Senior Mounties told not to meet MPs without prior approval

Internal emails obtained by CBC News show that RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson has ordered all senior Mounties to get clearance from his office before committing to any meetings with MPs or senators.

Specifically, they are to notify a liaison office that co-ordinates RCMP strategy with the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, right, has instructed senior Mounties to notify his office before accepting meetings with MPs and senators, similar to the approval required for his own meetings by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, left, last year. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

In an email dated March 22 from Paulson to more than 50 chief superintendents, assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners, the commissioner said that meetings or lunches with parliamentarians "can have unintended and/or negative consequences for the organization and the government. Therefore, should you or your staff receive such requests, I am directing that you advise my office and the chief strategic policy and planning officer."

A second email shows the effect of the new policy. It cancels a planned lunch between a senior Mountie and a parliamentarian because of "direction from Commissioner Paulson's office" that such meetings "have to first be approved by the minister's office. This email is to cancel the luncheon."

Message control

The development has opposition critics accusing the government of undermining the independence of the police. "There's a very large pattern in this government of trying to control information," said NDP MP Randall Garrison.

"It's not appropriate for the government to reach into the police operation. It's a very, very fundamental part of what we must be assured exists so that the police aren't doing the work of the government, they're doing the work of the public."

Garrison, who is the NDP critic for public safety, said "these memos raise some very serious concerns about whether the government is interfering in the operations of the RCMP to try and assist in controlling their political message. So I think it's very serious."

Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, critic for an RCMP reform bill, C-42, said he feared the "politicization of the police force."

Mitchell added that muzzling debate would not help to solve problems of discipline and harassment inside the RCMP — the subject of Bill C-42.

"I don't see any downside to them dealing with these problems, openly exposing them, none at all. It will only lead to solving them and they can take credit for that," said Mitchell.

"All this control, all this media manipulation, all this messaging — centralized as it is — doesn't work."

Toews's office did not respond to a request to explain the new policy. Paulson's office, however, confirmed that it was co-managed with the minister's office.

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Julie Gagnon said in a statement that Paulson "wanted to ensure that all information being sent to parliamentarians was co-ordinated through the strategic policy and planning directorate which manages the ministerial liaison function."

Gagnon also said the commissioner wished to "help ensure that the RCMP does not become embroiled in the political debate."

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How can you tell if your shirt was made in a sweatshop?

The death of more than 300 people in a garment building collapse in Bangladesh has renewed concerns about the conditions of workers who make clothing for some of the biggest brands in the Western world, including Canada's Joe Fresh.

But analysts say the supply chain of the modern garment industry makes it hard for consumers to determine whether the shirt or pair of pants they bought was the product of sweatshop labour.

"It's really difficult to learn what were the conditions of the production of a specific garment," says Adriana Villasenor, a senior advisor at the retail consultancy J.C. Williams Group.

In recent years, major brands such as Wal-Mart, the Gap and Canada's Joe Fresh have outsourced the manufacture of clothing to cheap labour markets such as Bangladesh, where the national minimum wage stands at $38 US a month. According to the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, Bangladesh has the lowest labour costs in the world.

'It would be very unfair to describe all of the manufacturers in Bangladesh as having the same bad conditions for workers. There are very good manufacturers there that fall into compliance.'—Adriana Villasenor, retail analyst

But there are concerns that in satisfying the demands for low prices from Western consumers, factory owners in Bangladesh are compromising the health and safety of workers.

More than 300 people died when the garment building collapsed in Davar, a suburb of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. Officials said Thursday that police ordered the building evacuated on April 23 after discovering deep cracks in the structure.

Many factories in the building ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working on April 24, which is when the collapse occurred.

It is considered the deadliest incident for Bangladesh's clothing industry, surpassing a fire in November that killed 112 people.

What consumers should look for

The issue for consumers who want to buy goods without exploiting foreign workers is that it's often very difficult to figure out where a piece of clothing came from and how it was made.

Buying a major brand or shopping at a well-known store chain, for example, is no guarantee that the item wasn't made under questionable working conditions.

Villasenor says large retailers such as Wal-mart or Sears either work with a distributor, which in turn finds manufacturers to produce an item, or else they deal with the manufacturer directly. Working with a distributor could mean less oversight of conditions on the factory floor.

A strikingly low price on an item of clothing might suggest that it's the product of sweatshop labour, but it's not a precise indicator, says Villasenor. She says there are "many, many conditions" that could lead a store to settle on a sale price.

"It really depends on the margins the retailer decided to put on that garment," she says.

Consumers worried about sweatshop labour should inspect the name of the country printed on the label, says Cheryl Hotchkiss, senior manager of advocacy and public engagement at World Vision Canada.

If the name of a country such as Bangladesh appears on the label, "I think you have reason to be concerned," says Hotchkiss.

But Villasenor points out that this, too, is an imperfect gauge. A label will only specify the country of origin, but not whether the product may have involved an unscrupulous factory owner or distributor.

"It would be very unfair to describe all of the manufacturers in Bangladesh as having the same bad conditions for workers," Villasenor says. "There are very good manufacturers there that fall into compliance."

Last night, Julija Hunter, a spokesperson for Joe Fresh's parent company, Loblaws, released a statement saying that it "has robust vendor standards designed to ensure that products are manufactured in a socially responsible way, ensuring a safe and sustainable work environment. We engage international auditing firms to inspect against these standards. We will not work with vendors who do not meet our standards."

Establishing international standards

Osmud Rahman, a professor at the Ryerson School of Fashion with an expertise in consumer behaviour, says that the average person doesn't have enough information at hand about where, and how, their clothing is made.

He proposes a system like the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, for the garment industry. The ISO establishes standards for a wide range of consumer products and services, and Rahman says a similar system for clothing would help ethically minded consumers decide what to buy.

The death of 112 people in a garment factory fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November 2012 led to labour protests in the streets. (Ashraful Alam Tito/AP)

"We could say, if [a manufacturer] passes that standard, then we'll give them a rubber stamp," says Rahman. "Then, they could indicate that on the label of the garment. It would give the consumer more information, so they can make a better judgment."

Despite the lack of such a classification, Hotchkiss says consumers are becoming increasingly aware "that the supply chain, which they may be implicated in, is causing damage to other people."

A 2012 survey commissioned by World Vision and conducted by Ipsos-Reid found 79 per cent of Canadians want to "make an effort to ensure they know how and where things they purchase are made."

One organization that reflects this awareness of ethical manufacturing is Ten Thousand Villages, the largest non-profit fair trade organization in North America.

Ten Thousand Villages, which has 34 stores in Canada, sources and sells accessories, home décor and gift items from artisans around the globe. According to general manager Ryan Jacobs, Ten Thousand Villages is committed to "direct trade," which means no middleman.

"We know the people who produce the products," says Jacobs.

He adds that the organization regularly travels to the regions where its suppliers live to confirm the safety and fair treatment of staff in their workshops.

Hotchkiss says the best bet for consumers concerned about ethical fashion is consulting a site such as GoodGuide.com, where you can look up specific products and the labour practices of the companies that make them.

"If it's really important to [consumers] to ensure that they're using their money wisely and make sure their buying an ethical product, it's best to do your research ahead of time," says Hotchkiss.

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Boston bombing suspect moved from hospital to federal centre

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, has been released from a civilian hospital and transferred to a federal medical detention centre in central Massachusetts.Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the Boston Marathon bombing April 15, is now at this federal medical centre in Devens, about 64 kilometres west of Boston. (Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Tsarnaev was taken from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center overnight to the Federal Medical Center in Devens about 64 kilometres west of Boston.

The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens U.S. Army base, treats federal prisoners and detainees who require specialized long-term medical or mental health care.

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

The Massachusetts college student was charged with setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 at the marathon finish line April 15. He could get the death penalty.

News of his transfer to a federal medical detention centre comes a day after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a manhunt for the two after the bombings, had intended to attack New York next.

"Last night, we were informed by the FBI that the surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets," he told a news conference Thursday.

Police Commmissioner Ray Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev discussed exploding bombs in Times Square with Tamerlan.

Kelly said the two suspects had a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs they wanted to set off.

Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston, would not comment on whether authorities plan to add charges based on alleged plan to attack New York.

The Middlesex County district attorney's office also is building a murder case against the surviving Tsarnaev for the death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier three days after the bombings, office spokeswoman Stephanie Guyotte said.

Investigators and lawmakers briefed by the FBI have said that the brothers — ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the U.S. for about a decade — were motivated by anger over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Deceased brother had been under scrutiny

Based on the younger man's interrogation and other evidence, authorities have said it appears so far that the Muslim brothers were radicalized via jihadi material on the internet instead of by any direct contact with terrorist organizations, but they have said it is still an open question.

Dzhokhar was interrogated in his hospital room over a period of 16 hours without being read his constitutional rights. He immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered the room and advised him of his rights to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, according to a U.S. law enforcement official and others briefed on the interrogation.

Tamerlan had come under scrutiny from the FBI, the CIA and Russian intelligence well before the Boston attack. The CIA had added Tamerlan's name to a terrorist database 18 months ago, after Russian intelligence flagged him as a possible Muslim radical, said officials close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

That disclosure is certain to raise questions in Congress over whether the Obama administration missed an opportunity to thwart the Boston attack.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told authorities that his older brother only recently recruited him to be part of the attack, two U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Alleged NYC plan 'fell apart'

Kelly, citing interrogations carried out by the task force investigating the Boston Marathon attack, said that days after the bombing, the Tsarnaev brothers "planned to travel to Manhattan to detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square.

"They discussed this while driving around in a Mercedes SUV that they hijacked after they shot and killed the officer at MIT," the police commissioner said. "That plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station."

The driver escaped and called police, Kelly said. That set off the gunbattle and manhunt that ended a day later with Dzhokhar captured and 26-year-old Tamerlan dead.

A day earlier, Kelly said that Tsarnaev had talked about coming to New York "to party" after the attack and that there wasn't evidence of a plot against the city. But Kelly said a later interview with the suspect turned up the information.

"He was a lot more lucid and gave more detail in the second interrogation," Kelly said. He and the mayor were briefed on the information Wednesday night by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Kelly said there was no evidence New York was still a target. But in a show of force, police cruisers with blinking red lights were lined up in the middle of Times Square on Thursday afternoon, and uniformed officers stood shoulder to shoulder.

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Bangladesh rescuers dig deeper as death toll passes 300

More than two days after their factory collapsed on them, at least some garment workers were still alive in the corpse-littered debris Friday, pinned beneath tonnes of mangled metal and concrete.

Rescue crews struggled to save them, knowing they probably had just a few hours left to live, as desperate relatives clashed with police in their anger and grief.

Amid the chaos, the cries for help and the smell of decaying bodies at the eight-storey building where more than 300 died, what happened to 18-year-old Mussamat Anna passes as luck. Rescue workers cut off the garment worker's mangled right hand to pull her free from the debris Thursday night.

"First a machine fell over my hand and I was crushed under the debris. ... Then the roof collapsed over me," she told an Associated Press cameraman from a hospital bed Friday.

The death toll topped 300 on Friday and it remained unclear what the final grim number would be. Military spokesman Shahin Islam told reporters that 304 bodies had been recovered.

Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations, said 2,200 people have been rescued. The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed Wednesday in Savar, a suburb of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

An army rescue worker, Maj. Abdul Latif, said Friday that he found one survivor still trapped under concrete slabs, surrounded by several bodies. At another place in the building, four survivors were found pinned under the debris, a fire official said. An Associated Press cameraman who accompanied a rescue crew heard two men's anguished cries for help; it was unknown Friday whether they were still alive.

Rescue workers said they were proceeding very cautiously inside the crumbling building, using their hands, hammers and shovels, to avoid more injuries and collapses. But they said the trapped workers were so badly hurt and weakened that they would need to be extricated within a few hours if they are to survive.

50 injured as relatives, police clash near site

A military official, Maj.-Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, told reporters that search and rescue operations would continue until at least Saturday.

'They will die if we don't find them soon.'—Shahinur Rahman, son of missing worker

"We know a human being can survive for up to 72 hours in this situation. So our efforts will continue non-stop," he said.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble, spent a third day working amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, which housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

Police cordoned off the building site, pushing back thousands of bystanders and relatives, after rescue workers said the crowds were hampering their work.

Clashes later erupted between relatives of those still trapped and police officers, who used batons to disperse the mobs. Police said 50 people were injured in the clashes.

"We want to go inside the building and find our people now. They will die if we don't find them soon," said Shahinur Rahman, whose mother is missing.

Elsewhere, many thousands of workers from the hundreds of garment factories across the Savar industrial zone and other nearby industrial areas took to the streets to protest the collapse and poor safety standards.

Local news reports said protesters had smashed dozens of vehicles at one strike Friday. Most of the other protests were largely peaceful.

Evacuation order ignored before collapse

Dozens of people have been rescued from the wreckage well after Wednesday morning's collapse.

Forty people had been trapped on the fourth floor of the Rana Plaza building until rescuers reached them Thursday evening. Twelve were soon freed, and crews worked to get the others out safely, said Brig.-Gen. Shikder. Crowds at the scene burst into applause as survivors were brought out.

Police say cracks in the building had led them to order an evacuation Tuesday, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when it collapsed Wednesday. Video shot before the collapse shows cracks in the walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete and police talking to building operators.

The disaster is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)

Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.

Abdul Halim, an official with Savar's engineering department, said the owner of Rana Plaza was originally allowed to construct a five-storey building but added another three storeys illegally.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she had ordered police to arrest the owner of the building as well as the owners of the garment factories in "the shortest possible time."

Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the owner of the building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Police on Friday detained two of Rana's relatives for questioning, police officer Mohammad Kawser said.

The disaster is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve the country's worker-safety standards.

Instead, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where wages, among the lowest in the world, have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

The garment industry has grown rapidly in the past decade, a boom fuelled by Bangladesh's exceptionally low labor costs. The country's minimum wage is now the equivalent of about $38 a month.

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Prince Philip's love affair with Canada

When precision military parachutists drop out of the sky over downtown Toronto tomorrow, they'll be taking advantage of a rare opportunity to demonstrate their tactical prowess for their royal colonel-in-chief.

The new colour for the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment replaces a colour damaged seven years ago. (Department of National Defence)

Prince Philip's short visit to Canada — without his wife, the Queen — to present a ceremonial flag to the Royal Canadian Regiment's 3rd Battalion also comes as something of a surprise.

At 91, and having had a few health scares in the past 18 months, overseas travel might not necessarily have been a given for the Duke of Edinburgh, who is the longest-serving consort to a monarch in British history.

"During the Diamond Jubilee celebrations [last year], the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh remained in the United Kingdom while their children and grandchildren toured the world," notes Toronto-based royal historian and blogger Carolyn Harris. "So I think a foreign visit from the Duke of Edinburgh at 91 was unexpected."

But when you take into account Philip's feisty personality, dedication to his role and some of the interests he's shown over the years, his return to Canada — he's made more than 70 visits or stopovers since 1950 — may not be a complete surprise.

The trip, which begins when Philip lands in Toronto today, is billed as a private working visit and is apparently only for a few days. The brevity, however, is not unprecedented.

"There have been visits related to his charitable patronages, fundraising dinners for the World Wildlife Fund Canada or presenting Duke of Edinburgh awards or holding Commonwealth Study conferences to address issues thoughout the Commonwealth," says Harris. "So it's interestesing that he has been a very constant presence in Canada in the past 60 years."

Praising Canadian innovators

Harris says Philip's longstanding interest in Canada and its military forces was on display as early as 1951, when he accompanied Elizabeth, then heir to the throne and standing in for her ailing father, King George VI, on their first visit to the country.

In a speech during that visit, Philip "commented that he admired that Canada had preserved its independence being so close to a powerful neighbour such as the United States, and that Canada had developed a distinct culture and had its own scientific innovators and cultural innovators," says Harris.

She dates Philip's "admiration" for the Canadian Forces to the Second World War.

Philip, who gave up a naval career at age 29 to support his wife, put his own wartime experience front and centre in his 1951 speech to the Toronto Board of Trade.

"In the British Isles, the Canadian army will always be remembered for the security they gave when invasion threatened and the gallantry displaying in the fighting in Italy and North Europe. I can speak from personal experience as I was serving in a destroyer off the beaches at Sicily when the Canadian division landed there in 1943."

Philip was made colonel-in-chief of the Royal Canadian Regiment on Dec. 8, 1953, taking on a role that had been vacant for more than a decade. He presented the 3rd Battalion's first colours on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1973.

That flag was ripped when its display case was damaged seven years ago. For the soldiers who will watch Philip present the new heavy silk tapestry at Queen's Park on Saturday, his visit is significant.

'Never pass a fault'

"For us, as a regiment, to have a member of the Royal Family come to do this for us is important," says Lt.-Col. David Quick, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion.

"Although we don't see him very much and he has a ton of activities that he's involved with … it's not lost on those soldiers that His Royal Highness is coming here for a very short time [for] them."

Lt.-Col. David Quick, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, says Prince Philip embodies the qualities that are reflected in the battalion's slogan: 'Never pass a fault.' (Department of National Defence)

Philip, Quick suggests, also embodies the qualities that are reflected in the battalion's slogan: "Never pass a fault."

"From what I understand, certainly what the popular media reports, that's exactly the kind of man the Duke of Edinburgh is. So I'm really excited to meet a guy that's lived his whole life in the same manner as this regiment believes in."

Quick says the regiment is deeply focused on tradition, but he also takes great pride in the modern military skills the battalion will put on display Saturday as part of a celebration to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812's Battle of York.

More than 350 members of the battalion will travel from their Petawawa base to Toronto for the presentation by Philip, a military parade and other events, some of which will take place near where the regiment was formed in 1883.

'Cool juxtaposition'

In addition to precision parachutists, rappellers will demonstrate their skills off office buildings near Queen's Park. Weapons systems will also be on display, all of it creating what Quick calls a "cool juxtaposition" between past and present.

Harris expects Philip will be intrigued by everything on display.

"He's always had a strong interest in technology, so it's likely the Duke of Edinburgh will be asking plenty of questions about the miliatary technology that he sees."

Ninian Mellamphy, a longtime royal watcher and professor emeritus at Western University in London, Ont., considers that Philip's energy and commitment are to be admired, but he does wonder why Philip, as a naval man, became colonel-in-chief of an infantry regiment.

He also sees a form of "ironic nostalgia" in Canadian regiments having Royal Family members in such roles.

"It's a nice compliment to [Philip], but it doesn't really tell you too much about the confidence of the regiment in its own Canadianness. I often wonder then how someone like Prince Philip — he's a pretty cynical and ironic and aware type of person — I wonder what he thinks of his whole particular role there."

Maj. Tim Kenney, commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Regminent's 1st Battalion, keeps Prince Philip up to date on the regiment's activities. (Department of National Defence)

Maj. Tim Kenney, the commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Regminent's 1st Battalion, otherwise known as the Duke of Edinburgh's Company, keeps Philip up to date on the regiment's activities and will act as his special equerry — or aide — on Saturday.

Kenney hasn't met Philip, but is honoured by his role, and considers that the Duke embodies the regimental motto of pro patria, or "for country."

"In addition to the positive role model that he is for all public servants writ large, he has a very long and a very esteemed history of public service and I think that type of dedication and that type of integrity … is something to be emulated by all of us who serve."

'Yes sir, No sir'

The famously outspoken Philip can generally be counted on for quips — sometimes creating controversy — but Kenney doesn't let on that he's expecting any particular jocularity along the way on Saturday.

"I expect that I will have the opportunity to answer him 'Yes sir,' 'No sir,' as he desires."

Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada, says Philip's visit is a testament to his dedication to Canada, and to his stamina.

"I really thought that his age and recent health concerns would have made such a visit impossible," Finch said in an email.

"But how wrong I was. And I bet he gets a kick out of people talking about his health and age, [and] probably says to himself, 'I'll show them.'"

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Via terror plot suspect says Criminal Code 'not a holy book'

One of two men accused of an al-Qaeda-directed plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train appeared to question the authority of a Toronto court on Wednesday, saying that the Criminal Code should not apply to him because it's "not a holy book."

Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, asked to address the court and was warned to be careful with what he said because it could be used in future appearances.

"All of those conclusions was taken out based on Criminal Code and all of us we know that this Criminal Code is not a holy book," Esseghaier said. "It's just written by a set of creations and the creations they're not perfect because only the Creator is perfect.

"We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments."

The judge thanked him for his comment but told him to "save that for another court."

Esseghaier, who the Tunisian Embassy in Ottawa confirmed Wednesday is from that North African country, was represented by duty counsel but said he did not want a lawyer and would like to represent himself.

He was charged with five offences including conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit of a terrorist group, conspiracy to interfere with transportation facilities for the benefit of a terrorist group, and participation in a terrorist group.

The judge ordered Esseghaier remanded into custody until his next appearance on May 23, the same day his co-accused, 35-year-old Raed Jaser, is scheduled to be back in court.

Esseghaier was also told not to communicate with Jaser.

Member of al-Qaeda allegedly involved in plot

Esseghaier appeared briefly in court on Tuesday in Montreal, where prosecutors asked that the case be moved to Ontario. Esseghaier declined a court-appointed lawyer and called the allegations against him unfair during a brief statement.

He was flown to Buttonville airport near Toronto shortly after the appearance.

Jaser was remanded into custody following an appearance Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom. A judge issued a publication ban on the proceedings.

"We are waiting for the disclosure and we will be defending against the charges," Jaser's lawyer, John Norris, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Norris declined to comment when asked if he wanted his client's case separated from Esseghaier, who has spoken out twice in court despite being advised not to.

Norris spoke to the media outside the courthouse on Tuesday, saying his client was in a state of "shock and disbelief."

"He's anxious to see the evidence that the Crown says it has against him," he told reporters.

Norris has questioned the timing of the arrests, pointing to debates in the Canadian Parliament over a new anti-terrorism law that would expand the powers of police and intelligence agencies. MPs voted in favour of the bill Wednesday night, passing it 183 to 93.

Norris refused to say where his client was from, but noted Jaser was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived here for 20 years. He had previously said it was "regrettable" that police chose to make an issue of citizenship, saying it "seems intended to demonize" his client.

The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Watched for almost a year

CBC News has learned that RCMP had been following Esseghaier since May 2012. At that time, two undercover surveillance officers watched him on an Air Canada flight to Cancun, where he was to attend a biomedical conference.

Esseghaier's behaviour on the plane was "bizarre," and he had an altercation with a female flight attendant after he went to the washroom, sources say.

As well, sources told CBC News that the arrests of Esseghaier and Jaser were made because the behaviour of one of the suspects had become increasingly unpredictable, although which one isn't known.

CBC News has also learned that a member of al-Qaeda living in Iran, on the border with Afghanistan, was guiding and motivating the alleged suspects.

Broader network under surveillance

Meanwhile, police and intelligence agencies have been monitoring a broader network of terrorism suspects beyond the two men accused of plotting to derail a Via Rail passenger train.

Canadian and U.S. law enforcement have been co-operating on surveillance of suspects on both sides of the border for some time.

CBC News has also learned this broader network has been under surveillance for many months — authorities also monitored their travel within North America — and Canadian authorities became more concerned after they received a tip about some men who were examining railway tracks in Ontario.

'A little too rigid'

People who knew each man said their behaviour had changed in recent years.

Muhammad Robert Heft, president of the P4E Support Group Inc., a non-profit organization that provides support to Muslims in Canada, said Jaser's father, Mohammad Jaser, came to him several years ago because he was worried about his son.

"The father had come to me back in 2010, maybe early 2011, two to three times, and he was concerned his son was becoming a little too rigid in his understanding of the religion and thought I could talk to him," Heft said.

However, Heft said the father was busy taking care of another son who had been injured and never arranged a meeting.

Yusuf Bakhit often prayed with Jaser, and said Jaser took him in last winter, when he had nowhere else to go.

"He just wants to be a good Muslim, he doesn't want to be a bad guy, to hurt innocent people, he's not like that," Bakhit said. He said when he was living with Jaser, he never saw "signs of anything to do with terrorism."

Tufik Elalj, who was also a fellow student of Esseghaier at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, said the suspect didn't seem to know a lot about Islam in 2008. Elalj told CBC News he lost contact with him in 2011, and when he saw him again in 2012 his behaviour had changed.

Elalj said he didn't accept others — even other Muslims.

"His behaviour really changed toward everybody," he said, speaking French.

The RCMP have said the two suspects watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto Area to "initiate a terrorist attack."

There was a specific route targeted, not necessarily a specific train, police said, although they have declined to reveal the route. Police said the attack was not imminent.

Law officials in New York with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press the attack was to take place on the Canadian side of the border. They are not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

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What it costs to fight the aging process

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Winnipeg's Susan Griffiths dies by assisted suicide in Zurich

Susan Griffiths, the Winnipeg woman who went to Switzerland to take advantage of the country's assisted-suicide law, has died.

She was declared dead shortly before 7 a.m. CST.

Griffiths, 72, had multiple system atrophy, a rare disease that was robbing her of the ability to perform the most basic bodily functions. There is no cure or even hope for remission.

Susan Griffiths (middle) talks with family members, as her daughter stands beside her, moments before her death in Switzerland. (Donna Carreiro/CBC)

Assisted suicide is against the law in Canada, but it is legal in Switzerland.

Griffiths had an appointment Thursday with Dignitas, a non-profit organization that administers assisted suicides to both locals and foreigners.

In the moments before she died, Griffiths walked, talked and sang with family members in a sunny, warm garden on the Dignitas property just outside Zurich.

According to CBC's Donna Carreiro, the family sang rounds of the nursery rhyme Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and Griffiths was smiling, "delighted" with the setting.

Then Griffiths settled in and took the first of two drinks that would end her life. The first was bitter, so she ate chocolate to temper the taste.

About 30 minutes later she took the second drink. According to family members, it took another 20 minutes and Griffiths was gone.

"It was beautiful," Griffiths' daughter Natasha told CBC, adding that her mom would have been pleased with how it all went.

The day before, Griffiths spoke exclusively with Donna Carreiro:

---

"This is my last day to be able to give the message. Tomorrow is my last day, where I'll be taking the drink, and so there's not much time to spread the message.

"I do have to say that I have spent over a week here with members of my family and a friend, and had the most fantastic few days.

"I am very lucky that I've managed to gather them together [and] that they can afford to be here — for heaven's sake, this has been the most expensive trip.

"I am just hoping so much that people are going to inform their members of Parliament that they wish for a law to be made that they can make a decision about the end of life …. Soon, I would like to think that they don't have to wait until they're in a bad place to make such a decision.

"I guess my family worried that perhaps I've made the decision because I was not well and maybe not of sound mind as well. I just want the members of Parliament to respond to the requests that people will be sending them, hopefully.

"I've had the most amazing response from friends, [and] from people that I have not seen for ages and ages, to say it's what they would like to see happen as well. And I would like to think that they will pester their member of Parliament to get a debate started.

"Although we were told last week there wouldn't be [a debate], you can change your mind, just as I can change my mind.

"It's very important that people feel in the future that they have control of their life and their death. And I have not felt that control in the last year or so, and it's been very distressing for me.

"I just don't want to see people uproot themselves to come such a long way. The worry about getting here was major for weeks. Could I make it? Could I not make it? And thank goodness, I did make it.

"Just please, members of Parliament, get going on discussing making the end of people's lives a lot easier than mine has been."

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Boston bombing suspect confessed before hearing rights

Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings went silent: he'd just been read his constitutional rights.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered his hospital room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to four officials of both political parties briefed on the interrogation. They insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.

Before being advised of his rights, the 19-year-old suspect told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently had recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line, two U.S. officials said.

The CIA, however, had named Tamerlan to a terrorist database 18 months ago, said officials close to the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with reporters.

The new disclosure that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was included within a huge, classified database of known and suspected terrorists before the attacks was expected to drive congressional inquiries in coming weeks about whether the Obama administration adequately investigated tips from Russia that Tsarnaev had posed a security threat.

Shortly after the bombings, U.S. officials said the intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon before the April 15 explosions that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Tsarnaev died Friday in a police shootout hours before Dzhokhar was discovered hiding in a boat in a suburban back yard. He was wounded.

Washington is piecing together what happened and whether there were any unconnected dots buried in U.S. government files that, if connected, could have prevented the bombings.

Lawmakers who were briefed by the FBI said they have more questions than answers about the investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, said lawmakers intend to pursue whether there was a breakdown in information-sharing, though Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said he "hasn't seen any red flags thus far."

Senate to be briefed today

U.S. officials were expected to brief the Senate on the investigation today. The suspects' parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, also plan to fly to the U.S. from Russia, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to take Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

Rob (right) and Andrew, brothers of slain MIT police officer Sean Collier, react at his memorial service in Cambridge, Mass., on Wednesday. Thousands of law enforcement agents attended the memorial. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

It is unclear whether the issue of their younger son's constitutional rights will matter since the FBI say he confessed to a witness. U.S. officials also said Wednesday that physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the bombing scene.

But the debate over whether suspected terrorists should be read their Miranda rights has become a major sticking point in the debate over how best to fight terrorism. Many Republicans, in particular, believe Miranda warnings are designed to build court cases, and only hinder intelligence gathering.

Christina DiIorio Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, said in an email late Wednesday, "This remains an ongoing investigation and we don't have any further comment."

Investigators have said the brothers appeared to have been radicalized through jihadist materials on the internet and have found no evidence tying them to a terrorist group.

U.S. investigators travelled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan in Russia and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

They are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighbouring Chechnya but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

Investigators work around the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding. Conflicting reports cast doubt on whether he had a weapon when captured. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Dzhokhar told the FBI that they were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

Dzhokhar's public defender had no comment on the matter Wednesday. His father has called him a "true angel," and an aunt has insisted he's not guilty.

Investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris and were analyzing them, officials said. One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

That evidence could be key to the court case. And an FBI affidavit said one of the brothers told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

Officials also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of an April 18 gunbattle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, two U.S. officials said.

No gun found in boat

The officials told the AP that no gun was found in the boat where Dzhokhar was hiding. Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.

Asked whether the suspect had a gun in the boat, Davis said, "I'm not going to talk about that."

But Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said a police officer was shot within a kilometre of where Tsarnaev was captured, "and I know who shot him."

Authorities had previously said Dzhokhar exchanged gunfire with them for more than an hour Friday night before they captured him inside a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston neighbourhood backyard. But two U.S. officials said Wednesday that he was unarmed when captured, raising questions about the gunfire and how he was injured.

In other developments:

• Vice-President Joe Biden condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis" while speaking at a memorial service Wednesday for Sean Collier, a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing. More than 4,000 mourners paid tribute to the officer.
• The Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that Tamerlan, his wife and toddler daughter had received welfare benefits up until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income. The state also says Tamerlan and his brother received welfare benefits as children through their parents while the family lived in Massachusetts.
• The area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public.

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Bangladesh garment factory collapse kills more than 230

Deep cracks visible in the walls of a Bangladesh garment building had compelled police to order it evacuated a day before it collapsed, officials said Thursday. More than 230 people were killed when the eight-storey building splintered into a pile of concrete because factories based there ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working.

Wednesday's disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire less than five months earlier that killed 112 people. Workers at both sites made clothes for major brands around the world; some of the companies in the building that fell say their customers include retail giants such as Wal-Mart.

Joe Fresh, a Canadian company owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd., issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon confirming that "a small number" of Joe Fresh-branded products were manufactured at the complex.

"We will be working with our vendor to understand how we may be able to assist them during this time," said the statement, which was attributed to vice-president of public relations Julija Hunter.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, worked through the night and into Thursday amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, called Rana Plaza. It housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

An Associated Press cameraman who went into the rubble with rescue workers spoke briefly to a garment worker pinned face down in the darkness between concrete slabs and next to two corpses. Mohammad Altab pleaded for help, but they were unable to free him.

"Save us, brother. I beg you, brother. I want to live," Altab moaned. "It's so painful here ... I have two little children."

Another survivor, whose voice could be heard from deep in the rubble, wept as he called for help.

"We want to live, brother. It's hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live. Please save us," the man cried.

Rescue efforts goings slowly

After the cracks were reported in the walls of Rana Plaza on Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building ordered their employees to leave. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of that paramilitary police force.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, hours before the collapse.

"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.

On Thursday morning, the odour of rotting bodies wafted through holes cut into the building. Bangladesh's junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by late Thursday morning 2,000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.

Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing army rescue teams, said the death toll had climbed to 238 by Thursday evening.

Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, waiting for news.

Shikder said rescue operations were progressing slowly and carefully to save as many people as possible.

Rescuer workers combed through the debris of the collapsed garment factory on Thursday searching for survivors. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)

He said rescue teams were standing by with heavy equipment and would "start bulldozing the debris once we get closer to the end of the operation. But now we are careful."

He also said the huge crowd that remained at the collapse site Thursday was interfering with getting more rescuers to the scene.

"We are ready with about 1,000 soldiers and rescue workers from other departments. But a huge crowd is obstructing our effort," he said.

Marchers protest poor safety standards

Thousands of workers from the hundreds of other garment factories in the Savar industrial zone took to the streets to protest the factory collapse and poor safety standards for the country's garment workers.

Television reports said that hundreds of protesting workers also clashed with police in Dhaka and the nearby industrial zone of Ashulia. It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries in those clashes.

The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in Rana Plaza employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were in the building when it collapsed.

Searchers worked through the night to probe the jumbled mass of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to people pinned inside.

"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry," said fire official Abul Khayer late Wednesday, as he prepared to work late into the night.

Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said he and his co-workers had gone inside Wednesday morning despite the cracks in the building, after a factory manager gave assurances that it was safe. About an hour later, the building collapsed. The next thing Rahim remembered was regaining consciousness outside.

Police looking for factory owners

Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-storey building but added another three stories illegally.

On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished."

Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the building owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Low wages fuel textile boom

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children's Place and Dress Barn, Britain's Primark, Spain's Mango and Italy's Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was one of its customers.

Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Benetton said in an email to The Associated Press that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers. Wal-Mart said it was investigating and Mango said it had only discussed production of a test sample of clothing with one of the factories.

The November factory fire that killed 112 people drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year textile industry, but Wednesday's collapse highlighted that workers still face danger. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and industry leaders hold great influence in the South Asian nation.

Bangladesh's garment industry was has grown rapidly over the past decade, a boom fuelled by some of the lowest labour costs in the world. The national minimum wage, which was doubled in 2010, stands at $38 per month.

With files from CBC News

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