THE BIEB GOES ON (AND OFF) ABOUT ABORTION, LOVE AND MORE, E1

BOSH GETS LAST LAUGH

Former Raptor booed relentlessly, but leads Heat to win at ACC, S1

CORPORATE CASH EYED FOR SUBWAY

Mayor Ford proposes partnership with private sector to extend Sheppard line, A3

FRIDAYS JACKPOT

$43 MILLION

FOGGY WITH DRIZZLE. HIGH 9C (WEATHER MAP ON S16)

thestar.com

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

MARTYR MOURNED IN BAHRAIN

MORE DEATHS REPORTED AS POLICE CLEAR PEARL SQUARE, A12

STAR EXCLUSIVE

Agent Orange saturated Ontario teens

Government archives reveal chemical sprayed on northern forests, young workers exposed
DIANA ZLOMISLIC
STAFF REPORTER

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

A boy holds an image of Fadhel Salman Matrook during the slain protesters burial Wednesday in Manama, Bahrain.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE

INSIDE THE ARAB AWAKENING

DEMOCRACY WEAK, BUT PERKS GOOD IN KUWAIT, A10 SIDDIQUI ON THE WESTS MOMENT OF TRUTH, A19

Foreign hackers attack Ottawa

Security breaches originating in China have forced two federal departments offline, CBC reports
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

OTTAWAThe

federal government has stepped up its cyber security after detecting what it calls an unauthorized attempt to access its networks. CBC News reports the attack has forced at least two key departments offline as counter-espionage agents scramble to determine how much sensitive information may have been stolen.

The attack on the federal computer network appears widespread including possible breaches of data at Treasury Board of Canada and Finance Canada and originated in China, according to CBCs sources. Reports said the hackers were able to penetrate the networks within the two departments the economic hubs of the government and gain access to classified federal data.

The hackers reportedly infiltrated the computer systems as part of a scheme to steal key passwords that unlock entire government data systems. A spokesperson for Treasury Board President Stockwell Day confirmed there has been an attempt to breach federal networks but was tight-lipped on the extent of the breach. (Treasury Board) has detected an unauthorized attempt to access its network, Jay Denney said in an email.
BREACH continued on A17

Cancer-causing toxins used to strip the jungles of Vietnam were also employed to clear massive plots of Crown land in Northern Ontario, government documents obtained by the Toronto Star reveal. Records from the 1950s, 60s and 70s show forestry workers, often students and junior rangers, spent weeks at a time as human markers holding helium-filled red balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed toxic herbicides, including an infamous chemical mixture known as Agent Orange, on the brush and the boys below. We were saturated in chemicals, said Don Romanowich, 63, a former supervisor of an aerial spraying program in Kapuskasing, Ont., who was recently diagnosed with a slowgrowing cancer that can be caused by herbicide exposure. We were told not to drink the stuff, but we had no idea. A Star investigation examined hundreds of boxes of forestry documents and found the provincial government began experimenting with a powerful hormone-based chemical called 2,4,5-T the dioxin-laced component of Agent Or-

GLENN LOWSON FOR THE TORONTO STAR

Former forestry supervisor Don Romanowich believes herbicides may have caused his cancer.

ange in Hearst, Ont. in 1957. The documents, filed at the Archives of Ontario, describe how WWII-era Stearman biplanes were kitted with 140-gallon tanks containing the chemicals, which were usually diluted in a mix of fuel oil and water. Less than 10 years later, the Department of Lands and Forests (now the Ministry of Natural Resources) authorized the use of a more potent mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T for aerial spraying. The combination of those two herbicides in equal parts made up Agent Orange the most widely used chemical in the Vietnam War.
ORANGE continued on A4

Obama budget proposes entry tax for Canadians

People arriving by air or sea could face $5.50 inspection fee
President Barack Obama is floating the idea of charging a fee for every Canadian entering the U.S. by air or sea. The proposal is outlined in the 2012 federal draft budget he submitted to Congress on Monday. The $5.50 fee would not apply to visitors arriving in private vehicles. Visitors from Canada, Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries are currently exempt from passenger inspection fees. Obamas budget blueprint proposes lifting those exemptions and using the revenue from the charges to support air passenger inspections which have recently grown more intensive. According to Statistics Canada some 16 million Canadians flew into the U.S. in 2009.
BORDER continued on A17

Tiny Ecuadorians live large and long

Smoking, drinking villagers share gene that fends off illness
JOSEPH HALL
HEALTH REPORTER

They smoke. They drink. Theyre often obese. Yet they dont suffer from Alzheimers disease, strokes or diabetes. One of them did develop a ravaging case of ovarian cancer. But she got better. A group of some 100 diminutive Ecuadorians, who cling in poverty to mountainside villages in the southern part of that South American country, may be the most disease-free people on earth. A new study says the protective genetic secret of this extended family holds hope for a new treatment for many of the most common ailments

related to aging. Somehow, the chronic disease mode doesnt seem to belong to this group at all, says Valter Longo, one of the studys senior authors. The results were released Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. They just dont get the illnesses we associate with aging, says Longo, a University of Southern California cell biologist.
ECUADORIANS continued on A17

FULL INDEX PAGE A2

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