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A 19-year-old is accused of stabbing a Sri Lankan family with whom he shared a suburban Ottawa townhouse, killing an infant, three other children and their mother, as well as another resident of the home, in what police believe is the deadliest mass homicide in the capital’s history.
Febrio De-zoysa was charged Thursday with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Police said he was believed to be in Canada as a student but otherwise did not comment on how he knew the family or how he came to be living with them. They also did not speculate on a motive.
The victims were identified as Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanyake, 35; Inuka Wickramasinghe, 7; Ashwini Wickramasinghe, 4; Rinyana Wickramasinghe, 2; Kelly Wickramasinghe, who was 2½ months old; and Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gamini Amarakoon, 40, the other resident whom police described as a friend of the family.
Members of the coroner's office talk at the scene of a homicide where six people were found dead in the Barrhaven suburb of Ottawa on March 7, 2024.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
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ArriveCan contractor says its president joined public service after app work was complete
David Yeo, president of ArriveCan contractor Dalian Enterprises, became a Department of National Defence employee only last year after work on the app was complete and set up a conflict of interest screen so that he would not be involved in the company’s interactions with his new employer, Dalian said in a statement.
The statement, issued Thursday, detailed Mr. Yeo’s history with the Canadian Forces and the Defence Department. It is the first time the company has commented since the department and federal ministers announced last week the government had suspended Mr. Yeo from the public service and stopped all contract work with Dalian.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand told reporters last week that she was “extremely surprised” to learn that the president of a leading contractor on the ArriveCan app for international travellers was also working as a public servant.
A person holds a smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app in a photo illustration made in Toronto, June 29, 2022.Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press
Trudeau condemns ‘hateful or harassing’ behaviour at Middle East protests
Canadians have to a right to protest about the situation in Gaza but not to harass people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, adding that he’s heard from many members of the Jewish community who no longer feel safe in Canada.
Trudeau said Thursday that nobody can remain indifferent to the suffering and anguish in the Gaza Strip, and that many Canadians are worried about their loved ones in the region. But he condemned recent behaviour at protests, including one that led to the cancellation of his official event with the Italian Prime Minister in Toronto last weekend.
Protests, many pro-Palestinian, have been held in cities across Canada and around the world since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others, which triggered an Israeli invasion of Gaza. The assault on the territory has killed more than 30,000 people, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health officials.
Read more:
- Gaza residents die of starvation after months of Israel-Hamas war
- Biden to announce temporary Gaza port for humanitarian aid as ceasefire talks stall
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in Warsaw, Poland, Feb. 26, 2024.Kacper Pempel/Reuters
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Also on our radar
Biden’s State of the Union Address: Without naming Donald Trump, President Joe Biden repeatedly laced into his “predecessor” for threatening to abandon NATO allies, appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned abortion rights, and provoking the Capitol riot that aimed to reverse his re-election defeat.
Pair of eagles take up residence in Toronto for the first time: While the eagles’ unprecedented arrival is being celebrated as a positive sign for the ecosystem, local birders worry that the publicity could draw crowds, leading the eagles to abandon their eggs for more remote regions.
Mexico’s election puts two women at odds, with López Obrador looming behind them: Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez hope to govern a country where, after six years under a polarizing populist, some see this as a contest between democracy and autocracy.
Nickel from China, Indonesia could face tariffs over market manipulation concerns, Ottawa says: Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says Canada and other Western countries should consider imposing tariffs against Indonesia and China because of the potential for market manipulation stemming from their stranglehold on the global nickel market.
Retiring Canada Life president says company poised to double down in wealth management: Jeff Macoun reflects on 43 years in an industry that has seen consolidation, an expansion into wealth and asset management and the rise of digital insurance applications.
Finance ministers signal desire for Canada’s pension funds to invest more at home as CEOs lobby for change: Federal and provincial finance ministers are embracing efforts to spur Canada’s largest pension funds to invest more in the country, but are stopping short of endorsing rule changes advocated by a group of influential business leaders who are pushing for more domestic investment.
Morning markets
Global shares hit record highs on Friday, as investors bet on transatlantic interest rate cuts starting within months and hoped that U.S. payroll numbers before the opening bell on Wall Street point to continued resilience, but not overheating, in the U.S. economy. The Bank of Canada, U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank this week left markets expecting rate cuts beginning in the summer, putting downward pressure on U.S. government bond yields. The Canadian dollar was trading higher at 74.37 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Saskatchewan’s fight against Ottawa pits lawlessness against intransigence
“This round of fighting all started, of course, after the federal Liberals gave an inch on what they previously said was an unassailable carbon price floor on home heating fuels. The three-year pause on the tax for home heating oil was done last October in the name of affordability, as many of the households that use the costly fuel for home heating are energy-poor.” – Kelly Cryderman
Handcuffing pension funds is not the answer to Canada’s economic woes
“Lest there be any doubt, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has (inadvertently) been running a natural experiment. The board administers the assets of the base CPP and the enhanced CPP – the top-up pension plan launched in 2019 – separately. The enhanced CPP has a much greater Canadian weighting; the strategic portfolio framework envisions it with 44 per cent of assets in Canada compared with just 8 per cent for the much larger base CPP. (The actual weighting for each isn’t disclosed.)” – The Editorial Board
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Are you afraid of decorating with colour? Here’s why you need to get over it
Neutrals are chic, but out of touch with our collective desire to find joy in every part of our lives. Gayle MacDonald explores our fear of colour and how it hinders us from expressing ourselves in our homes and lives.
Parents, tell us how you are managing your kids’ phone use
We want to know what you’re doing with kids and cellphones. What are your concerns? Are you hands on or hands off about your kids’ cellphone usage? Do you have specific rules or time limits or places where phones are not allowed? Do you have any secrets to success to share? Or have you given up entirely? Share your story with The Globe here.
Did you meet Brian Mulroney?
The Globe and Mail wants to hear from readers about their stories with the former prime minister. Where and when did you meet him? What do you remember most about that experience? Share your memory by sending an e-mail (and photo) to audience@globeandmail.com.
Moment in time: March 8, 2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears
Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 take part in a prayer service at the Metro Park Hotel in Beijing on April 8, 2014.AFP/Getty Images
The airline industry is renowned for finding out the root cause of crashes and rolling out changes that make air travel, already one of the safest methods of getting around, even safer. But in the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, including two Canadians, finding out what happened has eluded investigators. What is known 10 years after the plane vanished from radar is that the Boeing 777-200ER, which was supposed to have travelled about 5½ hours northeast from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, deviated quickly from its intended flight path. Not long after clearing Malaysian airspace, the plane took a sharp turn southwestward over the South China Sea, and Investigators believe it flew southward for several hours, before running out of fuel and crashing into the Indian Ocean. Multiple search efforts have been launched in the decade since the disappearance in the vicinity of the suspected crash site, but neither the plane nor bodies have been found. In 2015, a piece of debris washed up on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean and was later identified as coming from the Boeing. Several theories have surfaced to try to explain the mystery, including the possibility of terrorism and an intentional crash by the pilot. Niall McGee.
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