NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Alicia Keys attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Nick Cannon attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Sean Diddy Combs attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Ariana Grande attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for MTV)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Bebe Rexha attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for MTV)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Social media star Baddie Winkle attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Hailey Baldwin arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Cassie attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Farrah Abraham arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Winnie Harlow arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Model Taylor Hill attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West attend the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Nicki Minaj attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: JoJo attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Jaden Smith attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Nick Jonas attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Rita Ora attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Britney Spears attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Jenni "JWoww" Farley attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Naomi Campbell attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Ashley Graham attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Beyonce and daughter Blue Ivy arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
The MTV Video Music Awards have given us some of the most memorable red carpet looks - good and bad. This year was no disappointment. From feathers to turbans, sparkle and more see the most daring looks from the 2016 MTV VMAs red carpet.
NEW YORK -- Accompanied by daughter Blue Ivy sporting a big tulle train, Beyonce was angel-winged and green-feathered Sunday night on the white carpet of the MTV Video Music Awards, one of the wildest celebrity fashion parades of the year.
Sparkling from head to toe in the shade of mint, huge green jewels hanging from her ears, the queen wore her hair back and braided. Her hive of fans was pleased, breathless on Twitter, as her 4-year-old princess walked in gold, high top sneakers on, showing off a dainty jeweled head band worn at the front with two long braids.
From sparkly Superman T-shirts to bejeweled high top kicks, the VMAs is an anything-goes carpet, an opportunity for names large and smaller from TV, music and elsewhere to strut and clown for throngs of cameras live from Madison Square Garden.
Beyonce and Blue posed with Sybrina Fulton, Lezley McSpadden and Gwen Carr, the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, among others. Collectively, they're in the Mothers of the Movement, women of colour who lost children to violence and appeared in Beyonce's "Lemonade" visual album holding photos of their lost sons.
Nicki Minaj slayed in sexy royal blue, a clingy mermaid-style gown with a crisscross front and huge side cutouts. Walking in the tight outfit proved a challenge. Her accessory was Meek, wearing a black zip jacket with red rose appliques and a huge rectangle diamond necklace.
More subdued was Amber Rose in a black, double-breasted pantsuit, bra top out. Kim Kardashian also opted for black as she posed with hubby Kanye West, casual in a white short-sleeve T-shirt and white pants.
Britney Spears was in black, too, a form-flattering dress with a long open slash from the shoulder to the hip, her blonde locks long and loose.
Swinging her famous high ponytail, Ariana Grande blew kisses at the cameras in a tiny, flirty lace top off the shoulders with a pair of wide black trousers and black choker. Speaking of walking, Rita Ora had no trouble in towering platform shoes with a sheer black skirt with red feather accents and a black leather motorcycle jacket.
The impersonating cast of "RuPaul's Drag Race," meanwhile, did what they do best, walking as Lady Gaga in her meat dress, Spears and her famous snake (this one a fake) and Lil' Kim with one nipple covered only by a blue pastie.
The guys represented. Rapper Desiigner was bare-chested in a salmon suit, his eternally huge smile on his face and glittery chains around his neck. Nick Cannon was in white, including a turban, to go with his sleeveless T and long shorts, while 2 Chainz wore a red and green stripe bandanna scarf with a tasseled white long-sleeve shirt.
One of the evening's hosts, DJ Khaled, wore a sharp David August black suit.
The VMAs attracted many in MTV's reality stable, including "Teen Mom OG" Farrah Abraham as full-on Wonder Woman. The night also attracted a few supermodels, including Naomi Campbell in a short ivory dress and Joan Smalls in a clay red crop top.
Four of the Final Five gymnastics stars from the Rio Olympics also walked the carpet -- Simone Biles, in a sequined red mini by designer Sherri Hill, Aly Raisman, in a girly floral overlay dress, Laurie Hernandez in blue and Madison Kocian in aqua.
Teammate Gabby Douglas was in a hospital for treatment of a mouth infection from a previous injury, said her publicist, Lesley Burbridge.
Historic multi-gold winning Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was chill in a simple pair of black pants, white shirt and a black jacket as photographers shouted, "Where are your medals?"
Later, he introduced Future, revealing it was the Atlanta rapper and singer he was listening to when making his now-famous Phelps face, a grimace before a race that went viral on social media.

MTV VMAs: The most daring looks from the red carpet


EDMONTON -
Glenn Kraemer Bauman lived in the northwestern Alberta town of Valleyview where he drove an oilfield truck until last week when police quietly arrested him in connection with the deaths of a mother and daughter who disappeared five years ago and 3,800 kilometres away.
In the Waterloo Region of Ontario, Bauman, 43, faces two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of offering an indignity to a body in connection with the disappearance of his common-law spouse, Linda Daniel, and her teenage daughter Cheyenne. They were 47 and 13, respectively, when they vanished in July 2011 where they lived in Ontario's Wellesley Township.
The mother and daughter were only reported missing to police in December 2015 by relatives who feared foul play, reported the Waterloo Region Record newspaper. Police said the women were not in close contact with family members.
After what Waterloo Regional Police described as a complex investigation into the circumstances that led to the suspected deaths of Daniel and her daughter, a Canada-wide warrant was issued for Bauman.
Waterloo Regional Police detectives and RCMP arrested Bauman in Valleyview, about 350 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, on Aug. 19.
In a brief court appearance Friday via video link in Kitchener, ON, Bauman said he was trying to hire a lawyer.
Meanwhile, police have forced a family now living at a Wellesley home out of the residence for 30 days as part of the investigation. It's the home where Bauman formerly lived with Daniel and her daughter. Waterloo Regional Police said they have not located the remains of Linda and Cheyenne Daniel.
Police are enlisting specialists from the Ontario Centre for Forensic Science and have covered a large section of the backyard with a tarp, according to area media reports.
The case is receiving heavy media coverage in the Waterloo region, but the arrest of a suspected double-murderer living in Valleyview's midst failed to generate much attention in the community. Neither Valleyview RCMP nor K-Division issued a news release about the arrest.
An RCMP spokeswoman said Saturday the arrest was Waterloo Regional Police's operation and Mounties assisted. No further information about Bauman or his arrest was immediately disclosed.
"It's been kept very quiet," said Jim Joelson, a Valleyview town councillor. "Nobody knows about it. I haven't talked to anybody who knew about it."
Joelson said he did not know Bauman. "I did not know he was working here. I just assumed he was passing through." He said residents might be a little shocked if they knew about the case.
Investigators say they will be reaching out to relatives of the victims and the suspect and have also asked for the public's help to identify timelines and to speak to anyone who might have seen Daniel and her daughter shortly before they went missing in July 2011.
bmah@postmedia.com
twitter.com/mahspace

Mounties arrest man in northern Alberta for killings of a mom and her teen daugh


Glenn Kraemer Bauman lived in the northwestern Alberta town of Valleyview where he drove an oilfield truck until last week when police quietly arrested him in connection with the deaths of a mother and daughter who disappeared five years ago and 3,800 kilometres away.


Air New Zealand: Safety first in Hollywood! The latest in-flight safety video from Air New Zealand features Anna Faris and New Zealand actor Rhys Darby and was filmed at Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood. The two actors act out scenes from different film genres as Darby tries to convince Faris to play a role in Air New Zealand’s new safety video with him. (Courtesy Air New Zealand)
Delta: Delta Airlines' latest in-flight safety video features some of the most famous Internet memes, including cats and the Double Rainbow guy among others. (YouTube)
Delta Airlines: The American airline posted this 80s-themed safety video to YouTube in January 2014. Alf, scrunchies and some old school tech all make appearances in the video. Is it all enough to make you pay attention, though? (YouTube)
Air New Zealand: Air New Zealand used sex appeal to sell their latest in-flight safety video. The airline teamed up with Sports Illustrated swimsuit models to film this "Safety in Paradise" video, filmed in the Cook Islands. The video wasn't without controversy, though, with thousands signing a petition saying it sexualized the female body and should be removed from airplanes. (YouTube)
Virgin America: Back in October 2013, Virgin America employed movie director Jon M. Chu ("Step Up 2: The Streets," "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never") and American Idol alum Todrick Hall for a 'Glee'-style in-flight safety video. (YouTube)
Air New Zealand: Actress Betty White starred in this cheeky in-flight safety video, again filmed for Air New Zealand. Called "Safety Old School Style," White used some of the same humour she employs for her 'Off Their Rockers' TV show in this safety video. (YouTube)
Air New Zealand: In yet another Air New Zealand safety video, characters from "The Hobbit" get a lesson on in-flight safety. Called "An Unexpected Briefing," even Peter Jackson makes a cameo appearance. (YouTube)
Virgin Atlantic: Virgin Atlantic's latest in-flight safety video is an animated homage to classic films. A dream-sequence takes passengers to the world of James Bond and A Space Odyssey while reminding them about in-flight safety. (YouTube)
Air New Zealand: The airline's Bare Essentials of Safety video features nude flight attendants (sensitive body parts are hidden by nothing but body paint and cleverly placed life jackets) going through safety procedures ranging from evacuations to electronics use. (YouTube)
Thomson Airways: Kids say the darndest things! The United Kingdom’s Thomson Airways ran with that idea in this cute 2009 airline safety video featuring children as flight attendants. (YouTube)
Virgin Australia Airlines: Virgin Australia Airlines mixes humour with silly cartoon characters to create an airline safety video that is super entertaining. Look out for a very animated Richard Branson in the clip! (YouTube)
Air France: The French airline launched this quirky in-flight safety video in spring 2015, featuring five 'passengers' doing the safety demonstrations in clothing the colour of Air France's uniforms. (Courtesy Air France)
Air New Zealand: Air New Zealand's newest in-flight safety video features world famous surfing stars Gabriel Medina, Mick Fanning and Masatoshi Ohno, and was filmed in Malibu, Australia's Gold Coast and New Zealand. (YouTube)

Air New Zealand challenges James Corden to 'Cockpit Karaoke'


British comedian James Corden is being urged to take his Carpool Karaoke concept to the skies.


Warning: The following story contains some graphic language!
Comedian Mark Critch has removed a photo mocking former prime minister Stephen Harper from his Instagram account following a barrage of tweets from a Conservative MP that included obscenities.
Calgary MP Michelle Rempel posted on Twitter that she has since apologized to Critch “that he got flamed,” and she says that he, too, told her he was sorry.
The photo showed Critch inside what appeared to be a closet on Parliament Hill in an apparent parody of Harper’s decision to shelter in a closet when Michael Zehaf Bibeau stormed the Parliament Buildings in Oct., 2014.
The star of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes appeared to be clutching himself in fear, and the caption read, “Stephen Harper has stepped down. Here I am in his closet.”
Rempel was in the caucus room with Harper when the shots rang out, and she told Critch on Twitter that she hoped he never suffers from panic attacks in movies with gunshots in them, or has to wonder if colleagues are alive or dead.
Critch told the CBC that he has spoken to Rempel and that things are “all good now.”
“Michelle and I had a good conversation. She wrote me an apology for flaming out and I deleted the picture. No hard feelings on either side,” Critch said in a statement to CBC.
Neither Rempel nor Critch could be immediately reached for comment.
In her tweets responding to the photo, Rempel accused Critch of “triggering” her.
“I don’t really have words to describe my disgust at this post of yours,” she began.
.@markcritch,I don't really have words to describe my disgust at this post of yours 1/ pic.twitter.com/6QCDkE7FCX — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
“May you never have to choose between running for your life or trying to protect your friends from the unknown,” she continued.
.@markcritch may you never have to experience hearing gunshots coming towards you while you're in a confined space 2/ — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
.@markcritch may you never have to choose between running for your life or trying to protect your friends from the unknown 3/ — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
.@markcritch may you never have a panic attack in a movie hat has gunshots in it two years after running for your life 3/ — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
.@markcritch may you never have to wonder if your colleagues are alive or dead 5/ — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
“What you posted isn't satire, or comedy. It's a f---ing embarrassment,” she added.
Forgive typos and expletives. — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
.@markcritch and thanks for triggering me, you asshole. — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) August 27, 2016
The photo and Rempel’s reaction late Friday triggered a flood of debate on social media that continued through Sunday afternoon. Some people accused Critch of showing poor taste while others criticized Rempel for over reacting.

'22 Minutes' star Mark Critch removes Instagram pic mocking Stephen Harper after


Comedian Mark Critch has removed a photo mocking former prime minister Stephen Harper from his Instagram account following a barrage of tweets from a Conservative MP that included obscenities.


Model Ashley Graham is sick of men sending her explicit pictures on Instagram.
The buxom beauty, who this year became the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine's famous Swimsuit Issue, is an active Instagram user but has problems with unwanted messages from men.
In particular, she feels creeped out that some men send her unsolicited pictures of their nether regions.
"I really think it's weird when they (men) send me penis pictures (on Instagram)," Ashley tells the New York Post's Page Six gossip column. "It irks me deep inside. Don't do it, I'll block you."
The model was speaking to the publication while attending the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in New York City on Sunday.
While there she visited Manhattan's iconic Tick Tock diner, where she was treated to a performance from Nick Jonas, who performed his track Bacon in front of an audience of diners including Ashley and his brother Joe Jonas, who was with his DNCE bandmates.

Model Ashley Graham says getting penis pics is 'really weird’


Model Ashley Graham is sick of men sending her explicit pictures on Instagram.


CHICAGO -- There are no bomb blasts or collisions with burly linemen in Susan Contreras' past. Her headaches, memory loss and bouts of confused thinking were a mystery until doctors suggested a probable cause: domestic violence.
A former partner repeatedly beat her, she says.
"He would hit me mainly in the head so that nobody would see the injuries. He'd hit me in the back of the head so the bruises wouldn't show," the Phoenix woman said.
The abuse from her ex-partner took a heavy emotional toll, Contreras says. But even though he sometimes knocked her out, she hadn't considered that her brain might have been as damaged as her psyche.
"Honestly, there's so many holes in my memory, thinking problems," she said. "My memory is really gone."
Brain trauma in domestic violence survivors has been overshadowed by concerns about injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan war vets, and by effects of repeated head blows in football players. Experts believe many cases go undetected and untreated in abused women, making them vulnerable to problems with thinking, mood and behaviour.
Advocates say the injuries leave some survivors so impaired that they can't manage their jobs and lives. Some even end up homeless.
About one-quarter of U.S. women and 14% of men have experienced severe physical assaults by a partner in their lifetime, including hitting, punching, being slammed against something hard or pushed down stairs, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Head and neck injuries are among the most common, and data suggest that domestic assaults may cause traumatic brain injuries in at least 60 per cent of survivors, according to a research review published this year in the journal Family & Community Health.
Traumatic brain injuries can result from even a single sudden blow to the head. The symptoms may be short-term or long-lasting, and repeated assaults increase chances for permanent neurological damage. Whether that damage can cause the downward spiral that domestic violence survivors sometimes get caught in is unproven, but studies have found these brain injuries are more common in homeless people than in the general population. And there's no dispute that they can cause life-changing disabilities.
"This population is not unlike that of our athletes," said Dr. Javier Cardenas, director of a brain injury program at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. He's a trauma consultant for the National Football League and also treats domestic violence survivors.
Cardenas cited Baltimore Ravens' running back Ray Rice's 2014 attack on his then-fiancee, caught on an elevator video camera. Much of the public discussion about the incident was about whether brain injuries in football players may be linked to violent behaviour off the field. It overlooked a far more obvious injury.
"When Janay Rice was knocked out cold in the elevator, attention was all about how Ray Rice had previous concussions. Nobody mentioned that the woman in the elevator suffered a brain injury right in front of everybody's eyes," Cardenas said.
Traumatic brain injuries include concussions and don't always cause loss of consciousness or damage that can be detected on imaging scans. Symptoms may not occur immediately but can develop over time, making it difficult sometimes to link them with previous abuse.
The brain isn't a hard, fixed organ. It's more like jello, surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid that works like a shock absorber when the head is hit. A violent blow -- from colliding with a linebacker's helmet, from blast pressure after an explosion, or from a partner's angry fist -- can damage brain cells at the point of impact and slam the brain against the skull, sometimes bruising tissue, tearing nerve fibers, or causing bleeding.
Repeated blows have been linked with a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE first made headlines several years ago when it was found in the brains of retired NFL players who had killed themselves. Research linking domestic violence with suicide is sparse, although several small studies have suggested that suicide attempts are much more common among battered women than among those who have not experienced partner abuse.
CTE is linked with memory loss, confusion, mood changes including depression and eventually dementia. Some scientists think domestic violence survivors might be at risk.
"I have no doubt that there are many women who have been abused enough that some of them probably have CTE," said Dr. Robert Cantu, a leading expert on football-related brain injuries and co-director of Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.
He said medical literature contains just one published case about probable CTE linked with domestic violence -- a 1990 Lancet report about an autopsy on an abused 76-year-old British woman who had developed dementia. Her brain showed abnormalities resembling those seen in the brains of "punch-drunk" boxers.
Survivors often don't seek immediate medical attention, or when they do, they often fear disclosing what caused their injuries. Some wait years, when troublesome symptoms persist or emerge, and then, many victims and doctors don't connect the problems with domestic abuse, said researcher Jacquelyn Campbell, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Many physician groups recommend that doctors screen women for domestic violence in emergency rooms or doctor offices, and the Affordable Care Act says insurance plans should cover the screening with no copays. But when screening occurs, questions often don't address traumatic brain injuries, and symptoms are sometimes thought to be a psychological reaction to abuse, so doctors don't probe further, Campbell said.
Jennifer Kershaw, a Columbus, Ohio-area school teacher who won a court victory last year in an abuse lawsuit against her ex-husband, says she doesn't remember doctors ever mentioning traumatic brain injury after her 2013 beating, despite her symptoms.
"He put me in a headlock and punched me in the face I don't know how many times," she said. "Then he kneed me in the face." She said she went to the emergency room with a black eye, broken cheekbone, nausea and dizziness, and still has difficulty concentrating.
Though it's not clear if she did have a concussion or other brain injury, her symptoms are among those many experts say should lead doctors to investigate further.
"If a woman comes in with a black eye" or is otherwise being assessed for domestic violence, "we need to provide some good neurological workups like the help that is being provided to our veterans with traumatic brain injury," Campbell said.
That includes detailed questions about symptoms, physical and mental exams, and sometimes imaging scans if more severe brain injury is suspected.
Susan Contreras, 47, didn't get that kind of exam until almost 10 years after her final beating, after she landed in a Phoenix homeless shelter. A therapist there was concerned about her symptoms and sent her last December to the Barrow institute. The neurological centre has established an unusual program offering an array of free treatment to homeless domestic violence survivors.
Social worker Ashley Bridwell helped create the program after working with homeless shelters and noticing many women with suspected brain injuries.
Many were hit in the head dozens of times, Bridwell said. "Some were slammed into a wall or down a flight of stairs. These women have lived pretty hard lives," and their brain damage can make it hard to navigate out of homelessness, she said.
Sometimes imaging tests show brain scarring that, in a strange way, can be comforting to survivors.
"They feel a sense of relief knowing there is a physical or medical reason for their problems," Dr. Cardenas said.

Fists not football: Brain injuries seen in domestic assaults


There are no bomb blasts or collisions with burly linemen in Susan Contreras' past. Her headaches, memory loss and bouts of confused thinking were a mystery until doctors suggested a probable cause: domestic violence.


A mere 13 kilometres of highway, and the difference is 184 years behind bars.
Just a ten minute drive north into Canada, and Michael Ilk might expect full parole in only a few years — but that international border means his life is probably over, as far as freedom goes, and the 42-year-old Calgarian will die wearing the orange jumpsuit of the Montana State prison service.
“I don’t see any way to protect the public with him outside of prison,” Lincoln County District Judge James Wheelis told the court, as he sentenced the Calgary man convicted on two counts attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
“Who can predict what he will do. Who could have predicted this?”
For firing a 9-mm handgun 14 times at his ex-girlfriend and another man in Eureka, Montana last year and wounding both, the judge determined Ilk should spend life in prison without a chance for parole.
On Monday, he handed the Canadian a staggering 200 years in Montana State Prison, broken down into two 80-year sentences for both charges of attempted deliberate homicide and 20 years per count of aggravated assault, without parole.
“Judge Wheelis takes this kind of thing seriously,” Lincoln County Undersheriff Brandon Huff told Postmedia on Tuesday, in what may be the understatement of the year.
“This was definitely a violent crime, with two people shot.”
Judge Wheelis took the April 15, 2015 shooting so seriously, he actually doubled the sentence recommended by the state.
Thirteen kilometres from the border maybe, but this is obviously a very different world from Canada.
Up here, a sentence of more than a decade for attempted murder is considered shocking, as in 2013, when a Saskatoon judge sentenced Brandon Carelse to 16 years for beating and repeatedly stabbing his estranged wife, leaving her barely clinging to life.
Carelse’s sentence was immediately reduced to 14 years for time served in remand, and despite a history of violent crime, he can expect parole by the time a decade is up.
Ilk, on the other hand, was an upstanding, clean-living citizen when he confronted his ex-girlfriend Hadassah Pereslete and her co-worker Tyler Wilson in a construction site near the Eureka Hills subdivision.
Despite more than a dozen shots fired at their truck, the two victims suffered non-life threatening wounds, and then Ilk made the arrest very easy for police, after chasing their vehicle into the parking lot of the local sheriff’s office.
“Let’s just say it wasn’t a difficult case to solve,” said the undersheriff.
Pereslete was hit in the leg and arm and Wilson was shot in the arm and hand.
Throughout the trial, Ilk maintained the shooting was self-defense, stating Wilson shot at him first after he’d been asked to come to the construction site.
“I’m not a horrible and violent person,” Ilk told the court before he was sentenced.
“I believed I needed to defend myself. If I could change that day, I would in a second.”
But his plea didn’t help his case, nor did the character-witness testimony of family and friends, including three Calgary law enforcement officials, among them his brother-in-law Michael Ferguson, who called the 2015 incident totally out of character for the kind, normally gentle man.
As with the guilty verdict from a jury in June, the sentencing date was an emotional affair, for those who may never see Ilk on the outside again.
Ilk’s lawyer did not return calls on Tuesday, and there is no word yet on an appeal, but in the meantime, at least one of the two victims, who are each suing the shooter for $1 million, is publicly calling the guilty verdict a victory.
“We won!” was Pereslete’s two word exclamation on Facebook, where the 23-year-old has been regularly posting about the shooting.
Pereslete dated and lived with the Calgarian from June, 2012 to January, 2015, after which point she testified Ilk was sometimes abusive and threatening.
Since the shooting, she’s used social media as a conduit for statements about the trial.
“The truth won. Justice won. Humanity won. Life won. We won,” she posted to Instagram.
“This has been the biggest week of my life and I’m happy to say, it’s finished. Goodbye forever, michael ilk.”
mplatt@postmedia.com

Calgarian Michael Ilk jailed for 200 years in Montana State Prison


A mere 13 kilometres of highway, and the difference is 184 years behind bars.


The crime was juiced with hatred — pure and simple.
Six bullets ventilated Olympic bronze medalist shot putter Dave Laut on Aug. 27, 2009 in the quiet, leafy backyard of his stucco ranch house.
One more .22 calibre slug that shattered the back of his skull put a personal touch on the hulking high school athletic director’s grisly demise.
Laut, 52, was already lying dead on the ground as his horrified wife Jane called 911 reporting a prowler lurking outside their Oxnard, California home.
“Somebody ... somebody was in our back yard,” she breathlessly told the operator.
Press reports said cops had no suspects.
As for Laut, the beloved 6-foot-3 gym coach was described by friends and family as a “gentle giant.”
Five months later, detectives made an arrest: it was Laut’s wife and high school sweetheart Jane.
Almost immediately, the defence began painting a portrait of the Olympian as a violent, bullying rapist who kept his family in a state of terror. But there was little evidence of the gut-wrenching abuse Jane was claiming.
There was, however, a $300,000 insurance policy. Jane was also spending the family’s money at a gold medal rate, cops learned. Even borrowing $60,000 from her mother-in-law to keep the party rolling.
When cops found the murder weapon, hidden in a grandfather clock, they also found a how-to for cold-blooded wives. Jane had a legal article outlining how to claim self-defense and say you’re suffering from battered woman’s syndrome.
And then there was his desire to end the unhappy marriage.
“They were having problems that last year and she told me Dave wanted to leave the marriage,” Rebecca Laut, Dave’s sister-in-law, told the Ventura County Star. “Jane said, ‘He says he’s going to leave and take Michael, but that’s not going to happen. I’m not going to let him take Michael (their 10-year-old son).’
“(He) was planning on leaving her. He was looking up divorce attorneys hours before his death. I believe he was leaving her that night and he was planning to take their son and she was not going to allow it to happen.”
The dead man’s family scoffed at any indication a domestic war was raging behind the walls of the couple’s tidy suburban home.
“We never ever heard about any type of domestic violence. She changed her story so many times and once she was arrested then all of a sudden it was about domestic violence,” Rebecca Laut told the Los Angeles Times.
“She was my sister-in-law and I knew her and she was also my friend,” Rebecca says. “I am positive there was never domestic violence. The only domestic violence there was is what she did to Dave and her son Michael on that night. Because of her killing her own husband she took away her son’s father.”
Jane Laut’s legal team hammered away at the theme the dead sportsman was a violent psychopath. In the end, the jury didn’t believe her and she was found guilty in March of killing the “gentle giant.”
She scoffed at a manslaughter plea deal that would have seen her walk out of prison in six, short years.
On Tuesday, a California judge sentenced her to 50 years in prison. Her lawyer says he plans to appeal.
For Laut’s family, the agony and confusion has not gone away.
“I mean, if you knew Dave and the kind of person he was and the way he beamed when he talked about Jane and how he had her up so high on this pedestal, I mean, he just — he loved her,” said Rebecca Laut.
SEXXX-RATED HEIST
A carnal crazed cat burglar broke into an Ohio sex store and made away with sex toys, lubes, the upper half of a $2,000 sex doll and a $46.99 blonde wig, according to police.
Cops say Ellis Doyle, 26, went through a ventilation pipe and slithered into Cirilla’s adult novelty store. But surveillance cameras captured the hormone-charged heist man — as he returned for a second visit.
The Smoking Gun quotes cops: “walks around the store again and then walks over to the ‘Eva’ mannequin and strips the clothing off of it and takes the top half of the mannequin and takes a blond and burgundy wig off a display and places it on its head and walks out the front door.”
Doyle allegedly got away with $2,650 in R-rated goodies. The Eva mannequin was found at a nearby Red Roof Hotel. He has his preliminary hearing on Monday.
MOST WANTED
NAME: Gregory Pictou
AGE: Unknown
CIRCUMSTANCES: On Feb. 21, 1981, the body of John Gleason was found in a state of mummified decomposition in the basement of the National Native Cultural Centre in Ottawa. He had been stabbed approximately 50 times in the front and back torso — his throat slit from ear-to-ear. Pictou is wanted for first-degree murder.
He was last seen in New York City in the 1980s.
CONTACT: Ottawa Police or the RCMP


The crime was juiced with hatred — pure
and simple.


EVERETT, Wash. -- In a surprise move, Donald Trump will travel to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, just hours before the Republican delivers a highly anticipated speech on immigration.
Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to say he looks "very much forward" to meeting with the Mexican leader. Pena Nieto's office confirmed the meeting with its own tweet, saying the two men would meet privately.
I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2016
The unexpected trip comes as Trump seeks to clarify his stand on illegal immigration, a contentious issue that has been a centerpiece of his Republican presidential campaign. Trump has long called for deporting people currently living in the U.S. illegally and building a wall along the country's border with Mexico.
But in meetings recently with Hispanic supporters, Trump has suggested he could be open to changing the hardline approach he outlined during the GOP primaries. After one such roundtable this month, his new campaign manager said Trump's stance on deportations was "to be determined."
In the days since, Trump and his staff have broadcast varied and conflicting messages, with Trump himself saying one day he might be open to "softening" his stance, and days later saying he might, in fact, be "hardening."
Pena Nieto has been sharply critical of Trump's original immigration policy, particularly the Republican's insistence that Mexico would pay for the border wall. In a March interview, Pena Nieto said that "there is no scenario" under which Mexico would do so.
In the same interview, Pena Nieto compared Trump's language to that of dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, saying it had hurt U.S.-Mexico relations. Former Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon have also alluded to Hitler in describing Trump.
Pena Nieto cast a different tone late Tuesday, writing on Twitter of the visit, "I believe in dialogue to promote Mexico's interests in the world and, principally, to protect Mexicans wherever they are."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a close Trump adviser, has been among those pushing Trump to make the trip to Mexico, according to a person familiar with their conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss them publicly. Christie made his own successful trip to Mexico City in September 2014 and has a warm relationship with the Mexican president.
Last week, Pena Nieto extended invitations to visit Mexico to both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, who met with him in Mexico in 2014. The Washington Post first reported Tuesday that Trump was considering making the trip to Mexico.
The New Yorker didn't mention the trip and didn't spend much time discussing illegal immigration during an evening rally outside Seattle, although he teased his scheduled speech on immigration that's set for Wednesday evening in Phoenix.
"We are also going to secure our border and stop the drugs from pouring in and destroying our country," he said. "And I'll be talking about that tomorrow night in Arizona. Big speech on immigration. We'll be talking about that in Arizona tomorrow night."
Trump's short stop in Mexico would mark his second visit to a foreign country during his campaign. Earlier this summer, Trump travelled to Scotland to attend the re-opening of one of his golf resorts, but notably didn't meet with any U.K. political leaders while there.
The Republican has faced a torrent of criticism from Clinton, a former secretary of state, about his preparedness to lead on the world stage. Several Republican foreign policy experts have also warned that Trump is unprepared for the numerous international issues that land on a president's desk.
Clinton's campaign has urged voters to not "be fooled" by what it calls Trump's attempts to disguise his immigration policies.
"What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions," said Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

Trump to visit Mexico before immigration speech


In a surprise move, Donald Trump will travel to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, just hours before the Republican delivers a highly anticipated speech on immigration.


In their hysterical reaction to the “burkini ban” in France, bleeding-heart liberals in the West demonstrated again how gullible they are and how easy it is for the worldwide Islamist movement to manipulate them.
In carefully staged theatre, the Islamists pulled off a stunt by making Muslim women out to be victims of white, male, armed police.
They tugged at our outrage whenever we see the state trampling on individual liberty, especially if the victim is a female.
Thus a video of a woman being beaten by a gang of Muslim men, somewhere in Europe or North Africa, barely raised an eyebrow, and didn't make it to the front pages of any newspaper or TV network.
However, the sight of a middle-aged Muslim woman napping in full body attire in 35 Celsius heat, with cameramen, being asked to leave the beach, or take off one layer of her burkini wrap, was enough to raise cries of racism, misogyny, bigotry and every possible human rights violation in the UN Charter.
One image, circulated on the micro blogging and social networking website Tumblr, best captured the logic of the left.
It showed two women in almost identical full-body swimsuits, with the title:
“French Muslim in Burkini French Catholic in Wetsuit.”
Below the picture, the caption read:
“Only one will be asked to remove her swimming gear at gunpoint.”
To the defenders of the burkini, the picture illustrated Western racism and double standards.
To me, the picture raised a question:
“If both swimsuits provide head-to-toe cover, why don’t these Muslim women wear the wetsuit? Why do they insist on the burkini?”
After all, the wetsuit would meet all the silly requirements imposed by man-made sharia laws that have forced the Muslim world to be permanently anchored in medieval times.
That is when I had a eureka moment in understanding why the burkini is being pushed upon Muslim women, when for a good 1,400 years, we Muslims had no use for it.
The burkini is supposed to be many things, but above all it is a tool to “slut shame” western women, and Muslim women, who wear traditional beach wear, be it bikinis or a single piece swimsuit.
The objective is to project devout Muslim women as pious and pure females who are the guardians of the family’s honour, and to contrast them to non-Muslim or non-observant Muslim women who are of “loose character”.
As this twisted logic goes, the latter are sexually bound to a culture of immorality, cursed by Allah to, as infidels, burn in hellfire, for exposing their skin to entice men and trigger their sexual arousal.
American Muslim reformist Shirin Qudosi made a scathing attack on the burkini in a Fox News column.
She wrote, the burkini is an extension of the burka, which was “a totem of feminist oppression”.
The burkini, she said, was the result of “an abusive cultural conditioning” of Muslim women.
As for those who believe in the notion of “choice”, well, I’m sorry, but nudists should not have the choice to roam naked on Toronto’s lakefront or Vancouver’s shores; white supremacists should not have the choice to wear KKK bath wear while sun tanning, and neo-Nazis should not have the choice to have swastikas stitched on to their briefs or bikini tops.


In their hysterical reaction to the “burkini ban” in France, bleeding-heart liberals in the West demonstrated again how gullible they are and how easy it is for the worldwide Islamist movement to manipulate them.


A few days ago, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Goodwin, a long-time newspaper columnist in New York, lamented that American journalism as he once knew it was collapsing before his eyes.
In their efforts to derail the presidential ambitions of Donald Trump, Goodwin claimed, Hillary Clinton and her campaigners, in collusion with the Obama White House, are purposefully “working hand-in-hand with what was once considered the cream of the nation’s news organizations.
“This shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America,” said Goodwin, who then accused CBS, NBC and ABC, as well as the New York Times and Washington Post, of having “jettisoned all pretense of fair play.
“Indeed, no foreign enemy, no terror group, no native criminal gang, suffers the daily beating Trump does,” he said.
And then he added this: “The mad mullahs of Iran, who call America the Great Satan and vow to wipe Israel off the map, are treated gently by comparison.”
Sound familiar?
There is no question the perceived media elite of Canada were equally hysterical and committed in their quest to see the back of the Harper government, and particularly Stephen Harper himself, for not genuflecting before them.
And for failing to truly recognize and openly appreciate their contribution to the greater good of the country
I watched it all go down from the cheap seats as a political staffer, and shook my head over the lack of objectivity coming from reporters whose job it was to be objective.
Opinion, once the purview of columnists and commentators, had leaked into general news reporting.
The demarcation line between news and opinion had not only become blurred, it had been erased.
Still giddy with bringing down what they viewed as the despicable Harper government, today’s national press gallery, as well as their agents far and wide, continue their love-in with Justin Trudeau well past the shelf life of most political honeymoons.
Oh, there have been subtle rumblings.
Certain things are beginning to grate, like Trudeau inserting himself into The Tragically Hip’s final concert in their hometown of Kingston as if it were all about him, and not the terminal brain cancer of the Hip’s poetic lead singer, Gord Downie.
Trudeau was an unnecessary distraction, even if the PMO claims he was invited, and he should have known better.
He should have said thanks but no thanks, and let the focus be where it belonged — on Downie himself
Instead, there was a photograph of the two of them hugging, although Downie’s face was totally obscured.
In the meantime, there has been no real governance coming out of the Trudeau government.
The country has been shedding jobs like snake skins, the $10 billion deficit promised during the election to spur the economy has now been projected to hit $150 billion by the end of Trudeau’s first term because of his endless spending.
Trudeau is now off to China, of course, and will be talking trade with the commies.
No one calls it Red China anymore, but it is what it is, and still rife with human rights abuses.
Thankfully Trudeau will have that steely-eyed Stephane Dion at his side as foreign affairs minister, which will no doubt have the Chinese politburo quaking in its boots.
It is to laugh, yet cry.
What New York columnist Michael Goodwin writes about the collapse of American journalism is happening here among the progressive news outlets, and more so within the CBC now that Trudeau has jacked up its funding.
Instead of focusing on what Trudeau is or isn’t doing to right Canada’s failing economy and oppressive taxation, we get headlines from the largest daily newspaper in Canada reading, “Shirtless Trudeau leaves international media breathless.”
They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and bought the swampland. All in one foul swoop.
markbonokoski@gmail.com

Media drinking the Kool-Aid and buying the swampland


A few days ago, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Goodwin, a long-time newspaper columnist in New York, lamented that American journalism as he once knew it was collapsing before his eyes.


Stan Lee seems as invincible as the Marvel superheroes he’s been instrumental in creating.
But at 93 years old, an age when most folks have been retired for decades (if they’re lucky enough to still be kicking around at all), the man who helped give birth to Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Avengers is letting himself slow down a bit.
So brace yourselves, true believers: this year’s Fan Expo Canada, running Sept. 1 to 4 in Toronto, will likely be Stan Lee’s last Canadian convention appearance.
“I’m really trying to take it easier,” a chipper Lee told Postmedia Network in an interview this week. “I want to go to Toronto, and then after that I have one in New York. And I do think those will be the last, except for some that are closer to home.”
But just as thousands of Canadian fans will be seeking autographs and photos with Lee during his appearance at Fan Expo Canada, Lee is hoping for a particular signature to add to his own collection: that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau will appear on a variant cover of Civil War II: Choosing Sides #5, in stores next week, which shows the grinning, tank top-clad PM sitting in the corner of a boxing ring, surrounded by members of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
“I would love to meet the prime minister and get my copy personally signed,” said Lee, who himself will be featured on a Fan Expo-exclusive variant cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #17 – with the CN Tower in the background, no less – on sale at the convention.
“That would be one of the highlights of my trip,” Lee said. (Memo to the Prime Minister’s office: make it happen, eh? Excelsior!)
Along with artist and Marvel luminary Jack Kirby, Lee’s superhero journey began when he co-created the Fantastic Four in 1961, a response to rival DC Comics’ popular Justice League series. The quartet of heroes were different from anything comic books had seen before: they were flawed, they were frightened, they fought amongst themselves. Despite the incredible powers bestowed on them by a blast of cosmic radiation, they were remarkably human.
That humanity came to define the Marvel credo, and has carried all the way through to the blockbuster Marvel Studios films of the last decade and a half, including this year’s Captain America: Civil War. Next up is November’s Doctor Strange, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme, followed next year by new standalone instalments in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor franchises. Black Panther – a hero who Lee said has been “too long” in making his big screen solo debut – arrives in July of 2018.
But after the next two Avengers films in 2018 and 2019, currently entering production under the guidance of Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo, what then? What becomes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when this epic movie saga reaches a natural endpoint with the fourth Avengers film?
“I can’t tell you where it will go after that, because I won’t be making that decision,” said Lee, who currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of Marvel but isn’t directly involved in the company’s creative processes.
“But I can certainly tell you that it will have places to go. Because as long as human beings have imaginations, they’ll never run out of story ideas for these characters.”
And while Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. might choose to hang up his crimson and gold armour after the next Avengers movies run their course, Lee really hopes both Downey and Captain America actor Chris Evans keep playing the parts until, well, the end of time.
“I think those two men were born to play their roles. As long as they will continue to play them, I think we’ll be very lucky,” Lee said. “In fact all the people – (Chris Hemsworth’s) Thor, every one of them – they are so perfectly cast and I hope we stay with them forever.”
There’s been some controversy over the years as to how many of these iconic superheroes Lee actually created. Kirby, who died in 1994, claimed that the many of the heroes’ stories came from his own imagination. Lee has respectfully refuted Kirby’s assertions.
Ever the unflappable optimist, Lee isn’t one to court controversy or take swipes at his competition. When asked how DC Comics and Warner Bros. might get their movie properties back on track after the critical beatings laid on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, he was characteristically diplomatic.
“Just look at the Marvel films,” Lee said with a chuckle. “That’s the best advice I could give them.”
He also refuses to pick a favourite among his cinematic superhero children, saying he’s excited for all of the upcoming films. “I can’t wait to see Black Panther, I can’t wait to see Doctor Strange, I can’t wait to see the new Spider-Man – I could name every one of them.”
But as for comic books, the medium he helped define, it’s ironic – and maybe a little tragic – that Lee can no longer enjoy them.
“I don’t read as much as I did, because my eyesight isn’t as good as it was,” Lee said. “So mostly I just talk to people about the books and about the movies, see what they think, try to find out as much as I can, and try to stay ‘au courant’ as much as possible. Unfortunately, I don’t see or even hear as well I did, so it makes it a little tough for me.”
But even though he might not be doing the convention circuit as rigorously as he has in the past, he’s not quitting yet. No sir.
“I love what I do. In fact, I don’t consider it work, I consider it play,” Lee said.
“When you’re involved in stories and you’re working with artists and writers and actors and directors, and your whole objective is to entertain the public – that isn’t working. That’s the greatest play there could be.”
LEE SAYS THREE UPCOMING CAMEOS WILL BE MEMORABLE
If you were to tally the box office earnings for the movies that Marvel maestro Stan Lee has appeared in, the results would be in the billions of dollars. Literally, billions.
By our reckoning, Lee has made a staggering 27 cameo appearances in Marvel superhero movies and TV shows, from 2000’s X-Men (as a startled hot dog vendor) to this year’s Captain America: Civil War (as a FedEx driver dropping a package off for “Tony Stank.”)
“To me, every cameo is memorable, because each cameo is the most important part of every movie, we all know that,” a jovial Lee joked in an interview this week, ahead of his appearance next month at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto.
One fascinating fan theory suggests that Stan Lee’s cameo characters are different human forms assumed by Uatu, also known as the Watcher – an all-seeing, all-knowing, otherworldly being keeping tabs on the mighty Marvel heroes.
“Oh, dammit, the secret’s out,” said Lee with a guffaw. (Sadly, we’re quite certain he’s joking. Although if Stan Lee were the Watcher, it would mean every one of the Marvel movies exist in the same shared universe. Now that’s an exciting notion.)
Lee won’t pin down his favourite cameo – he’s been a strip club emcee in Deadpool, a retired general in Captain America: The First Avenger, a suave womanizer in Iron Man and even Willie Lumpkin, the Fantastic Four’s ear-wiggling mailman.
Earlier this year, Lee visited the Pinewood Atlanta Studios set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to film his cameo for that movie, which hits theatres next April. But being the master of efficiency that he is – and, let’s face it, the fact that he’s 93 years old – Lee actually filmed three Marvel movie cameos in a row.
“The day that I did Guardians, I did two others – (this November’s) Doctor Strange and (next year’s) Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Lee said.
Who does he play? He won’t say. But he promises they’ll be memorable moments.
“These three that I did are very special,” Lee said. “When you go to the movies, you’ll see why I say that.”
For further info on Fan Expo, visit fanexpocanada.com.
STilley@postmedia.com
@stevetilley

Stan Lee: Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans should never quit Marvel


Stan Lee seems as invincible as the Marvel superheroes he’s been instrumental in creating.


It was the hottest summer on record. And yet, the venues with the most reliable air conditioning – movie theatres – went largely unfilled.
How bad was it? You’d think the studios were serving hot soup instead of would-be blockbusters. Analysts are predicting the final box office tally will be at least 20% lower than last year’s summer movie season.
Supposed “sure things” like Ice Age and X-Men, Steven Spielberg and a long, long-awaited sequel to Independence Day were greeted by the movie-going public with a relative yawn.
There was no upside to controversy, as the rebooted, all-female Ghostbusters took what’s expected to be a $70 million loss (and saw its sequel plans put on hold) – possibly the biggest disconnect between pre-release awareness and post-release box office since Snakes on a Plane.
Critical acclaim/disdain seemed to be irrelevant, as recommended movies did well and flopped in equal measure.
So here’s a list of the hits, misses and underperformers. Might as well start with the big list first – bombs away!
BOMBS
- THE BFG: Spielberg is the man who INVENTED the summer blockbuster with Jaws. He returned to ET territory with a Roald Dahl-based family-film about a boy and his giant. Advance word is thumbs-up. The $140 million movie has a meager $20 mil opening.
- BEN HUR: Gosh, it worked with Charlton Heston back in the ‘50s, what could go wrong? How about everything? The sword-and-sandals saga with the fast-and-furious chariot races was in and out of theatres practically unnoticed.
- ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: It took in about a fifth of the original’s box office. Who knows? Maybe the $7 mil divorce Amber Heard got from Johnny Depp IS half of everything he owns at this point.
- ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE: Well, the fifth time’s a… um, what’s the opposite of “charm?” For once critics and audiences agreed. 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, $25 mil opening.
- THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR: A Snow White sequel without Snow White, or more importantly without Kristen Stewart. Apparently, she was the reason everyone went to Twilight movies all along.
- TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Cowabungle! Made about half what the previous reboot did.
-WARCRAFT: Everybody’s played the game. But do you know anybody who’s seen the movie? If so, are they Chinese? Because almost two-thirds of the movie’s (believe it or not) break-even $430 mil worldwide box office came from there. The video-game movie curse continues.
- GHOSTBUSTERS: A pretty funny movie with a lot of baggage. Not sure who won the arguments, but it may be that people were just tired of the whole thing by the time it opened.
- NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING: Actually got some good reviews, but turned into another case of a sequel getting only half the audience of its predecessor. Chloe Grace Moretz may not be ready for her close-up, or Seth Rogen is on a down-swing.
- THE NICE GUYS: Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as buddy comedy guys may sound counterintuitive, but 90% on Rotten Tomatoes says the chemistry worked. And then an $11 mil opening says, “Who cares what you guys think?”
- PETE’S DRAGON: Disney promoted the heck out of this boy-and-his-monster tale (inspired, inexplicably, on a not-really-beloved ‘70s Disney flick), starring grown-ups Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard. Took in about the same money as Spielberg’s BFG, though it cost less than half as much. Still a lot of red ink there.
- NINE LIVES: Kevin Spacey’s mind is in the body of a cat. How could that not work? The combination of Spacey, Jennifer Garner and Christopher Walken was good for a $6 mil opening. You could raise more auctioning off dinner with them.
“UNDERPERFORMERS” – In olden days, this would just be a euphemism for “Bomb.” But today, a movie like Independence Day: Resurgence can attract crickets in North America, but make enough money overseas for everybody to get paid.
In the case of the Star Trek and X-Men films, enough came in to justify further sequel plans, even if nobody was popping champagne corks.
-X-MEN APOCALYPSE: Apparently, at the Xavier Academy, attention is paid to what critics say. The previous film, Days of Future Past got great advance reviews and made about a third more in its first 10 days than the badly-reviewed Apocalypse. The feeling there is that the franchise needs a shakeup.
-STAR TREK BEYOND: Well received by Trekkers and critics (a Venn diagram that admittedly overlaps), the first Star Trek reboot not directed by J.J. Abrams had a $60 mil opening weekend, which Forbes pronounced, “just okay.”
-INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE: Proof that there is no movie so bad that it can’t be saved by the apparently less-discriminating overseas market.
HITS
- CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR: It may be impossible to totally fail with a superhero movie these days. But Civil War already had buzz as being nothing less than a new Avengers movie. Awash in iconic heroes and smartly executed, it made more than $1.1 billion worldwide in an as-noted dismal summer.
- SUICIDE SQUAD: The most truly critic-proof film since the last Transformers, the made-in-Toronto anti-hero saga with Will Smith, Jared Leto and Margot Robbie has taken the slings-and-arrows to the bank. Suicide Squad’s box office is already double its budget and it’s been #1 for three weeks. Like the similarly-reviled-but-profitable Batman v Superman, there’s been a sizable drop-off week-to-week.
- CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE: Not a sequel and not based on anything except the popularity of Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson and Kevin Hart. Result: $200 mil. Whatever buddy-comedy chemistry they’ve got, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling would like to know what it is.
- THE JUNGLE BOOK: Sure, you expected Captain America: Civil War to gross $1 billion. But a reboot of The Jungle Book using motion capture CGI a la the bear in The Revenant? Grossing just under a bil, Jon Favreau’s labour of love for Disney was THE family movie this summer. Okay, there was another.
- FINDING DORY: Proof that the public’s love for Ellen DeGeneres is bottomless, and that her ditzy, forgetful blue tang fish character is adorable beyond measure (okay, we measure it at about $900 mil).
- BAD MOMS: Forget the Ghostbusters brouhaha. There WAS a hilarious all-female sleeper hit in the theatres this summer, and it starred Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn. That’s $100 mil worth of “underrated” and counting.
- THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE: Not quite as big in China as Warcraft, it did four times the business in North America, lofting it past the marks set by Prince of Egypt and other terrific movies-based-on-video games.
Other “Profitable Performers”: Lights Out, Conjuring 2, Jason Bourne, The Legend Of Tarzan, The Purge 3: Anarchy.
Twitter: @jimslotek
JSlotek@postmedia.com

2016 summer movies: From The Rock to Spielberg, all the winners and losers


It was the hottest summer on record. And yet, the venues with the most reliable air conditioning – movie theatres – went largely unfilled.


Visitors cross the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A boy lies down to see the view through the glass on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A visitor poses for a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A visitor takes a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A visitor lies down to take a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A visitor pulls his son from the ground as others pose for photographs on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
Visitors cross the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
A visitor jumps for a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
Visitors cross the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOURFRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images

World's highest and longest glass bridge opens in China


The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opens above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province.


SALT LAKE CITY -- A mother was enjoying a family boat trip across Lake Powell when she heard a scream and splash. Her 2-year-old son had slipped off their houseboat and into the water.
Chelsey Russell, a 35-year-old mother of two from Lakewood, Colorado, jumped in to rescue her son. She managed to keep the toddler above water for five agonizing minutes until a relative pulled him safely back onto the boat.
But by that point, Russell was unconscious. She was pulled from the water and rushed to shore at the nearby marina, where bystanders and officials performed CPR Tuesday afternoon.
After about 30 minutes, they determined they couldn't save the woman who just rescued her son.
Officials with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which encompasses the 186-mile-long lake along the Utah-Arizona border, said the boy was in stable condition and flown to a hospital about 200 miles away in Flagstaff, Arizona, as a precaution.
The houseboat had been travelling about 8 mph toward shore when the boy, playing with another child, somehow fell off, San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said Friday.
After Russell jumped in, her brother stopped the boat and hopped in after his sister, leaving Russell's mother and at least one other child aboard.
The boat had kept moving after Russell went in and the man realized he was too far away from her and the child, Eldredge said. So he returned to the vessel to retrieve a motorboat they had been towing. The knots tethering it were so tight that he had to cut them with a knife.
Russell was in the water for at least five minutes before her brother could reach them and take the conscious toddler from her chest. Throughout that time, she kept her son above water, her family told authorities.
"She was holding the baby out of the water the best that she could," Eldredge said.
The sheriff said neither Russell nor her son wore life jackets. They are required for boaters under 12, according to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The sheriff's office was waiting for the Utah medical examiner to determine Russell's cause of death, but Eldredge said it was suspected to be drowning. He did not know when the medical examiner would make a ruling.
"There are no words to convey the tragedy of losing a loved one like this," Teri Tucker, acting superintendent for the recreation area, said in a statement. "Our hearts are with the family and friends of the victims during this time of unexpected pain and loss."
It's the sixth death at the recreation area this year.
Russell's co-workers at a Denver law firm remembered her as a "superstar" attorney, mother and marathon runner who competed in a 100-mile race last year.
"She was a talented lawyer, loved by everyone in this firm," attorney Keith Tooley said Friday. "She was just a rock star here. Her passing has just crushed us all."

Mom who died saving son kept him above water until rescue


As a Colorado mother enjoyed a family boat trip across Lake Powell's summer waters, she heard a scream and splash as her 2-year-old son slipped off their houseboat and into the water.


Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Russell RCMP are searching for two suspects, one of whom dressed in full hockey goalie gear, in connection with a beer store robbery in the Manitoba town on Aug. 15, 2016. (SCREENGRAB OF RCMP VIDEO)
Mounties have released surveillance video of the most Canadian of thefts.
As reported in Thursday’s Winnipeg Sun, the theft occurred Aug. 15 in Russell, Man., when two men broke into and robbed a beer store. The surveillance video shows a man wearing mitts or gloves, a large coat, and ball cap running across a parking lot and shattering the store’s door, then crawling inside and stealing a couple cases of beer before bolting.
Here’s the uber-Canadian part of the story: the second suspect, trailing behind his cohort, was dressed in goaltender gear, complete with a goalie stick.
“However, he may have been a defenceman or forward in disguise as he was wearing jersey #17 — a non-traditional number for goalies,” RCMP said in a release, clearly enjoying the comedic outfit used by the suspect. “He is described as having a medium build, wearing a blocker, trapper, and carrying a goalie stick.”
RCMP ask that with anyone with information about the theft or who has played a goalie matching this description to call them.


Mounties have released surveillance
video of the most Canadian of thefts.


Video grab composite of the Airlander 10 making a bumpy landing at Cardington airfield in England during its second test flight Wednesday Aug. 24, 2016. Hybrid Air Vehicles says it is trying to figure out what caused the rough landing of the 302-foot (92-meter) Airlander 10 during its flight Wednesday in Bedfordshire, north of London. (Lee Cordell/PA via AP) AP
The Airlander 10, is examined as it sits on the ground after a rough landing at Cardington airfield England following its second test flight on Wednesday Aug. 24, 2016. The developer of the world's largest aircraft says the blimp-shaped airship "sustained damage" after it made a bumpy landing on its second test flight . Hybrid Air Vehicles says it is trying to figure out what caused the rough landing of the 302-foot (92-meter) Airlander 10 during its flight Wednesday in Bedfordshire, north of London. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP) AP
The Airlander 10, is examined as it sits on the ground after a rough landing at Cardington airfield England following its second test flight on Wednesday Aug. 24, 2016. The developer of the world's largest aircraft says the blimp-shaped airship "sustained damage" after it made a bumpy landing on its second test flight . Hybrid Air Vehicles says it is trying to figure out what caused the rough landing of the 302-foot (92-meter) Airlander 10 during its flight Wednesday in Bedfordshire, north of London. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP) AP
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen in the air over a road on its maiden flight from Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen landing after its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen with hangars in the background on its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen in the air on its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
FILE - This is a Aug. 17, 2016 file photo of the Airlander 10, during its maiden flight at Cardington airfield England , The Airlander 10 crashed during its second test flight in Wednesday Aug. 24, 2016, but manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles said no-one was injured. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP) AP
TOPSHOT - The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen in the air over a road on its maiden flight from Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen preparing to land at the end of its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen with hangars in the background on its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship is seen in the air on its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London, on August 17, 2016. The Hybrid Air Vehicles 92-metre long, 43.5-metre wide Airlander 10, billed as the world's longest aircraft, lifted off for the first time from an airfield north of London. The Airlander 10 has a large helium-filled fabric hull and is propelled by four turbocharged diesel engines. According to the company it can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for over 2 weeks unmanned with a cruising speed of just under 150 km per hour and a payload capacity of up to 10,000 kg. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
(FILES) This file photo taken on August 17, 2016 shows the Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship in the air over a road on its maiden flight from Cardington Airfield near Bedford, north of London. The world's largest aircraft suffered cockpit damage on Wednesday after nosediving while landing on its second test-flight, but there were no injuries, according to the craft's manufacturer. / AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images

World's largest aircraft makes crash landing during test flight


The developer of the world's largest aircraft says the blimp-shaped airship


A deranged al Qaida terrorist in Syria called the mother of an enemy soldier he just beheaded to boast of his evil deed.
"I severed your son's head, you traitorous bitch," the man told the woman after picking the victim's cellphone out of his pocket, according to the Daily Mail.
According to the transcript obtained by the newspaper, the al Qaida thug introduced himself as a fellow soldier who had found the phone and was trying to locate its owner.
The mother had told him the last she'd heard about the location of her son was that he was on the front lines of Allepo -- a city that continues to be under siege in Syria's bloody civil war.
That's when the terrorist re-introduced himself as Saqr Rahman Al-Ansari of Jabhat Al-Nusra -- an affiliate al Qaida group fighting in Syria. And he bragged he just cut her son's head off.
"I beheaded your son today and this is his mobile, and I wanted to call and let you know, and we're coming to get you, God willing, you dogs of Aleppo. You who betrayed the Syrian people," he said, according to the transcript.

'I severed your son's head': Terrorist calls mother of soldier he just beheaded


A deranged al Qaida terrorist in Syria called the mother of an enemy soldier he just beheaded to boast of his evil deed.


Next year’s federal budget is months away but budget consultations will soon start in earnest.
The deadline for pre-budget submissions to the parliamentary finance committee is the end of this month.
Stakeholders, consultants, and special interest organizations are scrambling to make the case for why their industry, region, or client deserves federal dollars.
Expectations are high. And for good reason.
With the government seemingly over “this whole balanced budget thing” as the finance minister recently put it, these groups are reasonably expecting their own piece of the deficit-financed largesse.
But taxpayers should be concerned. Special interest budgeting is a recipe for more rent seeking, ongoing deficits, and rising debt.
It was roughly one year ago that then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised “a modest short-term deficit” of $10 billion per year to “kick-start” economic growth. Voters were assured these temporary deficits were to be rooted in fiscal anchors that would protect against ongoing red ink.
And then things changed. Modest deficits soon became nearly $30 billion per year. Short term changed to the entire fiscal planning period.
And its predecessor’s balanced budget legislation was repealed.
Soon the fiscal anchors were washed away and all that was left was the government’s commitment to increase spending.
Program spending is now poised to grow by 15% between 2014-15 and 2016-17 and that doesn’t even account for any new spending to inevitably come in the 2017 budget.
Cue the special interests. It’s no surprise that lobbying activity is up in Ottawa.
More government rents invariably attract more rent seekers.
Economist Milton Friedman famously said that “nothing is as permanent as a temporary government program.”
What he meant was that new spending creates powerful constituencies with strong interests in maintaining and growing government programs that benefit them and their members.
It thus becomes politically challenging for governments to hold the line. Temporary becomes permanent.
And the consequence is more spending and more deficits.
Timelines for balancing the budget are continuously pushed off and taxpayers are saddled with rising government debt and eventually higher taxes to pay for it all.
It’s a story that Canadians know all too well from the spendthrift experiences of the 1970s and 1980s.
The solution is to ensure taxpayers are represented in the budget process rather than “selected groups and individuals” as the finance committee’s call for pre-budget submissions stipulates.
Taxpayers must be protected from the profligate mix of rising government spending and special interest appetites.
One solution is to restore balanced budget legislation that puts statutory limitations on government spending.
Of course such legislation isn’t a silver bullet.
Political will ultimately matters.
But a clear and simple balanced budget law can buttress political will by managing expectations not only for external demands on government spending but also among the departments and agencies clamouring for their share of the pie.
It would make abundantly clear the baseline assumption is government won’t spend beyond its means simply because it can.
As pre-budget consultations commence in Ottawa, Canadians will be watching to see if anyone is protecting their interests in the face of voracious special interest demands for more government spending.
The safest plan is for fiscal rules that preclude deficits for the sake of deficits. That’s the only way for taxpayers to have confidence that their interests come first.
-- Speer is a Munk senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Trudeau budget good for everyone but taxpayers


Next year’s federal budget is months away but budget consultations will soon start in earnest.


Ottawa jihadi Ashton Larmond was so bent on joining the Islamic State that days after authorities revoked his passport he started making secret plans to leave Canada undetected, crossing first into Alaska, then travelling to Russia by boat, and ultimately to Afghanistan.
Larmond had originally booked a flight for Istanbul to later join ISIL in Syria but authorities invalidated his passport three days before his scheduled Sept. 20, 2013 departure.
Increasingly frustrated about his travel ban, Larmond confided to an undercover RCMP agent that he was making plans to “escape Canada completely off the radar,” according to court filings from Larmond’s surprise guilty plea on Friday. He’s now serving 17 years in prison for counselling a person to carry out a terrorist activity.
In secretly-recorded conversations with the undercover agent, Larmond said he wasn’t afraid of going to prison, and noted that by the time he got out, he’d be a “very bad, well-versed person.”
In a search of his apartment on the day of his arrest — Jan. 9, 2015 — the RCMP found a book of handwritten notes, including co-ordinates for a location near a Russian Arctic port town off the Siberian sea.
Larmond started selling all his belongings and began assembling a survival kit for his jihad journey. At the time of his arrest, he had gathered the following gear: a red waterproof bag, a Zippo lighter, a magnifying glass, a master lock, a Canada Goose patch, “Middle Eastern clothing” with scarves and blanket, all stuffed in a green backpack. He had also purchased a black winter coat and was making inquiries about buying a winter tent, bag liners, camouflage gear, a backpacking frame and a snowmobile.
The Mounties found a list of the items he still needed, including orientation supplies, medical grade stitches, water filtration, orientation equipment, a fishing rod, bear bow (20 arrows), an AR-15 rifle (1,000 rounds), a buck knife, snare trap kit, throwing axe, combat shovel, hacksaw, clothes and camping gear.
The Mounties intensified their sights on Larmond after they intercepted online messages between him and fellow Ottawa convert John Maguire, a one-time hockey-playing punk rocker who radicalized before leaving Canada on Dec. 6, 2012 to join ISIL in Syria. Maguire, believed to have been killed in Syria, appeared in a highly-publicized ISIL recruitment video released on Dec. 7, 2014. In the video, Maguire declared a religious war on Canada and urged other Muslims to either go fight for ISIL overseas or launch attacks on Canadian soil.
In the Facebook and Skype conversations, Larmond said he longed to join his friend and the fight in Syria but visas and permits were a hassle and the RCMP and CSIS were shaking him down.
“I didn’t worry about any of that, just hopped on a plane. This country is very unstable so there was (no) need to worry about a visa or working permit,” Maguire messaged in August 2013.
Larmond and Maguire are said to have met at a lecture in 2012 and built a friendship based on their extremist views of Islam, with a shared desire to wage terrorism abroad.
Months later in November 2013, Larmond texted Maguire saying he was finding it hard to cope in Canada
“I love Canada, but don’t want to live here. I need to get my passport back.” (It had been revoked after he purchased a ticket to Turkey, the same route Maguire used.)
“I’m struggling here,” Larmond said.
“Like I think the government here thinks I’m a criminal/terrorist or something just cause we talk and we friends. Its messed up. Just because I support those who fight against those who kill innocent people,” (sic) said Larmond.
Larmond, a one-time Vanier drug dealer, helped radicalize his less-dominant twin brother Carlos, who pleaded guilty on Friday to trying to leave Canada to commit terrorism abroad. He was arrested at a Montreal airport on Jan. 9, 2015 after checking in for a flight bound for Frankfurt en-route eventually to Syria.
Carlos Honor Larmond, 25, is now serving seven years in prison, along with accomplice Suliman Mohamed, 23, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit terrorism.
The sentencing judge said homegrown terrorism is a virulent form of cancer and that the terror trio’s plans were a betrayal of the teachings of Islam.
The RCMP informant who infiltrated the Ottawa terror cluster was paid at least $800,000, including $250,000 in advance to testify at preliminary hearings that never happened.
The informant, a Muslim convert originally from New Brunswick, went from working at an Ottawa paintball shop to wearing a wire against jihadis — including the Larmond twins, their friend Suliman Mohamed and suspected ISIL fighter Khadar Khalib.

Ashton Larmond's secret plan to join ISIL


Ottawa jihadi Ashton Larmond was so bent on joining the Islamic State that days after authorities revoked his passport he started making secret plans to leave Canada undetected, crossing first into Alaska, then travelling to Russia by boat, and ultimately to Afghanistan.


AMATRICE, Italy -- Strong aftershocks damaged two key access roads into quake-struck Amatrice on Friday, threatening to isolate the tiny hilltop town as hopes dimmed that firefighters would find any more survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 267 people.
Some crumbled buildings in Amatrice cracked even further after the biggest aftershock of Friday morning struck at 6:28 a.m. The U.S. Geological Service said it had a magnitude of 4.7, while the Italian geophysics institute measured it at 4.8.
The shaking ground also damaged one key access bridge to Amatrice, forcing emergency crews to close it. Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said he was working with authorities to find an alternative bypass also to another damaged bridge. "We hope to God it works because otherwise with the damaged stretch of road, we are without any connection" to the main roads.
Even before the roads were shut down, traffic into and out of Amatrice was horribly congested with emergency vehicles bringing hundreds of rescue crews up to Amatrice and dump trucks carrying tons of concrete, rocks and metal down the single-lane roads.
The aftershock was preceded by more than 50 overnight and was followed by another nine in the next hour -- part of the nearly 1,000 aftershocks that have rocked Italy's central Apennine Mountains since the original 6.2 magnitude quake early Wednesday.
Premier Matteo Renzi has declared a state of emergency and authorized 50 million euros for immediate quake relief.
The Italian government also declared Saturday a day of national mourning and scheduled a state funeral to be attended by President Sergio Mattarella.
Rescue efforts continued through the night and into Friday, but more than a day and a half had passed since the last person was extracted alive from the rubble. While Renzi hailed the fact that 215 people had been rescued after the quake, authorities reported a steadily rising death toll that had hit 267 by Friday morning.
Civil protection operations chief Immacolata Postiglione still insisted Friday that the rescue effort hadn't yet switched to a recovery mission. Rescue workers have noted that a person was pulled out alive 72 hours (three days) after the 2009 earthquake in the Italian town of L'Aquila.
"I confirm, once again as we have from the start, that the units that are doing the searches and rescues, including with dogs looking for other people trapped in the rubble, are absolutely fully active," she said Friday.
On the ground, authorities were still struggling to account for all the missing, since that number is still uncertain given the large number of visitors for summer holidays and an annual food festival.
"There is still hope to find survivors under the rubble, even in these hours," Walter Milan, a mountain rescue worker, said Friday. But he conceded: "Certainly, it will be very unlikely."
The vast majority of the dead were found in levelled Amatrice, the medieval hilltop town famous for its bacon and tomato pasta sauce.
The other dead hailed from nearby Accumoli and Arcquarta del Tronto.
Flags will fly at half-staff Saturday on all public offices and a state funeral will be celebrated by a bishop in a gym in Ascoli Piceno for the victims of nearby Arquata del Tronto -- to date, 49 of the dead have come from the tiny town and its hamlet Pescara del Tronto.
The first private funerals were scheduled for Friday, including one in Pomezia south of Rome celebrated by one of Pope Francis' closest collaborators, Bishop Marcello Semeraro.
Across the area, thousands have been forced to abandon their homes, either because they were destroyed or they were determined to be too unsafe. Overnight some 2,100 slept in tent camps, nearly 1,000 more than the first night after Wednesday's quake, in a sign that a significant number had found nowhere else to go.
"I have no idea what I'm going to do now, because I had renovated the house two years ago," survivor Umberto Palaferri said, showing a photo of his collapsed home on his phone. "It was all new and now I don't know what to do. I'm 76 and don't know if I can rebuild it."

Access to Italy town limited after earthquake damages roads


Strong aftershocks damaged two key access roads into quake-struck Amatrice on Friday, threatening to isolate the tiny hilltop town as hopes dimmed that firefighters would find any more survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 267 people.


Kylie Jenner’s bigger bust is down to hormones, not surgery.
The 19-year-old Keeping Up with the Kardashians star has set the record straight after photos emerged showing her with a seemingly inflated chest. Wearing a skimpy white top with high waisted jeans, Kylie’s ample cleavage spills over the top of her shirt in the Instagram shots, with many people speculating she’d gone under the knife. However, Kylie put an end to rumours on Friday as she answered fans’ boob-related questions.
“Um never,” she told a fan on Twitter who asked if she had surgery on her cleavage, adding to another: “TMI (too much information) but it's that time of the month lol (laugh out loud).”
She also got flirty with one fan, inviting @kyliejenlove to feel her chest to validate it's all real, before admitting her breasts are likely to return to their normal size after she’d finished her period.
“They will deflate soon. And it will be a sad sad day,” she joked.
Do u want to feel them to validate https://t.co/hf10kqit0x — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) August 26, 2016
And fans who want to emulate her look are out of luck, as Kylie revealed her favourite Victoria’s Secret bra is no longer available.
Bomb shell or this one BOMB bra from Victoria secret that I've had for 4/5 years that they don't make anymore https://t.co/rLh0nsCYk6 — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) August 26, 2016
He chest wasn’t the only thing on Kylie's mind though; the TV star also shared her excitement over her new lip kits.
"Okay enough boob talk lmao (laugh my a** off)," she posted. "Can't wait for my new lip kits tomorrow !!!!!!!”
As well as her famous family, Kylie has also become known for her huge pout, which she initially put down to clever make-up before finally admitting she had them surgically enhanced. Making the most out of her fuller lips, Kylie launched her first lip kit in 2015, which was an instant hit.
Okay enough boob talk lmao. — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) August 26, 2016
Can't wait for my new lip kits tomorrow !!!!!!! — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) August 26, 2016

Kylie Jenner denies breast implants, invites fan to 'feel them to validate'


Kylie Jenner’s bigger bust is down to hormones, not surgery.