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CALGARY – A psychiatric report has found a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting six women east of Calgary is fit to stand trial but his lawyer wants the court to order another hearing before the long-delayed matter resumes.

Richard Robert Mantha faces 20 charges that include kidnapping, threats causing bodily harm, sexual assault with a weapon and administering a noxious substance on the women, most of whom worked in Calgary’s sex trade.

The 60-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

Most of the alleged offences occurred at a rural property east of Calgary.

His trial began in January but was delayed after he fired his two lawyers.

Mantha suffered a stroke in May while in custody waiting for his trial to resume on Nov. 18.

An assessment was ordered to allow a forensic psychiatrist to determine how the stroke may have affected his cognitive capacity

A letter from forensic psychiatrist Dr. Reilly Smith said that Mantha is fit to stand trial and even though he has severely reduced verbal skills is able to communicate by writing.

“You’re saying the letter, report, the assessment gives rise to concerns…you challenge the conclusion that Mr. Mantha is fit for trial?” Justice Judith Shriar asked Mantha’s lawyer Marc Crerar Thursday.

“You say there are sufficient grounds raised by the report prepared by Dr. Smith to grant an application of the accused to order a hearing on this?”

“Obviously that’s the conclusion provided. I respectfully submit the court should be in a position or should have concerns after reviewing, just briefly, the report,” Crerar replied.

“I think there’s some serious concern with respect to not only the ability to communicate with counsel. There has to be some serious concerns with respect to the prospect of Mr. Mantha taking the stand in his own defence.”

Prosecutor Dominique Mathurin wants the trial to resume in November.

“There is indication that he understands what’s going on and could potentially communicate to his counsel in writing,” she said.

“That would be the position of the Crown considering the fact that there’s no impairment of his ability to understand what’s going on.”

Shriar said she will hear the application from Crerar and a response from the Crown regarding a fitness hearing Oct. 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published September 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

IQALUIT, Nunavut – Mounties in Nunavut have made an arrest in the murder of a 15-year-old girl almost 40 years ago.

Mary Ann Birmingham was found dead in Frobisher Bay in what was then the Northwest Territories in May of 1986. Frobisher Bay later became Iqaluit and is now the capital of Nunavut.

Police said Thursday an indictment was signed a week ago and on Tuesday, Jopey Atsiqtaq was arrested in Ottawa.

He appeared in court Wednesday on a charge of second-degree murder and has been remanded in custody. RCMP have said Birmingham was “brutally murdered” in her home while her family was out of town.

Police say she 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.'”

Since the family didn’t have a telephone, Sevigny went door-to-door to ask her neighbours for help. It felt like hours had passed when first responders showed up at the house, she said.

After police arrived, Sevigny went to her grandmother’s house. In the months and years since, she said she has felt the immediate after-effects of post-traumatic stress.

“I was hearing voices, I was paranoid,” she said. “I thought I was going to be killed next. I was crying in corners.”

Birmingham’s mother, Sarah, also spoke to the panel.

She said she was in Montreal at the time to support her three-year-old adoptive son, who was receiving treatment for leukemia.

While there, she was told that a social worker wanted to see her.

“It was then I would be told (of the death),” she told commissioners in Inuktitut. “I couldn’t cry. Mary Ann was so important to me and I couldn’t accept that she was gone.”

Birmingham remembered Mary Ann as being a welcoming and friendly girl.

“We used to dress her up as a hunter and pretend she was going out hunting when she was little,” she said.

“We used to play with her, and she enjoyed it in the days when everybody was fine.”

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. 26, 2024.

— By Aaron Sousa in Edmonton

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

RED DEER, Alta. – Alberta municipal leaders are calling for the provincial government to reverse its ban on vote counting machines, saying it’s more costly and time-consuming to count by hand.

However, Premier Danielle Smith told reporters at the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer on Thursday that electronic tabulators have failed to produce faster results and confidence in them.

“We’re going to go back to doing things the old-fashioned way, and we’ll see how it works,” said Smith.

The premier said the province has asked municipalities for a tally of the costs so it can help cover them, and estimated about 30 municipalities use tabulators.

Last year, members of Smith’s United Conservative Party voted overwhelmingly to ban ballot-counting machines in provincial elections, citing security concerns.

But a Thursday resolution from the City of St. Albert calling for the government to change course passed in an 85.8 per cent vote.

“We’re not always going to agree with the municipalities,” said Smith, adding they are creatures of the provincial government.

“As a provincial government, we have heard that people want to go back to paper ballots,” she said.

St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron told The Canadian Press she’s not hearing any demands from residents concerned about vote tabulators.

“I think (United Conservatives) feel like they have to honour a couple of (party resolutions) just to keep their base happy, and they chose this one because it doesn’t hurt them — but it does hurt us,” she said.

The prohibition came as part of a bill passed in the spring that will also allow political parties to run on municipal ballots in Edmonton and Calgary, and give Smith’s cabinet the power to repeal some municipal bylaws and fire councillors if it deems it to be “in the public interest.”

Edmonton has estimated it will cost $2.6 million to revert to hand-counting, a cost Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said will need to be paid by municipal property owners.

“That is not fair to them,” he said.

Sohi said the city has used electronic tabulators for two decades with no problems.

Red Deer has estimated it will cost more than three times the amount of past elections to hire extra staff.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said it appears it could cost at least $1.3 million to implement the province’s new rules for the next municipal election in 2025.

“There is a lot of mythology out there around tabulators, but the actual science tells you that they are more reliable, more certain, and predictable than doing hand counts,” Gondek told reporters.

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said if the province wants to force hand-counting, it should pay for it.

Nenshi said it will also take much longer to actually get the results on election night.

“(Smith’s) listening to conspiracy theorists from the U.S. who think that somehow vote tabulators can be hacked,” he said. “Here’s the thing: the vote tabulators are not connected to a network — all they do is count.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.