investigation: Newlyweds last seen setting out to explore northern B.C. backcountry

Image via WikipediaBritish honeymooners who set out to explore northern B.C.'s backcountry are now the subject of a police investigation after they failed to return back to Vancouver on July 4.

Ben and Caroline Davies, both experienced outdoors people who wed in England in early June, planned to drive north toward Alaska to do some backcountry camping, then return to extended family in Vancouver.

According to RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, the family last heard from Caroline, 28, and Ben, 37, on June 22 when they called from Smithers and said they planned to rent kayaks and meet up with someone they met in the area. But by July 10 there was no word from the couple -who had a good record of keeping in touch before June 22 -and concerned family members called the RCMP.

Vermeulen said Mounties began their search of the Smithers area Monday to begin piecing together a possible direction of travel. The couple were driving a borrowed 2008 black Mazda B230 pickup truck with a white camper top and B.C. licence plate AL 6943.



Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Police+search+missing+couple/5087648/story.html#ixzz1Rzbx47qz

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Mallick: Some Toronto schoolgirls are always second-rate

Image via WikipediaOntario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky and the Toronto District School Board are hoping the fuss over the maltreatment and humiliation of female students in a Don Mills public school will die down.

That’s not possible. School starts again in September and the Friday Muslim prayer service at Valley Park Middle School that sends girls to the back of the room will start again, too. It’s the contempt for our Canadian daughters that angers me. I, the Canadian child of immigrants from Scotland and India, cannot stomach this.

Again, during class time, a male will lead prayers with the boys at the front of the room. The girls will be behind them, partially hidden behind overturned cafeteria tables. Menstruating girls will be isolated far behind the other girls, a cruel segregation that I dealt with in a column on Monday.

I’ve heard from many readers, most of them aghast that young girls are being sent to the back of the bus. In school. But email response is not a measure, only an indication of what interested readers on a particular day.

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CRTC hears sides on usage-based billing

Image via WikipediaMONTREAL — Independent Internet service providers contribute significantly to network congestion, and the price they pay to large telecom companies should reflect that, BCE Inc. told a regulatory hearing on Monday.

Bell executive Mirko Bibic said wholesale independent service providers make up 17 per cent of users in Ontario and Quebec and drive 29 per cent of total traffic on Bell’s network in those provinces.

"No single user or wholesale customer is the cause of congestion," Bibic told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

"But clearly, wholesale users contribute a disproportionate share of total traffic, and by extension, congestion," said Bibic, senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs at BCE.

The federal regulator is reviewing how BCE’s Bell Canada and others charge independent Internet providers for the use of their networks.

CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told the hearing the commission is only looking at wholesale prices independent Internet providers pay for network use and not retail rates that are charged to their consumers.

"We believe that retail rates (i.e. the prices charged by ISPs to consumers) are best set by the market," he said via webcast. "The issue has not and will not be part of the commission’s considerations."

Animator and cinematographer Grayden Laing said usage-based billing will result in Canadians watching fewer online videos of all types and returning to more standard TV viewing.

"If these prices go up, people are going to be less likely to watch original content and they will return to the things that they know."

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