UPGRADE YOUR SALAD LOW-FAT SKINLESS CHICKEN THIGHS {page 35}
FRIDAY’S JACKPOT
$20
REKINDLED?
TIMBERLAKE, BIEL SPOTTED ENJOYING BIKE RIDE TOGETHER {page 28}
TORONTO
Thursday, September 1, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Belak found dead in hotel
Choke. Hold
Wade Belak was scheduled to appear on TSN Radio yesterday afternoon, but didn’t show when cab came to pick him up
Actor George Clooney puts a friendly choke-hold on the driver of the boat dropping him off at the Hotel Excelsior for the premier of his new film, Ides Of March, at the 68th Venice Film Festival yesterday. GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES
Clooney’s next stop: TIFF The film Ides Of March stars George Clooney, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Gosling and Evan Rachel Wood. It will be featured at Toronto’s International Film Festival, and Clooney and cast are also expected to attend.
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The NHL’s summer of sadness continued yesterday after recently retired player Wade Belak was found dead in Toronto, becoming the third enforcer to die in a harrowing span of four months. He was 35. Belak’s body was discovered at a downtown hotel and condo complex in the early afternoon. Specific details of his death were not immediately available. The news struck a tragic chord around the hockey world, particularly in the wake of the recent deaths of New York Rangers forward Derek Boogaard and Winnipeg Jets forward Rick Rypien. “As everyone knows there have been some real losses that we’ve experienced over the years, but it never seemed like there was three in a row like this,” said Pat Quinn, who coached Belak when he played in Toronto. “Anybody that’s around this game, you feel like it's part of your big family, and that includes the fans and all the people that sup-
port these players and get to know them.” Like Rypien and Boogaard, Belak largely made his living with his fists. He fought 136 times during a NHL career that spanned 14 seasons, according to hockeyfights.com. The string of incidents has raised uncomfortable questions about a possible link between the difficult role each man played in the NHL and his untimely death. “We’re talking about such a short period of time,” said Craig Button, who was the general manager of the Calgary Flames when Belak played there early in his career. “It’s not only about the deaths, it’s the deaths that surround similar type players ... “It’s not just getting hit in the head, it’s everything that goes with that (enforcer) role. I think that people are paying very, very serious attention to concussions and blows to the head and the role of the enforcer.” THE CANADIAN PRESS
Wade Belak in 2006 when he was a Toronto Maple Leaf.
“He was a guy that on the ice his teammates loved him because he was there to fight the fights, so to speak. ... Off the ice, everybody loved him because he was an outgoing, gregarious guy.” CRAIG BUTTON, FORMER CALGARY FLAMES GM
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