“KatherineMorrisonhelpedUofTLibraries
tocreatesuperbenvironmentsforourstudents—spaces
thatfullysupportthemintheirstudies,andhelpthem
buildasenseofcommunity.”
MericS.Gertler,President,UniversityofToronto
Anaccomplishedscholarandauthorwhovaluedthequiet
contemplationshefoundattheUniversityofToronto’slibraries,
Dr.KatherineMorrison(PhD1979,HonLLD2004)wasa
championofstudentwell-beingandthestudentexperience.
TogetherwithherhusbandRussell,shewasoneofUofT’s
most generous benefactors. Katherine and Russell Morrison’s
generosityenhancedstudentlifethroughtheMorrisonPavilion
attheGersteinScienceInformationCentre,MorrisonHall
residenceatUniversityCollege,andmajorrenovationsat
RobartsLibrary,includingthefutureRobartsCommon.
TheUniversityofTorontoisproudtocountDr.Morrison
amongouresteemedalumniandtocarryontheMorrisons’
enduringlegacyofhelpingstudentstoreachtheirfullpotential.
Katherine Morrison
1925 – 2019
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O NEWS | A
As gun violence surges on Toron-
to streets, city police are search-
ing for an RCMP-issued sidearm
stolen from a west-side mall ear-
lier this week, a new addition to
the hefty arsenalof government
firearms that have gone missing
in recent years.
The Toronto Police Service
warned the public on Friday that
a Smith & Wesson nine-milli-
metre pistol bearing the RCMP’s
horse-and-rider insignia had
been stolen from a plainclothes
officer in the Sherway Gardens
shopping mall, located in the
city’s western Etobicoke bor-
ough.
The loaded pistol was con-
cealed along with three full mag-
azines and a police radio inside a
black satchel designed to be used
by plainclothes officers, who of-
ten can’t carry a sidearm openly.
“He had it in the proper spot,”
police spokesman Victor Kwong
said.
“Unfortunately, those satchels
are not stuck to your body the
whole time, as a holster is with a
uniformed cop.”
Police say all the items went
missing between 7:30 and 9:
p.m. on Wednesday night. Toron-
to police were called in shortly
after 10 p.m. Investigators are
hopeful the thief was a would-be
purse snatcher who ditched the
satchel when they realized there
was no wallet inside.
On Toronto streets, however,
handguns are as valuable as any-
thing found inside a wallet. Simi-
lar Smith & Wesson models can
be found for around $650 in the
United States, but on Canada’s
bustling black market, they
could fetch 10 times that figure.
A recent count prepared by
the RCMP shows that police
forces andother government
agencies have lost 813 firearms,
including 173 to theft, since 2005.
Another tabulation found that
the Mounties had declared 62
firearms lost or stolen between2010 and 2017.
The figures came in response
to an access-to-information re-
quest from Dennis Young, a Cal-
gary-based gun researcher who
regularly peppers Ottawa with
demands for firearms statistics.
Mr. Young said he began ask-
ing the Mounties for figures on
lost and stolen guns because he
felt politicians and the media
had been placing inordinate
blame on lawful civilian gun-
owners as a primary source of
firearms ending up in criminal
hands.
A Globe and Mail analysis of
more than one million entries in
Canada’s civilian registry of re-
stricted and prohibited firearms
found that nearly 10,000 guns
are currently reported as lost or
stolen.
Contacted Friday morning, the
RCMP did not provide a response
to The Globe and Mail’s ques-
tions concerning either Wednes-
day’s theft or the total number of
such thefts.
In 2016, one of those stolen
RCMP guns was involved in the
shooting of a Winnipeg teenager.
Calli Vanderaa was sitting in a
car outside a convenience store
when a bullet pierced her lung,
ribs, spleen and colon. Investiga-
tors found that the gun had been
stolen from an RCMP officer’s
van earlier, where it had been
improperly stored overnight.
Ms. Vanderaa survived to sue
the RCMP and the officer who
left the handgun in a truck over-
night, contrary to regulations.
The parties reached an undis-
closed resolution.
On Thursday, Toronto Police
Chief Mark Saunders announced
he was extending a crackdown
on gun violence and street gang
activity that had been set to ex-
pire at the end of October. The
plan includes increasing police
presence in areas of gang activ-
ity, monitoring bail compliance
and engaging with community
groups.With a report from Tom CardosoTorontopolicesearchfor
RCMPfirearmstolenfrommall
PATRICK WHITEOne man was killed and almost a million
homes and businesses were without power
across Quebec after a wind storm Friday, as the
province’s hydro utility warned it could take
several days to fully restore the grid.
The hardest-hit areas of the province were in
southern Quebec, where winds topped 100
kilometres an hour. As of Friday evening, there
were roughly 360,000 customers without pow-
er around the Montreal area, down to the U.S.
border.
Other major outages were reported in the
Laurentians, where more than 125,000 custom-
ers were without power; the Quebec City area,
with 100,000 outage; and the Lanaudiere re-
gion, with another 100,000.
Authorities confirmed a 63-year-old man
died Friday morning in Bromont, about 85 kilo-
metres east of Montreal, after a tree fell on him.
Eric Fillion, president of Hydro-Quebec’s
electricity distribution department, said rough-
ly 1,000 workers had been dispatched across
Quebec to restore power. But he warned some
homes in areas that suffered the most damage
will likely have to wait until early next week to
regain electricity.
“This is really an exceptional situation,” Mr.
Fillion told a news conference. “We have to be
realistic. We have a lot of work to do and we’ll
have a lot to do over the weekend.”
The number of customers without power
was the highest number since the 1998 ice
storm, when 1.4 million homes and business
were left in the dark. But unlike in 1998, when
the power transmission lines collapsed, Mr. Fil-
lion said the main distribution network this
time was not affected.
The weather system also brought with it
heavy rain, which caused water levels in rivers
to rise and some homes to flood. Sherbrooke,
Que., received more than 100 millimetres of
rain and authorities there evacuated 250 build-
ings threatened by the rising water of the St.
Francois River downtown.
Public Security Minister Genevieve Guilbault
said the storm forced road closings, mudslides
and floods across the province.THECANADIANPRESSA woman walks by the branches of a tree downed on a street in Montreal on Friday. Heavy winds
caused power outages across the province.GRAHAMHUGHES/THECANADIANPRESS
Quebecwindstorm
leavesonedead,almost
amillionwithoutpower
MONTREAL