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By: Staff Writer

Posted: 01/19/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Zakaria Amara: life sentence (STEVE RUSSELL / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)

Mastermind gets maximum

BRAMPTON, Ont. -- The mastermind behind a "spine-chilling" terrorist plot that would have caused untold deaths and destruction was handed a life sentence Monday -- the maximum sentence under Canada's anti-terrorism laws -- though he's able to apply for parole in 2016.

Zakaria Amara, 24, whose religious ideology fuelled plans to set off massive truck bombs outside the CSIS and Toronto Stock Exchange buildings in downtown Toronto and at a military base in Ontario, is the first person to be given the maximum penalty for terrorist offences.

Ex-officer skips court date

TORONTO -- A former Cornwall, Ont., police officer appealing his contempt convictions failed to appear in court Monday when his case came before Ontario's highest court.

Perry Dunlop called the seven months he served in jail for refusing to testify at a public inquiry largely of his own making "cruel and unusual punishment."

'Horrific' crime recalled

KITCHENER, Ont. -- The widow of an elderly man killed while delivering Christmas cards died "a thousand deaths" on the day her husband was savagely murdered, and her family remains unable to recover from the "horrific" crime, she said in a victim impact statement Monday.

Hunter Brown, 74, was stabbed 45 times in the head and face during an unprovoked attack.

Trevor LaPierre, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Tentative deal reached

HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's NDP government dodged a bullet on the labour front Monday, reaching a tentative contract agreement with 4,000 rural hospital workers only two hours into a strike that threatened to hobble the health-care sector.

Details of the agreements were not released, but the union had sought a three-year deal with annual raises of 2.9 per cent. The province's last-known offer was a four-year deal, with 2.9 per cent raises in the first two years and one per cent a year in the last two.

Yemen funding considered

OTTAWA -- Canada will consider increasing development funding to Yemen as a means of helping it counter a growing threat from the al-Qaida terror network, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday.

-- From the news services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 19, 2010 A8

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