Latest news with #Latimer
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Still no charges in Robert Pickton prison death, almost one year after fatal assault
MONTREAL – Almost one year after serial killer Robert Pickton died following an assault by another inmate in a Quebec prison, there have been no charges against the alleged assailant and few answers about what happened. Pickton died in hospital on May 31, 2024, after being assaulted at the Port-Cartier maximum security prison 12 days prior. The 74-year-old was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder but was suspected of killing dozens more women at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The Correctional Service of Canada first issued a release on May 20 last year about a 'major assault' on an inmate, adding that 'the assailant has been identified and the appropriate actions have been taken.' The agency later confirmed the injured inmate was Pickton, and that he had died. Quebec provincial police identified the suspect as a 51-year-old inmate, but did not release a name. Earlier this week, the force said its investigation remained open. 'Some expert reports are still ongoing. As this is an active file, we will not comment further,' the Sûreté du Québec wrote in an email. By phone, a spokesperson said the police file had not yet been handed over to the Quebec Crown prosecutor's office, who will decide whether charges will be laid. The spokesperson, Audrey-Anne Bilodeau, added that police sometimes take more time to investigate when a suspect is already behind bars because there is no risk to the public. Correctional Service Canada said it expects to publish the results of investigations into the death 'in the near future,' spokesman Kevin Antonucci wrote in an email. 'Time was required to ensure that they were fully translated and vetted in accordance with the Privacy Act.' Advocates for prisoners' rights expressed concern about the lack of answers into what happened, and said the death raises questions about inmate security. 'We're concerned about a number of deaths have occurred at the hands of other prisoners without any clear answers,' Catherine Latimer of the John Howard Society said in a phone interview. Latimer cited a fatality report published earlier this year by Alberta Justice Donna Groves into the death of a 21-year-old inmate who was knifed to death inside his cell by another inmate at the Edmonton Institution in 2011. The report raised a number of questions, including why the two inmates were allowed out of their cells at the same time, despite belonging to rival gangs and being under orders to not to be around other inmates. Groves called for a public inquiry into the death, saying it's the only way to get to the bottom of three guards' actions that day, including concerns they were running a prison 'fight club.' Latimer said the report shows there is a serious problem with 'incompatible or vulnerable prisoners' being exposed to others who want to kill them. 'Pickton really raises that,' she said. Pickton, she added, would likely have been considered 'vulnerable' because the nature of his offences would have made him a potential target. Tom Engel, the former president of the Canadian Prison Law Association, agreed that Pickton's reputation would have meant he was at high risk of being assaulted by other inmates. 'The question has to be asked, well, how could this happen when when he's at high risk,' he said in a phone interview, adding 'that would normally point the finger at correctional staff.' Engel said he wasn't surprised that there have not yet been charges. He said investigations can be lengthy, in part because correctional staff and inmates can be reluctant to fully co-operate with police. The announcement of Pickton's death last year was met with public expressions of satisfaction and joy rather than concern. Families of victims used words such as 'healing,' 'overjoyed' and 'justice' to describe the death of a man who preyed upon vulnerable women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, many of them Indigenous. But Engel believes the fate of prison inmates should be a concern. 'Members of the public who believe in human rights, who believe in the rule of law, who believe that the Criminal Code of Canada applies to everybody should care about this, because you can't have this kind of lawlessness going on in a prison,' he said. He also noted that the vast majority of inmates will eventually be released, and it's in the interest of public safety to ensure they don't come out angrier and more dangerous than before. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.
Hamilton Spectator
5 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Still no charges in Robert Pickton prison death, almost one year after fatal assault
MONTREAL - Almost one year after serial killer Robert Pickton died following an assault by another inmate in a Quebec prison, there have been no charges against the alleged assailant and few answers about what happened. Pickton died in hospital on May 31, 2024, after being assaulted at the Port-Cartier maximum security prison 12 days prior. The 74-year-old was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder but was suspected of killing dozens more women at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The Correctional Service of Canada first issued a release on May 20 last year about a 'major assault' on an inmate, adding that 'the assailant has been identified and the appropriate actions have been taken.' The agency later confirmed the injured inmate was Pickton, and that he had died. Quebec provincial police identified the suspect as a 51-year-old inmate, but did not release a name. Earlier this week, the force said its investigation remained open. 'Some expert reports are still ongoing. As this is an active file, we will not comment further,' the Sûreté du Québec wrote in an email. By phone, a spokesperson said the police file had not yet been handed over to the Quebec Crown prosecutor's office, who will decide whether charges will be laid. The spokesperson, Audrey-Anne Bilodeau, added that police sometimes take more time to investigate when a suspect is already behind bars because there is no risk to the public. Correctional Service Canada said it expects to publish the results of investigations into the death 'in the near future,' spokesman Kevin Antonucci wrote in an email. 'Time was required to ensure that they were fully translated and vetted in accordance with the Privacy Act.' Advocates for prisoners' rights expressed concern about the lack of answers into what happened, and said the death raises questions about inmate security. 'We're concerned about a number of deaths have occurred at the hands of other prisoners without any clear answers,' Catherine Latimer of the John Howard Society said in a phone interview. Latimer cited a fatality report published earlier this year by Alberta Justice Donna Groves into the death of a 21-year-old inmate who was knifed to death inside his cell by another inmate at the Edmonton Institution in 2011. The report raised a number of questions, including why the two inmates were allowed out of their cells at the same time, despite belonging to rival gangs and being under orders to not to be around other inmates. Groves called for a public inquiry into the death, saying it's the only way to get to the bottom of three guards' actions that day, including concerns they were running a prison 'fight club.' Latimer said the report shows there is a serious problem with 'incompatible or vulnerable prisoners' being exposed to others who want to kill them. 'Pickton really raises that,' she said. Pickton, she added, would likely have been considered 'vulnerable' because the nature of his offences would have made him a potential target. Tom Engel, the former president of the Canadian Prison Law Association, agreed that Pickton's reputation would have meant he was at high risk of being assaulted by other inmates. 'The question has to be asked, well, how could this happen when when he's at high risk,' he said in a phone interview, adding 'that would normally point the finger at correctional staff.' Engel said he wasn't surprised that there have not yet been charges. He said investigations can be lengthy, in part because correctional staff and inmates can be reluctant to fully co-operate with police. The announcement of Pickton's death last year was met with public expressions of satisfaction and joy rather than concern. Families of victims used words such as 'healing,' 'overjoyed' and 'justice' to describe the death of a man who preyed upon vulnerable women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, many of them Indigenous. But Engel believes the fate of prison inmates should be a concern. 'Members of the public who believe in human rights, who believe in the rule of law, who believe that the Criminal Code of Canada applies to everybody should care about this, because you can't have this kind of lawlessness going on in a prison,' he said. He also noted that the vast majority of inmates will eventually be released, and it's in the interest of public safety to ensure they don't come out angrier and more dangerous than before. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Western NY PGA Tip: New tech can help you make putts
Steve Latimer has gone through his fair share of putters. He can show them to you if you'd like. From a Scotty Cameron to a Nike Method through a couple of Odyssey models, the Golf Tec Certified Instructor has progressed from new fun thing to new fun thing. This year is different. In 2025, Latimer thinks he's found the putter to end all putters. 'It was unlike anything I've ever played before.' The new putter is called a LAB. The acronym stands for Lie Angle Balance. It does pretty much what you would think. A properly fitted LAB putter will lie flat on the ground when the player addresses the ball. It's like a putting cheat code. 'If you have the putter lying perfectly, it wants to swing perfectly,' Latimer says. 'So we tend to get a really nice starting direction.' When it comes to putters, any flat stick can work. Significant technological advances have come with this part of golf only in the last decade or so and certainly have lagged behind the rest of the bag. These advances won't make putts for you, but they can close down the margin for error. That is, if you're willing to spend. The base model for a L.A.B. putter runs upward of $400. Add any sort of basic enhancements and it's a $600 spend. That's not a smart play for most weekend hackers. Latimer understands that (and freely admits a professional discount helped land him a L.A.B.). He has a few much more affordable pieces of putter tech that can help the more thrifty player. His first suggestion is a bigger, thicker grip. It's a fix that should be well under $50. Bigger grips equal smaller mistakes. 'With a bigger grip, the hand action is absolutely lessened through every stroke,' Latimer says. 'If we have less hand action, then we have a better opportunity to create the line that we're looking for.' Beyond just a regrip, but well short of top rate tech is a face-balanced putter. That was the type of club in Latimer's bag before the L.A.B. If you hold an old blade putter parallel to the ground and the let the club drop naturally, the toe should point to the ground. If you do the same with a face balanced putter, the clubface will point directly at the sky. The toe-weighted blade putters would have a lot more deflection at the clubhead with a mishit. Latimer demonstrates by holding the putter in the air at the grip and tapping the toe or heel of the club. There is a noticeable amount of give and that movement would send a putt off line for anything not struck in the center. Latimer warns that one degree of mistake will send even a 10 or 12 footer sliding by the hole. A face balanced putter has nearly zero give at the toe or the heel. Even when Latimer tries to tap this style of club, the face stays locked on line. 'When you make contact, even if you mishit it, you tend to have the ball roll where you want to,' Latimer says. Just because you see a putter that looks new or better or fun, does not mean you should open your wallet for it. Just like with any club in the bag, Latimer says getting fitted is a must before purchasing a new putter. He tells a story about a golfer who came to him dead set on buying L.A.B. Latimer instead introduced the player to a face-balanced Ping putter with a wide grip. That player got comfortable with the Ping and spent only $250–saving himself more than 300 bucks. 'You might have a preconceived notion of 'I need an Odyssey. I need a Ping. I saw Steve with a L.A.B, I gotta have a L.A.B. It may not be the right thing for you,' Latimer says. It is the right thing for him and, thanks to the genius of putter technology, Latimer says it's saved him a whole bunch of putts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
It's time to rethink geothermal energy as a key player in renewables
Industrial geothermal energy has been used for nearly two centuries. It's not a new concept, but in the United States, it's taken a backseat to other renewable energy sources like wind and hydropower. One company is trying to change that. Founded in 2017, Texas-based Fervo Energy is making groundbreaking moves in the clean energy landscape, and they're doing it in Utah's desert. 'We were founded with a simple idea that geothermal has been around for a long time, but if you could bring in more innovative drilling practices — like horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, better fiber optic, sensing and data analytics to the field of geothermal,' Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo Energy, said, 'we could have a differentiated result that took it from being an energy resource that people think of most often as something that you'll only find in Iceland or New Zealand to something that we could do in way more locations.' Below southern Utah's rugged red landscape lies a geothermal gold mine, which Fervo has been exploring since 2023. 'Utah is blessed with beautiful geothermal geology, which is why we're here now. And we can even make this project economic, even though we're really early in our journey,' Latimer said during a tour with U.S. lawmakers of the company's private Cape Station enhanced geothermal systems project located in Beaver County, Utah. Notably a leader in the current geothermal energy landscape, Fervo is working against the clock to make the renewable energy a household phrase — when people turn their light switch on, they'll know the energy source it came from. When people hear the phrase 'geothermal energy,' hot springs and geysers usually come to mind, or virtually anywhere hot, steamy water is present. The dry desert may not be what people visualize when they hear about geothermal energy. But it's what happens hundreds of feet below the surface where Utah's geothermal geology shines. Before breaking ground in Utah, Fervo worked with the federally funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create the tools and technology needed to withstand the high-temperature environments deep under the Earth. The research set the preliminary work for Fervo's first pilot project, partnered with Google, in 2021. There, engineers discovered that the 'fervo design' of a two-well horizontal drilling for geothermal was successful. 'We drilled a deep horizontal injection well, about 10,000 feet down and 5,000 feet over, (then) hydraulically fractured it to connect it to a parallel deep production well, 10,000 feet down (and) 5,000 feet over,' Latimer said. 'And at the site in Nevada, that was about 350 degrees Fahrenheit.' 'That was the first ever project that showed that horizontal drilling could work to unlock a massive geothermal resource the same way it did for the oil and gas industry.' That project only produced three megawatts of power. One megawatt can power nearly 700 homes in a full year, which is not necessarily an economic success. Project 2, Utah's Cape Station, will produce 500 megawatts in its combined two-phase project. The area in Milford, Utah, consists of both private and public land leased by the Bureau of Land Management, and is surrounded by windmill turbines. The geology, combined with the transmission line from the turbines, established an ideal setting for the project. 'What we found since day one, when we showed up, was people who were very collaborative, wanted to work with us, and so it checked all the boxes,' he added. 'We had great local support, great policy support, hot rocks and good transmission.' The deepest Fervo has drilled reached temperatures up to 440 degrees Fahrenheit and after 'throwing a bunch of new tools and equipment at it' reached 520 degrees. 'We still have to work through a bunch of stuff to make 500 degrees Fahrenheit work,' Latimer said, but the deeper it gets, the hotter it gets, the more efficient energy you get. 'So we've gone from 350 to 440 degrees Fahrenheit just in the last three years. Our goal is within two or three years, we go down to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. We're not there yet. There's still a lot of innovation we need to do to get to those temperatures. ... It's a bit of a race for us,' he said. Twenty wells have been rigged in Phase 1 of the Cape Station project. This phase will produce 100 megawatts of power and is expected to be commissioned next year. Phase 2 will produce 400 megawatts of power and will come online in 2028. '500 megawatts is big enough to make an impact all on its own,' Latimer said. But it's only the beginning. 'What we're doing here is proving that a new kind of geothermal works, and this is basically ground zero for what technology we think is going to transform the energy sector here in the United States and then around the world.' The cost of geothermal drilling previously dampened the aspirations of geothermal energy as an economically sound energy source. Operating the drilling site costs Fervo more than $150,000 per day. The first project in Nevada took 75 days to complete, which Latimer said was great at the time. 'But if that's all we could do from a drilling performance, geothermal would never (make) economic (sense).' The first well drilled in Utah took 43 days. A few months ago, a new record of 17 days was set, which they believe they can surpass. With a background in oil and gas, Latimer said it 'boggled his mind' when he looked into geothermal engineering and realized that no one in the industry was utilizing the latest technology. He said the response he often got was that they couldn't afford the 'fancy rigs.' 'The oil and gas industry isn't paying for high-spec, high-technology rigs because they're charitable or you get a warm and fuzzy feeling. They're paying for it because it delivers a performance that makes it worth it, even though you're paying the expanded technology cost,' Latimer emphasized. So, the company made the investment. It was the first time drilling rig contractor Helmerich & Payne, Inc. had used its modern rigs on a geothermal site. 'The first drilling rig I ever worked on in my career was an HP flex three rig, and it's the exact same stack of rig that we have out here on site,' Latimer said. 'When we started this company, a lot of people told us, 'those guys don't know what they're doing. Look, they're using those expensive rigs on geothermal.'' 'But, you know, we got the last laugh.'
Daily Maverick
22-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Whistle-blowers launch constitutional challenge to solar panel firm's gag order in battle over ‘defamatory allegations'
The whistle-blowers argue that their right to freedom of expression has been violated, as amaBhungane applies to join the case. The three 'whistle-blowers' who were recently gagged by solar panel company ARTsolar from making 'defamatory allegations' that it was importing rather than locally manufacturing its solar panels, have challenged the order on constitutional grounds. The AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism has also applied to join the case. An interim interdict by Durban High Court acting Judge Perlene Bramdhew issued on 26 March barred KwaZulu-Natal businessman and former ARTsolar client Brett Latimer, and former ARTsolar employees Kandace Singh and Shalendra Hansraj, from claiming the company conducts its business unethically and dishonestly. Latimer, Singh and Hansraj contend the order violates their right to freedom of expression, as enshrined in the Constitution, which includes press and other media, 'as well as freedom to receive and impart information and ideas'. In terms of the same order, Independent Media journalist Bongani Hans was also specifically gagged from publishing their allegations. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which provided R90-million funding for ARTsolar's new factory in New Germany, was also mentioned in the interdict as one of the organisations with whom Latimer, Singh and Hansraj were not allowed to communicate. In early April, the IDC launched urgent proceedings against the order, arguing it was hampering its investigation into the allegations. Acting Judge Paul Wallis agreed that the IDC should have been joined in the original proceedings. Wallis ruled that there was 'no absolute right to be protected from being the subject of defamatory allegations' and given the aims and objectives of the IDC, the prohibition was not justified. He amended the order, removing the reference to the IDC. Latimer, Singh and Hansraj have since issued a Rule 16A notice, challenging the constitutionality of the gagging order and opening the door for other interested parties to join the proceedings. (A Rule 16A notice informs the public that a constitutional issue is being raised in a particular court.) The notice, which was issued out of the Durban High Court on 14 April, calls on interested parties to join the proceedings as amicus curiae. AmaBhungane applies to be part of the court case In a letter to lawyers representing all the parties, dated 17 April, attorney Dario Milo has given notice that amaBhungane wants to join the proceedings. Milo, acting for amaBhungane, said that in addition to its journalism, the organisation actively advocates for media freedom and access to information. 'This includes engaging in litigation to challenge laws and practices that undermine the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and access to information. Their many successful legal challenges have helped to shape a legal environment that protects journalists and enables investigative reporting,' he said. Amabhungane, he said, had recently been involved in litigation relating to an attempt to prevent it from reporting on certain business affairs of the Moti Group of companies. In that matter, the interdict granted had been set aside as 'an abuse of process and an unjustifiable prior restraint on media freedom'. Milo said amaBhungane, if admitted as an amicus curiae (friend of the court), would make submissions that orders for prior restraint (gagging orders) constituted one of the most serious infringements on press freedom and were only justified in exceptional cases. They should almost never be granted without affording the journalist concerned a full and fair opportunity to present a defence. The interim order imposed a 'sweeping prohibition' on any defamatory statements or implications about ARTsolar's business practices, regardless of whether they may be justified. 'This is overbroad and deprives the public of information and ideas which may well be in the public interest,' Milo said. Even where a journalist did not oppose an application for prior restraint, a court should not treat the matter as unopposed as the right to freedom of the press consists not only of the freedom of a journalist to speak, but also the freedom of the general public to know. The parties have until 22 April to consent in writing to amaBhungane being admitted as an amicus curiae.
