Globe and Mail

One dead as Toronto stage collapses before Radiohead concert

amp Leave a comment

Alexandra Mihan/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Saturday, June 16, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY AND MATTHEW BRAGA

There was a popping crack, like the sound of fireworks, then an eerie silence as Erin Peacock watched the towering stage crumple in on itself, hardware-laden canopy tipping over towards the front end of the stage, taking reams of scaffolding down with it and leaving long sticks of twisted metal behind.

The stage collapse at Downsview Park hours before what was supposed to be a Radiohead concert crushed one man to death and injured three more. A 45-year-old man was still in hospital Saturday evening with non-life-threatening injuries. Two other men were treated for minor injuries on the scene and released. All of the victims were crew members setting up the stage, police said.

Continue reading →

Canadian researchers thwart Ebola virus

amp Leave a comment

 

Christopher Black/The Canadian Press

Thursday, June 14, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

A team of Canadian researchers has developed one of the most effective cures yet for the Ebola virus. That’s big news both for treating the deadliest virus on Earth and tackling myriad other similarly aggressive diseases.

The treatment, in which injections of protein-grabbing antibodies stop a virus from replicating, has the longest treatment window so far resulting in full recovery – a full day. There’s just one catch: It can take up to two weeks for symptoms of the disease to appear.

Continue reading →

Toronto’s gangs smaller, looser – but packing more heat

amp Leave a comment

Saturday, June 9, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Toronto’s organized crime is anything but.

The city’s gangs are smaller, their members more loosely organized than they were 20 years ago.

They’re also more lethal: The number of homicides classified as “gang-related” has risen since the 1990s. Last Saturday’s shooting at the Eaton Centre – while officially not gang-related in Toronto police lexicon – thrust into the limelight the sort of violence normally hidden in the city’s most blighted neighbourhoods.

The changes are driven by a combination of successful police crackdowns and deeper despair in the city’s poorest, increasingly isolated areas.

Interactive: Homicides, social housing and street crime in Toronto neighbourhoods

Continue reading →

Eaton Centre shooting shakes Toronto’s sense of safety

amp Leave a comment

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Monday June 4, 2012 – Globe and Mail

DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY AND ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

An eruption of gang violence in one of Toronto’s busiest crossroads – the Eaton Centre – has challenged the city’s reputation for downtown safety while drawing a promise from the mayor that “we’re going to apprehend this person, and we will convict this person.”

The gunman who fired on at least one intended target Saturday evening sprayed bullets across a crowded food court that is ringed with security cameras. Police said they have images of a suspect but did not release a description – an approach one retired homicide detective called an indication that an arrest may be imminent.

Continue reading →

With Charles Taylor sentence, a warning to arms suppliers

amp Leave a comment

 

Bassem Tallawi/Associated Press

Thursday May 31, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
For state strongmen and private corporations alike, Charles Taylor sentencing provides sober second thought about the weapons trade, observers hope

Arms suppliers, take note: Charles Taylor’s five-decade sentence means you’re responsible for atrocities committed with your weapons.

And the International Criminal Court wants experts at the University of British Columbia to help figure out what that means.

Continue reading →

In Afganistan’s only bowling alley, Canadian escapist inspiration

amp Leave a comment

Muhammed Muheisen/The Associated Press

Monday, May 28, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

There’s no shortage of strategies to improve life in Afghanistan. But this is the only one centred around rolling heavy neon balls down wooden lanes, sending white pins flying.

Faced with a hometown she couldn’t recognize, Meena Rahmani drew inspiration from her life as an immigrant in suburban Canada: She opened a bowling alley.

The Strikers is Afghanistan’s first and, so far, only bowling alley. If Ms. Rahmani has her way, it won’t be for long.

Continue reading →

As Canada shutters old prisons, its penal system is stretched to capacity

amp Leave a comment

Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/Globe and Mail

Thursday, May 10, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
Inmates in Canada’s federal prisons have been sleeping in trailers, interview rooms, family visiting spaces and gymnasiums, while the percentage of prisoners sharing cells built for one has nearly doubled in under three years, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The documents, obtained from access to information requests, suggest a penal system stretched to capacity. Canada’s prison population has been rising since 2005 after years of steady decline, growing 7 per cent between March 31, 2011 and May 1, 2012.

Part of the latest increase can be attributed to the government’s tough-on-crime agenda. At the same time, the government will lose 1,000 beds after it closes aging penal facilities such as Kingston Penitentiary and Leclerc Institution in Laval, Que., but says it will more than make up the difference with new units.

Continue reading →

Canadian doctor zeroes in on Ebola vaccine

amp Leave a comment

Gary Kobinger has been chasing vaccines since childhood.

Growing up in Quebec City in the early 1990s, he remembers being galvanized to action by documentaries about people infected with HIV-AIDS – back when the illness was still new, mysterious and terrifying.

“In my mind, as a teenager, this was unacceptable. So I decided this was where I would put my energy.”

Continue reading →

Ontario doctors still in the dark on drug database

amp Leave a comment

Remember back when Ontario rolled out an online narcotics-prescription database – one meant to track exactly who is prescribing what to whom? The idea is to prevent “double-doctoring” and ensuring that doctors, pharmacists and Health Ministry officials ensure that people who need drugs are getting them.

The database was in testing phase as of November, 2011 and was supposed to be operational early this year. But the people prescribing the drugs still can’t access it. That means they have no idea what other drugs a potential patient could be taking, or was taking. In some cases, it means patients can’t get the drugs they need.

Toronto doctor Irfan Dhalla said doctors still have no idea when they’re going to get in on this database – but they’d really, really like to.

Calls for supervised injection sites meet resistance in Ontario

amp 1 Comment

Photo by John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

Thursday, April 12, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

TORONTO — The battle over whether to give addicts a safe place to inject has moved to Ontario from the West Coast.

When the Supreme Court of Canada handed Vancouver’s supervised injection site a legal victory late last year by denying the federal government’s attempt to shutter it, many observers expected the ruling to give rise to similar sites across Canada.

Not so fast.

Continue reading →