Alan Thicke dead at 69

Alan Thicke has died at the age of 69. He suffered the heart attack while he was playing hockey with his 19-year-old son Carter, entertainment website TMZ reported. Born in Kirkland Lake, Ont., Thicke wore many hats during his career, from hosting talk shows and writing for TV series and specials for comedians such as Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby, to composing the theme songs to The Wheel of Fortune, The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes.

The Vinyl Cafe's Stuart McLean suspends show to focus on cancer treatment

The Vinyl Cafe host and writer Stuart McLean is suspending his popular radio show to focus on his cancer treatment, CP reports.
In a post on his website, the bestselling author, journalist and humorist says that he had figured treatment would be "swift" when he was diagnosed with melanoma, a skin cancer, a year ago.
However, McLean says that his first round of immunotherapy treatment last winter was not completely successful, so he'll undergo another round in the new year.
"What can I say … things don't always go exactly as planned," he wrote.
Rather than air repeats of his program — which features stories, essays and music — McLean says he will instead step aside to make room for others to share their work.

Journalists seek asylum in Canada amid Turkish crackdown

The Star's Nicholas Keung reports:

"In March, shortly after the Turkish government took over Zaman, the country’s best-selling English daily, the paper’s political writer Arslan Ayan lost his job.

"In the days after a short-lived failed coup on July 15, more media outlets were shut down with more journalists arrested and jailed. Fearing repercussions from his critical writings of the regime, Ayan fled Istanbul to stay at his parents’ home in a small Turkish town.

"On August 1, he said, police came to the house and seized his books and computer. By the time his neighbours saw the return of the authorities the next day, Ayan had made it back to Istanbul to find a way out of Turkey.

"With a still-valid U.S. visa, he flew to New York on August 5 to join a contingent of Turkish journalists seeking protection abroad, and arrived Toronto via Montreal on October 10.

"Ayan is among at least 15 Turkish journalists who have fled to Canada in the last few months seeking asylum. Many have fled to Africa, to countries like Chad and Tanzania where visas are not required."

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John Badham dead at 79

John Badham, long-time sports announcer at Ottawa’s CFRA and CHEX radio in Peterborough, has died at age 79. He had been battling cancer for a number of years.
Ottawa Citizen obit

Susan Delacourt on the shrinking Ottawa press gallery

Susan Delacourt writes in the Star:

"What if they held a press conference on Parliament Hill and no one showed up?

"Actually, that’s always been a possibility, but the chances of it happening are a bit greater these days, with the dwindling ranks of reporters on the Hill.

"This week, we learned some hard numbers. According to an iPolitics analysis of data provided by the parliamentary press gallery, the number of accredited journalists on the Hill is the lowest it has been in 22 years.

Gallery membership this month stands at 318, a sharp decline from its peak of 377 journalists in 2002. And as the iPolitics report notes, you have to back to 1994 to find membership numbers as low as they are today.

"To put this in some context: the House of Commons has 43 more members of Parliament than it had 22 years ago, to reflect Canada’s growing population in those two decades. The press gallery, on the other hand, has been cut by about 15 per cent."

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