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POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS
WHITEHORSE - Canada's governments, in the interest of gaining public trust and building a "robust democracy," should open their files and provide much more information to Canadians. This is the message that emerged Wednesday in a joint resolution released by information and privacy commissioners representing the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Their statement notes that governments are under increasing pressure to transform their "traditional" practice of only releasing information when asked to do so, to a more "proactive" system that automatically shares documents with the public. (Ottawa Citizen)
MORE: Resolution of Canada's access to information and privacy commissioners
RELATED: MPs spend less under minority
Cut through all the political blather over the past week on the federal long-gun registry and you get to one point: They will all have to choose. Canada’s political leaders and their party members will face a vote in the House of Commons in three weeks on an issue that has pitted rural Canadians against city dwellers even before the gun registry was created by the Chretien Liberals back in 1995. (Chronicle Herald)
COMMENT: Canada, unregulated gun zone where women fear for their lives Gunning for cash
PREVIOUS: 'Useful tool' Registry useful Canadian Firearms Registry
RELATED: 80% of the population live in urban areas Tyranny of the majority
Weird that the fee crazy governments haven't moved into a pay per view system for this. - Chris
Shortages of a variety of prescription medications across Canada have left doctors and pharmacists scrambling to find replacement drugs, and forced many patients to switch from treatments they had used successfully for years, health professionals say. The largely unexplained supply problems have prompted speculation that manufacturers are abandoning some products in the wake of controversial government reforms that have slashed the price of generic drugs in Ontario and other provinces. (National Post)
DOURADOS - Brazilian police have arrested almost the entire local council in the southern city of Dourados. Mayor Ari Artuzi, his wife, deputy, and 25 other people were detained on suspicion of fraud and corruption. Prosecutors accuse the mayor of heading a complex corruption racket. A judge has been appointed to run the city of 200,000 people. Prosecutors accuse Mr Artuzi and his collaborators of taking a 10% cut of all public works contracts and using the money for election campaigns and to bribe other local politicians. (BBC)
AFP
LAHORE - At least 35 people were killed and 250 wounded in the attacks on a street procession marking the death anniversary of caliph Ali, one of Shiite Islam’s most respected holy men. Two of the blasts were apparently suicide bombs. Afterward, crowds torched a police station and vehicles. Authorities deployed paramilitary forces to restore order. (AFP)
PREVIOUS: Bombs target Shiite procession Shiite-Sunni relations
Reuters
MAPUTO - Mozambique's government deployed troops to clear barricades in the capital as angry protesters blocked roads and looted shops on Thursday, the second day of riots caused by soaring bread prices. The cabinet held an emergency session and appealed for calm, and cabinet spokesman Alberto Nkutumula said 7 people had been killed and 280 injured in the protests. (AFP)
PREVIOUS: Deadly riots
James J Lee
SILVER SPRING - A radical environmentalist who took 3 hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters while wearing what police may be explosives was shot and killed by officers. The gunman, identified as James Lee, was killed by police following four hours of negotiations, the hostages are all safe. (ABC)
MORE: Discovery hostage crisis Save the planet protest
Environmental activists arrested
Four Greenpeace activists have been arrested after giving up their occupation of a Scottish company's drilling rig off Greenland. The environmental group boarded the rig, operated on behalf of Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy, earlier this week. Greenpeace said they gave up after the weather changed for the worse. (BBC)
PREVIOUS: Greenpeace occupies oil rig Greenpeace 'boards Cairn platform' 'An illegal attack on Greenland's rights' Occupation of rig Protest ship arrives
AP
NEW ORLEANS - A Mariner Energy offshore petroleum rig caught fire and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 130 kilometres south of Vermilion Bay. The US Coast Guard says no one was killed in the fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 10am. (AP)
Some 240 women, girls and babies may have been raped after rebels recently seized a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN says. Officials had previously said they had received reports of 150 rapes in and around the town of Luvungi. The UN mission has been heavily criticised for not doing more to protect the local population as it had peacekeepers based nearby. But it says it was only told of the rapes after the rebels had left. (BBC)
MORE: UN ignored rape warnings
PREVIOUS: UN defends inaction on mass rapes
MV Sun Sea, formerly the Harin Panich 19
TORONTO - Ottawa must stop making allegations that some illegal Tamil immigrants may have terrorist links and instead produce evidence, the Canadian Tamil Congress said Wednesday. Authorities need to "get down to the bottom" of who was really among the almost 500 Tamils who arrived in BC by boat last month. (CP)
MORE: Whither the Sun Sea captain?
PREVIOUS: Refugee Chain migration Waiting for a ship Investigative Headlines
RELATED: Gaddafi wants EU cash to stop Africans
BRUSSELS - The European Commission has criticised France over its expulsions of Roma (Gypsies) and has requested more information about the crackdown. An interim report by the commission - the EU's executive arm - says the French policy does not put enough emphasis on the individual circumstances of Roma facing expulsion. France has expelled nearly 1,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria from illegal camps since July. (BBC)
MORE: Italy to demolish Gypsy settlements
PREVIOUS: France to deport hundreds more France begins deporting hundreds from illegal camps France begins Roma deportations Romani people
OTTAWA - A far left-wing American lobby group funded by US billionaire George Soros wants you to be scared, very scared. There might soon be more competition in the world of TV news. A group called Avaaz.org operating out of New York City is warning their supporters that SUN TV News Channel, which has yet to launch, will bring “American-style hate media onto our airwaves.” (QMI)
LONDON - The three Pakistan cricketers accused of corruption may have been set up, according to the country's high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan. When asked whether Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who are being investigated for spot-fixing, had been framed, Hasan replied: "Yes." Hasan claims the News of the World video allegedly exposing the scandal may have been made after the incident. However, the paper said it "refuses to respond to such ludicrous allegations". (BBC)
MORE: Players to be questioned under caution ICC charges and suspends trio
PREVIOUS: Suspicion falls on 80 matches Match fixing claims 'Betting scam' Match fixing scandal Cricket
CTV
TORONTO - Drivers in Toronto should keep their eyes peeled for speed traps around every corner, according to the National Motorist Association's annual list of "Worst North American Speed Trap Cities". Toronto ranked first overall in North America on the list compiled with data from the association's National Speed Trap Exchange, where drivers from the US and Canada can report locations where police regularly look for speeders. Toronto has more reported speed trap zones than Los Angeles, New York City and Montreal combined. (CTV)
REPORT: Worst speed trap cities
MORE: Toronto is the worst city for speed traps
Ahmed, Alizadeh and Sher
OTTAWA - A week after he turned 21, a Montreal student logged on to a Muslim Internet forum and posted a link to a propaganda video called “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” The video was circulated by a man who used the online handle “Qutz,” but his email address indicates he is Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, one of the Ottawa terror suspects arrested last week. (National Post)
MORE: Suspects to appear in court Wed Wiretap used
PREVIOUS: 4th man remains in jail Terror suspect wouldn't 'hurt a fly' Tracking terror at home Ottawa terrorism plot Terror arrests
GATINEAU - Big-city dwellers will get cash back from their phone companies and tens of thousands of rural residents will finally get to kiss dial-up Internet goodbye, following a decision Tuesday by the federal telecommunications regulator. Urban Canadians in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia will get between $20 and $90 back from the large phone companies within the next six months. Subscribers in 287 rural and remote communities will get access to high-speed Internet by 2014. The windfall comes from a $770M fund collected from the so-called Bell companies by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
PITTSFIELD - A plot by a Berkshire County Hells Angels member to frame a witness in his criminal case has been uncovered, according to law enforcement officials. Adam Lee Hall, a ranking member of the Berkshire County chapter of the Hells Angels, fabricated a crime in the Adirondacks region of New York and tried to pin it on David R. Glasser, 43, of Linden Street, according to Massachusetts State Police, who worked with New York authorities to unearth the plot. (Berkshire Eagle)
CANBERRA - 76 seats required for victory. Gillard's Labour: 72+2 seats Abbott's Coalition: 72+1 seats Others: 3 seats (ABC)
MORE: A 'none-of-the-above' government Australia's election kingmakers Australian federal election 2010
ABC
AMSTERDAM - Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with "preparation of a terrorist attack." US officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed "mock bombs" in their luggage. "This was almost certainly a dry run, a test," said one senior law enforcement official. The two were allowed to board the flight at O'Hare airport last night despite security concerns surrounding one of them, the officials said. The men were identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, of Detroit, MI, and Hezem al Murisi, the officials said. (ABC)
MORE: Dutch arrest suspects on US flight Airline scare likely not a terror plot
MEXICO CITY - Police have arrested alleged drug trafficker Edgar Valdez, a US citizen also known as Barbie, Mexico's attorney general says. Officials said he put up little resistance when he was captured in a residential area near Mexico City. Edgar Valdez is linked to the influential Beltran Leyva drug cartel. Mr Valdez has been fighting Hector Beltran Leyva for control of the gang, previously led by his brother Arturo until he was shot dead last December. (BBC)
MORE: 'El Barbie' captured 8 die in Cancun bar bombing
PREVIOUS: Cartels
NEW DELHI - Security forces in India, battling insurgencies ranging from Kashmir in the northwest to the far-flung northeast, are insisting that telecom groups give them the capability to monitor their data. Skype, the Internet phone service, and Google, which uses powerful encryption technology for its Gmail email service, are expected to be among the next wave of firms to come under New Delhi's scanner. (AFP)
278,000 criminal cases cracked
BEIJING - China has cracked 278,000 criminal cases and broken up nearly 1,650 mafia-style gangs since it launched a campaign to maintain public security in rural-urban fringe zones and on campuses in January. The government will maintain its "strike hard" policy against mafia-style gangs, crimes involving guns and explosives, gambling, prostitution and drugs, Wang Lequan, deputy secretary of the Commission said. (Xinhua)
RELATED: Floods, landslides leave 3,185 dead
Municipal leaders sound warning over Arctic agenda
IQALUIT - Crumbling infrastructure, cash-strapped communities and Third World living conditions across northern Canada are putting Ottawa’s ambitious Arctic agenda at risk, a new report warns. (Toronto Star)
REPORT: On the front lines of Canada's northern strategy .pdf
OTTAWA - Canada’s established telecom carriers must allow smaller Internet providers access to their high-speed fiber networks at the same speed they offer to their own customers, the telecom and broadcast regulator ruled Monday, but it said they can charge a 10% mark-up for doing so. (Reuters)
Brian Pinksen
A Canadian soldier has died from wounds he sustained in an IED blast in Afghanistan more than a week ago. Cpl. Brian Pinksen, a member of 2nd Battalion, Royal Newfoundland Regiment based in Corner Brook, NL, was wounded while on patrol in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province on Aug. 22. Pinksen was treated in Afghanistan before being transported to a military hospital in Germany. He died from his injuries early Monday. (CTV)
MORE: Wounded soldier dies Injured soldier dies
SUMATRA - Mount Sinabung volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has erupted again, sending ash and smoke several kilometres into the atmosphere. Thousands of people living near the mountain evacuated their homes to stay in government-provided shelters. Mount Sinabung, long considered to be inactive, erupted for the first time in 400 years in the early hours of Sunday. Mr Surono, a government vulcanologist, told the BBC that the volcano erupted again early on Monday, spewing black ash and soot two kilometres (1.24 miles) into the air. (BBC)
PREVIOUS: Volcano erupts Volcano erupts after 400 years
KUGLUKTUK - Passengers who were stuck aboard a cruise ship that ran aground on an uncharted rock off the Nunavut coast on Friday are on their way home. The MV Clipper Adventurer went aground Friday evening while making its way from Port Epworth to Kugluktuk, Nunavut. None of the more than 100 passengers was injured, but they were forced to stay on the ship until Sunday, when a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker arrived to ferry them to Kugluktuk. (CBC)
MORE: Passengers heading home
RELATED: Franklin's ships still missing
UN climate body 'needs reform'
The UN's climate science body needs fundamental reforms to the way it is managed, an international review has concluded. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has faced mounting pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007. The review commends the IPCC on the way it carried out previous assessments. But the report recommends changes to the way the body is run and the way science is presented. (BBC)
MORE: Predictions must be based on evidence
PREVIOUS: Climate Debate
RELATED: UN $2B HQ reno
AFP
BRATISLAVA - A gunman has killed 6 people and wounded 14 in an attack in the Slovak capital Bratislava. Slovak police commander Jaroslav Spisiak said the gunman, aged around 50, shot himself dead after the attack. Mr Spisiak said the first police officers arrived as the gunman was leaving a house in which he had killed 5 people, before shooting their relative outside the house. He added: 'On the run, he ran only a few metres, shooting at everything that moved. More officers came, surrounded him and he had no choice but to commit suicide.' (RTE)
MORE: Gunman kills 6, himself Shooting spree
Brian Diez
LAKE HAVASU CITY - A gunman entered a western Arizona home and fatally shot 5 people, including the mother of his 2 children and her new boyfriend, before fleeing with the kids to Southern California where he killed himself, police said. (AP)
Bolivian police commander removed
LA PAZ – A police commander linked to an alleged attempt to extort money from a Brazilian businessman has been ordered relieved of duty by the Bolivian government, the National Police chief said. Brazilian businessman Osvaldo Fonseca Filho told a media outlet in his country last week that he had to “negotiate” with Bolivian police and legislators, paying $5,000 to get back a vehicle stolen in 2009 and recovered in Bolivia. The businessman’s allegations prompted about 30 truck drivers to accuse Vehicle Robbery Prevention Agency officers of holding vehicles until payments of $500 to $1,000 were made to secure their release, the Santa Cruz daily El Deber reported. (LAHT)
RELATED: Argentine cops open internal inquiry every day into officer misconduct Top cop jailed
Reuters
QUITO - A bus winding its way through Ecuador's highlands towards the capital of Quito went off the road before dawn Sunday, killing 38 passengers. Authorities said 12 more people were injured in the crash. Local television showed rescue workers struggling to extract bodies and look for survivors on the steep cliffs around Lake Yambo in the central province of Cotopaxi where the accident occurred. (Reuters)
MORE: At least 42 killed
BEIJING - China's draconian export curbs on rare earth minerals needed by the rest of the world for frontier technologies is escalating into a serious diplomatic and trade clash with the US and other leading powers. Japan's foreign minister Katsuya Okada issued what amounted to a formal protest at top-level meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend, saying the sudden cut-off was "affecting the global production chain". It is the latest sign of rising pressure after angry complaints by companies outside China that rely on this family of 17 metals for hybrid cars, mobile phones, superconductors, navigation, and a host of high-tech industries. (Telegraph UK)
PREVIOUS: China throttles rare metal supply
LONDON - The government is to introduce a wholesale change to Britain's overseas aid budget by demanding that projects in the developing world must make the "maximum possible contribution" to British national security, according to a leaked Whitehall paper. (Guardian UK)
AFP
ISLAMABAD - A month after torrential monsoon rains triggered Pakistan’s worst natural disaster on record, flood waters are starting to recede - but there are countless survivors at risk of death from hunger and disease. The disaster has killed at least 1,643 people, forced more than 6M from their homes, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the US-backed government which has struggled to cope. (Reuters)
PREVIOUS: 2010 Pakistan floods
KABUL - One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said yesterday that President Hamid Karzai fired him last week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Karzai’s government. Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, the former deputy attorney general, said investigations of more than two dozen senior Afghan officials - including Cabinet ministers, ambassadors, and provincial governors - were being held up or blocked outright by Karzai, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, and others. (NY Times)
MORE: Corruption prosecutor, 74, says he was forced out Graft prosecutor 'fired'
RELATED: 5 campaigners for female candidate shot dead
LONDON - The body of Gareth Williams was found stuffed in a bag in the bath of an MI6 safehouse in Pimlico, south London, a week ago. Reports have said there was evidence of a break-in, and that sim cards containing the numbers of gay escorts were found at the flat, but police who found the body told Channel 4 News it was "a neat job", leading to speculation that Williams was killed in a professional hit. The police and security services seem to disagree over precisely what led to Williams' death, with Whitehall sources maintaining that his death was "more to do with his private life than his job". His family claim Williams has been the victim of a smear campaign to deflect attention from his work within the intelligence service. (Guardian UK)
PREVIOUS: 'British spy' British spy stabbed to death MI6 worker had been 'dead for weeks'
Reputed Mafia figures in court
Tony Mucci Carmine Serino Jesse Petrocco
MONTREAL - Tony Mucci, 55, of Boucherville, reputed to be an influential figure in the Montreal Mafia, faces 10 charges in all, including two for allegedly being in possession of a weapon designed to repel bears. He is also charged with being in possession of a prohibited weapon while he was inside a vehicle on Thursday. Three of the accused, including Mucci, Carmine Serino and Jesse Petrocco, return to court on Tuesday for a bail hearing. (Montreal Gazette)
MORE: Influential member of the Mafia arrested Mucci and bodyguards arrested
Christopher Ingvaldson Ian Green
VANCOUVER - A former Vancouver private school teacher was allegedly part of an international Facebook child pornography ring, say police. Christopher Charles Ingvaldson, 40, was charged in June with four counts of possession and distribution of kiddie porn. (Vancouver Province)
PREVIOUS: Ringleader jailed 2 BC Canadians in child porn bust
A firm owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook, and other companies alleging that they have violated patents related to search, multimedia, screen pop-ups and database management. Interval Licensing filed the patent lawsuit Friday in US District Court of the Western District of Washington. The companies named in the lawsuit are Aol, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube. (Reuters)
LAS VEGAS - Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton was arrested Friday night and booked into the Clark County Detention Center for possession of a controlled substance, described by Las Vegas Metro Police as cocaine. (CBS)
MORE: 'Vapor trail' leads to arrest
Parks Canada
JASPER - After 21 years buried under ice and snow at the foot of the Snow Dome, the body of American William Holland was found this month perfectly preserved in his full climbing gear, spiked boots on his feet and rope slung over his shoulder. (Edmonton Journal)
Booze, gambling worth more than gas
CALGARY - Booze and gambling are producing a windfall of riches for the provincial government at a rate that's suddenly worth more than the individual takes from conventional oil and natural gas. Combined, the vices are expected to generate about $2B in revenue for provincial coffers in the current 2010-11 budget year - roughly $1.3B from gaming and lottery revenue, and nearly $700M from liquor. Yet, royalties from conventional natural gas - for years the province's primary source of energy income - are now forecast to hit only $1.9B this year. 4 years ago, the government reaped $6B in natural gas royalties. (Calgary Herald)
'Glaring failure of execution'
NIAGARA FALLS - The health-care system Canadians cherish - and spend billions on - is in decline and needs better management, the new head of the Canadian Medical Association said Wednesday. "It's not a lack of resources. It's not an absence of will. It's a glaring failure of execution," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, chief of staff at The Ottawa Hospital, in his inaugural speech to the CMA. (PostMedia)
PREVIOUS: Black hole for health-care money Not even Fraser knows
Drug use by drivers is nearly as common as alcohol use, new Canadian research suggests. A study of more than 14,000 driver fatalities in the country from 2000 to 2006 by the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse found 33% of drivers tested positive for at least one drug and 38% tested positive for alcohol. The most common drugs found in the blood of the drivers were: Depressants. Stimulants. Cannabis. Fatal crashes involving drugs tended to occur during daylight hours throughout the week while alcohol-related collisions tended to happen on weekends and late at night, the researchers found. (CBC)
Numbers stacked against fraud squad
MONTREAL - When Sayeh Sangoul called the Montreal police to complain about a money man whom she alleges defrauded her father, she said she was told by more than one officer there was up to a two-year wait before her file could be dealt with. Cases of people being defrauded by friends and acquaintances are lumped in with credit card theft, identity theft, forged welfare cheques and other financial crimes. There are 1,398 dossiers open at present, and while that seems overwhelming, it's not the worst things have been: in 2008, the docket held 1,800 files awaiting work. (Montreal Gazette)
RELATED: Appeal Court absolves fraudsters' lawyer in $30M scam
Fatima Kama
LONDON - The fugitive suspected of killing a Canadian singer in 1999 and stuffing her body inside a suitcase at London's Heathrow Airport has been arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. Youssef Ahmed Wahid was arrested by Bahrain officials on Tuesday in a planned operation, British police said. His extradition to the UK is pending. (CBC)
MORE: Arrest made in 10-year-old murder Arrest in Heathrow suitcase murder
PREVIOUS: The girl in the suitcase
Apple is applying for a patent for spyware that would enable them to monitor users and control the use of Apple products for unauthorized use. The technology would enable Apple to find the user’s location, monitor their Internet usage, monitor memory access, take screenshots on the device, and even record the user’s heartbeat, says a report from the EFF. The spyware could also collect data from other systems. The definition of “unauthorized” user or use could include acts which are legal, such as “jailbreaking” an iPhone, which allows users access to features not approved by Apple. (Epoch Times)
MORE: Apple seeking to patent spyware
PREVIOUS: Copyright bill to ban breaking digital locks
POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS
POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS
VICTORIA - An 11-page internal briefing note on the HST was given to Finance Minister Colin Hansen in March 2009, despite his later insistence that the controversial tax was not on his “radar screen” before the May 2009 election. The document, obtained by The Province and other news outlets on Wednesday, said the federal government was “strongly encouraging” BC to the adopt the harmonized sales tax. The briefing note - entitled Sales Tax Harmonization (.pdf) - states Ontario was leaning toward the HST and spells out the advantages and disadvantages of BC following suit. Four pages of the note - entitled “Options” - are whited-out by government censors. (Vancouver Province)
PREVIOUS: Bad hire for BC Liberals 2010: Aspects of Financial Management Liberals are not prudent mangers of funds
RELATED: Take this you ungrateful voters Real estate bubble Doom and gloom predicted Families paying more and getting less
SUDBURY - A 48-year-old man has been arrested after a Sudbury woman died of stab wounds Thursday morning. A neighbour said they were a couple and they were "very nice people, extremely nice people." Police have not released the name of the man charged, however a phone listing identifies a Denis Guerin as living at the residence and the neighbour confirmed the last name. (QMI)
Jason David Farro
ST. THOMAS - Police say a Toronto man found dead inside a St. Thomas, Ont., apartment fire Sunday was the victim of foul play. A post mortem conducted Wednesday concluded Jason David Farro, 40, died of blunt force trauma, not the result of a fire at the Centre St apartment where he was found. (QMI)
MORE: Death ruled murder
EDMONTON - A second person faces a murder charge in connection with the homicide of 23-year-old James Lee Catholique. Police say William Dixon turned himself in Wednesday. He is charged with second-degree murder and possession of a weapon. Edmonton police have already arrested and charged 50-year-old Rene Francis Quinn, 50 with second-degree murder and possession of a weapon. The incident happened around 6pm Thursday on 100th St and 107 A Ave. Police say Catholique, of no fixed address, died of head trauma following an altercation. (CTV)
PREVIOUS: Victim identified
NEWMARKET - A man wanted in a mall murder in Markham, Ont., has a court date in Newmarket today after being arrested in London, Ont. York regional police say Bryan Valentine Gardner, 21, of Toronto was arrested Wednesday on a first-degree murder warrant. Gardner was wanted in the death of Chun Kit (Daniel) Cheong, 26, of Toronto, who was shot in the head at the Pacific Mall in February 2009. (CP)
PREVIOUS: Suspect named Arrest warrant issued Security video released
Alex Chapman Lori Douglas
WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg man who claims his former lawyer repeatedly harassed him to have sex with his wife, now a prominent Queen's Bench justice, filed a $67M lawsuit against the couple and their former law firm Wednesday. The suit was filed just hours before Justice Lori Douglas, the woman at the centre of this lurid scandal, provisionally relinquished her duties on the bench. (QMI)
MORE: Judge temporarily off bench over online sex photos Judge disclosed problem Court orders return of judge's sex photos
PREVIOUS: Judge, lawyer face probe
KAMLOOPS - 3 of 4 RCMP officers under investigation for allegedly watching two women have sex in a jail cell have been suspended. (QMI)
PREVIOUS: Senior officer among watchers Failing to act Police, jailers investigated 4 cops investigated
Mario Lambert
MONTREAL - RCMP investigators testified in court Thursday how they installed hidden cameras to spy on detectives suspected of snooping into confidential databases then passing that information along to criminals. Montreal police detective Mario Lambert is accused of unlawfully retrieving information about license plates and car ownerships in exchange for payments from criminals. In court, RCMP investigators said they had been asked by Montreal's Internal Affairs investigators to set up the cameras in the force's detective headquarters, located in Anjou. (CTV)
MORE: Sting implicates cop
TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. - A welfare cheat who owned two homes, three vehicles and a lucrative furniture business will spend less than two years in jail, but paying back the taxman could take a lifetime. A judge has ordered Robert Thibodeau, 64, to reimburse taxpayers over the next 30 years after he pocketed $74,000 in social assistance cheques. Thibodeau pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced this week to 21 months in jail. Once he’s released, he’ll have to pay back $300 a month until 2040. (QMI)
Jason Matthew Walker
VICTORIA - A clinical counsellor and former Saanich police reserve constable convicted last week for faking his credentials will serve no jail time. In rendering the sentence this morning, Judge Robert Higinbotham cited the destruction of Jason Matthew Walker’s public persona and the “well-deserved” public scorn he's suffered as among reasons for rejecting a stiffer sentence. (Victoria Times Colonist)
PREVIOUS: Fake pleads guilty
PNG
VANCOUVER - The man killed in a North Surrey house Monday night was a peaceful, hard-working person with no vices, according to a woman who identified herself as his sister. “My brother was in Canada legally with a work visa for two years,” Jacqueline Luna wrote in a Spanish email to The Province. She said she and her mother are “anguished” about the death of her brother, whom she identified as Jose Hector Luna Morales of El Salvador. Surrey RCMP said they were called to a disturbance at a home in the 13800-block of 112th Ave at around 11pm Monday. (Vancouver Province)
PREVIOUS: RCMP investigating murder Disturbance call ends in murder probe
Sonia Varaschin
ORANGEVILLE - Missing nurse Sonia Varaschin was the victim of foul play, the OPP said in an announcement Wednesday. Her bloodied white Toyota Corolla was found parked in an alley. (QMI)
PREVIOUS: Blood found Missing woman Car found bloody, abandoned
WINDSOR - A 15-year-old boy is dead after someone ran him over Tuesday night then drove off, leaving him bleeding on the street. Kyle Peters was riding his bike west on County Road 34, between Roads 21 and 37, when a vehicle headed in the same direction ran him down. He was rushed to hospital in critical condition and died this morning. (Windsor Star)
CANTLEY - Claude D'Auteuil, 58, barricaded himself inside his house threatening suicide on Aug. 20 and died of bullet wounds after he came out of the house holding a gun. Police did fire on D'Auteuil, but the investigation concluded that while the shots fired by MRC des Collines police did hit D'Auteuil, the fatal shot to his head came from his own gun. (Ottawa Citizen)
PREVIOUS: Stand-off ends in shooting Police shooting
Justice Department
DARTMOUTH - Police say 17 men face mischief charges after the June riot at the jail in Dartmouth. Halifax Regional Police said 13 of the suspects have been dealt with, but they're looking for four who have since been released from custody. The 17 suspects range in age from 19 to 51. They have not been named. A group of out-of-control inmates smashed windows and broke recreation equipment at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility on June 15. (CBC)
WANIPIGOW - Police are investigating a mob attack at Hollow Water First Nation on Saturday night that left a 25-year-old woman missing part of a finger on her left hand. The woman alleged that a dozen people burst into her two-bedroom trailer late Saturday, armed with bats, sticks and golf clubs. She said the group attacked her, her 34-year-old boyfriend and her 33-year-old female friend before fleeing from the home. She alleged the attack included people she said should be "role models" for the community, such as a band councillor, a local school and band employee, and a man who works for an aboriginal policing agency. (Winnipeg Free Press)
Dustin LaFortune Dustin Paxton
CALGARY - CTV has learned that a 911 call was made to Calgary PSC months before Lafortune was dumped outside a Regina hospital. He had been beaten, burned, emaciated, and mutilated. Dustin Paxton has been charged with assault and forcible confinement in connection to the case. Shortly before his disappearance, Lafortune and Paxton were roommates in Calgary. On February 28, a call alleging an assault was made to 911 in Calgary at 6:30pm. No details about who made the call, or what was said, are being released. CPS confirmed police were never dispatched to the call and investigators only learned about it last week. (CTV)
PREVIOUS: LaFortune speaks Suspect agitated Suspect arrested Family ecstatic Paxton arrested
Ban go into effect in Nofuncouver
VANCOUVER - Smokers at Vancouver's parks, beaches, golf courses and playgrounds must butt out starting today or fork out a hefty fine. Park rangers will be enforcing the no-smoking bylaw and violators could be fined a minimum of $250 for a first offence and up to $2,000 for subsequent offences. (Vancouver Sun)
RELATED: When will officials deal with Critical Mass ride? City staff politicized Vancouver City Hall leaked memo .pdf
VANCOUVER - A group of contractors repairing driveways in the Fraser Valley have allegedly threatened clients who don't pay for work with sexual assault, IRA-style bombings and the killing of livestock, say police. Two separate incidents reported to authorities on Aug. 19 in Abbotsford and Langley involving the same construction contracting company has police concerned about public safety. (Abbotsford Times)
Kylie Armishaw CTV
WINNIPEG - The death of a 22-year-old woman who plummeted from a balcony near the top of a high-rise building is being investigated by the homicide unit, said police. Officers were called about an injured female in the 500 block of St Mary Ave in downtown Winnipeg around 3:20am on Aug. 29. The woman is believed to have died after falling from an upper-level balcony on the 18 storey building, but the exact manner of her death remains under investigation, said police. Officers identified the victim as Kylie Fay Dawn Armishaw, 22, of Winnipeg. (CTV)
CTV
CALGARY - Calgary police were called at 12:30pm Friday to an apartment building in the 1510 21st Ave SW to reports of a stabbing. When they arrived, they found a man with life-threatening injuries. He was transported to hospital, where he was declared dead. An autopsy has been completed and police say Mohammad Ahmed Mahmud, 36, died of a stab wound. A second man, Ahmed Abdulkadir Mohamed, 30, was located at the same address and taken into custody. He has subsequently been charged with one count of second-degree murder. (CBC)
PREVIOUS: Charge laid
CBC
SASKATOON - A man who did in Saskatoon's seventh homicide of the year has been identified by numerous sources as Anthony Gunn, 23, of the English River First Nation. The death occurred Aug. 26 at a residence on the 600-block of Ave M S. Police had been called to the residence because of a reported assault. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix)
PREVIOUS: Suspicious death
VANCOUVER - Relatives of 3 men who died and 2 others who were severely disabled in a gas leak 2 years ago on a Langley mushroom farm are pleased that charges have been laid in the case -- but said even the maximum penalty of 6 months against the farm operators wouldn't be enough to end the pain caused by the tragedy. A-1 Mushroom Substratum Ltd. and H.V. Troung Ltd., along with 4 individual employers and supervisors, could face a range of penalties, up to a maximum fine of $619,271 for a first offence and six months in jail. (Vancouver Sun)
MORE: Family hears charges laid
Marie & Lyle McCann Travis Vader
EDMONTON - Travis Edward Vader is now considered a suspect in the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann, RCMP said Tuesday. Vader had been called a "person of interest" in the case, meaning that the police considered him someone having information regarding their investigation. He is now considered a suspect in what the RCMP called "a suspicious missing person case" involving foul play. (Edmonton Journal)
PREVIOUS: Missing AB couple
Globe & Mail
TORONTO - A man killed in a police shooting was suffering from mental health issues as well as emotional distress, a family member claims. Reyal Jensen Jardine-Douglas, 25, was fatally shot on Sunday. Officers had been called to a TTC bus over reports there was a man armed with a knife on board. Jardine-Douglas stepped off the bus on Victoria Park Ave at Biscayne Blvd around 3pm. According to witnesses, he was shot at least three times. A knife was found on the ground beside his body. (CityNews)
PREVIOUS: Police involved shooting Man shot by police Police shooting Man shot Cops shoot man
VANCOUVER - A police crackdown on gang violence has paid off with a big reduction in the number of murders being committed during the first six months of 2010, say Vancouver Police. (Vancouver Province)
REPORT: VPD mid year crime stats .pdf
MORE: Sexual assaults continue climb Sex crimes increase
DEFINITIONS: Vancouver Metro Vancouver
Radio India director in custody
Maninder Gill
VANCOUVER - A 47-year-old man was charged with multiple gun offences Monday, stemming from Saturday’s shooting in the parking lot outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey. Maninder Singh Gill of Surrey, who is the managing director of Radio India, turned himself into Surrey RCMP Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Contractor Harjit Singh Atwal, 54, was shot in the leg at about 12:30pm and taken to hospital with a non-life-threatening injury. (Vancouver Province)
MORE: Suspect turns himself in Radio station owner faces charges
PREVIOUS: Feud turns into gun fight Shooting related to feud Feud blamed
QUEBEC - Former Quebec justice minister Marc Bellemare was further challenged Monday on his scathing allegations last week of improper pressure from within the Liberal Party of Quebec on the nomination of judges. Quebec government lawyer Suzanne Cote was the first to cross-examine Bellemare at the Bastarache commission on Monday, and she brought up some past statements Bellemare had made bragging about how he wouldn't ever succumb to pressure. Bellemare acknowledged making the comments, but said the realities of politics made it impossible for him to resist the pressure he was says came from Liberal fundraiser Franco Fava and Premier Jean Charest. (CTV)
MORE: Bellemare struggles Cross examination continues Bellemare chummy with Liberal fundraisers
PREVIOUS: Greed & Corruption Quebec
Public service wage freeze would lead to strikes
KITCHENER - A top union leader warns Ontario could see an end to years of public sector labour peace if Premier Dalton McGuinty sticks with plans for a two-year wage freeze affecting more than 1M workers. “There could be more work stoppages,” Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza said Monday after the premier insisted “there’s no money” in talks that began secretly Aug 9 and collapsed as unions, including the CAW, walked out. (Toronto Star)
MORE: CAW warns strikes are likely
Teen charged in double stabbing
CityNews
TORONTO - A 19-year-old has been charged in connection with a double stabbing in the city's west over the weekend end that claimed the life of one man and left another wounded. Toronto Police say Nelson Carreira, 40, was fatally wounded during a fight that spilled out of a bar on Lansdowne Ave Friday night. Joseph Blandon, 19, of Toronto, faces one count of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. (QMI)
PREVIOUS: Stabbing Arrest after stabbing
AFP
CALGARY - High levels of toxic pollutants in Alberta's Athabasca River system are linked to oilsands mining, researchers have found. The findings counter the reports by a joint industry-government panel that the pollutant levels are due to natural sources rather than human development. Mercury, thallium and other pollutants accumulated in higher concentrations in snowpacks and waterways near and downstream from oilsands development than in more remote areas, said a study to be published Monday afternoon in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (CBC)
MORE: Oilsands polluting river Mercury downstream
PNG
VANCOUVER - Sam George sleeps with a wooden club beside his bed. He says it's only a matter of time before one of the addicts living in the dilapidated house next door decides to break in and rob him. It's a fear George, an elder of the Squamish First Nation living on the band's Mission reserve in North Vancouver, says he and his wife have lived with for about two years, ever since his neighbour, also a band member, turned his "party house" into a full-blown crack-and-heroin shack. (Vancouver Province)
MONTREAL - Briefly inhaling cannabis three times a day eases a kind of chronic pain that affects tens of thousands of Canadians - without making them high - Montreal researchers are reporting. The new study, the first clinical trial in the world to allow patients to take marijuana home with them and "self-dose," found that for people with neuropathic pain - a common and dreaded condition that causes electric, stabbing pain - smoking cannabis reduced pain, improved mood and helped them sleep. (Montreal Gazette)
RELATED: Health Care bummer: drinkers live longer than non-drinkers
Joe Melo
HAMILTON - Maybe he got a last-minute phone call to meet at his business. Maybe he called someone to arrange the meeting himself. But for whatever reason, on Sunday, Aug. 15, Joseph (Joe) Melo went to Home Care Pharmacy, a business he co-owned at 1217 Main St E to meet someone. The next morning, the 46-year-old husband and father of three was dead - murdered - discovered by an employee at the pharmacy. (Hamilton Spectator)
CP
GREENBANK - Authorities say there is nothing to suggest the bare foot that washed up in Washington State on Friday was cut off or injured. Det. Ed Wallace of the Island County Sheriff's Office said the foot is almost complete, despite a few bones missing from the toes. "There's no trauma to it," he said. "It does not look like it's been severed." It was discovered by a tourist walking on a beach on Whidbey Island. Police estimate it had been in the water less than two months. "Based on the size, we believe it's from either a juvenile or a female," Wallace said. (CTV)
MORE: Foot found on Whidbey Island
PREVIOUS: Investigating found feet
CTV
PEMBROKE - OPP released the name of a 39-year-old man who died in a stabbing in Pembroke early Thursday morning. Peter Blaedow, of Laurentian Valley Township, died in hospital following a reported disturbance that brought police to the door of a residence around 4am. Police said two men had been assaulted. Both Blaedow and a 19-year-old, whose name has not been disclosed, were brought to hospital. The teen was treated and released. Garry Decker, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. (CTV)
MORE: Police ID victim
Derek Spence
WINNIPEG - Police have arrested a 23-year-old suspect in the city's most recent stabbing death. A man was found stabbed in the back lane of 500 Pritchard Ave, just before 2am on Friday. Police say the victim, 24-year-old Derek Spence, was taken to hospital in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead. (CTV )
MORE: Stabbing Group stabbed victim
Sean Ronald Fewer Stacey Joy Bourdeaux
CALGARY - When 10-month-old Sean Ronald Fewer died in 2004, authorities blamed natural causes and closed the case. Six years later, they're calling it a homicide. Calgary police revealed Friday they have charged Sean's mother, Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, with second-degree murder after re-examining the infant's death and determining he had been smothered. The new investigation was sparked after police charged Bourdeaux, 33, with trying to kill her five-year-old son inside their Glenbrook townhouse three months ago. (Calgary Herald)
MORE: Mother charged in 2004 homicide Mother charged
TORONTO - A police investigation continued in Whitby, east of Toronto, after the death of a motorcycle passenger late Friday night. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit was involved as police searched for the driver of the motorbike. Police said a Durham Regional Police cruiser had signalled for the motorcycle to stop just after 11:30pm west of Brock Street. Instead, the motorcycle sped up, causing the passenger to fall off, police said. The passenger was "struck by one or more westbound motor vehicles" and was later pronounced dead at the scene. The motorcycle did not remain at the scene. (CBC)
MORE: SIU probes death Grisly road death
REGINA - A provincial court judge in Regina has slammed the RCMP for destroying video evidence that could have been used in a drinking and driving case. According to the decision, the force has a video system that records goings-on in different parts of the detachment, including the cells and breath-testing room. The videos from June 27 were purged from the RCMP's system on Aug. 21, 55 days after they were recorded, "in keeping with detachment policy." "It is now 2010 and VHS recording systems are rare," Judge Clifford Toth noted, pointing out there's no longer any need to store bulky tapes. He said the RCMP could easily store many hours of video surveillance on compact discs or memory sticks. (CBC)
Abbotsford Times
VANCOUVER - A beloved rural heritage landmark was lost in a devastating blaze yesterday morning. People driving through Matsqui Prairie on Townshipline Road may never have noticed the small cluster of buildings at 31957 Townshipline Rd, but for 100 or so parishioners, the fire that destroyed their Sikh temple early Thursday morning has left holes in the hearts of many. (Abbotsford Times)
MORE: Fire destroys Temple Sikh temple razed
John Douglas Frank Skidders
CORNWALL - There is an arrest warrant out for a 17-year-old male in relation to a fatal stabbing in Cornwall that took place on Wednesday. Cornwall police are looking for John Douglas Frank Skidders, who is described as six feet tall, 145 pounds, white, thin build and with short brown hair and brown eyes. John Paul Tessier, 33, died of his wounds after the incident happened around 2:30pm. (CTV)
Rourke Desmanche
LONDON, Ont. - Police are hunting for Rourke Desmanche, the father of an infant who has now died in a London, ON hospital after being found not breathing in a city home in early August. The infant, who was seven weeks old when he was rushed to hospital Aug. 2, died Friday morning. (QMI)
Stewart Elwood Drost
CANTERBURY - A NB man has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a woman who died in a trailer fire nine years ago in northwest Alberta. Alberta RCMP charged Stewart Elwood Drost, 37, of Canterbury, NB, on Thursday, in the 2001 death of Rachael Francesca Gabriel. Gabriel died in a trailer fire in Rainbow Lake on June 24, 2001. Her body was found among the remains of the home after crews were called to the scene around 6:15am. (CBC)
MORE: Arrest made 1st charge for cold-case team
Police find cold case letter writer
Jay Cook & Tanya Van Cuylenborg
VICTORIA - Cold case detectives have identified the man who sent a series of taunting letters to family members, police and the Times Colonist following the 1987 slayings of a young Victoria couple in Washington state. But while the breakthrough has cleared up a long-standing mystery in the case, it did not, in the end, solve the murders of Tanya van Cuylenborg, 18, and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Jay Cook. (Victoria Times Colonist)
PREVIOUS: Serial killers are not often who we think
VANCOUVER - The long-standing $100,000 reward for information on the missing women investigation is about to be distributed. The $100,000 reward - made up of $70,000 from the province and $30,000 from the Vancouver Police Department - will be divided between 6 people who have provided information leading to the conviction of Robert Pickton, who was found guilty in 2007 of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside. (Vancouver Province)
MORE: Investigator finds little solace in report
REPORT: VPD Missing Women Report
COMMENT: It wouldn't matter
PREVIOUS: Sun: Pickton case
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Thursday, September 02, 2010 15:18:33