Russell Tessier guilty of 1st-degree murder in 2007 death of Allan Gerald Berdahl The Supreme Court of Canada has restored a Calgary man’s first-degree murder conviction, ruling his statements to police were admissible as evidence against him at trial. Russell Tessier was originally found guilty by a jury in 2018, 11 years after the body of his friend Allan Gerald Berdahl, 36, was discovered in a ditch north of Calgary, on March 16, 2007. The conviction came after the trial judge allowed the panel to hear evidence of what Tessier disclosed to police before investigators told him of his right toRead more

Methamphetamine back in spotlight after stabbing massacre in James Smith Cree Nation Elaine Fox knows everyone in Onion Lake Cree Nation. That means the elder knows how methamphetamine is altering the fabric of her community like never before. “It’s broken family relationships,” she said. The 66-year-old said meth and gangs control the lives of many young people in Onion Lake, a First Nation that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. “Most of them come from dysfunctional families — families that have never dealt with residential school traumas,” said Fox. “I know theRead more

Dutch man tormented B.C. teen online for more than two years The 44-year-old Dutch man convicted of sexually extorting a B.C. teenager who died by suicide a decade ago was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin asked Aydin Coban to stand as she read out her final decision, after detailing the arguments presented by the Crown and the defence and explaining her deliberation process. The sentence is longer than the 12 years suggested by the Crown, but Devlin said Coban’s conduct and the pleasure he took inRead more

Excellence in education is an ‘important part of advancing society,’ prof says When it comes to the coming school board trustee elections, Kate Belair of Wellesley, Ont., hopes people do their homework on the candidates. “We have somebody running for school board trustee who doesn’t seem to be very inclusive,” she said in an interview in the village ahead of Ontario’s Monday, Oct. 24, municipal election. “He’s going to be in a situation where he could impact our children’s education, and that’s scary because we want our community to be inclusiveRead more

The Public Order Emergency Commission is meeting for its second day in Ottawa Two Ottawa city councillors have told the public inquiry probing the federal government’s use of emergency powers to end last winter’s protest convoy occupation of downtown Ottawa that they struggled to convince city police to deploy resources to residential neighbourhoods. “It was a general sense of fear, terror and dismay, that they felt abandoned by their city and by their police,” Catherine McKenney, a councillor for a core downtown ward, told the inquiry on Friday. The Public Order Emergency Commission isRead more

Const. Devon Northrup and Const. Morgan Russell died after an exchange of gunfire Tuesday night Ontario’s police watchdog has revealed new details Thursday about a shooting at a home north of Toronto that left two police officers and a young man dead. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says the South Simcoe police officers died in hospital and the 22-year-old man died at the home after an exchange of gunfire Tuesday night in Innisfil, Ont. In an email Thursday, SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette told CBC News that “based on preliminary information” the two officers who were killedRead more

Meadow Lake Tribal Council hopes wellness conference inspires change in communities Chester Herman was gassing up his vehicle when he noticed a poster for a men’s wellness conference hosted by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) outreach team. It’s not something that would typically stop him in his tracks, but the poster listed grief and loss among the topics to be discussed. “It kind of hit the spot for me. I’m going through a lot because of my loss,” he said, describing an immense sorrow he has felt since the deathRead more

Experts say this is a concerning trend driven by misinformation Alberta physicians are raising the alarm about a dangerous trend — fuelled by misinformation — that could cost lives. Dr. Stephanie Cooper, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk births at Foothills Medical Centre, said a patient recently refused to consent to a blood transfusion if it came from a donor who had received the COVID-19 vaccine. “I see people with severe hemorrhage due to childbirth on a regular basis. And for me, the idea that this is out there is somewhat mind-boggling.”Read more

Troubling Batshaw youth protection case being investigated by Quebec Human Rights Commission Last April, in the middle of the night, an Inuk teen woke up writhing in pain. At first, the sensation felt like it was coming from his stomach, but it soon began emanating from his groin. According to sources, one of his testicles was so twisted it would need to be removed. But that only came later, after a night spent in agony at a Batshaw Youth and Family Centres detention facility in Prévost, north of Montreal. TheRead more

Documents introduced at the inquiry will tell ‘quite the story,’ lawyer says Eight months after anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate protesters gridlocked parts of downtown Ottawa, a public inquiry has opened public hearings as it probes the federal government’s unprecedented use of emergency powers to clear the capital. The Public Order Emergency Commission’s official launch this morning kicks off what’s anticipated to be a politically tense six weeks as the inquiry hears from federal government representatives about why they felt they had to invoke the never-before-used Emergencies Act, and from those who argue it was aRead more