Police say officers were called to a yard at a residence on Walter Amos Drive in North Preston around 8:15 p.m., where a man allegedly threatened to kill another man with a knife.

They say the 61-year-old man ran back into a nearby residence, but then came back outside and threw an empty bucket and spit at the officers.

No one was injured in the incident.

The man is facing charges including assault with a weapon, uttering threats and assaulting a police officer.

Born: March 30, 1977

Age: 36

Education: Honours degree in political science from the University of Western Ontario, studied political science at the University of Calgary.

Private career: Worked as a researcher for the right-leaning National Citizens Coalition when it was led by Harper.

Political career: Active in student politics at the University of Western Ontario. Interned in former Reform leader Preston Manning’s office and later for then-Reform MP Rob Anders. Finalist in Magna’s “If I Were Prime Minister” essay contest in 2000. Became Harper’s executive assistant when he returned to federal politics in 2001 to lead the Canadian Alliance party. Named principal secretary in 2008. The longest-serving member of Harper’s inner circle.

Personal: Known as a monarchist. Once lived in a one-bedroom apartment over the garage at Stornoway when Harper was Opposition leader.

For the record: “Ray is really good, and trusted. He’s quiet and handles lots of tough issues. And yes, he stays out of the limelight.” — Jason Lietaer, former head of the Conservative Resource Group

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version wrongly said Novak’s birthday was May 30, 1977 and that he had completed a master’s degree in political science.

Author Margaret Atwood, Green Party leader Elizabeth May and actor Gordon Pinsent are among those behind an online petition to rename the public holiday, which is celebrated on Monday, as “Victoria and First Peoples Day.”

Peter Keleghan, an actor and spokesman for the group, says the new name would give Canadians a chance to honour both the Crown and the indigenous peoples of Canada.

“I know there is a great deal of monarchists in this country but I think also that there is also an awful lot of talk about how First Nations people, Inuit people, indigenous people in this country are being treated,” he said Sunday.

Victoria Day marks the birthday of Queen Victoria and is celebrated every year on the last Monday before May 25. Quebec celebrates National Patriots’ Day on the same day, to honour the rebellion against the British in 1837.

There is already a day to honour Canada’s indigenous peoples, but Keleghan pointed out it’s not recognized as a federal public holiday.

National Aboriginal Day is celebrated every year on June 21.

Keleghan said the group is trying to spread the word about the proposed name change on social media. He’s hopeful the message will gain traction in the days to come.

The petition, which is posted on the group’s website, victoriaandfirstpeoplesday.ca, calls on Harper to recognize the country’s history.

“For centuries, Canadians, the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Metis have had a close affinity with the British Monarchy,” the petition says.

“The newly named holiday would be an opportunity to commemorate that venerable relationship, to celebrate unique Indigenous cultures, to revisit our shared history, and to provide an opportunity for all Canadians to participate in the diverse and extraordinary heritage of our country.”

Singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark, one-time NDP leadership candidate Brian Topp and Thomas King, an author who often writes on First Nations issues, have also signed the petition.

___

June 13, 2012: Auditor General Michael Ferguson releases a study of Senate expense claims; in some cases Senate administration didn’t have the right documents to support claims travel and living expenses.

Nov. 21, 2012: Senate committee asked to examine housing allowance for Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who lists a home in Maniwaki, Que., as his primary residence despite appearing to live full-time within a 100 kilometre radius of Ottawa.

Dec. 3, 2012: Similar questions raised about Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy, who claims a primary residence in P.E.I. despite being a longtime Ottawa resident.

Dec. 6, 2012: The Senate widens its audit of housing expenses to include Liberal Sen. Mac Harb, who claims a home near Pembroke, Ont., as his primary residence, and begins examining residence claims of all senators, who are constitutionally bound to live in the provinces they represent.

Feb. 5: Reports emerge that Duffy applied for a P.E.I. health card in December 2012 and that he does not receive a resident tax credit for his home on the island.

Feb. 8: Senate hires external auditing firm to review Brazeau, Duffy and Harb’s claims.

Feb. 22: Claiming confusion with the rules, Duffy pledges to pay back claimed housing expenses. “My wife and I discussed it and we decided that in order to turn the page to put all of this behind us, we are going to voluntarily pay back my living expenses related to the house we have in Ottawa.”

Feb. 27: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says all senators meet the requirement that they live in the area they were appointed to represent.

Feb. 28: Senate audit fails to turn up any questionable housing allowance claims beyond those of Brazeau, Harb and Duffy.

Apr. 19: Duffy confirms he has repaid more than $90,000 in Senate housing expenses. “I have always said that I am a man of my word. In keeping with the commitment I made to Canadians, I can confirm that I repaid these expenses in March 2013.”

May 9: Senate releases report into housing claims, along with Deloitte audit. Deloitte says a three senators live in Ottawa area, but that the rules and guidelines are unclear, making it difficult to say categorically that anyone broke the rules. Harb and Brazeau are ordered to repay $51,000 and $48,000, respectively. Harb says he will fight the decision.

May 10: Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan on Duffy: “He showed the kind of leadership that we would like to see from Liberal Sen. Mac Harb, who instead is taking up arms against the Senate, saying that he should not have to pay back inappropriate funds.”

May 12: RCMP says it will examine Senate expense claims.

May 14: Brazeau says he also broke no rules and is exploring all options to overturn an order to pay the money back.

May 15: The Prime Minister’s Office confirms that Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, personally footed the bill for Duffy’s housing expenses because Duffy couldn’t make a timely payment.

May 16: Duffy resigns from Conservative caucus.

May 17: Sen. Pamela Wallin also announces she’s leaving the Conservative caucus. Her travel expenses, which totalled more than $321,000 since September 2010, have been the subject of an external audit since December.

May 19: Wright announces his resignation as the prime minister’s chief of staff, a move Harper says he accepts with “great regret.” Wright is replaced in the chief of staff’s role by Ray Novak, who has been by Harper’s side since 2001.

(The Canadian Press)

Over 375 shipping containers full of military supplies remain stranded at Kandahar Airfield nearly 18 months after Canada’s withdrawal from the war-torn province, and almost two years since combat operations ceased.

National Defence says the material is considered low priority and that all high-value and sensitive equipment has been returned to Canada.

A spokeswoman for the country’s operational command, Capt. Jennifer Stadnyk, said certification of as many as 150 of the containers has expired and the technical assistance team will have to access whether they can still meet the standards set out by international shipping companies.

Defence sources said if the containers don’t pass, the military will have to find a way to dispose of the material.

The seemingly endless delay in repatriation of the containers, which were supposed to travel overland, was brought on by the extended closure of the Afghan border with Pakistan.

It has turned into a long, costly logistics nightmare for the military, which had intended to have everything home to fully re-equip and refurbish the army.

The equipment includes tires, spare parts, tents and other gear, and officials say their absence does not directly impede the army’s regeneration.

Last fall documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information legislation showed the Canadian government has faced increased withdrawal costs because the containers still have to be stored and guarded.

Pakistan cut off NATO’s supply lines through its country in November 2011 after a U.S. air raid mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and the border remained shut until July 2012.

In winding up Canada’s five-year involvement in Kandahar, the military funnelled its gear into two streams.

The first was an air bridge that saw Canadian C-17s and rented transports fly sensitive equipment and vehicles out to a friendly port, where it was loaded on cargo ships bound for Canada. The second route was to drive non-sensitive material over land through Pakistan, where it was loaded on a cargo ship in the port of Karachi.

When the Pakistan border clapped shut, only 186 of the estimated 632 containers destined for overland transport had made it back to Canada. Of those, a significant number were pilfered.

The documents show an average loss rate among the containers of 27 per cent. Thieves who pried open the metal containers would steal the contents, replace them with sandbags and weights, and then reseal the containers.

RCMP say two men had been fishing on Wentzell’s Lake near Bridgewater around 5:30 p.m. when their small aluminum boat capsized.

The Mounties, emergency workers and fire officials responded to the scene and found that the two men had already been taken to shore by other boaters.

Police say Harris Arthur Turner of West Northfield died in hospital late Saturday night.

A 63-year-old man was also taken to hospital but was later released.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

(CKBW, The Canadian Press)

Olive Ann Archibald of the Tabusintac Pastoral Church said the crowd at Sunday morning’s service was “sombre,” as search and rescue teams continued to comb the waters offshore for two missing fishermen.

Later that day around 4 p.m., the bodies of the two men, a 35-year-old man from Tabusintac and a 32-year-old man from Brantville, were located in an area near where their boat hit a sandbar in rough seas and started taking on water Saturday morning.

The lobster fishing vessel carrying three men had issued a distress call around 5:30 a.m. About eight hours later, the body of a 23-year-old man from Tracadie-Sheila was found near the site of the now-submerged boat.

Two weeks ago, five fishing boats were gutted by a fire at the Tabusintac Wharf.

The tight-knit community is now “broken,” said Archibald.

“They were trying to get over the episode of the burning boats, and then this,” he said in an interview on Sunday afternoon. “It’s very hard on the whole community.”

New Brunswick Conservative Serge Robichaud, who represents the Miramichi Bay-Neguac area in the legislature, said on Saturday that the captain of the vessel that ran aground had rented it after his fishing boat was destroyed in the May 5 blaze.

Chris Avery, chair of the Tabusintac Local Service District, said the fishermen have “paid the ultimate price.”

“They were sons, husbands, fathers, and loved by so many,” said Avery in an email on Sunday. “As we reflect on our own impermanence, let’s hold dear and cherish those close to each of us.

“Hearts are heavy here.”

It’s a community where everyone knows everyone, said Archibald, and it seemed the entire village was helping with the search efforts for the fishermen.

“It injures everybody when that happens,” said Archibald, who was also offering counselling for community members. “It was very rough yesterday on the waters. Today the water is so calm out there, it’s almost scary.”

The recovery effort for the men resumed at 7 a.m. on Sunday, with five search and rescue teams combing the shores of Tabusintac and nearby Neguac.

RCMP Const. Scott Messier said local fishing boats and community members on all-terrain vehicles tirelessly assisted in the search.

He said those fishermen and residents played an integral role in the recovery, providing the officers with invaluable knowledge of the area and using their boats to transport search teams.

“Without their help and knowledge, it would have made our effort much more difficult to accomplish,” said Messier. “We can’t thank them enough.”

Messier said an underwater recovery team had also been searching the area where the fishing boat capsized, about five kilometres offshore of Tabusintac.

He said weather conditions were great for searching on Sunday — a stark contrast from the rain, snow and high winds experienced the day before.

A platoon from the military base CFB Gagetown was also deployed to the area to assist the Mountie’s efforts.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax called off their search around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, saying two Coast Guard vessels and a Cormorant helicopter had done all they could to find the remaining two fishermen.

The Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate the incident.

It’s not the first fishing tragedy to hit the Maritimes this year. In February, five young Nova Scotia fishermen were aboard the Miss Ally when it capsized during a violent storm more than 100 kilometres off the province’s southwest shore.

By Aly Thomson in Halifax

A survey of almost 600 dealerships across the country found that the labels were attached to only 63 per cent of the new vehicles on outdoor lots.

And vehicles displayed in dealer showrooms had the labels affixed just 43 per cent of the time. Some high-end models — BMW and Rolls-Royce, for example — had a zero compliance rate.

The poor showing comes as Natural Resources Canada conducts a review of the voluntary label program for new vehicles, under the brand EnerGuide, including a proposal that it be made mandatory.

The survey of 592 new-car dealerships in 33 large cities was carried out earlier this year by Posterity Group Consulting Inc. under a $113,000 government contract.

The EnerGuide label program for vehicles was launched in 1998 to help consumers make informed choices about the fuel efficiency of new passenger cars, vans and light-duty trucks.

The labels are attached by manufacturers, indicating the number of litres of fuel needed to travel 100 kilometres, and showing the difference between city and highway driving.

The program requires manufacturers to test fuel efficiency of various models under government-approved procedures and standards.

Posterity’s final report, delivered in late March, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Posterity found that some dealers removed the manufacturers’ EnerGuide labels because they also included the retail price. Others tore them off because of “aesthetics,” while some said the labels affixed to the windshield were “impeding” drivers’ vision during test drives.

Many others who pulled them off claimed the labels gave inaccurate or misleading information about fuel-efficiency.

“At some dealerships, EnerGuide labels were missing due to the errors discovered in the mileage estimates claimed by these manufacturers,” says the report.

“Ten makes had compliance rates of zero per cent, including Aston Martin, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini and Rolls-Royce.”

A spokesman for the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, representing 3,250 dealerships selling 22 brands, said the poor compliance rate across the country was no surprise.

“These things are less and less relevant,” chief economist Michael Hatch said in an interview. “The paper label is decreasingly relevant for consumers.”

Apart from price, the most important specification for new-vehicle buyers today is fuel efficiency, Hatch said. And most consumers walking into a showroom have done extensive homework online, unlike in 1998 when there were fewer options for obtaining timely data.

“The world has changed,” Hatch said.

Natural Resources plans to radically revamp the label program, with a label redesign, new information on carbon dioxide and smog emissions, and special labels for electric vehicles.

The current fuel-consumption label “does not provide Canadians with the information they need to compare the energy, environmental, and financial costs and benefits of different vehicle choices,” the department says.

A new fuel-efficiency testing regime would also expand to include air-conditioner usage, cold temperature operation and higher speeds with faster acceleration.

“For most vehicles, consumption will increase by about 15 per cent,” spokesman Guillaume Berube said in an email.

The department is also considering making the new EnerGuide label regime mandatory for the 2016 model year.

Hatch says his group is opposed to mandatory labelling, given that consumers have many other ways to acquire relevant information about new vehicles.

“It’s kind of an old-school solution to a problem that in our view doesn’t exist,” he said. “It’s just another layer of red tape.”

Hatch’s group has no objection to retaining an improved paper label, but does not want regulations requiring them.

Berube says the department has received 168 submissions on the proposed changes, including a requirement to colour them blue.

He said he could not provide a timeline for eventual changes, but the department’s regulatory notice says a voluntary system would have to be in place by December this year to catch the 2016 model year.

If a mandatory system is chosen, proposed regulations would be published next year, says the notice.

Tory MPs have been hearing from upset constituents about the Senate expenses controversy that has become one of the most serious challenges for the prime minister’s administration.

The situation has the potential to further weaken Harper’s hold on caucus, where MPs had already been agitating for more autonomy from his office in the Commons. The Tories have also lost ground recently in the polls.

Harper will address caucus Tuesday morning, with a new — but very familiar — chief of staff by his side. Longtime friend and adviser Ray Novak is taking over from Nigel Wright, who announced his resignation from the post early Sunday.

Wright had secretly given a $90,000 gift to Sen. Mike Duffy back in March, to help him cover the repayment of improper housing expenses. But following Wright’s gift, Duffy stopped co-operating with an audit of his expense claims. The Conservatives declared the matter closed.

But with the revelation of the gift and more troubling details about Duffy’s expenses, the controversy began to spiral and MPs got the blowback back home during a week-long break from Parliament.

“Tarring all politicians with the same brush is disappointing,” said Conservative MP Gord Brown, whose constituents have weighed in.

“There’s a lot of good people who work hard for their constituents and work hard for their country, and wouldn’t think of abusing their expenses.”

Wright’s resignation followed that of Duffy, who left caucus on Thursday facing a potentially humiliating showdown with his Senate colleagues. Colleague Pamela Wallin resigned on Friday. She is facing her own expenses audit.

“My actions were intended solely to secure the repayment of funds, which I considered to be in the public interest, and I accept sole responsibility,” Wright said in a statement.

“I did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy’s expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact.”

Harper expressed “great regret” in Wright’s decision. He had stood behind Wright throughout the fallout from last week’s bombshell about his $90,000 gift.

“I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest, but I understand the decision he has taken to resign,” the prime minister said.

“I want to thank Nigel for his tremendous contribution to our government over the past two and a half years.”

Novak, an adviser to Harper since 2001, is also a familiar face to MPs and senators. A low-key figure in his mid-30s, he has been through the highs and lows of the party since opposition days.

Former Harper adviser Keith Beardsley says Novak is respected by caucus and will have a calming influence.

“The main thing will be to basically settle things down…settle the PMO down and he’s going to have to do the same with caucus,” said Beardsley.

Caucus members are expected to have a lot to say about the events of the past week when they convene on Tuesday. The party’s stock in trade with voters has been their commitment not only to ethics and accountability, but also to law and order.

“My office received calls and emails from taxpayers and I also heard directly from many constituents while at home on the recess week,” said New Brunswick MP John Williamson. “Duffy’s misuse of tax dollars is indefensible and a police investigation is warranted.”

Alberta colleague Brent Rathgeber, who is an outspoken advocate for the independence of MPs, said the Wright gift exacerbated the lack of separation between the executive and legislative branches of government.

“When there’s inadequate separation between those two institutions, it appears to me that both are compromised,” Rathgeber told Global TV’s West Block with Tom Clark.

“As a legislator I don’t want to be beholden or indebted to individuals from the executive at any level.”

The MPs and senators will also be facing an aggressive opposition “in both the House of Commons and the upper chamber. In the Senate, Liberals will be giving the Tories a rough ride on a set of expense reports. In the Commons, the opposition parties will be feasting on the controversy.

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus is calling for a full explanation of the $90,000 repayment of Duffy’s expenses, and whether there was a cover-up of the senator’s housing claims.

“What we’re looking now is a government is absolute panic mode, and the people who are being tossed under the bus are not just 21-year-old staff but absolutely key people to Harper and the Conservative party,” said Angus.

“It shows the extent of the damage to the prime minister.”

The ethics commissioner is looking into Wright’s repayment of Duffy’s expenses. Duffy, a former broadcaster, quit the Conservative caucus late Thursday.

Meanwhile, two other senators are also facing demands that they repay improper housing expense claims — and both are fighting back.

Sen. Mac Harb was deemed to owe $51,482 in housing-related expenses, a finding that prompted him to quit the Liberal caucus and sit as an independent.

Sen. Patrick Brazeau — kicked out of the Conservative caucus after he was charged in February with assault and sexual assault — was assessed $48,744.

A spokesman for the prime minister has said neither Harb nor Brazeau was offered the same financial assistance as Duffy.

As more companies hitch their futures to the Internet video stream business, Netflix has the distinction of being there first, having pioneered app-based TV. Hastings, in Toronto Tuesday to give the keynote speech at the Canadian Digital Media Network 3.0 conference, predicts the future of Internet TV will be filled with apps — and he can’t wait to duke it out.

“We are now in 40 countries around the world, so people are starting to watch Internet video and you can start to see the outlines of what TV will be like in the future,” he said. “The simplest explanation is if you take your iPad and you stretch it out to be two metres and hang it on a wall that’s what it will look like. It will be beautiful, it will have all kinds of applications and it’s constantly getting better.”

Netflix’s job is to be one of your favourite apps, he said, providing updates with improvements every month. The company continues to garner good buzz, impressing with recent buoyant stock news growing 198 per cent over the past year and hitting a high of $245 on Monday.

Sandvine, a Waterloo-based company that measures broadband usage, just released its quarterly report that showed that a third of all prime-time data usage in the U. S. is people viewing Netflix. The buzz is only going to get louder as the company prepares to launch its latest original series, the resurrected Arrested Development, on May 26.

It’s that type of success that has traditional media companies targeting the company with their own similar services. Just recently, the CRTC heard from telcos talking about taking Netflix on with their own offerings. Hastings said that’s something he would welcome.

“For a lot of people, Internet video is a novelty. To television, Internet video is a novelty, so where it really helps as it mainstreams is to have a lot of competitors because everyone talks and then it helps build the market much faster and larger than it otherwise would be,” he said.

“What we can look forward too … is then having the competitive response, so Rogers will launch a Netflix-like service. Vidéotron has launched a Netflix-like service, and it does a great job on the French-language offerings, and through all of these competitive offerings, we all learn and we all get better. There are more bidders for content, so the content owners are happy, and there are more choices for all of you.”

Hastings doesn’t believe traditional cable is going anywhere, just like the land line at home. But those cable channels and network see the Internet TV future, and the key is creating applications that are specific to the content.

“Networks that want a strong position in the future will be great application developers. And the applications will be unique to the content.”

He cited, Major League’s Baseball’s online video offering, as an example. As well as games, it also has information about player statistics and biographies.

As for traditional companies catching up, it is already happening. Just recently ABC announced a pilot project in New York and Philadelphia to launch an app that will stream their channels. It will be a free trial for the first two months, and then the company will reportedly move to an authentication model that subscribers access with their cable info.

One thing he did not mention in his speech was his ongoing issues surrounding broadband data caps, but he’s on record as being critical of ISPs in Canada.

He also praised Canada though as it was the company’s first international market and also where Netflix started as a pure streaming product, (it began in America as a DVD rental company through the mail). The company launched in Canada two and half years ago, and since then has expanded to 38 markets around the world.

“For us, it inspired us that this pure streaming business was very possible. The downside is that we got so excited about pure streaming that we split our U.S. business,” Hastings said. “So we fell a little too in love with pure streaming but then we recanted and recovered in the U.S.”