Two Esquimalt sailors charged with sabotage

Two Esquimalt sailors charged with sabotage

By Keith Vass – Victoria News [British Columbia]
Published: August 13, 2008

Two Canadian Navy petty officers charged with corrupting a Department of National Defence database in Ottawa are now stationed at CFB Esquimalt.

The two sailors, Petty Officer (second class) Sylvia Reid and Petty Officer (second class) Janet Sinclair, were stationed at the Canadian Armed Forces Support Unit in Ottawa last year.

Armed Forces investigators announced Tuesday that they have laid charges of sabotage, conspiracy and wilful property damage against each sailor. The charges are under the National Defence Act.

Both were transferred to Esquimalt while the investigation in Ottawa was ongoing and arrived in early August, said CFB Esquimalt public affairs officer Lt.-Cmdr Nathalie Garcia.

Sinclair, a member of the Armed Forces since 1987, previously served as a sonar operator and Reid, a sailor since 1994, has worked as a naval combat information systems operator.

While Sinclair was initially assigned to serve on ***HMCS Regina*** and Reid was assigned to Maritime Forces Pacific Headquarters, both will now be reassigned to jobs that will not involve contact with computers or sensitive information.

What those jobs will be hasn’t been determined.

“It isn’t easy to find jobs that protect us as well, that’s part of the issue,” said Garcia.

“There is some manual labour, but these people are senior in terms of their rank. It could be manning a small work party, I can’t actually tell you because there’s hundreds of little jobs.”

Capt. Paule Poulin, with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal’s office, said she could not specify either the nature of the database alleged to have been tampered with or what damage was done.

It is now up the director of military prosecutor to review the file and determine if the charges will go to court marshall, Poulin said.

If it does, dates and results will be made public, but the hearing could be closed to the public.

“That would be up to the judge to decide. In general they’re open unless there’s a compelling reason to close them,” said Poulin.

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Heavy equipment torched at New Brunswick gravel pit

‘It was just like a movie’
Arson Company struggling after piece of heavy equipment torched in gravel pit

Saint John Telegraph-Journal [New Brunswick]
Published Wednesday August 13th, 2008

ROTHESAY – Ray Debly doesn’t understand why anyone would torch a piece of heavy equipment located in his gravel pit.

He said his company has been there since 1967 and other than the odd window being broken, what was found Saturday morning by his workers has left him depressed and frustrated.

“It was just a real scorching,” he said of what was left of the $70,000 rock screener.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was just like a movie.”

Debly estimates the damage at close to $10,000 and the money to repair it will come straight from his pocket. The screener wasn’t insured.

“You just can’t afford to insure them,” Debly said.

The Rothesay Regional Police Force said the fire at the Debly Construction pit is believed to have been started by a group of young people partying at the nearby Bradley Lake Road pit.

“Somebody at the Bradley Lake Road party knows who set this screener on fire,” said senior Const. Derrick Forret.

The Debly pit is located on Hooper Drive.

Police aren’t saying what was discovered at the scene, but something that was found is leading investigators to believe that partiers who had gathered at the Bradley Lake pit are connected to the fire at the Debly pit.

Workers at the Debly pit found the separator still smouldering when they went to work Saturday morning.

The tires were set on fire and the fire then spread to the screener, police believe. If that’s the case, said Debly, the arsonists must have had an accelerant or been persistent. He said anyone who has ever tried to light a tire on fire can attest to how difficult it is.

With the rising cost of fuel already hammering his bottom line, the damage to the screener and taking a further beating with the loss of revenue because it’s unusable, Debly wonders if his company will make it through these most recent troubles.

“I just don’t know how long we can stay in business,” Debly said in a deflated voice.

Police are asking anyone with information to call [number removed] or Crime Stoppers at [number removed].

Debly has a watchman who is on duty until 10 p.m. and he heard the partiers in the nearby pit, but didn’t call the police because such outdoor gatherings in area pits aren’t unusual.

If residents hear or notice people partying in a pit or field, Forret urges residents to call police so they can check it out before such things happen.

“They could be there for hours and then they’ll start going through yards and then they’ll call,” Forret said.

“It’s quite a serious charge. It’s an arson charge.”

But Debly just wants restitution.

“What did they get out of this?” he asked.

Debly said he’s even allowed dirt bikers and ATVers in his pit and only warned them about being careful around the heavy machinery. He’s never chased them out of his pit and only been worried that they may collide with a front-end loader. Live and let live, he said.

For now, Debly is struggling to keep a number of his men working because they have no machine to work on.

“I’m finding other things for them to do, but I don’t know for how long,” Debly said. “Everybody is hurt.”

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Frustration with police simmers in Montreal’s north end after riot

Frustration with police simmers in Montreal’s north end after riot

August 11, 2008
Canadian Press

Photo: Le Journal de Montréal – Gilles Renaud

MONTREAL [Quebec] — Montreal’s mayor is promising to push for a speedy and public investigation into a riot that broke out following a fatal police shooting.

Gerald Tremblay says the only way to return order to the city’s troubled north-end neighbourhood is by being up front about what prompted police to open fire on a group of youngsters on Saturday.

“I think its important we have this sentiment of security and the only way we can have it is by being very transparent in the investigation that will be put forward by the minister of public security,” he told reporters Monday.

“I was very clear with him this morning that this has to be done as soon as possible and the information will be made public.”

A 18-year-old man was killed in Saturday’s melee and two others were injured.

The riot erupted in the city’s Montreal North borough after residents took to the streets for a peaceful community demonstration to protest the shooting.

Hundreds of officers in full riot gear marched through the neighbourhood early Monday morning and eventually brought calm to the area.

Police said three officers were injured during clashes with the mob. They said one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was recovering in hospital.

An ambulance technician was injured when he was hit in the head by a Molotov cocktail.

Community leaders say many youngsters in the area feel disenfranchised and are frustrated by what they see as heavy-handed police tactics.

“What we are seeing are youngsters, a community that is in revolt because they don’t like they way they are being treated,” said Pierreson Vaval, who heads a community youth group in the city’s north end.

“They don’t like how authorities interact with them.

Tremblay told reporters that authorities need to improve their relations with the multi-ethnic community plagued by high unemployment.

“One thing is for sure – we have to do better than what we’ve been doing,” he said.

Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said officers made six arrests. Three people were nabbed for breaking and entering, one for drug possession and two others for charges still to be determined, he said.

The mob vandalized three fire trucks, the local fire station and broke into 20 businesses, Delorme said.

He said those responsible were hard to catch.

“We faced young people who knew their territory, so they went inside buildings, around buildings,” he said.

The catalyst for the violence was the shooting by police on Saturday of three people, including Freddy Alberto Villanueva, who died from his wounds in hospital.

The other two, an 18-and a 20-year-old, were listed in stable condition.

Quebec provincial police have taken over the investigation into the shootings.

Montreal police say the officers were trying to arrest an individual during a routine intervention in Henri Bourassa Park when they were surrounded by a group of about 20 youths.

A few individuals allegedly broke away from the group and rushed the officers.

According to police, one of the officers then opened fire.

The officers were not injured in the Saturday incident.

Delorme called for an end to the violence and said he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to mend the shaky relations between police and the community.

“We’re there to listen, to understand what happened yesterday (Sunday) night and to avoid these kinds of situations,” he said Monday.

“We have to feel safe in Montreal.”

Sunday night’s incidents marked the second time in four months the city has been the scene of a large-scale riot.

In April, a downtown celebration after the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins in an NHL playoff game turned violent when people began torching police cars and looting stores.

Police have since arrested 56 people in connection with the riot.

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Looting near Toronto blast site

Looters near blast site concern police
Majority of residents allowed to return home; 1 employee of Sunrise Propane still missing

Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, August 11, 2008

TORONTO [Ontario] – Toronto police say they are on guard for potential looting at the scene of a massive explosion in the city’s northwest end that forced thousands of people from their homes.

There have been a “small number of reports” of looting in the area, said Mark Pugash, a police spokesman. The area has been flooded with uniformed and undercover officers to “send a clear message that we are there and what our expectations are,” he said.

Pugash said the vast majority of residents have been allowed to return to their homes in the Keele Street and Wilson Avenue area, after a series of explosions at a propane facility and a mushroom-shaped fireball explosion early Sunday morning ripped through the area. About 12,000 people were evacuated.

One firefighter died at the scene. And one man remains missing – he has been identified as Parminder Sarminion, an employee at Sunrise Propane.

A number of streets closest to the blast remain off limits after the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office found asbestos late Sunday.

Monday morning, a group of about 20 frustrated residents congregated within sight of smouldering propane yard, looking for answers. They complained nobody had told them why they were being kept away from their homes or when they might be able to return.

“That’s my house on the other side of that truck,” said Kathy Todish. “I can see it, I can almost touch it, but I can’t tell how bad the damage is. The walls are still standing but what does that mean? What about the foundation?”

Todish fled their house after the first blast, and could see the red flames from the second, larger explosion rising above them as they ran to safety.

Pugash said the Ministry of the Environment is looking into whether there is an asbestos danger along the streets that remain cordoned off. “We won’t allow anyone in the area until we know it’s safe.”

Some nearby business owners returned to the scene Monday to find their stores had been looted.

Toronto police would not confirm how many businesses had been targeted by thieves.

Officials from the Ontario fire marshal’s office were expected to begin sifting through the remains from the blast to try to determine what set it off.

The blast was so powerful that it blew out windows and literally shook hundreds of residents from their beds. It took firefighters 16 hours to get the blaze under control.

Toronto District Fire Chief Bob Leek, a 25-year veteran of the service, collapsed and died near the scene. It was not immediately clear whether the death was related to the explosions or from a medical condition.

Meanwhile, all lanes and ramps of the nearby Highway 401, Canada’s busiest highway, were reopened Monday for the morning rush hour. Transit buses were also expected to run on a normal schedule and route in the area, officials said.

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Vancouver Sheriff Van and Police Cruiser Firebombed

Sheriff Van and Police Cruiser Firebombed
August 6th, 2008
Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver), Kanada

[Posted to 325collective.com]

In plain daylight in the afternoon of August 6th, we firebombed two vehicles belonging to the police. One was a sheriff van parked in front of the courthouse on Main st, located south of Powell st. The other was a police cruiser parked on the south-east corner of Main and Hastings st, it was empty because the pigs were in the middle of conducting an arrest.

That afternoon’s gossip in the downtown east side was one of sheer happiness found in the shared appreciation of seeing a sheriff van burn in front of the courthouse doors.

What bliss must have been felt by the people locked inside awaiting their trials in that despicable house of injustice. Those who live in the downtown east side struggle together daily to survive beneath the booming development which continues to exclude them to an existence of poverty and prison.

Along with the police and private security; the courts, sheriffs, and judges continue to enforce the orderly and lawful circulation of commodities and money with limitless social control.

Their complicity is present in the example of development, police repression and prison. They should expect no less than burning vehicles and creative expressions of our contempt.

We hope this act will spark communication and create new relationships of collaboration in struggle.

Our choices move beyond run, hide and prison. There are endless possibilities to be found in the conspiracy of attack.

We chose to act between the days of August 1st-7th because of the call for solidarity by 500+ prisoners in German prisons and around Europe who are on hunger strike. Our love is sent to the comrades who continue to refuse the life of passivity and silence, inside and outside the walls of prison. For the freedom of Amadeu Casellas Ramon, Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, [Marco Camenisch], Jose Fernandez Delgado! Freedom for all Prisoners!

May our willingness to revolt spread our crimes of passion through their quiet cities and into the solitude of prison! We are bound to annihilate their prison-world!

Solidarity

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Acción en solidaridad con los presos anarquistas [Canadá]

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Gas station attendant helps nab escaped inmate

Gas station attendant helps nab escaped inmate

Vancouver Sun [British Columbia]
Published: Friday, August 08, 2008

The judge didn’t recognize him, so it took a savvy gas station attendant to finger him and put him away.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Dean Sykes, 39, after a Canada-wide warrant was issued against him after he escaped the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre Wednesday for impersonating another inmate in court.

Sykes who had originally been jailed for break-and-enter offenses, appeared in court as Timothy Broadbent, a man who was due for a court date on possession of break-and-enter tools.

He was ordered to return and released. He disappeared.

On Thursday, Sykes, driving Broadbent’s car, paid for fuel at a Bridal Falls gas station, and joked with the attendant over his resemblance to the escaped convict’s photo in the media.

“Mr. Sykes joked with the clerk that he looked  a lot like the guy in the paper,” said RCMP constable Tara Harrington.

“The clerk thought the same thing, so he phoned the police.”

He presented himself as Timothy Broadbent, and produced Broadbent’s identification.

Sykes was pulled over and arrested without incident at 5:20 a.m. Thursday, on Highway 1, near Hope.

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Corrections won’t say what weapon used in FRCC hostage taking

Corrections won’t say what weapon used in hostage taking

The Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows Times {British Columbia]
Published: Friday, August 08, 2008

Ridge Meadows RCMP is investigating a hostage taking at Fraser Regional Correctional Centre that occurred Monday evening.

B.C. Corrections spokesperson Lisa Lapointe said the incident involved two cellmates. She said there was no physical violence but the one inmate threatened that he wouldn’t let anyone into the cell and wouldn’t let his cellmate out.

“He had fashioned something he was using as a threat,” said Lapointe.

She said what he was using wouldn’t normally be considered a weapon, but she wouldn’t elaborate on what the inmate was holding.

Lapointe said correctional officers were able to talk the inmate down and described the incident as “minor.”

FRCC has had more serious situations in recent months.

In February, 31 prisoners in the remand unit rioted at FRCC, setting fires, breaking windows and smashing up cells. Inmates suffered minor injuries. There was also a prison riot in August 2007.

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Vancouver Probation Office Attacked in Solidarity with European Prisoners

Probation Office Attacked in Solidarity with European Prisoners

[Posted by Annon on August 7, 2008, to friendsofgrassynarrows.com]

Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver BC, Canada)

Late on the night of August 6th a probation office on Commercial Drive had its front window smashed with a chunk of cement. This was done as an act of solidarity with the hundreds of prisoners in Europe participating in a mass hunger strike from August 1-7th. Particularly with the anarchists, Gabriel Pombo da Silva and Jose Fernandez Delgado.

This was also in solidarity with Amadeu Casellas. Amadeu is an anarchist who has been imprisoned by the Spanish state for 25 years. He started a hunger strike on 22nd of [June]. In a communique released on July 18th he made the statement “Freedom or Death”.

More info: http://www.325collective.com

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Amadeu Casellas

[Posted by solidario on August 8, 2008, to friendsofgrassynarrows.com]

Amadeu Casellas says he’s been on hunger strike since June 22 not July 22. The translation on 325collective.com is mistaken on the month.

[…]

http://www.klinamen.org/article4814.html

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Acción en solidaridad con los presos anarquistas [Canadá]

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Prisoners refuse to return to their cells at Millhaven

Maximum-security inmates return to cells at Millhaven

Posted By THE KINGSTON WHIG-STANDARD [Ontario]
August 7, 2008

Misbehaving inmates at Millhaven Institution returned to their cells late Wednesday without incident, according to Corrections Canada.

The inmates had been refusing to return to their cells for more than 24 hours, passing the time in the yard or gymnasium.

In a release, Robert Hurtubise, assistant warden in charge of management services at Millhaven, said the 110 inmates -from the maximum security unit -were searched before returning to their cells.

No major injuries to prisoners or staff were reported.

The penitentiary’s maximum-security unit remains locked down, and all visits have been cancelled. The assessment unit at Millhaven has returned to its normal operating routine.

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Inmates stage protest at Millhaven

Posted By THE KINGSTON WHIG-STANDARD
Thursday, August 07, 2008

About 115 inmates from Millhaven’s maximum-security unit refused to return to their cells on Tuesday night and spent the night in the prison’s yard and gymnasium.

The disturbance, which prison staff characterize as “minor,” despite the fact that warning shots were fired at 1 a. m., resulted in the prison being locked down yesterday as staff negotiated with prisoners to return to their cells.

“They spent the night playing cards and sitting in the yard,” said assistant warden Robert Hurtebeise yesterday morning.

“They got a bit wet in the rain that we had, but they stayed out there.”

Prison officials said the mass walkout was sparked by increased drug surveillance at the prison, including the use of sniffer dogs and ion scanners to detect contraband as well as random cell searches.

There were no injuries to staff or inmates and no major damage to the institution. The prison’s emergency response team was on the scene, although they had not been called in to disperse inmates from the yard yesterday.

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Six Nations people shut down another Brantford development

Protesters shut down King and Benton site
Hampton Inn project put on notice

Posted By JOHN PAUL ZRONIK, EXPOSITOR STAFF
Brantford Expositor [Ontario]
Posted August 6, 2008

More than 30 Six Nations protesters shut down work on a $500-million industrial and commercial development on Oak Park Road Tuesday morning, saying environmental concerns must be addressed.

Protesters visited the King and Benton development site — formerly a gravel pit near the city’s northwest business park — at about 7 a. m., asking that work stop. They told company president Steve Charest they are concerned that PCBs and other contaminants on the site are being released into the environment because of the movement of soil, potentially contaminating a nearby aquifer that drains into the Grand River. Protesters also said the land was under claim by Six Nations.

“(Charest) said there would be no development on the site until an agreement is reached,” said protest spokesman Oron:ia Otsihstohkwa. “The Haudenosaunee will see he keeps his word.”

After attending the King and Benton site, protesters visited a nearby Hampton Inn hotel development on Fen Ridge Court, warning that the property owner has two days to talk with Six Nations or work will be shut down. Construction was taking place at the hotel site Tuesday.

No workers were on another nearby site, where Kingspan Insulation is constructing a new office and warehouse, that has been the subject of Six Nations protests.

The Hampton Inn and Kingspan are among a handful of sites subject to a temporary injunction won by the city in June that

prevents protesters from interfering with construction. The King and Benton project is not part of the injunction.

More than 50 people working on the King and Benton site Tuesday morning were sent home for the day.

Charest said workers won’t return to the site until Six Nations concerns are addressed. All will receive pay until that happens, he said.

The developer said he’s confident that environmental concerns will be dealt with.

“We welcome the opportunity to address those concerns,” Charest said. “We’re confident that through dialogue we can do that.”

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