Emergencies Act inquiry, police ‘social workers’ at risk : In The News for Oct. 21

He said Ottawa police failed to come up with an operational plan and were not properly deploying OPP officers sent to Ottawa to help patrol the “Freedom Convoy” protests in February.

Carson Pardy, another member of the OPP, is expected to testify this afternoon.

Senior police and City of Ottawa officials have painted a picture of disorganization between police forces and levels of government in the response to the mass demonstrations.

The inquiry’s ultimate goal is to examine the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act three weeks into the crisis, and report on whether the unprecedented move was warranted.

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Also this …

A spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department says officers have become de facto social workers for people who lack support services while struggling with homelessness, mental illness and substance use.

Sergeant Steve Addison says the stabbing death of RCMP Constable Shaelyn Yang in Burnaby, B.C., this week has highlighted the fact that officers are increasingly ending up in potentially dangerous situations.

Yang was working on a mental health and homeless outreach team when she was stabbed at a park where she’d gone with a city employee to notify a man in a tent that he wasn’t allowed to keep living there.

Addison says police have seized multiple weapons, including guns, from encampments where at least one person recently threatened to toss gasoline on tents and set them on fire.

Earlier this month, an officer who worked with outreach and mental health teams and a veteran constable who was a trained crisis negotiator were killed in a shooting in Innisfil, Ontario.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Yang’s death devastating during a visit to B.C. yesterday and said in the House of Commons this week that mental health supports should be stepped up so police are not the only outreach providers in many situations.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

LOS ANGELES _ The widow of a former University of Southern California football player suing the NCAA for failing to protect her husband from repetitive head trauma is taking what could be a landmark case to a Los Angeles jury Friday.

Matthew Gee died in 2018 from permanent brain damage caused by countless blows to the head he took while playing linebacker for the 1990 Rose Bowl winning team, according to the wrongful death suit filed by Alana Gee.

Of the hundreds of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits brought by college football players against the NCAA in the past decade, Gee’s is only the second to go to trial alleging that hits to the head led to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease. It could be the first to reach a jury.

“For years (the NCAA) has kept players like Matthew Gee and the public in the dark about an epidemic that was slowly killing college athletes,” the lawsuit said. “Long after they played their last game, they are left with a series of neurological conditions that could slowly strangle their brains.”

The NCAA, the governing body of college athletics in the U.S., said it wasn’t responsible for Gee’s death, which it blamed on heavy drinking, drugs and other health problems.

“Mr. Gee used alcohol and drugs to cope with a traumatic childhood, to fill in the loss of identity he felt after his football playing days ended, and to numb the chronic and increasing pain caused by numerous health issues,” NCAA lawyers wrote in a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The issue of concussions in sports, and football in particular, has been front and centre in recent years as research has discovered more about long-term effects of repeated head trauma in problems ranging from headaches to depression and, sometimes, early onset Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease.

Research done at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center showed a link between football and CTE, which is associated with memory loss, depression and progressive dementia. The centre has found CTE in the brains of 110 of 111 deceased former NFL players and 48 of 53 former college players, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

UNITED NATIONS _ The U.N. Security Council planned to vote Friday on a resolution that would demand an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti and impose sanctions on a powerful gang leader.

The United States and Mexico, which drafted the 10-page resolution, delayed the vote from Wednesday so they could revise the text in hopes of gaining more support from the 15 council members.

The final text eliminated a reference to an Oct. 7 appeal by Haiti’s Council of Ministers for the urgent dispatch of an international military force to tackle the country’s violence and alleviate its humanitarian crisis.

Also dropped was mention of an Oct. 8 letter from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres outlining options to help Haiti’s National Police combat high levels of gang violence.

A second resolution, which was still being worked on late Thursday, would address the issue of combating Haiti’s violence. It would authorize an international force to help improve security in the country if approved.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfields said Monday that the “non-U.N.” mission would be limited in time and scope and would be led by unspecified “partner country” with a mandate to use military force if necessary.

The sanctions resolution being put to a vote Friday named only a single Haitian _ Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, whose gang has blocked a key fuel terminal leading to severe shortages. Cherizier, a former police officer who leads an alliance of gangs known as the G9 Family and Allies, would be hit with a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo if the resolution passes.

The resolution, however, would also establish a Security Council committee to impose sanctions on other Haitian individuals and groups whose actions threaten the peace, security or stability of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. Targeted actions would include criminal activity, violence and arms trafficking, human rights abuses and obstruction of aid deliveries.

Political instability has simmered in Haiti since last year’s still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moise, who had faced opposition protests calling for his resignation over corruption charges and claims that his five-year term had expired. Moise dissolved Parliament in January 2020 after legislators failed to hold elections in 2019 amid political gridlock.

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On this day in 1878 …

Canadians became known around the globe as great brewmasters when John Labatt’s India Pale Ale won a gold medal at the International Exposition in Paris. Labatt himself developed the recipe for the light-coloured ale at his brewery in London, Ont.

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In entertainment …

LOS ANGELES _ A jury of nine men and three women was seated Thursday in the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein, and opening statements are set for Monday.

They were chosen in a process that lasted about six days from a pool of 225 potential jurors who were summoned last week.

Later in the day, eight alternates were also seated and sworn in. The two sides had initially planned to have 10, but settled on eight, and quickly agreed on who they should be. One of those alternates called the court late in the day to say they could not serve. That juror might be dismissed Monday morning. The court will hear final motions on which witnesses and testimony to allow on Friday.

The trial is expected to last six more weeks.

The 70-year-old former movie mogul, who is already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault after a 2020 conviction in New York, has pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles to four counts of rape and seven other counts of sexual assault.

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OTTAWA _ Conservative Alberta MP Bob Benzen has announced he’s retiring.

The representative for Calgary Heritage says in a statement that he plans to leave at the end of the year.

The member of Parliament says he looks forward to returning to private life and that it has been an honour to represent the riding for the past six years.

Benzen, who is 63, says he’s confident party leader Pierre Poilievre can win the next election and that now is the right time to “hand off the baton” as the Tories prepare.

Earlier this year, Benzen called for Ontario MP Erin O’Toole to be removed as party leader, which the Conservative caucus voted to do in February.

Benzen was first elected in a byelection in April 2017 to replace former prime minister Stephen Harper, who stepped down after losing the 2015 election.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Emergencies Act inquiry, police ‘social workers’ at risk : In The News for Oct. 21

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