The city of Toronto has cancelled an extreme cold weather alert that was issued Friday morning in advance of frigid weekend temperatures to mobilize support services to help the homeless get in from the cold.

Alerts are issued when Environment Canada forecasts the temperature will drop below -15 C before wind chill factors are taken into account.

The mercury was expected to plunge to -15 C on Saturday and Sunday night. Forecasters predicted wind chill values would make it feel more like -20 C on Saturday night.

During an alert, 168 extra shelter beds are made available for the homeless across the city.

Our fallen comrades, Sergeant George Miok of 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, based in Edmonton, Alberta; Sergeant Kirk Taylor of 84 Independent Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, based in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; Corporal Zachery McCormack of The Loyal Edmonton Regiment (Fourth Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry), based in Edmonton, Alberta; Private Garrett William Chidley of The Second Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, Alberta; and Michelle Lang, a Canwest journalist from Calgary, Alberta, embedded with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, return home to Canada tomorrow.

Where:  8 Wing, Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario.
When:  Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
What:  At the request of the families, media will be permitted on the tarmac.

Four Canadian soldiers and one Canadian reporter embedded with Joint Task Force Afghanistan (JTF-Afg) were killed, while four other Canadian soldiers and one Canadian civilian official were injured in an IED incident in Kandahar province, on Wednesday December 30, 2009.

The incident occurred 4 km south of Kandahar City at approximately 4:00 p.m., Kandahar time, Wednesday afternoon as a result of an improvised explosive device attack on an armoured vehicle during a patrol.

We will not release the names of the soldiers, as notification of next-of-kin is ongoing at this time. Further information on the incident will be provided once this has been completed.

The death of Brighton resident Marie-France Comeau is being felt across the country.

Ms. Comeau, 38, was found dead in her home at 252 Raglan St., Brighton, on Wednesday, Nov. 25, around 1 p.m. Following a post mortem examination at the office of the Chief Coroner's office in Toronto, the Northumberland OPP deemed her death a homicide on Friday, Nov. 27.

Ms. Comeau was a corporal in the Canadian Forces and a flight attendant with the 437 transport squadron at CFB Trenton.