Latest news with #YukonMorning
CBC
04-05-2025
- CBC
Yukon RCMP commanding officer reflects on recent increase in gun violence
Yukon RCMP Chief Supt. Lindsay Ellis says there's been a real jump recently in gun-related incidents and crime across the territory. So far this year, police responded to several reports of gunshots, some of which involved 3D-printed guns. Several youths with firearms were arrested this winter, in unrelated incidents that took place in broad daylight in public spaces. In the past few days alone, an individual walked into a restaurant on Main Street, Whitehorse, brandishing a firearm. On a different day, a shooting took place in the city's Riverdale neighbourhood that sent one person to hospital, while another incident involving a replica firearm forced the evacuation of a building as well as homes and businesses within a two-block radius around downtown Whitehorse. Meanwhile, the federal government gave $4 million last November to help address gun crime and gang violence in the Yukon. So how is the local police handling the rise in gun violence? Ellis spoke to Yukon Morning's Elyn Jones Thursday about why this has become a growing issue and what the RCMP's response to it all is. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length. Yukoners have expressed concerns over what appears to be a rise in gun violence. How real is the issue? Over the last recent months, including over the last week or two, the RCMP have reported on investigations that we've undertaken or reports that we've received ... about firearms being displayed, brandished, or us coming upon firearms through the course of investigations. So it's not just a perception — it's real. We're getting some firearms out of traffic stops. That's highly concerning for officer safety and the public. When I'm seeing that my members every day are interacting with individuals that may have on their person operable or even replica firearms, that's a concern. The overarching concern is the fear that the public feels going anywhere in the Yukon and thinking, you know, "Does this person have a firearm? Is something going to take place in front of me that I have no control over? And I'm an innocent bystander, too." What explains this increase? Some of these incidents are perhaps not related. Some are through different demographics. So it could be that there are adult people who are involved in organized crime or gang-type activity. The territory changed in the last 10 to 15 years, but I think that we're just catching up with the rest of the country. Gun violence has been noted by Stats Canada to have increased over the last 10 years across Canada. There's many different reasons for that. I'd like to think that some of the reason that, in the Yukon, we're reporting on this and that we're responding and that we are coming upon perhaps some of these firearms in our duties, is that we are out there and we're focused on identifying and defusing but also preventing crime. We need to have some hard conversations as a community and as Yukoners about what we feel is acceptable and also what we're willing to do about the root causes. Where are the firearms coming from? There's many sources of illegal firearms in the country. Some are purchased legally through reputable dealers and then made their way into hands that they shouldn't be in. Some guns are smuggled in through other countries and some are ordered ... through the Internet and the dark web in separate parts. Some of these firearms are operable; some of them are replicas. The file that we had in Dawson City at the start of April, that was what we would call a ghost gun. So an untraceable firearm. It's a 3D-print ... so a 3D printer can print that gun and can render it operable. I don't want to opine about why some people would be carrying real or replica firearms. There could be many different reasons ... personal protection, actual wish to commit a crime. But there's no good reason in the Yukon for somebody to be carrying a real or replica firearm. How is the RCMP currently responding to the issue? Our response in those situations is the same. It's a professional, modern application of policing to defuse that public safety threat, and do so in the safest manner possible. Some of the incidents that have occurred in public during daytime hours on Main Street, even last night, are highly concerning with a high risk to public safety. And I can understand why Yukoners are concerned about this uptick. I want to be very clear, though, that the police are well positioned to respond. And we encourage people to, if they see something suspicious, call us. Please give us good details. What more can be done? It comes down to prevention and awareness, and also just conflict resolution. When people are feeling like perhaps it's acceptable to carry these firearms and to escalate, for lack of a better term, their beefs or their conflict with each other, I think that we can do maybe better as a community to try and resolve some of these conflicts.
CBC
29-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Liberal Brendan Hanley grateful to be re-elected MP in Yukon
Liberal Brendan Hanley says he felt relieved, excited, and a bit tired when he learned Yukoners had re-elected him as their MP – this time with more than 50 per cent of the vote – on Monday. "It is an incredible percentage and, and of course that gives me the … feeling of not only gratitude but responsibility," he told CBC's Yukon Morning. "That's a lot of Yukoners that have placed their trust and confidence in me." Hanley said his priorities once he returns to Ottawa will be to develop an economic plan for standing up to the United States, building housing and infrastructure, improving access to primary health care, and building resiliency to climate change. Asked about affordability, Hanley said it's something that would be helped by an economic plan. He acknowledged affordability was something the previous Liberal government he was part of "didn't talk about … or recognize it as, as well as we could have." "We need to find ways to manage an economy so that we can redistribute, redistribute income, look at food prices, look at how we can support the ongoing quest for the housing that we need. These are all interrelated factors." As of 10:00 a.m. YST, it was still too close to say whether the Liberals would form a minority or majority government. Hanley said a majority would make it easier to get things done, but a minority would require collaboration and the "spirit of Canadian unity." "I'm not going to pretend that that will be easy," he said. "But I think we've all heard at the doors that Canadians don't want polarization anymore. Mark Carney did speak to the need for Canadian unity. I heard that reflected in other speeches. And, and this is, I think our challenge is to find ways to work together"
CBC
06-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Alaska Highway tolls, banning Trump Jr.: Yukoners advise premier on U.S. trade war response
Yukon's premier says he's been getting an "incredible" amount of advice and suggestions from Yukoners about how to retaliate against the U.S. for its punishing new tariffs — with suggestions ranging from putting on a toll on the Alaska Highway to banning American athletes from the Arctic Winter Games. Another suggestion Premier Ranj Pillai said he's been hearing is to bar Donald Trump Jr. from coming to the territory. The U.S. president's son has been known to do hunting trips in the Yukon. "Lots of Yukoners have reached out to me on this," Pillai said, about Trump Jr. "The legalities of that I think, first and foremost, have to be understood. "Are we banning one person? What are the legalities of that? You know, is that the right thing to do? How do you do that? And then who gets banned from the United States?" Pillai was speaking on Wednesday, a day after he announced some initial measures the territory was taking in response to the trade war launched this week by the U.S. president. The territory is updating its government procurement policies so that it buys more local goods and fewer U.S. goods, and establishing an assistance fund for local businesses. It will also no longer buy or sell American liquor products. Pillai said more measures will likely follow, but it's too soon to say what those will be. "People are so incredibly passionate about this, or concerned, or angry," he said. "It's incredible the amount of advice that we're getting from Yukoners, on all of these things. And we're just moving through it to see, you know, what's the most prudent thing to do at this time, and what the next step would look like." Elon Musk's businesses, the Arctic Winter Games The premier said another idea he's heard from a lot of Yukoners is to put a toll on the Alaska Highway for U.S. vehicles travelling through the territory. The highway connects Alaska to the lower 48 states, through the Yukon and B.C. Pillai said something like that is easier said than done, as it would require new infrastructure — for example, toll booths — new staff, and likely new legislation. "We've got to look at what our actions are and what legal tools we have to make those decisions," Pillai said. He also said people have been urging the government to punish businesses owned by tech billionaire and Trump appointee Elon Musk. Pillai said government officials are now reviewing whether to halt the territory's use of Musk's Starlink, or the social media platform X. As for banning Alaskan athletes from the next Arctic Winter Games — happening a year from now, in Whitehorse — the premier was cool to that idea. "That's not something that we've contemplated," he said. Earlier on Wednesday, NDP Leader Kate White floated the idea during an interview on CBC's Yukon Morning. She compared it to a decision made in 2022, about Russian athletes. Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, in February 2022, the Arctic Winter Games International Committee announced it had "suspended Yamal, Russia, with immediate effect, following the attacks unfolding in Ukraine." "So if we're not allowing Russian athletes because of Putin's actions, are we going to have the conversation about Alaskan athletes?" White asked. "It's hard because we're talking about, I mean, the decision was made about Russian kids, right? So are we going to have to make the same decision about American kids?" Pillai argued that the games are an important event for positivity, and "building bridges" with friends in Alaska. "Look, at the end of the day, we need Americans to put ultimate pressure on the Trump administration," Pillai said.
