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LACOMBE, Alta. – Canada’s Rachel Homan and Brad Gushue carried unbeaten records into Thursday at the Pan Continental curling championship and are assured semifinal berths.

Homan thumped Mexico 10-1 in just six ends on Wednesday evening after also making quick work of South Korea in an earlier 8-2 decision that lasted six ends.

Gushue downed Australia 13-8 in the lone men’s draw.

Ottawa’s Homan and Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., were both 6-0 with one game remaining in their preliminary rounds Thursday.

Gushue finishes against China’s Xiaoming Xu (4-2) and Homan meets Japan’s Miyu Ueno in a battle of undefeated teams.

The men’s semifinals are Thursday evening and the women’s Friday morning. The gold-medal games are Saturday at the Gary Moe Auto Sportsplex in Lacombe, Alta.

The top four men’s and women’s teams in the Pan Continental qualify for the 2025 world championships, although Canada has an automatic berth in the men’s championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., as the host country.

Homan’s alternate Rachel Brown got into the game against Mexico’s Adriana Camarena for her first ice time in the event and played third to give Tracy Fleury the night off.

“It’s not every day you get to play third for Rachel Homan,” said Brown, who threw third stones for the first time in her career.

“It was really, really fun. I would have liked to play a little bit better, but the girls were dialled. They played so well.”

South Korea’s Eunji Gim (4-2) was also playoff bound with the fourth women’s playoff team still to be determined Thursday.

In other women’s games Wednesday evening, Japan downed South Korea 6-4, the U.S. hammered Chinese Taipei 19-0 and China defeated New Zealand 9-4.

Gushue is attempting a Pan Continental hat trick after winning the first two tournaments.

Reigning women’s world champion Homan is representing Canada for the first time in the regional championship.

A bonus for Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker was South Korea’s 5-4 win over China dropped the latter to a record of 4-2, which means Gushue will be the playoffs’ top seed with choice of stones throughout the playoffs.

“It’s always nice to go into the playoffs that way,” said Gushue’s coach Jeff Hoffart.

Joining Gushue in the men’s final four will be John Shuster of the U.S. (5-1) and Japan’s Shinya Abe and China (4-2).

The U.S. downed Chinese Taipei 9-3 and Japan dominated New Zealand 9-1 in other men’s games Wednesday afternoon.

Bottcher, a longtime skip, is playing his first event for Gushue after the latter fired second E.J. Harnden earlier this month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

WINNIPEG – Obby Khan and Wally Daudrich, the two candidates for the leadership of Manitoba’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives, made their respective pitches to members Wednesday night at a forum hosted by the party.

Khan, a former cabinet minister backed by some high-profile Tories including former premier Kelvin Goertzen, pitched himself as best prepared to take over the reins because of his time in the legislature since winning a byelection in 2022.

“I’ve got a ton of energy. I’m in the legislature. I’m ready to hit the ground running on Day 1,” Khan told Tories gathered in a hotel conference room.

“And that legislature is no joke. That is a machine when it comes to question period, when it comes to bills and resolution.”

Daudrich, a longtime party board member who ran unsuccessfully in the past for federal politics, told the crowd he wants to repair the party’s relationship with grassroots members and focus the party on conservative principles.

“Small government, knowing how to spend a dollar frugally, and keeping in touch with our people — those are principles,” he said in response to a question about which ideas the party needs to embrace.

The two men have much in common — both are business owners and the sons of immigrants.

But they differ on some policies.

Daudrich says the Tories can be more fiscally and socially conservative. He told reporters he is pro-life but would let grassroots members set policy on that and other issues.

Khan has said he can build a “big tent” party that can attract people from different political leanings. He told reporters Wednesday night he supports a day of transgender recognition.

“I know what it means, as a minority, to have a day that recognizes you … so I support that day,” said Khan, the first Muslim elected to the Manitoba legislature.

Khan was not in the chamber for a vote last spring on establishing a provincial day of two-spirit and transgender recognition. He was at a doctor’s appointment, he said. The bill passed with support from most politicians. Four Tories voted against it.

The Progressive Conservatives are looking to replace former premier Heather Stefanson, who announced her plan to resign after the party lost the October 2023 election to the NDP.

Daudrich was part of the team behind Shelly Glover, who narrowly lost the last leadership race to Stefanson and unsuccessfully challenged the results in court.

Daudrich and Khan did not go head-to-head at the forum Wednesday night. They took turns sitting on a stage, answering questions from a moderator and from the audience.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – A former senior official at Canada’s foreign ministry says there were fears two decades ago that Montreal man Abousfian Abdelrazik might end up at a prison for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Daniel Livermore, who was director general in the department’s security and intelligence bureau, testified Wednesday in Federal Court in Abdelrazik’s civil lawsuit against Ottawa over his detention and alleged torture in Sudan.

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik became a Canadian citizen in the 1990s and was arrested during a 2003 visit to his native country to see his ailing mother.

Abdelrazik, who denies involvement in terrorism, says he was tortured during two periods of detention by the Sudanese intelligence agency.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers visited him in custody in October 2003.

Livermore told the court of efforts in 2004 to have Abdelrazik fly home from Khartoum via Germany on commercial flights.

He recalled fears in the Canadian foreign ministry that Abdelrazik’s journey might be interrupted due to the U.S. no-fly list and that he could wind up in an American military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The Americans were “quite concerned” about the Abdelrazik case and did not want him to return to Canada, Livermore said.

There was “profound disagreement” between CSIS and Canada’s foreign ministry over whether Abdelrazik should return, Livermore said.

“CSIS continued to express the view to us that he was a dangerous terrorist.”

Abdelrazik, 62, is suing the Canadian government, claiming officials arranged for his arbitrary imprisonment, encouraged his detention by Sudanese authorities and actively obstructed his repatriation to Canada for several years.

The suit also names Lawrence Cannon, Conservative foreign affairs minister from October 2008 to May 2011.

Federal lawyers argue Abdelrazik was an author of his own misfortune, saying Canada did not urge Sudan to keep him in detention or mistreat him, or create a risk that these things might happen.

Abdelrazik’s second release from Sudanese custody came in July 2006. However, his inclusion on a United Nations security watch list complicated his efforts to return to Canada.

In response to a query from the Canadian foreign ministry, CSIS and the RCMP said in November 2007 that neither agency had current and substantive information to support Abdelrazik’s continued listing.

In December 2007, Maxime Bernier, foreign affairs minister at the time, conveyed a request to a UN committee to have Abdelrazik removed from the list. However, the committee did not agree.

Bernier, foreign minister from August 2007 to May 2008, told the court Wednesday “it was concerning for me” to hear a suggestion the Sudanese had detained Abdelrazik at the request of Canada.

“I wanted to know more about it,” said Bernier, who later left the Conservatives and now leads the People’s Party of Canada.

He noted that Abdelrazik had not been charged with anything, and that Canadians enjoyed the protection of the Charter of Rights.

In March 2008, Deepak Obhrai, who was parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, met Abdelrazik in Sudan together with Canadian foreign ministry officials.

According to an agreed statement of facts in the case, Abdelrazik told them that Sudanese authorities had tortured him. He lifted up his shirt to show marks on his elbow, stomach and back that he alleged were caused by the abuse.

In March 2009, Abdelrazik obtained a ticket to Canada for the following month. However, he was denied an emergency passport.

Abdelrazik returned to Canada in June 2009 after a judge ruled Ottawa breached his constitutional rights by refusing to give him the travel document.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.