Parole board ‘working’ to have Bernardo victims’ families attend hearing in-person

FERGUS FALLS – Yash Patel had only been away from his native India for a few weeks when he was dropped off on the bald Canadian prairie in the middle of a nighttime blizzard and given vague instructions to walk in a straight line into the United States, he testified Wednesday.

He was part of a group of Indian nationals trying to sneak across a stretch of remote border between Manitoba and Minnesota. Four of the group — a family with two young children — would be found frozen to death the next morning.

“I was very scared. I wanted to have help from someone, but there was no one,” Patel, through an interpreter, told the trial of Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, who is not related. The two men have pleaded not guilty to charges related to several illegal crossings of Indian nationals from Manitoba into Minnesota in late 2021 and early 2022.

On Jan. 19, 2022, U.S. border patrol agents found a van with out-of-state licence plates and several adult migrants in rural Minnesota, just south of the border. One had a backpack with children’s clothing and diapers, which prompted another search.

Hours later, RCMP found the bodies of the family — Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik. The boy’s body was still under his father’s arm. One of the father’s gloves covered the boy’s face. Patel is a common name in India and the family is not related to others involved in the trial.

Yash Patel’s testimony marked the first time the trial has heard from one of the migrants from that crossing. He said he came to Canada on a student visa, aided by a friend of his grandfather, but never registered for school.

He landed in Toronto in December of 2021, he said, and within a few weeks was flown to Vancouver, sent back to Toronto and then driven to Winnipeg, where he was put in a house with several other Indian nationals.

One night, a van came to pick up everyone in the house, he said. There was a family with two children already in the van and the group was taken south toward the border, where the van got stuck in snow and the driver ordered everyone out. A meteorologist testified earlier the temperature was below -20 C and the wind chill made it feel even colder.

It was dark and blustery, and the driver told everyone to walk until they came across a van on the American side, Yash Patel said.

“He just said to keep moving straight.”

He testified he walked with the group for about 10 minutes before becoming separated in the blinding snow. Five or six hours later, he said, he found the American van, which was also stuck in snow, and got in to warm up.

He was soon taken into custody by border patrol agents, along with the driver and another passenger.

Shand is accused of being that driver and part of an organized international smuggling ring. His lawyers have said Shand was a taxi driver who had simply picked up people for his co-accused in different parts of the United States, and did not think he was doing anything wrong until the day he was arrested.

Patel’s lawyers have said he was misidentified as a participant in the human smuggling ring.

The jury was shown text and social media messages sent between two cellphones registered to Shand and a phone number that matches one that Harshkumar Patel submitted when he applied for residency in the U.S.

In one exchange in December 2021, a message from Shand’s phone says it was “cold as hell.” It’s followed by, “They going to be alive when they get here?”

On the other phone, a response says a location would be sent.

The trial was shown that on Jan. 19, 2022, Shand received a message saying, “You stuck?” The reply: “Still stuck.”

Shand was then instructed to turn his vehicle lights on and off “so that they can see,” and was later told to try to drive further to find people. He was sent an image of a map with the border circled.

The trial also heard Wednesday from one of the RCMP officers who found the bodies of the family of four.

The father and children were a couple of metres north of the border on an unmaintained gravel road, Sgt. Pierre Demers said. The trial was shown photos of the bodies, partially covered in snow and bearing thin jackets and normal pants. The bodies lay open to the elements, with no trees, buildings or other shelter in sight.

The mother’s body was found about one kilometre to the east, against a fence that surrounds an unmanned natural gas facility.

Demers said the weather was so bad, the area’s main highway had been closed overnight and officers had to use winter vehicles with tracks and enclosed cabs to stay warm while getting to the scene.

“The snow was too deep,” Demers said.

Officers called the medical examiner and later lifted the bodies to get them taken away. The bone-chilling cold meant they could only tend to one body at a time before jumping back in their vehicle, Demers said.

“We had to warm up for a couple of minutes before going back out.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

FREDERICTON – A measles outbreak in New Brunswick that began last month with a single travel-related case is growing and today stands at 44 cases.

A health department spokesperson says all cases to date are in Fredericton and parts of the upper Saint John River valley.

David Kelly says all the cases reported are linked to the first detected case, and more than 80 per cent of the infections are in people under the age of 19.

Health officials say none of those infected had been immunized against measles.

They warn that people who haven’t had the disease, who haven’t been vaccinated against it, or who are significantly immunocompromised are at risk of infection upon exposure.

The Horizon Health Network is holding measles vaccination clinics in Fredericton on Thursday and Friday, in Woodstock, N.B., on Nov. 27 and in Stanley, N.B., on Nov. 29.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – Geoff Johnson and fellow storm watchers in Ucluelet, B.C., were concerned on Tuesday about the so-called “bomb cyclone” taking shape off Vancouver Island — not for safety reasons, but because they wondered if it would be “disappointing.”

Winds had been light throughout the day. But they need not have worried about any lack of drama as night fell, and the howling winds were punctuated by the sound of trees snapping “like gunshots.”

“Last night, around 8 o’clock, a tree fell on my friend’s boat, narrowly missing the RV that he lives in,” said Johnson on Wednesday. “I know another friend’s car was completely crushed by a fallen tree overnight.

“I’m actually standing in a house that had a large tree in its yard that luckily fell (in) the other direction, across the neighbour’s driveway instead of onto their second storey,” said Johnson, a weather enthusiast who runs the YouTube channel UkeeTube.

The massive storm battered parts of coastal British Columbia with winds up to 170 km/h, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. A bomb cyclone is caused by rapidly dropping atmospheric pressure at the centre of a weather system.

More than 200,000 homes and businesses were plunged into darkness as the winds and downed trees brought down power lines.

Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro’s manager of community relations for Vancouver Island, said winds in Nanaimo were unlike anything he had experienced in the area before.

“And we know as a result of climate change unfortunately, we’re going to get more storms — and they’re going to be more intense like this,” he added.

The BC Hydro outage map showed about 75,000 customers remained without power on Wednesday afternoon, mostly on Vancouver Island.

A wind warning remained in effect for the west coast of Vancouver Island, where gusts were expected to weaken overnight as the storm system — located about 500 kilometres off the coast — moved north.

Environment Canada data show remote Sartine Island, off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, was hit by the most powerful gusts late Tuesday, recording the storm’s top wind speed of 170 km/h.

But gusts of more than 100 km/h were still being recorded on Wednesday at several northern and central weather stations. 

In Metro Vancouver, winds peaked at 87 km/h at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal.

While just one location set a new record for wind speed — the Port Hardy Airport, which recorded winds of 122 km/h at their peak — Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said wind records are difficult to compare historically, and the power outages demonstrate the severity of the weather event.

“I think one of the things to emphasize with this system is we were somewhat lucky for coastal British Columbia with this system and the track it took,” Proctor said.

“If it was closer to Vancouver Island, a lot of those really super strong winds might have been hitting and impacting some of our more populated areas — we think about the east side of Vancouver Island, Greater Victoria, Metro Vancouver.”

Johnson said he was not aware of any injuries among his friends in Ucluelet or nearby Tofino, but they remained without power on Wednesday. He said he would be surprised to see the lights come back on before Friday given the severity of the storm and the high number of trees it knocked over in the area.

“We heard a few of them, and they almost sounded like gunshots from a distance last night,” Johnson said of the trees snapping under the strong winds.

“Our friend with the RV, he was actually inside it at the time and thought that the wind was ripping the side off of the RV at first,” he said.

About 270,000 BC Hydro customers were without power at the peak of the storm.

BC Hydro crews have made significant progress addressing the outages, but Olynyk said ongoing winds pose challenges. He asked those without power to be patient, report downed lines and stay far away from any damaged infrastructure.

“We’ll have crews out there,” he said, adding they were working through “harrowing” conditions. “But at the bottom line, we’re not putting crews out where it’s going to be dangerous for them — if there’s big branches coming down (or) a potential for trees just to fail while they’re working.”

B.C.’s Transportation Ministry said multiple highways on Vancouver Island were closed Wednesday because of downed power lines, fallen trees and debris.

BC Ferries cancelled morning sailings on its major routes again Wednesday morning due to high winds, citing safety concerns for crew and passengers. It said conditions had since improved on some routes, enough to restart services on the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route between Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria.

The ferry operator had cancelled numerous sailings Tuesday between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

An advisory from Environment Canada said the storm was expected to remain offshore but “curl northward,” bringing strong winds to the north and central coast. 

The weather office said winds would gradually ease throughout Thursday as the low pressure system weakens and moves farther offshore.

The office had previously warned that elevated ocean levels combined with significant wind and waves would push water levels to exceed the “highest astronomical tide” for parts of the south coast during Wednesday’s high tide.

The storm also wreaked damage south of the border as it swept over the northwestern United States, causing widespread power outages.

In Washington state, South County Fire said on social media that a woman died Tuesday night when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment in Lynnwood.

The Seattle Fire Department also reported that a tree fell on a vehicle Tuesday, temporarily trapping someone inside, but later confirmed the person was in stable condition after being extricated.

— With files from Brieanna Charlebois and The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.