Northern Echo #25

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Monthly News Overview

Issue # 25 - November /December 2013

Circulation 12,000

Flood evacuees angry with house arsons RCMP believe fires that destroyed four homes at the First Nation were deliberately set

The foundation of Alex and Lydia Marsden's house is visible among the smouldering rubble following a fire on Sept. 30.

Lake St. Martin string of fires

Several members of the Lake St. Martin First Nation who are displaced by the flood of 2011 are outraged by a string of fires that have destroyed their homes on the reserve.

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page 2

Manitoba RCMP News

Manitoba man gets 17 years for 'stomach-churning' attacks A Manitoba man was sentenced to 17 years behind bars for crimes that were 'stomach-churning' according to a Winnipeg judge.

WINNIPEG — A northern Manitoba man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for a pair of attacks a judge described as “stomach-churning” in their violence.

Justice Gerald Chartier ordered Leslie Moody serve at least half his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Moody, 33, could still be out of prison as early as January 2018. Moody received double credit for time already served, reducing his remaining sentence to a little bit more than 8 1/2 years.

Moody was arrested after a man was lured to a Nelson House, Man., home where Moody and a number of co-accused beat the man with metal bars and cut him with a knife.

Moody, described as the leader of the group, ordered one of the co-accused to shoot the man in the leg but the gun misfired.

Less than two weeks earlier, Moody and several co-accused attacked a gang rival at the same house. At Moody’s behest, one of the co-accused

shot the victim in the leg. It later had to be amputated.

The victim also suffered severe injures to his hand after a co-accused tried to cut his fingers off with a pair of scissors.

“These crimes were concerted and calculated acts of preyed, vicious and stomach-churning violence,” Chartier said.

Moody “was a directing mind of the events and people followed his direction,” he said.

Moody has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for strikingly similar offences.

In 2005, Moody was sentenced to eight years in prison after he confined and beat a man for two days.

Manitoba Mountie charged with assault, accused of using excessive force RCMP say the officer is accused of using excessive force on May 1 after arresting an 18-yearold man from the Pimicamak Cree Nation.

Const. Jason Ross MacGillivray faces one count of assault.

MacGillivray, a five-year Mountie veteran, has been placed on suspension with pay.

Manitoba man charged in July crash that killed 3 RCMP have charged a man in the deaths of three people in a single vehicle rollover in northern Manitoba.

A fifteen-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man died as a result of the July 6 crash.

Police say the car they were in drove off of Highway 6 just south of Thompson and rolled at least once.

RCMP say some people were not wearing seatbelts and speed was a factor.

Three other people were seriously hurt.

Timothy Morrisseau, 23, of Thompson, faces 25 charges including criminal negligence causing death and impaired driving causing death. He was being held in police custody.

News Manitoba Anti-bullying Bill 18 proclaimed as law in Manitoba CROSS LAKE, Man. -- A Mountie has been charged with assault in northern Manitoba.

RCMP say the officer is accused of using excessive force on May 1 after arresting an 18-yearold man from the Pimicamak Cree Nation.

The man was allegedly assaulted at the Cross Lake RCMP detachment.

Education Minister Nancy Allen officially proclaimed Bill 18 as law at a press conference at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg.

“Every parent knows the impact that bullying can have on their children and their ability to learn. In recent years, the face of bullying has

changed so much with the spread of cellphones and social media, and parents expect action,” said Allan in a statement. “That’s why I am proud that we have a new law in Manitoba that builds on our Safe Schools Charter to protect every child from bullying online and in the classroom.”

Manitoba's education minister, Nancy Allen, talks to media and students as Manitoba's new anti-bullying law comes into effect on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013.

The new law will require schools to: * report and act on cyberbullying incidents even if they take place outside of school or afterhours; * expand policies related to the appropriate use of the Internet in schools to include social media, text messaging and instant messaging; * accommodate students who want to establish and lead activities and organizations that fight all forms of bullying, and accommodate any student-led groups that want to use the name gaystraight alliance or any other name consistent with the promotion of a positive school environment that is inclusive and accepting of all students; and * establish respect for human diversity poli-

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page 3 cies that are consistent with the principles of the Manitoba Human Rights Code and create a safe and inclusive learning environment that is accepting of all students.

Bill 18 came under criticism from several independent religious schools, and some parents, who said it would violate their freedom of religion.

Others called the bill “too vague” and worried everyday childhood problems would be classified as bullying.

Allstream sale to Accelero rejected over 'national security' Reactions mixed to nixing of Manitoba Telecom Services deal with Egyptian company Accelero MTS shares down nearly 10% after Allstream deal rejected.

MTS Allstream CAO Paul Beauregard said the company had no idea Ottawa would reject a planned takeover by Egyptian company Accelero.

Beauregard said when the sale was announced in May, there was no indication it would be rejected.

"I think everyone's very disappointed and surprised," he said. "It's fair to say that people didn't anticipate this coming. There weren't the warning signs. In fact, throughout this process, we had been receiving very positive feedback from Industry Canada."

Beauregard said early in the process, Ottawa asked about how the company would ensure security.

"The governments do ask for undertakings to make sure that security protocols are respected.

And we had provided, in collaboration with Accelero, a series of undertakings that has received positive feedback from Industry Canada."

No flags raised during approval process MTS Allstream CEO Pierre Blouin said there was no indication by the government of concern over Accelero or its principal or its founder Naguib Sawiris during the five-month approval process by Investment Canada.

“We started this process a long time ago when the government lifted some restrictions for foreign investment in small telecom providers in Canada,” Blouin said in an interview.

“We started that process, informed the government and we were sure we were in line with that new policy trying to draw foreign investment to Canada.”

Blouin said Accelero’s earlier investment in Wind seemed to indicate it would be permitted to invest in the Canadian market.

“We were very open about everything and now to end up with a decision by the minister yesterday to reject the transaction over national security concerns with no ability to discuss it or address them,” he said.

He said the government is not sending the right signal if foreign investment is wanted in the telecom sector.

“The policy will need to be clarified as foreign investors will hesitate to come to Canada,” he said.

In the meantime, Blouin said he plans to refocus on rebuilding the business.

Wind Mobile chairman Tony Lacavera said the reaction of international investors is going to be "Let's take our money elsewhere."

He was puzzled why Accelero would be rejected now when it invested so heavily in Canada when Wind was a startup.

"We spent two years in '08 and '09 to prove the legitimacy of this group, and they spent $1 billion in this country to get Wind going and bring lower costs to Canadians in wireless," Lacavera said.

"To now reject the very same group on the basis of national security concerns is deeply concerning to me as an entrepreneur trying to raise capital abroad."

MTS shares dipped by almost eight per cent after news broke that the deal had been nixed by Industry Canada.

The stock was down by $2.43 and sat at $29.93 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the morning.

MTS too important to sell, expert says One Winnipeg security expert said he wasn't surprised by the decision.

Peter St. John of the faculty of political studies

at the University of Manitoba said the telecommunications company is as important for Manitoba as potash is to Saskatchewan.

'I think this is an essential service for Manitobans, just as potash is really important to Saskatchewan.'

- Peter St. John, University of Manitoba "I think this is an essential service for Manitobans, just as potash is really important to Saskatchewan," he said. "And I would think for the same reasons, the prime minister might not allow a deal like that."

St. John said the Conservative government sent a message to business when it rejected the sale of Saskatchewan's Potash Corp to an Australian company in 2010.

St. John said the possibility of a foreign country intercepting Canadian government messages via MTS technology is a real concern, "Especially from an unproved source, like Egypt." Another factor, is the instability of Egypt.

Business reporter David Blair said the rejection comes as the federal government is trying to increase competition in the cellphone industry.

"It just adds another level of complexity and even confusion for attracting foreign investment to this sector," Blair said.

Accelero is no stranger to Canada, he pointed out.

"This, by the way, is the same company that backed Wind Mobile in its entry into the cellphone business in Canada," he said. "This company is backed by people who already have a history in the Canadian market."

Flin Flon hospital doctor charged with assault One of two doctors involved in an altercation at the Flin Flon General Hospital in July has been charged with assault and uttering threats, but health officials say he has been allowed to go back to work.

A doctor at the hospital in Flin Flon, Man., has been charged with assault in connection with an altercation with another doctor this past summer.

RCMP were called to the Flin Flon General Hospital in July, after a fight broke out between two physicians.

Both doctors were suspended while the RCMP investigated the incident.

One of the doctors has since been charged with assault and uttering threats, but he has been allowed to resume work at the hospital, health officials confirmed.

The other doctor who was involved in the fight has left the community.

Word of the charges comes weeks after the media uncovered serious concerns about the Flin Flon hospital's emergency room.

Residents in Flin Flon, Manitoba have complained of misdiagnoses and problems with the quality of care there.

As well, concerns have been raised about doctors scheduling themselves on 24-hour shifts and double-dipping, triple-dipping and even quadruple-dipping on fees by working several jobs during one shift and collecting fees for each.

The Northern Regional Health Authority says an independent review of the Flin Flon emergency room is underway, with the results expected by next month.

As well, the Manitoba government said it will investigate the double-billing allegations involving the hospitals' doctors. ***

Complaints surface about Flin Flon hospital More than a dozen complaints about the care being provided at the hospital in Flin Flon, Man., from patients and their families as well as some staff.

"I'm terrified for my family, children, grandchildren," said Brenda Watling, who lives in Flin Flon.

"If you don't speak up, you don't change anything — you don't get anywhere."

The Flin Flon General Hospital is the only hospital in the community, however many people are opting to drive for hours when they require medical attention, in order to avoid accessing the hospital for fear the care is inadequate. Several

continued on page 12

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Arctic’s last refuge from climate change now heating up One of the last areas of the Arctic to see the effects of a warming climate is experiencing fast-rising temperatures, say researchers at Queen’s University, Laurentian University and Ontario’s environment ministry.

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Air temperatures in the Hudson Bay Lowlands rose three degrees since the mid-1990.

The new study, released last month, shows that temperatures in the Hudson Bay lowlands — the sub-arctic region just west of James Bay — has seen air temperatures rise dramatically over the past 20 years.

Annual air temperatures recorded in Churchill, Manitoba went from about 0 C in the mid-1990s to 3 C by the end of the 2000s.

One of the study’s authors, John Smol, a Canada research chair in environmental change, has studied the Arctic for 30 years.

“In most Arctic regions, the warming started much earlier,” Smol said. “The Hudson Bay lowlands were a big exception, because it was always choked with ice.”

“We know now that sea ice in the Hudson’s Bay has decreased by three weeks, which is significant.”

But what actually hinted at a warming climate in the peat land-rich region was the algae, or diatoms, that researchers had been collecting on lake beds — some having been there for two centuries.

“Lakes are like a history book of what has happened over time,” Smol said.

While some species of algae favour Arctic waters and others warmer waters, in 1995, researchers started seeing an abundance of the warmer water algae in places they hadn’t before.

Another warning came in the form of large numbers of dead brook trout in the early 2000s, a species that migrates upriver from Hudson Bay to spawn.

Biologists determined the fish died of heat stress.

Smol now calls the rising temperatures “uncharted territory.”

“Continued warming at the rate and magnitude currently underway will undoubtedly lead to more pronounced ecosystem responses, the effects of which can cascade throughout the entire ecosystem,” he said.

Scientists say the local polar bear population is completely dependent on the Hudson Bay sea ice, while hunting and fishing routes of the local aboriginal population are likely to be affected.

“This is also a global problem,” Smol said. “Peat lands suck in carbon dioxide, but once they start drying up and dying, they actually start to release greenhouse gases.”

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Formerly homeless man, now flush with cash, can’t stop giving to the people who helped him Charlie Delorme tells me to hold on for a second. He needs to check his bankbook to confirm what his current bank balance is because he has been writing a lot of big cheques lately and, he says, he is not done writing them yet.

Mr. Delorme is on a donation spree, a goodwill binge, sprinkling bucks around to all the organizations in Yellowknife that he believes in. The Yellowknife Salvation Army got $5,000, another $10,000 went to the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation and another $2,000 to the Sidedoor Youth Centre. Every time Mr. Delorme leaves his front door and makes the walk downtown — his nickname is Downtown Charlie — it seems as though somebody in Yellowknife is cashing in while everybody winds up smiling, including the guy giving away the money.

He is pushing 65, that guy, has achy, arthritic knees and isn’t going to live forever and having all the dough in the world — his

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balance is $100,000, he finally says — doesn’t make a difference if you don’t do something when you can and, the way Downtown Charlie sees things, now he can.

“I don’t know what I’d do with all that money,” he says. “A $100,000 is a lot for someone like me.”

By “someone like me” he means someone who spent close to 40 years living on the streets. Mr. Delorme’s voice sounds ragged and weary from a lifetime of drink, and his memory can be fuzzy in spots and, in pictures, he is not exactly the most photogenic.

And yet his greatest gift to Yellowknife, to all of us, even more

than the cash he has been giving away, could be Charlie himself.

There is a common, here-we-go again narrative out there, about down-on-their luck types winning big in the lottery and then, a few years later, being down on their luck again after blowing their fortunes on bad decisions. Mr. Delorme recently received a settlement from the federal government for his years spent in residential schools. His first impulse wasn’t to head straight to the nearest bar to buy a round of drinks, but to stroll down to the Yellowknife CIBC to open an account and ask for a chequebook.

continued on page 20

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Charles Delorme (on right), known by many as "Charlie," recently donated money from his residential school settlement to a local youth centre. Garry Hubert (on left) , executive director of the SideDoor Youth Centre, says Charlie walked into the centre for the first time, said he wanted to give the centre something and handed him a folded piece of paper. That piece of paper turned out to be a certified cheque for $2,000 made out to the SideDoor.

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page 6 security journalist Brian Krebs and security expert Alex Holden.

The two discovered a 40GB cache of Adobe source code while investigating attacks on three US data providers, Dun & Bradstreet, Kroll Background America, and LexisNexis.

Mr. Krebs said the Adobe code was on a server he believed the hackers used.

NEWS Adobe in source code and customer data security breach Adobe says cyber attacks have become an "unfortunate" part of doing business and has confirmed that 2.9 million customers have had private information stolen during a "sophisticated" cyber attack on its website.

Compromised Adobe said that it is resetting passwords for the customer accounts it believes were compromised, and that those customers will get an email alerting them to the change.

It is also recommending that, as a precaution, customers affected change their passwords and user information for other websites for which they used the same ID. For those customers whose debit or credit card information is suspected of being accessed, Adobe is offering a complimentary one-year subscription to a credit-monitoring programme.

Finally, the company said it had notified law enforcement officials and is working to identify the hackers.

Boy, 9, who snuck on ight to Las Vegas 'to see a gaming friend he met online'.

Boy took Delta flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas, passed three levels of checks before flight crew got suspicious in midair. Nine-year-old said he was visiting an online gaming friend in Las Vegas.

The attackers accessed encrypted customer passwords and payment card numbers, the company said.

But it does not believe decrypted debit or credit card data was removed.

Adobe also revealed that it was investigating the "illegal access" of source code for numerous products, including Adobe Acrobat and ColdFusion.

"We deeply regret that this incident occurred," said Brad Arkin, Adobe's chief security officer.

"Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident," he said.

But Chester Wisniewski, senior adviser at internet security company Sophos, told the BBC: "Access to the source code could be very serious.

"Billions of computers around the world use Adobe software, so if hackers manage to embed malicious code in official-looking software updates they could potentially take control of millions of machines.

"This is on the same level as a Microsoft security breach," he added.

Adobe said it had been helped in its investigation by internet

Destination: Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, with the 'Strip' in the background. The nine-year-old ew here from Minneapolis without a ticket..

The nine year-old boy who made it past security and onto a flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas may have been on his way to visit someone he met online.

The child made it to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport by himself, slipped through a security checkpoint and then boarded a Delta Air Lines flight before he was discovered by suspicious flight attendants.

When Las Vegas police met the boy upon landing he told them that he had a 'video game buddy' who lived in the city who he was there to visit.

A security video shows the boy at the airport terminal on Wednesday, the day before his trip, officials said.

A 9-year-old runaway passed through this security checkpoint at Minneapolis airport without a ticket He took a bag from the carousel that did not belong to him and ordered lunch at a restaurant outside of the security checkpoints, MAC spokesman Patrick Hogan said.

He ate and then told the server he had to use the bathroom, left the bag and never returned to pay.

The owner of the bag was identified and the bag was returned to him, Mr Hogan said. At this point, this is a Delta and Transport Security Administration issue,' he added. 'This is a rare incident.'

Delta officials said: 'We are investigating the incident and cooperating with the agencies involved.'

'He had to pass three levels of security,' said Terry Trippler, an air travel expert.

'He had to pass three levels of security. You have the TSA, the gate agents, and the flight crew, and a child comes through without even a seat assignment' Mr Tippler said that security introduced after 9/11 obviously still has major flaws. 'While we are safer in the air, this proves there are still gaping holes,' he added.

According to a surveillance video, at 10.37am, the unaccompanied boy arrived at the airport on a southbound light-rail car.

The boy was then screened at Terminal 1 and granted access to its nine airlines despite appearing to have never produced a

The runaway boy ew to Las Vegas from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport on a Delta plane like this one, pictured. It was only discovered mid-air that he had no ticket

page 7 required ticket.

The boy is currently in protective custody in Las Vegas after local police filed a missing persons report. Upon contacting Minneapolis services, they discovered that the boy's parents were not aware that he was missing and had to be told by police.

The boy's parents told Minneapolis Police they 'hadn’t seen much of him today' when officers arrived at the missing child's residence.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Bill Cassell told Media News the boy was 'more worldly than most nine-year-old kids.'

'He was able to get onto an airline where he didn't have a ticket and made it five states across the U.S.,' Mr Cassell said. 'If it hadn't been for alert airline employees on our end, he probably never would have been discovered.'

According to local media, the boy's mother works at the airport and her possible involvement in her son's joyride is being investigated.

The boy is known to social services and has been the subject of four child protection assessments this year alone.

Only three weeks ago, the boy stole a utility vehicle from downtown Minneapolis and made it onto the motorway before he was pulled over.

He also has a history of playing truant and sneaking into a local water park without paying entry.

The boy remains in protective custody in Las Vegas and authorities are working with his parents.

The latest motorcyclist charged in the case, Craig Wright, punched Lien through the broken window and joined in stomping him on the street, Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said.

A judge set Wright's bail at $100,000.

Picture: Craig Wright stands in court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013.

Sixth arrest made in New York City motorcycle-SUV assault case Police arrested Clint Caldwell on gang assault and other charges. He's the sixth person arrested following the September melee.

An undercover detective who investigators said was off duty

when he was recorded on video pounding on an SUV as a biker rally spiralled into violence was also arrested.

The lawyer, Phil Karasyk, had said Monday that the detective, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had only witnessed other bikers attacking the vehicle. But investigators discovered video evidence showing him punching an already damaged back window, then twice kicking the side of the SUV before leaving the scene, according to two people familiar with the case.

The arrest added to the complexities of the Sept. 29 episode, which authorities say began with a reckless motorcycle group ride on a Manhattan highway and ended with one motorcyclist run over

and the driver dragged from his SUV and beaten on a street.

Four bikers have been criminally charged on gang assault and other charges.

NYPD internal affairs investigators had initially been looking into the undercover detective's conduct because he didn't report until three days later that he had been at the rally. The expectation that police officers will act if they see crimes isn't the same for undercover officers.

The encounter, captured partly on a helmet-mounted video that was posted online, began when about two dozen riders slowed down, swarming the Range Rover after it bumped a biker on the West Side Highway. Some riders dismounted and approached the SUV, and police said some bikers began damaging it.

The SUV's driver, Alexian Lien, took off, running over motorcyclist Edwin (Jay) Mieses, who's from Lawrence, Mass. The impact broke Mieses' legs and caused spinal injuries that may leave him paralyzed.

Lien's wife has said he feared for their lives and the safety of their 2-year-old daughter and had no choice but to flee; Lien hasn't been charged with any crime.

The bikers pursued the SUV, which exited the highway and got stuck in street traffic. One biker used his helmet to shatter the driver's window, and others pulled Lien out and beat and kicked him, police and prosecutors said. Lien needed stitches.

The latest motorcyclist charged in the case, Craig Wright, punched Lien through the broken window and joined in stomping

him on the street, Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said.

A judge set Wright's bail at $100,000.

Wright's lawyer, Mitchell Elman, cautioned against any "rush to judgment" in the highly scrutinized case.

"Mr. Wright, obviously, has every right to fight these charges," he said.

According to the undercover detective's account, he saw motorcyclists attacking the SUV but didn't see anyone harm Lien, Karasyk said Monday. The detective also didn't see the SUV hit Mieses, the attorney said.

Carrying no badge or gun, and aware of cases in which officers had been suspended or dismissed for blowing their covers, "he had no other option, so he drove away," said Karasyk, who works with the detectives' union.

Wright, 29, of Brooklyn, was arrested on charges of gang assault, assault and unlawful imprisonment, police said, for his involvement with an encounter between a group of bikers and the driver of a sport utility vehicle on Sept. 29. Police say the bikers stopped the SUV on a highway and later attacked the vehicle and pulled the driver from his car after he had plowed over a Massachusetts motorcyclist while trying to escape the initial confrontation.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Another man has been arrested in connection with a fight that left a motorcyclist critically injured and an SUV driver badly beaten on a New York City street.

continued on page 14

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First Nation Education Act will be ‘transformational’,

says Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt OTTAWA — The Harper government is poised to unveil education reform measures for First Nations children that are so historic it could turn the page on more than a century of economic and social ills faced by aboriginals, says a federal cabinet minister.

In an interview with International Media News, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt trumpeted as “transformational” a First Nation Education Act he will soon introduce in Parliament.

Valcourt also rejected concerns from aboriginal leaders the government might make the mistake of repeating previous “assimilationist” policies from past decades that lay behind residential schools.

The government’s education reforms will be a centerpiece of its aboriginal affairs agenda in the coming months.

“We think it is high time, given the importance of population growth of First Nations living on reserves, that these kids get the same opportunities as other Canadians,” said Valcourt.

The problem, he said, is that aboriginal children are served by a “non-system” of education — which results in staggeringly high drop-out rates and which puts those young people in an “intolerable” situation.

According to a blueprint released this summer, the upcoming bill will allow schools to be community-operated through First Nations or an agreement with a province, and there will be standards for qualifications of teaching staff and curriculum and graduation requirements for students. There will be regulations governing discipline (such as codes of conduct and policies on suspension and expulsion), hours of instruction, class size and transportation.

“I personally believe that the First Nation Education Act will be transformational, like no other measures that have been taken in 50 years, 100 years,” said Valcourt.

He said that as aboriginal parents see more of their young people graduate with a solid education, the effects will ripple throughout communities and help end many of the social problems that have affected First Nations.

“All of these things are affected by what? At the bottom of it all, it’s education.”

“However you cut it – whether you look at those social indicators. Suicide rates. Violence against aboriginal women and girls. Incarceration rates.”

Aboriginal chiefs agree on the fundamental need for improvement in education but they have raised concerns about the “unilateral” and “top-down” approach taken by the Conservative government.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo said the government’s approach to working with First Nations on the forthcoming act has been reflective of how federal governments

have always acted — “paternalistic at best and assimilationist at worst.”

Aboriginal leaders worry the upcoming act will impose standards that don’t reflect indigenous culture, and that funding for aboriginal education won’t be increased.

But Valcourt insisted he has tried to consult aboriginal leaders and is still hoping to get them onside.

Critics say aboriginal education is significantly under-funded.

But Valcourt boasted the initiative will be “revolutionary” because, for the first time, aboriginal schools will have the stability of predictable funding that has a “statutory base.”

Meanwhile, despite continuing calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, Valcourt insisted the government won’t make that move.

“This issue has been studied extensively,” he said.

“I’ve been in government long enough to know that when a government doesn’t want to move or take action, they study or they order an inquiry. So instead of passing the buck, we are taking action.”

Earlier, Valcourt met with James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples who conducted a week-long visit of Canada to examine this country’s treatment of indigenous peoples.

The Harper government has a record of being publicly disdainful of other UN special rapporteurs and it has already been critical of how Anaya spoke out last year about the living conditions at the Attawapiskat reserve in Northern Ontario.

Valcourt spoke highly of Anaya, calling him an “honorable” and “intelligent” person who is “very reasonable and practical.”

“We are advocates of human rights throughout the world. This is our foreign policy. So we have no objection at all to Mr. Anaya doing his work and seeing for himself how Canada is protecting the human rights of all Canadians, including aboriginals.”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and some of his party’s MPs also met with Anaya during his visit.

He said they raised several issues with him, including the government’s failure to “respect the rule of law.”

“Every step of the way, the federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars to fight First Nations before the courts,” said Mulcair. “And then they don’t respect decisions that are invariably in favour of First Nations.”

Cross Lake fight with Manitoba Hydro leaves homes without power A family in the remote Manitoba community of Cross Lake is without electricity or heat, as it is caught in the middle of a dispute between the local First Nation and Manitoba Hydro. Kathy Muskego says she and her family have been without power after a fuse burnt out at a nearby transformer.

Manitoba Hydro says it has not been servicing the reserve because some residents have threatened its workers, while the band council says the utility isn't going there because hundreds of people owe money for old bills.

Muskego said even though she pays her Hydro bills, the utility refuses to conduct any repairs in Cross Lake.

"I'm paying for everybody's mistakes," Muskego said Sunday.

For now, Muskego said she's using a generator, but that's getting expensive — since Thursday, she has had to pay $160 for gas to keep it running, she said.

"It's running in my bedroom all night. That's all I hear when I sleep," she said.

Hydro barred from disconnecting homes A small group of protesters gathered at the side of a highway in Cross lake on Monday, calling on Manitoba Hydro to fix the burnt-out transformer.

A total of two homes on the reserve have been without power since because of the problem. Customers in both homes have been up to date on their Hydro bills.

Tommy Monias, a Cross Lake First Nation council representative, told media that 281 people in the community have not paid their Hydro bills, with some owing thousands of dollars stretching back years. Four houses had their power disconnected over unpaid bills, so band officials sent Manitoba Hydro a letter in September ordering it not to send crews to the reserve to dis-

continued on page 21

page 11

Lake St. Martin flood evacuees angry with house arsons RCMP believe fires that destroyed four homes at the First Nation were deliberately set

Several members of the Lake St. Martin First Nation who are displaced by the flood of 2011 are outraged by a string of fires that have destroyed their homes on the reserve.

All nine house fires are under investigation.

Among the four fires deemed to be arson is a blaze that destroyed Lydia and Alex Marsden's house and all of their belongings on Sept. 30.

"Now I'm pretty hurt right now.

Truthfully to say, I'm really hurt," Lydia Marsden said, her voice cracking, dur-

Sinclair said he doesn't know who started the fires, but the entire community is condemned and all houses must be demolished.

"They need to blame someone and I guess I'm the only one they have in mind to blame because, you know, I'm the leader," he said.

Sinclair said a new site for the reserve has been selected. There should be a vote on the project

by March 2014, he added.

ing a visit.

"I lost all the pictures in there. I lost everything in that house."

What remains of the couple's home is a charred pile of rubble, bulldozed into a pile with dirt.

House wasn't damaged by flood The Marsdens weren't at Lake St. Martin when the fire started — they and other flood evacuees from the First Nation have been staying temporarily in Winnipeg hotels for the past 2½ years.

The couple said their home was never flooded, but they had to leave their belongings behind when the entire reserve was evacuated in the spring of 2011.

The reserve was condemned a year

ago, and Chief Adrian Sinclair said members were notified months ago that all homes will be demolished.

Lydia Marsden said she told the chief at a band meeting, three days prior to the fire, that she didn't want her home torn down because it was not damaged and she still wanted to live there.

"I said, 'I don't want my house to be demolished.' And he jumped up right away and he told me, pointing a finger at me, he said, 'Whether you like it or not, your house is coming down,'" she said.

Alex Marsden said three days later, he got a phone call from someone who was at the reserve, saying his house was on fire.

Witnessed more fires By the time he arrived at the First Nation, it was too late. But Alex Marsden said as he was surveying the damage, he witnessed more homes going up in flames.

"That was three houses within half an hour at that time," he said.

The Marsdens say they believe they were targeted because they did not want their house demolished.

Violet Ross also lost her home and possessions in one of the arson cases.

Unlike the Marsdens, however, the re-

Violet Ross, whose house and belongings were destroyed by fire on Sept. 30, says the remains of her home appear to have been buried or removed somehow. What remains of the house is this empty lot, she said.

8

Alex and Lydia Marsden's house at the Lake St. Martin First Nation was destroyed by fire on Sept. 30. RCMP are treating that fire and three others as arson cases.

But when officers and Manitoba's fire commissioner went to the community to investigate those fires, they discovered five more houses had been burned down.

mains of her home and belongings appear to have been buried or removed.

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continued from page 3 nurses and at least one doctor have expressed concerns about the quality of care at the hospital.

Helga Bryant, the chief executive officer of the Northern Regional Health Authority, says she is aware of public concern about the hospital and its emergency room.

Bryant said she hopes patient and staff concerns will be addressed by an independent emergency room review set for this month.

"We hope to get at some of the issues you talked about. They're of concern to us as well, and we will be supporting that review fully and will welcome the recommendations and comments from those two expert reviewers," Bryant said.

"We'll look at medical records, pull charts, look at the presentation of a patient and the care plan and diagnostics ordered."

The review will be led by Dr. Ted Kesselman, the head of emergency physicians at the Seven Oaks Hospital in Winnipeg, along with nurse Lori Ulrich.

Bryant said she expects the report to be ready in November, and she hopes it will offer guidance on how to improve the systems in place at the hospital.

ER head suspended The doctor in charge of the emergency room in Flin Flon is currently suspended while the RCMP investigate a fight that took place at the hospital between two doctors.

Bryant is facing a situation she admits is a first in her long career.

"We are humans working in a human system," she said.

"Much of this is about teamwork, and we must create an environment where nurses and physicians in particular trust each other and communicate well with each other, because any animosity among the team impacts negatively on the patient."

Numerous complaints of misdiagnoses and people feeling ignored by staff at the Flin Flon emergency room.

Five people chose to share their personal stories: 1. Randy McCallum Randy McCallum is a husband and father. A year and a half ago, he was so ill that he turned to the Flin Flon hospital's emergency room and felt he needed urgent help.

"Oh, sick. Oh God, shaky sweats, sore," he recalled.

McCallum said after he waited two hours in the emergency room, he was told he had a sexually transmitted infection. He was given a prescription to treat the infection and sent home, he said.

McCallum said he continued to feel very ill after being released from the hospital.

Days later, his family doctor contacted him with a very different diagnosis: diabetes.

McCallum has since been treated for his diabetes and is feeling well, but he said he has lost trust in the Flin Flon General Hospital.

2. Corinne Feuerstein Corinne Feuerstein lost her 51-year-old daughter, Denise, in May 2011.

Feuerstein said Denise, a wife and a mother of two children, began feeling severe abdominal pain and was admitted to the Flin Flon General Hospital for observation.

"They were saying it had to do with the gases of her stomach and that, but they didn't give her any tests," said Feuerstein.

"And then about the seventh day, eighth day, she started to throw up blood."

Feuerstein said her daughter was rushed to the hospital's emergency room, where doctors didn't know what was wrong.

"There was this pan on her belly where she'd been throwing up into," said Feuerstein.

"You don't have to be a licensed nurse or practitioner or whatever to tell that there's tissue from the stomach that was in the blood."

Feuerstein said she and her son-in-law pleaded for her daughter to be rushed to a major hospital.

"If you don't know what's wrong with her here, please send her out," she said.

"They said, 'Oh, no, they got it all settled down and they were going to move her back to her own room.' Well, they moved her back up to her room and 24 hours later she was found laying on the floor in her room and they said she was dead. She'd bled out internally."

To this day, Feuerstein doesn't know what caused her daughter's death. She said she had requested an autopsy for Denise and was told her daughter's death did not meet the criteria for being "suspicious."

3. Ron Radics Ron Radics says his life will not be the same without his late wife, Gail Radics, who died in the spring of 2010.

"She was a very nice person, very well-liked," Ron Radics said.

"She was always the person who always tried to take care of everybody else," he added. "It's not a healthy thing when you lose your loved one, soulmate."

Radics said his wife struggled with her health for more than a year before her death. She was diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare blood disorder.

Gail Radics was given blood transfusions and medication, then released from the hospital.

Still, Radics said his wife's illness persisted. A year later, it got so bad that she was rushed to Winnipeg, where doctors determined she had advanced stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"They were very surprised that it was that far advanced. Usually when they get cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma, it's in Stage 2 or 3 where ‌ a patient has a fighting chance‌. She didn't have a fighting chance because of what happened here," Radics said.

"For the type of leukemia she had, it's curable. It's one of the most curable cancers there is. And it should never have happened."

4. Brenda Watling Watling is the sister of Gail Radics. She said after her sister's death, she turned to the Flin Flon General Hospital with her own

health problems.

Watling said she experienced chest pain and was concerned about her heart, but she was told she had acid reflux and was sent home.

She said she got a second opinion and was placed on heart medication.

Watling said her teenage grandson was also sent away from the hospital when he had a severe headache.

When the headache persisted, his parents took him to a hospital hours away in Saskatoon, where he was diagnosed with meningitis.

"This is not just happening to my family alone," she said.

"Many people are terrified."

5. Ron Sommerfeldt Ron Sommerfeldt and his wife, Linda, moved to Flin Flon six years ago and have both worked in hospitals in Winnipeg. Linda Sommerfeldt is a retired nurse.

Ron Sommerfeldt has a heart condition. The couple filed a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons following his treatment at the Flin Flon General Hospital's emergency room.

Sommerfeldt said he arrived experiencing chest pain and the ER staff did not monitor his vitals properly.

"I know how things are supposed to be handled. You should at least have a nurse or doctor there immediately to check you out at triage," he said.

"We didn't hear from anyone. We basically waited then until the doctor did come in with the EKG. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with it."

The Sommerfeldts were concerned when it appeared the ER doctor did not recognize an existing blockage in the EKG. The college dismissed the complaint.

"Up here in Flin Flon, it's pretty difficult to go against the system, but it needs to be done," said Sommerfeldt.

"You just basically are beating your head against a brick wall to get anything done about it."

Concerns raised in 2010 This is not the first time the Flin Flon General Hospital has been the subject of public criticism.

In the fall of 2010, the Manitoba government became concerned about ongoing issues at the hospital and within the now-defunct Nor-Man Regional Health Authority.

There were specific concerns about the "quality of patient care" at the hospital in Flin Flon.

In December 2010, a public forum was held where 350 citizens came to put their concerns to administrators and politicians.

The concerns raised at the forum prompted the health minister to launch an external review of the health region. Drew Lockhart, the former CEO of the health authority, resigned.

Forty-four recommendations were made in May 2011 to address issues, including specific recommendations for the community of Flin Flon.

Bryant said the 44 recommendations are "largely in place." ***

continued on page 20

page 13

Former Montreal police officer arrested

Benoît Roberge was a top Montreal police investigator

in connection with leaks to Hells Angels

Benoît Roberge was a top Montreal police investigator known for his grasp of Quebec’s criminal bikers. He handled key police informants, testified as an expert witness at trials and worked hand-in-hand with police specialists on battling organized crime.

Now Mr. Roberge stands accused of helping the very criminals he was assigned to investigate. In an arrest that has shaken police ranks and had reverberations as far as Quebec’s criminal prosecutions office, Mr. Roberge was picked up by his own on Saturday and faces charges related to selling sensitive police information to criminal bikers.

Mr. Roberge, 50, was led into court in handcuffs Monday and stood in a prisoner’s dock to be arraigned on charges of obstructing justice, breach of trust and participating in the activities of a criminal organization.

“This situation is taken very seriously,” Inspector Michel Forget of the Sûreté du Québec said earlier in the day. “All resources avail-

able were put in place to shine light on the circumstances surrounding this leak of information to organized crime.”

Police began to probe Mr. Roberge, who retired this year with a reputation as one of the province’s most experienced biker specialists, after they became worried that details of sensitive probes were being leaked. They quietly began an internal investigation that lasted for months.

According to Radio-Canada, Mr. Roberge was funnelling information to René Charlebois, a Hells Angels hit man and highranking biker who was serving a life sentence for murder until he escaped from prison three weeks ago. He was found dead 12 days later, just as the police were closing in on him. The broadcaster said police began probing Mr. Roberge after the biker’s death.

Mr. Roberge went to work in March as head of the intelligence unit at Revenu Québec. In a statement, the tax agency said it had suspended Mr. Roberge and was co-operating with the

police investigation.

The impact of Mr. Roberge’s arrest even reaches into the domain of criminal prosecutions. Mr. Roberge’s wife is a Crown prosecutor in Montreal assigned to an office probing organized crime. No decision has been made about her caseload, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office said.

According to Mr. Roberge’s indictment, his alleged offences took place in St-Denis-de-Brompton, near Sherbrooke, starting in January, 2010, when he was still employed with the Montreal police, and continuing up to this month.

During his career, Mr. Roberge had made a name for himself in the highly specialized world of criminal bikers. He was a former controller of the late Dany Kane, a biker who worked undercover for the police and played a key role in the crackdown against the Quebec Hells Angels in 2001. Mr. Kane was a member of the Rockers, the puppet gang of the Hells Angels’ Nomads, the top chapter that spearheaded the murderous biker turf war of the 1990s. After initially working for the RCMP, Mr. Kane was eventually handled

by Mr. Roberge and an SQ colleague, Robert Pigeon. They talked to him by phone daily, debriefed him in person, got him to wear a body pack and recorded his video statements. He tipped them about upcoming biker meetings, which police secretly recorded.

Mr. Roberge also often showed up at biker gatherings, checking who visited their clubhouses. He testified as an expert witness in a major case against the Rock Machine, in the mega-trials against the Quebec Hells Angels and in the landmark Ontario case against the Hells Angels’ Steven (Tiger) Lindsay and Raymond Bonner, which ended with the club being deemed a national criminal organization.

The allegations against Mr. Roberge came two years after another retired Montreal police detective, Ian Davidson, killed himself as he was being investigated for trying to sell the names of secret police informants to the Mafia. The investigation leading to Mr. Roberge’s arrest included the Montreal police, provincial police, RCMP and the Quebec revenue agency.

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page 14 volvement from the private sector, which has increasingly explored missions to space and other planets.

SpaceX, the space exploration vehicle of US entrepreneur Elon Musk, became the first private vehicle to dock with the International Space Station while there are several private attempts to send manned missions to Mars.

continued from page 7

Shooting Highlights Dangers of Distracted Living If a murderer pointed a handgun directly at you, you'd notice, right? A recent incident in San Francisco proves that you might not — if you're staring at a cellphone.

However, Mr McCuistion said the enormous funding required, and lack of obvious profits, could leave such missions in the hands of governments, which he urged to publicly state a coherent goal of 2033.

missions to Mars, said he believed a manned mission could be on the horizon if governments and private industry globally supported the goal.

“The only thing holding us back from putting humans on the surface is the technology required to get them from orbit to the ground,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

Nikhom Thephakaysone boarded a crowded Muni train near San Francisco State University in September, and a security video now reveals that he repeatedly took out a .45-caliber gun and pointed it directly at passengers. But even after brandishing the loaded weapon several times, not one passenger noticed him, distracted as they were by their cellphones and tablets.

Only after Thephakaysone allegedly shot and killed Justin Valdez, a 20-year-old college student who was on the train, did the oblivious passengers take notice. "These people are in very close proximity with him, and nobody sees this," District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They're just so engrossed, texting and reading and whatnot. They're completely oblivious of their surroundings."

Humans to set foot on Mars by 2033 More than 3.2 million people tuned in to watch a one-tonne robot, the Curiosity rover, land on Mars last year, but expect billions to watch when humans step foot on the red planet as early as 2033, which an authority on space exploration believes possible.

Doug McCuistion, a former director of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory in the United States and the leader for three robotic

“Everyone is really enamoured with the complexity and difficulty and the ultimate success of putting the Curiosity rover on the ground, that was only one metric ton. We need to take that and replicate that by 30 or 40 to be able to get humans on the surface.”

Should the 2033 goal fail, the next opportunity to launch a manned mission likely would likely fall a decade or more later.

Mr McCuistion, who left NASA last December after directing the Curiosity mission, said such a move would require an increase in funding for NASA, which has faced numerous budget cuts in recent years and was affected by the US government shutdown last month.

US President Barack Obama has previously pushed support for a manned mission to Mars in the mid 2030s, in addition to proclamations by previous administrations that promised further missions to the moon.

Previous attempts to collaborate on surveillance missions to Mars with global space agencies, have been fraught with issues, most recently when NASA pulled out over a planned rover mission with Europe in 2018.

“This is without a doubt a global mission, it’s a mission where the major space-faring nations of the world need to get together and do this, in fact it would be a very unifying effort I believe,” Mr McCuistion said about a manned mission.

Scientists have firmed the hypothesis that life once existed on Mars, and could support life in future, after evidence from the Curiosity of water and minerals on the planet’s surface.

“I would find it surprising if it did not harbour life at some point in its history now,” Mr McCuistion said.

“We have essentially found all the ingredients for life.”

But he revealed Curiosity may never have been launched at all, after initial plans to launch the rover in 2009 failed, pushing back the project to 2012 and increasing the mission budget by about $750 million.

He said a manned mission to Mars could see more heavy in-

“There was a global rally, and frankly it was larger than I ever expected it to be, around Curiosity and the landing on Mars,” he said. “It tells me the excitement and most importantly the attention of the populace of the world is there. I think people want to see humans on another planet, I think humans want to see science fiction become science fact in their lifetime because it’s within our grasp.

“I’d like to be around to see it, I don’t know if I can make the late 2040s.”

A half-scale model of the Mars Curiosity rover at Darling Harbour.

Edward Snowden given 'integrity in intelligence' award Washington — US fugitive Edward Snowden has been honored with a prize awarded annually by former CIA staff for exhibiting "integrity in intelligence," the group said.

The 30-year-old, currently in Russia, is wanted by Washington on espionage charges after disclosing details about the vast scope of the US government's surveillance operations.

The Government Accountability Project said Snowden received the Sam Adams Award -- a "symbolic candlestick" -- at a ceremony in Moscow.

Those present included former National Security Agency senior analyst Thomas Drake, former Department of Justice ethics advisor Jesselyn Radack, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, the group said.

In a statement on its website, the group said the award is

continued on page 20

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Global warming to scorch past milestone in 2047, study predicts 'One can think of this year as a kind of threshold into a hot new world from which one never goes back'

Chris Field, Carnegie Institution

The coldest years in the future will soon be hotter than the hottest years of the past

Global warming 'extremely likely' to be man-made, UN panel says

A new study on global warming pinpoints the probable dates for when cities and ecosystems around the world will regularly experience hotter environments the likes of which they have never seen before.

And for dozens of cities, mostly in the tropics, those dates are a generation or less away.

To arrive at their projections, the researchers used weather observations, computer models and other data to calculate the point at which every year from then on will be warmer than the hottest year ever recorded over the last 150 years.

For example, the world as a whole had its hottest year on record in 2005. The new study, published in the journal Nature, says that by the year 2047, every year that follows will probably be hotter than that record-setting scorcher.

Eventually, the coldest year in a particular city or region will be hotter than the hottest year in its past.

The study was led by Camilo Mora, a biological geographer at the University of Hawaii who completed his Ph.D. at the University of Windsor. He and his colleagues said they hope this new way of looking at climate change will spur governments to do something before it is too late.

"Now is the time to act," said another study co-author, Ryan

Longman.

Mora and colleagues ran simulations from 39 different computer models and looked at hundreds of thousands of species, maps and data points to ask when places will have "an environment like we had never seen before."

Reducing emissions could push date back to 2069 The 2047 date for the whole world is based on continually increasing emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gases. If the world manages to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, that would be pushed to as late as 2069, according to Mora. But for now, Mora said, the world is rushing toward the 2047 date.

"One can think of this year as a kind of threshold into a hot new world from which one never goes back," said Carnegie Institution climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the study. "This is really dramatic."

Mora forecasts that the unprecedented heat starts in 2020 with Manokwa, Indonesia. Then Kingston, Jamaica. Within the next two decades, 59 cities will be living in what is essentially a new climate, including Singapore, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City.

Hudson Bay Lowlands show recent effects of global warming

By 2043, 147 cities — more than half of those studied — will have shifted to a hotter temperature regime that is beyond historical records.

The first U.S. cities to feel that would be Honolulu and Phoenix, followed by San Diego and Orlando, Florida. in 2046.

New York and Washington will get new climates around 2047, with Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, Austin and Dallas a bit later.

Mora calculated that the last of the 265 cities to move into their new climate will be Anchorage, Alaska — in 2071. There's a fiveyear margin of error on the estimates.

Unlike previous research, the study highlights the tropics more than the polar regions. In the tropics, temperatures don't vary much, so a small increase can have large effects on ecosystems, he said.

A three-degree change is not much to polar regions but is dramatic in the tropics, which hold most of the Earth's biodiversity, he said.

Ocean acidity already crossed threshhold The Mora team found that by one measurement — ocean acidity — Earth has already crossed the threshold into an entirely new regime. That happened in about 2008, with every year since then more acidic than the old record, according to study co-author

page 19

Abby Frazier.

Of the species studied, coral reefs will be the first stuck in a new climate — around 2030 — and are most vulnerable to climate change, Mora said.

Judith Curry, a Georgia Institute of Technology climate scientist who often clashes with mainstream scientists, said she found Mora's approach to make more sense than the massive report that came out of the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last month.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said the research "may actually be presenting an overly rosy scenario when it comes to how close we are to passing the threshold for dangerous climate impacts."

"By some measures, we are already there," he said.

What is Global Warming?

We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new

heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.

What will we do to slow this global warming? How will we cope with the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the face of the Earth as we know it—coasts, forests, farms and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance.

Greenhouse effect The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse.

First, sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiates back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, “greenhouse” gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escapes into space. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped.

Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is what

keeps the Earth's climate livable. Without it, the Earth's surface would be an average of about 16 degrees Celsius cooler. In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. He kicked off 100 years of climate research that has given us a sophisticated understanding of global warming.

Levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have gone up and down over the Earth's history, but they have been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures have stayed fairly constant over that time as well, until recently. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other GHG emissions, humans are enhancing the greenhouse effect and warming Earth.

Scientists often use the term "climate change" instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth's average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas.

continued on page 24

The Pas, MB

#10 Highway South Tel. 888.623.4350

Flin Flon, MB

148 Green Street & Hwy. #10 Tel. 866.687.3673

www.northlandford.mb.ca

page 20

continued from page 12 In terms of total earnings — including salaries, on-call fees and fees for service — several doctors in Flin Flon earned a total of between $700,000 and $900,000 in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

In another northern Manitoba community, The Pas, one doctor earned a total of $1.84 million in the same fiscal year, according to documents.

Bureaucrats told Manitoba to follow law on PST tax hike Manitoba Finance Minister Stan Struthers announced PST would go up to eight per cent in the province during the 2013 budget reveal in April.

The Manitoba government raised the provincial sales tax in July despite a caution from senior bureaucrats that it was first required to pass the enabling legislation, newly released documents show.

The revelation prompted renewed accusations from the opposition that the tax hike, to eight per cent from seven, is illegal.

A briefing note prepared in February by two Finance Department officials, including director of taxation analysis Richard Groen, pointed out that any sales tax increase has to be approved in a referendum under the provincial balanced budget law established in the 1990s.

The only other option, the note said, was to eliminate the referendum requirement through a "notwithstanding clause." Either move, the note added, would have to occur before the tax hike.

"The referendum must be held, or the notwithstanding clause enacted, before a rate increase could take effect," the document states.

The document was obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation under the province's freedom-of-information law.

The NDP government took a slightly different route.

It introduced a bill in April to simultaneously raise the tax and suspend the need for a referendum. That bill, however, remains stuck in the legislature due to stalling tactics by the Progressive Conservatives.

Even though the bill was stalled, the NDP government proceeded with the tax hike as planned on July 1.

Finance Minister Stan Struthers said he received legal advice that governments can raise taxes before passing the required legislation.

Governments of all stripes have done it in provincial budgets, he pointed out — raising taxes on tobacco, gas or other goods on budget day, weeks before the budget bill goes to a final vote.

"We got legal advice from legal experts and they assured us that this was the established practice that any government could use," Struthers said.

The Tories said the sales tax is different because of the long-standing legal requirement for a referendum.

Struthers, however, pointed to court rulings that have established that legislatures can change their own laws, and one government cannot tie the hands of a future government by imposing restrictions on legal changes.

The concept of Parliamentary supremacy, as its known, was referenced in some of the court rulings that supported the federal government's changes to the Canadian Wheat Board. The government eliminated the board's monopoly on western wheat and barley in 2012 without holding a plebiscite among grain producers that was

continued from page 14 "given annually by a group of retired CIA officers for members of the intelligence community who exhibit integrity in intelligence."

Word of the prize surfaced the same day that Snowden's father landed in the Russian capital hoping to meet his son for the first time since the former US spy agency contractor became a fugitive.

In comments heavily dubbed into Russian from English, he admitted he still didn't know where his son was staying.

Snowden's whereabouts have been a mystery ever

continued from page 5 He has been signing cheques ever since.

“I didn’t have anything when I was a little kid,” Mr. Delorme says. “And when I got the money, not too long ago, I thought I could do something good. And I was lonely, too, eh. And when I gave the money to the youth centre they were having a pancake breakfast with eggs and sausages and they said to me, ‘Hey Charlie, why don’t you come have breakfast with us?’

“Young people have always treated me very well.”

Garry Hubert, the executive director of the Sidedoor Youth Centre, explains that Mr. Delorme’s generosity predates his newly acquired wealth. He tells me a story of a funeral reception in the basement of the local Catholic Church. It was potluck. Charlie walked in and headed to the tables heaped with baked goods and casseroles and plunked down a tin of hearty beef stew. spelled out in law.

Large portions of the briefing notes obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have been blacked out under exemptions in the freedom-of-information law.

The contents of a chart that appears to outline different options is blacked out, as are two or three words at the end of the memo's title: "Increase the Retail Sales Tax (RST) rate..."

The sections were omitted under a section of the freedom-of-information law that prohibits the release of information that can "potentially harm the economic and financial interests" of the government.

Federation spokesman Colin Craig said the blackedout sections may indicate that the government considered

since Russia granted him temporary asylum.

The group -- which says its mission is to promote corporate and government accountability -- did not disclose any details about where in Moscow Wednesday's ceremony took place.

However, Radack, now with the Government Accountability Project, was quoted as saying that "Edward looks great. He's centered, articulate, and closely following the issues, both in the United States and globally."

"He loves America and wants to see it returned to its democratic ideals, which are completely antithetical to a closed and secret society that make for turn-key tyranny," Radack added.

“That is Charlie,” says Mr. Hubert. “He didn’t have anything, but he did the best with what he had.”

He didn’t have anything, but he did the best with what he had Now he has a $100,000 in the bank. When he donated $5,000 to the Salvation Army his only request was that the staff prepare a first-rate supper — “steak with all the fixings” — for the residents. (Charlie prefers hotdogs and hamburgers.)

He tells me he has always worked at something.

Caring for people’s lawns, shovelling snow, collecting bottles and cans, doing some form of labour to scrounge up enough cash to pay for the next bottle, for the next tin of soup. But this coming Yellowknife winter his rent is already paid. There is a roof over his head, hotdogs in the fridge and an itchy feeling in his feet to get out walking, again, down to the bank.

“I am going to give $5,000 to the Catholic Church next,” Mr. Delorme says. “The priest, there is only one here, and he is always working so hard.

“It seems to me like he could use some help.” raising the sales tax even higher — to nine or 10 per cent.

Not so, said Struthers.

"No. We knew what we needed in terms of revenue and we knew that the eight per cent option would get us to where we needed to be."

The sales tax hike has been cited as a prime factor in the NDP's slumping popularity. Recent opinion polls suggest the NDP is several points behind the Tories, although the next election is still at least two years away.

The Tories have promised to launch a court challenge against the tax hike once the law is passed.

A final vote in the legislature, where the NDP have a solid majority, is expected in early December.

More News - page 22

page 21

8 continued from page 10 connect any more homes.

A Manitoba Hydro spokesperson says crews won't go to Cross Lake because staff have been threatened by people there.

"All normal services have been halted at Cross Lake because collection agents [from Cross Lake] have been threatened and the Hydro office has been blockaded because of collection activity," the spokesperson stated in an email to media.

Coun. David Muswagon denied claims that the band told Hydro workers to get off the reserve altogether.

"At not one point in time did we say, 'Leave.' All we said was, 'You are not to disconnect at this time until this matter is dealt with people with authority in Hydro,'" he said.

While Monias said people should not have to suffer, he admitted that paying Hydro customers with problems — like Muskego — will have to suffer for now.

"If that's the case, I guess that will be the case, and I'm saying that's the way it is," he said.

Discussions underway First Nation officials and Manitoba Hydro say they are in discussions to resolve the dispute. Chief Cathy Merrick says the band wants to work something out with the power utility.

"We have to be given time. Like, we're new to this whole Hydro issue … and we need to get our ducks in a row," she said.

Late on Monday, the First Nation sent Manitoba Hydro a letter granting crews "safe passage of Manitoba Hydro employees to and from their workplaces at Cross Lake but not to disconnect any further until we can resolve it at a meeting" to be scheduled by both parties.

"Work activities to and from the worksite includes responses to normal and emergency operation and maintenance to upkeep of the Manitoba Hydro Service system," the letter states in part.

Frank Whitehead, the NDP MLA for The Pas, said he would do his best on Monday to have Muskego's electricity restored.

"I would not want to see paying customers suffer from this, and I want to see service restored, but it has to be done through discussions with the local government," he said Sunday.

"I don't want people to suffer because of the disputes," he added.

"I represent the government, but I'm also the MLA and I represent the people there, too. I want to see a [resolution] on the issue as soon as possible."

In the meantime, Muskego said she's worried about the weather getting colder. Overnight temperatures in Cross Lake have already dipped below 0 C, she said.

"The snow's going to be falling anytime now, and I can't heat up my house with a little heater," she said.

continued from page 19 Aren't temperature changes natural?

The average global temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years as the Earth's position relative to the sun has varied. As a result, ice ages have come and gone.

However, for thousands of years now, emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere have been balanced out by GHGs that are naturally absorbed. As a result, GHG concentrations and temperature have been fairly stable. This stability has allowed human civilization to develop within a consistent climate.

Occasionally, other factors briefly influence global temperatures. Volcanic eruptions, for example, emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth's surface. But these have no lasting effect beyond a few years. Other cycles, such as El Niño, also work on fairly short and predictable cycles.

Now, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the industrial revolution. Changes this large have historically taken thousands of years, but are now happening over the course of decades.

page 22

Northbound grizzly bears begin to colonize western Nunavut While polar bears continue to present a constant threat to communities in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region, grizzly bears are now becoming more of a nuisance too.

That’s one of the issues raised at the Kitikmeot Regional Wildlife Management Board’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

Willy Aglukkaq.

“According to Inuit testimony, that’s what’s happening. We have a lot of Inuit hunters that are out on caribou hunts. It used to be rare that people would shoot grizzly bears. Now it’s just a common occurrence,” Aglukkaq said.

Aglukkaq said that about five documented kills have occurred this year.

But the main concern is over grizzly bears getting into communities, and now people feel threatened when going out on the land,

said there were 800 grizzlies in the Kitikmeot and 200 in the Kivalliq region.

Beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement do not need a license or permit to hunt grizzly bears, unless an HTO has imposed a restriction on harvest.

But “undocumented killing remains an important problem for managers,” the report said.

The COSEWIC has assessed the grizzly bear as a species of “special concern.”

But their general status has not been assessed by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, said the 2012 report.

Aglukkaq and Panioyak also said the wolf population is “booming” and is another big issue in the Western Arctic.

“There was a pack of wolves spotted about seven miles outside the community. And there was like 30 to 35 wolves,” Aglukkaq said, adding that he would never see that many wolves in the area a decade ago.

RCMP arrest man after allegations a group of ‘sovereign citizens’ took over Alberta trapper’s cabin RCMP have arrested a man as part of their investigation into allegations that a group of self-proclaimed sovereign citizens have taken over a trapper’s cabin in northwestern Alberta.

A grizzly bear swims in front of Cambridge Bay. Delegates who attended the Kitikmeot Regional Wildlife Management Board annual general meeting, say grizzly bears are more common now in western Nunavut. (PHOTO BY MALLORY EHALOAK).

“It’s coming from different communities. The increase of wolves and grizzly bears coming into the communities, and more frequently in Cambridge Bay,” said James Panioyak, vice-chairman of the KRWMB and president of the Ekaluktutiak Hunter’s and Trapper’s Organization.

“Gjoa Haven also expressed that concern and Kugluktuk as well.

It’s more of a concern now because here in Cambridge Bay we had grizzly bears come right into the community,” Panioyak said.

In August a grizzly bear attracted attention when it tried to swim to Cambridge Bay. “Someone thought it was marine wildlife, but in fact it was a grizzly bear swimming across the bay to approach the community,” Panioyak said.

“A couple of hunters took it out of safety concerns, redirected it. Got it across the bay knowing they had to put it down because it had come to the community and more likely it will come back.”

These sightings are becoming more common over the past five years on Victoria Island, Panioyak said.

The bears are denning on the island, he says, which means, “it’s becoming their territory, where it breeds as well.”

And this has affected caribou and muskox populations, said the manager of the Gjoa Haven Hunters and Trappers Organization,

he said.

Panioyak said the KWMB is in the process of making a submission to Nunavut’s Department of Environment.

Aglukkaq said grizzly bears were rare in Gjoa Haven a decade ago — but not now.

“I’ve done aerial surveys in the past. We’ve counted up to eight grizzly bears running around by our cabin grounds,” Aglukkaq said.

Although two polar bears wandered into Gjoa Haven last year, the closest grizzly that has come near the hamlet this year has been 10 miles away, he said.

Gjoa Haven does not have any strict regulations for hunting grizzly bears, Aglukkaq said, but he is worried that stricter regulation may come, such as those now in place in the Northwest Territories.

“We’re concerned about our caribou populations, because in the NWT, all their regulations are put into place. We just don’t want that to happen here,” Aglukkaq said.

A 2012 Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife report estimated there are 1,500 to 2,000 grizzly bears in Nunavut.

The report said the grizzly population in Nunavut, the NWT and Northern Manitoba, is “expanding.”

That estimate is up from a 2009 COSEWIC assessment that

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — RCMP have arrested a man as part of their investigation into allegations that a group of self-proclaimed sovereign citizens have taken over a trapper’s cabin in northwestern Alberta.

Police say Paul Fiola, who is believed to be from Manitoba, was arrested Monday afternoon.

He faces charges of uttering threats, using a firearm in the commission of an offence and possession of a firearm while prohibited from having one.

Police say two firearms and ammunition were seized and officers stayed on scene while the man was evicted from the area by Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers.

Niagara Falls man and his daughter charged in lotto fraud Daughter tried claiming prize belonging to group

Police have charged a 64-year-old Niagara Falls, Ontario man who allegedly tried to have his daughter claim a $7-million prize rightfully belonging to group.

The prize from the July 31 jackpot was valued at $7,036,047.

The case was referred to the OPP when an individual tried to redeem the winning ticket, while Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation officials were told it was actually a group play ticket belonging to 11 other people.

The investigation revealed that the man was a member of the group and that he gave the winning ticket to his daughter to try to

page 23 claim the prize as her own — in the process defrauding the legitimate winners. The man was charged with theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000 and false pretences over $5,000.

Police also arrested his 34-year-old daughter, charging her with fraud over $5,000 and false pretences over $5,000.

Meanwhile, the rightful winners of the prize will have to wait a little longer to claim it.

According to OLG, each group member will need to go through its Prize Claim Review process and only after officials are satisfied all members of the group have been

A government-appointed panel made both recommendations in March to fight childhood obesity.

It advocated for a ban on junk food and fast-food ads aimed at kids under the age of 12 and stopping the promotion and display of junk food at the checkout.

The number of overweight or obese children in Ontario has jumped 75 per cent over the last 30 years, according to the government. In 2004, 27.5 per cent of Ontario kids between the ages of 2 and 17 were overweight or obese.

It's a growing problem that's also taxing Ontario's health-care system, the panel said. Last year, the province spent $4.5 billion caring for people struggling with obesity.

More than 30 years ago, Quebec banned ads for toys and fast food aimed at children under 13 in print and electronic media — believed to be the first law of its kind. Other countries have followed suit. Last year, a report looking at the impact of the law in

Quebec found that it resulted in fewer children eating fast food and weighing less than their North American counterparts.

The New Democrats pushed for menu labelling and a junkfood ad ban for years, but the Liberals haven't committed to either until now.

The Liberals also announced long-awaited legislation to ban minors from using tanning beds — which both a Liberal MPP and the Gelinas had urged for years — at the height of the scandal last year. That bill passed unanimously Wednesday in the legislature.

Canada's 911 system needs an urgent overhau, CRTC told Canada’s 911 system is plagued with numerous problems, including technology gaps, lack of oversight and inadequate funding, and is in dire need of an overhaul or risks falling apart as telecoms upgrade to new communications systems.

identified will the prize money be paid out.

Among the tools OLG uses is its Data Analysis and Retrieval Technology System (DART), which provides instant access to billions of lottery transactions dating back to 1999. DART is able to quickly identify play patters that can be used to help confirm legitimate winners and identify potential fraudulent behaviour and claims.

Ontario Liberals want to see calories printed on menus and ban on marketing junk food to kids.

Ontario doctors urge fast-food chains, to list calories

Ontario's embattled Liberals promised to introduce legislation requiring large chain restaurants to put calories and other nutritional information on their menus and menu boards.

The bill, which would make Ontario the first province to make menu labelling mandatory, will be introduced this winter after consultations with the food industry and health-care sector, said Health Minister Deb Matthews.

"It's going to be there right up with the price," she said. "That decision is made. We will have the calories on the menus and menu boards."

The consultations will look at things like which restaurant chains should fall under the rules, she said.

"We don't want this to capture the small mom-and-pop restaurants because it's a pretty big burden to put on them," she said.

Matthews said she'll also seek advice on how to reduce the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks aimed at children.

That blunt assessment was delivered in a new report, which will form the basis of a sweeping consultation on the future of 911 services by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The 80-page study entitled, Report on Matters Related to Emergency 911 Services, was prepared for the telecom regulator by former commissioner Timothy Denton. It paints a disturbing picture of “shortcomings” in the 911 system that could potentially put lives at risk especially now that Canadians consumers are flocking to new modes of communications such as smartphones and voice over Internet protocol services.

Although some 98 per cent of Canadians are believed to have access to 911 services today, there are still huge swaths of the Far North that do not use that emergency three digit number at a time when economic development in that region has become a priority for the federal government.

Underscoring that disparity, telecom providers are already preparing for the introduction of so-called Next Generation 911 services in southern parts of the country that could include text messages, photos, video and perhaps eventually contacting emergency services over social media sites such as Twitter. Although those future standards have yet to be determined, the report found the current system appears ill-equipped to keep pace.

“Given that there is an oncoming tsunami of technical change, as we migrate to all-Internet protocol (IP) communications systems, these somewhat haphazard arrangements will be extremely stressed,” reads Mr. Denton’s report.

“The change in communications technologies is completely foreseeable; it is happening now. Unfortunately, there does not exist a policy forum adequate to the task of coordinating and anticipating the changes that

continued on page 27

page 24

Trying to save the heat-seeking Atlantic bushmaster There are 35 bushmasters living in Souza's private snake sanctuary, which has a "No Entry" sign on the door bearing a large skull and crossbones.

He's been compared by the Brazilian media to Grizzly Man, the American environmentalist who lived among the grizzly bears of Alaska until one of them killed him. Grizzly Man's life and death was the subject of a documentary by the German film-maker Werner Herzog.

But Souza resents the comparisons: "I'm under no illusions about my snakes," he says. "They have no idea who I am and I know they would not hesitate to kill me."

It's easy to campaign to save endangered species like pandas and woolly spider monkeys because they're fluffy and cute. But what about venomous snakes? These are crucial predators in Brazil's Atlantic rainforest ecosystem, and a local doctor has made it his life's work to save one of the most dangerous.

Carnival was in full swing in the small Brazilian coastal town of Itacare when a giant snake measuring 6m long slithered down the streets, sending hundreds of revellers screaming into roadside bars. Until recently the snake would have been killed.

The police were standing by with shotguns. But instead the local doctor was summoned.

Dr Rodrigo Souza moved to the north-eastern state of Bahia 12 years ago and developed a fascination with the rainforest and its wildlife. Now whenever a strange creature ventures into a built-up area, the doctor is called. He was even asked to rescue a group of confused penguins that had been swept up from the Falkland Islands by the mighty South Atlantic current.

Souza identifies the carnival incident as a turning point in his battle to save endangered species in this dwindling patch of Atlantic rainforest in which he has made his home.

When he first moved to Bahia it was common to see people illegally selling birds, snakes and monkeys at the side of the road. That rarely happens now. The authorities have clamped down and the local people have become more aware of the importance of saving their unique ecosystem. On the day I drove to visit him, someone stopped the traffic in the middle of the road to allow a snake to cross.

But Souza's real passion is the Atlantic bushmaster, one of the most poisonous snakes in the western hemisphere. Thickbodied and up to 3m long, these majestic creatures have distinctive orange and black markings and heat-seeking sensors under the eyes that allow them to lock on to warm-blooded mammals. A human can die within an hour of being bitten unless they receive the right anti-venom injection.

I admit to feeling absolutely terrified when he invites me into the sanctuary to watch him casually lifting up a 2m-long snake with an instrument resembling a giant metal tuning fork. Before handling them he zips into an insulated bodysuit that stops him from giving off too much heat. Meanwhile I'm standing a safe distance away - trembling with fear - in shorts and a T-shirt.

The bushmaster has an almost mythological status amongst the indigenous people of the rainforest. Because of its attraction

to heat they called it the "fire extinguisher" and have warned Souza never to sit near an open fire in bushmaster territory - because the snakes can leap a distance of several metres towards a heat source and at very high speed. He was once called to a road traffic accident where a bushmaster snake had attacked the headlamp of a passing motorbike.

Rodrigo Souza is the first and probably only person ever to successfully breed the Atlantic bushmaster in captivity. He milks his snakes for venom which he then uses to make an antidote for snake-bite victims. The Bushmaster venom also contains unique medical properties of interest to cancer researchers.

However this majestic serpent is now under threat of extinction as its habitat disappears.

Along with lion tamarins, cougars and woolly spider monkeys, bushmaster snakes are one of many endangered species unique to Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest. Not to be confused with the mighty Amazon, the Atlantic rainforest once covered the entire coastal region from the north-east to the Argentine border in the south. But now only 6% of it remains, a few tiny islands of green, most in the state of Bahia - and even these are under threat.

There are now plans by ENRC, a British-Kazakh mining company, to build a railway right through one of the few remaining areas of virgin Atlantic rainforest.

ENRC's aim is to transport iron ore from a mine in the interior to the port of Iheus, despite the region being named by Unesco as a priority region for conservation.

It would of course bring jobs. But for Souza, who has been battling for years to preserve this unique ecosystem, it's a slap in the face. For him the railway would be an ecological disaster for the rainforest and his beloved bushmasters.

page 25

Edmonton police dog, killed while aiding in capture of suspect

Quanto

Edmonton Police Service say Quanto, a German shepherd with four years of decorated service and more than 100 arrests to his name, was stabbed repeatedly as he and his handler, Const. Matt Williamson, tried to take down a man who had fled a car with stolen plates EDMONTON — Edmonton police say there needs to be a special criminal law to protect animals that work with officers after one of their service dogs was killed by a fleeing suspect.

Police say Quanto, a German shepherd with four years of decorated service and more than 100 arrests to his name, was stabbed repeatedly as he and his handler, Const. Matt Williamson, tried to take down a man who had fled a car with stolen plates.

Paul Joseph Vukmavich, 27, faces charges including possession of stolen property, dangerous driving, criminal fight and resisting arrest. But when it comes to the death of the dog, Troy Carriere, acting staff-sergeant of the Edmonton police canine unit, said cruelty to an animal is the strongest charge that can be laid.

“It’s been our intent to have that changed,” Carriere said. “We need to adjust the Criminal Code at some point in time and this is obviously a good time to do that.”

Sgt. Murray Pollock, head of the Calgary police canine unit and a director with the Canadian Police Canine Association, said the pro-

Edmonton police dog Quanto ‘made the ultimate sacrifice,’ police say, calling for law to protect service animals

tection of police dogs in the Criminal Code is an issue officers have wanted to see addressed for quite some time.

Some provinces have laws protecting services dogs.

A section of Saska-tchewan’s Animal Protection Act, for example, carries a penalty of up to two years in jail for anyone who harms a service dog, which includes dogs working with police.

Penalties for animal cruelty in the Criminal Code were recently increased, with the maximum sentence being five years behind bars.

But Pollock said a Criminal Code section dealing with service dogs, which would be applicable across Canada, would make for a much stronger deterrent.

“Absolutely. That’s where we would like to go,” he said.

“In a case like Edmonton, they would be facing the most serious of charges, not dissimilar to assaulting a police office — it’s what we would like to see. We believe strongly that our dogs are police officers.”

A private member’s bill proposing an amendment to the Criminal Code was introduced by Ontario Conservative MP Costas Menegakis earlier this year. It says anyone “who knowingly or recklessly poisons, injures or kills a law enforcement animal,” including a horse or dog, could be subject to the same five-year maximum sentence.

“We are aware of a Conservative private member’s bill being proposed on this topic and I’m personally very supportive and look forward to more discussion on this issue,” federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay said in an email.

Williamson and Quanto were called to a report of a stolen vehicle shortly after 5 a.m. The vehicle fled, but quickly crashed into the median in front of a gas station near the city’s downtown.

Police said the driver ran. Quanto was sent after him and was stabbed. Williamson rushed the dog to the emergency

veterinary clinic where the animal was pronounced dead. The suspect dropped the knife when other officers arrived and he was arrested.

Police said Vukmavich was already wanted on charges of armed robbery in both Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Ont. Quanto is the fifth Edmonton police dog to die in the line of duty. A police dog named Caesar was the last animal killed in 1998.

In 2010, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Eric Macklin scolded Edmonton police for using excessive force when they shot a man, Kirk Steele, four times after he stabbed a police dog.

There’s no question that had he not been deployed to apprehend this subject, who was highly motivated to get away, we most likely would have seen one of our own members hurt or killed Macklin called the shooting “an unconscionable use of excessive and aggressive force in the circumstances.”

Both Steele and the dog, Wizzard, survived and a disciplinary charge of unnecessary use of force against the handler, Staff-Sgt. Bruce Edwards, was dismissed.

Quanto, who placed third in a recent Canadian Police Canine Association competition in Regina, did what he was supposed to do Monday morning, Carrier said.

“There’s no question that had he not been deployed to apprehend this subject, who was highly motivated to get away, we most likely would have seen one of our own members hurt or killed,” Carriere said.

“He made the ultimate sacrifice. That was his job and he did it well.”

page 26

Lottery winner Craig Henshaw paid a big price for his millions The shock of winning $21.4 million in a lottery was nothing compared to the jolts Craig Henshaw felt later.

They were not pleasant.

The story of Craig Henshaw, multi-millionaire, began one day last September when Craig Henshaw, high school teacher, went digging through his pockets for the $35 he had left to pay for some groceries. He had just enough cash to get him through the rest of the week, before the first paycheque of the new school year would come through.

He handed over the cash, plus a 2-month-old Lotto Max ticket.

It had been plastered to the side of his fridge while he had spent the summer backpacking in Europe with his girlfriend.

Loud bells and alarms went off. The phone on the lottery machine began to ring.

“Initially, I thought I’d won $21,000,” Henshaw, 43, says.

“Then the lady on the other end of the phone chuckled. It turned out that the digital readout on the ticket machine didn’t have enough space for all the digits.”

“No, Mr. Henshaw, you’ve won $21 million!” the lady told him.

The rest of the day, Henshaw says, was “surreal.”

But the thrill of the millions evaporated quickly. Over the next few weeks his world became a whirlwind of broken friendships and financial scams.

Henshaw couldn’t even return to his cozy loft apartment after collecting his cheque. He spent the first few weeks living in a hotel, mainly in an attempt to duck the media and stalkers.

“Six hours after I won, some scam artist had already managed to get my credit card number. The charities started hammering me immediately,” Henshaw says, smacking his fist into his hand.

“My email inbox was full, and my phone was flooded with text messages. People were asking me to pay off student loans. I got 365 texts in the first day.”

Eight months after his windfall, Henshaw is in a reflective mood as we sit in a pub for an interview. Five years ago, I was a student in his classroom at Markville Secondary School in Markham, where he taught woodshop and technology.

Teaching was his passion, and still is. But as odd as it sounds, the money did get in the way.

In the aftermath of his lottery win, what hurt most, he says, was the reaction from his colleagues. Teachers whom Henshaw considered friends were suddenly badgering him to pay off their credit-card bills. His school board email was completely flooded.

The workplace environment became toxic. After a decade of teaching, he made the decision to resign.

“Unfortunately, I’ve had to say goodbye to about 25 per cent of my friends because they were acting really inappropriately,” Henshaw says. “They were asking for money, and being really pushy about it. The friends who I really cherish didn’t really care at all.”

“It was a really sad day for teaching,” says Don Henshaw,

Craig Henshaw holds his cheque for a $21.4 million Lotto Max jackpot. Far from freeing him, the money wound up pushing him to a decision to quit the job he loved.

Craig’s father. “He was a born teacher. It was all he ever wanted to do, and now he had to leave teaching.”

“The thing about teachers is that you’ll always be a teacher.

That’s just who you are,” Craig says. “I could always volunteer. I always taught for the sheer joy of it, and getting a paycheque was just a bonus.”

Consequently, Henshaw now wrestles with his identity. As a teacher, he spent most of his life working hard, more enamored with the passion of being an educator than earning a paycheque.

Like many, he worried about his student loans, credit-card debt, and making ends meet until the next payday.

“I used to be the guy who bought no-name cheese, and suddenly I could buy everything in the house just by snapping my fingers. How do you process that? How do you get used to it?” Craig says. “I know a lot of people will say that those are the problems of the 1 per cent. Well, yeah, but I’m still part of the 99 percent. I just have a bunch of money all of a sudden. I didn’t get any sleep at all that first month. I have to figure out who Craig Henshaw is.

I’m still working on it.”

Henshaw’s desire to educate is evident in the way he has spent his winnings thus far.

He’s set up education funds for his nieces and nephews. His cleaning lady, whom he described as being on the lower end of the economic spectrum, will be returning to school thanks to his financial aid.

Henshaw believes people should be given a chance to learn.

Instead of donating chunks of money to charities, he has opted to set up scholarship funds at his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario.

“I want to call it the Craig Henshaw Nice Guy Award. I want to give it to people who are enrolled in an arts program, that do a lot of graphics work,” Craig says, chuckling. “You know, the ones that always show up early and stay late at the art openings, and they do stuff to make the community a better place. Then there’s going to be the Craig Henshaw Nice Girl Award, which will be the same thing, but for the girls.”

Even with a near-limitless amount of cash, Henshaw hasn’t embarked on the spending spree many people fantasize about. He now lives in an inconspicuous apartment in downtown Toronto. Nothing

about his residence or wardrobe screams the fact that he’s a multimillionaire. He has assigned himself a steady allowance that’s enough to enjoy life, but modest enough that it wouldn’t turn heads.

Mike Nadal, a career counsellor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, approves of Henshaw’s modest spending strategy.

“There are two rules,” said Nadal, a former financial advisor who spent four years advising high-net-worth clients. “The first is not to lose the money. The second is not to forget rule number one.”

That was easier said than done on that day he picked up his cheque from the Lotto office.

The first thing he did with the money?

“I took everyone out for a celebratory dinner at a steakhouse.

I didn’t know my credit card number had been stolen yet, so my card was declined,” Henshaw says. “I had to turn to my father and ask him for his credit card to pay for the meal.”

He’s learned much since then.

“The bank people were really good. They listened for about a month straight. They asked me what I was comfortable with, and told me about the risks with my now-portfolio.”

“You don’t get thrown into the business, you know. It’s not like, ‘Oh, and I want a thousand dollars on this’ or anything. What they do is take your money and invest it. Essentially, I don’t even get my money,” Henshaw says, with a bemused smile. “I get an allowance. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s enough to comfortably enjoy life.” It has also bought him the time re-establish some family relationships.

“I spent the last 20 years working my ass off to try and be somebody, and I neglected my family,” he says. “Now I get the chance to try and re-establish all of the relationships that I used to wish I had time for.

“I’ve seen my father and mom more in the last six months than I had in years. I was always working. But now I have the time to spend with my family. My parents are in the sunset years of their life, and I want to make that sunset bright-orange.”

Henshaw has heard that it takes about a year for the stress of a lottery win to settle. “I’d like to travel,” he says. “Next winter, I just want to take a month and be a beach bum somewhere.”

Craig Henshaw and I have been sitting in a dimly lit pub on the Danforth on a rainy Monday afternoon.

At the end of our interview, Craig calls for our bill. I offer to pay, but my former high school teacher will have none of it.

He slices off $70 from a small ball of bills and lays it down on the table.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he says, laughing. “I’m unemployed. I can afford it!”

page 27

continued from page 23 are coming.”

Among the key concerns highlighted in the report, there is a lack of accountability over 911 services. There is no central body that oversees the entire system and the CRTC does not have a single staff member that is solely dedicated to working on 911 issues.

Currently, governance of the system is based on a disjointed patchwork of collaboration by the CRTC, telcos, provinces, territories and municipal governments. As a result, funding is “uneven” leading to a lack of uniformity of services across the country. The report also pointed to a “lack of co-ordination” of 911 with other

agencies that deal with emergency preparedness and public safety.

“From the point of view of the user, 911 service is one thing, not several. The person calling for help has no interest or concern that one part of the service is under federal jurisdiction and the other is under his or her province’s or territory’s jurisdiction. He or she cares only about help arriving in a timely fashion,” report says.

There is even a lack of basic information about how often the system is used.

“To my knowledge, we do not even know how many 911 calls are made in Canada each year. This is not an acceptable situation,” adds the report.

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There are also key concerns about lingering problems with accurately locating callers that use smartphones or VOIP phones.

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The Pas There are so many things in life that nobody teaches you. Things your parents don't teach you. Things you don't get taught in school.

The first thing is where the fuel tank is on the car. You know when you pull up to the service station and you have no idea which side the fuel tank is on? Well, nobody tells you that all you have to do is look at the fuel gauge on the dash. There's a little arrow there to indicate which side it's on.

The second thing nobody teaches you is that sometimes the drains in your bathroom smell. This happens if it hasn't rained in a while. Nobody tells you that you have to flush them out with water every few months to stop this from happening.

Nobody warns you how bad your PMS gets after you hit 30. My friend noticed the physical side of it with me the other week when she commented on how large my breasts seemed. That's the welcome side effect. The

Things Nobody Teaches You other ones aren't so great. You've been warned.

Nobody teaches you how to be rich or poor. Both come with their own unique set of problems.

You don't get taught that nobody owes you anything.

Nobody teaches you that the more you give, the more people will take.

Nobody teaches you that the anticipation of something is often better than the actual doing of it. A lot of things are overrated.

You don't get taught that the definition of success is different to everyone. To one person it may be running a multi-million dollar company. To another it may be watching their children grow. It's different, and right for everyone.

No one teaches you that as you get older,

you'll stop hearing about the things that happen to other people and they'll start happening to you.

We are always being told to grow up, yet no one ever teaches you to never lose your childish innocence.

Nobody teaches you how to cope with anxiety or depression. It hits us all at some stage through our lives. To navigate through it successfully is difficult, and there's no way out but through.

Nobody teaches you that in order to learn anything, it's always best to learn the hard way.

In fact, it's the only way.

Nobody teaches you how to demand respect for yourself. Nobody tells you to make sure you love yourself first.

Nobody teaches you how to grieve the loss

of a loved one. I was shocked at the level of grief I experienced when my Grandfather passed away.

Nobody teaches you how to correctly deal with the opposite sex.

Nobody teaches you that you can't change anyone. You can only change yourself. That's a big one.

Nobody teaches you how to not let people take advantage or walk all over you.

Nobody teaches you that life never goes according to plan.

Nobody teaches you how to be alone. We are born alone, and we die alone. It's important to know how to BE on your own.

And finally, nobody teaches you about hindsight. That everything happens for a reason, and like the late Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking backwards.

page 29

Youth Unemployment Canada:

420,000 Jobless A new report says Canadian youth face the risk of chronic unemployment despite being more educated than ever.

Youth are more educated than ever before. While the percentage of youth aged 15 to 19 who are enrolled in school is relatively static, students seem to be in school longer. Enrolment rates in the 20- to 24-year-old age group are rapidly increasing, with 44 per cent currently in school, the report found.

One major problem area Tal highlighted is the transition youth undergo moving from school to workforce.

TORONTO - Young Canadians are at risk of chronic unemployment as growing numbers are graduating well-educated, but with no work experience, a CIBC report suggests. About 420,000 youth aged 15 to 24 — or nearly one in 10 young Canadians — are neither employed nor enrolled in school, the report found.

The economic reality for young Canadians today is very different than that of previous generations, said CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal, the report's author.

"They are basically on the sidelines doing nothing," he said in an interview. "They will not be able to penetrate this very competitive labour market."

In a market where previous experience is essential, youth aren't able to find the summer jobs and part-time work required to build a resume, Tal said.

"Now, while more education is positive, increasingly, students are completing their education without any work experience and are more likely to be caught in the no job–no experience, and no experience–no job cycle," he said in the report.

Policy-makers need to create options in which education and work-related training are combined, Tal said. This would allow youth to find jobs while in school and close the learning gap that exists when students transition into the work world.

A university degree in any subject is no longer enough, he said. Instead, youth need to choose disciplines that offer practical experience and long-term employment opportunities. Taking advanced courses and networking with people are two ways that high school students can distinguish themselves.

Youth today have more opportunities than ever before to creatively make a name for themselves and improve their clout in a competitive job market, such as using online platforms for networking, Tal said.

"Do whatever it takes to make you different," he said in an interview.

The youth unemployment rate is more than double the unemployment rate for Canadians aged 25 and older — a record-high ratio that needs to be addressed, Tal said.

One in five unemployed youth, aged 15 to 24, has never held a job, Tal found. That's 40 per cent higher than the long-term average and close to the record high of the 1990s.

"The current environment of part-time work, temporary jobs, corporate and government restructuring and downsizing is especially tough on young people whose lack of experience and seniority make them much more vulnerable to labour market changes," Tal said in the report.

RCMP provide hunting safety tips

RCMP D Division are advising outdoor enthusiasts to follow some basic hunting tips to ensure a safe experience.

Fall is the time of year where many outdoor enthusiasts dust off their hunting gear and head out to various parts of rural Manitoba. A hunting trip can easily be ruined should an accident occur. Getting lost or a just a sprained ankle mixed in with cold, wet weather can easily be-

"For Canada's economy to grow and our standard of living to remain high, this is an imperative," the Canadian education system must find ways to incorporate skills that enhance students' employability directly into the curriculum, he said in the report.

come a life-threatening emergency.

Every year, RCMP detachments across Manitoba are called upon to look for missing or overdue hunters.

Here are some tips to make your hunting experience a safer one: Get a detailed map of the area you are hunting, review it before you leave, and carry it with you in the bush.

Carry a compass or GPS and know how to use it. If you get lost, hug a tree (stay put).

Fall weather can change quickly.

Carry a simple survival kit and be prepared for an unexpected overnight stay in the bush. The survival kit should contain a knife, a whistle, water, waterproof matches, and first aid supplies.

Know your hunting partners’ phys-

ical limitations, as well as your own, and don’t push your partners or yourself beyond those limits.

Carry a cell phone. Many phones are equipped with GPS technology that will help to find you.

Wear hunter orange apparel that will make you more visible in dense forest.

Always let someone know where you are going and when you plan to return.

Horoscope Aries

(March 21 - April 19) Take your time over decisions this month as hasty decisions could come back and bite you. It’s all about off with the old and on with the new. If things no longer work maybe they should be abandoned? Bring yourself up to date with how things are now. There could be a disruption in one of your close, personal relationships so watch out for tipping the balance of things too heavily by making them all one-sided. The decisions you make are vitally important. Anyone trying to muffle you will soon learn that you are the one who’s calling all the shots.

Leo

(July 23 - August 22) All aspects of communications flow freely for you in November.

There are entertaining people on the horizon and things should go your way. Persuade others your way. It is best and easy for you. After the 21st you may need to sort out confusion and you being in charge will be what is required of you.

Also, take time to catch up on minor outstanding chores and tasks this month, and while you’re at it, get in touch with people you haven’t seen for a while. They’ll be glad to hear from you. Split time between friends and family. Try to be fair.

Sagittarius

(Nov. 22 - Dec. 21) Ambition can be yours for the taking just as long you know what’s required of you and what you need to do to make your life tick over the way you want it. Work. Money. Love. You have a strong desire to overcome obstacles, so nothing will stop you as you keep your head intact. You’re capable and know exactly what needs to change in your life.

People around you are agitated and will try your patience. Don’t rise to the bait.

Also, don’t take no for an answer, as you’re the one that leads from the front and the rest just follow and fall into line.

Taurus

(April 20 - May 20) A month where you’re in a mission to prove your worth both at work and in life generally. And rolling up those sleeves could bring a lot of sudden changes to your life in the form of job offers or uplifts out of the blue. You could also find yourself stretched a bit by the sense of demands that are put upon you, don’t be surprised if something comes flying right back at you from your past.

Around the 16th, your energy and creativity should all be boosted making you the fountainhead of change. Observe everything quietly and keep things to yourself.

Virgo

(August 23 - Sep. 22)

page 30

November

Gemini

(May 21 - June 21) Avoid hasty impulsive actions this month, but that doesn’t mean you have to shy away from making decisions, just that you need to think first. Career discussions may not pan out the way you’d want them to, but remember if one strategy fails, don’t be afraid to approach things from another angle. You can rely on the people who have always been there for you. They won't let you down.

Don’t be afraid to make radical revision of what you have done in the past and get ready to create many new things at the same time. Don’t think you’re alone.

Libra

(Sep. 23 - Oct. 23)

The planetary emphasis moves towards work and property and this could encourage you to divert your attention away from friendship. This is a temporary setback so treat it as such.

Knock problems out of the park by being open and honest at work and play. There’s an amazing transformation happening within you that makes you feel wonderful.

You’re the one with all the answers, and with more in control than others give you credit for. Watch out for clumsy mistakes and mix-ups. Time of taking absolutely every single chance that you can take.

Practically, you’re achieving a lot, so if there’s something you’ve wanted for a while but have shied away from it, it's now time to try again. Ask those closest for help. Intimate relationships move to the next level and increase your sense of security over the union.

Things are going well at work and money matters seem to have levelled out, reducing your stress levels and making you feel all in your garden is rosy once again. November will be a surprising and busy month for all Librans. Don’t stand in the background. That could be a mistake !

Capricorn

Aquarius

Both your enthusiasm and physical strength are at a peak this month.

Good luck is there for the taking and you'll make good progress by applying yourself positively. Use your common sense and don’t be outspoken over family matters or you’ll be public enemy number one. You were born to climb the mountain like the surefooted goat that represents your sign. Now in your sign your standards are even higher than usual, and if you fail to meet them, it’ll come as a bigger blow to you. Try not to lose focus.

Speculate !!!

Accomplish loads this month by not setting the bar so high, and concentrating as much energy on your security and self-protection. Both will be called upon as far as your career, business or life in general are concerned. This is the time to get out there and make something structural and long lasting happen in your life.

But be patient. There are power plays that you’ll need to deal with too, and a sense that it’s all change, and in amongst all of this comes a liberal dose of fate thrown in.

Trust enough yourself and your abilities to stand on it and face your public.

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 19)

(Jan. 20 - Feb. 18)

Cancer

(June 22 - July 22) Your focus is firmly on finance this week so take time to sit down and work out your incoming and outgoings realistically. If you embroider the figures the only person you’ll be kidding is yourself. Make a budget, stick to it and keep lavish spending for Christmas.

Make up your mind and plough ahead.

What you say goes. Don’t move away from your decisions. Focus on the new and unusual in life even if finding the time for this is hard. Make sure that anything important is signed, sealed and delivered before the end of November.

Scorpio

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 21) An ebullient attitude is all very well at the moment, although it pays to exercise some self-control if you don’t want your Scorpio nature to get you in trouble. With luck on your side your confidence is through the roof this month, so you can afford to take a few chances over work and love. Objectives you thought were out of reach are now within touching distance, so reach out and grab them.

Life just gets better and better. Now’s the time to recognise your worth – and the needs of others at the same time. Don’t use a hammer to crack a nut.

Pisces

(Feb. 19 - March 20) Socially speaking, you’re more reluctant than ever as you find it hard to take the initiative outside your bubble. Wait for the chance to push forward but don’t be lazy. Consider ways to broaden your horizons in ways you haven’t tried before. You’ll be amazed at how well you do just by thinking outside the box. Just don’t get too bogged down in technical matters. Be diplomatic when discussing projects at work. You don’t know who’s listening. Your uniqueness comes from being avant-garde. You’re not on the same page as the rest of us.

page 31

Billing per Hour A prominent young attorney was on his way to court to begin arguments on a complex lawsuit when he suddenly found himselfat the Gates of Heaven. St. Peter started to escort him inside, when he began to protest that his untimely death had to be some sort of mistake.

"I'm much too young to die! I'm only 35!" St. Peter agreed that 35 did seem to be a bit young to be entering the pearly gates, and agreed to check on his case.

When St. Peter returned, he told the attorney, "I'm afraid that the mistake must be yours, my son. We verified your age on the basis of the number of hours you've billed to your clients, and you're at least 108."

Pearly Gates A lawyer died and arrived at the Pearly Gates.

Saint Peter asked him, "What have you done to merit entrance into Heaven?"

The lawyer thought a moment, then said, "A week ago, I gave a quarter to a homeless person on the street."

Saint Peter asked Gabriel to check this out in the records, and after a moment Gabriel affirmed that it was true.

Saint Peter said, "Well , that's fine, but it's not really quite enough to get you into Heaven."

The Lawyer said, "Wait, wait! There's more!

Three years ago, I also gave a homeless person a quarter."

Saint Peter nodded to Gabriel, who, after a moment, nodded back to affirm that it was true.

Saint Peter then whispered to Gabriel, "Well, what do you suggest we do with this fellow?"

Gabriel gave the lawyer a sidelong glance, then said to Saint Peter, "Let's give him back his 50 cents and tell him to go to Hell."

40km/h Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer sees a car puttering along at 40km/h. He thinks to himself, "This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!" So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over. Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies -- two in the front seat and three in the back - eyes wide and white as ghosts. The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?"

"Ma'am," the officer replies, "You weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers."

"Slower than the speed limit?" she asked. No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly... TwentyTwo miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly. The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that "40" was the route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.

"But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask... Is everyone in this car ok? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time." the officer asks.

"Oh, they'll be alright in a minute officer. We just got off Route 205."

Smartest Man in the World A doctor, a lawyer, a young boy and a priest were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane. Suddenly, the plane developed engine trouble.

In spite of the best efforts of the pilot, the plane started to go down. Finally, the pilot grabbed a parachute, yelled to the passengers that they had better jump, and bailed out.

Unfortunately, there were only three parachutes remaining.

The doctor grabbed one and said "I'm a doctor, I save lives, so I must live," and jumped out.

The lawyer then said, "I'm a lawyer and lawyers are the smartest people in the world. I deserve to live."

He also grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the boy and said, "My son, I've lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace."

The young boy handed the parachute back to the priest and said, "Not to worry, Father. The 'smartest man in the world' just took off with my back pack."

The Cowboy A cowboy walks into a bar in Texas, orders three mugs of beer and sits in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he

finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.

The bartender approaches and tells him, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it, it would taste better if you bought one at a time."

The cowboy replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I'm in Texas. When we all left home, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days we drank together. So I drink one for each o' my brothers and one for myself." The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.

The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."

The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs. "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains. "It's just that my wife had us join that Mormon Church and I had to quit drinking. Hasn't affected my brothers though!"

Simple Logic A 2013 study found that the average Canadian walks about 900 miles a year.

Another recent study found that Canadian drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.

That means, on average, Canadian get about 41 miles per gallon.

Not Bad.

Claven Theory The "Claven Theory" offers the besy proof that beer actually does make you smarter..... "One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. and here's how it went: Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.

In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Don't you feel smarter after a few?

Irishman on a Desert Island One day an Irishman, who has been stranded on a desert island for over ten long years, sees an unusual speck on the horizon.

"It's certainly not a ship," he thinks to himself.

As the speck gets closer and closer, he begins to rule out the possibilities of a small boat, then even a raft.

Suddenly, emerging from the surf comes a drop dead gorgeous blonde woman wearing a wet suit and scuba gear.

She approaches the stunned man and says to him, "Tell me how long has it been since you've had a cigarette?"

"Ten years," replies the Irishman.

With that, she reaches over and unzips a waterproof pocket on her left sleeve and pulls out a pack of fresh cigarettes. He takes one, lights it, takes a long drag and says, "Faith and begorah!

Is that good!"

"And how long has it been since you've had a sip of good Irish Whiskey?" she asks him.

Trembling, the castaway replies, "Ten years."

She reaches over, unzips her right sleeve, pulls out a flask and hands it to him. He opens the flask, takes a long swig and says, "Tis absolutely fantastic!"

At this point she starts slowly unzipping the long zipper that runs down the front of her wet suit, looks at the man and asks, "And how long has it been since you've played around?"

With tears in his eyes, the man falls to his knees and sobs, "Oh, Sweet Jesus! Don't tell me you've got golf clubs in there too."

Get in line A crowded flight is cancelled, and a frazzled agent must rebook a long line of inconvenienced travelers by herself. Suddenly, an angry passenger pushes to the front and demands to be on the next flight, first class.

The agent replies, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these folks first."

The passenger screams, "Do you have ANY idea who I am?"

The gate agent grabs her public address microphone, "May I have your attention, please?

We have a passenger here WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to gate 17."

The man grits his teeth, "Sc**w you."

She replies, "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to stand in line for that, too."

Read this one at your own risk

Past Closing Time

One afternoon while doing some work in the garden I noticed my dog dragging something under the fence. Upon inspection, to my dismay, I realized it was the next door neighbour's daughter's rabbit. For years I had watch her come home from school and head straight out to its cage, free it and play with it in the garden. I knew today would be no different and fearing for our dog, I had to think fast.

The rabbit was quite dirty, as if it had put up quite a struggle, so I washed it off with the hose, combed it with the dog brush and blew it dry with the leaf blower. Upon finishing its grooming, I jumped the fence and replaced it back in its cage hoping its death would be written off as "natural causes". Within the hour, the neighbour's car pulled in and out popped the little girl, and as usual she headed straight for the cage. Only this time she stopped about six feet away and screamed "DDAADDDDDDDYYYYYYY !!!!!!!!"

Her father, panic stricken, stood looking at the cage. Being the good neighbour that I am, I rushed to fence and asked if there was anything I could do.

Her father less than calmly blurted, "What kind of sick individual would dig up a little girl's dead rabbit and put it back in it's cage?"

A policeman cruising past a bar after closing time notices two motor bikes still parked out front. He goes around the back of the pub only to find two bikers, one with his fingers up the ass of the other.

"So, what's going on here?", the cop asks.

The biker replies, "My mate here has had too much to drink and I'm trying to make him vomit."

The cop says, "I think you should be sticking your fingers down his THROAT!" The biker replies, "That's what I'm going to do next!"

Dead Rabbit

*

TM

1

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