The Crown has withdrawn manslaughter charges against a 59-year-old man from Collingwood, Ont., who shot and killed two masked men who zip-tied and held him at gunpoint in a chaotic home invasion. “It was terrifying,” Cameron Gardiner said, speaking publicly for the first time since the event. The details of the case had previously been under a publication ban. It was the early-morning hours of Jan. 22, 2019, and Gardiner and his girlfriend were watching a movie in their townhouse in Collingwood, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto. “And next thing I know, the door gets kicked in,” Gardiner said in an interview with CBC News. Three masked men forced their way into his home. One was wearing a clown mask; the other a balaclava; and the third had a scarf pulled up to his eyes. One of the men was armed with a sawed-off shotgun. “My girlfriend tried to run for the stairs, but they tackled her and put her back on the couch,” Gardiner said. “[They] zip-tied us both and zip-tied my dog to my leg with another zip tie.” The men took turns guarding the couple while searching the house. They brought a safe downstairs to the living room, and Gardiner said they began hitting him and demanding he tell them the code, but Gardiner didn’t have it because the safe didn’t belong to him. “You can’t give something you don’t know,” he said. “And my girlfriend was screaming and crying. She was terrified, and so was I.” Surveillance cameras in home Unbeknown to the home invaders, there were surveillance cameras in the house linked to an app on Gardiner’s son’s phone. Gardiner’s son, who was 19 at the time, didn’t live with him, but he was at the home regularly and, according to court documents, was known to sell marijuana from a bedroom on the third floor. When he saw what was happening, he made a beeline from his home to his father’s house. He arrived just as his father managed to slip out of his zip ties. According to court documents, as Gardiner’s son grappled with one of the intruders outside the back door, the shotgun was dropped. His father grabbed it, and another intruder tried to wrestle it away from him. The gun fired, and the intruder who was fighting with the son was hit. The elder Gardiner and the intruder in the clown mask continued to struggle over the gun. It was racked in the struggle, which put another load in the chamber, and according to Gardiner, that’s when it fired and killed the man in the mask. In the court documents, Gardiner says the masked man then staggered out of the house. In the end, two men lay dead in the snow in the backyard, both shot in the chest. They were later identified as Dean Copkov, 52, and Donovan Bass, 42. Copkov was a longtime stuntman whose resumé included RoboCop, the Resident Evil franchise, The Incredible Hulk and the Canadian series Lost Girl. Copkov was about to be sentenced on drug charges in Montreal before he died, according to court records. Dean Copkov, 52, a longtime stuntman, was one of the intruders in Gardiner’s home who was shot and killed. He was about to be sentenced on drug charges in Montreal before he died in 2019, according to court documents. (Courtesy IMDb) Bass was described in his obituary as a “beloved son” and “loving father.” The families of Copkov and Bass did not immediately reply to a request for comment from CBC News. Surprised to be taken into custody During the mayhem, the third intruder leapt out of a second-storey window and escaped. Court records also reveal that Gardiner’s son left the scene with the safe and a bag before police arrived. Gardiner defends his actions and points out that his eight-year-old daughter was also sleeping next door. “I’m assuming that they’re going to kill me,” he said. “What are you supposed to think that they’re just going to … it’s a what? A polite home invasion with a gun? I can’t take no chances with any of that in my life. It’s my kids. I’m not taking chances.” Police investigators are shown outside Gardiner’s home in Collingwood, Ont., in January 2019 after the home invasion during which two of the intruders were fatally shot.(Jason Whyte/CBC) Gardiner said he was surprised when Ontario Provincial Police officers took him into custody. “I told them that the third guy was running. If you hurry, you can catch them. They decided to come to the apartment first,” he said. Shortly after, Gardiner was loaded into a police cruiser. “I really was in shock. Like, I just went through hell,” he said. Crown initially pursued murder charges The Crown originally pursued second-degree murder charges against Gardiner, but in November 2020, after a preliminary inquiry, a judge decided the evidence — which she noted in her decision was largely circumstantial — merited manslaughter charges instead. In her November decision, Ontario Court Justice A.M. Nichols said that while there was some evidence Gardiner had control of the weapon when the shots were fired, no witness saw the shootings take place. She described the evidence as “murky.” On Tuesday afternoon in Barrie, Ont., Crown prosecutor Bhavna Bhangu withdrew all charges against Gardiner during a video court hearing, saying that after a thorough review, the Crown determined there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. Acting Sgt. Martin Hachey of the OPP detachment in Collingwood said he couldn’t comment on why the charges were withdrawn. “I can tell you that, certainly, our jobs as officers is to investigate an occurrence and, of course, lay charges accordingly based on the investigation and the evidence collected,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what took place in this case or what brought about that particular decision, but on our end … that’s the job we [had] to do, and that’s what we did in this case.” In a statement, the Ministry of the Attorney General said, “The Crown has a duty to assess the strength of a case … and after careful consideration, the Crown determined that a withdrawal of these charges was appropriate. Lawyers worry about ‘chilling effect’ for others Toronto criminal lawyers Robb MacDonald and Elliott Willschick, who represented Gardiner, said they’re pleased the charges were withdrawn. “I think it’s an indication that at the end of the day, the Crown attorney, the Crown attorney’s office, finally sees this case for what it is. And it was a man defending himself and his house and his loved ones,” MacDonald said. Toronto criminal lawyer Robb MacDonald, who was one of Gardiner’s lawyers, says the case involved ‘a man defending himself and his house and his loved ones.'(Andy Hincenbergs/CBC) But Willschick said he worries people may see what his client went through and hesitate to protect themselves in similar situations. “It may have a chilling effect on people,” he said. “You don’t want people to think when someone is facing a home invasion and a gun’s at their head and they have to think, ‘Well, if I do this, am I going to spend a few months in jail? Am I going to be punished criminally?’ “It’s a dynamic situation. You have someone who’s in shock, whose adrenaline is pumping. And so, essentially, you have someone who did the right thing. He was trying to protect his family.” WATCH | Ontario man describes when 3 intruders entered his home in 2019: As for Gardiner, he said that while he is relieved the charges were withdrawn, the event left him traumatized. “I’m always worried about the door, always looking at the door or seeing [if] someone else is going to kick in. But it’s just something you don’t forget,” he said. “I got to try and forgive myself and move on with my life.”
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
