Cdn-Firearms Digest Tuesday, February 12 2008 Volume 11 : Number 206 In this issue: Facebook postings not serious: defence- The National Post Taxi passenger taken for $2,200 ride- Globe & Mail Canadian province adds protection for polar bears- Canwest News Animal abuse bill gets support from academia- Canwest News re: Too many Clintons and Bushes Leg injury possible bid to kill- The Calgary Sun Levy's axe-attacker gets 10 years- The Vancouver Province North Van shooting victim targeted, say police- The Van. Province My Letter to the sun: re Greenspan's "Run-on sentences" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:37:30 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Facebook postings not serious: defence- The National Post Facebook postings not serious: defence http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=302023 Image & Caption "People use Facebook today like the way people used to use diaries," suggested defence lawyer Sam Goldstein. - -Kier Gilmour/CanWest News Service Father accused of online threat Shannon Kari, National Post, with files from Matthew Coutts Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 NEWMARKET - Postings on the social networking Web site Facebook should be compared to diary entries and not be used to form the basis of criminal charges, argues the lawyer for a man accused of making threats online. The 26-year-old Toronto-area man is on trial on two counts of "knowingly" causing a nurse and employees at the York Region Children's Aid Society to receive "a threat to cause death or seriously bodily harm," as a result of what he posted on Facebook last fall. D.S., whose name cannot be published under the Child and Family Services Act to protect the identity of his infant son who was apprehended by children's aid, started a group that he called a "petition" against the CAS for "taking" his newborn son. The infant was apprehended last September, in part because the mother is developmentally delayed, the court heard yesterday. D.S. allegedly posted that he was "suisidal" (sic) and outlined various plans, including the possibility of bombing children's aid. One of the postings allegedly stated that D.S. believed he would be "doing 25 to life," after he found out the name of the nurse at York Central Hospital who contacted children's aid. "May God have mercy on my soul. I am going straight to hell with a 25-year pit stop in prison," read another alleged posting by D.S. Police were contacted in late November after a children's aid society employee was doing a search online and found the Facebook group, Justice Richard Blouin heard. D.S. is also facing weapons charges after police allegedly seized a pellet gun at his home just north of Toronto. The nurse, Debora Flachner, said she was notified by police about the alleged postings. "I was in shock," Ms. Flachner said. She testified that she printed off an extra copy of the material so that she had a picture of D.S. to carry "at all times" in her purse. During cross-examination by defence lawyer Sam Goldstein, the nurse agreed that she was unaware of any potential threat until she was notified by police and there was no direct contact between her and D.S. A former children's aid society worker testified yesterday that the agency met a number of times with D.S. last fall. He agreed to take parenting courses and spoke of going to court to try to regain custody of his son. The Facebook group had a number of spelling errors, including the word "petition." One posting to the group stated, "How can anyone take you seriously if you can't spell petition?" the court heard. While the comments allegedly made by his client were inappropriate, they were not criminal, Mr. Goldstein said outside court yesterday. Facebook is an outlet to "blow off steam" and there was no intent by D.S. to threaten anyone, the lawyer said. "People use Facebook today like the way people used to use diaries. They are expressing their personal thoughts or opinions, not an intention to act," Mr. Goldstein suggested. The lawyer indicated that a media expert will testify for the defence this week to explain the purpose of Facebook postings. Social networking sites have been referenced in court in the past, but usually the debate is focused on the privacy of such writings. An Ontario Superior Court judge recently determined that pictures posted on a personal MySpace page could be used by the defence against a plaintiff who alleges to have suffered permanent physical injuries as well as serious emotional and psychological trauma in a 2003 car accident. In June, Master Lou Ann M. Pope said defence lawyers could use pictures of the plaintiff skiing in the Swiss Alps after the car accident in a cross-examination. In some cases, police have considered laying charges based on assumed private conversations online. Four teenagers accused of microwaving a cat after breaking into a house in Camrose, Alta., received death threats after someone posted their names on Facebook. The privacy of the accused, all between 13 and 15 years old, are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Police considered charging the person who released the names with contempt of court. - -- -- More On This Story Student postings cause storm on Toronto campus http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=302076 Drunk last night? Don't show your boss on Facebook http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=285477 University cyber-bullies disciplined http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=278233 Police shut down Facebook page naming accused cat killers http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=221333 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:14:43 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Taxi passenger taken for $2,200 ride- Globe & Mail Taxi passenger taken for $2,200 ride http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080212.wdebit12/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080212.wdebit12 Police seek suspect after fare alleges bank card switch and theft from account UNNATI GANDHI From Tuesday's Globe and Mail February 12, 2008 at 5:33 AM EST What should have been a $15 cab ride home ended up costing an unsuspecting customer more than $2,000 when he became the latest victim of an elaborate debit card fraud, police say. After a night in the city's entertainment district, a man got into a taxi shortly after 1 a.m. on Dec. 27 and was taken to his home near Spadina Road and Lonsdale Road in Forest Hill, police say. When the man, who police say was heavily intoxicated, offered to pay the fare with his debit card, the taxi driver allegedly swiped the card through a debit machine and passed the handheld device back to the customer. "What we believe is happening is that this handheld device is not processing the transaction, but it's storing in the PIN," Toronto police Detective Constable Michael Kiproff said. "The victim is drunk and handed back a card. It's not their card though, but likely [that of] the victim before them or even a fake card. Or it's a card that resembles theirs - if it's Royal Bank, they give them a blue card." When the victim woke up in the morning and checked his wallet, Det. Constable Kiproff said, he realized the debit card wasn't his. Police allege the cabbie went to a Royal Bank automated bank machine shortly after dropping the customer off and withdrew about $2,200, managing to take money out of the account's overdraft limit. Police released three images yesterday of a suspect (who police believe has defrauded at least one other customer), taken from video surveillance footage from Dec. 27 and Dec. 28 at a Royal Bank branch. An orange and green taxi can be seen parked on the street out front. A call to a Beck Taxi spokesman seeking comment was not immediately returned yesterday. Despite the much publicized arrest last November of another Toronto cabbie, who is alleged to have defrauded customers for more than a year using a modified handheld device that stored banking information, police say dozens of people continue to fall prey to such scams. "It's getting to be a bit of a trend," Det. Constable Kiproff said. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:04:32 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Canadian province adds protection for polar bears- Canwest News Canadian province adds protection for polar bears http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=295895 Image & Caption A handout picture shows polar bear cub Flocke (Snowflake) at the zoo in Nuremberg Jan. 28, 2008. - -Tiergarten Nuernberg/Stadt Nuernberg/Reuters Canwest News Service Published: Friday, February 08, 2008 WINNIPEG -- The western Canadian province of Manitoba named the polar bear a threatened species on Thursday, enabling it to restrict new development on its Arctic shoreline, where hundreds of the big white bears spend several weeks each year. "We must continue to take action to protect one of our province's most unique species, which is clearly being affected by climate change," Stan Struthers, the province's conservation minister, said in a release. Polar bears hunt seals on Hudson Bay, but move onto land around the northern Manitoba town of Churchill when the ice melts in the summer. Late autumn can see nearly 1,000 of the animals in the region, waiting for the freeze-up, and tourists flock to the remote town, which calls itself the polar bear capital of the world. Commercial and sport hunting of the bears has long been banned in Manitoba. Climate change has melted the ice earlier and for a longer period, affecting bears' health and survival rates, the provincial government said. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated melting sea ice could eliminate two-thirds of the world's polar bears by 2050. Scientists estimate that the world's polar bear population is around 25,000. Two-thirds of the animals live in Canada, almost all of them in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. The United States government is weighing whether to declare the polar bear a threatened species, but Canadian Inuit leaders have said that could hurt their livelihood, which is supported by guiding U.S. sport hunters in the Arctic region. The Canadian government has classified the polar bear as a "species of concern" but has not named it an endangered or threatened species. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:55:40 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Animal abuse bill gets support from academia- Canwest News Animal abuse bill gets support from academia http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=302088 Image & Caption Universities and colleges say new animal cruelty legislation is a "carefully tailored and reasoned solution" to a gap in Canadian law, but Liberal MP Mark Holland calls it "worse than nothing." - -Sean Dempsey, Agence France-Presse 116-Year-Old Law; New revision would pose no threat to animal research Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 OTTAWA - After years of fighting federal bills to toughen animal cruelty laws, academia is putting its support behind a version that universities say would not pose a threat to legitimate animal research. The House of Commons justice committee is wrapping up public hearings on the latest incarnation following a decade of several failed attempts to rewrite a 116-year-old law that made it a crime to abuse animals. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the national umbrella group for post-secondary institutions, says it no longer fears that an anti-cruelty bill would make potential criminals out of researchers who are trying to conduct ethical animal-based testing. Universities and colleges had opposed previous attempts since 1999, partly because animals would cease to be considered property under the Criminal Code and they would have stronger, specific protection in their own right. "Such changes could have led to unfounded allegations of misconduct against universities and university researchers, and frivolous and unwarranted private prosecutions under the Criminal Code by individuals and organizations for whom no use of animal research is acceptable," the association said in a recent written brief to the justice committee. The latest bill has travelled an unusual path -- originating in the Senate rather than the House of Commons. The legislative proposal, like the original bill introduced by the Liberal government in 1999, would increase criminal penalties for people who abuse animals. If convicted, abusers could receive a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine, up from the current maximum punishment of six months in prison and a $2,000 fine. Universities and colleges say the newest version is a "carefully tailored and reasoned solution" that avoids "serious damage to the reputations of universities and to individual faculty members who are conducting important animal-based testing and research in a highly ethical and responsible manner." The bill was introduced by Liberal Senator John Bryden, who tabled identical legislation two years ago that did not make it as far as public hearing at the Commons justice committee, one of the final stages before a bill goes to MPs for a final vote. Mr. Bryden's bill has the support of the governing Conservatives, who opposed former Liberal bills to modernize animal-cruelty laws amid fierce opposition from researchers, farmers, aboriginals and hunters. Two Liberal bills passed in the Commons, but they were blocked in the Senate. Liberal MP Mark Holland is waiting to introduce his own private members' bill, which effectively revives past Liberal legislation. Among other things, Mr. Holland opposes a section of Mr. Bryden's bill that requires "wilful negligence" rather than simple "negligence" in harming animals, an accusation that he said is too difficult to prove. Mr. Holland, who intends to hold a news conference with animal-welfare groups and a "survivor" of animal cruelty today on Parliament Hill, says Mr. Bryden's bill is "worse than nothing" because its passage would ensure that Canada's laws remains in the dark ages for years to come. "Can you imagine the House of Commons passing an animal welfare bill that has every major animal-welfare group opposed to it?" he asked. "It is unbelievable that the House would do such a thing." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:06:57 -0800 From: "Todd Birch" Subject: re: Too many Clintons and Bushes Exactly! PROFESSIONAL, lifelong political animals; family dynasties that go on for generations. The American system of self-perpetuating professional politicians makes our's pale by comparison. People like this believe that they have an inalienable right to govern and become a professional elite; the political establishment. This is particularly surprising for a republic like the US that was founded to get out from under the rule of kings, lords and nobility. What has evolved is simply the American version. There is something inherently wrong with a system of government wherein a candidate and/or supporters will spend MILLIONS to get their man/woman elected to an office with an annual salary of $400,000. In our case, the PM's salary is much less, but the principle is the same - someone is making a living out of governing, in government or in opposition. The time in history has come to rethink our political processes and get rid of those whose careers are based on wallowing at the public trough, year after year ..... Fixed four year, overlapping terms, and then MAYBE a chance to become an ELECTED Senator for another four. Then a return to the private sector. Think about it ..... what would a Stephan Dion or Jack Layton do then? TB ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:07:23 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Leg injury possible bid to kill- The Calgary Sun Leg injury possible bid to kill http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2008/02/12/4841770-sun.html Injury happened on trip with wife By DAVE DORMER, SUN MEDIA The Calgary Sun February 12, 2008 When murder victim Dale Henry was shot in his own bed, he was suffering from a severely broken leg -- an injury his sister says may have come in an earlier attempt on his life. Mary-Jane Matheson said her brother broke his leg in eight places when he fell in August while visiting a remote lookout with his wife and her family. "They took him there and he ended up sliding down some mud and his leg got twisted and broken," she said. "(They went there) to look over this cliff and we're now thinking maybe they were just going there to have an accident and push him over the cliff." After several surgeries, Henry, who was living in Ban Nong, Thailand, still needed crutches to get around, but was supposed to return to work Feb. 22. Instead, the 48-year-old former Cochrane firefighter and paramedic was shot in the head Feb. 3 while he slept, allegedly by a hit man hired by his Thai wife Maneerat, 27, to collect a $1 million life insurance policy. Maneerat, her Thai boyfriend and the alleged hit man were all arrested and are each facing a murder charge. Henry's brother, Richard, arrived in Hong Kong yesterday and is expected to travel to the Ranong province of Thailand today. Richard will then spend the next three days with Henry's body while it lies in state in a temple. Following that, a funeral service will be held and Henry's body will be cremated. "We're going to spread a few ashes there, then Richard is going to take some and I'm going to take some to Hawaii where I spread some of my mom's ashes," said Matheson, who was expecting to fly to Thailand last night, but said she is fearful, given the circumstances of her brother's death. "(Canadian Embassy officials) said do not go anywhere when you land at the airport, go straight to the embassy and they said security would be arranged," she said. "I'm going to ask that someone meet me at the airport and take me (to the embassy), I don't want to be travelling alone." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:12:31 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Levy's axe-attacker gets 10 years- The Vancouver Province Levy's axe-attacker gets 10 years http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=1d3f7da2-8b93-4f5c-90bd-4394d4da69b3&k=58583 Image & Caption Michael Levy with sister Crystal at the sentencing hearing in Surrey last month. - -Jason Payne - The Province Family "satisfied" with sentence, says sister Vancouver Province Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 SURREY - The youth who used an axe to put Surrey teen Michael Levy in a wheelchair has been given 10 years in prison for his crime. Judge Kenneth Ball sentenced Enrique Quintana, 18, to nearly double what Crown prosecutors had requested. The crime was such an act of "brutal savagery, as to be difficult to comprehend," Ball said. "There is a real need, in this case, to protect the public from Mr. Quintana." The sentence was met with a cry of "Yes!" from the direction of Levy's family members in the courtroom on Tuesday. Outside court, Levy's sister Crystal said she was "satisfied" with the sentence, and predicted that Michael would be pleased, too. She noted, however, that the family's struggle will continue. Quintana was convicted last August of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, along with two others who participated in the crime. He has been in custody since his arrest and will receive credit for time already served, plus six months off due to his young offender status at the time of the crime, meaning his release is scheduled for the spring of 2016. The two other youths received controversial sentences in December. Robert Green, who smashed a glass bottle over Levy's head, was sentenced to three years in prison, while Tuan Nguyen, who hit Levy with his fists, was given a 20-month conditional sentence. The Crown has appealed Nguyen's sentence. Crystal Levy read a victim impact statement to the Surrey court on Jan. 23 in advance of the axe-wielder's sentencing. With tears streaming down her face, she switched between addressing the judge and Quintana in the prisoner's box. "[Michael] would pick me up and throw me over his shoulder," she recalled, her voice rising to a shout as she turned toward the youth. "Now it's a struggle for him to use a fork . . . the only thing that I have to look forward to is that someday you will die!" Crown counsel Michaela Donnelly had asked for an adult jail sentence of between five and six years, while defence lawyer Rishi Gill asked for three to four years, with at least two years credit for time already served. Michael, 19, was assaulted at a party at Surrey's Tynehead Hall on Oct. 28, 2006. The random, unprovoked attack happened quickly as the three teens swarmed him, throwing punches and kicks and striking him in the head with a hatchet three times. The judge has decided Quintana will serve his time in an adult facility, a federal prison. © Vancouver Province 2008 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:19:35 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: North Van shooting victim targeted, say police- The Van. Province North Van shooting victim targeted, say police http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=8a33f5c6-de18-402b-97d7-7128b4275004 Burnaby man, 32, with criminal past killed in pickup Keith Fraser and Jack Keating, The Province Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 The man who died in a hail of bullets in North Vancouver had a tangled criminal past. Chi Wai "Darren" Liao, 32, of Burnaby was shot a number of times Saturday night, while sitting in a pickup truck shortly after playing in a floor-hockey game at the Delbrook Recreation Centre. Multiple shots were fired from close range through the pickup's window, said police. "He was found in the driver's seat," Cpl. Dale Carr, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said yesterday. "It appears, with the broken glass that's there, that the shots went through glass." Police are trying to determine whether the shooter fled on foot or in a vehicle. "We have some different witness accounts at this point," said Carr. "So we're just trying to figure out what people saw." Carr said Liao was targeted. "It certainly has all the earmarks of a targeted incident," he said. Police are trying to establish a motive for the killing. "That's the million-dollar question right now," said Carr. More than 20 people have been shot to death in so-called targeted shootings in the Lower Mainland in the past six months. "It will take time to sort through and figure out what we know to make any sort of assertions as to whether there are any links to gangs, drugs or anything like that," said Carr. Liao was sentenced to six months in jail and received a mandatory 10-year firearms prohibition after being convicted of possession of a prohibited or restricted weapon with ammunition arising from an incident in New Westminster in September 2004. More than a dozen other charges on the indictment, including three counts of unlawful confinement, three counts of use of a firearm while committing an offence and three counts of assault with a weapon, were stayed. Jeffrey Andrew Lim, one of Liao's co-accuseds, received the same sentence as Liao and a second co-accused, Robert Carl Stamberg, received one day in jail and a 10-year firearms ban. Liao was sentenced to nine months in prison after being charged with extortion and injury or damage to another person after an incident in Burnaby in August 2005. He was also fined $500. In October 2001, a Vancouver assault charge against Liao was stayed and, in November 1999, two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking were stayed. Lawrence Myers, a Vancouver lawyer who represented Liao, said he wasn't aware of his murder. "I heard a rumour about this, but I didn't know. That's terrible. He has no outstanding charges. I don't know that he's been charged in several years." Police are asking anyone who was at the rec centre Saturday night who saw anything suspicious to call investigators at 1-877-543-9217 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS. kfraser@png.canwest.com jkeating@png.canwest.com © The Vancouver Province 2008 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:47:59 -0500 From: Bill Subject: My Letter to the sun: re Greenspan's "Run-on sentences" Mr Greenspan's quote: "there is no, nor has there been any, satisfactory empirical evidence to conclude that the implementation of a mandatory minimum sentence has ever deterred crime." So What! It would seem that 'personal responsibility' has gone totally out the window in this country. Why are some people so intent on insisting that the main 'reason' for any sentence should be as a deterrent to others? What happened to actually punishing the criminal, you know "Do the crime, Do the time"? Who cares if it deters anyone else, as long as it gets _THAT_ particular dirt bag off the streets and in prison, where he or she belongs. If, at the same time, someone 'else' is deterred, that's just so much gravy.. The primary reason for mandatory minimums, should be, to give the public an assured amount of time that they can be safe from any one of these cretins.. Bill Cunningham Innisfil On Organization: ---(TechniSoft)--- Print & Promotional ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V11 #206 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:d.jordan@sasktel.net List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca FAQ list: http://www.magma.ca/~asd/cfd-faq1.html and http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/homepage.html FTP Site: ftp://teapot.usask.ca/pub/cdn-firearms/ CFDigest Archives: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/ or put the next command in an e-mail message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca get cdn-firearms-digest v04.n192 end (192 is the digest issue number and 04 is the volume) To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next five lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-alert unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".) 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