Sgt. Derek Mellor resigns amidst numerous sex-related charges

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CBC News Posted: Sep 29, 2014 11:10 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 29, 2014 11:20 AM ET

Sgt. Derek Mellor is a 14-year veteran of the service who was once the lead of Hamilton Police's anti-human trafficking initiative dubbed "Project Rescue." (Terry Asma/CBC)

A Hamilton police officer facing numerous sexual misconduct charges, who always hoped to keep his job, has resigned.

Sgt. Derek Mellor, who headed up Hamilton Police Service's human trafficking initiative, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nine Police Services Act charges after engaging in sexual acts and sending lewd messages as well as photos and videos of his penis to sex workers and colleagues.

His lawyer said this year that Mellor was hoping to keep his job. But on Thursday, Mellor submitted his resignation, which is effective Nov. 3. 

Mellor was the subject of a hearing at Hamilton police headquarters Monday. 

All of the police act charges against Mellor will be stayed at his next appearance. A provincial Special Investigations Unit investigation into his conduct will continue.

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Eisenberger picks up support from another former Hamilton mayor

Morrow, Di Ianni backing Fred Eisenberger in mayoral race

CBC News Posted: Sep 28, 2014 4:52 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 29, 2014 8:47 AM ET

If only former mayors were voting in the upcoming municipal election, Fred Eisenberger would have the race wrapped up already.

Current interim Ward 3 councillor and former longtime mayor Bob Morrow threw his support behind Eisenberger according to a post the candidate made on Twitter Sunday afternoon.

Another former mayor, Larry Di Ianni, cheered the decision in his own tweet. He endorsed Eisenberger in April.

Di Ianni, who served as Hamilton's mayor from 2003 to 2006, lost to Eisenberger in the 2006 mayoral election.

Current mayor Bob Bratina beat out both Eisenberger and Di Ianni in the 2010 vote, with Di Ianni edging out Eisenberger by fewer than 1,500 votes to secure second place.

Morrow served as pre-amalgamation Hamilton mayor from 1982 to 2000. 

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Hamilton reptile zoo plans to bring back its crocodiles

Steve Featherstone and Little Ray's crocodiles 2:04

Steve Featherstone and Little Ray's crocodiles 2:04

The large snakes, lizards and crocodiles banished by Hamilton's responsible pet ownership bylaw could be coming back to town.

Little Ray's Reptile Zoo in Hamilton announced Sunday the facility was granted accreditation by Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums at its annual conference in Moncton, N.B., this weekend.

That was the missing piece after the city agreed to bend its animal control bylaw earlier this year to allow the zoo to continue. 

Steve Featherstone, the facility's owner, said Sunday the accreditation will allow him to bring back his large reptiles from their exile in Ottawa at another Little Ray's facility. Last year, he had to move around 10 arachnids, 11 crocodilians, eight snakes and one lizard from his Hamilton zoo to comply with the city bylaw.

"This puts our zoo on par for standards in all aspects of our company with the largest zoos in Canada," Featherstone said.  

A large green anaconda, a couple of other large snakes and a few crocodilians will return to Hamilton, he said. Some of them will be used in shows in the community, which city councillors were concerned about this year.

"We do have some animals that are prohibited for a lot of organizations that we will use for outreach, but we have very high standards and very high policies and procedures."

In August 2013, Little Ray's asked the city for an exemption to its animal control bylaw prohibiting pythons longer than three feet.  Featherstone was given warning to move his animals out, including a four-foot West African crocodile and a green anaconda.

By December 2013, Featherstone was moving the banned reptiles to Ottawa and bringing in an endangered species exhibit. The move hurt attendance and revenue levels. He cheered the city's flexibility as it created an exemption pending this accreditation earlier this year.

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Hearing for Hamilton cop Mayea delayed close to 2 dozen times

Sgt. Robert Mayea is facing police act charges for violating code of conduct and corporate email policies from an incident that happened back in 2011. (Twitter)

A Hamilton police officer accused of sending an "unprofessional" email to his colleagues isn't able to participate in a police act hearing because it would be harmful to his health, his doctor says.

Sgt. Robert Mayea is facing police act charges for violating code of conduct and corporate email policies from an incident that happened back in 2011. The contents of the email haven't been revealed.

His hearings have now been delayed close to two dozen times.

Mayea's case was last postponed in June while he was seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Now that he is "involved in ongoing treatment," said Superintendent Mike Shea in a Monday morning conference call, Mayea "isn't able to participate" in the hearing process as it would be detrimental for his health.

Shea told the teleconference that he had received a letter from the health centre where Mayea is receiving treatment advising him of the news. As it pertains to a medical condition, the details of the letter are sealed, Shea said.

"There is no information in the letter as to how long this treatment might last," he said.

Shea told Hamilton Police Association administrator Brad Boyce, who is representing Mayea, that the next time the hearing reconvenes, he expects a report on when his treatment should finish.

Mayea's next appearance is set for Jan. 19.

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Spike in collisions has OPP urging drivers to be more careful

Burlington OPP is urging motorists to drive more carefully after a series of collisions that have snarled major highways in the region in recent weeks.

The OPP didn't release specific numbers, but said since Labour Day there's been a spate of fender benders and other minor accidents.

"The sun is glaring in their eyes, traffic is heavy, people are rushed … people are getting wrecked out all over the place," said OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt.

Last Thursday, a woman was rushed to hospital after a three-vehicle collision that brought traffic on Hwy. 403 to a standstill near Aberdeen. Two days before that, an Ornge helicopter was forced to touch down on Hwy. 403 in Mississauga after a major crash there.  

It's not just the major collisions that disrupt traffic, though. On the GTA's congested highways, small collisions can have a "huge" effect on traffic, Schmidt said. Not only can a small crash take out 30 per cent of a roadway, but it also adds a visual distraction.

Plus, one collision can cause what police call secondary collisions, sometimes kilometres behind the original collision site.

"Once you start with the first collision, it's almost exponential," Schmidt said.

He said the current angle of the sun — which will change on Nov. 2 when the time falls back an hour — has been a factor in a number of the collisions. The OPP also issued a series of driving tips in a news release, including:

• Always keep a safe following distance behind other vehicles.
• Avoid distraction and focus on driving.
• Be aware your surroundings and avoid unnecessary lane changes.
• Drive at a safe and responsible speed that's appropriate for the traffic.
• Be aware of heavier traffic volume and plan ahead for longer travel times.

As a bonus tip, Schmidt urged drivers to plan alternate routes that could help them get around collisions. You wouldn't believe how many people don't know their community's roadways well enough to get around a bad accident or closed roadway, he said.

Schmidt also called on motorists to stop trying to "gain an advantage" to get out of traffic by driving dangerously. Nobody likes traffic, he said, but some of those maneuvers put others at risk.

"It's a shared responsibility," he said of highway driving.

"Everybody needs to work together … if we could all just take an extra moment of care we'd probably all get there more reliably."

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Hamilton's Lancaster bomber homecoming: What you need to know

Hamilton's Lancaster bomber is expected to arrive in Hamilton around noon Sunday after a tour lasting several weeks in the U.K. The event is expected to draw large crowds of onlookers eager to welcome the plane home. 

Schedule

The plane will land at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, adjacent to the Hamilton International Airport. The museum opens at 9 a.m. The plane's not expected to land until 12 p.m. ET but museum officials suggest arriving early since they expect traffic around the airport as the landing approaches.

Museum CEO David Rohrer will be flying the plane. Once it lands, he'll address the crowd and the public will have a chance to get closer to the plane and meet the crew. 

Rohrer has said the plane will fly over Hamilton, so you might have a chance to catch it if you look up in the sky before noon, but its exact trajectory, and which parts of the city the plane will fly over, were unknown Saturday evening pending other flight traffic, said Al Mickeloff, spokesman for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. 

Homeward journey

The homeward journey has taken a few days, including a couple of delays in Iceland due to weather. The plane arrived in Labrador Friday and in Quebec Saturday. Thousands of people have seen Canada's Lancaster throughout the tour.

Some fans of the bomber snapped photos of the plane's Canadian landing on Friday. 

The plane is homeward bound after a successful tour in the U.K. But it will also be carrying a hefty $180,000 bill for shipping back the engine it's been borrowing from a British company since one of its four engines shut down a few weeks ago. 

The Lancaster was grounded in the U.K. after an engine was shut down mid-flight. Plumes of smoke billowed along the fuselage as it landed at Durham Tees Airport in northern England.

Repairs were done at the airport before the plane flew to Coningsby, 250 kilometres away. Hamilton's Lancaster rejoined the other airworthy Lancaster Bomber.

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

Hamilton's Mynarski Memorial Avro Lancaster Mk X bomber was built at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont., in 1945. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963.

The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000. A team of volunteers led by Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the bomber, and it returned to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.

"On the day of that first flight, we thought we'd get a couple of hundred people at the airfield to watch," says Mickeloff, spokesman for the museum. "About 20,000 showed up."

"Some people thought the Lancaster would never fly again, and when we made it happen, it changed our whole organization," said Al Mickeloff from Hamilton's warplane museum. "The Lancaster is the heart of the museum, and our volunteers do what it takes to keep it going."

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While family fights Ebola, Hamilton community leader again feels torn

Every night, Leo Johnson's sister, Yassah Lavelah, calls from Paynesville, Liberia, where she works as a nurse. 

Every night, she unloads the stories of her day working at the country's largest Ebola treatment centre, the ELWA, or Eternal Love Winning Africa, hospital.

The conversations are bleak. Sometimes she needs to debrief the body count for that day. Or the times they had to turn away infected patients for lack of space.

'I'm pretty much torn apart right now. I feel kind of guilty that I can be here, sitting in Canada, when somebody from my family could be gone tomorrow.'- Leo Johnson

Leo Johnson's sister and mother work in healthcare in Liberia amid a massive Ebola outbreak. (Facebook)

Johnson, her big brother here in Hamilton, listens. 

"I'm pretty much torn apart right now," Johnson said. "I feel kind of guilty that i can be here, sitting in Canada, when somebody from my family could be gone tomorrow." 

The turmoil and suffering has motivated him to act, and he is planning a local fundraiser to purchase medical supplies for hospitals there. But he realizes an earlier effort to improve life there – helping build the country's first library, has to wait in the midst of such a crisis.

Johnson lives in Hamilton, and it's not the first time he's felt torn between his work as a community leader here and his family and life in Liberia.

Johnson fled war-torn Liberia as a teenager and lived in refugee camps for years not knowing whether his family was still alive. He and his mother finally learned each other was still alive in 2007. Canada denied his mother's application to come to Canada for a two-month stay, a decision that prompted a frustrated Johnson to consider going back to Liberia last year.  

Once again, his family is in grave danger. His mother, Viola Lavelah, also works as a nurse for maternity patients. Her patient population is multiplying as the hospitals focus on Ebola. And her patients may or may not be contagious -- the initial symptoms of the virus make it difficult to detect.

"She's overwhelmed," Johnson said. "The danger there is you don't know who has Ebola." 

His sister left a program she was planning to start this fall at the University of Notre-Dame to go to Liberia to help. 

"If I stay here, I will be here just in my physical body, but my mind will be there," he said she told him.

'Nobody's going to work, nobody's going to school'

The lethal outbreak affects more than just Johnson's family. He's been raising money here for a library project in Liberia. His partners there are supposed to be meeting now, surveying the land, conducting soil samples and preparing blueprints for the library.

But Paynesville is the "epicentre of the virus right now" in Liberia. The whole country is shut down. It's not exactly the right time to call for a status update on the project.

"Nobody's going to work, nobody's going to school, public gatherings are forbidden," Johnson said. "All activities are halted." 

Johnson said he's not sure how many of the people who've been working on this project might have personally contracted the virus. He's already worried about the ripple effects from a country essentially shutting down for weeks and months.

The potential for a traumatic event to derail the project has always been there, Johnson said. "From the beginning we identified something like this as a challenge," he said. "God forbid the day something happens."

Now that it's here, Johnson is trying to think into the future. 

"Yes, the crisis is here. Hopefully, we will get over this at some point," he said. "The real problem is going to be the devastation that will be left." 

How Canadians can help

Health professionals in Liberia, including doctors at the treatment centre where Johnson's sister works,  have sent lists of protective equipment and supplies they need. Johnson and other local Liberians, organized through the local Key-Action Network nonprofit, are organizing an awareness march and benefit dinner on Oct. 18, hoping to raise $30,000 to purchase the supplies and ship them. 

Johnson said he's skeptical that big international nonprofits are able to effect a sustainable turnaround in the outbreak. Without empowering cultural leaders like elders and chiefs to try to change attitudes and practices around caring for the dead, the disease will continue to spread, he said. 

'My dad shakes too many people's hands'

Johnson also fears how the outbreak will damage Liberia's reputation. Especially for his six-year-old son, who's lived his whole life in Canada.

Some friends of Johnson's were over recently, asking about a planned trip to Liberia in November that likely won't happen now. 

"He got into the conversation and said 'I'm not allowing my dad to go back to Ebola,'" Johnson said. "'My dad shakes too many people's hands.'"

Johnson said it breaks his heart to hear his son, who visited his grandma and family in Liberia when he was 2, talking about the country as a "forbidden place." 

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Ticats hold off charging Bombers for 3rd straight win

Kent Austin was relieved his Hamilton Tiger-Cats didn't experience deja vu against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Ticats coach/general manager watched his players hang on for a 16-11 win against the Bombers on Saturday, despite Winnipeg having a chance to pull out a late victory like it had on July 31 with a 27-26 final-play touchdown.

"Our defence needed to dig in," Austin said. "I was telling the guys after they got off the field that this was really good for our defence. We needed to finish that way. It's going to help us."

Rookie Mossis Madu ran 22 yards for his first CFL touchdown as Hamilton (5-7) extended its win streak to three games.

Hamilton has also won four of its last five games, a run that's come after quarterback Zach Collaros returned after missing five games with concussion-like symptoms.

'Scoring my first touchdown, it means so much. I'm still taking it all in.'- Tiger-Cats rookie RB Mossis Madu

Madu, replacing running back C.J. Gable who's on the six-game injured list, scored after the Bombers had turned the ball over on a blocked punt in the second quarter.

The Bombers have lost four straight and sit last in the West Division at 6-7.

"We knew it was going to be a battle from the get-go" said Madu, adding he predicted he'd score in the north end zone of Investors Group Field. "Scoring my first touchdown, it means so much. I'm still taking it all in."

The Bombers hurt themselves on the potential winning drive. With 2:04 remaining, Winnipeg started from its own 23-yard line. A couple of Hamilton penalties helped the Bombers get to mid-field. With 16 seconds left, Winnipeg quarterback Drew Willy had his offence on Hamilton's three-yard line and it was second down.

Costly penalty

However, the Bombers were called for a time-count violation and lost a down.

Willy said he had a hard time hearing the play call so he ran to the sidelines to get it and then ran back into the huddle too late.

"Obviously, I'll take full blame for that," Willy said. "Even if I don't get the play, it's my job to have a play ready in that situation so it doesn't come down to that kind of situation.

"I can call my own play if I don't get it. I need to be better mentally prepared for a situation like that."

Willy then threw the ball into the end zone, but none of his receivers were very close. He said the pass was intended for Clarence Denmark.

"We were just on different pages. I'll take the blame for it," Willy said. "It's tough, for sure. I wish we could have beat them the same way we did the first time. I thought we were on a roll there in the end. To get to the three-yard line and not finish the game, it's quite disappointing."

Willy, playing after injuring his throwing shoulder Sept. 13, took some punishing hits that had him getting up slowly a few times.

He was sacked five times in the game, including four times in the first half.

Defensive lineman Ted Laurent had two sacks, linemates Eric Norwood and Justin Hickman each had one and linebacker Simoni Lawrence also dropped Willy.

"I told the guys in meetings we had to dominant this week," Laurent said. "That was our motto of the whole week, dominate."

Shoulder tested

Willy, who was also knocked to the turf a number of times, said he'll know more in the morning how his shoulder feels, but he doesn't expect it'll stop him from travelling to play Ottawa next Friday.

"There's one thing that you don't want someone to say about you, is that you're not tough," Willy said. "Just get up. You've got to keep fighting. It's a physical game. You don't want to show the other team that they're getting to you so hop up, get up and run the next play."

Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea was impressed with Willy's performance.

"I thought he played a gutsy game," O'Shea said. Willy completed 27 of 41 pass attempts for 303 yards and a TD.

Bomber receiver Cory Watson had caught a five-yard touchdown pass in the end zone with 5:52 remaining to make it 16-11.

A two-point convert failed with an incomplete pass to Watson in front of 28,534 fans at Investors Group Field.

Collaros, who was sacked three times, was 20 of 36 for 182 yards.

Ticats kicker Justin Medlock made field goals from 44, 37 and 39 yards, but went wide from 47 yards out.

Winnipeg also scored off a safety when Collaros was sacked in the end zone by defensive lineman Bryant Turner.

Lirim Hajrullahu connected on a field goal from 20 yards.

"Our defence did a heck of a job keeping us in the game the whole time and really winning it for us," Collaros said. "We made just enough plays offensively. I have to get better. We as a unit have to get better. It's better, though, to correct mistakes with a win as opposed to a loss so we'll take the win and get better next week."

The Tiger-Cats had led 10-5 at halftime.

Winnipeg was penalized 15 times for 130 yards, compared to Hamilton's 10 flags for 97 yards.

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Surprising stranger encounters in Hamilton: DNTO live show

Live from Hamilton, DNTO looks at "stranger" encounters (Sept. 27, 2014) 1:42:26

Definitely Not the Opera

Live from Hamilton, DNTO looks at "stranger" encounters (Sept. 27, 2014)

0:00:00 / 1:42:26

Live from Hamilton, DNTO looks at "stranger" encounters (Sept. 27, 2014) 1:42:26

Tom Wilson's surprising encounter with a stranger 5:17

Definitely Not the Opera

Tom Wilson's surprising encounter with a stranger

0:00 / 5:17

Tom Wilson's surprising encounter with a stranger 5:17

CBC Radio's Definitely Not The Opera took up residence in Hamilton this week. The show's live performance in the  Zoetic Theatre featured local storytellers and musicians exploring what can happen in encounters with strangers.

You can listen to the whole show by clicking the link to the left.

The show featured stories about stranger encounters from Hamiltonians Leo Johnson, Deirdre Pike, Alana Didur and Tor Lukasik-Foss. The night also featured a performance by local band Young Rival.

One stunning story came from Canadian music legend Tom Wilson. 

Two years ago, Wilson learned an incredible secret about his family. And he chose to reveal for the first time to DNTO the story of finding out, just two years ago when he was 53, that he was adopted.

"I'm a big, old biker-looking middle-aged Hamilton guy," Wilson said. "I started to cry, I called my daughter. I didn't know what to do."

The story is incredible.

Here are some more photographs from that night the DNTO team posted.

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New McMaster high-tech lab at intersection of music, sound and the brain

When a musician nods her head or takes a breath, she's often sending a signal to her partner performers. 

A new lab at McMaster aims to study some of those unspoken communication gestures and movements. The university's new LIVELab combines 3D motion-capture technology, acoustic controls and brain-monitoring sensors to trace some of the under-studied parts of human communication, especially as it's translated between musicians and a live audience. 

Saturday was the LIVELab's grand opening, and performances to demonstrate the motion capture technology and the brainwave sensors were so popular the audience had to take shifts coming into the hall.

"For what they're doing here, [LIVELab is] number 1 in the world," said Dan India, a vice president with Swedish motion-capture company Qualisys, who came to town from Chicago for the opening events.  

McMaster researcher Laurel Trainor said the applications for the lab are numerous. Its acoustic manoeuvrability means hearing aid researchers could work out kinks in new designs. The motion capture or brainwave monitors could help Parkinson's or autism researchers determine human reactions to music and sound.

Trainor is director of the McMaster Institute for Music & the Mind and professor in the department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. 

The $8 million lab has been nearly a decade in the works. Saturday, members of Ensemble Vivant performed a few different genres of music while hooked up to motion and brain sensors. Behind them, the audience could see some streams of raw data collected by the instruments.

"We can start to ask big research questions like: How do musicians interact with each other?" Trainor said. "How do they coordinate to play together and how do their brains accomplish that? How do audiences react? And how does the energy from audiences affect performers? Now we can really start to understand how these complex dynamics take place."

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Eisenberger leads latest polls, though largest group of voters undecided

A Forum Research poll done for the Hamilton Spectator has Fred Eisenberger leading a mayor's race that still has a third of respondents — some 34 per cent of them — yet to commit. 

According to the phone survey, Eisenberger leads by nine points over Brad Clark, with 26 per cent of the vote to the former mayor and 17 per cent for Clark's camp. Brian McHattie sits in third at 12 per cent in the Sept. 25 poll of 839 voters, a sample size that Forum says is considered accurate within 3.4 points above and below, 19 times out of 20. 

Former Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger is leading an undecided city in a Sept. 25 poll. (Forum Research)

"By hewing a distinctly centrist course between the more conservative appeal of Brad Clark and Brian McHattie's progressive populism, Fred Eisenberger seems to have placed himself to advantage in the mayor's race, with a month still to go," said Forum Research president, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, in a press release. "The large number of undecided will have to be whittled down, however."

The poll was conducted for the Hamilton Spectator free of charge, and can be viewed here. 

Numbers show that 11 per cent of Hamilton voters wouldn't vote for the three front-runners, and that approval ratings for Eisenberger, Clark and McHattie are 63, 53, and 50 per cent, respectively.

Aside from the front three, "some other candidate" was the only other group listed. They, collectively, polled at 11 per cent, and would include (in alphabetical order by last name) Michael Baldasaro, Ejaz Butt, Mike Clancy, Warrand Francis, Nick Iamonico, Crystal Lavigne, Michael Pattison, Phil Ryerson, Ricky Tavares.

Aside from the mayoral candidates, the poll also found that 20 per cent of voters said taxes were the most important election issue, followed by leadership (16 per cent), economic development (15 per cent), transit (13 per cent), and poverty (12 per cent). 

Of those who agree the city is in need of a transit plan, light rail transit (LRT) is the strong favourite, with 60 per cent preferring LRT over a 28 per cent group of rapid bus supporters. 

Candidate profiles also show Eisenberger's supporters are mostly men, renters, less affluent and likely NDP supporters. By contrast, Clark's supporters are older, Conservative voters who don't feel the city needs a transit solution, and voted for outgoing mayor, Bob Bratina, in the last municipal election. 

McHattie's support comes from the least wealthy, but best educated demographic.

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Cuddlr app brings you 'PG-13,' no strings attached cuddling

Do you yearn for the simple things in life — like cuddling a total stranger that an app tells you is nearby?

Then rejoice, the internet has finally come through for you. Introducing Cuddlr – the app for people who just want to find strangers to cuddle with.

Yes, this is a real thing.

And yes, people in Hamilton are using it.

Cuddlr is a brand new "location-based social-meeting app for cuddling," modelled after hook-up apps like Grindr and Tinder. The app was released on Sept. 18, and in that time, it has garnered 130,000 users – with 14,500 of them in Canada.

Though there are definite similarities to apps like Tinder, Cuddlr is inherently different, says Charlie Williams, the app's co-founder. "Those are hook-up apps, but that's not always what people want to do," he said. "This is about connecting with another person, but not sexually."

Searching for strangers to cuddle

Here's how it works. Users attach their name, location and photos to a personal profile, and then search for cuddle buddies nearby. When a user finds someone they're into, they can send them a cuddle request.

If two Cuddlr users are mutually interested, they get the option to message each other and set up a meeting.

Cuddlr then shows both users real-time walking directions, geolocated on a map to lead them to each other and let the cuddling begin. Users can then review their cuddle session with a thumbs-up, or report inappropriate behaviour from other users.

Williams says as a society, we're "culturally ready" for an app like this. "Ten years ago people thought online dating was insane and the end of times. Now look at us," he said.

Williams does concede that giving someone geolocated directions to where you are at any given moment can appear a little creepy, but stresses that it's only an option after two people express a mutual interest in each other. "If you're concerned, maybe don't meet at home or start your journey from there," Williams said. "A little bit of caution always makes sense when meeting new people."

'Feels a little like a novelty'

Though the app has been successful in its first week of release, whether or not it has any staying power really depends on raising awareness of its brand and keeping buzz going, says McMaster University communications expert Alex Sevigny.

"It could very well be successful if your measure of success is serving a very niche demographic," he said, adding that it almost turns intimacy into a commodity, in a way. "It's turning what used to be private into a public performance," he said.

"But it does feel a little like a novelty."

Though Cuddlr is billed as a PG-13 app, some users are reporting that some people (mostly men) are attempting to use it for quick hook ups (as some men on dating sites are known to do).

Williams has a simple message for those users. "I hope people downvote those people and don't cuddle them."

And if some form of attraction does spring up, mid cuddle? Well that's fine, he says – just wait until your cuddle is done to mention it.

"Don't try to upgrade your cuddle mid-way, so to speak."

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While family fights Ebola, Hamilton community leader again feels torn

Every night, Leo Johnson's sister, Yassah Lavelah, calls from Paynesville, Liberia, where she works as a nurse. 

Every night, she unloads the stories of her day working at the country's largest Ebola treatment centre, the ELWA, or Eternal Love Winning Africa, hospital.

The conversations are bleak. Sometimes she needs to debrief the body count for that day. Or the times they had to turn away infected patients for lack of space.

'I'm pretty much torn apart right now. I feel kind of guilty that I can be here, sitting in Canada, when somebody from my family could be gone tomorrow.'- Leo Johnson

Leo Johnson's sister and mother work in healthcare in Liberia amid a massive Ebola outbreak. (Facebook)

Johnson, her big brother here in Hamilton, listens. 

"I'm pretty much torn apart right now," Johnson said. "I feel kind of guilty that i can be here, sitting in Canada, when somebody from my family could be gone tomorrow." 

The turmoil and suffering has motivated him to act, and he is planning a local fundraiser to purchase medical supplies for hospitals there. But he realizes an earlier effort to improve life there – helping build the country's first library, has to wait in the midst of such a crisis.

Johnson lives in Hamilton, and it's not the first time he's felt torn between his work as a community leader here and his family and life in Liberia.

Johnson fled war-torn Liberia as a teenager and lived in refugee camps for years not knowing whether his family was still alive. He and his mother finally learned each other was still alive in 2007. Canada denied his mother's application to come to Canada for a two-month stay, a decision that prompted a frustrated Johnson to consider going back to Liberia last year.  

Once again, his family is in grave danger. His mother, Viola Lavelah, also works as a nurse for maternity patients. Her patient population is multiplying as the hospitals focus on Ebola. And her patients may or may not be contagious -- the initial symptoms of the virus make it difficult to detect.

"She's overwhelmed," Johnson said. "The danger there is you don't know who has Ebola." 

His sister left a program she was planning to start this fall at the University of Notre-Dame to go to Liberia to help. 

"If I stay here, I will be here just in my physical body, but my mind will be there," he said she told him.

'Nobody's going to work, nobody's going to school'

The lethal outbreak affects more than just Johnson's family. He's been raising money here for a library project in Liberia. His partners there are supposed to be meeting now, surveying the land, conducting soil samples and preparing blueprints for the library.

But Paynesville is the "epicentre of the virus right now" in Liberia. The whole country is shut down. It's not exactly the right time to call for a status update on the project.

"Nobody's going to work, nobody's going to school, public gatherings are forbidden," Johnson said. "All activities are halted." 

Johnson said he's not sure how many of the people who've been working on this project might have personally contracted the virus. He's already worried about the ripple effects from a country essentially shutting down for weeks and months.

The potential for a traumatic event to derail the project has always been there, Johnson said. "From the beginning we identified something like this as a challenge," he said. "God forbid the day something happens."

Now that it's here, Johnson is trying to think into the future. 

"Yes, the crisis is here. Hopefully, we will get over this at some point," he said. "The real problem is going to be the devastation that will be left." 

How Canadians can help

Health professionals in Liberia, including doctors at the treatment centre where Johnson's sister works,  have sent lists of protective equipment and supplies they need. Johnson and other local Liberians, organized through the local Key-Action Network nonprofit, are organizing an awareness march and benefit dinner on Oct. 18, hoping to raise $30,000 to purchase the supplies and ship them. 

Johnson said he's skeptical that big international nonprofits are able to effect a sustainable turnaround in the outbreak. Without empowering cultural leaders like elders and chiefs to try to change attitudes and practices around caring for the dead, the disease will continue to spread, he said. 

'My dad shakes too many people's hands'

Johnson also fears how the outbreak will damage Liberia's reputation. Especially for his six-year-old son, who's lived his whole life in Canada.

Some friends of Johnson's were over recently, asking about a planned trip to Liberia in November that likely won't happen now. 

"He got into the conversation and said 'I'm not allowing my dad to go back to Ebola,'" Johnson said. "'My dad shakes too many people's hands.'"

Johnson said it breaks his heart to hear his son, who visited his grandma and family in Liberia when he was 2, talking about the country as a "forbidden place." 

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Why have Hamilton writers missed the Giller Prize?

No Hamilton writers cracked the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist this year, marking another year no writer form the city will have a chance to win the prestigious Canadian literary award.

The prize — now worth $100,000 for the winner along with an almost guaranteed surge of book sales during the holiday season — announced its long list last week and will reveal the short list of five soon.

Throughout the prize's 20-year history, no one  from Hamilton has ever won. The city's best shot was when Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (which won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize, respectively) made the long list in 2007.

'Hamilton has always been quietly strong with writers.'- Kerry Cranston-Reimer, Bryan Prince Booksellers

Carleton University Professor Rosemarie Hoey, who leads a fourth-year course focused entirely on the prize, says her gut reaction is that the city is missing the infrastructure writers need to win big.

"With all due respect I don't know who your writers are in Hamilton," Hoey said.

Kerry Cranston-Reimer, one of the owners of Bryan Prince Booksellers in Westdale, says not winning the Giller is more "bad luck," than lack of writing talent.

"Hamilton has always been quietly strong with writers," she said, easily rounding up a stack of books by local authors – including Krista Foss, Miranda Hill, Vince Agro and several others -- to prove her point.

Hamilton authors have snapped up other awards, Cranston-Reimer points out, but the Giller breakthrough will have to wait.

How to win a Giller

Those who watch the literary prizes closely know there's plenty of politics at play, including an intense battle between large Canadian publishers to get their titles onto the Giller's list.

Hoey said if Hamilton authors want to win, they need to be proactive in submitting their own books, or lobbying publishers to support them (something that can be difficult unless they're an already-established author.)

The city, meanwhile, could help its authors by creating buzz around the local writing scene. That means writers' events, readings and a supportive public.

"You can't wait around for the Gods to find you," Hoey said.

The literary Gods – or, in this case, the award's jurors – have often smiled on writers from publishing hubs like Toronto and Montreal, but writers from smaller cities have also won. Consider the last five winners:

• Lynn Coady, Hellgoing, originally from Nova Scotia, now in Toronto and Edmonton
• Will Ferguson, 419, from Fort Vermillion, Alta., now in Calgary
• Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues, from Victoria, B.C.
• Johanna Skibsrud, The Sentimentalists, from Nova Scotia, later in Toronto and Montreal
• Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man, from Nova Scotia, now in Toronto

This year's Giller field, Cranston-Reimer said, is particularly strong. With no new major books from Hill or other prominent writers, it's not entirely surprising Hamilton didn't get a nod.

"Our time will come," she said.

City need more novels: poet

There's no Hamilton section at Bryan Prince Booksellers, but there are plenty of books by local writers available. (John Rieti/CBC)

Local poet and nonfiction writer John Terpstra, who was himself nominated for poetry's Charles Taylor Prize, said he's not too worried about the lack of Giller nominees to come out of Hamilton.

He said if he had to guess why, it's a lack of writers focused on writing novels — the format that has largely dominated the Gillers, despite last year's triumphant collection of short stories.

"Maybe the novel you're hoping will be on the Giller list is being written right now," he said, hinting that at least one homegrown writer is working on a promising new book.

Terpstra said the recognition of awards — "I want prizes as much as anyone ... it would be wonderful!" — could have a positive effect for the local writing scene, but having local publishers like Wolsak and Wynn up and running does more for the community in the long run.

Certainly, Terpstra said, the city isn't missing anything in the way of inspiration — particularly in the grit of its urban life.

If you're looking for books set in Hamilton, by Hamilton writers, Cranston-Reimer can certain help out. The city typically plays itself in mysteries, she said, though in other books it appears as a fictitious city and readers will be left to spot the references.

'Mammoth opportunity'

There's one other thing to know about prizes: sometimes, Cranston-Reimer says, the book that wins just isn't beloved by the public.

Last year, Joseph Boyden's Orenda missed the shortlist, but it's been a consistent bestseller at the shop.

"Sometimes one of our bestsellers of the season isn't nominated for anything," Cranston-Reimer said.

Still, heading into a busy season for book sales, the Giller remains, as Hoey puts it, a "mammoth" opportunity. And one, perhaps, that will befall a Hamilton writer sooner or later.

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Hamilton's Lancaster back in Canada, headed to Ottawa Saturday

Hamilton's Lancaster bomber arrived in Canada Friday evening. The plane landed in Goose Bay, Labrador, after taking off from Keflavik, Iceland, and making one unexpected stop in Greenland.

An update on the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Facebook page said the crew was looking forward to a rest before continuing on with the weekend's homecoming events. 

The plane is expected to fly to Gatineau airport near Ottawa on Saturday, before its scheduled homecoming in Hamilton around noon on Sunday.

Some fans of the bomber snapped photos of the plane's Canadian landing on Friday. 

The plane is homeward bound after a successful tour in the U.K. But it will also be carrying a hefty $180,000 bill for shipping back the engine it's been borrowing from a British company since one of its four engines shut down a few weeks ago. 

The Lancaster was grounded in the U.K. after an engine was shut down mid-flight. Plumes of smoke billowed along the fuselage as it landed at Durham Tees Airport in northern England.

Repairs were done at the airport before the plane flew to Coningsby, 250 kilometres away. Hamilton's Lancaster rejoined the other airworthy Lancaster Bomber.

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

Hamilton's Mynarski Memorial Avro Lancaster Mk X bomber was built at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont., in 1945. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963.

The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000. A team of volunteers led by Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the bomber, and it returned to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.

"On the day of that first flight, we thought we'd get a couple of hundred people at the airfield to watch," says Mickeloff, spokesman for the museum. "About 20,000 showed up."

"Some people thought the Lancaster would never fly again, and when we made it happen, it changed our whole organization," said Al Mickeloff from Hamilton's warplane museum. "The Lancaster is the heart of the museum, and our volunteers do what it takes to keep it going."

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Why Bob Bratina after 4 years as mayor regrets 'nothing'

It's been an active term for Mayor Bob Bratina who presided over his last council meeting Wednesday evening.

There have been the sore spots — tense arguments with members of council, a censure vote, an integrity commissioner investigation and heated debates over whether he accurately conveyed city council's transit priorities to the province.

And there have been bright spots — widespread development, a new (albeit delayed) stadium, some major downtown projects, low tax increases, and perhaps even an end in sight for the Randle Reef project.

CBC Hamilton interviewed Bratina, using some questions from readers, and asked him about his legacy, his record and his reflections on the last four years.

"Nothing," he said when asked what he would have done differently. "I'm happy with what I did."

Bratina on whether he was a good mayor:

"I can't think of anything that I really cared about (that I didn't achieve), except perhaps the internal council culture, which still I think is problematic. But I got all my things done. Someone else can judge whether it was good or not, but I didn't raise taxes to any great extent under inflation. What more can I say?"

On the negatives:

"Of course there was bad stuff. At times, certain members of council were very disrespectful of the office of mayor. They can hate me all they want, but 52,000 Hamiltonians, 13,000 more than anybody else running, wanted me to be the mayor. People with 1,700 votes were censuring me and all of that stuff. That's probably going to need at least a pamphlet, if not a book, to explain the dynamics, but basically I was coming into a culture that was old boy. I didn't think that was the best thing for the city. I didn't solve it. I paid a big price for it, but I'm happy because I got almost everything I wanted done."

On his next two months:

Bratina plans to "work on my model railroad." He'll also continue the business of mayor, including signing documents. 

A question asked by a reader, Andy, on whether Bratina fulfilled his 2010 election promise to revisit amalgamation:

"I did everything I could with the understanding that it is not a municipal issue, it's a provincial issue. I would ask Andy, did you approach any of the candidates in the provincial election and bring the matter up?…During the build up, that would've been the perfect time for my friends in the amalgamated areas who still have concerns, as I do, to bring it up. I didn't hear it mentioned once. So Andy, what did you do to help me achieve that?"

On a reader question about his running a pro-LRT campaign in 2010:

"We know now from documents that I came across that even the province wasn't convinced that the LRT was the best bang for the city of Hamilton's buck. LRT is a great thing and its time will come, but I don't have the ability to impose the unknown costs of LRT on the taxpayers."

On the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and its pro-LRT stance: 

"I think (president Keanin Loomis)…I don't think he understands the big picture. (To say that U.S. Steel's closure) is OK because we're going to have cafes and coffee shops and ice cream parlours on industrial lands…There's something wrong with the chamber of commerce and I don't accept that they speak for big industry."

On how he contributed to city council's decorum issues:

Bratina said he has no regrets. "Everyone acknowledges that the decorum of my council was far better than anything in the previous councils."

On what he'd have done differently as mayor:

"Nothing. I'm happy with what I did. It wasn't the easiest road but everything I did, I followed city policy and I saved over a million dollars on my office budget, and that's the council-approved office budget…The mayor's office far outperformed any in decades. That's a fact, and you can use any measure you want to apply to that statement."

On council's censure vote of 2012:

"You tell me why I was censured because I don't even know myself."

On the stadium location issue:

"Here we are four years later still arguing about the site and we've really got to move on. That's almost psychotic to keep bringing back these old arguments of years ago. The city has to move forward."

On providing mayoral candidate Brad Clark with LRT documents:

"The request has to be complied with. The request came from Brad Clark. He wanted the document and I had the document."

Rate your council: How do you think the last four years went for Hamilton?

How would you rate council's performance from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest?

How would you rate the performance of Mayor Bob Bratina from 1 to 5?

Who was the most effective councillor on city-wide issues?

Which councillor did you agree with most often?

Was your ward councillor an effective representative?

Is Hamilton in a better place than it was four years ago?

How would you rate council's performance on economic development and attracting jobs?

How would you rate council's performance on LRT?

How would you rate council's performance with property taxes?

How would you rate council's performance on health and the environment?

How would you rate council's performance on roads, bridges and other infrastructure?

How would you rate council's performance on reducing poverty in the city?

How do you rate council's performance on stadium location and construction?

Rate council's performance on transparency and accountability?

Rate council's performance on support for the arts?

How do you rate council's performance on downtown renewal?

What issue did council do the best on?

Which issue did council do the worst on?

What area does council need to improve upon?

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Hamilton Muslim community looks to understand path to ISIS

Following the news that a 20-year-old Hamilton man, was reported killed while fighting for Islamic State militants in Syria, the city's Muslim community held an emergency meeting, turning within to ask how this happened.

When the family of Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud received a message from their eldest son, that he was with his "brothers" in Syria, it may have already been too late to help him. It has left the community wondering how and when it can intervene to try to prevent someone from turning to a radical and violent path. 

Radical Islam is 'like a gang'

Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, seen here when he was at first-year at York University. Friends say these are some of the few photos they have after he deleted photos off of his Facebook and Instagram pages between the spring and summer of 2014. (Submitted photo)

"It's when you lose access to them. If they are in the grips, one of these groups, and there's no way of wedging them away from the group," said Hussein Hamdani, a founding member of the Public Safety Canada cross-cultural roundtable, who acted as a spokesperson for the family who lost their son in mid-July and learned of his death just days ago. 

"It's like gang… You need to get that person before they cross the criminal threshold."

And with more recruiting happening via online sources, the radicalization can happen in private, away from a supporting community. Hamdani said that is what happened in this case: Mohamud withdrew from all his traditional communities —his friends and family and his mosque —and found a new community online.

Mohamud's family told CSIS and RCMP about their son, but after he had left for Syria. How to intervene before the youths leave was one of the subjects of last night's emergency meeting.

The Muslim community, both downtown and from the MCGH, are looking towards their youth programming as outlets, and looking to set up a youth forum.

"Our mosques have several interpersonal counselling programs run by our Imams for youth and families to take advantage of at any time," said Dr. Ali Taher Ghouse, president of the Muslim Association of Hamilton, in a MCGH press release. 

The Muslim Council of Greater Hamilton (MCGH) released a statement just after midnight Thursday morning, reaffirming they condemn "any form of extremism and violence perpetrated for any reason," a statement they made less than two weeks earlier. 

Calgary imam Syed Soharwardy, who also founded of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC), said Wednesday the process to radicalizing Islamic youths begins in community centres, colleges, universities and mosques, starting with converting the men to Wahabism.

10-12 'behavioural indicators' of path to radicalism

Hamdani likened Wahabism to "strict evangelical Christians." 

"They're literalist interpreters of the Quran. To them, the world is simple, it's black or it's white. There's nothing in-between," Hamdani said. 

Both said that there is no one path, but Hamdani described some of the 10-12 "behavioural indicators" of a person about to transcend on a path of radicalism. 

"For example, some intense religiosity in a very short period of time, being fixated with the end of the world, being fixated with mayartdom," Hamdani said. "These and other indicators tell you that there's something happening."

As one becomes isolated he said there is then some kind of intervention that offers a radical outlet for the all the pent up feelings. "Either it's online or a human element, at some point, intervenes and tells them, 'Alright, you're upset, you have a right to be upset, now here's how you can express your frustration. This is what you need to do if you're a real man.'"

Human element needed to switch emotions into action

Disagreeing with Soharwardy, Hamdani said it doesn't have to start with Wahabism, it can begin online, through one of 10,000 websites Hamdani says is out there to fuel disenfranchised future fighters. 

"Often it's online where you get the emotions running high, you see gruesome videos, you see damaging pictures, you get things that really frustrate you about what's going on in the world… But there has to be a human element that takes your worked up and transferring that into action," Hamdani said.

Hamdani also called for calm in how to deal with youth in danger of turning to radicalism. 

"There are legitimate ways, Islamic ways, Canadian ways of dealing with those grievances," Hamdani said. "Not this barbarism, this gratuitous violence that we've been seeing others do. That is not the Islamic way, that's not the Canadian way."

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Hamilton doing poor job at hiring woman leaders: study

Hamilton is doing a poor job of putting women in high-ranking positions, and the city is suffering as a result, say the authors of a new report about gender diversity among the city's leaders.

The city is still lagging when it comes to female managers, union heads, lawyers and other positions of power, says a report released by the YWCA Hamilton, McMaster University and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce's women's leadership committee.

Only one-third of elected officials are women, the report shows, and women make up only 19 per cent of corporate executives.

And despite more women than men graduating from Canadian law schools, it says, fewer are practising law for reasons such as family obligations, and only 28.6 per cent of judges, Crown attorneys and legal firm partners are women.

Hamilton is likely suffering financially, socially and creatively from the imbalance, said Karen Bird, report co-author and an associate professor in McMaster's political science department.

"Organizations that are more inclusive perform better and have better financial and organizational outcomes," Bird said. They also have lower rates of attrition and more job satisfaction.

And "the more inclusive our major public and private institutions are, the fairer they are," she said.

The report was released Thursday, and analyzed both Hamilton and Halton. Overall, women account for an average of 34.9 per cent of the leadership positions in Hamilton compared to 38.6 per cent in Halton.

Bird, researcher Samantha Jackson and a team of students compiled data for 2,563 leaders across nine sectors. A McMaster grant of about $10,000 funded the study.

The group is planning more reports, said Denise Doyle, CEO of YWCA Hamilton. The next will be about ethnic diversity in leadership roles, which she hopes will be released within a year.

It's important to monitor these things, she said.

"It matters if we're really going to continue to encourage women's leadership, and more importantly, try to ensure that those numbers continue to change."

The report is part of the Women and Diversity EXCLerator Project. 

---

• Elected officials: 33.3 per cent
• Agencies, boards and commissions: 28.7
• Education boards and executives: 28.7
• Health boards and executives: 35.9
• Public sector executives: 34.8
• Corporate boards and executives: 19
• Voluntary boards and executives: 46.1
• Union leaders: 31.3
• Legal sector leaders: 28.6

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Hamilton weather, traffic and more: Daystarter Friday

They say in life, you should have no regrets — it's a mantra current and outgoing mayor Bob Bratina appears to be subscribing to. In a busy, beautiful fall week in Hamilton, the former CHML voice stopped by CBC Hamilton to reflect on his record at the top of the municipal political food chain. Check it out here.

If you need to get gas this morning, the cheapest price in the area is 121.4 at the Costco near Golf Links Road in the Meadowlands. 

GO Transit isn't reporting any delays on lines connected with Hamilton this morning.

Here's a look at what police are reporting on the roads:

• Collision: QEW Toronto-bound left lane blocked with a three-vehicle collision. 8:24 a.m.
• Collision: 403 Toronto-bound, two car collision on shoulder at Highway 52 in Ancaster. 8:19 a.m.

The beautiful fall weather is getting even better this weekend. With a high of 24 C, which will be dropping to a balmy 19 C at night, Friday will be a near perfect day. If you want to catch the sunset, it's even earlier at 7:11 a.m. The rain may arrive on Monday, so get out there, Hamilton.

Today's image comes courtesy Twitter from Brad Pipe:

Bob Bratina says he regrets "nothing" in four years as Hamilton's mayor, in an outgoing, reflective (and must listen) interview with the CBC's Samantha Craggs.

You can have your say on how his council did: take part in our "Rate Your Council" polls by clicking here.

And is Hamilton doing a poor job of hiring women in the city? A new study has some numbers to back up the claim, check it out here.

Whether you like him or not, Derek Jeter went out on a beautiful note last night.

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Hamilton Lancaster airborne, en route to Labrador

Hamilton's Lancaster bomber is on its way home. The plane took off from Keflavik, Iceland, Friday morning and is about halfway through its journey to Goose Bay, Labrador, according to an update on the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Facebook page. The local museum's president and CEO, David Rohrer, is at the controls for the eight-hour flight.

The plane is homeward bound after a successful tour in the U.K. But it will also be carrying a hefty $180,000 bill for shipping back the engine it's been borrowing from a British company since one of its four engines shut down a few weeks ago. 

An aviation group in England, the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association, donated $10,695 to the engine repair effort, the museum also announced. That number represents the Royal Canadian Air Force servicemen who died fighting with Bomber Command during WWII.

The Lancaster's crew likely won't get home until the weekend. They're facing headwinds this time the whole way back, and there's less urgency to get there for a specific show date.

Though after two months, everyone is anxious to get home, Al Mickeloff said earlier this week. Mickeloff is a marketing manager from the warplane museum travelling with the plane.

"We don't want the tour to end – but it's time to get back to our family and friends."

The Lancaster was grounded in the U.K. after an engine was shut down mid-flight. Plumes of smoke billowed along the fuselage as it landed at Durham Tees Airport in northern England.

Repairs were done at the airport before the plane flew to Coningsby, 250 kilometres away. Hamilton's Lancaster rejoin the other airworthy Lancaster Bomber.

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

Hamilton's Mynarski Memorial Avro Lancaster Mk X bomber was built at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont., in 1945. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963.

The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000. A team of volunteers led by Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the bomber, and it returned to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.

"On the day of that first flight, we thought we'd get a couple of hundred people at the airfield to watch," says Mickeloff, spokesman for the museum. "About 20,000 showed up."

"Some people thought the Lancaster would never fly again, and when we made it happen, it changed our whole organization," Mickeloff adds. "The Lancaster is the heart of the museum, and our volunteers do what it takes to keep it going."

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Mayor Bratina takes your questions noon Thursday

Coming Up

How did Bob Bratina do as Mayor? Let him know what you think at noon

CBC News Posted: Sep 24, 2014 9:33 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 25, 2014 8:59 AM ET

Bob Bratina will reflect back on his last four years as mayor of Hamilton in a live chat at CBC Hamilton on Thursday.

Wednesday is Bratina's final council meeting at the helm of the city's governing body. He is not running for another term, but has indicated he will seek the federal Liberal nomination for the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek riding.

Bratina will take questions from viewers during a session at noon. We'll ask him about council's victories and defeats over the last four years. 

Submit questions for the mayor by emailing hamilton@cbc.ca, or tweet us at @CBCHamilton. We'll also take questions during the chat tomorrow.

Tune in Thursday at noon at cbc.ca/hamilton.

Live Blog Live Q & A with Mayor Bob Bratina

 

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Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud: Hamilton youth reported killed as ISIS fighter 'not the son they knew'

Hamilton principal on Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud 0:42

Hamilton principal on Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud

0:00 / 0:42

Hamilton principal on Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud 0:42

Roughly one year ago, Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, then 19 years old and a biology student at Toronto's York University, met a group of friends at a hip-hop dance audition, and later partied and grew close with them. But he eventually cut them off — through the spring and summer of 2014.

By July, while those friends thought they lost touch with an athletic, outgoing man, who at times seemed unsure of himself and his identity, his family in Hamilton was frantically trying to warn the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and RCMP that their eldest son may have taken up arms with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants.

Earlier this week, CSIS, albeit unofficially, told the family there were reports he was killed by the anti-ISIS military campaign, apparently dying during attacks from Kurdish forces in northern Syria last week.

His extended family has gone into seclusion to deal with their loss, said Hamilton lawyer Hussein Hamdani, who tried to help the family once they realized he was "crossing over."

What happened that led to the change remains a mystery, he said.

"That is an important question that we must look at and try to find the answer to."

Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, pictured here, is a 20-year-old Hamilton man beleived to have been killed while fighting for ISIS in northern Syria. (Calamada.com)

York University said Mohamud is not a current student and its policy is to only comment on those who are. The RCMP, as well as the Department of Public Safety and Department Foreign Affairs, all declined to comment on ongoing investigations. CSIS did not return calls Wednesday.

The Department of Public Safety said an estimated 130 Canadians have gone to fight for ISIS. Since the U.S. launched airstrikes to combat ISIS, it's believed Mohamud is the first Canadian to die in the recent attacks against the militant group.

Changes noticed by family, friends

Janaan Issaka, a friend of Mohamud's from York University, said he was one of her "closest friends at school last year."

"I met him around this time, end of September; we auditioned for the hip-hop dance team and that's where I met him," Issaka said, describing a extremely social man who retreated later in the spring.

"It's so crazy, knowing the kind of person he was and thinking that somebody could be so brainwashed," Issaka said.

Around the end of the school year, she said, Mohamud said "I don't party anymore, I don't do anything like that, I'm just focusing on my religion."

Hamdani told CBC Hamilton that the family noticed the same changes — a man who was on a scholarship and who wanted to be a doctor becoming harsher in his views and withdrawing from his communities, including the Muslim community.

"He was seeking his new community online," said Hamdani, which is where his radicalization apparently began.

The family lost track of him during this time as he moved between his family here and his father in Minneapolis.  They tried to report him missing at one point. And then the family traced him to Turkey via his cellphone.

Hamdani said he was approached by the family in July, when they realized their son was in Turkey attempting to cross into Syria.

"They reached out to him and asked what was going on, and that's when he said 'my intention is to cross over and go to the Syrian battlefront.'"

Hamdani immediately connected the family with the RCMP and CSIS. But they were too late to stop him.

"The hope and the desire was we'd be able to catch him before he crossed the border from Turkey into Syria. They learned now that once he's off the plane in that end, he's with his handlers and there's an underground railroad," said Hamdani.

"We were just a day or two late. Had we known about this, had the RCMP or CSIS known about this just two days earlier, they could've contacted their connections from the Turkish authorities and stopped Mohamed from getting off the plane."

Just days ago, a photo circulated of a Canadian-Somali who was killed. That photo is of Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, confirmed Hamdani.

Hamdani said even if the reports turn out to be wrong, the family is dealing with a loss because Mohamud is "not the son they knew."

Principal said Mohamud was 'really well-liked'

​Susanna Fortino-Bozzo, principal of St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, confirmed Mohamud was a student, and called him "vibrant." She said he was "sociable" and "really well-liked," although he did not graduate from St. Thomas More, leaving the school in Grade 11 and later graduating at Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School in Hamilton.

Susanna Fortino-Bozzo, principal of St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, said Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud was a well-liked, `vibrant` student when he attended her school. Mohamud left the school in 2011 to attend another nearby school, Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School. (John Rieti/CBC)

Mohamud is believed to be the first Canadian reported jihadist killed since anti-ISIS military action, led by airstrikes by U.S. forces last week, have amped up. 

But it's believed he's not the first Canadian killed while fighting for ISIS — a Calgary imam says he knows at least five who have died within the last year.

Fortino-Bozzo said she couldn't share details of Mohamud's file due to privacy issues.

"Ultimately, our prayers are with everyone impacted by this tragic death," though she quickly pointed out it may not be true that Mohamud is in fact dead. "His family will be in our prayers." 

The picture was originally circulated on a pair of pro-Shabab websites that didn't name Mohamud, but said the person in the photo was killed. A Sept. 15 Voice of America report claims to have spoken with Mohamud's father, who hasn't been named, in Minneapolis who said he was "shocked" to learn his son left the U.S. to overseas in mid-July. 

"My son was a student, he suddenly changed," the man told reporter Harun Maruf. "He used to pray but he increased it to 24 hours of prayers, and he was rarely away from mosques. He arranged his travel without my knowledge, and then he ended up in Syria. All of us [in the family] are very saddened. We did not expect he would do this."  

Jason Tamming, press secretary for Steven Blaney, Canada's minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, notes that 130 Canadians have left to fight for ISIS.

"This is a serious problem, and demands a strong response," Tanning said Wednesday.

ISIS path of recruiting long, imam says

Calgary-based imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC), said at least five Calgary-based Muslims have been converted to fight for ISIS, a process that starts with converting to Wahabism, a more radical form of Islam. 

"The path of recruiting is a very long path. It's not just one month, or one night. It depends on how quickly they get brainwashed. But the process is in universities, in colleges, in some of the mosques, in community centres, People organize lectures and they invite Wahabi (speakers)," Soharwardy said Wednesday.

"Those speakers in fact convert people to Wahabism. And once people accept the Wahabi belief, that which is based upon intolerance towards disagreement, Wahabi belief is basically that they are the only one who will be in heaven and the rest will go to hell regardless if they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim…. Then they bring that person close to them, then slowly they bring that person underground, start brainwashing them, and then getting that person overseas through internet, through social media, through different websites."

With files from John Rieti.

Have a tip on this story? Send an email to CBC reporter jeff.green@cbc.ca

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Clark says city misled on LRT, but did Clark mislead over documents?

Mayoral candidate Brad Clark says documents he has obtained through a freedom of information request show opponent Fred Eisenberger misled the public on light rail transit (LRT) during his time as mayor. But Eisenberger dismisses it as "another negative campaign stunt" and an attempt to deliberately spread misinformation.

And it appears Clark's campaign was also not entirely clear in its media release about where it got the documents.

Clark made a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request earlier this month asking for any documents on LRT from Eisenberger's office in 2010.  The documents cited in his release that "result" from that request actually came from current mayor Bob Bratina, who said he found the documents in his desk drawer and turned them over to Clark. 

The FOI request, Clark said in a statement, "yielded" two briefing documents that summarize staff conversations with provincial officials. Clark calls them "secret reports" staff wrote to Eisenberger that suggest Eisenberger created a "secret culture" and "private reporting relationships" with staff who were pro LRT. Clark's release did not say Bratina had given him the documents.  

Clark says that noteworthy in the documents is a report that says a benefits case analysis shows bus rapid transit (BRT) is, as stated in the document, the "top performing system for Hamilton, but the LRT numbers are very close."

The report also says that the LRT case for Hamilton can easily be made based on the benefit case analysis and the city-building elements associated with it.

Clark also cites as significant in the documents a reference to a Metrolinx report that wasn't recommending a phased-in LRT system, but rather the city and Metrolinx working together on a $3-million work plan to decide between BRT and LRT.

Clark, a BRT fan, says Eisenberger didn't convey this to the public or council.

"By manipulating the facts on the LRT/BRT to both the province and council, Fred tied the hands of both the previous and present city council," Clark said in a statement.

Eisenberger claims Clark's campaign is "intentionally spreading misleading information."

"These documents contained internal background information, and the information demonstrates that, as mayor, I was fighting to get full funding for rapid transit in Hamilton…with the full understanding that the ultimate decision (LRT versus BRT) would be made by Council as a whole, based on information and recommendations contained in staff reports," he said.

"This is another obvious attempt on the part of Mr. Clark to breathe life into a lacklustre election campaign."

Mayoral candidate Brian McHattie, who served on council with Clark then, said there's nothing new in the documents Clark released. Clark is "trying to divide and confuse people on the issue," he said.

"He's trying to win the mayor's job. He's just grasping at straws."

The city received plenty of information on rapid transit options, McHattie said, and "extensive information" from consultants. The documents add nothing to the debate.

"It's pure small town politics."

Bratina came across the documents in an unmarked folder in his desk, said Peggy Chapman, Bratina's chief of staff. His office was informed of the FOI request, and remembering the documents, Bratina handed them over to Clark "like we would for anybody," she said. "It wasn't because Brad Clark was a candidate."

City hall watchdog Matt Jelly released a statement of his own Wednesday, saying it all looks fishy.

"Brad Clark made an FOI request on LRT documents 21 days ago...This morning, Mayor Bob Bratina claimed...he just happened to find those same documents in his file drawer in the mayor's office, and then gave them to Brad Clark, who released them as a part of his campaign for mayor," he said.

The documents weren't released as part of the FOI request at all, Jelly said, "but rather from (Bratina's) office drawers." 

Clark said his FOI request is still ongoing because he suspects there's more relevant information about LRT and Eisenberger. "We don't have all the files."

On Twitter, Clark's release drew links to a 2009 incident known as Tapegate, when Clark came under criticism after he released a tape of a private conversation between Eisenberger and a local reporter, alleging that Eisenberger was spreading information to the media.

The incident sparked an integrity commissioner investigation. The commissioner officially reprimanded Clark for violating council's code of conduct and said Eisenberger was only trying correct misinformation about an issue. 

Paul Mason, McHattie's campaign manager, tweeted an article about the incident, which Eisenberger retweeted.

Sept2014 Eisenberger FOI Documents 1 (PDF)
Sept2014 Eisenberger FOI Documents 1 (Text)

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City council delays $130K centre to help victims of racism

In what one councillor says is a sad legacy, Hamilton city council has put off a plan to start a resource centre for victims of racism.

During the final council meeting before the Oct. 27 election, councillors deferred a plan to spend $130,000 on an anti-racism resource centre.

The centre would have been an 18-month pilot project with a hotline for people experiencing racism to help connect them with resources. Members of the city's anti-racism committee have been pushing for the centre, which the audit, finance and administration committee approved earlier this month.

But Wednesday, councillors voted 10-6 to defer the issue to one of the first meetings of the next term of council. Coun. Sam Merulla of Ward 4 called the move "ill advised."

"It's very sad that this council, particularly on the last night of this term, can be defined by not supporting this."

Councillors who voted for the deferral worried about the $130,000 cost, and whether the centre is duplicating work by other organizations.

"It's easy for us to say," he said. "It's not very easy for those that need (the centre) to say. I look around this table and there aren't too many visible minorities here."

City staff have worked on the project since February. Coun. Terry Whitehead of Ward 8 voted for the deferral because he wants the project to include other minorities experiencing discrimination.

"If there's any way that we can…broaden and not be specific to one issue, I'd be more keen to support it," he said.

Other councillors wanted more information on what the staff member would do. The $130,000 budgeted would pay for a full-time employee to manage the centre and help line, as well as office equipment.

"Racism is a serious issue that we face in this world," said Coun. Scott Duvall of Ward 7, who voted for the deferral. But he wanted to know more about what credentials the hire would have and what exactly the person would do.

Finance head Mike Zegarac told councillors that the centre wouldn't duplicate the work of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion.

Coun. Brian McHattie of Ward 1, who sits on the city's anti-racism committee, said these questions had been answered at previous meetings.

Wednesday's vote, he said, will have repercussions.

"I think there is going to be a lot of discussion in the community about this decision tonight," he said. 

In 2013, Hamilton Police Service investigated 11 hate crimes, a number that has decreased in the last few years.

But the number of incidents with a hate or bias element – where people utter "odious remarks" against someone's race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion or physical or mental ability – has been growing. Most of them are against the black community.

---

Who voted to defer the anti-racism centre:

Mayor Bob Bratina, Terry Whitehead, Scott Duvall, Tom Jackson, Maria Pearson, Brenda Johnson, Lloyd Ferguson, Russ Powers, Robert Pasuta, Judi Partridge

Who voted against:

Sam Merulla, Bob Morrow, Jason Farr, Brian McHattie, Chad Collins, Brad Clark

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McMaster wants aboriginal child taken from family for chemotherapy

Doctors from McMaster's Children's Hospital have gone to court to have an aboriginal child removed from her family so she can resume chemotherapy treatment.

Justice Gethin Edward, who is presiding over the court proceedings in Brantford, Ont., which began on Monday, has imposed a publication ban on anything that would identify the child or family involved in the case. The proceedings are set to resume Thursday.

McMaster wants a Hamilton-region Children's Aid Society (CAS) to take control of the child patient who was being treated for cancer before the family removed them from the treatment plan to be treated with traditional medicine.

Dr. Stacey Marjerrison, the patient's main doctor and part of the McMaster team that launched the legal case, told court on Monday the child has between an 80-85 per cent chance of survival on chemotherapy. Without it, the cancer could kill her.

Marjerrison said there is a degree of urgency in getting the child back into treatment soon, as the cancer can become more difficult to treat over time.

Lawyer Mark Handelman, representing CAS, said removing the child from her family, however, would be "Draconian."

"I'm not challenging your motives, but I'm questioning the process," Handelman told Marjerrison.

Throughout his questioning, Handelman pointed out McMaster's problem stems from failing to properly figure out if the child could make her down medical decisions.

Handelman, a lawyer who specializes in medical bioethics, asked Marjerrison why the case had not been referred to the Consent and Capacity Board — an independent body created by the provincial government under the Health Care Consent Act.

Marjerrison said the hospital's treatment team and legal council decided this was the best route due to the urgency of the case.

There is no minimum age of consent in Ontario. Informed consent is based on the patient's capacity to understand what's involved in their treatment.

Handelman repeatedly asked Marjerrison why she allowed the patient's parents to make all of the medical decisions in the case, thus rendering the child an assenter to care rather than a consenter who could make her own choices.

Marjerrison described a quiet child, who would say she understood what was going on but almost never ask questions about treatment, deferring all hard choices to her parents.

Handelman asked twice during the testimony if Marjerrison was interpreting the patient's silence as lack of capacity, something the doctor denied.

Marjerrison did say, however, that she told the patient's parents more than she told the child sometimes because she didn't want to be "cruel."

Judge Edward briefly stopped Handelman's questioning to remind the lawyer that he "won't lose sight" of the fact that the child had just been diagnosed with cancer and was trying to digest that news.

Handleman, in turn, asked the judge to not forget that the patient was in the hospital for a number of weeks and there were "ongoing opportunities" to test her capacity.

Marjerrison said she had good dealings with the patient and their family before the patient was removed from the hospital.

The family was not in court on Monday.

The hearings are set to continue on Thursday and Friday, with lawyers in the case planning to call several witnesses.

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Hamilton weather, traffic and more: Daystarter Wednesday

Good morning, Hamilton. It's time to say goodbye to the Bob Bratina era as mayor - the 56th Mayor of Hamilton will have a bit of a farewell today at tonight's council meeting, his last as the chief magistrate. 

It's another fall morning with temperatures in the teens that rise into the early 20s by the afternoon. 

If you need to get gas this morning, the cheapest price in the area is 118.9 at the A&I Petroleum on Highway 6, near 5th Concession, in Flamborough.

GO Transit isn't reporting any delays on lines connected with Hamilton this morning.

Here's a look at what police are reporting on the roads:

• Collision: Update QEW Toronto bound at Guelph Line, Burlington: Collision has cleared. 7:10 a.m.

It's another beautiful fall day out there. People may have woken up to a brisk 10 C, but by noon that temperature will double to 20 C with the afternoon sun pushing the mercury up another two notches to a high of 22 C.  Wind won't be much of a factor with gusts expected to peak at 10 km/h.

Start saying goodbye to the sun - the sunset is 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, with temperatures expected to drop to 14 C. 

Today's image comes courtesy Twitter from Heather Angus-Lee:

A $600,000 deficit which included paying for one manager's MBA to the tune of $17,500 has DARTS (Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System) under the spotlight. While the service defended itself as one that's set up to run on a deficit, a city auditor found at least $50,000 in expenses that were over the top. 

To the surprise of few in Hamilton, U.S. Steel filings show the parent corporation is planning on selling the Hamilton plant. U.S. Steel will lend $185-million to U.S. Steel Canada - a financing formality which will allow the company to get that loan back ahead of other obligations while it claims it will entertain a sale. 

You definitely need to see this drone video of Hamilton. Seriously. 

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DARTS: 'How haven’t we fired them already' Merulla asks

There will be new faces in the Mayor's chair and in four ward seats when a new council is chosen on Oct. 27. (Samantha Craggs)

At least one city councillor says taxpayers are spending money they shouldn't on Hamilton's DARTS paratransit service, including paying for an employee's graduate degree. But the head of the organization says the service is set up to run a deficit.

In a special meeting Tuesday, city councillors voted to once again review the Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System, this time in 2015. Their numerous concerns included the service's projected $600,000 deficit for 2014 — even greater than the $225,993 deficit the city covered last year.

Mark Mindorff, executive director of DARTS, says the deficit stems from getting calls from more riders than the service has budgeted for. It doesn't turn away riders, he said, so the budget ends up greater than expected.

"It sounds like incompetence when you have to fund a deficit," he told councillors. But "it's almost expected as the trip counts go up."

But Coun. Brad Clark of Ward 9 in Stoney Creek didn't buy it. He quizzed Mindorff on numerous budget overruns, including a $17,500 "high-end training" item that was DARTS helping pay for a manager's Master of Business Administration.

Mindorff said that the city has a similar program. But Clark disputed that after the meeting.

"That's a ridiculous expenditure," he said.

Clark also identified overruns in legal costs, information technology costs and line items he said had little to do with ridership numbers.

 "There were discretionary expenditures that were not warranted," he said. "And it's being sold to us as a deficit because we haven't provided enough money for trips."

In a report Tuesday, city auditor Ann Pekarak cited $50,000 in expenses that didn't directly contribute to trips or "demonstrate effective cost consciousness."

Coun. Sam Merulla of Ward 4 also spoke against the "convoluted" DARTS model, and the year-over-year deficit.

"In the real world, you get fired if you don't perform that way," he said. "You can't come back to your boss and say 'I need more money.'"

"How haven't we fired them already?"

Fay Booker, a consultant DARTS hired to assess the service's efficiency, agreed with Mindorff's assessment that the more trips the city orders, the greater the DARTS deficit.

"The city is driving the cost," she said. "It's not DARTS that's driving the cost."

Councillors will examine the DARTS model next year. It will also look at moving toward an on-demand model for passengers.

Currently, DARTS users call days in advance to book a ride. With the "demand responsive" model, users can call and have a vehicle come to them, similar to a taxi.

Under provincial standards for users with disabilities, Hamilton paratransit users should have the same service as able-bodied riders of HSR, said transit head Don Hull.

"All those issues arising here, none of them are intended to be criticisms of how DARTS provides the service," he said. "They're indicators of our need to change."

At Hull's advice, councillors also put a moratorium on purchasing new vehicles for DARTS, provided the moratorium doesn't mean people don't get rides.

City staff will also report back on how to reduce complaints.

DARTS reviews aren't unusual, Mindorff said. "They do it every year."

City councillors started this year last June after concerns that the service had fewer riders but more complaints.

In 2010, riders lodged 308 complaints about the service. In 2013, there were 1,538 complaints.

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Hamilton man reported killed in recent anti-ISIS attacks

Foreign affairs is attempting to confirm that a 20-year-old Hamilton man was killed during anti-ISIS attacks from Kurdish forces in Northern Syria last week, reports the National Post. 

The National Post reported that unnamed reports say Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud died fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). Picture taken June 11, 2014. (Reuters)

Citing unnamed online reports, the Post reported Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud was a Somali-Canadian and former St. Thomas More Secondary School student from the West Mountain in Hamilton, and that he "disappeared" two months ago, phoning home to say that he joined his "brothers" in Syria.

The unnamed reports say he died fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). He would be Canada's first reported jihadist killed since anti-ISIS military action, led by air strikes by U.S. forces last week, have amped up. 

The Post report says the man, also known as "Mo3," lived with his mother, Asha, in Hamilton while his father lives in Minneapolis. It's believed that during a visit with his father in July, he left for the mosque but never returned home. 

A Sept. 15 Voice of America report claims to have spoken with the unnamed father of Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, who said he was "shocked" to learn his son left mid-July. 

"My son was a student, he suddenly changed," the man told reporter Harun Maruf. "He used to pray but he increased it to 24 hours of prayers, and he was rarely away from mosques. He arranged his travel without my knowledge, and then he ended up in Syria. All of us [in the family] are very saddened. We did not expect he would do this."  

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada did not immediately return calls Wednesday. 

Have a tip on this story? Do you know Mo3? Send an email to CBC reporter jeff.green@cbc.ca

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U.S. Steel Canada to get $185 million loan to keep operating

U.S. Steel will lend U.S. Steel Canada $185 million plus millions in interest, fees and expenses while it undergoes a bankruptcy protection process, according to new court documents — but the company wants to make sure it is the first in line to be paid back.

According to documents, U.S. Steel will start seeking a buyer for the Hamilton steelworks as a "first priority."

The company says preparing the Hamilton site for sale is an "important and sensible" step. The Hamilton site includes finishing mills, coke batteries and iron- and steel-making operations that have been shut since late 2010.

Sale of the Hamilton works could begin in the next two months, while the Erie works could be put on the block in March 2015. The goal is to sell both by Oct. 31, 2015.  

In sworn documents from superior court filed this week, U.S. Steel Canada president and general manager Michael McQuade said U.S. Steel will provide the funds so that the Hamilton and Lake Erie Works facilities can keep operating, but the condition is they'll be the first to be paid back. The company is using a type of loan used during these kind of proceedings called DIP- Debtor in Possession to ensure it gets its money before any other creditors.

That doesn't surprise local 1005 president Rolf Gerstenberger, who told CBC Hamilton he expected businesses that are owed money by U.S. Steel and pensioners will be scrambling for funds at the end of the process.

"All of the unsecured creditors will fight over what's left," he said. "But we're not investors or stock brokers. We've been there for 30 to 40 years making steel, doing what we're supposed to do."

"We don't want to be eating cat food when we retire."

The liabilities to four main pension plans affected add up to $838.7 million. 

Under this process, people who picked up U.S. Steel stock for "pennies on the dollar" over the years stand to be paid out first before people who actually worked at the company, Gerstenberger says.

U.S. Steel spokesperson Trevor Harris could not immediately be reached for comment on the documents or the process.

Last week, U.S. Steel filed for bankruptcy protection with the Superior Court of Ontario. The process allows a company to restructure under the court's protection. If the court cannot approve a restructuring proposal, U.S. Steel would enter bankruptcy liquidation, although there is no hard time limit on how long CCAA protection could last.

On top of the $185 million, U.S. Steel would also be entitled to a $3.7 million "commitment fee" and a $5.5 million "exit fee" on top of the interest and principal on the loan.

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Hamilton man used his daughter to steal jewellery, police say

A Hamilton man has been arrested on theft charges after allegedly stashing thousands of dollars worth of stolen jewellery in his daughter's purse without her knowing, police say.

It happened on Tuesday at Lime Ridge Mall, when a man went shopping with his 19-year-old daughter while she bought some things at several stores.

When they'd finished shopping for the day the two of them left the mall to wait for the bus – but after a few minutes, the father went back inside the mall. Not long after the father returned and threw pieces of jewellery into his daughter's purse before running off, police say.

The daughter was "unaware" of the theft while her father ran westbound on Limeridge Road. Officers were called to the area and started chasing the suspect. He was eventually arrested with the help of police dogs.

The man had stolen over $6,000 in merchandise, police say – all of which was recovered and returned to the store.

A 38-year-old Hamilton man was charged with theft over $5,000 and released on a promise to appear.

The daughter was released unconditionally, police say.

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