by The Canadian Press - Story: 105642
Dec 30, 2013 / 6:30 pm
Photo: Google Maps - Calgary Airport
There's been a bizarre collision between a plane and a cube van at the Calgary International Airport.
The incident happened Monday morning on the tarmac near Gate 11 on the Air Canada side of the airport.
Jody Mosely of the Calgary Airport Authority says it appears the aircraft was pushed off the gate and bumped the vehicle, knocking it over.
She says one person was checked out by EMS for what she described as a potential minor injury.
Alberta Health Services says one person was assessed on site and didn’t require further care.
There were no passengers on board and Mosely says there was no impact on the operations at the airport.
She says there will be an investigation to determine exactly what happened.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105603
Dec 30, 2013 / 9:13 am
Photo: CTV
The Canadian government and the RCMP have been quietly dropped from lawsuits filed after the beheading of a young man aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba.
Victim Tim McLean's father filed a claim soon after his son was killed in the summer of 2008 against Greyhound, perpetrator Vince Li and Canada. The Canadian Press recently discovered that the file was amended in April 2012 to drop the federal government as a defendant and to add 22-year-old McLean's "infant son" as one of 15 people who have "been deprived of Tim McLean Jr.'s guidance, care and companionship."
Lawsuits filed by two separate bus passengers, Debra Tucker and Kayli Shaw, have also been amended to drop the RCMP.
Lawyer Jay Prober, who represents Tim McLean Sr., said the government was dropped from his client's lawsuit because there were concerns it wouldn't stand up in court.
"We were concerned that it wasn't a strong enough case," Prober said.
The lawsuit against Greyhound and Li is proceeding, but has been delayed because the lawyer representing the bus company has just been appointed a federal judge, Prober said.
Li has been confined to a psychiatric institution north of Winnipeg since he was found not criminally responsible for stabbing, mutilating and beheading McLean on a bus heading to Winnipeg in July 2008. Li, a schizophrenic, sat next to the 22-year-old McLean after the young man smiled at him and asked how he was doing.
Li said he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the young carnival worker or "die immediately." Li repeatedly stabbed McLean who unsuccessfully fought for his life.
The bus pulled over near Portage la Prairie, Man., and Li continued stabbing and mutilating McLean's body. Passengers fled the bus and stood outside. Li eventually escaped through a window and was arrested.
The original statement of claim filed by McLean's father alleged the government of Canada was liable because it is responsible for national transportation security. It also argued that the government knew or should have known about previous violence on board Greyhound buses and failed to put safeguards in place.
"It knew or ought to have known that the deceased, Tim McLean Jr., was at risk or harm from attack at any time and that irreparable harm did in fact occur," said the lawsuit. "The defendant Canada knew or ought to have known that the industry on its own, specifically the defendant Greyhound, had not taken measures to create a safe, secure system for inter-city bus travel."
The lawsuits filed by passengers Tucker and Shaw in 2011 have not only dropped the RCMP, but have crossed out a section that alleged Canada "failed to ensure the safety of passengers on board buses travelling between provinces" and "failed to assure that Canada's transportation system meets the highest practicable safety and security standards."
None of the allegations has been proven in court. The federal government never filed a statement of defence.
All the lawsuits still allege Greyhound and Li are responsible for damages. All statements of claim allege Greyhound failed to ensure the safety and security of passengers, knowing they could be "at risk and in imminent danger at any given moment," and didn't provide adequate training to its employees.
Any injury caused to McLean, or any passengers who witnessed his graphic killing, was "as a result of the sudden and unforeseeable actions of the defendant Li," Greyhound says in its defence.
"It has provided its employees with security training designed to ensure that its passengers would be as safe as reasonably possible aboard its vehicles."
by CTV - Story: 105600
Dec 30, 2013 / 8:36 am
Photo: CTV
A Toronto Hydro line worker works to restore power to a house in a Scarborough neighbourhood on Friday, December 27, 2013. (Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
More than a week after a crippling ice storm hit parts of Central and Eastern Canada, Toronto Hydro is hoping power will be fully restored to all customers today.
As of Monday morning, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said 725 customers are still without power, including eight Toronto Community Housing units. At the height of the storm, as many as 600,000 customers in Ontario were left in the dark after splintered tree limbs downed power lines.
Toronto Hydro estimates the tab to fully restore power as a result of the storm will be approximately $10 million, or $1 million per day. Ford has called a special city council meeting to request financial aid from the province.
Across the city, Ford said Emergency Medical Services and Toronto Fire Services are back to normal. He said 98 forestry crews will be hitting the streets on Monday as clean-up efforts continue. Approximately 680 customers have had repairs done to their homes as a result of damage sustained during the storm.
Ford said 72 people stayed at Toronto's warming centres last night, two of which will close today.
"I want to thank our staff for a phenomenal job they have done. I want to thank the residence of this city for their patience during this terrible storm. We have never had a storm like this in Toronto’s history," Ford told reporters Monday morning at the last ice-storm news conference.
Elsewhere in Ontario, approximately 1,500 homes and business are still waiting for power.
Ontario Kathleen Wynne is expected later this morning to release more details about a plan to compensate people who had to throw out food that spoiled during the power outage.
She is calling on individuals and companies to donate grocery cards. Loblaw has already handed out over $25,000 worth of grocery cards, which the provincial government hopes to match.
by CTV - Story: 105599
Dec 30, 2013 / 7:34 am
Photo: CTV
Domenic Pilla, president and CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation, left, and Galen G. Weston, executive chairman of Loblaw; right, answer questions from the media at a press conference in Toronto on Monday, July 15, 2013. The Canadian Press/Michelle Si
He's been a familiar face to Canadians for years -- approachable, friendly, and asking them to come shop at his family's grocery stores.
Behind the scenes, he also helped lead Loblaw's restructuring efforts at a time of intense competition while pushing green, organic and fresh products.
But it was his role in one of the biggest takeovers in the country's retail history as well as his strong stance on the need for change in Bangladesh after the Dhaka factory collapse in April that won Galen G. Weston the title of Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year for 2013.
Weston received about 22 per cent of the votes, followed by BCE chief executive George Cope and former Blackberry CEO Thorstein Heins, who tied for second place with 17 per cent of the votes each.
"It's not just one of the largest deals this year -- it's one of the largest deals in Canada ever," Derek DeCloet, Editor of Report on Business at The Globe and Mail, said in voting for Weston.
"It will shape the future of the Canadian retailing sector."
"Tough call here. I voted for Weston, being at the centre of not one, but two of the top business stories of the year," said Adam Nyp, News Director at CIHR in Woodstock, Ont.
It was a busy year for Weston, whose family regularly makes the list of richest Canadians with a fortune that tops $10 billion.
Loblaw (TSX:L) moved to acquire Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC) in a blockbuster $12.4-billion deal that will allow it to better compete against retail giants, such as Walmart, and provide cash flow of about $1 billion to pay down debt.
The company said it wouldn't be appropriate for Weston to comment to the media until the Shoppers deal closes. Shoppers' shareholders recently voted in favour of the takeover offer and the deal is before the federal competition bureau for approval.
During the summer, the company also spun off its real estate holdings into a new publicly traded trust, Choice Properties (TSX:CHP.UN), which remains majority owned by Loblaw.
Since the drugstore deal, the company, which owns Loblaws, President's Choice and several other grocery brands as well as the Joe Fresh clothing line, has said it remains focused on winning over customers with lower prices and a bigger selection of fresh foods.
It's not yet back to the point of growing its profits, as it struggles to draw in shoppers in an increasingly competitive retail environment that pits it against Sobeys and Metro, as well as U.S. retailers such as Walmart, Target and Costco. But the company has come a long way from where it was when the younger Weston took over from his father W. Galen Weston as executive chairman of Loblaw in 2006.
"Loblaw stores were in a bit of disarray. He was new, they had distribution issues and they had strategy issues and they were turning over some senior personnel as they modified the distributions," said Ken Hardy, a marketing professor emeritus at Western University's Richard Ivey Business School.
"He was so youthful to take over a major chain and there was this imminent threat of Walmart's food empire moving north, so yes, I think there was some skepticism," Hardy said.
"But the board plugged in some good people and they went ahead and made the changes, so he had support."
Gord Nixon, chief executive of RBC and a Weston family friend, said the younger Galen and his team should be credited for their role in the restructuring of Loblaw during a time industry margins are shrinking.
"I think the Shoppers Drug Mart deal certainly has the potential to be a real home run for them and give them the opportunity to shift their strategies to address some of the changes that are taking place in the marketplace," said Nixon.
"It's been a transformational year all around given the two big transactions ... and some of the progress the company has made in terms of addressing some of their cost issues and efficiency issues."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105591
Dec 30, 2013 / 5:43 am
Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Hydro One worker Sean Williams cuts through branches as his crew work to restore power to a house in a Scarborough neighbourhood on Friday, December 27, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford says 725 customers are left without power today and hydro officials say crews have been dispatched to help get all of them reconnected.
The number of those without power in the city has shrunk each day, from about 300,000 customers at the height of outages about a week ago after a fierce ice storm hit Central and Eastern Canada.
Ford, who says Toronto has never seen such a storm, says most other services, including fire, police and emergency medical services, are back to normal today.
Elsewhere in Ontario, power is still out for about 1,500 homes and businesses.
In New Brunswick, forecasters have lifted weather warnings, except for a wind chill warning that remains in effect for the northern part of the province. NB Power says 3,700 customers have yet to be reconnected.
Additional line and tree-trimming crews from the other Maritime provinces, Quebec and the United States are lending a hand in New Brunswick. Hydro Quebec says about 1,200 customers are still without electricity.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105577
Dec 29, 2013 / 7:34 pm
The joint rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax says four people were rescued Sunday from a container ship about 60 kilometres south of Portugal Cove South, N.L.
Spokesman Maj. Martell Thompson says the ship is at anchor with a Canadian Coast Guard vessel standing by, but requires no further assistance from the joint rescue co-ordination centre.
Thompson says the centre received a call around 11:30 a.m. local time Sunday that the vessel was having issues with its hull.
Two Cormorant helicopters from Gander, N.L., and a Hercules aircraft from Greenwood, N.S., were dispatched.
He says four non-essential crew members were hoisted into a helicopter and taken to Portugal Cove South, while about 20 others remain on the ship working to resolve the issue.
Thompson says the case has been handed over to Transport Canada.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105571
Dec 29, 2013 / 3:02 pm
Photo: CTV
Vito Rizzuto was said to be leading the Sicilian Mafia in Canada.
Hundreds of people are filing into a Montreal funeral home today to pay their respects to reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.
Rizzuto — the head of a powerful criminal organization with international reach — died of natural causes in hospital last Monday.
The line of mourners was so long this afternoon it snaked around the side of building.
The surrounding streets were so busy that police were on hand to direct traffic.
Officers in unmarked police vehicles could also be seen taking photos of people entering the building.
Rizzuto's funeral will be held tomorrow at a Catholic church in Montreal's Little Italy neighbourhood.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105564
Dec 29, 2013 / 12:02 pm
Photo: Google Maps
A 24-man crew is onboard a container ship off the eastern coast of Newfoundland.
The joint rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax says a 24-member crew is being rescued from a container ship about 60 kilometres south of Portugal Cove, NL.
Spokesman Maj. Martel Thompson says the centre received a call around 11:30 a.m. local time Sunday that the vessel was having issues with its hull.
Thompson says two Cormorant helicopters from Gander, NL, are on scene, as well as a Hercules aircraft from Greenwood, NS, and a Coast Guard ship is en route.
He says several people have already been safely hoisted into a helicopter from the ship, which is still floating on water.
Thompson would not say where the ship is from.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105560
Dec 29, 2013 / 11:35 am
Photo: Contributed - YouTube
From a screen grab of VOAvideo on YouTube.
A top United Nations official is praising the Harper government's foreign policy initiative to end forced marriage of young girls, even if Canada won't fund projects that would allow victims access to an abortion.
The Conservative government's practice of not allowing aid dollars to go towards organizations that offer abortions to victimized girls or war-rape victims has sparked heated criticism in some quarters.
But Susan Bissell, of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), says that is an obstacle that can be worked around.
She is urging Canada to be the international standard bearer for a worthy cause that needs a champion.
Bissell says she wants Canada to make a multi-million dollar contribution to the fight against the exploitation of girls.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced that Canada wanted to focus on the problem during a speech at the UN in September.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105561
Dec 29, 2013 / 10:47 am
Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Smoke pours from the stacks at the Portlands Energy Centre in Toronto on Thursday January 15, 2009. Electrical demand is high as an extreme cold snap has hit much of the country. The federal government is working on a new way to warn Canadians about the need to protect themselves from the dangers of frigid weather.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
The federal government is working on a new way to warn Canadians about the need to protect themselves from the dangers of frigid weather.
Right now, Environment Canada issues wind chill warnings when cold temperatures and wind speeds combine to exceed health-threatening thresholds, which differ depending on where you live across the country.
Under a program being developed with Health Canada, the weather office would issue an Extreme Cold Warning when temperatures plunge to dangerous levels, even if winds are calm.
"Working outside in the cold air there is still the possibility that you can get frostbite on a nice cold day with light winds," said Blair Morrow, an Environment Canada meteorologist working on the project.
"We just want to provide Canadians with advance warning to take the necessary steps to protect themselves."
Morrow said a brutally cold day in Edmonton in early December illustrates why such a change is needed. This Dec. 6, Environment Canada issued a wind chill warning for an area when the temperature dipped to -30 C and winds hit 19 km/h, producing a face-numbing wind chill of -42 C.
Under the current system, no warning would have been issued had the temperature plunged to -42 C and the winds been light, even though the threat of frostbite or hypothermia would have been just as high.
Morrow said when the new system is introduced, perhaps as early as in 2014, Canadians will no longer see separate wind chill warnings in Environment Canada forecasts or on its website.
"When the program is implemented, the new Extreme Cold Warning will be issued in situations of cold temperature and light winds to allow Canadians to take necessary steps to protect their health."
The new warning would be linked to information on the Environment Canada website about how people can protect themselves from cold weather.
Environment Canada already provides such basic tips as planning ahead, spending less time outdoors, seeking shelter, dressing warmly in layers, wearing a proper hat and footwear, staying dry, keeping active and avoiding alcohol.
Extreme cold is a killer in Canada and is the biggest cause of weather-related fatalities.
Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips said about 100 people die of cold-related causes each year. Many more people suffer from frostbite and less serious frostnip.
This happens despite the fact that detailed weather forecasts and information are more readily available than ever before.
Phillips said one only has to watch motorists drive during the first snowstorm of the season and see how people dress during the first bad cold snap to realize many Canadians forget they live in the second-coldest country in the world after Russia.
"Educating Canadians about the weather could go on forever," Phillips said.
Part of that education will involve the new Extreme Cold Warnings, part of the evolution of the current wind chill warning concept that was developed in 2001.
Over the years, wind chill warnings have been expressed in different ways: the time it would take for exposed flesh to freeze; heat loss in watts per square metre; or how the equivalent cold temperature due to wind speed feels on exposed skin.
For weather forecasters, it's fine tuning the message about the dangers of extreme cold in the hope that more people will pay attention.
"Under certain wind conditions, Canadians are probably tricked into thinking that 'Wow, it is not cold out there', when it is."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105558
Dec 29, 2013 / 10:32 am
Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
This 1992 file photo shows presidential hopeful Ross Perot at a rally in Austin, Texas. Perot may have had it right after all about who would win under NAFTA. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP
Ross Perot may have had it right after all about who would win under NAFTA.
The North American Free Trade Deal was an important step for all three members, but the evidence points to Mexico — at the time the weak sister in the group that included two G7 economies, the United States and Canada — as by far the biggest winner.
On the 20th anniversary of the pact, Mexico — in 1994, an insular, economic basket case — has in two decades emerged as a forward-looking country with expanding global reach, a handful of world-class corporations and a ballooning middle class.
Perot, who twice ran for U.S. president in the 1990s and made his name as an anti-NAFTA crusader, generally saw that coming although he focused his barbs on what the U.S. would lose in what he termed "the giant sucking sound of jobs going south."
Perot's fear was that U.S. firms would flock to where labour costs were cheapest. To an extent that has happened, and it can be argued that Canada too lost critical manufacturing jobs to Mexico.
While there are some in Mexico who would dispute the characterization of their country as the big winner, the numbers make a strong case.
Mexico under NAFTA had a rough start, because of a coincidental pesos crash just as the deal was getting under way. But the country has grown into the one of the more robust emerging economies with exports of about $1 billion a day, more than 10 times what they were in 1994.
Mexico is now estimated to be the world's 13th-largest economy with total output similar to Canada's, although on a per capita basis it still lags.
"I think NAFTA has been excellent for Mexico," says economist Jaime Serra Puche, the Mexican trade minister at the time, adding it would have worked even better if Mexico had not waited almost 20 years to bring in internal reforms to the economy.
"Now with the reforms that are finally taking place I think we are going to gain competitiveness and the platform that has been constructed mostly for exports and manufacturing is going to become stronger."
Some of that has come at the expense of Canada, or so believes Jim Stanford, an economist with the Unifor union. Under the deal, Mexico has gone from a bit player in the North American auto sector to the second-largest participant with almost 20 per cent of total production, compared with Canada's 16 per cent.
"Heavy truck shipments in Canada collapsed by 75 per cent between 2006 and 2011. It's an incredible example of a manufacturing catastrophe and NAFTA was absolutely a key part of it," he says.
Serra and others who have studied post-NAFTA impacts agree that Mexico's manufacturing sector, and particularly the auto industry, has been a big beneficiary.
But they don't give all the credit to the deal.
Even before 1994, Mexico had started on the road to trade liberalization and economic stability, by giving its central bank independence, for instance. NAFTA may have been the last and most important piece of the puzzle, but not the only one, they say.
Overall, trade deals are often oversold by both proponents and critics, says Angeles Villarreal, a trade specialist with the U.S. Congressional Research Service who co-authored a paper on the deal earlier this year.
"It didn't benefit as much as the optimists predicted, but also the negative effects weren't as severe. There weren't huge job losses," she says.
On the plus side for Mexico, the auto industry has taken off, skills have improved and manufacturing has increased — and not just low-skilled factory jobs, she says.
On the negative side, there were losers as well, particularly firms propped up by high tariff walls and small subsistence farmers, although even here the evidence is unclear. Villarreal says it's difficult to separate the NAFTA effect on farming from that of land reform that came at about the same time.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105551
Dec 29, 2013 / 8:04 am
Photo: The Canadian Press
24-year-old Foray has suffered from anxiety, fear and post-tramatic stress since the incident.
Sebastien Foray may not have been physically injured when he was turned into an unwitting tool in a dramatic airborne prison escape, but his time behind the controls of the helicopter that briefly spirited two prisoners to freedom wound up temporarily grounding his career.
Foray, 24, earned instant notoriety as the pilot allegedly held at gunpoint and forced to participate in the jailbreak that made international headlines.
Two passengers who booked Foray's time for what he thought was a routine flight wound up forcing the pilot to land on a tower at the St-Jerome prison while they reeled two inmates up from the exercise yard below.
An account from Foray's former boss detailed how the passengers later blindfolded the pilot and abandoned him next to his machine while they made their short-lived escape.
The two escapees and their accomplices were apprehended within hours of their flight and returned to jail. For Foray, the ordeal has lasted much longer.
Anxiety, fear and post-traumatic stress have combined to strip Foray of his pilot's license and leave him wondering if he'll be able to keep pursuing his lifelong dream.
"Even today, I'm not sure I fully realize everything that happened," Foray said in a telephone interview from Montreal.
For Foray, a French-born former helicopter mechanic who moved to Canada in 2011, that oblivion set in moments into his fateful flight.
He still feels great reluctance to talk about the specific exchanges that took place as the chopper soared towards the prison and declined to delve into details of his ordeal.
Foray's most vivid memory of the encounter, he said, was a strong sense that he was watching his life flash before his eyes.
"I was sure I was going to die. The moment the four people (the two alleged accomplices and the two escaped inmates) were in the helicopter and there was no more police around us and I was going to drop them off in a place they knew... I was sure they were going to kill me since I was the last person to see where they were and I could have given information," he said.
That certainty gave way to a feeling of surrealism that dogged him for the first two weeks after the jailbreak, he said, describing those days as a "strange kind of afterlife."
Shock soon gave way to regular anxiety attacks as Foray tried to come to terms with what had happened without disrupting his normal routine. Family and friends repeatedly urged him to seek medical treatment and enter therapy for post-traumatic stress despite their ignorance of the true scope of his struggles.
Foray ignored their advice, however, preferring to relegate the terrifying flight to the past where he felt it belonged.
"I told them I was doing well even though I wasn't necessarily doing well..," he said. "I didn't tell them everything."
In the end, professional help was forced on Foray when Transport Canada suspended his pilot's license on medical grounds.
This came as a blow to Foray, who had relocated to Canada specifically to pursue the career he described as a childhood dream.
Two months of sessions with doctors and psychologists allowed Foray to regain his license, only to find his old job had been filled in his absence.
"It was very very hard because I moved here for that, I made huge changes and huge financial sacrifices to do it, and they wouldn't let me fly when it's what I've always dreamed of," he said.
Despite his numerous setbacks, Foray said he has not given up hope of earning his living in Canadian skies.
Winter marks the traditional low point for job opportunities in his field, but Foray said he hopes to be airborne again by the spring.
"Flying helicopters is still my dream," he said. "It's what I love to do the most in the world."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105543
Dec 28, 2013 / 8:38 pm
Photo: The Canadian Press
A Toronto Hydro line worker works to restore power to a house in a Scarborough neighbourhood.
The forecast for some areas affected by the storm called for temperatures above the freezing mark as well as powerful wind gusts through the weekend.
Toronto — hardest hit by the storm — had 16,000 hydro customers still waiting for the lights and heat to be restored on Saturday night, seven days after the power went out.
But that's less than half the figure from a day before, while in the same time the remainder of the province saw its outage figure chopped to under 1,700 from roughly 6,500. In New Brunswick, thousands more were back on the hydro grid, leaving 8,400 waiting for power.
Meanwhile, the fluctuating weather resulted in see-saw progress in Quebec, where about 11,900 customers were in the same cold, dark, boat as of Saturday night.
Amid rising anger and frustration from those trying to survive without power, utility companies are pleading for patience, saying crews are working around the clock and that nothing else can be done to speed things up in what has become something akin to a war of attrition.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford took a bolder stance, saying there is now "light at the end of the tunnel" and that he believes the repair job will be wrapped up in time for New Year's Day.
"Hopefully by worst-case scenario maybe Tuesday all the power will be restored," he told reporters.
NB Power President Gaetan Thomas said it's hoped most customers will be reconnected by the end of Tuesday, but that could change depending on how a storm overnight Sunday impacts ice-laden trees in New Brunswick.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105542
Dec 28, 2013 / 7:20 pm
Photo: CTV
Vito Rizzuto
Investigators are expected to be out in force Sunday to monitor the funeral visitation of reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.
Rizzuto — who led a powerful criminal organization that stretched beyond Canada's borders — died of natural causes in hospital last Monday.
His funeral will be held Monday at a Catholic church in Montreal's Little Italy.
According to one retired RCMP analyst, police often use funerals and visitations — along with weddings and baptisms — as an opportunity to update photos of persons of interest and establish any new allegiances within the Mafia.
Mafia expert Pierre de Champlain said visitations can be an especially valuable place to "gather intelligence" because they are more informal and often attract more people with ties to the underworld than the funerals themselves.
Rizzuto returned to Canada in 2012 after spending six years in a U.S. prison. Experts say he quickly took back control of his organization following a period of turmoil for the family during which both his father and son were killed.
De Champlain said it appears there's no clear successor within the Rizzuto family and his death could lead to a tumultuous period in the criminal underworld.
"If that's the case, we can expect a difficult period for the next months in the Montreal Mafia," he said.
In the coming days, de Champlain said crime leaders from Montreal, Toronto, New York and beyond will likely meet to discuss how Rizzuto's turf will be run.
"If there is violence, it means that there's turbulence behind the scenes, and the new leader doesn't have control."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105532
Dec 28, 2013 / 11:44 am
Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield holds a copy of his new book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" while on a media tour in Montreal on November 27, 2013. Finally, the mystery behind one of Canada's most famous moustaches has been revealed. Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he started working on his trademark growth when he turned 18 while taking a train to Turkey.
Finally, the mystery behind one of Canada's most famous moustaches has been revealed.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he started working on his trademark growth when he turned 18 while taking a train to Turkey.
"For whatever reason, I decided: 'I'm 18, I'm a man, I'm going to grow a moustache' — and it was pathetic for years— it was awful," he told The Canadian Press.
Hadfield, 54, says he shaved it off only once — when he was at test pilot school.
"In the U.S. air force, if you want to get promoted you can't have a moustache, for whatever reason,'' he said. ''It just looks bad when they're flipping through the pictures. Don't ask me why.
"So, as I was at test pilot school, one of the guys was having his annual photograph taken (and) he had to shave off his moustache, so...in solidarity I shaved it off.
"Nobody was impressed with the way I looked without it — least of all my wife Helene — so that's why I have a moustache."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105523
Dec 28, 2013 / 8:45 am
Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield poses for a photo with a new polymer $5 bank note on the International Space Station as seen via video link in Ottawa on April 30, 2013. Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.
And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.
"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and Hadfield noted the country's ambitious space program aims to eventually put an astronaut on the moon.
On Dec. 15, a Chinese Chang'e 3 rocket landed a rover on the lunar surface, making China the third country to do so after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
It was the world’s first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.
He also pointed out that China launched an experimental space station in 2011. It will be replaced with a more permanent one which will be completed in 2020.
A Chinese astronaut said in September his country is willing to open its space station to foreign astronauts and even train them for such missions.
China was barred from participating in the current orbiting space station, largely because of U.S. objections over political differences.
Hadfield added that after the Russians launched the Mir Space Station in February 1986, other nations dropped in for a visit during its 15 years in orbit.
NASA says on its website that Mir hosted 125 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 different nations before it was deorbited and sunk into the ocean in 2001.
Hadfield, who became a Canadian astronaut in 1992, visited Mir in November 1995 on the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis. He was the only Canadian to ever board the Russian space station.
"If you predicted in 1989 that I would fly on an American shuttle to go build a Russian spaceship, people would have said you were crazy," said Hadfield, who last March became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.
"So I think looking forward, there's a great opportunity to include the Chinese in the world space program — the international space program."
Hadfield said a logical progression would be to include as many countries as possible in an international mission beyond Earth — "hopefully including China and India and the other countries that have launch capability and then progress to the next stepping stone, the next natural waypoint out to space, which is the moon."
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105521
Dec 28, 2013 / 8:17 am
It started as a simple project a parks officer worked on in his spare time, ballooned into an Internet sensation and now a viral video of Alberta's grizzlies is drawing international attention to the province's wildlife and conservation efforts.
For the 58-year-old Alberta Parks officer behind the flick, the reaction has been hard to believe.
"It means a lot to me," said Glenn Naylor, who called his video "What goes on when you are not there.''
"We need to keep bears on the landscape, we need to find ways to ensure that we can live with them, interact with them, recreate with them safely, and this video is really helping."
The clip that was made in July was featured on multiple TV shows in the U.S., including "The Colbert Report," sparked interest from news outlets as far as Japan and has even drawn the interest of BBC producers who are now considering featuring Alberta's grizzlies on a new show.
"They were going to go somewhere else but then they saw the video and they thought they'd like to come here," he said of the British producers, one of whom will be travelling to Alberta in January to see if the province's bruins can be featured on their series.
Naylor made his video using a sequence of still images from motion-sensor cameras placed in the wild. More than 100 such cameras that are checked every month are spread out over Alberta's Kananaskis region for research and monitoring purposes.
When going through the images, Naylor realized certain sequences provided incredible insight into animal activity when humans weren't around. The conservation officer decided to string together a few of those sequences using video editing software at home and first came up with a short clip of a black bear in the wild.
After getting a positive reaction from his peers, Naylor decided to make a longer video that was focused on a "rubbing tree" visited by a variety of wildlife through day and night.
A group of grizzlies were undoubtedly the stars of that clip as they froclicked in the foliage, revelled in rubbing their backs on the bark and contorted themselves into a variety of positions as they left their scent on the tree.
"It just gives a glimpse into one of the things that they do and how they use these rub trees to communicate," Naylor said of the video. "What I'm hoping it will do is prompt more investigation into bears and how bears behave. And hopefully even more so about how to interact with bears safely, how can I go hiking safely, how can I live in bear country safely."
After setting the video to music from Toronto guitarist Ewan Dobson, Naylor wanted to share his completed project with a wildlife program, but the file was too big to email. To get around the problem he decided to post the clip on YouTube.
"I didn't really think about it much and then a couple of days later, I just happened to go on there to do something and there were 375,000 views. And I go wow, something's going on here," said Naylor.
Initially, Naylor panicked, because the video had images that belonged to the government and had been posted onto his personal YouTube account. After telling his workplace about the situation, the video was reposted on the official Alberta Parks page, where it has currently been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
"It's giving exposure to bear behaviour. It's giving huge exposure to Alberta Parks all over the world," said Naylor. "It's also given a lot of awareness to our bear research or wildlife research and wildlife conservation programs we are involved in here, because a lot of people ask about that."
Meanwhile, Naylor still plans on doing more videos.
His next project will be called "Rabbit with a death wish" — he just has to find time to put it together.
Photo: Contributed - Alberta Parks
Itchy and scratchy.
by The Canadian Press - Story: 105510
Dec 27, 2013 / 3:53 pm
Photo: CTV
The BFI facility located on Bluegrass Drive in Rocky View County
Police say a body found by workers at a recycling facility just outside of Calgary may have arrived there on one of the company's trucks.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Reilly says the body, believed to be male, was discovered by workers at the BFI Canada facility in Rocky View County early Friday morning.
Reilly says police were called and the scene was secured, adding that forensic investigators were still at the facility late Friday.
He says investigators do not even have an estimate of how old the person was.
Reilly says it is believed the body arrived at the facility Friday morning, and the investigation must now determine where it might have come from.
Reilly says investigators are trying to determine what areas the facility serves.
The 122,000-square-foot facility officially opened in December 2012. According to a company news release for the opening, it is one of three material recovery facilities BFI operates in Alberta. The other two are in Edmonton and Lethbridge.
"It does appear in the preliminary investigation that it was someone who was transported to the location in one of their vehicles," Reilly said.
"It's not a workplace accident where somebody fell off a scaffolding or anything like that."
An autopsy will be done to determine how the person died.
Reilly said it appeared the person died recently.
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