Newfoundland soccer field stabbing case adjourned until Nov. 20

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A 19-year-old man charged in connection with the stabbing of a boy on a Newfoundland soccer field is due back in court Nov. 20.

Nicholas Layman is undergoing a 60-day psychiatric assessment after the attack Sept. 25 in Conception Bay South, N.L.

An 11-year-old boy spent several days in hospital and is recovering from the attack.

Layman is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

The incident horrified children and parents who were at the field near St. John’s for an evening soccer clinic.

Doreen Layman said outside court that her son has only recently developed mental health issues and that the family tried to get help for him.

Heavy security as Israel reopens Jerusalem holy site

A Palestinian woman shouts at Israeli policemen in the old city of Jerusalem on October 30, 2014 after Israeli authorities temporarily closed the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site but also the most sacred place in Judaism. The site was reopened Friday under heavy security. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images

JERUSALEM — Israel has reopened a contested Jerusalem holy site and deployed hundreds of security personnel amid rising tensions in the city.

Muslim worshippers on Friday made their way through a welter of Israeli checkpoints to the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

Police said that Muslim men over the age of 50 and women of all ages could attend the weekly prayers.

Israel closed the site after security forces shot and killed a Palestinian man suspected of attempting to assassinate a hard-line Jewish activist who advocates giving Jews greater access to the site.

Israeli-American rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot three times late Wednesday but his condition is now said to be improving.

Palestinians had condemned the closure as a “declaration of war.”

The impact of numerology over the names

Whenever an infant is born into a family, it’s a norm to first assess him/her with a name. The name of a person is just not a word to be referred to them but actually is the definition, a description of their personality and the briefing of their traits. It should be made very sure that while naming a person all the necessary measures are taken care of. They say that labeling of a product is done properly to define the quality of that product. The same theory can be applied upon assessing names to the young ones too. The better the name the more illustrative would be the definition.

 

While a lot of people who believe in ancestry, name their children on the basis of their legacy or the family trees, while others who believe in Numerology have different opinions. The people who believe in numerology work and practice a lot with numbers before naming their kids. In numerology each letter of your name is said to have an individual corresponding number. Cornerstone is said to be the first letter in your name while capstone is said to be the last one. Under Numerology the first vowel is also given sheer importance, as it is said to fulfill all your urges and dreams in life. Each and every letter in this section has a meaning of its own and preparing a name with all those combine meaningful letters will eventually make out the best desired result. The sum of the numbers in your birth date and the sum of numbers you make out while naming a person displays a great deal in the character, the future, the strengths and the weakness of an individual. Numerology helps in standing and fighting against all these weaknesses and odds. Believers say that numerology make you achieve whatever you want in life, and not just infants, a lot of people change their names in the later stages of their life too after realizing the problems they are suffering in their lives and in order to fight against them. This concept of Numerology was initially brought up by the Babylonians but gradually everyone started practicing it and eventually it became so popular and effective that now it is practiced across almost all over the world. There might be no scientific proofs about the authenticity of these numerology charts, but people still have faith in ample numbers about the relationship of words and numbers.

 

People also believe that in Numerology the on goings and the redemption is based upon three major factors; the date of birth, the name given to you on your birth and the name you use currently. The third factor can well be managed according to the needs and necessary requirements by the Numerology charts. There are ways to work over your names even if you’re a grown up in order to get over the grey shades you are going through in your personal lives. So everyone needs to go through that Numerology chart while assessing their young ones with new names.

 

Browse through name meaning, rankings, other people's comments, ratings, and other statistics in addition to the name meanings.

 

Video of dishevelled man playing street piano gets nearly two million hits

By Chris Purdy

EDMONTON — All she knows is that his name is Ryan and he plays the piano like an angel.

Roslyn Polard was on her way home from a work meeting last week in downtown Edmonton when she heard beautiful music and turned to see a dishevelled man hunched over a battered street piano.

The melody carried her, smiling, across the street. Then she suddenly stopped.

“I thought, no, I’ve got to go back. I’ve got to listen to that … it was absolutely beautiful.”

A man plays a piano in this still image taken from a video Roslyn Polard shot on her cellphone in Edmonton and posted it on YouTube, where it has since garnered nearly two million hits. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Roslyn Polard-YouTube

The federal government worker approached the man, dressed in sweat pants and a dirty jacket, and who had a mop of dark hair. She said he was glad to meet her, happy to have an audience.

He played another song that he told her he’d written himself, then a few more. Polard pulled out her cellphone and pushed record.

“There were three other ladies who ended up stopping. They all had tears in their eyes,” Polard said.

“I didn’t know if my camera would capture that emotion, but clearly it did.”

Polard posted the two-minute video on Facebook and, after much insistence, on YouTube, where it had attracted nearly two million hits by Thursday afternoon.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson highlighted the video on Twitter.

The YouTube version now has ads attached and is making money that Polard wants to give to the piano prodigy.

But she hasn’t seen him since that amazing outdoor concert.

Some people have posted other videos of the same man playing piano. Some say they believe he has been homeless for years.

One woman who contacted Polard on Facebook described how she sat and talked with the man for an hour one day. Samantha McLeod said she learned that he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident and taught himself to play.

“He’s a really nice guy,” said McLeod. “Broken, but so nice.”

Lance Beswick with Boyle Street Community Services, an Edmonton agency that aids the poor and homeless, said Ryan was a client but hasn’t been helped since last year.

Polard doesn’t know how much money the video has made so far, but she said she plans to save the cash and give it to the piano player if she should see him again.

She said she hopes the video teaches people a lesson about judging others.

“You just never know who’s an artist or not,” she said.

“I think that’s the message. You just don’t know people. And we all do that — we look at people and we think we do. And we really, really don’t.

“Everybody has their story.”

Doctors from across Canada take Top to Bottom challenge to raise funds for colon cancer research

Dr. Zane Cohen, an internationally recognized colorectal surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital, is seen in a press conference in Toronto on Sept. 11, 2014. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press

Forty doctors from across the country are pitched in a friendly battle against one another to raise funds to support colon cancer research. Top to Bottom is Colon Cancer Canada’s (CCC) third annual fundraising challenge. Launched Oct. 14, the campaign aims to publicly recognize the work that local physicians do each year and highlight the importance of early colorectal cancer screening.

Awareness is something Dr. Zane Cohen, colorectal surgeon and Rob Ford’s leading physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, is adamant about. He says because colon cancer isn’t a “sexy disease,” it’s not talked about often enough. Indeed, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers) — and while the recovery rate is up to 90 per cent if detected early, nearly half of patients are diagnosed too late.

“We want to make people aware of family histories. If you have a relatively young parent, or sibling, with colon cancer you may be at a slightly increased risk as well,” Dr. Cohen says.

Amy Elmaleh and her aunt Bunnie Schwartz co-founded CCC after losing two family members to colon cancer. They wanted to raise awareness about the disease and sought out the help of Dr. Cohen, who had been one of Schwartz’s husband’s doctors. “It’s become abundantly aware that there are so many people in this community that need to be aware there is support,” Elmaleh says.

Dr. Cohen helped the family get in touch with the colon cancer community and kick-start the campaign. With his help, CCC established a partnership with the department of surgery at the University of Toronto. Now, 75 per cent of donations from Toronto Top to Bottom are put towards masters or PhD research on new innovations in colon cancer research and care. The money specifically goes toward a scholarship fund through the University of Toronto’s Bernard and Ryna Langer Chair.

During the first year of the Top to Bottom campaign, Dr. Cohen went head-to-head in an online challenge with Dr. Andy Smith, Sunnybrook’s executive vice-president and chief medical executive, to see who could raise the most money. It’s an innovative challenge that eschews the traditional fundraising methods — gala dinners, silent auctions — in favour of directly contributing to medical communities across the country.

“People are always looking for a way to thank their doctors. They want to do something instead of sending a bottle of wine, or a box of chocolates. (Top to Bottom) is a way people can publicly thank their doctors — they make a donation in their honour,” Elmaleh says.

What started as a two-city challenge has now expanded to six cities across Canada: Calgary, London, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. With little more than two weeks remaining in this year’s campaign, Team Toronto — which includes Dr. Cohen — has already earned more than $116,000.

In total, more than $700,000 has been raised to help fund local research projects.

Den Tandt: France is looking for a seat at the defence procurement table

PARIS — Europe, led by France, wants a seat at Canada’s defence procurement table. It’s a not-unreasonable request, given that the prize being sought, as French President Francois Hollande prepares for his first state visit to Canada Sunday, is merely a level playing field, as opposed to the stacked deck that has so often characterized this country’s military purchases.

In an exclusive interview with Postmedia News, Hervé Guillou, who heads France’s majority state-owned military shipbuilder, DCNS, said the company is “keen and eager” to begin discussions with Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, with a view to offering both a design and combat systems for the new Canadian navy, a $26-billion project unveiled with some fanfare by the Conservative government in October of 2011.

“We have no real limits into what we can offer in technology transfer,” Guillou said. “And we can build in fact, completely, this ship in Canada. With any partners that (the) Canadian government would appoint for this program.”

DCNS is not alone in its ambitions: A who’s who of major French defence firms including Dassault, Thales and MBDA, are champing at the bit to bid on Canadian defence procurements. At stake is not just the disposition of the new Canadian naval fleet, which is to eventually replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s antiquated Halifax and Iroquois-class ships, but a generational rebuild of Canada’s heaviest military gear, with jet fighters and frigates the biggest-ticket items. The total projected price tag over the next two decades alone, as cited in last year’s Jenkins Report, is $240 billion.

A DCNS worker stands in the company’s naval shipyard in Lorient, France. (Erwan Cate/crowdmedia)

There’s just one small obstacle in the way of this gigantic tranche of spending being managed in a manner that guarantees competitive bids and best value for tax dollars: The Harper government has yet to decide whether it wishes to welcome the world to the barn-raising, or keep the lion’s share of this work “in-house,” that is to say within North America, by permitting the Defence Department to continue to rely, as it has long done, on long-established relationships with U.S. contractors — the most prominent of which is Lockheed-Martin.

A decision that will determine whether the combat systems on the new frigates are effectively sole-sourced to Lockheed, or put up for competition, is expected to come from cabinet any day. This will have profound implications, for the simple reason that such systems and their integration comprise the lion’s share of the value of a modern warship — 60 per cent or more. De facto, if you do the math, Ottawa is in the process of quietly determining whether just under $16-billion in federal government contracts are put up for bids, or not.

In a lengthy interview with Postmedia News, Guillou stressed that he believes the decision is entirely the Canadian government’s to make. However, he made no secret of his preference. “This is a go-no-go decision for us,” he said. “If (the) Canadian government decides to go sole-source, I don’t see what we can honestly bring in this strategy.” DCNS clearly believes it has what Canada needs, in its FREMM multi-purpose frigate: A proven, state-of-the-art design, ships already in the water (one for the Moroccan navy, three for the French, with eight more on order and five being built now in Lorient, in Western France), and more than three centuries’ of continuous shipbuilding experience. Left unsaid is that Canada has not designed and built a new warship since the 1980s; doing this from scratch would mean, well, doing it from scratch.

The DCNS naval shipyard in Lorient, France. (Erwan Cate/crowdmedia)

Over the course of several days spent at Euronaval 2014, one of the world’s largest defence-industry bazaars, a similar story emerged from different industry players who deal regularly with Canada: They hope for a fair process but are uncertain of the government’s intentions, and are leery of DND’s traditional preference for Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon, its industrial partner. Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally intervened recently to settle a dispute between Defence and Treasury Board, over whether to spend $800 million on next-generation “smart” missiles for the navy’s Halifax-class frigates. The decision? A sole-source nod to Raytheon.

At issue are two approaches to procurement, defined by buzzwords that sound similar but in fact mean quite different things. The first, “Most Qualified Team,” denotes a single supplier’s being selected based on past work, perceptions of reliability, and other factors that do not include a competition. The second, “Most Capable Design,” denotes a process whereby two opposing bids are chosen from among several, based on a statement of requirements. The final bids are refined over a period of a year or more, before a contractor is selected.

“If you compete on a design, you have really to offer against a capability requirement,” said Guillou, “and the navy can have several solutions in front of them. So this is for us in terms of competition and best value for money, the privileged route. If you take a team you are sole-source. If you take only one team it cannot be anything else than a local team. And local can be only Canadian and U.S.”

In addition to Lockheed-Martin and DCNS, BAE of the United Kingdom, TKMS of Germany and Finmeccanica of Italy could potentially bid to provide the combat systems of the new frigates, industry sources say, if allowed to do so.

The DCNS naval shipyard in Lorient, France. (Erwan Cate/crowdmedia)

So the strategic calculus for Harper this coming week, as he sits down for an intimate chat with his “close friend and ally,” Hollande, will be simply this: Can Canada warmly embrace France as a strategic and economic partner, while simultaneously denying French and other European companies the opportunity to bid fair and square on important Canadian government projects?

The logical answer would appear to be no. DCNS’s Guillou, for his part, hopes to have an answer soon. “If the right decision is made, really, we are looking forward to working very closely with Canadian companies . . . and we are very keen to become ourselves a Canadian company,” he said.

Blatchford: Canada as good, as tender and as ferocious as the best of her soldiers after death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo

Pallbearers carry the coffin of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo out of Christ's Church Cathedral after his funeral service in Hamilton. Photo: Frank Gunn/ Canadian Press

HAMILTON, Ont. — It was his commanding officer, Lt.-Col. Lawrence Hatfield, who said it best, before his handsome face crumpled just a little: “The attributes of his character have illuminated our fair land.”

And so they have: The same qualities that made Cpl. Nathan Cirillo such a wonderful member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a storied reserve regiment whose members take pride in having a certain style, also lit up the country he died serving.

From the people who attended to Cirillo as he lay dying at the National War Memorial last Wednesday to the Hamiltonians who lined the route of the funeral parade to the political leaders who came quiet and stricken to Christ’s Church Cathedral, Canada was for these few days a nation as good, as tender and as ferocious as the best of her soldiers.

The 24-year-old, a son of this tough proud city, was shot in the back last week as he stood guard, his weapon unloaded, over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the memorial in Ottawa.

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RELATED

Maher: Cpl. Nathan Cirillo sendoff worthy of his sacrifice 
The full text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech
Photos: The funeral service’s most captivating pictures
——-

He was buried Tuesday with full military honours at a private service for the members of his two families, the one he was born into and the larger one he joined as a part-time soldier.

Between the two, they ensured that the young man was never left alone until the bitter end, his body accompanied by a rotating two-person honour guard at all times until he was put in the ground.

The interment at Woodlands Cemetery, in a field of honour reserved for veterans and overlooked by a Canadian flag at half-staff and enormous maple trees, was attended only by Cirillo’s kin and his regimental family.

Kathy Cirillo is comforted in front of the coffin of her son Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at his regimental funeral service in Hamilton, Ont., on Oct. 28, 2014. Cirillo was standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa last Wednesday when he was killed by a gunman who went on to open fire on Parliament Hill.  NATHAN DENETTE/THE CANADIAN PRESS

He left behind his five-year-old son Marcus, who wore a miniature Argylls’ cap and looked preternaturally sombre, his parents, Kathy and Victor, and two sisters Natasha and Nicole.

They proved themselves as fierce as any soldier, Hatfield said afterwards, in a private moment. The wounded regiment, he said, “has fed off Kathy’s strength” in particular during these last days.

And Cirillo’s sister Nicole, pregnant and due any day now, insisted on walking every centimetre of the route from the Argylls’ commemorative pavilion on Hamilton Harbour to the church.

The funeral procession drove into the cemetery on a road lined with soldiers in kilted Argyll dress and white spats, and was preceded by the regiment’s pipes and drums, gone quiet but for a single drum. The hearse itself was accompanied by a walking honour guard, with the remainder of the Argylls doing a slow march behind.

The only sound was the drum and the occasional barked order addressed to “Argyll mourners!”

As a rifle party fired three volleys into the air, Marcus and another little boy, perhaps a cousin, stuck their fingers in their ears.

Marcus Cirillo, son of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, waves a flag out of a car window. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power

Perhaps someday, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the crowd in the church, Marcus will understand that “our entire country looks up to his Dad with pride, gratitude and deep abiding respect.”

Piper Jazz Kersell, who is the same age as Cirillo and was a friend, played a graveside lament, the chaplain said a few words, the Canadian flag covering the casket was ceremonially folded and presented to the family, and then the immediate relatives, Kathy Cirillo now almost staggering with grief, left.

But still, the regimental family didn’t go.

In pairs, they approached the casket, saluted smartly, then removed their poppies and placed them, as best they could in the whipping wind, on the gleaming wood. A tradition born of respect, it also seemed to have another quiet purpose, to delay the inevitable separation between living and fallen.

Kathy Cirillo, top left, and Marcus Cirillo, right, and family members attend the regimental funeral service for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Hamilton, Ont. NATHAN DENETTE/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Cirillo, Hatfield said at the church, was a strong man — physically of course, for he was the regiment’s champion of unarmed combat, which is “not for the faint of heart” — but also where it really matters. His inner strength, the commanding officer said, showed itself in his warm and radiant smile, now so familiar to his countrymen, and in his willingness to enter the fray.

He had “humanity, morale, compassion and style,” Hatfield said, and best of all, certainly for an Argyll, he “was irreverent, happy-go-lucky, tolerant of others in his own bemused way, happy and satisfied …

“He was loyal, tough, loving and true,” Hatfield said.

“His family knew it. His regiment knew it. And now Canadians know it.”

They may also know the truth of what the prime minister said, that “the only values really worth living for are those worth dying for.”

Put another way, as the Argylls’ regimental historian Robert (Doc) Fraser said, and he was quoting one of the Argylls’ greatest wartime leaders, David Stewart, his job was “to save lives and get a job done,” a quintessentially unpretentious Canadian way of describing battle, and duty.

cblatchford@postmedia.com

Cpl. Nathan Cirillo given sendoff worthy of his sacrifice

HAMILTON, Ont. – The city of Hamilton, Ont. did its best to see Cpl. Nathan Cirillo laid to rest with appropriate honours on Tuesday.

In the days since Cirillo was gunned down in front of the National War Memorial, the people of the Hammer garlanded their city in Maple Leafs, piled bouquets in front of the Armouries until the air there smelled of roses.

On Tuesday, they lined the streets, somber and quiet, to respectfully watch the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders march from the Argyll Commemorative Pavilion at Bayfront Park to Christ’s Church Cathedral, where Cirillo was honoured by his regiment and his country.

——–
RELATED
The full text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech
Photos: The funeral service’s most captivating pictures
——-

It was moving to see the people standing and watching the procession pass. Thousands of people — all ages and races, men and women, many parents with their children — took time from their lives to bear witness to Cirillo’s procession.

Firefighters, police, serving members of the Canadian Forces saluted as the procession passed.

It was sad to see soldiers struggle to contain their tears as they saluted their fallen comrade.

The procession was very thoughtfully and beautifully put together.

At the front, looking proud and somber in their highland dress uniforms marched two rows of Argyles.

Behind them, a pipe band played When the Battle is Over, the skirl of the pipes and rattle of the snare drums raising the hairs on the back of everybody’s necks.

It’s a tune the regiment has been playing on sad occasions since before the First World War.

March no more my soldier laddie,
There is peace where there once was war.
Sleep in peace my soldier laddie,
Sleep in peace, now the battle’s over.

Behind the pipe band, there was a gun carriage bearing the flag-draped casket of Cirillo, flanked by an honour guard of his comrades, stoic and intent on their mission.

Behind, flanked by soldiers, were family members.

It was sad to see Cirillo’s poor mother, Katherine, suffering, but it was moving to see her lean on the shoulders of strong soldiers as she walked. They gathered round her when the procession stopped, and spoke to her, and it was absolutely quiet, nothing piercing the silence but the thrum of helicopters overhead and the rhythmic beat of a drum.

Cirillo’s son, Marcus, who at five can scarcely understand what he has lost, had the support of family members, and will have the support of donations to standonguardfund.com from across Canada in the years ahead.

He walked behind his father’s casket, wearing the hat of the regiment, with its red and white checkerboard pattern, holding hands with family until he got tired and was carried along.

Laren Rohrer, a good friend of Nathan Cirillo, went to watch funeral procession Tuesday Oct 28 in a shirt she and her friends made to honour their friend.

Laren Rohrer, a close friend of Cirillo, watched the procession wearing a T-shirt bearing his photo in dress uniform, a poppy and the words: REST IN PEACE NATHAN CIRILLO 1989-2014.

Rohrer was tight with Cirillo. He set her up with an ex-boyfriend, for instance, and they used to go to clubs together.

She was calm on Tuesday, intent on bearing witness.

“He was a very kind man, very generous, very nurturing, very loving,” she said. “He was just all round a gentleman, a kind, loving man. Everyone knew him and everybody loved him. And now, the entire country’s behind him.”

She said it means a lot to her, and it would to Cirillo, the way Canadians have come together to honour him.

“I come from a long line of military family,” she said. “It definitely means a lot. Nathan was very much an attention seeker. Every club that we ever went to together, everyone knew Nathan. “

She said, with warmth and affection, that Cirillo was a “womanizer, through and through.”

Rohrer has taken comfort from a Canadian Press story that told how Barbara Winters, a lawyer who happened to be nearby as he was shot, comforted him in his last moments.

“He was in his glory the day that he passed,” said Rohrer. “He had a kind army man next to his heart. He had a woman whispering in his ear that he was loved. His family loves him. His friends love him. That’s what Nathan would have wanted. He always wanted to find true love. And he had a woman saying so right at his last moment.”

Rohrer said she keeps reading it again and again.

“Knowing that, there is hope for humanity,” she said. “For a perfect complete stranger to (go to) somebody, that she would go out of her way and help, it meant a lot.”

Inside Christ’s Church Cathedral, the Rev. Canon Rob Fead referred to Cirillo as “Canada’s son,”

“His bravery, his sacrifice, is not in vain,” he told the invited guests, the hundreds more watching on screens at the First Ontario Centre arena nearby, and a national TV audience.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, accompanied by his wife Laureen, joined in the tributes to the slain soldier, making note of the “heart-wrenching irony” that he was killed at the National War Memorial, in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“These monuments remind us that freedom is never free,” he said. “It has been earned by the soldier, and then donated to all of us.”

Jenny Holland, Cirillo’s cousin, spoke on behalf of the family, remembering him as a “kid at heart.”

Soldiers, veterans and members of the public all said that the event was well done, and they seemed emotionally relieved as the streets cleared out following the service.

Mike Boudrias (left) and two friends drove from Meaford, Ont., to witness the funeral procession of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Hamilton on Tuesday, Oct 28. They are with the organization Canadian Veteran Freedom Riders.

Mike Boudrias, of the Canadian Veteran Freedom Riders, came in from Meaford, Ont., near Owen Sound, to watch the procession.

“Very emotional,” he said. “Very moving. It’s a point in history that we hope no one will ever forget in this country. Very very moving. Could almost cry right now.”

He wanted to be sure to mention Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, who was struck down in an ISIS-inspired hit-and-run attack on Oct. 20.

“It’s just amazing to see the number of Canadians who are paying their respects to Cpl. Cirillo,” said Boudrias. “And let’s not forget Warrant Officer Vincent. Although this is an event for Cpl. Cirillo, we think of both soldiers at the same time.”

Vincent’s funeral will be held on Saturday at Cocathedrale Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue in Longueuil, Que.

Video analysis: Election night with Rob Ford … and Doug, too

The reaction for Rob Ford – a winner on election night – was strong at the Ford election night party. The crowd’s feel for Doug Ford, well the National Post’s Matt Gurney found it a little different.

Doug Ford makes his concession speech following his loss to John Tory. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gets a kiss from his wife Renata. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)

Rob Ford speaks to supporters after winning his seat on city council. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)

Doug Ford lost the election, but the Fords still have a war to win

Doug Ford has lost his bid to replace his brother as mayor of Toronto, but for a family that seems to view themselves as a dynasty, there’s still a war to be won.

Although Doug lost to John Tory, current Mayor Rob Ford won back his old seat in Etobicoke’s Ward 2, often called the heart of Ford Nation. Despite having only put his name in the race at the last possible moment, despite not being able to campaign a full strength due to his cancer diagnosis and despite deciding he was too ill to be mayor but perfectly fine to be a councillor, Mayor Ford garnered 58 per cent of the vote. The next closest candidate had just 11 per cent support.

And then, of course, there was the months-long scandal involving substance abuse, alleged drunk driving and accusations of conflicts of interest that time and time again failed to discourage the mayor’s most passionate supporters.

In his victory speech on Monday night, Mayor Ford made it clear that his brother’s loss was merely a temporary setback.

“We, today, gotta start working for November of 2018,” said Rob.

“If you know anything about the Ford family, folks, if you know anything about the Ford family, we never, ever, ever give up.”

Rob Ford consoles his brother. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)

He was even more candid with the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, saying “I will be running for mayor in four years” and that he “will be the first person to sign up in 2018.”

There’s also the freshest face in the Ford clan: 20-year-old Michael Ford.

The son of Rob and Doug’s sister Kathy, on Monday night Michael won the position of public school board Trustee in Ward 1. He received 43.7 per cent of the vote despite that, like the mayor, he only switched to the ballot hours before deadline. He had been running as councillor in Ward 2 but made the change when Uncle Rob joined in.

In her book Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story, journalist Robyn Doolittle wrote the Fords see themselves as the Canadian Kennedys — a family with the desire to pick and choose who among them will rise to power. Even as Doug took over the bid for mayor, his words were always “we” and “our administration,” seeing no difference between himself and his brother, save a drug scandal or two.

The Fords may not have managed to win the mayor’s office again, but they are clearly determined to remain an enduring force in Toronto politics.

Expert panel urges Canadian doctors to stop screening men for prostate cancer

Clipboard with prostate examination form. Photo: Postmedia News file

A national expert panel is recommending doctors stop screening men for prostate cancer.

The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care says there is no evidence that PSA screening reduces overall death from prostate cancer among men of any age, most cancers detected are slow growing and as many as 56 per cent of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer are over diagnosed — meaning the cancer never would have caused symptoms or killed the man during his lifetime.

Over diagnosis exposes men to needless treatments that can lead to impotence, incontinence and other complications of radiation or surgery, the task force warns in new guidelines to be published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Overall, the controversial screening tests results in only a 0.1 per cent reduction in death from prostate cancer, the task force found.

The PSA, or prostate specific antigen test, measures a protein produced by the prostate gland. The higher the man’s blood PSA levels, the more likely he is thought to have cancer. Many doctors recommend an annual PSA starting at age 50.

But even higher-than-normal PSA counts don’t necessarily mean the man has prostate cancer, and cancer can be present even with low PSA levels.

The recommendations apply to men in the general population. Those at increased risk of developing, and dying from prostate cancer include black men and men with a family history of the disease.

The task force says doctors should discuss the benefits and harms of screening higher risk men.

Symptoms of prostate cancer can include weak urinary flow, an urgent need to urinate, frequent urination during the day and especially at night and blood in the urine.

Introduced in the 1990s, the PSA test was originally meant to help monitor men diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. But it’s use quickly spread to include screening healthy men as well.

Before the PSA test, “we didn’t really have anything, except for the digital rectal examination,” said Dr. Neil Bell, chair of the task force’s working group on prostate cancer screening and a professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Alberta.

“It was a nice blood test you could do and hopefully it would tell you that the men you were screening were at risk for prostate cancer or not,” he said. But the test was widely adopted before there was any good evidence supporting using it as a screening tool.

Most prostate cancers have a good prognosis, and the survival rate is the highest among all cancers in men. Overall, about 95 per cent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will survive at least 10 years.

About 14 per cent of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime, but fewer than four per cent of men will die from the disease.

The national task force, which is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, “looked at the evidence for the harms and benefits of PSA screening and decided that it’s not a good thing to do,” said Bell.

Overall, the task force found that for every 1,000 men screened, 102 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. But 33 of these 102 prostate cancers would not have caused illness or death.

As well, five men will die from prostate cancer despite undergoing PSA screening, while one man will escape death from prostate cancer because of screening.

Overall, the task force recommends:

• In men younger than 55, and men 70 and older, the task force strongly recommends against screening with the PSA test.

• For men aged 55 to 69 — the core age group — the task force also recommends not screening. The panel says there may be a “small but uncertain” reduction in the risk of dying from prostate cancer by screening men in this age group, but there is also a high risk of false-positives, unnecessary biopsies and over diagnosis.

“There is some potential benefit, but we’re concerned about the harms,” Bell said.

The harms come in not from the blood test, but from what happens after the blood test comes back, he said.

Men who screen above a certain PSA threshold are often sent for a biopsy. A biopsy involves taking multiple samples from the prostate. “Sometimes they do six, sometimes they do 12. In some places they’ve gone up to 32 cores,” Bell said.

Minor biopsy-related complications can include bleeding and infections, but about two per cent of men end up hospitalized with major complications, and about one to two per 1,000 die within 120 days of having their biopsy, Bell said.

“If you screen positive on the biopsy, you could be a candidate for surgery, radiation or hormonal therapy.” Surgery and radiation can cause erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. There is also now growing concern over whether hormone therapy also increases the risk of heart disease “because it’s a fairly potent dose of drugs that are given,” Bell said.

The risk of prostate cancer increases with age. By the time men reach age 60 or 70, “well over half or more would have something in their prostate you could diagnose as cancer,” Bell said.

However, “The majority of these men will never suffer any complications or symptoms from this disease — they will die from something else before they die from prostate cancer.”

For some men, screening “comes down to your values and preferences,” Bell said. “We recommend against screening, but there may be some men who value that small benefit” of one life saved for every 1,000 men screened, “and who aren’t so worried about the harms,” he said.

The new Canadian guidelines are similar to those produced by a U.S. task force two years ago. Australia also recommends against routine PSA screening.

skirkey@postmedia.com

‘Please, please elect this man': John Oliver begs Toronto to vote Doug Ford

Last Week Tonight host John Oliver asks Toronto voters to give the rest of the year four more years of Ford-related comedy.

John Oliver has a message for Toronto voters heading to the polls Monday: elect Doug Ford as mayor.

The Last Week Tonight host ended his satire program Sunday night with an appeal “on behalf of the rest of the world” for Toronto to continue providing late-night comedy fodder by electing the brother of Mayor Rob Ford — even if most Torontonians are ready to move on from the circus.

Oliver recounted some of the politician’s recent missteps on the campaign trail, including the bizarre claim that his wife is Jewish and allegedly calling a Toronto Star reporter a “little bitch,” and concluded another Ford mayoralty was simply too good to pass up.

“Please, please elect this man. Sure, his brother was fun but a certain point we felt bad laughing at him, whereas Doug Ford doesn’t have a drug problem — he’s just an asshole,” said Oliver.

“So please, Toronto, I beg you: Let us laugh at your asshole for another four years.”

Although Oliver (and many other late-night talk show hosts) may have their hearts set on “Ford more years,” it seems very unlikely another Ford will occupy the mayor’s chair. According to most recent polls, the race is John Tory’s to lose. The former businessman and leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives was polling at about 42 per cent going into election day; Ford had the support of some 32 per cent while former NDP MP Olivia Chow came in third with 23 per cent, according to polling analysis site ThreeHundredEight.com.

Polls are open Monday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

‘You need evil to bring out the good ‘

A child traces the name of Nathan Cirillo on a poster at a small candlelight vigil on Sunday that was held in Corktown Park, the neighbourhood where Cirillo lived, in Hamilton, Ont. 26, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power

HAMILTON, Ont. — On Wednesday night, after the attack, I tracked down the Twitter account of one of the Canadians fighting for the caliphate in a desert far away.

The misguided or demented young man, whose name I won’t share with you, was tweeting celebratory messages. He expressed glee, for instance, when Wednesday night’s Sens-Bruins game was called off. I think that’s as good as it’s going to get for buddy. I expect that if he lives long enough — and I don’t care either way — he’ll realize that himself.

Because for all the fear and suffering that resulted from Wednesday’s shooting, it hasn’t made us fearful or hateful, and it doesn’t look like it will.

In fact, it gave people opportunities to do things that matter — to be brave or strong or compassionate or wise — to show us what we are made of.

Consider the tragic death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was standing guard in his kilt on a sunny Ottawa morning one moment and breathing his last on the ground the next.

His friends and family members arrived somber-faced Sunday evening for a private visitation at Markey Dermody Funeral Home in Hamilton. There will be a public visitation from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday. He will be laid to rest in a full regimental funeral at Christ’s Church Cathedral at noon on Tuesday.

Cirillo’s death tore a terrible hole of suffering and loss that will never fully heal for his loved ones, his little son especially, but it also brought out good things in many people, and they, and we, get to think about them, and remember what good we are capable of.

It starts with Brandon Stevenson, the soldier standing next to Cirillo standing guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier that afternoon. After Cirillo was shot, Stevenson tried to chase the shooter down, although the rifles he and Cirillo were carrying were unloaded.

People sign a book of condolences outside the Markey-Dermody Funeral Home in Hamilton, Ontario, on Sunday, Oct. 26. Photo: The Canadian Press

According to the heartbreaking account of Cirillo’s last moments written by Laura Eggertson, a soldier — I don’t know if it was Stevenson or another — administered first aid to Cirillo, telling him: “You’re doing good, you’re doing good, buddy. You’re breathing — keep breathing.”

Barbara Winters, a former naval reservist with first aid training who just happened to walk past at the moment of the shooting, was kneeling next to Cirillo, trying to save his life.

She recited thel Lord’s Prayer for him, held him and told him how much he was loved.

And think of Kaz Nejatian, a former Jason Kenney staffer, who set up StandOnGuardFund.com, a website to raise money for the families of Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, who was killed in Quebec.

And think of 1,971 Canadians who donated $165,495 to that fund as of Sunday night, so that those families, for all they have lost, will not want for money in the painful days ahead.

And think of the soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment who took Cirillo’s place on Friday.

And think of the people who stood in line to place flowers on the memorial, so many flowers that the thing looked like a wreath, not a monument.

Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, died after being shot at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa. Photo: Facebook

Then think of all the people who lined the Highway of Heroes as Cirillo’s comrades drove his casket to Hamilton. They pulled to the side of the road and stood there to watch him go by, stood on the overpasses with their flags.
I went to Club Absinthe, a gritty rock ‘n’ roll bar in downtown Hamilton, where Cirillo used to be a bouncer on Sunday nights.

Leo Gagnon, a fellow bouncer, has known Cirillo since Grade 9. They worked side by side and played sports together for years.

He said the staff at the club are struggling to keep it together since they heard the news.

“We’re doing the best we can to just keep on and be strong,” he told me. “I’m sure he would have appreciated it too. If he ever had a problem he wasn’t somebody who would share it with everybody. He’d take care of it himself. He was always positive. That’s it.”

Gagnon is struggling to focus on the good thing that have come from the loss of his friend.

“It’s a paradox,” he said. “It’s like the old cliche. You need evil to bring out the good. And I think that’s what we’re seeing now. It’s a shame that this had to happen for people to come together. I think the resolve is fantastic and I think it really shows the good side of the people. And I’m glad we can focus on that right now because there’s a lot of crap we hear about all the time. To see something so bad strike so much love and interest, I’m sure he’s honoured.”

So, it matters? All the people lining the highway? The vigils, the flowers.

“Absolutely,” he says. “For everyone.”

smaher@postmedia.com