Latest news with #JoshuaSmith
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Windsor police officer faces new charge after pleading guilty in harassment case
A Windsor police officer who last month pleaded guilty to making harassing phone calls to a female colleague is now facing a new charge of uttering threats. Const. Joshua Smith pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and indecent communications at the end of April. Those charges stemmed from 2023, when Smith called the victim several times while moaning and breathing heavily, according to an agreed upon statement of facts. The Windsor Police Service disclosed on Wednesday that Smith "has also recently been charged with uttering threats." Spokesperson Gary Francoeur said the new charge is not related to the previous case, but did not provide additional details. Smith's lawyer was not immediately available to comment. Smith is already facing a charge of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act as a result of last month's guilty plea. Francoeur said an internal investigation will begin after Smith's latest criminal case is completed. "As the internal disciplinary process is underway, we will not comment further at this time," Francoeur added. Smith has been suspended with pay since he was first charged in September 2023. Windsor Police Service's most recent Sunshine List shows that a Const. Joshua F. A. Smith was paid $125,320 in 2024. Police chiefs in Ontario have advocated for years for legislative change that would give them more power to fire or suspend officers without pay. The province passed a new law that expanded those powers somewhat — but it didn't take effect until last year.
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Windsor police officer facing new charges, weeks after pleading guilty to criminal harassment
A Windsor police officer is facing new charges after pleading guilty to criminal harassment. Const. Joshua Smith was charged with uttering threats on May 22. Smith has been suspended with pay from the service since September 2023, when he was charged with criminal harassment and indecent telecommunication. According to the Windsor Police Service, Smith pleaded guilty to those charges in April 2025. He will be back in court in June to set a date for a sentencing hearing according to his lawyer Shane Miles who declined further comment. Meantime, new charges were laid for a separate incident. According to police, Smith is now facing a charge of uttering threats. CTV News has been unable to track down the specific details of the incidents in 2023 and 2025. Miles declined to comment on the new charge. WPS spokesperson Gary Francoeur says Smith is also facing one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act for the 2023 offences. The new alleged offence will now trigger a separate investigation by the Professional Standards Branch of the Windsor Police Service. Here is the entire statement by WPS. The Windsor Police Service confirms that one of our members, Constable Joshua Smith, pleaded guilty last month to criminal harassment and indecent telecommunication. He has also recently been charged with uttering threats. As a result of his guilty plea to criminal harassment and indecent telecommunication, Constable Smith faces one charge of discreditable conduct in accordance with the Police Services Act, the legislation that was in effect at the time of the allegations. An internal investigation will also begin after the criminal case for uttering threats is completed. He has been suspended with pay since September 2023, under the provisions of the legislation governing police conduct in the internal disciplinary process is underway, we will not comment further at this time.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Study confirms major benefits of decades-long project along California coast: 'It was exciting to see'
In 2025, an international team of researchers published a study evaluating the effectiveness of an ambitious ocean conservation program California started at the end of the 20th century. The Golden State enacted the Marine Life Protection Act in 1999, a piece of legislation designed to protect the state's marine resources for environmental and economic reasons. The law created a constellation of 124 marine protected areas (MPAs) along the California coast — the first in the United States and the most extensive worldwide. The selection of MPA locations was strategic. They were near one another to become ecologically connected, allowing each to be part of a larger whole. Varying regulatory protections exist across MPAs, prohibiting or limiting extractive human activities to help increase the abundance, size, and diversity of sea life within them. The network took shape over 13 years based on available science and input from diverse stakeholders, including indigenous peoples, who have been responsible for caring for natural spaces and conserving biodiversity for centuries. "What everyone wants to know is: Do MPAs work?" study lead author Joshua Smith said in an interview with the University of California, Santa Barbara's magazine The Current. Counting decades to determine whether a conservation effort was successful or fruitless is a reality environmental advocates have to deal with. Luckily, the paper, published in the journal Conservation Biology, found that the reserves achieved many of the Marine Life Protection Act's objectives. After compiling disparate data from the MPA monitoring efforts focusing on four different habitats, the researchers found increased fish biomass across the board. This finding indicates that species grew in size, volume, or both. The authors noted that older marine reserves and those with more diverse habitats recorded higher fish biomass, particularly among species targeted for fishing and used for consumption. These findings highlight the role of MPAs in sustainable fishing, food security, and health. MPAs can help ensure higher catch levels and improve human nutrition over the long term. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "It was exciting to see that all of the planning and design that went into putting this huge network into place was producing many of its intended benefits," co-author Cori Lopazanski shared after feeling encouraged by what they found. The success of California's MPA network is a victory for ocean conservation. Thoughtful modifications to it could yield pronounced improvements in species richness and diversity. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
ABC News
01-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Something is happening with the southern right whale population, scientists say
Australia's southern right whale population growth has stalled, raising questions about the recovery of a species that was nearly driven to extinction by historical whaling, according to a new study. Southern right whales are large migratory baleen whales that can be spotted off the Australian coastline in winter as they travel north. The whales come close to shore, which made them ideal, or "right", for whaling in the 1800s. "Around the early 1900s, there were so few individuals left that certainly around Australia and New Zealand they were considered extinct," Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies postgraduate researcher Anne Grundlehner said. Only a few hundred remained worldwide when whaling the species was banned. The researchers found the annual abundance of calves showed strong growth from 1976 until at least 2010, but began to stagnate around 2016-2017. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith ) The Australian population has experienced significant growth since the late 1970s, with very rough population estimates now around 2,000-3,500. But a new study by researchers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS), the University of Tasmania and the Australian Antarctic Division has found their population recovery seems to have recently stalled at a level far below pre-whaling levels, and questions whether it might be the "end of an era for southern right whale recovery". The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, analysed aerial survey data from 2,000 kilometres of coastline between Augusta in Western Australia and Ceduna in South Australia, collected between 1976 and 2024. The researchers found the annual abundance of calves showed strong growth from 1976 until at least 2010. But they found annual births began to stagnate around 2016-2017. "We were very concerned to find not only slowed growth in births in this population, but an actual halt and what looks like the onset of a decline," Dr Grundlehner, the report's lead author said. She said the population's current size was estimated to be about 16 per cent of its pre-whaling abundance. "But likely even less, as this is a pragmatic estimate because there is much uncertainty around pre-whaling levels. "The fact that the growth in annual births has halted, while the population size is well below pre-whaling abundance, is a pretty big finding. " We are very certain that the southern right whale abundance around Australia is by far not what it used to be. " Industrial whaling decimated the population of a number of whale species throughout the 1800s. ( Offshore whaling with the Aladdin and Jane, painting by William Duke, 1849 ) The causes behind the stalling population growth is not clear. "We really need to study all the potential drivers, one by one, to understand their effects on right whales' survival and reproduction, and see if we can find any relationship between potential drivers and the species births and the worrying trends we found in their abundance around Australia," Dr Grundlehner said. "Because this species is considered endangered in Australian waters, understanding the causes behind the stalling population growth will be critical to inform appropriate conservation actions," IMAS researcher and co-author associate professor Stuart Corney said. " The Southern Ocean ecosystem must have substantially changed in response to the large-scale removal of whales in the past. " Dr Grundlehner said climate change and other human pressures on marine environments could also be playing a role.
CBC
30-04-2025
- CBC
Windsor police officer pleads guilty to harassment, indecent communications
Social Sharing A Windsor police officer accused of making harassing phone calls to a colleague pleaded guilty in Windsor court on Wednesday. Const. Joshua Smith was in court on a harassment charge, as well as one for indecent communications, stemming from incidents in September 2023. Smith appeared in court with lawyer Shane Miles. In an agreed statement, assistant crown attorney Heather McIntyre said Smith phoned a woman repeatedly over a two-week period, each time not saying anything but moaning and breathing heavily. The victim made recordings of some of the phone calls, some of which lasted several minutes, and reported the calls to police. McIntyre said that because the calls came in when the victim was not at work, she believed the person knew her work schedule. The court heard the victim was also employed by the Windsor Police Service. Smith was arrested on Sept. 25, 2023, and charged with three offences — harassment, indecent communications and harassing communications. Miles, Smith's lawyer, confirmed his client pleaded guilty to two charges but could not comment on the third. He said his client did not have a statement to offer while the matter was before the courts. In a statement, a Windsor police spokesperson said the service "acknowledges that one of our members, Const. Joshua Smith, has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and indecent telecommunication." "Const. Smith now faces one charge of discreditable conduct in accordance with the Police Services Act, the legislation that was in effect at the time of the allegations," said Gary Francoeur in a written statement. "He has been suspended with pay since September 2023, under the provisions of the legislation governing police conduct in Ontario." When the charges were first reported by Windsor police in September 2023, two days after his arrest, police said the incidents occurred while Smith was off duty and that Smith had been a member of the police service for five years. Smith is expected back in court on June 23.
