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OACP Daily In The News
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Today’s News Briefs:
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OPP Commissioner sets record straight about policing Orillia (CNW Group – Orillia)
OPP commish weighs in on policing debate in Orillia (Orillia Packet & Times)
Council Oks OPSB’s cost-matching request (Orillia Packet & Times)
OPP contract costs decried (Brockville Recorder & Times – Prescott)
Options for Lakefield policing narrowed (Peterborough Examiner)
Det.-Const. Mike Callander is retiring from policing after 36 years (London Free Press)
Police who lie: Illegal searches by Peel Police allow alleged gun offenders to walk free (Toronto Star)
OPP update data system (Northumberland Today)
Barrie police keeping close eye on speeding this week (Barrie Examiner)
Three dead, teen seriously injured in four crashes in six days (London Free Press)
7 key changes in Harper’s new cabinet (CBC News)
Eight charged as $1.2 million in drugs seized (Calgary Herald)
Police caution public about buying concert tickets (Brampton Guardian)
Road safety: children and seat belts (Shelburne Free Press)
International News:
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Taser use: get the data (Guardian – UK)
Cuban police crack down on prostitution after child sex tourism investigation (Toronto Star)
Today’s News Briefs:
OPP Commissioner sets record straight about policing Orillia (CNW Group –
Orillia)
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Commissioner Chris Lewis invited local media partners to OPP General
Headquarters today (July 15, 2013) to clarify some misinformation about policing services to the City of Orillia that
stems from various sources, including a consultant report.
The Commissioner was joined by Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) President Jim Christie, Orillia
Detachment Commander Inspector Malcolm Quigley and Municipal Policing Bureau Commander Superintendent
Rick Philbin to answer media questions and present facts and perspective relating to the policing service options
presented in the consultant's report.
Lewis acknowledged that the cost of providing policing services is a highly complex subject and he provided the
media with a copy of a letter he addressed to the people of Orillia to help them become more informed about
policing options for their city.
Lewis and his staff also discussed the possibility of the city reverting to receiving OPP services on a non-contract
basis (Section 5.1 Police Services Act) as a viable option which would result in considerable savings for Orillia.
SOURCE: Ontario Provincial Police
For further information:
Sgt. Pierre Chamberland, Media Relations Coordinator
Phone: (705) 329-6878
OPP commish weighs in on policing debate in Orillia (Orillia Packet & Times)
The OPP commissioner has accused some people of spreading misinformation about the ongoing contract
negotiations between the provincial police force and the city.
“There’s some misinformation out there because some people, frankly, have agendas,” OPP commissioner Chris
Lewis said during a Monday-morning press conference at General Headquarters.
“Our agenda, as the OPP, is to keep this community safe and provide proper policing services,” he continued.
“There’s not one of us saying, ‘Oh, geez, I’ve always wanted my own police department here because I want to be
chief.’”
For the better part of a year, the City of Orillia has been embroiled in negotiations with the OPP over renewing its
now-expired contract.
The increase in the cost shouldn’t come as a shock, said Supt. Rick Philbin, commander of the OPP’s municipal
policing bureau, noting the cost-recovery formula, in place since 2003, was adjusted last year.
“It’s being characterized that our costs have gone drastically higher in these current negotiations than in the past,”
Philbin said. “And that’s completely accurate. It’s gone up by $600,000.”
The OPP — currently serving not only Orillia out of the detachment on Peter Street, but also provincial highways in
the area and the townships of Severn and Ramara — has said it will continue doing so with the integrated model,
charging the city for 54 uniformed officers and 13 civilian employees for $8.6 million per year. The townships and
the province will continue to foot the rest of the bill.
MPM Consulting Ltd., hired by the city to look into the cost of establishing a municipal standalone police force, has
suggested it could be done with 48 uniformed officers and 14 civilian employees for $7.8 million per year.
The city asked the OPP to cost out a standalone model, which it did for $11.3 million per year.
Last week, the Orillia Police Services Board passed a motion recommending council ask the OPP to match the
municipal model presented by MPM. It was passed by council committee Monday evening.
“If you read the report by the consultant ... it’s almost written as if someone said, ‘Write us a report that will show
we need our own police department and we can get the OPP out of here,” Lewis said, noting MPM’s report doesn’t
allow for enough officers and fails to account for full court security and prisoner transportation requirements as
well as the cost of filling key civilian positions with volunteer staff.
One less-talked-about option, said Philbin, would be reverting to a non-contractual relationship as outlined in
Section 5.1 of the Police Services Act, do away with the police services board and establish a community policing
advisory committee.
“It actually comes down to about the same cost as what they’re proposing as a possible standalone option at base
minimum and that’s around $7.8 million,” he said, noting the police services board costs the municipality about
$300,000 per year.
More than 170 of the 323 OPP-policed communities in the province operate that way, Philbin said, noting they’re
charged at the end of each year based on workload.
“It would be the same supervision,” he said. “It’s just a different billing model.”
With more than 1,000 employees working out of General Headquarters on Memorial Avenue and Central Region
Headquarters and a provincial communications centre off the Highway 12 bypass on Hurtubise Drive, the OPP is
heavily invested in the community, said Lewis.
“Our people live here, work here, shop here, do their business here, go to school here,” he said.
“That we’re even having this discussion is hurtful, really, and somewhat offensive at times, actually.”
In a statement released by the city Monday afternoon, Rick Fraracci, chair of the Orillia Police Services Board, said
the OPP has been providing “widely varying data” and has been unwilling to address concerns about accountability
during the negotiating process.
In the same statement, Mayor Angelo Orsi said he “can assure residents” council is reviewing “all facts and figures
associated with choosing the best option for policing.”
Neither was available for comment by press time Monday.
“If they want to go to a standalone police department based on the numbers in that report by the consultant,
which is fraught with error, in my view, in our view, and then expect we’re just going to pick up the slack, that’s not
the reality,” Lewis said.
“Comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges here is really important, too, and no disrespect to any other
police agency, but we’re the OPP. I always say we’re not any better than anyone else, but we’re certainly second to
none.”
Council Oks OPSB’s cost-matching request (Orillia Packet & Times)
The chair of Orillia’s police services board believes asking the OPP to match the cost of a standalone municipal
police station will open the lines of communication.
During Monday’s council committee meeting, Rick Fraracci, said the board is striving for more communication.
“It gives an opportunity for both sides to talk,” he said.
On July 9, the police services board passed a motion recommending the cost-matching request. City politicians
supported this recommendation at Monday’s council committee meeting. The OPP has 14 calendar days to
respond.
An MPM Consulting Ltd. report states Orillia could be policed by a standalone municipal force of 48 uniformed
officers and 14 civilian employees for $7.9 million annually, plus a one-time start-up cost of $1.73 million.
The OPP has said an Orillia-only OPP force would require 72 uniformed officers and 12.5 civilian employees at a
cost of $11.4 million.
Fraracci told council committee the motion gives the OPP an opportunity to review city policing-option reports,
including the MPM Consulting report.
“With that, I think it will bring parties closer together, perhaps to some sort of a solution,” Fraracci said.
Coun. Linda Murray disagreed.
“... The wording of the recommendation does not say that to me,” she said. “The wording of the recommendation
to me is almost — and I don’t want to be inflammatory here — but is almost an ultimatum.”
Murray said she was more interested in verifying costing figures from the OPP and the city.
“The numbers from all parties are off by such a degree that, as a councillor trying to make a good decision, I’m not
there yet,” she said.
Murray said, “everyone has to verify the numbers that they’re putting forth.”
She wants to continue OPP negotiations in private.
“I do know that we need to continue to have conversation,” she said. “I do know that we need to not do this in the
media.”
Murray disagreed with the 14-day timeframe.
“I don’t support the tight constraints of the recommendation,” she said.
City CAO Roman Martiuk said, on the surface, 14 days is a tight timeframe.
“The OPP have been working on this file for a long time, so the issue of starting up and familiarizing themselves
with it is not an issue,” he said.
Martiuk noted the timeframe would allow the police services board to review the OPP’s response and form a
recommendation prior to the Aug. 12 council committee meeting.
“... The closer we get to an election, the more argument you will have that this council, in fact, should leave the
matter to the next council,” Martiuk said.
He said the police services board believes in MPM’s costing model and also has an appreciation for the OPP.
The police board’s response will depend on what the OPP comes back with, he said.
“The board may decide they’ve come close enough ... or they may make another substantive recommendation,”
Martiuk said. “At this point, the board has not made a final decision, nor has council.”
OPP contract costs decried (Brockville Recorder & Times – Prescott)
Town politicians want one more chance to convince the Ontario Provincial Police to give them a better deal on
their policing contract before deciding to eliminate a sergeant's position.
Councillors agreed Monday to put off a decision on a contract option until after they hold another meeting with
OPP officials, but Mayor Brett Todd is not optimistic the OPP will prove any more flexible than it has so far.
“The negotiating process with the OPP is: 'Here are the numbers. You pay them or not,'” Todd said
“That's not negotiation,” said Councillor Jennifer Wyman, a point that met with no contradiction at the council
table.
The Prescott Police Services Board recently recommended a renewed OPP contract without the community safety
sergeant position, which became vacant after Sgt. Paul Bisson retired at the end of May.
The move, the less expensive of two options before council, is expected to save the town about $150,000 for 2013,
making the budget $1,850,864 instead of $2,008,326.
The mayor said that appears to be the extent of the manoeuvring room town council has when dealing with
provincial police.
“The only real way we can lower the cost is: do we want the community sergeant, do we not want the community
sergeant?”
Putting the policing budget over the $2 million mark is “kind of like the bridge too far,” added Todd.
The figures are for the first year of what Todd said is a new five-year contract with the OPP. The town is also facing
an 8.55 per cent rise in policing costs for 2014.
Councillor Michael Dimopoulos wondered if the town had any flexibility with its complement of 11 officers. Todd
replied the OPP adheres strictly to a formula for its staffing complement, and anything below that number is
considered a safety risk.
The only other alternative to the OPP's options, added the mayor, would be a so-called “Section Five” model in
which the town would lose its police services board.
Councillor Lee McConnell took issue with the $475-per-capita cost in the OPP formula, when, McConnell noted,
the OPP itself said its provincial average is $160 per capita.
The town is therefore paying $1.3 million more than it would be for policing were it to follow the average, added
McConnell.
Were the town to be charged the average, he said, it would be able to do all it plans to in this year's budget and
give residents at 26-per-cent tax cut.
The province should be intervening on the side of municipalities, said Todd. Instead, added the mayor, the Liberal
government earlier this year rejected an attempt at arbitration reform, something municipal leaders have been
calling for to reduce policing costs.
“The province has all but abandoned its responsibility on this,” said Todd.
Town officials will now try to set a date for another meeting with Sgt. Paul Legault, of the OPP's municipal policing
bureau.
The meeting is important because the public needs to know about this process, said Councillor Robert Lawn.
“I think we owe it to the community because they're going to be paying for this,” he said.
Options for Lakefield policing narrowed (Peterborough Examiner)
With the looming split up of Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service, Selwyn is poised to narrow down
its options for policing in the village of Lakefield to hiring the new city police force or the OPP.
A report with a recommendation to consider those two policing options for Lakefield and proposed next steps in
the process goes to Selwyn council Tuesday.
Selwyn would review the current policing service level for the village and get community feedback on what it
wants in the future. After hearing from the public, it would launch a request-for-proposals process to get bids for
policing from the OPP and city police force.
City council, in a 6-5 vote, gave notice in December that it wants to end its policing partnership with Lakefield by
the end of next year — but it left the door open to continuing policing in the village through a contract for service
rather than the current joint ownership of the force.
Selwyn expects Lakefield residents would pay less for policing through a contract for service than they do for the
township’s part ownership of the Peterborough Lakefield police force, Selwyn Mayor Mary Smith said Monday.
“When you aren’t co-owner, you’re not in a position of having the governance control that a co-ownership has, so
as a result you aren’t paying as much,” she said. “We certainly expect that with a contract there would be some
savings to the community.”
Lakefield residents and property owners are paying $836,208 for policing this year.
The city pays roughly 96% or about $21 million of the police forces budget this year and has about 78,000 residents
compared to the about 2,300 people in Lakefield.
The city and township councils each have one representative on the five-member board. City council chooses a
community representative to the board and the provincial government appoints the remaining two members.
Peterborough and Lakefield merged their police forces through an agreement in 1998.
City council members who voted in favour of the split in December gave reasons such as gaining a second seat for
city council representatives on the police board and getting more control over policing spending in the long term.
Township chief administrator Janice Lavalley recommends the township hire either city police or OPP.
“As became clear through the budget discussions between the police services board and city council, the actual
cost of providing police services to Lakefield Ward is significantly less than the share paid by the ward since 1999 in
accordance with the amalgamation agreement,” she states in a report.
Lavalley reviewed several other potential options for providing policing for Lakefield.
She states that a contract with the City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service would be challenging operationally and
likely more expensive due to the distance involved.
“The community of interest for the Lakefield Ward flows naturally to Peterborough rather than Lindsay,” she
states.
Creating the township’s own police force for Lakefield or for the entire township isn’t a financially feasible option,
Lavalley states.
Lavalley considered using the Anishinabek Police Services, which several residents suggested, but recommends
against that option.
Anishinabek Police Services provides policing for Curve Lake First Nation, a neighbouring community.
It was created through an agreement between the federal government, the province and the 16 member First
Nations, Lavalley states, and it doesn’t provide service to any municipalities.
To get the city’s police force to provide policing for Lakefield the township council would have to negotiate with
city council, according to the Police Services Act.
Selwyn council is taking it one step at a time, Smith said.
“We certainly would want to make a decision early in 2014 to prepare for the transition if there is any transition
involved,” she said.
Det.-Const. Mike Callander is retiring from policing after 36 years (London Free
Press)
Det.-Const. Mike Callander never took a sick day and is finishing his career the way he started it: on the road.
After more than 36 years on the job, the youth branch officer is spending two weeks on general patrol with his
eldest son Tyler – also a police officer in Sarnia – before retiring July 30.
“I just thought it would be something unique, different,” said Callander, who started with the Sarnia Township
service on May 23, 1977.
“Basically I'm just going back to where I started,” he said.
Callander, who was born in Germany and grew up in Ottawa, Nova Scotia and London Ont., is – barring any sudden
setbacks – retiring without taking a single sick day.
“There (have) been days we've wanted to send him home,” said Det. Staff Sgt. Scott MacLean with a laugh.
“He's worked his magic that way,” he said. “He's very, very dedicated and here every day … we're going to miss
him.”
Callander said the only time he's missed was about two weeks for injuries that he sustained while at work.
"They wouldn't let me come back any sooner," he said.
The old-school work ethic is something he picked up from his dad, he said, explaining how his old man never
missed work while in the Canadian Forces, or later at a London metal plant.
Tyler Callander said he doesn't know how his dad did it.
He's proud of him, he said, but doesn't plan to continue the streak.
He said his dad, a longtime minor hockey coach and volunteer with numerous community organizations —
including Rebound, where he's board vice-president — has been a positive example.
"I really respect the way he does things by treating people with respect, instilling the values of helping others and
being involved in the community," he said.
After more than three decades, it's time to call it quits, said Callander, a 16-year youth branch veteran.
“I'm sad to go but I'm going on my terms,” he said. “They've (police) been good to me and you try to give back
what they give you.”
There've been a lot of changes to policing in 36 years, Callander said – from the advent of cell phones, to how
police approach impaired driving.
“When I started, impaired driving was basically a social crime,” he said. “You didn't even get fingerprinted.”
He credits organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving for teaching people about its severity.
The minor hockey referee said he's grateful for the time he's spent with the service.
“Just coming to work and knowing that they had enough faith in me to leave me where I was, do what I was doing
with the youth,” he said.
He's planning to golf and continue volunteering in retirement.
An open house retirement party is planned for the Royal Canadian Legion branch on Front Street in Sarnia Aug. 15,
starting at 7 p.m.
Police who lie: Illegal searches by Peel Police allow alleged gun offenders to
walk free (Toronto Star)
Judges in Peel Region have let at least eight alleged gun offenders walk free after finding police made illegal
searches and, in some cases, misled the court to cover up the misconduct
Judges in Peel Region have let at least eight alleged gun offenders walk free after finding police made illegal
searches and, in some cases, misled the court to cover up the misconduct.
A “disturbing pattern,” Justice Bruce Durno recently called it before tossing the case against Jahmarr SterlingDebney, who was found with a .22-calibre pistol and faced a minimum of three years in prison if convicted.
The judge said Peel officers Stephen Porciello and Michael Bishop broke the law by arbitrarily detaining, searching
and arresting the suspect on Derry Road in Mississauga, and then attempted to mislead the court about how they
seized the man’s gun.
“The public has an interest in having these serious charges prosecuted to a verdict,” Justice Durno said but added
the officer’s behaviour was the more serious threat to the reputation of the justice system. “It is essential that the
court (dissociate) itself from the police misconduct at the roadside and in court.”
Durno’s ruling is yet another message from Ontario courts that police misconduct undermines public trust in the
justice system and must be condemned.
A 2012 Star investigation revealed more than 100 cases of police dishonesty in courts across the country.
The series on thestar.com: Police who lie
1
How officers thwart justice with false testimony
Crown must now report police who lie
2
3
The articles, which also found Ontario had no formal method of reporting such incidents, prompted the attorney
general to make a new policy requiring prosecutors in the province to do just that.
In Peel Region, though, the problem continues.
The Star found five recent cases where judges said Peel officers illegally searched suspects’ cars and uncovered
guns. Eight accused gun offenders were acquitted as a result.
In these instances, officers followed hunches and found reliable evidence of crimes. Whether out of laziness,
overzealousness or poor training, they violated laws put in place to protect citizens from abuse of police power.
In two of the cases, officers gave misleading evidence in court after the Attorney General’s new policy came into
effect in January.
All of the officers named in this story either refused to comment or did not respond to multiple requests for
comment.
Peel Police is looking into the issue after being notified by the Crown attorney’s office of recent court decisions
denouncing officers’ actions and testimonies, a police spokeswoman said.
“All of the cases you have identified have either been, or will be reviewed and the appropriate action taken.”
Following the misconduct of veteran Peel officer Sgt. Stephen Ceballo, a loaded handgun was excluded as evidence
in two cases and the suspects walked. When reached at his home, Ceballo refused to comment.
In March 2013, Justice Casey Hill found Ceballo misled the court about the shoddy arrest of suspect Adrian
Thompson, a repeat gun offender found with a loaded pistol, marijuana and cocaine in his vehicle.
After receiving a call about a man suspected to have a gun, Ceballo and three other officers approached Thompson
in the parking lot of a Brick furniture store. They did not tell Thompson the reason he was being detained nor of his
right to contact a lawyer. After they searched the SUV and found drugs and the gun and placed Thompson in cuffs,
they did not immediately tell him the reason for his arrest.
In court, Ceballo was argumentative, “shifted dramatically” when describing his reason for searching the car, and
frequently paused and struggled for answers.
“The sergeant’s evidence was transparently and deliberately misleading as he sought to dodge the inevitable press
of questioning establishing his absence of grounds and unlawful authority,” Justice Hill said.
After the judge’s findings, Thompson, who had two prior gun convictions, walked free.
“The disturbing aspect of these warrantless search cases is that they represent only a small fraction of the number
of unlawful searches which evidently occur on a regular basis in Peel,” said Thompson’s lawyer Peter Bawden in an
interview. “The intent of the court with these decisions is to enforce the rights of everyone in Peel to be free from
unreasonable police searches.”
At his home in Brampton, Thompson, 28, who now works part-time as a forklift operator, said he carried the Glock
17 handgun because “I have enemies” and because “I had drugs” to protect.
“Everything in the car was mine. The gun, the drugs. I admitted I put it there. There was no warrant. Peel cops,
they don’t like to follow protocol.”
The president of the Peel Regional Police Association said the cases should be viewed in the context of all gun
offences before Peel’s courts since 2010.
“There are five cases being talked about — how about all of the other ones where everything was fine? Is this a
disturbing pattern or are these just one-offs?” said Wayne Omardeen.
While police officers can randomly stop vehicles to check vehicle safety or a driver’s paperwork, they must
otherwise have reasonable grounds to believe an offence is being committed to stop a car, detain a person or
search a house. Mere suspicion of criminality is not enough.
A year before Thompson’s case was tossed, in April 2012, another judge in another gun case found Ceballo
ordered the unlawful search of a suspect’s car.
After stopping the vehicle for running a red light, police discovered neither the driver nor passenger had a valid
licence. Ceballo, in what he called a “teaching moment,” directed the younger constables that the car be seized,
towed and searched.
But police had no basis to seize or search the car, Justice David Corbett ruled.
“The supervising officer engaged in an investigative technique that should not be taught to junior officers,” the
judge said, adding that excluding the gun as evidence was “the best way to discourage this sort of illegal search.”
The suspects were acquitted.
(Ceballo’s investigative techniques also came under fire in a 2012 drug case. After the officer seized a package
containing heroin, a judge ruled police did not have legal grounds to detain the driver or search his trunk. The
judge said Ceballo “seemed as if he tailored his evidence to fit the facts.” The heroin was excluded as evidence.)
Other cases found by the Star include:
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Four men were acquitted of weapons charges in September 2010 after Justice John Sproat ruled their
arrest and vehicle search was “unlawful,” and the weapons seized, including a loaded rifle, were excluded.
The judge also criticized an officer’s evidence about an informant who tipped police off about the car,
calling it “highly misleading.”
In a December 2012 decision to allow as evidence a loaded gun Peel officers found hidden in a car, Justice
Durno said the evidence “demonstrated an apparent common, but incorrect, (belief) amongst Peel Region
Police that an arrest provided grounds to search a vehicle without a warrant, which showed a disturbing
ignorance of the law.”
In the case of Sterling-Debney, found with a loaded .22-calibre handgun in his car, Justice Bruce Durno found the
officers “were going to stop and search the vehicle in any event based on nothing more than speculation or a
hunch.”
The accused testified that just before midnight on June 23, 2012, he left his girlfriend’s apartment, walked through
the apartment building’s parking lot and opened the trunk to look for his girlfriend’s son’s baseball hat.
Then, while using his cellphone to call a friend, Sterling-Debney turned on to Rexwood Road and drove toward
Derry Road, where he was pulled over by the two officers. They searched the car and found a loaded gun in the
trunk.
Why the officers followed the Honda and how they made the arrest was disputed at trial was.
The officers testified that they stopped the car not because the driver was talking on a cellphone but because
moments earlier they saw him put what they believed was a handgun in the trunk. They said their experience
guided them to take the suspect and his weapon off the street.
Durno found a number of major problems with the two officers’ testimony.
Like when, during the preliminary inquiry stage of the case, Porciello testified that the suspect sat in the Honda for
two-and-a-half minutes before pulling out of the lot. If the officers strongly believed he had a gun, this would have
been the time to approach and make the arrest, the judge said.
“That that option was never discussed, if they honestly believed he had put a gun in the trunk, is incredible. It
makes absolutely no sense to let the driver drive away in the car and potentially away from them or to choose an
option that may have resulted in a high-speed pursuit.”
At trial, the officer tried to change his testimony about how long the Honda was in the lot before departing.
The judge also noted Porciello was “combative . . . , argumentative, defensive, evasive and unresponsive . . .
belligerent and defiant . . . (and) appeared nervous and fidgety.
“It was not the adrenalin flowing that caused the nervousness. It was apprehension about his evidence, knowing
some of the things he had committed to at the preliminary inquiry. When confronted with some of those
comments, he tried to distance himself from them, not elaborate on them. . . . He was not a credible witness.”
Durno also noted the officer sometimes paused while struggling to come up with answers that would “assist his
position.”
“That type of mental scrambling had the effect of attempting to mislead the court . . . . His manner of testifying
and attitude . . . were most troubling.”
Sterling-Debney’s lawyer, Jeff Hershberg, told the Star that the ruling shows a police force’s pattern of conduct in
such cases will factor into judges’ rulings on future similar cases. “The public needs to know that one Peel judge
after another is worried the Peel police have no respect for the Charter and the truth.”
OPP update data system (Northumberland Today)
Provincial police have the latest technology in communications.
OPP Constable Jeff LaPorte said Northumberland County OPP have started to update the data terminals in their
cruisers.
The Mobile for Public Safety System augments the computer system the police cruisers have had for a number of
years.
With the original set-up police could do reports in the cruisers and run licence plates, but the addition of the MPS
links the cruiser directly to dispatch in Smiths Falls.
“If there are calls for service coming in and the dispatcher is busy they can hit a button, send a call right to my
screen and any critical information will appear on my screen,” LaPorte said.
“As well, when I’m en route to a call she can look at her screen and it will show her exactly where our cruisers are
and at that point it just makes it easier for the closest vehicle to respond.”
Police see the calls on the screen even before they are dispatched, and are also able to see other police vehicles
and their location.
“We can even speak by typing to the call taker (dispatcher)," LaPorte said. "So if we’re getting a call of an impaired
driver and we’re waiting at a certain location, we can actually type messages back and forth to the call taker who is
on the phone with the complainant.”
A 'traffic stop' button that's part of the new system is something that also benefits officers.
“I pulled over a vehicle recently in Bewdley and hit 'traffic stop' as I was pulling it over and immediately the
dispatcher came on the air and announced where I was," LaPorte said. "She could see the licence plate I had
punched in; she saw the registered owner so for officer safety it’s paramount.”
Currently the new system is in approximately 500 cruisers across the province, with eight of those being in
Northumberland County.
LaPorte said the Global Positioning System on the cruisers is something that is helpful on rural roads.
While traveling on a snowmobile trail, he came across a cube van and wondered if it could be involved in daytime
break-and-enters. After activating his emergency lights and 'traffic stop' button he punched in the numbers and
letters of the licence plate.
“It turned out to be two people who were lost delivering some counter tops, but the moment I hit 'traffic stop' and
the plate, I didn’t get my door open and dispatch had called out and announced my location which is not even on
some of the maps, so she knew exactly where I was.”
LaPorte has been using the system for approximately two weeks and said it’s “invaluable.”
“I’m grabbing calls off the screen before they are even dispatched. I’ll see a call pop on the screen and can hit a
button and asked to be dispatched to it.”
Barrie police keeping close eye on speeding this week (Barrie Examiner)
Barrie motorists may soon learn city roadways are no place for speeding.
If you have a lead foot, be prepared to see flashing lights in your rear-view mirror as Barrie police have increased
speed traps in several troublesome neighbourhoods.
“We’ve had everything from 50 over or 10 over. People think police won’t stop them because they’re only going 10
over,” Sgt. Glen Furlong said.
“The message we’re trying to get out is don’t follow the rest of the crowd. Look at your own speed and be careful
when you travel.”
When police engaged residents and city council in a community information session earlier in the month, speeding
was a consistent concern, Furlong said.
“We’ve been doing town-hall meetings with councillors and we received numerous complaints from different
citizens and we’re trying to act on those complaints,” he said.
“We’re just looking to get the message out that speed is dangerous and can affect everybody in a negative way.”
The maximum speed allowed on most city streets is 50 kilometres per hour, but Furlong said many motorists are
neglecting the rules of the road and putting others at risk, including driving at excessive speeds through
community safety zones, as well as near playgrounds and schools.
“They (trouble areas) are everywhere. It wouldn’t be fair to say there is just one, but obviously where there’s
playgrounds with kids is a high-profile area for us,” he said.
“Numerous tickets were handed out today (Monday) for all types of speed, but nothing in regards to crazy high
speeds.”
Officers are focusing on multiple areas throughout the city, which included a heavy police presence on Toronto
Street and Livingstone Street West, Monday.
Police keep recorded logs of neighbourhoods identified as high-speed areas for future reference and routine
patrols.
Furlong said the stereotype of young males speeding isn’t necessarily the status quo, in fact, older drivers are some
of the most common to be stopped for speeding.
“It’s all over the map, to be honest. It’s everyone from moms taking their kids to camp to people heading down to
the city (Toronto) to get to their jobs,” he said. “It’s people from all ages and different types of vehicles. It’s just
people who need to start paying more attention and focus on their driving.”
Motorists caught speeding will be subject to fines ranging from excessive speed to stunt driving, which may result
in suspended licences.
WE ASKED READERS ON FACEBOOK TO NAME SOME OF THE ROADS THEY FEEL PEOPLE SPEED ON. HERE ARE
SOME OF THEIR RESPONSES:
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Diane L. Coville: Athabaska Road in the early morning hours after the bars close on Friday, Saturday and
Sunday...
Mary Durrett: Get quite a few speeding past my house on Hurst Drive
Heather Ingraham: Coulter St, Argyle Rd, Glenwood Dr .... have quite a few
Stacy McIsaac: Livingstone Street, in front if terry fox school. And speeding on bayfield always makes turning
left hard as no one does the speed limit!
Dallis Favret: Letitia Street where the speed bumps are. The faster you drive over them, the less you feel
them.
Jamie Munro Da Smunn: Go watch Simcoe street and Toronto street when people have right of way at cross
walks and drivers don't care I have almost been hit crossing the road in Barrie
Derek Pallister: Gowan street I think is the worst ppl fly up an down that road
Monti Hannona: Mapleview WEST!!
Tim Purdy: The problem is a lack of speed why the heck are Georgian Dr, essa rd and maple view only 50km
......???
Kelly Jane Weedon: Innisfil Street
Bruce Wilson: Trillium Crescent
Deb Crowe: Bayfield @ Georgian Mall, Ferndale at the dump, during school year @ all the schools the 40km
is not observed.
Three dead, teen seriously injured in four crashes in six days (London Free Press)
Four serious crashes in a week have London police reminding pedestrians, cyclists and drivers to pay attention to
the road and others on it.
Three people have died since Tuesday and one is in hospital fighting for her life.
“The London police service would like to remind everyone, regardless of their mode of transportation, to focus on
their own personal safety when out on the roads and sidewalks and remain cognizant of their surroundings,” said
Sgt. Ryan Scrivens, who heads the traffic management unit.
The recent wave of collisions started July 9:
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Just before 11 p.m. last Tuesday, at Wellington and Dundas streets, Londoner Jesse Forrest, 44, was struck by
a car heading north through a green light. He died of his injuries.
On Wednesday, a single-vehicle crash on Manning Dr. west of Old Victoria Dr. killed Erik Rivard, 19, of
Belmont. Rivard’s vehicle left the road and hit a tree. Speed is believed to be a factor.
On Friday at about 4:15 p.m., a 45-year-old cyclist was struck by a city bus in the area of Hamilton Rd. and
Smith St. The bus was heading east when the cyclist struck the side of the bus. He died of his injuries.
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Witnesses believe a 17-year-old girl was running to catch a bus when she was struck by a car at Adelaide St.
and Fanshawe Park Rd on Sunday at around 5 p.m. The teen was hit by a car going through a green light.
She’s in critical condition in hospital.
Also over the weekend, a 29-year-old on an ATV on Wonderland Rd. near Hamlyn St. lost control and was
thrown from the vehicle. He has been in serious condition in hospital since the incident at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The collisions come on the heels of the death of Bill Seely, 24, struck and killed by a train July 3 while riding his bike
across the tracks at Colborne St., south of Horton St.
The recent spike in road deaths and injuries can’t be attributed to a single cause but should give people pause,
police say.
“First and foremost, I would like to extend our condolences to those who have suffered a loss as a result of any of
the serious collisions that have occurred over the past week,” Scrivens said.
“Whether you travel by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, car or truck, we want to remind everyone to focus on safe
traveling when out on our sidewalks, roads and highways.”
So far this year, there have been 42 collisions involving cyclists and 104 involving pedestrians.
In crashes involving a cyclist, 91% of the time the cyclist is injured, where 95% of pedestrians involved in a collision
are hurt.
“Despite the fact that cyclist and pedestrian collisions are less frequent when compared to collisions involving two
cars, for example, the likelihood of the cyclist and/or pedestrian sustaining injury is much greater,” Scrivens said.
--LONDON COLLISIONS
In 2012:
Total collisions: 9,447
Total injury collisions: 1,639
17% of all motor vehicle collisions result in at least one injury
Collisions involving cyclists: 151
Collisions involving pedestrians: 200
91% of all collisions involving cyclists result in an injury to the cyclist
95% of all collisions involving a pedestrian result in an injury to the pedestrian
To date in 2013
104 pedestrians struck
42 cyclists struck
7 key changes in Harper’s new cabinet (CBC News)
Prime minister shuffles cabinet with eye to 2015 federal election
Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a new cabinet on Monday bringing what he called "generational change"
to his inner circle ahead of a throne speech this fall and a policy convention in late October.
Here are 7 changes to note about Harper's new cabinet:
1– Women
The government had hinted that there would be more women in the new cabinet and Harper was hyping it up
when he announced on Twitter that he was "proud to be naming four new strong, capable women to the
ministry," but the fact is that men still dominate his front bench and there are only two more women in cabinet
than there were before the shuffle.
Women make up less than one-third of Harper's cabinet with 12 of the 39 cabinet members being women. Only
two of the 12 women are new to the cabinet.
Seven women are now in charge of full-fledged ministries while four of the 12 have been appointed to junior posts.
Rona Ambrose is the minister of health, Diane Finley is the minister of public works and government services, and
Leona Aglukkaq is the minister of the environment as well as the minister for the Canadian northern economic
development agency and minister for the Arctic council. Lisa Raitt is the minister of transport, Kerry-Lynne Findlay
is the minister of national revenue, Shelley Glover is the minister of Canadian heritage and official languages, and
Kellie Leitch is both the minister of labour and minister of status for women.
Lynne Yelich is the minister of state for foreign and consular affairs, Alice Wong remains the minister of state for
seniors, Candice Bergen is the minister of state for social development, and Michelle Rempel is the minister of
state for western economic diversification.
Harper also lost two women from cabinet when Diane Ablonczy said she would not run again in 2015 and Marjory
LeBreton announced her intention to resign as government leader in the Senate — a cabinet vacancy Harper did
not fill.
2 – A new department
Jason Kenney is now the minister of Employment and Social Development, formerly known as Human Resources
and Skills Development Canada.
The new department will reflect the government's "focus on job creation" and "determination to improve how
skills training is delivered."
Two junior ministers will report to Kenney: Candice Bergen, the minister of state for social development, and Alice
Wong, the minister of state for seniors.
As minister of labour, Kellie Leitch, will also work with Kenney as some of her new responsibilities will overlap with
employment and social development.
Kenney took to Twitter on Monday saying he was "delighted to be working with a strong team of Ministers."
3 – One new backbench MP
Harper appointed backbench MP Kevin Sorenson to minister of state for finance replacing Ted Menzies who
announced he would not run again in 2015.
Sorenson, from Crowfoot, Alta., is the only MP who was promoted from the backbenches to the junior ranks of
Harper's new cabinet without any previous experience in a ministry.
First elected in 2000, Sorensen has served as chair of three Commons committees: public safety and national
security, the special committee on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, and the committee on foreign affairs and
international development.
4 – Junior posts
The prime minister also created two junior posts during his shuffle. He appointed Tim Uppal to minister of state for
multiculturalism and Candice Bergen as the minister of state for social development.
Harper did not appoint a new associate minister of defence responsible for procurement after he shuffled KerryLynne Findlay, who was in that junior role since February, to national revenue.
Procurement will now be the responsibility of public works.
5 – Splitting ministries
Harper has split the ministries of transport and infrastructure, taking transport away from Denis Lebel – who was
the minister of transport, infrastructure and communities – and giving it to Lisa Raitt.
6 – Social media
Harper used Twitter for the first time and in a co-ordinated way to announce his new cabinet. His Twitter feed had
details about the changes Monday morning ahead of the 11 a.m. ceremony, including how many new people
would be added and how many women. As MPs arrived one by one at Rideau Hall, Harper announced on Twitter
what their positions in cabinet were. Some of the new cabinet members also recorded short video clips that were
posted on YouTube.
7 – In and out
The brand new faces in cabinet are: Chris Alexander, Shelly Glover, Pierre Poilievre, Kellie Leitch, Michelle Rempel,
Candice Bergen, Kevin Sorenson, and Greg Rickford.
The people who are out are: Peter Kent, Senator Marjory LeBreton, Diane Ablonczy, Ted Menzies, Steven Fletcher,
Keith Ashfield, Gordon O'Connor.
Eight charged as $1.2 million in drugs seized (Calgary Herald)
A sophisticated Calgary drug trafficking network was crippled after police seized a variety of drugs with a street
value of more than $1.2 million and arrested eight Calgarians in a 10-month investigation.
“We think we’ve dealt a significant blow to this organization,” Insp. Gerry Francois, with ALERT’s Calgary Combined
Forces Special Enforcement Unit, told reporters Monday.
“This will have an impact on their activities, for certain.”
The unit launched an investigation after receiving information about the group, which was believed to be
distributing across Western Canada.
Between September 2012 and July 4, officers executed search warrants at six residences across the city, the most
recent one at a home in the McKenzie Towne area.
Police seized about eight kilograms of cocaine and crack cocaine, 640 grams of methamphetamines, 2,800
Oxycodone tablets, 247 grams of marijuana, more than eight litres of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB), 904 grams
of MDMA or ecstasy, 45 ecstasy tablets and 795 vials of steroids.
The drugs are have a total street value of more than $1.2 million, Francois said, adding police are still trying to
determine where the drugs are from.
The quantity of GHB — more commonly known as the date rape drug — is among the largest Francois said he has
ever seen, adding the drug is also used in conjunction with steroids.
Officers also seized about 34,000 prescription pills, more than 35 kilograms of a cutting agent, $96,311 in cash,
eight vehicles, a pill press, cocaine press, a conducted energy device, 33 cellphones and other trafficking
paraphernalia.
Francois compared the wide variety of drugs trafficked to a “grocery store,” with offerings for different customers.
“We’ve seen that there’s a trend in these organizations to becoming involved in trafficking a variety of drugs so
they have a larger customer base and, of course, the profits increase,” he said. “It’s one-stop shopping.”
Some of those arrested have gang affiliations and criminal pasts.
Seth Micah Westergard, 32, Christopher Lloyd Greene, 31, Joshua Patrick Feagan, 27, Jessica Catherine Marshall,
28, Kamila Ravshanovna Baikova, 22, Jesse Carl Baker, 29, Melissa Sue Shenfield, 28, and Ashley Aaron Cuthbert
Mawdsley, 31, face multiple charges.
Francois said Feagan and Mawdsley, along with a 33-year-old man who was not charged, were on parole at the
time of the arrests and have had their parole revoked.
Police caution public about buying concert tickets (Brampton Guardian)
Peel Regional Police are cautioning the public about purchasing concert tickets online from unauthorized agents.
During the past few months, investigators with the Fraud Bureau have received an influx of calls related to the
purchase of fraudulent concert tickets over the Internet.
In most cases the purchaser attempted to purchase the tickets through legitimate means, but found out the
concert they were interested in was sold out. The purchaser then turned to the Internet in search of tickets.
Police said the ticket seeker then became involved in a business transaction with an unknown individual, which at
times led to a prearranged location to complete a cash transaction. The purchaser obtained the concert tickets and
attended the concert, only to find out on the night of the big event that the tickets were fraudulent, police have
found.
Peel police are reminding the public that according to provincial statutes, tickets cannot be sold for a higher price
than the price they were issued. It is against the law to purchase tickets with the sole purpose of reselling them
and purchasers are prohibited from buying tickets for more than the advertised price, police note.
For more information and tips about purchasing tickets over the Internet visit the Ministry of Consumer Services
website at www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/Pages/Consumer_Alert_Ticket_Sales.aspx.
Peel police are offering some tips about purchasing tickets over the Internet:
• purchase the tickets from a legitimate ticket provider;
• if the price of the tickets have been inflated this is an offence;
• if you purchase the tickets at an inflated price this is an offence.
Anyone who may have been victimized by this type of scam is asked to report it to police.
Information can also be left anonymously by calling Peel Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477), or by visiting the
Crime Stoppers website at www.peelcrimestoppers.ca.
Road safety: children and seat belts (Shelburne Free Press)
Statistics show that a leading cause of children’s deaths in Canada is automobile collision. Making sure that
children are properly secured in their seat is one way to significantly reduce injury or death to children in a
crash. Common errors observed by police are that the seat belt and harness has not been tightened enough,
the tether strap has not been used when required, and that the child is not in the proper seat for their
size/age.
Weight specific restraint system for children:
• Infants: under 9 kg (20 lbs): Rear facing, away from air bag
• Toddlers: 9:18 kg (20-40 lbs): Forward facing with tether strap
• Pre-Schoolers: under 8 yrs or 18-36 kg (40-80 lbs) or under 145 cm (4’9”): booster seat with lap and shoulder
belt
• All others: Regular seat belt with or without booster seat
Child Restraint System Installation
Infant/Toddler
• Seat must be secured to vehicle with seat belt
• Forward facing seats must use tether strap hooked onto anchor bolt fastened to vehicle
• Harness must be snug
• Straps must be double back
• Locking clip must be used with continuous loop seat belt
• Label must show Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and be installed following manufacturer’s
instructions
Booster Seats
• Require use of lap and shoulder belts
• Head must be supported by top of booster, vehicle seat or headrest
• Seatbelt adjusters are prohibited
Seat belts
• Must lie across shoulder and middle of chest not touching neck or face, and over hips, not stomach
• Shoulder belts cannot be behind back or under arm
• Every person in a vehicle must be wearing a seat belt with only one person per seat belt assembly
• Keep children away from all active air bags
• Children under 13 years of age are safest in the back seat
Please check with your local Public Health or Police Station to see if your seat is installed correctly.
International News:
Taser use: get the data (Guardian – UK)
Newly released figures reveal the frequency of British police officers firing Tasers at suspects' chests, despite
explicit warnings from the weapon's manufacturer over the dangers of causing cardiac arrest. Which forces are
included and what did we find?
Contrary to medical advice and manufacturer's warnings, UK police are firing Taser stun guns at the chests of
suspects in the majority of cases, according to newly released data.
There is evidence to suggest that shots to the chest are more dangerous because they can result in cardiac arrest.
The manufacturer's own training guidance states: "When possible, avoid targeting the frontal chest area near the
heart to reduce the risk of potential serious injury or death."
57% of shots to the chest
Of the 45 UK police forces that were asked about taser gun use, 18 replied with statistics. The original freedom of
information request included questions about the total number of uses and the number of times that an individual
had been hit in the chest area by a Taser weapon between 2009 and 2012.
On average, 57% of all Taser discharges resulted in an individual being hit in the chest. There were however large
differences between police forces - from 100% of three Taser uses by City of London police, to 17% of the 24
occasions that Suffolk police used the weapon.
In forces such as Lancashire and West Mercia, use of Tasers was far more prevalent with 186 and 138 discharges
respectively.
The data is also complicated by the fact that different forces collect different data about Taser incidents. Cumbria's
police force were only able to supply data for 2010-12, as they no longer hold Taser figures dating from 2009. In
the case of South Wales, the police force also did not have information for 2009, and were only able to record hits
to the 'torso' rather than the chest specifically.
Possible factors
Police say the weapons are an invaluable means of incapacitating a suspect without resorting to using firearms.
But what drives the way they are used? Simon Chesterman, deputy chief constable of West Mercia police, where
there were 62 incidents of a Taser being fired to the chest, said:
When you've got a violent assailant who is facing you, coming towards you and you have to make a split second
decision whether to use Taser or not the chances are that clearly you're going to aim for the torso
We looked at the latest official figures on violent crime per 1,000 residents to see if this was more prevalent in the
police forces that used the weapons most.
The correlation between shots being fired to the chest and violent crime rates is weak (shown left) - as is the link
between total Taser uses and violent crime (right). The data has to be treated with caution because with such a
small sample size (just 31% of the UK's police forces have comparable information) it is hard to reach any
conclusions.
The relationship between Taser use and assaults on police officers appears to be clearer. Though we could only
find numbers on assaults in England and Wales in 2009-10 (the Taser data covers 2009-12) there is an indication
that where officers are more likely to be attacked, they are also more likely to use Tasers. This was true whether
the Tasers were fired to the chest or elsewhere on the body, and whether the injury sustained by the officer was
minor or serious.
The relationship was clearest when looking at overall Taser use and assaults on police officers that resulted in no
or only minor injuries, as shown below.
In Lancashire, 303 police officers were assaulted in 2009/10 - the highest of any force we looked at. Lancashire was
also the police force in England and Wales with the highest overall use of Tasers (186) and the highest use of
Tasers to the chest (120). South Wales also came second in terms of prevalence of Taser use and second on the
number of police officers to be assaulted.
This by no means fully explains Taser trends - training and culture are likely to play a huge role. Anomalies
demonstrate this - in West Mercia, visibly different in the graph above, there were 138 Taser uses, of which 62
were to the chest while a total of 91 officers were assaulted in 2009/10 - a figure far lower than many other police
forces.
Visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/jul/14/taser-use-police-forces-uk-data
Cuban police crack down on prostitution after child sex tourism investigation
(Toronto Star)
Police have questioned four girls aged 7 to 12 for signs of abuse by James McTurk, Toronto man convicted for
sex crimes against children in Cuba.
The Café Paris in downtown Havana, a seedy hangout for prostituted women from Cuba’s provinces, is reported to
be nearly empty.
So are several other so-called “bar-girl” joints in the neighbourhood, like La Mina, El Maragoto and the Golden
Shower.
Prostitutes still prowl the working-class Centro Habana neighbourhood at night, but a recent aggressive police
presence has driven them into alleys and back streets, according to Havana residents.
Police have arrested some of the women, forced others aboard trains bound for their home provinces and warned
others to stay away from the more public areas — just as they have done during their many previous crackdowns
on Havana’s always thriving sex trade.
But Havana journalists say this latest crackdown, launched in early April, came in response to a joint investigation
1
into child-sex tourism in Cuba published by the Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald.
2
The series focused on the dozens of trips made to the island by James McTurk , a 78-year-old North York man who
had twice been convicted of child pornography. Last month McTurk became the first Canadian convicted in Canada
3
of sex crimes against children in Cuba , pleading guilty to four counts of hands-on offences against children as
young as 3 and two counts of child pornography.
“I believe your stories were the detonators for the crackdown,” said Ivan Garcia, a well-known dissident blogger, in
a phone interview from Havana.
Another writer, Victor Manuel Dominguez, said the increased police pressure drove women out of an unofficial
“zone of tolerance” for low-priced prostitutes near San Lazaro and Belascoaín streets in the Centro Habana.
“Those reports clearly unleashed the wave of repression,” said Dominguez, although there was no indication that
the police were equally as aggressive in targeting the men who pay for the sex.
Havana lawyer Veizant Boloy, who contributes to several Cuban news websites, wrote in one column that the Star
and Nuevo Herald reports “alerted the authorities and forced them to take serious measures,” including the
arrests of more than 20 prostitutes in a raid near Monte and Reina streets around April 9.
Toronto police told the Star they have passed on information about McTurk’s victims to Cuba through the
Department of Foreign Affairs and have received good co-operation from the Cuban authorities.
El Nuevo Herald has learned that police on the island have questioned four girls aged 7 to 12 for signs of abuse by
McTurk and arrested one of the adult Cuban women he befriended.
On April 9, police arrested Delvis Reitor Torres, 25, for investigation on charges of corruption of minors because of
her relationship with an elderly Canadian known only as “Jimmy,” according to her mother, Gisela Torres Jordán.
Toronto Police Det. Paul Robb, who investigated McTurk, said a search of McTurk’s Toronto apartment last July
turned up the names of Reitor Torres and at least four of her neighbours in the southeastern village of Marea del
Portillo in the municipality of Pilón.
McTurk stayed many times at a nearby beach hotel, the Club Amigo Marea del Portillo, Robb added.
Torres Jordán, in a phone interview with dissident Havana journalist Dania Virgen García, said that “Jimmy” always
brought candy, pencils and clothes for the neighbourhood children during his visits, about twice a year in recent
years, “that he distributed in front of us adults.”
She said after her daughter’s arrest, police and a psychiatrist questioned four neighbourhood girls, aged 7, 9 and
12, for signs of abuse by the Canadian.
“The girls said that no, that at no time did he touch them, that he really was here to hand out little things to the
girls,” the mother said.
McTurk, meanwhile, sits in a Milton jail cell awaiting sentencing on the child-sex tourism convictions. He could
spend the rest of his life behind bars if he is declared a dangerous offender.
The retired postal worker was also convicted of Cuba-related child pornography in 1995 and 1998 and was on the
Canadian sex offender registry. Despite that, McTurk made at least 29 trips to Cuba between November 2008 and
his latest arrest in July 2012.
Court records show him flying from Varadero to Canada 20 times and seven times from Manzanillo, the town
closest to Marea del Portillo and Pilón. He also returned home on one flight each from the eastern cities of
Camaguey and Holguín.
Taxi driver Rolando “Rolly” Cabrera Abreu said he worked for McTurk for 20 years and recalled the many young
women he spent time with in beach resorts. He said that police never questioned him about his “good friend
Jimmy.”
Abreu told El Nuevo Herald that McTurk always brought little gifts, sweets and clothes for children during his many
visits. The elderly Canadian had “girlfriends” in beach towns where he stayed, such as Marea del Portillo, Varadero
on the north-central coast and Guardalavaca on the northeast coast, according to Cabrera.
“He had a woman in each town,” the taxi driver said.
But McTurk never talked to him about child prostitutes or child pornography, Cabrera insisted. If the Canadian was
molesting children, he added, “that’s his problem, I know nothing about that.”
“I am telling you this because of the fondness and friendship that I feel for him,” the taxi driver declared.
“In Varadero, everyone knows Jimmy, and Jimmy knows everyone.”
News Impacting Police Services in Ontario
Jennifer Harrison
Administration/Committees
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police
40 College Street, Suite 605
Toronto, ON M5G 2J3
Telephone 416-926-0424 ext. 0
Fax 416-926-0436
Email [email protected]