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RCMP share details on deadly North Vancouver boat crash

RCMP share details on deadly North Vancouver boat crash

Yahooa day ago

North Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Mansoor Sahak sat down with CBC's The Early Edition Tuesday to share what details they have on the deadly weekend boat crash. Sahak said they're looking at speed and alcohol as possible factors, and that having a case on the water complicates their investigation.

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3 plead guilty in network of temp agencies that hid asylum seeker's work accident
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timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

3 plead guilty in network of temp agencies that hid asylum seeker's work accident

Three people accused of running fraudulent temp agencies that exploited asylum seekers — and who attempted to conceal a work accident later uncovered by a 2018 CBC investigation — have pleaded guilty. Quebec's Labour Ministry has called the scheme the "largest fraud ever committed" against it and has estimated government losses at about $635,000 as a result of the operation. Hector Hair Rodriguez Contreras, 56, Hector Lopez Ramos, 51, and Beatriz Adriana Guerrero Munoz, 45, were all initially charged with fraud of more than $5,000 against the Quebec and Canadian governments and conspiracy to commit fraud of more than $5,000. Rodriguez Contreras pleaded guilty to those charges in April, roughly three weeks before his trial in Quebec Court was set to begin. The trio, led by Rodriguez Contreras, ran a number of temp agencies that hired asylum seekers without work permits and paid them below minimum wage in cash or cheques addressed to false identities they assigned to them. Court documents filed after the guilty pleas state that Quebec's Labour Ministry launched probes into the temp agencies following CBC's investigation. The story had revealed an asylum seeker was severely injured on the job after being recruited at a Montreal Metro station by a shadowy network of temp agencies. He was given a former worker's name and social security number to work under the table at a meat processing plant outside the city. Prosecutor Geneviève Bélanger said part of the group's operations were legitimate, making it difficult for the government to detect the fraud. "That was part of the scheme. For part of their business, if you will, they would do things in order, while for another part, they wouldn't — which also allowed them to fly under the radar," Bélanger said in an interview last week. The asylum seeker testified at the trial of Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz in May before Quebec Court Judge Rose-Mélanie Drivod. The top of his hand was sliced off by a meat slicer, that, he told CBC at the time, he had not been properly shown how to use. In an emergency surgery, doctors performed a skin graft taken from his thigh to reconstruct his hand. He told the court that years later, he's still in pain. The temp agency that hired him did not declare the accident to Quebec's workplace health and safety board, until the latter intervened following CBC's story and forced the company to compensate him. The man, who is now 39 years old, said in court he'd planned to work in construction in Quebec, when he came to Canada in August 2017 and would have made a good wage that way, but instead has been working as a commercial security guard for more than five years. He and his wife have three children with them in Montreal. Three days into the trial and soon after the worker's testimony, Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz pleaded guilty to reduced charges of using forged documents, including tax statements, against the Quebec government. Bélanger said the worker's testimony was emotional and powerful. "It clearly demonstrated the risk this type of thing poses when agencies don't respect [work] standards," she said. The statements of facts filed in court say that the Labour Ministry's probe, dubbed TARMAC, revealed that more than 400 of the companies' workers had also been claiming some form of unemployment benefits — many of them new immigrants who had little knowledge of Quebec's work standards and protections. "The leaders of the network took advantage of the vulnerability of some of the workers," the facts read. Martin Subak, Lopez Ramos's lawyer, says pleading guilty after a trial has begun "is commonly done to kind of test a little bit the evidence." He said part of the reason his client and co-accused ended up being handed lesser charges was because "their roles were subservient" to Rodriguez Contreras. The charges against them could lead to a maximum of two years in jail, while the fraud charges against Rodriguez Contreras carry a 14-year maximum imprisonment. Reached by CBC Thursday, Rodriguez Contreras's lawyer, Richard Tawil, said he didn't yet have his client's authorization to speak about the case, given it was not yet closed. The accused are set to re-appear on two separate dates at the Montreal courthouse in mid-July for sentencing.

Family of woman seen dragged from police cruiser calling for justice
Family of woman seen dragged from police cruiser calling for justice

Yahoo

time15 hours ago

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Family of woman seen dragged from police cruiser calling for justice

The family of a Smiths Falls, Ont., woman is demanding justice after a video surfaced online that appears to show the woman being dragged from a police cruiser and held to the ground after her arrest. The video, posted anonymously on social media, appears to show one of the officers dragging the handcuffed woman by her left leg from the back seat of Smiths Falls Police Service cruiser parked at a crosswalk. The officer then appears to pin the woman to the ground for about 20 seconds before pulling her to her feet and pushing her back into the car. Sarah Black, who told CBC she's the sister of the woman in the video, said she and her parents were distraught after seeing it. "It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch," Black told CBC. According to Smiths Falls police, the 29-year-old woman was arrested after officers were called to a business on Main Street E. where she was allegedly causing a disturbance, including acting belligerently and throwing a table against a wall. The same woman was suspected in an alleged assault that had occurred earlier that evening at a different location. Police said the woman was arrested and placed in the back of the cruiser where she began spitting and kicking a Plexiglas divider. The woman is facing one count each of causing a disturbance and uttering threats, and two counts each of mischief under $5,000, assaulting police and failure to comply with probation. She was scheduled to appear in court in Perth, Ont., on Wednesday. McKenzie LeClair has now come forward as the woman who captured the incident on video from a nearby window. "When I started recording I thought it was just going to be like any other arrest, and then I [saw] how the police officer handled her and my stomach just dropped," she said. LeClair posted the video on Facebook where it quickly gained traction and sparked outrage among some members of the local community. Black, who lives in California, said she heard about it from her mother. The family isn't contesting the woman's arrest, Black said, but they do want the police officers involved to be held accountable for how they handled the situation. "There is no reason that that kind of force was necessary in that scenario," said Black. Black explained her sister is a "complex person" who has a history of mental health and substance use issues that her family has been trying to help her manage for many years. "My sister needs help, not more trauma, and officers clearly need better training for mental health intervention if this is how they behave in these kinds of situations," Black said. "The officer should be ashamed." Smiths Falls police Chief Jodi Empey confirmed in a statement that she has been made aware of the video circulating on social media. Empey said both officers who appear in the video have been placed on administrative duties pending an investigation, which will be handled by a different police service. "We have determined this matter to be an institutional conflict and therefore must refer it to another police service for investigation," Empey said. Smiths Falls police would not confirm which service will investigate the incident, and said Empey would not be commenting further. Black said she and her family are awaiting the results of that investigation. "We want accountability — proper accountability including a full and fair investigation — and if found in the wrong, we want the officer or officers responsible to be charged or fired if necessary," she said.

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