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Top court sends sentencing of two men in triple murder back to Alberta Appeal Court

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OTTAWA — Canada’s top court has sent the case of two men convicted in the slayings of three family members back to the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Last year, the Alberta court imposed consecutive periods of parole ineligibility for Jason Klaus and Joshua Frank and ordered they serve 50 years before applying for release.

The original trial judge had ruled the two men serve their sentences concurrently, so it would be 25 years before they were eligible.

Last month, the Supreme Court of Canada, calling it degrading and incompatible with human dignity, struck down the Criminal Code provision that meant multiple murderers might have to wait 50 years or more to apply for parole.

The unanimous high court decision came in the case of Alexandre Bissonnette, who fatally shot six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017. The ruling meant he can seek parole after 25 years instead of having to wait 40 years as determined by the judge in the original trial.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Alberta Appeal Court to deal with the Klaus and Frank sentencings “in accordance” with the recent Bissonnette ruling.

Klaus and Frank were each convicted of three counts of first-degree murder after the bodies of Klaus’s father and sister were discovered in their burnt-out farmhouse near Red Deer, Alta., in 2013. His mother’s body was never found.

Andrea Urquhart, Frank’s lawyer in Calgary, said the order from the top court means the trial judge’s original sentencing decision should be restored.

“They struck down the section, which permitted consecutive periods of ineligibilities. And for somebody like Mr. Frank, the writing was on the wall as to what would happen,” she said.

Sentencing appeals for two other high-profile Alberta cases, Derek Saretzky and Edward Downey, had been on hold pending the court’s decision in Bissonnette.

Saretzky was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder in the 2015 deaths of Terry Blanchette, his two-year-old daughter, Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette; and neighbour Hanne Meketech in Blairmore, Alta. He was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 75 years.

Saretzky’s lawyer said the sentence appeal is scheduled for June 21.

“I’m waiting on the Crown and I’m hoping they’re going to just concede it. I would expect it would be resolved in his favour,” Balfour Der said.

“I felt what was wrong about the law, in particular Saretzky’s sentence, was that he was 22 at the time of the offence and so to give a 75-year, no-parole (sentence) just means it’s taken away all hope from this young man. You’re predicting the future that he could never be rehabilitated.”

Downey killed Sara Baillie and her five-year-old daughter, Taliyah Marsman, in 2016. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years.

Lisa Silver, a University of Calgary law professor, said the Supreme Court decision isn’t automatically applied to every case with multiple parole ineligibilities.

“The law in which a number of people were sentenced was found unconstitutional and, in the Bissonnette decision, the SCOC did indicate that offenders sentenced under that law may make Charter applications,” she said.

“It is not automatic — they must make applications and argue.”

Urquhart said the decision was welcome news to her client.

“There’s a big sense of relief,” she said.

“He was a relatively young man when he was convicted and is working hard inside the institution. That’s his goal.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2022.

— By Bill Graveland in Calgary

 

The Canadian Press

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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