National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 5

CANADA A5 NATIONAL POST, THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008 nationalpost.com Number of Canadians killed in car crashes annually cut in half over 25 years There are more Canadians than ever before driving the nation's roads, but the number who die in motor vehicle accidents has dropped by half over a 25-year period, according to Statistics Canada. The agency studied death certificates to determine that the number of people who died in car crashes has declined by 52 since 1979, from 5,933 to 2,875 in 2004. Young people and seniors were STATISTICS CANADA more likely than Canadians of other ages to be killed in vehicle crashes, which were the leading cause of death among people under the age of 30 over 2000-04. Young men were also more likely than young women to die in car accidents, with a rate of 10 male deaths per 100,000 population, compared with four among women. The Statistics Canada study attributes the dramatic decline in the death rate to a number of factors, including technological advances such as anti-lock brakes, improved seatbelts and airbags.

Other factors, such as tougher government legislation against drinking and driving, and speeding, have also helped, the agency said. CanwestNews Service PQ decries British invasion quickly," he said, "but the impression I had was that the child was trying to escape." So when the car peeled off a little too quickly as the light turned green, Mr. Murphy trailed it, following for just over a kilometre. He slowed and watched it stop in front of a building, its engine idling. "I was trying to figure out if he was going to stay there or if he was continuing on.

I wanted to determine if I needed to continue the chase," he said. But the car did not seem to be moving, and with the surge of rush hour traffic around him, Mr. Murphy decided to dash home and call the police, he said. "If I'd known, if I'd heard on the news that a child had been kidnapped, it would have happened differently," he said. "But at that point, I had no idea and I really needed to contact the police." Minutes later, he said, he spoke with the police, who took the information seriously, having matched it to descriptions in the earlier call.

Police arrived on scene a few moments later and located the car, which had its licence plate flipped to the wrong side, said provincial police spokesman Sergeant Gregory Gomez del Prado. Police then entered a building and found the boy in the boiler room in the basement, where he was bound and gagged but did not appear injured. "He was safe and sound, but was transported to hospital," he said. "He was tied up inside the oil tank" Police have arrested the building's 50-year-old janitor in connection with the case, and charged him with abduction, abduction of a child under 14 and confinement National Post and Canwest News Service Public saved kidnapped boy WITNESS Continued from Page Al "We saw the man get out of his car. He looked really mad, he took the little boy in his arms," Alec told reporters.

"The boy was screaming and struggling, then the man opens the trunk, closes it and takes off." Sonie St-Pierre said she attempted to intercept the man's vehicle after watching him force the boy into the trunk "At a time like that we do what our instinct tells us to do," said Ms. St-Pierre, who immediately contacted police when the man evaded her. "My instinct was telling me, 'Charge and forget about your car, try to save I will always bear the memory of this man putting a small child in the trunk of the car. I will always carry that scene with me." About 30 minutes later, Mr. Murphy was driving home when a movement caught his eye from the trunk of a green 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier stopped at a traffic light ahead of him.

"The trunk opened and I saw something move, and then I saw the trunk open more and I saw a child," he said. "At that moment, I saw a man get out of the car quite rapidly and move towards the trunk to close it." Questions, he said, flashed through his mind. Were there lots of people in the car? Was it a way to fit an extra person in? But as he looked through the car windows, he said, he saw it was empty except for the driver. "It happened so -McCartney concert 'By Graeme Hamilton MONTREAL He will be wielding a bass guitar, not a musket, but Paul McCartney's free concert this Sunday on Quebec City's Plains of Abraham has some sovereigntist politicians and artists complaining of another British invasion. In an open letter endorsed by two Parti Quebecois Members of the National Assembly, Quebec City painter and sculp- tor Luc Archambault informs McCartney that he should learn some French songs before coming to perform as part of Quebec City's 400th anni- versary celebrations ji.

"The presence of your Eng-' lish-language music on the most majestic part of Battlefields Park, as beautiful as it might be, can't help but bring back painful memories of our Conquest," Mr. Archambault i. writes. Calling McCartney an "international Anglo-Saxon idol," he asks him to use his performance to make a plea for the sovereignty of the Quebec people. That, Mr.

Archambault says, would display the same sensitivity to "the people of French Quebec" as the ex-TBeatle has already shown to "the fate of the seals." (In '2006, McCartney and his then wife, Heather Mills, dropped on to ice floes off Quebec's Magdalene Islands to protest the seal hunt) He closes by proposing that -McCartney agree to sing a duet of the nationalist anthem Les gens de man pays with its author, Gilles Vigneault The initiative is endorsed by 35 writers, artists and politicians, including Pierre Cur- zi and Daniel Turp, who are, respectively, the culture and international relations critics for the PQ. In an interview published yesterday in Le Journal de Montreal, Mr. Cur-zi said McCartney's presence reflects a "Canadianization" of the anniversary celebrations. "I really like Paul McCartney, but in this context, this is last straw," Mr. Curzi said.

"''There is a clear Canadian ALESSIA PIERDOMENICO REUTERS FILE PHOTO The Parti Quebecois sees a concert this Sunday by Paul McCartney as a sign of "a clear Canadianization" of the celebration of Quebec City's 400th anniversary. BOY, 8, SNATCHED FROM STREET Victim found bound and gagged after witness trails kidnapper. Cartney, The Stills and Pas-cale Picard, feature francophones who have made their names performing in English. Their selection has not drawn criticism. Organizers are expecting 170,000 to 200,000 people at the concert, evidence that not all Quebecers are offended by the idea of an English concert.

Even Mr. Archambault said he might attend. "He is an artist who has had had a crucial importance for our society," he said. The celebrations have already featured a July 3 concert by American rockers Van Halen. Ms.

Dion will perform a free concert on Aug. 22. National Post ghamiltonnationalpost.com week that McCartney is taking a crash course in French. McCartney said yesterday on his Web site that he is looking forward to his first trip to Quebec City: "Me and the band are excited to finally get there and rock out with the good people of Quebec." Asked whether he will be speaking to the crowd in French, he answered, "Mais oui." Jean Charest, the Quebec Premier, said Messrs. Curzi and Turp should be embarrassed for having spoken out against the concert.

"Nobody criticizes Celine Dion for singing in Paris, Munich, England or elsewhere on the planet," he said. The two homegrown acts announced to open for Mc ization of the 400th celebrations. It is becoming a political gesture that tarnishes his presence." Pierre Falardeau, a separatist filmmaker, told the newspaper that inviting McCartney "makes us look like hicks who want to put themselves on the map." When the McCartney concert was announced, Daniel Gelinas, head of the committee organizing the anniversary celebrations, said his presence reflected a balanced entertainment program "spotlighting the two founding peoples: France and the UK." Faced with some criticism that a marquee spot was being given to an English artist, organizers let it be known this 3 ST-ROMCALD M1KK FAII.US NATIONAL POST i V'U M)' VI ",00 1 1.