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Source: National Post (Politics)

Mark Rumpler stands near the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on Aug. 07, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Fewer Canadians are taking a trip to Las Vegas, which is contributing to an overall decline in the city’s revenue this summer, with recent data showing a drop in visitors to resorts and convention centres.

Flight data from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas shows a significant decline in Canadian tourism, which even the mayor has noted.

Compared with last June, large national carriers, including Air Canada, WestJet and Flair Airlines, have seen the number of Canadian travellers flying to Sin City

plummet

dramatically by 33, 31 and 62 per cent, respectively. Canadians are the largest group of international visitors to the city, with nearly 1.5 million

reportedly

visiting Vegas last year.

The city known for around-the-clock gambling welcomed just under 3.1 million tourists in June, an 11 per cent drop compared to the same month in 2024. There were 13 per cent fewer international travellers, and hotel occupancy fell by about 15 per cent, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“International travel is

way down. People are not coming to the United States,” mayor Shelley Berkely told reporters last week. “We have a rather large market with the Canadians. It’s
gone from, you know, a faucet to a drip.”

Berkely said the city has also noticed a decline in high rollers coming from Mexico and that, in general, people have less disposable income.

In a statement to National Post, Berkely wouldn’t answer a question about whether she thinks U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war is to blame for the decline in Canadian visitors.

People take pictures with the Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas sign under hazy orange skies as the sun sets in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Las Vegas loves our Canadian visitors, and we know our city has always been a favourite for our neighbours to the north,” Berkley told the Post in a written statement. “Our tourism-based economy is not immune to economic downturns and uncertainty, but Las Vegas always bounces back bigger and better than ever.”

Stephen Miller, an

economics professor

at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), told National Post that in 2024, Canadian tourists supported “43,000 workers in southern Nevada, which is larger than manufacturing,” an industry responsible for employing slightly over 30,000 people.

Based on his calculations, Canadian tourism to the state “contributed about $3.6 billion to the local economy.” While that economy

equals

just over $200 billion, and Canada’s contribution may seem small, Miller said Canadian tourists are right behind bedrock institutions such as Nellis Air Force Base, a massive military installation in Vegas that the academic said added over $4 billion to the state’s economy.

“Canadian tourists are not insignificant,” Miller, the research director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said. He pointed to recent quarterly announcements made by “the big corporate giants in gaming,” noting that “each of them mentioned the Canadian tourist decline as a potential downside for them.”

Concerns have been growing about slumping Canadian tourism for some time. Back in April, former U.S. Treasury deputy assistant secretary Aaron Klein told CNN that Canadian travel to Vegas was “down 70 per cent for the summer.”

“That’s a real impact there,” he continued. “It’s going to expand our trade deficit. And that’s just by telling and insulting countries, let alone with the tariffs.”

Canada was the largest source of visitors to the U.S. in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to U.S. government data.

Travel agents in Canada said there’s been a significant downturn in clients wanting to visit the U.S. overall, and Las Vegas in particular. Wendy Hart, who books trips from Windsor, Ont., said the reason was “politics, for sure.” She speculated it was a point of “national pride” that people were staying away from the U.S. after Trump said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state.

“The tariffs are a big thing too. They seem to be contributing to the rising cost of everything,” Hart said.

While many believe the tourism decline is being driven by the trade war and Trump’s rhetoric about making Canada the 51st state, Miller cautioned against assigning all the blame to the new administration.

“It’s a question of what people say and what they do. People say it’s because of Trump, but that may not be the real reason. I think, over time, we may find out what the real reason is,” he said, suggesting a poor exchange rate and changing tastes could also be driving some of the drop.

Ron Stagg, a recently retired history professor from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) focusing on Canadian-American relations, views the recent bilateral tensions as part of an evolving chapter in the story between the two nations.

Las Vegas has seen a drastic decrease in tourism since the start of the year, largely due to rising travel costs and a Canadian boycott of travel to the U.S., stemming from political tensions.

“I’m not doom and gloom the way some people are,” Stagg said. ”Our relations with the United States have evolved over time, and I think this is just another evolution. It’s not going to be as dramatic as some people think, but it will help to get us to diversify our trade.”

Stagg, a

former chair

of the TMU’s history department, said the rift between Canada and America reminded him of an earlier historical period, “at the beginning of the 1930s,” when the United States raised tariffs, a move he said deepened the ongoing economic depression. The relationship began changing with the Second World War and greater cooperation between then president Franklin Roosevelt and prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

“You’d have to go back into the nineteenth century, where the U.S. was actually perceived as dangerous to Canada,” he said.

Based on his conversations with everyday Canadians, he believes there is national anger “not with Americans” but “with Donald Trump and his government and (they) don’t want to give them any money.” He believes “once Trump and his cohort are gone, that it’ll (tourism) gradually return.”

Stagg sees the changing movement of Canadian travel, away from the United States and more abroad, as “one good thing Canadians are starting” to do, making citizens “more conscious of the world.”

“The U.S. will not be a friend we can necessarily count on. Still, a friend, but not one it can necessarily count on.”

National Post, with additional reporting from The Associated Press

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Ophthalmologist Dr. Greg Moloney, left, is one of four surgeons who successfully performed a tooth-in-eye surgery on Brent Chapman, restoring his sight after almost two decades of blindness.

Warning: This story contains some graphic images

Three blind Canadians regained their sight this year and three more are in line to recover theirs in the coming months, all of them thanks to their own tooth being attached to their eyeball.

While that may sound macabre to some, the highly specialized ophthalmological procedure initially devised in the 1960s has been nothing short of miraculous for the hundreds of patients who’ve undergone it, many of whom have been blessed with sight for decades afterward.

The osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis operation (OOKP), often aptly referred to as tooth-in-eye surgery, is being performed at Vancouver’s Mount Saint Joseph Hospital by Dr. Greg Moloney, three other specialized physicians and a team of highly trained staff.

It’s taken a lot of work and considerable fundraising to establish the program in Canada, Moloney told National Post in an interview this week, but the results are more than worth it.

“For us, it’s one of the things that we’re most proud of having done in our careers,” he said. “It’s hugely rewarding.”

Dr. Greg Moloney travelled to Germany to learn osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis operation (OOKP), often aptly referred to as tooth-in-eye surgery.

Like the science of vision — how our brains and eyes use light to create images — the two surgeries are incredibly complex.

In the first, surgeons extract an upper canine tooth — coincidentally, known as the “eye” tooth due to their shape and general position directly beneath the eye — and shape it into a frame of sorts for a plastic “optic” that acts like a lens to allow light to pass through the damaged cornea.

During the roughly six-hour surgery, they also remove a flap of skin from inside the cheek and use it to cover the eye that will accept the natural prosthesis.

The tooth is then stitched into a pocket of skin beneath the lower eyelid where it stays for up to three months, growing a layer of tissue around it. A tooth is used because it contains dentin produced by the body, meaning it won’t be rejected as a foreign object.

In the second procedure, about four to six hours in length, the tooth and new tissue are removed and stitched over the eye.

Moloney said the surgery isn’t an option for patients with glaucoma or with diseases of the optic nerve or retina. It’s reserved for people with severe corneal damage who have no other option and, due to the cost and its complexity, is often seen as a last resort.

A patient’s eye after the surgery.

But Moloney said, “If you ask these patients, ‘Would you trade the tooth to see again,’ no one ever hesitates.”

“The chance that the prosthesis is still healthy and in place at 30 years is about 92 per cent and the chance that the patient is still seeing to a very high level is about 55 per cent at 30 years,” Moloney said. “Those are odds that these patients will usually take.”

Two of the first three Canadian patients have already come forward with their stories and praise for the medical professionals who brought light back into their lives.

Gail Lane of Victoria, 75, lost her vision as a result of an autoimmune disorder known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome brought on by a reaction to anti-seizure medication, according to hospital owner

Providence Health Care

. She was 64 at the time.

Unlike another patient, an unnamed 29-year-old whom the hospital said could see and read documents the day after his second surgery, Lane’s road to recovery was longer. It was about two months before she saw improvements. Now, with prescription lenses, her vision is gauged at 20/50.

“It’s like a miracle to me,” she remarked in a Providence blog, noting the first thing she was able to see well was her blind partner’s guide dog.

“I could see Piper’s tail wagging and then gradually the rest of his whole body came into view. That was wonderful.”

Brent Chapman, 33, lost his sight at 14 when ibuprofen he took for muscle soreness sparked a severe case of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

After a 27-day medically induced coma during which one of his eyes had to be removed, Chapman awoke blind in his remaining eye, according to

the Delta Optimist.

He underwent multiple surgeries and corneal transplants over the years, all of which granted him only brief periods of sight.

“Emotionally, I couldn’t deal with this roller coaster ride of having a little bit of good vision for just a month or two, and then going blind again,” the North Vancouver man told the Optimist. “It felt like Groundhog Day… for 20 years.”

National Post has contacted Chapman for comment.

Moloney, an Australian married to a Canadian, has known Chapman since he was a teenager, having treated him during a surgical fellowship in Vancouver around 2009-10.

Given their history and knowing what Chapman and his family have endured over the years, Moloney said he and the team were “all very invested in his outcome in particular.“

“We’ve gone from having very difficult conversations about a fragile situation with his eye to conversations where he just tells me what he’s seeing this week,” Moloney said.

“That’s an enormous relief and satisfaction for us to talk about that.”

A piece of tooth containing a plastic lens used in a tooth-in-eye surgery, formally known as Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis operation, performed by Dr. Greg Moloney and other surgeons.

It was while working with Chapman that a colleague first suggested Moloney learn OOKP.

When he returned to Australia, where the surgery also wasn’t being done, Moloney approached his med-school friend, Dr. Shannon Webber, a highly trained maxillofacial surgeon, about learning the technique first developed by Italian professor Bernedetto Strampelli in 1963 and since refined.

There are only a handful of places globally where the surgery is performed, and Moloney notes there are only about a dozen doctors with the knowledge.

So, the pair attended a gathering of those surgeons and found a willing tutor in Germany’s Dr. Konrad Hille, who was nearing the end of his career and saw a need to pass on the skills.

After intensive training, they brought the technique back to Australia and established a program that returned sight to eight people before COVID-19 came along and shut things down. By 2021, he was being recruited back to Canada by Providence Health Care, where he quickly set out to establish an OOKP program.

After getting Health Canada’s product approval, Moloney said it took a massive fundraising effort by the St. Paul’s Foundation to get the $430,000 needed for start-up costs, training, equipment and annual operating expenses.

Gail Lane’s tooth, with a lens inserted inside, after it was embedded in her cheek for three months and before it was inserted into her eye in May.

“There was a lot of support from local donors in Vancouver, a lot of support from the local ophthalmology community,” Moloney said. “This was not possible for me to do on my own.”

He credits Webber, who flew from Australia to be part of the surgeries and train staff, and the other surgical team members — maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Ben Kang, retinal specialist Dr. Andrew Kirker, and other hospital staffers. Kang, he noted, plans to help the patients further by replacing their missing teeth.

The next three patients — from Calgary, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, respectively — are due to begin the process in the coming months.

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Director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service Daniel Rogers arrives to a meeting of the National Security Council on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, June 13, 2025.

OTTAWA — When the latest results of the biennial Public Service Employment Survey arrived on Daniel Rogers’ desk earlier this year, the new head of Canada’s intelligence agency was angry.
 

No matter how he looked at them, the results of the 2024 survey for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) — and particularly attitudes towards senior management — were bleak.
 

The new director noted that trust in senior leadership is low, the amount of red tape is seen as too high and less than half of surveyed employees would recommend working at CSIS.
 

“I’ll be candid about what I’ve seen: the results are disappointing and unacceptable,” Rogers wrote to staff in a June 23 memo obtained by National Post upon request to CSIS.
 

“There is no way to slice this data in a way that would reassure me — our Service is not acting at its full potential,” he added. “Low morale across our workforce and lack of trust in leadership not only affect our ability to achieve mission success, but weaken trust in our Service by Canadians and our Government at a time when we are needed most.”

The

Public Service Employment Survey (PSES) results

combined with Rogers’ unusually candid and blunt comments suggest the spy agency is at an inflection point after years of being rocked by harassment, discrimination and sexual allegations mixed with growing calls for culture change.

The survey suggests
only half (51 per cent) of CSIS respondents believe senior managers “lead by example in ethical behaviour” and 57 per cent said that the agency does well at promoting values and ethics in the workplace.
 

Far fewer respondents (40 per cent) said they confidence in top management, whereas barely 29 per cent believed senior management makes “effective and timely decisions.”

 

The number of CSIS respondents reporting harassment within the past year has jumped from 11 per cent in the 2020 PSES to 17 per cent in 2024.
 

The results also suggest CSIS is hampered by red tape, with just over half of survey respondents saying their work suffers because of both too many approval stages and “overly complicated or unnecessary business processes”.
 

In each case, the results are worse than the public service average.
 

Issues with trust and ethics are of particular concern at CSIS because the spy agency has tremendous and invasive investigative power and can even break the law to advance an investigation with proper ministerial authorization.
 

The agency is also required to act quickly to detect and respond to imminent national security threats. Red tape and overly complex internal processes are likely to complicate that mission.
 

Another concerning PSES finding is that less than half (48 per cent) of CSIS employees would recommend working at the agency.
 

The service has struggled for years to staff up despite a growing mandate and increased responsibilities in combatting foreign interference and national security threats.
 

It also suffered from increased turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a new Employee Retention and Attraction plan in early 2024. In 2022, a whopping 65 per cent of agency employees said their work suffered because of high staff turnover, though that number dropped to 40 per cent last year.
 

The past few years have not been easy for CSIS, which has faced heavy scrutiny over its handling of foreign interference and intense calls both internally and externally for culture reform.
 

In recent years, the agency was rocked by serious allegations of rape and harassment at its British Columbia office as well as multiple discrimination complaints at human rights tribunals.
 

Culture change at CSIS — long and often promised but slowly (if ever) delivered — needs to happen, starting at the very top of the organization, Rogers wrote.
 

In fact, he says it will be management’s “overriding priority” over the next year.

“You’ll focus most on enabling teams to work effectively, acting with integrity, driving for decisions, building trust and confidence, and developing a sense of positivity and inclusion,” he told CSIS leadership in his memo.

“I’ll be expecting results at all levels.”

He shared a similar message to agency executives during an internal conference in April, according to agency spokesperson Eric Balsam.
 

Going forward, executives’ bonuses will be tied to the implementation of new corporate commitments for “positive changes” and the organization is reviewing how it chooses, evaluates and trains its managers, Balsam wrote in a statement.

Rogers also bluntly told managers to look inside themselves on how to change the workplace for the better.

“If you’re responsible for managing people in the organization, these should read to you as a clear call for personal action to instigate change, including by reflecting on your own impact in our workplace,” he wrote in June.

The agency says some changes are already happening. For example, last month CSIS published its first ever
public report on misconduct and wrongdoing
within the agency.
 

CSIS also launched the first Ombuds office headed by Elianne Hall on July 7 with the mandate of supporting CSIS employees and helping build a “strong culture of trust and respect with CSIS employees at all levels.”
 

The PSES results aren’t all bad for CSIS either.
 

An overwhelming 84 per cent of respondents said they are “proud” of their work, three-quarters (77 per cent) said they like their job and 74 per cent said they get a sense of satisfaction from their work.
 

In his memo to staff, Rogers said he hoped all employees would believe that change is coming this time and help push the organization in the right direction… even if the road isn’t always smooth.
 

“Letting these results reinforce negativity and cynicism is entirely counterproductive and perpetuates a vicious cycle,” he wrote.
 

“You’ll have the very difficult task of trying to adopt a positive outlook, even if your past experiences haven’t been entirely positive… and of doing your best to support those people who will occasionally fail as we try to make progress,” he added to CSIS staff.
 

Huda Mukbil, a former longtime CSIS intelligence officer
author of “Agent Of Change: My Life Fighting Terrorists, Spies and Institutional Racism,” told National Post that the changes promised by Rogers are long overdue.
 

Mukbil, who was part of a group of CSIS employees who sued the service in 2017 alleging racism, sexism and harassment, noted that Rogers had identified “critical gaps” to be fixed in his memo.
 

“He used the words ‘disappointing and unacceptable’ and I couldn’t agree more,” Mukbil wrote in an email, noting that there have been warning signs about CSIS’s culture for years but little change.
 

“He has also made it clear that he is demanding senior executives prioritize trust-building, including through accountability frameworks and performance agreements. This is something our allies have been doing for years.”
 

Beyond the issues cited in Rogers’ letter, she listed a broken complaint system, fear of reprisal “fuelled by a rigid, paramilitary, macho culture”, racial and gendered discrimination and nepotism as other problems to be addressed at CSIS.
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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Premier Danielle Smith speaks at the grand opening of a recovery community operated by Last Door Recovery Society in southeast Calgary on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is echoing Ontario counterpart Doug Ford’s bafflement after learning that a Lindsay, Ont. man is facing criminal charges for injuring a home intruder.

Smith was quick to dispense some folk wisdom to the wounded trespasser when asked by the National Post about the incident on Thursday.

“Well if you don’t want to get shot or beaten up don’t break into people’s houses. It’s pretty straightforward,” quipped Smith, drawing a smattering laughter and applause from the room.

“We do expect that people are going to use a reasonable (amount) of force to defend themselves and their families, and I support that,” she continued.

Smith was speaking at the opening of a new

provincial drug recovery centre

in Calgary.

Her remarks came a day after Ford blasted Ontario police for arresting the trespassing victim, lamenting that “something is broken” in Canada’s criminal justice system.

The alleged intruder was already wanted by police for multiple unrelated offenses, including breach of probation, when he broke into the man’s home in the early hours of Monday morning,

according to court filings.

Police arrived at the scene to find the intruder with serious, life-threatening injuries arising from an altercation with the resident, who now faces aggravated assault and weapons charges.

Smith said the incident reflected a lingering Canada-wide problem with criminal recidivism, touching on every province and territory.

“We all have had instances where somebody has been released on their own recognizance and then been repeat offenders … so we know that this is a problem that needs to be solved through (federal) legislation,” she said.

Smith said she hopes tough on crime legislation will be high on the agenda when Parliament resumes next month.

The Alberta premier wasn’t the only out-of-province politician to speak out on the incident.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre,

Alberta’s newest MP

, shared a pithy reaction on social media earlier in the day.

“If someone breaks in, you deserve the right to defend your loved ones and your property — full stop,” wrote Poilievre.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the latest politician calling for the federal government to designate the India-based Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity.

His urging came during a visit to Surrey, B.C. RCMP there announced last month it had made two arrests in an extortion investigation targeting the South Asian business community.

Police have linked some extortion cases back to the gang, whose leader Lawrence Bishnoi is in prison in India.

Will Poilievre raise this in Parliament?

Poilievre says the Conservatives are planning to push a tough-on-crime agenda in the House of Commons, when Parliament resumes in the fall. A terror designation for the Bishnoi gang will be part of that, he promised.

The move is intended, he says, to help police and prosecutors deal with the international group, which has been active in Surrey, as well as cities such as Calgary and Brampton.

Is he looking for sentencing changes?

Poilievre also says his party will push to increase mandatory prison sentences for extortion, starting with four years for a first offence.

“Our plan repeals catch-and-release bail, brings in mandatory jail time for repeat offenders and ensures that we have a ban on the Bishnoi terrorists, so that this network of extortionists and terrorists are automatically criminalized,” Poilievre said during a news conference.

Poilievre is following B.C. Premier David Eby, who asked the federal government to declare the gang a terrorist organization back in June, and the same call made by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith last month.

What has the Conservative Party said about the Bishnoi Gang?

The

Conservative Party released a statement

about the Bishnoi Gang on Aug. 11.

Frank Caputo, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety, wrote to the federal Minister of Public Safety stating that the gang activities “include political shootings, extortion of South Asian Canadians and extreme violence … Additionally, Gang members boast of such activities to intimidate other potential targets.”

As a result, wrote Caputo, “law enforcement and all levels of government (should be given) the tools necessary to address the Gang’s activities. The designation would permit the government to push back against the Gang with financial, criminal and property sanctions.

Why is this an issue for Sikhs in Canada?

Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs – the largest number outside India. Many moved to Canada in the 1980s when Indian forces launched a violent crackdown on alleged supporters of a movement demanding a separate Sikh homeland, Khalistan, to be carved out of the northern state of Punjab.

India’s Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and his government

have faced allegations from Canadian officials, including Canada’s former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP, that Indian intelligence agents have been attempting to carry out targeted assassinations of Sikh separatists overseas, including Canada.

What alleged murders are linked to the gang?

The killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, outside a Sikh temple in B.C. on June 18, 2023, pushed Bishnoi and his gang into the centre spotlight of the ongoing diplomatic tensions between Canada and India.

Lawrence Bishnoi gained notoriety back in May 2022, when the gang allegedly murdered prominent

Punjabi singer and rapper Sidhu Moosewala

in Punjab. Police said Bishnoi’s colleague Goldy Brar allegedly orchestrated Moosewala’s killing from Canada.

The Bishnoi group has also claimed responsibility for attacks on the homes of

two prominent Punjabi singers

, AP Dhillon and Gippy Grewal, in B.C., over the past two years, as its empire of fear has expanded from Mumbai to Mississauga, Ont. And, on Aug. 7, an alleged Bishnoi gang member claimed responsibility for gunshots fired at a cafe in Surrey, B.C. owned by Indian comedian Kapil Sharma.

How does Lawrence Bishnoi exert control over the gang?

Indian police officials have said that

Bishnoi, 32, controls more t
han 700 sharpshooters

who carry out murders and extortion globally. And he does this from behind bars, shuffling between various prisons for nearly a decade now.

The South Asian community in Surrey and Brampton has been

campaigning for more safety

on social media, uploading videos of various shootings in the two cities.

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RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney speaks to media at the Airdrie RCMP Detachment on Wednesday regarding the arrest of a 37-year-old man for the attempted kidnapping of a minor.

A 12-year-old boy who escaped the vehicle of an alleged abductor in Alberta after he and a group of friends employed a “catch a predator” scheme was incredibly lucky, says a police child exploitation expert.

This appears to be the “very first” time minors have employed the scheme, popularized by NBC’s To Catch a Predator reality television series, said Staff Sgt. Mark Auger from the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s internet child exploitation unit.

“This could have been a horrible outcome,” Auger said Thursday.

“Any time you reach out to a random person, there’s risk of compromise just in a conversation. Then you elevate that to meeting them somewhere in public…. I think it’s a million to one that that child wasn’t hurt.”

The “risk (of losing control) was off the charts” for the 12-year-old, Auger said.

“Defending themselves in a moving vehicle against an adult could have been horrific.”

The boy was part of a group of 10 youngsters who started an online conversation with the suspect and arranged to meet him via Snapchat. They met in Airdrie on Monday evening.

“I understand he got in (the man’s vehicle) voluntarily,” Auger said of the 12-year-old, noting the group of children was trying to expose the driver as a child predator.

“The age of these kids blew my mind.”

While he couldn’t speak to their motivation, Auger said it’s “typically for their (social media) views, their clicks, that gotcha moment.”

Staff Sgt. Mark Auger of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s internet child exploitation unit.

While they might have had good intentions and thought they were doing the right thing, “the ends don’t justify the means,” he said. “At the end of the day all we ask as police is be a good witness. Report it to the police of jurisdiction. That is what we expect. That is all that we should hold you accountable for.”

The reality television series the kids were emulating involves law enforcement officials trying to catch predators, he said. “It is run like a sting, but it’s done by police officers.”

In Monday’s case, the youngster approached the man’s vehicle and got in it while one of his accomplices shot video of the event.

“When things went south, I think there was quite a bit of panic,” said RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney. “Numerous people called 911. Some kids and some other bystanders. I think once they realized what had happened, thankfully they didn’t just run and be scared. They actually did do the right thing and called, and we were in the area. It was just luck (and) good timing.”

The boy “asked to get out and the suspect kept driving,” Slaney said.

When he stopped at a red light the boy jumped out, she said.

“My first question is: what was your plan?” Auger said.

“You’re going to confront somebody with a horrific allegation. What was your back-up plan? What did you think was going to happen? You don’t know what their reaction’s going to be when their fight-or-flight kicks in.”

There are lots of examples online where the scheme goes awry, he said. “A lot of times it turns physical, it turns violent. They’ve accused the wrong person, and they kill themselves. It’s just a horrible situation.”

And their work could be all for naught if the kids didn’t follow proper legal procedures. “It makes it very tough to prosecute these situations. When the police take action, we have judicial authorization, we have safety plans, we have articulation — we know what we’re going to say and what we’re going to do. Best intentions will never protect you in court, and they sure won’t protect you when you’re in a vehicle with a stranger.”

The alleged abduction took place in the Coopers Crossing neighbourhood of Airdrie, just north of Calgary. The 12-year-old was only in the man’s vehicle for a minute or two, Auger said.

“I believe it travelled a short distance. Luckily, they hit the red light, the vehicle stopped, and he was able to get out.”

If his alleged abductor had disabled the door locks, “who knows what could have happened?” Auger said.

The boy called 911 after he got out of the man’s vehicle. He wasn’t hurt.

The suspect drove south on Highway 2 toward Calgary. He was located with help from a Calgary police helicopter and arrested at a home in the city’s northwest.

Mounties charged Calgary’s Zain Merchant, 37, with nine offences including abduction of a child under 14, kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, fleeing police and three counts of breaching court orders to stay away from children under 16.

“He’s got a criminal history,” Auger said. “Our unit has actually investigated him previously a couple of years ago.”

He hopes the incident sparks family conversations about how kids use their devices to access the internet and who they actually know.

“This was a by the grace of God situation,” Auger said. “It could have gone incredibly wrong.”

Mounties plan to speak with students in the Airdrie area about the event when they return to class next month, Slaney said.

“We have to be very careful with things that we see on any type of social media,” she said. “There are bad people out in the world, and we should not be trying to meet up with any of these people. We should not be starting conversations with them. If you don’t know somebody, do not engage with them on social media. It only leads to bad things.”

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A of Kawartha Lakes Police Service interceptor is seen in this file image.

A Lindsay, Ont., man facing criminal charges for allegedly injuring a home intruder is reportedly accused of using a knife in the attack.

A charge sheet filed by Kawartha Lakes Police Service on Thursday identifies the tenant in the Kent Street apartment as Jeremy David McDonald, 44,

CBC reported.

The court documents say McDonald is charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon after he “did endanger the life” of Michael Kyle Breen, 41, the man identified as the alleged intruder.

Police had

earlier reported

that they responded in the early hours of Monday morning to a report of an altercation between two males.

“Officers arrived on scene and learned that the resident of the apartment had woke up to find another male (intruder) inside his apartment,” police said. “There was an altercation inside the apartment and the intruder received serious life-threatening injuries as a result of that altercation.”

Police said the intruder was transported to a nearby hospital and later airlifted to a Toronto hospital.

McDonald, 44, was charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, and released with a Sept. 25 court date in the Ontario Court of Justice in Lindsay.

Breen, 41, was already wanted by police for unrelated offences and was charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, break and enter and theft, mischief under $5,000, and failing to comply with probation.

The charges against McDonald drew much attention, with the

premier of Ontario

weighing in.

“You should be able to protect your family when someone’s going in there to harm your family and your kids,” Doug Ford said at a press conference on Wednesday. ”You should use all resources you possibly can to protect your family.”

He added: “So this criminal that’s wanted by the police breaks into this guy’s house. This guy gives him a beating, and this guy gets charged, and the other guy gets charged, but — something is broken.”

Also Wednesday, Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Kirk Robertson

issued a statement

noting that “the negative commentary about the officers and their actions is unjust and inaccurate.”

“It is important to remember that charges are not convictions; they are part of the judicial process, which ensures that all facts are considered fairly in court,” he said.

“

Under Canadian law, individuals have the right to defend themselves and their property,” he continued. “However, it is important to understand that these rights are not unlimited in Canada. The law requires that any defensive action be proportionate to the threat faced. This means that while homeowners do have the right to protect themselves and their property, the use of force must be reasonable given the circumstances.”

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The Leaside Bridge is seen on Friday June 28, 2024.

The City of Toronto is rejecting a claim by the family of a man who died in an accident at the city’s Leaside Bridge last year, saying it did not have a “duty of care” and that in any case the City of Toronto Act prohibits lawsuits of this type.

The accident happened on Father’s Day 2024, when a man jumped or fell from the Leaside Bridge. The bridge, which spans the Don Valley at the southern end of Millwood Road, crosses over the Don Valley Parkway at a height of about 45 metres.

Harold Lusthouse, aged 76, was on his way to meet his daughter Tali Uditsky for a Father’s Day brunch when the man landed on the car he was in, “causing catastrophic and ultimately fatal injuries,” according to legal documents. Lusthouse died in hospital days later.

Lusthouse’s family subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city, complaining about the lack of a suicide prevention barrier on the bridge and seeking $1.7 million in damages as well as potential future legal costs,

CBC reported in May

.

“He was stolen away from us … as a result of the failure of the city to protect its citizens,” Uditsky told councillors in April, according to a CBC report.

But in a statement of defence filed with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice last month, the city “denies the claim for relief … and denies all the allegations contained in the Statement of Claim, except as otherwise expressly admitted in this defence.”

While it notes that, “at all material times, the City had jurisdiction over the municipal highways known as the Don Valley Parkway and Millwood Road,” it adds: “The City denies that it owed Harold a private duty of care in the circumstances and, in particular, denies that it owed Harold a private duty of care to take positive measures to prevent the Accident.”

It concludes: “The fact that an accident is possible does not require a municipality, which must allocate finite resources, to take any and all conceivable measures to prevent such an accident.”

Part of the issue has to do with the lack of pedestrian barriers on the Leaside Bridge, of the type that were installed on the city’s Bloor Viaduct in 2003. The City has been mulling the addition of similar barriers to the Leaside Bridge for some time.

The statement notes: “When the Leaside Bridge was inspected in 2022, Transportation Services determined that state-of-good-repair work was likely to be required in or after 2028.

“Therefore, consistent with the report received by the Executive Committee of City Council, if or when a suicide prevention barrier were to be recommended by a feasibility study of the Leaside Bridge, the actual work to carry out the installation of a barrier would have occurred sometime after 2028.”

It adds: “In 2023, Transportation Services decided to undertake the feasibility study for the Leaside Bridge, and a feasibility study was commenced in or around this time.”

But Lusthouse’s death occurred before that study was completed, and before any planned state-of-good-repair work. The city

continues to move ahead

with the study.

“A family’s life is never the same after something like this happens,” Stephen Birman of the law firm Thomson Rogers

said in May

when the suit was filed: “But above and beyond that, this is an issue about public safety and how a municipality should respond to known dangers or hazards in the community.”

The city’s statement notes two section of the

City of Toronto Act

that it says prevent a lawsuit. Section 42 notes: “No action shall be brought against the City for damages caused by … the presence, absence or insufficiency of any wall, fence, rail or barrier along or on any highway.”

And section 390 states: “No proceeding based on negligence in connection with the exercise or non-exercise of a discretionary power or the performance or non-performance of a discretionary function, if the action or inaction results from a policy decision of the City or a local board of the City made in a good faith exercise of the discretion, shall be commenced against … the City.”

The statement notes: “The decision whether to erect a suicide prevention barrier along a City bridge is a clear instance of a policy decision, made by senior staff and involving a process which includes weighing competing interests, allocating finite public resources, and exercising judgement. It is a policy decision in the truest sense.”

If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one, please contact 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline by calling or texting 9-8-8 toll free. The service is available 24/7. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911.

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United Conservative Party MLA Jason Stephan.

OTTAWA — Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party will not be demoting caucus lead on constitutional relations, Red Deer MLA Jason Stephan, after his attacks on the French language and the monarchy.

“(Mr.) Stephan’s views do not impede his work as the Parliamentary Secretary for Constitutional Affairs,” said Sam Blackett, spokesman for Premier Danielle Smith.

Stephan wrote in an

op-ed last week

that Ottawa’s policy of official bilingualism is “rigged against Alberta,” noting that

less than one per cent

of residents spoke French exclusively.

“Every year the federal government takes Albertans’ tax dollars and spends billions to artificially sustain this mandate through government programs, including minority-language education, second-language instruction, and subsidies for official language minority communities,” wrote Stephan.

He added that French proficiency requirements tipped the scales toward central Canadians

competing for federal judgeships

and other plum government jobs.

Stephan wrote on

his official MLA letterhead

in July that it was time for Alberta to cut ties with the monarchy, calling the Crown antithetical to the province’s meritocratic culture.

“In Alberta, (w)e believe in earning your place

—not inheriting it. Yet under our constitution the Head of State (King Charles III) did not earn that position. He was born into it,” read the statement.

“Alberta doesn’t need a king. (It) needs more popular sovereignty, more checks and balances (and) more independence,” wrote Stephan.

Stephan skipped the UCP’s

official caucus swearing-in ceremony

after winning re-election in May 2023 but reportedly swore an oath to the King in the fall.

Blackett said that Stephan’s opinions aren’t necessarily those of the party.

“MLAs are entitled to express their views as private members,” wrote Blackett.

UCP caucus communications director Shanna Schulhauser also defended Stephan’s right to speak for himself.

“We’ve been letting his columns stand as-is,” wrote Schulhauser in an email.

Stephan was appointed the UCP government’s

parliamentary secretary for constitutional affairs

in May, reporting to Attorney General Mickey Amery.

Amery’s office didn’t respond to an email about Stephan’s comments by press time.

The party said at the time that Stephan would play a key role in asserting Alberta’s constitutional jurisdiction in areas such as resource development, and defending the province’s rights from Ottawa.

The appointment came two weeks after Stephan told reporters that he wanted to see

a question on independence

put to Albertans on next year’s referendum ballot.

He’s been

vocal in recent years

about his belief that confederation isn’t working for Alberta.

Smith defended Stephan’s referendum endorsement

when pressed by reporters

.

“We all have different ideas about how we get respect from Ottawa … I’m not going to be demonizing anybody who may have a different view than me,” said Smith.

Smith has said she’d personally like to see Alberta stay in Canada but will put an independence question to Albertans next year if

it receives enough signatures

.

She also

called herself a “monarchist”

who supports the continued role of Charles III as head of state in a recent interview with ex-TVO anchor Steve Paikin.

A recent poll found

that 48 per cent of UCP voters, and 46 per cent of all Albertans back the monarchy, with King Charles III enjoying a plus-22 net favourability rating in the province.

Stephan didn’t respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this article.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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Launch page for one of the Smooth Streams pirate TV web sites from 2013.

Two Ontario men accused of being the scofflaw pirates behind years of large-scale digital streaming of copyrighted movies and TV have been sentenced to five years in prison — not for piracy, but for contempt of court — unless they reveal passwords and accounts.

Some of the biggest entertainment media companies on the continent — Bell, Rogers, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Universal, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. — spent years chasing the digital pirates behind a bootleg service known as Smoothstreams, which was available globally from five user-friendly online platforms offering a vast collection of movies, TV and live sports since at least 2018.

Lawyers, private investigators, and technology specialists for the corporate giants began their hunt seven years ago, launching what is described as a “sophisticated, extensive, and resource and time-intensive investigation.”

They traced internet streams and servers, websites, payment processors and corporate records which, in the summer of 2022, led them to the homes of a Canadian father and son.

Ever since, Antonio Macciacchera, 73, of Woodbridge, Ont., and his son, Marshall Macciacchera, of Barrie, Ont., have been in a legal grapple, defying the might of global media heavyweights.

While it delayed the copyright infringement case against them for three years, their defiance has brought them expensive losses while doing nothing to disprove that investigators found their pirates.

The media companies estimated there were 2.5 million visits to Smoothstreams services in 2021 giving an estimated revenue of more than $1.5 million a year.

By most accounts, Smoothstreams did an adept job at content distribution. Subscribers paid monthly for online access to all sorts of TV channels and streaming content — live sports events were particularly popular — with customer payments allegedly processed by two Hong Kong-based companies and another in Panama.

Prices were cheap since the content wasn’t licensed or authorized. The service fed through various websites, including MyStreams, StarStreams and Live247, with its slogan: “Where all your streams come true!”

Customers loved it. One user described them online as the “gift that keeps giving.”

Launch page for one of the Smooth Streams pirate TV web sites from 2013.

But after corporate officials, armed with court orders, arrived at the homes and a business of the Macciaccheras and unplugged at least 65 television receivers connected to 24 servers, viewers quickly complained of the abrupt end.

“Saddest day 10 years of perfection gone — please come back soonest,” one customer posted to a Smoothstreams social media account. “Damn the end of an era?” asked another.

While users seem to have moved on, Antonio and Marshall Macciacchera have steadfastly refused to cooperate with court orders and legal demands through years of litigation, leading to them being stripped of their passports, ordered to pay the huge legal fees for the corporate lawyers going after them, and now sentenced to prison.

All without the copyright complaint against them being heard in court.

The media giants started their legal action against the Macciaccheras in June 2022 by asking a judge for secret orders against the pair. A judge granted injunctions to shut Smoothstreams down and issued Anton Piller orders, which are special authorizations that allow for the search, seizure, and preservation of evidence without the target of the orders knowing in advance.

Early in the morning on July 14, 2022, private investigators and lawyers arrived at the Ontario homes of the two men.

At the Woodbridge residence of the elder Macciacchera, Antonio answered the door of his large suburban home in his pyjamas. He refused to let anyone in and wouldn’t read the court order.

When a lawyer tried to explain it, he said he didn’t

“want to hear any more about law stuff”

but wanted to speak with his lawyer, according to a video of the interaction documented in court. He made the officials wait outside and the standoff lasted five hours before they gave up. Court heard he also went by the name Tony Roma.

At the younger Macciacchera’s home in Barrie, Marshall, a self-employed IT consultant, let the entourage in, but his cooperation was intermittent.

In the living room of his apartment in an eight-story building, officials found a rack of computer servers that were the source of four Smoothstreams channels, court heard. In a commercial property a five-minute drive away, they found what were described as the main servers — nine cabinets with at least sixty-five television receivers connected to twenty-three servers.

The servers were capturing TV content and retransmitting it to customers, court was told. While a tech worker unplugged the servers, a private investigator offsite watched Smoothstreams channels go black one by one.

Server rack in Marshall’s living Room.

Marshall Macciacchera refused, however, to answer key questions about the source of fifty unauthorized streams that remained online after the Barrie servers were disconnected, as well as questions about computer passwords and hosting, and refused to provide some financial details.

“Although Marshall consented to having the computer copied, he continued to refuse to disclose the password for his computer which would be needed to review the computer’s contents,” court heard.

During the raid, officials for the media companies told court, an unknown person going by the name Sam was remotely interacting with the infrastructure. Marshall refused to identify who it was.

It took officials much of the day, into the night and much of the next day to disconnect and inventory the servers.

In one of the earliest court decisions in the case, a federal judge said the companies had “an extremely strong prima facie case of copyright infringement” and that “content piracy is not a victimless crime.”

If the companies thought their case would then wrap up quickly, they were mistaken. The Macciaccheras fought them at every turn, but have been hit hard for their obstinance.

Within weeks of the raids, the media companies asked the court to charge the two men with contempt of court for not cooperating with the court orders.

Antonio Macciacchera said the bank account information the companies wanted were joint accounts with his wife, and privacy — and fear of marital repercussions — prevented him from doing what the court ordered. He was found guilty of civil contempt in 2023.

“Those who decide when and under what circumstances they will comply with a court order essentially take the law into their own hands. That cannot be countenanced in a society governed by the rule of law,” a Federal Court judge said in that decision.

At the 2024 contempt hearing for Marshall Macciacchera, lawyers for the company said that he “lied, concealed and attempted to conceal evidence” in response to the court orders. Marshall argued privacy, overreach, and decency interfered with the orders.

He too was found guilty of civil contempt, alongside two corporations he controls.

Antonio was ordered to pay $94,906 to the media corporations towards their legal costs in the contempt prosecution. Marshall was ordered to pay $375,312 in legal costs to the companies.

Neither bill has yet been paid, a judge said recently.

In February, the media companies asked the court to seize the two men’s passports before their contempt sentencing hearing. They feared the pair might flee the country.

Launch page for one of the Smooth Streams pirate TV web sites from 2013.

Court heard that for the past 15 years Marshall has spent significant time in Thailand, where he has both a home and a fiancée. He refused to say where he lived, but said it was an apartment owned by someone from the United Arab Emirates and that he didn’t pay any rent for it.

Antonio, court was told, also has close ties aboard. Although he is a Canadian citizen, he was born in Italy, about halfway between Rome and Naples, and often returns to visit family.

Both men said they wouldn’t flee, but the court agreed to the danger and ordered them to turn their passports over at the start of their sentencing hearing for contempt this June in Toronto.

At that sentencing, even the Macciaccheras said they deserved jail time, although they imagined far less than the judge. They were representing themselves by this stage, saying they had no more money for lawyers.

Marshall told court he should only be incarcerated for one week for each of three “clear failures” to comply with court orders. Antonio said he should only be sentenced to 30 days of house arrest. Both men said those sentences should then clear the slate, and they should not face any other consequences.

Paul Crampton, Chief Justice of the Federal Court, who presided over their sentencing, had apparently had enough.

“It appears that some copyright pirates make calculated decisions to breach court orders, after assessing the pros and cons associated with doing so. Some of those pirates even brazenly continue their contemptuous actions after being found in contempt,” Crampton wrote in the opening of his latest decision against the Macciaccheras this week.

“In the face of such defiance of its orders, it behooves the Court to impose penalties designed to maximize the potential for instilling respect for its orders and the rule of law.”

Crampton chastised the pair for their “brazen, defiant and open contempt” for the court.

He ordered Marshall Macciacchera jailed for an initial period of six months for his failure to comply with court orders. After that, his imprisonment was to continue for five years, less a day, or until he complies, whichever comes first.

That’s the maximum prison term allowed by law for contempt.

Antonio Macciacchera was sentenced to four months, and then he also is to roll into a five-year, less a day, sentence, or until he complies with the court orders, in his case for banking information.

“By continuing their contempt, Marshall and Antonio have displayed blatant defiance of the Court’s Orders and have prevented the Plaintiffs from advancing their underlying action for copyright infringement

,” Crampton wrote.

The men were given 14 days to get their affairs in order before incarceration.

The Macciaccheras could not be reached for comment. Their recent lawyer was away and did not return a request for comment.

Guillaume Lavoie Ste‑Marie, a Montreal-based lawyer for the media companies, said, on behalf of his clients, that illegal internet content providers like Smoothstreams

 are “a critical threat to the creative industry.

“These illegal services impact creators and rights holders across the industry, resulting in thousands of lost jobs, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

“The Federal Court’s recent decision sends a clear signal that it’s aware of the harm caused by illegal platforms and that appropriate penalties will be issued to ensure its orders are respected.”

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