Hamilton historian investigates classic Canadian ghost story

By Samantha Craggs, CBC News

Posted: Jul 31, 2013 7:27 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2013 7:24 AM ET

 

It's considered one of the best-known ghost stories in Canada, and a Hamilton historian is looking to get to the bottom of it.

Christopher Laursen, a PhD candidate in history, will head to Wallaceburg, Ont. this September to examine the Baldoon mystery, a string of 1830s events that involved flaming haystacks, rattling dishes, black geese and other paranormal phenomenon.

It's a classic Canadian ghost story in the Chatham-Kent town, a mystery that started with a rivalry between the McDonald and Buchanan families. Many thought it was a curse, or the work of witchcraft.

Laursen isn't looking to solve any of that. Rather, he wants to look at the impact it's had on a local community that still celebrates — and fears — what happened.

Shoot a black goose with a silver bullet

"Narratives have changed over time and it's hard to trace back what really happened," said Laursen, a student at the University of British Columbia. "I want to look at how the narratives have changed.

"It's also about how these events resonate with local people today, and how they've tried to preserve the mystery."

The Baldoon mystery began in 1830 when a group of women were weaving in the barn of John T. McDonald, son of an original Wallaceburg settler. Three beams fell into the circle of workers, who screamed and ran.

Similar events followed. Among them were were strange noises, freak fires, flying stones and bullets and dying livestock, says the Wallaceburg and District Museum website.

A woman who read moonstones said that if McDonald shot a black goose on the farm with a silver bullet, the curse would end. He hit the goose in the wing, and a nearby woman — someone who had wanted to buy McDonald's land —was seen with her arm in a sling.

Many Wallaceburg residents saw spooky events. The story is part of local lore, said Brock Gerrard. He's the manager/curator of the Wallaceburg and District Museum, which has a room dedicated to the Baldoon mystery.

A story told around campfires

"It's not like a boogie man story," Gerrard said. "It's the local campfire story. It's not quite an urban legend, but it's the story everyone's still scared of."

There's a restaurant called the Black Goose, Gerrard said. The town of 10,000 residents also has a gondola festival, and it has included a gondola called the Black Goose.

Laursen will interview local residents and descendants of the Buchanans and McDonalds. He will also look at artifacts and documents related to the case.

Laursen's dissertation looks at strange poltergeist phenomenon after the Second World War. He's most interested in phenomenon that has physical evidence for which there is no easy explanation.

He's working with Paul Cropper, an Australian writer and researcher, on the Baldoon case. They hope to publish articles in the magazine Fortean Times and The Journal for the Society of Psychical Research.

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Payphones disappearing but still a necessity for many

'Other people can afford a cell phone — I can't. What about us?,' Hamilton resident says

By Adam Carter, CBC News

Posted: Jul 31, 2013 7:16 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2013 8:05 AM ET

 

The payphone is turning into an endangered species.

All over the country, they're disappearing. According to the CRTC, there were 95,000 payphones in Canada in 2008. By the end of 2012, that number had dropped to 70,000.

"Clearly a lot of people have not used a payphone in many years," said Chris Seide, the executive director of communications for the CRTC. "It correlates with cell phones."

Bell owns most of the payphones in Canada, and in Hamilton. But the telecommunications giant won't divulge just how many there are, or how much their numbers have declined in the last few years, citing "competitive reasons."

The CRTC doesn't have specific regional data on payphones, Seide says, but it is a safe bet that their numbers are declining in Hamilton. "They are disappearing," he said.

Some say this isn't a big deal - they haven't touched a payphone in years, and don't need to. But others — the CRTC included — say they're still necessary in many situations. So what happens in a community when you can't find a payphone?

The rise of the cell phone

Ask people if they feel payphones are a necessity, and many of their responses are similar:

But that's not the case for everyone, says Nicholas Porter, 20, who lives in the Beasley neighboorhood in downtown Hamilton. There have been multiple times that he's needed a payphone in the last few months.

"There is definitely a need with so many people being low-income," he told CBC Hamilton. "Yeah, other people can afford a cell phone — I can't. What about us?"

"I know lots of people without cell phones."

Porter lives with his girlfriend and their small child. About a month and a half ago, he split his foot open in the middle of the night and needed to go to the hospital for stitches. His girlfriend was left home alone with their child, and asked him to call as soon as he could. Easier said than done.

"When I walked out of the emergency room I was expecting to see a payphone, but just couldn't find one," he said. It was a similar story earlier this month, when a massive thunderstorm hit Hamilton and left many without power for days. He needed a payphone then, too.

He also needed one when his family moved into their new apartment in early March, and spent about a week without phone or internet. The payphone around the corner from his home was used once a day at least, then.

"You're kind of screwed if you can't contact anyone."

The challenging case for change

Though they won't disclose official numbers about the payphone's decline, Bell Aliant Regional Communications and Télébec did put forward a proposal to raise the cost of a cash call and double the rate of credit card calls to $2. The companies argue the rate at which pay phones are being removed would decline if they could raise the cost of a local call.

The CRTC said no to that request earlier this month, saying that it had allowed the cost of a call to rise in 2007, but pay phones had still continued to disappear.

Still, the CRTC gets that it's hard to keep them running at a profit, Seide says. Between vandalism and general upkeep, they aren't usually moneymakers.

"The business case is challenging for payphones," Seide said.

The regulator wants to find out just how much Canadians still rely on payphones so it has launched a consultation looking for comments about how payphones should be regulated. "We're quite happy with the amount of comments coming in," Seide said. They run the gamut from people who haven't used one in years to people who rely on payphones day to day.

The consultation wraps up in early 2014. It's too early to say if there is a need for regulatory intervention to save the payphone, Seide says. But their decline seems inevitable, he says.

"Going forward, I think you will continue to see them disappear."

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Locked out steelworkers in Nanticoke, Ont., to vote on new contract

The Canadian Press

Posted: Jul 31, 2013 9:03 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2013 9:02 AM ET

 

Locked out workers at the U.S. Steel plant in Nanticoke, Ont., vote today on the company's latest offer.

More than 900 members of United Steelworkers Local 8782 have been locked out at the Lake Erie Works since April 28.

The vote comes two days after US Steel Corp. posted a loss of $78 million in the second quarter compared to net income of $101 million in the same period last year.

Chairman and CEO John Surma said the results were affected by the ongoing lockout in Nanticoke and a slowing in global growth.

U.S. Steel, which produces steel for everything from cars to building construction, bought Hamilton, Ont.-based Stelco in 2007.

The Lake Erie Works sites makes 2.25 million tonnes of slabs and three million tonnes of high-quality hot rolled coils per year.

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Hamilton man tries to escape arrest on east end rooftop, police say

'When they knocked on the door he didn't want to get arrested, so he climbed out onto the roof,' officer says

By Adam Carter, CBC News

Posted: Jul 31, 2013 8:59 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2013 11:02 AM ET

 

A man jumped onto a roof on Ottawa Street South Tuesday afternoon after police tried to arrest him. (Roberto D'Olimpio/Facebook)

A Hamilton man had to be coaxed off the roof of an east end apartment Tuesday afternoon after police officers showed up to arrest him, police say.

Around 1:30 p.m., police officers showed up at 172 Ottawa St. S to arrest a man and a woman in their 30s for robbery, police spokesperson Claus Wagner told CBC Hamilton.

"When they knocked on the door he didn't want to get arrested, so he climbed out onto the roof," Wagner said.

The man stayed up on the roof for a little over three hours, Wagner said. Additional officers including a K9 unit and a negotiator were called in to help out.

"When someone doesn't want to give themselves up for an arrest, the staff sergeant has to go down too," Wagner said, adding that this sort of thing doesn't happen "too often anymore."

A portion of Ottawa Street was blocked off for the afternoon but reopened around 5:15 p.m.

A 37-year-old Hamilton man was arrested and charged with failing to comply with an undertaking, as well as robbery, forcible confinement and aggravated assault stemming from a previous incident.

A 33-year-old Hamilton woman was charged with robbery and forcible confinement.

No one was injured.

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Queen Street Hill closure extended

Access closed until mid-to-late October, city says

CBC News

Posted: Jul 31, 2013 10:01 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2013 10:00 AM ET

 

Work on the Queen Street Hill was originally slated to finish by Labour Day. But construction crews will be there until at least mid-October now, the city says. (Paul Wilson/CBC)

The Queen Street Hill is going to be closed for construction for longer than expected.

The city's public works department announced Wednesday that construction will continue until "mid-to-late October." The project started on June 3 and was originally slated to finish by Labour Day.

Crews are repaving roads, putting in new retaining walls and drainage improvements and widening of the sidewalk at the top of the hill near the escarpment stairs.

"We are disappointed that the construction timelines have been delayed," said Gary Moore, director of engineering services in public works. "The delays are no fault of the contractor."

"The construction schedule was aggressive and this is a very complex project made more difficult because of the unique characteristics of the escarpment cut, slope stabilization issues and the presence of butternut trees which are an endangered species and required extended collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources."

The city says in a release Wednesday morning construction crews are "working later hours through the week and on Saturdays to get the work done as quickly as possible."

City staffers will be working with Mohawk College, Hillfield Strathallan College, McMaster University and St. Joe's Hospital to plan around the impact the extended closure is going to have on traffic come September, the city says.

"More details will be shared with the community before Labour Day weekend," reads a city statement.

The closure has left the West 5th access congested. The city is asking motorists to consider using the Claremont Access or Jolley Cut as an alternate route.

"HSR route 34-Upper Paradise will continue to detour on the West 5th access," the city says.

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Candlelight vigil being held for Hamilton crash victims

Steve Last and Shawn Bell died in a car crash early Friday in rural Hamilton

By Adam Carter, CBC News

Posted: Jul 29, 2013 11:14 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 29, 2013 3:04 PM ET

A candlelight vigil is being held outside Saltfleet District High School Monday night in memory of Steve Last and Shawn Bell, who died in a car crash in rural Hamilton early Friday.

"It's not to remember a terrible night," said Cassandra Brookes, a former Saltfleet student who just graduated. "It's to remember the people they both were."

Bell, 17, and Last, 42, both died when their vehicles collided on Highway 56 just after midnight Friday. Last was bringing his two daughters and a friend home after a day at Canada's Wonderland.

Bell, who is from Stoney Creek, was pronounced dead at the scene. Last, who is from Binbrook, was taken to hospital and died there of his injuries. His 10-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old daughter were in the SUV with a 15-year-old family friend. They are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Shawn Bell, 17, was killed in a devastating car accident early Friday. He had just graduated from Saltfleet High School. (Facebook)

Tragedies at Saltfleet District High School

Both Bell and Last's 15-year-old daughter Jamie attended Saltfleet High, Brookes told the CBC.

The school has faced many tragedies in recent years. In June 2012, two Saltfleet students committed suicide when they jumped off the Jolley Cut. Another 16-year-old student committed suicide four months before that.

In April 2012, a 14-year-old Saltfleet student died from an infection after a heart transplant surgery.

Brookes says all the death is starting to take its toll on Saltfleet's students. "A lot of people just don't know how to grieve," she said. "When you see someone every day and then suddenly hear they're gone… it just hits you that you'll never see them again."

"We've lost so many people so young."

Some students have completely changed because of the tragedies, she says. "I've seen people become people I never thought they'd be. Seeing someone who used to put a smile on people's faces now needing to be encouraged to smile."

"It has really taken a toll on people mentally."

Steve Last, 42, was killed in a head-on collision in rural Hamilton early Friday. (Instagram)

Brookes says she lives around the corner from Last's daughters, and has spoken to a neighbour who has visited them in the hospital. "They're doing okay," she said.

Some of Bell's friends told the CBC that the 17-year-old had "quite a bit to drink" at a gathering just before the crash.

"We were the last people he talked to," Bell's friend Conner Lahie told CBC News on Friday. "He gave my friend a hug … and goes 'Nothing's going to happen, I promise.' And then he left."

Brookes says that's unlike the Shawn Bell she knew. "He would never want to hurt anyone," she said. "When you're a teenager, people pressure you to drink. Maybe he did — but we don't know what or how much."

Police have not confirmed the names, and have not confirmed that alcohol played a role in the accident.

The candlelight vigil takes place at 11:30 p.m. on Monday in front of Saltfleet High School at 108 Highland Rd. W in Hamilton.

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Hamilton man petitions to boycott Sochi games

David O'Garr says the country's new LGBT laws are a human rights abuse

CBC News

Posted: Jul 30, 2013 7:22 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2013 10:47 AM ET

 

A Hamilton man has started a petition encouraging Canada to boycott the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi because of Russia's new law banning homosexuality.

David O'Garr, a downtown resident, has gathered about 600 names so far. By late August, he hopes to send the petition to the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) encouraging them to boycott for "horrible human rights violations."

Rumblings have spread across social media calling for a boycott. But when O'Garr looked for a formal Canadian petition, he couldn't find one. So he made one.

"I just feel like this is something that as a country, we need to talk about," he said. "There needs to be a dialogue."

In late June, the Kremlin made it illegal to spread "propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations" to minors. It also banned the adoption of Russian children by gay couples, or in countries where gay marriage is recognized, such as Canada.

Violent attacks on gay rights activists in the country have become "frequent," says Amnesty International. And Russian authorities have drawn criticism from human rights groups for failing to prosecute violent attacks on LGBT people.

Not everyone is in favour of a boycott. The executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Égale Canada told the CBC last week that she didn't support a boycott. And Mark Tewksbury, an openly gay former Olympic athlete, told the CBC that a boycott would mostly hurt the athletes.

"I'm as outraged as anybody," he said. "I think it's horrible and these kinds of laws are draconian and they just have no place in the world in 2013.

"By all means, keep protesting. By all means, keep expressing your outrage at these laws. But there are other ways to get the point across without athletes having to boycott."

Should Canada boycott the Olympic games in Sochi because of new Russian laws restricting the rights of lesbian and gay people?

When O'Garr first heard of the propaganda law in Russia, he felt "disgust, fear" and "really scared for the people of Russia."

He made the petition and mailed word of it to his email contacts, and word spread from there.

Not all of them agreed, he said. But even those who didn't agreed to pass it on.

O'Garr doesn't want the Olympics cancelled. He'd like to see them moved to a former winter host city.

"Russia is a host country for the Olympics and everything they're doing now is against the Olympics and against the Olympic values," he said.

"Russia is a G8 country. They're one of the leaders of the world and they're supposed to lead by example. Thus far, they've been going backwards."

Even if Canada doesn't boycott the Olympics, O'Garr said, he hopes he at least raised the issue in people's minds. He feels that pressure from the international community is the only factor that will influence the Kremlin.

"I think it's the only possibility," he said.

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McMaster researcher makes major Huntington's breakthrough

Discovery means faster results in developing new medications

By Samantha Craggs, CBC News

Posted: Jul 30, 2013 7:48 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2013 7:47 AM ET

 

It's being heralded as one of the biggest discoveries in Huntington's disease research in years, and a McMaster University researcher is behind it.

Professor Ray Truant has solved a long-standing mystery in fighting the disease — the ability to examine how cells change shape in human Huntington's patients.

The discovery revolves around the huntingtin protein, said Truant. In patients with Huntington's disease, there's "a little piece of gene where the DNA is longer than it should be," and it changes shape, he said.

But when researchers tried to recreate that "shape-shifting" dynamic in mice, it was inconsistent, he said. That made it difficult to test and develop new drugs.

With Truant's discovery, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers can now look directly at the cells of living patients and see how the protein is folded, he said. That bypasses the need for mouse trials, and means much faster results.

"We can see if it folded back without having to wait years to see if it actually affected the disease," he said.

Huntington's is a brain disease that affects about one in 7,000 people. It causes an increased loss of brain cells at the centre of the brain, leading to physical deterioration and eventually death.

There was a major Huntington's breakthrough in 1993, when scientists learned to clone the gene.

Bev Heim Myers, CEO of the Kitchener-based Huntington Society of Canada, says Truant's discovery is likely the biggest breakthrough since then.

"This was a critical piece of information that was missing, and now we have it," she said.

The research is special for another reason — it was done in part with money raised by Huntington Society volunteers across the country, Truant said.

He used McMaster's new $11-million microscopy centre, implemented in 2006. And he got funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Toronto-based Krembil Foundation.

Volunteers raised research money

But the society helped fund the critical early stage. It holds small fundraisers and mail campaigns to raise about $1 million for research a year. It chooses its projects wisely, Heim Myers said.

"We're small but mighty."

Truant's discovery will be key to future researchers looking for new drug treatments. There are eight other neurodegenerative diseases with similar DNA defects as Huntington's. Truant will study how his finding applies to those diseases too.

Truant and his team also contribute to hdbuzz.net, a website that translates research articles in plain language. It's important that people impacted by the disease understand, he said.

He also pairs graduate students in his lab with families impacted by Huntington's disease. That familiarity increases the team's passion for their work, he said.

"Once they start interacting with these patients, they get super motivated," he said. "If you come to my lab on a Saturday or Sunday evening, there's always someone here."

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Hamilton crash victims remembered at candlelight vigil

Steve Last, 42, and Shawn Bell, 17, were killed in a head-on collision early Friday

By Adam Carter, CBC News

Posted: Jul 30, 2013 9:27 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2013 9:26 AM ET

 

Over 100 students and community members gathered outside Saltfleet District High School Monday night for a candlelight vigil, trying to make sense of the crash that killed Steve Last and Shawn Bell early Friday.

"It's not to remember a terrible night," said Cassandra Brookes, a former Saltfleet student who just graduated. "It's to remember the people they both were."

Bell, 17, and Last, 42, both died when their vehicles collided on Highway 56 just after midnight Friday. Last was bringing his two daughters and a friend home after a day at Canada's Wonderland.

Bell, who is from Stoney Creek, was pronounced dead at the scene. Last, who is from Binbrook, was taken to hospital and died there of his injuries. His 10-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old daughter were in the SUV with a 15-year-old family friend. They are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Both Bell and Last's 15-year-old daughter Jamie attended Saltfleet High, Brookes says.

Some of Bell's friends told the CBC that the 17-year-old had "quite a bit to drink" at a gathering just before the crash. Brookes says that's unlike the Shawn Bell she knew. "He would never want to hurt anyone," she said. "When you're a teenager, people pressure you to drink. Maybe he did — but we don't know what or how much."

Police have not confirmed the names, and have not confirmed that alcohol played a role in the accident. On Tuesday morning, Hamilton Police spokesperson Claus Wagner told CBC Hamilton that officials are still waiting for the toxicology reports to come back.

"It could be a couple of weeks," he said.

Bell's funeral is being held on Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church at 1415 Barton Street. There is a visitation on Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at L.G Wallace Funeral Home at 151 Ottawa St N.

Last's funeral is being held at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, 63 Highway 20 East in Stoney Creek on Monday at 11 a.m. There is a visitation at Bay Gardens Funeral Home, 947 Rymal Rd. E., from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Canadians see income, housing as determinants of good health

Hamilton hosted one of the town halls that led to the recommendations

The Canadian Press

Posted: Jul 30, 2013 10:29 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2013 10:28 AM ET

 

A new report says how much you earn, where you live and how well you eat are viewed by Canadians as key factors that affect their health.

The report, to be released today, makes a dozen recommendations on what actions governments and individuals can take to live healthier lives.

The findings are based on a series of town hall meetings held across the country by the Canadian Medical Association, focusing on social factors that cause poor health.

The four main factors cited by Canadians as having a significant impact on health were income, housing, nutrition and food security, and early childhood development.

The report, 'Health care in Canada: What makes us sick,' a portion of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, lists several other social determinants of health, including culture, the environment and levels of education.

The town halls heard from about 1,000 people between February and June in Charlottetown, St. John's, N.L., Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and Hamilton, Ont.

A separate meeting was held solely to address the challenges facing aboriginal Canadians, since their health is seen as being particularly influenced by social factors.

The CMA was already aware of the many social factors that can affect the health of individuals when it launched the town hall meetings, but was looking for input from Canadians before issuing calls for action.

"When you look at what most often drives poor health, it is factors such as poverty, poor nutrition, substandard housing and lack of education," CMA president Dr. Anna Reid said in a statement released before the meetings began.

"With so much pressure on access to health care, we tend to focus on the supply side and ways to increase services," she said.

"Wouldn't it be more responsible from an economic standpoint, not to mention more compassionate, to tackle the reasons behind the high demand for health care in the first place?"

Town hall participants cited poverty as the most important issue affecting the health of Canadians, and the factor needing the most urgent attention.

But they also told the CMA panel that individual Canadians and medical professionals — not just governments — must work to combat the factors that affect health.

"Governments need to be pressured to take action," says the report.

"But there is a clear role for citizens, physicians and communities to help deal with the problems."

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Hamilton couple invents self-teaching dictionary

Justin and Annmarie Page sit at the kitchen table of their east Hamilton redbrick, beaming over freshly printed copies of their new book.

The couple's first title isn't a memoir or a work a fiction. Rather, it's a dictionary — coil-bound with a black, red and white cover — specifically designed for people who are learning how to read.

"This is the people's book," says Justin, excitement booming in his voice. "We call it the 'U-Can' because with it, you can to teach yourself to read."

He's confident of this because he's used the tool himself. Justin (born Tracy LeQuyere) describes himself as a "functional illiterate" who plodded his way through school and couldn't read until age 33.

Now 62, he says the process of putting the book together has expanded the number of words he can reliably read almost five-fold, from 1,300 to over 6,000.

'Sensible' design

With around 7,000 words, the U-Can Dictionary has much fewer entries than the your average Oxford or Merriam-Webster tome. Annmarie, who essentially wrote the book, listed each word with its simplest, most commonly used definition.

But what distinguishes the Pages' dictionary even more is how it's laid out. Like in any dictionary, its entries are organized by letter. In the U-Can, however, they are divided down even further. Under each letter, the one and two-letter words come first, allowing readers to pick up foundational words and syllables before moving on to more challenging fare.

The Pages designed the dictionary to be as user-friendly as possible. (Cory Ruf/CBC)

"You have to learn those 500 words before you go any further — because that's logical, sensible, meaningful, understandable and no one's disagreed," says Justin.

The book, he says, has other features that make using it even handier. The alphabet is listed at the bottom of each page, functioning as a sort of legend to help readers flip between passages more easily. All of the words used in the meanings, he adds, are defined elsewhere in the dictionary.

"We just empowered the functional illiterate to go after the words that he knows. Now that I know where they are, I just have to know how to spell them. I just have to learn them. And that's the whole magic of this book."

Ongoing campaign

The U-Can Dictionary is the next chapter in Justin's three-decade-long crusade to reduce illiteracy in Canada. In the mid-1980s, he, along with fellow ex-con Rick Parsons, founded Beat the Street, a program designed to help people who fell through the proverbial cracks in the education system to teach each other how to read.

"I started the literacy program because I'm smart. I knew that dirty little, stinkin' bikers and bag ladies and those people will help each other," he says, purposely invoking the slang of the day. "So we would get a scumbag who knows how to read to teach a bag lady who doesn't know how to read. And it worked."

Beat the Street worked so well that it was replicated across Canada, attracting millions of dollars government funding and charitable donations. In addition, the duo's efforts won them the Order of Canada in 1989.

The honour didn't diminish Justin's fire for the cause. He rhymes off statistics about how many Canadians can't read well and speaks emotionally on what effect poor literacy has not only on one's job prospects, but also one's self-esteem.

"When some kids, they don't get it, they cry," he says. "It's full of shame. It's full of embarrassment. You hand me joke? All of my life, people go, 'Hey, want to read a joke?' I was the joke, because I couldn't read it."

Team effort

Justin decided to ask his wife, with whom he's raising two boys, Jack, 6, and Michael, 17, to help him make his dream of a self-teaching dictionary a reality.

"Originally, I wanted no part of this," says Annmarie, an avid reader who, as a child, consulted her Charlie Brown dictionary for fun. "I said to him, 'What the hell are you doing? Writing a dictionary?'"

'We were like druggies, knocking on our friends' doors, asking 'Hey, do you have the words?' —Justin Page

But eventually Annmarie, 43, got onboard with the project. "It's Justin's passion," she says, "and I needed to get it out for him."

Together, the couple enlisted friends to pore over thousands of words to determine which ones would make the cut. "We were like druggies, knocking on our friends' doors, asking 'Hey, do you have the words?' Justin laughs. "And then we'd go count them in the car."

The process of whittling down the definitions, Annmarie says, was onerous as well.

"I had this all done with the meanings and he says to me, 'Can you make them shorter?' And I said, "Are you serious?'"

"I drove her crazy," Justin chimes in. "That's what she's trying to say."

'Powerful' book

Three years on, the Pages have finished copies of the book in hand. They elected to have the book published by Inclusion Press, a Toronto imprint that Marsha Forest, the late activist and educator who inspired Justin to learn how to read, co-founded.

"It's still a little unreal," says Annmarie. "We waited so long to get it and now that we have it, it's beautiful. I carry it around everywhere and I show everybody."

They have also entered into an agreement with Wal-Mart to have the retail giant stock 10,000 copies on its shelves. Justin hopes the exposure will get the book into the hands of as many new readers — both young and old — as possible.

"Knowledge is words and words are power," Justin says. "This is the most powerful book in the world because if you can master this, you've got everything."

The U-Can Dictionary ($20, plus shipping and handling) is available on Inclusion Press's website. People in Hamilton who wish to have the book delivered for free can order it by calling the Pages at 905-538-9133.

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Hamilton man shot dead at Brampton banquet hall

Blood trail leads police to see possibility of second victim in same shooting

CBC News

Posted: Jul 28, 2013 11:09 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 29, 2013 6:25 AM ET

A Hamilton man who was gunned down at a Brampton banquet hall early on Sunday morning was a standout basketball player and a "great guy," says his former coach.

Peel Regional Police have identified 25-year-old Ricky Ricardo Dunkley as the victim in the shooting. He was shot in the chest and succumbed to his injuries at the scene, police said.

He attended Cathedral Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton for most of his high school career, said Brian Daly, one of Dunkley's former basketball coaches.

Dunkley spent one year at Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School in north Etobicoke, but returned to Cathedral for his final year, Daly added.

"Everyone loved him. He was good to all his teammates and he was good to his classmates and his schoolmates. I don't have anything bad to say about him. He was a great guy."

Dunkley, who played as a shooting guard for the Cathedral squad, was an "explosive athlete," Daly said.

Daly, who is now the vice principal at Cathedral, said he had run into Dunkley this spring. The 25-year-old, he said, was working as a painter and was the father of young children.

"Everything on the surface seemed great."

Dunkley's family in Brampton made a statement to CBC News on Sunday evening.

"He was a very good person," they said, adding he was a father of four with a fifth child on the way. "We all miss him dearly. They took away someone very valuable to us."

"He was our angel."

Police looking for suspected second victim

Peel Regional Police are still investigating the incident, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday.

Const. Thomas Ruttan said that a call came in at 4:15 a.m. about shots being fired at a banquet hall on Bovaird Drive.

A release sent out on Sunday said that officers found a blood trail at the scene, which has helped them conclude that Dunkley may not have been the only person who was shot.

So far, police have no suspect information to release.

Homicide investigators want to hear from anyone who can help identify the suspected second victim.

Members of the public can contact investigators at 905-453-2121, ext. 3205. They can also call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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Eight major construction projects around Hamilton

Summer is the time for love... and construction.

In Hamilton, major development projects are happening all around the city. It's not like this in every town. In fact, Hamilton is bucking an national construction trend — Statistics Canada released numbers in early July showing an eight per cent increase in commercial investment in the city.

Here's a look at eight major projects happening around Hamilton.

Residential developments

Royal Connaught condos

One of the grandest spots inside the Royal Connaught was the lobby. That is where the design and construction for the new residences in this historic hotel will start, said Kim Graham, who is dealing with media requests for the development.

"Development is underway in the lobby," she said, but it is still quite early in construction.

The three towers of the downtown condo building will be 36, 33 and 24-storeys with a total of 708 units. 135 of those units will be inside the original hotel, opened in 1916 by Harry Frost.

Hometown Hamilton developers Spallacci Group and Valery Homes previously told CBC Hamilton the presentation centre, located in that grand lobby, will open in 2013. The first round of occupancy is set for 2015.

Dundas District Lofts

Heritage restoration "whenever possible" was the motto for brothers Dave and Mike Valvasoris Dundas development.

Construction of a 44-unit loft building in the former Dundas District School building at 397 King Street West is underway with a goal of spring 2014 occupancy, Dave said. The loft unit will feature the original, restored staircases, stained glass and doors form 1929. The Valvasoris are also using the school's original blackboards in the front foyer and hallways to display historical photos and images from yearbooks, including a picture of the first graduating class from 1929.

"We're trying to pay homage to the school wherever possible," Dave said.

The Valvarsoris put shovels in the ground in Sept. 2012 when their building permit was approved. Dave said it's a top-down restoration, so construction starts on the third floor. Right now, work is being done to green retrofit the building, Dave said, installing in-floor heating and spray insulation to the walls, where there was no insulation before.

Within the next three weeks, Valvasori expects the presentation centre will be open on the loft site, including three model suites of units in the building: one-bedroom units with an east view, a park view and an escarpment view.

"All the units are very unique," he said. "We let the buildings tell us where units will be."

The units range from a one-bedroom 780 sq. ft. unit to a 2-bedroom plus den, 2-story 2300 sq ft.

Stinson Lofts

The former school building at 211 Stinson Street has been an eyesore for local residents for a while, but developer Harry Stinson insists people will be moving into his loft building as early as September or October.

"We see the light at the end of the tunnel," Stinson said. "It may be a little scruffy on the outside."

The 118-year-old schoolhouse is about three-quarters sold, Stinson said, with mostly the penthouse and large units still on the market. The units range from a 650 sq. ft. studio to a 2200-sq ft. 2-bedroom.

Construction on the project started about a year and a half ago, and right now it's down to the finishing touches inside and a lot of work landscaping on the outside.

"We won't be doing anything on the outside until the inside is done," he said, adding there may still be outdoor work to be done when residents are moving in.

Once all is said and done, Stinson is certain it will contribute to downtown's revival.

"It will be good for downtown," he said. "It shows it's a place to live and not a scary place."

Educational developments

McMaster University's downtown Health Campus

Construction is starting to peek out from above the boards that line Bay at Main Street on the former Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. McMaster University's new downtown health campus is gaining height, said Gord Arbeau, director of public relations.

"We're on schedule and progress continues to be made," he said.

The campus, slated for a fall 2014 opening, is a $84.6 million project and will be both a site for health sciences students and a clinic. McMaster plans to host 4,000 students and 450 staff members.

Throughout the summer, Arbeau said construction workers will be "adding height to the building."

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board Education Centre

Earlier this year, the HWDSB embarked on a massive construction project - building a new education centre to amalgamate staff who used to be in five buildings under one roof.

The $31.6 million project on Millwood Place is on schedule and budget, said Melissa Cohen-White, the school board's project manager. Completion is set for July 2014.

"In a few weeks, you'll see columns and beams," she said. "Then the concrete floor slab system."

The new education centre will house 478 staff who work in business services, maintenance, human resources and IT and the board of trustees. Inside, Cohen-White said there will also be large meeting rooms and a large lobby for "community collaboration," she said.

The finished building will also incorporate the frieze from the former downtown school board, as well as marble slabs. The frieze, Cohen-White said, will hang above the entry to the boardroom.

Hotels

Homewood Suites

A project with the potential to bring more tourists to Hamilton is near completion. Homewood Suites, located at Bay and Main streets, is slated to open in October, said Olga Katsaros, executive assistant to developer Darko Vranich.

Vranish's company, Vrancor Group, also built and opened the Staybridge Suites just down the street from the new hotel.

Katsaros said the hotel will employ about 70 full and part-time staff and have the capacity for 400 guests. There will also be retail space on Bay Street, she said.

Amenities include an indoor pool, fitness centre, lounge and bar and 10 meeting rooms.

Commercial

James North

Jack Beume remembers Hamilton like it was decades ago.

"It was active, money-driven," he said. "And then it literally died."

Beume is a local developer who wants to bring downtown Hamilton back to life with his projects, the latest being a new commercial space on James Street North, at Vine Street.

"It will be a very attractive, warm, red brick building," Beume said.

The three-floor commercial building has 31,600 sq. ft. of net, or useable, space, he said, designed to accommodate four retailers and an office space. He already has tenants who have signed on. Those tenants will also be privy to a rooftop garden, and both surface and underground parking.

Right now, Beume's construction team is putting beams in the ground to prevent the street from caving in when digging begins. Beume said there will be crane in the ground come September and "once that happens, [the building] will go up zip-zip."

Beume is also proud that his project is homegrown.

"This building is Hamilton-driven: Hamilton developer, Hamilton builder, Hamilton lender," he said.

Tenants are expected to be able to move in June 2014, Beume said.

Community Infrastructure

Tim Hortons Field

The $147.5 million stadium that will house the Hamilton Tiger-Cats is on budget and on schedule, said Terence Foran, project communications advisor with Infrastructure Ontario, who is overseeing the development.

Foran said the foundation work is nearly complete on the former Ivor Wynne Stadium site and part of the structural bones have already been erected. Later in the summer, Hamiltonians will see a metal deck being installed that will be the new stadium's floor.

Tim Hortons Field will hold 22,500 spectators, fewer than Ivor Wynne, but 40,000 temporary seats can be added in the end zones for special events.

The stadium will be the home for all 32 men's and women's soccer games during the 2015 Pan Am Games.

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Classic Canadian record label resurrected in Hamilton

Greg Hambleton worked on Tragedy Trail, the second record from a guy by the name of Stompin' Tom Connors. The producer/engineer's handiwork is all over early records by the Stampeders and the Irish Rovers.

Hambleton was there during the birth and infancy of Canada's home-grown music industry.

Four decades later, he's working his way back into the music scene from his new base in Hamilton. His project? To revive Axe Records — a record label with a small catalogue of albums he ran decades ago.

Remember 70s Can-rock Sabbath/Deep Purple knock-off, Thundermug? It released its debut record Thundermug Strikes on Axe Records. He launched the label's new website just over a week ago.

For Hambleton, it's been a long road, wrought with health issues that left him blind for years. But has the industry moved on past him?

He is entering a scene that has changed an almost impossible amount. He is hoping to use the Internet — he's still getting the feel for it — to market CDs to a new young audience. As for downloads? He's not there yet.

While Hambleton may be a man out of his time, he's excited about new music and new opportunities — and finding his place in a new music landscape.

Legally blind for two decades

"Radio stations from all over have continued to play these songs for years and years," Hambleton told CBC Hamilton. "It's amazing."

The songs Hambleton worked on were AM radio gems, in a time when Canadian music was blossoming. He worked in many studios in the 60s and 70s, like RCA and Sound Canada — starting as a recording engineer before moving on to be a producer and then onto finding and signing new talent.

It was a much simpler industry then. Radio still ruled and singles were an essential part of an artist's success. In the early 70s the drinking age in Ontario was still 21, so many bands played high school dances to get by. Some of the best made upwards of $2,500 a night, Hambleton says — an unheard of amount, even by today's inflation-adjusted standards.

The Yorkville scene was churning out what would be big names, like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot – and Hambleton was there, part of all of it. "It was quite a lively scene," he said. "It's just one of those things that in that area at that time there was a lot of pent up energy for bands."

He attributes the talent that came out of Yorkville as a right time, right place scenario, with loads of coffee shops for people to play in – like The Riverboat, one of the most famous in Canada.

As the years went by, the Yorkville scene shrunk and moved on, as most music scenes do.

Hambleton hung onto the masters and the licensing rights of the recordings on the Axe label – something a lot of people didn't do, he says. "Most of the labels that were formed around that time sold out to other bigger companies."

Ontario riff-rockers Thundermug are one of the bands who had a debut on Axe Records. (Courtesy Greg Hambleton)

It was a good idea, because come the 80s, labels were folding and FM radio was overshadowing the AM dial.

It was also around that time that his eyesight started failing. His vision crept down and down until he was legally blind — barely able to read or write. He lived off royalties for years, unable to work.

He spent the better part of two decades struggling, and moved to Hamilton to be closer to family. He has a daughter here and his brother is a professor at McMaster. "It's also a quieter and less expensive city to live in," he said.

At the behest of one of his daughters, Hambleton tried his hand at recording his own music from way back – some of the songs coming from his first and only tour back in 1965.

He did so in his east-end Hamilton apartment for the first time, using Cubase, a digital recording program. It didn't come easy for a man who grew up with reel-to-reel tape and analogue consoles.

"It took a while," he laughed. About nine months of his face pressed close to the screen, learning how to edit audio files with failing eyesight.

"It's amazing," he said. "I wish I'd had [Cubase] years ago." Hambleton said.

He emerged from the sessions with Summer Songs — his first collection of his own songs. But just as it was finished, Hambleton became very ill, and was forced to undergo emergency surgery at the risk of totally losing his eyesight. He came out with his vision totally restored.

"The fact that I have eyesight now is just a miracle," he said. "I'm sort of like Rip Van Winkle. I can suddenly see after 20 years."

You can't find Axe Records on Facebook

Hambleton emerged from surgery with the urge to get the Axe Records back catalogue out there once again. "Now that I have the opportunity, I want to make sure these great recordings get heard," he said. "But it won't be easy because the industry has changed so much."

That might be an understatement. The music business has experienced more upheaval in the last 15 years than it probably ever has. Piracy and digital sales have all but killed CD sales. Labels have folded at worst, and at best, struggled to figure out how to survive underneath radically different distribution methods.

This is the world that a senior citizen (who refuses to give his exact age) is venturing into to resurrect a label of obscure Canadian acts from the early 70s.

This is a guy who isn't used to social media. He isn't rushing to get a Twitter account. You can't find his label on Facebook. In fact, the Axe Records website doesn't even show up on the first page if you Google it.

Still, he's intent on mastering the internet. "In the long run, I think it will be a help," he said. "It's amazing how word can get around."

Once the 15 or so albums in the Axe catalogue are straightened away, Hambleton will turn his attention to signing new bands, he says. His main drive remains reissuing recordings by Canadian artists that have been unavailable, in some cases, for over 30 years.

As for making money?

"Ask me again in a year," he said.

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Candlelight vigil being held for Hamilton crash victims

Steve Last and Shawn Bell died in a car crash early Friday in rural Hamilton

By Adam Carter, CBC News

Posted: Jul 29, 2013 11:14 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 29, 2013 11:44 AM ET

 

A candlelight vigil is being held outside Saltfleet District High School Monday night in memory of Steve Last and Shawn Bell, who died in a car crash in rural Hamilton early Friday.

"It's not to remember a terrible night," said Cassandra Brookes, a former Saltfleet student who just graduated. "It's to remember the people they both were."

Bell, 17, and Last, 42, both died when their vehicles collided on Highway 56 just after midnight Friday. Last was bringing his two daughters and a friend home after a day at Canada's Wonderland.

Bell, who is from Stoney Creek, was pronounced dead at the scene. Last, who is from Binbrook, was taken to hospital and died there of his injuries. His 10-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old daughter were in the SUV with a 15-year-old family friend. They are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Shawn Bell, 17, was killed in a devastating car accident early Friday. He had just graduated from Saltfleet High School. (Facebook)

Tragedies at Saltfleet District High School

Both Bell and Last's 15-year-old daughter Jamie attended Saltfleet High, Brookes told the CBC.

The school has faced many tragedies in recent years. In June 2012, two Saltfleet students committed suicide when they jumped off the Jolley Cut. Another 16-year-old student committed suicide four months before that.

In April 2012, a 14-year-old Saltfleet student died from an infection after a heart transplant surgery.

Brookes says all the death is starting to take its toll on Saltfleet's students. "A lot of people just don't know how to grieve," she said. "When you see someone every day and then suddenly hear they're gone… it just hits you that you'll never see them again."

"We've lost so many people so young."

Some students have completely changed because of the tragedies, she says. "I've seen people become people I never thought they'd be. Seeing someone who used to put a smile on people's faces now needing to be encouraged to smile."

"It has really taken a toll on people mentally."

Steve Last, 42, was killed in a head-on collision in rural Hamilton early Friday. (Instagram)

Brookes says she lives around the corner from Last's daughters, and has spoken to a neighbour who has visited them in the hospital. "They're doing okay," she said.

Some of Bell's friends told the CBC that the 17-year-old had "quite a bit to drink" at a gathering just before the crash.

"We were the last people he talked to," Bell's friend Conner Lahie told CBC News on Friday. "He gave my friend a hug … and goes 'Nothing's going to happen, I promise.' And then he left."

Brookes says that's unlike the Shawn Bell she knew. "He would never want to hurt anyone," she said. "When you're a teenager, people pressure you to drink. Maybe he did — but we don't know what or how much."

Police have not confirmed the names, and have not confirmed that alcohol played a role in the accident.

The candlelight vigil takes place at 11:30 p.m. on Monday in front of Saltfleet High School at 108 Highland Rd. W in Hamilton.

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Hamilton police chief credits economy, law enforcement for plunging crime rate

Police heralded on Wednesday a new Statistics Canada report showing the violent crime rate in the Hamilton area in 2012 was down 19 per cent over the previous year — the largest decrease of any region in the country. And for the fifth year in a row, the study suggested, the city saw a drop in its overall crime, down seven per cent from 2011.

CBC Hamilton spoke with Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire on Friday to get his take on these trends. The city's top cop said the decrease in crime speaks both to Hamilton's economic resurgence as well as to the quality of its law enforcement. Moreover, he defended his campaign at council to increase funding for the police force, arguing cuts to service would have direct impact upon safety upon Hamilton streets.

What impact do you hope this report will have on the perception of how safe Hamilton is?

First of all, we need to be really, really clear that this report is about reported crime. So we have to keep up all of our efforts and our educational outreach to encourage people to report crime, particularly in the areas of domestic violence and sexual assault. There are a lot of reasons, but we believe those are underreported crimes.

But we're very encouraged by this report. It's very positive in the fact that Hamilton has experienced the single largest decrease in our country in the violent crime rate, the fourth-largest decrease in the total crime rate and the sixth-largest overall over a five-year trend period.

So it's very, very positive, but within that, we're also quite conservative in that we have some continued challenges ahead of us that remain very important to focus on.

What factors do you think have contributed to this drop in the violent crime rate?

I give an awful lot of credit to what's going on here in Hamilton. And it's not all about policing — although policing and public safety is huge part of this. It's about what we're doing as a city.

Let's look at, first of all, what's going on with the economy. We're seeing in Hamilton increasing housing starts, educational opportunities through McMaster University. We've seen employment rise. And in all of these other measures that we look at in the province, Hamilton is fairing better than many other cities.

'The measure of success in policing isn't the response to crime; the measure of success in policing is the absence of crime.'—Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire

But for the Hamilton police, for us, we have strategic enforcement programs. Our enforcement on Highway Traffic Act offences has increased 50 per cent over the past four years. We have the ACTION program, which is the strategic deployment of officers into specific areas that are identified through crime analysis. We're trying to divert people out of the justice system through the social navigator program. We have a lot of programs here that are designed to help on the issue of public safety and I am absolutely committed that our crime analysis strategy is having a very significant impact.

But I have to tell you that the biggest part of our strategy is the men and women of the Hamilton Police Service. They continue to deliver excellence in policing every single day. We're very proud of their efforts on an individual basis and their professionalism.

In the last budget cycle, you asked council for a controversial budget increase to hire more staff. Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla told CBC Hamilton this week that the decrease in violent crime demonstrates that funding for the Hamilton Police Service doesn't need to be increased. How do you respond to that?

Let's be absolutely clear that the investment that Hamiltonians make in policing has produced a 19-per-cent decrease [in violent crime], the highest in the nation. If you invest at any lower level, what is that percentage going to be? If it's three per cent, then that loss will be 16 per cent. And that loss represents the number of victims of crimes increasing.

The measure of success in policing isn't the response to crime; the measure of success in policing is the absence of crime. And when we can eliminate 19 per cent in the violent crime rate in one year — the highest decrease in the nation — that is evidence that the investment in policing is paying off in a very profound way.

But if investment levels are kept where they are and the other trends that you say have decreased violent crime were to continue, is that not satisfactory?

If it's satisfactory, then you'd have to be content to stand in front of those victims of crime and say that's an acceptable rate of victimization. If you reduce the budget and you reduce the personnel, we will have to end some of these programs. And when you end these programs that by all the research and all of the performance measurement indicators are producing, you must be confident that you're okay with an increased level of victimization.

De Caire said court rulings and changes to provincial policy have increased the amount of time officers have to spend on administrative duties, creating the need for more staff. (Terry Asma/CBC)

Also, the current budget that was approved has 15 additional officers that are heading into the Hamilton Police Service in 2013. Let's keep in mind that the reason for that is, although our calls for service remain relatively stable around 80,000, the time that is required to complete those calls has increased over 36,000 hours per year over the last five-to-six years.

Why is that?

What's happening is, there'll be a new decision that comes from the Supreme Court that impacts procedure or…there'll be a new administrative procedure, something that has to happen. And we don't get any say in that. If the Supreme Court makes a ruling, we have to respond. All of those processes that come in, they consume officers' patrol time.

What we're seeing is, the increase in time that's required for the calls the service is decreasing their proactive time for community outreach, mobilization, enforcement — all of those things that still need to be done. In order to keep these very significant and positive gains going forward, we require additional people to do that.

Will you be pursuing money for additional staff in the next budget cycle?

The fact of the matter is, at this point, I do not know the answer to the question because we're doing many things inside the service to try to save our officers' time as well.

Police use-of-force numbers between 2008 and 2012, many of those metrics are up. How do you view those trends in light of the decrease in violent crime?

The officers, in 80,000 calls for service, have over 300,000 contacts a year. And the numbers we see in use of force go anywhere from 225 to 270 each year. Those numbers, they represent less than a half of a percent of all the contacts that our officers have each year.

You'll also see that the increase in the [use of force] numbers that we saw last year, which has drawn all of the attention, the majority of that is a result of a policy change within the Hamilton Police Service. We use to allow officers that were working in groups together to put in a team report — one report that they submit as a team. We now have individual reports coming forward, which means that the numbers will actually increase. I'm not alarmed by that. I think that's positive in terms of transparency and accountability.

At this point, are you comfortable with how the police use of force policy is being followed?

Absolutely, we have very strict monitoring. We have oversight and supervision by our road supervisors right up to divisional commanders. And I am absolutely comfortable with the process of educating our officers on the issue of force and the decisions they are making given the circumstances at the time.

This interview has been edited for length.

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Fatal Binbrook crash raises legal questions about teen drinking

Friday collision kills two drivers, sends three minors to hospital

By Cory Ruf, CBC News

Posted: Jul 27, 2013 7:24 PM ET

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2013 7:23 PM ET

The possibility that alcohol may have played a role in a fatal crash in Binbrook raises tough questions about who's legally responsible when teen drinking ends in tragedy.

Just after midnight on Friday, the Mazda Protégé Shawn Bell, a 17-year-old from Stoney Creek, was driving collided head-on with GMC Terrain SUV on Highway 56 just south of Golf Club Road. Bell was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other driver — Steve Last, a 42-year-old father other three — died later in hospital. Three girls, including two of Last's daughters, sustained serious injuries in the incident.

According to his friend Connor Lahie, Bell, a recent Saltfleet District High School grad, had just left a party where he had been drinking. Other party guests, Lahie said, urged him not to leave.

"We were the last people he talked to," Lahie told CBC News. "He gave my friend a hug … and goes 'Nothing's going to happen, I promise'. And then he left."

Host liability

Hamilton police wouldn't say on Saturday whether they suspect alcohol was a factor in the collision. But the case brings up issues about what kinds of legal implications could arise if teen drinking were found to have contributed to the crash.

David Payne, a partner at the Toronto law firm Thompson Rogers, said it's unlikely, but not impossible, that the hosts or the homeowners would be found liable if it's determined that Bell drove drunk after leaving the party.

"The rule of law in Canada in that social host liability is not there now," said Payne. He cited a Supreme Court ruling from 2006 stating that hosts are not responsible for harm their guests independently inflict on the public. That minors were involved, he said, would not likely affect the case.

The law, he said, is much stricter when it comes to bars and restaurants, establishments that make money from the sale of alcohol, and prescribes stiff consequences for vendors found selling alcohol to underage patrons.

However, Payne said the Supreme Court ruling "didn't shut the door" on the issue, adding "there may a certain set of circumstances so outrageous" that hosts of a private party, or the owners of a house where a party is held, could be found liable in a civil suit.

"Each case is driven by its own unique set of circumstances."

Other risks

There is perhaps more legal grey area when it comes to deaths, injuries or property damage that occur at a party where teen drinking has taken place.

"It's a lot like if you don't clean the ice of your front steps — it's the same concept if you're hosting a party," Pete Karageorgos, a spokesperson with the Insurance Board of Canada told CBC Hamilton earlier in July. "If someone slips on the steps, they can sue. If someone has a few drinks, climbs up the side of the house and jumps into the pool from the roof the owner may be liable for their safety."

Karageorgos warned that serving alcohol to teens could also hurt a homeowner's chances of making a successful insurance claim should something go wrong at the party.

"You cannot insure illegal acts, so doing something like serving alcohol to minors may void the policy, depending on the company and policy wordings."

CBC Hamilton was not able to determine where Thursday night's party was held, or if the homeowners were present while it was going on.

Investigation still ongoing

Friday's crash resulted in the city's eight and ninth traffic fatalities of the year. Hamilton police have not confirmed the names of the victims in the collision, and did not comment Saturday on the circumstances that led up to incident.

"I cannot give you anything in the form of an update," said Det. Const. Wes Wilson, one of the officers working on the case. "It's still early in the investigation."

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Roughriders cruise past Ticats, remain unbeaten

Corey Chamblin heads into the bye week with peace of mind concerning his backup quarterback.

With starter Darian Durant ailing, backup Drew Willy threw three first-half touchdown passes as the Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 32-20 on Saturday night to remain the CFL's only unbeaten team.

Willy made just his second career CFL start and first this season with Durant (foot) unable to play. But the sophomore quarterback was 14-of-25 passing for 269 yards before an Alumni Stadium gathering of 13,002 that endured intermittent rain throughout the contest. But it was nowhere near the deluge that fell during Edmonton's 30-20 win in Hamilton's home debut here July 7.

"Darian felt like he could go and possibly do some things but not all the things," Chamblin said. "I said, 'If you don't think you're 100 per cent then you won't play 100 per cent.'

'I knew once I got the nod I had to be ready to go out there and perform at a high level. The guys around me did a great job, the defence did a great job. It was definitely an enjoyable experience.'— Roughriders backup QB Drew Willy

"But it was one of those things where I was excited to see what Drew Willy had and we found out we do have a good backup quarterback. The big thing was he managed the game. There were some mistakes there but he made less mistakes this year than he did last year and I see the growth process."

Saskatchewan (5-0) is off until Aug. 9 when it visits Calgary.

Willy, 26, said he didn't know he was starting until just prior to the opening kickoff and admitted to having butterflies in his stomach early on.

"I guess you're going to get them but once you get the first throw or that first hit you get through that and just keep playing and go out there and try to be successful," he said. "You prepare all week for it but once you're told a switch goes off and you know you're going to be the guy.

"I knew once I got the nod I had to be ready to go out there and perform at a high level. The guys around me did a great job, the defence did a great job. It was definitely an enjoyable experience."

Sheets sets record

Willy had plenty of support.

Running back Kory Sheets ran for 140 yards, his CFL-record fifth straight 100-yard game to start the season. Slotback Geroy Simon had five catches for 125 yards and a TD — his first with Saskatchewan — and the Riders' defence registered seven sacks and five turnovers.

Their most timely stop came early in the fourth when Hamilton quarterback Henry Burris was denied on third-and-goal from the Saskatchewan one-yard line to protect a 32-20 advantage. Then Willy marched Saskatchewan 62 yards on 11 plays, taking 6:01 off the clock before the Ticats regained possession at their 15-yard line with 3:39 remaining.

"I thought on the initial surge I stuck the ball into the end zone," Burris said. "I guess the way things are set up they (officials) didn't have a clean view of it but I thought I stuck the ball out (to break the plane of the goal-line) and they started pushing me back . . . but it shouldn't even have come to that.

"For us to get off to such a good start (10-0 first-quarter lead) and then go into a lull for the next three quarters, there's no excuse for it. We're an offence that has more potential than that. Until we go out there and start executing the offence consistently, we're going to have those type of lulls."

Burris finished 26-of-41 passing for 395 yards and two touchdowns.

Saskatchewan swept the home-and-home series with Hamilton (1-4) following Sunday's 37-0 victory at Mosaic Stadium. The Riders improved to 8-2 in their last 10 road games versus the Ticats.

Durant remains sidelined

The loss of Durant could have been huge for Saskatchewan. With him, the Riders led the league in scoring (37.8 points per game), total offensive yards (423) and rushing yards (168) and were third in passing (267).

Durant also had a league-best 12 TD passes without an interception as Saskatchewan won its opening four games by an average of 21 points. He threw for 347 yards and four TDs on Sunday and was named the league's offensive player of the week.

But his injured right foot began to swell afterwards, prompting Durant to revert back to a walking boot. Durant originally hurt the foot in a July 11 road win over Toronto. He shed the boot and practised on a limited basis later in the week but was deemed a game-time decision.

With Durant sidelined, Sheets stepped up. The CFL's rushing leader boosted his season total to 712 yards, breaking the league mark for most yards through five games to start a season of 646 yards set in 1975 by Calgary's Willie Burden.

Sheets ran for 130 yards against Hamilton last week.

"Whew, that's really good," Sheets said. "Getting the win is more important than getting 100 yards but running for more than 100 yards every game feels good because the offensive line loves doing it and I love doing it with them.

"But excuse my words, Drew showed balls. He stayed in that pocked and threw the ball no matter who was coming. We're just as confident with Drew as we are with Darian."

Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf scored Saskatchewan's other touchdowns. Chris Milo kicked the converts and three field goals with the other points coming on a safety.

Greg Ellingson and Lindsey Lamar had Hamilton's touchdowns. Luca Congi booted the converts and two field goals.

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Hamilton couple unveils next chapter in fight for literacy

Justin and Annmarie Page sit at the kitchen table of their east Hamilton redbrick, beaming over freshly pressed copies of their new book.

The couple's first title isn't a memoir or a work a fiction. Rather, it's a dictionary — coil-bound with a black, red and white cover — specifically designed for people who are learning how to read.

"This is the people's book," says Justin, excitement booming in his voice. "We call it the 'U-Can' because with it, you can to teach yourself to read."

He's confident of this because he's used the tool himself. Justin (born Tracy LeQuyere) describes himself as a "functional illiterate" who plodded his way through school and couldn't read until age 33.

Now 62, he says the process of putting the book together has expanded the number of words he can reliably read almost five-fold, from 1,300 to over 6,000.

'Sensible' design

With around 7,000 words, the U-Can Dictionary has much fewer entries than the your average Oxford or Merriam-Webster tome. Annmarie, who essentially wrote the book, listed each word with its simplest, most commonly used definition.

But what distinguishes the Pages' dictionary even more is how it's laid out. Like in any dictionary, its entries are organized by letter. In the U-Can, however, they are divided down even further. Under each letter, the one and two-letter words come first, allowing readers to pick up foundational words and syllables before moving on to more challenging fare.

The Pages designed the dictionary to be as user-friendly as possible. (Cory Ruf/CBC)

"You have to learn those 500 words before you go any further — because that's logical, sensible, meaningful, understandable and no one's disagreed," says Justin.

The book, he says, has other features that make using it even handier. The alphabet is listed at the bottom of each page, functioning as a sort of legend to help readers flip between passages more easily. All of the words used in the meanings, he adds, are defined elsewhere in the dictionary.

"We just empowered the functional illiterate to go after the words that he knows. Now that I know where they are, I just have to know how to spell them. I just have to learn them. And that's the whole magic of this book."

Ongoing campaign

The U-Can Dictionary is the next chapter in Justin's three-decade-long crusade to reduce illiteracy in Canada. In the mid-1980s, he, along with fellow ex-con Rick Parsons, founded Beat the Street, a program designed to help people who fell through the proverbial cracks in the education system to teach each other how to read.

"I started the literacy program because I'm smart. I knew that dirty little, stinkin' bikers and bag ladies and those people will help each other," he says, purposely invoking the slang of the day. "So we would get a scumbag who knows how to read to teach a bag lady who doesn't know how to read. And it worked."

Beat the Street worked so well that it was replicated across Canada, attracting millions of dollars government funding and charitable donations. In addition, the duo's efforts won them the Order of Canada in 1989.

The honour didn't diminish Justin's fire for the cause. He rhymes off statistics about how many Canadians can't read well and speaks emotionally on what effect poor literacy has not only on one's job prospects, but also one's self-esteem.

"When some kids, they don't get it, they cry," he says. "It's full of shame. It's full of embarrassment. You hand me joke? All of my life, people go, 'Hey, want to read a joke?' I was the joke, because I couldn't read it."

Team effort

Justin decided to ask his wife, with whom he's raising two boys, Jack, 6, and Michael, 17, to help him make his dream of a self-teaching dictionary a reality.

"Originally, I wanted no part of this," says Annmarie, an avid reader who, as a child, consulted her Charlie Brown dictionary for fun. "I said to him, 'What the hell are you doing? Writing a dictionary?' "

'We were like druggies, knocking on our friends' doors, asking 'Hey, do you have the words?' —Justin Page

But eventually Annmarie, 43, got onboard with the project. "It's Justin's passion," she says, "and I needed to get it out for him."

Together, the couple enlisted friends to pore over thousands of words to determine which ones would make the cut. "We were like druggies, knocking on our friends' doors, asking 'Hey, do you have the words?' Justin laughs. "And then we'd go count them in the car."

The process of whittling down the definitions, Annmarie says, was onerous as well.

"I had this all done with the meanings and he says to me, "Can you make them shorter?" And I said, "Are you serious?" '

"I drove her crazy," Justin chimes in. "That's what she's trying to say. "

'Powerful' book

Three years on, the Pages have finished copies of the book in hand. They elected to have the book published by Inclusion Press, a Toronto imprint that Marsha Forest, the late activist and educator who inspired Justin to learn how to read, co-founded.

"It's still a little unreal," says Annmarie. "We waited so long to get it and now that we have it, it's beautiful. I carry it around everywhere and I show everybody."

They have also entered into an agreement with Wal-Mart to have the retail giant stock 10,000 copies on its shelves. Justin hopes the exposure will get the book into the hands of as many new readers — both young and old — as possible.

"Knowledge is words and words are power," Justin says. "This is the most powerful book in the world because if you can master this, you've got everything."

The U-Can Dictionary ($20, plus shipping and handling) is available on Inclusion Press's website. People in Hamilton who wish to have the book delivered for free can order it by calling the Pages at 905-538-9133.

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Police seek public's help in search for missing Hamilton woman

CBC News

Posted: Jul 28, 2013 9:55 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 28, 2013 10:00 AM ET

Police are asking for the public's help in the search for a missing Hamilton woman.

Karen Golightly was last seen near the intersection of Main Street East and Sherman Avenue on July 15. She was reported missing two days later.

She is described as five-foot-nine, 250 lbs., with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

Police ask anyone with information on Golightly's whereabouts to contact the Division Two staff sergeant at 905-546-2963.

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Royal baby frenzy difficult for parents coping with infant loss

Charity for bereaved parents launches peer support group in Hamilton

CBC News

Posted: Jul 26, 2013 10:35 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 26, 2013 3:52 PM ET

 

Tiny footprints of Aaron Lazare's daughter Annabelle, who was born after 22 weeks of gestation and died shortly after. (Aaron Lazare)

Aaron Lazare's daughter Annabelle would have turned one year old this month.

To celebrate the first birthday of his daughter, who was born prematurely and died shortly after, Lazare organized a balloon memorial and asked parents like him to release balloons in their lost babies' name.

"The release was both literal and metaphorical," said Lazare, now a father of a 3-year-old girl.

Lazare will be facilitating a peer support group in Hamilton next month as part of the healing program of Pregnancy and Infant Loss (PAIL) Network, a Canadian charity that supports families that are coping with miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth and other types of infant loss.

'You literally can't escape it – royal baby, royal baby'—Aaron Lazare, supports parents coping with infant loss

The charity launched its first peer support session in Hamilton amid blanket coverage of the birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child. The past week has been difficult for bereaved parents, Lazare said.

"You literally can't escape it – royal baby, royal baby," he said.

But the royal baby frenzy can have more serious consequences for parents, according to Sara Alexander, a board member of PAIL, as it can trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Sometimes even just seeing a pregnant woman or a baby can cause a panic attack or physical reactions," she told CBC Hamilton. "If that's all over the media, where do you get away from that?"

Alexander's daughter Hannah was born six years ago without a heartbeat. Her birth announcement in the local paper was starkly juxtaposed with her funeral arrangement.

The blanket coverage has left no room for discussions of infant loss prevention or space for grieve, Alexander said.

"We who have lost babies are sometimes told not to rain on anyone else's parade. But in the parade, realize that there are people mourning," she said.

Healing through social media

Social media also plays a conflicting role during families' healing process.

Pregnancy is becoming a public event thanks to social networks like Facebook. Lazare had to make the announcement of Annabelle's passing even more public so he wouldn't be inundated with questions about the newborn from coworkers and family members.

But for Alexander, who manages PAIL Network's twitter account, she has seen a rise in the hashtag #babyloss, which is used by people all over the world to share their experience. Many parents also start blogging as an emotional outlet and to exchange advice.

Back to Hamilton, Lazare said he is expecting only a handful for the city's first PAIL peer support session. It is not uncommon for parents who have signed up to back out last minute. When he and his wife first joined PAIL's session in Toronto, shortly after losing Annabelle, they sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes before mustering up the courage to go ahead.

"You don't know what to expect. You are about to share your deepest and darkest secret with a group of strangers," he said, adding that members are not obliged to speak during the sessions.

What has helped him coping with the loss so far is thinking about the legacy of his daughter, one of the main reasons he is volunteering with PAIL.

"All of the help and support I give is in my daughter Annabelle's name," he said. "She was born and died in 20 minutes. Although it was such a brief time, the impact of her life continues to be felt by us and by others."

"That is the legacy my daughter leaves behind."

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Hamilton teen had been drinking before deadly collision, friends say

updated

Drivers of both cars die in early morning collision

CBC News

Posted: Jul 26, 2013 6:12 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 26, 2013 6:28 PM ET

A 17-year-old from Hamilton had been drinking with friends before he got behind the wheel and ended up in car accident that killed him and a 42-year-old father of three, the teen's friends say.

Those friends say they tried to convince Shawn Bell not to drive home.

"We were the last people he talked to," Bell's friend Conner Lahie told CBC News. "He gave my friend a hug … and goes 'Nothing's going to happen, I promise'. And then he left."

Steve Last, 42, was killed in a head-on collision in rural Hamilton early Friday. (Instagram)

Bell, 17, of the Stoney Creek area was driving a Mazda northbound on Highway 56, just after midnight ET Friday in rural Hamilton, when he collided head-on with a GMC Terrain SUV driven by Steve Last, 42, who was from the village of Binbrook, also part of Hamilton.

Last was bringing his two daughters and a friend home after a day at Canada's Wonderland.

Bell was pronounced dead at the scene, while Last was taken to hospital and died there of his injuries. His 10-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old daughter were in the SUV with a 15-year-old family friend. They are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police have not confirmed the names, and have not confirmed that alcohol played a role in the accident. At the scene Friday morning, Hamilton Police Chief Glen DeCaire warned of the dangers of drinking and driving.

According to Last's employer, the carpenter had taken Thursday off work to spend time with his daughters.

"He took his girls to Canada's Wonderland," said Rob DeVincentis, owner of Baycon Construction, where Last had worked for four years.

Friends say Shawn Bell, 17, had been drinking before getting into a devastating car accident early Friday. (Facebook)

"He was scheduled back this morning. He was scheduled to go to job on his own. We figured he was on the job. And then we got the call."

Last was divorced and had two daughters with his ex-wife, DeVicentis said. This year, his new partner gave birth to their first child together.

"He was planning to get remarried," DeVincentis said. "She's a super, super girl. I was with him when he met her."

DeVincentis described Last as a "very soft spoken," a "really down-to-earth guy" would "spend any minute he could take off" with his children.

"I know it's a cliché to say this when somebody's died, but he really was a gentleman."

Friends say Bell had been with a small group of friends just hanging out and had "quite a bit to drink."

"A couple hours just before that we seen him do it. Two hours later, he was going home," said Lahie.

"We told him it wasn't a good idea — said you're too intoxicated you should stay. He said 'No, I'm leaving.' "

Bell told his friends he had to leave because he had to work the next day.

About a dozen teens came to the crash site around 1 p.m., carrying a homemade cross. Some were crying as they nailed it into the ground at the spot where the cars had skidded off the road.

Bell recently graduated from Saltfleet High School, and many students there took to Twitter to express their grief. "It's so sad to hear that another Saltfleet student has been taken from us," wrote one.

The school has faced other tragedies in recent years. In June 2012, two Saltfleet students committed suicide when they jumped off the Jolley Cut. Another 16-year-old student committed suicide four months before that.

In April 2012, a 14-year-old Saltfleet student died from an infection after heart transplant surgery.

Highway 56 between Golf Club Road and Guyatt Road was closed as police conducted their investigation but it was re-opened to traffic shortly after 7 a.m.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Hamilton police chief credits economy, law enforcement for plunging crime rate

Police heralded on Wednesday a new Statistics Canada report showing the violent crime rate in the Hamilton area in 2012 was down 19 per cent over the previous year — the largest decrease of any region in the country. And for the fifth year in a row, the study suggested, the city saw a drop in its overall crime, down seven per cent from 2011.

CBC Hamilton spoke with Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire on Friday to get his take on these trends. The city's top cop said the decrease in crime speaks both to Hamilton's economic resurgence as well as to the quality of its law enforcement. Moreover, he defended his campaign at council to increase funding for the police force, arguing cuts to service would have direct impact upon safety upon Hamilton streets.

What impact do you hope this report will have on the perception of how safe Hamilton is?

First of all, we need to be really, really clear that this report is about reported crime. So we have to keep up all of our efforts and our educational outreach to encourage people to report crime, particularly in the areas of domestic violence and sexual assault. There are a lot of reasons, but we believe those are underreported crimes.

But we're very encouraged by this report. It's very positive in the fact that Hamilton has experienced the single largest decrease in our country in the violent crime rate, the fourth-largest decrease in the total crime rate and the sixth-largest overall over a five-year trend period.

So it's very, very positive, but within that, we're also quite conservative in that we have some continued challenges ahead of us that remain very important to focus on.

What factors do you think have contributed to this drop in the violent crime rate?

I give an awful lot of credit to what's going on here in Hamilton. And it's not all about policing — although policing and public safety is huge part of this. It's about what we're doing as a city.

Let's look at, first of all, what's going on with the economy. We're seeing in Hamilton increasing housing starts, educational opportunities through McMaster University. We've seen employment rise. And in all of these other measures that we look at in the province, Hamilton is fairing better than many other cities.

'The measure of success in policing isn't the response to crime; the measure of success in policing is the absence of crime.'—Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire

But for the Hamilton police, for us, we have strategic enforcement programs. Our enforcement on Highway Traffic Act offences has increased 50 per cent over the past four years. We have the ACTION program, which is the strategic deployment of officers into specific areas that are identified through crime analysis. We're trying to divert people out of the justice system through the social navigator program. We have a lot of programs here that are designed to help on the issue of public safety and I am absolutely committed that our crime analysis strategy is having a very significant impact.

But I have to tell you that the biggest part of our strategy is the men and women of the Hamilton Police Service. They continue to deliver excellence in policing every single day. We're very proud of their efforts on an individual basis and their professionalism.

In the last budget cycle, you asked council for a controversial budget increase to hire more staff. Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla told CBC Hamilton this week that the decrease in violent crime demonstrates that funding for the Hamilton Police Service doesn't need to be increased. How do you respond to that?

Let's be absolutely clear that the investment that Hamiltonians make in policing has produced a 19-per-cent decrease [in violent crime], the highest in the nation. If you invest at any lower level, what is that percentage going to be? If it's three per cent, then that loss will be 16 per cent. And that loss represents the number of victims of crimes increasing.

The measure of success in policing isn't the response to crime; the measure of success in policing is the absence of crime. And when we can eliminate 19 per cent in the violent crime rate in one year — the highest decrease in the nation — that is evidence that the investment in policing is paying off in a very profound way.

But if investment levels are kept where they are and the other trends that you say have decreased violent crime were to continue, is that not satisfactory?

If it's satisfactory, then you'd have to be content to stand in front of those victims of crime and say that's an acceptable rate of victimization. If you reduce the budget and you reduce the personnel, we will have to end some of these programs. And when you end these programs that by all the research and all of the performance measurement indicators are producing, you must be confident that you're okay with an increased level of victimization.

De Caire said court rulings and changes to provincial policy have increased the amount of time officers have to spend on administrative duties, creating the need for more staff. (Terry Asma/CBC)

Also, the current budget that was approved has 15 additional officers that are heading into the Hamilton Police Service in 2013. Let's keep in mind that the reason for that is, although our calls for service remain relatively stable around 80,000, the time that is required to complete those calls has increased over 36,000 hours per year over the last five-to-six years.

Why is that?

What's happening is, there'll be a new decision that comes from the Supreme Court that impacts procedure or…there'll be a new administrative procedure, something that has to happen. And we don't get any say in that. If the Supreme Court makes a ruling, we have to respond. All of those processes that come in, they consume officers' patrol time.

What we're seeing is, the increase in time that's required for the calls the service is decreasing their proactive time for community outreach, mobilization, enforcement — all of those things that still need to be done. In order to keep these very significant and positive gains going forward, we require additional people to do that.

Will you be pursuing money for additional staff in the next budget cycle?

The fact of the matter is, at this point, I do not know the answer to the question because we're doing many things inside the service to try to save our officers' time as well.

Police use-of-force numbers between 2008 and 2012, many of those metrics are up. How do you view those trends in light of the decrease in violent crime?

The officers, in 80,000 calls for service, have over 300,000 contacts a year. And the numbers we see in use of force go anywhere from 225 to 270 each year. Those numbers, they represent less than a half of a percent of all the contacts that our officers have each year.

You'll also see that the increase in the [use of force] numbers that we saw last year, which has drawn all of the attention, the majority of that is a result of a policy change within the Hamilton Police Service. We use to allow officers that were working in groups together to put in a team report — one report that they submit as a team. We now have individual reports coming forward, which means that the numbers will actually increase. I'm not alarmed by that. I think that's positive in terms of transparency and accountability.

At this point, are you comfortable with how the police use of force policy is being followed?

Absolutely, we have very strict monitoring. We have oversight and supervision by our road supervisors right up to divisional commanders. And I am absolutely comfortable with the process of educating our officers on the issue of force and the decisions they are making given the circumstances at the time.

This interview has been edited for length.

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Veteran linebacker Isaac looking forward to taking out frustration on Riders

Brandon Isaac will make his Hamilton Tiger-Cats debut with a huge chip on his shoulder.

The veteran linebacker will be in Hamilton's lineup Saturday versus the Saskatchewan Roughriders (4-0) in Guelph, Ont. The game will be a shot at redemption for the Ticats following a lopsided 37-0 road decision to the Riders on Sunday, but for Isaac it's a much-needed chance to take out his frustration at being released Tuesday by the Toronto Argonauts.

"I know I'm going to be pissed off," Isaac said Friday. "I don't like the situation I'm in, however I'm learning to deal with it.

"I don't want to talk about it because it's not going to make the situation any better. Good luck to them . . . it is what it is. A lot of people don't know what it is, I kind of still don't know what it is but at the same time they released me, I'm a Ticat, I'm happy to be here and I can't wait till (Saturday) to get some of this frustration off my chest."

Former Toronto Argonaut linebacker Brandon Isaac is set to make his debut as a Hamilton Tiger-Cat on Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Isaac, 28, helped Toronto win the 100th Grey Cup last November and was named a team captain heading into the 2013 campaign. He had 16 tackles and one sack in four games before being surprisingly cut four days after the Argos' 35-19 road win in Winnipeg.

Kent Austin, Hamilton's head coach, GM and football operations director, has simple expectations of Isaac.

"I expect him to play in certain situations and personnel groupings," Austin said. "We just get back to work and prepare the way we know how to . . . correct our mistakes, which were many, and play a team game with more effort and better preparation."

The six-foot-three, 208-pound Isaac hasn't had much time in his new surroundings after signing with Hamilton (1-3) on Wednesday. Fortunately, he has a history with Ticats defensive co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer, who was Toronto's secondary coach last year.

"It's basically the same defence Toronto runs but the terminology is a lot different," he said. "Once I learn the terminology, I've already learned about 80 per cent of the calls . . . . I'll feel just right.

"It is weird (wearing Hamilton colours) however the Ticats have given me the opportunity to play football again and I'm so grateful and honoured to be here. I'm going to continue to show this league I'm a good player, I'm reliable, responsible for my actions and I'm going to do things the right way."

Isaac won't be the only one making a debut Saturday.

Slotback Dave Stala, 33, entering his 11th CFL season, comes off the nine-game injured list to play after undergoing off-season knee surgery.

"The surgery wasn't as bad as I thought and I healed quicker than I thought," Stala said. "I'm pretty excited because I mean Saskatchewan is 4-0 now so they've got the bull's eye on them.

"I don't think I'm coming back too early. Two weeks ago I still had some swelling in the knee but right now it's fine. I'm full go and I'm going to go out there and make plays."

With slotback Andy Fantuz (hamstring) out, Stala will be counted on to provide veteran leadership for Hamilton's young receiving corps.

"It's great to have Dave back," said Ticats quarterback Henry Burris. "You build a rapport, that trust and continuity with certain guys and it helps you relax more because you understand those guys have been there."

Burris said the Ticats are anxious to face the Riders in the rematch.

"Anytime you have a disappointing (performance) like we did it's always time for redemption and it's that time right now," Burris said. "The wound is still fresh and they're still on our mind.

"But hey, everybody needs a gut check every now and then, it happens every season and for us it happened this past game and it came against a team that's coming back here. We've had a chance to regroup, go in and watch the film, see the mistakes we made and see the things they did and make sure they don't make those plays again and we don't make our mistakes again."

It's unclear which quarterback Hamilton's defence will face. Starter Darian Durant — who passed for 347 yards and four TDs last week — is a game-time decision with a foot injury. If Durant can't play, sophomore Drew Willy would make his second career CFL start.

But what Isaac and the Ticats know for sure is a key cog in Saskatchewan's offence is running back Kory Sheets, the CFL rushing leader with 572 yards who ran for 130 yards last week.

Sheets' rushing total is the highest ever through four games to start a season. He needs just 75 yards to break the league mark for five games of 646 yards set in '75 by Calgary's Willie Burden.

"The key to this team is the running back," Isaac said. "They're a team that runs the ball a lot and once you get the running game going then you can do anything.

"If you can stop the run, then they become one-dimensional and it plays in our favour. I just think they're going to try come in and hand the ball off and pound us."

Sheets won't feel any extra pressure to perform should Durant not play.

"I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and trust everybody in front of me," he said. "There's really no pressure because there's a lot of guys around me that help out."

Sheets is on pace to smash Mike Pringle's single-season rushing record of 2,065 yards. The Riders back hasn't been shy about saying he has that mark in his sights, which doesn't bother Isaac.

"That's just a goal he has," Isaac said. "I have plenty of goals and I know other teams don't want me to reach my goals.

"He (Sheets) is a phenomenal back. We just have to go in and be in attack mode, play our responsibility, be gap sound. He's going to find a hole so everyone has to be disciplined in their gap responsibility and we have to hit him. Football is a very physical sport and when you hit a lot of people and sometimes they fold. Hopefully we can get to him, rattle him a lot and come out with a win."

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