It's been one year since Paddy Munro held her son as he shivered, emaciated, in a hospital waiting room. A full year since he slipped out of the observation room and back to a dilapidated hotel on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. One year since the worst day of her life — when she got a phone call saying her son was dead.

Sean Munro fought to vanquish his intrusive thoughts for more than 20 years, his family says. He struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphia, alcoholism and more. At the root of it all, his mother says, was what happened in a small office at a Vancouver private school in the 1980s — with a teacher who they believe never should have been there.

"I want to go back and I want to do more," Paddy says. "I wish I could have done more."

Sean Munro went to Vancouver College in Grade 8. It was a long bus ride, about an hour each way, but he passed the time with his twin brother, Aaron. The men in their family were Vancouver College alumni, Irish Catholic to the core, and their parents felt it was the best move for their education.

Sean and Aaron had been inseparable up to that point, indistinguishable even to their own aunts. Grade 8 was the first time they'd been split apart and put in different homeroom classes. Their mother was happy about the chance for them to grow individually, to meet new people and have new experiences.

About a month into the school year, however, Sean stopped coming home on time.

"We found out that Sean had detentions," Paddy says. "He was with Joe Burke."

Burke was, by all accounts, a towering figure at Vancouver College. A burly man with red, curly hair, he was a former star of the school football team. He joined the ranks of the Christian Brothers after graduation and returned as a teacher in the early 1980s. 

The Christian Brothers weren't ordained as priests, but they wore collars and robes, and took an oath of celibacy. They ran schools and orphanages around the world, and often left a trail of broken boys, wounded faith and court cases in their wake.

Vancouver was no different. More than 60 men are now part of a class-action lawsuit alleging they were abused at Vancouver College and nearby St. Thomas More Collegiate by six Christian Brothers between 1975 and 2009.

All six men were transferred to Vancouver from the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's — a place that later became synonymous with institutional child abuse. 

Burke is one of those six. CBC News has tried to contact Burke by email and letter. He has not responded. The schools have not denied abuse happened, and have said they want the allegations to be "investigated and resolved."

Family helped in Burke's defence

The Munro family had no inclination anything was going on. Their first clue came two years after the boys graduated, when Vancouver College sent letters to alumni letting them know Burke was facing criminal charges in Newfoundland related to his time at Mount Cashel. The school was asking former students and parents to support Burke in his defence. 

Paddy and her husband, John, separately questioned Sean about his detentions with Burke. 

"Sean denied and denied," she says. "[He said] nothing ever happened to him."

After their inquiries came up empty, the Munro family made a decision that still bothers them to this day. They chose to support Burke, Paddy says, donating air travel points to help him fly back and forth to Newfoundland for his trial. 

"Looking back on it, it's just awful," Paddy says with a sigh. 

In 1991, Burke was convicted on three counts of indecent assault and one count of assault causing bodily harm for his conduct at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's. His convictions were upheld by the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeals, before most of the charges were overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada. In the end, he was given a conditional discharge for one count of assault causing bodily harm.

"It would obviously be in the public interest for a person of his calibre to return to the teaching profession," wrote James Gushue, Newfoundland and Labrador's former chief justice, in his sentencing decision.

Burke returned to Vancouver with no criminal record and continued teaching.

"There was a lot of support because Vancouver College was pushing it," Paddy says. "It didn't dawn on us, this coming home late, because Sean said everything was fine. There was nothing. It was no big issue."

Around the same time, Sean's life took a sharp turn. He was drinking heavily, and it was interfering with his ability to hold down a job. His behaviour went from concerning to shocking in short order.

"One morning we woke up and we looked in the backyard and there was a noose there," Paddy says. "That was Sean's cry for help."

Aaron Munro remembers feeling a divide growing between him and his brother after they finished high school.

"Up until that point, Sean and I were extremely close, but always very similar with ambitions, goals and things. But that all went away," Aaron says. "It's all a product of what happened in Grade 8."

Aaron went on to become a real estate agent, while Sean delved deeper into addiction. His drinking was complicated by diabetes, and his body dysmorphia took over. At one point he stood six feet tall and weighed 130 pounds.

This whole journey here, 20 years of chasing my brother around Vancouver to try and bring him back to life… it's him trying to escape this pattern of not being good enough.

Over his last 23 years, Sean Munro went to treatment facilities 20 times. CBC News has reviewed his medical records — thousands of pages of written notes from psychiatrists and psychologists outlining each of his attempts to get better. While the notes show he tackled his substance abuse head on, there are several references to childhood trauma, about which Sean refused to go into detail. 

"He reports that he has been ingesting alcohol to assist with underlying mental health struggles," one note reads. "Particularly ongoing ruminative thoughts of previous tried experiences dating back to his childhood. He reports that he was raised in a 'Roman Catholic school' and did not go into further detail but reports that he was exposed to traumatic events."

"His OCD started in Grade 8," another note reads. "He has had anorexia and bulimia due to his body dysmorphia. He estimates he has been hospitalized psychiatrically under 10 times for suicidal threats."

"Patient states he is now ready to address his trauma which he was not in the past," reads one of the latest reports, from July 5, 2021. 

A shocking admission

Paddy Munro says her son carried his secret until about four years ago. She was driving him to rehab when he asked her to pull over, she says.

"He said, 'Mom, when I was in school, Joe pulled my pants down and he was spanking me bare.' And then he stopped. And I said, 'Sean, you can tell me. I'm your mom, I can hear this.' And he said, 'No, that's all.'"

He also opened up to his sister, Terri, while he was detoxing at her house last year, she said. According to her, he told her Burke stripped him from the waist down and beat him with his bare hands. 

CBC News has interviewed two other men — one a former Mount Cashel resident, the other a former Vancouver College student — who both told similar accounts of being bare-bottom spanked by Burke. The Vancouver College student, Colin Wilson, said he was kept after school for detentions and repeatedly spanked while naked over the course of his Grade 9 year. Both men said the alleged abuse left a lifelong impact.

Burke's lone conviction from Mount Cashel was for beating a child on the bare buttocks so hard he couldn't sit for days.

Sean Munro's family says his suffering was unending but he had a Herculean will to get better. He'd get out of a treatment centre with goals and promises, before relapsing within a few weeks. His alcoholism and mental health issues often brought him to the homeless hotels and streets of Vancouver, where his family would find him and convince him to go back to treatment again.

"He resolved to drinking hand sanitizer and poison because he couldn't be with his thoughts," Terri says. "This whole journey here, 20 years of chasing my brother around Vancouver to try and bring him back to life… it's him trying to escape this pattern of not being good enough."

His last day

It came to a head last October. Sean was out of contact for two weeks, staying at a single-room occupancy hotel on the Downtown Eastside. He'd spent nine months waiting for a room in a treatment centre, with his addiction and diabetes worsening by the day. On Oct. 16, 2022, his twin brother found him on the street. 

Aaron barely recognized his identical twin looking back at him. He bought him a sandwich and bought his mother some time to get there and intervene. She came to his room to find blood smeared on the dirty walls and a shell of her son sitting on the bed.

"I had to lean down and put my hands on his shoulders and say, 'Sean, it's your mom. It's your mom here.' He was just looking through me. He wasn't recognizing me."

Paddy convinced her son to go to the hospital. Sitting in the front seat of the car, Sean turned to her partner in the back seat and thanked him for being there for his mother.

"He always had the grace and the love to say something like that," Paddy sobs.

Paddy Munro had two sets of twins, with Sean and Aaron being the oldest. (Submitted by Paddy Munro)

She sat with her son in the waiting room. He told the triage nurse he was suicidal and planned to jump off a bridge if they didn't keep him there. Paddy still regrets leaving when she thought he was being admitted to the hospital. Within 30 minutes, she got a call from the hotel where Sean was staying, letting her know he'd come back. 

Paddy spent the night calling every agency she knew that could intervene and help Sean get immediate treatment. Nobody came through, she says.

Sean was found dead in the morning, a month shy of his 47th birthday.

"He always wanted help," Paddy says. "He never wanted to leave us. He wanted to be with us."

Family doesn't get to join lawsuit

Sean Munro didn't leave a will. He didn't have an estate. That means he doesn't get to partake in the class-action lawsuit against Vancouver College, which has been winding its way through British Columbia's Supreme Court since 2021. His family, however, fully support the men who have stepped forward with claims against their alma mater and former teachers. 

Vancouver College declined an interview request but has indicated it would like to settle the case through mediation, rather than endure a trial that would likely take years to reach a resolution.

Joe Fiorante, a lawyer for the students, says that process would have to involve the school telling the truth about what it knew of the alleged abuse. Did the administrators know those six teachers had abused boys at Mount Cashel before coming to Vancouver? Did they welcome them anyway?

"All it's done is take me further away from my church," Paddy says. "I believe in God but I feel hate every time the Catholic church comes up."

The Munro family wants to see accountability in whatever form it may take. One year later, their grief is still as present as their love for Sean. His siblings say the anger is, too.

"Every time I think of him, it's there," Aaron says.

"He's lost. He's just lost," Terri adds. "And wanting to get better, and struggling and losing, and not knowing how [to change], and saying, 'Sorry I can't get better.'"

His mother does her best to see past the anger and guilt, and to remember her son for his shining qualities. 

"When I look at Sean, I don't think of Joe Burke," she says. "I just see a soul, and a beautiful young son who wanted help and always wanted to do better."

When Cameron Ortis approached the head of a company that was being probed by law enforcement, he allegedly told him that he had access to some highly "valuable" information and mentioned a "business proposition."

"You do not know me. I have information that I am confident you will find very valuable," reads an email to Vincent Ramos, the Canadian CEO of Phantom Secure. The email was entered into evidence at the start of Ortis's trial.

"I assure you that this is a business proposition. Nothing more. It is not risk free, of course, but the risk to reward ratio will prove to be more than acceptable."

That email and others are part of an astonishing tranche of documents that make up the agreed statement of facts between the Crown and the defence in Ortis's criminal trial.

The Crown presented the emails to jury members Tuesday. They argue the messages show Ortis was communicating intelligence to police targets. The defence has not commented on the emails in open court.

The former RCMP intelligence official faces six charges, including four counts of violating the Security of Information Act. 

Ortis, 51, is accused of three counts of sharing special operational information "intentionally and without authority" and one count of attempting to share special operational information. He also faces two Criminal Code charges: breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer.

Ortis has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His defence told reporters they believe they can prove he had the "authority to do everything he did."

According to the evidence presented to court so far, the RCMP was gathering information about Phantom Secure as part of an operation dubbed Project Saturation. Court has heard the RCMP believed Phantom Secure was providing encrypted phones at a price. The FBI arrested Ramos in Las Vegas in 2018.

The Crown says that, using the email handle 'See All Things,' Ortis reached out to Ramos on Feb. 5, 2015 and told him he had information about a multi-agency investigation targeting Phantom Secure.

Some of the emails shown to the court also used the handle "variablewinds."

Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer told the jury that in one of Ortis's emails, the accused told Ramos certain "files detail this effort, intel about your associates and individuals using your network internationally."

At the time, Ortis was the director of operations research within RCMP National Security. He was later promoted to director general of the National Intelligence Coordination Centre in 2016.

Kliewer said Ortis urged Ramos to set up a secure email account and to contact him for more information.

Ortis said he had info on associate

Ramos replied, asking for more details.

"I am in the business of acquiring hard-to-get information that individuals in unique high-risk businesses find valuable. I sell that information to them," said the response.

"Through the course of my normal discovery ops (some call this hacking, others cracking) I came across a number of documents that pertain to your current efforts."

Screen grab from body cam video of Vincent Ramos when he was arrested by Bellingham Police on March 7, 2018.

When Ramos failed to loop back, Kliewer said, Ortis sent another email on March 21 suggesting he had information about Kapil Judge, Phantom Secure's technical manager.

"I thought I would check in and touch base. Did Judge arrive on the 8th as planned?" says one of the emails tabled in court Wednesday.

"Let me guess, he met someone 'friendly' while being secondaried by CBSA at the airport?"

Accused was asking for $20K, Crown says

Ramos replied that he was "a bit intrigued for sure" and promised to set up a secure account.

Kliewer told the jury Ortis followed up in late April by sending partial Canadian and international police agency intelligence on Phantom Secure. In that same message, she said, Ortis told Ramos he was "leaving enough remaining to allow you to assess whether or not you would be interested in acquiring the unembargoed full documents."

The documents included reports from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), a criminal intelligence assessment by the RCMP and a document summarizing other western intelligence and law enforcement information on the company.

That apparently convinced Ramos to set up a secure email account on Tutanota, an encrypted email service.

The jury heard that Ortis then asked for $20,000 in exchange for the unredacted documents.

But Ramos still had questions about how to interpret the documents and the identity of the person sending them to him. "Who are you??" he wrote.

Kliewer said Ortis then spelled it out for Ramos.

"For example, the FINTRAC intelligence would help you and your folks to explain transactions in advance. It will also allow you to avoid making the same mistakes. You will be able to see which transactions have 'blinked' on their radars and, more importantly, which have not," says an email presented to the court.

Ramos's arrest alerted RCMP to Ortis

Kliewer  said Ortis also told Ramos that police knew Phantom Secure's "most sensitive communication components were transiting through Canada, Panama, Japan and Hong Kong."

She told the jury that Ortis told Ramos law enforcement and intelligence agencies were co-operating to bring down Phantom Secure to get to his users and clients, including an unnamed drug cartel and Altaf Khanani, the Dubai-based head of an international money laundering network.

• Ex-RCMP intelligence official accused of leaking had 'authority to do everything he did': defence

• RCMP official accused of breaching Canada's secrecy law released on bail

Ramos is serving a nine-year prison sentence in the U.S. for racketeering conspiracy. His arrest kicked off the investigation into Ortis, leading up to the RCMP official's arrest in 2019.

The jury heard Wednesday from former RCMP staff sergeant Guy Belley, who was called in to review the contents of Ramos's computer in the U.S.

He said he was "totally shocked" to discover someone had sent him sensitive intelligence documents.

The hunt to find the leaker 

When the RCMP went searching for who could have sent those reports, the trail took them close to home.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Mounties determined that Ortis used the RCMP National Crime Data Bank in March 2015 and accessed an RCMP report outlining a plan to have an undercover police officer approach Judge at the Vancouver Airport.

Investigators also determined that, within a 15-minute window, Ortis queried the crime database for six names, including "Vincent Ramos," "Farzam," "Mehdizadeh," "Aria," "Phantom"and "Gemayel."

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

A manifesto titled "A White Awakening" that was written by Nathaniel Veltman, who's accused of killing a Muslim family in London, Ont., on June 6, 2021, outlines his hatred of Islam and opposition to multiculturalism and mass immigration.

The jury at the accused's murder-terror trial in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor heard excerpts from the multi-page document on Wednesday afternoon. The excerpts were read into the record by Crown prosecutor Sarah Shaikh. 

"Below are my political views for whoever is interested," the document begins, and goes on to say "multiculturalism doesn't work" because "different cultures have different interests." 

The manifesto was created on May 4, 2021, the jury heard, as a document called idk.txt and was later renamed awhiteawakening.txt. It was opened, edited and added to several times, court was told.

The document was among contents found on the accused's laptop, Windsor police Sgt. Liyu Guan, a digital forensic investigator, has testified. Guan analyzed the contents of the laptop, the accused's cellphone, two USB thumb drives and an external hard drive.

• Jurors learn what a forensic examiner found in laptop of accused killer of a London, Ont., Muslim family

Veltman is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, as well as related terror offences. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors allege he was motivated by far-right ideology to conduct the killings.

Five members of the Afzaal family were walking in northwest London when they were struck by the accused's truck, a fact that is not being disputed by the defence. 

Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46, and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed. A nine-year-old boy survived.

Veltman was arrested minutes after the attack and the jury has heard he told a 911 dispatcher, "I did it. I killed those people," prior to being arrested. 

Judge gives jurors direction

The accused also wrote in the manifesto: "I am a white nationalist. White nationalist is simply wanting to preserve European existence, nothing more, nothing less." 

The document calls out "globalist companies and corporatists" as well as "cancel culture," and urges the building of a society where "all white people have a sense of belonging, from the lowest blue-collar worker to the highest professional and members of government." 

It says white people are "facing genocide," "complete replacement" and crimes committed by Muslims, and argues for a "collective resistance to the anti-white hatred."

Veltman listens to testimony on Sept. 28 during his murder and terrorism trial.

The document includes the ending, "Europa Arises!" That's similar to the ending of another manifesto, which the jury heard about on Wednesday, that was written by a mass shooter in New Zealand in 2019 and wrapped with, "Europa Rises!" 

Justice Renee Pomerance reminded the jury that views expressed in "A White Awakening" cannot be used to convict the accused.

"I expect that you will find the views expressed in this document to be offensive," she said. "I remind you that you must not find the accused guilty merely because you find his viewpoints disturbing.... You must not find the accused guilty because you wish to punish him for those views or because you want to take a stand against racism." 

Instead, the jury must "carefully and dispassionately" evaluate the evidence without emotion, bias, sympathy or prejudice," Pomerance said. 

Other manifestos found on thumb drive

Earlier Wednesday, the jury heard about other items found on the accused's electronics. 

About four months before he struck the Afzaals with the pickup truck, he downloaded a video of a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the manifesto of the man responsible, Brenton Tarrant, that's titled "A Great Replacement." 

The 74-page manifesto and the video of the mass shootings at two mosques where 51 people died were found on the accused's thumb drive, downloaded on Feb. 15, 2021. 

Windsor police Sgt. Liyu Guan, a digital forensic investigator, testified Tuesday about the electronics found in Veltman's apartment. 

According to data taken from the drive by forensic investigators, the accused watched the shooting video at least 17 times and opened the Tarrant manifesto at least 12 times. 

In mid-April, just before 4 a.m., the accused also downloaded the manifesto of Anders Breivik, a convicted terrorist who detonated a car bomb and then committed a mass shooting at a summer camp, ultimately killing 77 in Norway in 2011.

Later Wednesday, the defence did a quick cross-examination of Guan before ending for the day. 

The trial, which is into its fourth week of proceedings, continues Thursday and is expected to last eight weeks.

A family member of the couple fatally attacked by a grizzly bear during a backcountry camping trip in Banff National Park said the two were long-time partners who loved each other and the outdoors. 

Speaking on behalf of the victims' families, Colin Inglis identified his nephew Doug Inglis, 62, and Jenny Gusse, 62, as the two backcountry campers killed deep in Banff National Park Friday. Their dog was also killed in the attack. 

Inglis said the two lived in Lethbridge, Alta., and they had been together since university. He said they were on day five of a week-long trip, and would go out at least twice a year — often in the spring and fall. 

"They are a couple that loved each other and loved the outdoors. And they were highly, highly experienced in being out back, whether it be serious treks or canoeing, whitewater canoeing in the North country," he said.

Inglis said Doug worked as a lab scientist, and Gusse was the lead technician at the same workplace. 

Inglis said the two provided daily updates from their trip to him from their Garmin inReach — a GPS often used by backcountry campers and hikers which allows texting and other messages from remote locations. 

He said he received a message that day that they hadn't gotten to the site they had intended, but that they were fine and setting up camp. 

"They were probably making dinner and they were letting us know that they were OK," Inglis said. 

But later that evening, he said, he received an SOS from the Garmin that there had been a bear attack. 

"The message said, 'Bear attack bad,'" Inglis said. 

Colin Inglis said his nephew and partner worked together in Lethbridge.

Parks Canada also received an alert from a GPS device in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch at about 8 p.m. on Friday indicating a bear attack. 

"That night was a start, obviously, of what's continuing to be a grieving process. You have that notification, you know that something bad is happening. You don't have a lot of information," Inglis said. 

Inglis said the couple were highly experienced in the backcountry with an extensive set of equipment, and the attack was a devastating case of the "wrong place at the wrong time." 

But he's remembering the couple for what they loved doing. 

"I was hiking in Waterton with Doug in June and we were looking forward to many more adventures. As were lots of his friends. One of his friends told me one of the things they were looking forward to was taking their son out with Doug because he was so knowledgeable," Inglis said. 

The Banff National Park entrance is shown in Banff, Alta., in March 2020. Two backcountry campers were killed in a remote part of the park last week.

"And Jenny … she was the botanist. She could identify all these wonderful plants that were out there, this berry or this flower. And so that's the kind of love they had for the environment that they were out in." 

Parks Canada says bear had lower than normal body fat 

Parks Canada said the bear that killed Inglis and Gusse was not previously known to them and had lower than normal body fat for this time of year. 

In a media release issued Tuesday, Parks Canada said it conducted a necropsy on the bear, and found it to be a non-lactating older female estimated to be over 25 years old. 

Parks Canada said the bear was deemed to be in fair body condition, but her teeth were in poor condition.  

The attack occurred in the wilderness to the west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in Banff National Park. 

"DNA samples from the bear have been sent to the lab confirm that it was the animal responsible for the attack. Updated results from these studies will only be provided if they differ from the information shared to date," the media release said. 

The bear was shot and killed hours after the emergency response call was received, when Parks Canada staff arrived at the scene and the bear charged the response team.

Parks Canada said two cans of bear spray were found at the scene, and the couple's food had been hung appropriately. 

"The individuals were on a backcountry hiking and camping trip and had the appropriate permits to do so. The individuals were also travelling with their dog," Parks Canada said. 

At the time of the incident, there was no active bear warning or area closure in place. The area remains closed to the public. 

"Bear attacks are rare occurrences. Fatal bear attacks are even less frequent. Over the last 10 years, there have been three recorded non-fatal, contact encounters with grizzly bears in Banff National Park. These incidents were the result of surprise encounters. This incident is the first grizzly bear-caused fatality recorded in Banff National Park in decades," Parks Canada said.

Metrolinx, the government agency that operates GO Transit train and bus service in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond, said all of its rail corridors were down, but it was slowly able to resume service on some lines.

Around 4:30 p.m. ET, GO Transit said it was able to run limited service from Union Station, but urged passengers to find other ways to get to their destinations or delay trips until later Tuesday night. 

Some 190,000 passengers use daily GO trains and buses, which connect Toronto's downtown core to Hamilton, Kitchener, Ont., and communities in the regions of Halton, Peel, York and Durham.

The outage left hundreds of frustrated home-bound commuters stuck at Union Station.

Uber caps surge pricing

"This is just crazy, whatever it is, they [GO] need to do better," said David Miller, a coffee shop worker who saw three trains he planned to take being cancelled.

The sudden demand for taxis tripled fares on ride-share service Uber, according to several people who tried to book rides.

An Uber spokesperson said prices temporarily increase when there are more ride requests than drivers.

"In response to this afternoon's GO transit situation, Uber capped surge pricing," spokesperson Keerthana Rang said in an email.

GO Transit said it would prioritize trying to get people home from Union Station, which was "very busy."