CTVNews.ca has compiled a list of our 10 most-read stories of 2016, based on page views, from Jan. 1, 2016 to now:
1) Missing Sask. girl found dead; Amber Alert cancelled
The tragic end to the search for missing Saskatchewan girl Nia Eastman was our most-read story of 2016. The seven-year-old became the subject of an Amber Alert on Thursday, Nov. 10 when her father failed to return her to her mother, after picking Nia up from school a day earlier.
Hopes for Nia’s safe return fell to despair when the RCMP found her body in a home her father rented in Choiceland, about 100 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert and just down the street from her mother’s house. Her father’s body was also found about 20 kilometres away in Smeaton.
The story of Nia’s disappearance captured the attention of the nation, and shocked Choiceland, her hometown of about 400 people. But as CTV’s Jill Macyshon points out, people in the region have lived through a similar shock and sadness in April 2014 in Tisdale, when a young mother and her three children were found dead in a mobile home.
As the community grieved, a crowdfunding effort to support Nia’s mother and cover her funeral costs far surpassed the $5,000 goal and ended up raising over $36,000.
2) 3 dead after crossbow attack in Toronto
“The investigation was very, very unusual,” said Toronto Detective Sergeant Mike Carbone at a news conference for a triple murder in August that captured worldwide attention.
Dubbed the “crossbow killings” in headlines, the story was the second-most read on our site. The accused faces first-degree murder charges in three deaths: a woman who was strangled with what police described as a ligature; a man who died from a crossbow bolt to his neck; and another man who was stabbed in the neck with a different crossbow bolt.
The story took another twist when it was revealed that the accused had prior convictions for a string of bank robberies. At the time of the August 25 deaths in a quiet east-end Toronto neighbourhood, the accused was scheduled to marry his girlfriend in three weeks.
3) Lone suspect killed in anti-terrorism operation in southern Ontario
Our third most-read story was the fatal takedown of a man suspected to have plotted a suicide bomb attack in a major Canadian city.
Aaron Driver, 24, was killed on Aug. 10 inside a home in Strathroy, Ont., a community about 225 kilometres west of Toronto. He was well known to Canadian intelligence and police officials for his support for the Islamist terrorist group.
According to an internal government memo obtained by CTV News, the suspect allegedly planned to use an IED to carry out a suicide bombing mission in a public area. His alleged plan, according to the document, was to create mass casualties.
4) 'A nightmare coming true': Gangs of clowns terrorize N.S. drivers
“It was a scene torn from the pages of a Stephen King novel,” wrote CTVNews.ca’s Jeff Lagerquist in the lead to a story that was our fourth most-read of 2016.
Michelle Doubleday’s encounter with a man dressed as a clown in the middle of a road in Glace Bay, N.S., was just one of many “creepy clown” stories that made headlines across North America this year.
The phenomenon seemed to be fuelled by social media and involved sightings of people dressed up as clowns to terrify or prank others. It’s believed the first story that may have kickstarted the trend was in late August in Greenville, S.C., where a report filed by the sheriff’s office detailed people in clown makeup offering children money to follow them into the woods.
One theory was that the trend began with a viral marketing stunt for a remake of Stephen King’s novel “It,” which features an evil being that terrorizes children and appears in the form of a clown. But producers for the film denied having anything to do with the clown sightings.
5) Canada’s immigration website crashes on election night
Our list takes on a relatively lighter note from the fifth most-read story onwards.
Leading up to the U.S. election you might recall seeing more than a few stories with a similar theme: “I’m moving to Canada if Trump wins.”
It may have proven to be more than just a sentiment. On the night of the U.S. election, Canada’s immigration website crashed around the time people were realizing Donald Trump might pull off the seemingly improbable, and win the thing.
It was hours before cic.gc.ca was back up and running. The immigration department later confirmed the outage was related to a surge of people trying to access the website.
We don’t yet know how many Americans applied for Canadian citizenship as a result of Trump becoming president-elect, but as writer Josh Dehaas points out, “it’s a lot more difficult than just packing up and driving to Cape Breton.”
6) King of West African tribe returns to landscaping job in Canada
Number six on our list was a man who would be king, but still kept his landscaping job.
After his uncle died, Langley, B.C. man Eric Manu was next in line to become chief of a tribe in the Ashanti region of Ghana. But after claiming his crown, Manu had to return to B.C. to raise money, in order to improve the health-care standards for his 6,000-person tribe.
“Sometimes we go to the (job) site and they say, ‘You are the chief. I saw you on TV. Why are you doing the landscaping?’” he told CTV News. “This is humbleness you understand. Anytime I’m in Canada, I’m proud to work for my boss.”
7) New break for Canada Student Loan borrowers
With about 750,000 students repaying student loans in Canada and with the average debt for an undergrad being $27,000, it’s no surprise that news of any kind of debt relief was read and shared widely on our site. Canadians learned on Oct. 31 that students won’t have to repay their Canada Student Loans until they’re earning more than $25,000 a year.
It was part of the Liberal platform during the 2015 federal election campaign, to boost support for post-secondary students. The plan was then praised by the Canadian Federation of Students, who argued students these days are being crippled by “mortgage-sized debts.”
But as fourth-year university student Alia Youssef told CTV News: “If you’re only (making) $25,000 a year, you still don’t have money to pay off your loans.” Graduating students will also have to apply for the relief program and decisions are made on how much the student’s family makes.
8) Off-duty bikini-clad Swedish police officer tackles suspected thief
The seven-line story being somewhat thin on detail, it’s safe to say the headline and accompanying photo did the heavy lifting here. In our eighth most-read story of 2016, officer Mikaela Kellner, who was sunbathing in a Stockholm park before she gave chase and held a suspect in an arm lock, told the Associated Press: “If I had been naked I would have intervened as well.”
The police officer is also a power lifter and, according to her Instagram account, a “Swedish Ninja Warrior.”
9) Swift justice after slap: Police horse kicks student back
Queen’s University students made headlines a few times this year for questionable behaviour caught on video that spread far and wide on social media.
The most recent story was in November when an off-campus party featured some Queen’s undergrads, most of them white, some dressed as Middle Eastern sheiks, some wearing Mexican sombreros and orange prison suits, to name a few examples, that sparked much backlash and kickstarted debates on race and cultural appropriation.
But it was a story featuring an Instagram video lasting less than 10 seconds -- but viewed more than 720,000 times on that social media platform as of December – that vaulted into our top-10 list. The woman shown in the video was one of three people police say slapped Murney the rookie police horse during that homecoming weekend in October. The incident led to charges of injury to an animal.
Disappointing news from #QueensHomecoming. Our new horse, Murney, was slapped 3X tonight. No injuries. 2 men & 1 woman charged criminally. pic.twitter.com/AuGst7a80H
— Kingston Police (@kingstonpolice) October 16, 2016
10) Fashion designer refuses to dress Melania Trump urges others to follow suit
Finally, a story about a French fashion designer’s protest against the policies of president-elect Donald Trump made number 10 on our most-read list.
Sophie Theallet, who has dressed Michelle Obama in the past, has refused to do the same for Melania Trump because of her husband’s “rhetoric of racism, sexism, and xenophobia” during the campaign.
In an open letter, she encouraged her fellow designers to do the same.
Open letter | Sophie Theallet | November 17th, 2016 pic.twitter.com/g1hIAyBmdF
— sophie theallet (@sophietheallet) November 17, 2016
