Six months ago, after the Don Bosco Eagles suffered a heartbreaking loss in their high-school football championship game, Rob Ford vowed he would never stop coaching his beloved team — but on Wednesday, amid spiralling rumours about the Toronto mayor’s alleged crack-cocaine use, the school board removed that choice.

In announcing Mr. Ford’s ouster as the Eagles’ head coach, the Toronto Catholic District School Board also banned the mayor from coaching any football team in the board, which serves close to 100,000 elementary and secondary students city-wide. The decision comes as a massive blow to Mr. Ford, whose dedication to the team appeared to trump City Hall business; fellow councillors have repeatedly chastised him for leaving meetings early to attend practice.

Aaron Lynett/National Post“It would be very difficult for the school board to keep him on as a football coach.”

School board spokesman John Yan denied any link between Mr. Ford’s termination and recent news reports detailing a video in which the chief magistrate allegedly smokes from a crack pipe and dismisses the Don Bosco Eagles as “minorities.” (The National Post has not seen the video and cannot verify its authenticity.)

“This decision absolutely has nothing to do with the unsubstantiated allegations against the mayor,” Mr. Yan said, noting the board recently concluded a separate investigation into Mr. Ford’s “negative and derogatory” comments about the school community to Sun News in March.

“We’re moving in a different direction… We’ve been trying to keep the business and politics of the mayor’s office at City Hall,” Mr. Yan said. “It just hasn’t worked out that way, and the distractions for the entire school community, as well as the [Sun News] comments, were part of our consideration.”

In the March interview, Mr. Ford said his goal as volunteer coach of the Don Bosco Eagles was to keep team members in school, noting many students at the north Etobicoke high school came from “gangs” or “broken homes.” He added: “If it wasn’t for this football, these kids just wouldn’t go to school. They’d have no reason to go to school… I use the football as a carrot.”

In a letter made public shortly after the interview, outraged Don Bosco staff rejected Mr. Ford’s comments as “extremely demeaning” and “no reflection of the real Don Bosco.” The board swiftly launched its investigation, although the timing of Wednesday’s announcement left many speculating that the crack-cocaine furor played a greater role in the mayor’s dismissal.

“In the midst of all this, it would be very difficult for the school board to keep him on as a football coach,” said Councillor John Parker, who has urged the mayor to address the drug allegations head-on. “There are just too many unanswered questions.”

At Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School Wednesday afternoon, the football field was deserted, but a small group of young men tossed a pigskin back and forth in front of the school’s front doors. When approached by reporters, several students were hostile, refusing to answer questions about the latest developments surrounding Mr. Ford.

One young man who said he played tackle for the Eagles reiterated the school board’s message about the mayor’s departure, saying “it’s about moving the team forward. It’s not about what’s going on in the media.”

He said team members found out Wednesday that they would have a new coach next year.

“We’re going to miss him as a coach,” the young man said of Mr. Ford. “He was a good coach.”

Etobicoke, where Mr. Ford served as councillor for a decade before being elected mayor in 2010, is the heart of Ford Nation, and many residents remained dubious Wednesday about the veracity of the crack-cocaine allegations. Betty Waddell, who has lived in the area for half a century, said Mr. Ford has been unfairly targeted by the media, lamenting that he has now lost the thing he seemed to treasure most.

“He loved doing that [coaching] job and he did a good job at it,” said Ms. Waddell, on a break from tending her garden in the afternoon sun. “He was really trying his best to help out the kids.”

The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment, but Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said even before the school board’s decision, those closest to Mr. Ford had urged him to reconsider his coaching duties. While his decade-long dedication to the team was admirable, Mr. Holyday said, it went “too far” when he started leaving executive committee and council meetings early to attend practice.

“He’ll be disappointed, there’s no question about that, but… maybe these people have done us a favour,” Mr. Holyday said.

For their part, Eagles players were generally “positive” about the chance to move forward and excited at the prospect of returning to the championship game next year, Mr. Yan said. Asked whether the team, in a broader sense, would miss Mr. Ford — whom they have fiercely and publicly defended over the years — Mr. Yan paused.

“Well,” he said, “he was their coach.”

National Post, with files from Natalie Alcoba

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES

When bystanders in John Wilson Street heard a car smashing into a street sign, they turned and saw what they thought were two black men trying to help a white man they had run over.

Instinctively, some started to head towards the chaotic scene in Woolwich, south-east London, to offer help, or stopped their cars so they could call for an ambulance.

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But what they were witnessing was not a suburban road accident, but the most brutal murder imaginable, as two al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist terrorists hacked at their victim “like a piece of meat” in an “animal” frenzy on the suburban pavement. The attack on the soldier was so brutal that it appeared as if “they were trying to remove organs”, according to one man who witnessed the first terrorist murder on British soil in eight years.

When they finally finished beheading and butchering the soldier’s body, the assailants appeared to say a prayer “as if it was a sacrifice”, one witness said.

Police took so long to arrive that the killers casually paced up and down the street, their hands dripping with blood, making a series of pronouncements that were filmed by onlookers.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” one of them said in a London accent, ITV News reported.

It was 2:20 in the afternoon when Islamist terrorism returned to Britain’s streets and claimed its first victim since the 7/7 suicide bombings of 2005. Children at the Mulgrave Primary School were looking forward to home time and adults were waiting at bus stops and going about their daily routines.

Among them was a young soldier, aged about 20, who had been on duty in central London and was returning to the Royal Artillery Barracks, dressed in a Help for Heroes T-shirt.

Whether his charity T-shirt was what identified him to the two men driving up the road in a blue Vauxhall Tigra is not yet known, but the car suddenly mounted the pavement and struck him.

An witness called James said he saw two black men get out of the car and added: “We thought they were trying to help him, we thought they were involved in this crash. Then we saw two knives – a meat cleaver – they weren’t small knives, they were like big kitchen knives used in a butchers. They were hacking at this poor guy. We saw the whole incident.

“We thought they were trying to remove organs. They were just hacking at him. Digging and digging and digging and digging. Horrendous.

“I jumped out the car and shouted. One of the black guys went into the crashed car, got into the front, pulled out a bag. He pointed a gun at us.

“He shouted ’get in the car, get in the car’. I got on the phone to the police, called 999.

“I said you need armed response. You need police. These two guys are chopping this guy to pieces. Literally hacking at something. Like it’s a bit of meat. These two guys were crazed. They were just animals.”

ITVA body lies on the street near a crashed car in a video shot following an apparent terrorist attack in London on May 22, 2013.

One witness said the killers were “praying like it was a sacrifice”. The BBC and Sky News reported that the men had shouted “Allahu akbar” – God is Great – as they carried out the attack.

A 42-year-old council worker witness said: “They were trying to decapitate him for 15 minutes. There was a six-year-old boy there who saw it all, he was crying and shaking. He said he could see the body but not the head.”

Once they had stopped slashing at the body, they dragged the dead soldier into the middle of the road, then returned to the pavement, their hands red with blood, waving their knives and a pistol.

Olu Peluola, 53, was walking up the road when she saw one of the killers standing over the body, holding a long knife. “I knew he must be dead,” he said. “People were running away and crying, saying ’he’s dead, he’s dead’. I was panicked and called the police but it took them so long to come. I think it was about 25 minutes. Why didn’t they come faster? I was scared at first but then just angry at how long it took.

“Incredibly, some bystanders courageously went to the body to see if there was anything they could do.

James said: “There were brave women with the body on the floor. They were trying to shield him and covering him. The attackers with the knives, they were standing over these women.

“There was people filming it on their phones. The guy with the gun, the tall guy with the beanie, he was going over to the bus asking people ‘take photos of me.’ As if he wants to be on TV. He was proud of what he’d done to this poor guy.”

Other witnesses, perhaps too terrified to run away, obeyed orders from the killers to film them as they were threatened with a pistol. But local police officers refused to approach the killers, instead waiting 20 minutes for an armed response team to arrive.

ITV

In the meantime, the terrorists calmly paced the street, waiting for police to confront them.

It was at this point that the taller of the killers, dressed all in black and brandishing a knife and a meat cleaver, was filmed saying: “We swear by almighty Allah that we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. Your people will never be safe. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day. We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

“I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.

“Do you think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think your politicians are going to die?

“No, it’s going to be the average guy like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we – so you can all live in peace.”

Meanwhile, in the absence of any police response, some members of the public seemed oblivious to what had occurred. As the killer made his on-camera pronouncement, a woman walked unconcernedly past him wheeling a shopping trolley. Photographs taken by witnesses showed the second killer, wearing a beige coat, standing talking to a woman as if casually passing time, a long knife in his hand the only sign of the violence that had just taken place.

At one point one of the men fired shots into the air. Joe Tallant, 20, a van loader who lives near the scene, said: “I was in a shop and I heard gun shots so I came out to see what was happening.

“And I saw a guy with no head lying on the ground. He had been decapitated.

“There were two black guys walking around his body saying ’This is what God would’ve wanted’. My friend and her mum were walking up the hill and the mum came straight to the victim.

Carl Court/AFP/Getty ImagesFlowers are left near the site where a soldier was murdered in Woolwich, east London, on May 22, 2013.

“She asked the black guys ’can I help him?’ And one of them said he was already dead but she could go.

“Then one of them said ’no man is coming near this body, only women’.

“She was so brave, she didn’t care what happened to her – she knelt down by his side and comforted him.

“She held his hand and put her other hand on his chest. I think she might have been praying. My friend [The woman’s daughter] was crying her eyes out.

“The attackers kept on walking around. They had already fired warning shots into the air – that was the shots I heard. “They were going up to people with cameras just so they could be seen and filmed. They wanted people to know who they were.” James added: “They had the opportunity to hurt other people if they wanted to. They were waiting for something. They had opportunities to run off but it turned out they were waiting for the armed police to arrive.

“As soon as the police come flying round the corner the man with the beanie hat, the tall guy, he charged at the police response vehicle. Next thing you know there was six shots fired. Both men went down.”

‘She held his hand and put her other hand on his chest. I think she might have been praying’

Julia Wilders, 51, who lives nearby, said: “The man with two machetes ran at the police when they arrived and the police shot him. I saw him fall. The other one looked like he was going to go for his gun, so they shot him too.”

Another witness said a female firearms officer shot one of the men “like RoboCop” when he ran towards her with a machete.

James added: “There were so many people there 10 minutes after we arrived. Shouting at them. They were taking no notice. They were oblivious. They were more worried about getting photos taken. In my opinion they were waiting for police to arrive to be shot by police. It’s like a horror movie. The blood trickling down the road, down the pavement, everywhere.”

Meanwhile teachers at the primary school were preparing to let the children go home for the day.

Julia Wilders’ husband, Graham, 50, said: “My nine-year-old son Steven goes to the school and all I could think about was that it was home time and he would be walking down here soon. I saw a load of kids come out of school gates and I just yelled at them to get back. I ran up to the school shouting ’there’s a gunman’ and to get everybody inside.

“The headmaster came out and they closed the school gates and kept everyone in. That was when I heard four shots.”

Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesScenes of Crime Officers at the scene in Woolwich following a major incident in which a man was killed, on May 22, 2013 in London, England.

Luke Huseyin, 32, who lives in a block of flats overlooking the scene, said that after the shots were fired, an air ambulance that had been hovering landed at the scene. “The paramedics got out and I think they were working on the two men to try and keep them alive,” he said. “A blanket was put over the white guy lying in the road. I just can’t believe what I saw.”

Moments later, the road was cordoned off and John Wilson Street became a crime scene, with the bloodied knives taped to the road under plastic sheets, the victim’s jacket lying on the tarmac and a huge bloodstain on the pavement next to the crashed car which had started Britain’s worst act of terrorism for eight years.

The Daily Telegraph

Kyle Davis, a blond-haired ball of eight-year-old energy who loved to sing in his church choir and play football, was killed when a roofing beam struck his neck as he sheltered in a school corridor.

Antonia Lee Candelaria and Emily Conatzer, inseparable nine-year-old best friends in life, died hand-in-hand in the rubble.

And Janae Hornsby, nine, described by her father as “sunshine on a rainy day,” was also among the seven pupils killed when Plaza Towers elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma, was flattened by Monday’s tornado. The number of fatalities caused by the massive storm which struck the city remained at 24 yesterday, with more than 300 injured. Most had died from suffocation and crush injuries and, contrary to earlier reports, the children at Plaza Towers did not drown in a basement but instead succumbed to the maelstrom above.

Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty ImagesSpray paint reads "we will be back plaza towers" on a damaged home on May 22, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma. A powerful tornado tore through the town on May 20 destroying homes, schools and businesses, killing several people including children.

Their deaths have prompted debate and controversy about why a school in the middle of America’s tornado alley did not have a storm shelter or safe room.

As the names of the dead became public, and as it was announced that President Barack Obama would visit the devastated town on Sunday, loved ones paid tribute to those they had lost. Kyle’s mother Mikki said she would place his football trophies around his casket for his funeral.

Josh Hornsby, an Iraq war veteran whose wife Gia died last year, said Janae “was loving, caring, fun, and energetic. She was happy, always happy, always outgoing”.

On her Facebook page, Emily’s mother Kristen Conatzer wrote: “Today was the day that no parent wants to encounter, the words you never want to hear as a parent.

“Our baby didn’t make it. I am overwhelmed by the support… I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

“I hope I wake up and she is jumping around on me giggling… but I know that she is in heaven smiling down. My baby I know you are with the unicorns tonight. Sleep well my angel.”

At least 10 of the dead from the Tornado tragedy were children. Sisters Karrina Vargyas, 4, and Sydney, seven months, were killed in their home, despite their mother’s attempts to protect them.

Megan Futrell, 29, a mother of two, was found hugging her four-month-old son in the ruins of a 7-Eleven grocery store where they both died. He was the youngest victim.

Herman Bhonde, 65, was the oldest named so far. He was clinging to his wife Jerrie in the shower of their bathroom as they tried to ride out the storm. “The house totally disappeared,” Mrs Bhonde said from her hospital bed. “Walls were hitting me. I was knocked on the floor. I looked around for my husband. I couldn’t find him.”

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But even as the desperately sad stories of the dead emerged, so did remarkable accounts of heroism by teachers who saved countless lives.

At Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools, several teachers used their bodies as human shields to protect pupils who were crouching in the tornado drill position they had practised so often.

Jennifer Doan, 30, suffered a fractured spine and fractured sternum and cuts across her body when she was trapped in rubble as she cradled two children in her arms at Plaza Towers.

From her hospital bed, Miss Doan, who is pregnant, recalled how she reassured a boy in her arms as rescuers made their way to them.

“I was just telling him to keep calm and that they would come, and he just kept telling me that he couldn’t breathe and he didn’t want to die,” she said. “I don’t know how long we were stuck, and somebody finally came and dug some stuff from above my head and reached down for me.”

The boy survived his injuries, as has Miss Doan’s unborn child. But it was only yesterday that she learned that seven of the third-graders she taught had died nearby.

Less than a mile away, teachers at Briarwood displayed similar calm bravery as they too made last-minute life-saving decisions.

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty ImagesA couple have their dinner at what left of their tornado devastated home on May 21, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

Waynel Mayes, a first-grade teacher, told CNN that she distracted her students with songs and games. “I just got all the desks and I told the kids that we were going to play worms,” she said, referring to a children’s game.

“I told them to get underneath the desks, and I put them two by two, and I said, OK, we’re going to play our musical instruments, and we’re going to play worms, and we’re going to play as loud as we can.

“I told them to sing as loud as they could and if they got scared, they could scream.”

The roof was peeled away above them. If they had glanced up, they would have seen a debris-filled maelstrom, with cars and even horses from a nearby farm, tossed around like toys above their heads. All, however, lived.

Councillor Doug Ford loves his brother. He defends him. He believes him.

But, the councillor said so himself: he does not speak for Mayor Rob Ford.

And so, the clamouring from the media, civic leaders and city councillors for the embattled chief magistrate to address allegations that he is caught on camera smoking crack cocaine continued to rule the day in Toronto.

In the absence of a response, the spotlight turned to Doug Ford.

“The mayor is my brother. I love him and he will speak for himself,” said the elder Ford, reading from a prepared statement at a press conference at city hall.

“Rob is telling me these stories are untrue, that these accusations are ridiculous and I believe him.”

He suggested Mayor Ford had already addressed the sensational allegations first published by U.S. website Gawker and the Toronto Star when he called them “ridiculous” on Friday. “I don’t know how much more he can say,” he said.

Doug Ford then went on to list the administration’s accomplishments, ignoring interjections from reporters calling for the mayor to speak. He took no questions, instead lashing out at the media for its pursuit of the story.

“I am asking all of you today, please stop. Please stop harassing my children, please stop harassing my mother,” he said. “If the mayor stopped and held a press conference every time the media made up a story of him, we would never have accomplished what we have.”

Peter J. Thompson/National PostToronto Mayor Rob Ford in the council chambers Tuesday.

A Gawker editor and two reporters at the Star say they have seen a video, allegedly being shopped around by drug dealers, that allegedly shows the mayor smoking from a crack pipe. Gawker has so far raised $120,000 of the $200,000 it says it needs to buy the footage and make it public.

The National Post has not seen the video and therefore cannot verify its authenticity.

The controversy has made international headlines and became the butt of jokes by U.S. late night giants Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart. Even Mayor Ford’s closest political allies are urging him to break his silence, although they suggest he is following legal advice to stay quiet.

“I certainly want to hear something from Rob, not from Doug, and hopefully we will,” said Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, following the councillor’s statement. “Until he does that, it won’t go away.”

But none of that compelled the mayor to answer questions from reporters who approached him on his driveway and as he bought a coffee inside a gas station Wednesday. He chuckled at their presence.

Asked by CTV reporter Austin Delaney when he would make a statement, Mayor Ford responded: “Make sure you bring your pillow and your sleeping bag outside, partner. Or do you want me to make your bed for you tonight, you can sleep out there again. Anyways, make sure you camp out tonight.” Mr. Delaney clarified that he had not camped outside the mayor’s house.

National Post with files from Josh Visser and Katrina Clarke

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More than 1,500 mourners were leaving a Hamilton hall at the end of an emotional public funeral for Tim Bosma Wednesday when the mood was lifted, just a little, by news that a second man was arrested in his shocking murder case.

“Really? That’s good,” said Gary Kikkert, Mr. Bosma’s longtime friend who had just nervously spoken at the service, nodding slowly outside as he contemplated the news.

Indeed, as nearly 1,000 chairs were already almost full an hour before the start of the service in the same hall where Mr. Bosma, 32, married his wife just three years before, police officers were arresting Mark Smich, 25, of nearby Oakville.

Mr. Smich was arrested just after 10 a.m. Wednesday and, on Thursday, he will be charged in court with first-degree murder in the death of Mr. Bosma, said Supt. Dan Kinsella of Hamilton police.

Mr. Smich is described as tall and lanky, fond of baggy clothing, attempting to copy the ‘gangsta’ look. He liked to recite violent rap lyrics and mimic violent poses of street gang members.

Peter J. Thompson/National PostHamilton Police Superintendent Dan Kinsella announces a second arrest in the murder of Tim Bosma in Hamilton, Wednesday May 22, 2013

“We have now identified the second male who attended Mr. Bosma’s home and drove off with Mr. Bosma and Dellen Millard,” he said.

Mr. Millard, 27, of Toronto, sole heir of a family aviation company, was charged last week with first-degree murder. Investigators said there were at least three people involved, including the unknown driver of a second vehicle, a Yukon SUV owned by Mr. Millard, police said.

Police said Mr. Bosma’s remains, burned beyond recognition, were found on a farm belonging to Mr. Millard.

Mr. Smich is known both to Mr. Millard and to police.

Over the past weekend, Mr. Smich helped celebrate the marriage of one of his two sisters, said a childhood friend of Mr. Smich who did not want his name published. Facebook photos, since deleted, showed him dressed in a tuxedo, smoking a cigar, smiling and posing with the wedding party.

The family moved from neighbouring Mississauga about a decade ago, where a young Mr. Smich was often in trouble, the man said: “I seen him one day as being jail or dead,” he said, but never contemplated such a grievous charge.

Last October, Mr. Smich was charged with spray painting an Oakville highway overpass.

A neighbour said men in their 20s often congregated outside the home on Montrose Abbey Dr. in Oakville where Mr. Smich is believed to  live, smoking, drinking and being loud.

“They look a little out of place for the neighbourhood,” said the woman, who said she lived nearby the home but would not give their name. “A bit sketchy.” Police were often called.

The court must now sort out who might have done what after Mr. Bosma squeezed into the pickup he was selling online, alongside two men who came to his house on May 6 to test drive it. His widow, meanwhile, forcefully shared her vision of what happened that day.

HandoutTim Bosma and his wife Sharlene

“The devil led the vilest form of evil down my driveway and he smiled at me before taking Tim away,” said Sharlene Bosma at the service.

More important than the family’s trust in police, the family showed, is their faith in God.

“As I now tell my little girl when I tuck her in at night and she asks, ‘Where Daddy go?’ I tell her ‘Daddy loves you and he is with Jesus in heaven,’” Mrs. Bosma said, fighting back tears.

The case gripped attention far beyond the city but it was the city of Hamilton that came out in large numbers to pay respects; additional chairs were hurriedly carried to the hall from a hotel next door and ushers ran out of 1,300 memorial brochures that were printed.

Peter J. Thompson / National PostPeople attend the memorial for Tim Bosma who was murdered, Wednesday May 22, 2013.

Michelle DenBak, Mr. Bosma’s sister, called the vast crowd “strangers who are now friends.”

From a stage decorated with flowers and photos, family and friends worked to put the horror of Mr. Bosma’s end aside by focusing on the lovable, generous mischievous and dedicated man he was in life.

Mr. Bosma’s father, Hank, spoke of how his son was stolen from him on his mother’s birthday. His last contact was a text message: “Happy birthday, Mom. I love you.”

“Our family will not be torn apart,” said Ms. DenBak. “Our faith will not be shaken. Our community will not be afraid.”

Nathan Denette / The Canadian PressA photograph of Widow Sharlene Bosma and her late husband Tim Bosma at a memorial in Hamilton, Ont., Wednesday, May 22, 2013, for the Hamilton, Ont., man found dead after he took two men on a test drive.

Speaking last, Mrs. Bosma delivered a stunning eulogy in a remarkably poised address, mixing heartfelt humour with heartbreaking memories.

“I know that there have been skeptics out there who seem unable to believe that Tim was not somehow involved in something,” she said.

“I understand that fear motivates these sorts of murmurings of doubt. This sort of thing doesn’t happen in Canada. And it doesn’t happen to people like us. It is difficult to accept that Tim was just a guy — a regular, average guy who loved his family and his friends, who worked hard.

“It is difficult to accept that this regular, average guy did a regular, average thing — which so many do on a daily basis — and it tragically cost him his life.

“And it is difficult to accept this as true because then it opens up the possibility that it could have happened to everyone. But for me, it didn’t happen to just anyone. It happened to my husband and to the father of our child.”

National Post, with files from Alexandra Bosanac and Jake Edmiston

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Israel’s air force chief warned Wednesday that tensions with Syria could escalate into a “surprise war” and that Israel needs to be ready.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel echoed statements by Israel’s military chief of staff a day earlier.

“A surprise war could take shape today in many configurations,” Eshel said at a strategy conference in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. “Isolated incidents can escalate very quickly and require us to be prepared in a matter of hours to operate throughout the entire spectrum … to utilize all the capabilities of the air force,” he said.

He said Russian S-300 air defense systems are “on their way” to Syria, though Israel asked Russia not to supply the advanced air defense system to Syria.

Israel has been warily watching the Syrian civil war since it broke out in March 2011, concerned that the conflict could spill across its borders at any time.

Syrian and Israeli forces briefly exchanged fire on the Golan Heights border Tuesday, prompting Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, to accuse Syrian President Bashar Assad of encouraging and directing operations against Israel and warning he would “bear the consequences” of escalation.

Tensions have been rising between Israel and Syria in recent weeks. Israel is believed to have carried out airstrikes said to be aimed at weapons meant for the Lebanese Hezbollah. Israel has not confirmed carrying out the attacks.

Israel has warned it will not tolerate fire from Syria or transfer of advanced weapons to militants. Israel is concerned that Syria’s arsenal, including chemical weapons, anti-aircraft systems and sophisticated missiles, could be transferred to Hezbollah or fall into the hands of rebel groups linked to al-Qaida.

“Syria is changing before our eyes. If tomorrow it collapses, we could very quickly find that great arsenal dispersed and directed at us,” Eshel said.

VANCOUVER — The leader of British Columbia’s New Democrats plans to stay on as head of the Opposition while launching a sweeping review of his party’s failed election campaign.

Adrian Dix said he takes “full responsibility” for last week’s election loss, and he promised to get to the bottom of what happened.

“We didn’t win, and disappointment doesn’t describe how that feels,” Dix told a news conference Wednesday in Vancouver in his first formal comments since election night.

“We will undertake a comprehensive review of this election. … This review will spare nothing and no one, least of all me. This will not be a simple internal review.”

Specifically, Dix said he failed to effectively criticize the Liberal government’s record; he failed to communicate his party’s platform to the public; and his mid-campaign announcement that he opposed a proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion hurt his campaign.

Despite those failings, Dix said he would stay on as leader in the short-term — while leaving his longer-term future uncertain.

“I think that we elected a very strong team — we need stability right now,” said Dix, who said he was committed to doing everything he could to ensure the NDP has a better chance of winning the next election in 2017.

“It’s not simply what I want. It is the case that leaders have lost elections in the past and went on to win the next election. It’s not what I want — it’s what the party wants.”

The May 14 election was Dix’s first as leader, but the fourth campaign the party has lost since the Liberals took power in 2001.

Justin Tang/The Canadian PressPremier Christy Clark won the election but lost her seat.

The NDP ended up with 33 of the province’s 85 seats — two fewer than when the campaign began — and 39% of the popular vote. The Liberals won in 50 ridings, compared with 45 seats before the election began.

The New Democrats scored a symbolic victory by defeating Premier Christy Clark in her own riding, but beyond that there was little to celebrate.

High-profile New Democrats were defeated in areas considered traditional NDP territory, and two ridings in the Fraser Valley that the party won in byelections last year returned to the Liberals.

There has already been much speculation about why the NDP failed to realize what many within the party believed was a sure win, beyond the obvious conclusion that the opinion polls may have simply been wrong.

Dix insisted on running a positive campaign without resorting to personal attacks against Clark and her party, but that left him with few options to respond to a barrage of Liberal attacks that included unflattering comparisons to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

His mid-campaign decision to oppose a pipeline expansion proposed by Kinder Morgan, despite having previously insisted it would be irresponsible to prejudge the project so early, fed accusations the NDP was a party of job-killing, anti-development radicals who would lay waste to the province’s economy.

The party’s election platform focused on incremental change — “one practical step at a time,” in Dix’s words — that in many ways failed to significantly distinguish the New Democrats from the Liberals. Both parties included tax increases on corporations and high-income residents to fund modest spending.

Dix claimed the Liberals’ recent balanced budget was an illusion, in an apparent attempt to justify his own party’s plans for several years of deficit spending.

The Liberals also resurrected a 15-year-old scandal that cost Dix his job as deputy premier when he backdated a memo in an attempt to exonerate his boss, then-premier Glen Clark, in a casino-licensing scandal.

During the televised leaders’ debate, Dix attempted to explain the memo affair by noting he was 35 years old at the time, which only added fodder for yet another Liberal attack ad.

Despite the election loss, there have been no public calls from within the party for Dix to resign, and Dix did not address the issue on election night or in the days that followed.

Last week, the party’s president, Moe Sihota, said he believed Dix should continue to lead the party, warning against a “revolving door” of leaders.

Dix’s predecessor, Carole James, led the party through two election losses, and even after the second, in 2009, she did not step down.

It wasn’t until a messy internal revolt in late 2010 that James resigned, setting off the leadership race that eventually saw Dix ascend into the leader’s office.

They are getting the band back together.

In the well-burnished legend of its founding, the Tea Party movement sprang to life at grass-roots rallies, a spontaneous protest against government overreach that grew and grew until it stunned Democrats and many moderate Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections.

On Tuesday, rallies across the country to protest the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status recalled those glory days, drawing colourful crowds in three-cornered hats, with members singing patriotic songs and waving provocative signs like “Fire the Liars” and “I.R.S.S.” – the last two letters drawn like the lightning bolts of the Nazi SS.

Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesThe Internal Revenue Service saying they improperly targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Leaders of the Tea Party movement hope outrage over the IRS will rekindle grass-roots activism that in many places went dormant after big Republican electoral defeats of November 2012. They aim to link the current scandal to other government programs they consider overweening – principally the rollout of the health care overhaul law – and generate a Republican wave in the 2014 midterm elections reminiscent of 2010s.

But the first step in that process, Tuesday’s rallies, suggested that future electoral success was far from inevitable. Many who showed up at the rallies seemed to be old hands in the movement rather than fresh blood. Of a dozen protesters interviewed at one of the largest events, outside the Cincinnati IRS office, which drew hundreds, 11 people said they were already active in Tea Party groups.

The demographic was similar at a smaller rally in Phoenix, where Harry Mathews described himself as a kind of itinerant activist visiting school board meetings and the like. “I get in my car and think, ‘Where am I going to today?”’ he said. There, the relaxed mood of the crowd of about 40 contrasted with the vehemence of at least one of their chants, “Waterboard Obama! Waterboard Hillary!”

The rallies were organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella organization that distributed talking points for participants and even sample Twitter messages, like “IRS scandals illustrate why America needs the tea party!”

Even though Tea Party groups were in the cross hairs of the IRS, the sense of injustice may be felt well beyond the movement, fueling a broader anger at big government that feeds Republicans’ electoral ambitions to expand their House majority and win back the Senate in 2014.

“When it comes to the IRS, we’re all Tea Partyers,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist in Kentucky.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThere was a rally similar to the Florida one in Phoenix, Arizona

Over the weekend, at the nominating convention of the Republican Party of Virginia, a parade of speakers criticized the IRS to energize 8,000 party stalwarts to campaign for Republican nominees for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general this year.

Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, said the IRS inquiry had raised distrust of government, an issue on which independent voters agree with Republicans. “The irony is the Republican Party is trying to rebrand itself to attract more women, minorities and independents,” she said. “The IRS scandal may have helped them – for free.”

Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, a political action committee that has funneled millions of dollars to Tea Party candidates, said the IRS actions precisely illustrated the movement’s founding critique that big government leads to abuse of power.

AP Photo/The Sun News, Janet Blackmon MorgaA woman wearing guitar-styled sunglasses attends the Myrtle Beach Tea Party protest.

“It all feeds into this narrative, which makes 2014 look a lot more like 2010,” he said. “We won’t have the clutter of a presidential race. We’re going to be able to connect with the broader values of Americans who don’t think federal agencies should choose winners and losers.”

But Rep. Steve Israel of New York, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Republicans were overplaying their hand, as illustrated by the long series of investigations they plan in Congress.

“House Republicans are desperate to distract the American people from their chaos, dysfunction and obstruction, but they’re overreaching and it will boomerang on them,” he said.

At the Cincinnati rally, several hundred protesters gathered outside the John Weld Peck Federal Building, which houses the IRS division at the center of the controversy, where officials singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Stephen White, 66, was unequivocal about the consequences he sought for the agency’s employees. “I want the people in charge in Washington to be fired and jailed,” he said.

Diane Eisele, 66, said the controversy was merely the latest evidence of a corrupt Obama administration, ticking off other controversial episodes like the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and the botched “Fast and Furious” gun operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s created a total distrust of the government,” said Eisele, who said she had been active in Tea Party groups for more than three years.

The crowd broke into chants of “You work for us,” “IRS dot KGB” and “Remember Benghazi.”

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service official at the centre of the storm over the agency’s targeting of conservative groups told Congress on Wednesday that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers’ questions.

In one of the most electric moments since the IRS controversy erupted nearly two weeks ago, Lois Lerner defended herself during a brief appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee is investigating the agency’s improper targeting of tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status from 2010 to 2012, and Lerner oversees the IRS office that processes applications for that designation.

“I have done nothing wrong,” said a stern-looking Lerner, sitting next to three other witnesses and reading from a written statement. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee.”

Members of Congress have angrily complained that Lerner and other high-ranking IRS officials did not inform lawmakers that conservative groups were targeted, even though legislators asked the IRS multiple times about it after local tea party groups told lawmakers they were being treated unfairly.

Lerner then said she would invoke her constitutional right to avoid incriminating herself.

“One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I am invoking today,” she said.

After Oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked her to reconsider, she said, “I will not answer any questions or testify about the subject matter of this committee’s meeting.”

Nine minutes after she began speaking, Issa excused Lerner but said she might be recalled, saying he might explore whether she would testify later if granted some immunity.

Lerner left the hearing room through a rear door, escorted by her lawyer and several other men. The men quickly whisked Lerner into an elevator, where several of the men physically pushed back television camera operators who were trying to film them.

Lerner’s refusal to answer questions was not a surprise. Her attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote a letter to the committee this week saying she would do so.

Issa and other members of the committee were not pleased with Lerner’s decision to not testify. Even before she spoke, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., warned the witnesses that their refusal to cooperate would result in the eventual appointment of a special prosecutor to examine the case.

“There will be hell to pay if that’s the route we choose to go down,” Lynch said.

Lerner revealed the agency’s targeting two weeks ago and apologized for the actions. Since then, Washington has been awash in questions about why the nonpartisan IRS focused on conservative groups, who instigated it and whether it was politically motivated – which many Republicans suspect but participants have rejected.

One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I am invoking today

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general who focuses on taxes, released a report last week that detailed the targeting and called it inappropriate. He has said there is no evidence that the screening was politically motivated or that IRS officials were influenced by others, and blamed poor management by IRS officials for allowing the screening system to be instituted.

Lerner, 62, is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. She expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, and said she currently oversees 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.

She has come under fire from members of both parties, including Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, who has said she should lose her job and criticized top IRS officials for not being more forthcoming.

“We’re talking about truth and trust,” Cummings said.

At Wednesday’s hearing – Congress’ third since the controversy began – the No. 2 Treasury Department official said his agency played no role in the episode.

“There is no indication that Treasury was involved in the inexcusable behavior at the IRS,” said Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin.

Wolin told the committee that it was “absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable” that the IRS subjected tea party and other conservative groups seeking non-profit status to extra scrutiny from 2010 to 2012.

He said George told him last year “that he had undertaken an audit of the IRS’s review of tax-exempt applications.”

“I told him that he should follow the facts wherever they lead. I told him that our job is to stay out of the way and let him do his work,” Wolin said.

Issa and other members of the committee complained repeatedly Wednesday that IRS officials had ample opportunity to tell Congress earlier about the targeting but didn’t do so. Issa said his committee has privately interviewed another IRS official, Holly Paz, who said the IRS conducted an internal investigation that reached similar conclusions to George’s report, but a year earlier.

“Think about it. For more than a year, the IRS knew it had inappropriately targeted groups of Americans based on their political beliefs, without mentioning it” to Congress, Issa said.

While the targeting began in early 2010, Lerner learned of it in June 2011 and ordered that the criteria be changed, according to George’s report.

In early May 2012, Steven Miller, who was deputy commissioner, was told by staff that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted, George’s report said. Miller later became acting commissioner but has been ousted by President Barack Obama in the wake of the disclosures.

Staff of the Oversight Committee questioned Lerner and other IRS officials last year after receiving complaints from Ohio tea party groups that they were being mistreated by the IRS. In responses to the committee, Lerner didn’t mention that tea party groups had ever been targeted, according to documents. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Issa and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Lerner also met twice in early 2012 with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. The timeline said she didn’t mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted.

Also coming under fire Wednesday for not telling Congress about the targeting was Douglas Shulman, who was IRS commissioner from 2008 until last November, while the screening was occurring. Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush.

On Tuesday, Shulman told the Senate Finance Committee that he learned in the spring of 2012 about his agency’s targeting of conservatives and George’s probe. He said he didn’t tell lawmakers or officials at Treasury – of which the IRS is part – because he only had sketchy information about the situation, was told it was being handled and believed it proper to let George’s office conduct its investigation.

“When you learned that there was a list, you did nothing,” said Lynch, the Massachusetts congressman.

OTTAWA — Mike Duffy says he’s pleased that his expenses will again be reviewed by the same Senate committee that gave him the green light last month.

The Conservative-dominated upper chamber has decided that its secretive internal economy committee will re-examine Duffy’s controversial housing and expense claims in light of new information gleaned from recent media reports.

“I welcome this development,” Duffy said in a release on Wednesday.

“Canadians deserve to know all the facts. I am confident that when they do they will conclude, as Deloitte has already concluded, that my actions regarding expenses do not merit criticism.”

Duffy refused to co-operate with an external forensic audit by Deloitte, which concluded it could not determine if his expenses were justified due to the lack of information.

Liberal senators had wanted to send Duffy’s expense file straight to the RCMP, but their motion to do so was deemed out of order by the Senate Speaker late Tuesday night.

Instead, it will go back to the same Conservative-controlled committee that cleared Duffy of any wrongdoing last month, while at the same time sharply criticizing the actions of two other senators who were found to have made similar, inappropriate expense claims.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff has since resigned after admitting he gave Duffy a personal cheque for more than $90,000 to reimburse his inappropriate claims.

Harper is in South and Latin America this week, leaving Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to respond to questions in the House of Commons.

Baird said Tuesday that two “independent” investigations were being undertaken into Duffy’s expenses, without naming the investigators. It subsequently emerged that the parliamentary ethics commissioner and the Senate internal economy committee were involved.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said no Canadian will consider the Senate committee an “independent” review.

Does the minister not realize that that’s about as credible as Paul Martin asking Jean Chretien to investigate the sponsorship scandal?

“Does the minister not realize that that’s about as credible as Paul Martin asking Jean Chretien to investigate the sponsorship scandal?” Mulcair snapped in the Commons on Wednesday.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau flatly accused the government of obstructing a Senate audit.

“We know now that Conservatives on the Senate committee on internal economy used their majority to doctor the final report on Sen. Duffy’s expenses,” Trudeau charged. “Can anybody on that side of the House tell us who gave the order to whitewash the report on Sen. Duffy?”

Baird said the committee report was clear “that these expenses should not have been expensed.”

“No one in the government is disputing that fact. As I understand it, the report did in the end reflect the fact that repayment had been made.”

EDMONTON — Police say a hostage taking at the Edmonton courthouse is over.

Tactical officers responded to the downtown building shortly before noon.

Within two hours, however, police reported that the matter had “successfully concluded.”

Police would not confirm who was involved.

But a source told The Canadian Press that one female prisoner took another female prisoner hostage.

KATMANDU – An 80-year-old Japanese extreme skier who climbed Mount Everest five years ago, but just missed becoming the oldest man to reach the summit, was back on the mountain Wednesday to make another attempt at the title.

Unfortunately for Yuichiro Miura, the 81-year-old Nepalese man who nabbed the record just before he could in 2008 is fast on his heels.

Miura on Wednesday was already in the “death zone,” the steep, icy, oxygen-deficient area close to the 8,850-metre summit. His rival, Min Bahadur Sherchan, from Nepal, was at the base camp preparing for his own attempt on the summit next week.

On his expedition’s website, Miura explained his attempt to scale Everest at such an advanced age: “It is to challenge (my) own ultimate limit. It is to honour the great Mother Nature.”

Binod Joshi / AP Photo In this file photo, Min Bahadur Sherchan, center, who became the oldest person to climb Mount Everest on May 25, 2008 shakes hands on his arrival in Katmandu, Nepal.

He said a successful climb would raise the bar for what is possible.

“And if the limit of age 80 is at the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest place on earth, one can never be happier,” he said.

Miura reached the South Col, the jumping-off point for most final ascents, on Tuesday, according to his website, which also posted pictures of him eating hand-rolled sushi inside a tent.

“Miura is reported to be in good health and he and his team are aiming to reach the summit on Thursday morning,” said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepalese mountaineering official at the base camp.

If Miura makes it to the top, he would capture the record. But it would only last a few days if Sherchan is able to follow him.

Miura Dolphins / AP Photo 80-year-old Japanese adventurer Yuichiro Miura, right, and his son, Gota, leave their base camp for their attempt to scale the summit of Mount Everest.

Miura’s daughter, Emili Miura, said he “doesn’t really care” about the rivalry. “He’s doing it for his own challenge,” she said.

The situation was not too different five years ago, when, at the age of 75, Miura sought to recapture the title of oldest man to summit the mountain. He had set the record in 2003 at age 70, but it was later broken twice by slightly older Japanese climbers.

He reached the summit on May 26, 2008, at the age of 75 years and 227 days, according to Guinness World Records. But the record eluded him because Sherchan had scaled the summit the day before, at the age of 76 years and 340 days.

Sherchan, a former Gurkha soldier in the British army, first began mountaineering in 1960 when he climbed Mount Dhaulagiri, the 8,167-metre high peak in Nepal, according to his grandson, Manoj Guachan. Always an adventurer, and unbowed by age, he walked the length of Nepal in 2003.

Miura Dolphins / AP Photo Yuichiro Miura is an extreme skier and is looking to hold the world record as the oldest person to climb Everest.

Sherchan and his team said Wednesday that they were prepared for their new climb, despite digestive problems he suffered several days ago.

“Our team leader has just arrived back at base camp and we are holding a team meeting on when exactly I will head up to the summit,” Sherchan, who uses a hearing aid, said by telephone from the base camp. “I am fine and in good health. I am ready to take up the challenge. Our plan is to reach the summit within one week.”

It takes three to four days for climbers to reach Camp 4 on South Col from base camp, and another day to reach the summit.

There are only a few windows of good weather during the climbing season in May for people to attempt the summit. That could favour Miura.

Conditions should be favourable Wednesday and Thursday, but they were expected to deteriorate after Friday, said Shrestha, the mountaineering official at base camp.

If he was in his 60s, he probably would have waited for another year or two, but at the age of 80 he’s not getting any younger. He has a strong determination that now is the time

Sherchan’s team is also facing financial difficulties. It hasn’t received the financial help that the Nepal government announced it would provide them. Purna Chandra Bhattarai, chief of Nepal’s mountaineering department, said the aid proposal was still under consideration.

Miura faced difficulties of his own.

He fractured his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident, and had an operation in January for an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, his fourth heart surgery since 2007, according to Emili Miura.

His daughter said Miura decided to go ahead with the expedition despite the surgery because he felt that at age 80, he was running out of time.

“If he was in his 60s, he probably would have waited for another year or two, but at the age of 80 he’s not getting any younger. He has a strong determination that now is the time,” she said in a phone interview.

On his ascent, Miura made a stop at the rarely used Camp 5 to take a break between the South Col and the summit. Almost all the climbers these days walk straight from Camp 4 to the summit.

Miura was well-known long before his late-in-life mountaineering pursuits.

He was a daredevil speed skier who skied down Everest’s South Col in 1970, using a parachute to brake his descent. The feat was captured in the Oscar-winning 1975 documentary, “The Man Who Skied Down Everest.”

In 1964, he briefly set a world speed skiing record in the Italian Alps, reaching 172 kilometres per hour. He also skied down Mt. Fuji using parachutes.

It wasn’t until Miura was 70, however, that he first climbed all the way to the summit of Everest. When he summited again at 75, he claimed to be the only man to accomplish the feat twice in his 70s. After that, he said he was determined to climb again at age 80.

Miura is accompanied on the expedition by his son Gota, a two-time Olympian skier. Gota Miura, 43, summited Everest in 2003 with his father, but had to turn back short of the summit in 2008 due to symptoms of high altitude cerebral edema.

Associated Press writer Malcolm Foster contributed to this report from Tokyo

LIMA, Peru — Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is “frustrated and sorry and angry” about the Senate spending affair and didn’t know about the $90,000 cheque his former chief of staff wrote to Sen. Mike Duffy to cover improperly claimed housing expenses until learning about it from news media reports.

“I think we’ve been very clear I did not know,” Harper told reporters during a trip to Peru. “Had I been consulted, I would not have agreed with it.

“Obviously, I’m very sorry that this has occurred. I’m not only sorry, I’ve been through the range of emotions.

“I’m sorry, I’m frustrated, I’m extremely angry about it,” he said. “But this is the reality, and I think we’ve dealt with it promptly.”

It was the first time Harper has faced questions about the Senate spending affair, which led his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to resign on Sunday. A Reuters reporter based in Peru even asked Harper about it at a press conference, indicating that the Senate spending affair has become international news.

Harper said he believed Duffy had repaid the money from his own resources, which is how it should have been done.

“I think what’s more important about this is not simply that I did not know, but that I was not consulted. I was not asked to sign off on any such thing, and had I obviously been consulted or known, I would not have agreed with it,” Harper said.

Harper appeared in Peru’s exquisite Government Palace with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, who stood quietly as the prime minister took questions about the Senate expense affair from reporters.

Harper was subdued throughout the press conference, which has cast a cloud over his four-day South American trade mission.

“It was Mr. Wright’s money. It was his personal money that he was repaying to the taxpayer on behalf of Mr. Duffy … And he did this in his capacity of chief of staff, so he is solely responsible. And that is why he has resigned,” a downcast Harper said.

But he also said he knows his former chief of staff helped Duffy because he wanted to see taxpayers reimbursed.

“That’s the right motive, but nevertheless, it was obviously not correct for that decision to be made and executed without my knowledge or without public transparency.”

Harper said the government has put in place “the various authorities and mechanisms that will further look into these matters to see if any additional action has to be taken on any particular individuals.”

“And I will assure you that we will certainly, we will certainly look at our systems, see what we have to do to better manage or better yet prevent any of these kinds of things in the future.”

On Tuesday, hours before leaving for Peru, Harper had delivered a televised speech to Tory MPs and senators on Parliament Hill. He said he was “not happy” with the actions of some senators and with the conduct of his own office.

But the prime minister did not explain at that time — or apologize for — the actions of his former chief of staff, who stepped down over his decision to secretly give Sen. Mike Duffy a personal $90,000 cheque to repay Duffy’s ineligible housing expenses.

Duffy resigned from Tory caucus last week to sit as an independent senator.

AP Photo / Karel NavarroCanada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, and Peru's President Ollanta Humala listen to national anthems at the presidential palace in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, May 22, 2013

OTTAWA — The NDP has launched a “roll-up-the-red-carpet” campaign to abolish the Senate.

On Wednesday, leader Tom Mulcair announced a new website on the spending controversy that has prompted several senators to leave the Conservative caucus and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s top adviser to resign over a personal cheque he cut to bail one of them out.

Mulcair said he will also consult with the provinces, territories and average Canadians during his travels across the country, but stopped short of calling for a national referendum on the future of the Senate.

He argued an NDP government would do it, but that the legwork needs to begin now since changing government institutions will “require a lot of effort.

“The Senate cannot be reformed. You cannot reform something that contains people who have never been elected, who don’t understand the very principles of our democracy and are behaving as the ones we’ve just seen in the past week,” he said, adding years of research on the subject — which has been party policy for 50 years — suggests most Canadians agree the red chamber has got to go.

“The real question is in 2013, how can you possibly continue to argue to keep an institution of unelected people who have the power to reverse the decisions of duly elected members?”

http://rolluptheredcarpet.ca/The new website argues the Senate costs $92.5 million a year — the annual taxes of more than 8,000 average families — and that the average senator worked just 71 days last year

The new website argues the Senate costs $92.5 million a year — the annual taxes of more than 8,000 average families — and that the average senator worked just 71 days last year.

It slams the Harper for failing to come through on promised Senate reforms and for going back on his word not to appoint senators.

It contains a petition to abolish the Senate.

Teachers in Texas will soon be legally protected when they mention the ‘C’ word in class. That’s right — ‘Christmas.’

On Monday, state legislators in Austin, Tx. sent Governor Rick Perry its ‘Merry Christmas’ bill, crafted in a bid to fight off political correctness related to the Christian holiday and protect teachers from any lawsuits related to the holiday. It passed in the state legislature Friday.

State representative Dwayne Bohac introduced Bill 308, aka ‘The Merry Christmas Bill,’ just before Christmas last year, inspired by his son who, one day, excitedly told his father about the thrill of decorating the school’s ‘holiday’ tree with ‘holiday’ decorations.

“I was a little bit flabbergasted and a little bit upset that we’ve become so politically correct that we can’t call a federal holiday by its name,” the legislator told Fox News in Austin.

“Teachers have enough on their plate to worry about the school districts going to be sued or if they can call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree.”

The bill garnered support in the legislature, and even led to a companion bill being introduced in the Senate. And it doesn’t remain exclusive to Christmas — it also promotes the greeting of ‘Happy Hanukkah’ and allows displays of Christmas trees, nativity scenes and Menorahs.

Rep. Bohac told Fox Austin there are two pending lawsuits in Texas related to use of these greetings in schools. “Tales from Christmas Past,” submitted by apparently regular citizens and posted on the bill’s website, speak of oppression — of teachers being told they could be fired if they say ‘Merry Christmas’ to the kids or exchange cards or gifts at school. Others were discouraged from wearing red and green.

But are the threats of lawsuits really that strong? And is this really something Texas legislators ought to be spending their time on? Linda Bridges, president of the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teacher which opposed the bill, said there are bigger education issues at hand in their state than whether teachers and students can wish each other a ‘Merry Christmas.’

As far as I can tell, nobody has ever actually stopped saying ‘Merry Christmas’ because they’re afraid to get sued

“I think I can honestly say I’ve never had a question from a teacher about what they can and can’t do around holidays,” Ms. Bridges told Fox. “I think we really have to say does this help education when we are caught up in discussions that have become pure partisan discussions that is not the way we should be looking at education.”

Russell Glasser, co-host of the Austin public-access TV show The Atheist Experience was a bit more blunt in his assessment of the bill, calling it just one of many “idiotic little bills,” and, well, bull.

“As far as I can tell, nobody has ever actually stopped saying ‘Merry Christmas’ because they’re afraid to get sued,” he told The Raw Story. “Does anybody sue anyone for saying ‘Merry Christmas?’ Because I think that’s a bunch of bulls–t.”

Despite some opposition, it’s safe to say Gov. Perry will make haste to pass this bill into state law.

“This bill is about the freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, and Gov. Perry supports it,” his spokesperson Josh Havens told the Huffington Post.

The bill would take effect Dec. 1st.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES

A brazen, brutal attack near a military barracks in London on Wednesday afternoon left one man dead and two suspects in the hospital in what British Prime Minister David Cameron said appeared to be a terror-related incident.

The attack occurred in the southeast London neighborhood of Woolwich, just a few blocks from the Royal Artillery Barracks.

ITV ScreengrabITV in the UK has a video reportedly from the scene showing a man with bloody hand holding a knife and cleaver allegedly explaining his actions.

Two men reportedly attacked another man. Witnesses said the two men were shot by police and a number of weapons — including butchers’ knives — could be seen on the street, which was splattered by blood.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a press conference in Paris with Cameron, said it was a British soldier who was killed.

Cameron didn’t immediately confirm that fact but the Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating the attack.

Cameron did say said there were “strong indications” it was a terrorist incident.

“We have suffered these attacks before, we have always beaten them back,” Cameron said. “We will not be cowed, we will never buckle.”

LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty ImagesA police car is parked outside the Royal Artillary Barracks, Headquarters Woolwich Station in Woolwich, east London, on May 22, 2013 following an incident nearby in which a man was killed and two others seriously injured.

Live television images of the scene showed a trail of blood staining a pavement, cordoned off streets and crime scene investigators marking the scene.

The website for the British ITV channel has posted an eyewitness video allegedly showing one of the men involved. In it, a man with bloody hands, a knife and a cleaver apologizes for what everyone had to witness and tries to explain why he did it.

“I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same,” the man in the video says while gesticulating.

“You people will never be safe,” he continues. “Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

The video then showed the man talking with another man. The two men were then subdued by police.

A tweet from the scene showed a man crumpled on the ground:

shooting/stabbing in woolwich 😐😐😐 http://t.co/fFBVgteDES—
b'le (@BietLe_) May 22, 2013

The British Cabinet’s emergency committee immediately called a meeting and the prime minister’s Downing Street office said security was stepped up at barracks across London.

Commander Simon Letchford said one man was found dead and two men were shot by police and taken to separate London hospitals.

One of the men was in serious condition, according to London Ambulance Service.

A British government official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation said the details that had emerged were indicative of a “terrorist-motivated attack.”

British Home Secretary Theresa May said she had been briefed by Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, and by police on what she called a “sickening and barbaric” attack.

The BBC reported that “the Queen is concerned at the news of the attack in Woolwich and is being kept informed.” The organization also reported that French President “all solidarity to UK after murder of a British soldier in London.”

David Dixon, head teacher of a nearby primary school, said police told him there was a serious incident. He said he saw body lying in the road outside.

He told the BBC that he then made sure children were inside and put the school into lockdown mode. He said he then heard shots fired.

Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesPolice at the scene in Woolwich following a major incident in which a man was killed, on May 22, 2013 in London, England.

Mark Barnsley, a taxi driver, told the Telegraph he saw a black car swerve and crash, before two men got out with weapons.

“Some people were panicking, as you would when people start swinging machetes around. It’s pretty shocking,” he told the U.K. paper.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is called in when officers are involved in shootings, confirmed that it is investigating the incident, which took place near the Royal Artillery Barracks.

The barracks – which house a number of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and independent companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards – were the site of shooting events during the 2012 London Olympics.

Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesScenes of Crime Officers at the scene in Woolwich following a major incident in which a man was killed, on May 22, 2013 in London, England.

From Rob Ford’s SUV escape from reporters at a Tim Hortons to his firing from his beloved high school football program to Doug Ford’s spirited defence at a City Hall press conference, Torontonians have been witness to yet another bizarre day as the mayor’s crack cocaine video scandal shows no sign of abating.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board announced Wednesday afternoon that Rob Ford would not be returning as head coach of Don Bosco Eagles Football program.

“The Board has informed Mr. Ford of our decision to pursue a different direction with a new volunteer head coach for the Don Bosco Eagles senior football team,” the school board said in a news release. “This decision was based on what is best for our students, our school and the Don Bosco community.”

The school board did not mention the crack-cocaine allegations, and long before the scandal came to light, it was thought that his coaching days were numbered due to a number of previous controversies.

After the mayor refused to address the explosive allegations for a fifth straight day, it was left to his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, to respond to the political crisis which has made headlines around the world.

Councillor Ford said he does not speak for the mayor, but believes he already addressed the allegations when he called them “ridiculous” on Friday. “I don’t know how much more he can say,” said Doug Ford.

“Rob is telling me these stories are untrue, that these accusations are ridiculous and I believe him,” he added. “I will always support my brother as the mayor of this city because I believe in his track record.”

Doug Ford didn’t take questions from reporters after his speech, in which he spent the majority of the time promoting the city’s finances and his brother’s agenda.

He slammed the Toronto Star and Gawker and said reporters were following his family.

“I am asking all of you today, please stop. Please stop harassing my children, please stop harassing my mother,” the Etobicoke North councillor said.

“If the mayor stopped and held a press conference every time the media made up a story of him, we would never have accomplished [anything].”

Councillor Ford called the story “an accusation driven by questionable reporting” and the campaign to purchase the alleged video “disgusting” and “morally wrong.”

“Giving away prizes to try to raise money for drug dealers and extortionists is disgraceful,” said Mr. Ford.

Tim Fraser for National PostDoug Ford, Toronto city councillor and brother of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, addresses a crowded news conference at Toronto City Hall Wednesday May 22, 2013 regarding his brother's alleged use of crack cocaine.

Gawker’s “Crackstarter” attempt to crowdfund the purchase of the alleged video for $200,000 has reached $116,000 with six days to go.

But the chorus of city councillors and civic leaders calling for the mayor to issue a fulsome response has grown since the story broke last week.

“Certainly I wanted to hear from Rob and not Doug,” Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday told reporters.

Rob Ford continued to refuse to answer questions Wednesday, telling reporters instead to “camp out.”

Ford was surrounded by television cameras in a combination Tim Hortons and gas station Wednesday shortly before noon and briskly walked to his black SUV without directly addressing the growing scandal.

Asked by CTV reporter Austin Delaney when the mayor would make a statement, Ford responded: “Make sure you bring your pillow and your sleeping bag outside, partner. Or do you want me to make your bed for you tonight, you can sleep out there again.

“Anyways, make sure you camp out tonight.”

Reporters from multiple outlets asked Ford “Is that you in the video, sir?” and “Have you ever smoked crack?”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan DenetteToronto Mayor Rob Ford leaves the parking garage in his SUV avoiding the media after a city council meeting at Toronto City Hall on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

Ford responded to those final two questions by silently getting into his vehicle and slamming the door.

Delaney told CP24 that he wasn’t sleeping outside of Ford’s house while following the story as footage showed Ford repeatedly joking to Delaney about picking out his cereal.

Besides a 13-second address last Friday, Ford has not responded to allegations of crack cocaine use made by the Toronto Star and U.S. website Gawker after both outlets reported they saw a video of the mayor using the drug and making offensive remarks about his high school football players and Justin Trudeau.

FORD STAFFERS CRITICIZED

The growing sideshow surrounding Ford’s silence came as his staff was criticized on Twitter after they were spotted handing out campaign magnets at the funeral for legendary journalist and Toronto Sun founder, Peter Worthington.

I hear there are some people in Moore, Oklahoma, who have not yet received "Rob Ford for Mayor" magnets. #TOpoli—
Chris Moorehead (@cjmoorehead) May 22, 2013

Mayor Ford staffers are handing out promotional magnets/cards at a funeral? Is it just me or is that a tad on the distasteful side? #TOpoli—
Joel Klebanoff (@JoelKlebanoff) May 22, 2013

Bah-hah-hah-hah… The guy whose staff is handing out business card magnets at a funeral is lecturing someone on respect?—
Sean Boulton (@sboulton) May 22, 2013

All class. All the time. MT @karenkho: Apparently Rob Ford magnets are being handed out by his staffers at Peter Worthington's funeral.—
mark (@auditorydamage) May 22, 2013

Last week, Ford was accused of violating city code after he bolted from a community meeting to put fridge magnets emblazoned with his name and phone number on cars is the parking lot. The City eventually dropped the investigation, saying no rules were broken.

Ford’s lawyers have suggested staying quiet about recent crack video allegations may be the best option, Holyday told reporters on Wednesday.

Ford’s lawyers told Ford “the less they say at this point the better,” Holyday said, referencing media reports of an alleged video of Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Speaking to about a dozen reporters outside Ford’s office at City Hall Wednesday morning, Holyday said he didn’t know the background of the lawyers’ advice, but added he thinks Ford should address the media directly.

“Until he does that, it won’t go away,” he said.

Holyday said he still supports the mayor and that his patience with him is not wearing thin, though he has some concerns.

“I’m concerned about the mayor. I’m concerned about the mayor’s health for a lot of reasons, but, you know, illegal drugs is not one of the things I have any information on.”

Councillor Michael Thompson also spoke to reporters, saying he wasn’t happy after learning of the recent spoofs on late night American talk shows. He said Toronto is receiving global attention “for all the wrong reasons.”

Thompson also said more information is needed about the “serious” allegations against the mayor and that the mayor needs to address the situation at hand.

“Obviously an allegation has been levelled [against] the mayor and I think it’s important for us to have some degree of clarity from all parties.”

“I know if it was me personally, I’d want to respond,” he said.

HALIFAX — The father of a seven-year-old boy whose mouth was allegedly taped closed by an after-school monitor says school officials in Halifax reacted slowly and incompletely to the incident.

Chris Procunier said Wednesday that his wife Jennifer saw impressions from the tape on the boy’s mouth after the alleged incident last Thursday afternoon.

His son was one of 11 students participating in the Excel after-school program at Bedford South School at the time, Procunier said in an interview.

Procunier believes he and other parents should have been informed immediately, even though students weren’t in school Friday because it was a professional development day.

“Our biggest issue is the lack of response from either the school board or the Excel program. There’s been no indication this is being dealt with properly,” he said.

“If our kids hadn’t told us this was happening, we wouldn’t have known.”

Procunier said he and his wife heard from three other parents last week that nine other children and their son were lined up for disciplinary action and had the tape placed over their mouths.

“My son said they were speaking out loud, but I’m not sure what the catalyst was … and there was actual duct tape placed on the kids mouths for an extended period of time,” said the father.

Procunier said he is upset the school only called him to a meeting on Tuesday where he, eight children, other parents, an Excel official and the school principal discussed what happened.

He said he wasn’t satisfied after the meeting that the board had a clear enough set of policies to prevent other occurrences in the after-school program.

In a news release, Education Minister Ramona Jennex says she is “very upset” about the allegation and the department will work with the school board to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

It is not clear from official sources how many children allegedly had their mouths taped shut. The provincial government news release refers to one child.

“Our schools need to be safe havens for children in this province,” said Jennex. “I expect the school board to have answers about this alleged incident shortly and we will work with the board to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Police have confirmed they are investigating a report of an assault on Thursday afternoon involving a student and staff member at the school.

Doug Hadley, a spokesman for the Halifax Regional School Board, said the board is also investigating but he wouldn’t say how many children were alleged to have had their mouths taped.

I expect the school board to have answers about this alleged incident shortly and we will work with the board to ensure it doesn’t happen again

“At this point, we believe there was between 10 to 12 kids in the room but I can’t confirm if the incident involved one, several or all,” he said in an email.

He said some parents were contacted Friday or over the weekend, but others weren’t informed until Tuesday.

The employee, who is an assistant instructor in the program, was immediately placed on paid leave until the board concludes an investigation on whether its policies were violated, Hadley said.

If it is shown that tape was used, Hadley said it would be a violation of board policies.

“We don’t know what kind of tape was used,” he said. “But regardless of that, it’s the kind of action that should never occur under any circumstance.”

Hadley said it’s possible the board will review and amend its policies, adding that if the allegation proves true a policy review is likely.

“I would suggest to any of the parents that if they left the meeting not feeling satisfied, that they contact the Excel staff or board staff to express those concerns so we can take that into consideration,” he said.

VANCOUVER — A car in Vancouver’s West End is a charred shell and dozens of windows in nearby buildings have been shattered in an early morning explosion.

The blast in the 800 block of Nicola Street (near Robson Street) occurred shortly before 7 a.m., tearing the Toyota Matrix apart and setting it on fire.

Vancouver Police Const. Brian Montague says the vehicle was parked and unoccupied.

He says there are no reports of serious injuries on the street or in any of the many apartment buildings within metres of the explosion.

Montague told the Vancouver Sun that the car belonged to a plumber who who had a leaking acetylene gas tank stored in the car.

“He has come close to being seriously injured or killed. No cuts but he’ll be taken to hospital and checked for internal injuries,” Montague told the Sun.

The Sun also reported that the tank was ignited when the plumber used a small key fob to unlock the car. This caused a small spark which ignited the gas.

Several blocks around the scene have been closed to traffic.

Nick Procaylo/PNGPolice and fire department investigate a car explosion on Nicola St at Robson in Vancouver, BC., May 22, 2013

Nick Procaylo/PNGPolice and fire department investigate a car explosion on Nicola St at Robson in Vancouver, BC., May 22, 2013

Nick Procaylo/PNGPolice and fire department investigate a car explosion on Nicola St at Robson in Vancouver, BC., May 22, 2013

Nick Procaylo/PNGPolice and fire department investigate a car explosion on Nicola St at Robson in Vancouver, BC., May 22, 2013

Nick Procaylo/PNGPolice and fire department investigate a car explosion on Nicola St at Robson in Vancouver, BC., May 22, 2013

MONTREAL — Montreal has issued a boil-water advisory to a large swath of the city.

It has released the advisory, which applies to the lower half of the island, after a water-filtration station broke down.

Residents are advised to boil their water for at least a minute, or to use bottled water.

Tap water can still be used to wash dishes, take a shower or wash clothes.

It’s the second major infrastructure malfunction in the city in less than 24 hours.

The previous evening, the city’s metro system suffered a complete shutdown at the height of rush hour because of a computer problem.

From the Montreal Gazette:

Water straight out of the faucet is okay for washing hands and dishes, as long as very hot water is used and they are dried immediately; the water is also fine for washing clothes and taking a bath or shower. Parents should make sure small children keep their mouths closed and not swallow bath water. Better still, skip bathtime for a day and give them a sponge bath.