Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 28, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B2 B 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 CITY winnipegfreepress. com Making a positive impact For Good. Forever. 2014 was a banner year for The Winnipeg Foundation. Thanks to our donors' generous support, we provided more grants to charitable initiatives than in any previous year. These grants help make our city a better place to live, work and play, in keeping with our vision of a Winnipeg where community life flourishes For Good. Forever. For more information contact us at 204.944.9474 | wpgfdn. org Doesn't For Good. Forever. make sense? M Fo ch ar it ab m ak ke ep in g wi fl fl fl fl flo uris he 20 4. 94 4. 94 Does Please call 1 888 2 DONATE to make your appointment Why Donate Blood? Every Wednesday the Winnipeg Free Press, in co- operation with Canadian Blood Services, publishes the current appointment progress and blood donor clinic information. For the week of January 29 to February 4 Canadian Blood Services 777 William Avenue Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic January 29 Appointments Needed - 43 Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic January 30 Appointments Needed - 79 Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic January 31 Appointments Needed - 48 Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic February 2 Appointments Needed - 97 Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic February 3 Appointments Needed - 88 Winnipeg Blood Donor Clinic February 4 Appointments Needed - 45 RBC Convention Centre January 30 Appointments Needed - 47 Boissevain February 3 Appointments Needed - 22 CLASSIFIED IS ON- LINE AT www. winnipegfreepress. com W INNIPEG police need to answer accusations of " scandalous" procedures that violated a teen's charter rights after his acquittal for manslaughter and criticism by a judge, a prominent ethicist says. Prof. Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, said Tuesday someone should be held responsible after the judge hearing the case ruled not only did police violate the youth's charter rights, but there was no evidence he committed a crime. " Our chief of police should be held accountable to answer a number of questions," Schafer said. " It's not every day or every week, but a number of times cases are thrown out because police are violating the constitutional rights of suspects... it looks as if it's not isolated, but systemic. Do we train police properly? " Do they understand the implications to the justice system if they violate rights? " To deprive someone of their liberty for almost two years when there is no evidence - that's scandalous. What an abuse of process." A Winnipeg police spokeswoman said the force wouldn't comment on the judge's decision. Schafer made the comments shortly after Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg acquitted a 17- year- old of manslaughter. The teen, who can't be named because of his age, had been charged in connection with the death of Braden Bjornson. He spent a total of 22 months in pre- trial custody. Bjornson, 20, was assaulted on June 29, 2012, and was found lying on a North End lawn. He died seven days later. Last year, the teen's co- accused, Keagan Denzel Dick, 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing Bjornson with a single punch. Court was told Bjornson was assaulted when a drug deal with Dick turned violent. Greenberg, in a 25- page written decision, said police investigators' charter breaches " were serious," so she had to exclude the teen's shoes and T- shirt from evidence. The Crown argued Bjornson's blood was on one of the shoes. Without that evidence, there was no case against the youth. " They were not technical breaches," the judge said. " There was a complete disregard of the accused's rights." Greenberg said police officers didn't tell the teen he could call a lawyer when they considered him a suspect, they didn't videotape any of the four interviews they had with him over five hours, they got only verbal permission from the teen to test blood found on his clothes, and while one of the officers spent 112 minutes with the teen in an interview room, he wrote only four pages of notes. " The conduct of the police is such that the court should be concerned about distancing itself from it," Greenberg said. After receiving the judge's decision and conferring with family members of the deceased, Crown attorney Brent Davidson asked the judge to stay the charge. But Greenberg decided to enter an acquittal instead. " It seems to me he is entitled to be able to say he is not guilty. There was no evidence against him," the judge said. " Even had I admitted the shoes, there was not any evidence for a manslaughter conviction." Defence counsel Wendy Martin White said the teen was " happy and relieved. " For a youth barely 15 when the offence happened and now 17, it was a really stressful process. Our client was simply a witness to an unfortunate incident. We are grateful ( the judge) wanted that part clearly on the record." kevin. rollason@ freepress. mb. ca Dog killed in home invasion A family's pet Labrador named Lucky was shot and killed during a home invasion early Tuesday morning in the North End. Police said the incident occurred around 4 a. m. in the 200- block of Mc- Adam Avenue when four armed men, their identities concealed, forced their way into the house. Police said the dog was shot during an attempted robbery. No other injuries were reported. A recently widowed woman and her two sons live in the modest two- storey home. The woman's daughter, who does not live in the home, was at the house on Tuesday afternoon to support her mother and brothers, but said her mother did not want to speak to the media. The daughter said the dog was about five years old. A concerned neighbour, who did not want her name published, said another neighbour is suspected of breaking windows recently in the house and cutting cables to a satellite dish the family used to have mounted on the roof. The neighbour said police recently followed home one of the two men who live at the home and waited outside for some time. Murder appeal rejected THE province's highest court has rejected an appeal by a man convicted in the brutal deaths of two city street gang members. Justice Alan MacInnes, along with Justices Holly Beard and Marc Monnin, of the Manitoba Court of Appeal, said they could find no errors by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Robert Dewar that would cause them to overturn Kenneth Roulette's two first- degree murder convictions. " In my view, his decision is correct and certainly not so clearly wrong as to amount to an injustice," MacInnes wrote in a 35- page decision released on Tuesday. Jesse Henderson and Dennis Baptiste were beaten and stabbed to death inside a suite at 729 Maryland St. on Jan. 31, 2009. The pair, both 23, were members of the Mad Cowz street gang, and prosecutors argued the double slaying was planned and carried out for money. It took a jury less than five hours in Sept. 2013 to find Roulette guilty of the two slayings. Anti- racism site underway THE City of Winnipeg will launch a website to solicit ideas on how to counter racism. Mayor Brian Bowman told a local radio station Tuesday the creation of the website 1Winnipeg. ca was spurred by last week's Maclean's article branding Winnipeg the most racist city in Canada. Bowman was not available for comment, but a spokeswoman for his office said the website, still in development, is dedicated to " ideasharing and to furthering the dialogue the mayor has already begun with the most influential and positive individuals and organizations from all sectors of the city, and who are leading the nation to make a difference in our community." The spokeswoman added one of the objectives of 1Winnipeg. ca is to collect suggestions on " how our city can work collaboratively as a community to work towards eradicating ignorance and intolerance in Winnipeg, and lead our nation forward in inclusivity, equality, and love for one another." There is no indication when the new website will go live. ER delays prompt penalties WINNIPEG ambulances continue to be tied up at city hospitals waiting for patients to be admitted. The delays cost the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority $ 1.44 million in penalties, paid to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service at the end of November. An administrative report to Friday's protection and community services committee states Winnipeg ambulances spent an extra 1,000 hours waiting at city hospitals for the month of November, and more than 12,000 hours for the first 11 months of 2014. The city charges the WRHA a penalty of $ 119 per hour when ambulances are waiting at city hospitals for longer than 60 minutes. In 2013, the city dinged the WRHA almost $ 1.5 million in penalties for what's known as off- load delays. For the first six months of 2014, the penalty totalled more than $ 838,000. Staff from the WFPS have been meeting health authority officials to come up with strategies to reduce the off- load wait times. The WFPS is considering increasing the penalties. Other strategies include transporting patients with minor ailments to emergency rooms that aren't as busy. - staff UNIVERSITY of Manitoba students and staff chanted, marched, hurrahed and booed on cue Tuesday, and even briefly exercised their right to attend the board of governors meeting. Matthew Brett, representing the Canadian Federation of Students, repeatedly bellowed " Stop the" and the crowd bellowed right back " Cuts!" None of the protesters knows exactly what will be cut. Four per cent of overall spending at the U of M in 2015- 2016 is on the chopping block, as well as another four per cent of spending in 2016- 2017. And protesters know the pain won't be shared across the board - it will be much worse for some departments and programs than for others. " We'll see further assaults on our accessibility to education," grad student and teaching assistant Jen Black told the crowd. She said TAs expect to work with much larger classes, without any increase in pay or any extra help. " Our members will work more unpaid hours," she said. Several speakers accused the university of making program cuts instead of looking at its spending priorities. Said Prof. Thommy Kucera, president of the U of M Faculty Association, " The university needs to review how it spends the money it does have. National advertising campaigns and more vice- presidents are not good choices." Kucera said it's likely specific lists of cuts have yet to be made. Graduate Student Association president Laura Rempel said professors who retire or die are not being replaced. " Would you rather invest in advertising campaigns or in goodquality professors?" she asked. Brett primed the rallying horde with: " The university is going to push as hard as it can and we need to push back." Zac Fleisher, the CFS Manitoba representative, said students and staff believe the university is doing well on investments. There is anecdotal talk about students being turned away from courses because they're not profitable, and speculation the university will try again to persuade the province to allow it to jack up tuition fees in professional schools. People are also worried about how much grant money the cashstrapped provincial government will provide, and just who will be making the decisions after the March 8 NDP leadership vote. nick. martin@ freepress. mb. ca Police breached youth's rights, judge rules Teen acquitted of manslaughter By Kevin Rollason In Brief Braden Bjornson Protesters rally against cuts PHOTOS BY PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Staff and students gather at the U of M's engineering faculty atrium Tuesday to protest funding cuts at the university. By Nick Martin B_ 02_ Jan- 28- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B2 1/ 27/ 15 10: 41: 46 PM ;