Bullets fired, window smashed at Jewish school in Toronto’s north end: police

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Party released its entire platform to voters Saturday evening before election day on Oct. 21.

The platform includes pre-announced commitments to cut HST by two per cent, provide financial literacy education in schools and introduce legislation to force people with severe drug addiction into treatment.

The Tory document says it will also uphold policies that “respect parents.”

The platform also pledges to improve working conditions for the province’s nurses and bear the 50 per cent of the cost for registered nurses’ long-term disability premiums for two years.

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs says his party presents voters with a “realistic, affordable plan” that doesn’t try to “buy your vote with 100 promises.”

If his party is elected to govern, Higgs will serve a third term as premier.

The Tories’ platform is the last of the three major parties to be released during the campaign, with the Green Party’s platform being released on Wednesday and the Liberal Party publishing theirs on Oct. 3.

Both Higgs and Liberal Party Leader Susan Holt cast their ballots at the advance polls in their respective districts today.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

WHITE ROCK, B.C. – Bill Vigars, who led the promotion of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope in 1980, has died at the age of 78.

His wife, Sherry MacDonald, confirmed the news in an interview, saying Vigars died of congestive heart failure on Thursday surrounded by loved ones at a hospital in White Rock, B.C. She said he fought a “long, tough battle” that began when he had a heart attack in June.

Vigars is survived by his wife, two children, a stepson and one grandson. He will be honoured at a private ceremony of life early next year, MacDonald said.

She said her husband, who she married in 2009, was “full of life, full of mischief, wanted everything to be an adventure, and it was.”

Vigars was the former director of public relations and fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society. He met Fox in 1980 and served as his public relations officer and confidant as the 21-year-oldset out with the goal of running across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

Vigars was by Fox’s side until the tragic end of his journey in Thunder Bay, when Fox learned the cancer that had taken his right leg had spread to his lungs. Fox died on June 28, 1981, at Royal Columbia Hospital in New Westminster, B.C.

Fox’s legacy also set the framework for the annual Terry Fox Run, that would ignite cancer research in Canada, raising more than $850 million since 1980, says the Terry Fox Foundation website.

MacDonald said Vigars made it his mission to keep Terry Fox’s dream alive, noting he would go to four or five schools every September to tell Fox’s story ahead of the annual run. The only September he missed, she said, was this year as he was in the hospital.

“Terry was his guiding light,” MacDonald said of her husband. “Terry’s tenacity, his convictions, his determination, was all something that Bill liked to live by.”

She said her husband shared Fox’s vision.

“They were very in sync on that, and Terry was very clear about what his objectives were, and (Bill) didn’t sway from them.”

Vigars published a book last year, with Ian Harvey, titled “Terry & Me: The Inside Story of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope.” Released on Aug. 29, 2023, the book is about the Marathon of Hope from Vigars’ perspective.

MacDonald said Vigars was reluctant to do the book at first “because he never wanted to draw any attention to himself” but felt Canadians deserved to know the story.

“(It) truly was a labour of love and that was a huge accomplishment for him and I think he was very proud of that, as he should be,” she said of the book.

His publisher, Sutherland House Publishing, posted to social media on Friday it was “very saddened” to hear about Vigar’s death, calling him an “author, publicist and close friend of Terry Fox.”

“Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very difficult time,” it said in the post.

The Terry Fox Foundation also made a post to social media in Vigars’ honour, saying their “Terry Fox world is smaller and sadder” after hearing the news of his death.

“He saw Terry at his most powerful, vulnerable, and emotional. Bill succeeded at making Terry a relatable, accessible human being, ‘no different than anyone else… no better and… no less,’ as Terry said,” it said of Vigars in a Facebook post.

“This was the greatest gift he could give his beloved friend: a reminder that Terry was just one of us.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2024.

–By Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver

LANGLEY, B.C. – Violence should have no place in British Columbia politics, said New Democrat Leader David Eby as police investigated a bomb threat at a party campaign office on Vancouver Island.

Eby said Saturday an NDP campaign office in Campbell River was temporarily evacuated Friday after receiving a bomb threat.

Eby, who was campaigning Friday in the Vancouver Island city, said he was not in the NDP office when the threat was received.

He said he is grateful for the courage of the office staff who were told to evacuate by the RCMP.

“Violence has absolutely no place in our politics,” said Eby at a campaign stop Saturday in Langley. “We see in other parts of the world where people have to endure violence as part of the democratic process. We don’t want that in British Columbia. It’s absolutely shameful.”

He said he did not know what intent was behind the threat, but supported police investigation efforts.

“And I hope they get to the bottom of it and they arrest this person and charge them,” he said.

The RCMP were not immediately available for comment.

“A campaign manager for the B.C. NDP received a bomb threat while working at the Campbell River campaign office yesterday (Friday) afternoon,” B.C. NDP Provincial Director Heather Stoutenburg confirmed in a statement. “Police were immediately alerted and our staff was asked to temporarily vacate that campaign office.”

Earlier on Saturday, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said he will release his party’s costed election platform on Tuesday, five days before the Oct. 19 voting day.

“The plan right now is to be able to announce that on Tuesday,” he said. “We will detail how that will be paid for.”

Rustad said the platform will outline the cost of the B.C. Conservative spending promises, including massive highway, bridge and transit infrastructure projects.

He said, if elected, voters can expect several years of deficit spending to continue, before the province returns to balanced budgets by the end of a second B.C. Conservative term.

“It’s not realistic to try and do that in one term,” Rustad said. “It would be unfair to both the services and the people in B.C.”

B.C.’s current budget is forecast to see a deficit of more that $9 billion, with Eby pledging reduced deficits in the coming years with a return to balanced books at an unspecified year.

Eby has been critical of the decision by Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives to hold off on presenting their complete campaign platform until late in the campaign.

He said voters were denied the opportunity to see Rustad defend his party’s campaign promises at last week’s televised leader’s debate because the party platform was not ready.

“We had an all candidates debate to discuss the issues which the Green Party presented a fully costed platform. The NDP presented a fully costed platform, and John Rustad presented nothing,” said Eby. “He had his chance to explain his platform and what we’ve seen as proposals for cuts, conspiracy theories, division between communities.”

“I think British Columbians have seen enough. They know who’s on their side and who isn’t.”

Rustad was in the Metro Vancouver city of Surrey Saturday where he visited a food bank, pledging, if elected, to implement a dedicated yet unspecified government fund to ensure help is available for rising numbers of people in need.

“The need in the community is growing,” he said. “Government needs to be able to step up to the plate and be there for people in this province.”

Eby pledged to complete major transportation projects underway across the Metro Vancouver area, including SkyTrain expansions to the University of British Columbia, from Surrey to Langley and Highway 1 improvements from Langley to Chilliwack.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was campaigning in Victoria while federal Green Leader Elizabeth May was in Creston campaigning with B.C. Kootenay Central candidate Nicole Charlwood.

— By Dirk Meissner in Victoria, with files from Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2024.