BREAKING B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
On May 6, I celebrated 50 years at CTV —yes 50!
Reaching this milestone, I am reflecting on my experiences at CTV News and the parts of my life that have been public all these years and the things about myself I’ve kept private.
With time, there is safety in revealing the most personal aspects of myself, so I am sharing with you my own cancer journey, which really started with my husband.
Michael died in 2005 after a six-month battle with cancer. Afterwards I read and reread journalist Joan Didion’s book “The Year of Magical Thinking.” It’s a brilliant account of Didion’s first year of coping with life after her husband’s death. She explains her grief process and how during the days and months that followed, she believed, if a person hopes for something enough or does the right thing over and over, bad events can be reversed. Didion writes about keeping her husband’s shoes, just in case he comes back and needs them.
I did the same thing. It was only when I was ready to move forward, that I was able to donate Michael’s shoes to a men’s shelter.
And then, without warning, two years after his death, I was plunged back into coping again.
An annual mammogram revealed a small lump on my right breast, unnoticed to touch or the naked eye. I was 57 years old.
I remember the day as if it was yesterday. A call from the hospital to come back for a second scan; the concerned faces of the technician, the radiologist and the biopsy that followed. I went home with a patch on my breast to wait for the results.
A call the next morning from the doctor confirmed I had breast cancer.
My worst fear was sharing the news with my three daughters who were missing their father.
I knew they would go to that dark place; losing me, too.
Let me tell you how challenging it is to focus on being optimistic when the universe is pulling you down. I had experienced far too much death; a son, when I was in my 30s; my mother in my 40s; and then at 55, my partner of 35 years.
I knew I had to find the strength for my girls and somehow I did.
I turned to music and dance to soothe and centre myself; and I spent time with those who brought me laughter.
But I focused on something far more important; my daughters. They inspired me to steady myself for what was to come.
I wanted to be around to watch them grow into the marvellous women they are today; to find love, make babies and build lives for themselves. I could not leave them.
Surgery, a lumpectomy, was scheduled to remove the tumour. A biopsy, ten days later, revealed it was small, hormone-driven and had likely not spread.
It had been caught early, which made me one of the lucky ones.
Treatment included weeks of radiation; but I opted out of the safety net of chemotherapy after consultation with my oncologist and a test to determine the likelihood of the cancer’s return.
It’s a decision my doctor told me could be the wrong one, if I let fear of a recurrence control my life. She suggested I do my best to avoid stress and focus on building tools to strengthen my resilience.
Ten years of the hormone pill tamoxifen followed; and here we are, sixteen years after the diagnosis.
Several of my colleagues have also had breast cancer or are currently in treatment. Many, if not most, have chosen to go public.
I kept my cancer secret from viewers at the time, largely because I was dealing with a lot, as a single mother of three daughters. I also worried that my aging and widowed father would be broken by the news. He had survived the Second World War, had endured loss, but watching his only child tackle cancer, would have been too much for him.
He is gone now; and with the passage of time, I am ready to reveal personal aspects of my life never shared publicly before, as part of a CTV News Special called “I’m Sandie Rinaldo” celebrating my 50 years at the network.
The Canadian Cancer Society says the five-year survival rate for all cancers, based on the most recent data collected, was 64 per cent, compared to 55 per cent in the early 1990s and 25 per cent in the 1940s; progress made through early detection and advances in treatment.
Growing up, we couldn’t say the C-word. It was as if uttering it aloud would make it a reality. Well, for the one in eight women who will get breast cancer in their lifetime, it is very much a reality, just as it is for anyone who has lost someone they love to the disease.
Cancer is very much a part of my story and I hope that sharing it now, even all these years later, will help others facing their own journey. You’re not alone.
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives returned to the House of Commons on Tuesday with a renewed call for Speaker Greg Fergus to resign, this time over 'very partisan' and 'inflammatory' language used to promote an upcoming event.
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
Amal Clooney is one of the legal experts who recommended that the chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes court seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the militant Hamas group.
Members of a Canadian group representing families of those killed when Iranian officials shot down Flight PS752 in January 2020 say they are not sorry to hear of the death of Iran's president.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.