National Immunization Awareness Week October 24th through 30th. Highlights Ongoing Need to Protect Children

Transit advocates said yesterday bus and metro users shouldn't have to fork over more money for the same level of service they received last year - this after the Montreal Urban Community Transit Corp. announced fare hikes in its 2000 bus report. "It's unfair. It's a tax on the users," said Normand Parisien, head of Transport 2000, which defends the rights of transit riders.

Homicide detectives in Montreal say they are certain they have closed two cases that sparked fears more than seven years ago that a serial killer was stalking gays. Their suspect is a man who was already in prison in New Brunswick while awaiting trial for a double homicide committed in that province last year and is a suspect in at least another killing there.

A West Vancouver man on the run from a notorious New York prison for nearly 30 years said Wednesday he loves Canada and hopes to stay, both for himself and his cancer-stricken Canadian wife. "I've made a home for myself and I feel very much that I am at home," said Allen Richardson. Richardson, 50, walked away from a state work camp in 1971, 12 weeks into a four-year sentence for selling $20 worth of LSD to an undercover policeman in his dorm room at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He fled with another inmate because he feared he was about to be returned to Attica prison just weeks after a four-day riot when 43 people were killed. "This is absolutely bizarre," said NDP MP Nelson Riis. "It's a reflection of some overzealous law-enforcement officers in the United States, presumably. "This is a man that has proven himself as a decent citizen for decades," Riis said. "This is clearly an example of the system going absolutely mad."

Nova Scotia opposition parties yesterday renewed their calls for the resignation of a cabinet minister who lost the housing portfolio after being called a ''slumlord'' and is now accused of trying to intimidate a journalist. John Chataway, the Human Resources Minister who was stripped of the housing portfolio last month, came under fire in the Legislature for approaching a radio news director about an access-to-information request.

The Ontario government could run into Charter trouble if it proceeds with a plan to force drug-addicted welfare recipients into rehab, says the province's human rights commissioner. Drug addiction is a disability under the law, and forcing addicts into treatment programs as a condition for welfare would constitute discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Keith Norton said Thursday.

It's a dreadful date: Dec. 6, 1989. It entered history as the grim occasion when 14 young women were slain by a female-hating gunman at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique. Now their relatives, friends and supporters are preparing a series of events to recall the 14 victims - and to raise hope for the future.

The National Council of Veteran Associations, which represents 36 veterans organizations, was pleased to hear that Veterans Affairs Minister George Baker is apparently preparing a proposal for cabinet regarding compensation for Merchant Seamen. We have been in consultation with Mr. Baker and his officials for several weeks.

n a ruling delivered Tuesday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Justice John H. Brockenshire granted a class action motion on behalf of disabled Canadian veterans to the legal team comprised of Windsor lawyers Raymond Colautti and David Greenaway of the law firm of Paroian Raphael, and Peter Sengbusch of London, Ontario. ``This lawsuit seeks reimbursement for the government's failure -- over several decades -- to pay interest to the thousands of poor and disabled veterans whose pension and other benefits were being administered by the federal government,'' said Mr. Colautti.

Just half of new parents are eligible for paid leave under employment insurance, and the eligible ones receive less money than their counterparts did six years ago, says a new study. Average maternity and parental benefit cheques of $277 per week in 1998 were down from a high of $297 in 1992 and 1993, says a Statistics Canada analysis.

A landmark bill that would provide Canadians with more protection for their personal information was passed Tuesday by the Commons. Bill C-6, known as Bill C-54 last year before Parliament adjourned, would ensure that all federally regulated industries obtain consent before collecting and using private information, with certain exceptions for police work. If the provinces don't follow through with similar legislation, the federal bill would also apply to all private business within three years.

New Brunswick natives have moved their fight for treaty rights from the water to the woods.

Ontario's Conservatives will introduce for the third time Tuesday laws requiring future provincial premiers to keep balanced books and seek approval of taxpayers before introducing tax hikes, senior government sources said Monday.