airfield to watch," says Mickeloff, spokesman for the museum. "About 20,000 showed up."

"Some people thought the Lancaster would never fly again, and when we made it happen, it changed our whole organization," said Al Mickeloff from Hamilton's warplane museum. "The Lancaster is the heart of the museum, and our volunteers do what it takes to keep it going."

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Slain Moncton Mounties among fallen officers honoured in Ottawa today

Hundreds of Canadian police and peace officers are gathering on Parliament Hill today to remember colleagues killed in the line of duty, including the three RCMP officers killed in a shooting in Moncton, N.B., in June.

Conservation officer Justin A. Knackstedt, left, and Toronto police Const. John Zivicic, right, are also being memorialized on Sunday. (Canadian Police And Peace Officer's Memorial website)

The Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial takes place on the last Sunday of September each year. Today's Parliament Hill ceremony runs from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET.

Five officers are being honoured this year:

The three Mounties were killed during a shooting spree on June 4 in Moncton, N.B., that also left two other RCMP officers injured. Justin Bourque, 24, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with the shootings. He has yet to be sentenced.

Zivcic died after his unmarked cruiser was involved in a collision in Toronto last November.

Knackstedt was killed after being hit by an SUV while he was directing traffic at the scene of a crash south of Saskatoon in May 2013

The first Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial in 1978 honoured 14 officers. There are now more than 840 names of fallen officers on the list.

For each of the past 23 years, an average of six to eight officers have died in the line of duty.

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Accused in 5 Calgary stabbing deaths to learn results of 2nd psychiatric assessment

The man accused of stabbing five young people to death in Calgary last spring during a party to celebrate the end of the university year has another court hearing this morning.

Matthew de Grood, 23, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing the five young adults to death April 15 at a home near the University of Calgary. 

He was charged after the April 15 stabbings at a party near the University of Calgary to mark the end of the school year.

The court is expected to hear the results of de Grood's second psychiatric assessment, which was done to determine if he can be found criminally responsible.

De Grood is expected to be linked to the court hearing via closed-circuit television.

Last month, the analysis for that assessment was complete but the report was not yet ready.

A forensic psychologist had interviewed de Grood and his parents, and while that will offer an expert opinion on de Grood, the judge or jury will have the final say.

Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg said extensions for assessments are common, and were likely because of the caseload at the Alberta Hospital in Edmonton and the material the report has to consider.

Five young people were killed in the early-morning attack:

• Lawrence Hong, 27.
• Joshua Hunter, 23.
• Kaitlin Perras, 23.
• Zackariah Rathwell, 21.
• ​Jordan Segura, 22.

De Grood has been held in various psychiatric centres since his arrest.

His lawyer says the accused is currently on medication but is becoming more lucid about the events of that day in April.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March. 

De Grood has already been found fit to stand trial on the basis of one mental-health report. 

Zackariah Rathwell, 21,Lawrence Hong, 27, Kaitlin Perras, 23, ​Jordan Segura, 22, and Joshua Hunter, 23, died in the Calgary stabbings during a party April 15 to celebrate the end of the university year. (Facebook)

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'Fear and shock:' Soccer stabbing leaves N.L. town reeling as teen charged

A young man has been charged over a stabbing at a soccer field that has shocked the country, and which has a young boy fighting for his life in hospital. 

Nicholas Layman, 19, appeared in St. John's provincial court Friday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon. He was sent for a psychiatric assessment. 

The soccer pitch was still covered with balls and pylons on Friday morning, as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary scoured for evidence in the case. 

The boy, believed to be 11, was stabbed in the neck during a skills camp involving several dozen young players at a pitch in the Topsail neighbourhood of Conception Bay South, a suburban town just west of St. John's.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary secured a soccer pitch in the Topsail area of Conception Bay South after a young boy was stabbed in the neck. (CBC)

Layman was arrested late Thursday night, a couple of hours after emergency responders rushed to tend to the stabbed boy. An abandoned car that was found on a nearby road was seized and towed away on Thursday night. 

Witnesses told CBC News that a young man from the bleachers had stabbed the boy.

"He fell into my arms, and I just grabbed and held his wound, and put my arm around the back of his head, and lay him down on the field and lay with him, and just applied pressure to his wound," said a soccer father who was on the scene.

CBC News is not identifying the father for privacy reasons.

"I just screamed to some other parents to call 911," he said.

The boy was taken to hospital and had been listed in serious condition. His status was not known Friday morning.

Sources tell CBC News that police believe the attack was random, and that a mental-health issue may be involved. 

Police Chief Bill Janes said he could not divulge details of how the suspect was taken into custody.

'Disbelief that someone could do that'

Conception Bay South Mayor Ken McDonald said the stabbing has shocked people in his community.

'He fell into my arms, and I just grabbed and held his wound, and put my arm around the back of his head and lay him down on the field ... and just applied pressure to his wound.'- Parent who assisted boy stabbing in Topsail

"Fear and shock are a couple of words to describe it. To me it, it was a bit of disbelief that someone could do that," said McDonald.

McDonald said counsellors are available to help children, parents and coaches who saw the gruesome scene play out before their eyes.

"I'm sure it's very traumatic. You watch an incident like this happening on a TV show and it kind of gives you the shivers — to be there first hand and see it happen? It's not going to be easy to put that out of their minds in the very near future," said McDonald.

Janes was visibly shaken as he spoke late Thursday night with reporters at police headquarters.

"This incident can only be described as a terrible tragedy," he said.

The RNC held the pitch overnight as a crime scene, and has brought in forensic specialists to help collect evidence. The pitch was illuminated overnight to help police.

Meanwhile, the C.B.S. Soccer Association said activities at the field and nearby clubhouse have been suspended for now. In a statement, the organization said it was "shocked and saddened by an incident at Topsail Field Thursday evening that sent one of our young players to hospital."

Counsellors available for children

The English School District said counsellors will be available at neighbourhood schools on Friday to help children deal with the traumatic scene. 

The boy who was stabbed is a student at Holy Family School in neighbouring Paradise. 

Sandy Hounsell, who chairs the school council, described the incident as traumatic and devastating, including to his own son. 

"He was very inquisitive, and asking questions and why such a thing would happen — and that's where the difficulty is in how do you explain that," he said. 

"How do you make an 11-year-old understand why something like this would happen?" 

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'Disposable heroes': No compensation for paramedic with PTSD

A B.C. paramedic says the province's outdated rules mean first responders who suffer psychological trauma on the job are treated like "disposable heroes."

Joanne Trofanenko was shocked when WorkSafeBC refused to compensate her when she became too ill to work after a 2010 accident.

"We have a saying. You never know when your career-ending call is going to come in."

This B.C. Ambulance carrying Joanne Fuller and Ivan Polivka plunged over a cliff and sank eight metres to the bottom of Kennedy Lake near Ucluelet. (CBC)

For Trofanenko, it was Oct. 19, 2010. She was the first paramedic on scene after a B.C. ambulance plunged over a cliff and sank eight metres to the bottom of Kennedy lake.

"As soon as I approached the hill at Kennedy lake, I knew that this was not good," said Trofanenko, fighting back tears as she recalled that early-morning search for survivors.

The driver, 59-year-old Joanne Fuller, was Trofanenko's close friend.

'You just go numb'

She watched helplessly until divers confirmed that the bodies of Fuller and Ivan Polivka, 65, were inside the ambulance.

View of the cliffs showing the sheer dropoff from the roadway surrounding Kennedy Lake near Ucluelet. (CBC)

"You were able to see that the ambulance was at the bottom of the lake and you could see all the debris and the path that the ambulance took going down the cliff, " she said. "I just shut down cause that's all you can do.You just go numb."

The coroner ruled Fuller likely fell asleep at the wheel while fellow paramedic Polivka, napped in the back. It was just after 4:30 a.m. PT and the Ucluelet-based ambulance team had just transferred a patient to Port Alberni.

The two years following the accident were difficult for Trofanenko, who transferred to another ambulance station, but could no longer perform at the same level.

"My brain would freeze and I wasn't processing as quickly as I used to," she said.

It wasn't until she responded to another drowning call, at a lake that resembled Kennedy Lake, that she realized she needed help.

Joanne Fuller and Ivan Polivka died when the ambulance driven by Fuller went over a cliff in the early morning hours of Oct. 2010 and plunged to the bottom of Kennedy Lake. (CBC)

"I just burst into tears and I had a panic attack. My throat closed off and I said, 'Oh my god, it's Kennedy Lake again,'" said Trofanenko, describing what she later learned was a flashback.

She went on sick leave and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of what she experienced the day her friend died.

But in a letter from WorkSafeBC, she learned her claim was denied because she didn't file it within one year of the date of the injury. The Kennedy Lake tragedy had happened more than two years earlier.

'I didn't know I was sick.'

Trofanenko was shocked WorkSafeBC didn't take into account that she didn't recognize the symptoms in that first year.

"I didn't know I was sick," she said."I didn't know I had PTSD. I knew I was struggling, but I didn't know I had this."

Dr. Nicole Aube is a psychologist who works with first responders. She says delayed onset of symptoms is common among PTSD sufferers.

Joanne Trofanenko takes a walk with her support dog, medically prescribed for PTSD sufferers. Trofanenko says she knew she was sick but didn't know why until she was diagnosed with PTSD well after the accident. (CBC)

"It happens frequently that people do not see their signs of PTSD, or PTSD does not manifest immediately" explained Aube.

Left untreated, Aube says PTSD can be dangerous for emergency workers, who may lose control of their emotions and may not be able to think clearly.

Aube says Trofanenko would have been particularly vulnerable, "especially if it was a best friend."

"If it's someone we don't know, we have more of an immune system to cope with that,  but if it's someone close, you will have a stronger impact," she said.

In Trofanenko's case, the loss was profound. 

"Somebody asked me well who is your go-to person you can go and talk to, and that's when it really hit me, that it was Joanne," she said.  "I didn't have anybody to talk to. The person that I would talk to is the person that was killed."

Paramedics at 30 per cent higher risk

Trofanenko says at that time, she didn't realize her sleep disturbances, irritability and lack of concentration were all signs of PTSD.

Dr. Nicole Aube is a psychologist who works with first responders. She says PTSD doesn't always manifest itself right away, but can be dangerous for emergency workers if left untreated. (CBC)

She appealed WorkSafe's denial of her PTSD claim as of a result of the 2010 incident. She lost that, but won an appeal of a second claim made because of the flashback she experienced at a drowning in 2013.

She received wage-loss benefits for six months, but was cut off after a failed attempt to return to work as a paramedic. She has since filed a third claim, saying her working as a paramedic was too traumatic, but WorkSafe disagrees.

"They're just denying [3rd claim] outright saying it wasn't bad enough to cause distress and PTSD" says Trofanenko.

Bob Parkinson, the Health and Wellness Director for Ambulance and Paramedics of BC says his members have a 30 per cent higher rate of PTSD than the general population, and too many claims are being denied by WorkSafe. 

"It's inconsistent," he said. "Claims that seem as though they should go through don't and other claims slide on through. We have a lot of members suffering." 

The union says more than half of all their WorkSafe injury claims are stress related.

PTSD not occupational disease only in B.C.  

B.C. is the only province that does not consider stress caused "by acute reaction to a traumatic event" as an occupational disease, where a claim can be made at any time.

In Alberta, legislation introduced in 2012 and subsequently passed, means emergency workers now don't even have to prove their PTSD is work related. Presumptive coverage means claims are assumed to be the result of psychologically traumatic work-related incidents.

Bob Parkinson, the Health and Wellness Director for Ambulance and Paramedics of BC says more than half of all their WorkSafe injury claims are stress related. (CBC)

"I would really like to see something in that manner or fashion in BC. We have allot of paramedics who go year-after-year suffering from these traumatic calls and eventually it takes effect on all of us." said Parkinson.

In an emailed statement, Labour Minister Shirley Bond, told CBC News, "the province does have legislation with a broad definition of workplace mental disorders that would include PTSD."

But those claims still have to be made within one year.

The province also says that in 2012, B.C. passed Bill 14 which allows compensation for workers who develop a mental disorder as a result of bullying and harassment.

But the paramedic's union says that does nothing to help workers exposed to trauma.

In a statement, WorkSafeBC says it accepted 25 mental disorder claims from paramedics last year but would not say how many were rejected.

WorkSafe can make exceptions to one-year limit

WorkSafeBC says it does consider "special circumstances" if a worker fails to file an injury claim within a year. Such circumstances include "injury such as a delayed onset of symptoms" and a delayed diagnosis.

It is not clear why WorkSafe failed to waive the one-year limit in Trofanenko`s case as medical records show she was not diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the 2010 accident until 2013.

Trofanenko says she believes Worksafe BC discriminates against emergency workers who suffer a mental injury rather than a physical one.

"We're the ones on the other end of 911, but when we get sick, we're thrown to the curb, and that's how I feel" said Trofanenko who is now appealing WorkSafe's latest decision on her third claim for PTSD.

---

CBC Investigates: Send us your tips

CBC Vancouver's award-winning team of investigative journalists break stories that matter to British Columbians.

We're always looking for stories. Send your tips to: investigate@cbc.ca

---

Full statement from B.C. government

The safety of all B.C. workers is a priority for our government. British Columbia does not have specific presumptive PTSD legislation.

The province has legislation with a broad definition of workplace mental disorders that would include PTSD. In May 2012, B.C. passed Bill 14, an important piece of legislation that recognizes the importance of mental health in the workplace.

This legislation makes B.C. the only jurisdiction that recognizes (in legislation) diagnosed, work-related mental disorders. We passed these legislation amendments to expand workers compensation for diagnosed work-related mental disorders, including mental disorders that result from stressors like bullying and harassment.

WorkSafeBC informs us that between July 1, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2014, WorkSafeBC has 5,237 new mental disorder claims registered. Of the 5,237 new mental disorder claims registered, 1,400 were from the health care sector (including paramedics).

Statement from WorkSafeBC

The Workers Compensation Act, Section 5.1 applies to all workers in B.C. who experience significant work-related mental disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]). 

In 2013, WorkSafeBC accepted 25 mental disorder claims from paramedics.

In adjudicating mental disorder claims, WorkSafeBC officers take the following into consideration:

• A worker's exposure does not have to be immediate, but can be cumulative over time building towards a mental disorder even if they were able to tolerate similar traumatic events in the past,
• A worker may not be diagnosed with a mental disorder until many months or even years after exposure to a traumatic event. This is not uncommon with PTSD claims, as there can be a delayed onset of symptoms.
• Where a worker applies for compensation outside of the one year deadline, consideration will be given to the reasons for the late application

Special circumstances could include where a worker's mental disorder is so psychologically incapacitating that the worker is medically incapable of filing a claim within a year.  Another example could be where the worker experiences a delayed onset of symptoms, and is diagnosed with a mental disorder one to two years after the incident.

There are often multiple causative factors to be considered when someone has a mental disorder, and consideration must be given to the impact of all the different stressors in that worker's life, work related and non-work related.

The law and related policy states that  a mental disorder caused by an employer's decision relating to employment is excluded from coverage. If a mental disorder is caused by any of the following decisions or actions, it will not be eligible for compensation coverage:

•  a change in work or working conditions
•  discipline
•  termination of employment
•  workload and deadlines
•  work evaluation
•  performance management
•  transfers, lay-offs, demotions, and reorganizations

For more information: http://www.worksafebc.com/claims/MentalDisorders/assets/FAQs.pdf

I hope the information we are providing is helpful and that it assists you in balancing your story.

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Doug Ford hangs on to Rob's support, polls suggest

COMING UP LIVE: Toronto's mayoral candidates are debating today at 12:45 p.m. ET. The event will be livestreamed on CBCNews.ca.

With Rob Ford out and Doug Ford in his place, the Toronto mayoral campaign has hardly skipped a beat, at least according to the polls.

Prior to Rob Ford's unexpected withdrawal from the race on Sept. 12 after being diagnosed with cancer, the incumbent mayor had the support of about 29 per cent of Torontonians, according to ThreeHundredEight.com's weighted average of polls. Currently, his brother Doug Ford is also averaging 29 per cent support.

The numbers suggest that in the minds of many voters, Rob and Doug are virtually interchangeable.

While that might be good news for Doug Ford, who had previously polled worse than his brother on questions of trust, approval, or a hypothetical mayoral bid, it still leaves him in second place.

John Tory is currently averaging about 44 per cent support, giving him a sizeable 15-point lead over Ford. Olivia Chow, at 26 per cent, is in a close third.

But that is only in the aggregate. The polls have been in complete agreement that Tory is the current leader, with the last four surveys by four different companies giving him between 40 and 49 per cent support among decided voters.

However, there is less agreement on whether it is Ford or Chow who is in second place. Ford has recorded between 26 and 33 per cent support in recent polls, while Chow has been between 24 and 29 per cent. In most of these surveys, the gap between the two has been within the margin of error.

Toronto mayoral candidates, from left, Olivia Chow, Doug Ford and John Tory debated Tuesday for the first time since Ford entered the race. Polls suggest Ford's decision to replace his ailing brother Rob has not cut into front-runner John Tory's lead. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Despite the close race for second, it is apparent that Chow has greater upside potential than Doug Ford. In the most recent Forum Research poll, Doug Ford had the approval of 45 per cent of respondents who had heard of him, compared to 56 per cent for Chow. That number for Chow was also a sharp increase from Forum's previous poll, and marks her best result since early July.

And while 57 per cent of respondents told Nanos Research that they held a positive or somewhat positive impression of Chow (38 per cent had a negative view), only 31 per cent said the same for Doug Ford.

Fully 62 per cent of Torontonians said their view of Ford was negative.

This suggests that Ford may have tapped all of the vote he is likely to get in this race, while Chow has room to grow. But it is unlikely that Chow will be able to pull many voters away from Ford's base.

Instead, she has to eat into John Tory's support, and this may prove very difficult.

Tory's approval rating has been consistently between 63 and 67 per cent in Forum polling since the beginning of July, while Nanos found that 75 per cent of Torontonians had a positive or somewhat positive impression of him. Only 18 per cent said their impression was negative.

It will be a challenge for Chow alone to chip away at the support of a more popular candidate. Instead, she may hope that Ford — who turned his sights primarily on the front-runner in a debate this week — can do some of the work for her.

Tory will find himself under attack from both sides as the Oct. 27 vote approaches. So far, his lead is holding.

---

ThreeHundredEight.com's poll aggregation weights all publicly released surveys on age, sample size, and polling firm track record.

The Forum Research poll was conducted for the Toronto Star on Sept. 22, interviewing 1,164 Torontonians via interactive voice response. The approval rating questions asked "Do you approve or disapprove of..." with the candidate names. The reported margin of error was plus or minus 3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The Nanos Research poll for The Globe and Mail and CTV was conducted between Sept. 16 and 20 and interviewed 1,000 Torontonians via telephone. The margin of error associated with the survey was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The question on impressions asked "Do you have a positive, somewhat positive, somewhat negative, or negative impression of the following individuals...".

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B.C. school districts ordered to return all strike savings

The B.C. government is instructing school districts to return any money they may have saved during the public school teachers' strike this September. 

School districts contacted by CBC News say they're still figuring out the financial impact of the government's demand, which represents a change in direction for the Education Ministry.

During the first two weeks of the strike in June, it allowed districts to keep 20 per cent of money saved from the strike.

But during the summer, the province promised to pay parents $40 for any further days of school missed by children under age 13.

The province estimated the cost of that program would be about $12 million a day, roughly equal to the cost of keeping schools open each day.

Based on these figures, the 13 strike days in September will cost the government about $156 million in payments to parents, when the cheques are eventually issued.

In the memo obtained by CBC News that was sent to every school district earlier this month, assistant deputy minister Deborah Fayad says the ministry will reclaim all strike savings for September.

The list of savings districts are expected to report include:

• Teacher wages
• Teacher wage sensitive benefits
• Teacher non-wage sensitive benefits
• Staff replacement costs
• Utility and other facility costs
• Transportation
• Professional development
• Travel
• Supplies

The ministry is also asking school districts to report any cost increases due to the strike.

"Also, you will be asked to provide details of incremental strike costs experienced during the month in areas such as international student programs, dues and fees, rentals and leases, and First Nations/LEA reductions."

The memo does say the ministry will work with districts experiencing particular financial difficulty.

"If school districts are experiencing particular financial difficulty as a result of the job action and strike recoveries, the Ministry will work with districts on a case-by-case basis to recognize any reasonable incremental costs, factoring in the district's financial situation," says Fayad in the letter.

The memo, which was written Sept 12 before the strike ended, also thanks district officials for the "extra effort, and understanding during this uncertain time."

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Ontario child sexual exploitation probe leads to 60 arrests

Police in Ontario have arrested 60 people who will collectively face almost 250 charges in a probe into the sexual exploitation of children over the internet.

The probe involved 99 search warrants executed across Ontario by multiple police forces.

Charges include child luring and making, possessing and distributing child pornography. A total of 14 victims have also been identified and will be given counselling in their communities, police say.

OPP Supt. Don Bell called the arrests "another wakeup call to those who commit these monstrous crimes against children."

The OPP released an animated video showing IP address locations where child pornography had been downloaded or accessed.

The animation shows map locations in almost every area of Ontario.

"This is not just a big city problem," said OPP Insp. Scott Naylor, manager of the OPP's child exploitation unit.

The investigation was conducted by the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet, an umbrella group that co-ordinates the work of multiple police forces across the province. The strategy is an effort to have police in different jurisdictions working together to share information and combat what they say is a growing problem.

Frank Goldschmidt, the OPP's provincial strategy co-ordinator, said most of the people charged are not known to each other and were acting individually, not as a group.

Goldschmidt also said it's not possible that those charged simply stumbled upon the images during internet searches for other material.

"They go to the places on the internet where children are present," he said. "They go online, and they are very good at what they do in seeking out children that they want to prey upon."

He said in some of the cases, victims were encouraged to turn on their cameras to produce the material. In other instances, the material was photographed directly by the person charged.

Police at the news conference encouraged parents to take an active role in learning what their children are doing online.

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Air Canada grapples with 'explicit' material in cockpit

CBC News has obtained an internal Air Canada bulletin warning flight crews they could be fired or face criminal charges for placing "inappropriate material" in the flight deck, also called the cockpit.   

It was sent last year, four months after a similar reminder to stop hiding "suggestive images in Company aircraft" appears to have been ignored.

"I am disappointed to have to raise this issue once again but unfortunately we have some people that have yet to understand the message," writes Rod Graham, Air Canada's chief pilot and director of fleet operations and training.

Click on the image to see a larger version of the Air Canada memo.

​

The warnings come six years after a female pilot says she started finding pornography displayed, glued and tucked in a variety of areas in the cockpit on Air Canada's Embraer fleet of planes.

Air Canada investigated her complaint and found "evidence of racial or ethnic prejudice as well as sexual materials in the work place," according to documents obtained by CBC News through an Access to Information request.

The pilot provided Transport Canada inspectors with photos and video of the sexually explicit, and at times violent, images she says she found.

"Someone has drawn a knife in the back of the girl on the right hand side," she writes in one email.

"The fact that porn IS still present and… very much on the minds of the individuals that fly the EMJ [Embraer planes], should ring alarm bells for your department as much as it does for me," she writes in an email dated Aug. 3, 2013.

The head of the association that represents civil service pilots says offensive material has no place in the flight deck.

"You have to pay attention to what you're doing in an aircraft at all times. And reading inappropriate material is a complete distraction, and things can go wrong," says Daniel Slunder, president of the Canadian Federal Pilots Association.

Transport Canada told CBC News that its investigation found that Air Canada did not violate aviation safety, and that Transport Canada is not responsible for "regulating reading material in the flight deck."

However, notes in a Transport Canada log dated Aug. 19, 2013 show an inspector with the regulatory agency tried to get Air Canada to take the problem more seriously.

Transport Canada report on Air Canada complaint

CBC is not responsible for 3rd party content

"Pilots are stuffing paper material inside compartments where electrical wiring is and that this is a hazard not to mention that this is a form of workplace violence," writes Mary Pollock, an aviation health and safety occupational officer.

CBC News asked Air Canada if it had identified who was placing inappropriate material in the flight deck, but did not receive a response to this particular question.

"The material in question consisted almost entirely of inappropriate business cards and was confined mainly to one aircraft type and route, our Embraer E-90s operating to Las Vegas," writes Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick in an email to CBC News.

The airline says it wasted no time when it learned of the problem, taking corrective action through pilot training.

However, Air Canada did say that more explicit material was found as recently as February of this year.

Do you have more information related to this story? Contact diana.swain@cbc.ca and/or marnie.luke@cbc.ca.

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Luis-Andres Guimont-Mota named as arrested McGill Redmen football player

The McGill Redmen university football player in Montreal who faces charges of armed robbery, assault and uttering threats has been identified as Luis-Andres Guimont-Mota.

The player's name was confirmed to CBC News by a reliable source.

He's due in court Thursday.

Guimont-Mota, 22, is in his third season with the Redmen and is considered the team's star running back.

The business management student was awarded the team's 2013 Dan Pronyk Memorial Trophy for most outstanding offensive player.

McGill University issued a statement late Wednesday night, stating it was informed one if its players was arrested earlier in the day.

"In line with the University's varsity athletics guidelines, effective immediately, this player is suspended from the football team pending resolution of his case by the Court," deputy provost Ollivier Dyens said in a statement.

There are reports the case is linked to an alleged incident of domestic violence.

Guimont-Mota is not the first McGill football player to face charges in recent years.

Three Redmen players are accused of sexually assaulting a former Concordia University student in September 2011 and are awaiting trial.

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UN announces Ebola emergency response mission as Canada pledges $30M

The UN announced Thursday that it will dispatch an emergency mission to West Africa to help the countries most affected by the worsening Ebola epidemic deal with the crisis. Canada, meanwhile, announced it will provide another $30 million to the global effort to fight Ebola.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that workers with the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response are preparing to depart for West Africa on the weekend.

Guinea, Sierra Leona and Liberia have been the countries most affected by the virus, and their health systems are "buckling under the strain," Ban said.

He said global efforst to fight the disease have so far fallen short and there is an "overwhelming momentum" for the UN to play a leading role in co-ordinating the emergency response to the Ebola crisis.

"We will meet this challenge," Ban told the special UN session devoted to the Ebola crisis. "UN staff are prepared to help."

West Africa continues its fight against Ebola - this pregnant woman being lifted into an ambulance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 19, is suspected of having the virus that has killed nearly 3,000 people. On Thursday at the UN, Canada said it is contributing another $30 million to support the battle against the outbreak. (Reuters/Unicef)

Earlier in the day, International Development Minister Christian Paradis criticized the aid delivery to Guinea, Sierra Leona and Liberia so far, and said there must be better co-ordination.

"Canada continues to be deeply concerned by the inadequate co-ordination efforts [to date] and calls for improved co-ordination at the global level," he said.

"The specific role of the UN and other lead agencies such as military and NGOs needs to be made clear. We salute the new initiative of the UN mission for Ebola emergency response."

Asked where the problem lies, Paradis said he didn't want to single out anybody.

"I think that the agreement here is that we need to be better co-ordinated... We want to do more in a more coherent way," he said.

The new funding is intended for treatment, prevention through social mobilization and health education, and broad humanitarian support including food and health services, Paradis said.

Canada announced in August that it would provided $1.3 million to fight the current outbreak in West Africa, which has now killed almost 3,000 people.

Last week, Health Minister Rona Ambrose pledged $2.5 million worth of the specialized medical gear used to protect health-care workers.

But the 800-1,000 experimental vaccines promised in August still haven't been shipped to West Africa, Dr. Gregory Taylor, the country's new chief public health officer, said Wednesday.

The Ebola vaccine was developed at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

But there are still questions about how and where to send it, Taylor said in an interview with CBC News, including how to keep it refrigerated for the entire trip to West Africa.

"The 800 to 1,000 doses that we offered to WHO is still in Winnipeg," Taylor said. "We're getting very close to shipping some of that."

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Teacher Daniel Ogloff suspended for slapping 'I'm gay' sticker on student

A Langley, B.C., teacher, who was suspended for writing "I'm gay" on a piece of masking tape and sticking it on the back of a student's jacket last year is expected to be back in class soon.

Daniel Mark Ogloff,  a metalwork teacher at Aldergrove Community Secondary School, was first suspended for 10 weeks in November 2013 by the school district for the homophobic prank on the male Grade 11 student.

On Sept. 10 this year, he received a second two-week suspension from the B.C. Commissioner of Teacher Regulation, according to documents that were recently released. That suspension ends early in October.

Grade 10 student Cameron Snow says he was in his class Sept, 24, 2013, when the incident happened.

"Mr. Ogloff,  just as a joke, came up and stuck a sticker on him that said, 'I'm gay, LOL.'  We didn't think anything of it.  No one did because we always mess around with the teacher and he messes back. He's friendly," said Snow.

Aldergrove Community Secondary School in Langley, B.C., is where Daniel Mark Ogloff played a prank on a student that led to the teacher being suspended twice. Ogloff stuck a piece of masking tape reading 'I'm gay' on the back of the student's jacket. (CBC)

But Snow recalls students were pointing, laughing and taking pictures of the student, who was clearly upset.

"He took it to offence, walked out of the room, told the principal ... and then the next day we came to school and Mr. Ogloff wasn't there."

Ogloff later described the incident to officials as "horseplay."

But the school district disagreed and suspended Ogloff from work without pay for 10 weeks, beginning last November, for acting unprofessionally and disrespectfully.

When he returned to work, he met with the offended student and took some mandatory courses.

The B.C. Commissioner of Teacher Regulation then suspended his teaching certificate, effective Sept. 22 to Oct. 5.

LGBT advocates, such as Dara Parker, executive director of QMunity, say they are stunned a teacher would have done something like this.

"This is just an affirmation that, despite all of the progress that we've made and all of the legal equalities we've achieved, that the day-to-day lived equalities are still not there," said Parker.

 "This teacher thought it was acceptable to put a sign that says 'I'm gay' on a student's back. And that's completely wrong."

Martin Rooney, the founder of Out in Surrey, agrees.

"In this day and age, with all of the conversation regarding gay and lesbian issues in school, and with the transgender issue being forefront, it surprises me there's not a sensitivity," said Rooney.

Nevertheless Snow says he wants Ogloff to return to the classroom.

"I learned all of my welding skills from him. I'm pretty good at it now. I'm already starting to get a job somewhere from welding."

Ogloff has been disciplined before. 

In 2011, he received a warning for making inappropriate comments to Grade 7 students.

The Langley School District and the B.C. College of Teachers did not return CBC's calls for comments.

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BlackBerry's new Passport released today, aims to woo corporate users

BlackBerry released its new Passport phone today, a keyboard smartphone with a 4.5-inch​ screen aimed at corporate users.

John Chen, charged with turning around Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry since last November, has said the company's future rests on rebuilding its relations with the enterprise market, long a core of its business.

The Passport is on sale starting today, and only available at Telus for the first few weeks. Users will pay $200 for the phone on a two-year contract, which jumps to $250 starting Oct. 1.

Users who want to buy the phone without a contract will pay $699. 

The new smartphone's hefty design — the size of a passport, or perhaps a suit pocket — has a screen that will show 60 characters across. That means spreadsheets, medical charts and other enterprise-friendly information will be readable.

The Passport specifications:

• Screen is 1,440 x 1,440 pixels square, with 453 dots per inch, or DPI, resolution.
• Gorilla glass screen. 
• QWERTY keyboard layout, a comfortable holdover from early BlackBerry designs.
• Extra-loud speakerphone, 350 per cent louder than that of the Samsung Galaxy S5.
• Device switch app that allows users to import data from other phones
• Reported 30-hour battery life
• Includes 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage space
• 13 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization
• Rear camera has f2.0 lens and 1080p HD video recording that can shoot 60 frames per second
• 2 megapixel front camera with 720p HD video recording

"I have to tell you, I just fell in love with the phone when I came in," said Chen, who said it was mostly finished before he started with the company. 

The phone also features a physical keyboard that doubles as a virtual keyboard — users can swipe the physical keyboard to add words onscreen while typing, or to move around a cursor on the screen.

CBC reporter Matthew Kang, who was at the Toronto launch, described it as a "hybrid of keyboard, mouse and touch screen."

Representatives from Bloomberg business news were also on hand to announce a Passport-specific app, available at the end of October, that will allows users to see an increased number of stock quotes at once.

Chen also confirmed that the BlackBerry Classic phone will be released by the end of the year, but wouldn't provide any more detail to reporters. 

BlackBerry Blend

The company launched BlackBerry Blend, an app that syncs data across computers and mobile devices including smartphones and tablets, without needing a virtual private network. Not only does it sync across devices, but across operating systems. 

A user can receive BBM notifications on a desktop computer running Windows, or share a file from an Android tablet, for example. It also allows users to sync with third-party online storage systems like DropBox, and works on Apple computers and tablets. 

Blend isn't cloud computing system, however, as the files are natively stored on the Passport smartphone, which has 32 G of included storage. 

Blend is available today in various app stores, including Apple's App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore and BlackBerry World. 

Capturing fans 

Chen told the crowd at the Toronto launch on Wednesday that the company's restructuring process is over and the company is focusing on growth. Chen is known for turning around Sybase in the 1990s. 

BlackBerry's chief has made the manufacturing and supply chain more efficient and raised cash via the sale of the company's extensive real estate holdings.

But none of that counts unless he can create a portfolio of hardware and services that appeals to professional customers, and then start turning a profit.

Chen told the Wall Street Journal the Passport will go on sale in the United States at a no-contract price of $599 US, comparable with the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S5. That's $100 less than in Canada.  

AT&T will be the exclusive carrier in the U.S., according to Chen on Wednesday.

The famed BlackBerry security remains an appealing selling point — it's hard to hack.

But equally important will be a raft of services to be released this fall to support the new phones.  

A BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12 update is planned for November and is expected to introduce cloud storage before year-end. Also on the menu are apps designed for business use.

BlackBerry Passport's performance will be a test of Chen's strategy as well as an indication of the potential for the company as a whole.

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Toronto high school stabbing victim, 19, was trying to break up confrontation

A 19-year-old student stabbed inside a Toronto high school on Tuesday died after he intervened in a hallway confrontation between two other students, police say.

"The victim was trying to defuse a situation between two other individuals … and it turned very, very tragic," Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner said Wednesday.

Hamid Aminzada, a recent immigrant to Canada from Afghanistan, died in hospital after the stabbing at North Albion Collegiate Institute, a high school with about 1,000 students that's in the northwest Toronto suburb of Etobicoke. Police say Aminzada had intervened in an ongoing argument between two other students.

A 17-year-old boy turned himself in to police on Tuesday evening accompanied by his lawyer and has been charged with second-degree murder.

The stabbing happened just after noon Tuesday in the hallway of the school at 2580 Kipling Ave., just north of Finch Avenue West. 

Aminzada died as police were searching the school for his attacker.

The incident marked the first time a student has been killed inside a Toronto high school since 2007, when 15-year-old Jordan Manners was shot to death inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. 

Student came from Afghanistan 

At a press conference outside the school Tuesday afternoon, principal Naeem Siddiq described Aminzada as "quite focused on his family and his future" and that he was "very involved, very kind and well-known to teachers and students."

​Aminzada hails from a large family and came to Canada a little more than two years ago from Afghanistan. He was in his second year at the school. 

Siddiq added that there was no indication that Aminzada had troubles with any other students.

"This is a sombre day for the entire TDSB community, especially the students and staff at North Albion, as we mourn the tragic loss of this young life," said Donna Quan, director of education for the Toronto District School Board. 

Quan spent the day at the school Monday, and told CBC Radio's Metro Morning show Wednesday she learned that Aminzada was "a very caring young man who contributed to the life of his school."

Quan said classes will resume Wednesday, and said that grief counsellors will be there to help students dealing with Aminzada's death.

Are metal detectors the answer?

Quan said TDSB staff will hold a debriefing about the stabbing after the conclusion of the police investigation to determine if the school could have done anything differently to prevent the incident.

At a news conference Wednesday, she was asked about whether the school should tighten security by installing metal detectors at entrances. She said metal detectors "are not the answer."

"We don't want to create a situation where our students are patted down and checked before they enter schools," she said.

Quan said the TDSB believes building relationships between staff and students is a better route to violence prevention. She said since the Manners killing, TDSB schools have numbered all doors, formed safe school committees and boosted anti-bullying prevention programs.

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Court documents detail the night that sent Rob Ford to rehab

While Rob Ford undergoes chemotherapy treatments for a malignant tumour, a judge has released the latest search warrant documents surrounding the Toronto mayor, his former friend Sandro Lisi, his sister Kathy and a man who allegedly supplied the mayor with crack, Michael "Jugga" James.

The documents are the latest in an investigation into some of the characters surrounding Ford during his recent drug-taking.

Justice Ian Nordheimer of the Ontario Superior Court allowed the release of the search warrant application — known as an information-to-obtain, or ITO — to the media. He is the same judge who allowed previous ITOs, which confirmed the mayor's drug use, to be released to media earlier in Ford's term.

The new documents describe a party in Kathy Ford's basement, which gained notoriety because Ford was filmed smoking a crack pipe during the event and left office to seek treatment when the photos came out in the press.

The police documents describe the following:

On the evening of April 25, the mayor's driver, Jerry Agyemang, dropped Ford off at his older sister's home in Etobicoke.
Kathy Ford told police that when he arrived, the mayor was already intoxicated.

Kathy Ford told investigators she went to the basement of the home with the mayor and Lisi, at which point the mayor continued to drink.

Then some time later, James knocked on the door.

Kathy Ford greeted James and asked him to join the group in the basement.

Ford's occasional driver and onetime friend Sandro Lisi, who faces an extortion charge related to alleged attempts to retrieve a video of the mayor, was at the basement party detailed in newly released court documents. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

She said she knew James deals cocaine, crack and heroin. A police informant quoted in the ITO also said James was "dealing."

James supplied the mayor and his sister with crack, according to Kathy Ford.

Mayor Ford was consuming the crack when he was photographed with a pipe in his hand by James, she said.

According to other reports from the evening, the mayor assaulted Lisi and was confrontational to James. But both Kathy Ford and James ruled out any assault.

Kathy Ford said the mayor and Lisi were playfully fighting during the night. She described it as "kidding around fighting."

James corroborated the play fighting. Kathy Ford said the mayor became "loud and boisterous" and James left.

But before he left, according to the documents, James surreptitiously recorded the mayor smoking the crack. He made three videos on his iPhone, it is suspected, but the microphone did not work so there is no sound.

In the days after the night in Kathy Ford's basement, James approached various media in an effort to sell the video.

The Globe and Mail paid James and another man, who police call S. Pablo, a reported $10,000 for stills from the video.

The night the photos appeared on both Gawker and the Globe and Mail website, mayor Ford put out a statement saying he would be seeking professional help. He would be temporarily withdrawing from the mayoral race, he announced at the time.

The next morning, his nephew Michael Ford, Kathy's son, drove him to an airport where he flew to Chicago, only to return right away after withdrawing his request to enter the U.S., according to a consular official. He then ended up at GreeneStone, a rehabilitation facility near Muskoka.

He resumed his mayoral campaign in July, until he withdrew when he received news he would have to undergo chemotherapy for a malignant tumour in his abdomen.

James was initially charged in relation to a pair of brass knuckles police found, but those charges have been dropped.

Lisi faces extortion and drug-related charges.

To read the entire document, see here.

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Top court's Mr. Big ruling prompts withdrawal of murder charge

The first-degree murder charge against a Nova Scotia man accused of killing his former partner, and caught in the kind of Mr. Big sting that has been severly limited by Canada's top court, has been withdrawn.

The Crown has said there's no reasonable prospect of a conviction against Albert Rex Baird, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision.

Rhonda Wilson, a mother of three, disappeared in May 2002. Her body has not been found.

Baird, 45, was charged with first-degree murder in May.

Mr. Big operations involve police posing as criminals in an attempt to obtain a confession from a suspect. Until 2008, the tactic had been used at least 350 times to try to solve cold murder cases, the court heard.

The RCMP has said that of the resulting prosecutions, 95 per cent had ended in convictions.

The Supreme Court ruled the Mr. Big technique can induce unreliable confessions.

The ruling places strict limits on how police can use the technique, and a greater burden on the Crown before information obtained in a Mr. Big operation can be used in a trial.

Police would not confirm the exact relationship between Wilson and Baird, but friends of Baird said he was Wilson's common-law husband.

Wilson was 31 years old when she left her Kentville home to go for a walk in August 2002. She was living with Baird and her three children at the time, but was never heard from again.

Police said search crews focused on Bains Road, about one kilometre from an old pig farm in the Annapolis Valley, the focus of weeks of searching last spring.

Wilson's case was added to the major unsolved crimes list in April 2010. Police said they received many tips after that announcement, but they did not contribute to Baird's arrest.

The province said there has been no activity on Wilson's bank accounts since she disappeared.

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'Help us:' Canadian Somali community says it's losing youth to ISIS

As U.S.-led forces launch airstrikes in Syria, an organization in Edmonton says it is fighting to keep young people in the city's Somali community from answering recruitment calls to join ISIS militants fighting overseas.

Mahamad Accord, with the Canadian Somali Congress of Western Canada, says at least six young men are missing and believed to have been recruited.

"We all know that there is evidence in the community that some of the boys are missing, and the anecdote that we've been receiving is they went missing and they called their parents from either somewhere in Iraq or they call from Turkey and they tell them their intention to join ISIS," he said.

The news comes after it was learned two brothers in Calgary joined the ranks of foreign fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The brothers disappeared sometime in late 2012.

Between 2011 and 2012, they shared an apartment in the same downtown Calgary highrise that once housed Damian Clairmont and Salman Ashrafi – two other Calgary men who were recruited and later died in ISIS operations in Syria and Iraq.

Only one of the Calgary men known to have been recruited had a Somali background.

Hoping to avoid any further similar losses, Accord's group has written a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him for support as they combat radicalization.

"Based on very solid and reliable sources from our community youth and elders, here in Canada and Alberta in particular, 16-25 years old Somali youth are recruited to become ISIS frontline soldiers at an alarming proportion," Accord says in his letter to Harper.

Many of the youth being targeted are first-generation Canadians who are often socially isolated, with no family or other responsibilities to keep them here, he writes.

"Regrettably, this terror group is using sophisticated and professional network of recruiters and sympathizers to brainwash these young, innocent and vulnerable group ages and it seems that they are succeeding of their criminal activities." 

'That's one thing that they have to understand: that's not the key to paradise, it's the key to hell.'- Mahamad Accord

Accord said the recruiters often lure individuals by offering to help pay for travel costs – essential, since most young men in the community could not afford to make the trip alone.

Now, Accord hopes to work with the authorities and law enforcement agencies to raise awareness and education, in an attempt to prevent further recruitment.

"To counter these terrorist elements, we need a collective approach to fight back and get our local Imams join the fight by educating the youth on real interpretation and meaning of jihad in Islam. They have to reach out the youth and clarify key points of Islam that prevent in participating false jihad and extremism," he writes.

Speaking to CBC News, Accord made his intentions even clearer.

"We're going to tell our youth very clear that if you go there, you're going to be killed, that's for sure," he said. "And if you ... survive, you'll be criminal. You're going to be a criminal [and] you will be hunted and brought to justice.

"That's one thing that they have to understand: that's not the key to paradise, it's the key to hell."

In the meantime, he advised parents to be on the lookout for signs their children may have been contacted by ISIS.

"If you suspect your children is going to be recruited ... go to the authorities. Save your child while you can."

Read Accord's full letter to Stephen Harper

An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper (PDF)
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper (Text)

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