Lawsuit settlement, collective agreements and Hydro losses drive up Manitoba deficit

RANKIN INLET, Nunavut – The Nunavut RCMP says a man recently charged in the killing of a 15-year-old girl about four decades ago had served time for two other murders when he was arrested this week at a halfway house in Ottawa.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. George Henrie says Jopey Atsiqtaq was out on parole and living at the halfway house after serving a sentence for killing two other people in Iqaluit in the 1980s.

“He did his 25-year life sentence, was released from the prison system, and he was residing at a halfway house with various conditions,”Henrie said in a phone interview Friday.

He was arrested Tuesday at the house and appeared in court in Iqaluit the next day on a charge of second-degree murder in the killing of Mary Ann Birmingham.

RCMP have said Birmingham was brutally murdered in her home in Frobisher Bay, in what was then the Northwest Territories, in May of 1986 while her family was out of town. Frobisher Bay later became Iqaluit and is now the capital of Nunavut.

Henrie said the two other murders Atsiqtaq has already been found guilty of would’ve taken place in the Frobisher Bay area in that same decade.

He added that in April 1990 a judge found in a preliminary hearing that there wasn’t enough evidence for Atsiqtaq to face trial in Birmingham’s murder.

“I can’t say whether he was known to the victim or not,” Henrie said about Birmingham.

“In 1986, Iqaluit was a smaller community back then. In Nunavut communities, it’s very common to know everybody.”

Investigators have said Birmingham was found by her sister, Barbara Sevigny, who had just returned from visiting her brother in Montreal. The front door to the house was locked, and she had to pry open a window with a makeup compact.

In 2018, Sevigny shared further details to panel members with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“When I turned to the living room, I saw her body on the couch,” she told commissioners at the time.

“And then I’m saying, ‘Mary Ann?’ I’m calling her (name) out. I wanted her to wake up, but my mind’s telling me, ‘But there’s a pool of blood, she cannot wake up.'”

RCMP said Atsiqtaq was remanded into custody and is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 29.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

— By Fakiha Baig in Edmonton

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – The BC Prosecution Service says it has approved a charge against a Vancouver police officer over a collision with a pedestrian in 2023.

The service says Sgt. William Briscoe faces a charge under the Motor Vehicle Act of “driving without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway,” after the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. filed a report into the crash.

The Independent Investigations Office said last October that it was investigating after a woman was injured in a collision involving a Vancouver Police Department vehicle that was on its way to call in the evening hours of Sept. 29, 2023.

The office said at the time that the woman declined treatment from emergency responders on the scene, but the police department reported to the office that her injury may constitute “serious harm” under the provincial Police Act.

The police watchdog’s report said there were reasonable grounds to believe the officer may have committed an offence in relation to use of his police vehicle, and it forwarded its report to the prosecution service for consideration of charges.

The prosecution service says in a statement issued Friday that the charge against Briscoe was signed off on by an experienced Crown counsel who has no connection with the officer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

RED DEER, Alta. – Alberta’s government is getting pushback from some municipal leaders and support from others over its plan to build the sheriffs into a second provincial police service.

At the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer on Friday, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis got an earful from Coun. Ed Cole with the Village of Alix.

“To be blunt, when are we going to put this Alberta provincial police to rest? Eight in 10 Albertans want to keep the RCMP,” he said.

“We can’t afford this. Let’s put the money back into the RCMP budget where it belongs,” said Cole.

His comments were met with enthusiastic cheers and applause from about 1,000 attendees.

It comes as the province works to expand the role of the sheriffs, and after Premier Danielle Smith said it’s looking to open up new local detachments and expand training.

The government also plans to establish regional policing committees, raising questions about who will have policing authority in smaller municipalities.

Ellis said it’s unacceptable that calls to the police aren’t being answered quickly enough, especially in rural areas.

“I am trying to get officers on the street. The independent policing service that is being created is being done because there has been an enormous request, from not just municipalities, but from jurisdictions across Alberta,” he said.

He said the sheriffs are meant to augment and support other police services, but the RCMP is 400 officers short, a number the Mounties disputed Friday.

Ellis said if communities want to stick with their RCMP contract, he respects that, but communities that want other services should be respected, too.

“I’m trying to empower you,” he said to a round of applause.

RCMP say they have a total of 1,772 police officer positions in Alberta under the provincial contract and 306, or 17 per cent, of those are vacant. Of the vacancies, 124 are unfilled while the rest are officers on leave, including sick and maternity leave.

Alberta Municipalities president Tyler Gandam, who is the mayor of the city of Wetaskiwin, said he supports the expanded role of the Alberta Sheriffs.

“Any chance that we get to increase safety for our residents across the province is a good thing, without a doubt,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Cole said the province doesn’t have the resources, including appropriate training centres, for sheriffs. He said he wants the province to be more transparent about potential costs.

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Thursday he’s hearing from municipal leaders that they’re confused about the province’s policing plan.

“Taking on an Alberta provincial police force and starting from scratch is the height of financial lunacy. It’ll just cost so much money and it’s not at all clear that it will solve any of the problems,” Nenshi said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.