After the Fire “You would have been able to see it well before dawn if you lived across those fields, or if you happened to be travelling one of those dark and deserted highways: a spot of fire burning bright on the horizon, hot orange flames licking upward to the sky, a house disintegrating into embers below. The first firefighters arrived around 7:30, when the family who lived in the house would usually have been up having breakfast, getting ready for work or chores.” Jana G. Pruden – The Globe and Mail – October 2018 Advertisements
Their daughters vanished — and parents say police stopped looking. Now desperate families are searching on their own “A bat flits around Denis Aubertin’s head in the darkness, its wings casting shadows on the underground tunnel’s soot-blackened walls. On hands and knees and wheezing with the effort, Aubertin presses forward, desperate for some sign of his missing daughter. After crawling through 45 metres of tunnel beneath what appears to be a former grow-op on a farm in British Columbia’s Interior, he comes to a windowless room and a locked steel door. Rising to his full height, Aubertin throws his body against it. Over and over again he tries to break it down, but despite his tradesman’s strength the door refuses to yield.” Jesse Winter, Jeremy Nuttall – StarMetro Vancouver – October 2018
How a fraudster got $12 million out of a Canadian university: They just asked for it “The email started with an innocent “Hiya,” but the words that followed set off a chain of events that would tarnish a university’s reputation and send investigators on a months-long chase across the ocean and back. It’s been just over a year since MacEwan University was blindsided by an $11.8-million fraud. While the ruse itself was simple, the case that followed was anything but. Police had to navigate a complex money-laundering scheme that funnelled some of the stolen public funds through various accounts in two continents before reinvesting it in a real-estate deal in Richmond, B.C.” Claire Theobald – StarMetro Edmonton – October 2018
She said “From the very beginning, Ava (not her real name), who is the first witness and the key to the prosecution’s case, proves extremely agitated on the stand. Sharna Reid, an assistant Crown attorney, questions her in a low-key, matter-of-fact manner. Ava explains that she had dated the defendant, Matthew (not his real name), in the summer of 2012. But when Reid asks if they were still boyfriend and girlfriend in the early hours of that August 2 morning, when the alleged assault took place, she doesn’t reply. Reid rephrases the question. ‘I can’t breathe,’ Ava answers, in a voice that is barely audible.” Ann Brocklehurst – The Walrus – January 2015
End of Story “Accusing someone of sexual assault is inherently defamatory, and proving your actions were justified can be challenging and costly. More than that, these legal threats have come to wield greater power than just the outcome of the individual cases they concern: the power to suppress others. Just the threat of being sued may mean someone will fear telling their story to reporters, coworkers, friends—or even their family. For many people, the trauma of assault is followed by the secondary trauma of coerced silence.” H.G. Watson – Maisonneuve – September 2018
The Fixer “Henein’s office, a low-rise lodged among the furniture emporiums along King Street East, is a study in minimalist white. No framed degrees or family photos mar the pristine sleekness of the lobby. On one wall, a sculpture in white neon script spells out what may well be her personal credo, ‘No Guts, No Glory.’ Emerging to greet me, all smiles and self-deprecation, Henein could be mistaken for some affable twin of the daunting figure I have just witnessed in court. It’s a flip side that few but her friends and family see. ‘I’m not a warm and fuzzy person,’ she acknowledges, ‘but I have more than one gear.'” Marci McDonald – Toronto Life – October 2015
Canada is plagued by Bitcoin ransoms—and there’s no help in sight “Meanwhile, other members of town staff began reporting ‘funny’ messages on their computer screens, saying that their files had been encrypted. They were advised not to use their computers; whatever infected them had crippled every department. As a precaution, the town’s server was quickly disconnected from the network connecting Simcoe County. ‘It was instant. Unplug. Boom,’ Lee says. The IT team spent the day trying to decrypt the locked data, but it soon became clear that nothing was going to work. They weren’t dealing with a virus. This was something bigger. Wasaga Beach was the victim of an attack.” Kyle Edwards – Maclean’s – September 2018
