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суббота, 8 июля 2017 г.

Ottawa man, 80, missing three days, found dead

Eighty-year-old Jean Proulx, who had been missing since Wednesday evening, has been found dead, Ottawa police tweeted late Saturday night.


Foul play is not suspected, police said.


Earlier in the week, Proulx’s brother had expressed his concerns.


“This is the first time he’s ever fled like this,” said Maurice, who is from Ottawa. “For him to flee like this — it’s surprising.”


Proulx, who had dementia and diabetes, hadn’t been seen since 6 p.m. Wednesday around Shefford Road and Loyola Avenue in Gloucester. Police had searched the area and urged residents to check their yards and sheds.


Proulx lived in Moments Manor, Symphony Senior Living on 1510 St. Joseph Blvd. in Orléans — a seniors home that, according to its website, focuses on the care of residents with dementia and Alzheimer’s. 


Maurice said his brother had been living at the home for a year and seven months. 


“He has Alzheimers 100 per cent — he doesn’t know what he’s doing, that’s the problem,” Maurice had told Postmedia.


No other details about Proulx’s death were immediately available.

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Ottawa police searching for 81-year-old last seen on Sandcastle Drive

The Ottawa police have asked for help to locate 81-year-old Robert Tserkovich.


He was last seen on Saturday at 1:10 p.m. on Sandcastle Drive near the Queensway Carleton Hospital.


He was described as white, 5-2,  125 pounds, with a thin build. He has short, grey, light hair and blue/grey eyes. He speaks Russian and some English. He was wearing a white baseball cap, red checkered long sleeve shirt, beige long pants and white running shoes.


Anyone with information about his whereabouts was asked to contact Ottawa police dispatch at 613-230-6211 or the West Patrol staff sergeant’s desk at 613-236-1222, extension 2912.


 

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Protesters march for human rights in Saudi Arabia

A sudden afternoon shower on Saturday failed to drown out the voices of protesters gathered outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy to demand the reconstruction of a sacred cemetery and the protection of other Islamic heritage sites in the Middle East nation.


About 300 people marched from the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street to a grassy clearing across from the Sussex Avenue embassy, where many used the opportunity to express their anger at the Saudi government for persecuting religious minorities and for what they see as supporting terrorist organizations.


Canada’s government was also chided for its $15-billion deal to sell military vehicles to Saudi Arabia.


Protesters carried banners that read “Muslims Against ISIS,” “Rebuild Al Baqee” and “Respect Muslim Heritage.”


And among chants there were: “Al Baqee, Al Baqee, rebuild Al Baqee ” and “1-2-3-4, we don’t want your dirty war.”


The Jannat al-Baqee cemetery in Medina, Saudi Arabia, was chosen by Islam’s Holy Prophet Mohammad. It is the place where many of his descendants were buried.


But it was destroyed in 1925 by the government of Saudi Arabia, which left behind no sign of any grave or tomb.


Today, pilgrims who seek to visit and pray at the site are harassed or prevented from doing so, according to march organizers.



The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows an extreme ideology known as wahhabism, which is rejected by many in the Muslim world, including the minority Shia Muslim protesters who marched in Ottawa.


All cultures, civilizations and religions, including Islam, are proud of their traditions and heritage, said Jaffar Hashmi of the Ottawa Al-Baqee chapter.


“Humanity does its utmost to preserve them, not destroy them,” he said. “These are heritage sites. They have to be rebuilt and restored.”


Berak Hussain drew a comparison between calls to restore the Baqee cemetery and Canadians preserving this nation’s history by building sites such as the National War Memorial, which protesters passed en route to the embassy.



Many Canadians would rightfully be heartbroken and furious if a future government ever destroyed the cenotaph and prevented people from visiting the site.


“It’s an outright insult,” she said, accusing the current Saudi government of trying to rewrite history.


Raising her voice to demand the sacred sites be restored and protected is also a way of speaking out against terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Boko Haram, she said.



Such a protest on the streets of Saudi Arabia may not as safe as it is in Canada, where free speech is a basic right, said Toronto’s Gulzar Rizvi.


“We can tell Canadians we have been denied access to our shrines in Saudi Arabia,” he said.


Saturday marked the first time a Baqee protest was held in Ottawa. Similar events have been held in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Houston, as well as major cities in Europe and the Middle East.



The march was supported by the Al Baqee Organization, a U.S. group committed to raising awareness about the preservation of Islamic heritage.


The NGO strives to protect and stop further destruction of endangered heritage sites and restore all destroyed heritage sites, starting with Jannat-ul-Baqee because its destruction marked the beginning of such incidents in the modern era.


The Saudi government’s goal is to eradicate the Islamic legacy and heritage, and systematically remove all its vestiges so future generations of Muslims will have no affiliation with their religious history, the NGO says.


mpearson@postmedia.com


twitter.com/mpearson78



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Pion-Era highlights part of Saskatchewan's cultural history

Saskatchewan seems like one of the best places in the world to hold an event that celebrates farming history, and that’s exactly what happens at Pion-Era.


The annual event held at the Western Development Museum is billed as a way to re-live the sights and sounds of the pioneer days in the province, from the blacksmith stall to herding demonstrations to old-fashioned farm equipment.


It’s a visually exciting display that brings out people of all ages, especially when the first thing next to the parking lot is rows and rows of antique tractors and cars. 


“It brings back memories,” 82-year-old Dave How said. A retired auctioneer, How used to collect antique tractors. At the height of his collection, he said he owned more 30 of them.


Now, he’s down to only four after auctioning off most of his collection back in 2010. But the one he started the collection with and the ones he chose to keep are wonderful mementos of his time growing up on the farm, How said.


“You grew up on one of these tractors; they still have sentimental value,” How said. 


For the volunteers involved in the different exhibits, it can be about more than just showcasing parts of history. For blacksmith Dave Fraser, who’s been coming to Pion-Era for the past few years, it’s about making sure people don’t forget the work that goes into his trade.


“For a lot of people, everything’s push-button now … there’s not the same pride in the craftsmanship,” Fraser said.


Fraser was one of the younger blacksmiths in the shack set up for them next to the museum, all of whom are accredited by the Western Canadian Blacksmith’s Guild. He said blacksmithing allows him to be more creative, and it’s a more physical and hands-on way to produce things just as good or better than what’s mass produced today. 


It’s an impressive sight to watch Fraser and the rest of the blacksmiths literally hammer away at pieces of metal in the shack that does little to protect them from the blazing heat. 


At the Pioneer Circle — essentially the main stage for the big demonstrations happening throughout the weekend — volunteers were showing off some seldom seen skills. 


There were hundreds of people on the small bleachers set up next to the circle — including Randy and Tammy Pshebylo. Randy Pshebylo, the executive director of Saskatoon’s Riversdale Business Improvement District, grew up on the farm and farms in his spare time. He said it’s always incredible to see what people have been able to do throughout history. 


Tammy, Randy’s wife, is originally from Palm Springs, California. Attending her second Pion-Era since marrying Randy a few years ago, she said this history and this kind of event sets Saskatchewan apart from her previous home. 


“You don’t get these kind of people. You don’t get this kind of culture,” she said.


“I love it.”

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Lowertown stabbing lands man to hospital

A 20-year-old man was taken to hospital in non-life-threatening condition Friday night after a stabbing in Lowertown.


The incident happened around 10 p.m. in the vicinity of York and Nelson streets, east of King Edward Avenue, according to Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Bob Price.


The investigation continues.


mpearson@postmedia.com


twitter.com/mpearson78


 

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Police ask travellers to avoid flooded stretch of Upper Dwyer Road

Ottawa police are warning motorists to avoid a section of Upper Dwyer Road, just north of Highway 7 and near the Stittsville Golf Course, after heavy rain flooded the area Friday night. 


Police asked travellers Saturday to either avoid the flooded stretch, which is between the cross streets of Hamilton Side and McCarton roads, or slow down as the water is flowing across the road.


 


 

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Ehealth breach

A report from Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner says the Crown corporation that handles the province’s health information system shared information it should not have about every adult and many teenagers in the province.


But eHealth Saskatchewan says that clinical information was not among the data it passed along without legal authorization to Elections Saskatchewan.


In a 14-month period, eHealth sent the names, addresses, dates of birth, residency status and health card numbers of all Saskatchewan residents older than the age of 16 and inadvertently sent similar data belonging to tens of thousands of people younger than that to Elections Saskatchewan, to help the latter keep election rolls up to date.


Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner, Ron Kruzeniski, issued a report late last month, finding that eHealth did not have legislative authority — permission in law — to release the information. 


“I regret having to reach this conclusion because having an up-to-date register of voters is important for our democracy,” he wrote. “eHealth is the trustee of valuable, current personal health information that can assist in maintaining an up-to-date register of voters.  However, the legislation, as is, does not support the disclosure of this information.”


The report calls on eHealth and the ministries of Health and Justice to work together on an amendment to the Health Information Protection Act to allow for information sharing. But Kruzeniski recommends a discussion of whether health card numbers need to be shared.


The Elections Act does give Elections Saskatchewan the authority to collect personal information for the purpose of keeping the voter rolls current. 


Shaylene Salazar, the vice-president of strategy and risk management, said when a third party approaches eHealth, it typically reviews the legislation governing it. In this case Elections Saskatchewan would be responsible for reviewing its own legislation.


“We felt we had the legislative authority to proceed with a sharing agreement. That’s why we entered into it,” she said.


Elections Saskatchewan and eHealth reached an agreement in August 2015 to share information about residents 16 and older.


In an email, Elections Saskatchewan senior director Tim Kydd said the agency “received information from eHealth that was beyond what was requested and what was agreed to.”


He said they notified eHealth about the error — the unintended sharing of information of people under 16 — and the information was destroyed.


“The information was briefly accessed by two Elections SK staff, which is how the error was discovered. The unintended information was never used or shared and was always on a secure server based at Elections SK’s head office,” he wrote.


On Jan. 18, eHealth reported a privacy breach to the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office. Specifically, it informed the privacy commissioner that it had been sharing the “personal health information” of residents over the age of 16 and of 50,624 to 83,403 individuals under the age of 16 with Elections Saskatchewan between November 2015 and January 2017, according to Kruzeniski’s report.


Salazar said in an interview with The StarPhoenix on Thursday that health card numbers were shared because it is a common identifier within the system. Since each health card number is unique, it clearly differentiates between individuals with similar names or the same name. 


Kruzeniski recommended that eHealth inform the public via the media and by posting a notice about the breach on its website, which eHealth has complied with. 


In an interview Thursday, Kruzeniski said his office needs to support a strong democratic system, and an updated voter registry is essential. Other agencies have legislative authority to ask for health services cards as a means of identification.


Kruzeniski said these are two responsible organizations that will use the information shared judiciously.


“The public, although I use the word ‘breach’ at the same time, they don’t have to view it like we view other breaches where someone comes from the outside and then steals a whole bunch of information. It isn’t that kind of breach,” he said. 


Kruzeniski is also recommending that eHealth work with Elections Saskatchewan on the best way to share the identities of residents who will be eligible to vote in the next election.


tjames@postmedia.com

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пятница, 7 июля 2017 г.

Transit Windsor hit by 'perfect storm' of good news, including higher

Transit Windsor has been hit by a perfect storm of good news, crediting a jump in ridership to a number of recent and ongoing improvements and expansion to the city’s public transportation system.


Ridership is suddenly up and expected to rise further in the near future. Executive director Pat Delmore cites a number of developments for the bright outlook:



Ridership, which had been stagnant in recent years, is up 3.5 per cent, thanks to U-Pass, equating to 227,000 more bus rides a year. And now part-time students have voted to join the U-Pass program starting in the fall.


“The uptake has been very, very impressive,” said Coun. Bill Marra, who chairs the Transit Windsor board and is hopeful of getting St. Clair students on board with a U-Pass program as well. “Getting more students on the buses and exposed to public transit has been very, very valuable,” he said.


All these new initiatives are aimed at increasing ridership, Delmore said. And when that happens, revenue climbs and improvements to the system are possible, which again leads to increased ridership, revenues and more improvements, he added.


The U-Pass program was supposed to be revenue neutral, meaning the money lost from $66-per-month bus passes that some students bought was offset by getting $66 per semester from everyone. But the program has generated more revenue than expected because fewer students than predicted opted out (they can opt out if they live in the county), enrolment was higher than expected and the increased ridership has resulted in more cash from the province’s gas tax. That extra money will be ploughed back into improving service to the students, Delmore said.


“This builds a community, it really does, because it gives you the additional dollars into the system to help you to build it, and then other people are attracted to the service,” Delmore said of the U-Pass program.


He said if St. Clair students agree to a similar deal, service would first have to be improved on the routes that service the college’s main campus. And that would improve service for everyone in South Windsor.


“If we had every-15-minute or every-10-minute service on the Dominion 5 (one of two routes that service St. Clair), how many people might say: ‘You know what? I don’t necessarily need a second car or a third car,'” Delmore said. “That’s the whole goal of what a student bus pass can do for a community.”


University of Windsor Students’ Alliance vice-president Sarah Noureddine said the program has definitely been a success. Students are riding the bus more frequently and enjoying the value, she said. “Sixty-six dollars a semester is much more doable than the current monthly fee for a transit pass,” she said, adding she expects even more students will use the U-Pass when the part-time students start using it and the LaSalle service starts in September. 


Though LaSalle gets the ridership revenue when someone gets on the bus in LaSalle, Transit Windsor gets the money when that rider boards in Windsor to go back to LaSalle. Delmore and Marra both hope the LaSalle service will be such a success that other neighbouring municipalities — including Tecumseh, which has its own bus service that doesn’t integrate with Transit Windsor — will be interested in a similar arrangement.


The result, said Delmore, could be a truly integrated regional transit system.


bcross@postmedia.com


twitter.com/winstarcross

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Forgotten cellphone connects suspect to bus mischief

A suspected firebug left his cellphone on the same OC Transpo bus he was trying to singe early Thursday in one of the worst getaways ever on the transit system.


According to information confirmed by Transpo, four male passengers boarded a Route 6 bus at the Rideau Centre near the end of the day’s bus service.


At 1:46 a.m., the bus driver smelled something burning and made an announcement over the public address system.


When the bus stopped at Bank and MacLaren streets, the four guys fled the vehicle. The bus driver called in the damage caused by someone using a lighter.


The top of the backrest seat had a small burn, the plastic insert window was melted in a spot and and the back of two seats had burn marks.


One of the guys who ran off left his cellphone on the bus.


By that time, special constables received information about the suspects. Two of the guys matching the descriptions were seen at Billings Bridge station.


The details about the cellphone’s connection to the probe launched by Transpo gumshoes is murky, but clearly it was an investigative gift.


“Special constables were able to link one of the suspects to the cellphone at that time,” special constable Chief Jim Babe said in an email. “As the matter is before the courts we cannot comment further on the specifics.”


Special constables arrested the duo.


According to Transpo, a man received a notice for pre-charge diversion for the mischief and a 17-year-old boy received a summons under the Provincial Offences Act.


There was no information about the other two guys who fled the bus.


jwilling@postmedia.com


twitter.com/JonathanWilling

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Former home of Lester B. Pearson is pretty much falling down

Lester B. Pearson’s former home on Cobourg Street is a dump.


Maybe 60 years ago it was a pleasant place for Pearson to escape the bustle of Parliament Hill.


Today, it’s pretty much falling down.



“An intervention is impossible. Where do you even begin?” architect Judah Mulalu said this week, as he took the Citizen on a soggy tour through 231 Cobourg St. in Sandy Hill.


The Uganda High Commission owns the red-brick, two-storey building at the corner of Wilbrod Street and is asking the city for permission to tear down the building and build a new one to house its diplomatic mission.


Others in the community believe the building is worth saving.


Related




Mulalu estimated it would cost $4 million to renovate and retrofit the building to make it usable again, while a demolish-and-build project would be in the ballpark of $2.5 million.


The high commission hired Ten-2-Four Architecture to quarterback the project.


Mulalu, Ten-2-Four’s principal, and Nazli Salehi, a partner at the firm, started the tour in the basement, where the concrete floor shows signs of buckling and the bricks are breaking away from the mortar on the wall.


The building is obviously slouching to one side, they explained, and there’s no reasonable way to save it when the damage is so extensive.


Floors are wet from water infiltration and a broken pipe. Virtually every room has a crack in the wall. The carpet in one hall is squishy and the whole building is musty.


Everyone, including the architects, seems to be on the same page now about Pearson living in the building in the 1950s before he became prime minster. There was some skepticism at first, since a city heritage consultant didn’t note the Pearson connection on the official records in 2010, but the heritage branch today acknowledges Pearson lived there between 1955 and 1958.


Pearson became leader of the opposition in 1958 and was elected prime minister in 1963. He won the Nobel Peace Price in 1957.


The Cobourg Street building, which was bought by the Uganda High Commission in 1985 to use as a diplomatic office, is in a heritage protection zone and must follow specific rules if it’s demolished and a new structure is constructed.


The architect’s plan is to use hallmarks of the current design, such as the flat roof and red bricks, in the new, taller building.


A rendering of the proposed new building for the Uganda High Commission at 231 Cobourg St. in Sandy Hill. Source: Development application


While the heritage expert on the development team believes the building only marginally contributes to the heritage character of the community, Action Sandy Hill has written to politicians arguing the building is worth saving because of the Pearson connection.


“We appreciate it as much as they do, but on empirical evidence it’s tough to justify the cost,” Mulalu said.


The sorry state of the building raises questions about why the high commission simply didn’t take better care of it. The City of Ottawa, increasingly protective of its heritage structures, is on high alert for buildings on track for “demolition by neglect.”


Mulalu pointed out the owner’s efforts to maintain the exterior of the building, such as replacing bricks and patching up cracks, but the bones of the building are breaking.


“It’s tantamount to putting a Band-Aid on a compound fracture,” Mulalu said.


“It was a matter of time.”


The city is accepting feedback on the development application until Monday.




jwilling@postmedia.com


twitter.com/JonathanWilling

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Man charged with first-degree murder 17 years after girl's death

Seventeen years after a teenaged Algonquin girl was beaten to death in her bedroom, the Sûreté du Québec have arrested a man and charged him with first-degree murder.


Rosianna Poucachiche, 17, was killed in her family’s home on the Lac-Rapide reserve on Oct. 10, 2000.


The reserve is on the west side of the Cabonga Reservoir, and is part of the territory of the Algonquins of Barrière Lake. It is also known as Rapid Lake.


The suspect is now 33, but cannot be identified because he was under the age of 18 at the time of the crime. Police said he was arrested at an outfitter south of the community of more than 600 people. 


The suspect, who also comes from Lac-Rapide, was scheduled to appear Friday at the Maniwaki courthouse to face a charge of first-degree murder.


Poucachiche’s family still lives in the community, and recent publicity over the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women had highlighted her death. Family members had publicly accused police of giving up on the investigation.


The Sûreté said it has a website dedicated to unsolved crimes in its jurisdiction at www.crimesnonresolus.com.


tspears@postmedia.com


twitter.com/TomSpears1


 

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