RCMP team diving off western P.E.I. in hopes of finding link to Urbainville shooting
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Basketball tournament in Six Nations honours Dylan Isaacs's dream of bringing the sport to Indigenous youth
It was a few months after his death that Dylan Isaacs's friends approached his family and asked if they could do a basketball tournament in Six Nations of the Grand River, honouring the 30-year-old. "[Isaacs] always talked about bringing basketball to our community more, and especially for the youth," said his aunt, Cecelia Sky. Now, 19 months after he was killed, the second annual Dylan Isaacs Memorial Basketball Tournament is underway this weekend and it has become something he'd be "over the moon" with, Sky said. The event brings in several, mostly Indigenous, basketball groups from all over the U.S. and Canada, and this year, they accomplished their initial goal of having part of the event aimed at youth from the community. Isaacs was a member of the Cayuga Nation. On January 7, 2024, he was leaving a NFL stadium with his friends in Miami, Fla., when he got into an argument with someone who was driving erratically, according to police. The driver allegedly pulled a gun and shot Isaacs to death, Miami Gardens police said at the time. CBC contacted police there this week for an update on the investigation but they did not respond. "He's really missed. He was a big presence in our family," said Sky, adding kids in the community looked up to him. "He was a big guy, big tall guy, and his personality was just as big as him." His mother and Sky's sister, Sue Sky-Isaacs, told CBC Hamilton a few days after his death "he was a character in everything he did." "He was full of love and we loved him." The family was on board to make Isaacs' basketball dream a reality and formed a committee with his friends to organize the first tournament, which took place Aug. 22 to 25, 2024. This year, the event is underway once again, and they're inviting everyone to come by and watch. 'He'd be just loving this' Sky said those coming out to play are "high level" teams. "So if anybody likes basketball, you know, they should come and watch." The tournament includes teams from the Seneca and Buffalo nations in New York, the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, the Makah Nation in Washington, the Seminole Nation in Florida, which Isaacs played with, and more. This year, in addition to the tournament, organizers also held a youth skill camp for Six Nations kids aged 10 to 14 where they gave away running shoes and basketball t-shirts. The skill camp ended Thursday with a small competition and lunch. "The kids were just happy to get their gifts," said Sky. "They sat down and put their shoes on right away and it was just awesome." Sky said it was an "overwhelming feeling" seeing the skill camp become a reality. "It's something that [Isaacs] always wanted to bring to the community," said Sky. "It's unfortunate that we had to wait until he passed to do that kind of thing, because we know he'd just, he'd be just loving this." She said the community in Six Nations has been very supportive and feels their goal of bringing more eyes to basketball in the region is on its way to being achieved. Finals will take place on Sunday with a smoke dance contest in between the men's and women's matches. Entry is free to the games, which take place at Six Nations's Dajoh Youth and Elders Centre at 1738 Fourth Line. Organizers are also encouraging attendees to buy merchandise and participate in auctions and events going on to keep the skill camp going for next year.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Digging for the truth
For eight hours after home-care nurse Heather O'Brien was shot in the head by Nova Scotia mass murderer Gabriel Wortman, her Fitbit continued to send a signal to her home computer showing heart activity. The RCMP officer at the scene felt her pulse, then covered her with a sheet and treated her as dead. Senior Mounties had ruled out sending an ambulance, fearing the paramedics would become targets. O'Brien's family knew she would not have lived, even if she had received treatment. But they wanted the screenshot of her heart activity included in the evidence of the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC), established by the province ostensibly to find the truth and give a voice to the families of the 22 victims of the 2020 shootings. Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press files In this April 2020 photo, the medical examiner's office team remove Gabriel Wortman's body from a gas bar in Enfield, N.S. after he was shot dead by police. The commission refused to include the evidence, so the family released the screenshot and their statements on Facebook to let the public know the commission was not providing the full story. Author Paul Palango calls the O'Brien family's experience a perfect example of how the MCC 'favoured the RCMP's official narrative despite contradictory evidence.' The veteran Canadian journalist disassembles that narrative on every page of this exposé, from its confrontational title to its final words: 'The story as told by the RCMP, the Mass Casualty Commission and politicians is full of holes.' Palango won awards for investigative journalism during his tenure as national editor at the Globe and Mail. He is the author of four books about the RCMP, including 22 Murders, also about Wortman's killings, from which he quotes frequently and extensively. If the Mounties had simply admitted they had been caught off-guard, short-handed and ill-prepared by Wortman's murderous rampage on April 18 and 19, 2020, most Canadians would have forgiven them. Instead, Palango documents how institutional rot in the RCMP caused the Mounties to make crucial errors in responding to the gunman, who was wearing an RCMP uniform and driving what looked like an RCMP car. Then, instead of coming clean, Palango says Mounties destroyed and suppressed evidence and lied about what really happened to cover up their own incompetence. They were aided and abetted by the MCC, the author says, which adopted procedural rules that made it almost impossible to get to the truth. Was Gabriel Wortman, a Dartmouth denturist by day, a paid police informant? RCMP handout / Canadian Press files Gabriel Wortman After digging through old search warrants and interviewing those closest to Wortman, Palango speculates that Wortman smuggled drugs and weapons across the U.S. border and sold them to the Hells Angels, along with pill presses for the drugs, something denturists have. These ones were bugged, giving the RCMP a direct line on gang activities. After one too many police raids followed the same pattern, the Hells Angels were likely thinking Wortman was a 'rat' and planning to kill him, Palango speculates. That would explain Wortman's sudden urge to get out of town. He was selling his real estate and dissolving his business. Wortman collected $475,000 in cash from Brink's a mere 18 days before he started killing people. Was the money Wortman received a payout from the police? No, the commission replied, there was 'no evidence' he was a paid informant. But the same document concedes that even if he had been, no one would admit it, even after his death. Palango believes key facts about other aspects of the official narrative were altered or suppressed, including how Wortman was killed, his girlfriend Lisa Banfield's alibi and how two Mounties shot at and almost killed another Mountie, thinking he was Wortman. Accepting the book's premises requires the reader to take Palango's side against all of officialdom. But his over-sized ego keeps getting in the way. Anatomy of a Cover-Up He repeatedly interrupts the narrative to crow about what an outstanding journalist he is, and more importantly, how dull and slow-witted all the other journalists are. When he finally makes a mistake — and it's a doozy — he owns up to it and apologizes to his print and podcast audiences. But in the next breath, he absolves himself: 'Another positive was that our wrong assumption didn't get anyone killed.' Cringe. For readers who can get over tone-deaf passages along those lines, Palango delivers a mother lode of facts and well-informed speculation about the biggest mass shooting in Canadian history. Palango concedes that he can't be absolutely sure he has all the right answers, but he has done a great service to the victims' families and all Canadians by tirelessly asking the right questions. Donald Benham is a freelance writer living near Beausejour.
CTV News
7 hours ago
- CTV News
Police arrest suspect after death threat against Jewish man in Montreal
A screenshot of a video posted on social media showing a man during an altercation in Montreal's Saint-Laurent borough. (Source: X/Mayer Feig) Montreal police say they arrested a suspect Friday after receiving reports of a man making 'threats and hateful remarks' toward a group of people in the city's Saint-Laurent borough. At around 4:40 p.m., police received several 911 calls and responded to the intersection of Fraser and Saint-Louis streets. When officers arrived, they quickly found the suspect, a 28-year-old man, and arrested him after speaking with witnesses. A short video posted on social media shows part of the altercation. In the video, a man can be heard saying 'we will kill you' and 'you f-cking pig' when speaking to people, including at least one of them being a member of the Jewish community, before walking away. Caroline Chevrefils, a Montreal police spokesperson, said the suspect will remain in custody until he appears in court Saturday via videoconference from a detention centre. Police say the hate crime unit was informed of the incident and that it will be up to the Crown prosecution office to determine whether charges will be laid. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said in a statement that it was pleased that police made a swift arrest. 'Those who seek to threaten members of our community must be held accountable. If you see something, say something,' the group said in the statement. The incident comes days after a Jewish father was beaten up by a man in a park while he was with his children. A suspect in that case, which was also caught on video, is facing charges.
