#1 — CBC | Lillooet wildfire rages closer to town
A 33-square-kilometre blaze that’s forced thousands of residents in the town of Lillooet, B.C., out of their homes continued to spread Monday.
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CBC | Yukon wildfires prompt health warning
#2 — CBC | Montreal teacher gets 14 years in U.S. prison for sex crimes
A former teacher at an elite Montreal prep school was sentenced in Stafford, Va., Monday to 14 years in a U.S. prison for sex crimes involving children.
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#3 — Globe | Family of jailed Canadian pleads for Ottawa’s help
The frustrated family of Bashir Makhtal, sentenced yesterday to life in prison in Ethiopia, is demanding that Canada take action to motivate Addis Ababa to rethink its treatment of the Canadian citizen.
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#4 — Globe | Crown prosecutors call for legal aid reform
The Ontario government came under intensified pressure Monday to increase legal aid funding after several hundred Crown prosecutors joined their defence bar counterparts in warning that the 50-year-old program is crumbling.
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#5 — OC | Judgment day nears for mayor
OTTAWA-At 10 a.m. tomorrow, Justice Douglas Cunningham, associate chief justice of Ontario’s Superior Court, will enter courtroom 37 at the Elgin Street courthouse.
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#6 — MG | Bombardier lands $159M order for Q400s
MONTREAL – Bombardier Inc. said Monday it has bolstered its Q400 NextGen turboprop backlog with a firm order for five aircraft worth $159 million U.S. from an unidentified airline client.
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#7 — Star | It’s fun, fun, fun – till Daddy posts the video on YouTube
MONTREAL–Parents who let their 7-year-old son drive a car along a bumpy back road in Quebec and filmed it, and posted it on YouTube could be charged if they are caught by provincial police.
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#2- A former teacher at an elite Montreal prep school was sentenced in Stafford, Va., Monday to 14 years in a U.S. prison for sex crimes involving children.
I wonder what kind of sentence a Canadian judge would have ordered?
#3- “The time for diplomacy is done,” said Said Maktal. “I believe this is the time we need to take action.”
I wonder what kind of action is appropriate for someone like Bashir Ahmed Maktal who was born in Ethiopia, came to Canada as a “refugee” and then somehow ends up fleeing into Kenya to escape a violent clash between Ethiopian government troops and a Somalian Islamic militia. I mean, seriously… doesn’t that happen to you guys every other week?
#4- Most experienced defence lawyers across the province are boycotting homicide cases and those involving guns and gang laws until the top rate for legal aid counsel is raised well above the current plateau of $98 an hour.
Does this mean gangsters will have to pay for their own lawyers? Gosh, what a shame.
#5- Only the judge knows what he has concluded. But many observers believe a finding of not guilty on both of the overlapping charges is most likely.
I hope O’Brien is found not guilty… and I hope he subsequently fires a number of the supposedly non-political staffers in City Hall. From those who applauded when O’Brien’s defence motion to terminate the trial was denied to the wizards who provided the “cost savings analysis” to the media (detailing how much money the city was saving by not having a mayor sitting), it’s very obvious some City Hall staffers aren’t happy with O’Brien. I feel it’s only appropriate that O’Brien show his appreciation of their efforts.