WOOD, Allister Sherman

It is with heavy hearts we announce the sudden passing of David “Brian” Smith on Saturday August 25, 2018 at Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg, MB. He was predeceased by his mother Agnes, father Edward and younger brother Ian. Left to mourn, his daughter Ashley (Jay), granddaughter Oceana, stepson Shawn (Kasey), ten siblings Craig, Ted (Christine), Roger (Jeanne), Gail (Gordon deceased) Dennis, Gary, Wayne (Debbie), Kenny, Carol (Steven) MacArthur, Allan (Jackie), Robbie (Keila) and numerous nieces and nephews.

Bob Rae, Canada’s special envoy to the Rohingya crisis, says the international community faces tough legal challenges if it hopes to prosecute Myanmar’s military leaders for genocide against the country’s ethnic Muslim minority.

Rae offered that assessment after a United Nations human rights report released Monday that named six individuals as being responsible for the planned crimes against Rohingya Muslims and marked the UN’s most stinging denunciation of the crisis that erupted last August.

The UN estimates more than 700,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh in a bloody crackdown by Myanmar’s military.

Rae, in his report released earlier this year, said the prosecution of crimes against humanity needed to be pursued and urged Canada to play a leading role.

At the Prince County Hospital on Sunday, August 26th, of Allister Sherman Wood of Mt. Tryon, age 90 years. Beloved husband of Annie (nee Matheson) Wood. Dear father of Allison (Jane) Wood, Paul (Theresa) Wood and Pauline (Jim) Carragher. Grandfather of Connor, Michael (Cherry), and Christopher (Julie) Wood, Matthew, Morgan, Kristen, and Taylor Carragher, Rachel, Jayden, Jaxon,and Kaelan Wood, and great grandfather of Isabella, Nali and Zayden. Resting at the Dawson Funeral Home, Crapaud, with visitation on Wednesday, August 29th, 5- 8 p.m. Funeral service from the Dawson Funeral Home on Thursday at 11 a.m. If so desired memorial donations may be made to South Shore United Church Building Fund, P.E.I. Cancer Society, or Charity of Choice.

While he stopped short of using the genocide label — as have many western governments — Rae said Monday’s finding puts more pressure on the international community to finding a forum to prosecute those named by the UN investigators.

He said that would not be an easy task.

“The challenge is going to be to figure out: how do we create the tribunal to actually have the independence and the capacity to make a determination that will have credibility,” he said.

Rae noted that special tribunals were set up to prosecute war crimes in Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Trudeau government appointed Rae as its special envoy to the crisis.

He made two trips to the region before tabling a report this spring that urged the Liberals to step up spending on the mass migration crisis and play a leading role in the investigation by the International Criminal Court of possible war crimes.

John Asher, the longtime Churchill Downs spokesman and executive known for his love of horse racing and his encyclopedic knowledge of the sport’s most famous race, the Kentucky Derby, died Monday. He was 62.

Asher, who was an awardwinning radio journalist before becoming a widely respected fixture at the Louisville racetrack, died after suffering a heart attack while on vacation with his family in Florida, Churchill Downs said in a release.

His death comes a couple of weeks before the storied track opens its September meet. Churchill will host the seasonending Breeders’ Cup World Championships in November.

The track called Asher “an irreplaceable ambassador” in confirming his death.

“To say that racing has lost one of its giants with the passing of John Asher does not begin to capture the impact this man has had and will continue to have on the Churchill Downs family,” said Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downs racetrack.

“His passion for the Kentucky Derby, horseracing, his WKU (Western Kentucky University) Hilltoppers, great music and above all else his loving family was genuine and infectious,” Flanery added. “Racing has lost an icon.”

Asher and his wife, Dee, were vacationing in Orlando, Florida, at the time of his death, Asher’s brother, Tim Asher, told the Courier Journal.

“Dee said he wasn’t feeling well . and John said, ‘I think I need to go to the hospital,”’ Tim Asher told the Louisville newspaper. “They called an ambulance, and he died on the way to the hospital.”

As word of Asher’s death spread throughout the thoroughbred racing world, two-time Triple Crown winner and fivetime Derby winner Bob Baffert referred to him as “the warm, human face” of Churchill Downs.

“I was always happy to see him,” Baffert wrote. “He was as Kentucky as the Derby and the bluegrass, bourbon and hot browns, and I can’t imagine Derby week without him.”

Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said: “Over the past 20 years, no single person was more closely associated with the Kentucky Derby than John Asher.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer described Asher’s death as heartbreaking.

“The world knows John Asher as the voice of thoroughbred racing and its #1 fan - and he was the best,” Fischer said in a tweet. “I also know him as a strong community leader fighting for those who have little. I will so miss his presence at ↕ChurchillDowns and the streets and boardrooms of Louisville where his total humanity shone like a brilliant first Saturday in May.”

A few blocks away at the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Stadium, athletics spokesman Kenny Klein said, “we lost a good friend” before leading a moment of silence for Asher with assembled media.

When Taylor Swift takes the stage at Detroit’s Ford Field Tuesday night, tens of thousands of fans will likely be singing along to every word.

For one 15-year-old fan who’s attending the show with the help of a nurse from Quebec, that would have been impossible just a few months ago.

Tiffany Kleinschmidt of Waterford, Mich., is a lifelong “Swiftie,” as the pop star’s legions of fans are known. Before she suffered a traumatic brain injury in April, Kleinschmidt could easily sing along to hits like “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space.”

But since that day when she went into cardiac arrest during class, depriving her brain of oxygenated blood, Kleinschmidt has had to relearn basic skills like how to walk, talk and eat. It’s been a painstaking ordeal, but Swift’s music has been a major boost throughout her recovery so far.

So when Quebec-based nurse Laken Tiller donated two tickets to Swift’s Tuesday concert to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, it didn’t take long for officials there to decide who would get them.

Tiller grew up in Windsor, Ont., just across the river from Detroit, but now lives in Granby, Que. She bought two tickets to the Detroit concert during a presale period about a year ago, but later found out her work schedule conflicted with the show. Thankfully, she had backup plans.

“I went to her Chicago show and her New York show,” the 26-year-old Tiller - another confessed “Swiftie” - said in a phone interview from Windsor on Saturday.

“I’m a big fan.”

Tiller could have put her tickets up for sale on the secondary market, but she said it was an “obvious choice” to donate them

Joined by descendants of past presidents, Melania Trump helped plant a sapling from an Eisenhower-era tree on the south grounds of the White House.

The White House says the 12- to 14-foot sapling came from the original Eisenhower oak that still stands, towering over an East Wing garden created by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. to the children’s hospital instead.

“I see tonnes of families who are consumed with their health. When they’re sick and they’re in the hospital, your life is completely turned around. So I wanted a child who’s been in the hospital for a while to be able to relax and take a night off and forget about what’s going on,” she said.

Since that initial donation, which will allow Tiffany and her recreational therapist to attend the show, Tiller has bought and donated an extra pair of tickets so that Tiffany’s mother and sister can go, too.

“That donation that Laken made means a lot to us,” said Dawn Kleinschmidt, who added her daughter “lit up” when she learned she would get to see her idol in person.

Even that basic expression of joy points to the progress Tiffany has made since her injury, which dramatically altered not only her physical and language abilities, but also the way she shows her emotions, according to her recreational therapist.

Dawn Grenier said Tiffany is “beyond thrilled” about the show, and while she can’t jump up and down to show her excitement, “She’s got the best smile. Her smile is what shows us.”

Tiller and Grenier have also been co-ordinating on a plan to get Tiffany to meet Swift faceto-face, even holding a T-shirt decorating contest at the hospital in an effort to make the teen and her family stand out in the crowd.

“I guess Taylor’s mom and her people wander the crowd before the show and during the opening act and look for true Swiftie fans to invite backstage,” said Grenier, who credits Tiller for leading a social media push to make the meeting happen.

“Just going to the concert is a dream for Tiffany .... The topper, obviously, would be if she could meet Taylor.”