Blog Posts by Alina Seagal

Don Cherry's in the spotlight again, this time over his stance on women in rooms with naked men. The long-time CBC hockey commentator said that women belong "on a pedestal" and have no business in the men's locker-rooms.

"I don't feel women are equal," Cherry said during his Coach's Corner segment on Saturday.

"I feel they're above us. I think they're on a pedestal and they should not be walking in when naked guys are walking in. And some guys take advantage of it and I don't think [they] should be."

The comment came during a discussion of Chicago Blackhawks' Duncan Keith and his controversial exchange with Team 1040's female reporter Karen Thomson.

[ Related: Keith says no sexism intended in sharp comments to reporter ]

Watch Cherry's rant (starting at 2:20 min) and his co-host Ron MacLean's comic reaction in the video below:

Cherry, a hockey broadcaster on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, made a name as a colourful media personality in Canada. And it wasn't simply because of his

Read More »from Don Cherry questions female reporters’ right to enter locker rooms

In a twist befitting a movie plot, two men suspended from a helicopter managed to escape from a Quebec prison on Sunday afternoon. It may have been a first for Quebec, but the daring freedom run didn't last very long.

Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, who allegedly has ties to the Hells Angels, was caught along with two suspects by dinner time. The second prisoner, Danny Provencal, was tracked down just an hour later. The surrounded second fugitive surrendered early on Monday morning, the Globe and Mail reports.

The two high-security prisoners had escaped from the Saint-Jérôme detention centre, about 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal, around 2:30 p.m. EDT. 

According to CBC, the helicopter hovered over the area until Hudon-Barbeau, 36, and Provencal, 33, climbed on board using a rope or a cable. One of the witnesses described the daylight escape as “a James Bond moment” to CTV.

“The inmates came out and appeared to attach themselves to cables that were attached to the helicopter,” CTV

Read More »from Prisoners escape from Quebec jail in a helicopter, get arrested again

Does this look like Damascus? Journalists at Denmark's TV2 channel thought so when they chose to run it to illustrate a news report about the country.

But, as some avid gamers know, the shot is actually from an Assassin’s Creed video game.

[ Related: Globe’s take on historically inaccurate Assassin’s Creed III sparks online free-for-all ]

TV2 head of news Jacob Nybroe made a statement this weekend, admitting that the image was used mistakenly after employees found it online and thought it showed Damascus. Photos of Syria, peppered with crumbling walls and sparse greenery, aren't always stunning. So it's easy to get excited about an Arabian Nights-style image. You can see it featured behind the anchor in the video here.

"Nybroe says it was a terrible mistake and a 'reminder to us all of the importance of verifying the sources of pictures,'" the Times of Israel reports.

Speculations about the origins of the image spread through social media websites and had since made international

Read More »from ‘Assassin’s Creed’ image mistakenly used to illustrate news story on Syria

From a raging explosion at a fireworks warehouse to sharks tumbling to the floor of a shopping mall, we've seen some great videos this week. Here are some of our favourites:

1. Letters to Santa Claus reveal desperate need

Letters to Santa Claus Reveal More Than Toys on Christmas Lists

Every winter, U.S. Post Office workers read thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole, Alaska." They select messages expressing particularly strong need and connect them with groups and individuals ready to create Christmas miracles. The post office's "Letters to Santa" program has been running the operation for the past 100 years and this year, they've seen some heart-wrenching requests on kids' Christmas lists. One 13-year-old asked for nothing but bed covers to stay warm. Another 12-year-old just asked Santa to bring a gift for his single mother to reward her for the hard work. We are glad that more than one Santa is ready to answer such pleas.

2. Clever mouse trades coins for

Read More »from Must-see videos of the week – Dec. 28

Last night's powerful quake that struck off Haida Gwaii was the largest one since 1949 in Canada. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake off British Columbia's north-central coast hit at 8:04 p.m. PT, followed by a string of aftershocks, evacuations and tsunami warnings.

Though the warnings were cancelled on Sunday morning, the residents still remain rattled by last night's events as strong aftershocks hit.

In Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, residents saw household objects falling over and the floors trembling.

"You could barely stand. The house was just moving, you could physically see the floor moving," said Stephen Grosse, fire chief in Masset on Haida Gwaii, according to the Globe and Mail.

They didn't wait for an official evacuation notification — people started loading the vehicles and making their way to the higher ground.

Read More »from Earthquake off B.C. coast precursor to the Big One?

CBC photoHave you ever had a total stranger pay for your purchase before walking away? Turns out, many people placing orders across Canada have experienced this kind gesture.

On Saturday, we ran a Maclean's story of drive through goers dabbling in the art of pouring it forward at Tim Hortons: Winnipeg motorists paying for lunch and coffee orders of the strangers lined up behind them. It may be spreading through the city now, but the tradition of "paying it forward" has been around for a while — for centuries, according to Maclean's.

One Yahoo! Canada News reader explains the practice was popular at the Golden Gate Bridge toll booth in the '70s. And based on other responses, this trend's been rolling through our country for a while, too.

[ More Good News: Scott Sowle provides footwear for the homeless ]

Suzzanne McDonald, from Guelph, Ont., wrote that she saw quite a few customers do so during her five-year stint at Tim Hortons.

For the past eight Decembers, Ryan Berry's coworkers have been

Read More »from ‘Pour it forward’ stories of kindness from Canadian streets

A deadly mass shooting broke out in a spa across from a major mall in a Milwaukee suburb on Sunday, Oct. 21.

Three people were killed and several others were taken to a hospital, police said. Authorities locked down the area around Brookfield Square Mall to search for a suspect who was later found dead. It is not yet clear if the lone gunman is one of the three fatalities.

Police identified the shooter as 45-year-old Radcliffe Franklin Haughton of Brown Deer, Wisconsin. Online court records showed a temporary restraining order was issued against Haughton in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Oct. 8 because of a domestic abuse complaint.

The shootings began around 11 a.m. at the Azana Salon & Spa, located in a middle- to upper-class community west of Milwaukee. An eyewitness described the scene to the Journal Sentinel. As customers fled from the 9,000-square-foot spa building, one woman ran out into traffic, she was screaming and pounding on cars. The witness told the media

Read More »from Mass shooting near Wisconsin mall turns deadly

Felix Baumgartner after his mission was aborted in Roswell, N.M., on Oct. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Red Bull Stratos, Joerg Mitter)

Watch Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner skydive from 38 kilometres (24 miles) above Roswell, New Mexico.

As the Red Bull Stratos project began, Baumgartner was lifted in a capsule attached to a giant helium balloon on Sunday, Oct. 14.

In a specially made suit, he is attempting the highest parachute jump in history, hoping to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.

"The near absence of air at this high altitude means he should break the speed of sound as he falls - a velocity in excess of 690mph (1,110km/h)," according to the BBC.

[ Related: Photos of Baumgartner's supersonic jump ]

The 43-year-old has been training for five years to make this jump.

Baumgartner's ascent is expected to take up to three hours. His descent, however, will only last for about 10 minutes — half of it will be in freefall, without a parachute. According to the CBC, he "is expected to break the sound barrier in the first 30 seconds after leaving the capsule."

[ Related: 5 Ways skydiving

Read More »from Live: Watch Felix Baumgartner skydive, hoping to break sound barrier