Khadr’s lawyers ask court to demand decision on Guantanamo detainee’s return to Canada

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Janet Hamlin

Saturday, July 14 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Omar Khadr’s Canadian lawyers are asking a federal court to order Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to make up his mind on whether to bring the Canadian convict back to serve time in Canada.

In an application filed on Friday, John Norris and Brydie Bethell asked judges to review what they argue is an unreasonable delay in deciding on Mr. Khadr’s transfer application. The 25-year-old was eligible to return to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada as of October, 2011.

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Double-bunking in prisons not a problem for Vic Toews

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Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Thursday, July 12 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says he has no problem with the number of federal inmates sharing cells built for one.

And even as he reiterated his commitment to building 2,700 new cells in existing prison facilities, he said those additional units aren’t meant to alleviate the pressures caused by double-bunking – because there’s no need.

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Ontario urges feds not to allow generic OxyContin onto market

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Michelle Siu for the Globe and Mail

Saturday, July 7, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Ontario is “strongly urging” the federal government not to let generic brands of the popular painkiller OxyContin into Canada once Purdue Pharmaceuticals’ patent runs out this fall.

The expiration of Purdue’s OxyContin patent on Nov. 25 opens the door for other companies to manufacture cheaper generic versions of the controlled-release oxycodone. Purdue will continue to make a new, tamper-resistant patented drug – OxyNEO – introduced to replace OxyContin earlier this year.

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Police and cities face off over pay

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Friday, July 6, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Financial showdowns between police and the cities paying them can be nasty. And they’re getting nastier: Across Canada, budgetary games of chicken are playing out between cash-strapped cities and police forces that argue they’re taking on more than they ever have – and need the cash to back it.

The mayor of Peterborough, Ont., has been locked out of two meetings of the police board, on which he sits, after a rare move by council to reject a funding request and slice the force’s budget on its own. Reports this week suggested the board may have asked Ontario’s Civilian Police Commission to remove the mayor entirely.

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Telcos in talks with Ottawa to shape Internet ‘spy’ bill: documents

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Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Friday, June 29, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Public Safety Canada has been in close consultation with telecommunication companies over the logistics of Ottawa’s so-called Internet “snoop and spy” legislation – talks that dealt with who will shoulder the costs of pricey “intercept capabilities,” and whether it will even be feasible to monitor user behaviour in an increasingly complex “cloud-computing” environment.

The reams of e-mails, meeting and teleconference agendas, obtained by The Globe and Mail through an access to information request, indicate the talks extended more than a year prior to the government tabling its online surveillance bill in February.

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Elliot Lake mall collapse: Eastwood Mall and Peak Building Restoration

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In 2010, Peak Building Restoration & General Contracting went to court claiming that Bob Nazarian and Eastwood Mall Inc., the owners of Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall, owed Peak Restoration $741,157.01, having only paid part of the $ $823,657.01 bill for repairs and waterproofing to the Algo Centre’s rooftop parking lot in 2008.

(documents after the jump)

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Elliot Lake mall collapse: Partial record of Ministry of Labour visits to Algo Centre

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Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has released field reports for six of its visits to Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall. It isn’t clear how many other visits the ministry has made in the past.

The most recent field report, from January 2012, indicates recurrent leaking and plans by mall owner Bob Nazarian to find a permanent solution the following spring.

Elliot Lake mall collapse: A small town’s vital centre caves in

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Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Saturday, June 30, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ADRIAN MORROW, ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, JANE SWITZER and STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS

TORONTO and ELLIOT LAKE, ONT. — When the mines powering Elliot Lake wound down 20 years ago, the town’s mall was poised to go with them: Its tenants were leaving, its owners eager to sell and its maintenance issues well known.

But volunteers intent on keeping Elliot Lake going knew they needed a commercial centre for what they hoped to turn into a vital retirement community. They bought the mall with this in mind, and the Algo Centre, built for a far larger and more prosperous city, became the small town’s anomalous locus point.

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Elliot Lake mall collapse: As Premier promises transparency, safety records stay secret

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Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Friday, July 29, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, KAREN HOWLETT, STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS AND JANE SWITZER

TORONTO AND ELLIOT LAKE
Premier Dalton McGuinty is considering major changes to Ontario’s emergency response protocol as multiple investigations get under way in the wake of a fatal mall collapse.

But even as he promised full transparency for a grieving and frustrated community, the most basic information about who was checking to ensure Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall was structurally sound, and when they last checked, remained elusive.

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