By David Helwig
SooToday.com
Monday, September 22, 2008

About a quarter after two this morning, Anita Daher finally left White River after 10 hours of terror and frustration.

And, way too many free doughnuts from Greyhound Canada Transportation Corporation.

The former Saultite had spent much of the weekend at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.

Author of five books for teens and juveniles, Daher was invited back to the Sault from Winnipeg, to give story readings during the popular Bushplane Days on Saturday and Sunday.

She then caught the Greyhound red-eye back to Winnipeg.

And around 4:15 p.m. yesterday, just east of White River, Daher found herself in the middle of a national crime story.

For the second time in less than two months, a brutal knife attack had taken place on a Greyhound Canada bus.

One of the 14 passengers on Daher's bus had plunged a knife into the chest of another passenger, described in media reports as being of Asian descent.

Daher didn't see it happen.

She was sitting at the front of the bus.

Deliberately.

Because she remembered the July attack near Portage la Prairie in which a Winnipeg man had been stabbed and beheaded on a Greyhound bus.

But Daher had a close encounter with the suspect, when he came to the front after the stabbing and demanded to be let off.

"I spoke to the [man] as he was demanding the driver open the door," Daher messaged SooToday.com via her Blackberry. "He was agitated. I told him he needed to wait for the bus to stop."

It was Daher who dialed 911, using her Blackberry when the bus driver's Telus phone couldn't find a connection.

"The stabber was also cut during this incident, and was concerned about the blood he was leaving on the floor by the door," she told SooToday.com

The man was allowed to leave the bus.

He was picked up by police a short time later.

Describing the moment of the attack to the Winnipeg Free Press, Daher said: "I heard a shout, someone yelling that someone was having trouble breathing. Then I heard something about a knife."

"People at the back were yelling 'Don't let him get away.' But the driver stopped and let him off," she said.

Some media reports have indicated that the suspect had originally been placed on the bus by police.

"Let me know if you hear why the police in Wawa put the man on the bus, who ended up stabbing that poor fellow," Daher messaged SooToday.com. "And how did he get that knife past them?"