Maple Express | October 31, 2026: Four dead, two seriously hurt in crash near Guelph

Source: CP24

1. Four killed, two seriously hurt in single-vehicle crash near Guelph

Ontario Provincial Police say four people were killed and two others seriously injured in a single-vehicle crash in Puslinch, just outside Guelph, around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. There were six people in the vehicle; four were pronounced dead at the scene and two were taken to hospital with what police described as serious, life-threatening injuries.

The crash happened on Watson Road South. Photos showed a damaged guard rail before a bend in the road, with a steep slope leading down to a wooded area on the other side, and a mangled vehicle was towed from the scene. At 12 p.m., police warned the stretch between Wellington Road 34 and Maltby Road East could remain closed for another six to eight hours.

Police said an extensive on-scene investigation continues with help from the OPP Traffic Incident Management Enforcement team, Technical Collision Investigators and Reconstructionists, the Emergency Response Team and the Canine Unit. A press conference is scheduled for Sunday morning at the detachment in Rockwood, and anyone who was in the area or lives on Watson Road South and may have dash camera or surveillance video is asked to call Wellington County OPP at 1-888-310-1122.

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2. Cyclists protest Ontario's bike lane removals at Queen's Park

Dozens of cycling advocates and protesters spent Halloween on the lawns of Queen's Park decrying Ontario's decision to keep removing bike lanes in Toronto. The protest came a day after Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria announced Friday that bike lanes along Bloor Street West in Etobicoke had been officially removed.

Sarkaria told CP24 Breakfast the government heard from communities, which is why it moved ahead with the first part of the removal on Bloor Street West, citing low usage of the lanes, with the remainder to come in the next construction cycle. The 1.2-kilometre stretch has caused tension between construction crews and cycling advocates in recent weeks and led to four arrests, largely related to mischief.

Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the unease between protesters and police has caused discomfort in the cycling community, but the mood on Saturday afternoon was optimistic. He said the premier might have taken one kilometre, but people are ready to defend the remaining 18, and the group has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in and appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that allowed the removal of protected bike lanes.

Protesters arrived with decorative bikes and signs reading "Bike Lanes Save Lives," some in Halloween costumes, while volunteers handed out candy. Oda Al-anizi, a disability rights advocate who lives with a spinal cord injury, said an e-bike attachment to his wheelchair has let him use Toronto's bike lanes in recent years, and that a dedicated space makes him feel much safer.

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3. Woman in her 60s struck by vehicle in Scarborough

Toronto police say a woman in her 60s was struck by a vehicle in Scarborough on Saturday afternoon, in the area of Birchmount Road and St. Clair Avenue East around 3:45 p.m.

She was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The driver remained at the scene, and the circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

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4. Stabbing in North York leaves woman with life-threatening injuries

A stabbing in North York has left a woman with life-threatening injuries, Toronto police say.

Emergency crews received a call shortly after 4 p.m. for a stabbing in the area of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue West, and officers located an adult female victim suffering from serious injuries. She was taken to hospital.

Police said there is no threat to public safety and there are no outstanding suspects. The circumstances of the stabbing are not immediately known.

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5. Death cafes help people learn that dying is a part of life

For more than a decade, free events called death cafes have been held in coffee shops, community centres, libraries and even cemeteries across Canada and around the world, helping people get comfortable with the idea that death is a part of life.

Linda Stuart, who started hosting some of the first death cafes in Canada in Toronto in 2013, said death is taboo and uncomfortable to talk about with people you love. She grew up around death: her father worked as a supplier to the funeral industry, and she now works as a funeral celebrant, a secular role similar to what a minister does at a funeral, so volunteering to host death cafes felt like a natural fit.

The format was inspired by Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who championed talking about life's tough issues in informal settings. Jon Underwood, a British man who died in 2017, is credited with founding the movement in 2011 and popularizing it internationally. His guidelines require that death cafes be free to attend, not promotional, with organic and unguided conversation, no guest speakers or themed talks, and hot beverages and refreshments on offer.

Death cafes are also not intended as a space to grieve. Nadine Lavoie, who regularly hosts them in Toronto, explained that grief groups tend to be support groups led by a professional, while at a death cafe facilitators do not lead the conversation but "facilitate the space" and make sure the guidelines are respected. Attendees are told not to make judgments, then split into smaller groups for more intimate conversation.

Questions raised in Stuart's groups included: What is a good death? How do I want my family to feel? What do I want my funeral to look like? She said her groups drew people from age 19 to their 80s, while Lavoie's have ranged from 20 to 100. Lavoie said there is always laughter at the cafes she hosts: "It's not gruesome, but the opposite." Such conversations, she said, make you realize life is not infinite.

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6. B.C.'s permanent daylight time could scramble calendars and appointments

Most of British Columbia will switch to Pacific Time, or PCT, on Sunday when much of North America turns its clocks back an hour, because the province has decided to stay permanently on daylight saving time. Information technology experts warn of missed surgeries, late deliveries and muddled meeting times.

Vancouver Coastal and Island health authorities have said patients should double check their appointments because they may have shifted by one hour. The University of Victoria and the University of B.C. have said staff meetings scheduled on or after Sunday could show the wrong time, especially if they were booked before calendar systems were updated.

Major technology companies including Microsoft and Google have updated their software, but calendar appointments created before the updates may need to be changed manually. M3 Sweatt, a retired Microsoft executive, expects practical challenges for travellers and businesses working between Washington state and B.C. He noted that a four-hour train trip becomes three hours southbound but five hours northbound, and that Teams and Outlook events may not migrate automatically.

Google said calendar events created in certain time zones may appear one hour late on and after Sunday, and asked users to enable software updates since some products, such as Android phones and smartwatches, may still fall back an hour. Darren Coleman, CEO of B.C.-based IT firm Coleman Technologies, expects calendar problems to be widespread even after Sunday, because scheduling software stores meetings with the time zone in place when they were created, and invites with the previous time zone hard-coded cannot be fixed.

Coleman added that door access systems, security cameras and some point-of-sale systems may also be affected: employees may not be able to get into their office building if clocks don't update, and cameras may be off. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has updated its time zone database to reflect the switch to permanent daylight time in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. Luke Bell, of Victoria-based IT provider Smart Dolphins, said preparing clients has been chaotic, since some businesses run very old software they cannot update.

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7. Three B.C. real estate agents fined more than $120,000 combined

Three British Columbia real estate agents have agreed to pay more than $120,000 combined to resolve misconduct allegations stemming from a 2023 transaction in Tulameen, B.C. Ashley Doherty-Tullis, Tyler Willis and Brenda Crawford each entered separate consent order agreements with the B.C. Financial Services Authority over the last two months, admitting their misconduct and agreeing to pay penalties and enforcement expenses.

All three worked for the same brokerage, Haayer Group Ventures Ltd., which operates as Royal LePage Princeton Realty. Doherty-Tullis and Willis were registered as a team, while Crawford was the managing broker. In August 2023 the team took on a retired couple looking to sell their Tulameen home and relocate closer to family elsewhere in the Okanagan Valley.

Doherty-Tullis was the lead agent on the listing. After being contacted by prospective buyers in October 2023, she asked the BCFSA to de-register the team and asked the sellers to sign an addendum removing Willis from the listing, telling them it would let him represent the buyers. Her consent order says she did not advise the sellers of other consequences, such as Willis putting his clients' interests above theirs, or information he gained about the sellers and the property being used for the buyers' best interests.

Willis reached out to the buyers but did not tell them he had previously worked for the sellers. The $800,000 transaction went ahead, but the parties never received an "agreement regarding conflict of interest between clients" form. Willis agreed to a $40,000 penalty plus $9,011.25 representing his commission, $2,300 in enforcement expenses and remedial education; Doherty-Tullis must pay $70,769.68 plus $2,475 in expenses and complete remedial education; Crawford, who failed to ensure the brokerage operated competently under the Real Estate Services Act, agreed to a remedial course and $1,500 in expenses. The total is $126,055.93.

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8. Matt Pavelich, first linesman in Hockey Hall of Fame, dies at 92

Matt Pavelich, the first linesman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, has died at 92. The Hall announced his death Saturday without providing details; his son Mark posted about his father's death on social media Friday night.

Pavelich worked 23 seasons in the NHL and officiated in 19 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 1961 to 1979, taking part in 1,727 regular season and 245 playoff games before serving as the league's supervisor of officials. He went into the Hall in 1987.

Commissioner Gary Bettman called Pavelich a true icon of the profession, saying no linesman in NHL history was more universally respected or widely admired. He said Pavelich personified professionalism and integrity while possessing a warm personal touch that helped him build working relationships with players and coaches.

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9. Bombers rally past Argos 25-22 to reach East final

Dru Brown's 23-yard touchdown pass to Nick Demski with 44 seconds remaining rallied the Winnipeg Blue Bombers past the Toronto Argonauts 25-22 in the CFL East Division semifinal Saturday afternoon at BMO Field, before a season-high crowd of 21,786.

The touchdown capped a 52-yard, five-play drive, and Brown then hit Demski on the two-point convert. The march was set up by former Argo Thiadric Hansen's recovery of Janarion Grant's fumble on a punt return. Winnipeg travels to Montreal for the East final next weekend; the teams split their season series 1-1.

Toronto starter Chad Kelly left with just over nine minutes remaining with an apparent right shoulder injury, after completing 18-of-30 passes for 193 yards and a TD. Nick Arbuckle was two-of-six for 25 yards in relief. Brown was 18-of-30 for 206 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. Toronto's defence forced four turnovers but the offence mustered just three field goals, and with 2:07 to play the Argos punted on third-and-one from their 45-yard line.

Winnipeg is the 14th crossover team, all from the West, since the CFL adopted the format in 1996. Those teams are 6-8 all-time in the East playoffs and none has reached the Grey Cup.

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10. Two Ontario men plead guilty to manslaughter; victim's remains never found

Two Alliston, Ont. men accused of murder pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Friday, Oct. 30, in the April 2023 killing of Derek Perry, whose remains have yet to be recovered. Brothers-in-law Brendon Blanchard, 26, and John "Eddy" Gagnon, 32, entered the pleas about 16 months after provincial police charged them with second-degree murder in the summer of 2025.

An Agreed Statement of Facts says Krystal Carleton was driving Perry, Gagnon and Blanchard to a party on April 16, 2023, when a fight broke out in the back seat of her Ford Escape over a threat Perry made against the men's family members. Both admitted to being heavily intoxicated by alcohol and drugs during the beating. Carleton said she could hear screams from the back seat and that the attack lasted about 15 minutes, until it became clear Perry was dead.

Carleton said she kept her eyes on the road and was told to keep driving. Gagnon and Blanchard admitted stopping at a friend's home to clean up, with Gagnon covered in blood. Carleton eventually drove them more than five hours to Kirkland Lake, where Blanchard's father lived, with plans to dispose of Perry's body, which had been concealed in the back seat of the SUV she later scrapped.

Police said Perry had been struggling with homelessness and was reported missing by loved ones two months later. It is unclear how he died or where his remains were disposed of. The Crown and defence presented a joint submission seeking eight years for both men, less time served in pre-sentence custody; sentencing is scheduled for December, when victim impact statements are expected. Carleton, 37, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder, and those allegations have not been tested in court.

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