Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 18, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B2 B 2 MONDAY, MAY 18, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMNEWS I CITY / CANADA / WORLD BRIEFS MAN SOUGHT IN CORMORANT DEATH A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of a 26-year-old man in connection with an incident early May 11 in which another man was found dead on the road in Cormorant. Carl Robert James Nabess-Genaille is charged with manslaughter and failing to remain at the scene of a collision causing death, in the death of a 26-year-old man in the northern community. The accused, who is from Cormorant, is known to frequent The Pas, Brandon and Winnipeg. RCMP major crimes investigators and for- ensic specialists are continuing to investigate the death. The accused is 6-1, 190 pounds and has a large rose tattoo on the side of his neck. He goes by the names "Tad" or "Tado." Anyone with information is asked to call RCMP in The Pas at 204-627-6200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. HOMICIDE IN SANDY BAY PROBED BY RCMP RCMP in Sandy Bay First Nation are investigat- ing a homicide after a 26-year-old man was found dead in the community on Saturday. Officers from the Manitoba First Nations Police arrived at a home on Pow-wow Drive at 6 p.m., where they found the man's body. The RCMP major crimes unit and forensic investigators are investigating the incident as a homicide. Sandy Bay is about an hour's drive northeast of Winnipeg. PILOT OK AFTER PLANE FLIPS IN BLOODVEIN THE 45-year-old pilot of a Piper PA-22 that flipped over after landing at the Bloodvein airport was not hurt, RCMP said. The incident happened on Saturday around 11 a.m. The male pilot, who was from St. Theresa Point, was the only person on the plane. The Transportation Safety Board has been notified. Bloodvein is 250 kilometres north of Win- nipeg. WOMEN CHARGED WITH THREATS WITH KNIVES TWO women in their 20s have been charged after allegedly brandishing large knives and threatening a group of people in the West End Saturday evening. One of the accused allegedly punctured tires on two vehicles in a parking lot on the 500 block of Ellice Avenue around 8 p.m. She tried to chase bystanders, but a 54-year-old male acquaintance intervened and was stabbed. Police say an unknown person discharged pepper spray and the women fled. The man, who had a minor injury, declined medical attention. The women were found in a nearby apartment building and arrested. Shelane Wendy Sutherland, 21, of Winnipeg, is charged with assault with a weapon, carry- ing a concealed prohibited weapon, mischief and failure to comply with probation. Mackenzie Joanne Rose Redhead, 20, of Winnipeg, is charged with carrying a concealed prohibited weapon and failure to comply with probation. Both were placed in custody. UNATTENDED COOKING SPARKS DUPLEX FIRE NO injuries were reported in a fire at a two- and-a-half-storey duplex in the 600 block of Alexander Avenue Sunday. The city said smoke was billowing out of the house when firefighters arrived around 1:15 p.m. All residents had managed to get out of the house before firefighters arrived. The blaze was under control within 30 minutes. The cause is due to unattended cooking. WAREHOUSE DAMAGED IN FIRE A warehouse on the first block of Myrtle Street was significantly damaged Sunday by a fire believed to have started in a garbage pile outside the building. Winnipeg fire crews arrived at the ware- house just after midnight. The building was vacant but was filled with smoke. Crews determined the fire likely began in a pile outside the building, quickly reaching the structure itself. Damage was extensive, but officials haven't provided an estimate. The city says it's unclear how the exterior fire started. By 1:03 a.m., the fire was under control. The city reminded property owners to ensure safe disposal of cigarette butts on their property, using a deep metal container filled partly with water and sand. Safe disposal of trash is also important: only put out garbage and recycling on collection day, dispose of bulky waste such as couches or mattresses promptly, and keep all garbage and waste a safe distance from properties. L OS ANGELES - A criminal inves-tigation is underway into an explo-sion in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday that injured 11 firefighters and left several buildings damaged, several law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times, and officials are looking at whether oils stored there might have sparked the blast. The Los Angeles Police Department along with local fire investigators and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobac- co, Firearms and Explosives are work- ing together on the probe. An initial investigation of the scene identified the business where a fire broke out as Smoke Tokes, a warehouse distributor with supplies for butane hash oil. The law enforcement sources, who spoke on condition of anonym- ity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, stressed that the probe is in its early stages and that it's unclear if there was any criminal con- duct. The cause of the fire has not been de- termined. The owners of Smoke Tokes could not be reached for comment. Nicholas Prange, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, said carbon di- oxide and butane canisters were found inside the building but that it was still not clear what caused the blast. "We are in the early stages of an in- vestigation. We are looking at every aspect at this stage. We haven't deter- mined a cause," LAPD Assistant Chief Horace Frank said. "The explosion was massive and those firefighters are very lucky to be alive. Skill and awareness is the reason they were able to get out from an incredibly dangerous situa- tion." The Criminal Conspiracy Section of the Major Crimes Division and the Lab Squad of the Gang Narcotics Division are leading the LAPD's part of the in- vestigation, Frank said. The explosion occurred in a stretch of downtown dubbed by police as "Bong Row" because of the high number of cannabis, CBD and pipe businesses. In 2016, there was another major fire at a business called Smoke Tokes at an address nearby on Third Street. It took more than 160 firefighters about two hours to put out that blaze, with the flames largely confined to the wholesaler and distributor of smoking paraphernalia, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Firefighters encountered pressur- ized gas cylinders that exploded amid the inferno, fire officials said. "It was a tricky fire for us," LAFD Battalion Chief Mark Curry said back then. "We had multiple explosions going off inside the fire while it was burning due to the butane containers releasing." There were no injuries in the 2016 fire. The LAFD later said in a state- ment that firefighters who entered the building found "intense fire in dense and highly flammable storage that included pressurized flammable gas cylinders, several of which were heard to explode." It was unclear whether that business and the one that burned Saturday were connected. In March, an explosion at another business nearby left three people in- jured. Witnesses said there was a loud "boom" and fireball at 743 Kohler St. The blast sent a plume of black smoke hundreds of feet into the air that could be seen for miles. Officials at the time did not reveal the kind of business in- volved, and the cause was unclear. In the latest explosion, firefighters first received a call about 6:30 p.m. Sat- urday about a structure fire in the 300 block of Boyd Street south of Los An- geles' Little Tokyo district. The explosion that followed damaged several storefronts, melted fire helmets and left one fire truck burned and cov- ered in debris. Officials said firefight- ers had to pass through a fireball to escape. "Firefighters were coming out with obvious damage and burns," said Erik Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. They ran "straight through that ball of flame to get to safety across the street," Scott said. Eleven firefighters received treat- ment for burn injuries at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, accord- ing to the LAFD. A 12th firefighter was treated and released at the emergency room Saturday night for "a minor ex- tremity injury," said LAFD spokesman Prange. As of Sunday morning, three fire- fighters had been discharged from the hospital. Eight remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition. All were expected to survive, officials said. Doctors at the medical centre said one of the firefighters would likely need skin grafts. The fire was put out an hour and 42 minutes after the call came in, author- ities said. LAFD Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said the firefighters responding to the call sensed something was wrong inside the building but could not escape before the explosion. Initially, officials could not account for all the firefighters. In an LAFD radio transmission, an official is heard screaming, "Mayday! Explosion! I have two down firefight- ers." "When one of your own is injured... you can imagine the amount of mental stress," Terrazas said. "A lot of our firefighters were trauma- tized." - Los Angeles Times Police probe blast in downtown L.A. Explosion injures 11 firefighters, criminal investigation underway RICHARD WINTON, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS AND ALEX WIGGLESWORTH GARY CORONADO / LOS ANGELES TIMES Firefighters deal with the situation at a commercial fire in downtown Los Angeles that injured 11 firefighters and left multiple buildings ablaze on Saturday. OTTAWA - Canada's spy agency has warned the Trudeau government that proposed changes to bolster privacy could undermine the ability of intelli- gence agents to collect and use infor- mation about citizens. In a 14-page submission to the Justice Department, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service recommends any reforms include special language that takes into account "the critical public interest in national security activities" carried out by CSIS. The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain a copy of CSIS's September 2019 submission, which responds to possible changes to the Privacy Act outlined in federal dis- cussion papers. "I note that some of the changes pro- posed in the papers could significantly impact the work of national security and investigative agencies, including CSIS," wrote the spy service's director, David Vigneault, in a cover letter. The Privacy Act governs how federal agencies collect, use and disclose per- sonal information and gives people the right to see, and correct, such data the government holds about them. CSIS expresses particular concern about defining personal information in the law in an overly broad way, poten- tially making the intelligence service's job more difficult. For instance, video footage that is viewed, but not recorded, could be considered subject to the privacy law under an expanded definition, the sub- mission says. Defining publicly available informa- tion in the Privacy Act as it relates to CSIS would be welcome given a current lack of clarity, said Tim McSorley, na- tional co-ordinator of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitor- ing Group. When citing what constitutes publicly available information, CSIS often uses the example of a telephone directory. McSorley argues the scope is actual- ly much wider, including social media posts and other data found online that can reveal details about someone's travels, where they work, who they spend time with and even their reli- gious beliefs. Privacy, technology and data have evolved significantly, as have Can- adians' expectations around these issues, said CSIS spokesman John Townsend. "It is incumbent upon us to support this critical work by highlight- ing challenges and impacts from a na- tional security perspective. Canadians would expect no less." In the submission, CSIS says the threshold for what amounts to "collec- tion" of information, if changed in the law, should be tied to the "mandate and functions" of an agency such as CSIS. Generally, personal data collected for one purpose is not supposed to be used in other ways. The intelligence service suggests that information it collects with con- sent from someone undergoing a secur- ity clearance for a job should also be available, when relevant - and without receiving additional consent - to CSIS personnel investigating a national-se- curity threat. McSorley has grave reservations about such treatment for intelligence services. "The notion that once infor- mation is collected, that there should be a broad exception for security agencies to use it in other manners, raises ser- ious concerns," he said. CSIS also says privacy law should en- sure the intelligence service: . not be required to disclose the iden- tity of foreign agencies with whom it shares information or the nature of the data exchanges; . be exempt, in some cases, from informing people their data has been stolen or inadvertently leaked, since that could signal they are under inves- tigation. Spy databases may hold information about people who do not necessarily pose a threat to security, and a breach of their data should not be hidden from them, McSorley said. "The idea that it could remain secret - it's really troubling," he said. "I think they would have to find some kind of middle ground there." Townsend said the concern with man- datory privacy breach notifications was that, as proposed, they would not take into account any potential impact on national security or an ongoing inves- tigation. - The Canadian Press Spy agency wary of privacy reforms JIM BRONSKILL B_02_May-18-20_FP_01.indd B2 2020-05-17 8:15 PM ;