Coach says Nylander will be fine after early departure in Leafs’ 2-1 win over Habs

CALGARY – Allyson MacNutt produced the biggest upset yet in a curling event that provides a stage for toppling heavyweights.

MacNutt’s team from Halifax, which will represent Canada at the 2025 world junior curling championship, defeated four-time national women’s champion Kerri Einarson 8-6 on Thursday at the PointsBet Invitational.

“So much fun. I’m freaking out,” MacNutt declared.

The round of 16 in Curling Canada’s PointsBet features junior, college, university, under-25 and club champions taking on some of the top teams in the country.

The single-knockout format of an event that offers just over $350,000 in prize money is unforgiving of early-season rust and rewarding for an unheralded team that’s hot at the right time.

The 14th-seeded MacNutt went toe-to-toe with the third-seeded Einarson at WinSport Arena.

She and teammates Maria Fitzgerald, Alison Umlah and Grace McCusker shot 84 per cent as a team to the Einarson foursome’s 74. MacNutt posted a 90 per cent to Einarson’s 71.

MacNutt led 7-6 on a miss from Einarson in the eighth end. After a blank ninth, MacNutt’s draw rubbed off a rock and rolled to the button.

Einarson’s attempted raise to remove it and score with her final throw of the 10th gave up another steal of one.

“It’s definitely tough,” Einarson said. “They played really well. They made a lot of great draws and we missed quite a few opportunities.

“We can’t take anything away from them. They played really well and we didn’t.”

MacNutt and teammates were such fans of Einarson, they asked for a group photo with her team before warm-up Thursday.

A couple hours later, it was MacNutt advancing to the quarterfinals and not Einarson.

“It’s crazy watching them on TV growing up and now, like playing against them, and beside all of these amazing teams, and just like having a great game, it’s just so insane,” MacNutt said. “I’m like, speechless right now.”

All 32 teams receive $5,000 to defray travel expenses.

A first-round win is worth $3,000, a quarterfinal is $6,000, a semifinal is $12,000 and $24,000 goes to Sunday’s men’s and women’s victors for a total take of $50,000 for those teams.

MacNutt will face Kate Cameron, who was an 8-5 winner over Jolene Campbell, in Friday’s quarterfinal.

Kayla Skrlik meets Chelsea Carey, Kaitlyn Lawes takes on Selena Sturmay and defending champion Rachel Homan is up against Corryn Brown in the other women’s quarterfinals.

Brad Gushue squares off against Rylan Kleiter, Kevin Koe faces Jordan MacDonald, Brad Jacobs plays Owen Purcell and Mike McEwen meets Felix Asselin in the men’s quarterfinals.

The 11th-seeded Asselin ousted defending champion Reid Carruthers 5-4 on Thursday evening with a tiebreaking draw-the-button that is part of the PointsBet format.

McEwen thumped national junior men’s champion Kenan Wipf 11-3, second seed Jacobs defeated college champion Jacob Horgan 9-2 and Purcell was an 11-6 winner over Aaron Sluchinski.

Einarson was without her usual front end in Calgary. Shannon Birchard, who is nursing a knee injury, was replaced by Laura Walker.

Birchard won’t be available to the team at next week’s season-opening Grand Slam, the HearingLife Tour Challenge, in Charlottetown.

“I’m not exactly sure how long she’s out for, but we’ll see,” Einarson said. “No surgery. She just needs a lot of physio.”

Krysten Karwacki has been Einarson’s lead since the eve of February’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Einarson’s regular lead Briane Harris is awaiting the outcome of an appeal of a doping violation that she says was due to inadvertent ingestion.

“Laura is a great fill-in,” Einarson said. “She’s a great addition to the team to fill in for Shannon, but it does change a little bit of our dynamics.

“We did our best with what we could do, and always a lineup change is tough.”

Skrlik beat Danielle Inglis 9-2 and Carey was a 10-4 winner over Canadian women’s club champion Abby Burgess in the afternoon draw.

Second-seeded Carey, who is skipping retired Jennifer Jones’s former team, admitted that it can be uncomfortable playing an underdog with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“It’s big pressure on the top-seeded teams,” Carey said. “It almost can feel like a no-win situation, because if you win, everybody goes, ‘Well, yeah, of course they won.’ And if you don’t, then everybody goes, ‘Well, what’s wrong with them?'”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

CALGARY – A psychiatric report has found a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting six women east of Calgary is fit to stand trial but his lawyer wants the court to order another hearing before the long-delayed matter resumes.

Richard Robert Mantha faces 20 charges that include kidnapping, threats causing bodily harm, sexual assault with a weapon and administering a noxious substance on the women, most of whom worked in Calgary’s sex trade.

The 60-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

Most of the alleged offences occurred at a rural property east of Calgary.

His trial began in January but was delayed after he fired his two lawyers.

Mantha suffered a stroke in May while in custody waiting for his trial to resume on Nov. 18.

An assessment was ordered to allow a forensic psychiatrist to determine how the stroke may have affected his cognitive capacity

A letter from forensic psychiatrist Dr. Reilly Smith said that Mantha is fit to stand trial and even though he has severely reduced verbal skills is able to communicate by writing.

“You’re saying the letter, report, the assessment gives rise to concerns…you challenge the conclusion that Mr. Mantha is fit for trial?” Justice Judith Shriar asked Mantha’s lawyer Marc Crerar Thursday.

“You say there are sufficient grounds raised by the report prepared by Dr. Smith to grant an application of the accused to order a hearing on this?”

“Obviously that’s the conclusion provided. I respectfully submit the court should be in a position or should have concerns after reviewing, just briefly, the report,” Crerar replied.

“I think there’s some serious concern with respect to not only the ability to communicate with counsel. There has to be some serious concerns with respect to the prospect of Mr. Mantha taking the stand in his own defence.”

Prosecutor Dominique Mathurin wants the trial to resume in November.

“There is indication that he understands what’s going on and could potentially communicate to his counsel in writing,” she said.

“That would be the position of the Crown considering the fact that there’s no impairment of his ability to understand what’s going on.”

Shriar said she will hear the application from Crerar and a response from the Crown regarding a fitness hearing Oct. 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published September 26, 2024.

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IQALUIT, Nunavut – Mounties in Nunavut have made an arrest in the murder of a 15-year-old girl almost 40 years ago.

Mary Ann Birmingham was found dead in Frobisher Bay in what was then the Northwest Territories in May of 1986. Frobisher Bay later became Iqaluit and is now the capital of Nunavut.

Police said Thursday an indictment was signed a week ago and on Tuesday, Jopey Atsiqtaq was arrested in Ottawa.

He appeared in court Wednesday on a charge of second-degree murder and has been remanded in custody. RCMP have said Birmingham was “brutally murdered” in her home while her family was out of town.

Police say she was found by her sister, Barbara Sevigny, who had just returned from visiting her brother in Montreal. The front door to the house was locked, and she had to pry open a window with a makeup compact.

In 2018, Sevigny shared further details to panel members with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“When I turned to the living room, I saw her body on the couch,” she told commissioners at the time.

“And then I’m saying, ‘Mary Ann?’ I’m calling her (name) out. I wanted her to wake up, but my mind’s telling me, ‘But there’s a pool of blood, she cannot wake up.'”

Since the family didn’t have a telephone, Sevigny went door-to-door to ask her neighbours for help. It felt like hours had passed when first responders showed up at the house, she said.

After police arrived, Sevigny went to her grandmother’s house. In the months and years since, she said she has felt the immediate after-effects of post-traumatic stress.

“I was hearing voices, I was paranoid,” she said. “I thought I was going to be killed next. I was crying in corners.”

Birmingham’s mother, Sarah, also spoke to the panel.

She said she was in Montreal at the time to support her three-year-old adoptive son, who was receiving treatment for leukemia.

While there, she was told that a social worker wanted to see her.

“It was then I would be told (of the death),” she told commissioners in Inuktitut. “I couldn’t cry. Mary Ann was so important to me and I couldn’t accept that she was gone.”

Birmingham remembered Mary Ann as being a welcoming and friendly girl.

“We used to dress her up as a hunter and pretend she was going out hunting when she was little,” she said.

“We used to play with her, and she enjoyed it in the days when everybody was fine.”

RCMP said Atsiqtaq was remanded into custody and is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 29.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

— By Aaron Sousa in Edmonton

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.