Elliot Lake rescue mission halted as collapsed mall deemed unsafe

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Chris Young/Canadian Press

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS
Monday, June 25, 2012 – Globe and Mail

Rescue crews have been called off the scene of a fatal mall collapse in Elliot Lake, Ontario: The structure is simply too dangerous to send people into.

Ontario Provincial Police and crews from Toronto’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue spent hours making their way through the rubble of the mall, which collapsed Saturday afternoon, killing at least one person and injuring more than 20.

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Radiohead’s touring company under scrutiny following fatal stage collapse

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Radiohead’s touring company is among four companies under scrutiny by Ontario’s Labour Ministry after a fatal collapse at Toronto’s Downsview Park crushed one man to death and injured three others.

The ministry has requested documents from four companies involved with the fatal stage collapse in an attempt to figure out exactly who’s responsible for the fallen structure.

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Radiohead ‘shattered’ after drum tech’s death in Toronto stage collapse

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June 18, 2012 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

A stage built to accommodate rock superstardom before a crowd of 30,000 takes a small army and several days to construct from the ground up. Dozens if not hundreds of crew members measure the exact location, lay concrete blocks as ballast and build up the raised floor, supports and a roof before trained riggers clamber up latticed scaffolding to suspend loudspeakers, lights and visual displays.

The stage set up for Radiohead’s Saturday show would have been right on schedule by late afternoon. The structure otherwise ready to go, the technical crew travelling with the band was doing final audio and lighting adjustments in preparation for a sound check.

It took seconds for the entire stage to crumple in on itself; white canopy laden with screens and lights tipping forward onto the stage, bringing scaffolding down with it.

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One dead as Toronto stage collapses before Radiohead concert

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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.

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Canadian researchers thwart Ebola virus

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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.

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

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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

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Eaton Centre shooting shakes Toronto’s sense of safety

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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.

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With Charles Taylor sentence, a warning to arms suppliers

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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.

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In Afganistan’s only bowling alley, Canadian escapist inspiration

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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.

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

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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.

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