More than 100 students have expressed outrage after a convicted killer who murdered one woman and left a 15-year-old girl quadriplegic was barred from a Canadian college campus. Some students argued that his case should be viewed through the lens of colonialism.

Jeffrey George Ewert was granted parole after spending four decades in prison for the 1984 murder of a young woman he had offered a ride home and the brutal assault of a teenage girl who was left permanently disabled.

Ewert, now in his 60s, had been attending McGill University’s Faculty of Law since August. University administrators banned him from campus this month.

McGill provost Angela Campbell told students that the university had taken “measured, decisive action,” according to The Gazette.

The decision to exclude Ewert led more than 120 current and former law students to sign a petition demanding that he be allowed to return.

“We are shocked by the reactive manner in which McGill University has responded to this issue,” the executive of the McGill Law Students’ Association said in an email sent Saturday and obtained by The Gazette.

“As law students, we are taught to recognize the injustices perpetuated by the criminal justice system and to understand the importance of rehabilitation and offenders’ rights,” the message said.

The students’ letter also urged the university to consider the impact of colonialism on Ewert, who is Indigenous. It described his imprisonment as “inextricable from the colonial institutions in which he was born.”

“Jeff’s situation is where our collective commitments to reconciliation and rehabilitation are tested,” the petition stated.

Raymond Johnson-Brown, one of the law students organizing the campaign, told the outlet that he and other students had become friends with Ewert. He said they watched as two security guards escorted him from campus.

“We understand that there’s a duty to keep students safe,” Johnson-Brown said, while noting that Ewert had not been accused of any wrongdoing at McGill.

“I personally don’t see somebody who has committed a crime, served [decades in prison] and is now out on day parole as impacting me or my well-being,” the student said.

However, several clinical assessments rated Ewert’s risk of reoffending as moderate to high, according to a report by CBC.

MORE STORY: My dying son held his pregnant girlfriend’s hand after being knifed..cops missed key clue & killer needs to face justice – NewsFinale

Parole documents cited by the outlet said that, with close supervision in a halfway house and ongoing clinical follow-up, his risk “seems to fall more into the moderate risk category.”

Johnson-Brown also acknowledged that concerns raised by women on campus about Ewert’s criminal history were understandable.

According to the outlet, Ewert violated his release conditions several times in 2025 while on day parole, which permits a prisoner to leave during the day and return at night to an approved residence. The violations included restrictions on his contact with women.

Johnson-Brown also echoed that colonialism should be ‘taken into consideration in understanding why we got the act of murder … that he committed,’ but clarified that it did not excuse Ewert’s crimes, The Gazette reports. 

Ewert’s heinous crimes began with the murder of a young woman he met at a bar. He offered her a ride home before strangling and sexually assaulting her, according to CTV News. She died as a result of the attack. 

His other victim, a 15-year-old girl, was also strangled and assaulted after she refused his advances. Ewert was in his 20s at the time.

He believed she was dead after the vicious attack and dumped her body in a ditch, where she was found the next day.

She is now blind and quadriplegic.

Provost Campbell sent a memo to students Friday in which she acknowledged the killer’s criminal history and reassured them of the university’s commitment to ensuring students feel safe.

‘We know many members of our community, particularly in the Faculty of Law, are worried and are asking why they weren’t told more, sooner. Those concerns are legitimate. We hear them and we take them seriously,’ Campbell wrote in the memo, obtained by CTV News.

‘At the same time, McGill is committed to dignity and to second chances. Our University believes in rehabilitation and in the power of education to transform lives. A past conviction does not on its own bar anyone from studying here. That commitment must always be balanced against our duty of care to the whole community,’ Campbell added.

The memo added that university officials are reviewing how they respond to situations such as Ewert’s case.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the McGill University Law Students’ Association for comment. 

When Katy Lander first visited her GP, she was dealing with persistent bloating, crushing tiredness and recurring abdominal pain. The 32-year-old was initially told her symptoms were likely linked to stress and exhaustion.

“I had absolutely no energy and felt bloated constantly,” recalls Katy, a GP administrative assistant from a village near Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

At the time, the explanation seemed believable. Katy was caring for her two young children, aged two and six, overseeing a house renovation and organising her wedding, which was only a few months away. “When the doctor said it was stress, it did make sense,” she says.

About seven months later, however, her bowel habits began to change. Sometimes she had to find a toilet urgently soon after eating; on other days, she was constipated from morning until night.

The mother of two contacted her GP surgery again, but was told she would need to wait four weeks for a telephone consultation.

“I was becoming really worried and anxious,” she says. “And I still didn’t feel any better.”

When Katy eventually spoke to a GP in June 2024, she had begun seeing blood in her stools and was experiencing episodes of severe stomach pain.

She told the doctor she feared the symptoms could indicate bowel cancer. He reassured her that, because of her age, irritable bowel syndrome was more likely, but asked her to attend the surgery for an examination a few days later. He also ordered a FIT, or faecal immunochemical test, which examines a stool sample for traces of blood that can sometimes signal bowel cancer.

Katy returned the sample the next morning. The following day, she was sent for an urgent colonoscopy, in which a camera is used to examine the bowel. The procedure revealed 13 polyps—small growths—as well as a large mass.

“I had a horrible feeling about it,” Katy remembers.

Biopsies and a CT scan confirmed her fears. A consultant told Katy and her husband, Ollie, 31, who works as a general manager for a joinery company, that she had bowel cancer.

“I was completely shocked,” she says. “It was as though my brain just stopped working.”

In the moment, she could think of only one question: had the cancer spread?

A few days after turning 33, Katy had keyhole surgery to remove the tumour along with roughly a third of her bowel. Thankfully, tests showed that the cancer had not spread to nearby organs.

Four weeks after the operation, she started a course of three chemotherapy treatments.

The side-effects began almost immediately. “I experienced terrible nausea, along with painful ulcers and blisters throughout my mouth,” she says. “I couldn’t even lift my hand to take a drink.”

Katy completed chemotherapy in December 2024. Three months later, doctors told her she was in remission. “It felt as though an enormous weight had been removed,” she says. “It was like being given a new life.”

Her diagnosis was especially unexpected because Katy had none of the commonly recognised risk factors associated with bowel cancer, including smoking, heavy alcohol consumption or obesity.

“I’ve always taken good care of myself,” she says.

She was also considerably younger than is typical for this diagnosis – which is most common in people in their 70s and 80s.

As has been widely reported, increasing numbers of younger people are developing bowel cancer despite having few, if any, of the established risk factors.

In the UK, the bowel cancer rate for 25- to 49-year-olds has risen by more than 50 per cent since the early Nineties – and England has the fastest rise in Europe, according to a major international study in The Lancet Oncology in 2024.

Now scientists are launching a major investigation to find out why. The study, called PROSPECT-UK, was launched this month by researchers at King’s College London.

It aims to recruit 250,000 people aged 18 to 50 to gather details about what they eat, how they live and the environmental factors they’re exposed to – as well as analysing blood and stool samples. This will then be compared with their NHS records over the following years.

Four other countries – France, India, Italy and the US – are conducting similar studies as part of an international PROSPECT project.

The fact that people born after the Seventies appear more likely to develop bowel cancer than previous generations at the same age suggests something has changed, say experts.

‘The birth-cohort effect is one of our biggest clues,’ explains Andrew Chan, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in the US and co-leader of the international PROSPECT team.

‘Today’s younger generations have grown up with a very different food environment, different patterns of obesity and metabolic disease such as type 2 diabetes, different medication exposures [such as antibiotics, but more on this later] and many other environmental changes,’ he told Good Health.

‘Diet, obesity, antibiotics or environmental exposures may seem like very different possible contributors – but inside the body they may converge on a relatively small number of biological pathways,’ adds Professor Chan.

In other words, together they could be creating a perfect storm that makes cancer more likely at a younger age.

And what appears to be happening is that some young people are effectively ageing faster.

One of the leading suspects for premature ageing is poor metabolic health – particularly obesity and type 2 diabetes, both of which have become more common in younger adults.

Excess body fat, particularly around the internal organs, can cause long-term inflammation and make the body less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that helps control blood sugar.

To compensate, the body produces more insulin, but this hormone also encourages cells to grow.

The concern is that persistently high insulin levels help abnormal cells in the bowel to multiply – while inflammation can damage the cells lining the bowel, forcing the body to replace them more frequently and increasing the risk of mistakes in the DNA, causing cells to become cancerous.

Indeed, scientists working on the international PROSPECT project have already identified a link between accelerated ageing in fat tissue and bowel cancer in younger adults.

‘Two people who are both 40 years old may not be ageing biologically at exactly the same rate,’ explains Professor Chan.

As we age, damage builds up in the DNA of our cells, while the body’s ability to repair that damage or destroy cells that have gone wrong becomes less effective.

If this ageing process begins earlier, abnormal cells may have a better chance of surviving and developing into tumours.

An increasing focus for concern is ultra-processed foods (UPFs), including ready meals, packaged snacks and sugary drinks.

Today, UPFs account for around 60 per cent of the calories eaten in Britain – worryingly, almost two-thirds of the calories British teenagers consume are from ultra-processed foods, reported the European Journal of Nutrition in 2024.

The potential risks were highlighted in research published in JAMA Oncology last November – this found that women aged under 50 who ate the most UPFs had 45 per cent higher odds of having precancerous growths in their bowel than those who ate the least.

This does not necessarily mean that processing itself is causing the disease, says Dr Rosiered Brownson-Smith, a researcher at King’s College London working on PROSPECT-UK.

People who eat more of these foods may also consume more calories, eat less fibre or put on weight, she explains.

Too little fibre can alter gut bacteria and reduce production of protective substances such as butyrate – an important by-product when gut bacteria break down fibre from vegetables, fruit and wholegrains, it helps keep the bowel lining healthy, reduces inflammation and helps control abnormal cell growth.

FIND OUT MORE: Australians Divided After Woman Lands Massive Fish at Popular Park

A study in Nature Metabolism last year found that butyrate could slow the growth of bowel cancer cells in the lab by changing the activity of genes that control how quickly cells multiply.

Without enough fibre, gut bacteria may instead break down more protein, producing chemicals that can be harmful to the bowel lining, explains Sylvia Zanesco, a nutrition researcher at King’s College London. She is investigating whether eating more fibre can improve changes linked to bowel cancer risk in a 12-week study involving identical twins under 55.

It’s not just that UPFs can lack fibre – scientists are also investigating additives such as emulsifiers, used in foods such as sauces and ice cream to stop ingredients separating.

‘There is growing evidence to suggest that some emulsifiers can affect the gut and promote inflammation,’ says Sylvia Zanesco.

Although she’d always thought she’d eaten reasonably healthily, Katy says she often bought convenience foods such as pizzas, chicken Kievs and soup, and paid little attention to how much fibre she was getting.

She’s changed her diet radically since her diagnosis, checking food labels more carefully.

‘I looked the other day at the back of a jar of soup and there’s a lot of added ingredients in there and so I just make it myself from scratch now,’ she says.

‘The biggest thing that I’ve changed about my diet is my fibre intake,’ she adds – she now aims for 30g a day, eating more nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables.

And then there is the potential role of antibiotics. Their use rose sharply during the 1980s – prescriptions in England alone increased by 21 per cent from 32.8million in 1980 to 39.8million in 1988, according to UK government figures.

Meanwhile, research involving 73 countries, published in The Lancet Global Health in 2020, found antibiotic use among children under five rose from 36.8 per cent in 2005 to 43.1 per cent in 2017.

By wiping out beneficial as well as bad bacteria, antibiotics can potentially mean harmful organisms may have less competition for food and space, allowing them to multiply.

A study published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2022 found that antibiotic use was linked to a 49 per cent increase in the risk of bowel cancer in the under 50s.

Professor James Kinross, a colorectal surgeon and researcher at Imperial College London, believes disruption to gut bacteria could help explain the rise in bowel cancer in younger people.

He says that when harmful bacteria multiply, they can cause inflammation that damages the bowel lining.

And producing new cells to replace those that have been damaged increases the chances of mistakes occurring when their DNA is copied.

‘In some people, these mutations may sit quietly for years, without doing anything – and in others they may grow quickly,’ he told Good Health.

Scientists have also uncovered evidence that colibactin, which is produced by certain strains of E. coli bacteria, could be damaging bowel cells decades before cancer develops.

Unlike the E. coli associated with food poisoning, strains known as pks-positive E. coli can live harmlessly in the bowel without causing any symptoms.

Around one in five healthy people carries them – babies can acquire them from their mothers around birth.

Why these bacteria contribute to cancer in some people but not others is not fully understood.

But a diet lacking fibre increased inflammation in the bowels of mice, allowing these bacteria to multiply, reported Nature Microbiology last year.

This can then damage the DNA inside bowel cells, including a gene called APC, which normally acts as a brake to stop cells multiplying out of control. If that brake is damaged, abnormal cells may begin to grow.

In a study published in Nature in 2025, scientists analysed 802 bowel cancer tumours from patients and found signs of DNA damage caused by colibactin in around one in five.

Crucially, this damage was 3.3 times more common in patients diagnosed before the age of 40 than in those over 70.

‘One way to think about it is that such an exposure could give some colorectal cells a mutational “headstart”,’ says Professor Ludmil Alexandrov, a cancer researcher at the University of California San Diego, who led the study.

But scientists are also looking beyond our diets and the bacteria in our bowels.

Pesticides are one concern. A study published in Nature Medicine in April found a possible link between bowel cancer in people under 50 and picloram, a weedkiller used in agriculture – when bowel tumours from younger patients were compared with those from people over 70, younger patients were more likely to have chemical changes to their DNA associated with exposure to picloram.

The researchers also found that areas in the US with higher rates of picloram use also tended to have higher rates of bowel cancer among younger adults.

Another concern is PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals used in products such as non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing and some food packaging.

In a study published in Environmental Science & Technology in 2023, researchers at Yale University exposed bowel cancer cells in the lab to two common PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS.

They found that the chemicals made the cancer cells more mobile, a change associated with the ability of tumours to spread.

Earlier research in 2005 found that levels of PFOA in people’s blood more than doubled between 1974 and 1989, raising the possibility that people now developing bowel cancer in their 30s and 40s were exposed to these chemicals from childhood.

Microplastics are also under investigation, with a review published in Cancer Epidemiology last year finding microplastics were present in bowel tumours.

Scientists suspect these particles could irritate the bowel lining, cause inflammation or interfere with the bacteria living there.

The concern is that today’s younger adults have been swallowing these particles since childhood, while their bowels and immune systems were still developing.

And children may be especially vulnerable because they take in more microplastics for their body weight than adults, while their organs, immune systems and ability to break down harmful chemicals are still developing, according to research published in Pediatric Research in July.

For Katy Lander the question of why she developed bowel cancer at 32 remains unanswered.

She has decided not to return to work, preferring to spend more time with her children, now aged eight and five.

But being cancer-free has not removed the fear of the cancer recurring.

‘You live between sort of seizing the day and being back to that place of paranoia,’ she says.

Meanwhile, while researchers investigate the causes, what should we all be doing now to minimise our risk?

‘If I had to prioritise areas right now, I would put metabolic health high on the list of things people should tackle,’ says Professor Chan.

bowelcanceruk.org.uk

Cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after persuading followers that starving themselves to death would take them to heaven.

Mackenzie led Kenya’s Good News International Church and told families that schools and hospitals were “Satanic”. He also convinced his followers that the world was approaching its end.

A Kenyan court heard that some parents stopped their children from eating and stood by as they starved to death.

The crimes came to light in 2023 after a tip-off to police exposed a large number of shallow graves near the Christian doomsday sect’s base in Kenya’s Shakahola Forest.

The case has since been described as one of the deadliest cult-related disasters in recent history.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, was arrested with 30 others after the graves were discovered. More than 400 bodies have been recovered, although severe decomposition meant only 26 victims could be identified.

Mackenzie denied the murder charges and insisted he had not forced anyone to starve. The court rejected his defence.

The judgment concerned 191 deaths. Investigations into the other fatalities recovered from the forest are continuing.

People familiar with the sect’s activities said Mackenzie organised the mass starvation in three stages: children first, followed by women and young men, and finally the remaining men.

Former followers have also said Mackenzie banned members from sending their children to school or seeking medical treatment when they were sick, describing both schools and hospitals as Satanic institutions.

RELATED: Jayson Baxter Illness And Health 2024: What Happened To CTV News Anchor? – NewsFinale

Members of the sect lived in makeshift shelters built from polythene sheeting and thatch. Mackenzie divided the settlement into areas with biblical names, including Jerusalem and Judea.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache told the court, during a hearing that lasted more than eight hours, that some children were separated from others and deprived of food while their parents watched.

Mackenzie appeared in court wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, seated beside his wife, who is also among the co-accused. He remained silent and stared into space before the verdict was delivered.

Relatives of some of the victims gathered at Mombasa High Court to hear the judgment.

Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight relatives, including two grandchildren, to the cult. Ahead of the verdict, he said: “It has been really a heavy thing (for) us as a family, and it has really taken us very far in terms of psychological problems… I was hoping for this particular day.”

The suffering of Mackenzie’s followers began to emerge in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and sister-in-law had starved their children to death in the forest on the leader’s orders.

Mackenzie was initially arrested but released on bail. Relatives later said he moved forward the date on which he had predicted the world would end. Police arrested him again in April 2023, then began a systematic search of the forest and the exhumation of mass graves.

Mackenzie faces other charges over the forest deaths including terrorism-related ones, which he has denied.

Prosecutors say while he was in detention he also directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, which lies about 30 km (18 miles) from Shakahola. Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.

The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago.

It raised questions over how Mackenzie was able to continue to operate despite having been on the radar of the authorities since 2017 when his premises were searched by police. In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie’s church and he relocated to the Shakahola Forest, police said.

The case has also led to calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life.

Kenyan President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths. He said he took responsibility as president.

A video showing a woman carrying an enormous carp through Sydney’s Centennial Park has sparked a heated online debate and drawn a response from a government authority.

The footage was recorded near one of the park’s ponds at Centennial Park, close to Moore Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. It shows the woman carrying the torso-sized fish over her shoulder as a young child walks beside her.

A stunned bystander filmed the scene from inside his car.

“What the f***!” the man can be heard shouting.

“You can’t fish here.”

Greater Sydney Parklands told 7News.com.au that fishing is banned across Centennial Parklands to safeguard water quality, wildlife and the safety of visitors.

According to the agency’s website, anyone who breaks the park’s rules could face a fine.

“Rangers patrol ponds at Centennial Park and intervene when necessary,” a spokeswoman told 7News.

The Daily Mail has contacted Greater Sydney Parklands for further comment.

Carp are native to Asia but now inhabit most freshwater systems across eastern Australia, including the ponds at Centennial Park.

The species is widely classified as a serious freshwater pest.

“Carp degrade the water quality of the ponds and limit the opportunity for native fish populations to become established,” the Greater Sydney Parklands website says.

“They are prolific breeders and reduce the survival chances for native fish.

“Although several tonnes of carp have been removed, these programs have not eradicated the carp population, which remains an ongoing problem.”

Although fishing is prohibited in the parklands, NSW’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development advises that carp should never be released back into the water and must instead be disposed of.

CONTINUE READING: Supreme Court to Rule on Legality of Home Liquor Distilling Ban

“Captured carp must be killed in a humane manner,” the department says on its website.

The video, reshared by popular Instagram account Brown Cardigan, sparked a mixed reaction from viewers.

“It seems so wrong, especially given the size of the fish,” one person commented.

Another added: ‘Centennial Park carp tonight, Prince of Wales Hospital in the morning.’

Others did not think it was a big deal and praised the woman, believing she had removed an invasive fish from the park.

‘I can absolutely guarantee that this became a delicious dinner and what a great use of an invasive species! If you can’t beat them, eat them!’ NT-based tour guide David McMahon said.

Another Aussie wrote: ‘Doing God’s work. Well done lady!’

High-profile locals also weighed in.

‘What the actual…!’ former The Biggest Loser personal trainer Michelle Bridges remarked.

Long-serving Bondi Rescue lifeguard Andrew ‘Reidy’ Reid added: ‘Hahahaha.’ 

A spokesperson from Greater Sydney Parklands said that fishing is not permitted in Centennial Parklands to protect water quality, wildlife and visitor safety.

‘Carp is an invasive species that are found in most freshwater systems in eastern Australia, including Centennial Park,’ the spokesperson said.

‘Rangers patrol ponds at Centennial Park and intervene when necessary. Rangers aim to foster a cooperative approach with the community about how to safely and equitably share the park and protect its environment.

‘Unauthorised fishing can result in potential on the spot fines of between $150 to $500.’

Do you know more? Email tips@dailymail.com.au.