All Your Latest News

Dr. Steven Laureys, one of the authors of the study, examines a patient at the University Hospital in Liege, Belgium. In November 2009, Laureys made headlines by finding awareness in a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Yves Logghe/Associated Press)

Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them — findings that push the boundaries of how to assess and care for such people.

The new research suggests that standard tests may overlook patients who have some consciousness, and that someday some kind of communication may be possible.

In the strongest example, a 29-year-old patient was able to answer yes-or-no questions by visualizing specific scenes the doctors asked him to imagine. The two visualizations sparked different brain activity viewed through a scanning machine.

“We were stunned when this happened,” said one study author, Martin Monti of Medical Research Council Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. “I find it literally amazing. This was a patient who was believed to be vegetative for five years.”

Ever since a research paper four years ago showed apparent signs of awareness in a vegetative patient — one who was included in the new study — families of patients have been clamouring for brain scans, said Dr. James Bernat of Dartmouth Medical School, a spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology.

In fact, a spokeswoman for a patient advocacy group said the organization will urge families to ask about the type of brain imaging used by the researchers.

But experts said more study is needed before the specialized brain scans could be used routinely. “It’s still a research tool,” Bernat said.

Experts also emphasized that only a few tested patients showed evidence of awareness. And they said it’s not clear what degree of consciousness and mental abilities the signs imply.

Response limited to traumatic brain injuries

They also noted that the positive signals appeared only in people with traumatic brain injury — not in patients whose brains had been deprived of oxygen, as can happen when the heart stops. Terri Schiavo, the vegetative woman at the centre of a U.S. controversy before her feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die in 2005, suffered oxygen deprivation.

The new work, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, came from researchers in Britain and Belgium.

One author is Dr. Steven Laureys at the University of Liege in Belgium. He made headlines in November by showing awareness in Rom Houben, a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Houben was excluded from the new study because he could not keep his head still enough in the brain scanner to produce a usable scan; his awareness was revealed by bedside behavioural tests.)

The new study used brain scanning called functional MRI, or fMRI, for 23 patients in a vegetative state and 31 diagnosed as minimally conscious.

Patients are diagnosed as being in a vegetative state if they are tested and found unable to do such things as move on command or follow a moving object with their eyes. (Their eyes are open; in contrast, comatose people’s eyes are closed.) Minimally conscious patients show signs of awareness, but they are minimal and intermittent.

While in the fMRI scanner, the patients were asked to imagine two situations. One was that they were standing on a tennis court, hitting a ball to an instructor; the other was that they were navigating familiar streets or walking from room to room in their homes. The two tasks produce different patterns of brain activity in healthy people.

The study found those patterns appeared in five patients when they were asked to imagine the scenes. Four of those patients had been diagnosed as vegetative.

“It just says how much we can learn from looking directly at somebody’s brain,” Monti said.

But he said the results cannot be taken to indicate how commonly a vegetative brain holds hidden signs of awareness. And the findings certainly don’t mean all vegetative patients have that capacity, he said.

The 29-year-old, who was injured in a traffic accident, was asked simple questions about his life, such as “Is your father’s name Alexander?” He was told to answer “yes” or “no” by thinking about one or the other of the imagined scenes about playing tennis or navigating streets or his home. For five of the six questions, his brain activity matched the correct answer.

Monti and Laureys said it is not clear whether such patients have the mental capacity to answer more important but complicated questions, such as whether they wish to go on living.

“I’m trying to figure out what is the best way to tackle this,” Laureys said.

Laureys also said fMRI technology isn’t practical for routine assessments of vegetative patients or for enabling communication. So he is working to develop a more portable and less expensive approach based on sampling brain waves.

Susan Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, an advocacy group, said the study means there’s hope for people with brain injury.

She said her group will now add fMRI testing to the list of things they recommend families ask about after a serious brain injury.

Connors said some people might want to use such brain scans to help them decide whether to keep a loved one with a brain injury alive. But that shouldn’t be the deciding factor, she said, adding that families are still going to have to rely on the person’s wishes, religious and cultural beliefs and medical advice.

“This is going to give us more information, but it’s not going to give us the final answer,” she said.

Dr. Steven Laureys, one of the authors of the study, examines a patient at the University Hospital in Liege, Belgium. In November 2009, Laureys made headlines by finding awareness in a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Yves Logghe/Associated Press)

Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them — findings that push the boundaries of how to assess and care for such people.

The new research suggests that standard tests may overlook patients who have some consciousness, and that someday some kind of communication may be possible.

In the strongest example, a 29-year-old patient was able to answer yes-or-no questions by visualizing specific scenes the doctors asked him to imagine. The two visualizations sparked different brain activity viewed through a scanning machine.

“We were stunned when this happened,” said one study author, Martin Monti of Medical Research Council Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. “I find it literally amazing. This was a patient who was believed to be vegetative for five years.”

Ever since a research paper four years ago showed apparent signs of awareness in a vegetative patient — one who was included in the new study — families of patients have been clamouring for brain scans, said Dr. James Bernat of Dartmouth Medical School, a spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology.

In fact, a spokeswoman for a patient advocacy group said the organization will urge families to ask about the type of brain imaging used by the researchers.

But experts said more study is needed before the specialized brain scans could be used routinely. “It’s still a research tool,” Bernat said.

Experts also emphasized that only a few tested patients showed evidence of awareness. And they said it’s not clear what degree of consciousness and mental abilities the signs imply.

Response limited to traumatic brain injuries

They also noted that the positive signals appeared only in people with traumatic brain injury — not in patients whose brains had been deprived of oxygen, as can happen when the heart stops. Terri Schiavo, the vegetative woman at the centre of a U.S. controversy before her feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die in 2005, suffered oxygen deprivation.

The new work, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, came from researchers in Britain and Belgium.

One author is Dr. Steven Laureys at the University of Liege in Belgium. He made headlines in November by showing awareness in Rom Houben, a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Houben was excluded from the new study because he could not keep his head still enough in the brain scanner to produce a usable scan; his awareness was revealed by bedside behavioural tests.)

The new study used brain scanning called functional MRI, or fMRI, for 23 patients in a vegetative state and 31 diagnosed as minimally conscious.

Patients are diagnosed as being in a vegetative state if they are tested and found unable to do such things as move on command or follow a moving object with their eyes. (Their eyes are open; in contrast, comatose people’s eyes are closed.) Minimally conscious patients show signs of awareness, but they are minimal and intermittent.

While in the fMRI scanner, the patients were asked to imagine two situations. One was that they were standing on a tennis court, hitting a ball to an instructor; the other was that they were navigating familiar streets or walking from room to room in their homes. The two tasks produce different patterns of brain activity in healthy people.

The study found those patterns appeared in five patients when they were asked to imagine the scenes. Four of those patients had been diagnosed as vegetative.

“It just says how much we can learn from looking directly at somebody’s brain,” Monti said.

But he said the results cannot be taken to indicate how commonly a vegetative brain holds hidden signs of awareness. And the findings certainly don’t mean all vegetative patients have that capacity, he said.

The 29-year-old, who was injured in a traffic accident, was asked simple questions about his life, such as “Is your father’s name Alexander?” He was told to answer “yes” or “no” by thinking about one or the other of the imagined scenes about playing tennis or navigating streets or his home. For five of the six questions, his brain activity matched the correct answer.

Monti and Laureys said it is not clear whether such patients have the mental capacity to answer more important but complicated questions, such as whether they wish to go on living.

“I’m trying to figure out what is the best way to tackle this,” Laureys said.

Laureys also said fMRI technology isn’t practical for routine assessments of vegetative patients or for enabling communication. So he is working to develop a more portable and less expensive approach based on sampling brain waves.

Susan Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, an advocacy group, said the study means there’s hope for people with brain injury.

She said her group will now add fMRI testing to the list of things they recommend families ask about after a serious brain injury.

Connors said some people might want to use such brain scans to help them decide whether to keep a loved one with a brain injury alive. But that shouldn’t be the deciding factor, she said, adding that families are still going to have to rely on the person’s wishes, religious and cultural beliefs and medical advice.

“This is going to give us more information, but it’s not going to give us the final answer,” she said.

Kathy O’Rourke prepares to throws skip rock on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Kathy O’Rourke took sole possession of first place the hard way Wednesday night at the Tournament of Hearts, defeating none other than the two-time defending champion.

O’Rourke, competing in her first Hearts as skip and second overall, led Prince Edward Island to a 9-5 victory over Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones in Draw 14 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

O’Rourke rallied from 5-3 down with six unanswered points — two in each of the last three ends — to jolt Jones and improve her record to 7-2 with three draws remaining.

O’Rourke whipped Quebec’s Eve Belisle 7-3 earlier Thursday.

“After last night’s game against Ontario, we didn’t play very well,” O’Rourke said. “They beat us pretty soundly.

“We got together this morning and just said, ‘Girls, we’ve got to start making shots or people are going to start beating us.’ We came out really strong this morning against Quebec and just tried to carry that through against Team Canada.”

“Obviously, they played very well,” conceded Jones, who curls out of Winnipeg. “We just had the bad finish to the game and that’s not characteristic of us.

“It was a bad ninth end. I wish we could play it over again but we can’t, so we’ll have to come out sharper tomorrow.”

Jones, who beat Belisle 9-4 in eight ends, is in a three-way tie for second place at 6-3 with fellow Manitoban Jill Thurston and Ontario’s Krista McCarville.

Thurston prevailed 10-5 over McCarville and trimmed Sharon Cormier of the Northwest Territories/Yukon 8-6, but not before Cormier upset McCarville 7-5 in the afternoon draw.

“We’re still in the hunt which is a good thing,” McCarville said. “We only have three losses, so it’s still in our control.

“We don’t have to worry about other teams winning or losing for us. It’s still in our hands.”

Ditto for British Columbia’s Kelly Scott and Amber Holland of Saskatchewan, both at 5-4.

Holland, who won a national junior title in 1992, slipped past Scott 5-4 in the morning draw and later stifled Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery 5-2.

Scott, a former world champion and two-time Hearts winner, regrouped in the nightcap, scoring two in the 10th end and the winning point in the 11th in an 8-7 victory over McConnery.

Belisle, meantime, is deadlocked at 4-5 with New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly and Shelley Nichols of Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by Cormier and Alberta’s Valerie Sweeting — both at 3-6 — and McConnery (1-8).

With files from The Canadian Press

Kathy O’Rourke prepares to throws skip rock on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Kathy O’Rourke took sole possession of first place the hard way Wednesday night at the Tournament of Hearts, defeating none other than the two-time defending champion.

O’Rourke, competing in her first Hearts as skip and second overall, led Prince Edward Island to a 9-5 victory over Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones in Draw 14 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

O’Rourke rallied from 5-3 down with six unanswered points — two in each of the last three ends — to jolt Jones and improve her record to 7-2 with three draws remaining.

O’Rourke whipped Quebec’s Eve Belisle 7-3 earlier Thursday.

“After last night’s game against Ontario, we didn’t play very well,” O’Rourke said. “They beat us pretty soundly.

“We got together this morning and just said, ‘Girls, we’ve got to start making shots or people are going to start beating us.’ We came out really strong this morning against Quebec and just tried to carry that through against Team Canada.”

“Obviously, they played very well,” conceded Jones, who curls out of Winnipeg. “We just had the bad finish to the game and that’s not characteristic of us.

“It was a bad ninth end. I wish we could play it over again but we can’t, so we’ll have to come out sharper tomorrow.”

Jones, who beat Belisle 9-4 in eight ends, is in a three-way tie for second place at 6-3 with fellow Manitoban Jill Thurston and Ontario’s Krista McCarville.

Thurston prevailed 10-5 over McCarville and trimmed Sharon Cormier of the Northwest Territories/Yukon 8-6, but not before Cormier upset McCarville 7-5 in the afternoon draw.

“We’re still in the hunt which is a good thing,” McCarville said. “We only have three losses, so it’s still in our control.

“We don’t have to worry about other teams winning or losing for us. It’s still in our hands.”

Ditto for British Columbia’s Kelly Scott and Amber Holland of Saskatchewan, both at 5-4.

Holland, who won a national junior title in 1992, slipped past Scott 5-4 in the morning draw and later stifled Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery 5-2.

Scott, a former world champion and two-time Hearts winner, regrouped in the nightcap, scoring two in the 10th end and the winning point in the 11th in an 8-7 victory over McConnery.

Belisle, meantime, is deadlocked at 4-5 with New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly and Shelley Nichols of Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by Cormier and Alberta’s Valerie Sweeting — both at 3-6 — and McConnery (1-8).

With files from The Canadian Press

Film production in B.C. got a boost Wednesday with news of an increased tax subsidy from the province. (CBC)

The provincial government is offering new tax breaks for video game makers and expanding tax credits for film companies to try to keep work in B.C.

Under the changes, tax credits on the labour costs of foreign movie and TV productions will jump to 33 per cent from 25 per cent, Finance Minister Colin Hansen and Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger announced Wednesday.

A new tax credit of 17.5 per cent will be offered on the labour costs of video game makers, while the credit for digital animation and visual effects makers will rise to 17.5 per cent from 15 per cent.

The new tax credits — which still need to be approved by the legislature — will help keep B.C. competitive in an industry that contributes more than $1 billion to the provincial economy each year, the ministers said.

“This will serve to help keep B.C. at the forefront of the North American film and television industry, while providing a significant boost for video game production in our province,” Krueger said in a statement.

The video game developer Electronic Arts cut hundreds of jobs at its offices in Burnaby, B.C., in November. The company at the time cited the tough market for game sales as a result of the economic downturn.

With files from The Canadian Press

The Quebec government is changing immigration rules to allow more people to bring in family members from Haiti, in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake in January.

A new program will allow Quebecers to sponsor their own children over the age of 21 as well as brothers, sisters, those siblings’ spouses and their children, said Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James.

Previously, Quebecers had only been allowed to sponsor parents, grandparents and children under the age of 21.

Quebec says it will accept a maximum of 3,000 new immigrants under the special measures. However, the province will not take in more immigrants overall than it had planned for the year, the minister said Wednesday .

“We wanted to be responsible,” she said. “From the moment we open it to more than that, we won’t be able to integrate them [into society] and we don’t help anyone by doing that. Quebec alone isn’t able to help all of Haiti.”

Sponsor eligibility changes

Sponsors have to have permanent resident status or Canadian citizenship and all applications will still have to be approved by Canadian immigration officials.

But until now, an individual or a couple wanting to sponsor a family member had to demonstrate the financial means to support a new immigrant for five years. Now, if additional funds are necessary, the province will allow anyone to act as a co-sponsor.

“Anyone who’s residing in Quebec can now say ‘You know what? I think you’re great. I know this is a situation that’s very difficult and this is my way to be able to contribute. I will co-sign,’” James said.

The relaxed criteria for sponsorship and the new co-signer option will be in effect from Feb. 17 to Dec. 31, 2010.

James said immigrants won’t be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, immigration officials will check the applicant’s level of distress and capacity to integrate into Quebec society.

The province will also help students from Haiti who are attending colleges and universities in Quebec by exempting them from paying tuition fees for the winter session.

Delays feared

Many in Montreal’s large Haitian community welcome the news but worry about how long it will take to get their relatives to Canada.

“If it takes six months, eight months, it will be too long, ” said Marjorie Villefrance, program director of the community organization La Maison D’Haiti.

Quebec’s immigration minister acknowledged that even before the earthquake, 1,500 Haitians were waiting to have their immigration applications processed. James said Canada would not take any shortcuts in ensuring all applicants met the necessary health and security criteria.

“There’s a part of the immigration process that we do want to protect. …Verifications have to be made and you understand that at this moment, it’s difficult to do this.”

Raptors superstar Chris Bosh (4) shoots over Brooks Lopez in a 108-99 victory over the visiting Nets on Wednesday night. (Ron Turenne/Getty Images)

Chris Bosh scored 20 points, Sonny Weems set career highs with 14 points and 11 rebounds and the short-handed Toronto Raptors beat the New Jersey Nets 108-99 on Wednesday night in Toronto, their fifth win in six games.

A night after scoring a career-high 34 points in a loss at Indiana, Andrea Bargnani had 20 points for Toronto.

Antoine Wright had a season-high 18 points and Jarrett Jack finished with 17 points and nine assists, despite flu-like symptoms, as Toronto topped 100 points for the 15th consecutive game.

Toronto is 10-5 in that span.

The Raptors were without guard Jose Calderon (right ankle), guard DeMar DeRozan (right ankle) and forward Hedo Turkoglu (facial fracture).

Calderon had an MRI on Wednesday night, while Turkoglu is being fitted for a protective mask after fracturing the orbital bone beneath his right eye in Sunday’s win over Indiana. Turkoglu and DeRozan are expected to return Sunday against Sacramento.

Yi Jianlian and Devin Harris each scored 15 points for the Nets, who lost their fourth straight to drop to 4-44.

Former Raptors forward Kris Humphries had 13 points and 11 rebounds. Courtney Lee added 14 points, Brook Lopez had 12 and Jarvis Hayes had 11 for New Jersey.

The Raptors used an 11-1 run late in the third quarter and early in the fourth to make it 89-79 with 9:39 remaining, forcing the Nets to call timeout. Lee hit a three-point basket and Hayes made a jumpshot as New Jersey cut it to 97-90 with 5:45 left, but Jack replied with a three-pointer for Toronto, pushing the lead back to double digits.

Toronto led 15-4 early and was up 28-22 after one but went cold to start the second, missing nine straight field-goal attempts as the Nets jumped in front with a 20-3 run, taking a 42-31 lead.

Jack ended the drought with a layup at 5:55 of the second, sparking a 15-4 Toronto run as the Raptors tied it at 46-46 with 3:28 left in the quarter. Toronto led 57-56 at the half.

Bargnani scored nine points in the third, but Yi had 10 to keep the Nets close. Toronto led 83-78 heading into the fourth.

New Jersey fell to 1-24 on the road.

Ottawa forward Jason Spezza fires a shot over Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller’s shoulder late in the second period on Wednesday. (David Duprey/Associated Press)

It was only fitting that captain Daniel Alfredsson would notch the winner late in the third period as the Ottawa Senators earned the first 10-game winning streak in franchise history with a 4-2 road victory in Buffalo on Wednesday night.

The longest-serving Senator scored with 59.7 seconds left, the beneficiary at the side of the net of a fake slapshot from rookie Erik Karlsson.

Alfredsson had the easy putaway and then notched his 16th of the season into an empty net to seal the result.

Jason Spezza and Brian Elliott appeared set to fuel the Senators yet again to victory well into the third, but the Sabres had scored goals just 27 seconds apart later in the period to rally from a 2-0 deficit.

Spezza scored twice and added an assist, and now has scored in each of his last seven games. He bettered a mark he held with Dany Heatley.

Ryan Shannon assisted on both Spezza goals.

Ottawa set a new franchise record with a ninth win on Saturday against Montreal and they came out a bit flat after the three-day layoff. Elliott was there to shut the door as the Senators were outshot 13-5 in the frame.

The Senators are now just three points behind Buffalo for the Northeast Division lead and third place in the Eastern Conference. The margin was 11 points just over two weeks ago.

Ottawa can reduce the gap even further on Thursday as they have a home date at Scotiabank Place against the Vancouver Canucks. The Sens will have played three more games than Buffalo by the end of Thursday.

The result kept two other streaks alive. Ottawa has beaten Buffalo eight consecutive times, including all four matchups this season.

For his part, Elliott tied his own team record of eight consecutive victories, set last year. It’s a pretty mean feat considering Elliott has just 66 NHL games to his credit.

Elliott made 34 saves and lowered his goals-against average during the winning streak to a glistening 1.24.

Buffalo had not lost in regulation at HSBC Arena in its previous 12 outings. Andrej Sekera and Tim Connolly scored to rally the Sabres, with Ryan Miller stopping 34 shots.

The Sabres had a bout of sustained pressure midway through the first. Jochen Hecht fired a backhander to test Elliott, while a follow-up attempt by Buffalo ended up bouncing on Ottawa’s goal line until Chris Phillips cleared it to safety.

Buffalo’s momentum was halted by an undisciplined penalty, but Ottawa couldn’t score on the power play. Karlsson’s slapshot from the point was muzzled by Miller.

It was a brief turn in momentum in the period. Connolly forced Elliott to make a pad save, and the Senator netminder later stopped Clarke MacArthur on the doorstep.

In the final minute of the period on a Buffalo power play, Derek Roy’s quick backhander couldn’t get past the Ottawa goalie.

Buffalo kept the pressure on early in the second, but the Senators started to find their legs.

Milan Michalek hit the post, with Miller stretching to make a glove save on Alex Kovalev.

Sabres defenceman Toni Lydman got caught in the Ottawa end, and the puck was turned up ice for the first goal of the game.

Spezza skated down the right side and fired a bullet under the crossbar at 13:38 of the second.

Ottawa had a couple of chances early in the third to add insurance. Kovalev broke through the line of defence but was halted by Miller, while Michalek missed the net on a 2-on-1.

Spezza would get the job done again. After showing what kind of shot he possesses on the first goal, this time it was his stickhandling that was on display.

He manoeuvred through the right circle and outwaited Miller, pulling wide and finding room between the goalie and the post for a 2-0 lead at 5:59 of the third.

It appeared Elliott would never be beat after he stoned Thomas Vanek with a glove save, but seconds later defenceman Sekera took the puck from the point after a clean face off win, skating in from the right side and beating Elliott at 7:17.

Sekera had spent the past several games in the press box, and was inserted in the lineup over veteran Steve Montador.

The Sabres struck again quickly. Buffalo (32-16-7) pounced in a neutral zone battle to establish position. Connolly gained the Ottawa blue line and fired a shot over Elliott’s glove.

Ottawa appeared in deep trouble after Spezza took a penalty on the next shift, but it was Ottawa with two great short-handed chances. Alfredsson and Chris Kelly could not beat Miller, however.

The teams traded chances the rest of the way. Spezza had a shot at a hat trick, while rookie defenceman Tyler Myers was foiled in the slot.

Ottawa (32-21-4) appeared headed to their second straight overtime after winning the first eight of their streak in regulation, but Swedes Karlsson and Alfredsson combined to get the job done.

Mike Komisarek will schedule season-endng shoulder surgery. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Mike Komisarek’s first season with the Toronto Maple Leafs has ended much earlier than expected.

Komisarek, sidelined since Jan. 2, learned Wednesday that he requires season-ending shoulder surgery.

Although the rugged rearguard resumed skating within a week of suffering the injury, he wasn’t able to receive medical clearance for full-contact drills.

“Our team doctors have recommended this after a determined effort to rehab the injury without surgery,” he said in a statement. “Having this done immediately is the right thing to do for the Leafs.”

Komisarek, 28, also confirmed that he will not play for the United States at the Vancouver Olympics.

“I am truly sorry that I will not be able to represent my country,” he said.

Komisarek managed just four assists and 40 penalty minutes in 34 games with Toronto, which signed him to a five-year, $22.5-million US contract last July 1.

Komisarek has posted 12 goals and 62 points with 536 penalty minutes in 395 NHL games since he was drafted seventh overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2001.

He plans to meet informally with the media on Thursday morning (11 a.m. ET).

With files from The Canadian Press

Fredy Villanueva was fatally shot on Aug. 2008 by police officer Jean-Loup Lapointe. (CBC)

The police officer who shot 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva told a coroner’s inquest Wednesday that he was cornered, without backup, and afraid his gun would be stolen from behind.

Jean-Loup Lapointe described pulling up to what he believed was an illegal dice game in Montreal North on Aug. 9, 2008.

Lapointe said he got out of the car and warned members of the group to stay put. Among them, Lapointe said, he saw two men he believed were street gang members, including Villanueva’s older brother, Dany.

Lapointe told the inquest that Dany Villanueva first tried to run, and then returned and began behaving aggressively. In response, Lapointe said, he tried to wrestle the older Villanueva to the ground in order to arrest him.

Approximately 60 protesters gathered outside the Montreal courthouse where the police officer who shot Fredy Villanueva is testifying before a coroner’s inquest. (CBC)

Dany Villanueva was hitting him in the face, said Lapointe, and kicking at his partner, Stéphanie Pilotte. All the while Lapointe said he heard the other young men Villanueva had been playing dice close behind him.

Lapointe said he felt trapped next to his police cruiser. He explained that he then felt someone go for his belt and another reach for his neck.

“I couldn’t wait any longer,” he testified. “I made the decision to fire.”

In total, Lapointe says 15 seconds passed between the time he called for backup and the time Pilotte called an ambulance while Fredy Villanueva lay dying.

When Lapointe described the moment he fired, there was a gasp of dismay in the court room. André Perreault, the Quebec Court Judge overseeing the inquest, told spectators to leave if they couldn’t contain their emotions.

Perreault pointed to Fredy Villanueva’s parents, who have attended the inquest throughout, as models of dignity.

Dany Villanueva and his sister cried as Lapointe went on to describe the panic that ensued. He testified that Fredy’s cousin Marta was screaming inconsolably and that a man he’d said a friendly hello to just minutes before ran toward him, yelling over and over “What have you done, Lapointe?”

T-shirts questioned

As the testimony began Wednesday morning, more than two dozen people lifted up their sweaters to reveal pictures of the slain teen. Lapointe’s lawyer raised an objection to Perreault.

Perreault had previously warned the court that no demonstrations — including T-shirts with anti-police slogans — would be permitted at the inquest. The judge said the message on the T-shirts appeared to be about remembrance and that he would allow their presence.

Perreault said his main concern was the behaviour of those attending the inquest,

Anti-police demonstrations

Around noon, approximately 60 protesters — including some of those who wore Villanueva T-shirts in the courtroom — gathered outside the courthouse. Some waved signs accusing Lapointe of being an executioner.

Organizers said they wanted to protest the special treatment Lapointe is being given, including the four body guards looking out for him.